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Applebaum sets out her stall quickly. She refuses to entertain the revisionist view that the imposition of communism throughout Central and Eastern Europe after 1945 was a countermove to American policy at the start of what was to become the Cold War. No, the importation of a Soviet-style system was a deliberate ideological move, all part of the greater revolutionary good. As she quite rightly says, there was a template already in place for this in the Soviet occupation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 1940, states that had been consigned to Stalin under the terms of the Nazi-Soviet Pact. |
So far as Stalin was concerned there were also foreign policy advantages. The new communist satrapies acted as a buffer zone in a period of growing East West tension. More specifically, an independent Poland would clearly have been a major political embarrassment to the Soviets, doubtless demanding the return of those territories in the east of the country seized by Stalin in 1939 as part of his satanic bargain with Hitler. For Poland it was a bleak choice between extinction and communism. |
As always the road to hell begins with noble intentions. Alongside the cynical little Stalins, who had spent years licking the boots of their Master in Moscow, there were genuine idealists, people who believed in the lie. They came as self-perceived liberators, ready to free the working classes from capitalist exploitation. They expected to be welcomed in their establishment of a brave new world. Unfortunately for them it had real people in it. |
The truth came quickly; the truth came in Poland. In 1946 the people decisively rejected a communist-backed referendum. Perplexed, the government rejected the people, concluding that they had acted in “some kind of incomprehensible spirit of resistance and complete ignorance.” |
Here I immediately fast forwarded to the events of June, 1953 in East Berlin, the first serious uprising against imposed communist rule. Bertolt Brecht, the playwright, had hitherto served as the German Democratic Republic’s tame intellectual and court poet. But even he had enough, offering comment on the worker state’s suppression of the workers in his poem The Solution; |
After the uprising of the 17th of June |
The Secretary of the Writers Union |
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee |
Stating that the people |
Had forfeited the confidence of the government |
And could win it back only |
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier |
In that case for the government |
To dissolve the people |
And elect another? |
That would seem to serve as the very definition of the so-called People’s Democracies. In the place of real people came a hollow cardboard illusion. |
Applebaum is splendid in her treatment of the high politics, in her description of the appalling stooges who reproduced the bleak apparatus of Stalinism in their respective spheres of influence: personality cults, purges, camps, bogus trials, the whole depressing paraphernalia. She also offers a description of the corrosive effects of communism on everyday life. Any kind of personal or free expression, even in the most minor forms of liberty, was excised. Popular consciousness was filled with the state and nothing but the state. One small example serves here. The scout movement was banned as were all other private societies. In 1950 in Poland a seventeen-year-old girl met with friends from a former troop. All were arrested and given jail sentences of two to five years. |
Iron Curtain is a splendid piece of work, witty, perceptive, thoroughly researched and superbly written. I was impressed enough to consider it the most important book I’ve read this year, one that will make a lasting contribution to our understanding of this period in history, a tragedy on which the final curtain has thankfully fallen. My main criticism concerns the title. It’s not a comprehensive history of Eastern Europe between 1944 and 1956, as the title misleadingly suggests, but principally a history of three countries behind the Curtain – Poland, East Germany and Hungary. There is next to nothing on places like Romania, where the whole communist experiment eventually descended to the most degenerate form. |
Don’t let that bother you. The history we are given is first class, a journey into a heart of darkness. Iron Curtain is a book that is scholarly and accessible, free of all condescension while losing nothing in the telling. It’s a commendable achievement. I felt both exhilarated at deflated at the end, especially after reading about the brutal suppression of the 1956 anti-communist rising in Hungary, which proved to all who were not blind that the liberation of 1945 was nothing but a lie. I was exhilarated by the narrative and deflated by the fate of some of our fellow Europeans, to whom history had dealt such a poor hand. |
1. Concerning jokes in communism, there is a nice documentary on sovjet humor. It is called the 'The Hammer and the Tickle'. |
Here is an into: |
It is not amazing, but definitely an entertaining watch. |
1. Thanks, dear Penguin. :-) I've written here in the past about humour from the Eastern Bloc. Have a look at this. |
2. I wish I could agree that we have seen the final collapse of the Iron Curtain, but I fear it merely became redundant as the key elements of its purpose leached across and became woven into the fabric of the International Socialist EUSSR. Time will tell . . . |
1. Fair comment, Calvin. That's also something I've written about. The one comfort is that it's still possible to laugh at the ridiculous Pee Wee Herman Rumpay van Pumpy. :-) |
3. Appelbaum's history of bolshevizm without origin of bolshevizm form New York and history of east-european soviet bloc without Yalta treaty of Roosvelt, Curchill and Stalin is none, void |
1. Laszlo, this isn't a history of Bolshevism. I can't quite grasp the point you are trying to make. |
Puerto Rico |
Case Study: |
Colonial Genocides |
Date range of image: |
1509 to 1552 |
Puerto Rico is one of the world’s oldest colonies, having been under some form of military occupation or protectorate status since 1508. On November 19, 1493, during his second voyage, Christopher Columbus arrived in Puerto Rico. The indigenous Taíno culture dominated the island.[1] The Taíno called the island Borikén (Spanish Boriquen), “the land of the brave lord.” Columbus named the island San Juan Bautista in honor of Saint John the Baptist. Based on the archeological remains of Pre-Columbian people, the Puerto Rican archeologist, Don Ricardo Alegria, calculates that, at most, the island had some 30,000 inhabitants circa 1508.[2] |
While governor of the Hispaniolan province of Higüey, Juan Ponce de León, a former lieutenant under Christopher Columbus, heard rumors regarding the wealth of gold on Boriquen; and on June 15, 1508, Nicolás de Ovando, the viceroy of Española (Hispaniola), granted Ponce de León the privilege to explore and subjugate the island of San Juan Bautista. On August 8, 1508, Ponce de León founded Caparra, the first European settlement in Puerto Rico, not far from the modern city of San Juan. The Taíno Cacique (Chief) Agüeybaná openly greeted Ponce de León. However, conflicts soon arose as the settlers began subjugating the Taíno. Within a year, Ponce de León had subdued a majority of the native population and gained control over most of the island. As a result of this success, Ponce de León was named Governor and Captain-General of Puerto Rico in 1509; Caparra was abandoned and the settlement relocated to a nearby coastal islet, named Puerto Rico (Rich Port). Sometime during the 1520s, the island took the name of Puerto Rico and the port (Puerto Rico) became San Juan. After a Taíno uprising in 1511, a second settlement, San Germán, was founded on the southwestern part of the island. |
Ponce de León |
The encomienda system, a version of the European feudal trusteeship labor institution, reduced the Spanish-conquered American indigenous populations to a corvée (forced labor) class subject to the Conquistadors. In Puerto Rico, the Taíno primarily worked in the gold mines. As early as 1511, Fray Antonio de Montesinos argued from Catholic doctrine to advocate abolishing the forced servitude and inhumane treatment of the Taíno in Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. Although he and Bartolomé de Las Casas were eventually successful in influencing the Spanish crown, the high death rate among the Taíno due to enslavement and European diseases (smallpox, influenza, measles, and typhus) persisted. |
Although remaining subject to the same obligations sustained by the other indigenous vassals, the Complementary Declaration of July 28th, 1513, established that those natives who were clothed, Christian, and capable could live their own lives.[3] A royal decree that collectively emancipated the remaining Taíno population is dated July 12th, 1520. One reason for this emancipation order was the large number of Taíno deaths attributed to the continuing bondage systems.[4] Ironically, by 1520 the Taíno presence had almost vanished. Governor Manuel de Lando’s census in 1530 reports the existence of only 1148 Taíno remaining in Puerto Rico. However, oppressive conditions for the surviving Taíno continued. Therefore, in 1544, Carlos I (Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain) decreed that the natives be as free as any Spaniard. In reality though, the declaration of equality did not end the colonial social class system.[5] |
As part of the early colonization process, African slaves were introduced to the island in 1513 and institutional slavery would not be abolished until 1873. By 1540 the gold reserves on the island were nearly exhausted. However, the farms originally established to supply cattle, grain, fruits, and vegetables to the mining camps would capitalize on slave labor to sustain limited cash cultivation of cassava, corn, tobacco, plantains, rice, ginger, cocoa, cereals, vegetables, tropical fruits, and medicinal plants. Although already recognized as a valuable cash crop in the mid-16th century, the full potential of sugarcane cultivation, which demanded large investments in machinery and human and animal labor, was not realized until the 18th and 19th centuries. By 1898, when the U. S. annexed the colony, these early subsistence-farming activities had evolved into a considerable wealth-generating plantation system, cultivating sugarcane, tobacco, and coffee (see map). Surviving Taíno were few in number. |
~Russell Schimmer, GSP, Yale University |
[1] Rouse, Irving, The Tainos : Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1992. |
[2] Alegría, Ricardo E., Historia y cultura de Puerto Rico : desde la época pre-colombina hasta nuestros días. Editores, Ricardo E. Alegría, Eladio Rivera Quiñones. Fundación Francisco Carvajal, San Juan, P.R., 1999. |
[3] Figueroa, Doña Loida, History of Puerto Rico Tainos de Boriken: Translation of an extract from La Colonizacion De Puerto Rico. Sociedad Puertorriqueña de Genealogía. |
[4] Ibid. |
[5] Ibid. |
The Reader Cries Uncle |
wind-cries-mary-erika-grey-paperback-cover-artLike any other hazardous object, The Wind Cries Mary should have a warning label. Something along the lines of “reader is advised to wear neck brace to prevent injuries cause by abrupt changes of topic” or perhaps a more catchall “abandon all hope ye who enter.” This, gentle reader, is one rough ride. |
The description provided on Amazon might lead the unsuspecting to believe this book is about the murder of Mary Mount. That’s just one of the many, many murders given the once over here. The narrative careens from Mary’s disappearance to the nearby disappearances of other girls, to the murders of three teenagers to half a dozen serial killers and on and on. It’s a grueling trip down Connecticut Murder Memory Lane. |
But that drive-by style is preferable to the treatment given to the case of John Rice, Jr., who murdered most of his family in the throes of a psychotic break. Grey is convinced that Rice also killed Mary Mount. Why? Well, he lived in the same town. That’s pretty much the whole case. Rice was found guilty by reason of insanity of his family’s deaths and released a few years later. He moved to Massachusetts to raise llamas and here Grey tracked him down, and by all appearances, stalked him. Oddly enough, Rice didn’t open the door to the nice lady who lurked in his driveway or answer her emails. Grey proudly suggests that Rice moved halfway across the country just to get away from her. |
The most disturbing thing about this book isn’t the murder of Mary Mount, it’s the casual way Grey implies that Rice killed everyone from Mary to Molly Bish. If anyone within a 50 mile radius of Rice dies, he did it. Why? Well, he was there and he did have that nasty case of acne when he was a teen. Rice’s crimes were horrific but more in line with a family annihilator killing than a serial killer. There’s not one shred of convincing evidence – physical, eyewitness or circumstantial – to establish Rice as a credible suspect in the Mount murder. |
The writing is somewhere between a 5th grade book report and Nigerian 419 scam email. Sometimes everything looks fine, if plodding, other times something isn’t quite right as in “Greenwich, the first town one enters after leaving New York.” Sure, it’s the first town if you’re entering Connecticut or I-95 but there are other ways to get from New York to the Nutmeg State without going anywhere near Greenwich.Then there are lines that stop the action, such as it is, cold: “Joseph Mount died eventually.” Apropos of nothing, this line appears after a rundown of the professions chosen by Mary’s brothers. Unfortunately, the writing is memorably bad, which means I’ll be trying to dislodge this howler for years: “an older man with criminal tendencies happened to walk in.” |
This book wasn’t a total loss. I read it for free from Amazon Prime and I did learn that “Police salaries are paid by the tax dollars of their town or city.” Up until now I’d just assume it was bake sales and car washes that kept the cruisers rolling. |
Amid the confusion and bad vibes |
This is the book equivalent of a survey course, covering crime, politics, music, movies, literature, sports and major events of the year 1969. It is relentlessly US-Centric - you won’t hear a peep about any other country unless it’s Vietnam. At it’s best, this survey approach introduces the reader to lesser known topics, like the Native American occupation of Alcatraz or the rise of MC5. At it’s worst, 1969 rehashes topics by quoting from deathless sources like Wikipedia or Salon magazine. |
That was part of the fascination for me. 1969 is a triumph of secondary research. Kirkpatrick read many a book and magazine article, fearlessly watched DVDs of documentaries and most challenging of all, watched a few movies and listened to a few albums. It’s a shame he didn’t actually talk to anyone who was there. It’s not like he was writing about 1669. |
The once-over-lightly feel means nothing really gets its due but in fairness this is a way to whet your appetite, not satisfy it. Still, events like My Lai and Chappaquiddick are no less horrific with the passage of time. Fortunately events like the moon landing, Earth Day and the Jets winning the Super Bowl retain their magic. As a readable introduction to a single year of American history, one could do much worse. |
Oddly enough, 1969 isn’t the only year that everything changed. Apparently everything changed in 1959 too. Maybe 1979 was the year that didn’t change much of anything. |
• Content count |
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• Last visited |
About Harris-Stone |
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Previous Fields |
• Occupation |
Computer Programmer |
• Favorite movies |
Andrei Rublev, Wings of Desire, Fanny and Alexander, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Tortorro, The New World, Children of Men, The Big Lebowski, Night of the Shooting Stars, Baron Von Munchausen, etc. |
• Favorite music |
Over the Rhine, Vigilantes of Love, U2, Tom Waits, Bruce Cockburn, Bob Dylan, Buddy & Julie Miller, Mark Heard, Nick Cave, Bach, Coltrane, Monk, Phil Keaggy, Sibelius, Mahler, Pat Metheny, etc. |
• Favorite creative writing |
Tim Winton, Mark Helprin, Annie Dillard, CS Lewis, George MacDonald, Madeleine L'Engle, Dostoevsky, Tolkien, Tolstoy, Ian McEwan, Denis Johnson, Ron Hansen, Isak Dinesen, Chesterton, TS Eliot, Czeslaw Milosz |
• Favorite visual art |
Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Gaugain, Picasso, Chagall, Monet |
1. new user Genroxbro posted spam in the film makers forum. The point of his/her post is the link, not the stupid broadside against British film that is absolutely meaningless. |
2. J.K. Rowling isn't just trying to make your children want to be witches. She's trying to make your children want to be alcoholic witches. The books give the impression that Butterbeer is NON-ALCOHOLIC and is kind of a kid's drink. I don't remember Hagrid drinking any. From Wikipedia... Butterbeer Butterbeer is the drink of choice for younger wizards. Harry is first presented with the beverage in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Although House-elves can become intoxicated on butterbeer, it has not been stated that there is any alcohol in the drink. In the sixth book, Harry wonders what Ron and Hermione might do at Professor Slughorn's Christmas party "under the influence of Butterbeer", indicating that it could potentially lower inhibitions. J. K. Rowling said in her interview to Bon App |
3. , when Dumbledore has in fact already and ? , when Dumbledore has in fact already and ? I'm wondering if it's to get confirmation on the , or just act as final confirmation. I can't remember what the book says about this (if anything).... This is what I think too. Like any scientist or engineer, Dumbledore seeks certainty. The memory is necessary to confirm his hypothesis, to close the circle of speculation. Also, in war...and this is a war...having correct information can swing everything. I'm pretty sure the book does address this. Too busy to check now! |
4. LOL (Also very enjoyable blog post about technology in films Peter. Too true. |
5. Speaking of which, transparent aluminum is now real! (Sort of. Looks like after all these years they're finally working out the dynamics of the matrix...) Strange and interesting. It doesn't sound very stable. Stuff like this makes me look at my son and wonder what sort of world he'll come of age in! |
6. As a computer programmer, I second this. A "virus," or any other kind of malware, is a computer program like any other computer program. That means it utilizes the operating system to run. You cannot create one without knowledge of the OS. I think saying "There is no mathematical approach to malware applications that will work on any system" may be overstating it a tiny bit though. There are algorithms for most computer operations, but these are abstract. Implementing them in a physical system requires more particular knowledge. If you're dealing with an alien language and alien mode of computing, who knows? It probably wouldn't even be binary. For example, your brain is a kind of computing system. But a neuron has far, far more than just 2 possible states. Moving into the realm of theory: If a system could capture and record the data flow of another system, it would be possible after much, much study to reverse engineer it and then figure out ways to break it. Breaking is always easier than building and doesn't always require sophisticated understanding. When it comes to computers, film makers seem to rely on general public ignorance. Do you remember Scotty typing the formula for transparent aluminium into a Mac (I think) in Star Trek IV? He says "how quaint," types a bit and then this parade of flashy graphics appears. The thumping sound heard in the theatre at that point was the previously suspended disbelief of anyone who knew computers at all crashing to the floor. |
7. A very good point. I'm also like you and SDG, when I'm reading I sink into the story. As an aspiring writer myself though, I also tend to look at from a technical point of view as well, just to see what I can learn about writing, etc. In this case, SDG's objections inspired me to look closer. In response as to why VOLDEMORT doesn't do what you've rightly pointed out he could do... Show hidden text 1. Voldemort doesn't trust "Moody." Not completely. He doesn't trust anybody completely, prefering to work alone as much as possible and prefering to maintain as much CONTROL as he can. 2. The plan of having "Moody" lure Harry into a room simply isn't as secure as the plan that's used. In such a case, "Moody" cannot be certain he isn't going to be interrupted. Hmm. Well actually he could be sure once he has the Marauder's Map. However, I don't think he ever tells Voldemort about the map, and its Voldemort who is giving the orders here and "Moody," who worships Voldemort, who follows them. 3. Voldemort would lose the whole element of misdirection. Harry isn't in the contest. No one believes someone is trying to kill him. 4. As the reader, we know that Dumbledore trusts Moody. But Voldemort doesn't know Dumbledore. Not that well. And Voldemort himself would never trust anybody the way Dumbledore does. So I don't think this advantage occurs to him. We have to remember Voldemort is weak and terrified of Dumbledore. He doesn't know what Dumbledore is capable of and will want to do everything he can to make sure Dumbledore is out of the picture. That's where the tornament helps. It puts Harry out of Dumbledore's reach during events. 5. Belaboring the point a bit here...but a portkey is tricky. ANYONE touching it gets transported. To do what your suggesting, "Moody" would have to make the portkey and then leave it in his office while he went and got Harry. What if a house elf came in to tidy up? Imagine the humilitation. Voldemort and Wormtongue come down to the graveyard and a house elf or someone else is there! Of couse he could send somebody else to get Harry, but then that somebody else would know Moody was the last person to see Harry. It's simply not as watertight as making something Harry is trying to touch on his own into the portkey. In short, I don't believe such a plan would appeal to Voldermort. It leaves too much of a very, vital action that his entire future hangs on, in the hands of a subordinate and takes away the glory from Voldemort of being the one to engineer Harry's kidnap. Remember, this is the dude who made 7 horocruxes when 1 well hidden horcrux would have done the job. He has no objection to an elaborate approach, though we might. SDG, I'm interested what your brother says. I certainly, in spite of this obssessive analysis I've done, could be wrong! FWIW, my wife feels the following plot point from Order of the Phoenix, the next book, isn't believable. Show hidden text Why does Harry forget about the mirror Sirius gives him. OK, a lot of time passes from when he gets it at Christmas to when he needs it at the end of term. But still, is he really so dense that something given him by his beloved godfather ends up completely ignored? That's a great question and analytical tool! |
8. Thanks Peter. I think it's fair to point out that all of the detail I mentioned was setup by the author for her purposes. Aesthetically, this won't be everyone's cup of tea. But it certainly suits her desire to entertain, and many readers desire to be entertained, to have Harry go through the whole triwizard thing. It's dramatic and even comic when someone who is basically just a high school student trying to get on with being a high school student gets dragged into something way over his head and manages to succeed in spite of his own inabilities amd shortsightedness. Certainly not a traditional hero, but a traditional type of hero. In the Authurinan stories, Percival is the ignorant bumbler who succeeds in getting the Grail, where others, more noble, have failed. He succeeds because of his innocence. A more modern version, who is "innocent" only in being singularly selfish and egotistical, is Inspector Clouseau. Another would be "The Dude" in the Big Lebowski. Where JKR turns things on their head, is that Harry really does turn out to be a more traditional hero by the end of the series. His ignorance and bumbling are because he's still really just a relatively ordinary child, a kind of everyman, albeit one at the center of a huge struggle through no fault or desire of his own. I suppose what JKR has done with Harry, is to synthesize several different traditional types of characters into one role. He becomes a hero; he's a Percival type bumbler, rather selfish, who gets away with it in spite of himself, and he's an Everyman, one without superiour qualitities of intellect or strength who we relate to. |
9. , but that . There are at least two ways to object to the plot of the story. One is aesthetic. For example there are plenty of people with good literary taste who simply don't like The Lord of the Rings. (I'm not one of them.) They try to read it because they've heard its good and bog down somewhere. The other is what we're talking about in this thread, that the plot doesn't make sense within its own suppositions. This is a different and more severe criticism. I believe a close reading of the Harry Potter series argues against Goblet of Fire having an idiotic plot. If one possess no aesthetic objection to a baroque story line, it makes sense. To argue this, we need to look closely at the story. In particular, we need to see it the way the character Voldemort does, since he is the one accussed of excess, "idiotic" action within the plot. I do not see, given the supposition that the Tournament in happening anyway, how Voldemort could find an easy or more elegant way to carry out his objectives. For me, this plot is far from idiotic. Though others are of course free to disagree. |
10. Good point. But I think pilgrimscrybe asks a good question. And I am pretty sure we could take almost any book or movie and ask, "Well, why didn't they just do this?" and have the story completed in 50 words or less. Well, as an aspiring fiction writer myself, let me say writers do THINK about such things and usually there answers. Whether those will satisfy everyone...well no, but: 1. For Gandalf, the temptation of the ring was too much. He couldn't be the Ring bearer so he couldn't just fly to Mount Doom. Also, those eagles weren't stealth eagles. He would be dealing with a head on, mental and spritual fight with Sauron, WHILE all 9 Nazgul tried to take him and his eagles out, WHILE an army of orcs rushed the enterance to the shaft. Without surprise, it would not have worked. 2. In Harry Potter, Harry is being watched more closely than the reader...who is viewing everything through Harry's mind...might realize. If the tried to kidnap Harry that way, I suspect BOTH Dumbledore and Snape would have been on him like a bat out of hell. Magic leaves traces and can be detected. It's just not that easy. And Voldemort doesn't initiate the whole Triwizard tournament. Like the Joker in Batman he just "spins" it to his advantage, using it to misdirect those guarding Harry so they aren't looking the right way when the attack comes. So to me anyway, it remains very plausable within the context of the world that's built. I agree that one can play "what if.." with most stories, and that also that this is fair game, especially as Peter points out, where suspension of disbelief is concerned. |
11. . (Wikipedia also confirms what I had been wondering re: the opening attack on the Millennium Bridge: the book takes place about two years before construction began on the bridge in real life, so it would seem the movies have updated the events of the books to "today".) FWIW, in the book, the new Minister of Magic comes calling on Harry when he's at the Burrow. The minister wants Harry to be a sort of poster boy for his efforts. Harry shows a lot of maturity and refuses. I'm not at all convinced that Harry in the books, at this stage, would have acted the way he does in the film. |
12. I would love, love, love to go back. Every year about this time I get get his lump in my throat when I realize I can't go. "Ever" is a big word. Right now, with effectively no job, a 20 month old and a new baby coming in December, it's pretty unlikely. But maybe in 4 or 5 years! |
13. Up |
That was the one thing about the film...the shortness of the journey...heck, what journey? It was more like a joyride. I live in Mexico. Maybe most of y'all above the border...here we call it "the other side," don't realize it, but most maps make the countries down here look much, much smaller than they actually are. There are 2,900 miles between Angel Falls and Chicago. That's more than the distance from New York to Los Angeles or from London to Tel Aviv. OK, I know, as Peter is pointing out, the story is a fantasy. And I'm sure from the storytelling point of view having the journey be longer was a problem, especially for how the relationship between Karl and Russell develops. Still, it bugged the heck out of me. Some interesting tidbits about the Paradise Falls location from Wikipedia: Docter made Venezuela the film's setting after Ralph Eggleston gave him a video of the tepui mountains.[8][24] In 2004, Docter and eleven other Pixar artists spent three days reaching Monte Roraima by airplane, jeep and helicopter.[16] They spent three nights there painting and sketching,[32] and encountering dangerous ants, mosquitos, scorpions, frogs and snakes. They also flew to Matawi Tepui and climbed to Angel Falls,[16] as well as Brazil. Docter felt "we couldn't use [the rocks and plants we saw]. Reality is so far out, if we put it in the movie you wouldn't believe it."[22] The film's creatures were also challenging to design because they had to fit in the surreal environment of the tepuis, but also be realistic because those mountains exist in real life.[24] The filmmakers visited Sacramento Zoo to observe a Himalayan Monal Pheasant for Kevin's animation.[1] The animators designed Russell as an Asian-American, and modeled Russell after similar looking Peter Sohn, a Pixar storyboarder who voiced Emile in Ratatouille and directed the short Partly Cloudy, because of his energetic nature.[11][33] More is in this article on the real location in Venezuela the film makers based Paradise Falls on. http://science4grownups.com/archives/2009/...adise-falls-530 I love Pete Doctor's quote: reality is so far out, if we put it in a movie you wouldn't believe it. As one who has traveled pretty extensively in Asia and the Middle East...I'd have to say this is really true! There are a lot of bizarre things out there in nature. Lately, whenever I approach the kitchen sink, the ants who have come in via the window form a line and begin to run to get out. It looks like rush hour on the interstate. |
14. Sara... I loved Sweethearts and am really looking forward to sinking into this! When I was a Christian teen back in the late 70's, Campus Life was a great magazine. They are where I first heard about Mark Heard. They always seemed more in touch with life and issues and less subculturay if you know what I mean. They are still around, are part of Christianity Today and have a new name: Ignite your Faith. Here is their site. http://www.christianitytoday.com/iyf/. I know some folks around here have some connections to CT, so they might know someone. We ordered the mag for my nephew and niece a couple of years ago. He's now 18 and she's 16. They seemed to like it a lot. So maybe there would be something there. No idea as to subscriber base, etc. Another thought off the top of my head is CCM Magazine. I don't know how conservative they are about what they profile or how big their readership is...but it might be worth a try. One other venue comes to mind...the Cornerstone Festival. From what I understand its pretty big, encompasses more than just music and can be pretty cutting edge in a way for a Christian festival. They've had Over the Rhine, Vigilanties of Love and other play over the years who aren't in the CCM market at all. But maybe that's already happened. I can't believe we're nearly through July. |
15. Breath by Tim Winton. A dark story, but amazingly written. Also, if you haven't read it, Cloudstreet by the same writer is a serious classic -- a must read. Saturday and Atonement by Ian McEwan are also both very, very good. Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson, which was discussed in a thread here, is really excellent also. Like a lot of Johnson its very surreal in parts, like no other Vietnam novel, but wonderfully written IMHO. The definitive Denis Johnson book is Jesus' Son. Angels is very readable and probably his most conventional book. The rest of his body of work is also very good, but strange as well, (in a good way). And on a totally different note: the Harry Potter series, all 7 books taken as a single work, truly did blow my socks off. The ending of book 7 left both my wife and I in tears. It contains one of the most redemptive moments I've ever encountered in literature. And last but definitely not least, right here at Arts and Faith, we have Sara Zarr and Jeffrey Overstreet. You've probably already read their stuff, but just in case you haven't, both very highly recommended. Their work blew my socks off as well. |
Thursday, June 27, 2013 |
Minimalism in a Maximal Culture |
Early 20th century quilt |
Late 19th-century parlor |
One of the contradictions in quilt history is that women who decorated their homes and children to visual excess also made quilts that are exemplars of minimalism. |
(Do notice the hooked rug on the floor in the photo. It's has an Oddfellows theme with the heart in hand and the letters FLT---but I digress.) |
Quilt from about 1910 |
Quilt from ? |
Quilt from about 1890 |
Of course, there are plenty of surviving examples of late Victorian romantic clutter. |
But how two such different styles coexisted is an interesting puzzle. |
Above and Below about 1900 |
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