Tuesday's Quotation

Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864) was an English writer and poet. Here's something he wrote in Imaginary Conversations from 1824:

"If there were no falsehoods in the world,
there would be no doubt; if there were no
doubt, there would be no inquiry; if no inquiry,
no wisdom, no knowledge, no genius."

I Love a Mystery

I was searching the internet for stuff about the classic radio serial I Love a Mystery, written by Carlton E. Morse and featuring the adventures of Jack Packard, Doc Long and Reggie York (hands down, my favorite old time radio drama). One of the items that popped up, however, was this scene from a Deanna Durbin movie called Something in the Wind featuring the great Donald O'Connor. It seems to have been partly inspired by the radio program, but in this instance, it's definitely O'Connor's show. Hope you like it:

The Last Movie I Saw

Some comments on the new Quentin Tarantino movie Inglourious Basterds (sic):

1. Brad Pitt is really funny in this film, in a performance that could seem rather oafish based on any single scene. But the amazing consistency in both the physical and verbal means used to convey his character's actual character-- a kind of cocky but folksy self-righteousness-- in a variety of encounters is truly a tour de force. It'll never garner any award consideration, because comic roles rarely do, but after last year's Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Burn After Reading, I don't know if there's anyone aside from Sean Penn who has displayed this kind of range among current actors.

2. I'm not a fan of horror films, so maybe this next statement results from a personal blind-spot, but Tarantino must be one of the most gruesome filmmakers working today. The blood quotient in this movie isn't all that high-- there's a great deal more time spent building tension through dialogue than actual gory violence. But when it comes, it often seems over the top (not unlike in all of his previous films, with the possible exception of Jackie Brown), though in hindsight, none of it appears to be gratutitous (also, as in his previous work). A basic premise of this film, with which I agree, is that Nazis were scum. When they get their just desserts, it's hard not to say its perfectly justified.

3. There's a cottage industry within the historical profession of creating "What if?" scenarios in relation to real events. When they engage in such speculation, a serious historian will try to construct a counter-narrative that is at least reasonably consistent with certain true-to-life factors so that the outcome is a reasonable conjecture of alternative reality. Tarantino is no historian, and so likely felt no compunction to play by those kinds of rules. His alternative history of World War II is pure fantasy, yet speaks to a deep-seated desire to retroactively exact a more severe punishment on Hitler and his followers than the actual victory represented-- and providing a valid history lesson to a current generation long separated from that particular conflict. The terms "Nazi" and "fascist" are thrown around so easily in contemporary political discourse that those terms have become lazy synonyms for something bad or dangerous, without necessarily acknowledging the utter evil of real Naziism. In a way, Inglourous Basterds makes a stab at re-establishing just how sinister those particular villains were, and in so doing distances them from the more pedestrian (and frankly idiotic) accusations made about, say, advocates for health care reform. I don't know if the movie will make a difference in how those terms are tossed around, but it's hard not to see it as at least something of a response to the devaluation of such labels in recent years.

4. Tarantino has regularly demonstrated that he is a master at constructing musical soundtracks for his films, and he's definitely on his game here. It's a sign of how deeply immersed he is in getting all the elements to click, which is probably why he has never made a bad (or even mediocre) film. Well, maybe his segment in Four Rooms, but I'm thinking I need to watch that again, because now I suspect I missed something the first (and last) time I saw it.

Quote for the First Day of School

I know most schools are still a week or two from beginning classes, but not my University, where the Fall semester began today. In keeping with that occasion, a quotation from the eminent twentieth century educator Jean Piaget seems appropriate:

"The principal goal of education is to create
men who are capable of doing new things,
not simply repeating what other
generations have done."

The Great Ernest Tubb

Here's one of the best country singers of all time, singing one his greatest hits (the visuals are kind of crummy, but just listen). Why doesn't country music ever sound like this anymore?

Sunday Funnies

When I was a kid, I always enjoyed reading Moon Mullins in the comics section, though it was Moon' little brother Kayo who was the star of the strip to my young eyes.

The setting of the strip was a boarding house run by the Plushbottoms, who had pretensions of being higher class than their tenants (he was in fact Lord Plushbottom).

Moon himself was kind of a shady character-- he hung around a pool hall and was always looking for some angle to play.

The style of the strip, created by Frank Willard, and inherited by Ferd Johnson by the time I was reading regularly, was kind of gritty and much less "arty" than some of the other classic strips I've written about here. But that fit the setting, a kind of working class urban setting (which for some reason I always associated with Chicago, though I don't know if that's literally where it took place).

I couldn't find an episode with the reprobate Uncle Willie, but above is one with his wife Mamie, who worked for landlady Emmy Plushbottom and took care of Kayo. I can't think of any current strip that is anything like Moon Mullins, which I guess speaks to how hard it is to replicate a classic.

Saturday Evening's Sky

The sky over Dillon last night was pretty cool, as an array of colors burst out as the sun went down and clouds swept along the Beaverhead Valley. These shots are, respectively, looking to the East and the Southwest.

Sunday's Thought for the Day

I completely understand and empathize with this quote from the great Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson. Unfortunately with school starting tomorrow, my opportunities to live up to this ideal will be significantly reduced for the next few months:

"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere,
but to go. I travel for travel's sake.
The great affair is to move."

Saturday Morning Cartoon

Maybe you are familiar with the Peter Sellers, or more recent Steve Martin, Pink Panther movies (of course, they didn't actually play panthers). But do you remember when the Pink Panther who appeared in the credit sequences of those movies had his own cartoon series? Whether you do or not, here's an episode from about 1968 (which must be about the time I first saw this):

Soup Diary 090822

I was in Bozeman this afternoon and ended up having lunch at a place called the Soup Shack, which I'd never been to before. The menu advertised four regular soups and up to seven daily specials, so how could I go wrong? Well, it turns out they exaggerated, and they only had three of the regulars available, and one was clam chowder (which is an automatic skip for me), so it was between Grandma's Chicken and Roasted Tomato Basil. As you can tell from the above photo, I went with the latter. It was pretty good, obviously homemade, but a little bland, and I couldn't help but be disappointed that there weren't a couple more interesting options. I guess I shouldn't complain-- the BLT I had with the soup was really good. Maybe next time (and I do anticipate going back) I'll get lucky and find something really exciting on the menu. I'll keep you posted.

Quote of the Day

School starts for me on Monday, so I'm in the process of psyching myself up for the new year. The words of Joseph Addison (British man of letters, 1672-1719) help quite a bit in achieving that goal:

"Education is a companion no misfortune can
depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can
alienate, no despotism can enslave. At home
a friend, abroad an introduction, in solitude a
solace, and in society an ornament. It chastens
vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once grace and
government to genius. Without it, what is man?
A splendid slave, a reasoning savage."

A Classic Film

Here's an early scene from the Bill Forsyth classic Local Hero. I'm posting it in the hopes it will inspire you to go out and watch the whole movie. You get a good sense of the tone, humor, and setting from this clip, and believe me, it just keeps getting better from this point forward. The two characters here, Mac (the American) and Danny (the Scot), work for a giant oil conglomerate and are heading to a remote seaside village to buy the place to build a refinery. Things don't quite unfold as you might expect...

Friday Family Blogging Quiz

I inherited my love of cameras and taking pictures from my Dad, seen above with an ancient (well it seems so now) video camera on his shoulder. He's obviously taking pictures of the scenery, but the question is, where exactly was he shooting this footage? Put your guesses in the comments section.

Last week, the question was what all the people surrounding Thomas were doing in the posted photo. There was only one response, but I guess everyone else realized that Mom nailed it: they were watching a baseball game (the Tacoma Rainiers vs. the Iowa Cubs to be exact in last Friday's game). I mentioned in an earlier post that I attended the game with Richard and Gerik, but failed to mention that Thomas was there with Catie as well. That omission obviously didn't fool Mom.

More Friday Family Blogging

In the interests of equal time, here are some shots of Joseph's siblings, starting with Thomas (you saw him playing the piano in a previous post-- here, playing a different keyboard):

Next up is Sara, who usually ducks when I pull the camera out, but for some reason actually gave me a smile this time:

And here's one more of recent birthday girl Maria, showing that Joseph is not the only Banning wwith gymnastic tendencies:

Friday Family Blogging

Here's a couple of shots of Joseph Abraham showing off his gymnastic moves during my visit last week. I believe he called the above move "the crab."

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Joseph eventually becomes an Olympic grade athlete, as he's been getting loads of practice since he was yea high (imagine me holding my hand flat a couple inches above the ground).

Friday's Quote of the Day

Here's a good example of "what goes around comes around," courtesy of the master styoryteller Edgar Allan Poe. These words were written in the 1840's but echo a sentiment heard quite commonly today in relation to the internet:

"The enormous multiplication of books in every
branch of knowledge is one of the greatest evils
of this age, since it presents one of the most serious
obstacles to the acquisition of correct information
by throwing in the reader's way piles of lumber
in which he must painfully grope for the scraps
of useful matter, peradventure interspersed."

Cool Song

Sally really liked the last video I posted from Norah Jones, so here's another. This time it's a song she composed (and probably my favorite of her work) called "Nightingale." I hope you like it too:

Separated at Birth?

Last night I watched a pretty mediocre movie on DVD, Woody Allen's Vicky Christina Barcelona. I felt a little obligated to watch it because I made some disparaging comments about Allen's recent output in a previous post, and remembered that this movie was somewhat well-reviewed when it came out a year or so ago. It did have some good performances in it, and actors I generally like; and it was set in Barcelona, with the location well-used as a backdrop for the story. These elements didn't add up to much, however, and I spent much of the film trying to think of whom Javier Bardem (the male lead) reminded me. Finally, it dawned on me that he was a Spanish dead ringer for Robert Downey Jr. Both are extremely gifted actors, and though Bardem projects a bit more physical presence (that is, he's bigger), they really do resemble each other to an incredible degree. Here are two photos (among the first to pop up for each on a Google image search)-- do you see what I mean?

Javier Bardem

Robert Downey Jr.

On a quick glance, could you definitely say these were two different individuals?

A Favorite Painting 41

John Marin, Lower Manhattan 1922

For two years back in the early eighties, I walked past the Woolworth Building on Broadway in downtown Manhattan every workday, and rarely failed to be impressed. John Marin's painting is composed as a view looking down from the Woolworth Building, and captures the dynamic energy of the neighborhood, which probably changed little in the sixty years between (even if much of the detail of the physical geography evolved). The beauty of modern art is often found in the explicit action of the image, even where the details of realistic representation are cloudy or virtually non-existent. The genius of Marin's work is that it isn't hard, given just the clue of a title, to see exactly what he intended to depict, which is certainly true here (though perhaps subject to the viewer's familiarity with that milieu). The vitality of lower Manhattan (where one would find Wall Street, the Brooklyn Bridge, Park Row and City Hall) is abundantly clear in this painting; and even if you don't know the place, I'd imagine it hard to miss the vibrant character of Marin's subject, as displayed in this painting.

Soup Diary 090820

This is the first time in this series where I will address some soup that I actually made myself. A couple days ago, I cooked up a big pot of chicken noodle. I'm starting easy here, and will eventually work up to something more exotic. It would be immodest for me to praise my own efforts, but I will say that it came out totally edible, and I'm even looking forward to eating the concoction several times over the rest of the week (I made a really big pot). The key to my success, such as it is (and not evident in the photo above, which I found on-line), is that I added red and green sweet peppers to the mix, as well as some crushed garlic (but not too much-- I get tired of overly garlicky food). Since I only had to satisfy myself with this batch, I have to rank it a complete success. We'll see if, once I get a bit more ambitious, I can uphold that standard.