there is much to waterhouse

i spoke recently about coincidence. it was an accident, a result of repeatedly thwarted plans, that i went today and not last week or month or year to the waterhouse exhibit at the musee des beaux-arts. on the heels of my interaction with joseph campbell, specifically the story of odysseus' meeting and hieros gamos ('sacred marriage') with circe that i came, unexpectedly, upon waterhouse's magnificent rendering of this meeting.

in the story, odysseus must solicit the sorceress circe's guidance, but he must first challenge her authority so that she finds him worthy of seduction (an allegory for union with the guide/guardian of the otherworld/immortality -- the goddess); it is a typically iron age patriarchy myth, in which the feminine-goddess element is dominated by the masculine-warrior element. waterhouse's painting, though, focuses on the fleeting moment when circe raises her wand to threaten odysseus. it is a distinctive interpretation of the scene, which centres on the magic powers of circe rather than her eventual capitulation to odysseus' masculine authority. she is commanding and dominates by subtle wiles, not physical force. she is the archetypal mother-goddess: pacific yet omniscient; terrible in her capacity as destroyer, benign in her capacity as life-giver.

waterhouse began his career by painting representations of scenes from classical antiquity (his uniqueness was his ability to convey a narrative through pictorial rather than literature; he showed a side-scene, which conveyed the entire story), but he shifted, mysteriously and dramatically, to a focus on pagan antiquity and mythology. (to be sure, we can draw a distinct parallel here with the present writer.) this focus on pagan myth and the centrality of commanding females made people wonder about possible connexions to an occult society, since the mystical feminine -- the eternal, dual-yet-united power of the female, the destroyer/creator-goddess -- is at the core of the human story, is more ancient than our time, and is the obsession of seekers of ultimate truth.

the inextricable linking of messrs wilde and fry

one of my most persistent memories, brief as static but with all of nostalgia's pleasantness, is of a movie called 'wilde'. i sat on the floor of the living room of the london flat where i had spent about a dozen summers, half of which followed the formula of watching videos rented from the blockbuster downstairs while eating a small cup of haagen-dazs vanilla ice cream, purchased there. i sat on the blue carpet and watched the dramatised biography of a man about whom i knew nothing except his name. but that name would change my perception of the world, as the things he did with language were, to me, unimaginable. i never knew one was allowed to play, to manipulate, to wit, as he did. to be sure, my own skill wanes in comparison, but what i know now, i owe in some great degree to oscar wilde, and also in some great degree to the man who played him in that film, mr stephen fry. i believe it was the first time i'd heard of him, but he became then inextricably linked with mr wilde, and they were thenceforth fixtures of my fascination with language, a permanent benchmark, a zenith towards which to strive. many years passed after that initial initiation, and i began to investigate wilde's work, for the first time, and my mind's barriers were shattered, one more time. some more years passed, and i investigated mr fry again. his wit is unparalleled, his insight is remarkable, and his lexical dexterity is so magnificent that it is tearfully enviable.

wonderful and insightful: "america's place in the world"

brilliant and hilarious: the subject of language, on a bit of fry and laurie.

nice. fry on wilde: http://www.stephenfry.com/media/video/102/trailer--oscar-wilde-s-short-stories

george lucas is effing brilliant.

what genius, to come up with such epic stories: star wars and indiana jones. both are full of adventure and comedy, heart and soul, metaphor and symmetry. star wars is spiritual and meaningful, its depth is belied by its science fiction setting and high-flying adventure, but the notion of the force, of the spiritual master, of the green man, of the perceived duality between good and evil, as well as that duality's essential complementarity, all have firm grounding in the study of gnosis.

the star wars movies famously take their cue from joseph campbell's study of the 'hero myth', and indiana jones is wonderfully comic and non-stop adventure. he's the american james bond (fleming's bond, not connery's), in a way: supremely knowledgable, supremely capable, and supremely brash. harrison ford really is quite wonderful, he's both han solo and indiana jones, a thrill-seeking and brazenly cocksure adventurer, motivated by self-interest, but ever-ready to don the mantle of reluctant hero.

the opening scene of 'temple of doom' mixes east and west with an american girl singing an english song in chinese, then brings in mystery as we see indy's body moving down stairs, given a passing warning as he sits down to confront a table of mobsters, as connery did in dr no, dashing in a white tuxedo; the adventure just begins as he barters for the prize which he collected the night before, which, as we learn from a bandaged hand, one of the chinese had attempted to steal. the details make it exciting and fun, delivered slowly and subtly, as we see the barter taking place over a revolving tray, the artefact and the money being exchanged round and round, when indy finally imbibes a poison, and the club goes wild, the diamond and the antidote both rolling around on the floor, being chased by the girl and indy, both of whom want one of those items. the excitement level is maintained as they jump out a window and fall directly into indy's white car, given chase by the chinese, until indy escapes them by jumping into a freight plane, which he doesn't know is owned by the mobster himself!

what a brilliant storyteller he is, a master of vernacular adventure, mr lucas - inventor of some of the most enduring, popular, and relevant american characters, and reviver of inspired and innately exciting stories.

sylvester stallone's remarkable magnanimity.

some people think him brutish. but that is shallow. his heart is big and generous, and he is kind and warm. in all his movies he shows a real concern for social justice, which he protects nobly. in 'get carter' he is a man troubled by his identity, striving to reconcile the violence of his world with the inherent decency that imbues his worldview. he seeks to protect his niece from the darkness of that very world, in which he seeks to bring light. that he does so by sometimes dark means is due to involuntary factors of his birth, and those dark actions are thus invested with the light of his intention. he is a role model for the younger characters, portraying a man that has always to live in the grey, forced to use his god-given physical strength to put right a world in which nothing is black and white, in which danger and corruption threaten his sense of justice and morality. nevertheless, his innate softness is revealed through his tranquil self-confidence, through his calm and kind advices, such as in 'driven'. as witnessed in all the 'rocky' movies, his empathy for the plight of others, even when they abuse him, is magnanimous; and the burden of love he carries in his heart is endearing and emotional.

sinead o'connor's beautiful face.

the sentiment seeps from her, her mouth is expressive to the hilt. she sings strongly and passionately and vividly and lamentingly. there is nothing except her face, her mouth, her tears. the song is a jeremiad. its mournful tone entwines one into its sentiment, her face plumbs its deepening emotion. her mouth's graceful wailing is intense and intoxicating, its beauty is bewitching.

everyone loves christian bale

chris bale is pretty cool. he's patrick bateman, bruce wayne, and a terminator terminator. that is pretty cool. he's always been dedicated to his roles (see the weight change between machinist and batman begins). see how deeply he delves into bateman. his first role was as a kid, in that spielberg picture. they said he was going to be great. and he is: he's got a huge cult following (re: the way cool but lame 'equilibrium', and 'american sycho'), and TWO franchises (batman + terminator = dollar dollar bills). so, why were people ragging on him about his on-set rant? it's obviously annoying when someone repeatedly disturbs your conccentration, regardless of what field you're in. i hate it when someone interrupts my thought-trains. obviously the guy was annoying, and someone should definitely trash his lights. hear the original here. and the amazing remix is "oooh good". the remix is great, lots of fun driving around to, so funny, and makes us like chris bale more. (alternate viewpoint).

taylor swift is a genius.

this little girl has managed to break all these records, becoming the best-selling artist in '08, the only artist ever to have two albums in the end-of-year top ten, tied in second place with mariah carey and the beatles for the most singles in the billboard top 20, spending all this time at number one on different charts across different genres, all because she makes good music. yes, it's the music of young girls, but it's not like the music of other young girls. yes, while most of what she talks about is boys, she imagines that interaction as abstractly romanticised (romeo and juliet), but while using mundane imagery (throwing rocks at the window). one is forced, by the coherence of her lyrics, to leave aside the moralising concerns of a society that legitimates the prioritization of romantic ideas for young girls. one is forced, by the variety and excitement of her musical prowess, to forget that she's a young girl. this is her most intriguing and intoxicating feat: she's managed to marry honest, personal, interesting lyrics with powerful, evocative, and emotional music. the production of her work is rather unbelievably magical, mostly because it's entirely unexpected. but, despite the fallacy of expectation, what we are left with is a genius who knows how to create songs that are both meaningful and popular, who began writing at age ten, made her first multi-platinum album at age sixteen, and by age eighteen, with only her second album, has reached the sorts of financial and artistic peaks that almost no one ever does.

http://www.youtube.com/taylorswift