Hero of the Week
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2 Movie Recoms
This week I saw two films of similar structure, although it was quite coincidental. One was Finnish, The River (Joki; Jarmo Lampela, 2001) about 6 people's lives one Saturday morning. The other was Nine Lives (Rodrigo Garcia, 2005), a collection of vignettes about 9 women and a particular moment in their lives. The former was interesting in that, like Crash and Magnolia , it revolved around one interconnecting event; the latter, while less intentionally connected, was outstanding on two levels: the performances were completely riveting, and the narratives were totally accessible and hardhitting. The last one, entitled "Maggie" with Glenn Close, just about killed me (I won't go into detail for fear of creating a spoiler). It's going to be one of those films I don't forget. Having gone through some of the experiences portrayed myself, the stories were that much more poignant. While it might be labeled a chick flick or feminist by some, see it for the actors...
Weird, but You Gotta Watch it
Ok, this may not be your cup of tea either, but check out this very strange but mindboggling Swan Lake (especially after the first 2 minutes).
Doing the Flintstones' running on the spot sound--
*Phew!* This has been a busy week, catching many arts events around town. I caught the penultimate day of an exhibit at AWOL gallery, called The Cookbook , by Vanessa Vaughan, an artist and graphic designer of many talents. I have contacted her asking permission to show one of her pieces called "Faith". Look at her stuff on her site . Fun stuff. Then I heard the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge led by Stephen Layton give a short recital at Trinity Chapel with standard repertoire as well as eastern composers that were new to me. I Was Glad... Things I saw that you can still catch are: The Malcove Collection at UTAC is an astounding treasury of medieval art and artifacts bequeathed to the university. I can't believe I hadn't known about it before. On until August 15, also at UTAC, is Kim Ondaatje's Paintings 1950-1975. She will be of interest to those who like Jack Chambers or Christopher Pratt. At MOCCA is a pretty trippy exhibit entitled Damn Your Eyes: the i...
Amen!
from Michael J. Wilson's blog, Worth the Fight - The Good Fight Blog , these pearls of wisdom: “There is no better indicator of the spiritual health of our city, its neighborhoods, and the larger region than the state of the arts. The arts deepen our understanding of the human spirit, extend our capacity to comprehend the lives of others, allow us to imagine a more just and humane world. Through their diversity of feeling, their variety of form, their multiplicity of inspiration, the arts make our culture richer and more reflective.” Jonathan Fanton, President of the MacArthur Foundation
My New Hildegard of Bingen
This woman is so cool. I can't wait to grow up and be just like Meinrad Craighead .
Well, if the bribe of extra money brings them in, so be it...
the following article is from the New York Times (.com) by Colin Moynihan Swapping Guns for Cash, at Church There was a time, in the 1970s and ’80s that handguns were so coveted on the streets of Kings County, that the borough gave rise to a law enforcement legend known as the Brooklyn Bounce. If you were to throw a gun from a window in Bay Ridge or Bushwick, so the legend went, it would be eagerly grabbed before it had a chance to bounce more than once. Over the last decade or so, violent crime has dropped in Brooklyn, as it has in the rest of New York City, but plenty of guns are still in circulation. So for several hours starting on Saturday morning, six churches in central Brooklyn tried to help remedy that by inviting people to anonymously drop off firearms in exchange for cash cards worth hundreds of dollars. The gun buyback program, which was financed by the New York Police Department and the Brooklyn district attorney’s office, was intended to complement an existing Police Depa...
