Saturday, May 10, 2008
Friday, May 9, 2008
Jarchive notes. Start #509. 1986 Tournament of Champions final game part 1.
Surprise Poem of the Day: Invictus. William Ernst Henley. Last line:
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Timothy McVeigh.
End. Start with Holidays
Surprise Poem of the Day: Invictus. William Ernst Henley. Last line:
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Timothy McVeigh.
End. Start with Holidays
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Poem of the Day
My Oxford Book of English Verse does not have the poem by Wilfred Owen that I wanted. It has only "Anthem for Doomed Youth," which is in a similar vein, "Strange Meeting," oh heck that one too. "Miners" is the only non-war poem.
But it does not contain the famous "Dulce et Decorum est." Here it is. It is sweet and right to die for your country. The old lie.
I vividly remember reading this poem in high school. Growing up, World War I was represented by a photo of my father as a child, dressed in a dough-boy uniform his mother had sewed. Anyone called a dough-boy could not be anything very serious. This poem exploded my childhood understanding.
Such reformulations become rarer with age, but I certainly experienced two yesterday while watching John Adams. In the first scene, a mob seized a British Customs Agent and tarred and feathered him. I have read and heard that phrase "tar and feather" so often that it never had precise meaning. Seeing someone tarred and feathered changes that. The second powerful visual for me was the inoculation scene. Several years ago I read Elizabeth Fenn's Pox Americana, which contains written descriptions of the process of taking material from an active lesion and inserting it into the upper arm of a non-immune person. Seeing is another matter.
But it does not contain the famous "Dulce et Decorum est." Here it is. It is sweet and right to die for your country. The old lie.
I vividly remember reading this poem in high school. Growing up, World War I was represented by a photo of my father as a child, dressed in a dough-boy uniform his mother had sewed. Anyone called a dough-boy could not be anything very serious. This poem exploded my childhood understanding.
Such reformulations become rarer with age, but I certainly experienced two yesterday while watching John Adams. In the first scene, a mob seized a British Customs Agent and tarred and feathered him. I have read and heard that phrase "tar and feather" so often that it never had precise meaning. Seeing someone tarred and feathered changes that. The second powerful visual for me was the inoculation scene. Several years ago I read Elizabeth Fenn's Pox Americana, which contains written descriptions of the process of taking material from an active lesion and inserting it into the upper arm of a non-immune person. Seeing is another matter.
Tuesday
Unexpected day.
Watched: John Adams, finished ep. 1 and all of 2.
Reading: Poe, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." IN, IN, IN, IN, IN, IN, IN, IN, IN
Poem of the Day: W. H. Auden, "The Shield of Achilles."
Started adding actresses from the bottom instead of the top. Janet Gaynor, Mary Pickford, Norma Shearer.
Mary Pickford, Douglass Fairbanks. Pickfair. Pickford was one of the founders of United Artists. She was also Canadian.
Watched: John Adams, finished ep. 1 and all of 2.
Reading: Poe, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." IN, IN, IN, IN, IN, IN, IN, IN, IN
Poem of the Day: W. H. Auden, "The Shield of Achilles."
Started adding actresses from the bottom instead of the top. Janet Gaynor, Mary Pickford, Norma Shearer.
Mary Pickford, Douglass Fairbanks. Pickfair. Pickford was one of the founders of United Artists. She was also Canadian.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Monday
New load of stuff from the library. Finished Cod.
Watched Malcolm X.
Best Actors are firm. A little IMDB surfing helped with Victor McLaglan (sp?) and Mr. Coleman. Need to add actresses. Grace Kelly should be easier after watching The Country Girl. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would at first. I was frightened that it would be over-controlling wife gets smacked down and put in her place at first. Fortunately it was the bias of William Holden's character that drove that suspicion and I fell for it because of my own biases about what a movie of this age would be like.
Reading: Not sure. Something new. I think I may curl up with some Poe stories.
Poem of the Day: Didn't have time. Yardwork (with lots of trivia podcasts though).
Watched Malcolm X.
Best Actors are firm. A little IMDB surfing helped with Victor McLaglan (sp?) and Mr. Coleman. Need to add actresses. Grace Kelly should be easier after watching The Country Girl. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would at first. I was frightened that it would be over-controlling wife gets smacked down and put in her place at first. Fortunately it was the bias of William Holden's character that drove that suspicion and I fell for it because of my own biases about what a movie of this age would be like.
Reading: Not sure. Something new. I think I may curl up with some Poe stories.
Poem of the Day: Didn't have time. Yardwork (with lots of trivia podcasts though).
Time's Most Influential People
Time's List of the 100 Most Influential People
Good for review. The authors of the tributes are as important for study as their subjects.
Found via Echidne.
Good for review. The authors of the tributes are as important for study as their subjects.
Found via Echidne.
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