Gabriel and I are sad that once again Julia is leaving us for a few days. She's off to Wichita to present a paper at a conference. Gabriel and I will be on our own Wednesday through Friday and most of Saturday too. Whatever will we do?
The Mad Men premiere was extraordinary. There are obviously going to be multiple compelling storylines this year:
- Don Draper's inability to be happy with his new wife (Jessica Pare), despite how much she admires and loves him - and is willing to do things for him like, say, sing in French for him at his birthday party (a memorable moment, sexy and titillating)
- Roger (John Slattery) and Pete (Vincent Kartheiser) will continue to fight and punish each other, both of them uniquely, soddenly unhappy at home
- Joan's (Christina Hendricks) attempts at dexterously dealing with coming back to work and raising her new baby on her own
- And, of course, Civil Rights has come to Manhattan
I'm not sure which sequence I liked more. Okay, well this is a highlight -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngf2zHq4FEI
But there was that extraordinary sequence with Lane (Jared Harris) finding a man's wallet in the cab and finding a picture of the man's woman within it. Something about the image of the woman intrigues him and he calls the man's number. The conversation that ensues, with Lane and the woman - with her tantalizing, uncertain answers and questions - is mysterious and striking.
What a season this is gonna be!
History Lesson:
Battles, Part 2
6) Siege of Vienna
When: Austria-Ottoman Wars, 1529
Who: Ottoman Empire (led by Sultan Suleiman) versus Austria (led by King Charles)
Winner: Austria
Result: This marked the beginning of the end for any designs of the Ottoman Empire in central and western Europe, in particular the spreading of the Muslim religion; Catholicism would forever populate these parts. Vienna was just too hard of a city, too logistically impossible, to attack.
7) Waterloo
When: Napoleonic Wars, 1815
Who: Napoleon's French army versus the Coalition Forces - in this case, the Prussian army (led by Gebhard Von Blucher) and the Allied forces (the British army, Dutch and Belgium soldiers), led by the Duke of Wellington)
Winner: Prussians and British
Result: The defeat of Napoleon and the end of his tyrannical empire in France - and the fall of France as a world superpower.
8) Iwo Jima
When: World War II, Pacific Front, 1945
Who: America and its Allies versus Japan
Winner: America
Result: Not sure. In theory, the island was important because it gave America control over the two airfields on the island, where Japan used (or could use) its fighter planes to attack America planes on their way to and from Japan. This was a controversial battle. It was bloody and costly and twenty-four years later, Lyndon Johnson gave ownership of the island back to Japan.
9) Battle of the Alamo
When: Texas Revolution, 1835-6
Who: Texas (led by Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett, William Travis) versus Mexico (led by Santa Anna)
Winner: Mexico
Result: Some memorable lines, for one thing: "Remember the Alamo," etc. Provided impetus for the Mexican-American War a decade later. The battle was important too, for it showed how fervently the Texans wanted Mexicans out of their territory, how strong the American desire was for Manifest Destiny. Soon after, Sam Houston's troops attacked Santa Anna's army and routed them. Texas soon after declared itself a Republic, independent of Mexico.
10) Agincourt
When: Hundred Years' War, 1415
Who: France versus England (led by Henry V)
Winner: English
Result: A crushing blow to the French, whose losses were rumored to be around 8000 or more, compared to the few hundred English casualties. The English were heavily outnumbered. Many historians credit this as the greatest "upset" or surprising victory in the history of war.
Thanks to: http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/battleswars1800s/p/alamo.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/battle_waterloo_01.shtml
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_of_iwo_jima.htm
Aaahhh! Look out!
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/giant-nine-pound-gambian-rats-invading-florida-keys-210522485.html
Bruce Weber (#18)
The American Weber (b. 1946) went to Denison University for a while, before transferring to NYU. He came to prominence working for GQ, Ralph Lauren, and Calvin Klein in the late 1970s. He is known for his homoerotic images, high-profile advertising campaigns, nudes and portraits of male models. He has an extensive catalog of documentary films on his resume as well. His work has been featured in magazines such as Interview and Vogue as well.
You get the drift...
- Around the time Impressionism was big in Europe, Tonalism was coming to prominence as a movement in America. It was inspired by the French Barbizon School, which emphasized shadow and atmosphere. A color's softer, less contrasting middle values were often employed, creating a visual poem; dark, neutral hues were used too. Nature is at the forefront, luscious and domesticated, evocative, full of spiritual truths (but not as overwhelming and grandiose as it is portrayed by the Hudson River School artists), almost abstract too, Common Tonalism images: moonlit nights, soft greens and golds and greys, vaporous views invoking a clouded emotionalism. These images provoked strong feelings of the psychological, the unconscious, the subjective.
Here are three works of Tonalism, by three of the movement's most well-known stylists:
 | |
| George Inness - Twilight - 1875 |
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| James McNeill Whistler - Nocturne in Blue and Silver - 1871/2 |
| John LaFarge - Moonlit Seascape - 1883(?) |
And finally, everyone likes a good Life List, right?
Well, here's my first Life List in quite a while.
The subject: 30 Things to Read Before I Turn 50!
1) The complete series of Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley novels. (There are 17 of them - I've read one)
2) The complete ouevre of William Boyd (I'm on #2)
3) All the works of Richard Russo (only three to go!)
4) Hemingway's A Movable Feast and For Whom the Bell Tolls
5) Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
6) something by Emile Zola
7) every Pulitzer Prize winner from here on in
8) something by Balzac
9) everything by Anne Tyler (I'm doing good here)
10) Richard Ford's Sportswriter trilogy
11) Carol Shields' The Stone Diaries
12) The Berlin Stories, by Christopher Isherwood
13) by Pat Conroy: The Lords of Discipline and South of Broad
14) every pre-1970 novel by Patricia Highsmith (only 6 to go)
15) Tom Jones
16) Two books by Daphne du Maurier
17) Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
18) The Cider House Rules by John Irving
19) two novels by Georges Simenon
20) Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
21) James Salter's A Sport and a Pasttime
22) The Red and the Black or Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal
23) The Collected Stories of Richard Yates and Cold Spring Harbor by Yates
24) The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk
25) something by Dickens
26) one book by Martin Amis and one book by Kingsley Amis
27) Stewart O'Nan's Wish You Were Here and Emily, Alone
28) The Thorn Birds
29) Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy
30) A Sight for Sore Eyes and its follow-up, The Vault by Ruth Rendell
Stay tuned for more "30(fill-in-the-blank) to do before I turn 50" lists!
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