tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:12:43 +0000ShelleyWhitneyyeatsEric ClaptonTravels with CadfaelbooksSchooner GirlAmalfiThe Road to ChinaartFilmScotsMiami ViceBorgesMorseSteven Spielbergcurrent eventsD.H. LawrenceTravelThomas HardyMichael MannfamilyRigolettoJamaica KincaiddanceblogsoperaJoseph ConradfamDoctor Who9/11tfamilyTIME person of the yearVienna/Prague/BudapestPeter O'toolevisionItalyLou ReedMad MenChristmastinnitusmusictheaterMinghellatelevisionliteratureRufusThe Road to Taiwancriticismnational poetry monthWest WingholidaysThe SopranospoetryBrad PittQQF FileSteedJames JoyceIrelandThe Avengers and images are ©1961-9, CANAL+UK Ltd All Rights Reserved. Image is a screen grab via Wikipedia. All post text is copyright M.A.Peel. All rights reserved.http://mapeel.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)Blogger484125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-9200677080728071841Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:08:00 +00002012-01-16T20:25:02.946-08:00  <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Times New Roman"; panose-1:0 2 2 6 3 5 4 5 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-sizehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/2gctR0p6SQM/sing-polyphony-and-see-world-sydney.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)2http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2012/01/sing-polyphony-and-see-world-sydney.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-8185924960688835628Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:30:00 +00002012-01-06T10:00:39.065-08:00SteedJames JoyceChristmasNo, not the Mexican tradition of Hallow’s Eve/All Saints/All Soul’s Day in November. For me, it’s January 6. Little Christmas. Twelfth Night. The Feast of Three Kings, the day to reread and savor the final story in James Joyce’s Dubliners and so experience Epiphany in all its meanings. The word epiphany comes from the Greek “epiphaneia” meaning “manifestation." The feast originated in the http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/TRO1UIYT0zQ/my-day-of-dead.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)5http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2007/01/my-day-of-dead.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-2514969446562897536Sun, 01 Jan 2012 03:18:00 +00002012-01-01T23:10:16.538-08:00Filmliteraturepoetrycurrent eventsThe streets are cold, it’s hard to get a cab, and your jacket isn’t warm enough--Metropolitan captures that chill discomfort and how the conversations that string between two people walking from one bleak stretch of the block to the corner are part of the invisible wiring of the city, the connective tissue through which memories, memoirs, novels, and, yes, movies are eventually made. James http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/38hjduukZqE/new-years-reverie-when-memoirs-meet.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)2http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2011/12/new-years-reverie-when-memoirs-meet.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-1174342695071002468Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:56:00 +00002011-12-28T12:06:59.259-08:00current eventsCouncilman: When was the last time you cut your hair? Drama Teacher: When was the time you brushed your teeth, sir? Billy Jack, 1971 Protester Chris Johnson, 32: Occupy "has opened up a dialogue that hasn’t existed since I've been alive." #OWS Brian Stelter tweet, 11/15/2011 That exchange from Billy Jack is one of the first TV movie trailer lines that I remember. Commercials for Billy Jack http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/ryHljV0e9pI/occupying-my-thoughts-i-was-at-some-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)2http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2011/12/occupying-my-thoughts-i-was-at-some-of.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-3853486270037439836Sat, 24 Dec 2011 17:22:00 +00002011-12-24T09:22:37.198-08:00ChristmasI love these guys. They explain things in funny but erudiate ways. My favorites are The Differences between the United Kingdom, Great Britain, and England Explained and Death to Pennies. Now they have taken on the history of Santa. Good thing. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/Ar32dIAJ34Y/cgp-greys-brief-history-of-santa.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)0http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2011/12/cgp-greys-brief-history-of-santa.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-8129632530039233044Sat, 24 Dec 2011 16:50:00 +00002011-12-24T12:18:33.519-08:00Christmas  <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Times New Roman"; panose-1:0 2 2 6 3 5 4 5 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt;http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/lz9lOJb939s/o-holy-night.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)0http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2011/12/o-holy-night.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-6659537538811853233Sun, 18 Dec 2011 02:00:00 +00002011-12-18T06:03:12.005-08:00FilmfamilyChristmasI’m not particularly fond of angel pictures, neither tv nor features. I never got into Touched by an Angel, or Highway to Heaven, and even Holly Hunter’s grittier Saving Grace doesn’t draw me in. But there was an angel named Dudley who made an impression. I saw The Bishop’s Wife as a child, and I was entranced by Cary Grant, the most suave, engaging messenger of God there could ever be. A God http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/iLukYHbMMEk/visit-from-friend-of-dudleys.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)0http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2007/11/visit-from-friend-of-dudleys.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-455627981055435516Fri, 16 Dec 2011 06:20:00 +00002012-01-03T17:09:40.852-08:00Schooner GirlJoseph ConradliteratureWords are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind. Rudyard Kipling I was a fan of Christopher Hitchens's literary side, not his political or theological pursuits. I love that one his last articles was a reflection on Rudyard Kipling for Slate. I enjoyed many of his literary essays for The Atlantic through the years, and am so happy that they are online to read again. But it was his http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/k1e-sZ36ewE/schooner-girl.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)4http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2006/12/schooner-girl.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-6009983533156430043Tue, 06 Dec 2011 03:17:00 +00002011-12-08T19:21:02.073-08:00FilmliteratureChristmas Wiki lists more than 100 adaptations of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, for theater, radio, opera, graphic novel, TV, and including at least 21 films, starting with a 1901 British silent. That number doesn’t include the parodies and homages, such as the numerous TV series that have a Christmas Carol episode. Everyone has their favorites: mine are Scrooged (yes, Bill Murray), and the http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/SUEU4S-6cR0/master-celtic-interpretation-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)4http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2011/12/master-celtic-interpretation-of.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-5032355736320093594Sat, 03 Dec 2011 08:07:00 +00002011-12-03T07:35:07.613-08:00blogsFilmChristmasI saw a tweet from Michael Fullilove this morning about an article in Washington Post about the actress who played Zuzu. It seems she did not have a wonderful life (although details in the article are sketchy), and I learned that Los Angeles has designated today IAWL Day, with more festivities planned to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the film.  Here's an old post with my defense against the http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/4sd7IAE4cJ8/its-angry-life.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)10http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2007/12/its-angry-life.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-512267747223164432Fri, 25 Nov 2011 23:18:00 +00002011-11-26T16:04:38.647-08:00literature Not really, but I had a lovely little intersection with Julian Barnes's The Sense of an Ending, which I'm about 3/4 the way through, on Thanksgiving. I cooked this year for the first time in many years. The gathering of the family was going to be small (with a larger gathering on Friday), so I made a turkey breast. I ordered an organic turkey from D'artagnan, along with White Truffle Butter. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/5borOvgYeAA/my-dinner-with-julian-barnes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)3http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2011/11/my-dinner-with-julian-barnes.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-3570246285614385258Thu, 24 Nov 2011 12:32:00 +00002011-11-24T06:48:02.877-08:00blogstelevision <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Times New Roman"; panose-1:0 2 2 6 3 5 4 5 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pthttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/7O7A2Vd7NW0/thanks-be-to-buffy-and-blogging.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)0http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2011/11/thanks-be-to-buffy-and-blogging.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-5177613353193041548Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:32:00 +00002011-11-19T17:52:18.679-08:00televisionLeslie: Due to my campaign, the romantic aspect of our relationship is over. And I'm totally fine with that. But Ben and I have so much in common we're amazing friends. And friendship is better because friends help you move, they drive you to the airport. Boyfriends just . . . love you and marry you.I never got into The Office, haven’t seen many episodes, though I appreciate a line from an http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/XI4nQXNsf6Q/do-i-like-parks-recreation-i-only-super.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)2http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2011/11/do-i-like-parks-recreation-i-only-super.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-1835757361816785902Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:29:00 +00002011-11-11T05:44:34.519-08:00There is something inherently cosmic/Matrix when the numeric dates that we look at so casually in everyday life reset themselves into such a clean declaration of the primary of the binary code: 1. It also looks like the great slot machine of life has spun and landed on all stars.Oddly enough, the magnetism of this number was felt back in 1918. Germany had surrendered, and someone decided that http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/gKkTGV0gBg0/armistice-day-in-digital-age-11-am-on.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)2http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2011/11/armistice-day-in-digital-age-11-am-on.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-7544426067892189379Fri, 04 Nov 2011 02:13:00 +00002011-11-04T09:21:52.758-07:00blogsTravel One of Andrew Sullivan's regular features is The View From Your Window, where he posts photos that readers send him of the view they are looking at as they blog, or do work of any sort. This one is from a high rise in Chongqing, China. I was there in 2010. When I first woke up I thought that it was just a cloudy day. But it was every day; then I realized the cloudiness was severe pollution. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/-bGyIDm0mss/relentless-pollution-of-chongqing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)1http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2011/11/relentless-pollution-of-chongqing.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-4912442745636536706Wed, 02 Nov 2011 07:41:00 +00002011-11-02T05:03:31.035-07:00musicRequiem aeternam dona eis, Domine "Grant them eternal rest, O Lord" I find great beauty in the propers for the Requiem Mass, and on All Souls I find myself drawn to the musical settings of these most important and final of words. The idea of eternity is so profound, so unimaginable, that sublime musical writing from the genius of composers is necessary to even glimpse the beginning of the http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/nCd2_pbnZvw/music-for-all-souls-day.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)0http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2011/11/music-for-all-souls-day.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-8524154408126376665Mon, 31 Oct 2011 12:33:00 +00002011-10-31T05:39:05.272-07:00musicThis number from Louis Armstrong from the Bing Crosby 1936 movie Pennies from Heaven is a great, great Halloween treat. Louis and the skeletons swing it hot.The Skeleton in the Closet, (Johnny Burke/Arthur Johnston)There's an old deserted mansionOn an old forgotten roadWhere the better ghosts and goblinsAlways hang out.One night they threw a partyIn a manner a la modeAnd they cordially http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/KpFmratB6qg/pops-with-better-ghosts-and-goblins.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)2http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2011/10/pops-with-better-ghosts-and-goblins.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-7100594971221856914Sun, 30 Oct 2011 21:37:00 +00002011-10-30T15:05:10.026-07:00literature'Twas the night before Halloween, 73 years ago today in 1938, and much of America experienced a collective reaction to a media phenomenon—not unlike news flashes we now experience on Twitter, like when Osama Bin Laden was killed or the Cardinals won Game 6—except the reaction was in "real life," not virtual. They had been listening to the radio, surfing around the dial, when they alit on Orson http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/W542-UXuPjY/orson-welless-war-of-worlds-first-hand.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)2http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2011/10/orson-welless-war-of-worlds-first-hand.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-5115122706035424787Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:08:00 +00002011-10-22T06:53:32.221-07:00familypoetryA.A. Milne's poem positively leaps to mind today, my annual personal New Year's Day, with this particular birthday encumbered with the sense of middleness. Halfway down the stairs Is a stair Where I sit. There isn't any Other stair Quite like It. I'm not at the bottom, I'm not at the top; So this is the stair Where I always Stop. Milne's poem from When We Were Very Young has been described ashttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/AvRTqUsO17M/halfway-down-milne-helps-with.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)0http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2011/10/halfway-down-milne-helps-with.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-3042503605805938200Fri, 21 Oct 2011 02:51:00 +00002011-10-21T05:57:26.166-07:00FilmfamilyliteratureIt made me smile to see that the 3D, 21st century, action packed Three Musketeers opens tomorrow, on my birthday! Given my love for the novel, what are the odds it would be created and released this year, when my birthday is on a Friday? I have a feeling it will be awful—why couldn't Guy Ritchie have taken on Dumas rather than Conan Doyle—but I am thrilled that the team is being brought into http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/2iHdJnzWV0g/21st-century-all-for-one-on-my-birthday.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)1http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2011/10/21st-century-all-for-one-on-my-birthday.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-3728497624570109628Sun, 09 Oct 2011 00:11:00 +00002011-10-21T05:57:02.671-07:00IrelandFilm Imagine Ireland: Culture Ireland’s year of Irish arts in America 2011 programmed a good evening at Alice Tully Hall the other week, pairing two modern silent films with the real thing. The first half was two short films from director Andrew Legge: The Unusual Inventions of Henry Cavendish (2005) and The Lactating Automaton (2011, U.S. premiere). Legge specializes in recreating the http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/YydX05UMoSM/guests-of-nation-power-of-narrative_01.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)2http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2011/10/guests-of-nation-power-of-narrative_01.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-5337345621536265580Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:50:00 +00002011-10-03T18:00:31.172-07:00televisionThe sexy sax riff wailing over the black screen to the declarative thump of the car trunk, both primal and urban. As opening credits go, it offered the total package.And so L.A. Law announced itself to weekly prime time with a classic Mike Post back-beat composition on Oct. 3, 1986 (after its two-hour pilot movie was shown twice the month before). From the close-up of the license plate for http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/fqOkzyKAuUU/love-among-torts-25th-anniversary-of-la.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)0http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2011/10/love-among-torts-25th-anniversary-of-la.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-7176512891611136430Sat, 24 Sep 2011 00:38:00 +00002011-09-23T17:53:49.966-07:00visionfamtfamilyIt’s Autumnal Equinox day! To most people that means equal length of day and night. Of course it’s much more complicated than that, but at the least it’s when the sun “appears to cross the celestial equator from south to north.”The sense of evenness, of balance, is the cornerstone of most new age therapies (followed closely by fighting “inflammation”). For we Librans— born under the stars that http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/ZV04UK3SxIU/librans-national-holiday.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)7http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2011/09/librans-national-holiday.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-5407799761029413809Wed, 21 Sep 2011 01:48:00 +00002011-09-20T20:56:40.668-07:00theaterliterature"Every war is ironic because every war is worse than expected... Its means are so melodramatically disproportionate to its ends... Millions were destroyed because two people, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his consort, were shot... But the Great War was more ironic than any before or since. It was a hideous embarrassment to the prevailing meliorist myth... It reversed the idea of Progress."http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/q2whjJ6aVYg/great-war-modern-memory-sublime-gash-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)3http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2011/09/great-war-modern-memory-sublime-gash-of.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1273420145917074292.post-6033116676925136815Sun, 11 Sep 2011 01:24:00 +00002011-10-10T20:35:25.602-07:009/11 Because the tales of the few survivors from near the impact zones are harrowing beyond belief. The 911 tapes released reveal the desperate, terrified people calling for help, screaming about the heat and the flames and the smoke, begging for someone to “come get us,” until they succumbed to the fire or died when the towers collapsed. Because the tales of people who weren’t killed on impact http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mapeel/~3/niLVtnZsGtM/why-i-want-to-remember.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (M.A.Peel)0http://mapeel.blogspot.com/2011/09/why-i-want-to-remember.html