Britain from the Air

The BBC has a slide show with audio from a exhibition of photographs called Britain from the Air, including the photograph below of Sultan the Pit Pony.

Audio slideshow: Britain from the Air

Elizabeth Gaskell

Today is the bicentennial of the birth of British novelist Elizabeth Gaskell. Much of her work dealt with issues created by the rapid industrialization of mid-19th century England. This week a stained glass window honoring her was added to the Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

In the last decade Gaskell has found renewed prominence based of the BBC's cinematic adaptations of several of here novels. Below is a trailer and a clip from two of those films.

Trailer for North & South.



An amusing scene from Cranford.

Picture ot the Day - 9/28/2010

I don't know if this is a sign of a hard winter to come, but the squirrels were going crazy gathering nuts between the Capitol Building and Union Station this evening.

Pictures of the Day - 2010

Weekend Movies

I saw two very different movies this weekend.

First, I saw Cairo Time with Patricia Clarkson. As you might expect this is set in Cairo. Clarkson's character is in Cairo to meet up with her husband who works setting you UN refugee camps. The husband cannot make it, so she ends up spending time with the husband's retired security guard. The movie revolves around what does or does not happen between these two. This is a very restrained film without a lot of plot, but the scenery in and around Cairo is amazing, and as always Clarkson gives a great performance.



Then I saw the film The Town, which has more than it's share of action. Directed by and starring Ben Affleck, the film starts out with a bank heist by a group of masked marauders. Affleck's character is one of them. They kidnap the manager, but let her go once they get away. Affleck's character and the manager end up in a relationship, and she has no idea that he was one of the bank robbers. So the movie progresses with the FBI trying to nail the outlaws, and the outlaws trying to pull off bigger heists. There is a back story about the past family connections of the group of robbers, one of whom is played by Jeremy Renner. All in all it had good acting and a good script, although I thought the cars chase scenes and the shoots out were a bit over the top.

Tea Party & the Founding Fathers

An article by the Ron Chernow discussing the fallacy of the tea party's claims to be following the intentions of the Founding Fathers. I might add that certain members of the Supreme Court also try to ride this horse. Additionally the tea partiers and said Justices—despite their supposed love of history—seem to have forgotten that the Constitution was substantially amended after the Civil War.

The Founding Fathers Versus the Tea Party

Paul Gauguin

I have to admit that I have never been a big fan of Paul Gauguin's painting, but he was definitely passionate about his work. Here is a short film on his art produced by Tate Media. The narration of the film is all from Gauguin's letter's.

The Art and Letters of Gauguin

The King's Speech

It is coming up on that time of year when the Oscar contending movies are released. All of the buzz right now seems to be with The King's Speech, which recently won the top prize at the Toronto Film Festival. The film is about King George Vi, and his relationship with his speech therapist, as he tries to overcome a severe speech impediment and lead England through WW II. With a stellar cast including Helena Bonham Carter, Colin Firth, Guy Pearce, Michael Gambon, Geoffrey Rush and Timothy Spall, its seems primed for quite a few nominations.

Here is the trailer:

The Beaded Purse

Another Ted Kooser poem, "The Beaded Purse". He writes great poems, and has the perfect voice to read them.

I have posted two of his other poems previously, Pearl and The Blizzard Voices.

Misadventures in Movie Going

I had seen the previews for a movie with Carey Mulligan set in a high school, I thought somewhere in Britain. So last weekend I went to see it. Only when the movie started it was set in California, and before long I realized the movie I had gone to see was not the one I thought it was, but a different movie, also set in a high school. that I knew nothing about. The parents of the main character were played by Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci, so I figured if they had agreed to act in it, there had to have some redeeming value. The movie I had gone to see was Easy A. Here is the trailer:



Maybe a more descriptive title would be "Much Ado About Imaginary Sex". I actually ended up liking it a lot. It was very well written with many references to the Teen Movies from the 80's, like The Breakfast Club. While the stories are totally different, the analogy in made between the way Olive, in this movie and Hester Prynne, in The Scarlet Letter, are treated.

The lead character Olive, an anagram for "I Love", is played by Emma Stone. I don't think I have seen her before, but she did a good job. My only only complaint about the film is that most of the high school students seemed more college age to me.

Olive discusses past film versions of The Scarlet Letter. She derides the Demi Moore version, but gushes over the 1926 Lillian Gush silent version. That film was very controversial when it was made. Because of the sexual nature of the film it had been black listed, and was only approved when Gish took responsibility for the content of the film. She was about the only person in Hollywood trusted enough to make a acceptable film adaptation of the book. Here is a clip of Gish's performance in the film.



By the way, the film I thought I was going to see in Never Let Me Go. Maybe I will see that some other time.

New York at Night

A collection of images taken by British photographer Jason Hawkes showing the dazzling lights of the most famous skyline. He captured the series from a helicopter for a new book New York at Night.

Aerial views of New York

Picture ot the Day - 9/18/2010

Still Life with tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. (From the Farmers Market under the Jones Falls)

Pictures of the Day - 2010

Out of the Mud

The Maryland State Department of Transportation has produced some good videos, Including this two part video. It has a lot of historic photographs and film.

Arlington Cemetery & Fort Myer

I spent several hours at Arlington Cemetery and Fort Myer today. The horses used for the funeral processions are stabled next door at Fort Myer, and I had never been there before.

Here are links to some of the photographs I took today.

Arlington Cemetery & Fort Myer



Kennedy Graves


Markers & Monuments


Tomb of the Unknowns


Horses at Arlington

Here is a link to set of pictures I took at the Cemetery about two years ago. Some things I photographed then, I did not photograph again today.

Arlington National Cemetery 11/9/2006

Vatican Secret Archives

On guardian.co.uk, a collection of Vatican Secret Archives images and documents going back over 800 years. The Vatican has one of the largest collections of historic documents in the world.

In pictures: secrets of the Vatican archives

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Roger Ebert's current Journal entry, Men passed this way long ago, is a review of the new Werner Herzog film Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Filmed in 3d, the documentary is about the 30,000 year old paintings discovered inside the Chauvet Cave in France. Here are some clips of Herzog discussing the film, including, at the end of the second video, some interesting comments on the physiology of watching 3d movies.

‘Ah-Choo!’

Fresh Air has an interesting interview with Jennifer Ackerman about her new book, Ah-Choo! The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold. Audio of the interview at the link below.

‘Ah-Choo!’ Takes On Mysteries Of The Common Cold

Allen Ginsberg—Photographer

The National Gallery has an exhibit, ending Thursday, of photographs by the beat poet Allen Ginsberg. The New York Times has an article and a slide show of some of the photographs, including the one below of Jack Kerouac.

‘Beat Memories’

Picture ot the Day - 9/12/2010

Another picture from Friday night. This is Federal Hill from the Inner Harbor.

Pictures of the Day - 2010

Fire Tornado

I have never seen video of one of these before. Evidently, in the last couple weeks there have been fire tornadoes on both Hawaii and Brazil. A link to some video from Hawaii.

Fire Tornado Filmed in Hawaii

World Trade Center Site

A video of a day at the World Trade Center site.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Picture ot the Day - 9/10/2010

Another iPhone picture of the Inner Harbor, opposite side from last yesterday's. I think maybe this should be called "Study in Blue". I took this on the was to Pier Six to see the Prairie Home Companion Summer Love Show. Appearing were Garrison Keillor, Robin and Linda Williams, Nickel Creek’s Sara Watkins, the Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band, and sound-effects man Fred Newman. All did a spectacular job.

Pictures of the Day - 2010

Litany

I was going to post a video of a three year old boy reciting from memory the poem Litany by the former Poet Laureate of the United States, Billy Collins. However, that video is blocked so I cannot embed it, but you can go to YouTube and watch it here. This is a fun poem, because it is a poem that makes fun of poetry.

In lieu of that video, here is Collins himself reading the poem.

Picture ot the Day - 9/9/2010

Since Viccaro's has closed at both the Inner Harbor and Union Station, I had to walk to Little Italy to get a cannoli this evening. I took this twilight picture with my iPhone as I walked home.

Pictures of the Day - 2010

Elephant Orphans

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, a charity which rescues and rehabilitates orphaned African elephants, is holding an exhibition of pictures taken by three of the world's most celebrated wildlife photographers – Joachim Schmeisser, Michael Nichols and Robert Carr-Hartley. A selection of these photographs from The Guardian.

Protector of the Giants photographic exhibition

Parrot and Olivier in American

The short list for the Man Booker Prize was released today. Given to the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Great Britain or the Republic of Ireland, last year's prize went to my favorite book from last year, Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. (See my previous post on Wolf Hall)

Of the six novels on this year's list, I have only read one, Peter Carey's Parrot and Olivier in American. I did like this book, but I found it a little hard to read. The book is told by the two main characters, Olivier, a French aristocrat who is kidnapped and sent to America by his mother to protect him from the machinations going on in France following the Revolution, and Parrot, a Briton sent along as Olivier's servant to look after him. The character of Olivier is loosely based on Alexis de Tocqueville.

The book explores the relationship between the aristocrat and his servant after they come to American, and goes back and forth between first person accounts by the two main characters. I suppose this was the best way to get into the characters of these two men, but I had a problem with the flow of the novel as the perspective switched back and forth. I was able to overcome that problem, because it is a very good story.

Here is a video of Peter Cary being interviewed about the novel.

The Phantom 85 Years Later

Today marks 85 years since the premiere of the original silent film adaption of Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera. One of the original horror films, audiences were especially frightened at the time by the color sequences included in the film when the Phantom appears in a bright red cloak. Lon Chaney, Sr. portrayed the Phantom, and did his own gruesome makeup.

I have seen the film twice with live accompaniment—once at the Kennedy Center with an organ, and once in Baltimore, I think with the BSO.

Here is a post on the original release from the Hero Complex blog at the LA Times.

Lon Chaney's 'The Phantom of the Opera' plays on after 85 years

Picture ot the Day - 9/06/2010

Butterfly

Pictures of the Day - 2010

A Bodine for Labor Day

I am trying to get caught up on some back issues of Smithsonian Magazine, and ran across this piece about Aubrey Bodine in the April issue. I thought this photograph of Baltimore Longshoremen was appropriate to post on Labor Day weekend.

For more photographs by Bodine see my March 4, 2010 post.

Photographing Baltimore's Working Class

Fungi Photos

From the Guardian:

A series of captivating pictures of mushrooms and other fungi went on show for the first time today in Brighton.

The work, by award winning photographer Julia Claxton, is displayed at The Restaurant at Drakes Hotel as part of the Brighton & Hove Food Festival.

Fruiting bodies: the art of fungi

I Never

As you get older, there are fewer times when you see something that you have never imagined before. I am posting this video that a friend put on Facebook, because I certainly never imagined this. I always thought that the Bunny Hop was a dance.

Added 9/7/10: I have been sent this link to more information on Rabbit Show Jumping.

Lonely Voice in the Wilderness

Not that I want to do a series of blog post on things that I am upset about, but I have to wonder if Orrin Hatch can say this, why do Obama and the rest of the democrats have such a problem with this.

Watermelon

An article from the Washington Post on one of my biggest pet peeves, seedless watermelon. I have never had a seedless watermelon that didn't remind me of styrofoam.

Watermelons: What happened to the seeds?

Helen Keller

From today's The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor:

It was on this day in 1904 that Helen Keller graduated from Radcliffe, the first blind and deaf student to graduate from any college anywhere.

Here is a video of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan demonstrating how she learned to talk.