A Girl Who Reads

Today's Poem—"Girl Who Reads"

 

Happy Birthday Ted

Today is the 73th Birthday of Ted Kooser, United States Poet Laureate 2004-2006. Here is a video made shorty after he was named Poet Laureate. Included are readings of several of his poems.

Philip Levine

A PBS profile of Philip Levine, the new U.S. Poet Laureate.

The Cremation of Sam McGee

An interesting article from The Vancouver Sun about phonograph records recovered from a ship that sank almost 110 years ago—Phonograph records recovered from Gold Rush wreck. So what song did Gold Rushers listen to as to as they cruised up the Yukon River? Seems like "Ma Onliest One", "The Harp that Once thro' Tara's Halls" and "Rendez Vous Waltz".

The ship was actually found at the bottom of Lake Laberge—the setting of Robert W. Service's grisly poem "The Cremation of Sam McGee". So after you read the article, you can listen to Johnny Cash's reading of Service's poem below.

Two James Franco Films

Recently I have seen two films starring James Franco films. Both deviate from the structure of a normal narrative film. It is always risk to try to do this, but both directors still succeeded in creating engaging, and thought provoking films.

Yesterday I saw 127 Hours, based on the true story of Aron Ralston, who, while hiking alone in the Utah, fell into a crevice, and had his arms pinned under a boulder that fell on it. He was there 127 hours before he cut off the arm to escape. Much of the press on this film is about people passing out from the scene of the amputation, and something like this seems to have happened when I saw the film. Shortly after the critical scene there was a big commotion in theater, with people jumping up and calling for medical assistance. The film continued running, and after a couple minutes everyone settled down. I am not sure what happened, but an ambulance was outside when I left the theater.

It is a very intense film, and there is something in the primitive part of the brain that really does not like to see body parts being cut off. At the same time I would not consider it a sensationalistic film. The Ralston character is very well developed, with most of the film dealing with the lead up to the accident, and then his struggle as he is trapped for five days. The films actually works better because practically everyone in the audience knows what is going to happen in the end. While this lessens the shock when the amputation happens, it does increase the tension throughout the film, partly because everyone is hoping they don't pass out.

For perhaps a majority of the film Franco is the only actor on screen, although you could argue that the Utah landscapes of the film are almost an separate character. The sparse, but stunning, appearance of the setting, does something to balance out the gruesomeness of the story. Also Franco creates a very likable, and carefree character that you really have to root for. If any one character can be said to carry a whole film, I think you have to say that Franco carries this one, so he might get nominated for an Oscar.

Danny Boyle, who directed last year's Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire, might also get nominated again for this picture. He uses a lot of split screen and fast cut, odd angle editing to create the tension of the film. It may be that this is a little too out of the mainstream for the Oscars, but we will have to wait and see.



About a month ago I saw Howl. In this film, Franco plays Allen Ginsberg. The film goes back and forth between scenes that recreate an early taped interview by Ginsberg, narrative scenes that include other Beat characters, like Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady, and a recreation of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's obscenity trial for publishing Ginsberg's poem "Howl".

This film is not as good as 127 Hours, but it is an interesting look at Ginsberg, and American society in the 1950's. The cutting back and forth between the different scenes of the film does not get to confusing, and at 90 minutes I think it is the right length to deal with what is being covered. If it had been much, longer I think the jumping back and forth would have become overwhelming.

Robert Kennedy - 85

I am a couple days late with this, but last Saturday would have been Robert Kennedy's 85th birthday. To mark the date here is video of Kennedy announcing the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., where he recites from memory the quote from Aeschylus that was later inscribed at his grave.

Follow Up - Litany & Adams

Follow up to my previous post on the poem "Litany", NPR has a segment on the meeting of Samuel Chelpka and Billy Collins.

Follow up to my previous post on the recently discover photographs that may or may not have been taken by Ansel Adams, the New York Times has a new article: Ansel Adams or Not? More Twists

The Raven

For Halloween, a Christopher Walken reading of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven. Illustration used in the video are by Gustave Dore.

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.

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.

Poet Laureate

Who would have thought, two posts about poetry in one day. W.S. Merwin has been named the new Poet Laureate of the United States. More info from the Washington Post, and a couple videos.

Senator Byrd Recites

Senator Byrd was known for his love of poetry. There is not as much video of this as I thought there might be, but here are a couple recitations.

I have post some video of Senator Byrd singing and playing fiddle on my music blog.

"Touch of the Master's Hand" by Myra Welch



"The Little Chap That Follows Me" unknown author

Pearl

I posted a Ted Kooser poem about the Blizzard of 1888. Here is another one that is even better.

The Blizzard Voices

There is not much that can be said about this blizzard, that has not already been said about the one last weekend. So here is a poem by Ted Kooser about the Blizzard of 1888. Also known as the Children's Blizzard. Over 200 people died in that blizzard, including many children who never made it home from school. In that context the current blizzard is not so bad.