Blog Comments

Some good reading there. Glad you're doing well.

welcome back Daniel

Glad to see you around again, Daniel,

What do you mean, "that is all"!!! A little explanation would be nice. Anyway, glad your back!

Still alive!

Ha, welcome back Daniel. Although, you managed to catch me on msn that one time so I knew you weren't dead.

So, where did you go? What did you do?

I agree!

@Comedian: Thank you so much for your criticism! I am always flattered when people write about my work lol so thank you. And you are totally write about the last few stanzas and the cliches. I suppose ending with "empty space" felt too nihilistic to me, though it may have been the better and more subtle choice.

@Virgil and qimi: Thanks you guys! Again I am quite flattered. And don't worry if you don't get it, it's better that way

The language is quite beautiful, although with Virgil I don't quite get it. All the stanzas are beautiful, but I like the ones best starting with the third one.

Good one, Daniel.

I can't say I understand it, but I have to say the language and poetry is outstanding. Your control of the language is right on Daniel.

I enjoyed this poem. . . quite a bit, actually. I think the poem peaks with this stanza:

So silent a lake-pond spring is
In the summer it is almost rancid
But in winter it is frozen deep into tedium
And atoms hibernate in stillness.
An easy way to leave,—

The language here is balanced on a single image, the water, with the sway of human reflection adjusting its focus on the image. Wow -- that was a complicated and flowery sentence, but I think it articulates what I liked about the stanza.

On a lesser note -- I didn't love the stanza with the phrase "winter's bite" which seemed a little cliche. But this is a small nit-pick.

It's good to see you posting in the blogs again.

I didn't know how to finish it off so I stole from Hamlet, though I'm still somewhat ambivalent about it.

Nice list. I so appreciate how you put these together.

Originally Posted by OrphanPip

Haha, I agree, I said in the opera thread that I agreed with Nietzsche and liked Bizet more than Wagner and Stlukes got on my case. I'm not so crazy over contemporary opera either.

You need some Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk thrown onto yo' *** Besides, Nietzsche was just whining because of his fallout with Wagner and his totally understandable despising of Wagners sentiments towards Jews.

Wagner was not the king of opera, he was the God of opera.

Bizet < Wagner

Originally Posted by Virgil

Hey good luck in the interview. And that's quite a reading list. great stuff. I've been meaning to devote a good amount of time to Whitman but I seem to get side tracked. And let me add, Verdi and Mozart are the best! You're not a Wagner-ite, are you? Wagner is so, booooring!

Haha, I agree, I said in the opera thread that I agreed with Nietzsche and liked Bizet more than Wagner and Stlukes got on my case. I'm not so crazy over contemporary opera either.

@Daniel, the Misanthrope is a good play though, I just prefer Tartuffe. I've never read Moliere in translation though, only in French.

Back from interview! It was as easy as pie and it looks like I have a very good chance.

And now for some sharing (just in case any of you don't have netflix and are interested in watching some of the films I mentioned)

Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons - Only place you'll find this great and wonderful film which has been out of print for decades. This is of course the studio cut as Welles original ending was demolished by the studio (around 75 minutes have been missing forever).

Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape - Haven't seen this production so I can't recommend it yet though it certainly looks promising.

Beckett's Endgame - Along with Waiting for Godot, this is his masterpiece, and as humbling this production may look, it had me applauding the computer by the end. Highly highly recommended.

Aristophanes' Ecclesiazusae - Again, I haven't seen, can't recommend.

Aeschylus' Agamemnon - Now here's a real treat: A truly ancient Green production with masks, an all-male cast, a real chorus with Greek instruments and everything. Quite a unique experience.

Bing's Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks - This is the a part of the first section of the film. All three complete sections are available on the poster's channel or playlists.

Paley's Sita Sings the Blues - The most original animated film to come out in years.

Lanzmann's Shoah - Again, do not watch this film when you are in an emotional mood. This is not a film for the unstable or depressed.

Bing's He Fengming: A Chinese Memoir

Feulliade's Les Vampires - Links to all parts of the film from internet archive. I forgot to mention but this is NOT a vampire film lol.

Sontag's Video Essay on Syberberg's Hitler: A Film from Germany http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8sfBoid8_Y

Syberberg's own film complete provided by his website (please read my review first, because this is an eight hour experiemental film. My review is in the Last Movie You Saw thread). http://www.syberberg.de/Syberberg2/H...l_eng_QT2.html

and last but not least

Ozu's masterpiece Tokyo Story - I cannot recommend this film highly enough, there is so much about life and our living it, it is an amazing film and one of the very very best I have ever seen.

@Pip: Yeah you got me into Moliere and I'd figure I'd give the Misanthrope a try, though I'll definitely try finding Tartuffe.

@qimissung Watch out with Shoah, it's probably the most noble and important film ever committed to celluloid, but it is almost certainly one of the most devastatingly depressing. Unlike most documentaries (idk if you can even call this immense film just a "documentary") it does not include any historical footage. All it does is silently and respectfully listen to those involved in the Holocaust, both the victims and the perpetrators. Even the landscape itself seems to be haunted by the ashes of those victims, and thus the films silence makes it all the more disturbing and horrific.

Les Vampires has been called both the first and last film that has never been indebted to any previous films. Feuillade is a far far more durable director than Griffith, as the latter today appears very theatrical and campy, while the former's works even today still seem Kafkaesque, strange and original. As with Kafka in literature, Les Vampires seemed to predict the rest of the 20th century in its very modern and disoriented tone. To quote film critic Langlois, "I am convinced that surrealism preexisted in cinema. Feuillade’s Les vampires was already an expression of the 20th century and of the universal subconscious."

Ti Xie Qu: West of the Tracks is a nine hour documentary about the slow decline of an area in Shenyang China which was once a vibrant example of the countries socialist economy. It's been acclaimed as a masterfully detailed film of the average Chinese workers life and a sharply keen observation on the current state of China's post-industrial economy. ("Current isn't a very accurate word as this film was released in 2003 and was filmed between 1999 and 2001).

Fengming, A Chinese Memoir is a single interview (made by the same director, Wang Bing) with a women recounting in great detail her experiences of post-1949 China. Unlike Bing's other films, this one is relatively short at only 3 hours.

All of the above mentioned films can be found on youtube, which I will link later.

@Virgil Thanks for the luck, I will need it! It's in 20 flippin minutes!

Wagner? Boring? Bahhh. No I'm not a Wagner-ite, I'm more of a Beethoven-ite, but I certainly respect the ole' master, even if he was a little bit of a bastard in his beliefs.

Hey good luck in the interview. And that's quite a reading list. great stuff. I've been meaning to devote a good amount of time to Whitman but I seem to get side tracked. And let me add, Verdi and Mozart are the best! You're not a Wagner-ite, are you? Wagner is so, booooring!

I love "A Doll's House."

I want to read Don Quioxte and The Divine Comedy, and I want to see Shoah and Les Vampire. What are Ti Xie Qu and Fengming about?

As usual, you are breathtakingly ambitious!

Ha, did I influence you to read Moliere? Although, I far prefer Tartuffe to the Misanthrope.

Hedda Gabler is my favourite Ibsen play, but I like A Doll's House a lot too. There's a version on youtube with Ingrid Bergman as Hedda, but I'm not crazy over it.