Norman Mailer…

was born on this date in 1923.

Mailer has not only published 39 books (including 11 novels), he has written plays (and staged them), screenplays (and directed and acted in them), poems (in The New Yorker and underground journals), and attempted every sort of narrative form, including some he invented. No record of “new journalism” is complete without mention of his 1960s Esquire columns, essays and political reportage. He has reported on six sets of political conventions (1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1992, 1996), participated in scores of symposia, appeared and debated hundreds of times on college campuses, boxed (and fought) in several venues and led a vigorous public life in New York and Provincetown, Massachusetts, his current home. His passions, feuds, imbroglios, litigations and loyalities are numerous, notorious and complex. Happily married for nearly a quarter of a century to Norris Church, he was wed five times previously and has nine children all told. A stalwart on radio and television talk shows, he may have been interviewed more times than any writer who has ever lived. Without being paid for his pains, he has given advice to several presidents, has run for office himself (mayor of New York), served as president of the American chapter of the writers organization, P.E.N., and won most of the major literary awards, but for the Nobel. Co-founder of The Village Voice, he also named it, and has been the equivalent of a decathalon athlete in the effort to break down barriers between popular, elite and underground publications. He has written for at least 75 different magazines and journals.

J. Michael Lennon, Professor of English, Wilkes University [for PBS, American Masters]

Pearl Zane Grey…

was born in Zanesville, Ohio, on this date in 1872.

Zane Grey was the first American millionaire author. According to the Zane Grey’s West Society web site:

The breakthrough success of Heritage of the Desert in 1910 enabled Zane Grey to establish a home in Altadena, California, and a hunting lodge on the Mogollon Rim near Payson, Arizona; and the family of five moved West for good. A lifelong passion for angling and the rich rewards of his writing also allowed Grey to roam the world’s premier game-fishing grounds in his own schooner and reel in several deep-sea angling records which stood for decades. A prodigiously prolific writer, Grey would spend several months each year gathering experiences and adventures, whether on “safari” in the wilds of Colorado or fishing off Tahiti, and then spend the rest of the year weaving them all into tales for serialization, magazine articles, or the annual novel.

Zane Grey wrote to live and lived to write — surely a balance rarely attained — until his untimely death of heart failure on October 23, 1939. He left us almost 90 books in print, of which about 60 are Westerns, 9 concern fishing, and 3 trace the fate of the Ohio Zanes, the rest being short story collections, a biography of the young George Washington, juvenile fiction and baseball stories.

Everyone should read the classic Riders of the Purple Sage.

Thomas Merton…

was born on this date in 1915.

Thomas Merton, known in the monastery as Fr. Louis, was born on 31 January 1915 in Prades, southern France. The young Merton attended schools in France, England, and the United States. At Columbia University in New York City, he came under the influence of some remarkable teachers of literature, including Mark Van Doren, Daniel C. Walsh, and Joseph Wood Krutch. Merton entered the Catholic Church in 1938 in the wake of a rather dramatic conversion experience. Shortly afterward, he completed his masters thesis, “On Nature and Art in William Blake.”

Following some teaching at Columbia University Extension and at St. Bonaventure’s College, Olean, New York, Merton entered the monastic community of the Abbey of Gethsemani at Trappist, Kentucky, on 10 December 1941. He was received by Abbot Frederic Dunne who encouraged the young Frater Louis to translate works from the Cistercian tradition and to write historical biographies to make the Order better known.

The abbot also urged the young monk to write his autobiography, which was published under the title The Seven Storey Mountain (1948) and became a best-seller and a classic. During the next 20 years, Merton wrote prolifically on a vast range of topics, including the contemplative life, prayer, and religious biographies. His writings would later take up controversial issues (e.g., social problems and Christian responsibility: race relations, violence, nuclear war, and economic injustice) and a developing ecumenical concern. He was one of the first Catholics to commend the great religions of the East to Roman Catholic Christians in the West.

Merton died by accidental electrocution in Bangkok, Thailand, while attending a meeting of religious leaders on 10 December 1968, just 27 years to the day after his entrance into the Abbey of Gethsemani.

Many esteem Thomas Merton as a spiritual master, a brilliant writer, and a man who embodied the quest for God and for human solidarity. Since his death, many volumes by him have been published, including five volumes of his letters and seven of his personal journals. According to present count, more than 60 titles of Merton’s writings are in print in English, not including the numerous doctoral dissertations and books about the man, his life, and his writings.

Brother Patrick Hart, OCSO [Abbey of Gethsemani]

Stupor Bowl

One prediction for Sunday’s game: Adam Vinatieri 15, John Kasay 9

Egad!

From The Week Magazine:

Schools in Nashville have stopped posting honor rolls so as not to hurt the feelings of underachieving students. After several parents complained that the honor rolls were embarrassing, lawyers warned that the school district could be sued under a law that bars schools from releasing academic information without permission. “If there are some children that always make it and others that always don’t make it, there is a very subtle message that is sent,” said one principal. He said that a public honor roll doesn’t “fit my world view of what a school should be.”

NewMexiKen wonders if the “letter” men and women will be forbidden to wear their letter jackets/sweaters to school, too, so that the underachieving jocks won’t have their feelings hurt.

When Freedom Rings Hollow

From the Los Angeles Times, columnist Steve Lopez:

Maria Suarez called me from a jail in San Pedro and said Tuesday she could see harbor boats through the window. After roughly two-thirds of her life in captivity, freedom was close enough to raise her hopes and break her heart at the same time.

Suarez, now 43, legally entered the United States from Mexico at the age of 16, only to be raped and beaten as the teenage sex slave of a man 55 years her elder. She was convicted of killing the monster, despite her claims of innocence, and finally won her parole last month after battling for years.

Now she sits in another prison, awaiting a deportation hearing scheduled for today. Suarez is a permanent legal resident, but not a U.S. citizen, and immigration law says that, with an aggravated felony on her record, she is to be deported.

“Justice,” Suarez said, “is so hard to understand.”

Read the rest of her story.

Dumbing down our past

The Georgia Department of Education recently unveiled a draft of the new high school history curriculum. A Georgia high school history teacher says “the plan will gut the subject.” Read his essay in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Excerpts:

The new curriculum calls for teaching only the period from 1500 to the 21st century. Students will no longer study such figures as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, William the Conqueror or Joan of Arc.

“The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” will not be mentioned. The development of democratic government in Greece and the fall of the Roman Empire will be skipped. Jesus, Muhammad, the Buddha and Confucius are not to be found in the new curriculum. Great civilizations like ancient Egypt will no longer merit study, and the concept of feudalism will not be discussed….

In the proposed changes, teachers will spend two or three weeks discussing the foundation of our country, with the remaining time devoted to studying events from 1876 to the present. Gone is any mention of the Louisiana Purchase or Lewis and Clark. There will be no discussion of Indian removal and the Trail of Tears.

Students probably will not be remembering the Alamo; it won’t be a topic of discussion in Georgia’s high schools. Daniel Webster and Henry Clay will be omitted, as well as Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and the Underground Railroad.

Search in vain for discussion of the Civil War; that topic is off limits. In a course entitled “American History,” students will not study our most devastating war. There is no mention of Fort Sumter, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee or anything else associated with those years.

The neighboring state phenomenon

NewMexiKen wonders about the conventional wisdom that says politicians should do well in neighboring states because they are known commodities there. The media repeatedly cite this canard. Supposedly Gephardt’s failure in Iowa, for example, doomed him because he was from Missouri next door and therefore should have done well in Iowa. First Kerry’s low numbers in New Hampshire, then his surge to victory, were reported as partially because he was from Massachusetts next door and known to New Hampshire voters.

Isn’t this pretty silly? I live in New Mexico and am relatively informed (20 for 20 on The Week Quiz!). I can name both of my U.S. Senators, of course. And Arizona’s. But I can’t name both of the Senators from the other states that border on New Mexico; in most instances I can’t name either. I sure can’t name more than a couple Representatives (Udall in Colorado comes to mind). I can’t name any of the governors except Arizona’s, and I couldn’t spell her name.

Now admittedly, the states that border New Mexico are larger than the states that border Massachusetts, but I am not sure that means anything. While some New Hampshire residents may read The Boston Globe, I doubt that many do. I suspect that most residents of New Hampshire watch local news on New Hampshire TV stations, not the Boston stations. Would anyone in Iowa read a Missouri newspaper regularly? Would they watch St. Louis or Kansas City TV?

I concede that a politician may do well regionally (Edwards in the south, for example — perhaps). I think that is not because they are better known in neighboring states, however, but because their home region is part of their image. Some voters indeed may identify with the homies.

But that is not what the media is saying when they say Gephardt should have done well in Iowa because he is from nearby Missouri.

Reuters/MSNBC/Zogby poll

News report from The Washington Post Friday morning.

The poll found Kerry at 45 percent in Missouri. Edwards, the senator from North Carolina, was the only other candidate to hit double digits at 11 percent. Dean, the former Vermont governor, was at 9 percent, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut was at 4 percent, Clark at 3 percent, civil rights activist Al Sharpton at 2 percent and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio at 1 percent.

In Arizona, Kerry had a huge 38 percent to 17 percent lead over Clark, the retired general and former NATO commander, with Dean at 12 percent, Edwards and Lieberman 6 percent, Kucinich 2 percent and Sharpton 1 percent.

In South Carolina, the first primary in the South and the first contest where a large number of black voters are expected to participate, Kerry has pulled into a virtual tie with Edwards. Edwards, who has said he must win in South Carolina to continue his campaign, leads Kerry 25 percent to 24 percent, with Dean at 9 percent, Clark at 8 percent and Lieberman and Sharpton at 5 percent.

Clark was leading Kerry in Oklahoma 27 percent to 19 percent, with Edwards right behind at 17 percent, Dean at 9 percent, Lieberman at 5 percent and Sharpton and Kucinich at 1 percent.

[Excerpts with bold added by New MexiKen]

The Week Quiz

NewMexiKen got 10 correct out of 10 again. That’s two weeks in a row. That’s 20 correct out of 20! Take The Week Quiz.

Thieves in Santa Fe

A series of thefts of art has infected Santa Fe. Read report on the most recent stolen painting (depicted below) in the Santa Fe New Mexican.

Police don’t have a suspect, and Johnson said it’s too early to say whether the theft might be connected to other prominent thefts in the past two months, such as the taking of two Georgia O’Keeffe paintings from downtown museums. A Canyon Road gallery had a $30,000 Indian pueblo bowl stolen in late December or early January, and last week a burglar stole a $1,200 14th-century African sculpture from a Cerrillos Road gallery….

A $500,000 O’Keeffe painting, taken from the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, was recovered, and former security guard William Crumpton was charged in the case. No arrests have been made in an earlier theft of an O’Keeffe valued at $500,000 to $1 million from the Museum of Fine Arts, and the painting hasn’t been found.

The Lone Ranger rides again

The radio program The Lone Ranger debuted on WXYZ radio, Detroit, on this date in 1933. The show became so popular it was one of the reasons why several stations linked together to share programming on what became the Mutual Broadcasting System.

Several characteristics were unique and central to the premise of this western, and the initial episode which explained the legend was occasionally repeated so young viewers would under-stand how the hero gained his name and why he wore a mask. The Lone Ranger was one of six Texas Rangers who were ambushed while chasing a gang of outlaws led by Butch Cavendish. After the battle, one “lone ranger” survived, and was discovered by Tonto, a Native American who recognized the survivor as John Reid, the man who had saved his life earlier. Tonto thereafter referred to the ranger as “kemo sabe,” which is translated as “trusty scout.” After Tonto helped him regain his strength, the ranger vowed to hide his identity from Cavendish and to dedicate his life to “making the West a decent place to live.” He and Tonto dug an extra grave to fool Cavendish into believing all six rangers had died, and the ranger donned a mask to protect his identity as the single surviving ranger. Only Tonto knows who he is … the Lone Ranger. After he and Tonto saved a silver-white stallion from being gored by a buffalo, they nursed the horse back to health and set him free. The horse followed them and the Lone Ranger decided to adopt him and give him the name Silver. Shortly thereafter, the Lone Ranger and Tonto encountered a man who, it turns out, has been set up to take the blame for murders committed by Cavendish. They established him as caretaker in an abandoned silver mine, where he produced silver bullets for the Lone Ranger. Even after the Cavendish gang was captured, the Lone Ranger decided to keep his identity a secret. Near the end of this and many future episodes, someone asks about the identity of the masked man. The typical response: “I don’t rightly know his real name, but I’ve heard him called… the Lone Ranger.”
– From the Encylopedia of Television

The show remained on radio for 23 years.

“A fiery horse with the speed of light! A cloud of dust and a hearty ‘Hi-Yo, Silver!’ The Lone Ranger!”

Gene Hackman…

is 74 today. He was born on this date in 1930.

Franklin D. Roosevelt…

was born on this date in 1882.

First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

You Wanna See Stars? Don’t Look to Network TV

From a brief item at Fortune.com on “prime time [being] populated mostly by unfamiliar faces and unknown names.”

Hit shows today achieve only about a 25% share of the viewing audience. Ten years ago, top-rated Home Improvement captured 33%, and a decade before that The Cosby Show reached 50%….

This isn’t to say that there are no stars left on television. They just aren’t actors. Oprah Winfrey, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Bill O’Reilly, Larry King, and the broadcast network anchors are all bona fide stars. TV’s newest star is talk-show host Dr. Phil. And Donald Trump’s on the cover of TV Guide. No wonder the networks are in trouble.

‘CtrlAltDelete’ Inventor Restarts Career

From The Washington Post

David Bradley spent five minutes writing the computer code that has bailed out the world’s PC users for decades.

The result was one of the most well-known key combinations around: CtrlAltDelete. It forces obstinate computers to restart when they will no longer follow other commands.

Bradley, 55, is getting a new start of his own. He’s retiring Friday after 28 1/2 years with IBM….

Bradley, whose name was once mentioned as a clue in the final round of the TV game show “Jeopardy,” will continue teaching at N.C. State University after retirement.

“After having been the answer on final ‘Jeopardy,’ if I can be a clue in ‘The New York Times’ Sunday crossword puzzle, I will have met all my life’s goals,” Bradley said.

Key quote:

At a 20-year celebration for the IBM PC, Bradley was on a panel with Microsoft founder Bill Gates and other tech icons. The discussion turned to the keys.

“I may have invented it, but Bill made it famous,” Bradley said.

Gates didn’t laugh.

NewMexiKen attended a demo by Gates several years ago. The demo crashed, much to the audience’s delight. I always wondered if Gates had enough of a sense of humor (and marketing savvy) to plan the crash. Guess not.

Grisham’s latest — ‘one of his best’

John Grisham’s latest novel is one. His books have a way of hitting best-seller lists (with advance orders online) long before anyone even knows what they are. By happy coincidence, “The Last Juror” turns out to be one of his best: a thoughtful and atmospheric thriller that for the first time brings the author back to the fictionalized town of Clanton, Miss. This is the setting for another of his best efforts, “A Time to Kill.”

– Janet Maslin, The New York Times

William Claude Dukenfield…

better known as W.C. Fields, was born in Philadelphia on this date in 1880 or 1889.

A thing worth having is a thing worth cheating for.

Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.

I always keep a supply of stimulant handy in case I see a snake–which I also keep handy.

I never vote for anyone; I always vote against.

Last week, I went to Philadelphia, but it was closed.

A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money.

A woman drove me to drink and I didn’t even have the decency to thank her.

Anyone who hates children and animals can’t be all bad.

I am an expert of electricity. My father occupied the chair of applied electricity at the state prison.

I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.

If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull.

Some things are better than sex, and some are worse, but there’s nothing exactly like it.

There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation.

(When “caught” reading a Bible) “Just looking for loopholes.”

Fields died on Christmas Day, 1946.

The American Crisis

Thomas Paine was born in England on this date in 1737.

These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

Edward Abbey…

was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, on this date in 1927.

If you’re never ridden a fast horse at a dead run across a desert valley at dawn, be of good cheer: You’ve only missed out on one half of life.

The indoor life is the next best thing to premature burial.

I have written much about many good places. But the best places of all, I have never mentioned.

In all of nature, there is no sound more pleasing than that of a hungry animal at its feed. Unless you are the food.

Phoenix, Arizona: an oasis of ugliness in the midst of a beautiful wasteland.

The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.

Edward Abbey died in 1989.

Baseball Hall of Fame

The first players were named to the Baseball Hall of Fame on this date in 1936. The Baseball Writers’ Association of America selected:

Ty Cobb
Babe Ruth
Honus Wagner
Christy Mathewson
and Walter Johnson

Kansas…

entered the Union as the 34th state on this date in 1861.

Everyman’s supercomputer

The third fastest computer in the world has been built by Virginia Tech. According to Engineering School Dean Hassan Aref, “An underdog in the competition, Virginia Tech, landed the number three position by building a machine in less than three months–utilizing 1,100 dual-processor Macintosh G5 PCs–that cost one-fifth to one-tenth the average price.”

The Virginia Tech machine clocked 10.28 teraflops; that is, 10.28 “trillion floating point operations per second.”

Go Hokies.

Top 100 albums

The Recording Industry Association of America has a chart listing the top 100 best-selling albums, starting with The Eagles “Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975″ at 28 million.

The social life of the mind

Readerville is a gathering place for anyone and everyone who has an interest in books — readers, writers, publishers, editors, agents, teachers, students, booksellers, librarians, etc, etc.

Every intelligent, articulate, book-minded person I know wishes he or she knew more avid readers. The readers I know thrive on the exchange of book recommendations, love to brag about their recent acquisitions and wish publishers paid more attention to what readers actually want. The writers I know like nothing better than having discerning readers to talk to about their work and other writers to talk to about the traumas and joys of the craft. In other words, the people I know who love books love to talk about books and about the ideas contained within them.

Which is why I launched Readerville. Readerville is founded on the idea that literature — and discussion thereof — is one of life’s finest pursuits. The Readerville Forum provides a broad and flexible space for readers, writers, librarians, publishers, critics and anyone else who loves books to have thoughtful and engaging discussions about everything from favorite books and authors to why they buy what they buy to current writing conundrums to the latest literary news. Our reading groups — Fresh Ink, Young Adult, Biography and more — organize lively discussions on varying schedules…And Forum members are able to start new discussions about any book-related subject that interests them. It’s a welcoming, challenging, entertaining and endlessly fascinating environment that has proven deeply addictive to avid readers from around the globe.

But Readerville is more than just the Forum. Readerville Events bring visiting authors and industry insiders to Readerville for week-long discussions of their work. Our Author Gallery affords you the opportunity to discover writers you might not have heard of, and to learn more about those you already know and love. In our Features section, you’ll find Mignon Khargie, DG Strong and me singing the praises of the Most Coveted Covers, as well as thoughtful reviews of recent books from astute members of the Readerville community. And that’s just scratching the surface.

Registration (free) is required.

Thanks to Veronica for the link.

Tour of Duty

Easterblogg has some interesting takes on the Democratic race concluding with this.

Brace yourself for a week of think-pieces on why Kerry is doing so well. One reason being missed by the big-deal media is the Douglas Brinkley book Tour of Duty about Kerry’s years in Vietnam. The big-deal media decided to ignore this book–an exception, ahem, being Easterblogg, which said in November that Tour of Duty was “about to make big news.” Tour of Duty is selling well and being much-talked-about on radio, which I think is influencing the campaign. The book depicts Kerry as honorable, as serving his country, as horrified to find himself in a bad war–and as having said so at the time. Middle Americans respect honorable military service, and Kerry’s views on Vietnam, written down in the late 1960s while he was in his twenties, reflect the middle-American consensus on why Vietnam went wrong. As the story this book tells increasingly gets out, voter admiration for Kerry can only rise.

And why did the big-deal media ignore the book? Cynicism alert! Most in the big-deal media don’t respect honorable military service. They flipped the pages looking for inflammatory passages that could be pumped up, and instead found the story of man’s struggle to reconcile his conscience with his duty to country. The big-deal media aren’t interested in that. Voters are.

Yesterday Easterblogg noted that, “The last person to advance from the United States Senate to the White House was a wealthy Massachusetts war hero.” Make that, “The last person to advance from the United States Senate to the White House was a wealthy Massachusetts war hero with a popular book extolling his military service.”

Presidential Match

On the web site AOL Presidential Match you answer a series of questions about your policy preferences. Then the site gives you a percentage for how you match each candidate (the Democrats and George W. Bush, if you leave the “party preference” box unchecked).

Thanks to Jill for the link.

Imperial Palace: Tokyo

The current Imperial Palace (Kokyo) is located on the former site of Edo Castle, a large park area surrounded by moats and massive stone walls in the center of Tokyo, a short walk from Tokyo station. It is the residence of Japan’s Imperial Family.

NewMexiKen photos, 1992

Bright Nights, Big Mountains

A different and amusing look at the Sundance Film Festival from Dallas writer Sarah Hepola.

What Park City has, however, is Save the Children volunteers.

‘Can I talk to you for a minute?’ asks a bright-eyed blond, smiling politely and holding a clipboard to her chest.

Dammit. They always get me.

I sign up for Save the Children. I request a child from Africa, preferably a very cute one.

‘Twenty dollars a month?’ L. says when we walk away. ‘That’s sorta steep.’

I point out that we just spent $12 on fudge….

The D.P. is nice. He comes to Sundance whenever he has a film in the festival, and he spends all day in the theatre. He saw five movies yesterday. The Woodsman, with Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon, is terrific, he says. Everyday People, about a black-friendly, Jewish-owned restaurant in Brooklyn, is really good. In fact, everything he’s seen has been worthwhile, and I feel a twinge of guilt for letting half our trip slip by without catching one single film. Long before I cared about celebrity, before I crushed on actors or read Us Weekly (helplessly, ridiculously), I just loved movies. I watched them over and over again — often in one sitting — just to have access to another life, just to see someone else’s sky for a while.

The whole essay is fun to read.

Bush 2004 Campaign Pledges To Restore Honor And Dignity To White House

From The Onion, America’s Finest News Source —

Addressing guests at a $2,000-a-plate fundraiser, George W. Bush pledged Monday that, if re-elected in November, he and running mate Dick Cheney will “restore honor and dignity to the White House.”

“After years of false statements and empty promises, it’s time for big changes in Washington,” Bush said. “We need a president who will finally stand up and fight against the lies and corruption. It’s time to renew the faith the people once had in the White House. If elected, I pledge to usher in a new era of integrity inside the Oval Office.”

Bush told the crowd that, if given the opportunity, he would work to reestablish the goodwill of the American people “from the very first hour of the very first day” of his second term.

“The people have spoken,” Bush said. “They said they want change. They said it’s time to clean up Washington. They’re tired of politics as usual. They’re tired of the pursuit of self-interest that has gripped Washington. They want to see an end to partisan bickering and closed-door decision-making. If I’m elected, I’ll make sure that the American people can once again place their trust in the White House.”

Bush said the soaring national debt and the lengthy war in Iraq have shaken Americans’ faith in the highest levels of government.

Bad boys, What ‘ya gonna do?

From AP via the Santa Fe New Mexican

Mayor Martin Chavez says the television show Cops presents a bad picture of Albuquerque, and he’s banned it from filming in the city.

“The city’s police officers are portrayed in a good light, but the rest of the city looks horrible,” he said. “That has a real impact. That’s all people see, and that’s not who we are.”

Albuquerque has been featured on more than 40 episodes of the Fox series — more than any other city except Fort Worth, Texas, and the county around Tacoma, Wash. The series began in 1989.

Arghhh!

Davis Picks [Norv] Turner to Coach the Raiders

How old we can all feel…

when an individual nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress was born in 1990.

Keisha Castle-Hughes was born in 1990 in New Zealand. She is a half-Maori and half-Pakeha (European New Zealander). She was 11 years old at the time Whale Rider was filmed. It was her first acting role.

Oscar

Complete list of this year’s Oscar nominations announced today by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The awards are to be presented February 29th.

Best Picture
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
“Lost in Translation”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Mystic River”
“Seabiscuit”

Actor
Johnny Depp, “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”
Ben Kingsley, “House of Sand and Fog”
Jude Law, “Cold Mountain”
Bill Murray, “Lost in Translation”
Sean Penn, “Mystic River”

Actress
Keisha Castle-Hughes, “Whale Rider”
Diane Keaton, “Something’s Gotta Give”
Samantha Morton, “In America”
Charlize Theron, “Monster”
Naomi Watts, “21 Grams.”

Supporting Actor
Alec Baldwin, “The Cooler”
Benicio Del Toro, “21 Grams”
Djimon Hounsou, “In America”
Tim Robbins, “Mystic River”
Ken Watanabe, “The Last Samurai”

Supporting Actress
Shohreh Aghdashloo, “House of Sand and Fog”
Patricia Clarkson, “Pieces of April”
Marcia Gay Harden, “Mystic River”
Holly Hunter, “thirteen”
Renee Zellweger, “Cold Mountain”

Director
Fernando Meirelles, “City of God”
Peter Jackson, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
Sofia Coppola, “Lost in Translation”
Peter Weir, “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
Clint Eastwood, “Mystic River”

Foreign Film
“The Barbarian Invasions,” Canada
“Zelary,” Czech Republic
“The Twilight Samurai,” Japan
“Twin Sisters,” The Netherlands
“Evil,” Sweden

Adapted Screenplay
Robert Pulcini & Shari Springer Berman, “American Splendor”
Braulio Mantovani, “City of God”
Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
Brian Helgeland, “Mystic River”
Gary Ross, “Seabiscuit”

Original Screenplay
Denys Arcand, “The Barbarian Invasions”
Steven Knight, “Dirty Pretty Things”
Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson and David Reynolds, “Finding Nemo”
Jim Sheridan & Naomi Sheridan & Kirsten Sheridan, “In America”
Sofia Coppola, “Lost in Translation”

Animated feature film
“Brother Bear”
“Finding Nemo”
“The Triplets of Belleville”

Art Direction
“Girl with a Pearl Earring”
“The Last Samurai”
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Seabiscuit”

Cinematography
“City of God”
“Cold Mountain”
“Girl with a Pearl Earring”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Seabiscuit”

Sound Mixing
“The Last Samurai”
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”
“Seabiscuit”

Sound Editing
“Finding Nemo”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”

Original Score
“Big Fish,” Danny Elfman
“Cold Mountain,” Gabriel Yared
“Finding Nemo,” Thomas Newman
“House of Sand and Fog,” James Horner
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” Howard Shore

Original Song
“Into the West” from “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” Fran Walsh, Howard Shore and Annie Lennox
“A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow” from “A Mighty Wind,” Michael McKean and Annette O’Toole
“Scarlet Tide” from “Cold Mountain,” T Bone Burnett and Elvis Costello
“The Triplets of Belleville” from “The Triplets of Belleville,” Benoit Charest and Sylvain Chomet
“You Will Be My Ain True Love” from “Cold Mountain,” Sting

Costume
“Girl with a Pearl Earring”
“The Last Samurai”
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Seabiscuit”

Documentary Feature
“Balseros”
“Capturing the Friedmans”
“The Fog of War”
“My Architect”
“The Weather Underground”

Documentary (short subject)
“Asylum”
“Chernobyl Heart”
“Ferry Tales”

Film Editing
“City of God”
“Cold Mountain”
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Seabiscuit”

Makeup
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”

Animated Short Film
“Boundin’”
“Destino”
“Gone Nutty”
“Harvie Krumpet”
“Nibbles”

Live Action Short Film
“Die Rote Jacke (The Red Jacket)”
“Most (The Bridge)”
“Squash”
“(A) Torzija ([A] Torsion)”
“Two Soldiers”

Visual Effects
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”

The feud that never was

NewMexiKen shouldn’t I suppose attempt to ressurect Antonio Salieri on this, Mozart’s birthday, but it seems he—Salieri—is making a bit of a comeback. According to a December article at Guardian Unlimited, “Next year the renovated La Scala in Milan is to reopen its doors with the work Salieri wrote for its very first performance back in 1778. And now Cecilia Bartoli has recorded an album devoted to his music.”

This article and other sources seem persuasive in saying that while there was competition between the upstart Mozart and the established artist Salieri in Vienna, there was cooperation, too; that is, what transpired between them was typical office politics.

As the Guardian Unlimited article notes:

…Mozart’s death, as one respected musical journal wrote, was almost certainly caused not by poison but by “arduous work and fast living among ill-chosen company”.

It was only after Mozart’s demise that Salieri began to have any real reason to hate him. Unlike that of any before him, Mozart’s music kept on being performed. Cut down at the peak of his powers - and with the added frisson of whispered rumours that he might have been murdered - he became the first composer whose cult of celebrity actually flourished after his death.

Salieri, however, had outlived his talent. He wrote almost no music for the last two decades of his life. Instead he spent time revising his previous works. He did have an impressive roster of pupils: Beethoven, Schubert, Meyerbeer and Liszt - not to mention Franz Xaver Mozart, his supposed adversary’s young son. But the composer who had once been at the vanguard of new operatic ideas was not necessarily teaching his students to be similarly innovative…

Of Mozart’s death, the story is more complicated:

So how did this respected musician become the rumoured murderer of the great Mozart? Nobody knows for certain. But in his final weeks Mozart is reported to have believed he had been poisoned, and had gone so far as to blame hostile Italian factions at the Viennese court. People put two and two together and pointed the finger at Salieri. And who could resist a story this good? Certainly not his fellow composers. There are mentions of it in Beethoven’s Conversation Books. Weber, Mozart’s father-in-law, had heard it by 1803, and cold-shouldered Salieri ever after. And 20 years later it was still doing the rounds; Rossini joked about it when he met Salieri in 1822.

As the rumour gathered strength, all denials only served to reinforce it. Then, in 1823, Salieri - hospitalised, terminally ill and deranged - is said to have accused himself of poisoning Mozart. In more lucid moments he took it back. But the damage was done. Even if few believed the ramblings of a confused old man, the fact that Salieri had “confessed” to Mozart’s murder gave the rumour some semblance of validity.

Another interesting assessment of the Mozart found in the film Amadeus can be found in an essay entitled The Amadeus Mozart: Man or Myth?

Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart…

was born in Salzburg on this date in 1756. Theophilus—or Gottlieb—or Amadé means “loved by God” As an adult Mozart signed Wolfgang Amadé Mozart or simply Mozart. In the family he was known as Wolfgangerl or Woferl.

A delightful Mozart web site is Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, complete with music while you browse. Among other things, the site has an analysis of the truth and fiction in the wonderful film Amadeus. (It’s “Amadeus, an apologia” when you open the Biography section. The site is structured in a way that prevents a direct link.)

Fiction or not, watching Amadeus seems like a wonderful way to celebrate Mozart’s birthday.

The Invisible Library

The Invisible Library “is a collection of books that only appear in other books. Within the library’s catalog you will find imaginary books, pseudobiblia, artifictions, fabled tomes, libris phantastica, and all manner of books unwritten, unread, unpublished, and unfound.”

For example, anyone remember what the author Gordon Lachance wrote? Or Jo March? Or who wrote Fighting Sailor? Or There and Back Again? Do you own any books by Gilderoy Lockhart?

An intriguing site. Thanks to Veronica for the link.

Gentle on the mind

Easterblogg has a nice testimonial to Bob Keeshan that ends with:

If C.S. Lewis is right and heaven is an eternity of your favorite moments on Earth, Captain Kangaroo is now happily in the Treasure House, receiving visitors. There won’t be anything like him on television again.

Cool Hand Luke

Paul Newman is 79 today. He was born on this date in 1925.

Michigan…

entered the Union as the 26th state on this date in 1837.