Teh Metamorphosis
The only thing is, I actually found myself transformed to one stage lower than an insect.
News (loosely defined - politics, movies, books, articles, technology, music, art, jokes, epehmera, what I had/want to have for dinner, etc.) about that which presents itself. Updated (or not) as frequently as the urge strikes and opportunity allows. Newsonthemarch (at) Yahoo (dot) Com
A few things to mention:
Not pertinent to Tanner, I know. So sue me. At least I had a good time doing the image search.
I think that as the 21st Century unfolds, Turkey will be seen as one of the most important nations in the world. It's the only strictly secular Islamic nation (I think -- Jordan?), the only Islamic member of NATO, and wants to join the European Union. There's no doubt that there are extremely significant gaps in the Turkish view of civil liberties, but in other ways it's been among the most forward-thinking and pro-Western nations in the region for many years.
A few years ago I read Crescent & Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds by Stephen Kinzer, and I have to recommend it to anyone interested. Here's a Booknotes interview with Mr. Kinzer from 10/21/2001 (that is, six weeks after 9/11) which is very instructive. Interview excerpts:
At the moment, Turkey is going through a period of self-examination and trying to decide if it's ready to complete its march toward democracy. It already is the most democratic Islamic country in the world and only country in the world that can call itself, with any justification, a Muslim democracy, so that makes this a fascinating place at any time.
As a result of what is happening in the world right now, Turkey's importance has suddenly mushroomed. Turkey has a big role to play in what's going to be happening over the next weeks and months in central Asia and probably even an eq--a greater role in the long-term future, as it seeks to set a counterexample in the Islamic world to the message that we're getting from the cave.
Turkey brings some very unique and valuable assets to the table when it comes to participation in this anti-terror coalition. First of all, Turkey holds a special role in the Islamic consciousness as a result of the Ottoman Empire and as a result of its very central geography. So Turkey can play a role that Christian countries cannot.
Secondly, Turkey has a long history of involvement in Afghanistan. Not only is it the chief sponsor of one of the principal components in the Northern Alliance, but it has intelligence and experience over many years of training soldiers and having diplomats and having projects on the ground in Turkey. There is no other country who--which has the access to the kind of intelligence experience in Afghanistan that Turkey does.
It's also very interesting to imagine the role that Turkey can play on the ground in Afghanistan in a post-Taliban environment. It is ideally placed because of its heritage, and certainly because of its religious foun--foundation, to go into Afghanistan without arousing the hostility that some other kinds of forces would. This is another role that Turkey is now equipped to play better than any other country in the world. Turkey is the only Muslim country in NATO. And it is the NATO country closest to this theater of operations. It's only one country away from Afghanistan.
So Turkey will play a role in the first stage of this conflict, which will be to depose the Taliban. It will play a role in the transitional phase, which will be to stabilize the country, pob--probably by participating and, I wouldn't be surprised, leading a peacekeeping multinational force under the auspices of the United Nations or some other body. And then it will go on to play what I described earlier as perhaps its most important role, which is helping to reshape not just the consciousness in Afghanistan, but the Islamic approach in--in a wider world.
It will have particular resonance in Pakistan. There is actually a very interesting relationship there. The Pakistanis, who were becoming restive under British rule in the 1920s and '30s, looked to Turkey as an example. They were inspired in many ways by Ataturk. And Jinnah, the founder of the modern Pakistani state, was a great admirer of Ataturk. In addition to that, President Musharraf of Pakistan is a military officer who was trained in Turkey. He speaks Turkish. And I believe, like many of the people of his class and background in Pakistan, he also sees Turkey as a model for what countries can be if they want to embrace Islam as a guidance for--as a guide for personal life, but isolated from influence over state power.
The whole interview really is worth reading or watching if you have the opportunity.
One thing I'd like to do is find a good biography of Kemal Ataturk. Any suggestions? This guy fascinates me. He was the guy who essentially forced Turkey out of centuries-old, Eastern-oriented ways of doing things and into modern, Western-oriented ways of doing things. Like any social planner, he stepped on a lot of people's rights doing so, and like any society, there were plenty of Turks who resisted change with every fiber of their being. Also, don't mention his name to our friends down under... They celebrate ANZAC Day in honor of the Australians and New Zealanders who died at the Battle of Gallipoli in WWI, when Ataturk (then Mustafa Kemal) was directing the battle against them. (Check out the very good Peter Weir film adaptation of that story, starring Mel Gibson.) (One of these days I need to blog on my observations of Mel Gibson's anti-British bias in many of his films. I'm surprised he didn't suggest that Pontius Pilate was Chancellor of the Exchequer.)
For more contemporary touristy stuff (I've never been there, btw) check out this installment of the excellent Globe Trekker travel series.
Update: Here's a bunch of links from the Turkish government.
Happy Turkey Day!
Speaking of Truth or Consequences (above), it's about time that other towns and cities start taking advantage of the free-market capitalist system in the same way as TOCNM did years ago. Nothing wrong with a little quid pro quo.
Elsewhere, Kofi Annan and MIT have a very good idea, but they should keep open to the idea of having the first ceremony in the village of Compaq, Burkina Faso (or something like that).
It's that time again, to nominate the best blogs of the blogosphere. Excerpts:
Nominations are being taken in the following 37 categories. The nomination process at The Weblog Awards is an open and public process - take a look at the nominated blogs you might find some interesting new reads.
The links below will take you to the nomination page for each of the categories. Nominations close November 26, 2005. After finalists are selected (more on that in the FAQ), voting will begin December 1, 2005.
The nominations have been open since yesterday, and I am torn between throwing my support behind my candidates early (and often) and stepping back and really considering the ramifications of my votes.
Here are 2003's and 2004's winners.
My first vote? Two Blowhards for Best Group Blog. The rest will need at least a night's sleep.
You Know a Lot About Blogging |
![]() You got 6/8 correct! Your not a total blogging geek yet... give it time. |
Here's a good post from The Bostonian Exile on the weaknesses of talking points. Excerpt:
Ninth grade Honors English: A one-sentence answer -- to say nothing of the one-word response typical of thirteen-year-olds -- is nearly always inadequate. That I used to think my teacher was diabolical would overrate the Devil's power. But, that man, who died far too young, taught me a great deal about how to express myself... ...I don't need to be reinforced in my beliefs by bullet points. I usually find them overly simplistic anyway. That, or my similar conclusion arrives via differing (and, to my mind, sounder) logic. I guess that's why I took to blogging. Thinking people of all different persuasions offering and developing ideas. There are some parrots out there who toe the party line, but I don't bother reading those. Give me the ideas of someone who is truly grappling with issues, not just feigning difficulty because it is politically expedient. Give me those of someone not afraid to be critical of those in his own fold.
I remember one time on C-Span this guy called up and was obviously reading a prepared script, and Brian Lamb and whoever the guest was just nodded and listened, and then about 30 minutes later, another guy called and said the exact same thing, verbatim! Mr. Lamb inquired about this, and the caller got all flustered and hung up.
On the bookshelf immediately behind my swivel chair, I have a copy of Danny Peary's Guide for the Film Fanatic. I have been searching for evidence of Mr. Peary's presence on the Web for some while, and have not found much. Is he even still with us? What I did find the other day was a Peary enthusiast who made a list of all the reviews in the Peary Guide and is tracking those he has seen/still needs to see. A-M is here; N-Z is here. I quote (and very much agree with) with the list poster's comments below:
Danny Peary is the author of Cult Movies, Cult Movies 2, Cult Movies 3, Alternate Oscars and Guide for the Film Fanatic. He is the main reason I take film and film criticism seriously, and most of my cinematic interests (Argento, Tarkovsky, Westerns, etc.) can be traced back to his books.* Guide for the Film Fanatic (1986) is one of his best books, 486 pages covering over 1600 films, from art films to trash to horror to Kubrick to Hollywood hits to hardcore porn. Entries vary in length, and while none go into the depth of his articles in the Cult Movies books (in fact, he's not above recycling text from one for the other), each one is usually densely packed with info and an opinionated appraisal. Some of his criticisms may seem odd, even discredited in 2004 (I'm thinking Dawn of the Dead here), but he almost** has something interesting to say. Criminally, the book is out of print. Above, I've listed every entry in the book (not counting the "Additional Must-See Films" section, which lists another 2600 titles, sans commentary) for anyone out there, like me, who has spent almost 20 years trying to see everything in the book. If you've never seen the book, and are interested in film, you owe it to yourself to check it out from the library, or, if you can find it, buy it.
Also, here are the checklists for his three Cult Movie books. (As noted, there is much overlap. So you might see Zardoz twice - deal with it!)
* Me too! (Well, one of the main reasons, anyway.)
** -- "...almost always..." he probably meant?
Update 11:50 PM: Here's kza's blog, He Loved Him Some Movies. (That's the guy who posted the Peary list.) And I realize looking at my comments again that I didn't say anything about Alternate Oscars, which in some ways is an even cooler book than GFTFF. It looks at the Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Actress Oscar winners from 1927 through 1991, and explains which movies/performers should have won, along with Award-worty runners-up. Sometimes, he asserts that the Academy got it right, as when they gave Liza Minnelli the statue for Cabaret. But most often, he explains why they got it wrong and why someone else should have gotten the honor. Any of Peary's movie books are worthy of addition to the library of even the non-fanatical film fanatic, and Alternate might be the best one to start with. (End of update.)
There's a Penn & Teller special on tonight that I will probably either tape or watch live. My ♥GF♥ and I have been watching Season One of Penn & Teller's Bullshit! on DVD. (I Netflixed them -- the Blockbusters and Hollywoods by me didn't carry them and this is just one more reason why I am infatuated with Netflix.) If you haven't seen it, check it out (As long as libertarianism and agnosticism don't rile you up too much.) About 12 years ago or so they hosted a fantastic series for kids about the arts called Behind the Scenes. The foundation of its fantasticness was that it didn't treat kids like they were idiots who needed concepts spoon-fed to them. It featured artists, performers, and musicians like Max Roach, Julie Taymor, and David Hockney explaining what they do, and P&T giving appropriate and fun object lessons about the principles involved. If this sounds even remotely of interest to you, you owe it to yourself to seek these programs out. They also have a new-to-DVD miniseries made for the CBC, Penn & Teller's Magic and Mystery Tour, which I have not yet had a chance to see, though I intend to soon.
Proofing concerns aside, this might be interesting -- South Park Republicans. Excerpt:
OK, now we're talkin, this place is getting some color and attitude. This site is not going to be like the other "Serious" South Park site. This is going to be a site of parady that make fun of all side (but mostly of the left because we can). If you are on the left of the spectrum and think you can handle these rules and have something to post email us and we will see about letting you in. if you think that we will listen to the same old talking points then you sould go to the other site. If you think you can have some fun about the topics of today then come on down.
The rules of this site is easy
1) you MUST talk in South Park voices!!!!!!!
2) you MUST be funny. (ears of the beholder)
That is it, nothing more, if you take this site to seriously your post or comment will be removed. The topics are serious, the issues are real, Life is funny enough to make fun of it.
Via A&LD, here are some good observations from Norman Lebrecht on the DVD revolution. Excerpts:
What this means, in cultural terms, is that film now takes its place beside literature, music and visual imagery as an art that can be owned and bookmarked. Where once you had to visit a cinema or spool through half a mile of clunky videotape in order to access a seminal scene in an essential movie, you now zone into it on DVD as quickly as finding a name in the index of an artist biography.
Film has become fact on DVD. It has left the cinema and joined us for drinks, an emancipatory moment for the last of the great western art forms. Books and music have always furnished our rooms, but to have film as a point of home reference, like Oxford English Dictionary and the complete works of Shakespeare, signals a revolution in cultural reception and, inevitably, creation.
Excellent points. However, I must take issue with the following:
It will, for instance, make it that much harder for Hollywood to remake its own milestones when half the world has the originals to hand for instant comparison. The Manchurian Candidate (1962), with its dream cast of Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Janet Leigh was unlikely to be bettered by Jonathan Demme's 2004 reshoot with Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber and Meryl Streep. But if anyone had foreseen that the original DVD would be around in the public hands, Demme's studio would never have raised the finance, let alone the enthusiasm, for an otiose update.
First of all, the TMC/62 VHS had been around for years before Demme's remake, and if I remember correctly, MGM Home Video already had a TMC/62 DVD on the market (since 1998), and then re-released the TMC/62 DVD in conjunction with the Paramount remake. I believe this article came from a Canadian Web publication, but I don't think that should make a difference in regards to the "if anyone had foreseen" implications. Secondly, IMHO, the Demme TMC remake complements the original and pays it great tribute without being a carbon copy, and I hardly see it as otiose. Demme paid similar tribute to Charade in with The Truth About Charlie, and the TTAC DVD even included the original Charade as part of the package. I think that the presence of the classic DVDs on the market will do significantly more to allow and/or pressure current filmmakers to produce new movies that are homages rather than rip-offs, and will also allow armchair Eberts to appreciate (or criticize, if need be) the new films with the added perspective of the classics.
In other news, here are sketches of the skeletons of well-known cartoon characters.
If you're into that sort of thing, I mean.
This weekend I did some more organizing and cleaning and misc. tasks and stuff. You can actually see the entirety of my bedroom floor now. Mostly. This morning, my ♥GF♥ and I used a coupon I had for what was essentially a 2-for-1 deal at a fancy-schmancy seafood place a couple of towns over that has a champagne brunch every Sunday. OMFG, we ate and ate and ate for like two hours and it was really really good. It is now almost 10 PM and since we left the place at about 1:00, I have had one bowl of ice cream and about ten Cheetos (not in the same bowl) and I'm not really even that hungry. Therefore, I am henceforce referring to that meal as "Blinner."
I thought TOH XVI was pretty good tonight, but what really had me rolling was Family Guy's stand for freedom against the tyranny of the FCC.
Here's a really good essay about NOTLD from Bright Lights. Speaking of which, I watched the commentary for the unrated director's cut of LOTD this weekend, and although I enjoyed it, it didn't clear up the difficulties I mentioned here. They showed some scenes that had been cut from the theatrical release, one of which had some interesting implications. Leguizamo stumbles upon a guy who had just hung himself in the high-rise. The guy's son runs out to cut him down and just then the hangee animates and the son gets bit. How would you handle the unavoidability of death and zombification in a situation like that? I don't mean the part about being sad that your friend/family member died, but I mean people committing suicide, having heart attacks, brain anuerisms, etc. All it would take is one klutzy survivor slipping on a bar of soap and hitting his head on the toilet and the whole enterprise could come tumbling down, even if the city fortress was sealed up tight as a drum.
In other news, here are some galleries of the line drawings of the late great Al Hirschfeld. If you are a Hirschfeld afficianado, let me recommend the documentary The Line King. If you aren't, watch the doc and I bet you'll become one.
Hi Everybody!