Culture and anti-culture – Page 9

What comes next …

… once polkas become passé?

Barbershop, of course.

The Perfect Insider has very good opening and closing animations. The stuff in between, which falls somewhere between a locked-room mystery and And Then There Were None and concerns people tediously self-conscious of their high IQs, is less enthralling. I did spot a pair of red half-rim spectacles, though. If there were any rubber ducks, I missed them.

Speaking of ATTWN, here’s Eve Tushnet on Agatha Christie: “Never trust the cute ones.”

Notes from the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies

Various odds and ends:

Fillyjonk linked to an old but not outdated story by Ray Bradbury, “The Murderer.” I found a couple of other favorites, “The Veldt” and “The Pedestrian.”

*****

Perhaps not entirely unrelated to the Bradbury stories:

Having time each day merely to amuse oneself, or just to sit and think, greatly improves one’s life. Yet we’re practically taught to avoid such periods – to stay as busy as possible virtually all the time. The emphasis on work, on “multitasking” (which, as a former expert in the architecture of multitasking operating systems for embedded devices, I can assure you is always an illusion) and on achieving ever more per unit time is using us up in ways we don’t always perceive and even less often appreciate. You’d almost suspect that time spent in introspection had been deemed an offense against the social norms.

(Via Dustbury.)

*****

While Sakurajima is ominously quiet, in the South Indian Ocean Piton de la Fournaise is putting on a modest, colorful show.

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Decline and fall, with peaches

On October 10, 1969, forty-six years ago today, three noteworthy albums were released simultaneously: Frank Zappa’s Hot Rats, King Crimson’s In the Court of the Crimson King, and the Kinks’ Arthur. To celebrate, here’s a tune from each, though not necessarily the version on the record.

This is the tune that persuaded me that Zappa was more than just a clever novelty act with a dirty mind.

Court indulged in science-fiction and fantasy, with lyrics so profoundly meaningful they’re silly. The music was pretty good, though.

While King Crimson did F&SF, the Kinks took their inspiration from recent British history and culture in lyrics blending nostalgia and cynicism. Musically, the Kinks were the least interesting of the three acts, but Ray Davies at his best was a formidable satirist.

Physics and technology, plus magic

The most dangerous person in the trans-gate territories.

One of the finest examples of sheer geekery I’ve ever come across is the comments thread to this post of Steven’s.

Of current shows, I’m watching only GATE and Ushio and Tora. Both, however, are very good in their different ways and are sufficient to make this a good summer for anime.

Update: The ninth episode of GATE was a major disappointment, and I’ll probably skip it in future rewatches. However, it did give Rory a chance to wear something more tasteful than her usual ita outfit.

Today’s quote

John C. Wright on the Hugo Awards:

I am humbled by the laud shown my work: it is not everyone who can point to the smoking wreckage of a great city whose fanes and temple, colonnades and palaces, baths and coliseums and alabaster towers the burghers burnt with their own hands to prevent falling into his.

Update: See also Peregrinations.

In praise of fan fiction

Bruce Charlton:

The importance of Fan Fiction is that, while very few people can (like Tolkien, Rowling etc) primarily create a meaningful, purposeful, participative Imaginative Universe – a much larger number of people can take such a universe and secondarily create within it; can incrementally extrapolate, interpolate, combine it with other such Universes, deepen and extend characters from it, make new plots using characters from it – and so forth.

…

Since this secondary creativity is typically done within a better ‘world’ than the self-hating mainstream secular-alienated-nihilistic world of modern public discourse; and since the world of Fan Fiction is a part of a person’s life; this can serve to make a person’s life more meaningful – which is to say Fan Fiction can make a person’s life not just better but deeply better. And it has done, for very large numbers of people.

Suite in B

2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the discovery of P.D.Q. Bach by Peter Schickele. (Strictly speaking, the above isn’t P.D.Q.B., though it is from one of the early albums.)

Here’s another approach to Beethoven. (Via the Borderline Boy.)

1965 also saw The Baroque Beatles Book of Joshua Rifkin.

According to the liner notes of a reissue, Schickele was the first choice to write the arrangements, but he had just been signed to a different label, so Rifkin got the job. Incidentally, Rifkin sang in the first performance of P.D.Q. Bach’s “Iphigenia in Brooklyn.” A few years later, he would jumpstart the ragtime revival with his Scott Joplin recordings.

Here’s a more modern approach to the Beatles.

Glorieux’s Beatle recordings, which range stylistically from Bach to Bartok, are out of print, but you can find them on YouTube.

A few quotes

Charles G. Hill:

Maybe pitchforks just aren’t enough.

*****

Jonathan Clements:

Thank God they didn’t know about Queen’s Blade…

*****

The Duke of Wellington:

Gentlemen

Whilst marching from Portugal to a position which commands the approach to Madrid and the French forces, my officers have been complying diligently with your requests which have been sent by H.M ship from London to Lisbon and thence by dispatch to our headquarters. We have enumerated our saddles, bridles, tents and tent poles, and all manner of sundry items for which His Majesty’s Government holds me accountable. I have dispatched reports on the character, wit and spleen of every officer. Each item and every farthing has been accounted for , with two regrettable exceptions for which I beg your indulgence.

Unfortunately the sum of one shilling and ninepence remains unaccounted for in one infantry battalion’s petty cash and there has been a hideous confusion as to the number of jars of raspberry jam issued to one cavalry regiment during a sandstorm in western Spain. This reprehensible carelessness may be related to the pressure of circumstance, since we are at war with France, a fact which may come as a bit of a surprise to you gentlemen in Whitehall.

This brings me to my present purpose, which is to request elucidation of my instructions from His Majesty’s Government so that I may better understand why I am dragging an Army across these barren plains. I construe that perforce it must be one of two alternative duties, as given below. I shall pursue either one to the best of my ability, but I cannot do both:

1. To train an army of uniformed British clerks in Spain for the benefit of the accountants and copy-boys in London, or, perchance,

2. To see to it that the forces of Napoleon are driven from Spain.

Your most obedient servant

Wellington.

*****

The Czar of Muscovy:

As with most political analysis pieces, the Czar will follow convention and ask what are your thoughts? Whom did you like? Whom did you dislike? Although, don’t write in because the Czar doesn’t care what you think.

Superhero appreciation

Anthony Sacramone:

Believe me, you don’t want to live in a country that doesn’t have Comic-Cons, that doesn’t know how to play—even well into adulthood. When exactly are you too sophisticated, too grounded, too spiritual, too concerned with the plight of the suffering masses, too damn serious to set out on bold intergalactic adventures, even if you never leave the confines of a climate-controlled auditorium?
You know when? When you’re part of the problem.
You know which countries don’t have Comic-Cons? Syria. Sudan. North Korea. Saudi Arabia. Venezuela. Cuba.

Bradley J. Birzer:

Throughout the western tradition, man has craved heroism. We may find it in an Odysseus, an Aeneas, or a Beowulf. We may find it in a St. Perpetua, a St. Ignatius, or a Sir Thomas More. We may find them in an Ivanhoe, a Natty Bumppo, or a Sherlock Holmes. Or, we may find them in a Superman or a Batman. There is a continuity from an Aeneas to a St. Ignatius to a Superman. We long for heroes, and we will have them. Indeed, the entire genre of the superhero most closely resembles the stories of the saints. While more modern comic authors have often shaded the areas of morality, in terms of violence and sex, the great figures of the genre—Superman and Batman, to name two—remain, at essence good. Their goals are for a just and merciful society. The powers of the superheroes—when so endowed—are the powers of the Catholic and Orthodox saints. They can levitate, bi-locate, teleport, and see visions of the past, future, and into other realms. Should we be surprised? The Greeks and Romans had their gods, demi-gods, and heroes. The medievals had God and His saints. Consequently, we moderns, no matter how sophisticated we believe ourselves to be, have our new demi-gods and heroes.

Unbelievable speed

That is faster than my usual cruising speed on my bicycle, but if you're planning to bop around the solar system at 25 k/h, pack a lunch. — That is faster than my usual cruising speed on my bicycle, but if you’re planning to bop around the solar system at 25 k/h, pack a lunch.

I sampled a few of the summer offerings on Crunchyroll. Classroom Crisis‘ chief distinction is that every single one of its characters is annoying. It also make unreasonable demands on one’s willing suspension of disbelief. Pass.

Just how densely rocky is the asteroid belt? There's no way you could navigate through this at 25 k/h, let alone 250,000 k/h. — Just how densely rocky is the asteroid belt? There’s no way you could navigate through this at 25 k/h, let alone 250,000 k/h.

GATE, on the other hand, might be very good if it doesn’t overplay the otaku card. See Steven for comments and screencaps. Update: There’s a more detailed discussion of the first episode here, with lots of screencaps.

I eventually dropped every spring series, though I might yet finish Rin-ne and Etotama. Mostly when I watch anything, it’s either an old movie — Airplane! and This Is Spinal Tap are still very funny — or neglected anime — Shounen Onmyouji deserves a license rescue, and Un-Go, though partly spoiled by too many novelties, provides something to think about and warms my cold, cynical heart.

I recently discovered that Hulu has The Avengers from the 1960s, with Diana Rigg and the late Patrick Macnee in glorious black-and-white. I’m pleased to note that Steed and Mrs. Peel remain excellent company. Checking just now, I see that Patrick McGoohan’s Secret Agent is also available. I’ll have to see how well it corresponds to my memories.

… and now back to the inverted world.

As who likes it?

At one point in As You Like It, Rosalind, the female lead, while dressed as a boy, pretends to be a girl as she gives Orlando, the male lead, a workshop in courtship. In Shakespeare’s time, Rosalind would have been played by a boy, so you would have a boy portraying a girl disguised as a boy pretending to be a girl. This sort of ambiguity ought to be irresistable to a certain class of otaku, and I’m surprised that there hasn’t been an As You Like It anime yet.

All the girls were acted by females in the “Shakespeare in the Park” production of As You Like It I saw Sunday evening, as were many of the guys — the latter not very convincingly. It might have worked better if most hadn’t been so chubby and if they had been able to project their voices better.

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