Home
Red Spectres - Muireann Maguire
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 188
"Russian Gothic Tales from the Twentieth Century"
Finally, having lusted after this for a year I finally broke down and bought it online. It didn't disappoint. The reasons, well, it contained a translation of Chayanov's "Venediktov", which was the tale that inspired Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita". The fact that Chayanov used "Bulgakov" as the narrating character no doubt set the hook. The parallels are obvious, and Chayanov's source material is every bit as inspired as Bulgakov's masterpiece. Then there are few tales as well by Bryusov, who's "The Fiery Angel" I found as well terrific. And there are many other tales of horror, of homunculi, madmen, insanity, demon-haunted mirrors, of men on the cusp of dying, where the veil between this world and the next is shorn and rendered in the half-light of madness; it was, in short, a fine and worthwhile anthology of Russian authors not conveniently in translation. Perfect reading for a cold and rainy fall day.
Now back to Bloch...
The Week in News and Outrage...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 132
Sooo, brought in a few of my less valuable books for trade and discovered Bloch's "Marquis De Sade - His Life and Works", which puts him into context with the rest of the Era, the countless unforgivable crimes of Louis XV, his concubines and Mary Antoinette, the innumerable vices and sins of the Clergy and Church, (with many pages given over to police reports detailing the "in flagrente delicto" acts of Monks, Jesuits, Priests, etc. It is very laugh-out loud, and while I'm barely 30 pages in I've already made as many pages in notes. Unfortunately it demands a bit of attention, and my attention has been a bit scattered by the events of the weekend.
Anyways; news I've been following, the apparent closeness of the Russian American election, news that Elon Musk has apparently been in contact with Putin, that he's paying voters to vote Trump, his Million Dollar Lottery, his dancing dipshit routine, and Trump, who's so chaotic and terrifying that there's no keeping up with him, and no point even trying...
Closer to home, news of the poor girl burned alive in a Halifax Wal-Mart Oven, Temporary foreign worker/or International Student, I knew all this without even reading the article, Canada, we've become the Dubai, the UAE of North America, bringing in cheaply paid foreign workers, giving them little to no training, and placing them in dangerous situations where this should not even be possible, yet clearly it is and it's happened. Or the recent case of an employee found dead in a Cambridge, Ontario, walk-in Freezer, Canada's become a bit like France, over there you serve 5 years in the French Foreign Legion and you become a citizen, over here you work 5 years for some of the dodgiest employers ever and - if you survive, you get citizenship.
Back to the election, Bloch and the Marquis De Sade, It's worth noting that while eventually the populace in France rebelled against the obscene hypocrisy and corruption of the Nobility/King and Clergy, resulting in the French Revolution, In America they're seriously considering reelecting them in. I mean - time, if ever there was one, to yell "Off with their heads...". Win or lose this election won't be so clean cut...
There are no clean players, from Trump, Musk, Bezos, Thiel, the list of corrupted technocrats, politicians and their sycophants should keep the guillotine busy for quite some time...on the other hand, never have they been easier to identify, merely look for the Trump Logo/Flag.
***
Other than that, my books slowly arriving - early last week (the same day I was setting my chops to Bloch) Muireann Maguire's "Red Spectres" arrive, one I've long looked forward to, as well as Friday I received David Lindsay's "A Voyage to Arcturus". And there are yet two to arrive by Cendrars, and I've lengthened my list with a few more via Bloch.
***
Friday night, the Dosed Party, up far too late (in fact didn't sleep, a little sketch all day and only slightly recovered for work Saturday, today feeling a little bit better. You can have too much of a good thing. I am getting a little bit too old for this, and am going to need a few weeks banging on a Tamborine following a granola truck to fully recover. This is how the Yellow Deli gets you...
Concert St. Saviour's
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Other
- Hits: 197
Monday night, I've picked up a ticket to a concert at St. Saviour's, Kitty-Corner from Oso.
I've never been inside, old Anglican Church, from the outside quite beautiful.
Monday night, on the inside, cozy, beautiful as well. Find my pew.
The concert, 2 classical guitarists, one violinist, very good, but not playing anything that grabs me. I'm not engaged. But I wait it out, they're good, charming, the audience, probably average age 70+, maybe a hundred people.
In the end, not what I was hoping for. The church, brought back memories for sure, but the music, well, not my thing. That's OK, you pay for these and sooner or later someone will deliver, these "trials" or "forays", they're just feelers into those places I should be a little more often...
The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting - 1979
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 182
This, another on the list of "Movies no-one has ever seen but you must if you'd consider yourself cinema-literate".
Which of course I bought into, being a fan of the obscure and esoteric.
The premise, an art collector has a selection of 7 paintings of Tableaux that he interprets for the camera/audience, via live recreation of each of the tableaux and his subsequent interpretations.
In style, a black-and-white forerunner of Peter Greenaway. The sets, styles, music, filming - I'm pretty sure this made an impression on him.
In substance - the paintings the collector has amassed - ludicrous, appalling recreations of what we are assured are art masterpieces. Even in black and white these appear to be 3rd rate studies by an artist of little talent and an impoverished imagination. That is not addressed, and I would think should be taken as a "clue". The collector shows us the painting, and then analyzes it for us, then on to the next painting - and each painting, somehow, is joined or thematically linked to the next. Until we arrive at the third or fourth which has been stolen, but the collector nevertheless attempts to reconstruct it's content and link it to the others.
It is a fine example of the "unreliable narrator" - how someone with a great deal of knowledge upon various subjects can tie them together in ways that - while they may impress the uneducated viewer - in themselves possess no greater value (or insight) than the paintings do on their own. The progenitor of every conspiracy theory. A curiosity, for sure, and some interesting ideas, but niche in the extreme and not entirely relevant. Yet another film I can strike up a conversation at the bar with..."You should see"...ending with "Well, maybe you shouldn't but it's only an hour long...".
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyQf4am7VOA
I'm waiting on the books I ordered, need a break from all of this European-Art-Haus, and, checking the tracking, I"m still 2-3-4 weeks away. And they're all on the same continent. Bloody hell. I'm seeing the value of Amazon...
Page 54 of 881