This Sunday once again we will be celebrating the Superb Owl, the best known annual tribute to ornithology and birdwatching. So join us as we pay tribute to this noble nocturnal predator.
Ahem. But seriously, while I really haven’t been following the season I certainly am looking forward to the game… at least for the hype and commercials. I guess I will be rooting for the Broncos partially because they’re the Western team and out of revenge for the Panthers beating the Seahawks… besides Payton’s a nice guy he needs that ring to back up his cred.
Seattle Art Museum has been rotating their collection a bit letting some of the 90 percent the collection that’s been in storage to get some air and I think I have a new favorite piece.
I was not familiar with Phillipe de Champaigne before but I definitely need to follow him after this. I love how this version of the Visitation (apparently he did several) captures a wonderful tenderness between these two women
I’ve been a fan of the Character Design Reference Tumblr and Pinterest pages for some time, so I finally decided to bite the bullet and enter their monthly design challenge and enter a design for a Roller Derby contestant.
Unfortunately one thing I learned doing this is the importance of reading the rules, most notably the calendar so therefore I didn’t get in. But anyway now I’m signed up so better luck next time.
This month I wanted to take a break from anything that was remotely serious and decided to watch the works of Italian comedian and director Roberto Benigni.. I had enjoyed his Academy award winning Life is Beautiful(though I must admit that the mixture of slapstick humor and the holocaust was not a perfect mix for me) and I wanted to see what else he had done.
The first film on the list The Monster tells the story of Loris a part time mannequin arranger full time mooch and squatter who do to a series of hilarious coincidences becomes the police’s number one suspect for an at large serial killer. In order to confirm this they recruit Jessica an attractive female officer played by Benigni’s wife, Nicoletta Braschi to go undercover as his room mate and a ridiculously over the top honeytrap.
This is all done as broad slapstick with Loris getting into one compromising and misunderstood situation after another. It is easy to see how Begini is frequently compared with Charlie Chaplain as he mooches his way through his day avoiding his apartment manager, stealing coffee and croissants at a cafe, and circumventing a department store’s alarms in a method that I can’t help wondering if it would actually work if I ever decided to take up shoplifting.
The next film The Tiger and Snow is a much more serious affair with Begin playing Attilio de Giovanni, a divorced father of two and professor of poetry. He falls in love with Vittoria a writer, once again played by (Nicoletta Braschi, who is works working with, Faud, an Iraqi poet played by Jean Reno. She joins him in returning to Bagdad just as the war breaks out.
A week later Attillo is told that Vitorria has been hurt badly and desperately goes to Iraq to help. From there he finds himself trying desperately to find medicine to save her in a bombed out Baghdad.
While Benigni gives a wonderful comic performance this is a much more restrained and lyrical film showing the horrors of the war. (I found a lot of reviews that were offended by the film’s treatment and implied criticism of the Iraq war, but frankly most of the time it was treated almost like a force of nature and an obstacle.) All of this is interspersed with a recurring dream sequence involving a surreal version of a wedding between Atillo and Vittoria which is continually interrupted with the bride turning into a kangaroo) And despite the drama it has it’s share of comedy, my favorite being a scene where a peace activist proclaims nobody has ever been hurt by throwing down a peace sign, only for it to hit Attilo.
For this week’s Rhapsody we have Christoph Keller playing Herbert Howells‘ second Rhapsody for organ in E-Flat major op 17 (we did his first rhapsody for organ four years ago here.)
Ahem. But seriously, while I really haven’t been following the season I certainly am looking forward to the game… at least for the hype and commercials. I guess I will be rooting for the Broncos partially because they’re the Western team and out of revenge for the Panthers beating the Seahawks… besides Payton’s a nice guy he needs that ring to back up his cred.
