I just stumbled over a review of a new recording of some of his piano work, so for today’s Rhapsody let’s return to Ern? Dohnányi with his Rhapsody in C Major Op.11 No.1 as played by the great Australian pianist, Eileen Joyce.
I guess I always find myself being drawn to super heroes. As a cartoonist one of my dreams growing up was to be part of the Marvel Bullpen drawing all of my favorites. I made up my own characters and teams and their adventures within my imagination were epic. I moved on I gradually discovered Frank Miller, Walter Simonson and Alan Moore dabbled with as many different approaches to the super hero as my favorite genre and the superhero as modern mythology until I looked too hard and lost interest. (More of this recurring rant can be found in my Megamind review.)
But even so, I still like the genre and am frequently find myself drawn back to it. And every now and again I find myself taking another crack at it. These day’s I find the best approach is to not take it too seriously… accept it as fantasy and embrace the camp approach of the sixties and seventies. Keep in mind you still have to respect it, don’t do it as parody, in the end that’s almost as bad as many creators attempts at dark revisionism.
I think that’s why I enjoyed Austin Grossman‘s Soon I Will Be Invincible so much. Most superhero novels I have read treat it all like science fiction try and put four color characters into a real world setting. Rarely have I seen it work at all. “Soon I Will Be Invincible” embraces the absurdity treats it with respect and runs with it all through the eyes of the arch villain, Dr. Incredible.
I bring this up because just recently I was looking around Youtube and stumbled upon this clip of an actor’s audition based on some of Dr. Incredible’s narration from the novel and thought I’d share.
http://youtu.be/oSnTOaQgq3w
Enjoy.
Today’s sketch is from the exhibit “Inspiring Impressionism: The Impressionists and the Art of the Past ” that was at the Seattle Art Museum in 2008. The whole idea of the exhibit was showing the foundations of European Art that the that the impressionists were working from as they explored their new artistic horizons. The painting represented here was titled “Beggar Boy.” The artist is unknown but it is based on a work by the Spanish artist, Murillo.
While I’m sure some people will disagree with me, in my own way I consider myself a patriot. I love my country and as a scholar of history, I believe in exceptionalism (though I don’t deny the existence of the exceptionalism of every one else) As a history buff, I’m endlessly amazed that we became what we are not just because of what we are but despite of what we are.
However I believe that hubris in all of its forms is unacceptable, and to ensure this it is imperative that we never believe our own advertising copy. True patriots must ask questions, criticize and mock… this brings me to the importance of satire. Jon Stewart , Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher do their job but despite all of that they’re still to close for a truly proper razzing you have to turn to the people looking from the outside because as the song goes; “Who else but a bossom buddy can tell you how rotten you are?”
Which is one of the many reasons I’m such a fan of Rick Mercer. I’ve enjoyed him in “This Hour has 22 Minutes, Made in Canada and most recently The Rick Mercer Report. and think the way he goes for the throat is exceptional.
So today here are some of Rick Mercer’s USA specific from my quote collection.
“The US is our ally, our trading partner, our neighbor, and our friend, and sometimes we’d like to give them such a smack. “
“The United States were a 35-year-old man, I think he’d be in a mental institution. Violent tendencies – delusions of grandeur – medicate heavily.”
“In the United States I have always believed that there was a big difference between Conservative and stupid. Boy is it getting harder to prove that one by the minute.”
And on a more general note.
“Here’s to democracy. May we get the government we deserve.”
And let’s close this with his wonderful “Talking to Americans” Where his targets include George W. Bush. (The little boy at the end gives me some hope.)
Today’s Rhapsody is one I confess I hadn’t heard of before. I confess in doing this exercise after I finished the cursory sweep of all of the Rhapsodies everyone knows and then doing all of the Rhapsodies that were on everyone’s list of Rhapsodies, things got a little challenging… research was required.
So I was pleasantly surprised to discover Rhapsody in A minor, Op. 14 by Antonin Dvorak.
I’ve been a big fan of Dvorak’s music since high school and not just because the Largo to the New World Symphony was one of the more complex pieces I learned back when I was trying to master the violin. His music has a primal power to it that I only hear in a few others, such as Sibelius. It’s a quality that I find myself looking for frequently in orchestral music. I think it’s the way it taps the lizard brain.
Today’s Sketch are from the Seattle Art Museum’s Medieval collection. Specifically details from the Conversion of St. Paul by Luca di Tommè done in tempera around 1380 & 89.
While it’s easy to knock medieval art, making fun of how stylized it is and how nobody seemed to know about perspective and basic anatomy, I’m endlessly amazed about the shear craftsmanship of it. Not just getting into the logistics of what a headache mixing egg tempera is, the detail work in this piece is amazing. There are parts of it where I can only wonder about just how small the artist’s brushes were.
