To Be And To Have

I watched a wonderful documentary, Être et Avoir, about a teacher in rural France assigned to an all ages, one-room schoolhouse. It captured the spirit of education, but I was disappointed to learn that the director fed the teacher lines to get the kids to talk about certain subjects (found in the DVD extras) and looking back, you can see those scenes are forced.

The best parts of the movie are the teachers' impromptu interactions with his students that are centered around small classes, focused attention, and lots of interpersonal contact. This is the model we should be striving for, with or without the bucolic French countryside as a backdrop, and there are no good reasons why we can't have it.

Teachers already sacrifice their financial security for their vocation, as do those of us who work in fields closely related to education, like publishing. We have the drive and the dedication needed to provide excellent resources for our children. What we don't have is the support and exposure for our collective causes, backed by the popular vote to provide the appropriate funding.

Make it happen. Get out there and speak to your educators, go to your schools, attend meetings, have facts, figures, and research on hand to make the changes needed, so we can all benefit from the types of schools our children deserve. BE LOUD about it, if you aren't heard the first time. Then, do it again.

Fight Night History

This past Saturday's UFC night was a historical occasion for women in MMA. It was the first time a female bout was the main card event, and the match-up was every bit as exciting as you'd expect from two very talented and hungry fighters. 

On a personal side note, the preponderance of people of Acadian descent who dominate in the sport can no longer be denied. Given the long and painful history of our people, I'm extraordinarily happy our hard-working values are finally on display for the entire world to see. I'm so proud of you all. 

http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/2/24/4023134/ronda-rousey-vs-liz-carmouche-full-fight-video-highlights-ufc-157-dan-henderson-vs-lyoto-machida 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acadian 

Edward Gorey

Today's “Google Doodle” is in remembrance of Edward Gorey, one of book illustrations' greats. If you've never seen his work, please explore his world and enjoy, but I suspect many of you have seen his handiwork without realizing it. You are looking at the works of a master. Happy Friday.

http://www.google.com/search?q=Edward+Gorey&oi=ddle&ct=edward_goreys_88th_birthday-1056005

Picture Window: Goodbye!

 moving on, like clouds across the sky

  

Dear friends, fans, and readers! I'm in the process of relocating, and though moving is a tense and uncertain time, it also brings about welcome change. As much as I loved the picture window views from my old apartment, I have an entire catalog of photos from that time period: the documentation of time passing from a fixed location, as written across the skies. With new vistas comes new subject matter, and as any artist/explorer will tell you, that indeed heralds an exciting time. As my view changes, look here for changes, too. Blessings to you, and have a great week.—Marie

O For a Heart....

 

....write thy new name upon my heart,

Thy new best name of love. Amen.

—Robert Edward Smith

http://www.robertedwardsmith.com/

Poetry in Motion: Mary Ruefler

 




















Voyager

I have become an orchid

washed in on the salt white beach.

Memory,

what can I make of it now

that might please you—

this life, already wasted

and still strewn with

miracles?

http://www.mta.info/mta/aft/poetry/poetry.html?year=2013&poem=5
http://www.maryruefle.com/ 

Happy New Year!

For all you martial artists and fans out there, this action-packed adventure is a classic Samurai gore fest. There's lots of limb-hacking and bloody battles, with plenty of hand-to-hand combat. It's weirdly improbable and highly enjoyable at the same time. Have at it!

Picture Window: Snowy Morning

fire escape in snow, morning

Around Town: The Haier Building

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Savings_Bank

Self Portrait: Me at 43

it's up close but it's nothing personal, except that it's me

I've always been interested in self-portraits by women (Alice Neel*, Cindy Sherman*) because it's often seen as taboo in our society for a woman to age. Why is that? Why does a woman lose her supposed attractiveness when male leads like Sean Connery can still play the main lead love interest at 73, next to a woman half his age? Is he really better looking than say, Helen Mirren? I would say "no". I think it's really weird to see fresh young starlets next to old dudes, but that's just me. What do you think?

In the interest of romance and age, I submit to you this lovely little tale about retired Brit expats in India who find true love, as they also contemplate the end of life.   
Enjoy your Thursday, no matter your age.

* http://www.aliceneel.com/          * https://www.artsy.net/artist/alice-neel
* http://www.cindysherman.com/

Around the Way: Star Power

"Baby, I'm a star!"

Picture Window: Sunrise Progression

yellow to pink to yellow, clouds over brooklyn

Picture Window: Misty Morning

foggy morning

Keeping it Reel: "Gigante"

Any master storyteller knows bringing your audience in so close that you can almost feel them sitting on your lap is the hallmark that you've crossed the divide separating you from them. That intimacy is the biggest luxury artists and writers have, something lost in the sensory experience we have as moviegoers. It's a closeness we don't feel watching speeding images projected onto a large screen in quite the same way that we sense a closeness to characters brought to life through a book that's inches from our very face. We breathe them in, like we do the smell of ink and paper, holding a physical object in our hands, in a scale that's designed especially for our senses. The slow crafting of a story produced from the pacing of a book gives our human brains a time frame we can easily adjust to, turning pages slowly (or not), maybe going back to reread something again just to get it right in our head, or pausing to ruminate on the picture the author has just created that illuminates something in way previously unknown; it's that loving lingering that give t.v. shows and movies cause for frustration in hardcore book people like myself.

The director has already called the shots, creating their own world from words made precious in our minds through time, the way books and stories become. We get tripped up by niggling details like the anachronism of an actors' bad hairdo, let alone big story elements like time and space. That suspension of belief is the bane of many a lesser talents existence. It's what every classic, timeless, great story hangs upon; the ability for me to hold you right in the palm of my hand, where I need you to be, so you can take in the story richly from every angle, drinking it in, letting it soak into you, so that the story also becomes a part of you. Some people have it, some people spend years chasing it, some people try to learn it, and the rest become our wonderful audience who we spend our lives wooing in a necessary dance that exists between the creator and the viewer.

The freedom we give a reader to transpose what we've written or drawn into their own imaginative spaces is something that a t.v. director can't do, because they have to "draw" a character and tell a defined story in a half an hour. It's really hard. Books also have the same deadline. We must make something to print on the presses, and the edition that lives on your shelf is semi-permanent, at least until we reprint it and possibly revise it, just like a film is "cut" and released; the story stays that way until somewhat remakes it, which is way more expensive than reprinting a book. Genres are troublesome, too. I hate romances for the exact reasons I outlined above: I simply don't buy it. Love is something best left to poets, because it's like trying to explain the color purple to a blind person. What does color mean to them? I've seen a few really good adaptations of books to movies, but it's something best left to a truly gifted artist. Maurice Sendak wisely advised Spike Jonez to make his own Wild Things instead of trying to lavishly re-create his work into a movie, a world made specifically for children as a book, functioning best on the level it was designed for, and he spoke like a true master. The formats are too different to reconcile the gap that exists.

So when I see movies that have characters who feel so real, I actually know people just like them, it's a rare experience. I found this gem of a movie called Gigante that's the most flawlessly real depiction of actual human love than any other movie I've seen about it. There's just no false notes or wrong moves, because every heart-wrenching scene feels exactly like a young man crushing hard and falling deeply in love. There's no bullshit CGI effects, no bombastic declarations delivered hammily or wildly desperate acts for her attention (because our hero is very shy around his lady love), nor fake showiness of his affections. This is a real story that takes place in a real world you know exists, because it's the same thing that's happened to you. He's an average guy (but not to us), working cruddy minimum wage jobs for a buck (just like we have), falling in love with an average girl (but not to him, because she's his whole world), who gets mistreated because they don't love her like he does (or we do). It's that perfect.

Yeah, I know.