February 2023 - Page 2 of 6 - Ramblin' with Roger

All Quiet On The Western Front (2022)

World War I

The current iteration of the film All Quiet On The Western Front is the third World War I film I’ve seen in the last four years. I watched 1917 in January 2020, and the documentary footage of They Shall Not Grow Old a year earlier.

There’s a bit of surface similarity between Grow Old and All Quiet. In each case, the potential recruits, from Britain and Germany, respectively, are led to believe that going off to war will be an adventure. They’re so cheerful marching off to battle. But they soon discover they’re mired in a slog of trench warfare.

All Quiet is a remake of the 1930 film of the same name, which I have never seen. The original won the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director, Lewis Milestone, and was nominated in two other categories. The new film is up for nine Oscars, including Best Picture.

The characters even share the same names. Felix Kammerer plays Paul, the Lew Ayres role. Albrecht Schuch is Kat, played initially by Louis Wolheim. I did not know there was also a 1979 TV movie with Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine.

At some level, the charge by the soldiers, which happens thrice, looks almost exactly the same in the new film. Perhaps it’s to show what is explained in the epilogue, that tens of thousands of soldiers were killed to gain or lose only a few hundred meters of territory. This caused me slight confusion for a time.

Recycled

Even in the “quiet” moments, one sees the horrors. The uniforms are stripped from the dead soldiers and shipped to a factory where women sew up the holes created by bullets and bayonets. Often, the names of the previous wearer have not been removed until after the recruit notices the old nametag.

Still, nothing showed the utter pointless insanity of war more than a segment near the end.

The new All Quiet On The Western Front is an excellent movie worthy of its BAFTA win. But it inevitably has lots of wartime violence, some of it up close. Occasionally, the participants consider their actions’ emotional and moral consequences. Then there’s the next skirmish, and a soldier has no time to think.

The eyes. The image that will linger in my mind is often the blue eyes of the living and the dead on faces caked with mud.

Song of Scheherazade

cf. Rimsky-Korsakov

The Final JEOPARDY answer for Tuesday, January 10, 2023, was in the category CLASSIC TALE CHARACTERS. “In one 19th-century translation, she ‘perceived the dawn of day and ceased’ speaking nearly 1,000 times.”

To my mild surprise, no one got the correct answer. The contestants answered Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, and Echo.

I knew immediately it was Scheherazade, though I wasn’t positive I knew how to spell it. While I read a story about this Arabian Nights tale, my greater recollection was from the music, which is often the case with me.

Specifically, there is an album by a group called Renaissance. It put out an album called Scheherazade and Other Stories. The title track, Song of Scheherazade, which took up the entirety of Side 2 on the LP, ends with these lyrics:

Scheherazade bewitched him
With songs of jeweled kings
Princes and of heroes
And eastern fantasies

Told him tales of sultans
And talismans and rings
A thousand and one nights, she sang
To entertain her king
She sings, Scheherazade…

Natal day present

I had heard the album several times when I was in college at SUNY New Paltz. But I did not own it.

As I noted seven years ago, in the winter to spring of 1977, I had graduated from college. But adrift, I ended up crashing at my parents’ house in Charlotte, NC. I was pretty miserable, helping sell costume jewelry and other geegaws. (If I had used a word as sophisticated as “geegaws” at the craft fair, I would be chided for allegedly putting on airs.)

My family asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I requested that Renaissance album, and I received it. But it was clear when my father heard it, he didn’t think much of it, which merely fed into my melancholy.

After the JEOPARDY show last month, my wife reminded me how much her college friend Alison played that album in heavy rotation. This prompted me to buy the CD, which now came as a three-disc (2 CDs, 1 DVD) set.

The first time I came to the end of the album, I wept, partly from the beauty of Annie Haslam’s voice and maybe a little from a sad memory.

The classical side

This story reminded me of another piece of music titled Scheherazade, written in 1888 by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. A 2007 NPR story by Scott Simon explained the power of music.

“For centuries, composers have tried to spin tales in music. My understanding of how important the concept could be was cemented by Leonard Bernstein when I went to a New York Philharmonic rehearsal. Bernstein raised his hands up and asked, ‘Do I have to tell you the story of this Haydn symphony?’

“These typically reserved musicians were practically jumping up and down, nodding their heads in anticipatory glee, like children at storytime. Bernstein was the consummate storyteller, often elaborating on or, dare I say, even fabricating some of the finer details for dramatic effect. But the memory was indelible for me, and the lesson was clear: It’s all about the story.”

Listen to:

Renaissance album

Renaissance side two

Several versions of the Rimsky-Korsakov

Movie review: The Whale

Director Darren Aronofsky

When I went to see The Whale at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany with my wife in late January, I was concerned.

Would the film be fatphobic? I don’t believe it was. This is a man named Charlie (Brendan Fraser) who is in pain, and food is his drug of choice. At some level, I understand that. So the reviewers that complain that his eating disorder wasn’t adequately explained confound me.

Yes, the movie was claustrophobic. Long before reading the end credits, I knew the piece had to have been based on a play that Samuel D. Hunter wrote. For me, this works in its favor.

Charlie has closed himself off. He teaches an online English class, but his video on the laptop “doesn’t work.” His only friend, Liz (Hong Chau) is alternatingly irritated with him and understanding. She’s linked to him in another way.

He misses his daughter, who he had left along with his wife when the girl was just eight. The now-seventeen-year-old Ellie (Sadie Sink) unexpectedly shows up at his house against the express wishes of her mother. She plays mind games with both Charlie and the young evangelist Thomas (Ty Simkins), who keeps showing up at Charlie’s place.

Much has been made of Fraser’s Oscar-nominated performance, and for a good reason. Even those who don’t like the film praise the actor. Chau is also nominated. The performance of Samatha Morton as Mary, Charlie’s ex and Ellie’s mom, really jumped out for me..

Action

Director Darren Aronofsky is the source of much of mixed feelings about the movie. One critic said The Whale didn’t need the director’s “heavy darkness to be effective.” I thought it was appropriate.

Another said the adaptation was “empathetic and soulful,” which I agree with. A third: the “questions about its purpose – why is this difficult movie about a very difficult man even made – unanswered.” I don’t understand that observation.

Aronofsky directed one of the best performances I’ve ever seen. In Requiem for a Dream (2000), Ellen Burstyn was nominated for Best Actress. She should have won but lost out to Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich, who was fine in that picture.

While I saw The Whale at a cinema, I think it could survive being streamed more than, say, the current Avatar film.

Washington’s Birthday 2023

Commemorative half-dollar coin

I was at a meeting recently, and someone noted that the February holiday is officially Washington’s Birthday, not President’s Day. Now, I knew this, but I was fascinated that someone else was as geeky as I was.

JEOPARDY! questions

These are from the category FROM THE PRESIDENT’S MEMOIRS:

“During the 4 1/2 years of my presidency, I had never been able to establish a close relationship with Bobby Kennedy”

“On the first intelligence of Forrest’s raid, I telegraphed Sherman to send all his cavalry against him”

“I have used some of the tape transcripts that are already public”

“I ordered our men to open fire on the Spaniards in the trenches”

“The Constitution does not confer upon Congress the power to interfere with slavery in the states”

More JEOPARDY questions

This delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 voted against a Bill of Rights but later drafted the one we know.

Only 3 presidents have married while in office–John Tyler was the first, and he was the last.

He was sworn in twice as president within 2 years, first by his father & then later by a former U.S. President.

AND from the recent trivia night: What are the four state capitals named for Presidents? (All answers are below.)

Oval Office holders

From here: “When Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark out west to explore the Louisiana Territory in 1804, the President told the explorers to watch out for mammoths. Jefferson was apparently obsessed with mammoths and was convinced they were still alive, gallivanting in America’s wild west.”

“Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804 – October 8, 1869) was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. He was born in New Hampshire. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1833, and later he was elected to the Senate, where he served from 1837 until 1842. A heavy drinker for much of his life, Pierce died in 1869 of cirrhosis of the liver.”

Ulysses S. Grant was posthumously promoted to ‘General of the Armies’ in 2022

Chester Alan Arthur: Obscure or underrated? I say the latter.

“Calvin Coolidge appeared with George Washington on the Sesquicentennial commemorative half-dollar coin in 1926, at which time Coolidge was both alive and serving as president of the United States. It is the first and so far only American coin to depict a president in his lifetime.”

Donald Trump’s 2024 Campaign Is Anything but “Normal”

Answers

LB Johnson, Grant, Nixon, T Roosevelt, Buchanan

Madison, Wilson, Coolidge – From The Jeopardy! Fan: “When President Harding died in August 1923, Calvin Coolidge, then Vice President, had been visiting his family in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. When the Coolidge family received word of Harding’s death, it was suggested that Coolidge receive the Oath of Office as soon as possible to preserve presidential continuity. Coolidge’s father, John Calvin Coolidge, Sr., was a Vermont notary public and justice of the peace and administered the Oath of Office. In March 1925, after Coolidge had been re-elected President, Chief Justice William Howard Taft—himself a former President—administered the Oath.”

I was vaguely aware of Coolidge’s dad, but I should have focused on the second part, Taft as Chief Justice, which I knew cold. The first President to start his term other than on Inauguration Day after Taft’s Presidency was Coolidge. I figured it out, but not in 30 seconds, which slightly irritated me.

Jefferson City, MO; Madison, WI; Jackson, MS; Lincoln, NE

It’s Bev’s birthday Sunday Stealing

Where’s my secret treasure?

The Sunday Stealing proprietor was a year older yesterday. So in honor of Bev’s birthday – the big 8-0; and thinking of mine next month- though I’m a decade younger – some natal day questions.

1. What is the best thing about your birthday?

For years, when I was working, I’d take off the day. If my birthday were on a Saturday, I’d take off Friday; if it was on Sunday, then Monday.

I’ve had a hearts game at home, most years for a decade. It is held on the weekend before or after my natal day. Two years ago, we jerry-rigged something online. And last year, I didn’t hold it because of the resurgence of COVID. But this year, for sure. I let the players know six months ahead of time.

2. What is your favorite thing to do for your birthday?

On my birthday, I’ve gone to the movies, then out to eat.

3. What’s one thing you learned in the past year?

I hate ZOOM, mainly when it involves more than nine people. I knew that before, but it’s become codified irritation.

4. What do you wish for in the next year?

It’s already happened, which is that next year, I won’t be in charge of something I was ostensibly in charge of for at least the past dozen years. I am HAPPY.

5. What’s the best thing about turning a year older?

Mostly, at this point, it’s better than the alternative.

‘Til my daddy takes my Tbird away

6. What was the most fun thing you did in the last year?

I saw a lot of plays, musicals, and movies, which I did not attend nearly as often the previous year, if at all, because of COVID. I’ve already seen more films in cinemas during 2023 thus far than in all 2021 and 2022 combined.

7. If you could understand any animal, which would it be?

Cats. Specifically my cats.

8. What is something that used to be hard but is now easy?

I’m much better at expressing my opinion. The blog helps. Getting older and cantankerous is helpful too.

9. If you could only keep one thing in your room, what would it be?

It’s a metal box with a lot of genealogical material.

10. Which person makes you laugh the most? Why?

My daughter, because she’s very witty.

11. If you could go back in time, when and where would you go?

Nah. Every era has its problems.

12. If you were to bury a secret treasure, where would you bury it?

If I had a secret treasure and told you where it was, then that would be a very poor secret.

From Cats

13. What is your favorite memory?

OY! So many. I liked playing racquetball from 1983 to 2010 at the Albany YMCA two to five days a week with Don, Tom, Jennifer, Norm, Fred, Mike, Alan, Dan, Charlie, Tyrone, Ward (who cheated), and others.

14. How have you helped others lately?

I helped my collegiate daughter with a homework assignment.

Here’s something I’m doing today. My wife is serving communion today at church. This entails preparing the sacrament and cleaning up afterward. But she’s ALSO scheduled to count the money after church with another person. So I said I’d help with the communion cleanup with her communion partner.

Groundhog Day

15. If you had to repeat a day over and over, how you’d want it to go?

Breakfast of oatmeal and various fruits (banana, strawberries, blueberries, et al.) Work on Wordle and my blog. Snack on grapes. Get a massage. Lunch of eggs (prepared by someone else), toast, and cottage cheese. Read, eat an apple. Take a nap. Dinner, probably chicken, broccoli, mashed potatoes, and spinach. Attend choir rehearsal. Come home and eat apple pie a la mode while watching JEOPARDY and the news.

It doesn’t sound exciting, but playing Wordle, for instance, involves me posting my score on a Facebook page and having various online conversations with friends. Working on my blog involves reading what Kelly, Arthur, and fillyjonk are thinking and probably stealing their ideas. And naps are good!