Scorcese on Antonioni

There is a great article by Martin Scorcese on Antonioni in the New York Times today. There is also a Woody Allen article on Bergman, which is interesting but less essential.

The New Museum

I started Saturday morning with a trip to the new SAM. This car sculpture, like "Hammering Man" in the periphery, is banal and lame. The new museum is stunning.


A gorgeous Rothko.

These are french chairs from the Napoleonic/Directoire era. Behind them is a portrait of a man's family, with the man conspicuously absent, from the same era. To a contemporary audience his absence would have indicated that he was away fighting under Napoleon.

I love these objects. The chairs, while still showing all the style and beauty of classical French design, are markedly different from the ornate gilt style under Louis XVI. They show a modesty and strength befitting the time when Napoleon and the Grand Army were forced to repeatedly go abroad to defend France against the European and Asian monarchies that wanted to see the revolution fail. The painting is both a reminder of what a soldier must fight for and a celebration of that sacrifice.

It's interesting that none of the signs accompanying the exhibit included a direct reference to Napoleon. For many Americans his name is too closely associated with presently socio-politically-incorrect concepts like empire and conquest. But to many, including the French people and even the subjects of many of his enemies (like the British), Napoleon was a hero and a defender of enlightenment values and freedom.

This was my great find of the visit. Because the painting involves written media, a photo of it would not have done justice. The artist is part of a new "Abject" movement. I loved this painting and will look for more of his work. I found an interesting discussion of Abject Art here.

Faux-mo Erectus

Apparently suspicions that multiple hominid species coexisted have been confirmed. Two fossils found in Kenya have been revealed to be of Homo habilis and Homo erectus. The two fossils date to 1.44M years-old and 1.55M years old, respectively. Previously, the predominant theory had habilis as the origin of erectus but this latest report, published today in Nature and reported in the New York Times, would mean the two evolved from a common ancestor, with habilis eventually becoming extinct and erectus surviving.

The erectus skull, which is one of the least-evolved examples of the species discovered to date, is also significant in that it shows the erectus species was not as evolutionarily close to modern-day sapiens as expected. However, scientists speculate it would still realize Dane Cook is not funny.

Crime Spree

Some of you heard I got the window of my rental car shot out on I-5 on the way to Olympia last week. Looks like these guys are responsible.

Lost Two

The world lost two of its greatest film directors on the same day last week - Ingmar Bergman (top) and Michaelangelo Antonioni (above). For my favorite Bergman check out Wild Strawberries or The Silence. For Antonioni, check out L'Eclisse.

With these two joining Fellini and Kubrick in the afterlife (ahem) we are left with a much-diminished list of living film legends. Let's hope the current auteur-director renaissance (see e.g. Wes Anderson, P.T. Anderson, Von Trier, et al.) does not falter.

Welcome to The Charmed Life. It's not about me, just about things.