We Should Talk About This Problem

There is a Beautiful Creature
Living in a hole you have dug.

So at night
I set fruit and grains
And little pots of wine and milk
Beside your soft earthen mounds,

And I often sing.


art by Goro Fujita

But still, my dear,
You do not come out.
I have fallen in love with Someone
Who hides inside you.

We should talk about this problem---

Otherwise,
I will never leave you alone.

-- Hafiz

via 3quarksdaily

Dana Gioia at Stanford

This has been sitting in my tabs for a few months. It may be a little dated (understatement there), but by all accounts, it is an excellent speech. Unlike Rowling's latest bit of rubbish at Harvard, along with Clinton's '07 Harvard Commencement speech and Steve Jobs' '05 speech at Stanford again, this one makes my favourites. Read it.



Dana Gioia's Commencement Speech at Stanford, '07.

Soundbites

"Fifty years ago, I suspect that along with Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Sandy Koufax, most Americans could have named, at the very least, Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Arthur Miller, Thornton Wilder, Georgia O'Keeffe, Leonard Bernstein, Leontyne Price, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Not to mention scientists and thinkers like Linus Pauling, Jonas Salk, Rachel Carson, Margaret Mead, and especially Dr. Alfred Kinsey."

Oh dear. I'm familiar with several names. And I can only recognise half of them all.

"The role of culture, however, must go beyond economics. It is not focused on the price of things, but on their value. And, above all, culture should tell us what is beyond price, including what does not belong in the marketplace. A culture should also provide some cogent view of the good life beyond mass accumulation. In this respect, our culture is failing us."

"I don't think that Americans were smarter then, but American culture was."

You don't say.

keeping balance

Article on Topol from the Telegraph.

I absolutely loved the Fiddler On the Roof (1971). It is a favourite pick for school musicals, and should therefore be very accessible to most. Remember, though, it's a film from the 70s. Not a problem for me, of course. Anyway, here are some excellent takes.

Topol plays Tevye the milkman (yeah, back then, most actors could actually sing well cough Johnny cough Depp cough Gerard ahem Butler) , a character whom I think represents the prime embodiment of Jewish self-deprecation. A buffoon, though not unintelligent, he finds sport in mocking his beliefs, and is sorely tested time and again for adhering to traditions and customs; he rediscovers the importance of love, whilst failing at keeping his family whole amidst the changing times and ways of life, and threats of pogroms and poverty.



Tradition
To Life (Derrick watch this one.)
Do you love me? A favourite of mine - excellent acting.
Sunrise, Sunset The timeless classic. Not quite my song yet.

Of course, there was a time when he sold him a horse
and Told him it was only six years old
when it was really Twelve.

The film bagged three Academy Awards. Inclusive of John Williams' first - yes THAT John (Towner) Williams - for his souped-up arrangements. Shout-out to violinists, that's Isaac Stern's playing dubbed over for the violin solos.

Back to Topol. Admittedly, I hadn't really known much about him, so the article has been quite an eye-opener. He was a Shakespearean actor, which is new, but comes as no surprise to me. He even had a healthy working relationship with Laurence Olivier to boot! ooh.

Now I've got to find some more videos.