#arad-lite

Elena

2012-01-17T18:16:00.002+01:00

The latest film by Andrei Zvyagintsev, the director who made "The Return". "Un Certain Regard" special jury prize 2011.

Virtuoso piano playing

2011-12-26T23:27:00.002+01:00

Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no 6, played by Cziffra:

I heard this piece for the first time some weeks ago at a piano recital by Evelina Borbei in a village church. I was stunned, her hands just left some skin-coloured blurry arches in the air, she was totally consumed by the playing, I hadn't seen anything like it before.

Liszt's Campanella played by Cziffra and Valentina Lisitsa:

Shostakovich: String quartet no. 8 - Borodin Quartet

2011-12-04T09:38:00.001+01:00

Wikipedia | quartets.de | earsense

Tarr: A torinói ló

2011-12-03T23:41:00.001+01:00

The latest (and planned to be the last) film of Béla Tarr is an allegory of life in the end times. To the two main characters and the horse there is nothing else to life than hardship. The daily routine of harnessing the horse to the cart, of dressing and undressing, the meals consisting of one boiled potato are a mixture of primitive savageness and a strange minimalist dance or a ritual. One would think that ritual it there to bing meaning, but no, the only activities that break the monotony are sitting at the window, watching the wind blow the leaves, and the two glasses of palinka consumed in lieu of breakfast."The plot" consists of six days of utter monotony in a farmhouse of an old man with a paralyzed right arm, his daughter and their horse while outside the wind blows wilder and stronger every day. Things go from bad to worse. The horse stops eating its hay and refuses to pull the cart. The second day a neighbor comes to resupply on palinka and he talks about the loss of the goodness, of the nobility of spirit, of the corruption and ruin of world. Next a cart comes, gypsies are looking for water. They stop at the well, but it is obvious that they are not welcome. The image of the disabled man wielding the ax is ridiculous and terrifying in the same time. They give a book to the daughter "for the water" and flee chanting obscenities and maledictions. The girl reads out a text about the interdiction of performing rituals in desacralized spaces. Next day the well dries out. In desperation they try to flee, but they return as abruptly as they leave, and there is no explicit reason given for the return. Finally permanent darkness descends.The film consists of 30 long shots with unusual framing and camera movements. The soundtrack is either winds howling, or a counterpoint of two minimalist themes, one melancholic and one menacing. It is an apocalyptic vision, deeply pessimistic and defeatist. Event the trailer consists of a single shot of an oil lamp going out.

La buticul... | Wikipedia | rottentomatoes

Harpsichord

2011-11-30T10:56:00.003+01:00

Stumbled upon this harpsichord piece while watching Bruno Dumont's L'humanité. I thought "this is not baroque, this must be a modern composer writing for the harpsichord". Some parts sound like rock on harpsichord. Some parts like Vivaldi's Winter. I was quite surprised to discover that the composer, Pancrace Royer, lived in full rococo period. Check out other pieces by him on youtube, this is not baroque. Sometimes it sounds like a dance composed for organ and played on harpsichord.

The Art of Violin, The Art of Piano, The Art of Conducting

2011-11-29T10:31:00.001+01:00

An informal trilogy on the two most prominent solo instruments and on the art of conduction. Contemporary musicians candidly evoke and praise their colleagues an predecessors.Perlmann on the individual sound of early and mid twentieth century violinists:

Perlmann on Menuhin:

Oistrakh's cadenza for Shostakovich's Violin Concerto:

Menuhin plays the Ciaccona from the d-moll Partita:

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

2011-11-20T22:49:00.001+01:00

imdb

The film I've liked most so far in 2011.

Koren Ensemble

2011-11-20T17:12:00.002+01:00

11/11/11

Modernist Cuisine: Crazy Striped Duxelles Omelette

2011-10-28T22:24:00.002+02:00

I know you first taste your food with your eyes, but this is a bit overboard.

I'd expect King Louie to eat that, not someone who needs "confidence to cook in his home".
I'm also a bit suspicious about the "frozen egg-yolk from the health-store" and the powdered whole eggs in the siphon - who eats that AND Duxelles? Those artists!
Anyway, I'll make it, and I'll even save for the book!
Full recipe here.

Robert Doisneau

2011-10-25T21:32:00.000+02:00

Doisneau captured few unbelievable images on the streets of Paris. The excerpt below is from three-volume documentary film Contacts, part one: The Great Tradition of Photojournalism. He talks about the inner story or rather the self-narrative of the photographer taking some some of his well known pictures.

Photos at Staley Wise, Masters of Photography, Site officiel.

short film festival of Nice 2011 (France)

2011-10-22T21:19:00.006+02:00

Big Bang Big Boom by Blu (Wow! For the beauty of gesture...)

External World by David O'Reilly (A little crazy, very funny.)

The Kinematograph by Tomasz Bagiński _trailer (Wonderful and so poetic idea.)

L'oeil du Paon by Gerlando Infuso (Dark eroticism.)

The lost town of Świteź by Kamil Polak_trailer ( My favorite one, a masterpiece! A film that refers to the icons and painting.)

Baroque music

2011-10-22T13:00:00.000+02:00

Short text

2011-10-22T12:54:00.001+02:00

În aceeași vena culinară: gogoneaua obraznică

Tapenade

2011-10-21T23:44:00.010+02:00

O rețetă tributară ca origine regiunii franceze Provence, tapeno cică înseamnă capere, who knew?

*Ingrediente:*

• 1 kilo măsline prima (din care-o fi: verzi, negre, maro – culoarea se reglează din proporţia de măsline – cea mai frumoasă culoare a ieşit pe proporțiile 1:1:2), fără sâmburi, lăsate o noapte/24 ore în apă ca să se desăreze – se ia în mână bob cu bob şi se verifică de fragmente de sâmbure daca exista premisa că nu-s bine “dezosate” . Cam o mânuţă de măsline se pune deoparte, pentru decorațiuni.
• 30 ml ulei de măsline
• cam 100 gr assorted migdale/caju/miezi de semințe de bostan
• piper negru proaspăt măcinat, “to taste”
• 3 căței mari de usturoi
• roşii uscate la soare în ulei, trei feliuțe
• sucul de la o jumătate de lamâie
• Capere, anchois – nu ne plac, le-am eliminat. Experimentaţi!
• Manchego românesc – Brândză de capră fermentată HOREZU de la „5 continents” – n-am cântarit, cam cât doua cutii de chibrituri, tăiata bucăţele de dimensiunea unui cub de zahăr cubic.
• MIERE (dacă-s prea sărate măslinele, câte o linguriţă până devine gustoasă)

Mod de preparare
Se pun măslinele in robot, ulei cât să nu macine lama doar ingredientele uscate, iar apoi restul de ulei in firicel subțire în timp ce merge motorul. Mix pe viteză maximă până devine uniform, dar nu prea fin. Se adaugă brânza, nucile şi măslinele care au rămas. Se mai dau câteva pulsuri de putere la robot. Ideal ar fi să rămână mici fragmente care să păcălească limba/cerul gurii.
Dacă nu se consuma produsul pe loc se poate adaugă puțin ulei deasupra, ca să formeze o peliculă ce împiedica procesele de oxidare si contactul cu bacteriile (incinta vidată e la fel de bună). Dacă stă mult, uleiul acela devine inestetic si trebuie amestecat înainte de servire. Cam într-o săptămână fermentează, nu exageraţi!

Rameau: Pièces de clavecin en concert N° 5

2011-10-08T07:48:00.000+02:00

Avishai Cohen

2011-10-08T00:54:00.004+02:00

Avishai Cohen trio (2011 tour - besame mucho cover) Incredible jazzmen!!!

This remembered me a wonderful Nice Jazz Festival evening.

Pergolesi: Stabat mater

2011-10-04T23:55:00.001+02:00

With Vivica Genaux (of Vivaldi Pyrotechnics fame) and Sabina Puertolas at Saint Denis, 23 june 2009: Link to Youtube playlist

EDIT: an interesting piece on Pergolesi's Stabat Mater and the Politics of Feminine Virtute: PDF.

In film nist/ This is not a film/ Ceci n'est pas un film

2011-10-01T02:54:00.002+02:00

A fantastic testimony by Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb.
This is the most incredible motion picture (or not) of the year! Today, some iranian films are distributed all wide world, but some filmmakers seem disturbing the autorities of their country, then they are severely punished. It's interesting, isn't it? They discribed the complexity and questionning of their society with their sight, their images, their art. Their ideas fly away... sometimes ideas are downloading on usb, hiding in a cake, crossing frontiers. So, this is not a film but a little miracle! Lucky we are!
This isn't a simple lesson of cinema, this is a manifesto. Jafar Panahi dissects his work, his mind, his way of life and the creation state. Creation is action, an act of resisting, a question of life and death. Maybe his last desperate act, the ultimate creation of a man, an artist, when everything's forbidden...
This documentary film is on political, cultural and justice issues, of course, but the crucial point is: what is the future of iranian youth?
imdb

The Ape

2011-09-30T23:26:00.003+02:00

Are un scor infim pe imdb. Dupa mine, complet nemeritat. Iti da hints, dar nu-ti spune nimic, e foarte bine realizat, personajul, atmosfera, tensiunea, confuzia personajului. Si chiar si frustrarea de la final are farmecul ei, ii da personalitate.

imdb

Le Chat du Rabbin / The Rabbi's cat

2011-09-29T02:14:00.002+02:00

Philosophical and deeply humanistic, the Joann Sfar's film is also very funny. This animated film is an adaptation of his comic.
trailer

Morgen

2011-09-28T01:59:00.002+02:00

A film by Marian Crisan.
IMDb
trailer

PERIFERIC

2011-09-23T01:25:00.002+02:00

An unsparing Bogdan George Apetri's film.

Alfred Brendel on his Collected Poems

2011-09-06T11:06:00.000+02:00

Brendel: Most things are ambiguous. Ambiguity is a very important matter anyway.
[...]
Stokes: What would you want your readers to take away from this volume?
Brendel: This was a difficult question [so] I made a note. It said: a sense of ambiguity [laughts], the pleasure of being disquieted [hhh] and err.. enjoyment of lucidity plus weirdness [smiles satisfied].

Ligeti: Etude 13: L'escalier du diable

2011-09-05T03:20:00.000+02:00

Other intepretations: a flashy one with bad audio by Greg Anderson and a good one with an awful video.

Terry Eagleton: On Evil

2011-08-31T21:00:00.000+02:00

Quote:

The modern age has witnessed what one might call a transition from the soul to the psyche. Or, if one prefers, from theology to psychoanalysis. There are many senses in which the latter is a stand-in for the former. Both are narratives of human desire - though for religious faith that desire can finally be consummated in the kingdom of God, whereas for psychoanalysis it must remain tragically unappeased. In this sense, psychoanalysis is the science of human discontent. But so, too, is theology. With Freud, repression and neurosis play the role of what Christians have traditionally known as original sin. In each case, human beings are seen as born in sickness. But they are thereby not beyond redemption. Happiness is not beyond our grasp; it is just that it requires of us a traumatic breaking down and remaking, for which the Christian term is conversion. Both sets of belief investigate phenomena which finally outstrip the bounds of human knowledge, whether you call this the enigmatic unconscious or an unfathomable God.

The introductory chapter of the book in the New Statesman: Of men and monsters.
Reviews: Susan K. Hedahl | AC Grayling | Richard Coles | Amazon

The Bothersome Man – Den brysomme mannen

2011-08-26T13:49:00.002+02:00

imdb

Beethoven: Große Fuge

2011-08-21T21:32:00.001+02:00

youtube | wikipedia

Régis Jauffret: Microfictiuni

2011-07-29T12:40:00.001+02:00

Romanul contine 500 de scene de viata urite, povestite de obicei la persoana intii. O comedie cruda, plina de singuratate, amariciune, frustrare si resemnare.
Carturesti | Excepte

Hadaka no shima / L'île nue

2011-06-26T20:24:00.002+02:00

A Kaneto Shindo's masterpiece!

Carrousel des Moutons

2011-06-23T00:22:00.007+02:00

D'irque & Fien is a belgian street theatre company (circus). This show is poetic and funny.

Norwegian Wood

2011-06-23T00:06:00.002+02:00

Tran Anh Hung's film

Sin retorno

2011-06-17T10:48:00.002+02:00

E un film "de festival", fara sa fie un film "de arta", sa faca un statement about art or life. Spune un story, dar, imho, o spune bine. Apeleaza la sentimente that we feel strong about, gen justice, retribution, stie sa te tina captat si te face sa te intrebi de ce esti captat, de ce you feel so strongly about ce se intimpla acolo pe ecran.

imdb

Nader and Simin: A Separation

2011-06-10T11:36:00.002+02:00

A fresh (and imho very good) Iranian film, in a way atypical, if typical are the Kiarostami films. A sort of moral tale (ok, that's typical of Iranian films, if I think of Tehroun), a sort of Greek tragedy with Oriental/ethnic/religious tones, shown with gripping, mounting, never-yielding tension. Very good acting by all of them, especially Peyman Moaadi playing Nader.

If I'm being picky, I am unable to tell if it has propagandistic tones. Somehow the official justice is too exotic, it is almost unbelievable that it is delivered as pictured. And also, despite the fact that the film depicts tension, conflict, and drama continuously for two hours, I had the feeling the film is careful to suggest a societal harmony, that characters accept their condition, the culture, the society, the strict religious frame and moral, the well-defined roles of men, women, judges, doctors, elders, teachers, schools, police, that the conflict develops withing this accepted frame. Or maybe I am just picky.

dilema.

To Signal Is Human

2011-05-27T09:15:00.000+02:00

Abstract:

Decades of research in social psychology have captured the surprising ability of people to “read” one another. In contexts as different as evaluating classroom teachers, selecting job applicants or foretelling jury decisions, accurate human judgments can be made on the basis of extremely thin slices of observational data. Across a wide range of studies, psychologists find that research subjects on average accurately predict outcomes in such pursuits 70 percent of the time. That success rate holds when predicting end results occurring days, weeks or even months later.
How is this possible? My theory is that our ability to read each other starts with what are known in biology as honest signals. Evolutionary models predict that social species are likely to develop honest signals, a reliable communication system that serves to coordinate behavior between individuals. Typically the signals include gestures, expressions and calls. Not only are they generally trustworthy cues, honest signals are also unusual because they trigger changes in people receiving the signals, changes that are advantageous to the people who send them.

The reprint is here.

Attenberg

2011-04-22T19:38:00.002+02:00

Un film grecesc about a virgin late-blooming 23 yo girl intr-un oras industrial pe malul marii. Sint trei-patru personaje. Ea, prietena ei "promiscuous", cum o caracterizeaza the imdb reviewer, tatal ei bolnav terminal, si un tip cu care ea incearca sa aiba un fel de relatie.

Filmul imi pare highly idiosyncratic, cu niste scene abrupte, ne-explicate, si parca indelung studiat. Midway te intrebi what it is about. Si cred ca e about her bond with her father, afirmarea ei inceata si treptata, somewhat tortuous, in acelasi timp cu stingerea la fel de inceata si treptata a tatalui.

imdb
NYT

David Markson: The Last Novel

2011-04-10T18:47:00.000+02:00

A book written as a series of quotations, aphorisms, gossips and references, and a listing of birth or death dates and burial places of artists. The cross-references in the text among all the "copy-paste" material are sometimes quite strong and evoke vividly the state of the mind of the aging anonymous Novelist, his preoccupations, obsessions, fears and regrets. Some random quotes:

When I die, I open a bordello. You know what is a bordello, no? But against every on of you - all - I lock shut the door.
Said Arturo Toscanini, to a recalcitrant orchestra.

Wondering when and where the last causal streetcorner conversation in Latin might have taken place.

A quack, Vladimir Nabokov called Thomas Mann.
A complete mediocrity - D.H. Lawrence.
That total fake - Ezra Pound.
Despicable, loathsome, sick, third-rate - Dostoievsky.

Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.
Said Voltaire - describing opera.

The avant-garde. A kind of research and development arm of the culture industry, the critic Thomas Crowe called it.

Borges' vision of Paradise:
A kind of library.

M. Flaubert n'est pas un écrivain.
Said Le Figaro of Madame Bovary.

Reviews at the bookslut and the quarterly conversation.

Trio Fratres: Model (a Kraftwerk cover)

2011-04-06T04:44:00.002+02:00

This association of the the main tune on accordion and the slow motion Finnish folk dancers is quite fascinating:

For reference: the original in German and English, and Rammstein's version.

Bernstein: Norton lectures

2011-03-16T20:47:00.001+01:00

Published as The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard. Excerpt on Mozart's 40th symphony, from the first lecture:

second and tird parts.

Ford Madox Ford: The Good Soldier

2011-02-27T16:37:00.000+01:00

Jane Smiley @ The Guardian:

The Good Soldier is an odd and maybe even unique book. That it is a masterpiece, almost a perfect novel, comes as a repeated surprise even to readers who have read it before. [...]
The story seems simple. Two wealthy couples, one American and one English, meet at a spa in Germany and spend several years in comfortable friendship until it is revealed that the American wife and the English husband are carrying on an affair that the English wife knows about but the American husband does not. After the deaths of the adulterers, more and more is uncovered about both the conduct and the emotional meaning of the affair.

Felicia, înainte de toate

2011-02-19T09:32:00.002+01:00

dilema, imdb

The Next Grand Challenge

2011-02-14T21:48:00.003+01:00

IBM Watson is an "analytics" (read: artificial intelligence, but that's a bad world since the nineties) that's going to play against human opponents in the Jeopardy game today evening. If it wins, the event is comparable in significance to the moment when Beep Blue beat Kasparov.
>> the next grand challenge

Avison/Scarlatti - Concerto Grosso No. 3 in D Minor

2011-02-12T22:09:00.001+01:00

L'illusionniste

2011-02-12T21:36:00.001+01:00

"Le bon Dieu est dans le detail."
rt

Handel: Ariodante

2011-02-06T22:13:00.002+01:00

Jaroussky's Scherza Infida. The same by Magdalena Kozená, Joyce DiDonato and some commentary from her. Finally, a commentary by Minkowski and von Otter.

Locatelli - Concerto Grosso XI

2011-02-03T09:36:00.000+01:00

I. Largo
II. Allemanda
III. Sarabanda
IV. Giga

Martin Jacques: Understanding the rise of China

2011-01-25T20:19:00.001+01:00

The presenter argues that the rise of China cannot be understood in western terms and proposes three main concepts to underline the difference: culture state (versus nation state), the understanding of race and the fundamental and unchallenged role of the state in society.

for full view: link to the TED talk

Gamelan gong keybar

2011-01-20T08:28:00.000+01:00

Senses of Cinema: 2010 World Poll

2011-01-18T22:02:00.003+01:00

A very long list to chew on: 2010 World Poll.

(Should the URL change over time: Archive -> Issue 57)

Žižek: Good Manners in the Age of WikiLeaks

2011-01-15T14:21:00.001+01:00

The question is why, at this precise moment, is there this renewed need for a lie to maintain the social system?

Link to the piece on the London Review of Books.

Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior

2011-01-12T21:38:00.001+01:00

Not exactly a good piece of writing. The title is editorializing. It might however convey a mentality that is by no means exclusive to the Chinese.
Link to the WSJ article.

Rameau: Les Indes galantes, Les Sauvages

2011-01-10T22:44:00.001+01:00

An other instance of "it is played for entertainment": The rondeau of the Savages. And then da capo. Minkowski's take:

The disposable academic.

2011-01-08T19:48:00.002+01:00

Quote: Academics tend to regard asking whether a PhD is worthwhile as analogous to wondering whether there is too much art or culture in the world. They believe that knowledge spills from universities into society, making it more productive and healthier. That may well be true; but doing a PhD may still be a bad choice for an individual.

link to the Economist article

[thanks stroe]

Rameau, Platée, Scène de La Folie

2011-01-07T22:57:00.000+01:00

Mireille Delunsch overdoes it, exactly as it is supposed to be overdone:

(youtube)
With a commentary from the conductor:

(youtube)

Cultivated Play: Farmville

2011-01-04T19:21:00.002+01:00

Quote:

The secret to Farmville’s popularity is neither gameplay nor aesthetics. Farmville is popular because in entangles users in a web of social obligations. When users log into Facebook, they are reminded that their neighbors have sent them gifts, posted bonuses on their walls, and helped with each others’ farms. In turn, they are obligated to return the courtesies. [...] gifts are never free: they bind the giver and receiver in a loop of reciprocity. It is rude to refuse a gift, and ruder still to not return the kindness. We play Farmville, then, because we are trying to be good to one another. We play Farmville because we are polite, cultivated people.

link

Xavier de Maistre: Voyage autour de ma chambre

2010-12-30T20:04:00.002+01:00

First I thought it was a book by Versa's idol, the Harpist. I was nearly disappointed to find that he has a XVIII century homonym. But then, to quote the Catholic Encyclopedia, the book:

is a delightful chat with the reader, filled with delicate observations, in which an artless grace, humour, and spontaneous wit are wedded to a gentle and somewhat dreamy philosophy.

The full text in French.

Pascal Bruckner: L'Euphorie perpétuelle : Essai sur le devoir de bonheur

2010-12-29T11:28:00.000+01:00

From the editorial review:

Happiness today is not just a possibility or an option but a requirement and a duty. To fail to be happy is to fail utterly. Happiness has become a religion--one whose smiley-faced god looks down in rebuke upon everyone who hasn't yet attained the blessed state of perpetual euphoria. How has a liberating principle of the Enlightenment--the right to pursue happiness--become the unavoidable and burdensome responsibility to be happy? How did we become unhappy about not being happy--and what might we do to escape this predicament? In Perpetual Euphoria, Pascal Bruckner takes up these questions with all his unconventional wit, force, and brilliance, arguing that we might be happier if we simply abandoned our mad pursuit of happiness.

Milan Kundera: Testaments Betrayed, An Essay in Nine Parts

2010-12-29T10:25:00.002+01:00

Google cache of a NYT review
Amazon customer reviews

Reading Strauss in Beijing

2010-12-16T22:57:00.003+01:00

China's strange taste in Western philosophers

I began asking about his summer plans, eventually steering the conversation to the subject of English immersion programs, which I suggested he look into. “Why?” he asked. A little flummoxed, I said the obvious thing: that mastering English would allow him to engage with foreign scholars and advance his career at home. He smiled in a slightly patronizing way and said, “I am not so sure.” Now fully flummoxed, I asked what he would be doing instead. “Oh, I will do language, but Latin, not English.” It was my turn to ask why. “I think it very important we study Romans, not just Greeks. Romans built an empire over many centuries. We must learn from them.”

Antares

2010-12-12T23:55:00.002+01:00

An Austrian film about three couples: a Schubert-Rachmaninoff listening middle-class single-childed family; a supermarket girl-Yugoslavian working-class guy couple; a woman and her abusive ex-husband who tries to strong-arm her into a reunion. imdb

And if you're interested by Austrian cinema (especially their flavour of German *grin*) then you may check Slumming too.

La Mosquitera

2010-12-12T19:53:00.006+01:00

La Mosquitera—imdb page. The film I liked most out of some good films I've seen at the Rencontres cinématographiques de Cannes. Most characters do some ersatz-acts, refulations, that go against their stated intentions or acknowledged desires.

And other films:

Neds—imdb page. A Peter Mullan film about unruly working-class teenagers in 1970s' Glasgow. Mullan also plays the alcoholic father character, something of autobiographic resonance, according to wikipedia.

Winter's bone—imdb page. An American drama-thriller-type movie, with a little of a holier-than-thou main character. The rural Missouri atmosphere rocks though.

La mujer sin piano—imdb page. Kinda cryptic film about a bored housewife who dons a whig, high-heels and suitcase and sneeks out one night on the streets of Madrid. Not much happens but it is intriguing. Maybe slightly pretentious, somehow cryptic or unexplained sudden high-volume music or scenes (the piano playing) that are difficult to interpret or make sense of. The director discusses it here.

BBC Four - Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany

2010-12-10T18:48:00.000+01:00

On youtube, starting with part 1 of 6.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

2010-12-07T09:29:00.000+01:00

nyt review:

What they [the viewers] find is, like Banksy’s best work, a trompe l’oeil: a film that looks like a documentary but feels like a monumental con.

and another one.

Masters of Photography: Diane Arbus

2010-12-03T20:53:00.001+01:00

"Going Where I've Never Been - The Photography of Diane Arbus"
part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4

Two quotes:

[...] I mean, if you've ever spoken with someone with two heads, you know that they know something you don't. Most people thread through life [...]

Freaks were born with their trauma, they already passed their test in life, they're aristocrats [...]

Sergei Rachmaninoff plays his Piano Concerto No. 2

2010-11-29T21:27:00.004+01:00

I still cannot tell if this late romantic is a genius or a shameless poser. The latter seems more likely :-P (expecially in the third movement)

I. Moderato

Singing Mozart operas while driving

2010-11-23T11:45:00.002+01:00

I cannot abstain from posting this, probably because I used to do something similar (without the opera singer companion, tho :P ). I wonder if this is not actually the music of Mozart stripped to its bare bones, distilled to its fifth essence.
Mozart "Le Nozze di Figaro" Duettino (Cinque, Dieci)
Mozart "Le Nozze di Figaro" duettino "Via Resti Servita"
Driving while singing "Cosi fan Tutte" (Mozart)

Janáček: Jenůfa

2010-11-21T17:24:00.000+01:00

wikipedia | musical synopsis

Chris Marker: Sans Soleil

2010-11-17T01:24:00.000+01:00

Semi-random excerpts on youtube: first, second, third.

Transsiberian

2010-11-16T22:38:00.000+01:00

ebert | rottentomatoes

Spike Lee: 25th Hour

2010-11-13T21:22:00.001+01:00

ebert | reviews at rottentomatoes

Lunch with M.

2010-11-08T06:47:00.001+01:00

Undercover with a Michelin inspector

“It’s not really a ‘like’ and a ‘not like,’ ” she said. “It’s an analysis. You’re eating it and you’re looking for the quality of the products.

"It is played for entertainment"

2010-11-04T21:20:00.000+01:00

Don Giovanni at the 2010 Aix-en-Provence festival (again)

2010-10-28T07:48:00.003+02:00

The Don Giovanni from the 2010 Aix-en-Provence festival is on the youtubes. Don't miss the most savage Già la mensa è preparata ever. In the standard scenery, Leporello serves Don Giovanni the supper. Here, insetead of food, the opposite gender si sampeld. In the context of the opera, making the shift from culinary to bedroom apetites explicit in this scene is pure genius.

At the end of the show, this is what the public had to say to the director.

The Island / Остров

2010-10-17T21:13:00.005+02:00

Pavel Lungin's film

Santa Sangre

2010-10-17T20:53:00.002+02:00

Alejandro Jodorowsky's film

discutie intre Gabriel Liiceanu si Herta Müller

2010-10-11T21:21:00.004+02:00

discutia lui Gabriel Liiceanu cu Herta Müller

The Great Mortgage Mystery

2010-10-11T19:08:00.000+02:00

The big question from the mortgage meltdown isn't why so many distressed homeowners are defaulting on their loans. It's why any of them are still making payments.

Im Winter ein Jahr

2010-10-06T12:33:00.003+02:00

Carolin Link's a year in winter.
Finally a movie which shows the mourning from the point of view of the sibship.

Roland Barthes: Plăcerea textului

2010-10-05T23:51:00.001+02:00

Trebuie sa recunosc ca nu inteleg prea multe din structuralism si post-structurlaism. Dar m'au prins citeva remarci, ca de exemplu:

Un text despre placere nu poate fi altfel decit scurt (cum se spune: asta e tot? e nitel cam scurt) [...] Asemanatoare acelor productii ale artei contemporane, care-si epuizeaza necesitatea de indata ce le-ai vazut (caci a le vedea inseamna a intelege de indata scopul distructiv cu care sint expuse: nu se mai afla in ele nici o durata contemplativa sau delectativa) [...]

Sa fii cu persoana pe care o iubesti si sa te gindesti la altceva: asa imi vin gindurile cele mai bune, asa inventez cel mai bine ceea ce este necesar muncii mele. La fel si cu textul: el produce in mine placerea deplina daca izbuteste sa se lase ascultat in chip indirect; daca citindu-l, sint antrenat sa-mi ridic adesea capul, sa sa aud altceva. Nu sint in chip necesar captivat de textul de placere; poate fi un act usor, compelx, firav, apropae stins: o miscare brusca a capului, precum aceea a unei pasari care nu aude nimic din ceea ce ascultam noi, care asculta ceea ce noi nu auzim.

[...] Supravietuiesc numai sistemele (fictiunile, graiurile) destul de inventive pentu a produce a ultima figura, aceea care il marcheaza pe adversar cu o vocabula pe jumatate stiintifica, pe jumatate etica, un soi de sfirleaza care ingaduie in acelasi timp sa constati, sa explici, sa condamni, sa versi, sa recuperezi inamicul, intr-un cuvint: sa il faci sa plateasca. La fel, intre altele, cu anumite vulgate: cu vorbirea marxista pentru care orice opozitie este de clasa; cu cea psihanalitica pentru care orice negatie e o marturisire; cu cea crestina pentru care orice refuz e o cautare [...]

Farewell My Concubine

2010-09-05T15:39:00.000+02:00

Ebert:

The film flows with such urgency that all its connections seem logical. And it is filmed with such visual splendor that possible objections are swept aside.

From rottentomatoes:

Appropriately operatic, Chen's visually spectacular epic is sumptuous in every respect. Intelligent, enthralling, rhapsodic.

El otro

2010-08-31T00:06:00.000+02:00

"A moving existential road movie"
trailer

Monteverdi - Lamento della Ninfa

2010-08-26T08:50:00.002+02:00

Or watch it in HD and with stereo sound.

Susan Sontag: Notes On "Camp"

2010-08-09T16:00:00.000+02:00

Many things in the world have not been named; and many things, even if they have been named, have never been described. One of these is the sensibility -- unmistakably modern, a variant of sophistication but hardly identical with it -- that goes by the cult name of "Camp." more >>

Peter Gay: Modernism: The Lure of Heresy

2010-08-08T09:17:00.002+02:00

A very readable history of modernism told partially in anecdotes. Perhaps a bit many things explained through Freud's ideas. A reviewer that I cannot track down at the moment wrote that it contains all that one needs to shine at cocktail-party conversations about modern art. A thorough review in the NYT here.

Kimmo Pohjonen and the Kronos Quartet: Uniko

2010-07-26T09:52:00.000+02:00

A collaboration between Kronos Quartet and a Finnish accordionist who reminds me of Lajkó Félix in stlye. Parts 1 to 8 on youtube starting from here.

Mozart: Don Giovanni

2010-07-06T18:15:00.003+02:00

A rather controversial mise-en-scène for the Aix-en-Provence festival by Russian director Dmitri Tcherniakov. (That is: he was booed off the scene at the final applause.) His vision indeed oscillates between preposterous and genius. The orchestra, conductor and the voices are on the other hand clearly good or very good. Full replay of the 5. July live broadcast available on demand from the arte.tv site here.
(thnx srn)

Francesco Rosi: Cristo si è fermato a Eboli

2010-06-28T01:37:00.001+02:00

rt | wp | review

Philip Zimbardo on perceiving time

2010-06-27T20:29:00.000+02:00

on youtube

Tony Judt: Ill Fares the Land

2010-06-26T10:04:00.000+02:00

Something is profoundly wrong with the way we live today. For thirty years we have made a virtue out of the pursuit of material self-interest: indeed, this very pursuit now constitutes whatever remains of our sense of collective purpose. We know what things cost but have no idea what they are worth. We no longer ask of a judicial ruling or a legislative act: Is it good? Is it fair? Is it just? Is it right? Will it help bring about a better society or a better world? Those used to be the political questions, even if they invited no easy answers. We must learn once again to pose them.

The first chapter of the book.

Peter Sloterdijk: Reguli pentru parcul uman

2010-06-19T08:26:00.001+02:00

English: Rules for the Human Zoo (download the pdf)
Romana: Reguli pentur parcul uman
"The scandal", a commentary on the 'Rules...'

They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?

2010-06-10T09:28:00.001+02:00

The 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films
The 1,000 Greatest Films
and more at They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?

portnoy's complaint

2010-06-03T10:18:00.001+02:00

by Philip Roth.

[thnx mhl]

scenes from north korea

2010-06-03T10:16:00.000+02:00

bbc

recenzie la "Ca picăturile de sînge pe linoleumul din lift (supraroman)"

2010-05-29T10:48:00.000+02:00

dilema

recenzie la volum de poezii de Cartarescu

2010-05-29T10:27:00.002+02:00

dilema

Review-ul nu zice cumva nimic nou dar e refreshing sa ti se spuna familiarul sa fii "confirmat" cumva.

The Secret of Kells

2010-05-19T22:33:00.001+02:00

simply beautiful !

LEBANON

2010-05-12T20:07:00.001+02:00

Samuel Maoz

"No program can say what another will do"

2010-05-06T09:07:00.000+02:00

A proof of the halting problem, in verse.

Andrzej Zaniewski: Sobolanul

2010-04-28T08:27:00.000+02:00

O poveste cruda a vietii unui sobolan impins irezistibil intii inspre calatorii si cautari, la fiecare pas terorizat de predatori si semeni, fara scrupule in fata celor mai slabi ca el, iar la sfirsit obsedat de intoarcerea la cuib. Postfata autorului sugereaza o inclinatie buddhista, ceeace excplica oarecum detasarea cu care sint povestite cele mai sumbre scene din viata sobolanului.

Cu fiecare pagina, descoperim cu groaza si mila tragedia antica, fata umana sub masca bestialitatii si mitul indaratul anecdotei sordide.
Paul-Jean Franceschini, L'Express

An Economy of Liars

2010-04-20T20:23:00.000+02:00

Article in the Wall Street Journal.

Sufi Soul - The Mystic Music of Islam

2010-04-17T21:46:00.001+02:00

part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5