Culture – Page 8 – Scripturient

Fire and Fury reviewed

Dysfunctional. Childish. Self-centred. Narcissistic. Ideologically myopic. Illiterate. Cranky. Capricious. Arrogant. Scheming. Petty. Ill-educated. No, I’m not writing about our local council (although, yes, all those words apply equally to The Block). These are some of the words that came to mind as I read Michael Wolff’s book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. Dysfunctional popped into my mind most often as Wolff described the lurching, staggering, fumbling and bumbling of Trump’s staff and family advisers after their unexpected – and for some unwanted – victory. (I know: curiously coincidental how that description also echoes our own council’s meandering, ……… click below for more ↓

Does poetry make things happen in 2018?

2018-01-18 2018-02-06 Arts / Culture / Literature / Poetry & Lyrics / PoliticsLeave a comment

I was thinking about how little poets seem to matter to modern political administrations. Maybe to modern society as a whole. Their light has, it seems, been waning for several decades as our collective attention shifts. I was thinking about what an odd, awkward fit it would be for a poet to be invited to today’s anti-literacy White House. Would he or she have to start each conversation with the question “Have you read…” dreading the answer would be a blank stare, a silent shake of the head and the turning of eyes to smartphones and TVs blaring Faux News. ……… click below for more ↓

Shin Godzilla: the reboot

2017-12-13 2023-04-28 Culture / Fables / Film & Reviews / Godzilla / Legends & Myths / Personal Reminiscences / Philosophy3 Comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk7KaxjTz-0 I’m almost embarrassed to admit that, of all the Godzilla films I’ve watched, I can recall the exact details of few. I cannot remember, just by looking at the title, which monsters were battling which. I need to look at the slipcase cover to see a picture to remind me which foe Godzilla was battling this time. Or foes, because there’s often more than one. In many ways, I prefer the original premise: a single Godzilla versus the world rather than Godzilla versus other monsters. Easier to keep track of the players that way. But that hasn’t happened in ……… click below for more ↓

War for the Planet of the Apes considered

2017-12-11 2018-02-04 Culture / Faith / Film & ReviewsLeave a comment

Pierre Boulle never imagined War for the Planet of the Apes, the latest film in the remade franchise. In fact, it would be fair to say the author of the original book never imagined any of the series, from the first in 1968 to the latest, released in 2017. They were far, far from what he had envisioned in the early 1960s. Warning: spoilers ahead. Boulle’s 1963 novel, Monkey Planet, was basically a satire and a social commentary. And it wasn’t based in America: the astronauts came from France (and their last view on landing was of the Eiffel Tower ……… click below for more ↓

Gojira, the original kaiju

2017-12-06 2023-04-20 Culture / Film & Reviews / Godzilla / Legends & Myths / Personal Reminiscences4 Comments

At the end of most Godzilla films, the audience is led to believe the giant reptile has finally been killed off. Blown up, defeated by another monster, killed by technology, sunk to the bottom of the ocean or suffered some similar fate. And yet there he*** is, hale and hearty in the next film, rampaging through Japan once again, and facing yet another kaiju (giant monster) – or often several. After 32 films, Godzilla still comes back. And so do I.* I was thinking about Godzilla this week, today in particular. This is the 100th anniversary of the Halifax Explosion. ……… click below for more ↓

The death of community newspapers

2017-11-29 2017-11-29 Collingwood / Local history / Media2 Comments

In 1857 – a year before Collingwood was incorporated as a town – John Hogg launched the Enterprise. The first local newspaper started its presses. In 1870, David Robson launched its first competitor: the Bulletin. In 1881, the Bulletin was sold to William Williams and J.G. Hand. William’s 17-year-old son, David (later a town mayor), joined the paper in 1886. After the Great Depression, citing financial reasons, the two papers merged: The Enterprise-Bulletin was born. It printed its own paper, as well as being a printer for community events, flyers, brochures and even personal publications. In the 1960s, owner Jack ……… click below for more ↓

Guillermo, monsters and me

2017-11-17 2023-04-28 Arts / Culture / Film & Reviews / Godzilla / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Pop CultureOne Comment

Tucked away at the bottom of a tall display case in the ‘At Home With Monsters’ exhibit at the AGO is a small collection of seven old, well-thumbed books, all by the 19th century French naturalist and entomologist, Jean-Henri Fabre. At the very bottom of the pile, its title almost hidden in the shadows, is The Life of the Spider, first translated into English in 1913, but not translated again until 1971. The books subtly reflect the importance director and artist Guillermo del Toro places on insects in his works. He calls them “living metaphors” and adds, “They are so ……… click below for more ↓

Collingwood’s first post-literate council

2017-10-05 2017-10-05 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Literature / Planning & Policies / Poetry & Lyrics / Political fads / Reading & Literacy2 Comments

At the Corporate & Community Services standing committee meeting this week, the committee discussed the Art on the Street festival, its operation and management to be taken over by the BIA. That’s probably a good thing because any affinity to culture and cultural events at the council table evaporated early this term. A cup of yogurt has more culture in it than The Block has. The whole ‘cultural economy’ thing and all the benefits that cultural tourism can bring has simply flown away this term.* That report led to a discussion of a local Word on the Street festival, a ……… click below for more ↓

Kong and his films

2017-10-02 2023-04-28 Culture / Film & Reviews / Godzilla / Media / Pop Culture4 Comments

Kong: Skull Island is the 19th movie in my collection about apes.* Or at least ape-ish creatures (not including those about cave people or yetis). We watched the recently-released Kong: Skull Island this past weekend, even devouring all of the special features on the second disc. I give Kong: Skull Island second place in the great ape/Kong pantheon because it’s well done, fun, action-packed, and not nearly as bloated as Peter Jackson’s 2005 epic. Despite some lukewarm or critical reviews, it’s worth watching and collecting if your taste are in any way similar to mine. Films of this ilk are meant ……… click below for more ↓

Legends of Horror

2017-09-17 2017-09-16 Culture / Film & Reviews / Musings / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

Legends of Horror is the title of one multi-DVD collections of films I own. Fifty films in this package. They’re B-films for the most part (and a few of lesser quality), dating from 1927 (silent) to 1980, mostly in B&W, but those dating from the mid-1960s on are usually colour. The collection title is misleading: it’s really a mix of early horror, mystery and suspense. It’s one of several similar sets and single DVDs that make up my personal collection of B films (a very few, but far from all, shown in the photo on the right). Most of which ……… click below for more ↓

The Dude, the Tao and the Dharma

2017-08-13 2017-08-17 Atheism & Spirituality / Books & Reviews / Cults / Faith / Film & Reviews / Philosophy / Religion / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

I suppose it all began with Benjamin Hoff. Hoff was one of the first contemporary writers to attempt to distill Taoism in a lighthearted form for Westerners when he wrote The Tao of Pooh in 1981, a very successful book still in print. It was on the New York Times bestseller list for 49 weeks. A decade later, he followed with The Te of Piglet, less successful (its message somewhat diluted by Hoff’s extraneous political and social commentary) but also still in print. Not that Hoff was the first Westerner to attempt to explain Asian philosophy and religion. That goes ……… click below for more ↓

The strange life of Bobby Fischer

2017-07-22 2017-07-30 Books & Reviews / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Pop Culture / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

Forty five years ago this month, a momentous event took place in Iceland that shook the world. After 21 games spread over almost two months, the eccentric American chess master, Bobby Fischer, ended 24 years of Soviet dominance in chess after beating Soviet grandmaster, Boris Spassky. It shook the world at the apex of the Cold War. I watched it unfold, a memory I will always carry. Many years later, former Russian grandmaster, Garry Kasparov, commented, …in the Soviet Union, chess was treated by the Soviet authorities as a very important and useful ideological tool to demonstrate the intellectual superiority ……… click below for more ↓

Cultural appropriation is the new gluten free

2017-07-09 2017-07-09 Arts / Critical Thinking / Culture / Media / New Age Codswallop / Political fadsLeave a comment

Like food fads, political fads wax and wane as the gnat-like attention span of their followers gets diverted by the Next Big Thing. Political Correctness has of late given birth to Cultural Appropriation just like the gluten-free food fad gave rise to lectin-free food fad. All such fads are fuelled by the earnest desire of some people to avoid thinking and follow the crowd over the intellectual cliff. They’re not about analysis, research, and objectivity: they’re about being on the Latest Thing bandwagon. All fads teeter on a basic misapprehension; sometimes it’s a fabrication, other times a misunderstanding, and other ……… click below for more ↓

Albert and the Lion

2017-05-26 2017-05-26 Books & Reviews / Daily life / Family history / Personal Reminiscences / Poetry & LyricsLeave a comment

There’s a famous seaside place called Blackpool, That’s noted for fresh-air and fun, And Mr and Mrs Ramsbottom Went there with young Albert, their son. A grand little lad was their Albert All dressed in his best; quite a swell ‘E’d a stick with an ‘orse’s ‘ead ‘andle The finest that Woolworth’s could sell. So begins the poem, The Lion and Albert, written by Marriott Edgar. I first read it in the book pictured on the right: a book that accompanied a collection of 78 rpm records in which Stanley Holloway read the poems (click to see a larger image). ……… click below for more ↓

As Elvis leaves the building, so do we all

2017-05-19 2017-05-19 Culture / Music & Reviews / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Pop CultureLeave a comment

No one gets out of here alive. We all die. And with us go into the dustbin the dreams, the values, the ideals, the culture we grew up with, we shared, we ensconced in our daily existence. And the clutter we accumulated during our lives. Elvis has left the building and, sooner or later, so shall we all. And as we do, the value of our own material legacy will diminish with each day. A recent story in The Guardian tells of how once-treasured Elvis memorabilia is falling in value, as collectors age and die off, leaving a younger generation ……… click below for more ↓