My Kultchural Adventures In 2005
Dec. 30th, 2005 10:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphilo2005 was the year I finally caught up with my good intentions and started re-reading Dickens. I tackled Bleak House on a coach travelling through France and followed it up, at home, with Little Dorrit. Right now I am about two thirds of the way through Our Mutual Friend. These are the big three. Sometime early in the new year, once Silas Wegg has been flung onto the dust cart, I shall progress to the unsolved and unsolvable Mystery of Edwin Drood.
We saw a lot of art in Catalonia. The highlight was the Picasso museum in Barcelona, with its extraordinary series of 1950s paintings- inspired by Las Meninas- in which our man Pablo goes into the ring with Velasquez. It's a damn close thing, but I'd give it to Pablo on points. The Dali museum in Figueres was fun. Back home we saw the exhibition of Caravaggio's late painings at the National Gallery- stupendous.
Martin Scorsese's two-part documentary on Dylan prompted me to get to grips with good ol' Bob. I read Dylan's own Autobiography and listened to the music a lot. I was never a fan and now I am. Though "fan" seems the wrong word when you're dealing with an artist as important as this. Does Dickens have "fans"? Does Picasso? Dylan, I'm now finally convinced, is a figure of that magnitude.
I loved the new Dr Who. And I loved Casanova- which, sharing as it does the same writer and now the same lead actor- seems like an adjunct to the Whovian universe. I was disappointed in the second season of Deadwood and am currently hooked on Rome. Ricky Gervais's Extras wasn't as good as The Office, but it was still better than almost everything else.
The best new film of 2005 was Ingmar Bergman's Sarabande. I don't expect anyone to agree. Otherwise I did some catching up with Kurosawa and Miyazaki. The film I was happiest to see again- after a gap of several decades- was Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits, newly issued on DVD and even more gorgeous than I remembered.
We saw a lot of art in Catalonia. The highlight was the Picasso museum in Barcelona, with its extraordinary series of 1950s paintings- inspired by Las Meninas- in which our man Pablo goes into the ring with Velasquez. It's a damn close thing, but I'd give it to Pablo on points. The Dali museum in Figueres was fun. Back home we saw the exhibition of Caravaggio's late painings at the National Gallery- stupendous.
Martin Scorsese's two-part documentary on Dylan prompted me to get to grips with good ol' Bob. I read Dylan's own Autobiography and listened to the music a lot. I was never a fan and now I am. Though "fan" seems the wrong word when you're dealing with an artist as important as this. Does Dickens have "fans"? Does Picasso? Dylan, I'm now finally convinced, is a figure of that magnitude.
I loved the new Dr Who. And I loved Casanova- which, sharing as it does the same writer and now the same lead actor- seems like an adjunct to the Whovian universe. I was disappointed in the second season of Deadwood and am currently hooked on Rome. Ricky Gervais's Extras wasn't as good as The Office, but it was still better than almost everything else.
The best new film of 2005 was Ingmar Bergman's Sarabande. I don't expect anyone to agree. Otherwise I did some catching up with Kurosawa and Miyazaki. The film I was happiest to see again- after a gap of several decades- was Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits, newly issued on DVD and even more gorgeous than I remembered.
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no subject
Date: 2005-12-30 04:07 am (UTC)Dylan keeps on giving. His last two albums measure up to the masterpieces of the 60s and 70s. And his Autobiography not only affords remarkable insights into his inner world and creative processes but is a great piece of writing.
You couldn't PAY me to read Dickens!
Date: 2005-12-30 06:08 am (UTC)"Dylan, I'm now finally convinced, is a figure of that magnitude."
Me too! But I am an old hippie... I always knew that, even when I was so stoned 24/7 that I didn't know that I knew that.
Re: You couldn't PAY me to read Dickens!
Date: 2005-12-30 07:40 am (UTC)I'd written Dylan off as dated. I hadn't listened to him- not really listened- for a very long time. I know better now.
Hay Tony worked it out
Date: 2005-12-30 08:20 am (UTC)Your lucky that you get to spend quality time reading and such. Its good to exercise the mind. The last good book that i read was Legacy of Heriot. Can not think of the authors name.
The story is based around a human colonie that set up camp on some distant planet. Off they go on their merry little way. Planting fruit and veg seeds. Defrosting chicken embryos breading and cloning chickens, sheep, goats etc....A nice little colonie setting.
Then Sheep go missing so they blame the dogs. Goats go also. So they blame the dogs.
It turns out to be a frog like creature thats having tadpoles & eating the live stock. The author describes how the alien creature thinks & feels. What it sees tastes and touches.
I read this book 8 years ago.
I also watched the new Attingbourgh DVD Life in the Undergrowth over xmas. It was my ol'mans pressie (Shhh don't tell that i watched it)
It was facingating
"Without the insect world humans would not have evolved. If the insect world was to disappear then humans would to. If the human world would disappear then it would make no impact on the inset world what so ever."
"Water first home and sustainer of life"
Life came from the sea as we know. Some creatures ventured on to land. Most molluscs have bearly changed since the dawn of time.
The really facinating part was the mating game. Creatures as small as a pin piont to aireal creatures to spiders and dancing scorpions. All carry out the same mating ritual/game as humans.
So the next time you want to find the meaning of life, look under a stone or on the flower of a butercup. Even a thorny bush.
Re: You couldn't PAY me to read Dickens!
Date: 2005-12-30 08:34 am (UTC)Re: You couldn't PAY me to read Dickens!
Date: 2005-12-30 08:42 am (UTC)Re: Hay Tony worked it out
Date: 2005-12-30 08:50 am (UTC)Good to have you aboard. You'll see I've "friended" you back and left a note over at your site.
You'll find there are plenty of Wiccans and other pagans on LJ. Try my friend
no subject
Date: 2005-12-30 06:01 pm (UTC)HBO has been kind enough to show the entire first season of Rome this week and now I'm all caught up. I'm on pins and needles to find out what happens next. Oh, wait. I kinda already know, don't I.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-31 01:44 am (UTC)I'm curious to know how they're going to approach things. Is it Antony and Cleopatra next or do we leap a generation and get stuck into Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero.....?