Silence of Love
“Remember, our silence is a silence of love and not of indifference. Remember, we are writing in the sky instead of on paper ~ that’s our song.”
“Lift your eyes and look up in the sky…and you will see that you are walking in the sky, which extends to the ground. We are all part of the sky, more than of the ground.”
{Excerpt from: “A Love Letter from John & Yoko to People Who Ask Us What, When & Why.”
The New York Times, May 27, 1979}
An Unlikely Hero: Rodriguez
Sixto Rodriguez/Searching for Sugar Man, 2012 Sony Pictures Classics
Finally got the chance to view “Searching for Sugar Man” over the weekend and I highly recommend this truly extraordinary documentary. The film tells an unbelievable story of the musician, Rodriguez, who was famously unsuccessful here in America and across the world in South Africa was….just famous, which would have been great, if only he had been made aware of it.
“The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle.” – Anais Nin
The reason why his two albums released here in America, which were quite accomplished with poetic, soulful lyrics failed to take off is a bit of a musical mystery and one Rodriguez himself shrugged off by saying, “it’s the music business, there are no guarantees”. However it was a very different story playing out in South Africa, to the people suffering through the oppressive forces of the apartheid era – they were frustrated, fearful, largely cut off from the rest of the world, yet at the same time, ripe for revolution and looking for inspiration, which they found in the lyrics and spirit of Rodriguez’s albums Cold Fact & Coming from Reality. His lyrics inspired them to fight against their circumstances.
Rumors of his death have been greatly exaggerated….
The film follows two Cape Town fans who were anxious to uncover the mystery surrounding the artist Rodriguez, and to discover the truth behind his rumored death. As they were nearly ready to give up, Rodriguez’s daughter Eva saw their website pleas for information and the rest as they say is history. And so finally Rodriguez, very much alive…found out that he had been an icon and hero of the South African people for over twenty years and prepared to meet his longtime fans for the first time.
Rodriguez in Detroit
What I found even more amazing than the story was Sixto Rodriguez himself, a man full of grace, humble and hard-working, who when he found that in another country he had been more famous than Elvis, didn’t lament his misfortune at all but merely enjoyed finding some recognition for his work before returning to his everyday life back here in Detroit. Truly extraordinary.
Before Midnight
When Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan wrote “Before Sunrise,” I wonder if they imagined the depth with which their characters, Jesse & Celine would resonate and stay with their audience. Before Sunrise isn’t a flashy film by any stretch of the imagination, nor is it a corny romance either. What it is, is a languorous walk between two strangers who meet on a train, recognize an immediate connection and spend the next hours – through to the morning experiencing a microcosm of love & courtship. The film had the feel of truly listening in on two people in those first moments of getting to know each other. It resonated with audiences and everyone who loved the film wanted more…did they meet up as planned?
Before Sunset begins with Celine attending Jesse’s book reading at Shakespeare & Co. in Paris. The book Jesse has written, seemingly a work of fiction, is in truth and only known to Celine, the true recounting of their hours together. Although only in the city for hours, once again they find themselves increasingly anxious at the prospect of once again parting.
Having sought input from Hawke & Delpy on conversations written into Before Sunrise, Linklater brought them both in to collaborate on the second film, Before Sunset.
Now it seems it has turned into a wonderful trilogy, with the upcoming release of “Before Midnight,” where it seems by the trailer that Jesse & Celine’s story is still going strong.
Mad Love
Jon Hamm & Jessica Pare as Mr. & Mrs. Draper – AMC’s Mad Men
It’s nearly time for Mad Men’s Season six 2-hour premiere on April 7th….can’t wait. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again…brilliant writing. If you grew up in the sixties, this show resonates to the core. I truly admire and am perhaps a bit jealous of Matthew Weiner’s ability to write characters who are deeply flawed and therefore, deeply interesting…it never bores. From the moment I watched the ep where Betty shoots the birds, I knew it was something very different from what has gone before.
Just when I thought Matthew had reached the pinnacle with the episodes “The Suitcase” & “The Summer Man” then last season brought the deeply moving “The Other Woman” & “The Phantom”. In The Other Woman, when Don shows up at Joan’s apartment to dissuade her from trading herself so that they might land Jaguar and she might secure herself a place at the men’s table, she sweetly thanks him for his act of chivalry (something new for Don), when we as viewers know as Joan does that he’s too late. I remember having conversations with my girlfriends and we all had the same dramatic responses to that episode.
The season five finale was memorable for me mainly due to a poignant scene between a guy we’ve been set up to dislike from the beginning, Pete Campbell and the object of his affection, Beth. Pete seemingly has everything and yet in a prior ep, he tells Don sadly…”I have nothing” and you realize that he very probably has made choices based upon what seemed socially acceptable at the time and not upon real passions. The conversation he has with Beth in the hospital is truly memorable when he explains his life with his family was some temporary bandage on a permanent wound” .
As we dive back into the world of Mad Men, with Lane having made a rather abrupt exit, will it be Sterling, Cooper, Draper… Holloway? Or as my friend Steph and I hope…Olson, as we want Peggy to come back into the fold. I can’t wait to find out what they’ve been up to. Who’s in?
To Ariadne (deserted by Theseus)
“Ariadne” ~ John William Waterhouse 1898
To Ariadne (deserted by Theseus)
Oh, fury, equalled only by the shrieking wind—
The lashing of the waves against the shore,
You rage in vain, waist deep into the sea,
Betrayed, deceived, forsaken evermore.Your cries are lost, your curses are unheard by him
That treads his winged way above the cloud.
The honeyed words upon your lips are brine;
The bitter salt wind sings off-key and loud.Oh, scream in vain for vengeance now, and beat your hands
In vain against the dull impassive stone.
The cold waves break and shatter at your feet;
The sky is mean—and you bereft, alone.The white-hot rage abates, and then—futility.
You lean exhausted on the rock. The sea
Begins to calm, and the retreating storm
But grumbles faintly, while the black clouds flee.And now the small waves break like green glass, frilled with foam;
The fickle sun sends darts of light to land.
Why do you stand and listen only to
The sobbing of the wind along the sand?~Sylvia Plath
Hazy Shade of Winter
It’s that time again, when the snow begins to fall on a regular basis and the sound of snowblowers humming wakes you in the morning before the sun comes up. I consider myself blessed to live in Michigan, a State that is beautiful all year round but especially when draped in beautiful white splendor. At night, especially now during a full moon, the snow looks like crushed diamonds sprinkled across the now vanished lawn.
Photo Credit: Andrea Joki
All night it fell, and when full inches seven
It lay in the depth of its uncompacted lightness,
The clouds blew off from a high and frosty heaven;
And all woke earlier for the unaccustomed brightness
Of the winter dawning, the strange unheavenly glare:
The eye marvelled — marvelled at the dazzling whiteness.
~Robert Bridges “London Snow” 1890
“Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow…”
I’ve always loved winter, the feeling of it being cold outside and me being inside in front of a roaring fire, cozy and curled up, reading something good. If there’s hot chocolate w/mini marshmallows…all the better.
I love this remote cabin, it looks like a lovely place to hide away for awhile – maybe to read and write in peace.
More winter photographs (my Pinterest): Hazy Shade of Winter
Every beginning is but a continuation…
Although this isn’t the first time I have shared my admiration for the late filmmaker, Krzysztof Kieslowski’s “Three Color Trilogy,” I wanted to post a song I love from one of the films. This music was written for Kieslowski’s “Red” by composer, Zbigniew Preisner, with lyrics from Wislawa Szymborska’s beautiful poem, “Love at First Sight”. I love the idea of future lovers having passed each other on street corners unawares or having had the same dream, a beautiful thought and although we can’t know it, probably true – what’s meant to be, will eventually be.
Perhaps they had the same dream on a certain night, suddenly erased after waking….
Love at First Sight ~ Wislawa Szymborska
