Völuspá Given the geologically active terrain of Iceland, it’s probably no surprise that the Vikings who settled there would produce such vivid creation myths and other legends. Who could forget the eruption of Eyafjallajökull in 2010? “Völuspá” is the first and most celebrated of all the poems in what has come to be known as […]
Tolkien & the Anglo-Saxon Heritage of Beowulf by Pauline Park Much ink has been spilled about J.R.R. Tolkien’s interest in and debt to “Beowulf,” but of this one can be certain: the 20th century philologist’s reading of the great Anglo-Saxon poem had a profound influence on his literary imagination and output. In his authorized […]
Libya, Gaddafi & the London School of Economics Of the three universities I’ve attended, I have a special affection for the the London School of Economics, where I did my master’s degree in 1982-83. Needless to say, I was as shocked as the rest of LSE’s alumni to discover that the alma mater I hold dear […]
Links to some of my favorite dramas on television and film. Brideshead Revisited (ITV, 1983) Brideshead Revisited Episode 1 PART 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD0nrC-vfaY Brideshead Revisited Episode 1 PART 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1S3LBDT3vk&feature=related Brideshead Revisited Episode 1 PART 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVSKlsIaoWY&feature=related Brideshead Revisited Episode 1 PART 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YehY-9B_p2M&feature=related Brideshead Revisited Episode 1 PART 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P6W7txlEtA&feature=related Brideshead Revisited Episode 1 PART […]
As Julie Andrews says in “The Sound of Music,” these are a few of my favorite things — music that I love to listen to. Renaissance & Baroque Fra Pietro da Hostia, Un Cavalier di Spagna (La Capella Reial de Catalunya – Hespérion XXI – Jordi Savall, director) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejWtsDJiYP0&feature=related Francesco Patavino, Un Cavalier di Spagna […]
Plotinus, as depicted by Raphael in “The School of Athens” Plotinus on the soul: The souls of men, seeing their images in the mirror of Dionysus as it were, have entered into that realm in a leap downward from the Supreme: yet even they are not cut off from their origin, from the divine Intellect; it is not […]
Voltaire on the natural human tendency towards domination: “All men are born with a sufficiently violent liking for domination, wealth and pleasure, and with much taste for idleness…” (The Philosophical Dictionary, section II of the chapter on equality; translated by H.I. Woolf, 1924).
Klee’s “Insula Dulcamara” (1938) Paul Klee on intuition in art According to Paul Klee, the technique of the brush stroke is a great deal, but the crucial factor in painting is intuition. “We construct and construct,” Klee wrote in a Bauhaus prospectus, “and yet intuition is still a good thing. A considerable amount can be […]
In “The Queen’s Throat,” David Koestenbaum writes that opera queens are distinguished by their propensity to keep lists of operas that they’ve seen. So here’s my list of operas that I’ve seen and/or heard live or recorded: 1607 L’Orfeo (Claudio Monteverdi) 1640 Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria (Claudio Monteverdi) 1642 L’Incoronazione di Poppea (Claudio Monteverdi) […]
Judith Butler, self-appointed arbiter of race relations everywhere Judith Butler has an uncanny knack for self-aggrandizement, and casting herself as the voice of LGBT people of color in Germany is only the latest and most outrageous acts of ruthless self-promotion. Berlin’s biggest LGBT pride event is Christopher Street Day, and Butler was invited to speak […]
Saami shaman working (1674) Reclaiming Our Spiritual Legacy as Transgendered People By Pauline Park 18 June 2000 I was asked to speak on spirituality and the transgender community. It seems to me that the connection is an intimate one, far closer than we may realize. For we as transgendered and gender-variant people lie at the […]
The Beekman Boys: Josh Kilmer-Purcell & Brent Ridge Who says drag queens can’t make good (organic) farmers…? That’s the question I asked myself while watching The Fabulous Beekman Boys on Planet Green. The ‘boys’ are Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge, two very urban gay men in New York. Josh is the former drag queen and Brent […]