May 15, 2008
No Bacchus? Let's Get Raucous!
Groan. And so it begins, the list of revisions and omissions and additions that the second Narnia movie prepetrates on C. S. Lewis' story Prince Caspian. I once, perhaps rather rashly, said that they should not make a movie of this chronicle at all, and perhaps that would have been better than some of the changes they seem to have made here. But passing over this story would have created very tough sledding, like Jadis in Aslan's Spring, to bridge the story over to Dawn Treader.
Well, I am not going to remake all the points that this article, by a very sensitive Catholic reviewer, makes about the film, but, alas, there is no Bacchus, thus evicerating much of Lewis' use of myth to illustrate truth. No Susan saying, " I wouldn't have felt very safe with Bacchus and all his wild girls if we'd met them without Aslan" and Lucy responding, "I should think not." There will be no Bacchus asking, "Is it a romp, Aslan" and proceeding to create vines to tear down the stones of oppression and new wine to gladden the heart. I am just going to have to wait till heaven to dance with wild abandon as Bacchus and the maenads and Susan and Lucy did then. To be fair, though, such holy joy would have been very difficult to pull off cinematically. Though the filmmakers might have looked to the beginning of Much Ado About Nothing for some (though definitely not all) of the expressions of joy and revelry shown there.
If only the movie makers had taken Jeffrey Overstreet's advice, I might not be as miffed:
"But I just wish that efforts like this one, and like Alfonzo Cuaron’s extraordinary film Children of Men, would do away with the label 'Based on the book.' Rather, they are new stories, 'Inspired by elements of the book.'”
Also, here is the Christianity Today review. Ouch. Two and a half stars out of four.
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May 14, 2008
El Segundo
midwife
barnabas
aaron
jonathan
bridegroom, friend of
john
handmaiden
andrew
butler
holy spirit
john stockton
"on his blindness"
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May 09, 2008
Climatron with Kermit's Crazy Clone
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May 08, 2008
Antonyms
fear ::: belief
courage ::: sloth
action ::: choice
bondage ::: obedience
comfort ::: action
hope ::: depression
silence ::: love
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Le Chat de Jardin en Coleur
Not sure that is the right form of "in" to use in French, but in response to Heidi V.'s question from the last post here is the kitty in full color, because, well, this cat is worth seein in full color. He/she? was beautiful and very friendly. He/she was stuck in a tree, how cliche, and one of he Garden helpers had to help. And then it seemed to be a bit aimless, but finally seemed to find some direction. Here is the color. Make sure to click on the cat (perhaps a little scratch behind the ears) to see the full size.
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Le Chat de Jardin
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May 07, 2008
Giving Chihuly His Due
I think, perhaps, the genius of the forms can be better seen in black and white.
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A Reason We Sneeze
I cannot remember whether the water in this picture was in motion or covered in an oily scum, but I think it was the former. I took it though because of the leaves or pollen on the water and the sunny reflection and the lily pads.
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May 05, 2008
Details
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Tanya at the Garden
Not only did Tanya very kindly give me a ride to the Garden on Friday, but she very patiently stood through my first baby photo shoot, and then, also patiently, agreed to pose for the shot below. Pretty cool. The scultures at the Garden just now are pretty trippy, and some rather gaudy and crazy, but the workmanship is amazing and they can produce some pretty cool photographic effects.
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Duck...Duck.....Goose!
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May 04, 2008
Gateway to the East
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May 03, 2008
A Garden is a Lovesome Thing
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May 02, 2008
Celebrating Their Beauty Alive as Well
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May 01, 2008
Dead Duck Day
After a brief excursus into a different sort of blog post yesterday, the sun has risen again, all is well with the world, and the Dassler Effect is back to posting uplifting pcitures of dead birds ;) This is part of the "And Wears Man's Smudge" category of the blog, which is trying to illustrate the impact of our fallen nature on the planet. As for the last picture, well the only falleness nature that represents is a bunch of guys not keeping their shower clean. I am not sure exactly why we have a dead ducky in our shower, but I have long wanted to photograph it, as weird as that may sound. It seemed logical to do so on "dead duck day," a title which comes from the book About a Boy and the movie of the same name, which you should watch if you have not done so. Brilliant.
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