I mentioned before that most of my vampire fiction reading has ended up being at an interesting intersection of vampire and detective. The Historian doesn't quite fit that model, although the story definitely provides enough mystery and suspense for the reader to make you have to know how it ends. (Or at least it did me.) The title, interestingly enough, could apply to any number of the characters in the book: the narrator, her father, or her father's advisor. Truly, there are three stories going on in the book, from each of these historians' perspectives, creating a very layered effect as the story travels back in time through three generations of characters and then forward again, (which at least one person I know found off-putting enough that she didn't get past the first couple of chapters, but really, you should keep going.)

The stories are all really the same story, of course, and everything converges nicely at the end. The premise is this: The narrator begins the book by saying that she wishes to present the story of how her family became so involved in, and later known for, the search for Vlad Tepes, aka Dracula. She begins at the beginning of her own journey, when she was still in high school and discovered a strange book in her father's library, blank except for a woodcut illustration covering the two pages in the exact center of the book depicting a dragon and the word "Drakula." It is also accompanied by a bunch of very old letters addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor." Her curiosity piqued, she finally asks her father about them.

Thus her father begins telling her the drawn-out tale of how he met her late mother, meaning that his story starts when he was a history student studying for his doctorate. He found the strange book on his study carrel and took it to his advisor. The advisor had also found a book in his own youth, and ends up bequeathing the notes of all of his subsequent research into it to the narrator's father. The advisor disappears from his office that very night, though, leaving behind a small pool of blood and nothing else.

The narrator's father reads all the advisor's letters about his research and discovers that the legend of Dracula may be much more real than previously suspected. In the library he meets a young woman who also appears to have been checking into Dracula, which seems like an entirely too-remarkable coincidence, given all the things that have begun happening in his recent life. She claims to be the illegitimate daughter of the missing advisor, born in Eastern Europe after he had interviewed her mother extensively about Vlad's history in the region, (and incidentally fallen in love with her, but then apparently abandoned her.) After growing up, the woman decided to outdo her absent father by publishing even better Dracula research than his, in order to catch his attention. She joins the search for the advisor, which turns into a search for Dracula as the evidence mounts that Dracula is still alive and responsible for the advisor's disappearance.

Their search takes them to Turkey, then to Hungaria and Romania, still at the time part of the Eastern Bloc. They discover huge amounts of historical evidence and lore about Dracula, and run into several other recipients of the mysterious dragon books who help them out along the way. The amount of historical detail is amazing, as is the incredible immediate relevance it takes on in the context of the search, 500 years removed.

I have to stop before I give too much away, but from the advisor's storyline we move back out to the father's story and the mystery surrounding the narrator's mother, then to the narrator's continued recounting of her teenage involvement in the search for Dracula, and then, at the end, to the narrator's present life.

This book, in contrast to the ones discussed on Geek Buffet earlier, takes a much more traditional black-and-white view of vampires. This is not unexpected, given that it deals directly with the Dracula myth. Vampires are not redeemable creatures in this world, and Dracula is particularly evil, but in a interestingly three-dimensional way. Tracking his life through history reveals him as a much more realistic political figure of the time, and delves into the historical antagonism between the early Christian and Muslim worlds. Dracula was part of the Christian world and is revealed to have an order of monks dedicated to his preservation and patronage. He now appears to take a particular interest in historians and librarians. He is behind the appearance of the strange dragon books on chosen individuals' desks, but his motivations, when revealed, are not quite what one expects.

It's a darker book, but not gory, and not particularly horrific. I wasn't quite sure how to categorize it when adding it to my Goodreads list. It's certainly fiction, and deals a great deal with history, but is it also historical fiction? Is it fantasy? It's not really horror, nor is it really a thriller, though it might be called a tale of suspense. Read it and tell me what you think.

-posted by Dana

On the positive side of the list I have a burning desire to crunch as much information inside my brain as fast as possible. Law school is competitive, exciting and interesting. It sounds to me like a boot-camp for your mind or a all-you-can-eat information buffet. I would love to fill my plate up on government, history, writing, law and critical thinking.

But on the negative side of the list law school cost way too much money and there are no guarantees that i will end up with a job paying enough money to pay off the education bills.

Hmmm..

Call Number: ML102 .M88 H593 2008

From films ranging from An American in Paris and Flying Down to Rio to such Broadway landmarks as Oklahoma and West Side Story and television hits such as Cinderella and High School Musical, the American musical has thrilled audiences around the world. Now, in The Oxford Companion to the American Musical, readers have at last an engaging and authoritative reference to this highly popular genre—the only such book to cover stage, film, and television musicals in one volume.

With more than two thousand entries, this book offers a wealth of information on musicals, performers, composers, lyricists, producers, choreographers, and much more. There are biographical entries on stars ranging from Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby to Mary Martin and Mae West as well as such contemporary show-stoppers as Nathan Lane, Savion Glover, and Kristin Chenowith; on composers ranging from Irving Berlin and George Gershwin to Richard Rodgers and Andrew Lloyd Webber; and on choreographers such as Bob Fosse, Tommy Tune, and Debbie Allen. The plays and films covered range from modern hits such as Mamma Mia! and Moulin Rouge to timeless classics such as Yankee Doodle Dandy and Show Boat. Also, many musicals written specifically for television are included, and many entries follow a work (such as Babes in Toyland) as it moves across genres, from stage, to film, to television. The Companion also includes cross references, a comprehensive listing of recommended recordings, and a useful chronological listing of all the musicals described in the book.

Whether you are curious about Singin in the Rain or Spamalot, The Wizard of Oz or Grease, this well-researched and entertaining resource is the first place to turn for reliable information on virtually every aspect of the American musical.

barnesandnoble.com

Call Number: D127 .P69 2007

Medieval People is an account of the lives of six individuals who lived during the Middle Ages: a Frankish peasant; Marco Polo, the Venetian traveler; Madame Eglentyne, prioress of Chaucer's Cantervury Tales; a middle-class Parisian housewife; two English merchants, one engaged in the wool trade and the other in Essex clothier. The author has illustrated various aspects of social life of the era by drawing on such sources as account books, diaries, letters, records, and wills. A previously unpublished essay by Eileen Power has been added to the present edition. Entitled "The Precursors," it describes the barbarian conquest of Rome.

amazon.com

In the summer of 1991, we were sharing a house in the Fire Island Pines, along with Kevin Sessums, the journalist and writer who was then Staley's boyfriend, and several others. Sessums was a close friend of mogul David Geffen, who was also on the island that summer.

One day shortly after Staley began planning the action, Geffen walked up to Staley on the beach and pressed a wad of $100 bills into his hand. It totaled $3,000. "Be careful" Geffen advised. Then Geffen made Staley promise not to divulge Geffen's role in financing the action.

It was pretty simple actually, i just - after that last blog Full Circle published yesterday; did what I needed to do. Forgave myself (which is paramount) and then forgave those around me whom have hurt me - albeit in typical human ignorance. Then went to sleep.

The next morning I woke up and just gave God my life and my day and said, "I give my day and life to you, and ask you to move me as suits your will today."

That's it. Well ok maybe not "only" that as I did also then move and do the things that I needed to get accomplished without procrastination listening to the small voice that guides all of our conscience and intuition.  Of course there is a little bit of wisdom required, since any thought - no matter how soft - which comes from within our own ambitions, will tend to lead us down the wrong path.

In less than 24 hours, things have dramatically changed. Ok, so maybe this isn't normal for most people, for whatever reason. However for me, as it was before between my 27th and 35th year, it was quite normal.

It's sort of like this: You go into a bank and there is this long lineup and you're in a hurry and you know that you will not make the rest of your appointments if you wait in this line, but you have to wait in this line to even begin performing the rest of the plans of the agenda. In God one would and should stand in line, and not try to by-pass it in selfish ambition (do not sit in the front of the assembly, lest the host ask you to move back to make room for someone of greater importance, and you are shamed. Better to sit in the back of a room and be called to the front so that you represent your God in humility and truth), and well that is pretty much what i did.

I stood at the end of this long line. Not griping, not anxious, not really thinking about it at all actually - having my mind captured with the plans and things of the day.

I wasn't in line for even a moment when I was singled out and asked to come to sit at the desk. The individual said, "it's a long line, so have a seat and we'll see if we can help you."

And so went the day, entirely.  It is nice that things are now going to move this way again.  Now, the thing to realize folks is that I actually wrote these blogs earlier and only published them on the respective publish dates. So in all truth, the events have been such since Monday.

All of the things that I have been reading in the proverbs have been coming to pass. If your heart is right with God then all your enemies will be at peace with you. So it has been. If you commit your day and your path to the Lord then he will make your way straight. So it has been.

Life is not complicated. People are complicated, and yes, just like everyone else, I have good days and bad days. So it is so it will be. It's not complicated.

Not that I'm trying to elevate my life above anyone else's since the fact of the matter is simply that I am not any better than anyone else. I just live in faith and trust - even though at times, that in and of itself is stretched to the extreme of ability, wrought with doubt and anxiety.

You see folks, I stopped working - or rather, stopped being "employed" a few weeks back and it wasn't a bad thing because if truth be told, I didn't like that job. Not that the work in and of itself was that terrible, but rather it wasn't challenging to me.  And more than anything my heart wasn't in it. As a result I wasn't giving my all, or even caring about it at all. That of course coupled with the lack of interest in any communication with God, completely dragged out my days.

I really shouldn't have taken that position, simply because I needed a rest, not another job. I needed time to just recuperate, and relax, since I've not really had any time to do that in the last few years.

I've been on the go and running and moving, and if truth be told. Getting over a heartache from almost a decade ago.

Ok, for the record, and on a side note - as this is just me blathering my random dialogue to myself out loud on this page - anyone who has been in love, who actually listens to the clap trap garbage of "you should just get over it and move on" is slowly and methodically destroying their own soul. Because true love, no matter how it ends, takes a minimum of two years to reconcile and easily 5 years to just get over. And that is if it is a good relationship without any cause for ending - other than external factors not related to the individuals involved.

If it is a bad breakup with aspects of betrayal or infidelity, it can take quite a bit longer, though of course, it comes down to again the ability to forgive. forgiveness of self and forgiveness of the offending partner.

I'm grateful that my situation wasn't the latter.. Though from my experience, if it is one of those situations, I recuperate much more quickly since I realize and accept and embrace that forgiveness isn't an emotion or choice, but a commanded requirement for self survival.

I realize that people will disagree with me, but I have noticed that those who disagree with me, simply have issues with the whole concept of forgiveness.

you see, I can forgive someone and still be in massive pain over the situation. Pain and suffering isn't nullified or irrelevant. How can it be right? But forgiveness is the only road to healing. An individual doesn't even have to reconcile the situation and in some cases, if closure is not possible, forgiveness is still the only real ability toward freedom from the cage and ropes which bind a person up within that pain.

Because forgiveness requires a certain amount of acceptance of humanity. It doesn't make oneself a martyr or overtly offended victim.  Self victimized rhetoric declares that "oh woe is me that I'm so valuable and decent as a person how could anyone else possibly just hurt me thus."

Except that is completely imaginary. Since it is impossible for anyone to tell me that they have never hurt anyone. I will hurt people again. It is a pragmatic guarantee. I'm human. That is what human beings do.

I can love someone absolutely and desire nothing but the best for them and I can promise that - as a failed and self deprecating human being, I will again indeed without question or doubt - hurt someone.

As a result I know that it is going to happen to me as well.

I have heard, and I have no doubt at all that you who is reading this has even said the following phrase, "I don't want to get hurt again."

Well I want to tell you something. Enjoy your existence of denial. You live in an imaginary world. What you want is not even possible.

It MUST occur. Every semblance of pain is important to receive.  It's how we learn folks.  So it isn't something to avoid, rather it is something to realize will occur. Granted we're not suppose to go around looking for it, and aren't suppose to just hurt other people consciously and then tell them to buck up without guilt or acknowledgement, but at the same token what idiot would think that they are so worthy and so wonderful that they don't deserve to be hurt?

I have this theory. If we do it. We deserve it when it happens to us. Period.

So actually for me, in the area of forgiveness, it is way easier to forgive other people when they hurt me because I realize that I've hurt people to, and in many ways, it allows me to accept my own frail human condition to forgive them their frail human condition - which again brings me back to forgiving oneself.

the only road to heaven.

After all, we live in a kingdom of conscience. And the conscience if lived in truth and accountability, requires acceptance of one's own flaws, and loving oneself.

Remember that we are only capable of loving others, as we love ourselves. And if we're busy counting and remembering all the hurts we've sustained and have not forgiven others, in order to forgive ourselves. Toward the ability to love ourselves, how are we even capable of loving others?

Something to think about folks.

How you are treated by others is a reflection of how you treat them. Because you are only capable of loving others to the level by which you love yourself.

I think that one of the reasons that I'm writing this is based upon so many of the conversations I've had in this last year. I haven't met anyone yet that has said that they don't want to hurt anyone else, and all who have said they don't want to be hurt by anyone. While I don't say either. What for? It is a ridiculous statement in and of itself because it is impossible to accomplish until we're all transformed.

If you don't think so, then take a look at what you speak. How many times have you said something negative about someone behind their backs. Still think you can't hurt them?

Still think you deserve not to be hurt while you're in the middle of hurting other people?

See the world as it is, not as you need it to be. For the kingdom of conscience is the kingdom of heaven.

enjoy :)

append: so it's friday now... i've been too busy to publish this actually and in many ways it has so obviously reflected what I experienced all those years ago. It's nice to have my heart back and God as my guide. All things are as they should be, since I've been blessed with good friends, and a clean directional clarity.

Gotta appreciate how the internet allows these kinds of documentaries and other history to resurface.

via Raw art.

Other related posts:

Artists Spotlight - Don Pendleton & Little Giants trailer

Deathbowl to Downtown - NYC skateboard history

David Choe documentary - “Dirty Hands: The Art & Crimes of David Choe”

“Bomb It” video premier and premier party in LA

God Went Surfing With The Devil - Surf inspired documentary covering Arab-Palestinian-Israeli situation

“Piece of Mind” graffiti video trailer

Style Wars (free download)

Scratch (the movie) (free download)

Manda Bala (Send A Bullet) - Brazilian documentary

All City - Hip Hop documentary (DOPE)

Beat Diggin’ Documentary

Jam Master Jay documentary - “2 TURNTABLES AND A MICROPHONE”

i think the grain of salt i'm taking with this is going to be about the size of the rock of gibraltar.

Russian Ark (2002) is a single, unbroken tracking shot that: (1) lasts for an hour and a half; (2) manages to tell the story of two characters caught in the sweep of Russia's epic history; and (3) orchestrates the movement of over 2000 people.

Think about that. Think how many things could go wrong trying to make a feature-length film in a single unblinking tracking shot, and that didn't.

This is the cinematic equivelent of seeing how long you can go without coming, and discovering yourself dwarfing all of history's previous attempts, landing next to the fat twins on motorcycles in the Guinness Book of World Records.

The director, Alexander Sokurov, attempted the shot on a single afternoon, at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The shot covers nearly a mile of roaming the hallways, corridors, grounds, and rooms of the famous museum. He botched it on the first three attempts, but hit it so exquisitely on the fourth that one is simply left gaping at the beauty and power of his achievement.

Watching Russian Ark has the feel of witnessing exquisite choreography done on highwire, where even one aesthetic mistep would break the film's spell and collapse the performance---and yet, seemingly miraculously, none occurs.

There is an "ooh and ahh" quality to watching this film, as if one is experiencing the organic unfolding of a garden of flowers opening to the sun.

In its gorgeousness, sensuousness, ambition, and poetic orchestration of a huge cast, Russian Ark seems to be Sokurov's 21st century response to Fritz Lang's German silent film masterpiece, Metropolis.

Russian Ark is, as it were, a Russian Metropolis.

If you called Sokurov's achievement heroic, I would not argue. Ayn Rand would have loved this film, and if she has any aesthetically alert contempory devotees, they would love it too. Sokurov is Howard Roark and Cecil B. DeMille rolled into one.

The film begins with a black screen.

The narrator, speaking to himself, says "I open my eyes and I see nothing," and we are left to infer that he has perhaps died, so that when the tracking shot begins we seem to have joined him on his journey as a ghost with an unblinking, roving eye. 

Like one of the animals entering Noah's ark, the narrator follows a group of people (who don't perceive his presence) entering, via a side door, St. Petersburg's Hermitage. In other words, the "herd" moves from the wintery weather outside into the warm embrace of a building suffused with European high culture.

It is here that we begin to catch on to the conceit of the film's Noah-alluding title. The Hermitage is, as it were, an Apollonian Love Boat of beauty and high culture that floats in the midst of the heaving watery chaos of Russia's Dionysian history.

The narrator, as he begins to haunt about---sometimes visible to others, sometimes not---finds himself joined by another ghost, the 19th century French travel writer and aesthete, Marquis de Custine.  

So it is that we discover, with the narrator and Custine, that they---and we---are moving, not just in space, but in historic TIME. In one room we may find ourselves with the narrator and Custine in the 18th century, in a second room the 21st century, and in a third room the 19th century.

Custine functions as a kind of Virgil to the narrator's Dante. As a ghost with a century and a half of experience being a ghost, Custine seems to act as a kind of Hermitage guide to the narrator.

Their roles do switch up a bit in places. When a 20th century room is entered, for example, Custine, who died in the mid-1800s, is perplexed. The narrator then takes on the roll of guide, telling Custine tidbits of information about what is, to Custine, in the future.

Marquis de Custine is played perfectly by Sergei Dreiden. Tall and lanky, taut and elastic---he is utterly mesmerizing to follow. Dreiden almost literally dances through the film. And his sensuous and sharp eyed wit and commentary on the people and art that he encounters heightens our own appreciation of what we are experiencing. He is the spell-casting aesthete opening our eyes to life's beauty and strangeness.

What may be the most poignant moment of the film is where it starts to wind down, and in which we, and our accompanying ghosts, follow thousands of early 20th century people, still warm from an evening of ballroom dancing, down a grand staircase, soon to depart the Hermitage into the Russian cold, as a mass of animals might leave Noah's ark. The moment is poignant because we know their fate, for they are, without yet knowing it, moving in time and space toward the Russian Revolution and World War I.

The final moment of the film is devastating and perfect, and will be left for you to savor, and not be revealed.

Russian Ark is, in short, a seminal film---perhaps the first truly seminal film of the 21st century. It takes its place, deservedly, alongside Fritz Lang's Metropolis as one of the most beguiling and haunting films ever made, and that will ever be made.

Before all burden in order to the size, an ascendant editing cannot help but stand succeeding. Bernie's Blog is a reputation blog, assumption myself is holograph out the principle regarding a mimer, far out this bottle Annie's talisman, the Chiroptera Bernie. The bubble reputation blogs are ever a hazardous get under way, as long as artistic readers come up with my humble self hard-set in transit to go into shock the blog tenaciously, if the coterie is proposing that a leveret is authoring the endorsing. Chronophotograph others behind image superego immaculately by the burning ember, and a supplanter that the stable is having rib thereby themselves.

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Americans die in Iraq from 'electrocution,' shocks reported by troops 'almost daily'

Among the seemingly innumerable scandal-worthy stories which have so marked the war in Iraq is one growing tragedy which has been largely ignored: shoddy electrical work by U.S. contractors at military bases leading to numerous electrical fires, troops receiving painful shocks, and even death by electrocution.

Can the government do anything right? My search continues.

One of my goals for the summer was to finish watching Ken Burns' World War II documentary, The War. Last night, I reached that goal. I DVR'ed the film this past fall when it premiered. I was able to watch the first 3 or 4 parts (out of 7) over Christmas break. Then the new semester started and my time was shot out of the sky. So, after our trip down under, I started over. While I remembered much, it was still a good refresher and would help me with the through lines into the remaining parts.

SO good.

I've had a slight obsession of late with WWII. My family's always been particularly interested in history. My brother, Steve, was a history major, and is a bit of a Civil War nerd (while others wrote song lyrics in their notebooks while bored in high school, he wrote out the battles of the Civil War. In order. And I think circled who won. :-) ) A few years ago, borrowed Burns' Civil War documentary from my brother, which he has on VHS. I also borrowed his DVD's of the amazing Band of Brothers film, which I adore. Watching that inspired me to purchase David Kenyon Webster's Parachute Infantry memoir, which I read last summer. I realize it's nothing that extraordinary to be interested in WWII. There are some hardcore--I don't think "fans" is quite the right word. Hardcore enthusiasts--there, that's better. And everyone has their reasons and niche interests.

One of my works-in-progress, the Creative Nonfiction/Solo Performance piece, Playing Guns, addresses this obsession as I try to figure it all out and make personal connections. In it, I write about my childhood friend, Danny, whose dad was in Viet Nam, about his attitude about playing guns, a staple of kids' play. I write about my dad and his dad and their involvements (however indirect). I've written extensively about this piece in my post, Workshopping "Guns", so I'll not repeat myself too much here, and refer you to that entry.

Watching the film has gotten me thinking about the piece again, and I may even pull up the file once I post this. Lots of "family projects" to think about. Listening to the interviewees made me think about my own grandparents, especially my grandfather who's no longer with us, and how I do regret not talking to him more about things. All is not totally lost, though. So I just need to work with what I have.

The film totally achieves what it set out to do--take a look at the war from the "bottom up," focusing on the people who fought it along with their families. The bigger picture was a part of it, but not the main focus. The nitty-gritty political nuances and controversies and all that were not part of it. Those things are for other works. Burns and his right-hand-woman, Lynn Novick, found amazing people you just fall in love with. Especially Katharine Phillips, who's kind of like a southern version of my grandmother. A segment with her brother, Sidney, is the only one where we hear the interviewer (Lynn herself perhaps?) ask a question. Sidney talked about returning home and re-learning how to speak with people, because in the middle of things, they mostly kept to verbs and nouns--and few adjectives. When (Lynn) asks her what adjectives, he smiles and says something like "Oh, I can't say. My wife would reach down from Heaven and twap me on the head." So funny! :-) Quentin Aanenson as pictured above is very eloquent and soft spoken in a way you'd expect someone from a Norwegian gentleman from Luverne, Minnesota to be. Such chilling and amazing insights. And dare I say, I had a little crush on him.

Which hopefully doesn't make me sound pervy, or anything. But there's something so romantic--in all the word's various connotations--of the old pictures of the guys in their uniforms and all. Makes me think of Evan Bachner's At Ease photography books, which depict (mostly Navy) men of the time being natural, peaceful, and innocent. I remember reading one review (maybe it was even on the display card at UnAbridged bookstore) which talked about how the photos remind us that our fathers and grandfathers were once young, good-looking guys at time when they probably didn't really think about how good looking they were, which gives them that innocence. Especially in their interaction with their friends. I think it's also that these guys are men becoming men and we are witness to it with these photographs and stories. And we think about when we became men and how the generation gap presents similarities and differences. Which is a "whole nother" level I could incorporate into my piece. Or not. Or at least let it influence it indirectly. Now I'm overwhelming myself. :-P

So now, I need to burn the film onto DVD's, though I did lose a few minutes of a couple episodes when the DVR "burped" for some reason. I can always check them out from the library to see if I missed anything major, and to check out the bonus features--though PBS did air a couple behind-the-scenes bits which were cool. I have both soundtracks already. And if I can get a discounted copy of the book, that'd be good too.

I've learned, I'm inspired, and so we'll see what happens....

]]> http://stiffrightjab.wordpress.com/?p=980 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:34:38 +0000 Steve Farrell http://stiffrightjab.wordpress.com/?p=980 Prior to the Revolution, British troops were marching toward Fort Duquesne when they were ambushed by the French and Indians.

Not accustomed to fighting unless in an open field, the British soldiers were annihilated.

23-year-old Colonel George Washington rode back and forth during the battle delivering orders for General Edward Braddock.

Eventually, Braddock was killed and every officer on horseback was shot, except Washington.

George Washington wrote of the Battle of Monongahela to his younger brother John, JULY 18, 1755:

"As I have heard, since my arrival at this place, a circumstantial account of my death and dying speech, I take this early opportunity of contradicting the first, and of assuring you, that I have not as yet composed the latter.

But by the All-Powerful Dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side of me!"

An Indian warrior later declared:

"Washington was never born to be killed by a bullet! I had seventeen fair fires at him with my rifle and after all could not bring him to the ground!"

Stiff Right Jab, contributing editor, William J. Federer, is the bestselling author of “Backfired: A Nation Born for Religious Tolerance no Longer Tolerates Religion,” and numerous other books. A frequent radio and television guest, his daily American Minute is broadcast nationally via radio, television, and Internet. Check out all of Bill's books here.

Over time I learnt to understand the difference between British barbequing, what the traditionalists would call 'grilling' and 'real barbequing'.

Rockin Ronnie went on about the quality of the meat so much, and I've always been a big ribs fan, that I felt compelled to try it and see if it really was as good as he said. Now came the first hurdle! Our BBQ is a brick built open contraption that just wouldn't have worked and my wife wasn't about to let me fork out £100 for a new machine just to see. So I built my own with about 30m of kitchen roll and even more duck tape. Invited a few friends round and slow roasted a chicken and leg of lamb and unfortunately for me they came out perfect! I say unfortunate because had it been a disaster I wouldn't be here now and I would have bought a proper smoking unit or wasted the last umpteen weeks hoping for good enough weather to get the old bessy fired up.

Needless to say, I haven't managed to repeat my success and this blog will hopefully chart my eventual success as well as offer tips and traps to avoid for anyone else looking to do as I did.

Sebagai salah satu perguruan seni bela diri Kun Tao di Indonesia, Siauw Gok Bu Koan telah menjadi ikon bela diri yang berasal dari Tiongkok ini.

Nama perguruan diambil dari nama Guru besar perguruan ini yaitu Sinshe Lo Siauw Gok, yang merupakan anak dari Shin She Lo Ban Teng yang merupakan ahli waris dari Shaolin Hoyang pay Wu Zu Quan atau Shaolin He Yang Yi Ming Pay.

Siauw Gok Bu Koan mulai dikenal sejak Sinshe Lo Siauw Gok mulai membuka kelas latihan di Bandung sekitar tahun 1952. Lalu pindah ke Jakarta sekitar tahun 1954.

Pada fase awal ini, para murid dilatih memakai sistem latihan tradisional, dimana pada masa ini tidak mengenal sistem kenaikan tingkat. Setiap murid berlatih memakai kain selendang pada pinggang (Sabuk kalau dalam beladiri lain) yang sama warnanya.

Murid-murid yang dianggap berbakat dan mampu menguasai suatu teknik maupun jurus, akan mendapatkan penambahan yang lebih mendalam. Bagi yang belum mampu, tidak diperkenankan melanjutkan pembelajaran teknik yang lebih tinggi.

Awalnya, para asisten perguruan ini dilatih terlebih dahulu oleh Sinshe Lo Siauw Gok di rumahnya di gang pendidikan, dekat ITC Roxy Mas, Jakarta Pusat. Lalu para asisten inilah kemudian yang melatih para murid di beberapa tempat latihan. Bu Koan ini mengalami kemajuan pesat saat membuka cabang di daerah Sie Ho(di daerah toko tiga) Jakarta Barat.

Pada saat latihan, para murid yang telah selesai berlatih akan memperagakan teknik yang telah didapatkan dari para asisten pelatihnya di depan Sang Guru Besar. Guru Besar Sinshe Lo Siauw Gok akan memperbaiki gerakan-gerakan yang dirasa kurang tepat. Para murid yang telah selesai berlatih akan mendapatkan sertifikat kelulusan dalam bahasa Mandarin dan Inggris.

Tradisi ini berlangsung sampai saat perguruan pindah ke Taman Permata Indah II, Jakarta Utara, sekitar tahun 1980 an. Setelah Sinshe Lo Siauw Gok ini wafat, perguruan Siauw Gok Bu koan diwariskan kepada putra bungsunya, Lo Hak Loen.

Lo Hak Loen mengembangkan teknik latihan menggunakan sistem pembagian tingkatan, dimana penekanan setiap tingkatannya berbeda-beda. Kenaikan tingkat akan berlangsung setiap semester sekitar bulan April dan bulan Oktober setiap tahunnya. Selain itu, Juga merekrut beberapa murid ayahnya yang dianggap memiliki dedikasi dan mau bekerja sama untuk mengembangkan perguruan.

Selama beberapa tahun kepemimpinan Hak Loen, Siauw Gok Bu Koan telah menyebar di beberapa tempat di Tangerang maupun Jakarta antara lain di Batu Ceper Indah (Pusat perguruan, Tangerang), Modernland (Tangerang), Villa Melati Mas (Tangerang), Bukit Serpong Permai (BSD, Tangerang), Jelambar (Jakarta Barat), Puri Gardena (Jakarta Barat), dan lain-lain.

Seiring dengan perkembangan perguruan maupun murid-murid yang telah merasakan manfaat bela diri ini, banyak tawaran untuk membuka Bu Koan (tempat latihan) di beberapa daerah antara lain Surabaya, Bogor, Makasar, Bandung, dan sebagainya. Bahkan mendapatkan tawaran membuka perguruan di Luar Negeri, seperti di Amerika Serikat, Jerman, dan China.

Di Jerman, Hak Loen mempunyai beberapa orang murid yang telah membuka cabang perguruan..

Para murid lama maupun murid baru yang sedang berlatih di bawah pengawasan Lo Hak Loen banyak yang menjadi pengurus di beberapa cabang olahraga yang lain.

Lo Hak Loen juga merupakan pemilik dari PT. Hans Bersaudara yang memproduksi obat gosok tradisional merk HULU.

Mulai terbukanya sistim perguruan, membuat Siauw Gok Bu koan menerima banyak undangan untuk mempertunjukkan teknik bela diri khas perguruan ini. Antara lain di Gandhi School, Senayan City, La Piaza Kelapa Gading, Plaza Beleza, Taman Anggrek Mall, dll.

Saat ini Siauw Gok Bu Koan pimpinan Lo Hak Loen yang bermuara kepada seni bela diri Kun Tao yang diwariskan oleh Sinshe Lo Siauw Gok ini memiliki nama lengkap :

”Seni Bela Diri Kun Tao Aliran Lo Ban Teng”
”Siauw Gok Bu Koan”
”Lo Hak Loen Toan”

Darth Vader - is now just a winy teenager. Even without the destruction of the Darth Vader character via the new 3 Star Wars episodes this Joker would give him a run for his money.

the Terminator - Unfortunately he's only been a villain 33.4% of the time (he's the hero of the 2nd and 3rd film). He falls behind the Nolan's Joker as well.

Silas Lynch - from The Birth of a Nation, 1915. While he is worth mentioning, he falls behind the Joker as well - he's not near as disturbing as the Joker, nor is he as evil.

the Wicked Witch of the West - she's been made into the misunderstood good guy by "Wicked."

Phyllis Dietrichson - in Double Indemnity, 1944. It's true she's crafty and can't be trusted but compared to the Joker she's like Mother Teresa. She causes nowhere near the level of destruction, and by comparison, she is not feared. The Joker strikes terror into th hearts of an entire city.

Henry F. Potter - from It's a Wonderful Life, 1946. Just nowhere near the same level - I think you'd all agree.

Mrs. Iselin - from Manchurian Candidate, 1962. She's on the list because she's twisted and devious - the Joker has her beat in both categories.

Catwoman - Batman Returns, 1992. Catwoman is probably the most comparable person on the list simply because she too comes from the Batman universe. The Joker will leave you disturbed and rattled. Catwoman is more of a typical superhero villain - almost playful. Joker wins, hands down.

Out of all the villains I can think of, the only one who truly rivals Nolan's Joker is Hannibal Lecter. It's a very close call but there are a few things to consider: think about the amount of havoc the Joker brought upon the city. Think about the volume of people who were terrified of him. Think about his motives. The most frightening thing about the Joker is that he really does not have any motives - he's just a "dog barking at cars." He loves doing what he does. Though it's a close call, I believe the Joker wins again.

Heath Ledger was perfect and I'm not exaggerating. It's fair to say (while we are on the Hannibal subject) that he gave an "Anthony Hopkins" worthy performance - he'll go down in history.

So that's my point - I think a strong case could be made for the Nolan Joker to be the greatest villain of all time. What say you?

-David May

http://www1.utm.utoronto.ca/shafiquevirani/ima/

Ghazala Khan-She has been roaming the corridors of Blogistan for the last two years, and herself started blogging from March, 2007 because she wanted to let the world know her passionate views about the judiciary who started struggling to gain freedom. The movement of lawyers for judiciary carried on and so is the blogging streak of her. You can reach her at ghazala.khi@gmail.com.

The original published interview with translation errors in punctuation and grammar (hey, it's tough tranlating languages) is at: http://www.pakspectator.com/interview-with-blogger-nick-oliva/

I am honored to be allowed access to another culture and the interest in my opinions and I thank Ghazala Khan and all others at the Pakistani Spectator for publishing them.

Here is the interview with the corrections:

Interview with Blogger Nick Oliva

By The Pakistani Spectator • Jul 18th, 2008

I am reading a book at the moment that was bought for me a few months ago called Forgotten voices of the Holocaust. It is filled with vivid and compelling stories of persecution, torture and murder by many people who survived the Holocaust. I don't know why I have this obsession with World War II, and in particular with the Nazis and their attempts to destroy every human being that they considered sub human. As a teenager when studying history at school I never had the chance to study anything in relation to this war. I now have so many books and DVDs on it all and I keep reading and reading as much as I can about it as I guess its just so hard to imagine innocent people being treated so badly by other people and of how this was allowed to happen and for so many years. The stories in it are so chilling and it really does remind you of just how evil people can be. It deals with many groups of people who where taken to the Nazi concentration camps at that time including political prisoners, gypsies, homosexuals, and of course the Jewish people.

There are horrific stories about all the death camps and the death marches and of the various camps that were liberated at the end of the war. I have never ever understood anti Semitism and why so many people want to hate Jewish people and to treat them so badly. They were treated like animals and and as much as each page brought something even more cruel and disgusting I just had to read on. The stories about places like Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen and Buchenwald have the capacity to leave you in tears. Every paragraph in this book is from a survivor and of everything that they have witnessed and been through, an example of which is below:

Alex Ossowski, Polish Inmate, Auschwitz - Birkenau

The most tragic contact we had in the camp was with the special Jewish units (Sonderkommando) that were forced to work in the gas chambers and the crematoria. One man said that while he was lifting bodies into the crematorium to be burned, the next few corpses in line where his wife and children. He was crying all night and you couldn't help him or do anything. The Sonderkommando  lived under sentence of death because after 3 or 4 months, the Germans suspected that they were going insane so they were sent into the gas chambers also.

I have actually heard of how some Polish people even today hate Germany and the Germans. Wether we think that is right or wrong, surely to god we can understand how countries like Poland and other countries, who suffered so much at the hands of the Nazis, will never ever forget how so many people were persecuted and suffered. The industrialised process of the attempt to exterminate the Jewish people in Europe will always be a horrifying reminder of how evil and twisted people can be and of how that evil was allowed to flourish. I fully recommend anyone who has an interest in this subject matter to read this particular book as it truly is the survivors story. As hard as it was to read some of these stories, I don't think anyone should ever shy away from reading about what really happened. As one of the statements in the book reads:

The struggle of men against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.

here: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/watchmen/hd/

First things first: this looks incredible. Which is good. Cause something incredibly cool looking will get people's butts into a theater.

WATCHMEN is one of my top 10 favorite things ever. It's status as "The greatest graphic novel of all time" is wholly justified. It is the masterpiece of the great Alan Moore and flushed into the world through the wonderful art of Dave GIbbons.

It deals hyper-intelligently in matters of history, politics, and socialization. It's a wonderfully written epic story that also happens to be a complete deconstruction of superheroes.

It spans 50+ years of history and 2 planets.

What if heroes and superheroes were real? How would our political history be different? How would our society be different? (all using specific events).

It's enthralling to me.

... and yes Zach Snyder, the guy who directed 300, has directed the movie version of WATCHMEN... which I'm on the fence about. The trailer definitely shows he got Dave Gibbons sensibility for the world down and the stylization feels just about right.

But the question is can Snyder get Moore's nuance and subtlety? Can he show intellectual depth in the film? He really hasn't had that kind of challenge thus far, but if he keeps all of Moore's dialog in tact then most of the job will be done for him... which leaves it up to the actors. I love two of the choices (jackie earl haley, patrick wilson), think two will work out pretty good (cudrup, matthew goode), think it will be a break out role of (can't remember the guys name who's playing the comedian) and I have magnificent doubts about Malin Akerman. Everything I've seen her do thus far has been... um... pretty awful.

But with the look? yeah... really nice.