Finished!
I finished HP 6 just a few moments ago. It is, well, good but not as gripping as 2 or as epic as 5. It does have a plethora of memorable lines--although perhaps I only feel that way because I'm in the "cult."
Spoilers?
At the risk of tipping the plot to those of you who haven't started or finished yet, I have to say that I am inclined to view this year's Dark Arts teacher as a tragic figure, rather than an outright villain.
I thought that JKR handled the teen romance muddles pretty well, although I couldn't help but see a bit of projection of the author herself in Harry's putative girlfriend.
The scene where Dumbledore confronts Malfoy was surprisingly effective, although I couldn't help thinking of the cemetary scene from the Sound of Music crossed with a dash of Jedi.
7.18.2005
Enceladus: Closer
Cassini brushed within about a hundred miles of Enceladus' surface on July 14th. Here is a distant view of Enceladus against the rings:
Here is a global view of the south polar region through the mid-latitudes:
And here's the view from a hundred miles above the surface, boulders and all!
Cassini brushed within about a hundred miles of Enceladus' surface on July 14th. Here is a distant view of Enceladus against the rings:
Here is a global view of the south polar region through the mid-latitudes:
And here's the view from a hundred miles above the surface, boulders and all!
7.12.2005
The Planetary Society website has posted a fine photoessay with some of the moon n ring photos from Cassini that you first saw on this blog!
6.26.2005
6.25.2005
I'm now 31. If you follow the old 1970's maxim, I guess you could say that I can no longer be trusted.
If you don't know Puccini, you have missed out on something wonderful which modern times has to offer modern man. (And I pity you.)
What things one losses through the rolling years? I think back to the days when I devoured Sibelius and Narn i Hin Hurin, or to the hours I spend enthralled in Euripides, and I almost wonder who that young man was. (I would like to be able to say, "Law School," but it really isn't that simple.)
in halls upheld with huge pillars
of black basalt. There bats wandered,
worms and serpents enwound the columns;
Are "little people" a categorical imperative?
I read the other day that Woody Allen said that he would be gratified to be regarded as a "great European filmmaker." That struck a chord.
What cannot the myth in the Gorgias or the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to John be cited as authority in a judicial opinion? That categorical bar has always bothered me. It seems to make all of us that much the poorer for it.
If you don't know Puccini, you have missed out on something wonderful which modern times has to offer modern man. (And I pity you.)
What things one losses through the rolling years? I think back to the days when I devoured Sibelius and Narn i Hin Hurin, or to the hours I spend enthralled in Euripides, and I almost wonder who that young man was. (I would like to be able to say, "Law School," but it really isn't that simple.)
in halls upheld with huge pillars
of black basalt. There bats wandered,
worms and serpents enwound the columns;
Are "little people" a categorical imperative?
I read the other day that Woody Allen said that he would be gratified to be regarded as a "great European filmmaker." That struck a chord.
What cannot the myth in the Gorgias or the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to John be cited as authority in a judicial opinion? That categorical bar has always bothered me. It seems to make all of us that much the poorer for it.
6.16.2005
6.04.2005
ICANN created a .xxx domain last Wednesday for pornographic websites. This should have been done a long time ago. Hopefully, it will enable the "zoning" of the internet and the eventual restriction of all online hardcore porn to a set domain.
(Thanks to Peter Krupa for the link.)
(Thanks to Peter Krupa for the link.)
5.31.2005
Diana Keough won an radio journalism award for her commentary on the Spenser Tunick mass nude photoshoot last year in Cleveland. It really is worth a listen.
5.29.2005
On Revenge of the Sith
IMHO, Episode III is a pretty good movie. I saw it yesterday for the second time. I liked it more and not less upon second viewing. With Episode I, I really liked it upon first viewing, and then greatedly tired of it by fifth viewing. With Episode II, I never got beyond second viewing and the disappointments that brought. Revenge of the Sith, however, does deliver very well in the long second hour from the unmasking of Palpatine to the final duel between Anakin and Obei-wan. Very satisfying, for me, was how Episode III explains how the Jedi were purged and so realizes the "history" recounted by Kenobi to Luke in Episode IV. Honestly, at the end of the final duel, my eyes were beginning to burn. Coming out of the theatre, I felt a little of what I remember feeling coming out of Empire, a prescence I hadn't felt for a long time towards a Star Wars film: horror and pity.
The best line in the film is probably ". . . my little green friend."
Really, Episode III makes I and even II actually better films and makes the whole cycle greater than the sume of its parts. Especially in Episode III, we see people saying the same things or doing similar things to different people in different roles, so as to create a high degree of foreshadowing. Yoda says thing that would later be said by the Emperor, Anakin does things that would later be done by Luke, and Obei-wan does the same things twice towards different people in ways that mean opposite things. Whereas in other movies this would be banal ("Haven't we seen that before in another movie?), here, in the Lucas cycle, we are still watching what is, on many levels, same work. The director get away with what would otherwise be at worst plagarism or at best recycling.
A superb article comparing Wagner's Ring and Lucas' Star Wars may be found here. This is absolutely must reading for anyone who wants to understand the comp lit angles and "drama and society" implications of Star Wars.
IMHO, Episode III is a pretty good movie. I saw it yesterday for the second time. I liked it more and not less upon second viewing. With Episode I, I really liked it upon first viewing, and then greatedly tired of it by fifth viewing. With Episode II, I never got beyond second viewing and the disappointments that brought. Revenge of the Sith, however, does deliver very well in the long second hour from the unmasking of Palpatine to the final duel between Anakin and Obei-wan. Very satisfying, for me, was how Episode III explains how the Jedi were purged and so realizes the "history" recounted by Kenobi to Luke in Episode IV. Honestly, at the end of the final duel, my eyes were beginning to burn. Coming out of the theatre, I felt a little of what I remember feeling coming out of Empire, a prescence I hadn't felt for a long time towards a Star Wars film: horror and pity.
The best line in the film is probably ". . . my little green friend."
Really, Episode III makes I and even II actually better films and makes the whole cycle greater than the sume of its parts. Especially in Episode III, we see people saying the same things or doing similar things to different people in different roles, so as to create a high degree of foreshadowing. Yoda says thing that would later be said by the Emperor, Anakin does things that would later be done by Luke, and Obei-wan does the same things twice towards different people in ways that mean opposite things. Whereas in other movies this would be banal ("Haven't we seen that before in another movie?), here, in the Lucas cycle, we are still watching what is, on many levels, same work. The director get away with what would otherwise be at worst plagarism or at best recycling.
A superb article comparing Wagner's Ring and Lucas' Star Wars may be found here. This is absolutely must reading for anyone who wants to understand the comp lit angles and "drama and society" implications of Star Wars.
Doings and things
Haven't been blogging much lately.
Went on a business trip with my dad the other week. Because of a license issue, I rented and drove the car. Poetic justice? Perhaps.
Been reading Confucius reallly slowly, and like a Strassian. Everyone should read Confucius. There are so many parallels, and crucial differences with, Socrates and Christ.
My wife sat through a seminar this weekend for RSA on the "Rhetoric of Scientific Revolutions." This means that she now knows much more about Mr. Kuhn than I do.
Smoked a pipe last night, for the first time since I've been married and it tasted, nostaligically, like law school.
Why did I go to law school? LOL
I wonder what every became of some of those Pi Phis.
Went to Pittsburgh last Friday (before this past Friday) and visited the Carnegie Museum. Also visited two wonderful bookshops in Oakland, right around the Carnegie and U Pitt: Caliban's and Townsend. Got a beautiful copy of Orlando Furioso at Townsend--the kind of edition you only find only once every few years.
Ratzinger wants to mend the schism of 1054?
Haven't been blogging much lately.
Went on a business trip with my dad the other week. Because of a license issue, I rented and drove the car. Poetic justice? Perhaps.
Been reading Confucius reallly slowly, and like a Strassian. Everyone should read Confucius. There are so many parallels, and crucial differences with, Socrates and Christ.
My wife sat through a seminar this weekend for RSA on the "Rhetoric of Scientific Revolutions." This means that she now knows much more about Mr. Kuhn than I do.
Smoked a pipe last night, for the first time since I've been married and it tasted, nostaligically, like law school.
Why did I go to law school? LOL
I wonder what every became of some of those Pi Phis.
Went to Pittsburgh last Friday (before this past Friday) and visited the Carnegie Museum. Also visited two wonderful bookshops in Oakland, right around the Carnegie and U Pitt: Caliban's and Townsend. Got a beautiful copy of Orlando Furioso at Townsend--the kind of edition you only find only once every few years.
Ratzinger wants to mend the schism of 1054?
5.04.2005
4.19.2005
4.17.2005
4.09.2005
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