Atlas Shrugged: The Movie Is Worth Seeing Despite Its Obvious Failures

15 April 2011

OK. Just caught the premiere of Atlas Shrugged: Part I this evening. I read the book in high school (at which time it was still fairly new - it was published in 1957). The movie is only on 200 screens.

In my view, Ayn Rand, the controversial and celebrated author, was not a great novelist. She used the form of the novel to express ideas about her personal philosophy ("objectivism") that had been formed by her personal survival of Russian collectivism and a genocide twice the scale of Hitler's. This woman definitely has something to say. As to the film, I was most struck by the conflicting and deeply compromised premises at its core.

Rather than seeing the film set in historical context, we find that it opens in the year 2016. Gas is $36 a gallon, everybody is unemployed, and evil politicians scheme to loot the last few of the country's wealthy and successful people.

Sound like Russia? You've got it. And we are also taken back to the original story of railroading, iron, steel and coal – and ballroom cocktail receptions. That is quite a disconnect, and at least for me, I couldn't set the railroad story in our present decade.

There are other problems. I was bugged by the characters' inability to construct grammatical sentences (“we/us,” “is/are,” basic stuff). The dialogue itself was probably taken from the book, but honestly, that is not an inspired source. Rand's characters can speak for 50 pages without taking a breath. So a lot of the pieces of the story didn't work together.

I also have the impression that the screenwriters (John Aglialoro and Brian Patrick O'Toole) don't know much about modern business. For example, and most tellingly, they stayed with Rand's notion that individuals would be outlawed from owning more than one company.

Hey, individuals don't own any major companies anymore – and don't want to! Everything has been floated on the market to exploit shareholders! Why do it yourself, when you can suck the shareholders dry?

This problem is in fact one of the contemporary manifestations of exactly the problem that Ms. Rand was trying to illustrate from the middle of another century.

That is, the evils of our age are different than those of the mid-20th century. So if we're going to set this story in 2016, then let's see the collective thinkers mired in political correctness and tortured compromises, trying to rescue the economy by destroying the currency. Hey! That is actually happening – and it would make the same point in a contemporary setting, as I think the screenwriters intended.

So, at least for me, this WAS still worth watching. I guess the producers didn't have much money or time. I understand. This is not a big budget film, and that's OK. Give them a break.

I think what everyone involved in this shoestring effort was trying to get across is that individual initiative is the only thing that can save us (as opposed, say, to organizing various factions into groups and going at each others' throats – as seems to occur on Fox News nightly!).

So yes, this film is trying to be about courageous people believing in something and doing it, not unlike trying to produce this film with no money! Good for them. It's probably still the right answer.... I commend them for trying!
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Attaining

14 August 2010

Recently I've been meditating as to who is the most important of all jazz musicians.

A few weeks ago, I would have identified Mingus for all-around genius. Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting is a layered performance that can be continuously revisited, and still not exhausted.

However, recently I've been listening to John Coltrane's "Attaining" on Sun Ship.

Wow! It's a hard call. Mingus was consistently brilliant in his work, but Coltrane was versatile. Perhaps it is a limit of the structure of our human minds that causes us to ask such questions, which are perhaps pointless.

All I can say is, for a Friday night, Attaining by John Coltrane can take you places that few other pieces of music can possibly do.

Mingus. Coltrane. Genius.

There are more, many more of them. Our world is a better place for the creators!

Thank you.
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Mingus - Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting

17 May 2010

Life is short. Or maybe not. It depends in fact on your perspective and personal take on the question. But life does not continue forever.

What must we do?

Certainly every day we must do something we love.

What did Charles Mingus love? Well, I'm not aware of the entire scope of his passions, but the man certainly loved making music.

Throughout my life, I've often heard Mingus' music mentioned by others, most notably, perhaps, because Joni Mitchell referred to him as "mellow, fantastic," and recorded an album with him. As it happens, I didn't listen to that particular album by Joni Mitchell. Nor did I listen to Mingus' music until recently.

What have I learned?

We have to stretch and try new things to discover the the further reaches of our individual and collective souls.

After all these years, I have just discovered Mingus' Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting, recorded on his Warner Jazz (Atlantic) album, Blues and Roots. (As I listen more, I am inclined to recommend the "alternate take," into which Mingus and his companions invested just a little more swing....)

Wow!

Now I understand why Mingus' music has interested people over all these years. Using the complex and multi-perspectived tools of tone, timing and rhythm, Mingus calls to mind an old-time prayer meeting while at the same time exploring the boundaries of what it is possible to do with improvisation and experimentation in music. It works - dramatically well.

At this moment in time, I cannot listen to Mingus' Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting without being entranced - captured by Mingus' musical erudition and bravado. What a masterwork! What pleasure for those who are open to Mingus' tonal experimentation!

Mingus has opened a new world to me - one that is just a little bit broader and more majestic than the world I previously inhabited. That is entirely satisfactory - for now.

In order to stay open, of course, I must continue to explore and experiment, as did Mr. Mingus himself.

But for this week, I can only counsel the reader. Listen to Mingus. Open your ears. Widen your mind. Expand your world.

You will not be disappointed.

Aaron Cohen's critical review follows:

"Bassist Charles Mingus was always ready for a good fight. In the liner notes to this disc, Mingus says he wanted to respond to critics who said he didn't swing enough. And reply he did. Mingus gave whoever these absurd quibblers were some of the most ecstatic blues ("Moanin'" and "Cryin Blues"), gospel ("Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting") and Dixieland ("My Jelly Roll Soul") the jazz world has ever heard. Along with his striking original compositions, the instrumental combination in Mingus's nonet remains unconventional: the frontline included four saxophonists and two trombonists without the counterweight of a trumpeter. The leader's sliding octave bass lines and percussive slaps are totally rollicking, and the wild abandon in the group's playing is irrepressible."
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Background Music

20 August 2009

I play background music all day when I'm at my office. I do so as well on the rarer occasions when I have a little time to relax at home in the evenings.

The secret of background music is that it has to be interesting and agreeable, but unobtrusive. Thus, heavily orchestrated arrangements don't work well.

Here are a few examples of CDs that I have found to constitute enjoyable background listening:

My present favourite is Sol Gabetta's Il Progetto Vivaldi, gorgeous, rich, complex, unobtrusive and in fact perfect cello. I am so entranced by Gabetta's graceful performances that I literally can't stop playing this particular CD.

Alexander Paley's refined and subtle interpretation of Bach's Goldberg Variations are a delight to the ear.

I am also enjoying the Ornette Coleman Trio, "At the 'Golden Circle' Stockholm."

Consider as well Newsound's two-disc Charlie Parker collection (image unavailable).

For those of you who have listened only to R. Carlos Nakai, try Kyle Councillor's "Livin the Good Life" for traditional North American Aboriginal flute music, one of my great favourites.

John Coltrane's Giant Steps is one of the greatest of all jazz classics, and unobtrusive enough to serve as auditory context for a mellow day.

And Blue Trane is also a great backgrounder.

On a classical note, try the Orford String Quartet's "Mozart String Quartets."

For classical Spanish guitar, "The Legendary Segovia" cannot be faulted.

Julian Bream's "Music of Spain" provides perfect melodies and rhythms when used to add context to almost any worthy activity.

From the classic jazz page, consider Brubeck's milestone recording, "Time Out" for some adventures in time - that is, adventures with variable time signatures.... "Take Five" was the first jazz instrumental to sell a million copies. ("Time Further Out" is also worth taking a look at.)

One of my perennial favourites, and one of the first albums I ever owned, is Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain. It's easy to listen to, and I particularly like this one late at night.

Now I'm going to get into some picks that may or may not work for you as background music, depending on the circumstances. But I consider all of these too interesting not to mention. Only this summer, we visited the Big Jonathan Centre of the Selkirk (Northern Tutchone) Nation in the Yukon, where Jerry Alfred is an elder. His recordings are featured at Big Jonathan House. I've been listening to Mr. Alfred's music for years - a combination of traditional and contemporary elements. It is haunting and hypnotic. Try Etsi Shon (Grandfather Songs) as an introduction.

While we're talking about old favourites, try Skeleton Woman, inspired by the writings of Clarissa Pinkola Estes.

Another of Susan's and my great favourites, usually played during the Christmas season, is James Galway's "Winter's Crossing," telling the tale in music of the men and women who crossed by sea from Northern Ireland to North America. Caution, these compositions are haunting, magical and spiritually dense.

And while we're talking dense, magical and complex, consider Oliver Schroer's brilliant, dissonant violin renderings recorded in Spanish cathedrals during the artist's pilgrimage through Spain.

And as we wander further afield, please direct your attention to Robert Johnson's original 1936 and 1937 recordings, completed shortly before his untimely death. Johnson is arguably the most important of all Delta blues musicians and composers. His music is raw, intricate, haunting, at times disturbing, and ultimately deeply engaging. Note that there were no "studios" at the time these classic compositions were committed to wax. This music works best for me after the sun has set.

My final pick will serve as background music only in certain circumstances. The disc features considerable variation in dynamic range, style, taste and genre. But combined, these selections are magical. Literally intended for Valentine celebrations, this two-disc set is from Deutsche Grammophon: "Be My Valentine: Music for Two."

Let me re-emphasize that the earlier picks are suitable for background listening in many situations. Obviously many more in this genre could have been selected.

The later picks are for various reasons more specialized or idiosyncratic. What all of the above have in common is that they have proven themselves to be enduring favourites in my music library.

And for those who need to know, I do not own an MP3 player. These are CDs!
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Deja Vu: Depression Era Cartoons

14 August 2009

This is too valuable not to share. The "Bearish News Blog" has published a set of depression era political cartoons that patently reflect the issues of our own era along with those of the 1930s.

Why do events turn in this direction once in a lifetime? Because few alive today remember the last time that things were more or less the same.... We now face similar problems with similar causes and similarly misdirected government interventions as did our predecessors during the 1930s.

For more, visit the Bearish News Blog, now added to my blog list!

And what is my answer to the economic dilemmas of our age?

In short, don't bail out the reckless with the savings and tax dollars of the prudent.

Is that clear enough for you?

And if times get tougher for a while? Tough it out. Intervention makes it worse. Allow the financially responsible to set our future economic direction. The hard times will pass. It will get better if we do less rescuing of the reckless, and simply get out of the way of the cautious, the prudent and the planful.
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Proust on Suffering and Beauty

16 July 2009

While watching Episode 7 of Torchwood Season Two last night, Susan and I noted that Captain Jack Harkness attributed the following statement to Proust:

"Only in suffering do we recognize beauty."

I have so far been unable to verify this quotation. However, I do note that my web search has uncovered the following remarks by Proust, most of them along this general theme:

"Those whose suffering is due to love are, as we say of certain invalids, their own physicians."

"And this is the artist's source of suffering: to be powerless to turn the eyes of memory, the mind's eye, and reason toward Beauty, Being, or Love."

"In reality, in love there is a permanent suffering which joy neutralizes, renders virtual, delays, but which can at any moment become what it would have become long earlier if one had not obtained what one wanted, atrocious."

"Until I saw Chardin's painting, I never realized how much beauty lay around me in my parents' house, in the half-cleared table, in the corner of a tablecloth left awry, in the knife beside the empty oyster shell."

"Let us leave pretty women to men without imagination."

"The past not merely is not fugitive, it remains present."

"We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it to the full."

"Everything great in the world comes from neurotics. They alone have founded our religions, and composed our masterpieces. Never will the world know all it owes to them, nor all they have suffered to enrich us."

"The opinions which we hold of one another, our relations with friends and kinsfolk are in no sense permanent, save in appearance, but are as eternally fluid as the sea itself."

“Happiness serves hardly any other purpose than to make unhappiness possible.”

“Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind.”

"It has been said that beauty brings a promise of happiness, but it could be otherwise that the possibility of joy is the beginning of beauty."

"We always end up doing the thing we are second best at."
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The Kenora March Palette: 2009

15 March 2009

I began to publish the Kenora Palette Series in March 2008.

March is a magical time of year in Northwest Ontario, though you have to wander the back country trails to appreciate the beauty of our region in its fullest flourish. The magic is not usually visible from the highways, as it is too subtle and delicate to be captured by this method.

We are travelling out of town for several weeks at the end of this week, so I selected today as the last opportunity to capture the waning winter magic of our surrounding trail system.

Most of today's photos were taken on a network of local trails which Susan and her friend Linda Moncrief helped to clear, beginning this time of year in 2008.

What creates the magic of the Kenora March Palette? Certainly the gently receding blanket of winter snow is a key ingredient, but there is more. Another required component is the evening sun - now venturing further north - which highlights the subtle and always muted tones of bare trees and stark granite against the crystal white layerings of now soft and gradually disappearing snow.

The temperatures this time of year can be quite variable. One day will see -28 degrees Celsius, and the next will register -4 degrees Celsius. The, out of nowhere, as has occurred the past two days, the temperatures will jump well above zero, and the crystalline fabric of winter will recede so rapidly as almost to disintegrate.

Come with me now for an evening walk along the winter trails northwest of Kenora.

The following photo illustrates well the principle of the subtle glint of light illuminating the diffusely pigmented surface of the birch in the darkening forest.

The following closeup of the same tree makes clearer still the ephemeral nature of the evening light as it yields to the darkness that until recently has ruled and dominated our landscape, challenged only by the fleeting dash of the winter sun across the southern horizon.

Occasionally our pathway is framed by fallen trees or other markers offered by nature. This particular fallen red pine, almost exactly horizontal, is my favourite of them all, though the opening created is somewhat lower than head height.

A glimpse to the side almost anywhere along the trail will reveal the irregularities of the natural world softened by thick blankets of downy northern snow. These views are almost always pleasing, despite their ubiquity.

Here is another similar view, though at an entirely different location along the trail system.

I also enjoy the delicate textures created by contrasting elements on a much smaller scale, in this case a balsam branch fallen into the snow cover on the trail.

It would be neglectful, of course, not to illustrate the trail itself. This is a typical view.

This large granite boulder, left behind by retreating glaciers, remains a favourite landmark of Susan's and mine.

There are complex, fractal, infinitely complex textures overhead in addition to those layering the forest floor.

I am also drawn to simple images, though even a single birch against the snow is not as simple as it at first appears.

From simplicity to complexity... again. Note that the tongues of snow cover are clearly giving way to the resurgent forest.

Though following rules which remain fully submitted to randomness, the following image of a young grove of birch trees certainly offers the illusion of order and deliberateness.

I entered this image not for the composition of its visual elements, but for its almost flawless representation of the full palette of March, though the fresher tones of green are not so obvious here.

This naturally occurring arbour is just as intimate and nurturing in life as it appears in the image below.

Another image which captures the palette of March almost perfectly.

And here are some of the umbers and greens which were neglected in previous palette photos.

The trail itself, traversed by dogsled more than by motorized vehicle.

The bare forest against the sky.

Here is the perfect photo to close our review of the current March Palette series. The vapour trails of the technological world remind us that the sphere of the natural world is finite in scope. However, there is more to explore here near our home than we can exhaust in the time available to us. Wilderness, though often intersected by the marks and scratchings of men and machines, seems here still to stretch without end in every direction.

Thank you for joining me again for this review of the palette of Kenora (Northwest Ontario) in March 2009.

The Kenora palette series:

The Kenora March Palette: 2009

The Kenora Palette: After the June Rain

The Kenora May Palette Erupts into Green Tones, but also into Unexpected Hues

The Kenora Palette in May

The Kenora March Palette
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