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Consider how the Gay Pirate has helped YOU: not a review of Stardust
Far away from home, these two: but don’t they look happy, now?
Young, lost, and dewy, in a dorky haircut…and the girl…she’s in a bathrobe. Captain Shakespeare captures, threatens, pretends to kill…then warmly welcomes Tristan and Yvaine aboard his pirate airship, and orders them to immediately get stylish, opening his large closet to their perusal.
When Yvaine protests, Shakespeare says, “dear…you’re wearing a robe.”
Of course, the entire world right now is wearing a bathrobe, and we’re just like the couple: wandering the globe, seeking safety and love and home and…that…it’s TIRING. Enter the respite of cabaret and a walk-in closet stuffed with style, where one can put on a certain happiness, something more than themselves.
But actually, as it turns out, this fabulous play isn’t fictional for the couple. During their sojourn aboard the Caspartine, they begin to know themselves, and touch on something greater than they were before: in the air, the realm of intellect and imagination, a fallen star and a lovesick youth are given a safe space to grow into their best selves.
They don’t just put on new smart outfits and hairdos: they actually grow into their image. Complete with ballroom dancing and fencing lessons. In the air, under the protection of a gay pirate, they find a new sense of home.
The lightning-smuggling airship is a champagne bubble within the goo of life. And who best to captain such a bubble of joy but a gay pirate. I can only say…thank the stars for the gay pirates, stealing a bit of culture out from under the status quo. And bless them for sharing it with us when we’re lost (even if it scares some of us to death, initially).
Alan Rickman Sonnet 130 Recitation
because everyone should see this…and because I screwed up trying to link this in an earlier post…
Harry Potter Allegory: This one is the bomb
I think I’m not alone in my eye-rolling regarding the genre of “Harry Potter as Christian allegory” books which have appearerd over the years. Still, there is a strong tendency to regard the series as prophetic, and just yesterday, a great and briliiant friend pointed out the recent Vanity Fair astrological forecast for the United States, beginning in 2008. (See below for link). I couldn’t help but get chills as I saw the similarites between America’s upcoming transformation, and the just-ended series of books about everyone’s favorite orphaned Boy Wizard.
According to the article, the Lord of the Underworld, Pluto, is going to be transiting our Cancer nation, through the sign of Capricorn. This transit will give the U.S. a very rough time for the next couple of decades. There will be a struggle between two sides, and finally, the two sides will have to surmount their struggle against one another, to make a choice for something better.
The upcoming Pluto transit through Capricorn will be, for the U.S., like the Dark Lord rising to power. There will be much initial scrambling to blame the conservatives, the government, and whine about our limited freedoms. But since Pluto, Lord of the Underworld, doesn’t give a rip about our petty ego trips, we’d better polish up our magical transformation skills (and I’m not just talking about shouting “Alohomora!” every time you open a door). This ride is going to be rough. It won’t matter who is in the White House. Remember Cornelius Fudge? Government is going to be owned by the business of the day.
Snape and Voldemort, representatives of the Dark, are both Capricorns. Also, the Harry Potter books were born in Cancer. Furthermore, Harry is an insufferably courageous, righteous Leo, who tries to fight the darkness before surrendering to it.
As we know, Harry thought Snape was the evil guy from the beginning, but Snape shows that darkness is not necessarily evil, and courage is not always the virtue of the light side. 
It isn’t until Harry surrenders himself to the darkness that the landscape is transformed, and Snape becomes visible as the Dark Angel.
Our own transformation relies on meeting the Dark Lord (in Capricorn) face to face, as he transits our horizon. As his shadow crosses the secure U.S. suburban dream we have come to embrace as a replacement for the true American Dream. And we have grown larger and larger as we have come to know and love this bastard dream — basically, we’ve gotten fat and lazy, and this “dream” is no more inspired than a Hostess Ding Dong. Is it any mistake that the Minister of Magic, and the ruler of the wizarding world’s status quo is called “Fudge?”
In order to move beyond the world of Fudge, where we stick our heads in the sand and say “I’ve got the right — it’s America,” this surrender and transformation is required. The battle for our collective soul will require the best we have to offer. In short, the world will be a better place when our Hogwarts is ruined. The good news? America will finally be one of the “good” guys.
Read about it here: Vanity Fair Special Alert: Horoscope U.S.A.
off-the-cuff Potter Prophecies
The final cover of the series…I can’t help noticing that this cover somewhat mirrors the first in the series, in which Harry is reaching for the golden Snitch, at sunset:
…and year two, where our Orphan is lifted out of danger by reaching for the phoenix
In the final cover, is it sunrise, or sunset? Also, Harry is no longer reaching for something, but seems to be letting go. The era of reaching and striving finally over, our Orphan hero is integrating into adulthood now, and at the same time, the magic world is perhaps growing into congruency with the muggle world. At any rate, here are a few random prophecies which come to mind regarding the final story:
1. Neville will be sacrificed.
He will be “the power the dark lord knows not,” from the prophecy. Neville will protect Harry with bravery and the sacrifice of his life, and take the blow meant for Harry, out of love and friendship. Harry won the battle for his mind in “Phoenix,” by declaring which way the story would end: he decided to remain in possession of himself, Harry Potter, by declaring that he knew love and friendship, where The Dark Lord, by contrast, does not.
2. Harry will take the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.
As the DADA post was jinxed, ever since it was refused to Tom Riddle, Harry will finally resurrect this Warrior’s Post to its true status.
“The Order of the Phoenix” spent much time painting Harry in a teacher’s tableau, and we saw that he is a talented, encouraging, inspiring guide. I think it’s no mistake: our minds are being set up to accept Potter as a Hogwarts Professor.
3. Minerva McGonagall no longer holds back
McGonagall, with her shrewd, fierce wisdom will most certainly rise to the occasion of replacing Dumbledore as Headmistress. Finally, she will wield the power we have been secretly longing to see from her all this time. Grieved by Dumbledore’s death, angered by having to stand for beaurocratic idiocy all these years, she will no longer stand silenced by fluffy-pink bourgeois ministry moles, or be concerned with adhering to the rules of Gryffindor House. She will not hold back. Minerva will represent her namesake goddess with wise, powerful, and inspiring deeds.
The only sad thing, is this will be the only book we get to see her doing this.
5. Ginny Weasley is one powerful wizard, and we’ll see that displayed as she takes on a position of importance.
As “Phoenix” illustrated visually, Ginny has great power. She will take an important role (finally) in this next book.
6. Will Mr. Weasley be Minister of Magic?
It seems to pompous and grand for good old Dad, but perhaps our ruffled, Muggle-loving hero is just the perfect man for the job. He’s obviously diplomatic and sympathetic toward Muggle inventions, and may be the perfect ambassador to the Muggles, building bridges of friendship and understanding between the two worlds.
7. Dumbledore IS dead.
I’m sorry to say it, but I think we have to accept it. Dumbledore did say in the first book, regarding Nicholas Flamel, that death is but the “next great adventure.” Dumbledore knew that his self-sacrifice was necessary in the grand scheme of things, and that the magic universe is in need of his spirit now, more than his mortal body.
In the final book, he will be no more dead to Harry than the memory of his parents; As Luna Lovegood cleverly quipped in “Phoenix,” the things we lose return to us, sometimes in ways we do not expect. Dumbledore will return to Hogwarts, most certainly, but not not as its incarnate Headmaster.
Diane, the owls are not what they seem.
A dream:
A peaceful, wondrous feeling comes over me as I consider the darkness and shadow which lies just yonder, beyond where I can’t see anymore. Where the blue-speckleware ends, and nothing begins. I am happy, and glad for the quiet. The dream ends with my brother calling me home.
This is a dream I had all the time as a child: me entering a quiet, secret room, which looked like the giant inside of a speckleware roasting pan, like my mother used. Lately, as I read Robert Bly’s “A Little Book on the Human Shadow,” I can’t help but wonder, is this what I was pondering back then? Was this dream a precursor of future nocturnal wanderings into unknown, shadowy territory? Would the inside of this dark blue, starry room be my natural home?
Sitting in this space, between the brightness of what we think we’re supposed to be, and the depths of who we really are, feels nonlinear, dreamlike, peaceful, and terrifying. Like a painting by Salvador Dali or any other surrealist narrative…such as episodes of “Twin Peaks,” be it season one, the more widely accepted, “brighter” season, or the shadowy, freakish, season two. Yes, even “Twin Peaks” itself, as a show, has an evil, misunderstood twin which only now quietly begins to appear from the Shadow with its recent release on DVD.
So many of the characters on “Twin Peaks” had some type of twin, mirroring each other’s existence.
There are no guiding scenarios to lead us into some kind of communion with our shadows, our freakish twins, our other selves, which we have stuffed away. At least not yet, Now, all we have is one dark story attempting to show us the twin out of shadow. There is no narrative to instruct and define how to deal with our more dangerous selves, the ones we have so hygienically sealed off, so we can play about in a world of light.
We think we have created an impassable ravine between the two sides of our selves. One side is a tangled mess of waterfalls, wildlife, flora, invisible creatures, and mad thoughts. The other side of ourselves is safe, and sane. That’s the one, the one miserably spending and consuming, that we say is real, and true. At least “Twin Peaks” had us calling over to the other side of the ravine. Not a guiding light by any means, but more of a call of an owl in the darkness.
The space between is a safe, silent void, where the persistence of memory is quieted, and one can look a little more closely at the shadowy self on the other side.
A Beautiful Knitter
As Athena is the goddess of both War and Crafts, it follows that Russell would be a welcome addition not just to the Gladiator circle, but also the knitting circle.
And now, to meditate on the seemingly odd jurisditions of War and Crafts while gazing at this lovely, lovely mortal.
Kind Hearts and Coronets
“You’ll agree that my West Window has all the exuberance of Chaucer, without the concommitant crudities of his age.” (Alec Guinness as the clergyman).
I think more people should see this film, in which Alec Guinness plays 8 parts, and Dennis Price plots the murder of anyone between him and the Dukedom. If nothing else, it can be gained that Alec Guinness used to do other things before he was Obi-Wan Kenobi.
I don’t think there is any movie more satisfying. The plot is bizarre. The acting and richness of dialogue make each moment a morsel. Dennis Price’s character, Louis D’Ascoyne Mazzini, brings down the pretension of colonial and noble entitlements like a precise dismantling of a house of cards. He uses the detached, beautiful manners of his title to turn the idea that it is what one is, not what one does, which ennobles them. And even if what one does is murder his entire family, one can still do so and come across as a man of sterling character.
In colonial Britain, countries were colonialized, pillaged, and ruined for the sake of gain. In Dennis Price’s world, the Dukedom is attained through murder, and impeccable manners. His behavior is every bit as sterling as his peers’. And that, of course, is the problem with the whole thing.
to Toshiro Mifune
Fall is naturally when one’s thoughts turn to Samurai, especially when one is writing the annual back-to-school newsletter for the Japanese Language School, and one fantasizes that one might have been a Japanese warrior in a past life. One’s husband says one was Chinese, but I’m not sure about that. So, naturally, this is a time I like to reconsider Toshiro Mifune, when I line up Kurosawa films, in the hopes that I will finally “get” them. Because I’ve never really understood why I always fell asleep during these very, very important films we used to watch earlier in our marriage.
Excepting, of course Yojimbo. The most important part of that film, for me, is the resounding spaghetti western refrain, with diminished chords, followed by augmented, exploding trumpets. The startling juxtapositions clash, as Western ideals must have when they appeared in the Japanese mainstream (oooh, am I getting it now?). My husband tells me that these films are about the rebuilding of Japanese identity after WWII.
Am I just dense? If I’m going to watch Samurai films, I want them to be beautiful and mythical. I want them with Ken Wantanabe and lots of galloping. Not brooding postwar reconstruction anthologies.
So, for all the important movies I “get,” here’s to the ones I don’t.
filmography
A working filmography. Films I found either symbolic, uplifting, or just fun. Links are a work in progres…I’m trying to find a way to highlight my favoritest ones, but rich text format is NOT cooperating with my BOLD requests.
ENGLAND
- Wallace and Gromit in The Wrong Trousers
- How Green Was My Valley
- Kind Heats and Coronets
- Mrs. Miniver
- Sink the Bismarck!
FRANCE
- The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut)
- Mr. Hulot’s Holiday (Jacques Tati)
- Trois Couleurs Trilogy: Blue, White, Red
- Le Grand Bleu
ITALY
