Monday, 14 December 2009

2012

I have been to see some films of late, one of which was the new 'epic' 2012. Its is James Cameron's first film since Titanic, and unfortunately for him, this shows.

It was full of the usual self-congratulatory Holywood nonsense one would expect. It is almost macabre, how the film manages to adhere so closely to the set story-line that our top film makers have been using for the past half-century. Acclaimed Cameron doesn't even leave the Titanic storyboard, so popular is the script: a disaster movie with a bittersweet ending, a love story, an ethical element about choosing who should die and who should live, the deaths of important people, a class friction element, the failure to save the whole, but enough people surviving to continue the spirit of it all. It is almost a feat of mastery that Cameron manages to reproduce his only cinema hit again 14 years later.

The graphics were good though.

One scene I enjoyed in particular. Two world leaders decide not to be saved. One is the US President, who bravely stays at the White House, which has been opened as a hospital and shelter. He is killed when the USS John F Kennedy lands on top of his former home, but thankfully he explained earlier how daunting the prospect of being the last US President actually is.

The other world leader not to attend the salvation of earth was the Italian Prime Minister, who like the present incumbent, was hit in the face by a church. However, the fictional character was crushed to death by Michaelangelo's dome which topples and rolls over the piazza in front of St Peter's. The Pope himself - who didn't get a ticket I might add - was at the time granting general absolution unto the plebs below from the loggia, was thrust from the balcony to his death. The College of Cardinals were praying on their knees in the Sistine Chapel as the ceiling begins to crack and the building falls in on itself. What a glorious way to go - crushed by the Last Judgement.

Fortunately, enough people manage to get to Mount Everest and escape the rising waters, and re-found, Noahesque, humanity in a perfect, planned society, with James Cameron at its head.

Here is the trailer:

Wednesday, 9 December 2009

The new boss-man

Ad multos annos, vivat! Plurimos que annos, vivat!

Monday, 7 December 2009

Outward vestures

Monday, 30 November 2009

A load of malarky

Every so often, one hears a flutter of non-sense from Edinburgh. What these whimpers actually are, are calls for independence from mighty English overlords. The nationalist administration in that province was elected on the promise - and a promise which anyone with sense would have recognised they could not keep - that they would seriously debate, even hold a referendum, on the subject of Scottish independence.

I remember once, Mr Alex Salmond musing at great length on Question Time, describing how much he desired independence from Scotland, and after all, English people should be allowed to have their independence too.

Independence from what?

Independence from a country forced on these isles by the knavishness of their king. I don't recall the people of England being given an opportunity to react against their Scottish overlord taking power in London back in 1603. An accident of history thrust our two nations together, and their unity has been preserved by their shared crown and constitution. If anything, England should demand independence from Scotland.

But that would be childish. For what the nationalists actually want, is not the independence of their nation, but the destruction of our country. The United Kingdom is my nation state, my patria, the country I was brought up to love as my own. By Scotland leaving it, the union is broken, and the country I still love ends.

So if there were to be a referendum - and I abhor the idea of a referendum on any issue - it would have to be a poll of the entire nation, for the proposal is the destruction of it:

The United Kingdom should be destroyed?
Yes
No

So, say everybody votes yes. Scotland goes its own way.

These days, we recognise Wales and Northern Ireland as separate entities in the Union. It seems plausible that the United Kingdom of England, Wales and Northern Ireland would inherit the legacy of that of Great Britain: with its seat on the UN Security Council and EU membership.

Scotland is now a new state. It will require EU membership. England may veto that. And its entry into Nato. The UK would naturally withdraw its investments from Scotland, surely. No more pipelines; the natural resources may exist off the coast of Scotland, but who pays for the drilling? No more ships to build or dock. No more mountain rescue, no more express trains in the lowlands. No-one to run the airports. No more 'lairds' to support the agrarian infrastructure. No more top-up funds from the Bank of England to build excessive parliaments.

Whatever will Scotland do? Remain in the Union. Maybe.

Monday, 23 November 2009

Papal wisdom

"Beauty that is authentic...is by no means a supplementary or secondary factor in our search for meaning and happiness..." says the Pope, and in its relation to Man, though it provides him with a satisfactory answer to the search for happiness (which is Man's ultimate desire), it has an unusual way of going about it: "piercing [Man] like a dart, but in so doing it 'reawakens' him, opening afresh the eyes of his heart and mind, giving him wings, carrying him aloft."

Authentic beauty "unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the profound desire to know, to love, to go towards the Other, to reach for the Beyond."

"If we acknowledge that beauty touches us intimately," he said, "that it wounds us, that it opens our eyes, then we rediscover the joy of seeing, of being able to grasp the profound meaning of our existence, the Mystery of which we are part; from this Mystery we can draw fullness, happiness, the passion to engage with it every day."

Saturday, 14 November 2009

Organ hits #2

Sortie in E, by Louis J.A. Lefébure-Wely



M. Lefébure-Wely was sacked for writing this piece!

Thursday, 12 November 2009

Organ hits #1

Because it's essay handing-in time, let's have a new series on my favourite organ works.

Number one, Gigout's Grand Choeur Dialogue