O is for Onomatopoeia

hehe! fill all your onomatopoeic needs right here:

http://www.batmania.com.ar/paginas/serie_onomatopeyas.htm

Disney legend Ollie Johnston

Hmmm... I guess I haven't posted in a few days, and since I know teeming multitudes have been waiting with bated breath for new insight from me, I'd better get on it pronto!

Before I start, and before any of you lose interest, I just want to put in a quick plug for an excellent blog about the making of a new animated movie based on the Irish Book of Kells,
http://theblogofkells.blogspot.com

And that set me thinking about how I love animation...and how I've been fortunate to know one of the premier Disney legends, Oliver M. Johnston or Ollie Johnston, one of Walt Disney's Nine Old Men...in fact, the last surviving one.

Picture shows Old Men Marc Davis, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston and Ward Kimball

Now in his 94th year, Ollie joined Disney in the 1930s, learning the ropes mostly under greats such as Art Babitt and, especially, Fred Moore. He soon became a supervising animator. While the animation process at Disney was a collaborative effort and it therefore is not technically correct to credit just one person with the design of a character, Ollie was largely responsible for bringing to life many classic Disney stars, such as Mr. Smee, Alice (in Wonderland), Baloo the bear, the three good fairies in Sleeping Beauty, and many others... in the last picture he actively worked on, The Rescuers, he even sneaked in a caricature of himself, in the shape of Rufus, the orphanage cat that comforts little Penny.

Ollie lookalike Rufus the Cat on the bed
next to Lil Orphan Penny - see the resemblance?

I had the good fortune of meeting Frank and his wife, Marie (who sadly passed away last year) more than 20 years ago... I was living in my hometown of Düsseldorf at the time. It was a pleasure spending time with that gracious couple. Later, I met Ollie again in Burbank, California...and we kept a loose pen-palship over the years.

Someday, when blogger photo uploads work properly again for me, I'll post some of the
wonderful X-mas cards he's sent me.

Even though I sometimes feel OLD at 43-and-a-half, I can't even begin what it must be like to be approaching 94... to have lived through such amazing times, to have spent 60+ years with a woman and then to lose her... to have left this rich and wonderful legacy of artwork...

here's to you, Ollie!

Abominations

In his current book, "What Jesus Meant", writer (and practicing Catholic) Garry Wills quotes a letter that someone sent via the internet to an Evangelical preacher, who had raged against the "abomination" of homosexuality. I reproduce the letter below, condensed.

"Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's law. I have learned a great deal from you, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination--end of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's laws and how to follow them.

Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor to the Lord (Lev. 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination (Lev. 11:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there degrees of abomination?

Leviticus 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my eyesight. I have to admit that I wear glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

I know from Leviticus 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?"

(end of quote)

The idea of abomination arose from the fear of the "unclean," which in turn arose from the fear of the "unnatural." One whole class of the "unnatural" entails the mixing of different kinds of things--of milk and meat, for instance, or planting two different kinds of seed in the same field, or mingling two kinds of yarn in the same garment (Lev. 19:19). Another class of the "unnatural" has to do with the idea of function: the function of eating is to sustain bodily life, the function of sex is procreation, and so on.

Yet it is quite acceptable, even among Christian fundamentalists, to extend eating beyond survival to celebration and fellowship. Why, then, cannot sex be extended beyond procreation to an ideal of intimate communion between two individuals? Two individuals of the opposite sex, of course. But why not also of the same sex? After all, with same sex, one obeys the old tribal law of "not mixing different kinds of things" (Garry Wills, What Jesus Meant, 2006, pp. 32-39).

note: this entire post lifted with all due respect from noted geographer Yi-Fu Tuan's homepage, http://www.geography.wisc.edu/~yifutuan/

Acid attacks

Is it possible for a person to literally "melt", to dissolve? To have your beauty, your future, your life melt away is what literally happens to thousands of (mostly) girls and women, who are doused with acid... in their sleep... by men.

Like Nobisa, a 15-year old, who made the mistake of telling a boy she didn't love him. Or Nasima, who was just 12 when she turned down a marriage proposal by her 27-year old uncle.
Or the heart-wrenching case of the young mother who arrived at a clinic with her 10-month old baby. Her husband had been brutal and violent even during the pregnancy, had raged and demanded the outstanding rest of the dowry, had hit and beaten his young wife. After the child had been born, he had attacked it no less than five times with acid, once even forcing the baby to swallow some. Finally, the mother was able to flee with her child.

A small amount of sulphuric or hydrochloric acid, readily available even to the poorest, can disfigure within minutes. The substance not only eats into the skin on face, neck and shoulders but also the underlying muscles and nerves, sometimes even the bone. Immediate help is essential, yet 80 percent of such attacks occur in remote rural areas, where the trip to the next doctor or hospital is at best an adventure. And even if you have found a doctor who knows how to treat the terrible, disfiguring wounds, the damage to the spirit and the soul is harder, if not impossible to repair.

Not only do the victims suffer almost unbearable pain and anguish, their lives are also thrown off course, with love and marriage now a near impossibility. Education is cut short, with all physical and financial resources now poured into trying to recover.

"It's difficult to tell what it is that goes through the mind of someone who throws skin-burning acid over another human being," said Dr Ron Hiles, a British plastic surgeon who recently travelled to Bangladesh to treat acid attack survivors. "There are all sorts of motivations, one of the prime ones being jealousy. But I don't think people realise before they carry out the attack quite what horrific injuries they will cause."

I'm not ashamed to say that tears ran down my face as I read about the plight of these women, whose lives have been ruined by cowardly, evil attacks. And I salute them for their strength and power of will, and their refusal to let the attack destroy their identities. As it happens, Monira Rahman, who works to help the victims will receive the Human Rights Prize from Amnesty International here in Berlin March 19th . Her organization is www.acidsurvivors.org and I hope some who read this will be moved to pledge some financial support for that cause.

Yes, we need to acknowledge that different cultures have different norms and traditions. But, much as the practice of genital mutilation, the reprehensible tradition of acid attacks needs to be stopped. Sadly, however, it appears to be spreading, as this news report from Iraq says http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=7197

A Teltow Friday

Self-portrait :)


Taking a short walk this morning, I experienced the pretty side of Winter once more. Overnight, some snow had softly fallen, and it kept on snowing all morning. With my trusty digital camera always at the ready, I took a few pictorial impressions (I had to re-size them a little bit; you'll have to take my word for it that they look better in large format) :

Let's be friends ?

Remember The Golden Girls? This may date me something awful, but I remember it well, in fact, it was my favorite show for a long time and I still enjoy the reruns every now and then.

My favorite character was Rose and I don't really want to know what that says about me. In one of the earlier episodes, Rose is distressed because there's a co-worker she just can't seem to get to like her. Dorothy tells her she can't expect to be loved by everyone...to which she replies, "But I do want to be loved by everyone!"

Now, I don't know if I really want to be loved by everyone. I'm not even sure I love everyone, although I'm sure my tolerance of other people has much increased over the years. As an adolescent, one is easily intolerant; I suppose it comes either from being self-centered and therefore intolerant of everyone who is a potential rival in the spotlight, or from being idealistic, and therefore intolerant of everyone who does not meet your high standards. Over the years, you become less self-centered (one hopes) and possibly also a little less idealistic (one fears), so tolerance of others increases.

What I do tend to do is go overboard when I like someone. I go all out and try to turn what sometimes is at best a casual acquaintance into a friendship. Not because I NEED that friendship, but because I feel I have much to give to people, in terms of support, wisdom, humor, understanding and experience. Many times, I get rebuffed or ignored, and that really is a hurtful experience. I try to console myself by saying it's really their loss more than mine.

I guess what I want to say is, when people offer you their friendship, why not accept it? See if it works for both sides and I'm sure you'll be surprised at the insight and advice you will gain.... and give.

Oscar night

Wow, that was quick! With the combined help of Oscar show producer Gil Cates, who kept thank-you speeches to a bare minimum, AND my trusty fast-forward button, I managed to zip through the taped show in about 2 hours. And I managed to NOT listen to the news all morning, even resorting to covering my ears with my hands and humming "zip a dee doo dah", in a successful effort to not hear any Oscar results before I had a chance to watch the tape.

Why, you may ask? For one thing, the Oscars have been a high point of my year for about a quarter century...I love movies, and I admit to loving the pomp, pageantry and glitter of the Oscar show. And for also close to a quarter century, I have been taking part in an Australian friend's Oscar prediction competition, so it was fun checking off the ones I predicted right (for the record, 15 out of 24 awards, or, under my friend's points system, 41 out of 66 possible points...not too shabby and down only a slight tick from last year's 15 awards/43 points).

The awards:
It's a cliché, but true as far as I'm concerned - it's not to win, but to be nominated that's important. There is no objective way of judging the performances or artistic efforts of the nominees...as a constructivist, I'd argue that every viewer constructs his or her movie experience differently, with his or her personal life experience and current situation playing large parts in how a movie, a song, a score or a performance are perceived.

Having said that, I can't quibble with any of the major results*, which I'm sure all were and are excellent. The "Crash" upset at the end really was an upset; I had been pretty sure it would win, especially after Ang Lee picked up his overdue Best Director award. Of course, now that I know everyone in L.A. was IN "Crash" (host Jon Stewart early in the show asked for a show of hands of who was NOT in the movie), it's no wonder the film won.

*is Best Song a major category? Maybe I'm just an out-of-touch loser, but I feel the best winning songs have always been somewhat timeless...I can't believe they picked a foul-mouthed hip-hoppy piece of c**p... but that's just me, I guess.
Scorsese: 0 Three Six Mafia: 1
Enough said.

The honorary award for Robert Altman was touching, I liked his metaphor of movies as sandcastles. Among the clips of his films, I thought one of my favorites, "A Wedding" was conspicuously absent. Anyway, now I can't wait to see "A Prairie Home Companion".

The show:
I thought Jon Stewart acquitted himself very well. As I don't watch his show, I'm not that familiar with his brand of humor, but I understand he toned down the political edge considerably, leaving the speechifying to George Clooney. As always, I enjoyed the movie montages, of which there were several, prompting Stewart to comically plead "we're all out of clips! folks, send in clips, I don't care if they're on Beta!"

The films:
This year, I hadn't really seen very many of the nominees (the biggest of them all, "Brokeback Mountain", hasn't even been released here yet). But I was really intrigued by many of the clips they showed, and am definitely going to see "Capote", "Brokeback Mountain" , "The Constant Gardener" and "Good Night, and Good Luck".

A note on "Crash":

George Clooney rightly pointed out that Hollywood has for a long time been ahead of general public awareness of social problems, and he understandably saluted the industry for that.
However, some of the films touted this year, including "Crash", seem to have it backwards.
"Crash" depicts a Hollywood writer's imagination of a deep and brutal racial divide, while the truth out there is that much of the nation is successfully trying to live with each other in a richly diverse multiculturality (if that's even a word), and to smooth out old divisions and injustices. I'm not sure what purpose is served when old scabs that have been healing quite nicely are picked at and re-opened.

I also agree what noted film critic Kenneth Turan said, "I do not for one minute question the sincerity and integrity of the people who made "Crash," and I do not question their commitment to wanting a more equal society. But I do question the film they've made. It may be true, as producer Cathy Schulman said in accepting the Oscar for best picture, that this was "one of the most breathtaking and stunning maverick years in American history," but "Crash" is not an example of that."

+++

On balance, 2005 really was an excellent year in films, in my ever humble opinion, with a great variety of subjects and treatments. So, keep going to the movies...don't engage in piracy...remember, you're stealing from all these handsome folks in Hollywood if you do...and some of those women can only afford clothes that barely cover their breasts! ;)

The coarsening of society

Just a brief note: in her two most recent Wall Street Journal columns ( http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110008002 and http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110008034, the excellent and eloquent Peggy Noonan relates her experiences during air travel security checks and, in the 2nd column, paints a broader picture of what she sees as a coarsening of society, a surfeit of sexuality and sexual discourse, that is offensive not only to women, but really a disgrace to us all. Using a term that may not be readily accessible to less religious people (Noonan is a devout Catholic), she says we are "embarrassing the angels". Imagine, if you will, that there are indeed heavenly beings around us... wouldn't they be embarrassed by the language and imagery we routinely use? I think this is a thought worth pondering.