Friday, July 26, 2024

JUST ANOTHER REVIEW OF THE 2024 PARIS OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY

 

July 26, 2024

This year's opening ceremony of the Olympics in Paris was different, and at least very inclusive. Most impressive was the performance in the pouring rain by pianist Alexandre Kantorow of Ravel's difficult piece, "Jeux d'eau." Kantorow was completely unprotected in the downpour, and nevertheless played brilliantly, absolutely composed! The grand piano appeared to be wrapped in plastic, but the keys could not have been, and the rain was dripping off his face. One worries about the state of that piano. You can wreck them just by overturning a glass of water....

This writer has never liked the vocal quality of Celine Dion's voice--voices we all like or dislike are so subjective--but wow, her performance at the Opening Ceremonies was amazing and moving, incredibly heartfelt! It was also enjoyable watching the always watchable Lady Gaga vamp it up. Marina Viotti also did a splendid job singing the Habernera from Carmen.

Outstanding was mezzo-soprano Axelle Saint-Cirel, who sang the Marseillais! If only classically trained musicians like her, who have dedicated their lives to perfecting their instrument and creating beauty, could receive the same name recognition (and salaries!) of pop musicians!


Seeing singer Aya Nakamura and her backup singers reaching for their crotches during their performance was disgusting, however. Yes, it's Paris, but c'mon! The mé·nage à trois scene was also controversial and would have been better omitted.

The commentary during the ceremonies of Payton Manning (a football player, I guess?) and Kelly Clarkson did not contribute to the event, but was awfully distracting, such as Kelly Clarkson gushing, "Ooh, that looks just like a movie," during a particularly beautiful scene of special effects. If they had been sitting in my living room making such inane comments, this writer probably would have asked them to shush. I began to count the number of times the hosts misused the word of the year, "iconic." I did that so that I wouldn't pull out all of my hair. The worst offense was a shot of the U.S.A. athletes with their cell phones, where the main commentator noted that they were taking "iconic" pictures with their phones.

But they are doubtlessly Very Nice People (truly, they probably are), and are apparently quite famous, and that's what counts today, right?

Also uncomfortable was how fast the cameras cut from one scene to the next, so much so that you really could never focus on or relish anything the absolutely amazing performers/acrobats were doing throughout the ceremony, nor could you really see the athletes from the various countries as clearly as you can when they are parading through a stadium. That was a shame, as it is inspiring to see the athletes' faces and their tremendous youthful enthusiasm. The boats were at least an original thought, even though they and the final run of the torch made the ceremony drag.

What was amazing to see was the guy who ran and jumped along the rooftops of Paris with the Olympic torch! The horse galloping down the Seine was also fabulous, even though it took a long time to reach the flagpole. The timing of the entire event was off, although the heavy rains throughout may have contributed to that.

Another very unique and rather pretty scene was lighting the torch in a balloon, especially pertinent since the very first balloon flight--the first time people were able to fly!--occurred in the late 1700s in Paris. Nobody mentioned when and where that balloon holding the Olypmic torch would be coming back down to earth, however. This leaves some unanswered questions.

The ceremony had its wonderful moments for sure. Rather than the almost authoritarian regimentation of some past opening ceremonies, a happiness and silliness pervaded the ceremony despite the heavy rainfall. 
 
Criticism aside, it was overall a touching Olympic Opening Ceremony, especially with the wars, starvation, refugee situations, and suffering that currently exist across our precious globe. It is one time on our planet when all the nations come together peacefully. In a way, it is too bad that Russia and Belarus were excluded. Seeing the smiles on the faces of athletes in all countries, including those that are "enemies," makes one realize that we are, at heart, all the same.

Saturday, June 11, 2022

NEW AGE SPIRITUAL LEADERS, SHAME ON YOU

 


 
A friend of mine is attending a huge gathering in Sedona hosted by big-name spiritual teachers. The cost for five days is only $899!

This is not a course where one learns skills that can be used professionally. It is a conference for people to learn about things like love, how to boost their soul growth, and ways to heal.

There are many such conferences and workshops, often under the shelter of the New Age community, and the bigger and more famous the leader and teacher, the heftier the pricetag.

These spiritual "influencers," whose names would be familiar to a large portion of the public, are guilty of just as much avarice (extreme greed) as the absurd evangelistic preachers you see on TV who flash their diamond rings while holding the Bible aloft and who go home after the show to their luxurious mansions. Like the preachers, they have professional teams and, in addition to the hefty conference fees, host plenty of back-room sales. They make a lot more money than what is needed to cover the costs of renting a room.

Google the names of some of these famous so-called New Age spiritual leaders and include the term "net worth." Most of the people leading these conferences are multi-millionaires. Let that sink in a bit.

The poor, sadly, will never get the chance to learn spiritual truths, at least from these folks. Opportunities to learn more about love, spiritual power, and the Divine only go to those who can afford the entrance tickets.

Massive greed has attached itself to so-called spiritual truth, and nobody is shouting that the emperor is wearing no clothes!

Covering room rental and other expenses? Fair. Charging money for a book or a DVD, provided the cost is reasonable? Fair. It costs to publish a book. Earning a little extra for one's upkeep? Fair. Charging for a workshop or class to learn skills that can be used professionally? Fair.

But just imagine Jesus giving his famous Sermon on the Mount. (This is not about whether or not you believe in Jesus.) Imagine if the disciples stood at the base of the mount, telling people:
"Admission is $599 with the exception of the Beautitudes. To include that bonus teaching, we have a very special offer only
for those who registered in advance; they may include the Beatitudes for the incredible low price of $799! Bottled water is provided at $8 a bottle. Lunch is extra. Because of sanitary regulations, attenders are asked not to bring any loaves or fishes onto the premises. Donkey rides up and down the mountain for $150 round trip are provided for those unable or unwilling to walk to the seminar."

It is rare to find a teacher who will share truths about such things as God and love without being tempted to rake in a whole lot of extra bucks just for themselves. Like the TV preachers, famous gurus, and cult leaders, they are great at justifying their avarice.


People are going to continue to idolize these famous spiritual teachers. They will keep on paying high fees in an effort to better their souls and to grow spirituality, but such teachings are polluted with the slime of greed and glory. It is a shame and a travesty.



Monday, March 14, 2022

MY REVIEW OF STEVEN SPIELBERG'S REMAKE OF "WEST SIDE STORY"

I just saw Steven Spielberg's remake of West Side Story.


Spoiler: Tony still dies at the end.



The new Tony (Ansel Elgort)  and Maria (Rachel Zegler) are excellent singers, and have fine chemistry together. But...while she was not a Latina, I preferred the tender innocence of Natalie Wood’s Maria to the feisty edge of Zegler's (who isn't Puerto Rican either.) Anita needs to be the fierce one, not Maria! From that point of view, the fact that Zegler's Maria was attracted to Tony makes no sense whatsoever. Spielberg couldn't seem to figure out whether to make Maria aggressive or gentle, and in my view failed on both accounts. While the actress probably did as directed, and did a fine job, she just didn't have the depth and subtlety that Natalie Wood gave to the part. She seemed, as an actor, immature, although they will possibly give her an Oscar anyway.



I'm sorry to say this, but the Tonys in BOTH the original and the remake were seriously wimpy and neither one rang true for me as brutal-bad-boys-turned-good.


One of the worst mistakes of the remake was the way in which the songs were shuffled. This  completely ruined the flow and the building intensity that Bernstein's score had deliberately enhanced. The very worst of these poor decisions was having Maria sing I Feel Pretty right after the big gang fight. I think I may have an understanding of why Tony Kushner, who wrote the remake, tried that, but wow, it did not work!


The new Anita, Ariana De Bose, is certainly talented, yet she just did not show the fire and spit and emotional range that Rita Moreno did. Perhaps this was due to the direction she was receiving. Of the two females in the remake, they depicted Maria as the more brittle one, and Anita was turned into a kind of passive housewife to Bernardo, where in the original, both Bernardo and Anita were an even match of fire! There simply was not the desired and exciting contrast between the two that Rita Moreno and Natalie Wood had.



The worst casting was of the gangs and gang leaders–all were seriously disappointing. I did not feel any sense of menace whatsoever from either the new Riff (Mike Faist) or the new Bernardo (David Alvarez), and there was none whatsoever from the gang members. Mike Faist in particular was unable to project a sense of power or authority; I kept waiting to see that, but it never occured. I simply couldn’t accept him as any kind of leader. Of course, Russ Tamblyn was also kind of ridiculous as a gang leader, but he did have size in his favor.

In the original film, George Chakiris was SO mean and scary as Bernardo, and used his body language wonderfully to convey that meanness (as did the other gang members in the original film). His Academy Award was well deserved. I love his singing, and have several of his albums; amazing that the former angry Bernardo also has crooned tender Gershwin love songs with the best, which shows his versatility.

The original Chino (Jose de Vega) was really scary. Why in the remake they cast a bespectacled Matt Damon look-alike in the role is beyond me. Even weirder, the new script portrays Bernardo, who is supposed to be a vicious leader, affectionally befriending this meek accounting student. C'mon! I guess they were trying to go against type, but it didn’t cut the mustard for me.

I was also disappointed in the casting of Anybodys in the remake, where, guess what? They cast yet another dark-haired person having the same general build as most of the male gang members; it was not even immediately evident that she was female, which meant the loss of an interesting element. The new character was dull and not very expressive, perhaps directed to be that way, and lacked the interesting jumpy, wiry, needy vibrancy of Susan Oakes in the original.


Apart from ineffective casting, the film was shot in such a dusty, dim, smudgy way that it was hard to see anything clearly. Not only was there a lack of contrast between characters; that lack of contrast was evident even in the picture itself. Yes, I understand that Spielberg wanted to show it as a gritty urban atmosphere, but sadly, he succeeded too well. This new version of West Side Story was so visually depressing and gray that the intensity of the high drama was completely lost.

This choice in filming in the new version made it difficult to make out the faces or even actions of the gang members, which were strikingly memorable and clear in the original. It was also nearly impossible to make out the difference between the Jets and the Sharks. They were for the most part of similar heights and builds. (Check out cast photos, which I do not have permission to reprint here.) I found it puzzling that most of the Jets in the remake appeared to have hair as dark as the Puerto Ricans. I didn't notice any blondes among the new Jets, but then everything was so dimly lit and fast moving that it was hard to tell; there might have been. In the original, the majority of the Jets had light hair and were of all different shapes, sizes, and facial types. It was a fantastic contrast in a story about worlds colliding. Maybe Spielberg wanted to lose that contrast for some symbolic reason, but it didn’t work.

The camera just moved far too fast most of the time, seldom lingering long enough for the viewer to get a clear idea of what was happening (except in the love scenes), and almost never zeroing in on the faces of the gang members. In both gangs, the actors seemed lackluster and not at all distinct either from one another or between the two gangs the way they were in the original which–granted–focused much more on the Jets than the Sharks. None of the new gang members stood out the way Tucker Smith (Ice) or Tony Mordente (Action) or de Vega as Chino stood out. The energy was flat.



In the fight scene, including the preparation for the fight, it was frequently impossible to make out what was going on–as stated, it was visually murky, and there were too many cuts before the eye could absorb the scene. I found this disappointing. Throughout the film, whether Jets or Sharks, the actors portraying the gang members did not project any particular hardness or nastiness, but actually the opposite! In most of the scenes, it just looked like a bunch of passive, not-very-expressive bored guys hanging out together. In the original, the gang members were meaner, funnier (in Officer Krupke) and more distinctive.

Compared to the amazing John Astin, the original emcee at the dance, or the meanness of John Bramley, who played the hard-bitten cop, the actors playing those roles in the remake, like much of the rest of the cast, fell flat.

And oh my, the singing! In the new version, while Tony and Maria and Anita were good singers, the singing of the gangs was really, really, really weak. Why did they not dub in more potent singers? With the combination of all these factors, the Tonight montage was absolutely amazing in the original film, and pathetic in the remake.

Even the dance numbers were murky and dull without the deep, delicious, lingering shots of the original. I am glad that they stuck to Jerome Robbin's interpretations, but even then, the dances in the gym or on the streets were nowhere as powerful and raw in the remake as in the original.
Spielberg is amazing, I admire him tremendously...but sadly, he stepped out of his expertise in this remake of West Side Story. I don't think he has much, if any, musical sense. That said, the orchestra was great, and I was happy to see that Gustavo Dudamel, a favorite of mine, was the conductor. With such weak singing from the larger cast, though, even Dudamel could not charge the brilliant music enough to bring it to life.

Let's look at the new script. Almost all of the changes to the original story were contrived and awkward. It wasn't necessary, for instance, to change the Puerto Rican women's workspace from a dressmaker's shop to a department store, and it was utterly absurd to insert the idea that Tony, who had almost killed someone, was entranced by an art museum on his bus ride to prison. What?! Changing the owner of the drugstore from Doc to Doc's widow was the only alteration that worked.


And speaking about that, in the entire remake of the film, I most enjoyed Rita Moreno, who was by far the best actor of any of the characters, male or female! Hers was a superior performance!


I do recognize that some of my disappointment stems from the fact that when I saw the original movie in 1962, I was 15 and extremely impressionable. The film, for its time, was risky and groundbreaking stuff, even though people take issue with it today. For instance, it was the very first time in a major movie where it was implied that teenagers slept together without disastrous consequences or punishment. Of course, Tony DID get killed, so…hmm.

Sunday, June 16, 2019

The White House has blocked State Department testimony stating that climate change could be catastrophic. People are still on the streets cheering the emperor who is wearing no clothes--and bringing our planet closer to doom.

Friday, March 3, 2017

TRUMP, THE RUSSIANS, AND MONEY

© 2017, Laughing Cherub
by M. E. Raines 
Below is an in-depth article that was researched and written by the author of this site, after looking at more than 15 legitimate news sources. It was inspired by a Rachael Maddow report. Everything in the report has already been researched carefully by expert journalists. While it is not new news, my goal was to get as much information about this topic as possible into one article that would still be readable. Complex news stories cannot be condensed into a sound-bite or a meme. Nevertheless, you will want to take time to read it. Afterwards, you may not be able to look at the current administration of the United States of America in the same way.

Cyprus plays a key role in the Trump-Russia connections. It is well known as a place where Russians launder their money. Estimates of the money Russians have invested in Cyprus range from between 8.5 to 37 billion dollars. Bored yet? Read on. It gets better and better, I promise!


Now turn to Deutsche Bank (in Germany). DEUTSCHE BANK IS DONALD TRUMP’S LARGEST CREDITOR—meaning that’s who Trump owes the most money to. This is because they are one of the only banks that would lend money to him; others thought him too much of a risk.

Deutsche Bank was found guilty of Russian money-laundering and in January 2017 was fined $10 billion dollars.

Rather than going to jail, Deutsche Bank’s chief executive, Josef Ackerman—a man who obviously has close ties both to Russia and to Donald Trump—was recruited to become chairman of the Bank of Cyprus. You remember Cyprus, right?

Guess who recruited him? Our own Wilbur Ross, recently confirmed as Trump’s Commerce Secretary of the USA! Wilbur Ross, it turns out, has been the vice-chairman of the bank of Cyprus since 2014. His former co-chairman, Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, had been a KBG agent and was reported to have been appointed to his bank position by Vladimir Putin. Another big investor in the Bank of Cyprus is Russian Viktor Vekselberg, long connected to Russian president Putin.

And another is the Secretary of Commerce of the USA. Ross and his group have invested millions of dollars in the Bank of Cyprus, and they had an 18% interest in it. He is supposed to divest himself of interest in the bank within 90 days of assuming his new position. (Ross is known by some as what is called a “vulture capitalist.” He is a billionaire who has not made his money by being kind.)

Wait. The ties involving Trump will get stranger...and more frightening.

One of the richest men in the world is Russian Dmitry Rybolovlev, nicknamed “The King of Fertilizer.” This guy owns a French soccer team. New York City’s most expensive apartment, an $88 million 10-room penthouse overlooking Central Park, was bought by him for his college-aged daughter. He owns the Greek Island where Jackie Kennedy married Onassis. He is apparently not a nice guy; he sometimes wears a bulletproof vest because of his enemies, and was in prison for a year on a murder charge (although he was cleared).

And guess what? He has owned nearly a 10% share in—wait for it—the Bank of Cyprus!

Put him on hold. He comes back into the story soon. In 2004, Trump bought a garish mansion in Palm Beach for $40 million at a foreclosure auction when the man who had built it, Abraham Gosman, went bankrupt. Trump never lived in it. He only bought it to flip, and put it back up for sale in 2006 for $125 million. Nobody wanted it.

A reporter, Jose Lambiet, had a tour of the house when it was put up by Trump for sale. “I’d been in the house before, at one of Gosman’s charity parties, and Trump had hardly changed anything, just put on a couple of coats of paint,” Lambiet said. “Even that — well, he told us the fixtures in one of the bathrooms were gold, but as he walked away, I scratched a faucet with my fingernails and it was just gold-covered paint. …It was just terrible-looking, really gaudy. Nothing fit together—it was sort of haphazard inside.” The house also had serious mold problems.

Nobody was interested in buying this sham of a mansion and it continued to sit empty. Finally, in 2008, Rybolovlev (the rich Russian) bought it for $95-$100 million, netting Trump a profit of nearly 60 million dollars. This was at the time the biggest real estate profit ever made in the USA. It was also the year of Trump’s 6th and largest bankruptcy.

At the time that Trump made such a huge profit, the real estate market in the USA was, in Trump’s own words, a disaster. Because it was in such a decline, Trump—again, at about the same time that he was making his $100 million sale—had the gall to SUE Deutsche Bank so that he wouldn’t have to pay a $40 million real-estate loan from them. (His lawsuit was unsuccessful.)(And people wonder why no banks want to lend him money!)

With no firm records of either man ever setting foot in the mansion more than once, much less living there, and so much money exchanging hands, there is a lot of suspicion surrounding this deal. It doesn’t make sense.

Trump is even quoted as saying at one time that all he did to fix up the mansion was put some paint on it before he re-sold it, replete with its mold issues, for more than double what he had paid for it, which is peculiar at a time when the real estate market in the USA was in terrible shape. Why didn't he work harder to improve it?

Possibly due to a messy divorce, Rybolovlev finally decided to sell the property in 2015. He has since torn down the mansion, as well as over 97 trees on the land, nice guy that he is, and divided the six acres into three oceanfront lots. It is not known whether or not he will recoup his investment, but if he does, speculation is that at best, he will break even.

Trump claims that he has never met Rybolovlev in person.

BUT…throughout this past year, they have been in the same places simultaneously numerous times! Total coincidence? Rybolovlev “coincidentally” flew in his private jet to Concord, North Carolina at the same time as Trump--one week before the election. Trump’s and Rybolovlev’s private jets were parked side by side at the airport.

In another coincidence, Rybolovlev just happened to fly to West Palm Beach at exactly the same time that Trump and Flynn (the former secretary of state who resigned due to his Russian connections) were there meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister.

In the past year, these coincidental trips of Rybolovlev that overlap Trump’s visits to the same places have included at least seven visits to NYC and two trips to Miami. Rybolovlev, whose home is in Monaco, has also flown to Moscow either right before or immediately after being in New York and Miami at the same time as Trump.

Some suspect Rybolovlev of being some kind of agent for Trump’s financial connections to Russia. Or worse.

Trump’s three oldest children, by the way, have made 13 separate business trips to Russia over a period of 18 months.

Go back now to the beginning. Trump owes a lot of money, and the most he owes is to Deutchebank, found guilty of laundering Russian money. Deutchebank's CEO became head of the Bank of Cyprus due to Wilbur Ross, Trump’s Secretary of Commerce. Wilbur Ross was vice chairman of the bank, along with a former KBG agent. Along with Ross, a major shareholder in the bank is Rybolovlev, who bought a house from Trump at a ridiculously inflated price, as well as other close allies of Putin.

There are many details that have been left out of this story. Most of them involve complex but well documented financial reports. Another less complex anecdote concerns Ross buying and wearing custom-made $500 slippers embroidered with the logo of the Department of Commerce to a recent Trump speech. Wearing slippers to your first important USA political event? Okay. This story does not even address the complex and suspicious relationship between Trump and Russia’s oil company, or Trump's other overly Russia-friendly cabinet members.

Disclaimer: More than 15 legitimate news sources were researched to write this story. Please understand that, unlike newspapers, I have no fact-checking editor to prowl through the details. While I did the most careful and accurate job I could, I do not have the resources to spend long hours on the phone, on foot, or sending emails, which real journalists do; thus, this report may contain some inaccuracies

If you found this article interesting, you might like following us on Facebook. Most of our FB pages consists of salient links...and, refreshingly, no trolls! It's a page for information, not argument:
The Grumpy Cherub

Thursday, October 27, 2016

BUT WHEN AM I EVER GOING TO USE ALGEBRA?

by Mary Elizabeth (Leach) Raines

More than one writer has complained about being forced to study subjects in school in order to graduate that have no application in real life. They particularly like to whine about math.

I get a little burr up my behind when people complain about having to learn things that they state they are later unable to use. Here's why.

In school--even in college--our brains need to be exposed to a wide variety of things, as most of us still don't fully know what we like and what we're best at doing.

Look at math. These complainers fail to understand that, apart from permitting us an opportunity to appreciate the sheer beauty of mathematics (revered in ancient times, but an art form which our current society sadly does not honor), studying math helps us to create patterns of logic, which in turn may help us years later to decide things like which candidate for president is the most reasonable.

Although this is not something to which she was exposed in school, it is close enough to be used as an example. In college, a friend of mine, who was a psychology major, got a summer temp job. She wound up stuck in a drab accounting office in a shoe factory. She complained about what a miserable blow it was that she was forced to drudge away in a field so out of her area of expertise, and we commiserated with her...except, over the course of the summer, she discovered not only that she had an aptitude for accounting; she LOVED it. She went on to become a CPA, and not long afterward began teaching accounting classes at an Ivy League University. While the rest of us, including the psych majors, were still waiting on tables, she started making really good money, and among other things, bought a three-story brownstone townhouse on Beacon Hill for twenty grand. Today that house is easily worth a few million dollars.

Similarly, Harry Houdini, in his youth, was forced to get a job in a locksmith’s shop. You know how that story ended!

The obvious moral to all of this: Do not be quick to scorn learning something you don’t feel is pertinent to you and your life. You may be surprised!

©2016, M. E. Raines


Friday, June 10, 2016

Bye-bye, Stars

We are swiftly losing our ability to see the stars. Light pollution is savage for nature. Insects and birds use the stars and moon to navigate. Even trees need to rest, and require darkness. But darkness is disappearing. Four out of five citizens of the USA are unable to see the Milky way where they live.

This article in Scientific American spells it out, with a world-wide map showing the vast areas of light pollution across the globe. They point out that, sadly, energy-efficient lighting, such as LED lights, are simply making the problem worse:


http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-map-shows-the-dark-side-of-artificial-light-at-night/