Bad Design

. . . kills democracy. Interesting blog article from the New York Times here

That One Guy

I’ve been looking for a live video of this forever. The music video also doesn’t suck.

Tiña Toronto 002+003+004

Old jokes abound, but for posterity’s sake.

From the House of the Dead: A Brief Cultural Excursion

Before the snow set in, I had the opportunity to see the Canadian Opera Company’s performance of Janacek’s opera, From the House of the Dead, based on Dostoevsky’s memoirs of his time spent in prison. My overall impression was that this opera was both very well conceived and performed.

One of the distinctive features of this opera is that the plot is fairly loose. It is connected by the central narrative of Alexandr Petrovich (sung by Robert Pomakov), a political prisoner, as he serves his sentence, but branches out to explore the backgrounds of several of the other prisoners. Not surprisingly, these tend to be rather lurid, but are complemented by a haunting, somewhat discordant score, rendering them bold and compelling.

The structure of the opera, in addition to a diffuse plot, is somewhat unconventional: its musical organization is much more organic than most. For example, there is very little of the singing that could be considered arias, which leads to a stronger sense of musical continuity, especially in the context of its short length.

In terms of this specific performance, I found all of the performers highly engaging in their roles. The staging was also very interesting, with multiple levels (a cage on the bottom for prisoners, the roof of which provides the main area of the stage, and a balcony with constantly visible prison guards) supporting a variety of acts going on in the background. With this in mind, it is worthwhile to make sure you have a seat with an unobstructed view; otherwise you will miss a substantial portion of the action. Despite the occasional heavy-handedness with symbolism (this being essentially the extended use of the eagle as a symbol for freedom or Petrovich—though in some cases, it was quite clever, such as putting eagle carvings on the prison commandant’s chairs), this made both a profound intellectual and emotional impression on me, above and beyond what could have been purely a reaction to the altitude of my seat. 

 

Playing until Feb. 22. 

 

Just call me Cupid

Perhaps the imminence of Valentine’s Day is causing people to act a bit more amorously lately: I’ve witnessed yet another attempt at finding love on the subway.

For the record, I don’t purposely watch people voyeuristically or eavesdrop on conversations but on this fateful day, I had happened to forget to charge my iPod. So, seeking some other form of entertainment, I decided to take in my surroundings.

We had just stopped at, I believe, King Station, and a group of passengers came onto the subway. One rather attractive lady sat behind me, beside a not-so-attractive man who had his arm stretched over the back of her seat and declined to move it when she sat down. As we started moving, he barked:

“Still snowing?” Literally, barked. I think the woman was a bit taken off guard but she simply nodded.

“Cold?” He barked again. Seriously, this guy was smooth.

Anyway their conversation went on like this for a while. If I angled my head and pretended to look out the window, I could see what was going on pretty well. However, I stopped listening to their banter (more like interrogation) for a split second and when I looked back the woman had a completely offended look on her face. She extended her left hand, clearly ringed, and deadpanned, “I’m engaged.” Then she got up and moved to another seat. Burn.

I know what you’re thinking. This story wasn’t that great. But the best part came when we got to Finch. I wanted to get a better look at our rejected friend so as everyone got off the subway, my eyes followed him out the doors, past the stairs, and right back onto the next southbound subway. Better luck next time, I guess. 

Up the Yangtze – Pun Intended

Friday night I went to see Yung Chang’s Up the Yangtze. The documentary (co-produced by the NFB and shot under the Chinese government’s radar) follows a cruise ship…up the Yangtze River. We get a peek at “the culture of tourism and the tourism of culture” as Chang puts it. We learn about the lives of two locals, Cindy Yu and Jerry, hired to work on the boat’s crew.

The film touches on some distressing subject matter. Cindy’s family has seen the hardships of Communist rule and live in abject poverty on the shores of Yangtze and are about to be displaced by the Three Gorges Dam project which will submerge their home. Cindy’s employment on the cruise ship is her ticket out. For Jerry, who is more well-off, the cruise is a way for him to pursue his ambitions. There are heart-wrenching scenes of ‘relocatees’ protesting the lack of compensation from the government. Chang punctuates distressing moments with contemplative shots that allow the audience to make their own journey as well as more light-hearted fare. These stories find a psychological place with the audience but doesn’t overwhelm (and therefore alienate) them and that is a great beauty of the film.

Here is the trailer:

If you’re interested, see it soon! Canadian documentaries rely on opening weekend for an extended run.

[The film's homepage: UptheYangtze.com ]

A Ruthless Review of V. 21, issue 4

The latest issue of the Salterrae is out. Now I’m going to review it, page by page, with each item assigned a score out of 6 (with 6 being awesome and 0 being awful).

Cover: 4

Not bad. I would note that Ben Frosh looks rather like Jack Castle, but I digress. Still not liking the san-serif font in white, but I can deal.

Masthead: 3

Would have been a 4, but the colour scheme is ridiculous.

Table of Contents: 3

Ditto.

Letter from the Editors: 0

This article insinuates that I spend all of my time on the internet. This is false. I demand a retraction.

UPASS: 5

The first decent read. I agree with Gabe for the most part.

Sometimes free speech ain’t free: 4

Again, decent read. I mildly disagree with Gabe actually, but not enough for me to care.

tutankonversat: 3

If only because this is just an extended TrinThisWeek.

Inch by inch: 0

Didn’t read it.

Trinity’s Renaissance?: 6

Not only did the TCHS get a plug, but Aaron is absolutely dead on. Read this. Now.

Four years later: 4

This would have been a 5, but I have a suspicion that Colin refers to me in the article – though I can’t be sure. If he is referring to me, he’s wrong in his characterization of “one of those who booed loudest.” Anyways, it might not be me – I can’t really remember.

same u, more do: 5

Interesting report from Casey.

Irony is women’s work: 4

I disagree with Bowden completely, and in fact I actually resigned (and then reneged on my resignation) from the Lit earlier in the year over this very issue. Oh well, he’s still cool so he gets a 4.

the odyssey years: 5

Agree.

the “C” word: 6

This article is hilarious, if only because Cyril managed to get me to feel sorry for him.

saints rush vs. conversat inaction: 5

I haven’t actually read this yet, but Ali assures me it’s good.

bitching 2: 6

Excellent, excellent, excellent.

…

at this point I got bored and skipped to the back

…

colour of last two pages: 0

My. Eyes. Hurt.

comics on last two pages; 6

All three are hilarious.

Welcome to the Salterrae Blog… even though it wasn’t what you were looking for.

Happy Super Tuesday.

“Search Terms” = a new feature for the Salterrae Blog. 

WordPress provides a wonderful service in which they tell you exactly what people searched in order to get to this blog.  I now present the weekly round-up of the most absurd search terms.

Honourable Mention: 
“sloth art”
“pervert on TTC subway”
“lie or die snitch”
“glyptodont skeleton”

3rd Place:
“how to pick up a girl on the bus”
While I appreciate the sentiment, and the topic is actually addressed specifically in Kristina’s latest post, I do have to wonder what kind of person would search this in Google.  Perhaps the “pervert on TTC subway” from above.

2nd Place:
“dirty letters”
In my (somewhat biased) opinion, I would have to say the Salterrae is more filthy than dirty.  BUT GOOGLE IS NEVER WRONG. 

1st Place:
“hell vomit”
Seriously.

Starting to like Obama…

Galileo Five (swoon…)

Because posting YouTube videos to this blog is much easier than thinking of creative and interesting original posts, I now present what will likely be a recurring theme: scenes from The West Wing that I really like.

This one’s the opening from Season 2, Episode 9 (“Galileo”).

It’s one of my favourites from the whole series, and it (not coincidentally) is definitely one of those “Oh my God, I really want to do Sam Seaborn” moments. Enjoy.