"I have been but little in," said Ninian hastily...

I've been watching a great deal more than I've been reading in the last 2-3 months. About the only titles I think I can add at present are

Go Saddle the Sea and Bridle the Wind by Joan Aiken (18, 19): Young adult adventure stories by one of the masters of the genre. I read many of her Wolves of Willoughby Chase books when I was young, followed by a good many of her short stories and novels for adults. She has a strong sense of whimsy and magical realism that come alive here, but grounded in a historical context. I enjoyed these a great deal and am reading the third of the trilogy now. One thing that's striking is her vivid description of the different places that the hero, Felix Brooke, travels to in Spain, England, and France. She clearly researched the locations; who knows? She may have traveled to them. I've gotten the urge to put together a small website chronicling Felix's travels, with maps and notes about the real-world places descrived in the text. We'll see if the urge is strong enough to carry through.

In progress:
The Teeth of the Gale by Joan Aiken
How Can Man Die Better: The Secrets of Isandhlwana Revealed by Mike Snook
Dunkirk: Retreat to Victory by MG Julian Thompson
Empire of the Mind: A History of Iran by Michael Axworthy
Boer Commando by Denneys Reitz

Diva

Just finished watching this again, possibly the first time since I first saw it in the tiny art film theatre of my small college town in 1982.

It's a beautiful, beautiful film--built on the framework of a gritty French crime drama but filled to the brim with music and incredible, simple, gorgeous imagery. It features one of the two film appearances of Wilhelmenia Fernandez, a stunningly lovely, amazingly gifted soprano, playing the title character, an American opera singer appearing in Paris. The role she plays, and her performance of it--a strong, independent, but compellingly calm and gentle woman--are breathtaking. A series of scenes in the center of the film where the diva and her ?admirer?lover?acolyte wander through the streets of Paris are just astoundingly simple and beautiful. At one point she processes, like a queen, slowly and magnificently through the rain, her young man holding an umbrella over her as he walks a step behind her--it's a perfect fantasia of a powerful, serene woman and her loving and devoted servant.

The cinematography of the film is outstanding--not just the shot selection, but the imagery, the colours, the composition, the amazing simplicity of a car sitting quietly in a wooded glade or a lighthouse on a deserted shore. Watching this, the characters and the images came back to me, rich in their own right but somehow deeper and more beautiful for being able to remember the impact they had on me when I first saw them and then to experience them all over again, just as glorious as the first time, 31 years ago.

Some movies don't age well. This ages like the magnificent city of its setting--almost imperceptibly, but beautifully.

An example of this cool band  and another

So, you can play drums? Can you do it while *riding*?

The entire Garde, coming out of barracks

Scenes from last year's 14 Juillet, including a haka by troops from Nouvelle Caledonie and a brief appearance by GRaC, surrounding the car of President Sarkozy.

And a LONG review of this year's 14 Juillet.

And, Bryan, Peter? Here's the "real" Old Guard (explanation: the US Army has part of the 3rd Infantry, nicknamed "the Old Guard", portray troops of the American Revolution on ceremonial occasions; this is a clip of the 2me Regiment Infanterie de la garde de Républicaine, portraying grenadiers of the Napoleonic Garde Imperiale). Notes: even les grognards have a hangfire; they march to the attack in open ranks, but at the charge in both ranks(!); and note the nifty way they form close column as they retire.

The same march attack, but at Vincennes, with a larger group of tambours.

And a bit more marching. Lovely open formation by files! Neat about turn by the colour party, but sloppy manual of arms.

I have a pile of PBS's American Experience programs recorded, so I decided to watch one while I was prepping for the game I'm running today. What I got wasn't "American Experience: The Kennedys", but I was captivated nonetheless. I want to write more about it later, but for right now, check out the GP preview page for "Harlem in Montmartre".

Sadly, Netflix doesn't seem to carry Great Performances programs with the thoroughness they carry American Experience and Ken Burns, but if you get a chance to see this somewhere (there's a short intro to it on YouTube), watch it. I found it fascinating!

Eden was personally receptive to an attack on Egypt that would allow Britain to reoccupy the Canal, perhaps the entire country. He had immediately demanded such a plan from his defense chiefs on news of the nationalization, to be greeted with the unwelcome news that it was simply not possible, given the current state of the British military, to successfully attack and occupy the major cities of Egypt. Britain did not have the sealift or the combat power to defeat the Egyptian Army. However, with the Israelis doing the heavy lifting, Britain (and France, which wanted Nasir deposed because of his support for the nationalist forces waging a bloody insurgency against France in Algeria) would be able to seize the Canal itself. And their air forces could provide the aerial bombardment that Israel could not (both Britain and France had carriers in the region, and the UK had a significant long-range bomber force on Cyprus).

But Britain (or perhaps simply Eden, who was becoming more and more detached from reality through overwork, nervous strain, and an addictive dependence on Benzedrine) still had visions of regaining its stature in the Arab world, which it couldn’t so as an ally of Israel, especially an ally in an unprovoked war on an Arab state. The French stepped in with a plan: the Israelis would attack, then the UK and France would announce they were stepping in as peacekeepers (under the 1954 agreement that Eden had negotiated with Nasir), declare an exclusion zone around the canal (which would force the Egyptians either to abandon the canal to the allies or resist a peacekeeping operation by force), occupy it, and “protect” it from the Egyptians. This plan was eventually agreed on by all sides and ratified in a secret agreement, the Protocol of Sèvres. And on 29 October 1956, Israel launched its attack.

Of course, this excuse was as thin as onionskin, an implausible tissue that fooled no one for long. Egypt rejected the Anglo-French call for a ceasefire and withdrawal from the canal. Britain and France vetoed a US move in the UN Security Council for a ceasefire in place, as their troops had not yet arrived—sailing from Cyprus at the 5 mph speed of their antiquated landing craft, it took the intervention force a week to arrive. By that time the world had seen through their ruse. Britain’s economy took a tremendous hit, and Eden received an even worse shock. The US, which had known something was being planned but not what, insisted that the British and French withdraw at once. President Eisenhower felt he had been deeply embarrassed by being shut out of British planning; US diplomats had spent the time between the nationalization and the attack trying to find a diplomatic solution in good faith, only to find that Britain had never intended to honor its commitments in the negotiations. The US, opposing a Soviet invasion of Hungary on the pretense of “defending the Hungarian government from unrest”, could not sanction its allies invading a country under the pretext of “peacekeeping”. Secretary of State Dulles threatened British Chancellor of the Exchequer Macmillan with an immediate US sale of all British sterling holdings, the likely destruction of the pound as a world currency, if Britain did not accede to an immediate ceasefire and the insertion of actual peacekeepers by the UN.

Britain caved instantly without consulting France, leaving the latter with the choice of fighting alone or pulling out without having accomplished any of its goals. France withdrew and began reconsidering its military alliances; once again, Perfidious Alboin had betrayed France (or so the French saw it). If this was going to be the value of NATO membership, perhaps France would be better off on its own. Prime Minister Eden, physically and emotionally wrecked by the strain of the crisis, resigned the following January. The British Secret Intelligence Service, ordered in the aftermath of Suez to formulate a plan to assassinate Nasir as a last, vengeful gesture by Eden, first balked, then devised a plan that was sure to be detected by the Egyptian security services. The attempt failed and Nasir, reading between the lines, did not engage in a wholesale purge of British agent in Egypt. Israel, threatened by the Soviet Union and pressured by the United States, withdrew from Sinai. Israel could not control the canal or the Strait of Tiran, but they received US guarantees of their right to free transit. And with UN peacekeepers in Sinai, Egypt could not reestablish their support for the PLO’s guerrillas. Out of the three aggressors in Suez, the Israelis came closest to achieving their goals.

An interesting virtual tour

I'd always heard about the Maginot Line and seen pictures of the outside of some of the hardpoints, but this is the first time I've seen a full view of the interior of a fort. Very cool. I don't think I would have wanted to be stationed underground like that, but then I'm not sure I'd want to serve on a submarine (or in a tank). Give me the open air if people are going to be shooting at me...

I heard Le Vent du Nord interviewed on NPR the other morning--they're fantastic! A four-person folk music group from Quebec, they both play and collect folk music in the province (or not-province: their tour information say "Le Vent du Nord has toured extensively across the US, Canada, Quebec and in Europe") and elsewhere. Not only was their playing and singing wonderful to hear, but they reminded me how much I love listening to sung French, even though my grasp of the language is nowhere near good enough to understand the lyrics while they're being sung.

Now, if I could just remember the name of the French guitarist whose albums I gave one of my college friends...