Anita Brookner

March 16, 2016 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | ART, Fiction |

(photo courtesy BBC)

(16 July 1928 – 10 March 2016) Before carving out a long and worthy career writing novels of clean, quiet, accomplished prose (mostly involving lonely, intelligent, reserved, single, upper-middle class women a lot like Anita Brookner), she was Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge, a lecturer at the Courtauld, and a recognised expert on 18C & 19C painting, with excellent books to her credit on Greuze, Watteau and David.  One wishes she’d continued in that vein, but we admit that her best novels (Hotel du Lac, Look at Me, The Bay of Angels) were a pleasure. Often her stories built around…

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The Midnight Watch (David Dyer)

March 15, 2016 | Posted by Lesley Jakobsen | Annabel Lee, ART |

'Wreck and sinking of the Titanic.....a graphic and thrilling account...

David Dyer’s dissipated newspaper correspondent, John Steadman, defines Philip Franklin, Vice President of J P Morgan’s International Mercantile Marine, which owned the Titanic,  by one word  – “fear” – when the missing ship’s fate is uncertain and by the word “courage” when its fate is known. The word for The Midnight Watch is “gripping”. Although Steadman is fictional,  Franklin is not.  The real people from this infamous event – the failure of the SS Californian to come to come to the aid of the sinking Titanic – are effectively imagined by Dyer.  None are superfluous. Franklin, a good and caring man, sobs when he has to deliver the news that the…

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“Welcome Back, My Friends, to the Show That Never Ends”

March 15, 2016 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | Modern Music |

Emerson at the Moog in 1970 (photo thanks to Surka)

Keith Noel Emerson (2 November 1944 – 10 March 2016) Anyone who has had the misfortune to sit through a spin of the record Switched on Bach by Walter – er, sorry, Wendy, Carlos, as well as a slew of other Moog travesties (from Moog Beatles tunes to Moog country and western) will know that the harmonic effect of this diabolical machine is as weird as some of its leading practitioners. Keith Emerson, who died last Thursday, was a leading exponent of prog rock, as exemplified by the synthesizer.  In particular, via Emerson, Lake and Palmer, which in its first incarnation…

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The Horse’s Mouth

March 14, 2016 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | ART, Comedy Film, THUMBNAIL REVIEWS |

Gulley Jimson could paint this at Glenelg Football Club (Home of the Tigers), under strict supervision of course.

(Dir. Ronald Neame) (1958) Alec Guinness plays Gully Jimson, struggling artist, in this off-beat and very amusing film (adapted virtually beyond recognition) from Joyce Cary’s novel.  Jimson lacks recognition and cash but he is supremely assured of his genius (or John Bratby’s genius – he did the ugly but oddly impressive works) and willing to exploit anyone and everyone in the service of his art.  To that end, he flouts convention and disregards personal discomfort.         He’s even willing to lie to rich amateurs.  But as he suggests, “Don’t look at the picture, feel it with your eyes.”    …

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Killer Quotes from “Withnail & I”

March 13, 2016 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | Classic Film, FILM |

This delightful film has abundant gems within its script: Withnail to the farmer: “We’ve gone on holiday by mistake…are you the farmer?”           Withnail drank a lot in the car, and now: “I feel like a pig shat in my head.” And earlier: “I feel unusual.” From the car, earlier: “Throw yourself into the road darling!  You haven’t got a chance!” Withnail in the tea rooms to Miss Blennerhasset: “Balls.  We want the finest wines available to humanity, and we want them here and we want them now.”           Withnail: “We’re out of wine, what do…

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