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The Glory that was Greece, the Splendour that was Rome
Some more distraction from the urge to vomit or cry when thinking about Recent Events and Future Events:
An incredible 3 D Tour through St. Peter. Among other things. Having been to St. Peter repeatedly two decades or so or ago, I can tell you that with all the tourist crowds, it's impossible to experience it in this much detail and quiet in real life. Amazing. Also highly informative.
A really well made overview of the story of The White Rose, the student resistance group, by YouTuber Feli. I've said it before, I'll say it again: what I find most encouraging about the Scholls and their friends is that they weren't somehow naturally immune to fascism, that, growing up in the Third Reich, they did for a time not just obey but truly believe, and were still able to develop critical and moral thinking and emerge from this to a readiness to risk everything (none of them was under any illusions as to what would happen if they were caught) in order to fight against the cruel system they had grown up in. They weren't saints automatically making all the right choices (though this video informs me that the Russian Orthodox Church has actually made Alex Schmorrell into St. Alexander of Munich), they lived in what was truly the darkest time of German history in the city that sadly in many ways was the heart of the Nazi movement - and yet said no, said: we need to do something. To use their favourite Goethe quote, Allen Gewalten zum Trotz sich erhalten.
On a less reverential and more black humored note, what this positive review of Gladiator II tells me is that I definitely don't want to watch Gladiator II. I don't need a repeat of the plot beats of the original, especially not our hero(es) wanting to restore the freaking Roman Republic centuries after its end, and again, I ask: Where are the Julias and why are the sons of the first African Roman Emperor and his Syrian wife chalky Joffrey Baratheon lookalikes? On the other hand, this trailer for what appears to be an actual, non-ironical, non-GCI heavy take on The Odyssey looks like it could be just what the Doctor ordered for me:
Starring Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus and Juliette Binoche as Penelope. (BTW, it says something about my own fictional priorities that what this combination brought to mind for me at once were these two as Heathcliff and Cathy in what is still the best Wuthering Heights adaptation I've watched so far (doesn't mean it doesn't leave great room for improvement, but it actually uses the entire novel, Hareton and Catherine II included), not these two in The English Patient. Anyway, Fiennes actually makes Odysseus' beggar alias actually believable, and it looks like this version will do something with the moral complications for when this tale turns from outwitting the bullies story to bloody revenge story. Colour me intrigued.
An incredible 3 D Tour through St. Peter. Among other things. Having been to St. Peter repeatedly two decades or so or ago, I can tell you that with all the tourist crowds, it's impossible to experience it in this much detail and quiet in real life. Amazing. Also highly informative.
A really well made overview of the story of The White Rose, the student resistance group, by YouTuber Feli. I've said it before, I'll say it again: what I find most encouraging about the Scholls and their friends is that they weren't somehow naturally immune to fascism, that, growing up in the Third Reich, they did for a time not just obey but truly believe, and were still able to develop critical and moral thinking and emerge from this to a readiness to risk everything (none of them was under any illusions as to what would happen if they were caught) in order to fight against the cruel system they had grown up in. They weren't saints automatically making all the right choices (though this video informs me that the Russian Orthodox Church has actually made Alex Schmorrell into St. Alexander of Munich), they lived in what was truly the darkest time of German history in the city that sadly in many ways was the heart of the Nazi movement - and yet said no, said: we need to do something. To use their favourite Goethe quote, Allen Gewalten zum Trotz sich erhalten.
On a less reverential and more black humored note, what this positive review of Gladiator II tells me is that I definitely don't want to watch Gladiator II. I don't need a repeat of the plot beats of the original, especially not our hero(es) wanting to restore the freaking Roman Republic centuries after its end, and again, I ask: Where are the Julias and why are the sons of the first African Roman Emperor and his Syrian wife chalky Joffrey Baratheon lookalikes? On the other hand, this trailer for what appears to be an actual, non-ironical, non-GCI heavy take on The Odyssey looks like it could be just what the Doctor ordered for me:
Starring Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus and Juliette Binoche as Penelope. (BTW, it says something about my own fictional priorities that what this combination brought to mind for me at once were these two as Heathcliff and Cathy in what is still the best Wuthering Heights adaptation I've watched so far (doesn't mean it doesn't leave great room for improvement, but it actually uses the entire novel, Hareton and Catherine II included), not these two in The English Patient. Anyway, Fiennes actually makes Odysseus' beggar alias actually believable, and it looks like this version will do something with the moral complications for when this tale turns from outwitting the bullies story to bloody revenge story. Colour me intrigued.