student choreography

Canada's National Ballet School

Stephen Godfrey Choreographic Workshop

A programme of 16 short works was choreographed by students aged 14 to 19, and danced by same ages. The pieces were diverse, interesting, mostly contemporary style, often surprisingly intricate. Every emotion at some point was touched on. The quality of dance was certainly admirable and a pleasure to watch.

Arma virumque

The student shooter apprehended in Aurora, CO legally possessed two .40 calibre Glock handguns, an AR-15 assault rifle, a Remington 12 gauge shotgun, and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

What questions does this raise? In the US apparently not many.

Bill Maher

It's never the right time to talk gun control in America — we go right from "too soon" to "it's forgotten".

[Facebook]

New York Times, 24 July 2012:
Surveys show support for gun control has never been lower. An annual Gallup poll of the issue in October last year found that for the first time, a majority, 53%, opposed a ban on semiautomatic guns, or assault rifles, and a record low 26% favoured banning handguns. Support for stricter laws was down in all subgroups, with 64% of Democrats favouring stricter laws, 37% of independents and 31% of Republicans.

Right now, after the Aurora shooting, gun sales have been escalating in Colorado and throughout the United States. Yet there has been not the slightest move to control arms in the US.

President Obama has been vaguely calling for better vetting of persons who have weapons, and observing that assault weapons belong in the military, not on the streets. The most vocal and consistent call for change comes from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the affiliated Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Alone in a crowd

Bronze Crowd (1990-1991)
Magdalena Abakonowicz (Polish, 1930 - )

The installation of 36 figures, each a bit different, is in Dallas, TX where I was in November 2003.

Fête nationale française

I think that the annual military parade on the Champs Élysées is a splendid public occasion for the display of national pride. The President of the Republic is also very much in view, each with his distinct style. This year there was emphasis on alliances with a UNO contingent opening the parade, and German battalion with flag passing in review for the first time.

I must reflect on the pitiful event that Ottawa musters on 1 July. At least the fireworks are impressive.

Vive la France!

new blog site

I was distressed to find that blogger.com has blacked out a lot the illustrations to my posts without explanation. Some, not all, were posters of movies that I reviewed or commented on. As protest I shall mainly discontinue posting at this site. Instead I plan to make use of my own:

                                                     http: lewis27.ca/blogspot

at Toronto garden show, 22 March 2012   

Raymonda

Raymonda
Раймонда
chor. Marius Petipa (1898), Aleksander Gorsky (1900)
recension Yuri Grigorovich (2003)

Bolshoi Ballet
simulcast from Moscow on 24 June 2012
with Maria Aleksandrova (Raymonda), Ruslan Skvortsov (Jean de Brienne), and Pavel Dmitrichenko (Abderahman)

The production was lavish and impressive, with peerless principals and excellent support of virtuoso soloists and corps de ballet.

War of 1812

On 18 June 1812 the U.S. declared war on Great Britain. The future of Canada was at stake!

Commemorations have been minor and sporadic, with little interest anywhere. Yet it is a fundamental event in the founding of this country.

Quebec students and the law

Arrests of student and other demonstrators in Quebec this spring have been been about 4000, mostly for minor offences against municipal by-laws or highway regulations. These have incurred fines for the most part, typically about $600 or $700, and do not leave a criminal record.

Pending are a number of criminal charges that are more serious, under many headings: mischief over $5000, inciting fear of a terrorist attack, possession of a prohibited weapon, obstruction of justice, assault of a police officer, conspiracy to commit a criminal act, participation in a riot, and participation in an unlawful assembly, to name most.

Four students, currently on bail, face charges relating to the smoke bombing of the Montreal subway system.

Student organizations have raised thousands of dollars to pay for legal costs and to reimburse fines.

In the residence of Amir Khadar, member of the legislature (Québec Solidaire), himself arrested and fined, is an allegorical black flag poster showing himself triumphant with rifle over the dead or dying body of the Premier of the province! The poster originated with anarchist performing group Mise en demeure who, to the tune of Ah! vous-dirais-je maman, sing about clubbing the Minister of Education on the head. It is actually the cover of their 2010 album, based on the iconic Eugène Delacroix painting of Liberty in the 1830 rebellion in France. Many, if not most of their songs involve some violence.
14 June 2012


Eugène Lacroix, La liberté guidant le peuple (1830)

This week:
About 100 demonstrators delayed their evening march to get a $10 red patch tattoo on their bodies.
Pauline Marois, leader of Parti Québécois, has been wearing the red patch.
Montreal is asking the province for $10 m to cover municipal costs related to nightly demonstrations.
An assembly of assorted pots, pans, and casseroles makes a tempting battery for a percussionist. La Presse published video of an enthusiast at work.
16 June 2012

Citizen resentment of entitled students will help the government if an election is called soon.
20 June 2012

Although Pauline Maurois was incongruously beating a casserole at Argenteuil recently, she no longer sports the red square. The PQ in power would reduce the increase in students fees, she said, but not abolish them. Opportunist that she is, she is aware of the unpopularity of the students' fizzled spring.
30 June 2012

A web site is now calling on students to prevent resumption of the interrupted semester at the 14 CEGEP's and 11 universities designated by the exceptional law. Meanwhile CLASSE has called for a return to the streets on 22 July.
[Montreal Gazette, 12 July 2012]

As delayed term resumed numerous student protesters and hangers-on, many of them masked, disrupted classes at the Université de Montréal and UQAM. Police intervened at UQAM, and 20 were arrested, all but one charged under Law 12 of 18 May 2012. Most students have voted for an end of the six-month strike. [28 August 2012]

naked and ugly in Quebec

Jacques Villeneuve commented about the students this week that they must have grown up with parents who never said "no". They were tiresome, threatening to disrupt Grand Prix Formula 1 in Montreal and, he thought, "it's time to go back to school."

Villeneuve, 41, was Formula 1 world champion in 1997. The response to his comment was a ton of abusive e-mail, including death threats.
[Montreal Gazette, 8 June 2012]



The 48th nightly demonstration, illegal but tolerated, turned vicious with the smashing of bank windows. The crowd was dispersed by riot police with numerous arrests.
[La Presse, 10 June 2012]

In Quebec Superior Court Chief Justice François Rolland to-day heard first arguments on behalf of a student association (CLASSE, Coalition large de l'association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante) against the special law of 18 May 2012 [L.Q. 2012, c. 12].
[La Presse, 12 June 2012]

Chief Justice rejected actions against parts of the law. Validity of the entire law will be considered in the autumn at the earliest, or perhaps not until January. The Court of Appeal declined to consider the case after presentation of arguments.


The Human Rights Commission*  meanwhile found the law of 18 May 2012  [L.Q. 2012, c. 12] incompatible with the Quebec Charter of Human Rights & Freedoms, citing articles 12-31. 
[Montreal Gazette, 20 July 2012]
                         * Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse
                           The Commission's report is a mere opinion of no juridical consequence.


A provincial election has been called in Quebec for 4 September 2012. “In the last few months we’ve heard a lot from a number of student leaders," said Premier Jean Charest. "We’ve heard from people in the street. We’ve heard from those who have been hitting away at pots and pans. Now is the time for the silent majority.”
 [in Quebec City, 1 August 2012, after the electoral writ was signed by the Lieutenant-Governor]


Parti Québécois immediately announced, if elected, it would cancel increases in student tuition and scrap the exceptional law of 18 May 2012. Léo Bureau-Blouin is running as candidate in Laval des Rapides; he is past president of Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec (FECQ).

showcase my photography

Parliament Hill, Ottawa (2006)

I am starting to create a portfolio of my photography, adding a few items each day, and inviting comments and critique. It is at a site for serious photographers, amateur and professional:
http://web.photo.net/photos/bel_ami

garden show (2012)

Ça casse!

Bonjour, Québec: Well, more fun in the street, red and black flags, lots of bling blang cacerolada — semester is suspended anyways. And, hey, Grand Prix Formula 1 is a few days off!

Who is actually on strike? It appears to be primarily students at 11 universities and 14 CEGEPs (community colleges) — that is where the semester has been suspended until August. The number of students registered in 161 protesting associations was 154,163 on 23 May 2012 — about a third of students in the province.
[www.bloquonslahausse.com]

The strike, now into 16th week, kicked off in a small way on 23 February 2012, picking up steam along the way.

Printemps casserole — le Québec en désarroi

much ado about nothing
Much banging, and smoking of pot, from all reports.
The cacerolada as form of protest originated in Chile in 1971, and has sporadically occurred elsewhere in Latin America, Spain, Italy, and Iceland.

Quebec's new ruling class

Maclean's (4 June 2012), great cover

Government has again again been talking to students, in fact negotiating with them. Both Montreal Gazette and Le Devoir report stalemate after three days [31 May 2012]. The public and tourists are avoiding downtown. Hotel bookings are off, ticket sales are down. Restaurants are laying off employees. Illegal demonstrations continue, with arrests nightly. Semester has been suspended in striking institutions until August. Many important summer jobs are imperilled. How many will never resume their interrupted studies?

Hundred days of student rage

There were 20,000 clogging downtown Montreal, and lesser numbers in other centres. Yes, most were students upset about an annual increase in tuition of about $250, the admission to a typical rock concert or good seat at a football game. But that was almost secondary now. Some angry mothers were seen carrying signs. Their babies were wearing red shirts, some carrying fleur-de-lisé flags — no Canadian in sight. It was almost like another St-Jean Baptiste on the streets, a beautiful day of the printemps érable that began 100 days ago.

There were so many cell phones in one area that circuits got badly congested and tweets were delayed or impossible. But quite a few still got through to Montreal Gazette, with minute by minute info and pics.

Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, history student at UQAM and spokesman for CLASSE *, yelled himself hoarse on the loudpeaker. The scene was pure mob. and lots more fun than classes, lectures, and labs. Mocking government, he openly defied the special law of 18 May 2012.** He has not been charged so far.

It was obvious to observers that the student movement was being hijacked by tons of others who disliked the current Liberal government of Quebec — unions, separatists of all kinds, radical socialists, and Black Bloc anarchists who could hardly resist smashing bank windows along the way, or throwing a variety of projectiles at police. There were numerous injuries and more than 100 arrests during the night.

* Coalition large de l'association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante

Dans ce conflit, les étudiants québécois sont représentés par quatre grandes fédérations étudiantes : la Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ), la Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec (FECQ), la Coalition large de l'association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (CLASSE) et la Table de concertation étudiante du Québec (TACEQ), qui participe aux négociations depuis le 23 avril.

** L.Q. 2012, c. 12:
An act to enable students to receive instruction from the postsecondary institutions they attend
Loi permettant aux étudiants de recevoir l’enseignement dispensé par les établissements de niveau postsecondaire qu'ils fréquentent
It expires 1 July 2013.

This happened on 22 May 2012.

See also: Montreal municipal by-law P-6 of 18 May 2012 (re wearing of masks and notice of march route, effective 19 May 2012) — Le conseil municipal adopte un règlement sur la prévention des troubles de la paix, de la sécurité et de l'ordre public et sur l'utilisation du domaine public

Newly elected spokeswoman for CLASSE (along with Gilbert Nadeau-Dubois and Jeanne Reynolds) ia Camille Robert, a history student at UQAM, and member of CLAC (Convergence des luttes anti-capitalistes).
[La Presse, 3 June 2012]

Le Corsaire
Корсар
chor. Jules Perrot (1858), Marius Petipa (1868, 1899)
recension: Aleksei Ratmansky and Yuri Burlaka (2007)

Bolshoi Ballet
11 March 2012 simulcast

A great deal of work was involved in launching this version of Le Corsaire. The creators of the ballet studied archive material at Moscow’s Aleksei Bakhrushin Central Theatre Museum and St. Petersburg State Theatre Library; with the assistance of the Paris Opera, the original score was retrieved from the Bibliothèque Nationale; the old costumes and sets were reproduced, while, having deciphered the original dance notation in the Harvard Theatre collection, Aleksei Ratmansky and Yuri Burlaka added dances of their own, their aim being in no way to sin against the spirit of that age when the last Petipa Corsaire loved, apparently drowned in shipwreck, but finally ended up safe and sound — the 1899 revival. [Bolshoi Theatre, edited]

The simulcast from Moscow was a tremendous experience — an impressively renewed great ballet of the 19c with Svetlana Lunkina (Medora), Ruslan Skvortsev (Conrad), and especially Artem Ovcharenko in the Grand pas des éventails (act III).
posted at Facebook

The Artist

The Artist (France, 2011)
dir. Michel Hazanavicius
rating: ✶✶✶

It's an ingenious b/w reminiscence of Hollywood in transition from silent to sound film, 1927-1932, with the story of a star unwilling to change. The obvious plot, interesting at first, becomes tedious towards the end.

Estonia Sings

The Singing Revolution (USA, 2006)
dir. James Tusty, Maureen Castle Tusty
rating: ✶

The documentary recounts aspects of Estonian recovery of sovereignty with the implosion of the Soviet Union. It is recounted in a breathless, patriotic style without historical nuance, and numerous crowd scenes of beautiful blond singers.

On reflection I reduced the film from two to just one star. Critics need to recognize the film for what is is: little more than ethnic propaganda.

Corporate America in Crisis

>The Company Men (USA, 2010)
dir. John Wells
rating: ✶✶

What happens in corporate America when executives are downsized and fired? It is masochistic to watch their comfortable socially predictable lives deteriorate with inevitable impact on families. There is one suicide in the mix, but at the end there is somehow a hopeful solution in declining America for the people we have been watching with no great interest.

Normally I don't post reviews of films that merit only two stars. However, this one is a tale for the times.

Pina

Pina  (Germany, 2011)
dir. Wim Wenders
rating:  ✶✶✶✶✶

A riveting dance film, as much for the director's ingenious presentation, as for choreographer Pina Bausch's extraordinarily imaginative, daring theatre of movement and human emotion, it is the best movie of 2011 for me.

A number of Pina clips at YouTube are fascinating to watch, as well as a long interview (in German) with Wim Wenders. It is remarkable how in the film he communicated the essence of Pina’s work and her enigmatic sui generis personality without resorting to conventional biography. As well one learned about the amazing group of artists she assembled and loyally kept together for her Tanztheater Wuppertal over the years. Five days after she was diagnosed with cancer she died in 2009.


Tanzt, tanzt — sonst sind wir verloren
Dance, dance — otherwise we are lost

Police, Adjective

Polițist, adjectiv (Roumania, 2009)
Police, Adjective
dir. Corneliu Porumboiu
rating: ✭✭✭

Even a slow policier has to have a plot with pacing, hardly apparent here. A young plainclothes officer stakes out some teenagers smoking weed, but has doubts about the law. Certainly the film has promising qualities of cinéma-vérité, but they are too casually developed, if at all.
dura lex sed lex

Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty
Спящая красавица
chor. Marius Petipa (1890)
recension: Yuri Grigorovich (2011)
Bolshoi Ballet
with Svetlana Zakharova (Princess Aurore) and David Hallberg (Prince Désiré), and Artyom Ovcharenko (Bluebird)

simulcast from Moscow, 20 November 2011

It was the first ballet premiere on the newly inaugurated renovated main stage of the historic State Academic Bolshoi Theatre. A most recent and authoritative revision by Yuri Grigorovich of the company’s iconic Sleeping Beauty / Спящая красавица, it was simulcast from Moscow with stars Svetlana Zakharova (Princess Aurore) and David Hallberg (Prince Désiré). The production was of course sumptuous with Svetlana Zakharova, a paragon of poise and beauty, earning thunderous applause for a matchless rose adagio. David Hallberg, slight of stature but strong, entered stage with superb leaps and youthful ardour as amorous prince. Artyom Ovcharenko’s light and elegant Bluebird variation was memorable in the second act.

Romeo & Juliet

Romeo & Juliet
chor. Alexei Ratmansky (2011)
National Ballet of Canada
with Guillaume Côté (Romeo), Elena Lobsanova (Juliet), Piotr Stanczyk (Mercutio), and Jiří Jelinek (Tybalt)

This new choreography is fully Renaissance in costuming and true to Shakespeare dramatically. Sets are often sombre and basic, making the dance all the more intense: lyrical scenes of young love, rollicking crowds in the town square, sinister ball of the Capulets, all to end tragically in the tomb. To-night’s performance (2011-11-19) with the first cast was polished, lively, and exciting. The principals fully expressed a range of emotion, from infatuation and love to frustration and despair. The choreographer ended on a quiet note of closure in an interpretation that felt fresh and incisive.

Harvard befriends Facebook

>Mark Zuckerberg, class of 2006 (dropped out 2004), CEO of Facebook, revisited Harvard on 7 November 2011, meeting briefly with President Drew Faust, then faculty and students. He reportedly told students to find whatever it is that they’re passionate about and follow it, if they feel that it’s right: follow your heart, and things will fall into place. Obviously it worked for him.
[Harvard Gazette, November, 2011]

His personal fortune is currently in excess of $17 billion.

Remembrance Day 2011

Governor General David Johnston, Ottawa, 11-11-11
Remembrance Day is not a national holiday in Canada though banks and government offices are closed. It is a commemoration of all the country’s war dead, and more generally of all who have served, or serve, in the armed forces, past and present. In Ottawa the event at the National War Memorial is organized, not too impressively, by the Royal Canadian Legion.

On 11-11-11 the Governor General brought dignity to the scene along with the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers, along with the year’s Silver Cross Mother. Various chaplains added more solemnity (and some atrocious French accents), a female trumpeter in blue uniform tried not to flub last post and reveille, while a minute of silence at 11 a.m. was ended by the boom of ceremonial cannon. A children’s choir cheerfully and bilingually sang the royal and national anthems accompanied by a miscellaneous military band. Token soldiers stood at attention, outnumbered by militia and busloads of cadets. RCMP and Royal Military College cadets in scarlet added some typical colour to a Canadian public occasion of minimal pomp and circumstance.
The day’s numbers felt a bit mystic: 11-11-11

Irrepressible Elton

Love Lies Bleeding
chor. Jean Grand-Maître  (2010)
Alberta Ballet

As much a crowd pleasing musical as ballet, the piece is bright, dynamic, and at times wonderfully and appropriately homoerotic. Based on the life of Sir Elton John, it moves briskly through 14 of his songs from Bennie and the Jets to Saturday night’s alright for fighting. The staging is constantly inventive with projections and innumerable surprises, and almost more detail than can be immediately absorbed. The dance itself is strong, imaginative, and right in the fast moving sequences.

Bolshoi inaugural

The remodelled, reconstructed State Academic Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (founded 1776) was inaugurated with a gala of opera and ballet on 28 October 2011. The event was not simulcast in Canada, unfortunately, but I often thought about it during the day. After 80 years of neglect the building was in danger of collapse. The present works, from foundation upward, took six years at a cost exceeding $700 million. The magnificent theatre and its artistic companies, opera and ballet, are world treasures.
www.bolshoi.ru

Spartacus

Spartacus
Spartak Спартак
chor. Yuri Grigorovich (1968)

Bolshoi Ballet, in Paris (2008)
with Carlos Acosta, Aleksandr Volchkov, Nina Kaptsova, Maria Allash
Decca DVD (2009)

A legacy ballet of the Soviet era, Spartacus survives as a signature piece of the Bolshoi Ballet, a work of heroic proportions and artistic demands.The courageous but hopeless struggle of slaves against their imperial Roman masters takes on allegorical life on stage. It represents an unending challenge regardless of odds.

The present choreography, dating from 1968 now classic, communicates the message on a grand scale without losing the human dimension, a progression of scenes building logically to a tragic climax.

Carlos Acosta is admirable in the 2008 performance, but so too is Aleksandr Volchkov in the demanding role of Roman tyrant, Crassus. While women have significant roles, the ballet is primarily for men. In an interview on the Decca DVD Carlos Acosta cited Spartacus as the perfect role for him, and culmination of his career.

La Esmeralda

La Esmeralda (2009 recension) was first simulcast of the Bolshoi season: bravura and virtuoso dance sans pareil with principals Maria Aleksanova and Ruslan Skvortsov, and amazing Vladislav Lantratov with Ekaterina Krysanova (Acteon and Diana sequence).

La Esmeralda Эсмеральда
chor. Jules Perrot (1844), Marius Petipa (1886, 1899), and others
recension: Yuri Burlaka, Vasily Medvedev (2009)
with Maria Aleksandrova, Ruslan Skvortsov, Ekaterina Krysanova, Denis Savin, and Vladislav Lantratov
simulcast from Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow

The White Ribbon

Das weiße Band . Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (Austria/Germany, 2009)
The White Ribbon
dir. Michael Haneke
Cannes, 2009, Palme d'Or
rating: ✬✬✬

It's a grim movie set in a north German village on the eve of WWI. It is a world of its own, with predictable progression of seasons and generations, hierarchical, and socially repressive. Yet events happen from time to time that remain unexplained.

The film certainly is gripping, even disturbing to watch but, at 145 min., long, unresolved, and ultimately unsatisfying. Years later a teacher is recounting his experiences in the village. He never got to the bottom of mysterious, violent events then, and neither does the audience now.

It's a dour tale of dirty secrets and religious repression, of hypocritical adults and scary, enigmatic children. [Martin Morrow, CBC News, 14 January 2010]

Hon. Jack Layton (NDP, Toronto-Danforth), 1950-2011

I am not sure that a state funeral is appropriate for leader of the opposition, but it is happening on Saturday, 27 August 2011. The body was taken to the foyer of the House of Commons to-day to lie in state.

My friends, love is better than anger. 
Hope is better than fear. 
Optimism is better than despair.
 So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. 
And we’ll change the world.
[last message of le bon Jack, 20 August 2011]

Certainly he was colourful, energetic, and spunky, but neverthless less than a statesman. Still, he was always a friend of gays, minorities, and underdogs, and worked to improve their condition.

NDP leadership gaffe

I find it preposterous that the NDP would choose a recent member of the Bloc Québécois, still currently enrolled in separatist Québec Solidaire, to be the interim party leader. Nycole Turmel (Hull-Aylmer) may be federalist now but the past is entirely relevant. She was in the Bloc for four years, until January 2011, yet says she was always federalist.

I detest this level of political opportunism, and question the judgment of the NDP in this important matter.

Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands), Green Party leader, sees no problem with Turmel's affiliations, perhaps because of her own tergiversations. That finishes her in my eyes.

South Africa: unbalanced lives in transition

Disgrace (Australia, 2008)
dir. Steve Jacobs
rating: ★★★★

With focus on a libido-driven academic egotist the film ventures into racially ambiguous, troubled post-apartheid South Africa. It is a disturbing, brutal, and frank story about intersecting lives unbalanced.

Manic Swan

Black Swan (USA, 2010)
dir. Darren Aranofsky
rating: ✶✶✶

A relentless film about an artist's descent into hallucination, self-mutilation, and madness with scenes of bulimia, hysteria, lesbian fantasmes, it is a horrible imposition on the viewer and distortion of the ballet world. I hate this film that bizarrely hijacks a great classic ballet.

Mayoral farce in Toronto

Toronto’s 64th mayor, Rob Ford, was inaugurated on 7 December 2010 in an eccentric, even bizarre event without precedent in the Council chambers. The mayor’s chain of office, symbol of his authority, was presented to him not by a personage such as Chief Justice or Lieutenant Governor of the province, but rather by flamboyant tv commentator, CBC’s Don Cherry of Hockey Night in Canada, noted for bigotry and unabashed redneck sentiment.

Attired in ludicrous pink Cherry took the occasion to praise his mayoral protégé and to lash out at people he would marginalize, pinkos, left-wing weirdos, and bike riders.

“Bring on the clowns”, commented Councillor Pam McConnell (Centre Rosedale, ward 28).

When the mayor inaugurates his term by turning the podium over to a mean poseur "dripping sarcasm and hatred in all his soul",✶ what does that presage for the city?
✶ see: Jack Todd, Montreal Gazette, 13 December 2010

Boris Godunov

Boris Godunov
Modest Petrovich Musorgsky
1872 version, with scenes from 1869 original
Metropolitan Opera, New York
cinema broadcast in HD live, 23 October 2010
cond. Valery Gergiev
production Stephen Wadsworth
with René Pape (Boris Godunov)

I am far from being an opera buff, and found the four hours of performance a bit of an ordeal despite the wonderful voice and acting presence of bass René Pape in the title role. I was most impressed, if not moved, by the death scene of the hallucinating Tsar, and the poignant closing lament for Russia of the Holy Fool (yurodivy, sung by tenor Andrey Popov).

If the libretto was more historically accurate the opera would have lost its main premise. It is doubtful that Boris, then regent, murdered the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Dmitri.

Out of Context — for Pina

Out of Context — for Pina
dir. Alain Platel (2010)
les ballets C de la B
Fleck Dance Theatre
Harbourfront, Toronto
16 October 2010

A highly intricate and ultimately brilliant piece, it flows through many transitions, with movements and sounds ranging from spastic and animal to more normal and casual, but with constant surprises. With six men and three women mostly in skivvies, sometimes covered with blankets, there are many levels of relationships, but mostly they are individuals in an uncertain continuum.

A Disappearing Number

A Disappearing Number
conceived and directed by Simon McBurney (2007)
performed by Complicite *
Theatre Royal Plymouth
cinema broadcast 14 October 2010

mathematicians Srinivasa Ramanujan and Godfrey Harold Hardy collaborate in 1914 (theme)

* Théâtre de la Complicité
(original name of the experimental company)


A Disappearing Number is a decidedly clever, imaginatively experimental, but problematical and in many ways puzzling play. I was unable to get emotionally involved in what passed for a plot, with separate but intellectually intersecting individuals. I can inherently appreciate the beauty of elegant mathematical proofs, yet that hardly makes for drama to this remote observer. The play kept harping at the significance of infinity — awesome in imagination, less so on stage. Given the origin of the one genius, a fair dollop of Indian mysticism was interjected by the end of the day. It felt gratuitous.

Pirates

Pirates of the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean
Somali pirates at the moment are holding about 18 vessels and their crews hostage for ransom in what has become a lucrative, if dangerous activity in recent years, causing havoc in international shipping channels among the busiest in the world. The presence of 30 warships of NATO, the United States, and many associated countries has only slightly deterred the pirates who mostly are let go even after capture. In April 2009 the Russian destroyer Admiral Panteleev (above, top) captured 29 pirates and destroyed their mother ship. On 9 September 2010 24 U.S. Marines dramatically scaled a hijacked German cargo vessel and arrested the 9 pirates on board. Pirates have seized more than 30 vessels this year so far, however.

NYT archives 3, 9, 10 Sept 2010

The Census politicized and undermined

With minimal consultation and little notice Canada’s national government has recklessly compromised the reliability and integrity of the quinquennial census that, since Confederation and before, has been a principal source of accurate information on the demographic, economic, and social composition of the nation. Ignoring the protests and remonstrations of statisticians, historians, genealogists, professionals of all kinds, and even major provinces, the cabinet in Ottawa has removed some questions from the key long form on dubious grounds of privacy and made remaining answers voluntary. A short form of eight questions has been maintained and still compulsory for the census scheduled for May, 2011.

At a stroke the usefulness of the exercise has been badly undermined, introducing serious doubt about the reliability of voluntary returns, and making comparisons with previous data uncertain. There seems to be total incomprehension in the Conservative cabinet of what this is all about, given the scorn and scoffing of Minister of Industry Tony Clement (Parry Sound-Muskoka).

Repairing the damage as best they can will be a priority task for future government. Modern societies require more than fanciful statistics and anecdotal information to function in any sense rationally.

Arma virumque: undercurrents of violence

A dozen protesters carrying arms were observed in Phoenix, AZ where President Obama was addressing the national convention of Veterans of Foreign Wars. One was carrying an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle (illustrated above), and all were legal under Arizona law. Some days earlier weapons were observed near a presidential event in New Hampshire, another open-carry state. The Secret Service stated that armed demonstrators had "little impact on security plans for the president". The White House has been silent.
[AP, 17 August 2009]

Nothing could contrast more sharply the difference in political culture between Canada and the United States. Personally I am aghast.

Frank Rich wrote an insightful piece about the current menace of "provocateurs with guns" in yesterday's New York Times: "The guns of August". Threats against the American president have increased 400% over those against the previous incumbent.

Afghanistan: should Canada be there?

When the Canadian government sent Canadian troops, inadequately prepared and poorly supported, into the cauldron of Afghanistan in 2002, it was no doubt to placate the United States for our non-participation in Iraq, and as a gesture of solidarity with NATO and UN. The cost in lives has been high. The result in the country of all Allied efforts has been problematical.

On 15 August 2009 a suicide bomber was able to pass various of levels of control at the most secure HQ ISAF * zone of Kabul, and detonate over 500 kg of explosive, killing 7 civilians outright, and injuring about 100 others, including some military.

Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal, Commander of ISAF and US forces, was present nearby at a security briefing at the time of the incident, close to fortified embassies and government buildings, as well as the presidential palace. Taliban claimed credit. [The Observer, 16 August 2009]

* International Security Assistance Force

In an earlier blog, written in September, 2006, I wrote:
Meanwhile as casualties rise, an abundant crop of opium poppies still nourishes the [underground]narco-economy [of Afghanistan], corruption abounds at all levels of state, while Taliban, Al Qaeda ("the Base"), unlimited arms and money pass with impunity through the porous Pakistani frontier.
Not much has changed in the interval of three years.

Canadian casualties in the campaign to date: 127
Coalition casualties: 1315

Foreign military presence in Afghanistan: 88,000 (about 41 countries)
NATO presence: 32.000
incl. Canada 2,500
US presence (Operation Enduring Freedom): 56,000
Afghan National Army: 90,000