This Nigerian guy who tried to blow up a Northwest flight from Amsterdam as it was landing here in Detroit studied Arabic for a bit in Yemen. However it was that he decided to carry out an anti-Christian revenge mission in the name of the modern proponents of terrorism, "What a waste of his intellectual journey!" I say.
If only he had had a chance to work with the American working class...We studied Arabic in the age of dinosaurs, when we studied with Charles Pellat, who came from the Sorbonne to teach us about Al-Jahiz, and right here in Michigan, we studied with Charles Bellamy, who helped edit with Ernest McCarus a wonderful selection of Modern Arabic Poetry. I'll have to scan it and put it on my private web site.
Also, now in the midst of teaching English, I speculate on whether the words and vocabulary with which Arabic literature and newspapers discuss the issues now is not almost completely different from the words and vocabulary of typical pre-intermediate English courses which select from the topics of the developed world, and use words like "systemic," as Obama was prompted to use. A word with no meaning which all the newsmedia seem to understand immediately.
I got a rude shock in my English teaching to Saudi's yesterday when I prepared an episode of Carl Sagan's Cosmos to show the excitement of the first Voyager 1 pictures in 1979. It was completely confusing to them...and I realized it was because the planets have completely different names in Arabic.
12/03/2009
Café de Flore, Paris-notes du 21 novembre 2009
This is my blog from the first day in Paris. Here is a picture of the woolen fashions of Paris in the late fall, and a picture of Michael Moore's film advertised in a Parisian Kiosk in Sevres Babylone.
I have been so busy preparing my English lessons, with only the thought of doing things like making power point explanations of Grammar, or putting quizzes on Blackboard CT that I almost forgot the promotional ticket on KLM that I had reserved two months ago to spend the Hajj vacation in Paris.
Paris is such a stimulating intellectual expereince for me. Even on the Plane, KLM had the Saturday le Monde(le monde is always pubished the day before in the afternoon; so the Friday afternoon--i.e. Saturday--issue was already in Amsterdam for the 7:15 am flight to Paris CDG. There was a fascinating interviews with a biographer of Camus, Olivier Todd, on Camus and Sartre. Camus is in the news now because Sarkozy wants to "Pantheonise" him--have him buried with Napoleon in the Pantheon. I had confused Camus with Sartre, who, en fin de compte, malgré son gauchisme, was against the Algerian rebellion against French colonialism. Camus, though a pied noir, born in Algeria, supported some of the early uprisings of the Algerians. But mostly he was a writer for the writer's sake. He joined the PC francais, but denied it for a chance to go to the US on a visit during the Witch hunt era, --a fact which his biographer finds strange, since he was such a believer in honesty.
I took some pictures right in the Airport to show you how nice CDG is. I am staying at the Jules Ferry Youth Hostel, right near Place de la Republique and Bastille. I went to the Louvre today because on the Plane, I watched a documentary about the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre!!! Yes, an italian immigrant carpenter, a certain, Mr. Perugia, who had worked for a time putting the mona lisa in a glass frame, walked in on a Monday when the museum, in those days was closed and had no guards, or at least only minimal guards while the workers moved paintings around and such types of cleaning. He kept the painting in his room for two years, the police never found him, and then took a train to Florence after writing to an Italian art dealer that he wanted to bring the Mona Lisa back to Italy. The art dealer consulted with the head of the Ufizzi and decided to meet him to see if he were a prankster or not. They took the painting, recognizing it as the original, left him in the hotel and sent the carbinieri to arrest him. He was put in jail for two years and then released. The Mona Lisa was on display in the Ufizzi for a month--long lines came to see it. So the wish of the thief became a reality before the Italians did indeed return the Mona Lisa to the Louvre.
My first day in Paris, the day the plane arrived was everything I could have wanted it to be. Michael Moore's new film, Capitalism, a Love Affair, was in the kiosks because it is coming out Nov. 27. I bought a "carnet de dix" and took my favorite busses and watched the people in the sunshine and last day of autumn, a sort of Indian Summer with people in simple "vestes" ou un "pull", rairly with the famous black woolen coats of the Parisians in Winter.
At a little before 4pm, I was looking at the posters outside the Comédie Française, Théatre du Vieux Colombier, in the 6th arrondissement, when a young man, perhaps a teacher, offered me a free ticket to the 4 o'clock show because the people he had invited--perhaps his class? had not come. So I treated myself to my first experience in this branch theater of the Comédie Française. It was an interview with the costume designer, coutumier, of the Comedie Francaise, a certain Renato Bianchi. The librarian--archiviste--of the Comédie Française was the main sort of master of ceremonies getting two actual actors, comédiens, from the Comédie Française, (on the program, the actors are referred to as "sociétaires de la Comédie Française") to comment on Renato's work with them as they all sat on stage and spoke in their wonderfully articulated French--especially the comédiens. The young archiviste; Agathe Sanjuan had spliced together some readings of the historic descriptions of the costume rules in the Comédie Française, and these were read by a student (eleve comedien) of the Comédie Française. Also wonderfully read. Finally they had some pictures of the costumes and Renato went into some detail on the change that happened when he came where there was a desire for researching the authenticity of costumes. He said it was sort of archaeological work. They bought a whole bunch of old period clothes from Italy. Further on in the program they talked about the tissue of the costumes, and later again on how the costumes are made to fit the actors. Finally, they showed pictures of Renato and his assistants turning the blue lines on the "tissue" which they had used to fit the actor, into sewed cloth for another "essai." and then the final cutting. Renato talked a long time about what was going on in the blue lines--almost trade secrets, that was hard to understand, but I could see why when, later, just before closing because time was running out, Agathe asked him to comment on what someone who wanted to be a "costumier" should study, and Renato said he or she should study to be a couturier. I don't know how we would translate couturier in English. But, of course it is the special tailor who designs "la haute couture," not necessarily a "tailleur," or taylor.(I just passed a men's "tailleur" near the Opéra, before writing this, which had a video in the window of the tailor cutting and fitting like Renato in the Comédie Française At one point Renato said a very telling thing. He said that in the old days when you apprenticed to be a couturier, you were CORRECTED. But that now no one ever corrects you. It made me realize that the fitting that goes into the European or British suit, with it's padded shoulders, for example, is really out now. The American look is just casual sloppy, doesn't enhance the body. By a freak, here too was a connection with my trip from Dammam. KLM provided a taxi-limosine from Al-Khobar to Bahrain airport to catch the KLM plane to Amsterdam, and during the taxi ride, we watched part of an American series where young aspiring fashion designers compete in the fashion world. Everything was "create an iconic image of New York for this shoot"--they were given the choice of the best photographers and models and then had to make an iconic new york shot. They just dressed a model in a tee shirt and had him eating hot dogs with mustard, or another dressed a model in old boots and a brown sack and had him throw a blanket in extasy has he saw the Stature of Liberty on the Staten Island ferry. Yet another commissioned an African American friend in the sewing trade to make an evening dress out of the American flag. All this TV stuff strikes me as being SO patriotic as everything has to be in the US as it goes to war in 3 different places to protect itself from "terrorism."
Such a difference between how the Parisians wear clothes. Especially the women. Every woman has someting different. A yellow scarf here, black tights with boots of various kinds, even blue jeans with a big patch of black and white cotton repairing a pretend tear in the rear end, wonderful assortment of sweaters of various lengths.
The men, too, sometimes wear jackets--"coutourier jackets?" with the sort of "bulkiness" of design similar to the costume Renato was making in the slides at the Comedie Francaise, as he fitted an actor who was to play a man with a big (artificial) stomach. You don't see what they wear for sale in the deparment stores. They just seem to invent them from what they have in the home. Black is especially prevalent in Paris, and like the Parisians, I was able to buy a black wool coat made in China in Saudi Arabia, which gets a lot of cheap things from China, for about $40 instead of $400. But it looks just as good.
Café de Flore, Paris-notes du 23 novembre 2009
Notes for the 22
Below is a short video which I shot from the bus number 68 from Sevres Babylone to Place Clichy for lunch at Flunch. The 68, and the 94 pass through the Louvre, Carousel. You can hear the bumpiness as the bus goes over the cobblestones that still remain in this stretch of the Paris streets in front of the Louvre.
Cocteau at Comedie Francaise\ Just missed it
The Reserve, by Russel Banks translated into French and read by an actor of the Comedie Francaise.
Russel Banks is not to be confused with the revolutionary fighters Russel Means and Dennis Banks in the US. The Reserve, by Russel Banks seems to me more of this E.L. Doctorow stuff where the American writer tries to show his progressiveness by writing with references to Sacco And Vanzetti, the Haymarket Martyrs, etc.
Like many things American, the French are more in tune to our « leftist » history than most Americans. Dashiel Hammet is in an Expo here in Paris this winter and also you see articles on him in the Kiosks.
Bought Les monstres, started reading in Starbucks
Umberto Eco is coming to Louvre. Thoughts on the Medieval Esthetic and his Lists.
Lists are the same. The same happened in the Middle Ages in the East, no, as far as the greek esthetic. It is just that the Middle East kept the Roman Law and its traditions whereas Luther and the teutonics dispensed with it . That is why the English are so much against Sharia perhaps. But the Arabs had Aristotles, Poetica, too. So, in reality they had the same esthetics. And a comparison between Homer’s lists, like Eco does, and the lists of the Medieval Arab historians should be made : Maqrizi, Lisan al-Arab. However there is no Dante, no Ariosto. Or is Jahiz that ?
Shakespear’s Macbeth witches seene is a list—the observations of astronomers in Tus, Maraqha, Baluchistan are lists.
On things Italian. Umberto Eco is invited to the Louvre ! Le Louvre invite Umberto Eco. And La comedie francaise is playing La Grande Magie by Eduardo De Filippo.
Eduardo De Filippo with Dario Fo is the most famous post war author-actor in post WW2 Italy. He made L’Abito nuovo in collaboration with Luigi Pirandello. He wrote La Grande Magie in 1948 and has been an actor in the cinema. I hope to see a matininee of it (La Grande Magie) on Sunday at 14h.
As for Umberto Eco, I had previously only associated him with « The Roman de la Rose, » Which I think was made into a film with Sean Connery. But he is a writer about many things relating to history of Art. I cama cross a book of his in the Louvre bookstore, in the Carrousel du Louvre, just inisde the entrance to the Louvre, where you don’t have to pay to go inside :Umberto Eco, Art et beaute dans l’esthetique Medievale Grasset 1997 Italian original Arte e Bellezza nel estetica mediavale 1987.
He notes what I came up against in 1971—that people don’t accept that there was an aesthetic in the Middle Ages. I must buy the book, I thought to myself as I was in the Louvre bookstore.
Then I cam areound a corner and say that there wss a whole table of Umberto Eco books and that he was coming Wednesday for a signing of his book published under the Louvre’s own « habitants du Louvre « series : Vertige de la liste : Traducion du tete d’Umberto Eco : Myriem Bouzaher. He willl be signing the book today, so if I’m not to shy I’ll go meet him. His book on lists relates to what I have frequently thought about Islam. That the Histories are essentially lists. In this sense, they are a form of Art. This idea of seeing lists in art by umberto Eco is very good.
En bas, video du Louvre vu du bus 68, allant a Place Clichy pour manger au "Flunch."
Below is a short video which I shot from the bus number 68 from Sevres Babylone to Place Clichy for lunch at Flunch. The 68, and the 94 pass through the Louvre, Carousel. You can hear the bumpiness as the bus goes over the cobblestones that still remain in this stretch of the Paris streets in front of the Louvre.
Cocteau at Comedie Francaise\ Just missed it
The Reserve, by Russel Banks translated into French and read by an actor of the Comedie Francaise.
Russel Banks is not to be confused with the revolutionary fighters Russel Means and Dennis Banks in the US. The Reserve, by Russel Banks seems to me more of this E.L. Doctorow stuff where the American writer tries to show his progressiveness by writing with references to Sacco And Vanzetti, the Haymarket Martyrs, etc.
Like many things American, the French are more in tune to our « leftist » history than most Americans. Dashiel Hammet is in an Expo here in Paris this winter and also you see articles on him in the Kiosks.
Bought Les monstres, started reading in Starbucks
Umberto Eco is coming to Louvre. Thoughts on the Medieval Esthetic and his Lists.
Lists are the same. The same happened in the Middle Ages in the East, no, as far as the greek esthetic. It is just that the Middle East kept the Roman Law and its traditions whereas Luther and the teutonics dispensed with it . That is why the English are so much against Sharia perhaps. But the Arabs had Aristotles, Poetica, too. So, in reality they had the same esthetics. And a comparison between Homer’s lists, like Eco does, and the lists of the Medieval Arab historians should be made : Maqrizi, Lisan al-Arab. However there is no Dante, no Ariosto. Or is Jahiz that ?
Shakespear’s Macbeth witches seene is a list—the observations of astronomers in Tus, Maraqha, Baluchistan are lists.
On things Italian. Umberto Eco is invited to the Louvre ! Le Louvre invite Umberto Eco. And La comedie francaise is playing La Grande Magie by Eduardo De Filippo.
Eduardo De Filippo with Dario Fo is the most famous post war author-actor in post WW2 Italy. He made L’Abito nuovo in collaboration with Luigi Pirandello. He wrote La Grande Magie in 1948 and has been an actor in the cinema. I hope to see a matininee of it (La Grande Magie) on Sunday at 14h.
As for Umberto Eco, I had previously only associated him with « The Roman de la Rose, » Which I think was made into a film with Sean Connery. But he is a writer about many things relating to history of Art. I cama cross a book of his in the Louvre bookstore, in the Carrousel du Louvre, just inisde the entrance to the Louvre, where you don’t have to pay to go inside :Umberto Eco, Art et beaute dans l’esthetique Medievale Grasset 1997 Italian original Arte e Bellezza nel estetica mediavale 1987.
He notes what I came up against in 1971—that people don’t accept that there was an aesthetic in the Middle Ages. I must buy the book, I thought to myself as I was in the Louvre bookstore.
Then I cam areound a corner and say that there wss a whole table of Umberto Eco books and that he was coming Wednesday for a signing of his book published under the Louvre’s own « habitants du Louvre « series : Vertige de la liste : Traducion du tete d’Umberto Eco : Myriem Bouzaher. He willl be signing the book today, so if I’m not to shy I’ll go meet him. His book on lists relates to what I have frequently thought about Islam. That the Histories are essentially lists. In this sense, they are a form of Art. This idea of seeing lists in art by umberto Eco is very good.
En bas, video du Louvre vu du bus 68, allant a Place Clichy pour manger au "Flunch."
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