malkhos

Porky's Road Race is one of the Warner Brothers' Cartoons that profited from caricatures of popular actors. As cartoons go, it is not that interesting except for a brief passage beginning at 4:39.

There John Barrymore is fleeing and being vigorously pursued by his wife Elaine Barrie. Barrymore's car bears the inscription Caliban and Barrie's Ariel (it is also rigged with a small antenna by way of an Etruscan rebus). She is shouting at him, "Come Back Caliban! I want you! Come here Caliban!" while spinning a rope over her head preparing to lasso him. 

Ariel in love with Caliban (Titiania and Bottom style) is a very strange conceit. I thought at first it must have been in reference to some version of The Tempest they had done, but there is no such film and as far as the internet knows, Barrymore never starred in a stage production of the play. Also, the only film they made together was Midnight which does not seem to exploit themes from The Tempest and, in any case, was only released two years after the cartoon.

Now the cartoon was directed by Frank Tashlin, who went on to make one of the very best of the Hollywood animated shorts--Nasty Quacks--and then shifted to live action films, most notably Tony Randal's and Jerry Lewis' 1950s films, so I allowed myself to think of explanations of some subtly. Possibly the scene plays on some personal scandal in the actors' private lives that became a prominent feature of the gossip magazines of the day (though its hard to imagine Barrymore successfully likened to Caliban). Or, perhaps more interestingly, in his own private life, Tashlin liked to scuttle around the bedroom floor in a Caliban suit while his 'Ariel' lassoed and hog-tied him.

But I remain open to suggestions.
Malkhos=>Porphyry

Hooray for me. Not only was I able to single-handedly effect a large fundraising effort at work, the fundraising goal was not only met but exceeded.

It was really quite simple. Here in the U.S., May is National Cancer Awareness Month. At my job, the whole week has been taken up by various fundraising activities--bake sales, raffles, and the like. But I outdid them all. I put my hair up on the block. I agreed that if a certain amount of money was raised, I would donate my hair to Locks of Love, a non-profit organization that takes real human hair and makes pieces for children who have devastating illnesses like cancer and have suffered the hair loss that so often comes with treating cancer.

My co-workers and students came through admirably. Nobody thought I would do it.

But today, there I sat, in the parking lot, and with approximately 200 people watching (that was freaky, I can tell you, but my hair has always been like part of my identity to everyone, which is why so many came to watch), a stylist put my hair into a ponytail and within a minute, one foot (12 inches) of my hair was gone. Everyone applauded and some people cried.

Jeez. You'd think a girl'd never gotten her hair cut before.

I just hope some child gets as many compliments about it as I have.

 While feeding the Augsutulus, I've been playing the new Met production of Don Giovanni n the background. I notice that throughout the first few scenes the backdrop on stage is a New Oreleans whore house, complete with whores standing on the balconies. In the middle of Leporello's catalog aria, the whore house set separates and slides off into the wings, to reveal behind it...another New Orleans Whore house.

Malkhos=>Porphyry

 I see it was announced today that Pixar is going to make a CGI version of Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden, to be released by Disney. Sigourney Weaver as voice talent will reprise her role from the 1994 Roman Polanski version, while the role of Dr. Miranda will be voiced by Keanu Reeves. Ben Kingsley will still be featured in the project, however. He will voice and act via rotoanimation a wisecracking cockroach named Gregor that will befriend Weaver's character in prison. The artist formerly known as Prince has been signed to write the sound track. Malkhos=>Porphyry

 Remus the cat died yesterday, in a very unusual way for a cat. He was pelted to death by hail.

Malkhos=>Porphyry

 Madeline--What word goes there?
Malkhos:--Read the first part. Now read the second part. What word goes in between?
Madeline--but! Thanks, Dada.
Malkhos--For what? I didn't teach you anything. I just reminded you to remember it.
      (more generally)--I just proved the theory of anamnesis.
Mme. Malkhos--What?!?

Malkhos=>Porphyry

 Our European readers probably have no idea what is going on over here.

Read the headline, then look at the story to see what organization Fox News calls a Civil Rights group.



 


To be fair, the most likely explanation is that reporter and her editor did not know what the abbreviated name of that organization is, and so couldn't make any larger connection. It has to be that way, because the alternative is too terrible.

The original story has been removed, by the way, but not before this screen-capture was re-posted all over the internet.
Malkhos=>Porphyry

 'Your're coming too close to expressing an opinion different from mine. Stop it or I'll smite you! Despite the fact that everyday I express an opinion contrary to and provocative of yours and I expect you to tolerate it.'

Malkhos=>Porphyry

Albrecht.

I'm part-way through the new edition of Dorian Gray based on WIlde's original typescript. It is well worth reading, esp. for the notes.