Comments for Rambles at starchamber.com

Comment on Military theater at the India Pakistan border by St. Frank

St. Frank — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:28:14 +0000

By the way, “…farcical military silly-walks theater is better than war.”
Best quote ever!

Comment on Dan’s latest: Yet Another Planetarium Simulation by steve

steve — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:43:23 +0000

Excellent! I remember the old HA Rey books fondly.

Comment on Military theater at the India Pakistan border by Ned

Ned — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:04:09 +0000

Wow, I love that Tomb of the Unknown Soldier video. It’s theater pure and simple and that inspector is just hamming it up and loving every minute of it. Don’t you just know he was in the high school production of “Hello Dolly!” and secretly wishes he could star in “Rent”. I bet he does a mean robot on the dance floor.

Comment on Military theater at the India Pakistan border by St. Frank

St. Frank — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:17:49 +0000

Military tradition is just bizarre. We are all drawn to it for whatever reaon, but OUR guys never look silly right? I remember seeing the changing of the gaiurd at tthe tomb of the unknown soldier in East Berlin. Goose Stepping Gaurds, practiced military precision and remember thinking how goofy it seemed. But then look at the Buckingham Palace gaurds and the whole tradition of not blinking in the face of ridiculous tourists trying to get them to blink!
For sheer insanity, look no further than North Korea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnZBgiZ3d8s
But closer to home, you have this, to me anyway, crazy rifle inspection at the changing of the gaurd in Arlington National Cemetary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqZ-mkdp1H0

Comment on A “Keep Calm” Meme Tree by Alan

Alan — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:56:18 +0000

this site has a lot of very entertaining descriptions of popular memes with examples – one could spend hours trawling through it
if so inclined…

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes

Comment on A “Keep Calm” Meme Tree by Mike O

Mike O — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:09:40 +0000

By meme, that’s Richard Dawkins on that gum!

Comment on GIMME SOME CAW-FEE! by Peter

Peter — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:33:57 +0000

Alan, I loved reading this. You are neglecting a lucrative side career as a dialect coach for theatre and film actors. On Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins:
//CNN: Did Andrews or David Tomlinson [who played Mr. Banks] mention things to you about the accent? Or did they just go with the flow?
Van Dyke: They just went with the flow! It’s funny — I was concentrating on the dancing, mostly, and they had given me a [voice] coach who turned out to be an Irishman, and his Cockney wasn’t much better than mine. During the making of the picture nobody kidded me about the accent, but I sure took it afterwards. [One British poll named Van Dyke's accent the second-worst British accent ever; Van Dyke observes, however, that he was beaten out by Sean Connery's "Untouchables" performance.]//
I felt bad about Peter Postlethwaite being on the list for “Usual Suspects” If his character was a Pakistani who learned English from a someone with a British accent, his accent was perfect (that’s why so many Saudi sheiks have British accents).
Final thought: It was an eye-opening (ear-opening?) experience to learn that historians think the the English spoken in Elizabethan times, when Shakespeare’s plays were first performed, sounded nothing like an English accent today. Don’t know how “historians” could know that, but I remember hearing in a lecture once that Shakespeare’s cast would have pronounced the word “war” in “Henry V” to rhyme with “car.” Did Hamlet the Dane sound like Captain Hook?

Comment on GIMME SOME CAW-FEE! by Zachary

Zachary — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:01:15 +0000

Just following up on my Leo criticism. From AO Scott’s review of “Shutter Island” today:

‘Mr. DiCaprio, having grown perhaps overly fond of his accent from “The Departed,” brings it along for the ride, and it spreads through the movie like a contagious disease. Teddy’s partner (pahtnah), Chuck Aule, played by Mark (Mahk) Ruffalo, is supposed to be from the Pacific Northwest but he seems to have left all his R’s back in Seattle.’

http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/movies/19shutter.html?8dpc

Comment on GIMME SOME CAW-FEE! by Jody

Jody — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 02:28:59 +0000

Great piece, Alan. I’m so sorry that you aren’t able to watch “The Wire”—and even sorrier that Dominic West is the reason. Reading about his audition prep made me furious!

Two other notes:

As for impressive American accents, I nominate Olivia d’Abo (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001882/), who played Kevin’s older sister, Karen, in “The Wonder Years.” I saw her later on in something else and remember thinking that she was doing a flawless British accent, only to discover that she’s a Brit by birth!

I did a summer study-abroad program in London during college, focusing on theater. One night, we saw a production of Eugene O’Neill’s “Desire Under the Elms.” All of the actors seemed to have been doing their best (read: worst) Texas accents. I remember thinking that it would have been fitting if each character’s costume had included a cowboy hat. Oh, and the play is set in New England!

Comment on GIMME SOME CAW-FEE! by Alan

Alan — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:00:00 +0000

Relevant to this discussion: the Wall Street Journal ran an article about the current film “Invictus” in which both Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman are called upon to do South African English.

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2009/12/10/as-invictus-opens-a-look-at-acting-waterloo-the-south-african-accent/tab/article/

“More subtle than an English or Australian accent, spiced through with traces of the native Afrikaans language, the South African accent has challenged, provoked and, on occasion, overwhelmed a who’s-who of Hollywood stars, including Danny Glover (”Mandela”), Denzel Washington (”Cry Freedom”), Tim Robbins (”Catch a Fire”), Marlon Brando (”A Dry White Season”) and Whoopi Goldberg (”Sarafina!”)”. I think they both sounds pretty good, but my South African friend who saw the film begs to differ…