Saturday update
Aug. 22nd, 2005 03:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redfiona99Your 1 line fic choices prove your evilness ;)
Just remembering why I tend not to watch Arts programmes on TV, they tend to annoy me horribly.
This is going to get a little long:
On Thursday I watched a programme called "E=mc squared - the story behind the world's most famous equation" or something similar. Don't get me wrong, it was good. Okay so I admit that I originally watched it for one of the actors (because it was one of these dramadocumentary things that are in style now) but then they gave me a wonderfully Faradaian Michael Faraday (who was not only a brilliant scientist, discoverer of electromagnetism and therefore at least partly to thank for lots of the good things in the world, but also came up with the greatest turn down of a knighthood ever. It was for religious reasons and he said that he entered the world as plain Michael Faraday and would therefore leave it as plain Michael Faraday) and then the actor I was watching for turned up as Antoine Levoisier (the death of whom was the one truly hideous unpardonable sin of the French revolution). The actor in question is Julian Rhind-Tutt, put him in normal clothes and he looks reasonably normal, put him in perioud clothes and you start wondering if there's an arch-farce missing a secondary character (really, he'd make a brilliant Sir Andrew Augecheek). But despite this he was so utterly adorable as Levoisier, and then we got various other people and then another of my favourite actors appeared as Voltaire. Really if you want me to like something stick Voltaire in it.
Red's shameful admission of the day - I fell for Voltaire when I went to Madame Tussaud's when I was 9-ish and read about him on the plaque next to the head of his dummy. The dummy itself was a copy of his death mask which Madame Tussaud herself had some connection to the making of (hence it being there).
He was involved with a female physicist by the name of Du Chatelaine (spelling could be off, never actually saw it spelt). Anyway, he once wrote of her that she was 'a marvellous man [something about her wit and intelligence and genius] whose only flaw is that she is a woman'. Of course some female physicist commentator type was all 'oh I'm certain he thought it was a great complement at the time' tone suggesting that of course it's a dreadful sexist thing to say. Me, of course, I'm bowled over by quite how lovely a thing it was to say about someone. But what can I do, me and the feminists never will entirely agree on such matters.
Also it showed how many of these great scientists were also religious (Faraday and Einstein especially, Le Chatelline less so, I'm guessing, since she hung out with Voltaire) so take that Richard Dawkins who thinks the two are imcompatible. I have to agree with Faraday and Einstein in question - only by understanding how the world works can we get closer to God.
The only thing that really irked me about it, it seemed to do down chemists at every turn (except Levoisier and they only mentioned his physics contribution rather than his work on what would with Mendelyev become the periodic table - that's a documentary they could make, the story behind the periodic table /nerdiness) and of course biology got not one mention. I realise it was a programme about physics so I don't much mind, but there's the same bias in most programmes about science, they all seem to be all about the physics.
I think it's because physics is more complicated so there have to be 'Physics for Dummies' programmes. You don't need that for biology so people don't hear as much about it so they don't think it is as important, but it is.
The first piece was a Proms premier for a piece by a Russian female composer, Sofia Gubaidulina, 'The Light of the End'. It was good.
Then they had an interview with the conductor Kurt Masur. But the presenters are such twits, they asked such idiotic, facile, vacuous questions. But he answered them beautifully. I mean, there was such emotion in his words, it moved you as much a music can.
And then there was further idiotic talking. There was a BBC docudrama about Beethoven a couple of months ago, and Paul Rhys played him, and they were talking to him. And I just sat there and hoped he wouldn't say too much, but of course he did. I don't much like listening to interviews with actors because it's very rare that they're like the characters that they play. Paul Rhys tends to play overly intense persons, often Russians slowly dying of consumption (I've seen him do a fair few variations of that). And he breaks my heart while playing them, especially when he was playing Charles Stringham in 'Dance to the Music of Time' (vaguely similar atmosphere to Brideshead Revisted, and his character was the Sebastian Flyte character. Brilliantly witty but totally unable to cope with the real world.)
It's like Derek Jacobi, I love watching him act, I hate watching him being interviewed. It's odd, I know, but it's the truth.
But they're talking about Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and saying how the last movement (The Ode To Joy bit itself) is always over-emphasised and that there's far more interesting stuff in the rest of it. Now I'm not disagreeing with that, I'm just wondering how you can over-emphasise the Ode To Joy, which someone, quite rightly described as the most joyous bit of music ever written.
And then they were saying how Beethoven's music seemed to take him far more effort than it took Mozart and how with Mozart it did seem to come direct from God and that this extra effort somehow made Beethoven's music better, which is pish. I prefer Beethoven's music, but for musical reasons not for stupid reasons like the effort involved.
Must say that the male soloists could do with some improvement, the bass-baritone especially was having to reach for the notes. Says the girl who can't hold a note.
Added information - I was working on the premise the bass-baritone wasn't a German speaker and that was why he was going for mad mouth actions, but he's a Berliner. (Okay so that does mean he doesn't speak German ;) ) Apparently it's his 35th birthday and his 4 year old son came out with this classic comment - 'Daddy's having his birthday in London, why aren't we invited to his party'. Classic.
There's going to be a documentary about the Strausses tomorrow and I'm already furious about the pre-publicity which says that waltzes are viewed as outmoded. By who? The idiots that like serious things mostly. The waltz is not meant to be a great introspective work of art. It's a dance tune, pop music, the bubblegum disposable music of it's day. I must say it's aged quite well. The only people I've ever met who dislike a good waltz are boring, serious people.
In short, biology is important, Beethoven rocks and waltzes are wonderful.
Blast, the Waltz thing and the repeat of episode 2 of Lost clash. Oh well, I'll just have to pick Lost up from ep 3. Actually everything tonight clashes. The Strauss thing with Lost and Top of the Pops, the Count of Monte Cristo with a Poirot with Paul McGann, and the first Police Academy film, and the end of the Poirot with Match of the Day 2, with the Chelsea v Arsenal match. Blast.
Computers at uni aren't working hence why you're only getting this on Monday.
Just remembering why I tend not to watch Arts programmes on TV, they tend to annoy me horribly.
This is going to get a little long:
On Thursday I watched a programme called "E=mc squared - the story behind the world's most famous equation" or something similar. Don't get me wrong, it was good. Okay so I admit that I originally watched it for one of the actors (because it was one of these dramadocumentary things that are in style now) but then they gave me a wonderfully Faradaian Michael Faraday (who was not only a brilliant scientist, discoverer of electromagnetism and therefore at least partly to thank for lots of the good things in the world, but also came up with the greatest turn down of a knighthood ever. It was for religious reasons and he said that he entered the world as plain Michael Faraday and would therefore leave it as plain Michael Faraday) and then the actor I was watching for turned up as Antoine Levoisier (the death of whom was the one truly hideous unpardonable sin of the French revolution). The actor in question is Julian Rhind-Tutt, put him in normal clothes and he looks reasonably normal, put him in perioud clothes and you start wondering if there's an arch-farce missing a secondary character (really, he'd make a brilliant Sir Andrew Augecheek). But despite this he was so utterly adorable as Levoisier, and then we got various other people and then another of my favourite actors appeared as Voltaire. Really if you want me to like something stick Voltaire in it.
Red's shameful admission of the day - I fell for Voltaire when I went to Madame Tussaud's when I was 9-ish and read about him on the plaque next to the head of his dummy. The dummy itself was a copy of his death mask which Madame Tussaud herself had some connection to the making of (hence it being there).
He was involved with a female physicist by the name of Du Chatelaine (spelling could be off, never actually saw it spelt). Anyway, he once wrote of her that she was 'a marvellous man [something about her wit and intelligence and genius] whose only flaw is that she is a woman'. Of course some female physicist commentator type was all 'oh I'm certain he thought it was a great complement at the time' tone suggesting that of course it's a dreadful sexist thing to say. Me, of course, I'm bowled over by quite how lovely a thing it was to say about someone. But what can I do, me and the feminists never will entirely agree on such matters.
Also it showed how many of these great scientists were also religious (Faraday and Einstein especially, Le Chatelline less so, I'm guessing, since she hung out with Voltaire) so take that Richard Dawkins who thinks the two are imcompatible. I have to agree with Faraday and Einstein in question - only by understanding how the world works can we get closer to God.
The only thing that really irked me about it, it seemed to do down chemists at every turn (except Levoisier and they only mentioned his physics contribution rather than his work on what would with Mendelyev become the periodic table - that's a documentary they could make, the story behind the periodic table /nerdiness) and of course biology got not one mention. I realise it was a programme about physics so I don't much mind, but there's the same bias in most programmes about science, they all seem to be all about the physics.
I think it's because physics is more complicated so there have to be 'Physics for Dummies' programmes. You don't need that for biology so people don't hear as much about it so they don't think it is as important, but it is.
The first piece was a Proms premier for a piece by a Russian female composer, Sofia Gubaidulina, 'The Light of the End'. It was good.
Then they had an interview with the conductor Kurt Masur. But the presenters are such twits, they asked such idiotic, facile, vacuous questions. But he answered them beautifully. I mean, there was such emotion in his words, it moved you as much a music can.
And then there was further idiotic talking. There was a BBC docudrama about Beethoven a couple of months ago, and Paul Rhys played him, and they were talking to him. And I just sat there and hoped he wouldn't say too much, but of course he did. I don't much like listening to interviews with actors because it's very rare that they're like the characters that they play. Paul Rhys tends to play overly intense persons, often Russians slowly dying of consumption (I've seen him do a fair few variations of that). And he breaks my heart while playing them, especially when he was playing Charles Stringham in 'Dance to the Music of Time' (vaguely similar atmosphere to Brideshead Revisted, and his character was the Sebastian Flyte character. Brilliantly witty but totally unable to cope with the real world.)
It's like Derek Jacobi, I love watching him act, I hate watching him being interviewed. It's odd, I know, but it's the truth.
But they're talking about Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and saying how the last movement (The Ode To Joy bit itself) is always over-emphasised and that there's far more interesting stuff in the rest of it. Now I'm not disagreeing with that, I'm just wondering how you can over-emphasise the Ode To Joy, which someone, quite rightly described as the most joyous bit of music ever written.
And then they were saying how Beethoven's music seemed to take him far more effort than it took Mozart and how with Mozart it did seem to come direct from God and that this extra effort somehow made Beethoven's music better, which is pish. I prefer Beethoven's music, but for musical reasons not for stupid reasons like the effort involved.
Must say that the male soloists could do with some improvement, the bass-baritone especially was having to reach for the notes. Says the girl who can't hold a note.
Added information - I was working on the premise the bass-baritone wasn't a German speaker and that was why he was going for mad mouth actions, but he's a Berliner. (Okay so that does mean he doesn't speak German ;) ) Apparently it's his 35th birthday and his 4 year old son came out with this classic comment - 'Daddy's having his birthday in London, why aren't we invited to his party'. Classic.
There's going to be a documentary about the Strausses tomorrow and I'm already furious about the pre-publicity which says that waltzes are viewed as outmoded. By who? The idiots that like serious things mostly. The waltz is not meant to be a great introspective work of art. It's a dance tune, pop music, the bubblegum disposable music of it's day. I must say it's aged quite well. The only people I've ever met who dislike a good waltz are boring, serious people.
In short, biology is important, Beethoven rocks and waltzes are wonderful.
Blast, the Waltz thing and the repeat of episode 2 of Lost clash. Oh well, I'll just have to pick Lost up from ep 3. Actually everything tonight clashes. The Strauss thing with Lost and Top of the Pops, the Count of Monte Cristo with a Poirot with Paul McGann, and the first Police Academy film, and the end of the Poirot with Match of the Day 2, with the Chelsea v Arsenal match. Blast.
Computers at uni aren't working hence why you're only getting this on Monday.
