2/9/07 – added photos for the contestants going on to Hollywood

8:01 – Oh, Katharine. *sigh* You know, her CD‘s out now. I should go pick it up, even if it is r&b-corrupted pop. Hey, you know, I sort of thought it was Olivia Newton-John in the brief clip yesterday! But I didn’t believe it. She was just on Grease: The One That I Want on Sunday, too. I guess she’s doing a twofer.

8:03 Martik – This guy’s scaring me. Yeah, he’s in the wrong business.

8:07 Sholandric – Nope. Aw, Olivia’s nice. “Unfortunately your pitch is not on.” Hee.

8:13 Marianna – 16 years of training, mother in show business, sounds like Kat’s background! We’ll see. Oooh, that’d be NO. Forget I mentioned Kat in this context. Wait, what, her mom’s coming in? Geez.

8:17 “Do you want me to do some cartwheels?” Um. No?

The times are all screwed up now, because I paused it to answer the phone. So I’ll leave off the times.

Alaina – I wasn’t into it at first, but the second part was good. I like her, but she needs to keep confident. Simon “Oh, definitely yes.” He’s crushing on her. ;)

Phuong – Your family is right. You should keep pleasing them by abandoning music.

Brandon – Another background singer…the last background singer (Melinda) that auditioned was awesome. The thing is, you know background singers at least have voices, or they wouldn’t have gotten the backup job. Whether they can front is a different question. Definitely a yes.

Brian – Another Hollywood-week reject. Didn’t blow me away, but wasn’t bad. Sort of agree with Simon–good, but forgettable.

Sherman – So you can get around the rules by doing a petition? Interesting. Okay, that’s possibly the best thing I’ve seen on this show. That was truly beautiful. *wipes eyes* And I’m not being sarcastic.

21 contestants through on day one–or, as Ryan says, “earned a trip to Hollywood.” Aren’t they already IN Hollywood? “Yes, here’s your…uh…bus fare.”

Cavett – What is she doing? Her boyfriend’s right outside the door, and she’s making inappropriate gestures at Simon! That’s just disturbing. Actually, it would have been disturbing even if her boyfriend weren’t outside.

Darold – Hee. Okay, she’s singing love songs to Simon, and he’s lamenting that his girlfriend is leaving for another man. Hmm. Interesting set of song choices.

Eric – Sometimes not having heard anything like that in a long time is a VERY GOOD THING. OMG, Randy and Paula’s infamous DVD again. Wow.

19 more today. So that’s 41 from LA. Not bad at all. Another audition stop next week? I am getting so ready for the auditions to be over. Wait, though…there was a girl in the commercials before the show even started who was singing “Stormy Weather” and I really really liked her. Haven’t seen her yet. Did I miss her? Anyone see her? Of course, we’ve had a lot of sort of bluesy singers, and it’s possible they showed a clip from a different song she sang and I didn’t recognize her.

Dude, this is an awesome trailer mash-up. The voice-over’s a bit weak, and you kind of have to pretend that Tom Hanks looks the same age in all the clips, but wow. Of course, the idea of Hanks being Bond scared me for a second…

I couldn’t catch all the clips, because most of them are from older Hanks films that I haven’t seen, but it has twenty different films represented. TWENTY. That’s an enormous amount of work. Hat tip Trailer Mash.

Jeffrey M. Anderson on the Golden Globes. Among other things.

This is an old post (twelve days is really old in blog-world), but I had it marked in my feedreader to mention and I’m just getting around to going through some of those. I mentioned in my brief, ranty Golden Globes post that I was surprised by Babel‘s win. Anderson wasn’t, particularly, because as he accurately identifies, it’s an award darling. It’s calculated for awards, in a way that, say, Pan’s Labyrinth is not. Now, I still haven’t seen Babel, so I’ll let Anderson speak to the specifics, but you can see the difference in the trailers. Babel is Important with a capital “I,” while Pan’s Labyrinth is ethereal and mysterious. Anyway, the point is, as Anderson indicates, it’s become distressingly easy to bait the awards, and the same thing happens at the Oscars, except usually more so.

The Oscar nominations for Best Picture are Babel, The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima (which I also haven’t seen, but at least it isn’t nominated in the Foreign Language category this time–another thing Anderson rants about the Globes, just as I did), Little Miss Sunshine, and The Queen. Of the three I’ve seen, I’d pick The Departed, though the other two are good as well. But Babel has A Message, so it may very likely win. However, I’d put both Children of Men (although I wasn’t as enamored of it as some) and Pan’s Labyrinth above all of them, and Volver above many. The fact that Volver wasn’t even nominated in the foreign category stymies me. Pan’s Labyrinth better win it.

Because honestly, Pan’s Labyrinth was one of the most beautiful, most moving, most gorgeous, most heartbreaking, most everything films I’ve seen in a long time. It takes place during the Spanish Civil War (also the setting of director Del Toro’s excellent The Devil’s Backbone), and in fact, the “realistic” sections dealing with the war take up substantially more screen time than the “fantastic” parts, despite what the trailer might lead you to believe. The main character, Ofelia, moves with her mother to a military outpost when her mother marries a captain there (her father is long dead); her mother is very pregnant. The captain is a brutish man, only interested in having a son to carry on his name, and focused on routing the rebels up in the hills above the camp. Hating him, Ofelia’s only escape is into a fairy world, where she may be a long-lost princess–if only she can carry out the three tasks that the faun Pan gives her. But the fairy world isn’t a safe retreat; it’s just as dangerous and scary as the real world. But it’s a world where she has a place, where she has a role and a purpose–unlike the real world, where her step-father would just as soon she disappear entirely. Is there a message? Well, yes. The importance of self-sacrifice and doing the right thing, even when it’s dangerous. But the message is woven into the action of the story; you have to tease out the meaning yourself, as you sit in the theatre and quietly cry while the credits roll. Or maybe that was just me.

The thing is, award-winning films hit you over the head with their messages. That’s probably why Children of Men didn’t get anywhere in the awards, either, despite being critically acclaimed from nearly all quarters. I’m hard-pressed to come up with a single, pithy message in the film. Love people? Care about them? Do all you can to help them? Fight against despair? Oppose fascist governments? The thing that made Children of Men great for me wasn’t WHAT it said, but the WAY it portrayed the world of the not-very-distant future. The care in the set design. The perfect camera set-ups. It was able to show the complete devastation of a world thrown into terror and confusion because of a plague with an unknown cause that led to worldwide sterility, without ever needing any of the characters to describe what was going on. It’s one of the most perfectly designed films I’ve ever, ever seen. But “perfectly designed” doesn’t hit as hard with the awards people as “Has a Really Obvious and Laudable Message.”

I should really stop ranting about awards. Everything I write about awards turns into a rant. I should just resign myself to the fact that awards are dumb and rarely get it right and just go on about my business of watching good films. So ignore the rant portions of this post and take to heart my advice to see Children of Men and especially Pan’s Labyrinth if you can. Do note both are violent, so don’t take the kids.

2/8/07 – added photos of the contestants who got through to Hollywood

7:01 Birmingham is big with Idol. On the other hand, none of the Birmingham finalists are particular favorites of mine. But still.

7:03 Erica – Hee…speaking of time going by slowly. I thought she was never going through the phrase. Also, people need to learn that singing Simon’s favorite song is not really a good idea. It does not make him MORE likely to like you, but LESS. Her tone-deaf family are not helping the situation. What is Paula doing? Hiding in the wings? Scaredy.

7:07 Katie – Well, her singing voice is definitely different from her talking one. Yet, it’s still rather…odd. I liked some of the notes, but others were just strange. Why are they all down on the floor? This is becoming a very weird show already. Paula, Paula, Paula. She won’t make it through Hollywood.

7:15 Tatiana – Yeah, definitely yeah.

7:17 Diana – Nah, definitely nah. “My Lu-hu-hu-huve!” Heh.

7:22 Bernardo – Wow, Simon said yes and Paula said no? Told you tonight was weird. I would’ve put him through…was he really that off-key? If so, why would Randy say yes? He hates pitchiness.

7:23 Margaret – Okay, that costume is just creepy. Did you see the two people behind her totally embarrassed to be on the camera while she was talking? Hee.

7:31 Jamie – This year’s Kellie Pickler. With a voice about the same quality as hers…sweet and pretty, but not terribly substantive. We’ll see how her sob story goes. I never know what to do with the sob stories. They sort of seem manipulative, yet then again, how mean is it to be cynical about a seventeen-year-old girl’s dad being paralyzed. Although he did shoot hisself, so.

7:34 Chris – I like this guy. He’s funny. And good. And Simon, again, gets away without giving his vote. Hmph.

7:41 Uh-oh, no Paula. That means both guys have to say yes.

7:43 Victoria – Now, that’s some hair. What a nightmare to manage. Her voice isn’t bad–some sweet tones there. But I don’t think she’s got the power to compete.

7:45 Lakia – No no no no no no. She said that in her song. I’m just repeating what she said. Really.

7:47 You know, they were sort of making a joke of all the Birmingham contestants saying “thank you” even when the judges were negative, but I think that sort of gentlefolk-like behavior is what has made the contestants from that part of the country so popular. Certainly Taylor’s fans always pointed to his politeness and good manners.

7:52 Nichole – She’s got a good voice. I probably would’ve let her through, but I do see what they’re saying. As a performance it wasn’t there.

7:54 Brandy – Or…maybe they haven’t saved the best for last. Dude, I can sing “Like a Virgin” better than that. THAT’S IT, IT’S THE FLOOR! Oh my goodness, it was so much better on the carpet! Simon’s cracking me up. “I don’t know anyone’s managed to sing on that floor.” Hee! Simon got caught by the door! That was awesome. This is totally the best audition ever.

7:58 Twenty through from Birmingham. And back to L.A. Isn’t Katharine the only high-finishing contestant from L.A.? Who’s that guest judge?

8:00 YAY HOUSE IS BACK. Oh, but that’s not this post, is it? Bye.

I came across this short film in a blog by an Anglo-Saxon scholar, the Unlocked Wordhoard. It’s a 6-minute adaptation of an Old English elegiac poem, “The Ruin,” done by some students at the University of Oxford. I hadn’t read the poem before (Old English and modern English text here), but it’s hauntingly beautiful. The film is done in Old English with modern English subtitles, and the language is beautiful too. Maybe someday I’ll learn it. But that day may be a ways away. Anyway. My favorite thing about the film is how it applies the poem’s description of a ruined Anglo-Saxon mead-hall to an early industrial-age cement factory…good literature resonates throughout the ages, doesn’t it?

I feel like writing something, for whatever reason, so I guess I’ll write about William Cowper, since I’m giving a presentation on him tomorrow. Of course, the time I spend writing about him here would probably be better spent working on my handout and stuff, but hey. I’ve got like seven hours tomorrow to do that.

William Cowper was a familiar name to me as the author of some of the hymns we sing in church: “God Moves in a Mysterious Way” and “Sometimes a Light Surprises” in particular. But in terms of a poet to be studied in a European Romanticism class, not as familiar. Over the last three days I’ve read two biographies, skimmed two books of criticism, and flipped through his poems, letters, and spiritual autobiography. (This is what we do in grad school, you see. Or this is what I do in grad school, meaning, wait until the last few days and then cram. So really, not much different than undergrad, just MORE OF IT.) And his life is one of the saddest things I’ve ever read.

He was a witty, intelligent young man, but always given to shyness and depression. The biographies try to psychoanalyze him, and it’s hard to avoid it, really…he seems to have been greatly affected by the death of his mother when he was six (and perhaps the fact that of the seven children born in his family, he was one of only two who survived infancy), and the patterns of his later bouts with severe depression and despair seem to indicate an inability to deal with the loss of loved ones, exhibiting itself in paranoia and fear of abandonment. The thing is, he mapped all of this into a religious model, wherein God had turned his back on William and abandoned him. He vascillated between thinking of himself as a fallen archangel, deserving God’s punishment and unworthy of His forgiveness, and as an innocent Job, tormented by Satan and not saved by God. In either case, he felt abandoned by God.

But what about all the hymns? During his stay in a mental hospital from 1763 to 1765, he was converted from Anglicanism to Evangelicalism, following a cousin enamoured of John Wesley’s preaching. In 1765, he felt that God had rescued him from depression, and redeemed him. He met John Newton and wrote a hymnbook with him. Everything was sailing along fairly well, except his religious zeal started to fade (his reserved personality couldn’t keep anything at the high level of intensity that his religiousity was in 1765), and his sense of losing a second mother figure increased (ironically because he nearly married the woman in question, who he saw as a mother figure, but was only about seven years older than himself), he again fell into paranoia and depression. This time, evangelicalism didn’t help–it had failed to keep him out of depression, and his depression showed (to him) that once again God had deserted him.

He had happy times after that…in fact, virtually all of his poetry was written between 1779 and 1790…but he never again felt that God could or would accept him and forgive him for all sorts of perceived sins, and he lived out his days at varying levels of despair and indifference, just waiting for what he perceived as his inevitable damnation. The letters from the last four years of his life are absolutely heartbreaking. And really, he never seems to have abandoned his belief in God’s existence or even in the doctrines of Calvinism. He was just convinced that in the predestination process, God had predestined him for destruction instead of salvation. And he had even read George Herbert, the 17th century poet for whom the doctrine of predestination was a glorious comfort. Reading about his life made me really get a new perspective on people who suffer from depression…how difficult it must be at times to continue believing in God’s love when the whole world seems against you.

Interestingly, I like his poetry more than a lot of poetry I’ve read (you’ll remember, I’m not a huge fan of poetry). Most of it isn’t depressing at all; a lot of it is delightfully comic and even the poems he wrote recalling his depression are beautiful. Certainly he was an important prefigure to the Romantic movement, in his love for nature and attention to everyday, common subjects, and his use of natural language. He’s said to have been one of the most popular English poets throughout the 19th century, though his reputation with critics has gone up and down. Yet again proof that I fall into the “popular” class of readers rather than the “critical” class. See, I am in the wrong business.

I have a presentation tomorrow. So I procrastinated yesterday by buying a fish…to replace the one that died like a year and a half ago back when I lived in St. Louis. Say hi to Theo!

He hasn’t eaten any of the food I’ve given him yet, though. It’s leftover from last year…maybe it’s stale and he’s smart enough to know not to eat it. Or he’s suicidal. Or possibly I’ve got suicide on the brain because I’ve been reading about William Cowper for the last three days straight.

Is that good? I don’t know much about Barth… Except I keep getting him confused in my head with Barthes, but Barthes is a literary critic (and French…and spells his name differently, though pronounced the same), so I’m pretty sure there’s no relation. (hat tip george for the quiz.)

Also, are my posts doubling up for everyone else? It looks like the various American Idol are showing up at least two or three times instead of just once, and I don’t know what’s causing it…they aren’t doubled up in the admin console. Grr. Seems to have started when I upgraded to WordPress 2.1; anyone else had any issues with this? edit: never mind. Upgrading some plugins fixed it.