'apocryphal': well known, but probably false
Many well known things can turn out to be apocryphal. It's not unusual at all. It could be as simple as a fraudulent advertising slogan (at least back in the past when people did believe advertising), or a story about a famous statesman's early life, or very commonly a historical point which never actually happened. The apocryphal quote is a classic example, it being a quote which the person or character involved never actually said. For example, these quotes are apocryphal:
"Beam me up, Scotty." -- Captain Kirk;
"Elementary, my dear Watson." -- Sherlock Holmes;
"Markets can stay wrong for longer than you can stay solvent." -- Adam Smith;
"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." -- Sigmund Freud.
Yes, the quotes are wrong, but they're still famous and mean something. So, does it matter if the quote is true or not? Well, it's good to know if they were actually said, but they still function as worthy aphorisms in any case. Oh, those aphorisms are what make the world go around.
The word 'apocryphal' is heavily linked to its original use, in defining the books that were declared 'wrong' and were excised from the Bible as 'The Apocrypha' as a result. Yes, there were bits cut out of that sacred tome, and then re-included in some rare ancient versions! Whatever we might feel about religion, the Bible is one of a small number of books to have been in print for more than a thousand years, and it was censored several times!
Even as a principled agnostic, it can not be denied that the Bible has definite historical importance and immense significance. Why do you think that 'library' is called `bibliotheque' in French? I would be amazed if library didn't have cognates in other languages. What an interesting thought. Would 'library' in Hebrew be based in the word 'Tanakh'?
Ah, it's good to think from time to time, especially after a few hard days. It's also rather nice to be able to break down a blog into something much nice by adapting a text from an English lesson...
O.
Thursday, 29 September 2016
Tuesday, 27 September 2016
Television: 'Quantum Leap: Catch A Falling Star' (Episode 2x10) (1989)
Sometimes 'Quantum Leap' falls too heavy, and sometimes too light, but its sweet spot is a fascinating one in that it falls somewhere in 'other' or 'not easily classified'. When it works, it just blows everything else out of the water. 'Catch A Falling Star' is one of my favourite episodes, and one of the earliest that I saw repeatedly. It's a departure from the heavy seriousness and solemnity of the preceding shows, without selling the show out to pantomime, and it's also a wonderful mini-adaptation of the stage musical 'Man of La Mancha' into the bargain.
The curious thing about the series, is that it only really lives when the problems to be solved are comparatively small and trivial. Yes, it's good to talk about social issues, but 'Quincy, ME' does that better, and without throwing leaden weights of drama into the experience. This time, in contrast, Sam leaps into an understudy, who must stop the headlining actor of an off Broadway (way off Broadway) production from falling down some steps and crippling himself, but really it's about dealing with the crush he had for his piano teacher when he was a kid. You see, she's the new understudy for 'Dulcinea'...
It's a great little episode, and indulgent with the stagecraft. We may not have really needed to see and hear so many excerpts from the production, but it really makes this one distinct. You get the feeling that the whole thing popped out of the production schedule as the one they all wanted to make. Also, in a rare moment of infatuation, I can be entranced all over again in empathy with our time travelling hero by his unrequited love. Donald P Bellisario, for all of his sometime sexism, absolutely knew how to cast his shows to the best effect, and this time we got Michele Pawk, the divine Dulcinea. Nowhere else is she to really be found easily on screen, but just for one episode you get to watch entranced and enraptured. Sometimes it's okay to do that, if the story is substantial enough, and its not obvious cheesecake. She was special in this episode... Sam's journey into maturity by finally rejecting his own scheme to not save the day, and therefore stay with her forever, is one of the great ones.
This is also one of the episodes where Dean Stockwell is used minimally but perfectly, as one of his greatest moments approaches in a later episode... Never again will that climb up the steps on the stage, at the end of this show, be forgotten, as he and Bakula chat to one another after his musical performance, and it finally climaxes in the grand blue flash of Leaping. Maybe it's just because I watched it early, but this is one of the great ones. Go, 'Quantum Leap', go! You're finally on a roll!
Coming soon: 'Future Boy'. Yes!
O.
Thursday, 22 September 2016
Off To The Smoke
The world isn't just a great big onion, but sometimes it might as well be. Wouldn't it be more interesting, or at least more teary? No, probably not. Please cancel the comment and erase it from the short-term memory banks. Sometimes a song title can be taken just too far, as any glance down the list of 80s pop songs and vintage country and Western songs would tell you.
Once again, this blog will hibernate over the weekend, as the writer vanished off to the Midlands to have one last nice weekend before the full onslaught of GCSE tuition becomes known. Yes, a few last days of relaxation await. There may or may not be a post on Saturday evening, depending on the activities planned. Be warned, Muffineers! Even the most prolific nonsense writers have to take a break from time to time!
Oh, the joy of a long journey by coach. It seems the nicest option of the ones available. There's something very satisfying about lounging in the most comfortable seats available to travellers and working through a long-neglected novel or writing project. It will be nice indeed. One of the other joys of existence at the moment is the great opportunity provided by making notes for English students. For example, today the proofreading text was about a bicycle wheel found floating through deep space. Why was it there? What was its story? Not all was answered by a short extract, but these things can always return as the kernels of larger endeavours.
It has been a rough week, with multiple new students and several sleepless nights, and now the time is right for some rigorous sleeping. Sleeping is an addictive past-time. Perhaps it should only be indulged by prescription? This is really the worst kind of gibberish, isn't it? It's good to be a tutor in the weeks when everyone learns; one of the best ways to get through life. If it weren't so tiring and evening-based.
The Quirky Muffin now rests, probably for a long holiday weekend.
O.
Once again, this blog will hibernate over the weekend, as the writer vanished off to the Midlands to have one last nice weekend before the full onslaught of GCSE tuition becomes known. Yes, a few last days of relaxation await. There may or may not be a post on Saturday evening, depending on the activities planned. Be warned, Muffineers! Even the most prolific nonsense writers have to take a break from time to time!
Oh, the joy of a long journey by coach. It seems the nicest option of the ones available. There's something very satisfying about lounging in the most comfortable seats available to travellers and working through a long-neglected novel or writing project. It will be nice indeed. One of the other joys of existence at the moment is the great opportunity provided by making notes for English students. For example, today the proofreading text was about a bicycle wheel found floating through deep space. Why was it there? What was its story? Not all was answered by a short extract, but these things can always return as the kernels of larger endeavours.
It has been a rough week, with multiple new students and several sleepless nights, and now the time is right for some rigorous sleeping. Sleeping is an addictive past-time. Perhaps it should only be indulged by prescription? This is really the worst kind of gibberish, isn't it? It's good to be a tutor in the weeks when everyone learns; one of the best ways to get through life. If it weren't so tiring and evening-based.
The Quirky Muffin now rests, probably for a long holiday weekend.
O.
Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Movie: 'Metropolis' (1927)
This is a difficult one. 'Metropolis' is a legendary movie, and one which for most of the last eighty-nine years had thirty minutes lost from its total of one hundred and fifty, and is only now mostly restored from a damaged print found in South America. Watched in its proper historical context, it is an amazing achievement, and a grand epic that is the peak of Fritz Lang's silent movie career, even if it does take a while to get going. It's much better that 'Dr Mabuse, the Gambler', Lang's other epic (indulgently and ridiculously epic, in fact) of the time, and has some magnificent model work and production values. Watched out of context, the modern viewer might get bored, but you shouldn't watch old movies if you can't get into the setting.
I'm being serious. Get into context! You can't watch this, or 'Dr Mabuse', if you can't get yourself into an era where everything you see is being done for the first time. Everything. There may not have even been a dystopian future story before this one. There was 'The Lost World', though, the great dinosaur epic of 1925. Would that have made it to Fritz Lang's Germany of the 1920s?
Should this be a review or a critique? Or both? The story is comparatively simple. In a futuristic city, a metropolis, the decadent rich are living freely and luxuriously in the outer world, while the downtrodden workers are living underground in the Workers' City. The son of the city's genius architect falls in love with the workers' prophet or seer, and becomes aware of the horrors of the underworld existence, but his mission to reconcile the brain and the brawn of the city is complicated by a mad inventor and his brilliant robotic woman, in collusion with the architect. Got it? Can you answer questions posed at speed?
That robotic woman is the image forever associated with the film, but she actually doesn't feature very heavily in that form, but rather in her disguised form as the seer's evil double. The image wins out, though, and has done for almost ninety years. Even if the rest of the movie were terrible, then that imagery and the crazed performances of Rudolf Klein-Rogge (Dr Mabuse himself!) as Rotwang the lunatic inventor, and Brigitte Helm as the seer and robotic double, would make it a worthwhile watch. The only significant problem with the movie is structural: Each act is patterned after a piece of music, escalating in action and energy with each change, leaving the beginning of the film a little flat. However, as a counterbalance, the finale is frenetic!
'Metropolis' was definitely worth seeing. It was scary in prospect, but much better once it was de-mystified and simply a movie on the television. Are there any more silent era classics to check out? Only time will tell. Now, if only you could believe that that architect was worth saving and reuniting with the workers. He was rather a cad and a fiend...
O.
I'm being serious. Get into context! You can't watch this, or 'Dr Mabuse', if you can't get yourself into an era where everything you see is being done for the first time. Everything. There may not have even been a dystopian future story before this one. There was 'The Lost World', though, the great dinosaur epic of 1925. Would that have made it to Fritz Lang's Germany of the 1920s?
Should this be a review or a critique? Or both? The story is comparatively simple. In a futuristic city, a metropolis, the decadent rich are living freely and luxuriously in the outer world, while the downtrodden workers are living underground in the Workers' City. The son of the city's genius architect falls in love with the workers' prophet or seer, and becomes aware of the horrors of the underworld existence, but his mission to reconcile the brain and the brawn of the city is complicated by a mad inventor and his brilliant robotic woman, in collusion with the architect. Got it? Can you answer questions posed at speed?
That robotic woman is the image forever associated with the film, but she actually doesn't feature very heavily in that form, but rather in her disguised form as the seer's evil double. The image wins out, though, and has done for almost ninety years. Even if the rest of the movie were terrible, then that imagery and the crazed performances of Rudolf Klein-Rogge (Dr Mabuse himself!) as Rotwang the lunatic inventor, and Brigitte Helm as the seer and robotic double, would make it a worthwhile watch. The only significant problem with the movie is structural: Each act is patterned after a piece of music, escalating in action and energy with each change, leaving the beginning of the film a little flat. However, as a counterbalance, the finale is frenetic!
'Metropolis' was definitely worth seeing. It was scary in prospect, but much better once it was de-mystified and simply a movie on the television. Are there any more silent era classics to check out? Only time will tell. Now, if only you could believe that that architect was worth saving and reuniting with the workers. He was rather a cad and a fiend...
O.
Sunday, 18 September 2016
Salutations
Greetings, felicitations, and welcome to what is sure to be another astounding ode to insubstantiality here at the Quirky Muffin! After a weekend of unusual relaxation, including both 'Superman: The Movie' and Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis', nothing can truly harm the tranquility of this blog. Ha ha ha! We're immune, I say, immune!
<cackles madly>
Ahem. Apologies to the notional readers of the Quirky Muffin. Normal service will now be resumed. That 'Metropolis' surely was a strange film, but I think it was good. I think so. It was so long that it almost defeated itself, but it was definitely a sterling example of silent film, and much better than 'Dr Mabuse: The Gambler', which wins the prize for self-indulgent lengthiness.
Good grief, I've not written about 'Superman: The Movie' yet! The Donner cut of 'Superman II'? Yes. 'Supergirl'? Check. 'Superman Returns'? Yes-aroo. That only leaves the movie that kicked it all off. Well, that can be a cover post for next weekend's travelling. Another trip to Nottingham, and one which is the final rest before the double ordeal of an Open University course and the new GCSE season. It's going to be an interesting time, and one with many pressures, but also with lots of new experiences! If nothing else, I'll become so familiar with GCSE content that my DNA will rewrite into circle theorems and conversion graphs.
Meanwhile, pre-preparation for the upcoming degree continues at a snail's pace, as it will until the beginning of October! What are the opening modules? 'Exploring Languages And Cultures' and 'Bon Depart: Beginner French'. It will be a rough ride, but certainly easier than a PhD! Perhaps it will even help rebuild the mental stamina needed for the rest of this writer's life? Meanwhile, 'Wordspace: Phase II' will continue, as will all the other stories. They really need to be focussed on more, if anything is to get publishable.
Could one of these stories really end up publishable? How much would need to be added? Are there any candidates other than 'Wordspace'? All these questions and more will be almost certainly remain unanswered in the coming weeks...
O.
<cackles madly>
Ahem. Apologies to the notional readers of the Quirky Muffin. Normal service will now be resumed. That 'Metropolis' surely was a strange film, but I think it was good. I think so. It was so long that it almost defeated itself, but it was definitely a sterling example of silent film, and much better than 'Dr Mabuse: The Gambler', which wins the prize for self-indulgent lengthiness.
Good grief, I've not written about 'Superman: The Movie' yet! The Donner cut of 'Superman II'? Yes. 'Supergirl'? Check. 'Superman Returns'? Yes-aroo. That only leaves the movie that kicked it all off. Well, that can be a cover post for next weekend's travelling. Another trip to Nottingham, and one which is the final rest before the double ordeal of an Open University course and the new GCSE season. It's going to be an interesting time, and one with many pressures, but also with lots of new experiences! If nothing else, I'll become so familiar with GCSE content that my DNA will rewrite into circle theorems and conversion graphs.
Meanwhile, pre-preparation for the upcoming degree continues at a snail's pace, as it will until the beginning of October! What are the opening modules? 'Exploring Languages And Cultures' and 'Bon Depart: Beginner French'. It will be a rough ride, but certainly easier than a PhD! Perhaps it will even help rebuild the mental stamina needed for the rest of this writer's life? Meanwhile, 'Wordspace: Phase II' will continue, as will all the other stories. They really need to be focussed on more, if anything is to get publishable.
Could one of these stories really end up publishable? How much would need to be added? Are there any candidates other than 'Wordspace'? All these questions and more will be almost certainly remain unanswered in the coming weeks...
O.
Friday, 16 September 2016
Television: 'A Very British Coup' (1988)
It's downright unsettling. I can't write about the Chris Mullins novel that forms this basis of this Channel 4 mini-series, as I haven't read it, but the lengths to which private interests go to maintain the status quo in this story about a socialist prime minister coming into power is deeply unsettling. It's true that the new government in question is a little blunt and extreme in its methods, but you can't help but wonder just what it would take for a government to be allowed to change anything in the modern world. Is it possible at all?
It's difficult to write about politics when you're fundamentally neutral in a right-wing country, so let's talk about the show itself. It was adapted from the source novel by the magnificent Alan Plater, which is a ringing endorsement in itself, and has one of the most solid casts you could assemble from the British acting corps of the time. Ray McAnally necessarily stands out as Prime Minister Harry Perkins, as does Keith Allen as his press secretary Thompson, but the batting runs very deeply indeed.
The tone is bleak, with hints of dark humour, and no punches are pulled in what hard tactics would need to be employed for a left-wing government to get anything at all done while facing the official opposition, as well as the unofficial, in the form of hostile press barons, the civil service, the secret service, the United States of America, and practically anyone else who thinks they might lose from a new system in Britain. As Perkins progresses in attempts to do the things on the mandated manifesto, it goes from bad to worse. Assassinations begin to happen, conspiracies unwind in the darkness, and finally the most perfidious kinds of blackmail unfurl against the backdrop of an implied military coup.
The television adaptation is pumped up a little in emphasis by the insistence on closing US bases in Britain, and on nuclear disarmament, both of which strengthen American paranoia within the plot. The underlying question, which is not necessarily a partisan one, is who rules the country? Is it the elected government, or the unelected one?
Deeply unsettling, and now prescient. What would happen if today's Labour party got into power? Would they be allowed to do anything at all?
O.
It's difficult to write about politics when you're fundamentally neutral in a right-wing country, so let's talk about the show itself. It was adapted from the source novel by the magnificent Alan Plater, which is a ringing endorsement in itself, and has one of the most solid casts you could assemble from the British acting corps of the time. Ray McAnally necessarily stands out as Prime Minister Harry Perkins, as does Keith Allen as his press secretary Thompson, but the batting runs very deeply indeed.
The tone is bleak, with hints of dark humour, and no punches are pulled in what hard tactics would need to be employed for a left-wing government to get anything at all done while facing the official opposition, as well as the unofficial, in the form of hostile press barons, the civil service, the secret service, the United States of America, and practically anyone else who thinks they might lose from a new system in Britain. As Perkins progresses in attempts to do the things on the mandated manifesto, it goes from bad to worse. Assassinations begin to happen, conspiracies unwind in the darkness, and finally the most perfidious kinds of blackmail unfurl against the backdrop of an implied military coup.
The television adaptation is pumped up a little in emphasis by the insistence on closing US bases in Britain, and on nuclear disarmament, both of which strengthen American paranoia within the plot. The underlying question, which is not necessarily a partisan one, is who rules the country? Is it the elected government, or the unelected one?
Deeply unsettling, and now prescient. What would happen if today's Labour party got into power? Would they be allowed to do anything at all?
O.
The Heat Is On
The pressure is on, as the first of the endless round of GCSEs looms on the temporal horizon. It's not the nicest of propositions for the students of today, is it? From my contacts, it seems that year eleven has been pretty much abolished due to the pressure on the schools to do well, maybe even moreso than the pressure on the students. Instead, they have a long string of exam revision sessions in a bid to beat other schools on the league tables. We live in a strange world where schools compete with each other instead of cooperating, as do hospitals and various other public services. If that doesn't make sense to you either, then congratulations. It's most likely the Bizarro Universe! Please check the person next to you for a little stone label on a chain. As a private tutor, my list will double for a month, and then subside as the exams go away for a few months.
However, let's not be too serious. Far more important things are going on! For one thing, I missed a Quirky Muffin yesterday, which is a crime punishable by withholding of cocoa powder and exile in Scandinavia without smorgasboard privileges. Yes, it is THAT BAD. Indeed, the last person to miss a post here, Sven Morgansbeard, hasn't been seen since the mid Nineties. Ah, Sven, you had such a varied selection of rutabaga recipes. What is a rutabaga anyway? Isn't it a hybrid of some kind? All I know is from references to the foundation of the Kingdom of Sendaria in the Belgariad.
<some minimal research ensues>
Right, a rutabaga is a natural cross between a cabbage and a turnip, that was first written about in 1620. Apparently the crossing resulted in a doubly dense chromosomal nature, and a shift in the plant's classification as a result. I've not knowingly ever seen a rutabaga, except... It's also known as a swede! Now it all makes sense. You weren't expecting the next Quirky Muffin to be late, and a mix of examination and swede talk were you, hallucinatory readers of this blog? Oh, the accursed swede! That endless supply of mush! No wonder Morgansbeard was sent away, that swede-loving fiend!
It will be a rough few weeks, which might play havoc with the blog as it currently stands. Principal writing will shift to the daytime as eight evening students take their toll. It's not easy for a diurnal person to do that much evening work, but people need to be helped, so helped they shall be! Whether they like it or not. Mwahahahaha. Short term exam preparation is the worst kind of tutoring, but almost always necessary somewhere.
With that, it is time to tap the last strokes of this post, and move on to the next. One penalty of dereliction of duty is double posting...
O.
However, let's not be too serious. Far more important things are going on! For one thing, I missed a Quirky Muffin yesterday, which is a crime punishable by withholding of cocoa powder and exile in Scandinavia without smorgasboard privileges. Yes, it is THAT BAD. Indeed, the last person to miss a post here, Sven Morgansbeard, hasn't been seen since the mid Nineties. Ah, Sven, you had such a varied selection of rutabaga recipes. What is a rutabaga anyway? Isn't it a hybrid of some kind? All I know is from references to the foundation of the Kingdom of Sendaria in the Belgariad.
<some minimal research ensues>
Right, a rutabaga is a natural cross between a cabbage and a turnip, that was first written about in 1620. Apparently the crossing resulted in a doubly dense chromosomal nature, and a shift in the plant's classification as a result. I've not knowingly ever seen a rutabaga, except... It's also known as a swede! Now it all makes sense. You weren't expecting the next Quirky Muffin to be late, and a mix of examination and swede talk were you, hallucinatory readers of this blog? Oh, the accursed swede! That endless supply of mush! No wonder Morgansbeard was sent away, that swede-loving fiend!
It will be a rough few weeks, which might play havoc with the blog as it currently stands. Principal writing will shift to the daytime as eight evening students take their toll. It's not easy for a diurnal person to do that much evening work, but people need to be helped, so helped they shall be! Whether they like it or not. Mwahahahaha. Short term exam preparation is the worst kind of tutoring, but almost always necessary somewhere.
With that, it is time to tap the last strokes of this post, and move on to the next. One penalty of dereliction of duty is double posting...
O.
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