M&M: Prestige

Dear reader,

today I want to introduce you to a movie with magicians and about magic. No, of course not Harry Potter! Probably everyone knows that magician already, even those among you, who didn't read the books or watched the movies know enough for me not to write about him in my blog.

The movie “Prestige” is from 2006 with Christian Bale as Alfred Borden and Hugh Jackman as Robert Angier. Borden and Angier work together at first. Although Borden is the younger magician and more a helper or stooge playing an audience member. One day an escapology act goes terribly wrong though and Angier's wife, who is bound underwater in a watertank dies. Since Borden as an audience member tied the important knot, Angier makes him responsible for the death of his wife. Needless to say that they go their separate ways after that. Although not quite, because both spend a lot of time to bust the other and being the better, if not the best magician.

Both develop a number: they go into one cabinet and seconds later, the step out from a second cabinet. That's the main principle of the big number they both have. Is Borden using a double? But Angier, in one of his bustings hurts Borden that he actually lost fingers on one hand and Borden stepping into the cabinet as well as the one stepping out are missing those fingers. Angier on the other hand (no pun intended) is travelling from great britain to america to meet the physicist Nikola Tesla (David Bowie). Tesla really existed and was famous for unusual inventions. To this day it's not known how some of his inventions he presented actually worked. In “Prestige” we see that he hands Angier a light-bulb which then lights up in his hand like that. But are feats and inventions like that enough to give Angier a second man?

Angier wants to destroy Borden desperately and definitely. That means that he has to set him up. During a performance Borden gets to enter the backstage area and sees Angier seemingly trapped in the watertank. The top lid can't be opened anymore. Angier drowns. This leads to a trial. Borden, meanwhile with a wife and a daughter, faces a possible death sentence. His life up to that point is the main part of the movie. In prison, waiting for his execution, Borden gets a visitor. Only when that man tells Borden that he'll take care of his daughter from now on and is about to leave, does Borden recognise that man. It's Angier! So Borden is no murderer!

At the end both magicians paid a high price for their big number and they know the secret of the other ones trick and what that trick has cost him.

For me “Prestige” is something special, because I'm interested in magic and do a bit of magic myself. I guarantee you that almost all tricks are real and possible, the way they are presented. The tricks are actually learnt and performed in front of the camera by the actors, quite unlike “The Illusionist”. “The Illusionist” is very disappointing in that regard, because many things would be real, but were quite visibly, at least for me, done with “film tricks”. “Prestige” is as real in the magic it shows as it can be with a movie like that.

My top favourite scene of all in the movie is when Borden is in prison and gives the warden a wipe. He does that with a combination of two main principles. He shows the warden a ball and throws him in the air. Once. That's supposed to be a magic trick? A second time. Okay, we get it now. On the third throw we look up and often the magician doesn't throw the ball really at that time. The human eye is used to the routine of the ball in the air, it looks like the ball vanishes in thin air. The second principle is to seemingly let the trick go wrong. The magician looks like an idiot. When Borden throws the ball a third time, he doesn't catch it and the ball drops off the table. The great magician is in prison for murder and can't even escape like Houdini, and then he can't even catch a ball properly.The warden likes that, of course, up until...

A couple of magic notes and anecdotes for those interested:
- Teslar isn't the only real person in "Prestige". In a performance Borden sees a chinese, Chung Ling Soo, who deceived the world (including Harry Houdini!) In reality he was an american by the name of William Ellsworth Robinson. But the first and only english words he ever spoke on stage would be shortly before his death, "My God, I've been shot."
- He was shot performing the so called "Bullet Catch", a classic magic trick, which Borden will perform in the movie, too. Robinson is one of the 11 magicians, who didn't take enough precautions, which cost them their lives.
- Other classic magic tricks performed in the movie are: the water tank (made famous by Harry Houdini especially), the "chinese linking rings", coin magic, the bullet catch. I don't know what the trick is called, but Angier tries to do one once where different objects are revealed from the long coat of the magician, usually ending with the revelation of a huge bowl filled with water and a gold fish in it.

I admit I haven't seen the movie in a long time. So I can't think of any more notes and anecdotes just now. Probably I missed some. If I should think of more, I'll add them here later. Anyway, the movie is a real pleasure for me to watch as someone interested in magic and sort of performer in magic myself, I love it for the relation to reality and because almost all of the tricks can be done that way, as you see them.

Also I like the soundtrack by David Julyan a lot.

The movie was made on the basis of the book by Christopher Priest with the same title. Like so often the case, the book is different from the movie. Angier and Boden never worked together. Angier's wife never died, but was pregnant and lost her baby because of Borden. The book is separated in different parts as diary entries which one reads and the rivalry goes on for several generations. The history of magic is more fleshed out. The background story of what life was like for the two magicians before they were on stage performing can be read. The book is different. Film and book are just two different media with their individual ways of story telling and creating suspense.

Until next blog,
sarah

Two in one

Dear reader,

the dandelions were blooming in the garden so vast that I only needed about a quarter of the flowers for the receipt doubled of the dandelion marmalade, which I made in april. But then came the gardener and mowed the lawn and then the dandelion blooming period was over. It seems like I won't be able to make any more dandelion marmalade this year. Not many people know that dandelion isn't weed, but can be used. The flowers can also be used for tea. I would like to taste dandelion tea. My first one definitely brewed for too long and was bitter tasting. Now I don't have the flowers. At least the leaves are still growing and I can use them for my guinea pigs.

In China the government permitted that the sparrows be shot. They eat up the crops for the people there. With the sparrows gone, the crops are infested by bugs. So pesticides are used to kill them off. The pesticides however don't just kill the bugs, they also kill the bees. As a result of that people have to pollinate the plants in China. Anyone care to guess who's better pollinating plants: bees or people?

So many could be used with a little bit more information and knowledge. Instead everything that's not wanted is destroyed. But, hey, maybe Mars will be habitable in a couple of decades! Since the Earth is not nice enough anymore, maybe we could move there instead. Wouldn't that be nice?

Until next blog,
sarah

Two and a half cultures

Dear reader,

there are two big human cultures. One is that of the indigenous people, especially earlier often called "primitive" or "wild". They lived and live ever since they can remember basically the same way without huge changes and above all they live in accordance with the part of the world that's around them. The others call themselves civilised, spread throughout the whole planet and destroy not only the planet. Their lifestyle is so demanding that many of them are sick and probably destroy themselves that way, too. Many are so desperate that in fact they kill themselves. Mind you, not every death can be traced back to that unusual lifestyle.

In his book „Ishmael“ Daniel Quinn uses a different pair of words for those two cultures. Even though he describes one culture as destructive, he still wants to move away from the generally loaded with prejudices words of civiliced and primitive or even wild. Based on the saying „take it or leave it“, he chose “Takers” for the civilised and “Leavers” for the indigenous people. One can argue about whether or not it makes much sense to use a new pair of words. Like so many other things that are simply renamed because of the bad image. Daniel Quinn himself has since gone back to writing about civilised and indigenous people. His books, not just Ishmael, are quite well known. Maybe he moved away from his pair again, because in the end it doesn't matter what you call those two cultures.

I want to call your attention to one other aspect regardless of that. Daniel Quinn stresses the point that there is no one right way to live for humanity. Although the civilised spread out and with that also spread the very thought of just that. Namely that their lifestyle is the right way and desirable for all people. On the other hand it's obvious that the lifestyle of the indigenous people is by far calmer and less demanding for the immediate environment of the people living that lifestyle. If the civilised are so destructive with their lifestyle, wouldn't it be better to destroy this culture and lifestyle. Particularly since the destruction of the Earth by man will stop with that, too. (Whether with the climate change will stop, too and the Earth will be more “stable” all together, is another doubtful subject.) I assume that indigenous people would most certainly rather fight to defend themselves, but not to actually attack the civilised. They are, as history has shown, far more powerful anyway. A dismantling of the civilisation to save the Earth would more likely happen from within. By people, who are unhappy with that lifestyle and want to put it to an end. But if civilisation is most likely to be dismantled by civilised people, would those fighters not in the end fight themselves? Maybe they'd be something in between those two cultures. Half a culture?

Besides, what if civilisation with all its flaws is just a intermediate stage for humanity to the next stage? Much like a toddler clumsily learning how to walk, very uncertain at first, before they actually walk and run like the grown-ups. How would we know whether civilisation is more like a virus that should better be destroyed to protect all the others or whether it's a clumsy intermediate stage towards something far better?

In any case: more and more young native americans show more interest in their own culture again and overall there is a greater interest in self supplying, how to make fire and other related subjects. I don't know how much those things will actually be useful in the end. At least the knowledge about those kind of things doesn't get lost with interested people like that. Does that really help the Earth in some way? Could the civilised, who showed interest in such things so far actually live like that when civilisation is broken down? No idea. Maybe time will tell when it actually happens.

Until next blog,
sara

A vent (gut) post

Dear reader,

my blog is called "ventquest", because at the time of starting it, I was interested in ventriloquism, the gut in a broad sense. Not really on a quest as such though. It was more the fact that "quest" seemed close and funny enough to "quist" from "ventriloquist". Anyway, some days back I spent my evening... no, not in front of the telly, but on Youtube. One video followed another until finally I found one with the german title "Help with autism". I expected the "usual" autism being a "defect" in the brain, genetic, starting with healthy normal kids which then between 1 and 3 years getting "strange". Some are lucky and learn to communicate, others are fully dependent on others to care for them and can't speak.

Wrong for this movie. Partly anyways. This film tells the story of Adar Hassan with their sons, who came from somalia to america. Two of her sons are autistic. It started for one of them after he was treated with antibiotics for respiratory problems. She adopted the american ways of eating at first. But she found that when she cooked fresh food like she used to in somalia, her sons autistic expressions were less severe. Many immigrants found similar developments with their children.

But Ellen Bolte's son suddenly became autistic, too. She too lives in america. Her son was treated with antibiotics after an ear infection. Much like Adar Hassan's son, Ellen Bolte's son started with autistic behaviour after that. Ellen Bolte then started being interested in gut bacteria and found out some pretty interesting things. See for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGH1UD7uIQ4 (about 52 minutes running time) (Sorry for the subtitles, couldn't find any other version)

I wonder if disorders like ADD/ADHD may have similar causes. At least I see the treatment of that with tablets for "quieting" as worrying.

Giulia Enders studied medicine and is rather famous here in germany for her science slam about the gut. Very funny and entertaining. Sadly it's only in german. She also, rather unsurprisingly, published a book about that. That too is only in german. I do have another english clip for you though, which is a bit of a treat for you, because it only exists in english. Dr. Nancy O'Hara talking underlining the connection of the gut and autism in her presentation

Autism & ADHD: Healing From The Inside Out (about 21 minutes)

Until next blog
sarah

M&M: Instinct

Dear reader,

the movie “Instinct” was released in 1998 and is based on the idea of the novel “Ishmael” by Daniel Quinn. They truly don't have much in common than the idea really. Those who know the book, will certainly be disappointed about how much of it can be found in that movie, which is precious little. I still think it's good to know both - the book and the movie. Here's the story of the movie:

Dr. Ethan Powell is a famous anthropologist. Before he got missing in the African jungle for several years, he was studying gorillas. When they find him, he hurts some and also kills one of the men. He's send in jail in Rwanda. He doesn't speak a word to anybody. They get him back to America, where the young, engaged psychiatrist Dr. Theo Caulder feels he'd get more popular if he can get Powell speak again.

But when Powell starts talking to Caulder, something strange happens: everybody thought that Powell was the patient and Caulder the doctor, but when Powell begins to talk, he becomes a teacher, a guide to Caulder, who now is a kind of student. Powell doesn't only guide to the last two years in the jungle, but also gives him a different way of seeing the world and shows him that what we think is the truth, may not be quite right. In the end Caulder didn't only lost a couple of things, but - and even more important - found interesting ones also.

Director was John Turteltaub, maybe best known for his movie "While you were sleeping". Dr. Ethan Powell is played by Sir Anthony Hopkins, who's most famous role was as Dr. Hannibal Lecter. He got his first Oscar for his Dr. Hannibal Lecter in "The silence of the lambs". Dr. Theo Caulder was played by Cuba Gooding, jr, who also got an Oscar (supporting act), for his play in "Jerry Maguire". Composer of the score was Danny Elfman, who also did the film score for movies like "Spider man" or "Men In Black".

On his homepage Daniel Quinn answers questions from interested people and fans. Here is his answer regarding his reaction to “Instinct”:

http://www.ishmael.org/Interaction/QandA/Detail.CFM?Record=420

Here you can read his thoughts on common elements between “Instinct“ and “Ishmael“:

http://www.ishmael.org/Interaction/QandA/Detail.CFM?Record=433

Until next blog,
sarah

  

Memes

Dear reader,

in his book “The Egoistic Gene“ evolution biologist Richard Dawkins describes that genes aren't the only particles, which a person can pass on to another person. Genes are only particles on a biological level of a human. Culture can be passed on as well. Songs, stories, dances, traditions, ideas and much more is passed on in one culture. Unlike genes, culture particles can not only be passed on from older people to youngsters and don't necessarily stay in just one family. A song for example can also be passed on from a student to a teacher and a boy can tell his girlfriend a joke. Of course parents also pass on loads of things to their kids as well. With books and especially the internet ideas and thoughts can go anywhere. But not every song, joke, story, traditions or ideas are a culture particle as such. Two things are important:

1. A person has to remember something.
2. What is remembered by that person must be passed on to another person.

Only then this culture particle is interesting for scientists. Only then this particle that was remembered and passed on is truly a culture particle. Dawkins thought about how he could name this culture particle, in order to not call it for example culture particle all the time. He wanted a shot word, much like “gene” effectively is a short word for a biology particle.To remember something is the key: memory. Culture is something active, to mime something. So that's how Dawkins came up with “meme” for the culture particles. Somewhat resembling the spelling of “genes”.

The author Daniel Quinn follows that idea of memes and writes in his book “Beyond Civilization” that memes aren't all positive. There are deadly memes, too. Much like some combination of genes can lead to a shorter life of a creature. As an example he mentions the “Heaven's Gate” cult, which was based on the idea that suicide would get its members into heaven. Sad for the people killing themselves, but this deadly idea is only limited to the members of the cult. According to Daniel Quinn civilisation is based on two main ideas:

1. that the way of living of its members is the only one right way for all humans of the whole world to live
2. that food has to be under lock and key and only be given to those who work.

This way of life is unknown in the animal world and also unknown in any other society among humans, other than those calling themselves civilised. We can see the result of these two ideas combined on a daily basis. More on Daniel Quinn's ideas in following blog entries.

To those of you, who are interested in memes, you might want to check out “The Meme Machine” by Susan Blackmore. In this book she describes different aspects of memes, their relevance and how they are passed on.

Until next blog,
sarah

Only a Job

Dear reader,

I write the following as a film fan and yet in the belief that it is true. It's true that actors, as much as we like them or their role or the film: for them it's only a job. I have read from several actors that they have been approached by fans on the street saying keywords, which to fans are quite significant to a role they once played. At that moment it doesn't occur to us fans that the actors only learn their lines, film it and then walk on to the next role, the next lines. In fact there are a few actors who out of principle don't watch any films they're in. They haven't seen the film for the umpteenth time like we have. Someone once said that some fans know some of his lines better than the actor who said it did.

From several interviews with Benedict Cumberbatch I know that the role of Sherlock Holmes is a lot of fun to play for him. Especially learning the deductions and talking that fast when he speaks them. One wrong word or one wrong intonation and the whole deduction is messed up. And yet it's only a job. Benedict Cumberbatch is not Sherlock Holmes. Benedict Cumberbatch is Benedict Cumberbatch.

Some years back I read that Robbie Coltrane, who played Hagrid in the Harry Potter films, said in an interview words to the effect of: when the money is right, he'd play anything. The Hagrid actor would play anything for the right money?! And he's the one playing one of Harry Potter's best friends?! What a stupid actor for such a role! And yet it's only a job. Robbie Coltrane is not Hagrid. Robbie Coltrane is Robbie Coltrane.

In the film “State of Grace” Gary Oldman plays the younger brother of Ed Harris. Like probably many other Gary Oldman fans I rued the scene in which Ed Harris shot Gary Oldman to death in that film. Gary Oldman's character was somehow very likeable and didn't deserve dying that way. I needed a few weeks to calm down and not being angry with Ed Harris. Yes, I was angry with Ed Harris. I respect him as an actor and thought it stupid that he'd play such a role in which he'd kill another actor I like. But he only played a role and most of all only went with what the script said. I didn't think of being angry with the script writer. No. Instead I refused to watch any film with Ed Harris in it for weeks. And yet it's only a job. Ed Harris is not Frankie Flannery. Ed Harris is Ed Harris.

Matt Smith. The Eleventh Doctor. My Doctor. David Tennant was the one that got me started watching “Doctor Who” and later, even though it was totally out of order I also watched Christopher Eccleston and certainly some day I'll watch the earlier ones, too. But Matt Smith somehow is my Doctor anyway. He's only one year older than I am. The first actor I like, who's close to my age. From his point of view as an actor I absolutely understand that he wanted to leave. Especially “Doctor Who” is about change. Playing the Doctor requires much time for just this series and not much time for anything else. I'll have much fun watching him in new films. But last Christmas I couldn't help but repeatedly think that the Doctor will regenerate now. It helped me a bit that Matt Smith himself finished filming the last episode months ago already. For him it was over for some time already. Also the Doctor regenerates to a good actor who I like a lot! And yet: as much as I like Peter Capaldi, he's yet another actor, who is very much older than I am. He could be my father! He absolutely fits for the role. After Matt Smith, the youngest Doctor of all, it's the right decision to have a considerably older actor taking over. Especially since Peter Capaldi is a big fan himself. All of that is only fair comfort for the fact that my Doctor is gone now. And yet it's only a job. Matt Smith is not the Doctor. Matt Smith is Matt Smith.

Christopher Eccleston only had one season of playing the Doctor. He didn't want to be stereo-typed and only be seen as the Doctor with roles similar to that of the Doctor. I hardly know him and can't say how great that “danger” really was. I liked what I've seen from him as the Doctor and in other films, too. When David Tennant got offered the role of the Doctor, he thought a long time whether he should accept it or not. He was and still is a big “Doctor Who” fan, but what if fans didn't like him? Or what if he would only be seen as “the Doctor”? And yet it's only a job. Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant are not the Doctor. Christopher Eccleston is Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant is David Tennant.

Until next blog,

sarah