I had a vision of what we all were fighting for ...

Set during WWI.

I climbed through great beechwoods, which seemed in the twilight like some green place far below the sea, and then over a short stretch of hill pasture to the rim of the vole. All about me were the little fields enclosed with walls of grey stone and full of dim sheep. Below were dusky woods around what I took to be Fosse Manor, for the great Roman Fosse Way, straight as an arrow, passed over the hills to the south and skirted its grounds. I could see the stream slipping among its water-meadows and could hear the plash of the weir. A tiny village nestled in the crook of the hill, and its church tower sounded seven with a curiously sweet chime. Otherwise there was no noise but the twitter of small birds and the night wind in the tops of the beeches.

In that moment I had a kind of revelation. I had a vision of what I had been fighting for, what we all were fighting for. It was peace, deep and holy and ancient, peace older than the oldest wars, peace which would endure when all our swords were hammered into ploughshares.

John Buchan, Mr. Standfast

Hawaiian Moon

Hawaiian Moon, taken by my brother

Events may be horrible ...

Events may be horrible or inescapable. Men have always a choice—if not whether, then how, they may endure.

Lois McMaster Bujold, Curse of Chalion

Pecos Rodeo, 1936

Pecos Rodeo in Pecos, Texas, 1936
Fort Worth Star Telegram photo from UT-Arlington Special Collections
via Traces of Texas

From my quote journal: The Hardest Fight

Who has a harder fight than he who is striving to overcome himself?

Thomas a Kempis

Snow Fields

Rockwell Kent, Snow Fields (In the Berkshires), 1909
via Arts Everyday Living

Dead women can act very much alive.

"Dead women can act very much alive sometimes," Mom said. "My nephew Jonathan is still a bachelor, because his mother doesn't approve of modern girls — and his mother's been dead for eighteen years."

James Yaffe; My Mother, the Detective

That is really typical of the down-to-earth wisdom this Jewish mother shows in these stories when she's listening to her police detective son when he comes over on Friday nights for dinner. I loved this set of stories. This tidbit really grabbed me because it is so very true. My grandparents are still very much alive in that way. I weigh a lot of my behavior and manners against the way they lived their lives.

Mistinguett

Mistinguett (c.1913). G. K. (Georges Kugelmann) Benda
via Books and Art

Raid — Sometimes the Hero is a Taxman

The taxman cometh. And he is a righteous man. Which we already knew because he's Ajay Devgn. Hide all your undeclared gold. Because his supreme honesty will not stop until he uncovers all the taxes due to Mother India.

An honest IRS officer and his team raid a powerful politician suspected of evading taxation on an epic scale. This gripping story is based on actual events during 1981.

It's hard to image a tax raid being riveting but this had plenty of tension and one mystery which had us wondering right up to the end. Devgn is intense yet charming as the tax inspector who has been transferred 49 times in his career because he won't bow down to pressure. I also really liked Saurabh Shukla playing the politician on the take. His charisma made him the villain you loved even while despising his actions.

One thing about this sort of movie is that, even if not strictly adhering to facts, it gives me insight into India's history and culture which I'd not normally have.

Only four songs and no dances. Hey, this is a serious and modern movie!

Rating — Introduction to Bollywood (come on in, the water's fine!)

 Hannah and Rose discuss it at An American's Guide to Bollywood podcast.

People call me a feminist whenever ...

People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or prostitute.

Rebecca West

We've all had this experience, right? It can be a chance to explain where you diverge from a handy label, especially if you are Catholic.

Racinet Polychromev

Via BiblyOdyssey

BibliOdyssey tells us:

"Adapted from historical items dating back to antiquity, such as jewelry, tiles, stained glass, illuminated manuscripts, textiles, and ceramics, these ornamental designs [from 'Racinet's 'L'Ornement Polychrome'] encompass a wide range of cultural aesthetics including classic Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Etruscan motifs, Asian and middle-Eastern patterns, as well as European designs from medieval times through the 19th century."

There are more of them at the link for you to enjoy.

Evangelization and Culture

From my quote journal.

You can't evangelize a culture you hate.

Cardinal George

Ain't that the truth? Bishop Robert Barron quoted this and we know that is also his philosophy, even moreso since Cardinal George was a big influence on putting Barron on the path that got him to where he is now.

Our Bollywood Year by Tom Davis

Tom posted this on Facebook as a 2018 year-end summary of our unexpected interest in Bollywood  movies (and all other Indian movies). If you don't belong to Facebook (and there are people who don't) then you can't read it. As he was putting together the piece, we really enjoyed reminiscing about the path that got us to this point. So I'm sharing it here as part of our family chronicles for 2018.

We watch a lot of movies. I post each movie to Facebook after we watch. (That is pretty much all I post on Facebook) Some are old, some new, most at home and occasionally at the theater.

But this year took a strange turn. Of the 94 movies we watched in 2018, 43 were from India.

At the end of 2017 I was on a Skype call with a client (I will call him Srinath because that is his name) in India (Hyderabad) and while waiting for a third person to arrive we began talking about movies. Srinath asked if I had seen any Indian movies, I answered yes. Julie and I had seen Lagaan which is often recommended as a very accessible Indian movie.

Srinath was impressed and asked if I had seen Slumdog Millionaire. Of course, although I did not consider it Indian Cinema - being directed by Danny Boyle and having no song sequences. It was about India, but even then I knew what made a movie Indian. Srinath asked about a few similar movies - he finally said I needed to watch Baahubali. A two-part epic fantasy about a long ago kingdom and two princes vying to be king - one evil, one good. That was December 30, 2017. We loved it.

We did not watch any Indian movies until Sridevi’s untimely death was in the news in June. So we watched her comeback film English Vinglish. We loved it.

India produces almost 2,000 movies a year so it is difficult to choose one. Rose found a list of the Top 100 Bollywood films by Timeout London. (So their viewpoint included western sensibilities) She chose movies from after 2000 which gave us a long list of movies to watch.

So every week we were watching one or two Indian movies a week. We started learning who the big stars were and what directors to rely on. We learned what a masala movie is and began to expect at least 6 songs with dancing per movie and nothing shorter that 2 and half hours run time. (3 hours is typical)

A few months in I kept thinking I would “snap out of it”, but as we grew more comfortable these movies were getting better.

Most of the movies have been fairly light, but we have seen great action movies, intense dramas and even science fiction (of a sort). Some movies can have a lower production quality than we expect from Hollywood, but the stories and action usually compensate.

In November we went to see a first run movie in the theater - Thugs of Hindostan - which was released worldwide on the same day. We loved it. (Indians apparently did not love it.)

We also learned a lot about India. In order to understand context we had Wikipedia on the iPad ready to explain locations, situations and religions that are part of Indian culture. Just ask me about the war of Bangladesh independence - that was the movie Raazi.

Finally, we learned that Bollywood is just one part of the Indian movie industry - about 43% by box office. Bollywood is the Hindi language movie center. Tollywood is the Telugu language center (Hyderabad) and Kollywood is the Tamil language center (Chennai). These two represent 36% of the industry, and there are movie production centers all over India for other languages.

Whatever it is called it is now big part of our regular movie watching.

Bollywood: The Films! The Songs! The Stars!

Bollywood: The Films! The Songs! The Stars! 

A visual tour of the glamour and color of Indian cinema in the only comprehensive illustrated guide to the world of Bollywood movies.

Mumbai's charming movies, with glittering costumes and epic song-and-dance productions, have captured hearts all over the world since the early 1900s. Bollywood features film stills, plot timelines, star and producer profiles, plus historical insights, lesser-known facts, and behind-the-scenes gossip on such iconic movies as Mother India, Mughal-e-Azam, Sholay, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, and Bajirao Mastani.

Yes, we knew this would happen at some point, right? I found a book on Bollywood! The cover alone tells us that they understand a big part of the appeal — those colors are glittery, shiny, and sparkly. I don't know how I came across it but was thrilled to see the library had a copy, which I instantly ordered.

This is fun for dipping into, especially considering our family's current obsession with Indian films. It was a wonderful surprise to discover how many of the most recent "great movies" we'd seen and how many of the stars we knew. Rose has been pulling a lot of our viewing choices from a Time Out Best 100 Bollywood and Hindi Movies list, supplemented with top grossing, well reviewed films from after that list's date. She has done a great job, evidently.

We're enjoying all the background materials and finding new movies to put on our list from this book.  In fact, it has been in high demand, with one person putting it down only to have another snatch it up for their own reading. So, naturally, I bought one for our own home library! A necessary household resource, you know.

The Dark Meat of the Angel

Not that she is not enjoying the holiday [Spring Break] — as it is sometimes called. She really likes to see three helpings of mashed potato, thick slices of steak, and mountains of toasted angel cake with chocolate sauce systematically stoked into young furnaces. There was chocolate angel cake once: an innovation, a departure from tradition. Mrs. Appleyard had a read a rule in the paper. Even she is not proof against all human frailty.

It was Sally who summed it up politely.

"Thank you," she said. "I don't think I care for any more of the dark meat of the angel."

Louise Andrews Kent, Mrs. Appleyard's Year

This is such a charming and gently humorous book. I recently reread it as my pre-lights-out book. It was perfect for powering down before sleep.

Excellent Hunter

Excellent Hunter, Remo Savisaar

Listen Up — Daily Poem

The Daily Poem offers one essential poem each weekday morning. From Shakespeare and John Donne to Robert Frost and E..E Cummings, The Daily Poem curates a broad and generous audio anthology of the best poetry ever written, read aloud by David Kern. Some light commentary is included and the poems are read twice.

I really enjoy this podcast which says something since I often struggle with liking poetry. David Kern's commentary has gotten more in-depth as the show has gone on, but without making the episodes longer which I appreciate. Each episode is between 4 and 10 minutes.

Listen to episodes here or subscribe.

Fan - a solid thriller

Gaurav develops an obsession with a movie star who looks just like him. He goes to Mumbai to meet his idol, but he refuses to grant him five minutes of his time. Gaurav is enraged and plots to destroy his hero.

They had me at Shah Rukh Khan playing his own stalker. Normally I wouldn't care about this sort of movie but was curious to see how Khan carried off the dual roles. I'm happy to say this is a solid thriller and a real star vehicle for King Khan who proves he can really act. I also enjoyed the fact that this had some very tense moments but without indulging in the extremes that Hollywood would have included.

Rating — Bollywood Medium (mostly straight forward but with some concepts it is helpful to have come across before. Such as, in this one, knowing that Bollywood fandom is taken to ridiculous levels such as huge crowds waiting outside a star's house just to wave to him on his birthday ... or people having small shrines to their favorite stars.)

ALSO
Hannah and Rose discuss it at An American's Guide to Bollywood.
Scott and I discuss it at A Good Story is Hard to Find.

Staying Catholic at Christmas. A Gospel reading for the scandal in the church.

I'm a little behind on my blog reading but this piece works for any time of year, I think. I really liked this linking of the "begats" to the current scandal.

Anyway, I myself like it when we dig into the boring parts and pull out the plum of deeper meaning that speaks to us here and now. I need to be reminded of Christ's lineage and what it means ... and what the gospel writers were saying.

Go read the whole thing, but here's some of what I liked.

If you only know the Bible vaguely, this litany of names probably sounds a bit pompous, an attempt to elevate the infant Jesus by linking him to great patriarchs and noble kings. But the truth is roughly the opposite: The more you know about Genesis or Chronicles or Kings, the more remarkable it is that Matthew announced the birth of the son of God by linking him to a pack of egregious sinners.

[...]

Take a line like “Judah begat Perez and Zerah of Tamar.” Just a typical nuclear family, right? Here’s McCabe with the real story: “Judah slept … by mistake, with his daughter-in-law Tamar: She had cheated him by disguising herself and dressing up as a prostitute … [When] Judah heard that his daughter-in-law had prostituted herself and become pregnant, he ordered her to be burnt alive. He was disconcerted when he discovered that he himself had been the client and that the child, Perez, was his.”

[...]

Crucially, in claiming the divine is entering the world through this line of “murderers, cheats, cowards, adulterers and liars,” Matthew isn’t offering some particularly Christian innovation within the larger biblical story. He’s simply picking up what his own people, the Jewish people, already said about themselves: We’re the chosen people of the one true God, and to prove it to you here’s a long story about how awful and promiscuous and murderous and fallible we are, how terrible our leaders often turned out to be, and how we deserved every exile and punishment we received.

If you don’t find that message credible, well, I understand. But if you find it strangely compelling, then you’re close to the case for remaining Catholic at a time when the corruption of the church is driving a number of very public defections from the faith.

Ross Douthat, Staying Catholic at Christmas

Kahaani - a mother of a story

Vidya Bagchi arrives in Kolkata from London to find her missing husband Arnab. Seven months pregnant and alone in a festive city, she begins a relentless search. With nothing to rely on except her memories and a photo, all clues seem to reach a dead end and she slowly realises that nothing is what it seems.

We put off watching this for weeks because the description sounded depressing. Wow, were we wrong! This thriller blew our minds. Hollywood would be proud to have made this movie.

You might not want to take that recommendation seriously because it is foreign but just as in the French movie Tell No One, it is hard to convince people how good this is. Just watch it.

Rating — Introduction to Bollywood (come on in, the water's fine!)

Hannah and Rose discuss it in episode 48 of An American's Guide to Bollywood podcast.