Pigeons

Pigeons, José Ruiz Blasco (Pablo Picasso's father)

Kalank

"When someone else's loss seems like our victory, then there's no one in the world who's as lost as us."

Set in 1944 pre-partition Lahore. When a wife learns she is dying she asks a young woman to join the household to give her husband support after she's gone. The young woman not unreasonably insists on being married as a second wife so that she won't be cast off when the wife has died. (These being the days when you could have more than one wife.) This sets events into motion which will cause not just one but two love triangles to intersect. Intertwined with this is the story of general unrest over industrialization and possible partition.

Lush, well acted romantic piece set against the backdrop of pre-Partition unrest. In that sense, it made me think of Doctor Zhivago, which I've never seen but know the basics about.

Lavish sets, swirling fabric, and several large dance numbers with 500 performers made this a visual feast. The performances from everyone were wonderful, especially from Varun who I'd only seen as the younger brother in Dilwale (not my favorite movie specifically because of his subplot). Not to mention Madhuri Dixit's spectacular dance (she did have some other dancers swirling around her but it felt as if it were an amazing solo piece).

We were interested to see some of the conversations happening that argued different sides of the partition question. We've seen enough movies to show the results with Pakistan and India divided by barbed wire and steady hostility. But this early history was new to us and sent us to research the events of partition themselves.

The critics gave this so-so reviews overall. We didn't agree. Taken as love stories, taken as a look at people determined to control events (with results they never intended), taken as a movie-going experience - we liked it a lot. As did the six Indian teenage girls behind us at the theater who were sniffling and clapping as it ended.

Rating — for viewers with medium Indian film experience. (It's not rocket science, but without any cultural background at all you might feel kind of lost.)

Lucy Signals to Catwoman

Belinda Del Pesco, Lucy Signals to Catwoman

The Golden Shrub

Edward B. Gordon, The Golden Shrub

Notre Dame Burns - Updated

Just got back from running errands and Rose and Tom told me about the Notre Dame Cathedral burning. I've been there twice ... but am surprised at how upset I am. It's almost as if I were French ... or Catholic.

I think of how crowded it is around the cathedral and hope that the fire doesn't spread. Watching the spire fall hit me hard but at least it fell down and not out to cause more damage.

UPDATED

Le père Fournier, aumônier des @PompiersParis, est allé avec des pompiers
dans la cathédrale #NotreDame pour sauver la couronne d’épines et le Saint-Sacrement...

Translation:

Fr. Fournier, chaplain of the Paris Firefighters, went with the firefighters into Notre-Dame cathedral to save the crown of thorns and the Blessed Sacrament.

Etienne Loraillère, editor at France’s KTO Catholic Television,
via Catholic Herald

My hero! Thank you, Father Fournier!

Almond Blossom

Vincent van Gogh, Almond blossom

What the world needs ...

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

Howard Thurman

The Church and the Scandal of Sexual Abuse — Pope Emeritus Benedict

In his most significant pronouncement since he resigned the papacy in 2013, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has written a lengthy essay on clerical sex abuse in which he explains what he sees as the roots of the crisis, the effects it has had on the priesthood, and how the Church should best respond.

[...]

The essay is divided into three parts. The first is an examination of the “wider societal context” of the crisis, in which he says he tries to show that an “egregious event” occurred in the 1960s “on a scale unprecedented in history.”

A second section deals with the effects of this on the “formation of priests and on the lives of priests.”

And in a third part he develops “some perspectives for a proper response on the part of the Church.”

National Catholic Register

I feel as if this is old news already since it is all over mainstream media, but I wanted to give a heads-up for anyone who wanted to read sources instead of sound bites.

I read the National Catholic Register summary, which is quite thorough, and it made a lot of sense to me.

You can read the whole essay at the Catholic News Agency. I've not read the actual essay yet but have printed it out.

Just glancing through it, this looks like classic, thoughtful, thorough Benedict XVI ... and it makes me realize how much I've missed his writing. With a few zingers like this one which made me laugh out loud:

What must be done? Perhaps we should create another Church for things to work out? Well, that experiment has already been undertaken and has already failed.

(Thanks to Mark for pointing that one out to me.)

Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass with a Book

Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass with a Book, Vincent van Gogh

A Particular Love

It is hard to believe in this love. In a book by Hugh of St. Victor, which I read once on the way from St. Paul to Chicago, there is a conversation between the soul and God about this love. The soul is petulant and wants to know what kind of a love is that which loves everyone indiscriminately, the thief and the Samaritan, the wife and the mother and the harlot? The soul complains that it wishes a particular love, a love for herself alone. And God replies fondly that, after all, since no two people are like in this world, He has indeed a particular fondness for each one of us, an exclusive love to satisfy each one alone.

Dorothy Day, On Pilgrimage

Firenze Cucina

Firenze Cucina, Belinda DelPesco

Trading Recipes

I refuse to believe that trading recipes is silly. Tuna fish casserole is at least as real as corporate stock.

Barbara Grizzuti Harrison

Straight thinkin' is a delusion

Hoddan began suddenly to see real possibilities. This was not a direct move toward the realization of his personal ambitions. But on the other hand, it wasn't a movement away from them. Hoddan suddenly remembered an oration he'd heard his grandfather give many, many times in the past.

"Straight thinkin'," the old man had said obstinately, "is a delusion. You think things out clear and simple, and you can see yourself ruined and your family starving any day! But real things ain't simple! They ain't clear! Any time you try to figure things out so they're simple and straightforward, you're goin' against nature and you're going to get 'em mixed up! So when something happens and you're in a straightforward, hopeless fix—why, you go along with nature! Make it as complicated as you can, and the people who want you in trouble will get hopeless confused and you can get out!"

Murray Leinster, The Pirates of Ersatz

I love this book so much. It is really funny.

Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon, Black Mask, Sept. 1929

Prescribing the right book

Between ourselves, there is no such thing, abstractly, as a "good" book. A book is "good" only when it meets some human hunger or refutes some human error. ... My pleasure is to prescribe books for such patients as drop in here and are willing to tell me their symptoms. Some people have let their reading faculties decay so that all I can do is hold a post mortem on them. But most are still open to treatment. There is no one so grateful as the man to whom you have given just the book his soul needed and he never knew it.

Christopher Morley, The Haunted Bookshop

Changes

Changes, Remo Savisaar

The End of An Era — Goodbye to Zoe

Last week, Zoe succumbed to cancer, as will surprise no one who has had Boxers. It is an ill that breed bears with their own particular merry cheer.

I wasn't going to mention it but saw from the stats that several posts have been looked at a lot lately ... those from when both Wash and Zoe joined our family. It brought back such good memories that I thought I'd share the link here for any other Zoe fans who want to see a little more about the hurricane that changed our lives.

It is impossible to sum up Zoe in a few words or even a few paragraphs. She could be wonderful, she could be equally terrible, and her intense, larger-than-life personality filled our house. As my husband said, "She was a military-grade hyper-Boxer." She's now a family legend.

I'll also say that she's the only dog I know of who had an entire sex industry convention at her feet: which you may read about here.

Of course we miss her. Life is calmer without her as Wash and Kaylee can't possibly fill that void, though they are doing their best.

Not just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue

When you sell a man a book you don't sell just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night - there's all heaven and earth in a book, a real book I mean.

Christopher Morley, Parnassus on Wheels

Tuft of Cowslips

Albrecht Dürer, Tuft of Cowslips, 1526
via lines and colors

Piku

Piku juggles her life as a successful architect and caring for her 70-year old hypochondriac father. When they take a road trip from Delhi to Calcutta, the owner of the local cab company has no choice but to drive them personally since none of his drivers are willing to endure Piku or her eccentric father. This crazy road trip reveals much more than a cure for the father's obsessive search for a good "motion" in the bathroom.

I wasn't sure about this one but the universal rave reviews made us give it a try. And they were right. Practically perfect in every way, this movie must have resonated deeply with Indian audiences whose cultural reverence for their elders must often put them in such fixes as we see Piku struggling with. Heck, it resonated with us, even though we probably didn't understand all the nuances of the family interactions.

Excellent acting all round, especially from Irrfan as the taxi driver who does more with a silence or simple glance than most actors do with their whole body. I was afraid Amitabh Bachchan would pull a Jack Nicholson and just play a broad version of himself. But no worries. He is simply fantastic as the elderly father obsessed with a particular aspect of his health. The way the big Indian family is portrayed is also pitch perfect to anyone who's ever been part of one.

No song and dance numbers because, really, how can you build a good number around constipation?

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