Now there is a topic to generate some interesting, and diverting discussion. I wonder if 'Little Boots' has some fans among the current world leadership.
cartledge: Well, I can only imagine, but in so doing, a couple of nominees cross my mind. Hopefully I am wrong but, if not, let us pray it prudent of all admirers not to emulate by 1.) murdering indiscriminately, 2.) humilating the Senate, 3.) spending money recklessly, 4.) reviving treason trials in order to confiscate the property of the convicted, 5.) appoint his dog to be Attorney General, 6.) or sleep with his sisters, because, as students of history know, in the end "Little Boots" who earned his nickname as mascot of military members he was not the equal of nor able to fill their shoes, ended up paranoid and mentally instable, resulting in no good end, i.e., assassination at the hands of his own army and the simultaneous murders of his wife and daughters (whoops, make that singular, Caligula had but ONE daugther, sorry).
Whew, Dada. We're just up the road from the terror-free zone of Torrey Pines State Beach so while I'm reassured that the terrorists haven't landed (Pendleton being in the vicinity, of course) I'm wondering which principle of astrophysics will explain the frigid conditions of our SoCal coastline in light of the global warming thing. I'm sure that some Dadaism will explain it all. Meanwhile, you've done it brilliantly again with W's face morphing into Caligula. W will be on our minds as we check out his betes-noirs Dixie Chicks tonight at the Nokia. Some might say that you are straining or torturing the analogy with the ignoble Roman but I inist that you don't torture even if I can't define torture (it being "whatever the U.S. law says it is"). Do you think that Caligula would have kissed some Turkish butt the way W is doing? Well, maybe he would have... Keep brightening my day... Eljoven
There's a book by Anthony Burgess whose title escapes me. It's in the 30 boxes of unpacked books sitting in my garage. It's a historical novel about the early caesars, of which Caligula and Claudius are major players. The scene that has stayed with me is Caligula's death, murdered by his own generals. Claudius & Caligula were walking together down some royal hall when the praetorian guards struck. Claudius, who had no idea what was up, hid behind the curtains. Caligula died not believing he was dying, still believing he was a god. A guard then removed the royal purple robe, now covered in Caligula's blood, and spying Claudius cowering behind the curtains, he thrust it toward him. Thus as the astonished Claudius assumed the Purple, he now knew for a fact that caesars are NOT gods.
Dada, the comparisons to Caligula are many, so I will just note: they were both "little men". Caligula = small in stature, our dear leader = small in brains. Both qualify as megalomaniacs of the highest order; our leader believing his orders come from god, Caligula believing he was god. But thinking of Anthony Burgess' novel, I can't help but wonder who would be Claudius in this divine comedy?
ps, yes it's the same Anthony Burgess who wrote A Clockwork Orange!
D.K. Anthony Burgess or Robert Graves? I Don't recall a Burgess book on the theme, but then there are many other things I don't recall. I delighted in the Graves books. They spurred my interest in the emperors.
well now Cartledge forced me to look it up. It's "The Kingdom of the Wicked" by Anthony Burgess, who wrote a hell of a lot of books. btw, it wasn't that great a book, esp compared w/Clockwork Orange, but I enjoyed his characterizations of famous people of the day (the day being ancient rome, which is strikingly similar to modern amerika). Is the Robert Graves book you're thinking of "The Twelve Caesars"?
eljoven: So how are those "Chicks" these days. And how was that concert of theirs at the Nokia? Or was it just music sans the political commentary? (And what is this "Nokia" thing? Some kind of Japanese camera right?)*
I'm sure your frigid aberrant LA temps are just another manifestation of the amplified swings in weather variations courtesy of GW (ah, global warming/George Bush/your choice/or both).
* ~ I'm assuming Nokia is just another example of $$ strapped communities forced to sell any and everything nameable, huh? (Honestly, I'd thought of approaching Dunkin' Donuts. It would be such nice alliteration. ~Dada D. Donuts)
Deke--cartledge: re this Burgess/Graves debate, I 'mise well add my two cents here. (Neither of you need feel threatened, in that I don't read, I haven't the foggiest idea of what you speak.)
I just wanted to mention how much I enjoyed the "I, Claudius" TV series back in the 70's and, if memory serves me, John Hurt's portrayal of Caligula as very compelling.
Now, an aside: Being neither a god fearing person nor atheist, I do receive on a continual basis, synchronicities that amuse, sometimes amaze me.
So, waking with heartburn last night from a Costco cheese pizza earlier in the evening I foolishly green lighted when Mrs. Dada called from that big warehouse, I finally arose at 12:30 to let it pass after a couple of antacids.
I then discovered a movie on the satellite entitled, "Magnolia." It was rather dark, but intriguing. I had missed the beginning but was captured by it nonetheless.
Well, in light of this Roman Emperor blog, there suddenly appeared in the movie a quick and quirky reference to Roman Emperors in which Caesar, Claudius, or Caligula was mentioned just before the bar patron in the scene rushed to the men's room to heave his guts out. Needless to say, it caught my attention.
Some minutes later during a first date scene between a doper and and a cop, the doper ends up saying, "And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."
A minor detail except for the fact "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah" was the 20 across clue in yesterday's NYTimes X-word puzzle.
Jesus, if this is some kind of sign or something, I wish to hell the Roman emperors and the blah, blah, blahs could be a little LESS SUBTLE in what they're trying to impart to me. I get it, but I don't.
Okay, OK...after posting the penultimate comment above to Deke-cartledge about the "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah" synchronicity yesterday...(and it was five "blah's" in each--the puzzle clue and the movie--I had the thought to check the X-word puzzle's answer answer to the "blah" clue. I thought I might gain some cosmic insight or something.
So the answer to the NYTimes 20 across yesterday, as the movie reminded me to check is:
"BABBLE"
So maybe that's it. It's just a bunch of meaningless gibberish! But is that referring to my blog, my life, all life, the meaning of the cosmos or something else?
Dada, I'm so glad you clarified that blah/etc comment, because otherwise I was going to have to admit that while you may not read(!), I don't do NYTimes Xwords because the end product of my spending time on them only results in something nearly as blank as it first appeared. So ... BABBLE, huh? I'm trying to recall "Magnolia"; if that was the one with Tom Cruise, I think my comprehension of it ended up pretty much the same as my attempts at NYT Xwords (ie, blank) -- although each part of it was enjoyable, I didn't get the overall meaning. Maybe I should re-try it at 2AM?
Here's another sychronicity for you: someone recently gifted me the complete DVD set of "I, Claudius" which I had meaning to watch soon. Sooner, now!
And due to Cartledge's mentioning of Robert Graves, I got caught up on an old online Gore Vidal essay/review of The Twelve Caesars. Here's a quote I wanted to pass on: "Caligula gave the game away when he told a critic, Bear in mind that I can treat anyone EXACTLY as I please." It just seems to fit LittleBootsBush so well, I'm almost floored!
deke: I think you owe most of the thanks for the "stimulating discussion" to d.k. and cartledge, so "Thank youse guys!" as they say in N.J.
Oooooh, lucky you....WTG, referring to scoring the entire series of "I Claudius"....sure hated to see that end.
Also, you're right about the movie, "Magnolia," being the one with Tom Cruise. (I blame my ineptitude at understanding the fault of missing the beginning...let me justify it thusly [because I doubt seeing it from the beginning would have helped]).
Not being one much for symbolism, analogy or metaphor probably explains why I barely passed Eng. Lit.
Although, although, I had similar difficulty in a univ. aesthetics class where there was this thing called "universal beauty" where if you don't see it, you're somehow unsophisticated, which left me everything but standing on my head to appreciate a Piet Mondrian taste-wise.
But that was contradicted in last week's movie review of "In the valley of Elah."
Being described as a big "Thumbs Up" by Ebert and "...in the end...is cluttered with clunky symbolism, speechifying, and an all too-obvious political message" by another reviewer, left me scratching my head out of curiosity. Which one was it? (Well, we all know about critics, right?)
So I was prompted to go see it. While I enjoyed it despite despising "who dunnits" and found it's power building as the movie progressed, it turns out--in this case--that universal beauty is sometimes filtered through the political lenses of its reviewers.
Jesus, if this is some kind of sign or something I've experienced that Costco indigestion, of which I'm spared here in Australia. It does weird stuff. I was also - dk, going to throw Vidal into the ring, but thought I was using up my word count. Actually I am waiting for him to do the George W Caligula in the presidents series. Mind you, I need to travel back to North America to find any of his books. Perhaps we could have Derek Jacobi playing George W in the TV mini series. I'm sure he has the thespian versatility. Oh and thank you for a little sideways mental stimulation.
Dada, I would definitely have failed your univ aesthetics class. I didn't know there was such a thing as "universal beauty". I thought beauty was in the eye of the beholder, or some such unsophisticated thing. I tend to appreciate the unusual, the unique, the abnormal -- you know, the Interesting Stuff.
I'm so out of it re: current movies, I've never even heard of the Valley of Elah, but it sounds like you're recommending it (despite the conflicting reviews)?
Cartledge, is there a word count? (I guess Dada will let us know) -- Vidal has already said quite a bit about (against) our GWB, but I don't think he's yet compared him to Caligula (you've got him beat there, Dada). It shocks me that his books would be hard to find in Oz. If not in libraries, surely online? And I'll watch Derek Jacobi anytime, playing anything, even GWB eating grits'n'gravy with his mouth open, just like a caesar!
Since beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, I wouldn't be so presumptuous as to recommend a movie.
I was just commenting that "In the Valley of Elah" with Tommy Lee Jones (my, we're all getting older, aren't we?) is not my kind of flick, but it did get better as it went on and I loved the strong anti-war message despite, as the aforementioned reviewer claimed, it's full of "clunky symbolism, speechifying, and an all too-obvious political message."
And while I haven't seen any of em yet, it looks like there are some really good movies out there right now, i.e., if you can trust reviewers (and there's such a thing as a "universal beauty" ~g)
BTW, I didn't know there's a "word count," 'ledge. There's a word count? Maybe I should come up with a prize for the first person exceeding it?
Speaking of Tommy Lee Jones and obscure recent films, you might be interested in watching The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. To anyone living in the Frontera and La Migra everywhere, this was a strong film. I enjoyed it very much. OK, back to the Romans and blah, blah, blah or babble.
Eprof, I caught that one recently & was very moved by it -- the way the story unfolded & backfolded little by little -- an unexpected gem. After seeing Tommy Lee on a horse in a number of flicks, I think it's obvious he is no windshield cowboy, he plays true.
Dada, I must be presumptuous because I recommend movies all the time! In the Valley of Elah intriques me, esp the strong anti-war message.
eprof: I saw this and, yes, you're right--I'm drawn to movies of the border, just about anything Southwest. I liked this film but, funny, discussing how it ended with Mrs. Dada, neither of us remember precisely where Estrada ends up being buried in Mexico. (But I DO remember enjoying Jones in this one a lot.)
In fact, "In the Valley of Elah" with TL Jones is supposed to take place in NM which, of course, was part of the attraction. (Actually, it could have been any army post in America...but I guess it may have been filmed around Albuquerque?)
But your mention of this film brought to mind a couple others I really enjoyed, one being "The Mariachi" (1992)...while violent, I love the wonderful scenes of the colorful Mexican town in which it was filmed. I think it was much better than the American version with Banderas and Hayek, "Once Upon a Time in Mexico."
Then, of course, there was a favorite, "Milagro Beanfield War" which really captured the flavor of Northern NM for me.
Attribute: Wikipedia, Caligula (37–41)
20 comments:
Now there is a topic to generate some interesting, and diverting discussion. I wonder if 'Little Boots' has some fans among the current world leadership.
cartledge: Well, I can only imagine, but in so doing, a couple of nominees cross my mind. Hopefully I am wrong but, if not, let us pray it prudent of all admirers not to emulate by 1.) murdering indiscriminately, 2.) humilating the Senate, 3.) spending money recklessly, 4.) reviving treason trials in order to confiscate the property of the convicted, 5.) appoint his dog to be Attorney General, 6.) or sleep with his sisters, because, as students of history know, in the end "Little Boots" who earned his nickname as mascot of military members he was not the equal of nor able to fill their shoes, ended up paranoid and mentally instable, resulting in no good end, i.e., assassination at the hands of his own army and the simultaneous murders of his wife and daughters (whoops, make that singular, Caligula had but ONE daugther, sorry).
Whew, Dada. We're just up the road from the terror-free zone of Torrey Pines State Beach so while I'm reassured that the terrorists haven't landed (Pendleton being in the vicinity, of course) I'm wondering which principle of astrophysics will explain the frigid conditions of our SoCal coastline in light of the global warming thing. I'm sure that some Dadaism will explain it all. Meanwhile, you've done it brilliantly again with W's face morphing into Caligula. W will be on our minds as we check out his betes-noirs Dixie Chicks tonight at the Nokia. Some might say that you are straining or torturing the analogy with the ignoble Roman but I inist that you don't torture even if I can't define torture (it being "whatever the U.S. law says it is"). Do you think that Caligula would have kissed some Turkish butt the way W is doing? Well, maybe he would have...
Keep brightening my day...
Eljoven
something about that face......
There's a book by Anthony Burgess whose title escapes me. It's in the 30 boxes of unpacked books sitting in my garage. It's a historical novel about the early caesars, of which Caligula and Claudius are major players. The scene that has stayed with me is Caligula's death, murdered by his own generals. Claudius & Caligula were walking together down some royal hall when the praetorian guards struck. Claudius, who had no idea what was up, hid behind the curtains. Caligula died not believing he was dying, still believing he was a god. A guard then removed the royal purple robe, now covered in Caligula's blood, and spying Claudius cowering behind the curtains, he thrust it toward him. Thus as the astonished Claudius assumed the Purple, he now knew for a fact that caesars are NOT gods.
Dada, the comparisons to Caligula are many, so I will just note: they were both "little men". Caligula = small in stature, our dear leader = small in brains. Both qualify as megalomaniacs of the highest order; our leader believing his orders come from god, Caligula believing he was god. But thinking of Anthony Burgess' novel, I can't help but wonder who would be Claudius in this divine comedy?
ps, yes it's the same Anthony Burgess who wrote A Clockwork Orange!
D.K. Anthony Burgess or Robert Graves? I Don't recall a Burgess book on the theme, but then there are many other things I don't recall.
I delighted in the Graves books. They spurred my interest in the emperors.
well now Cartledge forced me to look it up. It's "The Kingdom of the Wicked" by Anthony Burgess, who wrote a hell of a lot of books. btw, it wasn't that great a book, esp compared w/Clockwork Orange, but I enjoyed his characterizations of famous people of the day (the day being ancient rome, which is strikingly similar to modern amerika). Is the Robert Graves book you're thinking of "The Twelve Caesars"?
d.k. I should have searched it myself. Never been a Burgess fan, but that should not colour my research efforts.
I stand corrected.
eljoven: So how are those "Chicks" these days. And how was that concert of theirs at the Nokia? Or was it just music sans the political commentary? (And what is this "Nokia" thing? Some kind of Japanese camera right?)*
I'm sure your frigid aberrant LA temps are just another manifestation of the amplified swings in weather variations courtesy of GW (ah, global warming/George Bush/your choice/or both).
* ~ I'm assuming Nokia is just another example of $$ strapped communities forced to sell any and everything nameable, huh? (Honestly, I'd thought of approaching Dunkin' Donuts. It would be such nice alliteration. ~Dada D. Donuts)
Deke--cartledge: re this Burgess/Graves debate, I 'mise well add my two cents here. (Neither of you need feel threatened, in that I don't read, I haven't the foggiest idea of what you speak.)
I just wanted to mention how much I enjoyed the "I, Claudius" TV series back in the 70's and, if memory serves me, John Hurt's portrayal of Caligula as very compelling.
Now, an aside: Being neither a god fearing person nor atheist, I do receive on a continual basis, synchronicities that amuse, sometimes amaze me.
So, waking with heartburn last night from a Costco cheese pizza earlier in the evening I foolishly green lighted when Mrs. Dada called from that big warehouse, I finally arose at 12:30 to let it pass after a couple of antacids.
I then discovered a movie on the satellite entitled, "Magnolia." It was rather dark, but intriguing. I had missed the beginning but was captured by it nonetheless.
Well, in light of this Roman Emperor blog, there suddenly appeared in the movie a quick and quirky reference to Roman Emperors in which Caesar, Claudius, or Caligula was mentioned just before the bar patron in the scene rushed to the men's room to heave his guts out. Needless to say, it caught my attention.
Some minutes later during a first date scene between a doper and and a cop, the doper ends up saying, "And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."
A minor detail except for the fact "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah" was the 20 across clue in yesterday's NYTimes X-word puzzle.
Jesus, if this is some kind of sign or something, I wish to hell the Roman emperors and the blah, blah, blahs could be a little LESS SUBTLE in what they're trying to impart to me. I get it, but I don't.
WeezieLou : Yeh, that's a creepy face alright.
Okay, OK...after posting the penultimate comment above to Deke-cartledge about the "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah" synchronicity yesterday...(and it was five "blah's" in each--the puzzle clue and the movie--I had the thought to check the X-word puzzle's answer answer to the "blah" clue. I thought I might gain some cosmic insight or something.
So the answer to the NYTimes 20 across yesterday, as the movie reminded me to check is:
"BABBLE"
So maybe that's it. It's just a bunch of meaningless gibberish! But is that referring to my blog, my life, all life, the meaning of the cosmos or something else?
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!
Dada, I'm so glad you clarified that blah/etc comment, because otherwise I was going to have to admit that while you may not read(!), I don't do NYTimes Xwords because the end product of my spending time on them only results in something nearly as blank as it first appeared. So ... BABBLE, huh? I'm trying to recall "Magnolia"; if that was the one with Tom Cruise, I think my comprehension of it ended up pretty much the same as my attempts at NYT Xwords (ie, blank) -- although each part of it was enjoyable, I didn't get the overall meaning. Maybe I should re-try it at 2AM?
Here's another sychronicity for you: someone recently gifted me the complete DVD set of "I, Claudius" which I had meaning to watch soon. Sooner, now!
And due to Cartledge's mentioning of Robert Graves, I got caught up on an old online Gore Vidal essay/review of The Twelve Caesars. Here's a quote I wanted to pass on: "Caligula gave the game away when he told a critic, Bear in mind that I can treat anyone EXACTLY as I please." It just seems to fit LittleBootsBush so well, I'm almost floored!
This was a very stimulating discussion -- thanks!
deke: I think you owe most of the thanks for the "stimulating discussion" to d.k. and cartledge, so "Thank youse guys!" as they say in N.J.
Oooooh, lucky you....WTG, referring to scoring the entire series of "I Claudius"....sure hated to see that end.
Also, you're right about the movie, "Magnolia," being the one with Tom Cruise. (I blame my ineptitude at understanding the fault of missing the beginning...let me justify it thusly [because I doubt seeing it from the beginning would have helped]).
Not being one much for symbolism, analogy or metaphor probably explains why I barely passed Eng. Lit.
Although, although, I had similar difficulty in a univ. aesthetics class where there was this thing called "universal beauty" where if you don't see it, you're somehow unsophisticated, which left me everything but standing on my head to appreciate a Piet Mondrian taste-wise.
But that was contradicted in last week's movie review of "In the valley of Elah."
Being described as a big "Thumbs Up" by Ebert and "...in the end...is cluttered with clunky symbolism, speechifying, and an all too-obvious political message" by another reviewer, left me scratching my head out of curiosity. Which one was it? (Well, we all know about critics, right?)
So I was prompted to go see it. While I enjoyed it despite despising "who dunnits" and found it's power building as the movie progressed, it turns out--in this case--that universal beauty is sometimes filtered through the political lenses of its reviewers.
~Dada (still seeking Universal Truth!)
Jesus, if this is some kind of sign or something I've experienced that Costco indigestion, of which I'm spared here in Australia. It does weird stuff.
I was also - dk, going to throw Vidal into the ring, but thought I was using up my word count.
Actually I am waiting for him to do the George W Caligula in the presidents series.
Mind you, I need to travel back to North America to find any of his books.
Perhaps we could have Derek Jacobi playing George W in the TV mini series. I'm sure he has the thespian versatility.
Oh and thank you for a little sideways mental stimulation.
Dada, I would definitely have failed your univ aesthetics class. I didn't know there was such a thing as "universal beauty". I thought beauty was in the eye of the beholder, or some such unsophisticated thing. I tend to appreciate the unusual, the unique, the abnormal -- you know, the Interesting Stuff.
I'm so out of it re: current movies, I've never even heard of the Valley of Elah, but it sounds like you're recommending it (despite the conflicting reviews)?
Cartledge, is there a word count? (I guess Dada will let us know) -- Vidal has already said quite a bit about (against) our GWB, but I don't think he's yet compared him to Caligula (you've got him beat there, Dada). It shocks me that his books would be hard to find in Oz. If not in libraries, surely online? And I'll watch Derek Jacobi anytime, playing anything, even GWB eating grits'n'gravy with his mouth open, just like a caesar!
deke:
Since beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, I wouldn't be so presumptuous as to recommend a movie.
I was just commenting that "In the Valley of Elah" with Tommy Lee Jones (my, we're all getting older, aren't we?) is not my kind of flick, but it did get better as it went on and I loved the strong anti-war message despite, as the aforementioned reviewer claimed, it's full of "clunky symbolism, speechifying, and an all too-obvious political message."
And while I haven't seen any of em yet, it looks like there are some really good movies out there right now, i.e., if you can trust reviewers (and there's such a thing as a "universal beauty" ~g)
BTW, I didn't know there's a "word count," 'ledge. There's a word count? Maybe I should come up with a prize for the first person exceeding it?
Speaking of Tommy Lee Jones and obscure recent films, you might be interested in watching The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. To anyone living in the Frontera and La Migra everywhere, this was a strong film. I enjoyed it very much. OK, back to the Romans and blah, blah, blah or babble.
Eprof, I caught that one recently & was very moved by it -- the way the story unfolded & backfolded little by little -- an unexpected gem. After seeing Tommy Lee on a horse in a number of flicks, I think it's obvious he is no windshield cowboy, he plays true.
Dada, I must be presumptuous because I recommend movies all the time! In the Valley of Elah intriques me, esp the strong anti-war message.
eprof: I saw this and, yes, you're right--I'm drawn to movies of the border, just about anything Southwest. I liked this film but, funny, discussing how it ended with Mrs. Dada, neither of us remember precisely where Estrada ends up being buried in Mexico. (But I DO remember enjoying Jones in this one a lot.)
In fact, "In the Valley of Elah" with TL Jones is supposed to take place in NM which, of course, was part of the attraction. (Actually, it could have been any army post in America...but I guess it may have been filmed around Albuquerque?)
But your mention of this film brought to mind a couple others I really enjoyed, one being "The Mariachi" (1992)...while violent, I love the wonderful scenes of the colorful Mexican town in which it was filmed. I think it was much better than the American version with Banderas and Hayek, "Once Upon a Time in Mexico."
Then, of course, there was a favorite, "Milagro Beanfield War" which really captured the flavor of Northern NM for me.
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