Many Words About Milos Forman

Posted on 18 Feb 2014 by Frank Moraes

Milos Forman On this day in 1848, Louis Comfort Tiffany was born. He did a lot of “decorative arts,” but is primarily known for his wonderful stained glass work. He was the son of Charles Lewis Tiffany, the jeweler would founded Tiffany & Co. But Louis’ work really does stand on its own. I recommend clicking over and checking out a bit of his work. Of course, I have a great fondness for stained glass. I’m not sure why.

Charles Schwab was born in 1862. He isn’t that Charles Schwab. He was an engineer who went on to lead Bethlehem Steel very effectively. And then he lost all his money in the mid-1930s and died in poverty in 1939. How many times have you heard this story? It makes sense. In a truly free market, this is exactly what you would expect: opportunity to succeed also means opportunity to fail. But we don’t see this kind of thing anymore. Sure, working class people crash and burn all the time. But not the elite. And that’s because we don’t have a free market. In 2007 and 2008, there should have been any number of billionaires who lost everything. There should have been a number who went to jail. Instead, they all kept their wealth and their freedom. I would have a much higher opinion of Republicans if they would be for allowing the rich to fail. And of course, they will tell you they are. But when it comes down to it, they never are. Modern conservatism is best characterized as a religion that worships rich people.

Pee Wee King was born in 1914. He was one of the great country songwriters of the last century. He is best known for writing the music to “The Tennessee Waltz.” And that’s as good a reason as any to listen to David Bromberg’s great version of the song:

The great singer and songwriter Irma Thomas is 73 today. I love her work and especially the album Live: Simply the Best. Here she is doing “It’s Raining”:

Other birthdays: Bloody Mary (1516); inventor of the battery Alessandro Volta (1745); physicist Ernst Mach (1838); stainless steel inventor Harry Brearley (1871); actor Edward Arnold (1890); pediatrician Hans Asperger (1906); actor George Kennedy (89); cartoonist Johnny Hart (1931); novelist Toni Morrison (83); talentless rich person Yoko Ono (81); film writer-director John Hughes (1950); actor Cybill Shepherd (64); singer Juice Newton (62); actor John Travolta (60); actor Greta Scacchi (54); actor Matt Dillon (50); and Molly Ringwald (46).

The day, however, belongs to the great film director Milos Forman who is 82 today. He has made some of my favorite films: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ragtime, and The People vs Larry Flynt. And he’s had some notable failures like Valmont. One thing I really like about him is that he works closely with writers but generally doesn’t take screen credit. Of course, on Valmont he did take screen credit. And I think it is illustrative. The film is based upon Les Liaisons dangereuses. At more or less the same time, Dangerous Liaisons was released and it is the one that everyone has seen. There are many reasons why Valmont is an inferior adaptation, but the biggest one is that Forman and co-writer Jean-Claude Carriere decided that the ending where the Marquise de Merteuil gets her comeuppance wasn’t necessary. They decided that it was only in the book to appeal to the moralistic culture of the time. I totally disagree. I think we very much want to see her taken down—not because she is immoral but because she is an awful person. But I think it is great that they grappled with that question and made a reasonable, if ultimately incorrect decision.

My favorite of Forman’s films is the director’s cut of Amadeus. If you have not read it, I recommend reading my rather long discussion of the difference between the original released version of Amadeus and the director’s cut. The original version is very good. But the director’s cut is great. And I don’t think anyone else has addressed the issue, but I don’t think I’m alone in noting that something was slightly off in the original. However, I will warn you that most people seem to prefer the nice safe original version. But I expect more from my readers.

It is almost impossible to pick a scene from Forman’s work. Although he makes beautiful films, what’s more important is that he’s good at telling two hour long stories. But I picked a scene from Ragtime. This is a subplot in the movie (but a large part of the novel). It’s very sweet and funny:

Happy birthday Milos Forman!

Isabelle Eberhardt’s Worthwhile Life

Posted on 17 Feb 2014 by Frank Moraes

Isabelle Eberhardt On this day in the early part of the 20th century, we saw three fine actors born. The first is Kathleen Freeman who was born in 1919. She was a character actor over five decades known for her acerbic roles. I’m sure you’ve seen her countless times. She was, for example, in 11 Jerry Lewis films where she was his foil. She was also in Support Your Local Sheriff. And, most of all, she played General Burkhalter’s sister in Hogan’s Heroes. She was always great, spicing up anything she was in.

Our second actor is Hal Holbrook who is 89 today. About a decade ago, I dragged my wife to see him in Mark Twain Tonight. I knew it from my childhood. Then as now, I think there is little that can compare to a great actor on stage all alone. But she had no idea what to expect and was high skeptical. Of course, she loved it. How can anyone not? He’s done much else of note. But I don’t think this part of his career gets enough attention. So here is seven minutes of him doing Twain:

And the third actor is Alan Bates who was born in 1934. He had a long and varied career. But I most remember him for two of his later films. First there is Claudius in Zeffirelli’s Hamlet. And then there is his fantastic performance as Jennings, the alcoholic butler, in Gosford Park. I wish Bates had lived longer.

Other birthdays: astronomer Tobias Mayer (1723); stethoscope inventor Rene Laennec (1781); the man they named the line after, Andre Maginot (1877); evolutionary biologist Ronald Fisher (1890); mathematician Abraham Fraenkel (1891); activist Huey Newton (1942); actor Rene Russo (60); if I were a southerner, a comedian who would embarrass me, Larry the Cable Guy (51); basketball player Michael Jordan (51); hack film director Michael Bay (49); and actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt (33).

The day, however, belongs to the writer and activist Isabelle Eberhardt who was born on this day in 1877. She lived much of her adult like in Algeria during the French occupation. And she was often in conflict with it as she worked to help the native people. I wrote about her last year with regard to a biopic about her, Isabelle Eberhardt. My initial assessment of her has only grown stronger the more I’ve learned. As I wrote then:

The film ends with Eberhardt’s death due to a flash flood that destroys her home. Right before the walls crumble, she says, “I want to live!” It is a movie cliche, of course. But in the context of her life, it is a fitting epithet of her. Because there is little doubt that in her 27 years, she lived a great deal more than those of us pushing twice that age.

Happy birthday Isabelle Eberhardt!

Ever Beautiful Tarot Cards

Posted on 16 Feb 2014 by Frank Moraes

Pamela Colman Smith On this day in 1884 the great filmmaker Robert J Flaherty was born. He is best known for making the first kinda-sorta first feature length documentary, Nanook of the North. I get kind of tired of people claiming that it isn’t a documentary. It is clearly the film from which grew the rich documentary ecosystem we have today. I also think this attitude reflects a naivete regarding just how real are today’s documentaries. The reality is always at least distorted. The question is whether what is presented is truthful and I think that Nanook is. The full film is available online. It is well worth checking out. Flaherty went on to have an interesting and often controversial work life. Check out anything you come upon.

Anna Mae Hays is 94 today. She was the first female general in the United States military, having served in World War II and the Korean War. From 1967 until her retirement, she was chief of the Army Nurse Corps. She retired shortly after receiving the rank of general. This was also true of Elizabeth Hoisington, the second woman to reach that rank. I don’t doubt that these women deserved the rank. I suspect they deserved the rank ten years earlier. But giving out the rank to woman about to retire was probably the army trying to ease into the modern world. No one would scream too loudly, given they were retiring. And then the army could move on to giving the rank when it was deserved. Anyway, Hays and Hoisington were both trailblazers.

The excellent British film director John Schlesinger was born in 1926. He directed a wide variety of films such as Far From the Madding Crowd, Marathon Man, and the unfairly maligned Honky Tonk Freeway. But he is best remembered for Midnight Cowboy. It is essentially Waiting for Godot in New York. In the following ending to the film, see if you don’t see what I mean with regard to the interdependence of the characters. And when Joe Buck puts his arm around Ratso at the end, it still kills me.

Other birthdays: Japanese painter Kano Eitoku (1543); ventriloquist Edgar Bergen (1903); actor Hugh Beaumont (1909); songwriter Sonny Bono (1935); screenwriter Vincent Ward (58); actor Ice-T (56); tennis player John McEnroe (55); and screenwriter Eric Red (53).

The day, however, belongs to the illustrator Pamela Colman Smith who was born on this day in 1878. She was closely associated with photographer Alfred Stieglitz who felt her work had a synaesthetic (multi-sensory) sensibility. She was also friends with poet William Butler Yeats, for whom she illustrated some books. But she is best know for the Waite-Smith tarot cards. Arthur Edward Waite wrote the booklet that went along with the cards, but the cards themselves are all Smith’s. You have doubtless seen them. Pretty much all tarot cards either use her designs, or are recreations of her designs. I remember them from my childhood. (Because I was raised by Satanists!) They are wonderful. Here are some samples:

Happy birthday Pamela Colman Smith!

Suffrage, Hamlet, and Galilean Moons

Posted on 15 Feb 2014 by Frank Moraes

Galileo Galilei On this day in 1820, the civil rights leader Susan B Anthony was born. She was an amazing woman who did a great deal, including organizing for women’s suffrage, starting the first women’s temperance movement, and founding the journal, The Revolution. She lived to be 86 years old, but unfortunately never saw women get the right to vote. I was fascinated with her when the United States government came out with a dollar coin with her on the face. It was a great coin because of the smaller size, replacing the totally ridiculous Eisenhower dollars. But a lot of people had a problem with it. How dare we celebrate a feminist on our money! What people actually said was that they confused it with the quarter. I don’t accept that; it is far more difficult to tell a dime from a penny by feel. Regardless, the coin was only minted from 1979 to 1981 and then in 1999. In its place, we now have the Sacagawea dollar which I love, partly because of the color. (One can do silver-copper coin tricks using the two dollars.) But no one today complains about the size of the dollar, even though it is exactly the same as the Anthony dollar. Regardless, here in California (and Florida, New York, West Virginia and Wisconsin), it is Susan B Anthony Day. So happy Susan B Anthony Day!

John Barrymore was born in 1882. He was one of the great actors. We especially know him for his Shakespearean acting. Here is a bit of a screen test of him performing Hamlet. At the beginning is Orson Welles talking about how great he was. Take my advice: never listen to Welles discuss Shakespeare. He was very good, but when he talks about Shakespeare, it’s drivel. But I think he is quite right about Barrymore. It is the best up to that time. Shakespearean acting has only gotten better, but this is still really good:

Other birthdays: French painter Charles-Andre van Loo (1705); philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748); Romanian painter Ion Andreescu (1850); great mathematician Alfred North Whitehead (1861); songwriter Walter Donaldson (1893); probably the least interesting of Les Six, Georges Auric (1899); actor Allan Arbus (1918); actor Harvey Korman (1927); actor Claire Bloom (83); screenwriter Troy Kennedy Martin (1932); singer-songwriter Melissa Manchester (63); actor Jane Seymour (63); Futurama creator Matt Groening (60); character actor Christopher McDonald (59); and journalist Josh Marshall (45).

The day, however, belongs to Galileo Galilei who was born on this day in 1564. I guess it is best to call him a scientist, although his most important work would now be called physics. I think mostly of his work on basic mechanics showing that gravitational acceleration is constant. This is because size of the gravitational force is proportional to an objects mass, but that is matched by its inertia. This is not a simple concept.

Galileo is probably better known for his enormous impact on astronomy. He was the first person to seriously apply the telescope to the field. And as a result, he saw things others did not, like the moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and sun spots. He was also a big proponent of heliocentrism, which got him in a bit of trouble with the Church. And personally, I think if you live your whole life without angering the religious dogmatists, you really haven’t lived.

Happy birthday Galileo Galilei!

Why Isn’t Alan Parker Making Films?

Posted on 14 Feb 2014 by Frank Moraes

Alan Parker Sometime around this day in 1818, the abolitionist Frederick Douglass was born. Given that he was born a slave, we don’t know exactly what day he was born. He only managed to escape after many attempts at the age of 30. His autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, is an amazing book. It shows the complexity of the slave-owner relationship without whitewashing its absolute brutality. I especially remember his discussion of what all the slaves considered a “good” plantation manager as one who would not take pleasure in whipping them. I always remember this when I come upon slavery apologists. And sadly, I come upon slavery apologists quite often. There are a lot of people, in the south especially, that while claiming that slavery was wrong, still want to argue that slaves were treated well. Other than having watched Gone With the Wind, I don’t know of any actual evidence they have to support their claims. On the other side, we not only have the testimony of escaped slaves like Douglass, we have the treatment of Nat Turner and countless testimonies of freed slaves after the Civil War. In this last category, I recommend Andrew Ward’s The Slaves’ War: the Civil War in the Words of Former Slaves. And you definitely should read Douglass’ autobiography.

Other birthdays: inventor of the typewriter Christopher Latham Sholes (1819); inventor Margaret Knight (1838); meteorologist Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (1869); painter Nina Hamnett (1890); comedian Jack Benny (1894); labor organizer Jimmy Hoffa (1913); actor Edward Platt (1916); mathematician Herbert Hauptman (1917); actor Vic Morrow (1929); actor Florence Henderson (80); dancer Gregory Hines (1946); magician Teller (66); radio host Terry Gross (63); actor Meg Tilly (54); and actor Simon Pegg (44).

The day, however, belongs to Alan Parker who is 70 today. He is one of my very favorite directors. And he hasn’t made a damned thing in over a decade! I don’t know why. Anyway, he is one of the most varied filmmakers ever. And yet, he has a clear visual style and storytelling perspective. To give you some idea, he directed Midnight Express, Mississippi Burning, The Commitments, and Evita. My personal favorite is Angel Heart, which I think is a perfect film. Sadly, Parker seems to regret doing the film because it doesn’t have an important message. If bringing important messages to the screen means more things like The Life of David Gale, I beg Parker to bring me more melodrama! Regardless, I don’t think Parker has ever made a film that wasn’t at least worth a try. And of his 14 films, 13 of them are definitely worth watching.

Happy birthday Alan Parker!

Grant Wood and Lots of Songs

Posted on 13 Feb 2014 by Frank Moraes

Grant Wood I just got word that Ralph Waite has died. You probably know him as the father on The Waltons. But more generally, he was a character actor—undoubtedly the most fulfilling kind of actor one can be on the screen. But I have long admired him for a film I’ve never seen. In 1980, he wrote and directed the film On the Nickel. It is the story of a ex-drunk who gets lonely for his old skid row drinking buddy. So he goes and finds him and stuff happens. Like I said, I haven’t seen the film, but it looks like an inspiring work. I do have mixed feelings about it. I’m not fond of people romanticizing drug addiction. On the other hand, the film clearly shows the drunks as more than the sum total of their problems. My hope for it is that it is as good as They Might Be Giants. And that is very good indeed. Here’s the trailer:

On this day in 1910, William Shockley was born. He is best remembered as the co-inventor of the transistor. So he is one of fathers of modern electronics. But he is most remembered for his beliefs in eugenics and racial differences in intelligence. The thing about all of this is that intelligence tests are a mess. I’ve discussed this a bit with regard to Jason Richwine and the Flynn effect. But regardless of the science, what we see with Shockley is racism dressed up as science. It just goes to show that you can easily be brilliant in one field and clueless in another.

And now, if you don’t mind, we are going to have a little musical interlude. There are a number of musicians with birthdays today. I don’t have a lot to say about any of them, so I’m mostly just going to present some songs. The first musician is Tennessee Ernie Ford who was born in 1919. Yesterday, I wrote about the Red Army Choir singing “Sixteen Tons.” That was a whole lot of fun, but it was Ford who had a mega-mega-mega-hit with the song. So get those fingers snapping, because here we go:

Peter Tork is 72 today. He was the member of The Monkeys who wasn’t all that cool with it. He was also the one with red hair. Here he is doing Goffin and King’s “Pleasant Valley Sunday”:

Peter Gabriel is 64 today. I used to be a huge fan of his, but I’ve been out of touch for some time. For now, let’s listen to his first solo single, “Solsbury Hill”:

And then the unique Henry Rollins is 53. He was, of course, the primary lead singer of Black Flag. It is interesting to see him now because he is so muscular. But he used to be a skinny little thing. He started working out because of all the violence at Black Flag concerts. Anyway, here he is with Rollins Band, doing a very good and funny song “Liar”:

Other birthdays: great Rococo painter Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682 or 1683); economist Thomas Malthus (1766); philosopher Lev Shestov (1866); economist Roy Harrod (1900); Burmese painter Aung Khin (1921); actor Kim Novak (81); actor George Segal (80); actor and personal man-crush Oliver Reed (1938); theologist Elaine Pagels (71); actor Donald Sumpter (71); actor Stockard Channing (70); and Jerry Springer (70).

The day, however, belongs to the great painter Grant Wood who was born on this day in 1891. He is best known for the painting American Gothic. I think it is a remarkable painting just because of its composition. Thematically, no one seems to really agree about it. Some have claimed that it is is satire about American repression and others think it is a celebration of American hard work. I side more with the satire crowd. Wood, of course, was satirizing nothing. But the painting does bring to mind the vacuousness of the American work ethic: we work a hard and long because that’s the way we are, and we get no special joy out of it. The father looks right at the observer, so one gets a sense of resolve from him. The daughter is looking away, providing a sense of acquiescence. For good and bad, it is a representation of America.

I haven’t seen a lot of other works by Wood, but nothing that I have seen is as powerful as American Gothic. But his work is quite impressive nonetheless. I see in his work a mature synthesis of a lot of different art trends. There is especially a lot of illustrative and “primitive” aspects to his landscapes. I would like to know more of his work. I’ve requested a number of books on him, so if he becomes another of my fascinations, I’m sure you’ll be hearing about it.

Birthplace of Herbert Hoover - Grant Wood

Happy birthday Grant Wood!

Chuck and Abe

Posted on 12 Feb 2014 by Frank Moraes

Charles Darwin Sid Caesar is dead. Unlike a lot of old icons, I actually knew that he was still alive. He was 91. As I get older, I am more and more aware that I’ve died a thousand deaths. When you get into your 90s, are you still the same person? What I’m getting at is the old joke/observation about an ax that has its handle changed and then its head changed. There’s a continuity there, but at the end, it isn’t the same ax. Anyway, Caesar was a funny guy—a bit broad for my tastes, but still funny. It is sad for his family, but the rest of us have all his movies and bad video tape of his shows. He ought to be able to rest in peace; he lived a worthwhile life.

On this day in 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born. He was a very impressive man who did a lot of good. I think that it makes perfect sense that he is such a hero to Barack Obama. I tend to see them very similarly. Neither were especially ideological. Lincoln had greatness forced on him by totally unreasonable southerners. Obama had mediocrity forced on him by totally unreasonable southerners. There are a lot of similarities. The kicker is that Lincoln’s secretary was named Obama, and Obama’s secretary was named Kennedy Lincoln. You can’t make this stuff up! Oh, wait, I guess you can.

Other birthdays: German physicist Heinrich Lenz (1804); novelist George Meredith (1828); labor leader John L Lewis (1880); Russian painter Marie Vassilieff (1884); theoretical physicist Julian Schwinger (1918); great film director Franco Zeffirelli (91); quiz show guy Charles Van Doren (88); actor of sorts Joe Don Baker (78); musician Ray Manzarek (1939); musician Michael McDonald (62); Pretty Good Privacy creator Phil Zimmermann (60); comedian Arsenio Hall (58); and actor Christina Ricci (34).

The day, however, belongs to Charles Darwin who was born on this day in 1809. I could write a whole book just bouncing around things that I associate him with. One example: I was working a Church-run computer lab last night. And in the other room a tutorial session was going on. I noticed that one of the tutors was carrying around a book with a title something like, “Evolution is a Myth.” I thought, “Great. And that’s the tutor!” That isn’t to say that one can’t be a perfectly fine tutor of math while holding such a ridiculous belief. But still, it doesn’t bode well.

A big issue with Darwin is that even most people who accept natural selection don’t really understand it. It is a shockingly simple but powerful idea. You know, I tend to be pretty hard on Richard Dawkins around here. But his books on evolution are really great. I highly recommend them. But by far the biggest honest misunderstanding is that somehow, all species are evolving into us. By this theory, alligators are not as evolved as monkeys. But that’s an honest mistake. The biggest deceitful misunderstanding is that we evolved from chimpanzees. By this logic, animals evolve and then some just stop. So animals were evolving into chimps and then some of them stayed that way but the better ones struggled on and became us. Now, I’m not saying that people don’t actually think this, but it is almost always the result of religious disinformation.

One thing that annoys me about Darwin is how many atheists use evolution to argue God doesn’t exist. That is such a pathetic argument. It does, of course, argue against Creationism. But we really need to be clear about what we are doing. I think it is sad that for both atheists and theists alike, evolution has become theological. It isn’t. It’s science. The only way that it is at all theological is in that many theists get their science from religious texts. Beyond that, we should let it rest.

Happy birthday Charles Darwin!

The Greatest Mankiewicz

Posted on 11 Feb 2014 by Frank Moraes

Joseph Mankiewicz On this day in 1847, the great inventor Thomas Edison was born. Okay, I said he was great, now I can get to the point. I really have a problem with him. He was brilliant when he was young, but eventually he became Edison Inc, and that was a bad thing. At that point, it wasn’t about literally bringing good things to light, it was about making as much money as possible. His fight with Westinghouse is particularly telling. Because Edison had all the patents for DC, he tried to discredit AC as a method of delivering power. If the government had fallen for this, we would have been screwed for decades. DC is a terrible way to deliver power, except over very shot distances. Another example involves the creation of Hollywood. If Edison had had his way, film never would have become the great art form it did. His patent did nothing but price filmmakers out of work. It is a great example of how innovation thrived despite the patent system, not because of it.

The great singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow is 52 today. My opinion of her went way down when she hooked up with Kid Rock. I figure he must be great in bed. At least, I hope so, because it can’t be his intelligence or talent that attracted her. Anyway, here she is doing her song “Home”:

Other birthdays: photographic pioneer Henry Fox Talbot (1800); Egyptologist Auguste Mariette (1821); great American physicist Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839); great portrait painter Ellen Day Hale (1855); Futurist painter Carlo Carra (1881); nuclear physicist Leo Szilard (1898); boxer Max Baer (1909); novelist Sidney Sheldon (1917); actor Eva Gabor (1919); sex researcher Virginia Johnson (1925); Ginger Grant on Gilligan’s Island, Tina Louise (80); actor Burt Reynolds (78); songwriter Gerry Goffin (75); and actor Jennifer Aniston (45).

The day, however, belongs to the great film director Joseph Mankiewicz who was born on this day in 1909. He was also a great screenwriter. He won the Academy Award as both writer and director twice for A Letter to Three Wives and All About Eve. Some of his other cinematic triumphs are Somewhere in the Night, The Ghost and Mrs Muir, and Sleuth. But he is also the man who took charge of the brewing catastrophe that was Cleopatra, and made it into a great film. I don’t think of Mankiewicz was a terribly innovative filmmaker. But he knew how to tell a story on film better than most. I greatly admire him. Here is a bit of his version of Julius Caesar:

Happy birthday Joseph Mankiewicz!

Joseph Stiglitz and Carole King

Posted on 09 Feb 2014 by Frank Moraes

Joseph Stiglitz Note: Today in Thomas Paine‘s birthday. I screwed up and celebrated it on 29 January. I’m really sorry about this. I saw the “old style” calendar date and ran with it. What can I say, I got excited. Go and read what I wrote and you’ll see.

It was fifty years ago today
That the Beatles went on Ed to play
They have never gone out of style
But anymore they do not make me smile
So may I introduce to you
The act you’ve known for all these years
The Beatles on Ed Sullivan!

Watching these old performances, I’m reminded of two things: George isn’t a bad rhythm guitarist and Paul is a wonderful bassist. Otherwise: ugh!

The great singer and songwriter Carole King is 72 today. Before she became a legend as a singer, she was a songwriting legend with her then husband Gerry Goffin in the 1960s. I don’t know how many Top 40 hits, they wrote, but we are certainly talking dozens. They wrote songs such as “Take Good Care of My Baby,” “The Loco-Motion,” and “Pleasant Valley Sunday.” But their greatest song is probably “Will You Love Me Tomorrow.” She later covered the song on her megahit album Tapestry. And since I have a special fondness for her vulnerable take on the song, here she is doing it live:

Other birthdays: Hungarian mathematician Farkas Bolyai (1775); novelist Anthony Hope (1863); another Hungarian mathematician Lipot Fejer (1880); twelve-tone composer Alban Berg (1885); actor Ronald Colman (1891); illustrator Frank Frazetta (1928); songwriter Barry Mann (75); novelist J M Coetzee (74); singer and songwriter Barbara Lewis (71); and the fine actor Mia Farrow (69).

The day, however, belongs to the great economist Joseph Stiglitz who is 71 today. I know him from his popular books like The Price of Inequality and Freefall. But unlike with most economists, I actually understand his academic work. And it is really important. I get so frustrated hearing people with a small amount of economics knowledge say things like, “We can’t raise the minimum wage; it will cost jobs; it’s just simple supply and demand!” Sadly, this is more or less what I hear from real conservative economists who know far more economics than I do. Stiglitz’s work deals with what I think is a critical problem with all this economic theory. He showed the effects of information asymmetries on markets. And wouldn’t you know: he found that the supposedly perfect markets were anything but. Of course, Stiglitz is not the only one to work on information asymmetries. People have been working on that for a long time, but he was the one with the major breakthrough. I still find it amazing that conservatives hang onto neoclassical models of the economy. But I guess the money is better as an apologist than an economist. Here is Stiglitz giving a brief TEDx Talk:

Happy birthday Joseph Stiglitz!

My Long Dead Friend Robert Burton

Posted on 08 Feb 2014 by Frank Moraes

Robert Burton The great mathematician and physicist Daniel Bernoulli was born in 1700. There are a lot of Bernoullis in the history of science. But Daniel is the guy you’ve actually heard of. He’s the guy who developed Bernoulli’s Principle. This is an application of conservation of energy for fluid flow. Basically: as a fluid flows faster, its pressure goes down. This is brilliantly explained in the image of Venturi Flow on Wikipedia. Bernoulli also made important contributions to statistics.

The great classical composer Joseph Leopold Eybler was born in 1765. He is probably best known today as a friend of Mozart. And it is perhaps fitting that the end of his career came when he had a stroke while conducting Mozart’s Requiem Mass. As a composer, he mostly wrote sacred music. But I’m not in the mood. So here is his Clarinet Concerto in B-Flat Major. It was written in 1798, when Eybler was still very much under the influence of Mozart:

The great novelist Jules Verne was born in 1828. I haven’t ever read him, even in translation. I think. Maybe I did when I was a kid. But I was shocked to read that in the he was probably the most translated author in the world in the 1960s and 1970s. Since then, he’s been second after Agatha Christie. So I should pick up one of his books. Around the World in Eighty Days sounds like fun, and it’s free on the Kindle!

Other birthdays: last of the Classical philosophers Proclus (412); satirist and poet Samuel Butler (1612); film director King Vidor (1894); actor Jack Lemmon (1925); musical composer Joe Raposo (1937); actor Nick Nolte (73); singer-songwriter Tom Rush (73); comedian Robert Klein (72); actor Mary Steenburgen (61); and actor Seth Green (40).

The day, however, belongs to the English scholar Robert Burton who was born on this day in 1577. He is best know for being a witty depressive. It was said that when he wasn’t depressed, he was “very merry, facete, and juvenile.” That sounds pretty much like all my closest friends. It also sounds rather like me. And being a depressive, he wanted to know about it and maybe even cure it. So he wrote one of those wonderfully idiosyncratic books that one occasionally delights to find, The Anatomy of Melancholy. Wikipedia describes it as, “Burton’s book consists mostly of a collection of opinions of a multitude of writers, grouped under quaint and old-fashioned divisions; in a solemn tone Burton endeavored to prove indisputable facts by weighty quotations.” It uses all of the “sciences” of the time including “psychology and physiology, but also astronomy, meteorology, and theology, and even astrology and demonology.” And it discussed various topics including “digestion, goblins, the geography of America.” Its digressive style is said to verge on “stream of consciousness.” And it is long. The first edition was 900 pages long, but later editions got longer as he added to it. Burton seems to have been the Jacobean Walt Whitman. He sounds like a complete delight. Reading about him made me feel so much less lonely in the universe.

Happy birthday Robert Burton!

Lewis, Dickens, and Philips

Posted on 07 Feb 2014 by Frank Moraes

Sinclair Lewis On this day in 1812, the great novelist Charles Dickens was born. I admire him as a writer. He was a master storyteller. Just the same, I think that I’ve only ever read A Tale of Two Cities and The Adventures of Oliver Twist. I look at David Copperfield and Bleak House and (Good God!) The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, and I just can’t bring myself to pick up the books. There is a difference between pacing and plodding. I have a theory. Every book ever written could be improved by being cut by 10%. The 19th century novels could generally be cut by 50%. Just saying.

The comedian Emo Philips is 58 today. I don’t have much to say about him. It is just an opportunity to present some of his act. He is one of the greats:

Other birthdays: philosopher Thomas More (1478); novelist Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867); mathematician G H Hardy (1877); great songwriter Eubie Blake (1887); saxophonist King Curtis (1934); actor Pete Postlethwaite (1946); actor James Spader (54); total fucktard Garth Brooks (52); comedian Chris Rock (49); and another fucktard Ashton Kutcher (36).

The day, however, belongs to the great American novelist Sinclair Lewis who was born on this day in 1885. Like most people, I know him from two novels: It Can’t Happen Here, about fascism coming to America in the form of a Huey Long or a Father Coughlin; and Elmer Gantry, a satirical novel about religion in the 1920s. The great thing about both novels is that they are as relevant today as ever. We have our fascist leaning politicians today, but they don’t offer economic populism, they offer social populism. And Elmer Gantry would require basically no changes to modernize it to today. Of course, Lewis is much more than just a political writer. He is arguably better than John Steinbeck in terms of creating vivid characters. There is perhaps no higher compliment I could pay.

Happy birthday Sinclair Lewis!

Francois Truffaut and the Babe

Posted on 06 Feb 2014 by Frank Moraes

Francois Truffaut On this day in 1895, Babe Ruth was born. He is generally considered the greatest baseball player of all time. I don’t think this is true. For one thing, it doesn’t make much sense to compare different positions and different times. One thing is true: Ruth was part of a revolution in the game. In the early days, the game was all about being able to finesse the ball into an empty part of the field. But then the game changed to the home run focused game it now is. It doesn’t really matter, but I do think the game was more interesting back then. But I’m not sure that with all the great advances in pitching that batters could still play in the old way. Maybe just hitting the ball as hard as possible is the only option.

Other birthdays: mathematician Scipione del Ferro (1465); duel winner Aaron Burr (1756); French portrait painter Achille Deveria (1800); French Fauvist painter Othon Friesz (1879); ideologue, racist, and big government conservative Ronald Reagan (1911); Hitler’s girlfriend Eva Braun (1912); actor Zsa Zsa Gabor (97!); actor Patrick Macnee (92!); cinematographer Haskell Wexler (92!); actor Rip Torn (83); actor Mike Farrell (75); actor Jacques Villeret (1951); independent filmmaker Robert Townsend (57); and actor Alice Eve (32).

The day, however, belongs to the great film director Francois Truffaut who was born on this day in 1932. I will admit, I’m not a huge fan of the French New Wave. It’s not that I don’t get it. I just don’t especially enjoy it—at least at this point in my life. Truffaut was first a film theorist, and this is where he can be at his most annoying. This very much seeped into his filmmaking. Nonetheless, Truffaut is probably my favorite of the New Wave directors. His first film, The 400 Blows, is the prototypical New Wave film. And it is very good. Personally, I’m more fond of Shoot the Piano Player. I don’t really like to talk about Jules and Jim, seeing as how much it has scarred me. Truffaut went to Hollywood and made Fahrenheit 451, which I think is a very weak effort. The film that most stands out to me is Day for Night, which I still really love. Here is the great “cat actor” scene:

Happy birthday Francois Truffaut!

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