So my first Thanksgiving not spent with family went over pretty well. It is my second-favorite holiday of the year (after the Christmas season - which is really more of a season), so though it isn't at all a part of their history, it still causes pitty to think that the French don't celebrate. Yes, your lack of pilgrim ancestors might be a problem, but it's just such a great day. Family, parades, good food, and festive Fall-ness. So though some things were missing off that list, we did our best to carve a little island of Plymouth for the French today. We cooked and ate dinner at my friend John's apartment with his extended host family and did a pretty good job of it. No pumpkin pie, but a full meal and plenty with which to fill outselves.
I've had many things to be thankful for this year and much appreciate them. Hope you have all enjoyed yourselves and the long weekend. Love to familiy and friends - though we pulled off a successful version of the day in France, I still wish I could have been there with you.
Today was pretty uneventful, so lacking any new stories, here are some thoughts introduced by YouTube videos.
Sadly, this one isn't really that good, but it gives me an excuse to mention Howards End. In my political economics class yesterday I was struck by how much our discussion could be broken down and explained as that book. The question was what to do about child labor and other such practices in China and elsewhere. Is this a cost to be paid on the only road to development and growth? Should we declare a universal standard of morality that we owe responsibility to prevent this happening? Suddenly, one side of the room the Wilcoxes, and the other the Schlegel sisters, the workers cast as the Basts, and the professor's proposition perhaps the child. A question a century ago and now.
And so we have the lesson for today: Sesame Street and its eventual dumbing down. About two years ago I attended a presentation on puppetry and Jim Henson given by Stephanie d'Abruzzo, star of Avenue Q and longtime Sesame Street puppeteer. Besides a chance to see some early Henson work, the most interesting part of her talk was her discussion of the changes she noticed during her years working on the show. At its inception the show had a strongly education purpose and contained a mix of simple children's humor to some directed to go over their heads. Turn on the show now and you might not recognize it from its original format. Now, while the educational purpose is still there, the visuals are an overwhelming, overstimulating mess, the humor reduced, and long-running character plots given less weight. What this is reflecting is a shift in television habits and consquently audience targets. Originally, the target group was children ages 3-5 with parents, hence the more sophisticated material. They needed to engage both these young children and their parents. But then, according to Ms. d'Abrubzzo, the target shifted in the late 1990s, gearing itself at kids ages 1 (or earlier) up to two or three. At this age, the focus shifts to visual stimulation and pure entertainment. This doesn't help to fight against viewership patterns, encouraging parents to watch with kids, nor does it act in the same role it once did, targeting education in underserved culutrally-deprived youth.
My problem here, why I feel this is a loss, is the same problem I have with the Disney-ification of classic fairy tales. By removing the death and other challenging elements from these stories, they're neutered of their original purpose. They're not just entertainment, but a way of introducing kids to some of the realities of life. And while Sesame Street once did this (and mentioned inflation - on a kid program!), I really doubt you'd see that today. And kids go unhelped by pretty pictures.
This NYT piece from this past weekend looks back at early Sesame Street from a contemporary perspective. Just one quote to back up my earlier point: "I asked Carol-Lynn Parente, the executive producer of “Sesame Street,” how exactly the first episodes were unsuitable for toddlers in 2007. She told me about Alistair Cookie and the parody 'Monsterpiece Theater.' Alistair Cookie, played by Cookie Monster, used to appear with a pipe, which he later gobbled. According to Parente, 'That modeled the wrong behavior” — smoking, eating pipes — 'so we reshot those scenes without the pipe, and then we dropped the parody altogether.' "
"Detroit was pegged the nation's murder capital in the 1980s and has lost nearly 1 million people since 1950".
Monday, November 19, 2007
In an Alex Ross piece I was reading the other night, he mentions an architectural guide during a tour in Germany complaining that a new building in the Potsdamer Platz had too many right angles and thus revived an authoritarian aesthetic. This was a new perspective through which to view my earlier comments on the modern architecture in Strasbourg. Has European architecture been put through the same Adorno-esque neo-classical rejection that German music has? Are purposely esoteric atonal musical events and the ECHR drawn from the same well?
Later I was listening to John Adam's Nixon in China. The hyper-classical pronunciation managed turned a chorus of cheers into a running call for chairs. Cheers/Chairs. Adams and frequent collaborator Peter Sellars have a new piece, Doctor Atomic, which premiered at the San Francisco Opera in 2005 and is part of the Lyric Opera of Chicago's season this winter. I hope to see it in January when I'm back there. Concerning the test of the first atomic bomb, it paints Robet Oppenheimer as a modern day Faust, the question of his soul hanging in the balance against the bomb. Though while Fuast in the end loses his immortal soul, Oppenheimer's journey is to the discovery he has one - so the librettist decides. The construction of the libretto is also pretty fascinating. Every line comes from transcripts of the sceientists, declassified documents, related poetry (Oppenheimer had a book of Baudelaire in his pocket at the first test and supposedly reacted to the detonation by quoting from Donne; his wife is given voice through the words of her contemporary, poet Muriel Rukeyser), and other contemporary writings on the Manhattan project.
So I'm liking the French a lot less this week. The metro has been on strike (again) since Tuesday night. And while my line is running some of its trains, packing myself into these over-crowded cars has given my new sympathies for sardines. And I'd also like to issue a blanket apology to every person in whose back/side/chest/thigh/head I've found my elbow/hand/knee/bag/hip. Wednesday wasn't so bad, most likely because everyone else assumed the metro would be closed, so it was only a little crowded. But then on Thursday I couldn't even get into trains. And yesterday was somewhat violating.
And then supposedly early this week ahead, the museums, postal service, and other general services. Meanwhile in the university system (and being in a grand école, this I am spared) the student strikes still piddle on. I still don't really get student strikes - seems like they're only hurting themselves - but this is what the French get for making this some sort of constitutional rights. It kind of makes me miss the US, where we can just declare this illegal.
Still yesterday was fun. Got a haircut, went to Shakespeare & Co. with Tony and then grabbed coffee, then we had a dinner party at Garrett's apartment for his and Tony's birthdays, which had been during the last two weeks. We made a surprisingly good dinner, too (credit largely to Garrett and Gracie).
My internet in the apartment hasn't been working since Wednesday either, so I'm in the library at Sciences Po right now, taking care of email, checking up on the world, and trying to save some articles and research for these papers I've realized are due in two and three weeks. The end is coming surprisingly fast.
So yesterday we had a field trip to Strasbourg, to visit the Council of Europe and the European Parliament. The former is not actually a body of the EU, but rather a separate organization which has been around since 1949 and has 47 members to the EU's 27. Also, its only real power is limited to the European Convention on Human Rights and running the European Court of Human Rights, which ensures compliance.
The Parliament, meanwhile, is one of the legislative arms of the EU. It has confirmation powers over commissioners and new members and is one of two bodies that must vote in laws. We sat in on an hour of a session and then had a brief lecture. Unfortunately the session was not debate on current proposed legislation, but instead a hearing of the interests of EUMPs. They had a dozen different translators running, to keep everyone up with the changing speakers. Some of these were legitimate - asking the EU to consider how to ensure border security on the edges of the Schengen area - but others seemed a little further outside the body's competencies - complaining about FIFA rulings regarding Northern Ireland's status within soccer leagues.
But the lesson here has nothing to do with European governance, it has to do with architecture. Strasbourg has best presented to me so far the enormous gap France seems to manage between its older buildings and its attempts at modern architecture. I had gotten a bit of this last Friday passing through the business center of La Defense and looking out at traditional Paris, but Strasbourg beat even that. The main part of the city is absolutely beautiful. Little cobblestone streets and buildings that give the look of some sort of German fairy tale. Brothers Grimm without all the gristly endings. Or maybe Santa’s village. And then you have the more recent additions. The train station is a strange, glass bubble. The Council of Europe headquarters is some sort of Japanese temple gone wrong. The Parliament looks like the dystopian future. And the Court of Human Rights looks like the Jetsons threw up. This problem was present in Brussels too, at the Commission. It was one of those glass and colorful piping playground buildings.
I have nothing against modern architecture, only the ugly and ridiculous variety. Maybe I’m just biased, but I like the more dignified Greek revival look of American government centers. The columns of the Supreme Court, the dome of the Capitol building. There’s a certain staid respectfulness these buildings force upon you. And perhaps that’s Europe’s problem. It’s hard to take the EU seriously when their buildings look like Isaac Asimov. Well, that and EUMPs who decide the Parliament is the best avenue to argue with FIFA.
See the difference: Classic Strasbourg
The Train Station Bubble
I suppose what's really necessary, in a much more general sense, is to strike the balance between decently looking architecture and decently functional buildings. For though they fall too far into spheres and city-of-tomorrow with their new work, the older buildings show their age a great deal when it comes to facilities. So I'm not against new buildings (or even replacing the old ones), I just don't want to feel like I've wandered into Jules Verne's voyage to the moon.
So now that’s it’s the weekend and not a terribly inviting day outside, I thought I’d sit down and write up some notes on last week’s trip.
The weekend before had been great. Mom and Dad got in Thursday and stayed through Tuesday morning. In the four days they had, we managed to do most of the city, hitting the big monuments, checking out some museums, and even getting down to Versailles. I loved getting to visit with them and being able to show them around.
Then Tuesday, while they made their way up to Germany, I took off to enjoy my week’s break from classes, heading to Italy. My train didn’t leave until early afternoon, so that day was spent just traveling. I got into Milan fairly late in the evening, found some authentic Italian pizza for dinner, and turned in so I would be refreshed for the next day.
Wednesday I wandered around Milan before taking a train to Rome. I first went to the Duomo, the cathedral in the center of the city. Impressive both in size and design, it may top my list of favorite church interiors. The stained glass captured the light perfectly and paintings were hung along the sides of the aisles. From there, I walked to La Scala, Milan’s famous opera house. Compared to other houses I’ve been to and seen, particularly the Met, City Opera, or the Operas Bastille and Garnier in Paris, it’s actually rather small. The theatre itself is probably no larger than a mid-sized Broadway theatre. The intimacy has to be good for acoustics, though. Attached to the theatre was a small museum, with a collection of famous composers’ scores, instruments, paintings, and some costumes and designs from past productions. I wandered back through the historic center of the city, through the Castelo Sforzesco (the moat of which seemed to have attracted a large band of stray cats) and back towards the Duomo. I also found the best gelato I’ve ever had. After a little confusion with train details, I was then on my way to Rome. I got in late there and again turned in for the night.
The next morning two of my friends from the program, Delphine and Jenna, arrived from Florence. We found our hotel, dropped off our bags, and started on day one of sightseeing. We focused on the north-center of the city, walking from the Spanish Steps and Trinitia dei Monti, down Via del Corso to the Trevi Fountain and Pantheon, over to the Piazza Navonna, up to the Piazza del Popolo. One of the best things about Rome is that you can be walking through streets and suddenly, mixed in with the buildings one- or two-hundred years old, there are suddenly ancient remains as well. Even more than Paris, the history of this city was tangible as you passed through it. Another fun moment was at the Piazza del Popolo when we climbed up a hill to see the view and realized the big dome in the distance was that of St. Peter’s.
Day two took us down to the ancient Roman ruins. We started at the Coliseum, which is just as impressive in person as it is in pictures. The classic image of Christians and lions, it turns out, isn’t a terribly accurate depiction of the building. Those were rare, and only under one emperor, while criminals (and later fame-seekers) fighting to brutal public deaths, re-enacting famous fights or showing off exotic animals were much more common. Before the maze beneath the floor was built, it would be flooded and famous naval battles re-enacted. Also interesting, the one emperor (the one from the movie Gladiator, I think) who would compete as a gladiator in fixed battles and the slaves dressed as Charon who would take away the dead after battles. Centuries later, after much neglect, botanists took an interest in the building as seeds that had traveled with the exotic animals had grown up into a botanical gardens.
From there, we climbed the Palatine Hill to see the ruins of Dioceltian’s palace. It must have been one of the most massive structures I can imagine. The social room took up at least two football fields, while the indoor racetrack was the size of another. And the building was five stories in total. One small, but very interesting place of note on the hill was the stone beneath which is supposedly the heart of Romulus, founder of Rome. I also had to notice all the pine trees – Respighi’s Pines of Rome? We then circled down, past the Circus Maximus, of which only a small bit of wall remains. At the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, we saw the Bocca della Verita, a carving of a face, the mouth of which will supposed bite off the hand of anyone telling a lie. While wandering back north from there, we ended up at the Museo Capitolini, where we were able to see Bernini’s bust of the Medusa and the famous bronze wolf sculpture from 5 BC. The museum also gave a great view of the ruins of the Roman Forum.
Saturday took us to the Vatican. We wandered through the museums, which have a great collection of ancient sculpture and artwork as well as Renaissance works. The Sistine Chapel, though small than I expected, is just as astounding as I’d thought it would be. Just the scope of it and the painters who contributed are enough to amaze. Two fun facts: One cardinal became annoyed with the liberties Michelangelo was taking in his depictions and complained, but was not heeded. Michelangelo heard about his complains, though, and painted him with donkey ears in hell in “The Last Judgment.” The other fun fact isn’t really fun; it’s more something I found absolutely absurd. Pictures aren’t allowed in the Chapel. Only this has nothing to do with preservation, but rather than the restoration in the mid-1980s was funded by Fujifilm and for it they were given exclusive rights to images of the Chapel. St. Peter’s was also pretty amazing. While not the most beautiful church I’ve been in, it is still impressive for its size and the amount of art contained in it. There is also at least one mummified saint on display. There’s just something about the Vatican and being surrounded by so much great art.
That afternoon we ended up back over by the Spanish Steps. Delphine took us to this café, famous for the writers, musicians and other people of note who frequented it in the 1800s. Found more gelato by the Trevi Fountain, though it wasn’t quite as good as that in Milan.
Delphine and Jenna took off Sunday morning, while I had the day to wander, as my train wasn’t until the next morning. I retraced many of the places from the first day, glad to do it sun rather than rain. The ruins and Vatican had been great weather, but the first day in Rome had been light rain for most of the day. I also took in a few small churches in the more eastern areas of the city, including Santa Maria Maggiore. While heading back at the end of the day, I ended up near a government building at the Quirinale and happened upon a military band presentation, with full pomp and circumstance.
Monday’s train trip back to Paris was a long one, but the views between Rome and Florence were great and I managed to finish both E. M. Forster’s Howards End and re-reading Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass. It was a trip I was really glad to have made. It also came at the perfect time, just before the last big surge of work for classes hits and gave me a break to get my head clear, relaxed, and ready for the end of the semester.
This past week flew by, with classes, participating in a debate on the relationship of national parliaments to EU decision-making, and a midterm on EU Political Economy. Friday morning we had a nice visit to Chateau Malmaison, the home of Empress Josephine – sort of like Versailles on a more modest scale.
I should hopefully have the last set of pictures up tonight. In the meantime, here’s a famous Rome movie moment, starring the Trevi Fountain:
More Rome photos, this time it's Day Two: Ancient Ruins. Again, I promise real stories will come eventually, but I've been distracted taking a position on the level of influence national parliaments need to have in EU Decision-Making.
Sorry it's been so long. I've been busy and away, but I'm finally back into routine in Paris for bit. First we had Mom and Dad's visit. It was great to see them and we managed to do most of Paris in the five days they were here. Then they left for Germany and I headed off to Italy, from which I returned just last night. One day in Milan and then four in Rome. Really terrific cities, especially Rome.
So for now, some pictures to tide everyone over until I have time (in between registration for the Winter, one last midterm, and starting some papers) to write some proper notes.
