People That You Admire

[mariab]

That's funny. I just changed my easyjet ticket to Paris to a later date (for the costly amount of 31-€). I happen to have a maîtrise (Bachelor's degree) from the Sorbonne IV in French lit too, from the Gribenski era, when he was head of department there. The reason why I didn't continue at the Sorbonne is precisely their lame, ultra-conservative way of teaching and the never ending strikes. I came to Berlin and did musicology and theater studies. (I'll attach my resume in a later post.) Funny thing is, I had just been accepted to study voice at the École Normale de Musique with Mady Mesplé, but I decided to drop it (very regretfully), in search of an academic environment where independent research was more encouraged, as I was interested in research equally (if not more) than in the singing. So Berlin it became.
Marivaux' plays I love too (he's very similar to Musset, only with happier endings).
Russian plays featuring cannibalism?? About Andrei Chikatilo?! I love Chekhov, from the plays to the short stories, everything. By the by, if you ever encounter The Good Michael on the forums, he's directing Chekhov oneacters with his students in Kazachstan.
Erlkönig? Ouch. I'm afraid Schubert as an opera composer doesn't really manage. But I adore his chamber music, and especially his Unfinished Symphony. If you like Erlkönig, you might enjoy Weber's Der Freischütz (adapted into Robin des bois in France). My special field at my job is Giacomo Meyerbeer (the greatest opera composer of the 19th century, in my opinion, we're working on his rehabilitation with a critical edition) and Rossini/Verdi. Mozart too, although I'm not working on him currently.
I'm not quite sure if our posts belong in this thread, but since it's about people we admire...what the hell. Apologies to all.

[Sister Hyde]

I'm not sure Gribenski is still at the head of the letters departement, and i was very glad i didn't have to deal with these teachers very often being a student in Scandinavian languages and civilisation, even my litterature courses were handled by scandinavian professors (back then Régis Boyer had just stopped teaching and was only giving conferences, so we got mister Einar Jonsson for both scandinavian litterature and ancient scandinavian civilization). I can definitely imagine that Berlin could offer you a way of researching the way you like to do it, in France the education says THAT, so THAT is what you have to do if you want your damn diploma! it's a very strange thing i think about france, from a very young age you are taught about debauchery, studying authors like Sacher Masoch and the Marquess for example, BUT surely you musn't have your own mind about it, you don't need to think, everything is already written for you.
Yes a russian play featuring scenes of cannibalism, can't rememeber which exactly, but i rememeber getting nuts on my butcher in the play because every day i came, and he had absolutely no meat whatsoever ("not even butterflies"), so in the end we just ate him. Yes i did encounter the Good Michael, but he didn't mention THAT. i almost went to his country about 4 years ago for touring, a guy was proposing us to play in a venue, then my fatjer said "don't even think about it, i'm not letting my daughter go to Kazachstan especially not to perform a "black metal" gig, they'll just kill you", so we cancelled the date.
I'm not very found of Schubert in general, but the version of Erlkönig sang by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is wonderfull, i love the german language in opera, it feels that all the rough angles of the language suddenly vanish.

[Tom_Wescott]

While watching the film 'Conviction' last night I was reminded of another person I admire very much, the lawyer Barry Scheck. His Innocence program has freed over 250 men from death row. In fact, it was Scheck's efforts in the late 90's that caused me to change my opinion on the death penalty. The idea of putting an innocent man to death is nightmarish, and it's clear that a remarkable number of people in prison are innocent (though clearly not the majority).

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[mariab]

To Sister Hyde:
Gribenski is emeritus since about the late 1990s. Yes, French college education is everything about attending lectures in an overcrowded amphitheater, listening passively, learning from a handbook, and passing generic exams, NOT being encouraged to think independently. The same in Italy, Spain, Greece, etc.. In Germany and in the US college students most frequently attend seminars in small groups, and are required to prepare papers from early on. How many of them figure out how to conduct research is another matter. I'm still saying that the best way to figure out how to do research is by yourself.
So you also play in a metal band? I like The Plasticines (which are not metal, but punk).
I know what you mean about how the German language sounds in opera. I love Fischer-Dieskau in Schubert's Winterreise, which I consider Schubert's masterpiece, along with the Unfinished Symphony. Schubert was an extremely decent and sympathetic person, he died poor and alone (from syphilis). Fischer-Dieskau's married to singer Julia Varady, and his son did a Master's at my college here in Berlin, and has just gotten a job conducting in Southeast Asia (with significant assistance by my Professor). Son's pretty much the typical case of a momma's boy, but the parents are great artists.

To Tom Wescott:
As most Europeans, I'm against the death penalty, but when I think of people like Bundy, Ramirez, Sutcliffe etc., I say, push that button and fry them alive (even better than inject them), with no reservation whatsoever.
Wasn't Barry Scheck on the O.J. Simpson defense team? But he seems to have redeemed himself with his "Project Innocence" since then. It's the truth that an amazing amount of people sitting on death row in the US are innocent.

[c.d.]

I was reading a book review the other day. It was a biography of Ginger Rogers. I love seeing her and Fred Astaire dance. And I have always loved the line that she did everything that Astaire did except she did it going backwards and wearing heels.

c.d.

[mariab]

Oh yeah, that line's clever, C.D.. I love the throw jumps Ginger Rogers's doing sometimes, they are similar to a single Axel in ice skating.
From ballett my all favorite is Rudolph Nurejev (both as a dancer and as a choreographer). I was most impressed as a little kid when seeing Gelsey Kirkland live (in an antique theater in Athens) in Giselle. Amazing technique and enegry. The part's first entrance occurs with some amazing jumps, and Kirkland was up there in the sky. :-)

[c.d.]

Hi Maria,

I am sure you know the famous story about Ginger Rogers concerning the multiple takes (over 40) that she did for the Never Gonna Dance scene from "Swing Time." When she took off her shoes, they were filled with blood.

c.d.

[mariab]

Didn't know that story, C.D., but dancers and bloody shoes really go together.
Like most ice skaters, I put make up-removal sponges (those that look like a round slice of cheese) on my ankles inside of my socks, against the outer metal part of the skate boot, which ensures that the skates hold down landing the double/triple jumps. After a while, these sponges are totalled to shreds and need renewal.
The movie Center stage accurately shows what all abuse classical dancers do to their pointe shoes to live them in: banging them against the wall, catching them and pressing them inside of a door frame, warming them up with a lighter, taking showers with them on. Yeah, the behind the scenes is a bit more punk than the glamorous stuff that goes on stage! :-)

[Sister Hyde]

ahahah yeah punk is much better than metal, nothing compares. what happened was that when i moved to sweden i got married to a "leader" of the northern black metal scene (who was also a very nice doctor in archeology untill he started to booze), so i first started to work for them, helping out with the labels, and so on, but they happened to have a drunk bass player who was not even bothering to show up for rehersals or even recording and who couldn't catch a break on stage because he was already dead drunk before the gigs, so i also started to fill in for him next to my "nanny" job.
If you are a free thinker you better never study in France, even in high school when you study philosophy, you can never write your own analysis of the subject or of the question,you just have to spit out everything the teacher made you write, and if by any chance you actually dare to, you'll get a beautiful 0 with "out of the subject" next to it. which is rather bothering because originally philosophy is the essence of thinking for yourself, the only way to be a "brilliant" student in france, is to be a savant dog, but definitely not a "mind". the crowded amphitheaters was also why i didn't choose a big cursus, but instead went to study Norwegian and Icelandic in LLCE, it was so much sweeter to have classes of only 5 or 7 students at most (although the history, litterature, modern and ancient civilization were courses for all the students rgardless of the level and was about 40 people). my father first wanted to force me to study law (in other words, the trashbin of the Sorbonne, what people study when they don't really know what they want), or english (which basically doesn't give you a chance to find a job after). i tried to sign in for toxicology, but it could be learned only in police academy or pharma faculty, of course becoming a cop was a no-no, and the pharmacetical faculty is....well extremly tough (having had many friends there and assisting many time to their lessons) and you can't start toxicology from the beginning, you already need a bachelor degree. so now, i research toxicology on my own (it's nice to have friends noth in the police and in this faculty cause they can bring you a looot of books from their programs, that you would almost never find, even by Gilbert jeunes).
oh my!! this thread is going all directions!

[mariab]

Me too, I love punk rock and grunge, not metal. Bassist, eh? Nice. But black metal I find pretty much .
Funny with the Icelandic. Do you also speak it fluently? Earlier today I emailed a shop distributor for Nikita clothing (which is an Icelandic snowboard sponsor) and this guy from them answered a few hours later and says it's still possible to ride the Snaeffels glacier, only right now there's no infrastructure, so one has to hike about an hour or ride with the snow cat (which is a special snow vehicle, not some kind of Icelandic snow feline). I still need to ask him to recommend accommodation, as the Hostels are all listed in Icelandic, and the only thing I was able to make out are the email addresses and phone numbers.
Good luck with toxicology.

[Sister Hyde]

Yeah it's pretty gross alright, also very untight, and always the same, and well, the people are no genius in general too (and no i am no bassist, i just happen to have guitar notions, I'm a vocalist, and i dream of playing tenor sax and drums).
I can still understand icelandic but i focused more on norwegian and swedish, and after that i learned dutch, and now i'm going to hit russian, so i'll develop my icelandic further later. ahahah i had never heard of icelandic snow cats, i only know norwegian forest cats like the furballs sleeping on my pillow.

[mariab]

I guess for black metal rythm bass one doesn't have too much to do as a bassist. At the worse, one follows the example of Sid Vicious, who was there just for show, reportedly not allowed to play on the Sex Pistols recordings due to his quasi inexisting guitar skills. An amazing French bassist I know (from Hossegor, playing in a surf band who specializes in covers, but they've got one album with their own songs out) plays with his teeth, sometimes for an entire song! He's in his mid 20s, and also a sponsored surfer.
The part about the Icelandic snow cats was a joke. That guy was referring to a snow vehicle, not an animal.
Good luck with your music and with all the languages.

[Sister Hyde]

I've lost track on surf rock music for a looong time so i dunno who you're talking about, but i'll check it out when a can put on some sound (watching a musician play without sound would be rather stupid). ahah yeah i understood the joke, although i'm sure icelandic people would love having their own breed of cats.

[sleekviper]

William Hayward
John Pershing
Harlem Hellfighters

[Derrick]

Hi all

Arsene Wenger
To have a vision of beautiful football and realise it, the Arsenal Invincibles of 2003/4, coupled with sensible economics of how to run a football club without a rich sugar daddy. Like Herbert Chapman before him, his legacy will survive him intact and will be the model of football for the foreseeable future.

M K Gandhi
For having the nous to recognise that violence gets one nowhere and putting his own arse on the line to prove it. Plus his invention of the Mahatma coat/scarf/gloves jokes. Comic genius.

John Lennon
For writing some of the greatest songs of all time, the founder of the greatest rock group of all time and trying to inspire people to give peace a chance.

Paul Foot
For a dogged and continued expose of the hypocracy and illegal goings-on of the establisnment. He also exposed great miscarriages of justice against people of all classes, for instance the Army officer Colin Wallace and the Carl Bridgewater Four.

John Pilger
For his fearless reportage against rotten regimes across the world.

Hugh Fearney-Whittingstall
For encouraging people to take control of the means of production where ones food is concerned. His campaign to discredit the EU's fishery quota policy needs our upmost support.

Karl Marx
For writing Capital.

JMW Turner
For single handedly inventing impressionist painting and being a tight bastard to the very end...leaving over 20,000 works to the nation.

Charles Darwin
It was not his theory as such but his eventual courage to publish the Origin of Species before Alfred Russel Wallace did.

Leonardo daVinci
All round clever bastard as Ian Dury would say.

Chaucer
For writing the Canterbury Tales in English.

Shakespeare
The greatest poet of all time.

Bob Dylan
For being the greatest poet of the 20th century and answering stupid questions from the press with a stupid answer. Also changing popular culture (with the Beatles), forever.

Noam Chomsky
The father of modern linguistics and the vanguard of dissident politics in the West.

Rosa Parks
For just saying no to an unfair state of affairs in what was the so called cradle of democracy.

The Guess Who
For almost being the greatest group on the planet but became one of the most right on. Don't take my word for it...listen to the music.

Tommy Cooper
For just being as funny as f**k.

That will do for now

Derrick