Pre-Naramata Bench Blues: Monday, March 24th

The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it. -Jean-Paul Sartre, writer and philosopher (1905-1980) 

Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, ((21 March 1763 – 14 November 1825), deserves credit for providing the seed of this quotation applied to an individual in 1795. His words were altered to yield a general maxim and appeared in English by 1837. Richter’s pen name of Jean Paul probably catalyzed the incorrect reassignment to Jean-Paul Sartre.

Jean Paul began his career as a man of letters with Grönländische Prozesse ("Greenland Lawsuits", published anonymously in Berlin) and Auswahl aus des Teufels Papieren ("Selections from the Devil's Papers", signed J. P. F. Hasus), the former of which was issued in 1783-84, the latter in 1789. These works were not received with much favour, and in later life even Richter had little sympathy for their satirical tone.
A spiritual crisis he suffered on 15 November 1790, in which he had a vision of his own death, altered his outlook profoundly. His next book, Die unsichtbare Loge ("The Invisible Lodge"), a romance published in 1793 under the pen-name Jean Paul (in honour of Jean Jacques Rousseau), had all the qualities that were soon to make him famous, and its power was immediately recognized by some of the best critics of the day.

Yes, thanks to everybody, and, of course, Pat and Corinne especially. It was an evening completely to my taste, with good food, good wine, and challenging intellectual conversation. 

Every bookshop in Oslo is heavily promoting his new book!

I have now looked at the Cuban journalist's blog, and, for sure, it provokes thoughts. I don't know much about Cuba, hope to go there soon, and I certainly do not question her sincerity or the accuracy of her consistent criticism, but I would like to see some blogs from intellectuals in some other Latin American countries, countries not as distasteful to the USA and therefore not subjected to a totally devastating fifty-four year long embargo, initiated by the US but adhered to by the whole of the western world. Take Mexico, for example. I read an article in Le Monde Diplomatique the other day about the recent development, where the newly elected (most likely election fraud) president Enrique Peña Nieto is selling out practically all of the country's public assets, primarily to big US corporations. That is what is left to sell after one of his predecessors, former Coca Cola Mexico president, and close friend of Bill Clinton as well as George W. Bush, Vicente Fox. I'd like to hear more about the Mexican public health care, social security, educational system, etc.

I'm certainly not a totalitarian, have never been so, I hate the idea, but I do know what happened when the nice and gentle Socialist president in Chile, Salvador Allende, tried to go against the Americans in his country, e.g. by nationalising the copper mines. I'm sure most people would agree it was pretty ugly. 

As you can see, Bob, you got me on my toes, and I like that. Honestly. All the best to all of you, and hoping to see you soon, Kjell                  Hi Von Trier Fans!

Trust everyone made it home safely. Just wanted to say how much we both enjoyed evening so thanks for lovely wine, everybody.

Have now had a bit of a chance to "digest" screenings and, further to our discussion, yesterday, here are some of thoughts. I loved the "blackboard" scores, (darkly funny here), during the train seduction sequences which mirror and prefigure the now horrendous arithmetic equations visited upon Joe as Jerome reenacts her deflowering, on the trash cans, with her willing, now contemptuous, "daughter"/protégé.

Unlike Kjell I found Stellan Skarsgard, as Seligman, the perfect foil against which Joe's wild story unfolds. To me, Christian Slater plays the father masterfully. Cheers, Patrizzio! 

P, I look forward to hearing how the movies were and how your weekend rounded out.

After my squash match, Kerry & I went to Acorn, a veggie restaurant on Main Street, and we were really impressed. Corrine (and Chloe) would appreciate all the GF/Vegan stuff on the menu. I just finished reading Obabakoak and will try to get it to you today -- or we can agree to leave it out on the porch here if yo are going ot be in the hood.

Kerry is off for the week so my riding schedule will be curtailed in favour of gallivanting around town like real adults. The forecast suggests that today may be the only gold plated riding day. I am thinking of taking my bike to Kelowna so I can do some riding. W

Hi Sir Gallivant!

Trust Cobbster's  move went well. As things turned out, I got euchred by the forecast, riding in the rain on Saturday, when I could have been enjoying the sunshine on Sunday!

Had a rather lazy morning, however, so that was fine. Coriandre dropped me off at VanCity just before 2:00 pm where I met Paul/ Joan. Kjell arrived a few minutes after we found our seats so we had a chance to chat for a bit before first screening started. Both extremely, extremely explicit films but I found Trier's treatment of this obviously provocative, charged, difficult, difficult subject to be unrelentingly honest and refreshing, it must be said. 

Aside from the stupendous, courageous performances by Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourgh), the self-diagnosed nymphomaniac, and Stacy Martin, (as young Joe), Trier's cinematographic technique was much to my liking. In one extremely funny episode, (quite a few, in fact, in an otherwise pretty dark set of films, as you can well imagine), Joe asks her current partner if she might try to parallel park the car in the spot he is unable to fit it into. Of course, she has little, if any difficulty, and Trier emphasizes the fact with an overhead, architectural blueprint-like schematic showing the stylized vehicle slipping into place.

Stellan Skarsgard, as Seligman, the older man who happens across Joe, as an adult, after a brutal assault, in an alleyway close to where he lives, and then takes her to his flat when she refuses to let him call an ambulance, is the perfect foil against which her wild story unfolds, in flashbacks, in the self-titled chapters, (another very effective technique which blurs/synthesizes film and print), she relates to him as a way of answering his concerned questions. 

Christian Slater plays her father and their relationship is perhaps the only unsullied, genuinely loving one she ever has, even as he lies dying, humiliated by the indignity of incontinence and dementia. Uma Thurman, as the wife, with three small boys, abandoned by one of Joe's innumerable, smitten, older males, gives a heart-wrenchingly painful yet absurdly hilarious performance when she brings her children to Joe's flat to have them say goodbye to their father.

One critic I happened upon apparently detests much of Trier's work and wrote that Nymphomaniac was a "film in which [Trier] gets to rail against everything he loathes about contemporary life and contemporary cinema."Not sure about the contemporary cinema part as I don't know much about this but I certainly found the director's vitriolic criticism of social norms, mores, conventional attitudes, and the like to be well founded and brutally refreshing. 

Furthermore, Joe is not a "porn starlet" but rather an extremely complex and complicated character, searching, as we all do, [perhaps not as violently and taken to such extremes], for some meaning or "the meaning" in our lives, if that is not too trite an assessment. Her choices, or lack of choice, as it may well be, have dire consequences for her and for those around her, and play out in many different, terribly destructive ways: emotionally, physically, mentally and morally. For me, at least, the film uses nymphomania, not voyeuristically, but as a way to unflinchingly explore the reaches of the human heart and psyche. I was moved and gripped by the film(s) but never titillated. This is no Debbie Does Dallas or Deep Throat! That being said, time for a cold shower!

I see you are restricted to base this coming week. Perhaps I'll pop by with a gluten-free cake from Acorn, [Thanks for the tip, place sounds terrific!], containing a file, so that you can rid yourself of your manacles! I can collect Obabakoak at same time and drop off Next Episode. I've just barely started it but I need to read former first or risk a hefty fine, as you well know!

Sarge and I have decided we won't take our bikes to Naramata as we really don't think we'll have time, unfortunately, to ride, given schedule of whirlwind wine tasting, birthday bash carousing, wild bridge bidding and the like. If we had been staying longer we certainly would have wanted to bring them along. Must away as I want to have a bite to eat before heading out. Not sure where I'll ride, just yet but might try for some gold leaf covered horsehair. Cheers, Satyricon Patrizzio!

Pics: Taken on walk back from VanCity Theatre yesterday, late afternoon/early evening.                                        Hi Oslo Super Sous Chef, aka Fjord Fiend!

Great to talk earlier, Patrizzio The Younger! Thanks for calling. Terrific snaps as well. From what I was able to discover, one critic thinks that it is perhaps the best of the Jo Nesbø books he has read. While it is not part of the Harry Hole series I'm keen to get hold of it. I think it is already out, in Australia, in English.

Shortly after we talked, I suited up and headed out for a ride. Had I left around 10:00 am I'd have made for Horseshoe Bay but since I didn't start until just after 2:00 pm I knew that traffic would probably be pretty heavy on Marine Drive so I nixed that idea. Instead I decided to for the hamster cage ride of the Prospect Point Loop. Knew I'd have to do it seven times for the distance I wanted but it was such a fabulous day that I also knew it would be a grand outing. Turned out to be just that. Warmest ride I've had since returning from France! Not only was the temperature perfect but the head wind was hardly worth bothering about, especially compared to the ferociousness of the gale force blasts of last Friday and Saturday.
 

On my seventh, and final loop, I had just come around Brockton Point when a young man rolled up beside me and asked: "Have you been here all afternoon?" Needless to say, I was rather surprised but said that yes, I had been looping since about 2:45 pm and asked him how he knew that. He replied that he'd seen me earlier. He had an errand downtown and did one loop around SP before discharging it. That was when he first encountered me, although I don't recall him passing me. At any rate, as it was such a nice day he decided he ride around the park once more and that was how he happened upon me.

We started chatting and it turns out that he is in the process of starting his own bicycle line. His name is Jacob Murray and he has a degree in Industrial Design from Carleton. He mentioned he'd always wanted to design a bike. Naturally, I asked him how he came up the necessary capital and ahe replied that after his grandmother died her estate provided him with enough of a nest egg to quit working while he worked on launching his line of bikes. He was riding the prototype, an all steel frame, fabricated by someone, in Burnaby, I believe, who does custom frames. He said there were four models, all around $2,800. Bike he was on looked pretty spiffy. 

Funnily enough, when I mentioned that I had just had some major replacements to my Trek, at WestPoint Cycles, he said he was pretty sure that he had worked on my bike as he had worked there, over the last year or so, as a mechanic! He said he had immediately recognized the orange Trek because he thought that he had replaced the drive train a few months ago. The money his grandmother had willed to him allowed him to quit while he was trying to get his venture up and running. Anyway, we chatted all the way up Propsect Point Hill so I hardly realized we were climbing all the while. Just past the parking lot there, he said he had to go so we said goodbye and he shot off, literally, outstripping the three or four other "serious", (that is fully Lycra clad), riders, just ahead of us.

For my part I was simply delighted to have met him. Quite a coincidence and quite an interesting story. I wished him well and plan to try to follow his progress on his website, which, he admitted, was not quite ready! Any small business faces such problems. Coming up with the product is probably the least onerous of all the tasks. Marketing and sales, however, are incredibly difficult and time-consuming, at least initially, and with a work/salesforce of one, Jacob will certainly have his work cut out for him for the foreseeable future.

Anyway, I was more than happy to be heading home with 91+ km on the clock and the wind, more or less, at my back. Seawall, by this time, shortly after 6:00 pm was jammed with people, mainly joggers but I could have cared less as I zipped along. Even had enough energy to race against myself on the last leg, from the intersection of Spyglass Place and Commodore Road all the way along Moberly RD and then Charleson and then Lamey's Mill Road right into The Heartbreak Terrace parking lot, hoping to beat the clock and come in just under four and a half hours. The clock won by seven seconds but I was still pleased as punch. Stats for ride:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/467293453#.UzDq6jhev6k.email
 

Must away as I want to read more of Joseph Boyden's Orenda. Take care of yourself, Patrizzio The Younger. Cheers, Satyricon Patrizzio!

P, Book is in recycle bin -- wrapped in Get Home Safe bag. Scampering back into confinement...W

Dear Big House Con!

Sorry I didn't manage the Great Recycle Bin Caper but my time does not go on and on forever, as does yours in stir! Had to gallivant with Cora Lee to Heartwood to punch holes in the two planters, stopping at Go Green beforehand, to have a few snorts of Cask Strength Rubbing Alcohol with a few of Breakfast Clubbers. Once home, I was just about to head out but had a call from Patrizzio The Younger, from Oslo! Chatted for almost an hour! He is well and sent along snaps I've attached. Jo's latest, released today.
 

Let me know when guards let you out, into the yard, to exercise your non-existent rights and perhaps I can pop by to exchange books wrapped in brown paper. Cheers, You Dirty Rotten Rat! All the best to The Whirlybirdman of Alcatraz. Cheers, Maximum Patrizzio, Warden of Devil's Island and Overseer of Chain Gang Porch Cleaner, (patent pending), Forza Industriale non la Vostra Forza Botte Anemico!