Personal Vaporizer

Atomizer, personal vaporizer, e-segar: call it what you will, I'm trying it. The stars seem to have aligned, the energies are converging, and so far, it's nifty-fifty. Basically, if you smoke or have smoked, these gadgets provide a non-smoke alternative, with a little shot of nicotine, giving off a slight theatrical vapor that looks like smoke but has no lingering smoke-tale signs, and tastes like whatever you want it to taste like. I'm trying Cuban segar / cigar and pipe tobacco. It's weird, and will change habits considerably, opening up new possibilities and freedoms for time-space usage. So far, so good. A workable alternative to hot-smoke-inhaling, it would appear.



Source: Provapeo Cafe. WikiCommons. They come in a variety of shapes and designs
.

Anyone else out there trying these yet? I wonder what new customs and laws are developing? Can these be used in "non-smoking" areas, for instance?

Today's Rune: Fertility.

Egyptian Army: Pronunciamiento / Golpe de Estado

Another strange development in a weird world -- a popularly-backed military-managed coup d'état in Egypt (total population = 85 million) just "removed" from power Mohamed Morsi, who had been elected president of Egypt in June 2012 with about 51-52% of the popular vote. A military tribunal dissolved the Egyptian constitution and created "provisional" leadership, giving vague ideas about evolving toward a new status quo with new elections, etc.

Does democracy work? How would Americans like such a turn of events in the USA? How would anybody with any practical experience with democracy?

Today's Rune: Fertility.     

The Fall of Vicksburg and The Battle of Helena, Arkansas: 150

Today's the 150th anniversary of both the fall of Vicksburg and the Battle of Helena, Arkansas. They are related. The Confederate assault on Helena was an attempt to relieve pressure on Vicksburg, but it came too late, and ended in defeat. The fall of Vicksburg split the Confederacy at the Mississippi River and boosted U.S. Grant's status as a Union commander. Helena was a failed attempt to knock out a Union garrison further up the Mississippi toward Memphis, Tennessee.

At Helena, Arkansas, on July 4, 1863, the Union garrison only had about 4,100 men, including Jeremiah C. France (1840-1865), one of my ancestors serving in the 43rd Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The Confederates assaulted with just under 8,000 troops. It was a sharp, bloody fight. The entrenched Union troops lost about 249 casualties while the much more exposed attackers lost more than 1,600. The bluecoats had entrenched artillery and a gunboat in the river in place to rake the rebels with shot and shell. Another horrible battle, overshadowed by Gettysburg and Vicksburg. I intend to visit sometime in the next year or so.

Today's Rune: Wholeness.   
  

The Assault

Pickett's Charge (or the Pickett-Pettigrew Assault, if you prefer) at Gettysburg 150 years ago today was a human disaster. It was also a clearcut Union victory. General R. E. Lee, the Confederate commander, threw too few troops into what was essentially a suicide mission, with a sort of magical thinking (and hubris, we must suppose) that somehow his boys would be able to pull off a miracle and break the Union center, winning a decisive victory. They could not, and they did not. The defenders lost about 1,500 casualties, whereas the Confederate attackers lost more than 6,500 (including prisoners) -- half of the men involved.

Lee had done the same thing at the Battle Of Malvern Hill, Virginia, the previous year (July 1, 1862), ordering a frontal assault against massed Union defenders. At Malvern Hill, the Confederates lost more than 5,500 casualties to about 2,200 Union, with fewer prisoners being taken. Malvern Hill serves a a remarkable prequel to Gettysburg's third day, and sheds light on the consistency of Lee's mindset.

150 years later you can still walk across the open fields from Confederate to Union lines at Gettysburg, and see what Lee expected for yourself. You can do the same at Malvern Hill, because it, too, is preserved for posterity.   

Today's Rune: Wholeness.

Little Round Top

When I was eleven years old studying Gettysburg, I instinctively zoomed in on the second day - July 2, 1863 -- for special attention.  

Today is the 150th anniversary of that second day.

The field names have stuck with me permanently ever since I was that kid, names like the Sickles' Salient, the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield, Houck's Ridge, Devil's Den, Plum Run and the Valley of Death, the Trostle Farm, the charge of the First Minnesota -- all of them. 

Once upon another time, I was early by one night in rendezvousing with extended family converging on Gettysburg for a wedding, so that very same night I made my way up Little Round Top by foot -- in the pitch dark -- and slept in a rock crevice beneath the statue of Union Brigadier General Gouverneur K. Warren formerly of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, until about dawn the next morning.

An eerie experience, as you can probably imagine. Lots of strange rustling noises like those made by restless birds and, perhaps, wandering souls of the dead. 

Today's Rune: Journey.  

World's Fair Redux

World's Fair events were a great and life-affirming thing! What the hell happened to them?  There hasn't been a single one in nearly thirty years in North America. Since that duffer Reagan, come to think of it.

Is it now once again possible that Toronto will host a new World's Fair in 2015 or a World Expo in 2025? At this point, maybe not. But if it did, how would it compare to Montreal's Expo 67?   

The World's Fair and similar expositions were once upon a not-too-distant time ago very exciting magnets for people from all over the place. Here's my great uncle Clifford "Uncle Cliff" France (1899-1992) and great aunt Jessie Irene Lovejoy France (1903-1986) at some expo or World's Fair grounds -- probably during the Great War of 1914-1918. That is, I believe from their ages and attire that this is during the Great War period, possibly the 1904 St. Louis fairgrounds. I've been trying to match the backdrop architecture with photos in Cathy Jean Maloney's World's Fair Gardens: Shaping American Landscapes (University of Virginia Press, 2012), and the 1904 St. Louis "Louisiana Purchase Exposition" grounds seem closest so far. Any other ideas or suggestions welcomed!

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.

   

Jean-Pierre Melville: Le cercle rouge (Take I)

Jean-Pierre Melville's Le cercle rouge (1970) comes from a point in time two decades after Les enfants terribles, and it's in color. With it, Melville delivers a meticulous mix of crime drama, film noir and neo-noir (depending on your lingo preferences).

It's a real cool film that moves in no particular hurry. 

Early on I started thinking "Sergio Leone," and then it hit me -- the character Vogel is played by Gian Maria Volonté, the same dude that plays Ramón Rojo in Per un pugno di dollari / A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and El Indio in Per qualche dollaro in più / For a Few Dollars More (1965).  

Synchronicities. In the final season of Dexter on Showtime, the new main character, played by Charlotte Rampling, is also named Vogel.

In tonight's season opener of Dexter, a dude is trying to figure out how to "fence" jewely he robbed from a mob-owned jewelry store, while sleeping with Deb, who is on hiatus from the police force.

In Le cercle rouge, a guy is hiding from mobsters while plotting to rob a jewelry store and fence the loot, along with Vogel, who is on the lam from the police.

In tonight's series opener for Ray Donovan also on Showtime, an opening scene has Mickey (Jon Voight) emerging from prison, ready for mischief. In Le cercle rouge, an opening scene has Corey (Alain Delon) emerging from prison, ready for mischief.

Worth noting, even if it means nothing other than that crime tropes repeat themselves across the decades.

Also in Le cercle rouge are two actors who played key roles in Costa-Gavras' Z (1968/1969) the greatest political thriller flick of the 20th century (so far as I have seen): Yves Montand (as Jansen, an alcoholic ex-police sharpshooter in Le cercle rouge) and François Périer (as Santi, a mob-connected club owner in Le cercle rouge). 

Finally, André Bourvil plays Le Commissaire Mattei with gravitas and extra decency, probably because in real life he was dying, and this was his last film. 

Today's Rune: Warrior.