Bill Maher in Durham

Saw & heard Bill Maher tonight at the Durham Performing Arts Center (capacity about 2700 people).  He's sharp and wicked, more relaxed than on TV, clearly enjoying every minute of his performance - and it was a generous one, pushing two hours straight. Looked like he was wearing a Cuban style shirt, more casual than on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher. The audience was eclectic and appreciative. I loved it!

Bill Maher's stand-up topics in Durham ranged through all the impolite, telling topics like politics (including North Carolina's politics), religion, sex and social mores. It's a way fun job, but somebody's got to do it.

From Mormons to Catholics, Bill Maher does not spare the rod, yet when it comes down to it a la Flannery O'Connor's way of seeing and not unlike the great Voltaire, he's still pretty Catholic.

Last time I visited Tar Heel Land, the Tibetan Buddhists were in Saxapahaw. This time, Bill Maher in Durham -- and the Durham Bulls right next door, complete with fireworks and a victory.

Today's Rune: Joy.   

Pliny Durant & The Ten Commandments, 1865

Now visiting in North Carolina, where I've come across a set of cards originally given to one Pliny Durant in 1865. This one depicts a coded version of "[THE] FIFTH COMMANDMENT." The rest of the text reads: "honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."

The text of the inscription: "Pliny Durant / Presented to him for the best recitation of the ten commandments in his class in long[?] S[?] School / F. N. Wind[?] / Sup't [Superintendent] / St. Charles [Illinois] / Jan. 1, 1865." 

Upon adulthood, Pliny Durant (1854-1928] -- most probably named after the Roman administrator and writer -- wrote or edited several books.

According to *this* site, St. Charles, Illinois (forty miles or so west of Chicago) was the first town in Illinois to build a public school (in 1854). The "S" above may refer to a "Subscription" school.

SIXTH COMMANDMENT: packed with symbolism, and the reminder -- "Thou shalt not kill." This card, part of the set given to Pliny Durant, was printed during the American Civil War, or War of the Rebellion as it was often called at the time. More than 600,000 people were killed in the course of it, or died of related disease. Even more were permanently maimed and traumatized from this American vs. American conflict. 

On this Nagasaki Remembrance Day, adieu. Some 74,000 people were killed in the first flash of an American atomic device code-named "Fat Man" on this date in 1945, in Nagasaki. Many times that number died in the aftermath, mostly Japanese, but also Koreans, Chinese, and people originally from other lands, too.    

Today's Rune: Journey.   

The Feast of the Fourteen Holy Helpers

Today is the Feast Day of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. Sometimes, by adding Mary, they're called the Fifteen Holy Helpers. Aside from Mary and in other languages, there are naming variations for the Fourteen Holy Helpers such as:  I Santi Ausiliatori, Los catorce auxiliadores, Les saints auxiliaires, Die vierzehn Nothelfer, and so on.

Because as a cluster they go back to the Black Death times of the mid-1300s, the Fourteen Holy Helpers have more back alley street cred than all the comic book superheroes of the past hundred years combined. They, too, have powers, and the faithful may call upon the Holy Helpers all, singly or in pairs for intercession and on an as-needed basis -- and do. Why? Because the Holy Helpers are can-do saints. If one is scared of being struck by lightning, for instance, call upon Saint Barbara to "save me from the spark! [aka bolt!]"  Saint Vitus will help protect you from lightning, too. If you need a little help fleeing from devils, evoke Saint Margaret of Antioch. To turn away temptation whilst resting awhile on the deathbed, seek strength by asking help from that "terror of Hell," Saint Cyriacus. Saint Denis will assist with combating possessions diaboliques / demonic possessions. Finally, let's not forget to seek guidance from 

Saint Vitus or perhaps Saint Giles pour une bonne confession / for a good confession. No matter what happens, are you ready?

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.      

Jaimy Gordon: Lord of Misrule

Lord of Misrule (2010), a novel by Jaimy Gordon, won the National Book Award in 2010. That was the same year Patti Smith won the same award in non-fiction for Just Kids. If I understand the formula correctly, National Book Award finalists are awarded $1,000 and winners another $10,000 -- in case you were pondering.

I'm about halfway into Lord of Misrule and taking my time. Not a book to blithely rush through without missing a lot of fine craft and nuance. It's absorbing; you have to work at sorting out characters via their thoughts and dialogue without quotation marks or other traffic markers.

Lord of Misrule is centered around a racetrack and its attendant milieu in West Virginia in the early 1970s. Ever been to West Virginia?

Jaimy Gordon's writing is intense in the way Marcel Proust's and Patti Smith's writing is intense. Here's just a sample snippet regarding Little Spinoza, an easily spooked race horse, from the point of view of Medicine Ed, one of the people characters:

He always was a baby. He scoping around at the cats, the raindrops pimpling in the puddles, the sparrows hopping up and down and cussing each other in the eaves. He stopped and had him a long sniff of Grizzly's goat. Now that Deucey had the two horses, she bought Grizzly a ten-dollar goat to keep him company. When the goat wasn't in the stall he was tied up like now on a chain in the grass patch between the shedrows, but he always pulled it out tight as a fiddle string if folks was around, for he was nosy. . . (page 101).

Yeah, Lord of Misrule is quite risible in parts! Can you dig?

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune. 

Hiroshima Mon Amour

Marguerite Duras was no stranger to tragedy and complexity. Born in Saigon (April 4, 1914) as Marguerite Donnadieu just before the onset of the First World War, she lost both parents at a young age and subsequently became a writer; she changed her name to Duras while living in Nazi-dominated France during the Second World War. Her writing changed from a formulaic traditional style to more probing and deeper approaches, using flashback and memory sequences. Given that today is Hiroshima remembrance day, it's worth mentioning her screenwriting role in the 1959 black and white film, Hiroshima Mon Amour, directed by Alain Resnais.

Hiroshima Mon Amour [aka Hiroshima, mon amour] has a haunting tone and look, and tells the complicated stories of two people (played well by Emmanuelle Riva and Eiji Okada) who fall in love in Hiroshima after the Atomic attack; both have survived the atrocities of war, and much is revealed about their pasts and the universally sorrowful human plight.













Marguerite Duras wrote 34 books (mostly novels), directed or co-directed some fifteen independent films, and died on March 3, 1996.

Today's Rune: Journey. 

Au revoir. . . . .

Jean-Pierre Melville: Le Doulos [The Informant]

Melville strikes again in black and white with Le Doulos /  The Finger Man, a scary noir film based on the 1957 novel of the same title by Pierre Lesou. Because it deals with a mix of crime, double-crossing friends, acquaintances and "associates," and quick bursts of violence, this one may leave you with nightmares or unsettling thoughts and dreams. I find these kinds of tales scarier than horror stories, seeing how easy it is for people to turn on each other -- even despite a fair amount of social cohesion and personal history. 

The actors are top notch and include Serge Reggiani (with more than a passing resemblance to Mr. Bean), Jean-Paul Belmondo and Michel Piccoli. Grounded in real-life experiences during WWII with the French underground, Melville (and Reggiani) knows and conveys the feeling of "harrowing" experience. 

Today's Rune: Defense.    

Romare Bearden: The Odysseus Series

There's a cool exhibition at the Amon Carter -- Romare Bearden's Odysseus Series. Lots of bold lines, strong hues and tall tales -- including ones many will be familiar with. 

Bearden (1911–1988), who was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, but lived most of his life elsewhere, made a quip something like this: "I never left Charlotte, except physically." 

What do you think of taking familiar tales and recasting them in a different time or context, or place? (Example: Robinson Crusoe on Mars, 1964). My basic aesthetic philosophy is: whatever works.

Today's Rune: Journey.