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October 2002 archives
The following are all the entries published for the month of October 2002. halloween
Thursday 31 October, 2002 at 3:28PM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (0)
The story of Halloween goes back over 2000 years to the ancient Celts. Druidic priests regarded the day as the end of the year. Not only was it their day for celebrating the year's harvest, but October 31 itself was also the day of Samhain, a festival for honoring the dead. In order to appease the wandering spirits they believed roamed at night, the Celtic priests made fires in which they burned sacrifices (!), made charms, and cast spells. Portions of the Celtic holiday of the dead eventually passed into Christian culture after the Romans conquered the Celts and tried to bring the Celts into the 'Christian fold'. It eventually became apparent to the church leaders that the Celts, in spite of their conformation to some aspects of Christian culture, were stubbornly sticking with elements of their old religion. So, in the seventh century AD, the church moved its All Saints' Day, a holiday for honoring early Christian martyrs, from a day in May to November 1, thus associating it with the old Druid death rituals of October 31. By the tenth century A.D., the Catholic Church had added a new holiday, All Souls' Day. This day was set aside to honor all of the dead, not just the early Christian Saints. Over time, Halloween started to lose its mysterious overtones and was becoming merely a harvest celebration - a night of bobbing for apples, eating popcorn, and telling ghost stories around a bonfire. It was already changing into the holiday for children that exists today. Personally I think it was commercialized the way it is today purely for monetary gain. Not the best way to honor the dead if you ask me, but hey, if there's free chocolates and stuff involved, then it's kinda hard to argue the point. fun on the subway
Thursday 24 October, 2002 at 12:27PM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (0) One of the subway trips I had recently was kind of amusing. When I got to the subway station near home to catch the train into Manhattan, there was a big group of about 15 guys waiting as well, making a lot of noise and yelling and stuff. No biggie. I got on the train and these guys got on a different carriage further back. A few minutes into the ride the train conductor/driver comes over the p.a. (public address) system saying "Quiet it down back there!" I figure the group of guys are making a bit too much noise somewhere and think little of it. Moments later the conductor again comes over the p.a. and says loudly, "Shut the fuck up!". Ok, now I'm laughing. People in the carriage I'm in are looking around unsure if they actually heard what they thought they just heard. Things quieten down for a few minutes, then the conductor comes back on the p.a. system and says, "Guys, if you don't cut it out, I'm stopping the train and calling the police." That seems to work ...but not for long. About 5 minutes later it seems these guys have broken into one of the vacant conductor booths on the train and decide to have a few words of their own on the p.a. system. The next few minutes are filled with guys pretending to be the conductor and making announcements that they have no idea where the train is going or when it will stop, interspersed with a lot of laughing and unintelligible noises. It was pretty funny. The very next stop the whole group jump off the train and I watch them run past my carriage laughing their heads off. Well, that was entertaining. falling up
Wednesday 23 October, 2002 at 1:35AM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (0)
IceQueen and I again dressed up somewhat and met up with Altie at the theater (and yes, we were late again although the movie had not started yet). Here's the basic storyline: The young woman has everything that others dream about: money, striking looks, comfortable marriage. Why does she feel wretched? Once she decides to have her luxurious chimney altered and calls a specialist. Thus a love story begins. The movie about the "modest charm of the bourgeoisie" is shot in real-life glossy interiors of Moscow. This is a direct quote so don't blame me for the way it's written ..especially the bit about having her chimney seen to. *stare*. Briefly, the lead actress is married to a high-level government exec and although she 'has it all', she is unsatisfied and 'restless'. Her husband goes away on a business trip, and her best friend talks her into having a fling with a contractor while hiring him to build a chimney on their house as a surprise for the husband on his return. The affair develops and then the story twists, as it turns out the husband is not on a business trip at all, but is instead staying with his 'bit on the side' nearby ..who turns out to be the very same friend who set the lead actress up with the builder. This friend then sets it up so that the husband sees them together, and he is caught in a dilemma of wanting to go and confront them, but in doing so would reveal his own affair with his mistress. It's a case of the grass being greener on the other side and the hypocrisy of their lives together. I wont reveal any more, but again, I recommend seeing it. the lover
Tuesday 22 October, 2002 at 7:06PM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (0) Back on the 11th Anna (Altie), IceQueen and I went to the opening of the Russian Film Festival in Manhattan at the Director's Guild of American Theater. Sounds pretty flash doesn't it? Well it was. We dressed up reasonably formal and met up with Altie at the theater - we were late as usual, but that was ok because the organizers were even later in starting. Apparently lateness is not an issue in Russian culture (although I'd imagine it has its limits).
So we arrive at the theater and outside the entrance are those red velvet ropes strung between waist-height gold poles for crowd control like they have at 'important' social occasions (also at banks, but that doesn't sound as impressive). We march straight through the lingering crowd outside and right to the doors looking pretty important, where we inform the neandarthal-built Schwarzenegger-like military-haircut-guy at the door that our tickets are being held for us (Altie had already gone in) and he lets us in like we're VIPs. Nice entrance by the Weasels. We walk through the foyer and into the theater itself, which is near full of well dressed people, including a fair contingent of peroxide blonds (hard to miss against all the black suits and jackets). There are three guys milling around with tv cameras with bright lights on top filming the entire occasion, and amongst it all we spot The Fishie (Altie) down on the left near the front with her parents who came along too. After some frantic hand signals we make our way to her, but due to lack of seats, Altie ends up moving to a single free seat one row forward while IceQueen and I sit behind her (and a little to her left). Nice of Altie to do that. Mr & Mrs Altie-parent ended up in the row behind us. As ya do. It wasn't a large theater, I'd say it held maybe 200 people. Ok so we're sitting there waiting for things to start, then this lady comes up the front (Marina Kovalyov - President of the Russian-American Arts Foundation) and since this is the opening ceremony of the first annual film festival, it turns out that the top film and tv directors, producers and big-name actors from Russia are all there (hence all the tv cameras filming the occasion). So they all come up one by one and speak for a few minutes (with a translator assisting) and then one of them is given some big award for one of his films and everyone applauds and eventually the film begins. The film is in Russian of course, with subtitles, fortunately. This film is.. well, I'll quote here: It is a heart-breaking story of the love of two men for the same woman. One of them is a university lecturer in a provincial town, the other is ex-military. A common tragedy unites these two completely different persons who didn't even know each other. Their relations start when the husband (the university lecturer) finds a letter, from which he learns that his wife, who has recently died from a heart attack, had a lover, and that his beloved son is probably not his child. The Russian film style is a little different from the usual flashy American stuff loaded with special effects, which made a refreshing change. Although the plot was a story of tragedy, it was actually pretty funny in parts where the two guys clashed again in again in various different situations, and yet sad at the same time, and the ending left you hanging, not knowing for sure who the real father was. You see, the son has a stutter which the ex-military guy's daughter also has, which is discreetly revealed about half way through the movie, and the plot thickens from there as the husband discovers more and more about the history of his wife's affair. If you get a chance to view it, go for it. The director is Valery Todorovsky for those interested. Oh, forgot to mention that on the way in we were given a bag full of stuff (camera, salt & pepper shakers etc) supplied by one of the sponsors of the event. neat. A few days later we went to another film in the festival, but I'll tell you about that one later. deleted
Wednesday 9 October, 2002 at 2:34AM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (0) deleted |
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Yup it's that time of year again, Halloween. Not that it has a great deal of meaning in our neighborhood - apparently the Jewish religion does not observe Halloween as anything of any consequence, and our neighborhood is predominantly Jewish. I got to wondering how Halloween got started in the first place; I knew it had something to do with the dead but that's about it, so I checked it out. Here's the story..
The story continues.. The next movie we saw was "Falling Up" directed by Alexandr Strizhenov and Sergei Ginzburg. The style of this movie differed quite a bit from "The Lover" (see previous post) and seemed a little 'brighter' and up-market, but again thoroughly enjoyable.