I Met The Walrus: a film of Jerry Levitan's close encounter with John Lennon

This short animated film was a hit at last year's Brooklyn International Film Festival, and was an Academy Award short film nominee. I Met The Walrus takes a 1969 audio interview with John Lennon animated into a short film. According to the film blurb, 14-year-old Jerry Levitan nabbed this interview by sneaking into Lennon's Toronto hotel room during his "bed-in" phase.



I may be mixing him up with another girl who managed to get into the hotel, but I know many of the visitors actually participated in the taping of "Give Peace A Chance," which John and Yoko Ono recorded in the hotel room.

It's short, it's charming, and it's worth hearing just to hear John Lennon be interviewed by, and very respectfully respond to, a 14 year old fan...
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America v The United States, in Greece or Turkey, anyway...

In both Turkey and Greece, when people asked where I was from. I said "The Unites States'" For a while. . .but when ever you said United States, they would almost always say back "ah, America." And so it became America. And I got to like saying it.

People were careful about demarcating America from the United States. The United States was President Bush and his war. America was Coca Cola, rock and roll, hip hop, and blue jeans; America was where relatives immigrated and did OK for themselves. I don't think I ever met a Greek (and a number of Turks as well), in our month there, who didn't have a cousin, uncle, or sister living in America. I've heard it's jingoistic to call ourselves America, when you also have our pals in the frozen north, Mexico, and Central America, who might also lay claim to that name. America.

Not only did I begin using the word America, but I was often reduced to describing where I hailed from as California. Maybe 10 or 20% of the people had heard of Seattle--but surprisingly enough, I met people who had been there, knew where it was, or had a shirt-tail relative there. But most people's faces fogged when you said Seattle, so it became sometimes this place up near Canada, or, more often, "just up the coast from California." And they got that. Images of California are common due to all the movies and television shows. Everyone knew New York City. And people often mentioned Los Angeles, Chicago, and Florida.
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Painting: Caligula, after a statue in Athens

Click the emperor to enlarge
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Welcome Home to America: an interesting exchange on Internet Messenger

I'll admit, I am a little rusty on "cybercommunication" after my month in Europe and Asia. So, when someone IM'd me, saying "Hi" and asking "A/S/L?" I didn't quite get it. Naturally, my 20-30 year younger fellow workers down the hall knew it meant Age, Sex, Location? And that I was being porn-phished. So naturally, I responded.

_______________________________

bridgettezuzixi@hotmail.com says:
Hi

---jack on--- says:
hi

bridgettezuzixi@hotmail.com says:
hey, A/S/L?

---jack on--- says:
I am a female, nine years old. I am in Saskatoon. Do you have nekkid pictures you can send me?

Bridgette says:
hey whats up babe, U got a webcam? finally someone adds me, I am soo f***in horny today for some reason lol

---jack on--- says:
I don't have the webcam, but here is a picture of me. Now show me your stuff on the webcam!



Bridgette says:
listen hun, I am just about to start my webcam show with jen, come chat me there in my chat room? We can cyber, I will get naked if u do..lol!

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Rock and roll: 101 versions of Stairway To Heaven" (downloadable)

Our good friends at NYC's WFMU Beware of the Blog (one of my favorite blogs, especially for the vast variety of legal downloads of the crazy, sublime, and obscure) have assembled 101 versions of the Led Zeppelin tune "Stairway To Heaven." And they're all downloadable... jump here to listen, read about, and download these 101 versions of STH...Following is some text and the artist's names from BOTB....

Stairways to Heaven, Stairways to Hell (MP3s) - Here are 101 versions of the song you often hear strummed at the Guitar Center, from british music hall versions to a backwards version, Much of this came from former FMU DJ KBC's CD of the same name, which took much of it's content from this 1992 LP. "

The artists from WFMU's web post on the 101 (including, among others, Iron Maiden, The London Symphony Orchestra, The Hard-ons, Dolly Parton, and many more):

Dusty Cowshit Hard-Ons Little Roger & amp; The Goosebumps Rock Lobsters
Neil Pepper SCTV Glass Harp Leonard Teale Beatnix
Ludwig Von 88 Leif Norbergs John Paul Young Pardon Me Boys
Kalocin Fargone Beauties Richard Cheese Robyne Dunn
Rolf Harris GS Incorporated Australian Doors Show
Dixie Power Trio Kate Ceberano & Ministry of Fun Thomas Dimuzio
Sandra Kahn & Michael Turkic Pat Boone Tiny Tim & Brave Combo
Nashville Super Pickers Congo Natty
Foo Fighters Vienna Symphonic Orchestra Dolly Parton
Nileppez Del Dread Zeppelin Leningrad Cowboys & The Red Army Chorus
Frank Zappa Vegimite Reggae
Dutch artist Jeroen Offerman learned how to sing Stairway backwards. Here's a page about it from listener Neil's blog, with the full video. Thanks Mike and Neil!
Here's version number 39, an instrumental from Redd Kross. Thanks Arthur!
Mitsuhiro Nishiwaki (Musicbox) Nick Barker and The Reptiles Splice of Life, Inc
Venetian Snares and Speedranch Norelpref Barry Crocker & The Doug Anthony Allstars
Etcetera Theater Company Helen Jones James Kochalka Superstar
Jodie Gillies Judi Connell London Symphony Orchestra
Far Corporation Stanley Jordan Sydney Philharmonia
Those Darn Accordians Toys Went Berserk
Also, here is the Stairway Suite page, with MP3 samples of the song as if it were composed by six well known composers.
Iron Maiden Me First and The Gimme Gimmes
Milish Rodrigo y Gabriela
National Cynical Network DJ Earworm
Heavy Fuel A Pretty Sunset
Die Zorros Richard Cheese Michael Mills (Spoken Diatribe)
Bellanova Gregorian Masters of Chant Guster
Vogelfrai Not Moby Final Fantasy X
Unknown Jose Padilla
Todd Taylor Camper Van Beethoven Mary Schneider, Yodeling Queen of Australia
Sisters of Mercy White Skull Sons of Ishmael Whipper Snappers
Stereofeed String Quartet Orchestra National De Jazz Havanarama
Reverend Billy C Wirtz Zakk Wylde Johnny Bic
The Raleigh Ringers The Sauerkraut Project Steve Morse
The Lounge-O-Leers Helloween The Dick Twang Band (Dick's page)
The Symphonic Led Zeppelin
Dash Rip Rock (Stairway to Freebird) Short Attention Span Stairway
Jana Iron Horse Ann Wilson
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The Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens

The Temple of Olympian Zeus - click to enlarge

The Temple of Zeus, a/k/a The Olympieion, is a massive ruins in the heart of Athens, a couple of blocks from our hotel in The Plaka. The temple was once dedicated to Zeus, king of the gods. Construction began in the 6th century BC but was not completed until the reign of Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD (650 years later!). It was famous as the largest temple in Greece and its Zeus sculpture was one of the largest cult statues in the ancient world.

The temple was pillaged in a barbarian invasion in the 3rd century AD and was probably never restored or repaired. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the temple, like so many acient monuments, was used as a makeshift quarry for marble and stone for other projects. However it still stands, more or less, and is one of the more impressive ruins in Athens, aside from the buildings on The Acropolis.



The Temple of Olympian Zeus (Ναός του Ολυμπίου Διός) with the fallen 16th column - click to enlarge

The temple is maybe half a mile or less from the Acropolis, and was built on the site of another building or monument. After the death of Pisistratus, his sons, Hippias and Hipparchos began building the temple. They hoped to outdo two famous contemporary temples, the Heraion of Samos and the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (which we visited in June, in Turkey/Asia Minor), which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (the second of the seven wonders we have seen on this trip).



Fifteen columns are still standing today. A sixteenth column lies on the ground where it fell during a wind storm in 1852. A wind storm! That column (you can clearly see it in one of my photos) has been on the ground for 156 years now. 156 years ago, the neighborhood I live in was an old growth forest.
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The Beach Boys Perform All This Is That With The Monster Saxaphonist Charles Lloyd

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Blue Monday

"Blue Monday" is a song by Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew from 1955. It was popularized in a recording by Domino in 1956, on Imperial Records. It was one of the earliest R&B tunes to hit the Billboard magazine pop music charts.

This Monday feels like Blue Monday.




Blue Monday
by Fats Domino

Blue Monday how I hate Blue Monday
Got to work like a slave all day
Here come Tuesday, oh hard Tuesday
I'm so tired got no time to play

Here come Wednesday, I'm beat to my socks
My gal calls, got to tell her that I'm out
'Cause Thursday is a hard workin' day
And Friday I get my pay

Saturday mornin', oh Saturday mornin'
All my tiredness has gone away
Got my money and my honey
And I'm out on the stand to play

Sunday mornin' my head is bad
But it's worth it for the time that I had
But I've got to get my rest
'Cause Monday is a mess
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Nine Jack Brummet poems from Greece and Turkey June-July, 2008

Click on a poem title to go to that poem elsewhere on All This Is That.

Poem In Gorene

The listing freighter in the harbor at Kato Zakris

Rocks, flowers, and walls

Prayers In Istanbul

Sailng To Athens

That Cold Island Across The Sea

Moslems vs. Nazarenes vs. Pagans

Just Beneath The Topsoil

Sailing To Naxos, or, The Vortex

Aristophanes' Plutus at the Odeon Theatre on the Acropolis

As I mentioned once or twice before, on our last night in Athens, we attended a performance of Aristophanes' last play, Plutus, at the Odeon Theatre. This restored ancient theatre also hosts music and dance performances, including Yanni's famous Live At The Acropolis (all I remember about Yanni is that he was famous about 20 years ago).


click to enlarge

All we knew going in about the play were the bare bones of its plot: Chremylus, a poor but just man, accompanied by his body-servant Cario consults the Delphic Oracle concerning his son, and whether he should be instructed in injustice and knavery and the other arts whereby worldly men acquire riches. The god tells him to follow whoever he first meets upon leaving the temple. This proves to be a blind and ragged old man, actually Plutus himself, the god of riches, whom Zeus has robbed of his eyesight, so that he may be unable henceforth to distinguish between the just and the unjust. Helped by Chremylus and brought to the Temple of Æsculapius, Plutus regains the use of his eyes, and then, all just men, including the god's benefactor, are made rich and prosperous, and the unjust are reduced to indigence.

It was surreal watching a play in Greek. And the theatre group from Cypress performed an over the top version. The Greek chorus often broke into song, dance, and acrobatics. The show opened with a chase scene that was a strange combination of Greek theatre and something from Waiting for Godot, with a touch of Laurel and Hardy thrown in for good measure. The performance was so over the top it barely made any difference whether we understood the language or not. It was great fun.

The stage was made from wood rolled out in various heights, creating hills and valleys along the length of the stage. The only prop on stage (at the beginning) was a gigantic Carpusi(aka watermelon). Early on, the chorus divided up the watermelon and ate it...for no reason we could discern (this harkens back to Eric Cartman's declaration on South Park that "all independent films are about cowboys eating pudding").


click stage to enlarge

Although we were in the dark, I think some of the Greek-speaking audience were as well, having come to see an ancient play and seeing it given something like the Mabou Mines treatment. In that sense, I was probably as up to speed, or better, than they were on post-modern theatre production. Anyhow, as strange as it all was, I wouldn't have missed it. Here are a few photos. Unfortunately I followed the rules and did not shoot any photos during the play itself.

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Last day in Athens: The National Archaeological Museum and ruminations of the renaissance of Athens

You may have noticed already, but one of my favorite modes of ancient art is the relief frieze. This is an excellent example of one, and yet they still lose their extremities...fingertips, nipples, noses, and penises seem to suffer the most from those tumbles to the ground, and from being battered by other marbles. Click to enlarge.

On our last day in Athens (July 17th), we went, via bus, to the National Archaeological Museum. This massive and comprehensive museum would take three days to go through wth any real scrutiny. We did it in a few hours, by focusing on the artifacts and antiquities we were really interested in, and especially those from the many ruins and excavations we had visited the previous month in both Asia Minor and in Greece.

The best part of the museum, by far, is the massive collection of statuary from Cycladic and earlier periods, up to a huge collection of Roman and Greek sculpture. You see a lot of the statuary you've seen in books, in art history class, and on book covers (of Penguin books and literary anthologies). After three hours, you are completely weary and there are still whole collections and periods of antiquity you've missed. I am posting photos of some of my favorites...but hundreds of my favorites aren't here. You'll just have to go to the museum if you get the chance. If you ever do get to Athens (and I highly recommend it), and you only have a day, split it between the Acropolis and the Museum.

Before I go onto the handful of photos, I wanted to say one thing about Athens. When I was there 25 years ago, it was a congested, hot, smelly, polluted town. Over the years, and especially before the Olympics, they have fixed a lot of that. The pollution was not all that much more than any city. They have implemented restrictions on cars, and they have created many pedestrian streets with no cars at all. And on top of that, for the first time in a month, we could actually drink tapwater! And it was great. It was such a great surprise to see the progress Athens had made. When Keelin originally scheduled us for three days there, I was very skeptical. As it turns out, I could have stayed there a week. The subways and buses are good, and if you stay in the Plaka, you can walk almost anywhere you need to go. Highly recommended!



Cycladic statuary (from the Cycladic Islands, like a couple we visited, Santorini and Rhodes). One of my favorite schools of sculpture. I love the abstracted, gestural figuration. Click to enlarge.


A bronze Zeus. You've seen this one on the cover of Penguin Books and literary anthologies. Click to enlarge.


Jack Brummet on the rooftop of our hotel, with a close view of the Acroplis' less-flashy backside.


A bust of Caligula (or head from a statue), from the 1st Century. Click to enlarge. This is one of my favorites, probably because I've read a few books about this mad emperor.


This is allegedly (although highly unlikely) Agamemnon's pure gold death mask, recovered from Grave Circle V, from the 15th Century BC. Note: the two holes were used with string to hold the mask to the deceased's face. Click to enlarge.


I loved this fantastically sculpted bronze of a horse and jockey recovered from a shipwreck. This was sculpted sometime in the second century BC. Click to enlarge.

I'll post some more favorites when I get out photos sorted out... /jack, in Seattle
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Bush to Schwarzenegger in latest 'hot mike' incident: "I ought to whip your ass, Arnold"

a snapshot during the exchange - click to enlarge

By Pablo Fanque

All This Is That National Affairs Editor

San Clemente, California, June 18, 2008

President Bush offered federal aid and words of encouragement on Thursday to the 25,000 firefighters battling wildfires in California. "I always come to make sure the federal government is coordinating closely with the state government," Bush said. "I know Gov. Schwarzenegger well enough to say that if we weren't, he'd let me know."

President Bush shakes hands with a firefighter glad to know the President is looking out for his best interest. Click to enlarge.

Since a lightning storm on June 21, over 2,000 fires have ignited in the tinderboxes of California, wiping out at least a million acres. Governor Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in 12 counties affected by wildfires and called in the National Guard to help. President Bush also appeared, offering additional help and encouragement.

"I'd like to let the people out here know that we're paying attention in Washington, D.C.," Bush said. "We care about you and we'll respond as best as we possibly can."

Following the press photo opportunity The President leaned over and said "I ought to whip your ass, Arnold," to the startled Governor. "I might actually give a s**t about your pleas except every other time I pick up a f***in' newspaper, I read about you tearing me a new one. . .how the President is ignoring the climate, 'the people' and all this other horses**t."

As Schwarenegger protested, the President hushed him, "How do you f***in' think it makes me feel having a man in my own party toss garbage in my face?! I don't give a rat's ass what you say to me privately. But you better put a lid on it out here. That would be just great Arnold. It may even speed up that federal aid..."

Governor Schwarzenegger snapped back at the President, "If it's anything like New Orleans, I'd be better off asking Hugo Chavez for help."

At that moment in the tense conversation, an aide pointed out a small ground of reporters near a media truck laughing and jotting notes on the exchange. A Press Office functionary hurriedly tried to convince the handful of reporters to not write about the incident in return for exclusive interviews and entree to limited access White House events. All This Is That, however, has nothing to lose, since our White House press credentials were pulled months ago.
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