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mefi
With the death of
Louis de Cazenave,
Lazare Ponticelli is the last surviving French veteran of World War One, and the country has been wondering how to mark the inevitable.
By contrast, Germany's response to the recent death of
Erich Kaestner has been a more muted affair, indeed, all but unnoted.
posted to MetaFilter by IndigoJones
at 12:40 PM on January 26, 2008
(10 comments)
Patrick Dawes and Eugene Bazodis
aka Patrick and Eugene. Mr Dawes is the sometime percussionist for
Groove Armada, but the pair may be most familiar to Americans through that catchy little number heard on the
Volkswagen rabbit commercial entitled
The Birds and The Bees.
(They apparantly did this earlier as an instrumental to push Gordon's Gin). They do have albums, most notably
Summerisle , a mixture of jazz, ska, world, unlikely covers, and what have you. Possibly a little twee for many, but not without merit.
A cartoon video of the great hit found
here.
So now you know.
posted to MetaFilter by IndigoJones
at 12:56 PM on August 6, 2006
(2 comments)
Albert Brooks
is set to release a movie called
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World . No doubt we'll be hearing more on that, but let us reserve judgement.
Meanwhile, for those who need persuading,
here are
some links concerning
13th century sufi
and funny man
Nasruddin .
His people are understandably proud and you can find a lot more of his stuff, probably better than what I've put up.
(This post prompted in part by Rumi post earlier today- for those who might be put off by the current trendiness of that most excellent poet.)
Enjoy.
posted to MetaFilter by IndigoJones
at 4:33 PM on November 5, 2005
(26 comments)
Frank Hurley.
You may be familiar with his work for
Shackleton on the Endurance. Magnificent stuff, but only a fraction of what he was capable of. After the ice, he went to Europe where he did some of the most
haunting photographs of
WWI. Click the pictures to continue the series- they defy selection. (He did
reluctantly create some fakes for the
propaganda effort, but most of his stuff is straight and the better for it.)
After the war he continued to travel, and for those with some time on their hands, the Australian government has been good enough to put a few thousand items of his work on line
here)
posted to MetaFilter by IndigoJones
at 5:12 PM on November 2, 2005
(27 comments)
Greek as it was spoke.
Mrs. Jones thinks they sound like a cross between French and Chinese. You decide.
Alternatively,
Latin wav files, mostly poetry.
Or, for those into the bestseller circuit, there’s
this (narrator rolls the r’s a bit -
Jim Dale he ain’t).
posted to MetaFilter by IndigoJones
at 11:32 AM on October 1, 2005
(34 comments)
Oriana Fallaci back in the soup.
She's being sued in Italy for defaming Islam in her last book,
The Rage and the Pride, and faces up to two years in prison.
The suit was brought by President of the Italian Muslim Union,
Sig. Adel Smith, a fellow who's activism even other Muslims sometimes
profess to find a bit much.)
And now, as if this makes things right, he's
gone to jail for defaming Catholicism.
Ms Fallaci's most recent book,
The Force of Reason, as radioactive as her last, is due out in America later this year.
The free speech in Europe thing is interesting, if crazy making, but does it distract us from the issues that dare not speak their names? Is she right, can East and West survive together? Or are we really best advised to
go our separate ways?
posted to MetaFilter by IndigoJones
at 4:18 AM on June 24, 2005
(15 comments)
Assia Djebar
the
Algerian novelist and filmmaker was elected to fill the only vacancy at the
Académie Française, the august French institution that watches over the French language. Ms. Djebar, 68, is the first North African to join the 40-member academy.
Most interesting in light of recent discussions here on Dutch/Muslim relations. Comments from those who've read her books or know her from her work at
LSU or elsewhere would no doubt be appreciated
posted to MetaFilter by IndigoJones
at 5:51 AM on June 17, 2005
(12 comments)
Erik Petersen.
Danish newspaper photographer. Died in 1997. He took a number of pictures around WWII.
He never developed them.
Fortunately, sixty years later, someone else has.
Now they can be found in
a book.
Here's a bit of
bloggery as well.
posted to MetaFilter by IndigoJones
at 7:02 PM on June 2, 2005
(14 comments)
Spengler of the Asia Times.
Right-headed, wrong-headed, at times off-headed, but always interesting. You can spend a lot of time wading through the archives. The fellow, anonymous for whatever reason, has written on
US/China trade,
Ratzinger as a dark age theologian, the
American empire , how
Europe might be re-Christianized,
US vs Islam,
religion vs philosphy,
Tolkien vs Wagner,
internet stocks , and
anti-semitism. A bit of something for everyone.
Also runs a lively little
forum.
posted to MetaFilter by IndigoJones
at 11:00 AM on May 14, 2005
(20 comments)
Burton had his time.
Now "R.F. Burton", a long time pseudonymous expat in Saudi Arabia, is writing occasional pieces on the place he calls the Magic Kingdom. They are by turns
appalling,
alarming,
fascinating,
outrageous,
odd,
dispiriting,
interesting,
depressing,
enlightening, and
provoking.
Eleven so far. The index (along with the latest entry, if you have the stomach for it) is
here.
Request to those who know Saudi first hand- is the brush too broad or are the pieces nicely observed? Or something in between?
posted to MetaFilter by IndigoJones
at 6:03 PM on April 22, 2005
(27 comments)
Every audience seems to be niche audience these days but
this guy (not forgetting
this guy) were the goods.
I was reminded of them when a friends sent me
this link from Germany. Made my day, it should at least raise a smile. (Guitar players may want to weep)
And there seems to be a lot more of it out there than I had suspected, predictably in
France and
Holland, but even places like
Argentina,
Finland, and
Japan .
America does her part, and count on
Britain to be encyclopaedic on the subject
Okay, some are better than others, but they all have heart. Just now I could almost wish to live in Southern California just for
this
posted to MetaFilter by IndigoJones
at 7:14 PM on February 11, 2005
(16 comments)
