Carmen B. – Libnanews

Ce soir, je viens d’apprendre une nouvelle qui a eu sur moi l’effet d’une claque, qui m’a glacé mon sang, mes nerfs, mon cœur. Le sort de Johnny Nassif, un jeune soldat de 16 ans enrôlé dans l’Armée libanaise, disparu le 13 octobre 1990, vient d’être dévoilé.

Le corps de Johnny se trouvait dans une fosse commune au ministère de la Défense à Yarzé au Liban. Les tests ADN réalisés ont prouvé son identité…Ghazy Aad, le représentant de Solide, (Soutien aux Libanais détenus en exil) – une des rares figures libanaises qui jouit de toute ma déférence – a indiqué ce soir que le corps de Johnny a été transporté depuis la Syrie vers le ministère de la Défense libanaise bien après la triste date du 13 octobre 1990, appuyant son argument par les témoignages des ambulanciers qui avaient enterré les dépouilles en 1990 et qui affirmaient avoir enseveli 13 corps seulement, alors que les inspections faites en 2005 montrent qu’il existe un nombre beaucoup plus élevé que celui des années 1990. Cette nouvelle a été annoncée ce soir uniquement par l’OTV, les télés libanaises ayant toujours passé l’éponge sur le dossier des détenus libanais dans les geôles syriennes – personnellement je ne l’ai pas vu directement, parce que je ne suis pas fan des télévisions libanaises, mais je viens de l’apprendre par un coup de fil.

Le nom de Johnny et Violette Nassif a longtemps été étroitement lié à la cause des Libanais portés disparus depuis les années 1990. Le témoignage de cette dame m’a longtemps fait pleurer. Pleurer sur sa souffrance et celle de son fils. Pleurer sur le triste sort de ces soldats et de leurs familles qui ne vivent que dans l’espoir de revoir leurs fils ou filles.

Je ne veux même pas imaginer quelle est la réaction de Mme Nassif, qui depuis la disparition de son fils, n’a pas hésité une seule seconde à crier haut et fort sa volonté de revoir son fils, qui a fait de sa cause une cause nationale, malheureusement perçue par peu de personnes. Quelle affliction d’apprendre que son fils qui a subi les pire tortures pendant des années, est inhumé dans un ministère libanais ! Elle s’est souvent rendu à Yarzé, Violette, certainement. Elle ne savait pas que son fils y reposait – comme si le verbe « reposer » peut avoir un sens ici.

Quelle triste réalité de voir qu’un dossier aussi important que celui des Libanais portés disparus, est toujours en suspens. Quelle honte ! Quel déshonneur ! Quelle bassesse de la part de nos dirigeants !

Je n’oublierais jamais les funérailles d’Odette, décédée il y a moins d’un an, par un accident de voiture, alors qu’elle était sur son chemin pour atteindre la tente des mères à l’Escwa. J’y ai vu le Liban, avec son côté doux-amer. Des mères chrétiennes, chiites, sunnites, druzes, étaient là, aux funérailles d’une catholique, présentant le café comme si elles étaient ses sœurs ou ses cousines, comme il est d’usage lors des funérailles au Liban.

J’ai entendu une des mères me dire : « C’est ce qu’ils veulent, nous voir s’éteindre les unes après les autres pour que plus personne ne réclame nos enfants ».

Cette phrase a eu l’effet d’un poignard en plein dans mon cœur. Tout le monde s’en fout, tout le monde oublie. Comme si le chagrin d’une mère n’était pas grand-chose.

Et nos dirigeants continuent à s’empiffrer et à gonfler cupidement leurs comptes en banques. Je n’accuse pas la Syrie, elle était en guerre avec nous, et en temps de guerre, j’ai appris, que tout est permis, malencontreusement. Sans oublier que nos « chers » partis libanais n’ont pas été tendre eux non plus, non pas avec les Syriens, mais avec leurs propres frères ! J’accuse ces avortons qu’on a au pouvoir, qui se réjouissent tous maintenant d’avoir formé un gouvernement. Vous donnez des sièges sur les dépouilles de vos confrères ? Vous êtes contents, bande de cons ? J’en ai assez de vos saletés, vous qui nourrissez vos fortunes des corps de vos compatriotes, et qui désaltérez votre soif à coups de sang versé, passant rapidement l’éponge pour vous baigner dans vos marécages de corruption. J’en ai assez de vos discours fallacieux, de vos sourires abrutis et de vos regards maléfiques. Avec l’annonce d’une information pareille, mes seuls députés et représentants ce sont ces familles qui persévèrent dans leurs causes, qui vous implorent de leur dire la vérité sur le sort de leurs enfants, alors que c’est à vous de vous prosterner à leurs souliers et de vous enfouir sous terre embarrassés par votre impuissance et votre incompétence.

Je m’arrête là. Ne sachant conclure que par le fameux « j’irai cracher sur vos tombes » que j’adresse aux dirigeants du pays des cèdres, je préfère laisser la parole à Violette, qui raconte la disparition de son fils : (texte tiré de Solida.org)

« Mon fils, Johnny Salem NASSIF, né en 1974 à Beyrouth était soldat dans l’armée libanaise. Il a été enlevé le 13 octobre 1990 par l’Armée Syrienne, alors qu’il était sur le front de Daher El Wahech.

Pour le moment mon fils Johnny NASSIF, âgé de 23 ans, est torturé depuis l’âge de 16 ans dans une prison syrienne (à Saydnaya), où il reçoit des pressions physiques et psychologiques depuis sept ans. » Violette Nassif.

Paix à ton âme, Johnny …
Par Carmen B.
Libnanews

Al escuchar la admirable obra del compositor ruso Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) “El Lago de los Cisnes”, me viene a la mente la historia de amor de Sigfrido y Odette y el  famoso ballet de cuatro actos compuesto por Richard Wagner que nos cuenta su historia.

Rodeado de amigos, el príncipe Sigfrido celebra su veintiún cumpleaños en los jardines de su castillo, cuando llega la reina, madre de Sigfrido para recordarle que ha preparado una fiesta al día siguiente con el propósito de escoger esposa. Las más bellas muchachas estarán invitadas a la fiesta para que el joven elija una de ellas. Pero esto le causa gran melancolía a Sigfrido y, sus amigos deciden distraerle invitándole a ir de caza. Llegan a un hermoso bosque y cuando se acercan al lago comienzan a salir de las aguas unos cisnes que se van convirtiendo en hermosas jóvenes. Sigfrido apunta con su ballesta hacia las jóvenes cisnes, cuando aparece su reina, Odette y le cuenta que fue transformada en cisne junto con sus compañeras por el malvado mago Rothbart, que sólo por la noche vuelven a su forma humana y que el hechizo solo puede romperse cuando le juren amor eterno. Los jóvenes se enamoran rápidamente, pero cuando Sigfrido va a jurarle amor eterno a Odette, aparece Rothbart, quien hace que las jóvenes vuelvan a convertirse en cisnes para evitar que el príncipe rompa el hechizo. Antes de que se marche Odette, Sigfrido le pide que asista al baile que se realizará en castillo la noche siguiente y Odette se aleja convertida en cisne.

Comienza la fiesta en el castillo donde Sigfrido deberá elegir esposa; entra la reina madre junto a Sigfrido y comienza el festejo. Se presentan una a una las jóvenes candidatas y la reina madre le pide a su hijo que elija esposa. Él piensa en Odette y se niega a escoger, por lo cual su madre se enfada con él. En ese momento el maestro de ceremonias anuncia la llegada de un noble desconocido y su hija; es el barón Rothbart y su hija Odile. El príncipe hechizado por el mago, cree ver a Odette en Odile y la escoge como esposa. La reina madre acepta y Sigfrido le jura a Odile amor eterno; Rothbart se descubre y muestra a Odette a lo lejos, Sigfrido se da cuenta de su terrible error y corre desesperado hacia el lago. A las orillas del lago las jóvenes cisnes esperan tristes la llegada de Odette. Ella llega llorando y les está contando a sus amigas los acontecimientos de la fiesta en el castillo cuando aparece Sigfrido y le implora su perdón. Reaparece Rothbart reclamando el regreso de los cisnes. Sigfrido y Odette luchan contra él, pero todo es en vano pues el hechizo no puede ser deshecho. Los dos enamorados se lanzan al lago y Rothbart muere a consecuencia de ese sacrificio de amor siendo los otros cisnes liberados del maleficio. Segundos después, se ve aparecer sobre el lago los espíritus de Odette y Sigfrido ya juntos para siempre.

En otra versión de igual manera la reina madre prepara una fiesta para celebrar el veintiún cumpleaños de su hijo, el príncipe Sigfrido. Mientras su madre le está comunicando su decisión que debe escoger esposa en la fiesta, Sigfrido divisa unos blancos cisnes en el lago, toma su ballesta y les persigue en la noche, les observa con admiración, cuando un bello cisne se acerca y se transforma en una bella joven. La joven le cuenta que es la Princesa Odette, que ha sido hechizada junto con sus compañeras a permanecer de día en forma de cisne y que al llegar la noche regresan a ser su ser. Siendo el causante del encantamiento el brujo Rothbart, encantamiento que sólo podrá ser roto si alguien le jura amor. De pronto, el brujo aparece, Sigfrido se dispone a disparar al brujo, cuando Odette le dice que si le mata nunca podrá romperse el embrujo. Sigfrido le jura amor eterno a Odette, advirtiéndole ella que si rompe su promesa permanecerá siempre siendo un cisne. Pasan el resto de la noche juntos, al amanecer, Odette regresa al lago y nuevamente se convierte en cisne. El príncipe baila con las candidatas que su madre ha invitado a la fiesta sin poder dejar de pensar en Odette, cuando, de pronto, llegan dos personas que no habían sido invitadas, Rothbart y su hija Odile disfrazados. Sigfrido se asombra por el parecido de Odile con Odette. Rothbart le convence  que Odile es la amada que ha escogido y le obliga a jurarle amor eterno. Rothbart y Odile se marchan. Al aparecer Odette junto a sus damas, Sigfrido se da cuenta que ha sido engañado, Odette perdona a Sigfrido por su inconsciente traición y los amantes deciden permanecer unidos hasta la muerte;  Rothbart destruye el castillo y tras la pareja levantando una tormenta para impedir que se marchen, pero el amor de Odette y Sigfrido es más poderoso que su magia y al tiempo que se lanzan al lago, Rothbart es destruido.

 

“It was a very beautiful day, they had a lovely house in the Valle Boulogne.

I knew they were going to start, and they started by taking off my toe nails.

And I looked away into the distance and I thought I must lose myself in the sky and the trees, get away from where I am…

And funnily enough, its strange, but when you accept death all is well.

It’s very difficult to explain that, all is well, it doesn’t especially happen, i’ts just that you are free.

It frees you. You are free. You are free from fear. You are free from responsibility. It’s not your responsibility anymore…”

Odette Churchill, the most famous spy of the second world war….held at the ravensbrook concentration camp, talking on a 1990 television programme interview about the torture she suffered at the hands of the nazis.

You can hear more about her on the Womens Hour podcast.

France is at war and Parisian society does its part by adapting to the new circumstances. Proust here unleashes his full comic powers, which resemble Jane Austen’s irony in the delightful gap between what is said and what is meant. A few examples follow.

Mme Verdurin has by now ascended to the height of society and she now welcomes all to her salon, including the “bores” and not including all of the “faithful”:

Another noticeable change was that, as more and more smart people made advances to Mme. Verdurin, inversely the number of those whom she dubbed “bores” diminished. By a sort of magical transformation, every bore who had come to call on her and asked to be invited to her parties immediately became a charming and intelligent person. In  short, at the end of a year, the number of bores had dwindled to such an extent that “the fear and awfulness of being bored,” which had filled so large a place in the conversation and played so great a role in the life of Mme Verdurin, had almost entirely disappeared….And the terror of being bored would doubtless, for want of bores, have entirely abandoned Mme Verdurin had she not, in some slight degree, replaced the vanishing bores by others recruited from the ranks of the former faithful. (VI,56)

Wartime shortages have forced Mme Verdurin to move her salon to a large hotel, where everyone is absorbed in discussions of the war effort.

After dinner the guests went upstairs to the Mistress’s reception rooms, and then the telephoning began. But many large hotels were at this period peopled with spies, who duly noted the news announced over the telephone by Bontemps with an indiscretion which might have had serious consequences but for a fortunate lack of accuracy in his reports, which invariably were contradicted by events. (VI,63)

The Dreyfus case is now ancient history; everyone is a Dreyfusard now. Society adopts change in its own way.

In society (and this social phenomenon is merely a particular case of a much more general psychological law) novelties, whether blameworthy or not, excite horror only so long as they have not been assimilated and enveloped by reassuring elements. It was the same with Dreyfusism as with that marriage between Saint-Loup and the daughter of Odette which had at first produced such an outcry. Now that “everybody one knew” was seen at the parties given by the Saint-Loups, Gilberte might have had the morals of Odette herself but people would have “gone there” just the same and would have thought it quite right that she should disapprove like a dowager of any moral novelties that had not been assimilated. (VI,52)

The Swan Princess (1994)

Acest film animat prezintă povestea unui rege care deşi ajunsese la senectute nu avea moştenitori. În marea lui durere, regina, îi dărui o frumoasă prinţesă aşa că regele invită întreg regatul să se bucure de viitoarea conducătoare a poporului. Însa pentru doritorul tronului, Vrăjitorul, mica prinţesa Odette deveni o piedică. Descoperit în timp ce făcea vrăjile mărşave de către gărzile regelui este alungat din cetate acesta promiţând însă că se va răzbuna motiv pentru oamenii de rând să creadă că regele este prea milostiv, aceştia pledând pentru asasinarea răului vrăjitor. Eliberat însă, acesta revine după câţiva ani şi o transformă pe prinţesă într-o gingaşă lebădă. Pentru a rupe vraja, un tânăr care o va iubi cu adevarat trebuie să facă un jurământ de iubire eternă în faţa tuturor.

Swann in Love fits in curiously with the remainder of Search.It has an omniscient narrator, an ‘as related to’ kind of voice, even though Proust adds a line to say he heard Swann’slove story later in life. It interrupts the unfolding of Marcel’s coming of age story, pushing the narrative back a generation to the time around Marcel’s birth. We do get introduced to some of the main characters in the following volumes, besides Swann himself: Mme Verdurin, Elstir, Princess des Laumes, etc. And the love story is a forecast of the Albertine affair (Albertine had not been envisaged when Proust wrote Swann’s Way;I wonder if she had been how he would have handled Swann.) The narrator, at the end ofCombray, says that Swann’s story, like the madeline, served as an aide memoire to his childhood:

Thus would I often lie until morning, dreaming of the old days at Combray, of my melancholy and wakeful evenings there, of other days besides, the memory of  which had been more recently restored to me by the taste–by what would have been called at Combray the “perfume”–of a cup of tea, and, by an association of memories, of a story which, many years after I had left the little place, had been told me of a love affair in which Swann had been involved before I was born… (I, 262)

But the strongest claim for the inclusion of the Swann episode comes a little later, when the narrator injects his personal voice, “…when I began to take an interest in his character because of the similarities which, in wholly different respects, it offered to my own…” (I, 273). All this by way of introduction to my theme: Swann is Marcel’s spiritual alter ego in his understanding of art (and love). By looking at Swann’s view of painting, we see what Marcel must overcome. The following passages show how Swann’s vision and understanding become clouded in part because of his, to use Roger Shattuck’s term, art idolatry.

Swann is not initially attracted to Odette’s physical beauty, until one day he notices a similarity she has to a figure in Botticelli’s The Trials of Moses.

…she struck Swann by her resemblance to the figure of Zipporah, Jethro’s daughter, which is to be seen in one of the Sistine frescos. He had always found a peculiar fascination in tracing in the paintings of the old masters not merely the general characteristics of the people whom he encountered in his daily life, but rather what seems least susceptible of generalization, the individual features of men and women when he knew…. He no longer based his estimate of the merit of Odette’s face on the doubtful quality of her cheeks and purely fleshy softness which he supposed would greet his lips there should he ever hazard a kiss, but regarded it rather as a skein of beautiful, delicate lines which his eyes unravelled…(I, 315)

Now hear Swann at the end of Swann in Love:

Odette’s pallid complexion, her too thin cheeks, her drawn feature, her tired eyes…”To think that I’ve wasted years of my life, that I’ve longed to die, that I’ve experienced my greatest love, for a woman who didn’t appeal to me, who wasn’t even my type!” (I, 543)

Swann’s idealization of art keeps him from living incitefully, with disastrous results. Marcel’s idealization of literature is a translation of this idea into literature; he cannot possible write the ethereal prose that he imagines literature requires.

On the other hand, Swann’s depiction of Odette as Zipporah is brilliant. Proust simply worked from Botticelli to create Odette’s face. I normally am hesitant to have a novelistic image locked into a single form by, as in this case, a painting or by a reading by an actor. But I concede here that the Botticelli image is much better than what I had imagined prior to seeing it in detail.

The Lady in Pink presents a problem to the reader. She is a courtesan that Marcel meets when visiting his uncle Adolphe.  She is evidently Odette de Crecy, given the references back to this scene later in the novel. Yet she cannot be Mme de Crecy but must be, instead, Mme Swann. But Mme Swann is at this point in the novel intent on building her salon and gaining acceptability in Swann’s circles. Further, Odette and uncle Adolphe had ruptured their relationship prior to this scene taking place. How can these contradictions be explained?

Our first knowledge of Madame Swannis near the beginning of the goodnight kiss episode and anticipates Odette’s questionable reputation: “For many years, during the course of which–especially before his marriage–M. Swann came often to see them at Combray…” (I,18). Soon after, Marcel’s mother resolves to talk to Swann about his daughter: “My mother fancied that a word from her would wipe out all the distress which my family had contrived to cause Swann since his marriage….’Now, M. Swann,’ she said, ‘do tell me about your daughter….;’” (I,30). So we know that by this point in the very young Marcel’s life Swann is married to the woman we will later know is Odette and that he is the father of their daughter.

Marcel in his younger years would visit his uncle Adolph’s sitting room in Combray. “But for some years now I had not gone into my uncle Adolphe’s sanctum, for he no longer came to Combray on account of a quarrel which had arisen between him and my family, through my fault, in the following circumstances…” (I,99).  In Paris Marcel would, once or twice a month, walk to his uncle’s apartment for a visit. Once, not on the usual visiting day, he arrived to discover his uncle with a visitor. Adolphe reluctantly allows Marcel to enter, at the entreaty of his female guest, where he sees “opposite him, in pink silk dress with a great necklace of pearls about her throat…” (I,104). Nothing in this passage explicitly identifies the lady as Odette, but the connection is made explicit later. In the final volume, Marcel attends a dinner party where he discovers that Odette has become the mistress of Duc de Guermantes. “…in spite of all that she had accomplished in building up a social position, she was tending under pressure of new circumstances to become once more, as she had first appeared to me in my earliest childhood, the lady in pink.” (VI,481).

The relationship of the lady in pink to Marcel’s uncle Adolphe is curious in another respect. We are re-introduced to Odette and Adolphe in Swann in Love.

My uncle advised Swann not to see Odette for some days, after which she would love him all the more, and advised Odette to let Swann meet her whenever and as often as he pleased. A few days later Odette told Swannthat she had just had a rude awakening, on discovering that my uncle was the same as other men: he had tried to take her by force. She calmed Swann down when he wanted to rush out to challenge my uncle to a duel… (I,444)

So we are left with two jarring incongruities. The Lady in Pink scene follows, chronologically, a break between Odette and Adolphe. And the Lady in Pink must already be Mme Swann, who is horrified of revelations of her courtesan past and quite unlikely to continue to have been one.

The break between Odette and Adolphe could conceivably be repaired, although we are not made aware of this. The Mme de Crecy vs Mme Swann is a harder conflict to resolve. Proust is known to have been occasionally sloppy in composition,notably in Time Regained where several discrepancies are found in the concluding soiree scene. These were most likely due to rushed editing near the end of his life. My own suspicion is that Proust wanted the protagonist to have seen Odette as a courtesan so that he can complete the circle of her as a courtesan in the final volume. This formal point of construction was simply so uppermost in his mind that he was probably not aware of the contradiction he had created.

seen on Justin Blyth’s Blog

The Mariinsky visit to London a few weeks ago and in particular the fact that they brought mime-less Soviet adaptations of ballet classics with them, generated much discussion among Covent Garden audiences about the importance of mime in ballet. When Konstantin Sergeyev revisited works such as Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and Le Corsaire in the 50’s, balletic mime was largely scrapped in Russia as it was considered that new audiences did not need to be exposed to something as old fashioned and reminiscent from Tsarist times. The West would follow suit later on when it considered that dancing should be a complete means of storytelling with no additional form of narration.  Mime became moot.

But well performed balletic mime can be as artistic and as beautiful to watch as the dance itself. It carries forth the story, putting it into context. For instance audiences watching the Mariinsky’s Sleeping Beauty will be given no clues that the Lilac Fairy reverts Carabosse’s curse to princess Aurora by reassuring the whole court that if she pricks her finger she will fall into deep sleep but not die. Of course there is an argument that many of us will be  familiar with this fairy tale and that we do not need such level of detail in performance. On the other hand, omitting the Lilac Fairy mime means depriving audiences of one of ballet’s most moving sequences as this passage assists in developing her character, conveying a full sense of the Lilac Fairy‘s warmth, kindness and wisdom as well as the contrast between good and evil, her calming gestures opposing Carabosse’s jerky, angry movements. All this is achieved by working the upper body, with face, arms and hand gestures that are completely integrated to Tchaikovsky’s beautiful score. Balletic mime is a stylish work of art.

Deirdre Chapman as Carabosse Photo: Johan Person/Royal Ballet © Source: Dansomanie

Although we hardly ever see mime in modern pieces, classic works that have been preserved or reconstructed by ballet companies such as ABT, the Royal Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet (the latter boasting a pure mime tradition that goes back to the Bournonville schooling) tend to contain substantial mime sequences. As we just wrote a post on going to the ballet for the first time we thought the mime basics would also help prepare you for the performance ahead. Chances are you will come across lengthy declamatory, narrative or conversational mime passages if you are going to see a 19th century ballet classic and if you know the basics you won’t be left scratching your head:

Most commonly seen mime gestures:

• Dance

Hands circle one another above the head, the arms moving from first to third position.

Ex: in The Sleeping Beauty, just before Aurora’s solo, when King Florestan asks his daughter “will you dance for us?”

• Forget/Think

Character touches the forehead with the index finger.

Ex1: in The Sleeping Beauty, when the evil fairy Carabosse asks the King and the Queen “did you forget to invite me?”

Ex2: in Giselle, before Hilarion calls Albrecht‘s bluff he asks a bewildered Giselle “do you really think he loves you?”

• Die

Crosses arms in front of body in a low position.

Ex: when Giselle’s mom (Berthe) says to the villagers “the Wilis will make wandering men dance till they die.”

• Beautiful

Character makes a circle around the face with the palm of the hand.

Ex: in The Sleeping Beauty, before showing Prince Florimund (or Desiré) a vision of Aurora, the Lilac Fairy asks him “do you want to see something beautiful?”

• Promise

Point two fingers, held together (like a peace sign) upwards in the audience’s direction.

Ex: in Swan Lake, when Prince Siegfried promises to Odette that he will marry her and thus break the swan curse.

And also:

• Why - both arms open outwards towards the other character
• King/Queen - taps forehead with hand three times
• Princess - taps forehead with hand two times
• I/Me - point to own chest
• You - point to the other person
• Love - crosses hands over heart
• Listen/Listening - cups hand over ear leaning towards the sound or taps the face close to the ears
• Anger/Angry - bend elbows with fists pointed towards the sky, shaking them
• Stop - Palm out
• Engaged or Married – Point to the ring finger

A brief mime dictionary can be downloaded from the Pennsylvania Ballet website from this link

See balletic mime in action:

• Giselle: Berthe narrates the legend of the Wilis

Move forward to 2:30 to see the full mime sequence where Berthe (Genesia Rosato) tries to warn Giselle (Alina Cojocaru) about the dangers of  too much dancing. She will tell all villagers of the presence of Wilis in the forest who come out late at night to prey on wandering men. Note the miming of: cemetery/burial grounds (the crosses), wilis (the wings, the hand on her chin) dance and die.

• The Sleeping Beauty: Carabosse and the Lilac Fairy

In the prologue of the Royal Ballet’s current production of  The Sleeping Beauty you can see the complete sequence where Carabosse crashes Aurora’s christening and curses her, miming the gestures: forgot, listen, say, grow up, beautiful, die. The Lilac Fairy interrupts (“now you listen to what I have to say“) miming that if Aurora pricks her finger she will sleep until awakened by a kiss from a faraway land Prince.

Move to 1:40 to see the full mime sequence in this video of Kevin McKenzie’s Swan Lake production for ABT. The promise sign is mimed twice, first by Odette (Gillian Murphy) when she is telling her story to Prince Siegfried (Ángel Corella) and then by the Prince. Odette also uses mime to explain she is the Queen of the swans.

• La Sylphide: Madge, Effie & her friends

Royal Ballet’s Johan Kobborg characterised as Madge tells James’s fiance Effie and her friends their fortunes in this Bolshoi staging of La Sylphide (Move forward to 0:35). Notice how Madge predicts that Effie shall marry Gurn instead of James.

See Mime Rehearsals:

• Royal Ballet Director Monica Mason rehearsing Principal Character Artist Gillian Revie in the role of Carabosse [link]

• Anthony Dowell and Antoinette Sibley rehearse Principals Rupert Pennefather and Lauren Cuthberson in Swan Lake’s Act 2 where Siegfried learns about Odette’s curse [link]

• Sir Peter Wright rehearses Ludovic Ondiviela in The Nutcracker scene where Hans Peter explains to the Sugar Plum Fairy how he and Clara battled the mice and travelled to the land of sweets [link]

Sources and Further information:

1. The NYCB website contains useful learning materials for the same Nutcracker mime sequence shown above [link]
2. Pennsylvania Ballet [link]
3. Ballet 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving the Ballet by Robert Greskovic. [link]
4. Ballet Mime for Little Ones via Neo Blog [link]

Hurricane Bill it was reported earlier today is expected to become a major one in the next few days with winds up to 110 mph. Bill is the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, and seems headed in a direction close to Bermuda. Okay so wait a second, the Atlantic Season? Not just plain old Hurricane Season?

Well no, as it turns out, each ocean basin has its own hurricane season with its own distinct set of hurricanes for mankind to look forward to. There are three of these systems: the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean basin hurricane season. The first hurricane overall this year began as the tropical tempest Andres that grew into hurricane proportion earlier this summer on Tuesday, June 23. It just eked out a hurricane status with winds about 74 mph, the minimum for hurricane strength as it swept over Mexico’s southwestern coast. It weakened significantly over the next two days. That it was in the Eastern Pacific meant it was still called a hurricane. Had it struck on the Western side of the Pacific then it would have been called a “typhoon.” Same diff. Just a name change. Sort of like East Coast Rap versus West Coast Rap.  It’s still rap any way you slice it.

And then the same weather phenomenon is called a “cyclone” if you’re in the Indian Ocean or by the Coral Sea off northeastern Australia, or in a very very specific part of Coney Island’s amusement park. I have to confess I’m a little unsure on whether there has technically been a full-fledged cyclone yet this season. What has been called Cyclone Bijli has also been phrased rather coyly I think, as “cyclonic storm Bijli” which I liken to calling “projectile vomiting stomach flu” as a “a bit queasy.”  “Cyclonic storm”? Is that like saying, “Cyclone-like”? Anyway, on April 14 this year, “01B” was called a Deep Depression late in the day and soon after was designated as a Tropical Depression (I’d be depressed too if no one knew what to call me). Later the next day all sources called it a Tropical Storm. And a Tropical Storm is when you get to be christened a name. A name like Bijli in this case. And maybe then you graduate to Cyclone Status as Cyclone Bijli. And in fact, some were rushing to call it a Tropical cyclone on that day. But on the morning of April 17, it was downgraded to a deep depression due to land interaction. Fact is, Bijli only reached a maximum wind speed of 45 mph. Pussy.  

Now take Aila, a “Severe Cyclonic Storm” (still sounds like they’re hedging) that hit that area in May. Aila reached wind speeds of 70 mph, but really when you think about it, why quibble over 4 mph wind speed. Am I really going to be standing outside, going “Nah, it’s okay, feel that 70 mph wind hitting your face? That’s nothing man, you gotta get up to 74 mph before the shards of debris are gonna sting.”

Anyway, getting back to Hurricane Bill, I’d like that to be my new nickname. My first name being William, it’s awesome to have a convenient shortened version being so close to the front of the alphabet. I can really pick and choose how far in front or in back of a list I can be. Like if they’re handing out ice cream cones alphabetically, “Yeah next, that’s me Bill, I’m next after Andy.”  But if they’re interviewing people to find the right candidate for a dangerous mission then I’m counting on them finding the right dude before they get to “W.”  So, Hurricane Bill.  Yeah I like it. Now I can become a prize-fighter.

But now why are they saying Hurricane Bill is the first hurricane of the Atlantic season?  Shouldn’t it be a name beginning with “A”?  Well that’s because getting back to what I mentioned earlier, the name is attributed when you become a tropical storm. And earlier this year, you’ll recall Tropical Storm Ana had descended upon us but soon dissipated before she attained Hurricane status. So, really it’s up to the tropical storm’s own industriousness–whether it climbs the ladder of successful destruction or just mopes about lazily soon lapsing into a depression. With a strong name like Bill of course, he had no recourse but to morph into the mightyness that is all things named Bill.

Want to know the name of the next tropical storm? Here check this out, I’m psychic….”I see…I seeeeee…C.”
“What? What do you see?”
“I told you.”
“What?”
“C”
“Tell me! What do you see?”
“That’s right.”
“What’s right?”
“C”
“No I don’t see! What’s the next name?”

Etc, etc. The next tropical storm this year will be named Claudette.  And after that will be Danny, then Erika, Fred, Grace, Henri, Ida, Joaquim, Kate, Larry, Mindy, Nicholas, Odette, Peter, Rose, Sam, Teresa, Victor, and Wanda.

In fact, I can tell the names for the next FIVE years!  Yes, that’s how far in advance the committee for naming hurricanes at the World Meteorological Organization has planned.  Not all letters get to be named though which kind of sucks for those letters I guess. Q, U, X, Y and Z are not used.  And then what happens if there are so many tropical storms, that they surpass the letter W?   Well, it is very rare that that happens, but with the uncertainty of global warning and its effects, who knows?  But if it does eventually happen, then the additional storms are named after the letters in the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and so forth.  Hurricane Delta sounds like a reall badass to me.  Jeez, I’m heading for Canada if there’s ever a Hurricane Delta.  Delta Hurricane.  Sounds like a SWAT movie starring Chuck Norris.

And then finally, there are some Hurricane names that are associated with hurricanes so devastating that they have been retired, never to be given to another hurricane ever again. Their jerseys hang from the rafters of Mount Olympus Arena.  Names like Camille and Andrew for instance have been retired, and of course Katrina (the 2005 version not the 1981 Hurricane Katrina nor the 1999 Tropical Storm Katrina). Yes, the names do get recycled until one as disastrous as Katrina relegates the name to the Hall of Hurricane Fame forever, never to venture outside again.  48 names in all have been retired as of this date.

And the weird thing about the naming process is that they only have six years worth of names.  What happens is this: each they begin with that year’s A-to-W list in naming tropical storms, and then the next year they begin with a different list. And so on, but then after the sixth year of a different name list, they revert back to the first list for the 7th year.  So, the same names are going to keep popping up for tropical storms every 7th year. Unless again, one is so deadly it gets retired. In Katrina’s case, the K slot has been replaced by Katia, which is due in 2011 since that’s when Katrina would have come up to bat again.  I find this disappointing.  It puts some people in the awkward position of hoping that a hurricane wreaks enough havoc that its name gets retired and then that person’s name might be chosen.

What happens then if some crazed evil genius mad scientist gets a hold of technology that can cause a hurricane to strengthen? Suppose President Mahmoud Ahmidinejad has always wanted a hurricane named after him but figured “Fat Chance, my name’s Mahmoud” and so he bolsters his uranium enrichment campaign to finance this awful technology to make sure that all the “M” hurricanes were so horrible that they had to be retired and thus new M names were given until finally we had to name one Mahmoud! Huh? What then!?

Hmm….Excuse me, I have an Austin Powers screenplay to start writing…
(Sources: Thank you to Ken Heideman and Michael Friedman of the American Meteorological Society for their time on the telephone with me. Also Cbsnews.com; USAToday.com; Geology.com)

For those of you in the US, I hope you had a firecracker of a holiday!

The big starbaby news of the week was the reveal of Tobey Maguire’s son’s name: Otis Tobias, little brother to Ruby Sweetheart.

Other celeb news:

• Cobie Smulders of How I Met Your Mother welcomed a daughter, Shaelyn Cado;
• Baywatch/Playboy alum Gena Lee Nolin posed in a bikini for PEOPLE magazine with baby Stella Monroe. Stella is the new Ava – everyone in Hollywood has one;
• Kelli O’Hara, of Broadway fame, welcomed a son named Owen James;
• Country music’s Josh Turner welcomed a son named Colby Lynch.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere:

• Looking for an Independence Day appellation?  Check out Xanthe Linnea’s Patriotic Names post; Legit Baby Name’s post on Eleftheria and her post on Liberty; and my post on Liberty from 2008; 
• Onomastitrix mentioned that Bruce seems to be rising down under.  Could it be a Batman-influenced revival?  Or, as she suggests, a simple fact of the many grandfathers named Bruce inspiring a next generation?  Hmmm … ;
• Inspired by the rise of Keaton – a “unique” name that was actually percolating in our collective cultural well for years and now stands at #371 - Swistle has been discussing possible names from the same mold: two candidates she’s mentioned recently are Brando and Schroder;
• For pure, LOL joy, check out Teresa Strasser’s rundown of her Top Five baby names.  That’s Nameberry’s Pamela Redmond Satran in the name expert role, giving Shane the big thumbs down;  
• Nymbler posted the Top Ten June search names.  No surprises there, but I always enjoy the Top Five Brand New Names.  Last month, it was Aveline, Milly, Cedar, Jordanne and Odette.  Fascinating!

Next, a few things on my mind:

• The following question keeps popping up in searches leading to this site:  Can I name my daughter Kylie and my son Kyle?   Yes, yes, you can.  But you just flat out should not do so.  It’s too close, too cutesie and if you ever had a third child, you’d be forced to choose from a very small list of names indeed.  (I think she’d have to be Kyla or Skyla, and he’d be Kyson or Kyler.  Or feel horribly left out.); 
• My vocabulary keeps expanding, thanks to name sites.  I’ve recently discovered the Aussie slang word bogan, the equivalent of the British chavvy or American trashy.  I think.  Apparently, phonetic spellings like Taylah for Taylor are a thing, or so blogs a Doc Down Under during her pediatric rotation;
• A UK blogger mentioned that a BBC3 documentary on a 14 y.o. mum called Kizzy mentioned that she named her son Kaylib.  Not Caleb, not Kaleb, but Kaylib.  As if having your childhood immortalized on reality TV wasn’t bad enough;
• Could the name Merlin make a comeback?  That’s right, a comeback – he appeared in the US Top 1000 regularly from the 1890s through the 1960s.  It first crossed my mind while watching Bravo’s The Fashion Show, with the Honduran Merlin.  Even if he doesn’t strike it big in the design world, there’s the BBC’s Merlin, now showing on NBC this summer.  If Arthur can make  a comeback …
• Another Bravo-influenced thought, couldn’t they have found better-named kids for their real-life-Gossip Girl, NYC Prep?  The cast includes PC, Sebastian, Kelli, Taylor, Jessie and Camille.  I realize you can’t rename full-grown human beings, but I’ll take GG’s Rufus, Lily, Serena and Blair anyday;
• Lastly, a look back – on July 5, 2008, the Name of the Day was Jasper.

That’s all for this week!  Tune in next week for Flannery, Dahlia, Gregor, Brisa and Clifford.

It’s not really baby naming news – it’s meteorological, potentially catastrophic even.

And yet I can’t resist posting the 2009 list of Hurricane Names.

There are multiple lists.  (If I’ve covered it as a Name of the Day, click the link to read that post.)

First up, Atlantic storms:

1. Ana
2. Bill
3. Claudette
4. Danny
5. Erika
6. Fred
7. Grace
8. Henri
9. Ida
10. Joaquin
11. Kate
12. Larry
13. Mindy
14. Nicholas
15. Odette
16. Peter
17. Rose
18. Sam
19. Teresa
20. Victor
21. Wanda

Then there’s the slightly more exotic Eastern North Pacific group:

1. Andres
2. Blanca
3. Carlos
4. Dolores
5. Enrique
6. Felicia
7. Guillermo
8. Hilda
9. Ignacio
10. Jimena
11. Kevin
12. Linda
13. Marty
14. Nora
15. Olaf
16. Patricia
17. Rick
18. Sandra
19. Terry
20. Vivian
21. Waldo
22. Xina
23. York
24. Zelda

Hurricanes aren’t named for my amusement.  Instead, over the years, meteorologists decided it was easier to use short, easily remembered names rather than a numeric designation.

Originally, storms (like many children) were often named after saints’ days.  Up until the 1970s, all hurricanes were female.  Now their names alternate.

The Australian region works a bit differently, but their names are no less interesting:

A: Anika, Anthony, Alessia, Alfred, Ann

B: Billy, Bianca, Bruce, Blanche, Blake

C: Charlotte, Carlos, Cathy, Caleb, Claudia

D: Dominic, Dianne, Dylan, Debbie, Damien

E: Ellie, Errol, Edna, Ernie, Esther

F: Freddy, Fina, Fletcher, Frances, Ferdinand

G: Gabrielle, Grant, Gillian, Greg, Gretel

H: Hamish, Heidi, Hadi, Hilda, Harold

I:  Ilsa, Iggy, Ita, Ira, Imogen

J: Jasper, Jasmine, Jack, Joyce, Joshua

K: Kirrily, Koji, Kate, Kelvin, Kimi

L: Laurence, Lua, Lam, Linda, Lucas

M: Magda, Mitchell, Marcia, Marcus, Marian

N: Neville, Narelle, Nathan, Nora, Noah

O: Olga, Oswald, Olwyn, Owen, Odette

P/Q: Paul, Peta, Quang, Penny, Paddy

R: Robyn, Rusty, Raquel, Riley, Ruby

S: Sean, Sandra, Stan, Savannah, Seth

T: Tasha, Tim, Tatjana, Trevor, Tiffany

U/V: Vince, Victoria, Uriah, Veronica, Verdun

WXY&Z: Zelia, Zane, Yvette, Wallace

Technically, these are tropical cyclone names.  The best part?  There’s a process to request that your name be used for a Tropical Cyclone.  However, the service notices that after filing a written request, it will probably take about fifty years before a storm is named in your honor.

And you thought it took me a long time to respond to Name of the Day requests! 

Frenchy

Ishtar et moi, nous avons rencontré Odette Adib grâce à une amie, Nayla l’année dernière dans une tente du Centre-Ville, tente tenue par les familles des disparus durant les années de souffrance. Syriens, Israéliens, miliciens bien de chez nous du Liban… comme toutes les mères, son histoire est partagée par la douleur des autres mères, ensembles elles, ses mères ont décidé de s’unir pour ce Liban de coexistence, également disparu avec les évènements.

Son histoire personnelle était émouvante, mère de Christine et Richard, ils avaient tous les deux disparus à quelques pas de leur domicile, dans Beyrouth-Ouest, pris par dans les tourments de 1982. Malgré les “conseils” appuyés des miliciens et hommes de main, elle est restée à son domicile, attendant ses enfants, durant bien des années.

Depuis ils n’ont jamais réapparu, mais la mère qu’elle était, elle ne pouvait accepter leurs disparitions.

La foi qu’elle portait en elle dans une prochaine réapparition s’était peu-à peu transformée en simple demande, elle disait, devant nous, simplement, au bout de 26 ans, pouvoir faire son deuil. Elle voulait la vérité, celle qu’on nous promet sans jamais l’accorder à nous simples mortels, au sujet de ses enfants.

Elle demandait à ces politiciens qui l’ont tant déçu, ces criminels qui étaient au pouvoir, cette vérité sur ses enfants, elle et d’autres demandaient qu’une enquête internationale soit menée pour pouvoir atténuer sa souffrance, elle savait que cela ne ramènerait pas ses 2 enfants uniques, mais du moins qu’elle pourrait enfin se reposer, faire son deuil, elle ne réclamait que cela.

Sa rencontre nous avait énormément émue, simplement en nous mettant à sa place, sa place de parents de victimes, non pas qu’on est victime nous même, nous avons eu la chance de ne pas connaître ce désespoir mais …

Il est dur d’écrire ce qu’on ressent… Odette a été tuée alors qu’elle se rendait à la khaimé en face du Grand Sérail, la ou elle siégeait, en face de l’Escwa, elle a été tuée par un chauffard, qui l’a emporté, elle et son fardeau, sa peine, il y a 2 jours de cela.

Elle emporte dans sa tombe, sa souffrance, sans avoir pu faire son deuil. Elle rejoindra peut-être la haut, ses enfants, elle sera alors contente … au bout de 26 ans de les retrouver.

Quant à nous, fils et filles du Liban, nous ne pouvons qu’espèrer que les autres mères de la Khaimé du centre ville connaitront un épilogue plus heureux, celui de retrouvailles avec leurs fils, filles, maris, épouses et parents.

Mom just got a copy of this movie via our trusty door-to-door DVD guy and I was glad that she chose this. (My mom’s a horror movie fan.) We watched this last Thursday night, which was probably the reason I was almost late for training the other day, but it was worth it.

I was surprised that the horror part started early during the first few minutes of the film, which was good. I even joked that the scary part occurs at least every 3 minutes or so, just giving you enough time to regain your composure and get scared again. lol!

The plot was very straight-forward, an entity from Jewish belief called a “DYBBUK” haunts the family of Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman of Cloverfield). This demon, which existed way before our time wants a way back into our world, to be born again, hence the title. (No, I won’t be giving out spoilers.)

The acting was pretty decent, yes, some elements of the film was borrowed from other existing horror movies but who doesn’t nowadays? Before I wrote this review, I was curious what other film critics wrote about this particular film, and I was actually surprised to see that they thought it was junk! It only scored around 30% in rottentomatoes.com and pretty much other similar movie review sites. They said that David Goyer (writer/ director of the Dark Knight) was not original, used to much Jewish mumbo-jumbo, the scorpions and other creepy crawlies were too common and the boy looked that it needed sleep rather than being scary. (Hello?? Horror movie?? What do you expect?)

Yes, it is true that the director borrowed elements from a lot of other movies and similar resources (again, are there any more ORIGINAL horror stories?!) but he used them well. Unlike movies who just saw up people, spurts gallons of blood and make scary-but-stupid looking ghosts/ghouls/monsters/vampires, the movie uses rather authentic basis for the creature that haunts the protagonist. (Not just because they want to kill people or have them for breakfast.)

The story-telling was good, it was fast-paced, enough to keep you on the edge of your seat and admittedly, it was the only American Horror movie that I actually enjoyed since January. American horror movies tend to stick to ideas like building up the drama for the first half and blood and gore immediately follows for the latter half. (You know the usual, we are a family/friends who gets attacked by an evil force?) I loved how David Goyer hit hard and fast in the initial sequences of the film.

There were no loopholes in the film, everything was detailed and easy to understand AND my mom was awake the whole time! (My mom tends to sleep on a movie when it’s too boring. So watch out!) The movie isn’t complicated, it was designed to do one thing, and it did it’s job well.

Scare the crap out of you!

Final Verdict:
Watch it! It’s worth your money. Despite the bad reviews, I beg to differ.

Maybe next time, I won’t read online reviews of movies because I find it funny (and irrittating as well) when these so-called critics bash a movie when they fail to see what the movie is all about. They have so much high expectations and get too technical when you just need to sit back and enjoy it! (When it should only apply to hard-hitting drama or sci-fi.) I could imagine these people, watching a certain scary scene, and just saying, “Ho-hum! Boring!” when it’s really scary! Darn! What else do you want?!

I refuse to waste any more of my day on this movie. There’s no excusing it. It’s as if the worst parts of every bad horror movie ever made were stitched together into a single turd and splattered in front of a camera. It’s terrible. I’ve warned you. I’ve done my duty. Now let’s never speak of this movie again…

Basically, if The Unborn were two degrees dumber, it’d be the funniest movie of the past seven years. As it stands, one can only watch the lunacy parade across the screen and wonder “How did the guy who co-wrote The Dark Knight think THIS was a good idea for a horror movie?” Frankly there’s not a theme, a scare, a character, or a concept in The Unborn that you haven’t already yawned through during The Messengers, One Missed Call, or just about any other (mostly PG-13) horror movie that wasn’t really made for horror fans in the first place. But what’s that? Who would make a horror movie that’s NOT for horror fans? Lots of people. And they do it every damn month.

Oh,I also noticed that when a certain “critic” says something bad or is disappointed about something, other “critics” follow suit.  Did I hit a nerve? Sheesh… So much for “originality.”

Watch it!

Scary huh? Then, vote!