1/500th of a second . . . An Unlikely Weapon

AN UNLIKELY WEAPON: The Eddie Adams Story (2009). This exceptional documentary about the life of an award-winning photographer premieres this week in Denver at the Starz FilmCenter, July 3-9. Go to http://www.anunlikelyweapon.com for times and directions. Opening nationwide throughout the summer.

Legendary photographer Eddie Adams, famously seen lurking in war zones, at celebrity shoots, and on the streets of New York, photographed 13 wars, six US presidents and every major film star in the last 50 years. His career and reputation exploded into world renown when, in Vietnam in 1968, Eddie shot what is considered by many to be the definitive war photograph: General Loan, the Saigon police chief shooting a Vietcong prisoner point-blank in the head. “Saigon Execution” won Eddie a Pulitzer Prize and was credited with changing public opinion to help end the Vietnam War.

Eddie was a guy who lived hard and played harder. Enormously ambitious and driven, rough talking, notoriously dissatisfied with his achievements, he documented the plight of refugees around the world, jumped aboard a boat load of Vietnamese headed out to sea with only some rice and a few hundred dollars worth of gasoline, and faced off Fidel Castro until the two went on an unlikely duck hunting trip together, among other risky ventures. In this documentary, journalists such as Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, and Morley Safer speak about Eddie with a measure of awe and respect. As Safer says, “Eddie was not your typical sedate, thoughtful photographer . . . He looked for trouble both on and off the job.”

Later in life Eddie turned to photographing celebrities, resulting in stunning and unique shots, signatures of his skill and experienced eye for the money shot. There were many sides to this talented man: war photographer, human rights activist, teacher, competitive and aggressive artist; most of all, he was deeply human and fully engaged in life.

SUSAN MORGAN COOPER is the brilliant filmmaker who produced this exceptional documentary. The road to its completion was long and not always smooth—but she had promised Eddie, and she kept that promise, in spades. This is a DO NOT MISS film!

-- Rosemary Carstens

http://www.FEASTofBooks.com

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GLITTER AND GLAMOUR, Sometimes a Darker Side

OSCAR night again. I have rarely missed it in my lifetime. I love the beauty queen pageantry, the hype, the whole red carpet thing. The rest of the year I am seldom interested in the goings-on of celebrities—in fact, I often feel irritated by the amount of media time spent on them. But, on academy awards night, I hark back to my days as a young teenager when I wrote long, sincere letters to the stars and was thrilled to the bone when I received an “autographed” 8X10 photo back.

I grew up in a small town with an old-style auditorium cinema and marquee and went to the movies every time they changed—Wednesday night and Saturday matinee. We’d usually see a news short, a cartoon, and a double feature. The seats were low and many broken down; the walls sweated an aroma of decades of popcorn, candy korn, red licorice, Coca Cola, sweat, body odor, and dreams born on the wings of the dramas, comedies, and westerns played out on the screen. It was a place where, when the lights went out, country life faded and an exciting, glamorous life unfolded and seemed within reach of each of us.

Life happened in that small-town theater in Perris, California, in the fifties. I got my first kiss in the back row, spent time giggling and changing seats with girlfriends, watched boys, and gobbled junk food—long before we knew it WAS junk food. There were darker times, too. I was in the darkened theater when local police charged in and dragged a young black boy out, beating him brutally with nightsticks. When we left the theater later that evening, there was a line of cops and a line of blacks confronting each other outside in the street. It was also outside that theater that a father tried to gun down the teenage boy who impregnated his daughter. In our town, small as it was—four stop signs in the middle of a single main street—drama played out both on and off the screen.

But this Sunday night, I’ll be snuggled up on the couch with a big bowl of popcorn, a glass of wine, a pizza for later, oohing and ahing over fancy dresses, beautiful men and women, gorgeous jewelry and hair—and rooting for my faves among the nominations.

I’d love to hear some of YOUR movie memories, your choices of best actors and films, movies that are connected in your mind with life events. The movie industry is an ingrained part of our culture. Many times our films reflect the preoccupations of our society, as well as our hopes and dreams. Please share yours -- Rosemary

ROSEMARY CARSTENS is the editor of FEAST eZine and this blog. She loves books, art, food, film, and travel pretty much in equal mesure. When the weather is warm, she can be found wandering the country roads of Colorado on her motorcycle the Road Goddess. When it's cold, she's under a down comforter with a book and a stack of Mr. Goodbars at her side. For more information, check out her website at http://www.carstenscommunications.com/, her eZine at http://www.CarstensCommunications.com/FEAST.html, and her other blog: http://artistspotlight.blogspot.com/

Broadway Review: Isn't He Dead?

Our guest today is Kate Skinner, writing about something she knows very well—the theater. Kate has performed in over 60 plays on Broadway, off Broadway, and in leading regional theatres. She has also appeared on a variety of television shows and in a few films. Her enthusiasm in this piece makes me want to be with her at the theater! Welcome Kate!

MARK TWAIN ADAPTATION WINS STAMP OF APPROVAL – FUN AND GAMES AT THE LYCEUM!

I didn’t know what to expect from Mark Twain’s only known play Isn’t He Dead? currently at the Lyceum Theatre. But when an out-of-town friend listed it in her e-mail as something she wanted to see on her next visit to New York City, I agreed to arrange for tickets. Now it is always a pleasure to see a play at the Lyceum, which has one of the most beautiful interiors on Broadway—but that is not the only feast for the eyes currently on view at the Lyceum. Isn’t He Dead? is a confection of hilarity that takes you on an absolutely enchanting two-hour ride!

The play written by Twain in 1898 was never performed and it has been adapted by David Ives. Though he must have been daunted by the prospect of tinkering with that American master, he proves himself very worthy indeed. The show revolves around a group of starving artists in Paris in the 1840s whose ringleader and hero is Jean-Francois Millet. He was the most beloved European painter during Twain’s lifetime and his astonishing work speaks for itself in the many, many reproductions that decorate the first act set. At the beginning of the play, Millet is in debt and unable to sell his work so his friends convince him to play dead to drive up the price of his paintings. This means he must go into hiding, which consists of him pretending to be his own sister.

Cross dressing is almost always devised for comic effect and Isn’t He Dead? is no exception. Though a time-proven devise, in the hands of its leading actor, Norbert Leo Butz, it becomes supremely and hilariously unique. Mr. Butz won a raft of awards for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, but I had never been privileged to see him on stage. And to behold him in this is to see one of the great “clown” performances of all time. He performs in the tradition of those great comic masters Zero Mostel and Jackie Gleason. Mr. Butz is considerably more lithe than either of those two giants but he shares in his own unique way the fearlessness of those comedic geniuses. I am sure acting with him is a challenge in the best sense of the word and, happily for the audience, the entire cast is up to it—each having their own fine comic moments.

From Michael Blakemore’s seamless direction to the brilliant costumes of Martin Pakledinaz (who never disappoints) and the sets of Peter Davison (which include a garret and a Paris salon) this production is as impeccable as it is delicious. When you aren’t laughing uproariously or unexpectedly, you will have a smile continually on your face at the infectious joy emanating from the stage of the Lyceum. I am positive Mr. Twain would be proud of this production. And it is theatre for everyone from 8 to 80, so spread the word to family and friends—for a good time head to the Lyceum Theatre on 45th Street to see Isn’t He Dead?

Kate Skinner has a new Law & Order episode to air soon and just wrapped up playing James Gandolfini’s sometime squeeze in a new film Kiddie Ride. She lives in New York City with her husband, author/actor Ron McLarty.

A Book and a Film Frame the Discussion of Racism and Discrimination

NOWHERE IN AFRICA & SMALL ISLAND

Sometimes it seems as though we look for differences between peoples as a means of making ourselves feel superior, set apart, better than. To fail to seek similarities as a means of uniting us as humans leads only to war, discrimination, and, for many, lives of unimaginable despair. Our guest blogger CHRISTINE WEEBER introduces us to a film based on a novel and a novel that deal beautifully and thoughtfully with the topic. Thank you, Chris! -- Rosemary

Racial and ethnic divisions and hierarchies separate people all over the world, not just in the U.S. We increasingly recognize these as barriers to overcome and not simply accept but, in public conversations about race, we tend to get stuck in the racist/not-a-racist dichotomy. Two works that successfully get us beyond this dichotomy are Nowhere in Africa, a German film written by Caroline Link based on the autobiographical novel of Stefanie Zweig, and Small Island by the Jamaican Brit Andrea Levy.

Both of these stories are set in the context of World War II. In Nowhere in Africa, a Jewish family escapes Nazi Germany in 1939 to live in Kenya, then a British colony. Small Island traces the story of two Jamaicans who migrate to the Mother Country, i.e., England (Jamaica was a colony until 1962), in 1948. In both, the authors capture the complexities of migration, displacement, and loss of home, as well as the day-to-day grit of racial and ethnic oppression. In addition, we get to know people who are “racist.”

In Nowhere in Africa, Walter Redlich and his wife, Jettel, move to an arid, rural farm in Kenya with their five-year-old daughter, Regina—a far world from their middle-class life in Germany. Walter learns Swahili and humbly works alongside local Kenyans—a position he didn’t have to accept as a white man, given British dominance. Young Regina forms strong bonds with the cook and local Kenyan kids, becoming more and more Kenyan as time goes on. Proud Jettel despises the locals, tries to keep her distance and distinction from them, and attempts to force them into subservient roles.

Jettel is a privileged, prejudiced European woman who looks down on the “dirty” Africans. But through arguments with Walter and ever-worsening news from home, she is forced to confront the irony and vulnerability of her position as a Jewish refugee. She is forced to search her soul for a different identity than elite, white westerner.

In Small Island, the two main characters have no choice but to deal with the racial box they are thrown into. Hortense and Gilbert grew up in Jamaica learning the King’s English but, in moving to post-war London, they are surprised to find England does not want them. This, despite that Gilbert fought in the British Royal Air Force and Hortense is a schoolteacher.

Queenie, their white landlord, is the only one in her neighborhood to take in Jamaicans. Her neighbors despise her for it. Bernard, her husband, is away serving in the Royal Air Force and takes a few years to make his way back home. When he does arrive, he says, “I didn’t defend my country to give it over to them.” Unlike Jettel, he resists change. As for Queenie, she has a greater surprise in store for Bernard than simply her rebellious room renting to “coloured” people.

Through both of these stories we enter the lives of people who inhabit different sides of the racial divide—and some who have lived on both sides. We get to know people forced to navigate racialized societies. And we get inside the heads of so-called racists—and, in the case of Jettel, to watch her work her way out of that label.

By walking in these people’s shoes, we can feel the almost gravitational pull of race and ethnicity, and it becomes clear that this pull is maintained by more than those few we might call racists. Neighbors, bosses, and government employees are among those who enforce racial codes in England. In Kenya, British settlers and government officials uphold the country as a British colony.

Our conversation deepens. We are forced to ask ourselves, when confronted with change, with “difference,” and with power inequalities, how will we react? Will we cling to a real or imagined status quo? Or will we change, grow, adapt, and learn new ways of being? How do our choices affect us and other people?

CHRISTINE WEEBER works as a freelance writer and editor. She holds an MA in cultural anthropology, a graduate certificate in Women’s Studies, and a BA in English Literature and Philosophy. Her master’s thesis focused on white South African immigrants in Colorado. She recently won the Great Lakes Story Contest for her piece Breaking Skin (see her website). Her essay, “An Unladylike Journey,” appears in the popular anthology Solo: On Her Own Adventure . For more, see http://www.christineweeber.net/. In the photo, Christine is teaching her nephew one of her favorite pastimes.

Guest Bloggers' Series Begins

FEAST is beginning a new program today featuring a series of special guests who will post about one of our five topics: books, art, food, film, or travel. Each will bring a unique perspective to the topics and I think you will enjoy reading them and seeing where their links lead. Be sure to sign up for the Atom or RSS feeds so you don’t miss a thing!

OUR FIRST GUEST OF THE SERIES is DONNA DRUCHUNAS, author, editor, and freelance writer, who is passionate about following her dreams and combines writing and traveling as a large part of her personal journey. Welcome, Donna!

Mapping our Imaginations through Books, Art, Food, Film, and Travel

September already. It doesn’t seem possible. Summer flew by in a blur of sharp blue morning skies and, from the plains where I live, beckoning jagged-edged mountain ranges. Riding my motorcycle into cooler elevations this month, the dry scent of pine swirls around me as I twist ever higher up the road. The sun warms my arms and I feel the exhilarating pull of gravity as I power in and out of turns. Each second brings a quick snapshot: a flash of blue and a squawk of jay; a whiff of skunk; a glimpse of elk huddled tight in a meadow. I leave behind the everydayness of work and words and enter a world of the senses, of intense focus on each moment. Each turn of the calendar the landscape changes and evokes renewed dreams of discovery, exotic sights, memorable images to recombine with the old. I lean into the uniqueness of each season and experience strong correlations between them and our human life spans—they express a comforting continuity and renewal.

As autumn arrives we gird ourselves for the holiday season, gear up for a last push to reach our year’s goals. Because for so many years September signaled a new school term, I often still feel a spark of energy that causes me to take on new challenges in the fall; it becomes not only a time of retrospection, of wrapping up, but also a time of renewed commitment to the passions of my life. Fall, then, is a time when the angle of light changes and casts revelation upon our personal landscapes, allowing us to see freshly our own geography.

Thinking about personal geography reminds me of a book I read some years ago titled A Mapmaker’s Dream: The Meditations of Fra Mauro, Cartographer to the Court of Venice, a journal translated by James Cowan (Shambhala Books 1996). In the late 1980s, Cowan made a visit to the island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni in the Venetian lagoon in search of unpublished materials of Lord Byron. Going through archives left undisturbed for centuries, Cowan came upon a copy of a journal written by a Venetian of the sixteenth century, a man named Fra Mauro, who lived in the monastery of San Michele di Murano. He became fascinated with the work and decided to translate it. It is a jewel! This simple journal proposes new concepts of “mapping”—not only geographic, but spiritual and intellectual territory—that is particularly applicable in the fall of the year. To quote:

The map we draw becomes a representation of these impressions, each one contributing to that sublime image we believe exists but so far have not yet discovered . . . I now realize that the world is not real save in the way each of us impresses upon it his own sensibility. More importantly, this sensibility results from a belief in the world being a measurable whole, rather than something that extends beyond time and place. . . . Such a world emerges not from the sea as an island appears to do after a long voyage, but from a state of enchantment inspired by the mind taking leave of itself. . . namely the elusive power of the imagination . . . (emphasis mine)

If we accept that the world is more than a collection of geographic or topographic features, of longitudes and latitudes, parallels and meridians, but is also a complex composition of human imaginings of destinations, lives, and perspectives, then our personal geography becomes a unique individual map. As we take in new combinations of images and ideas, and as they shape and mold our thinking, morphing into even more personal influences, our landscape, our map of the world, is altered. In the fall issue of our award-winning webZINE FEAST at www.CarstensCommunications.com/FEAST.html, which will be out in the next few days, I hope you will find some startling, satisfying, reinforcing, and revitalizing images and concepts that will change your landscape, your view of the world in small or even large ways.

Enjoy the Fall!

-- Rosemary Carstens

Editor, FEAST: Books, art, food, film, and travel

FEAST: Books, art, food, film, and travel . . .

Summer 2007

Welcome to an eZINE that will satisfy your appetite for books, art, food, film, and travel. It's a FEAST of suggestions for reading, viewing, dining, and getting on down the road to some less usual destinations. Issues come out quarterly and generally focus on a single topic. Click on the link below or on the right hand menu to access the full magazine. While all material is copyrighted, please feel free to pass the link along to anyone you feel might have an interest in these topics. We want to see how far FEAST can travel! Now to the summer issue:

These days, the topics of war and immigration generate a great deal of conversation about cultural differences and how to tolerate, absorb, and welcome that diversity into our lives in the interest of general human enrichment and, perhaps, peace. Since spring and summer are seasons we associate with warmth, new beginnings, and long days plumped out like juicy peaches, I thought it might also be a good time to consider a wider range of books, art, food, film, and travel options.

Some studies have shown that when we encounter something new or different, our brains attempt to “recognize” it by relating it to memories of similar events. How often, when exposed to foods, writings, and artistic creation from other cultures, do feelings and expectations derived or absorbed from our past prevent us from a direct, fresh experience? Can we learn to set aside those inclinations, to form new, positive memories, and approach cultural differences with curiosity and an expectation of pleasant discovery?

In the spirit of giving it a try, in this issue you’ll find a selection of novels by writers of diverse ethnic and national backgrounds. Each flavors the soup of English-language literature with a touch of saffron here, a bit of bitterroot, a pinch of salt, a touch of irony, a stir of laughter. There are also suggestions for films and art that explore an assortment of cultures. By stepping out of our usual Anglocentric choices, we honor the diversity of our country, we open the door to fresh views of universal topics, and we enrich our lives and stimulate our imaginations with previously unrevealed images. I hope you’ll pick one or two and open your heart to change.

-- Rosemary Carstens

NOTE: We've expanded this issue and have some new separate sections for food and art! http://www.CarstensCommunications.com/FEAST.html