Present Joys

‘It is finished,’ the Redeemer said,
And meekly bowed His dying head,
Whilst we this sentence scan,
Come, sinners, and observe the Word.
Behold the conquests of the Lord,
Complete for helpless man.

Who now shall urge a second claim?
The law no longer can condemn,
Faith a release can show;
Justice itself a friend appears,
The prison house a whisper hears,
‘Loose him, and let him go.’

His toil divinely finished stands,
But oh! the praise his work demands,
Careful may we attend!
Conclusion to our souls be this:
Because salvation finished is,
Our thanks shall never end.

A hymn by Joseph Stennett, published in 1791.

• Had a crit in figure drawing. Made fun of Boryana for moving like a breakdancer while she teaches.
• Went to see the visiting artist, who showed slides with a dim, grimy slide projector and refused to use a microphone. Interesting but annoyingly postmodern.
• Did literally no classwork during the Worst class of the week.
• Watched more of that movie in my American lit class. Another poor use of time I couldn’t help.
• Had tuesday art history class off because our teacher was sick. Spent the time on the quad with Amanda, Ian, and Dorian.
• Had another really intense, action-packed team class. Most of our discussion centered around exactly how humanoid should a siren look? It was very serious.
• Bonded with my History of fashion teacher over millinery and the sorry state of historical education at art school.
• Had wednesday completely off: my illustration teacher had to cancel class due to a family funeral.
• Gave a mini-presentation about 1950s politics with some other people in my American lit class.
• Spent all of thursday’s art history class looking at architecture, which was kind of a fun break from routine.
• Went to visit the print lab and got to talk to Kathy, which was really nice. It is good to visit places you normally don’t go.
• Did that thing in Burleigh’s class where we all sit around and talk to each other about our sketches. I ended up having a great conversation about Obamacare with Theresa and giving advice to Anna on her package design. Talked a little about my actual work, too.
• Grew to love and respect Mr. Burleigh even more than before, which I did not think was possible.
• In general: spent the whole week making plans to be gone next week. Looking forward to the break!

Francisco de Zurbarán. Agnus Dei. 1636–40.

If you haven’t noticed, I watch a lot of old movies, and I’m trying really hard to keep track of them. In chronological order, here’s a list of all the movies I’ve seen in the past month or so:

• The Spanish Cape Mystery, an Ellery Queen mystery film from 1935. Donald Cook played an absolutely fantastic Ellery Queen: suave yet eccentric. Cute plot, glamorous west coast setting, really witty repartee between characters—just what I’d expect from a mid-30s mystery film.
• 5 Steps to Danger, a 1957 thriller featuring the inimitable Sterling Hayden, who wears a big-shouldered odd jacket and drives a cool car across America with a strange woman who may or may not be mentally unstable. The “thriller” component in this movie relies on fear of the Cold War and doesn’t have the same dramatic punch 50 years later. Despite this, it’s worth watching only to see Sterling Hayden Act Like a Man™.
• Black Sheep, a charming 1935 film set on a trans-Atlantic cruise. There are a lot of 30s-cut dinner suits and it is all perfectly glamorous. The fashion kept my interest more than the plot, though, in which Edmund Lowe plays a kind, lonely man who takes a young gambler under his wing. This film was my introduction to Edmund Lowe, who I’ve grown to like quite a lot.
• The Trial, from 1962. What can I say about this one? It’s an Orson Welles adaptation of a Franz Kafka story, so obviously it’s about as weird as it can get. Absolutely stunning cinematography, set design, and storytelling. In addition to directing, Orson Welles also plays a character and does a really great job. The plot is difficult to follow and the end is really unsatisfying, but that shouldn’t scare anybody away.
• The Star, a fantastic 1952 film starring Bette Davis as a washed-up movie star, constantly trying to break back into the limelight. Sterling Hayden plays his usual role of the sensible, dependable man, and is fantastic. Bette Davis’ performance is incredible. Highly recommended.
• Mr. Moto’s Last Warning, from 1939, starring Peter Lorre playing a Japanese detective. The plot centers around interwar European geopolitics and is thus very difficult to follow. Because the film is set in Suez, there are some cool sets, but besides that it wasn’t really worth watching.
• The Hurricane, from 1937, which was so good I wrote a whole post about it.
• Plunderers of Painted Flats, a 1959 western in color! A good reminder why I really don’t like westerns. Edmund Lowe is in this but even that does little to save the boring plot and cheesy, anachronistic costumes.
• Wolf of New York, a 1940 movie starring Edmund Lowe as a crooked lawyer turned honest. There is a funny car chase scene and Edmund Lowe is great throughout. A tender movie about redemption and forgiveness with a tiny bit of intrigue.
• Bulldog Jack, a British thriller from 1935. No real stars except for Fay Wray, but a really cute little adventure movie. More slapstick than I expected it would be, with great characters.
• The Killer is Loose, a 1956 thriller about a boring guy (Wendell Corey) who goes psycho after his wife is killed by a police officer. A really good performance by Corey (who was also in The Big Knife), and, as always, Joseph Cotten was great.
• Diary of a Lost Girl, a German silent film from 1929, starring Louise Brooks. This movie was too long (2 hours), and—even without sound—Louise Brooks, the archetypical flapper, was gross and unappealing. I enjoyed the story, though, and I loved the whole bizarre German silent film aesthetic. Seeing this made me want to watch a bunch more Weimar-era silent films, something I will probably end up doing this summer.

From the concert archives: a few weeks ago (9 mar 2012), I went to see Buckwheat Zydeco play at the Athletic Club of Columbus with Ian and my accordion teacher (who also happens to be Ian’s old piano teacher). It was fun to go to a show at the Athletic Club because it was really fancy and exclusive-feeling. I took this picture during the first song, after which the big open space became filled with people “dancing”. Most of the audience was white people over 50 who’d had too much booze. So, as you can imagine, the dancing was dreadful. It was fun nonetheless. I didn’t know most of the songs they played, but that was okay because it was more of a jam thing anyway. Songs lasted a very very long time.

As an accordion player, I found Buckwheat’s accordion totally amazing. In person, it looks gigantic—definitely larger than a normal full-size. He spent about half the time playing accordion and the other half playing Hammond B-3, which was equally cool and amazing.