Rosenbush Cafe

While recently searching for Dada and Surreal art links I found Dalihouse

Dali House derives its name from the the master surrealist himself, Salvador Dali. For anyone who enjoys these movements and wants extensive backgrounds on the major artists and plenty of visuals to stimulate and educate check it out. Over two years old, Dali House is the brain child of northern British-born Paul Dorsey, now working in Bangkok, Thailand. He lived for a while in Toronto, Ontario where my wife’s family still lives - I’ve only been there once but would love to live there if it wasn’t so expensive. For Canadians who’ve moved and miss the CHUM AM & FM Stations, check Appetizers. You can listen to live streaming audio and feel home again.

Paul was nice enough to devote time and space to my site; Dali House is linked under my Appetizers. Paul has a highly polished site with plenty of artists featured “On the Palette” and a great sense of humor can be found through the “House.”

Dorseyland
is his main blog with plenty of humor and interesting posts and wonderful photos.

While Paul and I come from different backgrounds, areas of the world and undoubtably multi-varied educational and travel experiences, the technologies involved in the transmission of pictures and text allowed us to “meet” and “share” our sites with new audiences.

We should always remember and thank the pioneers that took the first steps towards “moving pictures” for without those late 18th Century experimentations I would be unable to share the aforementioned thoughts to an computer-linked audience anywhere in the world.

Talk about surrealism; early cinema provided audiences with motion pictures, literally. Imagine sitting in a darkened theater awaiting the start of the shorts, a totally new experience. We take movies for granted in the early 21st Century; much of it is trash, albeit, expensive, highly artistic special effects-driven trash. The advertising budget for the new Indiana Jones film could have bankrolled every movie made from 1895-1960.

Pioneer Georges Méliès - he was in the audience for the introduction of the Lumière brothers’ Cinématographe on December 28, 1895 - was profoundly affected by this experience and afterwards tried to get the brothers to allow him to license the process. He was turned down. If Antoine Lumière really believed motion pictures was an invention without a future he must be spinning in his grave like a Keystone Cops’ two-reeler. An apocryphal ancedote? Perhaps, but Méliès would perfect the process and became a true pioneer of early cinema.

Early Cinema
provides a nice introduction to the beginnings of an art form that originally amazed and fascinated its audience. We’ve come a long way from A Trip to the Moon (1902) to viewing Pioneer’s footage from the planet Mars just two days ago!

Georges Méliès on DVD

We have installed new ceiling fans in the main cafeteria and added more flowers and plants to the garden. We’ll save you a table by the fountain.

Multicultural heroes prepare for battle: The Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian

Reviewed by Henry B. Rosenbush

Tremendously exciting and accessible for adults and teens, the four Pevensie’s return to Narnia is a superbly mounted sequel. Mixing adventure, humor and treachery on an awe-inspiring landscape, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is a worthy tribute to the second of C.S. Lewis’ seven-book series from the fifties.

Sequels to successful films are always tricky and often risky endeavors. Not so for the Lord of the Rings Trilogy or five Harry Potter films that improved on their considerable charm and extensive narratives and character growth with continuations that left audiences satisfied. Unlike the Matrix Trilogy, where the second film set a standard higher than the final episode could deliver upon or the James Bond franchise that has to reinvent itself every decade, with new actors and recycled scenarios, to compete with the Hard to Die John McLane and Impossible Mission shenanigans. Much twaddle for your $9 tickets and not much fulfillment.

Opening with a nice pre-credit teaser that introduces good and evil in the clearly defined protagonist Prince Caspian (the ready-made teenage heartthrob, Ben Barnes) and his arrogant Uncle Miraz (Sergio Castelitto) the antagonist who has killed the elder King Caspian the 9th before the film begins.

With a son born to Miraz the genuine heir becomes a liability and soldiers are dispatched to assassinate him but before they arrive he is whisked away by his Professor, Doctor Cornelius (the wonderfully sedate Vincent Grass) who gives the prince a mystical horn only to be used in “dire” circumstances. Naturally, it is used after Caspian ventures into the forest where his kind, the Telmarines, are not welcomed. Although it is a darker film than the previous one there is enough humor, especially from the wonderful wise-cracking talking animals, to propel the story above the negativity inherent in any war-inspired opus.

The four principal characters from the original film return one year older, still in war-torn Europe, but only for the briefest time. In a wonderful scene, the horn blast has opened a portal in the underground tube station leading directly to the sea in Narnia. Once in Narnia they frolic in the surf before beginning to discover ruins and no Narnians in sight.

We learn that the Telmarines have all but decimated their Narnian neighbors in an earlier unseen instance of ethnic cleansing. Where it is a year hence from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) it is later revealed, in a cute quip from Susan Pevensie (Anna Popplewell) to Caspian that she is 1,300 years older than him! Brothers Edmund and Peter (Skander Keynes and William Moseley) clearly relish their roles as heroic young men and the youngest, Lucy (Georgie Henley) delivers the signature performance; she will eventually locate the elusive Lion, Aslan (again voiced by Liam Neeson) in time for a watery climax with the fluid performance of a Neptunian giant who delivers a unique comeuppance for a particularly odious character.

All acting is professionally handled by the youthful heroes and heroines and the vast number of CGI-enhanced loquacious animals are each rendered with astonishing realism within frames with their human counterparts. A nighttime castle siege utlizing large birds is breath-taking. The forest comes alive for a tree-ly - truly - uprooting experience and the mano a mano sword fight between Peter and Miraz is effectively and excitingly staged with a surprising outcome.

The White Witch (Tilda Swinton), who was the cause of much mayhem in the first film is confined in ice, for one scene, albeit an effective one, where she offers Caspian her support against the Telmarines.

With a wide assortment of Centaurs, a talking squirrel, savvy badger and the best sword-wielding mouse you’re ever likely to encounter in battle a plan is drawn to vanquish the throne from Miraz and his massive army. Similar to the second and third LotRs films where good was overwhelmingly outnumbered by evil, there is still no doubt of the outcome but getting there is exciting, refreshingly non-gory for the usual war-film esthetics, and innovative in its choices of tactics and resolutions.

Smartly avoiding a romantic relationship between Caspian and Susan but introducing the beginning of believable friendship, screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and returning director Andrew Adamson (Shrek) wisely keep out the histrionics that this genre often embraces, usually to the detriment of the narrative. Composer Harry Gregson-Williams scores the film with a deft balance of ominous and grand themes that never interfere with the story and he voices the confident squirrel with a nice touch of classy humor and later, unadulterated pathos.

Without any major criticisms, the only liability may be the English accents of the some characters, particularly Lucy who in a few scenes speaks in a near-whisper that may be lost on younger audience members or the hearing-impaired.

Parents will be pleased that the film is devoid or rude humor or profanity and the violence is choreographed as to not dwell on the many deaths by sword, arrow, catapulted boulders and knives. One decapitation is swift and bloodless, otherwise the PG Rating is for the action sequences. For a film that runs 2 hours and 24 minutes there are no frivolous scenes and the quieter moments resonate with themes including: importance of family, friendship, love, courage and forgiveness. Aside from the violent content there is nothing objectionable that would frighten younger viewers and the animal one-liners are simply heart-warming and cute.

All tech aspects are top-notch from the editing and the production design on the castles to location filming in New Zealand, Slavonia, the Czech Republic and Poland by cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub. The New Zealand scenery, like LotRs, makes one wish to be there immediately and the expansive valleys, mountains and rivers are well chosen localities and for the climactic battle where an underground set adds a new twist to the “element of surprise.”

A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release presented with Walden Media of a Mark Johnson/Silverbell Films production. Produced by Johnson, Andrew Adamson and Philip Steuer; Executive producer, Perry Moore; co-producers, Douglas Gresham and K.C. Hodenfield; Directed by Andrew Adamson from a screenplay by Adamson, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, based on the book by C. S. Lewis.

Camera (Deluxe color (U.S.), Technicolor (international), Arri widescreen), Karl Walter Lindenlaub; editor, Sim Evan Jones; music, Harry Gregson-Williams; production designer, Roger Ford; supervising art director, Frank Walsh; senior art director, Jules Cook; art directors, David Allday, Stuart Kearns, Matt Gray, Phil Sims, Jiri Sternwald; set decorator, Kerrie Brown; costume designer, Isis Mussenden; sound (DTS/SDDS/Dolby Digital), Tony Johnson; sound supervisor, James Mather; re-recording mixers, Terry Porter, Dean Zupancic; sound designer, Jimmy Boyle; visual effects supervisors, Dean Wright, Wendy Rogers; visual effects, the Moving Picture Co., Framestore-CFC, Weta Digital, Scanlinevfx Munich-Los Angeles, Studio C; special effects supervisor, Gerd Feuchter; special makeup and creatures, Howard Berger, Gregory Nicotero; stunt and fight coordinator, Allan Poppleton; specialty wardrobe, armor and weapons, Richard Taylor; associate producers, David Minkowski, Matthew Stillman, Tom Williams; assistant director, K.C. Hodenfield; second unit director, John Mahaffie; second unit camera, Milan Chadima, Brad Shield (New Zealand).

Reviewed at Regal Starlight 14, Anderson, SC, May 18, 2008. MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 2:24.

CAST
Lucy Pevensie - Georgie Henley
Edmund Pevensie - Skandar Keynes
Peter Pevensie - William Moseley
Susan Pevensie - Anna Popplewell
Prince Caspian - Ben Barnes
Trumpkin - Peter Dinklage
General Glozelle - Pierfrancesco Favino
Nikabrik - Warwick Davis
Doctor Cornelius - Vincent Grass
Lord Sopespian - Damian Alcazar
Prunaprismia - Alicia Borrachero
Miraz - Sergio Castellitto
Voice of Aslan - Liam Neeson
The White Witch - Tilda Swinton

Would the Dadaist relish “one week of kindness”* followed by days of the opposite? I’m certain they would. Whereas they would draw or sculpt, I find the stream of consciousness of my dreams and journal to paint portraits of confusion and, as the rock group Mountain sang, “Flowers of Evil” fill my mental garden.

Uh-Huh.

What a paradoxical week so far. Every uplifting and productive moment has been followed by the reverse; rented three apartments in last four days, and a meeting with my attorney proves satisfying and positive. Then air conditioner fan blade and motor has to be replaced, water meter bursts during a thunderstorm, a rent check bounces, and a repaired ceiling in February starts leaking again.

Talk about surreal.

About 1 ayem today I saw Uncle Wally, the male cat who sired six offsprings with Cous Cous, with a horrific wound - the left side of his face was torn loose, presumably in a fight with my neighbor’s dog. It saddened me to see this feral cat who I can only get a few feet from before he runs away. I wanted so much to capture him and take him to my vet and with the hot weather here I surmise without treatment his life will end. On the up, however, Uncle Wally has always found food and water, at my house, and was finally getting along with outside felines, Talia Biscuits and Calico Guggenheim Kittery, of the Maine Kitteries.

Part 2 of my H. Bosch interview and the end of the world will be posted PDQ as I need to move forward with the Max Ernst documentary.

Here’s a teaser from my Ernst review:

Here is docu that can be watched, listened to with eyes closed or freeze-framed often to afford the viewer scrutiny of Ernst’s artistry. Director Peter Schamoni’s 1991 Max Ernst is a surreal as his subject with an art gallery of paintings presented from this visonary artist’s career, footage of his life, loves and friendships and a voiceover narration by Ernst illuminates and inspires in its sincerity. We follow Ernst (1891-1976), who was one of the most influential artists of the 20th Century, through a career starting with the Dada movement in Cologne, then with the Surrealists in Paris, a nomadic trek across America to the Southwest and ultimately a return to Europe.

*Title of Ernst’s wonderfully intense surrealistic novel in collage Une Semaine de Bonté that will be discussed in the Ernst retrospective. Perturbation to his 100-Headless Women! Other worthy artist reviews will include: The Fantastic World of M.C. Escher (1980), the Orson Welles narrated Salvador Dali: A Soft Self-Portrait (1969) and Germany: Dada (circa, 1970).

Coming Soon:

A review of the new Narnia sequel, the long lost LP cover design retrospective and a overview of Paul Dorsey’s delightful Dali House, which is accessible from my Appetizer Menu.

Surrealist artist M.C. Escher’s Persian Man-Bird takes his summer vacation in one of Glynn’s birdhouses and Adventures in Real Estate examines the Top 20 Most Surreal Moments in the 56 year history of The Henry Apartments!

We’ll save you a table by the fountain.

A big fan of the Greek composer Vangelis back in the early seventies with Aphrodite’s Child through the soundtracks for Carl Sagan’s Cosmos and Blade Runner. Enjoy this rethinking of 2001: A Space Odyssey with this wonderful track from Albedo 0.39. There are 30 vids available so enjoy.

eXisTenTiaLNihLisT as obsessive collector of other’s words

As an genuine collector of so much minutia my late Aunt Virginia oft referred to me as “a little pack rat.” This from a woman whose home was never in disarray. Not an obsessive cleaner, Virginia always maintained a wonderfully tidy house; everything in place and dusted and clean. Even in the weeks leading to her death in 2002, everything was orderly, except unfortunately, her health.

Today, I listened to a recording transcribed from 1966 reel-to-reel tape to cassette, of Virgina, my grandmother Rosa, and mother, Frances; all now deceased. We all pass into memory and everyone who we touch in positive ways are remembered, whether fondly or not. As I enter another month of 2008 and use automatic writing as an excuse to play tapes from my youth I can at least hear from where I started.

I always wanted to be a newspaper reporter and my mother wanted me to be,first a Rabbi, and when that did not work, a television journalist. In 1965 I was given a Ross Electronics reel-to-reel tape recorder that was smaller in scale than a copy of Reader’s Digest! It was my first opportunity to interview real and imaginary personages. It was somewhat starling to listen to me interviewing white and black high school classmates about their opinions on integration. I was serious and the answers were a mixture of funny, inane, racially profane and non commital.

Today, I have literally a thousand hours or more of recordings from the sixties through yesterday.

As the years progressed, so did my recording skills and by the time I was in college in the early seventies it became hip to hang with friends, drink beer, share a bong hit and throughout it all, the tape was running. With cassettes, and during my radio days, larger Revox Six Tracks, cart machines and a Lafayette Half Track, everyone was recorded. Long before the idea of surreptious wire-tapping became the topic of the day I was recording friends as they conversed about college classes, surreal art, drugs, sex and pop culture and all to music scored by the likes of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Vangelis, Tangerine Dream, Todd Rundgren - with or without Utopia, Wishbone Ash, the Stones, Blue Oyster Cult, Alice Cooper and Walter Carlos, later to become Wendy.

Music was, and still is, an important component in my recordings. All my friends knew I would never use the tapes to hurt them and as the years have gone by everyone I knew from those days are lost in the cosmos; Dorma, Denis, Mike, Bill, Mark - what a bastard -, Alan, another Mark - the non-bastard one -, Jake, Gene, Ginny and Sharon.

My best friend, along with Mike, Bill and Dorma, in college was Denis, a Durbin, South African transplant, who was ten years older and one of the funniest people to able travel from around the world to Cleveland, Mississippi at Delta State and end up at Southern Miss in 1972. He was the second person I met in line at the Elam Arms Dorm.

Standing in front of me I thought he was from Australia or England.

“You don’t sound like you’re from Mississippi,” I inquried, to which he replied,

“Neither do you!”

Here is a sample from what I entitled as Denis’ Last Stand, January, 1977

“Aaaah, the ways of men and beasts…The sound of birds chirping on the roof and the harpsichord we are in the apartmenmt of Henry B, Bernie that is, Rosenbush, author of the well known movie, “How to Tame a Cougar.” Henry is locked in his bedroom for night and his mistress is howling outside, upon on the rooftop, at the moon…”

Later this week there will be more of Denis and his quietly bizarre musings the night before he moved to Mexico City to marry, raise and family and disappear. Shame, too, as we were in touch until 1998. Perhaps somewhere in the world of wider webs he will be ensnared and find this site. I looked for Mike in Mississippi today; haven’t seen him since 1992, but found a psychic in Ohio named Sabrina. All in all, not a bad contact to have.

Later, sisters and brothers…