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Friday, March 25, 2005
Is Modernism Dead?
When I was growing up in the '70s, it seemed that all BBC Radio 3 ever played was Stockhausen, yet you never hear him now. Norman Lebrecht asks composer Robert Saxton whether modernism in the arts gave way to a less demanding minimalism, resulting in classical music fossilized in the 18th century, 'safe' theatre and the 'scary' (now rotting) art of Damian Hirst.
New Zealand English
Radio New Zealand suffered a sad demise a few years ago as a result of government cuts, and it is really quite an embarassment to the country now. Yet it can lay claim to some of the most important archives. It's the only country for which recordings exist from native English-speaking settlers. In this edition of Lingua Franca from the ABC, Dr Margaret Maclagan of the Origins of New Zealand English Project at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch plays a 1948 recording of Mrs. Cross a 97 year-old woman born in Dunedin in 1851.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
The Peaceful Pill Project
The Terry Shiavo case reminds us to check on Australian euthanasia developments. Dr. Phillip Nitschke talks to Phil Adams about current attempts at developing a 'peaceful pill' that would be reliable and would provide a peaceful, dignified death, on ABC's Late Night Live.
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Saturday
Robert Glenister is reading Ian McEwan's new novel, 'Saturday' by this week on Radio 4's Book at Bedtime. It's a day in the life story (cf. Ulysses) of surgeon Henry Perowne - comfortable and happy with his London life until he suddenly has to face danger. Here's the moment when, about to be beaten up by Baxter's henchmen, he suddenly notices the unmistakable twitching of Huntington's Chorea.
The Sound of Music staged in Vienna at last
On the anniversary of Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by the Nazis in 1938, the 'Sound of Music' has finally been staged in the Volksoper. Since it won 5 Oscars back in 1965, the story of the Von Trapps has rarely been seen in the country of its setting. Austrians were understandably embarrassed by the Nazi period and clung on to the idea that they were the first victims rather than willing collaborators. The director, Rudolph Berger points out on the ABC's The Europeans that in the stage version it's Mrs. Von Trapp's inimacy with the Nazis that prompts the Captain to leave for Switzerland - not his attraction to the children's tutor, Maria (Julie Andrews) as suggested in the sanitised movie.
Monday, March 21, 2005
Charles and Camilla - a morganatic marriage?
Morganatic marriage was originally a German custom. It was between a high-ranking man and a woman of lower rank, in which the woman keeps her former status and any children are not allowed to inherit. The most celebrated in modern times was that between Archduke Ferdinand and Sophie Chotek, both of whom died in the Sarajevo assassination that triggered the First World War. Another name for it was left-handed marriage, because at the altar the husband extended his left hand to the bride as a mark of their unconventional union. In 1936 King Edward VIII proposed a morganatic marriage to Mrs. Simpson as a way of getting around the fact that she, too, was a divorcée.
Morganatic is German for "morning gift", an old custom in which the husband would give a present to his wife the morning after the marriage was consummated. In a morganatic marriage that’s all she ever got!
What about Prince Charles' proprosed marriage to Camilla? Good question, says Andrew MacKinlay MP, on BBC 2's Newsnight.
Morganatic is German for "morning gift", an old custom in which the husband would give a present to his wife the morning after the marriage was consummated. In a morganatic marriage that’s all she ever got!
What about Prince Charles' proprosed marriage to Camilla? Good question, says Andrew MacKinlay MP, on BBC 2's Newsnight.
Social Disengagement: A Breeding Ground for Fundamentalism
In the sixth Annual Manning Clark Lecture, Hugh Mackay argues that a sense of loss of control and upheaval taking place in our lives is provoking a fundamentalist reaction. Read more in his essay 'Watching the Sparrow'.
The Okinawa Centenarian Study
Okinawans are not only the longest-lived in the world, but also the healthiest. According to Dr. Bradley Willcox (Pacific Health Research Institute) talking to Julie McCrossin on ABC's Life Matters, they do this by following three key principles: kuten gwa ("little portions"), hara hachi bu (eat until 80 percent full) and nuchi gusui (eat as though food had healing power). To feel full, we need to eat about 2-3 lbs of food a day. Bulky but low-calorie foods, fill us best and are also healthiest!
Sunday, March 20, 2005
Kenneth Clarke on the Nude
In 'Exhibit A' on her Sunday Morning arts programme (ABC Radio National), Julie Copeland has been examining how the 20th century's great and influential art books and essays have shaped our understanding of the visual arts. This week she talked to Frances Borzello about Kenneth Clark’s classic, The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form. He argued that the English language's artificial distinction between the 'naked' and the 'nude' was an 18th century invention.
