Jims of Wyzdom for May 17, 2019

Summer Opera Encores: Mark your calendars, if you’d like to see any of these again—all are on Wednesdays around 6 PM at the Regal Hollywood cinema. I’ll confirm time later.

• Romeo et Juliette, June 19.
• La Boheme, June 26.
• Il Barbiere di Siviglia, July 10.
• Aida, July 17.

I’ve never really learnt how to live, and I’ve discovered too late that life is for living. [Business Executive/Politician John Charles Walsham Reith]

Term Ending: So, our spring term is coming to its end today, except for the on-going Interest Groups, the final three Film Forum dates (including today), and a few special events. A birdie told me the summer catalog is about through the editing process and should go to the printer soon. Ah, what goodies we’ll have to choose from to keep our maturing brains busy!

My eyes have seen much, but they are not weary. My ears have heard much, but they thirst for more. [Writer Rabindranath Tagore]

Lately, we have been watching Chernobyl on HBO and Fosse/Verdon on FX. The first is chilling and is a telling examination re: truth-telling and trying to cover up what may have been the worst nuclear plant disaster in history. The second tells the true story of this famously creative couple who managed to create some Broadway and film magic, while honestly portraying the human cost and consequences of trying to live on the edge and produce great art while abusing one’s body, mind and spirit. The stories of genius artists abound from our earliest history to this very day. It begs the question: can we really create art when we smoke/drink/opiate/sex too much? Well, it all depends on who we’re talking about. Some do all these things without apparent cost, while others…not so much. I am reminded of the actor Robert Downey, Jr. who, a decade ago was in and out of rehab, destroying relationships and about to be kicked out of Hollywood. Then, he “got religion,” as they say, found a girlfriend, later wife that would stick by him and inspire him to be his best self and then he was resurrected by Marvel to become Iron Man and one of the Avengers, making tons of money and becoming a terrific example of how one can overcome bad habits and regain a right place in the world of creativity.

The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another which will last forever.” [Writer Anatole France]

Lucky for artists that their writing/sculpture/poems/films/songs/buildings and whatnot can now have a kind of immortality. The last of the vaudevillians were hesitant to have their acts filmed, realizing that if it was on film, the rubes need not go to the theater to see them, except that the movies were born and recruited many of those guys and gals to be some of the first movie stars and look where that got them! Fame, fortune and/or ruin.

When you’re through with sex, with ambition, what can an old man create? Art, of course, a piece of art that will go beyond him into the lives of young people who haven’t had time to create. The old man meets the young people and lives on. Poet William Carlos Williams]  

Happy May Days!

Jim