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[Jane]

Hi Sarah,

No matter the reason it is always nice to have your beautiful eye visit.

While the THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST has always been a great favorite of mine I must apologize I’m not up to a response of any great value, if any at all to your question.  I will think some more on it.

[Jane]

elmore I wish I had an Arties around the corner from my house.  It was fun just ordering the food.

[elmore3003]

elmore I wish I had an Arties around the corner from my house.  It was fun just ordering the food.

I wish you and Keith were here to share it with me!  Isn't their menu great?  DRJane, you made great veggie choices.

A fan of IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, huh?  Have you ever seen the film from the early 1950s with Margaret Rutherford and Edith Evans?  It's on a Criterion DVD, and beautiful color.

[SwishySarah]

elmore, if you LIKE the play, why don't you give me a review!

[elmore3003]

Well, DRSwishySarah, what can I tell you?  Besides being a play commenting on late Victorian social mores and morals, it's also a satire of melodrama and   a coded play about homosexuality, with its two leading men and their dual existences inside and outside proper Victorian social structure.  I think Algy and Jack, like Wilde, will marry their dream wives, the gorgon-in-training Gwendolyn and the not-so-innocent Cecily, have children, and continue their bunburying in and out of town.

I think Lady Bracknell is the horrifying epitome of every matchmaking matron in high society that Wilde ever observed in action, and that much of the comedy is social observation raised to its highest comic absurdity.  Like much of the educational jokes in the Alice books, Miss Prism is a total joke, both as a romantically inclined educator and a poor novelist.  The joke is always to turn the moralists on their heads and reveal them as pompous shams, to make  the trivial serious and the serious trivial, and to cut through romantic impulses to reveal the calculating subtext.  

Oh, god, two tylenol with codeine and I turn into Harold Bloom!

[Jay]

Mr. Wilde's contribution to the art of the epigram is without measure.

[Danise]

Hi Folks!

Sorry I wasn’t around last night but I was a little bit busy with Mom and just didn’t have time to post before bed time.  

Favorite magician. I would have to say, without question, that my favorite magician was my dad.  When I was a little girl, I can’t count the number of times he made a Marshmallow Ice Cream cone appear out of thin air.

Of course, he had help.  The Marshmallow Ice Cream Fairy.  She would always bring those special treats to him and it was she who put them in his hand when he reached behind my ear to bring them forth.

How many times did I beg him to do it again.  Not so much for the treat but for the wonder of where they came from.  Both the Fairy and my Father are gone now but I will always remember the magic.  

Year later, when I was grown, my dad told me how far he had to travel just to find those darn Marshmallow Ice Cream cones and how he bought them by the box full when he did.  He said he was always afraid I would ask for the fairy to come when he was out of them but somehow, I never did.  I don’t think I knew the secret.  At least I don’t remember knowing like I did when I guessed who “Santa” really was.  Maybe that was part of the magic as well.  

I was so glad to hear that DR Elmore is made it though surgery and is doing well.  I feel the same way you do.  Strange how just a few months ago I didn’t really know anyone on this board and now I also feel like I have made some very dear friends.  

Jed, the HHW board once had me out in ocean somewhere close to Africa.  I think it thought I was a whale or dolphin.  A first for any board any where!  I haven’t looked to see were I am now.  

I feel so bad that I missed saying Godspeed to Panni!  I forgot that yesterday was the last day before her trip.  I hope she has a wonderful and safe time!

BK said that she would arrive in Budapest, Hungary.  I don’t understand.  Don’t they have any food there?  Why would Panni be hungry?  

Still can’t get over all of the lovely pictures of France.    I guess I am like most in that when I think of France, I think of Paris.  I guess the country is much bigger than just that one city, huh?  Thank you, Tom, for opening my eyes and showing parts of the country that I would never have seen or thought of.

Emily, not that I really have anything to share with streaming audio but how did you do that?

I think I enjoyed the Holidays much more when I was kid then I do now.  We don’t get many children on my street for Halloween.  No one decorates for it.  

I did the first few years we were here but when the kids never bothered to come, I gave up.  Where I walk the dogs is a different matter.  Some of those people go all out.   I don’t mind one way or the other.  It would be nice to see some of the kids in their costumes but I know it would upset the dogs so maybe it’s for the best that they don’t come around.

Congrats to DR Stuart for reaching God hood!  How do you like the view from the clouds so far?

Vibes to DR Jane and Keith for playing Klingon over the next few weeks.  I heard they are going without a bathroom.    

Cute picture, Dan the Man.  It really made me giggle.

 

[Jrand74]

DtM - your photo was so funny!  LOL.....even now he is awaiting DRPANNI at the airport!  I hope she stops at the Inn and doesn't go on up to the castle until morning!

I don't think I can add anything to what DRELMORE has said about EARNEST (and I also heartily recommend the DVD) - except that the play certainly showed what can happen when relationships and friendships are based on trifles....LOL.....

I watched THE BOY FRIEND yesterday - the first time I had seen it in widescreen and without commercials.  I thought it was wonderful.  Some sites seem to think that Christopher Gable recreated the Busby Berkeley choreography - and he and Twiggy certainly made a charming couple.

Like MR BK I think the production design was perfect - from the old theatre front of the house and back....and the recreations of the old movie sets - wow!

Coming out on DVD?

MR BK I am still wrangling with EBAY and PAYPAL to get my money back for the DVD that never was.....so now you have seen the original (albeit the MST3K one).....it's the voodoo - right?

[George]

I just ordered volumes 1 and 2 of "Broadway's Lost Treasures" (even though vol. 2 is not in stock) and the PBS 3-DVD set "Broadway-The American Musical" from deepdiscountdvd.com!  All three cost me only $66 but if I had gotten them from amazon.com, they would have been just over $85! (Since I live in WA and amazon.com is based in WA, they charge sales tax...darn them).  So I saved just over $19!!  Isn't that exciting?  Isn't that just too too?

[Charles Pogue]

Sarah,

Well, as THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST is one of the funniest plays ever written and is constantly revived in professional, commmunity, college, and high school theatres all over, as well as being anthologized in theatre and literature and academic texts, I would safely venture a guess that it has had an enormous impact on society today.  I suspect there is never a moment when the play is not being done somewhere in the world.

Beyond the play, Wilde has had enormous impact.  His bon mots, witticisms, epigrams, and lines from his poems are constantly quoted and have been immortalized into the common parlance. In my Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Wilde gets about two pages.

Some of his more memorable lines.

"I can resist everything but temptation."

"Yet each man kills the things he loves,
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word.  
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword."

"There is no sin but stupidity."

"The truth is rarely pure, and never simple."

"All women become like their mothers.  That is their tragedy.  No man does.  That's his."

"A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."

"There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book.  Books are either well written or badly written.'

"There is only one thing worse in the world than being talked about and that is not being talked about."

"I have nothing to declare but my genius."

And my favourite one:

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

[Charles Pogue]

And, of course, let us not forget his supposed death words, "It's the wallpaper or me...one of us has to go."

I think it is a testament to the durability of Wilde's writing that THE IDEAL HUSBAND & THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, both enjoying successful runs, were closed when his great "scandal" broke.  Yet the "scandal",  alarming in its day and devastating to Wilde, could not kill these plays and his other work, which have passed into the classic repertoire of the English-speaking theatre and world literature.

And, of course, classics live and are constantly revived because they always remain fresh, their life lessons endure, and they retain an eternal validity to our lives today.   Much of society's hypocrisy that was skewered by Wilde's wit has not changed much at all.  Also if one goes beyond Wilde's wit, they will also find much compassion in his plays.

[elmore3003]

DRSwishySarah, I should have continued but I was gettign too highfalutin' for my onw good there.  I just wanted to add that the play's impact plays after it is enormous:  Noel Coward's PRIVATE LIVES, DESIGN FOR LIVING, and BLITHE SPIRIT show a lot of Wilde's sense of turning tables on morality and social convention.  BLITHE SPIRIT could be construed with a gay subtext when the protagonist's wife is suddenly confronted with his dead wife (alternate lifestyle, pr'aps?).  Joe Orton's LOOT, one of my favorite comedies, slaps the Catholic Church, motherhood, serial killers, corrupt police, and does so, like WHAT THE BUTLER SAW and ENTERTAINING MR SLOANE, in an amalgam of stylized dialogue and bloody realism, sort of an Oscar Wilde writing for mod 1960s and 70s swinging London.  

[Jane]

Dear elmore now you have posted to SS, please go get some sleep.

[bk]

Got the softcover test book today and it looks swellegant.  

[bk]

Jrand: Keep on paypal especially.  I actually got my DVD from those cretins today, eleven days after they said they sent it.  It came in a shredded envelope in a blank DVD case.  Shameless.

[Emily]

DR Tomovoz: I was saddened to learn that Advance Australia Fair isn't appreciated for its wonderfulness in Australia.    I first consciously heard it during the Opening Ceremonies for the Sydney Olympics and really liked both the song as well as Julie Anthony who really belted it home.  Personally, I think it's very stirring (even if "girt" is a funny word!  I especially like the second and sadly rarely heard verse:

Beneath our mythic Southern Cross
we'll toil with hearts and hands
to make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands.
For those who come across the seas
with boundless gifts to share
with courage let us all combine
to Advance Australia Fair!

DR Danise: to copy the audio I found a web page that already had it and copied the properties link and then proceeded as usual as with images but using the "insert stream" button instead of the "insert image"

[Jane]

Bruce-very exciting.

Danise fortunately we have a nice guestroom with a full bathroom which need to be cleaned out so I can move out stuff into them.  Or move in as much as will fit since the space is smaller than our bedroom, bathroom and closet.

[Emily]

I understand a driver has been arranged for to pick her up at the airport:

Wow Panni must know some important people.  How else could she get John Kerry to pick her up at the airport?

[Jane]

Emily  

I enjoyed the Australian anthem-thanks.

[Tomovoz]

DR Emily: Australians are far more likely to respond to "Waltzing Matilda" and "I Still Call Australia Home".

I went to a citizenship ceremony last year. A friend of Welsh birth was becoming an Australian officially. The song that really stirred the emotions and was sung with affection and joy was "I am Australian". Everyone seemed to feel the "pride" . The song was written by Bruce Woodley of "The Seekers". The Peter Allen song is also very much loved here in OZ.
As Canadians know, patriotism in Australia is a shy animal. We are not flag wavers.

[Jrand74]

Oh maybe my DVD will show up!  But I won't hold my breath.

Hey...where are my toes?

[Tomovoz]

On the Australian Coat of Arms we have the Emu and the Kangaroo - neither can walk backwards. You needed to know that.

Most of the time for many of us it is "Advance Australia where?" A country without a direction of its own.
I am nevertheless proud to be Australian - but ashamed of "our" view of the world and our "fortress, xenophobic mentality".

[Matt H.]

Tommy Tune seemed to adore Twiggy, too, as he gushes on and on about her in his autobiography. He also alludes to the fact that they had an affair at some point during their history together. He never mentions the woman by name, but I thought it seemed pretty obviously Twiggy.

[S. Woody White]

Buckle down, DR Noel!  Buckle down!  Something is stirring, shifting ground.  It's just begun.  The winds of change are blowing!  I can feel it!  The air is humming and something great is coming!  Soon'll be livin' in a brand new state!  Brand new state, gonna treat you great!

And, since the House of Representatives and probably the Senate will still be where they are today, a change in the Executive branch won't change a thing.

[Matt H.]

Either someone came back from vacation or woke up after a long snooze, but for the past two nights, the CBS  affiliate here has been showing high definition programs in high definition, unlike the last week where HD was nowhere to be seen. I'd like to think the measured but angry daily messages to CBS headquarters finally got some action, but I myself never heard from CBS about the problem.

[S. Woody White]

Have a safe trip, DR Panni.

I have to admit of all the major Broadway composers, Kurt Weill is my least favorite. I've tried to love him, but the most I can summon up is a grudging respect. There are songs of his I like, but of his overall output, I just wouldn't go to his shows for easy listening or background music while I'm cleaning or something. (And I readily admit I've never even heard LOVE LIFE.) And I admit, it's MY lapse. I recognize he's wonderful. My ear just doesn't quite get his vibe.

NO ONE has ever heard Love Life.  With the exception of Nanette Fabray.  And anyone who tells you that they have is lying.  With the exception of Nanette Fabray.

[S. Woody White]

! ! ! ! !  Welcome to HHW Godhood, DR Stuart  ! ! ! ! !

Right on schedule, as I predicted.

[S. Woody White]

Well, not only do I have a new favorite movie musical, I also have another movie that I can't wait till it's on DVD:  Ken Russell's The Boy Friend.  I caught the last half of this last night on TCM and I was mesmerised.  It's a charming, nostalgic recreation of the cheesey British stage and screen musicals of the 30s.  I would say that it was pure in its intent except I can't help but think that Russell conceived of a great deal of the screen imagery through the use of LSD (though thankfully not to the extent of some of his later movies like Altered States.)  Still, it seems to be a logical transfer of the stage show, with a lot of good perfomances from an interesting cast.  I'll need to catch this one on tape until it's ever released on DVD.

It's been released on LaserDisc.  If you can find a copy.  Edited scenes restored, which makes for a slightly more sensible film...or maybe not.

Ken Russell was in to the Latter Day Saints?  Who knew!

 

[Matt H.]

Funny about laserdiscs. During their heyday (even though even at their height they were a niche market), Turner saw to it that almost all the MGM musicals got released on laserdisc, often in double feature packages.

Those old musicals have been VERY slow to come to DVD, and I'm not sure we'll ever see something like TWO WEEKS WITH LOVE or ATHENA. Not that they're great, but I sure enjoy them!

[S. Woody White]

Am watching another episode of THE NAMES THE SAME. The panelists are Bill Cullen, Joan Alexander, and Meridith Wilson. Cullen I know, the other two I am not familiar with...but it is such a fun show. ...Do any other DRs watch these old game shows?

Tell me you're joking, DR MBarnum, not to know who Meridith Willson was!