Hilarious Frenchies

Almost finished Mary McAuliffe's Twilight of the Belle Epoque.

Year 1917

p. 330

Critic Jean Poueigh lambasted Parade and Satie.

So Satie sent postcards saying rude words to Poueigh.

P in turn sued Satie for libel, arguing that his concierge read it, and the magistrates had to repeat those words on the postcards at court lol(which Arthur Honegger found hilarious).

In retaliation Cocteau hit P's lawyer and was roughed up by the police.

LMAO!

p. 331

Debussy tried to cure insomnia by reading the French Civil Code:

But he just found those sufficiently disturbing to keep him awake!

Proust was notorious for waking his friends at night with midnight visits for consultation of his magnum opus(verifing some facts, etc)

French Intifada

An exposé on current racism and anti semitism in France, an absorbing read.

http://www.amazon.com/French-Intifada-Between-France-Arabs-ebook/dp/B00F1R0RYQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406645142&sr=1-1&keywords=french+intifada

Was interested in French-Algerian relation after watching The Battle of Algiers(1966) ages ago, and glad that I grabbed it up at the library.

Rodin as prey

Auguste Rodin is reputed to have a calculating look, but as a lover of women, was susceptible to 'machinations' too lol.

Claire de Choiseul is famous, but when he was in dotage in 1916, a mother and daughter tried to gain influence:

" I want to be your slave". Jeanne Bardy

" My dear little papa" Her daughter Henriette

Fortunately his friends posted guards around Hotel Biron to bar them lol!

But his drawings and small bronzes had already disappeared...!

Did the movie Stargate(1914) get inspiration from

Churchill's advocation of bombing the 'rebellious' Imperial 'subjects' around 1920?


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111282/?ref_=nv_sr_3


The scene in which the aliens bomb the rebellious tribes with their fighter airplane...isn't it the same?


A chilling thought..

Modern Library Chronicles

MLC


Nice series.


Currently reading this


The Korean War: A History (Modern Library Chronicles) by Bruce Cumings (Jul 27, 2010)


Belatedly, and it's quite an embarrassing account in many ways...

Robert Dallek

Should read his two books;

Nixon and Kissinger by Robert Dallek (Oct 13, 2009)

Camelot's Court: Inside the Kennedy White House by Robert Dallek (Oct 8, 2013)

July reading

I'm glad that I've finished most of the June readings.


Now onto new ones;

Sampled some Tacitus(of course in the original latin), and borrowed

Churchill and empire : a portrait of an imperalist /

by James, Lawrence, 1943-

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06/21/2014
08/01/2014
1

Faces in the crowd

by Magnat, Julien

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07/11/2014
07/18/2014
0

Hiroshima mon amour

by Resnais, Alain, 1922-2014

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07/11/2014
07/18/2014
0

Hundred days : the campaign that ended World War I /

by Lloyd, Nick

39009050786934
07/11/2014
08/01/2014
0

The Korean War : a history /

by Cumings, Bruce, 1943-

39009038582850
07/10/2014
07/31/2014
0

The magic mountain : [a novel] /

by Mann, Thomas, 1875-1955

39009035128269
07/11/2014
08/01/2014
0

Right star rising : a new politics, 1974-1980 /

by Kalman, Laura, 1955-

39010039107812
07/12/2014
08/02/2014
0

Train your mind, change your brain : how a new science reveals our extraordinary potential to transform ourselves /

by Begley, Sharon, 1956-

39009035765771
06/17/2014
07/26/2014
1

Twilight of the Belle Epoque : the Paris of Picasso, Stravinsky, Proust, Renault, Marie Curie, Gertrude Stein, and their friends through the Great War /

by McAuliffe, Mary Sperling, 1943-

Tit for Tat; Jowett & Tennyson

1860.


Tennyson was invited to Oxford and read a poem to Benjamin Jowett, a distinguished classicist, friend of Tennyson and who was becoming formidable by that time.


J gravely said after the recital;


"I think I wouldn't publish that, if I were you, Tennyson"


After a moment of frigid silence Tennyson retorted;


"If it come to that, Master(Jowett was the Master of Balliol), the sherry you gave us at luncheon was beastly"