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Archive for the 'National cinemas: Iran' Category
Il Cinema Ritrovato: revelations from India and Iran
Pather Panchali
Kristin here:
The second half of my week at the Cinema Ritrovato festival in Bologna was centered around two Asian events: a small program of Iranian films from the 1960s and 1970s and the restored Apu trilogy. In between those screenings I tried to fit in some programs of pre-1920s cinema.
Bringing the Apu Trilogy back from the ashes
That was the title of a panel presentation during the festival, one which I missed because I was watching the first of the four Iranian films. In this case the metaphor is literal. The original negatives of the Apu films were stored in a London warehouse, and in 1993 a fire damaged them extensively.
In 2013, The Criterion Collection and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences began a collaborative restoration. Working meticulously by hand and employing an innovative rehydration technique, experts at L'Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna rescued the images for about 40 percent of Pather Panchali and 60 percent of Aparajito. The negative of Apu Sansar (The World of Apu) was wholly lost. For it and the missing parts of the other two films, footage from fine-grained masters and duplicate negatives from various archives was used. The restoration was done in 4K. (For an interview with Lee Kline, Criterion's technical director, see here. There is a short but informative short film on the restoration, including some before-and-after comparisons, on Vimeo.)
The result is spectacular, far better than one would expect, given the dire circumstances the restorers faced. It was a privilege to see the entire trilogy over three days on the huge screen of the Cinema Arlecchino from the front row. There were times when the replacement footage was obvious, but for the most part, the images look pristine. They also look like film, with no hint of video-y quality about them.
I had seen the trilogy only once, in 16mm back in my graduate-school days. At the time, I admired it but wasn't bowled over. Sitting through the Ritrovato screenings, I found it a profoundly moving and beautiful experience. Satyajit Ray manages both to maintain a quiet, leisurely pace and to compress the hero's life, from birth to early adulthood, into three parts totalling less than six hours.
Apu's strict but devoted mother (below left, in Aparajito) anchors the first two films, gaining our sympathy despite her scolding and worrying. Apu's wife, Apurna (below right, in Apu Sansar), is in the third film for a remarkably short time. Yet we quickly come to understand her love for this unknown man whom she marries almost by accident, her sense of humor, and her compassion, all of which are vital to our sympathy for Apu's utter devastation after her death. Indeed, the trilogy involves five major deaths, all of which makes the hopeful ending the more affecting.
Presumably The Criterion Collection will bring out a Blu-ray set of the three films, though no date has yet been announced.
Iran's own New Wave
Admirers of Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Asghar Farhadi, Jafar Panahi, and other notable directors of the Iranian cinema of the past few decades might be curious about their forerunners. Iranian film critic and historian Ehsan Khoshbakht has begun to satisfy that curiosity by programing a short series of classics of pre-Revolutionary cinema. According to his program notes (available in their entirety online), the four films shown in Bologna constitute about a quarter of the output of the Iranian New Wave. I hope there will be further screenings at future festivals.
As Khoshbakht warned in introducing the earliest film in the series, Shab-e Ghuzi (Night of the Hunchback, 1965), it is not a masterpiece and certainly not a forerunner of the filmmaking that would later bring Iran to prominence in international festivals and art cinema. Director Farrokh Ghaffari was a pioneer of Iranian filmmaking beginning in the 1950s, but he is perhaps equally important in having started the first Iranian film archive.
Night of the Hunchback is a black comedy with a story loosely derived from The Trouble with Harry. A player in a cheap entertainment troupe is accidentally killed, and the bulk of the film follows his corpse as it is passed from one group of characters to another; these include a pair of smugglers running a beauty salon, who provide much of the film's humor (above). Most try to dispose of it, but a society woman trails it in the hope of retrieving an incriminating document in its jacket pocket. By Western standards it seems like a fairly mainstream commercial work, but it departed from commercial Iranian cinema, according to Khoshbakht, "with its respect for folklore and its bitter portrayal of the upper class." It was a commercial flop but gained some attention at European film festivals.
The most famous film of the era is Gaav (The Cow, dir. Dariush Mehrjui, 1969). It centers around Hassan, the owner of his village's sole cow. He dotes on the beast, as is quickly established in an early scene when he affectionately bathes her.
When the cow mysteriously dies (a cause is hinted at but never confirmed), the villages lament the loss of their only source of milk, but they also worry about how Hassan will react when he hears the news.
Although Hassan is the evident protagonist of the film, the drama centers more around the ignorance, lack of judgment, and even cruelty of the villagers. The film begins not by introducing Hassan and his cow but with a disturbing scene of the local children chasing and tormenting a mentally defective young man. This establishes the tone for several later scenes.
When the cow's death is discovered, the small group of men who wield authority initially concoct a story of the cow having run away, and the villagers bury the carcass (bottom). As Hassan descends slowly into madness, the people supposedly trying to help him make every possible wrong decision, leading to disaster.
If the films I discussed in my previous entry extolled the virtues of village life and represented leaving home as unwise, The Cow is just the opposite. Cut off from the outer world, the villagers have little education or ability to come up with logical solutions to problems. It's a theme repeated in the other two Iranian fiction films on the program as well.
Yek Ettefagh-e sadeh (A Simple Event, dir. Shrab Sahid Saless, 1973), the latest of the films shown, seems the most obvious forerunner of the wave of Iranian cinema that started in the 1980s. It closely follows the daily routine of a young, unnamed boy living in a small town on the edge of the Caspian Sea. We see him at school, helping sell the few fish that his father catches each day, eating and trying to study in the almost unfurnished house he shares with his father and sickly mother.
There's little dialogue, apart from scenes in the school. I believe the boy speaks two lines in the entire film, and his father communicates with him only occasionally, to order him around: "Close the door" or "Study." Much of the action consists of the boy running through the streets on errands, including his night-time visit to fetch a doctor for his ailing mother (below).
Although there's a superficial resemblance between A Simple Event and the later films of the "child quest" genre, I see considerable differences as well. In films like Kiarostami's Where Is My Friend's Home? or Panahi's The Mirror, the child protagonists have clear-cut goals which they have decided upon themselves. They are stubborn and determined, and as they doggedly pursue their goals we are never unsure about their motives.
In A Simple Event the boy has no goal, and we learn almost nothing about his character. Is he really as stupid as his teacher believes, or is he behind his classmates because he gets little chance to do his homework? Does he love his mother or is he indifferent to her declining health? Is he resentful but cowed by his elders? Or is he resigned and accepting of his lot? We have no way of knowing. His one independent action is to buy a bottle of Coca-Cola to go with his usual meager meal after his father uncharacteristically gives him a little money.
There's certainly a suggestion, once again, that small-town life is deadening to people. The rote learning and lack of relevance in the subjects taught in school help explain the lack of imagination and the resignation to their situation among the students.
My suspicion is that later directors may have seen the potential in A Simple Event and built upon it, introducing a greater empathy with their child protagonists and certain greater drama and suspense.
To me, the surprise among the Iranian films was Oon Shab Ke Baroon Oomad Ya Hemase-Ye Roosta Zade-ye Gorgani (The Night It Rained or the Epic of the Gorgan Village Boy, dir. Kamran Shirdel, 1967). It's a sophisticated investigative documentary that reminded me of the work of Erroll Morris.
The film begins with a written report on the making of the film itself, submitted to the authorities by Shirdel. It seems to describe earnest attempts to document an inspiring story that had been widely circulated in newspapers. On a rainy night, a boy in the village of Gorgon had discovered that flooding had undermined the local train tracks; he signaled an oncoming train by setting his jacket alight, successfully stopping it and saving 200 passengers' lives.
Doubt begins to creep in, though. Among the many newspaper titles shown trumpeting the boy's feat, we find one calling it a pack of lies. Shirdel's report indicates that his team could not find the boy and set out to interview various people. Gradually it becomes apparent that the whole story was concocted and that the train–a cargo train with no passengers aboard–was stopped by local railway officials. Throughout the film, there are further passages from the production report, describing the filming work as if it were for a simple, laudatory documentary about the heroic boy. We see, however, that much of the filming undermines that heroism and satirizes the government's willingness to perpetuate false accounts of it.
Shirdel carefully avoids making that point explicitly. He intercuts interview scenes, some of the boy rattling off his story and some of newspaper editors defending the story (above). In other scenes, we hear from indignant railway officials and an editor who dismisses the incident as pure fiction. The director seems to let us decide on the truth, but the the absurdity of boy's supposed heroism becomes increasingly apparent.
Not surprisingly, Shirdel's film was banned. Six years later, according to the program notes, "it was deemed harmless. It was then premiered at the Tehran International Film Festival where it won the Best Short Film award." Clearly the officials who cleared it for release missed the ironic underpinnings of the film.
The Night It Rained (and perhaps others of Shirdel's films) may have offered a model of reflexive filmmaking that later directors picked up on. Close-up, The Mirror, Salaam Cinema, and Through the Olive Trees all bring filmmaking into the stories they tell.
Thanks to Ramin S. Khanjani for some corrections concerning the Iranian section of this entry. His article on The Night of the Hunchback, "Actors and Conspiracies," was published in Film International 15, 3/4 (Autumn 2009/Winter 2010): 66-71.
The Cow.
Middle-Eastern fare at VIFF
Winter Sleep.
Kristin here:
Iranian cinema moves on
Maybe it's just the particular selection of Iranian films at this year's festival, but I sensed a shift from the ones we've seen in previous years. Last year I titled one of my entries "Familiar Middle-Eastern filmmakers return to Viff." This year familiar names are missing, including Kiarostami, Panahi, Rasoulof, and Farhadi. (Mohsen Makhmalbaf's new feature, The President, was at Venice but not here at VIFF.) Moreover, all three of the Iranian fiction features this year depart from some conventions we've grown used to in the New Iranian Cinema of the past decades.
Whether A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) is actually an Iranian film is debatable, though it is listed as such in the program. Its director, Ana Lily Amirpour, was raised in England and subsequently moved to the USA, where she studied filmmaking at UCLA. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is her first feature and has American backing (including Elijah Wood as one of several executive directors) and was shot in California. Amirpour is of Iranian descent, and the film is in Farsi, which may be enough to have it considered Iranian.
It's hard to imagine, however, such a film being made in Iran. It's a vampire film, taking place in an imaginary town called Bad City, perhaps located in Iran but perhaps not. Its setting look distinctly like the less picturesque parts of the American West:
Amirpour has fashioned a remarkably good pastiche of an American widescreen, black-and-white genre film of the late 1950s or early 1960s, as this image and the one at the bottom of this entry demonstrate. As the Variety review points out, the look is also informed by graphic novels, notably Sin City. Indeed, this summer Amirpour has published a brief graphic novel with the same title as her film; it's apparently a prequel to the movie's story. Given that it is labeled #1, the artist presumably envisions a series.
The genre is the vampire film, though this one is hardly conventional. The vampire is the Girl of the title, and the director has taken amusing advantage of the resemblance between her triangular black hijab and the classic floor-length cloak worn by screen vampires, such as that of Bela Lugosi in the 1931 Dracula:
The heroine moves eerily through the streets of the town (see bottom), picking as her victims men who have exploited women. A romance develops between her and a more sensitive young man, clearly modeled on James Dean.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night played at Sundance and has been picked up for American Distribution by Kino Lorber, apparently with an October release planned.
The two other Iranian films are what David has dubbed "network narratives." One is straightforwardly so, the other far less so.
Rakhshan Bani-Etemad's Tales (2014) in some ways develops on the classic quest narrative of so many Iranian classics since the 1980s, where hero or heroine (often a child) doggedly set out to accomplish something, with the struggle laid out in detail. In Tales the questing characters are multiplied, with their paths crossing and sometime re-crossing.
Unlike in most of the earlier films, these quests don't always yield results, and hence closure. The characters are mostly involved in seeking help of some sort, sometimes from other people, sometimes from a government institution. The cumulative effect is to suggest a society that has lost the ability or the will to respond, even to desperate pleas.
The film begins with a filmmaker riding in a friend's cab, shooting the passing cityscape. He immediately drops out of the story, though he will return. Ironically, the story's action begins with a failed attempt to help someone. The cab driver is hailed by a prostitute with a sick child. Recognizing her as an old friend of his family's, he buys medicine and a toy for the child, only to find that the woman has disappeared into the night.
Arriving home, he tells his mother of this encounter. We then follow her in a scene in an office building, where she tries to fill out a form complaining about not having received her pension. A gentleman in the corridor helps her, and we follow him into a meeting with a petty bureaucrat who takes calls from his wife and mistress, ignoring what the man is trying to tell him.
A central scene returns to the mother, now on a bus of protestors. The same filmmaker whom we saw at the opening is making a film about their personal plights. We watch through the viewfinder as the mother pleads for help. It's not clear whom the film is aimed at or who will eventually see it. Later in Tales, the filmmaker remarks that all films eventually get seen, but this seems far too vague to hold out much hope for those caught in a maze of bureaucratic red tape and neglect.
The network structure reportedly resulted from the fact that under the Ahmadinejad regime Bani-Etemad could only get a license to make a series of shorts. Subsequently she was able to weave these together into a feature.
Bani-Etemad, who also produced Tales, is considered Iran's top female director. Here she brings back some characters from her earlier films, including Dr. Dabiri, from Gilaneh (2005), and Sarah, from Nargess (1992). The VIFF program quotes her as saying, "Tales returns to the characters of my previous films under today's circumstances."
Finally there is Fish and Cat (2013), which elicited mostly praising reviews when it debuted in Venice. (For an example, see our friend Alissa Simon's take on it for Variety.)
Despite running a lengthy 134 minutes, director Shahram Mokri shot the entirety as one lengthy take, without benefit of CGI. A sinister mood is set up immediately when a title hints that it will concern some restaurant owners in a remote district who may have used human flesh in their meat dishes. Two owners of the restaurant are introduced in the opening scene, and we follow them as they set out on a path through the nearby woods, carrying weapons, tools, and a bag soaked in what looks like blood:
The pair chat until their path crosses that of Kazim, a young man participating in an annual kite-flying event to take place by a nearby lake; he's trying to ditch his clinging father. We follow him to the lake, then leave him to latch onto Parviz, who is trying to organize the young people arriving for the event. And so it goes, until eventually the brief scenes between the people who meet and part begin to repeat, but from a different vantage point. Much of the action involves the camera tracking with the characters from behind, as in the frame above, resulting in an occasional difficulty in identifying whom we're watching.
The tone remains ominous throughout, with the two thugs and a third accomplice intruding at intervals, perhaps with murderous intentions. There's also plenty of dark humor as well, and despite the slow unrolling of the action, the film remains absorbing throughout. Some viewers will be tempted to see the film on DVD/BD again, trying to work out the complicated looping chronology of the plot–possibly diagramming it, as the filmmakers presumably had to.
Those who can't do
We wrote about Israeli director Nadav Lapid's first feature, Policeman, in our 2011 VIFF report. This year he is back with his second, The Kindergarten Teacher (2014).
The film is a psychological study of young woman, Nira, who is an apparently ordinary and devoted kindergarten teacher. She learns that one of her small charges, Yoav, a shy, uncommunicative five-year-old boy, has an odd habit. Occasionally he begins to pace back and forth, declaring "I have a poem" and then reciting a short poem that would do credit to an adult author.
Nira's reaction to this apparent prodigy is shifting, occasionally ambiguous, and increasingly disturbing. We are confined almost entirely to what she observes and does, so we get no other view of Yoav except when his nanny and father talk with Nira.
Initially she seems inclined to take advantage of Yoav. We witness her reciting one of his poems as her own at a poetry-writing group that she attends. This premise is soon dropped, however, when Nira takes Yoav under her wing. She favors him over his classmates and encouraging his artistic impulses. Eventually she tries to take control of him, clearly picturing herself as gaining reflected glory from being a mentor to a great artist.
Given the limited point of view, we are encouraged to speculate as to how Yoav comes up with his poems and how far Nira will go in crafting the triumphant public career that she clearly wants for the boy. When she discovers that his boorish, business-minded father has no use for poetry, she increasingly tries to control Yoav, taking him to a public poetry-reading and getting him to recite onstage:
Cumulatively the film traces a slow and disturbing path toward her greater obsession. A subtly presented clue suggests the nature of Yoav's recitations–to us, that is, if we catch it. Nira misses it, or chooses to ignore it.
Once again in Anatolia
Three years ago we wrote about Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Once upon a Time in Anatolia as one of our favorite films of the 2011 VIFF. Now Ceylan is back with another long film, Winter Sleep (2014), and again it stood out among the films we saw this year.
The film was shot in the Cappadocia region of Anatolia in central Turkey. The area is a major tourist attraction, with caves, "fairy chimneys" and other spectacular stone formations, rock-cut chapels, and structures from antiquity.
The protagonist, Aydin, is an ex-theater actor now retired and running a hotel made up partly of rooms cut into the picturesque rock formations. It's the winter season, with only a Japanese couple and a motorcycle devotee staying at the hotel, and Aydin has plenty of time to write columns for the local paper and bicker with his young wife Nihal and embittered, recently divorced sister Necla:
This time there is no crime investigation or mystery around which the plot centers. Instead the narrative is a character study, played out partly in long conversations between Aydin and the two women. There are also scenes in which Aydin reacts with indifference to the sufferings of his impoverished tenants.
The early part of the film is given over to Aydin, who at first seem mildly sympathetic, brilliant and creative. But as he converses with Necla in a lengthy central scene in his study, his remorselessly sardonic sister picks apart his flaws in a verbal duel between two equally witty characters. Later, Nihal feels beaten down by Aydin's opposition to her charitable work, the only activity that gives her satisfaction in this isolated life, and she finishes the job of exposing Aydin's selfishness.
The program notes compare the film to the plays of Chekhov, and there is a definite similarity, both in the conversations and in the contrasts between the wealthy family and the working-class people who resent being dependent upon them. Despite the fact that much of the film consists of long conversation scenes–and runs for 196 minutes–the large, sold-out audience with whom we watched the film were dead silent, clearly captivated by the story. Unlike Chekhov, in the end the film offers a glimmer of hope for the characters.
Ceylan has said that he shot in the distinctive landscapes of Cappadocia only reluctantly:
I actually didn't want to use it, but I had to. I originally wanted a very simple, plain place, but the film had to be set in a tourist area, and I needed a hotel that is a little isolated, outside of town. Cappadocia was the only place I could find that in the winter time still had tourists.
I was afraid of shooting in Cappadocia because it might have been too beautiful, too interesting. But I didn't show it too much, I hope.
Ceylan succeeded, I think. There are enough shots of the rock formations to impress us, but they are used sparingly. One might interpret the landscapes as reflections of the characters' inner turmoil, in much the way that Maurice Stiller and especially Victor Sjöström used Scandinavian landscapes in their classic films of the 1910s and 1920s. (See top, where Aydin pauses to think near some rocky outcroppings.)
It certainly shows enough that Winter Sleep might cause a rise in tourism among art-cinema audiences. One hotel's blog has already mentioned the film as a way of luring customers.
Winter Sleep won the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year and will receive an "awards-season" release in the USA by Adopt Films.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.
Familiar Middle-Eastern filmmakers return to VIFF
Closed Curtain (2013).
Kristin here:
Two years ago David and I wrote about a group of Iranian and Israeli films that featured prominently in the 2011 VIFF program. This year's program boasted several more, many of them by the same directors.
Closed Curtain (Jafar Panahi and Kambuzia Partovi, 2013)
Despite still being banned from filmmaking and forbidden to leave Iran, Panahi has followed This is Not a Film with another fascinating feature that has made its way abroad. This time he co-directs with Kambuzia Partovi, who also plays one of the main characters, a screenwriter.
The writer flees to a seaside house (apparently Panahi's) to hide his dog from a roundup of animals deemed "unclean" under Islam. Once ensconced, the writer tries to conceal his pet by sealing the many large windows with opaque curtains. Eventually their privacy is invaded by another refugee, a young woman sought by local police for participating in a nearby party.
This first section of the film seems to be a straightforward allegory for Panahi's own situation, but well after the midpoint, Panahi himself appears and takes over as the main character. With the curtains removed, he stares at the pond behind the house, seemingly having a vision of himself amid the beauties of nature. He also gazes at the sea in front of the house, envisioning himself walking into it to commit suicide.
The opening stretches emphasize suspense, when the writer hears voices and sirens outside, and unseen officials hammer against the door. The result is an image of the creative artist forced to conceal himself from forces of authority. With Panahi's appearance, the film becomes more subjective than allegorical, and the abrupt juxtaposition of the two parts of the film create a puzzling whole. But that whole is rigorously filmed and arouses interest throughout.
Manuscripts Don't Burn (Mohammad Rasoulof, 2013)
In 2010, I posted about Rasoulof's beautiful film, The White Meadows (2009), an overtly allegorical film about the sufferings of various sectors of Iranian society. At that point I wrote, "He was arrested alongside Jafar Panahi (who edited The White Meadows) and about a dozen others on March 2. Fortunately he was released fairly soon, on March 17. What his future as a director in Iran is remains to be seen." Most immediately, he was given a prison sentence and banned from filmmaking. Neither condition evidently kept him from finishing the impressive Goodbye (2011), which I discussed here. More recently, upon returning to Iran from Europe, Rasoulof has had his passport seized and is unable to travel or to reunite with his family. Most observers believe that this treatment is a response to his harshly critical new film, Manuscripts Don't Burn, which has attracted attention at several festivals.
Manuscripts Don't Burn differs considerably from The White Meadows. There is no hint of allegory here as Rasoulof examines the state surveillance system.The plot centers around two dissident authors and their strategies for hiding their manuscripts and evading the authorities. While a ruthless, educated young official decides on two authors' fates, two working-class men carry out the kidnapping, torture, and murders that he orders. The hitmenare seen as victims themselves, as one of them, trying to pay medical bills for a sick child, continually finds that his last job's payment has not yet been transferred to his bank account. They endure stakeouts in chilly weather and grab takeout food on the fly. The whole film is shot in muted tones (in both Tehran and Hamburg) and conveys a sense of unrelenting grimness.
The plot is drawn from unspecified real-life events, and the film cautiously carries no credits for cast or crew. (For more information on the film's background, see Stephen Dalton's informative review from the film's premiere at Cannes.)
The Past (Asghar Farhadi, 2013)
Since A Separation (2012; see our entry here) became the first Iranian film to win an Oscar for best foreign-language film, Farhadi has become the most prominent director working in that country. This is witnessed by the fact that his new film, The Past, has been put forth as Iran's candidate for this year's Academy nomination.
The plot of the new film draws upon familiar strategies that created a strong, moving situation in A Separation. Again a husband and wife are on the brink of divorce. In this case, the husband, Ahmad, is Iranian, and the wife, Marie is French. Clearly they had lived together for a time in France, since when Ahmad arrives from Tehran, he knows how to get around Paris. Marie has two daughters from a previous marriage and plans to marry the small-businessman Samir, by whom she is pregnant. Samir has a morose young son who resists the idea of having Marie as a mother.
With this larger cast of characters, disagreements and obstacles pile up. Marie is extremely strict and strong-willed. Her older daughter is rebellious and stays out late. Ahmad tries to mediate between Samir's miserable son and Marie's scolding, while Samir tries to please Marie and still help his son adjust to the upcoming marriage.
As in A Separation, The Past builds up a mystery about an unhappy event. Samir's wife has attempted suicide. What led her to this desperate measure? Her chronic depression? An embarrassing argument with one of Samir's customers? Or did she know of Samir's affair with Marie? Ahmad's attempts to solve this mystery provide a strong, intriguing subplot alongside the shifting conflicts among the main adult characters.
With so many characters involved, the accumulation of problems and unhappiness eventually threatens to tip over into an exasperating melodrama. But I think Farhadi juggles all these motivations and events so well that we never feel that he has gone too far.
There has been some controversy over the fact that the film was shot entirely in France and therefore has little Iranian about it. Indeed, the Farsi-speaking emigrés who attended the VIFF screening to hear their native language spoken were perhaps disappointed that it was all in French. Yet in an ensemble cast, Ahmad remains the central character, helping to reconcile the others and comfort the three children (as in a rare cheerful moment when he helps the younger ones get a toy out of a tree).
If not quite as satisfying a film overall as A Separation, The Past confirms Farhadi as an Iranian director who can make appealing films for an international audience.
Trapped (Parviz Shahbazi, 2012)
Trapped is probably closer than most Iranian films shown at festivals to the sort of thing seen by popular audiences in its home country. The program notes describe it as a "moral thriller." It revolves around Nazanin, a studious first-year medical student (see image at bottom) forced through lack of dormitory space to share a flat with party-loving Sahar, who is trying to leave Iran. Sahar has borrowed money to pay for her exit visa and, unable to pay it back, is imprisoned. Nazanin struggles selflessly to help her out, including foolishly signing a promissory note taking on Sahar's debt and even sharing the threat of imprisonment.
The plot reminded me of the "child quest" tales that were prominent in the golden age of the Iranian cinema of the 1980s and 1990s, such as The Mirror and Where Is My Friend's Home. (Shahbazi was the assistant director of Panahi's The White Balloon, as well as conceiving its basic premise.) Here the heroine is distinctly older than the protagonists of those films, but she retains a naivete that makes her seem more childlike than the other characters, who manipulate and ultimately threaten her.
While Trapped doesn't have the simplicity and charm of those earlier films, it offers an absorbing story. It paints a grim picture of Tehran and gives some insight into the realities of life there. Like many Iranian films, it raises the prospect of emigration, though in this case Nazanin's strong desire to stay in the country and become a doctor is held up as the better choice.
A Place in Heaven (Yossi Madmony, 2013)
Two years ago I also reported on Madmony's Restoration. A Place in Heaven is a considerably more ambitious film. It traces the life of a military hero, known only by his wildly inappropriate nickname Bambi, across much of Israeli history. The title derives from a flashback scene early on, when a cook at a military camp praises Bambi's brave deeds and remarks that he has already earned a place in heaven. A secular Jew, Bambi scoffs at the notion and signs an impromptu contract trading that place to the cook in exchange for a daily spicy omelet.
Although Bambi dotes on his son Nimrod, the boy grows up to become a strictly religious Jew who disapproves of much that his father does. Still, when Bambi is on his deathbed, Nimrod goes in search of the cook to get back the place in heaven. As with Restoration, the plot is largely based around the father-son relationship, though there is also a touching and tragically short relationship between Bambi and his beautiful wife.
Unlike the largely urban Restoration, this film shows off the bleakly beautiful landscapes of Israel's desert.
There were many other striking and moving films on display at VIFF this year. David and I really can't do justice to all of them, but in a final post he will consider Koreeda's Like Father, Like Son, Jia's A Touch of Sin, Johnnie To's The Blind Detective, the Godard segment of 3x3D, and Oliveira's Gebo and the Thief. Like the items I've invoked here, each deserves an entry to itself, but time limits and further travels force us to be quick. Still, we hope that you can tell from our entries, VIFF 2013 yielded an extraordinarily high level of quality. As usual!
P.S. 17 October 2013: Thanks to Hamidreza Nassiri for correcting the original entry: Panahi is not, as we had said, under house arrest.
Trapped (2013).
Around the world in a multiplex: First dispatch from Vancouver
Kristin here–
My title exaggerates. There are other venues for the Vancouver International Film Festival besides the Empire Granville multiplex. There is the Pacific Cinematheque, often used for more avant-garde items; the Vancity Theatre, which screens art films and hosts industry events year-round; and the gorgeous old picture palace, the Vogue, a multiple-use venue that hosts both big screenings and gala events. But frequently we find ourselves wandering for a whole day among the Granville's seven screens, circling the globe cinematically.
The Middle East
Four years ago we blogged about Captain Abu Raed (2007), the first Jordanian feature film in decades. This year there is The Last Friday (2011, Yahya Alabdallah), and by now the fact of a Jordanian film appearing at festivals is no longer notable. Production has now been systematized. The Last Friday was financed (for around $100,000) by the Royal Film Commission of Jordan's Educational Feature Film Program.
The basic plotline is simple, with protagonist Youssef, a handsome, hard-working middle-aged man, divorced and reduced to driving a taxi prone to breakdowns, struggling to earn money for a serious operation. The cinematography was done using a Red One camera, and the resulting images are impressive. (Alabdallah often resorts, with good effect, to what David has termed planimetric compositions, those shot directly toward a flat background.) There is little dialogue, and Youssef's struggles are conveyed by small details, visual and aural. The fact that he has tampered with his apartment block's switch boxes to steal electricity is established early on, but by-play with the fuses he has transferred or hidden becomes an unnecessary but entertaining motif.
Perhaps the "educational" part of the film comes from Youssef's son, a teenage wastrel who hangs out at his father's apartment. It eventually comes out that he has stopped going to school, and Youssef has the additional burden of confronting his ex-wife to thrash out a method for dealing with their errant son.
The Last Friday treads that risky line so many independent filmmakers on small budgets take, singling out a character with a problem and showing him or her doggedly dealing with it. It takes a sure touch and an interesting character to make this work, and Alabdallah manages both, helped by Ali Suliman's performance in the lead role.
So far undoubtedly the biggest unexpected gem this year has been the Iranian family melodrama/thriller A Respectable Family (2012). The film is the first fiction feature by documentarist Massoud Bakhshi; it was shown in the Directors' Fortnight series at Cannes and gained generally favorable reviews.
The plot concerns Arash, a professor who has lived in Paris for decades and, as a guest post at the university in his hometown of Shiraz winds down, seeks in vain for the return of his passport to allow him to return home. At the same time, a lawyer informs him and his mother that a sizable sum of money has been left to them by his estranged, abusive father. The family drama that plays out depends for effect on an extraordinarily complex and tight script with numerous abrupt turns and surprises that keep the audience as busy as in any recent Hollywood thriller. In particular, Bakhshi's use of switches in point of view and flashbacks to the period of Arash's youth are masterful.
Here I pass along the same advice I have given friends here at the festival in recommending the film: don't read reviews or program notes about this film before seeing it. Everything I have read about the film gives away key pieces of information that should be kept secret.
The tone of the film, with its implicit but obvious criticism of the Iran-Iraq war and the regime that fostered it, plus the ending's evident support for student demonstrators, make it amazing that the film could be made within Iran. It apparently has not been released within its home country and most likely won't be. Yet the Iranian press reported calmly on its favorable reception at Cannes, as the press there usually does when national films gain prestige abroad. A story in the Teheran Times remarked: "It was a great surprise that non-Iranian filmgoers were able to relate to the Sacred Defense (1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war) and the concept of martyrdom, which are themes of the film, Mohammad Afarideh [the film's producer] told the Persian service of the Mehr New Agency." Afarideh added, "The film has an Iranian storyline, but the structure Bakhshi has chosen for the dialogue helps attract foreign audiences as well."
Many in Iran and elsewhere were also surprised that A Separation could connect with western audiences in the way it did. It's a pity that A Respectable Family is unlikely to gain such a widespread audience, but it is worth seeking out. It plays once more here in Vancouver, on October 3 at 6:45 pm in the Empire Granville 2.
Latin America
Una noche (2012) is listed in the program as a Cuban/UK/USA co-production. The Cuban contribution comes primarily from the setting and the cast–and the cooperation of the government. (Certainly it makes setting out to try and escape to the USA an unattractive prospect.) It was entirely shot in Havana and environs, and three young first-time actors play the principal roles. The director is Lucy Mulloy, making her feature debut. It is otherwise largely New York based, having been at least partially supported by the Independent Filmmaker project in its "Narrative Independent Filmmaker Lab," which funds films with budgets of under a million dollars. Post-production seems mainly to have been done at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.
Perhaps as a result of such mixed origins, Una noche manages to create a strong, Hollywood-style plot with plenty of local color. The opening shows a blonde tourist in a car, but the heroine's voice declares that this will not be this girl's story but her own. Quick but effective characterization sets up the close relationship between twin brother and sister. They're poor kids from the barrio scratching a living, with Lila working as a dance-hall girl and Elio serving as a cook. Yet we are away from Lila for long stretches, becoming aware, as she is not, that Elio is gay and has a crush a fellow cook. But Raul is an obviously straight young thug, and he has talked Elio into making an attempt to cross to the USA on a raft.
Their preparations, gathering the materials and supplies they need, take us through the poverty-stricken neighborhoods, with Elio's shiftless friends catcalling at girls and joyriding on their bikes by clinging to buses. Raul visits a dealer to buy medicine for his AIDS-stricken mother, a gaunt former beauty still turning tricks to support herself.
The action escalates as Raul accidentally injures a tourist and Lila discovers that Elio is planning to leave her and go with Raul. Mulloy deliberately downplays the ending, flashing a dedication on the screen to give us the impression that the film is over. Almost as an afterthought mixed in with the beginning of the credits, she presents brief shots showing us of the fates of the characters, filmed from a distance and without Lila's voiceover. The Variety reviewer found the ending abrupt and "somewhat inadequately foreshadowed," yet it seemed appropriate to me, and indeed was one of the most original touches in the film.
The North American rights to Una Noche were picked up earlier this year by Sundance Selects after the film proved a hit at the Tribeca Film Festival, winning Best New Narrative Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Actors (shared between its two male leads). Ironically, two of the young lead actors used the Tribeca festival as an occasion to request asylum in the USA.
The Antipodes
There is something comforting about the fact that, after all the success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the prospect of a series of Avatar films being made there into the indefinite future, the New Zealand Film Commission is still funding the same sorts of low-budget genre movies that were made before the country became Middle-earth and Pandora. Robert Sarkies, veteran Kiwi director, has followed up his gripping, headline-based thriller Out of the Blue (20o6) with a return to Scarfies (1999) territory, albeit on a more grotesque level.
Two Little Boys (2012) is based on the old getting-rid-of-an-incriminating-corpse premise, with wimpy Nige (Bret Mackenzie, left) accidentally killing a Scandinavian sports star with his car. Despite a recent quarrel, Deano (Hamish Blake), his best friend from childhood, agrees to help him out and hatches more and more devious and grisly methods for disposing of the body–and later of Nige's roommate, pudgy, clueless Maori roommate Gav, who adds a touch of sweetness with his persistent obliviousness to the pair's fiendish doings.
It's a feather-weight film, but one with many funny moments. It also shows off some parts of New Zealand seldom used in films, starting off in the southernmost and westernmost city, Invercargill, and the bleakly beautiful Catlins, on the southeast coast.
From the ridiculous to the sublime. Journal de France (2012) presents a sort of professional autobiography of the great French photographer and filmmaker Raymond Depardon. The framing situation is a journey through France that Depardon takes (supposedly alone, though there is someone there to film him), photographing landscapes and villages with his big view camera (bottom). There's a charmingly chatty scene of him photographing four aged men who had posed for him in the same spot earlier (top).
Interspersed is footage from throughout Depardon's career. This is presented in voiceover by co-director Claudine Nougaret, the filmmaker's partner in private life and his long-time sound recordist. Much of this footage didn't make it into the finished documentaries, including practice shots from when Depardon was learning the trade and amazing footage of many of the major events of the late twentieth century. Depardon travelled widely, often going into war-torn areas of Africa, such as Biafra in the late 1960s. His candid footage of people in the streets of Prague during its invasion by Russian tanks in 1968 is astonishing. Also memorable is a shot of Nelson Mandela quietly sitting in a chair. Depardon asked him to sit for a minute without speaking. Without a watch, Mandela timed it to the second. He learned the trick while in prison.
One comes away with a sense of not just a man with a keen eye and a great deal of patience. Depardon's bravery and political conscience allowed him to leave behind a legacy of images with an immediacy that brings half-forgotten historical moments to vivid life.
Now I'm off to the Granville again, to see a Japanese film and then a South Korea one. David will blog about these in a future dispatch.


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In celebration of the Monfort House renovation and an extension of the "Go West" art fence, there will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony and commemoration at 10 a.m. July 20.
Following the festivities at the Centennial Village at Island Grove Park, there will be refreshments and a free entrance to attendees to view the new Monfort exhibit and house renovations.
Part of the exhibit is a continuation of the story of Greeley's water history.
Artist Lisa Cameron is adding 600 feet to the existing art fence titled "Go West."
The fence displays a glimpse of the Monfort family with historic images taken from early photos that are brought to life by Cameron's colorful and energetic painting style.
The Monfort house, which is encircled by the "Go West" fence, has been renovated by returning it to its original white clapboard siding, with dark shutters, roof repairs, revamping the main floor public spaces, and beautifying the grounds with native and hybrid perennials.
The main floor of the house contains the exhibit, "Cattle Trails and Tales." It explores historical figures such as Charles Goodnight, Oliver Loving, and Warren and Ken Monfort and tells their stories using images and artifacts.

subset: commoncrawl


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We have just the ticket for any music lovers on your list
Mariah Carey
Madison Square Garden/The Borgata
Can't face another New Year's Eve watching other people have fun on television? Well, pop diva Mariah Carey will usher out the decade in glamorous style with her New Year's Eve concert at Madison Square Garden. Carey, whose 18 No. 1 singles rank her second on the all-time list (the Beatles are tops with 20), has only one other concert on her current schedule. It takes place Jan. 2 at 8 p.m. at the Event Center at Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City. Carey released a new album, "Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel," in September and has received glowing reviews for her role in the new movie "Precious." She doesn't tour very often, so this might be the last chance to see the Long Island native onstage for a while.
Tickets for the Atlantic City show (1 Borgata Way, Atlantic City) are $165-$235; call (866) 900-4849 or visit TheBorgata.com. Tickets for the Madison Square Garden show (Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street, New York) are $20-$175.75, with VIP packages available from $425 to $1,000; the top package includes prime seating, a pre-show dinner and champagne reception, access to a VIP entrance, party favors and other extras. Call (800) 745-3000 or visit Ticketmaster.com or TheGarden.com.
— Jay Lustig
Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour
McCarter Theatre Center
For the jazz fan on your holiday list, ducats to a solid show work equally well as a main package or a stocking stuffer. This year, the Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour provides such an oppurtunity, presenting a welcome array of talent that will appeal not only to jazz fans, but to those less familiar with this engaging music. The concert — set for Feb. 17, 8 p.m., at the Matthews Theatre at McCarter Theatre Center, 91 University Place, Princeton — stars piano master Kenny Barron, one of the most lyrical and rhythmic artists playing modern jazz. Violinist Regina Carter (pictured) is an expressive artist comfortable in anything from swing to modern sounds. Guitarist Russell Malone is acclaimed as one of the top proponents on his instrument, and singer Kurt Elling can handle anything from wailing blues to crooning ballads. No doubt, these formidable artists will mix things up, offering a host of styles and grooves breathing with life, lending the kind of feeling that lights up the bandstand, and the audience as well, sending all home happy. Tickets are $41-$52. Call (609) 258-2787 or visit mccarter.org.
— Zan Stewart
Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony
New Jersey Performing Arts Center
Who better to bring out the intense emotion of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony than Valery Gergiev (pictured), who brings his Mariinsky Orchestra to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in March? Known as one of the most exciting conductors in the world for his sweeping, impassioned interpretations, Gergiev is also widely noted for his commitment to Russian music. He leads a three-week festival with the New York Philharmonic in April, "The Russian Stravinsky," but the NJPAC show is a rare opportunity to hear him in the Garden State with his own musicians.
Fate, romance and drama color the music of this symphony. Melodies linger, including a poignant, songlike horn solo that becomes a highlight of the second movement. The work was written at a time when Tchaikovsky believed he might be finished, or "written out," and if his inner torment can be heard, so too can his vigorous triumph.
The concert also includes Berlioz' "Royal Hunt" and "Storm" from "Les Troyens," and Introduction, Ball, Adagio, Scherzo, and March to the Grave from "Romeo and Juliet."
The performance takes place March 12 at 8 p.m., NJPAC Prudential Hall, 1 Center St., Newark. Tickets are $29-$118, available at njpac.org or (888) 466-5722.
— Ronni Reich


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Butler Township
Jack and Julie Steele to Joshua Wells, home on McCann Road; $188,000.
JP Morgan Chase Bank (Sevakeen Country Club) to Jeff Biery, home on Buck Road; $25,000.
Frank Tercha to Deerfield Farms, mineral deed for 245 acres on Valley Road; $300,000.
Frank Bosela to Fannie Mae (foreclosure), home on North Main Street; $60,000.
Robert and Julie Kimpel to Tim and Tawnya Stommel, home on Terra Verde; $230,000.
George Gromley to Laverne Allison, home on Union Street; $42,000.
East Liverpool
Phyllis Trainer to Connie Balch, home on Williams Avenue; $85,000.
Paul and Lisa Geisse to Fannie Mae (foreclosure), home on Orchard Grove; $20,000.
Alvin Palmer to Michal Palmer, home on Haywood Street; $36,200.
Helen Sillince, et al to Steven and Constance Smith, home on Globe Street; $21,000.
Adam Bryer to Ashley Stephens, home on Garner Avenue; $47,500.
East Palestine
Fannie Mae (Greg Doran) to Harold Feezle, home on East Adams Street; $32,200.
Margaret Thellman to Jane Knight, home on Grandview Avenue; $118,200.
Wayne McConnell, et al to Lana and Brandon Huff, partial interest in property on Marion Street; $21,300.
Stonecrest & Opportunity Fund to Carolyn Sheely, home on state Route 14; $1,750.
Irene Early Trust to Charles and Maureen Early, home on East Main Street; $30,000.
Elkrun Township
Shari Rowe, et al to Citimortgage Inc. (foreclosure), home on state Route 154; $15,000.
David Meade to Carl and Edna Rhodes, home on Churchill Road; $131,000.
Fairfield Township
Barry and Brenda Stearns to Mike Langel, home and 5.6 acres on Kelly Park Road; $257,000.
Franklin Township
Eric Petroleum Corp. to L & C Family, litigation settlement representing partial interest in mineral rights for property on Willard Road; $2,500.
Hanover Township
County Sheriff (Emily and Homer Swanson III) to Laura Burford Family Trust, home and 4.4 acres on Campbell Road; $32,000.
Liverpool Township
County Sheriff (Richard Humphrey) to Fannie Mae, home on Sixth Avenue; $12,000.
Middleton Township
Lynda Frank to Andrew Velchek, home on Tomahawk Drive; $155,000.
New Waterford
RDR Frederick Investments to Simon Lang, condominium on New England Square; $46,000.
Perry Township
Frederick and Kathleen Johnson to Richard Steele, home on North Ellsworth Avenue; $195,000.
Charles and Coletta Sneddon to Daryl and Wendy Radcliff, home on East Eighth Street; $86,000.
Estate of Janet Johnson to Union Properties, home on North Union Avenue; $81,000.
Gary and Bonnie Smith to Fannie Mae (foreclosure), home on South Lincoln Avenue; $147,000.
Salem Township
Shawn and Tina Millison to Robyn Hawthorne, home on Leetonia Road; $75,000.
U.S. Bank National Association (Walter Barnett Jr.) to Jerry and Diana Richards, home on Eagleton Road; $30,000.
County Sheriff (Buddy Stiffler) to Alfred and Vilma Levine, home on East Sixth Street; $29,000.
St. Clair Township
Walter Muslin and Annette Noms to Walter Muslin, home on Stagecoach Road; $43,000.
Christie and Roberta Krafft to Robert Woodyard, property on Park Way; $6,000.
Helen Derrington to Jeremy and Bethany Christian, home on Old Fredericktown Road; $90,000.
William Thompson to William Reed II, home on Cannons Mill Road; $41,000.
Washington Township
Tina and Jonathan Moore to Rebecca Dickson, manufactured home on Hazel Run Road; $13,000.
Mark Williams to Mashelle Copestick, home on 14th Street; $44,700.
Aaron Yost to Burdell and Mikel Brandle, property on Long St.; $500.
West Township
Donald Hughes to Bank of America (foreclosure), home on West School Street; $70,000.
Yellow Creek Township
Joshualee Hackney to Fannie Mae (foreclosure), home on Old Irondale Road; $48,000.
Kenneth Maylone to Noah and Mark Allison, 2.7 acres on state Route 39; $20,500.


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"You put Andre Johnson back in the mix, I don't know what can stop us."—Texans DE Antonio Smith.
"I'm just excited about how hard we're playing and how we're having new guys step up, new faces make plays. I've used the word unselfish here probably three or four times. I think that's what good teams are when it's all said and done. They don't care who gets the ball. They don't care who makes the play. They're all in it together. Right now, we've got that going on."—Gary Kubiak.
More from Kubiak…
"I knew we had a problem going into the week with injured players. I told 'em, `I'll get you to Sunday.' A lot of guys gave it up today. They knew they needed to find a way to get a seventh win before this bye week."
"It was so warm I told the coaches to put Derrick (Ward) in the mix. I know I take it out of someone else's hands when I do that, but it was a day where conditioning and keeping fresh players on the field was the difference.
"The biggest thing I want to do is go back and look at the first 10 weeks of the season and evaluate ourselves as coaches, as players, and get 'em out of here for a break and get 'em fresh and ready to go for the last six weeks."
"You see the confidence continually build around here. Everybody gets so excited for game day. The fun thing is we're feeding off each other. The offense is feeding off the defense. They get a pick, and all of a sudden, it's, `We've got to go out there and match it.' It's a friendly competition. As offensive linemen, we're scrounging around for cuts, for knockdowns. We want to have the highest grade on Monday. Everyone is rallying around each other. Every good team I've been on has been like this."—Texans RT Eric Winston.
Everything is clicking. Defensively, the Texans are swarming to the ball and making plays more consistently than they ever have before. Offensively, they were again at their best, doing pretty much whatever they wanted. The Texans scored on the first play of the game, and there was never a time where it felt like the Bucs might win.
The Texans enter the bye week atop the AFC South with a 7-3 record after Sunday's rout of the Bucs. This has been an easier portion of the schedule, and the Texans have taken care of business, winning four in a row by an average of 22.5 points.
They return from the bye to play the Jags on the road before facing two playoff contenders, the Bengals and Falcons. If you're still skeptical—and it's fair to be—you'll have some of your questions answered. The truth is that we're in new territory, and none of us knows exactly what to expect.
The Texans appear to be pretty close to a complete team. They're getting plays from all over the place on defense, from Brian Cushing and Brice McCain and a bunch of others.
Offensively, it was another impressive afternoon, with the Texans doing pretty much whatever they wanted to do against the Bucs. Matt Schaub had a very solid day, and so did Jacoby Jones. Arian Foster, Ben Tate and Derrick Ward were all good.
"The team is making the transition to a winning culture. With winning comes a winning mindset. When you believe in each other, it keeps the positive energy flowing. I think everybody is in on it from top to bottom."—Antonio Smith.


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Two hundred and fifty desks and chairs. Twelve sets of encyclopedias. Three pianos. Two unicycles. Countless textbooks.
After seven years of work by the Susquehanna Twp. Rotary Club, enough school supplies to fill two shipping containers are sailing from Susquehanna Twp. to Kenya.
Around 2005, members of the Susquehanna Twp. Rotary Club got the idea to rescue supplies from the shuttered Progress Avenue elementary, since demolished, and ship them to ill-equipped schools in Kenya. Susquehanna Twp. School District donated the materials – functional but outmoded and unmarketable by U.S. standards.
Club members organized the materials and, after a close call with flooding in a Cameron Street storage area, found space in G.R. Sponaugle Service's Harrisburg warehouse, donated by Hershey Rotary's then-President Kirk Sponaugle.
But seaworthy containers and shipping would have totaled $12,000 each – beyond the club's budget. In 2012, club President Elliot Markovitz learned of a U.S. government program that offers nonprofits with humanitarian projects available space on overseas shipments. Now, the supplies started on their way to Nairobi.
Sponaugle warehouse manager Tom Roush guided club members in stacking, shrink-wrapping, and lining up the items in container configuration. The morning of June 7, Rotarians needed only one hour to load two trucks headed for the Port of Baltimore.
"A lot of folks have contributed a lot of time and effort over the years," said Dan Fuller, a leader of the initiative.
Club members and native Kenyans Phillip Letting and Edward Omolo inspired the project. Letting, spending the summer in Kenya, will coordinate delivery to the far-flung Kosodo and Eldoret school districts after the containers arrive by late August.
Schools in the impoverished districts are rudimentary, but Kenyans value education as the way out of poverty, said Omolo, a Harrisburg Area Community College biology professor.
Most Kosodo and Eldoret students have "never sat at a desk," but after eighth grade, they compete against "the kids of the rich people" for slots in prestigious national high schools, Omolo said.
"The only desk they have is a wooden table and a bench," he said. "No one has ever gotten a library. Those schools will have libraries for the first time. They will have encyclopedias. They don't have Google to cite."
The delivery includes three pianos – two rebuilt from the parts of three damaged district instruments, and a third donated by the restorer, musician Bob Barry, of Susquehanna Twp. The Kenyan children may have never seen a piano, he said, and some will "take to it like a magnet."
"Everyone has their own destiny in relation to an instrument," Barry said. "For those who connect with the piano and are willing to spend the time with it, they're definitely rewarded."


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Mysterious beginnings
The Fifth Miracle: The Search for the Origin and Meaning of Life.
By Paul Davies. Simon & Schuster, 304 pp.
What kind of book is Herman Melville's Moby Dick? Is it a book about whaling? In some ways it is—full of empirical information on the subject. Is it a novel about the perennial mystery of evil and its impact on the human spirit? It is that too.
This article is available to subscribers only. Please subscribe for full access—subscriptions begin at $2.95. Already have an online account? Log in now. Already a print subscriber? Create an online account for no additional cost.


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[QUOTE=Rojo;965747]Anyone on here look their age? Older? :)[/QUOTE]
I look younger than my age. I am guessing this because when I mention my age no-one believes me. What? You're not 51! But I think it is just because people don't pay attention to the details. My hair is naturally ash blond and I think it helps me look younger, and no one notices the wrinkles under my chin.


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Some of the best things in life are combinations: bacon and eggs, coffee and cream, dark chocolate and Kerrygold butter (just try it). Recently, I introduced the mister to Viking hash (sweet potato, onion and bacon), and he introduced me to rösti (a traditional Swiss nibble like a latke made of shredded white potatoes which are shaped into rounds and fried). I'll fully give credit to him for the idea of combining these two tasty bites into one incredible combination, and thus sweet potato rosti (sprosti?!) was born. This dish did take a bit of prep time, but the result was definitely worth it. This would be great for brunch served with some smoked salmon and scrambled eggs or as a post-workout carb replacement.
- 3 medium to large sweet potatoes
- 2 medium onions
- 8 ounces (225 grams) bacon
- 1 Tablespoon (15 grams) onion powder
- 2 teaspoon (10 grams) sea salt
- ½ teaspoon (2.5 grams) black pepper
- Coconut oil or fat of choice
- Grate the sweet potatoes (either by hand with a box grater or with a food processor). Put in a bowl, sprinkle with 1 tsp sea salt and mix well. Let sit for 15-20 minutes. This will help remove some of the excess moisture by creating a hypertonic environment around the potato...I know, I know...SCIENCE.
- Grate the onion, and squeeze to remove the excess juice.
- Chop the bacon thinly. Add to a large skillet over medium heat and brown until crispy. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes until the onions have softened. Remove to a large bowl.
- Squeeze as much moisture from the sweet potato as possible. The easiest way is to scoop up by the handful, stand over the sink and squeeze away. Grip strength! Add the sweet potato, onion powder, other teaspoon of salt and pepper to the bowl and mix to combine.
- Heat the skillet to medium and add a tablespoon or so of fat.
- Use a ¼ cup measuring cup to scoop up some of the rosti mixture. Press into the measuring cup. Turn out into the heated skillet and flatten a bit with the back of the cup. Cook for 8-10 minutes or until nicely browned. Carefully flip and cook for another 5 minutes. *Note, I did this in two batches of 6.
- I served these with smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and a bit of scallion garnish.
Grater or food processor
Cutting board
Large skillet
Large bowl
Measuring cup
Pin this Sweet Potato Rösti for later!
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text: › About Furman Home University Leadership Office of the President Board of Trustees Office of Academic Affairs Senior Administrators Vision 2020 Culture and Identity Finance, Facilities and Administration Implementing Vision 2020 Characters and Values Our History Rankings and Recognition Facts and Figures Campus Map Explore Greenville Contact Us Plan a Visit ›Apply Now ›Give to Furman › Main Content Column 1 Furman University is one of the nation's premier undergraduate liberal arts colleges. At the heart of our University is an outstanding academic program, with top-notch faculty whose chief priority is teaching undergraduate students. We also offer distinguished visual and performing arts programs, NCAA Division I athletics, and a campus community that values collaboration and fosters empathy for a diversity of ideas and perspectives. Our campus is internationally recognized for its beauty and provides an inspiring haven for academic study and social life. Our commitment to housing all students on campus for four years underscores our belief that a close-knit student body enhances scholarly activity, personal growth, and leadership development. Founded in 1826, our private university is located in Greenville, South Carolina. Modern, sophisticated academic buildings are complemented by comprehensive athletics, recreational and social facilities. Student housing ranges from traditional dormitory residences to apartments. The James B. Duke Library includes more than 500,000 volumes. The 750-acre campus features an Asian garden, a replica of Henry David Thoreau's cabin, the David E. Shi Center for Sustainability, a Florentine bell tower, a spring-fed lake, 13 miles of paved trails through the woodlands for hiking and biking and an 18-hole golf course. Greenville has experienced a cultural and economic renaissance, making it one of the nation's best places to live. Its downtown is a major destination for business and tourism, and businesses in the greater Greenville area provide a variety of internship, research, volunteer, and career opportunities. Within close reach of the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic beaches, the area abounds with recreational and outdoor activities, and direct flights by major airlines from Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport are just 35 minutes from the Furman campus. University Leadership Get to know the people leading our campus. Meet our leaders. Vision 2020 Our strategic plan, Vision 2020, is the driving force behind everything we do. View our plan. Our history Take a journey into our past. Discover our history. Facts and figures What makes us who we are? Get the facts. Campus map Find all the hot spots on campus by utilizing our map. View our campus map. Explore Greenville Discover why Greenville is the perfect college city. Visit Greenville.


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SHACKI PATENT BACKPACK - Black/White Combo
Item# BP3869
Detailshttp://www.kipling-usa.com/shacki-patent-backpack/100148378.html SHACKI PATENT BACKPACK Black/White Combo
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As seen in NY Daily News! We combined our signature crinkle nylon with glossy patent to get this luxe-looking backpack. Unzip the top to reveal a pretty polka-dot lining and a couple of extra pockets for small essentials. 10" x 12" x 6"Read More
- Adjustable backpack straps; handle
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- Imported
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Returns must be made within 90 days of delivery for a refund of the purchase price, minus the shipping, handling, gift box fee and other additional charges.


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Iam going on a bear bowhunt in Ontario this week .Do i have to declare my bow when driving over the border..IF so is there a special form i can get on line to fill out ahead of time ?I have to form for firearms already.
no you just tell them your gone bowhunting, no forms. just dont tell them about the whisky in the sleeping bags.
Form I had to fill out at the airport said I must declare any "weapons". It was just a general form though, same as declaring the whisky in your sleeping bag! Could be big trouble, heard of one guy that almost lost his bow for not declaring. He thought they meant just firearms.
Just write in archery equipment, bow and arrows, whatever. Then no trouble whatsoever, they didn't even search the bow case. But "weapons" and "firearms" are different. A bow is a "weapon".
Not sure about driving in, I assume you still have to fill out the same forms?
Thank you for the info didn't know if I needed serial numbers on bows ,just wanted to save time a have every thing in order. never now if you meet up with a nit-wit at the border. gh-1(gamehog-1)
They have more fits over knives than bows!!
I crossed into manitoba from ND in may and declared mine under the weapons part of the form.I had no problems and I carried it across on a bus!
Where do you get the forms?
I have driven to quebec to bow hunt caribou and they ask if you have firearms and we tell them we are bowhunting and they don't even ask to see the bows,and never have been asked for paperwork for bows,but with firearms it's different,you must have all the forms filled out but NOT signed.
There is no form for a bow. There is a form for firearms. Do not fill out a firearms form for a bow. When driving across the border you will be asked why you are entering Canada, tell them you are going bowhunting. Air travel is a different banana.....as you know everybody is running scared and nobody knows what the heck they are doing.
On the ground there should be NO paperwork...In the air is a different story...I travel to Canada quite frequently bowhunting and the bow is never an issue...Just tell them and you should be on your way...
Just came accross the border last week and you don't need to do anything at either border with a bow. I was driving.
I spoke to a border agent about this issue. The form going into Canada asks if you have any weapons. Your bow is a weapon and should be noted on the form. They have no issues with bows but it should be noted.
thank you for all the info I better know what to expect now..
Again...there is no form to record a bow on other than the general declaration form. The general declaration form is not used for driving across the border. A bow is considered to be a weapon and so is a knife...However, no forms are filled out for these items. You just declare it verbally to the customs agent and tell him you are bowhunting. There is a form for firearms. Here is a link which will help you through this. http://www.amcits.com/weapons.asp
Here are the facts.
The Canada Border Services Agency defines the term "Weapon". You can decide if your compound bow fits this definition, of if a customs officer will. But, I doubt this is what Mathews had in mind when they designed my Mathews LX.
Weapon - anything used, designed to be used, or intended to be used in causing death or injury to any person, or to threaten or intimidate any person-firearms are considered weapons.
The Canadian Criminal Code and the Canadian Firearms Act define Guns and Cross-Bows only. Neither of these acts have any mention of regular Compound or Traditional Bows.
Canadian Criminal Code http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/C-46/ Canadian Firearms Act http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/F-11.6/text.html
Canadians are sensitive to the issue of cross-bows because:
"In 1991, Ottawa women witnessed a series of particularly brutal murders of women and a girl who was 14 years old. Their sense of outrage culminated in an innovative call for change when local lawyer Patricia Allen was murdered with a crossbow in broad daylight on a downtown street."
Of course, this doesn't stop a Canadian customs agent from thinking that a bow is a weapon.
Notwithstanding, I always declare on the Canadian customs form that I am carrying a bow to save me possible hassles by uninformed and suspicious customs agents. I know that some of them don't know these definitions - you can't expect every customs officer to know every regulation and definition.
Provincial hunting regulations define Guns, Cross-Bows and Compound Bows as "Firearms". This Provincial definition has nothing whatsoever to do with a Federal Canadian border declaration and often leads to confusion.
ONTARIO HUNTING REGULATIONS Firearms Firearms include air or pellet guns, bows and cross-bows. You may use semi-automatic or repeating firearms for hunting in Ontario, but not handguns or fully automatic firearms. Air and pellet pistols with a muzzle velocity less than 500 feet per second may be used for hunting in Ontario. For storage and transportation information, contact your local police department.
I have traveled across the Canada – U. S. border, many times with long guns, and regular compound bows.
When I returned from Florida on a pig hunting trip I declared on my Canadian customs form that I was carrying a compound bow even though there is no legal requirement. I was inspected at Canadian customs by a lady officer who was uncertain whether my bow was a Cross-Bow. She also asked why I was traveling with a bow – duh! As it turned out, there was another customs officer, also a lady, who happened to be a bow hunter. This lady knew more than the guys who were hanging around and she explained to the first lady, and the guys, the difference between a Cross-Bow and a bow. She also looked pretty darn nice. So, I tried to strike up a conversation with her, but she was so busy she couldn't wait to get rid of me and deal with the next customer. So much for my male charm.
I also advise if you are flying to check with your airline for their baggage rules and regulations. Air Canada, recently changed its rules for carrying firearms. The best thing to do is check on the Web for your air carrier's rules and regulations the evening before you fly and print a copy to take with you to the airport. Since these rules change all the time I don't expect airline personnel to always be up to date on their own regulations.
I also carry a copy of the purchase invoice for my guns and bows – proof of where I purchased them.
If you travel through the Toronto airport with anything cool, like a nice double engraved shotgun, count on spending a little extra time with the customs guys – many of them are outdoors types and like to chat about expensive toys.
And one last thought. If you got some time to burn and feel like driving the Canadian customs guys nuts, just tick the form where it says "I/we will be visiting a farm or a farm show in Canada within the next 14 days". They have no idea what to do.
Canadian Customs form: http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/E/pbg/cf/e311/README.html
I have no idea of what happens to an American returning to the U.S.
I missed a flight once in Vancouver because I was detained to inspect my crossbow that was a compound.
TIP:Tape "NOT A FIREARM OR CROSSBOW" on the outside of your bowcase,it could save alot of hassle and misunderstanding that comes with wrong assumption.
I have on a few occasions flown with bows, arrows, and hunting gear from Hawaii to Vancouver, BC, and then connecting on an airplane to Sault Sainte Maire, Ontario. I generally declare all when clearing customs, and I have had no problems. (I carry extra printed lists of all my luggage, all annotated with estimated costs and serial numbers, if appropriate. This is faster and easier to get though customs.)
If I don't go directly to Norther Ontario for a bowhunt with my cousins, I cross the border over the International Bridge to Sault Sainte Marie, MI, usually with my gear exposed in the back of my brother's pickup truck. I have had no problems. (
Even though it is not required, yet; I also carry my passport to answer the question of the border agents--Where born?, etc. Also, if asked what I bought in Canada, the list of gear generally satisfies the border agent when I say nothing, or something limited in value.
(I am legally a citizen of both Canada and the US; but, I understand, when the passport requirement go into effect because of national security requirements, we border Indians will have to show a passport, our tribal identification cards will not be accepted anymore. This will not affect our dual citizenship and unlimited right to make purchases in both Canada and the US. We will still be required to show our tribal identification cards to avoid tariff costs and prove dual citizenship. There is presently a debate about the passport requirement with the Government by some border Indian Tribes that legally and traditionally "see no border," including both the Canadian and Mexican borders. I personally will carry my passport to avoid delays and hassles, which I dislike at the Canadian border in both directions. By choice, I do not to go to Mexico anymore. I'm the wrong kind of "border Injun" there anyways.)
Aloha and Aho,
Two issues with crossing borders, one is weapons, one is customs. Declaring it on the way in makes it easier to get it out on the way back home.


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BALTIMORE - Each player in the parade of happy Phillies streaming into the dugout Friday shook Charlie Manuel's right hand. The manager stood on the top step for the majority of a 9-6 victory over the first-place Baltimore Orioles to end a six-game losing streak and must have wondered if his message was received.
A day earlier, he issued the ultimate slap to the face for a bunch of underachieving millionaires, saying they "scared nobody." Asked Friday before the victory what effect that can have on a person, Manuel turned serious.
"I would be mad," Manuel said, "but I would be mad at myself."


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Some not so obvious opinions
May 5, 2013 - Harry Eagar
At least one reader of RtO noticed the outbreak of reviews of books about the Russo-German war. There will be more, and all readers who don't care are invited to skip over and wait for more Found Sounds or something.
Here's what's behind the outbreak.
My real interest is not the war itself. In fact, I find a good deal of the interest in the Eastern Front kind of creepy. Too many readers (who leave their spoor) seem to be too excited by the skill and victories of the Germans.
But, I am a baby boomer, raised on Cold War hysteria. It is my opinion that the Cold War cannot be understood until you understand the position of the Bolsheviks. My opinions about this were formed when I was around 25 years old, starting from a remark in one of Alan Taylor's essays and carrying on from there. I discovered that the narrative I was taught at Catholic school, and later, was wildly different from what appeared to be the facts.
Of course, in the '50s and '60s, facts about Bolshevism were hard to verify, due largely to the secretiveness of the regime, but secondarily to the deliberate falsehoods of the 100% Americans.
Now, in retirement, I have leisure to revisit my opinions. When I first studied the matter, some of the official histories of the western countries had not been completed (for example, Harry Hinsley's important history of British intelligence was only partly published). Now they have been, and, even better, at least some of the Soviet archives have been opened and some memoirs that were suppressed have been rewritten or published at last.
I have been reading and studying the tsarist and Bolshevik eras off and on for all these 45 years. Now I have a 3-foot stack of books about the Russo-German war to work my way through. (I've gone less than a foot so far.)
Here are the propositions that I came up with that I want to test:
1. The United States had no impact on the outcome of the war in Europe. The British pinned the Germans and then the Reds beat them, but before the US became a combatant,.
2. It was reasonable for the USSR to occupy the former aggressive fascist states for its future security.
3. The Bolsheviks were, unlike the tsars, not militarily aggressive. Between their defeat before Warsaw in 1920 and invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the Red Army showed great reluctance to step outside its own borders. Only pressure from aggressive fascist states got it to do so.
4. Although the Bolsheviks would happily have subverted as many countries as they could manage (or what else was the Comintern for?), they were unwilling to export communism by military force. Time after time, the Russian communists stood by while foreign communists were slaughtered.
5. Since there was no aggressive foreign policy, it must be that domestic issues drove the actions of the USSR government and Soviet Communist party. The Number 1 issue was agriculture. It was the failure of Soviet agricultural policy that brought down the system.
6. Taking a long view, the Bolshevik revolution hardly happened. The preoccupations of tsarist Russia and its policies (aside from external military aggression) were the preoccupations of the Bolsheviks, and the policies were about the same, too.
I actually started this review about 10 years ago, concentrating on the security policies of the European states in the '30s. That was the last time I had to make a large adjustment in my views of Bolshevism.
I had, until then, accepted the common view that Stalin was taking advantage of the turmoil of the fascist aggression to grab provinces. Call this the doughty-little-Finland view.
I learned, from two obscure books by a Scottish Communist lawyer, what you will not learn in the conventional histories: That before it invaded Finland, the USSR attempted to buy Hango.
This was intended defensively, because the Russians were worried about the danger to Leningrad.
That was when, for me, the penny dropped and I realized that the Red Army was so far from being an aggressive instrument that it was reluctant to go outside its own borders. The scrupulous return to old borders after repulsing the Kwantung Army in Mongolia about the same time nailed it down.
Once you get that, the American Cold War narrative falls apart.
Article Comments(1)
May-31-13 11:27 PM
Hey dude, you need to swear off the borscht and vodka shots. The Bolsheviks were not aggressive? How many Russians just disappeared ? Stalin bested Adolph by more than 10 - 15 million, what more do you need to know about what Stalin and comrades hoped to achieve ? Hey dude, those were the days.
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You've updated your resume, now how about your face? In a youth-oriented society, experience can become a negative when accompanied by an aging appearance. Professionals in the medical skin care industry suggest that noninvasive cosmetic skin treatments could be a good investment for the over-40 crowd.
Dr. Peter Kamhout, owner and medical director of Be Medical Spa and Salon in Grand Haven, says, "A majority of our clientele are women between the ages of 30 and 50 who want to maintain or improve their appearances both for personal and professional reasons."
What's the most popular procedure? Continue reading to find out.
Noting that Lakeshore residents prefer more subtle results, Kamhout says, "Our goal is for people to be healthy, refreshed and renewed without looking like they're having work done."
The most popular procedure is Botox cosmetic, which Kamhout thinks has received a bad reputation because of people overdoing it, most notably the Hollywood elite. But, when it's done correctly, he says, "People like the way it looks and they like the way it makes them feel." Chemical peels are also increasing in popularity because they are cost-effective and offer predictably good results. Both procedures offer the benefit of little, if any, down time from normal activities.
Dr. Rouchdi Rifai, director of Birmingham Cosmetic Surgery, in Jackson, says men and women have been requesting noninvasive procedures for professional reasons more often over the past few years. "All these (cosmetic) procedures have been on the rise and the trend has so much shown that the patients are opting more and more to go for the smaller, less-invasive, less-expensive procedures," he says.
According to Rifai, genetics and environment are the two biggest factors that affect the way a person ages. "Botox is the most popular treatment, by far," he says. "People are thrilled with the results, it's simple, it's relatively not as expensive as surgery procedures and the reward is within a few days." In addition, patients don't have to take time off from their regular activities to undergo injectables treatments. Rifai points out that there's a difference between camouflaging problems with makeup and making actual improvements in the skin.
The good skin-care practices that can stave off the need for surgical intervention will also enhance the results of noninvasive treatments. "The healthier your skin is, the better result you'll get," says Jamey Bailey, esthetician with the Centre for Plastic Surgery in Grand Rapids.
Bailey says to remove makeup before bed, use a nightly skin-rejuvenating product with vitamin A, Retin A, glycolic acid or antioxidants; and avoid the use of washcloths, which spread bacteria and strip the skin of needed surface oil. Most of all, she advises, "Wear a daily Skin Protection Factor ... even if you're not going to go out of your house." Bailey recommends a moisturizer with SPF 15 for daily use and 30 or higher when outside. And don't forget the neck, decolletage and the tops of hands.
Once sun damage is evident, many plastic surgery offices offer free consults to determine the best method of repair. "Surgery isn't the answer for everybody. There are a lot of nonsurgical maneuvers that are important," says Dr. John Renucci, surgeon with Plastic Surgery Associates P.C., in Grand Rapids.
"I'm a proponent of skin protection and restoration of skin health (and) removing sun damage." Renucci says the use of tissue fillers and laser resurfacing procedures can rejuvenate damaged skin.
Raised on Lake Michigan, Kathy Haveman, a patient at Centre for Plastic Surgery, underwent chemical peels in her 40s to get rid of fine lines. After 50, laser peels and microdermabrasian removed spots, wrinkles and old acne scars. Permanent makeup frees her to get up and go without having to put on her face first. "It's great when you go to the dentist and they tell you to wipe your lips," she chuckles.
• See www.bemedicalspa.com for more information about procedures available in Muskegon area.
• In Grand Rapids, procedures are offered by Centre for Plastic Surgery and Plastic Surgery Associates.
• In Jackson, go online to www.drrifai.com for information about procedures available at Birmingham Cosmetic Surgery.
• For information about procedures available in the Flint area, contact:
Darline Berg, a retiree from General Motors, has undergone a similar regimen of noninvasive cosmetic procedures. She says her early aging was hereditary. For nearly 21 years, Berg has worked with the staff at Plastic Surgery Associates to ward off the effects of sun and age, using everything from peels to injectable fillers. "I'm sure people are curious," she says, "I have a great complexion." Because she squints less, a welcome side effect of her Botox treatments is a reduction of migraine pain.
Microdermabrasion has been a component in both women's skin care. Registered nurse Pamela Jendritz, injection specialist and clinical coordinator of skin care services for Plastic Surgery Associates, says, "It's kind of like sandblasting the skin -- that gets that outer layer of dead skin off so skin cells will start to reproduce healthy skin." In addition, lasers can remove red capillaries and rosacea. Jendritz says combining noninvasive treatments with medical-grade skin care products can help damaged skin come back.


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Worker Advocate Files Brief in Federal Dispute over Forced Unionization in Michigan Public Projects
Union bosses seek to uphold discriminatory system in awarding public contracts
Cincinnati, OH (January 24 2013) – Staff attorneys from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation have filed a brief in support of a Michigan law prohibiting state and local government agencies from imposing so-called "project labor agreements" (PLAs) that require unionized workers for public projects.
Foundation staff attorneys filed the amicus curiae ("friend of the court") brief yesterday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit located in Cincinnati.
Michigan recently passed a law prohibiting government-mandated PLAs on public construction projects. Shortly thereafter, Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council and Genesse, Lapeer, Shiawassee Building and Construction Trades Council union bosses challenged the law in federal court, claiming federal labor law preempts the state's ability to opt out of mandating PLAs on state-funded public construction projects.


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On Wednesday, a number of the nation's largest banks reported earnings for the three months ended Sept. 30. In this segment of The Motley Fool's financials-focused show, Where the Money Is, banking analyst David Hanson is joined by banking sector contributor John Maxfield to discuss how U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB ) , PNC Financial (NYSE: PNC ) , and KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY ) fared in the third quarter.
Beyond the big banks
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In Jane Austen's day, weddings were often held first thing in the morning, after which the bridal couple and their guests returned home to celebrate with a wedding breakfast like that served to Anna Austen and Benjamin Lefroy in 1814: "The breakfast was such as best breakfasts then were. Some variety of bread, hot rolls, buttered toast, tongue, ham and eggs. The addition of chocolate at one end of the table and the wedding-cake in the middle marked the speciality of the day."
Though rich fruit and nut cakes had been used for centuries, in 1786 Elizabeth Raffald was the first to publish a recipe for a cake specifically for weddings. The cake was served not only at the wedding breakfast, but also shared with the household servants and sent in pieces to friends and relatives who had not attended the ceremony. These wedding cakes were single tiered, double frosted confections, though by no means small. Queen Victoria's 1840 wedding cake measured 9 feet around and weighed 300 pounds, although it was only 14 inches high.
This recipe makes an enormous cake. I have quartered the ingredients and it fit nicely into my 12 ½cm/ 5in deep, 25cm /10in springform pan.
To Make a Bride Cake
Take four pounds of fine (more…)


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Unforgettable Events helps create special day
October 16, 2010 - By SABRINA HAYNES firstname.lastname@example.com
LEWISBURG — For their wedding planning needs some will do all the work themselves, and some will hire a professional. To save time, money and stress, try Unforgettable Events....
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on May 25, 2013 - 6:45 PM
, updated May 25, 2013 at 6:58 PM
Life on the road for a young independent band can get pretty weird pretty quickly. But as the late Hunter S. Thompson put it best, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
Witness Friday evening's gig in Duke's Bohemian Grove Bar in Allentown, where Pennsylvania "jamgrass" six-piece Cabinet were faced with a family emergency immediately upon arriving at the venue. Fiddle player Todd Kopec took a call from his family, and the news was such that he had to be driven immediately to Buffalo Niagara International Airport for a hasty flight back home.
Clearly shaken by whatever their friend and bandmate was going through, the other five members of Cabinet decided to soldier on and play the show. We who were in attendance were lucky the band made that decision. Cabinet, as it turns out, is a tour de force, a bluegrass/old school country/folk wrecking crew unafraid of the lengthy improvisation more common to jam bands and jazz ensembles than to American roots music.
Certainly, the young band has been greatly influenced by the music of Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass. The formality of the tradition – its blend of instrumental virtuosity and keening vocal harmonies – hung over everything Cabinet did on Friday. But just as evident was the band members' love of the jam, which lent a Grateful Dead-like ambience to the proceedings. Since the Dead's Jerry Garcia was a folk and bluegrass banjo player prior to taking up the electric guitar, there is a continuity there ripe for the exploiting, and Cabinet did this with panache.
Principally promoting its recently released fourth studio album, "Leap," the band – JP Biondo on mandolin and vocals, his cousin Pappy Biondo on banjo and vocals, Dylan Skarsky on double bass, Jami Novak on drums and Mickey Coviello on flat-picked acoustic guitar – also offered bits of its previous albums, and made it plain that the buzz spreading across the Northeast regarding its in-concert prowess is entirely justified.
The five musicians put their worry over Kopec's situation to the side, and took to the stage with authority. Immediately, the interplay between the Biondos was apparent, as Pappy's jaw-dropping banjo technique found him spitting out rolling arpeggios that wrapped themselves around JP's rapid-fire melodic lines. Echoes of Bela Fleck & the Flecktones were impossible to miss. This was bluegrass played with the technical brilliance of jazz.
An early "Poor Man's Blues" revealed another trick in the Cabinet – beautiful three-part vocal harmonies, handled by the Biondos and guitarist Coviello. These elevated "Doors," the opening track on "Leap," toward the sublime. Coviello soloed here as well, trading licks with the two Biondos, his dazzling flat-picked lines suggesting he'd studied masters of the form like Doc Watson and Jerry Douglas.
An interpretation of Bob Dylan's "Diamond Joe" got the crowd, gathered tightly in front of the stage, into a hootenanny-like frame of mind, and that elevated celebratory air remained, as the Cabinet men tore through "Carry Me in a Bucket," "Coalminers," the delirious instrumental "Flop-Eared Mule," and the banjo-led throwdown "Shifty Shaft" without the ferocity of a troop of thrash-metal merchants.
In addition to blowing the minds of the assembled, the Cabinet show underscored a sad fact about the more mainstream strains of roots music. Yes, we're talking about pop acts like Mumford & Sons and the Lumineers, immensely popular bands that dress a lot like the guys in Cabinet, and play similar instruments, but can boast very little of the skill and virtuosity that underpins true bluegrass and rootsy folk. Cabinet could easily continue to grow, and even flourish, within the jam-band scene that has already embraced them. But the mainstream success of a pseudo-bluegrass band like Mumford is likely to elude the group. Fine – that makes it easier for us to enjoy such a fantastic band in an appropriately intimate venue like Duke's.
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