Weekend Update

So, last night I saw the first four hours of Sergei Bondarchuk's adaptation of War and Peace at Cinematheque Ontario. The cinema was claustrophobic and poorly ventilated as always. The movie, as with most films I see there, was spectacular. And I don't just mean the sweeping battle scenes with a 120,000 non-digital extras. They are doing as a 7-hour marathon tomorrow and next Sunday if you're interested in catching it.

I've started reading Stephen Fry's (yes, the Blackadder/Peter's Friends/Wilde/Jeeves actor) Ode Less Travelled - a superb guide to understanding and writing poetry. I may soon have a new way to torture people on my blog.

Speaking of torture, dungeons and the like. People wonder why I like superheroes. Well, they are role models. People to seek advice from. As these advice column answers from the 1940s (aka Golden Age) Wonder Woman clearly show:

http://againwiththecomics.blogspot.com/2008/01/ask-golden-age-wonder-woman.html

And yes, those really are undoctored panels from actual Wonder Woman comic books. I collect them too, because I get a kick out of this great corporate icon for kids that got her start as an S&M type. The personal beliefs of writer William Moulton Marston (aka Charles Moulton as his pen name back in the day, to keep his comics work separate from his career as a psychologist) really comes through.

Suffering Sappho! (As Wonder Woman used to exclaim.) Suffering Sappho, indeed!

Oh, and now that Persepolis is back in town, I want to see it again. I saw it at the Film Festival last summer and can't recommend it highly enough.

Allen