~ Father Foster
They've finally updated the Latin Lover page (I have been checking since Tuesday!) ... here's the official description:
Pliny the younger, relates for us the eruption of a volcano overlooking the bay of Naples and our very own "Latin Lover" Carmelite Father Reginald Foster relays the story with characteristic humour despite the death and destruction...
Listen ...
::Saturday, January 15, 2005 8:11:02 AM::
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~ A Useful Tool
From Researchbuzz comes a link (via SearchEngineWatch) to Jesse Ruderman's page of "bookmarklets for zapping annoyances". Definitely something to check out, if only for the 'printer friendly' bookmarklet. What this does is put a button on your toolbar (in a pile of different browsers, not just what-you-should-be-using Firefox) which will load the 'printer friendly' version of a page if one exists. Very useful if you're in the habit of saving webpages but don't want all the ads etc..
::Saturday, January 15, 2005 8:07:39 AM::
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~ More Tsunami Musings
There's a piece bouncing around the newswires about a town in India called Poompuhar, the inhabitants of which have a memory of their town being destroyed by a tsunami 1500 or so years ago. This got me to thinking (again) of the fate of Heraclea Minoa on the coast of Sicily, which was "abandoned" in the second century A.D.. (according to estimates). When we visited there, I noticed a road that seemed to lead directly to a cliff (there's a huge drop the the Mediterranean below. A tour guide or the curator of the little museum there told us that part of the city fell into the sea (my wife's relatives added some legend about a bell that could be heard ringing 'under water' from time to time). Now I'm thinking tsunami ...
::Saturday, January 15, 2005 7:59:01 AM::
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~ Antiquities Theft Comeuppance
Something from the upcoming 'Crime Beat' section of Explorator ... a Reuters piece via ABC:
An Italian antiquities trafficker running a thriving business out of Switzerland duped some of the world's most famous auction houses and museums with illegally acquired artifacts, authorities said on Friday.
The scam was the centerpiece of a yearly presentation by Italy's art and archaeology police, who displayed dozens of ancient works traced to Giacomo Medici, an Italian dealer who was sentenced last month by a Rome judge to 10 years in jail.
Sometimes working through third parties so he would not appear to be the principal salesman, Medici sold works often dating back to several centuries BC, police said. According to a Culture Ministry statement, works traced to Medici ended up in New York's Metropolitan Museum, the J.P. Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Sotheby's auction houses, Tokyo's Antike Mittelmerkultur Museum and others.
Some have since been returned to Italy.
"He (Medici) had companies in Switzerland (and) Swiss galleries through which he moved pieces taken from Italy illegally and put them on the legal market," said Lt. Col. Ferdinando Musella, head of the art police's operations unit.
Musella said Medici bought many of the pieces through his "contacts with the criminal underworld."
Anna Maria Moretti, superintendent of archaeology for the Rome region, said one of the most important pieces of stolen art Italy wanted returned was the Euphronius Krater, a 5th century BC vase now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Moretti said the piece was illegally removed from an Etruscan tomb more than three decades ago.
Medici has long maintained that he has acquired his antiquities legally. He is appealing the jail sentence and a court order to pay initial damages of 10 million euros ($13.10 million) to the Culture Ministry, according to court documents.
Other items in the judge's ruling included enough ancient vases, cups, busts and sculptures to fill a small museum.
Musella said he hoped his department's work would discourage museums and private collectors from buying Italian art without first being thoroughly sure it was exported legally.
"We've created so many problems at the international level that before acquiring Italian pieces they (buyers) now think quite a bit," he said.
One piece traced to Medici and displayed at Friday's press conference was a 490 BC red-figured kylix, or drinking vessel with two handles, which was returned by the Getty Museum.
"Between the end of the eighties and the beginning of the nineties, the Getty Museum slowly acquired various fragments of the Kylix of Euphronius," archaeologist Daniela Rizzo said at the police news conference.
"It was only when they sent us a fragment we could examine that we were able to trace its origins to central Italy, and when we were able to show that it had been acquired illegally the Getty Museum returned it to us," she said."
::Saturday, January 15, 2005 7:46:58 AM::
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~ Classical Jeopardy
A couple of times a year, someone with a Classical/Latin connection seems to do well on Jeopardy. The latest is Tim Russell, who gets some press coverage in the Eagle-Gazette:
the Final Jeopardy Answer Is: This Lancaster High School Latin Teacher Who Is a Two-Day "Jeopardy" Champion.
Question: Who is Tim Russell?
"I'm feeling pretty good, frankly," Russell said immediately after his first successful title defense aired Thursday. "That's a little something to crow about."
Russell has won $46,000 in two days on the quiz show. The show was taped in November, but he's not allowed to reveal if or when he gets defeated.
The 35-year old Lancaster resident has been trying for years to be a contestant on the show -- at the request of his family.
"It's exciting for us," said Tim's wife, Katye. "This is something we've been telling him to do. My 5-year-old (Mara) just said, 'Daddy's really a champion.' "
Russell went to Nashville in October to prepare for the show. He then had to pay his and his dad's way to Los Angeles to tape shows on the weekend. Russell also had to pay for his own accommodations.
"I was a little (nervous) going in," Russell said. "I was wondering, 'Am I going to be paying out more than I might possibly be making?' But I was lucky enough to do well."
Russell dethroned a one-day winner on his first show -- although he said he was "struck with utter disbelief" because he knew the show would be on national television. He admittedly doesn't know much about sports but still managed to nearly sweep the NFL category. But Russell missed the final question in the category.
"I have to apologize to my father (Jim)," Russell said. "He's been a long time (Chicago) Bears fan and that was the final question."
The character Russell displays at work he displayed on the show. He often speaks with an Australian accent at school and he even answered a question in a category about Australia using the accent.
"I figured (my students) would be disappointed if I didn't," Russell said. "I was wondering, 'Would I be asked to retape the line?' But (the producers) went with it."
But Russell did have a suspicious mishap. He missed a question based on Latin word derivatives in Wednesday's show. Or he at least didn't answer a question seemingly tailor-made for him.
"I was beat to the buzzer," Russell said. "I didn't get it wrong. That's my story."
::Saturday, January 15, 2005 7:31:04 AM::
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~ Appleseed Olympians
This one keeps popping up in my box and seems to be good weekend fodder ... it's a review from the Daily Trojan of an anime flick called Appleseed, which appears to have some ClassCon lurking in the background (literally ... I think I used that correctly; one of the blogs I read (I can't recall which) had a good rant on the misuse of the word recently):
Set in the year 2131, "Appleseed" concerns Deunan Knute, a beautiful blonde soldier in a world left decimated by an apocalyptic war. Unaware that the war around her has finally ended, Knute is ambushed by a pack of mechanical predators. About to make her stand, she is rescued by an elite team of soldiers who transport her to the city of Olympus - a utopia where humans and Bioroids (human-machine hybrids) coexist for the future of mankind. Also in Olympus, Knute finds her former military comrade and love, Briareos, whom she thought was dead but is now a partial cyborg. The delicate balance of humans and machines in Olympus is threatened, however, by a rogue general who hates the machines and attempts to destroy them all by unleashing a virus on the entire city. Knute and Briareos must fight side by side once again to save both man and machine.
While the story and world that Aramaki created here is lush and complex, "Appleseed" can't seem to move past long, expository scenes where complex ideas are often explained in long lines of boring dialogue. However, the sheer scope and production design of the film gives it a completely original look, one that perhaps "The Matrix" would have benefited from. The initial complexity of "Appleseed" is shocking and will be hard to understand for some, but ultimately the message of the film necessitates a complex world.
The mythology in "Appleseed" makes many references to Greek and Roman mythology in a complimentary way. The acropolis atop the massive mechanical building at the center of the city is obviously Grecian in design. Some of the city figureheads bear familiar names such as Athena and Uranus. Just as the Greeks founded modern democracy, the Olympians of "Appleseed" founded a new kind of democracy, where man and machine come together to form a new species.
::Saturday, January 15, 2005 7:26:16 AM::
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~ Elektra Redux
Yesterday's post on the possible connection between Sophocles' Elektra and the comic heroine of the same name sent me surfing in an idle moment. The result of that surfing was to find that the artist who draws the Marvel comic is one Bill Sienkewicz. Now I can't help but wonder whether there is another Classics connection ... i.e. to Classicist Tom Sienkewicz (not a brother, apparently ... some other relation?).
::Saturday, January 15, 2005 7:19:13 AM::
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~ CONF: Italy and the Classical Tradition
AN UNINTERRUPTED DIALOGUE
ITALY AND THE CLASSICAL TRADITION
The University of Warwick, 12th-14th May 2005
The Department of Classics and the Department of Italian of the University of Warwick announce a series of lectures followed by a two-day symposium on the topic: 'An Uninterrupted Dialogue: Italy and the Classical Tradition'.
This message includes the provisional programme of the symposium only (12th-14th May 2005). The programme of the lecture series will be announced shortly.
Given the limited number of B&Bs and hotels in and around the campus at Warwick, anyone interested in attending the symposium is warmly invited to contact the organisers in order to receive information about travel and accommodation.
For further information please contact:
Sue Dibben, Humanities Research Centre, University of Warwick (hrc@warwick.ac.uk)
or
Carlo Caruso, Department of Italian / Department of Classics, University of Warwick (c.caruso@warwick.ac.uk)
AN UNINTERRUPTED DIALOGUE
ITALY AND THE CLASSICAL TRADITION
The University of Warwick, 12th-14th May 2005
PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME
Thursday 12th May - 5.30pm
Giulio C. Lepschy (University College London)
The Classical Languages and Italian: Some Questions about Grammar and Rhetoric
Friday 13th - Saturday 14th May
Philip Burton (University of St Andrews)
'Itali dicunt ozie': Ancient Descriptions of Non-Standard Latin
Nigel Wilson (Oxford, Lincoln College)
'Utriusque linguae peritus': How Did One Learn the Second Language and Acquire the Texts?
Claudia Villa (Università di Bergamo)
'Renovatio' e 'translatio': la riscrittura della letteratura classica in Dante
Jonathan Usher (University of Edinburgh)
Daphnean Fronds Intertwined: Poetic Coronation in Late Medieval to Early Modern Italy
Martin McLaughlin (Oxford, Magdalen College)
Alberti and the Classical Canon
Jill Kraye (London, Warburg Institute)
'Marsilius Ficinus vir nostra tempestate inter Platonicos facile princeps': The Role of Marsilio
Ficino in Cristoforo Landino's 'Disputationes Camaldulenses'
Craig Kallendorf (University A&M Texas)
Virgil, Filelfo, Foucault
Stefano Carrai (Università di Siena)
Fra canzoniere e 'liber carminum': due modelli per la poesia rinascimentale italiana
Hugo Tucker (University of Reading)
A Roman Dialogue with Virgil and Homer: The 'Centones ex Virgilio' of Lelio Capilupi
Roberto Tissoni (Università di Genova)
Aspetti del classicismo letterario italiano da Giuseppe Parini a Giacomo Leopardi
... seen on the Classicists list
::Saturday, January 15, 2005 7:07:13 AM::
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