"Oh, what a beautiful mornin'"! And, as it happens, it is indeed a beautiful morning here, all the more so given what seems like in retrospect six months of cloud, rain, snow and a non-stop freezing wind from even further 'ooop north' than the usual 'ooop north'. Even so, I am provoked to the opening quote not by the sunshine but by a filmed version of Oklahoma produced by the Royal National Theatre back in 1999 and which was shown on Sky Arts last night. I was curious to see it because it starred (a much younger) Hugh Jackman who later played Jean Valjean in the film of Les Misérables. I remarked at the time that whilst I had heard of him I had never seen him before. Well now I have seen him twice with a fourteen year gap in his career and I now realise what the rest of the world already knew, that he is tremendously talented. Unfortunately, Oklahoma suffers a little, as so many of those earlier musicals do, from thudding dialogue whose only advantage is that it gives one time to get up and make a cup of tea before the next brilliant, moving and/or witty song begins. In retrospect, what an act of genius it was when the producers of Les Mis decided to forego spoken dialogue and just let the songs tell the story. Even so, Oklahoma from the RNT was a superb piece of theatre and the director, Trever Nunn, is quite simply the very best.
Sometimes it gets personal: This morning, quite properly, the news bulletins are full of details concerning the Chinese earthquake with 200+/- killed and God knows how many injured and thousands bereaved and mourning. And yes, for a moment one is moved to pity and sympathy before moving on to the next story of the day. To be thus is to be human. But sometimes, somehow, a tragedy sticks beneath the skin and it will not be moved. For me, it is the tragedy of the man and his family - wife, two sons and a daughter - who went to the Boston marathon. The father was taking part in the run and his family were close to the finishing line to cheer him in. And then - personal apocalypse! The bomb went off, one son killed outright, a daughter maimed by the loss of a leg and a wife in hospital with brain damage. It beggars understanding. At one moment you are this, a happy family tied together with mutual love and affection; and the next moment you are that, a wreckage of hopes and expectations blown apart. "As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods, they kill us for their sport."
Sow and ye shall reap: Or something like that; but it was Heffer, I think, in The Daily Mail yesterday who reminded us with sardonic brutality that Boston was the main centre of financial and 'moral' support for the IRA whose atrocities 'over here' far, far exceeded the marathon bomb. Folly, to which we are all prone, does not deserve the non-linear retribution exacted lat Sunday but it is a salutary lesson all the same. Think before you drop a dollar in the collecting tin!
And talking of terrorist bombers there's always the president's old friends:
Whilst supping with the Devil (and his wife) it is usually good practice, or so I am told, to use a very long spoon. The President seems unaware of this as he enjoys a dinner with the convicted terrorist, Bill Ayers, and his equally despicable wife, Bernadine Dorhn. Both, of course, now major players in the Chicago mafia Democrat party which, as Emmett Tyrell of The American Spectator reminds us, is never totally averse to bombing atrocities. According to Obama they are "just good friends"! Yeees, quite!
Fitch the Fab! At last, and long overdue, the credit rating agencies are turning the screw. On Friday Fitch downgraded the UK to AA+ which is not much in itself but anyone with half a brain would take it as a serious warning of more, much more, to come unless Osborne stops borrowing m0ney! He can only do that by cutting government spending, not little bits here and there but wholesale slashing and burning whilst at the same time cutting taxation to those likely to produce wealth in the future. And, no, I'm not holding my breath!
Another great oxymoron - 'settled science': Well, they told us that global warming was 'settled science' and temperatures have barely budged for 15 years. Then again, we have been told that the origin of life took place down in the depths of the ocean where heated air from the earth's core erupted through fissures and set off a chemical re-action and, hey presto, suddenly what was inanimate was animate. So, the swots told us, 'settled science', move along, nothing to see here. But, you just gotta love those swots because no sooner is science settled when some rascal comes along and unsettles it. According to The Mail, a couple of computer nerds have used something called Moore's Law which explains the rate at which computers have increased their complexity and efficiency since they were invented. Using the same equations on life forms but working backwards they estimate that life actually began about 10 billion years ago and as the earth is a mere stripling of 4.5 billion years then it is obvious, innit?, that life began somewhere else in the universe and caught the equivalent of a No.29 bus to this old globe of ours. 'Settled science' - heh!
"I was curious to see it because it starred (a much younger) Hugh Jackman ..."
If memory serves, it's also got Maureen Lipman as the matriarch?
Posted by: JuliaM | Sunday, 21 April 2013 at 10:01
My wife was once an extra in a TV film starring Maureen Lipman.
Just an idle boast.
Posted by: dearieme | Sunday, 21 April 2013 at 10:55
Indeed, Julia, and what a trooper she is.
DM, can I have her autograph?
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 21 April 2013 at 11:12
I'm beginning to suspect you have a 'thing' for Huge Ackman.
Posted by: Able | Sunday, 21 April 2013 at 14:30
Able, the only 'thing' I have going for Mr.Jackman is pure, unadulterated envy!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 21 April 2013 at 15:06
Seems I remember your denigrating us Yanks (specifically "our accents") when we er, not actually me of course perform Shakespeare.
How's Mr. Jackman's "Okie" rendering?
Posted by: JK | Sunday, 21 April 2013 at 17:17
Exactly the opposite, JK, it is a fact that from a purist's point of view (and they don't come much more purist than an 'iambic fundamentalist' like me!) the American accent, or certain types of American accent, are closer to Shakespeare's pronunciation than, say, 'BBC English'. I haven't seen Jackman perform Shakespeare but if you can lay hands on a copy of the 'Oklahoma' show you tell me how well he did with the 'Okie' accent!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 21 April 2013 at 19:12
Well then, good to see settled science agreed to som'eres on this here blog.
Posted by: JK | Sunday, 21 April 2013 at 20:47
"som'eres"?
Now, would that be Shakespearean English or Arkie/Okie dialect?
Jest askin'!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 21 April 2013 at 20:54
Arkie.
D'stinct syllables terdicult. Takes yer breft way.
Posted by: JK | Sunday, 21 April 2013 at 22:50
Ooh, cans't perchance any goodman joiningings't ins't?
"If the science is settled, then it isn't science!"
and
I aren't no nerd, That's them thar. I's just a high-tech redneck!
Posted by: Able | Monday, 22 April 2013 at 08:19
The reason behind your lack of clear syllables, JK, lies in the product brewed up 'in them thar hills'!
And it looks like Able's been on it, too!
Posted by: David Duff | Monday, 22 April 2013 at 08:35
T'wud peer.
Question is, howdy manage d'sneak, 'n whasda be done?
Also, Maj gwan bringun charges 'gainst me fer upitizin' ya'll Brits langerge skills? Gwona be mad'n anyway?
Posted by: JK | Monday, 22 April 2013 at 16:06
Oh dear, Mark Twain has much to answer for!
Posted by: David Duff | Monday, 22 April 2013 at 16:52
Got a question for you David. You're always questioning my spelling and the "how in the tarnations of it leads to the proper pronounciations?"
Explain somphin fer me woncher? How does "Featherstonhaugh (pronounced “Fanshaw”)?
I only ask cause it says ritecheers: Born in London, England, on April 9, 1780, to George and Dorothy Simpson Featherstonhaugh:
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?search=1&entryID=2410
Posted by: JK | Monday, 22 April 2013 at 18:41
It was a damned clever wheeze got up by us Brits to fool you Yankee rebels! A sort of early example of enciphering a code. You see, old chap, we might look stupid, act stupid and talk stupid but, and here's the clever double bluff, that's because we are stupid! Pip, pip!
Posted by: David Duff | Monday, 22 April 2013 at 19:23
Well. That Mister Featherstonhaugh if'n he finds hisself resurrected best just keep to laying around over in the UK. Describing our "delicate female type ladies" thusly would have him helmeting his balls:
Featherstonhaugh reported an encounter with the wife of Jacob Barkman: “I have never seen any one, as far as manners and exterior went, with less pretensions to be classed with the feminine gender. She chewed tobacco, she smoked a pipe, she drank whiskey, and cursed and swore as heartily as any backwoodsman, all at the same time.”
"Less classy" my foot!
Posted by: JK | Monday, 22 April 2013 at 19:47
A flower of Arkie womanhood, then, JK?
Posted by: David Duff | Monday, 22 April 2013 at 21:35
Maybe. If she could carry a deer carcass slung over her shoulders, clean it, and have it ready for supper in time for Mr. Barkman's arrival home from the still - she'd a been what we Arkies nowadays'd reckon - The Whole Hog.
(Of course pickups weren't invented in her time so driving home after a night out couldn't be figured into the equation. However - if she could hitch a pair of mules, I'm figuring she could probably have driven. I'd grade her at least a B+ in today's standards).
Posted by: JK | Monday, 22 April 2013 at 22:57
"The Whole Hog" - pure poetry, Shakespearean, even!
Posted by: David Duff | Tuesday, 23 April 2013 at 08:40