I would rather be alone than pretend I feel alright: Ready To Start, by Arcade Fire

 lamusicblog.com

When I listened to Arcade Fire's first album Funeral, I was amazed; it's opening track Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels), for example, is a musical and emotional tour de force that one rarely comes across in the indie genre. Arcade Fire have of course gone a long way since then, particularly with their latest and utterly successful album The Suburbs, an aptly titled subtle critique of suburban desperation. Inasmuch as it is pleasant to see the band receiving the recognition they deserve, I must admit that musically I wasn't moved just as much this time around. Ready To Start, however, has become a great favourite of mine, both as a bold reflection upon the band's current condition, and an insightful interpretation of compliance and the courage it takes to defy it.

 

If the businessmen drink my blood

Like the kids in art school said they would

Then I guess I'll just begin again

You say can we still be friends

If I was scared, I would

And f I was bored, you know I would

And f I was yours, but I'm not

All the kids have always known

That the emperor wears no clothes

But they bow down to him anyway

'Cause it's better than being alone

If I was scared, I would

And if I was bored, you know I would

And if I was yours, but I'm not

Now you're knocking at my door

Saying please come out with us tonight

But I would rather be alone

Than pretend I feel alright

If the businessmen drink my blood

Like the kids in art school said they would

Then I guess I'll just begin again

You say can we still be friends

If I was scared, I would

And if I was pure, you know I would

And if I was yours, but I'm not

Now I'm ready to start

 

If I was scared, I would

And if I was pure, you know I would

And if I was yours, but I'm not

Now I'm ready to start

 

Now I'm ready to start

I would rather be wrong

Than live in the shadows of your song

My mind is open wide

And now I'm ready to start

Now I'm ready to start

My mind is open wide

And now I'm ready to start

Not sure you'll open the door

And step out into the dark

Now I'm ready

Anna Karenina returns

Poster Park

Do we really need another adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's classic novel Anna Karenina? Well, if one considers Joe Wright's particularly elegant version of Pride & Prejudice, and his masterful direction of Atonement, the answer may as well be yes. This is actually his third collaboration with Keira Knightley, while the film also features Jude Law as Alexei Karenin, Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Count Vronski, and Domhnall Gleeson as Konstantin Levin.

Anna Karenina is a considerably difficult novel to adapt, divided as it is between two parallel stories. On the one hand, there is Anna's passion for Vronski and the dissolution of her marriage, and on the other Levin's effort to marry and start a family; the narrative shifts between these two angles while focusing on love and tragedy, as well as on social norms and the exercise of social control. It will thus be interesting to see how the award-winning playwriter Tom Stoppard has approached the novel in his screenplay. For now, what we have is a visually stunning trailer, featuring music by Dario Marianelli, the award-winning composer who has had a long-term collaboration with Joe Wright.

Elysion...Killing My Dreams

Elysion prove that Greece can also have great metal bands, although this music genre is not one that prevails there. The band was founded back in 2006 and released their first and so far only album Silent Scream in 2009. Christianna, the band's vocalist, has an unimaginably good voice and apart from being an exceptional performer, she is also a beautiful woman.

Elysion are very professional and musically flawless, having superb compositions that even  successful female-fronted bands worldwide would have liked to release. Killing My Dreams is a very popular song from their album which proves the band's abilities and excellency.

Elysion are here to stay and I am looking forward to their next step...

Why have ourselves abandoned us
Why they no more belong to us
Cries in the sky pray to believe
My heart and soul will never forgive

We are all being used
Our lives have been abused
Still no one resists
I guess
There's nothing to lose
I am no longer confused
You're killing my dreams

My heart cries out for the touch I will never have
Before my eyes you've burnt everything I loved
I'm on the edge and you're forcing me not to fall
You'll never see me crawl

Love and death: Piano Concerto No. 1 by Johannes Brahms

 

Johannes Brahms in 1853 [Wikipedia]

And speaking of romanticism, Johannes Brahms wrote his Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 in 1858; he was twenty five years old at the time. Brahms came from a poor family, and during his youth he played the piano in dance halls and brothels in Hamburg. He studied from the age of seven, and became known after he made a concert tour at the age of nineteen. At this stage, Brahms met with prominent composers and musicians of his era, and became close friends with Robert and Clara Schumann; the former was one of the best romantic composers, and the latter one of the most distinguished pianists, as well as one of the few women composers. They both acknowledged Brahms' talent and encouraged him to compose symphonic works.

Robert and Clara Schumann [philarmonia.org]

In October 1853, Robert Schumann publicly claimed that Brahms was "destined to give an ideal expression to the times." Sadly, four months later, Schumann started to suffer from syphilis, attempted to commit suicide, and was eventually confined to an asylum. Brahms, who at that time had already started working on what would later become his First Concerto, was devastated by this turn of events, and tried to help. As Philip Huscher wrote in the Program Notes of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra:

This would have been an even more difficult time for Clara if Brahms hadn’t returned to Düsseldorf to be with her. We don’t know for certain what transpired over these months. Brahms went to visit Robert in the asylum periodically, but Clara was not allowed to see him. On Robert’s birthday in 1856, Brahms found him making alphabetical lists of towns and countries. Finally, on July 17, Clara went along with Brahms and, for the first time in more than two years, saw the sad spectacle of her husband. Two days later, Robert Schumann died.

It is under these circumstances that Brahms' work explored the formats of the symphony and the sonata for two pianos, before resulting to a concerto for piano and orchestra. It took him five years to finish it, given the self-critical perfectionism he was renowned for, and the result was a monumental and groundbreaking work in the history of classical music. The death of his friend and mentor had of course left a deep mark on the concerto, and so did the composer's devotion to Clara Schumann. They became lifelong friends, and it is unclear if they ever were lovers. The way the concerto was affected by his relationship to both Robert and Clara Schumann is clearly evident in the astonishing Adagio; as Chris Morrison argued in the Program Notes of the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra:

A warm and noble theme in the strings opens the second movement. The piano enters with rich harmonies and a hushed mood is created, with a sense of longing in the arc of the melodies. Brahms had originally given this movement a written inscription, “Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini” (“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”). He might have been referring here to Robert Schumann, whom he had often addressed as “Dominus” (in the sense of “Master”). Likewise, in December 1856 Brahms wrote a letter to Clara Schumann in which he wrote of this movement, “I am also painting a lovely portrait of you.” One way or the other, this leisurely, beautiful music had close personal associations for the composer. 

One the best performances of this concerto is by Clifford Curzon with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by George Szell, in 1962; you may find it here. However, as it is available only in audio format, I would also suggest the following passionate performance by Hélène Grimaud with the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Gielen, in 2005 (the Adagio starts at 24:05):

Hélène Grimaud has actually commented on the concerto in the most insightful of ways in the documentary Living With Wolves, which was directed by Reiner E. Moritz in 2002 (50:22):

 

For me, Brahms' First Concerto is a [...] vital piece, it's a piece I need to survive, and there aren't very many of those, perhaps two or three. It was written fairly early in Brahms' life, and [...] for me it's a testament, it's a requiem. It has a density, and a gravity of expression, that I find very moving, and one of the things I love the most about it is [...] this raw power.

I always think of Schumann, because when Brahms wrote it, it was after Schumann's first suicide attempt, and when I hear the orchestral introduction, which is of course fairly long, it's a piece where I see, I see my life unrolling, you know, as the music goes, [...] it's a very, very personal experience for me.

 

Johannes Brahms in 1894 [Last.fm]

 

Act like there's no tomorrow: A Nine Days Wonder by Theatre of Tragedy

 theatreoftragedy.com

Whenever I am listening to A Nine Days Wonder, I find myself wondering if it really gets any better than this; it certainly doesn't get more unconventional. Love songs are a tricky genre, if they are a genre at all. And there is a good reason for that: love may be seen as the most complex, and yet at the same time the clearest of emotions, as well as perhaps the most powerful; it comes to no surprise then that most attempts to pin it down, let alone exploit it, end up sounding nothing more than pretentious, superficial, and predictable. Fortunately, this is not the case when it comes to sophisticated bands; Theatre of Tragedy may fall into this category, but I always felt that their main strength is that they never actually aimed to write a love song. And maybe this is the reason why they got so close.  

A Nine Days Wonder, from their final album Forever Is The World, is a good example, as it allows the listener to interpret it any way they want. It is a haunting story of two individuals struggling in a dystopian context, told in a manner which is utterly romantic, in the classic sense of the term, rather than sentimental. This is due to one of Nell Sigland's finest vocal performances, leading to a beautiful climax based on piano and keyboards; and it includes a breathtaking middle section, which is never to be repeated, just like the most exquisite of feelings.

A Nine Days Wonder 

Don’t save the day it’s not over

We fall for better or worse

I can see the sparkling ice is breaking

I’ve seen you got a speck of dust in your eye

Act as if there’s no tomorrow

Don’t fall, stay awake

I surrender

Lie close untill they’ve gone

A nine days wonder

Days will come; the old once are wiser, and better the truth

Ambiguity speaking

In and out of season the tide is turning

It will be serving you right 

We dream of days even stranger

Please stay, get into the rhymes

Turning back, at one way or the other

Proceed, the childhood’s end has only begun 

You may run – but you can’t hide from the truth 

May you not rest until they are gone

Film quotes #4: The Hours

Wikipedia

The Hours was directed by Stephen Daldry in 2002, and is based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Michael Cunningham. It tells the story of three different women who are connected by Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway. Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) is writing the book in England during the 1920s, while struggling with mental illness; Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) is a housewife reading it during the 1950s in Los Angeles, while dealing with severe depression; and Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl Streep) embodies the novel's main character, Clarissa Dalloway, in contemporary New York.

The Hours displays a particularly well crafted narrative, and features great performances by the three leading actresses, as well as by a supporting cast including Ed Harris, Claire Danes, Jeff Daniels, Stephen Dillane, Miranda Richardson, and John C. Reilly. The events portrayed in the story are devastating, but at the same time it seems to me that the film evokes a touching sense of love for life through the darkness. The following quote is from a powerful scene at Richmond railway station; its narrative is so coherent that it may actually be seen as a short film.

VIRGINIA WOOLF: If I were thinking clearly, Leonard, I would tell you that I wrestle alone in the dark, in the deep dark, and that only I can know, only I can understand my own condition. You live with the threat, you tell me you live with the threat of my extinction. Leonard, I live with it too. This is my right, it is the right of every human being. I choose not the suffocating anesthetic of the suburbs but the violent jolt of the capital, that is my choice. The meanest patient, yes, even the very lowest is allowed some say in the matter of her own prescription. Thereby she defines her humanity.

Protest against ACTA: 9 June 2012

Janek Skarzynski/AFP/Getty Images theepochtimes.com

Tomorrow is the new Europe-wide day of action against ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement; for a list of events and links to specific protests, see this map. The occasion to stop ACTA is coming up as the European Parliament is likely to vote on it in July.

Α worldwide coalition of numerous organizations, including European Digital Rights (27 European civil rights and privacy NGOs), the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Free Knowledge Institute, the Free Software Foundation, and Consumers International (world federation of 220 consumer groups in 115 countries), has argued that "the current draft of ACTA would profoundly restrict the fundamental rights and freedoms of European citizens, most notably the freedom of expression and communication privacy." In addition, this agreement has been negotiated in secret; and it is characteristic that the rapporteur for ACTA in the European Parliament, Kader Arif, resigned and denounced the entire process for excluding civil society organizations and lacking transparency, as well as for excluding the European Parliament's demands.  

What's wrong with ACTA week

European Digital Rights 

What is ACTA and why should you be worried about it?
Olivia Solon, Wired UK

We have every right to be furious about ACTA
Electronic Frontier Foundation

Act on ACTA now if you care about democracy and free speech 
David Meyer, The Guardian
 

Webdossier on ACTA

La Quadrature du Net

Online petitions:

ACTA: The new threat to the net

Avaaz

ACTA: Time to win!

Avaaz

Just say 'No' to ACTA

Access

 

For a European opposition to neo-Nazism

 

Eugen Lipkowitch Outrage à la raison, 1965 yadvashem.org

The following call to oppose the extreme right is signed by Benjamin Abtan, president of the European Grassroots Antiracist Movement; Dario Fo, Literature Nobel Prize; Jovan Divjak, general defender of besieged Sarajevo; Svetlana Gannushkina, Memorial leader in Russia; Anthony Giddens, sociologist; Amos Gitai, director; Béate and Serge Klarsfeld, president of the Fils et filles de déportés juifs de France;  Bernard Kouchner, former French minister of foreign affairs; Bernard-Henri Lévy, philosopher, writer; Adam Michnik, historian, essayist, journalist, former member of Solidarnosc; Amélie Nothomb, writer; Dominique Sopo, president of SOS Racisme; Oliviero Toscani, photographer; Elie Wiesel, Peace Nobel Prize, writer; and A. B. Yehoshua, writer, essayist. The call was published in The Guardian and Le Monde, and is availble as a petition in the website We are all Greek Jews!
 

The neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn entered the Greek parliament this month. With its swastika-inspired emblem, Hitlerian salute, reference to Mein Kampf, antisemitic and racist ideology, Holocaust denial, violence against migrants, threats against journalists and personality cult, the party is the lineal heir of the German national-socialist party that led Europe and the world into chaos and bloodshed.

Unfortunately, Greece is not the only country threatened by this revival of Nazi ideology. In Latvia this year, the president of the republic has for the first time supported the annual former Waffen SS march, in spite of strong criticism. In Austria the FPÖ, an extreme right organisation that nurtures Third Reich nostalgia, is favourite in the polls for the next parliamentary elections. In Hungary, the Hungarian Guard Movement, descendant of The Arrow Cross party – the former militia responsible for the extermination of Jews and Gypsies – terrorises Jewish populations and holds direct responsibility for provoking deadly attacks against Roma people.

This revival was made possible by the systematic attack by extreme right parties against the republican ideal that recognises that everyone belongs to the same national community, together. This campaign against "togetherness" is modelled on Geert Wilders' strategy for his Freedom party, launched in the early 2000s. The core of this strategy is to hide a rhetoric promoting race inequality behind a "cultural" fight against the so-called "Islamisation of Europe".

In this ongoing economic and social crisis, which favours a frenzied search for scapegoats and strengthens the fear of the decline of the "old continent", this strategy has been revealed to be worryingly efficient. It has also enabled extreme right parties to support – or even to become members of – governing coalitions, normalising racist and antisemitic speech along the way. This new extreme right has also paved the way for parties which, just like Golden Dawn, can now legitimately win votes while openly promoting hate speech.

Faced with this terrifying situation – exemplified by the election of neo-Nazis deputies in the Greek parliament – we are asserting our solidarity: we are all Greek Jews.

We refuse to accept that on our continent, Jewish, immigrant, Muslim, Roma or black people might fear for their lives because of who they are. We invite all citizens, political parties, unions, civil society, intellectuals and artists to fight the extreme right by promoting and bringing to life the European dream. We must always remember that this dream was built on the ruins of Nazism. We must never forget about the Shoah. Our dream is of a continent free from racism and antisemitism. It is the project of a society based on "togetherness" – beyond boundaries.

To see this dream embodied again, it is urgent to put an end to two dogmas. First, we must refute the dogma of austerity which is responsible for terrible damage, creating the conditions that explain the success of populist parties, and limits the future of our European youth, sacrificed on the altar of perpetual austerity.

Second, we must refute the dogma of "the European fortress", which favours the spread of anti-immigrant speeches and the lockdown of Europe's frontiers, especially when a core element of European postwar identity – its social welfare system – requires the economic input of immigration to remain sustainable.

It is of the utmost importance for European institutions to renew their pursuit for democracy, social progress and the promotion of equality. Those citizens who, particularly in times of crisis, are the target of racial and social violence, must be protected. As Europe is undergoing a sustained assault against its core principles, we strongly believe that we must work toward a stronger Europe, right here and now. If we are not able to give life to the European dream, we are condemned to the same nightmare, in Greece and in the rest of Europe.