Sir Ian McKellen

Photo from Wiki.

In the August 27, 2007 issue of The New Yorker is a delightful profile of Sir Ian McKellen, one of England's great classical actors, written by John Lahr.

Although McKellen has played characters in "King Lear," only recently has he played the part of Lear himself. In September, he will be at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in playing Lear. Hmmm....How can I manage to see him? I'd love it. Lear is perhaps my favorite of Shakespeare's plays, because the playwright gets the family dynamics exactly right, especially when power and money are thrown into the mix. When Lear asks his daughters to expound on how they love him, you just know that he's going to come to a bad end.

Of McKellen's performance of Lear, Lahr says:

Later, enraged by Cordelia's refusal to match her sisters' encomiums, he held up the coronet that was to have been Cordelia's crown, turning it on its side so that it formed a large zero, then shouted through it to Cordelia, "Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again."

Only the abstract of the profile is online, so I'm going to have to some typing.

Most recently McKellen played Gandalf the Grey, the wizard in "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring". He's played many of the great Shakespearean roles, but he says Lear is the one of the most difficult he's done. Along with acting the classics, he's appeared low-brow movies and even taken on "The Simpsons" and "Saturday Night Live".

McKellan's family were freethinkers, but, as Lahr says:

...he never discussed his homosexuality at home. "You didn't lie in our house," he said. "That was hard for me because, in not talking about myself, I was lying. Is it any wonder that under that sort of pressure, day in day out, eventually you give in and say, 'All right, yes, I'm queer"? It's quite a small step from saying 'I am unusual' to saying 'I shouldn't be the way I am.' You invent your own homophobia. You hate yourself. And, oh, it hurts. I am still hurt by it.
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When he did come out publicly, he did so dramatically. In January, 1988, on a BBC radio show about the infamous Clause 28 - legislation that aimed to prohibit local authorities from publishing material condoning homosexuality or from referring to it in state schools as an acceptible life style - McKellen took part in a discussion with the right-wing columnist Peregrine Worsthorne, who kept referring to gays as "them." "Let's not talk in the abstract," McKellen said finally. "Let's not talk about them. Let's talk about me.

McKellen met with politicians to lobby against Clause 28, including Conservative Michael Howard, a fervid anti-gay spokesman. He got nowhere with Howard on Clause 28, but Howard asked for an autograph for his children. McKellen agreed, writing, "F**k off! I'm gay." Clause 28 passed, but was later repealed by New Labor.

McKellen was a key player in the formation of Stonewall, an organization to promote equal justice for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. Not all gay activists were pleased with his prominence:

The filmmaker Derek Jarman, calling McKellen "Sir Thespian Knight", mocked his late arrival to the cause and Stonewall's intention to negotiate with what Jarman perceived as the enemy.

The profile is long, as those in The New Yorker are prone to be, and I meant to write more about the acting part of his life, but I can't copy the whole thing, can I? Here's how the post turned out. So be it.

Here are a few more morsels to chew on:

Stuck in the corner of the mirror in his dressing room at the theater, is a piece of paper with these words, "O Romeo, Romeo! Where the F**k Art Thou, Romeo?"

Early in the profile, Lahr quotes McKellen on the Queen's voyage on the Thames to celebrate the Millennium:

"One of the entertainments for the evening was going to be watching the Queen going upriver to the Millenium Dome," he recalled. "A really unattractive boat came chugging up the river. She was on City Cruises! If she hadn't been wearing lime green, one wouldn't have noticed. We wanted proper people rowing her up....I wanted her to do the job superbly."
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He recalled rushing out of the R.S.C's Aldwych Theatre to watch the Queen's Silver Jubilee parade in 1977: "No cars parked, no buses, no traffic. You're suddenly aware that the whole place is a set. You hear birds. Around the bend comes this car, unlike any other car I've ever seen. It's got glass all around. This car's going at ten miles an hour. Everything is unusual. Inside it, these two dolls clearly made up. I found myself waving. And what was I waving at? The two richest people in the country, actually. That's why it won't do when she comes up the Thames on City Cruises. Far too democratic."

McKellen's friend Armistead Maupin, tells the story of McKellen's devotion to his stepmother, Gladys, in her old age. Although, as a teen-ager, relations between McKellen and his step-mother were difficult, they became close in later years. She became senile, and McKellen visited her often, but Gladys was convinced that the only reason he visited was because he was having an affair with her maid. Finally, exasperated by his failure to convince her otherwise, he said, "Gladys, for heaven's sake, I'm gay." She said, "So they say."

Missing The Parishes

How do I know that the Democratic operative who sent me this email is ignorant about Lafourche Parish, and, indeed, about all of Louisiana?

We need your help.

Tens of thousands of Democrats are already members of PartyBuilder, a group of tools on Democrats.org that puts control of the Democratic Party in the hands of people like you in all fifty states.
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Can you sign on and join a group with other Lafourche County Democrats? We talk about a Democratic presence in every county -- now this is your chance to make that happen with PartyBuilder.
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And if there's not already a group in Lafourche County, you can create one right here in less than a minute:

Louisiana is the only state in the US which calls its counties "parishes", because the early political divisions were originally based on the Roman Catholic Church parish divisions.

Note the names: St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Mary, St. Helena, St. Martin, St. Tammany (who I'm asssured is a real person), St. Landry (never heard of him), and St. Bernard.

You'd think the DNC could make the necessary adjustment to the mass emailing to reflect that they have a clue. Come on, folks; you can do better than this.

Why?

Why am I getting over 300 visits yesterday and well over 200 today to this page on my blog about my trip to Mexico 50 years ago, which I posted on 8-11-07? It seems to have to do with the Mexican flag posted on the page. It's driving my stats way up, but the number is not realistic, because I doubt that folks are finding what they're want.

Feast Day Of Paul Jones

Paul Jones was born in Pennsylvania in 1880. He became a priest in the Episcopal Church and went to serve in Utah, where he was made Bishop of the Missionary District of Utah.

He was an outspoken pacifist, and when World War I began in 1914, he spoke against it. As the war progressed, and when the United States entered the war in 1917, many Americans were vehement in holding that pursuing the war was a moral duty, and opposition to the war was immoral. In the spring of 1918, yielding to pressure, Bishop Jones resigned as Bishop of Utah.

He continued to speak out for peace and against war until he died in 1941. He was a man after my own heart.

From James Kiefer at the Lectionary.


READINGS:

Psalm 133
Malachi 2:17-3:5
John 8:31-32


PRAYER:

Merciful God, who sent your beloved Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Raise up in this and every land witnesses, who, after he example of your servant Paul Jones, will stand firm in proclaiming the Gospel of the Prince of Peace, our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

UPDATE: I found this article online in Time magazine from 1929, on Bishop Jones. When Bishop Spaulding needed a volunteer from the seminary to send to Utah, [s]tudent Paul Jones echoed Isaiah: "Here I am, send me."

The article gives the account of a specially appointed Commission of the House of Bishops meeting, in which the bishops requested his resignation because of speaking out against war.

Kathleen Norris Video

If you're a fan of Kathleen Norris' books, like Amazing Grace, The Cloister Walk, and Dakota, along with her books of poetry, you may want to see the short video at the Episcopal Café. I liked hearing her actual voice after reading and enjoying her books. I find that her rather simple way of talking about Christianity is quite appealing.

On The Light Side

You may want to have a look at the pictures at Themethatisme's website Conscientisation. His name is hard to spell, and his blog name is harder to spell, but his pictures and captions are funny.

Here's how he describes himself in his Blogger profile:

A 41 year old post-cynic more interested in the Omega course than the Alpha Course.

I'll raise a glass of red to that.

Iran Next?

From the UK Sunday Times:

THE Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days, according to a national security expert.

Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, said last week that US military planners were not preparing for “pinprick strikes” against Iran’s nuclear facilities. “They’re about taking out the entire Iranian military,” he said.

Thanks to FranIAm for the link to the Times article.

My thought is that if Bush attacks Iran, he will not go to Congress for permission. Here's how the maladministration reasons they can do this.

From Barnett R. Rubin at Informed Comment Global Affairs:

The U.S. cannot mount a ground invasion or occupation of Iran, but it might be capable of an air attack and sea embargo. The administration has prepared a legal justification by floating its plan to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization. Since the IRGC is under the command of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, the administration, with its usual legal acuity, could claim legal authority for an attack on Iran under Senate Joint Resolution 23 of September 18, 2001,which authorized the use of military force against "those who plan, authorize, commit, or aid terrorist attacks against the United States and its interests -- including those who harbor terrorists."
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Finally, where are the Democrats and sensible Republicans? It's time to amend the Authorization for the Use of Military Force to make clear that it does not authorize a pre-emptive war on Iran.

Indeed, where are the sensible people? FranIAm suggests that we write to our representatives in the House and the Senate to urge them to take action. She says it's best to write a real letter, rather than send an email. I have heard that because of security procedures, letters may take a while to get to the Congress. The best suggestion seems to be to send a letter through the mail, and, at the same time, fax the letter to the office of the senator or representative.

Are you getting tired of my Chicken Little postings on Iran? I will be very happy if those of us who keep talking about this are found to be wrong, but I fear the worst.

I was Chicken Little before the war with Iraq, and I take no pleasure in having been right.

From Prior Aelred

I received an email from Prior Aelred at St. Gregory's Abbey, in Three Rivers, Michigan, with this at the bottom with his signature:

Cogito ergo sum Episcopalian
- Prior Aelred

I like that. No offense meant to my friends in other denominations. I know that you're thinking people, too, or you wouldn't come here to visit.

The Spirit Lives On

David Zirin gave the keynote address at the Rising Tide Conference. He's a young sports writer, who loves sports but sees, without rose-colored glasses, the reality of so much that's wrong with sports today. He's a sportscaster/writer in the vein of Keith Olbermann, the thinking sports fan's man.

Early in his talk, he mentioned that in the midst of the wreckage left in New Orleans, the Superdome, the home of the New Orleans Saints football team, is back in business, fixed to the tune of $185 million. Priorities?

The images of the Superdome as "the homeless shelter from hell", as Dave labels it, had to be erased from sight and preferably from memory pretty damned quick. Last year, after losing season after season, the New Orleans Saints had a fantastic year, thus lifting the spirits of the fans who had remained faithful throughout the losing years. That's great. I'm happy for the Saints fans. Those who were in the Superdome after Katrina were generally not folks who could afford a ticket to go to a Saints football game. The Saints have their home back in shape. I wonder how many of the evacuees who sheltered there are back in their homes.

Dave recently published a book, titled Welcome to the Terrodome; the Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports , which I bought at the conference, but which I have not yet read. Keep an eye out for Dave as a young man on the way up - at least, I hope he's on the way up.

This post is in reference to an op-ed that he wrote in the Houston Chronicle upon his return from the conference:

I felt the fear before my plane even landed at Louis Armstrong International Airport. As we began our descent, dark jagged shadows jutted across the verdant swampland. It was all too cinematic. I found out later that what I thought were dramatic shadows was wetland defoliation; the banal reality proving to be far more frightening than the supernatural.
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I was in the Big Easy as an invited speaker at a conference of NOLA bloggers called Rising Tide II. In most cities, bloggers practice a peculiar virtual cannibalism, tearing each other apart for sport. But at Rising Tide, among people young and old, black and white, I saw my first glimpse of what can be termed blogger solidarity. It stemmed, as one told me, from "the necessity of coming together after Katrina."
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They were also the perfect people for me to speak with to learn the ground-truth about post-Katrina New Orleans. They're not paid to write about the myriad of issues they confront — from mental health to public housing to the loan swindles to the state of art. They do it because they want everyone — those staying away, the transplants from the North, the ones who get their information from the mainstream media — who sees New Orleans as merely a symbol to know the facts: the good, the bad and the ugly.

And the ugly side is that the majority black city is still being left to wither slowly on the vine. There is a reason President Bush did not say the word New Orleans in the last State of the Union. This is Moynihan's "benign neglect" writ large. But it has had a bizarre boomerang effect. Because the future of city is at stake, the neglect that guides federal policy is something that both whites and blacks have to confront.
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Katrina is something ephemeral, a sadness seeped into the humidity. It gets in your clothes, your eyes, your hair. It's everywhere, even if you aren't staring at a house with a black X, with a number underneath, denoting a death at the hands of levees.
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Make no mistake, there is anger and a sense of desperation among the city's poor. Sometimes it's inward, as the mental health and suicide studies show. Often it is outward, as the violent crime demonstrates. That feeling of being abandoned by this country and this criminal administration, of being left to die on a roof, remains. And yet, they still, so very inconveniently, continue to live, love and, most importantly, struggle and agitate. Everyone in this country should travel to New Orleans and be among a people supposed to perish, who act like they just didn't get the memo.

Amen, Dave.

You might want to read his book. All fifteen reviews give it five stars.

Wounded Bird

Painting by Luiz Coelho, Sr.

Luiz Coelho is a dear virtual friend who lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and works in one of the poorest Episcopal parishes in the city, Christ the King, located in the City of God slum - one of the most dangerous in the city. God bless Luiz and the priest, Fr. Eduardo, with whom he works and the people of the parish.

Luiz's father, also named Luiz, passed away in 1990. He was an artist. Luiz sent me a link to the website which features pictures of his father's art, paintings and water colors, which the family still owns. The site includes a brief biography.

Luiz pointed out to me that one of the paintings is named "Wounded Bird". His father painted the picture a few months before he died, and Luiz helped him to choose the colors and the title. When I went to the site, tears came to my eyes when I saw the painting. There it is up there, with the same title as my blog. Isn't it beautiful?

I asked Luiz' permission to link to the site and copy the painting and post here. I choke up every time I look at the picture. It seems like a gift from God.

Luiz blogs at Wandering Christian.

Note: I corrected the name of the parish in which Luiz works.