"There is as much evil in us as there is good"

Such were the words spoken by award-winning film director Michael Haneke in an interview with the Guardian.

Austrian director Michael Haneke won the Palme D'Or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival for his movie The White Band (Das weisse Band), a film shot in black and white and rife with graphic and disturbing depictions of violence and sexuality.

Haneke has made several controversial films in the past that have shown graphic violence and sexual explicitness and many of the characters in his films are forced to make difficult choices in extreme situations. For this reason, he has built up a reputation as one of the most pessimistic of film-makers in this century. Ironically, the numbing effect of the mass media on the human mind is a theme that is commonplace in his films.

The misdeeds and the outlandishly sadistic actions of the characters in his film also serve to highlight his idea of the innate evil in human beings:

"We're all continuously guilty, even if we're not doing it intentionally to be evil. Here we are sitting in luxury hotels, living it up on the the backs of others in the third world. We all have a guilty conscience, but we do very little about it." he says to Elizabeth Day of The Guardian.

Heneke does not shy away from such topics and does not admire what he considers to be the dilution or watering down of violence in cinema and in mainstream cinema and the media:

"The truth is obscene," he said with a shrug

In his latest film, a series of violent acts are carried out by children who all have some kind of contempt for authority figures, such as the parish priest, the baron who owns the land, and the head of every family. The children who carry out those acts of sadism become the Nazi generation whose minds are so weakened that they cling to Nazi ideology because it offers answers to these confused children.

"In places where people are suffering, they become very receptive to ideology because they're looking for something to clutch hold of, a straw that will take them out of that misery.

The less intelligent I am, the more easily I follow someone who is going to give me the answers."

Haneke's stark cinematography has led critics to say that his films glamorise violence, while he points out that there is more violence on television than in his work. Furthermore, he insisted:

"Art is there to have a stimulating effect, if it earns its name. You have to be honest, that's the only thing."

He does not deny his responsibility as a film-maker to entertain, although he finds it hard to live up to this responsibility when his audience "can only be entertained by distraction or by stupidities."
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Where do you find yourself agreeing with him? And where does he seem to be exaggerating? Does his undying belief in authenticity really justify the content of his films? I leave that to you to decide, everyone.

Until next time,

Journo-SEAL

Sources:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1149362/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/oct/25/interview-michael-haneke-white-ribbon

Pirates of the...Music World?

A group of like-minded individuals forming their own political movements to bring about change in ways that existing political parties cannot is nothing out of the ordinary. The individuals in question could be striving to save the earth, improve and protect human rights, or simply to bring freedom to the downtrodden.

Or...to do away with copyright laws and legalise music file sharing.

Swedish national Rick Falkvinge founded a political party known as the Pirate Party four years ago following a government raid on illegal peer-to-peer file sharing. The party aims to make file-sharing legal and to abolish copyright laws, sparking an outcry from officials in the music industry and several musicians.

Mr. Falkvinge was invited to the In The City music industry forum in Manchester, only to arouse fiery criticisms:

"Burn him at the stake" said one of the delegates present at the conference.

Yvette Livesey, organiser of the conference, has had her share of criticism for inviting Mr. Falkvinge to the event. However, she has her reasons for doing so:

"I think it is important to have these debates. If we'd had these debates 10 years ago, perhaps we wouldn't be in the position we are in now in the music industry," she said.

The closing down of the Swedish service The Pirate Bay and the subsequent arrest and incarceration of its founders on April 17th, 2009 has boosted already growing support for the party. The Pirate Party received 7% of Sweden's total vote at the European election in June, and 13% of German voters voted for the German Pirate Party. The movement has now spread to 32 different countries, although not all of them are formally connected.

If the Party should gain power and start winning seats in parliaments around the world, it could spell doom for workers in the creative industry. By manipulating or even abolishing existing copyright laws, performing artists, writers, and record labels will no longer be entitled to profit from their efforts.

According to Mr. Falkvinge, the creative industry is not feasible in economic terms:

"In economic terms, there is an enormous oversupply of people wanting to live off creativity, so there isn't enough demand to pay everybody.

In such an occasion, market forces dictate that there will only be so many successful creators."

Not surprisingly, artists such as James Blunt and Lily Allen have rallied against this movement.

Are adherents of the Pirate Party campaigners hoping to make the music world a better place?

Or are they freeloaders who are depriving creative artists the chance to fulfil their dreams simply because there is no demand in the economy for creativity?

I leave that for you to decide, friends.

Yours,

Journo-SEAL (Eric Alexandre Lafif)

Sources:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8314620.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8003799.stm

RIP Stephen Gately-Part 2

"The world has lost one of it's brightest stars, we have lost our brother,"

Those heart-felt words were spoken by Ronan Keating at the funeral of fellow bandmate Stephen Gately at the St Laurence O'Toole Church in Ireland today.

His funeral is one of the biggest events in the music world, with messages of condolences coming from various performing artists as George Michael, David and Victoria Beckham, Simon Cowell, Take That, Westlife, U2, Robbie Williams, Cheryl Cole, Colin Farrell, Sharon Osborne, Brian McFadden and Delta Goodrem.

Gately's parents Margaret and Martin and his siblings Mark, Alan, Tony, and Michelle all attended the funeral along with his partner, Andrew Cowles.

Post-mortem tests have revealed that Mr. Gately died from natural causes, specifically from a condition known as pulmonary oedema.

In the meantime, a column by Jan Moir of the Daily Mail has sparked much criticism from Gately's fanbase. The reporter is accused of homophobia particularly by her claim that Gately's death is not natural.

"Her evidence for that claim is non-existent. Instead, she resorts to innuendo and goes on to make a leap of stunning illogicality by suggesting that the death "strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships."" Roy Greenslade writes in his blog for the Guardian Unlimited.

Another statment in Moir's article that has garnered controversy is shown below:

"Once again, under the carapace of glittering, hedonistic celebrity, the ooze of a very different and more dangerous lifestyle has seeped out for all to see."

Greenslade refers to this statement as "a final, breathtaking statement of unalloyed homophobia"

In the meantime, Jan Moir has written in her defense that "...it seems unlikely to me that what took place in the hours immediately preceding Gately's death - out all evening at a nightclub, taking illegal substances, bringing a stranger back to the flat, getting intimate with that stranger - did not have a bearing on his death."

Furthermore, Ms. Moir insisted that when she wrote "...that 'it strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships'" she meant "that civil partnerships - the introduction of which I am on the record in supporting - have proved just to be as problematic as marriages."

Sources:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8311894.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2009/oct/16/dailymail-stephen-gately
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1220756/A-strange-lonely-troubling-death--.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/16/jan-moir-stephen-gately-response

RIP Stephen Gately

Former Boyzone singer Stephen Gately passed away in Spain on the 10th of October while on holiday with his partner. The Irish singer was set to re-join his former band mates from Boyzone in a great comeback.

Click here for quotes paying tribute to Stephen Gately.

According to a Yahoo! News article, the former Boyzone member had been on a drinking binge only to die in his sleep from choking.

The young singer first joined Boyzone in 1993 after answering an advertisement to join Ireland's first boy band.

After the boy band split up, Gately was engaged in a variety of artistic activities, including landing the starring role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicoloured Dream Coat.

His tragic death serves as a grim reminder of the danger of abusing alcohol which so many people seem to ignore.

What are your thoughts and reactions to his demise? Anyone is welcome to comment or to add their own thoughts. However, no unfair comments or derogatory remarks will be allowed. In the meantime, the links below this entry will lead to how other journalists are reporting Gately's demise.

All the best,

Eric Lafif, SEAL

External Links:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/oct/11/stephen-gately-death-majorca

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20091012/twl-boyzone-star-had-been-on-marathon-bi-3fd0ae9.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8301233.stm

Analytical Psychology...and Art

For the first time ever, Carl Gustav Jung's Red Book, officially named Liber Novus is on public display at the Rubin Museum in New York.

For those of you who do not know who Carl Gustav Jung is, I will tell you a little bit about him:

Carl Jung was a Swiss psychologist and former disciple of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Jung eventually left Freud's inner circle over disagreements about the role of spirituality and psychosexual development in the human mind.

The book itself is the result of his 16 years of studying his own unconscious. What is particularly interesting is the many illustrations done by Jung himself. They include mythological figures and Buddhist symbols known as mandalas.

Jung's family was reluctant to have the book published; Jung himself was worried that he would be branded as a mad man and his scientific credibility would be ruined.

Finally, a historian from London was given permission to translate the book from German to English. Since October 7, the Red Book has been up on display for everyone to see, according to the BBC.

External Links:

http://www.mandalaproject.org/What/Index.html

http://www.rmanyc.org/theredbook

http://www.answers.com/topic/carl-jung

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8295650.stm

http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/27093.html

Author's Note:

Admittedly, this is not my most objective post. However, seeing Jung's name on the BBC, I was compelled to read the story. I've been fascinated with Carl Jung for a little while now, since I heard his name on a TV series. What was particularly interesting about Jung, from the point of view of an artist, are his quotes on creativity:

"The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves."

"From the living fountain of instinct flows everything that is creative; hence the unconscious is not merely conditioned by history, but is the very source of the creative impulse."

The 100 Acre Wood's Newest Inhabitant

A whole new character has been added to the roster of popular characters from the stories first created in 1926 by Alan A. Milne.

David Benedictus, the author of Return to the Hundred Acre Wood, the first official continuation of the popular Winnie The Pooh series, has added the character of Lottie the Otter to Pooh's list of friends such as Tigger and Eeyore.


Mr. Benedictus has stated that Lottie, a character with a penchant for etiquette and a talent for cricket, is a welcome addition to the roster of characters first introduced in Milne's The House At Pooh Corner. In a statement to the BBC, Benedictus said the "feisty" newcomer "truly embodies Winnie-the-Pooh's values of friendship and adventure seen throughout Milne's work, thus making the perfect companion for everyone's favourite bear."

Furthermore, chairman of the Trustees of the Pooh Properties, hopes that "the new character will appeal to readers of all ages worldwide."

The new book is being sold in bookstores across the United States and United Kingdom since yesterday.

Has the book and its new character kept a timeless classic alive and available to 21st century readers? Or has David Benedictus and the Trustees of the Pooh Properties gone too far?

I leave you to decide, friends.

Meanwhile, feel free to access the original information from the links to news websites such as the BBC and the Telegraph, as well as one link from Amazon for the sale of the new book and the original story by Milne.

External Links:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8283255.stm

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Return-Hundred-Acre-David-Benedictus/dp/1405247444/ref=sr_1_1/277-8590570-0613255?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254844836&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/House-Pooh-Corner-Original/dp/0525444440

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/6260369/First-new-Winnie-the-Pooh-book-in-80-years-goes-on-sale.html

Image courtesy of the BBC and Mark Burgess

Banned Books Week-Aftermath

The 27th Annual Banned Books Week (September 26−October 3, 2009) has come to an end in America and many icons from the music, visual arts, and literary world have congregated in San Fransisco to protest book banning in public and school libraries across the United States.

Surprisingly, the book that has amassed the most controversy in recent years is not even aimed at mature audiences. Rather, it is a children's book named "And Tango Makes Three " by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell.

The book tells the true story of two male penguins from the New York Zoo that bond and build a nest together, eventually adopting an abandoned fledgling penguin named Tango.

Author Richardson has expressed his disappointment in the reactions that his children's book has received. In a statement to the BBC, he said:

"It's regrettable that some parents believe reading a true story about two male penguins hatching an egg will damage their children's moral development. They (the parents) are entitled to express their beliefs, but not to inflict them on others."

Meanwhile, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has been excluded from winning the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. The reason being:

Critics, namely US politicians, have deemed that the Harry Potter series "promotes sorcery"

As far as reasons for books being banned go, this is definitely one of the least common. According to the BBC, the most commonly cited reason for the American Library Association or ALA (a not-for-profit organisation aiming to promote libraries and the profession of librarianship) to not allow books to be shown in public libraries is if the material is too "sexually explicit".

Other reasons for books to be banned include works that are deemed to be anti-ethnic, anti-family, or unsuited to the age group. Books that clash with religious associations or include homosexuality are also controversial enough to be taken off the shelves in school or public libraries.

Ultimately, the ALA has expressed in its webpage that the aim of Banned Books Week is to celebrate the importance of freedom of expression and freedom of access to intellectual property while giving others a fair warning of the adverse effects of censorship.

To conclude this post, I would be most curious to hear others' opinions of these events. For further information, I will also give the links to the BBC, Amazon, and the ALA.

Kind Regards,

Eric Lafif, alias Journo-SEAL


External Links:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8284509.stm

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tango-Makes-Three-Chinstrap-Penguin/dp/0689878451/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254756238&sr=1-2