http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Sun, 4 Jan 2004 11:59:55 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/04/115955.php Flea RoscaWhoa, i just posted about Britney's marriage a few minutes ago in a blog entry, and it's already being annulled. "And here I'd guessed 6 days," someone on Metafilter says. Good one. According to BBC News, it was a joke that went too far. Too far is right.This has got to be the sickest thing she has done yet... what next, Britney? A sex change, perhaps? Or maybe you'll pull a reverse Michael Jackson and turn yourself black? Music11427@blogcritics.org Sun, 4 Jan 2004 11:59:55 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/02/224708.php Flea RoscaSo yesterday I was taking a shower and reached for the shampoo -- and there wasn't any. There was a tube of shower gel within reach, and I paused to ponder: Is shower gel supposed to be used on your hair or your body? Or is it both? I ended up using the gel anyway. It didn't feel right.I'm no metrosexual, obviously. Although i do use conditioner.I predict that 2004 will be the Year of the Metrosexual. It's funny how the topic of "metrosexuals" crops up repeatedly in my conversations these days. Most of the time, it's good-natured ribbing of a guy who uses hand cream or gets a little prissy about his hair. The general male population -- at least here in Manila -- seems to shun the "metrosexual" apellation. Find some fancy cream or body scent in their rooms and they're like, "That's my mom's/sister's/girlfriend's stuff!" It may be the 21st century, but a lot of men still favor good old-fashioned machismo over "getting in touch with your feminine side."Still, the beast is beginning to circulate. There's this friend of mine is highly infatuated with a certain metrosexual whom she calls -- what else -- The Metrosexual. This obsession has wrought long and tipsy discussions on the annoyances of the metrosexual species, with catty remarks thrown in the direction of the more vulgar members of said tribe.I think the greatest horror apparent in the metrosexual phenomenon is the emergence of a new kind of nasty -- the male diva. Not a gay diva, mind you. Something much, much worse. I mean, men have big enough egos as it is... add a dash of female-league vanity and you have the makings of a new generation of uber-jerks.It's a Brave New World. Culture11403@blogcritics.org Fri, 2 Jan 2004 22:47:08 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/07/18/023627.php Flea RoscaPoor Sir Edward George Bulwer-Lytton. The guy was a baron, a secretary of state, a playwright, and a novelist, yet today he is mainly remembered for the opening line of his novel Paul Clifford:"It was a dark and stormy night and the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."It wasn't ignoble enough that the line came to be parodied by a typewriting beagle in countless Peanuts comics... Bulwer-Lytton had to end up like some muse for bad writing, lending his name to a yearly contest for the worst opening line to an imaginary novel.And now, without further adieu, here are the winner and runner-up of the 2003 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.Winner "They had but one last remaining night together, so they embraced each other as tightly as that two-flavor entwined string cheese that is orange and yellowish-white, the orange probably being a bland Cheddar and the white . . . Mozzarella, although it could possibly be Provolone or just plain American, as it really doesn't taste distinctly dissimilar from the orange, yet they would have you believe it does by coloring it differently."Ms. Mariann Simms Wetumpka, AL Runner-Up "The flock of geese flew overhead in a "V" formation - not in an old-fashioned-looking Times New Roman kind of a "V", branched out slightly at the two opposite arms at the top of the "V", nor in a more modern-looking, straight and crisp, linear Arial sort of "V" (although since they were flying, Arial might have been appropriate), but in a slightly asymmetric, tilting off-to-one-side sort of italicized Courier New-like "V" - and LaFonte knew that he was just the type of man to know the difference."John Dotson (U.S. Naval Officer) Arlington, VA Grand Panjandrum's Special Prize "Colin grabbed the switchgear and slammed the spritely Vauxhall Vixen into a lower gear as he screamed through the roundabout heading toward the familiar pink rowhouse in Puking-On-The-Wold, his mind filled with the image of his comely Olive, dressed in some lacy underthing, waiting on the couch with only a smile and a cucumber sandwich, hoping that his lunch hour would provide sufficient time for both a naughty little romp and a digestive biscuit."Randy Groom Visalia, CA If you believe you can take more of this beyond-the-purple prose, feel free to check out the complete list of winners. Books7027@blogcritics.org Fri, 18 Jul 2003 02:36:27 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/06/20/060817.php Flea RoscaHULK is a true Marvel comic book movie, in that it weds the campiness of the superhero comic genre with the kind of psychological character realism that Stan Lee pioneered in comics.The Hulk, more than any other superhero, is a representation of psychological neurosis. A Google search on "The Incredible Hulk" turns up "a case history of the incredible Hulk [by Leonard Samson, Ph.D] submitted to the American Psychological Association" -- although the webpage in question won't load. (Leonard Samson, aka "Doc Samson," is a major character in the Hulk comics... and he happens to be a psychiatrist.)The film also suggests that the Hulk is a monster birthed from repressed traumatic memory. (Bruce Banner describes his first experience of being the Hulk as "like being born.") Banner's transformation into the Hulk is triggered at one point by recollected trauma -- about his mother. Dreams, those messages from the unconscious, are prevalent. One dream shows Banner seeing himself as the Hulk in the mirror; the not-so-jolly green giant attacks him and calls him "Puny Banner!" (a line from the comics, fraught with Freudian undertones).It stands to reason that the movie's denouement comes when Banner (as the Hulk) deals with his father issues. In a nifty bit of parallelism, Banner's love interest Betty Ross has father issues of her own to resolve, and at the movie's end she and her dad have closed the gap in spite of their differences.So the various critical comparisons between HULK and Greek tragedy aren't too far off. Though HULK is closer to a pop psych manual like Men Are From Mars... than it is to Oedipus Rex. Besides, Oedipus may have killed his father and married his mother, but he didn't toss around chariots like a supercharged Maximus.And the Hulk's bark is worse than his bite. For all that tank-tossing and "puny Banner" stuff, he never erupts into a truly murderous rampage. He's no Mr. Hyde to Banner's Dr. Jekyll. Hyde was a monster created by a Victorian culture that repressed the good doctor's improper social impulses. But the Hulk lives in a culture radically reversed, where everyone is encouraged to express whatever they feel. If anything, Banner is punished for trying not to express all the nasty feelings he has inside. Yet his Id is of the adolescent kind. He's like the comics-lovin' nerd who reads The Hulk as his imaginitive release for pent-up rage against his parents, his teachers, the school bullies, and everyone who has looked at him and thought, "Puny weakling."Case closed. Five cents, please.And go watch HULK. Great acting, directing, editing, cinematography, scoring, and action. If you don't enjoy it, you just might need therapy. Video6344@blogcritics.org Fri, 20 Jun 2003 06:08:17 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/05/18/040709.php Flea RoscaNo one can be told what The Matrix is... So go watch it first, if you are one of the 0.0001% of the planet who hasn't seen it. Okay, now you know that The Matrix envisions a future where machines have enslaved humanity with the help of an illusory dreamworld in which everyone only imagines being alive in the 20th century. You also know that the Matrix films cause coffeehouse philosophers to go "whubba-ding-ding-ding" inside their heads with all the notions the films raise about free will, truth, and the nature of reality.But it's not like The Matrix is the only dystopian cinematic vision that encourages widespread navel-gazing. Let's have a look at other films of a similar bent:The anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion is, like The Matrix, chockfull of allusions to Christianity, and has also generated much philosophical mumbo-jumbo. This work by Hideaki Anno depicts a future Tokyo in the aftermath of a worldwide cataclysm known as the Second Impact. A mysterious agency called NERV is tasked with protecting humanity from the mysterious, powerful beings called Angels who periodically attack our world for inexplicable reasons. A boy called Ikari Shinji, along with other children who are able to pilot the Eva robots are the lone saviors that stand against the Angels and the utter destruction of humanity from the feared Third Impact.Evangelion is concerned with the themes of identity, sacrifice, the role of the individual within society, the past as the determinant of one's fate, and the question of what it truly means to be human. Though in the end it lacks true profundity, it is refreshing to find a commercial animated work that even skims the surface of such philosophical issues. And the series draws us into the lives of its characters, so that Shinji, Rei, Asuka and Misato become people we deeply care about, to the point that it pains us to watch their suffering.Another animated fantasy, Wizards from Ralph Bakshi, imagines a future nuclear wasteland where the magic-wielding forces of good must go up against the technologically proficient forces of evil... a scenario uncannily similar to The Matrix's, yet portrayed in a completely different (and much less violent) style. The ironic ending suggests that technology will win the day one way or another -- another theme omnipresent in the computer-wizard world of The Matrix.If you think The Matrix: Reloaded raised some fascinating issues about free will, you should watch Terry Gilliam's underappreciated 12 Monkeys. A virulent plague has decimated the human race and driven the few survivors to a bleak existence in an underground netherworld. A reluctant hero named Cole (Bruce Willis) is sent to the past to prevent the terrorist act that led to the spread of the virus... or is that truly the purpose of his mission? Dark, disturbing, with a plot that will have your mind going in circles, 12 Monkeys brings up the question of whether free will is an illusion and we are not masters of our fate... as well as posing a time-travel paradox that's deliciously infernal in its absurdity.Another dystopian vision that deals with the free will issue comes from Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange: In a totalitarian future England, the violence-loving Alex (Malcolm McDowell) is imprisoned and forced to undergo a treatment that subdues his free will. Any attempt to act in a violent manner instantly makes him sick and weakly. The film suggests that a man deprived of the freedom to do evil has no freedom at all, and hence is no longer a man (something later alluded to in our time by the headchip-enslaved Spike of Buffy the Vampire Slayer).Last but not least, every Matrix fan should watch David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, one of my favorite movies of all time. Unlike the other films, this one is set in a dystopian present -- specifically, the dystopia of mundane reality as compared to the paradaisacal Oz of the Hollywood Dream. Bizarre, unsettling, and truly extraordinary, Mulholland Drive casts a disturbing vision of what it means to live in a dream and what happens when you Wake Up. Video5389@blogcritics.org Sun, 18 May 2003 04:07:09 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/05/17/225006.php Flea RoscaThe Matrix: Reloaded is a great big, dumb movie in the history of big, dumb movies. I know this because i was gripping my seat as i watched the intense freeway chase between Trinity, Morpheus and the Twins. I was transfixed, enraptured by the high-speed action taking place before my eyes.And then the screen abruptly went blank. The film reel stopped, and the house lights came on. I felt dazed, like a someone rudely awakened from a hyperreal dream.I had literally been unplugged from The Matrix.That's the power of the movie, entrapping you in its own dream world of relentless superhuman action, with some of the most stylish and breathtaking scenes ever filmed -- Trinity's freefall shoot-out, the "big brawl," the freeway chase. I was thrilled, and i thoroughly enjoyed myself. Still, it wasn't enough. This was one hell of a big, dumb movie... but when you think about how smart the first one was, you can't help but be a tad disappointed.The original The Matrix was brilliant in its tapping of two core fantasies of the human psyche. The first part of the movie is the ultimate paranoid nightmare, drawn from the fear that (a) reality isn't what we think it is, and (b) there's a malevolent conspiracy to keep everyone under control. The second part plunges into an even more powerful fantasy: the narcissistic dream that "I am special, and the rules don't apply to me, even if they do to everyone else." That's not even going into the film's overt allusions to the bible and Greek mythology.Reloaded, however, explores the overused fantasy of "Love conquers all" -- and not in any original way, either. The movie is also about the idea of "choice," and this is hammered into our head so constantly we just want to put up our hands and say, "We get it, okay? It's all about choice! Now get on with it!" We came to see a movie, not a lecture in philosophy.The movie's thrill ride is also lessened because we, the audience, have become jaded. I remember the first time i watched The Matrix, how i was awestruck at watching Trinity's 360-rotated flying kick, and Neo experiencing "bullet time." Those were cool effects, and revolutionary for their time. Since then they've been copied in everything from Charlie's Angels to Shrek. Reloaded gives us some fantastic action sequences, but nothing as revolutionary as bullet time. The "big brawl" is fun but too gimmicky, too videogame-ish. Watching all of the effects sequences, you get the distinct feeling that the Wachowskis had a strong need to top themselves. Well, they didn't, because they made the mistake of focusing on cool effects instead of telling us a better story. Hasn't Star Wars taught them anything?SPOILER WARNING: If you haven't watched The Matrix: Reloaded, you are advised not to read beyond this point.And the acting in Reloaded is quite laughable. Laurence Fishburne especially is a big disappointment. In The Matrix, his Morpheus was compelling and full of intrigue. In Reloaded, he comes off like a crazed religious fanatic, and i for one cannot understand why the council has so much respect for such a nutcase. About the only person in the movie who can act is Gloria Foster, the Oracle. Her scene arrives like a breath of fresh air, a sublime moment in the midst of such mediocre performances. And, well, i guess The Merovingian wasn't half bad, either.Speaking of The Merovingian, here is a monumentally wasted character. Here we have a brilliant and fascinating villain, who has the potential to be the Lex Luthor to Neo's Superman. He has the power to do magnificently evil deeds, say, manipulating Trinity's emotions and moving her to kill Neo. Do we see anything like that? No, he just looses his goons upon Neo. The Merovingian could have been so much more.Instead, we get Agent Smith, Agent Smith, Agent Smith. Where he was so deliciously menacing in the first film, here he's just boring. Okay, so he can multiply, big deal. Can he do long division? Whatever. We all know he can't beat Neo. What is he still doing in the Matrix anyway? In the first movie, he said he hated the place, couldn't wait to get out of there... now he's back? Even the Batman flicks knew enough to give us new villains with every new movie. Well, The Matrix is basically a movie about superheroes. That implies a need for supervillains. We do get the Twins, who are cool... but not much else. What Neo and his gang requires are worthy opponents.It would have been a way cooler film if Neo had fulfilled the promise he made in the first film, and become a digital Christ, performing miracles as he traveled throughout the Matrix, getting more and more humans to wake up, and always keeping one step ahead of the machines who want to shut him down. In fact, Neo could, with a touch, turn an Agent into a bouquet of flowers, even cast mountains into the sea. That's how powerful he really is... his mojo is bettah than anybody's kung-fu. Yeah, but he wants to play kung-fu anyway. Wachowski brothers, the kung-fu was cool in The Matrix way back when, but nowadays every action movie has kung-fu in it. If you had to have kung-fu, maybe it should've been between martial artists flying through the sky. In other words, show us something we haven't seen before. That's what we've come to expect from The Matrix.It's not that i don't like Reloaded. Like i said, it's great for a big, dumb movie. But when you compare it to The Matrix... that film was a landmark, a science fiction classic. This one, it's just another bump on the road. Video5386@blogcritics.org Sat, 17 May 2003 22:50:06 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/04/30/222752.php Flea RoscaX-2 is not a sequel to the X-Men movie. X-2 is the X-Men movie, whatever came before was just an intro. That said, it's impossible not to compare this film with The Empire Strikes Back -- darker, looser, more action-packed than the original, with an ending that's not so happy but nevertheless hopeful.Wolverine is still the main star, as he well should be. (At one point Magneto mocks Logan by saying, "You always think it's about you!" Joke's on you, Eric... It is about him.") I don't know how Hugh Jackman does it, but onscreen he simply transforms into Wolvie -- just the right hint of toughness, without becoming vicious; this is a noble savage cradling a tender soul. It's ironic that the main villain Stryker keeps calling Wolverine an "animal" -- along with Nightcrawler, he's the most human character in the film.Alan Cumming, as Nightcrawler, steals the show every scene he's in. I'm already practicing my impression: "Kurt Wagner. But in the circus I was known as The Amazing Nightcrawler!" The opening scene, in which Nightcrawler attacks the White House, is a fluid and breathtaking set-piece of action filmmaking.Jean Grey also becomes a major player, with a storyline that deals with the evolution of her powers. Actually, everyone gets a chance to strut their stuff... we get to see Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Pyro, and Magneto explode in masterful displays of ability. We also get to see a lot more mutants from the comics. I won't name them here, the surprise of recognizing a familiar character is one of the great joys of the movie.Unfortunately, Rogue is woefully underused -- the Blackbird jet gets more to do! And we don't get to see her slink around in the leather costume she wears in the promos. Even her "romance" with Iceman leaves me cold. Well, it's not like the two of them can do anything, right?However, do keep your eye on Pyro, easily the most interesting of the mutant kids. X-2 isn't perfect. There's just too much happening, leaving little room for meaningful character development. And if there's one thing this movie doesn't carry over from the first, it's the heart. We never get a chance to really sympathize with the characters, except for Nightcrawler who's naturally engaging (but his storyline has no major conflict anyway, so what's the point?). Storm, in particular, is very poorly depicted in terms of motivation and conflict. Still, this is the kind of stuff that you think about only after the movie.After all, we are in comic-book land. Yes, X-Men has dark and serious themes, but in the end it's all about a wild and fun ride. And that's what this movie gives you... in spades. Video4985@blogcritics.org Wed, 30 Apr 2003 22:27:52 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/29/003940.php Flea RoscaSteve Martin, host of the Academy Awards. Does anyone find it odd that the former "jerk" is now a respectable choice to host Hollywood's biggest bash?I guess not. After all, while Steve Martin like many comics first made his mark with slapstick and silliness, nobody wants to be Jerry Lewis forever. Heck, Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler are doing drama now, and Robin Williams is playing villains. Villains!Still, I have to say I miss Steve Martin the "wild and crazy guy" of comedy classics The Jerk, All of Me, and The Man With Two Brains. It's just not the same seeing him in tame comedies like Father of the Bride, which has managed to leave no trace in my memory save of Martin Short as the obnoxious wedding planner.Maybe Steve Martin is getting nostalgic himself, as I hear he's gone back to physical comedy in Bringing Down the House, which I haven't seen yet. Well, that movie (co-starring Queen Latifah) was a phenomenal box-office success, so maybe Martin will get a little crazy again in his "old age."But if not, we still have Steve Martin the writer, who gave us that superb Cyrano tale Roxanne and that more recent Hollywood send-up Bowfinger. There's more way than one to be "wild and crazy." Video4194@blogcritics.org Sat, 29 Mar 2003 00:39:40 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/28/225527.php Flea RoscaFrom the time I first heard it, I hated "Lovefool." I counted it one of those unbearably catchy tunes that tends to get stuck in your brain for ages of unrelenting torture.Fortunately, one day someone made me listen to the Cardigans' albums Life and First Band on the Moon. And "Lovefool" notwithstanding, I became an instant convert, quickly spreading the word among my friends with the fervor of a missionary among pagans.I almost like "Lovefool" today. It helped that I discovered the beautiful Puck version of "Lovefool," which I find vastly superior to the album version.Anyway, I'm here to talk about the new Cardigans album, Long Gone Before Daylight. It is a clear departure from the bleak trip-hop/pop of their last album, Gran Turismo. But it's not an erase/rewind back to the whimsical groove-pop of their early career. In Long Gone Before Daylight, the Cardigans once again take a new tack with country- and folk-tinged pop songs, all of which seem to deal with love. Not happy or sappy love, however. Nina Persson has penned a notebookful of sad lyrics for this outing. But the album isn't terribly sad. It's sweet yet melancholy. It conjures the sensation of walking through a lonely but picturesque landscape.Nina Persson's glassy, fluid voice is both warmly expressive and coolly restrained -- a feat that's most apparent in songs like "And Then You Kissed Me," a dark tale of domestic violence sung in the style of a romantic ballad.Other standouts are "Communication," "You're the Storm," "Feathers & Down," and the first single, "For What It's Worth." And though it's a bit repetitive, I love the plaintive last song, "No Sleep," Nina Persson's lullaby to the world.And though some songs are not as memorable or interesting, there are really no awful tracks. It's a great album of beautiful music. Some early Cardigans fans may not forgive them for trying a more radio-friendly approach here. I too miss their old sound, which feels more submerged in Long Gone Before Daylight. But I think the new album remains a worthy effort, and if it brings the Cardigans a commercial success they haven't seen since "Lovefool," that would be wonderful and well-deserved.My only disappointment is that Nina Persson still sports the black hair she wore on A Camp, her solo project with members of Sparklehorse. I have nothing against dark-haired girls... it's just that to me Nina Persson was the epitome of the cool and beautiful Swedish blonde. Some things just shouldn't change. Music4193@blogcritics.org Fri, 28 Mar 2003 22:55:27 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/03/22/234355.php Flea RoscaWith war-torn Baghdad so much on everyone's minds these days, I thought it would be interesting to have a look at a different Baghdad: a city of caliphs and flying carpets. I'm talking about the Baghdad of the Arabian Nights, as depicted in Neil Gaiman's Sandman #50, "Ramadan."The Baghdad of "Ramadan" is rich, ornate, and magnificent, and at its center is the marvelous palace of caliph Haroun Al-Raschid. In this comic book's delightfully lush introduction, we discover the palace's hidden treasures and dark secrets, and read about such wonders as the winged horse of glass and the other egg of the phoenix. But even the streets of Baghdad are rich in wonders, and in its marketplace we find apes, exotic birds, and half-human slaves.The story is about how Haroun Al-Raschid summons up the Lord of Dreams and convinces him to take the Golden Age of Baghdad "into dreams" where it shall last forever. But more than that, "Ramadan" is a story about storytelling. Hints of stories upon stories can be found in nearly every panel of the comic, from the throw-away mention of a doomed hunchback to a pair of plums that is accompanied by a tale left untold. The very last page reveals that the whole tale was being told by an old beggar to a lame little boy, who then limps away through a Baghdad of bombed-out rubble, but with his mind filled with "towers and jewels and djinn, carpets and rings and wild afreets, kings and princes and cities of brass."And so we are confronted with the question: which is the true Baghdad? The fantastical paradise of the beggar's tale? Or the real-world city torn asunder by war? From there we must then ask, what is the purpose of storytelling anyway? Is it merely an escape from reality? Or does fantasy have an intrinsic value, simply as art? Could it even have insidous uses? (It is possible to view Haroun Al-Raschid as a tyrant who promotes a lavish fantasy of his city to hide the cruelty of his reign hinted at by its dungeons and executions -- though I doubt that was Gaiman's intention.)There are no clear answers... but there is a hint. At one point, Haroun Al-Raschid threatens to destroy a crystal globe full of demons, which upon escaping would destroy the minds and dreams of humankind. Fortunately, the Lord of Dreams prevents the disaster. It seems that Gaiman is making the point that the end of dreams -- and of stories -- would as great a tragedy as any war, if not greater. After all, it is our ability to dream and to re-imagine the world through storytelling that makes us human. A world of purely matter-of-fact, objective reality would not be a world worth living in.Yet to this day the world's storytellers and "imagineers" remain insecure about their contribution to the world. It's not enough just to be a actor or musician anymore -- one must be associated with a cause like world hunger or AIDS. And celebrities are boycotting the Oscars because they think a whole show devoted to cinema is something "frivolous" in a time of war. Perhaps they haven't watched best picture nominee The Pianist, which is about the Holocaust.And perhaps they don't realize that without the culture and arts that express the dreams and yearnings of a people, there wouldn't be anything worth fighting for. Books4013@blogcritics.org Sat, 22 Mar 2003 23:43:55 EST