Ahira's Hangar

It makes me really glad I have the "untouched" originals on VHS.

Some of the mods do make sense - I do not mind Jabba in A New Hope because that scene adds to Han's backstory, and adds to the sense of the danger he is in from Jabba.

But I hate the substitution of teen emo Ani for the normal looking middle aged man Ani - you can see what he would have looked like if he had become the Jedi Master he could have been had he not chosen the Dark Side. And why would he show him as an emo teen when Obiwan and Yoda are shown as they were when they died rather than as youths?

Watched a terrific PBS special called Cinema's Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood. It followed the story of Jews in Germany's film industry - many of whom were that country's best talents - who were forced to flee when the Nazis came to power, and who then came to America and settled in Hollywood to begin anew. The program looked at their struggles adapting to Hollywood, and their overall impact on American cinema. I learned that perhaps the biggest impact of the Jewish exiles was their central role in the creation of that quintessential American genre: the film noir. Those films' bleak urban settings and dark outlook were arguably a direct reflection of the Jews' harrowing experiences back in Nazi-occupied Europe.

A great program for film buffs, history buffs, and students of that "Golden Age" of the Hollywood studio system.

I saw the same special and it could have been on New Year's night, and it was excellent. NOirish elements they brought to US filmmaking were as much attributable to how they learned to make movies in their early days in Germany. Examples, those elements can be seen in Metropolis, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu which all predate the political troubles in Germany.

Regardless, the special is highly recommended to anyone with an interest in film history or social history of cinema.

We've been watching The Presidents miniseries on the History channel. I have been learning quite a bit about some of the more obscure ones.

Monday night, PBS's Great Performances series presented a 90-minute documentary on the late great conductor Herbert von Karajan, entitled Karajan: Or Beauty As I See It. It was an illuminating program that featured footage of Karajan I had never seen before, such as family vacation movies and rehearsals for his ambitious production of Wagner's Ring cycle. The program took a sympathetic view of Karajan for the most part. It briefly recounted his membership in the Nazi party during the 30's, as well as the bitterness of his last years with the Berlin Philharmonic. Mainly the doc focused on Karajan's obsession with musical perfection, or performance perfection.

Ever since I was first exposed to Karajan's style via his recordings of Beethoven's symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic, I was fascinated by this man - the conductor and the legend around him. If I could use a geeky analogy, I saw Karajan as the High Lord Kevin of his time. During his heyday in the 60's and 70's, he had amassed considerable clout, to the point that he was called the "music director of Europe." Then in the 80's Karajan suffered a stroke, which symbolically signalled his decline. The Berliners came to resent his tyranny over them, so in the last years of his life Karajan spent time instead with the Vienna Philharmonic.

Regarding Karajan's Nazi past, I think it very unfair when detractors dismiss him as just that - a Nazi - as if that was the sum of his existence. He wasn't a soldier, he wasn't bombing cities and killing Jews. He was just a conductor - albeit a damn good one. As I understand him, Karajan joined the party out of musical ambition, the ambition to have an orchestra of his own. Nothing more and nothing less. If he were truly a nefarious Nazi as his detractors would like us to believe, then one would have expected him to become a Holocaust denier or to constantly spew anti-Semitic rants. But the only thing Karajan did after the war - the only thing he had ever constantly, consistently done - was to make beautiful music with an orchestra. Music was his whole life. So I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, versus the detractors.

Ken Burns's latest epic documentary series The National Parks: America's Best Idea begins tonight! Watching the opening episode right now.

I'll watch via the PBS video online portal when they start putting full episodes up tomorrow night.
I'm finding not having a converter box isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Very good, Menolly. What can I say? It was an awesome two hours of viewing. I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

I was at work last night but sure wish I could have seen it. Ken Burns makes great documentaries!

Ooo...

The has links to deleted scenes from the documentary and an area called "Untold Stories", as well as the full length episodes the day after each airs...