Tag: Videos

Movies, Shows, Interviews Dwight 

Jacqueline du Pré: Genius and Tragedy (PBS)

At the risk of sounding like I’m shilling for yet another PBS show, I highly recommend Jacqueline du Pré: Genius and Tragedy currently on PBS. Narrator Yo-Yo Ma describes du Pré as the “greatest instrumentalists of the 20th century.” While obviously a debatable opinion, her virtuosity on the cello is not. Some of the descriptions […]

Miscellaneous Dwight 

Fourth of July, X (1986 Farm Aid)

2020 strikes again. We were to go rafting in Hell’s Canyon this coming week, but a rockslide closed the only direct road to it (from our direction). I’ve already been to Hell (Grand Caymans) and the Gates of Hell (Stanford campus), so I was looking forward to Hell’s Canyon. Hopefully later this year. On that […]

Movies, Shows, Interviews Dwight 

Available to watch

On Amazon Prime I stumbled across a couple of films based on Bohumil Hrabal’s writings that are available for free to Prime members. First was The Snowdrop Festival, directed by Jiří Menzel. As I mentioned in the post, it’s a quirky, fun movie with a strong undertow of poignancy. Menzel doesn’t capture the full complexity […]

Uncategorized Dwight 

The Minutemen unplugged

The Minutemen: Mike Watt, D. Boon, George Hurley I owe a debt of gratitude to Dangerous Minds for their post Minutemen Unplugged: Punk Legends’ Rollicking Acoustic Jam on Cable Access TV, 1985. Their post covers the important points of the short performance, although when I saw them in Dallas earlier that year (1985) their set […]

Uncategorized Dwight 

Hugh Kenner on Firing Line

I have had the above video open in a browser for several weeks without watching it. I wanted to see Hugh Kenner, but the topic title, “The Political Responsibility of Artists,” put me off. I finally screwed up the courage to watch and found it stimulating…I shouldn’t have let the title guide me. Kenner is […]

Uncategorized Dwight 

Great Battles Lecture: A Tale of Two City States: Quiriguá’s Victory over Copán in 738 CE

Honduran archaeologist Ricardo Agurcia Fasquelle, Executive Director of the Copán Association, presents this inaugural lecture in the Great Battles Series. Until recently scholars depicted the ancient Maya as a peaceful civilization devoid of warfare. This somewhat romantic notion has been overturned by evidence of a starker reality: during the Classic period (ca. 250—900 CE) an […]

Uncategorized Dwight 

Great Battles Lecture: Hannibal’s Secret Weapon in the Second Punic War

Dr. Patrick Hunt, Stanford University, speaks. Hannibal, a Carthaginian commander who lived ca. 200 BCE, is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history. His use of the environment in his warfare against Rome in the Second Punic War—often called the Hannibalic War—set precedents in military history, utilizing nature and weather conditions as weapons […]