Astoria is Gatsby Country

I just finished rereading The Great Gatsby and discovered that Astoria, home of Fort Eddy, is in Gatsby country. In fact much of the action of the book consists of the characters flitting between East and West Eggs and Manhattan, always passing through Astoria. In this passage, where Nick and Gatsby are cruising in Gatsby's soon-to-be-notorious yellow convertible on their way downtown for a lunch with the gangster Wolfsheim, Astoria is mentioned specifically:

With fenders spread like wings we scattered light through half
Astoria--only half, for as we twisted among the pillars of the
elevated I heard the familiar "jug--jug--SPAT!" of a motor cycle, and a
frantic policeman rode alongside.

"All right, old sport," called Gatsby. We slowed down. Taking a white
card from his wallet he waved it before the man's eyes.

"Right you are," agreed the policeman, tipping his cap. "Know you next
time, Mr. Gatsby. Excuse ME!"

A few moments later they are crossing the Queensboro Bridge, in the southern end of Astoria, and Nick waxes poetic about the view:

Over the great bridge, with the sunlight through the girders making a
constant flicker upon the moving cars, with the city rising up across the
river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of
non-olfactory money. The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always
the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the
mystery and the beauty in the world.

Much later in the novel Nick finds himself, oddly, in Gatsby's car, but being driven by Tom Buchanan, in the exact same locale:

Instinct made him step on the accelerator with the double purpose of overtaking Daisy and leaving Wilson behind, and we sped along toward Astoria at fifty miles an hour, until, among the spidery girders of the elevated, we came in sight of the easygoing blue coupé.

After a disastrous afternoon at the Plaza Hotel, Daisy and Gatsby leave in his car and, after passing through Astoria again, Daisy runs down Tom's lover and seals Gatsby's fate.

Presumably they drive back and forth on the Northern Road, which swings not too far from the Fort's precincts.

Of Gods and Men Embodies the Challenge of Faith

In the mid-1990s nine Trappist monks who have been living the religious life in Algeria must decide if they will stay or leave their monastery in the face of violent Islamist terrorism. They have lived in perfect harmony with the village Muslims, providing a medical clinic for them and selling their produce at the village market; the villagers depend on the presence of the monastery. The movie is focused on their difficult decision to leave or remain. The monks truly seem to love each other and to take succor from their faith. There are several devastating scenes: the monks continuing their chanted service as a helicopter hovers a few yards from the monastery, the monks debating whether to leave around a table, the monks drinking a glass of wine while listening to an excerpt of Swan Lake, wordlessly enjoying the moment of brotherhood and beauty.

Of Gods and Men is one of the most powerful films about faith, responsibility, and the religious life I have seen. All the acting is wonderful, but of special note is Lambert Wilson (last seen as the evil Merovingian in the Matrix) as the doctor monk. He brings a dignified humanity to the role. Some warnings: it's in French with subtitles, it has one scene of horrific violence (otherwise the violence all occurs off screen), and it does not end happily. It is based on true events. Of Gods and Men is a very unusual and intelligent film, as good as anything I've seen in a while. I recommend it highly.

Nowhere Boy: Pretty Good Film About Young John Lennon

Despite its ill-advised title, Nowhere Boy is worth seeing for anyone who is a Beatle fan (anyone over 18 that is--it has a couple of John's precocious "romantic" encounters). The focus of the plot is on the conflict between John's mother, who apparently turned him over to her sister as a small boy, and the sister. The mother seems a bit over the top, but the uptight Aunt Mimi is perfectly played by Kristin Scott Thomas, who makes a potential cartoon into a fully rounded and sympathetic character largely on the basis of her wonderfully expressive face. The kid who plays John (Aaron Johnson) is pretty good, but John is such a mixed bag at this point (part loyal son, part creep) that he's hard to get your head around. And, yes, it does include the epoch-making scene where John and Paul meet--happily understated, and the unfolding relationship of 17-year-old John and the 15-year-old Paul very nicely done. Has anybody else seen this?

Labels

We relics of the Counter Culture instinctively rebel against labels. But some labels are our friends--like the labels on this site. Try clicking on one of the labels at the bottom of any post; you'll see all the posts that mention That person or topic. Over in the sidebar I've used that label technology to produce two lists, one which will provide you with all the posts naming the individual Eddy, and another showing all the posts about a particular field of creative activity, say "Music."

Authors must provide labels. As you post items, I hope you'll use the labels box at the bottom left of the editing screen so we can have a nice index to the site. Feel free to add new names and activites. (If you've lost you're invitation to become an author, let me know and I'll resend it.)

Tweeting Ulysses

June 16 is celebrated worldwide as Bloomsday, the day that James Joyce's fictional protagonist Leopold Bloom wandered about Dublin like the wandering Ulysses who became the title of Joyce's celebrated and beloved novel. This year fans of Ulysses decided to celebrate the novel not just by reading it aloud, as is the practice, but to "recast" it as thousands of tweets. Read more here.