Culture and Cleopatra

There are a couple of -- shall I say “eejits?” -- on WEEI sports radio. I come downstairs every morning to Marty listening to them on the radio. I end up having to turn them off (Marty’s more tolerant than I am, but even he agrees they’re pathetic). Every once in a while, they will say something intelligent and sensitive like when they speak of the dignity, courtesy and class of the Japanese in the wake of their earthquake tragedies. Sometimes, they’ll know a little about the sports they’re covering (besides, it’s usually rehashing old news we’re sick of hearing). Mostly, they veer off topic into politics (I’m not even going there) and last week culture, namely movie culture. Elizabeth Taylor had died the day before. According to the boys, epic films such as Ben Hur and Cleopatra, in “the context of their era” were tops for their time…BUT writing and movies are soooo much better now! I beg your pardon??!!

Now, people are entitled to opinions their educated  opinions but nowadays we don’t have to use our imaginations as we did in years past. While costuming and set designs for period pieces may have been less than authentic, the dialogue contrived, there have been many movies we’ve watched when I marvel at the creativity and resourcefulness of the director, the amazing writing (Mae West was phenomenal), the crew and so on. I enjoy the power of suggestion rather than graphic and explicit visuals -- with creative innuendo, styling and so on, I can figure the message out for myself and I actually enjoy it that way. Kind of like when you read a book and you create images in your mind (the way you want them) -- I like doing my own imagining, casting characters, visualizing scenes and so on. Sometimes, it’s just plain disappointing when Hollywood does too much imagining for me. I can think creatively and imagine for myself. It keeps my brain strong and limber.

** Image source