Riff Van Wrinkle

Up at five because, hey, I’m a guy, and I’ve got kids whom I love and they need feeding; and I’ve got a pretty decent job that pays terribly, but which is more than a lot of my friends in finance and banking and law can say; and because in spite of my codependent relationship with them, I really love my students.   (It’s really a sort of hostage situation, but I’m not sure who’s in charge.)  

And football practice this afternoon, where kids come up against what they thought were their limits.  And then vomit on the ground and find they had a little more to give.  In more senses than one.

My daughter, The Nightmare Child, a few days ago was explaining her latest riffing on Star Wars.  I’ve forgotten what the specific riff was.  But our favorite is that scene where the Emperor tells Vader, “He will come before you, and you will bring him before me.”

Invariably this devolves into that scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the lord of the castle is explaining to the idiot guards how to guard the singing prince:

The Great Galactic Comedy DuoEMPEROR: He will come before you, and you will bring him before me.

DEEP-VOICED VADER:  Yes, Yes.  I see.  I will come before you, and you will bring him before me.

EMPEROR:  No, no.  He will come before you, and you will bring him before me.

VADER:  I will come before you, and he will bring you before me.

EMPEROR:  No, no, no!  Lord Vader.  Listen.  He will come before you, and you will bring him before me.

VADER:  Yes, of course…. You will come before him , and he will bring me before you.

And so on.  (This can go on quite a while.)

And my son’s all-time greatest hits include that scene where Gandalf falls from the bridge, white hair and beard swirling around him, and the camera shows Frodo’s mouth open in a silent scream that my kid fills in as, “Snape!  He trusted you!”

Let nobody say that I’ve raised useless citizens.

Alright, time to go be a man, with apologies to working women everywhere.

Hans-Georg Gadamer

Gadamer's aim was to describe how all of us read, all the time. Every text, from Star Wars to scriptures to poems to television shows, is generated in a context where author and audience share certain common fields of meaning.

Click to read more ...

Haiku Movie Review: The Entire Star Wars Series

In honor of having thought about Natalie Portman for a few seconds today, Riparian Church offers a tribute to his misspent youth: The Star Wars edition of the Haiku Movie Review.

Click to read more ...