Quote of the Day (John Sayles, on Music and Movies)

“Movies are visceral as well as intellectual. Unless you give someone a CD to listen while reading a book you don’t have the same experience you do with film, which allows you to use music in incredible ways.  In a movie you have this whole other thing you can do – rhythm [is] the spine of the story. I use music sparingly though and this is the reason some people come out of my films saying what was that. We don’t have wall-to-wall orchestral movie music telling them how to feel.   In doing that, I do lose some people but it’s really, really important to use music to support the story.” — Indie actor-screenwriter-director-novelist John Sayles interviewed by Antonio D’Ambrosio, “An Interview with John Sayles,” The Believer (Issue 61, March 2009)

Quote of the Day (Moliere, With Don Juan on How ‘To Do Anything I Want With Impunity’)

“If it happens that I am discovered, without my lifting a finger I’ll see the whole cabal espouse my interests and defend me in spite of and against anyone. In short, this is the real way to do anything I want with impunity. I shall set myself up as a censor of the actions of others, judge everyone harshly, and have a good opinion of no one but myself. If once anyone has offended me the least little bit, I shall never forgive, and shall very quietly retain an irreconcilable hatred. I shall play the avenger of Heaven’s interests, and, on that convenient pretext, harass my enemies, accuse them of impiety, and contrive to turn loose against them some undiscerning zealots who, without knowing what it’s all about, will raise a public outcry against them, load them with insults, and d—n them loudly by their own private authority. That’s the way to take advantage of men’s weaknesses, and for an intelligent mind to adapt itself to the vices of his day.” —French playwright, actor, and theater manager Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, aka Moliere (1622-1673), Don Juan, or, The Stone Guest (1665), translated by Donald Frame, in Tartuffe and Other Plays (1967)

In writing a play for his time, Moliere ended up creating a seriocomic parable for all times—but one that seems especially prescient for this troubled season in American history.

I couldn’t help sharing the astonishment of the spineless but sensible servant Sganarelle, who, after warning his master about a fearsome moving and talking statue that represents doom, hears Don Juan blithely reply, “hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtues.”

Every line in the above quote feels as if it could have been said now about a national figure who, whatever his other qualities, surely knows how to “take advantage of men’s weaknesses.”

(The image accompanying this post shows Andrew Weems as Sganarelle and Adam Stein as Don Juan in a production of Don Juan, which played in The Old Globe Theatre of San Diego from May 8 to June 13, 2004. It was directed by Stephen Wadsworth.)

Quote of the Day (Ralph Waldo Emerson, on Collective Action as a Source of Strength)

“Concert appears the sole specific of strength. I have failed, and you have failed, but perhaps together we shall not fail.” — American philosopher, essayist, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), “New England Reformers,” in Essays: Second Series (1844)

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Gospel of Mark, on the Faith of the Blind Beggar)

“And they came to Jericho; and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude, Bartimae′us, a blind beggar, the son of Timae′us, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent; but he cried out all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ And Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; rise, he is calling you.’ 50 And throwing off his mantle he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ And the blind man said to him, ‘Master,[h] let me receive my sight.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Go your way; your faith has made you well.’ And immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.”—Mark 10: 46-52 (Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition)

I searched YouTube for the late British actor Alec McCowen’s legendary solo performance of the Gospel of Mark, hoping to find a snippet containing this passage, among the most startling of this shortest of the four canonical accounts of the life of Christ. Though I found this excellent “best of” clip from that show, it did not include the story of the blind beggar.

I see, however, that Amazon sells a DVD of this performance from 1990. Reviews indicate that the quality of its reformatting for DVD is a bit sketchy. But if you can put up with that, I would hope that you can experience this remarkable moment in the life of Christ with all the drama it deserves.

(The image accompanying this post, The Healing of the Blind Bartimaeus, is an oil-on-panel painting from the workshop of Fernando Gallego, a Spanish Renaissance artist active from 1543 to 1565.)

Quote of the Day (Joseph Pulitzer, on a ‘Public-Spirited Press’ and Public Virtue)

“Our Republic and its press will rise or fall together. An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery. A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself. The power to mould the future of the Republic will be in the hands of the journalists of future generations.”—Hungarian-born American newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911), “The College of Journalism,” North American Review, May 1904

Quote of the Day (Filmmaker Nancy Meyers, on Boys and Girls Growing Up in the Oprah Era)

“When my daughters were growing up, Oprah was on TV every day at three o’clock pushing girls forward. Meanwhile, boys fell in love with video games. These boys turned into men who wear hoodies and don’t shave. I think there is a reluctance to embrace adulthood.” —Film director-screenwriter (What Women Want) Nancy Meyers interviewed by Eliana Dockterman for “7 Questions: Nancy Meyers,” Time Magazine, October 5, 2015

The image accompanying this post, showing Nancy Meyers at the Screenwriting Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center hosted by Creative Screenwriting magazine, was taken Nov. 16, 2008, by thedemonhog.

TV Quote of the Day (‘Yes, Minister,’ on Public Subsidies for the Arts)

James Hacker [played by Paul Eddington, left]: “Why should the rest of the country subsidize the pleasures of the middle-class few? Theater, opera, ballet—subsidizing art in this country is nothing more than a middle-class rip-off!”

Sir Humphrey Appleby [played by Nigel Hawthorne, right]: “Oh, minister—how can you say such a thing? Subsidy is about education preserving the pinnacles of our civilization, or haven't you noticed?”

Hacker: Don't patronize me, Humphrey. I believe in education, too. I’m a graduate of the London School of Economics, may I remind you?”

Humphrey: “Well, I'm glad to learn that even the LSE is not totally opposed to education!”—Yes, Minister, Season 3, Episode 7, “The Middle-Class Rip-Off,” original air date Dec 23, 1982, teleplay by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, directed by Peter Whitmore