The Apostrophe Blog
I have been watching, for the first time, the film, The Battle of Algiers. Palme d’Or and vintage 1966. I started my viewing the night of the 2025 Grammys, the only shallow awards show I do not watch because (for starters) there are way too many categories. I am, however, aware of and grateful that Beyoncé won big last night for her album, Cowboy Carter. She deserves her accolades and more. The roots of most vernacular music in the United States are in Black culture and that truly deserves to be acknowledged—and then some. And I love that Taylor Swift, who truly seems like a reliable ally, was cheering for Beyoncé big-time.
The Battle of Algiers “concentrates mainly on revolutionary fighter Ali La Pointe during the years between 1954 and 1957, when guerrilla fighters of the FLN went into Algiers. Their actions were met by French paratroopers attempting to regain territory. The highly dramatic film is about the organization of a guerrilla movement and the illegal methods, such as torture, used by the French to stop it. Algeria succeeded in gaining independence from the French, which Pontecorvo addresses in the film’s epilogue.”
The film makes one hope for the ascendancy of a resistance.
But that is not what the story is now/here. We are, unfortunately, now/here in the battle for the future of this country. And it is going to take more than a few pop songs to get us out of this mess. Today I wrote nastygrams to my two Oregon Senators and the doctor who is my representative in the supine US Congress. Will any of this help? I do not know. I am trying to bear witness to now/here. I suppose we all got complacent, relying on reliability for far too long, assuming rationality would rule over, take the day, win? This madness so obviously now upon the land? Unfamiliar, chaotic, troubling, very, very wrong. It is beyond difficult to see how this foolishness plays out. I am not terribly optimistic…
Interests: Reading, writing, not arithmetic. The art and craft of poetry. Photography. Vegetable and flower gardening especially heirloom bulbs and dahlias. Movies in real theatres. Theatre on real stages. Art in real galleries. Crossword puzzles and, of course, Wordle. Singer-songwriters like Aimee Mann and Patti Griffin. All kinds of music especially 1930s jazz. Venice, Italy! The Dude abides.
- Keep on reading in the free (for now) world… - February 12, 2025
- Publication News: Passager - February 10, 2025
- Metaphor? The Battle of Algiers - February 4, 2025
