A novel titled Slow Man (2005) written by J.M Coetzee reflects the paranoid toward society. Paranoid means being suspicious to other or society without clear reason and believing that others are trying to harm in some way. In this Novel, paranoid toward society is represented by the protagonist, Paul Rayment. He is a former photographer who lost his leg in the road accident. In this analysis, there are two actions conducted by protagonist about paranoid toward society. They are; refuse to take something that can change his appearance and hiding from society.
The reason protagonist refuse to take something that can change his appearance is he scare the society would mock him. The protagonist hates society because of he is a disable man. So do with the society, protagonist thinks the society would mock him as result of his disability. Therefore, the protagonist refuses to take some treatment and prosthesis because of he thinks he will be more different from the common human in society. He shows the projection about society after take some accident that can explained as his anxiety.
To hiding from society, the protagonist does not want to be famous with his photography works. He chooses to keep all of his old work with him and let another people discover his work after he dies. This action show the protagonist is afraid about mockery that comes from society. He is suspicious because the society would never accept him as the disable person. In his point of view, the society cannot accept someone who different with the majority people.
Showing posts with label literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label literature. Show all posts
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Cerita Kacau Slow Man (2005) dari J.M Coetzee
Di tulis oleh rianda hardi dewanta
Kecewa karena kehilangan kaki dan terkena kekerasan seara tidak langsung di rumah sakit membuat Paul ingin mencari cara menghindari kekecewaan tersebut. Ego yang dimiliki oleh Paul berusaha menyesuaikan diri dengan kekecewaan yang dialaminya tersebut bersamaan dengan tuntutan Id yang menginginkan kakinya untuk kembali lagi sehingga dapat melakukan kegiatan normal dan tuntutan Super Egonya yang menginginkan dirinya untuk menerima keadaan dan melanjutkan sisa hidupnya.
Cara Paul untuk menghindari kekecewaan tersebut dengan cara menghindari untuk berjalan kembali, menghindari untuk bertemu dengan teman – temannya dengan cara tidak menjual foto – foto bersejarah pada abad 19 yang dimilikinya dan menghindari ketakutan terbesarnya ketika menginginkan posisi suami di keluarga Jokic. penghindaran yang dilakukan Paul termasuk mekanisme pertahanan secara rasional atau logis. Hal ini dikarenakan ketakutan terbesar yang dimiliki paul adalah dirinya tidak ingin di olok – olok oleh orang lain karena dia hanya memiliki satu kaki dan tidak mampu melakukan hal apapun tanpa bantuan dari orang lain.
Dia tidak menginginkan lagi berjalan dikarenakan Paul meyakini bahwa dirinya akan di olok – olok dan di berikan julukan yang tidak disenanginya oleh masyarakat. Hal ini lah yang membangun ketakutan terbesarnya sehingga menghasilkan sebuah proyeksi terhadap masyarakat sekitarnya. Proyeksi bermakna ketika seseorang memikirkan bahwa dirinya tidak menyukai seseorang, pasti orang tersebut tidak juga menyukai dirinya. Belum tentu orang yang memberikan dirinya sebuah julukan yang tidak disukainya adalah orang yang membencinya. Hal ini dikarenakan mungkin saja orang tersebut menunjukkan kepeduliannya terhadap Paul dengan memberikan sebuah julukan sehingga masyarakat yang lebih luas peduli pada dirinya. Hal ini ditunjukkan dengan cara dia menolak tawaran menggunakan kaki palsu yang diberikan oleh tim medis terhadap dirinya karena dia takut beraktivitas seperti biasa dengan menggunakan hal yang baru dan dia takut masyarakat tidak menerimanya.
Paul tidak menginginkan bertemu dengan teman – temannya lagi. Dia sangat takut kalau teman – temannya tidak memiliki lagi rasa simpati terhadap dirinya sebagai orang yang cacat. Dia takut bahwa teman – temanya akan lebih menghindari dirinya sebagai orang yang cacat dan lemah. Dia tidak ingin terlihat seperti itu. Jelaslah bahwa Paul memiliki ketakutan terbesar dijauhi oleh teman – temannya. Oleh karena itu dia lebih memilih untuk menjauh dari teman – temannya dan tetap menjaga komunikasi dengan relasinya tersebut melalui telepon juga memilih untuk tidak bertemu secara tatap muka. Hal ini dapat dilihat dari kebiasaan barunya menceritakan tentang kuatnya dirinya kepada temannya Margaret dalam bertahan dalam menjalani kehidupan dengan satu kaki. Hal yang lain juga ditunjjukkan bahwa dia tidak ingin menjual koleksi foto – fotonya yang berharga kepada perpustakaan nasional karena dia tidak ingin teman – temannya berkunjung ke tempat tinggalnya dan melihat keaadaanya dengan kaki sebelah. Dengan kata lain dia tidak ingin menjadi terkenal karena dirinya takut teman – temannya akan menjauhi dirinya karena realitas yang ada membuat teman – temannya menjauh terhadap dirinya. Hal ini jelas menunjukkan sebuah proyeksi Paul terhadap teman – temannya. Dia tidak ingin terlihat tidak sempurna di hadapan relasinya. Karena dia takut relasinya tersebut tidak menyukai dirinya kembali dengan proses pertama dia tidak menyukai orang lain datang ketempat dia berada.
Ketika Paul sadar dia membutuhkan seseorang untuk merawat dirinya dia mendatangkan seorang perawat. Hal yang terjadi adalah dia jatuh hati kepada perawat yang telah bersuami dan memiliki tiga anak tersebut. Dia menyadari bahwa sebuah hal yang tidak mungkin untuk mengeliminasi posisi suami perawat itu denga cara langsung atau frontal. Jadi dia melakukannya dengan memberikan pengaruh terhadap keluarga perawat yang jelas tidak dia sukai itu dengan memberikan pinjaman yang cukup besar kepada keluarga perawat tersebut. Mengetahui hal itu suami perwat tersebut marah dan melampiaskan kemarahannya kepada istri dan anak – anaknya. Hal ini tidak disukai oleh paul dan dia pun berfikir suami perawat Itu juga tidak menyukai dirinya. Ternyata anggapan ini salah dikarenakan suami perawat itu tidak mempermasalahkan uangnya tapi dia mempermasalahkan pilihan yang dipilih oleh anak laki – lakinya dalam memilih tempat pendidikan yang menghilangkan sejarah asli dari negaranya.
Hal ini menujukkan sebuah tuduhan yang tidak jelas duduk permasalahannya sehingga Paul menaruh rasa tidak suka terhadap suami perawat tersebut. Berdasarkan ketidaksukaan itu dia berusaha menggantikan posisi suami perawat itu. Dia mencoba untuk menjadi sosok ayah bagi anak – anak perawat tersebut. Hal ini lah yang menjadi dasar proyeksi ego yang ada dalam diri paul yang menyebabkan dirinya menganggap suami perawat tidak menyukai dirinya didasari ketidaksukaan terhadap suami perawat tersebut.
Jadi Slow Man itu sendiri bermakna; proyeksi ego seseorang terhadap orang lain yang lambat laun membuat individu yang memiliki proyeksi ego tersebut terisolasi dari kehidupan social dan masyarakat. Hal ini membuat dirinya selalu menjadi orang yang skeptic atau orang yang berfikir setiap orang selalu tidak menyukai dirinya karena kekurangan dan kekecewaan yang dialaminya pada suatu waktu.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Desa Tanpa Kepala
Oleh: Rianda Hardi Dewanta
Dua hari setelah meninggalnya bapak kepala desa, Pak Edi dengan sigap langsung menulis , menggambar, memfotokopi, dan menyuruh orang – orang suruhannya menempel lembaran kertas tersebut di setiap tiang yang ada di desa dari ruangan yang di klaimnya sebagai ruangan kerjanya. Entah apa yang di buatnya, tetapi hal ini membuat warga desa terkagum – kagum karena di setiap tiang rumah mereka tertempel kertas – kertas yang berwarna merah itu. Mungkin di pikiran pak Edi supaya mudah di lihat dan diingat akan usahanya dalam membuat itu.
Jika di bilang bodoh, mayoritas dari anak – anak mereka telah mendapatkan gelar sarjana yang di bangga banggakan itu, sebagai tanda mereka telah pintar. Akan tetapi, mereka langsung menaggap Pak Edi sebagai seorang yang sangat hebat dan berkharisma. Sehingga semenjak saat itu Pak Edi langsung menjadi seperti dewa di Desa yang baru saja kehilangan kepalanya itu.
Saya jadi penasaran apakah yang ditulis oleh pak Edi yang ada di dalam kertas itu, ketika saya mau melihat, sungguh saya kehilangan kesempatan bukan karena tidak mampu, tapi tubuh ini yang tak mengizinkan. Saat saya akan melihat, selalu di halangi oleh tubuh – tubuh tinggi kekar bersepatu hitam dan tubuh yang berbau matahari. Sehingga saya tidak dapat membaca dengan jelas tulisan yang ada dalam kertas itu. Saya memang termasuk orang yang berpostur cukup kecil di desa ini jika dibandingkan dengan penduduk – penduduk yang lain.
Ketika saya menanyakan apa yang ada dikertas itu, mereka tidak mau memberi tahu saya. Karena mereka menganggap saya tidak bisa membaca. Tidak bisa membaca adalah sebuah hal yang sangat tabu di desa ini, karena mereka memiliki keturunan yang akan mengajarkan mereka cara membaca yang baik dan benar. Sesungguhnya mereka itu bisa membaca dikarenakan ada seorang ibu – ibu berhidung mancung, berkulit pucat dan bertopi aneh yang datang ke desa ini dan memaksa mereka untuk bisa membaca dengan baik dan benar sebagaimana orang – orang zaman sekarang bisa melakukannya dengan mudah.
Saya sungguh sedih ketika mengetahui kabar meninggalnya kepala desa di karenakan Tuberkolosis yang menular dari sapi tetangga. Kabar ini membuat saya berlari kehutan yang menurut orang – orang desa berhantu selama lima belas hari untuk menumpahkan kecewa, tapi saya tidak menemui seekorpun hantu di hutan ini. Sungguh aneh kepercayaan mereka yang sering beribadah dan menyembah Tuhan yang mereka percaya, tapi juga menuhankan akan hantu.
Sekembali dari hutan tersebutlah saya melihat orang desa berkumpul ramai sekali demi melihat dan membaca apa yang tertulis di kertas merah itu. Sampai – sampai saya tidak memiliki kesempatan untuk melihat warna tulisan yang ada di kertas yang berwarna merah itu. Sungguh terlalu.
Tiga hari berlalu tanpa ada kesempatan yang saya dapati. Akhirnya saya memiliki kesempatan dan membaca tulisan yang di tulis oleh pak Edi di kertas tersebut setelah pak Tono melakukan hal yang serupa dan membuat warga desa berbondong – bondong membaca tulisan pak Tono di ketras yang berwarna biru itu. Sungguh saya terkejut ternyata tulisan yang di tulis oleh pak Edi di dalam kertas merahnya adalah;
“ Pilih saya sebagai kepala desa, saya akan membuat ekonomi desa ini maju dengan memajukan administrasi penambahan biaya pertanian dan peternakan dengan pinjaman”.
Pantaslah warga desa membuat pak Edi seperti dewa karena uang yang dimiliki pak Edi di dalam pikiran mereka dapat membantu mereka dalam memajukan usaha masing –masing dengan dana pinjaman. Saya juga jadi tertarik. Saya teringat akan almarhum bapak Kepala desa, dia pasti tidak akan melakukan itu, saya yakin pasti ada akibat yang lumayan buruk apabila hal ini terjadi. Tapi apa boleh buat.
Setelah berselang tiga hari saya juga mendapatkan kesempatan untuk membaca kertas biru yang di tempelkan oleh Pak Tono. Ternyata pak Tono dengan indahnya menulis di kertas itu tulisan yang jika di bacakan akan berbunyi seperti ini,
“ saya percaya desa ini akan maju dan jaya seperti namanya nanti jika saya terpilih, maka saya akan membuka sebuah tempat wisata yang akan mendatangkan banyak devisa bagi Negara”.
Pantaslah warga desa menanggap Pak Tono seperti malaikat, ternyata dia adalah seseorang yang cinta bangsa dan mereka memanggilnya negarawan. Saya percaya, almarhum bapak kepala desa juga tidak akan melakukannya, pasti ada efek sampingnya.
Sungguh aneh desa yang kehilangan kepala ini, dahulu para warga bersatu padu untuk memajukan desa dan demi kesejahteraan mereka masing – masing. Tetapi sekarang mereka terbagi dua menjadi dua buah kubu yang mengkalim yaitu kubu merah dan kubu biru. Saya yakin pasti mereka menamainya di karenakan kertas yang di tulis oleh pak Edi dan pak Tono di setiap tiang yang ada di desa.
Sekarang desa saya tidak setentram dulu, dahulu anak – anak di desa saya sering melakukan pertandingan sepak bola, mereka menamainya pertandingan persahabatan. Sekarang mereka menamainya pertandingan adu kuat dalam lapangan. Dahulu di desa saya bapak – bapak sering melakukan ronda bersama, dangdutan orgen tunggal berjoget bersama. Sekarang mereka bisa hampir saling bunuh jika anggota kubu lain ketahuan bergabung untuk berpesta bersama kubu mayoritas yang sedang menggadakan pesta. Oh, bapak kepala desa, saya sungguh merindukan dirimu. OMBILAHOM
Setelah melihat keributan ini akhirnya bapak petinggi agama di desa saya turun lagsung kelapangan dengan tujuan mendamaikan kedua kubu ini dan menciptakan kerukunan seperti dulu. Tapi apa yang terjadi, mereka jadi megikuti kubu – kubu ini dikarenakan di bujuk oleh generasi penerus yang dianggap sangat pintar ini. Mereka di suruh memilih merah atau biru atau tidak ada teman. Sungguh.
Akhirnya titik terang pun muncul di ufuk timur. Saya masih bersukur tidak di ufuk barat. Pulanglah seorang anak muda yang baru lulus sarjana untuk kedua kalinya dari kota ke desa yang di cintainya. dia menemukan cara untuk menghilangkan perselisihan antara dua kubu ini dengan mengadakan pemilihan yang di lakukan oleh masyarakat desa, sehingga keselarasan tercipta. Tentunya calon kepala desa yang baru harus memenuhi syarat syarat yang ada.
Menurut saya ini lah cara yang paling jitu untuk menghilangkan perselisihan antara dua kubu ini, yaitu dengan syarat – syarat yang harus di penuhi oleh calon kepala desa. Orang yang baru pulang itu, saya lupa namanya membuat syarat – syarat yang langsung di setujui oleh warga desa. syarat – syaratnya seperti ini:
1. Memiliki kekayaan yang cukup
2. Berpengalaman dalam pemerintahan, baik organisasi atau apapun.
3. Memiliki disiplin yang tinggi.
4. Jeli melihat peluang demi kemajuan desa
5. Memiliki pengetahuan yang cukup akan desa dan seluk beluk isi baik secara fisik maupun social
6. TUA
Ket: jika salah satu syarat tidak terpenuhi, calon DILARANG mencalonkan diri sebagai kepala desa
Akhirnya kedua kubu ini pecah dan bersatu kembali di karenakan Pak Tono dan Pak Edi dianggap tidak mampu menduduki jabatan kepala desa ini. Mereka berdua tidak memenuhi salah syarat yang ada di dalam persyaratan tersebut yaitu; warga desa menganggap mereka masih muda dan layak untuk jadi orang yang memiliki pengalaman. Akan tetapi belum tentu TUA.
Sampai sekarang desa ini tidak memiliki kepala. Karena desa ini memiliki kepala pemerintahan yang di jabat oleh wakilnya dan sampai detik ini juga. Wasalam
Padang 27th July 2011
Rianda Hardi Dewanta
Dua hari setelah meninggalnya bapak kepala desa, Pak Edi dengan sigap langsung menulis , menggambar, memfotokopi, dan menyuruh orang – orang suruhannya menempel lembaran kertas tersebut di setiap tiang yang ada di desa dari ruangan yang di klaimnya sebagai ruangan kerjanya. Entah apa yang di buatnya, tetapi hal ini membuat warga desa terkagum – kagum karena di setiap tiang rumah mereka tertempel kertas – kertas yang berwarna merah itu. Mungkin di pikiran pak Edi supaya mudah di lihat dan diingat akan usahanya dalam membuat itu.
Jika di bilang bodoh, mayoritas dari anak – anak mereka telah mendapatkan gelar sarjana yang di bangga banggakan itu, sebagai tanda mereka telah pintar. Akan tetapi, mereka langsung menaggap Pak Edi sebagai seorang yang sangat hebat dan berkharisma. Sehingga semenjak saat itu Pak Edi langsung menjadi seperti dewa di Desa yang baru saja kehilangan kepalanya itu.
Saya jadi penasaran apakah yang ditulis oleh pak Edi yang ada di dalam kertas itu, ketika saya mau melihat, sungguh saya kehilangan kesempatan bukan karena tidak mampu, tapi tubuh ini yang tak mengizinkan. Saat saya akan melihat, selalu di halangi oleh tubuh – tubuh tinggi kekar bersepatu hitam dan tubuh yang berbau matahari. Sehingga saya tidak dapat membaca dengan jelas tulisan yang ada dalam kertas itu. Saya memang termasuk orang yang berpostur cukup kecil di desa ini jika dibandingkan dengan penduduk – penduduk yang lain.
Ketika saya menanyakan apa yang ada dikertas itu, mereka tidak mau memberi tahu saya. Karena mereka menganggap saya tidak bisa membaca. Tidak bisa membaca adalah sebuah hal yang sangat tabu di desa ini, karena mereka memiliki keturunan yang akan mengajarkan mereka cara membaca yang baik dan benar. Sesungguhnya mereka itu bisa membaca dikarenakan ada seorang ibu – ibu berhidung mancung, berkulit pucat dan bertopi aneh yang datang ke desa ini dan memaksa mereka untuk bisa membaca dengan baik dan benar sebagaimana orang – orang zaman sekarang bisa melakukannya dengan mudah.
Saya sungguh sedih ketika mengetahui kabar meninggalnya kepala desa di karenakan Tuberkolosis yang menular dari sapi tetangga. Kabar ini membuat saya berlari kehutan yang menurut orang – orang desa berhantu selama lima belas hari untuk menumpahkan kecewa, tapi saya tidak menemui seekorpun hantu di hutan ini. Sungguh aneh kepercayaan mereka yang sering beribadah dan menyembah Tuhan yang mereka percaya, tapi juga menuhankan akan hantu.
Sekembali dari hutan tersebutlah saya melihat orang desa berkumpul ramai sekali demi melihat dan membaca apa yang tertulis di kertas merah itu. Sampai – sampai saya tidak memiliki kesempatan untuk melihat warna tulisan yang ada di kertas yang berwarna merah itu. Sungguh terlalu.
Tiga hari berlalu tanpa ada kesempatan yang saya dapati. Akhirnya saya memiliki kesempatan dan membaca tulisan yang di tulis oleh pak Edi di kertas tersebut setelah pak Tono melakukan hal yang serupa dan membuat warga desa berbondong – bondong membaca tulisan pak Tono di ketras yang berwarna biru itu. Sungguh saya terkejut ternyata tulisan yang di tulis oleh pak Edi di dalam kertas merahnya adalah;
“ Pilih saya sebagai kepala desa, saya akan membuat ekonomi desa ini maju dengan memajukan administrasi penambahan biaya pertanian dan peternakan dengan pinjaman”.
Pantaslah warga desa membuat pak Edi seperti dewa karena uang yang dimiliki pak Edi di dalam pikiran mereka dapat membantu mereka dalam memajukan usaha masing –masing dengan dana pinjaman. Saya juga jadi tertarik. Saya teringat akan almarhum bapak Kepala desa, dia pasti tidak akan melakukan itu, saya yakin pasti ada akibat yang lumayan buruk apabila hal ini terjadi. Tapi apa boleh buat.
Setelah berselang tiga hari saya juga mendapatkan kesempatan untuk membaca kertas biru yang di tempelkan oleh Pak Tono. Ternyata pak Tono dengan indahnya menulis di kertas itu tulisan yang jika di bacakan akan berbunyi seperti ini,
“ saya percaya desa ini akan maju dan jaya seperti namanya nanti jika saya terpilih, maka saya akan membuka sebuah tempat wisata yang akan mendatangkan banyak devisa bagi Negara”.
Pantaslah warga desa menanggap Pak Tono seperti malaikat, ternyata dia adalah seseorang yang cinta bangsa dan mereka memanggilnya negarawan. Saya percaya, almarhum bapak kepala desa juga tidak akan melakukannya, pasti ada efek sampingnya.
Sungguh aneh desa yang kehilangan kepala ini, dahulu para warga bersatu padu untuk memajukan desa dan demi kesejahteraan mereka masing – masing. Tetapi sekarang mereka terbagi dua menjadi dua buah kubu yang mengkalim yaitu kubu merah dan kubu biru. Saya yakin pasti mereka menamainya di karenakan kertas yang di tulis oleh pak Edi dan pak Tono di setiap tiang yang ada di desa.
Sekarang desa saya tidak setentram dulu, dahulu anak – anak di desa saya sering melakukan pertandingan sepak bola, mereka menamainya pertandingan persahabatan. Sekarang mereka menamainya pertandingan adu kuat dalam lapangan. Dahulu di desa saya bapak – bapak sering melakukan ronda bersama, dangdutan orgen tunggal berjoget bersama. Sekarang mereka bisa hampir saling bunuh jika anggota kubu lain ketahuan bergabung untuk berpesta bersama kubu mayoritas yang sedang menggadakan pesta. Oh, bapak kepala desa, saya sungguh merindukan dirimu. OMBILAHOM
Setelah melihat keributan ini akhirnya bapak petinggi agama di desa saya turun lagsung kelapangan dengan tujuan mendamaikan kedua kubu ini dan menciptakan kerukunan seperti dulu. Tapi apa yang terjadi, mereka jadi megikuti kubu – kubu ini dikarenakan di bujuk oleh generasi penerus yang dianggap sangat pintar ini. Mereka di suruh memilih merah atau biru atau tidak ada teman. Sungguh.
Akhirnya titik terang pun muncul di ufuk timur. Saya masih bersukur tidak di ufuk barat. Pulanglah seorang anak muda yang baru lulus sarjana untuk kedua kalinya dari kota ke desa yang di cintainya. dia menemukan cara untuk menghilangkan perselisihan antara dua kubu ini dengan mengadakan pemilihan yang di lakukan oleh masyarakat desa, sehingga keselarasan tercipta. Tentunya calon kepala desa yang baru harus memenuhi syarat syarat yang ada.
Menurut saya ini lah cara yang paling jitu untuk menghilangkan perselisihan antara dua kubu ini, yaitu dengan syarat – syarat yang harus di penuhi oleh calon kepala desa. Orang yang baru pulang itu, saya lupa namanya membuat syarat – syarat yang langsung di setujui oleh warga desa. syarat – syaratnya seperti ini:
1. Memiliki kekayaan yang cukup
2. Berpengalaman dalam pemerintahan, baik organisasi atau apapun.
3. Memiliki disiplin yang tinggi.
4. Jeli melihat peluang demi kemajuan desa
5. Memiliki pengetahuan yang cukup akan desa dan seluk beluk isi baik secara fisik maupun social
6. TUA
Ket: jika salah satu syarat tidak terpenuhi, calon DILARANG mencalonkan diri sebagai kepala desa
Akhirnya kedua kubu ini pecah dan bersatu kembali di karenakan Pak Tono dan Pak Edi dianggap tidak mampu menduduki jabatan kepala desa ini. Mereka berdua tidak memenuhi salah syarat yang ada di dalam persyaratan tersebut yaitu; warga desa menganggap mereka masih muda dan layak untuk jadi orang yang memiliki pengalaman. Akan tetapi belum tentu TUA.
Sampai sekarang desa ini tidak memiliki kepala. Karena desa ini memiliki kepala pemerintahan yang di jabat oleh wakilnya dan sampai detik ini juga. Wasalam
Padang 27th July 2011
Rianda Hardi Dewanta
Sunday, December 27, 2009
The Zoo story
The Zoo Story is American playwright Edward Albee's first play; written in 1958 and completed in just three weeks. [1] It was originally titled Peter and Jerry. The play explores themes of isolation, loneliness, social disparity and dehumanization in a commercial world.
Initially the play was rejected by New York producers. Albee first had it staged in Europe, premiering in West Berlin at the Schiller Theater Werkstatt on September 28, 1959. In its first American staging, it was performed by the Provincetown Playhouse in 1960 and paired with Samuel Beckett's work Krapp's Last Tape.
Plot summary
This one-act play concerns two characters, Peter and Jerry. Peter is a middle-class publishing executive with a wife, two daughters, two cats and two parakeets who lives in ignorance of the world outside his settled life. Jerry is an isolated and disheartened man who lives in a boarding house and is very troubled. These men meet on a park bench in New York City's Central Park. Jerry is desperate to have a meaningful conversation with another human being. He intrudes on Peter’s peaceful state by interrogating him and forcing him to listen to stories from his life, including "THE STORY OF JERRY AND THE DOG", and the reason behind his visit to the zoo. The action is linear, unfolding in front of the audience in “real time”. The elements of ironic humor and unrelenting dramatic suspense are brought to a climax when Jerry brings his victim down to his own savage level.
The catalyst for the shocking ending transpires when Peter announces, "I really must be going home;..." Jerry, in response, begins to tickle Peter. Peter giggles, laughs and agrees to listen to Jerry finish telling "what happened at the zoo." At the same time Jerry begins pushing Peter off the bench. Peter decides to fight for his territory on the bench and becomes angry. Unexpectedly, Jerry pulls a knife on Peter, and then drops it as initiative for Peter to grab. When Peter holds the knife defensively, Jerry charges him and impales himself on the knife. Bleeding on the park bench, Jerry finishes his zoo story by bringing it into the immediate present, "Could I have planned all this. No... no, I couldn't have. But I think I did." Horrified, Peter runs away from Jerry whose dying words, "Oh...my...God", are a combination of scornful mimicry and supplication.
Additional Act
Albee wrote a prequel called Homelife, which he has staged as the first act, with The Zoo Story as the second act, in a new play called Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo (initially titled Peter & Jerry). Homelife was first read publicly at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference.
In addition to discussions about his adding an act and a character nearly 50 years after writing the original play, the theater community was taken aback by Albee's announcement that he would no longer permit The Zoo Story to be produced by professional theater companies. He would only allow the two-act play. The move has raised controversy within the theater community. Only non-professional and college theaters may produce The Zoo Story in its original version.
Albee defended the change and the addition of a female character, Peter's wife. Albee noted the play was his to do with as he wants.
The two-act play Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo played at American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco in June 2009, with Anthony Fusco as Peter, René Augesen as his wife Ann, and Manoel Felciano as Jerry. It also played Off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theatre and starred Bill Pullman, Dallas Roberts and Johanna Day. As of December 2009 it currently is playing in its Seattle premiere at Theater Schmeater.
] Culture References
The Zoo Story is referenced by Ann-Margret in the film Grumpy Old Men.
The Zoo Story is a central element in the novel "Qiṣṣat hadīqat al-ḥayawān" (The zoo story), by Morrocan playwright and novelist Yūsuf Fāḍil, published Dār al-Fanak, Casablanca, 2008, which deals with the milieu of actors and playwrights in 1970s Morroco and Morrocans in Paris. The two main characters of the novel, Al-Sīmū and Rašīd, want to perform a Morrocan version of the play, but their copy of E. Albee's work is missing essential pages.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zoo_Story
Initially the play was rejected by New York producers. Albee first had it staged in Europe, premiering in West Berlin at the Schiller Theater Werkstatt on September 28, 1959. In its first American staging, it was performed by the Provincetown Playhouse in 1960 and paired with Samuel Beckett's work Krapp's Last Tape.
Plot summary
This one-act play concerns two characters, Peter and Jerry. Peter is a middle-class publishing executive with a wife, two daughters, two cats and two parakeets who lives in ignorance of the world outside his settled life. Jerry is an isolated and disheartened man who lives in a boarding house and is very troubled. These men meet on a park bench in New York City's Central Park. Jerry is desperate to have a meaningful conversation with another human being. He intrudes on Peter’s peaceful state by interrogating him and forcing him to listen to stories from his life, including "THE STORY OF JERRY AND THE DOG", and the reason behind his visit to the zoo. The action is linear, unfolding in front of the audience in “real time”. The elements of ironic humor and unrelenting dramatic suspense are brought to a climax when Jerry brings his victim down to his own savage level.
The catalyst for the shocking ending transpires when Peter announces, "I really must be going home;..." Jerry, in response, begins to tickle Peter. Peter giggles, laughs and agrees to listen to Jerry finish telling "what happened at the zoo." At the same time Jerry begins pushing Peter off the bench. Peter decides to fight for his territory on the bench and becomes angry. Unexpectedly, Jerry pulls a knife on Peter, and then drops it as initiative for Peter to grab. When Peter holds the knife defensively, Jerry charges him and impales himself on the knife. Bleeding on the park bench, Jerry finishes his zoo story by bringing it into the immediate present, "Could I have planned all this. No... no, I couldn't have. But I think I did." Horrified, Peter runs away from Jerry whose dying words, "Oh...my...God", are a combination of scornful mimicry and supplication.
Additional Act
Albee wrote a prequel called Homelife, which he has staged as the first act, with The Zoo Story as the second act, in a new play called Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo (initially titled Peter & Jerry). Homelife was first read publicly at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference.
In addition to discussions about his adding an act and a character nearly 50 years after writing the original play, the theater community was taken aback by Albee's announcement that he would no longer permit The Zoo Story to be produced by professional theater companies. He would only allow the two-act play. The move has raised controversy within the theater community. Only non-professional and college theaters may produce The Zoo Story in its original version.
Albee defended the change and the addition of a female character, Peter's wife. Albee noted the play was his to do with as he wants.
The two-act play Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo played at American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco in June 2009, with Anthony Fusco as Peter, René Augesen as his wife Ann, and Manoel Felciano as Jerry. It also played Off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theatre and starred Bill Pullman, Dallas Roberts and Johanna Day. As of December 2009 it currently is playing in its Seattle premiere at Theater Schmeater.
] Culture References
The Zoo Story is referenced by Ann-Margret in the film Grumpy Old Men.
The Zoo Story is a central element in the novel "Qiṣṣat hadīqat al-ḥayawān" (The zoo story), by Morrocan playwright and novelist Yūsuf Fāḍil, published Dār al-Fanak, Casablanca, 2008, which deals with the milieu of actors and playwrights in 1970s Morroco and Morrocans in Paris. The two main characters of the novel, Al-Sīmū and Rašīd, want to perform a Morrocan version of the play, but their copy of E. Albee's work is missing essential pages.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zoo_Story
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
* Michel Faber
* The Guardian, Saturday 30 July 2005
Dirty Words: The Story of Sex Talk by Mark Morton
Buy Dirty Words: The Story of Sex Talk at the Guardian bookshop
Dirty Words: The Story of Sex Talk
by Mark Morton
368pp, Atlantic Books, £12.99
Seductively billed as "the perfect book for lovers, and language-lovers, alike", Dirty Words attempts to catalogue every English word ever used for sexual purposes. In an orgy of etymological fervour, it ploughs into the roots of love, limerence, glamour, cunnilingus and fartleberries. There are 1,300 terms listed for the male sex organ, many of them amusingly surreal (hairy banana, blue-veined custard chucker, whoopee stick, finger puppet) and many others pitiably desperate (dangling participle, male interfemoral infidel). I doubt that this is the perfect book for lovers, but it's certainly the perfect book for anyone who can imagine themselves enlivening a dull dinner party by saying: "Did you know that the word felch denotes the act of sucking one's own semen out of another person's buttocks?"
The joy of lascivious lingo is diminished, however, by Morton's approach and writing style. Tracing the evolution of words back to their conjectural proto-Indo-European origins is a scholarly business, yet this book seems touched by a nymphomaniac desire to attract all passersby, regardless of their levels of intellect or interest. So hard does Morton strive to service everyone, and so determined is he not to appear offputtingly intellectual, that he often seems to be addressing Homer Simpsons who've never given a thought to language before: "Clearly, Old English doesn't look much like Modern English - you might even say they're different languages. Then again, you probably don't resemble your grandmother, and yet think of how much, at the genetic level, you owe her: if she hadn't existed, you wouldn't be here." (This observation, already twice as long as it needs to be, is elaborated for a further six lines.)
From the outset, Morton promises not to trouble us with "squiggly marks" (ie, lexicographical symbols). He also cautions us against reading too much of his book at once, because "you'll probably get a headache". His day job as a professor at the University of Winnipeg makes him eminently qualified to discuss ribald Shakespearian puns, but perhaps his lifelong devotion to pedagogy blinds him to the fact that not everybody has yet to glean the basics of an education. Some of his gestures are so condescending as to be unintentionally parodic: "Mother-fucker emerged as an insult in the 1920s, though that incest taboo was articulated much earlier, most notably in Oedipus Rex, a Greek tragedy written in the fifth century BC by Sophocles."
Dirty Words is plumped out to 368 pages by a shameful amount of padding. Morton, apart from being a waffly stylist, cannot resist telling us the origins of words that have little or nothing to do with his subject. "Amazingly, the word mouse is closely related to both muscle and mussel," he enthuses, and there are hundreds more of these Reader's Digest tickles of edification. Morton's passion for etymology is commendable, but an editor should have reminded him what book he was supposed to be writing.
Sadly, Morton's labour of love seems to have been unassisted. Several glaring copyediting errors in the introduction (including one in the third sentence) make it obvious that Dirty Words was originally called The Lover's Tongue, before the UK publishers ditched this title - evidently in haste - in favour of a sensationalist surrogate. Real shock value, however, is supplied by Atlantic's slipshod production of the book. There is a chunk of text missing between pages 24 and 25, and a disconnected paragraph on the etymology of bunkum is left stranded on page 220. Morton's heavyhanded humour when he denies imagined accusations of coprophemia, aischrolatreia and lalochezia by saying that "you - dear reader - can decide for yourself after perusing the remaining two hundred pages" is made heavier still by the fact that nobody at Atlantic noticed that this estimate is 100 pages out. Editorial passivity may also be the reason why no one thought to anglicise the confusing American usages of pants and ass, cut out the Canadian in-jokes, or dispense with Morton's step-by-step explanation of how Cockney rhyming slang works. There is no index, so the chances of finding that elusive synonym for gamahuching a second time are slim.
Sometimes, the saving grace of an annoyingly written textbook is that it offers information unavailable elsewhere, or collects material from disparate sources in a uniquely convenient form. Dirty Words aims for the latter distinction; Morton has done an admirable job combing through the available literature on "indecent" words - shelfloads of dictionaries, thesauruses, histories, and specialist studies - and collating the results in a single volume. While there are websites such as sex-lexis.com that list all the terms in Morton's book and more, there is, to my knowledge, no other book that offers such a compendious and up-to-date trove of erotic etymology. The closest contender is Hugh Rawson's A Dictionary of Invective, which is narrower in scope (though not as narrow as its title suggests) and goes no further than 1989.
For an authority who might influence people's attitudes towards language, Morton is regrettably reluctant to use basic English words himself. Whenever he speaks in his own, "neutral" voice, he resorts to copulate and the deplorable pudendum (a term derived from a Latin verb meaning "to cause shame"). Far from proving that the study of language can cure deep-seated anxieties about "dirty" words, Morton merely confirms the cliché of the donnish lexicographer, goggling at exotic linguistic behaviours he's too prim to adopt.
· Michel Faber's new short story collection, The Fahrenheit Twins, will be published by Canongate in September.
* The Guardian, Saturday 30 July 2005
Dirty Words: The Story of Sex Talk by Mark Morton
Buy Dirty Words: The Story of Sex Talk at the Guardian bookshop
Dirty Words: The Story of Sex Talk
by Mark Morton
368pp, Atlantic Books, £12.99
Seductively billed as "the perfect book for lovers, and language-lovers, alike", Dirty Words attempts to catalogue every English word ever used for sexual purposes. In an orgy of etymological fervour, it ploughs into the roots of love, limerence, glamour, cunnilingus and fartleberries. There are 1,300 terms listed for the male sex organ, many of them amusingly surreal (hairy banana, blue-veined custard chucker, whoopee stick, finger puppet) and many others pitiably desperate (dangling participle, male interfemoral infidel). I doubt that this is the perfect book for lovers, but it's certainly the perfect book for anyone who can imagine themselves enlivening a dull dinner party by saying: "Did you know that the word felch denotes the act of sucking one's own semen out of another person's buttocks?"
The joy of lascivious lingo is diminished, however, by Morton's approach and writing style. Tracing the evolution of words back to their conjectural proto-Indo-European origins is a scholarly business, yet this book seems touched by a nymphomaniac desire to attract all passersby, regardless of their levels of intellect or interest. So hard does Morton strive to service everyone, and so determined is he not to appear offputtingly intellectual, that he often seems to be addressing Homer Simpsons who've never given a thought to language before: "Clearly, Old English doesn't look much like Modern English - you might even say they're different languages. Then again, you probably don't resemble your grandmother, and yet think of how much, at the genetic level, you owe her: if she hadn't existed, you wouldn't be here." (This observation, already twice as long as it needs to be, is elaborated for a further six lines.)
From the outset, Morton promises not to trouble us with "squiggly marks" (ie, lexicographical symbols). He also cautions us against reading too much of his book at once, because "you'll probably get a headache". His day job as a professor at the University of Winnipeg makes him eminently qualified to discuss ribald Shakespearian puns, but perhaps his lifelong devotion to pedagogy blinds him to the fact that not everybody has yet to glean the basics of an education. Some of his gestures are so condescending as to be unintentionally parodic: "Mother-fucker emerged as an insult in the 1920s, though that incest taboo was articulated much earlier, most notably in Oedipus Rex, a Greek tragedy written in the fifth century BC by Sophocles."
Dirty Words is plumped out to 368 pages by a shameful amount of padding. Morton, apart from being a waffly stylist, cannot resist telling us the origins of words that have little or nothing to do with his subject. "Amazingly, the word mouse is closely related to both muscle and mussel," he enthuses, and there are hundreds more of these Reader's Digest tickles of edification. Morton's passion for etymology is commendable, but an editor should have reminded him what book he was supposed to be writing.
Sadly, Morton's labour of love seems to have been unassisted. Several glaring copyediting errors in the introduction (including one in the third sentence) make it obvious that Dirty Words was originally called The Lover's Tongue, before the UK publishers ditched this title - evidently in haste - in favour of a sensationalist surrogate. Real shock value, however, is supplied by Atlantic's slipshod production of the book. There is a chunk of text missing between pages 24 and 25, and a disconnected paragraph on the etymology of bunkum is left stranded on page 220. Morton's heavyhanded humour when he denies imagined accusations of coprophemia, aischrolatreia and lalochezia by saying that "you - dear reader - can decide for yourself after perusing the remaining two hundred pages" is made heavier still by the fact that nobody at Atlantic noticed that this estimate is 100 pages out. Editorial passivity may also be the reason why no one thought to anglicise the confusing American usages of pants and ass, cut out the Canadian in-jokes, or dispense with Morton's step-by-step explanation of how Cockney rhyming slang works. There is no index, so the chances of finding that elusive synonym for gamahuching a second time are slim.
Sometimes, the saving grace of an annoyingly written textbook is that it offers information unavailable elsewhere, or collects material from disparate sources in a uniquely convenient form. Dirty Words aims for the latter distinction; Morton has done an admirable job combing through the available literature on "indecent" words - shelfloads of dictionaries, thesauruses, histories, and specialist studies - and collating the results in a single volume. While there are websites such as sex-lexis.com that list all the terms in Morton's book and more, there is, to my knowledge, no other book that offers such a compendious and up-to-date trove of erotic etymology. The closest contender is Hugh Rawson's A Dictionary of Invective, which is narrower in scope (though not as narrow as its title suggests) and goes no further than 1989.
For an authority who might influence people's attitudes towards language, Morton is regrettably reluctant to use basic English words himself. Whenever he speaks in his own, "neutral" voice, he resorts to copulate and the deplorable pudendum (a term derived from a Latin verb meaning "to cause shame"). Far from proving that the study of language can cure deep-seated anxieties about "dirty" words, Morton merely confirms the cliché of the donnish lexicographer, goggling at exotic linguistic behaviours he's too prim to adopt.
· Michel Faber's new short story collection, The Fahrenheit Twins, will be published by Canongate in September.
lanjutan 2012 tentang 2013 ceritanya tentang keselamatan umat manusia
Minggu depan, sutradara Ronald Emmerich akan meluncurkan epik bencana global terakhirnya, "2012". Saya menyukai event blockbuster, khususnya ketika efek digital dan kunyahan pemandangan bersatu dalam sebuah akhir-dunia yang bernilai A-Besar-Menakjubkan. Dan Emmerich adalah master hal demikian yang tidak perlu dipertanyakan, dengan bulu-bulu seperti "Independence Day" dan "The Day After Tomorrow" di topinya.
Kecondongan fanboy di lain pihak, saya harus menanyakan perlunya sebuah spin-off serial TV dari "2012". Emmerich mengatakan kepada Entertainment Weekly bahwa rencana demikian sudah ada, dengan eksekutif produser film tersebut, Mark Gordon (Grey's Anatomy), juga dilampirkan. Sebagai sutradara, kepada EW, "Film tersebut bercerita tentang beragam reaksi masyarakat dalam menghadapi bencana dan siapa yang akan selamat dan bagaimana kita membawa dan bagian budaya apa yang diselamatkan. Acara TVnya akan menceritakan semua itu."
Rencana serialnya akan bersetting pada waktu setelah kehancuran. "Rencananya, ini adalah 2013 dan tentang apa yang terjadi setelah bencana," kata Emmerich. "Ini akan bercerita tentang memulihkan Bumi. [Produser '2012' Harold Kloser dan Saya] mengatakan kepada MArk, "Kenapa enggak kalau anda membuat acara TV yang mengambil latar setelah cerita film '2012'-nya selesai dan bertajuk "2013"?"
Ini adalah ide yang sangat-sangat mempertahankan tren mengubah ke Drama Serial TV, ide pembentukan kejadian global dari wajah kebudayaan manusia. Lihatlah "FlashForward" atau "V" untuk contoh baru-baru saja. Mereka berkisahkan kepada beberapa kejadian monumental, kejadian yang terjadi ketika penduduk penjuru dunia berpindah ke tempat lain dan bertanya, "Dari mana kau pada saat...?"
Sejatinya, hal ini menyerang saya sebagai kemewahan untuk mulai membicarakan serial TV untuk "2012" untuk melanjutkan peredaran filmnya. Tidak untuk menyebut bahaya-bahaya yang dikemukakan dalam plot film. Saya tidak akan mencetak ulang pernyataannya di sini, tetapi Emmerich membongkar lebih banyak daripada yang seharusnya dalam ngobrol EW (EW Chat). Saya belom menonton filmnya, tetapi saya mengetahui dengan pasti plotnya -- lebih dari yang saya mau -- setelah membaca komentar sutradaranya. Tidak masalah sama sekali dengan film seperti ini. Ini adalah kendaraan yang membuat perbedaan pada umumnya. Bisa dikatakan, saya tidak akan melihat plot sinopsisnya secara rinci.
Ini jelas bakal ada kelanjutan dari "2012", dan TV mungkin akan menjadi forum terbaik. Skala penghancuran dalam trailer dan klipnya membuktikan bahwa tidak akan ada "Happy Ending" di Bumi pada Filmnya. Bagaimanapun itu tidak berarti bahwa tidak akan banyak cerita yang akan diceritakan dalam dunia setelah apokalips. Saya tidak yakin sekarang bukan waktunya untuk mendiskusikan ide tersebut.
Bagaimana menurut anda? Apakah Emmerich membongkar rencana serial TVnya? Apakah tidak masalah, karena film seperti "2012" adalah apapun tentang memanjakan mata. Apa yang anda harapkan untuk menonton cerita lanjutannya di serial TV?
sumber: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/11/05...creen-in-2013/
Kecondongan fanboy di lain pihak, saya harus menanyakan perlunya sebuah spin-off serial TV dari "2012". Emmerich mengatakan kepada Entertainment Weekly bahwa rencana demikian sudah ada, dengan eksekutif produser film tersebut, Mark Gordon (Grey's Anatomy), juga dilampirkan. Sebagai sutradara, kepada EW, "Film tersebut bercerita tentang beragam reaksi masyarakat dalam menghadapi bencana dan siapa yang akan selamat dan bagaimana kita membawa dan bagian budaya apa yang diselamatkan. Acara TVnya akan menceritakan semua itu."
Rencana serialnya akan bersetting pada waktu setelah kehancuran. "Rencananya, ini adalah 2013 dan tentang apa yang terjadi setelah bencana," kata Emmerich. "Ini akan bercerita tentang memulihkan Bumi. [Produser '2012' Harold Kloser dan Saya] mengatakan kepada MArk, "Kenapa enggak kalau anda membuat acara TV yang mengambil latar setelah cerita film '2012'-nya selesai dan bertajuk "2013"?"
Ini adalah ide yang sangat-sangat mempertahankan tren mengubah ke Drama Serial TV, ide pembentukan kejadian global dari wajah kebudayaan manusia. Lihatlah "FlashForward" atau "V" untuk contoh baru-baru saja. Mereka berkisahkan kepada beberapa kejadian monumental, kejadian yang terjadi ketika penduduk penjuru dunia berpindah ke tempat lain dan bertanya, "Dari mana kau pada saat...?"
Sejatinya, hal ini menyerang saya sebagai kemewahan untuk mulai membicarakan serial TV untuk "2012" untuk melanjutkan peredaran filmnya. Tidak untuk menyebut bahaya-bahaya yang dikemukakan dalam plot film. Saya tidak akan mencetak ulang pernyataannya di sini, tetapi Emmerich membongkar lebih banyak daripada yang seharusnya dalam ngobrol EW (EW Chat). Saya belom menonton filmnya, tetapi saya mengetahui dengan pasti plotnya -- lebih dari yang saya mau -- setelah membaca komentar sutradaranya. Tidak masalah sama sekali dengan film seperti ini. Ini adalah kendaraan yang membuat perbedaan pada umumnya. Bisa dikatakan, saya tidak akan melihat plot sinopsisnya secara rinci.
Ini jelas bakal ada kelanjutan dari "2012", dan TV mungkin akan menjadi forum terbaik. Skala penghancuran dalam trailer dan klipnya membuktikan bahwa tidak akan ada "Happy Ending" di Bumi pada Filmnya. Bagaimanapun itu tidak berarti bahwa tidak akan banyak cerita yang akan diceritakan dalam dunia setelah apokalips. Saya tidak yakin sekarang bukan waktunya untuk mendiskusikan ide tersebut.
Bagaimana menurut anda? Apakah Emmerich membongkar rencana serial TVnya? Apakah tidak masalah, karena film seperti "2012" adalah apapun tentang memanjakan mata. Apa yang anda harapkan untuk menonton cerita lanjutannya di serial TV?
sumber: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/11/05...creen-in-2013/
He stands with a wrapped big package on the airport’s sidewalk near an airport’s coca cola counter beside the crowd, his face so familiar and regularly in my eyes. He uses blue clean shirt, long steady jeans and shining black dress shoes. He looks me rapidly for a few second and threw his sight to his portable telephone, people called it hand phone. His tough fingers began give a massage to his gadget, he done it gently, after that his face that looks fresh changed a little beat worse and I heard with high temperate tone like angry, maybe.
“Hey!! What happened with you??
When he disappointed after saw sending failed in his phone.
“Why you cannot send my message, the new century gadget?
He still talks with his phone, as his phone can talks with its boss.
After I heard that sounds, he realize that someone had been watched him, it’s me. He looks me again and I make my self went to back of a huge mast, so he cannot see me. Then I heard some voice from the stranger.
“Ooh how fool am I, I forget to change the area code of my CDMA phone if I moving from one city to another city”
“Ok my little honey phone I’ll give you some injection of code and make you can connect with this city that I was born”.
He change it the area code, push some number, and took his phone near to his left ear, he make his loudspeaker became on.
Suddenly, I felt my old and meaning full phone trembled in my pocket, It feels like something tickling your hamstring regularly , but it cannot make your laugh rapidly, because its not too trembled, but disturbing your selves.
I make my old phone get out from my pocket, I saw it, I realize I do not know the number that crossbar my phone, it make me very curious, I want to know the people who sent a magic to my lovely and legendary old phone. Then I saw it again and it makes my usual brain that I can use it similarly with another usual people in this irregular life think more anxious to know about that. Click!! I pushed the button that point to answer while I swing the phone and despise it to my right ear softly, so I can know who it is.
After that, I said
“Hello, who is there? Can I help you there?”
I do it like a costumer service that work in bank, teller.
I heard a heavyweight voice that said??
“Hey, where have you been? I had stand in airport now”
I surprised why this voice so familiar with me because It’s my father voice. Then I talk to answer his question, although he never answers my question before.
“I have been looking for you in air port now, so could I know your position now and what type clothes you wearing now my mighty father?”
He give me some clue, so I can found him self in the crowd and bring my self and my father selves to my father’s lovely home. The clue are He stands with a wrapped big package on the airport’s sidewalk near an airport’s coca cola counter beside the crowd, He uses blue clean shirt, long steady jeans and shining black dress shoes. So I’d like to find him, because I know its will make me easy to find him selves.
I did it well. I found him, my father; I found the man that talk with his phone and gave some injection to the most modern hand phone the ever he have now. I take my father to my motorcycle also with his wrapped package; I know its present for his lovely children, one of them taking him self from a crowd airport to home, and also for his lovely wife, my mother.
On the way go to home, I know father was so tired and he make him self comfortable with uncomfortable motorcycle seat and bring him self to his own dream world by closing both of his window of the world and SNORE. I know he had been slept because I heard his snoring sound clearly.
Against the red sunset in that clear chili’s afternoon I turning my speed became so fast. I know my naughty little brother, my male impersonator sister and my lovely mother do not have patient anymore to meet my heavy weight class of snoring father. We went home directly, in my rearview mirror, I saw the airport became small size gently and disappear from my sight. After my father snoring in 15 minutes he heard the shout voice that he knows the voice well, it is my sister sound. My father wakes up, because he realized that he in home his lovely now.
Story made by Ryanda hardy (83676/07)
5thjuly09 at 10:15 PM
“Hey!! What happened with you??
When he disappointed after saw sending failed in his phone.
“Why you cannot send my message, the new century gadget?
He still talks with his phone, as his phone can talks with its boss.
After I heard that sounds, he realize that someone had been watched him, it’s me. He looks me again and I make my self went to back of a huge mast, so he cannot see me. Then I heard some voice from the stranger.
“Ooh how fool am I, I forget to change the area code of my CDMA phone if I moving from one city to another city”
“Ok my little honey phone I’ll give you some injection of code and make you can connect with this city that I was born”.
He change it the area code, push some number, and took his phone near to his left ear, he make his loudspeaker became on.
Suddenly, I felt my old and meaning full phone trembled in my pocket, It feels like something tickling your hamstring regularly , but it cannot make your laugh rapidly, because its not too trembled, but disturbing your selves.
I make my old phone get out from my pocket, I saw it, I realize I do not know the number that crossbar my phone, it make me very curious, I want to know the people who sent a magic to my lovely and legendary old phone. Then I saw it again and it makes my usual brain that I can use it similarly with another usual people in this irregular life think more anxious to know about that. Click!! I pushed the button that point to answer while I swing the phone and despise it to my right ear softly, so I can know who it is.
After that, I said
“Hello, who is there? Can I help you there?”
I do it like a costumer service that work in bank, teller.
I heard a heavyweight voice that said??
“Hey, where have you been? I had stand in airport now”
I surprised why this voice so familiar with me because It’s my father voice. Then I talk to answer his question, although he never answers my question before.
“I have been looking for you in air port now, so could I know your position now and what type clothes you wearing now my mighty father?”
He give me some clue, so I can found him self in the crowd and bring my self and my father selves to my father’s lovely home. The clue are He stands with a wrapped big package on the airport’s sidewalk near an airport’s coca cola counter beside the crowd, He uses blue clean shirt, long steady jeans and shining black dress shoes. So I’d like to find him, because I know its will make me easy to find him selves.
I did it well. I found him, my father; I found the man that talk with his phone and gave some injection to the most modern hand phone the ever he have now. I take my father to my motorcycle also with his wrapped package; I know its present for his lovely children, one of them taking him self from a crowd airport to home, and also for his lovely wife, my mother.
On the way go to home, I know father was so tired and he make him self comfortable with uncomfortable motorcycle seat and bring him self to his own dream world by closing both of his window of the world and SNORE. I know he had been slept because I heard his snoring sound clearly.
Against the red sunset in that clear chili’s afternoon I turning my speed became so fast. I know my naughty little brother, my male impersonator sister and my lovely mother do not have patient anymore to meet my heavy weight class of snoring father. We went home directly, in my rearview mirror, I saw the airport became small size gently and disappear from my sight. After my father snoring in 15 minutes he heard the shout voice that he knows the voice well, it is my sister sound. My father wakes up, because he realized that he in home his lovely now.
Story made by Ryanda hardy (83676/07)
5thjuly09 at 10:15 PM
Semuanya dimulai ketika pada saat zaman es atau 86788 sebelum masehi. Zaman itu sangat modern, semua binatang dapat berbicara seperti manusia dan konon, imbasan dari kehadiran manusia mereka mencari suara-suara sinemantik baru yang tidak dapat dimengerti oleh manusia, kecuali burung beo yang tidak berhasil menemukan linguistik mereka sendiri.
“apa-apaan ini, sungguh tidak penting dan tidak ada hubungan dengan cerita”.
“maaf om ini hanyalah sebuah intermezzo”.
“Intermezzo kok diatas??”.
“emangnya oom tau apasih intermezzo itu?saya tidak”
“Hmmm….entah lah, ah sudah lah ceritalah kau lagi, nanti pembaca tidak ketawa”.
“siap!!! Oom”.
Pada zaman dahulu kalajengking ada seekor kalajengking bermantel tebal terbuat dari bulu beruang es yang baru dibunuhnya tadi pagi, atas rahmat tuhan yang maha esa, sang kalajengking di anugrahi nama King Kalaje.
“Zaman itu benar benar ada dapat di buktikan dengan mengambil naskah kuno dan membaca di malam sunyi di perpustakaan Alexandria jalan bundo kanduang di depan sekolah mengah pertama nomor 2. Percayakah??jangan, demi menjaga jumlah rukun iman yang kau percayai sebanyak enam buah , jangan di tambah lagi. Mari kita lanjutkan.
King Kalaje adalah seekor kalajengking berpedang atau prajurit dari kerajaan kalajengking yang berhenti karena tertangkap basah mengkodot kalajeking gadis anak pak kalajengking petani. Sehingga Kingkalaje yang larinya cepat secepat kereta listrik pada zaman modern ini di berhentikan dengan sangat sangat tidak hormat.
Kingkalaje sangat senang (pada zaman itu senang bermakna marah dan sebaliknya-red). Kingkalaje sangat marah dan mencoba menjatuhkan kekuasaan raja Laukking, raja yang lalim, berspektrum bertubuh besar ketika dia terkena efek sisa radiasi lilin dan materi sehingga menghasilkan sisi gelap yang khas berupa binatang berkaki enam, memiliki capit yang timpang, dan memiliki ekor yang membengkok kearah kepala dalam ukuran yang sangat raksasa di balik tembok gua istana.
Kesenangan Kingkalaje tersulut ketika minyak tanah mengguyur api fikirannya yang sedang membara. Minyak yang dimaksud adalah, sumpah loyalitas Kingkalaje kepada raja, berupa kesetiaan sampai mati sampai maut melepaskan hubungan mereka dan di sambung kembali di akhirat, begitu katanya. Malam itu Kingkalaje sangat terkejut setelah mendengar pembicaraan dua ekor jantan korban kelaliman raja yang tak masuk akal di dalam otak kalajengking, manusia mungkin.
Kingkalaje menyimak pembicaraan dua orang yang berbunyi.
“ mas, mas, sampeyan wes diapaain sama sing arane Raja??
“ndak tau den do sangkek tu aden sadang lalok, tu kalua rajo ndak pakai sarawa,takajuik lah den, tu den lempar lari, dikajaan nyo lo mangaja den, sudah tu di hampok nyo den jo batu, sanang rasonyo diang, eeh sudah tu kalam se sagalonyo, pas den tajago , lah ndak basarawa se den, den bae takatuik, malasuih bunyi kantuik den diang, kanciang rajo mah.”
“kancing baju raja yang mana mas? Perasaan raja pake baju kaos aja deh”
“ e bano, sabana bana bano waang mah, kanciang tu kanciang, lai mangarati ang kanciang?”
“ngomong apaan sih mas? Aku gak ngerti, ohh jangan-jangan mas ngeledek saya ya? Sampai- sampai membawa bawa nama Bemo, cari rebut sampeyan tak gendong nanti”
“alah mah maleh den mangecek jo ang mah, pulang den cek lu minum jamu sari rapet bia ndak malasuih kantui k den.”
Diakibatkan karena kingkalaje dulu adalah seorang pasukan elit khusus pribadi dan terpaksa(pelitkuster) , dan di wajibkan bias menjadi seorang yang bilingual. Maka Kingkalaje sangat senang dikala mengetahui sang raja bukanlah Kalajengking gagah berani yang dahulu ia kagumi sebagai sosok pahlawan tanpa tanda tangan yang telah berhasil menekuk seekor harimau dengan menggelitiknya sampai mati, teryata seekor kalajengking pertama didalam sejarah perkalajengkingan disebut sebagai homo.
Kingkalaje akirnya pergi menghadap sang raja dan menyatakaan semua yang dia dengar dengan nada sangat senang dan sangat sopan menurut tata karma dan etika kerajaan yang membelenggunya selama ini.
Raja sangat senang sekali mendengar hal itu dan melempar king kalaje dengan batu berbentuk gelas, tapi king kalaje mengelak dengan gaya table manner. King kalajepun berlari ke atas genting untuk membuktikan apakah lagu tik-tik bunyi hujan di atas genteng iu adalah benar, ternyata iya dan bersembunyi untuk menggelar dan memilih persenjataan yang telah di persiapkannya, ada bamboo runcing, pedang ceng ho, tombak achiless, gigi dinosaurus, ekor anaconda dan ia memutuskan mengambil kemoceng sebagai senjata, lalu turun kebawah lagi.
Kingkalaje mendera raja dengan dasar kesenangan karena saudaranya kentutnya berlapus. Tetapi, sayang sekali raja malah meng-counter attack kingkalaje dengan menggeliat dan berubah menjadi burung sehingga kingkalaje berlari pontang pantin tanpa henti sampai menelusuri gunung hutan rimba sungainya banyak sekali.
Karena terlalu fit king kalaje jatuh pingsan dengan mulut ternganga. Tubuhnya terasa melayang di udara. Ternyata benar, king kalaje tebang, sibalik pangkuan burung beo, seorang petapa berbentuk beo jadi jadian tapi sesungguhnya itu kalajengking tua yang menuntut ilmu dari nyonya ratu buaya hitam, sehingga dia menguasai ilmu ketuban yang dapat merubah dirinya menjadi apa saja.
Lima belas hari king kalaje berada di hutan dan belajar ilmu ketuban yang dengan marah sekali di ajarkan oleh kalajengking tua itu. Memang dasar king kalaje sangat jenius, dia langsung menerima gelar kehormatan yang dimiliki oleh komunitas yang kerjaanya selalusaja menelitti dan mereka menetap di sebelah rumah petapa.
King kalaje pun kembali ke kerajaan yang dipimpin seekor Gay pertama di dunia itu. Dia menantang raja untuk bertarung. King kalaje memang hebat dan bias berkomunikasi dengan seekor beo setelah menguasai ilmu ketuban tersebut. Dia datang menunggangi burung beo asli dan menyerang kerajaan, habis sudah seluruh isi kerajaan termasuk sang raja homo.
Sang beo tidak puas dan berbalik memakan kingkalaje. King kalaje sangat terkejut tapi dia sanggup berkata “Aaaaaaaaa” saja s\ketika telah masuk kedalam pencernaan beo itu.
Beo itu pun tidak puas dan kembali ke komunitas dimana almarhum kingkalaje belajar ilmu ketuban dan memakan semua komunitas sambil menyisakan sang petapa tua,
Sang petapa tua pun berkoar bahwa dalam waktu dekat ini akan datang makhluk yang sangat cerdas dan sangat besar. Jika semua hewan bisa berbicara, maka mereka akan merusak alam jadi biarlah alam yang memberi tahu mereka secara sembubyi sembunyi. Jadi seantero binatang se jagat raya harus menemukan bahasa-bahasa mereka sendiri agar tidak di mengerti makhluk itu. Lalu sang kalajengking petapa mengutuk sang beo yang membuatnya sekarang di ujung paruh.
“gua kutuk lo supaye kagak bise meken kelejenkeng, di gante ame buah kelengkeng”
“aaaaaaaa”
Sang beo memakannya.tapi tiba-tiba perut beo berbunyi, karena sang petapa tua itu tidak mati di dalam perut beo, karena petapa itu sangat pandai berbahasa dan menguasai banyak bahasa. Ketika sang beo tercekik, maka itulah kesempatan sang petapa meminta tolong dengan menirukan suara bahasa yang di gunakan oleh makhluk yang konon akan datang itu.
Jadi burung beo yang bisa berbicara itu bukanlah di akibatkan karena beo tidak bisa menemukan bahasa sendiri tetapi di akibatkan suara meminta tolong yang di miliki petapa tua yang tidak pernah mati dan bersemanyam di dalam lambung beo. Mereka akan tetap ada di dalam perut beo pada setiap keturunan burung beo karena sang petapa menguasai ilmu ketuban yang dapat memperbanyak diri.
“apa-apaan ini, sungguh tidak penting dan tidak ada hubungan dengan cerita”.
“maaf om ini hanyalah sebuah intermezzo”.
“Intermezzo kok diatas??”.
“emangnya oom tau apasih intermezzo itu?saya tidak”
“Hmmm….entah lah, ah sudah lah ceritalah kau lagi, nanti pembaca tidak ketawa”.
“siap!!! Oom”.
Pada zaman dahulu kalajengking ada seekor kalajengking bermantel tebal terbuat dari bulu beruang es yang baru dibunuhnya tadi pagi, atas rahmat tuhan yang maha esa, sang kalajengking di anugrahi nama King Kalaje.
“Zaman itu benar benar ada dapat di buktikan dengan mengambil naskah kuno dan membaca di malam sunyi di perpustakaan Alexandria jalan bundo kanduang di depan sekolah mengah pertama nomor 2. Percayakah??jangan, demi menjaga jumlah rukun iman yang kau percayai sebanyak enam buah , jangan di tambah lagi. Mari kita lanjutkan.
King Kalaje adalah seekor kalajengking berpedang atau prajurit dari kerajaan kalajengking yang berhenti karena tertangkap basah mengkodot kalajeking gadis anak pak kalajengking petani. Sehingga Kingkalaje yang larinya cepat secepat kereta listrik pada zaman modern ini di berhentikan dengan sangat sangat tidak hormat.
Kingkalaje sangat senang (pada zaman itu senang bermakna marah dan sebaliknya-red). Kingkalaje sangat marah dan mencoba menjatuhkan kekuasaan raja Laukking, raja yang lalim, berspektrum bertubuh besar ketika dia terkena efek sisa radiasi lilin dan materi sehingga menghasilkan sisi gelap yang khas berupa binatang berkaki enam, memiliki capit yang timpang, dan memiliki ekor yang membengkok kearah kepala dalam ukuran yang sangat raksasa di balik tembok gua istana.
Kesenangan Kingkalaje tersulut ketika minyak tanah mengguyur api fikirannya yang sedang membara. Minyak yang dimaksud adalah, sumpah loyalitas Kingkalaje kepada raja, berupa kesetiaan sampai mati sampai maut melepaskan hubungan mereka dan di sambung kembali di akhirat, begitu katanya. Malam itu Kingkalaje sangat terkejut setelah mendengar pembicaraan dua ekor jantan korban kelaliman raja yang tak masuk akal di dalam otak kalajengking, manusia mungkin.
Kingkalaje menyimak pembicaraan dua orang yang berbunyi.
“ mas, mas, sampeyan wes diapaain sama sing arane Raja??
“ndak tau den do sangkek tu aden sadang lalok, tu kalua rajo ndak pakai sarawa,takajuik lah den, tu den lempar lari, dikajaan nyo lo mangaja den, sudah tu di hampok nyo den jo batu, sanang rasonyo diang, eeh sudah tu kalam se sagalonyo, pas den tajago , lah ndak basarawa se den, den bae takatuik, malasuih bunyi kantuik den diang, kanciang rajo mah.”
“kancing baju raja yang mana mas? Perasaan raja pake baju kaos aja deh”
“ e bano, sabana bana bano waang mah, kanciang tu kanciang, lai mangarati ang kanciang?”
“ngomong apaan sih mas? Aku gak ngerti, ohh jangan-jangan mas ngeledek saya ya? Sampai- sampai membawa bawa nama Bemo, cari rebut sampeyan tak gendong nanti”
“alah mah maleh den mangecek jo ang mah, pulang den cek lu minum jamu sari rapet bia ndak malasuih kantui k den.”
Diakibatkan karena kingkalaje dulu adalah seorang pasukan elit khusus pribadi dan terpaksa(pelitkuster) , dan di wajibkan bias menjadi seorang yang bilingual. Maka Kingkalaje sangat senang dikala mengetahui sang raja bukanlah Kalajengking gagah berani yang dahulu ia kagumi sebagai sosok pahlawan tanpa tanda tangan yang telah berhasil menekuk seekor harimau dengan menggelitiknya sampai mati, teryata seekor kalajengking pertama didalam sejarah perkalajengkingan disebut sebagai homo.
Kingkalaje akirnya pergi menghadap sang raja dan menyatakaan semua yang dia dengar dengan nada sangat senang dan sangat sopan menurut tata karma dan etika kerajaan yang membelenggunya selama ini.
Raja sangat senang sekali mendengar hal itu dan melempar king kalaje dengan batu berbentuk gelas, tapi king kalaje mengelak dengan gaya table manner. King kalajepun berlari ke atas genting untuk membuktikan apakah lagu tik-tik bunyi hujan di atas genteng iu adalah benar, ternyata iya dan bersembunyi untuk menggelar dan memilih persenjataan yang telah di persiapkannya, ada bamboo runcing, pedang ceng ho, tombak achiless, gigi dinosaurus, ekor anaconda dan ia memutuskan mengambil kemoceng sebagai senjata, lalu turun kebawah lagi.
Kingkalaje mendera raja dengan dasar kesenangan karena saudaranya kentutnya berlapus. Tetapi, sayang sekali raja malah meng-counter attack kingkalaje dengan menggeliat dan berubah menjadi burung sehingga kingkalaje berlari pontang pantin tanpa henti sampai menelusuri gunung hutan rimba sungainya banyak sekali.
Karena terlalu fit king kalaje jatuh pingsan dengan mulut ternganga. Tubuhnya terasa melayang di udara. Ternyata benar, king kalaje tebang, sibalik pangkuan burung beo, seorang petapa berbentuk beo jadi jadian tapi sesungguhnya itu kalajengking tua yang menuntut ilmu dari nyonya ratu buaya hitam, sehingga dia menguasai ilmu ketuban yang dapat merubah dirinya menjadi apa saja.
Lima belas hari king kalaje berada di hutan dan belajar ilmu ketuban yang dengan marah sekali di ajarkan oleh kalajengking tua itu. Memang dasar king kalaje sangat jenius, dia langsung menerima gelar kehormatan yang dimiliki oleh komunitas yang kerjaanya selalusaja menelitti dan mereka menetap di sebelah rumah petapa.
King kalaje pun kembali ke kerajaan yang dipimpin seekor Gay pertama di dunia itu. Dia menantang raja untuk bertarung. King kalaje memang hebat dan bias berkomunikasi dengan seekor beo setelah menguasai ilmu ketuban tersebut. Dia datang menunggangi burung beo asli dan menyerang kerajaan, habis sudah seluruh isi kerajaan termasuk sang raja homo.
Sang beo tidak puas dan berbalik memakan kingkalaje. King kalaje sangat terkejut tapi dia sanggup berkata “Aaaaaaaaa” saja s\ketika telah masuk kedalam pencernaan beo itu.
Beo itu pun tidak puas dan kembali ke komunitas dimana almarhum kingkalaje belajar ilmu ketuban dan memakan semua komunitas sambil menyisakan sang petapa tua,
Sang petapa tua pun berkoar bahwa dalam waktu dekat ini akan datang makhluk yang sangat cerdas dan sangat besar. Jika semua hewan bisa berbicara, maka mereka akan merusak alam jadi biarlah alam yang memberi tahu mereka secara sembubyi sembunyi. Jadi seantero binatang se jagat raya harus menemukan bahasa-bahasa mereka sendiri agar tidak di mengerti makhluk itu. Lalu sang kalajengking petapa mengutuk sang beo yang membuatnya sekarang di ujung paruh.
“gua kutuk lo supaye kagak bise meken kelejenkeng, di gante ame buah kelengkeng”
“aaaaaaaa”
Sang beo memakannya.tapi tiba-tiba perut beo berbunyi, karena sang petapa tua itu tidak mati di dalam perut beo, karena petapa itu sangat pandai berbahasa dan menguasai banyak bahasa. Ketika sang beo tercekik, maka itulah kesempatan sang petapa meminta tolong dengan menirukan suara bahasa yang di gunakan oleh makhluk yang konon akan datang itu.
Jadi burung beo yang bisa berbicara itu bukanlah di akibatkan karena beo tidak bisa menemukan bahasa sendiri tetapi di akibatkan suara meminta tolong yang di miliki petapa tua yang tidak pernah mati dan bersemanyam di dalam lambung beo. Mereka akan tetap ada di dalam perut beo pada setiap keturunan burung beo karena sang petapa menguasai ilmu ketuban yang dapat memperbanyak diri.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Top 10 Art Thefts of the 20th Century
Friday, November 20, 2009
The theft of treasure is nothing new – it is one of folklore’s most persistent themes – but thanks to novels, films and the newspaper headlines, art theft has captured the public’s imagination like few other types of crime have. Below is a list of the top 10 (plus a bonus) post-war art thefts.
1. The Duke of Wellington – Goya
In 1961, Charles Wrightsman, the oil-rich American collector, bought Goya’s “Portrait of the Duke of Wellington” for $392,000 and planned to take it to theUnited States. There was such a public outrage that the British government raised the necessary matching sum. Less than three weeks after its triumphal hanging inthe National Gallery, it was stolen. The thief demanded a ransom of the same amount and said he was going to devote it to charity.
In 1965, the thief sent a claim ticket to London’s Daily Mirror and the painting was picked up by police in a railway baggage office. The thief, an unemployed bus driver named Kempton Bunton, gave himself up six weeks later. He had planned to use the money to buy TV licenses for the poor, serving three months in jail for his offense.
2. The Flagellation of Christ – Piero della Francesco
Italy, the home of art, has also been the home of art theft. When two paintings by Piero della Francesco, “The Flagellation of Christ” and “The Madonna of Senigallia” and a Raphael, “The Mute,” were cut from their frames and stolen from the Ducal Palace, Urbino, it was described as “the art crime of the century.”
The crime was wholly driven by profit. It was committed by local criminals who planned to sell the work on the international market and would not be the last to discover that much-reproduced masterworks are hopelessly illiquid. The paintings were recovered undamaged in Locarno, Switzerland, in March 1976.
3. Various Paintings – Renoir, Monet, Corot
The theft of nine paintings, including Renoir’s “Bathers” and Monet’s “Impression, Soleil Levant,” which gave Impressionism its name, from the Marmottan Museum, Paris, took place in 1985. The police at first theorized that the radical group Action Direct had committed the crime. But several paintings stolen from a provincial French museum in early 1984 were recovered in Japan after a tip-off from a fence. The paintings–including Corots–were in the hands of Shuinichi Fujikuma, a known gangster. He had been behind the Marmottan heist too. Indeed, he had circulated a catalogue of the nine soon-to-be-stolen paintings.
Japan’s short statute of limitations on stolen art was notorious, and rumors became rampant that the Japanese mob, aka the Yakuza, had penetrated the art world. The truth was on a smaller scale. Fujikuma had been arrested in France with 7.8 kilos of heroin in 1978. During a 5-year sentence, he came to know Philippe Jamin and Youssef Khimoun, members of an art theft syndicate. They pulled the job for him. But the paintings were recovered in 1991–in Corsica.
4. Pacal’s Burial Mask – Historical
In December 1985, guards from the National Museum of Anthropolgy in Mexico arrived at work to discover that sheets of glass had been removed from seven showcases. The 140 objects that were taken included jade and gold piecesfrom the Maya, Aztec, Zapotec and Miztec sculptures. The curator, Felipe Solis, estimated that one piece alone–a vase shaped like a monkey–could be worth over $20 million on the market–if a buyer could be found.
Most of the pieces were an inch or so in height. The entire haul would have fitted comfortably into a couple of suitcases. It is still accounted as the single largest theft of precious objects. The Burial Mask was recovered.
5. Rayfish with Basket of Onions – Chardin
The break-in at the Manhattan branch of the London dealer, Colnaghi’s, on East 8th Street was sophisticated. It involved a break-in through a skylight and a maneuver with a rope that could have sent the robbers plunging down the stairwell. Once inside, however, the perpetrators became bumblers, treading on a couple of canvases, and by no means choosing the best on the walls. That said, the 18 paintings and ten drawings they made off with included two paintings by Fra Angelico–insured at $4 million–and “Rayfish with Basket of Onions” by Chardin. Only 14 of the works were ever recovered.
The loot had an estimated value (then) of $6 million to $10 million, making it New York’s biggest art heist. It underlined that pickings at private galleries can rival those at museums–with higher insurance and (usually) lower security.
6. Dried Sunflowers – Van Gogh
Three Van Goghs, including “Dried Sunflowers,” “Weaver’s Interior” and an early version of “The Potato Eaters,” were stolen from the Kroller-Muller Museum in Otterlo, Holland. The wave pattern of art theft generally mirrors that of the art market itself and here it did so specifically. Just two weeks before, a list had beenpublished of the top prices paid for art at Sothebys and Christie’s. It listed five Van Goghs among the top ten, including the $53.9 million paid for “Irises,” then the highest price ever paid for a painting.
The thieves returned and asked for $2.5 million for the other two. The police got them back on July 13, 1989. No ransom was paid.
7. The Storm on the Sea of Galilee – Rembrandt
At 1:24 A.M. on the morning after St Patrick’s Day, two men in police uniforms knocked on a side door of Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, mentioning a “disturbance” in the grounds. The guards let them in and were swiftly handcuffed and locked in a cellar. The work the thieves made off with included “The Concert” by Vermeer, “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee”–which is Rembrandt’s only marine painting–”Chez Tortoni” by Manet, five pieces by Degas and some miscellanea that includes a Chinese bronze beaker and a fitment from a Napoleonic flagstaff. Untouched were the Renaissance paintings, including Titian’s “Europa,” which is arguably the most valuable piece in the collection.
The current dollar figure attached to the stolen work is $300 million. In 1997, with the investigation moribund, the museum raised the reward from $1 million to $5 million. Tipsters understandably emerged, amongst them a Boston antiques dealer, William P. Youngworth III. Youngworth was a shady character but gained attention by telling Tom Mashberg, a reporter on the Boston Herald, that he and a colorful character named Myles Connor could procure the art’s return. His price: immunity for himself, the release of Connor from jail and, naturally, the reward. Connor was behind bars at the time of the Gardner heist–for another art heist–but claimed he could locate the art if released. Credibility soon began to leak. Then Mashberg got a telephone call that led to a nocturnal drive to a warehouse, where he was shown–by torchlight–what may or may not have been Rembrandt’s “Storm on the Sea of Galilee.” He was later given some paint chips, supposedly from that painting. Doubts sprang up (the chips were notfrom the Rembrandt). The U.S. Attorney demanded that one of the paintings be returned as proof that the works were on hand. This didn’t happen. Negotiations petered out. Connor is now out of jail, but the art is still missing.
8. Portrait of a Persian Painter – Unknown
The Kuwait National Museum and the Dar al-Athat al-Islamiyya (the House of Islamic Antiquities) were looted during the seven-month occupation by Iraq. The buildings were then torched. The two museums housed a collection of Islamic art–one of the world’s best–put together by Kuwait’s al Sabah family in the ’70s and ’80s. Some 20,000 pieces–including arms, armour, ceramics, earthenware, seals and decorative arts from ancient Persia, Mamluk Egyptand the Mughal emperors in India and Kuwait of the Bronze Age–were packed in crates and driven to the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad in a 17-lorry convoy.
There was pessimism about prospects for getting anything back, except by buying it in bits and pieces on the black market, but a small team of curators arrived in Baghdad six months after the ceasefire. Between Sept. 16 and Oct. 20, 1991, some 16,000 pieces had been returned.
The massive state-sponsored art theft recalls the behavior of conquerors in earlier wars, including European monarchs and Napoleon. And the intention of Saddam–like that of Hitler–went beyond plunder. He wanted to erase Kuwait’s historic and cultural identity.
9. Wheatfield with Crows – Van Gogh
Four Dutchmen were arrested for robbing the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam of no fewer than 20 Van Goghs. They were recovered within an hour. The police were of the opinion that had the robbery been successful; no ransom would have been demanded. The canvases would simply have become financial instruments in the global black economy.
Three of the canvases were badly damaged, including one of Van Gogh’s visionary last paintings, “Wheatfield with Crows.” The fact that most works get back to where they belong in pretty good shape can make one overconfident. But, as shown here, art works are frail and luck can run out.
10. Young Parisian – Renoir
A few minutes before closing time in late December, a man walked into the National Museum in Stockholm toting a submachine gun. He pointed it at an unarmed guard in the lobby while two accomplices who were already inside seized a 1630 Rembrandt self-portrait and two paintings by Renoir, “Young Parisian” and “The Conversation,” on the second floor. They made a caper-movie getaway, sprinkling nails on the ground to ward off pursuit and zooming away in a motorboat.
The thieves then approached a lawyer who relayed their ransom demand: $10 million per painting. The police officer in charge of the inquiry asked for photographs. The photographs were convincing, and the police promptly demanded that the lawyer reveal the identities of the thieves. The lawyer refused, citing confidentiality, and insisted he had “done nothing wrong,” telling the robbers he wanted no go-between fee. He is nonetheless being treated as a suspect. Eight men have been arrested in this case and there is a warrant out for a ninth. But at the time of writing the paintings are still missing.
Bonus: The Scream – Edvard Munch
On August 22, 2004, the Munch Museum’s Scream was stolen at gunpoint, along with Munch’s Madonna. Museum officials expressed hope that they would see the painting again, theorizing that perhaps the thieves would seek ransom money. On April 8, 2005, Norwegian police arrested a suspect in connection with the theft. On April 28, 2005, it was rumored that the two paintings had been burned by the thieves to conceal evidence. On June 1, 2005, the City Government of Oslo offered a reward of 2 million Norwegian krones (about 250,000 euro) for information that could help locate the paintings.
In early 2006, six men with previous criminal records were scheduled to go on trial, variously charged with either helping to plan or execute the robbery. Three of the men were convicted and sentenced to between four and eight years in prison in May of 2006. Two of the convicted art thieves, Bjørn Hoen and Petter Tharaldsen, were also ordered to pay 750 million kroner (US $122 million) to the City of Oslo, which is where the paintings were previously located.
Both paintings were recovered slightly damaged.
Source: http://listverse.com/2007/08/29/top-10-art-thefts-of-the-20th-century/
Top 10 Hitchcock Movies
Friday, November 20, 2009
Alfred Hitchcock was an iconic and highly influential British-born film director and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and thriller genres. Hitchcock was among the most consistently successful and publicly recognizable world directors during his lifetime, and remains one of the best known and most popular of all time. This is a list of his ten greatest films. From good to great:
10. The Birds 1963
Spoilt socialite and notorious practical joker Melanie Daniels is shopping in a San Francisco pet store when she meets Mitch Brenner. Mitch is looking to buy a pair of love birds for his young sister’s birthday; he recognises Melanie but pretends to mistake her for an assistant. She decides to get her own back by buying the birdsand driving up to the quiet coastal town of Bodega Bay, where Mitch spends his weekends with his sister and mother. Shortly after she arrives, Melanie is attacked by a gull, but this is just the start of a series of attacks by an increasing number of birds.
9. Dial M for Murder 1954
Ex-tennis pro Tony Wendice decides to murder his wife for her money and because she had an affair the year before. He blackmails an old college associate to strangle her, but when things go wrong he sees a way to turn events to his advantage.
8. Shadow of a Doubt 1943
Charlie Oackley is the “Merry Widow Murderer”, an evil strangler who seduces and kills rich widows. In order to be safe from the police he is going to his sister Emma who lives with her husband, Joseph Newton and her daughter Charlie. A detective is on the killer’s track and arrives at the Newton’s too, but before he can discover the truth, one of the suspected murderers dies in an accident and the police considers the case solved. Charles seems to be safe, but Charlie suspects him.
7. Notorious 1946
Alicia Huberman is a frivolous girl who loves drinks and men; her father was a German spy in USA and he has committed suicide in prison. Government agent Devlin asks the girl to spy on a group of her father’s Nazi friends in Rio de Janeiro; this could be her chance to clean her guilty name. The girl falls in love with the agent, but he seems not to be attracted by the life she is living. Alicia accepts the duty and she goes to Brazil with Devlin. The agent suggests Alicia should marry the spy and gain free access into his house, so she does. During a party, Alicia and Devlin find some uranium dust hidden in Sebastian’s canteen, but now he has discovered Alicia is a spy and he starts poisoning her day after day.
6. Strangers on a Train 1951
Tennis star Guy Haines meets a stranger on the Washington-to-New York train who offers to exchange murders. The stranger, Bruno Anthony, will kill Guy’s estranged wife if Guy will kill Bruno’s hated father. Guy doesn’t take Bruno seriously until his wife, Miriam, is found murdered in an amusement park. Guy becomes the chief suspect, which threatens his tennis career, his romantic involvement with a U.S. senator’s daughter, Anne Morton, his hopes for a political career, and even his life. When it becomes evident to Bruno that Guy isn’t going to kill his father, he tells Guy he intends to establish Guy’s guilt conclusively by planting his monogrammed cigarette lighter on the island where Miriam was murdered. With Anne’s help, Guy attempts to stop Bruno after rushing through an important tennis match and racing to the amusement park.
5. Rebecca 1940
A shy ladies’ companion, staying in Monte Carlo with her stuffy employer, meets the wealthy Maxim de Winter. She and Max fall in love, marry and return to Manderlay, his large country estate in Cornwall. Max is still troubled by the death of his first wife, Rebecca, in a boating accident the year before. The second Mrs. de Winter clashes with the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, and discovers that Rebecca still has a strange hold on everyone at Manderlay.
4. Vertigo 1958
John “Scottie” Ferguson is a retired San Francisco police detective who suffers from acrophobia and Madeleine is the lady who leads him to high places. A wealthy shipbuilder who is an acquaintance from college days approaches Scottie and asks him to follow his beautiful wife, Madeleine. He fears she is going insane, maybe even contemplating suicide, because she believes she is possessed by a dead ancestor. Scottie is skeptical, but agrees after he sees the beautiful Madeleine.
3. North by Northwest 1959
Middle-aged Madison Avenue advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill is mistaken for a government agent by a gang of spies. He gets involved in a series of misadventures and is pursued across the States by both the spies and the government whilst being helped by a beautiful blonde.
2. Psycho 1960
Marion Crane is a Phoenix, Arizona working girl fed up with having to sneak away during lunch breaks to meet her lover, Sam Loomis, who cannot get married because most of his money goes towards alimony. One Friday, Marion’s employer asks her to take $40,000 in cash to a local bank for deposit. Desperate to make a change in her life, she impulsively leaves town with the money, determined to start a new life with Sam in California. As night falls and a torrential rain obscures the road ahead of her, Marion turns off the main highway. Exhausted from the long drive and the stress of her criminal act, she decides to spend the night at the desolate Bates Motel. The motel is run by Norman Bates, a peculiar young man dominated by his invalid mother. After Norman fixes her a light dinner, Marion goes back to her room for a shower….
1. Rear Window 1954
Professional photographer L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries breaks his leg while getting an action shot at an auto race. Confined to his New York apartment, he spends his time looking out of the rear window observing the neighbours. He begins to suspect that the man opposite may have murdered his wife. Jeff enlists the help of his society model girlfriend Lisa Freemont and his nurse Stella to investigate.
Source: http://listverse.com/2007/09/28/top-10-hitchcock-movies/
Top 10 Hitchcock Movies
Friday, November 20, 2009
Alfred Hitchcock was an iconic and highly influential British-born film director and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and thriller genres. Hitchcock was among the most consistently successful and publicly recognizable world directors during his lifetime, and remains one of the best known and most popular of all time. This is a list of his ten greatest films. From good to great:
10. The Birds 1963
Spoilt socialite and notorious practical joker Melanie Daniels is shopping in a San Francisco pet store when she meets Mitch Brenner. Mitch is looking to buy a pair of love birds for his young sister’s birthday; he recognises Melanie but pretends to mistake her for an assistant. She decides to get her own back by buying the birdsand driving up to the quiet coastal town of Bodega Bay, where Mitch spends his weekends with his sister and mother. Shortly after she arrives, Melanie is attacked by a gull, but this is just the start of a series of attacks by an increasing number of birds.
9. Dial M for Murder 1954
Ex-tennis pro Tony Wendice decides to murder his wife for her money and because she had an affair the year before. He blackmails an old college associate to strangle her, but when things go wrong he sees a way to turn events to his advantage.
8. Shadow of a Doubt 1943
Charlie Oackley is the “Merry Widow Murderer”, an evil strangler who seduces and kills rich widows. In order to be safe from the police he is going to his sister Emma who lives with her husband, Joseph Newton and her daughter Charlie. A detective is on the killer’s track and arrives at the Newton’s too, but before he can discover the truth, one of the suspected murderers dies in an accident and the police considers the case solved. Charles seems to be safe, but Charlie suspects him.
7. Notorious 1946
Alicia Huberman is a frivolous girl who loves drinks and men; her father was a German spy in USA and he has committed suicide in prison. Government agent Devlin asks the girl to spy on a group of her father’s Nazi friends in Rio de Janeiro; this could be her chance to clean her guilty name. The girl falls in love with the agent, but he seems not to be attracted by the life she is living. Alicia accepts the duty and she goes to Brazil with Devlin. The agent suggests Alicia should marry the spy and gain free access into his house, so she does. During a party, Alicia and Devlin find some uranium dust hidden in Sebastian’s canteen, but now he has discovered Alicia is a spy and he starts poisoning her day after day.
6. Strangers on a Train 1951
Tennis star Guy Haines meets a stranger on the Washington-to-New York train who offers to exchange murders. The stranger, Bruno Anthony, will kill Guy’s estranged wife if Guy will kill Bruno’s hated father. Guy doesn’t take Bruno seriously until his wife, Miriam, is found murdered in an amusement park. Guy becomes the chief suspect, which threatens his tennis career, his romantic involvement with a U.S. senator’s daughter, Anne Morton, his hopes for a political career, and even his life. When it becomes evident to Bruno that Guy isn’t going to kill his father, he tells Guy he intends to establish Guy’s guilt conclusively by planting his monogrammed cigarette lighter on the island where Miriam was murdered. With Anne’s help, Guy attempts to stop Bruno after rushing through an important tennis match and racing to the amusement park.
5. Rebecca 1940
A shy ladies’ companion, staying in Monte Carlo with her stuffy employer, meets the wealthy Maxim de Winter. She and Max fall in love, marry and return to Manderlay, his large country estate in Cornwall. Max is still troubled by the death of his first wife, Rebecca, in a boating accident the year before. The second Mrs. de Winter clashes with the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, and discovers that Rebecca still has a strange hold on everyone at Manderlay.
4. Vertigo 1958
John “Scottie” Ferguson is a retired San Francisco police detective who suffers from acrophobia and Madeleine is the lady who leads him to high places. A wealthy shipbuilder who is an acquaintance from college days approaches Scottie and asks him to follow his beautiful wife, Madeleine. He fears she is going insane, maybe even contemplating suicide, because she believes she is possessed by a dead ancestor. Scottie is skeptical, but agrees after he sees the beautiful Madeleine.
3. North by Northwest 1959
Middle-aged Madison Avenue advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill is mistaken for a government agent by a gang of spies. He gets involved in a series of misadventures and is pursued across the States by both the spies and the government whilst being helped by a beautiful blonde.
2. Psycho 1960
Marion Crane is a Phoenix, Arizona working girl fed up with having to sneak away during lunch breaks to meet her lover, Sam Loomis, who cannot get married because most of his money goes towards alimony. One Friday, Marion’s employer asks her to take $40,000 in cash to a local bank for deposit. Desperate to make a change in her life, she impulsively leaves town with the money, determined to start a new life with Sam in California. As night falls and a torrential rain obscures the road ahead of her, Marion turns off the main highway. Exhausted from the long drive and the stress of her criminal act, she decides to spend the night at the desolate Bates Motel. The motel is run by Norman Bates, a peculiar young man dominated by his invalid mother. After Norman fixes her a light dinner, Marion goes back to her room for a shower….
1. Rear Window 1954
Professional photographer L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries breaks his leg while getting an action shot at an auto race. Confined to his New York apartment, he spends his time looking out of the rear window observing the neighbours. He begins to suspect that the man opposite may have murdered his wife. Jeff enlists the help of his society model girlfriend Lisa Freemont and his nurse Stella to investigate.
Source: http://listverse.com/2007/09/28/top-10-hitchcock-movies/
