Calling all classic movie bloggers... join the flock of LAMBs!

So, I was finally getting around to making my nominations for the 2009 LAMMY Awards when I discovered a somewhat disappointing thing: several of the blogs I was wanting to nominate are not LAMBs and are therefore ineligible!

You may be asking, what is this LAMB stuff all about, anyway? Well, the acronym stands for the Large Association of Movie Blogs. The LAMB is a place for film bloggers of all sorts to connect. Different blogs are spotlighted, there are a variety of events to participate in, and readers searching for movie blogs can make some great blog discoveries.

The purpose of my post is twofold. First, I want to highlight some movie blogs that I don't see on the LAMB list, but that I really enjoy reading. (Since I couldn't give them LAMMY nomination love I figure I can at least give them linky love.) Here some great blogs to check out:

Another Old Movie Blog -- Excellent, insightful writing.
Asleep in New York -- Not just for Dana Andrews lovers.
Cinema Coquette -- Emphasizing the chic in chick flicks!
Cinema Splendor -- Natalie Wood fan with a perky perspective.
Classic Film Oasis -- Has me ready to petition for great films to be released on DVD.
Classic Forever -- Classic movie photos delivered daily.
Classic Hollywood Nerd -- Currently going on about favorite movie dancers.
Fire and Music -- Wonderfully written reviews that start with a quote and end with illumination.
Hollywood Dreamland -- We often seem to be on the same movie page.
Self-Styled Siren -- The siren is good enough to get away with writing about herself in the third person.
Silents and Talkies -- For the very cute classic movie-inspired art.
The Film Doctor -- Smart, savvy reviews and sensational links.
Wonders in the Dark -- Counting down movies decade by decade.

Second, I want to encourage more movie bloggers to join the LAMB. Especially you classic movie blogs -- the LAMB needs a better balance of classic film lovers on board. Come on, it's free. Think about it!

Catholicism in the Land of the Rising Sun

Apologies for no posts....I mentioned the loss of my internet, and had only had it back for about a day before I was scheduled to leave on an overseas trip. My trip was to Japan, and I'm going to post a little about it here.

Christianity is a minority faith in Japan- Roman Catholicism in particular only makes up 0.5% of the population, according to statistics from Catholic-Hierarchy.org (among this small minority is Japan's current PM, Taro Aso). The majority of Japanese practice Buddhism (specifically Mahayana or 'Greater Vehicle' Buddhism) and the animist Shinto faith. If you stay in a Japanese hotel, not only will you find a copy of the Gideons New Testament (with side-by-side Japanese and English translation) in your bedside table drawer, but also a copy of the Teachings of Buddha next to it. The Buddha of Compassion (Kanzeon in Japanese) is often closely identified with Mary. Though I did see traditional statuary of Mary (St. Mary's Cathedral in Tokyo has a copy of Michaelangelo's Pieta), she is also depicted as a Japanese woman with long flowing hair and wearing traditional kimono.

It was Francis Xavier who brought the Gospel to the Japanese in the late 16th century, and the churches I visited all featured some statue or image in his likeness. The bust in the photo below is displayed in St. Mary's Cathedral- it once belonged to the Medici family and was donated to St. Mary's by Cardinal Josef Frings, the former Archbishop of Cologne. Catholic Christians in Japan have encountered some hostility; the story of the twenty-six missionaries and converts being crucified during the Edo period is well-documented, and Christianity was banned until the 19th century Meiji Restoration, which allowed for freedom of religion.

The church here is a parish in Ashiya, a suburb outside of Osaka and was built in the 1930s. It is looked after at present by three priests- two Japanese and a Frenchman (there was an Italian there during my stay, but he was due to leave for another parish within a few weeks). My friend and her mother, who I attended mass with there, related that Japan also suffers from a shortage of clergy, which may explain the presence of the expat priests. A few parishes in Tokyo offer masses in English, but most services will be in Japanese and in some cases Tagalog and Spanish.

During World War II, some churches were destroyed when the Americans bombed the country; the most notable example being Nagasaki's Urakami Cathedral, which was destroyed when the second atomic bomb hit a short distance from the building. As a consequence, some churches rebuilt after the war were constructed with a modern appearance. The pictures below are of St. Mary's Cathedral, which was one such parish that was bombed during the war. I attended Palm Sunday mass there, and while I felt initially staggered by the size of the place, I found the interior to my liking. It appears quite cave-like in the photos below, but the simplicity of it is quite pleasing to the eye in person.

Kawaramachi Church is the seat of the Bishop of Kyoto. I was surprised to find it a short distance away from my hotel. The layout of the church bears some similarity to that of the Stuartholme School chapel in Brisbane with its large triangular stained glass window behind the altar. This church too was fairly simple in layout, with only the right wall decorated with stained glass windows. The third photos shows a section of this wall depicting the Stations of the Cross.

I have taken no photos of the services I went to (something I wouldn't feel comfortable doing, since they're not my parishes and I don't know the parishioners), but will comment on what might be considered a particular quirk to Japanese worship. Standing during the entire Liturgy of the Eucharist is practiced by most, with kneeling for prayer after communion. The parish in Ashiya also employs a system where a plateful of unconsecrated hosts is placed at the church entrance alongside the ciborium, and before you take your seat you take a host from the plate and place it in the ciborium with tongs. This is done to ensure exact numbers for communion. Altar serving practices are not too different from ours here; most of the servers I saw were young children around the ages of 8-10 (with an adult supervisor), and were very disciplined and committed.

If readers would still like to learn more about the Japanese Catholic experience, I can highly recommend the works of the author Endo Shusoku, in particular 'Silence' and 'Scandal'.

Only in America!!

A biretta tip o{] :-) goes to Hypatia for discovering the commercial that the Archdiocese of New York is using to get people to come to confession.

I am amazed the the Cooees people did not pick this one up.

But as they say - only in America!!

You can never have too many candles

Here is a pic from a recent mass celebrated in Sevilla in Spain. Very ornate and very Spanish of course.

If I were a TCM guest (fan) programmer...

Jealous. That's how I feel every time I see a TCM guest programmer introducing his or her favorite movies. And while it's bad enough that TCM has guest programmers that aren't me, now they have fan programmers that aren't me either. How fun would that be, chatting about some lovely film with movie know-it-all (in a good way) Robert Osborne?

Stacia at She Blogged by Night has an interview with one of the chosen fan programmers explaining what the experience was like. She was asked to pick 10 films that meant something to her for TCM to narrow down.

What would my picks be?

The Maltese Falcon - A favorite. I especially love watching Sam's little laughs at Brigid's lies and his interactions with the fat man.

The Third Man - Another favorite. Besides the classic ferris wheel scene, there's also the great buildup to the reveal of Orson Welles' character. And you just have to sympathize with Holly Martins and his situation: "That sounds like a cheap novelette." "Well, I write cheap novelettes."

The Philadelphia Story - For the dialogue and characters.

The Muppet Movie - Because Kermit was too modest to mention it when he was a TCM guest programmer. This is also a movie I remember fondly from my childhood, when I used to watch it on our RCA SelectaVision VideoDisc Player (I can still hum the opening music it had before every movie, and I often remember from the movies we owned the scene when we had to flip to the other side of the disc). I also love seeing all the guest stars, particularly Mel Brooks, Steve Martin, and Edgar Bergen with Charlie McCarthy. How can you not love a movie about friendship and dreams? "Life's like a movie, write your own ending, keep believing, keep pretending..."

Father of the Bride - Spencer Tracy reminds me of my dad, who got me into classic movies in the first place. When I got married, he quoted some lines from this movie that made me cry.

The Hustler - Incredible performances. (And I could also talk semi-intelligently about the novel.)

The Long Hot Summer - More Newman, which is always nice, and a great look at all different kinds of relationships. Particularly interesting is the pressure on Clara to find a husband to satisfy both her heart and head.

Holiday - One of my Overlooked Oldies, which fits right in with the idea of TCM introducing people to classics they should know.

It's Always Fair Weather - I grew up on musicals, and this is a unique one that I think deserves some more attention.

The Major and the Minor - If I could only pick one film to talk about on TCM, it might very well be this one. It's the first movie I brought up in my Overlooked Oldies for a reason. Not only do I find the whole thing charming, but I also think it's significant as Billy Wilder's debut as a Hollywood director. Imagine if it hadn't gone well, what other movies we might be missing out on -- The Apartment, Some Like it Hot, Sunset Blvd. I find it incredible that he was able to write so well in what was not his first language. He manages to satirize and make fun of people while still getting you to sympathize and care for them. Pretty amazing.

What film(s) would you pick if you had the chance to go on TCM? An all-time favorite, even if it was well-known? A lesser-known movie with a lot of personal meaning? A really obscure gem to show off your film knowledge and try and one-up Mr. O? Share your thoughts, maybe TCM is listening for next time...

(And by the way, happy 15th anniversary, TCM.)

More of what you want

It's fun browsing my blog statistics to see what crazy things people are searching for when they find me. Sometimes I'm not sure how I matched up, sometimes I've got amazingly exact matches to keyword searches. In an effort to give the people what they want, here's a few popular searches and some bonus material along the same lines.

One of my most popular hits is Tom Hardy. Tom as Ramount and/or in Marie Antoinette, Tom linked with Brando, and just plain Tom Hardy. Here's my original ramblings about the boy, and another picture as a bonus. (I know, right? Go watch The Virgin Queen.)

My Book vs. Movie posts also get a lot of love. In particular the searches seem to focus on Jane Eyre and The Grapes of Wrath. Students with book reports due, maybe? One thing that might be leading to disappointment is searching for The Grapes of Wrath ending, which I only hinted at in my post comparing the book and movie. But here it is as your bonus: *SPOILERS* After Rose of Sharon delivers a stillborn baby, she ends up breastfeeding a starving man. For real. *SPOILERS END* Can't imagine why that didn't make it into the movie.

I'm quite encouraged to see the number of people searching for witty women, including this very positive affirmation: witty WOMAN IS the best. I quite agree. Stage Door has an unusual number of witty women in it, but for other movies with witty women/dialogue I'd recommend the following: The Thin Man, The Philadelphia Story, The Big Sleep, and All About Eve.

Now's your chance to weigh in with what you haven't found searching here and what you've liked that's left you wanting more. I'll be happy to oblige.

Happy Easter Everyone

A happy Easter to all our visitors.

Other commitments and holidays have not permitted us to blog very often through Lent. We are hoping to get more political and liturgical commentary up soon.

The vernacular in the Usus Antiquor

There is an interesting quiz posted on the New Liturgical Movement website about what language the readings should be in if using the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

Roman and I were in agreement on one aspect - use one language or another for the readings, not both.

Unfortunately, you cannot see my result on the quiz. But this is of the essence of it. I believe that in a Low Mass the readings should be in the vernacular. In a High Mass they need to be sung in Latin. I hadnt really thought about a Missa Canata, so one may use either/or but preferably in Latin. Where the readings are in Latin the congregation needs to have Mass sheets to follow.

One of the things that I found very awkward is the priest then re-reading the readings from the pulpit. Given that the purpose of the Homily is to break open the Word of God, there does not need to be a re-reading but the Homily needs to be centred upon the readings.

Its interesting that with Henry VIII's reforms of the Sarum Usage after his break with Rome, the Mass was maintained in Latin, but the readings and the recitation of the Our Father (with the people) were to be in the vernacular. This was as "protestant" as Henry wanted to go liturgically. Later on Elizabeth I insisted that the Anglican services in the Chapel Royal be in Latin, although apart from Oxford, they were in English in the rest of the country*.

As for my limited personal experience:

St Lukes Brisbane
Readings are always in Latin and then read from the lecturn in the vernacular.

St Aloysius Melbourne
Readings in Latin only. I think Missals and mass sheets are made available

San Gregorio in Muritorio Rome
Readings in Latin only. Hand-outs in Italian (I found the Latin easier to follow)

San Pietro Rome (Solemn Novus Ordo Mass)
First and second readings in vernacular (one in Italian), Gospel in Latin. Nice glossy booklets for the ordinary, but no hand outs for the readings.

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*Elizabeth wanted to unify the country under one "Book of Common Prayer". However, in some parts of the country such as Cornwall, people would have been more familiar with Latin as a second language, than English.

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