For those who will be watching 'Earthsea' on Sci-Fi
Thursday, 09 December 2004 02:11:39

For those planning to watch 'Earthsea' on the Sci-Fi channel, here's a bit info from Le Guin about the series. [quote] "Earthsea" 11/13/2004 "Miss Le Guin was not involved in the development of the material or the making of the film, but we've been very, very honest to the books," explains director Rob Lieberman. "We've tried to capture all the levels of spiritualism, emotional content and metaphorical messages. Throughout the whole piece, I saw it as having a great duality of spirituality versus paganism and wizardry, male and female duality. The final moments of the film culminate in the union of all that and represent two different belief systems in this world, and that's what Ursula intended to make a statement about. The only thing that saves this Earthsea universe is the union of those two beliefs." Sci Fi Magazine December 2004 I've tried very hard to keep from saying anything at all about this production, being well aware that movies must differ in many ways from the books they're based on, and feeling that I really had no business talking about it, since I was not included in planning it and was given no part in discussions or decisions. That makes it particularly galling of the director to put words in my mouth. Mr Lieberman has every right to say what his intentions were in making the film he directed, called "Earthsea." He has no right at all to state what I intended in writing the Earthsea books. Had "Miss Le Guin" been honestly asked to be involved in the planning of the film, she might have discussed with the film-makers what the books are about. When I tried to suggest the unwisdom of making radical changes to characters, events, and relationships which have been familiar to hundreds of thousands of readers all over the world for over thirty years, I was sent a copy of the script and informed that production was already under way. So, for the record: there is no statement in the books, nor did I ever intend to make a statement, about "the union of two belief systems." There's nothing at all about the "duality of spirituality and paganism," whatever that means, either. Earlier in the article, Robert Halmi is quoted as saying that Earthsea "has people who believe and people who do not believe." I can only admire Mr Halmi's imagination, but I wish he'd left mine alone. In the books, the wizardry of the Archipelago and the ritualism of the Kargs are opposed and united, like the yang and yin. The rejoining of the broken arm-ring is a symbol of the restoration of an unresting, active balance, offering a risky chance of peace. This has absolutely nothing to do with "people who believe and people who do not believe." That terrible division into Believers and Unbelievers (itself a matter not of reason but of belief) is one which bedevils Christianity and Islam and drives their wars. But the wizards of Earthsea would look on such wars as madness, and the dragons of Earthsea would laugh at them and fly away... Toto, something tells me Earthsea isn't Iraq. I wonder if the people who made the film of The Lord of the Rings had ended it with Frodo putting on the Ring and ruling happily ever after, and then claimed that that was what Tolkien "intended..." would people think they'd been "very, very honest to the books"? Ursula K. Le Guin 13 November 2004 [/quote]

Things Tiesto taught me - Bass is a texture
Thursday, 09 December 2004 09:17:44

And I don't mean the fish. Let me explain. It's 3:58 in the morning, and I just got home. I have just had a profound experience. Not a moving experience, but profound none-the-less. I am exhausted, dehydrated, and exhilirated all at the same time. Late as it is, I am brewing a lovely combo of peppermint and cammomile to soothe me once I get this off my chest. Enough foreplay ... Tonight Tiesto played in a club in Ybor City, which is in Tampa, which is where I am. One of my good friends is into trance, and he decided I really needed to see the Number One DJ in the world. OK, I was definitely up for that - I have some trance music and I like it. So I agreed to go with him and got a ticket. It never really occured to me this was at a Club. I am clueless about such things, although I should have had a hint when he told me to wear comfortable shoes. (Which I did. Which still did not prepare me for being on my feet for 5 hours straight.) So here I am. In a crowd. In a club. It's 10:00 and the crowd is just starting to form up. There are two DJ's ahead of the main act to warm up the crowd. It works in my case - I start grooving the minute I walk in the door, just moving to the music. It's all good and no one laughs at me. I meet several new people who's names I do not know, because I can't hear but every 5th word or so of anything anyone is saying. I nod and smile alot. This goes on till midnight or so, much music - much dance. Loud,yes, but nothing I can't handle. There are lasers and banks of bright lights, and occasional smoke all being coordinated by someone who knows what they are doing and timed with the music and for the mood. Killer stuff! I am completely grooved in and hangin' easy. Well, in a manner of speaking. I half expected my hip to give out early in the evening and while that never happened, I have no illusions of how well I will be walkin' on the morrow. And this is the warmup. Every thirty minutes or so they remind us Tiesto is coming, as if we are going to forget that! This club, one of it's big main attractions, and I was not fond of it, is this circular dance floor. It moves. In a circle. It has a two level platform in the center. During the first two hours we are there we end up dancing our way into the center of the dancefloor, and there we wait. Prime location for the feast to come. Suddenly I realize the time must have come. The dancefloor has stopped moving and would you know we are absolutely in front of the upper level stage. Perfect placement. And then it starts ... Now understand this. Decoy has taught me a bit about sound, and speakers and placement and stuff like that there. Tiesto opened with a wash/wave of light, sound, color ... and I realized that serendipity had given me a new experience. I was about one foot off of being at the exact apex of every speaker in the house. I was caught in the crossfire as it were. Loud is not the proper concept. You can grasp loud. This was a palpable presence - something that actually grasped you, forced the air back outside of your lungs. My vision blurred, reacting to a combination of how hard the floor was vibrating to the beat, and I think the air in front of me was actually shimmering from the vibration ... it was ... intense. This concert or whatever you choose to call it, is a cooperative effort between the DJ and his audience. They feed off of each other. No two concerts will really be the same, or such is my understanding. I surely can see it, saw it in action tonight. Third song - the breakdown section where it goes quiet and then builds back to a heavy beat climax. He brings it down and the crowd knows what is coming ... he starts to bring it up, and holds, and holds and holds - there is a pattern to these things and at the point where it should have taken off again we are still holding. The audience is anticipating the moment ... and you can feel the tension build and the anticipation. And then he hit us with the full restoration of the beat, the light bank, the ful