March 29, 2008 by wilmington.

I just saw the sad news that classicist and translator Robert Fagles has died. His translations of The Odyssey and The Iliad are two of the most important books I’ve ever read - in large part because I also taught them for 6 years.

First is a link and some quotations from an article reporting this, and then below that a few observations and thoughts for anyone interested in the self-indulgent reaction of a fan and teacher of Fagles’ translations.

Classics Translator Robert Fagles Dies
By HILLEL ITALIE
Friday, March 28, 2008

Robert Fagles, a professor emeritus at Princeton University whose bold, flowing translations of Homer and Virgil made him an esteemed and best-selling classical scholar, has died. He was 74.
Fagles died Wednesday in Princeton of prostate cancer, the university said Friday.
“He was a quiet man, diligent and decorous, yet one who was unexpectedly equal to the swagger and savagery of Homer’s ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey’ in a way no one had managed before him,” Princeton humanities professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon said in a statement.
Two years ago, his long-awaited edition of “The Aeneid” was released, a decade-long project for which Fagles _ whose specialty was Greek _ had to refresh himself on the Latin he learned in college, using grammar books, and the works of Catullus and Horace and other Roman writers. He was first diagnosed with cancer while working on “The Aeneid” and suffered from Parkinson’s disease.
“The Aeneid,” Virgil’s immortal tale of the warrior Aeneus and the founding of Rome, capped a trilogy of critically and commercially successful translations of the classical world’s greatest epics, starting with “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey.” All were praised for honoring the translator’s highest calling: Respecting the original text, while making it fresh and relevant for the contemporary reader.

Also see this review from 1997.

Like many people, I was forced to read The Odyssey in high school. I didn’t see what the big deal was, it wasn’t that exciting, and the teacher not only wasn’t that excited about it but also seemed to be reciting from a “Teacher’s Guide” each class.

The translation was Fitzgerald’s prose version - we only read excerpts of the stuff everyone usually reads: Cyclops, Sirens, Circe, Scylla and Charybdis. Now I realize that my reactions are the tell-tale signs of a weak translation and a teacher who probably didn’t get it (or who just wasn’t interested).

Fast forward through the rest of high school and college to about 8 years later. I hear some reviewer on NPR talk about and, most importantly, READ from a new translation of The Odyssey . I was already interested in filling in a few gaps in a list of supposedly-great things I never really read, so I bought it. The reviewer was right: Fagles brought out the action, the characterization, and even managed to find a rhythm in English that pushed things along in a way similar to the Greek.

Here was the dramatic context of which the stories of the Cyclops and the Sirens are only a small part. Here was the story of doubtful and frustrated Prince Telemachus that dominates the first 5 books! Here were hilarious episodes with drunken soldiers falling off of roofs, massive feasts and olympic games, deep pathos when Odysseus discovers his own mother in the Kingdom of the Dead, gory, bloody, ruthless violence as a purifying action climax that pre-dates Cormac McCarthy by 2400 years, and a dramatic climax of reconciliation between husband and wife as complicated and imperfect as any 20th century novel.

I read the whole thing, and then went out and bought Fagles’ translation of The Iliad. A more difficult work to get into but filled with surprising and moving moments in the middle of more gory, bloody, ruthless violence. I can hear the emotion in other translations now, but Fagles’ was the one that allowed me to hear first the many brief asides about otherwise nameless and unimportant soldiers whose souls fly down to the house of death. Their mothers would never cry with joy to see their sons walk back through the arches of their well-built houses. Their fathers would never look with pride as a son returned triumphant from battle. The spears, swords, and arrows shattered, stabbed, and pierced the bodies of so many vital sons. And the blood pooled black on the plains.

Gods battled against other, Hector showed what real heroism is, Achilles slaughtered out his selfish revenge - even battling a river god! - and Ajax, Teucer, Diomedes, Patroclus, Menelaus, Agamemnon, and long-winded Nestor spoke and did battle….but those corpse-littered plains drinking the black draught spilt by the nameless sons of Achaea and Ilium…that image of war, justified or not, is what won me over completely for Homer and for Fagles.

It made me listen to stories, read books, and hear language differently.

Fast forward another 5 years and I’m teaching high school English. Instead of the unimaginably lame textbook excerpts (still using Fitzgerald..still using the same excerpts 15 years later, for God’s sake!), I decide that nobody will notice if I buy class sets of Fagles’ Odyssey .
Mission accomplished. I don’t make the freshmen read the whole thing because of time constraints (my first year teaching!), but I do have them read most of it. In teaching it, I see even more of the narrative core that connects the stories of Penelope, Telemachus, Nestor, Menelaus, Calypso, and Odysseus.

The next year, I’m teaching Middle School Language Arts. The school wants a new curriculum, so I propose (and get approval for!) to teach The Iliad to 7th graders and The Odyssey to 8th graders. Over the next 5 years, I continue this with several modifications to the 7th grade curriculum (eventually focusing longer on Beowulf - Heaney translation - to teach advanced reading skills and then using The Iliad as a chance to practice the new skills). But after that intense first exposure in 7th grade, the 8th graders read all of The Odyssey every year and complete a massive writing project describing a soundtrack they choose for parts of the story.

In the process, I grew even more to love these stories, characters, battles and Fagles’ translations of them. During some classes, I would have students read certain sections because I suspected I wouldn’t be able to get through them (the reunion of Telemachus and Odyssues, poor Argos). I believe that hearing and reading and thinking about these texts gave those students who were willing to hear, listen, and think (and most of them were at various points) at least a glimpse of a more robust and richer kind of literature than much of the trendy, anemic, and politicized mere texts they read after being in my classes.

Credit Fagles for seizing me and for writing translations that result in many former students still citing The Odyssey as one of their favorite books. Of course, this is a double miracle - that they should have favorite books at all is, sadly, a thing to remark upon in our increasingly snarky and pridefully disenchanted anti-intellectual educational culture. Was that a rant? Excuse me please…

My final attempt to communicate how great Fagles was: even after teaching the epics for 6 years in a row, I miss them now that I’m not teaching them. If I hadn’t loaned out my copies of both to a fellow teacher, I would be reading favorite sections of both poems now instead of writing this blog (and even though it is already past 1:00 a.m.).

So - to Robert Fagles! An admittedly nerdy toast: pour the rich wine into the bowls, tip some out for the gods, and hearty drinks to a man who called on the Muse to sing through and in him, a song for our time, too.

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March 21, 2008 by wilmington.

USA Soccer is going to the Olympics in Beijing!

Freddy Adu scored 2, Sacha Kljestan scored another, USA:3 Canada:0.
The US dominated most of the game, but after watching a few of Canada’s wing players fly up the sides, I wish they’d been born a few miles south. Fast. Like…DaMarcus Beasely fast.

AND…

The HOUSTON DYNAMO head to the semi-finals of the CONCACAF Champions Cup. The winner gets to play in the World Club Competition (against teams like Man U or Real Madrid, etc.).

Dwayne DeRosario scored 2 and Chris Wondolowski scored another to beat Municipal from Guatemala 3-1.

Speaking of lightning-fast flank players….AND….tying these two reports together…

Based on his speed, defensive sense, and ability to both GET forward and do something USEFUL with the ball when forward, Houston Dynamo defender Corey Ashe should be getting a call from the US National Team sometime soon. I say this even thought he went to UNC. I’m that forgiving a person (and he’s that dynamic a player).

He created several excellent chances against Municipal and assisted on the 3rd goal with a brilliant, angled one-touch cross into the box - while sprinting at approximately 300 mph.

Plugging this kid in, even at this early stage in his career - even in the senior US team - with about 20 minutes left in a game would simply terrorize any tired or slow opposing outside defenders.

——- Sea Shanty Info left out of Previous Post ————

The INDIE GRITS FILM FESTIVAL website has been updated with a list of all the films. Their blurb for X-GEN is old (very old!…as in, before we knew how to write really good blurbs), but you can get a sense of what will be going on in Columbia, SC on April 9-13.

These folks are really all about independent film - the kind of independent film that doesn’t have huge investors already and just so happens to have actors who’ve already been in major films or TV series but yet screen at “Independent” Film Festivals.

Looks like a great time, and we hope that plenty of folks will see X-GEN and let us know what they think.

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March 19, 2008 by wilmington.

First of all - Houston Dynamo play tonight (Wednesday, March 19) in the Semi-Finals of the CONCACAF Champions Cup. Fox Soccer Channel at 6:30pm Central Time, I believe.
and…
The US National Team (the U-23 guys, our Olympic team) play Canada on Thursday night on ESPN Deportes or your favorite online watching venue. This is OLYMPIC QUALIFYING people!!
and…
Brian McBride scored perhaps the most important goal for Fulham in the English Premiere League. He is, to me at least, the greatest soccer player America has produced.

And now….Ladies and Gentlemen…the real reason I’m writing such a long blog entry at 1:00am on a school night….

X-GEN Lives On!

X-GEN was just accepted at the INDIE GRITS Film Festival in Columbia, SC. This is our 4th major festival, but since it’s been a whille, let’s review…

First, our amazing poster by the enigmatic artist known only as El Brigham (click to see the full resolution image):

Then the mind-boggling history of fun we’ve been able to have and a walk down memory lane:

1) Write The Wingnut and You! (August-Septmeber 2003)
2) Film Wingnut (October 2003)
3) Begin writing “The Surface” (ca. February 2004)
4) Wingnut selected for broadcast on “Second Cinema”
5) Start filming “The Surface” (May, 2004)
5) Wingnut selected for broadcast on UNC Public TV’s “NC Visions” (in NC, SC, and VA)
6) Continue writing “The Surface” (Summer 2004)
7) Wingnut airs on “Second Cinema” throughout July, 2004
Wingnut airs on “NC Visions” in October, 2004 and is re-broadcast occasionally for the next year!
9) More filming on “The Surface” - then change name to X-GEN. Keep filming (fall-winter 2004)
10) More filming (and some writing) on X-GEN throughout spring and early summer 2005

Let’s take a break, shall we…

11) Finish filming X-GEN (I honestly don’t remember…November, 2005?)
12) Edit throughout 2005 and early 2006. Score, effects, CG, voice over…really, you have no idea.
13) Rough draft of X-GEN shows at New Bern Director’s Conference (early 2006)
14) More editing…very painful. Two test screenings…very fun and surprising…GET ACCEPTED at the MENDOCINO FILM FESTIVAL in, uh, Mendocino, CA!!

15) Receive phone call: We’re in at the REAL TO REEL FILM FESTIVAL . The call comes just minutes before the start of the screening of…

16) X-GEN Premiere at Duke University’s Griffith Theatre. Around 250 in attendance. Killer post-premiere party. (June 3, 2006, Durham, NC)

17) More editing; Show at Mendocino (Summer, 2006); Submit to more festivals. Get into the REAL TO REEL Festival in Charlotte, NC.

18) Eventually show at the REAL TO REEL festival and win the “Best Feature” award. Sometime after that get in at the Cackalacky Festival, also in Charlotte, NC. Wingnut gets in to some cool festivals in here somewhere…it’s a bit murkey…but it ALWAYS gets a great audience reaction.

19) Show at the Cackalacky Festival in October of 2006. Display the poster of the image above around the venues…Intern Sergio sees it and says, “We just owned every other poster at this fest.” And really, we did.

20)…and then we show at some other places around NC…show to friends…and write and film The Spectre…and write, film, edit, and screen Bailey…and some other short stuff with other folks. You know, the usual filming and editing of 3 or 4 films over the course of about 6 months.

21) AND THEN…Matt Long, Hollywood branch office, submits X-GEN to more festivals…(Winter, 2007)

22) And we’re here. In April, 2008 - -almost 2 years after the premiere and 4 years after beginning writing, X-GEN is in at the INDIE GRITS festival in April in Columbia, SC.

This film cost about $6,000 to make, and we did everything ourselves (or directly recruited and supervised others to do what we could not). Every festival we’ve been to is filled with feature films that cost closer to $100,000 or more (sometimes in the millions!).

Why detail this stuff? Because we spent so much time, 2 years of our lives to make while all working full-time jobs, etc., and unbelievable amounts of effort and bloody-minded stubborness to create these films - X-GEN especially - that it would be insane not to be proud. So…proud moment taken.

Of course, the fame that attaches to all independent film has touched us all. Cristal was consumed, dangerous risks were taken, sports cars were crashed, tell-all books were published.

Up next:
Hollywood Matt and I are looking at a new feature screenplay this summer. Thriller…Noir…but, as always, with a very unique twist on the world it’s all set in.

COMMENT! Look at the bottom right of this column or do the Facebook thing.

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February 6, 2008 by wilmington.

Tonight - Wednesday, Feb. 6 - in Houston, TX, USA, the US Men’s National team will play Mexico in what has become a recent tradition. The teams schedule a “friendly” early in the year before a time of major preparation for events like a CONCACAF tournament or, as with this year, World Cup qualifying.

The usual refrains:
1) Vague: It’s just a friendly, but more than a friendly because it’s USA and Mexico.
2) Practical: Anytime you pit the two strongest teams in a region against each other, you get something more intense than a mere friendly.
OR
3) Ominous: It’s *never* a friendly when it’s USA vs. Mexico.

Sadly, #3 is the most appropriate. The reasons should be obvious. Mexico was the dominant power north of Brazil from the dawn of time until recently. The US has dominated Mexico in the recent past. Relations between the two countries at a national level are not good. The dynamics within the US on a regional level are heated. Etc.

I’d like to focus on one particular aspect of this rivalry - the atmosphere and context of the games themselves. I recently traded posts on a soccer website regarding the fact that except for a VERY few places within the United States, whenever the US plays Mexico, it is an AWAY game for Team USA. If there are 60,000 in attendance, you can bet that 45,000 or more are there cheering for Mexico (or more! - I’m using the typical estimates professional analysts use. If you want exact statistics for each game, go look them up yourself).

The problem with this is not that it shows that soccer still isn’t considered one of the top sports in the US - though that’s true.
It’s not that soccer organizations don’t market themselves and their games very well to a market that would be pro-Team USA - though that’s also true.
And it’s not even that the US sports media goes out of its way to marginalize and ridicule or ignore soccer whenever it can - though that is certainly true (15 seconds of patronizing coverage for a soccer game 40 or 50 or 60,000 fans attended).

The most disturbing thing is NOT that there aren’t enough US fans there to give the team a HOME game in Houston or DC or Phoenix or LA - - the most disturbing thing is that the fans cheering for Mexico and against the US are often not from Mexico.

What you find at any game in which the US plays a team from anywhere south of Brownsville, TX is that the enormous crowd is made up of Mexicans, Hondurans, Nicaraguans, Panamanians, etc. And if you attend one of these games, it’s clear that the crowd is rooting at least as much AGAINST the US as for Mexico or Honduras or Guatemala or whomever. First or second generation Mexicans living in the US? Makes sense. But a Panamanian or Nicaraguan living in the US?

Now before you say that it makes sense for any Central or South American to root for Mexico over against the US, ask yourself: on what basis?…and is that basis rooted in something that should be accepted or even encouraged?

During this exchange on the soccer website, I wrote:

The really bizarre (and sad, I think) part of this is how many people show up to root against the US and for ANY Spanish-speaking team. That is…the Guatemalans or Hondurans who show up to root FOR Mexico…or Costa Rica..or anyone else..and strongly AGAINST the U.S.

I saw this dynamic first hand at a 2002 qualifier at RFK Stadium (very much NOT the Southwest) in D.C. Enthusiasm reaching violence against the U.S. team and fans by people who were not from the opponent team’s country. I see the same thing on televised broadcasts of other international games.

As I can’t imagine living in, say Sweden, for decades and yet making a point of rabidly supporting Scotland or Ireland or even England against the Swedes, the whole dynamic is disturbing (it’s not like Mexico and central American countries are buddies..think Costa Rica/Nicaragua!).

The response I got back was from someone defending this scenario claiming that it was just because the US hasn’t earned real soccer respect from any Latin American country…and that once we proved we could beat Mexico in their home stadium in Mexico City, “Azteca,” then we’d start to see crowds shift.

My response was:

It is ridiculous to explain Nicaraguans rooting for Hondurans or Panamanians violently supporting Mexico against the US as if it’s “part of the learning curve.” It’s not about respect…and even if it were, why does respect=a win at Azteca and not wins in Houston, LA, etc. with pro-Mexico crowds? A win in the World Cup doesn’t count more than a friendly at Azteca?!?
We’ve earned respect by beating them over and over and over including a tournament championship game and a World Cup elimination game. The onus should be on Mexico to prove why they deserve respect when they can ONLY win at home!

And while we’re at it…let’s not skip over their “home.” Azteca where the pollution is so bad our players cough up tar during warm ups and the crowd, again, let’s not forget this, chanted “O-sam-a!” soon after 9/11. That’s the environment Mexico needs to be able to beat USA…and that’s something that gets them respect and devotion from fans from other countries?!?

Since every soccer standard has been met, I don’t see any other way but socio-political to explain why non-Mexicans who live and work in the USA for decades would, as I said, root against the US and enthusiastically for Mexico.

To the disgraceful “O-sam-a!” chant, add the juvenile and shameful behavior of the Mexicans after recent games when they refused to shake hands or exchange jerseys with the US players after losing, (and the non-soccer insults like Mexico City audiences booing, repeatedly, the Miss USA contestant) and you merely add more reasons to explain why they do not deserve the support of soccer fans in the US who are not Mexican.

The big point here is that there are plenty of serious soccer fans living in the US - in many cases, several generations. Certainly enough to give the US team a HOME game more often than not. The fact that a second or third generation Costa Rican will show up at a USA-Mexico friendly and cheer every Mexican fake and boo an American goal cannot be explained in soccer terms, nor can it be explained by a shared language.

At least in the context of soccer, you can’t blame the US for creating a political problem. After all, they’re the AWAY team, remember?

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February 4, 2008 by wilmington.

In this episode: Sea Shanty update, baby photos, Duke vs. UNC basketball, USA vs. Mexico soccer…

Sea Shanty Films stuff first:

MATT is still pounding the beat in Hollywood. He’s got some nice leads on scripts and agents and Hollywoody stuff like that. His writing for LA2Day magazine (which can be found at, well, La2Day.com obviously) is diverse - movies, music, theatre. A recent one on Nirvana generated tons of comments and replies…and may have single-handedly caused apoplectic seizures in every “Tool” fan in North America. See the site and just search for articles by Matthew Long.
In the works are a thriller and something else we’re carefully brainstorming and planning as the next Sea Shanty film. With technology like web cams, conference calls, Skype, conference call web camming, Word documents that track changes, screenwriting software, etc. - it’s really not much of a problem to co-write and plan and even do pre-production stuff from very long distances away.

BRIGHAM has been working on several projects small and large in Sea Shanty’s ancestral home at Pirate’s Cove Studios and Hydrotherapy-Massage Compound. He’s got DP, directing, editing, and a bunch of other fish in the frying pan.

MY most recent film work was not a Sea Shanty production, but with our friend and fellow filmmaker Jay Tyson (Manny the Pupeteer in X-GEN). His short feature “The Story of ONE” was screened at the “Puppet Parts Film Festival” just down the road from me in Austin, TX! I was just actor in this one…a very broad, funny, often silly comedy with a good heart to it.
I attended with 6 family members and got to experience again the bizarre, exhilharating fear of hearing and watching an audience of strangers watch me pretend to be someone else. As I communicated to Jay, we got a lot of laughs (some in places we wouldn’t have guessed), a very positive audience response, and praise from the festival director. Jay wants to juice things up with even more music and by adding in a few sequences he had to leave out due to the festival’s 30 minute limit.
Here’s me as “Roger” in his cube farm office…barely holding on…the part in my hair as severe as my personality:

In Non-Movie Business, there’s this small update:A BABY GIRL!

[ Click on the thumbnail to see full-size. ]

And here she is again looking slightly more human and less Rick Baker puppet-like:

[ Do not click on that photo, because if you do, she will grow even larger and eat you. ]

So there’s a baby in the house (read: small 2-bedroom apartment) now and a whole lot of pink stuff. More on that topic later. I’m learning to leave things for future posts so months don’t pass before I feel like writing anything.

Edifying Thoughts:
This WEDNESDAY, Feb. 6 gives US soprts viewers the chance to watch two of the greatest rivalries in the Western Hemisphere. Both start at 9pm Eastern/8pm Central:
On ESPN: Duke vs. UNC basketball
On ESPN2: USA vs. Mexico soccer

USA-Mexico is big. Really big. Even when supposedly a “friendly,” it is huge and brutal and dramatic. We have owned Mexico over the past several years everywhere in the world *except* Mexico’s home stadium. We’re fielding a decent team as Bob Bradley tries different combinations - Mexico is doing the same. Not all the stars will be there for both teams, but neither is playing the “call up only unseasoned players so we have an excuse if we lose” tactic, either.
The game is in HOUSTON, so it will certainly be an “Away” game for the USA…and that’s not a joke or exaggeration. MORE ON THIS dynamic and the rivalry before Wednesday…I have some harsh things to say.

Duke-Carolina is widely considered the greatest rivalry in college sports. Having lived in Durham for 12 years worth of them, I’m not going to argue. This year should be epic - Duke is ranked #3 in the country (17-1 and undefeated in the ACC) and UNC is ranked #4 in the country after having been at #1 for months.

The only downside is having to look at big ol’ goofy Tyler Hansborough barge through people without getting called for fouls and hearing announcers like Billy Packer rave over this guy as they did last year”How great is Tyler Hansbrough?! And he’s ONLY A FRESHMAN!!!” Every game, all &$%*-ing year.

Well, yes…last year he was “only a freshman.” But he was ONLY A 21 year-old FRESHMAN !! Fine to recognize him as a great player, but give me a break with the “only a freshman/sophomore” nonsense. He played well last year as he barged through guys who, even as juniors were younger and less experienced than he was.

OK - got that off my chest.

Next time…which will be SOON!: USA-Mexico and something about PhD work (since it is actually what takes up 90% of my time…evidence on this blog notwithstanding).

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November 18, 2007 by wilmington.

NOVEMBER 18, 2007 - Houston Dynamo are Back-To-Back MLS Champions!!!

It was an awesome final. Neither team tried to play it safe, two amazing headed goals, one scramble and finish in the box. Physical play, good refs, attacking style from both sides.

Most people focused on New England’s chance to avoid talk of a curse (going 0-4 in MLS Cup games, 0-3 in the past 3 years!), but the Houston story was just as compelling. After winning the championship last year (a goalkeeper save in PK’s vs. New England), Houston started the season 2-5-1 and then turned it all around to go 7-0-1 in the next 8 games (which included victories over 6 of the eventual playoff teams..2 of them semifinalists)!!

Over the course of the season, Houston proved to be the best defense in MLS history giving up only 22 goals in 31 games. They also broke the record for longest defensive scoreless streak in MLS history: 726 minutes without giving up a goal. Average crowd was about 15,000 (better than many MLB teams) and the home playoff games were sold-out, standing room only crowds (30,000 and 31,000).

In the Cup Final:
Even without injured main forward Brian Ching, Houston finds a way to come from behind and win. And once again, Dwayne DeRosario has a quiet game (or 3) but then rises up to score THE big goal in THE big game. 40,000 people cheering at RFK stadium - most for New England - with passionate support and reactions from fans of both teams.

It was the kind of game that can create new soccer fans.

Regardless of how ESPN or any other sports media cover the game on their shows tonight (and past experience suggests that SportsCenter will devote less time and respect to this than they will to way-early NHL games that mean almost nothing and had 1/3 of the attendance), this was a game you should try to watch and record if they re-play it on any of the ESPN channels later tonight or this week (check www.soccertv.com or the ESPN site).

I’m already looking forward to taking my son to the games in Houston next season.

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