Julius Caesar...

[fajrdrako]

As I have no doubt mentioned, Julius Caesar is one of my favourite historical figures. I am excited to see the National Geographic article about the discovery of a bust of Caesar found in Arles - possibly sculpted from life, possibly the most contemporary ever. Very, very cool.





I'd say he looks good and the likeness matches other sculptures in his features. Except for the unfortunately broken nose.

Comments

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

Ach! It's always the noses that get chipped, what with sticking out and all.

Have you ever see the George Bernard Shaw-scripted movie, Caesar and Cleopatra (Caesar played by Claude Raines, Cleo by Vivian Leigh)? I highly recommend you rent it if you can! Fabulous words, fabulous acting, fabulous sets.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It's always the noses that get chipped

Noses and penises.

what with sticking out and all.

And Caesar had a prominent nose.

Have you ever see the George Bernard Shaw-scripted movie, Caesar and Cleopatra

No. I would love to! I love that play - studied it in high school and saw it once on stage at the National Arts Centre. It was a wonderful production - I forget who was Cleo, but Caesar was played delightfully by Edward Atienza.

So I really want to see that movie but have never had the chance. Maybe a few Google searches would help.

("Hail Sphinx! Salutations from Julius Caesar..." - that script is one of the things that made me a Caesar fan in the first place.)

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

FYI, I just purchased the (new, unused) DVD of this movie from Amazon for very little (about $13, including shipping.) It is a "no region" DVD, and should play in any DVD player. Apparently it was issued in Korea!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

How wonderful! I'll keep my eyes open, and maybe find it somewhere.

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2847670553/

The international movie database has the trailer for the movie up. It's a TERRIBLE trailer because it makes the movie looks like a foolish, cheap toga-flick, but it's fun.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Biiiiig sigh.

I went to that website and it says: "This video is not available in your country." How annoying those words are!

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

Oh, argh, I know there's a way around this... a site that you can use to open up another site that you can't usually get to. It's how I used to view the UK Torchwood site, which the BBC kept closed off from the US the first season (it's open to all now.)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'll have to try to find that.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

How do they know it's Julius Caesar?

I'm not being facetious, I really want to know!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I wondered that myself. The National Geographic article didn't say. But it did say it was a statue of the full body, not just the bust, so perhaps it had identifying features - like putting his name on the base. No doubt we will eventually find out.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

And your "broken nose" comment made me laugh. I'd say it's more chipped than broken - but then you lose the word play...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, yes. And you never know with a nose. Makes me think of "Asterix et Cléopatre", where Obelix knocked the nose off the Sphinx. A lot can happen to a nose in a couple of millennia.

[cionaudha.livejournal.com]

Hm. Ciaran Hinds is better-looking. ;-)

That's spookily awe-inspiring. As you say, if you'd asked me who that was, I'd have said "Caesar".

He looks like a hard man. Hard, and oddly disappointed.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Ciaran Hinds is better-looking.

You think? I like Ciaran Hinds too, but the statue is fine. (And I like your icon!)

if you'd asked me who that was, I'd have said "Caesar".

Yes! Yes, me too! He looks just the way he ought to.

He looks like a hard man. Hard, and oddly disappointed.

Well - that would fit the reality, don't you think?

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Dear heaven. Why does he look so much like George W. Bush? Sometimes reality is so unkind.

(Can't wait to hear the right-wing folks start to blog about this.)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Why does he look so much like George W. Bush?

He does?

Blink. I don't see it.

Interesting.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Funny that you don't see it. It's very clear, to me. Face shape, hair line at forehead, positioning of the eyes, mouth shape and placement, the width of the face, and the way that the ears stick out from it. Sorry, but I see it vividly.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, you are much more aware of what Bush looks like than I am.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I'm also face-blind. Trulyironic.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

And just the way things are. That's the way of the world - ironic!

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

I have an even larger irony today. I have just come from the union office, where I got data my president left me... for the upcoming national convention in Las Vegas, he is handling our registrations (which is done through the national union's website), but he wants me to handle the hotel reservations, the flight reservations, and the car rental -- two one-way rentals, one to and one from the airport.

I sat there and laughed a high-pitched little laugh of utter disbelief.

He's asking a high-functioning autistic to talk on the phone with people and think on her feet about the scheduling options that will be quoted to her, and to keep all three aspects (car/flight/hotel) in sync the entire time. I just did the hotel and car reservations for the state convention, in April, and I didn't do them right -- well, got the hotel right, but the car rental guy fast-talked me and I ended up handing that off to Jim (president) to fix. Which he did.

Ai. How can I convey to you how immense these three tasks are? Each one is clearly visible to me in all its individual elemental parts, and each elemental part is a hurdle all by itself. "Here, make the reservations." Sure, Jim! sigh

And Jim of course has no idea what he's asking of me. Because, um, I'm "passing." Which is just how it is right now.

Taking on the secretary/treasurer job for the local was a personal challenge in the first place. Since I'm so dyslexic that I cannot add or subtract a column of figures... yet, figure it, I do algebra for the fun of it. I just don't add or subtract well. It never works out for me.

Personal challenge, or foolish endeavor? Well, results are pending!

Luckily there are many flights to Las Vegas from Pittsburgh. Not like it'll be tricky, there.

But... gad! Does he know what he's asking me to try to do?? gad.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well - yes, challenging! Can't you just say you can't do it?

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Can't you just say you can't do it?

Um. As easily as you could phone someone to come clean up your dropped salad, mia kara... actually, less easily than.

If I can't do it, then I'll find out soon enough. But if I don't try, then what's the point of breathing? I already know I'm capable of sitting in one place and reading a book. What I don't know is, can I now handle phone and internet reservations better than I could the last time I tried. I'm not in a static, unchanging form: I learn from experiences. Not in the same ways that NT people tend to, nor at the same rates, but still.

It was certainly an overwhelming notion, when I was first faced with it. But it's part of my duties as the elected secretary/treasurer. And... I'm learning.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

As easily as you could phone someone to come clean up your dropped salad, mia kara... actually, less easily than.

Right.

I'm not in a static, unchanging form: I learn from experiences. Not in the same ways that NT people tend to, nor at the same rates, but still.

I admire your forward momentum. (DO you know that phrase, from Lois McMaster Bujold's books?)

it's part of my duties as the elected secretary/treasurer.

Comes with the territory. Good point.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

I admire your forward momentum.

Thank you. I gratefully acknowledge your respect.

(DO you know that phrase, from Lois McMaster Bujold's books?)

No, I don't... do I need to?

< it's part of my duties as the elected secretary/treasurer. >

Comes with the territory. Good point.

Yep. And part of why I accepted the job this second time (had it five years ago, gave it up for two, and took it back when the other person in it couldn't handle it for his entire term) was basically because I wanted to see how well I could do at it now that I've had the necessary time to process a lot of what went on with it the first time. You see, this natural way I live within my experiences, this "processing delay," can often take as long as months or years before it has gone its necessary course. Or as short as ten minutes. Depending.

But, mostly, my main cry of protest my entire life has been: let me have a second chance at it, now that I know what's involved, what will be going on, what actually will happen! Hm. It's almost as if I need a full rehearsal first, one that does not count. And, uh, most people don't. And don't appreciate when I ask for the first try not to count! hm.

REally, it is all quite fascinating, and if I ever finally get it all written down... well, people like myself will recognize themselves, is all I can say. And people like you will understand more than you did before. That is my hope.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

No, I don't... do I need to?

No, but it's a wonderful phrase, and beautifully used in the books. Which I would highly recommend on any scale.

Yes, good luck with your second chance for the union work. I hope it goes well this time.

Isn't there a T-shirt or bumper sticker or something that says, "Life is not a rehearsal"? You need one that says, "Life should have rehearsals!"

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Heh. There are a couple of different bumper stickers and buttons like that. They say "life is not a dress rehearsal" and variants of it.

Yeah. I need one that says: I need more rehearsal time!

I like that. You're very insightful.

And I'll be after the Bujold books as soon as I can manage it. Right now, joy of joys, I've managed to order eight of the Chris Godfrey books! The first two arrived Saturday: Journey to Jupiter and (I've never read this one yet) Expedition Venus. Both are former library copies, which is tactilely and visually wonderful. Such memories! Such physical, literally tangible memories.

I have a lot to say about the books themselves, now 40 years later, but I think that'll go wonderfully as a zine. But... happy.

Oh. And I was on the hotel website trying to do the reservations today, and stumbled a lot. For one, when they ask for the dates of the visit, what does that mean? August 17 to August 22 means -- in my mind -- needing a room from the night of the 17th to the night of the 22nd, inclusive. Turns out the site took that as meaning only to the night of the 21st. Good thing I caught that. But then it didn't matter anyway, as the site kept telling me the credit card number didn't exist... uh, yes it does, and we have a $14,000 limit, sorry Charlie! Then... oh, heck, so much. It wouldn't recognize our "group code" for the convention. Gave me a link straight from the convention page on our APWU website, to the hotel page, but then didn't acknowledge the discount. I tried four times, then realized I couldn't make my way through it (for one, I actually may ahve gotten the card nunber wrong -- but sue me, the president keeps it with him insead of leaving it at the office, hmf!), and so couldn't go forward like that. But I"ll do the flights myself, and the rental car. I know I can do that. But... this one was just for more experience [g].

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I need one that says: I need more rehearsal time!

Perfect!

I've managed to order eight of the Chris Godfrey books!

Excellent.

I think that'll go wonderfully as a zine.

I look forward to that.

Booking things is seldom as easy as it should be. Or as easy as it looks. Good luck on the rest!

[abrakadabrah.livejournal.com]

Before you get too excited by the ID, check out this article. Don't know if she's right, but it's worth a pause:


(http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2008/05/the-face-of-jul.html) ()

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Okay, that answers the question of 'how do they know it's Caesar' - they don't. Or at least, Mary Beard thinks they don't, and they haven't produced any evidence either way. The same psychology by which, when they found the bust of a Spartan soldier, they called it 'King Leonidas' on no evidence whatsoever - except that it was cool to be able to give it a name, any name at all.