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former glory baghdad In a recent issue of the New Yorker, there was a very interesting historical article about Baghdad and the troubles that it has endured through the centuries. Because of its geographical location it's been caught in the middle of more than a few conquering armies with the Mongols doing the most damage. The city and its people just never recovered from that blow and many others followed it. Since that time no one has ever been able to rebuild the place and as to why the United States thinks that it can help its current rulers create some kind of order is beyond me. That part of the world has been chaotic for a good portion of recorded history. Yes, I realize that that is a gross simplification of why the United States is there, but at the same time Iraq has more problems than most people realize. ... Something else that caught my eye in the same issue of the New Yorker was an ad for an upcoming Max Ernst retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There was a photo of a painting called The Robing of the Bride and I knew that I had seen the painting in person somewhere, but didn't remember the location until I looked at the text. Five years ago, I saw this striking image at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice. Seeing that painting triggered a lot of memories and made me realize how much has changed in my life since that time. ... I've added yet another place to my list of destinations that I must see before I die. The latest candidate is Lord Howe Island off the coast of Australia. The lead article in the current issue of National Geographic Adventure magazine gave me all of the details that I needed to know. ... Marvel debuted their Ultimate line some years ago in an effort to attract new readers who didn't want to be weighed down with forty years worth of continuity. I can see their reasoning behind the books, but I never purchased anything from that line until this past month. No matter how convoluted the earlier canon might be at times, for me there wasn't enough cause to start from the beginning again. Marvel tried something to that effect a decade ago and failed. Warren Ellis changed my mind. I've loved his work on Planetary and more recently his book Ocean drawn by Chris Sprouse. Now with Ultimate Fantastic Four, Ellis made me see the foursome in a new light and I'll be with the book as long as he is writing it. |