Celebrating a Legendary Film - The Godfather

Few films in history have been revered so much as The Godfather. Most people can easily associated quotes such as: "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse" and "Leave the gun, take the cannoli." Even after forty years The Godfather is considered one of the best movies of all time and the "Holy Grail" of movie making. So many films over the last 40 years have aspired to reach the greatness that is The Godfather. It is strange to think about the classic characters and quotes that come from that movie and how different it could have been. Did you know that the studio was originally pushing for Ernest Borgnine to play the role of Don Vito Corleone, a role which Marlon Brando has immortalized in movie making history. There were some other high profile names that auditioned for the various roles in the movie but did not make the cut: Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, Sylvester Stallone, Dustin Hoffman, Warren Beatty, Martin Sheen, and Steve McQueen. What an incredibly different film it would have been with any of these individuals in the various roles. When the movie was released on March 15, 1972 critics all over the world praised the film. Even today most critics place The Godfather in the top five to ten of best movies of all time. I know for me it is a great movie and is an important movie in film making history that can not go overlooked.

Controversy or Not?

So at the Gettysburg Military Park gift shop they decided after only one week that it was not a good idea to sell bobble heads with the likeness of John Wilkes Booth. Despite the fact that the bobble heads were selling like hot cakes they apparently got enough complaints from visitors that forced the organization to halt sales of the item. My real question for everyone out there is if this is truly a controversy or not? Are we actually that offended by the individual who shot a President of the United States that we can not have a likeness of him in bobble head form? Frankly I personally would not want to idealize such an individual but I would never put myself in a position to say an individual couldn't buy it. Regardless how you feel I thought it was an interesting story.

Preserving History in Massachusetts

I love the story behind this and being that I rarely give an opinion on here, I think I will this time. I wholeheartedly support the town in upholding this will. In 1661, a resident of Ipswich, Massachusetts, William Payne, willed 35 pristine acres along the shore, stating it should be for the benefit of the public school children and never be sold or wasted. This will spurred tenants to build 167 cottages along the 35-acres which generated nearly $2.4 million for the public schools over the previous 25 years. Now the trustees of the will are looking to destroy it and sell the cottages to the tenants in order to settle a lawsuit by the residents for rent increases. However, and thankfully, hundreds of residents have step up to fight this decision, saying it will break the will's intent and hurt the funds for the public school system. Many opponents of the settlements consider the trustees incompetent for having mismanaged the property for so long and having gotten the property in this mess in the first place. It seems like a tough spot that the property has been put in and it might be tough for them to get out of but bottom line is I hope they create a solution that will keep the property intact and maintaining the integrity of William Payne's will.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/fate-of-351-year-old-will-sparks-bitter-dispute-between-trustees-residents-in-mass-city/2012/02/24/gIQAf62TYR_story.html

MLK Memorial: Plagued with Controversy

Ever since the announcement came through that Martin Luther King Jr was receiving a memorial at the National Mall many, including me, believed it was a long time coming. An individual who worked so hard to achieve freedom and equality for all in this country and sought to make this world a better place deserves to be remembered by all who tour the capitol of the United States. Tragically the memory of King has been stained with controversy after controversy since the beginning not making it worth the wait.

It started with the King family and their company Intellectual Properties Management. This organization has sadly spent years capitalizing off King’s name and reputation rather than believing that his words and inspiration are meant for the betterment of all mankind. They expected the Memorial Foundation to pay them handsomely for the rights to use King’s image and his quotes on the memorial. This process delay design and construction. Various individuals spoke out against this idea believing that if no one is making money off the memorial then why should they receive a fee. Despite that the Associated Press reported that the King family negotiated a licensing deal of nearly $800,000 in order to build this memorial. How ridiculous is this? In order to honor one of the country’s greatness individuals we have to pay someone to use his likeness and words. One can not help but question the motives of the King family and their desire require a license for this memorial.

In 2007, it was announced that a Chinese sculptor had been designated as the creator of the King memorial. This turned out a massive outcry and as human rights activists pointed out the sculptor had also sculpted an image of Mao Zedong. Gilbert Young, an African-American sculptor and artist, created a website dedicated to protesting this decision. He believed that African-Americans should be designated as the designer and builders of the memorial. Sadly for the most part this fell on deaf ears. And to add salt to the wound the foundations attempted to appease the protests and state that local builders would be used for the project however when it came time for everything to start, Chinese builders were used, most of them brought over from China to work only on this project.

Finally the most recent controversy is over a quote placed on King’s memorial which was changed and made him look like “an arrogant twit” according to Maya Angelou who was a consultant on the project. The quote from King originally said "If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter." However they paraphrased the quote on the memorial and wrote "I was a drum major for justice, peace, and righteousness." Not the greatest phrasing of words for someone who appeared to be very humble and unselfish individual.

It is frustrating to think that the Memorial Foundation would make so many wide ranging mistakes. I question if back room deals were made with Chinese officials to appease them in some way because we can see that it was done with the King family. Personally I feel like it is an embarrassment to the American people and the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. that so many terrible decisions were made in the making of this memorial. I would almost hope they would destroy this current memorial and try again from scratch because I feel like a better, less obtrusive, on could be made. 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/16/obama-volunteers-on-mlk-day-addresses-controversy-over-memorial-inscription/

Christmas History and Facts: The Twelve Days of Christmas

Have you ever seen swans swimming in a pond and thought I should get that as a gift for my sweetie? Yeah me either especially when, according to PNC’s Christmas Price Index, it would cost $6300 to make that happen. As we all know that wonderfully repetitive song, the 12 Days of Christmas which gets played so often this time of year, however if one were to purchase all of those gifts for their significant other it would cost them a whopping $24,263. But seriously who in their right mind would buy all of these gifts for an individual or in what century would someone have purchased turtle doves and men jumping around as a Christmas gift. The question is when and why was this song created?

Many people hear the 12 days of Christmas and believe they are gifts leading up to Christmas Day, the 12^th day, however the first day, a partridge in a pear tree, starts on Christmas Day and ends on January 5^th. The period after Christmas is a Christian celebration dating as far back as the Middle Ages known as Christmastide, Twelvetide, or Yuletide. Whatever the name may be, this period after Christmas is meant for reflection on the birth of Jesus Christ with traditional feasts such as the feast of St. Stephen, which is meant to give leftovers to the poor, along with the feast of John the Evangelist and the feast of the Holy Innocents. Many of these traditions and celebrations vary throughout different countries and various religions. Here in the United States the traditions and celebrations of the Twelve Days of Christmas had largely been forgotten and relegated to a song.  

So the question is what is the origin of the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas”? The song was published for the first time in England in 1780 however many historians believe its origins are French and the song could date back much further than that. Why the song was written and published at the time is unknown. In 1979, a Canadian teacher wrote an article suggesting that the song 12 days were coded catechisms for the Catholic Church. His argument was that the English people were not permitted to practice Catholicism publically from 1558-1829 so they secretly celebrated their traditions of Twelve Night through the song. Here are each of the meanings.

A Partridge in a Pear Tree –          Jesus
Two Turtle Doves  –                          The Old and New Testament
Three French Hens –                        The Kings bearing gifts
Four Callet (Calling) Birds –          The Four Gospels
Five Golden Rings –                          The Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible)
Six Geese-a-Laying –                       The Six Days of Creation
Seven Swans-a-Swimming –          Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Eight Maids-a-Milking –                  The Eight Beatitudes
Nine Ladies Dancing –                     Nine Fruits of the Spirit
Ten Lords-a-Leaping –                     The Ten Commandments
Eleven Pipers Piping –                     Eleven Apostles
Twelve Drummers Drumming –    Twelve Points of the Apostles Creed

However there are some problems in this theory. For one the first mention over the last century about a coded catechism in this song is with this Canadian teacher. The idea had been further perpetrated by religious scholars however with little additional evidence. You would have to believe that there would be more significant sources to back up this claim over the last couple centuries. The other major problem is that most of these meanings are not a departure from the Protestant church. In reality they are directly in line with nearly all major Christian denominations and faiths. The actual origin of the song and its purpose are unknown with ideas ranging from a child’s counting song, to a memory game played during Twelve Night in which the leader would start and would have to memorize the subsequent verses given by the participants. Whatever the purpose and origin of the song one thing we do know is that there are a “Twelve Days of Christmas” which do not lead up to Christmas Day but actually begin then.