"The First Men in the Moon" by Herbert George Wells (1901)

 

It seems that I come back to Herbert George Wells on the regular basis - every now on than, I will visit or re-visit some of his classic novels and they always give me a lot of pleasure. He was often being called "father of science fiction" but I would rather group him together with Jules Verne who was sort of his French counterpart. In fact, the connection is real here - both men wrote about human visit to the Moon at the time when this was really just a speculative fiction. Verne published his "From the Earth to the Moon" some 30 years earlier and it obviously impressed young Wells who gives it his own twist here. I can't honestly compare these two novels because although I am sure that I read Verne, it must have been decades ago and I remember practically nothing of it (+ mixing it with "Journey to the Center of the Earth" that also have tunnels and craters). 

What did I read from Herbert George Wells so far:

The Time Machine (1895)

The Wonderful Visit (1895)

The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896)

The War of the Worlds (1898)

The First Men in the Moon (1901)

The Country of the Blind and Other Stories (1909)

I have somehow missed "The Invisible Man", maybe because I own classic old 1933 film so felt familiar with it, but should definitely correct this. "The First Men in the Moon" has its moments but its by far the lesser Wells - it starts good but he gets bogged down by scientific ideas that bring the story to a crawling pace, than towards the end it just meanders. I still love the man and enjoy his novels but this might be my least favourite of his. 

Real-life characters from the "Killers of the Flower Moon"

 

Real-life Mollie Burkhart (right) with her sister Anna Brown (left) and their mother, Lizzie Q.

"Killers of the Flower Moon" by Martin Scorsese (2023)

Looking back, it must have been the trailer that caught my attention - one of those skilful trailers that intrigue but don't show everything at once - and I purposely avoided reading anything about it beforehand, because wanted to approach it as tabula rasa with clear mind and without prejudices. If I did read about it, I would know about the film's immense running time (3 and a half hours) and controversies about it - when friend informed me about the length of the movie, I just wanted to die. Suddenly I remember, yes, Martin Scorsese of course, the guy whose recent "The Irishman" I refused to attend for this very same reason. Why I didn't think about it? This is what happens when you refuse to know anything about the movie. Well, it was too late - tickets bought anyway, so we went to cinema feeling like we are going to the gallows - I declined any food & drink, taking care of my capricious bladder and expecting long & silent suffering. It was anything but suffering! 

First of all, let me admit that usually I have a solid nap during the first 30 minutes in the cinema - it is what it is, probably because I feel so warm & cozy & comfortable, this is who I am and I actually don't have problem with it. Later I wake up and catch up with the movie. But this was the first time in ages that I didn't had a nap - in fact, the story was so interesting that it kept me watching (the audience was also totally mesmerised) and I was planning to whisper to my comrade "This is actually not bad at all" but we were both too busy to talk. I can't say that nobody noticed the length of the movie because it was not true - but it faltered only in the last 30 minutes, when we all start feeling a bit exhausted and just wanted it to finish. No break, of course. 

It is not my intention to discuss too much of the plot or to give away the story itself - its happening in the early 1920s (judging by the original scratchy 1921 recording of Mamie Smith whose "Crazy Blues" I am familiar with) when Osage Native Indians find themselves suddenly wealthy from the oil and the subtle, sinister ways whites were abusing them, all the way pretending to be their protectors. I must say that everything, from the script, original music and acting was top notch - and I don't even like Leonardo DiCaprio (I always felt he was product of the publicity industry) but here he was genuinely good, playing a simpleton who was manipulated by his uncle, crime lord Robert De Niro in one of his best roles ever. There is also a wonderful Native Indian actress Lily Gladstone as real-life Mollie Kyle (because this was based on a real-life story) and now unrecognisable Brendan Fraser as a nasty attorney corrupted by baddies. It is almost a pity that the controversy over its length might overshadow how good the movie actually is, Scorsese could honestly just edit it better, shorten the damn thing and make it more watchable. The way it is, I am sure that lot of people react the same as me and refuse to be pinned down in cinema for such a long time.

"Kim" by Rudyard Kipling (1901)

Of course, I know who is Rudyard Kipling - the British author who created Mowgli and The Jungle Book (and inadvertently, Tarzan that was inspired by them) - but I have actually never read anything by him. He might have not been the top of priority of translated authors in my country, in fact, a quick glance at online library catalogue lists "Kim" being translated and published only twice, in 1928. and finally again in 2019. The Jungle Book was a little more represented, but it never caught my attention since as a kid I was familiar with Disney cartoon version, hence it worked against the novel(s). Its only because I have never read Kipling, that I have selected this novel. I thought it might be good introduction to his writing style and I was not disappointed.

"Kim" won me over instantly, on a very first page. There is a beauty and magic in approaching the book without any knowledge about it, without any prejudices or preconceptions, just facing the opening page and discovering the storyteller's voice. And this voice said: "His nickname through the wards was ‘Little Friend of all the World’; and very often, being lithe and inconspicuous, he executed commissions by night on the crowded housetops for sleek and shiny young men of fashion. It was intrigue, of course,—he knew that much, as he had known all evil since he could speak,—but what he loved was the game for its own sake—the stealthy prowl through the dark gullies and lanes, the crawl up a water-pipe, the sights and sounds of the women’s world on the flat roofs, and the headlong flight from housetop to housetop under cover of the hot dark."

The storytelling itself was wonderfully old-fashioned and occasionally long-winded as expected from a Victorian novels - in many ways it reminded me of "The Coral Island" by R. M. Ballantyne - another creaky, dusty old adventure novel that comes from another time and it might be offensive to readers who are searching for things to be offended by. I was not offended by anything, because I perfectly understand that in his description of India under British rule, he was never malicious but actually genuinely affectionate towards the place where he was born and spent his youth. The novel is about plucky orphan Kim and his friend, elderly Tibetan lama Teshoo Lama  who are together travelling trough India in search of mysterious ″River of the Arrow″ (which might not even exist, as lama is very religious and follows his own paths), while there are many war-related spy intrigues around them. It sounds fairly straightforward, but Kipling has a deliciously old-fashioned way of writing so it takes a while to get trough the novel, I was busy with it forever but now very glad that I have finished it. I genuinely loved both main characters and cared for them.

Vacation time: Athens

I have actually never went somewhere for vacation since I moved here - initially I had no interest to travel since for many years prior I had to travel for work + I was glad to be in one place + this is the city I always wanted to live, so during vacations I simply enjoyed being free from work and was often house sitting for friends. Than Covid came and nobody could travel anyway. And finally, this year, I actually made a big step and traveled somewhere else as a proper vacation.

Of course I have been to Athens a hundreds of times - but it was always rush, always just a few hours before my ship would sail away and my time there was limited to a search for Wi Fi place, supermarket and perhaps quick visit to a particular place. This was the first time in my life that I actually had a proper time to enjoy Athens in my own pace - naturally I wanted to see everything and this is understandable since this was the first proper journey after Covid experience - so at certain point it turned out exhausting and we had to take a random day off, when we just relaxed and slept, because otherwise this whole "vacation" would be just running around.

Here I also must say that as much as vacations are nice, the whole process of traveling itself was extremely exhausting and we did not enjoy going from place to place - there were always some sorts of delays, crowds, nervous people, the journeys never lasted as planned and usually sucked all the fun from the trip itself - if we could just teleport ourselves to a certain place that would have been great, but waiting for the delayed train and delayed flight again & again was just nightmare. After experience of traveling to see Meteora which was extremely exhausting (since we depended on public transport) we decided not to bother with visit to islands because this is vacation after all, islands can wait. 

Some observations: 

- Tiny pavements that serve as nothing but decoration. There is no way you can walk on the pavements and everybody is forced to simply walk in the middle of the road

- Contrary to other big cities, people were extremely nice & friendly almost everywhere (except occasional pushy waiter demanding the tip). It was so obvious that we were actually genuinely shocked and surprised that people were so nice to a complete strangers, this is definitely not the case in Amsterdam where locals are openly impatient and rude to everybody.

- Outside of the most famous landmarks, city is not beautiful - its simply too huge for its own good and sometimes I even felt that the pressure on infrastructure might be too heavy. Millions of people all over and the houses are often simply growing like mushrooms without any aesthetic plans or considerations. 

- As always, I was totally in love in decrepit and old houses that have some history behind them and could not care less for "proper" buildings but loved everything that was obviously ruined, old and deserted.

- For such a famously Mediterranean location, they serve a surprisingly trendy, international food - we were naively expecting a diet of Olives, Feta, Moussaka and Souvlaki but actually everybody was enjoying Salmon, Quinoa and things that one would expect in the North. 

- The biggest food discovery was something so natural and simple but it never occurred to me: combination of thick, creamy Greek Yoghurt with fresh fruit and honey on top of it. We tasted it on the spectacular terrace of Acropolis Museum right after our early morning visit to Acropolis and it was so delicious, refreshing and divine that I said this must be food for Gods. We are eating it ever since.

Besides chaotic traffic, we ourselves did everything proper: we were always on time, planned accordingly and the best of all, we packed extremely cautiously - I have never packed as good as this time. Each of us had a backpack and a small suitcase that fitted above our heads in a plane. Underwear to last us for a week, some shirts, two trousers and I actually had only one pair of shoes, whatever we needed we bought there. On departure, my small suitcase was actually half empty and pleasure to carry around (on departure just slightly less so, but still it was a small suitcase and not the monstrosities that other people carry with them). 

Best of all, the return home was wonderful - even though the flight was exhausting (again delays, crowds and chaotic organisation) - it was a huge relief to sleep in our own bed and to simply be home, even though its totally Autumnal here now and a huge difference in temperature. It makes you appreciate home even more! 

God's children: Margaret Ann Neve

 

This woman is called Margaret Ann Neve at the age of 110 in 1902.⁣ 

She was born in 1792 and died in 1903, making her the first proven person in recorded history who lived in 3 different centuries

"Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris" by Anthony Fabian (2022)

 

There is a particular brand of British light comedy that hugely appeals to me - from the top of my head I can name "Calendar Girls", "The Hundred-Foot Journey", "Shirley Valentine" and "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" - they are combination of well-known familiar actors, excellent witty scripts and unpretentious film-making, in short, perfect escapism. I won't go into explanations why other countries simply don't match these high criteria, but there is simply too much moralism and political correctness elsewhere - Brits are just untouchable. To this list, I can now add lovely "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris" which is another feel-good British movie that uplifts the soul and can be enjoyed time and time again. 

It is apparently based on a famous novel, however the novel was published in 1958. and I have never heard of it, so its all new to me. The story is happening in 1950s London where widowed Mrs.Harris lives a drab life working as a cleaner and accidentally discovers that one of her clients own a Dior dress - it is the most beautiful thing Mrs.Harris has ever seen and from that day on, she decides to save her pennies and buy herself one. The whole plot about her going to Paris and what happens there is just too precious to be carelessly wasted here so I just suggest to watch the movie - its absolutely worth checking out and it is lovely little gem indeed, in fact I wanted it never to end. 

Lesley Manville is perfect in a title role as a simple, sweet and lonely widow - we have see her a hundreds of times but probably still can't point the finger where exactly she played, looks like she was always part of bigger cast ("Secrets & Lies", "Topsy-Turvy", "Maleficent") and to my knowledge this is the first time that I see her in a main, starring role. Surprisingly, there is also Isabelle Huppert and Matrix antagonist Lambert Wilson (this time as a suave French Marquis), Lucas Bravo (from "Emily in Paris") and Jason Isaacs (Malfoy in the "Harry Potter"). I strongly recommend this one. 

"Golda" by Guy Nattiv (2023)

I would go trough the fire and high water to see Helen Mirren in anything, but her latest movie came as a bit if disappointment, if not exactly by her own fault. You see, every time when film biopics portray a historical figures, there is always a heavy pressure of being respectful - unfortunately, the sheer reverence results in a predictable, boring movies (unless the movie depicts someone who is remembered as evil, which contradictory, works very well in the movies). The best example is 2012 "Lincoln" by Steven Spielberg that was boring as hell, because nobody dared to say anything bad about Lincoln and eventually it just ended up as a dry history lesson. Even recent 2021 "Respect" was bland and predictable, because of well, respect for Aretha Franklin (and her estate that would not approve of anything that has not been sanitised and whitewashed). In general, biopics are extremely difficult to make - from top of my head I recall 2012 "Hitchcock" that was very good (and included excellent Helen Mirren) because it had a new, interesting approach - it was not a biopic but it depicted only one chapter in Hitchcock's life, the time leading to his creation of "Psycho". That was actually an intelligent, entertaining and well done movie, where time was not wasted on trying to explain someone's whole life but we were there in a moment, understanding it is year 1959 and what was going on around the main characters. There was no pressure of squeezing someone's life in two hours.

"Golda" follows similar idea - what was happening around 1973 when Israel was simultaneously attacked by neighbouring Egypt and Syria. This was also time when Golda Meir was prime minister and she knew very well that she completely depends on help of US. Hence her reluctance to instantly react to the threat, because she knew too well that if Israel strike first, it will get no help from anybody.

This decision eventually made her very unpopular at home (and it led to her resignation afterwards) but to be honest, it was a very dangerous time and with Soviet Union backing Arabs and US backing Israel, it was actually very close to a nuclear war. 

Helen Mirren is buried under all those prosthetic that made her look like dowdy, grandmotherly Meir and she was not really given space to examine her character's feelings or opinions - she is constantly surrounded by the clouds of cigarette smoke, hiding in the basements with her ministers, people crowding around her as some Queen Bee, manoeuvreing her diplomatic contacts with Henry Kissinger and trying her best to save the country - it sounds much better than it actually is, because the final result is a gloom & doom that drags a bit and never really catches fire. This has nothing to do with a excellent cast and everything to do with Israeli director Guy Nattiv who is too reverent for his own good and the movie is simply too careful not to stir any controversy - it might have worked out better if he gave his historical characters some humanity. Curiously, at the end of the movie we see a clip of real Golda Meir who was charming, witty and engaging - completely unlike the stoic faced portrayal of her in this movie. 

Photo of the day

 

The Three Degrees Live In Concert 15/09/2023

A week ago I have visited a concert that was just a perfect Friday night fun - legendary female trio The Three Degrees celebrating 60 years in business and performing in front of their faithful fans. It is already known that black US performers are usually lovingly embraced in Europe, where they are loved, respected and they can always count on loyal support, even when audience back home don't care anymore. The Three Degrees had their golden years in the mid 1970s when they were celebrated as Philadelphia Sound and for a while they looked as greatest new challenge to untouchable The Supremes - when Diana Ross left Supremes, The Three Degrees took over with a list of classic hits like "When Will I See You Again", "Take Good Care of Yourself", "Giving Up, Giving In" and "The Runner" - their popularity in Europe was cemented when Prince Charles publicly claimed to be their biggest fan and the group was even invited on a royal wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981 (the only US guests besides Nancy Reagan). As with all girl groups, the trio was constantly changing line up and not one single person stayed constantly, though Valerie Holiday is now the longest veteran in the band.

 

I was invited by some friends and was thrilled about the night of disco, though a little apprehensive about not being too familiar with their repertoire - shouldn't had to worry because the audience was in such a great mood that the atmosphere was happy even before the ladies came on the stage. I noted that the public that evening was a bit over the hill - but than, who else would be enthusiastic about the big disco hits from 1974 - it didn't matter since everybody was clapping, dancing and having a genuine great time, including me and my friends. The location was place called Q-Factory in the Eastern part of the city and it was big enough to assure audience being close to the stage, quite intimate and fun experience.

The ladies were actually much better than I expected. The current line up includes Valerie Holiday, Freddie Pool and lovely new addition Tabitha King who took over from veteran Helen Scott - they wee all in sparkling dresses, danced to impeccable choreography that we expected from them and even though this was advertised as 60 years anniversary, they sound like a dream. One thing I noticed was how often they would switch their places in the front of the microphone, almost each song they would shuffle their places and someone else was doing the lead. A friend was very impressed with their sassiness and whispered that he always found black ladies being the best singers - I attributed this to simple experience how to slay the public, these ladies are in a business long enough to know every trick how to behave on the stage, how to interact with the audience and how to get over any temporary situations that might occur on the stage (like when blonde Freddie Pool lost her shoe and briefly left the stage, the other two ladies simply continued without missing a beat). On top of it, they sang also other people's hits (as a part of their album "Strategy (Our Tribute To Philadelphia)") so I did not have to worry - everybody was singing and dancing to "Disco Inferno", "Don't Leave Me This Way", "You'll Never Find Another Love" and the legendary Soul Train theme "TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)" - it was a great evening, everybody had a wonderful time and apparently the ladies are often guests here, because Dutch audience just can't get enough of them. 

 

                                              

                                               

God's children: Ida Forsyne

I have stumbled upon this beautiful photo and was instantly captivated by it but had no idea who this person was: a subsequent internet search unearthed a few more details about the identity of this lady. She was indeed a very famous vaudeville dancer Ida Forsyne who had reached the peak of her success before WW1 and was later more or less forgotten. I just found this photo so beautiful that I needed to find more about her.

Apparently Ida starred in a travelling show led by celebrated "Black Patti" Sissieretta Jones so we are talking about earliest opportunities for black performers - she also toured Europe, where she had far bigger success and respect than back home. She even managed to pick up a few Russian dance steps, which created her a dancing sensation and was probably a novelty to see an energetic black lady doing something so exotic on a stage. However, after WW1 she had returned to US just to find her fame slowly disappearing and job offerings diminishing - new fashion trends in Harlem meant that nightclubs prefferred light skinned girls and Forsyne was not fashionable enough. She even went trough gruelling tours with Blues queens Mamie Smith and Bessie Smith where she had a chance to reprise her famous Russian dance routines but experience left her traumatised and she wowed never to tour the South again. Rather than facing the racism, she opted for work outside of show business - later she worked as domestic and elevator girl, living up to 100 years and dying in Brooklyn 1983. In her time, Ida Forsyne was known as "Queen of the Cakewalk".

Etta James recording in the Chess studio, early 1960s

 

Phil Chess, Etta James, and Ralph Bass! A Chess Records moment!

"Oppenheimer" by Christopher Nolan (2023)

This movie was so hugely advertised and pumped up (together with its competition, "Barbie") that it was inevitable that it will eventually leave me cold. Critics claimed it was masterpiece and the best movie of 21th century so far - well, that was really hard to live up to. I genuinely expected a cinematic equivalent of a burning bush, something nobody has ever seen before, etc, etc - at the end it was just a long, sprawling saga clumsily divided in two parts that could easily have been two different movies.

The first part of the movie is all about  J. Robert Oppenheimer and how he was a flawed genius, who got recruited by US government to develop an atomic bomb before somebody else does. After the war, he enjoys hero reputation which is eventually demolished during Cold War and anti-communists witch hunt hearings. This would be a story in a nutshell and although I must be honest and admit that everything was done professionally, with bug budget, top cast, etc, it left me completely cold and uninvolved. The best thing about it was that I did not feel 3 hours in the cinema and the time actually flew by quite nicely. 

In retrospective now, a week later, I wonder why it left me so unmoved. A friend who was with me saw "Barbie" first and she thinks that it was far more interesting, thought-provoking and provocative. Normally, I love these actors and even gladly went to spend 3 hours in the cinema, fully knowing it will probably destroy my bladder (it didn't). Perhaps its all this press, claiming its phenomenal and "watch out for that particular scene that leaves everybody traumatised" - well, no, I was not traumatised, in fact, I was not even moved. I thought it was overlong, sprawling and too ambitious in its scope and desire to cover too much in one movie. What bothers me the most is - 1945 bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are well known historical facts and only this new generation Z is the one who is constantly surprised by everything, like the world had started in 1997. - to them, these youngsters, this might be traumatising and thought-provoking movie about something they have never heard before but to the rest of us this is basically re-telling of a something we have all learned in the school. I mean, is there a person in the world who does not know how did WW2 end? As for myself, I have even visited both Hiroshima and Nagasaki + saw the museums with my own eyes, so no, this was neither traumatising nor new nor something I did not expect. To me it was very much like if somebody made a movie about WW2 and kids got all shocked and surprised - well yes, this is historical fact and no amount of your outrage and offenses can erase it. 

Tribute to the cult rock album sans original performer

Thanks to wonders of youtube I stumbled upon something very dear and close to my heart - a concert tribute to legendary all-star Croatian LP album from 1973. The album itself was a debut studio showcase for than 23 year old Josipa Lisac who was surrounded by the cream of local musicians and it is now considered to be one of undisputed masterpiece of Croatian rock music, with generations after generations of new listeners discovering it trough the years. During my teenage years, lady herself would very rarely perform these old songs, since she had tons of new material and was happy introducing new songs that her partner Karlo Metikoš tailored specifically for her - I clearly remember even back than, in 1982 people would complain that her voice is now not what it was before and that she changed her style too much from the original recordings - fast forward to 2023 and she had metamorphosed so much into almost unrecognisable artist than nowadays her concert performances hardly resemble those old recordings - at this point she is all about jazzy improvisations and experimentations that alienate quite a lot of people, including (dare I say it?) me as I grew up with original recordings and loved every note.

On June 10th, 2023 there was a very interesting performance tribute to this whole album by a young local band, led by vocalist Lucija Pećar Končić and her guys - they performed a complete album in chronological order and in original arrangements, as they were recorded in 1973. Josipa Lisac herself was amused and flattered that her masterpiece (now 50 years old) is apparently capable to exist on its own without her, but she was not present or performing in the concert - it was all about the music, not about her. I knew vaguely about this but was not expecting to find it available on youtube and when I discovered it today, I must say that I was overjoyed. After all, I know every single word and every note by heart.

 

One interesting thing that struck me immediately is "oh, they really followed original recording note by note" - by now we are so accustomed that Lisac is constantly experimenting with new versions that it comes as a shock to hear album the way it was. At first i wasn't even sure what I think about it - I thought, well, copying original note by note can be done by anybody, right? Even I could do exactly what the singer Lucija Pećar Končić was doing here, just give me a microphone and a spotlight, I know every word and every single ornamentation. And this is one of the reasons why Lisac is such a celebrated singer, because she never rested on her laurels but was constantly changing and evolving (to the point that now she is singer's singer but too complicated for wide audience). But after a while I got so carried away with the music, that I didn't care anymore - I was singing along from the top of my lungs and decided that even in this, obviously well-studied version, its simply a labour of love from musicians who love, admire and know this music - its a joy to see all of them so young and so clearly in love with music. And it confused me a bit, since I never really liked how Lisac herself was twisting original recordings into something unrecognisable but now when I see it performed exactly as it was my reaction was "hm, that is too easy". In any case, this live concert made me very happy and I have not only shared it around with everybody but also listening right now, its the soundtrack of my life and I can only hope that in the future there will be more of similar tribute concerts to this fabulous music and this wonderful lady.

   

Sinéad O'Connor 1966-2023

Just watched interesting documentary "Nothing Compares" directed by Kathryn Ferguson, who could not possibly known that this 2022 film will just a year later serve as farewell to famous Irish singer. the documentary itself was very interesting although it kind of ends around mid 1990s when O'Connor gleefully destroyed her pop stardom and famously alienated half of the world with her highly publicised opinions. So there is nothing about her fall from grace and (perhaps fittingly) its a celebratory documentary, focused on how Sinéad became world superstar but almost nothing is said about her last years - that might be focus of another documentary. A large elephant in the room was the fact that Prince's estate strictly forbid use of his song - even he was alive, he was apparently not a fan of O'Connor - so its a bit obvious that documentary is built around the singer but can't play the song that made her a world superstar. 

Her death came as a shock but not as a surprise - I was only surprised that she was actually so young and actually just a few years older than me. I vividly remember the times when she shoot to fame in the early 1990s, the beautiful new girl on the block and how everything about her was so unusual - she was not smiling, she looked focused and angry, her bald head making that beautiful face even more striking. Her music did not really appeal to me back than, but I found her intriguing - I might enjoy her music more today, in a retrospect. What was clear from the start was the O'Connor had strong opinions and was indeed courting the controversy, I would even say enjoying attention she got from the media - but constant anger brings you only so far and it was eventually self-destructive, as conservatives turned against her. Yes, in hindsight, whatever she said about Catholic church eventually came out as truth but in my opinion she fought with the windmills and it turned a lot of people against her. I can't think of any current pop star who would so knowingly sabotage their own success with bold statements like O'Connor. 

One thing that documentary focuses on is her perpetual accusations - be it church, Magdalene asylum, her own mother or music industry. While in her TV interviews O'Connor comes on like a very charming and jovial, in print it sounds as she was constantly angry. Right now everybody talks about her as being bipolar or having mental issues, but this is how real artists are - they must have something that fires them up - I don't see O'Connor as more mad than the next person on the street. What bothers me just a bit is that constant obsession with the past and wounds that should have been left behind - we can't forever blame our parents for our own lives and at certain point one must accept his own responsibility. There is also a certain public hypocrisy where now everybody seems to praise her, but in fact she was almost blacklisted while she was alive. It confirms again that old motto that the best loved artists are dead ones.