How Come Cannibals’ Eyes Are Bigger Than Their Mouths?
from Friday, October17th of the year2008.
There is a whole linguistic tic attendant to cannibal murder stories. As if it makes it somewhat less awful, you always hear cannibals talking about, “I only ate a portion of the flesh.” Now. Girl. Recently in England, Mr. Gay UK 1993 totally killed and ate his man. At the bottom of that story is a link to a page of other cannibal murders. But check it out (emphases mine):
*A chef was found guilty today of murdering a boyfriend before carving flesh from his thigh, seasoning it with fresh herbs, frying it in olive oil and chewing a section.
*According to a guard, the man was found with a spoon hanging out of his head and part of his brain missing.
*Durant sent a letter to a newspaper saying that after killing Ms Durrell, a divorced mother-of-two from Ilford, Essex, who had just moved to Spain, he cut her body into small parts and ate sections of the flesh.
I wonder what the journalistic protocol is for this use of words like “part” and “section” as opposed to “cutlet” and “gigot” or whatever. Does it say somewhere, “do not use traditional butchery terms to describe the dismembered body parts of murder victims?” I’m sure if that shit were in The Elements of Style I would have heard about it. Or written a song cycle. Or both. But anyway, I do wonder about this whole “section” business. Are we talking, you know, a few nibbles? Or a discrete piece?
Also: don’t kill and eat your man.
Everybody in the city needs to go and see Doctor Atomic right away right away so we can talk about it. I feel the same way about It as I do about Óbama; I feel like he’s 91% awesome, and I’m just not going to say anything bad about hymn until he’s elected. Dr. Atomic ““ this new production in particular ““ is amazing. It has its problems, as Mark Adamo wonderfully explains, but I feel like it’s so important that everybody goes to see it. This amazing lady bought $500k of great seats and is selling them for $30, which is (a) amazing and (b) makes it possible that everybody can go see it the way it is meant 2 B س , which is to say, upp close and personal. It is a wonderful experience.
10 Comments
October 17th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
On the Stones old album, Undercover, there is a song called Too Much Blood in which Mick does a great rap about a cannibalistic murder, and a bit later we get to hear him use the “f” word. [sigh] Maybe it’s juvenile of me, but I do looooove to hear Mick use the “f” word in a song…any song…
What if….Starbuck’s used StarStar for an ad campaign? I mean, they’d have to change it ever so slightly…
“She’s a starbukcer starbucker starbucker starbucker star….”
Probably wouldn’t be the most successful ad campaign, except for women of a Certain Age who would be hearing Mick n their heads, singing it the way it was MEANT to be sung.
Gimme a cappuccino and make it a double. Tee-hee.
October 18th, 2008 at 5:15 am
I guess that if they ate the “whole” person they’d be greedy and obese.
Though, if you talk about fillet de garçon it would become something you’d want to have. Thank good I am almost vegetarian, so I must be sure I never go out with an onion!
October 18th, 2008 at 8:30 am
How can they print that… without specifying WHICH “fresh herbs” were used.
October 18th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Don’t. Eat. Me.
And I agree with Chris. What where these herbs?
October 18th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I’m puzzled by Mark Adamo’s criticism. As a description it is right enough but he seems to see scraps and ephemera where I feel (and I think Sellars must feel) the intense inner drama both explicated and hidden by the poetry. The triviality of the weight loss conversation was almost unbearable in the light of the moment and what was about to happen. And the confessional character of “Batter My Heart” and the immensity of the musical setting make it a shattering ending to Act I – just as Aschenbach’s almost imperceptible “I love you” is a shattering ending to Act I of Death in Venice.
I will not see the Met production until the repeat simulcast, but the descriptions I have read make it seem, like last season’s Peter Grimes, yet another adaptation of the Laugh-In set. I was taken with the immensity of the desert and the Lucretian scurrying around in the Sellars/Child dvd. I will keep an open mind, though, and am eager for the talk that Nico promises.
October 19th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Hey Nico,
Did you read this?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/oct/19/classicalmusicandopera-usnationalsecurity
October 19th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
That is disgusting. It makes me hate Leeds even more.
Victor – I saw that article in the Observer today – very interesting, but wholly unsurprising. My mum told me about living as the daughter of a Vietnamese diplomat in the US. She is sure that they were and are watched.
Oh and Nico – interesting thoughts on English boarding schools in the same Observer today…
October 20th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
eh…dr. atomic was only 64% good. music was strong, production strong, vocalists all good – Finley was GREAT.
but the libretto was just a mess. a mess. a messy messy mess. Mark A. was right about ripping it to shreds.
http://www.last.fm/music/Planningtorock/_/I+Wanna+Bite+Ya
October 20th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
pahdahubaudie
October 21st, 2008 at 2:38 pm
thanks steven. that’s an honest reaction to nico’s fulfilling blog. music to my belly.