THREE NEW TT-Related INTERVIEWS Expressive Miranda Otto interview on her role as Eowyn: "A shy, blushing beauty she is obviously not." A fresh Liv Tyler exchange with The Scotsman Andrew Lesnie, director of photography for the film trilogy -- in this edited transcript from American Cinematographer -- describes the visual scheme of The Two Towers as "hardened reality." The second movie, accordingly, will depict stunning clarity within darkness. Tomorrow, I will purchase an advance ticket for the 18th December opening day, noontime screening. I'm trying to maintain some semblance of patient normalcy until then.

TERRORIST IMPEDIMENTA Sniffing out the Terrorists -- by using aerial biosensors (free registration req'd) Are Terrorists Selling Military Base IDs? Saddam reportedly hiding lethal chemical arsenal in private homes The Saudi Princess & Her "Charities"

New Interviews with Two Leads Interview with Karl Urban -- cast as Eomer in The Two Towers. Director Jackson had to be certain that the role was taken by an actor who "had to be imposing physically and in temperament, someone who wouldn't look like a dork wearing armour and a helmet with long blond locks spilling from it." Urban, as with everyone else in the cast, looks perfectimundo! Interview with David Wenham -- cast as Faramir. He remarks that "although there are light moments throughout" the picture, it is "a very dark, bloody, violent film."

SCIENCE NEWS How Giant Planets are Born How Small are Small Stars? The Northern Calif. Earthquake 'Swarm' Want to have a camera jacked into your tongue Face transplants "on the horizon"

PROUST Last week I began my reread (!) of Marcel Proust's astounding testament to the near-omnipotence of memory. (Indeed, André Brink recently wrote that the sequence of novels is "the most remarkable demonstration of memory in action in fiction; a lasting evocation of the power and the magic of the world within us."). A la Recherche du temps perdu can, I think, be translated literally as "The Quest for Lost Time." In the Scott-Moncrieff translation it is called Remembrance of Things Past. For the newly translated & published (and somewhat critically cheered) Penguin Books box set, it has been retitled as Quest for Lost Time. In its original French it appeared in sixteen volumes between 1913 and 1927, the last of them five years posthumously. Proust sought, as the title suggests, to write the past -- time lost and seemingly irrecoverable -- into the permanance of art. Like Joyce & Eliot (and, for that matter, Henry James and his "sense of the past"), Proust was preoccupied with Time. I bought my Vintage softbound set (sporting the lovely Philippe Julian engravings on the front covers) in February 1977 at Paperback Booksmith, Brattle St., Cambridge MA. It is, of course, the 1920's Scott-Moncrieff translation because, up until the Kilmartin/Enright revisions in the 1980s, it was the sole version available in English. The brand-new Penguin edition, produced under the editorial aegis of Christopher Prendergast, features the reportedly not-too-controversial labours of seven individual translators. (That is to say, one translator per volume.) Most of the eight reviews I've read of this set are cast in a favourable light. Nonethless, it is fairly significant to note Robert Douglas-Fairhurst's concluding remark: "For the Penguin translators, one feels, this version is a job well done; for Scott-Moncrieff, it was a labour of love." Likewise, Philip Hensher in his very capable review for the Guardian. I'll have to defer any similar judgment as to which version I could place my thumbs-up imprimatur upon, as I haven't seen the Penguin pages. More on Proust in an upcoming post....(I really should set to work on assembling an uploadable chronology of his life with some useful reference links embedded throughout the text.] In the meantime, you may read a New York Review of Books article about the Tadié biography of Proust.

Two years ago, I read a press release foreshadowing the market launch of the world's most luxurious sedan, the Mercedes-Benz Maybach (Personal Limousine) Models 57 & 62. Forbes magazine online has published an in-depth, photo-rich coverage of this magnificent vehicle. Priced for the US ultra-luxury market sector at $350,000, this 20-foot sui generis automotive masterpiece is viewable here: http://www.forbes.com/2002/11/11/cx_mf_1111feat.html Or you may visit the corporate Website: http://www.maybach-manufactur.com Likewise on the subject of brilliantly fantastic design, please navigate to the Electronluv site where you can view images of the insanely exotic (and, hopefully, equally gloriously sounding) monoblock amplifiers, series 845. They're surely the most outrageous looking ultra--hi-fi components I've seen. At first glance, I thought they must be Italian-built, commercial espresso machines. A mere $22,000 per pair: http://www.electronluv.com Next, take a peep at the off-beat, retro-tech (i.e., minimalist) aesthetic of the Sphynx Preamplifier: http://www.mothaudio.com Dream on, baby.

Here is a lengthy Atlantic Monthly article which I found hyperlinked by Phillipe DeCroy at the previously recommended Volokh Conspiracy blog. Re the supposedly entrenched, until-death-do-us-part mindset of his 50,000-member Repulican Guard: "Their loyalty is governed by fear and self-interest, and will tilt decisively if and when an alternative appears. The key to ending Saddam's tyranny is to present such an alternative. It will not be easy. Saddam will never give up. Overthrowing him will almost certainly mean killing him. He guards his hold on the state as he guards his own life. There is no panic in his fight." Full text of this harsh-reality reportage: http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/05/bowden.htm

[11/29/2002 6:37:29 AM | L HEIGHTON] For the record, I must acknowledge that my discovery of Blogspot was via Eugene Volokh -- who had his blog ("The Volokh Conspiracy") linked [http://volokh.blogspot.com] from the base of an article he had written for The National Review Online. It is consistently a profoundly interesting daily blog. Bravo to the Volokh contributors! My first post re the complex of international terrorism: According to audio analysts at a Swiss lab, the most recent bin Laden tape is counterfeit.... http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/29/1038386299712.html

For the record, I must acknowledge that my discovery of Blogspot was via Eugene Volokh -- who had his blog ("The Volokh Conspiracy") linked [http://volokh.blogspot.com] from the base of an article he had written for The National Review Online. It is consistently a profoundly interesting daily blog. Bravo to the Volokh contributors! My first post re the complex of international terrorism: According to audio analysts at a Swiss lab, the most recent bin Laden tape is counterfeit.... http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/29/1038386299712.html

We may think genuine innovators are loners who don’t need reinforcement. But that’s not how it works, whether it’s science, politics, ideas, or television comedy.... http://www.newyorker.com/printable/?critics/021202crbo_books Consciousness was always central to philosophy, even in the wacko decades of Watson and Skinner. Strangely, David Lodge thinks it a recent discovery... http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,6000,845507,00.html Supposedly, this is yet another marketing "innovation" derivative of the Human Genome Project: http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/11/28/dna.gifts/index.html Mycological salvation cometh, as revealed in this article which contains a great subheading, viz., "Mycotopian future is not psylocybin fantasy." Full text...http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/11/25/mushrooms/ Last winter, I read Galatea 2.0 -- a fascinating novel of aching, melancholy beauty by Richard Powers. Trust me, this man has a rare ability with written language. Here's his latest production: http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2002/11/28/literary/index.html

We may think genuine innovators are loners who don’t need reinforcement. But that’s not how it works, whether it’s science, politics, ideas, or television comedy.... Consciousness was always central to philosophy, even in the wacko decades of Watson and Skinner. [Albeit, the doctrine of man's moral & intellectual progress toward perfectionism is probably the most ludicrous, certainly the most deleterious, fancy ever to take possession of the human heart; it has become the liberal visionaries' basic tenet of socio-biological dogma. (Alas, if only they had read and taken heed to C.S. Lewis's essay, "The Poison of Subjectivism.")] Strangely, re the aforementioned point about consciousness, David Lodge thinks it a recent discovery... Supposedly, this is yet another marketing "innovation" derivative of the Human Genome Project... Mycological salvation cometh, as revealed in this article which contains a great subheading, viz., "Mycotopian future is not psilocybin fantasy." Full text: Last winter, I read Galatea 2.0 -- a fascinating novel of aching, melancholy beauty by Richard Powers. Trust me, this man has a rare ability with written language. Here's his latest output:

Good morning! As this is a brand new weblog, I think it appropriate to explain its Name: First -- yes, it is derived from the title of Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon, a work in which the philosopher-jurist had proposed a prison so constructed as to allow an inspector to surveil all the inmates without himself being seen. (Actually, the situation is here quite the converse!) Such a proposal is, howerver, by no means to be applied to the purposes of this 'blog. A secondary definition of panopticon can be rendered as, "a room for a general exhibition." That's closer to this journal's raison d'être, but I prefer to regard it as a virtual microscope & telescope combined.

The finalized, theatrical version of the TWO TOWERS poster -- to be distributed to hosting cinemas is viewable here:: http://www.cinecon.com/gallery/album10/aam The Two Towers being the forthcoming (premieres early next month, but officially debuts in theaters on Dec. 18) of New Zealand director-genius, Peter Jackson's second installment in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. ('Yes' to purists -- I realize that the book wasn't originally conceived by Tolkien as a trilogy, but Rayner Unwin was ultimately responsible for necessarily sealing that marketing requirement based on the dictates of major booksellers in the UK). Anyway, these movies, espcially in their special extended DVD versions, will ultimately comprise the greatest cinematic achievement ever. Naturally, this is an inarguable conviction for those of you who have nurtured a longtime love affair with Tolkien's brilliantly rendered world of Middle Earth. And this is particularly supportable if you have been following the tremendous wealth of information posted at sites such as fandom.com/ringbearer since at least the Spring of 1999 -- months before the commencement of principal cinematography in Oct. of that year. Recommended recently published book: The Making of the Movie Trilogy [Houghton Mifflin] lovingly researched and written by Über-Rings' fan Brian Sibley (the Englishman who had adapted the book for the 1980 BBC Radio dramatized performance). Incidentally, I had tapecassettes of the original CBC rebroadcast of the series which I recorded during the summer of 1981. Ten years later, I purchased the commercial set of tapes at a speciality bookstore in Toronto; the CD boxset was shipped to me upon its release a couple of years ago. Anyway, much to follow here on this magnificent cinematic experience from Jackson's Three-Foot-Six & New Line Cinema Studios. Good god, how I would love to own a Hi-Res, Widescreen now with a 6.1 DTS audio-capable A/V processor! BTW, the Appendices on Disc 3 & 4 of the Platinum DVD set are wonderfully informative as well as appropriately immersive into the behind-the-scenes world of the films -- for which 550 hours of footage were shot!

DAY ONE -- At last! Having first "logged on" to the Net in 08/95, this is my true-blue debut in the online publishing world. (Well, I did foray into ICQ for a few months several years ago; and I've posted frequently to various NGs, but this 'blog should develop over time into a fuller representation of my interests & opinions -- mentioned below.) I hope many visitors will eavesdrop on a regular basis....and become sparked by many of the items to be posted. It will remain, I suspect, predominantly a monologue, rather than an interactive electronic Scheherazade. After all, notefile threads in discussion groups are flame-ridden growths which become split & proliferated in meiosis. Debates flow through tributaries & meanderings -- off-topic, useless counterproductive responses to responses ad nauseum. Indefatigable protagonists posting from every global time zone in a virtual sandbox. And now my rant is over! -- LAWRENCE I will generally function on this 'blog in the following categories: Cinema; Literature (esp. Joyce, Milton, Mann, Tolkien, et. al.); MidEast & Iraq; Philosophy; Theology; Cosmology; Comedy; Music; and the Culinary World. I'll return momentarily with my first bona fide installment.