Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2023) - Music Diaries

Facetious

Gender: Male
Age: 24
Location: Somewhere you've never been

AfterHours wrote:

Btw, re: Divine Comedy ... I will definitely have something like this soon for Divine Comedy when I have a little more time to post it all here. Not filmed plays of course, but a series of links for it that will assist anyone in grasping it better (though, by most accounts, this is a life long pursuit no matter who you are!).

Personally don't need any convincing because I already rate it as my favourite work of literature, but looking forward to this and any analysis of the Comedy that you've done yourself or found useful from elsewhere.

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

Facetious wrote:

Personally don't need any convincing because I already rate it as my favourite work of literature, but looking forward to this and any analysis of the Comedy that you've done yourself or found useful from elsewhere.

Nice! So far, I've gone through it pretty thoroughly (though it begs for much more, and I will undoubtedly return), but really just nodding my head in agreement with the scholars that have already done so much of, perhaps all of, the work Smile

We are rather lucky at how thoroughly and studiously the Divine Comedy has been analyzed by experts who are also (thankfully) doing so because they love it so much and not just as a casual exercise.

The main difference in why I'm not ready to say that it's quite at the level of the Sistine yet is familiarity (much more with the Sistine, plus years of analysis). There's also a (perhaps unfair) advantage with The Sistine is that (even more so if one studies it extensively) all its power and impact is there to behold (more or less) "all at once" (though, shifts in POV are necessary to truly capture all it is doing), whereas Divine Comedy builds up over 14,000 lines. Divine Comedy may reach the greatest extent of profundity of any art work ever, but it's hard for me to say that it impacts me (yet?) as much as The Sistine, perhaps in part because its power is so "completely" there in such short order largely "all at once" each time I revisit it. But this is also because I am so familiar with it and conceive of it all in a more thorough and rapid manner much more immediately to hand in my mind and understanding of it as I am revisiting it (than The DC at this point in time). So it just has advantages at this point in time, let alone that it is simply (virtually) impossible to beat anyway. It will be a fairer comparison when I get more and more familiar with Divine Comedy over more revisists. That will be a truer test. It has already impacted me very very profoundly and very very greatly (otherwise I wouldn't give it such an astronomical rating/ranking). One point that is already interesting (that I alluded to before) is that has a certain logic to being "#1" and a "10/10" that is hard to deny -- just being SO comprehensive artistically, profoundly, emotionally, with such overwhelming depth, while also so incredibly "perfect" (all 14000 lines are of perfect design, with flawless rhyme scheming, while also very brilliantly and beautifully conveying all its emotions, concepts, deep knowledge of world history, figures, science, etc) -- everything about it "says" "this is the ultimate work of art ever". The Sistine has a lot of that too (especially the more deeply one gets into it), but The DC could be argued to be even superior to it in these regards. So time will tell...
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Facetious

Gender: Male
Age: 24
Location: Somewhere you've never been

AfterHours wrote:

So far, I've gone through it pretty thoroughly (though it begs for much more, and I will undoubtedly return), but really just nodding my head in agreement with the scholars that have already done so much of, perhaps all of, the work Smile

We are rather lucky at how thoroughly and studiously the Divine Comedy has been analyzed by experts who are also (thankfully) doing so because they love it so much and not just as a casual exercise.

Which scholars' work did you go through? (Also, obviously not possible for now but it would be fun to see a comparison at some point with the work of the poets Dante singles out as the best in Inferno, especially the epics of Homer, Virgil, and Ovid.)

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

Facetious wrote:

Which scholars' work did you go through? (Also, obviously not possible for now but it would be fun to see a comparison at some point with the work of the poets Dante singles out as the best in Inferno, especially the epics of Homer, Virgil, and Ovid.)

Hollander is my main go to for reading Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. There are very extensive additional ones (with tons of notes, explanations...) that I have noted in links that are not immediately at hand and only on my laptop which is back in Los Angeles right now (while I'm 6 hours away in San Fran for the time being). So I'll provide links to those once I drop back into LA for a bit (hopefully about 5 days from now depending on how some things turn out in San Fran that I'm working on).
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Facetious

Gender: Male
Age: 24
Location: Somewhere you've never been

AfterHours wrote:

Hollander is my main go to for reading Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. There are very extensive additional ones (with tons of notes, explanations...) that I have noted in links that are not immediately at hand and only on my laptop which is back in Los Angeles right now (while I'm 6 hours away in San Fran for the time being). So I'll provide links to those once I drop back into LA for a bit (hopefully about 5 days from now depending on how some things turn out in San Fran that I'm working on).

Thanks, I would appreciate that!

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

One of the greatest works of architecture...

Link

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DommeDamian
Imperfect, sensitive Aspie with a melody addiction

Gender: Male
Age: 23
Location: where the flowers grow.

AfterHours wrote:

9.0/10
Ulysses - James Joyce (1922) [Novel]

A few years ago:
Me: I dare you to read Ulysses.
You: Dare declined.

But you read it anyway? Very Happy

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AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

DommeDamian wrote:

AfterHours wrote:

9.0/10
Ulysses - James Joyce (1922) [Novel]

A few years ago:
Me: I dare you to read Ulysses.
You: Dare declined.

But you read it anyway? Very Happy

I actually read it like 20 years ago, I think I was just declining to read it again ...which I still haven't Very Happy

although I did review analyses on it to help "estimate" a rating at this time. All the literature ratings are estimates. Even Dante's Divine Comedy, while perhaps more "sure" and certainly more recent, than most of the others, is a bit of an estimate if anything because of just how much familiarity it can take to truly grasp it as thoroughly as one should, and also if anything because it would be more reliable (with any of the literature ratings) to build up my familiarity with the art form to a greater extent, across history and so forth (such as with Rock and Cinema), to have a better judge of quality and comparison among the whole scale of that art form, among all or many of its masterpieces, near masterpieces, great works, very good works, lesser works, etc. Not sure if and when I'll ever reach that point with literature because of how time consuming it is. So as it stands now, this is very shaky for me in literature and the "comparisons" are more in relation to other (more familiar) arts than literature alone. Plus most of those listed were read years ago, even a couple decades or so. So, again, they're all estimates...
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AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

TOP 50 WORKS OF ART OF THE YEAR (2023)

1. Sistine Chapel: Ceiling and The Last Judgment - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1512; 1541)
2. The Divine Comedy - Dante Alighieri (circa 1321) [Literature: Poetry]
3. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel (1998)
4. Nostalghia - Andrei Tarkovsky (1983)
5. Werckmeister Harmonies - Bela Tarr (2000)
6. Stalker - Andrei Tarkovsky (1979)
7. Rock Bottom - Robert Wyatt (1974)
8. Angkor Wat - Started by Suryavarman II; Completed by Jayavarman VII (circa 1122 - 1150; Note: there are various anomalies that may suggest an earlier date of construction -- perhaps even much earlier) [Architecture]
9. The Doors - The Doors (1966)
10. The Garden of Earthly Delights - Hieronymus Bosch (circa 1490-1515)
11. Not Available - Residents (1974)
12. Zen Arcade - Husker Du (1984)
13. Persona - Ingmar Bergman (1966)
14. Down Colorful Hill - Red House Painters (1992)
15. David - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1504) [Sculpture]
16. Guernica - Pablo Picasso (1937)
17. Blow-Up - Michelangelo Antonioni (1966)
18. The Conversation - Francis Ford Coppola (1974)
19. Pieta - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1499) [Sculpture]
20. Alien - Ridley Scott (1979)
21. Alhambra - Muhammad I Ibn al-Ahmar; later additions overseen by Yusuf I and Muhammad V - Granada, Spain (initial structure: 1250; several alterations thereafter through the 1600s) [Architecture]
22. Golden Gate Bridge - Joseph Strauss - San Francisco, California (1937) [Architecture]
23. Double Nickels on the Dime - Minutemen (1984)
24. Pauline Chapel: The Conversion of Saul and The Crucifixion of St. Peter - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1545; 1550)
25. Astral Weeks - Van Morrison (1968)
26. Violin Concertos Nos. 1-4, "The Four Seasons" - Antonio Vivaldi (1723)
27. The Days of Wine & Roses - Dream Syndicate (1982)
28. Memento - Christopher Nolan (2000)
29. The Big Heat - Stan Ridgway (1986)
30. Death Wish 3 - Michael Winner (1985)
31. Good - Morphine (1992)
32. The River - Bruce Springsteen (1980)
33. Nashville - Robert Altman (1975)
34. Repeater - Fugazi (1990)
35. Fire of Love - Gun Club (1981)
36. Three Colors: Red - Krzysztof Kieslowski (1994)
37. The Big Heat - Fritz Lang (1953)
38. Medici Chapel: The Sagrestia Nuova - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1555) [Sculpture and Architecture]
39. The Band - The Band (1969)
40. The Game - David Fincher (1997)
41. Point Blank - John Boorman (1967)
42. Leon: The Professional - Luc Besson (1994)
43. The Rules of the Game - Jean Renoir (1939)
44. Yerself is Steam - Mercury Rev (1991)
45. Geek the Girl - Lisa Germano (1994)
46. Images and Words - Dream Theater (1992)
47. Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables - Dead Kennedy's (1980)
48. Spiderland - Slint (1991)
49. Laurentian Library - Michelangelo Buonarroti (Begun 1525, completed posthumously, 1571; Tribune of Elci rotunda added by Pasquale Poccianti in 1841) [Architecture]
50. Apollo and Daphne - Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1625) [Sculpture]

PAST WINNERS: 1995 - 2022

(NOTE: My series of "Top 10 of the Week" lists only actually goes back to 2008. Prior to that are simply my noted favorite works of each given year without any attempt to keep further record)

2022: Sistine Chapel: Ceiling and The Last Judgment - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1512; 1541)
2021: Sistine Chapel: Ceiling and The Last Judgment - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1512; 1541)
2020: Sistine Chapel: Ceiling and The Last Judgment - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1512; 1541)
2019: Rock Bottom - Robert Wyatt (1974)
2018: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor "Choral" - Ludwig van Beethoven (1824)
2017: Sistine Chapel: Ceiling and The Last Judgment - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1512; 1541)
2016: Sistine Chapel: Ceiling and The Last Judgment - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1512; 1541)
2015: Astral Weeks - Van Morrison (1968)
2014: Sistine Chapel: Ceiling and The Last Judgment - Michelangelo Buonarroti (1512; 1541)
2013: Requiem - Giuseppe Verdi (1874)
2012: Citizen Kane - Orson Welles (1941)
2011: Citizen Kane - Orson Welles (1941)
2010: Symphony No. 9 in D Major - Gustav Mahler (1910)
2009: Nostalghia - Andrei Tarkovsky (1983)
2008: The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady - Charles Mingus (1963)
2007: Trout Mask Replica - Captain Beefheart (1968)
2006: Rock Bottom - Robert Wyatt (1974)
2005: A Love Supreme - John Coltrane (1964)
2004: Kid A - Radiohead (2000)
2003: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco (2002)
2002: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel (1998)
2001: Astral Weeks - Van Morrison (1968)
2000: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor - Ludwig van Beethoven (1824)
1999: Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor - J.S. Bach (1723)
1998: OK Computer - Radiohead (1997)
1997: The Bends - Radiohead (1995)
1996: 2001: A Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick (1968)
1995: Throwing Copper - Live (1995)
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theredkrayola

Belated comments on your list of best Christian recordings: first, Scaruffi notes that The Good Son was made in the aftermath of Cave's "Christian conversion", but i have found no evidence that Cave has ever referred to himself as a Christian (he's said that he believes in God, obviously, and is heavily influenced by the Bible, but seems to always deny being a Christian). However, The Good Son has a powerful "religious" feeling that does seem to suggest that he converted to some form of spiritual belief. Perhaps Scaruffi knows something i don't regarding Cave's beliefs at the time?

Another recording that could be included on the list is Hosianna Mantra. Scaruffi claims that Florian Fricke had converted to both Christianity and Hinduism (again, i don't know where Scaruffi is getting that information from) but if true, it certainly should make your list. The album does sound like a fusion of Eastern and Western spiritual traditions - perhaps it could be considered a "Christian" album regardless of what Fricke's spiritual beliefs were?

The album on Scaruffi's list with the highest score among artists who certainly intended their work to be Christian appears to be Sixteen Horsepower, Sackcloth n' Ashes (7.5/10). I would rate it even higher. The album was made by a fanatical Christian, and tracks like "Strong Man" are explicitly religious

Have you read The Sirens of Titan? Both Scaruffi and i find it superior to Slaughterhouse-5. You rated Slaughterhouse and Cat's Cradle quite well, what did you find to be the best (and worst) aspects of those books?