Log24

The Pope in
Plato's Cave

Those who find the Pope's recent remarks (see the previous entry) on a Byzantine emperor lacking in literary depth may consult the writings of William Butler Yeats on Byzantium quoted in Log24 entries of February 14-16, 2003.  Those entries also refer to a modern version of Plato's cave– the movie theater– and the film "The Recruit." See also a more recent Log24 discussion of that film:

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This supplies a different illustration
of the previous entry's conclusion:

"Nine is a very powerful
Nordic number."

Score:

"His music had of course come from Russian folk sources and from Rimsky-Korsakov and from other predecessors, in the way that all radical art has roots. But to be a true modernist, a cosmopolitan in the twentieth century, it was necessary to seem to disdain nationalism, to be perpetually, heroically novel– the more aloof, the better. 'Cold and transparent, like an "extra dry" champagne, which gives no sensation of sweetness, and does not enervate, like other varieties of that drink, but burns,' Stravinsky said about his own Octet, Piano Concerto, and Piano Sonata. The description might be applied to works by Picasso or Duchamp."

— Michael Kimmelman in
  The New York Review of Books,
issue dated Aug. 10, 2006

Perhaps.
But the description
certainly applies to
Bridget Moynahan:

"… like an 'extra dry' champagne,
which gives no sensation of
sweetness, and does not enervate."

For more on the
"Ice 9" figure, see
Balanchine's Birthday.