Compelling Input and Compelling Culture

Monday, July 29, 2013

English: Castle Neuschwanstein Deutsch: Schloss Neuschwanstein Tiếng Việt: Lâu đài Neuschwanstein (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ludwig II with Richard Wagner, the composer of Lohengrin and many other romantic operas, at the piano (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Do you remember all the murals and paintings in Neuschwanstein? They were all from Wagner's opera's (and in turn almost all from medieval sagas, mostly Germanic ones and many Arthurian ones). Dear Ludwig loved his operas because they evoked the majesty and nobility of times past (just like he was doing in the construction of his castles) --

I'm not sure if Ludwig expressed thoughts on Judaism -- but dear Rick Wagner certainly did -- Wagner was decidedly an anti-semite. The question remains: to what extent, and how did this play out in his works?

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/The-Brilliant-Troubled-Legacy-of-Richard-Wagner-216638401.html#Richard-Wagner-troubled-legacy-statue-631.jpg

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Lingual Media Player

This project is worth checking out -- it seems there is both an online and download version:

http://lifehacker.com/lamp-teaches-you-a-foreign-language-via-movie-and-youtu-511654625

http://lingualmediaplayer.com/en/

Like any tool, especially a free one, you've gotta want to make it work and put in the requisite work to do so. This doesn't magically create the subtitles -- instead you need to get them online from opensubtitles.org or other similar places.