My sister who is a teacher is reading The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas with her class. While discussing antisemitism, she gave them other examples such as the pogroms in Russia (1903-1906). With that in mind, she showed them the movie Fiddler on the Roof (1971) which takes place in a village of Russian Jews during this time period. She then had them create art projects, interpreting various scenes from the musical. One of her students used modelling clay to portray the arrest of Perchik, a revolutionary student from Kiev who is engaged to one of Tevye's daughters (Hodel). After he and several of his fellow revolutionaries are arrested by the Russian authorities, Perchik is sent to Siberia and, much to Tevye's dismay, Hodel insists on travelling there to be with him. The song below is from that section of the musical:
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The above image is from the 1971 film musical Fiddler on the Roof, based on the 1964 stage musical of the same name, which was in turn based on Tevye the Dairyman, a series of short stories written by Yiddish author Sholem Aleichem, published in 1894. Tevye and his wife Golde live with their five unmarried daughters in the small Russian village of Anatevka in 1905. At the start of the film, their main concern is to find husbands for their three oldest daughters who are of marriageable age. To this end, Golde enlists the aid of Yenta, the town matchmaker. In this scene, the two are discussing the situation. Related Posts: I had a rather bad day at work yesterday so when I got home I stuck dinner in the oven, put on a pot of coffee and threw myself down on the couch, turning on an audiobook that I had started the other day: Jill the Reckless, a novel written by PG Wodehouse in 1920. As Plum's witty, effervescent prose washed over me, I felt my ill humour lift and dissipate. Wodehouse is a tonic for a weary and slightly battered spirit. I agree completely with Evelyn Waugh who said of Wodehouse's writing: “Mr. Wodehouse’s idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in.” As I find the world particularly irksome in many ways right now, it's nice to be able to lose myself in PG's silly, sparkling, ever hopeful, never aging fictional sphere. Bless him. Incidentally, I'm quite enjoying Jill the Reckless, especially in audiobook form. Wodehouse's writing is very well suited to being read aloud, not surprising since he was also a playwright. Related Posts:Last week my sister and I watched the X Files episode Jose Chung's From Outer Space, from the third season of the show (1996). It's a humorous episode which employs varying POV's as an author- Jose Chung- is writing a book about an alien abduction which allegedly took place, and interviews Mulder & Scully, because they investigated the occurrence. I won't get into plot details here, but Alex Trebek makes an appearance as a mysterious man in black, a very different role from the erudite game show host he is best known for being. It's a good episode, and it's fun to see Trebek so out of character. Whatever he was in, Alex Trebek always seemed a consummate professional and a gentleman. He'll be missed.
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