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Some time ago, I saw this notice at my school. The lede is copied here:
“The Mary Condon Hodgson Art Gallery will host paintings by Richard Harris from June 7-July 8. Titled ‘Wings of Honor II,’ his paintings are influenced by the world of military aviation.”
With school out for the summer and gas prices the way they are, I’ve been a bit of home-body. But I finally got over to the gallery today and checked out the 20+ paintings. Getting good pix of paintings is always a challenge, and today was no exception. I had to stand on the side to avoid flash and reflection issues in the gallery.
So without further adieu, here they are. The gallery here includes two Luftwaffe jets. Cool.
So the area with the WW2 artifacts occupies two rooms the A&S museum in DC, and truth be told, it feels a little cramped. For a more wide-open experience, check The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center (in lovely Dulles near the airport).
In this photo, you can see how things are pretty much on top of each other to maximize the space. That said, the planes are what you’d expect to see in WW2 exibit, and there is a type of “theatre” mixing in this room that’s a little jarring. But this post is more about the B-17 Flying Fortress mural that dominates everything else in the room, especially if you enter from the second floor. That picture is here. Click on the picture for the full image. Stay tuned for more posts on the A&S museum in the coming weeks.
So if you have AMC (the American Movie Channel), perhaps you’ve noticed the recent airing of a movie called the Memphis Belle (1990). It’s not a bad a flick, and I remember seeing this in the theatre “back in the day” and thought the specials effects were pretty “awesome.” The industry has come a long way, to be sure. Forgot, too, that a young hobbit was the ball turrett gunner (Sam, or Sean Astin).
The history of the Belle, of course, is much more complicated than we’re allowed to see in this fictional rendering of events, but that’s cool. At least youtube gives us original documentary by William Wyler about the Belle. A nice summary of the Belle’s adventures is here, too. Enjoy.
I just read an article in the OCT 07 edition of Smithsonian magazine about a B17 E known as the Swamp Ghost. If you’ve ever spent any time over at pacificwrecks.com, you’ve probably read about it. Or here at theswampghost.com.
The Smithsonian article talks about the making of a legend, but also of its recent salvage by an American businessman. In short, he made a deal to get the plane, got the plane, but the PNG government put the brakes on the deal before it was shipped off the island. It’s kind of a complicated deal, and the article does a good job at showing this.
In a related note, J Taylan, the expert cited in the article (and owner of the pacificwrecks.com web site) was just released from Solomon Islands detention for, according to the charges, “unlawfully enter[ing] or [being] unlawfully present in the Solomon Islands.” He has been held, with several others, since NOV 6. His story is here.
I found this poster on the net some time ago, and wondered just what Mr. Gable did in the Army Air Force. Turns out, he was a bit of a player, flying combat missions and then producing the movie Combat America, the first ten minutes of which is linked here via youtube. The narration is a good deal like an Ernie Pyle column, where everyone is IDed by name and town to lend that “folksy” element so big in the period.
It is a little odd, too, how Gable creates conversation to preserve narrative pacing, though there are others who do a little speaking here and there. But make no mistake: this is Gable speaking to America, letting everyone know “we” are doing just fine over here and we’ll get the job done, though, you’ll perhaps note after watching all parts, that frank discussion of loss of life, and even the stark tone of Randall Jarrell’s poem is missing. There are, of course, the obligitory references to the “old man” (probably someone 30 YO) and the standard violin background music (and it all sounds so “romantic”).
There are 5 additional parts as well, totaling 60 or minutes. Go to youtube.com directly for those clips.
In the 102 class I teach (comp and lit), I have a section of “conflict” poems. For me, it’s not enough to include all the old standards about love or death, identity, or the many in that fat anthology about animals. That’s too easy. “Conflict” types of poems are important to read as well. Among them…
* Hardy: The Man He Killed
* Owen: Dulce et Decorum est
* Reed: Naming of Parts
There are others, of course, that show different things, but mostly I want my students to get a close up look at _irony_. And the war poets do this well. But the one poem that most students say is the most dramatic of the bunch (and it’s the shortest), is Randell Jarrell’s “The Death of the Ball Turrett Gunner.” Here it is:
From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from the dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
Above all, I want my students to see what a poet can do with so little, yet expand significantly on such a terrible thing so simply and with such power. Most of my students are surprised to learn that many of the poems in this section of the course go back to WWI. Most say they liked the other poem sections of the course better, but the “conflict” section was important to see as well. I feel the same way most days, but sometimes the best poetry is about the most uncomfortable things.
