Liberalia

06/15/2020

I haven't posted much personal stuff lately. My contretemps with Facebook Ads Manager enabled me to reassess my investment in "Boosting" Liberalia posts. I'm suspending boosting activity for a while. But I have not given up on my plans for podcasts and teaching sessions online. I'm pursuing more lucrative platforms.
But I felt like saying a couple of things. Encouraging things have happened as the result of the public outcry. I might repost my SEA CHANGE comment, Jan and Dean & the trailer for RIDE THE WILD SURF, because who doesn't ride the wave must drown in the deluge.
I haven't been idle. I've been absorbing and learning more about Peplums so when I cut loose I can share good stuff. I post a tribute to my new Favorite Peplum scene. And, yes, it's a Coming Attraction. I had to buy a copyright to use a photo I found online. It arrived today, so I share its origins and frolicsome antics in ROMULUS AND THE SABINES, starring Roger Moore.
Romulus Roger has to solve a dilemma of Kingship so he goes to the Temple of Jupiter, curls up by the altar and takes a nap. The statues of his Father, Mars and his Stepmom Venus, come to life to have chat with the lad.
The photo is a professional publicity still. Rosanna Schiaffino and Jean Marais relaxing between takes. The comments will supply context and expansion.

06/08/2020

Word of the Day: Sprezzatura
I discovered this Italian expression researching Maximum Sword and Sandal and a Peplum I saw as a Teenager. I didn't remember it at first, but a character detail caught my eye (relevance submerged for now) . Watching HERCULES AND THE: Conquest of Atlantis-- Ercole alla conquista di Atlantide; Captive Women and then researching it for my podcast, I ran across these telling words. "Christopher Frayling noted the film's slapstick violence at the beginning as a link to the Spaghetti Western. Frank Burke in an essay in the book Popular Italian Cinema noted the film's depiction of N**i Germany and the atomic age and Park's depiction of the Italian quality of "sprezzatura" in his portrayal of Hercules."
The word comes from Baldassare Castiglione's 1528 The Book of the Courtier. It describes the Ideal Courtier. A studied carelessness; an ironic nonchalance.
That sprezzatura decribes Reg Parks' Hercules makes this cheap "neo-mythology" much more interesting and fun.

06/04/2020

BEWARE FACEBOOK ADS MANAGER
An Ads Manager disabled my Ads Account and even their top level overseerers: Concierge level, cannot recover them They're Great at Marketing. But their so-called Proprietary Software doesn't delver as promised.
Do Not Fall for this SCAM.
I did. That's why you haven't seen any new Liberalia posts.
FACEBOOK ADS MANAGER IS A SCAM.

05/31/2020

Peplum Challenge 1: Straw Men and Hobby Horses

I seem to be receiving repetitious and redundant, vaguely malicious, comments from Canadians who seize upon a question I responding to while completely ignoring the actual content.
To recap: A viewer of my page Liberalia posed a question I thought was worth responding to. His Comment was, “Meanwhile the environment is dying but let's focus on this stuff cuz it's really important.”
My response was a Video. I began quoted his Challenge ver batim from his post. He referenced the Environment as dying.
Since that time, some viewers have commented very strongly that “The Earth Is Not Dying!” Curiously, they all seem to be Canadians. The American Challengers call me a Co**ie, but that’s another story. To summarize the 4 Commenters, so far, “The Earth is not dying.” And then follows a variety of sermonettes on inaccurate data and dangerous propaganda. All kinds of insinuations as to some dastardly plan I have to mislead the public about Climate Change.
And all of it based on a Misreading of the original statement, confusing and conflating the Environment with the Earth, which allows them to construct a Straw Man Argument. A Logical Fallacy. It is defined as “an informal fallacy based on giving the impression of refuting an opponent's argument, while actually refuting an argument that was not presented by that opponent.”
I say that they are trampling down the Straw Man while riding their Hobby Horses. Not really a Mixed Metaphor, more a mixture of two images. I find great wisdom in the words of Laurence Sterne: A favorite topic or approach. Often a compulsion. This phrase was popularized to mean this by the famous book The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne. Every character in Tristram Shandy has a completely unhealthy obsession with one thing or another, to the exclusion of all else.
We all have our Hobby Horses. Peplums, Sword and Sandal Movies, and Classical Epicureanism are some of mine. Liberalia is where I happily Ride my Hobby Horse. I invite you to ride along.
But should your Hobby Horse get upset in my pasture, please feel free to rock yourselves elsewhere. We’re having too much fun here right now.

05/30/2020

A Right Wing Troll Rode his Hobbyhorse of its Rockers and lambasted me for teaching Post Modernist Marxism. I Teach Classical Epicureanism: with all of its Duties and Filial Piety. The Fool needs a Drink.

05/30/2020

This Video, already posted and reacted to by True Fans and some Trolls got deleted. If you liked it before, please like it again. Got new stuff coming too.

05/17/2020

Promo for Imminent Podcast: The History and Development of Classic Sword and Sandal Movies.Its Beginnings in Italian Silent Cinema and its Cold War Resurrgence in the 1950s. Peplums (Italian: Il Peplum; Pepla) Peplums reached their Zenith in the early 1960s and lingered into the early 1970s, Many budding Filmmakers got their start in Puplums. Sergio Leone. Mario Bava, and Michaelangelo Antonioni labored in the Vinyards of Cinema and emerged as some ofm them World's Great Directors. Many Hollywood Stars ventured into The Ancient World to thrill global audiences.

05/14/2020

MANIFESTO LIBERALIA

Libertas Liberalis Libare
Liberty Liberality Libation
Freedom Generosity Piety

Libertas: the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views; 2. the power or scope to act as one pleases

Liberalis: 1. the quality of giving or spending freely; 2. the quality of being open to new ideas and free from prejudice

Libare: 1.a drink poured out as an offering to a deity; 2. a drink

05/13/2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP-8r2Iw7ts

05/10/2020

And Coming Next Time!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ2uhhWIHxY

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Helen_Menelaus_Louvre_G424.jpg

05/10/2020

MAXIMUM SWORD AND SANDAL

LECTIONES:

I. Musclemen in Peplums
II. Womn Heroes in Peplums
III. "African" Heroes in Peplums
IV. Troy
V. Ab Urbe Condita
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ2uhhWIHxY

05/04/2020

And for The Female Heroes in Peplums...

Italian made movie, originally titled Le vergini di Roma