Petra Jordan, NGC’s Locked Up Abroad, Book Review: A Vision for 2012, Sacred Geometry, Movie This Week: Duplicity, and more…

Petra, Jordan

 

Astonishing Petra is nothing like you imagine. Only 30% of the ancient city has been uncovered! Petra was the capital of the Nabataeans, Aramaic-speaking Semites, and the centre of their caravan trade. The Nabataeans worshipped the Arab gods and goddesses of the pre-Islamic times as well as few of their deified kings. The most famous of these was Obodas I who was deified after his death.

 

Dushara was the main male god accompanied by his female trinity: Uzza, Allat and Manah.

 

I’m fascinated by Dushara, the mountain god who the Nabataeans represented as a square! Only later did they add some facial features.

 

How do these ancient gods and goddesses feel, now pushed aside by Jesus and Mohammed (May peace be upon him)?

 

 

 

 

National Geographic Channel’s Locked Up Abroad Begins April 1^st.

 

Remember with something “put the fear of God in you”? You just don’t hear that anymore. National Geographic Channel’s Locked Up Abroad does that for me.

 

World travelers see forbidden items in markets everywhere. There is always a lure to bring back an exotic endangered species handbag from Bamako, Mali or a bundle of packaged coca leaves sold all over La Paz, Bolivia. You can buy Pepsi bottles of ayahuasca and jaguar skins in the Belen medicine market (pictured) in Iquitos, Peru.

 

Though I have never thought about smuggling drugs, that lion skin in the open market in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe was a real temptation and all they wanted for it was my husband’s sneakers.

 

Locked Up Abroad has the real people telling what happened to them as it is played out in highly realistic reenactments. And, on April 1^st, Locked Up Abroad begins with one of the most charming places in the world: Cuzco, Peru.

 

I’ve been to Cuzco several times (it’s the gateway destination to Machu Picchu and on one trip we stayed at Hotel Monasterio, originally built as a monastery in 1592 and now one of the world's finest hotels).

 

Locked Up Abroad: Cuzco is the story of Sarah, who owing a lot of money to a loan shark, agrees to his plan that she bring back two suitcases of cocaine from Peru. Sarah decides to take along Simon, an innocent dupe she meets at a bar. She never tells him about the cocaine. Of course, Sarah and Simon are detained at the airport and thrown in prison. Sarah accepts full responsibility and Simon maintains his innocence.  After nearly a year in jail, he is finally released but still stuck in Peru while courts decide the case. Sarah is still in jail with a 7-year sentence. 

 

“Sarah’s not only destroyed my life, but she’s also destroyed my faith in humanity.”  Simon

 

During this new season, Locked Up Abroad travels to Caracas (Wednesday, April 8, at 10:00 p.m.); Kidnapped in the Philippines (April 15 at 10:00 p.m.); Puerto Vallarta (April 22, at 10:00 p.m.); and one of my favorite countries, Brazil (April 29 at 10:00 p.m.).

 

Brendan and his friends are nightclub promoters, living a party lifestyle. To keep pace with his spending, Brendan and his friends accept an offer to go to Brazil, pick up a package and take it to Hungary. They tape cocaine to their bodies and walk through airport security. They are strip-searched and locked in an elevator for 2 days before being sent to the federal police station. Here, they have to buy a closet-sized cubby hole so two of the four men can take turns lying down. As Brendan’s father hires a top criminal defense lawyer in Brazil, they are told they are being moved to the most dangerous prison in South America.

 

Other Locked Up Abroad episodes this season include Iraq, Barbados, Indonesia, Cuba, Ecuador and Sierra Leone. NGC will be running a Locked Up Abroad marathon all day Saturday, March 28, and National Geographic will release the first two seasons on DVD on March 24, 2009.

 

A Futurist Looks to 2012.

 

I’m obsessed with 2012. I was looking into where I want to be to celebrate The Coming 2012 Apocalypse. Luckily, it’s predicted for around the Christmas/New Year holidays. Coincidence? I think not. Then I saw the TV program “Earth Without People”. Scientists said that Hoover Dam would be operational for a few months longer than anything else on the planet. I’ll probably stay put.

 

Now that the economic “downturn” has touched everyone, what has been happening and what will happen, in the near future is suddenly very important. It’s the only thing that people are talking about.

 

Just look at the public’s hatred towards freeloader Octomom! There will be no more free rides for the lazy. No one is looking away or minding their own business. We all want answers why, if you do a lousy job at work and destroy the company, you get a huge end-of-year bonus.

 

Now is the time to know what futurists have been charting and where we are going as a society. A Vision for 2012: Planning for Extraordinary Change by John L. Petersen is impossible to put down. It’s the road map for the future. It is so current, I am surprised Petersen did not put in the opening weekend box office for the “Star Trek” movie reboot opening later this year.

 

Yes, Petersen does outline all the fantastic advances that have been made and will, exponentially, take place in a few short years. He’s more optimistic than me, though he does report that we may be on the verge of living to be 150.

 

John L. Petersen is a well known futurist and head of The Arlington Institute. The future doesn’t look good, however, Petersen does have suggestions but, like our economy, we all must be pro-active. See HERE

 

Sacred Geometry.

 

It’s my idea of light reading before bed. While I’m not going to discuss the geometry of irrational numbers, in Sacred Geometry: Deciphering the Code, Stephen Skinner offers up another interpretation to Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, The Last Supper.

 

In The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown claims that da Vinci knew an explosive secret, and painted Jesus’ wife Mary Magdalene sitting next to him. And where would da Vinci choose as the place to reveal the secret of Jesus’ marriage? The Last Supper is in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. It was a commissioned mural.

Brown claims that the open "V" space between John and Jesus is the focal point of the painting, and represents the Grail and the womb of Mary Magdalene.  If the person next to Jesus is Mary Magdalene, where is the Apostle John? Wasn’t he invited to the Jesus’ last Passover meal? Was he off visiting the “happy” room?

Upon inspection Brown’s claim does not hold up to scrutiny. Jesus, at the center of the painting and framed by the dramatic backdrop of three windows, is, according to art historians clearly the focal point of the painting.

Skinner interprets the masterpiece from the point of view of “Sacred Geometry.” He suggests that “…the lines of the ceiling, walls and windows converge dramatically on a point on Christ’s head. In fact, there are 13 such radiating perspective lines, one for each of the disciples and one for Christ. Even the lines on the tiled floor under the table contribute to this effect. To accentuate the perspective still further, Leonardo made one of the disciples, John, lean away from him. It may have been done for dramatic and perspectival effect.”

 

Further, Skinner writes that “…it is more likely that the extreme parting of these two figures is probably Leonardo’s revenge for the continual interference in the composition of the figures at the table by the monks whose refectory he was doing the mural. John’s effeminacy and reputed homosexuality possibly prompted the monks to insist that he did not sit too close to the Master in case the picture provoked sniggers. Leonardo, in a typical reaction that was to mark his relationship with some of his other patrons, made John’s lean and effeminacy so extreme to mock the interfering monks.” See HERE

 

So there you have it. Leonardo da Vinci used the Golden Ratio in his painting of The Last Supper in both the overall composition (three vertical Golden Rectangles, and a decagon (which contains the golden ratio) for alignment of the central figure of Jesus.

 

Movie This Week

 

 

 

A capsule of my review of “Duplicity”. They took the lousy Soderbergh/Clooney template for Ocean's Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen and intentionally made this stinker. "Duplicity" plods along. It's boring, tedious, and the con doesn't come together. Excluding other actors and actresses from shining in interesting supporting roles, all we have is weak characterizations for the stars.

"Duplicity" starts in 2003 in a U.S. embassy party in Dubai. CIA agent Claire Stenwick (Julie Roberts) shows distain for MI6 agent Ray Koval (Clive Owen) but that must be her imperial come-on. A quick cut shows them in his hotel room. Presumably, after slipping him a roofie, they make love and then Claire steals his classified papers. So, she knew who he was all along. He was the dupe.

Ray, in lots of trouble over being hoodwinked by the fast sex and losing important papers, spends most of the next few years looking for Claire and obsessing over her.

Jumping all over in time, a too-slick soundtrack, running around all over the world, and using those multiple screens that I hate and never work, we find Ray in Rome when he notices Claire. Catching up to her, they engage in their verbal pas de deux that is so 2006 James Bond/Vesper Lynd, and the filmmakers are so pleased with it, we get to hear it over and over again.

Eventually, the plot takes shaky shape. Both are working opposite ends of a scam involving pharmaceuticals. Claire has been hired by Howard Tully as his chief of security and Ray is working for his arch-rival, loud Richard Garsik. Claire and Ray are now corporate spies. Claire has a 9 to 5 job and a boss.

Get this: Claire and Ray spend years as lovers and working together but do not trust each other. Claire is always testing him. I started getting bored.

 

Julia Roberts is now in a constellation where she cannot play real women. That smirk and disregarding glance quickly gets tedious. As the star of the film, Claire has complete command over the con game and Owen is playing George Clooney. Problem is, Owen's face isn't soft enough to carry off being led around by his nose. I couldn't find anything about Claire that made Ray a complete wimp. What spy skills did Claire see in Ray?

Where is Claire's charm? Whatever it is, the filmmakers are contractually obligated to keep reminding us Julia is gorgeous. And then you walk into the lobby and think, so it was all about their greed? Couldn't Claire have had a gambling problem or a teenage son on a meth binge?