Sun in Splendor

Copyright ©MMI SUN IN SPLENDOR. All rights reserved

©MM SUN IN SPLENDOR. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The photo has been cropped to the proportion of the Golden Section

COPYRIGHT ©MM SUN IN SPLENDOR. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The "Circus Allegria" is a tiny, family circus which, at the time I visited, had pitched its tent and trailers on the outskirts of Valença, a town of seventy thousand souls in Bahia, Brazil. In the photograph, the father (as Master of Ceremonies) stands near the backdrop. One of his daughters dances, with good cheer as much as seductiveness. She couldn't have been much more than sixteen — older than most of the audience. The sign by the side of the road promised a show each night. In fact, if it rained, there would be no show, since the audience — pedestrians all — would not come. Admission was one Real (pronounced "Hey-I"), which was about 70¢; I regret, very much, that I had not the presence of mind to pay for the score of children who stood outside, unable to afford admission.

AKOACACERE by L. Clichy. This QuickTime file is large, and hosted on the server of its producer, Cube (France). It may be difficult to play online over a slow ( i. e., dial-up) Internet connection. An alternative to playing the movie online would be to download it, and play it offline (this can be done by right-clicking or control-clicking this link and Save As...).

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My new Bombay stringer writes in "Indian English," which is a dialect, as American English is a dialect. I use the word dialect in its philological sense, not as a pejorative. His copy — like most writers' copy — has spelling and typographical errors, e. g., ollywood where Bollywood is meant. I try to correct those. However, he is also using Indian English grammar, and idioms, with which I — and non-Indian readers — are not familiar. I have to take care not to adjust the copy so far as to turn it into American English dialect. That could rob it of nuance and shades of meaning, as well as color, which Indian English may do a better job of conveying.

I edit a daily news digest for digital movie makers — nothing grand, but it is fun building it up. I have recruited stringers (correspondents) in the North of England, Singapore, Seattle, Brooklyn, Copenhagen, and most recently, Bombay. This is fun, and it keeps life interesting, too. I received the Bombay stringer's application last week. I was surprised that he referred to his city as Bombay — I had been told that the new, and "correct" name is "Mumbai," and I had corrected my speech and writing to reflect that. I had supposed that this was like the Chinese correction of Peking to Beijing. I asked the fellow about Bombay/Mumbai. Here's what he replied: "As for your kind info, we all in India call Bombay; rarely someone mentions Mumbai." So it's back to Bombay for me! Istanbul was Constantinople Now it's Istanbul not Constantinople * * * Why did Constantinople get the works? That's nobody's business but the Turks's! List...

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