There is no doubt that most of us, in our childhoods and later in life, heard all about the stories and legends of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. For many, the stories of Arthur and his exploits were the integral part of growing up, and they continue to be the central aspect of what is a quintessentially British identity. But today, we won’t be focusing on King Arthur. Instead, our story shifts to one of his closest companions – a knight equally dashing and brave, whose legend is the central part of the Arthurian legend: Sir Lancelot. Depicted as one of the most gallant and brave of all the Knights of the Round Table , Lancelot of the Lake is considered the epitome of that traditional, chivalric romance that served as an inspiration and an ideal to many over the centuries. Continue reading “Sir Lancelot: Exploring the History Behind the Legend”→
On the occasion of the release of her book, La folle vie de Lili , Liliane Rovère revealed a funny anecdote about her relationship with Chet Baker in the columns of the Parisian .
Liliane Rovère lived “an eventful life” . She tells her story in her autobiography, La folle vie de Lili , published by Robert Laffont on Thursday, April 11. For the occasion, the one who plays Arlette in Dix Pour Cent has agreed to return to a few passages from her book, in the columns of the Parisian .
The 86-year-old actress took the opportunity to reveal an astonishing anecdote about her past relationship with Chet Baker. In the 1950s, while living in New York, the aspiring actress had a mad passion with the illustrious jazz trumpeter, whom she met in a bar. “Love at first sight was for him, I let myself be carried by the flow, passive and delighted at the same time. He was a handsome boy (…) teenage style, a little thug,” she explains. Handsome boy, yes, but above all married. Very jealous, his wife even comes to point at Liliane Rover with a revolver: “I must have smiled stupidly, telling me that she was not going to shoot, I was not afraid, and at the same time …” .
As the daily relates, she ultimately did not shoot. But Chet Baker preferred to divorce him to join his beautiful, that he even takes with him on tour. However, this love story is far from idyllic for the young woman. “We hardly knew each other. We made love a lot, but without complicity,” she adds. Two years after their meeting, their relationship ends. Today she no longer idealizes him and thinks of him “with affection, and a little sadness too” , she confides. “It was excessive and was to the end,” she concludes. Chet Baker died in 1988, aged just 58, after falling out of a window in his room on the second floor of a hotel.
Amanda Gorman at the Inauguration of President Biden 1/20/21
“The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman
Mr. President, Dr. Biden, Madam Vice President, Mr. Emhoff, Americans and the world, when day comes we ask ourselves where can we find light in this never-ending shade? The loss we carry asea we must wade. We’ve braved the belly of the beast. We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace. In the norms and notions of what just is isn’t always justice. And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it. Somehow we do it. Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished. We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one.
And yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect. We are striving to forge our union with purpose. To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man. And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us. We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another. We seek harm to none and harmony for all. Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true. That even as we grieved, we grew. That even as we hurt, we hoped. That even as we tired, we tried that will forever be tied together victorious. Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.
Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid. If we’re to live up to her own time, then victory won’t lie in the blade, but in all the bridges we’ve made. That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb if only we dare. It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit. It’s the past we step into and how we repair it. We’ve seen a forest that would shatter our nation rather than share it. Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy. This effort very nearly succeeded.
But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated. In this truth, in this faith we trust for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us. This is the era of just redemption. We feared it at its inception. We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour, but within it, we found the power to author a new chapter, to offer hope and laughter to ourselves so while once we asked, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe? Now we assert, how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be a country that is bruised, but whole, benevolent, but bold, fierce, and free. We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation. Our blunders become their burdens. But one thing is certain, if we merge mercy with might and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright.
So let us leave behind a country better than one we were left with. Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one. We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the West. We will rise from the wind-swept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution. We will rise from the Lake Rim cities of the Midwestern states. We will rise from the sun-baked South. We will rebuild, reconcile and recover in every known nook of our nation, in every corner called our country our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful. When day comes, we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid. The new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.
