Public memorials honouring those lost in war will be quite different this year, with many opting to pay their respects virtually, rather than in person. With that in mind, Christine and JJ describe the memorials where national ceremonies are held in Canada, England, Australia, and the U.S. Then, they shift their focus to instantly iconic images of VP-elect Kamala Harris, and perhaps the most bizarre press conference of 2020: Rudy Giuliani at Four Seasons Total Landscaping
Public memorials honouring those lost in war will be quite different this year, with many opting to pay their respects virtually, rather than in person. With that in mind, Christine and JJ describe the memorials where national ceremonies are held in Canada, England, Australia, and the U.S. Then, they shift their focus to instantly iconic images of VP-elect Kamala Harris, and perhaps the most bizarre press conference of 2020: Rudy Giuliani at Four Seasons Total Landscaping
Talk description to me with Christine Malec and JJ Hunt.
Christine Malec:Hi, I'm Christine Malec.
JJ Hunt:And I'm JJ Hunt. This is talk description to Me where the visuals of current events and the world around us get hashtag in description rich conversations.
Christine Malec:We're sitting down to record this episode on November 11, which is Remembrance Day, otherwise known as Veterans Day, depending on where you are. And we will be talking about some of the visuals of the outcome of the US election a little later on, but we thought we would start with some images around War and Remembrance. And we in we wanted to talk about where events happen and war memorials and we realized that was more than we had time for him when episode and so we had a few specific requests around war memorials that we really liked. And so we think that's going to be something we'll come back to in a later episode, because we sort of felt that that deserves its own its own definite time. So what we're going to talk about in terms of remote War and Remembrance today are some of the spaces where ceremonies normally take place. So JJ, what did you What were you looking at in this context?
JJ Hunt:So I took a look at where Canada holds its Remembrance Day, the National Remembrance Day ceremonies. And same with the UK, Australia, and the US as well. So we can just, why don't we just start with Canada, that's where you and I are. So in Canada this year, the Royal Canadian Legion has actually asked the public to pay their respects virtually rather than in person. And I believe that's the same in the UK and Australia. So that means there's no parade in Ottawa today, there will be about 100 invited guests who have been invited to attend the ceremony at the National War Memorial that's in Ottawa. And the National War Memorial is a it's a tall granite Marble Arch in Confederation square, it's about 70 feet tall. And there are two bronze statues that are part of this arch, one on the top, and then one that's on a solid granite pedestal that actually goes right through the center of the arch. At the flat peak of the arch, there's a an allegorical statue and bronze to symbolize peace and liberty. It's about 17 and a half feet tall. And there are two classical Greek figures, each with an arm raised. So there's Nike, the winged goddess of victory. And Nike is holding a small laurel wreath, and Demeter, or diameter, the goddess of agriculture and fertility of the earth. And Demeter is holding a torch. And then the sculpture that's on the pedestal, which is above eye level. So this is an overhead high. This is a large, large, tall pedestal, it features this sculpture features 22 soldiers, and they represent all of the different branches of the Canadian military. And each one of these soldiers is about eight feet tall, so a little bit larger than life. And the artists did that to compensate for the prospective loss. So when something is far away, it is it appears smaller than something that is close by so when you're when you're looking up at these figures from the ground, they would if they were just made life size, they would actually look smaller than then than life size. And so the artist has made them a little bit bigger, eight feet tall, so that they appear life size from the ground. And these are these soldiers are they're weary, they're exhausted. These are soldiers in boots and flat brimmed helmets and they're laden with packs and gear. And they're all depicted in the middle of a laborious, difficult moment. So none of these soldiers are standing, proud or triumphant. They are all in the middle of their own either individual moment of difficulty or difficult moment as a group so their, their postures, their slumped, maybe their pitched forward. There's some kind of element of effort or toil in each character and discussion. It starts kind of before the arch, so behind the arch, and then passes through the center and extends out the front. So this is perhaps to symbolize the act of entering the war struggling through it, and then emerging on the other side. But I've read some speculation that it also symbolizes Canada's rite of passage and its emergence from the war as a as a as a full nation, a nation of standing in the international community. And so these soldiers are all they're huddled together, it's it's only 10 feet wide, the inside of this arch. So having this 22 soldiers kind of packed together they are quite tightly packed, and they're all carrying. Like I said, they're carrying like arms, weapons and equipment, and the equipment helps to identify the various branches of the service that each soldier represents. So there are a couple of men on horseback. At the rear, there is a wheeled cannon that's being pulled by members of the group. And the artist, the designer and sculptor named Vernon March, he deliberately tried to make the soldiers look somewhat generic so that they weren't associated with any individual or regional group for a country as large as Canada or ethnicity that Vernon March wanted these soldiers to be every man. But of course, it should be said first of all, that that's every man. And that, you know, there is some white default happening here. They do look generic, but they look generic white, but that wasn't the intention of the artist in 1939.
Christine Malec:Right.
JJ Hunt:So, you know, some understanding there. So it is a very it is a moving sculpture, if I can say that because of this toil because of this effort that is involved. This isn't the moment of pride of pride. This this is depicting the struggle and toil.
Christine Malec:Yeah.
JJ Hunt:Yeah.
Christine Malec:How do other memorials and other other places deal with those themes?
JJ Hunt:So in England, in London, England, the Cenotaph is the is the focal point for Remembrance Day ceremonies. And the Cenotaph is is an empty tomb, or a monument that's built to honor the dead whose remains are elsewhere. And there are Cenotaph 's that are there all over the world. And the one that they tend to, they have a very similar look, they're tall rectangular structures, usually stone, and they have diminishing tiers at the top, they tend to have flagpoles on the the front and the back. So that would be the widest sides of these of these rectangular monuments, and then relief carvings of reeds high on the short ends. And that's very much what the Cenotaph in London, England looks like. Then it was originally a temporary structure in London that was built for the victory parade in 1919. But within a week of, of erecting this and having the parade and in the days following within a week, 1.2 million people had visited, and many had brought flowers and lay reads. So it was such an important focal point for people, this idea of a monument to honor the dead whose remains or elsewhere, that it was rebuilt as a permanent memorial just within the year. And they made this 35 foot tall, pale grey, Portland stone monument. And that's where the that's where the services are held in the UK every year.
Christine Malec:Where should we go next?
JJ Hunt:Well, Australia. I've not been to the Australian War Memorial, I think it's in Canberra. But I've seen some images online and it really looks it's it's it's quite stunning. So again, the ceremonies are usually held there. But as as in Canada, I believe this year there should they're just gonna have a small service and broadcast it nationally so that people can honor virtually. And the Memory Hall is this is a very large building, it's a my understanding is that the the war memorial occupies a large area like a big piece of land and the warm the memory Hall is kind of the center of it. It's a large building that's built in the pattern of a Byzantine cross. So if you would look at it from overhead, it's a cross shape, and then where the two wings intersect, there's a dome. So that's the shape of the building and you Seems that visitors enter on the long arm of the cross with the end of that long arm you can enter in right in the middle, there's a sunken open courtyard. And that's that's flanked on either side by corridors that have stone archways that opened up into this central courtyard. And the walls of the core doors are lined with the role of honor, it's called, these are bronze plaques, that name something like 102,000 plus men and women who were killed in conflict or peacekeeping operations. And then, between those two, those two corridors, there's this courtyard in the middle, and it's a calm space, it's lined with, you know, with with planters and shrubbery and, and some small conical trees very neat and tidy. And in the center is a rectangular reflection pool runs right down the center of this courtyard. And so that's a you know, an area for reflection in the middle, and then these two chord or is and the only way to get to the chapel, this domed chapel that's right at the center, right, the cross points for the two wings is by going through either the reflection area, the reflection pool, passing by that or bypassing the bronze plaques, naming all of the the people who are killed in conflict all the Australian soldiers, men and women who are killed in conflict. So you have to pass by you have to think in order to get to the chapel. And so you get to this chapel, which is at the head of the courtyard. And there's a large arched window over the on the face of the building over the doorway, and it's, it's separated so that there are narrow, vertical stained glass windows in that in that archway, and there's a green copper domed roof, I believe it's copper. You know, that covers this. The memory Hall chapel, it looks like quite a stunning place. With a lot of these. These buildings, these monuments, there's a simplicity to them. There's they're not overly decorated or adorned, there's a simplicity to them. There are lots of clean lines, flat surfaces. And so they might be, the scale might be grand, but these aren't ornate places.
Christine Malec:That's a great distinction. Grand versus ornate.
JJ Hunt:Yeah.
Christine Malec:What did you look at in the US
JJ Hunt:So, I believe in the US the Veterans Day national ceremony is held annually at Arlington Cemetery. There are lots of different memorials that are held state by state, but the national one, my understanding is that it's at the Arlington National Cemetery. And this is where speeches are given and reads are laid at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. There There are tombs of unknown soldiers all over the world. There's one in Ottawa. But this unknown soldier tomb is, is perhaps one of the most well known around the world. It is a an oversized, white marble sarcophagus. And it's on the edge of a plaza that overlooks an expansive grassy lawn in a treed area of the Arlington Cemetery. And this is a it's a huge cemetery it occupies like 624 acres, it's just a massive area. And so this sarcophagus is on the edge of this Plaza overlooking this, this grassy lawn area. And the sarcophagus itself is white marble, adorned with relief carvings of laurel reeds. And you know that the carving of three Greek figures on this one to represent peace, victory and valor. And inscribed on the opposite end are the words "Here rests in honored glory, an American soldier known but to God" and that is the focal point of the ceremonies there. Now the the unique visual element of the cemetery itself of Arlington Cemetery are the the rows upon rows of uniform gravestones. And there are you know, there are images, photos and video and it's been used in movies and television shows because it is visually so stunning to see all of these thousands of gravestones and they are uniform. So they're all quite small about knee high. These are rectangular slabs of white. And they have gently rounded tops, again, very simple to design is very simple and clean, and the rows are incredibly orderly. So essentially the they're, they're arranged in a grid. So they are perfectly aligned side to side and perfectly aligned front to back. And if you're a photographer taking pictures in the cemetery, you can create a number of different effects just by altering the position of the camera, right. So if you if you take a picture from one angle, you can emphasize the way that the rows are lined up side by side. And if you take from a different angle, you can emphasize that so many rows that go deep, deep, deep, and they just are front to back front to back front to back. If you take your image from higher up, and you're looking down at the the gravestones, you can see each individual gravestone and that is separated by green grass or fallen snow each individual gravestone can be looked at individually. But if you take if you lower your angle, and maybe take a half step to the side, so that you're now looking closer to straight on some of these gravestones, what you end up with is, is an unbroken sea of grave markers, there's no grass, there's no snow between them, because they all overlap. And they keep receding into the distance overlapping so there's nothing but grave markers. It's a it's a very it's a very photogenic place. It's a place that that photographers can and do use to evoke all kinds of different emotions, emotions, about the individual grave markers, emotions about the sea of grave markers. By changing the visuals ever so slightly.
Christine Malec:Those monuments definitely are an invitation to to look back. And in the second part of our episode, we are going to shift our focus a little bit to look at the present and the US election result was formalized last weekend. And so we wanted to talk about some of the notable visuals that have come since then. And so JJ, I think there was some some visuals of Kamala Harris that you thought were interesting to share.
JJ Hunt:Yeah, there were some fantastic images that I think will be iconic, specifically of Kamala Harris. So, you know, obviously, Joe Biden, the the president elect, his acceptance speeches, the celebrations around the world, some protest, things like that. We've covered a lot of that before, but these iconic images of Kamala Harris are, I mean, some of them are quite fantastic. There's an artist named Bria Goeller, who created a composite photo of comma Harris, walking past a clean white plaster wall, wearing a dark pantsuit and spiked heels. And she's casting the shadow of a little girl in an A frame dress. And this shadow is actually a silhouette of civil rights activists, Ruby Bridges, as painted by Norman Rockwell in the 1964 illustration, The Problem we all Live With, and it's a that in and of itself is an iconic image. And so the artists was able to take an early or iconic image from the civil rights movement and in and insert it into this new image with Kamala Harris. It's really it's quite something. So the magazine illustration, from 1964 by Norman Rockwell. It shows four US Marshals, two in front two behind, escorting this little six-year-old black girl to school. And they're walking past a dirty plaster wall that's marred by racial slurs and tomato splatter. And this little girl Ruby Bridges is carrying a notebook, some notebooks, some pencils and a ruler in her hand, and she's wearing a white knee length dress with a bow tied around the back. And she has matching white shoes and socks and a very stiff little braid at the nape of her neck that's also tied with a little white bow and it's such an iconic image. And it's so recognizable that even in silhouette when you see her her skinny legs, the A frame dress that short curling little braid, you can take that and put it in this, this image with Kamala Harris, and it's quite recognizable.
Christine Malec:Oh, so wait, can you parse that out? So Kamala Harris is walking by a real plaster wall like that's an actual shot and then...?
JJ Hunt:Yeah,
Christine Malec:Her silhouette is made to look like the girl?
JJ Hunt:Yes. So Kamala Harris walking past this white plaster wall. I don't know how many how many different images were were cut and pasted into one. But Kama Harris is a photograph. And she's walking past this white plaster wall. And her shadow that's being cast on the wall is this little girl. So her shadow is a little girl.
Christine Malec:Wow. Oh, that's lovely.
JJ Hunt:Yeah, young Ruby Bridges. Yeah, it's really quite something. It's a very effective image.
Christine Malec:That's a keeper!
JJ Hunt:It really is. I think it was actually, she did this the artists did this with a T shirt company, believe it or not. So it's being shared as an image all across social m dia, but I think you can probabl buy the T shirt of it too.
Christine Malec:Oh, my gosh, oh, that's lovely.
JJ Hunt:Another social media thing that's been going around, there's this news meme video kind of thing that's being passed around. And it shows portraits of every Vice President of the United States, one after the other after the other. And they only keep them on screen for about two seconds. And then they go to the next one. And of course, it starts with a you know, with oil, paintings, portraits, and then goes moves into black and white photos, and then some color photos. And it just goes one after the other after the other. And of course, the early ones. A lot of these old white guys have, you know, old fashion haircuts and what we would consider to be crazy facial hair. And they're not always the most attractive men. As my wife says, they get increasingly creepy as they go along. That's of course, as a describer. I would never -
Christine Malec:You would never say never say that!
JJ Hunt:But my wife can.
Christine Malec:You can quote somebody else! Ha ha!
JJ Hunt:Ya, I can quote my wife. So Lois says they get increasingly creepy, and I have to agree. It's just one white guy after another. Boom. White guy,
Christine Malec:Ha! white guy, white guy, white guy, white guy, every two seconds for Nice. a full minute. And then the last image, boom, Kamala Harris. And
JJ Hunt:And then there's the white pantsuit. So on Saturday in the picture that they've chosen, she's gorgeous. She's beaming! This beautiful, light skinned black woman with a pearl necklace, sculpted eyebrows and perfect teeth and she's just gorgeous. And it's so effective. Having gone through a full minute, boom, boom, white guy, white guy, white guy, white guy, white guy. It's really somet ing. It's a really effec ive little video. night for her acceptance speech, Kamala Harris stepped on stage I've saw a great photo of this where she's stepping on stage with her arms race, she's got a great big smile that's clear and evident, even though she's still wearing a black COVID mask. And she's wearing a white pantsuit. So white pants, a buttoned white blazer. And underneath us this white silky blouse with a big floppy bow around the neckline. So this kind of shirt is called a pussy bow tie or a pussy bow blouse. And it's a really striking, like perfectly white outfit, especially for someone who tends to wear dark pants suits. She's kind of well known for it. And this is this is all about the symbolism, the visual symbol of this suit is really something. So in her speech she referenced that she was standing on the shoulders of the women before her and that's what this outfit was meant to symbolize. So white has long been associated with the suffrage movement. It symbolizes moral purity and the ethos of non violence. So it's the color, the color itself, white is symbolic of the suffragette movement, but the outfit specifically references other women politicians. So the first black woman elected to Congress in 1968 was a woman named Shirley Chisholm. I found a wonderful black and white image of Shirley Chisholm standing at a podium and she is flashing the peace sign or maybe it's the V for victory (that means different things at different times different people). She's a thin black woman and she's wearing a white blouse and she's, again, beaming, just beaming. She's got an off the center gap in her teeth. And she's got a wide nose, a dimpled chin, and very pronounced smile lines that frame this huge smile. And she's got cats-eye glasses, a pearl bracelet and necklace and thick locks of curly black hair. She was known to wear a wig. And so Shirley Chisholm, 1968 first black woman elected to Congress, she's wearing white. Geraldine Ferraro. She wore all white the night she accepted the role of Walter Mondale's running mate in 1984. Again, she's a handsome middle aged white woman, strong chin, short, thick silver blond hair, and she wore a white blazer and pearls. Hillary Clinton. She wore a white pantsuit when she accepted the Democratic nomination 2016. and the Pussy Bow blouse. I think it's actually a nod to Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister, she was well known for wearing blouses with these great big large bows. And in fact Melania Trump, she wore similar blouses with this bow during several of her speeches and key speeches that she was attending. And recently, the women of the Democratic Party, they've been wearing white in an effort to draw attention to women's rights because it's so recognizable. So they coordinate their color choice. And they've done so for several of Donald Trump's State of the Union addresses. So for Kamala Harris to go from her typical dark pantsuit to the white one with this big floppy bow for her acceptance speech, I mean, it was visually very powerful. And it kind of reframed the moment from one that was all about her to one that was about an ongoing political movement, of which she is just a part.
Christine Malec:Ah! Ohhh!
JJ Hunt:It was really a quite a fantastic choice.
Christine Malec:Politics is theater, I know it and I always forget it until I talk to you.[Shared laughter] Speaking of you know, the dramatic and the theatrical and the unexpected that can happen in theater, perhaps we can talk about the press conference that I believe Rudy Giuliani was yes folks person at, I'm just gonna let you take that away.
JJ Hunt:So this is the Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference. So all right, I'm gonna do my best to up to be straight about this, but it's really difficult. So on Saturday morning, just before the election was called for Joe Biden, Donald Trump tweeted from his golf club, that his lawyers would be giving, quote, unquote, big press conference about their fraud case. And it was going to be held at the four seasons in Philadelphia. But there had been a bit of a misunderstanding, because the Trump campaign, they'd been having real trouble giving press conferences in Philadelphia, because they kept being interrupted by protesters. They were interrupted by screaming and chanting. And there was one case where a DJ decided to drown them out with music. So we're having a really difficult time giving public press conferences. And so apparently a Trump supporter, who owns a landscaping company that's slightly outside of the city core, he offered his facility for this press conference. And his landscaping company is called Four Seasons Total Landscaping. And so when that was reported to Donald Trump, "We're going to be having a press conference at four seasons total landscaping", he misunderstood apparently, and thought that it was of course the Four Seasons Hotel. An upscale hotel, which it was not. So the visuals of this press conference are... well... they're different. So the Four Seasons Total Landscaping is in an industrial area on the outskirts of the city. And so the images of the press conference, you've got a semi circle of distanced journalists. So they're quite far back from this podium that was set up. They are in a semi circle in the back parking lot of a small industrial warehouse. And there's a small podium set up in front of an industrial garage door. And the garage door is decorated with a grid of blue and red Trump and Pence campaign lawn signs that have just kind of been taped up in a grid. And online there were a lot of people that were pointing out the neighborhood that this was in, because the context of this was so odd. Not only were the visuals of the the press conference itself unusual, but the neighborhood that it was in was also quite unusual. So the photographers that were there and people who were, you know, researching online, were taking pictures of, and taking Google Image pictures of this... So for example, a couple couple buildings away, there's a free standing two storey, gray cement building, no windows, and it's got like a closed steel door on the front. And that's the Fantasy Island adult bookstore. And across the street from Four Seasons Total Landscaping, there's this quaint little red brick building with symmetrical garden boxes and nice little shrubbery out front. It kind of looks like a fake neighborhood bungalow. It's not convincing as a neighborhood bungalow, but that's kind of what it's clearly going for. And this is the Delaware Valley Cremation Center. So this is this is the background for the Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference. Rudy Giuliani stands at this podium, and it's just... it's a cheap veneer podium. It's not like a nice solid wooden one. It's cheap wood veneer. And there's a single mic on floor stand with a boom arm, and two speakers on tripod stands. So this is a tech setup that you might like see, it's really more typical of like a local politician giving a small town speech, you know? And behind him is this decorated garage door, this garage door that's got a grid of taped-up lawn signs. And there's a short line of people behind him that are waiting to speak, to kind of give testimony about the fraud that they've that they believe that they've uncovered. And on one side of the garage door, hanging on a green cement block wall, there's a fire extinguisher. And hanging on the other side of the garage door there's this coiled yellow fire hose and a coiled green garden hose. And centered right above the door directly above the podium are two motion sensor lights that are wired with exposed black cables. And the surface of the parking lot is patched and stained. It's... I mean, it's the back of a small industrial landscaping warehouse with this taped up grid of lawn signs. Some protesters came. There was a there was a guy there in his underwear with a sign that was protesting something, and there were people who were chanting. And of course, just before this speech, the news came out that the election had been called for Joe Biden. It was minutes before the speech. So some of the reporters were kind of coming and going as Rudy Giuliani took to the podium. But apparently Giuliani hadn't heard the news yet. It was so recent. So he steps up to the microphone, he starts giving a speech. And a reporter asks him about the fact that CNN and Fox and all the other news agencies had just called the election for Biden. And you can see the look on his face, it's clear that this is new information to him. And he gets very dramatic. And he's starts behaving quite erratically. And he steps back from the microphone and he throws his arms open and he looks to the heavens. I mean, it's quite, as you say, theatrical. It's quite a performance. It's worth seeking out it's, it's really quite something.
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JJ Hunt:Ha ha!