“Beware the Ides of March …
No, I’m not talking about the old rock band. Although I did kind of like both “Vehicle,” and “LA, Goodbye” when I was a kid.
This morning I read an article a friend sent me from the British paper, the Guardian, titled: “Beware the Ides of March: ‘Medal’ for killing Caesar shows at British Museum.”
The subtitle referred to “A unique gold coin, minted by Caesar’s betrayer, Brutus, was said to be worn as a talisman by a conspirator.”
It reminded me of the brilliant joint HBO/BBC production “Rome.” Both sensationalistic and well done, especially for the historical captions you could toggle on as you watched, called “All roads lead to Rome.”
While your sympathies quickly lie with the compelling stories of Julius Caesar, Augustus, and their families, your intellect feels a likewise compelling tug when the senators speak out against tyranny. The program gives you a sense of what television could be, with a little effort.
My friend wrote to me, tongue only partially in cheek, that tyranny continues. Which put us in mind of the Wall Street rip-off spelled “b-a-i-l o-u-t,” as well as the U.S. Supreme Court decision permitting unregulated funding of campaigns by the wealthy.
So what tyrants should step carefully today? Plutocrats, chrysocrats, kleptocrats, I’d say, but I’m not sure enough of the citizenry is alarmed by American plutocracy, chrysoaristocracy, or kleptocracy.
Not so long as we have desperate housewives and millionaire athletes on television. Not so long as we have teabaggers defending the plutocrats.
OmbudsBen 
I loved that HBO/BBC series Rome, too. In fact, I have both seasons on DVD and I was so disappointed when it was axed. It was so well done and could have continued to give people a real insight into the similarities and differences between their lives and society and ours. Shame on HBO for axing it!
I know, especially when you consider the immense (and beautiful!) set they built to film the darn thing.
You think of all the history they still had left to work with. There’s an old show biz adage about leaving the audience “asking for more,” as opposed to running a show into the ground.
All I can guess is that HBO (with the Beeb) prefer to bow out with the audience still asking for more.
I’ve not watched, even though we had HBO. Shame on me. I’m tired of politics. Tired of corporations controlling everything, more or less. Religion, more or less. Perhaps less with Obama than with Bush, but not as much less than I would like. Sigh.
Gonna go add Rome to my netflix now…
And we went to see Julius Caesar (Shakespeare) many moons ago in Ashland. It was funny, because the soothsayer was very lispy We still joke about it…. “Caesar! Beware the ideas of March!”
I really enjoyed the “Rome” series, too. I can’t believe HBO gave it the axe.
As for desperate housewives, millionaire athletes, and teabaggers, every time I think television has sunk to a new low in regards to what passes for news and intelligent programming, I am proven wrong. Best to just turn it off, I think.
J, lispiness does take something out of prophecy, doesn’t it? Or maybe it adds something. Hmmm … I hope you enjoy Rome, and I’d like to read your review if you blog about it.
Your right, Robin. Sometimes it’s best to tune out. On the other hand, have you seen the Coen Brothers’ “a Serious Man”?
Not always an easy movie to follow, but worthwhile. With its sense of foreboding, it’s not a fun movie, but I’ve found myself thinking about it a lot since seeing it. I’ve also read a couple reviews that have made me appreciate it a lot more.
And the use of Grace Slick lyrics is delicious. A coworker and I now quote the character Marshak to each other. Per Trucie’s note about unusual delivery, we now quote these lines to each other with a heavy Yiddish accent–which will make sense if you see the movie:
And then we laugh ourselves silly, and say:
“Be a good boy.”