He has a radio program on WXOU out of Oakland University
Wild At Heart
In ancient Greece, the Agora was an open "place of assembly" where free-born male land-owners who were citizens would gather for military duty or to hear statements of the ruling king or council. Later, the Agora also served as a marketplace where merchants kept stalls or shops to sell their goods. In 2009, it is the name of a movie by director Alejandro Amenabar (“The Sea Inside” and “Open Your Eyes”) and stars the lovely Rachel Weisz as Hypatia, a female mathematician, philosopher and astronomer in 4th century AD Alexandria. Hypatia, like our image of all pure scientists, investigates the flaws of the geocentric Ptolemaic system (placing Earth at the center of the universe and the stars and planets revolve in circular orbits around us) and the heliocentric model (the sun is the center of the universe and the planets revolve around it) while generally staying away from the deeper issues of religious turmoil and social unrest that are tearing the city apart as the Christians are taking over from the Romans and Jews in brutal fashion. The film is not truly about the evils that Christians perpetuate but seemingly about religious fundamentalism in general. Hypatia is seen as a bright intelligent woman who is seen by the Christians as evil for her beliefs, though more likely for the esteem the prefect of Alexandria holds for her opinions, and they persecute her soon after she breaks the problem of the solar system. The movie does a good job on looking at the relationship between religion and science among the Christianization of the Roman empire though it feels more like a big TV movie. Weisz pulls forth a wonderful performance which truly makes the film though we wish we could see a bit more characterization among the other characters who seem more like ciphers than true characters at times. Still, if you love stuff like “I, Claudius”, this film should fit the bill for a nice night out at the cinema. My grade is a B-. I would also like to apologize for the lateness of this review since the film is ending on the 26th so please hurry if you would like to take in the splendor of the film on the big screen.
