The Corduroy Mtn. The Art Beat Mark Maxwell There's a scene in a film where the audience is to believe the criminals have already left with the classified police records, and all is lost. But they are really still in the room hiding just beyond the edge of the frame. What a cheap trick, but fulfilling, no? This is a modern film but in black and white. There's a song by Elvis Costello and the Attractions about Oliver Cromwell. It's on the shittier side, as lyrics go, commenting at once on British imperialism, the selfish aggression of the upper-class population, and Winston Churchill's war-like tendencies. Well, it might comment on those. I don't know anything about Oliver Cromwell. There's a statue in the city of a now-dead women's rights activist. By design, the statue has a patch over one eye, which is the same eye the activist herself had a patch over in real life. The statue is made of the ugliest of all stones, which also says something about the sculptor. I know some women who don't care for the statue. previous | next Added to The Corduroy Mtn. on November the sixth in the year two thousand and eight.