Word: splendid
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...hard to think of an epic more dazzlingly splendid, and strangely forgotten, than The Adventures of Amir Hamza. Although it is some 10 centuries old, the work's first major English translation was published only at the end of last month, finally bringing to the world the legend of the reputed uncle of the Prophet Muhammad. A radiant warrior who saved kingdoms, wooed princesses and journeyed to fantastical realms, Amir Hamza was cherished in the courts of India's Mughal emperors and celebrated in places as far flung as present-day Georgia and Malaysia. But of late, his memory...
...Pressing the flesh in neighboring Woollahra, a sartorially splendid Turnbull can't quite match Hawke at this caper - but boy, tough crowd! Some of the people sipping coffee in the sunshine look miffed to have been approached. "It's a thin line," says Turnbull, "between engaging people and bothering them. I err on the side of respecting privacy." Time up, he bounds across Queen Street to wave down a bus bound for the city. "He's always catching the bus," says a staffer...
Every Easter, Venice's dignitaries board an official boat, sail out into the Adriatic and drop a gold ring into the water, symbolizing by this centuries-old ritual the city's marriage to the sea. For a long time, the union was a splendid and prosperous one. Thanks to its sprawling trade network, Venice became a wealthy imperial power in the 13th century, its institutions later mimicked by the Dutch and English. The city-state's mighty fleets patrolled the Mediterranean, while its merchants haggled at the far reaches of the Silk Road, dispatching the wonders of Asia back...
...lites can see just how merry life might have been for them in the Middle Ages by booking the medieval banquet at the Hôtel de la Cité, tel: (33-4) 6871 9871. Located within the southern French town's ancient citadel, the hotel is a splendid venue for you and 25 of your favored henchmen to feast on the likes of suckling pig, while jugglers, fire eaters, sword-playing duelers and other menials perform for your amusement. Afterward, sleep off the wassailing in the Villa, a discreet building that is the hotel's top-tier accommodation...
...movies, even more than the Ludlum books (which long ago I consumed with equal velocity and voraciousness), are themselves machines: beautifully constructed, splendid to behold. And in this third and possibly final episode, directed by Paul Greengrass from a script by Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi, the series has come close to attaining a kinetic perfection. If Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down was the all-war war movie - nearly two hours of nonstop battles - The Bourne Ultimatum is the all-action action movie. A pounding of the eyes and ears (John Powell's score...