esrosedotblog

FARENHEIT 451

How many of these evil books have you read? Do you have any in your library at this moment? And I mean the 'honorable mentions' too. (Isn't that a contradiction in terms)?

Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries

I have actually read some or all or snoozed through many of these. I even enjoyed a few and would read them again gladly.

I am going on Amazon soon to get the ones that I missed. Like The Course of Positive Philosophy by Auguste Compte.

That seems like another snoozer. I guess to be harmful, you also have to be tedious.

FELT GOOD

You have to be of a certain age to know how important 'Deep Throat' was to the Watergate investigation and the eventual resignation of Tricky Dick Nixon.

It is pleasing to me to know who it was and doubly so since the man can enjoy his fame in his last years.

Mark Felt was one of the usual suspects and was almost outed, famously now, by Atlantic Magazine.

And you always thought that it was Hal Holbrook, huh?

ACID TRIP

Today's Best NY Times Film was Easy Rider (1969).

Western, buddy movie, road flick, biker film, us vs. them victim trip, hippy manifesto, and, of course, an acid trip all rolled into one.

There is no plot but there is one. be sure to read the Ebert 'story' of the film.

"We blew it, Billy".

The world turns upside down. Out is in. Them are us.

And the ending is the same as it has been since 1969.

It is amazing to see the early Jack Nicholson and now I know why I liked him so much and am so sad about the changes.

Hopper did not invent the 'nut case' persona in this picture but it endures. And the young Peter Fonda never looked so dewy and innocent. And a rebel. Not really.

When it came out, it was contemporary and now it is historical. But the theme is timeless.

You can run but you cannot hide from the world and its responsibilities.

A 5 out of Netflix5.

In 1969, I had just had my first marijuana. I had a job in Harvard Square in an 'alternative' company doing management training on the wild side for corporate America. I wore the attire of one who had at least glanced off the alternative culture. We had joss sticks and were beginning to think in terms of strobish lighting.

In awhile and for awhile we would have an extended family.

I was thinking about being queer again, only now it was gay and somehow OK.

This film came around just at the moment of my departure from the main stream. It was a good cautionary tale. I took the caution and sailed through it with a lot of help. The film is a benchmark for me.

CALL HOME

We watched E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) today.

I think, inadverantly, we watched the souped up 20th anniversary cut. I don't care really but it has been my intention to stay with the original theater versions of all the Best 1176 New York Times Films.

Whatever the case, the magic still holds. It is fun and scary and all of that. There is some usual Spielbergian time-waste in the middle with setting frogs loose but that is the price of watching SS do his auteurial thing.

We found the John Williams music really annoying as well. Intrusive. Swooping. Over the fucking top music. John, I am too much, Williams. The man who ruined the Boston Pops. Not that I have anything against him though.

We laughed, bit our nails, and cried on cue. It is a bit manipulative. Why am I being negative? We liked it. Yeh.

OK. Grudging.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5. A very movie movie.

It is fun to watch little Drew Barrymore. Henry Thomas showed up as one of the guys in All the Pretty Horses and is still working. What else?

Did I mention John William's music?

DAISED

Today's movie was Driving Miss Daisy (1989); directed by Bruce Beresford and starring Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy.

Ebert uses the word 'luminous'. That is a pretty good summary.

We saw Tandy on the stage a few times with her husband Hume Cronyn. The pair was formidable. They grabbed you by the lapels in the first act, shook you until your teeth rattled in the second, then sent you home worn out from the third.

Tandy and Freeman are the same kind of team. Their work together is astounding.

It is fun watching a sophisticated man like Freeman play the old style black man who is just coming out of himself with white people. The throttled mouth-closed laughter, the bent shoulders, the half shuffle and walking behind are all mannerisms that I have seen in 'real life'.

It should be noted that Esther Rolle, Dan Akroyd and Patti LuPone do a great job covering the supporting roles.

It is a great movie; a 5 out of Netflix5. Did I mention that it is another of the Best 1176 NY Times Films?

DANDY

I suppose it comes as no surprise that I once owned a white suit.

I wore it out and about a lot.

I once wore it on a business trip to Los Angeles in the secure conviction that I would match the culture. Little did I know that LA biz attire is more conservative than the tightest ass Boston banker's.

But I liked the buzz of it though. The transgressive nature of wearing a suit because I had to but wearing a white suit because they would hate it.

We called on Hunt Foods and actually got the business. We were also playing 'counterculture' then. My cohort Tony had this huge jewish-afro head of hair. We were a spectacle. Ahhh. Those were the days.

I wore the white suit around for a few years, and then it lost its allure. I think I also quit wearing suits at all about this time; of any color and cut. Is still have a light blue one and a tux. That is it. I am ready for funerals or a formal dance.

I still have a white sports jacket though.

See: Just Dandy
The enduring mystique of the white suit.
By Inigo Thomas in Slate

KID POWER

This is a great story:
Teens Make Their Big-Screen Dream Come Through For Town.

And this is a rendering of the cinema that just opened.

MEMMED OUT

I don't much know what to think about any holiday but Memorial Day is one of the more puzzling.

I am sure sorry about all those dead people who fought for me. I am grateful that others did it and not me.

I feel sort of undeserving about it all. And I also feel like a lot of them died because they were sent to do the wrong thing at the wrong place at the wrong time. Just look in the news.

I read the other day that we are actually in the most peaceful time of our history. War is down and peace is up. It doesn't feel like it.

Maybe the deal is that the more peace we get to have the less sense war makes.

I know, it is not about war but about the people who died in the wars. But it is hard to separate the two.

And what about the 'enemy' dead? Am I to mourn for them too or are they excluded? Dunno. But, I mourn for them. Too many pictures of this war's grief (and too few of our own casualties?) have turned my sympathies and feelings of despair in that direction. I mourn them all. Ours, theirs and mostly, the unknowing.

When I was a kid we had school to start and then a parade to one of the three local cemeteries and then some razzamatazz with the American Legion and the VFW carrying on.

Some kid would say the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln's.

One year the kid was me. I still remember it.

Come to think of it, the words do give some relief and come close to the way I would like to feel. I guess I will read them again.

Come to think of it, we are in a sort of civil war only it is parts of the world agains other parts. And so on. A religious war?

BACHING IT

Franklin and I are keeping bachelor hall this weekend.

Well, I guess Franklin is just missing one dad. Half an orphan. A grass widow?

John is off to a conference in LA where he will be a speaker today; Friday through Monday.

We are doing OK and so is he. We manage to pull at least two separations a year. I will get to go somewhere later in the summer. Someplace cool. I am still working on when, where, and how.

Franklin gets to looking around and 'waiting'. But then he snaps out of it and makes his demands on me that he would share with John. Temporarily, I am the morning as well as the evening walker, the foot drier after the morning walk which is always wet (due) and I am even the dog brusher. He looked so mangy yesterday that I bent to the brushing task.

It is good. We are bonding at a new level. I am not sure what it is but it is there.

Tomorrow it will be all celebrations and homecomings. Nice. A little deprivation and then some celebration at the end of it.

THE BOSS

He was there this morning as Franklin and I passed the big corner lot.

You gotta notice him. Out of 10 or more bunnies, this one is a standout. He is bigger than the rest and is white with some black and tan markings.

He is not actually in the group. He never is. He stands out and stands aside.

What is his story? Is he a case of pet abandonment? If so, he has to be doing very well. He is fat and very very serene. He is the last to go when the other rabbits scurry. Of course, this could be because of his domestication. He is not afraid of people. But Airedale's?

If he is a dropoff, then what age was he when he got there? How does he interact with the wild rabbits? Is he seen as the Messiah as sometimes crops up as a story line when a 'civilized' person hits the savage village? What role does he play in the bunny hierarchy?

Another possibility. Suppose he is a 'sport'; a genetic accident in the regular wild bunny baby boom? Do the bunnies really care if he is different? Why is he so big? Why does he stand apart?

Now, the big question. He is eating right. He has a good place to live. What about sex? Is he getting any? Is he giving it? Is he a top or a bottom? Never occurred to me that he would be other than a he. God. Maybe this is the goddess! The queen!

I don't think so. This is not a straight bunny. After all this is Palm Springs.

If by any chance he does have sex with a girl bunny would there be babies? Sometimes sports are infertile.

If there are babies, are his genes dominant or recessive? In ten years time are we going to see all half white bunnies in this colony?

You can see the kind of serious questions that get aroused on a morning walk with the dog.

REELING

The art of Arthur Miller is the deep layering of thought that lies within his plays. There is the surface story and then there are the characters who act it out and then there are the words and thoughts that come out of the characters' mouths and then, there is the spectacular web of meaning that projects from the action, the people, and the words.

I have seen The Crucible (1994) done before. There have been 4 television productions and the play is produced 'all the time' 'all over the world'.

I guess I skipped the film when it came around because I thought I had seen it all. Now, I know that I had not. The film has added a visual element to the story, the people, the words, and the meaning. Miller revised for the film and so it has the master's hand on the wheel.

A lot of people did not like this version. Ebert, with whom I invariably agree only gave it two stars. He got pissed off at the opening scenes and never forgave the production.

I was taken in totally. There is a lot of reality in the set and location and the decoration. We are in the 17th Century. The use of the camera to take the story 'outdoors' and to sweep in large brush strokes is powerful particularly in gathering up the group hysteria that infects the people of Salem.

The acting is great. Paul Scofield takes center stage as the trial judge. He is formidable. And everyone else from top to the bottom of the cast are great too. Who would have thought that Winona Ryder could be so terrifying? This is not the first time I have been surprised at her skill. This is why it would be better if we knew nothing of the private lives of any artists.

And then there is Daniel Day-Lewis (sigh) who we will see many times in the Great Film series.

I lived through the McCarthy era. When our class visited Washington D.C., I played hookie and went to watch the crowds coming out of the Senate Office building. I saw Joseph Welch.

I was aware of the HUAC hearings. My Congressman Frances Walter was either on it or one of the red-baiters. He was the coauthor of the McCarran-Walter immigration act which was not so far in spirit from what many of the anti-immigration people want now.

It was a scary time as it is now. There is no doubt that a lot of the work in this film focuses on the hypocrisy of the church and church people as well as politicians who manipulate the them to serve themselves; an evil synergy. The story is no less timely today than it was then.

And, it is a universal theme. Saving your own ass at the expense of others.

I liked it a lot and it 'got' me again. I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5. Roger Ebert be damned. I am still reeling from the experience. How many reels in a two hour film?

GOLDY

This is a big deal:

'Now I get to be like everybody else': The Gay Goalie

This kid is the first lacrosse goalie in thirty years to get the ball and run it all the way down the field to his own net.

Yet as Goldstein points out, "gay All-American" is a phrase that is still contradictory for some.

"All-American is what you think of, you know, the three kids, the white picket fence, All-American," Goldstein said. "And gay does not fit into that. So it's nice for me to hear 'gay All-American,' and to think it's just the same as 'All-American.' "

It is still a bit hard to live in a world where it is unprecedented for a college jock to be out. The last I saw was a water polo player. Still. There it is.

More to come.

The more the merrier.

ANNA

We have seen a lot of Anna and the King of Siam (1946) but mostly in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical versions; over and over. Yul Brynner and all. And there is a remake (I never watch them) with Chow-Yun-Fat and Jody Foster as Anna. Ugh.

It is all based on the book by Anna herself.

Today's movie is the antecedent of the musical and, of course, the remake, with Irene Dunn as Anna and Rex Harrison as the King.

I saw this when it came out. I was nine, in case you are counting.

It has remained vivid in my mind since that time.

Unlike the singing version, this plot is dense and, despite the casting of key roles with anglo actors instead of orientals, it is very well played.

It is quite fun to see Lee J. Cobb play the King's trusted servant in a pompadour hairdo and brown face. Still, it does not distract. Now, that is great story telling.

And it is a great story. It deserves to be repeated. The culture clash, the platonic love affair between Anna and the King, the collision of wills. It is all well written, because it is a true story, and played, because the parts are really meaty. Wrong word, really. There is no ham here.

It is a New York Times Best 1176 Film and I will give it a 4 out of Netflix 5.

HAPPY FOR MY EX

Kraft Foods, an old client of mine, has struck a blow for equal rights with this email about its support of diversity; no matter what disruption such support might cause: Kraft: It's The Right Thing to Do.

I used to work with the former General Foods Division and also the parent, now sort of smudged out of the picture, Philip Morris.

Even then, these companies were at the forefront of the civil rights movement.

After seeing Microsoft cave in to a local christer in Seattle, it is refreshing to see that many corporations have the courage of their convictions and were not just playing games with their diversity policies.

Not only that, but they are putting that flaming faggot Sponge Bob on their Macn'Cheese package.

MUSCLEHEAD: A Progress Report

Just so you can see how we are doing with our governator, this Salon piece pretty much tells the story: Will He Be Back ?

I would say an unqualified 'no' but then the Demo's capacity to fuck up is pretty high.

The State Treasurer, Phil Angelides is running. He is low on charisma but he has made the corporate board rooms dance by using the CALPERS retirement funds as a lever. A lot of people like that.

Anyway. Arnold was a bad dream someone had. Even Maria wants him home with the kids. So much for my State's expedition into the land of magical thinking.

RUFUS

We are absorbing the music of Rufus Wainwright.

He has been on my radar awhile.

After all: young, out, gay man; son of Loudon III and an old favorite Kate McGarrigle.

One could hardly dismiss him. But, I am a hard sell.

Recently I heard his Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk on David Byrne's play list. Stuck. Over and over in the head. I identified. Had to hear more.

So the solution is to buy all the records, right?

So far we are through the first and well into totally memorizing the second.

Poses.

Indeed.

He is a diva.

There is not a lot more to say. It is more to listen to.

I am not very impressed with anyone or anything new. But this guy is very special. Check him out.

HOWIE

Today is obit day. Well, this one is a little late. Howard Morris was one of the funniest men a twelve year old could have in his life.

I think I was 12.

A life time of craziness in cartoons, commercials, and on teevee shows could not obscure his work with Sid Caesar in early live television.

It is said that Caesar hired Morris because of his size. He needed someone he could pick up by the lapels, literally. Howie was his man.

I still remember a classic sketch where they did a spoof of Ralph Edward's smarmy This is Your Life, an early 'reality' show. Howie was someone from Caesar's past and he went bananas when he came on stage, hugging and kissing, eventually grabbing Caesar's leg, refusing to be separated. It is one of the longest continuous laugh sequences they ever got.

This photo off the video is of Howie as General Sid's valet. These shows were the funniest of the funniest. I have the tapes to prove it.

There were a lot of guys who worked on these shows who got a bit more fame than Morris; Carl Reiner, Nanette Fabray, Mel Brooks. But the little guy with the nasal cry is the one I remember. So long, Howie.

ISMAIL MERCHANT

Half of Merchant-Ivory films died yesterday in London. He is the one on the left.

I note it, mostly, because the two were also life partners; a very visible and un-repentant gay couple back when that kind of thing just was not done in public.

They lived a very public life and it was greatly appreciated by those of us who were doing the same thing. They simply were. No questions about it and no explanation.

In an odd and totally unrelated way, this is the same favor that Sigfreid and Roy payed us as. I know. Kitsch. But still, there was this solidity about their identity which no one questioned.

Out gay men were powerful examples, but couples. That was important stuff.

The Merchant-Ivory films got over burdened with their professional reputation and nearly fell of their own weight. There was a time when one would go see their latest effort without question. Then, the enterprise slipped a bit and it did not come so automatic. Finally, I don't remember going to any of their later productions.

But, the main point is their life together. They were together ten years longer than John and I. Merchant is my age exactly.

SLURRIED

I didn't write a post yesterday. I was too engrossed in the street paving operations that were going on around us.

Every summer, the city puts down a new black coat of 'slurry' on streets that have cracked and worn. It is a mix of asphalt and fine gravel and it flows around in and out of the cracks. The heat makes it work better.

It takes a few hours to dry, so that means no parking on the streets, no driving when it is wet, and staying away from the machines that put it down, the trucks that bring the gunk, and so on.

Yesterday was our day.

I parked the Jeep up the hill two streets over and then let it sit because I didn't want to lose my parking space. Only a little nuts. But, my destination was not that far away and I walked. Got a ride home.

For awhile we thought they would mistakenly do our drive which is private. They had warning signs out front and so I figured.........well. No, and we decided it is just as well. A lot of people, too many, use the drive as a shortcut. It passes from one street through to another. We have signs but stop short of going out and chasing people.

The drive has always been a little shabby. Now, by comparison with the newly topped streets it is more so. Therefore, more obviously a private drive. A rationalization. I don't imagine it will deter anyone presently used to flying down the hill to save a couple of minutes.

Yeh, I know this is pretty boring stuff but it was what made up a lot of the day yesterday. Every day can't be filled with hairbreadth escapes, victories over evil, and saving the helpless victims of dastardly villains.

BEST

I watched Dumbo (1941) today.

It is one of the Best 1176 NYTimes Films and said to be one of the best Disney films as well.

The writeup on the link is informative. I also watched the commentary on this disc.

Walt had a fault with Fantasia and this little guy came after almost in apology for the overwrought, excessive, box office failure.

It is short, but full. The pink elephant number is extraordinary. The story is a three hanky job but yet not in the usual Disney sob sister category. Evil passes and happiness returns without a lot of effort. It is somehow very touching.

I liked it a lot and will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

The critical writeup I link to talks about the failure to commercialize Dumbo or do the normal Disney staged release thing. I do not think there is a Dumbo reference in Disneyland. No walk around character anyway. It is interesting that their best is most humble as well.

I do not think I saw this when I was a kid. I had been taken to Snow White at an early age--three? And it scared the shit out of me.

I don't think that this film would have bothered me but perhaps. I was a bit of a mama's boy back then so the idea of having your mom penned up for protecting you might have been upsetting.

I had a comic book with the story though. It was actually a glossy version with actual frames from the film. I knew the story and could take it at its own pace.

To see the real thing today put those pieces together. A sort of completion.

Yes, you can remember such minutiae 60 and more years later. Actually, the older you are the more you remember. It is all in there. Everything. Scary, huh?

LIFE OR DEATH?

The utter hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy of the bush is laid bare in this Illustrated Daily Scribble.

ON THE ROAD

Today's Best Film was totally absorbing.

Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy (1989) with Matt Dillon is beautifully put together.

I sort of dreaded the prospect of watching this. I projected grainy black and white with a lot of stoned out crap happening.

Well, it is in luscious color with great photography; some real cinematic easter eggs are in the basket. The performances are realistic. Yes, they are stoners but they are also fully formed personalities. They are a family.

It is shocking to see William S.Burroughs as the 'end of the road' embodiment of addiction; his skeletal appearance and death rattle voice. It has a framing quality to the whole proceedings which underlines and brings a form of reality that works.

What else?

I have always enjoyed watching Matt Dillon. His performance in this film is extraordinary. It isn't easy being pretty and you would think that, somehow, Dillon is too good looking to be a dope fiend. But he uses this. There is pathos and grief in this wasted life. He brings it up front and center.

This is Van Sant's fourth, and first big, picture. The subtext is his absolute crush on Dillon. The camera loves Matt but Gus loves him even more.

I have talked myself into giving this a 5 out of Netflix5 when I had intended a 4.

I gotta be careful, I am rating too many of these at the upper end. But, it is very good, indeed.

SURVIVOR BENEFITS

We have done this: And to My Dog, I Leave a $10,000 Trust Fund.

It is not funny, really. Read the article. 500,000 pets a year are 'widowed' and get euthanized because they have no place to go.

Some time ago, we asked a local friend to be the Trustee of Franklin and also tied some money for his care.

If we both got killed at the same time, there are family members who might want to have him and, while that is OK, they are 3500 miles away.

We figured that having one sure place and way for him to land would be the default; if other options opened up, the situation would be better and richer for securing him a good life without us.

Franklin is a trust fund baby!

READ

I finished the Elmore Leonard and am now in the first half of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon.

I am liking it a lot. Some laugh out loud moments and some bitter-sweet ruminations roll out of the mind of this autistic boy.

I had heard about this a while ago, then Randy loaned it to John. It has now fallen to me.

I don't read a lot of the 'latest' fiction because it has gotten so fucking post-modern I cannot stand it.

This is an exception. I have some other books coming that I have high hopes for.

Out of all the book reviews I read each week in the NY Times Books, (which we still get mailed to the house in hard copy) I probably buy five or six a year; now.

It used to be 15-20 or more.

Not a good trend.

COMING UP EMPTY

This vacuous piece of snide bullshit is typical of the east coast snob mentality.

They have obviously co-opted some local air head to write a traitorous piece of LA-bash. Perhaps he is a resentful refugee from Manhattan. Whatever. He is not worth our time.

Whoever or whatever he is, he misses one of the major elements of the story. For the first time, over 25% of the voters were latin. This is a big deal. There is no question Hahn was a yawn but the importance of this new electoral paradigm cannot be underestimated.

Oh, and that funny name you cannot pronounce or spell, you dumb fuck, is Antonio Villagarosa. Not that hard to spell. I made it on the first try and I don't even live in LA.

OBSESSION

Today's Best Movie is Ridley Scott's first feature.

Everything I read about it starts with that phrase about Scott.

I think it has something to do with the fact that the writer is a bit embarrassed about liking the movie and has to justify the liking. So, if it is historical, then it is OK.

Of course, at the time, no one knew who the fuck Ridley Scott was or that he would go on to make some good films (Blade Runner and Alien). So the question remains.

It is like the sound of a tree falling in the forest. If Ridley Scott was there did we hear it?

The answer is that I heard it. There was a noise.

OK. Done with that part. The film in question is The Duellists (1977) with Keith Carradine (sigh) and Harvey Keitel.

For once Keitel is not shown naked. A first as far as I am aware. Harvey manages to show his ass or more in every film I have seen him in 'til now.

Next, was the film any good?

I liked it a lot. It has a lot of tension and a nice flip you on your head ending. It is based on a short story by Joseph Conrad so it has a good pedigree. But, we know that many films start out with good bones and then end up all a-clutter.

First and foremost, this is an achingly beautiful picture along the lines of Barry Lyndon and others of its ilk. Almost every scene is a breathtaker. The film takes place over sixteen years during the time of Napoleon's ascendancy and so there is history. There is also some great dueling and some inconsequential side stuff. Mostly it is about codes of honor and reality. Obsession versus leading a good and productive life.

People get all hung up, as in the linked review, about American accents in films like this. There are almost all Brits except the two male leads. I gotta say that while they may talk flat they sure talk clear. I had to strain to get almost all the Anglo bits. Sorry. It had English subtitles as an option and I am sorry I didn't activate them.

The duels are staggering. A host of weapons are used. Yes, there are many duels. You didn't have to get killed to lose or kill someone to win. Disabling, crippling, all worked. Dismemberment. Just like an insurance policy. Scaring the other off wasn't bad either.

I am giving this one a 4 out of Netflix5. I am a sucker for pretty pictures and this one has them in abundance. Keith isn't such a bad picture either.

CALCULATED MOVE

Today in Strangelove, when asked to predict how long the leaders of the free world would have to stay underground, the good Doctor pulled out a circular device and attempted to manipulate it. His mechanical hand got in the way, but he did twirl the concentric discs a bit and announce that it would take about a hundred years for the toxic cloud to dissipate.

The same people who do not remember who Keenan Wynn is will probably not know what the device is either. It is a circular slide rule; a regular linear slide rule simply joined end to front. It had concentric slidable pieces and a transparent 'line' to help get accurate readings.

This is pre-computer calculator and you could do quite a bit with it. We all had to have one at MIT. The slide rule salesmen would line up along the walkways during frosh orientation. We also had a lot of people selling desk lights and so on. It was a gauntlet; an open air bazaar for the innocent and naive. I think that is where I bought my rule and my desk lamp!

Anyone can multiply or divide but to do logarithms and find sine and cosine functions and all that shit you would need a slide rule. And even multiplying and dividing or exponentials became instantaneous or nearly so.

As I recall, those who had circular rules were considered just a bit more geekish than those of us who had the regular ones. Besides, the longitudinals could be made with a lot more complex rules.

Mine was simple aluminum which was considered near slumming but I did not care. It was different. I had a lot of investment in being different even then.

The slide rule was like the computer in that garbage in yielded garbage out. In a panic, during a quiz or exam, slippery sweaty fingers and distorted vision would yield different answers when I checked my work and still another when I checked the check. I guess that is why I got aluminum. No water damage to the wood.

God, what an awful time. Well not really. I was having a lot of fun in the big city as well as doing the extracurricular. No slide rules needed for that.

SPIRIT

And of course, no matter what shit may be coming down, the guys on the front are able to make the most out of the least. These are Brits. We don't even see this kind of thing. The human side of the war. Bring 'em home.

SMILE

And while you have your copy of OUR Times open, take a look at this great story about a tribute to the Beach Boys. They are regarded as demi-gods here and as the American Beatles which I guess they are in many ways.

Here is also some more story line if you are interested. It is bit more behind the scenes and covers the removal of David Marks and insertion of Al Jardine into the group. Marks got his royalties though. Happy ending. The photo shows the original Boys, not the second edition.

PHOTO FINISH

In this war, the censorship has been notable--no coffins, wounded brought home at night, and so on.

I believe that the war resistance of the Viet Nam period was largely because of the graphic coverage. Apparently our government agrees with me as they are not showing anything inflammatory now. Shits that they are.

Today, our own LA Times covers this story about the stories with some graphic evidence of their own. Watch the power of the media dying in these numbers.

In the same issue, another story about a new news organization shows that what the big multi-corporate 'news' organizations are afraid or unwilling to do is now taken up by a new news organization: Keeping an Eye on the World's Tragedies.

PRO ANTI

So, two days in a row. Two anti-war films. Both with Keenan Wynn in them. What gives?

If you do not remember Keenan Wynn, to bad for you. He was Ed Wynn's son.

Even worse if you do not remember 'the Perfect Fool', the dad. He did some 'serious' parts in later films but he shouldn't have.

Keenan was a hell raiser and friend of the stars and directors and for a number of years he had at least a character walk-on in many pictures. I loved him as a kid. He was always a wise-cracking rebel or a pastiche of the know-it-all-know-nothing guy.

They have him down for 175 film and 111 television credits. He was a phenom.

Oh. What was the film?

It was Dr. Strangelove: or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).

Long title, short film for Stanley Kubrick who made it. It is amazingly fresh and alive today.

Not the least because many of the issues addressed in the film are still apparent if not rampant.

Peter Sellers does trifecta in this one but I still like the George C. Scott and Sterling Hayden as well. Hell, I liked all of it. And, of course it has Keenan Wynn. He had six films out that year! Imagine.

Also a tip of the hat to Slim Pickens who is another 'frequent flier' in films at that time.

What can I say? This film is a classic.

It still nets a 5 out of Netflix5.

BIBLE BYRNEING

I am mildly hooked on David Byrne's Journal. He will not call it a blog.

Good for him. Some of us are stuck with it if we use the sites that tell us what we are.

The thing that got me today was his New Sins a combination art object and art happening.

It is pretty interesting. Click on the thumbnails to see some individual pages.

I love that he has managed to put them in hotel rooms along with the gideon bibles! And the multiple translations, important words in red and all. Jeeeeeeez! Well, exactly.

He explains how the New Sins came to be in Why I Had To Make This Book.

If you don't want to read it all, then go to the last lines and get the idea of the book's first success.

You can even buy one if you go to Amazon. They have three for sale at wildly variant prices. I skipped it since you can get most of the idea on line.

ONCE AND AGAIN

Harper Lee wrote one of the best stories of the 20th Century and, having done so, wrote no more.

That one story became a film; To Kill A Mocking Bird.

Here is another great story from today's LA Times.

This one tells us about Harper Lee and her coming to LA for an award.

There are some wonderful touches in this, not the least because of all the people who came together to make this honor possible.

We got woozy over the guy who gave her the award.

We have read the book and seen the film a few times. We will see it again, later, as one of the 1176 Best. It is hard to forget.

OBI WAN CANOLI

This is the longest commercial you will ever see.

It is great though.

And probably better (at least it is shorter) than the epic it mocks:

Grocery Store Wars.

SULLIED

Andrew Sullivan is doing the old in and out.

He quit his blogging and turned a lot of it over to others.

I didn't like the others.

Then he took the others off and, except for a few items a week, he took off himself.

Now he is back at about half the volume he was before.

As before, I agree with about half of his stuff.

Half of half is a quarter or something like that.

Anyway, he is back on my links-list at the right.

Doing the old in and out and in again.

Today he has a good example of the kind of writing that I enjoy reading. It makes me think.

THE SPIN ON TORTURE: It has gone chronologically something like this: "It's not true. It's not true. It may be true but it's not torture. Okay, it's torture, but isn't official policy. It may be true and official policy, but we changed the policy and we uncovered the abuses ourselves. It may be true, it may have been widespread, but we've punished the culprits. It may be true, it may have been widespread, it may still be happening, but all these reports are old news." Well, give these guys points for effort. How about: it is true; it should never have happened; the people responsible for the policy as well as the criminals should be punished. Ah, but that would mean taking responsibility, wouldn't it? And we don't do that in this administration, do we? Even at the expense of hurting the war effort and staining the reputation of countless great soldiers in a noble cause.

WAR

We went back to the 'A' file for todays NY Times Best 1176 Film, the just released disc of The Americanization of Emily (1964) with James Garner, Julie Andrews, Melvyn Douglas and James Coburn.

It is an anti-war or, as John pointed out, an anti-brass picture written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Arthur Hiller.

We enjoyed watching it. It is funny and wry and, at times, scathing.

One of the best parts is Johnny Mandel's music as background with the theme song Emily, now a jazz standard.

We also get to see James Garner in his underwear. He was one handsome dude.

It is interesting to note that, while their dialogue is very sexy, Garner and Andrews never, ever are seen with anything less than a full set of clothes on. The underwear scene occurs in a different context.

On the other hand, Coburn is often shown abed with various women, all unclothed; a running joke.

I think we are still working out of Andrew's ingenue period as well as the 'no sex, we're British thing'. I remember what a sensation it was when she bared her breasts late in her career.

An embarrassment for all of us, actually. She had waited so long that she had reached that age; when we are no longer curious nor do we really want to see anything. Put your blouse back on dear. Was it in Victor Victoria?

But, I digress. the film is worth seeing and enjoyable and I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

IN THE MOOD

I have said before that we do not think much about earthquakes. They happen all the time; if not daily, weekly. They are just not notable.

When there is a big-ger one (not the BIG one) we may or may not notice. We frequently miss them.

This does not mean we are complacent. Every day I read the report of earthquakes that have already happened. Just to see if I missed anything.

Now, we have the chance to look ahead. There is a website that predicts the shakers.

It has just gone on line so I have no report about its prescience or fallibility. Actually, it has stayed the same color, very subtle, for several days now.

It is like looking at a mood ring. Ahhhhhh. Come on. Don't tell me you never heard of the mood ring? It was all the rage in my moodier years.

Anyway, if you want to see if we are on high alert, make it a bookmark.

Which brings to mind. How come there aren't anymore orange and other color alerts since the election? Huh? HUH?

LIBERAL SQUEAKER

Well the liberals are winning somewhere (barely):
A Tie Breaking Vote Saves Liberal Leader in Canada.

Our friend Kelvin will be happy.

We are happy because this is the guy who is pushing country wide gay marriage. He is faltering because of corruption scandals.

But he has a little while longer now to try and seal the deal.

I am sure there a lot of other reasons we should like this; other issues. But, we are without a clue to what they might be other than the fact that we like liberals. Unless they really aren't; like Mr. Blair no the other side there.

TURNED ON

Kathleen Turner gets due attention and a special appreciation in the NYT today for her work as Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf: How the Diva of Diva's Did It.

We have enjoyed Turner for a very long time. The last time we saw her was in the revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof where she prowled the stage as Maggie the cat.

Delicious.

First saw her in Body Heat. Hot. And then, quickly into another whole extravagantly funny world with Steve Martin in The Man with Two Brains.

Two shots, one right after another. Terrific.

She has been ill. Rheumatoid arthritis. I read that she allowed rumors that she was a drunk (the symptoms) to persist because, in Hollywood, you can get work if you are a drinker. They are used to that. But it is impossible to get production insurance if you have a chronic illness.

A trouper.

WAL-EYED

As a devout Netflix user, I am disturbed that that awful Blockbusters and Wal-Mart have been playing chicken on prices, disrupting a fine growth of a fine company.

Sure, I believe in healthy competition but I also get to vote on whether the competition is worthy or not.

Blockbuster censors films, directy or indirectly, through their inventory policies and by banning 'explicit' covers. They do not carry any gay films or anything close to what they consider pornography. Their definition is wide and deep.

Wal-Mart on the other hand is just Wal-Mart. A despicably capitalist user of resources, a waster of the landscape and local business, and an exploiter of third world labor. I will stop with those modest charges. I could go on.

So nice to see that they have thrown in the towel to Netflix for on-line movie rentals. I could not be more pleased.

Sure, Reed Hastings is a capitalist too. But a nice one. He imagined the concept and brought it into being. An entrepreneurial hero. Here he is gloating. Good to go Reed.

CANNES DO

Jarmusch has a new movie and it has opened at the Cannes Festival.

Here is a neat little review and profile on it (NYT): At Home at Cannes, a Master of Minimal.

Bill Murray and Sharon Stone. My God!

UNDERCUT

Turns out that the guy whose math the bushies are using for the indexing of Social Security has blasted bush for misusing his work:
Pozen Blasts Bush Privatization Plans.

That has to smart.

DONE

Home by 12 noon today.

I sat and watched the jury get formed from the first random 24 people they called up.

No one asked me what I thought about anything.

It was interesting to some extent; certainly better than sitting for hours waiting for 'the call from the courtroom'.

They sort of smush the one-day, one-trial service thing around. If you are called later in the day, once the pool is formed, you do have to go back a second day to continue the selection process. I suppose that is a trial, not a day. It is OK.

I am done for a year or more. They are enforcing the jury summons more and so the larger pool is growing. They actually go and arrest people. They get community service or a fine.

Sometimes you have to bludgeon us to do public service.

Interesting sidebar. They basically removed anyone with any attitudes about drugs, pro or con, off the panel. There were some relatives of addicts and some who had their own history. All were challenged on the preemptory. I would not have sat had I been called, as I would have been frank about my own history and my ambivalence about criminalization.

So they ended up with a bunch of people who don't know much about the subject at all. I suppose that makes them objective? That was a question mark.

I am not supposed to talk about the trial. Is this talking? Another question.

ATTACK

The Brits know how to go on the attack. Here is the transcript of what Galloway had to say to the congress yesterday. He called the chairman a lickspittle of bushie. Imagine.

Transcript: George Galloway's speech before Senator Coleman's committee

ALMOST OUT

I have to go back and watch a jury be installed. I surely will not be on the panel.

The charge is about possession of a drug and paraphernalia. Not use.

I have reservations about criminalization. I also know that a sentence will be punishment and not treatment.

We will see. I hope to be home at noon. They seem to have plenty of people ready to climb on board the criminalization train.

NABBED

I spoke too soon. I got nabbed for jury duty tomorrow morning at 8AM.

Actually, they call it 'jury service' now.

Whatever you call it, there goes my day.

I remain calm, cool, and collected.

JOY

The world is enfolded in a peachy glow of orange tinged with scarlet.

I have been waved off my first day of jury duty (Monday) "until later in the week. Call after 530 Monday to get further instructions."

I must say that I have been more relaxed on this occasion of summoning. I think that I have been through this so many times that I got bored with my own tantrums and anxiety ridden angst over the prospect of involuntary 'service'.

Whatever the cause, I am happy to be approaching this one day at a time the way that I am supposed to.

More will be revealed tomorrow evening; "after 530".

FRISTRATION

I love this story about that smarm-shit Frist just buyin' a few shoes:

US Senator Got More Than He Bargained For.

And a parking ticket too.

THE BEST OF THE BEST

Today's Best NYTimes 1176 Film happens to be my all time favorite film
Diva (1981).

I have to watch it at least once a year or my life is incomplete.

I don't know what draws me to this film. Certainly the visuals. Then, the music. And the action. And the leading man. All of it. The story is intricate enough to be interesting but doesn't get lost in its own muddle.

You have to see this. It is the best. I said so.

A 5 out of Netflix 5.

AC

Our first day with the AC on. We gave in to it about 3 PM. Outside is 101.

I took to the pool, but sooner or later we have to cool the house down. We will reopen the doors at bedtime.

We will operate this half and half way from now until maybe October. Well more like 75/25. Unless it is humid, the dread monsoon. Then we are 24/7.

Now that we have Franklin, we rationalize the power use by saying that HE needs the cool. We didn't ask him, but we know that he does because we do.

GETTING CEREUS

Every May we get re-amazed by the night blooming cereus cactus plants that we have around the yard.

There are a few species of cereus night bloomers also known as 'queen of the night'. Ours is Cereus hildmannianus (syn: C. peruvianus). I looked it up. Chew on that one for awhile.

This year, the focus is out front on the newer cacti. They are going crazy with blooms.

Out back, the big mother of them all is having its second down year; not a lot of blossoms. So far.

It is an amazing process. The blooms open around midnight and last until about 10AM; then drop right off and turn black. Until then, they are alive with hornets and the huge black bumble bees that we have out here. No yellow striped bumbles like back east.

NOSTALGIA

I have been hit with a wave of the 'remember whens'. I am not normally prone to this kind of thing.

As a rule, I don't look back.

But, someone wanted to see what we looked like when we were first dating; thirty years ago!

So, I went and dug out a lot of pictures. We have four boxes of the 'antique' type film pictures. Remember them? I went and got them out.

Two boxes are architectural. Two are personal. There are a lot of photos. Many of the touch off a lot of memories of people who are and are not in our lives; of events that I remember but not at the top of my mind; of places that we had been. One of the boxes is all trips. We sure got around to a lot of places. Nice.

It doesn't exactly make me feel old to look through them nor do I get particularly sad about people, places, and things that have passed under the boat. I just get a little weezy about the memories and all.

Aging is sort of a shock, looking back. It is a mixed message. In some ways I have gotten better and then in others, well.

Early on, I had very little muscle mass. I was a reed. Then as I started to pack it on and worked out, you can see the biceps and all blooming. On the other hand, I didn't have the small pot down there in front that I do now.

I look at John and see him go through the same changes and it is very hard not to compare us then with us now. If I did, we would come out pretty good in the comparison.

Of course, no one can project what he or she is going to look like ahead of time. I never bothered. I don't think that I am going to bother a lot with how I looked behind me either.

The memories are there and nice to revive and then to put away for another time. Life is for the living now.

BAD DAY

There used to be an expression; Bad Day At Black Rock. The CBS building in Manhattan was known as 'black rock' for awhile during its turbulent years. Today we saw where it came from; one of the NYTimes 1176 Best Films. I saw it in 1954, the year I graduated from high school.

Spencer Tracy stars in this morality play with a lot of the heavy hitting supporters of the time: Robert Ryan, Walter Brennan, Dean Jagger, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine,

It is a tight, fast 82 minutes of tension in an excruciatingly small desert town. It all takes place in just one day.

It's a morality play and one of the first films to show the racism against Japanese Americans in the Second World War. There is Tracy, the unwilling avenger. The town villains who perped it. The town citizens who stood by and let it happen. They all get to work it out, or not, in this tight 24 period.

I have remembered this film over the years more graphically than many other films I have seen; the town, the desert. Funny thing is that Tracy, who has one arm in the film, was remembered as having a prosthetic hand in a leather glove. No arm, no hand. My mind's eye had a different vision than the film I guess.

It is pretty good. It was shot in Cinemascope, so the opening shots with a train and André Previn's symphonic over the top music seem silly in the flat DVD version. There is a lot of good handling of people moving around and the street is picture perfect. Very good work by John Stergis.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5. I may be shading it a bit high for nostalgic reasons. But what the hell.

HERO VOINOVICH

Nice job by the Left Coaster (great name) explaining the Bolton non-endorsement. Nice work.

"The United States can do better than John Bolton"
--Ohio GOP Senator George Voinovich, today

Yes, the GOP majority on the Foreign Relations Committee still voted by a 10-8 margin to send John Bolton's name to the full Senate. But due to the slapdown Bolton got today from GOP Senator George Voinovich of Ohio, Dick Lugar was forced to send the nomination to the floor without a recommendation for approval, rather than risk a 9-9 vote which would have killed the nomination altogether (props to Matt and not stupid for picking up on this). And now it will get interesting, because there will be more damaging stuff coming out about Bolton between now and the eventual floor vote. Some of the various wire stories indicate that Voinovich already knows that other GOP senators will not vote for Bolton once it gets to the floor, so it seems that Lugar and Voinovich are offering Bush a face-saving exit here, one which he will not take.

ELMORE

There is a new book!

The Hot Kid.

Something different. 1920's in Oklahoma. I think the 'hot kid' is a new US Marshall.

It is a little bit Bonnie and Clyde so far but with the spin that only Leonard could put on it.

Elmore is near 80 already. He has made a turn here to a period piece. He has done one on the Spanish American war. This is just after.

He used to write westerns so it is also a bow to his past.

I met him once at a book signing. In Chicago. He looks just like this. We have something in common and talked about it some.

There was a line but he didn't mind and neither did I.

I was just halfway into the book he was signing for so he put his thoughts right there in the middle. A nice keepsake.