esrosedotblog

CODEPENDENT

It is not likely that the NYTimes is going to choose an Albert Brooks movie as one of the Best 1000 or 10,000. But we can enjoy Brooks just the same in a quiet way.

Modern Romance (1981) is a 'new' take (it is the 80's) on formula romance.

Brooks does his usual self absorbed neurotic around a 'relationship'. He is so needy that he all but melts the screen.

And the girl friend is not much better. She eventually just succumbs to his continual emotional blackmail to quiet him down.

I know. It doesn't sound like particularly attractive fare. Woody Allen has probably done it better.

But Brooks has some set pieces which are just hilarious. A scene in a sporting goods store; self improvement. A date with another woman which ends up as a no talk ride in the car circling back to the girl's house. Brooks tells her he just isn't ready after the breakup (which was yesterday) and so on.

There are a lot of these distractions while the simple plot bores through the mountain of the girlfriend's resistance.

You either like Brooks or not.

I like him in a kind of forbearance way.

I got this film because it was touted in the DVD section of the NYTimes. At least that is some recommendation. Would I get it again? No.

It is a 3 out of Netflix5.

There are better Brook's films.

TALENTED KID

Ava and YearlyKos

Watch both films.

Yearly Kos is a live convention held in Las Vegas in honor of the web site Daily Kos.

There will be an avalanche of progressive and near progressive speakers and panelists.

NEAR SPINSTERHOOD

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was in Japanese from the director Yasujiro Ozu

Banshun / Late Spring (1949)

A late twenties daughter stays with her widower father and cares for him.

She is getting 'old' in the marriagability sense. An old auntie interferes and arranges a marriage.

The father supports the aunt by pretending that he is getting married too. The daughter marries. It is perfectly apparent that no one but the aunt is happy about this outcome. We never even see the the husband.

We do not see a lot of things on the surface. In the opening and at the end we are shown the sea; the waves rolling in. A lot is happening under the surface there as well.

And so on.

The film is very gentle and very sad. It inches along. The inexorable slide toward arranged marriage and missed opportunities for the girl and her father is only painful in retrospect. At times, as an observer, I am colluding mentally with the aunt. I am thinking that this young woman is way too dependent on her Dad and he on her. But so what?

A good question.

I had a little trouble nodding along with the inching. There is a long Noh sequence that is hard to take. The cultural stuff is a bit thick for a westerner to take.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

This film was made only 4 years after the Second World War. There is some reference to the 'hard times' of the War but, amazingly, there is little indication of it anywhere in the film.

It just shows how quickly terrible wounds are healed and people move on.

MARK III

Sydney Wins Bingham Cup: Mark's Mom on Hand as Rugby Event Draws 800 Players

NYMPHET

Today's NYTimes Best Film was

Lolita (1962),

Stanley Kubrick's X-rated version of the Nabokov novel.

It is pretty dull. Black and white. James Mason fulminates. Peter Sellers does dialects. Shelley Winters does slatternly sex-starved suburbanite. A sad stereotype that she fell into after her blonde bombshell period. Too bad because she was a really good actress; studied with Lee Strasburg and all. See her in The Balcony.

In 1962, this was really shocking stuff. We are told that the remake in the nineties still could not get US distribution.

I believe it.

What a bunch of blue noses we are.

But, for someone who has even a bit of sexual sophistication and a liberal attitude, the film is a yawn. I felt 'sleepy' for most of it and watched my watch.

The fact is that they kept the wraps on this pretty tight. There are no sex scenes. Only the suggestion of it. There is little nudity; mostly James Mason in a bath and bathrobe but he is not close to his enamorata. The women are as chaste looking as you can be.

If you are a foot-man (or woman) you will like the two toe-nail polishing scenes. If you are not you will not.

Sue Lyon is way too old for this film. Lolita was 'pre-pubescent'; Lyon an older looking 16.

She is also more 'knowing' or (John says) predatory than Lolita should be.

Yes. I broke one of my rules. You know: I don't see anything that I have read or read anything that I have seen; no sequels, no remakes. And I did read/skim Lolita. Years ago. I didn't like the book much either. It made me squirm. I don't have a blue nose but I am a father.

Let's use the word; pedophilia.

We would have to wait for the 2000's for a film that really addressed that visually as well as thematically; The Woodman and others.

I more found it slimy than provocative.

As for the film, it is more about an obsession with a teenage girl. The funny thing is that the most worrisome aspect of a March-November relationship is that there is absolutely nothing to talk about 'after'. And this film proves the point.

I will give it a 2 out of Netflix5. It dodged the bullet and Kubrick made a tedious film despite the best efforts of his cast.

FOUR SCORE

OK. What to say about Memorial Day?

I don't celebrate it, actually. This is not particular to the day. I only really celebrate vaguely on Independence Day and my birthday.

Oh. Isn't my birthday a holiday? Well, it is for me. And it is a good holiday. The mail is delivered regardless. Unless, of course, it is falls on a Sunday.

In those years, I do an 'as-observed' thing on the next day, Monday. That way, I can say that one of my key holidays always has mail delivery.

But, I digress.

What about Memorial Day?

When I was a kid (OK, I see ten people leaving the room, come on back, it won't be that long a deal). Start over. When I was a kid, we had a parade to a local graveyard and did stuff over the graves of veterans.

This was a little difficult and repetitive because in all of WWII, our town only had two soldiers killed in action. They were in different grave yards so we would alternate year to year.

There was my second-cousin Jimmy who died while in the service but not in action. He was shot, though. But, it was self inflicted. He leaned over the wrong end of his shotgun on a rabbit hunt and it slid and hit a crag in the rock and went off.

Jimmy was a great guy. The kids all loved him. A born hell-raiser and troublemaker. He went into the Navy to 'get straightened out'.

I remember that somehow during his service to our country he had gone AWOL and joined a carnival. He learned how to be a fire eater. I remember the Christmas he demonstrated for all the family to see. There was the usual mix of familial response; tsk-tsking and moral outrage from the church contingent and wild admiration and envy from the red-neck wannabe bad boys in the crowd.

Home on leave after the brig and all. Maybe he had been discharged. Dishonorably. But then he wouldn't have been killed in uniform. I guess it is a fuzzy memory.

Where was I?

Memorial Day.

We would march; a parade to the cemetery. Led by the guys in the American Legion and the VFW. Mostly Legion. My Dad was a Legionaire and I think a Commander of the local Post for awhile.

Then the school band.

Not much else.

Maybe baton twirlers.

It fits the occasion.

Then to the cemetery.

There, ceremonies. The firing of arms. Taps. And, every year a recitation of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

One year, I was the designated reciter. Eighth grade I think. I am not sure.

I tried it out this morning on the bike. I can still get most of it out.

It is a stirring bit of oratory.

It plainly describes the ambiguity that civilized people feel about the necessity of war.

There are no easy answers in it.

It focuses on the lost and gone soldiers who fought.

And I guess that is where the day ought to be focused. On the great losses perpetrated by causes which are or are not just.

In a day when we are not permitted to see the dead and dying and wounded it is important not only to remember, but to see. To demand that they be visible so that we can count the awful cost.

A brutal accounting for those who may frivolously throw those lives away in some inept or misguided impulse for war. Most who never saw battle themselves.

It is a serious and tragic business memorializing the dead. It requires meditation to find the answers to the eternal puzzle of why men fight and die.

I don't have those answers worked out yet. I am still working on it.

BORDERLINE LIFE

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was John Sayle's

Lone Star (1996)

This richly textured, generous film is about life at the border between Mexico and Texas and shows the interconnection and conflict in that ethnic/cultural stew; anglos, chicanos, mexicans (not the same thing), indians, blacks.

In that respect, it is as current as today's headlines. The same stew is cooking and, sometimes, boiling over today.

It has a great story as its through-line. And at least 5 other stories hang on it. It is a subtle piece of work. You gotta watch and think at the same time. Nice to have a film that demands that.

There is some great acting here. There are wonderful cinematic devices. Since it is a film of flashbacks, the simple slide of a camera takes us to the next scene in the same place with the same people in a different time. Very skillful.

Chris Cooper is the lead and he is aided and abetted by a talented cast.

There is so much to recommend about this film.

Just see it. And if you have seen it, see it again.

It is a 5 out of Netflix5.

WED

We made it through the wedding OK.

Let me put it nicely. It was a rich cross cultural experience.

Typical Southern California. Every ethnic and cultural mini-slice was there.

Very nice.

There was the self-designed ceremony full of howlers and the very nice simple marriage vows still hidden down deep in the ritual. Nice.

It was cold. Yes. And windy!

We stayed about an hour and left together. Before the cake.

Franklin was glad to see us and we to see him. Home.

So, why don't people just elope? I still don't know.

GOOD NEWS

Those of us who worry about the loss of what is so stupidly called 'classical' music should be heartened:

Check the Numbers: Rumors of Classical Music's Demise Are Dead Wrong

Why should it not be called classical music? Well, because right there you have the source of the demise, if any. I shudder at the thought of 'classical' anything. Classic Coke.

The best music is live music; music that lives and breathes. I don't mind pop being called pop and jazz being called jazz but music, real music, is complicated and multi-layered and requires, or even challenges, the virtuoso performer.

By that definition some pop and jazz would be redefined as classical but most would not.

This is a mere quibble however.

We know where the good music is. It is on the stages and the internet. And it is growing in this idiotic world of sludgy, ear numbing, faux music we think most people are listening to through those silly iPods. Most are listening to Bach.

I DO

We are going to a wedding this evening.

I almost got out of it.

But, every once in awhile, it is important to say even a grudging yes to an unwanted social opportunity.

I am not against weddings although it would be fine with me if everyone just got a JP and ran off on the honeymoon. Telephone the news.

I just don't like standing around waiting for something to happen that doesn't involve me in any way.

Is that self centered? I suppose so.

But, you have to admit that there isn't much in it for the spectators unless they are maybe, just maybe and hardly that, close family or friends.

You know, if you have been trying to get your kid to move out of the house and this is the only way to do it? Or you are so tired of your best friends pre-op whining about the boyfriend?

Not that the whining would stop, actually, but the married state does seem to stabilize relationship drama somewhat. It settles into stereotype and cliché.

We will go and I will want to leave almost as soon as we get there. The vows are first on this one so maybe I will wait until those are over.

We are eating before. I gained that point anyway. Doing something like this is hard enough but on an empty stomach? No way. And, I am sorry, canapés are not food.

I know that my partner wants to stay for the cake. Shit. I will buy him all the cake he can eat just to get out as early as possible.

But, there will be some people we know there. In fact, there is a deal with another couple. One of those is an introvert too.

The deal is that we will leave early and the other cake eaters can stay and have at their extrovert fun. Then, they can take each other home.

But, that is Plan B. I think that I can make it through the cake.

Another card up my sleeve. I have promised Franklin that his crate time will be limited to less than two hours. Can't break a deal with the dog!

I know that I am projecting needlessly but already there was a bad start. The tan pants that I was going to wear have moth holes at the knee, so it will be the basic black again.

At least it is 'desert casual' as everything here is. Soft clothes. No high collars. No ties. Loose shoes.

I sure had that tan outfit down in my head though. I ordered a new pair already from Lands End but they won't be here before 7 PM. No wool this time. Silk/cotton twill.

What else can I bitch about?

Not much.

I am more or less ordered to attend one social function a year. If I am lucky, some years get a pass.

It is a little like jury duty. Make your appearance and have all the 'reasons' for ineligibility ready to fire.

I know that a lot of other guys do a hell of a lot worse. They have to tow the social line weekly or even more often. The poor bastards.

Did I mention that this is a second marriage for both? Grown kids. Even more reason to elope.

Oh well. It is too late for that. The cake has been bought. Presents are on the table.

The curtain rises in 4.5 hours and I will be there 'for better or worse'.

I'M FLYING!!

I have been having flying dreams again.

No, don't get out the Freud.

It is pretty straight forward I think. Well, maybe not.

But, I did fly a lot for many years.

These dreams tend to be either 'get to the plane on time' dreams with variations on 'I don't have a ticket' to 'I don't know what the gate connection is' or 'I don't know where I am supposed to go, the office has the info'.

Or, they are merely flying. Getting on board and then flying; usually at a level just above, or even below, the trees. Sort of like a bus but off the ground.

I seem to spend a lot of dream-time with airplanes. But, they are not the only repetetive themes.

There are the occasional training dreams where I don't have the lecture notes or my slides. That is like the 'not ready for class' or 'never been to class and there is a test today' dreams.

I also have dreams about where I used to live. It turns out that there is still an apartment that I have at Hawthorne Place in Boston which no one else knows about. Hell, I hardly know about it.

I am not sure that I have the key and I have forgotten the combination to the mail box but I usually get inside. It is pretty nice for an abandoned apartment.

But mostly, it is flying.

What is best about the dreams is that there is no standing in line, the food on the plane is good, and the people are friendly. Just like the old days when flying was a bit like belonging to a club. Pre-de-regulation.

This is only a big deal because I usually do not remember dreams at all. They fade as soon as I wake. But the flying dreams, the training dreams, and the apartment dream are all old standards that replay over and over in a nice way. I know them from beginning to end. Familiar friends.

ASHES TO ASHES

When I was typing about my youth spent stoking coal fires I forgot the part about the ashes!

I had to shovel them out and take them 'out back'.

There was a hill behind the house and the ashes had been infilled from the actual hill slope for many years. That made a sort of extension of the hill on which little grew but, since there were pine trees nearby, the ashes were covered by pine needles. Camouflage.

The furnace ashes still had coal pieces in them and so we screened those before dumping. The unburned coal pieces that had fallen through the grate were put into the scuttle for the jack stove that heated the water.

I didn't have a very difficult childhood, but I don't like to let the Dickenesque parts slip by. Milk them.

Did I tell you that I had to walk to school?

TRIFECTA

We finished up the Fassbinder BRD* Trilogy today with

Veronika Voss (1982)

This one has us look at Nazi decadence after ten years of the BRD 'economic miracle'.

Voss was an actress favorite of Goebbels who hasn't had much of the miracle happen to her. With the end of the War, it has been all downhill. Now, she has a sizable morphine habit.

She is the victim of a Doctor who specializes in hooking rich people on the drug and taking their entire net worth in return.

This is all side by side with radio sounds with 50s music (all American, largely C&W) and news from the Adenauer government. More Fassbinder irony.

In the other two films, we saw one woman who had ridden the money wagon and emptied herself out (Braun). In the other, we saw an amoral woman who empties everyone else out (Lola).

Not a lot of enthusiasm here for the great economic recovery.

This one is black and white. It begins with Voss watching one of her pictures (featuring drug addiction) and a lot of this movie is filmed that way in the luxe style of the period. Some of the cinematography is stunning.

There are flashbacks that glitter with lights.

There is the grittiness of a newsroom where Voss' life is turned over and over as a news item or not. One reporter gets hooked on the woman and almost crosses over into fantasy land with her.

There are many of the Fassbinder stock company in the cast.

It is all very good and, unlike the other two, almost totally disturbing with virtually no humor of any kind.

Someone said it was like Mildred Pierce but it feels more like Sunset Boulevard.

And a feat of enormous accomplishment, despite the cold ironies throughout, there is not one second of 'camp' here.

What else?

I liked it. My fellow watcher did not.

I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.

*Bundesrepublik Deutchsland

POP GOES THE WEASEL(S)

Lay and Skilling's day of reckoning: Enron ex-CEO and founder convicted on fraud and conspiracy charges; sentencing slated for September.

MSiPod

I know everyone has seen this but me.

The Microsoft iPod

But maybe one of you has not.

HOT AND COLD

Watching all that coal in the Best Film ignited a memory of my early childhood.

We had a coal/wood furnace for heat and a coal/wood 'jack' stove for hot water.

My Uncle Arch was the coal man. He would deliver it to the driveway and we (often I) would throw it through the window to the coal bin.

No. That was the wood. He sent the coal down a chute to the bin in the basement.

The pieces were pretty big and some had to be hammered down to size.

The 'jack' stove needed 'pea' coal so we would either make it with the hammer or buy it in a bag.

Pounding was cheaper.

I remember that you had to be careful of fire and asphyxiation.

The fires got banked at night and re-upped in the morning.

There were registers in the living/dining room for the hot air to rise into the house. I think that there might have been small ones in the bedroom too.

We used wood during the war (What war? The only war. WWII!)

I think it burned too fast but I was not an expert.

In that same house, where I lived until I was ten, there was an ice box in the early days. No refrigerator.

Uncle Arch was the ice man too. No funny stories there.

Before the refrigerator came, ice cream was brought in and eaten fast or we had the hand crank machine that used chopped ice and salt.

No frozen food of course.

Hey, at least we had running water and toilets; no outdoor shithouse like some of our relatives.

Coal and ice.

It was a bundled business. Both things. I don't know why.

Those were the days!

Did I mention that our milk was delivered too? Dave the milkman. Bottles. Cream on the top.

I walked to school.

Well, it was only a few hundred yards away.

I will quit now.

UNION MADE

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was

Harlan County USA (1976)

This is a documentary. It covers 6 years of struggle between the miners and the company in (what else) Harlan County KY.

It is a great film and keeps you on your toes just watching it. It never talks down.

There is actual violence; the shootin' kind. And a thumbnail history of the UMW from its glory days through its corruption days to the present day. Well, 1976.

The issues are as alive today as they were then. Mine accidents continue. Pay is still meager.

It is an awful job.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5 because I thought that it was a bit long although, perhaps, the quiet before the storm of violence was required for dramatic impact.

I also have problems sitting through documentaries. It is probably a great film.

HANNA

Today's Best Film was

Die Ehe der Maria Braun / The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)

This is the second in the BRD Trilogy (see Lola below) and certainly best of the two so far.

I saw it when it came out and still remembered a lot of it.

Maria, played by Hanna Schygulla, is a product of the West German 'economic miracle' as well. She hardens up and gets to work so that someday she can be reunited with her husband.

This is a very rich film. The men who help Maria with her plan are just great.

The shock of the immediate postwar period is tangible. The changes in prosperity evolve slowly in the visuals that accompany the story.

This is a best best film.

I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.

There is a great interview with Schygulla which helps understand some arcane points in the film. She is a wonderful actress and comes across as a person you would like to know well.

A new point emerges out of today's watching. The BRD Trilogy shows how German women were largely responsible for the rebuilding. The men who survived were beaten men. You see it in the films. The women carry it as they have through all the years of the War.

For the fun of it, here is a second review by Roger Ebert on the release of the DVD in 2005. It is rich in anecdote and has the perspective of 27 years.

WHAT NEXT?

Can you believe it?

Unfortunately I can.

US says personal data on millions of veterans stolen

26.5 million. That is sure a lot of identity theft.

WHICH WAY?

Today, I resumed my bike riding.

Whew! Was that nice.

I held off for a week because, at first, my shoulder hurt to much too do anything. Then, when it felt 'better' I was afraid of making a wrong move and aggravating it.

We are having a cool spell for a couple of days. In the 80s! And a nice breeze; a great day and a good ride.

I also saw my first Segway in a long time. A guy going to work? Down by all the new construction.

We used to have a guy in the neighborhood riding one but, once the novelty wears off, I think that it is a little embarrassing to be seen on one. He always had a kind of hangdog look. The other thing is that people want to ask a lot of stupid questions.

I got mine in.

And I notice that the riders I do see, including today's AM guy, all look a little doughboyish.

Even the guys at Disneyland who had them had that look. Pasty, puffy, no distinguishing features.

Well, it is geeky and there is no exercise to it. None.

BRD TRILOGY

Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a prolific director. He liked series.

If it ever comes out on DVD, we will see his teevee series Berlin Alexanderplatz (1983)which is a NYTimes Best 1176 'film'.

Another shorter series, the BRD Trilogy (BRD=Bundesrepublik Deutchsland or West Germany) was made to depict people dealing with life at the cusp of change; the economic 'miracle' in that nation after WWII. All women.

The Best Film List includes only The Marriage of Eva Braun (1979); a controversial choice.

So, natch!

I got all three of them.

Today we saw

Lola (1982)

which is based in The Blue Angel.

It is great to watch and a little hard to swallow plotwise. The nightclub where Lola sings and tricks is an obvious but incomplete metaphor. At times, I thought it an actual fantasy kind of setup where all of society was sitting together in the whorehouse. A lot like Genet.

You cannot discuss a Fassbinder film without bringing in his other films and many other directors that he either copied or paid tribute to with his work.

It is a film-geeks paradise.

Me, I just want to watch them.

This was garishly, yet beautifully lit. It was funny a lot of the time. Never tragic, except in a funny way.

The most appealing guy is the most corrupt.

Lola herself is really well done including the near Dietrich singing.

It is a 4 out of Netflix5. I know that Braun is better than this one but I do not mind having seen it now.

LEARNERS PERMIT

Last week was the week of the fledgling.

The mocking-birds must have had a meeting and decided to push all the babies out of the nest.

I came home from a dog walk and there was a young bird trying to fly in the drive outside our house.

S/he was doing OK but it was hard to watch the misses and bumps that followed. They will light on anything to get the flying over with.

This one is some one else's mocking bird. Any port in a storm.

The next day another one (?) had gotten himself cornered with no place to hop around some very hot ceramic tile.

I gave him a boost toward the gate and out into nature by fanning a newspaper gently away from trouble and toward sanctuary outside the wall. He made his jump to the gate, then off to the honeysuckle bush and I let him go.

We are right in the middle of the action here. Mocking bird city.

WHALED IN

When I went through the book report below, I didn't mention that I am still sailing the seas looking for the great white whale along with Ishmael, QeeQueg and the rest of the crew.

Ahab still broods in his cabin most of the time.

Starbucks is never seen. He is down in the hold clipping coupons on the stock he got for letting those bastards use his name.

We are somewhere around Brazil and still looking for our first sighting.

SARUM

I have finished this 7000 year span book about the times and people of the Salisbury Plain in England.

Needless to say, the people are different at different times but there is a rough genealogy to show traits and ups and downs in long family histories.

So, it is a collection of very well written short stories with a common theme of locale and family.

I felt a slowing of my interest about the time we hit the War of the Roses; a little bit more about British history than I wanted to know but then it kicked up again and goes out as it came in, roaringly.

I went immediately to the first in a 24 book series by Bernard Cornwell; an adventure series. Sharpe's Tiger.

Sharpe is a resourceful private in the British Expeditionary Forces in India in 1799. Since we will have 24 books about his exploits, I assume, that his situation in the world will rise a bit from where he presently resides.

I already like him and feel like hissing the few villains who have appeared.

It is formulaic but a good formula. I have a feeling that I may already be sunk. If I get and like the second one, put a fork in me. I am done.

COLD SHOULDER

It has been a week since my flying leap into a local lawn.

My shoulder has much improved. While there is still some discomfort, it has quieted down a lot.

I am now doing exercises to loosen it up a bit; front and lateral raises mostly. Which hurt, but that is the point. Good hurt.

Other than that, I continue heat and occasionally alternate with ice as suggested by some up-to-the-minute therapist friends.

GOOD SOLDIER

Today's NYTimes Best Film was

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

This wonderful film looks past the cartoon of the blustery old ex-military type; the blowhard.

Our man here seems blimpish but, in fact, is a wonderful, good hearted man.

We see the whole span of his adult life.

The work is beautifully done by The Archers production company which actually was two men: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

We have seen their Black Narcissus and I Know Where I'm Going.

The film is their first work in Technicolor; three strip. It is beautifully restored by Criterion.

Ebert's review at the link pretty much tells the story.

It is a great film. It is long; almost 3 hours. You know how I feel about that!

And I was not ready for it to stop when it did.

In a clever device that works, our man falls in love three times and, in each case, Deborah Kerr is the woman in question.

I think that there is a lot more cutting edge but innovation in 1943 has been subsumed, by this time, into general practice so it is harder to see.

There is a best friend throughout the film as well. The bond between the two men is really quite wonderful to watch.

It has an 8.3 IMDb rating which is very high.

I will be giving it a 5 out of Netflix5.

ZAPPED

They are putting a lot of Frank Zappa on the 'net.

Here is

Alien Orifice (1981)

Thanks to the Crooks and Liars guy who is putting on a nightly 'concert' in his blog.

MR. POPULARITY

When I first saw this, I thought it was a piece from The Onion. It is not.

Americans don't like President Bush personally much anymore, either

BUSY BUSBY

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was

Footlight Parade (1933)

Directed by Lloyd Bacon and choreographed by Busby Berkely, the film stars James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler and a host of B players,

It is a 'smiler' throughout. Jokes and nice stuff keep happening. You are smiling the whole time.

The remastering is very good; crisp, clean. It is the first time that I have really seen what I think they saw in the theater with the Berkely routines.

The script is very knowing and funny and doesn't take itself too seriously but seriously enough for us to wonder whether Blondell will ever win Cagney and other stuff like that.

Meanwhile there are the production numbers which, because of plot, fall mostly one, two and three right at the end of the picture.

They are gargantuan and breathtaking.

I guess you can figure out that I liked it.

This is another film that I was 'worried' about having to endure for the list and actually enjoying immensely.

One of the reasons I am doing the list is to catch myself in my own cinematic snobbery.

A 5 out of Netflix5.

STUDENT MOVEMENT

I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time.

John McCain would go all right wing (not too far to walk) and talk at Falwell's graduation and then leap across the spectrum and make another speech at the graduation exercises for the New School.

Now, what would you expect to happen?

Read this report to find out what did:

McCain at New School: Honeymoon is over.

I am glad that students are waking up today.

I worked in Harvard Square in the late sixties and early seventies and it was a wonderful time.

The last protest I was at was when my son got his PhD at Harvard and that awful Colin (can I spell it colon?) Powell spoke.

It was just at the time of 'don't ask/don't tell'.

People stood and turned their backs. We did too. We're people!

And then we all walked out.

My son didn't take it personally. I think.

I love Bob Kerrey's comments. He is the founder and prez of the school.

CHOICES

Today'sNYTimes Best 1176 Film was

Lacombe, Lucien (1974)

That's last name, comma, first name.

How he intoduces himself when he does.

Louis Malle made this fulsome film about the initiation and evolution of a thug. Usually, coming of age stories are about nice things. But this takes place in the waning year of Nazi occupied France.

Our late-teen anti-hero tries to join the resistance. He is snubbed.

Almost accidentally, he is taken up by some Nazi cops who take him in as an enforcer type. His first job is................Well. It is a drama with some suspense.

Bad choices. Evil people. Ignorance. Lucien does not even know the details of sides in the War. It is only an opportunity to intimidate and kill people.

In all this, he is surrounded by beauty. Beauty of the land, beautiful people, a man who almost saves him from himself (a jew), a beautiful young woman, a loving mother.

Constant tension.

The film is fully restored by Criterion so on teevee it looks theatrical.

It was hard to watch. Anti-heroes always are. I guess because there are so many of them.

This film got an 8.0 on IMDb user ratings. That is high.

I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5. That is high too.

CULTURE WARS

Now, I am not a teevee watcher, so I could care less what 'they' put on the tube.

But it does catch my interest when the industry doesn't play suckup anymore to the christianist conpiracy to censor us into chastity.

Here is the opening of a Wall Street Journal piece today by Amy Schatz:

Of the seven dirty words not allowed on broadcast radio and television, "litigation" isn't one of them.

As lawmakers embark on an election-year push to clean up the airwaves, federal regulators' zero-tolerance policy against indecent programming is resulting in a backlash, with broadcasters showing a new willingness to take the fight to the courthouse. That could be problematic for the Federal Communications Commission, which has interpreted the law inconsistently over the years.

Last month, the networks and some 800 affiliates displayed unusual unity in challenging the FCC's March ruling that a number of TV episodes were indecent, mostly for graphic sexual content or the use of four-letter words during a live program. In announcing the lawsuit, the networks argued in a lawsuit that the FCC has overstepped its authority in proposing fines, which they say are inconsistent with two decades of previous decisions.

Love that first line there.

SENIOR

My Dad died 18 years ago today.

On that day, I became just a plain singular non-junior.

It took me a while to 'get it' of course.

I loved my Dad and I missed him terribly and while his death was not a surprise (ripe old age), the loss was felt no less.

In time, though, I began to realize that it was a pleasure to let go of the 'junior burden' of all those years.

Truly.

I'm not kidding.

When you are a kid and they call you 'junior' all the time, you get sensitive.

Especially when you are trying to put as much distance as you can between your dad and your self.

Now, I feel less inclined to wince if I would be addressed as 'junior'.

No one does it.

The last was my cousin Bernice who left us a few years ago. She never let it go: "Junior this" and "Junior that".

It is interesting though; this increased tolerance to being a junior.

Some time ago I began to see more of my Dad in myself than I had previously seen; a different kind of 'senior' moment.

I also began to remember stuff which had lain dormant for many years; nice things.

I remember that he was there for me when I needed him and stood back when I did not or thought I did not.

I remember that, when a particular crisis hit and I was in the wrong, he stood by me anyway and wouldn't let me get beaten up for something that was really none of my business. I had fallen into a mess and he saw me through getting myself out of it.

You know. Father stuff.

Mostly he gave me the gift of autonomy. Look it up.

I have been a Dad. Well, I still am.

It is a vastly misunderstood job for people who have never had the privilege.

When someone asks some stupid question about male parenting, I do not explain. I don't let them know that more than half of it is not saying what you think and not intervening directly.

It is the slow process of watching and being present and living your life so your kid, particularly the male one, will get that taking responsiblity for yourself, telling the truth and being open to change as well as other—even junior—opinions works in life as well as it does in fairy tales.

And where did I get that? From the old man.

Senior.

BY THE NUMBERS

More about the blue and the red and the maps by county:

Blue Nation

WELL ARMED

I am heating my shoulder as I type.

This morning I could not do front arm lifts up to my shoulder. Now I can make it well over that with a small weight.

Progress.

I can see the end of the tunnel.

LEWIS

I love Lewis Black.

Religious Test

Stay for the endoftape punchline.

HURTS

My shoulder is recovering.

Let me count the ways.

I can hold stuff in my left hand. Some of it I can lift.

It doesn't kill to put my hands up to put the braid on my pony tail; the most difficult of all household tasks.

But it hurts.

I drove to a Meeting today. Did you know that you use both hands to turn the wheel?

I am on all heating pad now. Full aspirin.

In the morning, I am out of aspirin and tight but I work it out (slowly) as much as I can.

I walked by myself this morning to get up to breath speed. More tomorrow. I will stay off the bike until Monday.

I can feel one ligament up there that is 'swollen' and irritated. There are more, of course, but I think that he is the main guy.

SSSSSTATS

Approval Rating for George W Bush as of 5/15/06 By States

Survey USA breaks it down for us.

He only has positive points in three states and one of those is sliding.

In CA, he still has 21% approval.

Probably all the old farts our county.

But wait until we register all the Mexican Americans.

STRAIGHT AS AN ARROW

Few may remember that The New York Times was later than any other major media outlet in covering gay news. Until 1987, they would not allow the term 'gay' to be used.

I took it personally.

I remember the seething resentment when we would learn what was not covered or, yet again, to hear that appeals for using the 'g' word went unheeded

Now, with Abe Rosenthal's death, the story behind this hurtful recalcitrance is told.

Larry Gross: Abe Rosenthal's Reign of Homophobia at The New York Times

No one could figure it out.

They did great harm.

Their failure to cover the AIDS epidemic in its early days did nothing to save lives or to inform a general populace about the disease.

Longer term there were no stories on gay rights; no support whatsoever.

This, in a city that is so disproportionately gay.

So, so long Abe.

You old bastard.

BLOW JOE

You might have picked up that I think Joe Lieberman is despicable no matter what his party affiliation.

As a Democrat he is beneath contempt.

So, I was truly pleased to see an old 'friend', my guy Lowell Weicker, give the raspberry to Joe and support to his primary opponent Ned Lamont.

Weicker is the often funny and always happy warrior who served Connecticut as Representative, Senator and Governor. Good times. He was a key member of the Watergate Committee.

Enough Of The War - And Enough Of Lieberman

Weicker was a Republican of the old school. Smart and center of the road. Creative.

That is why he is an Independent today.

OUT ON A LIMB

Today's WSJ?OTD is:

"How do you expect the Enron jury will rule?"

Well, I don't know about the jury but I am sure that they are both guilty as hell.

I even have an inside look at the snake Skilling from another, previous life. Not a surprise he would end up here.

You have to remember that I live in California where the 'rolling blackout' was invented based on their schemes.

No hard feelings.

We may have gotten rolled; our rates are still very high. But, we never got blacked out. They did it by area number and they got right up to ours and stopped.

I think the list still exists, so we may get our turn.

But that is not the point.

These are the new magnates. Robber Barons. I just finished reading about the old ones in 15th C England. Rule by force. Rape and pillage. And the prettiest virgins get to the Magnate first.

Anyway, I am letting personal antipathy get in the way of objectivity. We will soon know the real answer to this question.

But for now, we will have to go with the readers of the WSJ who voted with me: Both men are guilty—(73%); Both men are not guilty—(14%); Lay is guilty, but Skilling is not—207 votes (4%); Skilling is guilty, but Lay is not—(8%)

No matter how it goes, it doesn't look too good for the snake: 14+4=18 NOT and 73+8=81% is.

Lay is such a smoothy that he may skate. And, he has less to be charged with.

But, he did not do well on the stand. Petulant. Sarcastic. Little Caesar.

Like I said, we will see what we shall see.

TECHNICAL FOUL

Same-Sex Marriage Amendment Is Struck Down by Georgia Judge

VOTE OF CONFIDENCE

I'll take 95%.

Ford shareholders uphold LGBT rights

SPOILED ROTTEN

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was

Captain's Courageous (1937)

Victor Fleming's take on the Rudyard Kipling novel, transfered to fishing boats out of Gloucester.

A pain in the ass rich kid (Freddie Bartholomew) falls overboard and is taken onto a fishing boat. Father figures abound.

Spencer Tracy takes the kid under his wing. Many life lessons are learned.

I know it sounds a little sappy and, in a way, I was dreading this picture. But, it was wonderful!.

The fishing scenes are extremely realistic and the excitement of the boat life is contrasted subtly with the way of life in a private school where the snot comes from.

It is enormously pleasurable to see the kid respond and come into himself.

It is very subtle and beautifully done.

Melvyn Douglas, Lionel Barrymore, John Carradine, and the very young Mickey Rooney fill out a great cast.

The restoration is flawless. Only the MGM lion has some dust specks. Funny.

I will give this a 5 out of Netflix5.

They truly, really, do not make movies like this anymore.

I am wary of all kid-star movies but this Bartholomew kid really has it. Or had it. Read his story in the review. Sad.

This film was released the year that I was born!

WSJ?OTD

"Should National Guard troops be deployed to bolster security along the Mexican border?"

Keeeerisst NO.

Another panderous waste of money.

I am against it in any form. Fool's paradise.

Some poor migrant will get shot or something worse and then what?

Well, it would further energize the immigrant movement.

Besides, they way, these troops won't even be seen! Not even a scare factor in it.

Most will be enduring this duty as we all have endured during our two weeks of summer 'camp'.

Farce.

The other WSJ readers foolishly support this bit of window dressing on yet another bush non-leadership initiative based not on governing but on politics.

What a dim bastard. And dim bastards to even think that this is a good idea.

This kind of shit really riles me up.




Yes
3110 votes (62%) No
1888 votes (38%)

PRO ADVICE

The shoulder injury. See below.

I got through my first normal day with a sling and then gave it up on the advice of a pro.

Jerry is a licensed massage therapist (the therapeutic kind not the other) and told me that the more I could move the better I would be; as long as there was no sharp pain.

He merely touched the shoulder and 'felt' what was up.

He then suggested that after yesterday's ice, I start today with ice/hot combos throughout the day.

I already have less pain and more mobility.

It sort of hurts most of the time but I figure that is a small price to pay for being strong and limber when it heals.

We just don't want it to heal in the wrong position and get a 'frozen' shoulder.

Good advice which I took to heart.

GORE TEX

Andrew Sullivan, of all people, makes the case for Gore for President.

The Case for Gore

And, interestingly, a comparison by one of the Dish readers of Gore with Nixon; both ex-VPs who kept on truckin'

Richard Milhous Gore?

It isn't too early to be doing this, is it?

I do not, will not, cannot see Hillary for any position in the 2008 race.

I guess I have to give up my quixotic attraction to Governor Bill Richardson. It ain't happening.

Wesley Clark? Give me a break. Besides, he was the Clintons' boy and now we have the Clintons' girl on the scene.

Forget Edwards.

And so on.

Gore it may be.

CHARMING

is the word to describe today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film

The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)

And a lot of the charm has to do with Jason Robards and Stella Stevens who take the leads.

It is a Sam Pekinpah directed comedy/drama/comedy.

It has some great support from Slim Pickens and Strother Martin and the British actor David Warner takes an idiosyncratic turn as a sinning itinerant preacher.

It is all rather enjoyable while not at all high art or even high western.

There is some great stuff used to show time passing; one scene dovetails with another some time later without a seam.

What else? The story is pretty slim. It is the characterizations that make it all work.

I will give it a 4 out of Neftlix5.

TAN LINE

You know that I am automatically against anything that the social police are for.

I am a life time tanner and, at one time, was even advised by my dermatologist to use a tanning salon for my excema and chronic dermatitis.

I was already using one. She caught me coming out of it when she dropped her kids off at the day care they went to.

I was amazed to find that she thought it 'tanfastic'!

So, I loved reading this in Slate:

The overzealous war on indoor tanning.

You know, here in the desert, inside tanning is used a lot.

We really have no buffer with the sun.

I do it naturally, ten minutes to a side, then into the house.

I do not use any chemicals on my skin.

I have never figured how people could so unquestionably slather themselves with the lotion de jour not knowing shit about the shit they were applying.

And on babies!

One ingredient, PABA, was found to be cancer producing after years of use.

Anyway, some days I am ready to ditch Slate.

Then, it saves itself with something like this public service article.

SLUNG

OK. I gave up and went to get a sling.

No. Not that kind.

An arm sling.

It is grey. Neutral.

I asked if there was anything better looking, of course.

The druggist man said that the point was to hold my arm still.

I had to agree.

It works pretty well.

I am even feeling comfortable in it.

I surrender slowly.

SMASHUP

I got to walk Franklin alone this morning. We usually all go together on Sunday but John had some chores.

Out on the end of Palo Fierro, Franklin took a left turn without telling me. There were those two nasty dogs who bark at him every week and their window was open for once. He went running for a face to face.

I was doping off and got pulled in his direction, tripped on the curb and fell left side down on the grass. My sunglass even flew off.

In good Franklin fashion he was immediately at my side wondering what happened.

I was pretty much wondering the same thing.

It knocked the wind out of me.

I got up slowly, checking body parts. Nothing broken. Nothing coming apart. No blood.

I got myself together and finished the rest of the walk pretty well.

As time went on, the left shoulder, most of it, began to complain loudly. It is kinda bunged up.

RICE

Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation.

So far it is ice and aspirin. It is already elevated and I am not sure how I would compress it.

I have movement all around but it is not pain free.

I am giving it some time.

No sling—yet.

I will consider going for advice if it gets worse but right now it is sort of under control.

We shall see what we shall see.

MORE SCANDALOUS

Today, we temporarily returned to the 'L's for the NYTimes Best 1176 Film

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

Martin Scorcese.

I am not much of a church enthusiast.

I am really deficient around the whole Jesus story.

I have written here that I never really 'got' the idea of the trinity or any of it.

Does it matter?

Apparently so from the furor that this film caused.

It is interesting that, in two instances, this interpretation includes ideas that are in controversy today. The 'Judas did it for Jesus as his friend' idea is incorporated in The Book of Judas which is now making the rounds. And, the idea of Jesus making babies (although this is a fantasy or the 'last temptation' in the film) is in The Da Vinci Code.

The beat goes on.

How was the film?

Well, pretty good. It is long; 2 hours and 44 minutes title-to-title. I didn't look at my watch too often.

There are some really good parts and others that are a bit lame.

Somewhere in the midst of it, I was aware that many of the actors had NYC accents which Scorcese would not really hear through his own. Only a bit of a smirk.

I could only get a little excited about it. I like Ebert's defense of the film.

I think it is too late for me to take all of the myth that seriously except insofar as it has become (or remains) central to the battle for men's minds in the USA and the world.

It is such a distraction.

But, there I go.

No rants here.

As pure cinema I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5 and let the religionists fight about the content.

JUST OUR BILL

Well, we knew this anyway, but it is really nice to be validated by a crowd.

Poll: Clinton outperformed Bush

I have that bumper sticker on the Jeep from the Clinton Foundation:

I MISS BILL

Oh boy, do I miss him.

But, he was at Tulane today with Poppy.

It was part of the distribution of relief funds. And so his administration is still going on.

In exile. Emeritus.

ALL RAPPED UP

Clive Davis says all I would want to say about the boring subject of rap 'music'.

Well that is an oxymoron as music has little to do with it and don't tell me about how 'they have rhythm' too.

More sambo.

There is little hip in that hop.

Hip-hop: 50 cent short of a dollar

Who Clive Davis? Here who.

ALPHABET SOUP

True blue blog readers will note that we were in the 'L's of the NYTimes Best 1176 Films.

The sudden swoop to A's and B's and other lower letters is a result of new DVD issues; items not previously available have come on-line at Netflix so I need to backtrack.

I hope that this is not too disturbing to the obsessive/compulsively inclined.

I know it bothers the hell out of me.

To such an extent that I try to keep the out of sequence discs in alphabetical order as a subset.

There will be a short return to the L's for the next film then back for the 'left behinds'.

Don't ask me why, it is too complicated.

SCANDALOUS!!!

Today's NYTimes 1176 Best Film was

Baby Doll (1956)

I did not see this when it came out because it was pulled within a few weeks of its release by Warner Brothers.

There was a great hue and cry.

The Catholic Legion of Decency condemned it and Cardinal Spellman (a known closet fag) proclaimed that any catholic who saw it was committing a sin.

Actually, in many respects, it is rather tame Tenessee Williams fare.

Directed by Elia Kazan, it is funny and sexy and full of great southern ambience.

The funny thing is that, while Williams' world is bizarre, the reality of the town and its people (many of the minor actors are locals) grounds it all.

The faces are great. The old wrecked plantation where it takes place has the darkies and the mules and pigs and all.

Karl Malden and Eli Wallach contend for the 'hand' of Carroll Baker. Well, see, she is married to Malden but the deal was that they would not 'do it' until she reached the age of nineteen.

Wallach does or doesn't do it.

Part of his revenge on Malden for burning his cotton gin.

Well, see, now we are deep into Williams land.

I liked it a lot.

It is funny and intense and the cinematography is wonderful and the locals and locale make it stay grounded and not waft away.

Speaking of wafting, there is the great Mildred Dunnock playing Miss Rose Comfort (who someone mistakenly calls Miss Rose Coffin).

This is Williams' stock character who appears in all his work; his lobotomized sister Rose.

No stone is left unturned.

Be sure to watch the short 'talk' by Baker, Wallach, and Malden. I rarely do this but I could not resist after I took a short sample. They had me with the first lines.

This is a definite 5 out of Netflix5.

And, for those of you who are not old enough to remember how stifled the Fifties were, this will be a good one to see. What got everyones panties all twisted?

But, it was films like this that started to break through.

The truly shocking thing is that a film by two such masters as Williams and Kazan could be so easily suppressed.

Those were the Dark Ages.

Are we heading back?

STOP EVERYTHING!!!

This morning, on my bike ride, I saw traffic stopped up ahead. I was on the side trail along the highway.

I thought, maybe, an accident.

No.

Two guys, one a neighbor that I recognized, were out of their vehicles and walking together toward the verge where I was biking. They were waving their arms.

A mama duck and six ducklings were slowly making their way from one side to the other across four lanes and one for passing. Make that five lanes.

Everything was stopped. People were all asmile.

This is the way the world works sometimes.

Very nice.

QUIRKY

Today's Best 1176 Films from the NYTimes was:

L'Atalanté (1934)

This is on a lot of 'greatest' and 'best' lists.

It is the only film made by the director who had TB and died just after it was completed.

It is dreamy and poetic and yet, at the same time, blunt and direct with its emotions.

A young couple marry and live together on a Seine barge with two other people. Tight quarters.

There are differences.

The couple separates.

Will they ever get back together?

That simple a story. But great effects, some before their time.

There is a sequence where each, living apart, imagines the other while in bed. Very sexy. Better than if they were actually together.

Lots of stuff to see.

It is sometimes hard to watch as it is what I think of as French loud. They yell at each other.

Also, we are just out of the silents and the drama is a bit heavy at time.

A test. I watched it intensely even when I did not 'like' what was going on.

Well, that is good cinema eh? Or at least one definition.

Ebert says that this film transformed Truffaut's life at age 14. And, obviously affected his work for life. That is a big thing right there. One film breeds so many others.

I liked it and would not want to have to see it again.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5 as I am not all that hot on 'historic' cinematic experiences.

Maybe if I had been 14.

WSJ?OTD

"To what degree should the government be allowed to monitor phone calls without court approval?"

Today's question is a no-brainer.

Not at all!!

And I am in the majority.

Any way it deems necessary (22%); Collect data but don't listen to conversations (21%); Not at all (57%)

OUTRAGE

I love Jack Cafferty.

On Dictatorship.

SPLASH

When I first saw this I thought it was sort of big but, they say, it is a rocket into the White House.

They delayed an appearance by Hayden, GOoPers are caught off guard and pissed, the prez got buffed up and came out to say there is nothing to worry about. And while he was at it complained about the leak to the papers!

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

It is bigger than I thought, maybe.

USAToday broke it. They are getting almost as good as Knight Ridder (who will soon disappear) at finding the angle into the belly of the beast.

SPIRITUAL RENEWAL

I renewed my Golds Gym Membership today.

It is spiritual, as I don't go there anymore. I am doing the bike ride every day and have eschewed extraneous muscles. Spiritual as in virtual. I was reaching for the title.

Why should I renew a membership that I have not used in over a year; maybe two?

It is an interesting economic problem.

You see, when we moved here, Golds was desperate. They pitched us a deal where, if we bought two years of membership, they would give us a lifetime renewal rate of 99 dollars.

Shit. In Boston, 99 dollars barely bought us two months at the gym and that was 'off time'; no lunch or dinner hour (for us) usage.

So, we bought the deal.

Now, PS has grown, the gym craze has re-emerged, and Golds is beating away applicants at the door. It costs a LOT to join. There is an initiation or signup fee and the dues per year are in the hundreds.

So. The question is 'how long does it make sense to pay 99 a year for something that costs three times as much new?"

Three years?

Forever?

John says just to buy it. He knows my fickle heart.

A couple of bad days biking or a knee injury or something might send me back to Golds.

Unlikely, but, possible.

So I renewed.

I always think that they are going to cut off the lifetime 99 but they do not and have not for many years.

There are a select few of us who still have it.

Maybe that is it.

I am buying exclusivity.

That is really it in the photo. Just in case you were thinking it was not.

My club.

BUNNIES

I am so over the news today.

More shit from the bushies, different day.

Data mining. Corruption.

Let me tell you about the bunnies.

When we first moved here there were rabbits everywhere.

We would walk the streets and trails and there they were.

Then they go really sparse. I heard that there was a virus or something and a lot got wiped out.

Overpopulation. Like us. AIDS, Flu, the new streptococcus.

And then there is development. Soon, there will not be one empty lot in our neighborhood.

The bunnies have a new challenge.

But, we live on the edge of conserved land and some homes have big bushes.

The rabbits are returning. Not yet in droves, but they will soon achieve that level of population.

Three days a week, I take a bike ride through golf courses and by the water treatment plant (we used to call it sewage treatment) which, as I have mentioned before, is right next to the Knotts Water Park.

The pipes are NOT connected. They say so.

But out there are many many bushes and lots and lots of grassy knolls and many, many bunnies. I sometimes have to ring the bell or shout to clear the dear little things from running back and forth in front of me.

If I hit one, I would have to stop biking.

I love rabbits.

On the subject, we do not have any jack-rabbits around here anymore. They need more range and room to run.

Our rabbits are the cottontail.

Except for one.

Down at the end of our closest street there is a large 'field'. Here, 'field' means unirrigated land; desert with desert bushes.

Right there in the middle of the field, any morning, you can see a big white/black/brown piebald rabbit

My guess is that someone dumped him out there.

He seems to be doing very well.

We keep waiting to see if there are any piebald cottontail babies that have arrived.

So far, none.

Maybe he is accepted socially but not for sex.

It is a worry.

BUNNIES

I am so over the news today.

More shit from the bushies, different day.

Data mining. Corruption.

Let me tell you about the bunnies.

When we first moved here there were rabbits everywhere.

We would walk the streets and trails and there they were.

Then they go really sparse. I heard that there was a virus or something and a lot got wiped out.

Overpopulation. Like us. AIDS, Flu, the new streptococcus.

And then there is development. Soon, there will not be one empty lot in our neighborhood.

The bunnies have a new challenge.

But, we live on the edge of conserved land and some homes have big bushes.

The rabbits are returning. Not yet in droves, but they will soon achieve that level of population.

Three days a week, I take a bike ride through golf courses and by the water treatment plant (we used to call it sewage treatment) which, as I have mentioned before, is right next to the Knotts Water Park.

The pipes are NOT connected. They say so.

But out there are many many bushes and lots and lots of grassy knolls and many, many bunnies. I sometimes have to ring the bell or shout to clear the dear little things from running back and forth in front of me.

If I hit one, I would have to stop biking.

I love rabbits.

On the subject, we do not have any jack-rabbits around here anymore. They need more range and room to run.

Our rabbits are the cottontail.

Except for one.

Down at the end of our closest street there is a large 'field'. Here, 'field' means unirrigated land; desert with desert bushes.

Right there in the middle of the field, any morning, you can see a big white/black/brown piebald rabbit

My guess is that someone dumped him out there.

He seems to be doing very well.

We keep waiting to see if there are any piebald cottontail babies that have arrived.

So far, none.

Maybe he is accepted socially but not for sex.

It is a worry.

WSJ?OTD

"Is "Made in America" an important factor in your purchasing decisions?

I answered 'often'.

For many years, I bought New Balance and Rockport shoes for this reason.

I used to shop at Structures when it was 'made in the USA'. They changed this and now do not exist. No connection, I am sure.

On the other hand, for many years I bought German, then Finnish cars because it was just stupid to buy American.

A lot of other people felt the same way.

But, on the last three go-rounds, we are all American in Chrysler motors; the Cherokee, the old Le Baron and the brand new, well newish, Sebring convertible.

It turns out to have been a smart decision as, here, the Chrysler service facility is really good. And we have a low service record.

If I did go 'foreign' again, I would go Toyota because of their service record. But, my dad would spin in his grave.

He once had a Chevy shipped from the Baltimore plant because he was told that plant used less Japanese parts in his car.

He had 'Jap' shrapnel in his neck for life.

But, back to me.

I just realized that Chrysler is now a German Company. Well, the Cherokee and Le Baron were purely pre-kraut American.

See? It is really harder and harder to 'buy Amercain' these days.

First of all, the labeling has really stopped. It used to be promoted more than it is.

Second, I am beginning to believe in the global economy.

I am typing on a Chinese Mac and sitting at a Swedish kit-made desk. I am wearing Gap stuff which is all made off shore.

I have Nike sandals on my feet. There is nothing American about those except maybe the marketing.

Maybe I am not so true blue as I thought.

Here is what everyone else said.

Often--(29%); Occasionally (36%); Never (35%)

Maybe I should have voted 'Occasionally'.

SPOILS

Turn your wallets upside down, empty your pockets, go to the piggy bank. They are at it again.

A stunning tolerance for corruption in Iraqi reconstruction aid

OH. I forgot. We won't have to pay for it. Taxes have been reduced, yes?

No. Not for any readers of this blog.

ANNUEL

Today was the annual showing of Diva (1981)

It is, of course, a NYTimes Best 1176 Film and one of my great favorites.

I have seen it 5 or 6 times.

It takes about a year to wear off the complete memory of the plot and characters so that there will be enough surprise and gasping at its next showing.

It has everything; romance, art, crime, commerce, corruption, and beautiful people who are not classically beautiful.

It has suspense. It has long pauses of quiet which are wonderful to immerse yourself in. It has action shots and cinematography that will take your breath away.

Ebert says it is a feast.

This was Jean-Jacques Beineix first and, they say, best film. Dunno. I just know that this one is so good.

Am I overdoing it?

It works some kind of chemistry on me. I get teary in spots that are not particularly emotional. They are beautiful. Maybe that is it. It gets me where I do not think.

Whatta movie.

A 10 on the Netflix5 scale.

ONLY TWENTY SECONDS OF YOUR TIME; AMPLY REWARDED

Bush Speak

SINNER

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was

Lola Montes (1955)

Max Ophül's account of the 'most sinful woman in the world" at that time ca. 1845. That's her on the left.

I am sure that Lola has been outdone since then but it would still be unusual to have had as many lovers, young and old, rich and poor, as she is said to have had.

Ophüls uses the circus as both plot device and metaphor. That is where Lola ended up. The wages of sin and all.

The film is in Cinemascope which makes it kind of funny shaped and the restoration is a bit lame but you can see what he had in mind. It must have been spectacular in the theater.

I am not sure about some of it; yawning. Other parts were great fun.

Martine Carol is kinda wooden. The French are no different than their Hollywood cousins in placing a lot of makeup on women where and when it does not belong and dressing them higher than could be possible in the situation.

There is the young Peter Ustinov! Not clowning here but as a weasel. And the part with the King of Bavaria is choice.

So it is a mixed review. Some high 5's and some terrible 2's which make it come out to a wavering 4 out of Netflix5 because of the solidity of the vision and how it is carried out.

HOLES

Not to gloat or anything but don't you PC guys get a little weary of this kind of shit?

Microsoft warns of two "critical" security flaws

BETH AND I

In Little Women, Beth, the shy one, gets scarlet fever and never recovers.

She is sickly for a long period after the fever and then has an early death as a result of 'heart problems'.

In addition to being shy, Beth and I also share scarlet fever.

I got it when I was in the 3d grade. I was 8 years old. 1945.

I remember having it and having fever dreams. I remember the solemnity of the doctor's diagnosis. There are other in and out kind of vague memories.

We had to have the house quarantined. It was highly communicable. When I recovered (no suspense here) there was a wholesale burning of all my personal effects.

I think that my mother skated on this one. They burned my stuff at school. I do not think that they burned my clothes and I still have my teddy bear which I got when I was three or something. He sits next to my bed.

I don't think that he has given anybody the dread disease.

As far as I remember, only one other kid had it; Donald Hayes. He survived also.

I don't think that, like Beth, we had the post-fever complications. I bet that she had rheumatic fever.

My heart is fine.

So, I only have a bit of a connection with Beth.

It is hard to believe that I grew up at a time when there were no antibiotics. Kids got a lot of stuff. Some died. No one close to me.

We did have the sulfa drugs.

I don't know if they gave me that or not.

This whole episode is one that my Mother filed under 'forget it'. It was hard to get any data. Usually, whatever she came up with was more about her than anything else; how hard it was for her. That's my Mom.

My Dad was away in the Navy. World War II was about to close down. But, she was still alone and it was hard times. I have to give her that.

I have had it in the 'forget it' file too.

If it was not for the movies I would have probably just let it be.

Something else for scrapbook; an item for the blog.

Another small piece of baggage opened up.

BREATHTAKING

Look at this.

A new low.

A new high.

Bush approval rating hits new low

The high is the DISapproval, now at a record 65%.

At these heights he could get nosebleeds.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

NATURAL

Today's New York Times Best 1176 Film was

Local Hero (1983)

Charming is the word.

It seems, at first, as though this will be about the oil people spoiling another small, pretty location and, in that respect, we are taken in entirely.

This is a Bill Forsyth film. We have already seen Gregory's Girl. In fact 'Gregory' is in this one in a smallish part; a member of the Forsyth rep company.

It takes place in a small Scottish town. The oil company wants to buy it and the surrounding land for a new facility.

The town takes over and saves itself. I mean the town and the land, not necessarily just the people. Although it is nip and tuck for awhile. All that oil money.

The oil tycoon here is Burt Lancaster. I told you. He is in more of the Best Films than any other actor. He is, yet again, a strong center to the plot; the through line.

All the rest of the people are unknowns and just fabulously good.

There are times when there is just a bit too much whimsy for me but that is OK. There is also the tart and sour side line which shows human nature in all its colors.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5. I enjoyed it and it was satisfying at the end. Close call though.

WSJ?OTD

"Which technology development has had the most effect on your day-to-day life? Cellphones/PDAs; Downloadable music; E-commerce; Email; Internet search"

Tough question.

All of them have been important. But most?

I could start with the lowest and that would be downloadable music.

I have tried. God knows.

But I am still using CDs and still buy them occasionally. I also like some of the new music DVDs. You can see what you are eating.

I am an iTunes subscriber but I rarely buy anything and, if I do, it is one song. That is a convenience.

iPod? No no no no no.

I hate all on-body musical devices; on me and on others. What a social wrecker. And dangerous.

I see bikers and walkers who don't hear a fucking thing. A car rushing at them or me saying good morning.. I am not even sure what a PDA is.

Next least would be mobile phones.

We have simply changed technology. Zero life impact except that I can make frivolous calls from my bike or on a walk.

I suppose it would help in an emergency but we have not had one yet, although a close friend has and it was very important to him.

Next up would be Internet Search.

Yeh. I use it. It is handy. But life transforming. Not as much as the others below.

E-Commerce. Yes! I do not shop in the agora any more. Great for a mildly agoraphobic person. I hate shopping.

On the net, no one bothers you while you browse. There are tons of sites to evaluate your purchases. It is safe. No one will copy your CCN.

I am convinced it is safer than a retail store in that respect.

The top? Email. And that includes commercial and non-profit and news email. I use it regularly and go into withdrawal panic when it is down.

It is certainly not dramatic as a tech breakthrough. It has been around awhile. And, it is the one that I have been using longest. And I use it instead of the phone and it supports e-Commerce. So it has to be the winner and my choice.

Others chose as follows: Cellphones/PDAs: (15%); Downloadable music (0%); E-commerce (6%); Email6 (44%); Internet search (34%)