esrosedotblog

AUTUMN SPRING

I had a lot of negative premonitions (are premonitions always negative? It is not clear from the dictionary) about today's NYTimes 1176 Best Film

Love in the Afternoon (1957).

First, there is Audrey Hepburn, who I do not much like, paired with an aging Gary Cooper, who I would rather see in a western outfit. But no cattle, no Stetson here.

He plays a roué, a silver fox, a chicken hawk. She, on the other hand is a naif, a gamin, a (gasp) virgin. She falls in love at first bite and he does not. She keeps coming back for it.

Hard to swallow and the first half of the picture you cannot miss Cooper's awkwardness and sort of trying to back away from the role.

On the other hand there are some good jokes. And there is Maurice Chevalier as Hepburn's father. He is great.

But, premonitions aside, I did gasp at the ending and then, in retrospect, realized that I had just seen a film put together by a great craftsman, Billy Wilder, and that it worked better than I thought it did and maybe all those premonitions and trepidations and difficulties were somehow a setup for the surprising end.

I will give him that.

All the reviews of the film I have read object to its length. Hear hear.

I think we could have gotten there more quickly.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5. There is better Wilder and we could have skipped some of the scenes made to show off the costumes.

It is interesting that the film was a remake of an old Twenties French film called Ariane. So, when this one was released in France, that is what they called it.

Funny about the title. It is an obvious reference to May/November love. Unfortunately, I couldn't stop thinking about that other film called Death in the Afternoon. Bullfighting.

BIG DECISION

SCOTUS approves of the Geneva Convention and the Code of Military Justice.

Hamdan Summary -- And HUGE News

Imagine!

Well, I am glad they do. It would be the beginning of the end of Western Civilization if they did not.

I saw this implication right away.

I also saw it coming when many prominent lawyers and judges took exception to the administration's positions regarding these two legal templates.

I like to be right every once in awhile. Moreover, I like that the Court agrees and is willing to severely reprimand the Executive.

OVER

It has finally happened.

MA-GOV - Patrick Surges

After ten years away from Massachusetts, this political junky has no idea, none, about who these candidates are or where they came from.

I read, though, that Deval Patrick is the Progressive.

Any comments from the Bay Staters who are still there and in the know?

TIME OUT

Ever since we moved here, I have taken off for a few days in August.

Just me.

Alone.

It is not about the heat.

The first two years, I did the Mojave, eastern and western. Another year I did the route out to Yuma AZ to see the prison and the plank road and the dunes.

Two years ago I went to see the Meteor Crater near Prescott AZ and then went down through Sedona and all.

Somewhere in there, I did Long Beach including a ride up the coast through Laguna. That one was a cool ride.

Then, last year, shit got complicated and I didn't do it; the vacation. I wanted to go to San Diego and see some shows at a venue on Shelter Island. But, I couldn't get a room on the whole Island or anywhere near on the dates of the shows I wanted to see. And so on.

This year, I thought I would replicate the Shelter Island trip and started looking at the concerts on offer.

Pretty slim pickings.

So I moaned to myself, considered Long Beach again or maybe another eastern jaunt out to the neighbor states.

Then an idea! Maybe, Shelter Island without concerts! Just the water and the ships and the marina and the room and walks and cool weather and sea gulls. Bingo.

It was the concerts that made it so tough to handle last year.

So, I thought and figured and talked to John and then signed up.

Almost immediately, I got excitement started. I had thoughts about side trips (the light house, La Jolla, Sea World? Nahhhh. Tickets again.)

But mostly, I am psyched about the ocean and being alone and hanging out watching ships. Simple stuff.

And, as it happens, cool.

WALK ABOUT

I have just finished reading

The Places In Between

by Rory Stewart.

I got it because it got such a strong review in the NYT and I am greatly pleased that I did.

Stewart is a camera and a mirror at the same time. His encounters in Afghanistan tell me more than I have ever thought I would want to know about that poor benighted country.

I also like Stewart. The Times guy says that there is not a lot about himself in it but this is dead wrong.

He is all over it. He is the camera and the mirror.

There are at least five threads. There is the original walker, one Babur, a 15th Century warlord who ended up as an Emperor.

There is the story of the various 'nations' of Afghanistan, at least five, and their historic dissatisfactions with each other.

There is the story of the war. Well two of them. That is two stories; the Russian one and the American one. And the terrible aftermath.

He is walking through the country weeks after the Taliban has been thrown out.

Then there is the story of Stewart and his walk and what he is up to and how he experiences it.

Finally, it is the story of a wonderful fighting dog, a mastiff that he names Babur after the original walker. Babur the dog is a great companion and he is a consistent metaphor for the torn country. He has been mistreated and molested but has fun and love in his heart and is able to give himself to this strange man who is walking across his country.

It is a great book.

If there was a Netflix5 it would get a 7.

MYTH

Today's NYT Best 1176 Film was Robert Flaherty's

Louisiana Story (1948)

Flaherty is known as the father of the documentary but this is not our conception of a documentary; filmed on the fly, authentic action, little or no original motive of the maker (?)

All of his works from Nanook of the North to this last work were staged and told a prepared story line.

The thing that is documentary is that it is based on facts, the action is realistic, and the events are more or less true.

This work has the advantage of Virgil Thompson's music to guide us through an idyll of the bayou as an oil rig comes in to tap the black gold out from under.

It supposes a happy communion between technology and primitive life which does not and can not happen.

It would not be surprising to find that it was funded by the oil companies.

It is beautiful, nonetheless and the young boy who it follows is charming.

I liked watching and listening to it.

It might be horse shit but it is pretty horse shit.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

STONEWALL

Today marks the 37th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in which some of the early seeds were sown for the gay liberation movement.

Similar actions were occurring in other parts of the country at about the same time; the Black Cat riots in LA; the founding of the first gay political groups; the advent of gay consciousness raising groups; self help communes.

The 'coming out' of thousands of men and women was encouraged by the revolutionary tone of the decade. We found a way for our selves in the general flowering of the counterculture.

I would be swept up in all this some 3 or 4 years later.

I was acutely aware of Stonewall and it worked on me.

At first, I did not identify with the men who were involved in this turn of events. Many of them were 'flamboyant'.

Well, of course; compared to me.

Threatening.

I took small baby steps nonetheless.

Early on, in Boston, I became involved with some small groups. One at Harvard which was so intellectualized that 'nothing happened'. Of course, we were meeting weekly. That was plenty.

I got involved in a crisis center for gay men; phone lines and all.

Little by little I found my way and the ones who seemed 'so flamboyant' to me, at the time, became good friends.

They led the way.

I am so grateful to these pioneers.

Words cannot express.

2 HANKIE PANKY

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was

Love Affair (1939)

with Charles Boyer and Irene Dunn.

This is the original Leo McCarey writer/director version.

It bred a number of remakes, notably An Affair to Remember which in turn inspired Sleepless in Seattle

All of them feature a romantic liaison on the top of the Empire State Building which was, in 1939, quite the modern thing to do.

The disc is not in the best shape but once you get used to 'hearing' it there is a lot to enjoy.

The first half has the two principals meeting on a ship and falling in love. They are both about to get married to someone else. What a surprise! It is funny and sly and very nice to watch.

They make a date to think it over; six months later at the top of the ESB if they still want to run away together.

She gets hit by a car on the way to the meeting and the last half deals with the problem of her not showing up and then not wanting to 'burden' Boyer with a cripple.

I know, it sounds cheesy but they pull it off. Tear warning, even for the hardest hearts.

It is very very nice and quite a good film. It has music too; and kids. Kids who sing! This is the same McCarey who made Going My Way. It is a winning formula.

Featured, as Boyer's grandmother, is the great Maria Ouspenskaya

Now, that is three very strong reasons to see this film. Irene Dunne is always wonderful and if you wonder, as I do, what the Boyer charm was all about, this is in his prime.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5 just because it is a little corny here and there and I didn't hear it all.

It has a great surprise ending though.

Maybe a 5.

Naaahhh.

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

More on Matt of Where The Hell is Matt.

If you scroll down, you can see a tape of his appearance on Good Morning America with Gibson and Sawyer.

He starts on 2006 Phase Two this week.

MATT ON GMA

The only reason to watch this is to see him up close and to hear him talk.

He is a neat guy. I am working backward to read his blog and will stay with him for this leg of the 2006 circuit.

Update: Just to let you know how little I know about teevee, I had Couric on this Program. It is Sawyer. But I did catch it myself.

MOTHER NATURE

Pat Robertson told us that god was sending hurricanes to punish the nation for 'the gays' (Pat Robertson).

Maybe Mother Nature is punishing the spineless and self serving bureaucrats and pols in Washington for doing nothing about global warming and the environment:

Record Rain Wreaks Havoc on Morning Commute

Abberant wind patterns, strange squalls, heavy flooding; no signs of frogs or locusts yet.

But we will keep praying.

WSJ?OTD

"Are the government's efforts to prevent terrorism on the right track?"

Hell, no!

The funds allocated have become a boondoggle.

Immigration protection and policy are in shreds.

We have most of our military tied up in the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Governance has taken a back seat to politics.

What else can I find wrong?

And the respondents, astoundingly, voted 50/50. This is the first time I have seen a split this perfect.

Well, imperfect.

What the hell are the other 50% thinking? Or are they?

And the other thing is, should there even be a 'war' on terror?

Well, I suppose so but I think that the threat is often overstated, again, to serve political ends.

They don't show the color scale anymore since it has been laughed out of existence as an obvious political tool, only brought out in elections.

Sure, I know, Tom Ridge said it wasn't so. And we believe him?

Now, there is a new tack.

Find conspirators and arrest them before they do anything at all.

How about that 'gang that couldn't shoot straight' in Florida?

I AM IMPRESSED

I have always liked Warren Buffett (from afar, of course).

Now, I like him more than ever.

Buffett to Give Bulk of His Fortune to Gates Charity

I am not sure about Bill Gates, but that is another story. I am impressed with the Gates Foundation!

I liked this quote about Buffet in the article:

Fred P. Hochberg, dean of the Milano School for Management and Urban Policy at the New School, which has a large nonprofit-management department, said Mr. Buffett's historic contribution to the Gates Foundation was in character.

"It's egoless," he said. "Warren's name is not on the door."

That is what I have always liked about Buffet.

Humility.

It is pretty hard to be egoless and humble when you have 44 billion dollars to give away.

Of course, he is also a wise old fox and the humility is a bit calculated as is the splash about the gifts.

I also like that the 'kids' get money too. They get to run their own foundations! No second generation management to fuck the company up.

Wily.

Did you know that he and Jimmy Buffett are related? Another great Buffett story. They didn't know it and someone tracked it down and now they are friends.

Jimmy didn't get any cash though. Nor a foundation to manage.

REALITY CHECK

Here I am, in the middle of Moby Dick.

Melville is going on and on about the technology of whale slaughter.

I am slogging through it waiting, as all the crew on the Pequod is waiting, for the great white whale to arrive.

The more I read about the apparatus of killing the great mammals the more I say to myself, "Well, at least they don't do any of this anymore".

Then I read, this past week, that the whales may be getting the shaft again:

Japan, Allies, Move Closer to Whale Hunts.

Somehow, through payoffs to the small countries on the whaling commission, the Japs have managed to buy their votes on the whale kill.

I guess we aren't supposed to say 'Japs' anymore.

But, I didn't think that they were going to kill whales anymore either, so we will revert to old form.

At least I didn't call them 'Nips'.

GENDER BENDER

Today, we watched

Transamerica (2006)

It is not on the Best Film list. A friend liked it a whole lot and so we rented it.

I have to say that I have some problems with the whole Trannie thing.

They are my problems, not the transgendered. It all just makes me squirmy. So, there it is.

It is a testament to the quality of Felicity Huffman's acting and the whole scenario's approach that this never bothered me in the film. High praise.

I cannot say the film eased my comfort with the whole thing but time will tell.

First and foremost, to its credit, It is not a message film.

Well, not a message about the transgendered.

It is about family.

A pre-op who is about to be opped finds out that she has a son.

They meet and spend a lot of time together; not all quality time.

The 'truth' does not emerge easily. That is the whole point of the story.

The cast is very good; unusually so for a 'small' independent film.

I liked it.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

What makes me squirmy?

It is not as though there is anything new about sex-change operations.

When I was a kid, Christine Jorgenson was singled out for mega-publicity. She was not the first person but she was the first to allow her name to be publicized and to actually 'come out' and promote herself and the procedures.

It was all quite sensational and yet Jorgenson was able to carry out her role as a spokesperson with grace and dignity.

Since that time, of course, the procedures have become quite routine and thousands of people have been able to get the body that their minds and spirits want to have.

I am not sure what the current spin is about, actually. There seems to be a move for a separate identity as a transgendered person rather than a person who fits into their gender and goes on quietly about it.

That is the part I don't get.

As I said, this film is not political and there is nothing in it about 'the movement' or any of that. Good thing.

HUNTER

The Airedale breed supplies many hunters with a good bird dog. They can also be trained to hunt varmints; rats, squirrels, and other pests.

Since we do not hunt, we have no such aspirations for our Franklin.

But he hunts without our participation. He chases then stands and points (paw up and folded). This goes for rabbits, squirrels and, especially, kitty cats.

He is cursed with humans who don't get it. We do not act on his initiative.

On the other hand, we have found some common ground. Franklin also loves to hunt bugs; mostly flies.

We are willing partners.

Armed with a fly swatter, we are happy to 'gun down' any flies that he cannot catch himself.

This turns out to be a minority of those found as Franklin is a very fast fly-catcher.

But we stand by, swatter in hand, ready to hit the fly that lights where he cannot reach.

Wham!

He moves in for the kill and then eats the fly!

Of course that is not really the way that it is supposed to go. Since we do not want to eat the fly ourselves, no need to train him to fetch and bring the body back to us, dropping it at our feet.

HAWKS AND DOVES

We usually have some doves around the house. They reproduce rapidly.

But, there are never enough to go around.

The most we ever see is a couple on each of the four sides of the house, but this is rare.

The reason?

Easy enough.

An anecdote.

Yesterday while I was typing and John was in the dining room, having breakfast, there was a popping sound along with a shadow that went over the sky.

A hawk!

Grey feathers rained down.

A dove! Well, what was left of the dove.

Now there is one less couple on that side of the house.

I am not even sure that there was a couple before the hawk hit.

The front yard couple had been a threesome for a week or so. Not that the third was welcomed by the other two.

Maybe s/he gave up its life so the others might live.

In any case, Hawks 1, Doves 0.

Well, that is just yesterday. We have been here for almost ten years and there have been many such incidents; we have seen 5 or 6. Multiply that by ten.

We have never yet seen a dove attack a hawk let alone fly away with it.

Doves 0, Hawks 60 and counting.

Doves = Hawkfood. The cycle of life.

CURTAIN CALL

We had one of these in my school when I was a kid.

The Curtain Rises on Old Vermont

Ours was of a mountain stream. I probably stared at it more than any other picture for the full 12 years I went to school in that building.

Yes, my home town was so small we had a consolidated school. All 12 grades in one building; six to a floor.

The mountain stream fit the countryside. No covered bridges for us.

At the bottom the curtain said 'Asbestos', in rather large letters, spoiling one's suspension of disbelief around the painting.

It was a 'roll' curtain. You pulled it up and it rolled itself around a spindle. Down, and it unrolled.

I think that these were fairly common. Vermont may be trying to be a little special when it is not.

But good for them for restoring theirs.

God only knows where 'my' curtain is other than in my memory.

WOODY

Today's Best Film was

Love and Death (1975)

This is early Allen where a string of one liners is accompanied by striking visuals and cinematography.

You can sorta see where his work has evolved. He took what he knew—jokes and situations—and added the movie stuff to it.

He was learning as he went. And innovating. Some of the photography is just gorgeous. Even the outrageous funny stuff.

The faces. The actors he selects. The scenery. All top notch. And a lot of it is also a joke in and of itself. The costumes are so funny.

It is not hard to see the technique here as it evolved into the later serious films.

As far as the movie is concerned, it arrived pre-sold. I saw it when it came out and, knowing that I was getting it this week, it came back to me in parts. I was laughing before I saw the film again.

It is all based on a mock of Russian Literature (intentionally capped letters).

I have favorite parts like the paragraph made up of Dostoevsky titles and the death figure (which is actually from Bergman and not Russian at all). There is the duel. The village idiot's convention. The Charley Chaplin homage.

Allen's personna here is still the wide eyed standup with the hair wildly out of place. He doesn't change any of it for the film.

Diane Keaton is great in this one. She just keeps rolling along with the angels dancing on the head of a pin. Equivocation as an art form.

And the music. S. Prokofiev! Indeed.

It is not the very, very best Allen. But then what is? All of his works are somewhat flawed by too many takes on the same joke and too many one liners in the scene but enough of them are so funny, we forgive him his excesses.

I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

MORE DANCIN' MATT

When I first encountered Matt, he had only been on one world wide trip.

Now he has been at it for three or four years and has made four trips; dancing all the way.

He is one of those internet phenoms.

I like his true grit and other stuff.

He is funny and erudite at the same time; a lot of, well, world wisdom here.

Where in the hell is Matt?

SHAGGY YUPPIE STORY

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Albert Brooks'

Lost in America (1985)

I am a sometimes Brooks fan so I approach each writer/director/star film that he makes with a bit of trepidation.

This one hits the mark; in a good way.

He is not the nerd/worm Brooks but a more aggressive and decisive version. Of course, the decisions he makes are not so great and the aggression comes a little late but it all feels good when he unleashes it and boy does he give as good or better than he gets.

Fucked out of a promotion he quits the firm and mid-house purchase, he and his wife liquidate all their assets, buy a Winnebago, and head out to find their dream.

Improbably, they are thinking 'Easy Rider' here which is all upside down.

The wife is played by Julie Hagerty. Her 'going bananas in a casino' segment is priceless. She is so calm and quiet and then WHAM!

The bits and pieces are very good and the whole film builds tension to a great shaggy dog finale.

It is a one-big-joke one act play with lots of stuff to gander at on the way to the punch line.

The use of a rollover 'what happened to' sequence at the end only slams the joke down harder. It is all laughs for the last five minutes.

I liked it a lot.

I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5 because of the ending. Without it, it would be a 4. That isn't bad!

HIGH SPAM

Sometimes I actually read my spam, especially if the subject line is inviting. Like, I know it is spam but the originality of it or the cleverness or whatever demands that I open it and look.

Today's subject was:

"Lay the Youth With Hair Disheveled"

I should have known it was not soft porn. It was not.

Here is what it was:

Order from a trusted U.S. pharmacy.
Every medication is checked, verified and filled by a trained and licensed pharmacist

http://>a.chalkblunt.net

Like a tall tree in the tempestWhose innumerable echoesThe Song of Hiawatha is based on the legends and stories of many North American Indian tribes, but especially those of the Ojibway Indians of northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. They were collected by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, the reknowned historian, pioneer explorer, and geologist. He was superintendent of Indian affairs for Michigan from 1836 to 1841.From the red deer's hide NokomisSheer he cleft the bark asunder,Paused to purchase heads of arrowsBeat his timid heart no longer,From the kingdom of Wabasso,Nothing but the fatal Wawbeek!"Brought the King of all the Beavers.With the rushing of great rivers,Lengthened over field and forest,Saw the flecks and shadows on it,Shivered in the air of morning,'T was the prairie dandelionBy the rushing in the Spring-time,With a silent nod assented.

What next?

Can't can all the spam.

PHASED OUT

My feelings about Iraq are much more elegantly laid out by Kevin Drum:

WINNING THE REAL WAR

CROSS PURPOSES

I am pleased to see that the 'war movement' has come to my own very town:

Veterans' memorial clears snags

Of course, as usual for our local paper, the headline is wrong.

It is a memorial to the US Iraq War dead; no others.

They didn't get to be veterans.

And Arlington doesn't have crosses; see pic.

But still, it is a good thing. Why pick nits?

It is laughable to think that the christists would object to this on the basis of church/state boundaries. Keeeerist!

BLUE HAIRED LADIES

When we were in Boston, Lord and Taylor was the last place to use hand written reciepts.

You really needed to have their own charge account but they would deign to take American Express and then put it through one of those slider things.

We got a lot of good stuff at Lord and Taylor. They somehow matched our taste.

This is a bit unsettling as the greatest part of the clientele were suburban and Beacon Hill blue haired ladies.

They went on hard times when the 'new merchandising' took over; stacks of shit piled everywhere ala Nordstroms.

I remember that they tried to emulate it but their heart wasn't in it. Then they began to sink.

This is a reprieve from a death sentence:

Lord & Taylor to Remain on Fifth Ave.

Maybe.

There are a lot of fond memories in those pretty script letters.

CHECK BOOK

Here we go again.

Bank Data Sifted in Secret by U.S. to Block Terror

THE KOSTER

Well, it had to happen. Sooner or later the rebels become the establishment and the jockeying for position begins.

Bloggers' double-super-secret smoky room

An elite forms. People get too big for themselves. And, eventually someone will jump the shark.

Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, aka Kos (sounds like 'close'), of Daily Kos fame has a background for shrill highly personal rants.

Now, he has incurred some counter wrath.

I have had my own problems reading the Kos' blog. It is good but not that good.

The recently successful Yearly Kos, a get together of the blog's 'family' in Las Vegas, attracted a lot of big Democratic names.

So he is getting there. Just watch the hat size.

Kos should kool it.

MATT FINISH

About a year ago, maybe more, I showed you Matt who gave up his job to travel the world and................well you gotta see it.

MATT

This is great stuff. Stay with it. There are some wonderful suprises.

I had forgotten about it and then it showed up today in Salon; Video Dog Classic.

It has been nicely edited down. The essence of Matt.

What amazes me is the continuity but they did take a lot of footage. The moves blend.

TERROR ALERT

You can bet your Lone Ranger radar ring the we are going to see a lot of this before November elections.

Official: 7 arrested in Sears Tower plot

Let's get out our color chart again. Is it yellow yet? Or orange?

I forget. There haven't been any alerts since the last election.

WORD FROM THE DARK LORD

Cheney says N.Korea missile capability rudimentary

I had thought so myself but, if the big dick has his usual accuracy on (a year of 'last throes' and all), I better go out and see if there is anything incoming.

We are on the vulnerable coast.

ISSUE INVENTORY

As I was doing my daily run through the net today, I kept track of the issues that seem to be burning everybody up.

I was surprised that my pulse rate rose on some of them and hardly gave an extra tick on others.

A quick run through. They are not in order of anything.

Have I left anything out? Sure. That is just today on the net.

This was good for me to do.

It helps cure knee-jerkism.

Oh. Did you notice that Medicare drugs is not on the list or on the blogs? We have moved on. Some people are still getting screwed but that is normal bureaucracy. I'm all right, Jack!

KIM IL..........UH......

I love to see new 'jargon'.

Here we have the shorthand reference to the Republic of North Korea.

"Norks".

Perfect.

NORMALITY

It is nice to have visitors.

When they leave, the readjustment is a pleasure as well.

There is a general relaxation. A quiet, sleepy reaction to the absence of conversation. A slow motion resettling into the old routine.

We have an excuse to take it easy; not start in on anything too strenuous.

The post-visitor malaise affects us all.

Franklin is in almost total nap mode. It is required that he spend all his time attending to visitors; dog business. There is playing, coaxing to play, snuggling, coaxing to snuggle, new walk partners; all that. It is a 24/7 proposition. Full alert.

Now, he can relax. He snoozes. He walks around aimlessly. He lacks focus. I know how he feels.

In a day or two, everything will be back to normal. But just now, I will enjoy the transition.

I have to go take a nap now.

EYE OPENER

The first major film to take alcoholism seriously and accurately was Billy Wilder's

The Lost Weekend (1945)

with Ray Milland and Jane Wyman.

As an insider, I can tell you that it is dead on as far as the disease is concerned.

In addition, it is a dramatic tour de force which holds you tightly as the progression of a drunk proceeds through a full weekend.

Amusingly, it is an alcoholic's definition of a weekend; five days; starts on Thursday and ends on Monday or maybe Tuesday. Nothing is made of this in the picture, but I caught it.

It is a NYTimes Best Film, of course. It is famous.

And I never saw it.

It is unlikely that it would make any difference to a full blown alkie but it would sure alert the people around him as to what not to do.

On the other hand, lower bottom, problem drinkers might get the message and try to get some recovery.

This is a pre-AA film. The Program would have been ten years old about this time.

There are no detoxes except of the nut-ward kind; little understanding of the now available technology of treatment.

It is a very good film.

Oddly, it is not hard to sit through as an insider. It is all familiar territory. If you have hung out with recovering alcoholics for 27 years, you have heard and seen everything.

I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.

Sunrise Solstice at Stonehenge

TIME OUT

We have company. So, I am pretty much off the blog.

I will get back to it in a couple of days.

The weather is getting way hotter.

By the weekend, we expect it to be as high as 120!

But, remember, as I often remind you, it is a dry heat.

It is great to have one's sini blasted with the oven-air.

And if it gets too tough to take, we just submerge in the pool and come out again.

The dry air sucks up the moisture so fast you actually get cold.

Life in the desert.

FATHERS' DAYrewritten Monday

I have written about my Dad in the blog.

Usually on his birthday or the anniversary of his death.

I suppose that Father's Day (or is it Fathers') is another good time.

He was a straight-ahead guy and didn't have much time for sentiment and clap-trap. And yet he could be moved to tears faster than any of us at a genuine moment of loss or gain or happiness.

He carried a lot of life wounds with him. He grew up in abject poverty as a country boy without a dad. He had to quit school in the 8th grade to go to work. He went off to WWII (volunteered) and saw friends splattered and dreamt of it the rest of his life.

But he never whimpered about it. It was all grist for the mill.

He was also a man with clear ideas and positions; something to rebel against. I did my best.

He gave as good as he got.

He tried to push me in a lot of directions that I didn't want to go. But, he was flexible. He listened.

He had a son who was hard to understand but he worked at it. And, when he understood my side, he let go and cheered me on my way.

He was always there for me.

Always.

Toward the end, we put down the arguments and just enjoyed being together.

He didn't need or want much. Just presence.

I could give him that.

I was able to say a loving goodbye to him at the end. I know that he heard it; a great completion.

He didn't have a Dad to learn about fatherhood from. He figured it out by trial and error.

He was a great power of example.

What else could one ask? What could be a better lesson? How else to be a good father?

CLUELESS JOE

You know how much I loathe Joe Lieberman.

It looks like he is getting the same attitude from his home State newpapers as he tries to cover his flabby ass from an up and coming newcomer in Connecticut's Demo-Primary.

Democracy an insult to those who live only for power

I like the line "Terrorized? It's called an election, dude."

Terrorized, indeed.

Joe. What a shithead.

JUST A QUICK PEEK

This is a fascinating glimpse of what is like to be a reporter covering the Guantanamo Bay prison.

Kicked Out of Gitmo

One of the reporters who was just thrown off the base "in fairness to other media" who have also been disallowed to go there—is that Kafka-esque? Or not?—tells us how it is.

Keep reading down to the part where she finds out that there was a previous multi-suicide attempt featuring 23—that's right TWENTY THREE--participants!

Jesus God.

SHANGRI-LA

This movie was so popular that it was virtually worn out.

Recut and re-released many times, the print was almost lost.

Today we watched the NYTimes Best 1176 Film

Lost Horizon (1937)

in an 'almost' restored condition. 9 minutes are made up of sound track and still photos.

I saw this when I was a kid; obviously in a later release as it was made the year I was born.

Its reputation preceded itself. My mother and father made sure that I went and I have remembered much of it over the years.

While it was wonderful to see the film today, it was amazing how much of it was familiar to me.

That has to be a good movie!

Frank Capra directed. Ronald Coleman and Jane Wyatt starred with Sam Jaffe as the High Llama and Edward Everett Horton and Thomas Mitchell as 'sidekicks'.

Part of this was filmed in Tahquitz Canyon which is not a mile from our house; maybe five minutes of it.

They obviously tarted up the desert landscape with vegetation to take advantage of the beautiful rocks and high waterfall.

In a way, the idea behind the 'lost land' is naive and simple minded. Yet, that is its real appeal. Somehow, it seems that we complicate things.

I really enjoyed seeing it again and its sentimental value as well as the full restoration leads to giving it a high 5 out of Netflix 5.

DNA

We are going to participate in the

The Genographic Project

of the National Geographic Society.

You buy a kit, scrape your cheek and watch your genetic history unfold. Or something like that.

I suppose I will write about it as it happens unless it turns out that I come from a bad line of ancestors. Whatever that might be.

I was going to do one that was free but it turns out that it has quite close ties to the Mormon Church.

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

But I would rather be anonymous and, somehow, rightly or wrongly, the National Geographic Society seems safer with my cheek cells.

Somehow, paying for it give the illusion of safety.

It does all seem a little 1984. But we got through that didn't we?

MELODRAMA

Today's Best Film was John Ford's

The Informer (1935)

It features a bravura performance by Victor McLaglen as an ex-IRA enforcer with more brawn than brains who, well, informs.

The film is dark and stagy and has a lot of great moments. There is also a lot of melodrama which is a bit hard to take but, in 1935, they were still playing over the top from the silents.

Interestingly, there is not a lot of dialog.

Perhaps that is because the plot is thin. But the IRA shenanigans are all there to see. It has been a long time for them to get over it and they are still at it on a different plane.

The quasi-military/outlaw gang aspect of it is brought to the fore.

There is rather too much time spent on our anti-hero's drunken spree but then that is part of his problem.

McLaglen was a bigger than life actor who worked for Ford a lot. He had been a film actor for 15 years when this was made and had crossed the great divide between silents and 'talkies'. He can talk. And he can bellow.

I saw a lot of his pictures when I was a kid and loved him.

He is no less lovable here although in a perverse kind of thug way; which, of course, is the success of his acting.

We will see him again when The Great Man becomes available on disc.

I will give this one a 3 out of Netflix5.

I think that any Ford fan must see it. He did get an Oscar nod for it. So did McLaglen.

BLOGGED DOWN

I have been a delinquent blogger.

There have been few personal excursions here. I seem to be at an impasse.

Every once in awhile, when I get stuck in the writing, I think I will drop the blog because 'nothing' is coming to me'.

This is one of those times.

Another side of me says, 'relax'. It is summer. The days are hot and lazy. I am in the midst of reading one of those lengthy sword and, in this case, arrow trilogies. It demands my page-turner time.

There are other distractions; chores, the net readings every day, and so on. And not a lot of inspiration.

I guess it is OK. It is certainly life like.

Things go in waves, cycles, ups and downs.

Yes. There have been blog items. I have been keeping up.

I have been watching movies and all. Even though I have turned down the political temperature, there are items that are too good to pass.

So, maybe I should just lay back and wait for the muse.

I have been here before.

That's it.

I just thought that I would let you know how it was going here.

Now, I have to get back to my book!

VIRGINITY

It is clear, as I have pointed out, that the NYTimes Best 1176 Films contain some items of dubious value just because they are period pieces or genré examples that take a deserved place in movie history as the best of their kind.

None of the three Doris Day/Rock Hudson films are works of art but they are funny, have great gags, use talented supporting casts and, in their time, ground breakers of a sort.

I don't know if this one is the best of the lot, but it is good enough.

Lover Come Back (1961)

Watching this film is like being in a time machine.

The suspense at the center is 'will Doris and Rock have any form of sex together'?

Not in this scene! (The film is in color).

All the plot and business around it are, fortunately, very entertaining because the answer to the question will be a very qualified 'yes'; while blind drunk, with a Maryland marriage license (people used to elope there) and they don't remember any of it.

It is a testament to Hudson's acting ability that he was openly gay and out to everyone in Hollywood but acted straight on screen and off for forty years. He is very sexy in this picture.

Doris, on the other hand, is Doris. Distant. But cute-distant.

She is one of those female stars who was managed to the nth degree by her husband; Marty Melcher. Her personna does not deviate to even a wrong flicker of the eyelid. They even fuzz the lens on her closeups; totally unnecessary. And they don't do a very good job of it! When they pan away from a two shot to her, the fuzz goes on. Micro managed.

We are treated to great performances by Tony Randall and Edie Adams.

I enjoyed it; a guilty pleasure. It is a movie movie. Totally divorced from reality. Improbable.

I will still give it a 4 out of Netflix5 for being best of breed.

RUFUS RULES

Rufus Wainwright successfully negotiated his re-enactment of the famous Judy Garland Carnegie Hall Concert last night and tonight.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Conjuring Judy Garland Stephen Holden

There has been a long buildup to this and it is great to hear it went well.

For 300 bucks and a fast plane ride you could make tonight's performance. But, Rufus is well documented and there will certainly be an album if not a DVD for all of us outlanders to see.

SAD REALITIES

Well, the fish are nice but the facts cannot be shutout by happy upbeat press conferences and misdirection:

U.S. military deaths in Iraq reach 2,500

FISH STORY

There is no doubt that this is a commendable thing:

Bush to Create World's Largest Marine Protected Area Near Hawaii

They say he was inspired by a Costeau film.

I would guess that he is more inspired by his poll ratings which show him way down on the environment and all.

Cynic that I am, I cannot help noticing that this involves no possibility of oil drilling or other land use. No businesses will be disrupted except sports fishing and coral mining.

There will be no money to support it. So, even those activities will go unpatrolled.

It is an easy PR stunt.

Sort of like a 5 hour visit to Baghdad.

We are in the full court press here.

Workin' the numbers.

But, while they are pandering, I will take it. I like the idea of the preserve and I didn't even see the Costeau film. But neither did he.

I'VE BEEN DOWN SO LONG IT LOOKS LIKE UP TO ME DEPARTMENT

Poll sees a boost for Bush, Iraq war

O'NEILL AGAIN

One of those quirks of the Best Film list supported by the fact that both yesterday's and today's O'neill films begin with the word 'Long'

Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962)

is one of O'neill's masterpieces.

I saw it when it was produced on Broadway with Frederic March and Florence Eldridge; Bradford Dillman and Jason Robards Jr and directed by José Quintero. Actually seen in its Boston run.

This filmed version is directed by Sydney Lumet and has Katherine Hepburn and Ralph Richardson; Dean Stockwell and Jason Robards Jr. Robards made a career out of O'neill parts.

This production is beautifully handled and is not done in by the cinematography. The use of closeups is a bit extreme and tends to dilute the ensemble playing but this is a nit.

There is not a lot to say. The Tyrone family have their way with each other and sink into the darkness.

It is a wonderful play and a great production and is worth much more than a 5 out of Netflix5.

JTFU

Just Total Fuck Ups

Terrorist in a Bootleg T-shirt

What is really scary is the out of control bureacracy.

But their computer systems must be getting better.

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 is actually made up of four one act plays by Eugene Oneill, stitched together nicely. The seams are there to see in that the story is episodic, involving the same men on a merchant marine ship during war.

The Long Voyage Home (1940)

is a metaphor for the sailor's lives. Home is the ship. The crew is the family.

It is an ensemble piece directed by John Ford and is very good.

The pre-Duke John Wayne is featured along with Ford's 'family' of repertory actors: Thomas Mitchell, Ward Bond, Barry Fitzgerald and more. Wayne even plays with a Swedish accent.

The stories are all rather dark as is the cinematography.

Some of the scenes are terrifying; the storm, the plane attack (the planes are never seen, only the explosions and bullet-holes).

Unlike the poster, there is no color, it is black and white. There are no flames in the sea either. There don't have to be. Hollywood.

This is a theatrical piece that is barely opened up for the film. Ford has only taken advantage of the whole freighter for angles and shots. Which makes it a very cinematic piece of theater!

There are many many many great scenes with light and dark and fog and smoke.

Did I say that I liked this film a lot?

John Ford.

I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.

ROVING

So, they say there is no indictment for Karl Rove in the Plame affair.

That's OK. His day will come. It seemed weak to me too.

Rather we get him caught in his own machine than some sideline, kind of marginal, affair.

What goes around will come around.

Worms turn.

WSJ?OTD

"How should prisoners held at Guantanamo be handled?

A. Held indefinitely until military decides they pose no threat

B. Tried in accord with military code?

C. Tried under special procedures authorized by the White House

D. Released to countries of origin

I voted for trial by the Miitary Code.

There has to be some disposition. Keeping them forever is a gross violation of human rights and the Geneva Convention.

Letting the White House handle it is a macabré joke. Fox in the henhouse. They have been 'handling' it; disastrously.

Send 'em home? That is a nest of problems. Where is home? Will they get killed when they get there.

The results of the respondents so far are with me for a change 44% say try them according to the Military Code. There is one. I studied it when I was in the Army.

Next was A; hold indefinitely. Those are the hard hats.

Few are interested in C or D.

FIRE WITH FIRE

Anonymous power is one of the most pernicious evils in the world.

Secret boards, apparatchiks in the 'war against terror' and such.

The nameless people who pull the levers of power are always with us; hiding from their victims.

In a small way, signing mean and vindictive petitions is a similar act.

When we put our name to initiatives, we should expect to take responsibility for that action.

Yet, the perps of these petitions are rarely known. A lot of it is faked.

Look at this. The veil gets torn away.

Web list of marriage foes launches in Fla..

Names.

That is what we want, names!

GRIFTERS

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was

The Lady Eve (1941)

This is one of those 1176 Best Films niche selections. For sure.

It is a Preston Sturges' screwball comedy with Barbara Stanwyk and Henry Fonda. It is probably the only Sturges in the 1176. It is not the the only screwball comedy but the others have Hepburn and Grant and the usual suspects.

There was probably a vote for the young Stanwyk in there and this one fell into the bucket. I can hear the wheels turning.

Screwball. In other words, an absurdity wrapped in unbelievablity held together with smart one liners and some good visual jokes as well as some clever acting. It is, admittedly, not my favorite genré.

I think that one of the reasons that this kind of thing doesn't go down very well in this house (I didn't mind it, the other one hated it) is that it is very heterosexual and, at bottom, man hating.

Fonda is an unlikely dupe. A handsome nerd. A rich boy herpetologist who is so smart about his field that he is totally dumb about love and life and we don't like to watch this kind of thing.

Stanwyk is a con-artist who falls for 'the big mugg' while trying to bilk him. She and her dad/partner can't help keeping the scam going then upping the nastiness of it just when he seems to be getting a little smarter about the situation.

A bitch who gets bitchier. That doesn't go down very well either.

Finally, what about the scam artist is so appealing? How can we believe that other than a quick fuck there will be anything to this?

Blah blah; already too much realism poured onto the soufflé flattens it

It is good to see William Demarest and Charles Coburn and some other dependable B-level actors carrying the plot from scene to scene.

There is a great animated cartoon title. The snake turns out to be the woman.

This is the kind of situation that breeds misogyny.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5. Maybe a 2 if I think about it too much longer.

Don't even ask my partner what he thinks. We can't give negatives.

LOOOOONG

Today I endured

The Longest Day (1962)

D-Day, the 6th of June 1945 in three hours.

It wasn't as hard as I expected.

This is sort of the uber-war-movie and is epic in scope.

Thousands of actors; five directors; a star producer—Zanuck. It is one of those rare producer films.

The result is actually pretty interesting. It is not hard to grasp what is going on and the battle is shown from both sides.

There are some great spots and some obvious valleys. Pee breaks.

From the standpoint of it being a good battle film, it is a definite 5 on the Netflix5 scale.

It certainly deserves to be one of the NY Times 1176 Best Films.

It has a lot of male stars too numerous to mention but I was particularly pleased to see Robert Mitchum featured extensively.

I got through it. I want a battle star.

WHAT?

3 Prisoners Commit Suicide at Guantánamo

This is the mindset of the Commander of Gitmo.

They are smart, they are creative, they are committed," Admiral Harris said. "They have no regard for life, neither ours nor their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.

It reads like a lot of self-centered bullshit to me.

It is all about us.

See how the kind of thing we are doing there feeds on itself? And this is the guy who runs the place.

This is the same kind of thing that drove the Dreyfus case in the movie yesterday.

We are not wrong. We cannot be seen as wrong. It would be a stain on the honor of our efforts to save America from a foreign threat.

It is just insanity.

I remember that in other wars we have demonized the enemy with this kind of diatribe.

"No regard for human life".

Indeed.

J'ACCUSE

Civilization will not attain to its perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest." — Émile Zola

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Films was

The Life of Émile Zola (1937)

It is a dumb title as the film is not about Zola's life so much as his role in uncovering the Dreyfus Affair in France.

A life long muckraker, Zola gets fat on his own profits and rediscovers himself by becoming a very very unpopular champion of the Jew Dreyfus.

To see this film as a propaganda piece just prior to WWII is a bit strong but the message is there nonetheless. Antisemitism. The drive for power by the establishment. The acquiescence to justice by those in power.

Actually, if you generalize about the anti-semitism and go with special interest bashing you have the bushies today.

The main thing about this somewhat over the top film is the performance of Paul Muni who is not remembered today but, at the time, was a great actor and star.

He inhabits the role in this story and the film comes alive when he is on the scene. He goes through emotions in seconds that are independent of the words. It is all in his face and body and voice.

It is a bit of a period piece but quite watchable and even if you know the end of the story (which is a matter of historical record) there is a lot of suspense to it.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

ELECTIVES

I was going to write about the election results.

To a great extent (more than usual) my people got elected.

I liked Angelides for Governor. The other guy went right to negative ads and is a dick anyway.

The two props got beaten.

They did re-nominate the hack sheriff of the County but I can handle that.

My Assembly nomination is still in the counting. A dead heat. We don't know.

We are all for whoever wins though. The GOP incumbent was at the wedding we went to last weekend or whenvever it was. Gotta get her out of office.

And so on.

Mostly, anticlimactical. But, I wrote so much about it before I figured it should get a followup. Feeble as this is.

EYE WASH!

I went to the eye doctor for my annual checkup this week.

I go to an opthalmologist because I have some history with 'flashes' (now several years since I had them) and I am also skeptical of optometrists. I had a bad one once.

So, I went. I have shopped around for an eye doc. There are not that many.

The first one I had would strand you in the exam room for half hour lengths and always had five people in the waiting room who didn't have appointments working some emergency; most on post op problems with the guy I was seeing.

The first time I went, I chalked it up to coincidence. The second time, when the same thing happened, I just walked out and told no one where I was going. They never called me either.

The people I have now are really good docs. They work a tight and accurate schedule. But they are so totally tight assed.

There is no small talk, no humor, no nothing. The lowest affect you will ever see. I think that it is enforced as a hedge against error. I am sure that they go to low affect school. No one could be this way on purpose.

"No grab ass in the waiting or examination rooms. It might cause error in the lens formula!!"

The other thing is that they are rocked with paper work. Every time I go there are new forms. They blame Medicare. They blame the insurance companies. There is no recourse. Fill this shit out.

It is all very lame. Stuff that is in my records there. Irrelevant info. Medical history about stuff that has no relevance to my eyes. I am sure they are standard forms that they got from some convention somewhere.

Maybe they hired a consultant.

I have been going to two other docs for years — on the Medicare as well as the supplemental — and I never fill out forms. I don't know that I did when I started with them but I suppose that I did.

Anyway, I hate this paperwork. I pout and roll my eyes and get all attitudinal. I make a fool of myself, I suppose.

I gotta let it go.

It is just the way that they are. And I want to have accurate prescriptions as well as good medical care.

But shit, let's not blame it all on the government and the companies.

Shit. I am on a rant, huh?

I got a good report though. The same level of result as 'no cavities' at the dentist.

No change in prescription.

Oh. And I didn't give them my SSN either. I have stopped putting it on forms.

Maybe it is not them.

Maybe I am just a rebel. Counterdependent, my business partners used to call me. Contrary. Don't fuck with me.

I don't go quietly. I guess it is OK but it does lead to some scenes here and there.

I got it from my Dad. That is my excuse. They blame Medicare. I blame my Dad.

PALMISTRY

Every year has its seasons and, here in the desert, there is no exception.

It is just that we have different kinds of seasons; almost all of them horticultural.

This, for instance, is the Palm Trimming Season. It has followed closely on the Third Annual Planting Season (annuals only tri-annual) and will be followed by the Hot-Dormancy Season.

There are lots of palm trees. We have thousands in the town and ten in our yard depending on where you draw the property line—if we get to trim them, they are ours and so the line moves.

In late May, the palms all start to seed. Pods grow out from the leaves and then explode in thousands of little winged seeds per tree.

They crunch when you walk on them and stick to everything. They can clog a pool filter. They cause some people to get sinus problems.

You gotta cut the ones that are close to the house. And the leaves too as they will soon die and droop unless you want to make a skirt.

There are some who just cut the seed pods and let the leaves drop to the trunk and form a skirt. We have four skirted trees on the bank (where the property line is).

The skirts are home to rats, snakes, bats, and god only knows what else. We are all good neighbors.

So, our four palms, close to the house, have been cut. We are the first on the block. They all have three fronds sticking out of the top. They look as though they have had a crew cut. But, the new growth will come back quickly.

Ours are done 'by hand' with a machete and a genuine climbing cutter. No chain saws. No cherry pickers.

The underfoot crunch is mostly gone and the pool is clean. We have pretty much vacuumed all of the seeds that have been brought into the house.

The outdoor areas got airblown the other day but it takes a while to get all of it out of the yard. A lot of the seeds blow up into the air and then just settle back down again.

You gotta hose them out.

There are two of the other neighbor's trees that are close enough to cause trouble but he will be an early cutter too. At least he has in the past.

Another season gone.

Now we are waiting for the Hot-Dormancy Season where everything pretty much goes into a fetal position to hide from the ultraviolet rays. Some plants like it but not many. I do not fertilize in the summer. You want to discourage growth.

VIS AVERSA

Shares Fall Sharply Early, but Finish With Some Gains

I notice that I am getting more risk averse in my life.

Nowhere does this show up more glaringly than in my 'management' of my retirement nest egg.

I put ' 's on it because it is basically unmanagable except in the grossest terms.

The recent slide in the market had me screaming every other day to my wonderful Smith Barney advisor.

Now, I see that I should have taken the top or near the top a couple of weeks ago and tweaked my portfolio towards bonds. Less risk, less elastic.

That would have taken care of some future anxiety.

Trouble is that I just did this a short time ago. Too much tinkering doesn't make jack.

I hate to admit that I fit the accurate cliché of an amateur player; a chicken ready to be plucked.

When the market is high, I think only of its going higher. When there is a new low, as in yesterday (keerist was it low for awhile) I think that I should stay in and wait for it to go up.

Las Vegas is built on such a sucker scenario.

So here is my plan.

I will wait for it to go up (sucker) but when it hits over 11200 I will tweak the mix toward cash and bonds again.

Will I be able to do it?

Risk averse or not, I am battling the loser position of thinking that I know diddly shit about the market or what or where it will go.

WSJ?OTD NUMBER TWO

Hard work for us from the WSJ today. Two questions. Here is the second one.

"Do you approve of the way Google has dealt with China's Internet rules?"

I said NO and 68% of the other respondents agreed with me.

I thought it was bad enough that Yahoo and MS had bent over and held their ankles for the repressive government but to find Google bending to competitive and whatever other pressures really made me cringe.

I really liked their 'do no evil' mantra.

Well, we all make mistakes and evidently the two founders are aware that they have tripped up.

We shall see what we will shall see.

Ethics and values are very slippery things in a business setting and this is a more glaring example than most of that fact.

WSJ?OTD

"Will the Zarqawi killing mark a major turning point in the Iraq war?

My answer NO.

I even thought to myself 'are you kidding'?

Happily, I found the first comment in the section said the same thing.

Also 55% said NO and agreed with me.

Nothing is going to slow the so-called 'insurgency'. It is really a civil war with an islamo fanatic terrorist component hooked onto it.

Not a nice combination but certainly not an insurgency.

This guy's death, as welcome as it might be, will not stop it.

Welcome? Well sure. These bastards only stop when they are dead. But it is not a 'victory'.

Another thing. Don't be surprised if, in a couple of days, we find out that they were wrong; that it was some other guy on his way to the supermarket.

REVOLUTIONARY

Of course, I am a fan of Netflix. I am a five at a time member.

This article told me two things I did not know (at least).

What Netflix Could Teach Hollywood

I didn’t know that the spread for daily titles was so high. Out of the 60,000 titles, 35-40,000 per day are selected. What a base of interest!

The other thing that I didn’t know is that they have so micro-managed the mailing system that they have trucks that pick up my discs from my post office and deliver the same way.

That would explain the emails over a year about how many days it was taking to get delivery.

They now have it down to overnight.

I got the five day pack because I had to get over the mail lag. Now, maybe I don’t need it.

Unintended consequences for them. But I guess they know, and I know, that I will not do that. I like having three or four on my desk to choose from.

In a day and age when service is out the window for many companies, it is great to see that Netflix is against the drain.

The man with the plan is Reed Hastings.

Genius.

PERIOD PIECE

We have heard about Great Britain’s angry young men. They produced a batch of plays post-War.

I suppose that in their time, the collapse of the class system, lack of jobs, the trauma of war and all that molded their anger.

It is hard to see that from today’s film

Look Back In Anger (1958)

We have Richard Burton, Mary Ure, Claire Bloom and Dame Edith Evans grinding their acting chops very hard but it is hard to see how they got the way they are and why they stay together at all.

Burton is a bit of an anomaly as he is acting in the theatrical style where the others are more realistic. It will be interesting to see if this is how he did his bit with Liz Taylor in Wolfe.

Perhaps, as John suggested, he is a Johnny one-note.

But, he is angry. Boy is he angry. His erudite anger is covered by his having been to university but still, no one gets that poetically pissed.

Or do they?

The production is rather good. It is Tony Richardson’s first film direction and he does pull out the stops a bit.

It is still a nasty bit of business.

I will give it a 2 out of Netflix5.

I am sure that the people at the NYTimes Best Film List picked this one because of Burton (he left little film actually before his early death) and because of Richardson and John Osborne whose play the film is based on.

With that much caché, it must be good, right?

Wrong.

It is nice, incidentally, to see Donald Pleasance hone his skills at playing a weasel in this one.

Burton died of booze and a career gone awry. We know which came first of course. Look at that picture of him young and unspoiled. Welsh. They have a talent for self destruction.

SMOKE NO FIRE

This is a great photo and a unique sighting from the space station.

An Alaskan Volcano Erupts

HARD BOILED

I read all of Raymond Chandler once.

It is good stuff.

Today we watched the Robert Altman update of his main novels

The Long Goodbye (1973).

He takes a Fifties private eye (Elliot Gould) and plunks him down in the Seventies. He arrives chainsmoking and in the same black suit throughout the film. Noir comes to La La Land.

There is a plot but it is cursory. Mostly it is about the interactions.

I found it interesting but one of the problems here is that we have the Fifties shamus traipsing around in the Seventies while watching from the 'new millenium'.

Time warp. I could get with it though.

Gould is good. He was better than the career he ended up having.

The other actors are all 'amateurs' except for Sterling Hayden who plays a Hemingway like alcoholic writer.

There are more dogs in this film than any we have seen save Amores Perros and they are all great scene stealers. There is even a small cat who takes the lead in the first ten minutes. I have no idea what that is about except that, at many times, the dogs are more coherent than the people.

I liked it but not that much really. It is a notch on the viewing chair.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

There are two Ebert reviews. Here is the other one from the date of the actual opening of the picture.

MR. BILL

Here he comes!

Remember, he got sidelined in 2004 with the bypass thing.

He will be kicking some serious ass.

Clinton Is the Life of the Democratic Party

JERRY

One of the reasons that politics is more fun in California.

This Time, Jerry Brown Wants to Be a Lawman

And I will vote for him too.

I love the line "Do I like politics? Did Picasso like to paint?".

25

I found out how they count it. From the NYTimes today:

On June 5, 1981, in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, brief note was taken of a peculiar cluster of pneumonia cases in five otherwise healthy gay men.

The item was the first official mention of a scourge that had no name, no known means of transmission, no treatment and no cure.

BUZZZZZZ

OK. This is starting to get exciting again. We are leaning into the 2008 prez race!

I thought that I was so over all this shit.

But then I read this and got all a-tingle

We have a two track opportunity!

I have let go of Richardson. Simply not realistic.

My brief excitement over Al Gore is over. He still doesn't have the fire in his belly.

They have tried to jab him into declaring all week with no results.

Too late.

The anyonebutHillary forces have been out in heavy force. And, some from very surprising sources.

For now, I am thinking new faces. Let's go.

Which Way to the White House; Warner and Feingold in New Hampshire

OK. So maybe these two guys are not 'it'. But they are close enough to get a huge mass of NH-demos out and screaming. The energy of the crowd is palpable in this article.

I think we smell blood.

NEUROTICA

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was

Lovely and Amazing (2002)

It is by the Indie director Nicole Holofcener. She just put out Friends With Money. John went and hated it.

We went to this when it was out and I didn't like it then. I don't have a lot of tolerance for self-pity.

I also cannot fucking stand Catherine Keener. And I don't like Brenda Bethyn much either; the mother.

Three sisters; one mother. Two birth sisters; one adopted and black.

All fucked up.

It is a comedy so we have to face the fact that fucked up is funny. In this sense, it turns the table and treats the ladies in the same rough way that men are treated in other films.

For example, one of the sisters, Catherine Keener, gets hauled in for statutory rape of a teenage boy (the younger Jake Gyllenhaal).

Emily Mortimer gets to bed a self centered actor, Dermot Mulroney, who we love. Self absorption is his specialty.

The mom and the little black girl, starved for love, have severe eating disorders.

And so on.

I will give this a 3 out of Netflix5 since there are some laughs and even though I find these women excessively annoying, there is a lot of inventive stuff in the picture that is kinda fun to see.

On the other hand, maybe it is a 2. I will see how it sets.

I do not ever want to see it again except for out takes of Mulroney. Gyllenhaal is still too young for me in this. It would be statutory ogling for me to see his bits more than once.

REMEMBER

This is AIDS' 25th Anniversary.

I don't know how they count it but we all remember that it was 1981 when we first heard the news.

It is a slow motion version of 'where were you when........'.

Only, it would be 'how did you hear'? 'When did you take it seriously for the first time?

I first heard about it through the gay media coverage of the famous NYTimes series that broke the news of a 'new gay cancer'.

I can remember the denial that we all felt. There was a lot of scurrying around looking for the cause.

No one thought that the cause was our own capricious behavior.

Well, the virus too.

I remember that, for awhile, they thought it might be 'poppers' (amyl nitrate inhaled). Then maybe, well no, it couldn't be that. And what about..........

For some, those questions still arise. As people deny the Jewish Holocaust, there are still people who deny the virus holocaust and un-safe sex as the cause.

Most famously, a great gay literary magazine Christopher Street, forgot their primary purpose and became advocates for alternative AIDS theory and foundered on the rocks of real science.

Our first hand experience was not slow.

We knew NYC guys from our annual visits to a gay resort in St. Croix.

One year, 1980, there were a bunch of healthy guys and the next year, 1981, one member of a couple we knew had a 'strange form' of lymphoma. He was dead by the summer.

The year after that, (1982) there was word and evidence of 5 or 6 guys. That summer, it hit Boston.

To say that the epidemic exploded would be an understatement.

There is no telling young men today what that was like.

Friends would be vibrant and healthy one week and then be declining and wasting away; age 40 years in a few months and die.

We had to learn new words like Kaposi's Sarcoma and Pneumocystis; new terms to describe behavior; dementia. And we learned how to be with friends who were hopeless and helpless in the face of their opportunistic infections; all of them weird and sort of space-alienish.

Death was a weekly event.

In the beginning, when no one seemed to be able to pinpoint a cause, everyone got crazy about what to do or what not to do to be safe.

A few men I know gave up sex forever.

There was no information on incubation. We all tried to remember who we had been with and how we had been with them. And then we counted.

The last man I spent any time with, before John, died. We were told that we would have to wait as long as ten years to be safe. That number changed but I can tell you that when the HIV test became available there was anxiety at each test for a very long time.

How many friends did we lose? Uncounted.

I quit going to memorial services. One had to harden oneself. Or I thought I did. Now I wonder at what cost.

In those early days there was great solidarity around finding a cause and then prevention of the disease.

If there are good things that come out of the AIDS experience it is that building of community.

The gay culture changed radically. When we were first a couple it was sort of bad form to be 'out of the action'. Suddenly, couplehood looked very good.

Some think that the thrust for gay marriage comes out of that time of finding partners and staying with them and building lives together beyond the party and the sex. Not to say that it was not already happening. But, it began to make sense for basic reasons and many men began to fear and loathe aloneness as a result of the plague.

One symbol of our solidarity was the AIDS Quilt.

I can remember the first time we saw it. It was still small enough for most of it to be spread out in the Armory on Columbus Avenue. It had Boston panels.

We sat on the floor and cried our way through the quilt.

Now, the quilt is a relic, the largest example of home-craft, an interesting icon. But it is still beloved, nonetheless.

Here is a nice article from the LA Times about it:

AIDS Quilt Old and Fading

I had forgotten that each panel was the size of a grave.

So where are we today?

I don't know.

There are still new rates of infection. Unsafe sex. The deniers. The party goes on.

There is an alternative.

In any event, it is a battle now joined across the board. Gay men no longer bear the weight of the disease alone. In a way, the fact that the stigma is gone, is a bad thing. It propagates the belief that there are no consequences for unsafe behavior; that a cocktail of drugs will keep you healthy, wealthy and wise; and, oh yes, pretty.

But, you know, guys still die. We see it. Sometimes it seems that half the gay men I meet are HIV positive. But that is in a general population. And my magnifier at work. I personally know only a few poz guys and they are doing very well.

We know from experience that the cocktail is not forever for most people. The battle continues.

It is not over.

25 years and still counting.

CAFFERTY

Boy, I like this guy on or off CNN

Guess what Monday is? Monday is the day President Bush will speak about an issue near and dear to his heart and the hearts of many conservatives. It's also the day before the Senate votes on the very same thing. Is it the war? Deficits? Health insurance? Immigration? Iran? North Korea?

Not even close. No, the president is going to talk about amending the Constitution in order to ban gay marriage. This is something that absolutely, positively has no chance of happening, nada, zippo, none. But that doesn't matter. Mr. Bush will take time to make a speech. The Senate will take time to talk and vote on it, because it's something that matters to the Republican base.

This is pure politics. If has nothing to do with whether or not you believe in gay marriage. It's blatant posturing by Republicans, who are increasingly desperate as the midterm elections approach. There's not a lot else to get people interested in voting on them, based on their record of the last five years.

But if you can appeal to the hatred, bigotry, or discrimination in some people, you might move them to the polls to vote against that big, bad gay married couple that one day might in down the street.

If you want to hear him say it and see him at the same time--wow!--teevee!--here it is:

Cafferty: Hatred, Bigotry and Discrimination