Thursday, June 30, 2011
FAMILY FEUD
Today's film was Claude Chabrol's fiftieth production
La fleur du mal / The Flower of Evil (2003)
This is the best of the three that I have seen so far.
An upper middle class family with a long pedigree (but merchants, oh dear) repeat history but not quite in the way that history would have predicted. A romance between cousins, the cousins parents married to each other, the mom running for Mayor of the town, an aunt who has the family memories of collaboration in the Second World War and her brother who............
But don't let me get ahead of the film.
Again, a great one take track for the titles and at its end a surprise that looms over us for the rest of the film.
Great acting, superb production, the usual fast action, clear plot and a shocking ending make this a very enjoyable film to see. Again, everything looks good on the surface but just an inch down, oh la la.
I will give this one a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
STONE FACED
Today's film was Claud Chabrol's
La demoiselle d'honneur / The Bridesmaid (2004)
Phillipe (the sexy actor Benoît Magimel playing it kind of naive) attracts the attention of his sister's bridesmaid, actually her new husband's cousin who looks very much like a stone head the family has had in its yard.
The attraction leads to complications that only Chabrol could concoct. The attraction leads to obsession and involvement in the past life of this young woman. And the stone head.
This is not the kind of film you can describe. You sort of have to be there. And Chabrol helps one through the weird spots with some signposts. You have to see them though.
As expected, it is beautifully produced. The opening sequence, remember this when you see it, is a tour de force of the long continuous shot.
This is not my favorite of his films but it is very much worth while.
I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
ONCE A SHIT, ALWAYS A SHIT
Well, we all know that Giuliani is a bastard.
Triple that.
Gay couple claims Giuliani ignoring pledge to marry them
I remember this. It was a good thing when he did it. Stayed at a gay couples house for six months. Said some nice things.
Now? Nuh uh.
Rudy is Rudy. Rudy first, all others last.
This was, at the time, the one thing that I thought was good about him. Now. No. Not good.
Labels: evil bastards, gay marriage, republican whack jobs
TURN IT OVER
Today was the annual turning of the mattress day.
They say you should do this every 90 days but I can't get enthused for doing it that often.
So we settle for annually.
It isn't difficult and it doesn't take long but it has to be done right. It is not just a flip over. It is a turn, a flip and a turn. Here!
Labels: housekeeping
CHABROL FEST
I am going to be watching a number of films by
over the next couple of weeks.
Chabrol is one of the first
directors and worked mostly on mysteries and thrillers. He was an ardent student of Hitchcock. But, as a new wave guy, his films look or feel nothing like Hitchcock's which were almost all on built sets and extremely script driven. I think it is the psychology of the thing which matches up.
Today's film was Chabrol's very last movie
with Gerard Dépardieu as the peripatetic inspector who can't give up a little investigation while on vacation.
The film is quite charming and gentle as Chabrol's later films became with many aphorisms and observations of life. An old man's summing up.
And in the heart of it is a case of murder or assisted suicide depending on who you believe.
As in many of Chabrol's films, the journey is the destination.
I enjoyed it very much. Dépardieu fits the role beautifully. Wry and gentle when he needs to be. Tough and relentless when he must. There is also a side story about the inspector's brother who is more a black sheep of the family.
I would not mind seeing it again and will give it a 4 out of Netflx5.
Labels: films
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
POST BEATLES LENNON
Todays movie was the A&E documentary
I got this to fill out the Lennon story after I saw Nowhere Boy which covers the time when he was 15 and just getting started with a band. Mostly, it is the story of his home life at that time and his coming of age. And his charismatic personality.
This documentary proved to be the perfect follow up.
First because it starts in 1970 and is post Beatles. Second because it features and rounds out the man who the boy became.
Pretty close. There are parts where his teen time is referred to as well as his personality which, really, is as interesting about Lennon as the music.
I had forgotten all the trouble he got in by associating with the peace movement and the Nixon attempts to get him deported. I didn't know about his "lost weekend" in LA after some difficulty with Yoko Ono. I was delighted to see his life after he recovers and becomes a dad and househusband.
The film ends with his death and deals with it in a particularly appropriate way. Hard to do.
This is a very good doc. I assume that most of it is true as there are a number of "outsiders" involved although the hand of Yoko is heavy indeed.
I liked it. I was moved. He was a great and very interesting man. True to himself. Honest with the world.
I would happily watch it again. I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
YEAR
Yesterday was the first anniversary of moving from our house to this condo.
We are very settled. It has the funny combination of feeling new, yet totally comfortable and homey.
"It" being us, the condo, the complex, the neighborhood and the entire situation.
To the extent that we moved to have an easier life, that has been realized. As I type, someone is worrying about trimming the palm trees. Someone else is paying for the pool to be cleaned. I didn't realize the load.
Financially, our expectations have been met. The costs are about what we thought. No exception. As a kind of celebration, we got our new property assessment the other day and that was in line with expectations too.
Downsizing is OK.
I am still waiting to totally miss something.
I had trouble at first with the absence of routine, the "worry" about whether the new guy would take care of "my" house and plants. I got over that pretty quickly. A friend suggested that I think about the money we made from the sale. Dollars can be a real nostalgia killer.
We got rid of a lot of stuff. I suppose that I have looked for or wanted something that is not here any more. But I couldn't tell you what it is.
Booker is very happy here. He seems more together. Once he learned the new boundaries he seemed more at ease. For one thing, we don't have as many varmints and animals here to bark or worry about. The neighbor's cat has lately been more interested in our courtyard and he doesn't like that but we had cat incursions in the old place.
The neighborhood is much better for dog and people walking. There are many directions with a wide variety of scenery and "smells". A park, the village, other neighborhoods. All very satisfying.
So it is a good deal. We are happy. A good decision and a good year.
Labels: condo
ALMOND TREAT
Today's "film" was a Mark Almond concert at Lokerse Feesten, a festival in Belgium. The year is 2000.
This is the last of the available Almond discs. There are a couple more to be released but no dice yet.
I have had a lot of Marc Almond in the last months. This does not disappoint but as a festival concert it lacks the intimacy of the usual venue. Almond discusses this on the interview. He has an audience of about a third fans, a third who never heard of him and a third who only know the hits and didn't know he was behind them.
This comes across in the performance. Basically he has to make his own energy. But things do get cooking as the selections become more familiar.
I like him a lot and after three or four DVDs I am ready to take a rest and wait for the new releases.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
JOINING THE TEAM
I joined up with Obama's Team 2012 today.
That means that I have become a monthly donor to the campaign.
I had already declared myself "IN". I have the bumper sticker on the Volvo. We had given some money here and there up to now. But this puts us IN even deeper.
I get some stuff for this. Mostly emails and an occasional video.
Later, I plan to volunteer but at this point I think it is a bit early to start calling people.
This is what I did before. I was just waiting for them to ask me.
Labels: Re-election of Barack Obama
HAPLESS
There is a whole cadré of Republicans who want Jon Huntsman to be their white knight. Ride in and save the party from the wing nuts and the knuckle draggers.
I am afraid that their fantasy is just that.
And so does Politico who I haven't a lot of respect for but do heed their instincts.
Buzzkill: The problem with Jon Huntsman Hype
Never mind his limping first turn. The announcement that flopped. His own staff misspelling his name, the errors on the web site, arranging flights to New Hampshire for reporters that turned out to be for Saudi Arabia. Really.
That is inept staff work.
But he is achingly inept. He doesn't even show much energy.
What can he be thinking?
I mention this as he scrapes the bottom of the Iowa poll. He is not going to run there. Since when is that a good idea for a national candidate who wants to be taken seriously?
Last time, for the Democrats, it was central. Now, for the Republicans, it is being treated like a second rate tent show by some candidates with staffs who should know better.
Of course, Romney is not a shoo in and there could be excitement. Bachman? But to stay out of the fray is stupid. A sign of failure.
And Obama killed his chances some time ago with the China appointment.
One final thing, to pile on. I think that we could handle a President Barack, way strange, but somehow a President Jon is a bit too twee.
Labels: Republican primary
ADOLESCENCE THE HARD WAY
Today's film was Matt Reeves
This is the American version of the same novel on which the Swedish film Let the Right One In was based so, technically, it is not a remake. I don't watch remakes.
I liked the other version very much and will see it again with this one at the end of the queue. I would have done it this time if knew how much I would like this version too.
Let it be said that this is about kids. A boy who is picked on and a girl who is, well, not really like other girls.
She lives with her father, who it turns out is not her father, and has just moved in next door to the boy.
They become friends even though she tells him that she cannot have friends.
There are killings going on in the neighborhood, Las Alamos. A made up town built on the nuclear bomb development. There is a lot of snow. It is always snowing. The train whistle blows a lot.
Not too weird.
I don't want to get into the action. I can say that the boy is studying Romeo and Juliet in school.
The film is very good. It is just scary enough and just gruesome enough to make you jump but not over the top scary to make you distance from things.
The hardest part, actually, is to see the bullying that goes on with the other boys.
Don't worry, there will be a payoff.
That isn't a spoiler. We know there will be.
I will give this a 4 if I didn't know that I was going to watch it again with the other one later.
So, a 5 out of Netflix5. A little over the top but a review is a review.
Labels: films
QUIET
I am a self avowed introvert.
For many years I have used this article as a way to explain what an introvert feels and looks like and why it is OK to be one.
Caring For Your IntrovertI have come to terms with my introversion. I don't go to parties. I don't make small talk. I have had a great career in public speaking and directing management workshops.
K can have an enlivened conversation with someone if they are engaging and the topic is of interest.
See? The parts don't fit for the extroverted person. "How could this be", they say. Well, get it, showoff, it just is.
Introverts are not isolators or victims of clinical depression. Get this. They do very well in their work with other people. It is just that enough is enough already. Leave me alone now.
I am delighted to say that I have a new article to show people.
Is Shyness an Evolutionary Tactic
It makes the argument that introverts are necessary to the survival of the species. Well, I don't quite get it, but it seemed true as I read it.
Look. Any good PR that introverts can get is a good thing. Whether it is psychobabble or neo-Darwinian speculation.
Speculation because most talk of evolutionary wrinkles require a cook time of at least a 1000 years.
But I will take it anywhere I can get it.
Right now on my list of occasions to be dealt with are a dinner with friends from the old neighborhood which has to be reciprocated. Why?
A memorial service in mid July for a friend who died two weeks ago? Why do it? Why wait so long? Didn't you get a chance to say goodbye to him while he was alive? I did. I talked to him every time I saw him with love and affection as though it was the last time I would see him. He knew that was going on and reciprocated. Why go to something which is clearly about the near friends and extroverts who just want to make his death about them? This happens all the time. Have you noticed? Wait until you die and then notice who shows up with the biggest crocodile tears. They can't help it. They are extroverts.
I don't think that there is any thing else looming. But there are still the surprise events. The chance encounters. I had to pry myself away from a dog talk this morning with my husband a neighbor. Nice enough up to a point. Booker, who is like me, and I went home and left them to gab away. Extroverting all over each other.
Labels: life, psychology
Saturday, June 25, 2011
RETHINKING
After 24 hours of reaction in my head, I amend my rating of Nowhere Boy (2009)
I will be rating it a 5 out of Netflix5 and I will be watching it again in a year or at the end of a long queue.
Here is what has hit me.
Many, if not all, scenes echo actual Lennon songs either in title or content.
The Lennon "character" shows extraordinary courage and what some would call stubbornness. What others might call "attitude".
He faces down actual physical danger in a way that even has a flair about it. Most of the vignettes that we see are true or true enough. Photos at the end show the actual boys, men and situations. Some are right out of the movie........wait a minute. The movie is right out of the real photos.
In addition, the triangle aspect of the character's development makes great sense from the viewpoint of coming of age. Two mothers. He seeks answers and demands getting them. He stays through the process despite considerable pain. The short part about his relationship with his uncle is glorious. You can see where the mischievousness came from as well as the irreverence for the status quo. Great love between the young and older man.
The film itself is very well made.
An interesting aspect of this production is that they faced the choice of actor look-alikes or actors who could convey the spirit and "attitude" of Lennon. They chose well in Aaron Johnson. Also the smaller parts of Paul and George. Not look alikes. Feel alikes.
This is one of the very few pictures that I watched the "making of sections". Very nice.
This is not what one would call a biopic. It is more a study of a boy becoming a man and, by the way, he chooses music as a form of expression of his rather sophisticated thoughts and feelings.
Labels: films
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
Today's film was the documentary
in which a young guy gets involved with a girl on Facebook, writes back and forth, texts, calls. A virtual romance.
Then doubts creep in.
This guy has a brother who makes documentary films and is a compulsive videographer, so the whole things gets documented and, when it appears that there are questions about the validity of the girls identity, focus on running the thing down all the way to going to visit the girl.
The rest is up to you to see.
This is at once a real-life mystery and a dive into the realm of the internet age. How people see what they want to see and other people are who they want to be and the whole thing gets out of hand.
In this case, not out of hand in a bad way.
The guy here is really a gently, happy, person with a lot of heart and the film makers are caring about how they deal with the situation. While the story gets weirder and weirder, it also gets clearer and clearer. Lightness turns to dark but not in a terribly bad way.
Why am I babbling about this?
Because it is fascinating and explores every doubt and concern that I have had about the social networks and the people who get caught in them.
I would not mind seeing it again. A 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Friday, June 24, 2011
TIP THE SCALES
New York Allows Same-Sex Marriage, Becoming Largest State to Pass Law
Things like gay marriage are decided on the basis of public opinion. Law has little to do with it. When the time has come for something to change, it changes.
And this could/is the case with New York's restoration of the rights of gay people around marriage.
California could have been the tipper but it let the Mormons get in the way. Sorry to say.
Now, New York gets the go ahead.
And, just in time for Stonewall.
This has been a long time coming. It is about rights, not marriage.
The Stonewall riots were about rights. Gay marriage is about rights.
The fight goes on.
Labels: gay marriage, gay rights
TRIANGLE
Today's movie was
the probably apocryphal story of John Lennon's late teens and his relationships with his aunt, with whom he lived for many years, and his mother who was in hiding, in plain sight, from him. When he meets his mother the two women in his life become formative. It is a kind of triangle, actually a good, if painful, one.
On top of this is the more or less true story, they say, of his finding music, finding Paul, finding his skill as a poet (and cartoonist) and Paul and he finding George.
No Ringo yet.
A lot of this film is fun, it is very well acted and it is a relief that they have made little attempt to make John and Paul look like the real thing. It is in the spirit of the two, really.
Aaron Johnson is wonderful as John. Kristin Scott-Thomas is Aunt Mimi and Anne-Marie Duff as his Mum.
I really enjoyed watching this film and would not mind seeing it again.
It is a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Thursday, June 23, 2011
DREAD
Today's film was Johan Grimonprez’s
a meditation on the work of Alfred Hitchcock and the times in which he made his films.
The period under study is the mid Fifties to the mid Sixties.
My time. Young adult.
It all made sense to me.
Hitchcock had successfully harnessed the pre-WWII period of worry, the WWII period of anti-fascism, the post war period of loss of individual identity. The cold war introduced another Hitchcock.
Grimonprez uses old clips from the television show and two movies as well as a short story/essay by Jorge Luis Borges as well as two Hitchcock impersonators, voice and character to mash together with news clips and headlines. The continued arc of Folger's coffee commercials (anxiety over good taste) are used to leaven the loaf.
Does this sound serious? Well, I suppose it is but it is almost always fun.
Hitchcock saw what was going on and used it for his films. He used his own persona continually throughout his entire career. A cameo in each picture and, later, a huge bit as the host of the television series.
In his work with The Birds he relied heavily on publicity stunts. Something that he had not done before. Tippi Hedrin at his side.
During this film I had the same feeling of dread that I used to have watching the Hitchcock films. What is next? What will happen? A feeling of powerlessness.
Well, it was the time of the Kruschev Nixon debates and the Cuban missile crisis.
Is the film any good? Hard to tell. I endured it. I laughed some. It is a bit overwrought. I would not want to see it again but I am glad that I saw it once.
That means it gets a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
SAAB STORY
I think I wrote about this before but now the story is a lot worse.
Saab Runs Out of Cash to Pay Wages.
The bottom of the barrel.
We had SAABs in Boston. First there was Audi, then SAAB.
I spell it that way because that is the original initialed official name. Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget.
The "old SAAB auto was great. It had a putt putt sound that was unmistakable when you heard it.
It was the result of an error in design. They made aircraft engines and a necessary feature for flight was included in the auto motor. Before they caught it, people turned on to it and it became a trademark. They looked a little funny. Like Citroen, they could look as if they were traveling sideways. They weren't.
There is the model we had. Same color! Beryl. What a name.
I quit Audi when they started going forward in Park. Or something. It turned out to be a phony issue, more or less, but the way that they dealt with the problem pissed me off. Germanic. The guy in Norwell, Rietzl, was all Teutonic attitude. That hard edged no give or take stuff. He isn't there any more but the dealership is.
So we left the Kraut and found SAAB. I can call him a "kraut" because that is my ethnicity, 100%. It is like it is OK for me to say "faggot" but not you. Unless you are one.
We had a small SAAB dealer near Coolidge Corner in Boston. It was an old fashioned place. Two brothers. One sold the other fixed. It was all a bit greasy but fun.
We had three vehicles. Shear pleasure. All convertibles made for the cold country.
Then disaster. GM bought the company and closed down all the small dealers. Just like that.
Our dealer became a big multi model place out the turnpike.
This was just about the time we were planning to move to the desert so we sold out. There was no closeby SAAB dealer in Palm Springs. We got a Jeep. i know. It doesn't make sense but that is what we did. Deserts, off road, like that.
When we got here we realized one car would not be enough in Southern California, in the wilds. So we got a Chrysler Sebring. It had been a good rental for us and sort of looked like our SAAB and we didn't need the winterizing. We also got an old 1964 Chrysler Le Baron Town and Country Mark Cross Edition Convertible (plastic woody). If two cars wasn't enough we should have a third.
A year ago when we moved, we consolidated. One car.
And we were sort of led to Volvo.
It is a great car. We love it. It is very much like the SAABs. Totally ergonometric and full of prethought features we don't even know about until they are there.
The Volvo guy is a small dealer like the old SAAB place in Coolidge Corner. They say that the Volvo is so good because they hired a lot of SAAB designers on the bounce.
Great. Too bad about SAAB. Sad story. Modern capitalism. GM went under and sold them off to a Chinese company who then spun them off to someone else. Spurned. Too bad. Life goes on.
Labels: automobiles
WHITEY
So, finally, they caught Whitey Bulger.
Whitey Bulger Arrested in California
Just a couple of days after a new APB, they found his girlfriend and then the man himself.
If you do not know who Whitey is then you are not from Boston.
Bulger has been on the lam for many years and has been one of the most wanted men on the FBI's list.
His notoriety is more tasty because there is a side story. His brother, William, was, at one time, one of the highest profile politicians in Massachusetts. Speaker of the House and Democratic Party leader he finally became President of the University of Massachusetts. He was a brazen bastard himself and succeeded in spite of his brother's bad guy career.
Whitey was a killer. He was also an FBI informant, a sideline that will certainly emerge as he is charged and tried.
His life was the stuff of movies. In fact one, The Departed was ostensibly about him. One of the rare sightings over the years was at a screening of this film in San Diego.
If I was on the run, I would come to California. It is warm and the people are nice. And, more than in the east, they mind their own business.
What would it be like to successfully elude the authorities all this time and then be caught at 81, your sunset years? Let's see if Whitey has anything to say about it.
Labels: crime
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
WE HAVE GOT THE HOTS
113 degrees F. today. About six percent humidity.
It gets you in the face when you go out. Like being hit by a wet cloth only this is hot and dry. A general whap of dry heat.
We are more careful in our night walk. Booker needs to be reminded to stay on the grass and on shady pavement.
As soon as the sun is off the surface, the asphalt cools right off. Concrete is always cooler than asphalt.
Grass is the best of course.
We can do a 30 minute walk right here in the complex and stay on safe feet.
Some friends bought their dogs booties. One loves them. The other, well, not so much.
I don't think that Booker is a candidate for boots. He is happy enough watching his step and I help him as well.
We do get to open the house from about 3 AM until 10 AM or so. Then, time for air.
We keep the house at 79. Most people are a lot lower than that. Cooler is really uncomfortable for me.
That is the summer story. Our "winter".
Labels: weather
BEING GAY IS A LOT OF FUN MOST OF THE TIME
Today's movie was
I got this along with a DVD of Naked Boys Singing, two for the price of one.
I had not heard about it. But I am glad that I have it.
It is a very full box of good life lessons, a powerful punch of how gay people might treat themselves better, and each other. Most potently, it is a takedown of evangelical posturing about the gay life. Not that we need this but the the thing here is that it is funny and on the mark as to the motivation of both anti-gay and the gay-cure people.
Most of the music is in the show within a show called "Adam and Steve" which is a lot clever than you might think it would be.
The off stage story parallels the stage story. Nicely.
The leads are good and the cast is very good looking. There is not too much camp. It is post modern gay.
There are some teary parts as the two show leads find themselves (and not each other) in doing the show.
I just liked it and, since it is my DVD, I will watch it again.
There is an unusual feature of the full film with all deleted scenes and "ideas" even some which are not fully developed in the post production process. So if you don't get enough of the picture you can have more. I am told that the commentary track is also very entertaining. So we will have a long time to use up all the stuff on this DVD.
Labels: films, gay identity, gay pride
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
SOFT SHOULDERS
In the Bill Withers film, Withers talks about aging and laments the disappearance of his shoulders.
I have just been going through this over the past few months.
There is nothing to do about it. Well, maybe pads.
First, the appearance of moobs (man-boobs), then the pot.
All those lead to the illusion of narrower shoulders or, to put it another way, if you are getting moobs and a pot, wider shoulders will counterbalance them.
But, sooner or later, the shoulders go too.
Well. I am almost 75. 74.5.
I still go to the gym and do the cardio and enough weight training to keep things strong. But strong is not muscle mass. Muscle mass is down the drain after a certain age.
TELL IT TO THE MARINES
This is great.
Marine Sgt. Maj. Micheal Barrett is almost a textbook Marine. He’s the service’s top non-commissioned officer; he’s enjoyed an extraordinary career including combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan; and when Barrett, the Command Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, talks, those around him are inclined to listen.And so on.With this in mind, Barrett was recently selected to be the senior enlisted adviser to Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos, and joined Amos last week in visits to Marine bases in the Pacific. After addressing several issues of importance to the Corps, Barrett talked about the end of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
“Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution is pretty simple,” he told a group of Marines at a base in South Korea. “It says, ‘Raise an army.’ It says absolutely nothing about race, color, creed, sexual orientation.
“You all joined for a reason: to serve,” he continued. “To protect our nation, right?”
“Yes, sergeant major,” Marines replied.
“How dare we, then, exclude a group of people who want to do the same thing you do right now, something that is honorable and noble?” Sgt. Maj. Barrett continued, raising his voice just a notch. “Right?”
Marines!
Labels: gay military
HISTORICAL HYSTERIA
There has been another survey to show that kids aren't learning their history.
Does that mean they are dumber? That schools are going to hell?
The ever level headed Kevin Drum says no. It has always been thus.
A Historical Perspective on Historical Perspective
I am here to tell you that my parents were as dumb as posts when it came to history. How do I know? Because as a wise ass, I came home and brought stuff up from my own history courses.
But how about those? I probably know a lot more of history today because of reading contemporary news. Backward looks.
My education was very thin. No calculus. No AP courses. Pop science.
Just like everyone else.
So what is new? A test, a survey that reawakens the fear that somehow we are fucked up with education.
Don't get me wrong. It can always be better than it is. But it isn't as awful as everyone would like to make out.
We laugh at the Palins and Bachmans who so freely display their egregious ignorance but we aren't too far behind them.
Oh, and dates? Forget about it. 1492. 1776. 1812, Uhhh. Columbus right? The Declaration? Or the Constitution? And, well, the Overture.
I don't really know when WWI started and ended. It always seemed a waste of time to learn this stuff. Still does.
Labels: history
HEARTS OF GOLD
Today's movie was
a George Clooney vehicle.
Which you would think would be more tuned to Clooney's style and wit.
This is a good movie about a bad guy who has a good heart and wants to do better. He meets a whore who is also good hearted.
Maybe somehow this combo will work and George can get out from under his history of obligation and bad feelings with an ambiguous entity that he works for. They steal? They do assassinations. Some of them are after George. Some are on the same side.
George goes to a small town in Italy where he takes on one last job. Making a weapon, tailor made for someone to do something.
I don't know. It all seemed to be coherent as I watched it but on reflection falls apart.
I could not let go of the impression that Clooney is aging and not well around the face. He, like Brad Pitt, is getting to look a bit thug like. Irish thug in Clooney's case. But the body is in as good shape as it has ever been. Lean, tight, hard. And then in the street scenes with his clothes on, he is walking old. Believe me, I know.
And, in this film, there is no romance until he falls in love with the hooker.
I am sorry. I am not making this sound good.
Here is what this is. A tightly directed tour de force of moral ambiguity filmed in a very nice location with good actors who serve the purpose of being Clooney's foil. While watching, it is suspenseful and menacing and he has the ability to make one want him to win when one knows he is really a bad guy.
I liked it enough to give it a 3 but I wouldn't want to see it again. Not even the shirts off stuff pushups, pullups and fucking.
Did I mention? It will be a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Monday, June 20, 2011
THE BROWS HAVE IT
In our family, we set great store in one's ability to wiggle the eyebrows. Also to wrinkle your head.
This is an inherited trait. Not everyone has it. And some are better than others.
I hate to admit it but I have lost the skill with age. Tired brows. I think that I am just out of practice.
I don't give a hot shit about golf but the brows on the redheaded guy deserve an award as well as whatever this guy MacIIroy won. Wait until 15 seconds for the show.
Labels: fun
NOTHING LASTS FOREVER
Not even titanium eyeglass frames.
I just put my glasses on and the bow broke off.
No problem really.
I popped my older set of glasses (also titanium) on my face and took off for the optician.
They are close by. Five minutes.
They were out to lunch!
It is summer in Palm Springs. Skeleton crews. Closings for "lunch". I had 15 minutes to wait. No point going home then turning around in three or four minutes.
It wasn't bad. It is hot as hell here today but that was OK. There was shade and that takes the sting out of any heat. I made a few phone calls.
They were a little late but I was first!
And they served me right up. Found a new frame just like the old one and put it together while I waited. Chit chat. Down home talk. Nice.
I was home within the hour.
And, because today's movie was relatively short, I had the time.
Great. Perfect. Synchronicity.
WHEN IT'S OVER AND IT ISN'T OVER
Today's film was the documentary about the musician, singer and composer Bill Withers
This is a guy who I would like to know. In fact, to a certain extent, I do know him.
I identify completely with his decision to walk away from "the fame business" or the performing thing. What he calls "showing off".
Our circumstances and timing are entirely different but if anyone wants to know how and why I quit "working" this is it.
Plain and simple "it" wasn't in me any more and I wasn't going to push it and what is more I was fine with it and I am fine today.
I recently sat with someone my own age who is still at it. And I could see what wheels were turning. Not for me.
Withers is my age.
Despite his humble ways, he is still highly regarded and is active but under the radar. You see him with pals in and out of music. You hear some of his story.
His history as a stutterer makes a good framework to show how hard he worked and the humility and hard soul that he got out of working through it.
"Package some forgiveness" for the ones who laugh or smirk. Who don't get what your stutter is about.
I really like this idea.
He is filled with them. A wonderful man.
I loved this film. I was happy to be in his presence. The documentary is well made but is haphazard and, at times, confusing. The focus changes. Withers transcends this but it is a fault of the film itself and he shouldn't have to bear that burden.
I had to read his bio to figure some things out.
I will give it a 3 out of Neflix5.
Labels: films
Sunday, June 19, 2011
FATHERS DAY
I think of my Dad today.
I always got him the cliché stuff. A card. Some Old Spice shaving lotion which he used for years. Gallons.
I know this is mostly a made up holiday. But I like that Obama made yesterday's weekly talk about Fathers and their importance.
I am a Dad. I have been for a long time. It is pretty good.
I have to admit that even though the day is sort of manufactured, I like the cards, the calls. The wishes. Happy Fathers' Day. Let's make that plural. To all the Dads.
And especially to gay dads.
I am one of them but I mean the guys, already couples, or single, who want to be dads and are blazing the trail as openly gay men doing the work to sign up and get started. They do it a lot of ways. Surrogates, adoption. I know a few. They are aces.
TENSE
Today's film was the Israeli director Samuel Maoz'
A NYTimes Critics' Pick.
Almost all of this is filmed inside a tank operating in the first days of the Lebanon War. Four guys. Confusion. The horrors outside seen through the scope of the tank.
I was surprised that I, a claustrophobe, was not freaked by the confined space.
I was bothered by the violence that we see through the viewer.
There is nothing conventional about this film. I broke a rule and watched the short "making of" segment in the "features". There is a real tank. The tank they are in is realistic. The drama is not conventional although some of the tropes of such a situation are there. The coward. The insubordinate. The cry to mother when things get beyond frightening.
But nothing in the tank is as horrific as the scenes outside. Civilian casualties, confusion of situation. They eventually get lost.
This is a very good film. It conveys the horror of war that we know but also the bravery of the men who carry the mission through. In this case not fearlessness but the ability to function through fear and take action.
There is nothing pro-Israeli in this film which is basically a non-dogmatic anti-war film. The feature I watched included the objections of the Israeli government which were basically about the entire plot, action and dialog. They made it anyway. There is still freedom of speech in Israel.
I would not mind seeing it again but I won't work hard to make it happen anytime soon. I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Saturday, June 18, 2011
A YEAR OF WAITING
For some reason that they explain but I don't really understand, it takes a year to get the property taxes squared away on a new home purchase.
When the first tax bill comes, it has the same amount the old owner would have paid based on his purchase price plus the 2.5% addition that is allowed in this state for inflation of value.
So here it is 11 months later and we got our check, a refund from the taxes we paid for the year on the old assessment.
This was good news.
As it turns out, I had pretty well predicted that we would pay a third less tax on the condo. Our old house had a very low assessment, comparatively, because we bought on the low cycle in 1996. And, as noted, even though the real estate value almost tripled in that time, the taxes only went up 2.5% a year.
Don't look at me askance. This is the old Prop 2 1/2 thing that was passed in California years before we got here and is one of the main reasons that we are in such fiscal disarray. The "tea baggers" of that time took hold of the proposition process to put a tight cap on how real estate assessments could change. Two and one half percent max per year. So that is what all counties have done though even on the upswing our home doubled in value our taxes did anything but. Now, tragically for the state, many people are asking for reassessment in the new market which further reduces the tax revenue from real estate.
But I did not want to get into a rant about the taxes. I am happy to pay them. I am happier to know that when we decided to downsize we would realize some significant savings and this is one of them.
I suppose I could say that there are many others, mostly the electrical cost. Smaller more efficient space with units on either side of us. Also water. No irrigation. To say nothing of the pool man, the gardener, the house cleaner and other service people regularly called.
Mission more of less accomplished.
Labels: condo
ALL WET
I had to clean the fountain in the courtyard again today.
It gets a lot of dust out of the air as well as algae buildup to say nothing of the birdshit.
What the fountain really is, as it turns out, is a birdbath.
I love the tinkiling, soothing sounds of the water. But the main attraction is the birds.
They come, big and small, to drink and to wallow in the water, flutter their wings, take a full sits bath and for some, sit on the top of the bubbler as though it was a bidet.
At least that is what it looks like.
Quite a show.
I have figured out the intricacies of the pump and the length of the tube and how to clean the pump well enough to keep things to the full bubble.
Cleaning is easy. I hose down the center pipe to get out anything caught in there and then just siphon the water out, mop with rags, clean off the algae where necessary and refill.
Routine. It takes only about twenty minutes.
And it is really worth it to see a bird stick its ass on the bubbler and flap its wings with water going absolutely everywhere. I think that this is the main reason I have to refill the fountain once a day.
RESISTANCE
Today's film was the NYTimes Critics' Pick
L'armée du crime / Army of Crime (2010)
which is what the Nazi occupation called the resistance in an attempt to demonstrate that they were all communist, jewish, foreigners disrupting what would otherwise be normal French life.
The cast is quite large but the director manages to keep a tight rein on events and to show us the development of one section of 23 people and their activities as well as their eventual betrayal.
What is so stunning about this film is the light. The brightness with which all this evil is carried out. The normality of street life with the occasional break of violence. The daily activities behind which the members of the resistance hide.
Usually this period is depicted darkly and in the shadows. As a matter of fact, the template for this kind of film, Melville's Army of Shadows is almost all filmed at night. Not so in this picture.
The story is familiar but this is old wine in new bottles. I think that is a good thing.
The acting is great. The cinematography is spectacular.
These are/were all real people and, at the end we see them on the "red poster" the Nazis published with the title "Army of Crime".
I want to see this again in a year or so. Along with Army of Shadows, the Melville film.
This is a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
CRATERED
We were here before the park was built.
Winslow Arizona Cashes In on a Rock Song
We have been everywhere that is weird that we could get to.
When we found ourselves near Winslow, AZ, we went for lunch but I don't think that it was on the corner that they have turned into a park.
They were innocent then. I imagine that thousands of people, like us, had been there and stood on a corner.
It isn't that I am in love with the song. I mean, it is not a bad song. I just liked Winslow AZ. And I wanted to see a pretty sight.
We also like ghost towns and we loved the blue bonnet hills in Texas with all the towns that "time forgot".
I can't off hand think of any other street corners that I have been to.
But here, they have taken a good thing and corrupted it with boosterism and commerce. I wouldn't go there now.
I like the stealth aspect.
Who voluntarily goes to a tourist trap?
I was near Winslow ten years later when I went to see the great meteorite crater. I didn't bother going into the town.
Labels: travel
Friday, June 17, 2011
CRIME DOES NOT PAY
Today's film was David Michôd's
A NYTImes Critics' Pick.
A family devoted to crime, a matriarch ala Ma Barker, three sons. A nephew comes to live in the house and becomes involved with the goings on there.
It is his story that we see played out.
The nephew, 17, is played by the skillful James Frecheville, Guy Pierce is a detective who tries to pull the young man away from the family.
This is a psychological thriller. The young man sways from one side to the other and only he knows what his conclusions are.
One of the ideas that motivate the action is that crime does not pay. There is always something that is wrong, that is found out. Or even if it is not found out, manages to screw up the lives of the criminals as well as their schemes.
Like Canada and some other countries, Australia produces some fine films but few make it into US distribution. This one is good enough to have been embraced by critics and gotten a decent run here.
I enjoyed it very much and was on the edge of my seat much of the time.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Thursday, June 16, 2011
WHAT NOT TO SAY, WHAT TO DO
I went to the hospital on Sunday. A friend had been admitted the night before with some troubling chest pains down his arm and upper chest.
They started testing immediately.
For now, he is alright. Has to change some things. Will go to a cardiologist.
We have been down that road.
This kind of event comes as a surprise. We are never ready for it whether it happens to us or to someone else.
And there is always that difficulty in knowing what to say.
The day after my visit, I read this in the NYTimes.
'You Look Great’ and Other Lies
I have said and done all of these things on the "do not do" list. I won't go and repeat it all. It is too humilating.
You are in my thoughts and prayers. Can I do anything to help? Everything will be OK. It will pass. You look great!
I just finished reading Joyce Carol Oates wonderful book "The Widow" about her experience of the year after her husband died suddenly and without real explanation. That book is full of this kind of shit people say.
One of the astonishing things about her experience is that people sent her gifts. Fruit. Cheese. Harry and David.
She filled trash bins with it.
Of course, she is famous and people like to do things to be remembered. Add that to the list. Don't send fruit. Or cheese.
You could send a note and tell the person not to answer it. Oates couldn't touch her notes of condolence for weeks.
Go clean the house. Buy some groceries.
If it is me, come and gossip and tell me what is going on.
Don't ask to hear all the medical bullshit.
And mostly, if I tell you that I am quitting chemo or radiation or have decided to stop eating, would you support me? Tell me it is OK. Go ahead. It is my life and fuck the meddlesome experimenting doctors. Extending life for a few months is bullshit. Maybe longer is too. I don't want to talk about it. Just support me.
But not today. I feel fine.
And, oh. The most important part. Don't stay any longer than twenty minutes. Maybe fifteen.
This is one thing that I am really good at when I visit. The quick departure.
DENTAL DEMOLITION DERBY
I went to the dentist yesterday.
It can make me crazy.
Not over the usual pain thing. This guy, who is really really good, a French Canadian who is so handsome that I want to do what he wants me to do.
But I won't. I am rebellious.
He wants to redo my upper mouth all at once. I don't want to spend the money or take out what really doesn't yet have to come out. It is a battlefield. Nicely played. Professionally. But I often feel in a bind and get mental tantrums beforehand about when and under what condition I will walk out. Or tell him to fuck off. I never do, but still.
Well, no battles this time. He came in, smelled as nice as ever, hovered over the xrays, went over my mouth and talked about the fact that sooner or later we would address the uppers but when we needed to.
I felt like I had WON. But not really. I had done the letting go of it, to not to make it a battle. And he, more or less, has come to see it my way. Maybe he is just sick of the tug of war.
Maybe his cash position has improved. See? I still have suspicions.
Did I mention that this has been going on for four or five years?
Anyway, I have no cavities and go back in October.
Labels: dentist
WEAK
I have not been doing a lot of blogging. Short of ambition.
The cold I had a week and a half ago held on. It resettled in my chest and, either connected or not, I got a severe set of muscle spasms in the sheath around my left lat.
Aspirin, aspirin, aspirin. And a heating pad. Gone.
But it took the piss out of me and so I have been lagging behind on my writing of all kinds.
I finished due emails this morning, some Program writing yesterday. My chores are up to date and I am ready for the house cleaning tomorrow.
I have taken to wearing a t-shirt to bed as theory is the cool air is causing the spasms. I get it every year. Always surprised when I do.
DANCE OFF
Today's movie was
I thought this was all dancing by the American Ballet Theater but it is a story about kids trying to get into a dance school that is nearly the same name and they work in a building that is the ABC building and........
So it is Fame for ballet dancers.
Some of the weak story stretches credibility and some of the dancers (you can't fake this, actors can't dance well and dancers can read so there is your choice) are, well reading the script. But that is OK because they do dance frequently and we are treated to some pretty good dance cinematography which is very hard to do.
Among the real actors is Peter Gallagher as the head of the Ballet and some other stalwarts. The kids are earnest.
I enjoyed it. It is not a great movie nor enough dance but the compromise is rather skillful when I think about it.
There is love behind the scrim, taking advantage of ingenues, nasty attitudes, tyrant teachers, bulimia, broken bones, a stage mother, some parents that don't get it "why can't you go to college like every other girl") and so on.
I got a little teary in the end so it is not all paper moon stuff.
I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
LANDMARK
Today's film was
James Franco as Allen Ginsberg.
This is my life in one picture. It happens as I am coming out of college.
I had met up with the beats (who Ginsberg says didn't really exist. Just a bunch of friends). But I tried to play it straight. I had the look and all. And, like Ginsberg, was rather successful in the business world.
But I continued to read subversively. Eventually the tipping point came about when I realized that I could not live away being gay. Precisely the point of Howl. Not only in the general but in the gay sense. He knew that he had written a gay liberation document and says so.
It predicts the course of my life.
It ends with a blessing on all the souls gathered in the arms of this poem.
Every word in this film was uttered by the person being enacted.
Part of the film is a trial. Another an interview that Ginsberg gave. The reading of the poem itself.
This all predates the later hippie Ginsberg. The period begins with Ginsberg just out of college and ends with the obscenity trial.
Everyone wears khakis and even oxfords and regular open shirts. An occasional informal tee shirt, white, is seen.
Ginsberg meets Peter Orlovsky. Life partners from their meeting.
Then there are the cartoons, which everyone, but me, seems to hate. I think that they are a necessary break from the other visual of Ginsberg reading the poem in a coffee shop.
I liked the art. It seemed to fit.
I think that this is why The Times didn't make it a Critics Pick. Nasty. They should see the trial again, the free expression part.
This film is a 5 and I will see it again in the best gay movies fest later in the year.
Labels: films, gay history, gay liberation
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
WORN OUT
Because this is a gay household, we are exhausted from watching replays of the Tony Award program Sunday night. One of the highest rated.
With Neil Patrick Harris (he's on our side), it was an extraordinary show.
And CBS generously let bits of it show on YouTube mostly without commercials.
As much as I love dramatic theater, I know it is a Tony Award drag and so they did just musicals as between the awards entertainment.
You can see some great cast work with a lot of dancing and real show business as opposed to the fake shit that appears most days and nights on the teevee screen.
Start with any number on YouTube and then just look around. You will find almost all of it.
First priority is the show opener which I put up yesterday. "It's not just for gays anymore". Then the shows themselves. See Daniel Radcliffe tear it up for How to Succeed". And so on.
The final rap written and memorized during the show itself is quite a bit too.
So if things seem a little slow on the blog it is because we are replaying all these songs over and over. Thank you CBS.
Labels: broadway, fun. music, gay life
THE DALAI LAMA WALKS INTO A PIZZA SHOP......
They think that it is the pizza that is lost in translation but I think it is the Oz accent, meself.
Labels: fun, meditation, religion
Monday, June 13, 2011
LIFE, DEATH, REALITY, SEPARATION
Today's film was Kit Hung's
This dreamy avant gardé looking first film is very interesting and I don't mean it in a perjorative way.
It is not a gay film although it is about a gay relationship in Hong Kong between young Cantonese and Swiss men.
The thing here is that you have to remember the first images and many people will not because, well, they aren't aware they are being asked to.
An art film veteran will know immediately through some weird images and changes of perspective that we are not going to get all the pieces fit together until later so watch these pieces now, goddamit.
I enjoyed it. In many ways, it is a sorrowful film but has many sweet parts and a rather nice resolution.
It will not get a development deal in the USA. It was not even reviewed much. I think I may have heard about it in Amazon in the "other items people have bought" section.
I don't think that I will buy this. It is a renter. But I will watch it once more later in the gay fest. That makes it a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
OPENING
Neil Patrick Harris opens the Emmies. Perfect.
No one can top him.
Labels: broadway, fun. music
NEW FAMILY
Today's film was the Swedish
A NYTimes Critics' Pick.
The deal is that two gay men want to adopt a baby and get to the bottom of the social services hopper to find that instead of a 1.5 year old boy, all that is left is a 15 year old boy and a misprint in the notification.
The fifteen year old is a thug with a heart of gold. The couple is not entirely ready for any adoption let alone this one.
Confusion ensues.
This is a very kind hearted film. There is a bit of homophobia and a bit of support, a bit of resistance and some letting go. Before the film is done, we might not be surprised at the outcome but we will be deeply moved.
I will see this again when I do the d-Listed Fifty Best Gay Films later in the year.
It will get a 5 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Sunday, June 12, 2011
READING ENGLISH
This from Kevin Drum, in an article on 3D, and a by-the-way.
"I saw a bunch of 3D movies around the time Avatar came out, and then I just stopped. There was no point. I don't hate it or anything, I just don't really get anything from it. So why bother paying?I started doing this for British films, particularly the kind that involve any type of regional accent. And Australian films too.(But you know what rocks? Closed captioning for the hearing impaired. I accidentally went to a couple of shows with captions a few months ago, and it was great. I actually caught all of the dialog, even the parts that were barely whispered against a background of machine gun fire. I won't pay for 3D anymore, but I'd be all in favor of some technology that placed invisible captioning on all movies that could be made visible with special glasses.)
Then I started on American films. I used "closed caption" the other day to watch The Town, because of the Charlestown accents but, in fact, didn't need them to break through the accents. Just to get all the dialogue.
It is only annoying, sometimes, when the say things like "bell rings" but I notice that is less the case.
Try it. You might like it and get all the talk.
Of course, sometimes it doesn't work out so well, but we can ride through those moments.
Labels: films
ALL WET
Today's film was the documentary
This film is insane. The guy, a compusive overachiever, alcoholic and "professional" gambler is also a long river swimmer. For real.
He has swum the Yangtze (putrid), the Mississippi and now attempts to conquer the Amazon. The longest river.
There is some stuff in here about doing it for a statement about environmentalism. I think that is not really what is happening. This guy is seized by a personal ambition and goes for it.
He is quite a character. Bigger than life. Quite watchable.
We see most of the Amazon trip. At the end, he is victorious but also out of his mind. Hallucinations. Exhaustion.
I know this all sounds fucked up and it is but this couple went along and made a wonderful documentary out of the whole thing.
It is very powerful. The expanse and the limits of human endurance.
A guy who is just likeable at any level. Even when he is nuts.
I wouldn't want to watch it again. It was like doing the swimming myself. I had trouble getting rid of my sea legs after it was over.
A 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
Saturday, June 11, 2011
HERO
A Diplomat, He Isn’t: Prince Philip’s Tongue Remains Sharp as Ever
I usually wait until someone is dead to proclaim them a hero but Prince Philip is a special case. He hit 90 today and deserves an early mention.
I really like his grouchy persona and tendency to mouth what the press likes to call "gaffes".
I think of these gems as honest bits that you would like to say yourself. Breaking pretension. Putting an end to subterfuge and willy nillying.
He has no patience with the stupid question and has been knows to drop kick even the famous with a snap of the tongue.
It has to be hard to stay two steps behind and keep your hands behind your back for most of your professional life.
I actually admire him a great deal. More than her actually. He plays his role well and, I suspect, is given a bit of leash to say what the Queen really might think.
After all, I understand that they do sleep together. Pillow talk.
She gave him a great commander of the navy title today. Hers for all this time. Nice.
Labels: heroes
TOWNIE
Today's film was Ben Affleck's
starring Ben Affleck. Also Jeremy Renner, the Hurt Locker guy, and Rebecca Hall.
This seems like two movies.
There is the nicely told and acted story of a Charlestown boy who grows up good then goes bad and gets with the wrong people and then finds a good girl not a bad girl and so on.
He is also a member of a bank and armored car robbery gang.
That is where the story goes off the rails and we have the second film which is not nearly as good. The shoot 'em up, balls to the wall, car chase, demolition derby film.
I would have been happier if he had stowed the automatic weapons and kept within the frame of the older story.
Boston gangs are nothing new to movies. It is a natural. The neighborhoods. Actually, the Neighborhoods, with their town loyalty and new generations of boys following in their dad's foot steps.
There is nothing new about this but it is well acted and there are a few twists and we have Chris Cooper and Pete Postelthwaite for side dishes. Very nice.
So if they had laid down their arms it would be a 4 and not too long but, as it is, with all the time spent chasing and shooting, it comes out a 3 out of Netflix5.
Ben is hard as a rock and looking the best he has ever looked. Wow.
Labels: films
ONE FLAG CAN DRIVE YOU NUTS
Rainbow Flag Goes Up, Letters Flow In
One nice thing about being gay is that our very presence can piss some people off. Couple that with a display of pride, a flag, an award, a march and some people go off the charts. Bat shit crazy.
The Federal Reserve is private institution. Not many people know that. So we will give them a few points on the hate scale for ignorance. But then they still come up stupid and uninformed.
This one guy in the article is a particularly blatant example of homophobia run riot.
We are happy to do our part. Bring out the nut-cases.
Fortunately because of this kind of support from the places where we work, more people than ever support our causes.
Out is best.
Labels: gay pride, homophobia
Friday, June 10, 2011
SCRAMBLED DISTRICTS
The Redistricting Commission released its report today.
The first draft.
Political earthquake roils California delegation
Earthquake is a good description I suppose. But the effect of ending our highly gerrymandered districts may not be as radical as all that.
I do not know how our district went but I suspect there will not be a big change. We are not particularly gerrymandered for the congressional district but are a bit more skewed for the legislature.
All in all, it appears that we will have a bluer delegation. More Democrats.
I wrote about the Commission earlier. It is non partisan made up of a number of volunteer citizens who passed through a rather rigorous process of selection. It is not likely that the report or its final report will be challenged but then this is a contentious state. Litigious. Time will tell.
Labels: California
