esrosedotblog

I should have known better.

I didn't much like Jimi in real life so why would I enjoy a biopic about him?

I couldn't finish it.

Jimi: All Is By My Side (2014)

So it is a bit unfair for me to gripe when I brought this on myself.

Jimi himself was a star and then be blew it. And it wasn't only the drugs. Or the race thing. It was the classic inability to accept success. Or something else. I was not there.

And I missed it on this bounce too.

I guess I do not understand the self destructive impulse. Self hatred. And don't point the finger at others. I won my own depression too. And it is up to me to do something about it. That doesn't hurt others or kill me.

Sorry if that is harsh but it is the long and short of it. Period. End of paragraph.

So it is a 1 out of Netfli5 for me. A rare bird since I so carefully curate the lists before I rent and watch anything.

Note to self: Beware of drugged out rock stars with a legend to fix or amend or polish. All of which seem to be the aim of this film.

A lot of what I saw featured his women who enabled him. The groupies. I don't know what you call them if there is no group but just one guy. Or girl.

The films is very dark, light wise. And for gods' sake stand back from the hairdos.

Labels: films

Marcus and I went out this morning and the grass crunched.

He got off almost immediately.

I sort of enjoyed it. A reminder of what we thought we had left behind.

Frost.

He eventually went back on it and did his assigned task then hopped back to the pavement and we went inside.

They reported temps in the low forties. But it is a dry cold and is measured off the ground.

It is not unusual to have frost here. Sometimes it is actually very heavy. What moisture there is in the air drops right out and the opposite of the dry heat results. The dry cold.

Labels: weather

I have been listening to Clark Terry play the horn most of my life.

Here and there. On the Tonight Shows. A genius.

Now this film on his life and work.

Keep On Keepin' On (2014)

There is a lot of music from Terry on this. But it is all clips. He is hitting 90 and is seriously diabetic. The ravages of the road.

Featured is a young, blind protogé, Justin Kauflin. Magic.

It is wonderful to see how Terry has spread the jazz gospel and equally supported other her musicians. Some of these appear in the doc.

I loved this film. It is a definite 5 out of Netflix5. I will see it again when I need a taste of sublime jazz playing and thought.

And a bonus round.

Labels: films, jazz, music

I am a sucker for the Obama human interest story.

Honoring Small Business, Obamas Go Book Shopping

There aren't many. He has been shut up too long in the White prison.

He has been here a couple of times and, because we are used to Presidents, he has been welcomed as a friend. The accouterments of the Presidency are dropped pretty quickly and even though Air Force One stays ready on the tarmac right near my gym, the gloss falls away rather quickly and he is just a normal guy who we hope retires here. We are the place that Eisenhower and Ford moved to so we are particularly anxious to have a Democrat.

The Obamas have friends in Rancho Mirage, not exactly a mixed neighborhood, but he has ascended to the special class of resident which has our eye but also a live and let live attitude.

Here he is buying books at a small store in Washington. It is a nice playful article and brings out the best of how we view our leaders. No pomp. Lots of protection obviously, but the girls were there (nearly women now) and they obviously had a good time.

Don't worry, there were surely a lot of eyes looking to see any flaw. The smile is intact and while the hair is grayer. I predicted that, he is as jaunty and happy as ever. The happy warrior. Like FDR.

Did I spell grey right? Gray? Shit. I don't have that down after all these years.

From the Grammarist:

Gray and grey are different spellings of the same word, and both are used throughout the English-speaking world. But gray is more common in American English, while grey is more common in all the other main varieties of English. In the U.K., for instance, grey appears about twenty times for every instance of gray. In the U.S. the ratio is reversed.

Both spellings, which have origins in the Old English grǽg, have existed hundreds of years.1 Grey gained ascendancy in all varieties of English in the early 18th century, but its dominance as the preferred form was checked when American writers adopted gray about a century later. As the Ngram below shows, this change in American English came around 1825. Since then, both forms have remained fairly common throughout the English-speaking world, but the favoring of gray in the U.S. and grey everywhere else has remained consistent.

That is Robert Gates' book. An obvious plug for the former SecDef.

Labels: Barack Obama

Big Bang Theory.

Still going strong.

I love it.

More more more.

Saw the first disk of three today.

I think I will binge,

Netflix5.

Labels: television

They opened up the auxiliary parking lot at the airport yesterday.

This morning, they are ¾ full. By the end of the day they will be down to the last spaces. It is a huge lot.

A lot of people here are snowbirds and will be going back home for a long weekend to eat turkey and gloat to family about coming back to the winter paradise of Palm Springs.

As a balance, there will be a lot of visitors coming in.

This is a big destination for the holidays even though it is not listed in this article.

Pumpkin Pie in Miami: Thanksgiving Flight Patterns

What we will not see are the people who will be coming here for the holiday.

We offer about the same weather as everywhere but Montana. Cold this morning. In the forties.

But later on today you will not find a better place for eating turkey.

It will be in the 80s and, as usual, dry. A dry warmth. Lots of sun.

Our policy is to never ever travel on a holiday. We stay at home. But then, at my age, I am not much into traveling anywhere. I am here. This is the place I would like to travel to.

We will have another couple here for dinner, over from Long Beach. The one, a friend from back east many years ago. It will be nice to see him and his newish boyfriend.

A quiet good time.

I am roasting a good size organic, chemical free, free range chicken to suit the visiting diets which are mostly close to no meat at all. Exception today. I will have stuffing of course. And mashed sweet potatoes along with cooked apples. Cinnamon.

And I am about to make a pumpkin pie for desert.

And that will be my day.

The gym was open this morning but will close later and not open until 7AM tomorrow. That will leave me out. At 7 I will be contemplating my mid morning nap. Such is life in the fast lane of retirement.

Labels: holidays

Today, the second film version of Hemingway's The Killers put together by Don Siegel.

Here is a write up, of the two versions in the Criterion Collection.

The two films hardly resemble each other in their stories or in any other way.

I am not sure anymore whether they even resemble they short story.

I don't want to go on about any of this. They are good solid films. They stand separately.

The newer one plays like a film noir in color.

Lee Marvin.

Very good.

I would not mind seeing it again. That makes it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Enough said.

Labels: films

I watched the original film version of Hemingway's The Killers with Edmund Obrien and Burt Lancaster. From the Criterion Collection.

Tomorrow the "new" version.

I will report in full after completing my assignment.

Labels: films

I remember one man who always, always, had something to say about the gay rights fight; something that I wanted to read and think about.

He was also an indefatigable decoder of film. Old movies that hid gay themes in plain sight. Modern films that did the same more painfully. Vito caught them out and brought them out, out, out!

That guy gets his own documentary now.

Vito 2011)

Well, not now for the doc but now for me. I had missed it when it came around.

But it is television, so it goes. Teevee and I do not see each other.

But I finally saw this wonderful film and recommend it to anyone who wants to see the full bloom of the gay rights movement and one of its birth fathers.

A 5 out of Netflix5.

I will be seeing the film version of his Celluloid Closet again soon.

It is not available for sale new. I will have to buy a good used one. Unused costs 400 plus dollars.

Labels: films, gay films

I was never a Star Trek fan but I sure am a fan of this guy.

In many ways, George Takei is a role model for gay men and, as it happens, for oriental men. He is a two-fer.

This is made abundantly clear in the film I saw today.

To Be Takei (2014)

From bit Asian player in movies to Star Trek to the Broadway stage, Takei has had a varied and successful career.

This film tells a lot about that and also about what moved him to come out as a gay man.

It is an inspiring film.

Look, he spent some of his early life in an internment camp in Utah or someplace awful.

He has the happiness of a person has has known real pain and has converted it into joy. A character study really.

The makers of this doc have done a very good job. Nothing is in the way of Takei. And that is as it should be. Like a good biographer disappears, so should movie makers.

A 5 out of Netflix5. I will be buying the DVD.

Labels: documentary, films, gay films, television

Out to Lowes this morning for a new fountain pump.

The old one was silent this morning. No babbling brooks.

Our fountain is a sort of abstract thing but the water is fundamental. Nothing new about that.

There is a well with a pump and it raises the water two or three feet. The water drops from the top bowl to the next to the next to the next and so on.

When it is not working, the silence in the courtyard is deafening.

Had to fix that.

So Lowes opens at 7 and I was there. First out of the line in garden supplies.

I bought a back up. Pumps do not last. Not at 24/7/52and annum.

I think they last about a year. I don't remember. Maybe I should date the backup box. But it is OK. Knowing is not going to help the wear and tear. Better to let it sneak up on me. It will be going long after the warranty period.

Labels: fountain, gardening

Alan Rickman stars and directs this wonderful fantasy about the design of a garden at the edge of Versailles.

A Little Chaos (2014)

I love costume dramas and this has it all. It is funny, sexy and filled with courtly intrigue. Even a little bit of gay hand holding in Louis' court. Well, more than that.

Kate Winslet as a royal gardener, Matthias Schoenaerts as the head gardener (sigh), Stanley Tucci in a wig for comic relief (and playing gay in a refined way), as well as a large cast of very handsome actors who obviously relish the chance to wear all those great costumes and carry on in a courtly way.

I would not mind seeing it again. That makes it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

Richard Linklater has had a great career of pleasing me.

It started with his first film, Slacker and each one as innovative.

Today was

Boyhood (2014)

From two until 17. A nice boy.

There is not much to say about it. It is fun to watch. Linklater was lucky in his choice. The kid does very well.

It is a 4 out of Netflix5. I would be willing to watch it again. I just wouldn't r usb out to do it.

Labels: films

Not one of my favorite times.

I am sitting here waiting to go over to the lab and give blood for my annual physical.

For which I am to fast 12 hours before.

One of the most difficult things to do. I have low impulse control and a rationalizing mind that wants to make me different from the herd.

The one guy who doesn't need to fast or, for that matter, have blood samples taken.

I don't mind the lab much. The technician will be affable and gentle and since waiting in line isn't my thing I will go early to be first in and first out.

Then I can come home and have some food and get the cobwebs out of my alimentary system.

I am easing up on the day. I had a meeting to attend that I didn't want to and did not have to attend so I just blew it off. It is a committee. A work session. I was only asked because I am the treasurer and they think I would want to be there. They are wrong. And they will do well without me.

It has taken a very long time to say "no thank you"' to things like this. But now I am more willing to put first things first and my serenity beats out sitting with a committee every time.

Labels: medical

Today a film of shorts.

Dishonored Bodies (2015)

A collection of shorts by Spanish directors.

Some good. Some not so good. The usual result of anthologies.

I will probably see them again sometime.

A 3 out of Neetflix5.

This is one of those films that is borderline porn. Soft core. Story lines are thin but enough to keep us from feeling that it is just the X value we are appreciating.

There is no trailer. It is a small time effort.

Labels: films, gay films

Today's film has at least three titles all searching for an audience.

Which it seems not to have found.

It is a Spanish horror thriller with a psychological twist. Gothic too. Spooky.

Tres Campenadas / Thirteen Curses (2002)

is not half bad. In fact, I quite enjoyed it.

And this is not my thing at all.

It helps that the hero, also the possessed is so good looking that it is hard to imagine anyone would want to harm him.

But, as it turns out, his problems are inward, traumatic events as a boy involving the father.

Freud would love this. But that does not get in the way. Cheap psychology is always fun to watch.

It is a bit hard to separate the reality from the fantasy but it does not matter. It all gets explained in the end which is good and it is a credible explanation too.

I would not want to see this again but I am glad I got it this time and the ride was very good indeed. A 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

We do not get snow very often but we do get sand.

I gave up going to the gym this morning as we had 40-50 mile and hour wind gusts and blowing sand and debris. Branches, other shit.

A front was moving through and nothing was going to stop it from raising hell.

Marcus and I went out in it and he had a combination freak and peak experience. The freak part was the harshness and non-direction of the wind hitting him. The peak was the excitement. He ran in fits and starts testing it all out. And clearly enjoying himself.

By the time I had to go out for a meeting it had settled down. A lot.

Now it is just a breezy beautiful day.

A fringe benefit of it all is that we have snow in the mountains even though we got no rain here. Still a drought.

We are in a rain shadow, hence the desert. All our rain, what little there is for California now, is up there. But it is very pretty.

I don't think it will last very long but for now it is great to look at.

Labels: mountains, Palm Springs, snow, weather

Better than all the rest of Hughes.

The best.

Well, I didn't see any of the others. But this one is still the best.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Has it been that long ago?

Yes.

But the film is as fresh as the day off itself. Right there, the same stuff I have seen many times.

And it is all good.

A 5 if there ever was one.

Labels: best films, films

Today's film is both a wonderful "docu/drama" and an experiment in cinematography.

Russian Ark (2002)

was filmed in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg Russia in real time--90 minutes.

It is fully acted with a cast of 867 actors who are costumed and in various periods of Russian culture including the modern.

Andrew Sokurov directs and the camera is operated buy the same team that did the real time drama Run Lola Run.

It is a wonderful experience to watch and be totally absorbed in the "story" and, at the same time, have this back of the mind realization that it is all happening right "now".

I have seen this film before, a couple of times, and it does not get old on repeated viewings. There is always something more to see. This time, the realization that, in one scene, two modern sailors are probably gay.

Well, I hoped so anyway. What are straight sailors doing there?

This is a 5 out of Netflix5. I will want to see it again sometime.

Labels: films

I wish I could have seen today's film when I was in my teens.

But it is good to see it now. There is no way that it could have been around "then".

Jess and James (2015)

The setting is lush country and the idyllic nature of the film is a pleasure throughout.

It is a love story. Pure and simple.

There is no shame, no blame and no real hiding.

It is obvious that there will be some bumps in the road for these boys but they are good together and they will figure it out.

Labels: films, gay films

Today an anthology film.

Hard to come by, short films.

So every once in awhile someone makes a compilation or asks a bunch of movie makers to put one together.

Today, the latter.

Paris, Je T'aime (2006)

which is pretty good considering.

I saw it before and it rated a second look.

I am glad that I took the chance to see it.

One complaint. There are no gay people in Paris, apparently. If there are, they did not make it into this film.

Labels: films

Every once in a while there is a gap in my blogging.

Sometimes because I am away.

Others because I just plain forgot or didn't have anything to say.

I figure that I should utter a word or two to let you know I am alive. Hell, to let me know I am alive.

It is October and time to be outside. And to think outside things.

So, a pause.

Tonight is another debate. Nothing to be said about that. Yet.

Have a good day.

Labels: blogging

Some classics are super classics.

Today's film is one of my favorites, bar none.

But of course "that's just (my) opinion man".

The Big Lebowski (1998)

I have seen this many times.

I still laugh and "cannot remember what happens next" which is the artistry of The Coen Brothers who made it, Jeff Bridges and John Goodman who star and the bowling alleys of Los Angeles.

Sam Elliot is unforgettable. Well, now I want to name all the names and I will not. Go look at the link.

Five fucking five out of Netflix5.

Labels: best films, films

This is a genré film.

But there is nothing wrong with that.

All about misunderstood teens and how they manage to get along and through the hard spots.

Very nice.

I have seen it several times. The young Stephen Rideau and a cast of other kids who made it through and are now making adult films.

A Toute Viitesse / Full speed (1998)

There are bikes, there is music. There are the hard ass kids who will never get anywhere and in the middle the author, the future director on whose life this film is based.

First films are like that.

I enjoyed it very much and liked the kids as they try to work it out.

There are a lot of good feelings in here which, I believe, issue from the good will from which the film's energy develops.

This is not a gay film per se but it has a deep gay sensibility with a few little gay experiments on the part of the boys.

Labels: films, gay films

Today's film is a horror film.

No, that isn't right. It is more of a romance. Or a gothic romance. Or a thoughtful examination of relationships and love.

On the other hand it could be just good entertainment that manages to seduce and reduce almost totally the desire to examine or question. The willing suspension of disbelief.

That is quite a trick when it happens and in this little virtually unknown straight to DVD film, it all happens.

But I can see why it could not make it on a main screen.

Too bad.

Spring (2015)

Evan goes to Italy for an extended get away from a rough US life. Mom and Dad died, other things. He is footloose.

He ends up working his way in Italy at an orchard. He meets an interesting woman. They spend time together.

She is a bit odd.

I suppose it is not a spoiler to say that she is a zombie (a revived dead person); a quite beautiful one.

It helps that Lou Taylor Pucci who plays the man/boy is totally into this. An innocent abroad. With no life behind him or ahead. A sort of living dead person. But very cute and sexy. A catch for any woman, undead or not.

I loved this movie. It is a 5 out of Netflix5 for me. I will want to see it again.

Labels: films

Christie understands addiction.

He would make a wonderful advocate.

Treatment versus incarceration.

Labels: Christie, drugs

Today's film is a Wes Anderson tribute to silent films, I think, and the kind of comedy we love to watch there. A lot of slapstick.

A host of stars. All running around, not at the same time necessarily but mostly that.

It is quite enjoyable.

Well done to a crisp.

Funny because for the most part it is extremely well edited. The only thing to save all the shenanigans from being too much to swallow. The over acting is deep. So editing is the only answer. I can see how when they were shooting scenes people would really get off on playing it over the top.

I like it, I have seen it before which makes it a 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

Watching a ballet being designed and built is a fascinating process.

Today's film goes backstage at The New York City Ballet as Justin Peck designs and directs, then opens, a new work.

Ballet 422 (2015)

About an hour to show the building of a production from paper to theater.

I have seen this kind of film before and it is always fascinating.

Peck is a particularly attractive "star". Earnest, kind and temperate, and very talented. He exudes a quiet authority.

The documentary does not seek to make anything out of what we see. There is no commentary. Just Peck at work.

I appreciated that they did not try to show his other non-work sides. The furthest they go is to show him commuting and waiting for a train. He executes pacing like a dancer.

He is a guy that I would like to get to know. Not a boy from next door but a more complicated talent who is also down to earth and a good human being.

If there is a temperament there it is directed at his work. Humble.

A 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: dance, documentary, films

The GOoPers could not find their asses with both hands.

And they want to govern?

G.O.P.: Save Your Candidates From Themselves

Apparently there is no Republican Party. Just a collection of non-democrats who are gunning for themselves and fuck you if you do not like it.

This is not surprising.

It is how they ran the country ever since Eisenhower. When they had a chance.

And even Ike had his smattering of self inflicted nonsense.

I remember. I was just a little kid but I was fascinated with politics just then because I still wanted to be President.

But sure as fuck not a Republican. I tried it for awhile because in Pennsylvania, local politics are party-partisan and the Democrats were hopelessly corrupt in and around Philadelphia.

Now, we see that there is no party. More of a sponsoring organization for a bunch of individual "monarchies" of power.

It has to be embarrassing to watch this.

Of course, at the center is the Donald, the great disrupter. He is a master of it. And to the sides the dower witch doctor and the frantic Texas Senator. The Kentucky guys have faded. At least they had a semblance of normalcy.

I do not mind all this. Here is your bag of popcorn. Enjoy the show.

Ten goddam presidential aspirants. Not one of them fit to govern. And anyone who has governmental experience gets disparaged for being a tool.

Labels: GOoPers, republican whack jobs, Republicans

Today, the movie is

Un Prophete / A Prophet

with Tahir Rahim.

An old favorite.

I quit half way as he is beginning to have visions and finished the second day.

This is a wonderful film. Tough and hard wonderful, mostly a prison flick.

Everything is very well done from the cells down to the little spoon they use to gouge out an eyeball. Not that anyone does that but it is a pretty close call.

The insanely villainous Neil Arsstrup and the menacingly handsome Tahar Rahim mix it up along with a bunch of other real and actor cons.

The ultimate prison film.

It is also a redemption film. Turned upside down.

Jaque Audiard shows us how things can go when a young man with a moderate record is set down in the pen with the rest of his kind.

He survives but not by being an angel.

He does go to school to learn to write. He does develop a spiritual relationship with the man he was forced to kill. Very sexy indeed if you can believe that.

You probably don't believe it so see the film for yourself. You will believe.

The "prophet" part is that our young man has visions which uncannily turn out to be "true" or true in enough in general to give him warnings.

Selected to do a killing on one of his leave days, he instead signs up with other people who support him.

At the end, he leaves with his gang. He has become a boss.

I am not telling you anything you will not know in seeing the film. It is the "how" of it that is so well done.

Young Rahim is a great actor. For once, I watched some of the commentary track and heard him talk to the director and writer about what they were trying to do.

I do not normally do this but here the talk is compelling. Rahim is a new breed of "star".

I have watched this film many times. So it is a 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

Our wounded man is Bernie Sanders.

Eminently unqualified for the job but persistent in his belief that he could do something if he got a chance.

Look, Bernie. You are too old, too left and too late.

I admire his spunk at his age. He has a lot more than me. All that electioneering crap.

But he has to do it.

Down from the clouds and into the street.

I do not want what he is peddling either.

I have seen this old New England righteousness before only in a different style and perhaps a different leaning.

He is a hand wringer and a sob sister.

I have nothing against Socialists. It is just that there is not one of them that has any idea of how to run the machinery of government.

They are caught up in political theory, their religion.

Not unlike the deeply religious who are so stuck on the piety that they can't do anyone any good and see a world of sin rather than a world of opportunity.

So I do not want him either.

I would rather go with another oldster who knows how to do it. Joe Biden. I am still holding his cup ready. It holds my toothbrush for now. It may yet get another outing. But he says "no". But I looked in his eye and saw a reservation.

Labels: democratic whack jobs, Democrats, lefty fringe, professional left

A standard Republican line is that they are the victims of a biased media.

They seem to miss the fact that the bias, if any, is toward showing the world as it is rather than the world that the GOoPers wish it could be.

It is no news that there is bias in reporting. Duh.

But the Repubs have turned it into a stem winding talking point.

Why does this work?

I think it works because it hits right at the paranoia and personal discomfort of their audience.

I have known wingers since I was a young man. In the army, the rant and rave of a guy over the "reds" and so on.

They never seem to pause and think that the "bias" may often just be straight on reporting of the dither that they dish as their standard rhetoric.

Anger Over Debate Fills Iowa Republican Forum

Look. There he is, obese and gasping it out. Christie.

Do they ever consider that a lot of this is based on self hatred? The finger pointing out because they can't look at themselves?

He is a classic fat boy who has probably had a hard life because of it. He is not the only wounded boy now trying for the big prize. Carson's is obvious. Black and lost professional goals. Early retirement. Ted Cruz, a bastard for a father. And so on. Take a look.

Are Democrats neurotic? Sure. Bill Clinton is our poster child and Hillary his standard bearer. That is their story.

But, come on. I have a lot of shit in my history too. I am looking for recognition. I have always wanted to be "class president" just to "show them". Sometimes I succeeded. A lot of appointments, the easiest way to get power. One election.

Some think this is an easy road. It is not. Try driving past your monster campaign poster every day on the Boston SE expressway and see if it is not an ego boost and a simultaneous anxiety hit.

Politicians are like actors. Working through their shit the best way that they can.

More power to them. There are a lot of sick fucks on the sidelines who will never step out and take the heat. Their wounds are disabling. Their sourness is sad.

The politician works it out. Sublimates to do good works. Or at least works s/he thins are good. More power to them.

Oh. And, by the way, do you really think that we are going to elect an obese president? No way fat boy. You are a schmuck not because you are fat but because you can't see over it and look at yourself.

There. That is my bit of biased venom for today.

Labels: GOoPers, republican whack jobs

This is a little video about the people who like Ben Carson as a candidate for President.

It is where I remember H.L. Mencken's jibe:

In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican. H. L. Mencken

Labels: republican whack jobs

Here we go.

Resetting all the goddam clocks again.

The inevitable confusion of what it means to set the clock back.

Spring forward, fall back.

I think it is nuts but then I am an outlier on most things.

I really am indifferent to whether we stay with one time or the other but let's just have one. Please.

It is all horseshit anyway. Originally for the farmers or someone, DST was invented in a time far away.

For me. it means walking the dog before dinner rather than after. He will not mind. Nor will I for that matter.

For me, it will mean a little less more light coming home from the gym. I will get to see the sun on the mountain, I think.

I suppose it is a good thing just to shake us up.

But don't we have enough things that do that?

My computer was still on the old time when I got up and now it suddenly set itself to the "right time". Is that done in Cupertino? Another question about authority and its far reaching consequences. Hah.

Labels: life, seasons, time