esrosedotblog

Today's film is spotty.

Saint Laurent (2015)

Some of it is very good and then there are parts which seem tacked on and do not come off very well.

Like a wild necktie laid on a plaid suit. Or something.

Two favorite actors are in the lead. Gaspard Ulliel as a eerily perfect match as Saint Laurent and a completely stunning performance from Louis Garrel to quote the review.

Garrel is the star of my favorite Love Songs

Saint Laurent was not a really nice guy. Surprise. A closeted gay man who liked rough trade as well as everything else, in secret, he led a dangerous life. This makes very good cinema and the films maker Bertrand Bonello makes the most of it.

I enjoyed the film. The stars helped. Helmut Berger as a mismatched older Saint Laurent did not. Very dissonant as he does not look much like Ulliel. I would have preferred the rubber makeup.

But is is a good movie to watch and I will see it again. A 3 out of Netflix5. Interesting that it is not available in Netflix and I had to buy a copy because I wanted to see my two guys. A fan boy at heart, me.

Labels: films, gay films

Sometimes one just has to throw up one's hands.

25 Times White Actors Played People Of Color And No One Really Gave A Shit

Sometimes, we just need to not give a shit. It is called acting.

Take a fucking breath.

I know all the arguments, so go have them with people more likely to even want to argue about it.

Is Hollywood too white? Maybe.

I am sure that this will work out with some of the usual absurd reactions from people who protesteth too much.

Besides the Oscars are so irrelevant to real film fans that the self importance of it all, all sides, makes my head spin.

I probably watch one "Hollywood", "Oscar worthy" film a year. Maybe two.

And yet I see a good movie every day.

I do not go to a theater. I watch independent and foreign films on DVD.

Believe me, The Revenant is not in my Netflix queue.

And yet,, I am a liberal, maybe a progressive. Perhaps a "red".

Am I a traitor to the cause?

No.

Start with this. What cause? More blacks in Hollywood movies? OK. I can't say I am against it.

But it is a faint opinion at best.

If blacks want to be in lousy corporate made films, so be it. More is the pity. My advice would be to go independent.

Labels: films, oscars, racism

Frederick Weisman is the rock god of documentaries.

Rock, because his vision for a documentary film is revolutionary. It is a bit hard to see this now as Weisman came along quite awhile with his approaches and so we expect the quality and insight that he delivers.

Here, he examines the British

National Gallery (2014)

in which we see the works, the people, the public, the experts, even the paint down to the framing.

It is three hours long and two sittings do not disrupt the watching of this excellent movie.

I am not an art fan. So I am not a good critical observer. I just sit and let it sink in. In that way, I suspect, an ideal audience for the Weisman approach to things including empty halls waiting for someone to show up. The ambient sound.

Wonderful. I would not mind seeing it again, in fact, I think that I will.

Labels: art, films, museums

More heat than light on the campaign trails.

Senator on GOP backing Trump: 'Party has gone batshit crazy'

Of course I like this. Lindsay Graham is an old hand, an old guard GOP guy. I like him. The loyal opposition.

He is dismayed.

This is the party of no-party now. It has wallowed and wavered into the hands of the nuts and extremists.

There is no strong party structure to reign it in although lord knows they have tried.

For awhile, I found this amusing. But now? Not so much.

One could argue that the Republicans brought this on themselves. But that is just an empty jibe.

The fact is that their disarray is indicative of their complete defeat under the Obama Presidency. They cannot or do not legislate. They engage in partisan bitch slapping. They wiggle and waver.

That said, there is not a lot of life left in either Party. The Clintons have re-engaged the Democrats so that a guy like Sanders does not have a chance.

I am not a historian but it would seem that the two party system is dead. Long live the no-party system?

At least on the Democrat side, the Clintons will not engage in fratricide as Trump is doing.

His 25%, unwavering. The malcontents. Ironically, the no-nothing guys in the uneducated class.

The poor guys favor the guy who inherited 200 mill and has made bucks off their backs since day one.

Oh well.

“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”....H.L. Mencken

Labels: Donald Trump, republican whack jobs

Today, a rarity!

The film was in black and white.

A road movie which is alternately boring and funny, I had to skip ahead with the FF to be happy with it.

Gueros (2014)

Mexican, first time out, guys on the road at a time the university is on strike. Many encounters.

Think Odysseus. Like that.

It is a first film. I will cut it some slack.

But I do not want to.

Right now, I pretty much didn't like it at all.

The skipping makes it a 2 out of Netflix5. I think. Maybe it is a 1. I didn't quit entirely.

I will have to review my own rating system.

Labels: films

I have been watching the films of Fatih Ahkin.

Today's "edition" was

The Edge of Heaven (2008)

Four separate stories which interlock in theme. The film is an anthology with Istanbul as the background. They all have to swallow a hard truth.

Well, there is one "trick". One character goes by in a bus while another character stands in the street. They do not know each other.

And that is kind of the theme. No one really knows one another. There is an old man, a young lesbian, a grieving mother and something else that I cannot remember.

It is a little complex. A collection of moments which are quite stupendous. Fortunately Ahkin has chosen not to tie them all together. Well, they happen in Istanbul. They are all Turkish. Except for a couple of people. See? The similarities end quickly.

This is the second or third time I have seen this film. It is still fresh. I bet I will see it again someday.

That makes it a 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

This is a shocker even to old case hardened me.

How Jeb Bush Spent $130 Million With Nothing to Show for It

If this doesn't make the money men squirm then nothing can.

The Bush franchise had worn out but yet some people and organizations still wanted some suction. Enough to pay through the nose.

And that money is gone.

Forget how many meals that could have bought for the "starving children" all our parents told us about.

It might even have gone for the financing of a decent candidate.

See, to me, this is why the so called "smart money" is dumb as a bunch of shovels.

If they even had half a thought they would have taken a fresh look at the "bush franchise" and found that it consisted of a bunch of hangers on and nostalgics but no real people. No one who would vote for him.

I hate to bring this out again but Momma Bush famously said that we had enough Bushes and she was right.

If she was not geriatric and very very prideful she would have put a stop to this comedy of errors.

Well. I won't have the Bushes to kick around any more. Oh. Right. That was Tricky Dick Nixon whose self pity overwhelmed us all. Sigh.

Labels: bushies, con men, GOoPers

Two gay brothers.

Grown up and with "issues".

This is the idea behind

Tiger Orange (2014)

Very nice. The feels.

Dad died and left the boys behind. Now grown with one back from LA where he led a pretty dissolute life. The other stayed and leads a quiet respectable closeted life.

So two themes combine. The brother thing and also the conflict between the ones who stay and the ones who go. A general idea that pervades my life from time to time. I left. But my past is still back there. Every once in awhile it rears its head.

And, I did not have a brother except for the imaginary brother that most boys have. Yes they do. So did you if you are an only boy or only child.

Guys need brothers. And this is part of who we are and how it works in the DNA.

So, I was touched by this fine film and had a lot of feelings as I watched it.

I did not know that this was the debut appearance of a noted gay porn star. Since he is not on my radar it might prove a problem for some folks. He is out there in full living color in another life even though he has changed his name back to the original one.

Beside the point but if you have had intimate moments with him as many gay men have then it might come as a surprise.

You won't be disappointed. He plays the wild brother who left and his "reputation" is sort of folded into the script.

So, I do not think I will buy this gay film but I am certainly willing to watch it again. That makes it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films, gay films

Not too many people know or care about one of the great genocides.

I am referring to the Armenian genocide in Turkey in the Twenties.

The writer director Fatih Akin chronicles this time with Tahar Rahim as the star.

The Cut (2014)

The atrocity is personified in the form of a cut larynx. He cannot ever talk.

This makes for some pretty dramatic stuff and while the film veers toward soap opera it never falls over the edge.

Rahim, a great favorite of mine, is excellent. He rises to the occasion. He has to work as in silent films. This role will serve as a good bridge to his later career. His matinee idol looks notwithstanding.

But he has always had very serious roles. And he is well up to the tasks set for him.

The film is epic. The sweep of rural Turkey and then the United States where, once again, the immigrant experience shows our shining purpose. This time as an illegal entering at Florida with a smuggler. An aside, perhaps, about our worries over this kind of thing. This guy will be a credit to society. And he will be reunited with his lost family. Spoiler which helps as you trudge with him through all the Job-like difficulties.

I bought the disc so this will be a 5 out of Netflix5. I am sure that I will see it again. Well, if I live that long. Let's say I hope to and I will have it when I want it.

Labels: films

Most people I hang out with do not want to think about military matters.

They like to talk in sort of hippy-dippy terms, the flower stem put into a gun barrel.

I do not have that mental luxury. Something in me has me wanting to know what is going on. Something else in me wants to fix it.

Maybe it is my Dad still in there tuning to Lowell Thomas on ABC every night. WJZ New York.

Maybe my brief and absolutely benign tour of duty with the US Army Reserves. ROTC, six weeks summer camp, six months active duty as an Officers' Club manager in Fort Lee Virginia. Six more years of successfully avoiding any duty but the annual summer camp spent by the pool at Fort Lee with one of my first closeted boy friends from Philadelphia.

Guilt that others got sent to Germany during one of the Berlin crises? I don't know.

In any case, I do not warm up to pacifists. Or anti-military talk.

Let's not go there. I have probably pissed off half of whatever small audience I have.

Sorry/not sorry.

I remember that my Dad was a hellfire supporter of "bombing the little bastards" out of existence.

I am not that strong. But I am there with him in spirit.

I don't talk out loud about it. Not even at home. It is not a subject that leads to calm discourse. I don't talk religion either. Much.

So, to make an exception, I am interested in the idea of satellite warfare because it keeps people like me clean.

At a distance.

I am not alone.

To Keep America Safe, Embrace Drone Warfare

An Op-Ed today in the New York Times by Michael V. Hayden, a retired Air Force four-star general, who was director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2006 to 2009.

One of the most argued issues here is the possibility that a drone will kill innocent people.

I assume that you, dear reader, know that there are no innocent people in a war time situation. We do our best with this but the fact is that in this day and age the soldiers do not rank up and march into fire in a column and drop until there are no more or until the enemy runs out of bullets.

Ever since WWII, there has been unconventional warfare and the means to do the same when it comes at us.

Some of the best war fiction is based on the behind the scenes killer, the sniper, the assassin.

Come on. You like to read that shit too. Don't say otherwise. And if you truly do not then quit reading this because you will be getting pissed at me and I do not want that.

I figure that drone warfare is as "clean" a way to conduct today's wars as there is.

By this I mean to target the enemy and kill him. The basic mission all of us service weenies learned in the first days of military training. To find the enemy and kill him.

Not capture, not harangue and propagandize, not anything else but to find the enemy and kill him.

Drones are very good at that.

But they are not perfect. Every so often a civilian walks into the situation and gets hit along with the insurgents or whatever they call themselves.

This is tragic.

But it is also tragic that some outfit like ISIS goes on a binge of rape and pillage. Brutal torture unchecked.

We live in a world in which evil is at play. Those of us who consider ourselves good owe no less than to root out the "evil-doers" and finish them off.

Yeh. George W. used that term. But you have to believe it to do the necessary job.

Some would say that it is not our job. Well, fuck. Whose is it?

No answer to that one.

Live and let live?

Tell the Taliban that. The little kids and women, if you will, that get tortured for the fun of it.

Oh. You think that is propaganda. That these motherfuckers are not truly motherfuckers? Dream on.

No. Cancel that.

Wake up.

Enjoy the freedom you have to think like you do but at least let others defend it for you and above all get out of the way.

An old joke. Not a joke.

Lead, follow or get out of the way.

So yes. This is/was a rant.

I hope it did not hit any "innocent bystanders" but by now you know that I do not think there are any "innocent bystanders in the United States of America. We are all the little kid in Pakistan or wherever. And so on. And here we go again so I will stop.

Make love not war. I wish.

Labels: war and peace

The third time around for today's film.

Head-On (2004)

I have seen this film several times and enjoy it more with time.

It has about everything. The key, I think, is in its star Birol Unel, a Turkish actor channeling Belmondo.

That the main character is suicidal is enough to make this different. That he is sympathetic without being pathetic is an added boost.

It is a love story. For one thing, the guy has fallen out of love with himself so he cannot love another. Someone tells him that and he realizes that the woman he has met is enough to turn around. Himself first.

It is a nice story of redemption and deliverance. Oops. I gave a spoiler.

There is not much point in viewing this loser without hope.

I love the writer and director, the auteur Fatih Akin. I have seen all his films and am never disappointed. Never.

This is 5 out of Netflix 5.

Labels: films

Mitch McConnell Has Hands, Vocal Cords Removed To Prevent Self From Holding Hearing On Scalia Replacement

The turtle.

Labels: republican whack jobs

What a circus!

Now, the Pope himself has cursed Donald Trump for not being a Christian!

Holy shit.

Pope Francis Suggests Donald Trump Is ‘Not Christian’

And the Donald, cool as a cucumber, the king of cool responds.

Trump Calls the Pope's Remarks Disgraceful

The Popes generally stay out of the politics of their biggest donors but not this time.

Trump has been divorced. He is a money grubber. He is profane. What else? He is not tamable to fit the christer style.

I must admit that I am surprised. I would have thought him a "good catholic", that is, lip service and some spotty attendance at Mass.

Maybe he is not catholic. I thought he was.

Anyway, it is more than one could hope for.

Three ring circus. Clowns and acrobats. Animal acts.

I am also not sure how this plays with the Evangelicals. I grew up among them and they were sort of anti-catholic. Actively so in some cases.

Perhasps this boosts him with that crowd in the South.

What next for god's sake?

Labels: Donald Trump, Pope

We need him back!

Tom DeLay. Wasn't that his name?

The leader of the GOoPers?

His name would be apt which is about the only thing there could be.

Tom DeLay who got his dick caught in the wringer or something like that. No. It was money laundering.

Anyway, I digress.

Republicans See How Long They Can Hold Their Breath

Gail Collins reviews the bidding on the hold out to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by Scalia.

I think Obama is up to the task. Which is to name someone that it will be hard to say no to. The GOoPers are a circular firing squad when that happens. So, divide and conquer.

Or he could name someone who is so partisan that right wing will go nuts and make a fool of themselves which they do regularly anyway but when they get real whacked out they are a hilarious spectacle.

It must be fun to sit in the White House right now and watch the hypocrisy, the outright lying and the serious discomfort that the Senators are in.

They started opposing him before Scalia's body was cool.

Have a heart guys.

But there is no heart there and what is left is not a candy heart either. More like a shriveled up remnant of the time that they were happy and carefree youngsters. Who went wrong.

So they are stuck. A part of the demand that Obama not nominate anyone until the general election is over is a pure desire not to have to commit political suicide. Again.

Mitch McConnell, the guy who looks like a turtle, should just pull his ugly head into his shell and let events unroll.

After all, that is what their beloved Constitution tells them they should fucking do.

Their turn will come and then they can say no, yes or try to delay it then. Which would also make them look like the fools they are.

And then there is this.

Obama Compiles Shortlist Of Gay, Transsexual Abortion Doctors To Replace Scalia

From the Onion.

Labels: GOoPers, Supreme Court

"The gays" are notoriously, always looking for clues.

It does not matter if you are dead. So much better. There are the obits to comb over and the histories to be scanned.

I do not want to claim Scalia as a homo but it is possible that somewhere in there he has "special friends".

I read this today and drew my own conclusions.

Why Justice Scalia was staying for free at a Texas resort

In addition to reading between the lines, there is the question of "staying free" and all.

It is very tempting not to use power once you have it. There are all kinds of people more than willing to bow before your throne and offer up gifts and even sacrifices.

It is all moot.

Even though we always look a bit harder to find the motivation beneath blatant homophobia.

The impulse to holler "QUEER" is always present among those who worry about their own masculinity.

Even if masculinity has any relation to gay other than increasing the attractiveness of the man in question.

Sorry to say, in his later years, Scalia was a frog.

But young? A stud. Butcher than thou.

I am just sayin'. I get to. This bastard said enough from the bench. A mean nasty streak of gay baiting is in his professional and personal history.

Oh, yeh. Rest in peace Antonin.

Labels: gay bashers, homophobia

I am generally not a fan of Zucker comedies.

But today's film would be an exception.

An ordering mistake turned good.

Val Kilmer and other straight playing heroes in the WWII farce

Top Secret! (1984)

First of all, nothing dates. It is general untypical comedy for all seasons.

Two, Kilmer is funny as an Elvis kind of singer who gets drafted and there the similarities end except for the singing. Which is pretty good, actually.

These films do not linger. They move right along. So if one joke falls flat that next will pick it up.

I would not want to see this again. For one, all the jokes would be spoiled. But perhaps not. So many are old saws that they would simply roll off the convertor belt so fast they could miss an occasional seamless laugh.

There is even a segment about a cow udder. Tit jokes.

So a good time was had by all.

A 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

Trump replies to the Bush push and says what many of us think about them and their record.

Bush Brothers Swipe at Donald Trump

I know. Two election pieces in a row on this blog.

But it is a circus, perhaps the side show but still.

The Donald is saying all the things we have known about the Bush "dynasty" and for a Republican this is the equivalent of shitting in the chancel.

But who crowned the Bushes but themselves?

Regal white haired Barb with her venomous smile or Poppie, the kind of clueless grandpa who never really had that much on the ball although I did support him at times.

This is worth every cent of my time to watch. The old guard is crumbling and the new, whoever it is, is taking over. Dismay for the GOoPers who are, after all, the tasteful garden club crowd for the most part. The rough hewn interlopers just took them over. Loud mouth Trump and a callow light in the headlights Rubio. Ted Cruz with, as it turns out, his flawed spanish the other night. Funny.

Bring in the clowns.

Labels: Republican primary

Jeb! has brought in W in South Carolina.

I do not even want to write about this but the desperation and flop sweat around this is palpable. Smellable.

Georgie ruined the Bush brand.

He did do well in South Carolina but shit. Almost any right wing white man would.

I have watched the family around this.

Barb, good name for her, barbed wire, is 90 now.

She is the one who said, famously, that "we have had enough Bushes"

They should have listened to Mom.

Barb has the fixed smile of a rattlesnake. It seems to me that is where all the starch comes from. All the guys are wimps. Rich wimps but wimps nonetheless.

Some wimps are bullies. That is in their blood too, the Bushies.

I do not want to go on about this too long. It gives them more credence than they have or deserve.

I saw one of their hangers-on talking on the teevee at the gym this morning. Going on about how there actually could have been some weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I-rack, you all.

They are still pumping that lie.

Someone. Please. Put Barb and the rest of them out of their misery.

GOP, please reject Jeb! in as shameful a way as possible. Rub the fucker's nose in it. Make him cry.

Labels: bush. bushies

In a wordy world, there seems to be no place for the quiet person, the one who keeps his or her own counsel.

When two people like this find a relationship then there is a kind of double silence which actually can translate to a kind of soulful searching for the other who will complete them.

This has to be done non-verbally.

That is kind of the premise for this wonderfully sweet film about two young men who cannot say what is in their hearts but are able to find a place where they belong.

Silent Youth (2012)

There is a lot of sensuality here, no buzzkill with yak.

The young actors are remarkable. For a kind of twist, the one is deadly handsome and the other not so much. This often happens, actually. Couples where one is a looker and the other is not. I will not go further with this but we see this with gay men all the time.

Well, I will go further. I think that the burden of being handsome is often too difficult to bear and that there is a great peace in going beyond that. Finding another who is not a competitor or conventional is a great compensation. And, in one another, each finds a kind of peace beyond the norm. A way to escape all that.

Such a lovely film.

I will want to see it again and again. That makes it a 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films, gay films

Today is one of those manufactured long weekend holidays.

When I was a kid, we had closed school on two days. The birthdays of Washington and Lincoln.

But then they wrapped them together and added other Presidents, sort of like Mount Rushmore, and we are off and running.

So I still stick with the two and try to remember each of them separately on their assigned day.

Washington was the first President and a rich slave owning land owner. I have been to Mount Vernon. It is pretty nice. He needed these slaves.

I also remember about Washington's teeth. That they were wood. Now, I find that is not true. He had falsies but they were made of some other material which now I forget and am not going to look up.

I was told that he never told a lie. A lie as it turns out. And that he threw a dollar across the river. No one is clear which river exactly and now I read that it was not a dollar but something else.

I can hardly pay attention.

Then we have Lincoln's birthday. Lincoln is nothing like Washington. Not an aristocrat. Born in a log cabin. A good orator. I delivered his Gettysburg Address when I was a kid. On Memorial Day.

Patriotic horse shit.

I disavow it.

Then there were the other Presidents. These have been scooped up and including here apparently to avoid having to have any more commemorative holidays for Presidents, dead or alive or future.

For example, no dice on a George Bush day, either George. Imagine that. Some crazed GOoPer might try it.

The term "patriots" also allows a default setting for other guys who did not make presidential timber.

In Boston we had Paul Revere's day. A fabled run to warn the citizens that the British were coming.

And there are others. All cut off from their special day, a Monday holiday or not.

It was smart to lump it all together.

The true fact is that no one, not one person other than me, is meditating on patriots today. They are out doing long weekend things.

And that is the other thing. When they boiled it all down and fused them, they made all the birthday boys be celebrated on the third Monday of the month of February.

And so, here we are.

Basically, a day without mail.

Labels: holidays

Never see a remake of another film.

Those are two things that should have warned me off today's movie.

Far From the Madding Crowd (2015)

with Carey Mulligan and (sigh) Matthias Schoenaerts. The latter being the reason I rented it.

Foolish me. Breaking the rules of DVD films.

Mulligan is so dewy you can see the little beads on her. It does not matter that the men are sexy and very good at playing the game. The game, when you come down to it, is Thomas' Hardy's 19th Century sensibility which is OK as far as it goes but we are a little past all that.

It is a romantic muddle with no one saying what they need. When I was a kid they used to say, in their own sexist and un-pc way, that all she needs is a good stiff prick. Here, the guys also need one. A good stiffy properly applied would end all this nonsense and talking around the main thing.

The film is beautiful English countryside. Sheep. Pastoral.

The dog will break your heart and he is brought back for us to ooo and aaa about obviously in a bid for our affection at our moment of deepest despair with the picture.

I would not watch this again and I did use FF for the slow bits so that leaves us with a 2 out of Netflix5. A perfect description of that rating. OK but needed FF.

Labels: films

The Republican debate was pretty exciting.

In Republican Debate, Jeb Bush Attacks Donald Trump

Watch the video provided in the article.

Jeb had to do this. He has looked so wimpy so far that it is the only chance to stand up and look even marginally Presidential.

Of course, Trump shouted him down.

Watch the clip. It is rather amusing. Like watching a cage fight with the guys in suits. No eye gouging though.

Trump is a bastard. But an amusing one. He goes so over the top even accusing Ted Cruise of not being able to understand spanish. It required Cruz to show he could do it. So funny. But not.

Trump is a first class bully which is certainly a liability. He cannot help himself. I bet his handlers, if any, cringe when he does this stuff. But his crowd loves it. Bring it on.

Of course these are the same people who like cage fights.

Wait a minute. I like cage fights too but probably for a different reason. Wink wink.

Labels: Republican primary

The first part of the fifth season ofTeen Wolf today.

I am not embarrassed by my addiction to this show. It does not harm anyone else. And I try to keep it in bounds.

I actually like the monster shit and the transformations.

I adore the stars.

There are almost always great shirts off and even naked scenes. Man meat.

What is not to like?

The makeup is pretty startling. I mean, I know it is not real but the way things unroll it is often pretty upsetting.

All of us have a guilty secret. This is mine.

The object of many slash fiction sites, cartoon and other, the series has generated a huge subculture on the internet. Some refer to a melded character "Sterek" referring to Stiles and Derek. The actor playing Derek quit so there are a few new pretty faces. Not as rugged.

There is also a pretty, hunky villain now in a continuing role. When the hotties play a bad guy it is even more diverting to watch them work.

There was always a gay subtext, one of the characters would be a gay man. There still is one but he is also black. A two-fer. Cheating a bit with that one. The price of renewal I suppose. Faggots do not play well in Topeka. But apparently hot shirtless straight men do. I will not argue. We all win this one.

Much of the fan attention is the fantasy of it. Sexing it up or playing out some themes that the series has not focused on.

This does not hurt the attraction.

Labels: homosexual fantasy, teen wolf

The witch is dead.

Supreme Court Justice Scalia dies

He was a hateful man. Filled with personal animus and venom Scalia was an enemy of progressives but took it up another notch with his blatant homophobia. Never missing the nasty aside or biased opinion.

So, OK.

That opens the door.

There seems to be some doubt that the GOP in the Senate would confirm an Obama appointee before the next general election.

Well, that is the fucking point isn't it.

I normally do not make judgements about public figures who state their beliefs in a reasonable way. But Scalia was anything but reasonable.

Our country is better off with his loss.

And if that seems too harsh, then fuck you too.

Labels: evil bastards, republican whack jobs, world class assholes.

Obama is here for the seventh time as President.

It is like the old Gerald Ford days only the Democratic version.

There is not much disruption but then I do not run around enough to get into any traffic jams or anything. I am a happy recluse and stay at home.

As it happens, there will be only one day of dodging. On Monday, I will not go my usual path to the gym.

They close the roads around the airport that provide provide a shortcut.

But that is all.

It is believed that he will have a home here when he retires, not full time, the vacation kind.

They have friends here.

There is a mild frisson from it all. A bit of a thrill. I have the impression that, like the Fords, they are low profile people and when the dust settled the Ford family moved freely around the valley and were pretty much treated to muted respect but very little gawking.

But for now, I am gawking and while not at the airport fence waiting for a look at him I am happy that he is here and will get a boost from seeing Air Force One on Monday.

Labels: Obamas

Lambert and Stamp were rock stars who never performed before an audience.

They did try to make a film and that is when they found The Who, a struggling rock band.

They decided to film the band in the hope that success would provide a nice story for their documentary.

'Lambert And Stamp': The Story Of The Men Who Helped Make The Who (2015)

In the process, they found themselves sort of managing the situation so they could get good footage. And that involved some attention to performance details, costume, music and the like.

Before they or the band realized it they are the managers and had a runaway success on their hands.

They went on, in time, to manage other stars as well. Jimmy Hendrix for one.

Only one of the team survives and he is a charming story teller.

Members of the band are also seen.

It is a sideways doc of the band and the business which is unique and fascinating.

I would not mind seeing it again. A 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: documentary, films, music

I missed the debate the other night.

A passle of GOoPers does not interest me.

So I missed something that I would not have minded seeing, save wading through hours to get to that one spot.

How a Debate Misstep Sent Marco Rubio Tumbling in New Hampshire

Two things.

Christie is a formidable debater. It is too bad that he decided to fold his tent and quit the campaign trail. It would have made more excitement in an otherwise bland field.

Second, the GOP bench is very thin.

Once the Bush dynasty folded their machine the harm to the Party was revealed. A sad lot who gave into the Bushies and at the same time embraced some right wing idealogues who will wreck the Party.

The mainstream is now flooded with the religious nuts and neo-nazi cranks, the bigots and the billionaire puppet masters who fund this shit.

That is OK with me. I do mourn the death of the real Party. It used to be strong and capable part of the two Party system. But now, their weakness has threatened the System as a whole.

Hey.

Do you notice how I managed to not mention the bloviator with the blond forelocks? He is a distraction which will not go away. Not interesting to me. If he gets the nomination, I will be surprised but anything is possible this cycle.

Labels: Republican primary

We have the heat today.

Not a lot but just enough to let us know summer is on its way.

One nice thing about summer in the desert is that it builds up slowly. Winter not so much.

We will have warmer days, then warmer and then warmer still.

When the cold hits, usually later than any place else, it comes with a deep chill.

But not today.

The air got turned on at noon and the dog walk was good until the last five minutes when we would have run for the air but it was too hot so we slogged home. Us.

Labels: desert, weather

Today's film is romantic comedy plot number 23.

A cliché.

But a nice one. Easy going and sweet. A young man and woman meet and argue and argue then fall in love.

Les combattants / Love at First Fight (2015)

At least half of it is good fun and then it has a bit of a hiccup mid-way but it ends OK and I liked it.

It owes a lot to American formulas but gives it the French seasoning which for a nice final flavor.

A 3 out of Netflix5.

I would say more about it but once you get into it you will enjoy the nice young stars and the country side on your own terms.

There is also a spectacular forest fire.

Labels: films

Today's film was a biopic of Orson Welles.

Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles (2014)

True to its lengthy title, this film documents a long distinguished career as an actor and director. Also, writer, producer, life artist and, probably, con artist.

I have seen most of the films clipped here. Nice memories. And, as it went along I thought I might want to rent some of them again.

But then, by the end, I lost that determination. There is something about Orson Welles that gives me a headache. Could it be his genius or his pretensions? I do not know but for awhile, he was fascinating and innovative and laid the groundwork for many other film makers.

He might have been the first true auteur, the term coined by Godard or someone for the guy who has the whole package in his head and can lay it out on the screen.

Author. But more.

I liked the film and was not bothered by the clippings of it. I am sure that they had to stay in the eight second rule to avoid royalties and some of the segments were probably pirated.

In his life, Welles was larger than life. Enormously fat. Huge ego. Very much like the guy in his film Citizen Kane.

In the end he was not quite a joke but he was definitely on his way down as a person. He died before he became tragic.

Labels: films

Of all the Broadway musicals I saw, the best one of all was

Damn Yankees (1958)

They made the musical right after it hit the stage and has many of the same cast that I saw when it did its pre-run in Boston.

It also has my friend Jean Stapleton who later found the promised land as Edith Bunker. Much of that character is seen in the film today.

I met Stapleton when she was at the local playhouse and sang at church while I was the organist. Yes. Me. Her.

So the film has a special resonance. Nostalgia.

It is very well done and because it is the same producers and cast it is pretty faithful to the original.

One would think that casting Tab Hunter instead of the original Stephen Douglas was wrong but it is not. I am pretty sure that he does his own singing as all the cast do. And he hits a home run.

I love this show. I now own the DVD. I can watch it anytime I want to.

There is no good trailer for it. I used this old original one. You will get the idea.

Labels: films, nostalgia

Have I mentioned that I am growing my hair out long?

Again.

The goal is to resume the pony tail that I had for a long time, many years ago. And, of course, to avoid haircuts.

I do not like haircuts. I remember my first one. Really.

Mr. Keitzig, a two chair shop with one barber, the other chair was the waiting chair.

Then there was Edgar Trentesseau a closet queen with a fondness for dashing off mid hair cut for a quick gin pick me up. Vodka was not around much back then.

Then there were others. No one bad, particularly, but no one good either.

I remember my first visit to a stylist, the end of barbers.

That was the first guy who shampooed me. Nice. But I still am not sure it is necessary.

There were the razor cuts, the layered cuts, the buzz cuts. For awhile I had my own shaver/trimmer.

But the best cut of all has always been the no-cut. Long hair.

Mine is pretty good. For one thing it is wavy just like my Dad's. That is a plus right there. The Dad part. Then wavy. It curls in back. I love that.

If you detect more than an average amount of narcissism here you are correct. I plead guilty. My mirror and I are old friends. And my mirror does like long hair.

It is long enough now that some of it reaches my shoulder. There is very little grey in it. Amazing.

I am still balding on top but the bald long hair look is big on the west coast. Show business people, some business types who have that silver fox thing going.

I am near pony tail length. It will be another few weeks before I can really get it on and keep it on.

Hey. Old folks need projects. And the more they are harmless to others and irrelevant the better. It fits right into the "don't be seen" ethos for the senior set.

Incidentally, that is not me in the photo. That is someone else who I admire. For different reasons. And he has a pony tail too. At least there is something in common.

Labels: hair

I know nothing about chess and care less.

But today's film brings the most boring game in the world, to me, to life.

Pawn Sacrifice (2014)

Tobey Maguire comes of age in this wonderful biopic of Bobby Fischer, the chess genius who ruled the world, then lost.

The closeups and the acting take us away from the formalities of the game and show basically a duel to the finish.

It is all touch and go until Fisher goes and takes the series of games. Unnerving the Russian Boris Spassky.

As the film points out, this was all very cold-war oriented. Propaganda.

But the players did not succumb to this on either side.

A human drama, the film is close to the faces and the board. Crowd reaction shots are not part of the drama although there are a few to keep it clear that this was a world event. But the intensity of two people at a board on a stage is kept pretty much in focus throughout. A tough job well played.

I liked the movie. I would not want to see it again. But as I have proved you do not have to know fuck all about chess to enjoy it.

A 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

There are elitist groups and then there are elitist groups; one often leads to the other.

Long time members of any group try to hold on to power. One way, of many, to do this is to tightly control the admission process. Guard and watch the gates.

Of course, cutting some slack here, it is a natural process and one which doesn't really require a lot of maintenance. Those in the know know who is to be in the know and let in. Even the old church sewing circles did this. My mother was a bit of an outsider (she had a loose tongue and spoke her mind) and so I saw her bump up against the elite. She and others formed an anti-elite women's group which did pretty well for awhile but then little by little the old biddies won and snuffed the upstarts out.

The Motion Picture Academy is like that. Thus the kerfluffle over the Oscars and their lily white biases.

Why the Film Academy’s Diversity Push Is Tougher Than It Thinks

It is pretty interesting to read not because anyone, or at least I, give a shit about the Oscars any more but how an elitist group is on the road to extinction through the bias of its membership.

It would seem that a lot of this is innocent or at least built in. They only admit so many and once in, never out. So they have a bunch of old farts manning the gates.

Let me tell you, there is no group more adept at manning the gates than an old fart.

Good luck to them.

In the meantime other award shows and organizations are taking precedence. The Globes, the guilds.

Labels: films, oscars

Today's film reviews the Penn State child abuse scandal.

Happy Valley (2014)

Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno, all that.

If you do not remember, never mind.

The film does not require any prior knowledge of football or the situation. Which means it is a pretty good documentary.

The focus is really on the community and its response to the embarrassment and chagrin at being at the shitty end of the publicity stick.

Schadenfreude.

Very well done. Amazing photography. It is a film but I am sure that a lot of it is shot on video HD. then transferred. Colors vivid. Natural features as in the third dimension.

As for the scandal itself, it is a human comedy/tragedy. People were hurt badly. Some were opportune.

Nothing new to see here folks, but, of course, there is a lot to see as people continue to deny the truth about themselves and their heroes.

The fanatical attraction to football is scary enough. This ratchets it up to another level.

Labels: films

The whore with a heart of gold finds a new set of trappings.

Aya Arcos / Live for the Moment (2014)

This unreviewed Brazilian film covers a lot of familiar ground.

A client falls for a hooker. Then realizes that romance may not be possible.

In the process, there is quite a bit of romance, but fate intervenes, The client is a famous writer and cannot get down and dirty. I think that is the problem.

Societal barriers and all.

This is a very good looking film. Rio, the men, the whole setup in a rainy heavily tiled street way.

There is a great walk on by some beautiful siamese kittens.

There is a second hustler, jealously messing with the two guys.

This is a nice gentle film which is good to look at and with a conventional but not heartbreaking resolution.

Labels: films, gay films

A surprise for Hillary Clinton this morning.

Something, it is said, that she abhors.

Little Separates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in Tight Race in Iowa

This should be interesting.

Who would have guessed that a yawner would turn out to be a tight race for the Democrats.

Of course, Iowa is just a small sample of what lies ahead.

We do live in interesting times.

Well, I do anyway.

I am not sure that this affects my outlook yet. I did not want to vote for Hillary. An aversion. But then I get to the question of whether Sanders can win in the General.

I thought not, but then there are surprises all along life's path.

Maybe this is another one of those times.

Put me down as undecided but ready to jump on any bandwagon that passes.

Labels: Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton

Brought up in Eastern Pennsylvania, I was years ahead of y'all in knowing about Groundhog Day.

Now, it is a movie, an annual tongue in cheek celebration and, probably, a big commercial event where there is some money to be made out of a humble old fashioned custom.

The usual modern travesty made over from some nice old folklore.

There is nothing special about Punxsutawney other than the groundhog. They made it up and appropriated it.

Not many people know about groundhogs anyway.

They are grumbly, generally unfriendly cusses better left alone.

I understand that the 'hog did not cast nor see his shadow.

Groundhog Day: Punxsutawney Phil Did Not See His Shadow

Spring is just around the corner!

In Punxsutawney anyway.

Labels: history, holidays, Pennsylvania

Not too long until the results of the Iowa caucuses come in.

If Sanders can dent the Clinton steam roller here then all bets are off or at least changed in the odds.

It is a lot more interesting than I expected.

And, a little exciting.

But there are ten months to go.

A long hard slog for all of us.

The GOoPers are interested in the outcome but it is not as close for them. Trump seems to have it and even if he does it doesn't knock out all the others but almost certainly three or four of them including Jeb! will reconsider moving on.

Yes?

We shall see.

Soon.

Politics is a contact sport and this is the first play.

Labels: Democratic primary, Republican primary

Today's film was Danny Boyle's masterpiece.

Trainspotting (1996)

Danny Boyle's masterpiece in its Criterion edition which means it is a director's cut.

I do not think it is that different but then I have a spotty memory for that kind of detail.

This is a genius film. Ewan McGregor's prize performance with a great supporting cast. Also Robert Conrad. A lot of young actors got their first break in this movie.

I have seen it before and I will see it again which makes it a 5 out of Netflix5.

I am told that it is not for the faint hearted. If you cannot stand seeing a needle go into an arm, then I suppose that is right. On the other hand, a lot of this should be seen. But I am low on "shoulds" today. So I will refrain.

Labels: films