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An old favorite film today,

You Can Count On Me (2000)

with Mark Ruffalo, Laura Linney, Matthew Broderick and the director Kenneth Lonergan.

A warm gentle film on the idea of "you can't go home again".

An old idea but a fresh twist with great acting. Even the kid actor is pretty good. One of the Culkins.

A wandering brother comes back to the Catskills town (great scenery) where his sister works in a bank, has a quiet boyfriend and a nice life until her new boss throws her for a loop and the brother plays hell with her serene point of view.

I have seen this a couple of times and enjoy it a bit more each time.

It is just a good connection for me.

I will, of course, give it a 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

This article outlines my take on the GOP primary and its candidates exactly.

Who are the Angriest Republicans?

I will cut to the chase. It is not the plutocrats who have always been at the heart of the party. It is not the Mr. and Mrs. Smith down the road who don't want to get any dirt on their shoes. It is, for sure, not the business or professional class.

It is the know-nothing hardscrabble of resentful whites who have seen their world slip into an abyss to deep to get out.

They are the new "niggers". The reviled and discriminated against.

I grew up in Appalachia and retain some of the attitude these folks have. It would seem that betrayal has added to their alienation.

Trump, the rich bastard, appeals to them in some kind of sick way which I do not understand. Trump is their oppressor. But so much for all that. It is a reality.

The disaffected turn to the "leader", the one who has the simple answers.

Never mind that he has and is made his money off their backs.

Labels: Republican primary

I have a monster of a head cold.

I thought I had all the rhino-viri but I guess not. Now we are into their children and grandchildren.

So, I am doing the wonder cure recommended by physicians the world over. I am sleeping it off.

The one good thing about a cold is that it causes sleep or dozing to happen and I am more than willing to let it go on.

I am taking my loratadadine and swilling my cough syrup and sleeping.

When I was a kid our doctor always said that the cold would be over in seven days or a week.

True.

I will just wait it out although I did have symptoms last week I figure those were just the rumblings and do not count.

It is hard not to settle into self pity. But I will not. Yet.

Labels: health

I have tried and tried again to enjoy or even be able to sit through an entire Shakespeare play.

Today, no exception. I bailed out at about the half way.

The Hollow Crown series from the BBC: Richard II with Ben Wishaw.

Pretty and wordy. My gods how wordy.

All that drama is too much for me to take.

So once again, I tried to scale the mighty mountain and fell back.

I would not have even written about it but there it is. A pretty production, a good bit of business around the main talking. But all that Elizabethan talking. Too much for me.

I yawn, I fidget, I begin to zone out.

So. I retreat. Alas.

Labels: films, television

Jim Harrison, Poet, Novelist and Essayist, Is Dead at 78

I probably did not read everything he wrote but damn near it.

And enjoyed every word too.

Lusty and full of life lived to its fullest, his writing was manly and tough.

In his later years he wrote from a woman's point of view I think to show that he could.

And he could.

I related so much to him.

As I get closer to my end, I realize that the kind of friends that I enjoyed, live or in books, are passing on too.

A long goodbye.

Labels: life, reading

Today we had John Cameron Mitchell's

Shortbus (2006)

in which all manner of people find that their special desires are not that strange if seen in a broad context. Meaning that the conventional sex positions and relationships do not begin to describe either the human capacity for invention or creativity.

I think that this is a brief for sexual liberation and experimentation. A sex therapist learns that she doesn't know a whole hell of a lot about the varieties of sexual experience and preference.

And, as it turns out, so do we.

I have seen this film several times and have not yet gotten bored. It could be that it is the ultimate in voyeurism. Or maybe it is just a good film which rates a 5 out of Netflix5.

In any case, unless you are a blue nose or a prude you will have a good time watching and if you are a closet case your eyes might open a bit.

Labels: films, gay films

I am watching some old films which I either didn't see or somehow forgot about.

Among these is Martin Scorcese's bloodbath

Taxi Driver (1976)

My good god. Is it that long ago?

Yes. Jodie Foster was a child and Robert DeNiro was a spectacular stud.

I liked it well enough until the last part. Then, the story falls apart somehow.

I find Travis' recovery and sort of redemption hard to swallow.

There is not a lot to say about this. While is it quite something to see Travis Bickel lose his shit the coda does not withstand scrutiny.

I suppose this is like farting in church but not really. There is so much carnage in the film that whatever I have to say about the whole thing is comparatively mild.

I suppose it is a technical 5 out of Netflix5 if I saw it before. But in reality, since I will never see it again, it rests personally at a 2.

I do not think that I ever saw a Scorcese film again.

In addition to DeNiro, there are some young actors in this film who are quite worth seeing. Jodie Foster, Peter Boyle, Harvey Keitel.

Labels: films

Marcus and I are keeping bachelor hall today and tomorrow morning.

John is in LA to watch the Mormon's sing and dance in their road show.

At least I think they are Mormons, aren't they? Or is it just a musical, all pretend and such?

I guess the latter.

We intend to have fun while he is gone. It is Easter weekend after all. The Bunny comes tonight and Marcus and I will be sitting up to wait for him.

Watch out.

I will be doing my usual things. And I am glad to see that the internet stuff is still working a day after it was fixed. I am always a bit gun-shy when there is a break in the ordinary.

Our weather is very sweet. Cool breezes and, of course, sun.

We are about to walk out and see what is happening with the real bunnies who are back in glorious profusion. Until the coyotes get them. In the mean time they are mental sport for Marcus.

Labels: life

Yesterday we lost our internet connections.

Today, at 4AM, the cable company installed a new unground transmitter or something in front of our house.

A guy was here in the afternoon to changeout the modem and our speed doubled in the process.

Not too shabby.

Evidently the in-street thing shorted out burning our modem.

The new modem is state of the art and very fast.

The cable company, Time Warner is a monopoly but they do not act like it. They are very service oriented and the people are competent and friendly.

So I am back in business and no one noticed. Well, maybe not.

Labels: internet

The skin trade is not all that it might crack up to be.

For those of us who occasionally indulge in the sin of pornography, (and that could be more of us than you think) any behind the scenes information is welcome.

In most cases, all the titillation so skillfully edited into a film is lost on the repetition, the boredom of continually naked bodies and, for men. the chase for elusive erection.

I read that today's film was "loosely" based on the career of straight porn superstar John Holmes who evidently had a legendary dick. Longer than long.

Somewhere the myth of the big dick started and still stays in the mind of many voyeurs as the be all and end all of male virility.

Any gay man can attest to the fact that this is not really so. Men with big equipment figure they have brought everything they needed to the party and no more need be done.

Very boring men, the long donged.

But that aside, Dirk Diggler, played my Mark Wahlberg, is a star among stars.

Boogie Nights (1997)

is his realm. Until it is not.

The ending for this film is not uplifting. In a way, one wishes it could be otherwise. They used to make all sinners pay for their good times and here the same obtains but it seems that there is more truth than moral in this state of affairs.

But enough of that.

This movie is a lot of fun. It is also funny. It recognizes and capitalizes on the fact that sex is a comedy. Even the pros have to laugh. Except that in this case the pros are also drug addicts.

I do not know if the confluence of drugs and porn production is true. I hope not. It is too bad if it is.

I do know a few ex-porn stars (no name dropping here) and the down can be as low as the highs. Like everything else I suppose.

The sex industry has always been seedy, I believe, mostly because it is kept to the margins by the blue noses and the religionists who recognize rightly that healthy sex lives conflict with purity of thought word and deed.

I have to give this film a 5 out of Netflix5 because I come back to it over and over. It is always fresh and fun.

There are a lot of stars in this film or near stars just coming out. The last one of these is Alfred Molina who plays a gleefully dirty old man who is also as high as a kite. I had forgotten about Molina and was glad to see him.

In fact, seeing the film is like a reunion of my favorite actors. All gathered together in this one film.

This pretty much says it all.

The iteration of scary photos on the teevee cannot be a good thing.

Yes. We need to see what is going on in the world but remember: The purpose of terrorism is to create terror.

I refuse to participate.

I admit to thoughts like "I will quit traveling". And so on. Traces of fear.

But fuck them. I will not play.

Franklin D Roosevelt, my first President.

Labels: terrorism

The term "faith based" is such a pile of shit.

These are code words for hate group, discrimination supporters, homophobics and the like.

Now someone, not gay, is calling a halt to this double talk.

NFL Wants to Sack Anti-Gay Bill in Georgia

Unlikely allies? Not really.

The NFL is inclusive and does not want to be seen as even touching the sickness of the religious bigots. Or any bigots.

God is love. Great cover for the bastards who don't want some others to be happy. Twisted. Sick-os.

And so on.

Feel the rant.

There has been a wave of this coming as a way to wiggle through the clear mandates of the Supreme Court and other legal guardians.

There is no point going on about it.

That this is Georgia is a big deal. No more automatic knee jerk hatred from the South. The New South.

Labels: bigotry, christists, gay rights, hate

Someone is being conned.

It is either me or the kids in this picture. Maybe both.

With an IMDb rating of 7.6, I expected more. So much for expectations.

Rebels of the Neon God

I am not sure where or how I heard of this picture or why I ordered it but it is just a compendium of injustice and unhappiness in either Taiwan or maybe Hong Kong.

Teen agers are having troubles and no one gives a shit.

As it turns out, neither do I.

There is a lot of rain in this picture. Incessant. Also tears. Poverty. Obsession with pinball machines and occasional juvenile sex. There are a couple of times we watch a kid jerk off. Well, we do not see it but we see him straining at it.

I have no idea why I ordered this. The reviewer seems to think it is high art. If me, my, the viewer's suffering is a symptom of art then he is correct.

Relentless.

I gave up on it. That makes it a 1 out of Netflix5. A rare event as I am very careful with my reviews and screening before I rent something.

What a wasted of time.

I could pretend that I ever saw it but honesty precludes not mentioning this stain on my DVD curatorial skills.

Add it up. Taiwan (or Hong Kong), kids, neon, something about a false god and relentless rain.

Labels: films

There was no internet this morning.

Well, first there was and then not.

This is the worst case situation as one cannot be certain that it is the cable people or the house.

In this case, it was pretty clearly the cable.

We can call Time Warner but no one will be answering. Mostly, I assume because everyone is calling Time Warner. Even at 3AM.

I hate how I react to this when it happens. I get anxious and begin to freak out.

And yet I know it will be fixed and I will eventually be back in business.

This is the new state of things.

I live through and by the computer. Or think that I do.

Reality is another thing.

I quit trying the impossible, did some things I needed to do and went to the gym.

When I came back, it was "fixed".

This is a new dependency. Not one that I like.

But here I am back on the net telling about it.

I do not expect any sympathy. I got myself into this. I gave up hard copy books. I wouldn't even know how to get to the radio although this is not true. There is always NPR, that supremely smug source of succor.

But I am an internet guy.

We are back in business like I knew we would be. Good times for all.

I just don't like the sudden hit of adrenaline that occurs when they bug out.

Labels: internet

A film has been made about the big financial crisis.

The Big Short (2015)

You may have heard about it or not. It came and left rather quickly.

No one wants to sit and hear bad news. Fewer still want to watch technical details flow by while even the film stops here and there to explain terms and technicalities. Really.

Some of this explanation stuff is done very well. Mini-movies with famous people and experts from the field of finance.

I was impressed.

I would not mind seeing this again.

The actors are great, the story moves along and has a definite heartbeat which, at times, gets fast with excitement and even fear.

That is hard to accomplish and I admire it.

This is an old style film. Villains, heroes, suspense. A movie movie.

A 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

Today, the monthly condo board meeting.

I have been sitting on this for three years.I really like it.

We have 147 units, just the right number I think. Not to big not too small.

We get a good owner turnout to observe and participate in the meetings. Some sit quietly. Others have questions. Still others have ideas.

In my experience, the ones who ask the most questions and offer ideas end up being on the board. Eventually. Their attendance is a sort of try out or farm team league workout.

Once they get a presence they stand for election and usually, if they are prompt in getting their names into the hat, they end up elected.

There is no rule for turnover. It just happens.

This is my second term and while there have been some lifers in the past I think I will not be standing for a third term. But as I type that, even I do not believe it.

I am well suited for the job of Treasurer and I like to sign all the checks. It fills my need for some power and at the same time is very practical. It is the fundamental microscope on what is going on.

We have professional managers; a small company that services several other small associations like us. They are well informed and know their role. I like them.

In fact I like all my fellow board members. Their quirks and specialties are fascinating to me. They all contribute.

Best of all we have no assholes. This is a feature of many other boards I hear about. Not ours.

Steering the association is made easier by the fact that in California we have the Davis-Sterling act which was produced in answer to a host of problems with HOA associations in the state.

It is a wise and enabling legislation of proper guidelines and procedures. Not hard to follow, it actually enables good government while heading off bad behavior or incompetent leadership.

We also have attorneys on call when we get our heads into areas that look murky or portend trouble.

Right now we have a crazy owner who is rumbling at length in long incoherent letters about the failures of the board, the association, the professional staff, the neighbors, the dogs around her who bark just to annoy her and so on.

A good bit of governance is to ignore this type of provocation, invite her to come to board meetings and vent and, somewhat sternly, let her know we are not afraid of her and that her rights only extend the paint on her walls. We own the structure. She owns the interior. A fine point but often a key one. Owners do have a stake in the property itself but it is a joint ownership and no one gets to run the thing but us. And we are constrained both by the law, re-election and good sense.

I love it.

I am good at it. Long years of public service prepared me for all of it. I am not passive. I try to speak from the heart. I figure part of my job is to help people keep it cool and not make fools of themselves. If they insist, we will let them do that but we will not point and make fun or abuse them in any way.

I find that my parental stare is often enough to stop the nonsense. And I am not even the chairman. There are five of us and we all bring a good balance and good sense to the operation. If I say so myself.

Oh. Why "grass"?

Because it is the perennial (ha ha) issue at each meeting. My grass, your grass, watering grass, not watering grass, seeding grass, not seeding, weeds, bermuda, rye, on and on.

Why is this? I am not sure. We are fucking lucky we have any grass. It is a feature of the condo design and very unusual for this kind of development. The originator and designer of the units gave us plenty of space and filled it with grass and gorgeous landscaping. It is beautiful. It is one of the things that brought us here. But it is expensive to keep up. Mowing, watering (no water) seeding, replanting, pruning and all. The technicalities of good grass constitute a major in some agricultural colleges. Preservation of plant material is an art practiced by professional gardeners. Pruning alone would fill a sizable manual.

The drought mandate in California has required that we cut water by 35% and we have done so. With no harm to the grass!

Amazing.

But what remains is the belief that your grass is greener than mine.

Now not one person here owns the grass around their condo. But believe me that is a technicality. People want their grass to be in top condition. Their turf to be bountiful. And it is, for the most part.

We spend a lot of money on this. And the mowing.

It is easy to say that grass should be taken out and gravel put in. But it turns out that gravel is very expensive if properly laid. Four layers of sand, pebbles, black film to halt weeds, netting, blah blah blah. And then you have to keep people and dogs off it because it will not take very long for it to develop into an outdoor toilet. Piss smell for a long distance.

And and so on.

I have been on the board the longest and know the story and get to be the one to tell this every several months when a new group of environmentally minded water savers come in and want us to take the grass out.

We are not going to do that. At worst, we will let the dry turf sit and be brown waiting for the revival of water or not. If it turns to sand it would be better as desert than as some concocted gravel pit. And so on.

I go on and on about this you see. It is my job. When the naif comes in and wants to take the grass out, all board members turn to me. I recite the lesson for the day. I must do a good job of explanation or, perhaps, intimidation. It does not come up again from that person.

Labels: board meeting, condo

One of the treats to be savored during any election is the wit of Gail Collins.

Today, she weighs in, again, on the dire straits in which the GOP finds itself.

One wonders if there is a GOP anymore.

50 Ways to Leave The Donald

In this she describes the dilemma of a political Party which is being hijacked by a plutocrat. It is interesting that the Party used to be run but the plutocrats, Romney their poster child. But the extreme right wing has hijacked the Grand Old Party and taken its "straight" members hostage.

The crazies are needed for anything to happen for them in any year upcoming.

At least the Democrats' crazies are retired lefties who have little political sense and almost nothing newsworthy to say. Since most of those are in Minnesota or Wisconsin their words do not reach the Coasts anyway.

I liked this.

Rational Republicans are desperately trying to figure out a way to get rid of Donald Trump. Their desperation is so great, you’d expect someone to release a herd of crocodiles on Mar-a-Lago.

I think that she means alligators but the image is still a vivid one.

Labels: Donald Trump

Poor Sherlock Holmes has been done and done and done even more.

Here we are just after the great teevee series with Benedict Cumberbatch with the bodies hardly cool and Ian McClelland climbs on for one more go at the great detective. This time in his dotage.

Mr. Holmes (2015)

Several stories overlap with no confusion and the necessary bases are touched.

It is fun to watch McClelland who is old to begin with play even older as Holmes about to kick off.

None of it is memorable and no one will care about the solution to the mysteries really. But it is fun to watch a master actor go through his paces.

Laura Linney appears as a dowdy harpy housekeeper. Wasted.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

The voice of the turtle*, Mitch McConnell is heard.

Merrick Garland Visits Capitol as G.O.P. Digs In Against Vote

Garland is a great choice. First of all he is a good guy as far as I can see. Second, it is a very skillful play by Obama to make the GOoPers show their obstructionist and dickhead behavior in living color. Embarrassment.

McConnell is one of the least attractive members of The Congress. A gulping red-faced duffer who looks like he is out of air. And he does look like a turtle.

It is all part of the great game and Obama is a player of high skill. I am sure that Garland knows he is a pawn in both sides' game but some people like this kind of thing and crave the attention. Besides, it is a great honor, period.

*For the scholars and nitpickers among us I am including a source which discusses why the King James version of The Bible has this turn of phrase. Hermeneutics. If you read the comments you will see that basically no one knows but I like that the voice of the turtle is mute and so is the voice of God. Or something. I am not going there today. This is left as an exercise for the reader. And Mitch Fucking McConnell the turtle head wh should also mute himself.

None of us are Irish except in our heart-sometimes. Except when being Irish means hatefulness.

But St. Patrick's Day is special because it falls on the same date as my Father's Birthday.

He is 98 today. I hope that he is getting a green cake and some other mock-Irish shit to keep up the traditions.

Wherever he is, I am sure that they celebrate this day.

Early in February, the hunt would be on for St. Pat's birthday cards.

There are a lot of them each year as there are as many people born on that day as the ones who get born on Christmas and need the double dip attention.

I grew up in a place where there were no Irish anyway.

Like California, they are few and far between. And those who have the heritage kind of keep quiet about it.

I am not sure why. It is the total opposite of the madness in Boston and New York each year. And the bigotry.

There is still a ban on gay people marching in those parades.

Homo-haters give up slowly and reluctantly.

But that is not the point. My Dad was anything but a homo-hater.

He was slow to get what my being gay was about. But then he met John and things changed very quickly.

It turned out that both of them were on Destroyers in the US Navy and there it was. Click.

My mother and I disappeared as the war stories started and never really ended.

My father took special pains to understand me all my life. I was a piece of work. But he was kind and unbending at the same time.

Tough love administered fairly and evenly.

Late in his life, John and I took him to the place in Charlestown MA where he stayed with my mother when she would visit him on his stops between trips across the North Atlantic.

He got kind of sentimental and softened up a lot and told me that he was proud of me and that he loved me. He understood what it took for me to finally come out.

I figure that in his heart he always knew. I could not hunt or fish worth a shit. I did not fight with other kids, I intimidated them with my mouth. I was a tough nut.

But he nurtured me in a way that I owe almost all I know about manhood from him.

He taught me through example.

For a few years he was my boss in the supermarket he managed.

He never played favorites with me or tried to make it difficult. He let me learn on my own with his guidance.

I still love my Dad today with a deep affection and respect.

We have a shamrock out front of the house. John put it up as decor but when I see it I think of my Dad. It is his and he is with me. He is mine. Forever.

Labels: Father

I finished the Richard Linklater trilogy with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.

Before Midnight, Before Sunrise, After Sunset.

I am just reporting this for anyone who is waiting for the other two shoes to drop.

I figured that there would be just more of the same in each edition.

I do not ever watch sequels. Anytime, anywhere, anything.

But these are not truly sequels as much as one large work which is made in real time.

Linklater waited for each subsequent film so that his actors would truly be older and all that means to the flavor of the film.

By the time we get to the third edition we manage to see an epic fight which rings every bell in my own experience with lovers' quarrels. The thing about them is that over a long time ammunition piles up. The missiles get more accurate.

Since we have seen their previous films we know what some of these are when they appear.

I really like this work and will probably see the three again sometime.

Labels: best films, films

I am in pretty good health for a guy my age.

Or any age.

I have good genes.

But I have hit a bit of a rock in the path. My kidneys are not working up to full speed.

I spent time with my regular Doctor Jim this morning. John went along.

I have a few symptoms and it is becoming clear that I am also a borderline diabetic.

This is my Dad's health career. My father's son.

But then I am my own man too so I will march on and follow directions as well as I can.

I am going to a nephrologist already and am seeing him every four months.

I know this is too much information for casual readers but there it is.

My life is an open blog.

And this shit is real so it is fair game.

How about me? I am not too daunted by it.

No one ever told me that aging would be easy nor life either. I have had my share of stuff along the line and have learned that the thing to do about it is not to run around with my hair on fire but to just walk the next step and do the next indicated thing and the rest will be taken care of.

That has worked up to now so I will keep on doing it.

Tomorrow the lab, then the kidney guy in March and so on.

Labels: health, kidney

So Trump triumphed in all but Ohio.

And there lies the last gasp hope of the GOoPers to stop the blond bomber.

Kasich.

Can you say his name? I am not sure. Hard or soft -ch?

Anyway he kicked Trump's ass in a state that has supplied us with more Presidents than any other.

Read here.

Kasich, the Boulder Between the G.O.P. and Trump

Gail Collins speaks through a hail of confetti.

That is a great photo though. Look at him.

Rubio lost in his home state. So the new great white hope of the Republican party is a grizzled unphotogenic hard liner on abortion but an apparently restrained ego. Humble is not a word to use on any politician but he seems to be close to that.

Yes. Hillary Clinton is sewing it up. I am not excited but not worried. She can take both of them. One at a time or together.

Not the Republican year. If ever.

Labels: Republican primary

I am watching Richard Linklater films.

Today, the first of three that star Julie Depy and Ethan Hawk.

Before Sunrise (1995)

This film is all talk. The couple meet "cute" on a train and apparently decide that this is their moment with no future plans. No romantic interest.

They are smart and snappy and enjoy each other's company. It is like listening in to a couple you might see in a restaurant who look like they are very friendly but just friends.

It is interesting how Linklater is able to keep the hump and bump stuff out of this situation. And keep it interesting.

Love and respect happens of course and we know now that this couple will meet at least two more times in two more films.

That will be in real time when they are older and presumably wiser but probably not any wiser than anyone else.

That this can keep my interest still is quite surprising. It seems as fresh as when I first saw these two. A 5 out of Netflix5 by definition. Reruns.

As a kind of joke, they appear in the cartoon feature that I saw yesterday Waling Life.

Labels: best films, films

Richard Linklater brings his "odd" viewpoint of the world to this adult cartoon.

Waking Life (2001)

The entire film is a dream but one of those real ones where you aren't sure you are dreaming because you can see yourself being asleep and all that weird shit.

Perfectly depicted in "adult" cartoons and drawings, this world is evoked in a way that one could never portray with live actors.

But Disney it is not.

I enjoyed this the first time and really listened this time.

The whole thing is like a seminar in the meaning of life. Like Linklater's other films people talk and talk and talk. But it is the kind of talk one wants to hear. There is no room for side distractions. Best watched alone.

I have seen it a couple of times. Will see it again. That makes it a 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: best films, films

There is reason to believe that Donald Trump is the creation of a bankrupt political party.

His progress was aided and abetted by cynical political professionals and party hacks who did not take him seriously.

Unintentional consequences. They let him into the tent and now he is stealing the tentpoles.

Here is a great analysis of what has happened.

Donald Trump’s Presidential Run Began in an Effort to Gain Stature

Not taken seriously, Trump decided to kick some ass. He became a political prodigy in the process and found that he liked it.

I have met a few rich boys in my time, the ones who inherited. They all have something to prove. Like the sons of famous fathers.

It often does not turn out well.

In this case, it is still hard to figure how it might end.

What is clear is that Trump is busting up the GOP. He has been the bull in the china shop, the infidel let into the tent. All those clichés come true in these wild ride election years.

I suppose I have to admit that "we" have to take some of the blame. Obama humiliated him in public a few years ago.

This and other interesting bits are included in this great article.

Labels: Donald Trump, GOP

There is a strata of the social scheme that is not an alternative culture exactly; more non-culture.

Independents, free thinkers, the off beat and eccentric. Often for the sake of being off beat and eccentric.

Of course, among these people are some who are actually more bound up in being counter than people who are not. Or something.

Richard Linklater uses the word

Slacker (1991)

Staged as a documentary almost a hundred of Linklater's friends and acquaintances line up to give their view of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

A delightful conceit, this film is as fresh as the first time I saw it at the Coolidge Corner Theater (way off the main line) many years ago. Well, 25 years ago to be exact. We stood in line to do it.

Innovative and always entertaining, somehow Linklater manages to make fun of people without seeming to do so. It helps that these are actors but the feel of the film is that they are for real.

I love this movie and see it every few years. It is a 5 on the Netflix5 scale.

I like Linklaters later work and will see more over the next couple of days but this is where it started.

Labels: best films, films

Richard Linklater's early hit after Slacker

Dazed and Confused (1993)

Dope culture in high school. Pushing a little but still. A lot of young actors made their debut here.

This is a very busy film with a lot of characters. We see the stereotypes (the jock, the brain, the slut both male and female) but they are handled with charm and grace and without any of the looking down one's nose that happens in a lot of teen pictures.

I enjoyed it, I have seen it before, it is worth seeing again and I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: best films, films

I would not want to call any Trump supporter a bigot.

That is more their game, slinging the shit at opponents.

I doubt many of them would hesitate to call me a "faggot".

I would not say that they were racists either. An unfair generalization based on the actions of a few.

But I am not the only one who "notices" that a lot of his support comes from the great unwashed and ignorant base that has always been around. Sometimes in hiding sometimes not.

What the great H.L. Mencken called the "booboisie".

These are the people who, for a while now, have had to go into their closets and button their lips.

But now, The Donald has given permission to return to outspoken racism and bullying. The conspiracists.

What Are Trump Fans Really ‘Afraid’ to Say?

Sadly, here is what I have been thinking too.

I live in a city where "they" means Mexicans. The people who used to own this territory. The people who are the biggest ethnic minority or close to a majority that we have here. There are blacks and a sprinkling of oriental folks but they are few and far between. Easy to isolate and not include. Outsiders.

The "Anmerica Firsters" have always used "dog whistles" and innuendo in their rhetoric. You can't hear it unless you are part of the bitter haters who listen for it.

As a gay man I learned about these things a long time ago. Being gay sensitizes me to innuendo and insinuation. I am not complaining. I have my own way of dealing with it. Effectively. Call it out and label it. Scare the shit out of them in return. Yeh. I am not proud of it but I know how to do that and never raise a finger. My mouth is my weapon of choice.

But to work as hard as Trump is working to label and accuse is blatant demagoguery.

Also see: Riskiest Political Act of 2016? Protesting at Rallies for Donald Trump

Labels: Donald Trump

Today, a favorite and NYTime Best Film.

The Dreamers (2003)

Much to appreciate in this fine film. Three rich and privileged kids ride out the Paris student riots in a posh apartment. The decline of the bourgeoisie.

Michael Pitt is an American who is with French twins Louis Garrel and Eva Green.

Ebert says it is near perfect. I would say the same.

I have seen it a few times and still get all caught up in it.

The sound track includes rock classics, Jimmy Hendrix and so on.

I think that there is irony here. Rich kids, revolution against themselves actually.

The observing American Pitt gets caught up in it for awhile then sees through it. Sort of.

There is a lot of nice sex in this film. Gay and straight. Threesome. Not for the prude more for the prurient. The reason we went to French and Italian films in the first place.

Well, I did.

So did you, fess up.

One other thing. The most fun. These people are film buffs. They meet at the Cinematheque. Spellbound with a film which I still can't identify exactly. So Bertolucci intersperses; matches some of his scenes with famous scenes from old films, mostly silent. Very nice touch. It keeps the artifice of these kids' lives front and center. They are playing out a film script!

Labels: best films, films, gay films

I am on a binge with short films.

Today:

Mexican Men (2015)

A group of short films about gay life in Mexico.

Very nice. Not one bummer in the bunch.

That is a major achievement.

But since the films are by the known quantities Julien Hernandez and Robert Fiesco the odds were very good from the start.

Quality rather cliche.

These films make use some of the same actors film to film and it is nice to see some favorites among them.

There is no doubt that Mexican men are very hot.

As we share the border we get to see a lot of the real thing and the film version is not too far off the every day.

Labels: films, gay films

I found a disc with only short films on it.

I came from the era when the movies always had shorts before the main feature.

At least a newsreel, perhaps a cartoon. Sometimes a small film about something esoteric. Time magazine had a regular film series called Time Marches On. This was all before television took the news over.

So, now, whenever I can, I take a look at shorts. Most film makers cut their teeth on shorter films and there are some DVD's devoted to this work.

Today's collection

Francois Ozon: A Curtain Raiser and Other Short Films (1993)

These are fun because they are also the early films of such stars as Louis Garrel and Mathieu Amalric

The quality of the films is uneven but some of the best are actually the very quick (and dirty) short shorts. A few gay ones are in this subset as well.

I am not sure if this disc is available in any other format than the Netflix Collection. If so, you are out of luck unless you belong to that service.

Labels: films, short films

I wonder if someone, somewhere in the Republican Party has an emergency plan.

Labels: Donald Trump, Republican primary

Today's film, a bruiser.

Relentlessly violent and continually boring.

City on Fire (1987)

Smoke and mirrors.

A Hong Kong thriller that was highly touted somewhere and I took the bait.

The reality is that this gore fest of criminals and double crossers, a cop picture of all things, is a piece of shit.

Sorry.

I had to FF a lot to get through the bad dubbing and very leaky plot.

I don't even want to get into the detail of it.

Suffice to say that I quit while I was behind. I just could not take any more.

Oh. This is said to be the film that one of Tarantino's films took off from.

I missed that small print.

Gratuitous violence only begins to describe the carnage.

But nothing, nothing, covers up the fact that for some reason English speaking actors were still dubbed by clearly anglo voice overs. It doubles the pain.

A very rare 1 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

Today was a cooking movie.

Or about a cook of oriental extraction who happens to be gay.

Eat With Me (2014)

is a dish made up of many cliches but it is served nicely and smoothly. Easy to go down.

I liked it a lot.

But not enough to buy the disc.

"The gays" have reached the point that we can have nice safe formula pictures that depict us fairly accurately with all the coming out stuff put into the past. Now that is settled, we can have the same relationship problems as every one else. True equality.

This has a nice cameo by Geroge Takae.

Nicely done. The sry gay grandpa settling everything out for folks.

A 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films, gay films

Apparently another bullshit slinging debate.

What is good about these GOoPer events is the spotlight it throws on their total lack of talent.

None of these guys are, in the least, likable, electable or respectable.

I do not know about the liar part but it is taken as a given. Trump is not the only con man trying to get over. All of them have a history of polishing the resume on limited experience.

Kasich is still the only one that I would even consider to be an elected official. He has governed, he is reasonable and he is not a demagogue.

This from The Onion says it all.

Smiling Nation Takes Moment To Enjoy Thought Of What RNC Headquarters Like Right Now

I can imagine. The professional politico whose life work is about to go up in flames.

And so on.

Even I do not wish this on the Party. We need them.

Labels: Donald Trump, Republican primary

An old favorite today which I have written about many times. I will be quiet this time.

Diva (1981)

Labels: best films, films

We expected a goat fuck but this is really something.

Romney calling Trump 'phony,' urging Republicans to shun him

This is simply not done in GOP circles.

For decades, the Republicans have tolerated and encouraged the right wing goofballs and courted the racists.

But now, they have had enough.

Evidently because this time the intruders are into the tent and it very seriously impairs the workings of the Party.

I would normally say, "pass the popcorn", but it is hard to take delight in a mix-up that threatens the one side of the two party system in our country.

The thing about Trump is that he has taken the normal Republican line and has used boldface and italics to emphasize its underpinnings.

To be fair, there was a time, in my life span, when the South was Democrat to the core. Then, things changed. The Democrats would no longer tolerate that kind of thing within its Party. So the "whacko-birds", to use John McCain's term, went right to the GOP.

Now, Trump is a new amalgam. All those "birds" have come home to roost in his rhetoric.

There was also a time when the Democrats were viewed as harboring dangerous "progressives". In the early part of the Fifties, it was the Democrats who were accused of harboring the fringe. The "reds".

I suppose this is always going to happen. The people at the margins are going to come out for every election and try again.

The fail, like Ben Carson, the black right wing guy. A rich doctor who evidently lost sight of his heritage.

Trump is not, in truth, a Republican. He is a plutocrat taking advantage of the open system elections to push an agenda.

I will not go "there", meaning the place where many dictators have started from. The finger pointing, the accusations.

There is a lot of anti-muslim feeling in this country. Remember when they hurled that epithet at Obama.

If I were Muslim, I would be a little scared of the Trumpfer.

Labels: Donald Trump, right wing whack jobs

The perfect film.

So elusive.

But this one comes close.

Le Samouri / The Samurai (1967)

By Jean-Piere Melville and starring Alain Delon.

There are surfaces in this film, the sets seem three dimensional. So do the faces.

At one level this is just a routine thriller about a hit guy who is on hire for anyone who needs someone dead.

But it is almost as though each frame is honed to a sharp edge.

Many of the spaces are very theatrical and make no attempt at realism.

One of the stars is a bird in a cage. I worry about that bird and what might have happened to him.

This movie makes one care. So much.

I have seen it several times and each time a new layer uncovers. Today, it was the sets. Another time, the acting. So evidently acting and not an attempt to make it natural.

Delon has scenes that transfix.

I guess I liked this movie a lot. I will surely see it again sometime. That is a 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: best films, films

Today's film is about two young men finding their first boyfriend.

A surprise to both of them. Hello!

Silent Youth (2014)

Very nice. Sweet.

German film so it is subtitled but a lot of it is, well, silent.

The title also refers to alienation. The youth who find their own lives apart from the system and establishment.

This is in our library and so I wanted to have another look today. A 5 out of Netflix5.

I am a sucker for teen coming out films as I did not have one of those. I missed a lot but I do not regret missing the angst and heartbreak.

One of the things about these guys is that they are totally on their own. There is a custodial relative somewhere but they are busy and so the boys are free in an odd way. Free to have their lives unencumbered by family. A paradox. Nice. There is a shadow father in the picture but we only see him taking the boys somewhere for a long walk at Templehof Airport. A nice touch as Templehof was the main link during the Berlin blockade. I certainly remember it from the news when I was a kid. Now it is all dead but the boys sort of bring it alive.

Did I mention how sweet this film is? You will notice that Kirill has a bruised and cut face because he was gay bashed on a trip visiting Moscow. There is a lot of emotional healing here. It is understood not explicit.

Labels: filkms, gay films

All of my life I have wanted a Magical Eight Ball.

I do not know why it has taken so long but I just got one and it sits right next to me.

Just in time for the election season.

I just asked what chance Hillary Clinton has in the election.

It says "Outlook Good".

Enough said.

The answers are diverse.

I think that in the old days there were mostly yes or no answers but I don't really remember.

What I do remember is the excitement that surrounded seeing one.

Some other kids had one I think. Maybe not.

I know that I always checked them out at the drug store where they were sold. My first job was in that store and so I got a daily dose of answers.

I never got jaded.

It is sitting right here. I plan to use it regularly.

Any questions?

Labels: fun

Last night we were talking about what The Clintons were doing to prep for a Trump GOP nomination.

Now, as if in answer to our questions, we have this.

Inside the Clinton Team’s Plan to Defeat Donald Trump

Like most "inside stories", this one doesn't tell us much and see-saw back and forth between one opinion and another but the energy is very clear.

They are ready or getting ready. He will be taken seriously. It will be rough.

I think that it will have to be mean and brutal. A takedown.

On target, as usual in my opinion, is Bill who takes the Trumpfer seriously and is ready to roll.

I am glad for this.

There can be a tendency for The Clintons to take things for granted.

Look. The Clintons come out of Arkansas. Have you ever been there? I have. I trained there a couple of times and rode in cabs with mouthy, opinionated, red neck drivers. It pleased me that I never had to go back. Granted, they didn't want me either. The kind of rebellious no-nothing business guys who mocked before they even heard "the gospel" that I was preaching. No wonder those holy rollers have to shout them down.

As a bona-fide child of red-neck families I can attest to the need for hanging tough in their midst.

They might not like you but you will be respected*.

Trump is a bully. Rubio and the others are beginning to get the picture. A little late I think. He will get votes from people that will cheer for the bull in a bull fight. More gore, more.

I have to admit that I like it too.

Batten down the hatches. Even though "they" say that The Donald can still lose, I am not counting on it. The GOP cannot reign him in and no one save Rubio is going to catch him.

Carson and Cruise are only hurting the cause by not folding and giving Rubio their support. But I am not a good coach for the GOoPers. Let them flounder.

*More polls Clinton vs Trump

Labels: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton