esrosedotblog

It is probably overstating it but I think Trump really stepped on his own crank the other night.

Donald Trump Criticizes Muslim Family of Slain U.S. Soldier, Drawing Ire

Here in one spot is the clear demonstration of his prejudices, his ego and his bullying.

He is a taunter. He cannot help himself.

One way to see this is that he is so insecure that he has to rant and bellow and overstate things to protect a fragile self image.

What it shows is that he is a flaming asshole.

Even a dumb yahoo would know better than to continue and irritate people when he is clearly in the wrong.

But that is not Donald. He is a "fightah". He says. What he is really is a poor excuse for a human being. It is shameful that the GOP has allowed him to go unharnessed. Very few have the balls to say what everyone can see.

The first polls are in after the Democratic convention. Clinton got a big bounce now six points ahead of the bloviator. No surprise there.

"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." A lesson from the Party's founder that Donald is soon to learn the hard way. Or not.

Labels: Hillary Clinton

Today's film is as brutal as any I have seen.

No reason to miss it though.

I know. I like the violence. So sue me.

The Elite Squad (2007)

is from the same film maker as City of God, a film that is equally tough but seen from the other side. The criminal side.

This is modern Brazil. A mess. But the Pope is coming and the city must be scrubbed clean despite layers and layers of corruption.

The hypocrisy is very thick.

There are a lot of social and political points being made in this movie but the real value of it is the sheer pounding suspense and the thrill of the chases. The police raid as a heart pounder.

Not everyone will like it or even approve of it. I am not sure myself. But I watched it all and rooted for the good guys to win. That would be the Elite Squad picked to clean things up for el Papa.

They use the carte blanche of this Papal assignment to clean up the crooks and even the score all around town.

In a way this is not so different as an old fashioned Western but with a lot more graphic violence. Blood and guts.

I would watch this again so it is a 4 out of Netflix5.

Do not watch it if you have a delicate constitution. I did have to look away occasionally but I did not FF.

Labels: films

I think that Hillary Clinton hit the ball out of the park last night.

I am a late comer to the Hillary bandwagon but now I am enthusiastically on board and ready to roll.

Hillary Clinton Warns of ‘Moment of Reckoning’ in Speech Accepting Nomination

There is simply no other time like the time we have and she has the stuff. I am sure of it. She won me over. All my skepticism and even my long time disappointment with Bill. Bill is not running this time. Simple.

Today we will send some money to help get her started. Putting our bucks where our mouth is.

My Dad, the rock hard Democrat would be very happy today. So am I.

Labels: Hillary Clinton

Today, the Coen Brothers do the twenties gang wars.

Miller's Crossing (1990)

What a long time ago! I was surprised to see the date.

Nut it is not dated. It is the timeless story of the wise guys who try to get over and the other wise guys who will rub them out.

This film has the usual Coen stock company of actors and some of them get a star turn especially if they are more mob looking than others.

The film is very very good. I have seen it a few times. It is still worth trying again sometime.

There are so many nice touches. The gangsters' fedoras make a nice counterpoint to the gruesome nature of the goings on. A warning. Lots of gore.

Labels: films

Well, I have to admit they got me more engaged.

I switched to see what was going on with the Demo-convention last night just as the Big Dog, Bill Clinton, took the podium.

He did a rouser of a speech and did a great job of re-introducing Hillary Clinton to us.

Yeh, us.

I am beginning to feel a part of.

I don't imagine I will sit and binge on it but I sure won't miss Obama's speech tonight.

Bill committed the graceful act of not mentioning the Donald's name at all.

It was all positive assertion of Hillary Clinton's life and works over the years.

I didn't know a lot of her story so it was good for me to sit and listen.

Bill is a spellbinder but he leaves room for the listener to react in the head and in the heart.

A master class on political oratory.

Labels: Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton

It is hard to even read about the Democratic Convention.

Let alone even think about watching it.

I can remember wallowing in these in the past. Not this time.

I have a friend who is watching it wall to wall. I don't know who he is rooting for. Afraid to ask.

I guess I am losing my fascination.

It does start with the fact that I am not particularly excited about Clinton or Sanders.

I think that the shit about Sanders being ignored is bullshit. He came in on the tails of being a Socialist after all. Not a Party man.

I grew up in a Democrat house. My Dad. Ran for office and won.

So I come from good solid stock. We had a bust of Roosevelt in the house. A small flag on it.

I was a big fan of Harry Truman.

I dimmed out a bit on the Kennedy years.

Then came back some for Obama.

But those glory days are over.

I am happy that we will have a woman President. But it is over shown by the imperative of stopping Trump.

I had higher hopes for one of my last elections. Not dashed but a bit diminished.

Labels: Clinton / Kane

I couldn't finish today's film.

Once Upon A Time In America (1984)

I think I saw it once but then again, I can't see how I held out.

A Sergio Leone film, it is "historical" in the sense that it shows the little immigrant becoming a big time mobster.

Robert DeNiro.

There is a lot of violence from the git-go.

Too much for me.

It is sure no bedtime story. Maybe a fairy tale.

In any case a 1 out of 5 Netflix5 for the ones I cannot sit through.

Labels: films

Today's film is a story about mother love.

But it is Asian possessive mother love driven by the fact that her child is mentally challenged. Protective doesn't even begin to describe it.

Mother (2009)

There is a lot of moral ambiguity and wrong guessing on the part of incompetent authorities. It ends up not being about innocence and guilt so much as who gets caught and how that process works. Quite a lot of fun. And very well done.

It is a police procedural although it is the mother who does the proceeding. The cops are useless.

Just remember, do not cross an intense loving mother.

The acting is superb. I got it partly because it stars Weon Bin. Here he is very young, adolescent. He does not have his sexy bones yet but you can see them emerging. And, while playing a less than bright lad.

It is a Korean film.

Pretty good, those Koreans. They do rage and retribution better than most.

I liked it a lot but I would not want to see it again. That makes it a 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

Saying I would not normally see a film like this is a bit of a disclaimer

But I had it on good authority that I should, for once, see a good science fiction / splatter film.

What

Talk about your genré mashups. But here we are.

Time Lapse (2015)

Unknown actors and first time director who have great instincts for conveying horror and fear while actually thinking

There are no dummies here. The usual bimbo or the crazy scientist. Just normal people who have walked into a very abnormal situation.

Well, actually, there is a crazy scientist but he is dead before the film starts. All is left is his huge monsterish machine in a cheap apartment complex somewhere in maybe Los Angeles. Doesn't matter.

There is real suspense in this low budget film. Gripping the sides of the chair suspense.

I really liked it. And no matter how I might have tried to suspend disbelief I really could not nor did I want to.

I would not mind seeing this again. There are no tricks to know about, no spoilers. Knowing what happens is the boogie prize. It just unwinds for us to an inevitable conclusion. Well, actually not inevitable in any way I would have predicted.

Labels: films

I am fine with Tim Kaine as the Democratic candidate for Vice President.

He has a lot of experience. A governor and a senator. And he has a long time playing the political game.

He is also good balance with Clinton in several respects. He is a bit conservative, he has executive experience, he is a good if not glamorous speaker and, above all, he is male.

I know. Gender politics. But the truth is that she needs his weight on the other side and he needs her leadership. Like Joe Biden, he would probably never make it on his own beyond his present level. But he is a good guy. A schmoozer with some warmth which Hillary Clinton has never ever been accused of having. Charisma yes. Warmth, no.

The other thing I like about Kaine is the long term implications. He is a good guy to carry on after Clinton's two terms.

The NYTimes likes him too. Today's praising editorial is here.

So, I am happy.

Now let's lay into those fuckers and beat them so they know they do really really have to reform their Party.

Labels: Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine

I am revisiting some films that were not 5's on my rating system but which I remember fondly and wanted to see again.

Today was

50 /50 (2011)

The title derives from the chances our hero has of recovering from spinal cancer. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen, his buddy, face the trials and tribulations together. Which makes it a buddy picture. And a good one.

It is hard to carry out a bromance film. Everything depends on the actors genuine affection for one another (or superb acting) and this shows between the two principals throughout.

Angelica Huston is the clinging Mom and Anna Kendricks is miscast as the new girlfriend. The old one could not hack the stress of having a sick boyfriend. This unsympathetic role is played very well by Bryce Dallas Howard who may never be seen again except in clips of Rogen reading her beads in a crucial scene. But she is good. We do not mind hating her.

This is a good film to see again because it is the acting that carries it through. Gordon-Levitt is an old favorite and Rogen has matured considerably from his earlier personna as a comical asshole. He is still an asshole but has added "lovable" to it. Good.

This would make it a 5 out of Netflix5 but in the real world it is worth seeing twice and is highly recommended for "once".

The Republican Convention is over.

Isn't it?

Keerist, I hope so.

I dipped into it to watch the show. It was worse than I expected.

What I have no feel for is how much people are conned by this display of chutzpah and flaunting of the power of wealth.

The GOP is certainly back to its capitalist roots.

It says here that Trump's hour and a quarter speech (really) was disciplined and that he stayed on the script. Hateful and negative. Dark and dour. Pessimistic and fearful. But on the script.

And if that is the script then we are in deep shit. Or at least we are in for a very unpleasant time of it until the election.

I get the idea that some traditional Republicans are embarrassed by these events. Many have stayed away.

But they can't hide their heads for too long of they will really have lost their Party.

I wish I could be happy about that prospect but I am not.

I believe in a healthy two party system. We do not have that at the present time.

So now it is the Democrat's turn. We shall see how they manage their show.

Their is certainly a uniting force now. Defeat Trump.

Labels: Republicans

Two days to watch

The longish

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)

Philip Kaufman's film of the Milo Kundera novel.

Epic.

Living under the old order of Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia, Daniel Day-Lewis and Juliette Binoche make do and eventually, well, you have to wait and see.

I have seen this a number of times. It does not get old.

The performances and the rich story keep it fresh on repeat sessions.

A 5 out of Netflix5

Labels: films

No surprise that I love routine.

Also no surprise that when we have family visitations, the routine goes out the window and rightly so.

I do not mind a couple days of visiting and going outside for dinner. It is very nice.

It is always good to see the folks and hear what is going on. To tell our stories and get up to date. Fun.

And it is good to get back into the routine.

I know it is important to have a break from the groove and the habit. I plan to go away in a few weeks to do just that. And I will find other means during the year.

But show me a nice routine day and I will sink into it like a pig in the wallows.

Today, I watched the first half of The Unbearable Lightness of Being which is quite long and very good. Sinking into it. A two DVD feature. Finish tomorrow.

Labels: life

I have been trying to write a blog entry about the GOoPer convention and failed.

My heart is not in it.

They are not even worth mocking anymore.

I am impressed by a number of standard GOP people who have taken a pass on attending.

It is a bit satisfying on the schadenfreude side of things to see how clunky the whole thing has been.

But as a preview of any possible Administration, it is kind of horrifying.

These clowns can't even handle the candidate's wife's speech without stumbling.

It is all a clown show.

I picture the wife as the First Lady and my mind falters.

There has been a lot of "inside baseball" in the reporting. The "what really happened" kind. And I don't think that is very good either. It all reads like a reality show that has gone too far.

So, there has been radio silence from here. Not out of respect. Just out of plain dismay and disbelief.

I watched poor old Bob Dole trying to make a good face over it. He is, as they say, failing. But he is canny enough to see the mess that is being made of his Party.

It is too soon to imagine what the Party will look like after defeat of a the monumental proportion I hope for.

Or maybe I will have egg on my face and have to lick it off.

Labels: GOoPers

Just before I thought I had heard it all I see a new "cause".

I will call it "genderitis.

Apparently I am a CIS gender male of a certain age who obviously doesn't "get it" because I think that over kill has become the new normal.

The True Meaning of the Word 'Cisgender'

Somehow, we have found ourselves holding the wrong end of the bat. So to speak.

What used to be considered "normal" is now out of whack.

Let's start at the beginning.

This all starts with the transgender thing.

Look, I understand. I grew up with one of the first successful "sex change" stories. Christine Jorgensen. A nice gay guy who went to Scandinavia and had an operation, not the first guy to do it, and caused a shit storm.

Yeh, I know. I don't get it.

Fuck you.

I grew up with the idea that homosexuals were really women in hiding. All kinds of wrong thinking.

So this is nothing new. Yes. There are gender stereotypes. And there is nothing wrong in that. I like a good butch man with a bit of scruff and a bad attitude. I also like the fem slim and trim effete. It is all good for me.

But there is some screw loose with a lot of people. They want to categorize. To name.

It is fundamental I suppose. Primates who decided that they wanted to have a moniker and to have a name for everything else.

So now it is all about gender. Forget sexual preference. No. Sorry. Too complex.

Sometimes I figure that I will be going out at just the right time. I will not have to live through another wave of "liberation" and redo my biases and fucked up societally imprinted beliefs.

Labels: gender, transgender

I worked on the design of logos in a previous life.

I can tell you it is no easy task.

For one thing, everyone and no one is an expert.

The new Trump/Spence logo is something of a strange animal. The reactions to it have been brutal.

Of course, the mind sees what it wants to see and a lot or people are seeing phallic imagery. Particularly the T entering the P. And all.

It is quite amusing especially after all the fuss over Clinton's one arrow pointing forward. Memories of Bill and whats-her-name.

As an experienced non-expert on logos, I will say that this one feels awkward as hell.

But then the whole thing with the GOP feels awkward this time. Bumpy. Improvised. Not well thought out.

And Spence. He is hardly a balance for the Trumpfer. He is a right wing anti-gay bigot who looks like a stiff. Someone said that he was Sarah Palin without the charisma.

Well, yes. The logo. Now that I look at it again. I am beginning to feel like an expert.

Let me weigh in as an amateur. A disinterested observer.

The phallic part is just amusing, nothing more. Typical penis waving of male politicians.

As for "the art", I think that it is too big and too complicated and too fucking red white and blue.

Then to throw an abstraction of the American Flag into the layout. Please. Can I mention desecration of our national symbol? For fuck's sake. A flag.

I expect an animated logo with the flag waving and the T humping the S. Not for prime time.

Labels: Trump / Spence

Today's film is a new favorite.

An unlikely new favorite given my aversion to martial arts pictures.

The Man From Nowhere (2010)

This is an action film with a lot of human interest. It shows the coming of age of a young man, a veteran of clandestine work going through an identity crisis.

As he changes into a new person capable of love we watch him transform physically as well as in his behavior.

I recently saw this and enjoyed it very much.

As good the second time on the DVD I bought. A 5 out of Netflix5.

Today's film is built around what happens to a small family and friends when the former East German Republic went belly up.

Goodbye, Lenin (2003)

A young man sees it all happen just as he is becoming a man, out of puberty and into, well that depends on what is happening around him. Or not.

This is a pretty good film if a bit long. Two hours is a long time to sustain a story like this. It is not that it is formulaic but it does not plow much new ground. A faster pace would help. Too much dotting the i's and crossing the t's.

I enjoyed it. It is a feast for character actors.

And yes, Lenin does leave, his statue, airborne as we and all the people who lived behind the wall watch. Sometimes change is a bitch.

A 3 out of Netflix%.

Labels: films

Today's film looks at the volatile melting pot of a city's slums or what we call "projects".

It is still the same thing. Whatever it is called. It engenders a kind of hate against society that is so visceral and fundamental that nothing can stand in its way.

La Haine / Hate (1995)

stars three young men. One black, one arabic and the other plain old french white trash.

A volatile mix that takes them through the City all in one night. What happens is the "moral" of the film.

It is pretty violent. Stay away if you don't like the rough stuff.

On the other hand, the young men, are really great ensemblé and as drivers of the plot or story whatever there is to it.

One thing leads to the other. The cops are involved. Nothing sticks so the young men rove on and on and on.

The trailer says that it is "stylized realism. The trailer is almost as good as the movie!

This was the breakout film for Vincent Cassel. He is riveting. And scary.

I have seen it before and am likely to see it again, so it is a 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

It is premature to name Hillary Clinton as our next President.

But it wouldn't be too soon to assume that it is inevitable.

Where does this leave the Republicans? They are shattered, shuttered, and discombobulated. Out foxed by a an egomaniac. Mr. Wonderful.

So what next? Start a new Party? Or rescue the one that has been hijacked.

Rescue by all means.

Thomas Friedman spells it out.

The (G.O.P.) Party’s Over

Split by the religious right, the haters, the ultra right gunslingers, the GOP has become a collection of nuts mixed in with some people like Paul Ryan who are trying to hold the line on Party principles.

You know, I used to be a Republican.

In my first town, I registered that way because I wanted to be on the Committee and to have some influence in local affairs. If one was not a Republican then there would be few friends in a new place.

But that changed over time as I realized that while all politics are local, Party politics are not. And that one must take a stand from the beginning.

Richard Nixon did me in. I could not stomach his bunch of criminals. I defected and became a quiet Democrat.

That is a long time ago but it is worth reminding myself that is how it started for me.

How it ends is that there is no semblance of similarity between that Party and today's grab bag coalition that will embarrass itself further in their upcoming convention.

Labels: GOoPers, GOP

Today, the search for a serial killer while s/he is still active.

Memories of Murder (20013)

A korean film that goes outside to follow the tracks in the mud and the grass on the shoes and the field where the victim(s) lay.

It is a beautiful film which makes the central story so grizzly.

Women are raped and left to be found with unmistakable clues attached to them. Well, it is unmistakable that they are clues but they do not reveal the killer. At least for the duration of the murder.

Character driven and sometimes funny, this story shows the tensions between team members and the dead ends which come so routinely.

It is very well acted and when it goes outdoors, which it does frequently, it is stunning to watch.

I would be more than willing to see this again at least to gather the clues knowingly.

A 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

I watched Sanders concede to Clinton this morning.

Live.

It was a gracefully done speech but also long and drawn out.

One of Sander's problems was/is the verbosity.

He can be a real snoozer. It is though this is his big chance to get shit off his chest and dadgummit he is going to do it.

But I should jut be happy that the march to the convention is over and that the Demos can have as triumphal event as the Republicans are hoping for.

But, I am betting, the GOoPers will find it difficult to get.

We shall see what we shall see.

Trump is a bully and an egoist and will load the thing with his kind of show. Vegas anyone?

Labels: Election 2016

I watched Sanders concede to Clinton this morning.

Live.

It was a gracefully done speech but also long and drawn out.

One of Sander's problems was/is the verbosity.

He can be a real snoozer. It is though this is his big chance to get shit off his chest and dadgummit he is going to do it.

But I should jut be happy that the march to the convention is over and that the Demos can have as triumphal event as the Republicans are hoping for.

But, I am betting, will find it difficult to get.

We shall see what we shall see.

Trump is a bully and an egoist and will load the thing with his kind of show. Vegas anyone?

Labels: Election 2016

Today's film is a contemporary silent film.

The Artist (2011)

Movies learn to speak but the actors can't quite catch a ride on the new bus.

This is a great film with a great dog who almost steals the whole show.

I have seen it several times and was quite happy to see it again.

Labels: best films, filkms

The influence of the christers, or if you prefer "christists", is waning in the GOP.

The Evangelicals who power played their way to the top of the Party are now dismayed to find that they ended up with a guy who has marginal interest in their goals and worse, is going to be their candidate. Want him or not.

The Evangelicals and the Great Trump Hope

There are two problems with Trump. One, he is no evangelical. Divorced and almost a libertine, rich as Croesus, he is hardly a model for the hard core X-ian life. Second, he is for "the gays" and some other issues that the religious right eschew totally.

It will be interesting to see what goes on.

James Dobson, a loudmouth with a crusader bent, has said that he hears second hand that Trump has been saved again. Something like holding a pot holder when lifting a hot pot off the stove.

James fucking Dobson, a hater and a hypocrite of the worst kind. Oops. There I go again, hatin' on the handmaidens of the savior jeeeezuz keeerist. Or something. Boy these bastards get under my skin.

Squirm Donald. The holier than thou crowd is going to give you grief.

Labels: christers, Donald Trump

Today's film is undeniably a good film about modern warfare.

It has good "bones". A well structured buddy film laid along modern battle lines. Afghanistan.

It is also admirably realistic. There are no pulled punches here. Bullets rip flesh. Wounds bleed profusely. People you develop a liking for get killed.

The tension is unrelieved. It is realistic. No place to go and we are surrounded.

And it is too much for an older man with a faint heart. I know all these young men are going to get killed. Except one. The tipoff is in the title.

Lone Survivor (2013)

I had to bail out. But I do not want to give this film a low rating. It is too good for that.

Maybe I will skip that part.

As a casualty, I will just lay on the stretcher and let them take me back to home base where I can take a nap, have a snack and not worry about those rag head motherfuckers on the other side of the hill.

Labels: films

Clichés abound in today's film.

It has all been done before.

It is one of the stalest plots, one of the basic 13.

And so on.

The critics are not kind to

The Intouchables (2011)

And yet the film is irresistible. I have seen it several times. What's up? Probably the acting. Perhaps the familiarity and the "feel good"-ness of it.

I don't know but I laughed and I cried and I kind of was on the edge of my seat. Could they have changed the ending?

No.

Once it subsided the "feels" remained and I still like this movie very much and would not mind seeing it again. And again. A 5 out of Netflix5 because I am an old softie.

French with pretty good subtitles. as if I would know.

Labels: films

The late great movie critic of the New Yorker described movies like today's film as

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

so someone made a film of that title and starred Robert Downey Jr. as a flamboyant detective/movie writer who finds himself in the center of a complicated murder plot.

He joins forces with Val Kilmer and Michele Monaghan. The three of them set out to solve the murder which now has become multiple murders.

There is a lot of shooting in this comedy. The kind that does not feel like it is wrong.

The film goes pretty well but there are a few hitches here and there. I liked it. I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

I pay a lot of attention to the old guys around me.

I mean the guys who are ten years older than me. Which is now, the guys who are around 90.

I liked this clip about Norman Lear who is still active at 93 going on 94.

How to live.

Labels: aging

Really.

The Hallmark Company is making short films for the internet presumably to promote their corporate image and to, of course, sell cards.

Hallmark was at one time a very conservative midwestern company. It hewed very close to the national zeitgeist.

Today, they have swung out into the current as this short film shows. More power to them.

Labels: films, gay families

Today's film follows two friends who use the opportunity to run away with another friend's fiancé.

Which is hardly an apt description of this fine Mexican film.

Y Tu Mamå También (2001)

I have seen this many times and it does not dim with repetition.

I think that what attracts me is the ambience which, like other recent films, is definitely "on the road" with real people. Real locations. Not a hint of a movie crew. A lot of hand held. I know that there are probably 30-40 people behind the camera but it does not come off that way.

Also, the actors, Gael Garcia Benal, Diego Luna and Maribel Verdu are totally in sync with one another. How scripted? I do not know. Which is part of the success of the film.

There is also the "gay" content which is mostly accidental but not. These guys are definitely so bent as heterosexuals that anything else, even a threesome, is shameful to them unless they are drunk. The two meet after they return by accident. They have coffee and cannot take the heat of the reunion.

Shame is a powerful force inflicted by a disapproving society.

A 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films, gay films

Ethnic. It has not arrived but has always been here. It is just that now the reach of the internet allows us to see a wider range.

This is a little like Klezmer but not. It probably comes from the same place though. I think they are Hungarian.

I love music that laughs.

Thanks to my Canadian friend for this. And be careful. When you YouTube it there will be more and more and maybe you will get hooked.

It is OK to tap your feet and snap your fingers. That is what makes folk folk. It touches us.

Labels: music

Pansexuality arrives.

Or maybe it has always been here but I missed the train.

In any case, it is nice to see "the young" branching out. Stay to the end.

Labels: gay films

Today's film was part documentary and part travelog.

Motorcycle Diaries (2004)

A pre-revolutionary Che Guevera tours South America from its southern top to the very top. Two guys on the road.

And it is basically a road picture with a travelog thrown in on top. Very light on politics.

What is fascinating is that indigenous people are used throughout. And in an honorable way.

I liked this film a lot and am not sure that I saw it before. In any case it would be a 5 out of Netflix5 because I want to see it again some time.

Gael Garcia Bernal and Rodrigo la Serna. Great. This is my second or third viewing and I want to see it again sometime in the future. A 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

The NYTimes has a good column on the hypocrisy of the "christian" right and their support of Donald Trump.

The Theology of Donald Trump

It pretty much takes apart the assholes who claim to be Christ's messengers on earth. The Evangelicals. It is hard to say that word without some spittle flying. Try "fucking Evangelicals".

You know, the money grubbers who use their righteousness to line their pockets with the coin of the gullible.

See, I am still pissed off at the church I grew up with and the bastards who let me down when I needed to have support as a gay kid. Or as a kid who had a future outside his small town and never went back.

The rollers, the pious, the holier than thou.

Fortunately my Dad helped me out with this. He went to church to pacify my mother but he never swallowed it whole.

Back to Trump.

I have noted here before the absence of any sign of religiosity on his part. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Until he and the others pretend otherwise.

To him it is all money and power. And that is where the interests intersect. Dobson, Falwell and that gang all go for the power and money. If you can swallow it just watch their acts on YouTube.

That guy in the photo? Falwell Junior? Would you buy a used car from that man? That is a "nope".

Labels: Donald Trump, religionists, right wing bastards

Today's film is one of those indescribable movie experiences.

But as Roger Ebert says in his review.

I've just thrown out the first 500 words of my review and am starting again with a sense of joy and release. I was attempting to describe the plot of "Bad Education." It was quicksand, and I was sinking fast. You and I have less than 1,000 words to spend together discussing this fascinating film, and not only would the plot take up half of that, but if I were by some miracle to succeed in making it clear, that would only diminish your pleasure.

Bad Education (2004)

Pedro Almodovar directs. I am watching this again because Gael Garcia Bernal is in it but the film has to be viewed again and again.

It is not that it is puzzling. All of it is pretty clear. There are many viewpoints of the same situation. Not that these can be reconciled because, well, that is life. Or at least life in Almodovar's studio.

This is a clear 5 out of Netflix5. And I will see it again sometime.

Labels: film

So it is Independence Day.

I wrote on this earlier in the week.

Not much is happening in Palm Springs. So far.

But there will be fireworks tonight and they are usually pretty good.

We live right 'under" them. A quarter mile away.

John is going to go right to the site. I will baby sit Marcus who doesn't really mind them or has not up to today.

He is more stirred by the presence of the male road runner who has currently taken his territory right in our corner of the complex. He is peppy and has no qualms about telling us off. There is a kind of raspberry that he gives out. Not a beep-beep. Sorry. More of a brzbrzbrzbuzz.

Most people have left for the summer so we don't have a big crowd to see the show. There will be outsiders who come in to park in our streets but each year someone from the neighborhood parks to block the entrances to the street.

Illegal but better than an influx of looky-loos.

When I was a kid we went up the mountain to a resort golf course that had a small show. We parked along the greens and people oohed and ahhed just like they do any place else.

When we were in Boston we went down to the Esplanade where the Boston Pops played prior to the fireworks. But the crowd was horrible. We only did that once I think.

So here we are again. Celebrating our independence. Which is still strong and clear. Not always in line with the rest of the world but I am a strong flag waver and the first to stand up for our country. Pride. I am glad that for four years I could experience the full pride of it all. Not so much in the Bushie years. The second round of them.

I remember the days depicted in today's movie.

Trumbo (2015)

Unfortunately, the film is heavy footed plodding from one outrage to another.

Dalton Trumbo was a screen writer of some renown. But he got his tie caught in the wringer of what was basically a Congressional stunt. The hunt for "red" in the motion picture industry.

Since this politicization of a big media business caught everyone by surprise, no one acts with much dignity when the time comes for them to "testify and name names" before the Committee of a guy who became a convict himself for his political shenanigans.

The movie is good in that it tells about a scary and scandalous time. But it is too big, too broad and too polemical to hold even my attention. I had to FF to get through it and that is not a good thing. It reduces my rating to a 2 out of Netflix5.

There are a lot of stars in this film. Most do some creditable impressions of stars from that time. Since I time bracket it all I can say with a doubt that they would have done better to forgo that and just have some good actors saying some good lines and not do the "impressions".

And so on.

I wish it was better. Bryan Cranston turns in a good performance as Trumbo. Other actors needed a restraining hand to keep their inner ham inside.

Labels: films

When I was a kid there was a star of radio who surpassed all the others with her afternoon show.

Kate Smith had an hour in which she basically did everything we recognize as a variety show. Since it was radio we did not notice that she was huge. A big girl with a big voice.

She ended up televising the same show for many years carrying over her audience with her.

At her peak, no patriotic holiday could pass without hearing her rendition of Irving Berlin's famous song, our second national anthem.

Today's film explores the boundaries between Church and State as well as between vows (chastity) and real life.

The Crime of Padre Amaro (2002)

New priest in town. Gael Garcia Bernal.

Fresh out of seminary and new to the kind of backwoods he is sent to, he discovers that the maintenance of purity is a tough thing to follow especially when he falls in love with a local girl.

This seems outlandish on the outside, but the film somehow avoids the soap opera like pitfalls that such a story encounters.

Bernal saves the film. He seems genuinely confused over the difference between lust and chastity which seems kind of weird but he is truly an innocent. This is conveyed in many ways in the performance of the actors. Mostly Mexican. Stars in their own country.

It is not a masterpiece and it is hard sometimes to take all the piety or phony piety that is on the menu here. But it is OK. I have seen it before and did not mind seeing it again but that will be all for me. No third tries. I have had about enough church to last me a long while.

A 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

Some people's dreams are weirder than others.

In today's film Michael Gondry tries to cross the weird boundaries between wakefulness and sleep.

The Science of Sleep (2006)

I was watching because the film stars Gael Garcia Bernal. I am on a binge with him.

The film is a melange of cartoon, fantasy scenes and reality. Like a dream.

For the most part it succeeds in keeping me awake. On occasions it lags and puts me in a pleasant state of sombulence.

I have seen this before. before. I still like it. A 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

The loud boorish campaign of Donald Trump has given permission to a bunch of yahoos to stir themselves from their long sleep.

Is the Trump Campaign Just a Giant Safe Space for the Right?

For every entitled liberal smirker there is a counter weight hater and fist clencher.

It would seem.

It has been a continuing puzzle to me why the fringe of America first-ers and white trash malcontents would follow Trump, the rich boy personified.

This guy suggests that it is the shelter that Trump's rhetoric provides. It allows the people who feel left out, the chronically unhappy, a place to hide out.

God knows there is little other space for them. The right wing press has all but withered and there is no place for even the kind of Birch party shenanigans that used to cover this crowd.

I know. I am probably talking down to this gang. I am the hated elite. Well fuck you.

I grew up amidst low income surroundings. The Appalachian kind. And I know what it means to feel ignored or marginalized.

But my Dad was not a hater. He took his life and made something of it with an 8th grade education. He was/is my role model for "up and out".

He was also a die hard Democrat and ran for office winning the school board and other positions in his church and community. A trusted servant. He participated.

So I was taught not to whine from the beginning. What a wonderful thing. That man saw to it that I worked hard and got out of there. Thank God. He took his situation and worked so that he and his son could get to the next rung. The American dream.

Labels: patriotism