OK Go!

Into a Time Capsule...

Last night I unearthed an underappreciated classic, Joseph Mankiewicz's "Letter to Three Wives" from 1949, in which three close friends spend the day wondering which of their husbands has run off with local beauty Addie Ross, the author-ess of the aforementioned letter. 'Three of the wondered - while one of them wandered.' This sly screenplay says a lot about sex and class relations circa 1949, and the three wives are, interestingly, a career woman, a gold-digger, and a small-town waif who'd met her husband by joining the Navy. The waif, facing her first visit to the local country club in a dowdy, decade-old dress, notes sadly that the Navy uniform was a wonderful equalizer... like death : - ) Flashbacks examine the relationship of the three couples, punctuated by the narration of none other than the husband-stealing Ms. Addie Ross herself... There's drama and heartache, but ultimately plenty of humor and a twinkle in the eye. For example, the girl from the wrong side of the tracks lives literally next to the tracks, with the house constantly shaking. Finally, the movie has some gleefully apt observations of radio and advertising culture. Interestingly, the richest husband makes much fanfare of buying a TV set - when there's still no TV stations strong enough to reach their (presumably Connecticut) community...

160,000 Helping Hands

Like a Yo-Yo

The Brazil trip is off. The Brazil trip is on. I'm sick. I'm well. The deal lives. The deal dies. On. Off. On. Off. On. Off. The deal breathes. The Brazil trip is on, but shorter. (Happily leaving me here this weekend) I have a slight sore throat, but it will recover this weekend - or die trying....
I must be inventive - like the chap who designed the 'yo-yo' sketched below...

Live and Let Die

But it's lovely, poetic, scenic, and offers some amazing characters, ranging from a pregnant right-to-die crusader, to man's long-suffering farmer family, to his love for his lady lawyer, who herself is threatened by a degenerative disease, and finallly, there's a single mother/factory worker/radio DJ who takes a shine to our hero. There's lots going on here. Javier Bardem is spectacular, playing 20 years older and acting mostly with his head, including as a writing instrument (see picture). Not to be missed...

358 Minutes of Joy

Next time you have six hours to spare, I highly recommend renting "Best of Youth," a wondrous 2003 Italian movie that follows two brothers, a wistful psychologist and a troubled policeman through forty tumultuous years of family life and Italian history.

On The Head Of A Pin

Not a bad weekend. Both Saturday and Sunday I had lunch and dinner plans - a rarity, and very lovely to catch up with dear friends. Last night I actually cooked dinner, too! Chicken with wine sauce, dark mushroom rice, and a light salad, washed down with Spanish cider and capped off by a touch of sorbet, brought by my guests.

I'm also rapidly digitalizing my 1600+ album collection. Using DVD-Rs, I can burn 80 albums to each disk, and make back-up copies stored with my friends. I wish Homeland Security were this vigilant and efficient : - ) Anyway, hope you all have a nice re-entry into the work week. Here's some humor:

From The Onion, my favorite feature, “What Do YOU Think?

Question: “A recent study shows that 5 percent of all workers in the U.S. are illegal immigrants. What do you think?”

Answer 1: “ I yearn for the day when 100 percent of all workers are illegal immigrants and we as a nation can devote all our time to bitching about them.”
Answer 2: " Five percent seems like a lot, but when you consider that they’re responsible for 100 percent of the work that actually gets done, the problem is much worse. "
Answer 3: “Ha! You should check out the factory I own! It's gotta be like 30 percent, maybe 35 percent! "



Question: “A recent survey indicated that bald eagles would soon be taken off the endangered-species list. What do you think?”

Answer 1: “Damn it! Every time I memorize the endangered-species list, some bureaucrat changes it.”
Answer 2: There goes any hope I had of my basement full of bald eagles appreciating in value."
Answer 3: " And with that, trout go back onto the endangered-species list."

Which Is The True Man?

Like all of us, Truman Capote has many faces..... Three of which are pictured above. Truman Stecfus Persons, born in 1924 in the deep south, best-seller in my mid-1960s childhood, and talk-show/Studio 54 cliché in my formative years... Last night I finally saw 'Capote' fully and completely - without the half-hour doze I took in my December viewing, following eight grueling days of ten hours' driving... I must admit Philip Seymour Hoffman was brilliant, a high point in an already impressive career, of capturing a complex, unusual, sometimes unlikeable character already indelibly remembered by a generation, and doing him justice. It was a feat on par with Heath Ledger's brilliant incarnation of Ennis del Mar, which in any other year would have walked away with a Best Actor Oscar. "Capote" is a well-written and deftly directed film, which you should not miss.

It's sunny but chilly here in New York on this Sunday morning. I've been sleepy most of the weekend, and lazy... Today though I have lunch and dinner plans. So I should probably get to the gym.... : - )

Aaron-zinho Go Bragh

Blood, Sweat, and Charm

The movie is 1967's Bonnie and Clyde, which I had the joy of seeing a few days back. Despite blood, shooting, and car chases, this is definitely a character-driven movie and a festival of excellent acting. My first viewing was a child, a bit too young to appreciate the many subtleties - though I was definitely impressed by being immersed in a 1930s world of faded colors, poverty, and dust.

Guess The Movie

Neighborhood Chicken

Tared

Pictures Worth 2001 Words

Missed Opportunity

After-Birth of a Nation: Peace, Love, and Segregation?

Last night I rode the beast, D.W. Griffith's conflictive, divisive 1915 groundbreaking masterpiece, "Birth of a Nation, " that is technically visionary but repugnant in the racism of its content and conviction. "Birth" is technically the precursor of film as we know it today, the author of hundreds of filiming innnovations, and the movie that put the US on the map of art film. It was the first lengthy (3 hour) film that told an epic story, and practically invented the close up, the pan shot, parallel filming for suspense, and many other time-honored tools of the trade. But the film's final 2/3 are lionize the Ku Klux Klan for rescuing the South from the humiliation and tyranny of having to treat African-Americans as equals. Incredibly, the movie, after defeating the former slaves and subduing them, ends with gushy prose about peace and love.

The negative stereotypes and defamation are shocking - still, remember that this is 1915 - women can't vote, minorities are segregated, and many in the audience actually lived through the Civil War and/or Reconstruction, with all the bitterness and resentment that those blood-drenched events can engender. Two years later, a world war would finally put North or South on the same (winning) team. Take this movie as documentation of how far we have come. The NAACP, to its credit, picketed this film from day one, and in each revival, whereever it was shown. Thanks to DVD and Netflix, you can peruse this essential moment of film history in the privacy of your own home.

Woodrow, how could you? Apparently he could... President Wilson, that historical over-reacher and cold fish, was no friend of African-Americans. Nothing like a blatantly racist film that supports itself with quotes of the then-sitting President of the United States.