Renee wakes up first (generally anytime between three and six am.) She switches off whatever black and white movie I have left on to fall asleep to, then puts the teevee on Channel 59 (FoxNews), or as we like to call it, The Channel of Hate. This way I can catch up on whatever the Channel of Hate's big meme/message is going to be that day. (For the longest time now, the CoH's big issue is Gas Prices and how they will cripple Obama's re-election bid. Fox and Friends is def the worst. They will say anything over there.)
I wake up slowly. Renee and Molly (our youngest cat) hang out in the bathroom together, literally talking to each other. It is a little odd. Eventually, I wake up enough that I can yell at the nimrods on the CoH.
Renee does her normal girly routine and then makes us each a cup of Mariage Freres tea, using our Breville electric tea kettle (which was the most fabulous Wedding Present evah!) My fave Mariage is Noel, but we also love French Breakfast, and Vanilla.
Luckily, last time my Da was in Paris, he bought us a whole bunch. (It's not cheap here in the US.) But Renee does a great job, keeping us well stocked, buying hers at Market Hall, Oaktown.
Renee heads to work, I take a shower. then hit the computer right before I head to work.
It is a well-oiled machine that is a joy to start every day with. Love you, Pnut.
Here are a few of my favorite ballots I received for the 2012 Spitler/Diskowski Greatest Films Poll:
Samara and her little Angel
Marlene R:
Isabelle Corey enjoys some frites in Bob le Flambeur
(no order)
Au Bout de Souffle
Le Mepris
L'Atalante
Bob le Flambeur
Le Regle de Jeu
La Belle et la Bete
Barry Lyndon
Member of the Wedding
The Deer Hunter
Berlin Alexanderplatz
Josette Day in Cocteau's magical Masterpiece, La Belle et la Bete
Samara D:
(no order)
La Belle et la Bete
Now, Voyager
King of Hearts
Fellini's Roma
Rebecca
Imitation of Life (Sirk version)
Two for the Road
Manhattan
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Antonia's Line
and, Allison W:
Judith Anderson tells Ms Fontaine to stay out of Rebecca's lingerie drawer.
(no order)
Casablanca
Mean Girls
The Conversation
Dirty Harry
The Sound of Music
The Apartment
All That Jazz
Bringing Up Baby
Rebecca
8 1/2
Fab ballots, ladies. Thank you so much for being a part of my poll!
Just checking out my times, smashing World Records, ...
I fell in love with Ms Evans during the 1988 Olympics, naturally, as much of the rest of the nation did. Living in Texas at the time, and never having even been to California yet, through the teevee screen Ms Evans seemed to me the perfect expression of the successful, athletic, nonchalant, shy, slightly awkward, (she was only fifteen when she started blasting World Records and piling up medals and trophies) attractive California Girl. She was adorable then and she is still lovely today.
I also particularly liked Ms Evans because she was small in stature like myself. Most great swimmers have very lithe, lean, long bodies. Ms Evans started kicking ass in the pool as a teen at about five foot four. She eventually added a couple of inches as she grew older. And Ms Evans was an absolute monster in the pool. Her specialty is long distance freestyle. The World Record she set in 1988, winning a Gold Medal, in the 400m freestyle was not broken until 2006. Her World Record for the 1500m freestyle, also established in 1988, lasted until 2007. Not to mention that Evans was the first woman to break the sixteen minute barrier in the 1500 meters, plus her winning time would have been good enough to win a Men's Gold Medal back in 1968! And her World Record in the 800m freestyle, set in 1989, was not broken until 2008. That is unheard of in Olympic sports, hanging on to records for that period of time. She was just an absolute freak of training, determination, effort, talent and hard work. That it took nearly twenty years for others to break the records she set in the late Eighties is, frankly, hard to fathom.
Janet Evans, age forty, is attempting a comeback as we speak. She has already qualified for the US Team Trials in hopes of participating in the 2012 London Summer Olympics. I wish her all the best.
About the new upcoming HBO series, Veep. Renee is wary, not excited. I think she is worried about Julia Louis-Dreyfuss being the star, or, maybe she does not think that that swear-y The Thick of It/In the Loop style will translate well to American audiences. In the Loop was a considerable cult hit here in the US (it probably helped that James Gandolfini starred in it, too) but most Americans have no idea about The Thick of It. And I do not think The Thick of It would be a massive hit here if shown on Sundance or IFC or whatever. The Thick of It is probably too English for a regular (whatever that is) US teevee audience. Of course, I would dvr every episode and watch them over and over again, myself. And re Ms Dreyfuss: No, she is not one of my personal faves, but when she had excellent material in Seinfeld, she was very good. And, the writing team for Veep is the same folks who did The Thick of It and In the Loop, including the one writer whose job it is to add clever swearing and hip pop culture referenced insults. (Wow, what a job, right? Why can not I get paid to loll around the house and add snappy clever insults to great scripts?) I could be completely wrong. Maybe Veep will be a disaster. We will see.
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I am less excited (but keeping an open mind) about the new upcoming HBO series, Girls. Girls is the baby of Tiny Furniture writer/director/star, Lena Dunham. And it looks to be, the film, Tiny Furniture, stretched out to series length. Tiny Furniture was not my cup of tea, for sure. But, my favorite part was Jemima Kirke's fabulous creation of her character, Charlotte. Charlotte is by far the best thing in the picture; a cynical, drug-addled, lazy, insanely sexy, spoiled rotten twenty-something City-girl going on forty-five, who affects a ludicrous sort-of English accent all the time for no reason at all, naturally. Love it! Give me more!
And, good news, Ms Kirke looks to be playing a character like Charlotte in Girls. (Just watched trailers for Veep and Girls, and it looks like Renee might be right. Veep looks empty and quiet. Girls looks fresh and fun.)
If Veep stinks, I will always have The Thick of It on YouTube.
Might have made a smashing short film, but stretched out to a hundred minutes it loses steam, rolls over, and nearly perishes. The doll house scene is a real eye-roller. In fact once Eddie Redmayne "moves in" with Michelle Williams' Marilyn the film gets a bit dopey and overly-sentimental. I liked Michelle Williams' performance (Renee was less impressed.) And Kenneth Branagh got to do his Sir Larry impersonation again. (I bet all his friends are sick of that Party Piece.)
My favorite moment was a shot of Ms Williams looking out a set window just before she does a take. But they did not hold the shot long enough. I finally thought they had captured all the pain and torment behind that gorgeous face and then it was gone before it could completely be absorbed.
The best thing about the film is Nina Gold did the casting so I got to see all my favorite English actors in bit parts, including one guy, who I have not seen in anything since Dennis Potter's original, The Singing Detective. (Hope he's been doing theatre all this time, ... )
By the by, speaking of Dennis Potter, when is Lipstick on Your Collar going to be released on dvd for the US market?
(And, Dominic Cooper, I still love you to pieces. And your American accent? It will get better. It took a few films for Carey Mulligan, too.)
Whoever invented lipstick as we know it, in the twist tube, is a stone-cold genius. And, no, I am not going to research it and find out exactly who did it. And, yes, I know, women (and men) have been wearing "lipstick" since ancient times (crushed beetles and pollen, fruit juice, whathaveyou.)
A woman today can be instantly transformed just by applying a bit of lipstick. It is the most amazing little weapon in a woman's arsenal. My friend, Daña, told me that during the Depression, when women could barely afford to have makeup, that all women at least kept a tube of lipstick.
And there really is no equivalent for men. The closest I could think of was a man wearing a button down shirt and tie. Nick C suggested the man combing his hair.
... This is another notes column, post, what have you ... I was pretty disappointed with Game Change. I thought Recount was much much much better (both HBO films were produced, written, directed by the same team.) I thought the performances were fine. I mean, when is Julianne Moore ever bad in anything? And Woody was fine, as was Ed Harris. And I am not disappointed because it was not a hatchet job on Ms Palin. Well, I do not think it was a hatchet job, anyway. There are many others that disagree, I am sure. I just have a hard time believing that Palin is that vain and dumb, and would be so intransigent. I know it was based on a book by journalists (*shiver* Halperin). And journalists never shade the truth or outright lie, right? Anyhoo, I think Palin is much craftier than they portrayed her. I think Ms Palin is a misguided, very evil woman, who knows exactly what she is doing all the time. Sure, I am probably wrong, but when you are making a film, my through-line is much better than the one we witnessed last Saturday ... What is it w/ cats and rainy weather? Mavis & Molly are completely nuts the past two days ... Meanwhile, I v much enjoyed the recent PBS American Experience Clinton documentary. Say what you will, flame away, but I liked Bill. I liked Billary. And Chelsea and Socks, the whole crew. (That is Socks up in the top left hand corner of fauxluxe, holding a press conference, naturally.) They are all assholes, politicians. There is blood on most every politician's hands. Waco was a disaster. NAFTA? Ugh. DOMA, Don't Ask Don't Tell? Not pretty, sure. But we had a frickin' surplus when all was said and done, a peace dividend for crying out loud and the country was in good shape. (The GOP is itching for another government shutdown this September, right before the election. Geniuses, those folks.) And I frickin' love Hillary Clinton. So sue me. Flame away. There is no way I will give you my DailyKos handle. (And Marlene, you keep it to yourself, please.) I do not write diaries there any more, but whoo-boy, I was there, writing diaries in the v ugly trenches of the great Obama/Clinton wars in 2008. I can not tell you the amount of sexist, ageist, awful hatred Clinton received on DailyKos in the Summer of 2008. Or the amount of abuse I suffered just because I believed Hillary Clinton should have been the nominee. Do not get me wrong, I love Obama (more as a wonk and campaigner than as a policy maker) but back then I thought Clinton was the right choice. Aw, hell, I still think Hillary would be a better President. But I am in a severe minority, I know (even amongst Dems!) ...
Anyroad, the really big news today is that, in honor of the 70th Anniversary of the release of Casablanca, the film is being shown on the big screen one day only in theaters all over the country. That day is next Wednesday, March 21st. Just to remind you, Casablanca was top of the charts in the recent Spitler/Diskowski Greatest Films Poll. Nick C, Renee, and I are trying to get a massive group together to see the film. We are going to the Cinemark theater on Locust, in boo-ti-ful Walnut Creek. We are going to the seven o'clock showing. You are on your own for tickets, and I would advise you to snap them up quickly. We have six folks, already, but we want many many more. So get your tickets and get in touch w/ either Nick C or I. You can contact me through facebook message or mavis.mike@gmail.com. Hopefully, some of us can meet at Va Di Vi (or, as my Wife, Renee, likes to call it: Ba Da Bing) for Champagne and cocktails before the movie.
When I was a kid there was a book that seemed to live on every single one of my friend's parent's bookshelves. That was Future Shock by Alvin Toffler. Naturally, as an avid reader, even at a very young age, whenever I had time at my leisure I would pick up the book and read bits and pieces of it. I still have never read the entire book, nor do I really have any intention of buying or reading it today. And my thoughts on the book should be viewed through a hazy prism of memory. I am not here today to discuss in detail what Toffler's intent was, or how many of his predictions came true. On the contrary, I am here to discuss something very different, indeed.
The inspiration for this post came from a discussion I had with Nick C. And at one point during said discussion, something clicked, my memory opened wide, and quite suddenly I was a seven or eight year old child in Norman, OK or Dallas,TX, sitting on a sofa or a chair, in a living room, reading Future Shock.
I am not sure why certain parts of this book that I have never owned have stayed with me for so long and could produce such a profound rush of memory. My first guess would be that the book frightened me. But I have no memory of being frightened by what I read. Honestly, I only remember two things/concepts from the book, period. They are that Toffler discussed how the world was "shrinking", using the six degrees of separation idea as a nearly off-hand modest "proof" of such. And that technology was advancing at such a ferocious rate, collapsing time (i.e. What took months to achieve could be done in days; what took a few days to acquire could be acquired in hours; what took an hour to solve could now be solved in a fraction of a second, and so on, ...), that this overload of information and convenience at ever-excelling speeds could ultimately produce, what he called, "future shock" in people or whole communities. Future shock manifested itself in humans through both physiological and/or psychological stresses or ailments. The book was written in 1970.
Remember, and this is very important, that hazy prism I spoke of earlier. I have done only the barest, most cursory research in to Toffler's book for this post. It is entirely possible that I have it all wrong. That my memory is a jumble or faulty. But, for whatever reason, that is the rabbit hole my memory has chosen for these "information overload" concepts. And that rabbit hole always ends in a living room in the seventies. I am alone. I pull a book off the shelf and I begin to read.
************
Nick C and I's conversation began with us talking about Lana Del Ray. Then we talked about a Miley Cyrus video Nick C had dug up that irritated him and seemed to prove to him to be yet another nail in the coffin of the Death of Pop. The video above might be the video he was speaking of but I strongly doubt it since I have just noticed that there are dozens of these Miley covers Smells Like Teen Spirit performance videos available.
Nick C circulated his Miley video amongst his closest friends, attempting to start a dialogue. But was shocked to discover that most of friends seemed to miss the point entirely. Most of his friends seemed to have sympathy, or at least, ambivalence for Ms Cyrus and utter disdain for Nirvana. Nick C and my Wife are near the same age (went to the same High School) and I have talked about this matter of personal taste in music before. Fair enough. Nick C and I just shake our heads.
Then we talked about what impact Kurt Cobain's suicide had on Nirvana's legacy. Then we talked very generally about suicide. And all of this finally came full circle and we discussed for the umpteenth time our personal musical/cultural Holy Grail: The next Rock Revolution (or, I prefer the term Pop Explosion.)
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Alright, let us get some definitions out there, in the open, right away: First, I am not using the word "Pop" in some pejorative, judgmental, or sarcastic way. I never do. Pop is not a genre of music. Pop is not shorthand or code for something someone might consider safe or tepid or twee. Pop is simply short for the word, "Popular". Pop music encompasses all genres of music that are available in the marketplace today, all over the world. My Django Reinhardt cds are right next to my Replacements cds. It is all Pop.
(In fact, the whole notion of genre or of the distinction between Literature and Fiction gives me the heebie-jeebies. There are only two types of art for me: Good and Bad.)
Second, let us define what is a Pop Explosion. I will let Greil Marcus take it from here:
A pop explosion is an irresistible cultural upheaval that cuts across lines of class and race (in terms of sources, if not allegiance), and, most crucially, divides society itself by age. The surface of daily life (walk, talk, dress, symbolism, heroes, family affairs) is affected with such force that deep and substantive changes in the way people think and act take place. Pop explosions must link up with, and accelerate, broad shifts in sexual behavior, economic aspirations and political beliefs; a pervasive sense of chaos, such as that which hit England in 1963 with the Profumo scandal, and the United States in the mid-Sixties with the civil rights movement, the Kennedy assassination, and later the Vietnam War, doesn't hurt.
Notice that his definition says nothing about commercial success. As Punk proved in 1977, commercial success is not a de facto prerequisite for a Pop Explosion. Although, all other Pop Explosions (Elvis, The Beatles, Michael Jackson's Thriller) were seriously boffo at the Box Office. (And to be fair to Punk, it can be argued that Nirvana's Nevermind was merely the final step to legitimizing Punk in the marketplace, making it a commodity finally worth co-opting and exploiting.)
************
This is right around the time during our conversation that I went down the rabbit hole. I very foolishly said aloud, "Imagine what it would be like if The Beatles happened today in our insane social networking blogosphere world? How crazy and big that would be."
No sooner had I said those words then I was down that rabbit hole. And I found myself practically reading Nick C's mind as he, very politely, spelled out how wrong I was. The game has changed. Our Future Shock culture, our real time media, and the Internet have created a new world where (mini) Pop explosions happen every day. They are pushed upon all platforms available, explode, and are dissolved in a matter of months, days, or even hours. (Lana Del Ray is an excellent example here.)
The next Pop Explosion will be completely different from all others that have come before it. It has to be, in order to survive and sustain itself in our current environment.
Nick C and I have come to the certain conclusion that the next (Rock) Revolution will most definitely Not Be Televised (or on the Internet.) It will have to be similar to Punk in the sense that it is a Luddite towards technology and media. It will be about word-of-mouth networking, snailmail, fanzines (again), posters, etc, ... The next Pop Explosion will proclaim itself bored with the Internet.
By the way, never once when talking about this "impending" Pop Explosion or the band we propose to spearhead it, am I talking about what this Explosion or band will sound like. The actual group may not be Luddite, at all, in terms of embracing musical technologies or playing only acoustic instruments. In fact, I doubt it. But, honestly, I do not think Nick C or I know what this or they will sound like. We have not had that gleaning yet. I believe, though, that they will sound different yet recognizable; be "surprising yet inevitable." (Hat tip to David Mamet.)(Plus, Malcolm McLaren did not give a toss about the music. Why should we?)
Nick C and I's proposed band to start this Pop Explosion will be called Les Bonnes Femmes. We already have our first t-shirt design: simple Matisse-like line drawings of three women's faces in black ink. One of the women will have red lips. Beneath the drawing it will say Les Bonnes Femmes in swishy script lettering. On the back of the shirt will be one of the group's first slogans in Helvetica typeface, "FUCK BELGIUM". This slogan is great because it is infuriating and it means absolutely nothing.
You will not be able to buy any Les Bonnes Femmes recordings over the internet or download any of their songs. Les Bonnes Femmes website will be a complete blank, alternately colored black or white, depending on the band's mood. You will only be able to purchase or acquire recordings at shows or by going on elaborate urban scavenger hunts. Clues for these hunts will be provided through the band's personal authorized newsletter only.
You will not see Les Bonnes Femmes on YouTube. Any unauthorized (meaning all) videos of the group posted there will be immediately removed by a vigilant, crack team of lawyers employed by the group.
All cellphones must be handed over to security before being allowed entrance to a Les Bonnes Femmes show. Any one caught with a cellphone or any recording device will result in the band leaving the stage until the offender is removed from the premises, their cellphones, recording devices permanently confiscated.
(Think about that last paragraph. Instead of posting a video about your magical experience at the Rock Show last night, now you will have to describe your impressions to your friends through simple words and language. How refreshing that might be, removing the spectacle and living, as opposed to recording.)
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It's just fun. (h/t Chris McClung) We've already thrown this idea out there to three people. Two of them thought it ridiculously silly and one was mildly intrigued.
Meanwhile, the next Pop Explosion is out there, looming. Perhaps Nick C and I will be riding the crest of that wave. We will see.
Directed by Eric Rohmer, like many of the greatest film comedies, keeps the stakes high enough that all the lovely romantic comic parts of the film do not pass for mere fluff. It all pulls together to mean something. This was, after all, the fifth in Rohmer's "Six Moral Tales." But do not let that word "moral" scare you. Rohmer was anything but preachy or proselytizing. Ultimately, his films seek to find the truth about what love really is, or if it exists. And if it is different from friendship, and the ways it might be different. His films explore romantic relationships between people in all facets: fidelity, loyalty, trust, jealousy, loving, being "in love", the secret magical power of gestures or gifts (and the grace and manners required for accepting said gestures and gifts), giving, sharing, and so much more. And, in the case of Le genou de Claire (like many of Rohmer's films), Rohmer has chosen a beautiful mountainous region of France, complete with crystal-blue lake, for his backdrop. Rohmer's "outdoors" films, in fact, remind me of those great "backpacking, holiday" plays of Shakespeare, like, say, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, or A Midsummer's Night Dream. It is only amongst the fresh air and stark natural beauty that most of these characters can truly speak their mind; reveal their most hidden desires frankly, with grace and great taste. Béatrice Romand's character, Laura, is the exception. She feels smothered by natural beauty. She will most certainly end up in the City later in her life. (Rohmer cast Ms Romand in a similar predicament nearly thirty years later in another film of his. This time Ms Romand had to return to the countryside, much to her chagrin, to take over a property she inherited. Here she very reluctantly and distractedly makes wine from a vineyard on her property.)
Like Belle and Sebastian's "String Bean Jean".
Despite the film being entitled, Le genou de Claire, for me, the real star of this picture is Ms Romand. I have loved Ms Romand for ages now. And since she has appeared in so many of Rohmer's films, starting with Le genou in 1971, I have had the good fortune to witness her transformation from gawky string-bean teen to graceful and regal grande dame. Ms Romand, despite some wonderful performances (notably Aurora Cornu, Laurence de Monaghan, and Gérard Falconetti as Claire's oafish meathead boyfriend, Gilles) steals the picture. On camera Ms Romand is insouciant, coy, adorable, playful, delightful, but also, very importantly, much wiser beyond her years. She plays with the truth in a teasing manner, drawing the real desires and truths out of the other characters, and us, the audience, in such a sly way that none of us know what we have revealed before it is too late.
The whole film is splendid. (And perfect viewing for an overcast day such as this one in the Bay Area.) It was shot exquisitely by one of the best, Néstor Almendros, and is beautiful to behold. And like Ms Romand's, Laura, the film is mischievously sneaky. That something so effervescent and seemingly slight could age so gracefully and stay with you for so long is a profound, fabulous thing.
(With a serious tip of the cap to the late, great Blackie Sherrod.)
This post is a big random round up/notes column to tide me over until my (most prob) too long post about the next Pop Explosion is ready to be published. That should happen Sunday or Monday.
Until then, well:
I swear, in the Enron doc she's only wearing one earring.
... Since it is International Women's Day I figure I should throw out another Woman Michael Loves. Today it is another journalist, Bethany McLean. Ms McLean nearly single-handedly brought down those Enron assholes. She has a great article in this month's Vanity Fair about how a whole bunch of rich folks, hedge fund managers, and movie stars are co-opting and ruining a very sacred, difficult yoga discipline. Yeah, I know, a shocker ... So, my fantastico RomanVinity rep, Michele, who has been mentioned here before, obv dropped off a bottle sample of Verdicchio to me. I had completely forgot about it and it had been camped out in the back of our fridge for ages. I drug it out last night. It is amazing. I do not even know if it is approved for me to order and sell. There's no price on the bottle, either. I do not even know how much it costs. But it is superb, a white wine spilling over w/ baking spices and cardamom. Folks in Italy generally drink Verdicchio with seafood and shellfish. It can have a brine-y quality to it sometimes. There is no brine here. It is aromatic, lively, refreshing and perfect for North African or Indian food. Next time I get the chicken Tikka Masala at Breads of India this is the bottle I want. (Let me go get my reading glasses -- I am so old.) Accadio Angelo is the producer. It is 2010 vintage. I am guessing this bottle would prob be twenty dollars retail ...
The Dali-like image on the bottle is brought more forward now. And I am enjoying the 2010, not this 2008.
... The film, Anonymous, did not suck, at all, like I had expected it to. Of course, the splendid Rafe Spall's talents were nearly wasted in a small (but very important) role. Could someone please give this guy one shot at a lead role? I suppose he will be just like his superb character-acting Da, Timothy Spall. But, naturally, me being a theatre guy I would like Anonymous. We theatre-folk love that, "We were so oppressed, hated, vilified" bullshit. (Does not everyone? A chip on the shoulder moves mountains sometimes.) Do not get me wrong. The powers that be truly hate artists, always have. Look at the whole Fox News/Right-wing revulsion towards "Hollywood" ... Also saw recently Still Bill, a documentary about Bill Withers. It was not the greatest film I have ever seen, for sure. But, I did learn a bit more about Bill Withers and what a great man he is. Withers was born on the Fourth of July, and he is, for me, maybe the nicest, sweetest, most humble, most generous American alive. The fucking recording industry does not deserve a legend like him. I am so proud someone as talented and wonderful as Withers has decided to "retire". Withers, now, makes music strictly for himself, his family, and friends. Right on ... Yeah yeah I know I know, it is only v early March but Yu Darvish looked an absolute monster out there yesterday. I am loathe to link to gifs. I will not. But, I will give you a quote from today's AP round-up report:
"He had good stuff, great poise," Padres second baseman Orlando Hudson said, " ... Seven different pitches. It's hard enough to throw one pitch in the big leagues, man."
... Aw, hell. Everyone who is reading this knows that Michael prefers the company of women (h/t to Wire, 106 Beats That.) And all of you, all of you wonderful women that have meant something to me in the past, and that change and enrich my life every single day (especially you, Pnut, who made me grow up, finally) I would like to give a most humble thanks. (Thanks, Renee. And thanks, Mum.) It is all the English Roses, exes, cheese-mongers, wine reps, customer service clerks, movie stars, team leaders (thanks Annie & Lisa & Josie & Meghan), authors, rock stars, journalists, baristas, book store owners, nurses, etc, that make me who I am. I am so indebted to you.
All my love,
Michael David Spitler
(Here's the deal on that kissing sequence: At the time you could only kiss on screen for three seconds max. Hitchcock, who was madly in love with Ingrid Bergman (are we not all in love with her?) thought that was incredibly silly. So, he had Grant and Bergman do a four minute take of them together, where never once was a smooch longer than three seconds. Absolute genius. And, my goodness, Bergman has never been as sexy before as she is in this. Why is not that me on the patio? When I see those elbows raised I get a little bit excited. Bergman was an icon (a picture, a poster, an image, whathaveyou) but when you see her in action she is a living, breathing sexual Swedish adult that I wish I could have bumped in to at a party.
Towards the end of my shift I could not help but notice that almost an entire girl's High School softball team was waiting in turns to use the public restroom. (My wine back stock wall is right by the Food Hole public restrooms.) The team wore white jerseys with a gold "A" on the left chest. But there was also one member of the Los Lomas (Los Lomas is the high school that is right behind my store) team in full uniform, too. She was chatting amiably with a member of the opposite team, leaning on a five stack of back stock wine (prob Three Wishes). I said, "Wait a minute. You two aren't supposed to be together, are you?" And that got a pretty good laugh from them. I asked them what time the game was. Some said, Three-thirty. Some said, Four. I asked the white jersey team what High School they went to. They said, Antioch.
Then noticing the Antioch girls' sanitary socks, I said, "You're wearing two different colors. Is that allowed?" The entire team was wearing a gold sock on one leg and a black sock on the other. They said, "Yeah, we have to. It's part of the uniform." Then one girl looked at another, who looked to be the youngest, and quite small in relation to the rest of the team, and asked her, "Did you put them on the right foot this time?"
The small girl, blonde, raised her eyes to the heavens, let loose with a classic long Sally Brown from Peanuts sigh, and said, "I've done it again. I always put them on the wrong foot."
Who would of thought that a documentary about a ubiquitous typeface could be so game-changing and profound? If you do not believe me I challenge you to watch it yourself and see if I am not right.
Must see.
The film, Helvetica, totally changed the way I looked at my environment, totally helped me understand the way text and graphic design spoke to me in ways I had never seen or heard before. Clued me in to a new secret language and forced me to think about things I had never thought about before, had taken for granted.
2005 film, Pride & Prejudice. And the Scott Pilgrim Women from Edgar Wright's 2010 film, Scott Pilgrim vs The World. (Though both English, these two Wright directors are not related.) All of these women are Women Michael Loves.
See how easy it is, ladies.
Keira Knightley is my least favorite of this first group. Honestly, I do not think she is much of an actress. My favorite performance of hers is still as the chav Jules in Bend It Like Beckham. She is good in Never Let Me Go, too. And her and Carey Mulligan are reunited in that film, as well. Except in Never Let Me Go, Ms Mulligan gets to be the star.
Rosamund Pike (what a frickin' great name!) on the other hand is one of my favorite actresses working today. And she is so lovely. What a perfect face. Her performance in Made in Dagenham is small but powerful and her portrayal of the gorgeous, glamorous, yet hopelessly thick, Helen, in An Education is sublime, full of panache.
Meanwhile, the American actress, Jena Malone, who played Lydia in Pride & Prejudice, is about to start production on a film telling the story of another one of Michael's Women Michael Loves, Carson McCullers. Ms Malone will play Ms McCullers. Ms Malone will also play the lead in the film version of A Doll's House, too. Damn!
One of America's greatest novelists, Carson McCullers.
Talulah Riley got to literally perform the old noir Hollywood trick of taking her glasses off, letting her hair down and revealing herself a bombshell. In Pride & Prejudice, the exquisite Ms Riley played the plain bookish Mary. Four years later in Pirate Radio she was completely different and a knockout as Marianne.
Anyone who is reading this does not need me to elaborate on Ms Mulligan or on all the ways I am fond of her.
Kelly Reilly is not a Bennet sister, she plays Bingley's sister in Pride & Prejudice but she gets included here, too. I love her work, especially in Me and Orson Welles and as the only good thing in Mrs Henderson Presents.
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Like Pride & Prejudice, my least favorite of this next group is Mary Elizabeth Winstead, the female "star" of the picture.
My favorite Scott Pilgrim actress is Alison Pill. (Another amazing name!) I loved her as Zelda in Midnight in Paris.
Scott Pilgrim stars at the London Premiere.
Ellen Wong's CV is woefully short. And that is a shame. She should be bigger than she is right now.
Anna Kendrick was definitely the only good thing in the awful Up in the Air, that is for sure.
Mae Whitman is a splendid talent. You can see her every week in the teevee series, Parenthood. She has also done a ton of voice-over work, including appearances on Family Guy.
The sultry surly fantastic Aubrey Plaza is currently a part of Parks and Recreation. But she is prob best known for her astounding chat show performances.
And Brie Larson has been a child actor, a recording artist, cable teevee star, (w/ Toni Collette! in The United States of Tara) and a film actress.
I love them all and wish them fabulous happy careers.
And came across a review for a new documentary, Heist: Who Stole the American Dream.
(Firstly, and this is totally off topic, but are there just no good films coming out right now? Am I wrong? Every Friday I read the NYT and the SFChron and it is so depressing. I know we just had the Oscars and this is the slowest time of the year for films, but, good grief! The NYT reviewed over a dozen films yesterday, and I have no interest in seeing a single one of them. Looks like I have to wait until Whit Stillman's Damsels in Distress on April 6. Or until Miss Bala finally makes it to the City. And when is Miss Bala making it to the City?)
Anyroad, I will now get back to my topic for this post:
Perhaps it is just a phase I am going through, or I have been listening to too much Stereolab, reading too much Guy Debord, whatever. But I am not even remotely in the mood for a film like Heist right now. You know, I gobbled up Inside Job like a Bouchon Bakery TKO (Thomas Keller Oreo) at the time, but now films like Heist, Too Big to Fail, and Inside Job make my eyes glaze over. These films, as laudable and as well-intended as they are, seem, to me, to be missing the entire point.
"I don't want to reform capitalism. I want to change life ..." Situationist International détourned cartoon.
The film Heist exists to provide a litany of policy decisions that have happened over the last forty or fifty years that have deregulated the market, crushed unions, and widened the gap between the haves and have nots. Now, I know there are a whole bunch of people out there that do not know shit about Justice Powell or the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, but I do know about all that stuff, and more recently have come to believe that filmmakers, progressives, citizens, the Occupy movement, people of all types, etc, ... are woefully misreading the problem.
Politicians and Wall Street and Corporations are always going to do everything in their power to increase their profit margin. Period. Politicians have been cozy with the bidness sector since the times of the Roman Senate. And there will be no change in that until the entire culture and system is changed.
What has OWS accomplished, really? Not much. They briefly changed the national debate in this country, from worrying about the national deficit to worrying about the unemployment rate. And they lit a fire under Obama's butt. Obama is now using OWS rhetoric in his speeches. And that is it.
"Okay guys, one more thing: This summer when you're being inundated with all this American Bicentennial Fourth of July brouhaha, don't forget what you're celebrating, and that's the fact that a bunch of slave-owning, aristocratic white males didn't want to pay their taxes." Richard Linklater from his script for his film, Dazed and Confused.
The revolution, as it were, can not be achieved by proxy. It has to come from within. Never trust a policy maker to make the right decisions for you. There is one, count 'em, one Washington politician I can completely totally trust today. That is Bernie Sanders.
But it gets worse: After talking about this yesterday, Nick C and I have pretty much come to the conclusion that the whole thing needs to be completely blown up. We need a fresh start. Fresh eyes.
"If there's been a way to build it/There'll be a way to destroy it/Things are not all that out of control" Lyrics to Stereolab's song, Crest.
And yes, even though I know that No Matter Who You Vote For The Government Always Gets In, I will still be voting a straight Democratic ticket come November.
And yes, I am still addicted to the GOP Clown Car Show primary, my eyes glued to the horse race.
And yes, I am not much of an activist. At least I talk about it and write about it all the time.
And yes, I am sure I contradict myself constantly, repeatedly, many times a day.
What did Walt Whitman say?
"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes."
Is next in Michael's fauxluxe series, Women Michael Loves.
Thank you, Ms Faludi for opening a young man's eyes.
I love all her books but Ms Faludi would deserve her spot in my own personal Hall of Fame for her book, Backlash, alone. And there is much to like about the book: The chapter on the backlash in Hollywood, discussing Fatal Attraction, Pretty Woman, Working Girl, and others; the chapter on television, discussing how the network brass were constantly messing with Cagney and Lacey and finally banished it to the hinterlands in order to get it canceled; the chapter on the media and all the numerous fake "trend studies" that the print and teevee media would splash all over their platforms, insisting that women could not have a career and a family, too, or, that all single women over the age of thirty-five were naturally doomed to a unrewarding profoundly depressing existence forever more.
There is so much to like in this meticulously, painstakingly researched book, all written in an expertly executed conversational style, but my favorite chapter is Dressing the Dolls: The Fashion Backlash, notably her essays on Victoria's Secret and Jockey's immensely successful Jockey for Her product launch. Re Jockey for Her: Jockey president at the time, Howard Cooley, despite vigorous opposition from everyone else in the company, launched Jockey for Her, anyway. Cooley even had his marketing research department interview scores of women of all types on what they were looking for in underwear.
The results: women want underwear that won't ride up, won't fall apart in the wash, and actually is the size promised on the label.
The brand [Jockey for Her] became an instant success; within five years, it was the most popular brand of women's underwear in the nation, with an extraordinary 40 percent share of the market.
Duh! It really helps your business actually talking to your frickin' customers instead of reading crappy news weeklies or watching cable news, hunh?
Was an absolute mind blowing exhilarating thrill ride. Renee and I had no idea what to expect. We have been to the winery numerous times and for this one day, for their party, the winery looked completely different, unrecognizable. It was a Polynesian/Tiki/Island theme. So, they brought in a waterfall and a beach. There was a "island-y" type band, steel drum players, and the "Rutherford Girls", as they were, were dressed in coconut bras and feathered tutus. Everything was free: Valet parking, coat check, all the amazing food, the drink, everything. Upon entrance everyone was offered grappa. And the Rutherford Girls worked the room all night, pouring 1999 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon from magnums.
No wonder then, when John, the founder of Frog's Leap, got up to speak, he said, "Thank God we only do this every four years." And, "They said you wouldn't come on a Wednesday! You are all Frog's Leap!" Right after his words the drummers and dancers arrived. Video below (hopefully I can figure it out.)
I think it was a perfect moment for me, the whole party, sharing all this with Renee. And it had been a while since I had had one!
Thank you so much, Frog's Leap. I am so chuffed to be considered part of your family. And I love your products and your mission and will continue to whole-heartedly and with great fervor support your fantastic wine.
And yesterday was also Renee's Da's birthday. Happy birthday, Bob!
So, in honor of these two wonderful Pisces people I will publish their fabulous ballots for the movie poll here today:
Donna Lewis Spitler's ballot:
1. Darling
2. Double Indemnity
3. Cabaret
4. Annie Hall
5. An Education
6. His Girl Friday
The Philadelphia Story
8. To Kill a Mockingbird
9. McCabe & Mrs Miller
10. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
11. The Wizard of Oz
12. Don't Look Now
Rosemary's Baby
Repulsion
15. Gone with the Wind
Bob Diskowski's ballot:
1. Casablanca
2. The Third Man
3. Singin' in the Rain
4. Paths of Glory
5. North by Northwest
6. A Man and a Woman
7. Winged Migration
8. Midway
9. Back to the Future
10. Silver Streak
