Apr 30, 2012
When I saw MBV in 1992 I talked to the drummer,
Colm, after the show. I was gobsmacked, trying to describe how amazing they were, and he took a pull off his Rolling Rock bottle and said, "Yeah, fucking loud, right?!"
Greatest show I have ever seen. Liberty Lunch, Austim, TX, and Babes in Toyland opened. (Dinosaur Jr were the headliners and they stunk.)
This is impossible to find now,
And this will have to do for me for the time being. It is Pat Fish (The Jazz Butcher) and Steve Proctor covering The Rolling Stones' We Love You.
Apr 29, 2012
Sometimes it is the simplest,
Seemingly most inconsequential things that can give you joy in a marriage.
I do laundry around here. It is a pretty good deal. Renee hates doing it, and I quite enjoy it. It is a v leisurely task, that allows me to do other things, like follow the Rangers or blog (I am doing laundry right now!) or watch the RedZone come Wintertime or watch movies. Plus, doing laundry makes me very popular with our cats, Mavis and Molly. So, I get to hang out with them while they "help" me fold.
So, when Renee bought me a drying rack and a new laundry basket, both of which this Laundry Dude needed desperately, I can not tell you happy I was. What a strange thing to be happy about, right? Every time I use the rack or basket I feel warm inside and start whistling like Snow White. So weird.
But, things are so good with me these days, that no matter the state of my homemaking tools, I would probably be pretty frickin' happy as it is.
Look at today, he said, as he put on his non-work shoes: I am doing laundry, having a glass of Prosecco in a Coupe, blogging, my baseball team is the best in the Major Leagues and are on national teevee tonight, the Wife and I are going to see Pirates (our first 3D movie!) today, Renee will do some grilling, and we will watch Veep and Girls on HBO. Pretty frickin' fantastic daie, hunh?
Plus, it is a simply smashing stunner of a day out here in the Bay Area.
I hope everyone else out there has a fantastic Sunday, too, whether you are doing laundry or not. (Just aboot to get the last batch to fold!)
All my love,
Ardent
PS: Here is a video for fun. (Only sixteen seconds long, Rita Hayworth in Gilda, but what a sixteen seconds!)
Apr 28, 2012
Very quickly,
A couple of movie and teevee notes before I head off to work:
I was apprehensive about watching the early to mid aughts English Channel Four series, Black Books. But I should not have been. It is a delightful little piece of toffee, hard and brittle on the outside but rich and sweet in the center. I love how we get to see just about the entire Spaced/Shaun/Hot Fuzz Rep Company (incl Jessica Stevenson and Simon Pegg.) I love how they are constantly consuming red wine and cigarettes (with nary an apology and without a morsel of guilt.) I love how good-hearted the show is despite its rough, unshaven exterior. I love Tasmin Grieg and I wonder why I have never seen her in anything else before? She has a very unusual, kind of handsome prettiness. I mean that it the nicest possible way, and she is obviously very talented. Bill Bailey, meanwhile, is Bill Bailey. But the real reason I love the show is Dylan Moran. There is just something about him, his dishevelment, his intelligence, his Don't Give A Toss attitude that endears him to me so much. (And all during the second season Moran looks like the Jazz Butcher.)
Anyhoo, Black Books streams on Netflix, and it is fun, so you should check it out.
************
Just read Manohla Dargis' review of Bernie yesterday in the NYT and, boy, does this look like my kind of film.
Bernie is directed by Richard Linklater and is his first film since the absolute near-perfect masterpiece, Me and Orson Welles.
Bernie is a black comedy based on real events that happened in a real East Texas city called Carthage. Basically, the Godfearing, Godloving mortician, Bernie, played by Jack Black falls in love with the meanest, nastiest widow lady in Texas, Shirley MacLaine, much to the entire town's horror. Then the widow ends up dead. Matthew McConaughey is called upon to solve the crime.
Linklater uses real interviews in the film with the real citizens of Carthage who were there when all the craziness happened.
It is shot by Dick Pope, one of my all-time fave DPs, who has done most of his work with Mike Leigh in England. Pope is amazing.
Cannot wait to see Bernie.
That is it. Not much today. Love you all,
Ardent.
I was apprehensive about watching the early to mid aughts English Channel Four series, Black Books. But I should not have been. It is a delightful little piece of toffee, hard and brittle on the outside but rich and sweet in the center. I love how we get to see just about the entire Spaced/Shaun/Hot Fuzz Rep Company (incl Jessica Stevenson and Simon Pegg.) I love how they are constantly consuming red wine and cigarettes (with nary an apology and without a morsel of guilt.) I love how good-hearted the show is despite its rough, unshaven exterior. I love Tasmin Grieg and I wonder why I have never seen her in anything else before? She has a very unusual, kind of handsome prettiness. I mean that it the nicest possible way, and she is obviously very talented. Bill Bailey, meanwhile, is Bill Bailey. But the real reason I love the show is Dylan Moran. There is just something about him, his dishevelment, his intelligence, his Don't Give A Toss attitude that endears him to me so much. (And all during the second season Moran looks like the Jazz Butcher.)
Anyhoo, Black Books streams on Netflix, and it is fun, so you should check it out.
 |
| "She's not your Mother anymore!" |
************
Just read Manohla Dargis' review of Bernie yesterday in the NYT and, boy, does this look like my kind of film.
Bernie is directed by Richard Linklater and is his first film since the absolute near-perfect masterpiece, Me and Orson Welles.
Bernie is a black comedy based on real events that happened in a real East Texas city called Carthage. Basically, the Godfearing, Godloving mortician, Bernie, played by Jack Black falls in love with the meanest, nastiest widow lady in Texas, Shirley MacLaine, much to the entire town's horror. Then the widow ends up dead. Matthew McConaughey is called upon to solve the crime.
Linklater uses real interviews in the film with the real citizens of Carthage who were there when all the craziness happened.
It is shot by Dick Pope, one of my all-time fave DPs, who has done most of his work with Mike Leigh in England. Pope is amazing.
Cannot wait to see Bernie.
That is it. Not much today. Love you all,
Ardent.
Apr 25, 2012
All the Reasons Bob le Flambeur is one of the greatest motion pictures ever.
First, as much as I love David Thomson, pay no attention to his argument that the ending is weak. He is wrong. Totally, unbelievably wrong. It is a blind spot, or some weird idiosyncratic thing because the end of Bob le Flambeur is one of the greatest ends to a film in cinema history, full stop.
Here are many other reasons Bob le Flambeur is so good:
1) Isabelle Corey, need I say more?
2) The amazing sets Melville had built in his own personal studio in Paris. It is v obvious that certain sets of nightclubs and bars are right next to each other, back to back in this film. The gold leaf, fleur-de-lis "movable Hitchcock" walls are movie gold for me. They tell us, We are watching a film. This is not real life. A mystery. A dream. In the best sort of way.
3) The stunning jazz soundtrack which is fifty years ahead of its time, in that in drifts in and out, and changes, not from scene to scene, but whenever it is appropriate to tell the story.
4) That everyone in Paris calls our protagonist, "Bob."
5) All the amazing shots of Montmartre in the fifties.
6) The "pop" of Champagne dialogue our male ingenue uses to seduce Isabelle Corey.
7) That Bob le Flambeur sets up all the other great "Last Heist" motion pictures.
8) That just a tiny second of nudity (Ms Corey's breasts) was nearly worth the twenty years we had suffered since the Code.
9) That fun could be had at the cinema again.
10) That I love that the nouvelle vague kids that had loved Melville before (Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol) all eventually ended up despising him because his films were box-office smashes, while theirs suffered at the gate. TOUGH!
Here are many other reasons Bob le Flambeur is so good:
1) Isabelle Corey, need I say more?
2) The amazing sets Melville had built in his own personal studio in Paris. It is v obvious that certain sets of nightclubs and bars are right next to each other, back to back in this film. The gold leaf, fleur-de-lis "movable Hitchcock" walls are movie gold for me. They tell us, We are watching a film. This is not real life. A mystery. A dream. In the best sort of way.
3) The stunning jazz soundtrack which is fifty years ahead of its time, in that in drifts in and out, and changes, not from scene to scene, but whenever it is appropriate to tell the story.
4) That everyone in Paris calls our protagonist, "Bob."
5) All the amazing shots of Montmartre in the fifties.
6) The "pop" of Champagne dialogue our male ingenue uses to seduce Isabelle Corey.
7) That Bob le Flambeur sets up all the other great "Last Heist" motion pictures.
8) That just a tiny second of nudity (Ms Corey's breasts) was nearly worth the twenty years we had suffered since the Code.
9) That fun could be had at the cinema again.
10) That I love that the nouvelle vague kids that had loved Melville before (Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol) all eventually ended up despising him because his films were box-office smashes, while theirs suffered at the gate. TOUGH!
SPOILER! Do not watch if you have not seen before and would like to.
So frickin' good. Brill ending. Insane. The remake pales in comparison.
Apr 23, 2012
I thought Veep was very good
Last night. It is an American version of The Thick of It, with all the bungles, swearing, and incompetence. And I thought they made the switch across the pond seem seamless. And, it is just going to get even better. A lot of people were probably scratching their heads. They are not familiar with these In the Loop/The Thick of It guys. It will grow on folks, and should prob be a cult-y sort of hit for HBO.
Mark my words, most of the lefty political blogs that are bitching about Veep now, will be posting scenes and quips from it themselves in a few months from now.
I had nothing to fear, after all. Veep is going to be one of my all-time faves. (And Sorkin's new show, The Newsroom, happening in June, looks dynamite, too. HBO are Kings. But when do we get the third season of Treme?)
Mark my words, most of the lefty political blogs that are bitching about Veep now, will be posting scenes and quips from it themselves in a few months from now.
I had nothing to fear, after all. Veep is going to be one of my all-time faves. (And Sorkin's new show, The Newsroom, happening in June, looks dynamite, too. HBO are Kings. But when do we get the third season of Treme?)
Damsels in Distress
Is "very strange." (h/t to Whit Stillman through Carloyn Fariña as Audrey in Metropolitan.) It is also whimsical, delightful, satirical, hilarious throughout, disjointed (a hot mess, really), fluffy, and sweet. It is a hot mess because the director, Stillman, has chosen to do his usual Comedy of Manners as a revue such as the type his characters would do in college. Thus, there is no real plot. The scenes are blackout sketches, interspersed with dance routines, and the film ends with two (!) back-to-back production numbers. Stillman has come full circle. He has made a film version of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, which is the subject of Audrey and Tom's crucial early courting conversations in Metropolitan. The "immorality of a group of young people putting on a play", indeed.
Fine, let the yahoos at NRO crow about Stillman as their Conservative. Their antidote to the Liberal Gay Agenda Hollywood. I do not give a shit. They will not change my appreciation for Whit Stillman's films in the slightest. No one today makes films like Stillman; so witty, thoughtful, talky, full of ideas. And he makes Women's Pictures. He is kind of like our modern day George Cukor.
(And this Okie Commie Pinko thinks we could all do with some lessons in manners right now, besides)
--Ardent
Honestly, the whole Whit Stillman is a Conservative topic of conversation has become very tiresome. It is even slipping in to newspaper reviews these days. I do not know who Stillman votes for, or if he votes at all, and I do not care. But I do know that an artist obsessed with Jane Austen, as Stillman is, who pines for the old social conventions of deb parties, courting, letter writing, dances, dancing, etc, ... is probably going to have a pretty conservative world view. (See what I did there?) Good for him. Hey, I like Jane Austen, too, and I am not afraid to admit that this world could actually be improved with a return to some of the old social conventions. And, I know for sure that manners these days is dead.
I do not agree with every part of Stillman's world view. He is often a prude and we get yet another "Walk of Shame" in Damsels, but Stillman is also smart enough to ever so gently prod his male creations with satirical barbs that bring out their vulnerabilities and make them lovable and human and not simply stock bourgeois elitist right-wing assholes.
It all comes back to those Jane Austen conversations in Metropolitan. That is the whole core of Stillman's ouevre.
Tom: But the context of the novel and nearly everything Jane Austen wrote is near ridiculous from today's perspective.
Audrey: Has it ever occurred to you that today looked at from Jane Austen's perspective would look even worse?
Fine, let the yahoos at NRO crow about Stillman as their Conservative. Their antidote to the Liberal Gay Agenda Hollywood. I do not give a shit. They will not change my appreciation for Whit Stillman's films in the slightest. No one today makes films like Stillman; so witty, thoughtful, talky, full of ideas. And he makes Women's Pictures. He is kind of like our modern day George Cukor.
(And this Okie Commie Pinko thinks we could all do with some lessons in manners right now, besides)
--Ardent
Apr 22, 2012
Josh Hamilton is up for a Job Dialogue!
While most of the baseball world's eyes are prob focussed on the "It's the Yankees! It's the Red Sox! Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! My Gawd!" this weekend, they should be watching what is going down in Detroit.
The Rangers split a doubleheader yesterday w/ the Tigers in what has been an absolutely thrilling early-season four game series. The Rangers plated eight in the first inning of the first game, eventually winning 10-4. The Tigers won the nightcap 3-2, a great pitcher's duel between Neftali Feliz and Justin Verlander.
Uh, I loooooove me some contract year, just had a relapse Josh Hamilton. He is looking like he did in June 2010, one of the best months for any MLB hitter the last ten years.
(He just hit another one. Rangers up 1-nil, Top 2.)
The Rangers and Tigers are the real class of the American League. And the Angels are gonna wake up. They are going to be good, real good, but not as good as the Rangers. Derek Holland (w/ the crappy mustache) is very quietly becoming our ace. Neftali Feliz' transition to starter has been amazing, again. (This is the third year in a row the Rangers have successfully converted a reliever to a starter.) And the Rangers are attempting to become like the 1984 Detroit Tigers, who started the season 35-5.
Renee and I are going to have the greatest Sunday ever today. And this Okie/Texas boie loves himself this heat. More please. And hotter!
Everybody check out Veep and Girls tonight. We will be riveted, eating grilled sausages from Cafe Rouge, drinking fabulous wine.
I love you all,
Michael
The Rangers split a doubleheader yesterday w/ the Tigers in what has been an absolutely thrilling early-season four game series. The Rangers plated eight in the first inning of the first game, eventually winning 10-4. The Tigers won the nightcap 3-2, a great pitcher's duel between Neftali Feliz and Justin Verlander.
Uh, I loooooove me some contract year, just had a relapse Josh Hamilton. He is looking like he did in June 2010, one of the best months for any MLB hitter the last ten years.
(He just hit another one. Rangers up 1-nil, Top 2.)
The Rangers and Tigers are the real class of the American League. And the Angels are gonna wake up. They are going to be good, real good, but not as good as the Rangers. Derek Holland (w/ the crappy mustache) is very quietly becoming our ace. Neftali Feliz' transition to starter has been amazing, again. (This is the third year in a row the Rangers have successfully converted a reliever to a starter.) And the Rangers are attempting to become like the 1984 Detroit Tigers, who started the season 35-5.
Renee and I are going to have the greatest Sunday ever today. And this Okie/Texas boie loves himself this heat. More please. And hotter!
Everybody check out Veep and Girls tonight. We will be riveted, eating grilled sausages from Cafe Rouge, drinking fabulous wine.
I love you all,
Michael
Apr 21, 2012
Crucial Books (#14) Lolita
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, 1955.
*About fifteen or so years ago, my friend, Hannah, was hosting a Women's Book Club. And when they read Lolita, Hannah asked me to sit in on the discussion. She knew how fond I am of the novel, how I think it might be the greatest novel about America, ever. (Written by a Russian, Nabokov's first book in English!) It was like walking in to the lion's den. Some of the women stopped reading at a certain point or refused to read the book, period. I tried my best to talk about the parodic structure, all the puns, the twins, the butterfly references, the Poe allusions, etc, ... But I doubt I won any converts that night.
All my love,
Michael
Apr 19, 2012
Have never seen this before today.
Uh, around 2:40 it gets a little racy in the loveliest, most unusual sort of way. Delightful.
--Ardent
Good flipping grief!
I saw this through TBogg, who passed me on to Digby.
S. E. Cupp deserves to be locked up in a cell and forced to watch Make Way for Tomorrow over and over and over again until she can produce a soul. Or a heart. Or some brains.
It is folks like Ms Cupp who are your standard-bearers for "thoughtful Conservative" (read oxymoronic) journalism today. UGH!
So, marry well, Sisters, and everything will be all right!
mds
S. E. Cupp deserves to be locked up in a cell and forced to watch Make Way for Tomorrow over and over and over again until she can produce a soul. Or a heart. Or some brains.
It is folks like Ms Cupp who are your standard-bearers for "thoughtful Conservative" (read oxymoronic) journalism today. UGH!
So, marry well, Sisters, and everything will be all right!
mds
Crucial Books (#9) An Incomplete Education
An Incomplete Education by Judy Jones and William Wilson, first edition published 1987.
*I can not even begin to tell you how important this book is to me. And I own two of the three editions. My Mother turned me on to it right when I needed it the most, heading in to college. It is everything you were supposed to learn in college but might have missed for one reason or another. Absolutely essential and most definitely crucial. And hilarious.
mds
Here is a picture of the stove/oven
That my parents bought while they were out here a couple of weeks ago, that is currently shipping to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
And here is a photo of another stove that they also considered.
mds
 |
| The timer and clock up top do not work. |
And here is a photo of another stove that they also considered.
 |
| Wow! |
mds
Apr 17, 2012
Yet more reasons to love being alive
From Cabin in the Sky (1943), dir by Vincent Minnelli, featuring Duke Ellington and his Orchestra.
Apr 16, 2012
Being a "boy", as it were,
And a nice boy, I think it is fair to say, my favorite story arc of Lena Dunham's new series for HBO, Girls, is going to be the one involving Marnie and Charlie. Charlie is obviously the sweetest guy in the world, affectionate to a tee, and perhaps a little too sweet to his Sweetie. Naturally, in Dunham's Universe, Marnie is "repulsed every time [Charlie] touches me" and presumably will be threatening to end the relationship once or twice every episode.
The Marnie/Charlie arc is an opposite twin of the Hannah/Adam arc, and some in the audience are left to wonder, Is there no "boy" out there who can fit the (Mythical?) Happy Medium?
(When Renee and I first started going out, one of the things she said she liked best about me was that underneath my sensitive, feminist, nice guy exterior I was "still just a dude." High praise, indeed. And I completely mean that.)
It was the first episode of Girls last night, so, sure, some of the writing seemed a little show-offy, and some of the pop culture references fell flat. (And speaking of which, why is it that no one seems able to drop facebook in to the conversation of a film or teevee show without embarrassing themselves? Or is it just me? The only time I have seen facebook successfully incorporated in to conversation is when Anna Chlumsky does it in In The Loop. But of course, those guys have a writer who's only job is to add pop culture references and swear words to the finished scripts. *sigh* More on the In The Loop/The Thick of It/Veep team in a minute.) But despite that, it is plain to see that Girls is going to be the teevee event of the Spring and Summer, and will be a fine addition to Blockbuster Sundays, alongside Mad Men and Game of Thrones.
It is especially nice to see that Whit Stillman's lovable, difficult cad, Chris Eigeman, now has credits in both Gilmore Girls and Girls. I have a really decent Gilmore Girls joke here but no one outside of a few people at the Food Hole Walnut Creek would get it, so, I am going to skip it.
************
Man, does Veep look awful, or what? My heart sinks and I cringe every time they show those crummy clips. I will be there, seven PM on Sunday, but I am really expecting the absolute worst. (At least Girls is on right after it!) And, I think I have figured out why Veep is going to stink. Peter Capaldi. The Thick of It and In The Loop are completely hung on Peter Capaldi's character, Malcolm Tucker. (And Malcolm Tucker is based on Tony Blair's infamous Press Secretary, Alastair Campbell.) It is not just a cultural barrier, moving from UK politics to US politics, it is the fact that without a US Malcolm Tucker equivalent the show will fail. Plus, you have Capaldi's talent to match, as well. Capaldi's performances in The Thick of It and In The Loop make for an absolute tour de force. Malcolm Tucker completely overshadows Capaldi's entire career. He will always be known as Malcolm Tucker now, full stop.
I would love to be pleasantly surprised on Sunday but I am doubting it.
************
Meanwhile, the Rangers are an American League wrecking crew with a four game series with the Tigers in Detroit this weekend. Fabulous stuff.
And my staycation is over. It is back to work tomorrow.
All my love,
Michael
The Marnie/Charlie arc is an opposite twin of the Hannah/Adam arc, and some in the audience are left to wonder, Is there no "boy" out there who can fit the (Mythical?) Happy Medium?
 |
| "Mom, give Jess a chance. He understands me." |
(When Renee and I first started going out, one of the things she said she liked best about me was that underneath my sensitive, feminist, nice guy exterior I was "still just a dude." High praise, indeed. And I completely mean that.)
It was the first episode of Girls last night, so, sure, some of the writing seemed a little show-offy, and some of the pop culture references fell flat. (And speaking of which, why is it that no one seems able to drop facebook in to the conversation of a film or teevee show without embarrassing themselves? Or is it just me? The only time I have seen facebook successfully incorporated in to conversation is when Anna Chlumsky does it in In The Loop. But of course, those guys have a writer who's only job is to add pop culture references and swear words to the finished scripts. *sigh* More on the In The Loop/The Thick of It/Veep team in a minute.) But despite that, it is plain to see that Girls is going to be the teevee event of the Spring and Summer, and will be a fine addition to Blockbuster Sundays, alongside Mad Men and Game of Thrones.
It is especially nice to see that Whit Stillman's lovable, difficult cad, Chris Eigeman, now has credits in both Gilmore Girls and Girls. I have a really decent Gilmore Girls joke here but no one outside of a few people at the Food Hole Walnut Creek would get it, so, I am going to skip it.
************
Man, does Veep look awful, or what? My heart sinks and I cringe every time they show those crummy clips. I will be there, seven PM on Sunday, but I am really expecting the absolute worst. (At least Girls is on right after it!) And, I think I have figured out why Veep is going to stink. Peter Capaldi. The Thick of It and In The Loop are completely hung on Peter Capaldi's character, Malcolm Tucker. (And Malcolm Tucker is based on Tony Blair's infamous Press Secretary, Alastair Campbell.) It is not just a cultural barrier, moving from UK politics to US politics, it is the fact that without a US Malcolm Tucker equivalent the show will fail. Plus, you have Capaldi's talent to match, as well. Capaldi's performances in The Thick of It and In The Loop make for an absolute tour de force. Malcolm Tucker completely overshadows Capaldi's entire career. He will always be known as Malcolm Tucker now, full stop.
I would love to be pleasantly surprised on Sunday but I am doubting it.
************
Meanwhile, the Rangers are an American League wrecking crew with a four game series with the Tigers in Detroit this weekend. Fabulous stuff.
And my staycation is over. It is back to work tomorrow.
All my love,
Michael
Apr 15, 2012
Crucial Books Series (#1) Ealing Studios
I am starting a new series that will appear on this blog and through instagram photos, as well. This series is called Crucial Books.
This is the first entry: Ealing Studios, A Movie Book by Charles Barr. 1977, published by The University of California Press.
Apr 14, 2012
Saturday Adventure
Damsels in Distress, Ferry Building, an East Bay restaurant. Today could be a smashing day out, and probably will be.
They showed The History Boys on Sundance last night. If you have not seen this film, make it one of your top priorities.
It is amazing they were able to make a film version of the play, using the entire cast and director. Insane. Dominic Cooper gives his greatest performance ever. Frances de la Tour is her usual regal, all mighty self, and Richard Griffiths reminds us what art and poetry and history all really mean to us.
An absolute must-see, folks.
Now, it is adventure time, ... Where is my Sweetie?
Posner: But he doesn't understand, Irwin does like him. He seldom looks at anyone else.
Scripps: How do you know?
Posner: Because nor do I. Our eyes meet looking at Dakin.
 |
| Dominic Cooper as Dakin in The History Boys |
Apr 13, 2012
I forgive the film, Pirate Radio, for all its sins
Because of Phillip Seymour Hoffman. And Bill Nighy. And Talulah Riley. And Nick Frost. And Chris O'Dowd. And The Kinks. And The Who. And The Rolling Stones. And Jimi Hendrix. And Rhys Ifans. And Emma Thompson. And Kenneth Branagh. (Do you think Ms Thompson and Branagh were on set together? Are they friends, still?) And Danny the Drug Dealer from Withnail and I. And the great tea and biscuits "cheer up" scene as Leonard Cohen sings So Long Marianne. And one of the greatest End Title sequences in the history of film. And the fact that director Richard Curtis shows people on the loo, listening to the radio. And the fact that Pirate Radio is really just a modern Ealing Comedy when it comes down to it. (I apparently am going through an Ealing thing right now, having watched Whiskey Galore, A Fish Called Wanda -- another modern Ealing Comedy, directed by a real Ealing Studios director, Charles Crichton -- and Pirate Radio over the past three days.)
Actually, I am just going to have to admit it. I love a Richard Curtis film. Who woulda thunk it?
Mwah, ...
And the English are right. A nice cuppa can cure anything.
-- AH
Apr 12, 2012
Before Girly Night, Pt 2 last night
I had a Me Party (h/t to the divine Miss Piggy and enchanting Amy Adams) in the City. I took BART, listening to my Twee playlist (Talulah Gosh/Pastels/Vaselines/Aztec Camera) and reading Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? whilst on my way to the cinema.
Outside the theater the banner proclaims, "The most intimate movie experience in San Francisco" and they are not kidding. The theater was tiny, just thirty-four seats. I know. I counted them. And I was not the only person there! Hoo-ray! There was a gay couple, dudes, at the very back; a straight couple right behind me; and the odd folks, a lady and a man, not together, across the "aisle", as it were, from me.
I had some popcorn and some clear hody and settled in for the film. There were a ton of previews. Here are some of them:
(By the by, I was at an NC-17 film -- shoulda been an R, more on this later -- so, I got to see some pretty racy, heavy trailers, including one, God Bless America, which sported the infamous Red Band Trailer Title Card. God Bless America, written and directed by Bob -- he's dropped the "cat", apparently -- Goldthwait, looks like a complete waste of an intriguing subject matter. Anyroad, ... )
This Willem Dafoe thing looks awful, too.
And I have no words to describe this extremely creepy weird looking film. Is it made by Scientologists, or what?
But, I did get to see the trailer for this. This looks fantastic, and, uh, yeah, that is Orson Welles "singing" I Know What It is to Be Young.
************
Shame is very very good. It is not a masterpiece, which is what director Steve McQueen seems to try just a bit too hard to make, but it is very very good. And it is much better than his first film, Hunger, which also stars Michael Fassbender.
One of the best things about the film is its objectivity, which I almost always seem to admire in films these days. McQueen and his co-writer, Abi Morgan, never pass judgement on Fassbender's Brandon character, they just tell his story. Yet, there is no real plot per se. The film hangs on the collision of two very damaged people, a brother and sister. And Shame only barely suggests what might have scarred these two for life, which is fine by me. I have my notions on what happened to them, to make them the way they are.
There are great acting performances all over Shame: Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, Nicole Beharie (who Renee and I saw in the little jewel of a courtroom drama, American Violet), and Elizabeth Masucci all do an outstanding job. But my favorite acting performance from Shame was the one by Lucy Walters. Ms Walters' part in the movie is listed as Woman on the Subway, and she does not have a single line. She appears in two scenes that bookend the film and it is the first scene she plays that I will be thinking about for a very long time to come. This scene tells the story of Fassbender and Walters' silent, therefore secret, commuter relationship. It starts with Walters recognition of Fassbender's intense amorous stare. She pays him the compliment of his respectful attention with a shy smile and then looks away. Fassbender never takes his eyes off her, though. When she comes back to his gaze, she sighs, gathers her strength and returns his stare, flirting with him without speaking. But she cannot match Fassbender's intensity and finally looks down for a moment. The smile is gone now and the look on her face tells me that she has already played through their entire potential relationship in her mind: The sex they would have, the horrible guilt they would earn for their illicit gamble, the fact that any intimate relationship would destroy any chance of friendship between them, the possibility he could be a stalker or a dangerous person, the horrible silence before they part ways, the awful furtiveness, the liberating awesome fantasy fulfilled, the thrill of being bad, and so much more. Fassbender never takes his eyes off her, though. The last time she looks back at him she looks scared. His harmless flirting seems to have turned in to something more threatening and sinister. Walters gets up from her seat and walks to the door as the train pulls in to the station. We see her wedding ring as she grabs the rail to maintain her balance. Fassbender stands just behind her, not quite touching, but as close as you could be without touching. The subway doors open.
But that is just one scene in a film full of great scenes. The scene where Ms Mulligan sings at a nightclub is one of the most moving and special things I have seen in years. Even Fassbender's midnight run through Manhattan is memorable. (Of course it does not hurt to have Glenn Gould playing Bach's Prelude and Fugue No. 10 in E Minor in the background as hottie Fassbender gallops through the City. And all the music in the film is superb with a haunting original score and a blend of 70s disco and Gould playing Bach.) All of Fassbender's scenes with Ms Beharie are rich and wonderful, as well.
There are only two hiccups in the film as far as I am concerned and one of those is so ticky-tack as to be completely unnoticeable to a vast majority of film-goers. (Fassbender and Beharie are served a bottle of Pinot Noir at a fancy restaurant. The Pinot is in a Bordeaux bottle and there is no where on earth that Pinot would be packaged in that type of bottle. Even the Kiwis and Alsatians use Burgundy bottles for their Pinot Noir.) The other misstep is considerably more serious and I was, for a minute in the theater, slightly worried the film might unravel, but it did not. This would be a part of Fassbender's Sex Bender Sequence near the end of the film that I am loathe to reveal, so as not to spoil anything for anyone. But this part of the sequence seemed unnecessary and fell flat, to boot, for this reviewer.
But on the whole, Shame is an absolutely smashing, heavy, serious, moving, adult motion picture that I will add to my collection as soon as it becomes available. It is a toughy, though. And there is a lot of passionless sex and nudity in it. No one is making love in Shame.
To finish, How is it that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo earned an R rating while Shame got an NC-17? Heaven forbid a male actor free his willy for the camera! Or a woman has a loud orgasm. Or there be explicit gay sex.
Anyhoo, if it seems your type of thing, most definitely see Shame.
-- Ardent
Outside the theater the banner proclaims, "The most intimate movie experience in San Francisco" and they are not kidding. The theater was tiny, just thirty-four seats. I know. I counted them. And I was not the only person there! Hoo-ray! There was a gay couple, dudes, at the very back; a straight couple right behind me; and the odd folks, a lady and a man, not together, across the "aisle", as it were, from me.
I had some popcorn and some clear hody and settled in for the film. There were a ton of previews. Here are some of them:
(By the by, I was at an NC-17 film -- shoulda been an R, more on this later -- so, I got to see some pretty racy, heavy trailers, including one, God Bless America, which sported the infamous Red Band Trailer Title Card. God Bless America, written and directed by Bob -- he's dropped the "cat", apparently -- Goldthwait, looks like a complete waste of an intriguing subject matter. Anyroad, ... )
This Willem Dafoe thing looks awful, too.
And I have no words to describe this extremely creepy weird looking film. Is it made by Scientologists, or what?
But, I did get to see the trailer for this. This looks fantastic, and, uh, yeah, that is Orson Welles "singing" I Know What It is to Be Young.
************
Shame is very very good. It is not a masterpiece, which is what director Steve McQueen seems to try just a bit too hard to make, but it is very very good. And it is much better than his first film, Hunger, which also stars Michael Fassbender.
One of the best things about the film is its objectivity, which I almost always seem to admire in films these days. McQueen and his co-writer, Abi Morgan, never pass judgement on Fassbender's Brandon character, they just tell his story. Yet, there is no real plot per se. The film hangs on the collision of two very damaged people, a brother and sister. And Shame only barely suggests what might have scarred these two for life, which is fine by me. I have my notions on what happened to them, to make them the way they are.
There are great acting performances all over Shame: Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, Nicole Beharie (who Renee and I saw in the little jewel of a courtroom drama, American Violet), and Elizabeth Masucci all do an outstanding job. But my favorite acting performance from Shame was the one by Lucy Walters. Ms Walters' part in the movie is listed as Woman on the Subway, and she does not have a single line. She appears in two scenes that bookend the film and it is the first scene she plays that I will be thinking about for a very long time to come. This scene tells the story of Fassbender and Walters' silent, therefore secret, commuter relationship. It starts with Walters recognition of Fassbender's intense amorous stare. She pays him the compliment of his respectful attention with a shy smile and then looks away. Fassbender never takes his eyes off her, though. When she comes back to his gaze, she sighs, gathers her strength and returns his stare, flirting with him without speaking. But she cannot match Fassbender's intensity and finally looks down for a moment. The smile is gone now and the look on her face tells me that she has already played through their entire potential relationship in her mind: The sex they would have, the horrible guilt they would earn for their illicit gamble, the fact that any intimate relationship would destroy any chance of friendship between them, the possibility he could be a stalker or a dangerous person, the horrible silence before they part ways, the awful furtiveness, the liberating awesome fantasy fulfilled, the thrill of being bad, and so much more. Fassbender never takes his eyes off her, though. The last time she looks back at him she looks scared. His harmless flirting seems to have turned in to something more threatening and sinister. Walters gets up from her seat and walks to the door as the train pulls in to the station. We see her wedding ring as she grabs the rail to maintain her balance. Fassbender stands just behind her, not quite touching, but as close as you could be without touching. The subway doors open.
But that is just one scene in a film full of great scenes. The scene where Ms Mulligan sings at a nightclub is one of the most moving and special things I have seen in years. Even Fassbender's midnight run through Manhattan is memorable. (Of course it does not hurt to have Glenn Gould playing Bach's Prelude and Fugue No. 10 in E Minor in the background as hottie Fassbender gallops through the City. And all the music in the film is superb with a haunting original score and a blend of 70s disco and Gould playing Bach.) All of Fassbender's scenes with Ms Beharie are rich and wonderful, as well.
There are only two hiccups in the film as far as I am concerned and one of those is so ticky-tack as to be completely unnoticeable to a vast majority of film-goers. (Fassbender and Beharie are served a bottle of Pinot Noir at a fancy restaurant. The Pinot is in a Bordeaux bottle and there is no where on earth that Pinot would be packaged in that type of bottle. Even the Kiwis and Alsatians use Burgundy bottles for their Pinot Noir.) The other misstep is considerably more serious and I was, for a minute in the theater, slightly worried the film might unravel, but it did not. This would be a part of Fassbender's Sex Bender Sequence near the end of the film that I am loathe to reveal, so as not to spoil anything for anyone. But this part of the sequence seemed unnecessary and fell flat, to boot, for this reviewer.
But on the whole, Shame is an absolutely smashing, heavy, serious, moving, adult motion picture that I will add to my collection as soon as it becomes available. It is a toughy, though. And there is a lot of passionless sex and nudity in it. No one is making love in Shame.
To finish, How is it that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo earned an R rating while Shame got an NC-17? Heaven forbid a male actor free his willy for the camera! Or a woman has a loud orgasm. Or there be explicit gay sex.
Anyhoo, if it seems your type of thing, most definitely see Shame.
 |
| Carey's all growns now and soon to wed. She had her hen party two weeks ago. |
-- Ardent
Apr 11, 2012
Everywhere and Nowhere (UPDATED! 4/12/12)
There was a time back in the early 90s when I was convinced that Jim Jarmusch was one of the finest American film makers ever. And my expectations for Dead Man, Jarmusch's 1995 film starring Johnny Depp, were very high, indeed. Dead Man was a crushing bore that night (prob still is) and I left the theater, feeling particularly ripped-off. I have not seen another new Jarmusch film since.
Moreover, his films are not aging well. I have pushed Down By Law on numerous friends and each time I have seen it, it gets worse and worse. Night on Earth was enjoyable in the theater but looks extremely silly and flimsy now. I have not seen Stranger Than Paradise in a very long time but the last time I saw it, it was still refreshing and fun; a blast of black and white sunshine, strangely enough.
But Jarmusch has one film that still seems as lively and lovely today as it did in 1989, Mystery Train. (Renee and I watched it last night, and Renee does not agree with me.)
There is so much to still love about Mystery Train. The film is actually three short films, three stories that are inter-connected, and take place in the South Main Arts District of Memphis, Tennessee over the course of one day. And like most of Jarmusch's work the cast is eclectic and superb, featuring Screaming Jay Hawkins, Rufus Thomas, Nicoletta Braschi, Elizabeth Bracco, Tom Noonan, Joe Strummer, Steve Buscemi, Rockets Redglare, and Tom Waits as a radio DJ.
Obviously, this being a film about Memphis, the music is amazing. The funky moody score was done by Jarmusch regular, John Lurie, and includes the amazing Marc Ribot on guitar. But the found music is the real highlight. They use only about a dozen songs and almost all of them are from either Stax Records or Sun Studios, heavy on Elvis (natch) and Rufus Thomas.
In fact, Elvis and Rufus are the twin ghosts that haunt the entire film. Rufus Thomas even makes an appearance in the first "film" of the inter-connected trilogy, Far From Yokohama. Elvis' "appearance", as it were, comes in the second "film", A Ghost. But both of these men are all over Mystery Train. There are paintings of both men shown throughout nearly every scene, Joe Strummer's character is reluctantly known as "Elvis" amongst his neighbors and friends, and, of course, they use a number of Elvis' and Rufus' great great songs throughout.
My favorite of the three "films" is A Ghost. Nicoletta Brasci's husband appears to have died on the plane, meaning she will have to spend one night in Memphis before she can fly back home to Rome. She does not appear to be the least bit bothered by her husband's death. After being confronted by a con-man and potential mugger, Tom Noonan, who gets twenty bucks out of her by relating an old Memphis urban legend about picking up a hitch-hiking ghost of Elvis, wanting to be dropped off at Graceland, Brasci finds herself lucky to share a room at a decrepit hotel with one of the most annoying loudmouth characters in film history, Lorraine Bracco's Dee Dee. (This is obv Jarmusch making a statement about the difference between Europeans and North Americans, but it is realized with such taste that it is merely hilarious and not preachy. All four of our protagonists in the film are auslanders -- as they say in the Cantons of Helvetica -- two Japanese kids, the Italian widow, and an Englishman.)
But the most poignant heartbreaking moment for me occurs in the last film, Lost in Space, when our three "heroes" drive by Stax Records.
Thank God, they have rebuilt this American Treasure and turned it in to a museum and recording studio again.
It is a splendid film and comes v highly recommended. Renee and I watched it on Apple TV last night, as I only have a VHS copy of the film, but Criterion, once again, have come out with fantastic blu-ray and dvd versions of the film.
************
I am about to go to the City and see the film, Shame, at long last. It is playing at the last stop Art House Cinema, the Opera at 2:20 PM. I imagine I might be the only person in the theater and the film is rated NC-17. It could make for an extremely unusual cinema experience. I will give all of you the complete scoop re the film tomorrow.
************
Obama and his team are on a frickin' roll right now. Earlier today on Fox News, in anticipation of Obama's Buffet Rule speech today, all their pundits trotted out their usual Talking Points: The Buffet Rule is class warfare, that all millionaires are job creators, and their favorite today, that the Buffet Rule would only save us five billion a year on the deficit. Obama, in his speech, hit on every single one of those Talking Points, smashing them down.
If only Obama governed as well as he campaigned.
And on the Mittens front, with Santorum out, Fox News granted Mittens a congratulatory interview today. He is firmly in Projection Defense Mode re those recent crushing Gender Split numbers in the polls, "The GOP is not conducting a War on American Women. Obama is!"
I am surprised he just did not have his Wife sit for the interview.
Ciao!
UPDATED! (4/12/12): Yup. Guess who sat for an interview on Fox News about an hour ago. That is right, Mittens' Wife, Ann. They will be blasting her "best" bits from this interview on all their programs over the next few days. And she could even appear on one or more of their commentary shows. (I am guessing Greta gets her first.)
And by the way, Ms Rosen's comments on CNN yesterday were "inappropriate" and "wrong", just as Jim Messina and David Axelrod have stated.
I imagine Axelrod has gone full Malcom Tucker on Ms Rosen, already.
"You've been disinvited."
mds
Moreover, his films are not aging well. I have pushed Down By Law on numerous friends and each time I have seen it, it gets worse and worse. Night on Earth was enjoyable in the theater but looks extremely silly and flimsy now. I have not seen Stranger Than Paradise in a very long time but the last time I saw it, it was still refreshing and fun; a blast of black and white sunshine, strangely enough.
But Jarmusch has one film that still seems as lively and lovely today as it did in 1989, Mystery Train. (Renee and I watched it last night, and Renee does not agree with me.)
There is so much to still love about Mystery Train. The film is actually three short films, three stories that are inter-connected, and take place in the South Main Arts District of Memphis, Tennessee over the course of one day. And like most of Jarmusch's work the cast is eclectic and superb, featuring Screaming Jay Hawkins, Rufus Thomas, Nicoletta Braschi, Elizabeth Bracco, Tom Noonan, Joe Strummer, Steve Buscemi, Rockets Redglare, and Tom Waits as a radio DJ.
Obviously, this being a film about Memphis, the music is amazing. The funky moody score was done by Jarmusch regular, John Lurie, and includes the amazing Marc Ribot on guitar. But the found music is the real highlight. They use only about a dozen songs and almost all of them are from either Stax Records or Sun Studios, heavy on Elvis (natch) and Rufus Thomas.
In fact, Elvis and Rufus are the twin ghosts that haunt the entire film. Rufus Thomas even makes an appearance in the first "film" of the inter-connected trilogy, Far From Yokohama. Elvis' "appearance", as it were, comes in the second "film", A Ghost. But both of these men are all over Mystery Train. There are paintings of both men shown throughout nearly every scene, Joe Strummer's character is reluctantly known as "Elvis" amongst his neighbors and friends, and, of course, they use a number of Elvis' and Rufus' great great songs throughout.
My favorite of the three "films" is A Ghost. Nicoletta Brasci's husband appears to have died on the plane, meaning she will have to spend one night in Memphis before she can fly back home to Rome. She does not appear to be the least bit bothered by her husband's death. After being confronted by a con-man and potential mugger, Tom Noonan, who gets twenty bucks out of her by relating an old Memphis urban legend about picking up a hitch-hiking ghost of Elvis, wanting to be dropped off at Graceland, Brasci finds herself lucky to share a room at a decrepit hotel with one of the most annoying loudmouth characters in film history, Lorraine Bracco's Dee Dee. (This is obv Jarmusch making a statement about the difference between Europeans and North Americans, but it is realized with such taste that it is merely hilarious and not preachy. All four of our protagonists in the film are auslanders -- as they say in the Cantons of Helvetica -- two Japanese kids, the Italian widow, and an Englishman.)
But the most poignant heartbreaking moment for me occurs in the last film, Lost in Space, when our three "heroes" drive by Stax Records.
 |
| This is what the mighty Stax records looked like in the late 80s. |
It is a splendid film and comes v highly recommended. Renee and I watched it on Apple TV last night, as I only have a VHS copy of the film, but Criterion, once again, have come out with fantastic blu-ray and dvd versions of the film.
************
I am about to go to the City and see the film, Shame, at long last. It is playing at the last stop Art House Cinema, the Opera at 2:20 PM. I imagine I might be the only person in the theater and the film is rated NC-17. It could make for an extremely unusual cinema experience. I will give all of you the complete scoop re the film tomorrow.
************
Obama and his team are on a frickin' roll right now. Earlier today on Fox News, in anticipation of Obama's Buffet Rule speech today, all their pundits trotted out their usual Talking Points: The Buffet Rule is class warfare, that all millionaires are job creators, and their favorite today, that the Buffet Rule would only save us five billion a year on the deficit. Obama, in his speech, hit on every single one of those Talking Points, smashing them down.
If only Obama governed as well as he campaigned.
And on the Mittens front, with Santorum out, Fox News granted Mittens a congratulatory interview today. He is firmly in Projection Defense Mode re those recent crushing Gender Split numbers in the polls, "The GOP is not conducting a War on American Women. Obama is!"
I am surprised he just did not have his Wife sit for the interview.
Ciao!
UPDATED! (4/12/12): Yup. Guess who sat for an interview on Fox News about an hour ago. That is right, Mittens' Wife, Ann. They will be blasting her "best" bits from this interview on all their programs over the next few days. And she could even appear on one or more of their commentary shows. (I am guessing Greta gets her first.)
And by the way, Ms Rosen's comments on CNN yesterday were "inappropriate" and "wrong", just as Jim Messina and David Axelrod have stated.
I imagine Axelrod has gone full Malcom Tucker on Ms Rosen, already.
"You've been disinvited."
mds
Apr 10, 2012
Ciao, Baby! So long Santorum!
But, we had some gooood times, right?
My favorite good time was the time when your daughter, Elizabeth, talked about how all her gay friends supported her Daddy for President because all her gays get really excited for Daddy's "economic and family platforms." Good times.
I will let Dan Savage take it from here. (I have realized I just do not well at swear-y political blogging. Savage is a pro.)
Mittens! Get ready to shake that Etch-a-Sketch, Dude! You are almost there!
************
And just to wipe the yuck off this post, here is a video from the extremely superb, Oscar-winning documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk. Criterion have released this on blu-ray and dvd, and it is a must-own movie for anyone who cares about Gay Rights, Marriage Equality, or folks who would just like to see what a real public servant looks like.
A few notes: First, the crucial part of the video starts at 7:18, which is Milk's speech after Prop 6 was defeated -- but watch the whole video, please. And second, it is amazing, watching Dan White running for office and hearing him speak, that the right-wing talking points have not changed one whit, lo, these thirty years. And finally, Renee and I were married not six feet from the Harvey Milk Memorial Bust in the City Hall of San Francisco. I cannot tell you how proud that made me feel to be married there, in San Francisco, in the Bay Area, in one of the greatest spots on this planet. And I cannot wait for the day when all our gay brothers and sisters will be able to enjoy that same privilege and honor.
All my love,
Michael
My favorite good time was the time when your daughter, Elizabeth, talked about how all her gay friends supported her Daddy for President because all her gays get really excited for Daddy's "economic and family platforms." Good times.
I will let Dan Savage take it from here. (I have realized I just do not well at swear-y political blogging. Savage is a pro.)
Mittens! Get ready to shake that Etch-a-Sketch, Dude! You are almost there!
************
 |
| We miss ya bad, Brother. |
And just to wipe the yuck off this post, here is a video from the extremely superb, Oscar-winning documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk. Criterion have released this on blu-ray and dvd, and it is a must-own movie for anyone who cares about Gay Rights, Marriage Equality, or folks who would just like to see what a real public servant looks like.
A few notes: First, the crucial part of the video starts at 7:18, which is Milk's speech after Prop 6 was defeated -- but watch the whole video, please. And second, it is amazing, watching Dan White running for office and hearing him speak, that the right-wing talking points have not changed one whit, lo, these thirty years. And finally, Renee and I were married not six feet from the Harvey Milk Memorial Bust in the City Hall of San Francisco. I cannot tell you how proud that made me feel to be married there, in San Francisco, in the Bay Area, in one of the greatest spots on this planet. And I cannot wait for the day when all our gay brothers and sisters will be able to enjoy that same privilege and honor.
All my love,
Michael
 |
| Nope, not only does he not get to be Senator anymore, he does not get to be President, either. |
Horribly derivative of the Mighty 'lab and Lush
And this is not a really a "video" per se. But one of my old 90s indie rock faves.
Apr 9, 2012
... off-handedness ... (UPDATED! 4/10/12)
So, after Josh Hamilton put on a baseball clinic last night, Yu Darvish faces real-life Major Leaguers in a game that counts for the first time ever. The fantastic Ranger blog, BBTiA is holding a contest to pick Darvish's "line" for tonight. Here was my entry: 6 2/3 IP -- 3 H -- 0 ER -- 5 BB -- 9 K -- 0 HR -- 70 Game Score. (Game Score is a fun integer stat invented by the stat geek master, Bill James. Below 50 is below average. Above 90 is crazy good. Below 30 is very bad indeed.)
And, also, in baseball related news, Les Bonnes Femmes, my fantasy baseball team is off to a very good start and currently holds down first place. It is still v early, though, and anything could happen. Matt Harrison, the Ranger pitcher who I yelled at last year at a Rangers/A's game, was Les Bonnes Femmes' big star last night w/ six shut-out innings (and a game score of seventy-five!)
But, I will have to follow Darvish's debut tonight on my new toy (if the Hyatt will give me the password for their wi-fi) because I am going to a trade tasting tonight with my rock star buddy, Justin G. Justin will get to see what a trade tasting is like: spit buckets, rinses, crappy cheap wine, stunning good wine, wine that is being poured even though it should still be resting comfortably in its bottle, obnoxious tasters getting wasted, obnoxious tasters pushing and shoving, exasperated and tired vendors, schmoozy annoying suit-wearing Southern Wine and Spirits Reps, decent snacks, and oh so much more! Listen, working in the Wine Industry is an absolute joy, with tons of fantastic perks, but trade tastings are not one of them.
I also just received my latest edition of OOTP, OOTP 13. It looks better than ever even though I have not been able to really devour it yet. I just started a fictional league that will start play in 1968 (the year I was born.) I will be managing the Memphis Soul.
Things are looking up!
************
Just read that facebook bought Instagram for one billion dollars. Zuckerburg maintains that Instagram will run independent of facebook and that users will be able to post their photos to Twitter, still, and keep their Instagram friends completely separate from their facebook friends. I love Instagram. So does my Wife and many of our friends. I really hope Zuckerburg is being honest and does not fuck this up. But it would not surprise me, either. That is life in the big-time Capitalistic future-shocked world we live in.
************
I just started folding laundry, and suddenly two very sleepy kitties, who had been passed out, comatose on the bed, are most interested in hanging out with me in the "fun" room, helping me "fold" laundry.
************
Looks like Mittens has this thing all wrapped up now, hunh? And the rumors are flying about when Santorum and Newt will drop out. Soon, Mittens will get a chance to shake that Etch-a-Sketch and veer back to the center.
My fave strategy of the Mittens Campaign, though, is sending out his wife to appeal to women voters. This is after over two straight years of the GOP's official War on American Women™.
Ever since the Teabaggers took over the House, our fine Public Servants of the GOP have been hell-bent on doing the following things: Defund Planned Parenthood, investigate any frickin' thing they can to tar Obama, and bring up idiotic budget votes that have absolutely no chance of even getting cloture in the Dem controlled Senate.
Meanwhile, in states where the GOP controls the legislature, they are hacking furiously at a woman's (still) Legal Right to Choose as quickly and invasively as they can.
This has got to be about the stupidest, most inane general election strategy I have seen in all my years. They can trot out all the wives they want, all repeating the same Fox News Talking Points, that Women care not about birth control or their legal right to choose, and are really worried about gas prices, but women ain't gonna fall for that crap. And they will lose a lot of GOP women, to boot, with this ridiculous rationale.
Good luck in November, guys.
************
I will end with two more Women Michael Loves: Fay Weldon and Caryl Churchill. Ms Weldon gets her spot here for her delicious, tart, spare, anti-style novel, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil. (Skip the film, just read the book.) (Plus, I am convinced Weldon's novel was the inspiration for PJ Harvey's monster classic song, Man-Size.)
And Ms Churchill gains her spot for all her work, but in particular her sexual-role busting play, Cloud 9; and her feminist masterpiece play, Top Girls.
Both these women tackle feminist issues head-on every day of their lives and are supreme stylists that have created each their own distinctive voice that can not be confused with any other.
Ms Weldon's book is very easy to find, and very cheap. And Ms Churchill's plays, naturally, are best enjoyed in a theatre but also read a treat, and are very easy to find, as well, and cheap, too.
All my love,
mds
UPDATED! 4/10/12: Darvish struggled mightily last night, gave up five runs, walked five batters, but he hung in there, calmed down, and did not look too bad before leaving the game. The Rangers won and Darvish did last long enogh to get the Win, his first Major League Win.
And re The GOP's intriguing General Election strategy: Here are some polls that kos shared on his blog today. Yeh, that strategy's going to work a treat come November, hunh?
mds
And, also, in baseball related news, Les Bonnes Femmes, my fantasy baseball team is off to a very good start and currently holds down first place. It is still v early, though, and anything could happen. Matt Harrison, the Ranger pitcher who I yelled at last year at a Rangers/A's game, was Les Bonnes Femmes' big star last night w/ six shut-out innings (and a game score of seventy-five!)
 |
| It is Springtime -- I am feeling very twee and Postcard Pop today. |
But, I will have to follow Darvish's debut tonight on my new toy (if the Hyatt will give me the password for their wi-fi) because I am going to a trade tasting tonight with my rock star buddy, Justin G. Justin will get to see what a trade tasting is like: spit buckets, rinses, crappy cheap wine, stunning good wine, wine that is being poured even though it should still be resting comfortably in its bottle, obnoxious tasters getting wasted, obnoxious tasters pushing and shoving, exasperated and tired vendors, schmoozy annoying suit-wearing Southern Wine and Spirits Reps, decent snacks, and oh so much more! Listen, working in the Wine Industry is an absolute joy, with tons of fantastic perks, but trade tastings are not one of them.
I also just received my latest edition of OOTP, OOTP 13. It looks better than ever even though I have not been able to really devour it yet. I just started a fictional league that will start play in 1968 (the year I was born.) I will be managing the Memphis Soul.
Things are looking up!
************
Just read that facebook bought Instagram for one billion dollars. Zuckerburg maintains that Instagram will run independent of facebook and that users will be able to post their photos to Twitter, still, and keep their Instagram friends completely separate from their facebook friends. I love Instagram. So does my Wife and many of our friends. I really hope Zuckerburg is being honest and does not fuck this up. But it would not surprise me, either. That is life in the big-time Capitalistic future-shocked world we live in.
************
I just started folding laundry, and suddenly two very sleepy kitties, who had been passed out, comatose on the bed, are most interested in hanging out with me in the "fun" room, helping me "fold" laundry.
 |
| Mavis, "folding" clothes. |
************
Looks like Mittens has this thing all wrapped up now, hunh? And the rumors are flying about when Santorum and Newt will drop out. Soon, Mittens will get a chance to shake that Etch-a-Sketch and veer back to the center.
My fave strategy of the Mittens Campaign, though, is sending out his wife to appeal to women voters. This is after over two straight years of the GOP's official War on American Women™.
Ever since the Teabaggers took over the House, our fine Public Servants of the GOP have been hell-bent on doing the following things: Defund Planned Parenthood, investigate any frickin' thing they can to tar Obama, and bring up idiotic budget votes that have absolutely no chance of even getting cloture in the Dem controlled Senate.
Meanwhile, in states where the GOP controls the legislature, they are hacking furiously at a woman's (still) Legal Right to Choose as quickly and invasively as they can.
This has got to be about the stupidest, most inane general election strategy I have seen in all my years. They can trot out all the wives they want, all repeating the same Fox News Talking Points, that Women care not about birth control or their legal right to choose, and are really worried about gas prices, but women ain't gonna fall for that crap. And they will lose a lot of GOP women, to boot, with this ridiculous rationale.
Good luck in November, guys.
************
I will end with two more Women Michael Loves: Fay Weldon and Caryl Churchill. Ms Weldon gets her spot here for her delicious, tart, spare, anti-style novel, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil. (Skip the film, just read the book.) (Plus, I am convinced Weldon's novel was the inspiration for PJ Harvey's monster classic song, Man-Size.)
And Ms Churchill gains her spot for all her work, but in particular her sexual-role busting play, Cloud 9; and her feminist masterpiece play, Top Girls.
Both these women tackle feminist issues head-on every day of their lives and are supreme stylists that have created each their own distinctive voice that can not be confused with any other.
Ms Weldon's book is very easy to find, and very cheap. And Ms Churchill's plays, naturally, are best enjoyed in a theatre but also read a treat, and are very easy to find, as well, and cheap, too.
 |
| This is from a Broadway production of Top Girls, and that is Marisa Tomei on the right. |
All my love,
mds
UPDATED! 4/10/12: Darvish struggled mightily last night, gave up five runs, walked five batters, but he hung in there, calmed down, and did not look too bad before leaving the game. The Rangers won and Darvish did last long enogh to get the Win, his first Major League Win.
And re The GOP's intriguing General Election strategy: Here are some polls that kos shared on his blog today. Yeh, that strategy's going to work a treat come November, hunh?
mds
Apr 7, 2012
Thanks to everyone who came to my birthday party last night
And I hope you all had as wonderful a time as I did.
(This is kind of like that great scene in Welcome to the Dollhouse. Unfortunately, there is no video of that on YouTube, so, I'll give you something else instead from that sick, suburban masterpiece. Solondz' Jersey is very different from the Jersey plastered all over our teevees these days.)
And thanks to my wonderful Wife, Renee, who made the party possible, and made such fabulous food and Martinis.
And thanks to Meghan for helping Renee with the food and drinks and being such fantastic company.
And thanks to Nick C and the Ladies for the candy and presents.
Hoo-ray! It is my birthdaie, and I am so blessed to have so many wonderful friends!
Now, here are a bunch of videos and songs:
Thanks again, I love you all,
Mwah, ...
(This is kind of like that great scene in Welcome to the Dollhouse. Unfortunately, there is no video of that on YouTube, so, I'll give you something else instead from that sick, suburban masterpiece. Solondz' Jersey is very different from the Jersey plastered all over our teevees these days.)
And thanks to my wonderful Wife, Renee, who made the party possible, and made such fabulous food and Martinis.
And thanks to Meghan for helping Renee with the food and drinks and being such fantastic company.
And thanks to Nick C and the Ladies for the candy and presents.
Hoo-ray! It is my birthdaie, and I am so blessed to have so many wonderful friends!
Now, here are a bunch of videos and songs:
Thanks again, I love you all,
Mwah, ...
Apr 5, 2012
"Hope you're ready for my kind of love" Part One
I think my very first post on my old and extremely " ... not quite dead" (h/t Pythons, Holy Grail) blog, The Death of Irony, was written on a July 4th inventory. And, I generally get a post published right before every inventory, still. (I just checked. It was my first post, July 6, 2008.)
I would really like to talk about the GOPs lovely little War on Women, which is legitimately happening right now, all over the country but this is my birthday week, and everything has been so wonderful in my life lately, that I will spare my wrath for those assholes until next week. Plus, I will have plenty of time available to me to do so. (I am taking my normal Birthday Staycation, which I do every year.)
Instead, I figure I will tell a story about Renee, about our "courtship", if you will. Renee and I would sort of get to know each other on breaks. She'd hang out with her friend, Karen, eating sandwiches, and smoking. I have always been "aloof" on my breaks, still am. I do not really want to talk to anybody. I would rather play on the computer or read books or newspapers. So, when Karen and Renee would be outside I would be essentially eavesdropping on their conversations, or actually reading the SFChron or that Ealing book I was obsessed with at the time. (RIP Googie Withers.) And during those conversations was when I really started to fancy her. I liked her because she had a lot of attitude, she was no goody-goody or diplomat. Yet, despite that, you could also tell that she really cared about the under-dog, too; someone "who has a lot on their mind" was her polite euphemism for folks of that sort.
I decided to pursue her and I basically told the entire Specialty team what my intentions were. In fact, I believe that the entire Bakery/Prepared Foods/Meat/Specialty half of the store probably knew of my pursuit.
Those were crazy days at the Walnut Creek store, the store had not even celebrated its first birthday yet. There were a lot of parties, a lot of drink, and a lot of drugs, too. Renee and I bumped in to each other at these "gatherings" all the time, but she really could not be bothered with me, and had other boys on her mind.
One other thing: I had had this health problem on and off for years and no doctor could figure it out. It would make these terrible rashes on my face and other parts of my body. So, not only was I not v attractive, I was also horribly, brutally self-conscious about it and would be even more aloof when I looked really bad. I would literally hide on my breaks, over by the office buildings, and not really speak to anyone but customers. (Finally, a doctor at the City Hospital in Oakland diagnosed my issue correctly -- I "suffer" from seborrhoeic dermatitis -- and prescribed cortisone cream and told me the only shampoos I could use and I have been fine ever since.)
My "cure" came right before the Food Hole Holiday Party, so, all cleared up, I was bursting with confidence and told everyone on the Specialty Team (and my buddy, Rachael, in produce) that my goal was to kiss Renee at the Holiday Party.
Well, that did not happen. Renee and I never seemed to have any opportunity to talk (or, she might have been avoiding me, period) at the party until we met at the bar, both of us ordering drinks. She probably ordered a Manhattan and I probably ordered a beer and bourbon. She looked me straight in the eye and said, "Hey, you're that guy who's always mean. What's your deal?"
That was our first real conversation, I suppose.
I might have told her then about my health issue or maybe I didn't, I do not remember. (Sexy, hunh? And smooth. How did she not fall in love with me that night?)
But any kind of foot in the door is a foot in the door, right?
We eventually started spending breaks together, talking a bit, smoking, etc, ... And, all the while I was very up-front, practically blunt. I told her (all the time) that I liked her, that I wanted to be her boyfriend, that I was tired of one-night stands, that I was loyal, that I was dependable, that I was about the fucking smartest guy she would ever meet, that she should like me too, and on and on and on, ...
I had a v interesting strategy, wouldn't you say?
My next big shot was at a New Year's Party, but that was a bust, as well. Though, back at work, I had some success with a little Rock 'n Soul singing/dancing performance I put on for her in the back downstairs hallway. I was looking for beer to throw, she was going to the Bakery freezer, and they were playing Johnny Taylor's sizzling hot live version of Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone. I did the whole "rap" part for her, complete with the scream at the end.
I would really like to talk about the GOPs lovely little War on Women, which is legitimately happening right now, all over the country but this is my birthday week, and everything has been so wonderful in my life lately, that I will spare my wrath for those assholes until next week. Plus, I will have plenty of time available to me to do so. (I am taking my normal Birthday Staycation, which I do every year.)
 |
| These are the Rothko rooms at the Tate Gallery in London. Absolutely stunning and life-changing, walking through there. |
Instead, I figure I will tell a story about Renee, about our "courtship", if you will. Renee and I would sort of get to know each other on breaks. She'd hang out with her friend, Karen, eating sandwiches, and smoking. I have always been "aloof" on my breaks, still am. I do not really want to talk to anybody. I would rather play on the computer or read books or newspapers. So, when Karen and Renee would be outside I would be essentially eavesdropping on their conversations, or actually reading the SFChron or that Ealing book I was obsessed with at the time. (RIP Googie Withers.) And during those conversations was when I really started to fancy her. I liked her because she had a lot of attitude, she was no goody-goody or diplomat. Yet, despite that, you could also tell that she really cared about the under-dog, too; someone "who has a lot on their mind" was her polite euphemism for folks of that sort.
I decided to pursue her and I basically told the entire Specialty team what my intentions were. In fact, I believe that the entire Bakery/Prepared Foods/Meat/Specialty half of the store probably knew of my pursuit.
Those were crazy days at the Walnut Creek store, the store had not even celebrated its first birthday yet. There were a lot of parties, a lot of drink, and a lot of drugs, too. Renee and I bumped in to each other at these "gatherings" all the time, but she really could not be bothered with me, and had other boys on her mind.
One other thing: I had had this health problem on and off for years and no doctor could figure it out. It would make these terrible rashes on my face and other parts of my body. So, not only was I not v attractive, I was also horribly, brutally self-conscious about it and would be even more aloof when I looked really bad. I would literally hide on my breaks, over by the office buildings, and not really speak to anyone but customers. (Finally, a doctor at the City Hospital in Oakland diagnosed my issue correctly -- I "suffer" from seborrhoeic dermatitis -- and prescribed cortisone cream and told me the only shampoos I could use and I have been fine ever since.)
My "cure" came right before the Food Hole Holiday Party, so, all cleared up, I was bursting with confidence and told everyone on the Specialty Team (and my buddy, Rachael, in produce) that my goal was to kiss Renee at the Holiday Party.
Well, that did not happen. Renee and I never seemed to have any opportunity to talk (or, she might have been avoiding me, period) at the party until we met at the bar, both of us ordering drinks. She probably ordered a Manhattan and I probably ordered a beer and bourbon. She looked me straight in the eye and said, "Hey, you're that guy who's always mean. What's your deal?"
That was our first real conversation, I suppose.
I might have told her then about my health issue or maybe I didn't, I do not remember. (Sexy, hunh? And smooth. How did she not fall in love with me that night?)
But any kind of foot in the door is a foot in the door, right?
We eventually started spending breaks together, talking a bit, smoking, etc, ... And, all the while I was very up-front, practically blunt. I told her (all the time) that I liked her, that I wanted to be her boyfriend, that I was tired of one-night stands, that I was loyal, that I was dependable, that I was about the fucking smartest guy she would ever meet, that she should like me too, and on and on and on, ...
I had a v interesting strategy, wouldn't you say?
 |
| That is my old Berkeley jacket. Notice that I insisted they stitch M. Modano for my name. |
My next big shot was at a New Year's Party, but that was a bust, as well. Though, back at work, I had some success with a little Rock 'n Soul singing/dancing performance I put on for her in the back downstairs hallway. I was looking for beer to throw, she was going to the Bakery freezer, and they were playing Johnny Taylor's sizzling hot live version of Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone. I did the whole "rap" part for her, complete with the scream at the end.
"You know what I like about Jody?/You know what I like about Jody?/You know what I like about Jody?/You know what I like about Jody?/Has enough sense/To express himself/Tell her how cute she look/Tell her how pretty she walk/Tell her how cute she talk/Tell her how ... OOAWWWWWWWGH!"
She was a little impressed even if she didn't admit it. I was so convinced, so confident that I would win her over in the end that I had no reservations at all about recommending a wine for her for a romantic dinner at her house with another boy. (I recommended Louis Latour Domaine de Valmoissine, probably the 1998 or 1999 vintage.) I knew I would get my chance and that I'd stick the landing when I got it.
************
But, it is getting close to time for me to go and count wine bottles. I do not sell Dom de Valmoissine anymore.
So, this will be Part One. Part Two will be published soon, and it will tell the tale of My Big Chance, the jacket pictured above, crazy Bernard, Valentine's Day 2002, Dan's, La Scala, and anything else I can remember.
I love you all, but I especially love my Sweetie.
HAPPY INVENTORY, EVERYONE!
--AH
Apr 4, 2012
Missy and yum-yums.
What has happened to Hollywood, dang it? This is from Ball of Fire, directed by the master, Howard Hawks.
Everyone loves yum-yum.
-- Ardent
This must be the greatest Twelve Days of Michael's Birthday
In a very long time. The best days have been the last four: Day Five (dinner w/ my folks at Metro); Day Six (Dinner w/ my folks at our house and Renee makes a stunning risotto, profiteroles, and serves a delicious burrata, too. Plus, we watch the brill movies: The Art of the Steal and The Trip); Day Seven (my folks treat us to a scrumptious dinner at Rivoli); and last night, Day Eight, which deserves some special mention.
Day Eight began w/ me seeing a beautiful, giant wild turkey, strutting his regal way past my bedroom windows. Work was work, I threw the load, ho hum, but then, I bought my birthday present on my walk home, an iPod Touch (just 8gb, which is fine for me.)
But Meghan hung out w/ us, bringing us amazing pizza from Rotten City Pizza in Emeryville. She also brought over vodka for martinis for the girls, and made yet another one of her sterling green salads.
Meghan & Renee (iPhone Gurls both) got me all hooked up and running on my new toy, and we were like a bunch of teenage gurls on a sleepover, constantly texting eachother, even though we were all in the same room.
We watched Bedazzled (the good Peter Cook/Dudley Moore/Stanley Donen version) and then some really crappy girly teevee. I think I even asked Meghan if she did want to stay the night.
(By the way, if I ever am in another band, we will most definitely be covering this song.)
************
When I talked to Nick C this morning he said he had had a girly night, too. He got in his jammies, had popcorn & ice cream for dinner and watched a bunch of v girly teevee. There must be something in these Aries stars right now.
All my Aries love,
AH
"I want cake and pie."
Day Eight began w/ me seeing a beautiful, giant wild turkey, strutting his regal way past my bedroom windows. Work was work, I threw the load, ho hum, but then, I bought my birthday present on my walk home, an iPod Touch (just 8gb, which is fine for me.)
But Meghan hung out w/ us, bringing us amazing pizza from Rotten City Pizza in Emeryville. She also brought over vodka for martinis for the girls, and made yet another one of her sterling green salads.
Meghan & Renee (iPhone Gurls both) got me all hooked up and running on my new toy, and we were like a bunch of teenage gurls on a sleepover, constantly texting eachother, even though we were all in the same room.
We watched Bedazzled (the good Peter Cook/Dudley Moore/Stanley Donen version) and then some really crappy girly teevee. I think I even asked Meghan if she did want to stay the night.
************
When I talked to Nick C this morning he said he had had a girly night, too. He got in his jammies, had popcorn & ice cream for dinner and watched a bunch of v girly teevee. There must be something in these Aries stars right now.
All my Aries love,
AH
"I want cake and pie."
Apr 2, 2012
Another bad-ass Aries, Charles Fourier, born 4/7/1772!
Fourier is a cinch love for college kids, but after all these years he is still loved by some of my fave folks, such as Hakim Bey and Guy Debord.
And there is even some belief that Fourier invented the word feminist. Plus, Fourier had a crazy, loopy, lovely metaphysical streak that makes him all the more charming. I do not know his sexual orientation, but he had no issues with gays, either.
Born on the same day as me, a couple of centuries earlier, he has always been one of my favorite Socialists, and great guys.
Plus, he gets some love in the brill film, Metropolitan, as well.
-- Aries Ardent Henry
 |
| Love the cravat, specs, and beard. |
And there is even some belief that Fourier invented the word feminist. Plus, Fourier had a crazy, loopy, lovely metaphysical streak that makes him all the more charming. I do not know his sexual orientation, but he had no issues with gays, either.
Born on the same day as me, a couple of centuries earlier, he has always been one of my favorite Socialists, and great guys.
Plus, he gets some love in the brill film, Metropolitan, as well.
-- Aries Ardent Henry
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