Gosh, that was a little uncomfortable last night,

Seeing US gymnast, Jordyn Wieber's interview right after getting bumped out of the All Around competition.

Poor kid.  My goodness.  And to do all the interviews right there in front of your other teammates before you leave the hall.  Wow.

I think they have messed this up, honestly.  I have no problem with every nation being represented in the final, but they should allow some "wild cards" in, as well.  It is not Ms Wieber's fault she is part of such a great team.  And, sure she made some mistakes, but she is the reigning World Champion and her third place team finish was certainly better than some other nations second place or first place finisher, I imagine.

Wieber acquitted herself well in her difficult interview, and I have faith that she will perform marvelously on Tuesday in the Team Finals competition.

************

But, not every one can be as classy as Jordyn Wieber.  Unfortunately, as always, there are some silly US athletes that need to put their mobile phones away, get off the twitter, and just enjoy the games.

************

I have definitely fallen for the sweet, smart, and tough little sixteen year old San Jose Table Tennis sensation, Ariel Hsing.  She took one of the world's best to six games yesterday before losing, and after having to qualify against a woman who has a child older than Ms Hsing.

Hsing plans to matriculate to Stanford in a couple of years and study business.  I hope she is able to maintain some type of Table Tennis career, as well, and wish her all the best.

Here is a blog post by Ms Hsing for ESPNW.

Ariel Hsing after winning her qualifying match yesterday.

Ariel Hsing, left, with a friend before their Junior Prom.

And the NYT did an article on Hsing today, as well.

************

Unfortunately, I fell asleep before I could see the Romanian Women's Gymnastics team last night, but I did take a fancy to the "difficult" Russian star, Aliya Mustafina, even if she did not perform so well yesterday.  Looks like she has some attitude, which I often enjoy.  

Tuesday night's Team Finals should be a roller coaster ride.  Expect lots of tears.  

************

The London 2012 logo is awful.  What is that typeface? And, did they get any choice in the graphic design at the events? The pastel colors are killing me, with those goofy random starburst(?) line drawings.  And, what was with the cheerleaders yesterday at the indoor volleyball event.  No more of that, please.  

It looks more like tacky Eastern European stylee than Swingin' London.  

************

And the commentators for just about every event have been awful.  I prefer to watch it with the sound down and listen to music, honestly.

************

And, as for The Newsroom, yesterday's edition was better than last week's "Rudy" episode, but the show is still like an eight car pileup right before the Caldicott tunnel.  (And three of the cars are on fire.)

Love you all so much, 

Ardent

Notes on Stevie Wonder.

In Manchester, UK, from the 60s.

• Renee loves Stevie Wonder, for dozens of reasons, I am sure.  Some of which can not be expressed in to words.  But, I know one thing for certain, the Wife has always been a sucker for that "Moog-y" sounding keyboard bass, which Stevie has all over most of his tracks.  
• I love how Stevie Wonder oftentimes will eschew a chorus and just do verse parts with the hook being the last couplet of a verse section.
• Sometimes I will ask myself questions about Wonder's tracks, like, "Why does he use the word 'many' so much in Living for the City?", or, "Why does he have another singer start You Are the Sunshine of My Life?", or, "Why for such a long stretch did basically every single sound exactly the same?", or, "Why would one of the greatest mouth harp players in history ever hire anybody else to play harp on his records?", etc, ... But, always, whenever I doubt him for a second, my answer always is, "Because he is frickin' Stevie Wonder, that's why!"
• I love Stevie's drumming style -- you can tell whenever it is him that did the drum track -- and I also love that for most of his career he preferred to have the drums isolated on the left channel of the stereo picture.  If I ever get in to a studio again, I will do the same thing.  
• Sir Duke, with its snappy crisp horn charts and sterling ringing guitar, is an absolute masterpiece and could cheer up a dead person.  
• I love the Inner City One Act Play plopped in the middle of the album version of Living for the City.  
• Amazing Rock/Soul poetry from Living for the City:  "Her skirt is short but, Lord, her legs are sturdy/To get to school she's got to get up early/Her clothes are old but never are they dirty", and, "To find a job is like a haystack needle/Cause where he lives they don't use colored people."
  
• The "Dontcha wanna fall in love with me" jam coda at the end of I Believe is scorching hot and so powerful.  I almost wish he just did a Hey Jude on that and carried it out for four more minutes.  (Who knows? Maybe he did do that, and they just decided to fade it out when they did.)
• I love how Wonder preferred crossfades on his albums.  I like a number of artists who did that a lot; Joni Mitchell, XTC, Prince, Paul McCartney, etc, ...  Wonder, like Mitchell and Prince, is a master of album sequencing, too.  Songs are often linked together by key, instrumentation, mood, or lyrical topics.  That is great for the albums, but, it also makes for happy "edits" on an iTunes playlist, since the songs have to be cut off so abruptly, they are "smashed" together.  I v rarely had access to a crossfader/mixing board when I made tapes back in the day, so, I developed a laborious method of chopping off songs at the precise moment, "smashing" them together, so there would be no silence between any of the tracks.
• Speaking of old mix tapes, back when I was still making tapes meant especially to enhance a certain, ahem, erm, mood or state I might have been in at the time, here were the opening five tracks to my favorite tape of this kind:  1. Frost Circus/XTC 2. Taxman/The Beatles 3. The Jungle Line/Joni Mitchell 4. Hypnotized/Fleetwood Mac (RIP Bob Welch) 5. Superstition/Stevie Wonder.
• I Wish is a stunning track, too.  One of the finest songs about childhood, ever.
• And, finally, I love that Stevie Wonder is still out there, sounding amazing and blowing audiences away, making all of us so happy to be alive.

"And with a voice like Ella's ringing out/You know the band just can't lose"

Mwah, ... 

I did not get the result

That I wanted yesterday, though, I am not at all terribly, or even remotely displeased.  It was obvious as the second half began that it would be a matter of time before the USWNT would overwhelm a very good French side.

That is how good the USWNT is.  France is no pushover, and, still, I never felt confident in their chances, even with a two-nil lead after fifteen minutes.

I am a little puzzled why Necib was taken out at halftime.  It is true she had not really done anything in the first half -- except hug her teammates after they had scored goals -- and, perhaps Coach Bruno Bini saw her fitness wanting, or her attitude, body language, whathaveyou.  And, it is true that the French side were clearly outclassed fitness wise as a whole, by a very strong, athletic resilient US team.

The Player of the Match for me was Megan Rapinoe, who nearly single-handedly took over the game at the beginning of the second half.  Her attacks from the right of the penalty box, in a striking and also defensive manner ran the French team absolutely ragged, and help setup the atmosphere and/or the environment for the US team's two decisive goals, if not, actually providing direct service on either of them.

France should still win their next two group games, as should the US.  But, the US team still is having a very tough time protecting leads late, as evidenced by their loss to Japan in the World Cup Final last year, and the fact that a thoroughly exhausted French team had numerous opportunities to equalize yesterday.

It is still the USWNT's tournament to lose, though.  Of course, Japan, Brazil, and Sweden are still lurking, but the US look determined, fit, and insanely powerful.

(I have a new favorite footie crush, too -- and, yup, she is French, mais oui! :  Wendie Renard, the tall, lanky, yet muscular, centre-back for France, who had the absolutely thankless task of dealing with Abby Wambach, one of the greatest players of her generation, and maybe the finest Women's footballer in the air, ever.  Renard hung tough with Ms Wambach, took some knocks, delivered some blows, and I am sure earned the respect of her teammates, and the US side, as well.  Plus, I love her crazy long hair, and her sassy bright red fingernails.)

Wendie Renard. You'll get 'em next time, Sister.  See ya Saturday against North Korea.

Honestly, I think I prefer the elite level Women's International game to the Men's.  It is much more exciting football.  There were three really good football matches yesterday, and tons of goals scored.  The US/France game was a real corker, in particular, and was officiated brilliantly and fairly.

(And, the North Korea/South Korea flag mistake yesterday was extremely embarrassing. Eek.  No more hiccups like that, please, London 2012, ... )


All my love,
Mwah, ... 


London 2012 Women's Football Tourney continues on Saturday.











Ardent

Sometimes you just want to scream.

Really? With everything that is going on right now, an election, a war, a hateful incompetent town of so-called, "Public Servants"? Ugh.

lkq2it4uroigahjreiqmveroiuviojqcfj9pg]g.ho]/f.kopiyrHFOUCWREFWEQHDjchwqqhdhdsdhiuqhdiuhdiuhdhfiuhfm'riwe8325u4pot09rtutulsdif

That is what I think about that.

************

Gotta channel my inner-Poppy.  If Poppy from Happy-Go-Lucky walked by that magazine cover, she would say, "Ah, bless him, poor thing."

Poppy has it all in perspective, bless her!

All my love,
Ardent























P.S.  I did not buy the magazine.





AH

Real quick here

(I have got to go to bed.  I have to be at work so early tomorrow.)

I just do not know a better period for me, these last six weeks where I have seen so many earth-shattering, game-changing films.

Completely just stumbling around, idly looking for things to watch, I came across Vito, a doc about Vito Russo, gay activist -- founding member of the Gay Activist Alliance, GLAAD, and ACT UP -- and famous author of The Celluloid Closet (one of the first power points ever, really.)

Vito is a stunning, wonderful documentary that I supremely recommend everyone to witness.

More on all this w/ my big movie recap tomorrow and Wednesday.

Thank you HBO and the filmmakers who produced this extremely touching and inspiring documentary about a great great man.

Here is the trailer for Vito.

All my love,







Mwah, ... 




















Michael









Good night, ...

Meanwhile,

When I was not watching the awful, The Newsroom, I was busy watching four absolutely great films over the weekend:  The 39 Steps (video clip above), Margaret, Belle de Jour, and Shallow Grave. Three of which are part of my splendid recent Criterion bluray haul.

Much more on all those fantastic films in a v lengthy wrap-up post in a couple of days.

Back to work! Enjoy the fun video.

The penalties are not strong enough.

Penn St should not be allowed play football for a very long time.  Taking down the statue is not nearly enough.  The loss of scholarships, the fines, the Bowl Game bans, all of those things, are still not nearly enough.

I love sports, always have, and always will.  And I love Big Time College Football.

But, there is no way, that any university, that did something like this should be allowed to maintain their program without a serious suspension.  Period.  Full stop.

My Wife's declaration last night?

After sitting through The Newsroom? "Why are we even watching this, anymore?"

I know the word irony is way overused, and oftentimes, used incorrectly, but it is certainly ironic to me that Sorkin has created a show about a fictional cable news network that I am now strictly watching solely to be infuriated at, swear at the teevee, and throw napkins at the screen.  Which are the precise reasons I watch Fox News!

My Wife is completely right.  Any sane person, especially after last night's "Rudy" debacle of an episode, would drive right past this wreck.  But I just can not help myself, craning my head back, to soak up the damage.  

Do not be like me.  I can not recommend The Newsroom anymore.  Keep moving, there really is nothing to see here.

Alison Pill, get out while you can! Go star in all of Woody Allen's new films.  Insist Sorkin kill you off, devoured by a fax machine whilst trying to cover the debt Super Committee negotiations.  

And, Sorkin, I told you to leave Hope Davis out of this! 

(But no one listens to the crazy old dirty Okie Commie who watches television just to be mad at it.)  

Watch Hope Davis (as Hillary Clinton, a woman Michael Truly Loves) in The Special Relationship, instead.  And The Daytrippers.  And watch Alison Pill in To Rome with Love, Milk, Midnight in Paris, and Scott Pilgrim vs The World.  And watch Jeff Daniels in Something Wild.  

I got this through

TBogg, who got this through ABL.

Just now starting to really hunker down for this election.  Reading 538 every day and the NYT.

Colonization from Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch

SARAH:  I'm going next week.

JO:  You're going to a football match?

SARAH:  Yeah, I thought I should.

JO:  Whoo, girl, I tell you, you better watch yourself.  Soon after Tim and I split up, I woke up one morning and realized I could remember his batting average from the previous season.  

SARAH:  That's harmless enough, isn't it?

JO:  No! It's all a sinister form of male manipulation.

SARAH:  (laughing) Rubbish, ...

JO:  It's true! You get colonized.  Your native culture gets driven out, and it gets replaced by stuff that you don't like and don't even want to know about.  They're like bloody missionaries. They bore you stupid until you cave in, and then they fuck off.  

I love Nick Hornby, all his books, and all his films.  

I agree with my Wife's declaration

Re The Newsroom, right after last night's episode concluded.  She sighed, and said, "It could be really good."

And, I like what King Blogger, Charlie Pierce, has to say, too.  (Plus, Charlie loves Moonrise Kingdom, as well.)

The Newsroom is alternately intriguing, fun, and smart and then is horribly awful for large swaths of time.  Last night, I told Renee that I am actually eager to watch The Newsroom every week for a lot of the wrong reasons.  It is not too different from the reasons I watch Fox News, I want to yell at the teevee every time.  I want to get exasperated and criticise the production every time we see Alison Pill cry and flounder.  The shot of her sharing a smile with her "future" lover, the hardest-working dude in teevee news production, whatever his character's name is, from last night's episode, made me want to throw a napkin at the screen.  A couple of young cub reporters, in love, scooping the major networks, giving the people the truth.

Ick.

But, then, Sorkin's story line about trash television last night was fantastic, so, ... You just gotta throw your hands up in the air and swear at the teevee a lot.

I mean, I am addicted to The Newsroom, for sure.  But it may not be for the reasons Sorkin or HBO intended.

(And, please please please could we just retire the exquisite Hope Davis' character right now.  Do not bring her back as a love interest.  And I loooooove Ms Davis, one of my all-time faves, but do not bring her back, please.  Leave well enough alone.)

Hope Davis and Parker Posey in the fantastic motion picture, The Daytrippers.

Happy Bastille Day, everyone!

2012, The Summer of Young Love








Mwah, ...

"Dear Steve, ... "

"Dear Steve, my name is Sara.  I am fifteen years old and I live in a very small place.  Right now, there is a very big drama going on because Alma said Artur put his dick on her hip at the party.  Everyone calls her Dick-Alma.  And she has become an outcast.  Alma is my best friend.  But my sister is in love with Artur.  I don't know what to do.  I know this must sound very trivial when you are on death row.  But, maybe it means life is never easy.  Anyway, I would like to be your pen pal.  Please write.  Best wishes, Sara."

Champagne, July 2012.

Handy Dandy Woody Allen Crib Sheet for July, 2012

This post owes a debt to, and is dedicated to Spy Magazine The New York Monthly, and one of the greatest books ever written, An Incomplete Education, by Judy Jones and William Wilson.

************

WOODY ALLEN FILMS I HAVE WATCHED AT HOME SINCE SEEING TO ROME WITH LOVE:

Crimes and Misdemeanors; Stardust Memories; Radio Days; and Love and Death

CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (1989)

Running Time:  One hundred and four minutes

Windsor EF light condensed?:  Yes

Four fabulous quotes:  Halley Reed: He wants to produce something of mine. 

Clifford Stern: Yeah. Your first child. 

Cliff Stern: Last time I was inside a woman was when I visited the Statue of Liberty.

Clifford Stern: [on Lester] When he tells you he wants to exchange ideas, what he wants is to exchange fluids.

Professor Levy: [voiceover] We are all faced throughout our lives with agonizing decisions. Moral choices. Some are on a grand scale. Most of these choices are on lesser points. But! We define ourselves by the choices we have made. We are in fact the sum total of our choices. Events unfold so unpredictably, so unfairly, human happiness does not seem to have been included, in the design of creation. It is only we, with our capacity to love, that give meaning to the indifferent universe. And yet, most human beings seem to have the ability to keep trying, and even to find joy from simple things like their family, their work, and from the hope that future generations might understand more. 

STARDUST MEMORIES (1980)

Running Time:  Eighty-nine minutes

Windsor EF light condensed?:  Yes

Three fabulous quotes:  Sandy Bates: To you, I'm an atheist; to God, I'm the loyal opposition.

Sandy Bates: But shouldn't I stop making movies and do something that counts, like-like helping blind people or becoming a missionary or something? 

Voice of Martian: Let me tell you, you're not the missionary type. You'd never last. And-and incidentally, you're also not Superman; you're a comedian. You want to do mankind a real service? Tell funnier jokes. 

Dorrie: Mmm. You smell nice. 

Sandy Bates: Yeah? 

Dorrie: That aftershave. It just made my whole childhood come back with a sudden Proustian rush. 

Sandy Bates: Yeah? That's 'cause I'm wearing Proustian Rush by Chanel. It's-it's reduced. I got a vat of it. 

RADIO DAYS (1987)

Running Time:  Eighty-eight minutes

Windsor EF light condensed?:  Yes

Three fabulous quotes:  Rocco: This is a coincidence. I meet nobody from the old neighbourhood in years. I finally do, and I gotta kill her.

Narrator: For some miraculous reason, it's a wonderful feeling having a teacher you've seen dance naked in front of a mirror. 

Sally: Who is Pearl Harbor? 

LOVE AND DEATH (1975)

Running Time:  Eighty-five minutes

Windsor EF light condensed?:  No.  It appears to be a slightly different version of the Windsor typeface.  

Five fabulous quotes:  Sergeant: Imagine your loved ones conquered by Napoleon and forced to live under French rule. Do you want them to eat that rich food and those heavy sauces? 

Soldiers: No...! 

Sergeant: Do you want them to have soufflé every meal and croissant? 

Boris: Something's missing. 

Doctor: What? 

Boris: I don't know, I feel a void at the center of my being. 

Doctor: What kind of void? 

Boris: Well... an empty void. 

Anton: If you so much as come near the Countess, I'll see that you never see the light of day again. 

Boris: If a man said that to me, I'd break his neck. 

Anton: I am a man. 

Boris: Well, I mean a much shorter man. 

Sonja: He kissed me. 

Boris: Any place I should know about? 

Sonja: He warmed the cockles of my heart. 

Boris: That's just great. Nothing like hot cockles.

Sonja: Oh don't, Boris, please. Sex without love is an empty experience. 

Boris: Yes, but as empty experiences go, it's one of the best. 

Mwah, ... 

I love you all, ... 

"These are the wrong questions!"

Nope nope nope.

Nothing to see here.  No flipping GOP War on American Women.

And do not say "vagina", either, please.

Thanks to ABL 2.0.






MD Spitler

Recent Conversations with Nick C, #6

So, here, is what one of my heroes, David Thomson, has to say about the upcoming Paul Thomas Anderson film, The Master, released in October.  He is very excited, yes? My gosh, is he excited. And, his excruciatingly detailed critiques of two trailers for the film, each named (by him) for the months they were released, nearly makes me laugh.

(A quick aside, I love Thomson to pieces, precisely for thoughts like I just linked to above.  Even when I do not agree with him.  He is not a "critic", really, despite writing some of the finest film criticism ever.  He is completely unashamed of revealing his prejudices, or, writing mash notes to his "crushes."  That shows to me that he is in hopeless thrall to the cinema, much like I am.)

Meanwhile, here are Thomson's thoughts on the other Anderson's film, Moonrise Kingdom.   He is quite plainly "over" Wes Anderson.

Nick C suggested that there might be warring camps at work here.  That there are Wes fans who care naught for PT Anderson's films, like myself, and vice versa, like Thomson.  I am sure there are plenty of folks, like Nick C, that admire both filmmakers, though Nick C seems to be considerably more wary about The Master, and its insane hype, than Thomson and other serious PT Anderson devotees.

I will admit that this is the first time I am even considering seeing a PT Anderson film in the cinema in a very long time, since Boogie Nights, I guess.  But I am wary, too.  For whatever reason, PT's pretension repels me, sickens me.  Just as Wes' pretension delights.




Ardent

Windsor EF light condensed

 

What a fantastic motion picture, one of his all-time best.

Considering that I could not even

Get the title right, in yesterday's fauxluxe post -- the film is called To Rome with Love, not From Rome with Love -- that should give you some idea of my expectations going in to the movie.

And, I got just about what I expected.

One of the most disconcerting things about Woody's Tour Through Great European Cities, is the fact that his films are way too long now.  Just as you could always count on seeing those elegant Windsor EF light condensed typeface white on black title sequences, could you also count on Woody getting you out of the theater in about an hour and a half.  Not any more.

Woody's signature typeface.

To Rome with Love certainly could have used an edit job.  So, could have Midnight in Paris, to be honest, which I like less and less every day, the further I get away from it.  There are four stories in this movie, and only two of them are really worth exploring:  the newlywed story, starring Penelope Cruz, and the Jesse Eisenberg/Alec Baldwin/Ellen Page/Greta Gerwig love triangle story.  


The newlywed story is a tip of the cap to dozens of Italian filmmakers, telling the old familiar yarn that outside experience for both partners can bring the "true" lovers closer together.  Even Tinto Brass has been exclusively ploughing this field for decades now.  


(By the way, I love how my own Wife is now scooping this blog, writing about Ms Cruz on another platform yesterday.  Thanks, dear.)


The Wife is absolutely correct, though.  Ms Cruz is a crackling hot "perfect" version of feminine beauty.  And, there were moments when I was not paying attention to the subtitles, either, preferring to admire Ms Cruz taking off her shoes and lay supine on a hotel bed.  

Ms Cruz is five foot six.

The love triangle story, though very funny, and insightful at times, ended very limply, indeed. Our heroes never really seemed to be in any serious danger, and the confrontation scene is never played, at all, due to the fact that a deus ex machina whisks Ellen Page back stateside, making it all a "very close call" in the end, and no one gets hurt.  


That ain't what Manhattan is like.  Or Annie Hall.  Or Hannah and Her Sisters.  Or Crimes and Misdemeanors.  


(I am flipping watching Crimes and Misdemeanors today.  That is a gripping dangerous love triangle story, two of them.)


I had a good time.  It was my first time at the Orinda Theater, which was really cool.  There was a decent sized house.  We were the youngest people there, and we sat closest to the screen.  The older folks sat way at the back and clearly enjoyed the film, laughing uproariously throughout.  


After Renee and I saw Moonrise Kingdom at the Metreon, we talked about the film.  Renee liked it, but admitted that she was probably "over" Wes Anderson now.  Of course, I adore Moonrise Kingdom, and probably will love it forever.  But, Renee said, also, that she will never get "over" Woody Allen.  


Maybe it is that Windsor typeface? Once she sees those credits roll, Renee knows she will be in a pleasant, comfortable, very funny environment that makes her feel warm inside.  She keeps speaking of nutritional qualities, and her lack of interest in films/art that seek to enrich her life.  


But there are all different types of enrichment, and you really should not judge them.  They are just different.  I think she is getting more nourishment from Woody's films than she cares to let on.  And, that is a beautiful thing.


Or, heck, she will probably start her own blog, and rebut everything I have said here.


(just kidding, Angel)


































Monday, going to see Ms Park in a couple of hours, "Look at me.  Open your mouth.  Not so wide."  






















Mwah, ... 

Well, my heart goes out to the Scot

As the streak remains intact.

The alien blancmange won.  

Closing the roof obviously helped Federer, and British tennis devotees will be talking about that set winning sick, nasty volley that Federer issued before the rains came, for years.  The epic, twenty minute break game in the third set was scintillating tennis, and even if Murray had won that game, I think, everyone knew that it was all over for Murray after that.

Murray's speech was humble, heartbreaking, and he cracked a couple of decent dry jokes.  So, good for him.  I will definitely be following his career more intently now, and I firmly believe he will end the streak, and hoist that Wimbledon trophy in the future.

************

Doing laundry, and then we're going to see From Rome with Love, and then grill at home.

All my love,
mds

I do not know who to cheer for tomorrow!

"They mean to win Wimbledon!"

I love Federer, but, it would be amazing to see a Brit finally win Wimbledon -- it has been seventy-six years, after all.

(And does this mean that Federer is actually an alien from outer space, a blancmange from outer space?)

Ardent

Mang! I have stretched this Champagne out

Over three days! Even though it is Billecart-Salmon Brut Reserve, I have used a Veuve Yellow Label stopper, which has worked a treat.

************

Mang! I feel so relieved, so unfettered, so free right now.  The gurls are rawking it in Oakland, and it is time for me to make my dinner.

Tulip glasses.  Bubbles.  Pasta.  Ridge Estate Cabernet.  2012, The Summer of Young Love.

************

This is totally a Withnail &I kinda night.

Hellsyeh! I am hellready! And free!

Do not have any First Growths (they drink Lafites and Margaux in this spectacular, perfect film) but I will make do with what I can.













ALL MY LOVE, BRUVVERS & SISTERS, 
ARDENT HENRY.

Alex Chilton, bruvvers and sisters, ...

This happened six months before I moved

To the Bay Area, and there were some tangential friends of my housemate's that were actually called in for questioning -- not as suspects, I do not think, but they did wear black a lot and liked The Cure, so naturally, ...

Anyway, now the Public Safety Commission would like a new, external investigation in to what really happened on that awful December night.  Good for them, and I hope they get one.  Of course, the Austin Police and the District Attorney are furious.  Because, despite having their convictions thrown out and the two men released, they are whole-heartedly convinced that they got the right guys.

I just do not believe that Scott and Springsteen and the other two high-schoolers were even remotely capable of committing a brutal crime like this.  Plus, the DNA did not match any of the four high schoolers, and the interrogating Detective, Hector Polanco, was "famous" for eliciting false confessions.

I am sticking with the the two adult men theory.  There were two shifty, nervous men, hanging out at the yogurt shop right at closing.

I sincerely hope that this new outside investigation is allowed to proceed unfettered, with all available resources provided.

This tragic tragic tragic cold case is now over twenty years old.

An extremely short play by Ardent Henry.

MORNING IN AMERICA

Setting:  The bedroom of a condo in an East Bay suburb.

It is early in the morning of July 4th, 2012.  WIFE is standing over the bed, as HUSBAND lays peacefully half-asleep, their blind CAT on top of him.  


WIFE reaches for the remote to turn on the teevee and says, 


WIFE:  So, we'll turn on the Channel of Hate for you then?

HUSBAND sits bolt upright in bed.  CAT goes flying, loses her balance, and falls off the bed.


HUSBAND:  No! No! No Fox News today! Not on July 4th --

WIFE reaches for the cable remote.

WIFE:  Well, what channel is sports then?

HUSBAND:  Thirty-eight.  (Brief pause.) No! No! No sports today! Not on July 4th --

But it is too late and WIFE has already turned the teevee on to ESPN.  HUSBAND rubs his eyes, and gazes at the magic box, saying, 


HUSBAND:  Oh.  It is Federer at Wimbledon.

WIFE:  Well, that is alright, then.  He is Swiss, right?

WIFE throws both remotes on to the bed and exits upstage right.  HUSBAND sighs and rolls over on to his side to resume sleeping.  CAT barely leaps on to bed and crawls slowly to the sleeping HUSBAND, whereupon she climbs on his hip and falls asleep, herself.

THE END

P.S.  Federer won in straight sets.

Just wanted to post a couple of cute pictures

From the Euro 2012 victory party for Spain.  Those kids are "a doorbell", as The Wife would say.

Perhaps this will be a new look for women, flamenco skirts, high top heart trainers, and soccer jerseys. I love it.  

xxxoooxxx

It is amazing, the string of luck I am on (UPDATED 7/3/12!)

Re movies.  Every time I make a choice at home, or actually at the cinema, I am richly rewarded.

Screenshot from Erotikon, Tora Teje on the right.

Still, today's amazing epiphany, Erotikon, is all due to David Thomson, the critic and author who made me in to a cinema freak.  He wrote about Erotikon in his amazing book, Have You Seen ... ?

But I had forgotten about it until a couple of weeks ago, and waited to find the right opportunity to seek it out and watch it.

Today was that day, home alone, lounging, relaxing, listening to soft breezes, having sandwiches, drinking rose, etc, ...

You can watch Erotikon for free on YouTube, but it is a Swedish silent film with Swedish intertitle cards, and those are actually subtitled in Italian.  The film is pretty simple to understand, and you can go that route, but there are a lot of double entendres in the intertitles, so, I suggest you do what I have done and either rent the film digitally on Amazon or plain buy it digitally, to watch on your computer at home.

And, that is right.  I said, that Erotikon is a Swedish silent film.  From 1920, to boot.  I know there are many folks out there who just can not do silent films.  And, I understand that.  There are a lot of really awful silent films out there, a lot of mugging, and crazy melodramatic claptrap.  But there are so many good ones, too.  Directors like Ernst Lubitsch, Jean Vigo, Luis Bunuel, Abel Gance, Sergei Eisenstein, FW Murnau, and dozens of others that made absolutely thrilling motion pictures.  By the time "talkies" were inevitable most of these masters were so good at telling their stories that they had abandoned intertitles all together.

The director, Mauritz Stiller, is not well known.  Well, at least not for directing.  He is best known for being the man who discovered Greta Garbo.  And he arranged a deal with Louis B Mayer at MGM to be part of a package deal with Garbo.  Except Mayer turned Garbo in to the biggest star on the planet, and ignored Stiller, practically shunning him in to a return to Sweden.  Stiller died within the year upon his return.

Which is a real shame.  Because Erotikon is a flat-out masterpiece of the cinema.  Erotikon, made in 1920, is hipper, more sophisticated, and more open about sex, than you, or me, for that matter. Watching scenes unspool, you begin to recognize situations from your own life, being replayed on the screen.  It is essentially the story of a vaguely unsatisfied wife, and how dangerously close she will come to ruining a half dozen lives, by shamelessly flirting, and manipulating men to achieve her final goal.  But there is no judgement here.  She is not a slut. She is not a villain in this picture.  There are no villains.  She understands the consequences that might occur if she can not finally end up with the man she wants.  And she is willing to pay the price, as well, with courage, dignity, and grace.  Erotikon is all about the power of flirting (flirt is absolutely one of the prettiest, and finest words in the English language) and seduction.  Erotikon is about how passion and love to some are always changeable and moving.  This is taken as a matter of fact.  Love is a crazy crazy creature that none of us will ever truly understand.  It is better to be true to yourself than it is fit in to some correct societal norm that is smothering you.

Tora Teje in Erotikon.

And, let me not get away here first without mentioning our star, Tora Teje.  Ms Teje is not particularly pretty, though she has her moments.  But she radiates a simmering flirtatious radiant sexuality that burns up the screen.  It is one of the sexiest performances I have seen from any actor in any film, period.  Most of the time in a film, you get one, maybe two, or sometimes even three wildly sexy moments from actors.  Ms Teje has over a half dozen in this ten reeler.  The body language she uses; the elegant hand gestures; the way she looks at a subject or an actor; the sublime way she elongates her slender frame like a cat; and on and on.  She literally makes you fall in love with her all over again at least once in every reel.

So, this is insanely highly recommended.

If you can get over the whole silent film "thing".  (My advice is, if you find yourself getting bored, just take the film in pieces.  Set aside twenty minutes or half hour or so and munch it up in bites over a few days.)







Mwah, ... 
Ardent













UPDATE! 7/3/12:  Two things I forgot to mention yesterday.  First, the intertitle cards in Erotikon are beautiful.  Each time a new major character is introduced in the film, we get a card telling us who the character is and who the actor is, playing them.  Plus, the cards are lovely, each one with a different little art deco illustration that either comments on the character speaking the line, or the story.

And, second:  Ingrid Bergman was five years old, and living in Stockholm, when Erotikon was released.  I am certain she must have seen the film, growing up.  Being the "broad-minded", "notorious" flirt that she was, I would like to think it was one of her favorite motion pictures.






Mwah, ... 

Maybe it was that extra Leap Second thrown

In last night, but I definitely slept in today, did not officially get out of bed until a quarter to ten.  It had been a long time since I had done something like that.  It felt great, and I had no guilty feelings, at all, about lounging for so long, he said as he sipped his Mariage Freres tea.

************

Despite my Mum actually meeting my distant DiCesare cousins/"peeps" from d'Abruzzo, I will be supporting Spain today in the Euro final.  I think the Spanish play the most beautiful form of football right now, and am quite content with them being Kings of the Football World.  I am sure the Italians will pack the box and do everything in their power to achieve a nil-nil draw and send it to PKs.  I love my Italian roots, I love Italian wine, I love Italian culture, I love Italian clothes, I love Italian shoes, I love Italian food, I love Italian people, I love Italian films, I love Italian art, etc, ... I just can not find it in my heart to love calcio.

And, I would not be crushed if Italy won today, especially if it is an exciting match.

************

Neil LaBute's movies are like that guilty pleasure thing I was talking about with Veep/In the Loop/The Thick of It.

Watching his films, you start to feel really creeped out, and guilty for all the horrible awful things humans do to each other, especially when it comes to relations between the opposite sexes.

The Shape of Things, which I streamed yesterday on Netflix, is a sick little study of moral ambiguity, pride, seduction, thrall, friendship, and honesty.  The performances are great (and Rachel Weisz and Gretchen Mol are stunningly beautiful) and the scenes are shot simply with no score ever overlaid the action.  The script hurtles along, efficiently and expertly, and the film packs a whopping punch in the gut at the end.

Great little movie, which I will look to buy.

Mwah, ...  

Recent Conversations with Nick C, #5.

Nick C, quite accidentally it seems, has stumbled upon an auction house in Berkeley that holds auctions for the public every couple of months or so.

At the most recent one they sold some Artist Series First Growth Bordeaux from the Seventies, some Ming vases, random paintings, a Picasso lithograph (Is that right, Nick?), and all kinds of furniture and stuff.  All of these things (except the 800 year old vases) went for very "reasonable" prices, which is pretty damn cool.

It reminds me of the great auction scene in An Education.  You know, there used to be a time when moderately well-off, or even smart frugal middle-class folks could buy art at auctions, build stunning collections.  Now, all we can afford are nicely mounted prints of great works of art.  We can not be like Dominic Cooper in An Education and just buy a Burne-Jones because we think "the Pre-Raphaelites are coming back."

Next auction; Nick C, Oscar, Shawn, and I should go wearing matching suits, ear pieces, and sunglasses; pool our money together, and take over the auction.

I will keep you posted.

Burne-Jones, Love Among the Ruins

xxxoooxxx