London

When the Wife and I finally made it to the Rothko Room at the Tate Modern in London, there was a docent, a teacher, and about a dozen and a half French schoolchildren -- I would guess they were Junior High age (?).  (I also like to imagine they were from Paris, but I have no idea.)  The docent spoke in English to the children.

Rothko Room at the Tate Modern

The docent explained about the Seagram's commission, and how Rothko turned it down, and the paintings ended up here at the Tate instead.  And, he even told the possibly apocryphal story about why Rothko refused the Seagram's job, where his very large paintings would have been hung in the Four Seasons restaurant on the ground floor.  The story goes that Rothko refused the commission because he could not stand the idea that people would be eating in front of his paintings.  The docent leaned heavily on the idea that the story was not true.  Personally, I disagree.  That seems totally like something Rothko would say.

The Wife and I explored the room a bit on our own, and soaked up the religious atmosphere, but you really could not help but be sucked in to the docent's talk.  The kids were not having any of it. They were bored to distraction.  They seemed to understand the language.  That was not the problem.  They just did not "get" Rothko, or Abstract Expressionism, I suppose.  

The docent even tried some typical English laconic humor out on the kids.  I do not remember the jokes.  The Wife, the teacher, and I all thought he was very funny.  The jokes died with the kids, though.  They continued to yawn, scratch their arms, and smack their gum.  

A Monet Water Lilies panel at the Tate Modern

Finally, at one point, the docent proclaimed that just about everyone believed that the Rothko paintings at the Tate were considered the finest acquisition the museum ever made. Then, he said, he begged to differ.  He thinks the Monet Water Lilies panel is the best.  

I love the Water Lilies panel, but I got to disagree with him there on that one, too.

When we first encountered the group upon the entering the room, I thought it might spoil the experience for me.  It did not.  Everything was just fine.

Long work week just about over! 

All my love, 

Ardent (mds)

Poor Bobby!

He really really would like to stay.  But, he has to ramble.  On.

Ah, Sports!

Or, as they say in England:  Sport.

The bar where the attack happened.

This happened Wednesday evening in Lille, France.  According to all the UK sources I have read, Evertonians (Everton Football Club supporters are called Evertonians) were attacked by a group of hooded Lille OSC supporters.  The UK press, and the eyewitnesses in the video embedded in the link above, all maintain the attack was unprovoked.  The confrontation got so bad that the police had to teargas everyone involved to end the melee.

I would seriously encourage you to watch the video at the link.  The newspaper's eyewitnesses are two nine stone weight, probably teenage, Liverpudlian brothers.  My favorite parts of the video are their accents (of course!), and the time where the older brother explains that although he really does not smoke, actually (Really hoping his Mum doesn't see this!), he was, just this one time, smoking outside the pub when the Lille hooligans struck.  I also like how the older brother, who does most of the talking, says that the little brother was knocked out cold early in the fray, and missed some of his slightly heroic attempts at protecting the Evertonian bairns in the bar.

I was talking to Nick C, though, and I was wondering what the Lille press reaction would be.  I would like to think that they would report that it was an unruly drunk mob of Evertonians that attacked a group of Lille Grammar School children that were on a school evening field trip, attending a Debussy concert in the park.

Sports!

PS:  The game went off without a hitch today, a nil-nil draw.  Lille travels to Liverpool in two weeks!

















--Ardent

Last night I dreamt

That Nick C and I were climbing all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower.  The stairs were not metal, they were wooden.  The stairs were of impeccable quality, white, with gold moulding. They were very heavy and strong.  The staircase made a spiral and became smaller and smaller the further we got to the top.  Eventually the room at the top was like Alice in Wonderland in a box.  We went through the door, and Nick C vanished.  I never saw him again.  (Sorry, Nick!) He was replaced by my Wife, Renee.  

The Wife and I were overjoyed and excited to explore the "top" of Tour Eiffel, which was actually an expansive verdant neighborhood.  This twenty-first arrondissement was essentially a massive park, with restaurants, shops, and hotels sprinkled all around.  The Wife and I talked about going to "the edge", "the edge of the world", which was a formidable cliffside where we could view the rest of Paris from below.  We agreed to save that for the last thing we would do before we went down.

In the meantime, the Wife and I separated for a while, and I explored a small church on my own. As I left the church, I remember feeling worried about the Wife and I's meeting place, but there she was, sitting at a cafe table, reading a menu.  From a distance, I noticed how skinny and pretty she was, and I told her as much as I sat down beside her.  She blushed, and we had a sweet small kiss.  The menu looked not at all unlike a Denny's menu, with beautiful pictures of all the food on offer, and every thing was done in a typical tricolor French style.  It seemed all the cafe had to offer was breakfast.   Page after page of breakfast offerings.  When the waiter arrived I asked him (in English) whether the restaurant really did serve breakfast twenty-four hours.

And, then I woke up.











Mwah, ... 

Been listening to Taking Liberties non-stop lately.

And, Dr Luther's Assistant is quite a queasy little masterpiece that reminds me of Everyone's Gone to the Movies by Steely Dan.  The Dan's track is more funny than mean, and Dr Luther's Assistant is genuinely unnerving and vengeful.

And, I figured out what the song Ghost Train is about.  EC says it was one of his first songs ever, and it involves a story about his Da.  But, I believe he resurrected the song just after his awful terrible incident with Delaney and Bonnie.  I think he means the song to be about them now.  Not in a good way.



















xxxoooxxx

Seriously? This is a thing?

You really really really need to read Kyle Wagner's entire GamerGate article for Deadspin. But, because I love you, I am going to give you a shorter version below:

What has happened is that a bunch of basement dwelling, still living with their parents gamer dweebs ("Hey, I want my pop and grilled cheese sandwich now, Mom!") have become incensed over the fact that a fair amount of those icky beings happening to possess ladyparts have decided that they wanta play video games, too.  So, instead of the girls just hanging around, watching the boys play video games, and being on call for them, now they are wrenching the controllers away, and busting the boys nuts at all those first person shooters online.  If that was not bad enough! More recently, the Ladyparts Brigade have also begun to ask the (predominantly male) game producers some really uncomfortable questions.  Questions like, Why do so many of the females in these games all look like Tinkerbell in a chain-mail bikini? Or, Are these really the kind of games that speak to women? Maybe we could try something new? Do I really want to play games that let you rape women?

What a flipping bummer, right?!

Then, one of the loudest and shrillest of the Ladyparts Brigade used her magical ladyparts to seduce a gaming journalist in to giving her brand new Ladypartscentric video game that she created a fabulous review.  Or, so says her spurned ex.  And, he said it online.  And, that is where the fun really begins.  The basement dwellers finally had a cause to cloak their misogyny with! This was really all about journalistic integrity, don't you know! They were tired of the game makers and reviewers litrilly being in bed together.  They had proof.

These asshat gamers then went about doing what they do nearly as well as play First Person Shooters.  They flooded 4chan with hateful comments about all the loudest of the Ladyparts Brigade, and theorized on the hateful things they could do to these women.  They even did some doxxing of these ladies, posted nude photos of them, threatened to kill them, and you know, just regular good fun.

But, you gotta hand it to the troglodytes, they were savvy enough to get an anonymous random Baldwin Brother to become their spokesperson for freedom.  The fact that the best thing on said Baldwin Brother's CV were some character voices for the Halo games was just gravy!

Now, they upped the ante, and are threatening to kill even more of these outspoken ladies.  One event had to be cancelled at Utah State because the campus, like the state, is open carry, and no one there felt confident in protecting the safety of the young woman.

What the fuck, man? What is up with this country sometimes?

UGH!







mds

A big happy birthday shout out to my Da, Andy!

(And, your present is on its way.  And, it is not McCabe & Mrs Miller.  You will get it next Wednesday.)

But I use this clip below just to show what a massive and positive impact my father has had on me.  On how I look at and appreciate life, and art, and politics, and good manners.  And, how to understand that I am still gonna screw up sometimes, and that I have to own up to my mistakes when they happen, and then try not to repeat them.  He has been a superb model to me for what it means to be a good citizen, and a good person.  Just what a father is supposed to do.

He is also hip enough to appreciate the work of someone like Robert Altman, who brashly fought the Hollywood system with unorthodox sound, editing, photography, story, film length, etc; but still hungered for and thrived within many of Hollywood's most traditional practices.  Altman truly was an Exile on Main Street.  

That is one of the many reasons I love Altman's work.  Maybe Andy agrees with me.

Happy birthday, Bud! Hope you guys have a great dinner tonight! You guys going to Palace?

--M

Nick, here is 6 minutes to whet your appetite:

Pay no attention to the YouTube comments, of course.













All my love,

M

I really am trying to have a positive attitude,

And am desperately trying to channel my inner Poppy from Happy-Go-Lucky, but terrible awful things like this keep on happening.  (I wonder if any of those racist yahoos making comments realize that they are not anonymous because the St Louis Post-Dispatch run their comments through facebook?)

This situation appears to be different from the Michael Brown incident (if you believe what the St Louis cops are going to tell you), but once again Charlie Pierce has got it right.  Greater St Louis just does not get any benefit of the doubt right now.

And, I wonder how Major League Baseball feels about the fact that one of its 2014 World Series cities could possibly be hosting games while their city burns.

Trying to keep it positive.  Take a deep breath.  More Peanuts cartoons with Franklin in them. Sally Hawkins as Poppy.  And here:  Have some Booker T & the MGs live, 1970, at the Oakland Coliseum.

mds

Did not see Pynchon in the trailer, ...

Didn't see Pynchon in the trailer, ...











Mwah, ...

I am currently rereading

Thomas Pynchon's novel, Inherent Vice.  And, the book is even better the second go around.  I am catching more of the puns and jokes, I guess.

I am checking that book out again because PT Anderson is making a film of the novel, the first film ever of a Pynchon book.  The film debuts tomorrow in New York City at the New York Film Festival.  (It will not get to the rest of us heathens until mid-December.)

I am intrigued and scared for sure.  I respect Anderson's talents as a filmmaker, but I am most certainly not an adoring fan.  I am a besotted Pynchon worshipper, however, so my butt will be firmly planted in to a cinema seat when the film gets to me.  (Even though I am a little worried about Anderson's claim that he was watching movies like Naked Gun and Airplane! for inspiration for this film.)

There was this fantastic NYT article last Sunday, wherein Anderson talks about changing the ending of the book for the film, and working with Pynchon on certain parts of the script! But, the best part of the article is Anderson's fierce dismissal of the notion that Pynchon makes a cameo in the film.

Pynchon is a stone cold genius, for sure.  Here is one of the world's most reclusive and private "celebrities", who has already made two cameos on The Simpsons, both with him being illustrated with a bag over his head, and now, he apparently he is going to do it again in Inherent Vice.

But the genius part is is nobody knows what he looks like.  How will we recognize him? Who on the set knew that Pynchon was actually there.  It could have literally been anybody.

That is just all kinds of brilliance.

xxxoooxxx

Actually,

I suppose I do not have that much to say re Gilmore Girls in its entirety dropping on to Netflix tomorrow.  Other than, I am ecstatic, and I could really use a giant dose of Gilmore Girls right about exactly now.

But, I was perusing fauxluxe for past Gilmore Girls posts, and happened to notice that I never talked about the show directly.  It was always a train a thought somehow connected to the real subject of the post.  That is fine, and perfect, actually, for the loony, stream of consciousness, insanely pop culture referenced, His Girl Friday dialogue of the first five essential seasons of the program.  

So here below is an annotated list (with links) to three Gilmore Girls posts from fauxluxe.  One each from 2011, 2012, and 2013.

This is from 2012, and is actually one of my fave fauxluxe posts ever. Here I compare Lena Dunham's Girls to Gilmore Girls, and I get it all horribly wrong about Veep.  Veep is obviously the best thing on television now, and Gilmore Girls is nine million more times better than Girls, which was already coming apart after just two seasons.

This post is from December 2013.  Here I compare Gilmore Girls to Scandal, which I think is a pretty decent observation, as well.  Plus, Liza Rebecca Weil, who played Paris in Gilmore Girls, was a large part of Scandal's first season.  I still have a very soft spot in my heart for Scandal, even if I do not think it is a world beater as a teevee program.  This post also has some great Pinterest/Tumblr Paris gifs/memes, which I will prob post onto friendface later today or tomorrow.

Finally, this post is from May 2011, right after the Wife and I got married.  Now, I am talking about seeing Bridesmaids the day after the wedding, and how much I love Melissa McCarthy, who played Sookie on Gilmore Girls.  Even though I am not particularly crazy about the blockbuster films Ms McCarthy makes these days, I can not tell you how proud I am of her that she is now the number one box office draw in American film comedy today.  She and her husband deserve all of their success.  

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

I do not think I will binge on Gilmore Girls starting tomorrow, but, will prob enjoy a more leisurely pace, and could even skip around from season to season, like I do with The Rockford Files, Peep Show, The IT Crowd, etc, ... Sometimes I am going to want to be at Yale (The Paris years!), and sometimes I am going to want to be back at Stars Hollow when Rory was still at high school.  

It is going to be a lot of great fun, though, whichever way I do it.  Gotta keep my ears open.  I want to catch every single reference or spoof all over again.












Mwah, ...

Dear Renee, Here is what happened after you left for work:

You are never gonna believe this!

So, Ward went ahead and got the pet store owner to open up after nine PM, just so he could rent the annoying parrot for one day.  He was convinced to do this because June, his wife, told her own personal sob story to him, about how when she was at boarding school, she was so lonely and homesick that she told all the girls that her mother was a big time movie star, Laverne Laverne.  Her mother found out, and instead of backing her up, made her tell the entire school that she had made it all up.  June was obviously still carrying shame over this incident, and encouraged Ward to get the parrot, and trust that the Beav would realize the error of his ways, and never put his parents in that kind of spot again.

The Beaver took the parrot to school for the Pet Fair, and won the Blue Ribbon, much to Judy's utter disgust.  After the whole class left, Beaver tried to return the Blue Ribbon, explaining the whole situation, about how he lied because he was embarrassed his family did not own a pet. His teacher, Miss Landers, told him that was a very silly thing to be ashamed of, and that his parents were pretty great for backing him up like that.  The Beaver told Miss Landers he would never put his parents in such a spot again, and he accepted the Blue Ribbon, after all.

I do not think anybody mentioned the new pet hamster ever again.  They probably killed it.

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

In the next episode, Wally had to stay home all weekend and study for his history exam, instead of crash Mary Ellen Rogers house with Lumpy and Eddie Haskell.  They were supposed to "listen to records and eat junk".

Lumpy and Eddie went to Mary Ellen's house without Wally, and told him they were not worried about the history test.  They had it covered.

What that meant was that Eddie had come up with some cockamamie scheme to cheat on the test, involving them excusing themselves to wash their hands and get the answers, written on paper towels in the bathroom.

Unbeknownst to all three, the history teacher was wise to this scheme, and had planted a quote from Hamlet on the paper towel, removing the illicit answers.

Wally saw this first, however, because he legitimately had a pen explode on him, and actually had to wash his hands.  Lumpy and Eddie went to the bathroom, only to find no answers, and both failed their exam, both scoring in the low fifties.

Wally, on the other hand, got a 92, one of the best scores in the class.  After learning this, Eddie decided to get even, and wrote a pathetic attempt at an anonymous note, pointing the finger at Wally for cheating.

The very wise teacher, though, saw right through this, and confirmed it to Wally that Eddie and Lumpy were the rascals.

Wally wanted to beat Eddie up, but Ward convinced him not to.  He said Eddie would have to figure it out on his own that had done a bad thing.

Sure enough, Eddie came over right then to apologize to Wally, and tell him he was going to try out "this studying thing" that was working so well for Wally.

The next day at class Eddie amazed everyone with his knowledge of the founding members of the League of Nations.

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

Then, Daniel Boone was captured by the Spanish Army.  They wanted to take back the Virginia territories for Spain.  I had to go to work, though.













Mwah, ...