Yeah. I think I'm reasonably skeptical, but I know it's in my nature to be naive and gullible. So I try to always remember that politicians are politicians. But this is the first time I can remember there being someone in the white house I didn't want to change something about.

Most people I know who were there remember the 50s as a horrific repressing time. McCarthyism, blandness, maintaining status quo. But I wonder... I mean, I know this is a goofy idea... but all of a sudden I was thinking of Eisenhower. People are always talking about the hopefulness they haven't felt since Kennedy was elected, but what was it like when Eisenhower was first elected? I imagine a lot of people felt someone Supremely competent was in command, felt they were in good hands, didn't have to worry, and so on. And that famous farewell speech, "military industrial complex" warning, is slightly Obama-esque: it's everyone's responsibility to keep an eye on this inherently evil entity. The eight years in between I don't really know anything about. He was distant and uninvolved with The People, I think, which certainly isn't Obama.

I used to watch Gene Scott, who died recently, every once in a great while. He was on a uhf station 24 hours a day for many years. His lectures were more scholarly than emotional. But the first time I saw him, over thirty years ago, he was slick behind the ears. He was asking people to donate half their life savings!

I'm not familiar with Gene Scott but half of a persons savings? Sadly I'm sure he got it from some elderly people. Criminal. I'm getting up there in age, 69, but so far I'm not feeling obligated to try and buy my way into heaven. There should be a law that allows for only so much be given. Actually there is, in a way, a law. 10 %. The church I belong to it is 10% of the surplus after living expenses. Of course people are free to give more.

You're right. It's thirty years, but I can still remember him being handed a slip of paper and saying a woman in Fresno (or thereabouts), in her nineties? (maybe she gets older as I approach her actual age), had donated either 58 or 78 $, half her life savings. Later, he would just stop his lecture at as an especially interesting question hung in the air and his band would repeat the same gospel song until the phones had rung enough.

Obama. He makes me feel good too. If he does mis-step at some point (someone will think so. you can't please all the people all the time) I expect him at the very least to be able to explain himself credibly.

Is your birthday March 12?

My birthday is April 21st. Me and Queen Elizabeth, although she does have a few years on me. I can't believe I will be 70. I don't feel it and most say I don't look it. I was lucky enough to inherit good genes and longevity. Most in our family live into their 90's.

Most televangelists (not that I'm a devotee, just got an impression) seem to place themselves on a pedestal and if they're lucky they don't get knocked off. Gene Scott started out slick and questionable and changed the other way. He seemed to have had some sort of breakdown at a point. He doubled his weight, grew a scruffy beard, started wearing ben franklin glasses and a goofy hat. Stacks and stacks of books surrounded his chair. it was very odd. he became a teacher and didn't make that kind of outlandish request anymore. enough about that; i never met anyone who was as entertained by him as i was.

Jimmy? No, that was Swaggart. Is there a Haggart and a Swaggart?

Everybody makes mistakes. Voters make mistakes. But then we re-elected him? That must've seemed pretty weird to those watching from a distance. Seemed weird from up close.Fool me twice? Shame on me...

Good genes? wear them well... sorry, old jokes show their age quickly... i hear similar things. expect to have a bad year someday and make up all that lost time.

Old jokes. I use them too.

I've been having a lot of fun with my DVR. I'm lucky enough to have 150 available hours on mine so I've been recording old favorites I like to watch. I watched The Great White Hope last nite. James Earl Jones gave a commentary after the movie. He said the movie was not really about boy and girl. As an old romantic I found the ending sad. It is a complicated movie. I'm going to look up Jack Johnson today if I have time. James Earl Jones is going to receive a lifetime achievment award so they are featuring a lot of his movies.

A year ago, or so, pbs showed an exellent biography of jack johnson, in the style of so many of their historical documentaries.

I hope they put it on again. I did look him up on the internet. He openly rebelled against racial predjidice very early which is good but it seems he was a womanizer as many athletes are and he was an abusive husband, at least to the first wife. Yet she was the one he was buried beside.

it's on netflix.
it was directed by ken burns.
it's called "Unforgivable Blackness".

Thanks BP.

Where's neu? i haven't seen her in awhile.

Ehhhh!!! hi!!!!!!, I´m here, reading, and I left the weekend, occasionally until I do!

I have little to say, I do not know most of the characters in which you speak, and in general terms ..... I have spent much time in a society where there was only one religion (and was somehow compulsory), I always feel the television preachers like fictional characters (unfortunately I am sure that in a few years these will be here).

Lenore, I hope to get to your age with your desire to learn, enjoy and talk.

i was in front of cnn for an hour today and caught up on a few things. i know what ted haggart looks like, and his story. for a while, there seemed to be people who said they were having sex with people of the same sex because it was a sort of a loophole, not quite the same as cheating on one's spouse. they're not gay, they're respectful of their partner. ???? is this ted one of those?

four boys died when a roof collapsed during a storm that swept through spain and france. tragic, but not grandiose. it must be a very big story where you are, neu, for cnn to be telling us about it over here.

I have great hopes for our new President, but I am afraid he will be held to an almost impossible standard of perfection. He has inherited a mess and it sounds like he is already trying to bring about solutions.

I find your comments about Elmer Gantry interesting, Lenore....I am the same way, and have been for many years. So is my brother....he does spot-on impressions of Oral Roberts and Jimmy Swaggart from their less-than-noble moments.



Lenore, my Pappy's birthday was April 20th!! If he was alive this year would be his 90th birthday.....he certainly didn't look his age or feel it.




Neu, I never thought about that kind of perspective before, living in a country where there is supposed to be freedom of religion....but it's still not totally free here. For instance, one of my closest friends happens to be a Wiccan, and is in the proverbial broom closet because she's afraid of losing her job, being treated like a leper, etc. The vast majority of people simply do NOT realize just how much has been "borrowed" from pagan religions---I didn't know it until she told me, and it's quite impressive. People fear what they do not know or understand.....anyway.

I've been thinking about books I've read that I'd like to see turned into movies or a TV miniseries (seeing the ads for The Last Templar has inspired me. I did read The Last Templar, but I'm not sure if I want to watch it). Here's a partial list:
--The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, both by Ken Follett
--the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie R. King
--The Cold Six Thousand by James Ellroy

American religion sometimes seems like a web of personality cults. But that could happen in a unified religious state, too, couldn’t it? A la The Demons? That sounds a little familiar… have I mentioned The Demons before? Ken Russell.

The first time I saw it I was in the midst of a phase of disliking Oliver Reed… phase? That word doesn’t quite convey… My first memory of Oliver Reed is that I already disliked him, for a reason my memory does not rewind far enough back to grasp, and I held on to the last bits of that dislike until The Adventures of Baron Munchousen (not The Fabulous Adventures of Baron Munchousen, which I think I have mentioned before, and probably said “not The Adventures of Baron Munchousen”) where he played Hephaestus… but with the Roman name… ummm… Vulcan. Must have been fifteen or twenty years. More like an era.

Baron Munchousen seemed like a perfect movie for Terry Gilliam, whose style was so clearly influenced by the Czech picture in the early 60s. All those fantastic machines and 2-dimensional puppets. Influenced? That might not have been the right word. From my own experience, I think a person has their own style but, until they see that something like it in use, they may be reluctant to claim it, or wonder if this will be accepted as art… that kind of thing….

The Fabulous Adventures of Baron Munchousen fits Gilliam like a glove.






oops. forgot to italicize...

There are both plus and minus as to freedom of religeon. Freedom is good but it leaves the field open to the Charlatans.



Too sad about the boys.

Gay sex? a loophole? Cheating is cheating. I think Ted has been doing some of the talk shows but I haven't seen any of them. Yes I think he is one of those.






A web of personality cults. Aptly put.

I do not know where to start .....

Cult of personality ", not only in religion, in all areas seems to be that we need guidance, someone to tell us what to do, how to live, to think,.... someone you love, admire, imitate, the problem is not with existence of megalomaniacs, but they always find followers. Do we need to be subjected?.
In religious matters do we need some control?, Doubts, contradictions ,....

Following this and referring too to the accidents occurred here ....., news has changed, I miss those talking-heads (also the group) were limited to reporting, providing information cold (the information provided is biased, but ... there are levels), today the news is filled with weather information , sports, news of society and politicians´s views(it is clear that I am against all this time that a collapse should engage in the news ): disinformation

And all this is not just in the news, a few years to this part documentary simply follow one person on several places, while he / she tells her impressions, discomfort, feelings and opinions (also striking is that while it happens on television, in literature has disappeared "the narrator," the contemporary literature is characterized by the use of first person), maybe we are already immersed in a world totally egocentric and trivial.

No doubt we all need some quidance in matters of conscience. I am all for freedom of religeon and freedom of the press. We need to hear as many ideas as possible. I just wish we could expose those whose intent is to deceive and profit immorally sooner than it often happens. I guess Ted Haggard is going to be on The Early Show tomorrow to defend himself. He does profess too much.

You are there!

In writing, I understand it, the method and the goal. To make one feel more involved in the story and more easily captured by it. It can be instantaneous.
The cinema verite of reality (and other) is meant to do the same thing, but fails, I think.
The news involves us not so much out of style as out of repetition. We hear similar reports over and over and over. It wears on me, but Wife (and many others, I am sure) get hooked and are waiting for the next report. Turn on cnn, all day, monitor Obama's first day, his second day, his third day, his fourth day... he has become a show, should join screen actor's guild, and earn residuals!
"Oh! Sasha and Malia beanie babies! How terrible!"
"And what of you, voyeur?"

I'm probably more than a little bit like your wife. I don't watch CNN the way I did during the election but I watch plenty. I think he is determined to be a different and more open kind of President and I so want him to succeed. He isn't getting the honeymoon. The Repulicans are already bucking his policies. Rush Limbaugh is saying he wants him to fail. Sick man that Limbaugh. I don't listen to him but I hear things on the news. The marketers need to lay off of those children or for that matter the whole family. Obama was barely elected and they had the commemorative plates and coins ready to go.

I knew someone years ago who started listening to Limbaugh on her way to work "just to hear how the other side thinks". His thoughts, repeated daily, stayed in her head. And she was soon telling us about some of the good points he made.

It's a bad strategy, exposing yourself to information you know is wrong. It can corrupt you insidiously; you can listen for years, and your goodness will have no affect on him.

I think Limbaugh and others like him are dangerous. I'm sorry to say that my brother listens to that cr-p and it has influenced his thinking.

i've seen it happen. repetition wears a person down. i imagine it's something like people taking an addictive drug and thinking something like "it won't happen to me because i know what i'm doing."
sad, sad, sad... (minnie the moocher)

lenore, sesame street this morning: the man grover's always bothering takes his lunch in the park to avoid grover the waiter. of course, grover shows up anyway. the man says: "of all the benches in all the parks in the world, why did he have to come here?"

neu, how much of "life on mars" have you seen? last night (i watched it by accident, it just came on while we were in front of the tube) a gun was found and one of the main characters said: "send it to the lab. maybe they can find some DNA... uh... lift some fingerprints." does the whole thing turn out to be an elaborate hoax?

Hi Lenore:
This is the Benigni part of Night on Earth, which we were talking about a while ago. I might have called it Life on Earth.
Part one:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=#1323A2

Part two:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aAVplupgE0

Less than 20 minutes altogether. Worth the time, I think. humor more than balances outrageousness.

neu: from the maker of your Tom Waits video

Darn, My computer is too slow for video but what little I could get looks funny. I'll watch it next time I'm at my sons.

I watched Gentlemans Agreement last nite. The movie brings attention to the racial predjudice against the Jews and there was a commentary afterward to confirm. I was surprised that in 1947 there was that kind of predjudice against Jews. I was never exposed as a child to that. One of my Fathers best friends was a Jew and even tho
Daddy is now gone. Our friend Chuck Freedman is still here and a good friend and mentor to my brother and I. The commentary also went into the witch hunts in the fifties and how so much predjudice cost so many their jobs. Gregory Peck stood up against all of this but managed to come out unscathed not so for John Garfield, also in the cast.

The differences have always been used for power: the different (race, color, religion, ideology, the nation ,..., another city, another neighborhood ...) are dangerous, they try to remove our work, our homes, our livelihood, our ...., and that's why we must defend ourselves from them. That fear is what makes us manipulate elements.

Live on mars, is an English series, based on an open and interesting premise: a cop has a traffic accident and wakes up in 1973 .... (the atmosphere is great, especially for those who have known the 70's, the Tergal and huge collars of shirts, I'll try to make a screenshot). It is making a version for USA.

characters said: "send it to the lab. maybe they can find some DNA... uh... lift some fingerprints.The script focuses on the anguish of the protagonist to understand the situation, return to his world, and the shock that pose to him the differences between the two periods (both procedural and technical).

GD, I'm reading now a John Cheever book and ....., read something well written is a true pleasure!!!!!!!!.............


.

I like Gentleman's Agreement, the best of its kind. But it belongs to a genre that pretty much died in the middle fifties, and it was a good death, I think. Movies where we are to learn from some third party's experience instead of directly. We learn about troubled teenagers from James Dean, instead of from Glenn Ford having to Deal with them. That kind of thing. Guess who's coming to dinner might seem a little less dated if it was about the couple instead of the parents' struggle to accept and explanation of why it's okay. A Patch of Blue is much more watchable now, I think.

But I like Gentleman's agreement.

Such a major picture, why do I think of Elia Kazan's career as beginning with Streetcar Named Desire? Maybe because he is so associated with Tennessee Williams?

neu, was that didactic? sorry, lenore.

ohhhhhhhhhhh...
thought he just woke from a coma...
didn't get that he'd gone back in time......

the american version doesn't seem to be spending a lot of time on angst.

This is the introduction to The Manuscript found in Saragossa:

As an officer of the French army, I found myself at the siege of Saragossa. A few days after its fall, I was proceeding towards a remote corner of the town when I noticed a small, well-built house which appeared to me not to have been searched as yet by any Frenchmen.

Curiosity prompted me to go in. I knocked on the door but, seeing that it was not closed, I pushed it open. I called out, and searched everywhere, but found nobody. It looked to me as though everything of value had been removed already; the objects left behind on tables and cupboards were of little worth. But in the corner several handwritten books caught my eye; I cast my eyes over the contents of the manuscript. It was in Spanish; I knew very little of the language, but I knew enough to see that the book might well be entertaining. It was all about brigands, ghosts and cabbalists; nothing could be more suitable to divert my mind from the rigours of the campaign than to read a novel full of strange adventures. As I was convinced the book could no longer be restored to its rightful owner, I did not hesitate to possess myself of it.

Later we were forced to abandon Saragossa. I found myself by mischance separated from the main body of the army, and was taken prisoner by the enemy together with my detachment. I thought that was the end of me. Once we had reached the place where they were taking us, the Spanish began to strip us of our possessions. I pleaded to be allowed to keep only one object, which could not be of any use to them: it was the manuscript I had found. They at first raised objections, but in the end consulted their captain who, having cast his eyes over the book, came to me and thanked me for preserving intact a work to which he attached great value, as it contained the history of his ancestors. I told him how it had fallen into my hands. He then took me away with him, and during my quite lengthy stay in his house, where I was treated civilly, I asked him to translate the work for me into French. I wrote what follows as he dictated it.

Which was made into a Polish movie, The Saragossa Manuscript. Long, but with an Intermission. If it sounds like it might get interesting, check it out. Let me know what you think…

What is the name of the John Cheever book?




I saw Gentlemans Agreement as a very young women. It didn't have much meaning to me then. This time I got the message but it seems so out of date now. The confusion in the mind of the girlfriend, fiance I found most sad. Supposedly not predjidice but concerned about what her peers would think. Good scene with her and John Garfield when he explains and clears up her thoughts for her.
I have A patch of Blue recorded on my DVR and there it will stay. Excellant movie for its time. Still had to be done so carefully in some ways. My romantic mind wanted more but it was left open for when she would mature . Shelly Winters brought the ignorance and uneducated woman of her station in life to such realisim. Wonderful job of acting and she received a much deserved Oscar for it.
Sidney Poitier singe handedly did so much for race relations in his movies going back as far as 1947 in A Kiss of Death, which I think was his first major movie. I guess single handedly would be a misstatement as the writers, directors and etc must be considered but the fact that he was so watchable and well liked made such an impact. Just my opinion. I'm a big fanof his.
There seems to be a lot of movies on right now that are featuring race relations. I watched The Last Angry Man with and an older Paul Muni. The best thing about this movie was that race relations were not emphasized. It was just a movie about a caring old doctor that cared for his patients. I don't have the words to describe but if you have not seen it watch for it. It's worthwhile I think. There was a very young Billy Dee Williams in it. So young I had to wait for the credits to confirm it was him.




I will try to find it.

The Wapshot scandal, I have a couple of books over Cheever always pleasant and satisfactory to you if you're interested I look for them (I am a bad librarian, I did not order the books by their authors I do for its size .. .. find is hard but to remove the dust is easier.

Saragossa? to smooth (which it is clear that who had translated this didn´t heard shout-talk anyone from Zaragoza. I found the book in several publishers, I guess it will be easy to get.

I like the incremental work-up to Guess who’s coming to dinner? The lusty glance in… umm… *blank * … when he was chained to Tony Curtis. Hanging out with the sexless women in Lilies of the Field. Then the white girl, who was less than his equal because she was blind and illiterate (is it the same year as The Pawnbroker, Hollywood’s first stab at nudity, cowardly, a black prostitute?). I like the schoolgirl crush on him in To Sir, With Love, but I would like it better if she were a good girl instead of a bad girl, and if it was in this country.

Wife gets mad at me for saying this. Doesn’t like any suggestion of compromise when Sidney Poitier is concerned

Have we said this before?

I can understand, I think, where your wife is coming from but I'm confident Sidney had to compromise sometimes but he managed to get by with very little.
It has been so long since I've seen The Pawnbroker that my memory is none to clear except that I liked the movie. I think it was the same year as Lillies of The Field.
I heard an amusing commentary the other nite from Rod Stieger. He was discribing how he was prepared to get up and accept the Oscar for The Pawnbroker and his surprise when they called out Lee Marvin. I remembered your earlier comment on this. He probably did deserve it more than Lee Marvin and Marvin would probably agree. Both fine actors.




This horrible job of mine leaves me with no energy for much of anything else but I would appreciate some titles. I don't plan to work very long. I just need to get caught up on taxes then I'll have time for reading.

compromise is how she hears it. i wonder if someone had a grand plan, like with jackie robinson, or if the roles just occurred naturally as his characters chipped away at a taboo. I like to think that some producer (perhaps stanley kramer, who made both the defiant ones and guess who's coming to dinner?) had laid out a plan to create an accepting audience. just a fantasy.

thanks for the oscar story.

I enjoyed Guess Who's Coming to Dinner but The Defiant Ones, at least for me, sent a powerful message for that time. It demostrated how two human beings were forced to rely on each other developing a strong bond between the two. Really good movie.

The Defiant Ones used to be one of my favorites. Was a big fan of Stanley Kramer. Don't really remember what's my problem with guess who's coming to dinner? .... i think it's the couple. she seems kind of clueless and is marrying a man twice her age who she just met, and their whole time together has been spent outside of the real world. okay, they have the right to make the same mistakes as everyone else. but, confronted with that, isn't this an instance where it's the parents' responsibility to say "slow down"? or were they already married?

i remember being surprised when i noticed stanley kramer produced High Noon. it fits so well with all the movies (except it's a mad mad mad mad world) he made when he started directing. it was the first time i realized "producer" should be taken into consideration when giving credit to the makers of a picture. it's just hard to see when you're watching.

After reading what you'd written about The Defiant Ones, it reminded me of a movie I hadn't seen for a long time, called Enemy Mine (it came out in the mid-to-late 80s).
Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett Jr. play enemies who crash land on a desolate planet after a space battle...they continue to fight somewhat but then become friends and learn to lean on each other while trying to get off planet. Gossett's hard to recognize in this movie, he's made up like a reptile-like alien and his character becomes pregnant (he self-fertilizes when he's not in combat) and dies during childbirth or right after.....Quaid ends up taking care of the baby and getting off-planet to take the baby back to where his father came from.
Good movie and the novella it was based on was even better....made you think about prejudice.


Has anyone talked about the Oscar nominations? I'm really pulling for Frank Langella to win best actor...Sean Penn was also good but I'm afraid he's going to inject politics into his acceptance speech like he did before.

sounds kind of like hell in the pacific? i might have the title wrong. lee marvin/toshiro mifune.. remember that one?

librarian

AGHH!!!

I just selected Turner Classics, even though i know i don't get it anymore. Wife cancelled it when she turned in the dvr. But it came in! This is good, but it's also bad. It means I missed unnecessarily all those shows i wished i could have seen! * sob *

Aaaww that is sad. As you know I love old movies. I think TMC has the best selection of them. Better than AMC. I hope you get to keep it. They will show them again.

Thanks. And I agree with you. Better than amc before its decline.

Two of our recent topics, Lenore, converge and remind me that when you first joined us here you had just seen a Lon Chaney movie. 1939 (Of Mice and Men) and The Defiant Ones. Junior had such nice bookends to his career, did he do anything worth watching in between? Hard to cast. So big and lumpy, but with (my mom uses this term to identify the quality that makes Bobby Goren so appealing to so many women) feminine energy.

Or is my memory playing tricks on me?

Ahh. In no way am I comparing Junior to D'Onofrio as an actor

The Defiant Ones and Of mice and Men. The term great buddy movies comes to mind.
I read your post and went off to look up Lon Jr. He has a huge body of work. First credited in 1932, to 1973. I'm sure there must be a few gems in there. We will have to watch for them. He was type cast early, possibly in part along with his fathers work. Just a thought.
OK to compare him to D'Onofrio. Two fine character actors. D'Onofrio can make himself almost unrecognizable as himself. The Salton Sea comes to mind. A D'Onofrio favorite of mine. Feminine energy, Interesting term. I'll think about that.
There was a remake of Mice and Men with Gary Sinise. A disappointment to me. I like Sinise but I can't even remember who played the part of Lenny. Read the book many years ago. A good one by Steinbeck.

John Malkovitch (I hope. I've never spelled that until now.) It seemed weird having someone so small play Lenny after Junior and the "Where did he go, George? Where did he go?" of Warner Bros cartoons.

She didn't mean that he seemed... ah... unmanly, but that he seemed sympathetic and interested in people in a way that women would identify with, and feel comfortable with. The sense you get of him isn't at all adversarial. Something like that. (

My memory of Junior (which i admit is fairly distant) is of expressions that indicate a need to understand or be understood, and gentleness. I don't just mean Lenny, but the several horror films I saw him in. Way back.

John Malkovich is, maybe, a vitch, but is certainly a actor that brings together many of our obsessions-likes:Nosferatu-vampires he played in Shadow of the Vampire, Steinbeck : Of Mice and Men and Le temps retrouvé (I talked about my fascination with Proust?).

no, but i almost mentioned proust just a few hours before this. missed opportunity.

have you seen.. can't remember the name... malkovi(t)ch version of the american friend?

embarrassed. i like wim wenders very much but haven't seen that.

uh... do i remember correctly? was that wim wenders?

I understand what you re saying. Besides the fact that he cares about others, Also want to wrap your arms around and care for him.

My brain isn't working very well this AM. I caught some super bug and was too sick to get to the computer yesterday. I'm feeling better today. It was a bad one. I wouldn't wish on anyone.

it looks like the next episode of medium is titled a person of interest.

I have read something of Proust many years ago but I'm unable to speak intelligently.

Last nite they had two versions of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde on. 1st one was the Fredric March version then the Spencer Tracy one. I watch Fredric March last nite and recorded the Spencer Tracy one for today. I'll give my opinions later. As a student of the Oscars BP you may already know this but Robert Osborn say Fredric March won and Oscar for his. There were dual Oscars that year that went to March and Wallace Beery for the Champ. I think my vote would go for Beery in The Champ only maybe to Jackie Cooper. I think he was an amazing child actor. I happened to hear a commentary by him as an adult about acting with Beery. He said Beery had no interest in him. They would do the scene then Beery would pay him no mind until the next scene. Hard to imagine given some the intense scenes with the two of them in the movie. I guess that is acting when the actor can literally turn it on and off so abruptly.

It's good to be back on the board talking. I was so unbelievably sick the last few days. I wouldn't wish this Super Bug on my worst enemy.