dual personalities

Month: May, 2015

May 30, 2015

25 and counting

by chuckofish

Son #1 turned the big 25 yesterday. He had a great birthday and is preparing for his traveling-man brother to arrive later today. I suspect that the birthday-celebrations will continue for he rest of the weekend, as they should.

those boys sure know how to party

those boys sure know how to party

 

But just when you think everything is hunky-dory, you discover that your grown-up, responsible son is now facing a  ‘quarter life crisis’.  He has left his fresh-faced youth

James at Sandhurstand without effective crisis management he is sure to age prematurely.

HIST 331 Spring 08 011

At least that’s what the internet says. Seriously, there’s an entire pinterest page devoted to the quarter life crisis.  What is it with the popular culture? Does everything have to entail a crisis? You’d think these people had been reading Tennyson (“Ah, what shall I be at fifty, should nature keep me alive, if I find the world so bitter when I am but twenty-five?”).

Fortunately, my own 25 year old does not seem to be in crisis at all — and I’m very proud of him for living life as he chooses. But just in case he wakes up one day and decides to jump on the pop-psychology bandwagon enter crisis mode, here’s my advice to him and other struggling twenty-somethings: stop worrying so much about what other people think! Have faith, work hard, and enjoy every moment (even the boring things or the painful dentist appointments) because they only come once and each one is a gift. Every event doesn’t have to be revelatory, it doesn’t have to be fun or make money, it just has to be noticed.  Carpe diem and party like it’s 1994!

playgroup

Can you spot the birthday boy in this picture?

 

 

3 Comments
May 29, 2015

” I’ll buy the drinks when it’s over.”*

by chuckofish

I have been in social overload this week with a huge work event finally coming to fruition. So this exhausted introvert will be taking it easy this weekend. For sure.

Since Saturday is the birthday of film director Howard Hawks (1896–1977), I suggest we watch one of his many good movies. There are a lot to choose from.

You could go the screwball comedy route: Twentieth Century (1934) or His Girl Friday (1940) or Ball of Fire (1948).

Barbara Stanwyk and Gary Cooper in "Ball of Fire"

Barbara Stanwyk and Gary Cooper in “Ball of Fire”

Or you could go with Bogart and Bacall: To Have and Have Not (1944) or The Big Sleep (1946).

Le grand sommeil The big sleep 1946 rŽal. : Howard Hawks Humphrey Bogart Lauren Bacall Collection Christophel

Bogart and Bacall in “The Big Sleep”

And then there’s always his legendary collaborations  with John Wayne: Red River, (1948), Rio Bravo (1959), Hatari (1962) or El Dorado (1967).

John Wayne and Montgomery Clift in "Red River"

John Wayne and Montgomery Clift in “Red River”

John Wayne, Ricky Nelson and Walter Brennan in "Rio Bravo"

John Wayne, Ricky Nelson and Walter Brennan in “Rio Bravo”

290Hatari2

James Caan, RObert Mitchum, Arthur Hunnicutt, and John Wayne

The best crew ever: James Caan, Robert Mitchum, Arthur Hunnicutt, and John Wayne in “El Dorado”

See what I mean about excellent movies? It may be time for a Howard Hawks Marathon.

For a whole list of possibilities go here. Hawks, who was born in Goshen, Indiana by the way, was only nominated once for an Academy Award for Best Director–for Sergeant York (1941)–not one of my favorites. He didn’t win. Typical.

*Mr. Melville in Red River (1948)

2 Comments
May 28, 2015

In other news…

by chuckofish

Giles has a girlfriend.

gilesThey met at church. They hang out in the parking lot.

 

5 Comments
May 27, 2015

“Nothing’s too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance.”*

by chuckofish

So did you hear that over the Memorial Day weekend a new John Wayne Museum was opened in the Duke’s birthplace, Winterset, Iowa?

museum_exterior

Wayne’s daughter, Aissa Wayne, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, actor Christopher Mitchum, and Wayne’s biographer Scott Eyman were all present at the event.

Cutting the ribbon during the grand opening ceremony for the John Wayne Birthplace Museum in Winterset. Left to right: Barry Corbin (actor & Birthplace board member), Aissa Wayne (John Wayne’s daughter), Joe Zuckschwerdt (Birthplace & Museum President), and Christopher Mitchum (actor). 5/23/2015 Photo by John Pemble

Cutting the ribbon during the grand opening ceremony for the John Wayne Birthplace Museum in Winterset. Left to right: Barry Corbin (actor & Birthplace board member), Aissa Wayne (John Wayne’s daughter), Joe Zuckschwerdt (Birthplace & Museum President), and Christopher Mitchum (actor). 5/23/2015 Photo by John Pemble

The centerpiece of the gallery is a collection of memorabilia from Wayne’s life, including scripts, costumes, set pieces, posters, personal correspondence, an original Andy Warhol painting and a custom-made 1972 Pontiac station wagon.

Downes_with_John_Wayne's_Car

Executive Director Brian Downes with the custom Duke-mobile

Winterset is the county seat of Madison County, where, you may have heard, they have a lot of bridges.

Roseman_Bridge

Three films have been shot there: Cold Turkey (1971), The Bridges of Madison County (1995 ) and The Crazies (2010).

But it is best known as the birthplace of John Wayne.

1024px-JohnWayneBirthplace

(George Washington Carver was also born there. He has a museum at the Tuskegee Institute.)

Well, I may have to add Winterset to my list of flyover places to visit.

Iowa_map

*The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

3 Comments
May 26, 2015

Long weekend: and then we were all in one place*

by chuckofish

saintfran

Long weekends are the best, right? Especially if you have out-of-town guests.

chrisnicole

My nephew Chris and his friend Nicole stopped overnight on their cross-country trip from upstate New York to the Ghost Ranch in New Mexico.

The boy and daughter #3 came over for dinner and a movie,

scarlet-pimpernel-howard-massey

but I forgot to take a picture. It was fun, as you can imagine.

The weather, despite dire predictions to the contrary, was lovely and I spent a lot of time puttering around the yard and lounging in the Florida room with a good book.

In other news, let’s not forget that today is John Wayne’s birthday–so “slap some bacon on a biscuit and let’s go! We’re burning daylight!”

001

Happy Tuesday and a 4-day week!

*”And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.” (Acts 2:1 KJV)

4 Comments
May 25, 2015

Stand ye steady

by chuckofish

newell

ANC III who served in WWII and Korea and lived to not talk about it.

ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the living and the dead; We give thee thanks for all those thy servants who have laid down their lives in the service of our country. Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence, that the good work which thou hast begun in them may be perfected; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen

–the BCP, 1928

“It don’t matter where a man dies, as long as he dies for freedom.” –Sgt. Dane in Bataan (1943)

5 Comments
May 23, 2015

“Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red”*

by chuckofish

As you know, August 2014 marked the 100th anniversary of the beginning of WWI and in England they are taking this centenary very seriously. To mark the occasion, they installed (in my humble opinion) the most moving war commemoration ever at the Tower of London. Ceramic artists Paul Cummins and Tom Piper made 888,246 ceramic poppies, which they planted at the tower over a couple of months. Each one represented a single British soldier killed in action during the war. You can visit the official site and read all about it here.  According to the artists, “The scale of the installation was intended to reflect the magnitude of such an important centenary and create a powerful visual commemoration.” I’ll say. The following pics come from all over the internet. The installation started out fairly modestly

tower-of-london-2

but it grew as hundreds of volunteers planted the poppies.

poppies 6

Her majesty (and, indeed, other royals and VIPs) came to view them.

tower of london5

By the time they finished, poppies filled the entire moat and hundreds of thousands of people had come to pay their respects.

 

poppies 4tower of london 3

They sold the  individual poppies that made up the installation and so raised millions of pounds which were shared equally amongst six  charities. I bought two, one of which I gave to my colleague who specializes in WWI and who helped me edit a big project. After months of waiting, they finally arrived carefully packed in a neat box complete with accompanying certificate and informative booklet. I ‘planted’ mine with one of my potted plants.

poppy3

And every time I look at it, I think about all those poor men, including my great uncle Guy, who died in the mud in France and Belgium. So this Memorial Day, don’t just barbeque — watch an appropriate movie, read a book or some poetry (there’s lots of excellent poetry), visit your local war memorial, but do something to remember. The dead deserve it.

*the title of the Tower of London installation

 

4 Comments
May 22, 2015

“Saddle Up”*

by chuckofish

Well it’s almost Memorial Day! Can you believe it? As you know, this is a day for remembering the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. armed forces. Many people visit cemeteries and memorials. We like to watch war movies.

sands

I grew up watching war movies. I like them. My dual personality suggested I watch the HBO series The Pacific (2010), which is a companion piece to their Band of Brothers series.

SGT._John_Basilone

I always take her advice, so the OM and I watched the first two episodes and it was, indeed, impressive–the whizzing, zinging bullets flying by and all. I felt like I had actually been at Guadalcanal for several hours. And, thank you, that was enough for me. I was not really engaged with the characters–the traditional wop, spic, wasp, mic, and jew of all WWII movies. I mean I get it. War is hell. But it is too traumatic watching this series. I know my limits. Don’t judge me for having limits.

Therefore, I will go back to a few of my old favorites this weekend. I am really in the mood for classic black-and-white British movies like The Dam Busters (1955)–The story of how the British attacked German dams in WWII by using an ingenious technique to drop bombs where they would be most effective–

The_Dam_Busters_02

or The Desert Rats (1953) with Richard Burton in charge of a disparate band of ANZAC troops on the perimeter of Tobruk with the German Army doing their best to dislodge them.

maxresdefault

These movies are tense and realistic and very powerful in their own, non-CG way. How will you celebrate Memorial Day?

There are certainly plenty of good war movies to choose from, and, of course, there is a Memorial Day Marathon on TCM.

We give you thanks, O Lord, for all who have died that we may live, for all who endured pain that we might know joy, for all who made sacrifices that we might have plenty, for all who suffered imprisonment that we might know freedom. Turn our deep feeling now into determination, and our determination into deed, that as men and women died for peace, we may live for peace for the sake of the Prince of Peace, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.**

Have a good weekend.

*Sgt. Stryker in Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)

** Prayer found here.

4 Comments
May 21, 2015

This and that: “Toiling on, toiling on; Let us hope, let us watch…”*

by chuckofish

boyntonHere’s more pictures of that wonderful home overlooking the Missouri River that I covet. And another lottery ticket to purchase I guess.

Not that I buy lottery tickets. You know I don’t approve.

Here’s something fun to do this summer. TCM is collaborating with Ball State University and Canvas Network, an open online educational platform from Instructure, to present Into the Darkness: Investigating Film Noir, a free online multimedia course open to the general public.

Burt and Ava in The Killers (1946)

Burt and Ava in The Killers (1946)

Film Noir isn’t really my thing, but they are showing some good movies in July.

This is a really good album. And Fred Vargas has a new book coming out Tuesday. Life is good.

susieflowers1

Have a good Thursday! Take time to smell the flowers!

 

*”To the Work” by Frances J. Crosby

6 Comments
May 20, 2015

“A man of God–such a shame”

by chuckofish

Are you watching Grantchester on PBS?

mast-grantchester-montage-1920x1080

Now that Wolf Hall is finished, I am watching Grantchester, a miniseries based on James Runcie’s novel Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death, about a young vicar and WWII veteran who teams up with a local detective to solve murders. The author based “Sidney after his late father, Lord Runcie, who was Archbishop of Canterbury in the 1980s. Like Sidney, the elder Runcie was a war hero before he entered the ministry, and he was a compassionate and amiable parish priest. Unfortunately, he never took up crime-solving. Grantchester corrects that oversight.” (PBS.com)

Sounds perfect to me.

Robson Green (Geordie Keating, the detective) and James Norton (Sidney Chambers, the vicar) are quite engaging and say things like:

“Do you think we have a problem with alcohol?”

“Absolutely. We don’t have any.”

I have set my DVR.

Side note: I met Lord Runcie when he was the Holy Week preacher at the Episcopal church I attended in the 1990s. He was a tank commander in WWII and, if I recall correctly, the only one to capture a submarine! It goes without saying (but I will) that they don’t make archbishops like him anymore.

5 Comments