dual personalities

Month: November, 2015

November 6, 2015

Friday movie picks

by chuckofish

Earlier in the week it was the birthday of character actor Martin Balsam (1919-1996) who, I was reminded, was in a lot of my favorite movies. For instance he was in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)–

MV5BNjkwMzk0NTAzN15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwNTQwNTI2._V1_SX640_SY720_playing O.J. Berman, Holly’s agent. (“Hey, Fred-baby!”)

He was in A Thousand Clowns (1965)–

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as Murray’s brother Arnold. (He won an Oscar for this one.)

He was in Hombre (1967)–

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playing Paul Newman’s friend Henry Mendez.

Indeed, he was all over television and movies in the sixties and seventies and all the way to end of the millennium. As an ethnically-ambiguous Jew from the Bronx he could play everything from Mexican bandits to  Wasp admirals and he did, over and over. He was like Ward Bond in an earlier generation, always popping up in random movies. What  a career!

So I suggest you watch a movie with Martin Balsam in it. There are a lot of good ones from which to choose!

I will also note that I watched Melissa McCarthy’s Spy (2015) the other night.

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I am not a big fan of Ms. McCarthy–she is frequently over-the top in the vulgarity department–but I thought this movie was really funny. Besides McCarthy, the movie features Jude Law as a James Bond-type spy and Jason Statham in a parody of himself. Allison Janney is great as the Boss Lady who is a super bitch, but has been there and seen that and, in the end, understands.

The use of the f-bomb in this movie is a parody in itself. As Rose Byrne says, “What f**kery is this?”

When all is said and done, Paul Fieg (the writer) manages to make some good points about women who are ignored, stereotyped, laughed at, and generally under-appreciated because they are not traditionally beautiful, thin, assertive etc.

Anyway, I laughed non-stop to the point of embarrassment. My eyes were streaming with tears. The OM sat stone-faced throughout, of course, but he did stay for the whole movie, which is unheard of practically, and I think he smiled a few times.

So try it; you might like it.

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November 4, 2015

Ich kann nicht anders

by chuckofish

In case you missed it, last Saturday (besides being Halloween) was Reformation Day. This is the day Protestants celebrate Martin Luther’s nailing of his 95 Theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg in 1517.

Wittenberg_Schlosskirche_Thesentuer

This event is usually credited with opening the flood gates of the Protestant Reformation.

In reading about Reformation Day, I ran across the interesting fact that in 2008 Chile set a regional precedent, declaring October 31st a public holiday in honor of “the evangelical and Protestant churches”. What?! you say. Indeed, five centuries after the region’s forced conversion to Catholicism, Chile’s new holiday is a cultural milestone. In fact, in a once staunchly Catholic country, 15% of Chileans identify as “evangelicals” (a synonym in Latin America for Protestants). State schools now offer a choice of Catholic and evangelical religious teaching, and the armed forces have chaplains from both denominations. Furthermore, Chile is not alone. More than 15% of Brazilians and over 20% of Guatemalans are now evangelicals. (The Economist)

Well, well. I know what I will be toasting tonight.

I also may track down and watch Luther (2003) with Joseph Fiennes as Martin Luther. Here’s a snippet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOWfTjkJc48

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November 4, 2015

What it is

by chuckofish

Vincent_van_Gogh_-_87_Hackford_Road

“When Van Gogh was a young man in his early twenties, he was in London studying to be a clergyman. He had no thought of being an artist at all. he sat in his cheap little room writing a letter to his younger brother in Holland, whom he loved very much. He looked out his window at a watery twilight, a thin lampost, a star, and he said in his letter something like this: “it is so beautiful I must show you how it looks.” And then on his cheap ruled note paper, he made the most beautiful, tender, little drawing of it.

When I read this letter of Van Gogh’s it comforted me very much and seemed to throw a clear light on the whole road of Art. Before, I thought that to produce a work of painting or literature, you scowled and thought long and ponderously and weighed everything solemnly and learned everything that all artists had ever done aforetime, and what their influences and schools were, and you were extremely careful about “design” and “balance” and getting “interesting planes” into your painting, and avoided, with the most astringent severity, showing the faintest “a” tendency, and were strictly modern. And so on and so on.

But the moment I read Van Gogh’s letter I knew what art was, and the creative impulse. It is a feeling of love and enthusiasm for something, and in a direct, simple, passionate and true way, you try to show this beauty in things to others, by drawing it.

And Van Gogh’s little drawing on the cheap note paper was a work of art because he loved the sky and the frail lamppost against it so seriously that he made the drawing with the most exquisite conscientiousness and care. ”

―Brenda Ueland, If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit 

It has been awhile since I shared Brenda Ueland with you. I think she is so great. I agree that Art is about Love and sharing what you love with others.

On another subject, but related–I drove a Subaru for years. It was totally against stereotype, but I loved that car . So I thought it was pretty great when the Subaru people worked “Love” into this ad campaign.

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Now they are even using a Gregory Alan Isakov song in an ad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkX4aOQ_u2I

I hardly watch any television these days with commercials, but I saw this and was pleased. There are still some smart people out there working for the Man.

6 Comments
November 3, 2015

“Color is vulgar, beauty is unimportant, and nature is trivial.”*

by chuckofish

Today  is the birthday of American photographer Walker Evans (1903-1975). Evans was born in St. Louis and attended Williams College for a year before dropping out and heading to Paris to be a writer.

He took up photography in 1928 after returning to the U.S. In the summer of 1936 he and writer James Agee were sent by Fortune magazine on assignment to Hale County, Alabama for a story the magazine subsequently opted not to run. (I wonder why?)

Walker Evans, [Floyd and Lucille Burroughs, Hale County Alabama], 1936. Gelatin silver print. Mandatory Credit: ©Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art /Published: The New York Times on the Web 07/18/99 Books PLEASE CONTACT Margaret M. Doyle, Senior Press Officer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (212)-650-2128 FOR FUTURE REPRODUCTION USE.

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In 1941 Evans’s photographs and Agee’s text detailing the duo’s stay with three white tenant families in southern Alabama during the Great Depression were published as the book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. I remember reading this book in school–I can’t remember when, but it was quite a book.

Anyway, Walker Evans’ photographs surely prove the old adage: A picture is worth a thousand words.

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A toast to Walker Evans tonight! And another toast to another birthday boy, Charles Bronson (1921-2003)–actor and all-around cool dude.

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On the set of “The Magnificent Seven” with Steve McQueen, 1960

*Walker Evans…The boy said something very similar as a small child once. I asked him why he never used color in his very detailed pencil drawings. He replied, “Color is evil,” which stopped me in my tracks.

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November 2, 2015

Hearts are brave*

by chuckofish

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I went to see The Yeoman of the Guard by Gilbert & Sullivan on Friday night.

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The scene of this opera is laid within the precincts of the Tower of London, in the period of the 16th Century.

Admittedly, it was not the D’Oly Carte Opera Company, but I thought our local Winter Opera company was really quite wonderful.

My mother was a fan of Yeoman and we had the record.

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I think she liked it because it is the only W&S opera with kind of a sad ending. She could always relate to the fool/jester character in anything and there is a stellar one in Yeoman.

Anyway, I dragged the OM and the boy along (daughter #3 was otherwise engaged) and they enjoyed it also. We were all proud of ourselves for getting out and participating in a cultural activity.

It reminded me of the time back in 1964 when my mother bought tickets to see the actual D’Oyly Carte Company perform The Mikado. She took my brother and me. I was in the second grade, but she thought I was old enough to enjoy/appreciate this opportunity. (She may have over-estimated me.) Anyway, my father took my little sister (who was not old enough to enjoy/appreciate light opera) to see It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Ironically this film was on TCM last week and I DVR’d it and then watched it this weekend. It features literally every American comedian (plus Terry-Thomas) alive in 1963. It is overly long and drags some, but it does have its moments. Jonathan Winters is great and the scene in the gas station with Arnold Stang and Marvin Kaplan is priceless. There is a lot of yelling in this movie.

Speaking of movies, I also watched From Hell (2001) on Halloween and, despite the presence of Johnny Depp, I thought it was dreadful. Apologies for recommending it on Friday!

Sunday, as you know, was All Saints Day and we had an interminably long service complete with a children’s sermon dissecting the hymn The Saints of God. Oh, did I mention it was also pledge Sunday? Well, it was. On top of this, the woman sitting behind me was a beat behind or a beat ahead during every prayer and every hymn to the point where I was ready to slap her and slap her hard. I hate feeling that way in church.

And now it is November and the long slide to Christmas begins. Deo gratias.

Enjoy your Monday!

Point. I have a song to sing, O!

Elsie. Sing me your song, O!

Point. It is sung to the moon

By a love-lorn loon,

Who fled from the mocking throng,O!

It’s the song of a merryman, moping mum,

Whose soul was sad, and whose glance was glum,

Who sipped no sup, and who craved no crumb.

As he sighed for the love of a ladye.

Heighdy! heighdy! Misery me, lackadaydee!

He sipped no sup, and he craved no crumb,

As he sighed for the love of a ladye.

–Yeoman of the Guard

Hymn #287

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