December 18, 2014

Happy birthday, dear dual personality!

by chuckofish

Christmas c. 1985

I chose this photo because I thought my dual personality looks pretty*. But then I noticed how serious she looks. This girl wasn’t always so serious–even though she was a stressed-out graduate student at the time! (If I recall correctly, she wasn’t feeling well this Christmas. Soon, in fact, she would be down with pneumonia!) Maybe she hadn’t gotten what she wanted for her birthday. Or maybe it was that whole birthday/Christmas thing.

Perhaps her older sister was annoying her. Perhaps her darling one-year old niece was screaming in the background. Who knows?

Anyway, today is her birthday and we hope she is celebrating in style and that good food and wine and presents for pretty girls are involved.

Hopefully she is not cooking! As always I wish I could be with her!

“For there is no friend like a sister

In calm or stormy weather;

To cheer one on the tedious way,

To fetch one if one goes astray,

To lift one if one totters down,

To strengthen whilst one stands.”

–Christina Rossetti, Goblin Market

*Note that there is a shadow behind her head that makes her hair look much more bouffant than it actually was!

4 Comments

December 9, 2014

“There’s a certain Slant of light”*

by chuckofish

Today is Emily Dickinson’s birthday!

Emily lived her whole life (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) in Amherst, Massachusetts. She lived in this beautiful house, called by her family “The Homestead”.

She had a room of her own, and for Emily, this seems to have been enough. She also had her family and she did not lack for friends. She may have seemed “eccentric” to some, but plenty of people thought she was pretty cool. If she was mysterious back in her day, she is increasingly misunderstood now.

The Emily Dickinson Home, a National Historic Landmark, is located at 280 Main St. in Amherst, MA. Although I lived in the vicinity during my college years, I never visited the house. I saw it, but never went inside. The property, which is now owned by Amherst College, is a museum and is open to the public for guided tours March through December. It is definitely on my “to do/see” list.

So tonight let’s toast Emily and read a few of her poems. Here’s a good one for a winter afternoon:

There’s a certain Slant of light,

Winter Afternoons –

That oppresses, like the Heft

Of Cathedral Tunes –

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us –

We can find no scar,

But internal difference –

Where the Meanings, are –

None may teach it – Any –

‘Tis the seal Despair –

An imperial affliction

Sent us of the Air –

When it comes, the Landscape listens –

Shadows – hold their breath –

When it goes, ’tis like the Distance

On the look of Death –

2 Comments

November 28, 2014

Friday’s child, joyeux anniversaire!

by chuckofish

Today the boy turns 28 on the 28th! We wish him a glorious birthday. He was actually born on the day after Thanksgiving, shortly before midnight.

And now a this-is-how-my-mind-works side-note. Recently I watched The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) on TCM and the host noted that Errol Flynn was 28 years old when he made this film seventy-six years ago. I paid attention, because I was thinking about the boy turning 28. Errol, of course, is at the top of his game at age 28–handsome, athletic, smart–before he started that early slide precipitated by drugs and alcohol and a reckless lifestyle. Sadly, there has never been anyone quite like Errol Flynn in the movies since.

Anyway, I highly recommend watching this great film tonight. I really think it is one of the all-time best movies ever made and one of my top-five favorites.

The cast is perfect.

Melville Cooper, Basil Rathbone and Claude Rains

Herbert Mundin, Errol Flynn and Alan Hale

Cooper, Rathbone, Olivia de Havilland, Rains, and Flynn.

The script is tip-top–so witty and sophisticated, yet action-packed. The sets and costumes are un-paralleled and designed for technicolor which is–and so early in the game–vibrant and dazzling. The music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold is terrific and oft-copied. At the time, it was the most expensive movie ever made, and it shows. The studio’s money (for once) was not wasted. The director Michael Curtiz (one of my favorites) is the best.

It won Oscars for Art Direction, Editing and Score, but lost the Best Picture Award to You Can’t Take It With You. Please. You’ve got to be kidding.

It really is perfect on every level. I should also note that this movie boasts one of the all-time great female characters–Lady Marian Fitzwalter.

As portrayed by Olivia de Havilland, Maid Marian is beautiful, smart, brave, and chaste. Buttoned up in high-necked gowns at all times, she is also undeniably sexy. She stands up bravely to the villains in the film and does not run off with Robin when things start to get dangerous. No, she stays in the castle where she can do the most good spying for the good guys. She is wonderful. Please note: this is a type of woman Hollywood is completely unable to get right anymore.

So happy birthday to the boy

Robin and Marian circa 1991

and have a great weekend!

5 Comments

November 19, 2014

This and That

by chuckofish

Happy Anniversary to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip who were married at Westminster Abbey on November 20, 1947.

You’re looking good, kids!

It is also the birthday of our hipster vice president.

He’s turning 72. Biden has received honorary degrees from the University of Scranton, Saint Joseph’s University, Widener University School of Law, and Emerson College. High fives all around.

Yesterday’s best local headline:

Missouri man who took out the trash and never came back found in Branson

Here’s the whole story.

And this is pretty great:

Hey, life is good. Be thankful.

3 Comments

November 17, 2014

“They can’t keep me out of heaven on a technicality!”*

by chuckofish

Today is the birthday of Clarence Day (November 18, 1874–December 28, 1935), the author of Life With Father and long-time contributor to The New Yorker.

Born in New York City, he attended St. Paul’s School and Yale, where he edited the humor magazine. He was an Episcopalian. But bedridden with arthritis for the last 23 years of his life, he was barely able to hold a pencil. Isn’t it amazing that he wrote such hilarious material?

Scenes from Life With Father, along with its 1932 predecessor, God and My Father, and its 1937 sequel, Life with Mother, published posthumously, were the basis for the 1939 play by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, which became one of Broadway’s longest-running non-musical hits. In 1947—the year the play ended on Broadway—it was made into a wonderful film starring William Powell and Irene Dunne and directed by Michael Curtiz.

Sadly, Day died in 1935, never having realized the sensational success of his book or the play and movie based on it.

We always got a big kick out of it, especially all the poking fun at Episcopalians:

Mary: That’s funny. The words are the same, but it’s the wrong tune.

Clarence Day: Oh, it can’t be the wrong tune. We sing it exactly that way in church.

Mary: We don’t sing it that way in the Methodist Church. You see, we’re Methodist.

Clarence Day: Oh, that’s too bad. Oh, I don’t mean it’s too bad that you’re a Methodist. Anybody’s got a right to be anything they want, but what I mean is, we’re… *Episcopalians*.

Clarence Day is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.

That would be an interesting place to visit, don’t you think? A rural cemetery, it is one of the largest in New York City and is a designated historic landmark. There are lots of famous people buried there including Fiorello La Guardia, Irving Berlin, Damon Runyon…and Herman Melville! But I digress.

In the meantime, I’ll toast ol’ Clarence tonight (along with his mother and Father).

*Life With Father (1947)

6 Comments

November 6, 2014

“I live in my own mind, ain’t nothing but a good time”

by chuckofish

I missed Lyle Lovett’s birthday on November 1, so I will note it now belatedly.

Lyle, you know, is a 5th-generation Texan and a Grammy-winning country music singer/songwriter and actor. He is one of my favorites. I have actually seen him in concert three times! His picture is proudly displayed on my wall at home along with Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler.

So let’s toast him tonight. Here are a couple of Lyle’s videos to watch and enjoy:

2 Comments

October 2, 2014

Words of wisdom

by chuckofish

“I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.”

–Groucho Marx, The Essential Groucho: Writings For By and About Groucho Marx

Today is the birthday of Julius Henry Marx (October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977)–American comedian and film and television star.

An early photo of the Marx brothers with their parents in New York City, 1915. From left to right: Groucho, Gummo, Minnie (mother), Zeppo, Frenchie (father), Chico, and Harpo.

So stop taking yourself so seriously, at least for today! A toast to Groucho and his brothers–L’chaim!

Please note that it is also the birthday of Graham Greene–but it was much too depressing looking for a quote from him! I am not a great fan of his novels, but some of the movies based on his novels or for which he wrote the screenplays–such as The Third Man (1949) and This Gun For Hire (1942)–are pretty darn good. So another toast, barkeep–for Graham Greene!

1 Comment

September 11, 2014

“Velvet I can wish you for the collar of your coat”*

by chuckofish

As you know, daughter #1, the over-worked television producer, has been taking it easy at home this week, relaxing as one only truly can at home.

“The Song” by William Merritt Chase

We are having fun watching reality TV and visiting our incredible flyover grocery stores. Tonight we will celebrate her Big Birthday with a backyard bar-b-que, the OM grilling, and with the boy and his bride attending. Beforehand, daughter #1 and I plan to pre-game at Grant’s Farm