movies | dual personalities

December 18, 2023

“O Daughter of Zion, shout aloud”*

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? Ours was dark and gloomy and rainy, but full of festive seasonal fun nevertheless.

We went to the Christmas concert Friday night–a packed house of Presbyterians, plus a few random Episcopalians I recognized and even a few Jewish Messiah lovers. I enjoyed it very much, but didn’t get home until 10 p.m.–way past my usual bedtime!

On Saturday I went to the funeral of an old 99-year-old friend at my old church. Shirley was quite the gal–a lifelong Episcopalian, Republican and Cardinals fan who went to spring training in Florida every year. She was also a professional woman who had enjoyed quite a long and successful career. The former rector came from Florida to speak along with the former President Pro Tem of the Missouri State Senate. He told the story of how Shirley was sad when she gave up her season tickets to the Cardinals at age 97, but that she had to admit that watching the games on her daughter’s big screen tv had its benefits–namely being able to see Nolan Arenado, “the most beautiful man ever,” up close and personal.

The service was 100% Rite I, but the interim rector kept lapsing into Rite II. C’est la vie. The lay readers were good, which would have pleased Shirley. She had been one herself for decades. I always felt so validated when she gave me a thumbs up after I read. The church was almost full–which said quite a lot about 99-year-old Shirley–but the singing was weak. Shirley, I daresay, is well out of the Episcopal Church and in heaven now.

For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;
And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God,
Whom I shall see for myself,
And my eyes shall behold, and not another.
–Job 19:25-27

After Mr. Smith went to the spa for his shampoo, daughter #1 came over and helped me decorate the tree.

We also watched the 1951 A Christmas Carol–the best version in my ~~not so~~ humble opinion.

This scene always makes me cry: “You’ve made Fred so happy!”

The boy was in Kansas City with his family all weekend, so it was just the OM and I at church and a quiet Sunday afternoon.

Also, I did want to wish a happy birthday to my dual personality. Happy Birthday, sweet sister of mine!

I hope someone is cooking you a nice dinner and that my present arrived in time for you to open it today. I hope you watch a good movie, maybe Captain Blood (1935) or How to Steal a Million (1966). I will be toasting Fizzy Fuzz, Pompey, Pete, and Robert Preston!

Also, this meme made me LOL:

P.S. Many thanks to whoever sent the fruitcake from Texas–there was no card!

*Zechariah 9:9

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December 6, 2023

A partridge in a pear tree

by chuckofish

It is that time of year when everything is in a state of chaos, most particularly my office. Good grief, Charlie Brown! Although you cannot tell, I am making progress. I mailed two out-of-town packages and wrote my Christmas letter!

In other news, today is the birthday of the great character actress Agnes Moorehead (1900-1974). The daughter of a Presbyterian minister, she grew up in St. Louis where as a child she was in the chorus of the MUNY Opera! At the insistence of her father she graduated from college before heading to the stage. During her long and illustrious career she was nominated for an Academy Award four times and an Emmy Award seven times, winning once for The Wild, Wild West of all things. Here she is in Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons (1942):

I remember going with my mother and sister to see her at the Fox Theatre in the early 1970s when she reprised her role in Don Juan in Hell on tour, with an all-star cast that featured Edward Mulhare, Ricardo Montalban and Paul Henreid. (I would have sworn it was Myrna Loy, but Wikipedia says it was Agnes Moorehead.) I just remember Ricardo Montalban prompting the forgetful Edward Mulhare throughout the play. Well, she was a great actress who was in a lot of good movies. She certainly was the best thing about Bewitched.

And remember this episode from season five of The Mary Tyler Moore Show? All the coworkers are fed up and frustrated with each other, and Sue Ann forces the crew into a rendition of The 12 Days of Christmas.

We’ve all been there, right? So keep your chin up, smile, and remember that Jesus is the reason for the season.

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November 30, 2023

“How do we keep our balance?…Tradition!”*

by chuckofish

Over the last few days I have slowly but surely unpacked a lot of Christmas decorations. The mantle is done and I was deeply gratified on Tuesday night when the wee twins exclaimed, “Oh! You decorated your mantle!” They noticed and they recognized a lot of old friends. Lottie asked me which was my favorite, and I said, I don’t really have a favorite.

Some of them are as old as I am. They represent a lot of people and places and times.

I also put up the little tree in the dining room and decorated it.

So many ornaments have been given to me over the years and I remember who gave me each one.

The twins have their own little trees in their rooms. I gave them an ornament each to put on their trees the other night–gotta encourage the collecting gene!

Katie also has her own little tree and her own collection of hand-me-down small ornaments from her Mommy.

Cheers to wholesome traditions!

Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied. (Jude 1: 2)

*Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof

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November 13, 2023

Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples!

by chuckofish

Thanksgiving is just around the corner! We should rejoice and be thankful, despite our manifold sins and general wickedness, all year round, but I especially do at this time of year. As always, it is the little things that stand out for me, such as the chip fest we enjoyed on Saturday night when the boy dropped off Lottie while the wee bud went to a birthday party. (Their Mom was in Dallas this weekend.)

Daughter #1 and Mr. Smith joined the OM and Lottie and me to watch The Gnome-Mobile (1967)–a vintage Disney film in which a multi-millionaire lumberman (Walter Brennan) and his two young grandchildren (played by the kids from Mary Poppins) encounter two gnomes in the Redwood forest of California who are supposedly the last of their kind. Hilarity ensues. Although there is no princess in this film, I think Lottie enjoyed it. At least now she knows what a gnome is.

On Sunday we all went to Sunday School, but then the boy took Lottie to a birthday party and the bud stayed with us through church. He came over to our house after church to hang out with daughter #1 and Mr. Smith who joined us for total depravity casserole. Of course, Lottie had told her brother all about The Gnome-Mobile (including the car chase) and he wanted to watch it, but I was like, um no, not right now.

The boy and Lottie came over after her party. We hung out on the driveway for awhile, probably for the last time til next year.

It was another beautiful weekend.

And Mizzou beat the pants off Tennessee! Hometowner Cody Schrader, a graduate of Lutheran South, was the star of the game. According to the AP, “Cody Schrader put together one of the most impressive performances in Missouri history Saturday night, running for 205 yards and a touchdown, catching five passes for 116 yards, and leading the No. 16 Tigers to a 36-7 rout of No. 14 Tennessee.” Normally I could care less about Mizzou football, much less watch a game, but Matt Mitchell gives them so much grief for being in the SEC, I have become an interested partisan. Anyway, I was pleased that they won.

In honor of Veterans Day we watched Gettysburg (1993) which is based on Michael Shaara’s fine book The Killer Angels. It is a good movie, except for the miscast Martin Sheen as Robert E. Lee. But I much prefer old Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain anyway. As you know, he is a hero of mine.

This is a different kind of army. If you look back through history you will see men fighting for pay, for women, for some other kind of loot. They fight for land, power, because a king leads them, or just because they like killing. But we are here for something new, this has not happened much, in the history of the world. We are an army out to set other men free. America should be free ground, all of it, not divided by a line between slave states and free – all the way from here to the Pacific Ocean. No man has to bow. No man born to royalty. Here we judge you by what you do, not by who your father was. Here you can be something. Here is the place to build a home. But it’s not the land, there’s always more land. It’s the idea that we all have value – you and me. What we are fighting for, in the end, we’re fighting for each other. Sorry, I didn’t mean to preach. …Gentlemen, I think if we lose this fight we lose the war, so if you choose to join us I will be personally very grateful.

(Jeff Daniels as Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain)

Well, continue to cultivate gratitude, appreciate your freedom and enjoy your Monday.

Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples!
Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
For the Lord Most High is awesome;
He is a great King over all the earth.
He will subdue the peoples under us,
And the nations under our feet.
He will choose our inheritance for us,
The excellence of Jacob whom He loves. Selah

(Psalm 47:1-4)

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November 9, 2023

Bread from heaven

by chuckofish

We are experiencing Indian Summer this week in flyover country–absolutely beautiful days in the 70s and even 80s with the sun hitting the orange leaves in a really spectacular way. And the leaf blowers are out in full force. I do get tired of all the noise, like a bajillion bees coming in waves to attack us. 🙄

My friend Don sent this photo of his birdbath with “the neighborhood bluebirds”.

I live a mile or so away and I have never seen a bluebird!

As we all know, the streaming platforms are a wasteland and I haven’t watched network tv for years. So I am forced to watch episodes of old shows like the old lady that I am. Lately, however, I have added Harry Wild to my watch list (on Acorn). It stars the lovely Jane Seymour as a recently retired English professor who discovers a knack for investigation and cannot help but interfere with the cases assigned to her police detective son.

Although she doesn’t quite look her age–she’s five years older than I am–she doesn’t hide the fact that she is an old retired lady. She dresses like I do. She drives an old (red) car and drinks (too much) red wine. She knows a lot about English literature. She speaks with grammatical precision and corrects those who don’t. I can actually relate to her. Also the show is filmed in Dublin and I have actually been there, so that is interesting and familiar. The show is not American, so the Irish are not stereotypes.

So I recommend it if you are looking for something to watch. And who isn’t?

Today we must not forget to remember that unsung hero Elijah Parish Lovejoy (November 9, 1802 – November 7, 1837) who was an American Presbyterian minister, journalist, newspaper editor and abolitionist. He was murdered by a pro-slavery mob in Alton, Illinois, during their attack on his warehouse to destroy his press and abolitionist materials. As I’ve said before, Lovejoy’s life (and murder) is another reminder to us today of how rough and dangerous life was in my part of the country back in the mid-nineteenth century. And people think emotions run high these days!

We also remember Edna May Oliver who died on this day, her birthday, in 1942. She was an American stage and screen actress who specialized in formidable older women, such as Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride and Prejudice (1940) and Miss Pross in A Tale of Two Cities (1935). She was only nominated once for a supporting actress Oscar, but it was for a doozy–Mrs. McKlennar in Drums Along the Mohawk (1939).

I re-watched this movie recently and was really impressed by it. And Edna May Oliver is great; she never crosses the line into farce which a lesser actress might do. She is always 100% believable.

So enjoy these last beautiful days of fall, watch an old lady in a tv show or movie, remember some history, and praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Help me to see that although I am in the wilderness
  it is not all briars and barrenness.
I have bread from heaven, streams from the rock,
  light by day, fire by night,
  thy dwelling place and thy mercy seat.

–Valley of Vision

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November 1, 2023

A day of small things*

by chuckofish

In the late afternoon of November 1, 1941, Ansel Adams took this black-and-white photo, “Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico”. Pretty cool indeed.

Also pretty cool is Lyle Lovett, and it is his birthday today! Happy Birthday, Lyle! Hats off to you–67 years old and still touring.

Today is also the anniversary of the death of Ezra Pound (1885-1972) who was a major figure in the modernist poetry movement. An indulged son of privilege, he was always somewhat “out of key with his time”–another way to say, he never fit in. I was amused to discover that his first job out of graduate school was teaching at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, which he considered the “sixth circle of hell”. Well, la di da.

Not surprisingly, he was asked to leave Wabash shortly after starting there.

Anyway, his “legacy” is certainly a mixed one, and he is mostly remembered for his advancement of some of the best-known modernist writers of the early 20th century. All the cool kids: Eliot, Joyce, Lewis, Frost, Williams, Hemingway, H.D., Aldington, and Aiken, Cummings, Bunting, Ford, and Marianne Moore, who became one of his staunchest defenders throughout his controversial career. He lived a long life and is buried in the Protestant section of the San Michele cemetery in Venice. Supposedly Pound had wanted to be buried in Idaho (where he was born) with his bust by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska on his grave. Tant pis. He wouldn’t have fit in there either.

I would rather toast Noah Beery, Jr. who also died on this day in 1994. He was, of course, a supporting actor best known for playing James Garner’s father in The Rockford Files. However, he acted in a lot of movies, most notably as a pilot in Only Angels Have Wings (1939) and as a cowboy in Red River (1948)–both directed by Howard Hawks.

So on this first day of November, look up at the sky, listen to some good music, read a poem, watch an old movie, embrace your supporting part.

Amen.

*See Zechariah, chapter 4

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October 26, 2023

Fifty-six years of not blinking

by chuckofish

Recently Sir Michael Caine announced that he is retiring from acting. “I keep saying I’m going to retire. Well I am now,” he said. Thankfully we have all his old movies to watch (and one more new one on the way). Simon Pegg sums up his career rather well:

I read his memoir a few years ago and he is a stand up guy. So hats off to Michael Caine and a toast tonight to his illustrious career. I think I’ll watch Zulu (1964).

Sigh. We are all getting older. Think of the Rolling Stones and ol’ Mick Jagger who is 80. Good grief. Here he is in 1964 making his debut on Ed Sullivan. He was twenty-one.

O God, from my youth you have taught me,
    and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
So even to old age and gray hairs,
    O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
    your power to all those to come.

(Psalm 71:17-18)

Chin chin. Do carry on with your mudpies.

6 Comments

October 24, 2023

Things that go bump in the night

by chuckofish

We find ourselves in the last full week of October–zut alors! Have you watched any of your favorite spooky/scary movies? As you know, I am not a fan of the “horror” genre–I saw The Shining (1980) once and that was enough–but I do have my list of Halloween-appropriate gems. Last week I watched Ghostbusters (1984), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) and The Birds (1963).

All three were highly satisfactory and not really very scary. Yes, we do not recommend watching The Birds if you are 10 years old and by yourself. If you are an adult and watching with friends/family, you mostly chuckle at Rod Taylor’s bulging cargo pants and Tippi Hendren’s Edith Head-designed green suit, which she wears for three days straight. You can easily avert your eyes when there is a shot of someone with their eyes pecked out. You can also do a lot of talking to the screen: “Don’t leave the phone booth!”; “Don’t go upstairs, you fool!”; “Take the children to the basement, not outside, you morons!”

Indeed, there is plenty to chatter about during this movie. Why is Rod’s mother such a weirdo? “I’m not very strong.” Please! What about those townspeople in the diner voicing their idiotic opinions? Especially that blowhard old lady in the beret, smoking her cigarette. And that mother of two traumatized children who wants a ride out of town from the drunk traveling salesman, what? And let’s not forget the kook who keeps saying, “It’s the end of the world!” (Spoiler alert: it is.)

Anyway, it is that time of year when we indulge in this kind of off-brand movie viewing. Next on the docket are The Uninvited (1944), Signs (2002) and The Sixth Sense (1999) and maybe another Hitchcock classic like Rear Window (1954) just because we like it.

Frankly the world is a scary enough place without watching modern horror movies. Read some history for real horror.

What will you be watching?

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October 18, 2023

Stand by me

by chuckofish

Time marches on and it is once again the OM’s and my anniversary. As usual, we will be playing it cool and watching Shane (1953).

I feel no need to spend hundreds of dollars on a gourmet meal at a trendy restaurant. Take out from Chick-fil-a or an omelet will be just fine. I may open a bottle of wine that is fancier than our house wine, but maybe not. À chacun le sien.

O gracious and everliving God, you have created us male and female in your image: Look mercifully upon this man and this woman who come to you seeking your blessing, and assist them with your grace, that with true fidelity and steadfast love they may honor and keep the promises and vows they make; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

–BCP, The Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage, 1979

Well, I’m an old lady now and this is with whom I identify these days. “Morals over Hussies.”

Granny: “A vegan and a vegetarian are jumping off a cliff to see who hits the bottom first.”

Boys: “Uh huh.”

Granny: “Who wins?”

Boys shrug.

Granny: “Society.”

October 2, 2023

Postcards from the weekend

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? Mine was summer-y hot, but full of outdoor fun. We stayed cool in the shade watching the little bud run up and down the field in another victory for his first grade team. (Sorry, U. City.)

And Lottie lost a tooth!

After the game we celebrated Mr. Smith’s 1st birthday back at his house…

Lottie made him a birthday card–doesn’t this look just like Mr. Smith?

Mr. Smith got a lot of exercise playing catch in the back yard. Earlier in the day he and daughter #1 had walked up the street to see the U. City Homecoming parade. Field hockey girls never change.

On Sunday we heard a good sermon from a guest preacher. The church was full so the singing was especially robust. I cried as usual. Afterwards the boy and the twins came over for bagels. We sat outside and enjoyed the cooler temperature. Lottie and the bud ran around and quarreled and got very dirty playing on the driveway–good times.

Meanwhile Katie is ready for October with her new festive attire from her aunt Lauren:

I watched some of the Ryder Cup and one really good movie. Cinema Paradiso (1988) is one of my all-time favorite Italian movies (top five) and a favorite movie, period. (Just don’t watch the director’s cut.)