movies | dual personalities

June 30, 2020

“Thus we salute thee with our early song”*

by chuckofish

Today is the 332th anniversary of the day the Immortal Seven issued the invitation to William of Orange which culminated in the Glorious Revolution in England in 1689. One of the Seven was, of course, the OM’s ancestor Henry Compton. Perhaps we should watch The Magnificent Seven (1960) in honor of the occasion.

Perhaps you think I have gone ’round the bend, but, no, that is always how my mind has worked.

Today is also the birthday of John Gay (1685-1732), British Poet and Playwright. He is best known for “The Beggar’s Opera,” a ballad opera upon which “The Threepenny Opera” is based. Laurence Olivier filmed his version of “The Beggar’s Opera” in 1953 (his only musical film), and I think I may have to find it and watch.

At the very least, we should listen to “Mack the Knife” on repeat.

It is also the birthday of singer-songwriter Dave Van Ronk (1936-2002) upon whose life the movie Inside Llewelyn Davis (2013) is loosely based (according to Rolling Stone Magazine.)

So here’s something for your listening pleasure in honor of Dave–can’t help thinking the wee babes would really enjoy this.

So you see, everything is loosely based on something else. I am cool with it. And there is plenty to toast at the end of the day.

*John Milton, “Song on May Morning” (1632–33)

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June 29, 2020

“I’ll keep the path open, the path in my mind.”*

by chuckofish

I had a quiet weekend. It was hot and sometimes rainy, so I stayed close to home. But I ventured out to a couple of estate sales and had some luck. I found an antique/vintage highchair, of which I am in need since we sometimes have wee twins to dine…

I also rescued a needlepoint brick!

Anyway, I was pleased.

I also did some closet rummaging/rearranging and finished reading A Glassful of Blessings by Barbara Pym. Practically nothing happens in her novels, but she is such a good writer and her descriptions of the smallest interactions are so on target, that I find her books very enjoyable.

In my rummaging I found this little doll from the Soviet Union, which my mother told me she had bought with her pennies in Woolworth’s in the 1930s. It may have been the first thing she bought herself. She is small–only about 5 ” tall.

It appealed to her and she had kept it all those years and now I have kept it all these years. How different she is from all of Lottiebelle’s Disney princesses!

I watched Destry Rides Again (1939) which stars James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich.

Stewart is well cast as the initially misunderstood deputy who does not wear a gun. Dietrich, as usual, steals the show, and everyone is happy to let her. The supporting cast is strong. All in all, it is an excellent summer entertainment.

I fell asleep in the middle of most everything else I watched. Par for the course.

Now it is back to the salt mine of working remotely.

The lark is up to meet the sun,
The bee is on the wing,
The ant her labor has begun,
The woods with music ring.

Shall birds and bees and ants be wise,
While I my moments waste?
Oh, let me with the morning rise,
And to my duties haste. (Jane Taylor)

*Bob Dylan

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June 26, 2020

“Forc[ed] to sing our songs in little rooms”*

by chuckofish

So another weekend is upon us. June is nearing its end! The year is already half over! Good grief.

But it is tiger lily season here in all its glory. And fireflies are back! Summer is definitely here in flyover country! I’ll toast that!

In other news, I liked what Paul Walker said in his daily devotional the other day:

Christ Church, Charlottesville, is taking its Sunday morning service outside this week. I don’t know if that means they will not be recording it. If so, I will miss them. But it is a good thing that more and more churches are getting back together in person. I salute them.

I liked this too, written by Sam Bush, who plays the guitar at the Christ Church services. (The bit by John Mulaney is pretty funny too. I haven’t watched SNL for 100 years.)

While rummaging in the basement, I found some smocked dresses made by my mother (and two store-bought) plus one made by my grandmother. I washed and ironed them this week and sent them to daughter #2 for Katiebelle.

Here’s Katiebelle’s Mommy wearing one of them!

I didn’t do anything else too interesting this past week. The OM and I watched Patton (1970)–all three hours of it!–and enjoyed it, but not that much. Patton ends on a depressing note. As usual, journalists come off badly.

We also watched The Train (1964) an American/French WWII film with Burt Lancaster getting to do all the physical stuff at which he excelled.

The story takes place in August 1944 when masterpieces of modern art stolen by the Wehrmacht are being shipped to Germany by train. The Nazi officer in charge of the operation is determined to take the paintings to Germany, no matter the cost (in other words, he’s a nut.) The French resistance members (led by Burt) save the paintings but at quite a loss of French lives, begging the question, is art worth human lives? The obsessed art-loving Nazi in this story would say, yes, without hesitation. But Burt doesn’t agree–very existential, and in black and white too (unlike the poster above, of course).

I will note that on this day in 1977 Elvis Presley held his final concert in Indianapolis, Indiana at Market Square Arena. We might want to watch an Elvis movie and raise a toast. Jailhouse Rock (1957) anyone?

Have a nice weekend!

*Billy Collins, “American Sonnet”

7 Comments

June 19, 2020

“Only a dad, neither rich nor proud, Merely one of the surging crowd”*

by chuckofish

Another Friday rolls around…and just in the nick of time!

Father’s Day is this weekend so I was thinking about movies that my father liked and movies that we saw together. Of course, he was a big fan of the whole war movie genre. I remember going to see Patton (1970) with him at the Cinerama theater in the CWE. He loved it so much he went back to see it the next day (by himself).

I can’t say that I feel that strongly about Patton, but I wouldn’t be averse to watching it in honor of my father and all the other WWII vets who loved it too.

My father was also a big John Wayne fan, so anything from that genre would be suitable. My favorite memory of going to see a JW movie with him was El Dorado (1967) during the summer when my mother was back east with her dying mother. It was a real mood changer.

John Wayne in a war movie = bonus points.

My father also liked detective movies and we frequently went to see ones that in retrospect were no doubt too “adult” for my sister and me. The Detective (1968) with Frank Sinatra comes to mind.

I guess I’m adult enough to handle it now.

What movies do you remember watching with your father? The Fellowship of the Ring? Die Hard? Bullitt? All seven Fast & Furious movies?

The wee babes are coming over for a little visit on Saturday morning to frolic outside. They have lots of places to be this Father’s Day weekend, but we are happy to be able to celebrate the OM (“Pappy”) and the boy, their wonderful father.

We will also tip the hat to DN, our newest Dad, on his very first Father’s Day!

*Edgar Guest

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June 12, 2020

Natural circumstances and the perversity of human will

by chuckofish

Another week almost gone with the wind. They do go by. I had a busy week “at work” and I went to a Vestry meeting. Yes, the Vestry meeting was actually at church, in Albright Hall, where we sat 6 feet apart and wore masks. It was a little ridiculous, but at least we were together all in one place. It felt kind of normal. We are the only Episcopal Church in the diocese that is meeting together on Sunday and I am proud of our Rector who is jumping through a lot of hoops to do this. I have a feeling there are many ministers/priests who are sleeping through this period and glad of the excused absence.

I liked Paul Walker’s daily devotion (from Charlottesville) the other day, which read in part:

I also went to the dentist (high fives all around) and drove to pick up a Victorian chair I won on the online auction held at our local auction house. It is a needlepoint rescue and nothing special, but it felt good to be back in the game.

Of course, there has been much FaceTiming and cooing over our sweet Katiebelle. She has changed so much in her first week!

And look how confident DN is getting compared to 3 years ago when he practiced holding the wee babes.

The wee babes at six months are about the same size as Katiebelle at one week!

Meanwhile the OM and I have been watching The Last Ship, a series on Hulu that was originally aired on TNT back in 2014, about the crew of a U.S. naval destroyer that is forced to confront the reality of a new existence when a pandemic kills off most of the earth’s population. Timely, right? It stars Eric Dane and Adam Baldwin. We are enjoying it and I recommend it if you are in the mood for an action series that has some depth to it. And the leads are handsome.

We also watched 49th Parallel (1941), a British war film made by the Pressburger/Powell team with the help of Leslie Howard, Laurence Olivier and Raymond Massey to help sway American opinion in favor of joining the war effort. It is pretty good and maybe it was considered tough stuff back then, but the Canadians seemed rather dim-witted and trusting next to the dirty Nazis who are trying to escape the RMP. I guess that was the point.

You can watch it on Amazon Prime.

Have a good weekend!

3 Comments

June 8, 2020

Oo-de-lally, oo-de-lally, golly, what a day

by chuckofish

“It was a beautiful summer afternoon, at that delicious period of the year when summer has just burst forth from the growth of spring; when the summer is yet but three days old, and all the various shades of green which nature can put forth are still in their unsoiled purity of freshness.”
― Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage

Our weekend was filled with texts of the baby’s progress–they went home on Friday–and pictures and FaceTime calls.

screen-shot-2020-06-07-at-12.40.03-pm-1 The wee twins came over on Sunday morning to frolic in the yard. They found our vintage Cozy Coupe from the late ’80s (“This was your daddy’s car!”) and they insisted on taking it for a spin.

It has a broken wheel and we were planning to replace it, but they had fun cleaning it up. We had also gotten out the little pool and they used it mostly for washing the car.

I finished reading Excellent Women by Barbara Pym and I enjoyed it very much, although after awhile the unconscious, careless rudeness of people toward the heroine, a single church-going woman, although wittily written, began to wear on me. Now I am looking for something else to move on to.

Over the weekend, I watched several movies released in the year 1973: American Grafitti, which did not hold up terribly well,

Screen Shot 2020-06-07 at 12.56.36 PM The Sting, which is a terrific movie,

Screen Shot 2020-06-07 at 12.58.58 PM and Walking Tall, which I had never seen before and was an interesting movie.

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Indeed, it was an interesting year in movies. Except for the top movie, The Exorcist, the top 10 are surprisingly not a terrible list.

Anyway, I was in high school and I actually saw a lot of these movies, although I saw the rated R ones years later.

I also saw the Disney Robin Hood years later when my kids were small. We liked it a lot.

Now it is Monday and back to the salt mine of my home office. I am underwhelmed. Here’s a prayer we can all pray:

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May 25, 2018

“Well, come see a fat old man some time!”*

by chuckofish

I am so ready for a three-day weekend! Quelle busy week leading up to it, of course. Phew.

Daughter #1 stopped at home last night on her way to Indianapolis and a fun reunion with her college pals. She will stop in on the way back on Monday. My other plans include babysitting for the wee babes for a few hours on Saturday (probably by myself, since the OM is under the weather)…

and then recovering from that activity by binge-watching John Wayne movies.

Screen Shot 2018-05-24 at 11.35.03 AM.png It is the Duke’s birthday tomorrow, so TCM is showing a whole bunch of his WWII movies:

Screen Shot 2018-05-23 at 8.49.25 AM.png I also have plenty of my own, thank you, so I can pick and choose.

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Sounds like a mighty good plan to me.

Have a good weekend!

[My DP is in England visiting her in-laws for a few weeks, so we won’t be hearing from her until she returns stateside.]

*Rooster Cogburn, True Grit (1969)

4 Comments

April 24, 2017

“Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!”*

by chuckofish

The weather was pretty great this weekend–especially on Sunday–so I did a lot of yard work. Daughter #1 gave me a nifty kneeler/garden seat so I wanted to try it out and it was great–my aging back thanks her!

I also took a lot of breaks on the patio (my allergies were acting up) and watched the birds who were all very busy. I was definitely cramping the style of a Cardinal couple who seemed to be nest building in this bush.

Ah, the wonders of nature–you don’t have to look far–they’re right in your own backyard!

The wee babes came over for my birthday on Friday night and I got a lot of baby time, especially with the wee bud who was wearing tiny overalls.The OM got Lottie and she passed out. (Was it his thermo-nuclear death breath?)

And I got presents too!

One such present was Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) which my dual personality gave me. It is a film from New Zealand,

…and we enjoyed it very much when we watched it Saturday night. So if you are looking for something different (and PG rated), this is the film for you! It is funny and charming and shot entirely in beautiful New Zealand.

I also got a start on putting together the wedding invitations for daughter #2’s upcoming nuptials. (Hat tip to daughter #1 who called the Service Bureau to double check the correct order of rsvp card/direction card/reply envelope/invitation!)

Since we had worked hard in the yard, the OM and I treated ourselves to our first trip of the season to Ted Drewe’s.

It is the simple pleasures in life that are the best, right?

Now it is back to the salt mine. Have a good week!

*Isaiah 2:5

4 Comments

March 14, 2017

“Well, sister, the time has come for me to ride hard and fast.”*

by chuckofish

Another of my old work friends has passed away. Sigh.

Jane and I hit it off right away when we met fifteen years ago. She was the film guru at our flyover institute and led the Wednesday afternoon movie class for as long as I knew her without a break.

She was from an old flyover family

and knew everybody and how things worked in our town. We shared many a wink-wink moment. And, of course, she knew a lot about movies and we could talk and talk about our old favorites and more recent ones too. We both loved Paul Newman and John Wayne. We didn’t always agree (she was a fan of Martin Scorcese) but we respected each other’s opinion.

Her movie classes usually had a theme, like Biographies of the Creative Genius or Surprise Endings or Handsome Hunks of Hollywood’s Heyday. Not surprisingly, her courses were very popular. Last summer she finally offered a course entitled “Jane’s Faves” in which she showed her favorite films in four genres: Red River (1948) (Western), 2001: A Space Odyssey (Sci-Fi), A Star is Born (1954) (Musical), and Dr. Zhivago (1965) (Romance). Her last class was a retrospective of Ingrid Bergman’s career and we chose the movies together.

Tall and willowy and beautiful, Jane became weaker over the years, relying on an oxygen tank, and finally she rode around on a motorized scooter. She never gave up until the very end. When she couldn’t give her class anymore, much less leave her house, she cashed in her chips. A lapsed Episcopalian, she had lost her faith along the way and had decided that there was nothing waiting for her after death–just nothingness, the end. I’m glad her family is going to have a service for her, even if it is at the Ethical Society.

Tonight I will toast Jane and watch Red River in her memory. I remember telling her how smart I thought Montgomery Clift was in it, standing back and never trying to steal a scene from John Wayne, and how, ironically, you can’t keep your eyes off him in that movie. “Yes! Yes!” she said in her raspy voice, her eyes shining.

Into paradise may the angels lead thee, Jane, and at thy coming may the martyrs receive thee, and bring thee into the holy city Jerusalem.

*Rooster Cogburn in True Grit (1969)

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February 6, 2017

Teach me, my God and King, in all things thee to see*

by chuckofish

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Got to hold this little nugget this weekend. It felt real good.

I also gabbed on the phone with my dual personality and two daughters. I got my hair cut and put together two Valentine boxes to mail to the aforementioned daughters. I worked in the yard on Sunday when the temperatures soared into the fifties.

The boy came over and helped me take down one twin bed in his old room and haul it and the mattress down to the basement. Then, after carrying the pieces upstairs, he put together the antique double bed I bought at an estate sale last fall (remember?). He is one busy boy and I appreciate his coming over to help his old mother. We didn’t even give him dinner; he was headed somewhere afterwards.

I continued to read The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard–really such a treat.

The cicatrice of stitching on her gloves was an imprint on his brain. Earrings of pearl stared, white-eyed as fish. There was a streak of flowered scarf, inane, and the collar blue. Grief had a painter’s eye, assigning arbitrary meaning at random–like God.

We watched two movies that are practically antiques–The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) and Captain Blood (1935)–but which, in all the years since they were made, have never been surpassed on so many levels of cinematic effort. We watched a bit of the Super Bowl because the OM wanted to. Truly, I haven’t cared about football since Kurt Warner was traded to Arizona. (Except for Peyton Manning and he retired.)

I felt very happy sitting in church on Sunday. Nothing/no one annoyed me. I will try to hold on to this feeling and carry it into the work week.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

*George Herbert, hymn #592

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