Happy Late Thursday Night, my Darling,
I hope your day was a good one, today and yesterday. From today's FB posts, it looks like you have a ton of stuff going on (which is why my song title tonight was appropriate!); The Stitched Up post, in the van, said "this is what my life has been like for the last three weeks", so I know you mean "super busy". I see that Sarah has a record release party coming up too which I know you will attend and shoot, and also your friend Morgin is getting work too. It is a great time in life for you guys, and I think it is fantastic. :) I imagine you are finding time to play the viola, too!
Tonight at CSUN we saw a Cassavetes film called "A Child Is Waiting" (1963). It was only his second film made through a studio, and it was also his last because he hated the experience. Studios expect at least something conforming to commerciality, and whatever he shot was re-edited by famous producer/director Stanley Kramer, so it's really more of a Kramer film, and the end product looks fairly slick, much more so than the usual Cassavetes production that we've seen so far. It is the story of an institution for retarded children, or as they are now called, "developmentally disabled". Burt Lahn-cass-tah is back, as the psychiatrist who runs the institute with discipline, though he does have a heart. Judy Garland, middle aged here, is All Heart as the newly hired music teacher whose caring style clashes with Burt's. The boy at the center of the story, who has recently been institutionalised by his parents, has latched on to Judy as a substitute mother, and therein lies the plot. As Burt's strict discipline drives the child further inside himself, Judy Garland brings him out with her love.
Because Cassavetes directed, there is a lot more going on, including the results of the family trauma on the parents who felt compelled to "put the kid away" in the first place. They are shattered, simply by having a child who has been diagnosed as "defective", and believe it or not there was a time in this country SB, which lasted until the 70s, when asylums were commonplace in America, and not only retarded children were "put away" but all kinds of other people too. I think I once wrote a blog a few years ago about going to the VA with my Dad, and seeing a guy who sat on the steps who was known as "The Chief". The Chief was an American Indian veteran who just sat there and never said a word, and that was because he'd been lobotomised. They used to do all kinds of "experimental therapy" in this country, like shock treatment, and much of it was cruel and horrific, if not downright demonic.
In this film, what is depicted as being extremely traumatic is the actual taking, and dropping off, of the children to the institution. As disabled as they are, they know they are being "abandoned" by their parents. And yet, the parents are at a dilemma as well, especially in those days, because some of the children need 24/7 care, and the institute (and the psychiatrist) is essentially a caring place with proven methods of helping these children.
Nowdays, many more disabled children are capable of living at home, due to modern methods that grew out of these places, so they weren't all bad. But in those days, once a child was diagnosed, the pressure was heavy on the parents to institutionalise, and that's what the movie is all about : the trauma resulting from the separation, which is in essence an "abandonment", because many parents just left children in such a place and never visited again.
It's a heavy film, a heart-tugger, but also made with humor and good nature, and as mentioned, it is much more straightforward Hollywood than experimental Cassavetes.
Still, a big thumbs up from me. And, is there a person in this world who doesn't love Judy Garland?
I think not. :)
So there you have it, tonight's film.
Yesterday I managed to get out to Whitney Canyon in Newhall for an hour's hike. You know that Whitney is one of my favortites, and it's not so easy for me to get to the Santa Clarita hikes these days, so it was a treat. The only problem for photography was that, because of the rain, there were only two colors on view : green and brown. I like it better when things have bloomed and then have been subjected to heat and begin to turn color, as in Summer. The light is better then as well. Still a nice hike, though. I have been squeezing my hikes in through extreme time management; not too shabby, SB!
And reading, too. I am getting into the mystical system of Egyptian numbers in "The Temple Of Man" by Schwaller de Lubicz (whose name was simply Schwaller and who added the de Lubicz as a pomposity). He is a bit of a pill, but the book is still fascinating as I have noted before. Also reading my LBJ book.
I will have a couple of days off over the weekend, either starting tomorrow night or Saturday afternoon, depending on the weather. If the storm is as mega as they are predicting, Pearl's daughter will wait out the worst of it and come down Saturday instead.
Here's hoping it won't wreak havoc.
That's all I know for tonight. I will see you in the morning.
I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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