Tonight at CSUN we saw Buster Keaton in "Parlor, Bedroom and Bath" (1931), another in his series of early sound films from MGM. We have seen three so far : "Free And Easy", "Doughboys" and now "Parlor" this evening. I, for one, don't understand all the bad reviews for Buster's MGM work. They've been getting better with each one we've seen, and "Parlor, Bedroom and Bath" was downright hilarious, maybe the most out-and-out funny Keaton movie we've seen so far. The students in the audience were laughing practically non-stop.
Buster is, as always, a bit of a loser. This time he's a "sign tacker", a guy who nails up cheap advertising signs to telephone poles (who would think up such a job?). One day, while nailing up a sign, he is hit by a car and his whole life changes. The guy who hit him is the fiancee of a girl from a wealthy family. He wants to marry his girl, but she won't get married until her older sister does, and the older sister is a bit of a maneater. No man is "dangerous" enough for her.
This was once again Pre-Code Hollywood, and we see once again that the 1930s were a pretty rockin' time. Innuendo abounds, yet always in a sexy and flirtatious way that is fun - not crude, blunt or disgusting. They had Style back then.
So, the Older Sister can't find a Bad Boy to marry, hence her younger sister will not yet marry the ultrasuave Reginald Denny. He's the guy who hit poor Buster with his car. Buster is now convalescing in the wealthy sisters' mansion, and Reginald Denny has a plan. He is gonna fix Buster up with the wild older sister.
To say that Hijinx Ensue is in this case a major understatement. This movie is so over the top that I would rank it as one of the wildest comedies I have seen from that era. Pure Zaniness erupts continuously onscreen like lava from a volcano.
There may be some lesser MGM films ahead, and Buster's "What, No Beer?" is reputed to be terrible. We shall see. All I know is that the ones we have seen so far have been okay to good to really great.
I also finished Stephen and Owen King's "Sleeping Beauties" this evening. It was a page turner, a story you fall into and live inside. At 700 pages it is epic, and the writing at times reaches the level of good poetry. I am a reader of King since 1977 and I think this book, written with his son Owen, is one of his best ever, probably in the top five. It made me laugh, and almost cry (would've cried had it been a movie), and most of all it just blew me off the Freakin' Map with it's Imaginative Storytelling and it's fully developed cast of characters that are so real that you - and we all - will probably come to know them in a future life. Man....what a story. It gets my highest recommendation, especially for female fans of King, for it is a story of Woman Power.
I will get back to my examination of the contents of my letter. I have contemplated just reproducing it here at the blog, though I was hesitant to do so at first. In my past couple of blogs I've just been hinting at it by writing about things like United States Code, and Presidential Executive Orders. The contents of the letter are not earthshaking as I have previously noted. Nothing is revealed in regards to my request.
But it's what the letter says, in so many words, that makes it a Big Deal.
I am reading things like United States Code for the first time in my life, and I am looking up certain Federal Statutes and exemptions under the Privacy Act concerning the release of classified information.
It takes focus, because of the way these things are written down.
But I have known the end result since 1997, that this is a Very Big Deal.
I am going to begin writing my appeal to the CIA in the next week or two, of their decision to deny my request for records under the FOIA and Privacy Act.
I want to utilise a similar precision with my words, in my appeal, as the Agency used in their denial of my initial request.
From what I am reading in the United States Code, classified information is supposed to become automatically declassified after 25 years.
It has been 28 years since September 1989, and so you would think that any existing records should have been automatically declassified.
But there are nine exemptions under that particular section of United States Code, that allow certain information to remain classified, even after the 25 year period is up.
This is The United States Of America, and we have all the bases covered.
Many, if not most people, would be astonished to their core, to discover how sophisticated our highest agencies are.
Which is why certain information becomes classified beyond the initial 25 year time period.
See you in the morn. Elizabeth, I hope you had a good day. :):)
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