Well, I finally saw "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood". My initial reaction is that it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I thought it was gonna have more of a mystery element to the plot. I knew that the Manson Family was part of the story, and I knew that Pitt and DeCaprio were gonna interact with them in some way, but I didn't know that Leo played a TV star, and I especially wasn't aware that his character lived on Cielo Drive, right next door to Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski.
I'm assuming you've seen the movie, so I won't give a lengthy review. Instead I'll just offer some impressions. I should state that I am not a huge Tarantino fan to begin with. I saw "Reservoir Dogs" when it came out, and was briefly impressed, but in hindsight I don't think it was all that great. Lots of style, perhaps, but not much content. "Pulp Fiction" was better, but what we were learning was that Tarantino was more about caricatures than characters. As a screenwriter, he was very wordy, and wrote idiosyncratic dialogue that reflected his own inner thoughts and opinions more than anything his characters would realistically say. We could see his developing style, but he never took it much further than the strutting dialogue and characters based on the hero worship of his youth. QT is a cinefile who loves exploitation flicks. His own movies have all been homages to stuff he enjoyed as a kid.
While I found "Once Upon A Time" entertaining for the most part, I really didn't see much point to the movie other than what might have been the pitch line : "Wouldn't it have been great if somebody annihilated the Manson Family before they committed the Tate murders? Hey! How about a good old fashioned cowboy? It could be a classic Good Guy Saves The Day story"! So in that sense I guess there was something of a plot, but it was all broken up into vignettes, like the charming but pointless scene with DeCaprio and the child actress. You know how we've talked about perfect movies that have "no fat", where each scene leads into the next to move the story forward, and there are no scenes which do not contribute to the plot? This was not one of those movies. There were many unnecessary scenes, and while some were fun or entertaining, they added nothing to the story. Why, for instance, have Sharon Tate enter the theater to watch her own movie? There was no reason for that scene, as it led to nothing relevant. In fact, there was no real story until the end, which was ridiculously brutal and felt like an adolescent boy's revenge fantasy. I know the Manson Family were scum, and beyond evil, but I think it may be insulting to the memory of those who actually died at their hands to make what amounts to a live-action cartoon out of the murders, even if you remove Sharon Tate from the equation and substitute Pitt and DeCaprio. But then it seems like all of Tarantino's movies are revenge fantasies, whether against Nazis or Manson or double crossing gangsters. Just because the targets are deserving doesn't make the films any less silly, or in this case, disturbing.
I mean......I dunno. I guess I was entertained overall, but the movie was way too long and had no lasting value. I did like the 1969 period re-creation, and some of the dialogue was "Tarantino funny". It was certainly a better movie than "Kill Bill" or "Inglorious Bastards". In fact, it was probably Tarantino's best movie (of the seven I've seen), but that really isn't saying much. What it isn't, is an Academy Award quality film. I mean, please. Taking a flame thrower to Susan Atkins? Yes, it is true that she was evil beyond measure, but that scene felt like something out of a comic book, and I don't feel the Manson murders are something to make light of, even if you're torching the bad guys.
I'll shut up now, but that's my commentary on "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood". Entertaining but pointless, way too long and slightly insulting. I'll give it Two Thumbs Sideways and make no recommendation one way or another. ///
As for the impeachment, it looks it's all over, or will be by Wednesday at the latest. The Republicans have caved in to cowardice, and there has never been a loyalty in their party that even approaches the way they've stood behind Donald Trump, toadying up to a criminal and lowbrow bum who makes Richard Nixon look like a saint. They are strange folks, these right wing senators and congressmen. They have a majority in the Senate, and we always thought they'd acquit Trump anyway, but they aren't blind, or stupid (most of 'em), and they must know that if they get what they ultimately want - which is four more years of Trump - that the country won't last under the chaos that will ensue.
But then maybe it will.
At times in history, there have been very bad men who have taken hold of a country and been enabled by a support system, in this case the Republican Senators, and have caused havoc in that country. But in every single case that person has gone down. Trump's downfall will be his own sense of infallibility, bolstered by his toadies in the Republican Party, and as I've said, when he goes down he'll go down hard, he'll go down all the freaking way, and so will those who've enabled him. America is bigger than Donald Trump, and he's gonna have to answer for his crimes at some point. Count on it, and wait for that glorious day because it's coming. ////
That's all I know for tonight. I know I've missed a lot of days this month, but I'll try to get back to everyday blogging as soon as things settle down. I've been on a completely different schedule ever since January 15, when Pearl first went into the hospital. She's doing much better now, eating every meal and getting her energy back, but there are changes. She is on oxygen now, and a pureed diet, so there is a lot of prep work that wasn't necessary before. Her daughter is still here, so I am staying at my apartment at night but am at Pearl's during the day, from 9-7pm. But my movie schedule is slowly returning now that Pearl is out of immediate danger, and as I find more time to write, my daily reviews will return as well (in addition to my ridiculous commentary, haha). I am gonna watch a movie right now, in fact, so I'll sign off for now and see you tomorrow at whatever the Usual Time is these days.
Megatons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Friday, January 31, 2020
Thursday, January 30, 2020
"The Good Bad Man" starring Douglas Fairbanks
Tonight I watched Douglas Fairbanks again, in "The Good Bad Man"(1916), and this time I managed to stay awake. Fairbanks stars as an eccentric gunman named "Passin' Through", who stages unusual holdups that often turn out as pranks rather than robberies. Passin' is trying to find information on his father, whom he never knew. He carries in his pocket a letter from his late mother, which gives vague clues about the man, though there's not enough info to identify him. As he robs and pranks his way through the desert town of Mojave, he meets a beautiful young girl (Bessie Love) who lives with her paralysed father. Passin' falls in love with Miss Love, and tells her of his search for his own long lost Dad.
There is a bad guy in town, known as The Wolf (Sam De Grasse). He considers Bessie Love to be his girl, though she wants nothing to do with him. It's a one-sided romance by coersion, and The Wolf has a reputation and a large posse to back him up. Bessie is afraid of him and tells Passin' Through, who promises her he will confront Wolf and get him out of her life. What Passin' doesn't know, however, is that The Wolf is already aware of him, and is planning to remove him from the picture too.
In steps a United States Marshal (Pomeroy Cannon, born in 1870), who is also trying to rid the area of Wolf and his gang. He arrests Passin' Through, nominally on a robbery charge, but really for his own good, so he can place him in protective custody. The Marshal knows something about Passin's life story, which he relates in a cryptic way, giving Passin' just enough information about his mother for him to realize there was another man in her life.......and yes indeed, it was The Wolf.
Passin' now has another reason to go after The Wolf, and he doubles his resolve. As it turns out, The Wolf killed the man Passin' assumes to be his father, because Wolf wanted Passin's mother in the same way he now wants young Bessie Love.
If all this sounds complicated, I sympathize. It makes clear sense onscreen, however, and it's easy to follow, with title cards that state simply the relationships I may have jumbled up with unclarified sentences.
There's a twist at the end, when Passin' may or may not discover his father's identity, but the main thing is that "The Good Bad Man" is an entertaining, if simple, Silent Western. It clocks in at a brief but power packed 50 minutes, directed by the prolific Allan Dwan, whose IMDB lists 407 directorial credits. The movie was written by Douglas Fairbanks himself, a well plotted effort from the man known mainly as one of Hollywood's earliest movie stars, and the founder - along with his gal Mary Pickford, of United Artists, which began as an actor's union and became a major studio. I'm a newcomer to the work of Mr. Fairbanks, and I find him an unusual big screen icon. He was not handsome in the conventional sense, and perhaps a bit odd looking. But like Lon Chaney (who used makeup techniques and endless disguises to hide or accentuate his stoney features), he became popular in spite of his looks, and in Fairbanks' case it was due to his charisma and athleticism. He was known initially for the swashbuckling roles he played, but he became really one of the founders of Hollywood as it developed from Silents and grew into a humongous industry. His son Douglas Jr. followed in his footsteps, and in some ways, Junior, with his good looks and more graceful athleticism, eclipsed his Dad in popularity, if not in legend.
I give "The Good Bad Man" Two Thumbs Up, and rank it on similar terms with "The Half Breed", also starring Fairbanks Senior. With Silent movies you always have to deal with excessive facial makeup and broad gestures, which can make a silent film seem campy, but the important thing is to focus on the emotion conveyed in an acting style that was still being transmuted from the stage. ////
We are all still reeling, even if we weren't basketball fans, just from the Mass Media shock of such a loss. I am also adjusting to my new role as a caregiver, and though very tired I'm re-balancing my surfboard to compensate for the changes ahead.
I'll see you in the morning on what should be a beautiful day.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
There is a bad guy in town, known as The Wolf (Sam De Grasse). He considers Bessie Love to be his girl, though she wants nothing to do with him. It's a one-sided romance by coersion, and The Wolf has a reputation and a large posse to back him up. Bessie is afraid of him and tells Passin' Through, who promises her he will confront Wolf and get him out of her life. What Passin' doesn't know, however, is that The Wolf is already aware of him, and is planning to remove him from the picture too.
In steps a United States Marshal (Pomeroy Cannon, born in 1870), who is also trying to rid the area of Wolf and his gang. He arrests Passin' Through, nominally on a robbery charge, but really for his own good, so he can place him in protective custody. The Marshal knows something about Passin's life story, which he relates in a cryptic way, giving Passin' just enough information about his mother for him to realize there was another man in her life.......and yes indeed, it was The Wolf.
Passin' now has another reason to go after The Wolf, and he doubles his resolve. As it turns out, The Wolf killed the man Passin' assumes to be his father, because Wolf wanted Passin's mother in the same way he now wants young Bessie Love.
If all this sounds complicated, I sympathize. It makes clear sense onscreen, however, and it's easy to follow, with title cards that state simply the relationships I may have jumbled up with unclarified sentences.
There's a twist at the end, when Passin' may or may not discover his father's identity, but the main thing is that "The Good Bad Man" is an entertaining, if simple, Silent Western. It clocks in at a brief but power packed 50 minutes, directed by the prolific Allan Dwan, whose IMDB lists 407 directorial credits. The movie was written by Douglas Fairbanks himself, a well plotted effort from the man known mainly as one of Hollywood's earliest movie stars, and the founder - along with his gal Mary Pickford, of United Artists, which began as an actor's union and became a major studio. I'm a newcomer to the work of Mr. Fairbanks, and I find him an unusual big screen icon. He was not handsome in the conventional sense, and perhaps a bit odd looking. But like Lon Chaney (who used makeup techniques and endless disguises to hide or accentuate his stoney features), he became popular in spite of his looks, and in Fairbanks' case it was due to his charisma and athleticism. He was known initially for the swashbuckling roles he played, but he became really one of the founders of Hollywood as it developed from Silents and grew into a humongous industry. His son Douglas Jr. followed in his footsteps, and in some ways, Junior, with his good looks and more graceful athleticism, eclipsed his Dad in popularity, if not in legend.
I give "The Good Bad Man" Two Thumbs Up, and rank it on similar terms with "The Half Breed", also starring Fairbanks Senior. With Silent movies you always have to deal with excessive facial makeup and broad gestures, which can make a silent film seem campy, but the important thing is to focus on the emotion conveyed in an acting style that was still being transmuted from the stage. ////
We are all still reeling, even if we weren't basketball fans, just from the Mass Media shock of such a loss. I am also adjusting to my new role as a caregiver, and though very tired I'm re-balancing my surfboard to compensate for the changes ahead.
I'll see you in the morning on what should be a beautiful day.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
It Didn't Have To Happen
The Kobe Bryant crash never should have happened. I was watching the NTSB news conference today and they said the pilot requested a special clearance from air traffic controllers to continue to fly under visual flight rules in weather conditions that were so unsafe, the Calabasas Sheriff's Station grounded their own helicopters. The fog was extremely thick yesterday morning in that area, and the pilot had to circle for twelve minutes over Glendale, about forty miles away, before he received permission to continue. An air traffic spokesman said that, while such extreme weather flight clearances were not uncommon, "we don't recommend them". During the news conference, the spokeswoman mentioned the debris field was 500 feet wide. It seems like you'd have to be flying awfully fast to have such a spread out crash site.
I know it's a moot point to argue any of this, but I just can't understand why someone didn't say "hey, let's just turn back. We can go to the game next week". Wouldn't you say that, especially with kids on board? I know I would, but then I'm squeamish about flying in the first place.
I remember going down to Malibu once about twenty years ago. It was about the same time of year, maybe March at the latest. The late, great Mr. D was driving. My Dad and I were his passengers. Instead of taking the freeway to the beach, D decided he wanted to take an alternative route through Decker Canyon Road. If you Google it, as I just did, the first link that comes back is from www.dangerousroads.org. Decker Canyon is not far from the Las Virgenes Road location that was close to the Kobe crash site, and it is subject to the same extremely thick fog banks that likely caused Bryant's chopper to crash. On our way to Malibu that morning with Dave, we ran into such a patch of fog in the middle of this treacherous highway, with a 600 foot drop just feet away from the passenger side of his car. I kid you not when I say that you could not see more than ten feet in front of you. There was no way to turn around and go back, as you might go off the cliff, and you couldn't stop because you might get rear ended. Dave tried turning on his headlights but that just made it worse. They shone into the fog and reflected right back at us. I was white knuckling it big time, telling Dave to "go slow, man, go slow". If you read the above link, you'll see that Decker Canyon is full of hairpin turns. We could see just enough to follow the dashes marking the two skinny lanes, and somehow we managed to crawl our way through the remainder of Decker Canyon, through the fog and to the safety of Malibu beach.
But we very easily could've been a statistic like Kobe Bryant and Gianna, and the other seven folks on that helicopter. What I am saying is that Dave, God Rest His Soul, never should have taken Decker Canyon that morning. He knew that road, Dad and I did not, and he knew how dangerous it was even in clear visual conditions. I wouldn't drive it even if I could see for a hundred miles. And the same goes for Kobe's pilot and all of the adults on board that copter. They knew the weather was bad. They weren't on a dangerous road, so maybe they figured they could risk it, and maybe they'd flown in such conditions before, but it was only to go to a basketball game, and if just one person had said "I am not comfortable with this", they could've turned around and gone back to Orange County.
It's easy to say in hindsight, but no one should take unnecessary safety risks, of any kind. In the case of Kobe's helicopter it's all the sadder because it didn't have to happen and it should not have happened. That's all I wanted to say and I will stop now. But please folks, be careful out there. ////
I am continuing to adjust to my new schedule and I'm still exhausted as a result. I haven't had a day off since Christmas. I did watch a movie, a Silent called "The Half Breed"(1916) starring Douglas Fairbanks, but I was nodding off in the middle, so I'll have to watch it again to give it a fair review.
Once I get accustomed to the haphazard schedules of all of these health care workers Pearl has been signed up for, I should be able to get back on an even keel. I myself would not have signed her up for this program, because I do not feel she needs it, but I am not in charge (even though I've been right so far about her recovery).
Elizabeth, your photograph on FB this morning, with accompanying poetry, made me very happy. Did you write those words? They're beautiful.
Thank you for uplifting my day. :):)
That's all I have for the moment. I'll see you tomorrow as time permits.
Tons of love and more than you can imagine. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
I know it's a moot point to argue any of this, but I just can't understand why someone didn't say "hey, let's just turn back. We can go to the game next week". Wouldn't you say that, especially with kids on board? I know I would, but then I'm squeamish about flying in the first place.
I remember going down to Malibu once about twenty years ago. It was about the same time of year, maybe March at the latest. The late, great Mr. D was driving. My Dad and I were his passengers. Instead of taking the freeway to the beach, D decided he wanted to take an alternative route through Decker Canyon Road. If you Google it, as I just did, the first link that comes back is from www.dangerousroads.org. Decker Canyon is not far from the Las Virgenes Road location that was close to the Kobe crash site, and it is subject to the same extremely thick fog banks that likely caused Bryant's chopper to crash. On our way to Malibu that morning with Dave, we ran into such a patch of fog in the middle of this treacherous highway, with a 600 foot drop just feet away from the passenger side of his car. I kid you not when I say that you could not see more than ten feet in front of you. There was no way to turn around and go back, as you might go off the cliff, and you couldn't stop because you might get rear ended. Dave tried turning on his headlights but that just made it worse. They shone into the fog and reflected right back at us. I was white knuckling it big time, telling Dave to "go slow, man, go slow". If you read the above link, you'll see that Decker Canyon is full of hairpin turns. We could see just enough to follow the dashes marking the two skinny lanes, and somehow we managed to crawl our way through the remainder of Decker Canyon, through the fog and to the safety of Malibu beach.
But we very easily could've been a statistic like Kobe Bryant and Gianna, and the other seven folks on that helicopter. What I am saying is that Dave, God Rest His Soul, never should have taken Decker Canyon that morning. He knew that road, Dad and I did not, and he knew how dangerous it was even in clear visual conditions. I wouldn't drive it even if I could see for a hundred miles. And the same goes for Kobe's pilot and all of the adults on board that copter. They knew the weather was bad. They weren't on a dangerous road, so maybe they figured they could risk it, and maybe they'd flown in such conditions before, but it was only to go to a basketball game, and if just one person had said "I am not comfortable with this", they could've turned around and gone back to Orange County.
It's easy to say in hindsight, but no one should take unnecessary safety risks, of any kind. In the case of Kobe's helicopter it's all the sadder because it didn't have to happen and it should not have happened. That's all I wanted to say and I will stop now. But please folks, be careful out there. ////
I am continuing to adjust to my new schedule and I'm still exhausted as a result. I haven't had a day off since Christmas. I did watch a movie, a Silent called "The Half Breed"(1916) starring Douglas Fairbanks, but I was nodding off in the middle, so I'll have to watch it again to give it a fair review.
Once I get accustomed to the haphazard schedules of all of these health care workers Pearl has been signed up for, I should be able to get back on an even keel. I myself would not have signed her up for this program, because I do not feel she needs it, but I am not in charge (even though I've been right so far about her recovery).
Elizabeth, your photograph on FB this morning, with accompanying poetry, made me very happy. Did you write those words? They're beautiful.
Thank you for uplifting my day. :):)
That's all I have for the moment. I'll see you tomorrow as time permits.
Tons of love and more than you can imagine. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Monday, January 27, 2020
The World Turns and We Keep Going
I'd just gotten back from church when I heard the news about Kobe Bryant. It took a few seconds to register because it didn't make sense. He was just in the news last night, after LeBron passed him on the all-time scoring list. Kobe even tweeted LeBron to congratulate him. Then about twelve hours later he was gone, along with his daughter and the other unfortunate people on board. I've been a Lakers fan since I was a kid, and I followed Kobe's career, but nothing I can say would be different from the thousands of tributes that have already poured in, so I will stop here, except to mention that like everyone else, I just feel numb. This year has begun with two shocking deaths, and I've personally also been dealing with the recent health crisis of Pearl, which has been very challenging for me as her caregiver. Let us pray that 2020 improves from this point on.
On a positive note, I am happy to report that Pearl had her best day yet since leaving the hospital. Today she ate all her food and consumed over 1200 calories, the most she's eaten since Christmas. She used her walker again for an extended trip down the hallway, and by this evening, while we were watching the Grammys she looked pretty much like her old self. Not bad for a 95 year old lady who was written off by the hospital doctor six days ago. Screw that guy. I was right all along, and that's because I know Pearl. I've been with her almost every day for ten years. The only days I've missed have been my days off (which are few), and in ten years of caring for her I've never missed a single working day. So yeah - screw you, Doctor Death. You don't know squat. You were wrong and I was right, and a nice lady could have died had we listened to your "advice".
Sorry, but I despise these MF-ers, and again, I mean only the "death panelers"(with whom I've had prior experience involving my parents) and not the wonderful nurses and other helpful hospital personnel, such as the extraordinary team in the ER, who do everything they can to save lives.
Well at any rate, end of tirade. This afternoon I was able to get up to Aliso for a hike, and guess who I saw? The Aliso Coyote! Yep, I ran into him about halfway up the trail, near his Usual Spot, as seen in my FB cover photo that I took last August. The Saddleridge fire devastated Aliso Canyon in October, and the coyote must've bailed out for a time, but now that the foliage is growing back he's returned and was skulking about his old stomping ground.
I also had a chance to watch another Velez/Errol extravaganza : "Mexican Spitfire's Blessed Event". Very soon I hope to return to my traditional full bodied movie reviews, but for now I hope it will suffice that I urge you - yet again - to discover this collection for yourself. Lord Epping himself commands you! Listen - this is me talking now. I'm not the world's biggest comedy fan because it takes something special to make me laugh. "Stupid" won't do it; "crude" won't do it and "profane" won't do it.
You've gotta actually Be Funny. To do that, you need to study the Masters, and as I've recently had the pleasure to discover, Lupe Velez and Leon Errol are included in that category. As it pertains to the "Mexican Spitfire" films, we should also include Elizabeth Risdon and Lydia Bilbrook, who played supporting roles in each movie. So far, Lupe, Leon and the gang have been my solace and have given me escape and great joy in what has been my toughest month in a long time. God Bless the entertainers, the actors, actresses, musicians, comedians and writers, the artists who take us away from the grim face of the world and replace it with something beautiful.
On that note, Happy Birthday to the great Edward Van Halen, who turns 65 today. I can't begin to express what EVH has meant to me except to say that, for myself and all of his fans, he's family. He's been enriching my life for 43 years, and if you have a favorite artist (and I'm sure you do), take a moment to think what their art has done for you, what it has meant to you. Then take another moment to send a good feeling back to that artist.
The work of the artists is huge in our lives, whatever the format, including athletes.
I don't know much, except that I believe in peace and love like The Beatles said. I also believe in Jesus Christ, so no matter what the world throws at me I know I will make it. Thank You, Lord. /////
See you in the morning. Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
On a positive note, I am happy to report that Pearl had her best day yet since leaving the hospital. Today she ate all her food and consumed over 1200 calories, the most she's eaten since Christmas. She used her walker again for an extended trip down the hallway, and by this evening, while we were watching the Grammys she looked pretty much like her old self. Not bad for a 95 year old lady who was written off by the hospital doctor six days ago. Screw that guy. I was right all along, and that's because I know Pearl. I've been with her almost every day for ten years. The only days I've missed have been my days off (which are few), and in ten years of caring for her I've never missed a single working day. So yeah - screw you, Doctor Death. You don't know squat. You were wrong and I was right, and a nice lady could have died had we listened to your "advice".
Sorry, but I despise these MF-ers, and again, I mean only the "death panelers"(with whom I've had prior experience involving my parents) and not the wonderful nurses and other helpful hospital personnel, such as the extraordinary team in the ER, who do everything they can to save lives.
Well at any rate, end of tirade. This afternoon I was able to get up to Aliso for a hike, and guess who I saw? The Aliso Coyote! Yep, I ran into him about halfway up the trail, near his Usual Spot, as seen in my FB cover photo that I took last August. The Saddleridge fire devastated Aliso Canyon in October, and the coyote must've bailed out for a time, but now that the foliage is growing back he's returned and was skulking about his old stomping ground.
I also had a chance to watch another Velez/Errol extravaganza : "Mexican Spitfire's Blessed Event". Very soon I hope to return to my traditional full bodied movie reviews, but for now I hope it will suffice that I urge you - yet again - to discover this collection for yourself. Lord Epping himself commands you! Listen - this is me talking now. I'm not the world's biggest comedy fan because it takes something special to make me laugh. "Stupid" won't do it; "crude" won't do it and "profane" won't do it.
You've gotta actually Be Funny. To do that, you need to study the Masters, and as I've recently had the pleasure to discover, Lupe Velez and Leon Errol are included in that category. As it pertains to the "Mexican Spitfire" films, we should also include Elizabeth Risdon and Lydia Bilbrook, who played supporting roles in each movie. So far, Lupe, Leon and the gang have been my solace and have given me escape and great joy in what has been my toughest month in a long time. God Bless the entertainers, the actors, actresses, musicians, comedians and writers, the artists who take us away from the grim face of the world and replace it with something beautiful.
On that note, Happy Birthday to the great Edward Van Halen, who turns 65 today. I can't begin to express what EVH has meant to me except to say that, for myself and all of his fans, he's family. He's been enriching my life for 43 years, and if you have a favorite artist (and I'm sure you do), take a moment to think what their art has done for you, what it has meant to you. Then take another moment to send a good feeling back to that artist.
The work of the artists is huge in our lives, whatever the format, including athletes.
I don't know much, except that I believe in peace and love like The Beatles said. I also believe in Jesus Christ, so no matter what the world throws at me I know I will make it. Thank You, Lord. /////
See you in the morning. Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Saturday, January 25, 2020
Things Are Hopeful, Things Are Hard
I've had a chance to watch a couple of movies over the past two nights. The first was "Conquest"(1937), an epic historical romance starring Greta Garbo and Charles Boyer (pronounced Boy-YAY). Garbo plays Marie Walewska, a young Polish Countess who had a long standing romance with Napoleon Bonaparte. Boyer is superb as The French Emperor and so dominates the screen that he outshines even the Great Garbo. I don't know how historically accurate the film is, but like "Marie Antoinette", seen late last year, it once again reminds you why MGM was the greatest movie studio of the Golden Era. The sets are incredible, like real palace interiors. Garbo is framed in gauzy portrait lighting, in close ups that epitomize the type of Hollywood Glamour photography that made her perhaps the top icon among actresses of the 1930s. But it's Boyer's film. He embodies Napoleon and was nominated for an Oscar for his role.
The second movie I saw was "Mexican Spitfire's Elephant"(1942), starring the wonderful comedy team of Lupe Velez and Leon Errol. You've heard me raving about them for several weeks now. Do yourself a favor and check out the entire "Mexican Spitfire" series, eight films in all. "Elephant" is my fifth one and I'll be working my way through the other three as time permits.
Sorry for the thumbnail reviews, but my new schedule has left me very, very tired, just exhausted really. 2020 came in with a bang, beginning with the episodes of dementia related psychosis that Pearl went through beginning around New Year's Day. As you know, she was ultimately hospitalised, which was an incredibly stressful time for everyone involved because we didn't know if she was gonna make it. She's been back home for three days now and is improving, eating every meal and even using her walker for a few steps today, so it appears the immediate danger is over, but someone has to be with her all the time now, and I am trading off at the moment with her daughter, who's been staying at the house for over a week. I am writing to you from home, and am off at night for the time being, but we've had to learn a crash course in making pureed food for Pearl, making sure she wears her oxygen line, feeding her carefully due to her swallowing difficulty and a whole host of other home care related procedures.
And then on top of everything, it's been hard for me to get any rest or any peace and quiet, because of these horrible neighbors of mine who have a non-stop party going on in their unit, with Indian disco music blaring at all times of day. I'll tell ya, as soon as I get a chance, I'm gonna move so far away from this building that you'll have to send out a search party to find me. Northridge has gone to hell because of CSUN packing 42,000 students onto a campus designed for half that, and I don't wanna live here anymore. Yep, I wouldn't mind moving to the desert, or even out of state if I knew anyone outside California. I just can't stand living amidst this Chaos Culture anymore, with amped-up young people tailgating me everywhere and these nutjobs in the apartment next door. I'll stop bitching now, but this has been an extremely difficult month, and for now I no longer have the respite of being at Pearl's during the night. The Hell of my apartment building will be the end of me if I don't get out soon.
We have been following the impeachment trial, and I must say that Adam Schiff did a masterful job as lead prosecutor. I think his lengthy presentations will go down with the great oratories in American history. Trump may escape conviction here, due to the cult he has created in the GOP, but he's gonna go down eventually, because the evidence against him is overwhelming. Besides that, he's just a lowlife who has given us ample evidence on a daily basis of his racism, his misogyny, his crudity, his inability to tell the truth and his narcissism. He's a sociopath, and when he goes down, he's gonna go down hard. Bank on it. The Southern District of New York is just waiting for the moment when he's no longer president, and then they will indict him for one or more of his numerous crimes, and he will go to prison where he belongs, hopefully for the rest of his life. Trump has been the ultimate symptom thus far of Chaos Culture. Let's hope that by removing him in the next election, this country can begin to step back from it's own narcissistic tendencies to start to rebuild the stature we once had as the world's leader.
Sorry about the downer of a blog. It's just that everything hit at once. If Pearl continues to improve, I am hoping things will go back to relative normal. I can deal with the multitude of home health workers that will be coming over to the house, as long as I can stay there and live in peace as I was used to doing for the past five years. You see, I haven't really been living in my apartment since November 2014. That's when I began staying overnight at Pearl's, and I only came home for an hour in the afternoon every day, and then again in the evening to watch my nightly movie and take my walk. But I basically didn't live here; my apartment was just my clubhouse for all that time. Prior to that, it was a nightmare just like it is now. This is a party building for college students and I don't belong here.
Please Lord, help me get out. /////
The second movie I saw was "Mexican Spitfire's Elephant"(1942), starring the wonderful comedy team of Lupe Velez and Leon Errol. You've heard me raving about them for several weeks now. Do yourself a favor and check out the entire "Mexican Spitfire" series, eight films in all. "Elephant" is my fifth one and I'll be working my way through the other three as time permits.
Sorry for the thumbnail reviews, but my new schedule has left me very, very tired, just exhausted really. 2020 came in with a bang, beginning with the episodes of dementia related psychosis that Pearl went through beginning around New Year's Day. As you know, she was ultimately hospitalised, which was an incredibly stressful time for everyone involved because we didn't know if she was gonna make it. She's been back home for three days now and is improving, eating every meal and even using her walker for a few steps today, so it appears the immediate danger is over, but someone has to be with her all the time now, and I am trading off at the moment with her daughter, who's been staying at the house for over a week. I am writing to you from home, and am off at night for the time being, but we've had to learn a crash course in making pureed food for Pearl, making sure she wears her oxygen line, feeding her carefully due to her swallowing difficulty and a whole host of other home care related procedures.
And then on top of everything, it's been hard for me to get any rest or any peace and quiet, because of these horrible neighbors of mine who have a non-stop party going on in their unit, with Indian disco music blaring at all times of day. I'll tell ya, as soon as I get a chance, I'm gonna move so far away from this building that you'll have to send out a search party to find me. Northridge has gone to hell because of CSUN packing 42,000 students onto a campus designed for half that, and I don't wanna live here anymore. Yep, I wouldn't mind moving to the desert, or even out of state if I knew anyone outside California. I just can't stand living amidst this Chaos Culture anymore, with amped-up young people tailgating me everywhere and these nutjobs in the apartment next door. I'll stop bitching now, but this has been an extremely difficult month, and for now I no longer have the respite of being at Pearl's during the night. The Hell of my apartment building will be the end of me if I don't get out soon.
We have been following the impeachment trial, and I must say that Adam Schiff did a masterful job as lead prosecutor. I think his lengthy presentations will go down with the great oratories in American history. Trump may escape conviction here, due to the cult he has created in the GOP, but he's gonna go down eventually, because the evidence against him is overwhelming. Besides that, he's just a lowlife who has given us ample evidence on a daily basis of his racism, his misogyny, his crudity, his inability to tell the truth and his narcissism. He's a sociopath, and when he goes down, he's gonna go down hard. Bank on it. The Southern District of New York is just waiting for the moment when he's no longer president, and then they will indict him for one or more of his numerous crimes, and he will go to prison where he belongs, hopefully for the rest of his life. Trump has been the ultimate symptom thus far of Chaos Culture. Let's hope that by removing him in the next election, this country can begin to step back from it's own narcissistic tendencies to start to rebuild the stature we once had as the world's leader.
Sorry about the downer of a blog. It's just that everything hit at once. If Pearl continues to improve, I am hoping things will go back to relative normal. I can deal with the multitude of home health workers that will be coming over to the house, as long as I can stay there and live in peace as I was used to doing for the past five years. You see, I haven't really been living in my apartment since November 2014. That's when I began staying overnight at Pearl's, and I only came home for an hour in the afternoon every day, and then again in the evening to watch my nightly movie and take my walk. But I basically didn't live here; my apartment was just my clubhouse for all that time. Prior to that, it was a nightmare just like it is now. This is a party building for college students and I don't belong here.
Please Lord, help me get out. /////
Thursday, January 23, 2020
Pearl Is Doing Better + Beware Of Death Panel Doctors
I'm so tired I can barely keep my eyes open. It was another long day at Pearl's, getting acclimated to the new routine. All her food must be pureed now, to make it easy to swallow, and she's still too weak to walk. She's also on oxygen for the time being, though we've been able to turn it off for extended periods with no deleterious effect for Pearl. When she was discharged from Northridge Hospital they said she no longer needed it, so we don't even know why they brought it to the house. By "we" I mean Pearl's daughter as well as myself. She is still here and will be staying until Pearl can walk again, because there is no way I could care for her alone if she could not. We will have help as previously mentioned, from all the various "home health" people who will come over, but they only visit long enough to perform their tasks. They don't stay. Therefore, when Helen does go home (provided Pearl can walk), I will be on my own in an entirely new frontier. This is why I asked you to say a prayer for me, too.
But how's this for some good news : today, just one day removed from the hospital, Pearl ate two meals (high in calories cause we want her to gain weight) and drank an Ensure and also a thickened milk. The milk is a specialty product for people who have difficulty swallowing, which is common in late stage dementia. But in Pearl's case, she did great. The pureed meals and the liquids went down like silk, because Pearl was relieved of the burden of chewing, which is also difficult for dementia patients because it messes with their esophageal mechanism. All told, she did great on her eating and drinking. This was a far cry from what we were told by the grim, graveyard, death-panel doctor two days ago, who told us in dire tones : "She can have nothing", by which he meant no food or drink, because he insisted she would aspirate.
I won't go into a long tirade, but I'm not a big fan of hospital doctors. We had quite an ordeal dealing with this one guy, and I've dealt with "bottom line" MDs before when my parents were sick with terminal illnesses. Folks - and this goes for anyone who reads this - I am here to tell you that if anyone you love ever lands in the hospital, that you need to be there to advocate for them if they cannot speak for themselves, because what will happen if no one is there, no relative or loved one, is that the doctors and the hospital administration will decide if your family member's life is worth saving or not. I am not hardly joking you, and it's f-ing spooky. The Republicans are right when they talk about "death panel" policies at hospitals. I am not a Republican, but I've witnessed these practices three times now, over a fifteen year span, during the illnesses of both of my parents and now Pearl, the lady for whom I caregive.
Had I not been there to stick up for Pearl during her five day stay at Northridge Hospital, she might be facing a different situation right now, because this SOB wanted us to let her go, and he wanted that outcome because it's part of a fucking financial policy. He even told us that if she ate or drank anything, she would aspirate it, meaning it would go into her lungs and she would die a horrible death from aspiration pneumonia. What he didn't tell us was that he was saying all of this to 1) clear the hospital room to kick Pearl out and pave the way for the next patient with fresh insurance coverage, and 2) to protect his ass, and that of the hospital from a feared malpractice claim. When they tell you all this doomsday shit, it's so they can say "we warned you" in case you try to sue them.
So that's the end of my tirade, but again my good friends, I must warn you against death panel doctors. They are real and it's no joke. They will decide on a person's life if you are not there to speak up for that person. In Pearl's case, instead of accepting the verdict of this SOB, that she would never eat or drink again, we asked the speech therapist to check Pearl out. This lady was awesome. She was very thorough, gave Pearl many different liquids to swallow, of various thicknesses, and determined that, while Pearl's ability to eat solid food is compromised, she could still have a pureed diet with thickened liquids. In other words, she could indeed continue to eat and drink, but just on a special diet.
So, instead of having to slowly starve to death, as per the verdict of the death panel doctor, today she had eggs with cream cheese, and later mashed potatoes with green onions and gravy, along with the aforementioned beverages, all pureed to the consistency recommended by the wonderful speech therapist.
And to top it all off, because she's back at home, we took Pearl on a long neighborhood push in her wheelchair. T'was a gorgeous early Spring day with blue sky and warm sun. We saw doggies and birds, flowers and trees. Pearl had a happy expression on her face that for me was beyond measure after all she's been through in the past week.
But no, I'm not a fan of doctors, though nurses are the angels (and real heroes) of the medical profession.
That's basically all I know for tonight. I'm in entirely new territory here, my fellow movie fans. I hope I will be able to keep up our nightly motion picture schedule (pronounced shedge-yoole), but for now we'll just take things one day at a time. I will keep writing no matter what happens, so stay tuned, because I'll see you tomorrow night at the Usual Time.
Tons and tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
But how's this for some good news : today, just one day removed from the hospital, Pearl ate two meals (high in calories cause we want her to gain weight) and drank an Ensure and also a thickened milk. The milk is a specialty product for people who have difficulty swallowing, which is common in late stage dementia. But in Pearl's case, she did great. The pureed meals and the liquids went down like silk, because Pearl was relieved of the burden of chewing, which is also difficult for dementia patients because it messes with their esophageal mechanism. All told, she did great on her eating and drinking. This was a far cry from what we were told by the grim, graveyard, death-panel doctor two days ago, who told us in dire tones : "She can have nothing", by which he meant no food or drink, because he insisted she would aspirate.
I won't go into a long tirade, but I'm not a big fan of hospital doctors. We had quite an ordeal dealing with this one guy, and I've dealt with "bottom line" MDs before when my parents were sick with terminal illnesses. Folks - and this goes for anyone who reads this - I am here to tell you that if anyone you love ever lands in the hospital, that you need to be there to advocate for them if they cannot speak for themselves, because what will happen if no one is there, no relative or loved one, is that the doctors and the hospital administration will decide if your family member's life is worth saving or not. I am not hardly joking you, and it's f-ing spooky. The Republicans are right when they talk about "death panel" policies at hospitals. I am not a Republican, but I've witnessed these practices three times now, over a fifteen year span, during the illnesses of both of my parents and now Pearl, the lady for whom I caregive.
Had I not been there to stick up for Pearl during her five day stay at Northridge Hospital, she might be facing a different situation right now, because this SOB wanted us to let her go, and he wanted that outcome because it's part of a fucking financial policy. He even told us that if she ate or drank anything, she would aspirate it, meaning it would go into her lungs and she would die a horrible death from aspiration pneumonia. What he didn't tell us was that he was saying all of this to 1) clear the hospital room to kick Pearl out and pave the way for the next patient with fresh insurance coverage, and 2) to protect his ass, and that of the hospital from a feared malpractice claim. When they tell you all this doomsday shit, it's so they can say "we warned you" in case you try to sue them.
So that's the end of my tirade, but again my good friends, I must warn you against death panel doctors. They are real and it's no joke. They will decide on a person's life if you are not there to speak up for that person. In Pearl's case, instead of accepting the verdict of this SOB, that she would never eat or drink again, we asked the speech therapist to check Pearl out. This lady was awesome. She was very thorough, gave Pearl many different liquids to swallow, of various thicknesses, and determined that, while Pearl's ability to eat solid food is compromised, she could still have a pureed diet with thickened liquids. In other words, she could indeed continue to eat and drink, but just on a special diet.
So, instead of having to slowly starve to death, as per the verdict of the death panel doctor, today she had eggs with cream cheese, and later mashed potatoes with green onions and gravy, along with the aforementioned beverages, all pureed to the consistency recommended by the wonderful speech therapist.
And to top it all off, because she's back at home, we took Pearl on a long neighborhood push in her wheelchair. T'was a gorgeous early Spring day with blue sky and warm sun. We saw doggies and birds, flowers and trees. Pearl had a happy expression on her face that for me was beyond measure after all she's been through in the past week.
But no, I'm not a fan of doctors, though nurses are the angels (and real heroes) of the medical profession.
That's basically all I know for tonight. I'm in entirely new territory here, my fellow movie fans. I hope I will be able to keep up our nightly motion picture schedule (pronounced shedge-yoole), but for now we'll just take things one day at a time. I will keep writing no matter what happens, so stay tuned, because I'll see you tomorrow night at the Usual Time.
Tons and tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
"Arizona Legion" starring George O'Brien
Tonight I watched George O'Brien in "Arizona Legion" (1939), another of the hour long Westerns from his nine film collection, recently acquired by Yours Truly. Big George is working undercover in this one. He pretends to be a rowdy ne'er-do-well, so he can infiltrate Whiskey Joe's stage robbery gang and learn of their plans in advance. That way he can stop Joe in his tracks and also learn who he's working for, a mysterious bigwig known as The Chief. O'Brien has been tasked with this job by the Governor of Arizona Territory. He's got to pretend to be a Bad Guy so he can get close to Whiskey Joe, and he also has to keep his true intentions secret, even from his fiancee (Larraine Day), who cancels their engagement because she thinks he's become a thug.
All George can do is grin and bear it. He's been sworn to secrecy in his position as head of the Arizona Rangers, a new law enforcement agency created specifically to stop men like The Chief, who controls the local Sheriff and Judge. Day, meanwhile, has fallen for Lieutenant Bob Ives (Carlyle Moore), an Army officer stationed in town who has decided to take down Whiskey Joe on his own. He too thinks George O'Brien is one of the bad guys, an opinion that will lead to consequences later on.
O'Brien's right hand man is "Whopper" Hatch, nicknamed because of the tall tales he tells. "Whopper" is played by Chill Wills, an iconic Western actor with a long face and rubber mouth. Wills' specialty was his gift of gab, and his stories in "Arizona Legion" - which he tells by request - are special treats within the film. You could listen to him talk all day.
So far I've seen two movies from the George O'Brien Collection. I've been impressed with the depth of plot in each one. The location was once again Corriganville, which automatically gets a movie Two Thumbs Up. If you like early Westerns, give George O'Brien a try. He's a likable actor with a winning smile, perfect for the role of a White Hat Good Guy.////
I am happy to report that Pearl is home from the hospital. She's very frail from her ordeal, but the infection she had is gone. She's gonna be on an in-home health care program from now on, which still includes me as her caregiver, but now I will have help from a nurse who will come over twice a week, along with visits from other health professionals. During her hospital stay, Pearl was really out of it and asleep most of the time, but as soon as she got home her eyes lit up, so that was awesome. She lost a lot of weight in the past week, and hasn't done any standing or walking, so it's gonna take some time to build up her strength, but we'll take it slow and see how much she can do. Hopefully she can still go to church.
Thanks again for all your prayers and good faith. The past three weeks have been crazy, but maybe with Pearl back home, things will settle down a bit. I've been also dealing with my OCD neighbor, who on a nightly basis opens and closes his door at least a dozen times, and runs down the stairs as if his apartment was on fire. When he thunders back up the steps, he slams his door - BOOM - and then fifteen minutes later he does the whole thing again. He's a freaking nutjob. I'm telling you, if I don't get away from this building soon, I'll be blogging from the booby hatch.
You can say a prayer for me, too, if you feel like it. :)
Well, that's all I know for tonight. 2020 has been off to a rough start, but maybe just maybe the ship is righting itself. I'll see you in the morning.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
All George can do is grin and bear it. He's been sworn to secrecy in his position as head of the Arizona Rangers, a new law enforcement agency created specifically to stop men like The Chief, who controls the local Sheriff and Judge. Day, meanwhile, has fallen for Lieutenant Bob Ives (Carlyle Moore), an Army officer stationed in town who has decided to take down Whiskey Joe on his own. He too thinks George O'Brien is one of the bad guys, an opinion that will lead to consequences later on.
O'Brien's right hand man is "Whopper" Hatch, nicknamed because of the tall tales he tells. "Whopper" is played by Chill Wills, an iconic Western actor with a long face and rubber mouth. Wills' specialty was his gift of gab, and his stories in "Arizona Legion" - which he tells by request - are special treats within the film. You could listen to him talk all day.
So far I've seen two movies from the George O'Brien Collection. I've been impressed with the depth of plot in each one. The location was once again Corriganville, which automatically gets a movie Two Thumbs Up. If you like early Westerns, give George O'Brien a try. He's a likable actor with a winning smile, perfect for the role of a White Hat Good Guy.////
I am happy to report that Pearl is home from the hospital. She's very frail from her ordeal, but the infection she had is gone. She's gonna be on an in-home health care program from now on, which still includes me as her caregiver, but now I will have help from a nurse who will come over twice a week, along with visits from other health professionals. During her hospital stay, Pearl was really out of it and asleep most of the time, but as soon as she got home her eyes lit up, so that was awesome. She lost a lot of weight in the past week, and hasn't done any standing or walking, so it's gonna take some time to build up her strength, but we'll take it slow and see how much she can do. Hopefully she can still go to church.
Thanks again for all your prayers and good faith. The past three weeks have been crazy, but maybe with Pearl back home, things will settle down a bit. I've been also dealing with my OCD neighbor, who on a nightly basis opens and closes his door at least a dozen times, and runs down the stairs as if his apartment was on fire. When he thunders back up the steps, he slams his door - BOOM - and then fifteen minutes later he does the whole thing again. He's a freaking nutjob. I'm telling you, if I don't get away from this building soon, I'll be blogging from the booby hatch.
You can say a prayer for me, too, if you feel like it. :)
Well, that's all I know for tonight. 2020 has been off to a rough start, but maybe just maybe the ship is righting itself. I'll see you in the morning.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Monday, January 20, 2020
Eric Johnson at The Regent Theater in Downtown Los Angeles
On Saturday evening I went to see Eric Johnson at the Regent Theater in Downtown Los Angeles. Grimsley and I drove to the North Hollywood Metro Station at 4pm and took the Red Line to Pershing Square, arriving at 5:10. The show had an early start time of 5:45, because of of the aforementioned disco party to be held later in the evening, so we had plenty of time to walk the few blocks from the station to the venue. When we entered, there were only about 100 people inside. We were able to get good seats in the center, before the joint filled up. It was a general admission concert, but with chairs. I love that, because I don't wanna stand for an entire show anymore. It makes my feet hurt, haha.
I believe I mentioned that I won free tickets to the concert, on Facebook from EJ himself. It was all serendipitous because until a few days ago, I didn't know if I could go, and hadn't purchased a ticket for that reason. But then it turned out that I was able to attend, and now I had the free tickets as well, so it was a real blessing that came at the perfect time.
Eric went onstage at 5:50. His band included Roscoe Beck on bass, Tom Brechtlein on drums, and a multi instrumentalist named Dave Scher who played keyboards, percussion and second guitar. He was incredible, and duplicated some of Eric's guitar parts on songs where the Master was playing piano.
They started with a Beatles cover : "Things We Said Today", done EJ style. A few songs later they covered a Jimi song : "Driftin'". Few can play Jimi like Eric. It brought goosebumps to my arms and a lump in my throat, given what I've been going through. They also played a John Coltrane tune, which was really far out because Trane was a genius saxophonist. Eric played the sax parts on guitar, showing off some avant garde jazz chops that I saw once before when he toured with Mike Stern a few years ago. In addition to the covers, EJ and band went through a variety of styles, including a couple of Chet Atkins chicken pickin numbers and an old bluesy boogie called "Have A Good Time" (by Walter Horton). All of these were played in Eric's signature style, which is very high energy.
Mostly though, what he did was shred. And yes, he played millions of notes, but it wasn't the kind of "tweedle-dee-dee" shredding that lesser players engage in. Eric is so technically capable that he can run all over the neck at unheard of speed, but he's musically advanced enough to use different modes or scales to create different colors. In other words, on a song like "Desert Rose", his extended solo featured the fastest playing I've ever seen, by any guitarist, but he wasn't just repeating the same lines over and over, or doing trills, which is what I mean by "tweedle-dee-dee" playing. Instead, he will spontaneously change the scale or mode, to "say the same thing", i.e. continue to build on the melody of the solo, but in a different way. I call it using a different color, and that's the thing with Eric Johnson. He's dazzling you with his impossibly fast leads, but they sparkle with tonality. The color provides the emotion, which is what music is all about. And it goes without saying that he's much more than a lead player. EJ is also the king of inversion phrasing. He gets beautiful chiming chords out of his Strat, and he can switch between any facet of his playing to another in a split second, even while singing. Having said all of that, one of my favorite things about Eric Johnson is that in his live shows, he's not afraid to take chances. Sometimes, when he takes off on a long solo, he'll get so far out on a limb that you wonder if he'll make it back. He always does, but even then you hope he'll make it back on time. Ritchie Blackmore once said that his favorite players were guys like Jimi Hendrix, because as great as Jimi was, he wasn't afraid to experiment. Ritchie said it's like he would spontaneously "search" for new notes in his solos. He was reaching for an emotion, trying to express a feeling; sometimes he found the note, sometimes he did not, but Ritchie said that's what made him extra great, and in Ritchie's opinion preferable to a player like Joe Satriani, who is technically incredible but who never takes chances and never makes mistakes. Ritchie says players like Joe are over rehearsed.
Now, on record, both Jimi and EJ are note perfect, but you've gotta be on a finished product like an album. Live, though, neither is (or was in Jimi's case) afraid to get way out there, to push the limits, and I've gotta say, when Eric Johnson reaches for some imaginary note to express a spontaneous feeling, he almost always finds it. His playing is so far off the charts that you're stunned just watching him, but he also takes you on a roller coaster ride that delivers the unexpected.
Then, on the next song he might pick up an acoustic guitar and play a country number, but it'll be all rocked up. Or he'll sit at the piano and play a haunting ballad like "Song For Lynette". He didn't do that one on Saturday, but he did perform three new piano based tunes from his upcoming album, "EJ II", due out next month. All told, he played 24 songs in a set that lasted 2hrs 15minutes. I've seen Eric about 15 times now, and this was one of his best shows I've been to. Guitar wise, I think it was the best.
One thing that was different, the band's volume was super loud this time. My right ear is still ringing a little bit, lol. I think it was because The Regent is a small theater, shaped like a box. In the past when I've seen him live, Eric has usually played at The Canyon in Agoura, a more spacious venue. But maybe high decibel shows are trending now. Even Sparks play at ear splitting volume, like The Who or Deep Purple. Ah well, the ringing should die down in another couple of days, and it was surely worth it. ///
The show ended at 8:05pm, earlier than most concerts begin. Grim and I walked back up to the Pershing Square Metro Station and were home by 9:30. I love it! Let's have more 5:45 concerts, please.
That's all for tonight. I'll have another update on Pearl when I write to you tomorrow. Keep the faith.
Peace, and tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
I believe I mentioned that I won free tickets to the concert, on Facebook from EJ himself. It was all serendipitous because until a few days ago, I didn't know if I could go, and hadn't purchased a ticket for that reason. But then it turned out that I was able to attend, and now I had the free tickets as well, so it was a real blessing that came at the perfect time.
Eric went onstage at 5:50. His band included Roscoe Beck on bass, Tom Brechtlein on drums, and a multi instrumentalist named Dave Scher who played keyboards, percussion and second guitar. He was incredible, and duplicated some of Eric's guitar parts on songs where the Master was playing piano.
They started with a Beatles cover : "Things We Said Today", done EJ style. A few songs later they covered a Jimi song : "Driftin'". Few can play Jimi like Eric. It brought goosebumps to my arms and a lump in my throat, given what I've been going through. They also played a John Coltrane tune, which was really far out because Trane was a genius saxophonist. Eric played the sax parts on guitar, showing off some avant garde jazz chops that I saw once before when he toured with Mike Stern a few years ago. In addition to the covers, EJ and band went through a variety of styles, including a couple of Chet Atkins chicken pickin numbers and an old bluesy boogie called "Have A Good Time" (by Walter Horton). All of these were played in Eric's signature style, which is very high energy.
Mostly though, what he did was shred. And yes, he played millions of notes, but it wasn't the kind of "tweedle-dee-dee" shredding that lesser players engage in. Eric is so technically capable that he can run all over the neck at unheard of speed, but he's musically advanced enough to use different modes or scales to create different colors. In other words, on a song like "Desert Rose", his extended solo featured the fastest playing I've ever seen, by any guitarist, but he wasn't just repeating the same lines over and over, or doing trills, which is what I mean by "tweedle-dee-dee" playing. Instead, he will spontaneously change the scale or mode, to "say the same thing", i.e. continue to build on the melody of the solo, but in a different way. I call it using a different color, and that's the thing with Eric Johnson. He's dazzling you with his impossibly fast leads, but they sparkle with tonality. The color provides the emotion, which is what music is all about. And it goes without saying that he's much more than a lead player. EJ is also the king of inversion phrasing. He gets beautiful chiming chords out of his Strat, and he can switch between any facet of his playing to another in a split second, even while singing. Having said all of that, one of my favorite things about Eric Johnson is that in his live shows, he's not afraid to take chances. Sometimes, when he takes off on a long solo, he'll get so far out on a limb that you wonder if he'll make it back. He always does, but even then you hope he'll make it back on time. Ritchie Blackmore once said that his favorite players were guys like Jimi Hendrix, because as great as Jimi was, he wasn't afraid to experiment. Ritchie said it's like he would spontaneously "search" for new notes in his solos. He was reaching for an emotion, trying to express a feeling; sometimes he found the note, sometimes he did not, but Ritchie said that's what made him extra great, and in Ritchie's opinion preferable to a player like Joe Satriani, who is technically incredible but who never takes chances and never makes mistakes. Ritchie says players like Joe are over rehearsed.
Now, on record, both Jimi and EJ are note perfect, but you've gotta be on a finished product like an album. Live, though, neither is (or was in Jimi's case) afraid to get way out there, to push the limits, and I've gotta say, when Eric Johnson reaches for some imaginary note to express a spontaneous feeling, he almost always finds it. His playing is so far off the charts that you're stunned just watching him, but he also takes you on a roller coaster ride that delivers the unexpected.
Then, on the next song he might pick up an acoustic guitar and play a country number, but it'll be all rocked up. Or he'll sit at the piano and play a haunting ballad like "Song For Lynette". He didn't do that one on Saturday, but he did perform three new piano based tunes from his upcoming album, "EJ II", due out next month. All told, he played 24 songs in a set that lasted 2hrs 15minutes. I've seen Eric about 15 times now, and this was one of his best shows I've been to. Guitar wise, I think it was the best.
One thing that was different, the band's volume was super loud this time. My right ear is still ringing a little bit, lol. I think it was because The Regent is a small theater, shaped like a box. In the past when I've seen him live, Eric has usually played at The Canyon in Agoura, a more spacious venue. But maybe high decibel shows are trending now. Even Sparks play at ear splitting volume, like The Who or Deep Purple. Ah well, the ringing should die down in another couple of days, and it was surely worth it. ///
The show ended at 8:05pm, earlier than most concerts begin. Grim and I walked back up to the Pershing Square Metro Station and were home by 9:30. I love it! Let's have more 5:45 concerts, please.
That's all for tonight. I'll have another update on Pearl when I write to you tomorrow. Keep the faith.
Peace, and tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Sunday, January 19, 2020
"The Rich Are Always With Us" starring Ruth Chatterton
I watched another movie in the past several days that I didn't get around to reviewing because of recent events. It was a pre-coder called "The Rich Are Always With Us"(1932), starring Ruth Chatterton, who we saw once before in "Dodsworth"(1936). Chatterton was mostly a stage actress, but she has a beguiling screen presence and a lot of charisma. She could've been a big star had she chosen to. "The Rich" is about the lifestyles of a group of wealthy friends in the '30s, which was a freewheeling time as we've discovered in several recent pictures. I guess it was a carryover from the Roaring Twenties, except by the 1930s America was in the grip of the Depression and only the wealthy could afford to keep roaring.
But roar they did, at least according to Hollywood, and in this film there is wanton behavior galore. Chatterton plays Caroline Grannard, otherwise known as The Richest Woman in the World. A brief montage explains her lineage at the start of the film, then we see her in adulthood. She and her husband appear to have an open marriage, although it wouldn't have been declared as such, even in the wild 1930s. The sexual aspect would've remained unspoken, but in the movie's first scene we see Ruth dining with her boyfriend at a posh restaurant. Her husband Greg is also there with his young lover. Ruth doesn't see them at first, but when her boyfriend points them out, she tries to mask her jealousy. The rich are supposed to be above all that, dontcha know. But Ruth is jealous, and she can't hide it, because her affair is only for show. Her boyfriend is platonic, while her husband's girlfriend is madly in love with him and eager to steal him from Ruth. This will never happen - at least not yet - because these are flings of The Privileged Class, and when they go home at night, they go home together despite their boredom with one another. Boyfriends and girlfriends are for showing off in public. Later though, when the clock strikes midnight, they turn back into pumpkins of themselves and retire to the bedroom of marriage, even though they don't believe in it. What they do believe in is class structure.
A very young Bette Davis, only 24 here, plays Chatterton's best friend Malbro. Yes, I thought it was an unusual name too. Malbro also comes from wealth, and has a crush on Chatterton's boyfriend George Brent, a suave writer. Brent, in turn, has designs on Ruth, and seems to genuinely love her, but she isn't sure if he's after her for her money, so she keeps him on a string to annoy her husband Greg.
It's a royal mess, but you can count on Bette Davis to at least attempt to throw a monkey wrench into the works. She looks smaller in her youth, thinner in body and face, though you can see the dynamo she would become as she demands George Brent to love her, because he's surely wasting his time with Miss Chatterton, who sees him as a plaything. Even in 1932, in one of her first roles, you don't mess with Bette Davis.
So....let's see if we can keep the scorecard straight. Ruth Chatterton likes George Brent but doesn't love him; Brent loves her, but maybe only for her money. Ruth's husband Greg loves Ruth in a "long married" kind of way, but really has the hots for his much younger girlfriend, who hates Ruth and wants to steal Greg away from her. Then finally you have a post-collegiate Bette Davis as Malbro, who just wants somebody to love and hopes it will be George Brent, even if she has to force him to submit.
Now you can see why "The Rich Are Always With Us". Geez Louise.
Chatterton carries the picture with her charming personality and natural acting style. At a time when actors and actresses were reciting their lines in that clipped way, and speaking in voice-trained Continental accents, she comes across as much less self conscious in front of the camera. Maybe it has to do with her years on Broadway and playing to a live audience. Whatever the reason, I'm a new fan and will be on the lookout for more of her films. This one gets Two Big Thumbs Up. ////
A quick update on Pearl - it's been a roller coaster ride this weekend. After reporting on Friday that she was feeling much better, yesterday the news wasn't as hopeful. The speech therapist said she'd failed the "swallow test", to see if she could still eat solid food. Then they said she was too old for a g-tube, so we were preparing for the worst. Her nurse, though, said that she was still fighting the infection, and she might do better once it is gone. So that gave us a little hope, and today when I got to the hospital Pearl was more alert, listening to music with her eyes open. They gave her a different antibiotic which is more effective against the infection. Now they say they'll try again on the swallow test, after giving her another day or two to recover. I requested that they let me know when it is scheduled so I can be there, because I am the one who has been feeding Pearl for the last several years, and I know she can still swallow her food and eat her meals. It takes a long time, but she can do it, so I am gonna make sure they know that at the hospital. Anyhow, as of right now we are cautiously optimistic. Today was Pearl's best day so far. Thanks for your prayers and faith. We had good singin' in church this morning, too.
That's all for tonight. I'm still writing from home and I'll see you tomorrow, at the Usual Time or earlier.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
But roar they did, at least according to Hollywood, and in this film there is wanton behavior galore. Chatterton plays Caroline Grannard, otherwise known as The Richest Woman in the World. A brief montage explains her lineage at the start of the film, then we see her in adulthood. She and her husband appear to have an open marriage, although it wouldn't have been declared as such, even in the wild 1930s. The sexual aspect would've remained unspoken, but in the movie's first scene we see Ruth dining with her boyfriend at a posh restaurant. Her husband Greg is also there with his young lover. Ruth doesn't see them at first, but when her boyfriend points them out, she tries to mask her jealousy. The rich are supposed to be above all that, dontcha know. But Ruth is jealous, and she can't hide it, because her affair is only for show. Her boyfriend is platonic, while her husband's girlfriend is madly in love with him and eager to steal him from Ruth. This will never happen - at least not yet - because these are flings of The Privileged Class, and when they go home at night, they go home together despite their boredom with one another. Boyfriends and girlfriends are for showing off in public. Later though, when the clock strikes midnight, they turn back into pumpkins of themselves and retire to the bedroom of marriage, even though they don't believe in it. What they do believe in is class structure.
A very young Bette Davis, only 24 here, plays Chatterton's best friend Malbro. Yes, I thought it was an unusual name too. Malbro also comes from wealth, and has a crush on Chatterton's boyfriend George Brent, a suave writer. Brent, in turn, has designs on Ruth, and seems to genuinely love her, but she isn't sure if he's after her for her money, so she keeps him on a string to annoy her husband Greg.
It's a royal mess, but you can count on Bette Davis to at least attempt to throw a monkey wrench into the works. She looks smaller in her youth, thinner in body and face, though you can see the dynamo she would become as she demands George Brent to love her, because he's surely wasting his time with Miss Chatterton, who sees him as a plaything. Even in 1932, in one of her first roles, you don't mess with Bette Davis.
So....let's see if we can keep the scorecard straight. Ruth Chatterton likes George Brent but doesn't love him; Brent loves her, but maybe only for her money. Ruth's husband Greg loves Ruth in a "long married" kind of way, but really has the hots for his much younger girlfriend, who hates Ruth and wants to steal Greg away from her. Then finally you have a post-collegiate Bette Davis as Malbro, who just wants somebody to love and hopes it will be George Brent, even if she has to force him to submit.
Now you can see why "The Rich Are Always With Us". Geez Louise.
Chatterton carries the picture with her charming personality and natural acting style. At a time when actors and actresses were reciting their lines in that clipped way, and speaking in voice-trained Continental accents, she comes across as much less self conscious in front of the camera. Maybe it has to do with her years on Broadway and playing to a live audience. Whatever the reason, I'm a new fan and will be on the lookout for more of her films. This one gets Two Big Thumbs Up. ////
A quick update on Pearl - it's been a roller coaster ride this weekend. After reporting on Friday that she was feeling much better, yesterday the news wasn't as hopeful. The speech therapist said she'd failed the "swallow test", to see if she could still eat solid food. Then they said she was too old for a g-tube, so we were preparing for the worst. Her nurse, though, said that she was still fighting the infection, and she might do better once it is gone. So that gave us a little hope, and today when I got to the hospital Pearl was more alert, listening to music with her eyes open. They gave her a different antibiotic which is more effective against the infection. Now they say they'll try again on the swallow test, after giving her another day or two to recover. I requested that they let me know when it is scheduled so I can be there, because I am the one who has been feeding Pearl for the last several years, and I know she can still swallow her food and eat her meals. It takes a long time, but she can do it, so I am gonna make sure they know that at the hospital. Anyhow, as of right now we are cautiously optimistic. Today was Pearl's best day so far. Thanks for your prayers and faith. We had good singin' in church this morning, too.
That's all for tonight. I'm still writing from home and I'll see you tomorrow, at the Usual Time or earlier.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Friday, January 17, 2020
Lupe Velez, Comic Genius
I am happy to report that Pearl is feeling much better today. I went over to Northridge Hospital this morning to visit her, and she was resting comfortably in a private room. She is underweight and fragile right now, but the doctors say she suffered no kidney damage from the UTI, which was a concern before the tests results came back. She's rehydrated and they're giving her antibiotics to finish off the infection. It looks like she might be coming home from the hospital by Sunday or Monday. There are other issues that may come up. They are gonna have a speech therapist perform a swallow test, to see if she can still eat solid food. One of the complications of late stage dementia is losing the ability to swallow. Because I feed Pearl every day, I know that she can still swallow her food as long as she is not hurried. This is why her meals take so long. Her daughter said Pearl's doctors want to make sure she won't aspirate. That happened to my Mom, and it can cause pneumonia, but Mom had Stage 4 throat cancer. I think Pearl can still swallow her food and I hope they will give her a chance, because the only alternative is a g-tube, and at that point, the person is basically only consuming Ensure for the rest of their life. So, fingers are crossed on that score and once again your prayers are appreciated.
Last night I was able to watch a movie : "Mexican Spitfire"(1940), starring Lupe Velez and Leon Errol. It was just what I needed after the events of the past several days, and I am here to tell you that not only is it a Laff Riot, but quite simply one of the funniest movies ever made, period. As a comedy team, Velez and Errol can be ranked up there with any of the great duos, and in "Spitfire" they pull out all the stops. It was a sequel to "The Girl From Mexico", which we saw and reviewed a few nights ago, so the storyline continues from the end of that film, which saw Velez's character Carmelita marrying Donald Woods, the advertising executive who brought her to New York where she became a singing sensation.
As "Mexican Spitfire" begins, the newlyweds are returning from their honeymoon. Lying in wait are Lupe's rwo nemeses : Wood's ex-fiance and his belligerent Aunt, who plan to derail the marriage so that the "ex" can retake her throne as Queen Bitch in Woods' life. Of course, the "QB", as it were, is underestimating Velez once again, just as she did in the first film. Worse for her, Uncle Matt is back. Three cheers for Uncle Matt, and three more for Leon Errol, the actor portraying him. He plays a dual role in this film that is really a triple role, in what I would call one of the greatest comic performances in the history of motion pictures. His "Lord Epping" had me in stitches throughout.
Rather than describe the entire plot as I usually do (cause I'm a little tired tonight), I just wanna say a few words about Lupe Velez instead. I've now seen her in three films, and in "Mexican Spitfire" she's at her very best, which is one of the main reasons why this movie was chosen by AFI as a nominee for one of the 100 Funniest Comedies Ever Made. In my opinion it should've made the list, and I'd put it up in the Top Twenty, maybe higher. Leon Errol's triple performance is outrageously funny too, and there's an epic food fight at the end that surely was an influence for The Great Pie Fight at the end of "Blazing Saddles". But the thing with Velez, the more you watch her, the more you are impressed with her technical ability as a comedienne. She doesn't just recite her lines, but includes all kinds of different gestures, body language, various facial expressions and changes in voice. None of these are garish or hammy, however. As manic as her performances can be, every motion she makes is precise and perfectly timed. She has to do all of this with respect to the other actors, and to pull it off with a total pro like Errol, especially in his "Lord Epping" mode, takes high-level technical skill, in addition to being funny while still making everything look spontaneous. She really is incredible. After seeing her in "The Girl From Mexico" I thought she might've been an influence on Lucille Ball. Now I'm sure of it. Lucy must have been a fan of Lupe, and I don't know why it is that Velez has not been given the same lasting recognition she most certainly deserves. It's true that Lucy had a legendary TV show that reached millions and plays in reruns to this day. It's also true that Velez had a short career and life. As mentioned, she died long ago, in 1944 at age 36. So maybe the 75 year span has caused her name to fade, I dunno.
All I can say is that she's a comedic genius, and I'm saying that as someone who knew nothing about her other than her name, until recently. I came in cold to her films, through one of my random library searches. One day around Christmas I was looking at someone's IMDB list of their favorite stars, and I saw Lupe Velez. I knew she was the "Mexican Spitfire" - her nickname as well as the title of her most famous film, but I'd never given her much thought. This time, though, I placed a hold on three of her movies, and from the first few minutes of "The Half-Naked Truth" I knew I was watching a unique talent. Watch "Mexican Spitfire" and see if you don't agree. It's true that she has a star on Hollywood Boulevard, and that she was well-known in her time. She was married to Tarzan and had an affair with Gary Cooper, so she was also a major celebrity. But I think she should still be remembered today, and mentioned in the same breath with the greatest names of comedy, because she really is that good. ////
I am writing from home tonight, and that's all I know for the moment, except that I have got to get out of this apartment building before I go insane. It's all college students here, except me, and I have next door neighbors who never stop partying. The building is old and the walls are thin, and the noise makes it hard to concentrate. Thank God I am not here much, and maybe soon I won't have to live here at all.
Oh well, onward and upward as always. See you in the morning.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Last night I was able to watch a movie : "Mexican Spitfire"(1940), starring Lupe Velez and Leon Errol. It was just what I needed after the events of the past several days, and I am here to tell you that not only is it a Laff Riot, but quite simply one of the funniest movies ever made, period. As a comedy team, Velez and Errol can be ranked up there with any of the great duos, and in "Spitfire" they pull out all the stops. It was a sequel to "The Girl From Mexico", which we saw and reviewed a few nights ago, so the storyline continues from the end of that film, which saw Velez's character Carmelita marrying Donald Woods, the advertising executive who brought her to New York where she became a singing sensation.
As "Mexican Spitfire" begins, the newlyweds are returning from their honeymoon. Lying in wait are Lupe's rwo nemeses : Wood's ex-fiance and his belligerent Aunt, who plan to derail the marriage so that the "ex" can retake her throne as Queen Bitch in Woods' life. Of course, the "QB", as it were, is underestimating Velez once again, just as she did in the first film. Worse for her, Uncle Matt is back. Three cheers for Uncle Matt, and three more for Leon Errol, the actor portraying him. He plays a dual role in this film that is really a triple role, in what I would call one of the greatest comic performances in the history of motion pictures. His "Lord Epping" had me in stitches throughout.
Rather than describe the entire plot as I usually do (cause I'm a little tired tonight), I just wanna say a few words about Lupe Velez instead. I've now seen her in three films, and in "Mexican Spitfire" she's at her very best, which is one of the main reasons why this movie was chosen by AFI as a nominee for one of the 100 Funniest Comedies Ever Made. In my opinion it should've made the list, and I'd put it up in the Top Twenty, maybe higher. Leon Errol's triple performance is outrageously funny too, and there's an epic food fight at the end that surely was an influence for The Great Pie Fight at the end of "Blazing Saddles". But the thing with Velez, the more you watch her, the more you are impressed with her technical ability as a comedienne. She doesn't just recite her lines, but includes all kinds of different gestures, body language, various facial expressions and changes in voice. None of these are garish or hammy, however. As manic as her performances can be, every motion she makes is precise and perfectly timed. She has to do all of this with respect to the other actors, and to pull it off with a total pro like Errol, especially in his "Lord Epping" mode, takes high-level technical skill, in addition to being funny while still making everything look spontaneous. She really is incredible. After seeing her in "The Girl From Mexico" I thought she might've been an influence on Lucille Ball. Now I'm sure of it. Lucy must have been a fan of Lupe, and I don't know why it is that Velez has not been given the same lasting recognition she most certainly deserves. It's true that Lucy had a legendary TV show that reached millions and plays in reruns to this day. It's also true that Velez had a short career and life. As mentioned, she died long ago, in 1944 at age 36. So maybe the 75 year span has caused her name to fade, I dunno.
All I can say is that she's a comedic genius, and I'm saying that as someone who knew nothing about her other than her name, until recently. I came in cold to her films, through one of my random library searches. One day around Christmas I was looking at someone's IMDB list of their favorite stars, and I saw Lupe Velez. I knew she was the "Mexican Spitfire" - her nickname as well as the title of her most famous film, but I'd never given her much thought. This time, though, I placed a hold on three of her movies, and from the first few minutes of "The Half-Naked Truth" I knew I was watching a unique talent. Watch "Mexican Spitfire" and see if you don't agree. It's true that she has a star on Hollywood Boulevard, and that she was well-known in her time. She was married to Tarzan and had an affair with Gary Cooper, so she was also a major celebrity. But I think she should still be remembered today, and mentioned in the same breath with the greatest names of comedy, because she really is that good. ////
I am writing from home tonight, and that's all I know for the moment, except that I have got to get out of this apartment building before I go insane. It's all college students here, except me, and I have next door neighbors who never stop partying. The building is old and the walls are thin, and the noise makes it hard to concentrate. Thank God I am not here much, and maybe soon I won't have to live here at all.
Oh well, onward and upward as always. See you in the morning.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
A Day In The ER + Thanks, Elizabeth
Today was pretty rough. As I reported several days ago, Pearl had been exhibiting severe dementia related behaviors, but by Tuesday she became lethargic and it got worse yesterday, so her daughter came down and we took her to see her doctor this morning. He said she needed to go to the hospital and called an ambulance. The paramedics came and took her to Northridge Hospital. Her daughter and I spent six hours in the ER, watching the staff in action, not just with Pearl but over the entire ward. We remarked that it really does resemble a medical TV show; non-stop action, bells and buzzers going off, nurses, technicians and doctors coming in to take tests and brief us on the results. It was pretty nerve wracking as you can imagine, but I've been through the ER experience before with my Mom, and the people in there, at any hospital, are incredible. They got Pearl's numbers back up. When we arrived, her BP, pulse and oxygen had all been low. She was in a lot of discomfort, and it turned out that she had a urinary tract infection (UTI for short), which is not uncommon in the very elderly. The previous night, her daughter and I suspected it might be a UTI, and we were actually hoping it was, because a UTI is something they can knock down in the hospital, and also it would explain everything else, all the behavioral symptoms that had come so suddenly and were so extreme. It's really hard with a dementia patient because they cannot communicate what is wrong.
Well anyway, we left the hospital at 6pm, after they moved Pearl to a regular room. They are giving her antibiotics and fluids to rehydrate her system. We are keeping faith tonight that she will be okay, but she is 95 and not out of the woods yet. I will give you an update tomorrow, as soon as I know more. Feel free to say a prayer for Pearl. She was a nurse herself and is a very nice lady. I have been her caregiver for ten years.
Elizabeth, it was good to come home and see your beautiful video of Japan. It looks like such a peaceful place, and as I said before, it's like the land from a fairy tale. Even the trees and plants there have a uniquely Japanese look that matches the architecture of the pagodas. Speaking of which, the pagoda shots reminded me of your very first video "Autre Temps", and the Thai Pavilion you used as a location. :)
I also liked the scenes of the deer. He appeared to be in proximity to a city street, so I wondered if he was penned in by a fence, or if he was just a "local" who was kicking back as part of the community. Maybe he is like the gators in Florida, who walk down the street like everybody else, haha.
Your scenes with him (or her) were nice. Animals are some of the coolest people you will ever meet. :)
Way back, when I first started working for Pearl, we used to watch a PBS series about an English woman who lived in rural Kyoto. I didn't remember the title, so I just Googled it. It was called "At Home With Venitia In Kyoto". This lady had moved to Japan, for whatever reason, and had fallen in love with the rural landscape. But she was also a very talented person, not exactly an artist per se, but living an artistic lifestyle, so each episode of the show would feature her doing things like preparing a meal from plants in her garden, or creating a home remedy medicine from Japanese herbs, or making a decorative tapestry for her house, which was located way out in the woods. She was from London, a gigantic world city, but when she visited Japan for the first time she was hooked, and went back to stay. It was a really cool show and your photos and today's video from Japan reminded me of it. :):)
Thanks for posting it, Elizabeth. It was wonderful to see and I'm glad you had such a fantastic time there. :):)
I am hoping for some good news tomorrow morning and will now go to sleep.
Faith, Hope and Love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Well anyway, we left the hospital at 6pm, after they moved Pearl to a regular room. They are giving her antibiotics and fluids to rehydrate her system. We are keeping faith tonight that she will be okay, but she is 95 and not out of the woods yet. I will give you an update tomorrow, as soon as I know more. Feel free to say a prayer for Pearl. She was a nurse herself and is a very nice lady. I have been her caregiver for ten years.
Elizabeth, it was good to come home and see your beautiful video of Japan. It looks like such a peaceful place, and as I said before, it's like the land from a fairy tale. Even the trees and plants there have a uniquely Japanese look that matches the architecture of the pagodas. Speaking of which, the pagoda shots reminded me of your very first video "Autre Temps", and the Thai Pavilion you used as a location. :)
I also liked the scenes of the deer. He appeared to be in proximity to a city street, so I wondered if he was penned in by a fence, or if he was just a "local" who was kicking back as part of the community. Maybe he is like the gators in Florida, who walk down the street like everybody else, haha.
Your scenes with him (or her) were nice. Animals are some of the coolest people you will ever meet. :)
Way back, when I first started working for Pearl, we used to watch a PBS series about an English woman who lived in rural Kyoto. I didn't remember the title, so I just Googled it. It was called "At Home With Venitia In Kyoto". This lady had moved to Japan, for whatever reason, and had fallen in love with the rural landscape. But she was also a very talented person, not exactly an artist per se, but living an artistic lifestyle, so each episode of the show would feature her doing things like preparing a meal from plants in her garden, or creating a home remedy medicine from Japanese herbs, or making a decorative tapestry for her house, which was located way out in the woods. She was from London, a gigantic world city, but when she visited Japan for the first time she was hooked, and went back to stay. It was a really cool show and your photos and today's video from Japan reminded me of it. :):)
Thanks for posting it, Elizabeth. It was wonderful to see and I'm glad you had such a fantastic time there. :):)
I am hoping for some good news tomorrow morning and will now go to sleep.
Faith, Hope and Love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Thursday, January 16, 2020
"Silver River"(1948) starring Errol Flynn and Ann Sheridan
Tonight I watched "Silver River", an epic Western directed by the great Raoul Walsh and starring two of my favorites : Errol Flynn and Ann Sheridan. The movie begins with a spectacular 6 minute action sequence that takes place during the Battle of Gettysburg. A Union payroll wagon carrying a million dollars is being escorted through the area. The money is for the soldier's wages. Suddenly a rider approaches with a telegram. Lee's Confederate forces are advancing in the direction of the convoy. The telegram contains orders for the payroll wagon to stop and remain in place until an alternate route can be planned out. The convoy's captain rides ahead with several men to assess the situation, but before he leaves, he directs lieutenant Flynn to remain in place with the payroll wagon. Flynn's pal "Pistol" (Tom D'Andrea), stays back too. While they are waiting for the captain to return, a Rebel flank breaks through the lines and storms toward them. Flynn has to think fast. He makes the decision to leave his post and ride off with the payroll wagon in order to protect the money. The Confederate riders are closing in though, so in desperation Flynn and Pistol burn the cash to avoid it falling into enemy hands.
I have to interject to ask if anyone remembers the game of "think fast" in the 1960s. I mention it because in the paragraph above, I wrote that Errol Flynn has to "think fast". That reminded me of another use of the phrase from when I was a kid. Back then, "think fast" was what you heard right before someone tossed you something, like a water balloon or a potato, or maybe a Superball. Remember Superballs? You threw them hard against the sidewalk and they would bounce over your house and into your backyard. Superballs were made by Whammo. I don't know if Whammo is still in business, but we need more companies like Whammo in 2020. Anyhow - "think fast"!
See, I just tossed you something and you dropped it. That's what "think fast" was all about. :)
Back to the movie, after Flynn and Pistol flee from the Confederate force and burn the payroll money, they are court martialed for disobeying an order. Flynn escapes prison, based on his good record as a soldier, but the experience leaves him embittered. He vows never to be "used" again.
"From now on, if anyone is giving orders it's going to be me", he declares. Flynn and Pistol then depart for the West. They wind up in Silver City, Nevada Territory. Here Flynn's rise to the top begins. He (wait a second while I switch off the italics) owns several freight wagons that he managed to swindle from Ann Sheridan, whose husband owns stock in the local silver mines. The husband needs those wagons to bring in mining equipment. Flynn agrees to sell them for stock in the company, and before too long he is the majority owner. Formerly penniless, he is now the wealthiest man in the Territory, and he has an Enormous Mansion built to prove it.
But what he really wants is Ann Sheridan, the mining engineer's wife. The script of "Silver River" is an allegory of the Biblical story of King David, who saw a beautiful woman bathing. He lusted after her, decided he had to have her, and sent her husband to the front lines of a battle where he was certain to be killed. When he was, King David married his widow. Mission accomplished. Until God had His say.
This is what Errol Flynn will try to do to Bruce Bennett, who plays Ann Sheridan's boring but sincere husband. Recently we have seen Hollywood use the Boring Husband Canard several times in order to dispatch with the husbands in question, simply because they are boring, especially compared to the Exciting Star, who in this case is Errol Flynn. Now, you know I love Flynn. He's one of my favorite "movie star" actors, great in every role, but - as much as I liked him in "Silver River" - there is an event that takes place that is never satisfactorily resolved, and I felt it cheapened the message of the picture, which again was a morality play based on the "King David" story. It also calls into question the decency of Ann Sheridan's character, and this is problematic because here you have two very likeable stars - Big Stars - who normally play sympathetic roles. Here, they are playing opposite their type - okay fine - but when the script tries to redeem them at the end, it fails to account for their deeds. It's as if what happened was no big deal, and for me that drove my appreciation for the film down a notch.
This is too bad, because in every other way "Silver River" is a Western Epic, a sweeping saga of a man's ruthless ambition and his desire for what he cannot have. Director Walsh made several Westerns with Errol Flynn, including "They Died With Their Freakin' Boots On", an all-time classic, and this film measures up to that level in almost every way. The location photography is spectacular (and in black and white!), the story is multilayered, the subject matter is unusual (the history of Nevada silver mining), and the acting is first class. My only problem was with the event that led to the Flynn/Sheridan romance, and the way that event was dismissed.
I'm still gonna give "Silver River" Two Big Thumbs Up, because of it's positive attributes. It's a great Western, up there with the best. But it has this one aspect in the storyline that I did not care for.
Highly recommended anyway. ////
It's now Wednesday night, late night, and I am writing from home. We are still in choppy waters where Pearl is concerned. Please pray for her and keep the faith. As of tonight she is doing okay, and will be seeing the doctor tomorrow morning. When I came home tonight, I had a stroke of luck. I saw on FB that Eric Johnson was giving away tickets to his concert this Saturday night at the Regent Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. I posted my name in reply, and lo and behold, five minuted later EJ informed me I'd won a pair of tix. Normally, I'd have purchased a ticket the day they went on sale, but because this concert has a 5:45pm start time, I held off, because I didn't think I could make it. I mean, who's ever heard of a concert starting at 5:45pm? This one will, because the venue has a disco party happening later that evening. Can you say "disco sucks"? Ahh, but we knew it all along. Today, the Notorious B.I.G. was elected into the Rock 'N Roll Hall Of Fame, ahead of Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy and Todd Rundgren. That's all you really need to know about the promotion of modern music. The crumminess rises to the top.
I'm glad the EJ show will start at dinnertime. That way, I can get home in time to watch a movie and review it for you. See you in the morning.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
I have to interject to ask if anyone remembers the game of "think fast" in the 1960s. I mention it because in the paragraph above, I wrote that Errol Flynn has to "think fast". That reminded me of another use of the phrase from when I was a kid. Back then, "think fast" was what you heard right before someone tossed you something, like a water balloon or a potato, or maybe a Superball. Remember Superballs? You threw them hard against the sidewalk and they would bounce over your house and into your backyard. Superballs were made by Whammo. I don't know if Whammo is still in business, but we need more companies like Whammo in 2020. Anyhow - "think fast"!
See, I just tossed you something and you dropped it. That's what "think fast" was all about. :)
Back to the movie, after Flynn and Pistol flee from the Confederate force and burn the payroll money, they are court martialed for disobeying an order. Flynn escapes prison, based on his good record as a soldier, but the experience leaves him embittered. He vows never to be "used" again.
"From now on, if anyone is giving orders it's going to be me", he declares. Flynn and Pistol then depart for the West. They wind up in Silver City, Nevada Territory. Here Flynn's rise to the top begins. He (wait a second while I switch off the italics) owns several freight wagons that he managed to swindle from Ann Sheridan, whose husband owns stock in the local silver mines. The husband needs those wagons to bring in mining equipment. Flynn agrees to sell them for stock in the company, and before too long he is the majority owner. Formerly penniless, he is now the wealthiest man in the Territory, and he has an Enormous Mansion built to prove it.
But what he really wants is Ann Sheridan, the mining engineer's wife. The script of "Silver River" is an allegory of the Biblical story of King David, who saw a beautiful woman bathing. He lusted after her, decided he had to have her, and sent her husband to the front lines of a battle where he was certain to be killed. When he was, King David married his widow. Mission accomplished. Until God had His say.
This is what Errol Flynn will try to do to Bruce Bennett, who plays Ann Sheridan's boring but sincere husband. Recently we have seen Hollywood use the Boring Husband Canard several times in order to dispatch with the husbands in question, simply because they are boring, especially compared to the Exciting Star, who in this case is Errol Flynn. Now, you know I love Flynn. He's one of my favorite "movie star" actors, great in every role, but - as much as I liked him in "Silver River" - there is an event that takes place that is never satisfactorily resolved, and I felt it cheapened the message of the picture, which again was a morality play based on the "King David" story. It also calls into question the decency of Ann Sheridan's character, and this is problematic because here you have two very likeable stars - Big Stars - who normally play sympathetic roles. Here, they are playing opposite their type - okay fine - but when the script tries to redeem them at the end, it fails to account for their deeds. It's as if what happened was no big deal, and for me that drove my appreciation for the film down a notch.
This is too bad, because in every other way "Silver River" is a Western Epic, a sweeping saga of a man's ruthless ambition and his desire for what he cannot have. Director Walsh made several Westerns with Errol Flynn, including "They Died With Their Freakin' Boots On", an all-time classic, and this film measures up to that level in almost every way. The location photography is spectacular (and in black and white!), the story is multilayered, the subject matter is unusual (the history of Nevada silver mining), and the acting is first class. My only problem was with the event that led to the Flynn/Sheridan romance, and the way that event was dismissed.
I'm still gonna give "Silver River" Two Big Thumbs Up, because of it's positive attributes. It's a great Western, up there with the best. But it has this one aspect in the storyline that I did not care for.
Highly recommended anyway. ////
It's now Wednesday night, late night, and I am writing from home. We are still in choppy waters where Pearl is concerned. Please pray for her and keep the faith. As of tonight she is doing okay, and will be seeing the doctor tomorrow morning. When I came home tonight, I had a stroke of luck. I saw on FB that Eric Johnson was giving away tickets to his concert this Saturday night at the Regent Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. I posted my name in reply, and lo and behold, five minuted later EJ informed me I'd won a pair of tix. Normally, I'd have purchased a ticket the day they went on sale, but because this concert has a 5:45pm start time, I held off, because I didn't think I could make it. I mean, who's ever heard of a concert starting at 5:45pm? This one will, because the venue has a disco party happening later that evening. Can you say "disco sucks"? Ahh, but we knew it all along. Today, the Notorious B.I.G. was elected into the Rock 'N Roll Hall Of Fame, ahead of Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy and Todd Rundgren. That's all you really need to know about the promotion of modern music. The crumminess rises to the top.
I'm glad the EJ show will start at dinnertime. That way, I can get home in time to watch a movie and review it for you. See you in the morning.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Monday, January 13, 2020
Dealing With Dementia + Elizabeth + Dennis and Me at the Rush concert
If you wanna have a good laugh (or maybe a good cry, haha), go to Youtube and check out David Lee Roth's version of "Dance The Night Away" from his recent Las Vegas show. Yikes! It's the very definition of "cringeworthy". Once again, I don't have a movie tonight, because of the situation at Pearl's. As her caregiver I'm in uncharted waters, because she's been having severe psychotic episodes for about a week now, related to a condition called "sundowning", and it's no fun to put it mildly. As a result, I haven't had the time to watch movies for the past couple of nights, but maybe tonight we can fit one in. Pearl is gonna have a doctor's evaluation next week, to see what we can do, and they do have anti-psychotic meds for dementia patients, but at any rate, if I needed to I could always get another dvd player and watch our nightly movies at Pearl's. I won't know what's gonna happen until Pearl sees the doctor, so until then we'll just wing it. So far, today hasn't been too bad. I did get her out for a nice long push around the neighborhood. They say that sunshine is helpful to treat sundowning, and we've been having some gorgeous Springlike days. So hopefully she'll be calmer tonight. Anything will be better than the past three days, which have been pure hell.
Elizabeth, I am glad to see your post on FB today. You are a good portraitist and that was a very nice thing you said about your friend Anna. It's wonderful to have such a good friend. I know you don't use FB much anymore (and you probably don't read this blog nowdays either, lol), but I hope you'll keep taking pictures and making music and drawing, etc. etc. - in addition to your professional projects - and I hope you'll continue to post once in a while. :)
Well, at the moment I'm sitting here with Pearl at her kitchen table. I've got all the lights turned on, cause they say that bright lighting also helps calm sundowning symptoms. Pearl is pretty chill at the moment. I've gotta try to get some calories into her, though, before she goes to bed. One of the biggest challenges of working with a dementia patient is getting them to concentrate on eating. A meal that would take a healthy person 10-15 minutes to finish can take up to 90 minutes for a person like Pearl, and even then you aren't guaranteed success. Right now, because of her recent episodes, we're just doing Ensure. I'm giving her sips in between typing these sentences.
Fans all over the world have been reminiscing about Neil Peart and Rush, and this morning Dennis posted a picture I haven't seen in ages. It's a photo of me and him, standing in the front row at a Rush concert in 1980, at the Forum. We're holding up a large rectangular Rush banner with the band's logo that my brother Chris painted. According to Dennis, the rest of us (me, him and Dave) also contributed a few brushstrokes, but at any rate, what's so cool about this picture is that it appeared in Billboard magazine, the April 12, 1980 edition. I don't remember how we found out about that. Perhaps Ono, who worked in a record store and had access to such mags, pointed it out to us. I used to have a copy of that issue, but long ago lost it somewhere along the line (probably after the earthquake), so it was really great to see Dennis's post and remember what a blast that concert was. Oh, yeah, and I almost forgot : our banner got confiscated that night, either by a roadie or Forum security, I can't remember. The guy acted like we weren't supposed to have it inside the venue, like we'd broken the rules, so when he took it we thought it was gone; we'd never get it back. But later on, the same guy came back and returned the banner, and it had been signed by Alex, Geddy and Neil. That was so cool. And now it's forty years later, my goodness.....
Well, now it's 7pm. Pearl is starting to act up a little bit, but it's only a 2 on a 10 scale as opposed to the last three nights, which were all 10s. I've been watching the college football championship while I type, but I'd better try to calm her down before this gets worse. I'll post this blog now and hopefully have a movie for you next time I write.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Elizabeth, I am glad to see your post on FB today. You are a good portraitist and that was a very nice thing you said about your friend Anna. It's wonderful to have such a good friend. I know you don't use FB much anymore (and you probably don't read this blog nowdays either, lol), but I hope you'll keep taking pictures and making music and drawing, etc. etc. - in addition to your professional projects - and I hope you'll continue to post once in a while. :)
Well, at the moment I'm sitting here with Pearl at her kitchen table. I've got all the lights turned on, cause they say that bright lighting also helps calm sundowning symptoms. Pearl is pretty chill at the moment. I've gotta try to get some calories into her, though, before she goes to bed. One of the biggest challenges of working with a dementia patient is getting them to concentrate on eating. A meal that would take a healthy person 10-15 minutes to finish can take up to 90 minutes for a person like Pearl, and even then you aren't guaranteed success. Right now, because of her recent episodes, we're just doing Ensure. I'm giving her sips in between typing these sentences.
Fans all over the world have been reminiscing about Neil Peart and Rush, and this morning Dennis posted a picture I haven't seen in ages. It's a photo of me and him, standing in the front row at a Rush concert in 1980, at the Forum. We're holding up a large rectangular Rush banner with the band's logo that my brother Chris painted. According to Dennis, the rest of us (me, him and Dave) also contributed a few brushstrokes, but at any rate, what's so cool about this picture is that it appeared in Billboard magazine, the April 12, 1980 edition. I don't remember how we found out about that. Perhaps Ono, who worked in a record store and had access to such mags, pointed it out to us. I used to have a copy of that issue, but long ago lost it somewhere along the line (probably after the earthquake), so it was really great to see Dennis's post and remember what a blast that concert was. Oh, yeah, and I almost forgot : our banner got confiscated that night, either by a roadie or Forum security, I can't remember. The guy acted like we weren't supposed to have it inside the venue, like we'd broken the rules, so when he took it we thought it was gone; we'd never get it back. But later on, the same guy came back and returned the banner, and it had been signed by Alex, Geddy and Neil. That was so cool. And now it's forty years later, my goodness.....
Well, now it's 7pm. Pearl is starting to act up a little bit, but it's only a 2 on a 10 scale as opposed to the last three nights, which were all 10s. I've been watching the college football championship while I type, but I'd better try to calm her down before this gets worse. I'll post this blog now and hopefully have a movie for you next time I write.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Two Books & Two Movies
I'm reading two new books : "Worlds In Collision" by Immanuel Velikovsky and "They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers" by Gray Barker. Don't you just love that title? It makes you wonder what happened to Them for Knowing Too Much. Did they meet with a bad end, like The Man Who Knew Too Much? You've gotta walk a fine line when Knowing About Certain Things, I suppose. Barker's book deals with his own investigations into the UFO mystery, and how it led him to the doorstep of Albert K. Bender, whose own "Flying Saucers and The Three Men" we recently finished reading. Barker doesn't specify if he and Bender are the They in the title, but it's worth noting that Bender was silenced by The Three Men of his book, who told him to keep his mouth shut about his flying saucer discoveries, so it stands to reason that he and Barker are indeed the guys referenced. It's a minor classic in UFO lore, first published in 1956.
Velikovsky's book is not only a classic but was also a best seller upon it's release in 1950. It proposes an alternative but highly plausible theory of human and geological history, now called "catastrophism", based on ancient folkloric and religious accounts from many early cultures, that all describe the same natural disasters. His main thesis is that a comet passed by Earth around the time of the Exodus, in 2400 BC. The Earth was enveloped in the gasses and debris of the comet's tail, which rained down a hailstorm of meteorites and a black, sticky substance that darkened the sky and caused massive fires on the surface of our planet. The sticky stuff was oil, which Velikovsky points out is made of carbon and hydrogen, the same components of the gaseous comet tail. Over centuries the oil sank into the ground. You'll have to read the book for details, but it's mind boggling stuff, to try and comprehend what it must have been like to witness a planetary body collide with the Earth, and to knock it off it's axis, which is why we rotate at a tilt. Try to imagine the waters of the oceans being thrown up into the air, in a wall 3 miles high. That is the tidal wave that swept the planet when the collision took place. It was the Deluge of the Bible and of many other cultural/historical accounts. This is one of those books I dare you to read, because I think Velikovsky is closer to being on target than the science community who disparages him. It's not like he hasn't done his research, or that he's a crank. This is a very, very famous book, and it so upset the scientific orthodoxy that they've been trying to blacken Velikovsky's name ever since. Read it for yourself and see. There's a reason the Marianas Trench is so deep, and a reason we have enormous gouges on Earth in the first place, in which the oceans sit, just as there's a reason that former ocean floor rocks like the sandstone formations of Santa Susana now stand more than 2000 feet above sea level.
We got hit by something in the not too ancient past, and it reformed the Earth as we know it.
The real question, though, is this : does the ancient calamity reside in the modern subconscious as what is called a "race memory", meaning something the entire human race has embedded inside? I say it does. What say you?
It's still hard to process the news from yesterday. It doesn't seem real, y'know? It's so hard to lose the people we love, even those we don't personally know, like our heroes.
I did watch a couple movies over the past two nights. One was "5th Avenue Girl"(1939), starring Ginger Rogers. I was planning to review it when the news broke about Neil Peart. In short, it's a romantic comedy about a wealthy manufacturer (Walter Connolly) who feels unloved by his society wife and selfish children, so he hires an unemployed girl (Ginger) whom he meets in Central Park, to act as his mistress. He brings her home to his mansion and sets her up with her own room, all to the chagrin of his wife, who has no shortage of boyfriends herself. Our cowboy pal Tim Holt plays his uptight son. Here, Holt is in his "A" acting mode. We love him in the quickie Westerns, but he had the talent to kick things up a notch in higher grade films, such as "The Magnificent Ambersons", in which he had the central role. In "5th Avenue Girl", he plays a similar punk to his character in "Ambersons", a spoiled brat who has to get his way. You know that Ginger will fix his wagon, though. She does so for everyone in the household. We've seen Ginger Rogers in a non-Astaire film before, in "Bachelor Mother", and we loved her in it. She's got a great persona even without dancing, a kind of nonchalant dry wit, and we'll be on the lookout for more of her "solo" work for sure.
The other movie I watched was "Lawless Valley" (1938), starring George O'Brien, who played the male lead in Murnau's "Sunrise", the legendary Silent film that I thought was the best movie we saw in 2019. I needed a new Western Collection for the start of the year, so I checked Amazon and thought I'd give O'Brien a try. After one film, I'd say he's very good as The Hero of this particular series. He's a big man, built like a football player, so when he gets into punchouts it's no contest. He doesn't have the boyish charm of Tim Holt or the quick draw of Charles Starrett aka "The Durango Kid", but he's handsome and relentless in his pursuit of justice, which is what you want in your Western Good Guys. All nine films in the collection run 59 minutes, which we love, cause you can get in and get out without dawdling. "Lawless Valley" was shot entirely at Corriganville,which is always fun to see in these old Westerns. George played a man who was newly paroled from prison, where he'd done time after being framed, along with his father, for a train robbery they didn't commit. He returns to his hometown, where the guy who framed him is The Big Cheese. This guy controls the Sheriff, who tries to run George out of town. While George was in prison, Big Cheese killed his Dad and made it look like suicide. George is gonna prove this and end Big Cheese's reign of terror once and for all. I love my Hour Long Westerns. They're good anytime, but are especially nice on a day when you just want some easygoing entertainment.
The news about Neil was like a gut punch, and my job has been pretty rough going recently as well. Dementia is the devil's disease.
Well anyhow, onward and upward. We had good singin' in church this morn and it's a beautiful day. I'm gonna head out for a short walk and then back to Pearl's. See you tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Velikovsky's book is not only a classic but was also a best seller upon it's release in 1950. It proposes an alternative but highly plausible theory of human and geological history, now called "catastrophism", based on ancient folkloric and religious accounts from many early cultures, that all describe the same natural disasters. His main thesis is that a comet passed by Earth around the time of the Exodus, in 2400 BC. The Earth was enveloped in the gasses and debris of the comet's tail, which rained down a hailstorm of meteorites and a black, sticky substance that darkened the sky and caused massive fires on the surface of our planet. The sticky stuff was oil, which Velikovsky points out is made of carbon and hydrogen, the same components of the gaseous comet tail. Over centuries the oil sank into the ground. You'll have to read the book for details, but it's mind boggling stuff, to try and comprehend what it must have been like to witness a planetary body collide with the Earth, and to knock it off it's axis, which is why we rotate at a tilt. Try to imagine the waters of the oceans being thrown up into the air, in a wall 3 miles high. That is the tidal wave that swept the planet when the collision took place. It was the Deluge of the Bible and of many other cultural/historical accounts. This is one of those books I dare you to read, because I think Velikovsky is closer to being on target than the science community who disparages him. It's not like he hasn't done his research, or that he's a crank. This is a very, very famous book, and it so upset the scientific orthodoxy that they've been trying to blacken Velikovsky's name ever since. Read it for yourself and see. There's a reason the Marianas Trench is so deep, and a reason we have enormous gouges on Earth in the first place, in which the oceans sit, just as there's a reason that former ocean floor rocks like the sandstone formations of Santa Susana now stand more than 2000 feet above sea level.
We got hit by something in the not too ancient past, and it reformed the Earth as we know it.
The real question, though, is this : does the ancient calamity reside in the modern subconscious as what is called a "race memory", meaning something the entire human race has embedded inside? I say it does. What say you?
It's still hard to process the news from yesterday. It doesn't seem real, y'know? It's so hard to lose the people we love, even those we don't personally know, like our heroes.
I did watch a couple movies over the past two nights. One was "5th Avenue Girl"(1939), starring Ginger Rogers. I was planning to review it when the news broke about Neil Peart. In short, it's a romantic comedy about a wealthy manufacturer (Walter Connolly) who feels unloved by his society wife and selfish children, so he hires an unemployed girl (Ginger) whom he meets in Central Park, to act as his mistress. He brings her home to his mansion and sets her up with her own room, all to the chagrin of his wife, who has no shortage of boyfriends herself. Our cowboy pal Tim Holt plays his uptight son. Here, Holt is in his "A" acting mode. We love him in the quickie Westerns, but he had the talent to kick things up a notch in higher grade films, such as "The Magnificent Ambersons", in which he had the central role. In "5th Avenue Girl", he plays a similar punk to his character in "Ambersons", a spoiled brat who has to get his way. You know that Ginger will fix his wagon, though. She does so for everyone in the household. We've seen Ginger Rogers in a non-Astaire film before, in "Bachelor Mother", and we loved her in it. She's got a great persona even without dancing, a kind of nonchalant dry wit, and we'll be on the lookout for more of her "solo" work for sure.
The other movie I watched was "Lawless Valley" (1938), starring George O'Brien, who played the male lead in Murnau's "Sunrise", the legendary Silent film that I thought was the best movie we saw in 2019. I needed a new Western Collection for the start of the year, so I checked Amazon and thought I'd give O'Brien a try. After one film, I'd say he's very good as The Hero of this particular series. He's a big man, built like a football player, so when he gets into punchouts it's no contest. He doesn't have the boyish charm of Tim Holt or the quick draw of Charles Starrett aka "The Durango Kid", but he's handsome and relentless in his pursuit of justice, which is what you want in your Western Good Guys. All nine films in the collection run 59 minutes, which we love, cause you can get in and get out without dawdling. "Lawless Valley" was shot entirely at Corriganville,which is always fun to see in these old Westerns. George played a man who was newly paroled from prison, where he'd done time after being framed, along with his father, for a train robbery they didn't commit. He returns to his hometown, where the guy who framed him is The Big Cheese. This guy controls the Sheriff, who tries to run George out of town. While George was in prison, Big Cheese killed his Dad and made it look like suicide. George is gonna prove this and end Big Cheese's reign of terror once and for all. I love my Hour Long Westerns. They're good anytime, but are especially nice on a day when you just want some easygoing entertainment.
The news about Neil was like a gut punch, and my job has been pretty rough going recently as well. Dementia is the devil's disease.
Well anyhow, onward and upward. We had good singin' in church this morn and it's a beautiful day. I'm gonna head out for a short walk and then back to Pearl's. See you tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Saturday, January 11, 2020
Neil Peart
There will be no movie review today due to the sudden news of Neil Peart's passing. Like you, I'm absolutely stunned. I guess he wanted it kept quiet, which seems like Neil. He was a very private guy.
I remember the first time I heard Rush. It was in the Fall of 1976. My friend Jon S., who worked at College Records, called me up and said "come on over, you've got to hear this record". He was referring to "2112". When I got to his apartment, he asked me if I'd ever heard of Rush. I said "yeah", though I knew nothing about them. In fact, in the early 70s I got them mixed up with Mahogany Rush, in the same way I was confused by The Who and The Guess Who as a kid. I thought, "Rush, Mahogany Rush.......same band, right"? But of course they weren't. Most of the new music I heard came to me through the guys at College Records, but they never played Rush. Until now. Jon was ten years older than me, was married and had his own life and friends. For him to have called me from home, this record must've been something special.
I'll never forget the first praise he gave it, before putting it on the turntable. He said, "wait until you hear this drummer, he's unbelievable"! Now that's pretty remarkable, I think. How many times does a band's drummer attract a listener's attention above the other musicians? I mean, there are some great drummers out there, but when you think of Deep Purple, say, does Ian Paice - incredible as he is - hit you before Ritchie Blackmore, or Jon Lord? When you first heard Yes, was it Bill Bruford who made the biggest impression, or was it Chris Squire or Jon Anderson? Well, at any rate, here was Jon telling me to listen to the drumming on "2112". Then he put the record on, and the rest was history.
I didn't get to see Rush live until November 1978, shortly after the release of "Hemispheres". I remember wanting to go to the previous tour, for the "Farewell To Kings" album that followed "2112". Rush was playing the Santa Monica Civic with UFO. Talk about an awesome double bill! That was in the Fall of 1977, but I didn't have a car and no one else was going, so I had to wait another year. By that time, "Hemispheres" had been released and Rush had graduated to arena status. Grimsley and I went to see them in Long Beach in November 1978. To say I was blown off the map that night is one of the understatements of my concert career. Grim and I left the building with our jaws on the floor. Something I will always remember is that it was very quiet on the way out. Nobody was talking or whooping it up. This was probably because we were all freaking dumbstruck. For me it was the start of a 37 year run of seeing the band in concert. I never missed a Rush tour after that.
In March of 1980 I was with my friends Dennis and Dave at the Rush concert in San Bernardino. After the show ended, we were at a stoplight, waiting to get on the freeway. In the lane next to us was a Mercedes 450 SL. I don't recall which one of us noticed this first, but in the passenger seat there was a guy wearing a baseball cap. Underneath the cap was a mane of long hair, and a recognizable nose. It was Geddy Lee. When the light changed, his car was getting on the freeway too, so I got behind it and started to follow. Within a minute or two, another Mercedes pulled up alongside the car Geddy was in. Both cars sped up. Right away Dennis exhorted me to keep after them. At that point the chase was on. We followed the two Mercedes at speeds up to 85mph for sixty five miles, all the way to Hollywood. I was right on their tail the whole way in my BMW 320i. It felt like a race. Finally we exited the freeway and ended up in the underground parking garage of the Le Parc hotel in West Hollywood. I pulled in literally right behind the other cars. Needless to say, the occupants of the Mercedes were not happy.
I remember a roadie getting out of one car. "They're really pissed at you guys", he said. Geddy Lee got out next. He was all covered up in his ball cap and shades. All he did was glance in our direction and walk away.
But then another guy got out of the second car. He was tall and thin and didn't walk away. Instead, he came striding right at us. We too had gotten out of my car, because - 19 year olds that we were - we thought nothing of what we'd just done, which was to tailgate our hero Geddy at high speed for nearly an hour, just so we could meet him. Surely there could be nothing wrong with that. But the Tall Guy didn't think so. Suddenly he was right in our face.
"This isn't cool at all"! he shouted. Well, that's not quite accurate. He didn't shout, per se, but it was the equivalent of a shout, at lower volume. It was a polite shout, a Canadian shout, and it was Neil Peart who was doing the shouting. "This is our home"!, he continued, meaning that the hotel was their refuge. He was an intimidating figure at that point, looming over us. But then something happened that we got a kick out of for years to come. Dennis had a concert program and held it out to Neil. "Um...could you sign this for me"?, he asked. And the thing was - Neil Peart, upset at he was at a bunch of punks racing him all the way back to his hotel - pulled out a pen and signed the program anyway.
That's Neil Peart in a nutshell. There was no way he could be mean to anyone, even some obnoxious fans.
Less then a year later, "Moving Pictures" was released. When Dennis, Dave and I heard the song "Limelight", with it's lyric "I can't pretend a stranger is a long awaited friend", we wondered if our encounter had anything to do with his words (much later I read that Neil put up with all kinds of like-minded worshipers, so who knows). As a postscript, Dennis and I came back to the hotel a day or two later. We waited outside for a while, and finally Alex Lifeson came out. He hadn't been involved in The Chase, so he was real nice and let us take our pictures with him. :)
In 1981, "Moving Pictures" was released and Rush hit the big time. I went to see them in Las Vegas on June 15 of that year, and had the greatest night of my life up to that point. I also saw them at the Forum a week later. That night was pretty great too. :)
All through the 1980s, we awaited the yearly Rush album and tour. Their music never failed to amaze, even as their sound changed, and Neil Peart was always astounding to watch in concert, with the power of a freight train and the timing of a Swiss watch. The years went by and Rush kept touring, through 1997, and then a tragedy occurred. Actually it was a double tragedy, and if you know Neil's story you know what it was. We all thought Rush was done. Neil had a hard road to travel then, but after four years the band was back, and for the next 15 years they toured their butts off. There were only three more studio albums during that time, but they did epic retrospective shows and anniversary tours like R30 and, playing up to three hours a night. I saw them every go-round, of course, and Neil just got better and better.
Finally in 2015, Rush announced that their R40 tour, celebrating 40 years as a band, would be their last. I got tickets for the two Los Angeles area shows, at Irvine on July 31 and then for August 1 at the Forum. I was there that night, at what turned out to be the last concert Rush ever played. The energy and emotion were palpable, both in the audience and onstage. By the time they got to "Working Man", their long standing final encore, you felt the goosebumps rising on your skin and the lump in your throat. This was about to be it, the end of the greatest band of all time. After the final notes rang out, and the Three Stooges music played, Neil Peart did something he'd never done before. Instead of running off stage so he could high-tail it out of the venue, he came forward to the front of the stage, to smile and wave to the audience. Then he took out a pocket camera and snapped a few shots of us, for the feeling was mutual. It was also the last time Neil would ever see his fans again, in the appointed setting of a concert hall. I guess he wanted a souvenir.
Because we were Rush fans (and as all fans know, Rush is like family), my friends and I held out hope that the guys would maybe make a comeback after a few years off. After all, how many bands have said "we're done", only to keep going for another decade or two? Kiss, anyone? So we thought that, just maybe, Geddy, Alex and Neil might have a few more shows in 'em. But when Alex announced in January 2018 that "Rush are basically done", I threw in the towel. "Let 'em retire", I thought. "They earned it". Later that year, Geddy said that Neil had not only retired from touring, but from drumming as well. Apparently he didn't play anymore. Now we know why.
I was fortunate to see Rush 32 times in concert, from 1978 to 2015 at that final show. Like all Rush fans, my heart is broken as I write. We love the guys so much, and we loved Neil, even if he didn't want us to get too close.
WE LOVE YOU, NEIL! :) There.....I said it and I bet he can hear me, all the way Up There. Even if he didn't believe in Heaven, that's where he is now, probably touring the back roads on his motorcycle.
Neil gave us so much for such a long time.
He was one of the greatest musicians the world has ever seen. Thanks, Neil!
God Bless Neil Peart! ////
I remember the first time I heard Rush. It was in the Fall of 1976. My friend Jon S., who worked at College Records, called me up and said "come on over, you've got to hear this record". He was referring to "2112". When I got to his apartment, he asked me if I'd ever heard of Rush. I said "yeah", though I knew nothing about them. In fact, in the early 70s I got them mixed up with Mahogany Rush, in the same way I was confused by The Who and The Guess Who as a kid. I thought, "Rush, Mahogany Rush.......same band, right"? But of course they weren't. Most of the new music I heard came to me through the guys at College Records, but they never played Rush. Until now. Jon was ten years older than me, was married and had his own life and friends. For him to have called me from home, this record must've been something special.
I'll never forget the first praise he gave it, before putting it on the turntable. He said, "wait until you hear this drummer, he's unbelievable"! Now that's pretty remarkable, I think. How many times does a band's drummer attract a listener's attention above the other musicians? I mean, there are some great drummers out there, but when you think of Deep Purple, say, does Ian Paice - incredible as he is - hit you before Ritchie Blackmore, or Jon Lord? When you first heard Yes, was it Bill Bruford who made the biggest impression, or was it Chris Squire or Jon Anderson? Well, at any rate, here was Jon telling me to listen to the drumming on "2112". Then he put the record on, and the rest was history.
I didn't get to see Rush live until November 1978, shortly after the release of "Hemispheres". I remember wanting to go to the previous tour, for the "Farewell To Kings" album that followed "2112". Rush was playing the Santa Monica Civic with UFO. Talk about an awesome double bill! That was in the Fall of 1977, but I didn't have a car and no one else was going, so I had to wait another year. By that time, "Hemispheres" had been released and Rush had graduated to arena status. Grimsley and I went to see them in Long Beach in November 1978. To say I was blown off the map that night is one of the understatements of my concert career. Grim and I left the building with our jaws on the floor. Something I will always remember is that it was very quiet on the way out. Nobody was talking or whooping it up. This was probably because we were all freaking dumbstruck. For me it was the start of a 37 year run of seeing the band in concert. I never missed a Rush tour after that.
In March of 1980 I was with my friends Dennis and Dave at the Rush concert in San Bernardino. After the show ended, we were at a stoplight, waiting to get on the freeway. In the lane next to us was a Mercedes 450 SL. I don't recall which one of us noticed this first, but in the passenger seat there was a guy wearing a baseball cap. Underneath the cap was a mane of long hair, and a recognizable nose. It was Geddy Lee. When the light changed, his car was getting on the freeway too, so I got behind it and started to follow. Within a minute or two, another Mercedes pulled up alongside the car Geddy was in. Both cars sped up. Right away Dennis exhorted me to keep after them. At that point the chase was on. We followed the two Mercedes at speeds up to 85mph for sixty five miles, all the way to Hollywood. I was right on their tail the whole way in my BMW 320i. It felt like a race. Finally we exited the freeway and ended up in the underground parking garage of the Le Parc hotel in West Hollywood. I pulled in literally right behind the other cars. Needless to say, the occupants of the Mercedes were not happy.
I remember a roadie getting out of one car. "They're really pissed at you guys", he said. Geddy Lee got out next. He was all covered up in his ball cap and shades. All he did was glance in our direction and walk away.
But then another guy got out of the second car. He was tall and thin and didn't walk away. Instead, he came striding right at us. We too had gotten out of my car, because - 19 year olds that we were - we thought nothing of what we'd just done, which was to tailgate our hero Geddy at high speed for nearly an hour, just so we could meet him. Surely there could be nothing wrong with that. But the Tall Guy didn't think so. Suddenly he was right in our face.
"This isn't cool at all"! he shouted. Well, that's not quite accurate. He didn't shout, per se, but it was the equivalent of a shout, at lower volume. It was a polite shout, a Canadian shout, and it was Neil Peart who was doing the shouting. "This is our home"!, he continued, meaning that the hotel was their refuge. He was an intimidating figure at that point, looming over us. But then something happened that we got a kick out of for years to come. Dennis had a concert program and held it out to Neil. "Um...could you sign this for me"?, he asked. And the thing was - Neil Peart, upset at he was at a bunch of punks racing him all the way back to his hotel - pulled out a pen and signed the program anyway.
That's Neil Peart in a nutshell. There was no way he could be mean to anyone, even some obnoxious fans.
Less then a year later, "Moving Pictures" was released. When Dennis, Dave and I heard the song "Limelight", with it's lyric "I can't pretend a stranger is a long awaited friend", we wondered if our encounter had anything to do with his words (much later I read that Neil put up with all kinds of like-minded worshipers, so who knows). As a postscript, Dennis and I came back to the hotel a day or two later. We waited outside for a while, and finally Alex Lifeson came out. He hadn't been involved in The Chase, so he was real nice and let us take our pictures with him. :)
In 1981, "Moving Pictures" was released and Rush hit the big time. I went to see them in Las Vegas on June 15 of that year, and had the greatest night of my life up to that point. I also saw them at the Forum a week later. That night was pretty great too. :)
All through the 1980s, we awaited the yearly Rush album and tour. Their music never failed to amaze, even as their sound changed, and Neil Peart was always astounding to watch in concert, with the power of a freight train and the timing of a Swiss watch. The years went by and Rush kept touring, through 1997, and then a tragedy occurred. Actually it was a double tragedy, and if you know Neil's story you know what it was. We all thought Rush was done. Neil had a hard road to travel then, but after four years the band was back, and for the next 15 years they toured their butts off. There were only three more studio albums during that time, but they did epic retrospective shows and anniversary tours like R30 and, playing up to three hours a night. I saw them every go-round, of course, and Neil just got better and better.
Finally in 2015, Rush announced that their R40 tour, celebrating 40 years as a band, would be their last. I got tickets for the two Los Angeles area shows, at Irvine on July 31 and then for August 1 at the Forum. I was there that night, at what turned out to be the last concert Rush ever played. The energy and emotion were palpable, both in the audience and onstage. By the time they got to "Working Man", their long standing final encore, you felt the goosebumps rising on your skin and the lump in your throat. This was about to be it, the end of the greatest band of all time. After the final notes rang out, and the Three Stooges music played, Neil Peart did something he'd never done before. Instead of running off stage so he could high-tail it out of the venue, he came forward to the front of the stage, to smile and wave to the audience. Then he took out a pocket camera and snapped a few shots of us, for the feeling was mutual. It was also the last time Neil would ever see his fans again, in the appointed setting of a concert hall. I guess he wanted a souvenir.
Because we were Rush fans (and as all fans know, Rush is like family), my friends and I held out hope that the guys would maybe make a comeback after a few years off. After all, how many bands have said "we're done", only to keep going for another decade or two? Kiss, anyone? So we thought that, just maybe, Geddy, Alex and Neil might have a few more shows in 'em. But when Alex announced in January 2018 that "Rush are basically done", I threw in the towel. "Let 'em retire", I thought. "They earned it". Later that year, Geddy said that Neil had not only retired from touring, but from drumming as well. Apparently he didn't play anymore. Now we know why.
I was fortunate to see Rush 32 times in concert, from 1978 to 2015 at that final show. Like all Rush fans, my heart is broken as I write. We love the guys so much, and we loved Neil, even if he didn't want us to get too close.
WE LOVE YOU, NEIL! :) There.....I said it and I bet he can hear me, all the way Up There. Even if he didn't believe in Heaven, that's where he is now, probably touring the back roads on his motorcycle.
Neil gave us so much for such a long time.
He was one of the greatest musicians the world has ever seen. Thanks, Neil!
God Bless Neil Peart! ////
Thursday, January 9, 2020
"The Girl From Mexico" starring Lupe Velez, Donald Woods and Leon Errol
Tonight, Lupe Velez was back with her zany and energetic brand of comedy, in "The Girl From Mexico"(1939). You've sure gotta be ready for Lupe, because once you start one of her movies you're in for a workout. She's the cinematic equivalent of three cans of Red Bull, but she sure is funny. In the movie, actor Donald Woods plays a publicist for an advertising agency who is tasked by his boss to go down to Mexico to find a singer to promote a client's product. Latin style is all the rage, and the boss hopes to sign the client to a major contract if Woods can find the right girl. After sitting through several evenings of warbling vocalists in different cantinas, Woods finds Velez, singing in a joint in the town of San Proximo. He has to visit the Mexican Consulate before he can bring her to New York. A judge there makes Woods swear to chaparone Velez during her time in the Big Apple, to protect her honor. Turns out that he's gonna need a little protection himself, as Velez is a human keg of dynamite. She's what my Mom used to call "a caution". :)
When they get to NYC, Woods puts Velez up in his apartment, which doesn't go over too well with his fiance (Linda Hayes). She's a Society Type with her nose in the air, the polar opposite of Lupe Velez who is down to earth and naive, and a little insane, haha. Hayes feels that Lupe's culture is beneath her. She also doesn't trust Velez around her husband. The feeling is mutual, because as soon as she gets to New York, Lupe falls in love with big city life, and with Woods because he gave her the opportunity. Woods keeps making excuses not to go out on the town with Velez, so as to keep the peace with his fiance. He tells Lupe that he's only her agent, and as soon as she gives her audition they will have to part ways. Now, do you really think Lupe is gonna go down like that? I didn't think you did. :)
But for the time being, she can't get Woods to show her the town, so she enlists his Uncle Matt, who lives with Woods. Uncle Matt is played by an Australian actor named Leon Errol (born in 1881). He is an absolute rubber-faced riot, and now that he's been chosen by Lupe Velez as her partner in crime, they will become a dynamic duo and steal the rest of the movie. She gets Errol to take her to a boxing match, a wrestling match and a bicycle race all in one night. Chaos ensues at every venue, as you can imagine. Lupe drinks too much champagne and gets hoarse from cheering and yelling at the wrestlers, and jumping in the ring herself The next day, Woods has her audition all set up, but her voice is shot. She sounds terrible and the advertising client is horrified. He storms out of the audition after cancelling his contract. Woods' boss is enraged. His fiance is happy, however, to see that Velez has failed. Now she will have to go back home to Mexico where she belongs. The wedding of Woods and the fiance can go on without further interruption. But I have to ask again : do you really think that Lupe is just gonna sit and take this kind of treatment?
I didn't think you did. Plus, now she's got Uncle Matt on her side. Double the craziness! Uncle Matt knows his nephew Donald doesn't love his snobby fiance, so he's gonna help Lupe get her man. First, though, they've gotta get her a job so she can stay in New York. Enter a suave nightclub owner named Tony Romano. He is also a client of Wood's agency, so he is happy to give Velez a tryout at his place. Now she's got her voice back, so the gig is hers. What Mr. Romano doesn't know is that Velez is gonna use him to make Woods' jealous, and in the process infuriate his fiancee. Thus their wedding will be sabotaged and the coast will be clear for Lupe. Let's have a big hand for Uncle Matt, who orchestrated the scheme. You are gonna love Leon Errol in this movie. He's the perfect foil for Velez' high-octane madness, the kind of mischievous Uncle everyone should have. Of course he's had practice; his wife is a stuffy prig just like Woods' fiance. She too disapproves of Velez, so Uncle Matt has fun taking the wind out of her sails.
Just a reminder that you're gonna need a strong cup of coffee before you watch "The Girl From Mexico", or any Lupe Velez movie. You might need a drink after it's over, too, or maybe even a straitjacket haha, but you'll have fun being driven crazy by this nutty Latina, who's as cute as she is crazy and charming as she is rough around the edges. She's actually incredibly talented. I think her style of comedy must surely have influenced Lucille Ball. I guess you could call Velez a Screwball Comedienne, except she mixes in a lot of slapstick as well, including some hilarious pratfalls. Give one of her movies a try, you'll be glad you did, though don't say I didn't warn you...... :)
"The Girl From Mexico" gets Two Big Thumbs Up, a classic Hollywood comedy with a lot of horsepower. ////
Gonna head out on my walk and then back to Pearl's. See you tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
When they get to NYC, Woods puts Velez up in his apartment, which doesn't go over too well with his fiance (Linda Hayes). She's a Society Type with her nose in the air, the polar opposite of Lupe Velez who is down to earth and naive, and a little insane, haha. Hayes feels that Lupe's culture is beneath her. She also doesn't trust Velez around her husband. The feeling is mutual, because as soon as she gets to New York, Lupe falls in love with big city life, and with Woods because he gave her the opportunity. Woods keeps making excuses not to go out on the town with Velez, so as to keep the peace with his fiance. He tells Lupe that he's only her agent, and as soon as she gives her audition they will have to part ways. Now, do you really think Lupe is gonna go down like that? I didn't think you did. :)
But for the time being, she can't get Woods to show her the town, so she enlists his Uncle Matt, who lives with Woods. Uncle Matt is played by an Australian actor named Leon Errol (born in 1881). He is an absolute rubber-faced riot, and now that he's been chosen by Lupe Velez as her partner in crime, they will become a dynamic duo and steal the rest of the movie. She gets Errol to take her to a boxing match, a wrestling match and a bicycle race all in one night. Chaos ensues at every venue, as you can imagine. Lupe drinks too much champagne and gets hoarse from cheering and yelling at the wrestlers, and jumping in the ring herself The next day, Woods has her audition all set up, but her voice is shot. She sounds terrible and the advertising client is horrified. He storms out of the audition after cancelling his contract. Woods' boss is enraged. His fiance is happy, however, to see that Velez has failed. Now she will have to go back home to Mexico where she belongs. The wedding of Woods and the fiance can go on without further interruption. But I have to ask again : do you really think that Lupe is just gonna sit and take this kind of treatment?
I didn't think you did. Plus, now she's got Uncle Matt on her side. Double the craziness! Uncle Matt knows his nephew Donald doesn't love his snobby fiance, so he's gonna help Lupe get her man. First, though, they've gotta get her a job so she can stay in New York. Enter a suave nightclub owner named Tony Romano. He is also a client of Wood's agency, so he is happy to give Velez a tryout at his place. Now she's got her voice back, so the gig is hers. What Mr. Romano doesn't know is that Velez is gonna use him to make Woods' jealous, and in the process infuriate his fiancee. Thus their wedding will be sabotaged and the coast will be clear for Lupe. Let's have a big hand for Uncle Matt, who orchestrated the scheme. You are gonna love Leon Errol in this movie. He's the perfect foil for Velez' high-octane madness, the kind of mischievous Uncle everyone should have. Of course he's had practice; his wife is a stuffy prig just like Woods' fiance. She too disapproves of Velez, so Uncle Matt has fun taking the wind out of her sails.
Just a reminder that you're gonna need a strong cup of coffee before you watch "The Girl From Mexico", or any Lupe Velez movie. You might need a drink after it's over, too, or maybe even a straitjacket haha, but you'll have fun being driven crazy by this nutty Latina, who's as cute as she is crazy and charming as she is rough around the edges. She's actually incredibly talented. I think her style of comedy must surely have influenced Lucille Ball. I guess you could call Velez a Screwball Comedienne, except she mixes in a lot of slapstick as well, including some hilarious pratfalls. Give one of her movies a try, you'll be glad you did, though don't say I didn't warn you...... :)
"The Girl From Mexico" gets Two Big Thumbs Up, a classic Hollywood comedy with a lot of horsepower. ////
Gonna head out on my walk and then back to Pearl's. See you tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
"The Age of Consent" starring Dorothy Wilson, Arline Judge and Richard Cromwell
Tonight I watched another pre-coder, "The Age of Consent"(1932), starring relative unknowns Dorothy Wilson and Richard Cromwell, who play students at a "State College" that looks a lot like the campus of USC. Cromwell is "Mike", a biology major working hard toward his degree. He is in love with "Betty" (Wilson), but he's got competition from his frat brother "Duke"(Eric Linden), who comes from a wealthy family. Duke's got a brand new car and fancy clothes. He's also got a pickup line for every girl on campus. The one he uses on Betty works well enough to get her to accompany Duke to the school dance. When Mike sees her there, he begins to fear losing her. The next time they are together he offers to drop out of school to marry her.
Betty is more than flattered by Mike's proposal, but doesn't want him to quit the university. She tells him she can wait. It'll only be two more years, then they can get married and Mike will have his degree. Then they'll have something to build on. But Mike, a shy, refined boy, doesn't trust the passage of time. He confides in his biology professor, telling him about how "modern" all the girls are now, and how they'll find someone else if you can't show them a good time. In other words, he is certain that if he stays in school and studies, that ladies' man Duke will steal Betty away from him. Betty comes to him and tells him this isn't true; she's loyal and will wait. She tells him Duke is nothing to her, just a ham with a luxury sedan, but Mike feels inferior. His fear of losing Betty eats away at him.
Mike sometimes stops at a diner near campus that is open after hours. One night, when he is feeling low, he strikes up a conversation with his insouciant waitress (Arline Judge). She's got a Betty Boop look and a Bronx attitude, in total contrast to Mike's straight backed modesty. But, he's put himself in agony with his assumptions about Betty and Duke, so when the waitress asks him to walk her home, he agrees. When they get there, she asks if he'd like a drink. She lives with her Dad, who's got plenty of booze on hand. After sharing half a bottle of Vodka, they dance drunkenly to some romantic music.
You can guess what happens next. :):)
When Mike and Arline wake up the next morning, he's got a hangover the size of Rhode Island. He can't recall what took place the night before, but Arline can, and she's now pretty smitten with Mike. He then gets the general idea of what went on; Arline doesn't have to spell it out for him, but now Mike, instead of feeling happy or excited, is a nervous wreck. "I've gotta get to class"!, he exclaims. He is not only remembering his university schedule, but that he is in love with Betty and he has now cheated on her. Mike hurries to get dressed and leave, but before he can do so, Arline's Dad walks in the door. He sees Mike. He sees his daughter. He sees the messed up couch, and he sees the liquor bottle. Boy is he pissed. To make matters worse, he's Irish. Mike is now in a whole lotta trouble.
It boils down to this : "You're either gonna marry my daughter or I'll have you sent to the penitentiary"! Please pronounce the above with an Irish accent. Thanks.
Remember that Mike is a straight laced boy. A major theme of the movie is the promiscuity of Mike's frat brothers and the philosophy of "free love" that is widespread on campus. Mike has complained to his professor that the old ways of courtship and marriage are out of fashion now. This is in the early 1930s, so we see that the Hippies didn't invent "free love" after all. As mentioned in a recent review, the kids of the '30s were pretty wild, and here we see that again. Many of the girls at the college are fine with the new sexuality, and are eager to sleep with guys like Duke and his pals. But Mike is different, and he hoped that in Betty he'd found a kindred spirit. But now he's done it himself. He's gotten plastered and slept with the waitress, and now that her Dad has discovered them, and threatened Mike with prison (for sex with a minor), he has no choice but to tell Betty. She's gonna find out either way, whether Mike goes to the slammer or avoids it by marrying Arline.
What a mess, eh?
The whole thing ends up in the district attorney's office. Arline's Dad is demanding that charges be brought against Mike, who has refused to marry her because "I don't love her, so it wouldn't be right". The biology professor is on hand to advocate for Mike, and it's a good thing, too, because he can explain in technical terms the biological urge in young people that leads them to have sex with each other in the first place, without regard for consequences like pregnancies or pissed off Dads. The DA is a considerate man. He says if it were up to him, he would not charge Mike. "These things happen", he tells the assembled. "It's not worth ruining a boy's life". But the Irishman isn't having any of it. He wants Mike in prison, and the DA explains that, unfortunately, he has to follow the law. If the father won't relent, Mike will have to stand trial.
Mike is petrified, naturally, so at the last minute he agrees to marry Arline the waitress. Her Dad is now satisfied. He drops the charges, but insists Mike marry his daughter that evening. "No tricks now, or I'll come straight back to the DA"! The next scene shows Mike and Arline about to take their vows, right there at the courthouse. But then a university official rushes in with a message for the professor. Something terrible has happened.
It seems that while Mike was in court, his girl Betty became despondent and ran off with Duke, who surprisingly didn't take advantage of the situation. Instead, he tried to play the Good Guy. You kind of always expected that Duke wasn't as bad as you thought he was. In this situation he was trying to cheer Betty up, but now a tragedy has occurred.
I can't tell you what it is (even though I've told you 90% of the story, lol), but the plot will turn on this event. The movie runs a mere 62 minutes, and as you can see, a ton of stuff happens. That's one reason we love short movies! The acting is a little stiff in places, but that's a minor complaint. The young performers are still good, especially Arline Judge as the waitress and Eric Linden as Duke. Keep in mind that this was 1932. Sound had only been in use for three years and the motion picture industry was still adjusting to the change. Perhaps there was not a supply of young actors at the time who were used to speaking on camera. Two other performers merit special mention. One is Reginald Barlow, who played Arline's father. I am always looking at actors' bios on IMDB, and sometimes I see an older one who was born in the 1880s or even the 1870s. Mr. Barlow was born in 1866 (one year after the Civil War), which makes him perhaps the oldest movie actor I've ever seen. The other performer I want to mention is Dorothy Wilson, who played the lead role of "Betty". It is noted in her bio that she was not a professional actress but was a secretary for one of the studio executives. When they couldn't cast the role, he suggested Dorothy. She is very good in her first screen appearance, and went on to make a couple of dozen films. But the reason I mention her is that, on IMDB, it says that when she retired from acting, she moved with her husband to a ranch in Reseda! So how cool is that? Tonight's leading lady is a homegirl. :)
I love pre-code movies and I very much enjoyed "The Age Of Consent". It tells an everlasting story that's been with us since the world began, of The Biological Urge, it's pleasures and potential consequences. Two Big Thumbs Up, and highly recommended for a look at Early Hollywood. ////
That's all for now. I'm off to Trader Josephus then back to Pearl's See you tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Betty is more than flattered by Mike's proposal, but doesn't want him to quit the university. She tells him she can wait. It'll only be two more years, then they can get married and Mike will have his degree. Then they'll have something to build on. But Mike, a shy, refined boy, doesn't trust the passage of time. He confides in his biology professor, telling him about how "modern" all the girls are now, and how they'll find someone else if you can't show them a good time. In other words, he is certain that if he stays in school and studies, that ladies' man Duke will steal Betty away from him. Betty comes to him and tells him this isn't true; she's loyal and will wait. She tells him Duke is nothing to her, just a ham with a luxury sedan, but Mike feels inferior. His fear of losing Betty eats away at him.
Mike sometimes stops at a diner near campus that is open after hours. One night, when he is feeling low, he strikes up a conversation with his insouciant waitress (Arline Judge). She's got a Betty Boop look and a Bronx attitude, in total contrast to Mike's straight backed modesty. But, he's put himself in agony with his assumptions about Betty and Duke, so when the waitress asks him to walk her home, he agrees. When they get there, she asks if he'd like a drink. She lives with her Dad, who's got plenty of booze on hand. After sharing half a bottle of Vodka, they dance drunkenly to some romantic music.
You can guess what happens next. :):)
When Mike and Arline wake up the next morning, he's got a hangover the size of Rhode Island. He can't recall what took place the night before, but Arline can, and she's now pretty smitten with Mike. He then gets the general idea of what went on; Arline doesn't have to spell it out for him, but now Mike, instead of feeling happy or excited, is a nervous wreck. "I've gotta get to class"!, he exclaims. He is not only remembering his university schedule, but that he is in love with Betty and he has now cheated on her. Mike hurries to get dressed and leave, but before he can do so, Arline's Dad walks in the door. He sees Mike. He sees his daughter. He sees the messed up couch, and he sees the liquor bottle. Boy is he pissed. To make matters worse, he's Irish. Mike is now in a whole lotta trouble.
It boils down to this : "You're either gonna marry my daughter or I'll have you sent to the penitentiary"! Please pronounce the above with an Irish accent. Thanks.
Remember that Mike is a straight laced boy. A major theme of the movie is the promiscuity of Mike's frat brothers and the philosophy of "free love" that is widespread on campus. Mike has complained to his professor that the old ways of courtship and marriage are out of fashion now. This is in the early 1930s, so we see that the Hippies didn't invent "free love" after all. As mentioned in a recent review, the kids of the '30s were pretty wild, and here we see that again. Many of the girls at the college are fine with the new sexuality, and are eager to sleep with guys like Duke and his pals. But Mike is different, and he hoped that in Betty he'd found a kindred spirit. But now he's done it himself. He's gotten plastered and slept with the waitress, and now that her Dad has discovered them, and threatened Mike with prison (for sex with a minor), he has no choice but to tell Betty. She's gonna find out either way, whether Mike goes to the slammer or avoids it by marrying Arline.
What a mess, eh?
The whole thing ends up in the district attorney's office. Arline's Dad is demanding that charges be brought against Mike, who has refused to marry her because "I don't love her, so it wouldn't be right". The biology professor is on hand to advocate for Mike, and it's a good thing, too, because he can explain in technical terms the biological urge in young people that leads them to have sex with each other in the first place, without regard for consequences like pregnancies or pissed off Dads. The DA is a considerate man. He says if it were up to him, he would not charge Mike. "These things happen", he tells the assembled. "It's not worth ruining a boy's life". But the Irishman isn't having any of it. He wants Mike in prison, and the DA explains that, unfortunately, he has to follow the law. If the father won't relent, Mike will have to stand trial.
Mike is petrified, naturally, so at the last minute he agrees to marry Arline the waitress. Her Dad is now satisfied. He drops the charges, but insists Mike marry his daughter that evening. "No tricks now, or I'll come straight back to the DA"! The next scene shows Mike and Arline about to take their vows, right there at the courthouse. But then a university official rushes in with a message for the professor. Something terrible has happened.
It seems that while Mike was in court, his girl Betty became despondent and ran off with Duke, who surprisingly didn't take advantage of the situation. Instead, he tried to play the Good Guy. You kind of always expected that Duke wasn't as bad as you thought he was. In this situation he was trying to cheer Betty up, but now a tragedy has occurred.
I can't tell you what it is (even though I've told you 90% of the story, lol), but the plot will turn on this event. The movie runs a mere 62 minutes, and as you can see, a ton of stuff happens. That's one reason we love short movies! The acting is a little stiff in places, but that's a minor complaint. The young performers are still good, especially Arline Judge as the waitress and Eric Linden as Duke. Keep in mind that this was 1932. Sound had only been in use for three years and the motion picture industry was still adjusting to the change. Perhaps there was not a supply of young actors at the time who were used to speaking on camera. Two other performers merit special mention. One is Reginald Barlow, who played Arline's father. I am always looking at actors' bios on IMDB, and sometimes I see an older one who was born in the 1880s or even the 1870s. Mr. Barlow was born in 1866 (one year after the Civil War), which makes him perhaps the oldest movie actor I've ever seen. The other performer I want to mention is Dorothy Wilson, who played the lead role of "Betty". It is noted in her bio that she was not a professional actress but was a secretary for one of the studio executives. When they couldn't cast the role, he suggested Dorothy. She is very good in her first screen appearance, and went on to make a couple of dozen films. But the reason I mention her is that, on IMDB, it says that when she retired from acting, she moved with her husband to a ranch in Reseda! So how cool is that? Tonight's leading lady is a homegirl. :)
I love pre-code movies and I very much enjoyed "The Age Of Consent". It tells an everlasting story that's been with us since the world began, of The Biological Urge, it's pleasures and potential consequences. Two Big Thumbs Up, and highly recommended for a look at Early Hollywood. ////
That's all for now. I'm off to Trader Josephus then back to Pearl's See you tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
"The Killers" (original 1946 version) starring Burt Lancaster (pronun.) and Ava Gardner
Tonight "The Killers" were back again, only this time in the original 1946 version of the movie. The Criterion dvd set comes with both flicks, which are quite different in style and content. I forgot to mention in my recent review of the 1964 version that "The Killers" is based on a story by Ernest Hemingway. The original film is closer to being an actual Noir than the latter, and in fact you could call it one. It's darker and moodier than the remake, which is filmed in bright color, mostly in daylight, and which focuses much more on the romance between the Femme Fatale and the Fall Guy. The 1946 film is also more complex.
In the '64 version, there is no outside investigator or police agency looking into the murder of Johnny North. The only characters in the movie are the criminals, including North, and the ones doing the investigating are the hit men, Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager, who want the stolen money for themselves. In the original film, there is an insurance agent investigating the murder of Burt Lancaster's character, a boxer known as The Swede. He is the Fall Guy here, and when he turns up dead, the agency gets suspicious when the beneficiary on his life insurance policy is a hotel maid, who he only knew for five days. They send out an agent (Edmund O'Brien) to interview the woman, who spins out a story that will lead O'Brien to a bigger scheme, one that involves a high-stakes robbery just like in the remake.
As the insurance investigator, O'Brien has enough screen time to be considered the star of the movie, though Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner were billed above him. They in turn are onscreen far less than were their counterparts in the '64 film, John Cassavetes and Angie Dickinson. In their case, the story revolved around their tempestuous love affair. In the original film, though the love between Burt and Ava is important to the plot, it's given short shrift and is more of a sideshow. And the hitmen, William Conrad (playing a cold blooded sociopath) and Charles McGraw, are reduced to bit players, seen only at the beginning and end, whereas in the later film Marvin and Gulager appeared throughout the picture and were central to the story.
So there are a lot of differences in what aspects of the story are emphasized, and I think in the 1946 version, which was directed by Noir veteran Robert Siodmak, you have a more well-rounded story, as opposed to Don Siegel's remake, which - while also very well done - was more of an action flick focused on the robbery, with an emphasis also on the love affair. The 1946 film follows Burt Lancaster's career as a boxer in more detail than did the remake for John Cassavetes' character. It also delves into the life of the gang's mastermind in greater depth. Albert Dekker plays the Ronald Reagan part. We knew little to nothing about Reagan's history in the Siegel film, but in the original we learn quite a bit more about the background of Dekker, who is more of a main character here. The main difference is in the time devoted to the love story. As noted, it was the main theme of the remake. Angie Dickinson had major screen time in order to play John Cassavetes like a fiddle and ultimately leave him in the dust. Siegel twisted his entire plot around her deceptions. In the original, the plot is all about O'Brien's attempts to uncover the scheme. He plays the dogged Noir tough guy who can't be stopped or intimidated. He's in almost every scene (along with his police pal Sam Levene), so Ava Gardner takes a back seat. While her role is very important, especially in the second half of the film, she is nevertheless a secondary character. I must add an aside, however, to say that she is great as always, and now that we've seen her in several films of late, I have even more respect for her acting abilities than I did after "Mogambo". She is different in everything I've seen her in, and seems capable of playing all kinds of parts. Also, she is a natural onscreen. Her characters are like real people, entirely without artifice.
A young looking Burt Lancaster is excellent as the broken down boxer "Swede". He, too, is a little more natural here, and hasn't yet developed the Buhht Lahn-cahs-tah! style of speaking with jutting jaw and eyes cast to the middle distance.
You should definitely watch both versions of "The Killers", which you will be able to do with convenience if you rent or purchase the Criterion release. I'm gonna say I liked the 1946 film better, which is not a knock on the '64 remake in any way. That was excellent , too, so just consider it even higher praise for the original. Siodmak and his cameraman set an incredibly dark atmosphere with their chiaroscuro lighting and nighttime black & white photography. Please note that I'm not trying to be pretentious with "chiaroscuro", haha. I learned about it in Professor Tim's Cinematheque at CSUN, and it is a proper descriptive term, and most apt for the look of this film.
I give "The Killers" (1946) Two Gigantic Thumbs Up, my highest praise. It's one of the best Noirs out there. Edmund O'Brien exactly is the guy you want leading the investigation and you know he's not gonna let you down. /////
That's all for now. This morning the weather was quite beautiful, about 75 degrees and sunny, with no wind, so I was able to get Pearl outside for a nice wheelchair push around the neighborhood. The birds were chirping and new green leaves were already budding on some of the trees. It was like a preview of Spring. All of which means that my daytime walk is already taken care of, so I will now head to the Libe for more movies and then back to Pearl's. See you tonight at the usual time.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
In the '64 version, there is no outside investigator or police agency looking into the murder of Johnny North. The only characters in the movie are the criminals, including North, and the ones doing the investigating are the hit men, Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager, who want the stolen money for themselves. In the original film, there is an insurance agent investigating the murder of Burt Lancaster's character, a boxer known as The Swede. He is the Fall Guy here, and when he turns up dead, the agency gets suspicious when the beneficiary on his life insurance policy is a hotel maid, who he only knew for five days. They send out an agent (Edmund O'Brien) to interview the woman, who spins out a story that will lead O'Brien to a bigger scheme, one that involves a high-stakes robbery just like in the remake.
As the insurance investigator, O'Brien has enough screen time to be considered the star of the movie, though Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner were billed above him. They in turn are onscreen far less than were their counterparts in the '64 film, John Cassavetes and Angie Dickinson. In their case, the story revolved around their tempestuous love affair. In the original film, though the love between Burt and Ava is important to the plot, it's given short shrift and is more of a sideshow. And the hitmen, William Conrad (playing a cold blooded sociopath) and Charles McGraw, are reduced to bit players, seen only at the beginning and end, whereas in the later film Marvin and Gulager appeared throughout the picture and were central to the story.
So there are a lot of differences in what aspects of the story are emphasized, and I think in the 1946 version, which was directed by Noir veteran Robert Siodmak, you have a more well-rounded story, as opposed to Don Siegel's remake, which - while also very well done - was more of an action flick focused on the robbery, with an emphasis also on the love affair. The 1946 film follows Burt Lancaster's career as a boxer in more detail than did the remake for John Cassavetes' character. It also delves into the life of the gang's mastermind in greater depth. Albert Dekker plays the Ronald Reagan part. We knew little to nothing about Reagan's history in the Siegel film, but in the original we learn quite a bit more about the background of Dekker, who is more of a main character here. The main difference is in the time devoted to the love story. As noted, it was the main theme of the remake. Angie Dickinson had major screen time in order to play John Cassavetes like a fiddle and ultimately leave him in the dust. Siegel twisted his entire plot around her deceptions. In the original, the plot is all about O'Brien's attempts to uncover the scheme. He plays the dogged Noir tough guy who can't be stopped or intimidated. He's in almost every scene (along with his police pal Sam Levene), so Ava Gardner takes a back seat. While her role is very important, especially in the second half of the film, she is nevertheless a secondary character. I must add an aside, however, to say that she is great as always, and now that we've seen her in several films of late, I have even more respect for her acting abilities than I did after "Mogambo". She is different in everything I've seen her in, and seems capable of playing all kinds of parts. Also, she is a natural onscreen. Her characters are like real people, entirely without artifice.
A young looking Burt Lancaster is excellent as the broken down boxer "Swede". He, too, is a little more natural here, and hasn't yet developed the Buhht Lahn-cahs-tah! style of speaking with jutting jaw and eyes cast to the middle distance.
You should definitely watch both versions of "The Killers", which you will be able to do with convenience if you rent or purchase the Criterion release. I'm gonna say I liked the 1946 film better, which is not a knock on the '64 remake in any way. That was excellent , too, so just consider it even higher praise for the original. Siodmak and his cameraman set an incredibly dark atmosphere with their chiaroscuro lighting and nighttime black & white photography. Please note that I'm not trying to be pretentious with "chiaroscuro", haha. I learned about it in Professor Tim's Cinematheque at CSUN, and it is a proper descriptive term, and most apt for the look of this film.
I give "The Killers" (1946) Two Gigantic Thumbs Up, my highest praise. It's one of the best Noirs out there. Edmund O'Brien exactly is the guy you want leading the investigation and you know he's not gonna let you down. /////
That's all for now. This morning the weather was quite beautiful, about 75 degrees and sunny, with no wind, so I was able to get Pearl outside for a nice wheelchair push around the neighborhood. The birds were chirping and new green leaves were already budding on some of the trees. It was like a preview of Spring. All of which means that my daytime walk is already taken care of, so I will now head to the Libe for more movies and then back to Pearl's. See you tonight at the usual time.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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