April 13, 2024 (Movies, Music, Happy Ritchie Blackmore's Birthday)

Hi folks, and Happy Ritchie Blackmore's Birthday. It's actually tomorrow but you can start celebrating now. Can you even believe he's 80? I'll bet he can't believe it either, but he's still out there Doing What He Does, in fact he's playing gigs with Blackmore's Night this month. Ritchie has been integral to my life for 53 years, but of course that goes without saying...

I hope you had a nice weekend and are ready for Easter Week. This book I'm working on (working title "2009") is based, in part, on my diary from that year, but its other "framework" (for Part Two of the book) is a series of notes from an experiment I undertook in 2023-24, which is related to my diary and to 2009 in general. Neither the notes nor the experiment can be revealed at the present time because it would spoil the surprise, but my point is that there are two basic "framing devices" for the book: My 2009 diary (which, for our purposes, will encompass March 2009 thru April 2010). It will be printed in full, and the day-by-day entries will be analysed with the benefit of hindsight. This will bring us to Part Two, where the notes from my recent experiment will be used. Taken as a whole, they are also like a diary or journal, made up of daily entries which, like the diary entries, will also be published in full and examined. This will make up a highly complex story that will run a minimum of 500 pages, and could be as long as 800 (or even 1000). I've learned that 2009 was almost as mindblowing a year as 1989, and as terrible in the ways that are terrible, and that the events of both years are partially connected.

Having enough material for this book is no problem; I've got an avalanche. The problem is telling the story so that it unspools smoothly (or as smoothly as possible) because it has so many twists and turns, and so many participants. Wish me luck. This book is gonna upset several people. I'm questioning if I can even release it. But I know I must write it - to fail to do so would be a sin on my part, and a grave mistake as I head into older age.

Anyhow, let's move on with some movies and a touch of music, shall we? World War Two, anyone? I'm always up for a WW2 flick, and I saw a great one last week called "The Bridge at Remagen"(1969), relentless & brutal, shot by the great Stanley Cortez in dark blues and greys, and featuring grim-faced "stoic" acting by George Segal, and Robert "Man from U.N.C.L.E." Vaughan as a ruthless German Army major tasked with blowing up the Remagen bridge in the last days of the war, to prevent the Americans from crossing into the Rhineland. The problem is that blowing it up will also strand 75 thousand German troops and likely condemn them to death. Ben Gazarra is tremendous in a supporting role as a combat-hardened sergeant who steals jewelry off the bodies of dead Germans, to sell later as souveniers. This pits him against the disgusted Segal....but the attrition of the protracted battle brings them back together. This movie is combat-oriented and reminded me in that way of the great, underrated Vietnam film "Hamburger Hill", in which soldiers know a pointless objective when they see one, but must follow orders regardless. Though not as well known as the star-studded "A Bridge Too Far"(1977) or the Oscar-winning "The Longest Day" (1962), "The Bridge at Remagen" is equally powerful. It has that "you are there" emotional presence of "Platoon" on a WW2 scale. 10/10.

I also went to another Luis Bunuel screening at CSUN's Armer Theater, for "Nazarin"(1959), the story of a priest in a Mexican ghetto who hides a prostitute sought for murder. She and another local woman thus view him as a Saint, but the title is too much to bear and he collapses under its weight. It's the best Bunuel I've seen so far and highly recommended, perfect for Easter time. Another great Easter film is "The Flowers of St. Francis"(1950), directed by Roberto Rosselini.

We mentioned Vietnam movies, and I finally saw Coppola's "Gardens of Stone"(1987), once again on Tubi, my go-to for films I missed the first time around. The mid-to-late 80s was a time for tremendous Vietnam flicks, notably "Platoon", "Full Metal Jacket" and the previously mentioned "Hamburger Hill". Those were mostly combat focused. Not so "Gardens of Stone". When it was released, I read reviews that used words like "somber","psychological", and "deliberate", and I got the mental image of a slow paced, depressing film, with no war action, and despite it being directed by Francis Ford Coppola, I decided to skip it. That turns out to have been a mistake because - while it is a drama rather than an action film - the story is what's important here, and it is well-paced and played. It covers the "toy soldiers" who serve in the burial unit at Arlington National Cemetary. Formally known as The Old Guard, they are ceremonial in duty, but must be squared away at all times. Only the cream of the crop from West Point are accepted. It seems a cushy assignment; a selected soldier can stay there his whole career. He won't be shipped to Vietnam, but that's exactly what DB Sweeny's character wants. He's a top West Pointer with an ancestral military history who sees it as his duty to be in front line combat. James Caan plays DB's Sergeant. He and the Sergeant Major (James Earl Jones) warn DB against this gung-ho mentality: "Listen son, there's no 'front line' in Vietnam, it's guerilla warfare". In other words, there aren't rules, it's a jungle war against an invisible enemy who've been fighting for 1000 years. But Sweeny remains determined to go.

Caan is excellent in the lead role as the classic Sarge, but unlike every other man on base, he thinks this war is run by politicians who don't know what they're doing, and we shouldn't be there. In the first 15 minutes, he meets Angelica Houston, a writer for the WaPo and a hard core anti-war leftist. They fall in love, and that aspect makes the film an old fashioned melodrama not unlike "The Best Years of Our Lives", in how it shows the effect of war on loved ones, i.e. "the folks back home", though this is set in 1968, a  much more turbulent time than patriotic 1945, and the protests against Vietnam are raging. Rock concert promoter Bill Graham plays an anti-war provocateur who picks a fight with Caan and gets his butt kicked, which is cool because Bill Graham was an a-hole in real life. The movie's final shot shows the suffering of the Vietnam wives, who payed an equal emotional price to their husbands' sacrifice. It's not an action war film, but worth watching nonetheless: a drama about burying the dead, and one sergeant's effort to assist a young man hell bent on joining combat.

Is this too many movie reviews? Can you handle one more?

How about "Chappaquiddick"(2017). The lead actor, an Aussie named Jason Clarke, absolutely channels a young, self-absorbed Ted Kennedy, who after the accident is more worried about what his father will think than he is about Mary Jo Kopechne. Some details may have been taken from a book by Kennedy friend Joe Gargan. I'd never heard of him before this film, but he was a close pal of Teddy who helped "deal with" the incident, which happened in July 1969, just a day or two before the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. Judy Garland also died the same day, so Kennedy was lucky in the "news" sense. Chappaquiddick was still in the headlines, but in a slow news cycle it would've been the sole focus. I remember my Mom talking about it. She liked the Kennedys, especially Bobby, but she thought Ted left Mary Jo to drown, and whether she drowned or suffocated (and thus was alive and could've been rescued) is explored in the movie. However, Ted and his team of lawyers are great "fixers". They band together to "solve the problem" so his political career won't be destroyed, and of course that's exactly what happened; he was only charged with "leaving the scene of an accident" and ended up serving 40 years in the Senate, one of the longest terms to this day. Some things are portrayed as unknown, such as whether Kennedy was having an affair with Mary Jo (there's no evidence to suggest this). In the movie, he seems burdened by the expectations of his gravely disabled father, a stroke victim who sees Teddy as weak compared to his three deceased elder sons. Teddy knows he can't compete with their legacies, and all of this is on his mind while Mary Jo is still in the pond.

And yet, Teddy is not played as a monster, or even with a sinister motivation. The filmmakers do show his desire to tell the truth against Old Joe's wishes to use an alibi, yet he can't bring himself to fully come clean. His attempts are half-hearted, it seems more important to save the Kennedy name and his career. He also engages in theatrics such as wearing a neck brace to Mary Jo's funeral. Gargan's book alleged that Teddy at first tried to claim she was driving the car. The accident is portrayed as the result of his desire to escape scrutiny. A long shot shows Teddy's car parked off a lake road, and an island cop, suspecting teenagers making out (or worse) stops to chase them off, not knowing it is Senator Kennedy in the car. This detail must've been in Gargan's book, otherwise it would be wild speculation. Teddy, fearful of having the cop approach his window, starts the engine and speeds off, but as he revs it down the dirt road in the wrong direction to take Mary Jo home (not drunk but probably beyond the limit), he misses the turn for the rickety bridge and goes into the water.

Overall, "Chappaquiddick" is a fair-minded portrayal of the entire incident. The only problem is that Mary Jo Kopechne gets little respect. As always, even with this movie, it's all about the Kennedys. 9/10

Okay, okay...one more. Is that cool? Thanks. I'll keep it brief.

"The Grey"(2011) is a tremendous survival flick (one of the best you'll ever see), that explores the various certain-death scenarios facing seven Macho Men who have survived a plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness. Their main enemy is a pack of bloodthirsty wolves, and this aspect of the film apparently caused controversy when it was released. Lupine behaviorists cried "wolves don't act that way!" But the wolves are almost symbolic. I mean, this is still a hard core Death Movie, fixated on the most horrible things that can befall you, and there really are big, bad ass wolves in the wild ready to eat you alive. And they are amped-up in the movie to be monstrous, but again it's a metaphor for the absence of God, or the power of nature over faith, at least that's what the filmmakers seem to be trying for, and it apparently pissed a lot of people off. I don't agree with the final message, but as horror flicks go, the filmmakers succeded in the same way John Carpenter did with "The Thing". And also, is there a better actor than Liam Neeson? Lately, I am thinking not. If you're ever in a plane crash in Alaska, with giant wolves chasing you, he's the guy you want by your side. An actor named Frank Grillo gives Neeson a run for his money in a "giving up" scene near the end. Dallas Roberts and Bob Dylan McDermot Mulroney are also excellent. 10/10, a must-see, on Tubi. 

A little music: I've been listening to the solo albums of Steve Howe, who also had a birthday this week, his 78th. Two of his albums ("Turbulence" and "The Grand Scheme of Things") take me right back to the early 1990s and put me inside 9032, almost as if the last 35 years have been just the blink of an eye. Ahh, 1991-93, a time of Clandestine Car Rides with Lilly, a wonderful pre-Earthquake era. Life is so weird, because when you are younger, you think of everything as being in front of you, and then 35 years pass and those things are in the rearview mirror, but certain albums and songs can bring them all back and place them "in the present" again. This is what happens when I listen to Steve Howe... 

Finally, do you guys like golf? I do. Me and Pearl used to watch The Masters every year. There is something quite wonderful about the course at Augusta, the gentlemanly nature of the game (the good sportmanship, the absence of showboating seen in major sports), and the ritual of the Green Jacket. We looked forward to it every April, with Spring in the air and the coming of Easter. Today, I watched the final playoff between Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose, and it was amazing to see Rory's reaction to his first Master's Championship. Check it out if you haven't seen it. He's one of the Good Guys in today's athletic world. It's already being called one of the Great Sports Moments and one of the most exciting days in golf history.

And that's all for today. Thanks for reading and don't forget to think of Ritchie tomorrow on his birthday.

Tons of love as always. 

April 7, 2025 (Movies & Music)

Hi folks, and Happy Monday. I'm hard at work on my "2009" book, but since I can't reveal any details, it's gonna be movies and music again. At night, while reading, I've been listening to selections from the Mercury Living Presence series, considered by stereo enthusiasts to be the greatest orchestral recordings ever made, some of which were recorded on the "sound strip" of 35mm film. During my time at the Metrocolor lab (way back in the Stone Age), we called this the "track", and it had a special solution (apart from the film chemicals) to develop it. Anyhow, if you like symphonic music presented in incredible stereo sound, give a listen to Mercury Living Presence. I'm only listening on Youtube through cheap headphones; imagine how it sounds on vinyl though a proper stereo system! Try it and see. A good one to start with is "The Firebird Suite" by Igor Stravinsky, conducted by Anatol Dorati. Or try "Bluebeard's Castle" by Bartok. Note: there was a competitor to Mecury Living Presence called Living Stereo by RCA. It's probably just as good, sound-wise. 

Last Wednesday, I made another visit to the Armer Theater at CSUN for Luis Bunuel's "Los Olvidados"(1950), the story of a group of street kids in Mexico City, one of whom falls under the criminal spell of a teenage delinquent and becomes implicated in a murder. This film shows the abject poverty in the Mexican ghettos circa 1950, and is regarded as one of Bunuel's greatest works, though extremely bleak in the tradition of post-war Italian Neo-realism.

I also saw "Conclave", which I thought was excellent. I don't wanna give any spoilers. It's somewhat in the same vein as "Angels and Demons" but that's a broad comparison, made only because there's a Papal Conclave in each film. This one is plotted as a process of elimination in which the moral fallibilities of each candidate are exposed. You find yourself rooting for Ralph Fiennes to accept the mantle, but he has his own crisis to deal with. There's a twist - I won't tell you when, and I absolutely did not see it coming, but it's something of a mindblower. Some might say it's a Woke statement, but I thought it was the opposite of that because the reasoning behind the message (in the twist) is entirely non-political, though there are political themes along the way. The Church is supposed to be above politics, but of course, its leadership is only human and people in positions of power often strive for more, in righteous or unrighteous ways. At any rate, I loved the simplicity of "Conclave", which plays out like a courtroom drama with tremendous acting by all parties (including a quietly intense Isabella Rosselini). Filmed on location in Rome, with beautiful photography. 10/10, don't miss it. 

In music news, it's been confirmed that Sir Ritchie Blackmore had a heart attack 18 months ago. RB has a Youtube channel (run by assistants because he doesn't do that sort of thing) and occasionally, his wife Candice will cajole him into telling late night "Tales From the Tavern" from their in-house bar, and because Ritchie is such a dry wit and great storyteller, with over 60 years of rock stories to relate, these "Tales" are highly entertaining. One clip, however, may have caused concern or confusion among his fans. I know it did for me, when Ritchie, talking about touring as he nears 80, mentioned that it was getting more difficult to travel due to a series of "maladies" he's afflicted with, including gout and arthritis. Then he said, "I've also got six stents in my heart. I collect them, you know". That comment no doubt took fans aback. Ritchie goes in for black humor, but his wife was with him when he said this, and I thought "If it was a joke, she'd have stopped him" because it would not be funny. The clip was posted about six months ago, and I occasionally Googled "Ritchie Blackmore" + "Stents", or "Ritchie Blackmore Health", but nothing came back. I imagine other fans made similar inquiries, and now we know what he meant because the news has been revealed by Candice. But long live Ritchie Blackmore, I say. Candice says he's been forbidden to fly by his doctors, probably due to cabin pressure, so Blackmore's Night can't play in Europe, and they haven't played the West Coast in twenty years, but as long as Ritchie is in the world, all is good. And speaking of guitar players named Ritchie, or in this case Richie (minus the t): Richie Faulkner of Judas Priest, a mere 45 years old, has said a few days ago that he recently suffered a stroke as a complication from his near-fatal aortic dissection in 2021. It's been a rough time for English guitarists named Richard, but we pray they will be with us for many years to come, Thank You Dear Lord.

Here's an obscure film for you: "The Visitors"(1972), which I discovered by accident after watching "Casualties of War" on Tubi. A 1989 screening of "Casualties", of course, plays a huge role in the story of that year, and this was my first time seeing the movie since then. It's one of the great Vietnam War films, and Sean Penn is very good doing his Robert Duvall imitation. While researching the movie afterwards, I read about the incident it is based on, which was first written up as an article in The New Yorker. The legendary director Elia Kazan read it, and got the idea to make a movie about the speculative aftermath of this war crime, musing on what might happen after the soldiers got out of Leavenworth Prison on greatly reduced sentences. Kazan's films read like a greatest hits of cinema: "A Streetcar Named Desire", "On the Waterfront", "East of Eden", so if there were no credits on this one, you'd never guess that such a Mount Rushmore director would make a low budget flick that has the gritty feel of "Straw Dogs" mixed with the slow-building dread of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre". A 25-year-old James Woods plays the Michael J. Fox role, and Steve Railsback of "Helter Skelter" fame plays Sean Penn. The acting is realistic. What is threatened in "Casualties of War" (that the bad guys might seek revenge against Fox when they get out of prison) actually happens here, but not in the cut-and-dried way you might think. What happens takes the whole movie to unfold, and is greatly enabled by the (possibly fictionalised) character of Woods' girlfriend's macho father, a hard drinking WW2 vet who is glad to have some fellow soldiers to talk to. The portrayal by actor Patrick McVey is what brings this film to Texas Chainsaw level. When the viewer feels he or she is in the presence of truly dangerous people, it goes beyond acting, and the scene where they watch the 1969 Super Bowl between the Jets and Colts is some seriously demented male bonding, spooky stuff indeed. Railsback shows himself to be a genius actor, maybe too genius because he became typecast as a psycho. Having said all of this, the film may belong to the only female character, Woods' girlfriend/McVey's daughter, played by Patricia Joyce, whose actions seem inexplicable at one point late in the film and lead to the brutal climax.

"The Visitors" was entered at Cannes, and while it didn't win any awards, it is a study in tension from start to finish. I wonder if Tarantino knows about it? If not, I have one up on him! Watch it on Tubi, my new favorite movie channel. 

And that's about all for tonight. Thanks for reading and tons of love.