Weblog 74
July 8, 2007~ 1:05am
Tonight we watched the 2007 Academy Award winning best picture, "The Departed", and I must say it was richly deserved. There is not a thing about that film I would have done differently. Brilliant casting, brilliant directing and editing, and blockbuster acting that knocked my socks off in each role.
Jack Nicholson becomes more odious, more snarly-creepy with time- but this role called for it. He plays kingpin Irish mobster, Frank Costello, with glee and absolute assurance. (Oh, and I found out that Costello is an Irish name. I'd always thought it was Italian because of the vowel on the end...lol. Apparently, it's a Norman-Irish name from the Gaelic for 'Coisdeala', anglicanized to be spelled more or less the way it would sound.)
Somehow, Nicholson playing a 70 year old still lost in his own myth of omnipotence- womanizing- and general debauchery was unsettling to watch, but it was Nicholson in his own element for sure- (and probably very close to life, at that. LOL!) Sickening? Oh, you better believe it-- but perfect here. I have to include what Christopher Orr, columnist for The New Republic had to say in his review of Nicholson in the film. I got a real kick out of it- "Nicholson's overweening self-image flattens everything in its path...Never you worry, though: While we may be spared the sight of Nicholson's nakedness, his cinematic alter ego still inflicts upon us the knowledge that "it's always been so easy for me to get c*nt that I've never understood jacking off in a theater." Thanks for sharing, Jack. I'm sure that there is something in this world more distasteful than listening to a 70-year-man boast about all the hot young tail he's getting; I'm just not sure what it might be." LOL!!! (no, he didn't like Nicholson in the role, and felt he 'ham-handed' things, damaging the tone. I don't agree. I think slime should be shown at its slimiest- and oh, he was-- but delightfully-- 'Jack'.)
Leonardo DiCaprio came on like a steam-roller, every time he was onscreen. He gets better and better, but the real surpriser to me was Mark Wahlberg- what a performance! - add to that the always capable Matt Damon and Alec Baldwin, it'd be hard to miss with the story they were given. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen, and several times I jumped, which is a sign a movie has really pulled me into it.
Of course, Martin Scorsese is as hard-edged realistic as one can get, directing-- and this film has the Scorsese hallmark all over it. He's a genius. I remember listening to Mark Wahlberg talking to Terry Gross on NPR about a year ago and she asked him if Scorsese was a director who did a LOT of rehearsal, because his films are so perfect when completed.. "No," said Wahlberg. "We prepare totally, know our characters and the story and our dialogue so intimately, that he usually just does one take." That astounded me. And I think that nervous energy shows, that 'first run reality' of it. It makes the body of his work stand out from the others- it's a style that's very recognizable, and Wahlberg's defining of how that's accomplished did much to explain its edginess.
I don't think any Scorsese film will ever top "Gangs of New York" - it's my all time favorite of his, but with a guy like that it's pretty much "take your pick"- they're all incredible. He never disappoints, is always exciting- always intimate- throws hard, hard punches, and the audience knows they've been roughed up a bit by the end, but I suspect that's just what the directer intended.
July 9, 2007~ 5:15pm
I had a busy Monday. Hotter'n blazes here today- and oddly, relatively cool in this house, thanks to letting the window AC run all day in the bedroom with a little fan angled out of the door to push the cool air out and allow it to drop down here. Add to that, insulated curtain pulled tightly shut, a BIG-ASSED, ol' double-decker fan blowing that same air through and into the dining room where I sit in my corner, just in its path, and type away.
This seems to be a pretty good system for me. At night, the kitchen window- with its ever-present, double fan- gets turned on when the evening begins to cool. Off again in the morning-- curtains pulled closed. In long heat spells it doesn't do the job, but for the intermittent hot day or two, it works fine.
I see my saddle plug in the drain pipe in the basement is leaking......lol. Always damn something in this rattletrap of a house. When I washed out a cup from this mornig when I got in, I heard splashing downstairs.
There's nothing it can ruin- it's a bare cement floor that's sloped to the drain in the floor, but I ran down, thinking it was the HOT WATER HEATER giving way. Whew! That thing is still holding, thank God. It's just the same problem I've had for all the years I've lived here- the rubber must be drying out on the plug and not sealing the way it was. I have a black line (two, actually) 'lines' of grievous-looking tarry stuff that comes out of the drain pipe to the upper floors, that snake across the concrete. It's like something out of the Amityville Horror. Even the curious cats did not want to go down there with me today- (or rather, Beethoven did, then ran right back up. Probably thinking, "Dumbass. Never can keep things fixed.")
Well--- HE IS! THAT one stuck! LOL!!!
July 10, 2007~ 6:30pm
OK.......here is why I have no television, and do not listen to news: today after work, I climbed into my car at 3:00 and the NPR newsbreak was on, and here's what I learned: we spend 12 BILLION dollars a MONTH on the war in Iraq. The Pentagon has a yearly "budget" (a term I use loosely) of 700 billion dollars a year, much of it going to defense contracts we are not privy to.....and something is very, very wrong here.
Then I learned that the Vatican has released some sort of 'official decree' that the Ecumenical movement had been WRONG over 40 years ago (that's right... the one Pope who should have been made a 'saint' and wasn't- John Paul I) really goofed up!- and the supremacy of Roman Catholic superiority over other forms of Christianity must be 'reinstated'. According to the news story, the pope is quoted as saying "the Protestants (in particular) are 'wounded Christians'. They do not believe in the transubstantiation of the eucharist, nor do they recognize the Pope as head of- (drumroll here, and one I haven't heard since the early 60's) "the ONE, TRUE CHURCH!" God Almighty...I almost flipped when I heard that.
Pope Benedict Arnold, in his rush to re-antiquate the faithful, has knocked me flatter than this heatwave. That's the kind of glorious ass-holish-ness you hear when you make yourself available to that junk.
Can I do anything about the damn 'hawk budget'? No way, Jose'. We're hellbent-for-leather to take over the world with our TRANSFORMER, GIANT, SUPER-DUPER NEW KILLING STUFF- but I want the movie rights when it comes down to the blockbuster "Pentagon vs Papacy"....in 3D! In fact, let's just think of those galdanged Protestant troublemakers as some breed of insurgent churches- yah....that'd fit the lingo- (and what ABOUT 'limbo'?? Is that coming back as well??? And where were all those poor, unbaptized babies while it was on hiatus?) Oh, this oughta be a flick worth watching- and between the two of them, the Holy See and the 'F*ck Everyone I Wanna Blow Something Up's'- the biggest bankroll ever! Getcher popcorn now, kiddies. There's nothing left to do but stick around, and mop the floor afterward.
You know, for me.....there's only one way out of the kind of funk that sort of news puts me in, and that's through humor. I made a Mad Pictures 11! Feeling better now.
July 11, 2007~ 7:00pm
MELBOURNE, Australia, reported today....
A Catholic school in Melbourne refused to enroll a young man for class because of his last name
...."Hell"
can you BELIEVE these bozos?? (Of course after the parents took the story to the media, the good church began singing a different tune.) But their ridiculous 'Middle Ages' fear of a simple name-- whose meaning, in their Austrian heritage, is "bright"-- is mind-boggling!
Or NOT-- if you read yesterday's offerings up above here-- in fact, I'm surprised their pastor wasn't commended, and given a big old Miraculous MEDAL to hang around his 'refuse to stretch it out' scrawny neck! And it doesn't count that after the media frenzy, the school graciously offered to allow the boy to enroll under his mother's maiden name....
No dice, the family countered.
What were they thinking? What HORRORS were they imagining might appear if they did happen to enroll a boy whose last name is 'Hell' in their school? Well I'd suppose it looks more or less like this-
There'd be mayhem and sin, a'spillin' down the halls for sure! Maybe a couple of gals would find themselves preggers!- and ever'body would be wearin' tight clothes and a-lis'nin to rauchy music, shootin' up Her-a-ine, and drivin' fast cars!!!
Oh Lord... why doesn't the Pope just become Baptist?
July 12, 2007~ 8:30pm
I would like to think that in some 'alternate universe', I look exactly like this-
Kind of 'loopy'....hard to describe....how delightful is that? LOL....I love it! In fact, I've always loved glass, and blown glass is the BEST!-- THE MOST MYSTERIOUS, the most pliant, surprising, witty and imaginative. See my 'cootie-type', curling sucker thing, like an insect snuffling up flower nectar? It's indescribable, but so pretty you can't stop looking at it. For more of this magnificent blown glass art, have a gander at the master- Stephen Rolfe Powell. The man's work just takes my breath away. I feel covetous when I look at this stuff. I want ROOMS of it......
I just came back from my weekly visit to the grandkids. Took Subway sandwiches. Apparently, Bill didn't know I was coming, and he TORE through the yard, grinning and whooping, "Gram! I didn't even know you were COMING over today!" And we discussed the fabulous weather, and the impeccable sky, sunny and stunning on one side, the other, dark as Durer. "Yes!"- he said, arms spread out to the sides, very theatrically, "it's LIKE...IT'S LIKE....BRIGHT....JESUS!" (Always with the religious similes....lol...he's so danged cute!) Made me laugh. Laughter, and frivolous glass....what a day.
***
(Return To Weekly Archives)
Tonight we watched the 2007 Academy Award winning best picture, "The Departed", and I must say it was richly deserved. There is not a thing about that film I would have done differently. Brilliant casting, brilliant directing and editing, and blockbuster acting that knocked my socks off in each role.
Jack Nicholson becomes more odious, more snarly-creepy with time- but this role called for it. He plays kingpin Irish mobster, Frank Costello, with glee and absolute assurance. (Oh, and I found out that Costello is an Irish name. I'd always thought it was Italian because of the vowel on the end...lol. Apparently, it's a Norman-Irish name from the Gaelic for 'Coisdeala', anglicanized to be spelled more or less the way it would sound.)
Somehow, Nicholson playing a 70 year old still lost in his own myth of omnipotence- womanizing- and general debauchery was unsettling to watch, but it was Nicholson in his own element for sure- (and probably very close to life, at that. LOL!) Sickening? Oh, you better believe it-- but perfect here. I have to include what Christopher Orr, columnist for The New Republic had to say in his review of Nicholson in the film. I got a real kick out of it- "Nicholson's overweening self-image flattens everything in its path...Never you worry, though: While we may be spared the sight of Nicholson's nakedness, his cinematic alter ego still inflicts upon us the knowledge that "it's always been so easy for me to get c*nt that I've never understood jacking off in a theater." Thanks for sharing, Jack. I'm sure that there is something in this world more distasteful than listening to a 70-year-man boast about all the hot young tail he's getting; I'm just not sure what it might be." LOL!!! (no, he didn't like Nicholson in the role, and felt he 'ham-handed' things, damaging the tone. I don't agree. I think slime should be shown at its slimiest- and oh, he was-- but delightfully-- 'Jack'.)
Leonardo DiCaprio came on like a steam-roller, every time he was onscreen. He gets better and better, but the real surpriser to me was Mark Wahlberg- what a performance! - add to that the always capable Matt Damon and Alec Baldwin, it'd be hard to miss with the story they were given. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen, and several times I jumped, which is a sign a movie has really pulled me into it.
Of course, Martin Scorsese is as hard-edged realistic as one can get, directing-- and this film has the Scorsese hallmark all over it. He's a genius. I remember listening to Mark Wahlberg talking to Terry Gross on NPR about a year ago and she asked him if Scorsese was a director who did a LOT of rehearsal, because his films are so perfect when completed.. "No," said Wahlberg. "We prepare totally, know our characters and the story and our dialogue so intimately, that he usually just does one take." That astounded me. And I think that nervous energy shows, that 'first run reality' of it. It makes the body of his work stand out from the others- it's a style that's very recognizable, and Wahlberg's defining of how that's accomplished did much to explain its edginess.
I don't think any Scorsese film will ever top "Gangs of New York" - it's my all time favorite of his, but with a guy like that it's pretty much "take your pick"- they're all incredible. He never disappoints, is always exciting- always intimate- throws hard, hard punches, and the audience knows they've been roughed up a bit by the end, but I suspect that's just what the directer intended.
July 9, 2007~ 5:15pm
I had a busy Monday. Hotter'n blazes here today- and oddly, relatively cool in this house, thanks to letting the window AC run all day in the bedroom with a little fan angled out of the door to push the cool air out and allow it to drop down here. Add to that, insulated curtain pulled tightly shut, a BIG-ASSED, ol' double-decker fan blowing that same air through and into the dining room where I sit in my corner, just in its path, and type away.
This seems to be a pretty good system for me. At night, the kitchen window- with its ever-present, double fan- gets turned on when the evening begins to cool. Off again in the morning-- curtains pulled closed. In long heat spells it doesn't do the job, but for the intermittent hot day or two, it works fine.
I see my saddle plug in the drain pipe in the basement is leaking......lol. Always damn something in this rattletrap of a house. When I washed out a cup from this mornig when I got in, I heard splashing downstairs.
There's nothing it can ruin- it's a bare cement floor that's sloped to the drain in the floor, but I ran down, thinking it was the HOT WATER HEATER giving way. Whew! That thing is still holding, thank God. It's just the same problem I've had for all the years I've lived here- the rubber must be drying out on the plug and not sealing the way it was. I have a black line (two, actually) 'lines' of grievous-looking tarry stuff that comes out of the drain pipe to the upper floors, that snake across the concrete. It's like something out of the Amityville Horror. Even the curious cats did not want to go down there with me today- (or rather, Beethoven did, then ran right back up. Probably thinking, "Dumbass. Never can keep things fixed.")
Well--- HE IS! THAT one stuck! LOL!!!
July 10, 2007~ 6:30pm
OK.......here is why I have no television, and do not listen to news: today after work, I climbed into my car at 3:00 and the NPR newsbreak was on, and here's what I learned: we spend 12 BILLION dollars a MONTH on the war in Iraq. The Pentagon has a yearly "budget" (a term I use loosely) of 700 billion dollars a year, much of it going to defense contracts we are not privy to.....and something is very, very wrong here.
Then I learned that the Vatican has released some sort of 'official decree' that the Ecumenical movement had been WRONG over 40 years ago (that's right... the one Pope who should have been made a 'saint' and wasn't- John Paul I) really goofed up!- and the supremacy of Roman Catholic superiority over other forms of Christianity must be 'reinstated'. According to the news story, the pope is quoted as saying "the Protestants (in particular) are 'wounded Christians'. They do not believe in the transubstantiation of the eucharist, nor do they recognize the Pope as head of- (drumroll here, and one I haven't heard since the early 60's) "the ONE, TRUE CHURCH!" God Almighty...I almost flipped when I heard that.
Pope Benedict Arnold, in his rush to re-antiquate the faithful, has knocked me flatter than this heatwave. That's the kind of glorious ass-holish-ness you hear when you make yourself available to that junk.
Can I do anything about the damn 'hawk budget'? No way, Jose'. We're hellbent-for-leather to take over the world with our TRANSFORMER, GIANT, SUPER-DUPER NEW KILLING STUFF- but I want the movie rights when it comes down to the blockbuster "Pentagon vs Papacy"....in 3D! In fact, let's just think of those galdanged Protestant troublemakers as some breed of insurgent churches- yah....that'd fit the lingo- (and what ABOUT 'limbo'?? Is that coming back as well??? And where were all those poor, unbaptized babies while it was on hiatus?) Oh, this oughta be a flick worth watching- and between the two of them, the Holy See and the 'F*ck Everyone I Wanna Blow Something Up's'- the biggest bankroll ever! Getcher popcorn now, kiddies. There's nothing left to do but stick around, and mop the floor afterward.
You know, for me.....there's only one way out of the kind of funk that sort of news puts me in, and that's through humor. I made a Mad Pictures 11! Feeling better now.
July 11, 2007~ 7:00pm
MELBOURNE, Australia, reported today....
A Catholic school in Melbourne refused to enroll a young man for class because of his last name
...."Hell"
can you BELIEVE these bozos?? (Of course after the parents took the story to the media, the good church began singing a different tune.) But their ridiculous 'Middle Ages' fear of a simple name-- whose meaning, in their Austrian heritage, is "bright"-- is mind-boggling!
Or NOT-- if you read yesterday's offerings up above here-- in fact, I'm surprised their pastor wasn't commended, and given a big old Miraculous MEDAL to hang around his 'refuse to stretch it out' scrawny neck! And it doesn't count that after the media frenzy, the school graciously offered to allow the boy to enroll under his mother's maiden name....
No dice, the family countered.
What were they thinking? What HORRORS were they imagining might appear if they did happen to enroll a boy whose last name is 'Hell' in their school? Well I'd suppose it looks more or less like this-
There'd be mayhem and sin, a'spillin' down the halls for sure! Maybe a couple of gals would find themselves preggers!- and ever'body would be wearin' tight clothes and a-lis'nin to rauchy music, shootin' up Her-a-ine, and drivin' fast cars!!!
Oh Lord... why doesn't the Pope just become Baptist?
July 12, 2007~ 8:30pm
I would like to think that in some 'alternate universe', I look exactly like this-
Kind of 'loopy'....hard to describe....how delightful is that? LOL....I love it! In fact, I've always loved glass, and blown glass is the BEST!-- THE MOST MYSTERIOUS, the most pliant, surprising, witty and imaginative. See my 'cootie-type', curling sucker thing, like an insect snuffling up flower nectar? It's indescribable, but so pretty you can't stop looking at it. For more of this magnificent blown glass art, have a gander at the master- Stephen Rolfe Powell. The man's work just takes my breath away. I feel covetous when I look at this stuff. I want ROOMS of it......
I just came back from my weekly visit to the grandkids. Took Subway sandwiches. Apparently, Bill didn't know I was coming, and he TORE through the yard, grinning and whooping, "Gram! I didn't even know you were COMING over today!" And we discussed the fabulous weather, and the impeccable sky, sunny and stunning on one side, the other, dark as Durer. "Yes!"- he said, arms spread out to the sides, very theatrically, "it's LIKE...IT'S LIKE....BRIGHT....JESUS!" (Always with the religious similes....lol...he's so danged cute!) Made me laugh. Laughter, and frivolous glass....what a day.
(Return To Weekly Archives)
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