Facebook, a SoCal revival-theatre employee, and me.

Apologizing in advance for any complaints about perceived "bad manners" of mine.

Saturday night, I attended part of a Montgomery Clift double bill of THE MISFITS/WILD RIVER (have seen both before) at the American Cinematheque's Aero Theatre in Santa Monica.

The young male Cinematheque employee (who will go unnamed here) gave an introduction to the films which began with out-loud musings about how the audience was bigger than expected (from my estimate, about 40% full, surprising for an evening of its Clift mini-fest).  It didn't improve from there, with the employee discussing the upcoming slate of movies in what seemed to me to be an "I-don't-care" fashion.  And, when in the lobby, I happened to notice the employee was sporadically playing chess behind the snack-and-soda counter with another young male employee.

So, I made the impulsive decision to complain about this on Facebook--specifically on the Aero Theatre page.

And I received this response from the introduction-giving employee, which mixed a reasonable reply with a passage (highlighted by me) I took offense to:
I'm sorry you were unhappy with my intro. I've been working at the Aero for five years and I finally decided to try giving the intro - it looks like you mistook my stage fright for apathy.
We are always happy to hear from our customers at the counter and if you feel like you need to speak to a manager you can address complaints directly to [name deleted by me], the theater manager, or [name deleted], the director of the American Cinematheque.
By making your complaint public, you not only embarrass me personally (which I can get over), but you also make the whole institution look bad (which is harder to rectify).
If you think that we should only have employees who are already comfortable on stage give the introductions I encourage you to suggest that to one of our managers, but I would like to ask you personally if you would consider sending your message privately and take down the public comment.
I hope that other than my less-than-stellar introduction, your time at the Aero was enjoyable.

I wrote back to the young man as follows:

I will not take the comment down. If you do further intros, take a moment to get focused and have some knowledge about the films you're promoting. And remember that it makes the institution look bad when you're talking openly to the audience about how many audience members are in attendance.

Since the Aero Theatre Facebook page isn't intended as the comments section of Yelp.com, I knew that my public incorrectness would be removed by him or someone else involved with the page.  And it was.

My final words to the young man were these:
"....if you had only stayed with your clarification and not hectored me about taking down the comments, I would very likely have done so voluntarily. So, in the end, we both have to take responsibility for this matter leaving a bitter aftertaste."

In closing, I like the American Cinematheque overall.  I've attended since the 90s across various venues including the DGA Theatres on Sunset Boulevard and the Melrose Studios screening room, plus the permanent sites of the Egyptian and Aero.  And I'm hoping that examining this molehill (which isn't really one, since it's part of the quality of revival-house presentation) of an incident here won't preclude me (plus my wife and mutual friends of ours) from attending future film programs.

I just hope that the employees--regardless of stage-fright--will express some genuine enthusiasm about the theatre's film choices to audiences, regardless of whether the number of patrons are twenty or 200. 

 

RIP Roger Ebert.

"When critics like Roger Ebert or Janet Maslin talk about film, they
demonstrate a deep knowledge of and respect for their subject, a
respect for filmmakers regardless of the specific blunders made on a
particular film, and a genuine unwavering joy at the magic of cinema.
Even when they don't like something of mine, I respect the source.
They make me want to try harder."--James Cameron in 1998, in the midst
of his rebuttal to Kenneth Turan's negative review of TITANIC.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/roger-eberts-candidness-cancer-role-model-patients/story?id=18872647#.UV3wpknn_mQ

Video blog entry: A FEW WORDS ABOUT JOHN DENVER.

Here's about eleven minutes' worth of stream-of-consciousness talk about the late pop/folk/country singer/songwriter John Denver and a new tribute album titled THE MUSIC IS YOU.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBHHhTRd6NU

Keeping Them Honest: Poetry Listserve Division.

Cobalt Listers,

The Cobalt Poets lists exists primarily for the promotion of the
Cobalt Cafe Poetry Reading.

I've left it un-moderated to allow folks to feel free to promote
other projects, converse with each other and be mildly annoying, as
we all tend to be on e-mail lists, in our attempts to be humorous,
intelligent or clever. This has strayed, far too often, from far too
many people into the arena of pain causing personal attacks, slander,
insults, unpleasantly :'discussion', and generally an
atmosphere of embarrassment for me at being the host of such a thing
which has served more to damage community than foster it.

Any future posts here which, at my sole discretion, even hint at this
kind of unpleasantness again will cause the poster to me immediately
removed from this list, no second chances, thanks bye.

Rick
--August 27, 2006


Subscribe or unsubscribe to the Cobalt Poets e-mail list. Also sort through the message archive or join in the un-moderated fun by posting anything you want about anything at any time for any reason.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention Terry. That [subscribe or unsubscribe....] was written when the Cobalt Poets email list was created, when, as a naive poetry host I thought having an unmoderated list was possible and before, as you know, so many people, yourself included, used it as a bully pulpit. I'll be editing the description to remove the 'anything goes' implication of the text. More good work sir!

It's a tiny thing as poetry community matters/manners go, but the Cobalt listserve description seen after the reprint of the 8/27/06 message hasn't been changed to reflect the list proprietor's "evolved" viewpoints on acceptable speech/conduct/posting, as promised.  So it appears as if I was subjected to either an untruth or withering "you lesser being" sarcasm.http://poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/links.html

UPDATE: The proprietor, via Facebook, addressed this issue.  Here's a portion of his response:

 Regardless of the inaccurate leftover original descriptions on the website, there has been a consistent moderation on the list which has applied to everyone equally specifically designed to avoid the kind of harm that was caused previously and refocus the list on its intended purpose to support and provide information about the Cobalt reading.

Jim Carrey, gun control and Left/Right patronizing of each other.

http://t.entertainment.msn.com/jim-carrey-criticized-by-conservative-media-for-mocking-charlton-heston-gun-owners

For five minutes and fifty-six seconds, the FUNNY OR DIE site (full disclosure: I posted a video there awhile back) gives Jim Carrey a chance to mix outspoken beliefs with a few reminders of the "James Carrey of IN LIVING COLOR" period of two decades previous.

I don't argue with Carrey's pro-gun control stance (and the video's display of prominent gun violence victims as backup band members is one of its more subtle touches).  But I don't think the kind of smirking at Charlton Heston (more of the post-90s determined revisionism stating Heston's NRA presidency wiped away a generally distinguished acting career) and the long-departed "country-and-western LAUGH-IN" series HEE HAW can be said to accomplish anything substantive.  All it proves is that certain people considering themselves liberal/progressive like to mock gun-owning social conservatives for alleged stupidity and liking the "wrong" things; conversely, the folks on the Right get to feel persecuted and defensive (with their hurt/paranoia massaged and exploited by Fox News and prominent talk-radio hosts)--and condescended to in a major way, prompting them to look down on the Left with renewed vigor.

Even a "moderate" Democrat like Bill Clinton (still adored by liberals/progressives, sometimes mystifyingly so) has mentioned that liberals/progressives need to stop sneering at conservatives regarding gun control/gun ownership/ammunition issues if progress is to be achieved.

Here's the exact quote from Clinton: “Do not patronize the passionate supporters of your opponents by looking down your nose at them,” Clinton said.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/bill-clinton-to-democrats-dont-trivialize-gun-culture-86443.html#ixzz2OiWz8sM3

When 60 MINUTES' Lesley Stahl met Pussy Riot.

Judging from the 60 MINUTES coverage of Russian punk protest band Pussy Riot,  the women are merely brave-but-blasphemous, profanity-spewing vandals getting a heavier-than-deserved punishment for their behavior.

Here's a commenter from the JEZEBEL website:
The reporter was such a condescending asshole. Here you have these WOMEN (not girls) risking their lives and freedom to make a political statement and she treats them like angsty teens.

Lesley Stahl's aghast, where-are-my-smelling-salts utterance of the word "pussy" spoke contemptuous volumes.

Even Lara Logan or Anderson Cooper or Scott Pelley (plus producers/writers/researchers) would have tuned in a more insightful segment.

Glenn Greenwald on nonconformist political commentary.

Reprinting the opening paragraphs of Glenn Greenwald's article on how the mainstream media keeps Noam Chomsky away from the Cool Pundits table in the cafeteria of acceptable consensus ideas.  And the words/phrases "poets", "poetry community", "writers" and "literary community" could be plugged into these paragraphs (along with names of writers and artists with works and ideas not considered Mainstream)--and Greenwald's comments make sense in another context.
The entirety of Greenwald's column can be found at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/23/noam-chomsky-guardian-personality

One very common tactic for enforcing political orthodoxies is to malign the character, "style" and even mental health of those who challenge them. The most extreme version of this was an old Soviet favorite: to declare political dissidents mentally ill and put them in hospitals. In the US, those who take even the tiniest steps outside of political convention are instantly decreed "crazy", as happened to the 2002 anti-war version of Howard Dean and the current iteration of Ron Paul (in most cases, what is actually "crazy" are the political orthodoxies this tactic seeks to shield from challenge).
This method is applied with particular aggression to those who engage in any meaningful dissent against the society's most powerful factions and their institutions. Nixon White House officials sought to steal the files from Daniel Ellsberg's psychoanalyst's office precisely because they knew they could best discredit his disclosures with irrelevant attacks on his psyche. Identically, the New York Times and partisan Obama supporters have led the way in depicting both Bradley Manning and Julian Assange as mentally unstable outcasts with serious personality deficiencies. The lesson is clear: only someone plagued by mental afflictions would take such extreme steps to subvert the power of the US government.
A subtler version of this technique is to attack the so-called "style" of the critic as a means of impugning, really avoiding, the substance of the critique. Although Paul Krugman is comfortably within mainstream political thought as a loyal Democrat and a New York Times columnist, his relentless attack against the austerity mindset is threatening to many. As a result, he is barraged with endless, substance-free complaints about his "tone": he is too abrasive, he does not treat opponents with respect, he demonizes those who disagree with him, etc. The complaints are usually devoid of specifics to prevent meaningful refutation; one typical example: "[Krugman] often cloaks his claims in professional authority, overstates them, omits arguments that undermine his case, and is a bit of a bully." All of that enables the substance of the critique to be avoided in lieu of alleged personality flaws.

Commenter on DATELINE.com re Jay Leno.

It's another deja vu moment as Jay Leno is being persuaded to step away from THE TONIGHT SHOW to make room for a younger successor.  My prediction is that NBCUniversal will make another attempt to pacify Jay--maybe by offering him a late-night JAY LENO SHOW on the USA cable network.

Turning the floor over to commenter "ed" who said this on the Deadline.com site:
Leno knows his time is almost up, and he doesn’t care what he says about NBC at this point. And I’ve come to understand that the feeling is mutual from the new NBC brass. I once read a statement from Comcast CEO Brian Roberts that had he been running the show in January 2010, he would have paid Leno off and let Conan keep hosting the Tonight Show. Now they’ve got to deal with either putting Jimmy Fallon on at 11:30, which really, he’s still somewhat green to the whole thing. Or they’ll have to take a big risk and find someone completely fresh; new blood entirely. Conan at least was well tested for a good sixteen years as a late night host, and they could have avoided that entire mess (which in my opinion, completely tainted the legacy of the Tonight Show).
And say what you want on who you think sucks, or who’s really funny (it’s all a matter of opinion), but Leno has only himself to blame. Had he gone quietly into the night in 2009, like he was supposed to; now he’s going to be making a big stink about NBC firing him yet again. The guy can’t take a hint… The Tonight Show is NOT HIS SHOW. He had no problem forcing Johnny Carson into an early retirement or stealing it from Letterman, then pissing on Conan’s parade. He deserves to get his ass kicked to the curb. And when he does, he sure as hell better not have some big goodbye finale when the time comes. He already had that once. No one feels sorry for you Jay.
I encourage everyone to read Bill Carter’s books ‘The Late Shift’ and ‘The War for Late Night.’ Form your own opinions, but Leno is an absolute assbag of a human being. Why wouldn’t Johnny Carson ever do The Tonight Show after he took over? He certainly had no problem appearing on Letterman and writing the occasional jokes for him. Get the hint Jay, even Carson thought you were a douche-bag. Howard Stern is completely right about him, he’s egomaniacal and has absolutely no morals or consideration for his peers. At least the sharks and backstabbers in Hollywood are honest about what they do. Leno blames everyone else, and acts all Bart Simpson all the time… “I didn’t do it.”