1. The Rule of Law Means Nothing to Me
2. Manhattan Doesn’t Love Me Anymore
3. If There’s A Hell Below (Curtis Mayfield cover)
4. 34, Count Them, 34
5. The Final Countdown (Europe cover)
6. Todd Blanche Not My Roy Cohn
7. I Secretly Respect Alvin Bragg
8. Keeping the Faithful in Line
9. Prison Bound (Social Distortion cover)
recalling the 70s “cuddly wiseacre”
who presented as a progressive Democrat
came back from substance abuse in the 80s
had an impressive run of films for awhile
careers don’t stay at the peak forever
then the movies got smaller
a TV series was short-lived
and the “cuddly wiseacre” began to curdle
engaging in transphobia and other hate rants
climaxing with chasing New Englanders
away from a screening of the classic JAWS
but enough people applauded and stayed
to ensure more performative reputational destruction
at public venues for the foreseeable future
First headline:
fell and couldn’t get up
crawled past the bewildered cats
finally found the cellphone, dialed 911
kept on hold, then gave information
>
somehow opened the patio door
slow crawl to the garage
somehow opened the electric door
then reverse crawl from patio to den
>
a few minutes later, paramedics arrive
one of them says, mute the Dodger game on TV
another sees the books by my chair and asks
do you ever go outside?
I say yes, when the medicines and groceries run out
>
vitals checked, prescriptions recorded
lifted to my feet, not without further knee pain
decline a ride to the emergency room
>
by myself again
should buy a cane and a walker
though I dread reduced mobility
>
bruises, but no breaks or fractures
time to turn off the mute button
Joshua Logan’s adaptation of the William Inge play PICNIC will screen in early April at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theater (Netflix/American Cinematheque) with two people I like doing a Q and A afterwards.
But I can’t bring myself to see it again; once, two decades ago, at the pre-Tarantino Vista Theater was more than enough.
Overaged, miscast William Holden and the excruciating scene where Rosalind Russell loudly begs MARRY ME MARRY ME MARRY ME to Arthur O’Connell resonate in my memories like tornado warning sirens.
Mitigating factors are Kim Novak and young Susan Strasberg, plus the Kansas color cinematography of James Wong Howe.
But it doesn’t work for me as a definitive portrait of breaking away from small town narrowness.
What I saw of the Katie Britt SOTU rebuttal (couldn’t bring myself to endure the whole thing) reminded me of fundraising appeals that either come from televangelists or hucksters preying on seniors who watch MeTV, Buzzr, etc.
Obviously, it was intended as a soft-sell version of Trump’s standard apocalyptic Hulk Smash bigotry and Bidenphobia. But it seemed like an audition video for a local TV news anchor position—heavy on smiling while reading copy off the teleprompter. With the occasional look this is serious face.
Quote below is from an article by Rebecca Davis O’Brien titled WHY THE AGE ISSUE IS HURTING BIDEN SO MUCH MORE THAN TRUMP.
“It is the perception of how you communicate,” said Carol Kinsey Goman, a speaker and coach on leadership presence. “When Trump makes those kinds of faux pas, he just brushes it off, and people don’t say, ‘Oh, he’s aging.’ He makes at least as many mistakes as Joe Biden, but because he does it with this bravado, it doesn’t seem like senility. It seems like passion.”
