Fall Books

Word of the day : servile : befitting or behaving like a slave

Well, the family is getting ready for a four-day weekend.  Might be a rainy one, but we should be able to get Gabriel over to the pool one day and to Savannah on another. 

New movies opening this weekend, the last of August: 

Lawless    From the writing-directing team behind 2006's striking Australian western The Proposition (director John Hillcoat, writer Nick Cave) comes this gangster tale about the real-life Bondurant brothers (Shia LaBeouf, Jason Clarke, and Tom Hardy), bootlegging brothers in Prohibition-era West Virginia.  Jessica Chastain, Gary Oldman, Guy Pearce, and Mia Wasikowska co-star.  The critics are split on this one; no one loves it, no one hates it. 
Verdict: Not Interested

The Tall Man    Jessica Biel stars in this horror story set in the Pacific northwest as a young widow who moves with her young son to a mining town.  Turns out kids have gone missing in the area for a while now - their disappearances reportedly at the hands of a mysterious legend known as the "tall man."  Supposed to contain lots of twists.  Could be decent B-movie junk.
Verdict: Mildly Interested  

The Possession    Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick star in this supernatural horror film as a divorced couple whose young daughter purchase an old wooden box at a yard sale.  Turns out the box contains a dybbuk, a spirit that seeks to devour its human host.  Not good reviews, but could be some gross fun.  A Jewish horror film!  Roger Ebert loves it.
Verdict: Mildly Interested 

The Good Doctor    Orlando Bloom is said to give a compelling, creepy performance as a enthusiastic, ambitious young doctor out to impress his colleagues.  He falls for an 18-year old patient suffering a kidney infection, then does everything in his power to tamper with her treatments, so that she will be forced to stay longer in the hospital.  A dark, creepy black comedy getting good reviews, it co-stars Taraji P.Henson, Rob Morrow, J.K. Simmons, and Michael Pena. 
Verdict: Mildly Interested 

*

A little something different for the readers today.  Let's take a quick glance at some of the upcoming Fall 2012 books that I think will be worth reading: 

Breed, by Chase Novak (a.k.a. Scott Spencer - Endless Love, A Ship Made of Paper) 

A wealthy New York couple undergoes horrific changes after they undergo fertility treatments and other, more dangerous, operations to have children.  Stephen King calls it the best horror novel in decades.

 
Winter of the World by Ken Follett

Follett's second book in his century trilogy.  2010's Fall of Giants was pretty spectacular - melodramatic and absorbing, long and involving.  I would expect more of the same here. 

Live by Night by Dennis Lehane

Like he did in 2008's The Given Day, Lehane goes back in time again - this time we're in Prohibition-era Boston.  This book moves from Tampa to Cuba and back up north as a the son of a Boston police captain takes a different path in life, rising through the ranks of organized crime. 

 
There Was a Country by Chinua Achebe

Achebe's Things Fall Apart is required high school reading in a lot of schools and it's worth it - it's a great book.  Here is his long-awaited memoir and might be essential reading for anyone interested in the bloody birth of Nigeria and the Biafran Civil War.

Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan

One of Britain's greatest writers gives the spy genre a try.  A beautiful, book-loving Cambridge student, Serena, is recruited in 1972 by MI5 to infiltrate a literary circle and get close to an upcoming novelist.  Sounds great.

Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe 

Always interesting to see what Wolfe is up to.  In this novel of our times, Wolfe takes on the city of Dexter and Lebron James... er, Miami.  Racism, sex addiction, corrupt cops, psychiatry, immigrants, young billionaires, sex, modern art (the Basel Fair), regattas, Adult Only condos. 

Dear Life by Alice Munro 

Munro is arguably the best short story writer alive and is always worth reading. 

The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen

Hooray!  The follow-up to the electrifying The Keeper of Lost Causes, this one has Carl Morck back working cold cases.  He's intrigued by one: the murder of a brother and sister, in a which one of the suspects confessed and was convicted.  Turns out that the case isn't dead. 

Last to Die by Tess Gerritsen. 

A Rizzoli and Isles mystery, always a good thing, about strange goings-on at Maine boarding school.  Seems as if a predator might be tracking the students at the school one by one. 

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton. 

I have to catch up on my Morton in preparation for this upcoming novel about an actress living in London who is still haunted by a crime she witnessed fifty years ago on her family's farm. 


Also, there will be new novels by Michael Connelly, Zadie Smith, and Nelson Demille. 














Images: 

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http://avidmysteryreader.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/live-by-night-dennis-lehane.jpg

http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1337193845l/13588385.jpg

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http://0.tqn.com/d/bestsellers/1/0/j/G/-/-/dear_life.JPG

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http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1344618778l/13272498.jpg

http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1345228600l/13508607.jpg

Humid... HUMID!

Word of the day : aliment
                                          : food, nutriment
                                          : sustenance

Yesterday marked the date of Titian's death.  As a belated gift, here is Titian's masterwork The Worship of Venus:

The Worship of Venus
1518-20
oil on canvas
Museo del Prado

In the painting we witness a Roman ceremony of worship; the people are honoring the goddess Venus.  In such a ceremony the women would clean themselves and makes themselves blemish-less for the goddess.  The ground is littered with male infants - putti.   The work was one of several Titian pieces that was commissioned by Alfonso d'Este, the Duke of Ferrara.

*

I always try to discover who was born today - artists, etc. that you and I might not know too much about.  Today is the birthday of the Irish supernatural writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, whom I've never read.  Le Fanu (1814-1873) isn't taught or even read very much anymore, and almost none of his works are anything you would recognize.  He was an Irish writer who studied law at Dublin's Trinity College.  He never practiced, though, switching careers to become a journalist.  He wrote short stories and, after the death of his wife in 1858, entered his most productive years as a novelist.  His most famous novel is Uncle Silas (1864), about an orphaned teenage heiress fearing for her life at the hands of her dastardly uncle.  It is his novella Carmilla (1872) that he will most likely be remembered for, if for no other fact that it pre-dated and highly influenced Bram Stoker's Dracula.  LeFanu's tale is about a young woman under the charms of a female vampire.

*

Today's entry in the 500 Greatest Performances of All Time:

How about a two-fer:

Henry Fonda     
as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

Perfect casting.  Fonda brings his quiet, innate dignity to the part of literature's most famous Okie - the tower of strength that is Tom Joad.  It might be the definitive Fonda performance - cut-and-dry, plainspoken, oozing a responsible, churning power.  This is one of those black-and-white adaptations of a Great Novel you might have had to watch in high school - and enjoyed. 

Holly Hunter
as Ada McGrath in The Piano (1993) 

A wondrous performance, full of rapture and expression, though of course Hunter doesn't speak once.  As a mute mother who's forced to move to New Zealand with her daughter (Anna Paquin in her Oscar-winning, fetching turn), Hunter is truly beguiling.  It's lyrical work, entirely dependent on facial expressions and contemplation - acting at its most elemental.  The film was probably overrated, but the acting sure isn't - though, upon reflection, casting Harvey Keitel as a Maori was a stretch. 

* 

Today's Football List: 

Best Tight Ends of My Lifetime: 

1) Tony Gonzalez
2) Shannon Sharpe
3) Jimmy Graham  (is this premature?  I don't think so)
4) Rob Gronkowski (same with this - these guys are revolutionizing the position)
5) Antonio Gates
6) Ben Coates
7) Jason Witten
8) Brent Jones
9) Jeremy Shockey
10) Todd Heap
11) Jay Novacek
12) Keith Jackson
13) Mark Bavaro
14) Aaron Hernandez
15) Wesley Walls







Images:

http://uploads2.wikipaintings.org/images/titian/the-worship-of-venus-1518.jpg

http://acertaincinema.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/fonda-wrath_opt.jpg

http://blogs.dailyprincetonian.com/intersections/files/2011/11/pianohats.jpg

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2009/0716/nfl_g_gonzalez_600.jpg

http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1333158947l/13569434.jpg




Information:

http://www.antiquesartgallery.com/titian-list-of-works/the-worship-of-venus/

http://www.online-literature.com/lefanu/

Bernie

Word of the day : sedulous : involving or accomplished with careful perseverance
                                             :  diligent in application or pursuit

I'm lovin' the Fantasy Football season.  As of this writing, I have seven teams!  AHHHH! 

Movie Review

If you want to see one of the best films of the year, check out Bernie.  Why?  Here are five reasons: 

1) It's based on a wild true story.  In 1996, Bernie Tiede, a funeral director and all-around beloved community man in Carthage, Texas - in the eastern part of the state - shot and killed the elderly woman, Marjorie Nugent (played in the film by Shirley MacLaine), he had been working for.  Tiede had met her at her late husband's funeral, and Tiede slowly and surely weaved his way into the life of the wealthy Nugent, a mean old rich woman largely despised by Carthage.  Before long, Tiede and Nugent were arm-and-arm all over town, traveling the world together, with Tiede having unlimited access to her money.  Eventually, the increasingly henpecked Tiede decided to do away from her.  He stored her body in the garage freezer, where it wasn't discovered for nine months.

2) The filmmaker. 

Richard Linklater is the writer-director here.  He's one of America's best filmmakers, a national treasure, responsible for some of my favorite films of the last twenty years: Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise/Before Sunset, School of Rock, Fast Food Nation.  His style is easy and freewheeling, adventurous without being pretentious.  He captures period and locality beautifully and he can juggle tones - hilarity and heartbreak, melancholy and silliness - masterfully.

3) The supporting cast.

Throughout the entire film, local townspeople comment on the action, in documentary, talking-head fashion - they provide humorous anecdotes and local color. At first, I thought these were real people who lived through the events of the film.  I thought, wow, kudos to the casting director.  Turns out, they're just actors - which is even more remarkable, considering how authentic they are.   

4) You can't pinpoint this movie.

The film works as a character piece, a study in criminal behavior, a courtroom drama (with a sly, winning Matthew McConaughey as the DA out to seal Bernie's fate), and a To Die For/Fargo-esque black comedy; To Die For, Gus Van Sant's wonderful 1995 satire with Nicole Kidman as a weathergirl who knocks off her husband, really is the frame of reference here.  It's short, too, without wasted scenes.  It's a slight movie that doesn't feel slight - the filmmakers never treat the various serious, very sad subject matter with jokiness or lack of gravity.  

5) An Oscar-worthy turn. 

I'm not sure I'll see a better performance by an actor this year than the one by Jack Black as Bernie.  Black is walking on a tightrope here - a little too much caricature to the right or left and over he goes.  He succeeds brilliantly.  Almost impossibly, Black fools and woos us the same way Bernie did the townspeople of Carthage.  Constantly, we're reminded how nice and earnest and polite and good-hearted Bernie was - Black seems to have born with these qualities, and we can't help but like him despite us being a little on edge.  Is he gay?  We're not sure - Black suggests it, without overplaying it.  Is he acting?  Black certainly suggests slipperiness.  And the other attributes of Bernie - rage, confusion, deviousness, mania - well, Black plays these too.  The actor gets ample chances to show off his rich voice - Bernie often leads the church choir - but I was really, deeply impressed by the number of levels on which this performance worked, a detailed, virtuous characterization of a man whose motives may never be clear.        
(****)

* 

The next entry in my 500 Greatest Performances of All Time is...

Jessica Tandy 
as Daisy Werthan in Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

A well-deserved, late-life Best Actress Oscar for a beloved star of mostly stage went to Tandy for her indelible performance as the crotchety, set-in-her-ways Daisy, whose hardened resolves slowly begins to melt the longer she is friends with Morgan Freeman's Hoke.  Tandy is impeccable here, never hitting a false note.  She never softens the character, never lets you see ahead to any profound character change, but there's never a second of screen time when we don't recognize the universality of this type of woman and see the societal changes she's adjusting too on her face- and, of course, deep down, she's not all that bad or stubborn.  The relationship between her and Freeman is extraordinarily touching and subtle.   




Images: 

http://parabasis.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451ce4269e2016306b3b683970d-800wi

http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/sites/tcdailyplanet.net/files/imagecache/teaser/images/Jessica%2BTandy%2BDriving%2BMiss%2BDaisy.jpg

Thoys-day

Word of the day : dundrearies : long flowing sideburns 

For a moviegoer, these are the dregs of the season - comparable to mid-January, when the studios just dump out inferior product.  That said, there are two new movie this week that looks pretty good:

Premium Rush     I'm usually interested in the work of writer-director David Koepp (who wrote Jurassic Park, Carlito's Way, Death Becomes Her) and any movie that has Joseph Gordon Levitt and Michael Shannon raises my hackles.  I feel like I first saw the trailer for this movie a year ago: Levitt is a New York City bike messenger - a daredevil-ish profession - who finds out that someone is trying to kill him.  Not many critical reviews are in yet, but Roger Ebert likes it - he says it's fast and furious and technically impressive.
Verdict: Very Interested 

Hit and Run    Parenthood's Dax Shepard wrote, co-directed, and stars in this junky-looking road comedy, which also stars Shepard's wife, Kristen Bell.  The two play a couple who are forced to hit the road to LA, all the while being pursued by various types - from Tom Arnold to a dreadlocked Bradley Cooper.  Critics don't like it.
Verdict: Not Interested  

Robot & Frank    Uh, Frank Langella in a small comedy as an aging, retirement-age jewel thief who decides to start carrying out heists with his robot helper.  Um, yes please.  Co-starring James Marsden, Susan Sarandon, Liv Tyler, and the voice of Peter Sarsgaard.
Verdict: Very Interested

*

Julia and I watched Cocktail last night.  It's not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it was easy to see why women went gaga over an impossibly-young, pre-Scientology Tom Cruise.  Where have all the good bar movies gone?

*  

Another entry in my list of the 500 Greatest Performances of All Time:

Zach Galifinakis 
as Alan in The Hangover (2009)

In one of the freshest, most unique breakthrough performances in a comedy in a long time, Galifinakis steals the film as the infantile Alan, a character who needs to seen and heard to be believed.  Galifinakis' style is so individualized and bracing, that he can make an audience crack up just by the way he looks.  Spewing non sequitirs, making pseudo-poignant speeches ("four of us wolves, running around the desert..."), and gallivanting through the action with a glazed, knowing demeanor, the actor walks away from the movie - no mean feat, considering how funny everyone else is.

*

 Next up in Professional Photographer's list of the "100 Most Influential Photographers of All Time:"
Lord Snowdon 
(#58)

From 1962-1990, the British Snowdon worked for the Sunday Times.  Two years before that, he married Princess Margaret, whom he was married to for 18 years.  He was born into money but contracted polio at the age of 16.  His early career was dedicated to design, fashion, and theater, but during his tenure at the Times, he became a well-known portraitist, often shooting British royals.  He wasn't just a royal photographer, though - he shot all areas of society, his works often showing loneliness and old age.  He was, according to his own biography, quite a bed-hopper too!  He has also worked for Vogue and Telegraph Magazine too.

 

   

 *  

Finally, because I have a few minutes before I start drafting from my second Fantasy Football team, here is another NFL list today. 

Greatest Coaches of my Lifetime:  

1. Bill Walsh 
2. Bill Belichick
3. Bill Parcells
4. Bill Cowher
5. Don Shula
6. Dan Reeves
7. Tom Coughlin
8.  Joe Gibbs
9. Jimmy Johnson
10. George Siefert
11. Dick Vermeil
12. Marv Levy
13. Marty Schottenheimer
14. Andy Reid
15. Jeff Fisher
16. Mike Holmgren
17. Mike Ditka
18. Jon Gruden
19. Brian Billick
20. Mike Tomlin





Images:

http://clothesonfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/The-Hangover_Zach-Galifianakis_baby-breakfast.bmp.jpg   

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_4gF6YuGUwVM/S4rbmCeVNtI/AAAAAAAANHE/R0NRy8eZO_8/s320/aaasnowden1.jpg

http://postalheritage.org.uk/uploads/Snowdon1982.jpg

http://www.photoicon.com/images/3887big.jpg


Information: 

http://www.biography.com/people/lord-snowdon-20846059

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PtjAaI_3EWE/Rq7Op9meTlI/AAAAAAAAAk8/2eOYR0nx0qk/s400/hyver-bill-walsh-297x372.jpg

Catherine's Day!

Word of the day : georgic : of or relating to agriculture or rural life 

Hump day.  Gabriel was slightly more excited to go to school today - the key word being slightly.  

Julia likes to give her students in her Global Citizenship classes this quiz.  Take it and see how you do:

http://www.sporcle.com/games/g/world 

How many of the world's 196 countries can you name?  

What should I write about today?  Well, to get an entry on my 500 Greatest Performances of All Time out of the way, let's make a slot for...

Ingrid Bergman 
as Ilsa Lund in Casablanca (1942)

Why not?  One of cinema's most legendary actresses in a legendary part in one of the most legendary movies.  Bergman displays it all here - vulnerability, steeliness, inner torment, subtlety - as the love of Rick Blaine's (Humphrey Bogart) life, sweeping into his gin joint and making time stop.  Bergman is every man's dream here - swoony yet understated, passionate, exotic, headstrong yet in need of some protection.  Bergman had chemistry with everyone, but her sparks with Bogey here are out-of-this-world.

*

Julia and I have been watching some '80s movies the last couple of nights.  Baby Boom, Stakeout - mmmm, tasty.  Seeing that cute baby in Baby Boom, whose resemblance to Julia as a girl was beyond eerie, got me thinking of another baby.  Stakeout was just a lot of fun, and made me remember when I saw the sequel (way way way back in 1993) at the theaters with my cousin Steven and my aunt Bonnie.  Yikes!   

We also watched the first couple episodes of Gordon Ramsay's new show, Hotel Hell.  I'm not sure how in the world Ramsay has time to film all these reality shows - this one, Kitchen Nightmares, Hell's Kitchen, Master Chef - and still cook and run all his restaurants.  I'm glad he does, though.  And if it's a given that all his shows eventually turn into formula (and oddly consistent formula, given the supposedly non-staged goings-on) and revolve around his exaggerated blowhard personality, he's still entertaining to watch.  

*

Today, in my list of the NFL's greatest players of my lifetime:
Offensive Linemen:

 
1. Anthony Munoz
2. Larry Allen
3. Bruce Matthews
4. Randall McDaniel
5. Orlando Pace
6. Jonathan Ogden
7. Alan Faneca
8. Willie Roaf
9. Jeff Saturday
10. Nate Newton
11. Brian Waters
12. Dermontt Dawson
13. Steve Wisniewski
14. Jason Peters
(tie) 15. Nick Mangold / Tony Boselli

* 

My sister Catherine turns 24 today (happy birthday!) but did she know that the great French rococo artist Jean-Honore Fragonard died on this day in Paris in 1806?  Fragonard is best known for his 1767 work The Swing, but how about we take a quick look at a painting of his also held in London's Wallace Collection.

The Musical Contest
c. 1754 
oil on canvas
The Wallace Collection, London

A young girl, flushed and elegant (full of herself, even), poses beneath her yellow parasol as two prospective, musical suitors gaze up at her, each trying to win her affection; the man on the left tries with his flute, while the man on the right tries with his musette (a rural French bagpipe).  The setting is typical Fragonard: a whimsical, airy garden, full or statues, urns, and foliage.  The girl's skin is strikingly pale, almost virginal white - a temptation for her two intent, beseeching pursuers.  Fragonard was perhaps inspired by the French master Antonie Watteau, whose works often included theatrical scenes of young love and lust in arcadian settings; the work bears thematic resemblance, too, to some of the idyllic summer scenes of Fragonard's mentor, Francois Boucher.           

















Images:

http://www.gonemovies.com/www/drama/drama/CasablancaKus.jpg

http://www.threedonia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/fragonard_musical.jpg

http://www.celebritiesfans.com/pictures/anthony_munoz.jpg


Information: 

http://www.sporcle.com/games/g/world

Off to college I go

Word of the day : marplot : one who frustrates or ruins a plan or undertaking by meddling 
(Think of it as someone who literally mars a plot)

Julia began her first day of the fall semester at GSU today, teaching all the kiddies about art.  It's always refreshing to be on campus the first day all the students are back, and it's quite a contrast from the preceding few months where Julia and I had her building (and seemingly the library) all to ourselves. 

Gabriel had a wonky day at school today - 'crying and not following directions,' according to his teacher. 
Oh, well, I say.  Maybe he doesn't like you, I think (but don't say) to the teacher.  Or maybe he's just ready to get outta town and go up to the Columbia for the day to see his aunt and visit the zoo.  Not till Saturday. 

Another screw-up (and late fee) with a local company, who sent our check to the wrong bank and, because it was returned, assessed us a late fee.  Ah, small-town Georgia.  Anyone out there who's not keeping his or her fingers crossed for Julia to get a better job next year, shame on you! 

What do I think about Augusta National finally allowing women (albeit two of the wealthiest women in the country) onto its hallowed links.  About time.  Death to all gender and racial exclusivity.  If a woman likes to play golf and can afford to play at the club, then why can't she?  Christ, what year is it? 

Money magazine named its annual list of the best cities in America to live.  Here it is:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/best-places-to-live-2012.html

*



Julia and I watched The Hunger Games this weekend.  What a ride!  I loved Suzanne Collins' mega-popular novel - it's one of the most exciting YA novels I've ever read (or likely will ever read).  The movie, directed with a sure hand by Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) - who also wrote the faithful/not reverent script with Collins and Billy Ray - somewhat takes for granted that you've read the source material.  The first hour of the 140-minute film features the long build-up to the games, with a variety of colorfully-adorned characters (Woody Harrelson, an unrecognizable Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland, Wes Bentley) backing up Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role.  As Katniss Everdeen, the teenager who volunteers (taking her younger sister's place) to participate in the annual, nationally-televised bloodbath known as the Hunger Games, Lawrence gives a first-class interpretation of a character for the ages: Lawrence (so striking in the overpraised Winter's Bone) conveys any emotion necessary on her face delicately and beautifully, and she's never less than entirely believable as a girl forced to use her physicality and wiles to survive.  The production design and cinematography (the film was shot in the mountains of western N.C.) is triumphant, and the movie works on all levels.  It's unfair to compare a book and its film adaptation, but this worldwide smash fulfills expectations.  Can't wait for the sequel. 
(****)

I haven't read David Nicholls' 2009 novel One Day, but if the 2011 film adaptation, directed by the talented Lone Scherfig (who previously made the sensitive, moving coming-of-age story An Education, with its breakout star performance from Carey Mulligan) is any indication, it's probably worth a read.  The story revolves around a gimmick - each year, on July 15, we follow the lives of two friends, Emma (played by Anne Hathaway, with a workable British accent) and Dexter (Jim Sturgess, of 21).  In 1988, they graduate from university and over the years they remain best friends, soulmates even, as they navigate very different paths in life.  Emma works menial jobs until she decides to get her certificate and becomes a teacher, marrying a good-hearted slob of a stand-up comic.  Dexter spirals downward, becoming a low-rent, trashy TV presenter, lost in drugs and alcohol.  As their careers rise and fall, the two seem destined to end up together, but fate and tragedy come calling - as they often do in these sorts of films.  The stars have chemistry, and though I wished Patricia Clarkson's role as Dexter's dying mother was meatier, I will say that I enjoyed the enterprise.  One of the elements that can kill a conceit like this is the believability of the characters' aging (i.e. watching Hathaway going from twenty-two to forty); it is to the movie's credit that I was never forced to suspend my disbelief.
(***)

*

An entry today for my 500 Greatest Performances of All Time:

Al Pacino 
as Benjamin 'Lefty' Ruggiero in Donnie Brasco (1997)

What a knockout performance!  As an aging, underappreciated, disillusioned wiseguy, Pacino is every bit as impressive here as he is The Godfather films.  Pacino reins in his penchant for going up, up, and over the top and holds you spellbound by the wary, searching delicacy in his portrayal of a lifelong mobster who befriends a young member of his outfit (Johnny Depp), only to betrayed when he finds out the Depp's Donnie Brasco is indeed an undercover FBI agent.  Pacino blows everyone but Depp off the screen with his lived-in nuances.  And he has one of the greatest last scenes in modern memory.  Knowing that he has allowed a mole into his crew, he sits, shattered, on his bed in his apartment.  The call has come in: Top dog Sonny Black (Michael Madsen), his boss, has asked Lefty to come and see him.  Knowing that he will be killed, Pacino paces his apartment, resigned to his fate.  He rifles through his sock drawer and then decides, as he is about to depart, to leave the drawer open, just a bit.

*

R.I.P. Tony Scott.  Who knows what went through his mind or what troubles he was going through when he decided to take his life on Sunday in L.A.  I wasn't a fan of his, but check out some of the films he directed and produced:

Director:

Top Gun
Days of Thunder  
Beverly Hills Cop II
Spy Game
True Romance
The Fan
The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3  

Producer:

In Her Shoes
Pillars of the Earth and World Without End (mini-series')  
The Good Wife (TV show)
The Grey
The A-Team
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Here are some Scott films I really liked:

Unstoppable 

 

 

Crimson Tide

Enemy of the State

 


Images:

http://stevenspielblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/t1larg-unstoppable-courtesy.jpeg

http://www.the-reel-mccoy.com/movies/1998/images/enemy2.jpg
 
http://i2.cdnds.net/12/34/618x405/movies_tony_scott_films_8.jpg

Cover Me

Word of the day : maquette : a usually small preliminary model (as of a sculpture or building) 

Let's not beat around the bush.  Here are the movies opening up this weekend: 

The Expendables 2    The first was atrocious, nowhere near as fun and campy/self-aware as it was promised to be.  This one has Sly, Jet Li, Dolph, Jason Statham, Bruce, Arnold, and Mickey back.  Joining them for this go-round are Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Liam Hemsworth, and John Travolta.  Sounds like the pits, honestly.  Sly penned the script again, and Simon West (Con Air) directs.
Verdict: Not Interested

ParaNorman    Here's one for the kids.  A 3-D stop-motion comedy about a misunderstood boy who is the only savior for a town that has been overrun by zombies.  Among the voice actors: John Goodman, Anna Kendrick, Leslie Mann, and Casey Affleck.  Good reviews. 
Verdict: Not Interested

The Awakening    A good old British ghost story, with Rebecca Hall as an author who has spent her career exposing hoaxes and ghost sitings.  It's 1921, post-war London, and she is called upon to investigate the death of a student at an all-boys boarding school.  Good atmosphere and mood, though the conclusion is supposed to be underwhelming.  Co-stars Dominic West. 
Verdict: Interested  

Sparkle    A remake of the 1976 musical, with Jordin Sparks in the Irene Cara role, and Whitney Houston in her last movie appearance.  It's about a Motown girl group.  Not screened for critics.
Verdict: Not Interested

Cosmopolis    I'm a big fan of director David Cronenberg (A History of Violence), but even I have no interest in this pic.  One reason is that it stars Robert Pattinson as a billionaire who spends the entire movie being shuttled around Manhattan in his limo, a witness to (from what I can tell) the oncoming collapse of civilization.  Two, it's based on a Don Delillo novel - not the most cinema-ready of modern authors.  Juliette Binoche, Paul Giamatti, Samantha Morton, and Jay Baruchel co-star.  It's getting solid reviews, though. 
Verdict: Not Interested  

The Odd Life of Timothy Green    Filmed in and around Atlanta, this looks like an  odd Disney concoction.  Directed by Peter Hedges (What's Eating Gilbert Grape?), it stars Jennifer -yowza! Garner and Australian Joel Edgerton as young parents forced to deal with a mysterious child left on their doorstep.  Of course, the kid has a magical effect on everyone around him - a list that includes Dianne Wiest, Common, Rosemary Dewitt, Ron Livingston, M.Emmet Walsh, and David Morse.  Below-average reviews, with critics finding it too syrupy.
Verdict: Not Interested (even with Garner)

* 

Today's entry in the 500 Greatest Performances of All Time: 

Why not? 

Michael Douglas
as Grady Tripp in Wonder Boys (2000) 

As a lazy, half-awake, creatively constipated literature professor getting into trouble on a Pittsburgh campus holding a writers' festival, Douglas has a shambling, shuffling doe-in-the-headlights look.  He's a funny, bemused, burnt-out old sadsack, and Douglas makes you love every bit of him, without softening the old screwup's flaws.  This is a great movie - a sterling adaptation of Michael Chabon's novel - with a great central performance; it's as if we're seeing Douglas (whose characterization is both grandly clownish and lived-in) for the first-time.   

* 

Yesterday it was quarterbacks.  Today, one day nearer to football season, we deal with cornerbacks.

15 Greatest Cornerbacks of My Lifetime: 

1. Darrell Revis
2. Rod Woodson
3. Deion Sanders
4. Darrell Green
5. Charles Woodson
6. Aeneas Williams
7. Ty Law
8. Champ Bailey
9. Eric Allen
10. Ronde Barber
11. Troy Vincent
12. Chris McAlister
13. Asanti Samuel
14. Nnamdi Asomugha
15. Dre Bly

* 

Ready for the next entry in Professional Photographer's "100 Most Influential Photographers of All Time"?  Me too.

Norman Parkinson (#57)

Parkinson (1913-1990) was one of Britian's greatest fashion photographers of all time.  Among the publications he worked for: Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Queen, Town & Country.  His style was inimitable: spontaneous, funny, lively, unstructured.  His images always, without fail, told a story.  He liked to adapt a silly, eccentric persona behind the lens (he was six feet five!) to reassure his sitters and models, but he was a class-act professional.  He profiled Britain through the war years, the Swinging Sixties.  He often shot Hollywood stars and the Royal Family, and in the 1970s created a body of work often shot abroad, in exotic locales.

 

   
*

Finally, an Elvis (today being the 35th anniversary of his death) track for you: 1960's "A Mess of Blues"  - underrated track. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbHpa-ThHI8







Images: 

http://www.top10films.co.uk/img/wonderboys.jpg

http://www.nflgridirongab.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Darrelle-Revis.jpg

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lf2nbjNGch1qzd1fwo1_500.jpg

http://storage.canalblog.com/07/05/577050/43367429.jpg

http://lovelyritablog.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/norman-parkinson-jerryhall.jpeg?w=640

http://www.stephenvolk.net/userimages/TheAwakeningEXTSHOT.jpg


Information: 

http://www.normanparkinson.com/chronology/index.html

Wednesday

Word of the day : scaramouch : rascal, scamp
                                                   : cowardly buffoon

'nother day, 'nother day.  With football season closing in, I think it's time for an early list.

In roughly twenty-five years, give or take, of watching football, here are the 20 Greatest QBs of My Lifetime:
(feel free to disagree)

1) John Elway
2) Joe Montana
3) Tom Brady
4) Peyton Manning
5) Steve Young
6) Dan Marino
7) Aaron Rodgers
8) Brett Favre
9) Brett Favre
10) Troy Aikman
11) Kurt Warner
12) Ben Roethlisberger  
13) Jim Kelly
14) Eli Manning
15) Warren Moon
16) Donovan McNabb
17) Randall Cunningham
18) Drew Bledsoe
19) Michael Vick
20) Boomer Esiason

Honorable Mention: Phil Simms, Mark Brunell, Jim Everett, Vinny Testaverde, Rich Gannon, Daunte Culpepper

Football fans, discuss.

*

Today's entry in the 500 Greatest Performances of All Time?  Easy peesy, lemon squeezy, it's...

Michael Caine 
as Dr. Frank Bryant in Educating Rita (1983) 

Where do you start with Michael Caine?  He might not have that one definitive role, but he's been so dependably outstanding, so taken-for-granted excellent, for going-on almost fifty years.  He's one of the greatest English-speaking actors alive, appearing in almost 76,000 movies (I jest) - certainly he has to be on this list (and he'll appear a little later on down the road).  Why not his terrific, subtle turn in this adaptation of Willy Russell's play about a housewife (Julie Walters, first-rate, and, like Caine, Oscar-nominated for her work) who decided to go back to school and finds herself drawn to and mentored by a disillusioned, sozzled literature professor?  As Dr. Frank Bryant, Caine is both funny and profoundly sad, unaware as to where he stands in the world, what he's doing with his career, how to get through to his students.  As Rita gets him to gradually lighten and loosen up and even begin to care again, Caine makes the revolution of a man's soul look effortless - and there's nothing actor-y or covert about it.  He's not necessarily a likable character, but Caine doesn't care.  He doesn't ask you to like him - he just gives himself to you, warts and all.      

*

With the discouraging movie news that Werner Herzog's new film Queen of the Desert, starring Naomi Watts as early 20th century explorer, archaeologist and political attache Gertrude Bell (a role the underrated Watts will likely excel in) will feature the dreadful Robert Pattison in the role made famous fifty years ago by the great Peter O'Toole, I, having seen Lawrence of Arabia far too long ago to vividly recall it, decided to refresh my memory about what exactly T.E. Lawrence did.   If you're at all interested, here's a PBS link:

http://www.pbs.org/lawrenceofarabia/players/lawrence.html   


* 

And finally, a painting today by Rene Magritte, the great Belgian surrealist who died on this date in 1967. 

The Menaced Assassin 
1927
oil on canvas
Museum of Modern Art, New York 

In the foreground - or, really, the first distinct area of space, two bowler-hatted men wait patiently, stealthily, one with a cudgel, the other holding a net.  (Incidentally, both of these men resemble Magritte himself and would appear over and over in his work.)  Moving up the tilted floor into the next area of space, we see a man about to leave a crime scene - a woman lies dead, her head severed - but halted and distracted by the music wafting out of a gramophone.  Beyond this area of space, we see three men peeping into the room through a doorway, over the blacony.  What does it all mean?  You tell me.  Magritte was a big fan of cinema, especially detective thrillers.  What we're left with is a dream-like reverie, a film on canvas.  Witness, Victim, Murderer, Captor... hmmm. 


Images: 

http://www.thefancarpet.com/uploaded_assets/images/gallery/534/Educating_Rita_6091_Medium.jpg

http://www.friendsofart.net/static/images/art2/rene-magritte-the-menaced-assassin.jpg

http://www.mediamarketjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/lawrence-of-arabia-otoole.jpg

http://iqfb.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/john-elway.jpg

Information:

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A3692&page_number=1&sort_order=1&template_id=1

Back

Word of the day : bloviate : to speak or write verbosely and windily 

Happy Tuesday, readers.  Well, the Olympics are over - which Julia is thankful for - and it was a truly stunning Summer Games, with magnificent individual and team performances.  For the fifth Summer Olympics in a row, the U.S. won the most medals.

Abby Wambach, Kevin Durant, Michael Phelps, Missy Franklin, May-Treanor, the women's gymnastic team, Serena Williams... oh, my!  So much excitement.  And the handball - thrilling as hell.   

Speaking of sports... It's impossible for sports radio, ESPN and its legions of analysts, to hype up the football season any more than it is doing right now.  Since when did fans become to interested on every single thing that is going on in every training camp?  Who the hell cares?  Why are so many preseason games televised?        

Dwight Howard.  Was there every any doubt that he would end up in L.A.?  Nash, Kobe, Metta, Gasol, and Howard as your starting five?  Chris Duhon, Antawn Jamison, Jordan Hill, Steve Blake, Darius Johnson-Odom, and Robert Sacre coming off your bench?  Can you say TITLE?  

In other news... What news?  Julia is getting ready for school to rev up, Gabriel is back in the swing of things at his new school, and I am at home, applying to jobs I inevitably won't get!  Oh, to be out of this town.  I'm trying to brush up on my Italian, in preparation for next year's trip abroad, and Julia is rifling the job ads for next fall; we need something to look forward to.

Born today:
John Galsworthy (1867-1933)

Galsworthy is best known for writing The Forsyte Saga, a set of three novels and two interludes that was late combined into one grand, cohesive collection (and made into an acclaimed BBC miniseries in 1967); the story follows an upper-middle-class British family (not unlike Galsworthy's own) and its dealings with money over the generations.

Galsworthy, educated at Oxford, was encouraged by Joseph Conrad to forgo his career at law and become a writer, which he did at the age of 28.  He was always financially secure.  He was too old to fight in the first World War, but he did make contributions to the war: he signed over his home to be used as a rest home for wounded British soldiers; he worked at a French hospital for disabled soldiers; he wrote pro-British magazine articles for publications such as The New York Times.

Galsworthy's books and plays were well-received, and he was regarded as a skilled essayer of society and the issues that plague it.  In 1921, he and Catherine Dawson Scott founded PEN - an international organization of writers (its first members included Conrad, H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw) a non-government human rights organization that promotes worldwide expression through writing; PEN still gives out multiple yearly awards.  Galsworthy won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932, but died the next year from a brain tumor.

*

Notes:

- I might have went to the Ross Macdonald well once too often.  His 1969 Archer outing The Goodbye Look (1969) was enjoyable but ultimately way too complicated.

- I think James Lee Burke is a magnificent writer - but a verbose, windy (can we use today's word 'bloviate' here?), often pretentious one.  He describes southern Louisiana and its landscape as well as anyone in the history of the world, but The Glass Rainbow (2009), which has a lot of exciting elements, finds him at his worst - going on and on and on, stretching his story way beyond its capacity, considering the one-dimensional villains don't exactly necessitate amplitude.         
   
- The 2012 film Intruders, which nevertheless features a solid performance by one of my favorite actors, Clive Owen, is a terrible film, miserable to look at, bankrupt of ideas, terribly shot and scripted, and without one half-decent scare.

- Julia and I are just starting to get into TNT's The Closer, which is fitting since the series is ending (and the spin-off, Major Crimes, which propels supporting player Mary McDonnell, into the lead role, is getting underway).  I used to watch the series years ago, and it's a nice reminder of how good the show is.   

*

Today' entry in the 500 Greatest Performances of All Time?  How about...

Matt Damon 
as Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

I've commented before on this blog about how Damon is, in appearance, manner, and soul, the character Patricia Highsmith charted, with unsentimental, often curious glee, throughout five novels.  Why wasn't this performance awarded with an Oscar nomination?  Damon is everything you want in the role - shy, calculating, fey, smart, wimpy, oddly sexy, understated, and, finally, very creepy.  You can see why people - including Jude Law's Dickie and Philip Seymour Hoffman's Freddie - overlook him, but Damon doesn't play Tom Ripley as a wallflower; we can see his confidence and stealthiness developing scene by scene.  We trust him and at the same time we don't.  He's the boy next door with a couple of dead bodies out in the garage.  He didn't plan for them to be there.  They just are, and that's that.  No reason not to go about his day.  





Images:

http://www.boot.com/JohnGalsworthy.jpg

http://re-cyclethemovie.com/img/9984088_big.jpg


Information: 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/forsyte/ei_galsworthy.html
      

Gold!

Word of the day : weald : a heavily wooded area; forest
                                        : a wild or uncultivated, usually upland region

It's official, if it wasn't already.

THE GREATEST TEAM OF ALL TIME. 



A boatload of interesting movies this second weekend of August: 

Hope Springs    Could Meryl Streep earn yet another Oscar nomination for her portrayal of a long-married, disappointed woman caught in a rut with long-unfeeling husband Tommy Lee Jones?  Streep and Jones are getting off-the-chart notices, and Steve Carell is getting good reviews in the straight role as the marriage counselor trying to bring the couple together again.  Directed by David Frankel, who helmed Meryl in 2006's The Devil Wears Prada.  
Verdict: Very Interested  

The Campaign    Long-term North Carolina congressman Will Ferrell faces off against bumbling, naive, wet-behind-the-ears candidate Zach Galifinakis in this political comedy from director Jay Roach (Meet the Parents, the Austin Powers movies and some fine HBO political movies, like Recount).  Good reviews, timely, full of crude humor, of course, and starring two of the funniest, most unique comedians of our time. 
Verdict: Very Interested

The Bourne Legacy    Jeremy Renner replaces Matt Damon (seems like a fair substitution) in the fourth entry of the action series that, for me, just got more headache-inducing with each picture.  Tony Gilroy, the screenwriter of the first three pictures, directs this time, replacing Paul Greengrass (thank God!).  This time around, Robert Ludlum's indestructible hero is joined by a sterling cast: Edward Norton (as a villain), Rachel Weisz, and Stacy Keach.  Albert Finney, Joan Allen, and David Strathairn reprise their roles too.  The reviews are just a little above average; some critics are just tired of all the series and all the formula at play. 
Verdict: Mildly Interested  

2 Days in New York    Julie Delpy both directs and stars in this romantic comedy, playing a French photographer whose life with her boyfriend (Chris Rock) is turned upside down when Delpy's father (played by Delpy's real-life papa), oversexed sister, and her sister's boyfriend come to spend the title amount of days with them.  General chaos ensues.  Delpy reprises a character she first played in the film 2 Days in Paris a couple years back.  Generally positive reviews.
Verdict: Interested 

Red Hook Summer    Spike Lee's newest joint features The Wire's Clarke Peters in an acclaimed performance as a charismatic preacher who lives in a New York housing project who tries to convert his grandson, a mopey kid form middle-class Atlanta staying with him from the summer.  The story takes some dark turns, and if the critics like the dynamic filmmaking, the energy, and ideas, they certainly don't like the preachiness.
Verdict: Mildly Interested  

*

It's never too early to start thinking about Oscars.  I haven't seen a lot of the 2012 films yet, but based on what I've read and the reviews, here are some of the films and performances that would nominated if the Oscars were announced today, approximately 2/3 of the way into the year. 

Picture: 

Moonrise Kingdom
Beasts of the Southern Wild (which Julia's mom says is fantastic)
Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
The Dark Knight Rises 

Actor and Actress:

Meryl Streep, Hope Springs
Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild 
Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea 
Michelle Williams, Take This Waltz 
Jack Black, Bernie 
Tommy Lee Jones, Hope Springs 

Supporting Performances:

Matthew McConaughey, Magic Mike
Matthew McConaughey, Killer Joe 
Emily Blunt, Your Sister's Sister
Maggie Smith, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 
Judi Dench, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel  


Who knows?  There are a lot of hyped performances and films to come, and, as usual, the best, most awaited films will come at the end of the year.   Bill Murray, William H.Macy, Joaquin Phoenix, Julianne Moore (who shockingly doesn't have a shiny bald guy yet), Daniel Day-Lewis, Amy Adams, Woody Harrelson, Sally Field, Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway... oh, my!  

*  

It's time for an entry, an oldie, on the list of my 500 Greatest Performances of All Time: 

Katharine Hepburn
as Susan in Bringing Up Baby (1938)

I'm not a big fan of Hepburn (I usually find her to be too much) but her resume, especially with comedy, is pretty imposing.  In Howard Hawks' definitive screwball comedy, Kate is a dizzying, fast-talking ball of energy as a quick, flighty heiress driving paleontologist Cary Grant (who matches Kate step for step) bonkers.  They don't make movies like this anymore.  It's funny and so fast-paced and zany that at times you might think the film stock has been sped up.  This was actually a bomb upon its release (it was during a period when Hepburn was considered box office poison), but its a charming example of a film the studios used to pump out like comic book actioners are today.  It's an opportunity to see two brilliant stars, uniquely funny and stylish. 

* 

Book Review

This is the first novel by Daphne Du Maurier that I've read since I was assigned Rebecca in high school.  This novel, which shares some of Rebecca's themes (obsession, fixation on the past, a moody romanticism that isn't always logical), pits Philip Ashley, an orphan who is raised by his uncle/soul mate/father figure/best friend on a sprawling estate in west Cornwall, against his cousin Rachel, the woman who lived with his uncle during his uncle's final years abroad in the Mediterranean and, Philip suspects, had a hand in his suspicious death.  When Rachel comes to live with Philip, his initial mistrust and contempt for her quickly turns into infatuation and love for her.  Is she aware of the effect she is having on him?  And what's behind his headaches?

It's a mystery and a good one - we're never quite sure if Rachel is the villain or a misunderstood figure to be pitied.  Philip is compelling, too, and if I never quite bought the sudden transformation in his feelings for Rachel, he was a well-drawn character.  DuMaurier's prose isn't stiff, but, rather, intelligent, and her descriptive powers are impressive.  The doom-filled ending bears the trace of the inevitable.
(****)

   


Images:

http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170367871l/50239.jpg  

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LmWUQcPFfgE/TfhI4OjKbzI/AAAAAAAABzc/bZz0BYuXQeA/s1600/Bringing_Up_Baby.JPG 

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02278/christianbaleinthe_2278122b.jpg

http://thefilmstage.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/beasts_1.png

http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/screencrush.com/files/2012/08/2-Days-in-New-York.jpg

http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/screencrush.com/files/2012/08/hope-springs-review.jpg