Reflections and Horizons - Dec 31 - Friday Video Distractions

     Several false starts on this piece, as I remind myself this is about television, movies, and streaming media, not a place to clear my head, much less to do so moaning and kvetching. I can do that in a different blog.

     Last week Disney+ wrapped the latest for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the sixth and final episode of Hawkeye. That series was strong on character development and emotional content, and continued to build and expand the universe of characters to be revisited and mixed in the future. In terms of plotting and details, however, it was unfortunately weak. The story (aside from some necessary flashbacks) was all set in the week of Christmas, and played strongly to themes of family, heroism and legacy, and I generally enjoyed the characters we spent time with, so on the whole it went into the "win" column for me.
     Venturing into the realm of the spoilery for a couple paragraphs:
     Even just that we came out of it with Kate Bishop, ably realized by Haileee Steinfeld, set up to take over the mantle of Hawkeye, is enough.
     I was particularly happy that we get to see - via a flashback scene and her involvement in this story - more of Yelena Belova (played so well by Florence Pugh) as the new Black Widow (not officially picking up that mantle, as she's one of many from that same program) for the first time since she was introduced in Black Widow last year. She's a fun character who's still sorting out her world, while mostly being used to behaving as if she knows everything going on. Much more mixed reactions to having Vincent D'Onofrio appear formally in the MCU as Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, who had previously been used in the Marvel Netflix Daredevil series. It's a delicate subject, because they plainly want to use both the actor and much of what they built into him as a character, but at the same time it's not directly validating anything seen in those Netflix stories as official MCU canon. Here we get a more physically-enhanced version of the character, who's also much more hands-on. D'Onofrio brought as much of the character we met in Daredevil as he could. I'll be interested to see how far they'll be able to take this.
     I'm a little sad about the plotting sloppiness, knowing that such things are both unnecessary and much more likely to snowball, or at least serve as unfortunate precedent for unrelated sloppiness in the future, but I also know that the legacy of comics fandom includes clever people taking later steps to retroactively fix, patch and/or explain seeming incongruities (I've been one of them -- the well-intentioned fixers, that is) -- so in a season of hope I can let that be one more.
     This week's new weekly Wednesday entry for Disney+ is for the Star Wars universe, with the first episode of The Book of Boba Fett. Based on the first episode, we're being given a parallel set of

stories, as we're both seeing what immediately happened to Boba Fett following his disappearing into the great maw of the Sarlacc, beneath the sands of Tatooine in Return of the Jedi, and, later, as he assumes the local crimelord vacancy left by the death of Jabba the Hutt.
     This will be running for seven, weekly episodes, and will wrap February 9th.
     I've always been a casual Star Wars fan. I was in high school when the films began - too old then to have tapped into the toys, and never disappearing into the comics, novels, games, nor cartoons that variously named even minor background figures, and provided great swaths of character and culture backgrounds. I'd watch the movies, and then pick up some of the connecting information from context or (post-'90s) with Internet checks. I don't have any fan ego tied up in this, and am generally confident that if there's anything I'll really need to know, it will eventually be made plain. No one's paying me to be a fan, and I'm in no competition with the writers and directors to stay a step ahead of them nor to immediately spot every Easter egg. It's entertainment, neither a religion nor a job.
     As for this new series, I enjoyed this opening episode. As I've aged - though it's been something I've appreciated as long as I can remember - I've increasingly liked stories where someone on the wrong side of the law still has some restraint. A personal code of behavior, where while he wants to set up a situation that will serve him, providing wealth and power, he isn't interested in or even comfortable

with others abasing themselves as if he were a king or emperor whose ego needs constant polishing. I'm not surprised to find some people whining about it - that's what the Internet's for, right? Most of the complaints I've seen appear to be those who wanted a younger actor and more instant, non-stop, "badassery", not something that marks development and makes a character more interesting. We can only hope that these people eventually mature, have an epiphany, and experience an appropriate string of memory-prodded cringes as they remember rooting for the forces of stagnation.
      Here's the series trailer:

     I'd also suggest watching the 22 minute Under the Helmet: The Legacy of Boba Fett mini-doc that gives us more background on how the character came to be in the script and the portrayals. It's not needed for the story, but I thought it was interesting to get the development background pinned down.
    While you're on Disney+, for a different, much more grounded adventure, I'd suggest watching the six episode National Geographic: Welcome To Earth series. In it, Will Smith is our surrogate, accompanying explorers and scientists into fascinating and extreme environments here on Earth.

     A recent addition to Netflix is a Japanese adaptation of a 1957 Robert A. Heinlein novel, The Door Into Summer (2021  1h 58m). A brilliant, young robotics engineer and inventor is faced with yet another, devastating loss in a life rife with such losses, and tries to work his way out of it.
     Very sentimental, it was the right film at the right time for me, and despite at least one significant plot misgiving (I don't want to give away too much by being specific) I'm happy I watched it. This is the Japanese trailer, because it was the best YouTube option, so it's offered here for a likely non-Japanenese-speaking/reading audience, primarily for the visuals. One can watch the movie itself dubbed into English, or Japanese with English subtitles, etc.

     Back over on HBO & HBO Max, I greatly enjoyed Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street (2021 1h 47m). The history, heart, energy and creativity of the show, it was another desperately needed message of hope this year. Not everything has to be driven by financial profit, and vital, creative individuals can find worthy aims to rally around.

     I was too old to be among the target audience for Sesame Street, but I still got a little taste of it out on the periphery when it debuted, even if I didn't appreciate it at the time. I try to keep this in mind moving forward, to try to avoid summary dismissals of things simply because they don't immediately fit my needs or desires.
     Also on HBO, arrived just this past Wednesday, is another documentary that was worth the time. Not a high-minded subject, like Sesame Street, but an interesting deep dive, done with much obvious affection, of dry comedian Bob Einstein. It's The Super Bob Einstein Movie.

     Here I have to confess that this was almost completely me looking in from the outside of a career I was barely aware of. I didn't recall him from his bits on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (I was too young to be part of the target audience being between 6 and 8 during that run), don't recall him from The Sonny and Cher Show, never saw an episode of John Byner's Bizarre, while I may have heard of Super Dave Osborne I never caught an episode of any of his shows, his appearances on Letterman didn't make an impression on me - the straight-faced, irritated to angry persona that was much of his trademark never

connected with me in an entertaining way - and I've not seen much beyond commercials of either Curb Your Enthusiasm or Arrested Development; the former has perpetually hovered in that "I heard good things, I'll get around to it" zone, and a couple of attempts at starting at the beginning with the latter show found me bailing because I didn't enjoy my time with the characters. None of that is set in stone as far as tastes are concerned, and there's always the chance that a year from now I'll be a staunch fan of one or more of those series, but right now I can only report where I am. This was someone who had a big time career, almost all of which I was never looking in his direction. Generally someone has to be a sports star for me to be this level of disconnected, where I knew little more than that there was someone out there by this name, who others knew.
     That said, even for an outsider, it was an interesting documentary and tribute. I can only expect that for anyone who was a fan of any of his work it would be a must-watch.
     Arriving today on Netflix, we have the fourth season of the Karate Kid sequel series Cobra Kai. The first three seasons surprised me by drawing me in to something I didn't expect to be drawn into, and I'm hoping this fourth one will manage to do that again. All ten episodes of this latest season will be in place. I have no idea if I'll start to tug on that thread right away, or will leave it for another time.

     Also arriving on Netflix today is the latest Harlen Cobin novel adaptation via an eight-episode crime drama miniseries Stay Close. This is the latest Cobin adaptation under his five-year development deal with Netflix, where Cobin gets to adapt his own novels into new screenplays. One thing that seems unusual is that after so often seeing stories set in other countries rewritten for the screen with U.S. locales, the 2012 novel this is based on was set in Atlantic City, NJ, but the series adaptation sets it in the British seaside resort of Blackpool. As is key to most of Cobin's work, the plot plays off shocking secrets about their pasts that they'd hidden from friends and family... until someone shows up who knew them when.

     The cast includes Cush Jumbo, James Nesbitt, Richard Armitage and Eddie Izzard.

     While it's available to be rented or bought online via Prime, Vudu or AppleTV, it doesn't appear any of the streamers (maybe via Roku?) are just carrying Soylent Green (1973) at no extra charge at the moment. TCM is where I've usually seen it in recent years, but they don't currently have it on their schedule. The timely point of interest here is that that particular dystopic future, with pollution, overpopulation, and runaway greenhouse gases was set in the then far-off year of 2022, a seemingly impossible 49 years off.
     I have very clear memories of watching that with an old friend at the Eric Fairless Hills back in 1973, and watching it decades later I was thrown by how solidly it had printed on my memory. I was surprised to see how much of it I could recite the dialogue along with the film when I saw it again many years later. It was a film I'd only seen once on the big screen, but the performances were good, with particularly strong chemistry between leads Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson, the latter playing his final role.
     The two trailers for the movie are terrible -- when they're not openly misleading, they're giving away too much of the plot. Rather than running either of those here, I've found that someone uploaded the themed opening sequence, which ends with the title. That's a much better choice.

    Here on the final day of 2021, I'll close with a few minutes of gentle reflection on those in the broad world of film and entertainment for whom 2021 became a final, Earthly destination. I'd already forgotten we'd lost several of them this year.
     I've watched for an updated version of this (current 4:55 run) knowing this list was posted Dec 21st, and that even then it had already omitted at least one - Sally Ann Howes, who while celebrated largely for her Broadway and West End stage career, was also a film and tv actor, passed on the 19th - missing the cut-off for when this was compiled. (If I see a newer version sometime soon, I'll swap it out.)

      Oh, for those with TCM, starting at 8pm (Eastern) they'll be running six Thin Man films back to back, starting with The Thin Man (1934), and ending with Song of the Thin Man (1947.) Here's the trailer for the first film. Pretty snappy company to have any New Year's Eve.

    I've no set plans for how I'll pass into the new year.
    Only in very rare years have I done it in a party setting. Usually I just bury myself in some activity, reading or writing, and am only reminded of the local change of day by the sudden noise outside. 2022 is planned to be a year of some hugely substantial changes for my family, and I'm trying my best to embrace the coming changes warmly, but that's a big ask for me. The current plans will see the dynamics of place change radically, and will also see me separated for the first time from one family member. It's tough for my first reactions to be other than trepidation and sadness. I'm not a truly, openly hopeful person by nature, feeling that open happiness is begging the lightning to strike. All that said, here's to seeing out 2021 pleasantly, and to 2022 being an improvement. I hope to see you back here next week, for the first Friday of 2022. Welcome to the future. Don't forget your meds.- Mike

Trawling Through The Thrift Stores with Joseph Finn

 Happy Thursday, everyone!    A good New Year to everyone and I hope you've been having a good holiday season.  (And for my own joy, today is the 12th anniversary of my first date with my wife!). So on to my usual thrift store nonsense.

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Hey, do you want a movie with Hitchcock actors without the Hitchcock hangups?  Would you you like a witch comedy that understands that Kim Novak could be very, very funny?  Do you want a movie where Jack Lemmon is the happiest bongos player that has ever existed?  Then boy howdy you need to check out Bell, Book And Candle.  It's a kind of silly movie that also feels at times like if Hitchcock decided to make a witches and warlocks comedy.  

Bell, Book And Candle is available on the Watch TCM app.

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Ah, here we have a curiosity.  This novel, from 1955, won the second Hugo for Best Novel....and infamously is easily the worst novel to win that.  (And I've read every Hugo novel winner; this is an absolutely correct assessment.)  It's a weird, pretty sexist novel even by the standards of '50s science fiction, with woman characters that are dull, shrill and grotesque.  It's one of those things where I wish I could talk to the voters in 1957and go...why?  Why this thing?  This was the last year where they didn't have a list of nominees so we can't even know what it beat.  But jeez, this is the year that Leigh Brackett's The Long Tomorrow came out. 

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Look.  Yes.  I have a Spider-Man lunch box.  Have I ever used it?  No.  Does it live on a shelf?  Yes.  It is pretty awesome?  Hell yes.

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Now this is my find of the week, maybe the month.  I've owned the basic Monterey Pop movie on Criterion for a while, but finding the full set (which includes the original movie, all the performance sets and separate mini-movies on Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding) was a real find.

If you've never seen this, it's one of the absolutely great concert films about one of the great music festivals.  Monterey Pop Festival took place in 1967 in California and is infamous for how it was the US major debut for Hendrix and The Who and Ravi Shankar and the big debut of Janis Joplin, all of whom were at the top of their game.  Add in Simon and Garfunkel, The Mamas and the Papas, Laura Nyro, The Grateful Dead...and geez, so many more.  This is one I'm absolutely looking forward to watching a bunch of over the New Years weekend.

Plus, this set smells like the previous owner smoked a good deal of decent pot and that just seems weirdly kind of right.

Monterey Pop is streaming on both HBO Max and Criterion Channel.

 

The Queen's Own Book of the Red Cross -- Garbo

 

Just before Christmas, I was looking online for the short story "Mrs. Miniver Makes a List" to share on the blog and I was unable to find a text version to paste in so I made a video of myself reading the story aloud. 

While I was looking for the story, I found that it had originally been written for a compilation called The Queen's Own Book of the Red Cross, brought out in 1939 by London publisher Hodder and Stoughton, London. The volume was a wartime fundraiser for the Red Cross, to which writers, photographers, artists, and other creatives contributed their work.  Wikipedia has a list of the contributors: 

• A. E. W. Mason, "The Conjurer", a story
• Hugh Walpole, "The Church in the Snow", a story
• John Masefield, "Red Cross", a poem
• Ian Hay, "The Man who had Something Against Him"
• Charles Morgan, "Creative Imagination", an essay
• D. L. Murray, "Only a Sojer!", a story
• T. S. Eliot, "The Marching Song of the Pollicle Dogs", a poem
• T. S. Eliot, "Billy M'Caw: The Remarkable Parrot", a poem
• H. M. Tomlinson, "Ports of Call", a story
• A. A. Milne, "The General Takes Off His Helmet", a play
• Cecil Roberts, "Down Ferry Lane"
• E. M. Delafield, "The Provincial Lady in War-time", a story
• Cedric Hardwicke, "One Man in His Time Plays Many Parts"
• Daphne du Maurier, "The Escort", a story
• Ann Bridge, "Looking Back on May the Sixth, 1935"
• Jan Struther, "Mrs. Miniver makes a List", a story
• Eric Ambler, "The Army of Shadows", a story
• Howard Marshall, "The Fisherman's England"
• Humfrey Jordan, "The Boatswain Yawned", a story
• Alfred Noyes, "A Child's Gallop", a poem
• Alfred Noyes, "The Stranger", a poem
• O. Douglas, "Such an Odd War!", a story
• Howard Spring, "Christmas Honeymoon", a story
• Dorothy Whipple, "No Robbery", a story
• Lord Mottistone, "Tell Them, Warrior"
• L. A. G. Strong, "A Gift from Christy Keogh", a story
• Walter de la Mare, "And So To Bed", a poem
• Walter de la Mare, "Joy", a poem
• Denis Mackail, "It's the Thought that Counts", a story
• Gracie Fields, "On Getting Better"
• C. H. Middleton, "Keep That Garden Going"
• Georgette Heyer, "Pursuit", a story
• Edith Evans, "The Patriotism of Shakespeare", an essay
• H. C. Bailey, "The Thistle Down", a story
• C. Day-Lewis, "Orpheus and Eurydice", a translation from Virgil's "Georgics"
• Ruby Ferguson, "Mrs. Memmary's Visitors", a story
• J. B. Morton, "A Love Song"
• Frank Smythe, "The Crag"
• Mary Thomas, "Our Knitting Forces"
• Collie Knox, "This Flag Still Flies Over All Mankind", homage to the Red Cross

Artists

• Cecil Beaton, a photograph of the Queen
• William Russell Flint, The Words of His Majesty the King, a picture
• Edmund Dulac, a picture
• Frank Brangwyn, a picture
• J. Morton Sale, The Red Cross of Comfort, a picture
• Edmund Blampied, The Symbol, a picture
• Dame Laura Knight, Hop Pickers, a picture
• Bip Pares, a picture
• Arthur Wragg, a picture
• Norman Wilkinson, a picture

• Rex Whistler, In the Wilderness, a picture
• Mabel Lucie Attwell, a picture
• Ivor Novello, We'll Remember, a manuscript of a war song

Here's some art from the book: 

Dame Oaura Knight "The Hop Pickers"

The book also includes the sheet music for a song called "We'll Remember" by Welsh composer Ivor Novello. I couldn't find a recording of that song, but here's another lovely piece he did for a musical called "Perchance to Dream."

Tuesday Thing 12-28-21 -- Garbo

 

I've switched from a mostly-text format to an audio format for my weekly blog. This video version is just over twelve minutes long. 

‘We Can Never Know About The Days To Come . . .’

 by whiteray

So, just for fun, what was it I was hearing from my radio speakers fifty years ago as the year of 1971 ended and 1972 was about to begin? 

(Neither year, in retrospect, was horribly important to me. The highlight of 1971 for me was nearly flunking out of college during my first quarter there, and 1972 brought me my first French kiss. As important as those seemed at the time, well, my life got better and at least a little more exciting over time.) 

Here are the top ten records in the last survey of 1971 offered by KDWB of Minnesota’s Twin Cities: 

“American Pie” by Don McLean
“Old Fashioned Love Song” by Three Dog Night
“Friends With You” by John Denver
“White Lies, Blue Eyes” by Bullet
“I Know I’m Losin’ You” by Rod Stewart
“Brand New Key” by Melanie
“Day After Day” by Badfinger
“Sour Suite” by Guess Who
“Once You Understand” by Think
“Behind Blue Eyes” by the Who 

Seven of those are immediately memorable. I had to remind myself, with brief listens, of the records by Denver, the Guess Who and Think. The latter – “Once You Understand” – was one of those “heal the generation gap” records that came along once in a while: As a voice croons “Things get a little easier once you understand,” we hear an adult male voice snarl, “I expect you to get a haircut by Friday!” and then an adolescent male voice whines, “Forget it, Dad.” And the audio sermon goes on from there. 

I’m not surprised that I had to remind myself of three of those records. The last months of 1971 had brought a change in my radio listening. I’d begun spending time – and gaining one credit a quarter for doing mediocre sports reports – hanging around the studios of KVSC-FM, St. Cloud State’s student-run station, which played classical music during the day and wildly varying rock in the evenings. And during the day, rock filled the station’s offices from the turntable in Studio B, entertaining those hanging around in the lounge while the staffer sequestered in Studio A sent Mahler or Mendelssohn out on the airwaves. 

At home, I’d traded radios with my dad. He’d had an AM-FM radio near his workbench but he only used the AM band, so I gave him the old AM radio my grandfather had once given us. That allowed me to leave behind the AM Top 40 sounds of KDWB, St. Cloud’s WJON and Chicago’s WLS for evenings of progressive rock on KVSC. 

Even so, I look at the thirty-six records that KDWB put onto its last survey of 1971 (the survey was called the “Big 6+30” for the station’s frequency of 630), and all of those records are familiar from years of reading, research and listening. Some of them I remember from that season and some I learned about later. 

And one of them – one I heard occasionally on AM radio during that winter and then numerous times after it was co-opted for a ketchup commercial – showed up on the radio on a Saturday morning in June 1987, making me laugh as I looked forward to a very important date that evening with my new ladyfriend. 

Fifty years ago today, “Anticipation” by Carly Simon was at No. 36 on KDWB’s 6+30. In February 1972, it peaked at No. 6 on KDWB; that same month, it spent two weeks at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Florida, Oddly Enough

 

Taking photos at the beach

It's hard to believe that weeks can go by without even a thought of that warm sandy beach just minutes away. Well, sometimes 30 minutes, considering parking, when it's snowbird season. In the bottom left of this photo there appears to be a ghostly steamship instead of the happy accident of clouds. Florida could just as easily be The Big Sky state. That would be greedy though;  what else does Montana have? I love sky watching, here. Oceanside or not. Looking through the pines and palms at a turquoise hue is just as beautiful. The sky and clouds, considered and admired,  provide a perspective shift, too. When you've stopped gazing up there, often your focus shifts to....in here.

 July 4, 2018 was my arrival date in Florida. I was pulled away from direct interaction with difficult family concerns and deposited squarely in the midst of others. It's been a time to focus on endings, and the significance of examining my own life, motivations, themes, and desires in that context. We don't know how long we will be traversing this earth, how many days are left to us. In the midst of those considerations, certain memories tug and pull, inviting me to linger over details, to dig down deeper. I've been surprised, bereft, convicted, and regretful, and further pulled to layers of observation that have allowed me to know myself more honestly. In this process, I have seen that what we are, what we play at and involve ourselves in, in life, is made up of competing factors. Some formed as our response to family and society, some arose from deep in our psyches. In some respects we have no choice. The older we get, though, the easier it becomes to spot our habitual foibles, give them a baleful glance, or toy with them momentarily, looking for one more shred of truth, before we let them slide away under the waves.

For the coming year, my wish for myself and all of you, is time for introspection, melancholy or not, and the lessening of burden that comes with letting things go.

~Dorothy Dolores 

Mary's Boy: Styled - Esther

Despite my atheistic tendencies, it’d be churlish of me to ignore the art of Christmas whilst posting an art blog on Christmas Day itself. Besides, as I said last Christmas, I’m grateful for the holidays these observances give us all. There’s a lot to be said for the positive messages in all religions – caring for & looking after others, an emphasis on family, love & kindness are not to be sniffed at & when people observe these ideas, it makes the world better for everyone. Christmas itself brings out the best in lots of people; despite year-on-year moaning about commercialisation (bit late to be worrying about that, I feel & anyway, the Wise Men started it…) for those of us that do mark it in some form, we are forced to think of others. It’s an exceptionally difficult time for some & in general, people seem to have a collective understanding about that. Most of us care when faced with the thought of someone struggling during this particular period. Even if we only manage that once a year, it’s better than nothing. Plus, I do love a set of fairy lights. 

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Census at Bethlehem (1566)

Christmas is also about the birth of hope & possible redemption & God’s translation of himself into something our puny human brains can comprehend. Believe me the art world is stuffed with Nativities, good, bad & mediocre from all over the globe & from various junctures over the past couple of millennia. What is striking about the images I’ve come across is how we all contextualise the story into our own surroundings, no matter where we live. & like all well-known stories & subjects, it provides artists with the chance to either say something about the message or show off their skills. Better still, both.

Mawalan Marika (Rirratjingu/Australia, 1908-1967), Nativity (c. 1960) 

It’s not a Eurocentric nativity by any stretch of the imagination & is made from earth pigments on eucalyptus bark. Everything is drawn towards that star – it’s nice for a change to see other stars depicted! 

Lorenzo Costa (Italy, 1460-1535), Nativity (1490)

Wherein the languor of Jesus is matched only by the misery of Joseph…

Kim Hueng Jong (Korea, 1928-), Christmas Scene (?)

It’s as if we’re getting a God’s eye view of proceedings in this nativity & it all appears to be happening at sundown rather than night time. Nevertheless there is a pleasing sense of community & people (& chickens) coming to be together for a special event.

El Greco (Greece, 1541-1614), The Nativity (1603)

El Greco’s Nativity is one of my favourites. It’s everything you’d expect but a little different. I love that rather than a halo or a star, there is light provided by a beam from above but the light on the adults seems to emanate from the baby himself.

Lu Lan (China, 1972-), Nativity (1994)

In this flat but well-composed image, pattern suggests different planes & the artist assumes the viewer knows the story. Not only are the star & manger represented, but a bag suggesting the flight from Egypt lies in the corner. 

Georges de la Tour (France, 1593-1652), L’adoration des bergers (c. 1645)

As we’ve seen in previous blogs, de la Tour was a master at this chiaroscuro business. Once again, the light provided by the candle couldn’t illuminate all the figures to such an extent. The true Light is Jesus. Jesus, who appears worryingly inanimate in this work…

P. Solomon Raj (India, 1921-2019), Nativity (1980s)

If you’ve ever tried batik, you’ll appreciate how fiddly & awkward this image must have been to make. 

Father John Battista Giuliani (Italian American, 1932-2021), Nazareth (?)

Fr John died at the beginning of this year. He painted icons & in particular focused on the native groups & nations of people from what is now the USA in their traditional dress. In my opinion, there is a peculiar theological distortion in many of his works; people with their own religions, beliefs & ideas are turned into icons for Christianity by a white Catholic priest. 

He Qi (China, 1951-), Nativity (1998)

The nativity gets a contemporary Cubist makeover. As his work covers many Christian scenes, I think his art would make an amazing illustrated children’s Bible. 

James B Janknegt (USA), Nativity (1995)

Janknegt’s work centres on Christian themes & subjects within modern American contexts. It’s quite a fresh, clean representation but why is there someone digging the garden…?

Francis Musango (Uganda, 1931-2005), Nativity (?)

An art teacher & priest, Musango is credited with developing art education & creating an art curriculum in Uganda. 

Carravagio (Italy, 1571-1610), Nativity with St Francis & St Lawrence (1600)

Monty Python has ruined paintings like this. No matter how well painted, the angel is nose-diving into that manger.

Greg Weatherby (Australia, 1942), Dreamtime Birth (1990)

Again, the context of a well-known story explains the painting. I especially like the showering of light by God’s hands down on the Holy Family.

Hiroshi Tabata (Japan, ?), Nativity (1998)

There’s a Chagall quality to this nativity. The tiny details around the central image are worth a zoom in.

Paul Gauguin (France, 1848-1903), Te tamari no atua: The Birth of Christ (1896)

As ever with Gauguin, the attention is on the woman. But there’s a gentleness to the depiction of Mary, despite her struggles. The background animals & the women caring for her & the baby are quiet & calm before any visitors are received. 

Giorgione (Italy c.1477/78-1510), The Adoration of the Shepherds (c. 1505-1510)

What I like best about Giorgione’s nativity is the acknowledgement of stone. It’s unlikely Joseph & Jesus were carpenters but rather stonemasons as there’s apparently very little in the way of timber around Nazareth. 

Piero della Francesca (Italy c. 1415/20-1492), The Nativity (1470-75)

If Jesus had been born in Tuscany. Its heavily damaged state has the amusing effect of looking as if the son of God has been chucked on a rug.

Azaria Mbatha (South Africa, 1941-), The Birth of Christ (1964)

One of the best things about the differing contexts of nativity art is the variety of animals in attendance. In this amazing linocut there’s even an elephant & a lion.

Stanley Spencer (England, 1891-1959), The Nativity (1912)

Christmas in Cookham. Again Joseph is sidelined. Spencer made a good point when he said that the liaison between Mary & Joseph was an interesting one, describing it as “one of those unbearable relationships between men & women.”

Geertgen tot Sint Jans (Netherlands, 1465-1495), The Nativity at Night (c. 1490)

Apparently the idea of depicting Jesus as the source of light stems from the visions of St Bridget of Sweden. She also witnessed him lying on the ground in her visions.

Unknown Artist, Nativity Scene in Cappella Palatina, Palermo (c. 1150)

Part of a series of mosaics situated in the Palatine Chapel in Palermo, here is the nativity & where it is placed. I’d guess John the Baptist is the child at the bottom right & perhaps another fed-up looking Joseph bottom left... 

Yule Rue the Day! - Dec 24th - Friday Video Distractions

 

     Tomorrow is Christmas, and as I type this I still can't quite accept it. I'm certainly not ready for it, but I'll do what I can, and otherwise hope it's going well for most of you. Before that, though, it's the penultimate Friday of 2021, and Christmas Eve, so something's being posted here today.

    Along with what some of us think of as an assault of Christmas/holiday music each year, there are specials and skits. In an Internet age, even if they're not officially rebroadcast by someone, most of them are still out there... lurking.

     I know that I've never, at any age, been the target audience for these holiday specials. In some cases it's a strict formula, and in others it's such a forced concept that it surely came down as a command from on-high at the network that they had to have one of those holiday special things - the bulk of the entertainment's in looking for signs that the participants are asking themselves how they got into this.
     One especially contrived one I've only recently become aware of (and I haven't made it far into it, as I've had to remain sober due to other responsibilities) is 1984's Scrooge's Rock 'N' Roll Christmas (just over 42m, though officially it keeps being listed as 44). Back in '84 that was a Sunday night, and it didn't seem to be on the schedule of any of the three broadcast networks at the time (CBS had it's then-normal slate of Sunday night shows on, while ABC was running Superman (1978) and NBC had The Sound of Music (1965), so it must have been a syndicated special to be distributed on WTBS or USA Network, or whatever else was lurking on cable back then.
     Referenced as a tv movie, the core premise seems to be either a mild acid trip or a weak Twilight Zone episode, as a young woman (presumably from 1984) on Christmas Eve steps into what she expects is a local, familiar record shop, only to find it instead is Scrooge & Marley's money-lending establishment, with the surviving proprietor hard at work. Scrooge is played by cantankerous, crazy-eyed character actor Jack Elam. She decides he's too grumpy for the holiday, so she brings out a magic snowglobe to badger the grizzled, befuddled man with a series of older pop/rock performers (including Three Dog Night, Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Association, Merrilee Rush, Bobby Goldsboro, Mary MacGregor, Mike Love, and the Dean half of Jan & Dean) lip-syncing to covers of holiday "classics" as they pose and amble through winter scenes at the Goldmine Ski Resort. The stout of heart, morbidly curious, and/or besotted can find it free (because watching it may already be too high a price) on DailyMotion, over on Tubi, or here, via YouTube.

     I'd only ever known this next piece as a purely audio item - I don't seem to recall them integrating it into the SCTV show - and if anyone's still listening to radio, I'm sure it's still getting airplay around this time of year. (Certainly, I'd much rather come across this than, say, the two or three seconds of Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer I'd hear before shutting it off by any means necessary.) The animation doesn't do much, good or ill, but it gives you something to watch other than a static image while listening. It's Bob (Rick Moranis) & Doug (Dave Thomas) McKenzie's 12 Days of (Canadian) Christmas.

     The characters began as throw-away bits by the pair. They were created in response to the request in 1980, for the show's third season, for two minutes per show of Canadian-focused content. This was

because with that third season they'd moved to CBC, and the U.S. market the shows were syndicated to  packed in commercials more aggressively, so the network wanted the extra minutes to be focused for a Canadian audience. As the show had been done for two seasons with a Canadian cast and crew, Moranis and Thomas saw it as an unnecessary focus, and so decided to fold in every cliche about Canadians they could think of, with the intent being of giving the suits reason to regret meddling in the show's content.
     Taking a single camera, they'd drink beer, cook back bacon and hot snacks, and improv their way through bits they expected to make the network rethink their request. Instead, those bits became breakout spots for the show, and this included the U.S. audience as some of them had made their way into the show. By the end of '83 the characters had peaked, with exposure not only via increased time in the show, but also by a Grammy-nominated, Billboard Top 10-charting comedy album, The Great White North (which included the above carol) and a feature film, Strange Brew. I remember feeling overexposed to this back then, and I've no idea how many years it's been since I last listened to it. The album's ready to play on YouTube if their song didn't completely scratch that itch. For completeness' sake (though off-topic for this seasonal post) Strange Brew (1983  1h 32.5m)is also sitting on YouTube.

     Swinging back to A Christmas Carol, having seen that it's available on Hulu, Paramount +, Tubi and even on YouTube, the 1984 version starring George C. Scott has been roundly praised -- and to the best of my knowledge it's a version I've not yet seen. It was a joint British-American production, shot in the town of Shrewsbury in Shropshire. Referenced generally as a made-for-tv film, it was first shown in the U.S. on December 17, 1984, and was shown theatrically in Great Britain.
     So far I haven't much been in the mood for the story this season, but perhaps tonight. As I have the options, I'll likely go for either Paramount+ or Hulu. Here's A Christmas Carol (1984   101m)

     While it should have multiple points to commend it, I'm particularly interested in seeing David Warner as Bob Cratchit, as most of Warner's more memorable roles had sinister aspects, and I expect my mind will be importing some of those despite his character here being nothing but amiable and downtrodden.
     Next up is a 1994 short feature on the making of 1966's instant classic, the animated How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Hosted by Phil Hartman, including interview segments with  the key people who were still around at the time, specifically artist/animator Chuck Jones, incredibly bass-throated singer Thurl Ravenscroft, composer Albert Hague, and Ted (Dr. Seuss) Geisel's widow. Runs 19m 19s.

     A slightly unpleasant memory I have associated with this - I'd forgotten it until rewatching it - is that I remember watching this back in 1994 and reacting badly to one aspect of it. This was the fourth Christmas for elder son, Travis, and the second for his brother, Nick, so we were into holiday tradition-building mode. Adding the Grinch, something that had started around my fifth Christmas, was an easy choice. Anyway, what struck me all over again was that despite liking Phil Hartman in just

about anything, his presenter persona here was too much like his Troy McClure character on The Simpsons. A self-absorbed, former, forced celebrity -- someone to invoke to lend faux gravitas to some minor event or PSA in a doomed-to-fail attempt to spin it up into something bigger. As such, it seemed terribly out of place in a piece talking about such a start-to-finish triumph for broadcast television. At least for me, there's an implicit archness without any target.
     This could easily be a case of my carrying baggage they really didn't bring. Your mileage may very well vary, as mine likely would have had I seen it for the first time a year or two later, when I might have taken it, instead, for his Bill McNeal character from the sitcom News Radio. In 1994, however, that show had yet to begin.
     What makes the memory unpleasant for me is mostly recalling that it's a rare bad association with Phil, and some part of me feels a little guilty about that as four years later he'd be gone at the absurdly-young age of 49. That's how my mind works, unfortunately. I remember some departed person fondly, and my memory will immediately deliver a cringe-inducing kick, as I recall that time I was thoughtlessly dismissive or even directly mean to them. Ah, well, Phil never knew.
     As for How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) itself, NBC appears to have that tied up. They'll be airing it on their main network Saturday night at 8 (Eastern), and otherwise have it on their Peacock streaming service -- behind their paywall, of course.
     Shifting back to the nearly innumerable versions of Dickens' A Christmas Carol that various media have delivered and/or unceremoniously dumped on us over the decades, I felt I had to repeat one from a mid-December piece last year. A supercut of films, tv shows, commercials, comic books, etc. iterations of the story that Heath Waterman maniacally spliced together back in 2016. It's Twelve Hundred Ghosts (54m). Maybe this is the new holiday tradition you're looking for?

     Just to toss a few, unrelated, new items in here at the end - while I should also remind myself to look back to the previous several Friday posts for things I haven't yet gotten to.
     There's some odd impulse to throw myself suddenly into a a pop cultural and musical pool I'm wholly unacquainted with, via the mockumentary (a scripted film shot as a documentary) - also referenced as a psychological thriller comedy - The Nowhere Inn.
     Grammy award-winner Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, is unknown to me, though I've at least heard some things from the two acts she was part of prior to going solo, both The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens' touring band. I suspect that I'll be the old man at the party who has no idea what information to catch as significant, and so will miss most references and  jokes. Still, it's good to stretch a little this way, and at least here, as an unobserved audience in my bubble, I don't also have to be part of the joke. There's more than enough of that in real life.
     Anyway, The Nowhere Inn (2021   91m) landed on Hulu a week ago. Here's the trailer.

     Arriving today on Netflix (and out in limited theatrical release since December 10th) is the satirical science fiction film Don't Look Up (2021  138m). Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Rob Morgan, and Jonah Hill -- among a star-studded, international cast. Truly, it seems that one won't go long between "oh, look who else is here!" moments.
     The premise is that a pair of astronomers (played by DiCaprio & Lawrence) discover a hitherto-unknown comet heading straight for Earth. Its trajectory makes it 100% certain to hit, and its mass assures them that it will be a planet-killer, wiping out most of the life on Earth. The film is mainly about how the authorities, media, and general public each selectively process (or mostly fail to) the information in the most self-serving way possible. In our world of seemingly endless public health crisis, and a media environment that caters to selective bubbles of infotainment created to selectively reinforce nearly anyone's views, the broad, satirical premise of the film is understandable and, unfortunately, natural. The term "facts" has become slippery at best, with the self-entitled notion that reality is truly selective, instantly politicized, we can partake of or pass over the details that do or don't suit us with not only impunity but pride.
     The light scan of critical reviews is mixed, with many praising the cast, but finding the satire heavy-handed.
     At the moment, not having a very uplifting holiday so far myself (it's not been a great week), this may be the new item I'll go for first sometime today. (Well, after this week's installment of The Expanse.) Here's the trailer:

      Also arriving today on Netflix is an 8-part sci-fi thriller series from South Korea, reuniting some of the cast of Squid Game (cast, not the characters) in a dystopic, nearish-future setting where a global environmental crisis on Earth has led to selective rationing of water. A team is assembled to go to Balhae, a research station on the Moon, to retrieve a research sample from a hush-hush project that ended mysteriously and very badly for the 117 people stationed there five years earlier. Hidden agendas lead to a critically under-detailed briefing, and the team has no clue what they're walking into until it's too late.
     It's The Silent Sea (2021)

     Reviews have me approaching this one expecting it to be largely unsatisfyingly derivative of better films, specifically James Cameron's Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986), to a degree that it largely buries the more unique aspects.

     As ever, there's always more to be reached for, but I've run out of time. However you observe this time of year, I hope you're able to enjoy and share it with someone. Indulge yourself, but not so much that you'll regret it tomorrow. Oh, turn it up to 11 if you want. It's your life.
     Take care, and I hope to see you here a week from now, as we pause on the final day of 2021.
     I'm making a late addition, as I just saw Micky Dolenz post a link to this as a holiday remembrance of his now-absent friends and bandmates. - Mike