What's To Watch? - Feb 18th - All Over the Place

 

     Another week down! Better than halfway through February, I'm dealing with a mix of issues... but that's not an issue here. Here it's all about escapes!
     Yesterday brought the generally solid season finale for Peacemaker over on HBO Max. The cast made fine work of their parts, and John Cena, in particular, rose to the challenge, validating at least some of what James Gunn saw in him during the filming of Suicide Squad (2021). A second season's been ordered, with James Gunn set to write and direct all of the episodes, so it seems nearly everyone's pleased with how this first season went.
      Arriving today on Amazon Prime, is the long-awaited start of season 4 of The Marvelous Mrs.

Maisel. Again, the many delays and restrictions due to the pandemic have left us all waiting a very long time since the 8-episode season 3 dropped in December 2019 -- a little over 26 months ago.
     In the show, it's now 1960, and it's time again for bold moves for seemingly most of the characters. Season three ended with a huge reversal for Midge and Susie as a misunderstanding combined with Midge's signature style of honest revelations in her act killed their connection to a touring gig as an opener for singer Shy Baldwin. Much had been sacrificed to make that tour possible, and then it evaporated, leaving Midge and Susie on the tarmac, packed but with nowhere to go. Various teaser trailers for the new season were dropped in recent months, each with an emphasis on different part of the cast. This one focuses on Midge and her manager, Susie:

         This eight-episode season will be doled out two episodes per week - so, over four weeks, ending March 11th. While I know it'll leave me hanging week-to-week - the show is strongly bingeable - I also approve of this compromise release schedule. The rapid-fire delivery and blend of plotlines will benefit from giving me more time to stew on the latest developments each week. Renewed just ahead of this season's release, we'll be getting a fifth and final season -- hopefully much sooner than 2+ years away. But that's then. I want to enjoy this season first.
     Yesterday HBO Max saw the arrival of the first season of a Taiwanese sci-fi series Dream Raider. Released abroad in 2020, we're a bit late to the show, so if one's so inclined there's ample commentary to be found. Wanting to take it on its own, I've avoided looking; if I have questions afterwards, then I'll look. The series is set in the near future, and features a team of scientists and police working against a criminal group using tech to hack people's minds and force them to commit crimes.

    I know that, for some reason, I made it through the ten-episode first season of Netflix's Space Force back in 2020. That arrived in late May, so we were better than two months into the pandemic tumult by then, and distractions from it held a little more attraction than they otherwise might. I'm left with vague memories of how they took thin parody characters, and then tried to give them emotional depth and flesh them out with a blend of underdog spunk formula and sentimentality in the back half of the season. While not a primary character, we did also have a few episodes which were some of the last work done by Fred Willard, who passed shortly before the series streamed, so looking for those bits helped pull me through some of it.
     It had more than one aspect working against my warming to it, as not only did I find the real world creation of a space-focused branch of the military to be a tragic move, even worse with it happening as part of the most vile administration in my lifetime (so far!), but it's a cringe-seeking, "workplace comedy" co-created by Steve Carrell (who also stars in it) and Greg Daniels, best known in tandem for the U.S. version of The Office - a highly-successful sitcom which never caught with me. I gave The Office several tries to watch from the start, and it failed to connect with me each time; I'll try again, eventually, because I have good indicators that it improved as it went on, and more of the cast developed, but... I've gone off track for this piece.
     Regardless, for good or ill, Space Force is back for a seven-episode second season.

    I'm getting too many mixed or at least uncertain indicators on what changes to expect in season two. They've stated that they're moving to focus more on the gags and the improv energy between the cast, and less on the big picture and cinematic elements. Ken Kwapis was brought in to direct all of the episodes (though each of the seven was written by a different person -- with Carell himself writing the season-opener), and even there I'm left uncertain because while I have some positive associations with some of the shows he's worked on (The Santa Clarita Diet, and One Mississippi) I've not reached back to see where his episodes in each stood with respect to my impression of each full series. The press materials are leaning on his work with Carell and on The Office, including that show's pilot, which as you might expect from my non-fan status of that show, isn't filling me with confidence.

     Newly-arrived this week on Netflix are several films I knew nothing about until I took a look at what was new. Among them is a short (15 min) tale about an irresponsible aunt and her young niece accidentally unleashing some menaces from a storybook: Erax (2022)

     Another short film added to Netflix, albeit one with a grimmer scenario, finds a boy with a limb disability finding himself hunted by Nazis intent on exterminating the disabled circa 1939. The classroom scene is particularly chilling, with its Nazi-directed lesson plan. This a desperate vignette rather than a full tale, with much of the goal being to teach about some important history too many likely are unaware of. Be sure to read up on Aktion T4 after watching Forgive Us Our Trespasses (2022  13m)   

     That's a tip of a research iceberg for the unwary, which will also lead to a broader, dark history of eugenics-driven programs that were running rampant, particularly in the Western world, in the early 20th century.
    Another short film addition, and of a yet again different type, is a teenage LGBTQ romance film, where one person's violent past threatens a new relationship. It's Heart Shot (2022  19m). I didn't see a trailer attempted for this one, and I haven't gotten to watch it yet, but here's a brief clip from a more idyllic portion of the story.

     So, there are three, interesting-looking stories one can knock out in just under 50 minutes.
     At a more cinematic length, there's also supernatural action thriller that's intended to work as a standalone film, but is also a follow-up to a 2019 series - Wu Assassins, also on Netflix. This one sees the team gets back together in Bangkok to avenge one of their own, only to find that the threat has supernatural powers.
     I wasn't aware of the earlier series - or only saw mention of it in passing - but I expect my low-level OCD will insist I watch the earlier series first. So, who knows when or even if I'll get to it? If you've seen it (either one), feel free to pass along any thoughts, pro or con. This new item is Fistful of Vengeance (2022  95 min), and is reported to be more of a thrill ride. It at least looks like a fun action film.

     Today over on Hulu, we get the third in the Kingsmen series of unflappable, polished and fashionable, British gadget-equipped, action super spies, with The King's Man (2021  R   2h 21m), which aims to provide the early 20th century beginnings of the organization.

     A popcorn film, with much gunplay, fighting, and explosions... and a fighting action Rasputin, too. It also arrives on HBO this Saturday.
     Also landing on Hulu today is a Welsh horror film, The Feast (2021 93m), which currently looks a little more unsettling than I'm up for. See how it strikes you.

     Arriving on both HBO Max and Disney+ next Wednesday, the 23rd, is the Ryan Reynolds vehicle, sci-fi action comedy Free Guy (2021  PG-13  1h 55m).
     Reynolds plays an upbeat, roll-with-it, bank teller in a world with wild levels of daily violence happening all around him. He starts to question why things are the way they are, and discovers reality-shaking things about the world and himself. Here's the original 2020 trailer, back before cascade of revised theatrical dates pushed it off into late 2021.

      One film I've just added to my list is a low-budget sci-fi drama that by most indications made excellent use of its materials. In it, a cognitive pshychologist, haunted by and obsessed with the unexplained disappearance of his daughter, discovers a means of communicating with the dead. His inability to use it to contact his daughter gives him hope that she's still alive, so her mystery remains. It's Repeat (2021 1h 35m)

     The film's available for rent or purchase on Amazon, but more importantly is free for all over on Tubi, which is where I'll be watching it.
     Back over on Netflix, I enjoyed a small film about a retired assassin who was once known for his speed and precision with a blade, and how life squeezed him out of retirement and back in with his old partners for a new mission to provide a means for the elderly to escape their too-troubled lives. A desperate young girl gets into the mix, forcing yet further changes. It's Time (2021 1h 39m). Despite this trailer (as with many of the imports) the Netflix default brings you a version dubbed into English.

     This Sunday will see the fourth and final installment of the documentary We Need To Talk About Cosby, discussing the complex problem Bill Cosby poses for people of several generations. It seems untoward to say that I've enjoyed watching it, but it's made for a very interesting discussion as we shift between who the man was at any given time to the general public, and who he really was and is. Along the way, one of the many points that stuck with me, was the question of whether or not we're looking at a Jekyll and Hyde, or if it's all simply been Hyde, varying only with the thickness of the glamour he spun to hide behind.
     The week's gotten away from me yet again, but hopefully the mix above will lead you to at least one or two items of interest.  I hope you'll be back here next Friday, as we close out the month. Take care, and keep thinking spring! - Mike

Trawling Through The Thrift Stores with Joseph Finn

 Happy Thursday, everyone!  The weather is warming, football is over until August, baseball is still on hold because of the team owners and now I'm in a layoff situation so if anyone wants to pay me write stuff about pop culture, I'm here.  So let's look at what I found this last week.

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The classy movie this week is Le Salaire de la peur (The Wages Of Fear, 1953).  Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot and written by him Jérome Geronimi, this is a terrifying tale of post-WWII men in an an un-named country who are hired to move a truck full of nitroglycerin.  Simple, right?  Nope, of course it isn't.  This really is one of the more tense movies I've ever seen. Of course there are all sorts of setbacks and obstacles and a bridge scene that's just plain scary as hell.   

The Wages Of Fear is streaming on HBO Max, Kanopy and the Criterion Channel.

I've somehow never seen the William Friedkin remake, Sorcerer, but I'm curious to see if that's worth my time.  It's available for rent and purchase at the usual places.

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Completing my set of The Wire season DVDs!  For some reason, this is the season that people seem to have an issue with and I simply don't get that.  This is the season that expands the world of Baltimore's cops and robbers and shows it is far more than just the cops and the corners; expanding this world to the slow-dying docks is what makes this show all the better.  Now it's a show that's about more of Baltimore, not just about drug deals and swearing cops.

Plus, this season has Amy Ryan.  That makes everything better.

The Wire is streaming on HBO Max.

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Hey, another series completion for me!  This one, Heroes, I kind of fell off on during the second season so I have no idea why this series set looks like it takes place during a crazy carnival.  For all I know, this is the Nightmare Alley season.  But hey, a carnival is always a good place to set a horror/sci-fi show, since they're always kind of creepy.  So hey, clowns and carousels and super powers!  I'm totally sure there won't be a character named Barker.

There is totally a character named Barker.

Heroes is streaming on Peacock and also something called PureFlix, which...well, I can't vouch for that, but it sounds shady.

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This week's schlock!  With Scream 5 recently out, I was looking through my DVDs and look, I cannot defend the movie overall but I just want to note how good Anna Faris is in her riffing on Scream and Sydney Prescott in this.  Faris is an excellent comedic actress who I think has always been a little under appreciated (though I know she got good notices for the series Mom) and this series of movies gives her some fun goofiness to work with.  A lot of the jokes are almost amazingly dated and there's some serious sexism going on here as well, but it's all about Faris for me.

Scary Movie is streaming on the various Showtime platforms.

Two Years Before the Mast -- a review by Hazel Duckworth

The hardcover version my grandparents had of Two Years Before the Mast had the map on the inner cover and you had to spin the book ninety degrees to see everything. I think that's why I wanted to read this one -- I'd really liked Lassie Come Home, which had that same kind of map. But I was too young to understand ship life or the eighteenth century so I gave up pretty quick on this memoir. 

But at a yard sale (before Covid, obviously!) I found the same edition of Two Years Before the Mast that Grandma and Grandpa had. The dust jacket is gone, so I put the paperback edition up at the top instead.

Here is a more modern map, tracing the trip from the East Coast to California during the Gold Rush. 

Richard Henry Dana was a New Englander who was once a student at a private school run by Ralph Waldo Emerson. He went on to attend Harvard, but then he got measles and had to suspend his classwork. After this, Dana was diagnosed with an eye condition and advised to take sea air for his health. Instead of taking an ocean voyage for pleasure, he signed up as a merchant season, first on a ship called the Pilgrim, later another vessel called the Alert.

In 1834, Dana sailed with the rest of the crew from Boston to San Diego. San Diego was in Mexico then and on the high ground overlooking the ocean were big sheds which held calf hides, which were dried and stacked to be shipped to Boston where the shoe-making factories were. When the merchant ships sailed from Boston to San Diego, they would bring the finished shoes and boots, and they'd pick up a new load of hides. Dana vividly describes his work in San Diego, which was to stack up calf hides and then haul these down a steep hillside to the dock, before climbing back up to get more hides.  The work on the ship was even harder, with sailors required to climb up high and then walking along a network of ropes which were sometimes both covered in ice to adjust the sails.

Those awful duties wasn't the hardest part of being a seaman on a merchant ship, though. Working conditions were hellish, with malnutrition, scurvy, and untreated sickness. Dana describes having such a bad toothache that he couldn't do his on-shop work duties. Even worse, was the absolute power of the sea captains in the early 19th century.

The captain was the king, the judge and jury, and the person who carried out punishments. Dana describes the captain of his first ship sadistically flogging a sailor for a pretty minor infraction while the rest of the crew had to watch. On other ships, captains sometimes  murdered crew members or had them murdered and served only weeks in jail.

And after all that, the crew had to get the ship back to Boston by "rounding the Horn." Here is  description  from YouTube.

 

Folk singer and ballad "Rounding the Horn"

Ther terrible working conditions for sailors and their mistreatment by cruel captains who answered to no one for their behavior inspired Richard Henry Dana to spend the rest of his life trying to right the wrongs. He recalled his own schoolboy days (before attendance at Emerson's school) where the cruel schoolmster both flogged students, and pulled their ears so hard that the lobe of the ear would tear way from the pupil's head. Seeing that sailors, like these schoolboys, had no one to protect them or to advise them, Dana wrote a handbook, The Seaman's Friend. Dana also worked within the legal system to fight for sailors' rights and to see that captains who abused the seamen stood trial for their crimes. 

Richard Henry Dana wrote well, and he must have kept a journal, to judge by all the details he gives. Even though the conditions on the ships were terrible, there's also a lot of adventure, spirit, and adventure in Two Years Before the Mast. It's a book I recommend even if you aren't interested in ships or sailing, because it's well-written history. 

 ****

                                                

This week's reviewer:  Hazel Duckworth is 51, has a day job in a warehouse full of products for a big box store, and reads whenever she has a chance. She shares a cozy small house with her partner Samuel and two cats, one of whom lives in the house and one of whom comes and goes. 

 

Tuesday Thing 2-15-22 -- in which I read aloud the ending to the Ellis St. Joseph story "Leviathan"

Last post (audio format today!) in a series about the work of writer/screenwriter Ellis St. Joseph. During this slideshow of postcards from a Long Ilsand beach, I summarize the short story "Leviathan," and read you the laxt couple of pages. 

 

‘Your Loving Arms, Your Sweet, Sweet Loving Arms . . .’

 by whiteray

It being Valentine’s Day today, the world will likely be filled with love songs. 

And that’s okay. If there’s one thing that should be celebrated more often, it’s love. And I can’t think of a more appropriate day to do so than today. 

But what is there to say that hasn’t been said already, here and in a thousand thousand other places? Maybe nothing, but let’s go on anyway. I think we can say that love – like the songs we write about it – is really about hope, promises, fear, joy, sorrow, yearning, bliss, despair, isolation, companionship, contentment and finally, peace. 

I’ve heard it said – heck, I may have said so myself at one time or another, as many times as I’ve taken a climb on this Matterhorn of a topic – that we don’t really choose who we love. We just love, and we recognize the objects of our love when they enter our lives. The choices we make then are: first, whether to acknowledge the love, and second, how to express it. Those choices determine which of the feelings in the above list – hope, promises and so on – will embrace the two lovers. 

Sometimes we choose badly. Most of the time, we hope, we don’t. And when one chooses well, when one acknowledges and expresses love in ways that nurture both souls, then the worst things on that list – isolation and despair – can be minimized, if not entirely avoided. What about fear and sorrow? Well, no person who loves another can avoid them. That’s not cynicism talking, that’s – to quote Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield by way of Marvin Gaye – the way love is. Fear and sorrow are the B-Side of hope and joy, and souls who love each other fear the inevitable parting and the resulting sorrow that comes even to those who have loved well and long. 

I’d almost presume to say that if we do not grieve at a loved one’s leave-taking, we have not loved. 

So, am I some kind of expert on love, to be throwing epigrams and lists of words around this morning? No, I’m just another pilgrim, one who has at times loved less than wisely and now – I believe – has learned to love well. These words are a description of my life, not a prescription for others. The only advice I would have for others on this day when we celebrate love is something someone told me long ago: Embrace love, wherever you find it. 

Beyond that, all we need is a song. So, here’s a song I shared with my Texas Gal not that long after we met twenty-two years ago this week. The lyrics aren’t quite perfect, but the soaring chorus . . . 

It became the first of “our songs.” Performed by Texas singer-songwriter Darden Smith, it’s “Loving Arms.”

Sundries

1973. A fifteen year old rides the bus across town to buy herself a lunch, whatever she might be able to afford, at Our Daily Bread. Eating healthy food might help, because she may be very unwell.  Some friends of hers have been reading, You Are All Sanpaku, by the Japanese proponent of the macrobiotic diet, George Oshawa. The author claims that many westerners will face an early death due to their dietary habits. The western staples of meat, sugar, and dairy being disastrous for health. The signs of being in the state of sanpaku, are indicated by ones eyes. Any whites of the eyes showing below, or heaven forbid above, the irises is a sign that your diet is killing you. She considers the fact that many Asians have distinctive eye shapes, more almond shaped, and that westerners whose eye shapes can run the gamut, may just naturally have the white-of-the-eye problem referred to in the book. It could just be the shape of the skull and genetics, she thinks. In any case, she babysat last night, and can take her dollars to the heathfood restaurant and have at least a bowl of soup. The people watching will be fun, too. College students go there. Maybe there will be someone handsome. Who'll think she's cute...

This isn't quite the beginning of her hypochondria. She'd heard on the news in first grade the warning signs of cancer and had memorized them. There were 6 or 7 signs, one of which was a lump. She'd had many lumps, all of them under bruises, and just as now, she did not think the worst. She suspected that the lumps on her body which had always coincided with bruises were somehow related to the bruises. But she watched them to be sure they faded in a reasonable amount of time, nonetheless, even now that she knew how bruises form. She had a nursing handbook bought from a friend's big sister. The same big sister who'd years ago, sold her all of her 1940's Nancy Drew books for a quarter a piece. 

Her mother's McCall's and Life magazines often had articles about health and sickness.  She memorized so many early symptoms of devastating diseases.  She thought of becoming a doctor, but knew she'd have to really improve in math if she was going to go for that. Diseases were both scary and interesting. But it was hard for her to rein in her imagination once she got going on a disease kick. Three things could help: music, some esthetic endeavor, or a new infatuation. 

With any luck, today would bring one of the 3 into her life. Being sanpaku looked dreadful, and she hadn't even finished the book she'd borrowed. Her friends could better afford a macrobiotic diet, she realized. A babysitting income certainly wouldn't foot that bill, and she didn't even consider asking her mom to stop serving the meals she prepared for her family. Mom was a good cook, too. There were always fresh vegetables in every meal. Never desserts. Sometimes she'd buy ice cream.  It hadn't been that long ago that her mom had made the family start eating whole wheat bread, after she'd read Frances Moore Lappe. Everyone in the family looked sanpaku... but what was a fifteen year old to do? 

~Dorothy Dolores 

A Non-exhaustive List - Esther

One of the most annoying things about the past couple of years has been not going anywhere. As much as I love being at home, it’s nice to have a change of scene from time to time. It’s a boat we’ve all been stuck in. We’ve had holidays cancelled, concerts postponed, we’ve been ill & unable to travel, public transport has been dodgy etc & it’s been a mightily tedious time all round. Round these parts we’ve even had a couple of storms in the last few months that curtailed everyone’s plans good (fun things like holidays) & bad (work). Extreme weather is unusual for us & we’re ill-prepared. 

This weekend however, we’re getting away a couple of hundred miles down the road, purely because we can. Make no mistake, we’ll be topping up our art gallery miles in the dozens just for the sake of it. Even when there’s not a pandemic though, the public transport systems in Scotland are pitiful. Unlike Germany or the Netherlands, they are unreliable & poorly maintained. The least thing can provoke cancellations, postponements or breakdowns – vehicles & passengers. With this in mind, we’ve opted to go by bus this weekend. We’d have preferred the train, but we’ve been stung too many times. Sometimes a train will be cancelled & you are shovelled onto a bus replacement service. All the expense of a train but the inconvenience, misery, extended journey time & cramped conditions of a bus. So we figure, we may as well just pay for a bus & cross our fingers.

The art world feels our pain & although various modes of transport are widely represented, some are difficult to portray as exotic or fun. 

Tamara de Lempicka, Autoportrait (Tamara in a Green Bugatti) (1925)

That can’t be said of Tamara’s stunning self portrait. As stylish as they come, she & the Bugatti are the stuff of Roaring Twenties legend – both racy & glamorous. Not only does Tamara make travel look exotic & fun, it’s almost sexy. She celebrates her independence on what people today like to call “her own terms.” She has painted the motor with the coolness of a convertible in mind but the steering wheel would have been on the right side, so she even dares to take liberties with a design classic. Of course we know the reality of a soft top in Scotland is quite something else & frankly you’d be asking for trouble putting the roof down. Everyone would say you’d richly deserve to get blown away/a car filled with snow/soaking wet seats, showing off like that & everyone would be right.

Leonardo da Vinci, Plans for a Helicopter/The Aerial Screw (1493)

As he often did, here Leonardo blurs the lines between science & art. Although there have always been people willing to risk life & limb in conquering the air in “flying machines,” Leonardo’s is unusual because it shows no traits or design features reminiscent of birds or other flying creatures. He was using science, technology & was well ahead of his time. It’s not even clear if he’d have had the means to ever try it out.

Winslow Homer, The Gulf Stream (1899) 

Seemingly, Homer was very bemused at the endless stream of literal & allegorical interpretations of this painting. Even today, we can think of a number of narratives we could apply to the work.  To my eyes it appears to symbolise isolation & abandonment…but then a lot of paintings do, haha. At the time however, Homer resisted providing a meaning & grew sarcastic, saying that the man in the picture “will be rescued & returned to his friends & home & ever after live happily.”

Wolf Vostell, Concrete Traffic (1970)

Vostell’s incredible concrete structure contains real Cadillac. Swathed in concrete, it weighs in at a whopping 16.2 tons & even the act of it being made was regarded as an event. Surprisingly, after forty years outdoors, it required conservation & between 2012 & 2016 was restored.

Paul Friedrich Meyerheim, Vor der Vollendung (Before the Completion) (1873-1876)

I’m not going to lie – part of the reason I love this painting is the cat. It’s actually beautifully captured in all its nosy-cat glory. But we’re here for the vehicles & we see the construction of the train & everyone is involved. This is one panel from Meyerheim’s Life History of a Locomotive series for the Borsig-Werke company that made trains. The seven panels are painted on copper.

Jean Metzinger, Au Vélodrome (1911-12)

There are few sports I enjoy watching: football, darts & baseball & there are some I don’t enjoy particularly but am always amazed by. Cycling falls into the latter category & vélodrome competitions look pretty exciting. This painting – which apparently counts sand among its multiple media – was notable as it depicted a champion in the sport, one Charles Crupelandt, 1912 winner of the Paris-Roubaix race.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Carriage (c. 1881)

This small painting is in part so effective because of the tipped look of the carriage. We get the sense that carriage riding is not the most comfortable mode of transport.

Roy Lichtenstein, Whaam! (1963)

One vehicle I’d rather not be on, thank you very much. 

Paul Kenton, Bus Stop Blues (?)

Blues are definitely what I associate with bus stops, since I apparently spend much of my life waiting & sulking at them. But here we have a London bus – lively & red whilst all around is gloomy, miserable & probably wet. It stands out from the dull street scene, vibrant & hopefully on time…

Corradino D’Ascanio, Vespa (1946)

Of course a lot of quality artworks are made for commercial use or appropriated for advertising. Although there are plenty of adverts & rip-off adverts for Vespas, I thought it’d be nice to look at the original design made for the Piaggio company. A symbol of mod culture in the UK for decades, a key aim was to fit on as many mirrors & lights to the front & wings as was humanly possible. A symbol of youthful freedom, it featured widely in the film Quadrophenia; Jimmy’s Vespa was like a whole other character. It was his trusty sidekick: like Trigger or Toto or Robin. & I’m not going to spoil it, but one way or another, it followed him everywhere…