A Bad Day for People Dying- Immortality and Mortality
We lost my kindred movie spirit Roger Ebert on this day in 2013. I had just read his last blog post the day before. Seemed like he was doing well although his health had been declining for ages. I couldn't believe the news. His wife Chaz said that they were leaving the hospital and he asked her why he was resisting death. He'd had a great life with no regrets, why didn't he just let go? And then he did. She said it was the most beautiful thing.
I still miss him quite often. He was much more than a movie critic. There's nobody's perspective we are missing more than his.
He read every comment on his blog, so he read about ten of mine and even responded to a few.
In one post he said he was so afraid of being buried alive, that he'd decided to be cremated. I wrote about a time at work recently where I smelled what I thought was a nearby barbeque, until I saw smoke billowing out of the crematory down the road. He responded that he changed his mind, now he wanted to be shot into space.
Herzog said of him, "There will be a long, long echo of his work reverberating for a long, long time.... I've always tried to be a good soldier of cinema myself, so of course since he's gone, I will plow on, as I have plowed on all my life, but I will do what I have to do as if Roger was looking over my shoulder. And I am not gonna disappoint him."
I'm going to attempt to not disappoint him either.
The last words he wrote were quite apt:
"So on this day of reflection I say again, thank you for going on this journey with me. I'll see you at the movies."
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I was tracing my most prominent genealogical lines back last night through familysearch.com and found out that one of my 125 million 28th great grandfathers was William the Conqueror... If the info is to be believed. That would mean one of my 39th great-grandfathers was Charlemagne. It's no big whoop, go back far enough and we all have similar ancestors. Go back further and we're all fish. Go back further and we're just a lightning bolt striking some primordial ooze. Strange world we live in..
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Zuzu asked her momma to draw a picture of all of us wearing dresses. Not bad.
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It's the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., shot down on this day in 1968.
From Sarah Vowell's Wordy Shipmates:
[Martin Luther King, Jr.] concluded the learned discourse that came to be known as the 'loving your enemies' sermon this way: 'So this morning, as I look into your eyes and into the eyes of all my brothers in Alabama and all over America and over the world, I say to you,'I love you. I would rather die than hate you.'
Go ahead and reread that. That is hands down the most beautiful, strange, impossible, but most of all radical thing a human being can say. And it comes from reading the most beautiful, strange, impossible, but most of all radical civics lesson ever taught, when Jesus of Nazareth went to a hill in Galilee and told his disciples, 'Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you.
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John Tyler became president on this day in 1841 after William Harrison died of pneumonia. As you might have heard, Tyler still has a living grandson.
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I'm resisting the compulsion to go into a bank with a bandana over my face and say, "Give me all my money!" Perfectly legal.
April 4, 2020
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Maya Angelou was born on this day in 1928, so Martin Luther King Jr. died on her 40th birthday.
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Anthony Perkins and Andre Tarkovsky were both born on this day in 1932.
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Jim Fregosi was born in 1942, manager of one of my top 3 favorite teams, the '93 Phillies.
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David Cross, Robert Downey Jr., and Nancy McKeon we're born on this day in 1964, 1965, and 1966 respectively.
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David Cross, from Oh Come On:
"But… But anyway, so there’s this Twitter thing, Twitter feed, that I’m on that’s called Trump Regrets or Trump Voter Regrets or something like that. And it’s a compendium of whenever somebody writes that in their tweet, it sends it to this thing. And, you know, it’s been going on, they’ve compiled thousands and thousands of them. You know, there’s– somebody posted a couple days ago. “Dear President Trump, I’m starting to regret my vote.” What– Now? Now you’re… starting to regret. “Yeah, that’s right! I mean, I was fine in the beginning. I– I can overlook and I’m okay with the blatant racism and the crass sexism and the deranged narcissism and pandering to Nazis and supporting pedophiles and proudly bragging about being a sexual predator and paying your mistress to have an abortion and openly cheating your employees and mocking the disabled and praising murderous dictators and the constant pathological lying, the petty, vindictive cruelty, the staggering ineptitude, the unapologetic corruption, the nepotism, the Mob ties, the calculated mendacity, ignorance as to how American government works, encouraging violence against those that question your authority, the theft of our tax dollars to pay off your mountain of debt and/or go golfing. Did I mention the relentless lying? You’re a liar. Being a white nationalist, demonizing immigrants, the obvious disregard of the Bill of Rights, lying about whether Russia had hacked our election when you knew all along it had, then lying about lying about it, the collusion with our sworn enemy and the sworn enemy of democracy, your dereliction of duty, your treasonous activities, and I… -[cheering] -I was with you when you cheated on your wife with that porn star, the one you compared favorably to your daughter, you cheated on your wife, not the wife you raped, but the current wife who had just given birth to your son, and of course I was with you when we found out you cheated with the Playboy Playmate, the one you compared favorably to your daughter, not– not with the wife you have now, but the second wife whose kid you ignore, and of course I was with you, President Trump, when you– when you took the babies away, you took infants breastfeeding, literally breastfeeding, from their mothers and fathers, families who had made this arduous trek to come here and seek asylum. They just wanted to seek asylum. And you took them and you sent– deported the parents and you took them and separated them, sent the kids hundreds of miles away in a disused Walmart inside of a cage with armed guards pointing guns at them. And then of course ensuring the private prison contractors, CoreCivic and GEO Group, who donated heavily to you can get paid their collective four billion in profit as those toddlers sob and whimper in absolute terror traumatized for life, of course I was with you with that. But this last omnibus spending bill is where I draw the line!"
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David Blaine was born on this day in 1973, although it might have been a trick. He was born the day the Twin Towers we're dedicated
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Scott Rolen was born on this day in 1975. He'll make it to the Hall of Fame yet.
Postscript- And he did.
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Heath Ledger also joined us on this day in 1979. His joker performance is probably one of my top 10 favorites.
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Robby Mueller's birthday, born in 1940. He was the cinematographer for most of Jim Jarmusch's films through Ghost Dog, along with Paris, TX, and more.
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We also lost Alfonso the Wise on this day in 1284 who said, "If I would have been present at creation, I would have given some useful hints."
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We lost Gloria Swanson on this day in 1983. Somehow I shared the Earth with her for 9 years. It was like she was from another century, and in a way I guess she was.
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Chögyam Trungpa left us on this day in 1987, a teacher to Ginsburg and Burroughs. Ginsburg talks about him at the end of this version of Father Death Blues.
https://youtu.be/hrM41x_Db1c
When Ginsburg sings, "Teacher death, I thank you for inspiring me to sing these blues," he's talking about Trungpa.
After the death of ginsburg's father, Trungpa said that extends his wishes that his father entered dharmakaya, became one with an empty blue sky, and Allen should please go on with his celebration.
He was also with William Burroughs while his son was lying in a hospital bed waiting for a liver transplant, and he told the son, "You will live or you will die- both are good."
Much respect to Trungpa on the anniversary of his death. Hopefully he entered the dharmakaya.
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About two months before his own death, and on the night of Martin Luther King's, Robert Kennedy Jr. gave of of the greatest speeches in political history. It seems to have been impromptu. I'll end with it. Here it is:
I have bad news for you, for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and killed tonight.
Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice for his fellow human beings, and he died because of that effort.
In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black--considering the evidence there evidently is that there were white people who were responsible--you can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization--black people amongst black, white people amongst white, filled with hatred toward one another.
Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.
For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man. But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to go beyond these rather difficult times.
My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: "In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."
What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.
So I shall ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, that's true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love--a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.
We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times; we've had difficult times in the past; we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder.
But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land.
Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.
Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.
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She just came to watch the monkeys, not to be subjected to this kind of monkey business.
https://fb.watch/jHQWJck4uX/?mibextid=irwG9G
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Wow, Trump has so many friends.
https://fb.watch/jHR6bEKpqZ/?mibextid=irwG9G
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Sloth and I practicing for cornerball.
https://youtu.be/YKKvdkXIXIg
April 4, 2009
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Yahoo News- The 24 Best 'Mad Men' Scenes, Ranked
This list is great and seriously doesn't even scratch the surface. Missing: Don wading out into the ocean, coming home at the end of season 1 imagining his family there only to find himself alone, getting fired and showing his kids where he grew up (I've watched that scene 50 times), Stan laughing at Harry after he embarrasses himself in front of Megan, Cosgrove's dance routine, Sal's end, Lane's end, Sally and Don on Valentine's Day, Don, Peggy and Pete's family dinner at Burger Chef, Pete, Peggy and Ted drunk at dinner, Cutler telling Harry "don't worry about it" after losing his partnership. I could go on. Maybe I will later...
https://www.yahoo.com/tv/best-mad-men-scenes-115335291310.html
April 4, 2015
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Huh, Taste of Cinema picked Playtime as the greatest film of all-time. From the review:
"Playtime doesn’t seem so much like comedy rather than a personal reflection on habits that will ruin our civilization. There are no politicians in Playtime because Tati is arguing that our desires are to blame for this terrible version of the future that is both hilarious, captivating, and startlingly true."
Wow.
http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2018/the-10-greatest-movies-ever-made/
April 4, 2018
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Do you have 25 minutes to hear about 800 valid points? The main takeaway... Bush messed up Katrina, Trump messed up Coronavirus by providing no national leadership (he still thinks it's a state-by-state problem, although by declaring it a national emergency by law means the federal govt is in charge of the response.)
BUT the situation in New Orleans improved once Bush appointed competent leadership to handle it. Trump needs to appoint someone... someone not named Jared. It will save lives. And look at it from his point of view, he'll have a scapegoat too.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/maddow-to-trump-you-had-one-job-coronavirus-response-needs-competent-leadership-81626693942
April 4, 2020
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New York Magazine- America is trapped in Trump's blind spot
Excellent summation of how we got here, what might have been, and how Trump is simply not equipped to take us into the future, from the standpoint of a conservative critic.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/andrew-sullivan-america-is-trapped-in-trumps-blind-spot.html
April 4, 2020
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TED Talk- Yuval Noah Harari- Why Humans Run the World
If Harari is correct that money is a fiction... and he is, nobody believes a piece of paper has inherent value, be it a $100 bill or a 1952 Mickey Mantle rookie card... then it must also be true that we could just agree that we're all entitled to our full paychecks from March through June. Our bank account numbers could just be changed. If money's only real value comes from an unspoken agreement we've all made, we could just make a new agreement. I'm sure some economists would disagree with me, and maybe they're right, but let's all agree that our system of money is indeed a fictional reality, with the reality part coming from the fact that we all choose to believe it.
Harari:
"We humans control the world because we live in a dual reality. All other animals live in an objective reality. Their reality consists of objective entities, like rivers and trees and lions and elephants. We humans, we also live in an objective reality. In our world, too, there are rivers and trees and lions and elephants. But over the centuries, we have constructed on top of this objective reality a second layer of fictional reality, a reality made of fictional entities, like nations, like gods, like money, like corporations. And what is amazing is that as history unfolded, this fictional reality became more and more powerful so that today, the most powerful forces in the world are these fictional entities. Today, the very survival of rivers and trees and lions and elephants depends on the decisions and wishes of fictional entities, like the United States, like Google, like the World Bank -- entities that exist only in our own imagination."
https://youtu.be/nzj7Wg4DAbs
April 4, 2020
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The Hard Times- Fugazi to Reunite and Criticize Audience in Its Entirety
Hard Times is on the money... thinking back, I remember all the criticism more than the songs.
https://thehardtimes.net/music/fugazi-reunite-criticize-audience-entirety/
April 4, 2020
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Hahaha! Norm Macdonald's Professor of Logic joke.
https://youtu.be/Oseqh7SMIvo
April 4, 2020
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In remembrance of Roger Ebert, his review of my favorite film. It was part of his Great Films series. There are so many films that I love because I first saw them in his Great Films Series.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-my-darling-clementine-1946
April 4, 2021
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I was walking my dog this morning and saw a bundle of sticks. Do you want to know the first thing that popped into my head?
(You don't.)
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Walt Whitman- "Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me."
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Richard Dawkins- "Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is the belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence."
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Dumb Short Joke of the Day:
Two men meet on opposite sides of a river. One shouts to the other "I need you to help me get to the other side!"The other guy replies "You are on the other side."
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Yuval Noah Harari- "Writing a private diary used to be a common humanist practice in previous generations but sounds to many present day youngsters as utterly pointless. Why write anything if nobody else can read it? The new motto says: If you experience something, record it. If you record something, upload it. If you upload something, share it."
This blog is written in that spirit.
Ebert Addendum
Roger Ebert- The best damned film list of them all
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