There Will Be Blood

There Will Be Blood
Feast of Love

Well, yesterday was the anniversary of the U.S. Congress passing of the amendment to allow women the vote (it still had to be ratified by the states) (thanks to Garrison Keillor's Writers Almanac). And yesterday was the presumed crowning of Barack O'bama as the Democratic presidential nominee (right here in downtown St. Paul).

And the connection, Ralph?

Glad you asked. Since black men got the vote (technically or theoretically) way before women did then it follows that a black man will get the chance to be the prez before a women. Follow?

Sure, but what's with the apostrophe in Obama?

That's to help him get the Irish vote in Alabama since the university football team there is known as the 'Bama.

Wow, just like your Irish cousins who started O'berlin College in Ohio.

You got it. Now get this--

"1st Revelation: Jesus born of an Immaculate Conception

2nd Revelation: Christ returns from the dead, opens doors of heaven

3rd Revelation: the endtimes -- Jesus returns w/ his father and the Holy Ghost, raises the dead, and sits in judgment of all humanity for eternity.

The Church of the Third Revelation, then, is the church of the end of the world. Daniel is the 3rd revelation, because he is the final evolution of American capitalism. He goes from poor lone independent worker (first scene), to small wealthier entrepreneur (all business ventures before Little Boston), to stratospherically rich monoplolist (stranglehold on SoCal oil). Note that each permutation leads to more people under his control, and progressively less family/community."

Ralph. what the hell are you talking about?

There Will Be Blood. It's from an unlinked webpage I found that tries to explain the background for the Church of the Third Revelation which seems to be a central metaphor in the movie. The other central "metaphor that hits you in the face" is a how-to guide on how to acquire end-stage alcoholism. No wait, that's not a metaphor; that's a depressing movie to sit through. The opening music should be a clue. If you can sit through that then you can sit through the movie. Daniel Day-Lewis' extraordinary acting makes it worthwhile unless you were thinking there might be a more-than-two word speaking part somewhere in the movie for a woman. Of course, this makes it a good movie to watch in honor of Obama becoming the nominee since it is unlikely that Hillary will get a speaking part in the race.

Ralph, you should get the nomination for your genius in being able to make really stupid connections.

Thanks, but wait, there's more.

Daniel Day-Lewis' character is named Daniel, he is married to Rebecca Miller (Arthur Miller's daughter) who has a brother named Daniel, and the Book of Daniel in the Bible provides the background for the spiritual theme of the movie. And to continue this extraordinarily brilliant thread, his mother is Jewish, his wife's father is Jewish, the Hollywood industry is Jewish (as evidenced by a comment from a reporter who said "Hollywood is so Jewish that if you move there, your foreskin falls off after six weeks," and the movie was filmed in Marfa, Texas, which is where No Country For Old Men was filmed (at the same time) as well as Giant (not at the same time) and everybody knows that the Coen Brothers are . . .

"Are" what?

I can't say it. It's too brilliant.
I'm sure it is, but isn't it true that the Marfans still like Giant a whole lot better than these Jewish movies?
Bosley, you just asked that so you could say "Marfan."
Moving on to Feast of Love. WARNING! Men, make sure you know what color your significant other's eyes are before seeing this movie. Women whose significant other is a woman: Don't worry about it. You already know.
Alright, we loved this movie. Cliches and tears aside (and great sex), it is a sweet, funny, predictable, fluffy movie. Very good, and it has a Leonard Cohen song which makes most movies watchable. It also has Morgan Freeman as God (who else since George Burns died?) and Greg Kinnear who I first saw in As Good As It Gets so I always thought he really was gay, but in this movie he's just really happy. All the time. Even when he's filleting things he shouldn't be. It's his wife who is gay.
Lots of sex. Lesbian sex, straight sex, teddy bear sex. Rated R probably because the teddy bear is naked and the lesbians are white.
But the best part (yeah, right) is that it's filmed in Portland since the actual location in the book is really boring. Filmed in actual coffee houses in Portland and using my alma mater, Portland State University, as a backdrop, even though the campus scenes were shot on Reed College since PSU is really boring.
And to make another brilliant connection, it's directed by Robert Benton who co-wrote No Country For Old Men. No wait. He co-wrote Bonnie and Clyde. No Country For Old Men was the remake. Did I mention the sex?

When I lived in Portland (where Linda and I met on a forest trail on the first day of spring) I was very involved with what was called at the time the Association for Retarded Citizens, now just called the ARC, and was part of the Citizen's Advocacy program. A major friend of the program had been Lloyd Reynolds (1902-1978) a long time professor at Reed College. He was a champion not only of the rights of people with disabilities but also of the art form of italic handwriting. He also studied Zen poetry extensively and used a form of it he called Weathergrams. I do this with my class every year.

from The Calligraphy of Lloyd Reynolds by Gunderson & Lehman:

“Weathergrams are poems of about ten words or less. They are written on narrow strips of kraft paper cut from used grocery store bags. They are hung on bushes or trees in gardens or along mountain trails. There are generally seasonal and are left out for three months or longer. The name means ‘weather writing’ — notations by sun, wind, rain, and possibly ice. Written with the proper inks, the writing lasts. Let them weather and wither like old leaves. In composing one, let the meaning grow out of things, with some action involved if possible — in a here and now. The meaning is not all on the surface. The unexpected is essential. It is not a condensation, but a moment of vision.”

Here's an example:
"Bud,
blossom,
then fruit,
the final
goal.
But,
the seeds . . ."

Battle of Algiers

Battle of Algiers

Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Silk

Homeward Bound

The Battle of Algiers. Incredible movie. Filmed two years after the Algerians finally became independent from France but during a coup that removed one Muslim ruler for another. The director, Gillo Pontecorvo, had been asked by the Algerian revolutionaries to make a film about their struggle. He agreed, but only if it was kept neutral in regards to how either side was viewed. Since he was a committed Marxist (although he quit the CP in 1956) he still had a bent towards the people and put it in at the end with a graffiti sign in French reading "Only one hero-the people" (thank you to a web site which I can't remember and don't have to since no one is paying me for this). Pauline Kael called him "the most dangerous kind of Marxist, a Marxist poet." Roger Ebert saw it in 1968 and thought it was good and presented without too much bias but then he saw it in 2006 after it got re-released in DVD with better sound and he said he could tell that the music was definitely composed to favor the Algerian side. Since Pontecorvo said he used music as the driving force in the movie it seems reasonable to agree with Ebert. Now, do I really care? I probably wouldn't have picked it up if I hadn't done this exhaustive and back-breaking research on the web and saved you, the dear reader, the trouble of doing it yourself..

Pontecorvo was a friend of Jean Paul Sarte. During the movie a character mentions that Sarte favored the Algerian revolutionaries. Sarte did favor them and was influential in changing public opinion in favor of independence. Several years later, Sarte went to visit Andreas Baader in prison. Baader was a member of the German Red Army Faction and had said that the Battle of Algiers movie was his favorite. Sarte came out of that prison meeting and said Baader was "incredibly stupid and an asshole." Just thought I would throw that in but of course I have no idea what web site it came from nor what relevance it has with anything.

Ralph, did you ever think about doing a little web page linking?

Linking? Isn't that what my sister, Tish, was talking about when she made the snide little insinuation that I don't know what a link is?

Yes. Do you? And she wasn't insinuating.

No. What?
Moving on; Pontecorvo's obituary in the UK Guardian (2006) mentions that he was the fifth child in an Italian Jewish family of 8, none of whom were interested in being Jewish. He wound up having to leave Italy because of Mussolino's racial laws and then working with the Italian resistance during WWII. (link would go here if I knew what it was; golf? sausage?)

The Battle of Algiers is also famous for being screened by the Pentagon in 2003 and by the Black Panthers and every other revolutionary group. Of course, the Berkley crowd was reported to have applauded hysterically in 1968 whenever a Frenchman was killed. Little did they know that they were only planting the seeds of anti-french fry mania after we went into Iraq. But the main discussion seems to be how the movie got made without using any newsreel footage or actual documentary film and with only one professional actor. Apparently, the bomb scenes would be illegal to shoot today and since Pontecorvo used Algerian citizens for the crowd scenes and bombings maybe he was trying to send a message.
A major reason to see this movie, however, is to be grateful for the evolution in burqa fashion. And also grateful that more men don't try to model the burqini like they do here.
Also, it shows how true it is about the French only winning wars that they fight against themselves.

Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Beautiful movie. Very, very slow. Good way to fall asleep in the first half-hour, but you would miss a great story and movie. Don't prematurely judge all the characters in the movie since in real life some of the roles weren't the way the movie presents it. I will see it again, but after reading the book he wrote.

Silk
Even slower than Diving Bell and even more beautiful. Just feel it, don't try to understand it or critique it. The music, the actors as they change physically and emotionally, the visual poetry. Watch it with someone you really like and who will appreciate the beauty of feeling.
Several reviewers who had read the book said it is a good adaptation. The long letter that is read by the brothel owner is much longer and more detailed and erotic in the book excerpt that I found on the web.
I really liked not having the Japanese dialogue subtitled and having the American and English actors play French parts without using French accents.
The director also did the Red Violin which we loved.
Albert Molinas is in this. He's always great. Watch him in Chocolate and in Not Without My Daughter. Also, the second Spiderman if you have nothing else to do or if there are young children around.
And yes, my expert research reveals that Japan did really have ice cubes in the 1800's.

Homeward Bound (the 1993 version)
One of my students brought this in so we watched it since it's May and I stop teaching until September. Disney does do well with these feel-good movies. Very good. I even stopped writing my customarily detailed lesson plans to watch it. Don Ameche voices the older dog. His voice makes you want to adopt him. Sally Field and Michael J. Fox are also good. If you've ever seen Sybil then listen for the possibly unintentional joke Sally Field makes about a bookcase.
The cat does not drown. It's a sock and special effects in the river (in case anyone thought otherwise).
I rarely write lesson plans. That was a joke.

I'm falling over laughing, Ralph.

Cold Mountain

Cold Mountain

John McCain has been getting very cozy with Joe Liberman (sic) lately. Could Ol' Joe be VP material again? Maybe Secretary of State? Just in case it's SS, we watched Cold Mountain in honor of the last time a Jew was four heartbeats away from being president of a North American nation.

Puzzled? Need a brush-up on anti-American history? Think of the design of the highway seatbelt signs in Georgia.

Yes, folks, Cold Mountain is probably one of the few movies where you could watch a Confederate soldier and cheer him on as he makes his Homeric quest to get back to Translyvania.

Ralph, less famous (living) movie reviewers than you have commented on the fact that Cold Mountain was actually a pretty good movie. Your snide tone of voice sounds like maybe you didn't like it.

Well, Bosley, I almost turned it off after half an hour but then Renee Zellenger shows up and does an origami rooster quicker than it took Jeff Davis to slip away and become a respected snake-oil salesman after killing well over a half million sons and brothers and sisters and mothers.

I liked it after that. It starts out like the book, which I didn't read, but Linda did so I can make up stuff, with lots of back-and-forth time passages, and which tries to establish the whys and wherefores but makes it as hard to follow as Jude Law trying not to get hard sleeping next to Natalie Portman.

Ralph, you're hard to follow.

What? Anyway, I didn't even mind the clean sheets that Nicole Kidman sleeps on after she frees her slaves or her great complexion after several years of eating rooster eggs.

I know roosters lay eggs because that's what I so incredibly insightfully told Great-Great Aunt Bees her scrambled eggs tasted like when I was eight. See, even then I displayed a magnificent vocabulary. Aunt Bees was probably old enough to have heard nearly first-hand of our Civil War-era ancestor who was trying to mind his own business in Brunswick and was captured by the Union Army who was sure he was a Reb and then shipped to a prison in Virginia where he finally gets out after the war and tries to get back home but dies of pneumonia enroute. Very sad story and explains why his picture in Mom's living room is of a young man but his wife's picture is of an elderly woman. Call her up sometime and get the full story. It gives a personal connection when watching Jude Law try to get back to Cold Mountain. Remember, if you call Mom, you do not need to press one for more information.

Ralph, that was insightful yet boring. But what's with the Translyvania connection?

Well, Bosley, we also watched Cold Mountain in honor of Tish and Frances being there this week and of Frances' sister, Barbara, and family, who live there.

What?

Translyvania. It's the new North Carolina. Or the old since it has mountains with no telephone wires which would have to be edited out on the Apple software that cost less than 1000 dollars which the film uses and which is, apparently, going to change the face of cinema. Also, cheaper all around than filming the gorgeous mountain scenes in the actual Cold Mountain, NC. Which is ironic in light of a statement early in the movie that the reason for the South fighting the war is to preserve "the view."

But, since the author, Charles Frazier, wrote it partly as an Odyssey reenactment then we can see that the Trojan War was probably fought to preserve the view of Helen. Just like slavery really wasn't the issue in our civil war. Of course, the Odyssey story is well familiar to those of us erudites who have seen O Brother, Where Art Thou a few dozen times. Cold Mountain's blind seer isn't quite as mystical as O Brother's but the Siren scene is a heck of a lot more corporealistic (sick).

So, good movie. Good music. Sting and Bob White (sic) playing hoedown music should draw the kids.

Ralph, did you know that Odysseus means Man Of Constant Sorrow?

Yes.

And what's with all the (sic)(k)s?

Well, if Pauline Kale (sic) can make up stuff about what people said in the theatre then I ought to be able to make up stuff so I don't have to bother with looking it up.

Bravo. Very mature. Speaking of up, isn't your time up?

Yes, but then I remembered this Scottish lullaby that I used to sing to the boys which fits here since the white residents of Cold Mountain in the Civil War were mostly Scottish heritage. Apparently, that explains the statement about the South fighting for the view since supposedly most of the Blue Ridge Scots did not own or care about the slavery issue. Apparently and supposedly. I don't know. Anybody have an opinion? Anybody care? Anybody reading this? Hello?

The Skye Boat Song

(Chorus)
Speed bonnie boat like a bird on the wing
Onward the sailors cry
Carry the lad that's born to be king
Over the sea to Skye

Loud the wind howls, loud the waves roar,
Thunderclaps rend the air
Baffled our foes, stand by the shore
Follow they will not dare

Chorus

Many's the lad fought on that day
Well the claymore did wield
When the night came, silently lain
Dead on Culloden field

Chorus

Though the waves heave, soft will ye sleep
Ocean's a royal bed
Rocked in the deep, Flora will keep
Watch by your weary head

Chorus

Burned are our homes, exile and death
Scatter the loyal men
Yet e'er the sword cool in the sheath
Charlie will come again.

For some strange reason, the boys started to doubt this was a lullaby when Alan looked up at me one night and said something to the effect of "Dad, that is one helluva sad song."

OK, time's up.

Wait, I just found this great web page on IMDb. I'll just paste this little sucker in here and get back to my day job.

"Charles Frazier, Taoist writer, has based his book of the same name on the poet Han Shan, meaning 'Cold Mountain.' In the film, which is based on a place in the North Carolina mountains by the same name, Frazier has seen the elusive 'pattern' of Tao in the hills, the American Civil war and its sadnesses against the backdrop of two people almost inexplicably find they must be together.

The subtleties of the I Ching (the ancient and mystical Taoist Book of Changes) are found throughout the movie: When leaving on a train to fight in the civil war there is the slightest slip of a book page with a turtle and hexagrams. His woman (sic), left behind in Cold Mountain, goes to a well and sees the future-a vision in the water of the well that reveals the soldier's return to her. Her vision, that of him walking on an Indian trail with crows flying in front of him towards her is a vision imperfectly understood but this vision forms the basis of the events to come.

You will never see the I Ching treated so beautifully and with perfect subtlety in any book or film.

A poem by the poet, Cold Mountain, Han Shan:

I divined and chose a distant place to dwell-
T'ien-t'ai: what more is there to say?
Monkeys cry where valley mists are cold;
My grass gate blends with the color of the crags.
I pick leaves to thatch a hut among the pines,
Scoop out a pond and lead a runnel from the spring.
By now I am used to doing without the world.
Picking ferns, I pass the years that are left.

Charles Frazier is writing in the Taoist style where mystical things are hidden within the text or characters (as in writing)

Layers of Meaning: Found in Taoist writing including the I Ching:

Men ask the way to Cold Mountain.
Cold Mountain: there's no through trail."

-- Han-shan


The poem above, found on the cover of the book, is a tip: Cold Mountain means the town, its people and the events that shape their lives which has the Well where they try to 'see' their sweethearts, AND ALSO the poet, AND the mystical place where 'there is no through trail' In the mystical sense Cold Mountain becomes that place of magic where the Well can be found that will reveal the future, sometimes in dark visions.

This is traditional Taoist writing practice-many Chinese poems have hidden meanings and references. For example in writing 'The Secret of the Golden Flower" by the looking at the writing contains the idea for immortality as I remember.

The Well, Hexagram 48, is the primary symbol (there are certainly others) of the I Ching's reference to itself-the Well, the well that reveals the future.

Men ask the way to Cold Mountain.
Cold Mountain: there's no through trail."

-- Han-shan

Han-shan and his friend, Shih-te, were Chinese Zen recluses who lived at a place called Cold Mountain in the T'ien-t'ai range that stretches along the coast of Chekiang Province, south of the Bay of Hangchow, in the late eighth or early ninth century.

What we know of them comes from the preface, written by a T'ang Dynasty official named Lu-ch'iu Yin, for Han-shan's Cold Mountain Poems :

"He looked like a tramp. His body and face were old and beat.

** Yet in every word he breathed was a meaning in line with the subtle principles of things, if only you thought of it deeply. Everything he said had a feeling of the Tao in it, profound and arcane secrets. ***
[so, is Frazier saying he writes in the same way, with profound and arcane secrets?]

"His hat was made of birch bark, his clothes were ragged and worn out, and his shoes were wood. Thus men who have made it hide their tracks: unifying categories and interpenetrating things." [This is the pattern or li another fundamental Taoist concept-the categories unified and events interpenetrating.]

http://weblog.delacour.net/archives/000381.html

Why do you think there is no through or direct way to Cold Mountain? You cannot get there from here-meaning your logical mind cannot get there, only your Tao mind, for in this layer of meaning "Cold Mountain" means the Tao or the Way."



In memory:
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974)

War Dance, Blue State, Starting Out in the Evening

War Dance
Blue State
Starting Out in the Evening

In honor of Israel Independence Day, I watched War Dance, a documentary about Ugandan children who have been orphaned or displaced by warfare and how they use music and dance to keep their lives together. Beautiful movie. Watch the deleted scenes. It's accurately rated PG-13 for the descriptions of atrocities.

OK, Ralph Bosley Bart, how is it accurately related to Israel?

Come on, it's Uganda. The alternative homeland suggested by Theodore Herzl in the 1890's. Maybe he was joking. I don't know, but it's what gets taught in the Israeli history books. Speaking of which, we watched Blue State tonight. Very funny line half way through about what doesn't get taught in US history books.

Blue State is also about a fathead Godless Commie Liberal who moves to Canada to protest the reelection of GW Bush. He travels with Anna Paquin who, according to a line in the movie, could be a Godless Commie Lesbian. Paquin is from Canada but I think the director isn't and missed a few key points that he would have picked up if he had read the IMDb comments first which means he would have had to make the movie last. Oh, never mind. I'm confusing myself.

Speaking of Canada, Moses almost took the Israelites there but he stuttered, so when God asked him did he want Canaan or Canada, Moses tried to say Canada but couldn't so God gave up and gave him another country with formerly free health care. I might be making up that last part. It sounded funny. But Blue State is also very sweet and partially fulfilled someone's MFA requirement at Columbia so watch it and feel helpful. At least now I finally know what people mean by Blue State/Red State.

We loved Starting Out in the Evening. Well told story about a young female graduate student who wants to do her thesis on an aging writer because she loves his books. It could easily be seen as an improbable, pretentious movie or just let all that go and see it as well-crafted movie about love between people and between people and books. Two of the characters go to a movie theatre. One of the movies that's playing is Battle for Algiers which is a real movie several people have recommended to me. It's on my Blockbuster queue.

It's somewhat significant that on the IMDb message board 21 people responded very intelligently to a question about one very small scene. Also, several people said they loved the book and the movie.

Well, thanks, Ralph. You have kept it blessedly short this time.

I could go on.

No.