Major film festival time month: Venice, Toronto then onto the NYFF for a showcase. More wonderful movies. Artistic folk have maybe only just kept up with last year’s crop. The year before, and…ordinary people have had lives to lead. Maybe if time, chose the right movie, not be influenced by what ought be seen, maybe feel less alone in this world. Movies aren’t like wine or liquor tasting. Can’t be savored and spat out. Always relatively a long-haul flight or a red-eye. A movie is half a bottle of great wine or more! Being a movie critic isn’t as easy as seems with three or more films a day.
Stephen King in a recent interview favoured ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances vs the opposite. Not always true of the Oscars though becoming more so. Worth checking the ordinary people in ordinary circumstances from last year, all things being equal: Sebastián Silva’s Rotting in the Sun, Albert Serra's Pacification and of course Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves. There but for the grace,..
Israel and the Middle East trying really all patience. American citizen , the young, beautiful Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, murdered by Israeli forces whilst peacefully protesting. You are a MURDERER Netanyahu. Ironically your only defence, Noah Chomsky and Jacques Vergès : you never pulled the trigger, nor ordered a murder. Simply allowed it happen. Israeli forces are highly trained. Don’t/ can’t have an ‘off-day’. No drinking on the job or smokin’ weed. The majority of Israeli citizens do not want all this bloodshed continue. The majority of Palestinians do not want all this bloodshed continue.
A terrible thing happened Oct 7, 2023. An even more terrible world has evolved in less than a year.
The Death of Klinghoffer, Act II: Aria of the Falling Body (Gymnopédie)
Renaissance chair de-accessioned from the Caramoor Museum [it has a partner with better original textile] with ? Indonesian sculpted male. Everything’s for sale at a price. Except….
ANDREW obsessed with patina! [One for Philip Adams in his retirement as all we slowly decay]. Except, of course, Bill Maher: Dorian the cat of unlimited lives.
Thinking of Henry Winkler, who doesn't;) Jerrod Carmichael's directorial debut On the Count of Three. Tiffany Haddish and Henry Winkler ain't desperate for roles. A brave disturbing movie. One may not like but it's real. Relevant still, then and now.
While she looks at you so cooly
And her eyes shine like the moon in the sea
She comes in incense and patchouli
So you take her, to find what's waiting inside
Ralph Lauren’s Spring 2025 Fashion Show- just when you thought happiness was only the falling speckled leaf upon wrinkled hand. Sure ‘cool kittens’ though so many seductive smiles from these models. And how dapper are those kids! Makes one get out more oft ‘stead of sitting all alone in a room of one’s watching The Gilded Age or White Lotus:)!
“Anybody can be young only the lucky get to be old.”-Jane Fonda
“Damn to the shadows, and here’s to the light.”
Was that Kevin Hart crawling out of KITTY’s Sarouk this morning? Creatures come and go talking of Michelangelo.
I like to dance when I party
I like to kiss everybody
Where the heck is
KITTY?
Duh, beside you, dancing in?
Methinks Johann Hari should give Mr. John Oliver some Brit $30million p/a competition. Rather pales to Bernie Sanders’ couple of mill forever stash stamp. Haven’t thought of a title yet, maybe: Bliss is Life Without John Oliver! No copyright infringement HBO legals.
Investigation reveals how investors made millions as Steward Health Care system collapsed
OK. OK. Isn’t the free Hulu trial putting me off watching The Bear Mr. Jeremy. Sus as forever am. Watching me. And Ms. Elizabeth Debicki, there are Judi Dench issues but..more, all, my head's multi-dimensionality constantly fed. Morning night. So when the sun goes down, down, down drinking TV. Watching the pharmaceutical ads between The Emmys. We're all ILL. Otherwise we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing us all for wellness. The Tony’s and Next to Normal commercial breaks. Ih, the Hacks storyline …
“Nexus” & Threat of AI in the Information Age
Social media’s role in fueling extremism and misinformation in a divided political climate
Some post Emmy thoughts:
So so funny Guillermo. Dispiace Snr. Jimmy. Just when you thoughts it in the bag up pops this petit dictator who ended up residing under a desk in talk show basement. Humiliating we know. Bit life goes on, or not.
Oh, and weren’t Laverne Cox and Nava Mau so beautiful. Breathtaking in the Michelangelo sense they breathed, their warmth and glow. Not many ‘normal’ gorgeous folk quite achieve that:)! And how’s about Harris Reed, the ‘girl next door’ who you just wanna…. snuggle up in their design…
Even our fun Jimmy Kimmel’s turning into, Bliss is Life without..that iPhone 16 segment!: …Ken Loach, John Sayles et al won’t have any material left or enthusiasm ‘cause everyone will just laugh. Life is what you do while you’re waiting to do, or rather Life is what you do while others make money out of slowly dying, smiling.
The Golden Bachelor. Not much hope for a handsome former film critic inhabiting dark spaces for entertainment and enrichment. Climbing wild mountains, riding bicycles or the waves. Unless twas disillusioned feline. Or canine. Or even larger furry creature. A twist ABC!
The deeper the love the surer the tragedy.
Tin of sardines, library of poetry, broken porch, open flap, shakin’ you, scent of that, who where you: and I knew, just have had…….the setting sun
I’ve watched a ton of Homeworthy and AD videos but mom with 3 kids [+ husband and a cat] Jenny Davis in her 650sq ft Upper East Side, NY apt is an inspirational must see. Without her vision those kids easily growing into psychopaths or Wall Street bankers. Guess there’s still time in this big, bad world but somehow doubt it!
Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin surely his masterpiece, orchestrating of/in voices. Michael Thalheimer’s production for Deutsche Oper Am Rhein imagines all the characters as children inhabiting building blocks. Benign ochre challenges til turning inescapable walls.
My childhood years where I felt love for the first time.
Heaven gave us habitation as a substitute for happiness.
How often do girls get confused by dreams.
Habit is heaven's gift to us: a substitute for happiness. Pushkin.
Ain’t seen a ton of Onegin productions but enough know Thalheimer’s great. One of the best and certainly worthy of Chéreau. Though he’d have darkened it more. So slightly. What musically [and it’s totally fine] could be the conductor whose politics dares not speak the name: Velery Gergiev. So every so often phrase one thinks…and it’s frustrating. Such is life.
каждый возраст подвержен любви
закаленный войной
Everything in Onegin references childhood. And just maybe that’s why Tchaikovsky truly was gay, just too sensitive for so-called normal life.
There was a reason, other than, Maestro Bernstein asked Kent Nagano to his piano in preparation for conducting another Tchaikovsky ‘war-horse’ symphony with the NY Phil that evening. Bernstein never could consider himself in that league.
Not totally convinced this Verdi RIVOLUZIONE multi-media melange works but surely grows on you. Nobody else ever has tried. La Monnaie an impressive cred for cred. And while Verdi is re-contextualized it’s never out of context. The red dancers, maybe just one for the lone chorus: Cassandra forever to know. Verdi created opera for the people. They sure got it!
Jeanine Tesori: Fun Home, Kimberly Akimbo and Grounded.
