Quote of the day

[iambiguous]

More love and human remains? Sure. But this time it’s the “ha ha ha” kind. By and large.

In other words, young love and/or love American style. Gag me with a spoon?

And then there is that even more complex relationship between sex and music. In the young American male for example. There is no contest between the two of course but for some it can actually get neck and neck on any given day.

Meet Rob. He loves girls. He loves music. But the two have now become so inextricably linked in his mind it all sometimes becomes a blur. Unless, that is, the girl makes the “top five”. Rob it seems has a “top five” list for just about everything related to both girls and music.

And then there is Laura. Unfortunately, she is in danger of not even making it into Rob’s “five all time most memorable breakups”. Hell, she might not make it into the top ten! At least at first. But in the end it’s, well, it is what it is.

When it comes to sex, there are men who get stuck in adolescence for, say, for the rest of their lives. That’s the rule by the way not the exception. Men might watch this and think “was I really like that then?” But if most are really being honest they’ll finally admit that this is pretty much the way they still are. Or would be if they could be.

And Barry. Barry steals the show here. And I don’t even particularly like Jack Black.

Now, make no mistake about it. This is just, uh, “pop music”. But that encompasses a vast, vast continuum. And trekking from one end of it to the other you will encounter many, many, many great selections. Well, you will if you are me.


High Fidelity

Rob [voiceover]: What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?

Like there's a difference?

Rob [voiceover]: My desert-island, all-time, top five most memorable break-ups, in chronological order are as follows: Alison Ashworth, Penny Hardwick, Jackie Allen, Charlie Nicholson, Sarah Kendrew. Those were the ones that really hurt. Can you see your name in that list, Laura? Maybe you’d sneak into the top ten!!

Laura however is already out the door.

Rob [voiceover]: It was as if breasts were little pieces of property that had been unlawfully annexed by the opposite sex. They were rightfully ours and we wanted them back.

Well, I don't know if I would go that far myself. But point taken?

Rob [voiceover]: Sometimes I got so bored of trying to touch her breast that I would try to touch her between her legs. It was like trying to borrow a dollar, getting turned down, and asking for 50 grand instead.

Men!!!

Rob [voiceover]: I get by because of the people who make a special effort to shop here - mostly young men - who spend all their time looking for deleted Smith singles and original, not rereleased - underlined - Frank Zappa albums. Fetish properties are not unlike porn. I’d feel guilty taking their money, if I wasn’t…well…kinda one of them.

Next up: the not unlike porn parts here?

Rob: TURN IT OFF, BARRY!!
Barry: IT WON’T GO ANY LOUDER!!

In other words, it's already up to 11

Barry: What’s wrong with the Righteous Brothers?
Dick: Nothing. I just prefer the other one.
Barry: Bullshit.
Rob: How can it be bullshit to state a preference?
Barry: Since when did this shop become a fascist regime?

Of course, that can happen anywhere, right Don?

Rob [voiceover]: I was jealous of other men in Charlie’s design department. I became convinced that she was going to leave me for one of them.
[long pause]
Rob: Then she left me for one of them.

Naturally?

Rob: [voiceover on being out of Charlie’s league]: Hey, I’m not the smartest guy in the world, but I’m certainly not the dumbest. I mean, I’ve read books like “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” and “Love in the Time of Cholera”, and I think I’ve understood them. They’re about girls, right? Just kidding.

At least he thinks he is.

Customer: Hi, do you have the song “I Just Called To Say I Love You?” It’s for my daughter’s birthday. Do you have it?
Barry: Yea we have it.
Customer: Great, Great, can I have it?
Barry: No, no, you can’t.
Customer: Why not?
Barry: Well, it’s sentimental tacky crap. Do we look like the kind of store that sells “I Just Called to Say I Love You?” Go to the mall.

Or, today, stream it?

Rob: Why’d you have to tell her about the store?
Barry: Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was classified information. I mean, I know we don’t have any customers, but I thought that was a bad thing, not like, a business strategy.

So, how far would you go?

Rob: I want more, I wanna see the others on the big top-five. I want to see Penny and Charlie and Sarah, all of them. You know? Just see 'em and talk to 'em. You know, like a Bruce Springsteen song.
Bruce Springsteen: You call, you ask them how they are and see if they’ve forgiven you.
Rob: Yeah, and then I feel good. And they feel good.
Bruce Springsteen: They’d feel good, maybe. But you feel better.
Rob: I’d feel clean and calm.
Bruce Springsteen: That’s what you’re looking for, you know, get ready to start again. It’d be good for you.
Rob: Great, even.
Bruce Springsteen: Give that big final good luck and goodbye to your all time top-five and just move on down the road.
Rob: Good luck, Goodbye. Thanks, Boss.

He settled for Bruce. He wanted Bob. As in Dylan. No, really. Bob wasn’t available.

Rob: I could’ve wound up having sex back there. And what better way to exorcise rejection demons than to screw the person who rejected you, right? But you wouldn’t be sleeping with a person, you’d be sleeping with the whole sad, single-person culture. It’d be like sleeping with Talia Shire in Rocky if you weren’t Rocky.

Then things do get complicated.

Barry [to customer]: You don’t have it? That is perverse. Do not tell anyone you don’t own fucking Blonde On Blonde.

Anyone here not own it?
Me? It still completely blows me away.

Rob: So we have a chance of getting back together again.
Laura: Oh, Rob, shut up.
Rob: Hey, I just want to know where I stand.
Laura: I don’t fucking know what chance you fucking have!
Rob: Well if you could tell me roughly it would help.
Laura: Okay, okay, we have a nine percent chance of getting back together. Does that clarify the situation?

Hell, that's almost a one in ten chance!

Rob [voiceover]: Awhile back, Barry and I agreed that what really matters is what you like, not what you are like… Books, records, films - these things matter. Call me shallow but it’s the fuckin’ truth…

Call me shallow too then..

Rob: Liking both Marvin Gaye and Art Garfunkel is like supporting both the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Laura: No, it’s really not like that at all, Rob. You know why? Because Marvin Gaye and Art Garfunkel make pop records.

You'd think he would know that.

Rob: Marvin Gaye.
Laura: I know.
Rob: Let’s get it on. That’s our song. Marvin Gaye is responsible for our entire relationship.
Laura: Oh, is that so? I’d like a word with him then.

Marvin Gaye: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 7u24mYQojB
One of my all time favorite "pop" albums.

Rob [voiceover]: Now, the making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art. Many do’s and don’ts. First of all you’re using someone else’s poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing.

On the other hand, who listens to the words?

Rob [voiceover]: I’ve been thinking with my gut since I was 14 years old, and frankly speaking, I’ve come to the conclusion that my gut has shit for brains.

Then all the parts here rooted in dasein.

[iambiguous]

The Catfish documentary. Real or fake? This controversy in and of itself certainly helped to stimulate both interest and sales.

From IMDb:

Others, such as documentarian Morgan Spurlock, have referred to the movie as a “fake documentary”. Some of the arguments for this are circumstantial. Some reviewers have found it hard to believe that these young internet savvy guys would have been so taken in by such an obvious hoax and would not have checked out Megan’s identity before traveling cross country to meet her. They also question why the filmmakers would have started filming Nev so early in his relationship with Megan, before anything seemed out of place, and also question the fact that every significant event in the story seems to have been captured on camera. More substantively, the movements of the group as depicted in Catfish conflict with their locations as given in blog postings at the time.

Some critics claim that while the basic story of the film is real, or at least based around real events, it contains numerous scenes which have been recreated or dramatized. Some even suggest that the trio discovered the truth about Megan early on and chose to exploit it to tell an engaging story.

Either way it certainly highlighted the manner in which the identity we assume online can become rather far removed from “who we really are”. And sometimes the consequences will be benign and sometimes they will be considerably less than benign. Even downright malignant. Think for example of the infamous “talhotblond” fiasco.

And it also brings into focus the importance of “youth” and “beauty” when engaging in the search for “love”. At least in this part of the world. Sure, it’s nice that she is personable, intelligent and talented. But it is not just incidental that she is, well, “hot”. Though [as many woman might point out] not as “hot” as him.

Anyway, to the extent that this is either all true, completely fabricated or partly both, it is something we can very easily imagine being true. Or I could. In that sense it’s like watching many other movies that are not documentaries. You know it’s something concocted from a script, taken from a story or a novel or even invented entirely in the director’s or the screenwriter’s head. But you can still become absorbed in it [easily] because you can imagine something like it happening in “real life”.

So, the whole controversy here never really bothered me all that much. It’s not as though it led to a war or an economic calamity or a murder. Like, say, the stuff made up in Washington D.C. or on Fox News.

Also, it might be argued that while Angela is being fraudulent [assuming this is all true], Nev is being cruel in exposing her the way he did. He could have just ended his contact with her. But to pop up at her doorstep out of the blue in order to show the world what a fake she is seems, well, excessive. It’s a bit excruciating to watch.

As for Abby, they know that her being [locally] a famous painter with her own “gallery” is all bullshit. Why drag her into it? I found myself getting pissed off at them. She’s like 8 years old. Thank god Henry is along for the ride. Otherwise, the Nev being pissed off at being played for the fool by the beautiful “Megan” narrative might have prevailed.

And, as it turns out, Angela is really quite a person. But she wants more than she has and was almost certainly never going to actually achieve it.

And one can only guess at how this all might have turned out if she was Angela on the inside but looked like Megan on the outside.

Why “Catfish”?

Vince Pierce [Angela’s husband]: "They used to tank cod from Alaska all the way to China. They’d keep them in vats in the ship. By the time the codfish reached China, the flesh was mush and tasteless. So this guy came up with the idea that if you put these cods in these big vats, put some catfish in with them and the catfish will keep the cod agile. And there are those people who are catfish in life. And they keep you on your toes. They keep you guessing, they keep you thinking, they keep you fresh. And I thank god for the catfish because we would be droll, boring and dull if we didn’t have somebody nipping at our fin."

Angela being the catfish here I presume. Though I’m not entirely sure what that manages to convey.

As of August 2011, the film has been hit with two lawsuits and, according to Catfish distributor Relativity Media, the film has an unrecouped balance of more than $8.5 million and will not likely ever become profitable. Both of these lawsuits have to do with songs used within the movie not being attributed to their creators.

One of Angela’s and Megan’s “real” friends on Facebook who shared songs and advice turned out to also be a fictional character called Denton Rose who won America’s Dream Date as a fictional character in 2006. The character appeared on Fox, and the WSJ and was offered the lead role in a DreamWorks film.



CATFISH [2010]
Directed by Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman

[after Megan’s song writing/singing is exposed as a fraud]
Henry: Don’t you want to get to the bottom of this? It would kill me if it was left like this.
Nev: I can’t now. It’s too late. It’s all bullshit. I don’t want to be a part of this.
Ariel: We don’t know how much of it is bullshit. And they don’t know how much of it you know is bullshit. You’ve just found like the tip of the iceberg.

Next up: virtual bullshit?

Henry: I think we finish up with Vail, then we drive to Michigan.
Ariel: Okay.
Henry: And then we just find out. We just go to their house and say, "Hi, who’s real in this situation?”

You know, after they all agree on the definition of real.

Ariel [to the camera]: I don’t even know where to start. Angela doesn’t look like Angela. Vince doesn’t look like Vince.

You might say not even close.

Henry [to Ariel and Nev]: Let’s just say that I could take all of your photos, all of of your photos and download them, and make new profiles on Facebook with totally different names and never make friends with the people who knew you. And just create a network of friends, that are actually real-life friends but you don’t know them.

Next up: the equivalent of that here.

Ariel: What I want to know is what about all the rest of these people? Like Alex. It’s like if picture Megan doesn’t know Abby, right, then Abby doesn’t know Megan. Then, these other kids they talk about Abby too, right?
Nev: They all talk about Abby.
Ariel: Then they don’t know Abby. Their friend Megan doesn’t know Abby.
Nev: Right. Her sister.
Henry: But Alex has got to be fake, if Megan’s fake.
Ariel: They all relate to you through Megan. If there’s no Megan, then they don’t relate to you. 'Cause she’s not fooling them too. Maybe she’s…
Nev: What about all these other people?
Ariel: She’s ALL of them.
Nev: She could be all of them.

Got that?

Henry: I’m really feeling conscious about embarrassing them. I mean, I really don’t want to hurt this family.
Ariel: Well, she needs a wake-up call.
Henry: I know, but I just feel like it’s not malicious…it’s just sad.

Like those here who embarrass themselves every time they post. Only it's just pathetic.

Titlecard:

Angela doesn’t have cancer.
There is no Megan as Dawn Farms.
Angela doesn’t know the girl in the pictures.
Over the course of their nine month correspondence Angela and Nev exchanged 1,500 messages.
The girl in the pictures [“Megan”] is Aimee Gonzales. She is a professional model and photographer. She lives in Vancouver, Washington with her husband and two children.
Angela deactivated her 15 other profiles, and changed her Facebook profile to a picture of herself. She now has a website promoting herself as an artist.
Nev is still on Facebook. He currently has 732 friends. Including Angela.

Has this ever happen to you? Would you like it to?

[iambiguous]

What would the military industrial complex and the war economy be without a bread and circus culture? But I guess we will never really know. For over 60 years now it has been virtually impossible to imagine one without the other.

It usually begins here, with Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address to the nation:

"Good evening, my fellow Americans. We now stand 10 years passed the midpoint of the century, that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. We have been compelled to create a…permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. Of this conjunction, of an immense military establishment…and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. In the councils of government we must guard against, the acquisition of unwanted influence, whether sought or unsought by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the wait of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes."

Then it all begins to splinter as various political factions react to the words.

The crucial point though [from this splinter] is that, increasingly, war and “national security” have become deeply intertwined in and virtually inseparable from the economy itself. Millions upon millions of jobs are directly [or indirectly] linked to them. And as a consequence foreign policy becomes as much a creature of this as of whatever the military rationale itself might be.

I myself once lived right next door to a Lockheed/Martin plant. And in this community there were more cars parked in its lots than in any other company for miles around. My father once worked there.

Begin to dismantle the MIC and lots of folks here will be out of work.

But in the film when kids are asked “why do we fight?” the answer is always “for freedom”. And obviously it is easy enough for the politicians [their campaigns funded by the big corporations that comprise the MIC] to weave that [along with democracy and human rights] into their narratives.

I mean, given the bread and circus mentality that comprises our pop culture, how many are listening anyway?

But historically there were folks like Hitler. And who can argue against a mighty military then? And others felt the same way with respect to the Soviet Union and Communism. Fighting for at least some measure of freedom and democracy is not always just a rationalization to make money.

One thing for sure. My own point of view here won’t put even the tiniest of dents in the way this all unfolds.


Why We Fight

Chalmers Johnson [former CIA agent]: Blowback. It’s a CIA term. Blowback does not mean simply the unintended consequences of foreign operations. It means the unintended consequences of foreign operations, that were deliberately kept secret from the American public. So that when the retaliation comes, the American public is not able to put it in context, to put cause and effect together. Then they come up with questions like, ‘Why did they hate us?’ Our government did not want the forensic question a ‘What were their motives?’ asked. And instead chose to say ‘They were just evil doers.’

Never underestimate the general public's ignorance regarding political economy and the deep state.

Gore Vidal: We live here in the United States of Amnesia. No one remembers anything before monday morning. Everything is a blank. They have no history.

Oh, some have a history alright. It just might not be yours.

Karen Kwiatkowski: September 11th was really the event that changed American foreign policy. When I was in the Pentagon, when we got hit, you know, yes it did change. It was a very dramatic and terrible thing. And it does change the perspective. But the war in Iraq had nothing to do with war on terrorism. There was a huge leap, a manufactured leap. In order to implement a very calculated and predeveloped foreign policy.

The deep state in a nutshell.

Joseph Cirincione: Eisenhower saw a [MIC] starting to build programme after programme, that was just out of control. And his own ability to shape national security policy was being hemmed in by these forces, he couldn’t control. And he was the President. On at least one occasion Eisenhower was heard to say by those in the room, ‘God help this country when somebody sits at this desk, who doesn’t know as much about the military as I do.’

Imagine then his reaction to Trump!

Senator Byrd: Our country spends more on defense than all of the other 18 members of NATO plus China and Russia combined.

That's still basically the same.

Franklin Spinney [defense analyst]: Look at the weapons they were buying, new aircraft carriers, new submarines, F22 fighters. You know for an attack, that the FBI estimates probably cost of Al-Qaeda or Osama 500K to pull off. We are now spending more than we did at the peak of Vietnam.

Surely just a coincidence.

Franklin Spinney: Once the Air Force signs off on it, then they start flooding money to as many congressional districts as possible as quickly as possible.

Surely just a coincidence.

Charles Lewis: We have a snapshot in time after September 11th, where at least 71 companies that we’re able to identify were starting to get contracts to go in Afghanistan and Iraq. All of the top 10 companies had former US officials, who had worked in the Pentagon or other parts of US government on the board as directors or as their top executives. It’s known as a revolving door and people are cashing in all the time. Public officials go to work for companies and they make triple, quadruple, ten times sometimes as much money as they used to make in public service…The number one recipient of contracts was vice president Cheney’s former company Halliburton and subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. KBR.

Surely just a coincidence.

Chalmers Johnson: The B-2 bomber has a piece of it made in every single state to make sure that if you ever try to phase that project out, you will get howls, howls from among the most liberal members of Congress.

Not to mention all the "workers of the world" employed by the MIC.

Joseph Cirincione:…the military industral complex has not two legs…it’s three. It’s a military and the industry and Congress. For a Congressman defense spending means jobs. Losing hundred defense jobs in his district could mean five hundred votes. It’s not just a hundred workers, it’s the their spouses, their children. It’s the representative’s duty to bring home the bacon.

The "war economy" let's call it.

Charles Lewis: We did a report that took 2.5 years, cost 600,000 dollars, involving 33 people – including ten investigate reporters on 6 continents – looking at private military companies and outsourcing war all over the world. And we noticed that in 1992 there was a contract of 9 million dollars, given out to a company Kellogg Brown and Root, to study the idea of whether or not the Pentagon should start using the private sector to do some of the support type functions like food service, latrine duty, but even maybe some military things as well. And the Secretary of Defense at that time was one Dick Cheney. So Cheney gives the contract out. Kellogg Brown and Root comes back and says ‘This is a terrific idea’. For the next ten years they get 7 or 800 hundred contracts. Doors opened not only in Washington but in capitals all over the world. And yes, Cheney becomes personally wealthy from that. No question about it. His net worth went from a million dollars or less to a net worth of 60 to 70 million dollars in the span of five years. So we’ve elected a government contractor as vice president. This could be Indonesia, it sounds like Russia or Nigeria. But no, it’s the United States of America. And everything I just said is entirely legal. And it is our system of legal corruption.

The system. And then some.

Joseph Cirincione: We have a process that has a seamlessness where the corporate interests that stand to benefit are so intertwined and interwoven with the political forces. The financial leads and the political leads, have become the same people.

Say it ain't so, Joe, say it ain't so.

Chalmers Johnson: The ‘defense’ budget is three quarters of a trillion dollars. Profits went up last year well over 25%. I guarantee you: when war becomes that profitable, we’re going to see more of it.

Next up: the medical industrial complex, the media industrial complex, the prison industrial complex...and on and on.

Charles Lewis: We don’t like to think of ourselves as the militant nation, but we’re in fact incredibly militant and militaristic nation. It is not a view of ourselves that we wanna carry around, but the fact is we are. If the President and the military industrial complex and defense establishment, if they all have decided that suddenly there’s a problem somewhere, we need to drop some bombs or even put ground forces somewhere in some country, this is our ritual that we have been seeing for decades. We have toppled governments,we’ve done coups. We’ve used intelligence services for covert purposes and done horrible things around the world. And we have put up with the most human rights abusing countries. We have prop them up, we even trained them how to commit human rights abuses. Today’s demon was yesterday’s friend. All in the name of either the cold war or for commercial reasons. It’s basically economic colonialism.

And in the background a world map; and then one by one over the years the countries these things have happened in are noted: Guatamaula, Iran, Lebanon, Haiti, Cuba, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Congo, Indonesia, Dominican Republic, Chile, Angola, Afghanistan, Libya, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Grenada, Chad, Bolivia, Panama, Iraq, Somalia, Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Yemen, Columbia, Liberia. Many of these countries multiple times. Then the events in Iran that we set into motion [starting with the 1956 coup] culminating in the 1979 Islamic revolution. Then this:

Chalmers Johnson: We then made a puppet out of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Who was a friend of ours. He was an asset in the CIA’s computers. We did so because he was anti-Iranian. He was very fearful that the revolution in Iran which spread into his country easier for went to war with Iran. The war was extremely bloody. It went on throughout the 1980s. Unfortunately for Saddam Hussein he began to lose the war. At that point in comes the United States and Donald Rumsfeld was sent to Saddam Hussein by President Reagan to tell him we will supply you with intelligence. We will supply you with the weapons you may need through covert means. It is why Washington would say: We know Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. We have the receipts. This is what we mean by blowback.

Go figure? Right.

Chalmers Johnson: Saddam Hussein remained a friend of ours right up to his invasion in the summer of 1990 of Kuwait. We became alarmed when he invaded Kuwait, that he could also go on and invade Saudi Arabia itself. The largest preserves of oil on earth. We station troops inside Saudi Arabia. It was a mistake in every sense of the term. Remember, Osama bin Laden had said: I resent the government of Saudi Arabia for using Americans to defend Saudi Arabia against Iraq. At that point we began to fear that we’re going to lose our position in Saudi Arabia. With the second largest source of proven reserves on earth in Iraq. This leads us now to demonize our previous ally and to prepare the American public for the thought that we must take him out.

Show them the fucking money!!!

Joseph Cirincione: In some ways, the military-industrial complex may become so pervasive that it is now invisible. This is about, you know, ideas and influence and what’s safe for your career. Being seen in opposition to strong defense policies is a liability. Not just for a politician who wants to run for president, but for an expert who wants to make a name in town, or a journalist who wants to get his or her story on the front page of the paper. In this way, restricting the level of discussion to this rush for war.

Where does Donald Trump fit into all of this you might be wondering.

Charles Lewis: I think of the history of the United States as a work in progress and our attempted democracy here is a constant struggle between capitalism and democracy. And there have been absent flows where democracy looks like it’s winning. You reign in those powerful forces, but the fundamental reality is that most of the government’s decisions today are substantially dictated by powerful corporate interest. Clearly capitalism is winning.

Where does Donald Trump fit into all of this you might be wondering.

[iambiguous]

Nikola Tesla

All that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combated, suppressed — only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle.

Let's note the multitude of exceptions.

Life is and will ever remain an equation incapable of solution, but it contains certain known factors.

And this explains what exactly?

Fights between individuals, as well as governments and nations, invariably result from misunderstandings in the broadest interpretation of this term. Misunderstandings are always caused by the inability of appreciating one another's point of view. This again is due to the ignorance of those concerned, not so much in their own, as in their mutual fields.

Ignorance for some, perhaps, but for others it revolves more around a fractured and fragmented sense of futility.

What one man calls God, another calls the laws of physics.

Click, of course.

If you only knew the magnificence of the 3, 6 and 9, then you would have the key to the universe.

You tell me.

You may live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension.

On the other hand, for some, the whole point is to create them.

[iambiguous]

I have not seen the 2009 remake of this film but I suspect it is no where near as good as the original. Just a hunch. In part because almost no remakes of the “classics films” ever are.

At RT, the original garnered a 100% fresh rating on 32 reviews. The 2009 remake garnered a 51% fresh rating on 219 reviews. Enough said?

Think Banacek here. It’s less the crime itself and more how they are able get away with it. After all, they are in a subway train underground. It’s not like the authorities don’t know exactly where they are at all times. Assuming of course that they do.

You wonder then: in the post 9/11 world [especially in New York] how far could something like this go on.

As with Joe from Reservoir Dogs, Mr Blue fucks up here by putting together a team in which he is not absolutely certain about every member. When everything revolves around precision, one rogue element can really fuck things up. That would be Mr. Gray. And the more complex the plan is the more moving parts and the more moving parts the more likelihood of one [or more] of them not being in accordance with the plan.

And then there’s all the politics. And all the great lines. In some respects, this is like watching a particularly good situation comedy.

Look for “the dead man’s feature”. And the third rail.

In a TVO (Ontario, Canada) interview, the producer said that this film did terrific box office in New York, Toronto, London and Paris - all cities with subways - but was considered a flop in the rest of the world.

The meaning of “Pelham One Two Three” refers to the New York subway timetable terminus and time of departure schedule radio call sign. As explained in the movie, “Pelham” is the name of the station of origin where the subway train departs whereas “One Two Three” refers to the time of departure i.e. 1.23 pm. IMDb


The Taking of Pelham One Two three

Plumber: How come that gate ain’t locked?
Caz Dolowicz: Who’s gonna steal a subway train?

I guess we'll find out.

Mr. Blue: Now, then, ladies and gentlemen, do you see this gun? It fires 750 rounds of 9-millimeter ammunition per minute. In other words, if all of you simultaneously were to rush me, not a single one of you would get any closer than you are right now. I do hope I’ve made myself understood.

Note to henry: Imagine him [and them] with a bazooka!

Mr. Blue: Be Quiet! Now be quiet! nothing will happen as long as you obey my orders.
Passenger: Shit man that’s what they said in Vietnam, and I still got my ass shot full of lead.
Mr. Gray: Shut your mouth n*****! and keep it shut!
Mr. Blue: Mr. Gray!

The loose cannon...

Lt. Patrone: What’s up, Z?
Lt. Garber: You won’t believe it.
Lt. Patrone: You know me, I’ll believe anything.
Lt. Garber: A train has been hijacked.
Lt. Patrone: I don’t believe it.

Would anyone? In other words, back then.

Caz Dolowicz: When did the power go? Hey, conductor, when did the power go?
Conductor: Who wants to know?
Caz Dolowicz: Me! The supervisor of the Grand Central Tower wants to know!
Conductor: Oh yes, sir, a couple of minutes ago. Hey, what happened down there? A man go under?
Caz Dolowicz: Who wants to know?

We know how fucked up that can get.

Police Commissioner: Harry… tell me somethin’, will ya? They’re in a tunnel, surrounded on all sides. How do they expect to get away?
Harry: Beats the shit out of me, Phil.

It is pretty ingenious. You know, if I do say so myself.

Deputy Mayor: Phil? Whaddaya think?
Phil: Well, we’re fully mobilised. There’s enough firepower to wipe out an army. But…I can’t guarantee the safety of the 18 hostages.
Deputy Mayor: In other words, you’re for payin’ the ransom.
Phil: Well, we don’t want another Attica, do we?

So, where would you draw the line here?

Deputy Mayor: All right, Al. You’ve heard from the Three Wise Men. Now what do you say?
Mayor: What are they goin’ to say, Warren?
Deputy Mayor: Who?
Mayor: Everybody! The press! The man on the street!
Wife of the Mayor: He means the voters.
Deputy Mayor: You know what they’re going to say. The Times is going to support you. The News is going to knock you. The Post will take both sides at the same time. The rich will support you, likewise the blacks, and the Puerto Ricans won’t give a shit.

Politics, let's say. And let's just hope it doesn't rear its ugly head here, right?

Mayor: Jessie? Jessie, what do you say?
Wife: A million dollars sounds like a lot of money. But just think what you’re gonna get in return.
Mayor: What?
Wife: 18 sure votes.

Clever, sure, but that's about all it is,

Mr. Blue: Will you go back and mind the passengers, please? I do not want Mr. Brown and Mr. Grey left alone with them.
Mr. Green: Don’t you trust them?
Mr. Blue: I trust Mr. Brown, I do not trust Mr. Grey. I think he’s an enormous, arrogant pain in the ass who could turn out to be trouble. I also think that he is mad. Why do you think they threw him out of the Mafia?
Mr. Green: Oh, terrific.

They throw you out of the mafia?

Lt. Garber: Rico, you want to make yourself useful? Get personnel and tell them to get together a list of all motormen discharged for cause during the past five to ten years.
Lt. Patrone: What are you looking for?
Lt. Garber: Somebody down there knows how to drive a train. You don’t pick that up watching Sesame Street.

How hard could it be?

Mr. Blue: I’m giving you an order, Mr Gray.
Mr. Gray: Blow it outta your ass, Colonel. You’re talkin’ to the wrong man. I’m not your Mr B-B-B-Brown.
Mr. Blue: I once had a man shot for talking to me like that.
Mr. Gray: Yeah, well, that’s the difference between you and me. I’ve always done my own killing.

Definitely the fly in the ointment. Or, perhaps, more like the killer bee.

Inspector Daniels: Garber, I just had a terrible thought: suppose they’re not on the train? What if they set the throttle and jumped off? While we’re chasing the train, they’re sneaking out of an emergency exit somewhere behind us.
Lt. Garber: thought, sir, except for one thing: it’s impossible.
Inspector Daniels: Why?
Lt. Garber: Little gizmo known as a dead man’s feature. It was built into the controller handle in case a motorman should ever drop dead. The controller handle has to have a man’s hand pressing down on it hard at all times. Otherwise, the thing don’t work. The train stops cold.
Inspector Daniels: Uh-huh. I see.
Lt. Garber: Nice try, though.

Let's just say that Mr. Blue is way ahead of him.

Mr. Blue: Excuse me, do you people still execute in this state?
Lt. Garber: What? Oh, execute. No, not at the moment.
Mr. Blue: Pity.
[he then steps on the third rail and electrocutes himself]

Next up: the third rail here?

Mr. Green: Look, I got my rights! This is my home! I just want a little peace and quiet. Now just do me a favor, willya? Get the hell out of here!
Lt. Garber: Sorry if we bothered you, Mr. Longman. C’mon, Rico.
[Mr. Green sneezes]
Lt. Garber: Gesundheit.

Uh-oh, Mr. Green.

[iambiguous]

Stupidity

“If you're gonna be stupid you gotta be tough.” John Grisham,

Let's run that by all the stupid people here.

“Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.” Frank Zappa

Bears repeating.

“Stupidity cannot be cured. Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death. There is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.” Robert Heinlein

Even I wouldn't go this far. Well, except for all the times I do.

“Remember, when you are dead, you do not know you are dead. It is only painful for others.
The same applies when you are stupid.” Ricky Gervais

Right, like that makes being around them any more bearable.

“I have defined the hundred per cent American as ninety-nine per cent an idiot.” George Bernard Shaw

Let's take that down out of the clouds.

“And then he thought: Is this how idiots rationalize their stupidity to themselves?”
Orson Scott Card

Let's run that by all the idiots here.

[iambiguous]

When you fracture somebody’s mind you never quite know what is coming back to avenge it. Or when. Of course how these things play themselves in the West and how they play themselves in a rural South Korean community will be translated with more or less acuity. But revenge [served cold or piping hot] is not something that is hard to miss. It’s only a matter of how you are able to relate to the parties from both sides of the divide.

Hae-won is hardly a likable sort. But her personality was shaped and molded in the modern world – the urban jungle that revolves around an [at times] dehumanized technocratic rat race. And monsters are almost always made and not born when these elements become hard wired into this Big City mentality. But how “typical” is this experience there?

Savagery though can manifest itself in many, many ways. The other side of the modern metropolis coin is the community far removed from “civilization”. It has its own kind of tortures – especially for those down at the bottom of the pecking order. Someone like Kim Bok-nom. She either fits into it as those who command it want her to or there is just another kind of hell [a more primitive one perhaps] to pay.

This one builds slowly, ever so slowly. But don’t let that fool you.


Bedevilled [Kim Bok-nam Salinsageonui Jeonmal]

Man-jong [husband to Bok-nam after kicking her to the ground]: Even dogs and pigs learn if they get beaten. Why not you!

Already you're anticipating karma coming back around to this slimeball.

Bok-nam: Can’t you take Yeon-hee and me with you to Seoul?
Hae-won: You can go where you like.
Bok-nam: But I don’t know how to live on the mainland.
Hae-won: Seoul is even scarier to live in then here.

Yes, but...no.

Auntie [to Bok-nam]: A woman is most happy with a dick in her mouth.

Not to worry. She'll get hers too.

Hae-won: Why do you want your boobs to grow?
Yeon-hee: Don’t you know? That’s how girls are loved.
Hae-won: Yeon-hee, does your daddy love you?
[Yeon-hee smiles and nods]
Hae-won: How does daddy love you?

Take a wild guess.

Auntie: You should take the next boat.
Hae-won: There’s something…
Auntie: Laws are meant to change according to circumstances. And Bok-nam’s damn good at lying. She grew up a beggar. She’ll beg to get anything.
Hae-won: Then let the police investigate.
Auntie: If you’re so sure, why don’t you report it? You know that Yeon-hee is not Man-jong’s real daughter?

This is one fucked up place...


Bok-nam [to the women]: I stared at the sun for a long time and it spoke to me.
[then she picks up a sickle]

One by one by one as I recall.

Bok-nam: [to Man-jong]: Does it hurt? Does it hurt a lot? Hold on. I’ll put bean paste on it.

Again, what goes around comes around. And sometimes in spades.

Bok-nam [to boat captain]: Do I look sane to you?

Not even close. But then what does he know?

[iambiguous]

The idea here is that what really counts in a romantic relationship is the stuff on the inside. Not what a man looks like, or what sort of job he has or how worldly and sophisticated he is. Nope. All that other stuff inside: personality, character, compassion, consideration, kindness.

Of course it helps when the script calls for the man that you really want – dashingly handsome, culturally sophisticated, a successful writer – to be a pig. I mean, a real pretentious asshole. That always makes this sort of narrative “work”. As though there is hardly ever a time when the man is not a pig.

In other words, as though the “inside man” in this narrative was not also able to be like the “outside man”. I mean, come on, if he were, who would she choose then? The “outside man” has many, many, many more things in common with her. Of course the “solution” then might be to make the things that the “outside man” pursues of considerably less intrinsic value or importance. Selling pickles after all is just a more substantial occupation than being a gifted writer. And then those so much more “refined” writers and artists and intellectuals are able to be portrayed as hopelessly affected prigs.

Well, sure, maybe, to some. But not to everyone. An “uptown girl” for example. Can she really be willing to trade all that in for a “regular Joe” downtown? One who likes both the Yankees and the theater?


Crossing Delancey

Izzy [reading from her signed copy of Anton’s book]: “Izzy dear, It’s women like you who make the world liquid and even, still in beauty born.”

Of course, he'll say that to all the drop dead gorgeous women.

Hannah: So, Isabella, you got your own apartment?
Bubbie: Naaaaah, she lives alone in a room, like a dog. A dog should live alone, not people… a dog.
Izzy: It is not a room, it’s an apartment, a very nice apartment. You know, you’ve been there, there’s a bedroom, a bathroom…
Bubbie: Sure, with bars on the windows like a prison. Someone should crawl in at night I’m always thinking.
Izzy: Stop thinking.

That'll be the day.

Izzy: Bubbie, I am a happy person. I have a rent controlled apartment. I have a wonderful job. Guess who called the other day. Picked up the phone and called me on his private number. Isaac Singer. You know him? He won the Nobel Prize! I know lots of famous writers and publishers and editors. I organize the most prestigious reading series in New York. Me. I do it. And I have plenty of friends. Lots of women are doing tremendous things with their lives and don’t need a man to feel complete. It’s not like I’m gonna say no if someone walks into my life tomorrow. I’m not cancelling out that possibility but, Bubbie, please, listen to me. I am not, I repeat, not holding my breath!
Bubbie: A professor once told me, a college professor: “No matter how much money you got, if you’re alone, you’re sick!”

Too close to call?

Izzy: No, no that’s a good choice, very vivid, that whole section, he’s so hungry for her, it’s… unsettling.
Anton: Yes.
Izzy: What I love most about your writing…
Anton: Yes, yes, yes, yes?
Izzy: Is it’s deceptive accessibility. It reads like pulp fiction… and then you… hear music.
Anton: Will you tell me that when I call you with an anxiety attack at 4 in the morning?

Yes, yes, yes, yes!

Bubbie: Friends are friends. They come and go. A husband is a husband for life.
Izzy: Maybe I don’t want a husband.
Bubbie: Don’t talk crazy.
Izzy: And even if I did, he wouldn’t be a pickle man.
Bubbie: Get off your high horse, Miss Universe! This man is just looking, he ain’t asking to buy.

Of course, that's not true.

Bubbie [to Izzy after she turns Sam down]: Well, she spoke.

That was the first time.

Izzy [after she receives Sam’s present]: Sam, I don’t want to do this. I just came by to thank you, that’s all. I’m really very, very flattered. You know, you ought to take all that good romantic energy that you have – and it is good – it’s creative and refreshing…and it won’t go unappreciated on the right woman…I wish there were a way that I could say this…
[a long pause]
Sam: You did fine.
[then he turns and walks away]

Not really though.

Izzy [after the botched effort to introduce Sam and Marilyn]: It seemed like a good idea 48 hours ago. I’m sorry.
Sam: What are you sorry about? She’s great. She’s funny, honest, direct. Thanks.

Plus, she's one of the Roches.

Izzy: Maybe I could be handling this better…
Sam: Handling what? What are you handling, me?
Izzy: I don’t blame you for being annoyed…
Sam: You come to my stand, you invite me to dinner…to set me up with your girlfriend, you get your bubbie to drag me here. A guy could get a little tired of this routine.
Izzy: I didn’t…
Sam: What’s the problem here? It’s so small my world? You think it’s so provincial? You think it defines me? Is that it?
Izzy: No, no I don’t. I feel like I keep apologizing to you, like I can’t get it right.
[Sam gets into the elevator]
Izzy: Sam, I want to get it right.

Bye-bye Marilyn?

Lionel [greeting Sam at the Saturday gathering]: Poetry?
Sam: Pickles.

Close enough?

Izzy: I’m Myla’s replacement.
Anton: Well, it’s not just secretarial. It’s much, much more. It’s research, correspondence…
Izzy: How could I have been so stupid?
Anton: Izzy!
Izzy [rushing down the stairs]: Stupid…Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

What does that make Myla then?

Sam [to Izzy]: Go ahead, say it. “Schmuck, what are you still doing here?!”

Let's just say it's...scripted?

[iambiguous]

Identity

“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice." Steve Jobs

Imagine then his reaction to me.

“Patriotism is, fundamentally, a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it....” George Bernard Shaw

And how ridiculous is that?

“I am out with lanterns, looking for myself.” Emily Dickinson

Unless, perhaps, you find me first?

“I seem to have run in a great circle, and met myself again on the starting line.” Jeanette Winterson

Don't you hate that?

“I hate how I don't feel real enough unless people are watching.” Chuck Palahniuk

So, does virtually count?

“I'm not really sure which parts of myself are real and which parts are things I've gotten from books.” Beatrice Sparks

Or from posts here?

[iambiguous]

What family is perfect? And how many even come close? And is it really necessary to make a distinction between those in which the parents are gay and those in which the parents are straight?

In the modern world?

Which then begs the question: in the “modern world”, what does constitute perfection in a family?

Yes, of course I’m only being rhetorical.

This one? Two women raising two children. Which means that somewhere along the line they needed sperm. So, what happens when the sperm donor makes contact with this far from perfect family? And are the kids really all right here? Compared to, say, the parents and the sperm donor?

And then there is the whole question of making contact with the donor. It’s just sperm. Why would you want to meet the guy at the other end of it? Your “biological father”. Different strokes, I guess. I couldn’t possibly have cared less if I found out that the dad who raised me wasn’t my “real” father. It wouldn’t have changed anything about the shitty way in which I was raised. Or leastwise how I perceived it. It’s like this: suppose my ex-wife informed me that our daughter wasn’t my actual biological kid. It wouldn’t have changed how I felt about her one iota.

And then there is this: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-ente ... 41111.html

An article noting how many in the lesbian community were not exactly enthusiastic about how the film portrays, well, lesbians. I know I kept wondering about this myself. The writer/director though is a lesbian. She raised a kid with her partner. She also wrote and directed High Art.

On the other hand, how qualified am I to weigh in here? Well, aside from the fact that my ex-wife left me for another woman. On the other hand she is now remarried. To a man.

When Jules is trying, awkwardly, to explain the reasons that lesbians might prefer to watch gay male pornography rather than porn showing two women together, one of the reasons she gives is that they always cast two straight woman pretending to be gay in those movies. Both Julianne Moore, who plays Jules, and Annette Bening, who plays Nic, are in their real lives straight actress pretending to be lesbians for this movie.

Much of the film is based upon co-writer and director Lisa Cholodenko’s relationship with her partner Wendy, who both had a son by a sperm donor. Cholodenko dedicated the film to them. IMDb


The Kids Are All Right

Tanya: You must of figured you’d get a call at some point.
Paul: Not really. I mean I was 19 when I did it. It was so long ago…I just figured no one actually used my stuff.
Tanya: Why? I’d use it.

He'll dump her in the end though.

Joni: Actually, my brother asked if I’d call you because I’m 18 and he’s only 15 which is too young to call-- anyway, he’d like to meet you…if you want to…
Paul (thrown for a loop): Your brother?
Joni: Yeah. Well, technically my half- brother. Each of my moms had a kid, you know, with your sperm…
Paul: No. I didn’t know. Both of them? Like in two?
Joni: Uh huh. Like in gay.
Paul: Good deal. I love lesbians.

And how ironic does that turn out to be.

Joni: Okay. I’m just saying he might be weird. I mean, he donated sperm…
Laser: Well if he hadn’t done it, you wouldn’t be here.

Enough said, Joni?

Laser: Why do you guys watch gay man-porn?
Jules: Well, sweetie, human sexuality is complicated. And sometimes, people’s desires can be…counter- intuitive… For instance, since women’s sexual responsiveness is mostly internal, sometimes it’s exciting for us to see sexual responsiveness more, you know…externalized. Like with a penis.
Laser: But like, wouldn’t you rather watch two women doing it?
Jules: You would think that. But in most of those movies, they’ve hired two straight women to pretend and the inauthenticity is just unbeara...
Nic: Okay, that’s enough!

You bet it is!

Nic: Laser, your mom and I have a sense there’s some other stuff going on in your life and we just want to be let in.
Laser: What do you mean?
Jules: Are you having a relationship with someone?
Nic: You could tell us, honey. We’d understand and support you.
Laser [looking confused thinking they are talking about Paul]: I just met him once.
Nic: What do you mean once?
Jules: Did he find you on-line?!
Laser: What?!
Nic: Who did you meet once?
Laser: Paul! I met him with Joni.
Nic: Who’s Paul?!
Jules: Why was Joni there?!
Laser: She set it up.
Nic: Forget the set-up! Who is Paul?!!
Laser: Our sperm donor. Wait, did you guys think I was gay?!

Did he think they were?

Nic: I remember reading in your file, back when we were looking for, you know, sperm, anyway, you said you were studying international relations.
Paul: Oh yeah. Wow, that was a long time ago. Yeah, I was considering it, but then I dropped out of school.
Joni: You dropped out of college?
Paul: Yeah, it wasn’t my thing.
Nic: No? Why’s that?
Paul: It just seemed like a massive waste of money after a while. I mean, I wasn’t “doing” anything. I was just sitting on my ass listening to people spout off ideas I could’ve just as easily learned reading a book. I’m not saying higher learning uniformly sucks. I mean, college is great for some people.

I'll go first if you want me to.

Jules: Personally, I’m tired of minimal. I’m into more is more. Let’s not try to tame the space. I think it would look great all lush and overgrown and fecund…
Paul: Fecund?
Jules: I’m sorry, you know, fertile…
Paul: No, I love that word. Fecund. You just don’t hear it that often. More is more. Yeah. Let’s do that.

They'll do more than that, won't they.

Sasha: I’m just saying, the spermster’s a hottie. Is he single?
Joni: Okay, first of all: Ew. And second, he’s a really good person, so I prefer it if you didn’t taint him with your “whore youth”.
Sasha: Fair enough, hairy muff.

The hairier the better I always say.

Paul: I’m just making an observation.
Nic: Yeah? Well I need your observations like I need a dick in my ass!

Pass the butter?

Jules [to Nic]: Are you even attracted to me anymore?

Has anyone ever asked you that?

Nic: You’re sleeping with him, aren’t you.
Jules [freaked out]: What?!
Nic: Just be honest with me. Don’t make me feel crazier than I feel right now!
Jules: Where is this coming from?!
Nic: I found your hair in his drain!
Jules (scrambling): What? I was working. I got dirty so I took a shower.
Nic: Oh yeah? You take a nap, too?
[Jules pauses a second too long…she knows the jig is up]
Nic: Are you in love with him?!
Jules: No!
Nic: What, are you straight now?!
Jules: No. It has nothing to do with that!
[pause]
Jules: I’ve just felt so cut off from you lately…
Nic: Oh, right, so it’s my fault!
Jules: No! Who said anything about fault? Just listen to me! I just needed…
Nic: What? To be fucked?
Jules: No, appreciated!
Nic: It’s always what I’m not doing for you, isn’t it? Well here’s what I don’t to you. I don’t work out my issues by fucking other people!
Jules: He’s not just “other people!”
Nic: No, you had to go fuck our sperm donor! You couldn’t have picked a more painful way to hurt me…

You tell me this time.

Jules [to Laser]: I wish you were gay, you’d be much more sensitive.

A genetic thing?

Jules [to her family]: I need to say something. It’s no big secret your mom and I are in hell right now, and… Bottom line is, marriage is hard. Its really fucking hard. Just two people slogging through the shit, year after year, getting older, changing. Its a fucking marathon, okay? So, sometimes, you know, you’re together so long, that you just…You stop seeing the other person. You just see weird projections of your own junk. Instead of talking to each other, you go off the rails and act grubby and make stupid choices, which is what I did. And I feel sick about it because I love you guys, and I love your mom, and that’s the truth. Sometimes you hurt the ones you love the most. I don’t know why. You know, if I read more Russian novels, then…I just wanted to say how sorry I am for what I did. I hope you’ll forgive me eventually. Thank you.

What, no sequel?

[iambiguous]

Abortion

“Here is the trap you are in.... And it's not my trap—I haven't trapped you. Because abortions are illegal, women who need and want them have no choice in the matter, and you—because you know how to perform them—have no choice, either. What has been violated here is your freedom of choice, and every woman's freedom of choice, too. If abortion was legal, a woman would have a choice—and so would you. You could feel free not to do it because someone else would. But the way it is, you're trapped. Women are trapped. Women are victims, and so are you.” John Irving

Next up: the trapped fetus?

“My argument has always been that nature has a master plan pushing every species toward procreation and that it is our right and even obligation as rational human beings to defy nature's fascism. Nature herself is a mass murderer, making casual, cruel experiments and condemning 10,000 to die so that one more fit will live and thrive.” Camille Paglia

Someone run this by Maia.

“It seems to me as clear as daylight that abortion would be a crime.” Mahatma Gandhi

Not counting the storm clouds swirling all around it.

When you say you can't do something because your religion forbids it, that's a good thing. When you say I can't do something because YOUR religion forbids it, that's a problem.” Jodi Picoult

Tell that to the Supremes

“If we lived in a culture that valued women's autonomy and in which men and women practiced cooperative birth control, the abortion issue would be moot.” Christiane Northrup

Define moot?

“The "right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" begins with "life", and "life" begins at conception.” A.E. Samaan

I agree. Well, in a fractured and fragmented manner.

[iambiguous]

Coming of age in a very small town. A “village” as it were.

And working class doesn’t even come close to describing it. Aside from those on the other side of the tracks.

One is smart as a whip, struggling to foot the bill for college. Yale. Another is a small town gal with small town ambitions. The third is Julia Roberts: beautiful, built and intent on crashing parties over at the country club. Stick figures by and large. Just like all the rest of them. But somewhere in there are the actual flesh and blood renditions.

Best of friends naturally. Though [let’s just say] with eclectic taste in men. One of them isn’t even an asshole. He’s not smart enough to be. Or so some might argue.

So, will it make you wish you could live in a town like Mystic? Or will you thank your lucky stars that you never will. Or [for some of us] that you never will again.

Look for Matt Damon. His first feature film. In a role that Ben Affleck auditioned for too. Some “role”. I mean, what the hell can it really mean to audition for the role of…Steamer.

Mystic Pizza is a real pizza parlor, located at 55 West Main St. in Mystic, Connecticut. Writer Amy Jones was vacationing in Mystic one summer, saw the pizza parlor and was inspired to write the story. After the movie came out, the real Mystic Pizza shop became so popular, lines would stretch to the sidewalk and patrons would regularly steal mementos from the restaurant. IMDb


Mystic Pizza

Priest: Be seated.
[pause]
Priest: We’re gathered here to witness and bless the joining together forever of William and Josefina in Christian marriage. The firm covenant of marriage is permanent in this lifetime because it was established by God, and once entered into it may never be broken without risk of eternal damnation. So we ask you now, in the presence of God, family, and friends, to declare your intentions to enter a binding and permanent union with one another for as long as you both shall draw breath on this earth.

The look on Jojo’s face here [before she faints dead away] is absolutely priceless.

Daisy: Jesus Christ, these shoes are killing me.
Kat: Daisy, do you have to talk like that?
Daisy: Oh, excuse me, Holy Mother. I’m sorry, what I meant to say is, ‘These fucking shoes are killing me.’

That's more like it.

Jojo [explaining the wedding fiasco to Kat and Daisy]: I saw myself ten years from now, fat and ugly and all these kids swarming around me. And then I was picking fish scales out of Bill’s boots! But I did do the right thing though, didn’t I?
Kat: Sure, you did.
Daisy: The only reason to get married is to get out of Mystic.

Cynical enough for you?

Daisy [handing Kat a box of pizza]: Kiss Mom for me.
Kat: No, I’ll be late for my interview.
Daisy: Well, then you better hurry!
Kat: I’ve been there three times this week.
Daisy: Four, and you go to Heaven!
[Kat leaves]
Daisy [to Leona]: Kat, such a good girl. Where did we go wrong with her sister Daisy?

I guess we'll never really know unless there's a prequel.

Leona: Honey, you’d do just fine if you just used your head a little more.
Daisy: Yeah, well, don’t worry about me. I’m not gonna be slingin’ pizza for the rest of my life.
Leona: The best pizza!

Let's run that by the Fireside Gourmet

Tim: So, is there a history of insanity in your family?
Kat: They say it skips a generation.

Of course, they say lots of things.

Daisy: Charles?
Charles: Charles Gordon Windsor. Junior.
Daisy: Figures.

It didn't surprise me.

Daisy: Looks to me like he is putting the moves on you.
Kat: You’re disgusting.
Daisy: Okay, I’m disgusting. But just in case…
[she leaves the room but then comes back with a box of condoms…which she tosses to Kat]
Dasiy: The guy wears them.

Boy, does that take me back. Way back.

Daisy [after dumping a barrel full of dead fish in Charles’s Porsche convertible]: I fucked up.
Charles: Yeah…but you gave it a 100% effort!

She can do no wrong!

Bill: Your parent’s place. My parent’s place. Your sister’s apartment. The damned john at the pizza parlor. I’m tellin you Jo, I love you…doesn’t that mean anything to you. I think that when people love each other they make a commitment. They should have a wedding in a church, with the blessings of God for Christ sakes. Don’t you get it, Jo? I’m tell you that I love you…and all you love is my dick! Do you know how that makes me feel? Do you?

Just out of curiosity how would that make you feel?

Daisy: Just what the hell do you two do together anyway, that’s what I’d like to know.
Kat: If I told you it would sound stupid.
Daisy: It would sound pathetic. Daddy boffing the babysitter is a really old story, Kat.
Kat: We talk, we read, we listen to Mozart sometimes.
Daisy: Do you really believe this 30 year old guy is going to leave his wife and come live with you? You’re living in a fucking romance novel!
Kat: Oh, yeah. Boffing, fucking, screwing. The great Daisy, nobody’s fool. Why don’t you start taking cash for your services, it would be more honest!

Now that's below the belt. But is it low enough?

Daisy: What happened?
Kat [sitting on the bed crying]: She came back tonight.
Daisy: Shit…
Kat; He just stood there. He didn’t even say a word to me.
Daisy [trying to comfort her]: It’s going to be tough…but you’ll make it.
Kat: I just feel so stupid.
[she turns and looks at Daisy]
Kat: Why does it hurt so much?
Daisy: I’ll get you a cup of tea.
Kat: No, please. Please just stay with me.
[Daisy takes her in her arms and holds her]

That changes everything...between them.

Leona [after the Fireside Gourmet leaves the restaurant]: Someone ought to ram fried goat cheese up his ass.

Little does she know...

Mom: All I want is for you to make something of yourself!
Daisy: Yeah, well I’m not going to go to Yale, you’re just going to have to deal with it.
Mom: I don’t expect you to go to Yale. I’m just so worried about you.
Daisy [more soberly]: Yeah. Me too.

Cue the script.

Charles: They were being real jerks. I couldn’t let them do that to you. They deserved it.
Daisy: The only jerk at that table was you. They were just being themselves.
[pause]
Daisy: Bring home the poor Portuguese girlfriend for dinner…shake up the family for dinner.
Charles: That’s not true.
Daisy: I’m poor and I hate it, I admit it. I even thought I was desperate but I’m not half as desperate as you are. I would never use you to get at somebody. Your father didn’t cheat his way out of law school. You did that all on your own. Deal with it, Junior.
[pause]
Daisy: You’re not even good enough for me.

Ouch.

[iambiguous]

This movie really – really – hit home. At the time of its release, I was myself involved in a relationship with a woman [a married woman] who was in fact in possession of her very own green card. It was by far -- emotionally, intellectually, sexually -- the most tumultuous relationship I had ever been in. She was a Thai citizen who had come to America to earn a degree in art at MICA. Here in Baltimore. But when she decided to stay she entered into her own “marriage of convenience”. Why? Because the Thai government not only demanded she pay back every penny they invested in her education here, but they threatened her family in Bangkok there. So, she married a man 25 years older than she was.

And then an unbelievably complex conflagration ensued between us.

In the end? Well, let’s just say she stayed married to him. It turned out it may not have been just a “marriage of convenience” after all.

This film focuses instead on a marriage that unequivocally started out as one of convenience. She needs a husband to gain access to the residence of her dreams…and he needs a wife to gain access to the green card. Needless to say they could not possibly be more incompatible. But one way or the other they have to dupe the immigration officials in the government. They have to convince them they really are madly in love, and plan to spend the rest of their lives together happily ever married.

So, among other things, that means they must move in together. At least long enough to know as much about the other as possible. You know, in order to get their stories straight when the interviews begin.

Sure, you know right from the start where this one is going. But the trials and the tribulations along the way make it all worth watching. I mean, they are really incompatible when all of this begins.


Green Card

Brontë [to Georges]: We don’t have to like each other. We just have to get married.

That ever happen to you?

Georges [bidding Bronte farewell after they are, uh, married]: Okay, so, uh, good luck with your life.

Not so fast there.

Bronte: So what happens next?
Anton [who arranged the “marriage”]: That’s it. You don’t even have to see him again.

So, what do you think?

Bronte [to the folks who will decide if she gets the apartment]: Look, I’m very aware of the situation. It’s just that… well, I could bring the garden back to the way the late professor had it. I don’t want to get too technical, but the moracus syconia needs thinning… and the crinums and the zamias are sadly neglected. The chamaedorea’s root bound, and special care must be taken… for the poor cyathaceae dicksonia. Not to mention the cordyline or the heliconia. And there’s work nurturing the aspidistra… begonias, the bromeliads.

Then, having established that while her “husband” is in Africa now, he is not actually an African, she gets the apartment. On the other hand, so does he.

Brontë [trying to shift all the blame for their bogus marriage onto Georges]: You stroll around my apartment, touching my things. Do you know what trouble you’ve gotten me into? Do you?!
Georges: I’m sorry, Betty.
Brontë: It’s Bronte.
Georges: Oh.
Brontë: It’s hopeless…
Georges: The coffee?
Brontë: The coffee? I’m about to go to jail, you’re gonna be deported and you’re worried about the coffee?

And they're off!

Gorsky [INS official investigating their marriage]: May I use your bathroom?
Georges: My what?
Gorsky: Your bathroom.
Georges: What for?

Not a good answer.

Lawyer: They want a second interview on Monday. This is Friday. That gives you the weekend to get your stories straight.
Bronte: Two days? Well, I don’t see why he has to move in. Why can’t he just meet me here in the park or something?
Lawyer: Because this interview’s going to be in-depth. They’re gonna question you separately. They’re gonna want to know the colour of each other’s toothbrush. Uh, what does he like to eat? Does he snore? You’re gonna have to, uh, study each other’s habits. It’s like you’re cramming for an exam.

Only with a hell of a lot more at stake.

Lawyer: Just get your stories straight. By Monday evening this’ll all be over…and we can start planning the divorce.
Bronte: I can’t wait.

And Georges?

Bronte: Georges writes for the ballet. He’s an old friend. He’s…
Georges: …not gay.
Bronte: Of course not.
Lauren: Good.
Bronte: He just couldn’t find a hotel. And he’s been in Africa.
Georges: Look, we just old friends. So I don’t fuck her.

Not yet, anyway.

Georges: You begin the lie when you married. I didn’t make you lie. You always blame me. You did it too.
Bronte: Did what?
Georges: Married me! I did it for the green card. Why did you do it? No one made you! No one!
Bronte: Outside! Outside!
Georges: If you push me to be a beast, I can be a beast, so take care!
[he knocks a picture off the wall breaking the glass]
Bronte: Now look what you’ve done! You silly French oaf!

Silly?

Georges [to Bronte]: You like plants better than people.

It's not even close.

Bronte: The Adlers are thinking about giving some trees to a gardening group I’m in.
Georges: What’s that?
Bronte: Oh, it’s…,it’s just a gardening group. We go into poor areas, like the Lower East Side, and…
Georges: I came from that life. You waste your time.
Bronte: What?
Georges: Yeah. Nothing will change down there. It will always be that way. Better to forget about it.
Bronte: Forget about it?
Georges: Yeah. Look, the trees are very good. Yes, sure, sure. But you can’t eat the trees.
Bronte: Well, nothing changes without hope.
Georges: Oh, you think the gardens make hope?
Bronte: Well, it’s something.
Georges: The trees are very good, yes, but go to the country if you want trees.
Bronte: Huh? You try telling that to the children. They live with chaos, despair. You may think it’s nothing to give them a garden to plant…or trees to climb, but at least it’s doing something.
Georges: If it amuses you, then do it.
Bronte: Amuses me?!

A realist, let's call him. Or, okay, a flagrant cynic.

Georges: Phil…he’s not right for you.
Bronte: Oh, really? He knows more about people’s feelings than you’ll ever know.
Georges: Feelings? You don’t have feelings at all.
Bronte: You snore, and your manners are atrocious.
Georges: Ah, if you think that’s important, you’re a snob.
Bronte: Well, you’re a slob, you’re overweight, you’re disgusting!
Georges: But you live your life like you got it from a book. And Phil? Oh, yes, you make-a nice love with Phil, like-a vegetables. You need a fuck.
Bronte: That’s the language of the gutter, where you came from and where you’ll end up.
Georges: I am… I am the gutter, yes. But you…you are like a plant. A ca-ca… cactus!
Bronte: I once said I had no opinion of you, and now I do. I hate you. I really hate you!
Georges: Good, good. Your first feeling. Good!

Now what, you're wondering. Of course: he's deported back to France. By then though they have...fallen in love "for real"?

[iambiguous]

Absurdity

“There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity.” Arthur Schopenhauer

Me, right?

“The words kept coming back to him, a statement of a mystical truth and a palpable absurdity.”
George Orwell

Let's change that.

“Accepting the absurdity of everything around us is one step, a necessary experience: it should not become a dead end. It arouses a revolt that can become fruitful.” Albert Camus

Distractions I call them.

“Thus I draw from the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and my passion. By the mere activity of consciousness I transform into a rule of life what was an invitation
to death—and I refuse suicide.” Albert Camus

Whatever works?

“I am confident of my ability to demonstrate that one can sometimes believe in something and yet not believe in it. Nothing is less fathomable than the systems that motivate our actions.” Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

See, I told you.

[iambiguous]

The true story of this man: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C5%82ad ... w_Szpilman
Easily one of the luckiest men to have ever lived.

Poland at the time of the German invasion. Day in and day out: Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Then…SPLASH! The Nazi deluge.

This has been portrayed many, many times in film. A Jewish family of means [relatively speaking] watches as week in and week out the Nazi policies towards the Jews become increasingly more repressive…more ominous. What to do? Stay or go? Is that an option?

The fucking humiliations that had to be endured. Always you wonder: what would I have done? You want only to refuse them. To strike back. But is that really an option when to do so means certain death? And not only for yourself but for those you love?

And all the while the war looms larger and larger…the consequences becoming greater and greater. But everyone still has his or her own individual part to play in it. There is no getting around that. This is one man’s harrowing sojourn through it all.

Well, harrowing perhaps, but by no means as harrowing as the fate that awaited his family…and millions more sent to the camps. Fortuity. Itzak Heller yanks him from the others [heading for trains heading for the death camps] and everything changes: Heller: What do you think you’re doing, Szpilman? I’ve saved your life! Now, go, go, go on, save yourself!

We watch films like this and then we go about the business of living our lives. Like we can fit them both together somehow.

The film is based on the memoirs of Wladyslaw Szpilman. The director Roman Polanski tried to make the film as faithful of an adaptation as possible, with additional inspiration coming from events that happened to him while he was a boy during the war.

In order to connect with the feeling of loss required to play the role, Adrien Brody got rid of his apartment, sold his car, and didn’t watch television.

During the shooting of the movie, while scouting locations in Krakow, Roman Polanski met a man who had helped Polanski’s family survive the war. Roman Polanski himself experienced the Holocaust. His parents were sent to two different concentration camps: his father to Mauthausen-Gusen in Austria, where he survived the war, and his mother to Auschwitz where she was murdered.

This is the first film ever to receive the Best Film Award at the Césars (France’s national film award) with not a single word of French spoken in it. IMDb


The Pianist

Henryk [to Wladyslaw]: I told mother not to worry. You had your papers on you. If you’d been hit by a bomb, they’d have known where to take you.

No less dead though.

Wladyslaw [to Dorota after seeing the NO JEWS sign on the restaurant door]: They all want to be better Nazis than Hitler.

We may well have a few of them...here?

Wladyslaw: It’s an official decree, no Jews allowed in the parks.
Dorota: What, are you joking?
Wladyslaw: No, I’m not. I would suggest we sit down on a bench, but that’s also an official decree, no Jews allowed on benches.
Dorota: This is absurd.

They ain't seen nothing, have they?

Wladyslaw: So, we should just stand here and talk, I don’t think we’re not allowed to do that.

Yet.

Halina [holding out a newspaper]: Have you seen this?
Wladyslaw: What? What? I’m working. What? What is this?
Halina: It’s where they’re going to put us.
Wladyslaw: What do you mean “put us”?

Of course, we're all privy to what that means today.

Wladyslaw: Where are we going?
Mother: Phhhhh, out of Warsaw.
Wladyslaw [confused]: Out of Warsaw? Where?
Regina: You haven’t heard?
Wladyslaw [exasperated]: Heard what?
Regina: Haven’t you seen the paper?
Wladyslaw: No!
Regina: Ah, where’s the paper?
Halina: I used it for packing.
Regina [incredulous]: Ah, she used it for packing!

Why not?

Mr. Lipa: 2,000 and my advice is to take it. What will you do when you’re hungry? Eat the piano?
Henryk: Get out! You’re a thieving bastard, we don’t want your money, get out! We’d rather give it away!
Mr Lipa: Hey! Hey! What’s the matter with you? Haven’t you eaten today, what you suffering from? Hey! You people are crazy! I’m doing you a favour, two thousand, and I’m paying for the removal, I’m not even charging for the removal!
Wladyslaw [resigned]: Take it…

As it all really begins to sink in...

Wladyslaw: You sell anything?
Henryk: Just one. Dostoevsky. The Idiot. Three zlotys.
Wladyslaw: That’s better than yesterday.
Henryk: Three lousy zlotys. And there are people here making millions.
Wladyslaw: I know.
Henryk: You don’t know, believe me. They bribe the guards. The guards turn a blind eye. They’re bringing in cartloads, food, tobacco, liquor, French cosmetics, and the poor are dying all around them and they don’t give a damn.

They still don't.

Mother: And, please, tonight, for once, I don’t want anything bad talked about. Let’s enjoy our meal.
Henryk: Okay, then I’ll tell you something funny. You know who I mean by Dr. Raszeja. The surgeon. Well, for some reason, don’t ask me why, the Germans allowed him into the ghetto to perform an operation…
Halina: On a Jew? They allowed a Pole to come in to operate on a Jew?
Henryk: He got a pass, that’s all I know. Anyway, he puts the patient to sleep and starts the operation. He’d just made the first incision when the SS burst in, shoot the patient lying on the table, and then shoot Dr. Raszeja and everybody else who was there. Isn’t that a laugh? The patient didn’t feel a thing, he was anaesthetized.
[He laughs. No one else does]
Mother: Henryk, I said nothing bad.
Henryk: What’s the matter with you all, huh? You lost your sense of humor?
Wladyslaw: That’s not funny.
Henryk: Well, you know what’s funny? You’re funny, with that ridiculous tie.
Wladyslaw [getting angry]: What’re you talking about my tie for? What does my tie have to do with anything? I need this tie for my work!
Henryk [mocking]: Oh, your work.
Wladyslaw: Yes, that’s right, I work!
Henryk: Yes, yes, your work. Playing the piano for the parasites in the ghetto.
Wladyslaw: Parasites…
Henryk: Yes, parasites. They don’t give a damn about people suffering.
Wladyslaw: And you blame me for their apathy, right?
Henryk [accusing]: I do, because I see it everyday. They don’t even notice what’s going on around them.
Father: I blame the Americans.
Wladyslaw: For what, for my tie?!
Father: American Jews, and there’s lots of them, what have they done for us? What do they think they’re doing? People here are dying, haven’t got a bite to eat. The Jewish bankers over there should be persuading America to declare war on Germany!

Cue the Deep State of course.

Wladyslaw (to an elderly man nearest him): What’s happening?
Man: They’ve got my grandson in there. They pick 'em up, they take 'em away. What do they do to them? I’ve stopped believing in God!

Some stop while others start.

Wailing Woman: Why did I do it?! Why did I do it?! Why did I do it?!
Halina: She’s getting on my nerves. What did she do, for God’s sake?
Grun:: She smothered her baby. They’d prepared a hiding place and so, of course, they went there. But the baby cried just as the police came. She smothered the cries with her hands. The baby died. A policeman heard the death rattle. He found where they were hiding.

The virtual death rattle...here?

Dr. Ehrlich: We’re letting them take us to our death like sheep to the slaughter!
Father: Dr. Ehrlich, not so loud!
Dr. Ehrlich: Why don’t we attack them? There’s half a million of us, we could break out of the ghetto. At least we could die honourably, not as a stain on the face of history!
Grun: Why you so sure they’re sending us to our death?
Dr. Ehrlich: I’m not sure. You know why I’m not sure? Because they didn’t tell me. But I’m telling you they plan to wipe us all out!
Father: Dr. Ehrlich, what do you want me to do? You want me to fight?
Grun: To fight you need organisation, plans, guns!
Father: He’s right. What d’you think I can do? Fight them with my violin bow?
Grun: The Germans would never squander a huge labour force like this. They’re sending us to a labour camp.
Dr. Ehrlich: Oh, sure. Look at that cripple, look at those old people, the children, they’re going to work? Look at Mr Szpilman here, he’s going to carry iron girders on his back?

Some will take denial all the way to...the gas chambers?

Wladyslaw: What are you reading?
Henryk: “If you p**** us, do we not bleed? It you tickle us, we we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”
Wladyslaw [seeing that it is Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice]: Very appropriate.
Henryk: Yes, that’s why I brought it.

But then this part: all the world's a stage.

German soldier [as the Jews board the trains]: Well, off they go to the melting pot.

Nazi humor?

Majorek [to Wladyslaw]: They’re going to start the final resettlement now. We know what it means. We sent someone out. Zygmunt. A good man. His orders were to follow the trains out of Warsaw. He got to Sokolow. A local railwayman told him the tracks are divided, one branch leading to Treblinka. He said every day freight trains carrying people from Warsaw forked to Treblinka and returned empty. No transports of food are ever seen on that line. And civilians are forbidden to approach the Treblinka station. They’re exterminating us. Won’t take them long. We’re sixty thousand left. Out of half a million. Mostly young people. And this time we’re going to fight. We’re in good shape. We’re organised. We’re prepared.

Uh, the rest is history?

Wladyslaw [to Szalas, taking off his watch]: Here, sell this. Food is more important than time.

Let's discuss this...existentially.