Yesterday a friend of a friend pointed to a quote from The Reagan Diaries (HarperCollins), which went on sale 53 weeks ago: “A moment I’ve been dreading. George [Bush Sr.] brought his ne’er-do-well son around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the political [son] who lives in Florida — the one who hangs around here all the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40 and has never had a real job. Maybe I’ll call [Michael] Kinsley over at The New Republic and see if they’ll hire him as a contributing editor or something. That looks like easy work.” — entry dated 5.17.86.

Read Allison Hope Weiner‘s 6.2 N.Y. Times story about….well, should we pussyfoot around or should we just say it? The story was clearly inspired by intimations that Weiner (or people she’s spoken to, or both) are picking up on their insect antennae about M. Night Shyamalan and his latest film, The Happening (20th Century Fox, 6.13).

I don’t believe that Weiner and her editors would have run this story — which, if you boil the snow out, basically says “uh-oh, here comes hard-luck M. Night again!” — if uncertainty wasn’t in the air.
I’ve heard the same stuff that Weiner has about the film. Everyone knows what’s (possibly) going on. But it’s not the Times‘ way to peddle non-attributable rumblings so they run a story that reports on Shyamalan’s past troubles and suggests that perhaps…you know…his troubles may not be over. Because…whatever, his karma or his way of making movies (i.e., insisting on writing his own scripts) hasn’t worked in his favor or his relationships with Hollywood mainstreamers have soured, or because…nope, we can’t say it. The most we can do is tap-dance around it. Which is sufficient because the fumes of a story like this say it all.
Shyamalan “has not been able to undo his reputation in Hollywood as a talented filmmaker who will not play by studio rules,” Weiner writes. “After the success of The Sixth Sense, he criticized Disney executives, dared to compare his talent to Steven Spielberg√ɬ¢√¢‚Äö¬¨√¢‚Äû¬¢s and Alfred Hitchcock√ɬ¢√¢‚Äö¬¨√¢‚Äû¬¢s and has steadfastly asserted his reputation as an outsider by refusing to move from Philadelphia to Hollywood.
“His outsider persona continued to work for him, so long as the films The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs continued to make money. But when his films started to falter at the box office — his last movie, Lady in the Water, was drubbed by critics and ignored by moviegoers — the Hollywood establishment√ɬ¢√¢‚Äö¬¨√¢‚Äû¬¢s support began to wane.
“That failure has put considerable pressure on his new film, The Happening, an R-rated horror movie for Fox that opens on June 13. Another failure would harm the Shyamalan name and make it difficult for him to keep full control over his films.”

From Fox News Adam Housley, the best (most ferocious, most Irwin Allen-y) Universal Studios fire photo so far.

The fire has apparently wasted much of the Back to the Future, the King Kong ride/exhibit and “thousands of videos and reels in a vault,” says an AP story.
“Roughly 40,000 to 50,000 videos and reels were in the video vault, but these are duplicates stored in a different location, said Ron Meyer, NBC Universal president and chief operating officer. Firefighters managed to recover hundreds of those titles from the vault.
“The blaze broke out on a sound stage in a set featuring New York brownstones facades around 4:30 a.m. at the 400-acre property. The fire was contained to the lot but still burning several hours later.

So which rides have been destroyed by the Universal fire? Has City Walk been affected? Any decent photos posted? No time to process this, having gotten off the ferry and now behind the wheel of a rental on 95 north.

I’m filing this from the middle of the Long Island Sound — sitting on the Cross Sound Ferry, which travels from Orient Point, Long Island, to New London, Connecticut, a few times daily. You can actually get wifi on this thing if you have an air card…amazing.

6.1.08, 9:05 am

Yesterday I attended a celebration of the life and work of the late poet and artist Siv Cedering, my significant other’s mom who passed last November. The event was hosted by sculptor Hans Van de Bovenkamp, the widowed husband, at the sprawling Twin Oaks Farm and Sculpture Garden in Sagaponack, N.Y.

Front lawn, pond, horse stables at site of yesterday’s event — Saturday, 5.31.08, 6:55 pm

5.31.08, 7:25 pm

5.31.08, 8:05 pm

Ms. Cedering was a poet, novelist, screenwriter, children’s book author, songwriter, illustrator, sculptor, painter, musician, and translator. Born in Sweden, she lived with Van de Bovenkamp at the Twin Oaks Farm and Sculpture Garden for roughly 10 years until her death seven months ago at age 68.