Year: 2019

As I understand this latest development, Donald Trump and his attorneys have decided to stonewall any and all attempts from House Democrats to obtain pertinent testimony or documents in their ongoing impeachment inquiry. Basically a blanket “eff you” posture. This in itself would and should add another article of impeachment along with the “get the Bidens” Ukraine whistleblower thing.

The bottom line (and please inform if I’m missing something) is that Adam Schiff and other pro-impeachment House Democrats don’t have the power or the cojones to force Trump to do anything. They’ll strongly protest, of course, and will eventually vote for impeachment, but we all know the drill about the Republican-dominated Senate being all but certain to vote it down.

Excerpt: “Trump administration lawyers and aides have spent days puzzling over how to respond to the impeachment inquiry, and [now this] abrupt move suggests that the president’s team has calculated that he is better off risking the House’s ire — and even an impeachment article focused on the obstruction — than setting a precedent for cooperation with an investigation they have strenuously argued is illegitimate.

“The strategy, if it holds, carries substantial risk to the White House. Privately, some Republicans had urged the White House to allow witnesses…to appear, in order to deflate Democratic accusations of a cover-up and offer a public rationale for the president’s actions toward Ukraine. Now, some Republicans worry, Democrats have more fodder to argue publicly that Mr. Trump has something to hide.”

I’m more of a Mel’s Drive-In type, certainly alongside alternate options like Middleburg’s Red Fox tavern. I bought this little pin on the spot a few minutes ago. Mel’s is plain and beautiful with a perfect indoor climate on hot days, and I adore the absence of tasting menus. On the other hand I’ve been in love with Pier Luigi in Rome since my first visit there in ‘01. It’s a little complicated.

Robert Downey, Jr.: “It is this very large, multi-head hydra at this point. And according to [Martin] Scorsese, it’s not cinema — gotta take a look at that. And by the way, there’s a lot to be said for how these genre movies [have] degraded the art form of cinema…and you come in like a stomping beast and eliminate the competition in such a demonstrative way, it’s phenomenal. ”

Yes, elbowing aside the proverbial Scorsese brand of cinema has been phenomenal — he’s not wrong about that.

Hollywood Reporter get-around guy Scott Feinberg polled a fair number of Academy members about Joker, and got a fair number of mixed responses.

HE favorite: “I don’t know if it should be banned or it should be given every award.”

HE 2nd favorite (male member of the producer’s branch): “I saw this one at the Academy. I probably wouldn’t have seen it at a public theater. But wow, what a movie, huh? It’s hard to know where to start. Joaquin deserves an Oscar nomination — he blows the doors off the fucking place — and the cinematography was fantastic. Even so, I sure don’t want to see it again. I’m not an expert on mental health, but I’m sure there are a lot of people who will see the insane dancing after the killing as a sexy thing to do, and the worshipping of him at the end could also seem pretty cool to an insane person. As someone who was once held at gunpoint, I can’t get some of the images of gun violence out of my head. I’m very torn on this movie, but I’m glad I saw it.”

Variety‘s Jenelle Riley has reported that A24 will push Lighthouse lead Robert Pattinson for Best Actor and Willem Dafoe for Best Supporting Actor. Which strikes me as a slight “what?”

The size of their parts is fairly equal in terms of screen time and intensity, but if you ask me Dafoe’s performance is far more assertive and jabbing. He’s the feisty provocateur while Pattinson is mostly doing the simmering slow-boil thing with the death-ray glare. In short it’s mostly Dafoe’s show — between them he’s the one with the real shot. Plus he’s been nominated so often in this category without a win.

But A24 didn’t want to under-celebrate Pattinson’s work as so he’s up for a Best Actor nomination. Face it — “Rbatz” is looking at an uphill situation in the competitive company of Joker‘s Joaquin Phoenix, Marriage Story‘s Adam Driver, The Irishman‘s Robert De Niro, Pain and Glory‘s Antonio Banderas, Uncut Gems‘ Adam Sandler and The Two Popes‘ Jonathan Pryce.

I’ve been meaning to praise one of the strongest and most affecting aspects of Joker, which is Hildur Guonadóttir‘s musical score. It taps right into the primal, painful realm of Arthur Fleck, and never stops conveying that bad stuff is happening right now and that worse is on the way. A lot of bass, viola and cello. Guonadóttir says he wrote “much” of the score without having seen Todd Phillips‘ film. She also composed the excellent score for Stefano Sollima‘s Sicario: Day of the Soldado.

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USC student wokesters want John Wayne cancelled in absentia, or at least as far as a USC School of Cinematic Arts Wayne exhibit is concerned.

Mainly, I gather, because eight months ago the long-dead Wayne was targeted by progressives — not incorrectly — as a sexist, hawkish rightwing racist. Wayne’s objectionable views were part of a 1971 Playboy interview that resurfaced last February. Why this is blowing up now instead of last winter is anyone’s guess.

A week and a half ago a pair of SCA students, juniors Eric Plant and Reanna Cruz, made some noise on the USC campus by protesting the Wayne exhibit with a banner.

Eric Plant, Reanna Cruz and their anti-John Wayne protest banner. (Photo snapped by Leanna Albanese.)

USC Annenberg Media correspondent Leanna Albanese reported the protest on 9.27. “When you have an exhibit up that celebrates the idea and the legacy of someone that is blatantly racist, a white supremacist and directly says that he is a white supremacist…it seems as though SCA does not care about [its] students,” Plant told her.

“[The exhibit] being in SCA just makes me feel uncomfortable as someone who is Native American,” Plant explained. “Take down the whole exhibit. There’s no other way that this can be remedied. This is something that I’m going to fight for the entire time that I’m here.”

Three days after the Albanese story (or on 9.30) USC’s Assistant Dean of Diversity and Inclusion Evan Hughes announced that the Wayne complaint would be discussed at a meeting on 10.2, or eight days ago. I wrote Hughes a couple of hours to ask if any course of action had been decided — crickets.

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I didn’t get into Martin Scorsese‘s recent assessment of the superhero (mostly Marvel) genre because he was only saying what any semi-intelligent film lover thinks, aside from the fact that certain Marvel films are, by the standards of the genre, seriously impressive (the first Iron Man and Ant Man, the first two Captain America films, Avengers: Endgame, etc.). My reaction was, “Okay, yeah…and?”

Scorsese: “I don’t see [superhero films]. I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema. Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”

Two days ago Samuel L. Jackson had this response: “That’s kind of like saying Bugs Bunny ain’t funny. Films are films. You know, everybody doesn’t like his stuff either. I mean, we happen to, but everybody doesn’t. There are a lot of Italian-Americans that don’t think he should be making films about them like that. Everybody’s got an opinion, so it’s okay. It’s not going to stop anyone from making movies.”

HE to Jackson: People like what they like and are obviously entitled to their opinions…of course. And I don’t “like” each and every Scorsese film, by the way. I’ve never been a fan of Kundun, and The Age of Innocence and Bringing Out The Dead never quite rang my bell. But any friend, associate or acquaintance of Jackson’s who says he/she doesn’t “like” Scorsese’s films in general is an idiot, no offense.

And that alleged Italian-American complaint…seriously? The American Italian Anti-Defamation League thing is a half-century old, and there’s hartdly an Italian-American living in the northeast corridor who hasn’t accepted the mob association aspect as part of the price of doing business. Vito Corleone‘s photo is hanging on the wall of God knows how many Italian restaurants, Nino Rota‘s Godfather theme is often heard on the sound system, and everyone loves Joe Pesci‘s “what, I’m a clown, I amuse you?” riff from Goodfellas.

Monday, 10.7 bulletin: I’ve cancelled our Red Fox “tasting menu” reservation. Per Dave Billet‘s suggestion, we may order something in the pub, which has a separate a la carte menu.

Sunday, 10.6: I’m not into eating big, gut-busting meals these days. I’m not Mr. Creosote, and I never have been. But after making a reservation for Tatyana and myself at Middleburg’s Red Fox Inn & Tavern for Friday, 10.18, management called to make sure I understood the all-or-nothing terms of eating there that night.

The situation is that you’re either down for a three-course “Autumn tasting” dinner (roughly $100 per person with wine, not counting tip — $125 plus tip if you’re including dessert) or you might as well not come. Sorry but no budget-watchers or cheapskates.

HE response: “And what if I don’t want to stuff myself with your delicious, exquisitely prepared vittles…what if I just want to absorb the storied colonial atmosphere while eating a light salad and maybe sipping a bowl of soup? Why do I have to go along with your, no offense, totalitarian demand that I eat the locked-and-loaded dinner you’ve chosen to serve me, come hell or high water?”

Response from Red Fox courtesy lady: “Well, you don’t have to come to our restaurant, sir.”

Me: “Oh, I have that option, do I? Thanks — good to know.”

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Posted on 11.6.12: “I always got a bigger charge out of Keith Moon‘s pounding and crashing than I did from Ginger Baker‘s, great as he was and is. Partly because Moon was crazier. But also because Moon’s snare-drum hits always struck me as metronomically, mathematically and microscopically more precise and highly charged than Baker’s…just by a tad. To me great drumming isn’t about being a wild man from Borneo…it’s about hitting the beat exactly dead center and exactly right according to universal law, over and over and over.”

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