Day: January 11, 2023

…if I was able to write something? I can’t tap anything out because I’m driving and it’s dark out. Later this evening…Jeff Beck sleeps.

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I’m in a nice friendly cafe, and I happen to sitting near a couple of seemingly gay women who are just getting to know each other. Maybe they’ve “met” via Lesly and are speaking for the very first time.

I’m mentioning this because I can’t help overhearing their yappity-yap-yap and absorbing their amorous energy. The same kind of expectant singles-bar hormonal hoo-hah that we’ve all heard and felt. I radiated the same hundreds of times in my heyday.

I’m just thinking to myself “these two are so into impressing each other…they’re trying so hard to be funny and sharp and witty that I’m getting exhausted just listening to them. It’s none of my business and I should try harder to not listen, but an inner voice is saying ‘Jesus, fellas…maybe you don’t have to try so hard? Give yourselves a break and turn it down a bit.'”

Don’t prospective lovers talk like this any more?

Posted from Honlulu on 11.19.12: “I landed in Honolulu at 10 pm local time (or midnight LA time) after a 5 and 1/2 hour flight. My Tokyo flight leaves tomorrow at 1 pm so I’m staying at an airport-vicinity dump called the Pacific Marina Inn (2628 Waiwai Loop, Honolulu , HI, 96819), which is located among a cluster of drab warehouses and small businesses with two ugly gas stations the only beacons (apart from the PMI) of people-friendly commerce.

“Aloha! Good to be here! The skanky industrial regions of Oahu can be just as ugly if not uglier than the skanky industrial regions around LA or Newark or Orlando.

“As soon as the bags were in the room I stepped outside and breathed in the Hawaiian night air with the idea of going for a nice walk. But about 70 feet away in the darkness of the parking lot there were two curvy, bordering-on-plus-sized girls leaning against a car and making out, and every time I stuck my head out they turned around and gave me this look that said ‘so are you going to stare at us all night, pervy, or do we get a little privacy here?’ So I began to feel intimidated. Like it or not, the girls had laid claim to the parking lot and intruders were not welcome.

“Then I told myself I had just as much of a right to enjoy the parking lot as these girls did. Then I asked myself, ‘What would Ryan Adams do? He’s a sensitive guy, writes for Awards Daily, stands up for gay rights. He’d know what to do. I’m fairly certain he wouldn’t call these girls ‘lesbos’ but would he just roam around and take pictures and do what he wants or would he hide inside the motel room like me, unsure of his next move?'”

Titanic has already been re-released in 3D, but this forthcoming re-release (2.10.23) is being presented in high-frame-rate format, presumably 48 fps. Smoother, more fluid action. That might be interesting to see.

Never forget that that last August the IndieWire gang ranked Titanic as the eighth best ’90s film, and that David Ehrlich, IndieWire‘s hardnosed, often contrarian senior critic, said the following: “Titanic is as personal and cohesive as any film a fraction of its size. Each character, from the card-playing Swedes on the docks of Southampton all the way up to Jack and Rose themselves, is endowed with a lifeforce all their own, enough so that it feels like a family reunion 84 years in the making when you see their ghosts crowding around the first class staircase in that immortal final shot.”

Owen Gleiberman in 2012: “Once the ship scrapes up against that iceberg, Jim Cameron‘s filmmaking turns humanly brilliant, as the prospect of sudden death unmasks — in the most touching and shocking ways — who each and everyone on board really is. Jack’s death scene in the water has the shuddery majesty of the greatest silent films, because it’s a moment that touches how vulnerable and precious life really is. To watch Titanic again is to do nothing less than enter a movie and come out the other side, with one’s spirit feeling just a little bit larger.”

I still say that playing Celine Dion‘s “My Heart Will Go On” over the closing credits was a terrible thing. It added a pop schlock feeling to a film thaty had ended on a beautifully solemn and even transcendent note. And the CG needs a George Lucas-style upgrade.

Lawrence Tierney in Reservoir Dogs: “So you’ve had a few bad months. You do what everybody else does. I don’t care if it’s J.P. Morgan or lrving the tailor. You ride it out.”

Michelle Williams may land a Best Actress Oscar nomination for The Fabelmans, but SAG having blown her off for a Best Actress nom obviously spells trouble.

Congrats to Blonde‘s Ana de Armas, who gave Andrew Dominik all the pain and anguish she could muster — precisely what he wanted from her. Congrats also to Till‘s Danielle Deadwyler for her Best Actress nom; ditto Viola Davis for her Woman King turn. SAG’s Best Actress award will be most likely won by Tar‘s Cate Blanchett. It’s my personal opinion that EEEAAO‘s Michelle Yeoh did herself no favors during her GG acceptance speech last night — she sounded a little too casual, even a bit smug.

SAG’s Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

Babylon
The Banshees of Inisherin…NECK & NECK WITH FABELMANS.
Everything Everywhere All at Once….no!
The Fabelmans
Women Talking….NOT A SNOWBALL’S CHANCE IN HELL

SAG’s Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

Cate Blanchett (Tár)
Viola Davis (The Woman King)
Ana de Armas (Blonde)
Danielle Deadwyler (Till)
Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once)

SAG’s Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

Austin Butler (Elvis)
Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin)
Brendan Fraser (The Whale)
Bill Nighy (Elvis)
Adam Sandler (Hustle)

SAG’s Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role

Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)
Hong Chau (The Whale)
Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin)…DESIGNATED WINNER
Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once)

SAG’s Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

Paul Dano (The Fabelmans)
Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin)
Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin)
Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once)….OBVIOUSLY FATED TO WIN
Eddie Redmayne (The Good Nurse)