Day: July 13, 2024

Bullet Apparently Grazes Trump in Ear or Cheek

by

“And now MAGA nutters will go for revenge.” — HE friendo.

Tomorrow’s N.Y. Post headline: “YOU’RE FIRED UPON!”

Things were looking bad for Biden-Harris, but now they’re really in Fuck City.

Deplorable as it is, the Trump cause has just been super-energized.

In a nod to the late John McCain, I prefer presidential candidates who don’t get shot at.

Trump’s defiant gangsta fist pump is the stuff of an Oliver Stone ’90s film…extreme Hollywood melodrama…theatrical lightning. “Popping noises.” Is that not blood next to his ear and across his right cheek?

Photo by N.Y. Times Doug Mills:

HE Stands With Ballsy, No-Bullshit Bob Costas

by

Biden is finished because of the decisive leads Trump is now enjoying the battleground states…that’s it, that’s the whole game.

Bob Costas starts to talk around the 5:00 mark:

Costas: “Biden’s cognitie decline has been so overwhelmingly obvious for so long. You don’t need a degree in public policy from Harvard to see it and to say it — if you’re willing to say it — any more than you need a degree from MIT to say two plus two is four. And it makes you wonder whether we’ve been gaslit by the Democrats.’

“This had to have been obvious to people surrounding the president, people who observed the president…wouldn’t it have been an act of patriotism, if that’s not too overblown a word in this case, to lay that out?”

Simmons & Westheimer

by

Other than “I’m very sorry but we’re all gonna get there,” I can’t think of anything to say about these two except that they clearly lived large…worked their butts off, seemingly enjoyed life, had twinkles in their eyes and almost certainly never had sex with anyone, ever.

“How About You, Handsome?”

by

In the old days the star of a film was sometimes introduced by stealth. The camera would show a portion of his/her anatomy — a behind-the-head shot or an insert of his/her hands or a shot of walking shoes, say — but the face wouldn’t be revealed until 10 or 20 or even 30 seconds had elapsed.

This told the audience, of course, that the person being concealed was at the very least a major costar, and most likely a romantic figure. And they wanted to know more.



Sean Connery was introduced this way at the beginning of Dr. No, his first 007 film. Ditto Farley Granger and Robert Walker in the opening seconds of Strangers On A Train. Vivien Leigh’s face was partially obscured for four or five seconds during her first scene as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind.


But no one ever kept a star’s face from being shown as long as Alfred Hitchcock did during an early scene in Notorious. For a full 93 seconds he showed audiences only the back of Cary Grant‘s head. To prolong the who-is-this? effect he had costar Ingrid Bergman speak three lines to Grant, who was shown sitting down and drinking at a small party at Bergman’s home, and with Grant saying nothing in return, and not even gesturing in some way.

It’s still fascinating today.

Bergman pours him a drink, sizes him up and asks if she knows him. Nothing. Then she says, “That’s okay, I like party-crashers.” And a woman dancing nearby says, “He’s not a crasher — I brought him.” And you’re thinking, “Okay, but who is he?” You’re also wondering why doesn’t he at least offer some mild little pleasantry when Bergman says, “You know something? I like you.” Does he smile or wink? No telling. All we see is the stillness and the shiny black hair.

And yet it’s obvious he’s Mr. Cool. Finally the dangle ends after a minute and 33 seconds, and in the next scene the camera finally introduces that familiar cleft chin and the cow eyes and all the rest. 


The back-of-the-head shot lasts from 3:06 to 4:39.


Son of Stillness of Time

by

Over the decades I’ve experienced many dozens (hundreds?) of perfect moments that were so rich and serene and soul-settling — moments in which I said to myself “Jesus, this is perfect in every way.”

The dusky light and settled atmospheres, I mean…soothing meditations and moods of unusual quiet …solace and contentment…pause moments.

I’m thinking of the faint scent of sea water and the sound of crying gulls at 5 am in Cannes…the taste of a special moment after a super-heavy rainfall in Paris or during a hike in the Palm Desert outback below cloudy skies or a cappuccino detour in Venice’s Campo Santa Margherita in the late afternoon or standing on the deck of a tourist ferry as it approaches Napoli harbor just before dawn…

Here’s such a moment…13 years and one month ago (late May 2011) on a calm and sunny day in Venice, Italy…placid, a gentle breeze, the faint sound of water lapping at pilings…sitting at an outdoor table at…wait for it…Trattoria San Basilio, a fairly small (you could even call it tiny) restaurant, waterside in southern Dorsoduru…no tourists, no madding crowd…Calle del Vento, 1516, 30123 Venezia VE, Italy.

Right now I feel as strongly about this moment as Mr. Bernstein felt about the girl in the white dress on the Staten Island ferry.

Video shot on a Canon camera….the quality of iPhone videos wasn’t good enough back then…good God, I was still filing on Movable Type!

Best Death Rattle Comments

by

HE commenter Michael Degregorio: “It’s pathetic that Fly Me To The Moon is another ORIGINAL film, not a franchise or a sequel or a superhero flick, and people can’t stay away from it fast enough.

“People who keep saying that there needs to be more original films made…these people need to put it where the moon don’t shine.

“Every time an original film is released in theaters, people stay home and watch it on streaming, and if it went STRAIGHT to streaming they would bitch that it should have gone to a theater, but they wouldn’t have seen it there anyway.

“It’s like when the pageant question is ‘what would you like to see?’ And the answer is always ‘world peace’ because that’s expected.

“Same idea here — wish there were original films made! Sure you do, but you’ll only watch the franchise shit with your own money.”

HE commenter brenkilco: “Yeah, nobody can really open a movie anymore. The package or franchise or genre is what’s sold. Cruise can open an MI movie, but you probably couldn’t give him away in a drama. Leo and Margot and Emma, et al. — they’re never going to open anything.

“And the fact that Channing Tatum and Glen Powell are being slotted into the charming leading man niche shows how thin the bench is.”

HE commenter Regular Joe: “Cruise does open movies worldwide, but I think even that appears to be coming to an end for him.”

“Vice President Trump….uhm, Putin, I mean”

by

“When my mom got into her 80s, we had to deal with periodic medical issues. Fainting. Falls. Broken bones. Luckily, she was in good stead with the local rescue squad because she faithfully attended their crab feast fund-raisers.

“Each time, my siblings and I would move heaven and earth to get her home from whatever hospital she had landed in.

“In 2003, I tried to talk one emergency room doctor into releasing her after 11 hours.

“’I’ll let her out if she can tell me who the president is,’ the doctor said.

“We both looked at my mom, expectantly.

“’George,’ she said.

“I was thrilled; W., it was.

“’George Washington,’ she finished.

“After each episode, I’d proudly tell her internist, Dr. Simon, how we had nursed her back to health.

“‘You don’t understand,’ he said with exasperation. ‘Picture your mother hanging off a ledge, holding on by five fingers. After one of these incidents, she’s hanging on by four fingers. Another incident, three fingers. And so on. You think you’ve gotten her through and you’re starting fresh, but you’re not. It’s cumulative.’

“My mom was a stubborn old bird and she hung on with two fingers, and then one, until she was 97. We gave her morphine at the end, with a bourbon chaser.

“I know that octogenarians and nonagenarians can keep their wits about them. My mom was sharp and funny into her 90s.

“But I also know they begin losing threads of the narrative, and it’s as painful to them as it is to those who care about them.

“At some point, older people find themselves on that ledge. And, as Dr. Simon taught me, each traumatic incident you pull through just leads to another.”

— posted this morning (7.13) at 7 am.