I was reminded that despite a noteworthy mention in Quentin Tarantino‘s Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, I’ve never had the slightest interest in watching Krakatoa, East of Java (’69), directed by Bernard Kowalski and costarring Maximilian Schell (when he was still slender and movie-star handsome, before he turned into Akim Tamiroff), Diane Baker, Brian Keith and Sal Mineo. It’s free on Amazon Prime.
Wiki excerpt: “The story is loosely based on events surrounding the 1883 eruption of the volcano on the island of Krakatoa, which is actually west of Java, but the producers thought that ‘East’ was a more atmospheric word, as it is located in the Far East. The characters are engaged in the recovery of a cargo of pearls from a shipwreck perilously close to the volcano.”
But it’s also fair to note that with the exception of H1N1 and maybe one or two others, nearly all viruses over the last few decades have been routinely identified by their geographical origin.
Was it stigmatizing to acknowledge that the Ebola viruspartly originated in Yambuku (Democratic Republic of the Congo), “a village near the Ebola River from which the disease takes its name”? Or to acknowledge that the Zika virus came “from the Ziika Forest of Uganda, where the virus was first isolated in 1947”? Or to say that the West Nile virus “was discovered in Uganda in 1937″?
Was there an anti-white-person motive when Lyme disease “was diagnosed as a separate condition for the first time in 1975 in Old Lyme, Connecticut”? Have CDC officials ever said that the term “stigmatizes” residents of that Connecticut town? Just asking.
Obviously everyone’s streaming movies at home these days. Hand over first. Obviously the demand is greater that at any time before, and obviously the streaming speeds are slowing because of this. I’m paying for the fastest Spectrum service available so I thought I’d be okay. I’m not. I guess no one is. Last night I attempted to watch a press-link streamer of a feature film, and it began stalling around the 12 or 15 minute mark. Slogging through the first hour wasn’t agony, but it was definitely irritating. I presume others are experiencing the same.
Friendo to HE: “This is a very rare sketch from a 1972 NBC special written by Neil Simon. It aired once and never again. Inspired turns from Gene Wilder and Jack Weston. It speaks to the anxieties that quarantines can cause. It’s near impossible to find so your readers may dig it. I love the ending.”
This isn’t bad. 12 guys, 12 different locations. But why is Sting singing in a lower register? Is he having trouble hitting those high notes or…?
I’ve mentioned this two or three times before, but my transcendent moment with this song happened in a pub in Stockwell (south of the Thames) in December 1980. 9:30 pm or 10 pm. Not many people, maybe three or four at the bar. I was sitting near the jukebox with a pint of bitters, feeling a tiny bit buzzed. And then the song, which I hadn’t paid much attention to since its debut in October, began playing, and the bass tones were magnificent. I fell in love then and there.
The next morning the news was on the BBC about John Lennon‘s murder.
Does LexG even think about wearing an X-factor mask? Or does he just wear bottom-of-the-barrel paper masks, grunting “good enough”? Who among HE regulars is wearing (or has ordered) anything other than generic surgical masks? I for one believe that one should at least attempt a sense of style when visiting the local market or gas station or whatever. (The other night I was seriously impressed by a Predator mask that a guy was wearing at Pavilions.) The problem right now is that when you order this or that the Amazon arrival date is in May or even June.
The results of a Republican-funded poll, published today by the New York Post, claim that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is vastly preferred over Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination. Cuomo and Biden are running roughly even among my demo — white, reasonably well-educated, 45-plus, X-factor — but generally speaking 56% of Democrats have said they would prefer the current New York governor over Obama’s vice president as the Democratic presidential nominee. 44% say they would prefer sticking with Biden. The rightwing poll has a margin of error of 4.8%.
I was reminded this morning by the occasionally irritating “Bruce Taking A Nap” that I’d never posted a review of Michael Winterbottom‘s Greed (Sony Pictures Classics, 2.28).
Reply: Good heavens! I saw Winterbottom’s reasonably well-made, generally respectable one-percent satire around 2.20. I didn’t just “forget” to review it. I wasn’t that deeply stirred, you see, and somehow it slid to the side. I’m nonetheless sorry for dropping the ball. Not cool, profound apologies to Michael and Tom, won’t happen again.
Steve Coogan plays Sir Richard McCreadie, a super-rich, Philip Green-resembling garment industry titan who ruthlessly exploits the Indian labor market by insisting on paying less than $4 or even $3 per day for sewing-machine sweatshop workers (location unspecified but think Myanmar or Bangladesh).
I found it hard to get it up because I had determined that Greed was a decent but somewhat minor effort — emphasis on the “somewhat” as it hits what it’s aiming at. The Rotten Tomato rating was nonetheless 48%.; Metacritic was 52%.
I was partly influenced by the fact that Greed had screened at the Toronto and Santa Barbara Film Festivals without generating what I would call significant heat. The promotional lead-up to the U.S. opening was accompanied by a certain lack of hoopla, and I somehow allowed my attention to wander and wither.
I wasn’t shocked to learn once again that certain garment industry titans (like Zara’s Amancio Ortega and H&M’s Stefan Persson) have become multi-billionaires off the backs of hand-to-mouth Indian workers. I was a wee bit underwhelmed, I suppose, when I realized early on that the basic thrust of Greed was to say this over and over again — i.e., that McCreadle (who has huge, show-white teeth) is an insanely greedy prick. Yes, agreed, he is that…and that’s it? Yes, the basic idea.
Greed isn’t a drama or a comedy as much as an instructional one-note satire.
I suppose I didn’t feel that repeatedly making this point was enough. But within this parameter, Greed is a reasonably good film in a Michael Winterbottom sort of way. Seriously. I know what this review sounds like, but I’m not putting it down. Not really, I mean.
“The only thing I’m really sure of is that after all of this is over, the world isn’t going to be quite the same. I think we are all going to be suffering some post-traumatic stress and people are going to take a while before they trust one another again, before they can come close, before they can gather again at events that are part of the celebration of being human and being together.”
— Bruce Springsteen this morning during an 85-minute broadcast on on Sirius Radio, “From His Home to Yours” — confessions and songs with themes of isolation, hopes and dreams, etc. (As reported yesterday morning by Variety‘s Michele Amabile Angermiller.
The show re-streamed today (Thursday, 4.9) at 6 am and 3 pm.
The show will air again on the following dates and times:
Friday, 4.10 at 10am and 4pm / Saturday, 4.11 at 12am, 8am and 5pm / Sunday, 4.12 at 9am and 6am / Monday, 4.13 at 7am and 4pm / Tuesday, 4.14 at 12am and 8am.
Staffers and freelancers at a gathering for Los Angeles bureau of Entertainment Weekly, taken sometime in ’92 or ’93. Sent this morning by Indiewire‘s Anne Thompson. Name of restaurant unknown. I’m working on the photo caption as we speak.
(l. to r.) EW staffer Carole Willcocks, mystery blonde (possibly Strawberry Saroyan), Dan Snierson, music editor Rob Seidenberg, Gregg Kilday (back row, glasses, goatee), Richard Natale, Mike Syzmanski, bureau chief Cable Neuhaus, myself, Michael Walker (obscured), Judy Brennan, Pat Broeske, Anne Thompson.
