Trump ’20 has just announced the sale of Keep America Great camoflauge hats. No more red — camo is the new deal. Subliminally, what does that tell you? It feels like an upping the stakes signal, Trumpies vs. lefties, armed insurrection against the Deep State, etc.

Terrible convulsive traumas have sadly happened to this country from time to time. But they’ve never been long-term. A few days or a week, and then everyone began to gradually emerge and resume basic routines.

JFK was shot on Friday, 11.22.63 and buried on Monday, 11.25. Four days of emotional gloom and devastation. And on Tuesday, 11.26, the world slowly started again. The grief never went away, of course, but the wheels of commerce and culture began to turn.

John Lennon was murdered on 12.8.80. The shockwaves of anguish were devastating. Everyone wept. But after a few days or a week, the clouds began to dissipate.

The Los Angeles Rodney King riots lasted for six days (4.29.92 to 5.4.92). The aftermath seeped and simmered. Nobody ever forgot what happened. But on the seventh day the world began to move on.

The 9/11 recovery took a lot longer. The shuddering trauma aspects, I mean. But that was a first-ever attack on U.S. soil, and of course mass murder.

George Floyd was killed by four Minneapolis cops on 5.25. That was 9 or 10 days ago. The protests are still going on, and there’s another one happening in Los Angeles a few days hence (Hollywood to West Hollywood to Santa Monica). The curfew is still on, and a high percentage of stores in WeHo are boarded up.

So how much longer? The mindset and makeup of big-city police departments aren’t going to change overnight. Will the protests and demonstrations keep going for days to come? Weeks? Indefinitely?

My son Jett says “Nah…another week or so. It won’t stretch into July. It’ll wind down. Sometime next week, I predict.”

A friend says, “It’s not going to ease off in New York City until Cuomo and De Blasio call in the national guard. An organ of the NYPD released a statement yesterday saying they’re ‘losing the city.’ It’s winding down in some cities. But not in the major ones like NYC and Los Angeles. Who knows how long it’ll continue?

“Have you read or seen any legitimate journalist on TV or print actually condemning the looting? A good portion of the N.Y. Times staff is revolting because Times editors published an op-ed by Republican Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton calling for the military to stop looters. Not the demonstrators but looters, but it became a flashpoint condemnation thing among Twitter lefties.

“Nobody, it seems, wants to strongly condemn the looting. It’s as if the media are too scared to say that the protestors/rioters need a to stop because they would then be seen as ‘against the cause’ and racist.

“That’s a major dilemma for politicians as well right now. How to condemn what’s happening without sounding racist or against Black Lives Matter. The Republicans have no problem doing that because it’s part of their usual agenda to go against such things and not be PC, but Democrats are in a major bind right now.”

A couple of hours ago another friend called and said, “Remember social distancing? It was a very strict thing. But have you seen any social distancing since the marches, protests and lootings began?

Social distancing was essential to slowing down the coronavirus. But it stopped the economy and it raised the unemployment rate to something approaching 20%. And after a few weeks it drove the bumblefucks crazy. Their thing was “if grandma has to die then grandma has to die, but we have to live…we can’t just fold into a fetal ball and stop living. We have to work and keep our lives going.”

Was it wise to fraternize in churches and Arkansas pool parties and anti-Gretchen Whitmer protests? Probably not, as we’ve seen infection rates spiking in certain hinterland regions.

But the Democrats and especially the progressive left looks just as confused and compromised now.

Starting seven or eight days ago, social distancing was called off to protest and scream against systemic police brutality and racism. Social distancing was a big deal before Floyd’s death, but then it was put on hold…more or less forgotten as far as many protestors were concerned.

As I regard myself as a lefty iconoclast it pains me to post a tweet from James Woods (the actor, not the HE comment-thread guy), but I have to say that it’s a fair remark in this context:

Friendo: “Hypocritical is the right word to use. The narrative was that if you didn’t social distance then you needed to be shamed and ridiculed on social media. What happened to that? Is COVID-19 over? Has the media moved on to the next crisis? The 24/7 news cycle has become such a toxic enabler.”

Almost everything is closed due to the marching, the curfew and the understandable concern of shopkeepers. Not even the two nearby CVS stores are open. The street-march video was taken from the parking lot at WeHo Gelson’s as I waited in line. The Apocalypse Now helicopter video was taken an hour before.

The woman upstairs is very loud. We’ve asked politely and complained two or three times before to no avail. She doesn’t listen and doesn’t seem to care. So this time I added a little bite.

For the last two mornings she’s begun with loud phone calls a little after 6 am and then she clomp-clomp-clomps around her apartment with street shoes. Her steps sound like some steed clopping on a London pavement, which is partly why we call her “Horse Woman.”

Tatiana, a very light sleeper who needs a good eight or nine each night, has been awoken by Ms. Filly twice over the last 48 hours. Plus when Horse Woman has sex with her younger boyfriend she goes “eeek! eeek! eek!” like a squeaky mouse, and we have to deal with that also.

Note delivered this morning to Horse Woman’s apartment at 7 am:

“In an apartment complex with thin walls, it is not only unneighborly but uncivilized to speak loudly in a phone conversation as you tromp around your apartment in noisy shoes at 6:05 am. You are waking my wife, who is trying to sleep. And this is the second morning in a row that you’ve done this.

“Are you capable of showing just a little bit of courtesy? Is there some kind of basic blockage you’re trying to cope with?

“Before 9 am, please use headphones for phone calls and keep your voice down. Try to speak in a conversational tone, and don’t bellow like you’re speaking to hundreds in a bullfight arena without a microphone. And please don’t walk around your apartment in clompy shoes — try barefoot or socks or sandals.

“I feel as if I’m speaking to someone at a dinner table who (a) was never told to eat her food with modest-sized bites, (b) was never told to not speak with her mouth full and (c) was never told to put a napkin on her lap.

“You know…civilized behavior? Manners? You’ve heard of this stuff, right?

A June 3rd Guardian photo essay is celebrating the re-opening of Paris cafes.

Copy: “In Paris, contented customers sit outside cafes and sip their morning espressos for the first time in 11 weeks. There are, however, strict rules: bars and restaurants have permission to sprawl across pavements but tables must be one meter apart. In the rest of France, customers can now be served inside while observing the same distance.”

The Guardian‘s photographer is identified as “Martin” of AFP/Getty Images.

These photos literally melted me down. From ’07 to ’19 I was able to downshift and decompress in Paris (or Rome, Prague. Munich or Belgrade) following the Cannes Film Festival, and 2020 was the first time since the late George W. Bush administration that I was unable to do that.

These pics remind me that sipping cappuccino on a Paris sidewalk adjacent to a busy cafe or brasserie (early morning, late afternoon, evening) is one of the most gloriously alive activities available to human beings on the planet earth.

Yesterday Seth Rogen decisively bitch-slapped the “All Lives Matter” crowd…he stood his ground, gave no quarter and punched those bitches silly and set them straight, you bet.

Last night I posted a photo of a compassionate hand-painted sign in from of a Melrose Ave. storefront. The owner/proprietor, a 40ish woman with whom I’d briefly chatted a day earlier, had written “#Black Lives Matter” as well as (gasp!) “#HumansMatter.” Humans Matter in what fucking universe? If Rogen had driven by he might’ve slammed on the brakes, leapt out of his car, walked inside and read the riot act to that sad, deluded woman…given her a piece of his suffer-no-fools mind.

Soon after my “You Get What You Pay For” post appeared, “Aaron B” tried to explain things. “The phrase isn’t ‘Only Black Lives Matter,” he said. “Anyone who counters BLM with ‘All Lives Matter‘ is either (a) ignorant of the point or (b) racist.”

More Aaron B: “If someone whose mother is dying of cancer says ‘cancer is a terrible disease’ and your response is ‘yeah, but so is Alzheimer’s’, you are an asshole, despite being correct.”

HE response: “The female storekeeper who painted ‘humans matter’ is an asshole! Of course she is! And possibly a racist! Maybe we can cancel her ass!”

Aaron B: “You do see the BLM tag right above that, right?”

HE: “She just threw that in for cover, blowing smoke up our asses. She needs to be slapped around! ‘Humans matter’…bullshit! Yo, Seth! Bruh, can you straighten this incredibly insensitive woman out?”

Filmklassik to Aaron B: “Yes! Agreed! Some people are just too fucking dumb to know that two things can be true at the same time.

“For example, do you like to laugh? This is gonna tickle you: There are real, bona fide knuckle-draggers out there who claim that if you lament the destruction of innocent people’s businesses, then you, quote, ‘care more about property than you do black lives.’ I’m not kidding. In their puny little reptile brains, if you condemn one thing, it means you are implicitly endorsing the other.

“Disgusting, right? I’m with you. They really need to read your wonderful cancer/Alzheimer’s analogy. Maybe they’d gain a little perspective.”

I’m not disputing the presence of a gay erotic current in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge. But I worked as a freelance publicist for this film in the summer and fall of ’85, and I don’t remember the slightest remark at the time by any New Line staffers about Mark Patton (who was 25 or 26 at the time) being any kind of scream queen. Nobody said zilch about this, and the people I worked with in New Line publicity and marketing were very sharp and super-opinionated about everything.

From “Brief Shining Moment of Freddiemania,” posted on 1.17.15: “I’d like to take a brief bow for my efforts as a freelance public relations guy for New Line Cinema in ’85 and ’86, and particularly my promotion of Jack Sholder‘s A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, and even more particularly the semi-phenomenon known as ‘Freddiemania,’ which originated with spottings of movie fans dressed as Freddy Krueger a la Rocky Horror for midnight showings of Wes Craven‘s A Nightmare on Elm Street (’84).

“There weren’t that many Freddy freaks to be found, to be perfectly honest, but it was an interesting and amusing enough story to persuade Entertainment Tonight and the N.Y. Times and other big outlets to run pieces on it and to speak with Sholder (who later directed The Hidden, one of the finest New Line films ever made) as well as Freddy himself, Robert Englund, with whom I became friendly and hung out with a bit. (Producer Mike DeLuca was a 20 year-old New Line assistant at the time.) One of my big Freddy promotional stunts was persuading Englund to march in New York’s Village Halloween Parade on 10.31.85 from Houston Street up to 14th or 23rd or something like that.”

I also wrote about this period in “New Line Memories,” posted on 3.3.08.

Directed by Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen, Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street is currently streaming on Amazon. It’ll also be released on SHUDDER, the horror streaming service, on 6.4, or two days hence.

Best protest moment since the tragic death of George Floyd? Certainly one of them.

Cheers rose up from the crowd as these dudes rolled up. Clip-clip-clip-clop. pic.twitter.com/x1h8UpmyQy

— Mike Hixenbaugh (@Mike_Hixenbaugh) June 2, 2020

If I needed to collect my thoughts and assess my options after being asked a politically difficult question, I would maybe stall for eight to ten seconds…something in that realm. But a 21-second delay is too much. It implies a certain lack of focus or even maturity. Whatever you’re thinking, just spit it out. Even if you’re afraid of saying it.

The trailer for Derek Wayne Johnson‘s 40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic, which is narrated by Sylvester Stallone, seems to be mostly about the making of the original Rocky. That 1976 Oscar winner was the only “pure” entry in the long-running franchise — the only one that got everything right and a film which everyone still loves or at least likes.

The doc’s title, however, suggests that the long-running Rocky franchise (eight films including the original) will be explored. Which would be a shame. There’s nothing glorious or heart-warming about several attempts to make more money off a popular brand.

There have been seven cash-in sequels since John Avildsen‘s Rocky, written by and starring Stallone, opened on 11.21.76. The sequels are Rocky II (’79), Rocky III (’82), Rocky IV (’85), Rocky V (’90), Rocky Balboa (’06), Creed (’15 — a franchise redefiner that was almost as good as the original), and Creed II (’18).

Stallone played Rocky Balboa (a name inspired by the real-life Rocky Graziano and inspired by Robert Wise‘s Somebody Up There Likes Me) in all eight films. He wrote seven of the eight and directed four of them.

40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic will be available on-demand as of Tuesday, 6.9.

The doc features heretofore unseen pre-production and principal photography footage shot by Avildsen and others.

Posted on Facebook by Rod Lurie, around 9:30 am (Tuesday, 6.2): “It was a good speech, Joe. Eloquent and even presidential. On any other day I would say it was perfect. But today? It was the opposite of what we needed to hear from you.

“What we need is blistering anger. We need to see the veins popping in your forehead. Donald Trump opened fire on innocent and peaceful protestors yesterday and this “Gentleman Joe” stuff isn’t gong to fucking cut it. Because we’re at war now — war against a tyrant, a would-be dictator, a leader who has learned more from Kim Jung Un than he has from Winston Churchill.

“You should not have buried the lede in that speech. You needed to come out — FIRST words out of your mouth, no ‘good morning’, no ‘I’m happy to be here’, but …

“‘Yesterday the President of the United States, the man who holds the same office as did George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, terrorized peaceful American citizens with tear gas and flash grenades and rubber bullets. You saw it, I saw it, we all saw this despicable dark moment in American history — and he did it for one reason’…and then, Joe, you should have held up that photo of Trump holding up a bible in front of that church…’So he could do this. THIS.’

“Then you should have taken a beat. Chilled for a second.

“‘Folks, I have been driven by my faith my whole life. I know a real Christian when I see one. And I know the fakes as well. And I know fake patriots: The charlatans who use the Lord and the flag as a prop. The men who order violence on other humans and then stand in front of a church holding a bible upside down as the cameras flash.’

“‘A year from now, unless we do the right thing, scenes like the ones we saw yesterday will simply become a way of life in or country — because that is what happens in fascist natio.

“‘Trump got the votes he did because he identified an anger in this country and tapped into it. Well, we are angry still. Angrier, even. And now it is time for YOU to tap into that. The difference is that you actually empathize with these real Americans. So damn man, show us…SHOW US.’

“Decency, Joe, doesn’t always have to be polite.”

HE side-comment: Every YouTube video of Biden’s speech, presumably sourced from the same pool camera, is out of focus. How hard would it have been for the person in charge to realize what was happening and go up to the camera and manually correct the focus?