Better late than never: HE conveys a hearty high-five to Deadline‘s Todd McCarthy‘s for his decision to include Judd Apatow‘s King of Staten Island in his recent “Top Ten Films of 2020” piece (12.31.20).

Myself, McCarthy, Chris Willman, a few others…obviously a small fraternity. But my opinion isn’t an “opinion” — I knew right away during my initial viewing seven months ago that Apatow’s film was a few cuts above the norm. I’m not saying “this is what I think” — I’m saying “you may or may not not have embraced or bonded with this film, but it’s quite excellent either way, and I know this with absolute certainty…a sagely written and performed portrait of a somewhat coarse underclass culture…a funny but serious film that in some ways reminded me of those early ’60s British kitchen sink dramas.”

Excerpt from McCarthy’s 6.12.20 review: “Written by Apatow along with Pete Davidson and Dave Sirus, KOSI has the solid lived-in feel of a working class community…they’re rude, they’re slobs, they’re layabouts, they’re no-accounts and they all speak in clichés as if they’ve learned their entire vocabularies from watching TV. It’s a film full of characters who have to say ‘I’m sorry’ a lot. Bottom line, though — they’re all quite recognizably and vibrantly human.”

An excerpt from my 6.8.20 review, “The Staten Island Funnies“:

Many of the lunatic bumblefucks who spearheaded Wednesday’s assault on the Capitol building are being arrested as we speak. Prosecute these delusional cretins to the fullest extent of the law. Break their lives, make it hurt, stifle their agency, etc. God, listen to me — I sound like a #MeToo-er venting about Roman Polanski.

Obviously poor quality — been searching around for a sharper, larger file

Bus stop ad in Washington, D.C., apparently snapped by CNN’s Jim Acosta.

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There are three or four versions of John Lennon‘s “Across The Universe” out there, but this version — messy and rehearsal-ish but full of brash spirit — is easily the best I’ve ever heard, and largely for two reasons. One, Paul McCartney singing harmony in the main verses, and two, Lennon’s improvisational asides. (Example: “Nothing’s gonna change my world” followed by John’s “I wish it fuckin’ would!”). Recorded at Twickenham during the Get Back sessions. It’s been sitting on YouTube for two and 3/4 years. Sorry!

N.Y. Post‘s Ebony Bowden: “An articles of impeachment accusing President Trump of ‘inciting an insurrection‘ have been drafted by House Democrats in the wake of the deadly Capitol siege and will be formally introduced on Monday, according to reports.

“The document, which has over 150 sponsors, accuses Trump of violating his Constitutional duty by encouraging a crowd of his supporters to fight the vote to certify Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.

“In all of this, President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States government. He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transfer of power, and imperiled a coordinate branch of government,” the document reads.

It is the second time that Congress has moved to impeach Trump. He was impeached by acquitted at trial by the Senate last year after he was accused of improperly pressuring the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden.

“No president has ever been impeached twice.”

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Let’s change this question to “which director had the hottest run of any length…who enjoyed the greatest cavalcade of grand-slam films, whether it was four or six or even ten?”

The answer in this instance would be Howard Hawks and his nine-year, nine-film run of one bull’s-eye after another…it began in 1938 with Bringing Up Baby and ended in 1946 with Red River (even if that classic western wasn’t released until ’48).

The rundown: Bringing Up Baby (’38), Only Angels Have Wings (’39), His Girl Friday (’40), Sergeant York (’41), Ball of Fire (’41), Air Force (’43), To Have and Have Not (’45), The Big Sleep (’45 and ’46) and Red River (shot in ’46, released in ’48).

If you want to be strict and keep it to four, I would say that Stanley Kubrick‘s Paths of Glory (’57), Spartacus (’60), Lolita (’62) and Dr. Strangelove (’64) was an extraordinary run.

Two occupiers enjoying temporary triumph — Richard “Bigo” Barnett, 60, of Gravette, Arkansas sitting at Nancy Pelosi‘s desk during Wednesday’s Capitol hill riot, and poet David Shapiro smoking a cigar at the desk of Columbia University president Grayson Kirk during a student takeover on 4.30.68. Shapiro went on to teach at Columbia. What kind of a future will Barnett encounter, I wonder? Besides death, I mean.

Richard “Bigo” Barnett at Nancy Pelosi’s desk.

David Shapiro sitting at desk of Columbia University president Grayson Kirk.

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There was this late-night robbery scene in a Sopranos episode. Christopher Moltisanti was one of the burglars, and he explained to the other guy that they needed to leave a brown torpedo on the rug as a kind of calling card.

I remember thinking to myself “gee, Frank Sinatra and the Ocean’s 11 guys didn’t do this when they knocked off those five casinos.”

Probably the all-time worst Dept. of Education secretary in U.S history, not to mention one of the least knowledgable during the confirmation hearing. And now Betsy Devos has resigned over Trump’s instigation of yesterday’s chaos. DeVos to Trump: “There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation.”

“Blue Hands,” the title of an L.M. Kit Carson screenplay, is one of my all-time favorites. The sound of it, I mean. The attitude is so cool and just right.

The script was some kind of hipster crime thing with a surreal edge. (It ended inside a department store with several circus animals running around loose.) The hands of Riggers, the main protagonist, were robin’s egg blue. I can’t recall if it was a birth defect or tattoo, but it was just a bit that Carson threw in — the plot didn’t turn on his hands and no other characters made a big deal out of them.

I read “Blue Hands” in ’87 or thereabouts. Over the last three decades and change I’ve been hoping the title would be used by some other film or TV series or whatever…nope.

Please share other great movie titles for films that were never made.

Speaking of hands I’ve always been grateful to my parents and grandparents that mine were never clammy or sweaty. Okay, they were occasionally moist or damp during my early childhood, I’ll admit, but now in my mid-autumnal years they’re always bone dry. Few things are more unwelcome than shaking or holding a clammy hand.

During my young-buck days I also used to have trouble with women who had pink or orange toes (or heels). I would say to myself “wow, she’s really pretty and nice but what’s with the toes?” Not their fault, of course, but I always found this to be a hurdle. I would never admit this to the woman in question, of course.