WISDOM OF THE
SAGES
EPISODE EIGHT
– SUMMER 2015
Hello People of the World;
Here we are in the late summer month known as
August, one of THREE months named for a Caesar. If you can tell me the other
two, I’ll buy you a soda.
Welp, the weather’s gone and done it again. It
CHANGED! Oh’s-no! Once again, the slow spin of the Earth caught us total
off-guard that we are now complaining endlessly of how cold it is! Geez, folks.
Calm down.
On that note, let’s get this month’s edition
started, shall we:
1
:[ The Music
Box Theatre Crowd (Yes, I am generalizing…): So, there I was, sitting in the
small theater at the Music Box, I got into the habit of catching their “Orson
at 100” Matinee program very weekend and this was the first time they screen
out of the big main theater. This week’s offering was “Black Magic” by Gregory
Ratoff and starring Welles as Cagliostro.
So, there I was, I was actually the second person
in the theater and chose my seat carefully. What I noticed while the crowds
rolled in slowly as the start time drew nearer was how similar a section of our
society dresses. Here were a bunch of young fellows, all wearing a plaid shirt
and jeans, all with facial hair of some sort, mostly thick beards, military
haircuts, and black-frame glasses. It was weird. At least 25 guys dressed that
way in the theater that seats about 100 I believe. And the all nearly
congregated near each other too.
Anyways, after the 15th guy came in
dressed that way, I had to laugh. I know. I’m sorry to be a jackass but let’s
face it. We are a society of followers. We group together like the monkeys we
are. Yet, all we ever cry around about is how individual and special we are.
Yeah….
2
:[ On that
note: I hate that black-frame glasses have become a tacit symbol of intellect.
It just means stupid people can look “smart” by just wearing them. What a
shame….
3
:[ A
thought about Literature: I struck me while reading Neil Postman’s “Amusing
Ourselves to Death” how much non-fiction was considered the primary function of
literature versus fiction, in that, that was how we passed on all of our
important cultural, historical, and scientific information. That fiction was
rarely the driving force behind literacy. Now, not so much. We abhor the
thought of having to deal with non-fiction or academic reading or writing
simply because we love to entertain ourselves with fiction, which is easier
to write than academic writing. What ever makes it easier for us really….
4
:[ Here is
why we will eventually have a "free and open internet": comic book
movie reviews, preview reaction videos, cat pictures, MEMES, re-affirming human interest
stories, and Affleck-as-Batman defenses.
Because corporations know that to keep us from
critical thought, the choice they make for you needs to be presented as a
choice we make for ourselves. Be honest, what would you rather look at on the
internet: some very hard, tough, ugly truths about our society and what we are
doing to the planet, or would you rather look at and share and proliferate
silly, stupid shit that makes you feel better about yourself and your ego.
Or worse, share and proliferate the latest cause or
protest and pretend you are actually accomplishing something without doing
anything? It does not matter because you think you are making a choice whether
entertaining yourself with silly shit or boosting your ego with social
awareness, you are still using their Internet to do so. We truly are
entertaining ourselves to death.
5
:[ The
Reason You Read This: A Bunch of Quick Movie Reviews: I have been keeping up with
newer movies thanks to the library and Redbox and have a ton of very quick
movie reviews for you. And, here we go:
Upstream
Color –
First World Problems tucked into a very neat sci-fi concept. It looks great and
plays out okay until you realize they kill the guy that had nothing to do with
it.
Wadjda – very cool little movie
about a young girl in Saudi Arabia who is trying to buy a bike. That’s it. This
is a movie that is very simple and very open to a culture rarely seen.
Slow West – The latest Michael
Fassbender flick with him as a bounty hunter in the Old West, using a young man
to lead him to the next bounty. “Slow West”, indeed. Very good start then got
annoying quick then outright silly. It lost me at the literal “Salt in the
Wound” gag as the Indian went savage and also got to kiss the girl. Skip,
unless you’re a Michael Fassbender fan. And will someone give Ben Mendleson a
role other than a sleeze? Please?
Maggie – Probably Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s best acting role. I know a LOT of people were expecting it to
be this ARNIE VERSUS ZOMBIES thing, but instead it took the whole Zombie
zeitgeist and did something really neat with it. It made zombism into a CDC
scare and that was really cool. Check it out.
Top Five – Chris Rock trying to be
Louis CK and failing. Top Five Lists had nothing to do with the story, which is
essentially a bunch of irrelevant comedians trying to act relevant. Weak sauce
and an absolute waste of Rosario Dawson.
L’Avventura – a movie by Michaelanglo
Antonioni about more rich people looking for a lost sister. Very droll. I guess
I am not really into the whole Italian Neo-Realism thing.
La Dolce Vita – Federico Fellini’s
masterpiece. Meh. Like I said, I guess am not really into the whole neo-realism
thing. I found this a bit tedious with spare moments of genius but not enough
to win me over. Which is weird because I really like “8 & ½”. Probably,
because it is about a filmmaker.
The Only Son – Ozu’s first sound film.
Very simple story telling about a mother who works hard to put her only son
through school to get him the best education to be a great man, then, in the
great Ozu tradition, to find him utterly a disappointment as an adult. Very
nice film with the very first time Ozu worked with Chishu Ryu. Check it out if
you can.
No Regrets
for Our Youth
– Akira Kurosawa’s first post-WWII film about a spoiled rich girl learning her
place in the world after a dictatorship rises and falls and she ends up living
in the farm country with her deceased husband’s parents. With the beautiful Setsuko
Hara. I enjoyed this one and it was great to see Hara in a very different role
than her usual Ozu sacristy. She goes from a spoiled teen to a hardened woman in her 30's all without make-up, it is all in her acting. Wonderful.
I Will Buy
You – Masake
Kobyashi’s scathing take down of the athlete-trading system of professional
baseball, done like a darker “Moneyball” but done in 1956. It is about a
college baseball star and all the pro scouts doing everything possible to sign him.
Contains one of the best lines describing modern sports trading, “What you do
is socially approved human trafficking.”
Late Autumn – The penultimate Ozu film
once again about old Japanese men’s concern to marry off the daughter of one of
their deceased friends. This time, two married men use the situation to “safe
date” the young woman’s beautiful widowed mother, who is played by Setsuko Hara
in her final film for Ozu. Charming little film.
Side by Side – a film about the
switchover from photochemical film to digital; a great comparison, to be sure,
with great arguments on both sides. To be honest, I would love to shoot on film
if I could afford the entire process to produce it. Digital makes sense in a
cost-effective way. But this is a great documentary. Check it out.
6
:[ I
bought a bunch of books recently:
47 Ronin – a graphic novel, about
the 47 ronin, natch. Drawn by Stan Sakai, the creator of “Usagi Yojimbo”. This
is a very good retelling. The arts is great but I always have a problem with a white guy telling another culture's story simple because he thinks himself an "expert".
Orson’s Last
Film, Josh
Karp, I had to get this one because I have great interest in Welles himself and
his last film “The Other Side of the Wind” which he was working to get
completion funds to finish up. The film itself is about a washed-up director
trying to find completion funds to finish his comeback film, which Welles also
thought of “Wind…” as for himself. Funny, inspiring and tragic, as it lays out
the only person who could had wrecked this could be Welles himself. A
compelling read.
Hamlet – The Cambridge School
Shakespeare, 2nd Edition, Saw this in a secondhand bookshop that
sells books by the pound. Yes, Trite. But it contains very detailed notes, scene and character breakdowns,
on each page alongside the play itself. I think this will come in very handy in
the coming months. Plus, it has Chris Eccleston as Hamlet on the cover. Very
cool.
I still want to buy “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander; I checked it out from the
library and only got past the Introduction before I realized, I have to own
this. It is about how the prison system is being used as, not only a way to
criminalize black men, but to keep them from voting. I want to explore this
more. But now, I cannot find the book anywhere as Bonnie, who works at B&N
told me, it is constantly out of stock because it is being used as a textbook.
Which is great! But I will own it soon.
7
:[ Why I
do not buy into NOOKS. I like owning a physical book. In this day and age of
digital media, it is easy to get caught up staring at a screen. On NOOKs or
Kindles, it is easy to move on to the next read with a swipe of your finger.
But, a book on your shelf, it demands to be read again, to be thought about, and
to be explored, just by simply being in the room with you, it demands your
attention in a way a screen does not. You can ignore a screen, but you cannot
ignore a book on the shelf. That is why I will never buy into an e-reader….
So that is it for this month. Again, I really have
not been sharing these or making them public. If you are reading this after
looking for it, or you came upon it by chance, thank you! Feel free to comment,
correct, or contradict anything you read here. I am a grown up, I can take it.
I take responsibility for what I write. Unlike some….
Until next month, remember “I try to show the
schemers how pathetic their attempts to control everything really are.”
2015 Ernest M Whiteman III
