Hannity, Solomon and Carter Preview the Penultimate Tick-Tock…
And POTUS tweeted to have folks check it out. Does he ever fool us about this stuff? I’m not on Twitter so I don’t know.
Category: Reviews
Reviews of books, movies, tv shows and other items
It Was Midnight on the Ocean, not a Streetcar Was in Sight
My longtime readers may remember me mentioning my maternal grandfather. He was the one who took on the pseudonym Charlie Young and lied about his age in order to enlist for World War One. He was an extremely colorful character who was a cop in New York City during the first half of the twentieth century. Toward his own children he was the typical autocratic Italian American man. But toward his grandchildren he was like a big kid. He brought us out for hamburgers and ice cream and whatever else he could think of. He would tell us stories of the old days. Some of them quite remarkable. And whenever things got quiet, he’d sing some variation of a song that we thought he had just made up. It would usually go something like this,
“It was midnight on the ocean
Not a streetcar was in sight
Me and my old friend (fill in the name of a particular grandson)-boy
Were eating by the candle light
When along came a big whale
And washed us all away
Then grandma came along and saved the day.”
Now this song varied by the identity of the grandchild and the details of the trip we were on. But it was mostly along these lines. And to a little kid who was out on a fun car ride and getting fast food hamburgers and ice cream it was Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. Well my grandfather’s been gone about thirty five years and about ten years ago it occurred to me to try to find the lyrics to his little poem on the internet. And what do you know? It turns out it’s an old English nonsense poem. And more to the point a song was made out of it by an American country singer named Harry McClintock back in the 1920s called Ain’t We Crazy (catch the words at the 1:00 mark of the song).
Well, at the time the song was only available as part of an imported music collection that cost $600 so I couldn’t buy it then. But this week I found it on an inexpensive album on Amazon and got it. It turns out McClintock also has a song that ended up on the “O Brother Where Art Thou” soundtrack (Big Rock Candy Mountain). I guess he’s not as obscure as I thought.
I sent the above link to my siblings and cousins and many of them have the same fond memories that I have of this little ritual my grandfather had. I think I will adopt it with my grandchildren. Of course, I’ll have to personalize it for each of them but that’s half of the fun of it anyway. And while I’m at it I’ll tell them stories about their great-great-grandfather Charlie Young who went off to war as a very young doughboy and shot it out with 1920s gangsters from the running board of a speeding car. They’ll probably think it’s as crazy as the song.
Cash – American IV: The Man Comes Around – A Country Music Review
Strictly speaking this isn’t purely a country music album. Johnny Cash does covers of popular music from from sources varying from modern musicians like Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode to Simon and Garfunkle to the Beatles. But Johnny Cash is a country singer and I liked some of the songs very much so…
I’m not an enormous Johnny Cash fan. I have several of his albums and like a number of his songs but I don’t love everything he’s done. This album was done in the last year of his life and his voice is frayed by his age and illness. But it is distinctively Johnny Cash and he is able to use the broken quality of his voice to great advantage on several of the more soulful songs. It is an interesting experience hearing a man who knows he’s dying singing songs that he has selected to sing before he’s gone.
The first cut and the subtitle for the album is “The Man Comes Around.” It’s a song Cash wrote and it’s about Judgement Day. Revelations is quoted at the beginning and end of the song and I find it extremely stirring. I’d say it’s the high point of the album.
I’ll confess I don’t particularly care for his interpretation of most of the recent songs he covered. “Hurt,” “Personal Jesus” and “First Time Ever I saw Your Face.” None of these renditions particularly appealed to me. Possibly because the songs themselves don’t particularly appeal to me. “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “In My Life” were better but neither was extraordinary.
I enjoyed much more his take on the western songs, “I Hung My Head,” ”Sam Hall,” “Desperado,” and especially “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” and “Streets Of Laredo.”
And the last song on the album is very interesting. It’s “We’ll Meet Again.” Older folks may remember it was a 1939 song and a 1943 movie linked to war-time Britain and the longing that the soldiers and loved ones left behind felt for each other. Johnny Cash is clearly talking about the afterlife and meeting up with loved ones (especially his departed wife). That song is quite effective.
I guess I would recommend this album to Johnny Cash fans and for fans of country and western music. And I think the song “When the Man Comes Around,” will resonate with anyone on the right, living in these apocalyptic times.
Longmire – A Television Series Review
I don’t currently stream television shows or movies so I have to wait for the DVDs to be available to watch shows. For that reason I have just finished watching last year’s sixth and final season of Longmire. I started watching this on a recommendation based on my enjoying the series Justified. Well, Longmire and Justified both have protagonists that are law enforcement officers that wear cowboy hats. I would say that is where the similarity ends.
Walter Longmire, the eponymous protagonist of the series is the sheriff in Absaroka County, Wyoming. His best friend is a Cheyenne Indian named Henry Standing Bear played with ironic humor by Lou Diamond Phillips. Surrounding these two characters are an assortment of characters involved in the Indian Casino opening up and the other commercial developments cropping up in the pristine countryside where Walt lives and on the not so pristine Indian Reservation where the tribal police clash or cooperate with Walt and his deputies. And those deputies try to solve crimes and keep up with Longmire’s two-fisted and gut-feeling law enforcement procedures. And this is one of the unintentionally funny aspects of Walt’s character. At least a dozen times during this series Walt is shot, stabbed, snake-bit or bludgeoned and it’s almost as if he’s some kind of supernatural creature that doesn’t require normal medical attention. He’ll get through the episode or even two and then maybe he’ll have a bandage. Other characters can reflect the results of an injury for several episodes or even longer. Walt just takes some vodka and splashes it on the stab wound or whatever and gets back to business. I mean, sheesh! What is he a Terminator?
A lot of the plot revolves around the machinations of tribal bigshot Jacob Nighthorse as he manipulates the Indian and White populations to launch his casino and change the dynamic between the Reservation and adjacent Absaroka County. In addition, the Connally family has a big impact on Walt’s life. Branch Connally is his deputy and his daughter’s boyfriend. But he is also running against Walt in his re-election as sheriff. And Branch’s father, Barlow Connally is a powerful and under-handed businessman who plays all sides against each other for his own ends.
In addition to Branch, Walt has a deputy named Archie Ferguson (the Ferg) who is not very formidable as a law enforcement officer and a Philadelphia transplant named Victoria Moretti (Vic) who does all the annoying liberated woman clap-trap but is an effective deputy and backs up Walt when things go south.
Other characters include Walt’s daughter Cady Longmire who is incredibly annoying and is a lawyer (of course) and the Tribal Police Officers Matthias and Malachi.
When the series starts Walt is recovering from the loss of his murdered wife. Henry has been helping him track down the killer and Walt’s job is in danger from his erratic behavior.
The show moves through a very long arc throughout which characters go from being allies to adversaries and back again. There are some surprising developments and some of the characters do grow into more interesting personalities.
On its own terms the series is enjoyable although I would not say it was great. Some of the characters grow on you like Lou Diamond Phillips’ Henry. And Walt is the old fashioned John Wayne, strong, silent type who lives by his own code and doesn’t even have a cell phone.
Comparing it to “Justified” I’d say the writing is nowhere near as good but far from bad. It’s a show that can be enjoyed on its own terms but don’t expect timeless drama, just a good cowboy cop show with nice scenery.
Is Twitter Getting the Jitters?
Jesse Kelly is a contributor to The Federalist. He has been very critical of the way social media sites have been silencing conservatives. So, it probably wasn’t shocking when Twitter permanently shut down his account. Apparently, something made them change their minds and reinstate him.
http://thefederalist.com/2018/11/27/without-explanation-twitter-reinstate-jesse-kelly/
The incoming freshman senator for Missouri has said he wants Twitter investigated for the way they single out conservatives for silencing without any explanation or recourse. And a senate committee is interested in doing just that. Could this be why Kelly was reinstated? Too soon to tell but if other conservatives also get reinstated it’ll be a trend that bears watching. Maybe President Trump is starting to worry Silicon Valley and that would suit me to a tee.
The March of the Wooden Soldiers – An OCF Classic Movie Review
I guess this qualifies as a fantasy too but to me it’s a holiday classic, thus the title. Every year during my childhood at Thanksgiving time WPIX (Channel11 in NYC) would show “The March of the Wooden Soldiers.” And even back then it was obvious that the movie was a throwback to an older time. What passed for costumes and “special effects” in this film would outrage even a toddler from today. The action was often interrupted while the romantic leads would burst into an operatic rendition of some fairly soporific song. Some of this is explained by the fact that the film was a reworking of a musical light opera that was staged under the name “Babes in Toyland.” And in fact, all of the movie’s shortcomings were even the subject of mockery on an episode of the Simpsons.
But none of this is at all important because of two extenuating circumstances, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, or as their characters are named Stanny Dum and Ollie Dee. Laurel and Hardy are the show. These two clowns keep the audience from wandering away, at least until the Wooden Soldiers are unleashed. Stan and Ollie move from one failure to the next, at every step, irritating every mean or impatient character they meet with their fumble-fingered efforts and their simple-minded attempts at cleverness. As I said, until the climax of the movie, they are the show.
The plot, such as it is, involves Stan and Ollie trying to prevent the evil miser Barnaby from evicting the Little Old Lady that Lives in the Shoe. One of her children is Little Bo Peep who is in love with Tom-Tom the Piper’s Son. After Stan and Ollie are foiled in attempting to steal the mortgage from Barnaby and are sentenced to be banished to Bogeyland (a place outside of Toyland where the savage Bogeymen live) Bo Peep agrees to marry Barnaby in exchange for forgiving the mortgage and releasing Stan and Ollie. This leads to further tomfoolery by Stan and Ollie. When Barnaby is defeated again in his desire to marry Bo Peep he conspires against Tom-Tom and gets him banished to Bogeyland. After the banishment, evidence is discovered by Stan and Ollie that exonerates Tom-Tom and proves Barnaby’s guilt. At this point Barnaby flees to Bogeyland to take command of the Bogeymen and lead them against Toyland.
The inhabitants of Toyland, being feeble nursery rhyme characters are helpless (mostly) against the savage Bogeymen. And all seems lost until suddenly Stanny Dum realizes that an earlier blunder of his would now be Toyland’s salvation. Working for the Toymaster he misunderstood Santa Claus’s order to make six hundred wooden soldiers one foot tall and instead made one hundred wooden soldiers six feet tall. Stan and Ollie activate the army and the soldiers get right to work and rout the bogeyman in stirring fashion, all to the accompaniment of the music that gives the movie its name, The March of the Wooden Soldiers.
I have to confess that even at my advanced age I always feel a thrill of excitement as the Wooden Soldiers assemble and march to the beat of the song and provide in their mechanical and disciplined way the just desserts that Barnaby and the savage Bogeymen so richly deserve. And right up until the very last frame Stan and Ollie are right there snatching personal defeat right out of the jaws of victory.
This movie is a museum piece with a hackneyed plot, obtrusive and boring songs and awful special effects. But Laurel and Hardy are worth the price of admission, namely your time. They are worthy buffoons who exaggerate our own foolishness. And for the little boy in every man, the Wooden Soldier battle is a stirring pantomime that actual little boys will enjoy. Highly recommended for the child in all of us.
That Lonesome Song by Jamey Johnson – A Country Music Review
I only first heard of Jamey Johnson when he had his most commercial song on the Billboards back in 2008, “In Color.” I enjoyed that song and because at the time all my music was coming off the top 40 country radio stations I never heard anything else by him. By 2010 I was starting to look for better stuff than the radio provided so I bought his album “That Lonesome Song” (and a couple of his other albums) to see what he was all about. What I found out is he is a very good song writer and has an interesting singing voice.
Most of his songs are about the darker side of life and love. His characters are men suffering through loneliness, disfunction, addiction and loss. Even the couple of comical songs are about broken relationships. “In Color” is the exception. Although the song chronicles the fearful existence through the Great Depression and WW II it ends on a very high note. But there are several songs on the album that even though full of sadness and regret are undoubtedly very good. I’m sure in a group of songs this varied, there will be one or two that don’t click for every listener and that list will vary due to the variety in listeners. But my opinion is that this is an excellent country album. My favorites are
- “High Cost of Living”
- “Place Out on the Ocean
- “In Color”
- “The Last Cowboy”
- “Dreaming My Dreams”
- “Between Jennings and Jones”
I will also qualify my recommendation of this album by saying that if someone doesn’t like sad songs then this album won’t be for him. Not every song is sad but this is definitely an album from the less sunny side of the street.
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen – A Movie Review
Terry Gilliam is best known as a member of the comedy troupe Monty Python’s Flying Circus. But he also had a second career as a motion picture writer/director. His best-known movie was Brazil, about a dystopic future where the all-powerful security state reaches an absurdist level of control.
But the movie that I am interested in here is a less well known but sunnier exercise. The movie opens up within a walled town besieged by the Turks at a time that is identified as being in the 18th Century, The Age of Reason, Wednesday. A small acting company is putting on a comical play of the legendary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, when in the middle of the first act the real Baron Munchausen interrupts the play to refute the slanders, he claims are being made against himself. The Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson who is in attendance in the audience and is the military governor of the town and a staunch proponent of the Age of Reason, takes offense at the Baron’s aspersions against reason and logic and threatens to throw the Baron and the whole acting troupe over the wall to the Turk. The Baron claims he is the cause of the Turkish assault on the town and spends the rest of the movie assembling his legendary comrades to save the town from both the Turk and the Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson. The Sultan and Jackson, behind the scenes are actually on excellent terms and take turns winning battles in order to keep the war going on forever.
Some very excellent actors are included in the cast including Jonathan Pryce as Horatio Jackson, Robin Williams as the King of the Moon and Eric Idle as Desmond and Berthold. The reason Idle has two characters to play is another conceit of the movie. The play actors of which Idle is one look exactly like the Baron’s actual comrades and so the movie actors play both parts. Robin Williams as mentioned, is King of the Moon and his characterization has a split personality. When the King’s head is detached from his body, he has a light, zany, Italian-accented voice an impish personality. But when the head and body are joined Williams takes on the voice and personality of what could most easily be described as an angrier version of Benito Mussolini.
The English actor John Neville plays the Baron and smaller parts are distributed to well-known actors like Oliver Reed and Uma Thurman who portray the gods Vulcan and Venus respectively. Even Sting (of Police singing fame) has a cameo as the “Heroic Officer.”
The plot, such as it is, has the Baron sailing to the Moon, falling into Mount Vesuvius to meet Vulcan and Venus and being swallowed by a giant sea monster, all performed as part of his search for his servants. Along the way he flirts with Queens, goddesses and even a few commoners. At all times he somehow has long stem roses to hand out and he invariably compares the beauty of each women to Catherine the Great “whose hand in marriage I once had the honor to decline.” On one occasion he makes the remark to three women at once. When an auditor of this exchange challenges him that they couldn’t all remind him of Catherine the Great, the Baron petulantly replied, “Why not? Bits here and bits there!”
The movie is obviously a hymn to fantasy and whimsy and the final showdown has the Baron conquer not only reason and reality but even old age and death itself. It’s an utterly ridiculous movie that is full of fantastic visual effects and fairy tale imagery. It probably will not appeal to all tastes. I highly recommend it to those who can enjoy elaborate nonsense.
Enough Outrage for the Week
One of the news sites I look at each day is realclearpolitics.com. They often have dueling headlines on a topic from the Left and the Right. Today featured the New York Times article “My New Vagina Won’t Make Me Happy” by someone now called Andrea Long Chu, and an article by the American Conservative called “Andrea Long Chu’s Fake Vagina” by Rod Dreher. The New York Times article is liberally quoted in the Dreher article so if like me you don’t traffic on the New York Times, at least you’ll know what Dreher is referencing. I read Dreher’s article and honestly, I’m still shaking my head. The level of masochism and self-delusion necessary to allow anyone to get involved in the surgical and medical madness described in the article is stunning. I’ve felt that reporting on the unhealthy practices occurring on the Left is important to warn people (especially the young) of the dangers lurking nearby these troubled groups. And I still feel that way. The fact that there are physicians and social workers who advocate to allow these dangerous practices and medical procedures to be performed on young people is alarming and should be highlighted as further proof that our society is now a menace to our children and not to be trusted.
But it’s too much. I can’t stomach the nausea of even thinking about these things at this time of the year.
I’m off from work for a few days this week and I’ve been visiting with family during this holiday weekend. And even writing on this nightmarish article is too depressing to consider. So, adios Andrea Long Chu and all his pseudo-gynecological considerations. Unless there is an eruption on the Mueller front or the Mexican Caravan manages to reach southern New England, I propose to address the positive aspects of the news. And if there are absolutely no positive news items (which is quite possible) I’ll concentrate my time on cultural concerns that are of a positive nature. Probably this will entail music, book and movie reviews that I think will bring a pleasant moment to the readers. I have some macrophotography files I’ve been working on. I’d prefer to subject my readers to the terrors of magnified beetles and moths and thorny plants than dwell on these other horror stories for the next few days. I’ll regale you with my delusional theories for restoring pulp science fiction to its rightful primacy on book shelves (or at least the first page of the browser search results). I’ll tout my obscure non-commercial choices for country music. And when I run out of real subjects to bloviate on, I’ll fabricate a story involving my alt-reality President Trump and his equally fictitious minions as they face off against zombie civil servants, undead Clinton opponents and the truly nefarious forces of the main stream media. In other words, I’ll do all the things I usually do except with 30% less outrage.
Meeting with family, especially the grandsons was extremely enjoyable, almost inspirational. We played cards, talked about what they wanted for Christmas, ate grilled cheese sandwiches and burgers, watched some old movies together and talked about artificial intelligence. So, for the next few days, I’ll try to stay on the lighter side of things. Please bear with me. I promise to try and be extra specially outraged by Saturday.
Gunga Din – An OCF Classic Movie Review
“…
So I’ll meet ’im later on
At the place where ’e is gone—
Where it’s always double drill and no canteen.
’E’ll be squattin’ on the coals
Givin’ drink to poor damned souls,
An’ I’ll get a swig in hell from Gunga Din!
Yes, Din! Din! Din!
You Lazarushian-leather Gunga Din!
Though I’ve belted you and flayed you,
By the livin’ Gawd that made you,
You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!”
(Gunga Din by Rudyard Kipling)
Kipling’s poem celebrates the courage and loyalty of Indian water bearer Gunga Din. The 1939 film builds on the bare sketch of the poem and adds in the British soldiers from Kipling’s Soldiers Three stories. Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. portray Sergeants Cutter, MacChesney and Ballantine. The three sergeants are comedic partners in crime constantly in trouble for their off-duty brawling and ridiculous escapades. But they are also ferociously courageous and loyal to the British Army to their core. And attached to the regiment that the sergeants serve in is the regimental bhisti (or water carrier), Gunga Din. Gunga Din is also a minor partner in the sergeants’ syndicate. He convinces Cutter that they can cart off a temple made of solid gold that’s just there for the taking. Superimpose the sub-plot of Ballantine’s upcoming nuptials as a threat to the triumvirate and then top the whole thing off with a Thuggee Mutiny planning to drive the British out of India.
Sam Jaffe plays Gunga Din and along with the three co-stars they chew up the scenery and move the plot along smartly. By the climax we find out why Gunga Din is a better man they are. And we get to see the British Army (or the Hollywood version of it) unleashed on the Thugs.
The movie features a goodly amount of action adventure scenes but for me the stand out is the comedy. The exchanges between Cary Grant (featuring his most over the top cockney accent) and Victor McLaglen are very funny and make me wish they had co-starred in other action comedies.
It goes without saying that the movie could never be made today. It features language and plot elements that would be labelled, racist, sexist, colonialist and white supremacist. And if they got around to it, I’m sure the critics could come up with an angle that made it homophobic and transphobic too. But it is solid entertainment that creates a comedy adventure out of the reality of the British Raj. Of course, this is a Hollywood fantasy version of the Raj. In this version, the British Army is powerful and the generals are competent and all the good Indians are loyal subjects of the Queen-Empress and all the bad Indians are disloyal, murderous followers of Kali, the goddess of death. In this version the non-commissioned officers are anxious to re-enlist every 11 years without fail. But it’s got fight scenes, battle scenes, comedy, pathos, dynamite tossing and even an elephant-based jail break. What else could anybody ask for.