tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-138889062024-03-06T22:15:37.407-08:00One Pissed Off VeteranRetired. Disabled Veteran. Democrat. Cancer Survivor. Stroke Survivor. Radical. Socialist. Non-theist. Political Activist. Witty Impromptu Comedian. Writer. Professional Pain in the Ass. Class Warrior.
And Smart-Mouth Dispenser of Political Snark.Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.comBlogger2702125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-70583811590743937882015-06-22T00:46:00.000-07:002015-06-22T00:46:00.136-07:00Ten Years Down -- I Quit!It was exactly ten years ago today that I published my very first post on this blog, a blog that I wondered at the time if I could even carry on for six months without running out of stuff to write about... Ha.<br />
For the record, here is my very first post, <a href="http://opovet.blogspot.com/2005/06/twins-in-uniform-why-arent-barbara-and.html" target="_blank">Twins in Uniform</a>. (Jeez, it looks like even way back then I was not above writing some "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickbait" target="_blank">clickbait</a>" headlines...)<br />
<br />
This continued as a weekly feature, counting up the number of days that the slacker Bush twins, Jenna and Not-Jenna, had wasted since they graduated college, all the way up to my <a href="http://opovet.blogspot.com/2008/08/bush-twins-in-uniform-watch-dead-horse.html" target="_blank">Dead Horse Edition</a>, when, after <i>163 weeks</i> of these gentle reminders, their continued reluctance to serve their country forced me to cancel what I fondly called my weekly <a href="http://tinyurl.com/prg7nby" target="_blank">Bush Twins in Uniform Watch</a>.<br />
<br />
It was a good run while it lasted. By the time of that final post they had spent a total of 1507 days NOT in uniform since they graduated college.<br />
<br />
Oh, in case you were wondering, Jenna and Not-Jenna never did take my advice and enlist in the military service. Yeah, big surprise that.<br />
<br />
So anyway, after over 2700 posts I think it's time I stepped aside. I just don't have that "fire in the belly" that I used to have. Lately you've probably noticed that I've basically been phoning it in, when I bother to post at all.<br />
<br />
A huge thank you to all my regular readers. But I really think it's time I stepped aside and let the younger generation take over. After all I <i>am</i> 70 years old...<br />
<br />
As I say when I get the rare sales call, "I'm an elderly shut-in on a fixed income".<br />
<br />
Goodbye and thanks for reading. Keep up the fight!Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-57285559112673634112015-06-15T00:33:00.000-07:002015-06-15T00:33:00.715-07:00Monday Music Break: Free BirdIf by some odd chance you have not already seen <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Zombie" target="_blank">Rob Zombie</a>'s "two-film trilogy" of cult=classic exploitation horror movies, starting with 2003's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_1000_Corpses" target="_blank"><i>House of 1,000 Corpses</i></a> and ending with its 2005 sequel, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil%27s_Rejects" target="_blank"><i>The Devil's Rejects</i></a>, I'd advise you to stop reading right now and go see them. <i>House of 1,000 Corpses</i> is available <a href="https://youtu.be/b18e2ROtJ2Q" target="_blank">here</a> on YouTube, and <i>The Devil's Rejects</i> is <a href="http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/The-Devil-s-Rejects/70028893/" target="_blank">available on DVD</a> from Netflix.<br /><br />Note: Spoilers follow.<br /><br />As you all know, I am a <a href="http://opovet.blogspot.com/search/label/Exploitation%20Movies" target="_blank">big fan of "cult classic" exploitation movies</a>. Everyone thinks the whole phenomenon ended in 1959 or so, but that isn't so. It just took a few turns and went underground (even more). The midnight-movie success of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rocky_Horror_Picture_Show" target="_blank"><i>The Rocky Horror Picture Show</i></a>, which as far as I know hasn't stopped showing somewhere since its debut in 1975, is living proof of this.<br /><br />So here are the masters of southern hard rock <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynyrd_Skynyrd" target="_blank">Lynryd Skynyrd</a> with the song that routinely appears on everybody's list of top ten rock and roll masterpieces, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Bird" target="_blank"><i>Free Bird</i></a>:<br /><div align="center">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="249" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NOadx4ZICaQ" width="440"></iframe></div>
<br />This is the final scene, with the original soundtrack, from <i>The Devil's Rejects</i>, and it shows the best slow-motion death scene since Sam Peckinpah's seminal <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Bunch" target="_blank"><i>The Wild Bunch</i></a> from 1969. Hell, maybe it's even better than that. I'll let you be the judge.<br /><br />Warning: Once you have watched this, you will never be able to "unsee" it. And you'll likely never hear <i>Free Bird</i> the same again.Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-73978459307956555442015-06-14T16:09:00.000-07:002015-06-14T16:09:46.533-07:00JFK Assassination: The Hidell Draft CardOne thing that has nagged at me for the last 50+ years is the "<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=hidell+draft+card" target="_blank">Hidell Draft Card</a>" that was allegedly found in the possession of Lee Harvey Oswald, which neatly tied him into the receipt of the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle sent to the Hidell PO box. It did tie up neatly several threads of the "investigation", but I don't think I've ever seen a real serious analysis of that card itself.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimyccEHgfvNTftOCKI0AjL3h-gRaSC3D-jzGlZhpF-jPRr3JKZGea37U37f-8MWYdclta117uqGnPTZcdBiSPGuhflDf0UnxI8LBAlzuxIlxxKA1u1DaXPTmdQyFi5iFslXXhO9A/s1600/HidellDraftCard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimyccEHgfvNTftOCKI0AjL3h-gRaSC3D-jzGlZhpF-jPRr3JKZGea37U37f-8MWYdclta117uqGnPTZcdBiSPGuhflDf0UnxI8LBAlzuxIlxxKA1u1DaXPTmdQyFi5iFslXXhO9A/s320/HidellDraftCard.jpg" title=" " width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Take a look at that card. It kind of looks like a "regular issue" draft card, except for one glaring exception: <i>The photograph. </i><br />
<br />
<i>Selective Service registration cards<b> did not have </b>photographs.</i><br />
<br />
Putting aside the questions as to whether that photo really is LHO, but assuming the Warren Report is correct and Oswald created that phony draft card so he'd have some kind of photo ID, the question is this: Why would he go out of his way to create a phony ID that pretty much every male in the United States would look at askance, since draft cards NEVER contained a photograph? Every male over the age of 18, at least since the end of WWII, was issued a draft card. Who <i>would not</i> question the validity of one that had a photograph?<br />
<br />
So what do those numbers on draft cards indicate? Like Social Security numbers, they were an easy way to identify an individual.<br />
<br />
Mine was <b><i>45 23 45 152</i></b><br />
<br />
First box -- state (e.g., Washington is 45), arranged alphabetically (Alaska and Hawaii were not states when this was first set up, which is why the count is off now; Washington should be 47).<br />
Second box -- Draft board number within the state (23), usually consisting of a county or similar administrative subdivision.<br />
Third box -- Year of birth (1945).<br />
Fourth box -- Numerical count of people registering for that birth year -- (I was the 152nd person to register).<br />
<br />
"Hidell" Selective Service Number: <i><b>42 224 39 5321</b></i><br />
<br />
Unless I miss my guess, 42 was Utah (Texas was 41), and it's doubtful there were 224 local draft boards in Utah. Oswald was born in 1939, but again it's doubtful that there were over 5,000 men at that draft board born in 1939.<br />
<br />
So it's kind of odd that Oswald would put a photo on his already-obviously fake Hidell draft card, when literally every male in the country knew what one was supposed to look like. This really doesn't pass the "smell test".<br />
<br />
I don't know, of course, and as usual, what it really means. It's just another anomaly in an event that is so chock full of anomalies that they are spilling out over the top.Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-50220472646766442942015-06-13T11:32:00.000-07:002015-06-13T11:32:00.280-07:00More on the Kennedy AssassinationRegular readers know that I am fascinated -- <a href="http://opovet.blogspot.com/search/label/JFK%20assassination" target="_blank">maybe obsessed</a> is a better word -- by the assassination of John F. Kennedy.<br />
<br />
I just stumbled on a fairly reasoned analysis on a site called <a href="https://www.stratfor.com/weekly/mystery_marina_oswald" target="_blank">Stratfor Global Intelligence</a> that asks some questions that have been more or less ignored, and focuses on a neglected actor in the whole assassination cast of questionable characters: Marina Oswald.<br /><br />The official story, found in the Warren Report, asks us to believe some pretty incredible things about the wife of Lee Harvey Oswald:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
1. Marina, part of the Soviet upper-middle class, reasonably educated and an attractive young woman, meets Lee Harvey Oswald and is so smitten by him that she agrees to marry him in a little over a month — two weeks of which he spent courting her from a hospital bed.<br />
2. The Soviet government grants Marina permission to marry him in the span of 10 days, despite the fact that this is an MVD colonel's niece marrying a U.S. defector.<br />
3. Oswald immediately decides to head back to the United States, and in spite of her uncle's supposed objections — and Prusakov [her MVD, aka <i>KGB</i>, uncle] could have stopped this dead in its tracks if he wanted — she is granted permission to leave the Soviet Union in the company of an American defector. The time between her formal request and receiving permission is a matter of weeks.<br />Endless questions flow from this, ranging from what the mission was to why the U.S. embassy permitted Marina into the country. This now enters into the realm of speculation. However, one thing is clear to us: Any theory as to what happened on Nov. 22, 1963, that does not take into careful account the role of Marina Oswald is inherently flawed. This includes the Warren Commission's own findings. If Lee Harvey Oswald killed John F. Kennedy, there has been no adequate explanation of Marina Oswald's role in this.</blockquote>
It's pretty interesting stuff. The author takes the position that the Warren Report is probably basically correct, but the glaring questions about Marina have gone unanswered.<br /><br />As I've said before, the truth will likely not come out in my lifetime. Maybe not in anyone's lifetime -- after all, most of the participants and "interested parties" are now dead. It kind of bugs me that after 50+ years I will go to my grave without knowing the truth...Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-83170423474836273692015-06-13T00:57:00.000-07:002015-06-13T00:57:00.830-07:00Saturday Poetry Slam -- Ozymandias<i><b>Ozymandias</b></i><br />by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Bysshe_Shelley" target="_blank">Percy B. Shelley</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I met a traveller from an antique land<br />Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone<br />Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,<br />Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown<br />And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command<br />Tell that its sculptor well those passions read<br />Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,<br />The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.<br />And on the pedestal these words appear:<br />`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:<br />Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'<br />Nothing beside remains. Round the decay<br />Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,<br />The lone and level sands stretch far away". </blockquote>
More Reading:<br />
· <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias" target="_blank"><i>Ozymandias</i></a> on Wikipedia <br />
Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-89725300713569347322015-06-09T00:45:00.002-07:002015-06-09T00:45:29.248-07:00What a Week!My brother-in-law was here from Hawaii all week and he goes like a bat outta hell. He doesn't have anything but high gear. So I am exhausted from running around after him. It's not fair -- he's a week younger than me and has all that energy.<br />
<br />
I am exhausted so it's going to be some light posting for a few more days.<br />
<br />
Thanks for reading.<br />
<br />
--The F ManFarnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-47013032696490537702015-06-03T00:59:00.000-07:002015-06-03T00:59:00.176-07:00Must-See Cinema: Rockers 1978This week I am proud to present 1978's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockers_%281978_film%29" target="_blank"><i>Rockers</i></a>, a semi-documentary look at the old-school Jamaican <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roots_reggae" target="_blank">roots reggae</a> culture.<br />
<br />Trailer:<br /><div align="center">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CopS9rPE9D0" width="420"></iframe></div>
<br />This film, loosely based on that masterpiece of Italian neo-realism, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_Thieves" target="_blank"><i>Bicycle Thieves</i></a>, shows a slice of daily life of the Rastafarian roots reggae culture, featuring many actual reggae musicians and a score that includes many of the greats: Peter Tosh, Gregory Isaacs, Burning Spear. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockers_%28soundtrack%29" target="_blank">soundtrack</a> alone is worth the price of admission.<br /><br />I first saw this at a local college film festival circa 1980 and was blown away by it. Then it disappeared, but thanks to the DVD revolution it's <a href="http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Rockers/60000071/" target="_blank">available on DVD from Netlix</a>.<br /><br />If you watch it, it's best to brush up on your <a href="http://jamaicanpatwah.com/dictionary/category/rastafarian" target="_blank">Rasta/Patois-English</a> first. Even though it is subtitled in more-or-less standard English, some things will still remain a mystery.<br /><br />I wanted to include a video of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Tosh" target="_blank">Peter Tosh</a> singing my favorite cut from the soundtrack, <i>Steppin' Razor</i>, but for some vague copyright reason, YouTube won't allow it to be embedded on any other websites, so you can <a href="https://youtu.be/9o_jVHmU_V4" target="_blank">see it here</a>.<br /><br />Highly recommended.<br /><br />Links:<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079815/" target="_blank"><i>Rockers</i></a> on the IMDB.</li>
<li> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rockers-Remastered-Soundtrack/dp/B00006AWBH/opovet-20" target="_blank"><i>Rockers</i> Soundtrack</a> on Amazon</li>
<li><a href="http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Rockers/60000071/" target="_blank">Rockers</a> on Netflix</li>
</ul>
Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-71353748802639059092015-06-01T00:44:00.000-07:002015-06-01T00:44:00.179-07:00Monday Music Break: Born in the USAHere's Bruce Springsteen with <i> Born in the USA</i> from 1984:<br />
<div align="center">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jqUk0SMzkeI?vq=hd1080&autoplay=0" width="420"></iframe></div>
<br />
But really, the big question is this: Are politicians, especially Republicans who seem to have carved out their own patriotic niche just for this song (I'm looking at you, Ronald Reagan), too stupid to know what it's really about? According to Parker Malloy at The Daily Beast, the answer to that question is <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/06/are-politicians-too-dumb-to-understand-the-lyrics-to-born-in-the-usa.html" target="_blank">yes, they are</a>.<br />
<br />
In case there's still a question, here are the lyrics:<br />
<blockquote>
Born down in a dead man's town<br />
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground<br />
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much<br />
Till you spend half your life just covering up<br />
Born in the U.S.A.<br />
I was born in the U.S.A.<br />
I was born in the U.S.A.<br />
Born in the U.S.A.<br />
Got in a little hometown jam so they put a rifle in my hand<br />
Sent me off to a foreign land to go and kill the yellow man<br />
Born in the U.S.A.<br />
I was born in the U.S.A.<br />
I was born in the U.S.A.<br />
I was born in the U.S.A.<br />
Born in the U.S.A.<br />
Come back home to the refinery<br />
Hiring man says "son if it was up to me"<br />
Went down to see my V.A. man<br />
He said "son don't you understand now"<br />
Had a brother at Khe Sahn fighting off the Viet Cong<br />
They're still there he's all gone<br />
He had a woman he loved in Saigon<br />
I got a picture of him in her arms now<br />
Down in the shadow of penitentiary<br />
Out by the gas fires of the refinery<br />
I'm ten years burning down the road<br />
Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go<br />
Born in the U.S.A.<br />
I was born in the U.S.A.<br />
Born in the U.S.A.<br />
I'm a long gone daddy in the U.S.A.<br />
Born in the U.S.A.<br />
Born in the U.S.A.<br />
Born in the U.S.A.<br />
I'm a cool rocking daddy in the U.S.A.</blockquote>
Hmmm. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_in_the_U.S.A._%28song%29" target="_blank">Not quite the patriotic anthem</a> they want you to think it is, is it?Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-917730770171104662015-05-30T10:07:00.000-07:002015-05-30T10:07:21.383-07:00Taking a BreakI'll be taking a break for a week. My brother-in-law (i.e., the famous <a href="https://www.google.com/search?num=100&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=site%3Aopovet.blogspot.com+%22Idiot+Brother+in+Law%22" target="_blank"> IBIL</a>) is in town and will want for a lot of attention and hand holding. I'll still post the ones that are in the system, so to speak, i.e., have been written and set to post a future time, but won't have time for any new ones until sometime early next week.<br />
<br />
When I get out of jail following just a touch of assault and battery and attack with a moderately-deadly weapon...<br />
<br />
No, I am sure that the best possible behavior will be exhibited on all sides, and we'll come through the week with nothing worse than just a few skinned knuckles.<br />
<br />
See you all next week and thanks for reading.<br />
<br />
--"The F Man"Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-52635970777989336732015-05-30T00:12:00.000-07:002015-05-30T00:12:00.043-07:00Saturday Poetry Slam -- The Second Coming<i>The Second Coming</i><br />by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._B._Yeats" target="_blank"> William Butler Yeats </a> (1865-1939) (also his second appearance here)<br />
<blockquote>
Turning and turning in the widening gyre<br /> The falcon cannot hear the falconer;<br /> Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;<br /> Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,<br /> The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere<br /> The ceremony of innocence is drowned;<br /> The best lack all conviction, while the worst<br /> Are full of passionate intensity.<br /><br /> Surely some revelation is at hand;<br /> Surely the Second Coming is at hand.<br /> The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out<br /> When a vast image out of <i>Spiritus Mundi</i><br /> Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;<br /> A shape with lion body and the head of a man,<br /> A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,<br /> Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it<br /> Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.<br /><br /> The darkness drops again but now I know<br /> That twenty centuries of stony sleep<br /> Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,<br /> And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,<br /> Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? </blockquote>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Coming_%28poem%29" target="_blank"><i>The Second Coming</i></a> is an antiwar poem written by Yeats after the end of the First World War. It is considered a major work or Modernist Poetry, and you'll not that the last line springboards into a book title, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slouching_Towards_Bethlehem" target="_blank"><i>Slouching Towards Bethlemem</i></a> , a 1958 collection of essays by the excellent stylist (and one of my favorite authors), <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Didion" target="_blank">Joan Didion</a>, which I highly <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Slouching-Towards-Bethlehem-Essays-Classics/dp/0374531382/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1432710028&sr=8-1&keywords=slouching+towards+bethlehemhttp://www.amazon.com/Slouching-Towards-Bethlehem-Essays-Classics/dp/0374531382/opovet-20" target="_blank">recommend that you read</a> as well.<br /><br />Even though it was written nearly 100 year ago, the poem still retains a profound resonance to the events of this century: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity..."<br /><br />This is one my favorite poems.Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-42615069345381004662015-05-27T10:42:00.000-07:002015-05-27T10:42:12.720-07:00Keep Your Goddam Gummit Hands Off My Medicare!Seriously...<br />
<dib align="center"><img border="0" height="317" src="http://www.dennismansker.com/blogimages/medicare.jpg" width="440" /></dib><br />
This used to be a joke, but now the Rethugs have come up with a plan to pay for the Trade Adjustment Act benefits available to people whose jobs have been lost and offshored due to "trade practices" -- and <i>caused by</i> the TPP (which according to the Chamber of Commerce will <i>increase</i> American jobs) by tapping into Medicare.<br />
<br />
<b><i>???!!!</i></b><br />
<br />
Tell Congress to keep their goddam gummit hands off our Medicare! <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/1264" target="_blank">Sign the petition</a> that is being jointly promoted by The Daily Kos and CREDO.<br />
<br />
Tell Congress that we won't put up with it. I was talking with my own congressman just last night, and he said that they do listen to their constituents' concerns. He also brought up this very topic and said that while he was already leaning towards a "No" vote on the so-called Fast Track, this particularly piece, if true, would put him solidly in the "No" camp.<br />
<br />
Let Congress know how you feel! <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/1264" target="_blank">Sign the petition today!</a><br />
<br />
<br />Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-84234075173889311772015-05-27T00:40:00.000-07:002015-05-27T00:40:00.121-07:00Must-See Cinema: Touch of Evil 1958I am happy to present the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_Welles" target="_blank">Orson Welles</a> 1958 masterpiece, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_of_Evil" target="_blank"><i>Touch of Evil</i></a>. This movie is widely considered to one of the last -- and best -- examples of Hollywood's classic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir" target="_blank"><i>film noir</i></a> era.<br />
<br />
Trailer:<br />
<div align="center">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V-Oqn2hMp1M?vq=hd1080&autoplay=0" width="420"></iframe></div>
<br />
It was also widely considered to be a dud, another misstep in a career filled with them, but over the years it has gained in stature. This despite the worse-than-horrible miscasting of Charlton Heston as a Mexican(!) detective in a border town. Supposedly the studio forced Heston on Welles and basically said, "deal with it". So he did.<br />
<br />
The opening scene is famous for its opening take "long take" using a movable crane to follow a car from the time a bomb is placed in its trunk until after cruising through the streets of the border town, it crosses the US border and explodes. Reputedly Welles used up fully half of his filming budget on just this one shot:<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yg8MqjoFvy4?vq=hd1080&autoplay=0" width="420"></iframe></div>
<br />
That is, of all places, Venice California masquerading as the border town of Los Robles in this movie. Orson Welles is outstanding, even in the fake nose, as corrupt sheriff Hank Quinlan, and watch for some surprising minor-character near-cameos of Marlene Dietrich, Mercedes McCambridge and Dennis Weaver. If you watch that "long take" carefully, you'll also see an Alfred Hitchcock-like appearance of Welles himself crossing in front of the car as it is stopped at a light on the street.<br />
<br />
In many ways it is Orson Welles' most personal film. He's played a lot characters who were destroyed by their own hubris (Charles Foster Kane, MacBeth, Othello, for example), and Hank Quinlan is no exception, but you can't help but see echoes of Welles and the studio system he fought for so many years in the machinations of Quinlan's desire to get the conviction, no matter what, thanks to that little "touch of evil" that everyone carries with them...<br />
<br />
I can't praise this movie enough. I loved it so much that I even bought my own copy of the DVD, and I <i>hardly ever</i> do that. Highly recommended.<br />
<br />
More reading:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052311/" target="_blank"><i>Touch of Evil</i></a> on the IMDB.</li>
<li> <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-touch-of-evil-1958" target="_blank">Roger Ebert's Review</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Touch-of-Evil/60002728/" target="_blank"><i>Touch of Evil</i></a> available on Netflix</li>
</ul>
Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-54828159970416140522015-05-26T01:44:00.000-07:002015-05-26T01:44:00.045-07:00Exploitation Movies: Devil's Harvest (1942)Now that we've exhausted (in more ways than one -- see <a href="http://opovet.blogspot.com/2015/05/exploitation-movies-maniac-1934.html" target="_blank">Maniac</a> from two weeks ago) the 1930s, it's time to move on to the 1940s.<br />
<br />
This week's feature is <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157533/" target="_blank"><i>Devil's Harvest</i></a> from 1942:<br />
<br />
Full movie:<br />
<div align="center">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SQK3XlY8Nk4?vq=hd1080&autoplay=0" width="420"></iframe></div>
<br />
This is probably the very worst anti-marijuana movie in the genre. It's not even close to Ed-Wood-so-bad-it's-good bad, it's just <i>bad</i> bad. Even so, there's some unintentionally funny stuff, such as Oliver the elderly hot-dog vender with a cart right across from the high school, who serves "stacks" of weed with his hot dogs, and pudgy Sam, the head gangster's right-hand man.<br />
<br />
There's also a party with your typical long-in-the-tooth "teenagers" where marijuana is smoked and, as you know always happens at marijuana parties, a riot breaks out. "Good girl" Kay O'Farrell ends up going undercover for the cops to bust the local drug lord, Larry McGuire -- who of course has a pencil-thin mustache!<br />
<br />
It's an undercover operation that lasts for months -- you can literally see the days falling off the calendar -- and ends abruptly with the cops arriving late to the party, after Larry has been shot by another gangster who has just gotten out of prison and wants to take over the business.<br />
<br />
There's surprisingly little pot smoking in this movie -- just at the wild party near the start of the film. <br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<img border="0" src="http://dennismansker.com/blogimages/devilsharvest.jpg" height="450" width="295" /></div>
<br />
The money shot: A bit of skivvy dancing at the early "loco weed" party, and good girl dancer Kay shows a bit of thigh a couple of times. There may be a bit of nudity in a distant shot of another female dancer at the club but it's hard to tell.<br />
<br />
Lessons learned: "Whoever named that stuff 'loco weed' sure knew what they were talking about." (actual quote from the "kindly" police lieutenant)<br />
<br />
Directed by: Ray Test (his only film).<br />
<br />
Taglines: A Vicious Racket With It's [sic] Arms Around Your Children! A fifth column sowing destruction in the youth of America, A good girl until she lights a "reefer", The truth about MARIJUANA the smoke of Hell! <br />
<br />
More reading:<br />
<ul>
<li> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157533/"><i>Devil's Harvest</i></a> on the IMDB. </li>
<li> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmK4L62cWO4&list=PL9MhqkiR1ol2cA4G4tFql_jF-kXQTeAP2" target="_blank">A Collection of 22 Exploitation Movie Trailers</a> on YouTube.</li>
<li> <a href="http://opovet.blogspot.com/2015/05/book-of-month-bold-daring-shocking-true.html" target="_blank"><i>"Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!": A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959</i></a> by Eric Schaefer, the OPOvet Book of the Month for May 2015.</li>
</ul>
<br />Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-79181098908767068252015-05-25T01:18:00.004-07:002015-05-25T11:10:04.715-07:00In Memorium on Memorial DayIn memorium on this Memorial Day, I raise a salute to the men and boys from Cowlitz County, Washington, who lost their lives during the War in Vietnam.<br />
<br />
You can read all 27 names <a href="http://www.chairborneranger.com/cowlitzdeaths.htm" target="_blank">here</a>, especially the ones who were friends of mine from junior high and high school: Bill Wagner, Dale Kruse, Claude Weiderman and Dennis Silvesan, and Lynley Rash who was the younger brother of a good friend of mine. Also Dave Aasen, Greg Curtis, Dick Gilcher and Mike Ray, who were friends of friends of mine and whom I knew slightly.<br />
<br />
R.I.P Guys. You did your duty. Now stand down and rest. We will never forget you.Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-64100810930802460662015-05-25T00:11:00.000-07:002015-05-25T00:11:00.096-07:00Special Memorial Day Monday Music Break: Where Have All the Flowers Gone? Here's a special Memorial Day music break, the moving and haunting <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Have_All_the_Flowers_Gone%3F" target="_blank"><i>Where Have All the Flowers Gone?</i></a> written (mostly) and performed by the late great <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Seeger" target="_blank">Pete Seeger</a>.<br /><div align="center">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1y2SIIeqy34" width="420"></iframe></div>
Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-84762183415171395222015-05-23T00:27:00.000-07:002015-05-23T00:27:00.527-07:00Saturday Poetry Slam -- Sailing to Byzantium<i><b>Sailing to Byzantium</b></i><br />by <a eats="" en.wikipedia.org="" href-="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" https:="" wiki="">William Butler Yeats</a>. 1928<br /><br />THAT is no country for old men. The young<br />In one another's arms, birds in the trees<br />- Those dying generations - at their song,<br />The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,<br />Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long<br />Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.<br />Caught in that sensual music all neglect<br />Monuments of unageing intellect.<br /><br />An aged man is but a paltry thing,<br />A tattered coat upon a stick, unless<br />Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing<br />For every tatter in its mortal dress,<br />Nor is there singing school but studying<br />Monuments of its own magnificence;<br />And therefore I have sailed the seas and come<br />To the holy city of Byzantium.<br /><br />O sages standing in God's holy fire<br />As in the gold mosaic of a wall,<br />Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,<br />And be the singing-masters of my soul.<br />Consume my heart away; sick with desire<br />And fastened to a dying animal<br />It knows not what it is; and gather me<br />Into the artifice of eternity.<br /><br />Once out of nature I shall never take<br />My bodily form from any natural thing,<br />But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make<br />Of hammered gold and gold enamelling<br />To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;<br />Or set upon a golden bough to sing<br />To lords and ladies of Byzantium<br />Of what is past, or passing, or to come.<br /><br />You can read more about <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" ref="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_to_Byzantium"><i>Sailing to Byzantium</i></a> on Wikipedia, Smart readers will note that the the first line formed the basis for the title of 2007's <a href-="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" http:="" title="" tt0477348="" www.imdb.com=""><i>No Country for Old Men</i></a> I will leave it to you discover what, if any meaning, the title has in relationship to the poem.Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-7595589592060484122015-05-20T00:19:00.000-07:002015-05-20T00:19:00.264-07:00Must-See Cinema: Rosewater 2014This week's must-see cinema is a fairly new one, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewater_%28film%29" target="_blank"><i>Rosewater</i></a> from 2014, directed by <i>The Daily Show</i>'s Jon Stewart in his directorial debut.<br />
<br />Trailer:<br /><div align="center">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="249" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/k2D7TyCKOC0" width="440"></iframe></div>
<br />This is a terrific movie, especially the psychological torture scenes rendered in unbelievable verisimilitude. It concerns the story of an Iranian-Canadian film journalist who goes on a brief trip back to Iran to cover the 1999 presidential election and finds himself caught up in a strange and mysterious web of suspicion that rivals something out of Kafka.<br /><br />It was filmed in Jordan, with some second-unit shots of events in Tehran. and features the real life story of Maziar Bahari, whose 2011 book describing his nightmare, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Then-They-Came-Captivity-Hardcover/dp/B0054QA30W/opovet-20" target="_blank"><i>Then They Came for Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival </i></a>, describes the 118 days he was kept in solitary confinement and underwent some brutal psychological torture at the hands of a guy called "Rosewater" -- hence the title.<br /><br />It is definitely not a comedy -- although there is some humor in it, in the interrogations by Rosewater and Bahari's response to certain questions, and a brief appearance by The Daily Show's Jason Jones, recreating a scene from a location shot in Iran that is used against Bahari. It is a surprising and enjoyable first outing from a director who could have a whole new career ahead of him when he quits <i>The Daily Show </i>later this year.<br /><br />More reading:<br /> · <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2752688/" target="_blank"><i>Rosewater</i></a> on the IMDB.<br /> · <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rosewater/" target="_blank"><i>Rosewater</i></a> at Rotten Tomatoes<br /> · <a href="http://www.metacritic.com/movie/rosewater" target="_blank"><i>Rosewater</i></a> at Metacritic<br /> · <a href="http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Rosewater/70295188/" target="_blank"><i>Rosewater</i></a> for rent on NetflixFarnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-39944633624693262812015-05-18T00:36:00.000-07:002015-05-18T00:36:00.109-07:00Monday Music Break: City of NightFor those of you who think that I don't listen to any music from this century, here's the terrific group <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Martini" target="_blank">Pink Martini</a> with <i> City of Night</i>:<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m-HonQmNgsc?vq=hd1080&autoplay=0" width="420"></iframe></div>
<br />
If you ignore the kind of amateurish wipes and transitions, there is some spectacular urban night photography in this video.<br />
<br />
This song is from Pink Martini's 2007 third album, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hey_Eugene!" target="_blank"><i>Hey Eugene!</i></a>.<br />
<br />
All of their music is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/185-8591494-9700362?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=pink%20martin/opovet-20" target="_blank">available on Amazon</a> -- and if you buy through this blog I get a few pennies back on each purchase.Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-54456213076196724422015-05-16T00:27:00.000-07:002015-05-18T16:50:37.490-07:00Poetry Slam Saturday -- Dulce et Decorum Est<i><b>Dulce et Decorum Est</b></i><br />
by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Owen" target="_blank">Wilfred Owen.</a>, 1893 - 1918<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,<br />
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,<br />
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs<br />
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.<br />
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots<br />
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;<br />
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots<br />
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.<br />
<br />
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling,<br />
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;<br />
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling<br />
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime...<br />
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,<br />
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.<br />
<br />
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,<br />
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.<br />
<br />
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace<br />
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,<br />
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,<br />
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;<br />
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood<br />
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,<br />
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud<br />
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—<br />
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest<br />
To children ardent for some desperate glory,<br />
The old Lie: <i>Dulce et decorum est<br />Pro patria mori.</i></blockquote>
Wilfred Owen was one of a large group of talented literary types who went off to fight World War I and died there. To his death can be added those of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saki" target="_blank">H. H. Munro</a> ("Saki"), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Brooke" target="_blank">Rupert Brooke</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Thomas_%28poet%29" target="_blank">Edward Thomas</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Apollinaire" target="_blank">Guillaume Apollinaire</a> and many more. Who is to know whether some future Nobel Prize in Literature would have been awarded to one or more of these people, who instead died in the prime of their creative lives?<br />
<br />
<i>Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori</i> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulce_et_decorum_est_pro_patria_mori" target="_blank">is a line from the Roman lyrical poet Horace</a>'s Odes. The line can be roughly translated into English as: "It is sweet and right to die for your country." Here Owen uses it ironically and calls it "the old Lie".Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-1065723387050586122015-05-15T00:33:00.000-07:002015-05-15T00:33:00.363-07:00"Please Judge, I Am an Orphan"I've used this joke hundred times to illustrate pure <i>chutzpah</i>: A guy murders both of his parents and then pleads for leniency because he is an orphan.<br />
<br />
And that's kind of what we have with fulltime Republican moron Luis Lang in South Carolina, who couldn't be bothered to get Obamacare coverage when it was available (i.e., within the <i>three-month</i> open enrollment period) because it was "socialized medicine" and he prided himself on being able to pay his own medical bills.<br />
<br />
Yeah, and as the Bible has it, "Pride goeth before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall." (Yes, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+16%3A18&version=KJV" target="_blank">that's the real quote</a>, not the oft-quoted and pithier but erroneous, "Pride goeth before a fall.")<br />
<br />
Now he's sick with diabetes-related blindness issues and is whining because he doesn't have coverage under the Affordable Care Act.<br />
<br />
The Daily Kos has <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/12/1384235/-See-man-hate-ACA-See-man-refuse-to-get-ACA-See-man-whine-that-he-can-t-get-ACA-when-he-needs-it" target="_blank">the whole story</a>, and it's not a pretty one:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
All seemed good until this February when a series of headaches led him to the doctor. Tests revealed that Lang had suffered a series of mini-strokes tied to diabetes. (It's not clear to me from the piece whether Lang knew he had diabetes earlier or whether that was the diabetes diagnosis as well.) He also has a partially detached retina and eye bleeding tied to his diabetes. The initial medical care for the mini-strokes ran to almost $10,000 and burned through his savings. And now he can't work because of his eye issue and can't afford the surgery that would save his eyesight and also allowing him to continue working.<br />I don't mean to sound like an asshole, but this is exactly why people buy insurance in the first place. The whole concept is that you shell out several hundred dollars per month when you're not sick or injured so that you'll have your medical bills covered in the event that you become sick/injured. He made a gamble that he'd never become so sick/injured badly enough that he wouldn't be able to afford 100% of the cost...and it finally caught up with him.</blockquote>
In fact, this is exactly the hypothetical scenario which Ron Paul was asked about during one of the GOP primary debates back in 2012 (the infamous "Let Him Die!!" moment).<br />
<br />
Now the dickhead has the gall to blame <i>Obama</i> and <i>the Democrats</i> because he made some stupid -- no some <i>idiotic</i> -- choices and finds himself holding the shitty end of the stick.<br />
<br />
Instead of blaming the real culprits, the Republicans in South Carolina who "don't want none o' that god damned soshulazzed med'cin", he's flailing out at the very people who, had their advice been followed, would have alleviated his situation.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Because, again, if the ACA hadn't been passed, their situation would be...well, exactly the same as it is now.<br />In fact, it would be worse because without the ACA, even if his income does pick back up again, pre-ACA insurance companies would still refuse to touch him with a 10-foot pole, whereas under the ACA he at least has a shot at getting covered if he can stick it out for another 8 months.<br />This, of course, leads to the most jaw-droppingly honest look at the conservative mindset I've seen in months:<br /> “(My husband) should be at the front of the line because he doesn’t work and because he has medical issues,” Mary Lang said last week. “We call it the Not Fair Health Care Act.”<br />Astonishing.<br /><i>"Screw you, everyone else!! We spent years helping enact policies which shaft the poor, and even deliberately blew off taking steps to help ourselves if we ever fell on hard times, but now that we need help, everyone else should get the hell out of the way and move us to the front of the line."</i></blockquote>
So much for the Party of Personal Responsibility. I guess we couldn't really expect anything else.<br />
<br />
Except this: He's started an illiterately-written GoFundMe page (no, I won't link to it, thank you) begging for money to help with the medical bills. And it is likely that many bleeding-heart liberals will donate to it, because by and large we don't want even assholes like this to suffer.<br />
<br />
And the final kicker will be when he thanks all of his <i>Republican</i> friends for their donations that <i>show up Obamacare for the nightmare that it is</i>.<br />
<br />
You can fix ignorant, but you can't fix stupid. At this point I'm leaning towards the Tea Party "Let Him Die" Solution. I know that sounds cold and hard-hearted, but come on...<br />
<br />
Okay, not really. Even assholes deserve to live. Even Republican assholes.Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-47918805356564319522015-05-14T00:42:00.001-07:002015-05-16T13:36:22.268-07:00A Jam of Tarts? An Assay of Trollope's? A Flourish of Strumpets?It's a concept that is almost gone from common English, but there used to be nouns in our vocabulary that described collections or groups of birds, animals, even humans. Some of them were pretty descriptive -- a <i>parliament of rooks</i>, a <i>murder of crows</i> -- and some had a delightful flourish -- a <i>spring of teals</i>, <i>an exaltation of larks</i>.<br />
<br />
Naturally something like that couldn't remain unsullied for long. Wags came up with such things as an <i>addition of</i> <i>mathematicians</i>, a<i> clutch of mechanics</i>, a <i>tedium of golfers,</i> an <i>intrigue of politicians</i>.<br />
<br />
For a while during the 19th and early 20th Century even the hallowed halls of Oxford were not immune. Three dons discussing the concept were walking home one night from the pub when they saw a group of "ladies of the evening" going by.<br />
<br />
"Okay. What would you call that particular group?" one of them asked the others.<br />
<br />
"Obviously that is a <i>jam of tarts</i>," the first one said.<br />
<br />
"No, that's an <i>assay of Trollope's</i>," the second one insisted.<br />
<br />
"You're both wrong," the third disclaimed. "That is a <i>flourish of strumpets</i>."<br />
<br />
A voice came up next to them from a gap in the hedge. "No, gentlemen," the voice said. "What we have here is <i>an anthology of pro's</i>."<br />
<br />
That voice allegedly belonged to the poet Conrad Aiken. <br />
<br />
Still it's a fun little story of language at play, showing the sheer pleasure that can be had with a little knowledge of the English language, and that anecdote became one of the cobblestones that formed the path of my steadily advancing intent to study English in college and work with words the rest of my life.<br />
<br />
More reading:<br />
See <a href="http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/collectives.htm" target="_blank">Precision of Lexicographers</a> on the <a href="http://www.worldwidewords.org/" target="_blank">World Wide Words</a> websiteFarnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-65385772730681409172015-05-13T08:58:00.000-07:002015-05-13T08:58:00.146-07:00Rise of the NonesI note that the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=13888906" target="_blank">latest Pew Research poll holds</a> that "56 million Americans now identify themselves as agnostic, atheist or 'nothing in particular.'” We are called "nones", for "religious preference: None". That’s more than 22 percent of the population.<br />
<br />
That's a lot of people for the Christianists and their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Reconstructionism" target="_blank">Christian Reconstruction</a> army to round up and make disappear. It's not just a paltry six million Jews and a few Gypsies and communists to deal with this time around. And that 56 million doesn't even include American Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, etc., all of whom will have to be swept up as well. <br />
<br />
That's a whole <i>lot</i> of people. If the average train car would hold 100 people, that's 560,000 train cars to haul us away. I don't think there's that much rolling stock in the world, let alone the USA.<br />
<br />
Face it Religious Right, you are losing ground.<br />
<br />
Which makes them all the more dangerous. Like a cornered animal. I think I may have to stock up on a few more 2nd-Amendment-Solution<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">TM</span></sup> "protection devices" myself.<br />
<br />
And BTW, it's long past time for someone in the Congress other than <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Stark" target="_blank">Pete Stark</a> to come out of the theological closet. I know you're in there. Show some guts and show your faces.<br />
<br />
Besides, Pete Stark isn't actually <i>in</i> Congress any longer. He;s retired, but not before he was reelected several times even after he admitted he was an atheist. Atheism is no longer the moral equavalent being a child-molesting communist pederast to the American voters -- those who are not still in the Moron-American Voting Bloc, anyway.Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-21038546891898331412015-05-13T00:58:00.000-07:002015-05-13T00:58:00.194-07:00Must-See Cinema: American Chain Gang 1999Although it didn't originate in the United States, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_gang" target="_blank">chain gang</a> became an almost uniquely American feature of "justice" after the Civil War. When it was finally clear that The South didn't have slaves any more to do all the shit work, they created a "new
slavery" in the form of shackled-together black men (mostly), convicted of "crimes" and forced to "pay their debt to society" by working on farms, roadways, public lands, etc. It had been phased out by 1955, but in 1995 it was revived.<br />
<br />
In 1999 filmmaker <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1951034/" target="_blank">Xackery Irving</a> made an award-winning documentary on the revival of the chain gang in America, both in Alabama and in Maricopa County, Arizona (home of the notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio) which features the first all-female chain gang.<br />
Trailer:<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9n6Ipl-A3pI?vq=hd1080&autoplay=0" width="420"></iframe></div>
<br />
This is a chilling look at the revival of the chain gang system of <i>punishment</i> and <i>retribution</i> -- there's no other way to describe it, since it certainly doesn't qualify as <i>rehabilitation</i> of any kind.<br />
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We get to know a few prisoners and guards during the course of the film. The guards seem to think that the prisoners under their supervision are being "rehabilitated", and even the prisoners agree in general, saying that they don't want to come back to prison when they get out, that they are "cured". But as we learn at the end of the film, a depressingly high number of the inmates, who were followed up by the filmmakers after filming stopped, were back in the system in one way or another. Or dead.<br />
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This is a depressing look at a slice of the prison system in this country, and it's not a pretty sight. There's no violence on screen, but it is talked about a lot, both by the inmates and the guards, and the guards seem perfectly willing to kill a prisoner who tries to walk away. It's not clearly stated, but a couple of the guards seem a little too eager to do it if they get the chance.<br />
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Not an uplifting film, but one that is definitely worth watching.<br />
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More reading:<br />
<ul>
<li> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0464786/" target="_blank"><i>American Chain Gang</i></a> on the IMDB.</li>
<li> <a href="http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/American-Chain-Gang/70041889" target="_blank"><i>American Chain Gang</i></a> available on Netflix</li>
<li> <a href="http://chaingangpictures.com/" target="_blank"><i>Chaingang Pictures</i></a>, the company that produced <i>American Chain Gang</i> </li>
<li> <a href="http://opovet.blogspot.com/2014/12/sam-cooke-died-50-years-ago-today.html" target="_blank">My 12-11-14 tribute to Sam Cooke</a> singing "Chain Gang" and featuring footage from this film.</li>
</ul>
<br />Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-6919401867504695352015-05-12T16:06:00.000-07:002015-05-12T16:06:23.636-07:00A Perfectly Good Threat, WastedNow that Liberia has its Worst Disease in the History of the World, i.e., ebola, under control, what will the fuckers at Faux News find to worry about? <br /><br />What, no <a href="http://www.newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p=28027" target="_blank">Obamapocalypse</a>?<br /><br />It wasn't that long ago when they were telling us to BE AFRAID BE VERY AFRAID of those smelly foreigners who were sneaking across our southern border, leaving a visible-from-space trail of ebola slime behind them like an invasive flood of foreign-language-speaking toxic slugs, when Bill Orally publicly and stridently called for the public execution of the head of the CDC, when they wanted to issue a travel ban to anyone who ever even <i>thought</i> about going to West Africa (which, it may come as a surprise to the talking <s>dicks</s> heads at Faux News, is <i>not</i> a country).<br /><br />As much as they tried to spruce up their Fear Menu<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">TM</span></sup> with delicious specials like parboiled ebola and ebola flambé, it just didn't pan out for them. It was a perfectly good fear and it all went for naught. <i>Wasted</i>.<br /><br />But I'm not worried about them running dry. There's always gonna be more, especially now that Obama has <a href="http://www.newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p=28181" target="_blank">nailed them in public</a>, <i>by name</i>, for their bullshit on "the poors", they'll be going after him with both guns blazing. Or, as we in the reality-based community call it, Wednesday...<br /><br />So what's next on The Fear Menu? Stay tuned...<br /><br />Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13888906.post-49449303837468644512015-05-12T00:39:00.000-07:002015-05-12T00:39:00.084-07:00Exploitation Movies: Maniac (1934)The 1930s produced a cornucopia of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grindhouse" target="_blank">grindhouse</a> exploitation films (aka "sexploitation" movies), usually disguised as "educational" movies that were ostensible cautionary tales about one social problem or another.<br />
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This week's feature is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maniac_%281934_film%29" target="_blank"><i>Maniac</i></a> from 1934:<br />
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Full movie:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/91ApHz2GYuY?vq=hd1080&autoplay=0" width="420"></iframe></div>
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This is another huge hot mess from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwain_Esper" target="_blank">Dwain Esper</a>, the "King of the Celluloid Gypsies".<br />
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While it's kind of hard to tell what's going on in any given scene, the whole thing is a forced march through the many manifestations of 1930s ideas of insanity, with explanatory titles popping up periodically to tell us about things like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dementia_praecox" target="_blank">Dementia Praecox</a>, Manic-Depressives, and Paranoia.<br />
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Briefly, it's about a mad doctor, his crazy assistant and a large variety of sex-infused craziness. We're thrown a lot of wacked out stuff in a short period of time, including the weird goon of a neighbor who raises cats and rats. He has a thousand of each -- cats for the fur, rats for the cats to eat, and the rats in turn eat the corpses of the cats after they've been skinned, a nifty self-contained backyard entrepreneur operation.<br />
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There's a <i>lot</i> of emphasis on cats in this movie, including cats fighting in a funeral home(?), a cat that gets his eye gouged out and eaten(!) by the crazy assistant -- who has killed the mad doctor and assumed his persona -- and two women in a hypodermic-syringe-weapon "cat fight" in the cellar. <br />
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Wikipedia says that the plot is loosely based on "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Cat_%28short_story%29" target="_blank">The Black Cat</a>" by Edgar Allen Poe. Okay.<br />
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Along the way there's a lot of scenery-chewing hyper-thespianism by pretty much everyone involved, especially the mad doctor in the opening scenes. It's been <a href="https://www.google.com/search?num=100&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=maniac+1934+%27worst+movie+ever+made%27" target="_blank">heralded by several sources</a> as the "worst movie ever made". I can believe it.<br />
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<img border="0" src="http://www.1000misspenthours.com/posters/postersh-m/maniac1934.jpg" height="300" width="336" /></div>
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The money shot: Several of them, all of them completely gratuitous, including the simulated rape of a nude zombie girl, several "examinations" of women in various stages of undress by the mad doctor/crazy assistant, and a "meanwhile back at the ranch" scene with the crazy assistant's ex-wife and her skeezy female roommates in which everyone prances around in their briefest skivvies. I told you it was a hot mess...
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Lessons learned: Beats me.
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Directed by: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0260871/" target="_blank">Dwain Esper</a>, whom we have seen before on this blog.
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Taglines: He menaced women with weird desires! A Subject Seldom Discussed, True and Authentic/Nothing Withheld, Strange Loves Exposed, What Are the Dangers of Desire? What Wrecks Romances? The Truth About Love Fearlessly Told
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Also known as <i>Sex Maniac</i>
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More reading:
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<ul>
<li> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025465/" target="_blank"><i>Maniac</i></a> on the IMDB. </li>
<li> <a href="https://youtu.be/2wMTPyTji60" target="_blank">Dwain Esper: King of the Celluloid Gypsies</a> -- short documentary about Esper on YouTube.</li>
<li> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmK4L62cWO4&list=PL9MhqkiR1ol2cA4G4tFql_jF-kXQTeAP2" target="_blank">A Collection of 22 Exploitation Movie Trailers</a> on YouTube.</li>
<li> <a href="http://opovet.blogspot.com/2015/05/book-of-month-bold-daring-shocking-true.html" target="_blank"><i>"Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!": A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959</i></a> by Eric Schaefer, the OPOVet Book of the Month for May 2015.</li>
</ul>
Farnsworth68http://www.blogger.com/profile/13278412000787656405noreply@blogger.com0