Life's Trials Are Only Temporal, Grasshopper

"If you cannot be a poet, be the poem."

Thanks to my son Micah, I've gotten hooked on the old Kung Fu telly series. When it first aired I was a widowed, 21 year-old single mom who worked a factory job. I enjoyed the lessons the show espoused and the tranquility it lent my hectic week, and since I wasn't being asked out on dates, well, I spent an hour every Friday night with Kwai Chang Caine...

Just a Few Close Friends

Last night, after the cake was eaten, after the coffee and wine were gone, and after everyone had either gone home or gone to bed, Micah and I sat in the dark living room and watched my Concert For George DVD...

Brain is Fryed

I've been watching an awful lot of Stephen Fry lately. This is what I do when I don't feel well. I watch TV shows on Netflix. Not the usual kind of shows, though. I prefer what Netflix calls, "Understated" TV series" that are more often than not British. And if it's a really good one, I'll watch every episode of every series in two or three sittings...

And Now For Something Completely Different

Hooray For...

I have a huge confession to make. It's something that I've tried to hide, but I can no longer keep silent. I'm sure that when you read it you'll all leave me en masse and never come back here again. I will have crossed that line with you at last.

Here goes.

I love Bollywood.

I remember when this unnatural love began. It was back in the 90s. I watched a film called Fire, and I was immediately hooked. I saw a couple more after that, but the final nail wasn't hammered in until our friends George and Noelle (collectively known as Norge) brought over Monsoon Wedding one evening, a truly good movie. I was a goner.

I've watched many Bollywood and Indian films since then, including the epic Jodhaa Akbar, a sumptuous three and-a-half reading workout (all subtitles) and test of your ability to get over your western rush-to-the-bedroom-scene sensibilities. Hell, I've watched Johdaa Akbar twice in the past two weeks. That's seven hours of Hindi and Arabic. Why did I do it?

Indian films are interesting to me because they have a different timing, a different focus, a different humor. Most are pretty light fare, but there are those really good ones (like the above mentioned Fire and Monsoon Wedding) that let us in on a culture that most of us have never encountered, and that's fun for me. I love the clothing, the beautiful women and princely men...and the music! The song and dance numbers are lavish, very much in the style of the golden years of the Hollywood musicals, only, well, Indian. Exotic. Too, there's something sweetly old-fashioned and naive about Bollywood films, even when they try to be hip and equal to our films.

Personally, I hope they never get there.

My Kind of Film: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

"Maestro Terry Gilliam has made a sublime film. Wonderfully enchanting and beautiful, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a uniquely ingenious, captivating creation; by turns wild, thrilling and hilarious in all its crazed, dilapidated majesty. Pure Gilliam magic!

"It was an honor to represent Heath. He was the only player out there breathing heavy down the back of every established actor's neck with a thundering and ungovernable talent that came up on you quick, hissing rather mischievously with that cheeky grin, "hey... get on out of my way, boys, I'm coming through..." and does he ever!!!

"Heath Ledger is a marvel, Christopher Plummer beyond anything he's ever done, Tom Waits as the Devil is a God, Lily Cole and Andrew Garfield, the very foundation, are spectacular, Verne Troyer simply kicks ass and as for my other cohorts, Colin Farrell and Jude Law, they most certainly did Master Ledger very proud, I salute them. Though the circumstances of my involvement are extremely heart-rending and unbelievably sad, I feel privileged to have been asked aboard to stand in on behalf of dear Heath." - Johnny Depp

No one could have said it any better. I just watched this film on Netflix InstantPlay and I loved it. Because we don't have cable and don't watch telly I hadn't heard of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. If you haven't seen it, do.

Why We Canceled the Cable & Turned Off the TV

By Tom Tomorrow

Just When You Thought You'd Seen it All

Apparently, British TV in the Fifties wasn't much better than ours here in the States. Many thanks to Liz Ringrose for the link to this.

And I'm not apologizing for my silliness the last two days.

Because I Need to Laugh

Things have been kind of heavy for me lately, and I just needed to laugh. When I thought about who makes me laugh harder than anyone, there was only one person who came to mind: the gifted Wayne Brady.

Here are some of the funniest songs from Whose Line Is It Anyway (the US version). For the two or three of you who have never seen the show, these songs are totally improvised on the spot (that's redundant, isn't it), and Wayne is the very best at the art. Besides, he's so damned cute I just want to hug him. Wish he'd marry one of our daughters. I'd love to have him as a son-in-law and give us lots of little Waynes to huggle, the rascal!

My Dinner With Jimi

No, this isn't another of my stories about meeting someone famous. Sorry. And it's not really a film review either. It's about something that happened to me last night while I watched My Dinner With Jimi, a film that was written by Howard Kaylan, who was the lead singer with the Turtles and went on to join Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.

Maybe this film means so much to me because I too had a chance encounter with Jimi Hendrix. Maybe it's because I too was a performing musician in the L.A. area and grew up in southern California. Maybe it's because, although I never met Kaylan, we skirted around the same circle of people in Laurel Canyon. Maybe it's because I too felt just on the outside of things while meeting all the people who would later become part of the future Rock pantheon. Maybe it's because I'm currently spending all of my time in London of the late Sixties while writing my Rock trilogy. Maybe it's just because this is one damned good movie...

It's a Two Organ Wednesday

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The Many Faces of Dylan

The other day when depression felt like a big hairy hand clutching my throat, I got away from myself by watching I'm Not There on YouTube. The film's premise had intrigued me since I first saw the picture of Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan, but I hadn't seen it in the cinema because, 1) I can't afford to go to the movies, 2) I'm not a go-to-the-movies type, and 3) films of that sort never come to Dogspot.

I admit it. I love films like this. Films that don't give you everything with the expectation that you actually know how to, and love to, think. I was amused by some of the comments left by other viewers (YouTube comments are so damned angsty, vicious, and grasping), especially those like, "This is where I stopped watching. I don't get it." Of course you don't get it. You have to think. Instead of turning it off to go watch Jackass, sit through it and let your brain cells knock together a little. It reminded me of when, back in the Sixties, the bubble gumming  teenyboppers whined, "I don't get Dylan. He can't even sing. Put on the Monkees!"...

Crack Up-a-Doodle-Do!

I don't remember how it started, or what I was looking for, but around 2:00 this morning, after writing a little on my book, I came across a video on YouTube of the Steve Allen Show. It was taped, I'd guess, around 1968. The video was of Foster Brooks. What was funny was that the panel of guests didn't know who he was or that his drunk schtick was just that. I was laughing so hard, I was afraid I was going to wake Nettl. You can see it here. Pay special attention to the expression on the face of the woman next to him. Priceless...

Beavis and Butt-Head all Grown Up

I discovered this afternoon that this year Beavis and Butt-Head are 30 years old. I don't mean the TV show, I mean the boys themselves. I had one of the DVDs in this afternoon and in one of the episodes they had to show their birth certificates in order to take Driver Ed. Although Butt-Head's clearly read "1978" the online powers that be say that he was born on July 29, 1979. Beavis was born on October 28 of the same year. Oh man, a Leo and a Scorpio, just like my two guys, Joel and Micah.

I always knew it.

We Are Geeks

We spent Nettl's birthday with our family, and with music. Lauren drove up from OU to spend the weekend, and it's great having her home. She gave Nettl a DVD of Covent Garden's 2003 production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), and we watched it almost immediately...

"They Pay Me to Do This? Arf!"

The first half of this commercial busts me up. I mean, what's funnier that a dog getting paid to do the butt scuttle?

"Hey Mom, check out Toby's new trick!"

Time Travel

Today (yesterday to you), without planning it, Nettl and I watched movies set in the 18th century. These included Barry Lyndon, Valmont, Affair Of The Necklace, and Amadeus.

As Mozart historians (which necessarily includes being knowledgeable about the 18th century), we see a lot of flaws in every movie whose story takes place 200 or so years ago. Face it, watching any of these movies with us would be no fun for anyone who doesn't share our love for historic authenticity...

"The Old Curiosity Shop" was on PBS Tonight

This is Charles Dickens...

This is a fist in the face...

Any Questions?

It's Sunday, Might as Well

One of my favorite books is Mitch Albom's Tuesdays With Morrie, and I enjoyed the film starring Jack Lemon as much as I'd enjoyed reading the book. Yesterday, I turned across a movie that was just beginning. I didn't know the name of it for about an hour, but it got me hooked immediately. It turned out to be The Five People You Meet In Heaven, starring Jon Voight. It wasn't until after it was over, and I looked it up on the web, that I discovered the film was made from the book of the same title by none other that Mitch Albom. No wonder I liked it...

A Movie Meme

My friend Deni, at Flapdoodle, put this movie meme on her blog last night and I thought it was fun...