Kane, Chandler and me

I have learned that "Citizen Kane" is considered a great movie.  For others, maybe. Definitely not for me. I am not impressed by any part or function of it.  Similarly, with "The Big Sleep". I like to confer with my friend Google about issues. I looked up "Why is Citizen Kane a masterpiece?"  I looked up "Is The Big Sleep an important movie?"  

About Kane, I found:

Author and one-time film critic Jorge Luis Borges, who loved Citizen Kane, thought the Rosebud motif its single major weakness. The film, he wrote, "has at least two plots. The first [is] of an almost banal imbecility."  

https://slate.com/human-interest/2011/05/orson-welles-citizen-kane-what-makes-it-the-best-film-ever-made.html

About The Big Sleep, I found:

"It is typical of this most puzzling of films that no one agrees even on why it is so puzzling."

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-big-sleep-1946

I have trouble paying attention to either film.  My friend wrote his dissertation about both films and several others.  I can understand respect for film. In my opinion, the American film industry has helped the whole world and made the world's opinion rather pro-American.  

But it seems to me that actors in the black and white films of the 40's were required to learn to snarl every line.  At that time, it is clear that humans communicated in short bursts of speech while attempting to create dismissive tones hanging on the edge of contempt.

It is true that I am old, set in my ways and that I have seen it all.  Included in the all I have seen are two excellent movies. They are both comedies so if you are the mood to look down on the sort, you have already won.  The first is "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!". This movie is often referred to using just part of the title. Why is it #1? Because in this time of war, it managed to show the fear and worry that Russian sailors would feel if they were suddenly dumped into a New England village. It is witty and terrific psychology while staying on track and showing a likely story.

If that doesn't ring your bell, hunt down an uncensored version of "In the Spirit" starring Marlo Thomas and Elaine May, written by May's daughter, Jeannie Berlin.  Two women, can you guess which one is somewhat over the top and scattered, innocently run afoul of bad guys and try to flee and fight. Censors objected to the young woman porn actress saying "I never swallowed anything" and such horrfications.  

During social distancing time, you can read further here:

https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/search?q=Russians+are+coming

Chicken Little

Several of my friends know that I have a special affection for the movie "The Russians are coming!  The Russians are coming!".  It is a well-done adult version of the story of Chicken Little.  You may remember that Chicken Little was out walking when an acorn fell from a tree and struck him in the head.  He immediately concluded that the sky was falling and he felt it was his civic duty to inform the King.  One panic gave rise to others when in fact there was no emergency.  

"The Russians are coming!" is available on Amazon Prime movies.  Don't let it scare you.

Smiling and laughing onward

I love the movie "The Russians Are Coming!  The Russians Are Coming!"  It was written by Carl Reiner and he also appears in the film, which stars Alan Arkin.  A Russian sub is caught on a sandbar off the coast of New England, where it had no business being but was ordered by its curious captain too close to the American shore.  He wanted to catch a glimpse of the US.  He has no business there and he knows it and so does his crew.  They realize that the Americans will deal harshly with invading Russian military forces and want desperately to get the hell out.  But, the sub is stuck.  The captain sends his best and smartest men ashore to steal a powerful boat just long enough to free the sub.  This is all during the Cold War and Americans are frightened and on the alert.  So, everybody is aware of deadly danger, real or imagined or both. 

To my mind, the movie is beautifully put together and is a lovely exploration of daring, fright, faith, hope and charity.  I think of it often.  I think of a very minor character who hears the sheriff say that yes, there do seem to be Russians on the island.  That is more than enough for my man.  He immediately intuits that his life and that of all his fellow Americans is over.  He runs off, shouting, "It's all over!  We don't have a chance!  Not a chance!"  He has heard one sentence from the sheriff.  He has seen no Russians or damage or threats but the idea and his mind take over. 

I have a lot of respect for Marcus Borg, the Oregon professor of religion who writes about Christianity and its future.  In The Heart of Christianity, he says that there are certain components of living a satisfying life and one of them is faith.  Just faith, just the firm moving forward into the future while not knowing how things are going to work out.  How can we be optimistic?  We decide to be.  We can check every now and then, if we are moved to do that, and see if there is a compelling proof that it is all over and that we don't have a chance.  Lacking that proof, we can proceed about our business.  If we are presented with such a proof, we can look it over to see if it genuine, an actual proof.  If it turns out to be, we may still find a way to worm out of the deal, a way around the end, a way to go forward, smiling and laughing and full of joy.

Humor as great literature

It seems to me that if text, speech, photographs, movies or other art get most people aroused in a sexual way, they will refuse to consider the source to be great.  This sort of bias is sometimes said to have its source in the Puritans or the Victorians or some other group.  It seems much more basic than the ideas of any particular group.  I still think much restraint in this area has to do with the simple proximity of sex organs and elimination organs.

I guess I am more puzzled by what seems similar restraint in the area of humor.  If text, speech or other material makes people laugh, either gently or deeply, it seems as though they will again judge the material to be second rate at best.  Why?  Great art isn't supposed to make us laugh?  

A friend and I were comparing favorite movies.  I realized that probably all of the films I really like, the ones I have watched repeatedly are funny.  The two movies I have watched the most times are "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" and "In the Spirit", the former available in more places than the latter.

"Russians" is a wonderful exploration of the humor of terror.  The Russian sailors on a sub have gone aground on a sand bar off the coast of a New England island, despite their pleading with the captain who was too curious about America to pay attention to the sonar warnings and the crew's warnings.  This is during the Cold War, when the US considered the USSR its deadly enemy.  Being a Russian naval sailor could easily result in death immediately and the crew is quite aware of the danger.  Neither group, the island American residents nor the Russian crew has anything to fear from the other accept their terror, which might motivate somebody to shoot somebody.  The whole mess is a great demo of reactions to fear and rumor.  It is tender and funny and I have watched it through 14 times.  A great demo on humans when frightened.

"In the Spirit" is available from Amazon but I accidentally bought the censored version.  Normally, I like less rough or earthy humor.  My friend reminded me that words mean what I want them to mean and all but I still usually find more wit with less 'blue' language. (Seems an odd color for off-color words.)  But in this case, a group of older middle-aged people are dining together and trying to be friendly and open.  An older man asks a young attractive woman what her occupational background is.  "I used to be a porn star but I never swallowed anything", she matter of factly replies -- if you are watching the original.  Jeannie Berlin is the actress who plays that part.  She is the daughter of Elaine May and Berlin is the writer of the screenplay.  May and Marlo Thomas are the hilarious stars who are trying to escape bad guys who ought to have no reason to be after them.  The dialogue comes quite fast but is worth paying attention to.

"Ruthless People" with DeVito, Bette Midler is unforgetable but full of laughs.  "Johnny Dangerously" with Michael Keaton and some great others will never make a top 10 list unless it is mine.  My Cousin Vinny, Love Potion No.9, Three Fugitives, Short Time, Breaking Away, Cold Comfort Farm have all done as much for my spirit and my brain as Silas Marner or The Scarlet Letter.

--
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Forgetting

We didn't find anything we liked so Lynn suggested we try watching "Foyle's War" again.  Google says there are 28 episodes in all. I am confident we didn't watch one every single night.  We usually alternate with a variety of shows. I think we watched all of the "Bones" episodes since we watched Foyle.  There are 246 episodes of "Bones".

Lynn guessed that it has been long enough since we watched Foyle that we wouldn't remember the stories.  Boy, was she right! There are moments in one of the stories that I feel that I have seen the scene before, but they are few, and they haven't lead to my recalling the whole storyline or remembering who did the crime.  Very similar results are happening re-watching the "Doc Martin" series and the "Bones series and "Third Rock from the Sun". Maybe if I had made notes, concentrated and studied in ways as I have for school, I might remember more of the stories.

This leads a person like me, someone who has spent many hours in schools of one sort or another, in one role or another, wondering about school, studying and memory. In my course where the adult students and I tried to recall all the books we had ever read, there wasn't much talk about reading over again books that we enjoyed or were inspired by.  

I was often asked in that course what books had strongly affected me. I usually answered "Mere Christianity" by C.S.Lewis and "The House of Intellect" and "Teacher in America" by Jacques Barzun.  Since reading those books, I have re-read Mere Christianity and House of Intellect but that re-reading was years ago. They are very different books by very different men but I wonder what is in my mind from reading those books.  

I have seen "The Russians Are Coming!  The Russians Are Coming!" And "In the Spirit" many times, probably more than 8 for each of the movies.  I know by heart many of lines and the twists and turns of the story.

When I write a blog, I make five prompts before choosing a topic.  Once I settle on a topic, I write about it. Sometimes, I think of what seems a very promising topic but fail to write it down soon enough.  It can disappear into the atmosphere. It takes me about 45 minutes to write a blog. Then, I read it aloud to Lynn, listening for corrections that are needed.  Once it is in ok shape, I copy it into email for sending in the morning. By bedtime, I often am unable to recall the topic or what I wrote. I have written 3320 posts so I am not surprised that I can't remember them all, but from afternoon to bedtime??

humor is no laughing matter

Humor takes many forms and I am interested in them all.  I have heard that one theory is that we laugh when we get a mental surprise, when two roads in our head suddenly meet unexpectedly.  My great grandson told me a joke yesterday.  "Where are the Great Plains?"  "At the great airports!"  Huh?  Oh, I see.  He changed from 'plains' to 'planes' without telling me.  Ha!

I bet there are many books and papers about what is funny and why but I haven't read them.  I see that many things that make me laugh are indeed a similar surprise, a switch from one word or meaning to another.  But only if they are fairly benign.  I get to be the immediate judge of whether they are fairly kindly or not.  In a Cheers re-run, Sam said of a tough guy that "He isn't the sort of guy who drinks tea with his pinky up in the air."  Immediately, Coach said, "Sam!  Please!  There are ladies present!" I find that very funny.  It happened more than a day and a half ago and I am still chuckling.  

But pictures of human pain or failings often leave me horrified, or at least, unsmiling and unmoved.  Some homemade videos on tv specialize in people falling off bicycles, crashing into the family dog or a fence.  There is even a laugh track supplied to encourage me to join in with a laugh.  I find that predictable, trite and painful.  Not funny at all.

For me, much of the best humor is conceptual, not semantic.  I love the movie "The Russians Are Coming!  The Russians Are Coming!"  It explores the adventures of a Russian submarine that gets stuck on a sandbar off the coast of New England, too close to the US and its dangerous military forces for comfort.  What is it doing there?  Trying to get the sub close enough to the shore so the captain can see America.  Why? Because he's never seen it!

I think humans are full of poignant, unpredictable curiosities and ideas that create all sorts of amazing coincidences, pairings and situations that memorably funny.  A single married couple going about their day, such as us, find many ideas and activities in the news, the neighborhood and ourselves ironic and laughable.  Humor can brighten our minds, our lives and our marriages and that is too important to snicker about!

Frightening futures

Well, what else are we going to worry about?  We have the present more or less under control and we have passed the past.  So, that only leaves the future.  

According to George Johnson in his book on the woman astronomer Henrietta Leavitt,  it has not been 100 years yet that scientists and others have realized that what looks like stars in the heavens are actually stars all right but are whole galazies of them.  Less than a century ago, even professional astronomers thought that what we now call the Milky Way was the entirety of the astronomical bodies.  There is a great deal that we still don't know today and we can see that there may always be important questions that we cannot answer, both about the world and about ourselves.  

One of my favorite characters in "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" is a minor one.  The Russian sub is stuck on a New England costal sandbar and the captain has sent his best crew sneaking ashore to try to somehow get a strong enough motorboat to tug it lose.  The men on that mission are intelligent and very, very scared.  They would just like to go home but they try to take steps to avoid being spotted, identified and reported to the military authorities who will not be gentle with armed foreign forces ashore in New England.  The entire American population is afraid of Russia and Russians and sees them in the least shadow.  Calls to the local sheriff about suspicious groups of men sneaking about here and there have included gut guesses by the callers that the groups might be Russians.

On Sunday morning, the sheriff asks the townsmen to gather in the local bar and explains that he wants some armed crews to investigate various parts of the island reporting odd activity by unidentified people not recognized by the locals.  My guy bolts out of the gathering shivering and babbling," It's all over!  It's all over!  We don't stand a chance!  Not a chance!"  Zero people have actually been clearly seen or talked to.  Nothing is really known about the reported events.  Yet, deep fear, probably from having a poor childhood or something, has arisen and totally spooked this man.  

Charlotte Beck reports a Zen story of a man being chased by a tiger.  As he runs, he happens to spot a perfectly ripe, red strawberry and snatches it as he flees the beast.  As he pops it in his mouth, he exclaims," Delicious!"  Now that is realizing a good thing while you have it! 

Watching

I have heard that "The Big Sleep" and "Casablanca" are considered great movies.  I consider "The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!" and "In the Spirit" greater.  I realize that my particular tastes influence my ideas.  I rewatched both movies in recent nights.  Amazon movies can be rented or "bought".  If they are "purchased", they are in a special higher pay category that allows me to choose to view them without further charge.  I hadn't tried viewing for some years and I wondered if the deal and the category still held the way it had.  

I viewed Russians, which I have done more than a dozen times, again and realized it is, indeed, a superb depiction of a group fear based on a misunderstanding and a fundamental desire to "fight".  While finding how to access the movie, I found that I had quite a few that I didn't realize I did.  "Ruthless People" with Bette Midler and Danny Devito was remembered positively and I watched it again.  Excellent plot and excellent acting, full of good surprises.  The name of the screen writer I remembered came up and with it, a scene in which a passel of young women are chasing one frightened man down the street in the hopes of being close and more.  Didn't Dale Launer write the movie with that scene?  Yes!  "Love Potion #9"!  Be very careful in using the potion.  It can be surprisingly unpleasant.

Look on the bright side of life!

https://religionnews.com/2021/11/15/think-were-living-through-the-apocalypse-so-did-first-century-christians

Every now and then, I find myself thinking about a theme and then seeing that theme pop up in the articles that the GetPocket service in the Firefox browser suggests might be of interest.  In 1972, the book The Limits to Growth was published.  I read through it and found the Club of Rome and some MIT scientists and thinkers, using ideas and computer models, predicted trouble about the year 2025.  The basic trouble was threats to human life and comfort and survival.  The words "climate change" were not much in vogue at that time but my friend and I wondered about what the book predicted.  He is a historian of science and asked what the history of the future looked like.  History of the future?  He meant the scorecard of predictions.  In the long run, have predictions of the future been what happened?

That conversation led to our creating a course called "Futures".  It was an attempt to have interested students think about the future: theirs, everybody's, whatever angle interested them. What I have been thinking about writing is that the experience of teaching showed me how wrong predictions have been.  

The link at the top goes to an article in Religious News Services written by Monsignor Thomas Reese.  He basically says what I would say: Don't count us out yet.  Msgr. Reese makes a lovely title that encapsulates the main idea:

Think you are in the End Times? - So did 1st Century Christians

He quotes Jesus in Matthew 24:36 that nobody knows the hour or day of the end.

Humans are sensitive to possible danger and quick to deduce from the news or the temperature outside that "This is It!"  This relates to my favorite movie, The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!.  I recommend the story and the movie.  It's bad judgment, curiosity and pride but yet, a Russian spy sub is hung up on a sandbar off Maine.  The captain orders a few of his men to go ashore, "borrow" a powerful boat and let him use it to free the sub.  The sailors are very, very scared.  They know they are in danger.  

Just as it is hard to be aging and approaching death and still not knowing when the time of life will be over, it is hard to face dangers and difficulties and still appreciate the good things all around.  But try and keep on trying!

Good movies at home

Our first television had a 10 inch screen.  That is measured diagonally so neither the height nor the width was that big.  One of these days, we are going to buy some new tv that has wiring or something that allows us to see the internet on the tv.  We don't want it too big and we don't want people distorted into being wider than they really are.  I am interested in this because I thought that transmission of movies via the internet would be quicker and cheaper than getting DVD's in the mail.  I imagine Netflix notes that comparison, too, since they have recently started offering a membership that is half the price we pay for up to two discs borrowed at a time.  

Recently, I wanted to show my friends one of my two favorite movies.  "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" is one and that is widely available in multiple formats.  But the other one, "In the Spirit" is much less widely known.  I couldn't even find it in the Netflix collection.  I did find it in the Amazon.com movie collection.  I downloaded the movie and have it on this computer.  

So, I can watch it (for maybe the 12th time) on this monitor if I want.  This monitor is considerably larger than that first tv and has a good picture.  Lynn's is even bigger but a good tv might be even nicer, especially placed in the living room instead of the office.  We recently watched "Arranged" on a Netflix DVD.  It is about two young Brooklyn teachers, one a devout Muslim and the other an Orhodox Jew, both of whom are about to have their marriages arranged for them by their parents, just as their parents did when they were young.  

I have seen figures and comments that arranged marriages still take place for a very large part of the current human population and that such marriages have a lower divorce rate than Western ones created by those getting married.

I just began watching Arranged on this monitor.  It was easy and quick.  I think I will reserve the Google browser Chrome for movie watching and leave my no-trace-left-behind settings on Firefox for everyday browsing.

We also watched and enjoyed "Departures" on a Netflix DVD.  It is the story of a young Japanese cellist whose orchestra is dissolved for financial reasons.  Out of work, he takes a job with a special sort of Japanese carer of the dead.  It is moving, inspiring and respectful of death.  A good movie.

In case you are not one of the 24 million people who have already seen this YouTube video, here is a 5 minute movie you can watch now for free of an exciting moment in the food court of a mall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE

Tools for laughing and good feelings

We went to a Roads Scholar (a.k.a. elderhostel) program on humor.  We met with two elderly sisters, Carolyn Gray Thornton and Ellen Gray Massey, who specialize in humor, the Ozark traditions, games both adults and children used to play and can still play now.  We worked with Sylvia Duncan, a librarian and writer who mentioned funny writers from Mark Twain to Garrison Keillor.  We listened to Rick Key, musician and instrument maker, sing and discuss music.

The Gray sisters' books of memories, former times and Ozark humor and culture are available from them and in a few cases, Amazon.com.

Duncan ran through many writers, emphasizing Twain, Keillor, Bill Bryson and others.  She loves Erma Bombeck and mentioned her books and columns.  Bombeck is one of the few humorists who made the best-seller lists in many different years. One of the things I admired about Duncan's approach was the mixture of books, movies and tv shows that are quite good humor.  She reminded us of the humor of M.A.S.H.  I mentioned "Dharma and Greg" and "Cheers"

Many of the movies I most like are funny.  I admire the wit and the writing of "The Russians Are Coming!  The Russians Are Coming!", "Cold Comfort Farm", "In the Spirit", "Ruthless People", "Johnny Dangerously", "My Cousin Vinny", "Love Potion No.9" and "In and Out".    Several of those are written by Dale Launer.

Duncan did something I admire. She recommends checking who wrote the scripts of movies and tv shows you like.  Look up info on them and seek out their works.  

When I think of books that make me laugh, I think of Big Trouble by Dave Barry.  If you haven't read it, give it a try.

Rick Key gave us a feeling for the work involved in making a violin or guitar.  He sang "Angels Flying Too Close to the Ground" and "Out Behind the Barn".  He held a karaoke session and many of us sang.  Lynn sang "Jambalaya." 

Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

moving movies

My friend mentioned that he really like "The Mission".  I did, too, and I found it to be memorable in an etched-in-the-mind sort of way.

His comment made me think about movies.  Since I was a kid, I have been moved, enchanted, scared and emboldened by movies.  What a great art form!  Lots better than murals.  The two movies I have seen the most times are "In the Spirit" starring Marlo Thomas and Elaine May and "The Russians Are Coming!  The Russians Are Coming!".  "Spirit" is about a flaky babe and a sensible woman thrown together against bad guys.  Clever from top to bottom.   The movie was written by Elaine May's daughter and she sure knows how to make you laugh.

"Russians" is about a Russian sub required by its captain to get closer and closer to the North American shore.  The captain wants to see America.  He's never seen it.  The sub get hung on a sandbar and the crew needs help to get it loose.  This is during the Cold War when being a uninvited member of the Russian military on American soil is numbingly dangerous.  It may not sound like it but this is a comedy, written by Carl Reiner, the father of Rob Reiner, Archie Bunker's "Meathead".  The script is unmatched in evoking sympathy for all the uptight and fearful people on both sides.

Here is a link to a list of movies we have liked over the years.  Besides the ones I just mentioned, I would say that "Ruthless People", "Cold Comfort Farm"and "My Cousin Vinny" are among the best I've seen.  Marisa Tomei won an Oscar for her role in Vinny.  Most people haven't heard of "Cold Comfort Farm" but they should have.  Both Ruthless and Vinny were written by Dale Launer.  I am not a great film buff but some movies move me, for sure.

What has stayed with you over the years?

A way to be a pain

I love the movies "The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming" and "In the Spirit".  They are both witty and captivating.

How can we be afraid of the Americans?  By being members of a foreign naval force that has no business being in the US, but is.  We are members of a crew in a Russian submarine.  The captain has never seen America and he orders his crew to keep approaching the US so he can actually lay eyes on a bit of it.  Uh-ho!  The vessel gets stuck on a sandbar and they can't get it off.  The captain selects a few men to sneak ashore and "borrow" a motor boat of some kind that is strong enough to pull the sub free.  Things unravel more as time goes on.  

In the Spirit uses a script written by Elaine May's daughter, Jeannie Berlin.  Two rather different women start getting unwanted attention from unknown sources that is frightening and mysterious.  When you put two actresses like Marlo Thomas and Elaine May together with the witty and tricky Berlin, throw in some Peter Falk and zip out very funny lines at top speed, you get a wildly under-rated movie.  Warning: this movie includes bad words and concepts that are just as bad, such as why a porn star explains proudly at the dinner table with older staid diners that she "never swallowed anything." You can find a cleaned-up version of In the Spirit on Amazon but the cleaning removed much of the zip. The original version is free on YouTube.

I like every moment and every line of both of these movies.  My dream is to show them to some innocent group but stop the show after each line and explain why I love that last remark, what it makes me think of and ask for comments from others.  I imagine if we start at 9 AM, those of us still there by 5 PM will have gotten to the end of one movie.  This way of going through a movie I love would be slow and suffer many interruptions but we would cover all the laughs.

--

Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Twitter: @olderkirby

Movies that have enriched our lives

It is always difficult to pick favorites: books, movies, foods, etc. The choice depends on your age, your memory, what has happened recently, etc. Still, we have a list and these are among our top rated ones.

Yes, they are comedies. There are a few thrillers and tragedies that seem to enrich us. According to Walter Kerr, the famous drama critic, Greek theater invented tragedy way before comedy. But I think that is because good comedy is a higher form.

3 Fugitives - Steve Martin, Martin Short	Funny
4 Weddings and a Funeral - Hugh Grant, Angie McDowell	Tender and satisfying
All that Jazz - Roy Schneider
Breaking Away - famous bicycling film	Tender and satisfying
Cold Comfort Farm - excellent and funny	Tender and satisfying
Enchanted April - poignant and beautiful (Lynn favorite)	Tender and satisfying
Hero - Dustin Hoffman, unusual	Tender and satisfying
In and Out - Kevin Kline, Joan Cusack	Funny
In the Spirit - Marlo Thomas, Elaine May (Bill favorite)	Funny
Moonstruck - Nicholas Cage, Cher	Tender and satisfying
My Cousin Vinny - Joe Pesci, Merisa Tomei	Funny
Ruthless People - Bette Midler, Danny DeVito (Bill favorite)	Funny
Strangers in Good Company - Canadian women (Lynn favorite)
The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming (Bill favorite)	Funny
True Lies - Arnold, Jamie Lee Curtis	Good, funny, violent

Let's do it again

A friend and I exchanged a few comments on the subject of re-reading.  For some people, it is a nothing subject but for some others, it can be interesting.  I like to include the re-watching of movies and tv shows.  C.S. Lewis mentions a reader standing in a library pondering a book, trying to remember it is one he has read.  Does he know the story?  Will he approach the climax of the book and suddenly remember who done it?  Lewis was a professor of literature and likes to take the position that high quality will entice a reader to re-read, even multiple times.  

I haven't re-read very many books.  Often, I have other unread ones that I want to get to.  I have re-watched the movies "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" and "In the Spirit" many times.  I think the structure of the story of Russians and the quality of expression in Spirit are wonderful.  

C.S. Lewis wrote "An Experiment in Criticism", available free in PDF format and several other formats here:

https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20140725

Poetry does not seem to have the central place in today's lives it had in earlier times. Today, I remembered a poem by Edgar A. Guest called "I didn't think and I forgot", a poem my stepfather required that I memorize and recite whenever I used either phrase in explaining my behavior.  If you mention the name of Edgar Guest to a younger teacher of English and poetry, that person may never have heard of the man.  I admit that Ogden Nash is my sort of poet and one whose work tickles me.  I have never read Ulysses and very little Shakespeare.  

Lately, I have read the poem that begins the daily Writer's Almanac and been impressed by some.

One advantage of having seen many movies and tv shows and read many books is that I have forgotten them over the years.  We watched the entire series of the tv show Foyle's War and then, a few years later, watched them all again.  We found that we rarely remembered the episodes in detail and that re-watching was quite like never having seen them before.  

Sometimes, re-reading and re-watching is re-experiencing anew.  I have listened to the 4th movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony probably 20 times while driving and the effect and appreciation and enjoyment seems to increase.  One of these days, I may try that with Thoreau's Walden or T.H.White's The Once and Future King.

Two favorite movies

I usually name "The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!" and "In the Spirit" as my favorite movies.  The first is more available and known than the second.

Both are available to me without additional charge.  I watched The Russians for probably the 14th time the other day and I saw that my judgment is right on.  For passion, perception of danger and high excitement while completely misunderstanding the situation, it is a terrific movie.  By some current standards, it is a loser: no blood, no enemies jumping out of the shadows, nothing supernatural.  It is available on Amazon if you want to see it.

Pure fear

 

http://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/

 

This blog holds all the messages I have been sending to family and friends lately.  It is named "fear" first because I think that fears arise fundamentally from our wiring.  My friend Larry said long ago that fear is faster than thought.  He cited walking along a leaf-strewn path, stepping on a branch without realizing it.  The other end of the branch jiggles a few feet away and our nervous system responds with instant fear and bodily alert faster than we realize that we ourselves are the cause of the sound and that there is no danger.

 

It sometimes happens that lying still in a quiet bedroom, I hear an ominous sound.  What was that?  My stomach and intestines gurgle and make a growling sound but it takes a second for me to realize "C'est moi!"

 

A toddler walks along a pier and can see the waves well below through a crack between the planks.  He is reluctant to put his foot on the crack, even his foot is way too big to fit into the tiny space.

 

In The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, a Russian patrol sub edges too close to the shore of a New England island, on the captain's orders.  He personally wants to see America because he has never seen it.  The crew tries to dissuade him but obeys, even as the sonar is warning of rocks and reefs.  Too late, the sub catches on a submerged reef and cannot be freed.  A crew is dispatched into the dangerous land of the US (at a time when the US and the USSR were indeed dangerous enemies) to find a strong enough motor launch to pull the sub free.  Rumors of odd things happening fly around the island as incidents and sightings occur.  It is Sunday morning and the men of the island are easily alerted and asked to gather for defense.  So far, nobody has actually seen anything but one man is overtaken by fright and moans, "We don't stand a chance.  We don't stand a chance."  We know that this man has no evidence but is merely in the grip of pure fear.  We also know that there is very little danger to anyone except for the possible outbreak of fear and panic-driven action.

 

Happy Easter to all and to all the hope that we can accept that some fears emerge from inside and some from outside but that we can face them all.

 

Bill

 

Watching

We watch four streaming services: Netflix, Amazon, PBS and Acorn.  Lynn has a tendency to go for nature shows.   I can often enjoy what she picks but I am highly partial to "Call the Midwife".  That show was once only available on PBS but now it is on Netflix.  It seems authentic and it certainly makes clear that women in the right time of life can and do grow new humans.

My professor friends have made clear that plays were a means of public education in the ancient world and I have learned a little of the influence of films on the people of the world, not just in the US.  Since I have seen many movies and read many books, I am a bit jaded by "mysteries" and too much gore, danger, cruelty is not what I want to watch these days.  The show I keep mentioning, "Call the Midwife" is filled with drama, excitement, pathos and genuine cheer.

On some of my web pages, I state the names of two movies I have watched and enjoyed many times: "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians are Coming!" and "In the Spirit".  Two for Lynn are "Strangers in Good Company" and "Enchanted April".  Both Netflix and Amazon are good sources for an older movie that isn't being advertised but pays off.  So is the app called "Just Watch".

Individual profiles

What have you read? Who do you have as friends? What apps do you have on your phone?  Do you think anyone else has exactly the same selection of books read, friends and apps?

If the library and the bookstore give me a list of what I have borrowed and purchased, will it be the same list as they would give you?  My experience is that we would have different lists. Books maybe would be the same or quite similar, especially if we limit the length of the list to the last month or maybe the last year.  

As teachers know well, if we focus on five books that do appear on both lists, we can then go a little deeper and ask,"What did each of us get from those five books?"  The first approach might be to ask each of us to answer some questions about the contents of each book. Of course, I read "The Once and Future King" 40 years ago and you read it last week.  That wouldn't be a very good way to compare our take-aways. Is there a book that we both read (for the first time) in the last six months? Maybe the individual pictures of that book in each of our minds would be more comparable if we stick to recent books.  

Don't pick "All the Pretty Horses", ok?  I just finished it but I purposely read quickly and superficially.  Even if you read that book that way, too, we probably have different ways of getting through a book quickly.

We could try the open response approach and just ask each of us to "tell us about the book, your reaction to it and your estimate of what effect it has had on you."  If we do it in the same room, I may let you go first and then simply agree with the opinions and memories you express.

What if we switch to movies?  We need to find a movie we both feel that we have seen.  We can each name some favorite movies. Same questions pop up.  Any items common to both of us? The movie you name is one that I suspect I saw but I am not sure.  I may not be able to keep my memories of that movie separate from others. Is that the one where the girl steals his horse and sells it?

Maybe it is just best to simply tell each other what we like.  We will enjoy the explorations of similarities and also differences where they occur.  I am amazed that you aren't completely taken with "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!"  

It's all over! It's all over!

The title of this post is a quote from the movie The Russians Are Coming!  The Russians Are Coming!.  You may remember that the 1966 comedy starts when a Russian sub gets caught on a sandbar off the New England coast.  The captain had always wanted to get a glimpse of the USA and unwisely ordered the crew to steer too close to land.  The skipper knows he is in trouble and orders a party of men to see if they can find and "borrow" a motorboat powerful enough to pull the sub free.  

The US and Russia consider themselves enemies or at least, competitors.  The shore party is partially sighted here and there and instant rumors and surmises and inferences shoot around the island.  A civilian finds they have opened up the bar and enters.  A few minutes later, having heard scuttlebutt, he comes out in a panic, explaining that "it is all over".  

This is a case of need for philosophical and psychological questioning.  What is "it" that is all over?  Life?  The US?  I am interested in intuitions and predictions of end times, of me, of my country, of my planet.  I see many places where the US flag is flying upside down.   The inverted flag has been used as a symbol of distress but it may help us all not to jump to feelings of distress on a hunch or a rumor.