tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75397009166762469982024-03-16T16:46:30.409-07:00Streams of UnconsciousnessRichard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.comBlogger1556125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-74515522684111236952024-03-16T16:20:00.000-07:002024-03-16T16:20:26.601-07:00The Awkward Beauty of Taxi Driver<p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOqwl0-ryumPHZOJgMgTBiUjODPHjNQJI53vLWjmu6ldD0Uk_g6j7iFfwckCmijD6m_BUjDgDW1aATUFzkB1f4Ai_miKbMJG8HZJheSeSW_ZbAhe1IKZYF0x0bbAjNWzhyphenhyphen64i6a4kJSqTTr1_je3TbSdB02MyMum6Nb3aQub2UgzyTLqqqHT1h6uTPgzk/s3360/in-taxi-driver-1976-travis-bickle-is-not-a-native-new-v0-iswvywibhh2b1.png.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2100" data-original-width="3360" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOqwl0-ryumPHZOJgMgTBiUjODPHjNQJI53vLWjmu6ldD0Uk_g6j7iFfwckCmijD6m_BUjDgDW1aATUFzkB1f4Ai_miKbMJG8HZJheSeSW_ZbAhe1IKZYF0x0bbAjNWzhyphenhyphen64i6a4kJSqTTr1_je3TbSdB02MyMum6Nb3aQub2UgzyTLqqqHT1h6uTPgzk/s320/in-taxi-driver-1976-travis-bickle-is-not-a-native-new-v0-iswvywibhh2b1.png.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br />I watched Taxi Driver again on Saturday. I’ve now seen it at least a dozen times, probably closer to sixteen.<span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"> </span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">It’s an awkward watch. Uncomfortable. Squirming, almost looking away. Difficult. But compelling. You can’t look away at the same time you want to.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Just watch Travis Bickle (Robert Deniro) take Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) on a date to a porn theater. Oh dear. For that matter any scene between the two of them is a tough go. Even when — maybe especially — when she’s not seen because it’s a phone conversation. We watch Travis at a payphone in a lobby apologizing for their awful date, asking — begging — for a second date. Thankfully Scorsese spares us after awhile by eventually directing the camera down an empty hallway. We still have to listen but we’re at least spared watching the unctuous, fawning excessively strange cab driver pleading his case.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">These are the worst of it but Bickle’s “social” interactions with everyone else are a hard watch. The man’s not right (rather the whole point of the film). We ask what’ll he say, what’ll he do next. Even after a dozen viewings that question persists as if somehow this time it could be different. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Who is this Bickle character? Start with Cary Grant in, let’s say, The Philadelphia Story as C.K. Dexter Haven (although you could use a score of other Grant characters). Then travel to the opposite end of the universe. Reverse up and down. Bickle is the antithesis of a glib, charming raconteur. He is every stilted moment we’ve ever had — doubled. He is that acquaintance we’e embarrassed for while we watch him ask that out-of-his-league woman for a date. Bickle is every awkward silence we’ve ever been in, ever social malaprop we’ve committed, every wrong thing we’ve said at the wrong time. He’s when we forget to zip up after taking a quick leak. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But he’s so much more. He’s a lethal killer. A killing machine.</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A dangerous menace to society. A blight upon society. Travis Bickle has no place in society polite or otherwise. A ticking time bomb. Sure it all works out for him in the end but he’s back out there and the world may not be so lucky next time. He may not be spotted seconds before shooting a candidate. It might not be gangsters and pimps he slaughters given a second chance. We don’t think he’s “reformed” do we? I think not.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Oh yes, this Bickle fellow is a product of society. We made him. A lot of those who walk among us are lumps of clay ultimately formed by the voices, and the actions and the people around them. Look at Trump supporters. They spent years as empty vessels ready for just the right (wrong) moment and leader to fashion them into MAGA zealots. Bickle, the lonely figure had no core of beliefs, no philosophy. As an ex-Marine, he’s trained to follow. Though to do when there are no leaders around.He was not a reader, not a connoisseur of any of the arts, not attuned to politics (he supports a candidate without really knowing his position on the issues). He has no religion or philosophy. No education (he says “some, here and there”). He is malleable. The harsh, the ugly realities of society combine with his own psychosis, his pathological loneliness for form him into an angry, twisted man. One who’s heavily armed. When trying to choose a gun to buy he opts for “all of them.”</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Yes, it’s true and correct that he wants to save a young hooker. Good intentions. He hates the wrongness of a twelve-year-old being a victim of human trafficking. He can’t let this stand. Travis to the rescue. The right impulse. But it leads to vigilante justice. It also comes after his foiled plot to kill a presidential candidate. There’s a lot going on in that man’s head but it has no structure, no basis in ethics or morality. It is wild and untamed. Might kill an innocent man or a gangster. Awkward. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I get more out of Taxi Driver with each viewing. Despite how it can make me feel at times. There’s the jazz soundtrack that is so mournful and portentous of a lonely, ugly ride through New York’s meaner streets seen through the eyes of one it’s meaner denizens. I don’t “like” the music, but the film would be sorely lacking without it.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There is of DeNiro in one of those performance that transcends “acting” and is closer to embodying. It’s a role — like Bogart as Fred Dobbs in Treasure of the Sierra Madre or Paul Newman as the titular character in Hud — that is more than memorable or iconic. It is part of the legacy of motion pictures.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Taxi Driver is very watchable because of DeNiro, Jodie Foster, Peter Boyle and the rest of the cast (including Scorsese’s own cameo). Viewers are also drawn to the exquisite cinemaphotography and the brilliant coloring of the climactic bloodbath. It’s a masterclass of directing by Scorsese and one of cinema’s greatest achievements. All this despite being really awkward. I mean seriously.</p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-89618268596023067342024-03-12T10:39:00.000-07:002024-03-13T09:29:10.774-07:00The Best Years in Films, Many From the Seventies and One Quite Recent<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ1IiX6w8IWZPExM0U1j2FgiHsaOvNl8eBKjRbEunJtWvCdrZ9VsgOgKWMXioqUlWfyiJXrbS4363MKUxlcgwUW1RuAc5fBFpAib229VEYsT3gvEJWlChuc0RkXiq7HRGrmmcmcTfAxtJQJeE29yE3ne_Cw9Syg4XsXSi3bDgHdHQa3jc9mursSplHRt8/s1024/stalker-0-45-40-1024x748.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="748" data-original-width="1024" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ1IiX6w8IWZPExM0U1j2FgiHsaOvNl8eBKjRbEunJtWvCdrZ9VsgOgKWMXioqUlWfyiJXrbS4363MKUxlcgwUW1RuAc5fBFpAib229VEYsT3gvEJWlChuc0RkXiq7HRGrmmcmcTfAxtJQJeE29yE3ne_Cw9Syg4XsXSi3bDgHdHQa3jc9mursSplHRt8/s320/stalker-0-45-40-1024x748.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stalker (1979) a great film from a great year</td></tr></tbody></table><br />I<span style="font-family: georgia;">'m happy to say that 2023 was the best year for new films since 1979. At least for me. My five favorite films of the year were all worthy of the number one spot — even in an exceptional year. (<a href="https://rikuwrites.blogspot.com/2024/01/my-revised-2023-top-ten-filmss.html">See my top ten</a>.) The next three would have normally found themselves among the top three or four and the last two, plus a couple in my honorable mentions would have been among the top five in most years. This was easily the best year for new releases in this century (albeit one that is only 24 years old) and exceeds any single year from the ‘90s or ‘80s. </span><p></p>
<p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This got me thinking about how 2023 ranked among the great years in films. I naturally started my investigation by looking at the Seventies which has produced an amazing number of great films as I've detailed on this blog before. It was no surprise that I found a few years that bested 2023. There were fiveother years from different decades that stood out, two of them consecutive ones. So here are my twelve favorite years in films, with those films that I consider “great” listed.</span></p>
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<p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>1979</b> Manhattan, Stalker, Tess, Apocalypse Now, The Marriage of Maria Braun, Being There, Breaking Away. </span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>1975</b> Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, The Man Who Would be King, Mirror, Three Days of the Condor, Jaws, Shampoo, Love and Death, Soldier of Orange. </span></p>
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<p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>1974</b> Chinatown, Godfather 2, A Woman Under the Influence, California Split, The Conversation, The Parallax View, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul.</span></p>
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<p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>1957</b> The Seventh Seal, Nights of Cabiria, Sweet Smell of Success, Bridge on the River Kwai, The Cranes are Flying, Witness for the Prosecution, Paths of Glory.</span></p>
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<p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>1940 </b>His Girl Friday, Foreign Correspondent, Grapes of Wrath, The Great McGinty, The Shop Around the Corner, The Great Dictator, The Philadelphia Story.</span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>1972 </b>The Godfather, Cabaret, The New Land, Aguirre, The Wrath of God, Cries & Whispers, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Play it Again, Sam, What’s Up Doc?</span></p><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div>
<p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>2023</b> Fallen Leaves, Oppenheimer, Godland, Zone of Interest, All of Us Strangers, May December, Poor Things. </span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>1973</b> Amarcord, The Last Detail, The Exorcist, Serpico, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Badlands, Paper Moon, The Spirit of the Beehive.</span></p>
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<p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>1971</b> The Last Picture Show, A Clockwork Orange, The Emigrants, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Bananas, The French Connection.</span></p>
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<p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>1962 </b>L’eclisse, Cleo Form 5 to 7, Vivre sa vie, The Exterminating Angel, Jules et Jim, Knife in the Water, Shoot the Piano Player, Taste of Honey, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.</span></p>
<p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>1939</b> Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Midnight, Stagecoach, Ninotchka, The Roaring Twenties, Destry Rides Again.</span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>1946 </b>It's A Wonderful Life, The Big Sleep, Notorious, Cluny Brown, My Darling Clementine, Paisan, The Killers, Shoeshine.</span></p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-69814261712266834692024-03-05T09:32:00.000-08:002024-03-05T09:32:34.774-08:00When Dirty Fingernails Cost Me a Marriage and Other Memories and Reflections<p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIWUY2iPDBmZ-Q6GKVT1BP3OmSEDeXMIEY17YIihwvtxvO5NLxPG2Mwl8EKZ7_BjXBmfNqYwewrxNXEKUVLu7wclFLdl5d3hyphenhyphenQP8AzKHEG2p6XmYs2BbekTbINp0r0nBAwmmmY7rIBrXzO3nsxPfRIU0k9HRfAUNTYjGMzau-Sir_nYMBCRjTrLHaPwew/s1200/stock-image-visualizing-memory.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="943" data-original-width="1200" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIWUY2iPDBmZ-Q6GKVT1BP3OmSEDeXMIEY17YIihwvtxvO5NLxPG2Mwl8EKZ7_BjXBmfNqYwewrxNXEKUVLu7wclFLdl5d3hyphenhyphenQP8AzKHEG2p6XmYs2BbekTbINp0r0nBAwmmmY7rIBrXzO3nsxPfRIU0k9HRfAUNTYjGMzau-Sir_nYMBCRjTrLHaPwew/s320/stock-image-visualizing-memory.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />When I was in kindergarten I proposed to Stephanie Muller. She turned me down because my fingernails were dirty. Many years later I heard that Stephanie was a heroin addict. Years after that I was in a teaching credential program with her brother and from him learned that Stephanie was not only clean but working in a program in which recovering addicts helped people knew to recovery. Admirable.<span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"> </span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">Stephanie’s brother (whose name I’ve forgotten) invited my wife and I over to his house for dinner. We had a nice time with him and his wife, who I somehow remember was a nurse, but we’d finished in the credential program and moved on. I’ve not seen or heard from him since that dinner. I suppose they waited for a reciprocal invitation but I quickly forgot about him and got busy with getting sober, my teaching career and my wife’s pregnancy, all of which happened soon after the dinner. Evidently I liked John but not enough to maintain contact with him.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I remember nothing about Stephanie other than the very early crush and the rejection and don’t remember much more about her brother other than he shared my fondness for foreign beer though swore he’d never been drunk. I thought it odd that anyone who liked beer so much had never had one too many. Indeed I still find it strange though I’ve never doubted the veracity of his claim. Mind you there’s a lot about the lives of “normal” people that those of us in recovery find strange.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I recently thought of a woman who was in my large circle of friends in the late seventies when I was a hot shot reporter and a bon vivant. She was neither particularly attractive, nor accomplished, nor especially witty no especially anything other than really, really nice. She always seemed to just be there. Everyone liked her but she never had a boyfriend and didn’t seem to be especially close to anyone. One night I was in my cups (as was generally the case back then) and it occurred to me that what she needed was a lover. I figured I would be doing her a favor by offering my services. Mind you, I was far more delicate and tactful in suggesting she avail herself of my body than it may seem to the reader. My offer was that we have a physical relationship with the understanding that it could develop beyond that ( I had no expectations that it would, for in those days I was averse to the very notion of committing myself to one woman). I was stunned — no, I really was — when she turned me down. So stunned that I repeated my proposition reasoning that she must not have heard me correctly. She again said thanks, but no thanks. Well I never. Life went on in our circle. Later she had a very brief fling with an eligible bachelor who by his own account to me, was merely using her. I rather think this story reflects poorly on men.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’ve admitted on this blog that I was a cad (and perhaps a bounder) as a young man. I am not proud of this, though I’m not really ashamed either. Maybe I should feel terrible about the way I behaved toward women but what would be the point? I’ve spent enough time in self-flagellation over past misdeeds. Yes, I used women. I was callous. But I never harassed a woman or assaulted anyone. I suppose it sounds like I’m excusing myself in a boys-will-be-boys sort of way. But the truth is that I was no different than most men of my generation and far better than the majority.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">More than that though I was a victim of a sometimes hellacious childhood with a schizophrenic mother. I was raised in a sexist environment, aggravated by my participation in the male-dominated environs of sports and I was a practicing alcoholic. Considering all this I wasn’t all that awful. (I guess not being all that awful is damning myself with faint praise.)</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">More importantly I’ve strived to be a better person. I raised two daughters — okay, my wife helped — and they are both strong feminists and able professionals and I’m proud of them beyond words. My wife can further vouch for my good behavior. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’ve always not just liked women but been fascinated by them. Endlessly so. Maybe the circumstances of my childhood contributed to this, particularly not having had a “real” mother and no sisters. Women I was with often commented on how I seemed to really appreciate them and on how loving I could be. Maybe I wasn’t so bad after all. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How would I feel if one of my daughter’s came home with someone like me? If he resembled me in my twenties I’d be mortified. If he was more like me in my late thirties and beyond I’d embrace him.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So I’ve gotten on a bit of tangent in remembering my rejected marriage proposal and years later meeting my intended’s brother. A lot of people pass through our lives. This is especially so for teachers. I was thinking recently of a woman I had a brief fling with in 1979. I could neither conjure her name nor an image of what she looked like. I found this both frustrating and sad. Life moves pretty fast as Ferris Bueller famously said. You meet someone, know them for a bit and one day is the last day you ever see them. Other people stick to you like a barnacle whether you want them or not. There is one person who was my teaching colleague for over twenty years. We were classroom neighbors for much of that time and were generally friendly and confided in one another though two epic blow outs marred our friendship. We stayed in touch for awhile after I left the school we worked at. But now I think of him with utter contempt. Some of things he said and did are unforgivable. He was clearly a badly damaged soul who had a gift for endearing himself to people, despite, for example, being a bigot. Yet if I saw him tomorrow I would greet him warmly and have a nice chat. It’s what you do in a polite society. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’ve met new people since I re-started at the school in San Francisco where I used to teach. There’s only one person still there from my previous tenure and one other person I know from another school. I’ve gotten to like some of my new colleagues. The school is shutting down in June and I won’t return to it after my wife and my vacation in May so I’ll only be associated with them for another seven weeks. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">People come and go. Some refuse to marry you on issues of hygiene, others say yes. Some people become life long friends, while other’s hurt you or you hurt them or you hurt each other. There are, I note, very few people who I’ve gotten to know well that I “hate.” One springs to mind — again from my halcyon days in the seventies. He was well liked by many but had a nasty disposition and for reasons I never understood or knew, was contemptuous of me to the extent that he made that clear before a large group of people one day. Not something you forget or forgive. As it happened I rarely saw him after that. He’s a very small exception to most people that I’ve gotten to know and that I despise him. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Yeah, things generally work out okay. I don’t think Stephanie and I were a good match anyway.</p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-47223032146703601602024-03-02T18:35:00.000-08:002024-03-02T18:35:25.168-08:00That Damned Depression is Back, A Sufferer Reflects on the Malady<p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg46q765MUuZmS59ngp8vtGxQaaNlto6cgXTTv6qfaMFnply2RTk5mLtdURwajAtx9ibzzMwP4EF_kZvapBSuU0U8aU2RCfALIAtlQgqfKSSM_81nRWtJ5RMn-L-EbzNmrlzJHpeBMre_pF5bmxlesHjEHriDjvPjXlwUt-fEq2FHf7wlAwe9w_KcCilj8/s960/original.png.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg46q765MUuZmS59ngp8vtGxQaaNlto6cgXTTv6qfaMFnply2RTk5mLtdURwajAtx9ibzzMwP4EF_kZvapBSuU0U8aU2RCfALIAtlQgqfKSSM_81nRWtJ5RMn-L-EbzNmrlzJHpeBMre_pF5bmxlesHjEHriDjvPjXlwUt-fEq2FHf7wlAwe9w_KcCilj8/s320/original.png.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br />Not surprisingly, beginning a new decade in my life has not brought immediate changes. For example, depression still lurks and occasionally pounces. It has today. <p></p><p><span style="font-family: American Typewriter;">I don’t know why other than it does this. I’ve not found a cure. I can ease its symptoms and wait it out. But that’s the extent of my powers over it. I went to a women’s gymnastics meet today. That was fun. I’ll watch a film with the missus tonight. I’ll enjoy that. A trip to the gym will provide relief tomorrow if it's still around. Just as will work on Monday. Writing right now is also helping. But these do no eradicate the pain and when I’m done with whatever activity -- there it is again. Like someone staring me in the face from a few feet away. Someone whose withering gaze I can’t avoid. I feel miserable.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">I never had depression when I drank, although I did suffer hangovers which brought their own version of depression.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I was also oblivious to depression as a child. Couldn’t have imagined it. This despite the fact that I knew pain quite well as a consequence of my mother being mentally ill. That pain didn’t last long. I had too much else to do, to enjoy. I loved being a child. I was really very good at it. I struggled a bit with being a teenager (who doesn’t?). The transition into adulthood can be confusing. Particularly as our bodies are changing as are those of the people around us. Girls are becoming women. Obsessions take shape and not all of them are good. Drugs can complicate matters as they did for me. I was also coming to grips with the reality of my mother’s condition — and running from it at the same time.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Once I had a few months of college under my belt the drinking got serious and my mood was generally good. The early days of sobriety were good too because I knew that I’d taken a positive step in my life. They call it the pink cloud in AA and mine lasted a long time. Then I got busy with the beginning of my teaching career and being a father. It wasn’t until my daughters were grown and out of the house that depression had time to settle in and make my life — at times — miserable. I’ve tried a lot to combat it, including medications (no more of those, thank you) even an expensive procedure in which my brain was zapped. That worked for a few months. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’ve resigned myself to depression being a steady companion for the rest of my days although I’m still open to trying ways to eradicate it. You can’t just let it win but you've also get to be realistic about such things.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Thankfully panic and anxiety attacks are no longer plaguing me although I’m wise enough to still take precautions and take nothing for granted. Being hit by 200 megaton panic attacks scars you for life. Such attacks, along with my mother’s condition, have been the worst things I’ve had to put up with in my life. The premature deaths of several friends has also been terrible. They were good people taken — at least statistically — too soon. Once they’re gone they don’t come back regardless of what your dreams tell you.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Yeah the depression is still here. Writing all this helped so there’s that. You take what you can get and you keep plugging away. There’s no point and laying down and giving u not matter what the goddamned depression tells you.</p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-70227374808288858092024-02-24T16:38:00.000-08:002024-02-24T16:38:26.012-08:00As a Landmark Birthday Approaches, I Ponder Life and Ask Questions<p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfgmcnjz8FVlcwrjmNahQiZei8gRRegeAYdHdFyC3Dl6okgF_GBfVjuR6NWjfEHjTKj-csjF2h70GiJQBaKL8SPDrBm70fzosXYbgT4OlVBkF9_vgBH8LjXc8-h2-K-e1Miie0Ip6o1JPnuk0WuUa4omU7O2tTTM9mlEYYUoC7cbyYnZkObLF74DfeD9g/s1599/Me%20with%20fish.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1599" data-original-width="1017" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfgmcnjz8FVlcwrjmNahQiZei8gRRegeAYdHdFyC3Dl6okgF_GBfVjuR6NWjfEHjTKj-csjF2h70GiJQBaKL8SPDrBm70fzosXYbgT4OlVBkF9_vgBH8LjXc8-h2-K-e1Miie0Ip6o1JPnuk0WuUa4omU7O2tTTM9mlEYYUoC7cbyYnZkObLF74DfeD9g/s320/Me%20with%20fish.jpeg" width="204" /></a></div><br />On Wednesday I’ll be celebrating my 70th birthday. Goodness me, I’m old now.<span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"> </span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">I have accepted with grace all previous birthdays. I took bows for my 60th and even wrote a countdown to that day on this blog. Hell, 60 wasn’t even retirement age, I wasn’t even a senior citizen yet. Now I’m a goddamned old man. Worse than that I’ve crept — run? galloped? hopped? — a lot closer to the end of my time here. How much longer do I have? Given that I live in the United States I could be gunned down tomorrow, if not later tonight (thanks NRA). Cars careen onto sidewalks, trees fall on pedestrians, sudden earthquakes send buildings tumbling down on passersby, alien invaders zap civilians with killer rays (okay that last one is a bit of a long shot). The point is there are zero guarantees as to how long we’re going to stick around. I had two of my healthier friends die of pancreatic cancer, not to mention a couple of students who weren’t even 21 when they died from other forms of cancer. On the plus side I’m healthy. I workout regularly, walk a lot in between and maintain a healthy diet. I’ve had nicks and bruises and colds and the flu but nothing serious in my first seven decades. My father lived a healthy 91 years before the toll of a freak fall claimed him a year later. My mother was 81 when she died which is remarkable given that she was mentally ill, smoked and had a mostly poor diet. My grandmothers stuck around for long lives but I’ve already far outlived both grandfathers. For that matter I’ve outlived one helluva lot of famous people. Just for starters: Jack Kerouac, John and Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Adolph Hitler and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Michael Jackson, James Dean, Amelia Earnhardt (presumably), Marilyn Monroe, John Lennon, Billie Holliday, Napoleon and Sylvia Plath. The list, as they say, goes on.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I just googled “what percent of people live to be 70” and the first answer I saw was 43 which is a ten point increase over the beginning of this century. So I’m in the minority (if I make it to Wednesday). Nice accomplishment but let’s shoot for more. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Seventy years. Do you realize how many times I’ve urinated? (Speaking of which, try counting the number of different places that you’ve peed, it’s impossible, there’s a lot). I guess no one really wants to contemplate how many times anyone else has taken a whizz. Jesus, how many tacos have I eaten? How many apples? How many gallons of water have I drank? Why aren’t there statistics on these kind of things that are readily available to us? Maybe in the future. What was the coldest day I’ve ever experienced? What was the hottest? How many different students have I taught? How many teachers have I had? How many sports events have I been to? Dear god that would be a very large number indeed. Basketball games alone. How about movies? How many have I seen? Which have I seen the most? I could name a score or more that I’ve watched over a dozen times like It’s A Wonderful Life, Duck Soup, Manhattan, Goodfellas, Christmas in Connecticut, Casablanca and more. How many hours have I spent staring at the TV (while it was on)? How many of those hours were wasted like when I watched Hogan’s Heroes re-runs when I was 18 years old and how many of those hours were well-spent like when I’ve watched Breaking Bad or Monty Python’s Flying Circus? How many books have I read? (I’ve written five.) How many books have I started but never finished? How much time have I spent “on” a computer and how much of that time has been wasted and how much productive? How many miles have I walked? How many women have I — maybe I won’t go there in this post, besides I know that number. How many times have I stubbed my toe? How many airline miles have I flown? How many colds have I had? How much snot have I blown out of my nose? (Sorry about that one.) What’s the closes I came to dying? What famous person did I walk by but not notice? What famous person did I walk by before they were famous? What’s the closest I’ve been to a murder? How many children do I have? Wait, I know that one…two. I also know that I’ve only been married once and since I got it right that number can be etched in stone. How many hours of music have I listened to? How many different pairs of shoes have I owned? How much money have I spent? And how about a breakdown of how that money was spent. I can’t imagine how much I’ve spent on housing, clothes, restaurant tabs, booze when I was drinking, books, movies, sports events, high end call girls (the answer that one is zero). How many people (women, generally, I presume) have secretly loved me? How many people have hated me? (Besides school administrators.) How many of my former students remember me fondly?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Bigger question: has it been worth it? Simple answer: God yes. Despite suffering from occasional depression being alive has been great fun. I had a marvelous time throughout my twenties and loved being a new father and for that matter an old one. Teaching has not been without its horrors but for the most part it’s great fun and I’m told I’m good enough at it. I’ve seen great athletes, great games, great teams, great moments. I’ve written some insightful, entertaining pieces and at least one book that a lot of people have enjoyed. I’ve enjoyed spending the last 39 years with the love of my life. Talk about luck! My children have made me enormously proud. I got to play sports and coach. I had some unforgettable moments in both roles including scoring the winning goal in my soccer team’s California state championship victory when I was 16. I’ve also met some truly interesting, funny, thoughtful, brilliant, unique people. It’s been a great ride. This despite the fact that I’ve made some horrible blunders and terrible decisions and done some incredibly stupid things. I have a lot to regret but so much more to celebrate.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I constantly fret about the inevitability and finality of death but know that it’s better to enjoy the one thing we have for sure: now. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Now is okay. I’m doing fine. No need to rue the past nor worry about about the future. Not when there’s the present to enjoy. Not an original idea, I know, but worth remembering. Think I’ll do that.</p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-41719494962422724582024-02-18T18:04:00.000-08:002024-02-18T18:04:11.779-08:00The Distractions of the Internet and Those Darn Homophones -- All in One Post<p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJSYDvDTka2D9rMUaI7p6BG-JIh2_-cjnU5v0mVupP2R-_cVkgiMyudghgkw3sIIKC5RI08FlTS54B55vGKkYjEKrf7LWs1gDaAaZnnN4YbRHEvbApeWcRzbk7zGSxx_yWrI5HpXp3mYFi-_TvT81mScfgs8M2hyXi_TqojCt2u2HD3n3p3jW7E6DGMYQ/s850/quote-the-internet-is-a-series-of-tubes-and-if-you-don-t-understand-those-tubes-can-be-filled-theodore-stevens-84-73-75.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="850" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJSYDvDTka2D9rMUaI7p6BG-JIh2_-cjnU5v0mVupP2R-_cVkgiMyudghgkw3sIIKC5RI08FlTS54B55vGKkYjEKrf7LWs1gDaAaZnnN4YbRHEvbApeWcRzbk7zGSxx_yWrI5HpXp3mYFi-_TvT81mScfgs8M2hyXi_TqojCt2u2HD3n3p3jW7E6DGMYQ/s320/quote-the-internet-is-a-series-of-tubes-and-if-you-don-t-understand-those-tubes-can-be-filled-theodore-stevens-84-73-75.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Nothing is better at distracting a writer than the fucking internet. In many cases people do their writing on computers and looky here that’s one of the places where the internet can be found.<p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">"I’m just going to" are the four most dangerous words in the world to a writer.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’m just going to check my email.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’m just going to check the scores.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’m just going to check the weather.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’m just going to see if I’ve had any responses to the comment I posted on that forum</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’m just going to check the news.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’m just going to see if my paycheck has been uploaded.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’m just going to google that person whose name occurred to me for the first time in years.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The problem with “just going to check one thing” is that it often turns into several one things. And even if it doesn’t, checking one thing can eat up a lot of time. You check your email and find something you have to respond to. You check the scores and end up looking at highlights or reading about a game or checking the standings. You check the weather then check the next day’s and the day after that. You check that forum and find someone responded to your comment and you’ve got to respond to that plus you need to check all the other comments that have appeared since you last visited. You check the news naively believing that you just want to see what’s going on in that one situation but there are three or for other stories that you read about. You check your pay and find that it's not what you thought it would be and so you dig into that. You google that one person and that reminds you of someone else to google and that reminds of you still another person.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">By the time your done dinner is ready or it’s time to go or you can’t put off that chore any longer. Your writing time is gone.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Some writers don’t do their work on a computer that’s connected to the internet. First problem: how many frickin’ computers do you think I have? Second problem: I’m constantly looking things up when I’m writing. The dictionary, the thesaurus, or something that will inform my writing. My last two novels are historical and I’m all about accuracy so am constantly having to look something up to make sure that event could have happened that day.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Discipline. That’s what it comes down to. I have a great deal of self-discipline (is self-discipline redundant?) when it comes to most things like eating, exercise, teaching and keeping up with chores, but the damned internet is a real siren. Ya know what else? It’s still feels new. I guess that’s a consequence of my being old. We’ve had the internet in the house for 25 years. For a lot of people that’t there whole life or most of their life. I was already in my forties when it came along. It seems indispensable now but I lived a lot of years without it.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Time flies is at once trite and quite true. My goodness smart phones have already been around for over fifteen years. I grew up in a time when if someone was caught staring at a phone they’d be considered a candidate for the booby hatch.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Who says booby hatch anymore? Or laughing academy? Or funny farm? Or nuthouse? We take mental illness far more seriously than when I was a kid. It’s odd that people would refer to it as the laughing academy given how depressing a place mental institutions are. I think that one of the signs of good mental health is being able to have a good chuckle. Of course it has to be at something funny. You find someone laughing at boiling water then….</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">At the end of the previous sentence I initially typed than. I had to think for a second whether I wanted then or then. You’d think I’d automatically know that one by now. It’s like weather or weather. Then there’s the whole site, cite and sight business. Sorting those can eat up a few seconds of writing time. I don’t usually hesitate with hole or whole. Maybe because their meanings are opposite. It’s and its can be vexing. They’re easy to miss. However I’m careful with their, there and they’re. The worst mistake with a homophone I ever saw was when I was subbing. An English teacher had written roll call (it’s roll call). An English teacher! In a classroom! Not a good look.</p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I can't think of how to end this post. Sometimes that's an issue for me. Maybe I'll just type the end. There, that did it.</p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-83908789905410453152024-02-11T14:14:00.000-08:002024-02-13T09:30:17.401-08:00Make a Difference in the World AND Attend Lots of Meetings -- Be a Teacher<p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid_1SYLudxHiegjJK7ZLyremrSlgpBd0FMEo_BtB1ads3nQadwaOTkyuylzrHyh-hKUSvt3-TlIJkkBBhJlKUwWeJB4euhouqeile9WnyPs_9uWlFkZP0u2harF4nrsi545aXJZLkDRtlsNjrUTy954QpmS9lCx1pjx5OEygbWLmwNGCG5-SqnU0bsUq0/s1908/DVFYW0IU0AA_1fQ.jpg-large.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1100" data-original-width="1908" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid_1SYLudxHiegjJK7ZLyremrSlgpBd0FMEo_BtB1ads3nQadwaOTkyuylzrHyh-hKUSvt3-TlIJkkBBhJlKUwWeJB4euhouqeile9WnyPs_9uWlFkZP0u2harF4nrsi545aXJZLkDRtlsNjrUTy954QpmS9lCx1pjx5OEygbWLmwNGCG5-SqnU0bsUq0/s320/DVFYW0IU0AA_1fQ.jpg-large.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Typical American classroom of today</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"><br />Do you like going to meetings? Consider a career in education!</span><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"> </span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">I work at an international language school in San Francisco. The other day a young co-worker of mine who only recently graduated from university told me that she was considering pursuing a career as a public school teacher. Knowing my background she asked if I would share my wisdom and experience with her — when time allowed which it hasn’t yet. I said I'd be glad to.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’ve given teaching advice on this blog before, <a href="https://rikuwrites.blogspot.com/2016/02/so-you-want-to-be-teacher-what-are-ya.html">here’s a widely cited and beloved post</a> in which I did just that and <a href="https://rikuwrites.blogspot.com/2016/03/seriously-you-want-to-be-teacher.html">here’s a follow-up post</a> that was also met with universal adulation. But that's not all! Yes, I gave more advice <a href="https://rikuwrites.blogspot.com/2016/10/i-offer-still-more-advice-to-teachers.html">in this a third post on the topio</a>.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But I’d like to add to those wisdom-laden posts with this: Be prepared to sit through one helluva lot of meetings.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">By my last year as a public school teacher there were meetings every Wednesday. The first Wednesday of the month was reserved for staff meetings. Wednesday number two was set aside for department meetings. On the third Wednesday we were blessed with team meetings (a history, English, science and math teacher would have the same group of students). The final Wednesday was for district wide meetings, usually segregated by departments. If there were fifth Wednesdays in a month it would be filled one way or another with some sort of meeting. Hurrah!</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Lunches were not exempt from meetings. Once a week we’d have a team meeting at lunch. Once a month we’d have a faculty senate meeting at lunch, unless there were some sort of crisis such as trouble in contract negotiations in which case there’d be extra faculty senate meetings.</p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Of course there was always the opportunity for (or should I say, risk of?) parent conferences (a form of meeting) that could be just before classes, right after classes, at lunch or — most dreaded of all — during one’s prep period.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There were also meetings with administrators. Perhaps a parent had lodged a complaint or it was your year to be evaluated. If the latter, that called for several meetings a year. You might be called in for other reasons too. Might? Hell, you would be. There was always something an administrator needed to see you about. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">You might also find yourself on a committee (never volunteer) which meant lord knows how many other meetings. If you were taking a turn as union rep that was easily a couple dozen extra meetings a year and if you were on a union committee there were maybe ten more.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Don’t forget emergency meetings. Schools are notorious for having emergencies so count on a least a couple.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Maybe you’re the social type and want to help plan staff parties for Christmas or the end of the school year. Groups that have meetings plan those things. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How many meetings would you attend in a typical year? I refuse to count but having read this far you’ve got the idea.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The good news about being a public school teacher is that the actual teaching day is not all that long. Maybe 8:45 to 3:00 with a prep period and a lunch break. Having your work day end at three is a huge plus. Or so it would seem. Remember you might well have a meeting to attend. Maybe one at another school or at the district office. And if you're meeting-free there’s likely papers to grade and lessons to plan and copies to be made. You might also have to make a call to a parent (they’re never home). Speaking of parents, an angry one might come see you or an administrator might want to take issue with you or pass along a complaint. Sometimes students will come by for extra help or they too may have a bone to pick. You might even cross swords with a colleague or have your ear bent by one over one problem or another.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Some days you can get out of Dodge fairly quickly. You might be caught up with grading and planning. Cushy job. But the day is going to weigh on you. An incident with a student. A lesson that fell flat. A class that you lost control of. A complaint that was passed a long. Those things pray on your mind. You think about them while you’re dealing with issues outside of work. Dirty laundry is piling up. There’s a leak in the kitchen sink. You’ve quarreled with your significant other. Your mother is sick. There’s loud construction going on next door. You need to take the dog for a walk and he’s due to go to the vet and you're due to go to the dentist and shouldn’t your oil be changed? And what if you have kids? You’ve got to get them home, feed them, hear about their day, keep them away from the TV and help them with homework. At least your favorite show is on that night and you’ve started a mystery that you can read three pages of before sleep becomes irresistible. Meanwhile in the back of your mind is that class that couldn’t settle down and what the hell you’re going to do about James and his irate, unreasonable mother and that student who's lying to an administrator about what you said to her. Plus while today there was no meetings tomorrow you’ve got a parent coming in before class, a team meeting at lunch and a department meeting after school. What's more you’ve got to get ready for a sub the day after because you’re going to a one day professional development in another city and you’ve got to make special arrangements for childcare that day because you won’t get back home until after 5:00. Planning for a sub is a lot of work. And the day after the sub you hope they've left you a note detailing the day and that there are no big messes to clean up.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I didn’t mention professional developments, did I? Count on those too. Oh and if you’re a first-year teacher they’ve got extra meetings for you. It never stops. And say, did you sign the birthday card for the janitor? Lordy, I forgot IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) if you're a special ed teacher you'll have oodles of those and in general even MORE meetings. My oldest daughter is a special ed teacher. She spends a lot of time in meetings. Not what she signed up for but there it is.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Okay so I painted something of a bleak picture (but I didn’t exaggerate). How did I manage it for 20 years? Because despite it all teaching is fun, rewarding and gives you a rush that your college roommate who’s now an accountant can only imagine. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Go for it!</p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-28907571105036911152024-02-06T10:46:00.000-08:002024-02-06T13:20:54.228-08:00Once Again I Have Questions (Good ones too)<p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgCRIvKxhpRelGoKfc22NLadkbtuUeY5_wPo373VO87xG8QPerjWQxep1SxoDO2dAcV4V3CRzK-RXDPryT-lYsEK5FJecDkGjqne0uYSKlMt8e3rp0ggoBD2Dk7OTN40azRRsgqZbVLZ4nOu41WnzDultW0bGB8-zg-ZEv56sCkSkpQprQsegS-KQMN9k/s312/Unknown.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="162" data-original-width="312" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgCRIvKxhpRelGoKfc22NLadkbtuUeY5_wPo373VO87xG8QPerjWQxep1SxoDO2dAcV4V3CRzK-RXDPryT-lYsEK5FJecDkGjqne0uYSKlMt8e3rp0ggoBD2Dk7OTN40azRRsgqZbVLZ4nOu41WnzDultW0bGB8-zg-ZEv56sCkSkpQprQsegS-KQMN9k/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" width="312" /></a></div><br />Why do people always have their cake and eat it too? Why doesn’t anyone have their pie and eat it too?<p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">Why do things always run the gamut? Couldn’t they simply walk it some of the time?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We often hear about something being the last straw. How about a warning when there’s still a straw or two to go?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I often hear of people making bucket lists. I’m surprised so many people own enough buckets to make a list of them. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We’re often told to put our hands together in recognition of an entertainer or speaker. Doesn’t that render it impossible to applaud them? Don’t we need our hands apart?</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Why don’t people “make it snappy” anymore? Doesn’t seem that people “get the lead out” anymore either.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We used to be told to be places at two o’clock “sharp” Where did “sharp” go in this context?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Why are people always “in the middle of nowhere”? You never hear of people being on the outskirts of nowhere.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Doesn’t nowhere have to be somewhere? If nowhere were nowhere it wouldn’t exist.<br />
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Saturdays and Sundays get a lot of attention because they comprise the weekend. Friday is beloved because it kicks off the weekend. Monday is hated because it starts the work week. Thursday is liked because it portends the coming weekend. Wednesday is recognized as hump day. But what about Tuesday? Is it a day with no personality?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">People often go the extra mile. Why just the one? Why not go extra miles?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">You sometimes hear of people walking on eggshells. Why didn’t anyone sweep up those eggshells? Who leaves eggshells on the floor?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I heard of something being a blessing in disguise. The obvious question here is: why would anyone disguise a blessing?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">You ever someone say, “it’s not rocket science”? Okay but have you ever heard a rocket scientist say it?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">They say that it when it rains in pours. But doesn’t often just sprinkle?</p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Who is "they"?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’ve been told that an event will happen, “rain or shine.” Did you really need to tell me it would happen on a sunny day?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">If you don’t count your chickens before they hatch, how are you going to know how many chickens you have?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Ever try to wrap your head around something? It’s physically impossible. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Sometimes people play the devil’s advocate. So why doesn’t anyone play God’s advocate?</p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What's with the word "so"? People are so tired. So cute. So hungry? So pissed. So tired that what? So cute that what? So hungry that what? So pissed that what? So tired that what? So sick of this word.</p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Do people ever say, "let's get this party started" before an actual party?</p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Why is that concessions stands at sports venues never make any actual concessions?</p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-42507016522807451812024-01-30T08:03:00.000-08:002024-01-31T10:20:11.152-08:00It's a Three Topic Post: Oscar Schmoscar, Where the Glory Goes and a Book Recommendation <p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8EPYyRVF-HVKH858rWCp1_U4HgQCe3P20VcudgsR_EoEN96BYLZ5QKXcUeYWTBcBSICN7ZPHoY06itpwuIqH1pFZ9CexLnN5vEq2-KyWquZxq3tFhrlX3fcNSTcC2FmxozjEs_s_Y8X9ujlbQW3VSIgHvd2sp1oz09B3j-vF2oULy43dHsyiozns5CRI/s620/Celine-Song.jpg.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="620" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8EPYyRVF-HVKH858rWCp1_U4HgQCe3P20VcudgsR_EoEN96BYLZ5QKXcUeYWTBcBSICN7ZPHoY06itpwuIqH1pFZ9CexLnN5vEq2-KyWquZxq3tFhrlX3fcNSTcC2FmxozjEs_s_Y8X9ujlbQW3VSIgHvd2sp1oz09B3j-vF2oULy43dHsyiozns5CRI/s320/Celine-Song.jpg.webp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Past Lives Director Celine Song, Where's the Outrage?</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"><br />A lot of people are upset that Greta Gerwig did not get an Oscar nomination as best director for Barbie and that Margot Robbie did not get a best actress nod for the same film.</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">Take a breath.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Let’s get this clear at the start: It’s a fucking awards show. This should be very low on the list of things a person gets upset about. Have you seen the state of the world? Ever hear any reference to Gaza? Are you aware that Donald Trump still walks the Earth? Last I heard global warming had not been eradicated. Roe v. Wade has been struck down by a racist, sexist Supreme Court. Famine and disease and totalitarian regimes still exist. The list of things to get riled about goes on and Oscar snubs is low on them. Sometimes we need perspective.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Another thing: why the selective outrage? People are upset at Gerwig not being nominated. How about Kelly Reichardt who directed Showing Up? She’s been a director for far longer than Gerwig and has never gotten a nomination. Or how about Celine Song who directed the highly-acclaimed Past Lives which was, like Barbie, nominated for best picture? Gerwig made millions of bucks on Barbie. Reichardt and Song not so much. Reichardt is a lesbian and Song an Asian-American. But people are just angry about the straight white multi-millionaire not having a chance to win a bobble? </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Here’s another thought: maybe voters didn’t think Gerwig’s direction was worthy of a top five spot and thus not good enough to warrant a nomination. I didn’t think it was. And I didn’t think Robbie’s performance, good as it was, merited a nomination. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">If you have a year in which no female is nominated for best director or no African-American is nominated for best actor, we are not necessarily seeing the consequence of institutionalized sexism and racism. If women and Blacks are repeatedly being ignored then you surely DO have evidence of those sins. As we have most certainly seen in the past. The academy is much better than it used to be though still not good enough at recognizing diverse voices. However that doesn't mean Barbie's failure to get more nominations is reflective of sexism in the industry. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Still believe that Gerwig and Robbie were deserving? Welcome to the Oscars. Do you how many great films and great performances have been ignored by the Academy? Do you know how much mediocrity has been rewarded over the years? If you do, why are bothering worrying about what they did or did not nominate this year? It’s not worth it.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This is an organization that I believe is guiltier of incompetence than racism and sexism (and they have indeed been guilty of racism and sexism). Check these out for best picture winners: How Green Was My Valley, Gigi, Cavalcade, Around the World in 80 Days, Oliver!, Crash (vomit), The King’s Speech, Green Book, Slumdog Millionaire, The English Patient and whatever the hell won last year (CODA?). Contrast those with some of the pictures that DIDN'T win: Citizen Kane, Chinatown, Taxi Driver, The Searchers, The Third Man, Bonnie and Clyde, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Reds, Double Indemnity, It’s A Wonderful Life, City Lights . And that’s not to mention foreign films that should have won but weren’t even nominated.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">No, the Oscars are nothing to take seriously and nothing to get upset about regardless of what they do. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">If I were to get worked up about this year’s nominations I’d wonder how All of Us Strangers didn’t warrant a best picture nod and a raving mediocrity (that word comes up a lot when discussing the Oscars) like Maestro did. I’d also be livid that Finnish director Aki Kauriskmak’s Fallen Leaves didn’t get a best foreign language nomination or for that matter that Christian Petzold’s Afire was ignored in the same category. I’d also wonder at May December’s exclusion from the best film nominees. But I’ve learned not get into a lather at anything the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences does. They’re a bunch of idiots.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Speaking of idiots….I heard another athlete after a big victory give “all the glory to God,” after his team's victory. Imagine <b>not</b> giving “all the glory” to God. Wouldn’t he be pissed? God must have a fragile ego. He needs to be “worshipped” at “worship services" on a day set aside for him. And don’t you dare use his name in vain, Goddamn it. Quick question: what if you gave most of the glory to God, say eighty per cent, and kept a little for yourself? Would that be so bad? By the way, what does one do with the glory? For that matter, what does God do with it?</p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Maybe I should pray about it. This reminds me of when the Daily Show showed an ad from Glenn Beck’s TV show in which the conservative nutcase was shilling — I believe it was gold coins (solid investment) — in an ad. He ended by suggesting to viewers that they “pray about it.” Yes, God is all about guiding people as they ponder their financial investments. What could be more important for the almighty? </p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A former student of mine recently lost his son to cancer. The child died on Christmas Day which was one day before his sixth birthday. God was too busy getting “all the glory” and helping people figure out the best way to make bank to save the little boy. Priorities. </p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">(By the way, I've used the masculine pronoun for God because only a male would have such a fragile ego.)</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’d like to plug a book that I didn’t write: <a href="https://www.rachelmaddow.com/prequel-by-rachel-maddow/">Prequel An American Fight Against Fascism</a> by Rachel Maddow. It’s the story of the sundry Nazi and other far right groups that proliferated in the U.S. in the 1930s and right up to Pearl Harbor. I knew a fair amount about this from the research I did for my second novel, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Threat-Night-Uhka-Richard-Hourula/dp/B09246432V/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=">Threat of Night</a> but after reading Maddow’s book I know one helluva lot more. There were Nazi sympathizers scattered all over the country including within the halls of Congress. And anti-semitism was rampant (not that its eradicated today) and people weren't shy about expressing it. Perilous times and credit goes to a lot of heroes — well documented by Maddow — who exposed them. Not that it always did any good. Many who should have been locked up for sedition were given a pass. Sequel is an absolute delight because the author paints such vivid pictures of the characters and the times. She also employs a ready wit. I like her much better as a writer than I do as a TV commentator where I find her speaking style unappealing. Sequel is one of the best non fiction books I’ve read in many moons. The fact that there are parallels to today is a sad commentary on this country. </p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-21108666468050503632024-01-21T09:22:00.000-08:002024-02-26T08:47:52.014-08:00My Revised 2023 Top Ten Films<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-weight: bold; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqnJvLz0_7X9em7IRBiVYEBoJq6twy5diy8dN3o9IvB_SDmfeRT0mup-C_u9JEu_xNVtAJ_43kIwJcQTC204oQM0l0ZirOiEngzYTAAFeelOnLSe3fWF4G5TFhNaS_XhLe1_DA1zf6C2rEupLFCGRrvVEsRsd3LKA94tk5dcHZA0FChejRhMJj_fkHAlc/s1200/the-zone-of-interest-trailer.jpg.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqnJvLz0_7X9em7IRBiVYEBoJq6twy5diy8dN3o9IvB_SDmfeRT0mup-C_u9JEu_xNVtAJ_43kIwJcQTC204oQM0l0ZirOiEngzYTAAFeelOnLSe3fWF4G5TFhNaS_XhLe1_DA1zf6C2rEupLFCGRrvVEsRsd3LKA94tk5dcHZA0FChejRhMJj_fkHAlc/s320/the-zone-of-interest-trailer.jpg.webp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Zone of Interest, just added to my top ten</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: American Typewriter;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">I made a mistake last month. Before I go further I'd like to acknowledge that this was not the first instance of me erring and I very much doubt it will be the last. Simply put I was premature in releasing <a href="https://rikuwrites.blogspot.com/2023/12/my-top-ten-films-of-2023.html">my yearly top ten</a>. Somehow I ignored the fact that there were two more much-anticipated releases that I still wanted to see. Well folks I've seen them over the course of the last two weeks and, as both pictures warranted a spot on my top ten, have revised the list accordingly. As it happens they take the numbers four and five spots. In my earlier iteration of this list I mentioned what a great year it's been in films. Having now seen All of Us Strangers and The Zone of Interest I can attest it is even greater than great, whatever the deuce that is. I vow to be more patient next year. </span></span><p></p><p><b style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px;">1. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21027780/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_fallen%2520lea">Fallen Leaves (Kaurismäki)</a></b></p><p><b style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px;">2.<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19623228/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_3_nm_5_q_godla"> Godland (Pálmason)</a></b></p><p><b style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px;">3. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15398776/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_4_nm_3_q_oppe">Oppenheimer (Nolan) </a></b></p><p><b style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px;">4. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21192142/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_all%2520of%2520">All of Us Strangers (Haigh)</a></b></p><p><b style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px;">5. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7160372/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_0_q_the%2520zone%2520of">The Zone of Interest (Glazer) </a></b></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>6. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13651794/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_may%2520dec">May December (Haynes)</a></b></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>7. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26440619/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_Afire">Afire (Petzold)</a></b></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>8. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14230458/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_Poor%2520t">Poor Things (Lanthimos)</a></b></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>9. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16304446/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_fair%2520pl">Fair Play (Domont)</a></b></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>10. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14849194/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_the%2520holdo">The Holdovers (Payne)</a></b></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><b>Honorable Mention</b>: <b><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13923216/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_showing%2520">Showing Up (Reichardt)</a></b><b>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14230388/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2_tt_3_nm_4_q_ast">Asteroid City (Anderson)</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17527468/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_5_nm_3_q_bottoms">Bottoms (Seligman)</a>,<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21942866/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_dream%2520sc"> </a></b><b> <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13238346/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_past%2520liv">Past Lives (Song)</a></b><b>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1517268/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_4_nm_3_q_barbie">Barbie (Gerwig),</a> <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17009710/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_5_nm_3_q_anat">Anatomy of a Fall (Triet)</a>. </b></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Best Actor:</b> Colman Domingo <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14160834/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_3_nm_5_q_Rustin">(Rustin</a>) Runners Up — Alden Ehrenreich (Fair Play), Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) and Paul Giamatti (Holdovers).</p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Best Actress: </b>Carey Mulligan <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5535276/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_6_nm_2_q_maestr">(Maestro)</a> Runners up - Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon), Alma Pöysti (Fallen Leaves) and Natalie Portman (May December).</p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Best Supporting Actor: </b>Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer). Runners Up — Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things) and Ingvar Sigurdsson (Godland)</p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Best Supporting Actress:</b> Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers) Runners Up — Juliane Moore (May December) and Jodie Foster (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5302918/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_3_nm_5_q_nyad">Nyad</a>) </p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-61122183418631199772024-01-18T10:00:00.000-08:002024-01-18T10:00:12.517-08:00War, Trousseau Models, Celebrity Trials, Gabardine Suits and More in this Look Back to 80 Years Ago Today<p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzIBFlLYNK2OO6NHiQC_G9qBOTF7y9t4x5MT8PiypJmg0ywJN27Mpgnup0L5qRzkb_FBTIZPNiJ1tjnsvuWn09qX8wKxtDB9LmSUgdJhuaeSA_PTI3IxzYuCiuVuIXVsRzdG9A5N_Wnx1K0bHSFFc2-tSo7aJOVr6Y8l-0WQNLboTUbyJh9ODQcebL9eA/s1836/Screenshot%202024-01-18%20at%209.34.27%20AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="794" data-original-width="1836" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzIBFlLYNK2OO6NHiQC_G9qBOTF7y9t4x5MT8PiypJmg0ywJN27Mpgnup0L5qRzkb_FBTIZPNiJ1tjnsvuWn09qX8wKxtDB9LmSUgdJhuaeSA_PTI3IxzYuCiuVuIXVsRzdG9A5N_Wnx1K0bHSFFc2-tSo7aJOVr6Y8l-0WQNLboTUbyJh9ODQcebL9eA/s320/Screenshot%202024-01-18%20at%209.34.27%20AM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />Have you been wondering what was going on 80 years ago today? Neither have I. But let’s have a look anyway. I’ve taken a peak at a newspaper (the San Francisco Examiner) from January 18, 1943 (thank you <a href="http://newspapers.com" style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;">newspapers.com</a><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;">). I’m here providing a few headlines from that day as well as ads</span><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;">and the like. I’m also providing my own commentary to help provide context. Enjoy.</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">New RAF Raid Rips Berlin, City Afire!</span></b></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">This was the top front page headline. The RAF is Great Britain’s Royal Air Force, which by then was regularly pummeling Germany’s capital (I’m assuming that you recall that 1943 was in the middle of a spot of bother later called World War II). Another headline below — Hitler Planes Bomb London in Retaliation — shows that it was a two-way street in those awful days. Other war-related headlines of the day include stories about Germans losing ground in North Africa and the USSR. Also five Japanese ships were battered off New Britain, an island off Papua New Guinea. Another front page story was about Chile’s plans to break diplomatic ties with the Axis (Germany, Italy and Japan) aka the bad guys. That would leave Argentina as the only South American country maintaining cordial ties with the evil empires. Indeed many Nazi war criminals fled there in the immediate aftermath of the German surrender in May, 1945.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Yank Bombers Batter Jap Burma Convoy</span></b></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">This is one of three articles on page two that refers to “Japs” there are more on other pages. Today that term would be considered racist. One can argue it was merely used as shorthand but it came loaded with bigoted connotations perhaps best symbolized by the caricatures of the day with the bucktoothed, bespectacled Japanese soldier. This was at a time that Japanese-Americans, many born in the U.S. virtually all without criminal records, were being held in interment camps. Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley recently averred that the U.S. has never been a racist country. She’s an idiot.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Noted Trousseau Model a Bride</span></b></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">Readers were informed that Miss Virginia Parker “who for years has been considered Chicago’s best model of trousseau gowns” is heading west on her honeymoon. The lucky groom was one Malcolm Ross Byron. If you share my confusion about trousseaus, here’s what the good folks at Merriam-Webster have to say: "the clothes, household linen, and other belongings collected by a bride for her marriage." I googled Virginia Parker trousseau model and — this is weird — found a different woman by that name who on at least one occasion modeled a trousseau in 1961. Any Virginia Parkers out there who don’t model trousseaus?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Housewife Given Tips on Bread Slicing Art</span></b></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">The headline suggest that an individual woman was being given tips but the article is about official government advice on how to slice your homemade bread. Due to wartime rationing, people were encouraged to bake their own bread (and as the article points out, bake their own beans, not get them out of a can). Indeed sliced bread was no longer available. There were many such deprivations in the U.S. during the war. Relative to what many Europeans were dealing with these were minor inconveniences. By the way, housewives were told not to “bear down on your knife — use a gentle sawing motion.”</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Seeks Entry of Mexican Women</b></span></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">There’s an attention-getting headline. What, pray tell could this be about? Well, folks it seems that Inter-American Forum of San Francisco was promoting legislation that would permit Mexican, Central and South American women to enter the U.S. temporarily for work as nursemaids and domestics. There was a “critical shortage” of women to fill these positions while “large numbers of women from Latin countries are available.” Imagine a time when Americans were welcoming our southern neighbors.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Ad for Avenue Royal Gaberdine Suits </span></b>(“quality and price unchanged”) for $41.75 exclusively at Pawson & Co. located at Kearny and Sutter. The suits were advertised as “100% pure virgin wool” with “beautiful shades” of blue, brown and tan.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There were three <b><span style="font-size: medium;">letters-to-the-editor</span></b>. One writer quoted a letter from his son who was in the military. He was bitching about people back home who had the gall to strike or even just complain for better pay or reasonable hours while soldiers are making huge sacrifices up to and including the supreme one. A second letter whined about the government — “those horse and buggy politicians in Washington” — encouraging people to drive less and use public transportation to save rubber. The writer claimed that there was plenty of rubber just sitting around all over the country and that on top of that Russia had plenty that they could send us (???). I could make neither heads nor tails of the other letter after several readings. It began: "we have no way of computing the material value of this country and its physical efforts." It gets more confusing from there but the Examiner printed it just the same. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Errol Flynn Trial Jurors Face Grilling</span></b></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The famous actor was facing two charges of statutory rape in a Los Angeles courtroom. The jurors were accused of gaining their seats on the jury through deception. It was alleged that one was “out to get” Flynn while the other wanted to see him acquitted the evidence be damned. The jurors would face serious questioning. It has been alleged that Flynn engaged in sex with underage females for decades. This was the only occasion in which he was brought to trial. Flynn was found innocent though his reputation was tarnished. The swashbuckling star also had a reputation of hard drinking, drug use and womanizing. The ultimate cad. Sadly this trial went on to be more of an attack on the two teenaged accusers than Flynn. Not unusual in those pre #metoo times.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Howard Hughes Will Premier ‘The Outlaw’ at Geary Theater</span></b></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">The Outlaw starred Jane Russell and her breasts. Now hold on, I’m being serious here. Hughes designed a bra specifically to emphasize Ms. Russell’s cleavage. Not surprisingly this was evident to all and the source of controversy. The Outlaw was actually finished two years earlier but Hughes had a deuce of a time getting approved from the reprobates at the Hollywood Production Code office. Hughes reluctantly removed about thirty seconds worth of the film that were particularly revealing. Still the studio didn’t want to release the film. According to Wikipedia: “Facing the loss of millions of dollars, Hughes sought to create a public outcry for his film to be banned. Hughes had his managers call ministers, women's clubs and housewives, informing them about the purportedly lewd film soon to be released. This caused the public protests and calls to ban the film for which Hughes had hoped in order to establish a demand for the film's release.” But the film was finally released at the Geary in San Francisco as noted in the headline. There is much more to the story of The Outlaw and it’s checkered history including more cuts, bans, releases, huge crowds, ownership changes. Maybe worth a blog post of its own.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Tomato Juice Refreshing For Lunch</span></b></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This piece was written by Prudence Penny — pseudonym alert. It suggested that in addition to a “hearty sandwich” and vegetables a good boxed lunch should include tomato juice. “It quenches thirst and is a pick up.” But there’s more: it “helps keep bones and teeth strong, puts a shine in your hair, a gleam in your eye, bounce and cheerfulness in your disposition.” But what did it do for your sex drive, Prudence?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">From the <b><span style="font-size: medium;">Classified Ads.</span></b> Under Household Help Wanted. “Woman, White, Part Time…….” </p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“Girl, Refined, White to assist care of 1 1/2 yr. Child….”</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“Housework, part time, white preferred.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">In 1943 it was okay to specify that you wanted to hire a white person. Though I saw no such ads on this day, I’ve also seen ads from those days specifying that the employer wanted to hire a “colored” maid or cook. Also women seeking domestic positions would often specify that they were white or "colored." Also there were one helluva lot more people — middle class, mind you — who had live-in maids.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A large <b><span style="font-size: medium;">ad for Camel Cigarettes</span></b> featuring “Red” Hulse who’s identified as a “veteran navy fighter pilot and test pilot of the Navy’s new Curtiss Dive Bomber.” According to Red, “there’s just one cigarette for me — Camel — they suit my throat and taste to a T.” Camel advertised itself as “First in the Service.” <span style="font-size: 16px;">I should think that it was also pretty high up there in causing lung cancer.</span></p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-92198114570789478562024-01-11T08:49:00.000-08:002024-01-11T08:51:00.406-08:00Groovy Commuting, Words No Longer Used, The Godfather and College Football All in One Far Out Post<p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoD1ELOdqvNqQcaQCCJJ9VJJrFpBDNU1y5N9THZYfdPfm_G22J4BcKqJxyZzRUQc7FY-ZhJM5gNyu63bKxq3lkvAgo2lWyaiFEhJqdYseMF2pgJzmRyMZTrhUeesMT75ECJl0u8q61Jhoor87iNjzcwD0S7affH07y-WBENNZTYBd1mdYn-Z6Za16FqFU/s2048/13godfather-pacino4-superJumbo.jpg.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1477" data-original-width="2048" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoD1ELOdqvNqQcaQCCJJ9VJJrFpBDNU1y5N9THZYfdPfm_G22J4BcKqJxyZzRUQc7FY-ZhJM5gNyu63bKxq3lkvAgo2lWyaiFEhJqdYseMF2pgJzmRyMZTrhUeesMT75ECJl0u8q61Jhoor87iNjzcwD0S7affH07y-WBENNZTYBd1mdYn-Z6Za16FqFU/s320/13godfather-pacino4-superJumbo.jpg.webp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pacino and Brando in The Godfather</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"><br />I’m commuting into San Francisco again. Monday, Wednesday and Friday I have an early morning class so have to leave the house at seven AM to catch the commuter bus. It’s a mellow ride that beats regular commute hours by half an hour (or so). I get into the City and have a twenty-minute (or so) walk to school. I’m done before noon and home around one (in the afternoon — of course). Tuesdays and Thursdays I have an afternoon class so don’t leave the house until 11:30 AM (or so). After work comes the tricky part of my commute week as I leave just as the evening commute is heating up: 4:30 (or so). This is only day three so I can’t say too much about the overall commute. There’ll be bad days and a horrific experience or two but for the most part it’ll be fairly groovy.</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">I like that, “fairly groovy.” The word groovy is of a time more so than most slang. It’s very Sixties. It was pretty much gone by the mid if not the early seventies. “Right on” is very Sixties too but has had a longer shelf life and still pops up now and again. “Far out” was also totally a Sixties saying that was already being mocked by the seventies. Ya know what else was around in the sixties? Referring to your boy/girl friend (usually one you lived with) as your “old man” or “old lady.” Never hear it anymore. I wasn’t crazy about it but think it preferable to today’s “partner” which sounds so antiseptic. Also in the Sixties there were “hassles” or someone was “hassling” you. So it was a verb and a noun. Often it was the police — or pigs — who were doing the hassling. People had roommate “hassles” back then. This could “put you through changes.” No one gets “put through changes” anymore. More’s the pity. It seems like “bummer” has stuck around. People still get “bummed out” but I don’t believe they have “bum trips” anymore. Also people don’t watch either the “boob tube” or “idiot box” anymore. I blame the advent of the computer age.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Here’s a question: how much Sixties slang did I use “back in the day”? Not much. I was, especially growing up in Berkeley, very much attuned to the times. I protested against the war in Vietnam, I listened to rock, I smoked “grass” aka “weed” or “bush” and grew my hair long but I generally eschewed slang. I suppose I’ve always been fairly erudite. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Speaking of words….People never have quarrels anymore. The British have rows but Americans just have arguments. No one gets cross anymore either. They do get angry or pissed. Some folks get mad though the British generally use mad for crazy. Speaking of piss, in England they take the piss but we don’t do that here in the states. Also in England you can tell someone to piss off but in the states you are pissed off. I don’t remember the last time I heard someone described as bashful, everyone is shy. Is it my imagination or are we cutting down on our vocabulary?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Without segue I’ll mention that last weekend I watched <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_the%2520god">The Godfather (1972) Coppola</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071562/?ref_=ttcnn">The Godfather Part II (1974) Coppola</a>. I’ve no idea how many times I’ve watched these two films but I’d say it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of a lot. With each viewing I become increasingly impressed with Al Pacino’s turn as Michael Corleone. The transformation in the first movie of from the boyish soldier back from the war bringing his girlfriend home to a wedding to the cold-blooded Mafia Don is one of the great performances in cinema. In the sequel he remains true to the character with only barely controlled rage to indicate that warm blood courses through his veins. The Godfather films are as close to perfectly made as you can get. Tick off the boxes, directing, editing, costumes, set design, acting, the score. I recently saw a discussion in which most participants said they preferred the sequel. Not me. (Although it is really splitting hairs to say you prefer one to the other.) I like the first more because of the aforementioned Michael transition and also for the presence of Vito (Marlon Brando) and Sonny (James Caan). That said the scenes ins Part II with Robert DeNiro as the young Vito in Little Italy are some of the best ever committed to celluloid. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">College football died after Michigan defeated Washington for the national championship on Monday (Go Blue!). Next season will be a travesty of what the sport once was. My own beloved University of California Golden Bears along with their arch rivals, Stanfurd will be in the <b>Atlantic</b> Coast Conference. From Cal’s Memorial Stadium you can look over the west rim of the stadium and see the <b>Pacific </b>Coast. Nonetheless…..Meanwhile the Pacific Coast Conference will be no more. Traditional rivalries have been going by the way side for years now and more will be ended. In lieu of many geographically logical conferences there will be huge mega conferences. All this at the behest of TV networks and in the name of the almighty dollar. Lastly there will now be a 12 team post season tournament to determine the national champions as greed gives way to common sense. Like professional sports, college football will now offer the opportunity to second place finishers to claim titles. To quote a song: doesn’t always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone.</p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-72872825095434956762024-01-06T09:46:00.000-08:002024-01-23T10:09:52.033-08:00Novel Number Three is Ready, Anyone Interested? I'm Hoping for a Yes!<p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq1fCRVmEnWFS7xJmvTOiLjE79kn9tO5aiG-aGowSGB_MRnR_5QFokKxJQiaDX4AJxvHg7MPcaKoJ2Q8Z2LE-zwis9S7rXwbmqeVV4KBZPueuefPKxMn1ONUyTMxWErvhC9P9VABCQ9Ju9JkXugSXFpOHbLhPVbHMLwVgHfyB4P_h4f1AJPdcikR4Sj38/s700/1500.jpg.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="469" data-original-width="700" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq1fCRVmEnWFS7xJmvTOiLjE79kn9tO5aiG-aGowSGB_MRnR_5QFokKxJQiaDX4AJxvHg7MPcaKoJ2Q8Z2LE-zwis9S7rXwbmqeVV4KBZPueuefPKxMn1ONUyTMxWErvhC9P9VABCQ9Ju9JkXugSXFpOHbLhPVbHMLwVgHfyB4P_h4f1AJPdcikR4Sj38/s320/1500.jpg.webp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The National Guard in Berkeley 1969</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"><br />I finished novel number three on New Year’s Eve day. It was the third (and I swear) final time I’ve finished the book, which is called “The Blood of Love: A Love Story of Berkeley in the Sixties.” The first time I finished the book it was 195,997 words. I realized that no one was going to look at a book from a first-time author (my two self-published novels don’t count) that was that long. So I went about trimming it. I soon realized that trimming wasn’t enough. I was using a hedge clipper when an axe was required. I took out characters and chapters and sections that I dearly loved and had worked hard on. It hurt but was necessary. When done my second iteration was a still healthy 128,444 words. Agents and publishers don’t really want to look at anything over 100,000 words but I reasoned that there was nothing more to cut and I wasn’t going to compromise on my artistic vision (big talk). I started sending out query letters which of course included the word count. The silence was deafening — aside from a few “thanks but no thanks.”</span><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"> </span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">I got wise. More cutting. Boy did that hurt. Version number three was a tidy 97, 545, slightly less than half the original length. Blood of Love is lean, mean and hopefully will start getting a second glance from prospective agents. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The truth was the book was too damn long the first time. I mean it was fine if I were preparing it as a mini-series but for a debut novel — or any other kind, for that matter — it was too much. Too many digressions and ancillary stories and superfluous characters and scenes that didn’t move the central story along.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’m proud of what I’ve got now after three years of work (three years and one month to be precise). Wednesday I started contacting prospective agents again.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I hate trying to sell things, even if it is of my own creation. I hate the kind of work involved in trying to find just the right publisher or agent. I’m an artist not a salesman. But sometimes in life you have to grit your teeth and do the unpleasant but absolutely necessary. Otherwise how would toilets get cleaned?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In case your interested (and if you’ve read this far I reckon you are). Here’s the template for my query letter which is re-fashioned each time its sent out.</p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Dear, I am currently seeking representation for my novel, “The Blood of Love, a Love Story of Berkeley in the Sixties.” Given your interest in I thought it might be a good fit for you.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The Blood of Love is the story of David Trentwood, from ages thirteen to twenty-one, and his great love, Cordelia McKenzie It is set against the backdrop of massive social change and political unrest in Berkeley during the 1960s. It is both literary and historical fiction.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: courier;">It is a kaleidoscopic look at the Sixties, the demonstrations, the counter culture, sex, drugs and rock and roll. The Blood of Love invokes the spirit and passion of the time as characters explore new found freedoms and take to the streets to protest the Vietnam War. David is at once a witness and a participant. The story is told in his voice which is fresh, irreverent yet sophisticated. David’s story is told as it happened, unfolding for the reader as it did for him. As David says in the book’s preface: “This will be my story but it will also be about those times. Most of the eight years described took place within the crucible of Berkeley, California, then an epicenter of the student movement, a place where the cultural sea changes were always evident.” </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: courier;">David and Cordelia meet as thirteen-year-olds and fall deeply in love. Tragically, they are separated the following summer. We jump ahead to the Summer of Love, though still apart the couple correspond regularly. David is no longer an innocent having lost his virginity and developed a fondness for getting high. The couple are finally re-united when Cordelia joins David as a student at the University of California in 1969 where he is already a veteran of the protest movement.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: courier;">David and Cordelia seem the perfect couple but tensions arise as Cordelia fights a war with inner demons resulting from the deaths of her parents when she was young. Also the couple clash over tactics as David extolls non-violence while Cordelia embraces the more extreme Weather Underground. We also meet their great friend and mentor, Steven, who is flamboyant, brilliant, and tragic. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Having waited for decades to read such a book, I finally decided to write it myself. I realized that I was uniquely qualified having grown up in the Berkeley in the Sixties and having read copiously about the times. I relied on both personal memories and research to make Blood of Love as true to its time as possible.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: courier;">I believe this story will appeal to a wide variety of readers, particularly those across different generations with an interest in the Sixties. Its love story is timeless and the political issues raised will resonate with readers of today.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: courier;">I am a semi-retired teacher who has self-published two novels, Lesson Plan, A Novel and Threat of Night (Yon Uhka).</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The Blood of Love is complete at 97, 546 words. The manuscript is available, in part or in full, upon request. Thank you for your time and consideration.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Sincerely,</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Richard Hourula</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Not bad, eh? Wouldn’t you want to read the book?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">All I can do now is research agents and fashion my letters to them based on their specific desires and publishing history. I will be persistent. I will find an agent. They will help me find a publisher. My novel will be published. It’s the only attitude I can have.</p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-10154850392065690942024-01-03T08:49:00.000-08:002024-01-03T08:49:45.694-08:00My First Post of 2024 Deals With Words that "Hit Different" are "Cool" or Don't Make Sense or are Out of Use<p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhvmQNgMbDogkGGjvHucKn9HD4SL3wTMkzyzZ0TxN5guY_mRbCUiavH7sCnzMaXNKamQgXIZatZjCMBByTM6iodC_yNHXc3BRqGSQJjfLe5dSwQsd2wYLhpDiGesEELc_j0KzIlGyeeI7lmamunlfnYk8ZijdFBzAJqVRnmctJHa7AY-7eFNs6YOcHy9o/s900/florence-pugh-net-worth-in-2023-how-much-is-florence-pugh-net-worth-640ecd78660e660666021-900.webp.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="506" data-original-width="900" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhvmQNgMbDogkGGjvHucKn9HD4SL3wTMkzyzZ0TxN5guY_mRbCUiavH7sCnzMaXNKamQgXIZatZjCMBByTM6iodC_yNHXc3BRqGSQJjfLe5dSwQsd2wYLhpDiGesEELc_j0KzIlGyeeI7lmamunlfnYk8ZijdFBzAJqVRnmctJHa7AY-7eFNs6YOcHy9o/s320/florence-pugh-net-worth-in-2023-how-much-is-florence-pugh-net-worth-640ecd78660e660666021-900.webp.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Florence Pugh -- because it's her birthday</td></tr></tbody></table><br />People talk about how such and such “hits different” but you never hear about anything that “hits the same.” Why is that? I want an answer to this and other questions in 2024. That’s a weird one, twenty twenty-four. My goodness 2014 sounds so futuristic and that was ten frickin’ years ago. For that matter 2004 sounds like science fiction and that was 20 years ago. Twenty. People turning 21 this year were born in 2003. That’s ridiculous. I’m still getting used to the early 1990s. My god that’s ancient history. Virtually no one was on the internet in the early nineties. People weren’t walking around staring at their phones. In fact anyone staring at a phone in 1994 would have been certifiable. (Does anyone say certifiable anymore? I mean, I just did but does anyone else?).</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">People don’t get “bent out of shape” anymore. I’m glad. I found it disconcerting to see people bent over in such a fashion that they simultaneously were out of shape.</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I almost started the preceding sentence as follows: “Personally, I found it…” I’m a good enough editor to have caught that. Most people don’t. You often see or hear people write or say, “personally I…” What’s the point of the “personally”? It serves no purpose. It’s like announcements on public transportation that tell you to check for your “personal belongings.” In other words, the heck with your impersonal belongings. Screw anything you’ve brought from work that isn’t yours, just look for that personal stuff. </p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Just. Talk about overused words. Example: “I just want to say.” How about “I want to say”? Another example: “I’ll just have coffee.” It’s okay to say: “I’ll have coffee.” The added just makes it sound like you’re apologizing for only having coffee. Just say what you mean. Er, say what you mean. </p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In sports you often hear that “there’s no love lost” between two opponents.” Fair enough. But why do we never hear that there is indeed love lost? And what the hell does it mean? </p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">By the way I can do without being told someone is “a class act.” Or even worse that someone is “good people.” A “good person” would be acceptable.</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This part of the year is less stressful in greeting acquaintances. You don’t have to worry about whether they celebrate Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa or the Winter Solstice. You can abandon the wishy washy Happy Holidays and say: Happy New Year. No one is offended by being wished a happy new year. Are they? Goodness maybe that’s off limits for some people like those who use other calendars like the Bengali, the Discordian, Babylonian or the Ethiopian. Gadzooks!</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Today if you’re say you’re sore it’s likely that there’s an area of the body that hurts a bit, maybe the result of vigorous exercise or doing some unexpected heavy lifting. But in days of yore being sore could mean you were angry about something. You hear it in old movies and even some TV shows of the past. It had pretty much faded away by the time I was a kid. But I was asked once if I was sore (as in angry) and this was when I was twenty-two years old. The person who posed the question must have been a time traveler from the forties (they had time machines then that were discontinued and we somehow don’t know about?). I didn’t know him well at all and strongly suspect I never saw him again. As it turns out I wasn’t “sore.”</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Also no longer in use is “shove off.” Similarly people rarely “take off.” I don’t think that people “split” much anymore. We just to “leave” or “go.” </p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Do parents or tell kids to “pipe down” anymore? Probably not. They will say, “listen up.” This raises a question: what the heck is the word "up" doing? Can’t you just ask someone to “listen”? I would think so. </p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Today in sports players are “coached up.” Don’t get that one either. When I played we were simply “coached.”</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This has been a blast — hold on, does anyone describe fun experiences as being “a blast” anymore? Maybe not. I know that "keen" is gone. (Although in England you can be "keen" on something -- but that's different). Keen ended around the time I started high school along with “boss.” Cool has persisted. It’s nearly been 100 years now that it has been used as a slang term for something very good or different in a positive way. That’s pretty cool.</p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-76710758903961028772023-12-31T12:36:00.000-08:002023-12-31T15:25:32.353-08:00A Brief Reader Survey to Finish 2023<p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdPfdIyWyiaR2ZRfZDd823hnoRyM6BuWv924UirdAsGVMVJtAWBNw6FAkgLVefqT1rLe16-0lDA5vL1dtCaxMqx9coiHMSc5IAUu2T6rT5vvW4ySWRPJt4WKTGta3-0hx2vJOEz7YaSbRbURV5dPVElW6Q3q-0bDcJCuL_AbnAFwEWqW9jiN-8Li-a5Ao/s600/1905-busy-office-scene-underwood-archives.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="463" data-original-width="600" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdPfdIyWyiaR2ZRfZDd823hnoRyM6BuWv924UirdAsGVMVJtAWBNw6FAkgLVefqT1rLe16-0lDA5vL1dtCaxMqx9coiHMSc5IAUu2T6rT5vvW4ySWRPJt4WKTGta3-0hx2vJOEz7YaSbRbURV5dPVElW6Q3q-0bDcJCuL_AbnAFwEWqW9jiN-8Li-a5Ao/s320/1905-busy-office-scene-underwood-archives.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Busy Streams Employees</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"><br />I’d like to end 2023 with a brief reader’s poll in order to improve services here at Streams of Unconsciousness in the coming year. We’re always looking for new ways to please our regular readers (estimated to be in the tens of millions) and attract new customers as part of our global outreach. Thanks for your participation. We look forward to hearing from you and perhaps seeing you in 2024. And oh by the way, Happy New Year!!!</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">If you visited the Streams headquarters in the past year, which of the following on site attractions did you visit the most?</p>
<ol>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The museum</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The gift shop</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The cafe</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The opium den</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The disco</li>
</ol>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Also if you visited Streams this year, which of the following did you most frequently participate in?</p>
<ol>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A seance</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">An orgy</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A bocce ball tournament</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A dance marathon</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Primal scream therapy</li>
</ol>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">If you’ve made purchases from the Streams online store, what have you bought most often:</p>
<ol>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A hoodie</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A tee shirt</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A cap</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A girdle</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A dildo</li>
</ol>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">If you’ve visited the museum, which exhibit did you enjoy the most?</p>
<ol>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The Hall of Typos</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The fluorescent post-it collection</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The original Streams mimeograph machines</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The papier-mâché shower clogs</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The looted art from third world countries</li>
</ol>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What would you most like to see added to the Streams restaurant menu?</p>
<ol>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Roasted bald eagle</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Watermelon rind souffle</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Calamari Cup O Noodles</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Mescaline dosed trout</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Haggis</li>
</ol>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">If you could pick one of the following entertainers to make an encore performance at the Streams Pavilion, who would it be?</p>
<ol>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Paul McCartney</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Beyonce</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Taylor Swift</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The Vienna Boy’s Choir</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The Moosejaw Middle School marching band</li>
</ol>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Which forthcoming Streams-published book are you most likely to read in 2024?</p>
<ol>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The Mystery of the Missing Adjective by E.Q Pettifogg</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How to Tame a Rabid Wolverine by Myra Myron</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">100 Recipes for Grouper by Hasenpfeffer Conroy</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">An Illustrated History of Bank Foreclosures by Bob Bleak</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Winds Across the Patio: A Novel by Millicent Whitcomb</li>
</ol>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What blog topic most interested you?</p>
<ol>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Reviews of recent films</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Discussions on classic movies</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Angry diatribes against “the man”</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Paranoid rants against “the system”</li>
<li style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Incoherent ravings about ducks</li></ol>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-66541541739252965722023-12-27T09:50:00.000-08:002023-12-27T15:27:13.900-08:00My Top Ten Films of 2023<p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDfNCGbiIgvUfJMlZh_Qt_DSGsfp7U7y-uqryuhEMuBK0nv2LF0xChKcfExOhvOOohEbyMkpcTEfehEwQMArpNiWi1mt8c-nuVYWlFZ6Dsf3P_4kQnQIcEJjJg9xOBvMooVGjv79KKV4xQPRxZ5to6pkKnfn9T8NRRv6kL7MXOV_JBeFpbEWafocqHGHE/s1600/27leaves-notebook-04-ghcw-videoSixteenByNineJumbo1600.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDfNCGbiIgvUfJMlZh_Qt_DSGsfp7U7y-uqryuhEMuBK0nv2LF0xChKcfExOhvOOohEbyMkpcTEfehEwQMArpNiWi1mt8c-nuVYWlFZ6Dsf3P_4kQnQIcEJjJg9xOBvMooVGjv79KKV4xQPRxZ5to6pkKnfn9T8NRRv6kL7MXOV_JBeFpbEWafocqHGHE/s320/27leaves-notebook-04-ghcw-videoSixteenByNineJumbo1600.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fallen Leaves</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px;"><br />This was the best year in films since….I’m not exactly sure. A long time. It might be the best year of the current century. I had a deuce of a time picking between three GREAT films for the number one spot (Three great films in one year!). As you’ll note there’s a gap between three and four but that’s no slight on the rest of the top ten. Any of the first six would have been worthy of the top spot in a “normal” year. Eight films were well worthy of being in the top four and at least thirteen were top ten worthy. My faith in the film industry is -- at least temporarily -- restored. </span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>1. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21027780/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_fallen%2520lea">Fallen Leaves (Kaurismäki)</a></b></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>2.<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19623228/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_3_nm_5_q_godla"> Godland (Pálmason)</a></b></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>3. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15398776/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_4_nm_3_q_oppe">Oppenheimer (Nolan) </a></b></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><b><br /></b></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>4. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13651794/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_may%2520dec">May December (Haynes)</a></b></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>5. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26440619/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_Afire">Afire (Petzold)</a></b></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>6. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14230458/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_Poor%2520t">Poor Things (Lanthimos)</a></b></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>7. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16304446/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_fair%2520pl">Fair Play (Domont)</a></b></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>8. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13923216/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_showing%2520">Showing Up (Reichardt)</a></b></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>9. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14849194/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_the%2520holdo">The Holdovers (Payne)</a></b></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>10. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13238346/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_past%2520liv">Past Lives (Song) </a></b></p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Honorable Mention</b>: <b><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5537002/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_0_q_killers">Killers of the Flower Moon (Scorsese)</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14230388/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2_tt_3_nm_4_q_ast">Asteroid City (Anderson)</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17527468/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_5_nm_3_q_bottoms">Bottoms (Seligman)</a>,<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21942866/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_dream%2520sc"> Dream Scenario (Borgli)</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1517268/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_4_nm_3_q_barbie">Barbie (Gerwig),</a> <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17009710/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_5_nm_3_q_anat">Anatomy of a Fall (Triet)</a>. </b></p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Best Actor:</b> Colman Domingo <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14160834/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_3_nm_5_q_Rustin">(Rustin</a>) Runners Up — </p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Alden Ehrenreich (Fair Play), Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) and Paul Giamatti (Holdovers).</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Best Actress: </b>Carey Mulligan <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5535276/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_6_nm_2_q_maestr">(Maestro)</a> Runners up - Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon), Alma Pöysti (Fallen Leaves) and Natalie Portman (May December).</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Best Supporting Actor: </b>Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer). Runners Up — Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things) and Ingvar Sigurdsson (Godland)</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>Best Supporting Actress:</b> Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers) Runners Up — Juliane Moore (May December) and Jodie Foster (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5302918/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_3_nm_5_q_nyad">Nyad</a>) </p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-81975934857122036102023-12-23T13:24:00.000-08:002024-01-06T10:43:18.612-08:00Save an Intelligent Animal From Suffering and Help the Environment in the Bargain, Don't Eat Pig Meat<p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiagstNXXM3HxL3Wjf7VNHaUO54IdT0QPDkyC-gG2_kx5r02QGqFCuY6_wAJbhzyaiIcJQUrciGPKQHo7k4MVn5jGuakfOEXqNxJW-t-eV-6typBMpOlc9PPsviXcZVadNXPPskCfRUQth0f3QNcI3o36ah16hzu0tKM5yNkaNpxWoSJuW5OvpQL-X4neM/s1200/Mini-Pig-Article-Blog-Header-12.7.21.jpg.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="1200" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiagstNXXM3HxL3Wjf7VNHaUO54IdT0QPDkyC-gG2_kx5r02QGqFCuY6_wAJbhzyaiIcJQUrciGPKQHo7k4MVn5jGuakfOEXqNxJW-t-eV-6typBMpOlc9PPsviXcZVadNXPPskCfRUQth0f3QNcI3o36ah16hzu0tKM5yNkaNpxWoSJuW5OvpQL-X4neM/s320/Mini-Pig-Article-Blog-Header-12.7.21.jpg.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br />Having ham with your Christmas dinner? Don’t.<p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">Would you bake the family dog and eat it? Would you roast your toddler? Of course not. Yet pigs are smarter than dogs, cats and your average three-year-old. They’re smarter than horses. Don’t believe me?<a href="https://www.humanesociety.org/animals/pigs#:~:text=Pigs%20are%20gentle%20creatures%20with,few%20sows%20and%20their%20piglets."> Ask The Humane Society</a>. Also, according to the website <a href="https://animalequality.org/news/the-intelligence-of-pigs-comparable-to-that-of-elephants-and-dolphins/">animal equity</a>: Researchers have found that pigs are intelligent beings capable of remembering their surroundings, learning from their friends, and solving complex problems. Pigs can be trained just as dogs are. They are gentle and make good pets.</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Their reputation as filthy animals is undeserved. It stems from the environments that farmers put them in. They clean themselves and — contrary to common misconceptions — don’t wallow in their own filth. They do wallow in mud, especially during hot weather, to keep cool and avoid sunburns. According to <a href="https://sentientmedia.org/pig-intelligence/">sentinentmedia org.</a> pigs are sentient beings who can feel stress, fear and joy. Pigs are the fifth most intelligent animals in the world. Pigs understand when they see themselves in a mirror. The ability to recognize an image of themselves, known as self-recognition, is only found in the world’s most intelligent species. Pigs are known to have both good long and short-term memories. They are social animals who work well together in groups.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I don’t understand how people with good conscience can tacitly support the slaughter of these relatively intelligent creatures which they do every time they have a slice of bacon.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And about that slaughter….On factory farms pigs designated for your dinner table are treated horribly. Often confined in crates that are so small they can’t even turn around. Piglets are separated from their mothers soon after birth.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Pigs have a lifespan of ten to fifteen years, unless they are designated for your pulled pork sandwich or plate of bacon. Factory farms pigs are sent to the slaughterhouse after six months of life. Up to a million pigs a year die in transport, freezing to death in the winter and dying of heat exhaustion in the summer. By the time of their deaths their lungs and legs are so weak from confinement that they can’t run and can barely walk. Their short lives are miserable and end horribly.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming/pigs/pig-transport-slaughter/">According to PETA</a>: “A typical slaughterhouse kills up to 1,100 pigs every hour. The sheer number of animals killed makes it impossible for them to be given humane, painless deaths. Because of improper stunning, many pigs are alive when they reach the scalding tank, which is intended to soften their skin and remove their hair. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) documented 14 humane-slaughter violations at one processing plant, where inspectors found hogs who ‘were walking and squealing after being stunned [with a stun gun] as many as four times.’ According to one slaughterhouse worker, ‘There’s no way these animals can bleed out in the few minutes it takes to get up the ramp. By the time they hit the scalding tank, they’re still fully conscious and squealing. Happens all the time.’”</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But there are other methods of killing pigs. Like the gas chamber. In an article published earlier this year the<a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/animal-rights-slaughterhouse-17772460.php"> San Francisco Chronicle </a>reported on film footage snuck out of a slaughterhouse. It revealed: “pigs screaming, gasping for air, thrashing violently and desperately trying to escape as they slowly suffocated in a pool of invisible carbon dioxide gas.”</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Like other kinds of animal farming, pig farming is bad for the environment and a contributor to global warming. Pork has the third highest environmental impact among meats. According to a<a href="https://www.colorado.edu/ecenter/2022/03/15/it-may-be-uncomfortable-we-need-talk-about-it-animal-agriculture-industry-and-zero-waste#:~:text=Raising%20livestock%20for%20human%20consumption,biodiversity%20loss%2C%20and%20water%20pollution."> University of Colorado</a> study: Raising livestock for human consumption generates nearly 15% of total global greenhouse gas emissions, which is greater than all the transportation emissions combined. It also uses nearly 70% of agricultural land which leads to being the major contributor to deforestation, biodiversity loss, and water pollution. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Save a pig today. Don’t have ham, pork chops or pork sausage. Encourage others not to. Support humane treatment of all animals and end the slaughter of pigs. If you can, adopt one as a pet. <a href="https://headlines.peta.org/year-of-the-pig/">Here’s some ways to help are oinking friends</a>.</p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-56076936319879709292023-12-16T12:46:00.000-08:002024-01-06T10:39:38.914-08:00Yuletide Fun on Film, Another Edition of My Favorite Christmas Films<p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrahzlB1jU30bef4dOmvEIJCipcOW1_OMeNe67RJspnWeSgSYHXUdIZmXw70bD9dOIhP9ou0ezSNgTQlBb8Q-hZwS4RzN9HlN4FfLq_hjO-sq5xbAJiEhKxJmyRNdPdngcD2wmQs_7krHN2WSMFitUXB5PKw32yiJ1OqcWD8egnRJvgM7ECXEgfzHnq3Q/s700/2622.jpg.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="700" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrahzlB1jU30bef4dOmvEIJCipcOW1_OMeNe67RJspnWeSgSYHXUdIZmXw70bD9dOIhP9ou0ezSNgTQlBb8Q-hZwS4RzN9HlN4FfLq_hjO-sq5xbAJiEhKxJmyRNdPdngcD2wmQs_7krHN2WSMFitUXB5PKw32yiJ1OqcWD8egnRJvgM7ECXEgfzHnq3Q/s320/2622.jpg.webp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fanny and Alexander</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"><br />Welcome to the 1,000th iteration (</span><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: x-small;">he’s exaggerating)</span><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"> of my favorite Christmas films. If you go to the Christmas label on the side of the blog you can find hundreds (</span><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: x-small;">again, he’s exaggerating</span><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;">) of other such posts. I believe the exercise worth repeating as tastes change, new movies are seen and changing perspectives worth adding. </span><div><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;">We live in an age in which there is a proliferation of really lame Christmas movies. The Hallmark channel has been cranking them out for about ten years now and Netflix has gotten into the act. They feature sappy story lines, d list actors and shoot-the-script directors. I happily ignore those. Fortunately there are the tried and true with occasional new additions. Many of my favorite are older films, as you’ll note, from the time when story was king. In a lot of these pictures Christmas scenes are tangental. Most have big stars and some are from really good directors. Some try to capture something of whatever the Christmas spirit is. While for others Christmas provides an interesting backdrop or is like one of the characters. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;">I’ll not be detailing plot points, instead focusing on the many great performances that highlight these films as well as the picture's relation to the holiday season.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;">(The following are offered in no particular order.)</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083922/"><b>Fanny Alexander (1982) Bergman</b></a>. We start off with the question of what constitutes a Christmas movie. I’ve wrestled with this question before. Here is my latest answer: a movie that centers around Christmas, is set around Christmas or has a significant Christmas scene. Fanny begins with a very long scene on Christmas Eve and then ignores the holiday completely for the rest of its several hours running time (I only consider the extended TV version worth watching). But what a glorious Christmas scene it is with all the pageantry, fun, food, gifts and family (seen through the eyes of a child) that can make the holiday seem magical. It is some of the best stuff on celluloid. The great Ingmar Bergman directed.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038650/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_0_q_it%27s%2520a%2520wo"><b>It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) Capra</b></a>. It’s a wonderful film. Like F&A one of the greats of all time. It begins and ends on Christmas Eve with the vast middle exploring other times of year. It is sentimental (but not overly) with a simple but profound message. The fact that many people such as myself never tire after repeat viewings is a clear indication of its power. Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore and Thomas Mitchell lead a fantastic cast featuring many of Hollywood’s Golden Age’s top supporting players (such as Ward Bond, H.B. Warner, Frank Faylen and Beluah Bondi).</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037595/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2_tt_8_nm_0_q_christmas%2520in%2520"><b>Christmas in Connecticut (1945) Godfrey.</b></a> Another picture I watch every year and never tire of. The first “pure Christmas” movie on the list it all takes place during the Christmas season, mostly on December 24 and 25. Barbara Stanwyck is radiant, Dennis Morgan is charming, Sidney Greenstreet, Una O’Connor, Reginald Gardner and S.Z. (Cuddles) Sakall round out a top notch cast. It’s a classic romantic comedy with a tight script more than ably directed by Peter Godfrey who, lamentably, never did anything nearly as good. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067439/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_8_nm_0_q_mon%2520on"><b>Mon Oncle Antoine (1971) Jutra.</b></a> A criminally underrated and under-appreciated movie (probably because it’s over 50 years old and French Canadian — you know how people are). The film is set entirely during Christmas in a rural Quebec mining town in 1949. It’s a coming of age story but a damn good one. Moving, beautifully shot. Realism tinged by the fantasy that is Christmas and being young. Thankfully TCM shows it every year.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033045/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_shop%2520around%2520t"><b></b></a></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirSVcL6ko_f68X2WJkHxEbCE0ipzi1PvZtOkX1O4rXpzRGBLXO30qeBBAgugda4OvY3nrZBu8AnLSsLhazKerS2bhy3fqf3UVwGC-iQKVEXcJcUE6bOq5vnrXonUiJINDlNu7eCpLbq4OOok8UO8jV9P9WYvdUfv_NJ7-Hb7nDk9idQKsWnniIKH8dXVw/s500/MV5BMjIwNDQ3MTM4NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNjgwMDI0MjE@._V1_.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="399" data-original-width="500" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirSVcL6ko_f68X2WJkHxEbCE0ipzi1PvZtOkX1O4rXpzRGBLXO30qeBBAgugda4OvY3nrZBu8AnLSsLhazKerS2bhy3fqf3UVwGC-iQKVEXcJcUE6bOq5vnrXonUiJINDlNu7eCpLbq4OOok8UO8jV9P9WYvdUfv_NJ7-Hb7nDk9idQKsWnniIKH8dXVw/s320/MV5BMjIwNDQ3MTM4NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNjgwMDI0MjE@._V1_.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Shop Around the Corner</td></tr></tbody></table><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033045/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_shop%2520around%2520t"><b>The Shop Around the Corner (1940) Lubitsch. </b></a>It’s as close to perfect a film as has ever been made. Ernst Lubitsch directed. He was constitutionally incapable of making a bad picture. Jimmy Stewart is wonderful as are Frank Morgan and the rest of the cast — special shout out to Felix Bressart. Touching, warm, romantic and the story concludes most satisfactorily on a snowy Christmas Eve.<p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1401143/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_rare"><b>Rare Exports (2010) Helander.</b></a> Finland’s (Hyvä Suomi!) contribution to the list. Most definitely a Christmas movie through and through centering as it does on the true story and secrets of Santa Claus. It’s an action/horror/fantasy comedy Christmas story all in 82 wild wonderful minutes. A different take on the typical holiday film, to be sure but one that is thoroughly enjoyable from beginning to end.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037077/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_miracle%2520of%2520mor"><b>The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1943) Sturges.</b></a> Another film that begins and ends and ends at Christmas with a vast middle that has nothing to do with the holiday. Indeed there’s very little reference to Christmas at all but it’s still a holiday favorite for me and countless others. Plus it’s a Preston Sturges film so you know it manages to be wild, whacky AND intelligent fun. Those Sturges comedies of the early/mid forties never disappointed and all stand up after repeat viewings. The real miracle of the Miracle of Morgan’s Creek is that they got this story of pregnant young girl (who doesn’t know who the father is) past the censors. Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton star but William Demarest steals every scene he’s in.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8522006/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_1_nm_0_q_happiest%2520seaso"><b>Happiest Season (2020) DuVall</b></a>. A fairly new addition to the list. Just had my second ever viewing of it and consider it now to be worthy of regular viewings. One of two LGBTQ friendly Christmas stories on my list, this a more modern take about coming out. It is largely predictable but great fun in getting to the inevitable and somewhat sappy conclusion. Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis co-star but supporting players Daniel Levy and Aubrey Plaza are scene stealers.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2402927/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_6_nm_1_q_carol"><b>Carol (2015) Haynes. </b></a>Fully the first half is during the Christmas season and then we’re off into other times of the year. Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara co-star in my favorite movie of 2015. Our second LGBTQ friendly film, this one set in a time when “no one” came out (the fifties). It’s heart-wrenching, heart-warming and moving and has more than enough Christmas in it to justify inclusion on this list. Todd Haynes’ direction, the set designs and costuming are significant co-stars. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039190/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_the%2520bishop"><b>The Bishop’s Wife (1947) Koster. </b></a>It stars Cary Grant as an angel, what more could you want? That Loretta Young and David Niven co-star (and James Gleason and Monty Woolley are supporting players) clinches the deal. If you’re curious about the word charming just watch Grant in this picture. He manages to be an angel without being preachy about it and rattling on about Jesus and God (who needs that?). Set entirely within the Christmas season ending on the day itself.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099785/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_0_q_home%2520alone">Home Alone (1990) Columbus </a>and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104431/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_0_q_home%2520alone%25202">Home Alone 2 (1992) Columbus.</a></b> Two more films that I find it impossible to tire of. You know the stories, you know the stars. Macaulay Caulkin was the precious Kevin, Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern were the cartoonishly evil bandits, Catherine O’Hara (the brilliant comic actress) was the frazzled mother. A cameo by the late great John Candy was a highlight of the original and a cameo by the detestable DJ Trumpy is the blight on the second.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319343/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_0_q_Elf"><b>Elf (2003) Favreau. </b></a>Pure Christmas. Pure fun. It’s unimaginable with anyone but Will Ferrell as the oversized titular character. Bob Newhart plays his dad and Ed Asner is Santa. James Caan features as well. It’s a silly movie but the good kind that makes you smile and delight in child-like hi-jinks. For the kind of movie it is it’s excellent. A seasonal staple.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039190/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_the%2520bishop"><b></b></a></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2H2roiYOBNnkeCvzU7nJtC1zk_vmvhrDkdshaEeERl9x0RhhecbukIu7G8k9NjRK4lgzCwSLCCH92fYR6MzrWWDQVtFttcaICirqLoQnmMWMiHaw9RVcAR_FeRr5IhJq-IdGF8to9JSvnnqytVsYulyNOe8QYoeIFhAFq-_g7YisJsWJ4MGptJS2Tvrw/s350/scroo.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="197" data-original-width="350" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2H2roiYOBNnkeCvzU7nJtC1zk_vmvhrDkdshaEeERl9x0RhhecbukIu7G8k9NjRK4lgzCwSLCCH92fYR6MzrWWDQVtFttcaICirqLoQnmMWMiHaw9RVcAR_FeRr5IhJq-IdGF8to9JSvnnqytVsYulyNOe8QYoeIFhAFq-_g7YisJsWJ4MGptJS2Tvrw/s320/scroo.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alistair Sim in A Christmas Carol</td></tr></tbody></table><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039190/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_the%2520bishop"><b>A Christmas Carol (1951) Hurst.</b></a> Except no substitute. This is the best (my humble opinion) cinematic rendering of Charles Dickens’ classic tale of the redemption of Ebeneezer Scrooge. Alistair Sim stars in a remarkable performance. He’s on the verge of chomping on the scenery but has just enough restraint to make his performance perfect. <p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14849194/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_the%2520hold"><b>The Holdovers (2023) Payne. </b></a>Still in theaters. Obviously the latest addition to the list, I believe it will become a seasonal regular. The missus and I saw it last month and enjoyed it a lot and <a href="https://rikuwrites.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-good-bad-and-surprising-six-recent.html">I wrote a little about it on this blog</a>. Excepting the very end it is set entirely around the Christmas season. Paul Giamatti shines as do co-stars Dominic Sessa and Da’Vine Joy Randolph.</p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025878/"><b>The Thin Man (1934) Van Dyke. </b></a>Okay not a very Christmasy movie but it does have scenes on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Anyway it is the first of the delightful Thin Man series starring William Powell and Myrna Loy and if there’s a better regular screen pairing in cinema history I haven’t heard of it. Nick and Nora Charles (and their dog Asta) tipple their way through life wise-cracking all the way. They also solve murders. This is the best of the series.</p><div><br /></div>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><b><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086465/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_0_q_trading%2520places">Trading Places (1983) Landis</a>.</b> Somewhat of a hybrid Christmas and New Year’s Eve movie. SNL alums Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy co-star along with Jamie Lee Curtis in one of the few really good comedies to come out of the Eighties. It constantly edges towards poor taste but stops short enough for me and is damn funny fun along the way. Begins during the Christmas season and continues just past the new year.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Others to consider: Meet John Doe, It Happened on Fifth Avenue, Remember the Night, A Christmas Tale, Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Carol (1938), The Muppets Christmas Carol, The Man Who Came to Dinner, A Boy Named Christmas, Klaus.</p></div>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-21675645447108402592023-12-11T10:08:00.000-08:002023-12-12T14:45:21.598-08:00A Career Choice Made While Drunk -- Of Course it Worked Out<p><span style="font-family: American Typewriter;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: American Typewriter;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZlhBMgytdwltkwx-1Yd1HD8V7viVHjZ0iYDXDFI0i94yijf43ekXgYncdN2d3nVev6Teiq9Lypgv-oQBwlOeXe23gSbw3qcX02YCnq5TUsh_NIPUwiM-ERSFeMm-Q8E8Zbhuut0tSuJDcZs-X6K3V6D9NG2MFKxF-SSy7W0QvLuvXqPgMrck8MmAcUUI/s640/52f9f4e9ba1b808cc43bf7bdb50dabfa.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="640" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZlhBMgytdwltkwx-1Yd1HD8V7viVHjZ0iYDXDFI0i94yijf43ekXgYncdN2d3nVev6Teiq9Lypgv-oQBwlOeXe23gSbw3qcX02YCnq5TUsh_NIPUwiM-ERSFeMm-Q8E8Zbhuut0tSuJDcZs-X6K3V6D9NG2MFKxF-SSy7W0QvLuvXqPgMrck8MmAcUUI/s320/52f9f4e9ba1b808cc43bf7bdb50dabfa.jpeg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: American Typewriter;"><br />I was drunk when I decided to become a teacher. (Isn’t everyone?). I was about to turn thirty or -- maybe I’d just turned thirty -- and was sitting on my preferred barstool in my preferred watering hole into my third or fourth hour of drinking when it occurred to me that I wanted something more out of life than to be a proofreader and copy editor. The drinking I was fine with, but being a wage slave is where I drew a line. I’d by this time self-sabotaged my career as a journalist which is another story and rather sad one at that. Another time, perhaps.</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">Back to the barstool ..... Okay, Richard, I reasoned, you’ve always loved history, why not try teaching it? Fair enough, I responded. Mind you I’d never given being a teacher any thought. Not for a second. But when intoxicated I was liable to imagine myself in all manner of scenarios like being married to Linda Ronstadt or Cybill Shepherd. This idea of being a teacher had a tinge of respectability and believability to it.</p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">The damnedest thing is that when sober the next day I still managed to envision myself teaching. I thought something along the lines of: let’s go for it. So I did.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">No one I mentioned the idea to burst out laughing or screamed, “for the love of god don’t do it, the humanity!” Not even my level-headed girlfriend. Maybe I was on to something.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A few months later I was enrolled in school completing a degree in history (I’d minored in it when I got my journalism degree). I enjoyed my courses and had some good professors and for the first time in my life I was enjoying school — that is, the classes part of it. I’d always enjoyed the extra curriculars of school from kindergarten through college, but the class time had bored me silly — with exceptions here and there. Now I was looking forward to classes and diving headlong into the reading, studying for tests and researching/writing papers. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">After two semesters I was the proud possessor of my second bachelor’s degree. Not good enough. I wanted to further my studies, both for my own edification and also to make me an even better prepared historian when I began teaching. But I was in a bit of a rush so made the seemingly foolhardy decision to try to complete my two-year Master’s program in half the time. I was warned against this by the head of the history department and two trusted professors. But I was on a roll.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The following year was, to put it mildly, intense. I scheduled virtually every second. I maintained a calendar which specified how much (to the page) reading I was to do each day. I stuck to it. (Remarkably my career as a drinking alcoholic continued apace as I even scheduled when I could get drunk.) By this time I’d quit my job and was a full time student and I loved it. Indeed, I loved that academic year and if you’ll excuse the expression, I kicked ass. I became only the third person to complete the schools’s MA program in one year and to top it off, not only did I not struggle, I graduated with distinction. That I received this honor in doing two years in one made me a positive marvel to my professors. Two of them convinced that I should continue my studies by pursuing a PhD. They assured me that I would get into any program I chose. I had applications sent to the University of Wisconsin and Boston University when my girlfriend (now wife) convinced me that if we were to start a family it might be best that I stick to my original plan and get a teaching credential. She was — as has generally been the case — quite right. I’d have been ill-suited for academia, besides which my particular kind of energy was then ideally suited for teaching younger folks. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I was not enamored of the credential program classes. It quickly became obvious that when it comes to teaching you learn by doing. I’d always intended to teach high school but when our program visited a middle school something clicked. I connected both with the age group and the particular school. In fact I determined that I would absolutely HAVE TO teach at that school. I did my student teaching there and it went well, especially the day I did a lesson on the Great Depression by dressing as if an elderly hobo transported from that era. Right down to a fake beard, cane and tattered clothes. Students and adults were enthralled.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Alas there were no openings for history teachers at the school, nor for that matter, anywhere else. I spent my first year as a credentialed teacher subbing, though mostly at my preferred school. After another half year of subbing they had an opening and I had a job. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">By this time I’d also gotten sober and become a father. I was all set to be an adult with a career.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I was at the school for twenty-two years in total. They were not all smooth, especially at the end as I’d ran afoul of administrators on far too many occasions. I was oppositional and rebellious fighting both important battles and unnecessary ones. As faculty adviser of the school's student newspaper I'd once sicced the ACLU on the district when they threatened to censor the paper. This put a large target on my back.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Two things are true about my middle school teaching career: 1) I was loved by and an inspiration to many students 2) I often showed a lack of judgment and maturity and constantly struggled with discipline. I was handicapped by struggles with mental health issues. Indeed it’s remarkable that I was as successful as I was given that I was improperly diagnosed and given a series of the wrong medications many of which had problematic side effects. (Sometimes I wistfully wonder how my career would have gone if I’d been properly diagnosed as being on the bipolar spectrum and been prescribed my current medication for panic attacks from the beginning.)</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In any event I eventually resigned when trumped up charges got to be too much to bear. (It should be noted that while the bastards at central administration were determined to be rid of me, no one at the school who’d actually saw me teach wanted me to go. I was, despite it all, a valued member of the school community.)</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the moments, days and weeks after my resignation I felt an incredible lightness as if — excuse the cliche — a tremendous weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I quickly decided on a new direction as a teacher and thus returned to school to get a Teacher of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate. I would teach English to students visiting from other countries. Though I’d never done the like before, it seemed a grand idea and sure enough it has been an absolute joy these past thirteen years. I’ve never been happier professionally. I have a mutual admiration society with my students. Administrators revere me as a veteran teacher who always shows up, is professional and popular and an integral part of the school.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I was at EF in San Francisco for seven and half years before deciding (foolishly) to retire. Retirement lasted three months before I took a job at LSI in Berkeley where I was for four and half years, leaving the school last week to return to EF next month. I’ll be 70 in February so can’t be sure how much longer I’ll continue to teach, certainly another two years seems reasonable. As long as I’m ambulatory and have the power of speech I can keep going. I love it. I love doing something that I’m good at. I constantly push myself to innovate and improve. I’m there for my students and never mail it in. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Who’d have thought that a decision made in the throes of drinking spree would — despite a few bumps along the way — work out so well? </p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I've had hardships but gracious it's been fun and rewarding.</p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>A shout out to my good friend (all the way back to high school), Phil. He did go into academia and was a positive marvel at it. He is likewise a marvel as a person.</i></p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-32156258192085037732023-12-02T16:56:00.000-08:002023-12-02T16:56:12.600-08:00My Top Ten TV Shows for 2023<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBETc0rRNHNeizx-YE7PuRYA2Nk6MakYczxlFgQENrdRfQVgVu_jjlhk4HH2S1zr2cCRubd2zxMxKUAsXTbxPcEKJaLPGfOrWSaRNmdxc3Efhxf54vw4Uk6YMy5BK2iwzTeSySsDVTt7SMbb10NeWMgpNuB8Ak6Vb6lI_HBK19S6KB_-dnhE9_dgXkzVI/s1200/1d2a74c2-3af1-4f73-b3f6-8fcd1036e84b.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBETc0rRNHNeizx-YE7PuRYA2Nk6MakYczxlFgQENrdRfQVgVu_jjlhk4HH2S1zr2cCRubd2zxMxKUAsXTbxPcEKJaLPGfOrWSaRNmdxc3Efhxf54vw4Uk6YMy5BK2iwzTeSySsDVTt7SMbb10NeWMgpNuB8Ak6Vb6lI_HBK19S6KB_-dnhE9_dgXkzVI/s320/1d2a74c2-3af1-4f73-b3f6-8fcd1036e84b.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />1. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5348176/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Barry </a><p></p><p>2. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3530232/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_last%2520week%2520ton">Last Week Tonight with John Oliver</a></p><p>3. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7660850/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_6_nm_2_q_suc">Succession</a></p><p>4.<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14452776/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_3_nm_5_q_the%2520bear"> </a><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5788792/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_6_nm_2_q_the%2520marve">The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel</a></p><p>5. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14452776/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_3_nm_5_q_the%2520bear">The Bear</a> </p><p>6. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3513388/?ref_=nm_flmg_t_3_wr">Late Night with Seth Myers</a></p><p>7. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22074164/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_jury">Jury Duty</a></p><p>8. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14269590/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_poker%2520face">Poker Face</a></p><p>9. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11691774/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_only%2520m">Only Murders in the Building</a></p><p>10. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11717610/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_american%2520auto">American Auto</a></p><p>Honorable Mention: <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2077823/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_8_nm_0_q_perry%2520mas">Perry Mason</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4406178/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_3_nm_5_q_gild">The Gilded Age</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8001092/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_world%2520on%2520fire">The World on Fire</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16867040/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_cunk">Crunk on Earth</a></p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-48949790657698371552023-11-27T10:37:00.000-08:002024-01-09T09:22:59.767-08:00Turkey, Movies, Basketball and Stuck in a Tunnel, My Four-Day Weekend<p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Jf64tjThc6TU0zkmlOp1lW2V9XMNX9mmeF9OV6dP9d_lrknosLOU9uPVGefS3r6fs7Sb3bzC7EwhrJ80_dzle7FK0KWLb-Nxz1Lgm4J1pecZ_WkSrYpbXfESQJs2a4Ch0jRPZ7YyB3_NmgMZNwrbKNb_WmCm1Oio2tRAPO7bSloLKDNM7r7ddCAQRcc/s979/Horse-feathers-scene.JPG.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="570" data-original-width="979" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Jf64tjThc6TU0zkmlOp1lW2V9XMNX9mmeF9OV6dP9d_lrknosLOU9uPVGefS3r6fs7Sb3bzC7EwhrJ80_dzle7FK0KWLb-Nxz1Lgm4J1pecZ_WkSrYpbXfESQJs2a4Ch0jRPZ7YyB3_NmgMZNwrbKNb_WmCm1Oio2tRAPO7bSloLKDNM7r7ddCAQRcc/s320/Horse-feathers-scene.JPG.webp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Marx Brothers in Horse Feathers</td></tr></tbody></table><br />My four-day weekend began with the end of my work day on Wednesday afternoon. Two hours after lunch I went to the gym for a vigorous workout. Back home my lovely wife made dinner and I graciously consented to eat it. In the evening I watched one of my favorite films of all time, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119349/">Ice Storm (1997) Lee</a>. I often watch it on Thanksgiving Eve as it is set during the Thanksgiving weekend of 1973.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">I spent the first part of Turkey Day reading and watching a movie on Criterion Channel called, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022335/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_safe%2520in%2520hell">Safe in Hell (1931) Wellman</a>, a very pre-code film that I much enjoyed. Then it was off to my sister-in-law’s house for dinner. In attendance were the missus, my daughters, my nephews, a niece, significant others, five children, my sister-in-law, a dog and one person who was not family who I never got to know. I had a grand time chatting with kinfolk, playing with children and petting and sneaking food to the dog. I also ate quite a bit of food as one is prone to doing on this particular occasion. I feel safe in saying a good time was had by all.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The next day I went to a women’s basketball game as Cal hosted game one of their tourney. Our heroes bested San Jose State. I then walked to Moe’s bookstore to look for a gift for younger daughter who shares her dad’s passion for reading. I found nothing suitable but enjoyed my time in one of the world’s best bookstores.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I returned home to find both daughters visiting and of course enjoyed their company. In the evening I watched my second favorite Marx Brothers film,<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023027/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_horse%2520feather"> Horse Feathers (1932) McLeod</a>. Despite this being my umpteenth viewing it I managed several chuckles, guffaws, titters, hardy-har-hars and belly laughs.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Saturday started with me watching my favorite English football (that’s soccer to you Yanks) team (Arsenal) win on a late goal. I did my happy dance. Then it was off to the second day of the tourney. This time a Bear team depleted by injuries lost. The game was even for three quarters but the exhausted locals faded at the end. Never mind it was a good day.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">At home it was movie time again. The missus and I watched<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19623228/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_5_nm_3_q_godland"> Godland (2022) Pálmason</a> on DVD. My copy had only just arrived, I’d pre-ordered it not long after watching it for the first time on the Criterion Channel. A great film is always better the second time. This was followed by watching my favorite college football team, the University of California Golden Bears, defeat UCLA in a stunning upset, 33-7. Two great wins on telly for the day with a loss in person sandwiched in between. Fair return.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Sunday morning I spent a fair bit of time with the Sunday New York Times. Mostly I was reading it. Having poured through a majority of it, the missus and I embarked on our big adventure. We went into San Francisco to see the latest movie from the great Finnish director, Aki Kaurismäki, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21027780/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_fallen%2520lea">Fallen Leaves</a>. The closure of virtually all of Berkeley’s theaters necessitated making the long journey. We went to the Opera Plaza Landmark cinema which is a stone’s throw from Civic Center. That meant walking from the BART station past all variety of mendicants, tramps, loonies, methheads, and paranoid schizophrenics. As a social worker, this is younger daughter’s clientele. Lucky.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The theater was tiny — no, microscopic -- with only three rows but the seats — dear god, they were comfy, you sank into them. The movie was sublime, in other words, typical Kaurismäki. From there we dodged the hoi polloi and made our way back to the subway and what we assumed would be a pleasant and quick journey back to Berkeley. But fate intervened — as it so often does.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Just outside Oakland’s 12th Street Station the train stopped. And stayed stopped. At one point the lights went out. That terror (slight exaggeration) lasted only half a minute. But the tedium of sitting on a train in a tunnel continued. Of course my wife went about chattering with other passengers, meanwhile my mood plunged, my anxiety rose. I took an Ativan. It helped a bit. We were constantly thanked for our patience and apologized to. Never helps. Finally a “rescue” train arrived. We had to walk to the back of our train where we were told we would “cross over.” I did not like the use of this phrase as it invoked what many people refer to as dying. Nonetheless we soldiered on and literally stepped over a small plank onto another train. I gave our driver a parting fist bump.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Again we sat for awhile but eventually were on our way and arrived safely in Berkeley. We decided to treat ourselves after the trauma of being tunnel-bound by having dinner at a local eatery. From there it was home sweet home.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The rest of the evening hardly deserves mention though it did entail washing towels, reading and watching a spot of TV before retiring for the evening. All told not a bad weekend. How was yours?</p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-5304738057123982822023-11-20T17:59:00.000-08:002023-11-20T17:59:07.914-08:00The Good, the Bad and the Surprising, Six Recent Releases that I've Seen<p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqu2yEMAPa5vjZjOio1WuxQs_LPofYgDb4R1nLXobQXduv2ksiDYfeTCYsHoVIQQFz0c0fNImXPLB3OXzh3Q-RIY9BnQZ71nS7eDVbNO9qIVCmjtaV4Nx18NqdpcBYlUw-neUH4ZCLlTRUoqRmmv9zPQJpYvbI4v3uwtf3U936-qyjQFO48jwtXiavr18/s1500/fair-play-exclu-script-100423-1-166af68aaa264189909e5b33e8929a0e.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1500" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqu2yEMAPa5vjZjOio1WuxQs_LPofYgDb4R1nLXobQXduv2ksiDYfeTCYsHoVIQQFz0c0fNImXPLB3OXzh3Q-RIY9BnQZ71nS7eDVbNO9qIVCmjtaV4Nx18NqdpcBYlUw-neUH4ZCLlTRUoqRmmv9zPQJpYvbI4v3uwtf3U936-qyjQFO48jwtXiavr18/s320/fair-play-exclu-script-100423-1-166af68aaa264189909e5b33e8929a0e.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fair Play</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"><br />Hey kids, guess what time it is? You’re right! It’s time for me to catch up with some of the recent releases I’ve seen. How did you know? It’s movie season (much more fun that cold and flu season) and many of the better films of the year are popping up in theaters and on streaming services. Let’s have a look at some of the new films I’ve seen lately.</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5537002/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_8_nm_0_q_kille"><b>Killers of the Flower Moon (Scorsese)</b></a>. Killers fits in perfectly with the kind of pictures that the great Martin Scorsese has been making this century. In other words it’s very good but nowhere near the quality he produced with such classics as Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Age of Innocence, King of Comedy and Mean Streets, all made between 1973 and 1993. Like other Scorsese films of the past twenty-five years, Killers is bloated (206 minutes) though never boring, features some fine performances and is nicely edited and beautiful to look at. I just wish he were capable of making leaner, tighter movies. Here are running times — in minutes -- for other Scorsese films of recent vintage: The Irishman 209, Silence 161, The Wolf of Wall Street 180, Shutter Island 138, The Departed 151, The Aviator 170, Gangs of New York 167. I greatly admire Shutter Island and The Aviator and like the other films but they’re all excessive. Not just in length but in what we are expected to absorb. Mind you I hardly yawned throughout Killers but there was so much there that weeks later the story does not stick with me. It’s possible to make great films that are long (The Godfather, Heaven’s Gate, Tess, Barry Lyndon) but it’s rare. I feel as though Scorsese is overdoing his films, showing us too much. Killers is another example.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16304446/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_fair%2520play"><b>Fair Play (Domont).</b></a> This is one of the best relationship movies I’ve ever seen. It’s a study in the dissolution of a relationship that initially seems perfect. It’s the opposite of rom-coms where the mis-matched couple find love. The two leads, Phoebe Dynevor and especially Alden Ehrenreich are transcendent, capturing the full range of emotions that being in a love-to hate relationship entails. Fair Play is intimate film-making, at times claustrophobic. It can be uncomfortable as if we are in restaurant where a loud, awkward scene is unfolding at another table. There is so much to unpack about relationships and about the clash of work and personal lives. It’s a film that deserves to be studied and seen by a wide audience. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17009710/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_5_nm_3_q_anat"><b>Anatomy of a Fall (Triet)</b></a>. It’s a difficult movie to say much about without spoilers as the ending is so critical to any discussion one can have about it. Suffice to say that Anatomy takes a long time getting to its denouement but is worth the ride. As much as anything Anatomy is a courtroom drama and a character study with it’s long hard look at the wife — played brilliantly by Sandra Hüller — of a man who jumps/falls/is pushed out of high window to his death. She is bereaved, she is accused, she seems both guilty and guiltless. There is something very French about Anatomy, mostly in the way that it is studied and measured, avoiding the spectacular but making the most out of the fascinating world of details. Details of deaths and of the lives we lead.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju2g0lP2o8qXb6tgFAueBiK5FiS2zc-dNEQnQ8rF36-LPCcD5cuPBbtHazdPHtARhAvLFg965JOB273xnQx_5fVicudXjhwVrZnrRTRFq2iXBdpbi_CJdeZc8oQ7lAqe7wP5u33nd4qwI1c8n1v2g03OYpb_wknh6mGWUKI_z4Ntbo0F8N4HLYL0Tz10s/s1200/75.jpeg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju2g0lP2o8qXb6tgFAueBiK5FiS2zc-dNEQnQ8rF36-LPCcD5cuPBbtHazdPHtARhAvLFg965JOB273xnQx_5fVicudXjhwVrZnrRTRFq2iXBdpbi_CJdeZc8oQ7lAqe7wP5u33nd4qwI1c8n1v2g03OYpb_wknh6mGWUKI_z4Ntbo0F8N4HLYL0Tz10s/s320/75.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Holdovers</td></tr></tbody></table><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14849194/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_the%2520hold"><b>The Holdovers (Payne)</b></a>. Stubborn old teacher facing off against angry, precocious teen. A mixed match pair on a road trip. Two opposites fighting each other AND inner demons. You pretty much know where the story is going at every point. There’s nothing original here in terms of the situation or the lead characters. We’ve seen it all before. But have we seen it told as well? Have previous iterations of this story had such strong leads? The answer to both might well be, no. I enjoyed the hell out of The Holdovers despite it’s predictably. Alexander Payne knows how to make a thoroughly watchable film (see Nebraska, About Schmidt, Sideways, Election). Paul Giamatti is as good an actor as there is these days and Dominic Sessa in his screen debut very much holds his own opposite him. Da’Vine Joy Randolph has been turning up a lot lately (for example on Only Murders in the Building) and is proving to be an excellent supporting player and probably due for a significant lead role. She is an excellent third wheel here. The Holdovers offers no surprises but it’s still surprisingly good.<p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1136617/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_0_q_the%2520ki"><b>The Killer (Fincher)</b></a>. A watchable film but ultimately empty calories. There’s no real substance, nothing to be learned from this story of a paid assassin. Michael Fassbinder plays a hit man with all the charm of toll both. There’s nothing interesting about him or the story. There’s some tension, there is a minor surprise, there’s an action scene — that goes on too long to be credulous — and there is much musing and philosophizing by the eternally thoughtful and ruminative killer. But it all adds about to not much of anything. I don’t honestly understand why this movie was made, especially by a talent like David Fincher. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14160834/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_3_nm_5_q_rustin"><b>Rustin (Wolfe)</b></a>. I’m surprised that many critics are muted in their praise of Rustin, rightfully praising lead actor Colman Domingo but wanting more from the film as a whole. I thought there was plenty there and it was mostly damn good. Bayard Rustin always seemed to me a peripheral figure in the civil rights movement, I knew him to have been a key organizer of 1963’s March on Washington and was also aware that he’d been considered somewhat of a liability to the movement because of his homosexuality and past affiliations with the community party. A triple threat for the likes of J Edgar Hoover and the FBI. Rustin helped fill in my understanding of the man and made me want to learn more. It also gave me much respect for this singular figure. Domingo’s bravura performance is the centerpiece of this fine film but kudos to the overall casting (Chris Rock was excellent as Roy Wilkins) and the look and feel of this fine film.</p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-64133809949991190492023-11-13T11:39:00.000-08:002023-11-17T07:07:50.609-08:00Roll On You Bears, A Love Letter to Cal Football<p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPyDzi82yKS8fT0R8yWNbg6OCySmqtQNAkys1ST2kj_Hwm0-e8800W7_HLlkHMYLHUK9ZrOwZKkjMq25uBZf4X_YzP7J-FUqwsF0jl1h-mNCi5Wamt7DtntE-Rj9i8Z0p9Vd7vwMth-qhD1-lBOOAbqsugGkJiHoec0L-WV4mlnZsrFm8EhTG2EDGEqsM/s1016/Screenshot%202023-11-13%20at%2011.28.09%20AM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="1016" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPyDzi82yKS8fT0R8yWNbg6OCySmqtQNAkys1ST2kj_Hwm0-e8800W7_HLlkHMYLHUK9ZrOwZKkjMq25uBZf4X_YzP7J-FUqwsF0jl1h-mNCi5Wamt7DtntE-Rj9i8Z0p9Vd7vwMth-qhD1-lBOOAbqsugGkJiHoec0L-WV4mlnZsrFm8EhTG2EDGEqsM/s320/Screenshot%202023-11-13%20at%2011.28.09%20AM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After the game last Saturday</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"><br />It is dusk on an autumn afternoon. Saturday. The light is a yellowish-brown hue. An unseasonably warm day is cooling. I am in a football stadium that rests in Strawberry Canyon in Berkeley, California. Past the east rim are hills including one called Tightwad Hill where some fans huddle to watch games for free. Behind me is the west rim of the stadium. From there one can see all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge. Anytime of day the views are spectacular, but especially as the sun descends.</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">The stadium has mostly emptied out, there were close to 30,000 people in it less than half an hour ago. The University of California marching band is on the field. They are playing the campus alma mater. Alistair and I have linked arms and are swaying to the campus alma mater song, our previous revelry at the final gun replaced by a mellower savoring of a long afternoon well spent. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Later I’ll leave the stadium and follow the band as it marches down Bancroft Way. I want the joy to last, especially as this was the last home game of the season. It was also only the third home victory for my beloved Golden Bears in six tries. Three wins. Only three. It will be nine and half months before they play again. Cal football home games are precious. Victories for this perpetually woebegone team are especially so.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Despite the many, many, many heartbreaks that California football has inflicted on me, I have been a devotee since childhood. I don’t remember my first game, I was so young and went so regularly that it feels like Cal football has always been a part of me, it’s like a body part (one that causes occasional discomfort and sometimes euphoria). The first game I specifically remember going to was in 1962 when I was eight-years-old. The team was generally bad when I was a kid (some things never change) but I fell in love nonetheless. What was it about the experience of going that so enraptured me? Certainly the classic Roman Colosseum like stadium nestled in the hills (construction completed 100 years ago). Definitely the band and its jaunty spirit songs. Obviously the cheering section and its clever yells (that have sadly gone generic in recent years). Also the victory cannon booming for Cal scores and the team taking the field. Without a doubt, Oski, the Bears lovable mascot. Unquestionably the colorful blue and gold uniforms and those same colors being worn in different forms by tens of thousands of fans. The roar of the crowd. The unrepentant joy in victory. Victory. Many schools roll through their schedules facing only one or two challenges a season. But not the Bears. We savor our days of glory. Whether a trouncing of a lower division foe, an upset of higher ranked opponent or a thrilling win over our arch rivals, we veritably dance (sometimes literally) in the streets when victorious.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I have but few happy memories of my mother who was afflicted with serious mental illness in middle age. But I remember quite fondly her taking me to Cal football games including my first Big Game (the annual clash with hated Stanfurd University). She attended Cal from 1938-1942 and sat in the student section (then segregated by gender) for home football games. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">My dad took me too, of course (he also took me to pro football, pro and college basketball, baseball, track and field, boxing and ice hockey). Everyone liked the Bears in our household, except me — I loved them.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As the years went on my interest in Cal football didn’t wane one iota. Even as a rebellious teen who could be found at anti-Vietnam War demonstrations and arguing for overthrow of the government, I enjoyed the tradition-bound spectacle that was college football — especially as played by the Bears. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I attended games as a high schooler, as a college student, as a young working man, as lost soul given to drinking and using drugs copiously. I went through all manner of changes, re-inventions and internal revolts, but the Bears were a constant. Perhaps even acting as a steadying influence. I attended games with rowdy drunken companions, with girlfriends, with relatives, with serious fans and those out on a lark. I missed a few seasons when I lived elsewhere and when I say I missed seasons I don’t merely mean that I wasn’t able to attend games, it was the one thing about the Bay Area that I yearned for. After all, Cal football and its fan base were family and who doesn’t miss a loving family?</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There were a few seasons in which Cal did well: the mid and late seventies, a few years in the early nineties and most of this century’s first decade. These were magical times, surreal. To see the Bears excelling on the football field was like watching that wonderful dream you had last night actually happening. It was like the most beautiful girl at the party dancing with you. It was like winning the grand prize at the raffle. It was like an out of body experience. But even at their best the Bears never quite reached the top of the mountain. The Rose Bowl was always the dream. In ’75 they tied for the conference title but the failure of one rival to beat another on the season’s last weekend cost us a trip to Pasadena. The Bears were great in ’91 but Washington was a touchdown better when we met. That season was marred by a face plant in the Big Game. In 2004 the Bears were great again but U$C was a touchdown better. That season was marred by an ugly loss in our consolation prize appearance in the Holiday Bowl. We again tied for the conference title in ’06. A player tripping over a yard marker cost us the brass ring. So very Cal.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Since then the Bears haven’t even come close. They had a few more good seasons to close out the decade but have been mostly bad — occasionally rising to mediocrity — in the years since.</p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The losses hurt less than they used to. One gets used to it and then despairs at having gotten used to it. The regularity of the defeats makes one nearly immune to an individual loss but the weight of the accumulation is a heavy cross to bear. But then there are the wins. They make it all worthwhile. The reward for the suffering. Those games that make me think: I am privileged to have been here, there's no other place in the world I'd rather have been. The wins are a better high than I ever experienced drinking and using.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Throughout it all the Bears have suffered some terrible thumpings, though mostly on the road. At home their thing is more the inexplicable heartbreaking loss, one in which the fates conspire against us in the form of costly turnovers or ridiculous referring decisions or bonehead plays or stupid coaching decisions. Twice this season the Bears have — as the cliche goes — snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Auburn and U$C should have been well-beaten, but missed field goals and a team wide case of fumbilitis, respectively, cost us. Saturday looked for awhile to be another crushing loss. The Bears had gone up by 18 insurmountable points with nine minutes to go. But no lead is safe for the Bears — never has been. Our heroes had to hold on by the skin of their incisors to clinch victory with an interception on the game’s last play. No one was upset that it had gotten so close (it’s kind of our thing). But everyone was relieved then jubilant that the day had been won.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I don’t know how many seasons I have left but I do know that I’ll be there for all of them and I won’t be missing any home games. Cal football is coursing through my blood. It is part of who I am. My own eternal zeitgeist. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">You may have gathered by now that it’s more than just the football. It is the whole experience. It is the days and hours leading up to each game. It is the days and hours following each game. It is all the time spent in contemplation of the team’s prospects and ruminating over their latest performance. It is a feeling in my bones. It is my heart. I hardly watch any other football at all. I’m much more of a soccer guy. When I go to Memorial Stadium it’s not to see a football game, it’s to see Cal play football. It is the atmosphere.</p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Loyalty is love practiced.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I cannot close without mentioning the people who have been part of the journey. Of course my parents, so many elementary school and junior high school and high school friends. College chums. Girlfriends. My wife. Friends I drank with and friends who I’ve stayed sober with. Special shoutout to my late friend Kevin who I watched decades of Cal football with. When he died I was left suddenly alone at Memorial Stadium. Then a new friendship was forged with Alistair. Like Kevin and others before him, he gets it (poor sap). But also a shoutout to all those people I’ve attended games with that I’ve never met but with whose voices I’ve joined in exhorting on our Bears. Our efforts have not always borne fruit, but we wouldn’t change the experience for anything. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Go Bears!!!</p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-24167123016687882772023-11-06T15:51:00.001-08:002024-01-06T10:12:44.865-08:00I Said What? Revisiting My Yearly Top Ten Lists<p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ZM3p_xClYwX5cck-3yExA7v9T0ElEWcuR4ejoP5sYAXmZrBp3fdKJORFzXJczeb2IMB7FFqiHJwQw13sKTK7yEd2WT9G3ek0Y1DduIr3oO5BlkDzOfOHifhmBqmhcd4ulMKiP_mxWogzpDVJV2GbCSRYGORZas9mhndKlC8bqgrqpLNErTxEaXVfL_4/s800/image-w1280.jpg.webp" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ZM3p_xClYwX5cck-3yExA7v9T0ElEWcuR4ejoP5sYAXmZrBp3fdKJORFzXJczeb2IMB7FFqiHJwQw13sKTK7yEd2WT9G3ek0Y1DduIr3oO5BlkDzOfOHifhmBqmhcd4ulMKiP_mxWogzpDVJV2GbCSRYGORZas9mhndKlC8bqgrqpLNErTxEaXVfL_4/s320/image-w1280.jpg.webp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vicky Cristiana Barcelona, My First #1 On the Blog</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"><br />I was looking at one of my yearly top ten films lists over the weekend and couldn’t understand how I’d rank one film so high and another so low. Tastes change quickly. We see a movie a second time and appreciate it a lot more noticing not just the what of the story but the way the story was told. Also some movies don’t hold up to a second viewing, having an initial appeal but not much substance. This is particularly true of rom coms and action pictures. You didn’t even need to re-watch a film to re-assess it. How it sits with you in the coming weeks and months — or how it totally recedes from memory — influences your opinion. In this exercise I’ll be reviewing all the top ten lists I’ve published on ye olde blog since the first for 2008 releases.</span><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"> </span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">2008</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">1. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0497465/"><span style="color: #852302;">Vicky Christina Barcelona (Allen)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1013753/">2. Milk (Van Sant)</a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">3. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0857191/"><span style="color: #852302;">The Visitor (McCarthy) </span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">4. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1068649/"><span style="color: #852302;">I’ve Loved You For So Long (Claudel)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">5. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780536/"><span style="color: #852302;">In Bruges (McDonagh)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">6. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0490234/"><span style="color: #852302;">A Secret (Miller)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">7. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0870111/"><span style="color: #852302;">Frost/Nixon (Howard)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">8. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1084950/"><span style="color: #852302;">Rachel Getting Married (Demme)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">9. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437526/"><span style="color: #852302;">The Last Mistress (Breillat)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">10. S<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383028/"><span style="color: #852302;">ynechode, New York (Kaufman)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Nailed the first one. I don’t see anything here to change. I don’t think that I’ve seen any from the second half of this list a second time. I don’t remember a thing about The Last Mistress so goodness knows where I’d rank it after a second viewing.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">2009</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">1. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361748/"><span style="color: #852302; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Inglourious Basterds</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">2. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1019452/"><span style="color: #852302; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">A Serious Man</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">3. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790712/"><span style="color: #852302; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">The Messenger</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">4. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0929632/"><span style="color: #852302; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Precious</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">5. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/"><span style="color: #852302; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">The Hurt Locker</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">6. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0913425/"><span style="color: #852302; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Broken Embraces</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">7. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1175506/"><span style="color: #852302; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Me and Orson Welles</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">8. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1315981/"><span style="color: #852302; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">A Single Man</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">9. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0990413/"><span style="color: #852302; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Sugar</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">10. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1226271/"><span style="color: #852302; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Damned United</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Definitely got the first two right. I’m a little surprised that I didn’t have A Single Man and Damned United higher.</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">2010</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">1. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1399683/"><span style="color: #852302;">Winter's Bone</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">2. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0947798/"><span style="color: #852302;">Black Swan</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">3. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1149362/"><span style="color: #852302;">The White Ribbon</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">4. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1403865/"><span style="color: #852302;">True Grit</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">5. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1156173/"><span style="color: #852302;">Vincere</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">6. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1440728/"><span style="color: #852302;">The American</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">7. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1139328/"><span style="color: #852302;">The Ghost Writer</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">8. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1130884/"><span style="color: #852302;">Shutter Island</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">9. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235166/"><span style="color: #852302;">A Prophet</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">10. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0840361/"><span style="color: #852302;">The Town</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Not a great year for movies was it? That said the list looks fine except I’ve come to really like Shutter Island and it would top a revised list.</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">2011</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">1. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1527186/"><span style="color: #852302;">Melancholia</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">2. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1588337/"><span style="color: #852302;">Of Gods and Men</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">3. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1655442/"><span style="color: #852302;">The Artist</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">4. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1605783/"><span style="color: #852302;">Midnight in Paris</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">5. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1723811/"><span style="color: #852302;">Shame</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">6. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0970179/"><span style="color: #852302;">Hugo</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">7. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1508675/"><span style="color: #852302;">Le Havre</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">8. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478304/"><span style="color: #852302;">The Tree of Life</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">9. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1532503/"><span style="color: #852302;">Beginners</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">10. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1625346/"><span style="color: #852302;">Young Adult</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Wow, Midnight in Paris has become one of my favorite films of all time and would easily top a revised list and Le Havre is another top 100 film and would be second. Melancholia would be a solid third and Of Gods and Men a very worthy number four. I really had Hugo ahead of Le Havre? I had The Artist ahead of Midnight in Paris? Unbelievable.</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">2012</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">1. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2062969/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><span style="color: #852302;">L'enfant d'en haut (Meier)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">2.<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1853728/"><span style="color: #852302;"> Django Unchained (Tarantino)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">3. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1748122/"><span style="color: #852302;">Moonrise Kingdom (W. Anderson)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">4. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1813327/"><span style="color: #852302;">Gianni e le donne (DiGregorio)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">5. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1704573/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Bernie (Linklater)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">6. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1560747/"><span style="color: #852302;">The Master (P. Anderson)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">7. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443272/"><span style="color: #852302;">Lincoln (Spielberg)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">8. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2076220/"><span style="color: #852302;">Holy Motors (Carax)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">9. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1625150/"><span style="color: #852302;">Noordzee, Texas (Defurne)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">10. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1931533/"><span style="color: #852302;">Seven Psychopaths (McDonagh)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Another down year. Moonrise Kingdom would top a revised version of this last and The Master would be second. The rest seems fine. I didn’t see Silver Linings Playbook until much later. It would have topped the list if I’d seen it in time.</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">2013</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">1. Inside Llewyn Davis (Coens)</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">2. Her (Jonze)</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">3. Nebraska (Payne)</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">4. Blue Jasmine (Allen)</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">5. Frances Ha (Baumbach)</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">6. Reality (Garrone)</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">7. 12 a Slave (McQueen)</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">8. Kill Your Darlings (Krokidas)</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">9. Blue is the Warmest Color (Kechiche)</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">10. La Grande Belleza (Sorrentino)</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I already revised this one. Six months after I posted it I, in an unprecedented Streams of Unconsciousness move, I posted an altered versions in which I put Llewyn Davis first and dropped the original list topper, Nebraska to third. Llyewyn Davis went on to be named my film of the decade. In a re-revised list I’d move Blue Jasmine to second and Blue is the Warmest Color to fifth.</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">2014</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">1. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2562232/"><span style="color: #852302;">Birdman</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">2. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441395/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Under the Skin</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">3. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1065073/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Boyhood</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">4. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2406252/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Venus in Fur</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">5. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1571249/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">The Skeleton Twins</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">6. T<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2784678/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">op Five</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">7. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2267998/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Gone Girl</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">8. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2582802/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Whiplash</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">9. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2278388/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">The Grand Budapest Hotel</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">10. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1100089/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Foxcatcher</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Looks good to me.</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">2015</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">1.<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2402927/"><span style="color: #852302;"> Carol (Haynes)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">2. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1663202/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">The Revenant (Inarritu)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">3. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3824458/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Tangerine (Baker)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">4. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">The Martian (Scott)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">5. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Room (Abrahamson)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">6. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1895587/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Spotlight (McCarthy)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">7. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2452254/?ref_=nv_sr_2"><span style="color: #852302;">Clouds of Sils Maria (Assayas)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">8.<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2488496/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;"> Star Wars: The Force Awaken (Abrams)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">9. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903657/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Love & Mercy (Pohlad)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">10. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3850214/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Dope (Famuyiwa)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Another week year. The only revision I’d make would be to move The Clouds of Sils Maria to second.</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">2016</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">1 <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4034228/"><span style="color: #852302;">Manchester by the Sea (Lonergan)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">2 <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5247022/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Paterson (Jarmusch)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">3 <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4975722/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Moonlight (Jenkins)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">4 <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4016934/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">The Handmaiden (Park)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">5 <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2582782/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Hell or High Water (Mackenzie)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">6 <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4550098/"><span style="color: #852302;">Nocturnal Animals (Ford)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">7 <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3464902/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">The Lobster (Lanthimos)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">8 <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3721936/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">American Honey (Arnold)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">9 <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4698684/"><span style="color: #852302;">Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Waititi)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">10 <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0490215/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Silence (Scorsese)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I got this one spot on too.</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">2017</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">1. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4714782/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Personal Shopper (Assayas)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">2. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5776858/"><span style="color: #852302;">Phantom Thread (Anderson)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">3. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5726616/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Call Me Be Your Name (Guadagnino)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">4. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5649144/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">The Florida Project (Baker) </span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">5. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3521126/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">The Disaster Artist (Franco)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">6. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5825380/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Wonder Wheel (Allen)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">7. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5990474/?ref_=nv_sr_2"><span style="color: #852302;">Columbus (Kogonada)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">8. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580036/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">I, Tonya (Gillespie)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">9. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5222918/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">The Other Side of Hope (Kaurismaki)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">10 .<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5052448/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;"> Get Out (Peele)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’d move The Other Side of Hope to second (what it’s doing way back there at 9th is beyond me) and Wonder Wheel to fourth.</p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">2018</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">1. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6053438/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">First Reformed</span></a> (Schrader)</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">2. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6053438/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Roma </span></a>(Cuaron)</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">3. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7282468/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Burning</span></a> Chang-dong Lee)</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">4. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8075192/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Shoplifter</span></a>s (Koreeda)</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">5. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5742374/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">You Were Never Really Here</span></a> (Ramsay)</span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">6.<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5083738/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;"> The Favourite</span></a> (Lannthimos)</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">7.<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7349662/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;"> Blackkklansman</span></a> (Lee)</span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">8. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1517451/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">A Star is Born</span></a> (Cooper)</span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">9. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7242142/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Blindspotting</span></a> (Estrada)</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">10. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5929754/?ref_=nv_sr_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Wildlife</span></a> (Dano)</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I don’t know what Wildlife is doing back at number ten, fourth or fifth seem more like it. Other than that it’s fine.</p>
<p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">2019</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">1.<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7131622/"><span style="color: #852302;"> Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Tarantino)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">2. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8652728/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Waves (Shults)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">3. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6751668/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><span style="color: #852302;">Parasite (Joon Ho)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">4. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3281548/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302;">Little Women (Gerwig)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">5. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1302006/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302;">The Irishman (Scorsese) </span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">6. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2584384/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302;">Jojo Rabbit (Waititi)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">7. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1302006/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302;">Uncut Gems (Safdies</span></a>)</span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">8. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8722346/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302;">Queen and Slim (Matsoukas)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">9. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7286456/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302;">Joker (Phillips)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">10. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7286456/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302;">Transit (Petzold)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Again I’ve got a film in the tenth spot (Transit) that deserves to be in the middle and I’d slide The Irishman back a few spaces. Otherwise, good job by me.</p>
<p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">2020</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">1. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9620292/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Promising Young Woman (Fennell)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">2. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7772582/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Hittman)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">3. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10618286/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Mank (Fincher)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">4. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9770150/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Nomadland (Zhao)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">5. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5363618/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Sound of Metal (Marder)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">6. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9000224/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">The Assistant (Green)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">7. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9484998/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Palm Springs (Barbakow)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">8. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7939766/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Kaufman)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">9. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9784798/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Judas and the Black Messiah (S. King)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">10.<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10612922/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> One Night in Miami (R.King)</span></a></span></p>
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<p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Shortly after publishing this much delayed list (thanks for nothing, pandemic) I saw Another Round and if I’d a mind too would have revised the list right then and there and put it at number one. The list is otherwise fine except Palm Springs should be a few spots higher.</p>
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<p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">2021</p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">1.<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14039582/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302;"> Drive My Car (Hamaguchi)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15.4px; min-height: 17px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15.4px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">2. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10293406/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302;">The Power of the Dog (Campion)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15.4px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">3.<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11271038/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302;"> Licorice Pizza (P.T. Anderson)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15.4px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">4. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10095582/"><span style="color: #852302;">The Tragedy of MacBeth (Coen)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15.4px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">5. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13453006/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_4"><span style="color: #852302;">Red Rocket (Baker)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15.4px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">6. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8721424/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302;">tick, tick...Boom! (Miranda)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15.4px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">7. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9100054/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302;">The Lost Daughter (Gyllenhaal)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15.4px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">8. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12680684/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302;">The Hand of God (Sorrentino)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15.4px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">9. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12789558/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302;">Belfast (Branagh)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fff8ea; color: #852302; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15.4px;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">10. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12536294/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="color: #852302;">Spencer (Larrain)</span></a></span></p>
<p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I hit this one out of the ballpark. Drive My Car is in my top 100. The only other films I've watched again are tick, tick and Licorice Pizza. I'd move the latter into second.</p>
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<p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">2022</p>
<ol>
<li style="color: #852302; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19770238/"><span style="background-color: #fff8ea;">Aftersun (Wells)</span></a></li>
<li style="color: #852302; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10640346/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="background-color: #fff8ea;">Babylon (Chazelle)</span></a></li>
<li style="color: #852302; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19652910/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="background-color: #fff8ea;">Eo (Skolimowksi)</span></a></li>
<li style="color: #852302; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12477480/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="background-color: #fff8ea;">Decision to Leave (Chan-wook)</span></a></li>
<li style="color: #852302; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14444726/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="background-color: #fff8ea;">Tar (Field)</span></a></li>
<li style="color: #852302; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11813216/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="background-color: #fff8ea;">The Banshees of Inisherin (McDonagh)</span></a></li>
<li style="color: #852302; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8593904/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="background-color: #fff8ea;">Rifkin’s Festival (Allen)</span></a></li>
<li style="color: #852302; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13204490/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="background-color: #fff8ea;">Petite Maman (Sciamma)</span></a></li>
<li style="color: #852302; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15255876/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="background-color: #fff8ea;">Emily the Criminal (Ford)</span></a></li>
<li style="color: #852302; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1016150/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><span style="background-color: #fff8ea;">All Quiet on the Western Front (Berger)</span></a></li>
</ol>
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<p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Other than moving Rifkin’s Festival and Emily the Criminal up a few places and dropping Babylon a couple of spots, I’m happy with this.</p>
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<p style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In completing the assignment I found that there were far less changes than I’d anticipated. Initial readings of a film are generally correct but with huge exceptions. More often, I noted, I like good films more a second time, sometimes a helluva lot more.</p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539700916676246998.post-19949148805441312602023-11-03T10:22:00.001-07:002024-01-06T10:09:13.099-08:00Onwards and Upwards By Returning to the Scene of Past Crimes, My Changing Employment Status<p><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMuEGcMbCoAmnn3BFIOyYwvT-OKXH7C-p0yz-c_rV7_GrfN616tGkcce_HcqhctVm4D3gRAlsxZ2iw5NWaZyVCSoSOLfOwxmj951cvo2dapolGnKngf9alKjp0vZbnU3JGzXMv-Fn2gA0om2CD8d1xmRf8KM9xTC3wVrWTtHG8OIDqYkrT68RwcSgGcLM/s940/1920-1929-history-timeline-24-940x620.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="620" data-original-width="940" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMuEGcMbCoAmnn3BFIOyYwvT-OKXH7C-p0yz-c_rV7_GrfN616tGkcce_HcqhctVm4D3gRAlsxZ2iw5NWaZyVCSoSOLfOwxmj951cvo2dapolGnKngf9alKjp0vZbnU3JGzXMv-Fn2gA0om2CD8d1xmRf8KM9xTC3wVrWTtHG8OIDqYkrT68RwcSgGcLM/s320/1920-1929-history-timeline-24-940x620.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px;"><br />I’m leaving my current teaching position in one month and returning to the school I taught at in San Francisco for seven and half years.</span><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;">I’ve been at this school in Berkeley since June 2019 excepting during the pandemic when I was at no school. I’m leaving largely because the school is falling apart at the seams. Efforts are being made to keep the school afloat but they may be too little too late. Enrollment has been ridiculously low since the pandemic and the school has suffered from an absentee director who is finally being replaced.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">About that….I very much liked the school director. He was a most amiable chap with whom I shared a love for a particular football (soccer to you Yanks) team in London. We could and did discourse often about footie and a variety of other topics ranging from films to TV to literature to travel to other sports to the political scene. We also talked shop as people who work at the same establishment are want to do.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Before the pandemic there was an academic director at the school but she left for greener pastures. We then had a teacher who worked part time on administrative tasks but with enrollment so low the powers that be deemed that position (part time though it was) an unnecessary expense. We were thus left with the school director as the sole administrator on site. That worked for a bit but when the director’s wife returned to her job from maternity leave, he started staying home with their baby. Initially a few times a week, then every frickin’ day. We teachers were left holding the bag and trying to hold the school together. This was not in our pay grade.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The school director was in the school during business hours three times in September. Four times in October although once for only 20 minutes or so and with baby in tow. This was not sustainable. But it wasn’t even the worst of it. Said school director was slow to respond to emails, phone calls and text messages, that is if he responded at all. This was vexing for us teachers and more importantly for students. Six weeks into a new term (they’re 12 weeks long) he still hadn’t ordered books for one class. Repairs went unrepaired. Simple tasks were not getting done including those things that merely required a phone call or email by said director.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Morale plummeted. One teacher (there were only four us) left for another school. Two other teachers (me included) gave notice. A regular sub quit. Resentments festered. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Us teachers would — understandably — bitch constantly about Herr Director. But we all agreed that no one wanted to “rat him out.” This we said repeatedly (the director was such a nice chap, a friend to us all). This was a mistake. We were enabling him. Finally the most veteran of the teachers returned from a vacation to see that things had totally deteriorated in his absence. He made the call. I followed up with an email. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We stopped asking for things from the school director and recommended students do the same. All complaints, issues, requests and questions went to the school’s general manager in Toronto. He responded immediately. He also hired a new school director who will start the week after next.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s too late for me. I’m set for my return (commute included) to the SF school. I’m not sure that the place I’m leaving can continue very long especially as their reputation has been crippled by the absentee director.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I no longer consider the now outgoing director a friend. I, like the other teachers, feel that I was taken advantage of. Abused. What he did (or more to the point) didn’t do, was unconscionable. He made endless promises about forthcoming changes. He lied about what he’d done or was going to do. I think he’s in total denial about the mess he made and the manner in which he screwed over teachers, students and the school. Sadly, I can no longer consider him a friend. As recently as last Saturday he sent me a friendly text not related to work. I ignored it. I don’t think he’s an honorable man. I wish him well and hope that he faces what he did and learns from this experience. </p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">My last day at the school will be December 4, the end of the current term. I’ll have a month off before I return to EF in San Francisco. One reason I decided to go back (besides the obvious fact that I wanted to keep teaching a class) was that the school has moved from near Fisherman’s Wharf to a location walking distance from BART, thus my commute will be infinitely more manageable.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There are only two people left at the school who were there when I left on the first of March 2019. One is the academic director (he was assistant AD when I left) so knowing who’s in charge and having a relationship will be nice. People I can trust. The school is thriving.</p>
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<p style="font-family: "American Typewriter"; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The last couple of months have not been easy but I’ve gone through much more trying work situations (I was a middle school teacher of 20 years so you can well imagine). It’s been disillusioning and I’ve lost a friend but I found a good alternative and the rest of life is peachy. So it’s all good.</p>Richard Hourulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12354136203258901360noreply@blogger.com0