Somewhere around now — if not sooner, then again maybe a little later if I hand’t brought it up just now — you’re wondering what the purpose of these journal entries is, particularly the business about posting them. I’m wondering the same thing too. But I think it will serve a lot of purposes. One is to deal with my depression (if you’re unaware of my depression just leaf through the pages of this blog — metaphorically speaking, of course). I already write for an hour every morning but that’s always on one of my many unpublished novels (some day, some day). Writing is good for my soul and makes me happy so additional writing will help fight of the miseries and will also be a way of examining some of the issues that might contribute to my melancholia and more importantly highlighting some reasons why I should not be suffering from the blues. I could envision this as being a type of gratitude list that is commonly done by people in twelve step programs (raise you hands…). As to the purpose of posting them, well I always hope my writing will entertain and maybe enlighten but most importantly might help a fellow sufferer. (I know, you suffer just having to read this nonsense.)
What exactly will these journal entries be comprised of, you ask. (I know, nobody asked, but just stick with me here.) Surely I’m not just going to be whining about how miserable life my life is or desperately trying to cheer myself up. Of course not. There’ll doubtless be a pinch of that, but I’ll also be touching on affairs of the day, teaching, films I’ve just watched and whether I think the rain will hurt the rhubarb. I‘ll probably include links to interesting things I’ve read or sites worth checking out or YouTube videos.
See? This could be a lot of fun!!! (Yeah, maybe not, but it’s worth a shot.)
The length of posts will vary although as I’ve got other things I’m doing during the course of the day, they’ll tend not to be very long and some may be quite short.
I’ve already written a fair amount for today but since I have your attention (hello? hello?) I wanted to talk about a movie I watched today. The Landlord (1970) directed by Hal Ashby (he cranked out some beauties during the seventies, starting with this one) was a big favorite of mine when it came out. I was in high school and I don’t believe that movies have effected as profoundly since then.
I didn’t see The Landlord again until a year or so ago when I discovered that it was available on YouTube. This Fall it appeared on the Turner Classics Movie channel (and I’ll save a rant about TCM for another time) and I DVR’d it and only got around to watching it today.
The Landlord is about the scion of an uber wealthy family who gets it into his mind to buy a brownstone in what was then a poor and predominantly African American section of Brooklyn. He subsequently meets, confronts, engages with, learns from, falls in love with and struggles with the tenants. It is a story about gentrification, white privilege, culture clashes, racism and love.
Beau Bridges stars as Elgar but he is truly just one of an excellent ensemble cast that features Louis Gossett Jr., Pearl Bailey, Lee Grant and the lesser known Diana Sands and Marki Bey who are both excellent (why neither became bigger stars is a mystery to me although one would imagine race had something to do with it).
The Landlord is the type of film that I’m sure would be watched very differently by a black person than how I watched it. I sympathized with Bridges’s character and rooted for him to win over his tenants and make a go of it. I think an African American viewer would be more cynical of his actions. We meet a very naive Elger at the beginning of the movie and by the end see a young man transformed. Part of that transformation was developing a social consciousness.
In addition to tenants who range from wary to hostile, Elgar also has to deal with his eccentric and disapproving family which includes a reactionary father, three goofball siblings and their spouses and a conflicted mother.
The Landlord is very much of its time and watching it evokes the late Sixties and takes a bloke like me down memory lane. But it’s a good film on its own terms and its themes are still relevant today. If you’ve a mind to check it out it is linked here and I here also provide a link to the film's trailer if you’d prefer to see that before committing to it.
I hope that someday soon it get’s the DVD release it so richly deserves
Thus ends my first blogged journal entry. You’re welcome.
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