Down The Path and Reel Stuff

 life altering experience

the tree once had more lofty goals and heights to reach. it adapts

reel stuff

   As the negative commercials and political bombast continue, the big screen offers a couple of great diversions.

    Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger is an enduring American hero, someone to celebrate and who lifts our spirit with the knowledge of our ability to be great. Tom Hanks is a great and timeless actor and Clint Eastwood is in a rare supreme category in film directing. Obviously Sully is worth your time. Everyone should see how our NTSB system functions and how the US Air landing on the Hudson was handled, where blame spreading and butt covering was an intent. Hero judgment and response saves the day, again.

   

    Some of us were so caught up in the Beatles mania we were not thinking about the impact they had on touring and what touring did to them. 

     They were the first to do arena and stadium rock-long before the mega equipment and rock tour entourages.

      The Beatles-Eight Days a Week-the Touring Years is a Ron Howard handling of archival film and recent interviews with Paul and Ringo and others. 

       Those earlier boys were bright, entertaining and capable of conquering the world. We revisit those days with annotations from now. The music, footage and infectious joy and mania are like a sip from a time machined brew. It leaves you high with a dose of the expansive and youthful feelings of the sixties and seventies. It feels good to channel those years. Howard does a brilliant weave of moments so that one feels part of the tour. It is an intimate look at the real boys to men.

missed opportunity?

some see a bloom

others see an old choke

perhaps you see a missed side dish

 down the path

  don't you think pathways are one of our better ideas? they can be inviting, especially so at sunset

 an ice cream truck awaits

   The arrangement behind the wine barrel, the stack of "spears" is the business end of an old hay rake. A ranch tool.

the shadows lengthen and a party awaits 

   See you down the trail.

CLINT EASTWOOD AS HISTORIAN

REEL THOUGHTS

EASTWOOD HAMMERS STONE
J. EDGAR IS MASTERFULLY DONE
Director Clint Eastwood's turn at
contemporary history is a superb film and by most
standards a fair and accurate portrayal of the FBI's late director J. Edgar Hoover, one of America's controversial
public figures. Eastwood handles the history with class and avoids the kind of distortion and overblown perspective
we have come to expect of other film history bio pics.
None of that from Clint Eastwood who has shown
time and time again he is one of the most skilled
directors in film history. 
People familiar with the Hoover story, or the Hoover and FBI histories will commend Eastwood for his even handedness, authenticity and class.
There are many who have paid close attention to the Hoover chapter of Bureau history and the story is fully told in many books and histories. Eastwood does not
reveal anything not already in public attention, but he
plumbs the personality, emotion, psychology and story line of Hoover and the early FBI in ways that brings the material
to a vivid accounting. 
Dustin Lance Black's screenplay is as good as it can get.
He had a huge story and well documented life to whittle and render and he delivered a compelling script for Eastwood.
Black deserves special recognition, especially from historians.
Hoover was complex and so is the story and it is superbly
told with attention to detail, historical elements,
and the pathos of the time and personality.
Birthing a federal investigative agency was not a simple task, trying to protect a democratic republic from threat while preserving liberties is a constant battle, so is the power and money game in Washington and the 
Hoover story as told by Eastwood beautifully displays
those pushes and shoves.  Hoover's insistence on 
professionalism and his own ego feeding are well told.
Hoover's relationship with his mother may be where
Eastwood begins to wander into interpretation, though
it is plausible by some accounts already told.
The same is true of the persistent rumors of Hoover's
relationship with his long time assistant and frequent companion Clyde Tolson. 
I've covered the FBI, have friends who are former agents, some from the Hoover era and some from the modern bureau, I have read and listened to many theories
about that relationship.  In that context I think
Eastwood's handling of that part of the story is
pure genius.  I came away thinking that in many ways
Tolson was a kind of "rudder" of Hoover and for
the greater good of the FBI.  I don't want to say
more, because your own viewing and evaluation on this part of the story-line is important.
As a period piece it is also brilliant.  
DiCaprio should get an Academy nomination for his 
work.  Inspired and simply brilliant.
Judy Dench as Hoover's mother is one of those
haunting performances that you will long remember.
Naomi Watts as Helen Gandy and Armie Hammer as 
Clyde Tolson are superb. Equally brilliant are 
Sian Grigg who did DiCaprio's make up and prosthetic effects and Alessandro Bertolazzi who did the same for
the aging Naomi Watts.  You can not appreciate how
brilliant their work, until you see it.
Tom Stern's cinematography should also win awards.
I marvel at how each Eastwood film gets better at 
mastering the art.  This film will be on 
all time best lists.  There is so much, so good about
this film, and most of it just stays out of the way and/or empowers the story that some may not fully appreciate just how exquisite is the work. 
 This is an extraordinarily intelligent and subtle film.
It tells part of the modern American story and will
no doubt reside as popular memory.  By contrast
I think of some of the work Oliver Stone
 has inflicted upon us.

JFK by Stone may have been the most egregious bastardizing of history, but Stone has substituted fantasy or conspiracy as fact in other efforts.  He has also done

George W. Bush, Larry Flynt, Nixon and the McMartin child molestation trials in LA among others.

Eastwood on the other hand, brilliantly interprets reality.

If more American History could be so told!
And by the way Clint Eastwood even wrote the music.
Maestro indeed!
See you down the trail.

GET OUT AND WALK

       It is hard to imagine ever being outside enough.  As a school kid, freedom seemed to breath, whenever we were permitted outside.  Working as a journalist gave me plenty of opportunity for being outside, until I began managing news operations or companies. Then I'd bound out, just to walk a few blocks, to get outside, whenever I could.  So as spring envelopes the country, let me urge you to take a walk.  In that spirit, here's a look at 

A WORLD CLASS WALK

          The Harmony Headlands State Park is 784 acres between Highway 1 and the Pacific about five minutes north of Cayucos and south of Cambria. It offers a spectacular approximately two mile hike out to a marine terrace.  It has become one of our favorites and it is often on the Cambria Walking Bunch's list.

          According to locals in the know, the land had been in the State Park System for some five years, but never opened to the public.  The story goes that Clint Eastwood, who lives about 2 hours north in Carmel, was down for an occasion and as a member of a state commission walked the trail.  He asked why it wasn't open and communicated with his friend and then Governor Schwarzenegger.  Shortly thereafter the trail was opened to the public.

            If you spend much time in this area of the Central Coast you get an urge to go wondering over the rolling hills and into valleys and canyons.

            The Headlands trail, gives you that opportunity and takes you by precious wetlands and fragile environs.

              After winding between slopes the trail opens to majestic views of the Pacific.

The trail works along pristine coastal bluffs.

In the spring, it offers a wild flower show.

lots of blooms this time of year

This is a somewhat exotic, called  Humming Bird Sage.

If you like hikes, and are in the area, the Harmony Headlands State Park is a great opportunity. Regardless of where you live, go talk a walk.
See you down the trail.