NEAR AND FAR

STARTS

SHARING HARMONY IN CAMBRIA

     Regular readers may recall Chef Giovanni of Harmony Cafe and his ability to delight all. Giovanni has moved from Harmony California, population 18, to Main Street, Cambria. He brought along the culinary magic.

        These, from his current monthly lunch menu, are examples.

    At the top the polenta and wild boar ragout with lentils. Just above is the sausage burger and cannellini beans.

  As you may discern after study of this recent lunch menu, making decisions here are a challenge. He tells me he stays up late thinking of new offerings. 

 Chef Giovanni has moved into Cambria's famed Pewter Plough Playhouse, decorated with caricatures by the New Yorker's late Al Hirschfeld. 

   True to Cambria's bohemian and art colony nature, the unique wooden tables are the creations of craftsman David Plumb who is a singer and minstrel extraordinaire'.  

  We share this with trepidation. Locals enjoy the masterful and inventive culinary skills and time to chat with Giovanni, a delightful character. When foodies discovered his location in rustic Harmony we found ourselves sharing it with those who came from LA, San Francisco and further afield. But great is great, so if you get to California's central coast, Cafe Harmony at the Pewter Plough is guaranteed to be an authentic joy.

    In a future post we'll tease you a bit with some of his homemade dessert and coffee creations and his garden patio.

HARD STORIES FROM A DISTANCE

   After seeing Beasts of No Nation I told friends that all of us, everyone, regardless of politics or belief, should be held accountable for something that has been reported but largely ignored, the weaponizing of children. 
     It happens in many places, but director Cary Fukanaga tells the story of an African orphan turned into a solider by a charismatic commander played masterfully by Idris Elba. Elba's performance is cited as being ignored by the Academy Awards nomination process. It's a shame there's no category for first time roles. Abraham Attah, the young Ghana native  who plays the orphan is extraordinary. His final monologue, as he relates to a therapist what he had endured changing from a gentle boy who prayed regularly and loved his family to a hardened killer is both a chilling and haunting performance. Tragic reality undergirds this difficult but important film.

     Straight Outta Compton, posted previously, achieves something important as well that I failed to note. It provides a sense of the life that explains better than any politician, professor or activist why young blacks can grow up with an attitude about police and the larger society. Though some will bristle, as they did at the time, NWA was justified to have the anger and frustration they spoke so boldly.

     Revenant is an epic. Its scale as story, production and ultimately as a film is huge and overwhelming. I understand why DiCaprio has been nominated. His work is phenomenal. However, in my estimation at least, Eddie Redmayne's performance in The Danish Girl is even better. Redmayne shows more diversity, range and complex emotion than did Di Caprio, as good as he was as a frontier scout fighting for survival. 
      In the last analysis the Oscars come down to something more than mere performance. Politics, culture and money are involved and DiCaprio's film is larger in all ways. That could make a difference. So too the fact Redmayne won last year for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking.  

     

      After all, the Oscars are not about curing disease, winning wars, ending oppression, bringing justice or anything earth shattering.  They are professional awards given by an industry where the bottom line is just that-commerce.

     See you down the trail.

A LETTER TO MARTIN SCORSESE & LEONARDO DICAPRIO & SHINE THOSE BOTTOMS

STRETCHING THE BOUNDARIES

OF ECLECTIC 

AND FILM

Wherein this post searches for a center of gravity

WOLF OF WALL STREET

     Dear Mr.'s Scorsese and DiCaprio,

          I've read a wide array of the reviews and articles and have seen you both interviewed. Since the 1970's I have broadcast and published my admiration and respect for your movie making and story telling genius Mr. Scorsese. Many of your films are among my all time favorites.  Mr. DiCaprio I have been impressed by your acting since the days of Gilbert Grape. Still, I have been arguing with myself since seeing WOLF OF WALL STREET.  

          I'm still not sure if I think it is a brilliant lampoon of money hustlers told as a dark comedy, high slapstick, a political lancing of some of the noveau 1%, an indictment of the morality, or lack there of, of Wall Street, a contact high, a celebration of libido, history, the highest use rate of the F-Bomb in film history, a precise portrayal of a cretin, a religious affirmation of the evil of greed, a remake of ("...greed is good...) WALL STREET on steroids and a lot more cocaine, a disgusting exploitation film, your joke on everybody else (can you believe we are getting rich on making this kind of film?) or all of the above or some combination there of.
        Clearly you left your mark.  I'm still trying to approximate some judgement on this 3 hour romp.  For sure you immerse your viewers into the maelstrom of Jordan Belfort's rise and high life style. You seemed to recreate the sales room, lavish parties, drug use, sex, opulence and mindless and pointless lifestyle with your directorial and acting brilliance.  You got terrific supporting roles Jonah Hill, Rob Reiner, Kyle Chandler, Margo Robbie, and others. Matthew McConaughey's chest pounding chant cameo is one of those scenes you'll never forget. Robbie Robertson's musical supervision was brilliant.
      I guess I'm inclined to think that what you've made is a multi-million dollar cartoon.  You were able to reduce a time, place, ethos and personalities to big screen tragic-comedy cartoons.  Leo, your lude induced crawling scenes made buffoons and jack asses of anyone ever so loaded, or anyone who would desire to be so loaded.  
     Gentlemen you have created a cinema work that will, as you know, especially you Martin with your love for film history, live for decades.  I guess you have provided 22nd Century sociologists a core sample of western decadence, worship of money and hedonism that no historian could do so graphically.  
      I'm still wondering though about the older woman who wandered into the theatre a little more than half way through.  My guess is she was "theater hopping" joining a film in progress after the movie she paid for had ended.  She came in slowly, not looking at the screen so as to amble to a seat in the row in front of us.  She sat down at the moment that cocaine was being snorted off the buttocks of a young woman while the f-bomb was offered up and carnal athletics ensued.  She was up and out of her seat much more rapidly than she wandered in.  Would love to have been able to read her thoughts.  Her action drew a few snickers from those of us who by now had become somewhat sated and even bored by the outrage and sexuality.  And on that reflection I realized that you Mr. Scorsese had accomplished a great deal.  Your three hour assault so deadened our senses to such excess that we sort of expected it, even accepted it as normal behavior, of those whom we watched. Touche'!
    Did we laugh, yes.  Was it comedic, yes. Was it wretched excess, yes indeed. Did we get it, yes. Does it say something about the quality of life and even morality, yes. But I bet that while some of us will give this thought, contemplation, look for morality or signs of political statement, see it as brilliant comedy, there are other's, future Jordon Belforts or Gordon Gekkos, for whom you have raised the bar.
    And finally Mr. Scorsese you have pounded Oliver Stone. His crafting of WALL STREET, good as it is, was not nearly as immersive as WOLF OF WALL STREET, cartoon and morality tale in one.  BTW, how many times was the F-bomb used?
    

AND NOW FROM THE PROFANE TO

DOWN HOME

    After dinner last evening and while cleaning up, Lana said to me she wanted to try something to clean the bottom of a Revere Ware pan.  She said she had heard about a combination of salt and lemon juice.  Our original Revere ware pans are dated to the beginning of our marriage. 

Here, is what ensued.

     By the way, I scrubbed as well.

     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.