BIG CONCEPTS, SPLITTING TIME, SHOWING GREEN

A CONGRESS OF DANCERS

Yucca plants thrive in desert zones and give the terrain a populated feeling.

 They add color and texture to the brown and sand scape tones. They remind me of clusters of gesticulating dancers.

LOOKING FOR GREEN

    Following three years of drought Californians are beginning to see tinges of winter green. Two small rain showers in the last couple of weeks have charged the grazing slopes with something on which to graze.

  There is precious little green but even that softens the concrete gray and brown of the dry slopes. 

AN EPIC RIDE

    Everything about INTERSTELLAR is big. Big name cast, director, story, themes, concept and running time. 
     Christopher Nolan is an accomplished director and movie maker. He uses his full skill range in writing a storyline and then turning it into a film that is adventure, heartwarming, thrilling, mind bending, and stunning.  But it is long.
     Mathew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jane Chastain, Casey Affleck, Matt Damon, John Lithgow and Michael Caine  live up to their reputations.  Josh Stewart and Bill Irwin as TARS and CASE, on board computers, were terrific. In fact I'd love to have one of those around here.
      Planet degradation, government cut backs in science, family dynamics, parental love, black holes, and time space continuums are all treated as part of the story line.  Unexpected but nicely handled was the scene where a teacher upbraids McConaughey and his daughter for using a text book that teaches about the Apollo flights to the moon. The teacher insists that was all propaganda by the US to force the Soviet Union to spend more than they had on space research. 
      There is a lot to this big and epic film and you'll need to enjoy sic-fi, science, space, action and mental riddles to love it. Lana enjoyed it less than I did. A buddy with whom we saw the film said it was a bit long.  However there is an act, series of scenes, where time, a moment in time, is portrayed across a spectrum of realities, dimensions and time itself. It was stunning to see as it played and I've found that I continue to roam back over the concept and the visualization of it. If theoretical physics could have been taught in such a way, I might have been seduced by that sense of "reality."  It will stretch your head a bit.  Or not! At any rate I'd like to put TARS or CASE on my Christmas gift wish list.

    See you down the trail.

McCONAUGHEY AGNOISTES and WHAT EMERGES FROM THE SEA

MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY
IN CONFLICT

     Two current works have put Matthew McConaughey on the screen as an actor who has mastered the role of an agonist.  

      Most of the current buzz and accolades are for his remarkable role in Dallas Buyers Club. That role personifies this idea of a man in conflict-a hard partying rodeo cowboy/electrician homophobe who becomes an advocate- combatant in the early HIV/Aids crisis.

      True Detective writer/creator Nic Pizzolatto has given McConaughey the role of Rust Chole, a vehicle where the actor has taken complexity and a cosmic level of brooding to a new level of brilliance in a haunting performance that achieves mastery. 

      Pizzolatto's story line has McConaughey and partner Woody Harrelson as Martin Hart, move backwards and forwards in time as they encounter a bizarre and grizzly crime. The evolution and spin in the character Rust Chole, the nuance, ticks, tautness and unique personality is absolutely stunning to see. The ownership and  demonstration of the character is powerful enough that his behavior in the internal affairs interview process will establish a level of interpretation like that of Robert De Niro's Travis Bickle.

       Truce Detective is an acquired taste and its field of play is more gritty than some will appreciate.  As a young reporter I spent a few years on the street, during which time I covered the police beat and became friends particularly with a couple of homicide investigators. These guys lived that twilight reality 24/7 while I was merely a tourist. I am still haunted by things I encountered in that world where work begins after someones violent death. Pizzolatto, McConaughey and Harrelson weave a pattern of that life in an exotic drama. Once you see McConaughey's work, it will sear an impression upon you.  Powerful stuff on the screen.

SAN SIMEON COVE

    Evidence of a diverse yield from the Pacific was splayed around San Simeon Cove on a recent afternoon stroll.

      Wave action reveals pilings from an old pier, perhaps the original that William Randolph Hearst constructed to unload artifacts and remains of European villas, churches and objects of art for his own castle up the mountain.

   Pieces of whale vertebra are being unearthed by the sea.

     And only barely more lively are elephant seals, who have wandered far from the colony to find peaceful venues for a snooze.

      While this more junior member chose a spot on the parking lot.

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.