THE WEEKENDER-THE BEST AND THE WAY WE WERE

AS FRESH AS IT GETS

     The spring growing season has been good up here on the Pine ridge.  Our upper raised bed, on the back hill,  has yielded an abundance of great lettuce. 

      We call this upper raised bed "Indiana," because it is flat, tillable and produces well. I know the same can be said for the central valley, but we are paying tribute to some of our great gardens in years past.

FLYING ULTRA FIRST CLASS

   The Weekender Video was spotted by Beverly.  You've got to see this to believe it.

REEL NOTES

    THE COMPANY YOU KEEP

    If you were politically active, motivated or interested during the turbulent 70's, Robert Redford's THE COMPANY YOU KEEP, will register with you and may even ring a few bells.

    A former Weather Underground activist goes off the grid as a reporter pursues a story, the dimension of which he does not understand.  It is a superb reprise of the dilemma, how far do you go to stop a government that is doing wrong? That question ripped the peace movement, mobilized to stop the war in Viet Nam, when more radical elements amped up the fight to include bombings and violence.

    Susan Sarandon's monologue, shortly after she is arrested for an old crime, is a brilliant restatement of just that. You may wonder if much has changed at all?

    A thrilling intrigue, the film is smart, some of the dialogue plays back like history and is star laden. Robert Redford acts and directs. Great performance from Shia LaBeouf and superb smaller role performances from Chris Cooper, Terrence Howard, Stanley Tucci, Richard Jenkins, Sam Elliot, Julie Christie, Nick Nolte, Brendan Gleeson and Sarandon. 

    I took a personal interest in the side bar story of the role of the reporter. Back in the day I was assigned to cover the anti war movement which included New Mobe, Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee, SDS, Draft Resistance, the Black Panthers and more. Some of the questions and emotions Redford surfaces are flashbacks for some of us, and just old history to younger viewers.
    It came as an odd reminder that bombings in that era were done by Americans angry at the Viet Nam war. Deadly, disruptive and dangerous though they were, they seemed less sinister than those by modern terrorists. But America in the 60's and 70's was a vastly different place than America today. Redford draws that in a stoic way. It's a film that will make you think.

    See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER-GETS MY VOTE & WHAT A CLOUD

ADAPTABILITY & GRACE

      As we endure the final weekend of this campaign year we offer a video of a truly courageous man with real grace. 

ARCHIVE SNAPS

      

 REEL THOUGHTS

 CLOUD ATLAS

    Wachowski sibling films; Matrix-trilogy, V-for Vendetta and now Cloud Atlas have something more than an exotic locus, dynamic story arc, rich characters, tense drama and large action.  Their cinema realities, full of fantasy, have a coiling truth quest that make the films seem to be springboards for discussions of theology, spirituality, meaning and purpose.

    Cloud Atlas is many things, including a venue for extraordinary acting. Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Susan Sarandon, Bae Doo-na, Keith David, Ben Winshaw and Zhao Xun all play multiple roles and do so extraordinarily well augmented by mind-boggling make-up, wardrobe and special effects departments. 

     The film is a kind of cross between a Rorschack test and a Terrence Malick epic.  You can see many things in a directorial weave that requires you to pay attention. Fascinating, dazzling, intriguing, inspiring and just plain entertaining even if some leave confused while others believe they have been given one more clue to the purpose of life and the meaning of the universe. I leave wanting to talk with my philosophy major buddy and friends who are PhD's in theology. It would be great to have beer with 

Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer. What were they trying to say?

     It is a stimulatingly great 164 minutes that seem to fly by. There are precious few film makers who can hold you there for almost 3 hours, without an awareness of the hours going by. 

A TRIBUTE NOW TO THE 

EFFECT OF THOSE POLITICAL ADS

See you down the trail.