Thursday, August 26, 2010

Scatter Shots


1. Remember the death star in Star Wars? Sure you do. It blasted Alderaan, Princess Leia's home, to moon dust and beyond with turbo lasers and Lucas boy toys. The L.A. county sheriff's department is about to leap frog Grand Moff (Gov.) Tarkin, and co with the installation of an 'Assault Intervention Device,' that will be used to control marauding inmates by blasting them with a beam of excruciating energy that produces a burning sensation. The weapon is 4 feet tall and will be installed on the ceiling and be able to swivel. Physically it is a cross between a robot and a satellite radar. The weapon of mass destruction will be remotely controlled by Tarkin's twin brother in a separate room who will be able to line up targets with a joystick. The ACLU has gone viral and is demanding a meeting. Cmdr. Osborne, a techie for the sheriff's dept, said, 'the neat thing with this device is you experience pain but are not injured by it.' Ohhhh. Ray guns that don't injure. Like the taser? Buck Rodgers says, 'after you.'

2. Ken Melhman, former 'everything' for the repubs (chair of the repub National Committee blah, blah, blah and outed years ago in 2006 on Larry King by Maher and Mike Rodgers where he emphatically denied it is today officially out of the closet. In. Out. Married to Bush. Thanks a lot chump for being so vocal during the Cheney years.

3. The Swedes. Is there something in the water there? Elin Nordegren is the toast of her country. Apparently Swedish woman are taught to be independent, not take any shit, and move on without looking back. Evidently it's part of the culture there. There's something to be said for having a bit of the Salander gene embedded. You think Steig Larsson was on to something?

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Part 2: The Girls of Summer 'Bring It'

The Millennium trilogy has held the NY Times best seller list hostage for close to a year. The Stieg Larsson 'Girl' is a ridiculous phenomenon. Red and Blue states can't get enough. People who haven't read one printed page in years are ripping through the books back to back to back. Sensing that the saturation point was a bottomless pit the Swedes wisely cranked out screen adaptations of the trilogy. It was perfect timing. On my flash drive memoirs, filed under the entry 'We Like to Watch' is this: 2010. The summer we became shameless 'ho's' to Lisbeth Salander and Evelyn Salt, as they kicked ass all over the celluloid screen.

1. Noomi Rapace.
Can't see anyone else as Lisbeth Salander, no matter how hard I try. Rapace's performance is edgy. She is the embodiment of Salander, the genius hacker. Rapace says she trained for 7 months, building muscle, learning to ride a 'bike' and getting piercings. 'Point of No Return' was the Hollywood version of Luc Besson's, 'La femme Nikita.' It was a dumbed down version of the original. Just marginally good. Uh, so all eyes will be on Rooney Mara who was named yesterday for the role of the Salander character in the USA version (why oh why?). Feel the pressure, Rooney. Lock yourself in a dark room and watch Rapace over and over again. Good luck in getting the vibe right.

2. Evelyn Salt. Like music to my ears. As good or better (I guess it depends on your point of view) than those Bond or Bourne boys. Finally there is life after Emma Peel! Geezuz. So, parkour..the art of physically, gracefully, flying over, through, or around objects... The first time I saw it was in a French film, District B13. The next time parkour surfaced was in the first Daniel Craig 007 installment, Casino Royale. Over the years, it's made various action movie appearances, but always predominantly practiced by males, traceurs, until Angelina's, Salt. Not sure if all the parkour was done by Angie, but whether it was or not, the attempt at parkour by a woman, traceuses, in a high profile Hollywood action film gets kudos from me. Salt is Angie, and gave every girl out there a new action hero. Sequel soon to follow.

3. Tip of the jockey cap to Marion Cotillard and Ellen Page making the most out of pitifully gratuitous roles in Inception.

Monday, August 16, 2010

'Hey yo, the stars up...'

A line from, 'Long Hard Times to Come' the theme from the series Justified by Gangstagrass is the lead title of this piece. Saturday night I saw the film, Winter's Bone, the Best Picture, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, directed by Debra Granik and starring Jennifer Lawrence. Looking back at the summer releases, this has been a powerful year for women in the film industry. Categorized by genre, my genre, here are their rankings:

1. Jennifer Lawrence as Ree Dolly in Winter's Bone. This is a raw stark portrait of the 'have nots,' the forgotten, the white disenfranchised America that has been left behind... the crumbling dwellings, the jumbled rust heaps, the suspicion, the miscreants that lie burrowed deep in the hollows of the Ozarks; the burden of living is a way of life. Jennifer Lawrence's, Ree, is the embodiment of resilience; tough, and wise beyond her years, because you have to be to get by in a society that is riddled with secrets, Lawrence's performance lights up the screen and blows away more accomplished actors. In fact, the movie is so good, so distinguished, that at some point you believe you are watching a documentary. A tip of the jockey cap to John Hawkes, the Jewish merchant, Sol, from Deadwood, who as Teardrop should garner awards for a spectacular performance.

2. Tilda Swinton in Io Sono L'amoure.
Aesthetics and the riveting music of Pulitzer Prize composer, John Adams, bolster this labor of love from director Luca Guadagnino, and Tilda Swinton. The film is a guilty pleasure. Sons and daughters. Italian fashion. Sly homage to Hitchcock. And a resurrected Marisa Berenson. What's not to like? Swinton's 30 second performance in Broken Flowers, a personal favorite, surpass the controlled studied portrait of Emma Recchi, but this vehicle, it's splendor, erotic charisma, and transformation is more than good enough.

3. Annette Bening. 'The Kids are All Right' doesn't go anywhere without Bening's Nic. She's the straw that stirs the drink. There is a scene in this movie, where Bening has just made an unpleasant discovery...her face is a classic study of desiccated shock; she is one of the best actors in the industry today and in the spring this performance should add to her already bulging display case of professional hardware.

Next: Part 2...the 'Girls who kicked summer Ass.'

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Scatter Shots


I wake up every morning and ask myself not about the meaning of life, but what the F is going on with the weather. It's not debilitating heat. So, I suppose pearls of gratitude should be dribbling from my mouth, instead of this sophomoric whining. Whatever. I like the sound of my voice as it crawls down the blackboard. A bank of fog envelopes the area, and stays and stays; maybe we have lift-off by 2pm if we're lucky. Like Anchorage in November. Five hours of daylight. Is this some kind of Palin joke? A plague on both our houses: the East Bay, and SF? My summer tomatoes in the back yard,which should be plated on mozzarella cheese, drizzled with olive oil, and fresh basil, or crushed and sauced are neon green. A pleasant color for tomatillos, not 'Early Girls.' And while I'm on it, and rolling, I want my fracking skater-boy shorts days! And my flip-flop accessories out of moth balls before it's fall.

Onto the international world. China. What's wrong with my bros (I have to say bros since well, you-know there's the gender thing there) in the Henan Province? If you're plying your wares in the oldest profession, and are picked up for prostitution, the police shackle and parade you like spoils of war, the prisoners (women), barefoot through the crowded streets circa Rome BC. Cheerfully referred to as 'shame parades' there has been so much outrage and public outcry, that the Ministry of Public Security has demanded a stop to the public humiliation. As if...

Prop 8. Struck down last week in Cali. But most likely moving to another venue, the Supreme Court. Exhausting. But full of vinegar and piss. Limp wristed gays. Bull dykes. Uh-huh. A victory. So, bring it. What else you got?

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

'Frrrreeedom. Just another word?...'


I'm not a parent. But I have read with considerable interest articles in the NY Times and most recently in the SF Chronicle addressing the issue of the independence of children; that is, the precise moment parents choose to let their kids experience the world without them. More specifically this might mean a child walking alone to the store or school, with perhaps peers, but without the parental unit. Agreed, it is a different world today, but I was fortunate to spend my youth in 2 cities: Honolulu and San Francisco. At age 7 I walked through a park behind my house with my cousin and caught the bus to go to a school about a mile away. I played independently in the park after school and walked to the store down the street and around the corner for a pre-dinner sugar fix. Once when I was 12 in SF, I missed the bus which would take me to Kaiser for allergy shots, and walked approximately 15 blocks through some edgy areas. I don't recall being scared, only worried about missing the shots. I'm not sure what constitutes the good ol' days and if striking out early suggests proprietary exploration, or if any of those experiences were meaningful. I can however, tell you that most of them have been damn good memories, while some of them have ended up as bs fodder on a therapist's floor. A life altering decision to go to a wilderness survival camp in Colorado dramatically changed my friend Jane's daughter's outlook on life. Ramona, 15, after spending a day (it might have been 2) and a night alone in the Colorado wild knew that she could stare down anxiety and come up with some sort of coherent response which would challenge conflicting situations and safeguard her well-being. So, yes, I do agree that a taste of freedom here and a taste of freedom there is a confidence booster for kids. Shackles have to come off sometime, right? What they do without the ball and chain is their business. Really. As Bobby Dylan once said: 'they're busy being born.' Ball busting parent? Or control freak? It's always comes down to choices. And thankfully, as an Aunt, a role I truly relish, I don't have to make them.