Snow Flurries

1. I was home sick with some sort of flu like illness. Spring 1957? My parents had bought 2nd hand, an Admiral telly which we were only allowed to watch on the weekends after we had finished our home work. Of course if they went out, rules were meant to be broken...like turning on the tube, or letting the dog into the house to roam from room to room. Home alone and feeling crappy, I turned the telly on chugging through the 7 channel offerings and stumbling upon the 1944 movie,'Meet Me in St. Louis,' starring the great Judy Garland. Was this my first musical? No. But there was something magical about Garland's voice as she carried the film's story line from scene to scene. And then a strange unfamiliar thing happened to me. It was in the middle of, 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas', and it came from a place deep within me evoking feelings I'd never associated with movies or music or any sort of audio visual stimulation (yeah in the 60's we got a lot of help from our friends) and I was so overwhelmed by the emotional ping ponging of the lyrics and the music tugging at my heart (??), that I started to cry. It was a profound childhood moment. My first. Something other than disappointment, hurt or anger had moved me to tears. And it was stunning. Thank you Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane.

2. SNL. Jimmy Fallon hosting, scored on 2 skits...'Michael Buble Duets,' and the 'Tebow/Jesus'sketch. Instant classics.

3. Guns and riots over the release of the new retro Air Jordans yesterday. Come on, man. WTF?

4. Rooney Mara and Fincher. Fincher got a great performance from Mara in the American
version of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.'It is darker, and edgier.Great sound track by NIN Trent Reznor.

5. According to noradsanta.org, next stop is Mount Everest, Nepal. Lumps of coal or not, warmest wishes and happy holidays to all.

Tebowed and other musings...

1. If you have been circling the earth in a space capsule or been shackled to the assembly line in the North Pole or just 'tuned out' and channel surf through the spectacle that is the NFL on Sunday, then you are missing one of the greatest stories
of the 2011 season. Tim Tebow. If the pointy ball is not your cup of tea, skip down to the second paragraph and have another cookie. The Tebow phenomenon, six straight wins, orchestrated as come back victories, most of them in the 4th quarter,is a combo of good luck and bad luck. A bad pass, a fumble, a missed field goal...could have derailed the train, but when you're streaking like Tebow is streaking, the bad breaks somehow deposit them at your cleats, and hot damn, you rally,strike the pose and rock the mother fracking free world. Tim Tebow in my league is not PC; the dude's notoriously pro life. Come on, man. But, for all the religion and issues that's he packing, I give him a nod for his exuberance and ferocity. He might not be able to pass like Aaron Rodgers, but he's uh, well a load to bring down and he can lead. This Sunday against the glam QB of the Eastern seaboard, Tom Brady, Tim T. might find himself 'in an unfamiliar position: 'Bradied.'

2. Waiting for Fincher's vision of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.'
Have no doubt that it will be edgier, darker, and leave nothing to the imagination. Often times, double dipping the imagination is a spoiler. But, in a rare and impressive scene, the spectacular ending of Lars Van Trier's, 'Melancholia' iced the film...and sent it over the top. Sitting there just before the climatic ending, I thought naaaah not going to happen. Frack! So wrong.

3. Iraq. 8 years. Welcome home to the land of the 99%.

Sunday Slices

1. The Descendants. I learned a long time ago when a book is adapted to the screen, shit can happen. But I also came to understand that film translations are another person's canvas. I give you my recipe. You bake the cake. Where I used chocolate; you adopt vanilla. And so it goes. I went to Alexander Payne's film loaded for bear. On edge, I waited for some annoying haole slip. A faux reference; a cultural misstep; an egregious representation...white actors for Asians. Elvis' Hanauma Bay. Yup, I was laying in the weeds shamelessly. And well, when you're not mining for diamonds, but thinking of coal sometimes the cosmic joke is on you. The Descendants in a rather astonishing cultural homage moves seamlessly through the Hawaiian archipelago chain like the proverbial hot knife through butter. It doesn't miss a beat. Kamaaina's distilled through a malahini's lens accompanied by an outrageous soundtrack...nicely done, Mr. Payne. Shaka, bro.

2. Growing up, my canine hero was Rin Tin Tin. I preferred the handsome black and tan markings to the pointy nosed collie on the other telly channel. Milking the popularity of Rinty, H'wood churned out and filled the Saturday matinee screens: Rinty come home. Rinty in the wild. And Rinty at war. I'll never forget the first time that I saw a shell shocked dog in a war movie. The sweet lovable canine hero developed Cujo like instincts. Now, 50 years later, there are reports of dogs serving in Afghanistan and Iraq suffering from PTSD. Vets are treating dogs who have developed troubling changes in personality after increasing exposure to explosions and gunfire; some of the canines become hyper, and aggressive, while others become shy and timid. 'Man's' best friend...

3. More canine. Reports out of Salt Lake, Utah of a duck hunter shot in the pelvic region when his dog stepped on his 12 gauge shotgun laid across the bow of his boat.
27 pellets of bird shot were discharged. Think his safety was on? I'm just saying...