Yet another excuse to post photos and links and some ramblings. I’ll put a jump here since some of the photos might take time to load…
Archive for the ‘Movies’ Category
After action report: Reno, NV.
Wednesday, June 13th, 2018Short note from the legal beat.
Tuesday, June 12th, 2018Rose McGowan has been indicted in Virginia on one count of felony possession of cocaine.
Apparently, she left her wallet on an airline flight in January of 2017: when it was found, there were two “baggies” of coke inside.
Ms. McGowan’s defense: there weren’t any drugs in her wallet when she saw it last, and she thinks the drugs were planted by…
…wait for it…
…Harvey Weinstein.
I usually don’t buy the “b—h set me up” (or “b—–d set me up”) defense. And I’m unlikely to be called to sit on a jury in Virginia. And if I were called, I would listen to both sides of the case, and try to render a fair judgement based on the facts.
But: given that this is Harvey Weinstein we’re talking about, I’m more than a little inclined to throw some reasonable doubt Ms. McGowan’s way.
Obit watch: June 12, 2018.
Tuesday, June 12th, 2018Eunice Gayson. You may not recognize the name, but you may recognize the face: she was “Sylvia Trench” in “Dr. No”, the very first Bond girl.
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I’ve been holding on to this one for a couple of days, because I wasn’t sure if I could note it without coming across as a jerk.
Charlotte Fox passed away on May 24th. She was a mountain climber: she was the first woman to summit Gasherbrum II and Cho Oyu, both over 26,000 feet high.
She also summited Everest, making her the first woman to summit three mountains over 26,000 feet high. More interesting: her Everest summit attempt was during the 1996 expedition chronicled in Into Thin Air.
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“My eyes were frozen,” she was quoted as saying in “Into Thin Air.” “I didn’t see how we were going to get out of it alive.”
“I didn’t think I could endure it anymore,” she added. “I just curled up in a ball and hoped death would come quickly.”
She survived a husband and a boyfriend: one was killed in an avalanche, and the other in a paragliding crash.
I think the death of any survivor of the 1996 expedition would be worthy of note. But this is the part that makes me afraid of sounding like a jerk: Ms. Fox died apparently as a result of a fall in her home.
I guess this is just another reminder that tomorrow is not promised to anyone.
By the way, the paper of record, as far as I can tell, still has not published an obit for Gardner Dozois.
Obit watch: June 7, 2018.
Thursday, June 7th, 2018Jerry Maren, one of the Munchkins in “The Wizard of Oz” and the last surviving little person from that group. (According to the NYT, some young girls were also hired to fill out the Munchkin ranks, and some of them are still alive.)
With a friend and fellow actor, Billy Barty, Mr. Maren in 1957 founded Little People of America, a nonprofit advocacy organization that says it has roughly 6,000 members.
“He took it as his responsibility to show, through a strong sense of self and speaking out and personal example, that little people are just people,” Mr. Cox said. “All of the other Munchkins had a great deal of respect for Jerry.”
Mel Weinberg, of ABSCAM fame.
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Obit watch: May 31, 2018.
Thursday, May 31st, 2018Josh Greenfeld, writer.
Mr. Greenfeld shared an Oscar nomination with Paul Mazursky for the screenplay of “Harry and Tonto”. (They lost to “Chinatown”. Man, 1974 was a heck of a year.) He also wrote plays, reviews, and features.
But he was most famous for three books about his severely autistic son: A Child Called Noah, A Place for Noah, and A Client Called Noah.
Philly.com obit for Gardner Dozois. The paper of record has not seen fit to publish an obit yet.
Obit watch: May 23, 2018.
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2018Philip Roth, noted American novelist.
I wish I had more to say about this, but: I just found out about his death, I’ve never read a Roth novel, and I don’t much like liver.
Clint Walker, actor. He was the star of “Cheyenne”, and appeared in “The Dirty Dozen” (among other credits).
Robert Indiana, visual artist, passed away on Saturday. He was most famous for his rendering of “L-O-V-E”:
I’m not sure I ordinarily would have noted this, but:
More:
He had become increasingly reclusive over the years, and his friends and associates wondered why. Turns out that, on Friday, the day before Mr. Indiana died:
They filed the lawsuit on Friday. Mr. Indiana’s death was announced on Saturday. Very interesting.
Obit watch (and other things): May 15, 2018.
Tuesday, May 15th, 2018I decided to put the Margo Kidder obits here: NYT. WP.
Adam Parfrey, publisher of weird stuff under the Amok Press and Feral House imprints.
My feelings about baseball in general, and the New York Yankees specifically, are well known. But this is a nice story:
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While the flowers usually arrive without warning or explanation beyond the message on the card, the gesture can elicit strong emotions. In Fargo, when Officer Jason Moszer was shot and killed in the line of duty in 2016, his 11-year-old stepson, Dillan Dahl, was devastated. When the flowers from the Yankees arrived, Dillan took them to his room and watered them, trying to keep them alive for as long as possible, said his father, Tim Dahl.
“It was the first time he smiled in days,” Dahl said.
This is a good story, too, and one I didn’t have time to blog on Sunday:
(THREAD) 1. MEET Estela and Nicolas. Today they got married. For anyone else this would be just a picture of a normal wedding day, but for these two, there is much more than meets the eye. For them, this is a story of the triumph of love and hope. pic.twitter.com/OKa8yPwPBC
— Fr. Goyo (@FrGoyo) May 12, 2018
Obit watch: May 14, 2018.
Monday, May 14th, 2018This is a placeholder for Margot Kidder obits: once they start going up, I’ll add them here.
In the meantime:
Chuck Knox, noted NFL coach.
Ernest Medina, one of the central figures in the My Lai massacre.
Captain Medina went on trial in September 1971, defended by the prominent criminal lawyer F. Lee Bailey, as well as a military lawyer. He was charged with involuntary manslaughter of at least 100 civilians, the murder of a woman and two counts of assault against a prisoner by firing twice over his head to frighten him the night after the massacre.
The defense contended that Captain Medina was unaware of large-scale killings of defenseless civilians until they had already occurred. The prosecution argued that the defense account was not credible since Captain Medina had been in continual radio contact with his platoons. The court-martial panel of five combat officers returned not guilty verdicts on all counts after an hour’s deliberation.
Doreen Simmons.
“Who?”
She was best known as an English-language sumo commentator for NHK from 1992 until March of this year.
Obit watch: May 9, 2018.
Wednesday, May 9th, 2018Anne V. Coates, noted film editor. She was nominated five times for Oscars, and won for “Lawrence of Arabia”.
George Deukmejian, former governor of California.
Obit watch: May 2, 2018.
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2018Missed this one until it showed up on the NYT obits Twitter: noted film director Michael Anderson.
Among his credits: “Logan’s Run“, “Around the World in 80 Days“, “The Dam Busters“, and “The Quiller Memorandum“.
We’ve talked about watching “The Dam Busters”, but it won’t be this weekend even if we had the DVD, and that DVD is a touch pricey. I wouldn’t mind watching “Quiller” either, and I’ve never actually seen “Logan’s Run”.
Obit watch: April 23, 2018.
Monday, April 23rd, 2018For the record: Verne Troyer.
Obit watch: April 16, 2018.
Monday, April 16th, 2018It was another busy weekend: birthday dinner, BAG day (post forthcoming), lots of running around…so let us get caught up.
Art Bell, noted radio host.
I used to listen to a lot of late night radio, but my time preceded Art Bell. I know someone whose job requires them to drive in sometimes late at night, and back in the day they were an Art Bell listener.
Tim O’Connor, character actor. He had a long-running role on the “Peyton Place” TV series, and also did guest shots in just about everything. (Including “Mannix”.)
Milos Forman, one of the great directors. (“Amadeus”, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”)
And finally, R. Lee Ermey. Borepatch.
Obit watch: April 2, 2018.
Monday, April 2nd, 2018Man, it’s been a really busy couple of days.
Deborah Carrington, actress. Among her credits: Thumbelina in the original “Total Recall”, Valerie Vomit in “The Garbage Pail Kids Movie”, various Ewoks, and the “Bride of Chucky”.
Stéphane Audran, Babette in “Babette’s Feast”.
Delores Taylor, also an actress. She appeared in a bunch of her husband, Tom Laughlin’s, films, including “Billy Jack” and the two sequels.
Anita Shreve, noted novelist.
Separated at birth?
Former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt
INS reporter Carl Kolchak.
Finally, noted TV producer Steven Bochco. (“Hill Street Blues”, “LA Law”, “NYPD Blue”, “Doogie Howser MD”. And where’s my damn “Hooperman” box set? I’m not kidding: I remember that being a kind of fun show.)
Let’s go out with a bang, shall we?
Obit watch: January 22, 2018.
Monday, January 22nd, 2018Hemmingway and Ruark have a new hunting partner.
Harry Selby passed away on Saturday at the age of 92.
I’ve touched briefly on Selby in the past, but more in the context of Ruark. So please indulge me:
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Without cellphones or evacuation helicopters, Mr. Selby had to be the doctor, mechanic, chauffeur, gin-rummy-and-drinking partner and universal guide, knowledgeable about mountain ranges, grassy plains, rivers, jungles, hunting laws, migratory patterns, and the Bushmen, Masai, Samburu, Dinka and Zulu tribes. He spoke three dialects of Swahili. And he improvised; if there was no firewood, he burned wildebeest dung.
He was no Gregory Peck, but had an easygoing personality that made for good company in the bush. He coped with emergencies, pulling a client clear of a stampede or a vehicle from a bog, treating snakebites or tracking a wounded lion in a thicket — his most dangerous game. He was left-handed, but his favorite gun was a right-handed .416 Rigby, which can knock down an onrushing bull elephant or Cape buffalo in a thundering instant.
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For 30 years, Mr. Selby ran company operations in Botswana, and guided hunters and photographers into leased concessions covering thousands of square miles in the Okavango Delta in the north and the vast Kalahari Desert in the south, home of the click-talking Bushmen. He cut tracks and built airfields in the wilderness.
In 1970, he established Botswana’s first lodge and camps for photographic safaris. He hired guides and a large support staff for what became a dominant safari business in Southern Africa. After Ker, Downey and Selby was bought by Safari South in 1978, he remained a director, and even after resigning in 1993 he continued to lead safaris privately until retiring in 2000.
Noted actor Bradford Dillman.
He was “Capt. McKay” in “The Enforcer” and “Captain Briggs” (not to be confused with Hal Holbrook’s “Lt. Briggs” in “Magnum Force”) in “Sudden Impact”. As we all know, Callahan went through captains like CNN goes through Russian conspiracy theories.
And finally, more of local interest: Hisako Tsuchiyama Roberts. Mrs. Roberts and her husband, Thurman, founded the Salt Lick barbecue restaurant in Driftwood, a little outside of Austin.
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She was 104.
Obit watch: January 20, 2018.
Saturday, January 20th, 2018Paul Bocuse, one of the great French chefs.
I don’t have my copy of Alice Let’s Eat in front of me, but I remember Trillin quoting Bocuse: “Without butter, without cream, there is no point to cooking.” Bocuse was 91.
Dorothy Malone, Texan and retired actress. She was in Douglas Sirk’s “Written on the Wind” (and won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress). She also played Constance McKenzie for four out of five seasons of the “Peyton Place” TV series. (She was written out after season four.)
Stansfield Turner, former CIA director.
Peter Mayle, author. I never read A Year in Provence but from the description it sounds a lot like a French version of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.