Random notes: February 8, 2011.

February 8th, 2011

There are a couple of interesting things in the NYT this morning.

J. Paul Getty III passed away over the weekend. That’s a name (like Koo Stark, he said, tipping his hat in Lawrence’s direction) I hadn’t thought of in years. Getty was most famous as the victim of a kidnapping “by Italian gangsters” during which his ear was cut off. I knew he was something of a party animal, but I was unaware of his 1981 stroke (apparently the result of an overdose). I was also unaware that Balthazar Getty was his son.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles (and specifically LACMA) are trying to figure out how to maintain the Watts Towers, and how to get more tourists to a part of town that’s most famous for riots.

And the NYT has made their move:

…“Spider-Man” is not only the most expensive musical ever to hit Broadway; it may also rank among the worst.

Yes, this is a real review.

I would like to acknowledge here that “Spider-Man” doesn’t officially open until March 15; at least that’s the last date I heard. But since this show was looking as if it might settle into being an unending work in progress — with Ms. Taymor playing Michelangelo to her notion of a Sistine Chapel on Broadway — my editors and I decided I might as well check out “Spider-Man” around Monday, the night it was supposed to have opened before its latest postponement.

The fallout from the NYT decision should be interesting. The pin has been pulled from Mr. Grenade. He is no longer Ben Brantley’s friend. On the other hand, Charles McNulty in the LAT has Brantley’s back:

Julie Taymor’s $65-million, accident-prone production, featuring an erratic score by U2’s Bono and The Edge, is a teetering colossus that can’t find its bearings as a circus spectacle or as a rock musical.

And it looks like Peter Marks in the WP is standing with Brantley and McNulty:

What’s apparent after 170 spirit-snuffing minutes in the Foxwoods Theatre – interrupted by the occasional burst of aerial distraction – is that director Julie Taymor, of “The Lion King” fame, left a few essential items off her lavish shopping list:

1. Coherent plot

2. Tolerable music

3. Workable sets

Charles Willeford, call your office, please:

A man who was at an illegal cockfight in central California died after being stabbed in the leg by a bird that had a knife attached to its own limb, officials confirmed Monday.

In other news, the WP has discovered (reporter with a database!) that people in “Washington’s safest, most well-to-do neighborhoods” have registered more guns than people in “poorer, crime-plagued areas of the city”. I may have more to say on this later, time permitting.

Edited to add: I was in a hurry to finish that last post and hadn’t got to the Statesman yet, unfortunately. I previously noted the fires at several Austin restaurants, including the Green Muse Cafe. (There was also a recent fire at Habana, which I didn’t note for reasons that escape me at the moment.)

Anyway, APD made an arrest:

According to his arrest affidavit, [Martin] Gutierrez [the alleged arsonist – DB] said he believed a large tunnel system lay under Gillis Park near Oltorf Street and that people were being held there against their will. He admitted he started the fire at the Green Muse Cafe because he wanted to inform the public of the tunnel and “what was really going on here,” the document said.

Posted in Art, California Über Alles, Clippings, Food, Guns, Law, Obits, Theatre | 1 Comment »

Public service announcement.

February 7th, 2011

The Texas Department of Transportation is doing some work this weekend at the intersection of Interstate 35 and Ben White Boulevard (aka Texas 71). Specifically, they’ll be working on some new flyovers in that area. I would embed a Google Maps image here, but apparently WordPress 3.0.4 has a bug with embedding iFrames. You can try clicking here.

Anyway, what does this mean to you, Al Franken? TXDOT is closing the entire freeway from “late Friday evening to early Monday morning”. Yes, you read that right, the entire freeway. They’re diverting traffic onto the access road:

The frontage road traffic lights at Ben White (Texas 71) will be on permanent green during the 50-hour plus diversion, meaning that the regular I-35 traffic will be able to move on through without stopping. But given that I-35 has three northbound lanes and three southound lanes in this section, there will be 33 percent less capacity for about a mile and all of those cars will have to exit and then re-enter the main lanes.

If I lived in the area, I’d stock up on popcorn. This is going to be better than the zoo and the circus combined. As for the rest of us, I think staying far away from I-35 for the duration is the best course of action.

Posted in Bridges, Clippings, Roads, Stupid | 2 Comments »

Random notes: February 7, 2011.

February 7th, 2011

I know I’m “rooting for laundry”, but I have a certain fondness for the Green Bay Packers. A major reason for that is their unique ownership structure. The Packers are a public corporation, with stock and everything. (The NFL will not allow any other team to adopt this ownership structure; the Packers are grandfathered in. This is the kind of behavior by the NFL that would make me want my congressman to start asking questions, if I believed in that sort of thing.) Anyway, here’s a good New Yorker piece that explains how the Packers work in more detail. And yes, my black little heart is filled with delight today. (Hattip: Gruber.)

We have previously mentioned the death of General Vang Pao, and the question of whether he would be buried at Arlington. The answer to that question was “no”; the Pentagon turned down the family’s request. Mark Arax has a good piece in the NYT about the General’s funeral.

Posted in Clippings, NFL, Obits, Sports | 3 Comments »

The Washington Post FAILS to make me testy.

February 7th, 2011

(I’m not going to put a “Part 1” on that because this is probably the first and last time you will ever see those words together.)

Stephen Hunter, former WP movie critic and awesome thriller writer (actually, scratch the “thriller” part) writes in the WP defending normal capacity magazines.

(Hattip: Say Uncle. Actually, one of his commenters.)

(Edited to add: Better Say Uncle link here.)

Posted in Clippings, Guns | Comments Closed

Slow down, pussycat.

February 7th, 2011

Obit watch: Tura Satana, of “Faster Pussycat!! Kill! Kill!” fame.

($31.99? Are they pressing the DVDs out of solid gold?)

Posted in Clippings, Obits | Comments Closed

Matters of cinema.

February 6th, 2011

As you might have guessed, I like movies. I do not, however, go to see as many of them as perhaps I should.

There are several reasons for this. Obviously, I have to be interested in a movie before I’ll plunk down $7 to go see it. For example, I don’t do FaceBook, so The Social Network holds almost no appeal for me.

A second reason is that there’s only two places I will see movies: in a private home (my own or someone else’s) or the Alamo Drafthouse chain of cinemas in Austin and certain other areas of Texas. If I go to an Alamo Drafthouse, I know I will get the following:

  • No commercials. The Alamo does show interstitial material before the movie, but the clips they show are always entertaining and relevant to the movie in some way. They do run brief house ads, and trailers for coming attractions, but I know I won’t have to put up with a Pepsi or Chevy Volt commerical.
  • Food that ranges from good to excellent, a larger selection of beers than many bars in Austin, and highly efficient at your seat service.
  • No disruptions. The Alamo theaters are serious about this, and make it known upfront. I have never actually seen someone evicted from an Alamo for talking or otherwise being disruptive, but I’ve also never been in one where it was actually necessary. People who go there know how to behave.

So if a movie doesn’t play the Alamo, and I don’t catch it in someone’s home, I’m not seeing it. All this is by way of saying that of the Oscar nominated films this year, I’ve seen exactly…one, so far.

I didn’t have any notions going into True Grit, beyond “Oh, look, a Coen Brothers movie.” I haven’t read the book, although I hear good things about it from many folks. (Charles Portis is a big blind spot for me, and I’d like to fix that.) I also haven’t seen the original John Wayne version. (I’d like to, but the current DVD release looks cheap; I’m hoping the success of this version will result in a better DVD release of the original. I haven’t seen the Blu-Ray version in stores yet.) Lawrence and I and some other friends finally got it together, after several false starts, to go see it, and…

…I thought it was a perfectly okay movie. I realize that’s not exactly wild praise, but I just thought the brothers took a simple story and told it very well. It didn’t have the same emotional impact on me that No Country for Old Men did, but it was a fine movie. Without being condescending, I wish my stepfather could have lived to see it on home video; I think he would have enjoyed it.

Bonus movie note: There’s a series of Japanese werewolf movies that go by the name “Kibakichi”. I watched the first one a few nights ago, and, with all due respect to our gracious hosts: don’t. The fire our host built in his fireplace was vastly more entertaining to me than Kibakichi was. Lawrence blames the dubbing, but I’m not sure better dubbing would have saved this movie. Nothing basically happens until the last 15 or so minutes of the movie, the werewolf transformation scene is unexceptional, the story is incomprehensible, the use of firearms (when is this movie supposed to be set, anyway?) is incompetent, and, at 1:37, the movie is about 1:36 too long. Perhaps other people are more fond of the Asian supernatural genre than I am, but I still say “Avoid”.

Posted in Movies | 2 Comments »

William Gibson, call your office, please.

February 5th, 2011

I’ve been thinking a lot about cyberpunk, especially the early work of William Gibson, recently. So I was struck by this tale from the LAT. Apparently, at least according to Microsoft (and we all know how trustworthy Microsoft is) the “La Familia” drug cartel has branched out, and is selling…bootleg copies of Microsoft Office 2007.

The LAT article in turn links to this Microsoft blog post, which in turn quotes the Mexican Attorney General’s claim that “the group’s illegal counterfeiting activities involved a sophisticated distribution network of 180,000 points of sale in stores, markets and kiosks, earning more than $2.2 million dollars in revenue every day.”

I’m more than a little dubious about those numbers, and about the survey also mentioned in the blog post: “More than 38,000 consumers in 20 countries participated in the survey, and a large majority said they want the industry (72 percent) and government (65 percent) to do more to protect them from software piracy.”

Assumin the truth of these stories, this does not strike me as being a wise strategy for the drug cartels. I mean, ticking off the DEA is one thing. But ticking off Microsoft? Not smart, though perhaps not quite as dumb these days as making Google angry.

Posted in Clippings, Geek | Comments Closed

Obit watch: February 4, 2011.

February 4th, 2011

Maria Schneider.

Edited to add: LAT obit. I know this is short, but there’s really nothing I can say without making a tacky joke involving dairy products.

Edited to add 2: Seems it has been a bad couple of days for stars of “adult” films. The Onion A.V. Club is reporting the death of Lena Nyman, star of “I Am Curious (Yellow)”, “I Am Curious (Blue)”, and “Autumn Sonata”. I’ll admit that I’ve kind of wanted to see the “I Am Curious” films ever since reading Joe Bob Briggs’ write-up in Profoundly Erotic: Sexy Movies that Changed History; however, Briggs makes the two films sound less erotic and more like documentaries about Swedish radical politics in the late 1960s. Which is kind of a drawback…

Posted in Movies, Obits | Comments Closed

Obit watch: February 3, 2011.

February 3rd, 2011

Barney Hajiro.

As angry about Pearl Harbor as anybody, many Japanese-Hawaiians were eager to fight. Mr. Hajiro was one of the first to volunteer, in March 1943.

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a newly formed unit, would go on to be called the most decorated regiment for its size and length of service: its 14,000 men earned 9,486 Purple Hearts, 8 Presidential Unit Citations and 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, the second-highest individual honor in the Army. Mr. Hajiro received three of those.

He and many of his comrades were decorated for the regiment’s most celebrated operation, known as “the rescue of the Lost Battalion,” in which they saved 211 fellow soldiers trapped in southern France while suffering more than 800 casualties.

Here’s Mr. Hajiro’s Medal of Honor citation:

Private Barney F. Hajiro distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action on 19, 22, and October 29, 1944, in the vicinity of Bruyeres and Biffontaine, eastern France. Private Hajiro, while acting as a sentry on top of an embankment on October 19, 1944, in the vicinity of Bruyeres, France, rendered assistance to allied troops attacking a house 200 yards away by exposing himself to enemy fire and directing fire at an enemy strong point. He assisted the unit on his right by firing his automatic rifle and killing or wounding two enemy snipers. On October 22, 1944, he and one comrade took up an outpost security position about 50 yards to the right front of their platoon, concealed themselves, and ambushed an 18-man, heavily armed, enemy patrol, killing two, wounding one, and taking the remainder as prisoners. On October 29, 1944, in a wooded area in the vicinity of Biffontaine, France, Private Hajiro initiated an attack up the slope of a hill referred to as “Suicide Hill” by running forward approximately 100 yards under fire. He then advanced ahead of his comrades about 10 yards, drawing fire and spotting camouflaged machine gun nests. He fearlessly met fire with fire and single-handedly destroyed two machine gun nests and killed two enemy snipers. As a result of Private Hajiro’s heroic actions, the attack was successful. Private Hajiro’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon him, his unit, and the United States Army.

Mr. Hajiro was nominated for the Medal of Honor at the time, but did not receive it until 2000, after a Pentagon investigation into why more Asian-Americans had not received the MoH.

Posted in Clippings, Heroism, Obits | Comments Closed

Suffering.

February 2nd, 2011

For some odd reason, I have this song stuck in my head. And I don’t even like it that much. So I’m going to make you guys suffer along with me.

Posted in Music | 3 Comments »

“The Leonard Cohen of drinks”?

February 2nd, 2011

That’s the NYT‘s description of sake: “passionately adored by a small cadre of loyalists, but relegated to the category of ‘mysterious obscurity’ among the masses.”

In spite of this unfortunate metaphor, the actual article, about Japanese restaurants in Las Vegas that serve very high end sake, contains some interesting bits. For example, there’s Frozen Beauty sake, aged for 12 years in cold storage and selling for a mere $2,388 per (720 ml) bottle.

The tale of Watari Bune, meanwhile, seems like something out of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” The sake is created from a rare strain of rice that is so vulnerable to the nibbling of insects and the pummeling of typhoons that it had nearly lapsed into extinction in Japan. But in the 1980s Takaaki Yamauchi, from a brewery called Huchu Homare, met an old farmer who wistfully told him that the lost rice used to make sake of unsurpassed deliciousness.

A hunt began. In 1989, Mr. Yamauchi managed to acquire 14 grams of Watari Bune seedlings that the Japanese ministry of agriculture had freeze-dried and stored in a gene bank. He planted the seeds, grew the rice and brewed what we might think of as a drinkable time capsule. Thanks to Mr. Sidel and his team, it can now be found around New York at restaurants like Sakagura and Robataya, where it costs $160.

And let us not overlook Divine Droplets, “made by hanging canvas bags of fermenting mash in a handmade ice dome, during the frigid winter in the Hokkaido Prefecture, and patiently letting the sake filter out in a slow, pure drip.” That’s a mere $72 a bottle. (I am assuming that all of these bottles are 720 ml, but I’m not sure; the NYT annoyingly doesn’t specify.)

Posted in Clippings, Food, Mixology | Comments Closed

TMQ watch: February 1, 2011.

February 1st, 2011

And so we slog ever closer to the end of another TMQ season. What does Gregg Easterbrook bring us in this, the off week before the Super Bowl? Let’s open up this week’s column and find out after the jump…

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Geek, Neuroscience, NFL, Sports, TMQ watch | Comments Closed

Yahoo Serious Film Festival.

February 1st, 2011

Okay, not really. But Insta had a link up to a list of “memorable movie hitmen“, and that list prompted some discussion with Lawrence.

I’d never heard of “Charley Varrick” until I read that list, and I find myself intrigued; directed by the same guy who directed “Dirty Harry“, and starring both Walter Matthau and Mitchell? This sounds like a must-see. (However, as Lawrence pointed out, this looks like a crappy transfer with a screwed-up aspect ratio.)

Anyway, that got us talking about a potential lineup for a “70s Crime Film Fest”. My rules for this were:

  1. I wanted to pick somewhat less celebrated films. “The French Connection” and the two “Godfather” movies are wonderful, I’m sure, but I was looking for stuff people hadn’t seen before.
  2. One film per director.

Here’s a tentative list we came up with:

  • “Prime Cut“: Gene Hackman? Lee Marvin? Michael Ritchie? I’ve heard good things about this one.
  • “The Friends of Eddie Coyle“: now available from the Criterion Collection, no less.
  • “A New Leaf”: the availability of this on DVD seems somewhat iffy, but I’d like to see it if we could find it. Walter Matthau again, directed by Elaine “Ishtar” May, in an adaptation of a short story by the great mystery writer Jack Ritchie. (If you’ve never heard of Jack Ritchie, well, one, you’re unfortunate, and two, he was basically the Howard Waldrop of mystery writing.) I’m thinking this would be a nice, light, funny film; sort of a sorbet to clean the palate.
  • “Mean Streets“: neither one of us has seen this, and the reasons for including it should be obvious.
  • “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot“: Clint Eastwood! The Dude! Michael Cimino before “Heaven’s Gate“!
  • “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three“: the original one, not the crappy remake. Matthau again; I’m worried this list might have too much Matthau.
  • “The Laughing Policeman“: especially if I include this one, which is a bizarre adaptation of one of Sjöwall and Wahlöö’s Swedish police procedurals, moved to San Francisco.
  • “Family Plot” or “Frenzy“: I bow to nobody in my love for Hitchcock, but I’d always heard “Family Plot” was…well…not good. Lawrence informs me, however, that Roger Ebert gave it three stars. So how bad could it really be? “Frenzy”, on the other hand, gets four stars from Roger. Plus violence and nudity! But “Family Plot” has Karen Black! Decisions, decisions…

Something I stumbled across while researching this list, and feel a need to mention here, is “Made in U.S.A.“. Wow, this is…odd. Jean-Luc Godard directing an adaptation of one of Donald Westlake writing as Richard Stark’s Parker novels. And not the first one, but one from later in the series (“The Jugger“). Except the amoral thief Parker seems to have been replaced by a leftist writer named Paula. And the characters have names like “Richard Widmark”, “Donald Siegel”, “David Goodis”, and “Richard Nixon”. And apparently, Godard adapted Westlake’s novel, but didn’t feel any need to, you know, actually pay Westlake anything for the rights. So Westlake sued (Pay the writer you a–hole!) and had the film suppressed in this country until after his death.

This movie prompted me to ask the question: “What the f–k was Godard smoking?” However, as a 1966 film, it falls outside the scope of our planned 70s crime film festival.

Anyone got any other suggestions for 70s crime films I missed? Leave them in the comments. Those of you who are local and who we know personally, we’ll let you know if we pull this together as a real event.

Edited to add: Lawrence pointed out that I forgot the original “Get Carter” on our list.

Edited to add 2: I think it is required by the Internet police that any reference to Karen Black has to include a link to The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black.

Posted in Movies | 4 Comments »

The Flying Dutchman and the Sisters.

February 1st, 2011

Today is cold and wet and gloomy, and I’m pulling a long shift.

So here’s a little story that might brighten your day. Last year, a former employee of Ford passed away. He had no children and no wife, so he left his entire estate to the organization his sister belonged to: the School Sisters of Notre Dame. (The gentleman’s sister was a member of the order; she preceded him in death.)

The heartwarming part of the story is that his estate is estimated to be worth more than $1 million dollars, which will go a long way towards helping the work of the sisters.

But here’s the best part of the story: that estate included an original T206 series Honus Wagner baseball card, which was recently sold for $220,000. (If that seems low for a T206 card, you’re probably right; this one was not in mint condition.)

Here’s a nice bit of detail from the NYT story:

Long before the card was sold, sports were popular at Villa Assumpta, which houses about 75 retired and ill nuns. In the common room, baseball and football games are often shown on the big-screen television. The local teams are the favorites, with some nuns sporting team colors on game days.

Sister Mary Agatho Ford, who died at 100 in 2003, had received a signed photo and baseball from Cal Ripken for her 98th birthday. They are displayed in a glass case next to other cherished items, including chalices that deceased sisters held dear.

My opinion of baseball is well known, but God bless you, Sister Mary. And God bless Cal Ripken, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, and the gentleman in question (who is not named in the NYT article).

Posted in Clippings, Sports | Comments Closed

If you are confused, check with the sun.

January 31st, 2011

I’ve kind of wanted to pick up the DVD sets of “Get A Life”. I have fond memories of that series, especially the “Neptune 2000” episode, and I’d like to see if it holds up. (I appear to be one of a very few people who have those fond memories. Lawrence, for example, rolls his eyes in irritation every time I bring it up.)

But cheese louise! $81.59?! $124.99?! For DVD sets of four freaking episodes? This is the kind of thing that drives people to piracy. (Not that I condone piracy, but…)

Actually, that was mostly a transparent excuse to link to this NYT article, which brings us the happy news that Chris Elliot is…working! Also, apparently, the NYT has decided that “filthy whore” is acceptable usage in the Grey Lady. That is, as long as you’re discussing a fishing boat, or a Chris Elliott movie.

Posted in Clippings, TV | Comments Closed

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