Month: March 2024

Academy Awards for 2023

I love American Fiction

The Academy Awards for 2023 are airing on Sunday, March 10, 2024 on ABC-TV. I’ve given up on seeing all the nominees.  The ones I DID see I have starred (*), and I’ve linked to my reviews the first time listed.

*American Fiction – my favorite

*Anatomy of a Fall – maybe the best

*Barbie – good movie, great box office

*The Holdovers – I’m very fond

Killers of the Flower Moon

*Maestro – my least favorite

*Oppenheimer – worthy

*Past Lives – I liked it, but it seemed SO long since I saw it

*Poor Things – surprisingly good

*The Zone Of Interest – it’s good, but so bleak

*Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest

*Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things

*Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer. My rooting interest

Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon

*Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall

*Bradley Cooper, Maestro

Colman Domingo, Rustin – damn Netflix…

*Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers

*Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer – maybe the best

*Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction – my favorite

Annette Bening, Nyad

Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon

*Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall. I’m invoking the Diane Keaton rule. She won for Annie Hall, but her strong performance in Waiting For Mr. Goodbar sealed it. Hüller was also great in The Zone Of Interest.

*Carey Mulligan, Maestro

*Emma Stone, Poor Things

*Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction

Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon

*Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer. The old rust bucket wins in a battle between Iron Man and the Hulk.

*Ryan Gosling, Barbie

*Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things

 Best Supporting Actress

*Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer

*Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple

*America Ferrera, Barbie

Jodie Foster, Nyad

*Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers. Yes.

*Anatomy of a Fall – the best 

*The Holdovers – I’m fond of this

May December

*Maestro

*Past Lives

*American Fiction – very good

*Barbie – adapted from what? A toy? My rooting interest.

*Oppenheimer

*Poor Things

*The Zone of Interest

The Boy and the Heron

Elemental

Nimona

*Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Robot Dreams

*Barbie – three very different movies, but my rooting interest is here

Killers of the Flower Moon

Napoleon

*Oppenheimer

*Poor Things

*Barbie

Killers of the Flower Moon

Napoleon

*Oppenheimer

*Poor Things – my pick

El Conde

Killers of the Flower Moon

*Maestro

*Oppenheimer – my pick

*Poor Things

*Anatomy of a Fall

*The Holdovers

Killers of the Flower Moon

*Oppenheimer – my marginal favorite

*Poor Things

*Golda

*Maestro

*Oppenheimer

*Poor Things – very surreal, so sure

Society of the Snow

The Creator

*Maestro

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One

*Oppenheimer

*The Zone of Interest – in a competition between an atomic bomb and the steady drone of the Holocaust, the latter

The Creator

Godzilla Minus One

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One

Napoleon

*American Fiction

*Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny 

Killers of the Flower Moon

*Oppenheimer

*Poor Things -yes

The Fire Inside (Flamin’ Hot)

*I’m Just Ken (Barbie) -yes

It Never Went Away (American Symphony)

Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People) (Killers of the Flower Moon)

*What Was I Made For? (Barbie)

Bobi Wine: The People’s President

The Eternal Memory

Four Daughters

To Kill a Tiger

20 Days in Mariupol

*The Teachers’ Lounge, Germany

Io Capitano, Italy

Perfect Days, Japan

Society of the Snow, Spain

*The Zone of Interest, United Kingdom. For sure

I’ll note the shorts separately after I see some today.

Too much clutter

in many varieties

Like any good American, I have too much clutter. My mother often said, “A place for everything and everything in its place,” but I have not mastered that skill.

My office has piles of stuff that need to be weeded methodically. Not long ago, I had a stack of paid medical bills for which I could get reimbursed if only I did the tedious task of filling out the paperwork. Now, it’s a haze of chaos that needs to be reordered.

The second-floor landing at our house has become a repository for everything that eventually needs to go somewhere else, to the office (but where?), our bedroom (ditto), or the attic. Meanwhile, the cats jump onto the pile and knock over loose items that end up on the floor.

Our sofa is a sectional, so naturally, more items that one could think would be humanly possible reside there.

When I’m on the laptop, I have so many tabs open that I don’t always remember what I’m working on when I’m interrupted by a phone call or something more pressing.

e-pollution

But the greatest clutter might be my email. A lot of it is things I purportedly will take some action on, though they become so numerous that I occasionally fail to do so promptly.

In the middle of the month, I spent over an hour deleting items I didn’t want anymore. Some are receipts I wanted until I received the item. I might use some news feed articles for the blog, but I decided against them. Vendors who I used one time keep trying to sell me stuff.

But by far, the bulk are solicitations from political campaigns seeking my contributions. I did not ask for the vast majority of them; my information was passed on from someone else’s political action committee. Even though I unsubscribe regularly, the spambots are more efficient than I am. 

You’d think that being retired would make this easier to deal with. You would be wrong.

Movie review- Bob Marley: One Love

Landmark

Let it be known that the last movie my wife and I saw at the Spectrum 8 Theatre under its agreement with Landmark Theaters was Bob Marley: One Love on Thursday, February 22, at 4 pm. The theater was crowded, including a woman with five children in our row.

I had heard a lot about the making of the film. Kingsley Ben-Adir was on CBS Mornings; the show and the movie are under the Paramount Global umbrella. The six-foot British actor explained his surprise to be cast to play the musician who was six inches shorter. He had to learn how to play guitar, but most importantly, approximate the patois of the Jamaican legend.

Unfortunately, the movie was a largely by-the-numbers biopic. The review at RogerEbert.com is a fair representation. For instance, the script is described as “a horrendous, unshaped stream of events rendered with the subtlety of bullet points.”

Less of an issue was that I couldn’t understand the dialogue occasionally. It could have used subtitles in places.
Family ties
One hoped for more. Bob’s son Ziggy promised us at the beginning of the film an “authentic depiction.” Bob’s widow, Rita, is an executive producer. Another of Bob’s sons, Stephen, was involved musically.

And yet…

The music resonated more than any recent film I’ve attended. Many of the tunes I knew. I particularly loved hearing War and the early hit Simmer Down. Also, if you were unfamiliar with Bob Marley, this would be a basic primer.

This may explain why the Rotten Tomatoes score was 43% positive with the critics but 92% positive with fans.  As critic Neal Pollack noted: “This movie isn’t great, but it’s just enough. When you have a built-in audience willing to forgive a multitude of cinematic sins, every little thing about it is gonna be all right.”
For the record
My wife gave me a $100 Landmark gift card for Valentine’s Day. But she bought me TWO, one of which she was going to give me for my birthday in March.

There are a relatively small number of Landmark Theatres; AZ-1, CA-9, CO-4, DC-2, FL-1, GA-1, IL-2, IN-2, MD-2, MA-1, MN-1, MO-1, NJ -1, PA-1, TX-1, WA-1.. Spectrum 8 was the ONLY one in all of New York State. We will unlikely see a film in Cambridge, MA, or Philadelphia.

The films playing at the Spectrum 8 on its last day of being a Landmark Theatre were:

2024 Oscar Nominated Short Films – Animation, one showing. I saw it at the theater.
2024 Oscar Nominated Short Films – Live-action, one showing. I probably would have seen it, given more time.
Bob Marley: One Love, Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green. Two showings. I saw it at the theater.
Madame Web, Directed by S.J. Clarkson. Two showings. As this article suggests, audiences, including me, suffer from superhero fatigue.
Lisa Frankenstein, Directed by Zelda Williams. Two showings. I saw the trailer; I’m not interested.
Argylle, Directed by Matthew Vaughn. Two showings. I saw the trailer; I’m not interested.
The Teachers’ Lounge, Directed by İlker Çatak. One showing. I saw it at the theater.
American Fiction, Directed by Cord Jefferson. Two showings. I saw it at the theater.
The Zone Of Interest, Directed by Jonathan Glazer. Two showings. I saw it at the theater.
Origin, Directed by Ava DuVernay. One showing. I probably would have seen it, given more time.

Sunday Stealing, crafty

origami

A background of colored pencils, paints. Workplace designer, artist, concept art

The current Sunday Stealing is about being crafty. If it meant being clever and mysterious, then MAYBE I could pull it off. But I think they’re talking about origami and macrame. 

1. What (if anything) are you doing to celebrate St Patrick’s Day?

I always play music by the Chieftains, Clannad, and the Corrs. Unfortunately, I’ve made no progress in identifying my mother’s father’s mother’s parents, so I brood over that. I know that Margaret Collins was born in 1866 and died in August 1931 in upstate New York. But her parents’ names are not listed on the death certificate. I suspect they are from County Cork, Ireland, but Collins is too common a surname.

2. What is your least favorite color (to wear, to craft with, or to decorate with)?

Yellow. Specifically, when people make signs with yellow on white or vice versa, the lettering is very difficult to read.

3. At a yellow light – do you speed up or slow down??

Stop because I’d be on a bicycle, and I’m likely to get myself killed otherwise.

4. How many pairs of scissors are in your craft room?

I can never find scissors. They’re never where I want them. 

Gift ideas!

5. What are the first three items you have ‘saved for later’ on Amazon?

If you mean the oldest: Vince Guaraldi at the Piano by Derrick Bang (Paperback) from 2012, The Art of the Simon and Kirby Studio by Mark Evanier, Jim Simon (Hardcover) from 2014, and Cahoots by The Band (Audio CD) from 2016. If you mean the ones on the top, i.e., the most recent: Exodus 40 by Bob Marley & The Wailers (Audio CD) from 2024, Moulin Rouge! The Musical Original Broadway Cast Recording (Audio CD) from 2022, and Six: The Musical Studio Cast Recording (Audio CD) also from 2022, which I hope to get for my birthday since we’re going to see the touring show at Proctors in Schenectady in May.

6. Did you plant any springs bulbs in your garden and if so, have any of them come up yet?

The last time I helped plant anything was tulips over 15 years ago. Not my thing.

7. What book, if any, are you reading right now?

60 Songs That Explain the ’90s by Rob Harvilla. Actually, I organized my office, and I can’t presently locate it.

8. Do you prefer ball point pens, gel pens, or thin tip markers to write with?

Ballpoint. Preferably blue or black.

It is to laugh

9. What is your favorite crafting item – the craft item thing you use the most or can’t live without? (Exclude basic items like scissors and glue).

I don’t craft. I suck at crafts. In the 1990s, I was in a book group with about a dozen women at my church. One month, the book was about origami, and the person reporting on the book decided we should all partake in that activity. Did I mention that I suck at crafts. Very few things irritate me more than when people say, about something I am apparently constitutionally incapable of doing, “Oh, it’s EASY!”   

10. What are the first three items on your grocery list, and what is your favorite grocery store?

Bananas, blueberries, low-fat cottage cheese. The Price Chopper/Market 32 is in walking distance so I go there. My wife tends to drive to the Hannaford on Central Avenue. Incidentally, in the past three months I’ve seen armed security guards at both venues, which does NOT make me feel more safe.

11. What unfinished craft projects are you working on (or not) at the moment?

[Doubles over laughing.]

IG

12. What was the last item you pinned on Pinterest? Or hearted on Instagram?

I have accounts for both of them but don’t use them. Recently, my daughter tried selling me on IG because it’s “fun.” It may be, but it’s not me. 

13. What is the biggest tourist attraction where you live?

Here’s a list. I’ve been to the first 12, 15, 17, and 19. I practically live on Route 20. I do not consider Crossgates Mall a tourist attraction.

14. What color is your favorite sweater?

Green, like me.

15. How does your family react when you get a big pile of mail??

It must be time for me to pick new Medicare providers or keep the old ones, which happens between October 15 and December 7. This is why God invented the shredding bag.

The #1 hits of 1924

instrumentals

Here are the #1 hits of 1924 for all you centenarians out there.

From A Century of Pop Music by Joel Whitburn: “The record industry was on a roller coaster throughout the decade. Sales were booming in 1920-21 with postwar enthusiasm, but by 1924 had plunged alarmingly. Consumers were buying radios – offering far better sound quality than any acoustic phonograph – instead of phonographs and records… The roaring national good times at mid-decade reversed the downturn…”

It Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo’ – Wendell Hall (Victor), six weeks at #1, gold record. “Comedian with ukulele.”

California, Here I Come – Al Jolson (Brunswick), the gold record was six weeks at #1. I know that song! At least one video features Jolson in blackface, which I declined to use.

Memory Lane -Fred Waring featuring Tom Waring (Victor), five weeks at #1. Fred Waring arranged a lot of the music I sang as part of the Glee club in high school.

Somebody Stole My Gal – Ted Weems (Victor), five weeks at #1, gold record. Instrumental, including banjo. Leo Wood wrote it.

It Had To Be You – Isham Jones (Brunswick), five weeks at #1. Instrumental. It’s a well-known tune written by Jones. The lyrics, which do not appear in this version, were by Gus Kahn.

Born Israel Beilin

What I’ll Do – Paul Whiteman (Victor), five weeks at #1. The instrumental is a familiar waltz written by Irving Berlin.

Somebody Loves Me – Paul Whiteman (Victor), five weeks at #1. Instrumental. The music is from  George White’s Scandals.

Sleep – Waring’s Pennsylvanians.  (Victor), five weeks at #1.

Linger Awhile – Paul Whiteman (Victor), four weeks at #1. Instrumental.

I Wonder What’s Become Of Sally – Al Jolson with Carl Fenton’s Orchestra (Brunswick), three weeks at #1. 

Spain – Isham Jones (Brunswick), two weeks at #1. Instrumental.

Charleston – Arthur Gibbs (Victor), one week at #1. Instrumental. From the musical Running Wild. Do you have your dancing shoes on?

Incidentally, Columbia, which had only five of the top 40 singles that year, “went into receivership before reorganization in 1924” because it was “burdened by a large inventory of unsold phonographs.” However, it “re-established itself as second only to mighty Victor among the major labels.”

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