The Walking Dead

Our newest show, and when I say ours I mean mine as the wife will not have anything to do with it, is The Walking Dead. When this series appeared last fall I had little interest. The commercials made it look like it was more zombie than story.

Still the reviews were very strong and when the first episode debuted to ratings that broke records I wondered if I was missing something. So I started watching.

In watching it becomes quickly apparent that the show is not so much as a zombie show as one of many aployptic shows that have come and gone that happens to also feature zombies.

The cast is not full of people you know. Andrew Lincoln plays Sherriff's Deputy Rick Grimes, as close to a traditional hero as you might find. The show starts strong. A member of a group of survivors is chained to a pipe on a roof in Zombie infested Atlanta. His brother, who as the show goes on becomes more and more likable, is not too happy about this and blames the Sherriff.

Still as time goes on the group has to get through obstacle after obstacle. Season 1 ends with the group learning that the CDC in Atlanta will not save them. Thus far in Season 2 we have lost a little girl in the woods and had a boy shot by accident. On the plus side more survivors who seem to be good folks have been found. With eleven more episodes scheduled for this season much is to be determined.

The story is strong, the characters have depth. For me some of the characters are a bit much, the Sherriff speaks too eloquently about his feelings, his wife has conflicts of her own and the blonde girl who just wants her gun needs to settle down but overall this show is full on great.

The zombies are not that scary,,more like comic book gore.

Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want by The Smiths

Growing up in the eighties everyone had heard of the Smith's. Of course in small town Maine they were not the most popular band or anything close but still their music was all over the college radio and one could not see one of the teen angst drama's without hearing them.

Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want is on several movie soundtracks of the eighties and a fresh listen today tells why. The song is applicable to every teenager who ever lived. They all dream, they all want, and they all want those to come together. They rarely do and thus the lifetime membership in the angst club for this song.

If they put down the rap record kids today would easily embrace this song. It will never cease to be relevant.

Bad Teacher

What to do on a Saturday night as you wait for the snow to start flying and ruin your Halloween decorations. Netflix is cancelled so you have not ordered a movie and cannot stream one. You go to the RedBox ( which now lets you reserve a movie ) and rent Bad Teacher for a dollar.

I am not a Cameron Diaz fan. I think her movie roles have gotten crasser and crasser and after having seen her on a few talk shows I am not sure she is a person that comes across as particularly likeable. That said with Jason Segal and others the movie had potential.

Quickly however the movie becomes a one joke, and not a good joke, pony. Diaz is a bad teacher. She does not try. She drinks, smokes, and curses......at school. Trying to seduce the new teacher ( Justin Timberlake) who she presumes to be wealthy she loses him to a rival teacher. A teacher that loves teaching and is just a little too peppy.


The car wash scene is gratioutus and over time even Miss Halsey ( Diaz ) comes to realize just how superficial she has become. By the end of the movie she has had a revalation and decided that everyman gym teacher is a better choice. Jason Segal is very likable in this role.

Not a great movie though. Not one I can reccomend. In fact two of the movies I have panned lately have been Justin Timberlake movies. He needs to make better choices.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

I enjoyed Tale of Two Cities. Great Expectations however was a wonderful novel. There may not be enough adjectives to describe it. A great story. Having long heard of the characters of Pip and Miss Havisham I now know the story.

This book takes the long way around the barn. Eventually all the characters come together and it all makes sense but for awhile one wonders how Orlick, Estella, The Convict and others will all come together.

In the story we meet Pip and learn of his hardscrabble existence living out on the marshes with his sister ( who is none to pleasant to him in bringing him up by hand ) and his sister's husband Joe. Joe, through the course of the book becomes a sainted character. Over time Pip has a run in with a convict and little to his knowledge his small act of kindness to him will change his life forever. Eventually Pip is called upon to visit the rich, eccentric widow Miss Havisham. She, with her ward Estella keep Pip betwixt and between knowing who he is and who he wants to be.

The plot has many twists and turns. If this book was one assigned to you in high school and thus one you fought hard not to read or enjoy you should try again. Now because you want to. Once you realize that it is a story you would have picked up had you known you will enjoy it much better.

Pip is a character not too be forgotten. A fantastic book.

Horses by Patti Smith

This album is from 1975. 36 years ago Patti Smith, who had been in NYC scene for onto a decade appeared with this album like few things before it.

Smith who is now in the middle of a renaissance of her career with music and books and writing for The New Yorker in the late sixties and seventies was palling around Robert Mapplethorpe.

This album is one I have heard referenced for years but never listened. I do not recall ever hearing any of the tracks on the radio even the more out there channels I have taken to listening to.

Still critic after critic quotes it's importance. Listening to it is an experience. The album opens with a version of Gloria that is, like everything Smith does, uniquely hers. The album is not sing along music. It is to me landscape music. It is background music.

None so much as the twin epic tracks Land and Birdland. I can hear these songs in unwritten movies in my mind at times where one stays up late in a darkened room and drinks or smokes by their lonely self. Staring at the red or green lights of the stereo and considering the depth of their despair or the ineffectual place they have in the world.

That might seem a stretch but what is not a stretch is Smith in her talk sing way paints a portrait like the poet/artist she clearly is.

Land, with it's constant references to Horses is where we get the album title. I have listened several times and cannot pretend to know what it is all about. I do know there are many references to rock and roll history and assume one could teach a course on the cultural landmarks referenced.

My favorite track is Birdland. Similar in scope to Land but with a jazzier background this IS one of the best songs you can hear to entertain your demons with. I have many times listened to Neil Young in the Everyone Knows This is Nowhere phase to comfort myself or acknowledge myself with alcohol and self medicate myself into calmness when life was too much. It seems clear to me that had I been exposed to Birdland in those days Patti Smith would have been on that Playlist as well.

Kimberly and Eligie are two more songs that are strongly reccomended but to be honest I need to hear them more.

In anycase this album is all it is promised to be. Art. It is art from a disjointed time to listen to in any disjointed time in your life.

Fantastic.

Seven Days in May

This is a great movie. Directed by John Frankenheimer from a screenplay by Rod Serling no less this movie from 1964 tells the tale of a military coup planned for the United States by an unhappy military.

Later interviews revealed that President Kennedy felt that under the right circumstances such an event could happen in the United States.

In the movie Col Jiggs Casey becomes aware of a plot within the Joint Chiefs of Staff to depose the President. The Chiefs are led by Air Force General James Mattoon Scott. This General is the charasmatic leader of the coup. Believing that the President is a weak leader being taken advantage of by the Russians. Scott, played conviningly by Burt Lancaster is a true beleiver.

Frederic March plays the President and is perfect for the role. Playing a Midwestern liberal with ease the role of President Lyman is not far a huge stretch from his role of the banker in The Best Years of Our Lives.

The movie is dramatic, suspenseful and could easily be converted to the screens today. Of course today they would curse, have sex and blow things up.

Once Upon a Time

Fairy tales seem to be a hot subject for the networks this year. Grimm will be starting on NBC later this week and this past Sunday ABC rolled out Once Upon a Time a show about, as expected from the title, fairy tale characters.

Of course the hitch here is that these people do not know they are fairy tale characters. Why? This is all explained in the pilot episode.

The show opens with Prince Charming and Snow White? getting married. I think it is Snow White, there were lots of dwarfs around, and she was woken by a kiss after a spell had been put on her. The wedding is interupted by a witch of some sort who puts a curse on everyone.

Awaiting the curse beginning the characters, such as Geppetto and Pinochio, build an enchanted wardrobe which will allow one person to be saved from the curse. The rest are to be sent " to an awful place"

Fast forward 28 years and a young woman named Emma is celebrating her 28th birthday. A young boy enters her life and claims that she is his mother, she did give up a child for adoption ten years ago. He has a story to tell about the town he lives in which seems a little unbelievable. When she returns the boy home to his adoptive mother things start to make sense...but not in a good way

I do not hold out much hope for the success of the show. One never knows however. Ginnifer Goodwin from Big Love is a gem in any role and she does a great job in this show as the schoolteacher/ former princess.

Worth a look but I would not get too invested.

Win Win

My wife's sister saw this movie at the theater when it was released. I have heard much good buzz about it and when my wife got it from RedBox we were looking forward to it.

Writer/Director Thomas McCarthy who is gaining traction as a great writer with an interesting slant on films jumps up a notch with this film. One expects that soon he will have a major, breakout, Oscar worthy film.

The cast in this movie is strong. Paul Giametti who might be one of our best actors stars as Mike Flaherty a New Jersey lawyer who is struggling to get enough cases to make ends meet. He also is a volunteer wrestling coach at the local high school. Needless to say the team is not successful and Flaherty is being beaten down by the world.

Having been hired pro bono to help an elderly man who, while wealthy, has no family to take care of him. Mike notices that whosoever does become his guardian gets paid a fifteen hundred dollar a month commission. Mike lobbies for the job and then unethically puts him in a home rather than keep him in his house.

Eventually this leads him to a young high school student named Kyle played by Alex Shaffer who is his new ward's grandson. Kyle is an excellent wrestler so you can see where that goes.

This movie is better than a description makes it sound. The characters are real and deep and flawed. This movie is wonderful.

Of special note is the performance by Burt Young as the elderly man who becomes Mike's ward. Any of us who grew up in the seventies cannot forget Burt Young from the Rocky movies. He is wonderful in this role.

Great movie

They Marched Into Sunlight by David Marannis

This is a book I picked up at the library that looked interesting. The book tells the tale of an army battalion in Vietnam and a protest at the University of Wisconsin. Both occur in October, 1967, often with events occurring on the same days to both story lines.

Marannis is an excellent writer and he draws us into being interested in the characters, real people all, who are involved in Vietnam and the protest in Madison. We learn their personal histories and motivations.

For me though what became apparent is the book could not hold me. It is my disinterest in things military. I am sure the book is well written and in the case of the battle thr soldiers get in, one in which too many die it is tragic. Still one of the things I have read about reading is that some books are good, some are great, and they will not interest you. This is one of those books. So at about one hundred pages I threw in the towel.

Still my respect for Marannis requires me to encourage anyone who would enjoy both the character development and military minuate to read this book. It is well written and the story of the Dow protests was for me especially interesting.

Pearl Jam Twenty

Our local PBS affiliate did us the great service of airing this on Friday night. Cameron Crowe's rock documentary was well received earlier this year and I was surprised to see it on television so soon.

When released I had heard some buzz that the movie was a bit controversial in that some of the band members had said somethings that could possibly open some healed scars in the band. Any group of people, certainly any band that had stayed together this long was going to have some scabs better not picked.

This movie is excellent. Perhaps along the line of the Tom Petty Running Down a Dream set from Peter Bogdanovich this is done not like a rock bands video tribute but as an actual documentary. Using what apparrently is an unending supply of archival footage both interview and concert we see Pearl Jam through all its stages.

First one must know is that this band came out of the remaining pieces of Mother Love Bone a hot Seattle band that died when its lead singer overdosed. Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard the heart and soul of that band became the nucleus of what became Pearl Jam.

At there early days the band was crazy on stage with an energy rarely seen. Vedder jumping off support structures to surf the crowd. The band joining with Chris Cornell and members of Soundgarden did a project called Temple of the Dog which honored their fallen comrade from Mother Love Bone Days.

The loss of Kurt Cobain is discussed as is the even more life changing event of the deaths of nine fans outside of Copenhagen when they were crushed by a surging crowd as the band played. Eddie Vedder says they see the band as pre and post that incident.

The concert footage is revealing. A Christmas song played on the empty steps of an arena in Europe, a crowd singalong to Better Man at Madison Square Garden and a final glorious ending of the film with the song Alive. Truly they are still Alive twenty years later and going strong.

This is a fine picture of a lasting rock band. Thank you PBS for putting it on television for us to view.

The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth by Alexandra Robbins

This book with a wordy subtitle of Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School talks about the various social strata that develop in Junior High and High School.

In the book Robbins introduces us to several students across the country who could be classified in the various subcultures prevalent in teen age life today. In truth these are to a great extent the same groups that we faced as kids. Nerds, Geeks, Jocks, Popular kids, Stoners and beyond. It would seem that there are many more subgroups such as Punks, Goths and Emo's whose description can be found in the book.

The thrust of the book is to try to explore the cliques and how the interactions of students can mar the high school experience. What seems to be clear is that with the exception of perhaps a few king and queen bees there are a great majority of students who are not happy, or if not unhappy certainly not excited about their lives on a day to day basis.

I have memories of my high school experience. I had many friends and hung out with popular kids but I was not one of the popular kids. I played sports but was not one of the better athletes. I grew late which hurt my prospects. One of the experiences I remember was that my senior year I decided that I wanted to be friends with everybody, from several different cliques with no allegiances to anyone in particular. This did not go over well with some folks, for a period of time I had succeeded in pissing everybody off. Eventually it died down and I did not regret my decision. In fact I think it helped prepare me for college.

As I watch my own children at age 16,14 and 12 I wish that I could impart to them the wisdom of this book. We have many times told them that high school is just one experience and that no one wants high school to be the peak of their lives and for those that find great social success in high school that is often the case. However what we say and what they live are two different things and it is much easier to be wise and generous in thought twenty years later as an adult.

For parents this is a good book. Perhaps to me the most eye opening section was when it talked about the cligues in teacher groups and how it can effect students. My wife is a teacher and though she has not experienced it I am sure that in a more diverse area these things do come up. Also addressed were parents who wanted their children to be more popular and encouraged them to do more things that popular kids did. The lesson is that for these kids on the " cafateria fringe" to have a great chance of success outside of the constrictions of high school the most important thing is to feel support from their parents to be themselves and that they were good as they were.

Parents need to know this.

A very enlightening book but it it's subject matter at times a very depressing one.

December 8, 1980, The Day John Lennon Died by Keith Elliot Greenberg

Saw this book at the library last week and decided to pick it up. I have read Beatles biographies and such but this book told in the style of a log of the fateful day looked interesting.

In the book we see the lives of Lennon and Chapman unfolding on that day as well as over their histories which led them to this day. This is a technique that seems to be growing such as the MLK/James Earl Ray book I read last year as well.

Chapman had struggled with some sort of mental illness for much of his life. At times prospering in life, finding faith and marrying there were times where it appeared he would get control of his demons. In interviews given to Larry King and referenced in the book we see that even as the act approached on that day Chapman had moments of clarity when the voices were not winning.

In the end however the demons did win. We learn about John, his time as househusband as well as fleeting looks back at his life as a Beatle and the history of the band. We see his interactions with New Yorkers both famous and civilian and his love of the city.

After his shooting we see numerous reactions from everyday citizens to famous people. Truly John Lennon's death was a cultural touchstone for millions.

I remember I myself did not know until the next morning when turning on the Today show I watched the coverage.

This is a quick book with some interesting information about a day that changed America and the world's cultural history.

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

I am told that Faulkner is one of the great writers of the modernist period. I am a Hemingway fan and he is as far from modernism as one can get. Still this book is challenging and if one sticks with it a novel to behold.

The first chapter is told through the eyes of Benny a 33 year old man who is autistic, although in those days is defined more as a dummy. The chapter from Benny's point of view is very hard to read. Told in Faulkner's often used stream of consciousness writing style we learn about Benny in three different ages. We are told that we can define what age Benny is speaking by his caretaker at the time. The second chapter focuses on Quentin the older brother who...struggling with his relationship with his sister and her troubles...commits suicide.

The first chapter is difficult, the second chapter is in parts lose to impossible. Later we follow the last brother, Jason, as he deals with life is manipulative, mean spirited, vengeful and petty. This book is hard and very easy to give up on. Eventually it all comes in focus, the lives of Jason, Quentin, Caddy, Benjy and the mother Caroline. Caroline and Jason are two very unlikable characters but Caddy is exceptional. Her love for Benjy is later compromised by her issues with men. This becomes the nexus of all the brothers troubles. Benjy needs her as his only truly caring person, Quentin struggles with her impurities, and Jason hates her for a loss he felt her responsible for to his future.

Also in the book is the long history of the Compson family attendants, namely a negro family led by Dilsey and three generations of her family.

I have read so many great books it is hard to say this is the best, thiis is the top ten. Faulkner is never easy. He is always worth the effort.

Ashes & Fire by Ryan Adams

I am not sure if any performers release more albums year after year than Ryan Adams. Some albums are great but most are more workmanlike. Nothing has measured up, at least for me, to the depth top to bottom of the albums such as Gold and Heartbreaker released at the start of the last decade.

Ashes and Fire is a step up from most of his albums though still not on a par with those early efforts. For this album Adams has given up the rock and roll jacket and is singing mostly small songs, in a soft voice and smoky ballads.

The album has received good reviews and rightly so. The first song on the album is called Dirty Rain. The song is well written, with a catchy phrase and one can almost hear the call and answer in Adam's head as he sings it. The album ends with the same song in a different sound. Adams makes comparisons through many last times and now. A good song.

The title track and the song after it Come Home are keepers. The album is a rainy Sunday afternoon album. A Monday afternoon with the snow falling and your girlfriend having just left you. This album will not make you stomp, it will make you shuffle. It is a pondering album.

Perhaps the best song on the album is I Love You But I Don't Know What to Say. This is a feeling many of us have had many times. All in all this album is good but as our friend Simon Cowell says I am not sure there is anything to remember in it. Having listened to it on Spotify if I now had to purchase it to listen to it again I would decline to do so.

That, in itself, might be the best measure of the album. Ryan Adams is married and happy and to a certain extent seems to be going down a path he has worn well. Maybe he needs to go out into the brambles and bushes on his next effort.

Taken

I remember when this movie was in the theaters that we all felt that the trailer that we were seeing on TV was a very good one. In the trailer we see a girl being kidnapped and her father on the phone with her telling her that she is going to be taken but to leave her phone on and shout something that she sees that can help him find her.

In the movie the set up is that Liam Neeson is a retired CIA agent who is working security for celebrities. He foils an attack on a singer he is protecting. Next we see him debating with is daughter and his ex wife about allowing the daughter to go to Paris with a friend on a trip to visit museums. He is against it but is convinced to allow it, he gives her a phone to call him. The girl goes to Paris, finds out that she and the girl are staying alone and is not happy. After not calling her Dad she eventually picks up the phone and as this call is taking place discovers that people are breaking in and kidnapping them. This is the call we see in the trailer.

The rest of the movie is Liam Neeson on a mission. Tracking his daughter through a white slavery ring being run by Albanians he does eventually find his daughter. This is all expected. One might want to suspend disbelief a bit in watching this movie but it is entertaining.

I told my daughter that letting me watch a movie like this is bad for her ability to have any freedom before she is thirty.

As my wife said what happened to this girl is the ultimate I told you so moment for a Dad.

A movie worth watching.

Hemingway's Boat by Paul Hendrickson

I love Hemingway. I consistently name him my favorite author. So this book purporting to speak of the last twenty five years of is life held interest for me. It is schlock. Perhaps not the authors fault due to the subject matter but still terrible. By all accounts he was a bad man who wrote only of masculine things such as war and hunting. Ecause he could not relate to women. This books make clear he could deal with little.

What he could do was write i think that os all I need to know.

American Horror Story

This new series on FX debuted last week too much fanfare. Brought to us by the producers of Glee and being aired on FX one assumes the show will be on the edge, certainly not network fare.

The cast is strong led by Connie Britton, Dylan McDermott and in a deliciously nasty role Jessica Lange. The show is over the top. You cannot look at something else, you will miss something. My wife had bad dreams and was up in the hour after watching this.

That said it is kind of campy, it is not slightly scary it is over the top scary all the time. The first episode did a good job introducing much of the plotlines. We see two boys killed in a house twenty five years ago. We see an East Coast couple suffering through a found out about affair. Next we see the family moving into the house.

We see weird neighbors, little children with down syndrome telling people they are going to die. We see a young man with violent fantasies being treated by a psychiatrist played by McDermott and befriending his daughter who has her own issues.

This show is weird. It is scary. You cannot take your eyes off it. Connie Britton is wonderful in everything she does. I joked with my wife that Coach Taylor is going to be awful upset when he finds out what she is doing.

FX has the ability to give a show some rope to succeed. This show should for awhile though the history of shows like this is that they burn out fast. Watch now so you can say you were there at the beginning.

Last Man Standing

I have always liked Tim Allen. So I was looking forward to seeing him return to network television. Watching the first two episodes of this show Tuesday night was like looking into a time machine.

This show is not much of a stretch for Tim Allen. Rather than three boys as on Home Improvement he has three girls. Rather than cars he is the marketing manager of an outdoor shop.

He is a man who does not understand today's world. He does not know what Glee is, he things men should change tires and he thinks men should hunt.

I know plenty of people who feel this way. I am sure criticism will be leveled at this show as being nothing different. It is not. So what. Allen is likable, his cast is solid and the points he makes in his humor are certainly felt by a good amount of men in America.

If ABC promotes this show and feeds it to it's audience it will be a hit. It is a show that will play well in the broad expanses of the country. My house is included in that list.

I am glad to have Tim Allen back.

Jon Stewart Show

So Jon Stewart has won the emmy seven years in a row. I have always been aware of his show and enjoyed the clips that go viral here and their on Huffington Post.

As the election season heats up and Stewarts material improves I have been watching nightly. Sorry Conan. Stwart, or he and his writers are brilliant. Just moments ago I watched him discussing the occupy Wall Street movements. His monitoring of the ludicrous coverage on Cable news, especially Fox although not exclusively is brilliant. He does a great job educating, exposing hypocracy, and having fun. These are great things, still getting all your news from Jon Stewart which we are told many young people do is not the best answer.

He is articulate, funny and witty. He is must see tv. One should remembr however that while occasionally his derision is to make a point, it is still for entertainment purposes. It should not be taken as gospel.

Renee

Over the last few years ESPN has made some very strong documentaries. The 30 for 30 series was very well received and deservedly so.

This fall they have begun again with a six week series of docs. Last week they ran a feature on Renee Richards. Richards born male, and named Richard Raskind had felt conflicted on her gender identity her whole life. In high school Raskind was popular and dated a girl in a serious relationship. He goes to college, still conflicted, he goes on to become a well respected optometrist but is still conflicted.

It is hard for those of us who have not felt such confusion to know how he felt. In the late sixties he almost had the surgery but after dressing as a woman and taking female hormones he backed off and eventually actually married and fathered a son. Still by the mid seventies he followed through and Renee Richards was born.

Proclaiming a desire to be private she moved to California but soon made an interesting choice for a person wanting to be private. She started entering tournaments on the Western tour. Friends told her tennis players as strong as her did not drop out of the sky and that questions would be asked . They were right, a couple of easy calls and an investigative reporter uncovered the truth.

If you grew up in the seventies you knew about this story. The ESPN version is extremely well done. We see interviews with people, friends and family, that beleived in what she did and supported her and those that while caring about her felt her decision was wrong and bordering on selfishness. Her son was affected and has been his whole life by her decision.

The interviews with Richards are done well, she speaks plainly and does not hold back. Even she admits that perhaps she should not have been allowed to play tennis against women but at the time she felt differently. Certainly if she had not played she would most likely have never become a public figure. In Richards case it seems clear that their was a certain amount of needing and wanting to prove to the world what she had done. Despite her need for privacy it becomes apparent that this is so and now looking back as a seventy five year old woman she admits that might well be the case.

One can think what they want about someone who changes genders. One must also recognize however that folks who do this are tortured. No one would willingly and in carefree way choose this path. It is not for me to judge how they feel. For Richard Raskind to do what he did at the time was a brave and defiant act. It was also to those in his life selfish. Sometimes I guess one can be both.

Mockingbird Time by The Jayhawks

I love the Jayhawks. A band that never quite broke huge on the commercial scene they were very influential on a great number of bands. Albums such as Hollywood Town Hall and Tomorrow the Green Grass are still high on the playlists of many fans, myself included.

In 2003 the album Rainy Day Music was released. With only one of the original two singers present the album was cohesive and strong, still my favorite Jayhawks album.

Recently an anthology was released and its success caused the band to renew their efforts and record a new album of material called Mockingbird Time. I was very excited about this and had looked forward to this fall release all summer. After having listened to the album several times in the last week I have to say that this is one reunion that need not have happened, perhaps a tour but the new music is weak. I am not sure why, the harmonies are still there and I am sure they try. Still it is easily apparent they had little to say. Hide your Colors has been the first single and while acceptable, nothing to hate for sure, it is nothing to remember either. That is probably the nicest one can say about this. You do not hate it but you do not remember it. You have no knowledge of it after you hear it.

This was a huge disappointment.

JFK

This movie was released in 1991. Directed by Oliver Stone, this still controversial movie centered on former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison who filed conspiracy charges against a Clay Shaw in the murder of President Kennedy.

This movie has so many different plots and moving pieces it is hard until the end to discern who Stone is actually theorizing was involved in the President's death.

One thing is clear not just from the movie but from many different sources and that is that the Oswald story makes not much sense. From his being in the military, going to Russia as a defector and then his return to the United States shortly thereafter. Oswald might well have been a spy and might well have been a patsy. The easiest shot on Kennedy was clearly before the turn in Daley plaza but that was not the shot used. The magic bullet theory is all but impossible to believe. The bullet that turned up in Washington, not Dallas on a stretcher defies belief. The stories of the autopsy are documented, the removal of the body from Dallas. The tens of police cars that show up to arrest a man that refused to pay for a ticket to a movie in Dallas seemed to be forewarned. What this all means, who knows. The fact that a memo was issued days after LBJ took office removing any limits on our moving into Vietnam is troubling.

We now will never know what happened but one wonders if that was the beginning of Americans distrust in their government. Once one stops trusting it is hard to regain that trust.

The movie should not be taken as fact, it should not be taken as even a complete theory. It is merely a representation of the fact that for many the case is not solved, the story given is not true and that we will never know the truth.

For entertainment purposes the movie is a winner. Kevin Costner is strong as Jum Garrison but it is the supporting actors that make this movie click. Sissy Spacek is wonderful as his feeling neglected wife. Joe Pesci is brilliant in his role as a small time gun runner caught up in the conspiracy. Donald Sutherland has one scene in the movie playing Mr X, an informant Garrison meets on the Washington Mall, and crackles in his scene. To me the two best performances are Jack Lemmon as an associate of Guy Bannister, someone who operates on the fringe of many of the anti Castro movments. Lemmon was a wonderful actor and as he talks with Garrison at the racetrack years after the death of Kennedy and still frightened advises Garrison that he does not know what he is getting into he shines. Playing a small time attorney who says one thing to Garrison and then another on the stand is John Candy. With his constant cigarette, sweaty face, sunglasses and cool cat demeanor Candy explodes off the screen, you cannot stop looking.

Many watch the movie and take it as history. It is not. It is a depiction of events that could have been but should be taken as entertainment only. Still I do not know anyone who thinks the Warren Commission was truthful.

April 1865 by Jay Winik

The month that saved America is April 1865 says Jay Winik. Winik writes with great skill and passion on this month in which everything changed.

In this book Winik takes us through the events of the month. We see Grant chasing Lee through Northern Virginia, Lincoln's visit to the fallen Richmond, his trip to Ford's theatre, we see Booth do his deed, escape and eventually be caught, and we see Johnson assume the Presidency.

Along the way Winik offers us looks at some compelling figures such as Robert E Lee, U S Grant, Generals Sheridan and Johnston, Lincoln himself and his partner in infamy John Wilkes Booth. We see how Lincoln's death became an event which changed the course of history and perhaps affected the black population more than any other group as Reconstruction was a much harsher process than what perhaps might have been under Lincoln.

In the epilogue Winik offers an intersting feature where he looks in on many people who became historical figures of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century.

A strong analysis of the history or civil wars and what happens to the countries that suffer them shows how rare the reconciliation of the United States was. Also shown is that in the history of the United States up to that point, talk of secession was not new and was not " out of the realm of discussion" as a viable option.
One could argue that the flirting of the Federalists with Great Britian during the War of 1812 was as potentially treasonous as what happened in the War Between the States.

A very good book from a very good writer and historian.

Brian Williams on Letterman

Watched Brian Williams on Dave Monday night. Mr. Williams is on these shows alot. both Letterman and Fallon can call him regulars. I say it every time but I feel it strongly. This is a very funny, and very intelligent man.

His interactions with Dave are always funny, their chemistry is real. This is, for me, a man to admire.

Hobson's Choice

This 1954 movie was directed by David Leen. That in itself is really all I need to know to know that I want to watch it. Leen directly after this filmed The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. Those three films taken together might be the best three films any director has produced consecutively or perhaps even over a career.

This movie is of a much smaller scope. Starring Charles Laughton as a widowed bootmaker in Victorian England of the late 1800's. Running the shop with the help of his three widowed daughters and liking the drink a bit too much Hobson is being bothered by his daughters that they would like to be married.

Accepting that his two youngest can be married off he rationalizes that his oldest, at 30 is a bit old for marriage, and is inwardly glad to have her to take care of him. She has other ideas however and soon has collared, almost figuratively. the boothand that works for her Dad. He is timid and shy, but also very talented at his profession and she sees a future. After telling him he is to marry her he becomes in time more convinced of his self worth and does indeed, with her help become successful.

This is an understated movie. A few attempts at slapstick, mostly revolving around the alcoholism of the father ably played by Laughton, but most of the move is intersting for its character development and the relationships portrayed. The eldest daughter is a strong woman and a strong character. The scene of the marriage night is cute and sweet in a way we of this time can barely relate to but to see Willie's face the next morning is to see a man changed and imbued with confidence in himself.

Not a life changing movie but an intersting one. A nice change of pace.

Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live is one of those shows that is violently hit or miss. At times we watch and wonder whonactually thought a skit was even remotely funny. Then other skits are very funny, and at times even laugh out loud funny. This is rare but it does happen. This last weeks episode was a little better than average.

Melissa McCarthy the sceme stealer from Bridesmaids and the new Emmy winner for Mike and Molly is a funny woman and her skits were funny. They were not intelligent skits, more they were squim skits that are funny but make ounfeel a little squirmy. In this case McCartgy played often to type as th e big girl....but she is a very funny lady.

Tivo was invented for a show like this. Weekend Update is still worth watching each week. All in all it is no longer must see tv, though when Zach Galifinakas is on it is, but it is still surely must tivo tv.