The French Connection

The French Connection was a 1971 police drama that won the Oscar for Best Picture and for it's star, Gene Hackman, the Oscar for Best Picture. This movie could serve as Example One of Hackman as the most underrated actor of his generation. Yes he won the Oscar here and received multiple awards but still when the list of greats is named Gene Hackman is never on the list.

In this movie Hackman plays Popeye Doyle, a Detective in New York City. He and his partner Buddy Russo, Roy Schneider, through a chance discovery in a bar, become suspicious of a big time heroin shipment coming into the city.

The movie begins with Alain Charnair, A Frenchman in Marseilles who is a major drug smuggler. With an ingenious plan to bring in over one hundred pounds of heroin he has made contact with Sal Boca, a small time hood who now is looking to make a big score. Acting as a go between between the Frenchman and Sal Weinstock a wealthy financier suspected of being linked to previous drug deals.

It takes awhile for the movie to come together, for the various plot points to all make sense. It does come together however. Schneider is very good in his role, he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor, and Hackman easily deserved his Oscar.

A brilliant car chase in this movie, a race between Doyle in his commandeered sports car and a sniper taking refuge on a elevated train is one of the best I have seen.

As good as the movie was, and it was very good, I am not sure it is Oscar worthy. As it was based on a true story the ending could not be one in which we had a nice neat package. In real life that did not happen and it did not here. The movie, however was very influential, one of the first procedurals to have this level of grit and be rewarded. In fact it was the first R rated movie to ever win the Oscar.

I have now ordered French Connection Two and look forward to seeing how the story culminates.

A very good movie.

The Last Resort

Last Thursday night ABC debuted this new series. Starring Andre Braugher as Captain Marcus Chaplin. Chaplin is the Captain of the nuclear submarine the USS Colorado. The show has been given good reviews and most critics have said that the premise of the show is promising.

It's time slot is very challenging as it is against The Big Bang Theory and The X Factor but I, for one, after watching one episode, can tell you that I will be watching.

The first fifteen minutes of this series are as good an opening as any show that you will ever see. The premise is quite simple. The Captain and his XO,played by Scott Speedman are on uneventful cruise when they receive an order to fire nuclear missiles at Pakistan. The orders are verified, but, coming as they do through a second channel from Antarctica both Captain Chaplin and XO Kendal question them. After all the second channel is only to be used were the primary channel unable to be used, for example, should Washington be flattened. This does not appear to be the case as a satellite check of communications shows all the networks with regular programming.

Ships captains are supposed to follow orders but when Captain Chaplin states that Hannah Montana is still on the air so he does not understand why we are firing nuclear missiles.

Soon enough Chaplin is ordered relieved from command and the XO takes over. However when he also questions the orders and requests the orders through the primary channel their ship is fired upon, by a United States ship.

From there the crew itself is divided, some feel simply that orders should have been followed, some are with their captain. The submarine comes ashore at a small French Island in the Indian Ocean that is equipped with a NATO station. Soon they discover that their sinking has been blamed on Pakistan and that retaliatory missiles have been fired at that country.

In short all hell has broken loose. Andre Braugher is a wonderful actor and he portrays a man full of righteous anger and indignation better than perhaps anyone else. The show in this first episode strives to make a big impression and it does, to do so perhaps some of the scenes are a little over the top, certainly it is hard to imagine a coup in the United States of some sort that has us firing at our ships. Certainly however we must face the fact that something like this could happen, for a variety of reasons, and it is at least likely that we would not as citizens know about it. It would be hidden or a cover story laid down.

This show might find a hard trail ratings wise, still I will be watching and it is my hope that others will as well. This was described as a combination between Lost and 24 and that seems an apt description. I am on board and hoping that the show can maintain this level of excitement.

Call of the Wild by Jack London

This is one of those books we have all heard referenced a thousand times. Jack London who was one of the great writers at the turn of the twentieth century writing both short stories and novels. Call of the Wild might well be his most famous and popular novel.

After having read the short story To Build a Fire I had placed more of London's work on my list and so recently had started this book.

One quarter of the way in I have come to a very relevant point. The book is told from the point of view of Buck, a very proud and strong husky dog. It is still, however, a book told from the point of view of Buck, a husky dog.

I find the writing to be clunky and frankly not very good. Perhaps the book was that time and place's version of young adult work. Still held up as a classic I was not aware of this.

This will be one of the few books that I start that I will not be finishing. Consider this a thumbs down.

Duel

This Stephen Spielberg movie is one of his most famous early works. Originally aired as an ABC Movie of the Week in November, 1971 the movie was later cut for distribution in theaters overseas. This movie is considered the movie that launched Speilberg on his way.

A very simple movie it stars Dennis Weaver as an electronics salesman named David Mann. Traveling on a two lane highway he comes up behind an old rusty Peterbilt truck which is going very slow and spewing a great deal of smoke. He passes the vehicle only to soon thereafter have the vehicle pass him and then once in front of him slow down again. From that point on David Mann is terrorized by the truck.

My son when watching it with me kept asking me if this was all there was to the movie. Did something else happen? I explained to him that the key to the movie was the suspense. We see Weaver's character talking to himself, we hear this thoughts to himself as he wonders how he can get out of this predicament. As the movie progresses and the car and truck progress up into the mountains and down through the canyons the situation becomes life threatening. The driver of the truck tailgates, eventually pushing and hitting his car from behind. Forcing him to drive down the mountain faster than he can David Mann struggles to keep control of his car.

At one point Mann stops at a diner and goes into a washroom to clean up and settle himself down. When he returns to the restaurant he notices the truck outside and must contemplate that the driver is with him inside. A strong scene develops where he reviews each customer and wonders if indeed that is the driver.

This movie is simple and for those kids and folks who have watched movies in the last twenty to thirty it may not offer enough. Perhaps so, but in some cases less is more and I think that Spielberg has directed a movie here that can only be seen as underrated and under recognized. This is a very suspenseful movie and makes me miss the movie of the week days when we only had three channels and those channels offered some original movies two to three times a week.

Babel by Mumford and Sons

Continuing this very fruitful fall in new books and music Mumford and Sons released their followup album to last years breakthrough effort. Babel promised to stay true to the original sound with perhaps just a little more fire and rock in some songs, to make them more friendly to the arenas that Mumford's popularity is bringing them to.

I cannot listen to Mumford and Sons without thinking of The Avett Brothers. I suppose just as forty years ago The Beatles and The Stones had separate fan bases one gets the sense that for this new popular sect of music who you prefer of these groups defines you.

Certainly The Avett's have been releasing albums longer than the Mumford Boys. Building a fan base through constant touring and incredible live shows as opposed to having a singularly, surprisingly, breakthrough album probably gives a band more street cred but what is obviously clear is that the quick success of Mumford and Sons can only help The Avett's and the now slew of bands replicating their sound.

The Babel album and The Carpenter albums being released within two weeks of each other gives us a rare chance to critique the leaders of this music as they mirror each other. The Avett album which I reviewed previously was strong and in truth when I reviewed it I think I might not have praised it enough. It's variety of styles and lyrics even in the last two weeks have aged well on me.

The Babel album is also strong. What is clear is that the best songs on the Mumford album have a commercial element, a bigness about them, that the songs on The Avett album do not.

The album debuts with Babel and then two songs later we get the first single I Will Wait. This song is the best song that Mumford has written thus far and with it's demanding guitar work and hallowing choruses is a song that might well top the charts and bring even more fans to this type of music. Lover of the Light is another strong song but the truth is that I have listened to this album at least seven times in the last three days trying to get a sense of it. Much of the time from one listening to the next I do not even remember the songs and their distinctions.

This album is in no way as diverse as what the Avett's are doing and a good number of the songs should be considered no better than filler. Near the end of the album we do hear another very strong song called Below My Feet which will also earn much deserved praise. For me as much as I love I Will Wait and, as I have been singing it all week my kid will attest that it is captured my attention, the most remember-able song on the album is Broken Crown. The song is strong with the violent guitar strumming that Mumford is well known for, their signature sound as it is, and in it they make good use of the f word. They did this on a song in the first album and certainly they are aware that a good segment of their target audience will enjoy hearing a song with the singer frustrated with f-ing things up. The Avett's to my knowledge have not yet made a habit of this strategy. I do not have an opinion either way, it is a difference between them.

This is a very good album, it will easily and deservedly appear on many Top !0 lists later this year. For me, however, the verdict is clear, in any so called competition between Mumford and The Avett's I fall into the Avett camp. With them you get a much stronger sense of who they are and quite sure that success or not they will be who they are. Perhaps it is unfair but I do not know the life expectancy of Mumford and Sons in comparison with the Avett's. Love them both and this is a great album that you should enjoy but my position is clear.

Ray Romano on Parenthood

This show is incredible. It is wonderfully written with a huge likable cast. Before now Craig Nelson has been my favorite actor in the show, his role as Gus, the family patriarch, is wonderful.

In the new season, now three weeks in we are blessed with Ray Romano joining the cast. He plays a photography studio owner who employs Sarah Braverman.

We love Ray Romano in our family, we still rage against the cancellation of Men of a Certain Age, but my wife does not want his character to end up with Sarah. She would prefer Sarah stay with her boy toy, the younger schoolteacher she is currently engaged to. I told her that his fate was sealed when he insisted on being in the family portrait. The Braverman grandmother, played by Bonnie Bedelia, has had a long rule against boyfriends and significant others being in the yearly portrait. One must marry into the picture. Still he talked his way into it and inevitably sealed his fate.

So much is always going on in this show, and this season is no different. Still here is one vote wishing that Ray Romano goes from a guest star on a short arc to a full member of the cast. He is brilliant in everything he does. As we learn more about his character it is interesting to see that Romano can do more than comedy and easy schtick. He is a much more nuanced actor than one would assume.

However it works out this is must see television in our house. Our middle son even comes out of his cave to watch this with us each week. It must be doing something right.

Modern Family and The Middle

These two ABC stalwarts made their season debut last night. As singing shows rule the roost in our house I DVR'd these both the premiere episodes.

Both shows are examples of how tremendously funny a television show can be. Modern Family, which wins award after award each year, is funny, sarcastic and mixes effortlessly between right between your eyes funny and under the radar humor that you have to catch or observe. Last night's episode for example featured a couple of very large stuffed animals apparently copulating on the roof of a car. Who thinks of this stuff?

The Middle on the other hand is surely the less cool of the two shows. While Modern Family features a diverse group of people, including a gay couple with an adopted Chinese baby, The Middle tells us the story of a middle class family in Indiana with the last name Heck. Hollywood loves to celebrate themselves and so The Middle is rarely acknowledged for it's success. Flyover country, it seems, exists in television shows as well.

With that being said The Middle is fantastic television. While I watched the episode this morning I felt like I should resolve to find the hidden cameras in our home as they clearly were stealing all of their ideas from our lives. As the Heck family last night struggled on a thin budget to create memories of their perhaps " one last summer with everybody together" I recalled a conversation with my wife a few months ago where she said the exact same thing. Of course the similarities are clear, they have three kids, we have three kids and the gratifying thing in watching your life on the small screen is realizing that what you are going through with your kids is close to universal. They are not really spying on you, your family life is terribly familiar to all parents.

Modern Family is perhaps slightly more sophisticated in it's humor and I suppose in some parts of the country featuring a gay couple might still be controversial but I don't think in too many places that matters anymore. Ann Romney, for Goodness sake said that the show was her favorite. That of course begged all kinds of follow up questions but to my knowledge they were never asked.

The Middle featuring that white-bread, boring, Indiana family might be more of a challenge to produce. What is true is that a great prejudice exists in our culture amongst the elite against middle class families like the Hecks. Middle class values are claimed to be respected and honored but in many cases it is just lip service and those speaking the words go back to their vacation homes and enjoy their cognac. In short how many social scientists wear flannel and live in Middle America. To them the Middle and the people they portray could be as foreign as aborigines.

Both of these shows are brilliant and I enjoy them both. I suspect that most of the viewers who watch one watch the other. Still I do find it remarkable that with a little bit of thought the two shows can be seen to be portraying many of the divisions in our country. Traditional versus new age families, East and West Coast culture versus flyover country, those who live in huge palatial homes versus those that live in a small, well lived in, ranch house. Indeed in it's simplest terms blue state versus red state.

I enjoy both shows and think most people do not think that deep. Nor should they. Still I suspect that somewhere, right now, a social scientist is writing his dissertation on the subject of the ABC Wednesday night comedies.

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

This book that offers a perspective on American soldiers in Iraq. The book has immediately been called a masterpiece. On a par with Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried and almost certain to be heavily rewarded next year when the book awards are announced.

Most likely we will see a movie as well. However being ahead of the curve is a blessing and you want to read this book now. It is incredible.

Our narrator is Bartle a 22 year old soldier, or ex soldier, as the book is told from some years after his experience in Iraq. Bartle has been asked by his Sgt to look after an eighteen year old private named Murphy. To increase his responsibility at family day before the unit shipped out Murphy's mother had also extracted a promise that he would look after her son.

Just a boy himself at twenty two we hear Bartle's internal dialogue as he ventures into war. The feelings of the soldiers on the ground, some of the passages stand up as memorably as the passages in Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls.

The contrast however is staggering. While Robert Jordan felt a sense of duty and volunteered for his service our boys in Iraq feel a sense of helplessness and desperation s they advance and fall back and fight over the same ground on what becomes more and more like a schedule. The constant savagery of their actions, the inability to determine friend or foe, the constant guilt over their actions builds up.

Murphy disillusioned like all the solders struggles more. At eighteen and a young eighteen at that he becomes somber an disengaged. He tells Bartle that he cannot let the war define him, that in fact he n longer wants to be his friend as they only thing they have in common is the war and he wants nothing in the war in his soul. Bartle telling the story in the future, looking back, is torn up with regret. We learn early in the book, in the second chapter that Murphy dies, we see his fall into a pit of despair. At one point Murphy takes to sitting outside a small hospital so that he " can see hope in action" or watch a young female medic " that offers a glimpse of something beautiful" where everything is ugly.

Late in the book we learn what happened to Murphy and how his friend Bartle reacted to it and the repercussions of that action. Having manipulated his answers on his stress test before release to seem like he had no concerns or issues about his war experience Bartle later goes into a long soliloquy about his true feelings about the war, his actions, their meaninglessness, and perhaps most enlightening on his feelings about the new American way of appreciating and thanking American soldiers on their return in an almost overdone way.

For the great proportion of the population who do not think about the wars we get involved in or who rationalize our lack of concern over the soldiers with the knowledge that they all volunteered this is an eye opener. An understanding has to be had that wars of occupation and nation building are much different than wars where one's own country has been attacked, that psychologically the difference is staggering. We also need to understand that volunteering for the military is in a great percentage of cases due to a lack of opportunities state side.

This book is heart rending and magnificent. Before you thank another soldier for his service it would be wise to read this book, to get a slight glimpse on the profane and black thoughted life he has led before he returns home.

Marley

This well received documentary was directed by Kevin MacDonald and released in the spring of 2012. Including some footage that had never been seen before the movie, for Marley fans, is a goldmine of information.

With footage of Marley concerts in Jamaica and around the world we see the powerhouse that Marley was. We see a concert that brought together both sides, the communist leaning left and the conservative right, in which at one point Marley was joined on stage by the leaders of both parties.

The movie is straightforward telling Marley's story chronologically. We hear the first recording Marley made when he was sixteen that was a minor radio hit in Jamaica. We meet his father, an English government official who by being his father, put Bob in a caste in which he was not accepted by whites or blacks.

As the Wailers come together as a band and garner success we see the both Bunny Wailer and later Peter Tosh leave the group. Wailer had no desire to tour the world, feeling more comfortable in Jamaica and Tosh, being a more militant man in all things was chafing under record company rule.

Later we learn the story of when Bob Marley was shot. Civil strife in Jamaica continued to try to suck him in and when the leftists thought that Bob, who inadvertently had given a perception of support for the consrvative government, they did attack him in a backstage area in which both he and others were shot. When he returned to the concert stage and lifted his shirt to show his wounds it was almost a sense of resurrection.

And finally I learned some of the details of Marley's sickness and death. I did not know how he discovered his melanoma. Starting in his big toe of all things, and then ignored by Marley and with doctor's advice not followed, a couple of years later Marley collapsed while jogging and upon being checked out was found to be riddled with cancer. The end was near.

The movie was very good, very informative, and well put together. The soundtrack included some music that was quite rare including a performance of Jamaica from a mid seventies concert. A great movie for Marley fans.

The War of the Worlds by H G Wells

This book from 1898 has been one of the more influential books of the last 100 years. There have been several movie adaptions including the Tom Cruise vehicle a few years ago that was quite successful. Most of us have heard the story of the panic caused by a reading of the story on a New Jersey radio station in the nineteen thirties. As people tuned into the channel they could not differentiate if this was a story or an actual news reporting.


In the story we have an unnamed author telling of a Martin invasion of England. Cylinders fall on England and it soon becomes apparent that inside these cylinders are aliens. These aliens quickly subdue the humans who are in their vicinity. Humans who are innocently curious to those with more aggressive motives are all laid waste with the heat rays and disabling black clouds that the aliens possess.


Our author in his escape leaves his wife in a village called Leatherhead wiht plans to return to get her but in the story he never does get back. We see him in his travails, coming into close contact with the aliens, being fortunate enough to survive some chance encounters, and also meeting up with various survivors and other refugees.

A story like this will always have an audience. We, as humans, are prone to wondering about other beings. Just last year the physicist Stephen Hawking advised that our attempts to send messages to outer space might well be a fools errand. His reasoning, that aliens that do travel to our solar system would most likely not be coming on a friendly mission and we might not want to attract their attention.

One of the more interesting aspects of the story is Wells writing for the main character that features him wondering if the human race now will suffer what the lower creatures on Earth have felt since mans rise. That is are we now just rabbits and ants to the martians and if so is that a just retribution for our treatment of lesser creatures.

Another is that the method of the defeat of the aliens. Certainly not one you would obviously think about, and certainly not the traditional victory method, but one cognizant of scientific realities or at that time theories it actually makes significant amounts of sense in the way it is presented.

This is another fine book. I will now have to, at some point, have to read The Invisible Man to complete my H G Wells lessons but he certainly deserves his place in the pantheons of great writers.

Vegas

I watched the debut of the new CBS show Vegas last night. With a cast led by Dennis Quaid and Micheal Chiklis and the full on promotion of CBS the show has a strong chance of success and after watching the first episode if that success is forthcoming it will be well deserved.

The show is based on the real life story of Ralph Lamb,a sheriff in the early sixties, during the transformation of Las Vegas from sleepy gambling town to full on neon lights and gambling mecca. In the debut episode we have learned quite a bit about the direction of the show.

Quaid as Lamb is asked by the town's mayor to solve the murder of the Governor's niece. As a rancher who is mostly concerned with airplanes flying over his cattle and spooking them he agrees to this one time favor for the mayor.

Chilkis plays mobster Vincent Savino. He has been brought in to take control of an under performing casino. What we know, but Lamb does not is that the Sheriff he is replacing has run afoul of the Mob and that the District Attorney is on the take as well.

In the first episode the murder is solved but we all see that the show is going to run parallel tracks. We might well have weekly crimes to be solved but the ever present back story is going to be the developing antagonism between Savino and Lamb. At the end of the first episode Savino, who had earlier been deferential to the Sheriff, shows his teeth when ordering Lamb out of his casino.

Quaid turns in a strong performance but his earnestness and macho swagger is perhaps a bit overdone. Seeing him stride down an airport runway in a walk not run with a rifle over his shoulder makes him a bit campy but it is always hard not to like a Dennis Quaid performance. The show's star however will be Chiklis. The man oozes personality in every scene. Those who remember him on The Shield will not be surprised at how much he dominates every scene he is in. His portrayal of a gangster who wishes to be more nuanced than the straight ahead brutality that has preceded him is as good as it gets.

This show will be on my weekly lineup for a few weeks. I would like it to stay there, the question is can they develop the long term story line in a way that will satisfy me while keeping networks viewers who tend to like fully enclosed story lines. tuning in.

Strangers on a Train

This 1951 Hitchcock movie is fantastic. In the late fifties Jimmy Stewart became the go to guy for many of the Hitchcock movies but this movie, being earlier, in the decade had no one in the cast I had ever heard of.

No matter, one thing I have learned from watching Alf red's movies is that they are all fantastic and this movie is nothing short of that.

Centering on a chance meeting between a young tennis pro named Guy Haines. Played by Farley Granger, Haines is married to a crass, adulterous, woman and wants a divorce so that he too can marry the daughter of a Senator he has been dating. As a slightly famous person Haines is not shocked to be recognized on the the train he is traveling by a man named Bruno Anthony. Played brilliantly by Robert Walker Bruno is forward and loud. He discusses the items currently appearing in the gossip columns about Haines wife and his own lovelife.

Guy is uncomfortable with the conversation but allows himself to be drawn in. He is shocked however as the conversation extends to hear Bruno say that the perfect murder would be for two people who do not know each other to swap murders to commit. His reasoning is that with no ties to the victims both crimes would be unsolvable. Haines cuts the conversation short, realizing that the man might well be unbalanced.

We, as the audience, know what is going to happen and we are not disappointed. We see it happen. Soon enough as Haines returns home one night Bruno is waiting for him to tell him that he has completed his half of the deal. Haines shocked and surprised to see Bruno again does not believe Bruno's claims but when the phone rings inside and Bruno tells him that will undoubtedly be the police he realizes what he is caught up in.

What does Guy do? Does he go to the police and confess what he has got caught up in. Or does he get sucked into the murder plot further and actually commit the unspeakable act.

With some great scenes set around an amusement park Hitchcock again brings all the moving parts together to an exciting ending. He was perhaps the greatest filmmaker of his time and it is surprising in a way how little he is referenced as one of the greats. Perhaps thrillers are not considered as worthy of the great epics such as the works of David Leen. More likely in our now is better culture we revere the works of Spielberg and Malick, both great directors, and forget who came before.

This is a wonderful movie.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

My son in his Senior English class has been assigned this book to read. Lahiri who has won a Pulitzer for a collection of short stories is an accomplished author and in this book she continues to write about the immigrant experience.

Ashoke and Ashima are Indian immigrants. They, soon after being married in a traditional Bengali ceremony in Calcutta, move to Boston so that Ashoke can attend MIT. The couple live an isolated life in America, first with Ashoke as a student and then as an academic. Soon their first child is born. A young boy they become confused in the naming process. In their traditions a child has a " good name" a name for public consumption and use, and a family or " pet" name.

Ashoke's favorite author is the Russian Gogol. Having survived a life threatening experience back in India, in part, because of his dedication to the author, Ashoke had planned to give his son the pet name Gogul. In the meantime a revered grandmother in India was sending the good name that the boy would use by mail. They are told they cannot leave the hospital however without a name for the baby, so they reluctantly, not understanding the significance name the boy Gogol on his birth certificate.

Life proceeds, the family moves to the suburbs. The family intends to have Gogol use the name Nikhail outside of the family and when he starts school they place this name on the records. Gogol however rejects the name, and the school, not cooperative disregards the parents instructions and he becomes Gogol at school. Later Gogol regrets this very much.

The book centers on the conflict an immigrant feels. Growing up in the seventies he wants to be American, he is embarrassed by his parents and their Indian ways.

As Gogol grows, goes to college and dates American girls his dissatisfaction and downright embarrassment grows. Gogol is dating a wealth young woman in New York, whose parents modern and very wealthy,give over the fifth floor of their towering walk up to te two and Gogol feels a disconnection from his past even greater.

Then late one night Gogol receives a phone call about his father. It will change his life.

This book dragged in places. Still it was very effective in telling what i think is most likely a common occurrence. The battle that children of immigrants, especially those immigrants who do little to assimilate, feel. For me the ending of the book was perhaps the best part. I think the circle was drawn very well in the story, and when finally Gogol begins to feel a connection with his father one cannot hope as a parent that someday we too will share a moment where all we meant to say or tried to say to our children will make sense to them.

A fine book.

Hud

This movie from Netflix we received Hud. The 1963 movie describes itself as a movie about a heel. Said heel is played by Paul Newman and it might well be one of his best roles.

The movie centers on a cattle ranch in Texas in the nineteen fifties. Homer Bannon is the patriarch of the ranch living with his 34 year old son Hud and his grandson Lonnie. Lonnie's father Norman, died when the boy was young, a car accident that Hud in his carelessness was responsible for.

The movie opens with Lonnie going into town very early one morning. Sent in by his Granddad to find Hud he finds him at the home of a married woman whose husband is away. Hud played with a winning smile and devil may care attitude by Newman is a wild child. He is self centered, hard drinking and in a word my father might have used " shiftless" He wants as much happiness as he can get in the world for the least amount of work and responsibility.

Homer Bannon has a dislike of his son that he tries to contain. Everything Hud does grates on his father. Patricia Neal in an Oscar Winning role plays the family's live in maid and housekeeper. An attractive, saucy divorcee Neal is a mother figure for Lon and an object of lust for Hud.

The main plot point of the movie is the farm dealing with a bout of foot and mouth disease in it's cattle herd. If true the ranch will be devastated as all the cattle will have to be destroyed.

This movie is not so much about what happens as the characters it happens to. Newman's Hud is like someone we all have known in our life. Handsome or Beautiful, able to skate thru life on charm and and a smile, but a shell of a person inside. Melyvn Douglass won his first of two Best Supporting Actor Oscar's for his role as the patriarch Homer Bannon.

When Homer tells Hud that he is not " a principled man" it is the most cutting remark he can make. For Hud however it goes down his back, he considers all these old feelings of duty and responsibility as a sucker's game and is actually manipulating an attempt to take the ranch from his father.

Newman is brilliant and it seems surprising no Oscar went his way, his role is much more complicated than it appears, while Neal and Douglass shine.

A scene in the movie where Lon takes his Grampa into town for dinner and a movie is a sweet moment in a somewhat mean movie. As the folks in the movie theatre sing along with the bouncing dot to My Darling Clementine Lon looks over at his Grandad with Love as the old man sings with gusto. Later as they eat at the diner in town Lon is preparing the a giant cheeseburger, and when Homer chuckles and asks him if he can get his mouth around that for me personally I missed my Dad.

It is a mystery how such a good man can raise such as poor excuse for a man as Hud. It is a question many parents have asked. Sometimes being a good example is clearly not enough.

Shot in black and white in a stunningly beautiful way this movie is a joy to watch even were the plot terrible. The cinematography is perfect. The conclusion of the movie is ambivalent and can leave you feeling so as well. Hud is not redeemable and as he closes the door at the end of the movie any hope you had for some kind of epiphany are dashed. The movie works more when you think about the ending and understand why to redeem Hud would falsify what happens in the whole movie.

A great movie. Great performances.

Battle Born by The Killers

Brandon Flowers of The Killers is a seventies front man in a 2012 band. Nothing Flowers does is small. His voice is Big. Often times people say that his lyrics and style is like an overamped Springsteen but I think that the more you listen to Flowers you can here a plethora of influences. Freddie Mercury, John Waite and Meatloaf all have lent themselves to some of the songs Brandon Flowers sings.

The Killers are from Las Vegas and maybe that in itself tells you all that you need to know about them. They are the quintessential rock and roll band you would expect from Vegas. Bombastic, loud, overdone, and brilliant.

This album has been number one on my hit parade this week. Each time I listen to it I hear another feeling, sound, instrumentation, note, that takes me back to the eighties. It is as if Flowers did not grow up in the eighties so much as breathe them into his cells.

The album is strong all the way through. Runaways is straight ahead rock and roll, the first single and should be enough to get the album some attention. It is also as strong a track as it is not close to being the best song on the album.

Here With Me is a monstrously good song. One can hear Guns and Roses November Rain, Meatloaf and others but perhaps what we should start saying is we can hear Flowers. The line " Don't want your picture in my cell phone, I want you hear with me." If radio still played rock and roll this song would be a huge hit. In my teenage years this song would have been one of the biggest songs of the year, MTV would have had some super over the top video in heavy rotation and girls would have swooned. In today's music scene this might not even be a single.

The Way It Was when I listened to the first few bars, before Flowers voice comes in and I thought I was listening to " We Built This City" era Jefferson Starship. Another strong song.

A Matter of Time goes back much more to The Killers first album, it would fit on Hot Fuss easily. Flowers is actually a very strong lyricist.

Deadlines and Commitments has a chorus which saves it from being an otherwise mundane song. Flowers rings out " If you should fall, upon hard times, if you should lose your way, there is a place here in this house, that you can stay." There is something to be said for having a place we can count on.

Miss Atomic Bomb is another flash of lyrical lightning, with "racing shadows in the moonlight, in the desert on the hot night," Mr. Flowers better make sure he sends the royalty check to the right address for Mr. Springsteen. Still a strong song.

Heart of a Girl again does Springsteen, perhaps better than he has in the last ten years, with lots of " she said and I said" the only thing that makes this more Killers than knock off is the background music of being much more modern and much less sparing than a Springsteen version would be.

Be Still is a typical power ballad. This song is the one in which Flowers uses what sets him apart. His voice rings, almost a capella in parts, " Don't break character, you've got a lot of heart, " with a great note on lot....this song may not be radio friendly but one can imagine a lot of sad young people, those who cannot wait to get out of their all enclosing hometowns, who cannot wait to start their lives, listening to this song and feeling inspired.

This is a, pardon the pun, killer album. Look up all your adjectives for overdone, over the top, bombastic, if not name dropping then sound and riff dropping from classic bands, and you will find a picture of The Killers. On this album it all works. Tremendously.

This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz

After enjoying his Pulitzer Prize Winning book a couple of years ago I looked forward to reading this collection of inter connected short stories. Centering primarily on his previous character Yunior, a small character in his Oscar book, we learn about the ways that Yunior's inability to be faithful has affected his relationships.

In it's totality the collection is a disappointment. I think that Diaz is a wonderful writer and I am not put off by the dialect that he writes in, as his characters primarily are Dominican and thus they speak in this dialects.

I think, that for the most part, people have a hard time connecting with a book or a character if they do not find something, anything, likable in the book or it's characters. Try as one might this is a struggle in Diaz's writing.

A couple of the stories were stronger than the others. A couple of the stories were previously published in The New Yorker. I forget that a quite small percentage of people read that magazine so is very common for author's to later reproduce their work in their own collections.

Something also off putting for me though certainly not related to the story directly is the fact that Diaz is a writing teacher at MIT. I am not a prude, I think writers have been challenging the acceptable standards for many decades and will continue to do so. For me Diaz is different. His writing is crude, in some ways vulgar, and as some of his writing seems autobiographical and a great percentage of his characters have misogynistic tendencies I do have questions about him teaching writing. I am sure that is just a middle aged white man's concerns but there you have it.

I think that my reading stack will have to be pretty short for me to pick up another Diaz book.

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

One of the best books of the month of August on Amazon I was the first to check out this book from our local library. It seems that right now is a good time to write apocolyptic novels and The Dog Stars will certainly be one of the best of the lot.

Centering more on the the topics of isolation and loss than the end of the world aspect because of that the book can be examined by many people, even those not especially into the apocalyptic vision.

The hero of our story is Hig. As 99 percent of the people in the world have died from some sort of pandemic Hig has lost his wife but his happy companion is his dog Jasper. Staying at a small airport which can easily be defended he is joined by Bangley. Bangley is a gun nut, annoying at best, and is often chastising Hig for not understanding that the world has moved on and only the strong survive.

Hig's relationship with his dog tugged at my heart. The conversations he had with him. the emotional energy he recieves from the dog keeps him alive. As a disabled person myself, one who spends a great part of each day alone, I can surely attest to how much value I place on my dog and the companionship he provides.

As time passes Hig has a need to know what else is beyond the limits of his small Cessna plane. Occasionally travelers venture into thier campsite but they never have good intentions.

One day he travels beyond his return point, not knowing exactly how he will get back. As he progresses he enters into a hidden canyon and there sees a young woman and an older man tending a garden. He wonders what this means, who they are, his thoughts are soon shaken out of their reverie by a gunshot through his window from the older gentleman's gun. Life is about to change for Hig in ways he had not anticipated.

This book is poetic with some deep seeded feelings. It is a powerful book. It is beautifully written. It is a book that should become an instant classic.

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

This book is considered one of the classics and Hesse one of the more influential writers of his time. Although written in 1922 this book was not released in America until 1951.

Siddhartha is the title character living in the time of The Buddha. A seeker of spiritual enlightenment Siddhartha goes through several stages in his life. He leaves his privileged home to become a member of the Samanas, a wandering religious order who seek alms from fellow citizens for subsistence.

As he is in this group he and his companion Govinda hear of The Buddha, known as the enlightened one, who is gaining followers. Leaving their order they travel to where the Buddha is teaching. While his friend Govinda quickly becomes an acolyte Siddhartha does not,though he honors the Buddha, as he feels that one cannot find his own path simply by following the teachings of another.

After separating from his childhood friend who chooses to stay with the Buddha Siddhartha meets and becomes entranced by a courtesan. This leads to his becoming one with the world, those that he previously referred to as child like, seeking gratification through non spiritual means.

Eventually Siddhartha rejects this and travels again until he comes to a river and meets an ferryman who will change his life yet again.

My son is reading this book for his Senior English class so I pulled this off my too read list and made quick work of it. I cannot say it was a great book, it was however one to remember and while I cannot say I understood or agree with all of the spiritual message of the book there were parts that rang out. As a parent myself when Siddhartha longs to save his own son from making mistakes, to have him learn from the mistakes Siddhartha made and thus spare himself some pain and troubles, I as a parent can relate. When Siddhartha's mentor rebukes him and advises him that everyone must learn for themselves through their own experiences, is this not why Siddhartha himself rejected the Buddha's teachings, it is a lesson learned for both Siddhartha and today's modern parents.

In today's helicoptering parenting and desires to protect our kids from every decision which might lengthen their path to success Siddhartha has a strong and perhaps unpleasant message. It is interesting that here eighty years later that resonates so strongly.

Parenting by Siddhartha by Dr. Phil. Perhaps we will see that next. All in all an interesting book.

The Birdman of Alcatraz

This 1962 movie directed by John Frankenhiemer was a fictionalized account of the life of Robert Stroud. Robert Stroud was a federal prisoner who became known as the Birdman of Alcatraz.

Played by Burt Lancaster Stroud is a rebellious young man who as the movie begins is being transferred to Leavenworth prison. One thing he does have is a devotion to his Mother and as we hear in his voice his letters to his Mother we see the devotion he has for her. When she travels a great distance to visit and is turned away until the weekend Stroud is very angry. This eventually leads to a confrontation with a guard that ends in the guards death. Stroud's situation has gone from bad to worse as he now faces a death sentence.

Karl Malden plays the prison warden who even when Stroud's mother gets his death sentence commuted to life in prison, resolves to make sure that he spends the rest of his life sentence in solitary. One day in the exercise yard Stroud finds a sparrow that appears to be injured. Over time this leads to his great interest in his life. He fights the prison system and earns the right to keep his birds, in fact other inmates follow suit. He becomes an expert on birds and the diseases that affect them.

From what I have read the mellowing with age that happened to the films character did not happen in quite the same way to Stroud. While he did become an expert in birds and later wrote a well received book on the history of America's prison system he never grew into the calm, almost cuddly figure that Lancaster plays in the movie.

The acting in this movie is top notch. Lancaster is wonderful in his role, fictionalized or not, the makeup artists deserve credit as Lancaster believably ages fifty years in this movie. One should remember that makeup can do much but Lancaster's physical acting and mannerisms to portray an old man believably are very strong. Telly Savalas appears as Vito a fellow inmate. Interestingly I picked him out and wondered if that was Kojak. He sure looked different with hair. Savalas himself earned an Oscar nomination for his part.

Lancaster garnered a well deserved Oscar nomination but one cannot overlook Karl Malden in this movie. As the warden who battles with Stroud for years and years as he progresses up the ladder of responsibility in the federal prison system Malden plays his role very well. He is believable as the well intentioned man who still administers, perhaps necessarily so, an inhumane, dehumanizing prison system. The grudging respect that develops between Stroud and Malden is summarized by Malden's last line in the movie. " He has been a thorn in my side for thirty five years but he has never lied to me." Malden is a wonderful actor.

This is a good movie but one should not take it as history, much has been modified, many of the sharp edges of the story have been removed. Still for what it is, it does well as a movie with great acting and a strong story.

Revolution

NBC debuted it's new bigger than life drama last night. The initial reviews are strong and the numbers from the ratings are even stronger. Today it was reported that it was the most viewed drama series premiere on any network in over three years.

All of this bodes well for the series. Produced by J J Abrams of Lost fame the show has been heavily buzzed about all summer. I, myself, watched the trailer last last spring and told my wife that this certainly looked like an interesting show.

The premise is strong. At the beginning of the series a man comes home from work and tells his wife to go fill the tubs and sinks with water. She gives him a meaningful look and says in a quizzical voice " It's happening?" Next thing we see the man talking to his brother on the phone, his brother stuck in traffic, has a bad signal and just barely makes out him telling him " it's all going to shut down" and soon enough the phone goes out, and all the cars on the highway stall.

We then move ahead to fifteen years later and as you can imagine the world has changed. We see interesting visuals of Wrigley Field overgrown with moss and realize that Abrams must have watched the Life After People series that was on a year or so ago.

We can fairly predict where the series is going. We have little empires and warlords and of course there is a secret that a few people have, information that a few people know about and want that these people have in necklaces.

The cast is not well known but in episode one appear to be solid. What will be the real issue here is if the show can keep its viewers. My middle son has just finished watching Jericho on DVD and he mentioned some similarities to it. I watched that show when it was first on and though this show, being an Abrams show might have a few more buttons and whistles he is not incorrect in noticing the similarities.

For those of who were excited by Flash Forward a few years ago and The Event just a couple of years ago we know that as strong as these shows start out it is not an easy thing to keep the interest of the audience. The first sign of trouble will be if NBC starts moving the show around, a death knell for most shows.

For now I will enjoy the show but I will not get too comfortable with it, these shows rarely succeed.

A Streetcar Named Desire

This movie adapted from the Tennessee Williams play was one of the most decorated movies of it's time. The story is well known. Blanche Dubois played by Vivian Leigh is an aging Southern belle, joining her sister in New Orleans. Her sister is Stella who has left the homestead and married a man that Blanche finds unacceptable.

Stanley Kowalski is a brutal force of nature. He is loud, crude, and rude. Played by Marlon Brando, a role that goes down as one of his best, Brando dominates the screen.

And yet he of the four main characters is the only one who did not win an Oscar. Stella played by Kim Hunter, Karl Malden as Stanley's friend Mitch, and of course Vivian Leigh as Blanche all won Oscar's.

The movie to me was a disappointment. Truly powerful the movie was, for me, however, the character of Blanche was just so terribly annoying that it precluded the movie from being enjoyable.

One thing that does become apparent quickly in this movie is what a great actor Karl Malden was. To later generations known predominantly as the actor with the huge nose or as the star of the young Micheal Douglas vehicle Streets of San Fransisco Malden was capable of giving a very understated performance that still punched you right in the mouth.

The movie followed the play and the performances were strong, any fault I find is strictly due to my own likes and dislikes I am sure.

The Rain People

The Rain People is a 1969 movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Perhaps best known as a vehicle for future superstars James Caan, Robert Duvall, and as assistant director George Lucas the movie was a moderate success.

Starring Shirley Knight as Natalie Ravenna a young housewife unsure of what she wants in life. Upon finding out that she is pregnant she takes off on a trip, one that soon becomes a cross country trek. Her husband is none too pleased.

Along the way she picks up a hitchhiker named Jimmy Kilgannon. Nicknamed Killer, Jimmy is an ex college football player who has been injured and suffered brain damamge from repeated blows to the head. Played effectively by Caan he has been given a thousand dollars and told to leave school. We never learn the real specifics of what happened to Jimmy but from the flashbacks in his memory ( that we see ) it appears that he stayed on at school, doing odd jobs, raking leaves and such but eventually has been asked to leave.

Soon after she picks him up Natalie realizes that Jimmy, " Killer", cannot take care of himself. She is struggling with her own identity issues however and does not feel like she can or frankly wants to take care of him. After attempting to find him a job as a laborer for an odd pet shop she realizes she cannot leave him, the man only want to take the boys money and use him for slave wages.

Eventually Natalie runs afoul of a local law officer and things get even stranger. Robert Duvall plays a police officer that has his whole own set of issues.

How these people, connect, interconnect and affect each other's lives makes for an interesting movie. Not much more. It is not a great movie, it struggles to be good but Caan and Duvall are interesting in these early roles.

Tempest by Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan released his 419th ( joking, kind of ) last week. Bob Dylan at 71 years old still has a great deal to say. Reading his recent Rolling Stone interview Dylan laments his fans and followers looking to him as an answer, being seekers, when at the same time he is clearly still on a mission of seeking. In his most recent interview, in which Dylan is obtuse in the extreme, he predicates his theory on transfiguration and how that connects him to a sixties Hells Angel leader who died in the early sixties named Bobby Zimmerman.

Frankly not a great deal of it makes sense. One thing that does make sense is listening to every new thing Dylan has to say when he releases an album. This album received a five star review from Rolling Stone. As my wife says however that has much to do with him being Bob Dylan.

So is this an album of five stars. No. It is, however, an album with some very strong new music. Dylan's voice is now a raspy growl. My daughter said he sounds like he needs to clear this throat. Whatever melody was in his voice years ago is now gone. Still if you are a Dylan fan his singing voice has never been his major selling point for you.

The songs Narrow Way and Long and Wasted Years are both well written songs with stories to tell. Dylan is superb in these rambling songs.

Still when this album is spoken of in the Dylan catalog the last four songs will be subjects we discuss. Early Roman Kings is typically strong Dylan song while Tin Angel is nine minutes of violence and bloodlust through a Dylan growl. The centerpiece of the album, and at fourteen minutes, the ballast of the whole album is the title song. This will be known as the Titanic song. 45 verses of the sing song story of the famous ship that went down Dylan combines famous shout outs to historical figures, and an only as Dylan could, combination of fact and fiction. As Dylan said he is less interested in history as it was than as it should have been.

As great as that song is, and it is classic Dylan, the final song on the album is perhaps the best song. Titled Roll on John it is Dylan's tribute to his friend John Lennon and it is a wonderful song. In the middle of the song when Bob starts a verse with " I heard the news today oh boy" you can feel his heart rend. This is a fantastic song that would be rendered less effective were it sung in any clear throated voice.

All in all a strong album, better than his last couple of entries. Dylan is always worth listening to.

Saturday Night Live Season Premiere

Saturday Night Live returned this past weekend for it's season opener with Seth MacFarlane as host. MacFarlane, best known behind the camera for his show Family Guy and this summer's hit Movie Ted, showed that he is certainly more than just a voice actor.

From an opening monologue where he went from impression to impression while singing, actually singing, to an impression of Ryan Lochte on Weekend Update, MacFarlane showed he is very talented.

The funniest skit was called " Introduction to Puppetry" with MacFarlane spot on as the energetic, over sincere teacher and Bill Hader as a dark Vietnam Vet who creates doppleganger puppet withthe same memories as him. When the camera shifts to the puppet and he is smoking you realize the skit is a pure homerun.

Jay Pharoah began his run as President Obama and in a classy move Fred Aremison introduced him as part of the handoff. Pharoah is a great impressionist but Aremison had geown into the job and had rhe nuances and verbal ticks down pat. There is no reason to think Pharoah will not be succesfull as well.

Frank Ocean played twice and showed why he is such a dynamic performer. On his second song, Pyramimds, John Mayer played guitar for him and in a move that has been talked about everywhere, during Mayer's solo, went to the sode of the stage and played one of the video games that lined the set. I do not know if it was planned or spontaneous but it was clever and certainly memorable.

All in all a good start for the season.

CBS Sunday Morning

Yesterday was an example of how strong this show can be. Of course it was also the case that coincidentally many of the stories had a more than particular interest for me. A story on Vin Scully is always a gold mine for a baseball fan like me and made him even more likable than before.

My wife enjoyed an interview with the music group Heart and an interview done with one of the members of The West Memphis Three was strong as well.

Little short stories such as the almanac and opinion features are enjoyable as well. This week, for me at least, the strongest article was one on the 150th anniversary of the battle of Antieam, the bloodiest battle in American history. Looking at the green land now, wit rows of corn and of course an antiquity museum on site made me place this as one of the places I would like to see.

This is a very strong show always and on weeks like this might be the best thing we see all week.

Searching for Sugar Man by Rodriguez

Over the last couple of months perhaps the biggest story in music has been the reemergence of the Detroit singer songwriter Rodriguez. When we say reemergence we really mean it in this case.

In 1970 and 71 the singer released two folk rock, singer-songwriter, albums that, while expected to prove he would be the next big thing, fell flat. Soon he was released from his record label and to almost everyone fell into obscurity. What has precipitated this return. Well the truth is stranger than fiction. He never really went away. In the late seventies and eighties by one of those strange instances that no one can explain the music of Rodriguez caught fire in South Africa where he became incredibly popular. Slowly an acknowledgment of his music filtered back to the United States. While this happened incredibly an urban myth came about that he was dead, some said that he had even died on stage.

This summer a documentary movie, of which this is the soundtrack, was released to stunning reviews. Roger Ebert for one called it mesmerizing. The story of one fan that loved his music the first time around and his desire to find out what happened to Rodriguez. I have not seen the movie, it has not been in my area. I do look forward to seeing it however.

I saw the singer on The David Letterman Show and the man is interesting. Looking like a weathered Carlos Santana and at least 70 years old, the man still can hold an audience spellbound. He can sing and his songs are as fresh and clean today as they were 40 years ago.

At the time he was called the new Dylan, what a curse that was for many, but the truth is his music is spellbinding and it is fresh, unlike most of the music of that era it has not been played to the point of wishing you never heard it again. When listening to Rodriguez I hear a mixture of Cat Stevens and Bob Dylan. The voice similar to Stevens but the lyrics much more like Dylan's.

When listening to this soundtrack you do not have to go far without just shaking your head with a silent Wow. How does this happen. How does someone who write songs this good, sing this movingly, stay obscure for forty years. It is something it is hard to comprehend.

The whole album is strong. The title cut stars the album well but the songs that will astound you are Crucify Your Mind and Cause. The rest of the album is strong, I Wonder and Like Janis makes it a plethora of riches but those two songs are all you need to know that sometimes great talents is never recognized. Fortunately for us Rodriguez is still with us and as he is giving concerts in small halls around the country the general consensus is that we are lucky to have found him before it is too late.

This album will be on all The Top Ten Lists at the end of the year, except the billboard of course. That in itself might signify how something like this happens.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

This movie based on the book of the same name was released in late December, 2011 and nominated for Best Picture. This was a movie we watched on streaming one night in between videos being sent to us. I was not expecting much. I have to admit that quite a few years ago I had attempted the book but not completed it. At the time it just did not seem to be a well thought out book.

The reviews I had read for the movie were not that strong either. I am happy to report however that I might have been right about the book, but the movie adaption was actually quite good with some affecting performances.

Oskar Schell is a young boy living in New York City on September, 11, 2011. As the terrible events of that morning unfold Oskar's school is let out early and as he arrives home to an empty apartment the phone rings. He hears his father's voice on the machine as he does not pick up. He is scared. He knows vaguely that something is happening but as he hears the tremble in his father's voice and then turns on the television he sees the towers come down just a his father's phone call is cut off.

We meet Oskar's father in flashbacks. Played by Tom Hanks, his father is a German American who devises maps and puzzles for Oskar to have to solve. Both as a way to share something and as a not obvious way for Oskar to overcome his shyness it is something they share.

How Oskar deals with his father's death, how his Mother ( Sandra Bulluck) tries to help him, and the incredible last puzzle that Oskar's Dad sends him on from beyond the grave leads to the major plot point of the movie.

Some reviews said that the boy Oskar, played by Thomas Horn, is not a likable character. He is a challenging character, he also is a young boy whose father was ripped away from him on live television. I think expecting a cuddly warm character might be a little too much.

The supporting cast in this movie is very strong. Max Von Sydow, Viola Davis, and the incredible John Goodman. Every character Goodman takes, big or small becomes a highlight of a movie, he is, one of the great character actors of his generation, one who is amazingly underrated. He has come a far distance from Dan Connor on Roseanne.

I myself do not think this is a great movie, it is certainly not Oscar worthy. It was however a good movie, and it told what could have been a fairly conventional story with a very unconventional angle. With movies in general following so much cookie cutter formula these days the directors who attempt to go off the beaten path should be acknowledged as well as the actors and actresses who take on less certain, less sure thing roles. Well worth watching.

The New Normal

This new comedy from NBC has had an early debut with two episodes this week. Before I even knew what it was about I had heard that it was controversial and in some areas the local affiliates had refused to air the show.

What is the premise. A gay male couple seeks to adopt a baby. The show is the creation of Ryan Murphy, of Glee fame, who seems to have made it his mission to have as many gay friendly shows on television as possible.

I will be the first one to admit that I am not entirely comfortable with viewing gay couples being romantic. Well, check that, yes I am a man so let me rephrase that, I am not entirely comfortable viewing gay men being romantic. I can hear my wife calling me a pig as I write this. However it is without a doubt that it is more acceptable for women to experiment with their sexuality than it is for men. Therefore a television show with this premise is that much more difficult to sell to middle America.

The truth is though that as I hear constantly about children that are treated as distractions from their parents lives, that go hungry or are mistreated I think that the sexuality of their parents might well be on the list of things I do not care about.

Anybody who spends time with children frequently, and this goes for my Republican friends and my more plentiful Democratic friends laments the terrible parenting and lack of involvement that they see. Last night I said to my wife, in jest before my anti government friends go crazy, that perhaps no one should be able to have kids without going through the process that those folks who adopt, gay or straight. If one goes through this it seems likely that they will be fully invested parents. God knows something that is going on now is not working in too many cases. I have a good friend who if I won the lottery I would give the money to run a boys home for neglected kids and if my wife could she would adopt two or three kids a year from her school.

So to me the premise of the show is soon forgotten. It is actually a plot that makes sense. A California gay couple, A Doctor and his more girly partner, place an ad for a surrogate mother and after rejecting countless applicants meet a Midwestern girl who is sweet as can be and seeks the large sum for the job to give her and her daughter a start in their new life.

As a comic foil Ellen Barkin plays a Grandmother who utters, frankly, some terrible gay slurs, as she tries to convince her granddaughter not to go thru with her plan.

The show wears it's heart on it's sleeve, is sweet in general, and shows that gay couples have the same insecurities about having a child as I did.

So if they are not showing this in Utah that is ok. For me however if the show succeeds or fails it is because it is funny or it is not. The sexuality of the characters is not a decider for me. That in itself is progress I think.

Coming Home

This 1978 movie won Oscars for both Jon Voight and Jane Fonda. A Hal Ashby film in the era when great Vietnam movies were being made constantly this movie was one of the strongest.

The movie focuses on Captain Bob Hyde and his wife Sally, played by Jane Fonda and Bruce Dern. What was quite amusing was seeing Bruce Dern, hearing his voice, and picturing him as Bill's father in Big Love.

Jon Voight plays Luke Martin, a paraplegic Vietnam Veteran at the Veterans hospital at which Sally volunteers. Sally as the movie begins had been a typical Conservative Military wife. Her husband Bob is about to be sent to Vietnam, a move he, as a career man, feels is just part of his progression. Sally, now living alone, volunteers at the military hospital.

At the hospital Luke is a frustrated, angry, patient. Sally and he realize that they were classmates in high school. As they spend more time together it becomes apparent that an attraction is present. Sally wants to improve the conditions at the hospital. She is rebuked by the society minded members of the volunteer committee.

When Luke is released he and Sally spend more time together. As a relationship develops they fall in love. Still, both agree, that the relationship will end when Sally's husband returns.

Sally's husband Captain Hyde though returns early from Vietnam, he is suffering from post traumatic stress and is not able to connect with his wife. When he is informed by military intelligence that his wife has been having an affair with an anti war radical he is shaken to the core.

An uncomfortable confrontation occurs. The ending of the movie can be interpreted in a couple of different ways. For instance both my wife and I felt that it symbolized two different things.

Voight, who in these times is perhaps best known as one of the lone Conservatives in Hollywood, the father on Angelina Jolie, and for fans of Seinfeld as the owner of a car that George Costanza covets, gives an incredible performance. It is easy to forget that with this and his iconic performance in Midnight Cowboy that Voight was a well regarded, well respected actor.

Fonda as well is Oscar worthy. The irony of her playing a Conservative Vietnam era Military wife cannot be overlooked, and her performance as the conflicted woman in love with two men is never melodramatic, always serious and believable. Fonda, because, of all the various controversies that have surrounded her at times, is also easily forgotten as the strong actress that she was.

I had this movie on my list of movies to see for along time. It takes awhile to develop, one wonders what all the fuss is about for a few minutes, but the scenes when Captain Hyde returns home and the three deal with their love triangle are very strong and different from what might be expected.

Added to the Vietnam canon of Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, and Platoon, Coming Home is a deserved member of this classic group.

New Wave on XM: A Morning Ride with the Psychedelic Furs, Thompson Twins, and The Smiths

Taking the kids to school this morning, once they were dropped off and I had control of the radio, stopped on First Wave Channel and enjoyed a time warp worthy three play of Pretty in Pink by the Psych Furs, Hold Me Now by the Thompson Twins and I Started Something by the Smiths.

Talk about feeling old, and wondering if as we spent an afternoon avoiding class in college doing " chemistry" experiments if this three play ever passed by my ears before.

A good start to the day.

Britney Spears on X Factor

We watched the first episode of X Factor's Season Two last night. What struck me was that no matter the new host, no matter how " big " they are this show is still Simon Cowell's

The charisma he has is what all the rest of these shows are missing. Demi Lovato did a credible job in her first appearance. I do not know if she is a great judge but she seemed to fit the role. I have already discussed last year that I find L A Reid to be very unlikable and that has not changed.

The X Factor this year on X Factor is Brittany Spears. The first thing that struck me was the Britney does not look great. She is still, of course, very attractive, but,when one considers the makeup and hair treatment available to these folks, it is clear that Spears has had a tough life. Not a tough life like an average citizen but a life that with the personal problems and abuses she has suffered has made her older than her years. Watching her expressions as she watched the performers Spears did not feel like a star. She seemed like that girl you knew in high school who was really pretty, but not good with books, who knew she was pretty but was determined to use that prettiness to get her life set before it faded. In short she reminds you of a girl we all knew who married young, had two kids early, and then gained five pounds a year and watched the crows feet appear on her face. This while her classmates, less popular, less happy, in high school surpass in her accomplishment, but more importantly are also happier and more content.

This is not a reflection on Spears beauty. She is still attractive. She, for all i know, is a woman who tries hard to be a good Mom. She is however a caution for all of us, not of what happens when one becomes a music star, but what becomes of those that are on top of the world when they are young, with no foundation underneath. Spears was just a Louisiana girl pushed by her Mother into a world that only her talent was ready for, the rest of her was just a young woman who was more suited to marrying a young man working for his father's garage with a hope to inherit it . There is nothing wrong with this life. Nothing at all. Spears life however is a small story picture writ on a big picture screen of the importance of young women having self esteem brought my more, much more than their own beauty.

What does that have to do with X Factor. Not much. One wonders however if the average viewer will find Spears enjoyable or depressing. I do not know the answer.

The Sting

This 1973 movie joined Paul Newman and Robert Redford for the first time since Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid. Set in the depression it is the story of a couple of con men that are trying to engineer the big sting, the one worth doing, the one that will be talked about for years to come.

Redford is at his handsome and dashing best. Newman is as perfect an actor as you can get. As a down and out con men convinced to go for one last big score he plays the part perfectly.

Underrated in the movie is Robert Shaw as Doyle Lannegan. He is the mob boss who in a fit of pique over a scam, inadvertently run by Redford's character Hooker, on one of his money runners, kills Hooker's current scam partner. As he dies he sends him to Chicago meet with Henry Shaw Gondorff his former partner. Gondorff, as stated, is played by Newman in a way that surprisingly did not win an Oscar.

The plot is twisted and it is not easy to see. At the completion of the attempted scam only then did I see the whole picture, perhaps about 30 seconds before it was revealed in the movie. It was complicated but it was not so complicated as to preclude enjoyment of the picture.

The movie won the Best Picture and it's tone, period piece, approach made it a popular movie for a wide range of the population.

Great actors. Great movie. Fantastic Movie

Away From the World by The Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews has been putting out records yearly for over a decade. The band might well have released more live albums, certainly in such a short time, as any band this side of the Grateful Dead.

I have always been a fan and continue to be so. At certain times a little Dave Matthews grooving in the background is the perfect soundtrack to one's life.

Today the new album from DMB was released and I have already this morning given it a listen on Spotify. God Bless Spotify.

First and foremost we all know that ninety percent of Dave Matthews songs sound very similar. While almost artists have a niche there is something about Matthews voice that makes his niche deeper, at least seemingly so. What I also find that in the last several albums of original material Matthews has put out, there is no other way to say it, a good amount of filler has been present. This does not mean an album is not strong, and in fact I am sure the DMB heads that go to all the concerts treat, correctly for them, each new album as being sang from the mountaintop. However, for me, the last album that was overpoweringly strong was Everyday which had a depth of songs that made it a keeper. Around the same time Matthews released his first live album with Tim Reynolds, this album was original and excellent. I must admit with the five, six, seven, I am not sure live albums that have come since, it might just be too much, too many choices, nothing outside of covers of All Along the Watchtower and Down By The River are memorable. With Matthews it is almost as if he has double jeopardy. Not only does much of his material sound the same but there is just too damn much of it to feel over impressed with any of it.


The new album is, on first listen, not strong. As I listen the first promoted single Mercy is only average. Not a song I can see myself turning up, or stopping the channel search on XM radio for. Don't laugh, with all the choices we have if it is not a song that you stop for, or that when your thirteen daughter gets in the car and goes for the radio that you do not say " Wait I am listening to this song," if it is not a song like that then it is just not special. And this is the problem for Dave Matthews in general and this album in particular. It is totally forgettable.

One song, just one, on the album is of note. A song called Sweet has the trademark Matthews sound, acoustic, with high drawn out notes this is a fantastic song. That is it though, everything else will soon be in the dustbin. Perhaps for an artist with a catalog as deep as Mr. Matthews one new song to add to the concert list permanently is about right.

For me though thinking of songs like Ants Marching, Crash into Me and even more recently Grace is Gone, and the brilliant Gravedigger, this album has to be a significant disappointment.

Norma Rae

We celebrated Labor Day last Monday by watching one of the most famous labor movies made. Sally Field stars as Norma Rae Webster a textile mill worker in North Carolina. Norma Rae has two kids by two different men, has been married once and is not shy in anyway.

When we first see her in the textile mill in a gritty t shirt and hair up, sweat on her brow and sass on her lips it becomes quite a contrast to how she looks eight hours later when she answers the door to Sonny Webster and goes out with him. Field is stupendous in this role, she is Norma Rae in accent,tone, and bearing.

As she starts dating Sonny ( Beau Bridges) one day when he comes to pick her up for a date she presents her two children to join them. Nonplussed he returns to his house and picks up his young daughter to join them. He is, unbeknownst to Norma, a single father. After an earnest proposal expressing his desire for a good life, a shared life, Norma is married. As she says " it has been a long time between offers."

While Norma's relationship with her future husband is developing she has made friends with a union organizer from New York named Rueben Warshowsky. Rueben, played by Ron Leibman, who also is brilliant, is a fish out of water, a New York Jew in a Carolina mill town, but he believes in the union and is steadfast.

Norma is tired of the working conditions at the mill that have affected her, her friends and loved ones. Of course the bosses are portrayed as typical good old Southern boys who use all the methods available to keep the union from organizing.


The climatic scene in the movie is well known, Norma's silent vigil holding her union sign is one most of us have at least heard of.

It is said that Burt Reynolds, Field's live in at the time of the filming, read the script and said as he handed the script back to field " Ladies and Gentlemen the Oscar goes to Sally Field" He was prescient in this statement and it was well deserved.

This is not a pretty movie. It is grey and gritty with real characters struggling to maintain their dignity. It could be compared to The Grapes of Wrath in how well it portrays it's story of the downtrodden low skill worker in America.

A fantastic movie.

The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford

The third book in the Bascombe trilogy follows the pattern of the first two books. Earlier we have spent Easter and Independence Day with his character, this time we spend Thanksgiving weekend with Frank.

In the year 2000 as the disputed Presidential Election hangs in the balance Frank Bascombe has moved from Haddam, New Jersey to the shore in Sea Clift. He owns his own real estate office where, he admits, he has a cash machine that he does not have to work to hard at. Frank has a Tibetan American sales agent named Mike Mahoney, his daughter is home for the week after deciding that she is not a lesbian after all, and his son Paul,who we last saw struggling with emotional problems and occasionally barking like a dog, has moved to Kansas City where he writes greeting cards for Hallmark.

Franks second wife Sally who he married in the interim between books two and three has left him for her first husband, the same husband that she had declared dead after he disappeared when her children were young. Frank's first wife Anne is making noises about a reconciliation and the kids are coming to his house for a Thanksgiving feast he has arranged with an organic caterer.

Like all the books in this series we learn more about Frank's inner thoughts than perhaps any character we will ever meet in literature. It seems that Frank has the strongest internal dialogue of anyone ever met. What seemed odd in book one, and sometimes overbearing in book two ( which was the best received winning both the Penn Faulkner and the Pulitzer ) in this book seems of a perfect tone. Perhaps it is because the character has become like an old friend, one whose idiosyncrasies are not those that you would pick out but now embrace as part of the person you care about. One wonders if we have seen the end of Frank, looking at the arc of the stories and the obvious comparisons to the Updike Rabbit series it seems at least likely that we will see Frank as he moves on to the next world. I look forward to it.

This book, as Frank is older, shows him dealing in his mid fifties with prostate cancer and thus leads to many ruminations on death and acceptance of the changes in life that come with age. For me, perhaps, I see myself in Frank. He tries to be a straight up guy, he rarely if ever has any motive other than what is spoken and often wonders why people do not understand that. At the same time Frank has been around, he is a good judge of character and has been known to upset his loved ones by observations they ask for but would rather not hear. Of particular interest in this book is his relationship with his son Paul. Paul has found some level of success but the jury is still out on happiness. In the end Frank has to admit to himself that he loves his son, he wants him to prosper, but for whatever reason despite his best attempts he does not really understand his son. Not a day any parent wants to have but one many of us will have to come to grips with.

Like all parts of the " permanent period" as he calls it, this too involves realizing you have to let go of things that you cannot change so that those things do not consume you and your happiness.

The set of books in the series is now available in a Everyman's library addition. If you have three months of reading to spare and consider yourself a connoisseur of late twentieth century American literature you could perhaps find no series more relevant than the Bascombe books.

For me I see myself in Frank. I think the gift of Richard Ford is that perhaps we all can.

If I Was a Priest by Bruce Springsteen

A couple of weeks ago a Springsteen fan site tweeted out an old recording of this unreleased song. Interestingly I had just a week or so earlier read somewhere about Springsteen's original audition and the record company executive being stunned by the lyrics that Springsteen sang.

This song was the song that stunned the record man. Still the song never found it's way to an album. I guess even in 1973 Bruce had more material than he needed.

The lyrics in question? " If Jesus was the Sheriff and I was the priest, if my lady was an heiress and my mother was a thief." Certainly this was an indication of many of the songs to come, the characters like Blind Terry and the Rat that we would soon be meeting.

It was true in 1972 when he appeared, he was the next Dylan, and in 1974 when Jon Landau called him the future of rock and roll he was not wrong. He was more right than he could have ever imagined.

Find this song online. It is a masterpiece.

Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance by Patterson Hood

My affinity for The Drive By Truckers is well known. Therefore when I tell you that this solo record by lead singer Patterson Hood is wonderful you will not be surprised. I accept that I find many albums that I find worth raving about as excellent.

What is most interesting is the while 95 percent of new music is schlock, the five percent that is good is, in some cases, very good. With pop radio now an abyss of rap and tween acts one does have to work a little bit to find music worth hearing.

Fortunately one can find their way. Rolling Stone and NPR frequently give pre release streaming of recordings. In fact this album by Hood is currently being streamed by Rolling Stone.


The album is not a big stretch for Hood, not far from the Drive By persona, If anything, perhaps the music is a little softer, there are none of the loud, outlandish, drinking, bad boy, songs one often finds on a Drive By album. I do like those songs, Let There Be Rock is a scorcher. Still I think most of the fans of the Truckers would admit that it is the talk songs and the songs like Angels and Fuselage that keep us coming back. With this in mind Patterson Hood delivers in spades on this album.

" She's so sweet, she rots my teeth, every time I kiss her" is a memorable line from Better Off Without. That my friends is a pretty damn good line, not one you are going to hear on your hit radio station. The song is brilliant.

For those of us who put Three Alabama Icons as one of the highlights of Southern Rock Opera then another talk song is welcome. ( untold pretties ) is Hood talking about his reminiscences of growing up in Northern Alabama, the loss of his grandfather, the plan unknown even to the the protagonist of making an escape ending with the line " You cannot only carry Hell around so long before it's a drag." Again not a cookie cutter lyric. For those of us old enough to remember when REM was on top of the world Hood's voice recalls the talk song Belong they recorded in the nineties.

After the Damage is a pretty song in which he bemoans his lover leaving him, " after the baggage and babies." Some pretty strong backing vocals from Kelly Hogan highlight this song.

The title song is one you need to listen to on a Saturday afternoon before you start drinking or a Sunday morning after you have. With his sing drawl Patterson Hood can tell a story like few people in music. Hood tells how the " ghosts' in his old families house " are a comfort to him." We all have ghosts.

You are not going to hear a single from Patterson Hood but perhaps the most accessible song on the record is Come Back Little Star. Again featuring Hogan on backup vocals, Hood talks to a past lady friend " you always had a drink in your hand but your liver ain't what it used to be." Begging her to come back and take him with her and telling ' that the dreams we made leave him lying here lonely."

All in all this is as strong an album as you will hear this year. The singer's voice is unique, a cross between a drawl and a croak. He would get tossed off Idol for sure which goes to show that singing is about so much more than voice, something those shows often miss.

Listen. Learn. Love. Patterson Hood delivers a home run.

Why Geography Matters by Harm J. de Bilj

My oldest son shares my interest in politics, history and geography. With that last spring he signed up for an AP Human Geography course for this his Senior Year. The down side, at least for him, was an assignment for the summer to read this book.

Continuing my habit to read the books my children are assigned I picked this book up and read it as well.

The author, looking at his Amazon page seems to be quite an expert on the subject and he certainly is a strong advocate for the importance of Geography. As the book was written in 2007 he certainly feels that our government could have prevented much of the troubles of the Iraq War, especially the presumption that " we would be welcomed as liberators", if they had known more about the history and people of the religion.

It seems without doubt however that his political slant is a bit evident in the book. I do not have an issue with that, I do think, however, that having a slant, however slight, even if it is impossible not to, negates the effectiveness of this book as a textbook. That said I also think that one did not to be a human geography expert to know that we would not be welcomed as liberators.

The book was interesting. Sections on the growth of Europe under the European union, more people live in that union than in the United States, to be from England to Russia's Western doorstep. Also of note the question of further expansion into countries such as Turkey.

China is a major subject. I did not think this was addressed as well. Certainly anyone keeping up with the world knows that China and our relationship with China is perhaps the most important in the world. Still, at least for me, there was no information here and nothing that was revelatory.

The highlight of the book, the strongest section, was on global warming. Perhaps my fifth grade project on the planets set me up to have this interest but I am always fascinated by lessons which examine the physical size of the Earth and the solar system. Throw in measures of time and I am usually on the hook. What the author does in this section however is point out that while Global Warming is real one might want to be very careful about assuming it is man made and that even if it is man caused or man accelerated perhaps our interest in it is clouding a more important discussion.

What might be more important than global warming. Global Cooling. what he points out is climate wise we are still in, get this, an Ice Age. For the last million years we have been an Ice Age. Ice Ages, however, are not all cold. There are periods called Glacial and Interglacial. In the Interglacial periods the temperature warms for about ten thousand years. It was during an earlier interglacial that the ancestors of man moved out of Africa. It was also during an interglacial that the population of man shrunk by over ninety percent as a result of the end of an interglacial period. We know this shrinking of the population, or bottleneck as it is called, happened several times from our DNA. I earlier wrote of a book I read on that subject.

Interestingly the author points out that the ascent of man has occurred completely in this Interglacial which might well be nearing its end. How do we know. After every episode of global warming the earth in this million year epoch has retreated to a glacial period. In a sense global warming is dangerous, but more so because at the end end of that period ice and cold awaits us. It will not affect you and me, this cold period, but it is an example of how self indulgent to our importance we are that humans do not realize the infinitesimal time we have been important on the Earth.

This section alone makes the book stand out. I found it to be fascinating. I do believe in Global Warming, I think this book shows however that like most subjects, there is alot more to it than just the platitudes and lip service that is spoken.

Keith Urban in Concert

My wife and I went to see Keith Urban last Saturday night at the Bangor Waterfront. We have gone to many shows that I was interested in, it was an easy decision to go see Keith Urban one of my wife;s favorites.

I cannot say that I was on pins and needles for the show but certainly by the time Saturday evening came around I was looking forward to the show.

When we arrived at the show we noted that the previous night's full moon was still shining bright this night. The opening act was a fellow named David Niall that my wife was familiar with, some of the songs were identifiable as hits based on the crowd reaction.

The crowd was energetic and excited. A great deal of young college age girls, high school girls, and women too old to be dressed the way they were. I joked to my wife that one wonders if these, truthfully very pretty young ladies, thought that Keith might offer them a date that night if they looked extra good. Urban took the stage and I have to admit here and now that I do not know a great deal of his songs. I have not paid much attention to country music over the last couple of years.

Still I did find out in watching the show that Urban can truly play the guitar very well. He did play the song Stupid Boy, a song I am a fan of, that features a good bit of guitar work.

The show was fine but I think what it is most important to talk about here is the way Mr. Urban treats his audience. Which was absolutely incredible. Many musicians speak well of their fans, many claim to love them and appreciate them, however I have never seen a musician be as thoughtful as Keith Urban was.

During the show Urban brought up some young girls to have a picture taken with him, he went into the crowd a few times, at one point giving his guitar to a young girl. He had a sing along during the song " I Want To Kiss a Girl" in which he brought up four folks to sing with him and engage in a singing contest. Anyone who was at the show will not soon forget the wild man. a fellow named Ryan, that he brought on stage with him. Frankly I do not think that Mr. Urban will be forgetting his visit to Maine and his new friend Ryan.

In introducing his band members he lets them each take the stage and sing a bit of a song. After hearing the three folks sing With or Without You, American Girl, and It's A Long Way to the Top ( from AC/DC) makes clear that Urban owes more to the classic rock of Tom Petty than to the traditional country of years past.

As the show ended and my wife were filing our way out I was surprised to see the members of the band, including Urban, on stage posing for pictures ten minutes after the show ended. They were speaking to individuals until, it seemed, that most folks ( in the pit) that wanted to say a word or touch a hand received an opportunity to do so.

I can take or leave the music though I think Urban has a strong sense of what makes a hit and continues to put some vibrant guitar effort into all his music. For me, however, what is the most important thing to remember is that Keith Urban, married to a movie star, has a strong sense of how lucky he is and how important it is to show genuine gratitude to the people, his fans, who make him successful.

Urban convinced me. A good singer, a great performer, a better person.

Engines of Change by Paul Ingrassia

Paul Ingrassia made his name as a journalist writing primarily on the auto industry. His most recent book is called Engines of Change. In this book Ingrassia tells the tale of America in the story of fifteen cars.

The author points out that this is not a list of the most successful cars but the cars that in one way or another had a major impact on society.

Any story about cars in America has to begin with Henry Ford and the Model T. Ford invented the assembly line in the production of his cars, created the five dollar a day wage, and also, importantly, year by year lowered the price of his cars to make them more affordable. Today when we see technology such as flat screens, computers, and the like and their prices go down lower and lower we can remember Henry Ford.

The proliferation of tailfins in the 1950's, the Corvette, the Corvair and the rise of Ralph Nader, Lee Iacocca, Hayley Earl, John Delorean, the Mustang and the Minivan are all discussed in their own chapters.

Well written, filled with interesting pieces of information, the infatuation with cars and how integral cars are to the American experience, indeed our national psyche, this is a very good book.