Shakin' the Shirt

So, I have a thing tomorrow where I have to be dressed kind of formally. I think I'm going to go with this black dress shirt with a kind of plaid design. I know, I know, wearing black when it's hot can be bad. But this shirt is lightweight, but you also can't see through it, which can be a plus.

It feels good to have an occasion to dress up. Practice for all those cocktail parties coming up, perhaps.

Q-bomb?

Last night I watched The Mouse that Roared. This is a political farce featuring a doomsday weapon and Peter Sellers in three separate roles, and almost certainly wouldn't be the first movie you think of based on that description. There's a reason for that, although in all fairness this one came first.

In brief summation, the Duchy of Fenwick's economy is based on the export of a distinctive kind of wine. California has started producing a knockoff, messing up the racket. The prime-minister has the idea of invading the US, starting a war, and losing it, in the belief that losing a war to America is the key to prosperity. (Based on a rather oversimplified history of postwar Germany, no doubt.) The plan is complicated by the fact that the US has evacuated the East Coast due to the testing of a new super-powerful bomb. When the invasion force arrives in New York there's no one to surrender to, and they inadvertently end up winning.

There are a few problems here. The nuclear scientist's daughter, played by Jean Seberg, has to fall in love with the invasion leader, one of the characters played by Sellers, when he takes her and her hostage as hostages. This romance is unmotivated at best, kind of unfortunate at worst. And while director Jack Arnold had quite a few films under his belt, including The Incredible Shrinking Man, let's just say he's no Stanley Kubrick. There's a lot of meandering in the movie, during which the comedy goes flat.

Still, points for being ahead of the curve in some ways. There's a good cast here too, including William Hartnell a few years before Doctor Who and Leo McKern a number of years before Rumpole of the Bailey.

Feeling gravity's pull

Is there context here beyond what you can see? Oh yes. Watterson was doing something of a serial here, which owes a little to Little Nemo in Slumberland. But in a way you don't need that. Calvin's cycle of panic-inspiration-different "uh-oh" is, well...You do recognize the feeling, don't you?

Big Heads

One book I'm reading currently is The Enigmas of Easter Island by John Flenley and Paul Bahn. As you might guess, the presence on Easter Island of the imposing moai is a big reason for my interest.

Flenley and Bahn spend a lot of time discussing Thor Heyerdahl's theory that Easter Island was colonized from South America. They don't put a lot of stock in it, and if there's a consensus it seems to be that the Rapa Nui people are ultimately Polynesian.

Still, there's a lot of mystery about where their culture ultimately comes from. Due to the nature of the ocean currents surrounding it, Easter Island is difficult to get to by boat. The people had a lot of time on their own. They worked to survive in a place with a rather limited ecology, and they dreamed. Their myths became something new.

Melodic

Today I was waiting for a bus with a woman and her daughter. The daughter, you could see if you looked closely, had Down syndrome. Does that have anything to do with this story? I'm not sure, which is why I'm just leaving that detail here.

The bus wasn't really late. If there's a day the bus is going to be late, Sunday ain't it. But they didn't necessarily know that. The daughter was getting antsy. The thing is, while she was impatient about it, she had a charming way of being impatient.She was rocking back and forth, singing something like "Bus please get here, bus please get here." There are lots of times when people vocally freaking about the bus being late annoys me, because obviously that's not going to help. But there was just something so disarming about this child, something sort of joyful. When the bus did make it self visible I turned to them and said, "Must have heard you."

The long and short of it

It might seem weird. At night during the summer it feels right to be wearing shorts. Part of that is heat and humidity, of course. But it can be hot and humid during the day. After all, heat comes from the sun. But earlier in the day it just feels like long pants time. Not so much at the end of the day.

Hey, I said weird, not interesting.

A fulfilling day

Candy shop / Stop motion short film from Nimble Puppets on Vimeo.

One thing I enjoy about stop motion animation is that I know it's based on something, built on something. The filmmakers slow down a little, interact with their creations in a tactile way.

That seems to be, at least in part, the theme of this short about a little gentleman confectioner. I enjoy his satisfied snooze at the end.

Biggest fan

This is a good night to have a ceiling fan. In my living room I have one. It's on at top speed now. I can tell it's quite hot still, but it doesn't affect me as much.

Both that and the box fan in my bedroom make soothing sounds. It's technically not white noise, but it can serve a similar purpose.

Bear with me here...

The saying that "Tomorrow is another day," is meant to be hopeful. You can change, you can do something different tomorrow. And it is uplifting.

Of course by that time "tomorrow" is "today." And I don't think I'm alone in feeling more limited today.

I think it would be good to keep a "tomorrow" attitude "today" so that you can act freely, not be locked in. That's something I'd like to do.

Maybe tomorrow.

ETA: Will y'all be around Tuesday morning or Wednesday morning or afternoon? You know who you are. :)

Cutthroat

From Bedside Book of Bad Girls: Outlaw Women of the American West by Michael Rutter

Sheriff Watson interviewed the vigilantes, all six of whom admitted to the lynching. Perhaps they thought it wouldn't be a problem; hanging a male rustler, after all, was something the law often forgave. The six cattlemen were, moreover, respected ranchers and businessmen, members of the powerful Wyoming Stock Growers Association (WSGA). What they didn't realize, though, was that hanging a woman - no matter what her crime - was almost unthinkable to most in the West. Each of the vigilantes was required to post a $5,000 bond, a hefty sum in that day.

For context, the woman hanged was small but successful rancher Ellen Watson, posthumously known as "Cattle Katie." Her husband Jim Averell was killed as well.

This was a lynching through and through. The cattlemen accused Watson and Averell of cattle rustling. She vehemently denied it. No evidence was presented either way. It's hard to tell if her rivals even believed their own accusations or if this was a thinly veiled power play on their part. If the latter, it was even more morally bankrupt than it sounds.

To make things worse, they got away with it. Thanks to witnesses being intimidated, none in the group were ever convicted. If this incident proved anything, it wasn't anything good.

Blue period

Such a time.

I'm at a time in my life when I'd like to do right by the people I love. But I know I'm not. And I'm hoping to change that, but I'm hoping to change a lot of things. I have to believe that things will get better, but they're taking their time.

Of course it also seems like it doesn't really matter what I want. So I don't know.

Oenology

I have a friend.

No, it's not one of those "see, I have this friend who has this problem" stories. Nor is it entirely a story.

This friend has a few hobbies. Among them is wine making. As far as I know it's just a hobby, in that he hasn't tried making a living at it. It's a competitive field, I'm sure, and you need resources to do it on a certain scale, resources I'd guess he doesn't have.

He's cooked up something that mixes peppercorns and cinnamon into the ferment. I got a taste of it tonight. Tastes a little like a wine that a few Valentine's cinnamon heart candies have been melted into. Not too sweet, though. A tasty versatile drink.

Cocoa channel

I just watched Merci pour le Chocolat, a low-key but intense French/Swiss thriller that's called Nightcap in the English speaking world. Don't know why. "Thanks for the chocolate" sounds plenty catchy to me. It's directed by Claude Chabrol, known as the biggest Hitchcock fan among the French New Wave. It shows. He's actually influenced by Hitch, whereas Brian de Palma has always seemed more influenced by TV. Not that there's anything wrong with that, necessarily.

It's kind of a cat and mouse game played between a young conservatory student; an older musician who might be her father, which for reasons delineated in the film no one can quite know for sure; and his wife, an executive in her family's chocolate business. This last is played by Isabelle Huppert, who's worked in Hollywood and looks a little like a redheaded Jessica Lange.

The camera is always moving, and does so in a conscious, directed way. The color palette is muted, the way European and especially Francophile films tend to be. Even in the poshest scenes you want to check for water damage. But in one scene Huppert turns the light out at night, wide awake, and the space around her remains bright. This is a very Old Hollywood expressionist touch.

7/4

There were, of course, fireworks tonight. In the past, I've often gone down the hill to see them from a closer vantage point. But that requires putting on shoes and socks as well as doing the walking. Tonight that just wasn't going to happen. No, this heat was made for me hanging about barefoot in mangy shorts.

Still did see some of the fireworks. It's just they had to pass a higher threshold first. The ones I saw did look nice.

A tiger in your tank

Fred Rogers has not been forgotten, what with a new documentary out in theaters. This is a lovely little clip, revealing that the whole matter of using puppets - a defining feature of his show - was more or less a happy accident.

Daniel Striped Tiger was always a special character for me. It's hard to articulate exactly why. I think it has something to do with the juxtaposition of an archetypically fierce and fearsome animal with a bashful personality. We all contain multitudes.