'Cause it's Summer

Summertime is....heeeere. Yes, it's Summer, my time of year. So mad dogs (and Englishmen) can go out in the noon-day sun and enjoy themselves, as Smokey (pictured here) obviously does, leaning on our slopey lawn soakin' up the rays. Get that dog some Foster Grants, because he's squinting.

Another sure sign of Summer--I drove by the Military-Town's 3-plex today and they're showing "Spiderman 3," "Shrek 3," and "Pirates of the Caribbean 3" in their three theaters. Three three's is almost a full house, but it's still a pretty "iffy" hand.

K.'s home, and I'm doing freelance...I've managed to get a bunch of chores accomplished before her return. The bathtub's rust spots have been painted with a fine enamel paint. The big, heavy tile table has been repaired, and ready to be moved to the corner of the deck. The lawn is mowed, and a little bit of trimming of a side bush has stabilized the satellite reception--for now. And we have nice, neat pavers to climb the slope in front of the shed to the front door (I've been getting tired of the near-occasion of tripping on errant rockery), which Smokey manages to leap in a single bound. More wood needs to be cut (and a roof should be put on the crib to replace the tarp). The big rounds on the lawn need to be moved (rolled, really--they're much too heavy to lift) to a more flat area for some "bucking"next month. And we really should get on with putting a set of cupboard doors in front of the half-water heater (which is working like a champ).

The eagles are tending to the nesting duties a block away. The whales seem to have moved on--haven't heard/seen them in a couple of weeks, but we have a new, more frequent visitor: a hummingbird (who we've heard criss-crossing the property, sounding like a speeded-up version of George Jetson's car) makes frequent and thorough pit-stops to the new fuchsia hanging over the deck. Fu is fascinated by it when it appears, but for most of the time, she's content with travelling from sun-patch to sun-patch, punctuated by her inimitable squawling yowl for food. She's 22 (or 23). And she's dependable enough to take sojourns outside in the sun, while Smokey hovers near-by to make sure she stays out of trouble.

Movie-wise I haven't seen a thing--I'm conserving funds while still sending out resumes. There are signs of hope (or A sign of hope), and hopefully the log-jam will break soon.

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I have seen a couple of things on video:

The Pianist (Roman Polanski, 2002): I've been avoiding this like the plague, because when you get home the last thing you want to see is a "holocaust" movie. But since our current Net-flicks choices are "The Pianist" or "The Constant Gardener," its a bit easier to choose which of the two depressions you want to take on. We went with "Pianist," and I regret putting it off. Yes, it's about the Warsaw Ghetto. But it's also a terrific adventure/survival movie about a man used to the rarefied world of the arts being forced to make life and death choices in order to survive. That its a true story (about pianist Władysław Szpilman) makes it even more remarkable and a testament to one's will to live. But its also one of Roman Polanski's best films--a straight ahead artful telling of the tale without blandishments or Polanski's usual tendency to throw in some frivolous garbage that devalues the piece. Adrien Brody is simply amazing in it (but "Man Alone" movies tend to bring out the best in actors--anyone remember Dr. Hang S. Noor in "The Killing Fields?"), slowly losing the detached look in his eyes as his situation worsens and worsens. One can't help but flash on current events and how a populace can be fooled into thinking "But they wouldn't dare...." Give someone enough power, and they'll dare anything. With enough power, who's going to stop them? Well worth seeing so don't be scared by it.

Cars (John Lasseter, Joe Ranft, 2006) I finally checked out Pixar's "Cars"--I wasn't in too much of a hurry to see it because the critics called it a step downward for the studio. But they're wrong. Perhaps they were WANTING it to be a step downward, or they couldn't get into the anthropomorphization required to settle into the movie, but one can say that about all of Pixar's output. This one is just as charming, and the work done to bring everything to shimmering life is amazing--these folks jump the bar with every movie they make, and the rubberized moves of the various cars is pretty ingenious. The nostalgia for the open road that permeates the movie may be way over the heads of the kids in the audience, but "Cars" succeeds in telling its story well and charmingly so. And this time, Pixar throws in a bit more music and panache to make things work on more than a surface level. Well worth watching.

Little Children (Todd Field, 2006) One I've been wanting to see but avoiding. Again, bad decision. Todd Field has the spirit of Kubrick in him (Field, as an actor, worked on "Eyes Wide Shut" and Kubrick subjected him to "the drill" about his first film, "In the Bedroom"--"Why do you want to make that? What can you bring to it? How can you tell your story more compellingly? Is it worth doing, though?")--but Fields, is a far looser director, and with a much more sure sense of humor, though it was missing in "Bedroom." That razor-like humor helps in this story of a neighborhood not coping well with a convicted sex offender in their midst (he's a flasher). Everyone is on the critical edge of everyday panic and with an aversion to complacency, so everyone seems determined to see how far they can push the envelope before things come crashing around their ears. There is an air of clinical observation to the film that is cruel and humorous, though, for the characters portrayed, everything is of deadly earnest and has complex consequences. And its use of Will Lyman is brilliant. Uniformly the cast is excellent with Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson (he had the least showy role in HBO's "Angels in America" as the closeted conservative), Jennifer Connelly (restrained and never better), and particularly Jackie Earle Haley as the flasher. Absent from movies for years, Haley now has a cadaverous look like he's being consumed from the inside, and his beady-eyed pressurized work keeps you on pins and needles. He and Winslet received the lion's share of accolades at awards-time last year, but the film itself should have received more attention...certainly more than "The Departed" did. Todd Field is a guy to watch.

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Am I going to the Seattle International Film Festival? Nah! I haven't gone in years, and I wouldn't go unless there was a program on Welles or Kubrick--one of my deep regrets is not attending the SIFF premiere of "Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures" with a post-screening Q & A with his familt members. Oh, and there's a twinge that I didn't go see "OSS-117: Nest of Spies" last year--from the previews it looked like a hilarious deconstruction of the Terence Young James Bond films. But that's about it. I can't stand the lines. I can't stand the inconvenience--despite them constantly expanding the venues. And I can't stand the audiences. If a film doesn't fit the tightly constructed set of values held by the supposedly tolerant liberal SIFF audiences, the film is hissed and booed. I find that as annoying as talking during a movie. Laughter? Great. Tears? Sure! But the expression of your narrow political opinion...when you've bought a ticket? Go make a sign and picket outside, like the rest of the cranks. I mean, "boo/hiss" is pretty silent-movie era. Makes you wish there were crying rooms at SIFF.

The worst example from my many years of attendance was the premiere of "Blood Simple"--the first Coen brothers movie. There was a Q & A after the show, and one audience member shouted out "Why so much blood?" Joel Coen looked a little perplexed and said, "Gee, with that kind of injuring, it's what you'd expect, and, really, the story demanded it." "BULLSHIT!" shouted the questioner. Yeah. Whatever. Make your own damn movie. Premier it at SIFF, and I won't go see that, either.