Deep Something

Work has been hectic, and I had to work all last weekend. I was traveling this week to Washington, D.C., and had an interesting meeting there at the Pentagon. But now, here’s something to watch that is just plain fun.

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Sunday evening the BBC, on their Proms show, celebrated the 80th birthday of Stephen Sondheim. There are several good videos of performances from the show, and while Send in The Clowns isn’t one of my favorite Sondheim songs, it is Judy Dench, and I just don’t know anyone with more class. And below is the very funny take on Everybody Ought To Have A Maid.

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Two teenaged children conceived by artificial insemination get the notion to seek out their birth father and introduce him into the family life that their two mothers have built for them. Once the donor is found, the household will never be the same, as family ties are defined, re-defined, and then re-re-defined. This was an excellent movie which I highly recommend with some caveats.

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Dom Cobb is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb’s rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible — inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming.

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Okay, maybe it’s a little sappy, but it was a great book, and I teared up at a few parts when I read it all these years ago, but it is uplifting music. This is the song from when Johnathon finally figures out the trick for flying as he wants. Who wouldn’t want to soar with him.

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I was messing around on YouTube the other day. Don’t ask why, but I happened to think about Johnathan Livingston Seagull. As you might imagine, the music all on YouTube. I haven’t thought about this for so many years, and can’t imagine what brought it to my mind, but I do still enjoy it. So over the next few weeks, I’ll post one every once in a while.

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Jonah Hex is a scarred drifter and bounty hunter of last resort, a tough and stoic gunslinger who can track down anyone… and anything. Having survived death, Jonah’s violent history is steeped in myth and legend, and has left him with one foot in the natural world and one on the “other side.” His only human connection is with Lila, whose life in a brothel has left her with scars of her own. Jonah’s past is about to catch up with him when the U.S. military makes him an offer he can’t refuse: in exchange for his freedom from the warrants on his head, he must track down and stop the dangerous terrorist Quentin Turnbull. But Turnbull, who is gathering an army and preparing to unleash Hell, is also Jonah’s oldest enemy and will stop at nothing until Jonah is dead.

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I had to follow with the question mark. I love this country and principles on which it was founded, but we’ve moved so far from that. People wrap themselves in the flag and take up the name Christian, and then go out to preach hate. We no longer care for on another with commentators thinking its funny to tell hungry children to go look in dumpsters for food. American Ministers go to Africa to encourage African governments to adopt bills that invoke the death penalty for homosexuality. We fouled our air and soiled our beaches…maybe destroyed an entire ocean.

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The true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, Francois Pienaar, to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa’s underdog rugby team as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match.

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Visitors to the Reading Terminal Market Italian Festival got an authentic Italian treat back in April. Over 30 members of the cast of the Philadelphia Opera’s production of La Traviata slipped into the market in street clothes. They swung into action when the music for the famous “Brindisi” started playing through the markets public address system. Hundreds of shoppers got a wonderful surprise performance of one of the rousing pieces from Verdi to along with their Italian Market shopping.

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This past weekend was rather busy around this household. The biggest event was Sunday when we had our niece’s 4th birthday party here at the house. Saturday night we attended the Una Voce Florida Men’s Chorale concert. The concert title was “Harmonia Mundi” or music of the world. After the concert, we went over and picked up the nephews to spend the night. Whew! As soon as everyone left Sunday and all the trash was stashed, I sat down in my favorite chair, and was out light like a light for about two hours.

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Michael Oher, a homeless African-American youngster from a broken home, is taken in by the Touhys, a well-to-do white family who help him fulfill his potential. At the same time, Oher’s presence in the Touhys’ lives leads them to some insightful self-discoveries of their own. Living in his new environment, the teen faces a completely different set of challenges to overcome. As a football player and student, Oher works hard and, with the help of his coaches and adopted family, becomes an All-American offensive left tackle.

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An epic post-apocalyptic tale of the survival of a father and his young son as they journey across a barren America that was destroyed by a mysterious cataclysm. It imagines a future in which men are pushed to the worst and the best that they are capable of — a future in which a father and his son are sustained by love.

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I’ve been busy, and less than motivated lately when it comes to posting, but I want to get back in the groove. So look for some upcoming movie reviews and a new series called, “Say It To My Face.”

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Last Fall, during the unfortunately successful campaign to repeal Marriage Equality in Maine, 86 year old WWII Veteran Phillip Spooner stood before a packed hall and delivered a stirring call for equality to a Senate Committee. When asked by a woman at his polling place if he supported equal rights for gay and lesbian people. He tells how surprised he was to even be asked, and said his response was, “What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach?” His statement was subsequently set to music by Melissa Dunphy, and was selected as the winning work for the 2010 Simon Carrington Chamber Singers Composition Competition.

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D. C. Douglas lost his gig as the voice-over announcer for Geico commercials after leaving a rather nasty message on the voice mail for the Teabagger group known as FreedomWorks. This is a hilarious satirical video about their reaction to his message, and calls out the Teabagger for what it actually is…an astro-turf, Koch Industry’s funded front group which has managed to get people to vote against their own best interests in support of big corporations.

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“Robin Hood” chronicles the life of an expert archer, previously interested only in self-preservation, from his service in King Richard’s army against the French. Upon Richard’s death, Robin travels to Nottingham, a town suffering from the corruption of a despotic sheriff and crippling taxation, where he falls for the spirited widow Lady Marion, a woman skeptical of the identity and motivations of this crusader from the forest. Robin Hood delivers what it promises. Solid action, good narrative, and the inclusion of a bit of history with action between England and France gives the movie an added meat and almost realistic feel to it. The dialog is a bit ropey at times, and Robin’s “merry men” could have had a bit more screen time, but otherwise i see no major fault with this movie.

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n the 1960s a group of 8 rogue DJs on a boat in the middle of the Northern Atlantic, played rock records and broke the law all for the love of music. The songs they played united and defined an entire generation and drove the British government crazy. By playing rock ‘n roll they were standing up against the British government who did everything in their power to shut them down.

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Let me direct. Skip this movie and watch the 1981 Harry Hausen version of the movie. It’s much better. Remakes tend to be very good, or be epic failures, and this was an epic failure. This film tears to shreds the “Perseus vs. Medusa” myth and replaces it with mindless power chord progressions, endless action sequences, and a trivialized view of the Greek gods.

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I’ve been trying to get a copy for some years now. Sean Chapin has finally put it in a video, and now the secret is out. While Betty Bowers disclosed a version of the Gay Agenda a while back, I think this video version is a more accurate portrayal of what those nasty boys are up to.

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