FishbowlLA has a regular feature called “20 Questions,“ and today the person answering is….um…me. So if you’re dying for deep info about my choice of ring tone, my most memorable brushes with the law, and my secret desire to be a torch singer…. CLICK HERE IMMEDIATELY!
If you don’t care what I think my TiVO thinks about me, then avoid clicking and keep on with our regularly scheduled programming. (But where’s the fun in that???)
You would have good reason to be wary of sober policemen anywhere in Guatemala. I encountered a rather obnxious one in Melchior de Mencos near the border with Belize. I can’t imagine encountering a drunken one!
Question number 7, by the way, is precisely why I read your site.
[Hit post too soon]
BTW, Felicia Pierson has a book out now.
Two questions –
Which “you” does John Goodman play ? (OT – I thought that “I’m Not There” was brilliant in conception but remarkably uneven in delivery. The “folk-era” section totally reminded me of “A Mighty Wind” – which I doubt was Haynes’ intent. Best parts – for me – were the Woody kid and the surreal world of the “Basement Tapes” album cover, with Blanchett’s Chemical Bob a very close third. Blanchett was superb, but it got a bit too involved in faithfully recreating stuff better seen in the documentaries. The Heath Ledger segment was notable solely for Charlotte Gainsbourg – who’s a dreadful singer but a compelling actress. But what a ballsy attempt at a biopic. Haynes deserves major kudos just for trying.)
And did the way the end of “No Country” was dealt work for you ? For me it reeked a bit too much of the Sopranos’ ending. Using Tommy Lee’s rap about the dream was fine (god he was brilliant), but I felt it should have been handled it a bit differently, just so the viewer didn’t feel like they were being screwed with. (I thought that they forgot to change reels until the credits came up. I hadn’t read the book but I immediately bought it and read the last pages first just to confirm that the print I was watching hadn’t been damaged and the story was reasonably intact. Maybe it’s a minor quibble, because I mostly objected to the clearly deliberate – and to me pointlessly abrupt – cut to black, more than the substance.)
Celeste, you and I have something in common! We both first check our email in the morning! From there, things go down hill.
However, I do love research, too. When I was a kid and had to do a report on, say, an aardvark, I would get the “A” volume of the World Book Enclyclopedias and read about the subject and then read the rest of the book. I just don’t like doing the work of documenting my views for people who demand links for information that they should know or are capable of researching themselves.
I like Diane Keaton. Can you believe that the person in the Woody Allen movies is the same one in The Godfather?
My theme song is “Born to be Wild.” Typical accountant.
“From there, things go down hill.”
Obviously not for her…
reg, do you listen to The O’Reilly Factor to get the word of the day? Admit it. That’s where you learned “internecine.”
I have to say that list of twenty questions was pretty pathetic. If someone asked me to name a unicorn, I’d stop right there.
Now, a question like, “Do you really smoke cigars?” makes sense.
How about “What is your view on the current BCS arrangement to determine the national college football champion and how would you change it if you could?” (By including So. Cal. or Notre Dame is an automatic disqualification.) That’s would you would hear discussed at a conservative party–not O’Bama.
RP, cool about the Felicia Pearson book. Thanks for the heads up. It looks worth reading to get the details of her story. It’s remarkable how similar the details of these kind of stories of redemption from a life on the street usually are, and how rarely our public policy reflects what we know about what works in terms of helping people change their lives.
Reg, I have no idea why John Goodman seemed like such an obvious choice. Probably something peculiar having to do with his character in Barton Fink shrieking “I’ll show you the life of the mind.”
About “No County…” I never finished McCarthy’s book because I found the characters, with the exception of the sheriff, to be so relentlessly and self-consciously unsympathetic, and the violence so unremitting. I think it works much better as a film. Plus the Coen’s were smart enough to use big chunks of McCarthy’s exquisite dialogue.
Yet, I liked the end because it felt entirely truthful. With violence there is no emotional wrap up. There will always be the next time—unless you leave the work behind. There’s no resolution in the world, only personal resolution and that is often an uneasy one. As Ellis, the uncle character that Sheriff Bell visits in the end says, “You can’t stop what’s coming. It ain’t all waiting on you. That’s vanity.â€Â
In nearly 18 years of reporting on gang violence, I’ve known a lot of people who were killed, and a fair amount of shooters. The worst person I ever met in all that time, a true ice-cold sociopath who committed the most gruesome of murders, is still at large. I just heard about him being around again recently. Local law enforcement have almost come to view him as a mythological gargoyle, or Elvis, with rumors of unlikely sightings turning up everywhere.
And one of the most brutal murders I know of, the beating death of a wonderful young man whom I cared about whose girlfriend I was very close to, remains unsolved although many people know who did it. They could never in a million years come forward or their lives and families would be at risk. (It wasn’t a gang murder per se.)
And for all these awful things that go on every day, it isn’t a dark world; it’s more often than not a humane and human one. Yet, that’s a conclusion we must each come to personally. Much of what goes on every day all around us would seem to mitigate against it.
There are so many intriguing pieces that make up the end of the movie. The boys refusing to accept money for the shirt. The fact that Chigurh kills Carla Jean but can’t do it without being forced to make the choice himself. The visit to the uncle. The dream, dealing with mortality.
The ending reminds me of a fragment of a poem by Jane Hirshfield:
So few grains of happiness
measured against all the dark
and still the scales balance.
Don’t know if that explains anything of my POV, but it’s the best I can do on a work day.
Great take on the film – I agree that the lack of a more dramatic resolution was, aside from its fidelity to the text, appropriate. I guess the problem for me was simply that the last cut felt so stark and jarring that it drew me away from contemplating what I’d just heard as “the final word” to wondering what the hell had happened and if it was supposed to.
I also love the idea of John Goodman somehow denoting the importance of “the life of the mind.” (As opposed to, uh, cheeseburgers.)
I thought “A Mighty Wind” was a description of Woody’s rhetorical conceits.
This web site reminds me of “Blazing Saddles.” Partly because of the presence of bean eating liberals, but mainly for another reason.
In Blazing Saddles, they have the fight between the townspeople and the outlaws near the end that spills over into another studio. (Throw out your hands. / Stick out your tush.) Now, the fights from Marc Cooper’s site have spilled over into this production.
Actually I’m reminded of “Young Frankenstein.” Or maybe “Springtime for Hitler”
Most comments threads on even the best blogs are pretty strange, but I have to say that this blog is one of the best I’ve seen. It’s focused, passionate, informed, well-written and isn’t a smug xerox of whatever is making the rounds on most liberal political blogs on a given day. Kudos. Would that the comments threads more consistently met the standard set by the host…mine included.
Thanks, reg. Made my day.
Celeste, in your interview, you said you don’t have a “Theme Songâ€Â, well I plan on researching this and posting a few songs, which I feel captures your essence. I would also suggest others do the same; this is something even Woody may agree with. I now know you enjoy Bruce Springsteen, Tom Wait and Johnny Cash and once charmed the King of Jordan. (Great story by the way)
One of my favorite songs is “Me and Bobby McGeeâ€Â, most folks know Janis Joplin’s version of the song, but many artist have their version of the song. Here is a newer version by Pink, which passes the song along to another generation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsoxuKhYZeY
I can’t resist tweaking Woody’s beak, so I will suggest a new theme song for Woody, also by Pink. (Wow, it has over 5 million views) Caution this song may be offensive to Bush loving conservatives!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eDJ3cuXKV4
Yeah, I like I’m going to respect the Hollywood & rockstar left as if they had any brains to be political analysts.
(This post completely cracked me up. Now that I think about it, I think what my life is definitely missing is a theme song. I welcome all suggestions.)
L.A. Res, “Me and Bobby McGee” has long been a favorite of mine. Kristofferson is a great songwriter. I never thought I’d hear a version of it that could rival Janis’s. But Pink blows the doors off the room.
With these two videos you’ve just made me a fan. She’s amazing. In addition the politics of “Dear Mr. President,” (which as a pinko, Bush-hating liberal, I happen to agree with) it’s a beautifully crafted song. I’m also a sucker for whiskey altos (Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda Williams et al.)
Awesome Q&A. I love it! Can’t wait to hang out Thursday.
Glad to see that you’re a fan of The Wire. I have mixed emotions on the start of the final season 1/6/08.
My ringtone is Killer Joe by the Benny Golson/Art Farmer Jazztet.
BTW, here’s my celebrity story. In 1981-82 I was working for a lecture agency and one of our clients was Simon Wiesenthal. I sat in the back seat with him from 40th & Park Avenue to CW Post College on Long Island. He gave an incredible speech and my boss said, “Simon, you were terrific to the very end!”
To which he responded, “Yes, that’t what the girls used to tell me!”
I was too stunned to laugh.
One of my passions and hobbies for many years is music. I started collecting albums (keep them in plastic wrap) way back in junior high school. Today I have accumulated over 2,500 albums and CDs. Now thanks to the computer age and the Internet, I also have about 500 GB of mp3 songs. Here are a couple of my favorite Italian singers who also sing in Spanish and English. Love and Romance songs in Spanish are so much better than in English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1CqOkueYnM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrgYlGWj9Qg
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