Paul Newman

Cool Hand Luke at home preparing eggs
number 51 and 52 for his wife,
Joanne.

cyber party a go-go

No better way to warm up to an invitation to the dance than with Mohammed Rafi's buoyant Jaan Pehechaan Ho, from the soundtrack of the endearing and hysterical Ghost World...



...and I'll arrive in black mask with none other than that fetching no-nonsense misfit, Thora Birch:


Faster, Baby, faster faster!....

"I never planned nothin' in my life"

A lesson in life, really, learned from Lucas Jackson, the ultimate vagabond passing time on a chain gang, played by the great actor and philanthropist Paul Newman, in Cool Hand Luke, my favorite of his films.

One of subjects I've written about before, on how the true joy in life blooms from the things we have no power over, nor really plan.

Well, anyway, it's the first thing that came to mind this quiet morning upon hearing the news of the passing of Mr. Newman. He was a natural born world-shaker, to paraphrase Dragline from Cool Hand Luke.

Other films of his I treasure and highly recommend are Hud, The Sting, The Verdict, and The Hustler.

autumn

I am the autumnal sun
by Henry David Thoreau

Sometimes a mortal feels in himself Nature
-- not his Father but his Mother stirs
within him, and he becomes immortal with her
immortality. From time to time she claims
kindredship with us, and some globule
from her veins steals up into our own.

I am the autumnal sun,
With autumn gales my race is run;
When will the hazel put forth its flowers,
Or the grape ripen under my bowers?
When will the harvest or the hunter's moon
Turn my midnight into mid-noon?
I am all sere and yellow,
And to my core mellow.
The mast is dropping within my woods,
The winter is lurking within my moods,
And the rustling of the withered leaf
Is the constant music of my grief....

arrrrrrrrrr!!

...Ahoy, I be postin' this for me hearty Blog Princess G, because she be lo'es t' laugh the lass, aye she does.

Galveston

shine on, harvest moon

Just outside my window the Moon is peeking through a lonesome cloud in a cool evening sky...no other full Moon is worth singing and dancing to.

But I'll still leave that part to the professionals...

intermission

Speaking of coffee....

letter from Marilyn

Short and sweet note from MM.

See more lost letters and items hidden away in those 2 infamous lost file cabinets recently featured in Vanity Fair Magazine.

Notre Dame 35 Michigan 17

Dear Mr. Weis,

Thank you for making ND football fun to watch again.

Much much better than last year.

~p

it's all true!

As usual, Hemingway and Tracy, arms locked around each others necks, were weaving along a sidewalk heading straight towards me. Blocking their way, on purpose mind you, they steered right into the Blue Café, and I followed, into a place that is always clean and well lit, sure to please the great writer.

Audrey Hepburn was sitting in a cushioned booth all alone peeling a banana and we stood against the wall under the prized mounted swordfish as though we were to be blindfolded and shot for treason, to watch in amusement and anticipation, waiting for her to discard the peel because we knew Buster Keaton would soon enter stage left from the swinging kitchen doors and painlessly somersault off the yellow springboard without losing his Pacific-blue pork pie hat or the steel tray with four glasses of water. He never failed to please, and his blank expression when he landed made us laugh until we were crying.

"Ok, which one of you gets the water," the great comic asked, and we'd start laughing all over again until our sides hurt and we'd stop breathing. It was especially nice to see Tracy laugh because the Blue Café was named after the great actor. He cried back on that day of dedication, but we all acted (poorly) as though we hadn't noticed. But Audrey, stretching on her ballet tippy toes, planted red lipstick on Tracy's cheek, and after awhile Hemingway nudged Tracy and whispered to him that the Mayor, unsuccessfully cutting the blue ribbon, had his fly open. I saw Buster Keaton smile.

Later, Audrey studied the menu seriously and ordered another banana.
I said, "I don't believe you've ever eaten in your life."
The great radiant actress smiled and answered, "It's all true!"
Buster surfboarded by with one foot balanced to perfection on used fruit and Hemingway pondered, "I wonder if an explosive banana would shatter that great stone face? Once, in Spain, a soldier tried to blow up a bridge with exploding fruit."

women in film

I love this...

kissing

The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a great deal longer

~ Oliver Wendall Holmes


"I was just whispering in her mouth"

~Groucho Marx,
when discovered by his wife, kissing the maid

the road home

My favorite love story on screen.

It's Zhang Yimou's graceful The Road Home (2000), starring the radiant 19 year-old Zhang Ziyi, in her first movie fresh out of film school.

Returning to his childhood North China village upon the death of his father who was the beloved village teacher, a business man finds his mother distraught, keeping a sad vigil outside the decrepit village schoolhouse. She is adamant that her husband's funeral will follow age-old local customs - instead of being driven, local men must carry the coffin through winter snows from the hospital back to the village, so that her husband will always know the road home.

As his mother weaves the funeral cloth on the village loom, the son reflects on what he's heard of his parents' rare non-arranged courtship.

And that's all I'll say.
You must see it.
It's in Mandarin and French, with English and French subtitles.

Here is the first 8 minutes of this elegant film...

the shy vulture

I had no idea there were any vultures in Indiana. Who knew? Or maybe I should ask "Hoosier?" ("who's ear?", our nickname derived from a question inquiring about leftovers when a venue of vultures once encircled road kill on an old Indiana pasture lane back in 1876).

Upon further research, turkey vultures do inhabit a meaty chunk of the middle States during the summer months.

But there it was, yesterday, as I drove along a two lane road. I slowed and watched as it hopped in hesitantly to inspect a careless raccoon that apparently had crossed the street without looking both ways twice. I honked the horn to scare it away. Later, I thought, wait, that's its business to eat roadkill. Why did I try to scare it away?

quote

Is solace anywhere more comforting than that in the arms of a sister ~Alice Walker

hurricane relief

Alabama
Governor's Emergency Relief Fund
Serve Alabama
(877) 273-5018

Florida
Florida Disaster Fund
(850) 410-0696

Louisana
Hurricane Gustav Relief and Recovery Fund
(877) 387-6126

Aidmatrix Foundation
Aidmatrix Network
(866) 881-8882

Mississippi
Mississippi Hurricane Recovery Fund

Texas
Texas Responds
(512) 473-2140

movies movies movies!

Imagine...

You get to open your very own movie theater.....

1)What's the name of your revival theater?

2) what's the triple bill for the Grand Opening?

...and while we're at it...

3)Most impressive debut performance
by an actor/actress?

4)Your first movie star crush?

and finally....

5)Your favorite musical moment in a movie?

A tip of the hat to Sergio Leone and The Infield Fly Rule movie blog for the great questions.