Charlie Haden revolutionized bass playing in his day and also used his music to forcefully advocate for a variety of political causes, through the formation of the Liberation Music Orchestra. They came together and recorded albums during several periods of political crisis, first during Vietnam, then Reagan's wars in Latin America, the waning years of Apartheid, and the lead-up to the Second Iraq War.
RIP James Garner, TV's Bret Maverick and Jim Rockford and many, many other roles in film and television. Actor James Garner, born in Norman, Oklahoma 86 years ago, died yesterday "of natural causes".
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Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
One of my favorite actors. A great western actor and an inductee into the Oklahoma Cowboy Hall Fame. He was more than just a western actor though. The Americanization of Emily proved that. He was also a truly nice guy and never fell for all the Holywood nonsense. Married to the same woman for over 40 years. That is true accomplishment, expecially in Holywood. Off the top of my head I can only think of two other actors of his caliber, Jimmy Stewart and Paul Newman, who have managed to pull off that sort of longevity in a relationship.
If you are a Garner fan, and you have the time, you might want to watch this six part, 3 hour, interview with the Archive of American Television
__________________ Old Pain In The Ass says: I am on a mission from God to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable; to bring faith to the doubtful and doubt to the faithful.
It looks like one of those rumor mill headlines, but it's here in the LA Times and confirmed with the Marin Co. Sheriff's Department, so I guess it must be true.
It was only recently that I saw How to Marry a Millionaire. I don't know how projectors and screens across the country didn't just melt away with the combined glamorous presences of both Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Monroe.
In old age, she raged against what she saw as the mediocrity of contemporary Hollywood, as represented by everything from the career of Tom Cruise to the Twilight movies that her granddaughter dragged her to see. “She said it was the greatest vampire film ever made,” Bacall recalled. “After the film was over, I wanted to smack her across the head with my shoe.”
Instead, Bacall bought the child a DVD of FW Murnau’s 1922 classic Nosferatu. “Now that’s a vampire film,” she told her sternly.
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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
I am very terrible because there are probably a billion hours of classic movies that I've never seen. And worse still, I've only seen a couple of Bacall films. One being How to Marry a Millionaire and I only vaguely recall having seen Key Largo. And just this scene convinced me that I have to correct this horrible oversight sooner than possible.
Everyone is quoting the whistle line from To Have or Have Not, but that whole movie is something really, really special. Lauren Bacall was a baby, 18 years old, in her first film, and she went head to head with Bogart and just owned. You can see that he's completely amazed by her. Their chemistry is insane -- the camera captured the truth of what was happening between them -- and thank you sweet baby Jesus, there is none of that Production Code hellscape of force replacing sexual agency. She's entirely her own woman; he's entirely his own man. She's wants him and make no bones about it. He responds because he is a human heterosexual male and she is completely irresistible.
Also her waist is unbelievable. Seriously. Look at it in that houndstooth suit and in the CRAZY midriff-exposing dress she wears when she's chanteusing.
She played complete, nuanced women of intelligence, charm and obviously ridiculous beauty. To Have and Have Not, Key Largo, The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, How to Marry a Millionaire, Murder on the Orient Express, all flawless perfomances. She is the only greatness in the otherwise painful Barbra Streisand vanity vehicle The Mirror Has Two Faces. That she didn't win the Oscar for that was yet another sham in a long line of shams from the stupid Academy.
There have been four great screen couples; Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers, William Powell and Myrna Loy, Tracy Spencer and Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Bogie and Bacall were the greatest of the them all.
The passion steaming just below the surface of Bogie and Bacall's incredible coolness in To Have and Have Not has never been replicated by any other film couple, not even by Bogie and Bacall.
__________________ Old Pain In The Ass says: I am on a mission from God to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable; to bring faith to the doubtful and doubt to the faithful.
I'm trying to think of others, but I have never really watched Garbo and Gilbert. Cary Grant and Irene Dunne were pretty great in their few films together. There might be foreign ones as well, but again I'm drawing a blank.
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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
Garbo and Gilbert come close, see the waltz sequence in Flesh and the Devil, for instance. Gilbert's wide-eyed melodramatic acting style is a little too broad, I think, for modern sensibilities. That detracts from the very real heat between them.
My list is no doubt incomplete. Those are the four who stand out for me. It isn't all about heat and passion either. The on-screen relationship between William Powell and Myrna Loy was, by all reports, not mirrored by an off-screen romance and that on-screen relationship was decidedly cool and hip. The thing was though, it worked, in film after film, for a total of 14 movies.
Also, I tend to fall asleep while watching silent films and I can't follow the dialog with my eyes closed.
__________________ Old Pain In The Ass says: I am on a mission from God to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable; to bring faith to the doubtful and doubt to the faithful.
Oh, I actually thought your list was irrefutable at first, which is why I wracked my brains to try to refute it. I'm perverse that way.
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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
Last edited by Janet; 08-15-2014 at 06:26 PM.
Reason: Irrefutable not unrefutable, what was I thinking?
Raunchy, gravelly voiced and self-deprecating comedian Joan Rivers, who rose from Greenwich Village standup to occasional host of “The Tonight Show” and star of TV’s “Fashion Police,” died Sept 4. She was 81.
“She passed peacefully at 1:17 p.m. surrounded by family and close friends,” her daughter, Melissa, said in a statement. “My mother’s greatest joy in life was to make people laugh. Although that is difficult to do right now, I know her final wish would be that we return to laughing soon.”
Rivers had been admitted to New York’s Mt. Sinai hospital after she stopped breathing during a Aug. 28 procedure on her vocal cords at a New York clinic and was placed in a medically induced coma to assess her condition.
Though I found myself disagreeing with or disliking some of the things she's said in recent years, there's no doubting her contribution to the world of comedy. I really think she would have been great, if a bit neutered, as Johnny's successor on the Tonight Show. As often as she guest hosted even as the young bort I was I thought she got hosed out of that gig.
All I know about this monster is how she wanted all Palestinians to die just a couple of weeks ago when Israel was doing its damndest to kill as many Palestinians as they could. And of course the horrible piece of crap wasn't even called on it. And now we are again going to get this fucking crap where nobody even mentions what a horrible hatemongering asshole this plastic monstrosity was? I'm sorry, but I can't do it. No, I'm not sorry. I hope she died a horrible death and I would shit on her grave if it was anywhere near.