Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Friday, February 17, 2006
Celluloid Subversives
Good morning!
George Clooney drives a tiny little hybrid calleda a Tango when he’s in Italy...I think I’ve already put a link up to that a while back. VEry cool tiny 2 seater (1 front, 1 back) car.
Speaking of Whales and Farley .... ship detained in S.Africa
http://tinyurl.com/cn2bf
They are having an “effect” & something is better than nothing.Great conversation yesterday - I tried to catch up when I could.
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 02/17 at 08:48 AMHey Mr Z, Empress, and all who are to come. I’m having trouble finding the whale book. I did pick up Post Office yesterday though, enjoying it but its making me feel rather miserable.
Its a beautiful cool bright day here today, a good day to be off work.Posted by mew on from not london, hooray! 02/17 at 08:58 AMG’morning, Empress. I’ve added a link to Clooney’s Tango in the main post. Thanks for that...and for the great link you provided. I love that the Farley Mowat was flying the skull and crossbones.
What’s up, Mew? I’d like to make Post Office a future Expendable Book Club choice.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 02/17 at 09:01 AMThar she blows…
Posted by Amelopsis on from CAnada 02/17 at 09:26 AMI had enormous fun yesterday, thank you everyone - plus Jeremy with your last post, I was trying to remember that ISI guy´s name. I´d heard about him from a lecture by economist Michael Chossudovsky - whose name I could remember, go figure - thar be some papers by him and plenny others at http://tinyurl.com/9ydjl
Today feels like the first day of spring. I ate my oatmeal this morning with my terrace door open and wearing a teeshirt - I´d really missed my forearms all winter. It´s so beautiful outside I´m going to spend it rambling, maybe there will be some ukeleleage involved, though I´ll pop in to say hi too.
xoxowenPosted by Owen on from Barcelona 02/17 at 09:45 AMIt was 85F yesterday. It’s now, as I type, 39F and the high today will be 45F. It’s cloudy, plans to rain later, and now I know why I’ve been hurting so much: This sledgehammer was rumbling down on us. Even though gout itself doesn’t promote weather-sensitive pain, the regular ol’ arthuritis that the tissue destruction gout performs is responsible for makes me this sensitive.
The times I lurked, it was fermentile here yesterday! Has RMJ come home to report on the legal situation, and I missed it?
Off to take some pain pills, thanks for listening to me grouse. (Better not say that so loud, considering what happens to little birds-cum-fat-men around these parts.)
Posted by Mudge on from Austin 02/17 at 11:05 AMHello all...great article, Mick. I have seen both Syriana and Good Night and agree that Clooney is doing great work. It’s nice to see his work recognized as well.
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 02/17 at 12:28 PMI’m thinking this is a joke, but you can never be sure…
http://tinyurl.com/b99xs
captcha is ‘face’.Posted by Mew on from nearer home than usual 02/17 at 01:07 PMMew, it’s a joke. A very well programmed joke. It would be nice to know what they’re up to. Seems to be a Czech project--there are a few clues: the faces, the Czecz site meter, the typically Slavic grammatical errors. But the nicest clue was this!
Posted by Keir on from The Hague 02/17 at 01:55 PMBrilliant post, Mickey! I must say I prefer George Clooney to Marlon Brando, though .. LOVED ‘Good Night, and Good Luck’ - very intelligent film. And ‘Syriana’ sounds even more interesting judging from the reviews I have read so far. Here’s one from the same channel which broadcast the pictures from Abu Ghraib last Tuesday:
http://www20.sbs.com.au/movieshow/index.php?action=review&id=1889
And you did put a link up to the little hybrid care Clooney is driving before, Empress - but some things just bear repeating!
And hello to the rest of the expendables family on this comment thread: that would be Mew, Mudge, Owen, JOS and Keir - where are the others?Have a great weekend, all of you! I expect Mr Helga tonight but he might have to leave by tomorrow because he is really busy in Melbourne.
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 02/17 at 03:40 PMAnd Owen, are you going to be rambling on the ‘Rambla’ (or should that be ‘Ramblas’)? Ah Barcelona ..
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 02/17 at 03:48 PMOne last thing: I hope those pain pills work wonders, Mudge! And watch your back - indeed.
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 02/17 at 03:50 PMHello all.
Helga, your hubby must be careful leaving you alone. I might sneak down to Oz to see you.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 02/17 at 04:15 PMThat was the Ramblas yes Helga, now for a stroll through the gothic neighbourhood.
I might take a look at Goodnight Good Luck this weekend, it is just out here. I always did like George Clooney, but if he starts canvassing for Democrats I´ll drop him like a hot studmuffin.
Posted by Owen on from Barcelona 02/17 at 04:31 PMDitto, Owen! Nothing discredits a responsible artist than when they marry an ideology (or lack thereof).
Posted by Keir on from The Hague 02/17 at 04:49 PMI just saw “Why We Fight,” very well done, nothing new, but there doesn’t need to be any new things exposed while people are still confused about what is right in front of their faces.
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 02/17 at 05:13 PMHi Everyone…
Wow, what a day this has been up here. Major weather woes!!!!!!!!! Thunder, lightening, sleet, snow, ice, and hurricane wind. Lots of trees down. I watched the shingles being blown off my roof. They were coming down and flying around with so much force they are probably in Maine by now. Darn, I don’t feel like getting up on the roof anymore so it will be an unwelcome expense getting the repair done. My power was out all day. More than 100,000 across the border in New York state might be without power for days. Shelters are being set up. Wind chill temperature predicted to be below zero tonight.Mudge, thanks for thinking of my legal situation while you are in pain. I have been having meetings almost every day. Very frustrating but still trying to find a light at the end of the tunnel. I could not be doing this without all of the support from the MZ’ers.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 02/17 at 07:12 PMThey were calling for major thunderstorms here today, RMJ...but got another sunny day.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 02/17 at 08:36 PMI mentioned I’d upload The Money Masters to my website the other day, but decided against it after visiting their website and noticing the warning at the bottom of the page threatening prosecution for distributing the video on the internet. :0
I saw Syriana a few weeks ago. While I thought it had an important message, as a film, it was boring. I thought it moved along at a terribly slow pace. I appreciate that they tried to tackle a controversial subject matter, but I don’t think they did so in a matter that will appeal to a wider audience--the only people who will like this film are those who are well read on US foreign policy in the Middle East, and they not so much because it’s an entertaining film, but because it takes on such issues. Well, that’s all fine, but it’s still a boring movie (in my humble opinion, of course).
Then again, the first time I saw The Thin Red Line I felt the same way, but I fell in love with it the second time I saw it, and have seen it probably dozens of times since. What an amazing film.
William Blum recently had some things to say about “Why We Fight” (mentioned above):
The new documentary film by Eugene Jarecki, “Why We Fight”, which won the Sundance Festival’s Grand Jury prize, relates how the pursuit of profit by arms merchants and other US corporations has fueled America’s post-World War II wars a lot more than any love of freedom and democracy. The unlikely hero of the film is Dwight Eisenhower, whose famous warning about the dangers of the “military-industrial complex” is the film’s principal motif.
Here is Jarecki being interviewed by the Washington Post:
Post: Why did you make “Why We Fight?”
Jarecki: The simple answer: Eisenhower. He caught me off-guard. He seemed to have so much to say about our contemporary society and our general tilt towards militarism. ... The voices in Washington and the media have become so shrill. ... It seemed important to bring a little gray hair into the mix.
Post: How would you classify your politics? You’ve been accused of being a lefty.
Jarecki: I’m a radical centrist. ... If Dwight Eisenhower is a lefty, I am too. Then I’ll walk with Ike.[6] [ellipses in original]
Isn’t it nice that a film portraying the seamier side of the military-industrial complex is receiving such popular attention? And that we are able to look fondly upon an American president? How long has that been? Well, here I go again.
Eisenhower, regardless of what he said as he was leaving the presidency, was hardly an obstacle to American militarism or corporate imperialism. During his eight years in office, the United States intervened in every corner of the world, overthrowing the governments of Iran, Guatemala, Laos, the Congo, and British Guiana, and attempting to do the same in Costa Rica, Syria, Egypt, and Indonesia, as well as laying the military and political groundwork for the coming Indochinese holocaust.
Eisenhower’s moralistically overbearing Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, summed up the administration’s world outlook thusly: “For us there are two sorts of people in the world: there are those who are Christians and support free enterprise and there are the others.”
Posted by Jeremy on from Taiwan 02/17 at 10:03 PMThanks, Jeremy. I’ve also found it interesting that Ike’s quote is offered with so little context.
As for Syriana, I liked it as a film. Maybe a bit long but I say that about every movie.
Good night, all.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 02/17 at 10:25 PMJust got back from the theater where I saw a new film, Cache:
Interesting take on one of the most highly repressed episodes of massacre of the natives (which in this case occurred on the broad boulevards of a great Western metropolis in the Space Age, yet is about as well known as Belgian King Leopold’s late Victorian holocaust in Central Africa that claimed upwards of 10 million lives...)
Posted by sk on from 02/18 at 12:56 AMThanks, SK. I hadn’t even heard of that film.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 02/18 at 08:08 AMAm very much looking forward to seeing “Good luck & goodnight”, have been snowed under recently so posting less. Hope all well & that I haven’t missed out on too many excellent posts (a redundant hope, I’m sure).
It’s a beautiful day in Manchester & just had a terrific brunch. Last night I saw something which I feel taps into the Expendables’ collective spirit - it was an innovative blues film from 1964, filmed in a Manchester suburb. Muddy Waters was the star, but everyone featured (too many names to remember) was outstanding.
The guy who did the film was at the showing, a genuine gent. The movie was shot at a railway station, which was converted to feel somehow wholly appropriate for the great talents performing - a case of vibe and will victorious.
As an apt footnote, the station where this historic film was made is now ... a supermarket. Doh!
Posted by Chris Wood on from Manchester, England 02/18 at 08:11 AMA light giggle for y’all:
Posted by Chris Wood on from Manchester, England 02/18 at 08:18 AMHey Chris...good to see you and thanks for the link.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 02/18 at 08:30 AMCheers, mate. I’m glad as well that Clooney is getting a few pats on the back for making some genuine cinema & putting forward a few issues.
Talking of which, that Turkish film sounds like an answer to my prayers - namely, why is (almost) every movie that deals with the US military a soft soap portrayal? All the usual reasons spring to mind, of course, but it’s glorious to have some powerful statements getting out there to cause food for thought.
Posted by Chris Wood on from Manchester, England 02/18 at 08:44 AM
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