That’s what the announcer would proclaim on coming attractions ( trailers) in 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s movie houses, trumpeting a new drama based on current events in America, then the voiceover guy may preface his pitch with “ In a world where…” … well here we are in a world that is 2024 America and today’s news is a choice source of fodder for another OD blog post… First of all, Trump’s trial in NYC… they have selected the jury…. twelve jurors and half dozen alternates. The majority of these jurors list their primary source of news as the New York Times, which probably means the Donald hasn’t a chance for acquittal, the Times being a liberal slanted rag ( I subscribe to it, though it ain’t what it used to be, not by a long shot)… My Substack blog associate and old pal, Russ Yarrow ( Just Exactly Perfect) did a recent post thoroughly dissecting today’s print news business as far less than objective…I concur with Yarrow ! I believe trying Trump for leading an insurrection, inciting a riot to halt Congressional proceedings at The Capitol, corrupting officials to swing a lost election are way more important than convicting him of fraud and financial hijinks for paying off a hooker/porn star to get himself elected…… the people who will vote for Trump now could care less how many pussies he’s grabbed, how many women he has sexually assaulted, how many Russian hookers he’s peed on or vice versa, or how many riots he’s incited or how many porn stars he’s paid off for silence and non-disclosure… MAGA’s are going to vote for this dangerous asshole no matter what, so this trial means little, then again maybe not… if America is lucky ! Will Enquirer publisher David Pecker stand up for justice ? ( low hanging fruit, sorry) …what’s important IMHO is the Supreme Court and will they disgrace themselves once more and give him executive privilege… Presidential immunity for all his traitorous misdeeds ? allowing the foul motherfucker to run for Prez once more ?…cue voiceover announcer: “ In a world, where insanity reigns…”
Re: The Above Paragraph: It is no surprise that Civil War, a dystopian futuristic film presenting a divided USA into two warlike factions is current box office champ at the movie theaters… I hope the idiotic lunatic fringe don’t take this fiction seriously, and Trump’s foolhardy promise of “ bloodbath” if things don’t go his way… The recent Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta Georgia illustrated well-heeled 99% White fan attendance in the hometown of James Brown. Some years ago, I attended my niece Liz’s graduation at Medical College of Georgia , held at the James Brown Arena in Augusta. Liz is a medical illustrator who draws eyeballs, hearts, lungs, and all other human anatomy in minute detail both free hand and computer generated. She is quite successful in her field as is her hubby John , a doc who graduated that same day at the JB Arena. Proud of them !… all that said, for a golfer to win the Masters is a fantastic accomplishment that requires supreme athletic skill and mental composure. It is much more than just folks with sticks batting a small ball into holes on the vasty green grass lawn in “faggoty outfits ” as George Carlin used to mock them… more than just a good walk spoilt ! The Masters Tourney may be courting disaster on the 18th tee though, lining up spectators on both sides of a very narrow fairway. One small hook or slice of a drive and it’s a Boink on a Noggin! As a kid, at age 11 and 12, I hustled money on Frear Park Golf Course in Troy NY, hunting perfect new Titleist balls lost in the rough, and selling them for a half a buck, shagging balls for the pro giving lessons, and even selling cold bottles of soda pop on the course with pals Duke Caola and Dutch Zampier… I played golf sporadically until my thirties when I quit the game for good… BTW both my parents were addicted golfers… Tik Tok on the way out ? US Congress is trying to boot the Chinese social media app from the US…more power to them ! …the “evil axis” of China, Russia, and Iran are out to fuck us in any way they can , especially cyberspace where they completely mess with the minds of American youth… speaking of Iran, the Columbia University President had to call in the cops to disperse pro-Palestinian student demonstrators on the NYC Ivy League campus. These kids are very misguided, buying into the antisemitic rhetoric of terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, sponsored by Iran. Those terrorists wish “death to America “ and the gullible kids lap it up. Their ignorance is appalling…notice most of them wear masks ?… cowardly as well. Maybe the young dupes have an innate sense of their wrongdoing so they hide their faces... Prez Joe Biden has reemphasized his support of Israel and disgust for protests that back Hamas, in no uncertain terms…Bravo Joe ! …OTOH Congresswoman from NY Ocasio -Cortez has a far leftist agenda backing Palestinian causes… her stances and absurd wokeism like defunding police , just creates more MAGA votes... Far Lefties and Ultra Right Wingers are a danger to our Republic, but we must allow them free speech.
That’ll Make Your Head Spin !: Manish Lachwani , CEO of HeadSpin ,a Silicon Valley outfit for “app testing” (whatever that means), has been sent to prison for 18 months for fraud …nice ! let’s jail all the tech crooks who operate illegally and do damage to people… Lake Berryessa in Napa, is so full it is running off water through its “ glory hole” which is a funnel like structure that creates kind of a vortex, and drawing crowds to watch the action…remember in the 70’s I fished there often , sometimes with my fiancé Janice and during drought years you could walk to islands and I did , fishing for catfish and often pulling out huge Carp which I released rather than take home to make gifilte fish…Shasta Lake is full...Wow! it was so shockingly low when I drove past it a couple Thanksgivings ago…Techies should concentrate on inventing means to save more rainwater for the future, methinks… Red Lobster is going bankrupt due to Unlimited Shrimp, a loss leader that bit them in the ass… gluttony is dangerous not only to your health, but for biz ! I avoid Indian Restaurant Buffets and all you can eat joints because it psyches you into over- eating to get your money’s worth and you wind up with a bellyache and shame for indulging in gluttony… heh heh heh heh heh ! …Torn From The Sports Page: The Golden State Warriors played some super basketball in their stretch run only to lay an egg in a Sacramento game and that unceremoniously eliminated the Warriors from the NBA playoffs …season over ! Oh well, the glorious memory of four recent Championships that this crew of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green & Co. delivered to us will have to suffice for now… the San Francisco Giants are off to a slow start this baseball season with a few glimpses of excellence…Korean ball player Jung Hoo Lee is taking the fans hearts by storm. He can hit , run fast on the basepaths, patrol centerfield perfectly and throws with strength and accuracy. Hope he stays healthy and is the Giants leadoff man for years to come …love this kid who models himself after Ichiro Suzuki !… am watching with interest the New York Rangers NHL hockey team in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. My high school pal Charlie Hager and his wife Ellen are Rangers diehards… As a kid, hockey was my life… I loved the Montreal Canadiens… I played everyday in upstate NY, on ponds, in the streets, on frozen backyards, and in indoor rinks in organized hockey and even got to play in the NY State Bantam Championships(13-15) as a twelve year old. Very few thrills of my childhood equaled flying down the ice and blasting the puck past the goalie and into the net…sweet memories!
Radio! : Dan McCloskey conducts some fab interviews ,some available on YouTube …wrote about his interview with Steve Miller a while ago , have listened to two of a three part interview with Nick Gravenites on KPFA Berkeley Saturdays at 11 AM , the Tom Massolini Blues show…lemme tell ya ! Nick the Greek is a marvelous raconteur and just a fascinating personality . He wrote Born In Chicago among many songs and ran a blues club there, palling around with Butterfield , Bloomfield, Luther Tucker, and Musselwhite among many others. Nick formed The Electric Flag , An American Music Band with Mike Bloomfield and was the lead singer….A bunch of folks like Elvin Bishop and Maria Muldaur held a sold out benefit for Nick in Sebastopol last week and raised 15K for Gravenites’ health problems. He’s well into his 80’s and loved by many ! ( interview on KPFA.org or Danny The Hat.com)…The Reverand Cecil Williams has passed. He came to San Francisco’s Tenderloin in the 60’s and opened up Glide Memorial Church to anyone in need. Glide offered food and clothing and counsel to the downtrodden … street people, gay kids struggling to be free, folks down on their luck. Thousands of meals were served at Glide and they held rousing musical services on Sundays for spiritual uplift…My late sobriety brother Greg Harning was so proud to be an usher at Glide’s Sunday AM services for many years…Sadly Greg developed a brain cancer. Rest In Peace Gregory Harning and Cecil Williams…Glad You’re Dead You Rascal You !: Who dat ? Ronald Reagan , that lying traitorous cork-soaker ,who signed off on the Iran / Contra arms deal…what bought this on ? reading Elmore Leonard’s 1987 novel Bandits, which is a fab tale of an unlikely crew of crooks planning on ripping off a Nicaraguan Contra Colonel in New Orleans for millions he has raised with the approval and sponsorship of Reagan… the late Leonard was one of the very best crime novelists ever ( In my book!) He created rich, often seedy and flawed characters who utter outrageous, colorful criminal patter to make the reader LOL … Half way through , Bandits is one his finest … savoring this read !… Bad Boy: Stay In Jail ! - In New York , Harvey Weinstein’s conviction was overturned, but he’s still convicted of sex crimes in California , 16 years worth... Harvey hurt many women , with sexual assaults and rapes, and destroyed actresses career’s, blackballing them for not yielding to his casting couch. He’ll need a crew of lawyers better than O.J.’s to ever hit the street…Shifty Gets Ripped Off : Thieves stole his luggage from a downtown SF parking garage …smash and grab ! …Adam Schiff, the next US Senator from California ( by rights it should be Barbara Lee of Oaktown)…had to dress down for his fundraising event…the money’s still green. Wonder if the cops came to investigate Shifty’s car. The SFPD policy for auto break-ins is “ come to the station and fill out a police report” One of the many reasons Mayor Breed will be voted out.
An April Fool’s Views : Against All Odds (1984) a young Jeff Bridges steams it up with Rachel Ward in the remake of 1947’s Out Of The Past, the Bob Mitchum, Jane Greer ( as femme fatale), Kirk Douglas Film Noir…this is a color version set in LA with Jeff playing a football player instead of a PI… some great photography of Yucatan and Mayan ruins and pyramids…villains are plentiful; James Woods , Jane Greer now into her fifties, Saul Rubinek , and Richard Widmark, meanwhile Alex Karras and Dorian Harewood turn in solid character work… of course it’s not up to the original, remakes rarely are, but this film tries very hard and in the 80’s it registered with an audience and had a hit tune by Phil Collins: Against All Odds… Rifkin’s Festival ( 2020) Woody Allen comedy that allows itself whimsy and silliness. Wallace Shawn stars as a pretentious American film critic at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain. The film begins and ends with Shawn in a psychiatrist’s chair ,as if he has spun the whole tale verbally to the shrink, sort of a sly nod to Louis Malle’s My Dinner With Andre(1981) where he and Andre Gregory yap the whole picture…House Of Sand And Fog ( 2003) A no nonsense former Iranian Colonel ( Ben Kingsley) ,under the Shah, relocates to the Bay Area with wife and son and buys a house at auction, wrongfully taken from a woman struggling in recovery ( Jennifer Connelly) setting off a chain of events that lead to tragedy in the extreme for almost every character in the film… downbeat, but well played…Barbershop 2 Back In Business (2004) watched for a young Kenan Thompson but was disappointed with the writing, not up to Barbershop …hey! comedy is hard !… Purple Noon (Plein Soleil 1960) Alain Delon as Tom Ripley , Paricia Highsmith’s sociopathic murderer /con man in a French language motion picture... nicely shot in color in Italy… North By Northwest(1959) Alfred Hitchcock’s great color suspense thriller with Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint and a cast of excellent actors in a tense spy flick sprinkled with romance that climaxes on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota after stops in NYC and Chicago. This was on TCM. I saw a new print of it in the theater in 1999 at The NuArt in West LA, a great movie house…Double Indemnity(1944) Billy Wilder’s classic Film Noir , one of the very best of the genre. Barbara Stanwyck and Fred Mac Murray , both cast against type, caught up in lust, greed, and murder with Edward G. Robinson as the insurance investigator, a bloodhound sniffing their trail. It is a superb motion picture whose salacious nature found a wide audience in the forties. Raymond Chandler with Wilder( a contentious pairing) colluded on the screenplay of the James M. Cain tale. Never tire of this black and white masterpiece... Streamers : Mr. Bates Versus The Post Office (2024 PBS ) A horrific tale of the British Post Office and their computer system that ruined hundreds of postmasters in England due to an autonomous bureaucracy backed by the Brit government and judicial system that covered up computerized wrongdoing and allowed the ruination of innocent hard working folks. Toby Jones stars in this four-parter… O.J. Made In America ( 2016) ESPN Documentary series that is much more than the life story of O.J. Simpson, detailing historical racism and police wrong doing in Los Angeles and America… Killing Eve (Netflix) Just getting around to the 2018-2022 spy thriller series starring Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer, and Irish actor Fiona Shaw. Phoebe Waller Bridge wrote most of the first season . It is quirky and original centered on a resourceful psychopath Russian born assassin with very little filter played by Comer that will kill with zero conscience in a multitude of ways... spontaneous violence …there is humor albeit off- beat. Oh plays a British MI-6 agent, Eve, with an American accent and Shaw is her handler. Set in Russia, England , Paris , and Bulgaria for starters. Adapted from the Code Name: Villanelle novels by Luke Jennings. Watched eight episodes of 32. Entertaining, to say the least.
Songs Of The Day:
Stormy- Classics IV
Gypsy Good Time- Nick Gravenites
The Dolphins- Fred Neil
Down At Your Buryin’- James Cotton Blues Band
Jokerman - Bob Dylan
I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead You Rascal You- Louis Armstrong
( All Available for listening on You Tube)