you're the one

 

pineapple-cucumber salad

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__________________________

in a bowl:  pineapple chunks or slices

on cutting board:  cucumber slices

sprinkle on the cucumber slices:  lemon pepper, and garlic-and-herb mix

put cucumbers on top of the pineapple

sprinkle over:  grated Parmesan

        enjoy

- - - I invented that.

_____________________________

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        Thinking about the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

        Sometime in the early 1990s I drove out to the western part of the state where I live, to attend a meeting of educators, for the association I worked for, & take notes.  At the same time, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was scheduled to appear in that area.

        I went to their show - it was great, and afterwards I stood in line to meet the band members and - maybe buy something, I don't know - a T-shirt?  A cassette?  It was something, and the line was kind of long, but it was moving, so I thought, What the heck, I can meet the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band members.

        Mostly you just say "Hi, great show!" and shake hands if they want to, and keep it moving, but one guy was kind of loquacious - he was sitting behind the table and he looked up at me and spoke in a friendly, outgoing manner and then told me I looked like Juliette Lewis.  

        She was an actress - I don't know if she still appears in movies, but at that time, she had been in several, including the Woody Allen film, Husbands And Wives, which I had seen.

        Of course I said, "Oh! - Thank you!" although I didn't think I looked like her, but it seemed like he was trying to give me a compliment, while "keeping it light" - like, not getting too personal.

Perhaps he told every girl she looked like some actress.

:  )

Kind of in that same time period, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band played a show at the State Fair, which is in the town where I live.

        I was in the audience for that, and I loved it - it was great.

Afterwards, one of the band members was walking past where I was, down in the section in front of the stage - I went over and said to him I loved the concert, it was terrific, and I added, "In the 80s, I worked at a country music radio station, here, and I played so many of your songs!"  

And he said, as if he was pleasantly surprised, "Oh! - you're the one!"

In the decades since, I've heard other artists in - music, movies, book-writers, etc. - when someone says to them, 

I just bought your book,

or 

I have all your albums,

or 

whatever - they say, "Oh, you're the one!"

...being gracious, and humorous, and humble.

So - that's a thing, in the entertainment business.

        Of course, in the early 1990s when the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band guy said it to me, I thought he had just come up with that on the spur of the moment.... LOL

Juliette Lewis; Woody Allen, in the 1992 film Husbands And Wives

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hey, hey, hey - that's what I say

 Taylor Swift and Mick Jagger performing "Satisfaction" onstage!

        you tube

        Taylor Swift & Mick Jagger - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

        (@Taylor Swift Tour Extras)

Her introduction is too long at the beginning, but the song is worth waiting for.

This was during her 2015 tour.

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heaven holds a place for those who pray

 In The Graduate, the situation is Benjamin Braddock has just graduated from college, and he doesn't know what he should do next:

graduate school?

job?

find a girlfriend and contemplate marriage?

The thoughts he's having about it start to get kind of existential, like he cannot see a point to anything - he feels lost, directionless.

        His parents, at the beginning of the movie, are real happy that he has graduated and had good grades and was a "track star."  They throw a party for him, and all their friends are there, telling Ben how proud they are of him.

One asks, "What are you going to do now?"

Ben:  "I was just going to go upstairs for a minute."

A little later in the movie his parents' viewpoint seems to be changing, a little.  His mother tentatively asks where he goes at night; his dad tells him relaxing in the pool is OK for a young man, but after "a few weeks, I'd imagine he'd start to think about getting off his ass."

        Out on a date, Ben confides to the girl his insecurities about what to choose next in his life, saying, "The rules don't make any sense to me - they're being made up by all the wrong people.

        No! - I mean, no one makes them up, they seem to have made themselves up."

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the superstar in rent-a-car

 

Last winter when the Reiner murders occurred in Brentwood, I thought, Wow, this is going to be the biggest trial since O.J.

        But that's wrong.  That was just a first impression that I had.

        The eventual trial - if it comes to that - of Rob Reiner's son Nick will be in the news, certainly, but it won't be nearly as big as the O.J. Simpson trial was in the '90s.

One difference, perhaps the main difference, is that O.J. Simpson was far more famous than Nick Reiner.  Nick Reiner was not famous at all, until the horrific murder of his parents.

In the Simpson case, the most famous person involved was the suspect.

In the Reiner case, the most famous person involved is one of the victims.

And the fame-spotlight and news coverage follows the suspect.

        The suspect is the person who is still alive that you can follow.  There's going to be no news about the victim - they're dead.

It's interesting to contemplate the fame of O.J. Simpson.  He represented a variety of talents and ideas and dreams that are attractive to many people.  He apparently could be this, that, or the other in private, but on the Big Screen of the public imagination he was a hero.

-30-

"just the Robinsons' affair"

 Mrs. Robinson calmly asking Benjamin, "Are you armed?" - just so funny.

These are - not - gun people.

        I have thought, since the first time I saw The Graduate, that while it's a movie that's considered to be kind of representative of 1960s America, it doesn't show my idea of the 1960s.

And I have a sort of awareness, or recognition, that my personal idea of "the Sixties" is probably sort of - 1968 to 1975.  That's a perspective probably common among people in my age group.

        Director Mike Nichols made The Graduate during the year 1967, and so the clothes, hairstyles, and even people's attitudes are more typical of the early '60s, which for a lot of us would be sort of - 1957 to 1966.  (Maybe 1967 was stood alone as an evolution point....)

Mike Nichols

-30-

a quick drink before you go

 

Towards the end of the movie The Graduate, the song "Mrs. Robinson" plays - I noticed today it has the Bo Diddley beat.

(Or, anyway, I thought it was the Bo Diddley beat.  But I Googled, asking "AI," and he - or she - or - it - told me I was right!  It said the version of the song on the album is more in a folk-rock style, but the version in the movie does, indeed, use the Bo Diddley beat.

        Yay!  I liked being right!  Then I thought, Oh, I shouldn't allow myself to enjoy being "right" too much, I don't want to turn into one of those people yelling about 'liberals' on the Internet. - ['I'm right I'm right Imright!!!!!!!"])

------------------------ Below is a description of one of my favorite scenes from this movie; if you think it might be a "spoiler" and you would rather be surprised later when you see the movie, then stop reading here, & join us tomorrow.

It isn't that much of a spoiler - this movie is not a thriller or horror movie - if you watch it from the beginning, you are going to kind of know where it's going....

Benjamin Braddock drives fast back to the L.A. suburb where the Robinsons live, because Elaine's parents are trying to keep her away from Ben and make her marry someone else, but Ben and Elaine are in love. 

So he drives there, goes to their house, hurries up the stairs, looking for Elaine, and gets to her bedroom and goes in and finds her mom, Mrs. Robinson in there, packing clothes in suitcases.

Mrs. Robinson shows no surprise at seeing him and says, with unnervingly calm aplomb, "Hello, Benjamin," while walking past him.

She picks up a telephone receiver.

Benjamin:  Where is she?

Mrs. R. (into the phone) - Hello, get me the police, please.

Ben:  Where is Elaine?

Mrs. R, to Ben:  I'll be with you in a moment Benjamin.

Mrs. R, into the phone:  Do you have a patrol car in the vicinity of 1200 Glenview Road? (pauses to listen) - Good.  We have a burglar here.

(pause) - Just a second, I'll ask him.  (she tilts her head back a little, from the phone receiver and addresses Benjamin) - "Are you armed?"

He just stands there and stares at her.

Mrs. R (into the phone) - No, I don't believe he is.  Thank you.

And hangs up.

Ben:  What have you done to her?

Mrs. R:  I think we have everything quite under control now Benjamin.  Would you like a quick drink before you go?

Ben:  You can't stop me from seeing her, Mrs. Robinson, I'll find her.

Mrs. R:  I'm sorry we won't be able to invite you to the wedding, Benjamin, but the arrangements have been so rushed.

Ben (getting mad) - What the hell have you -

[sound of car skidding to a hasty stop, outside]

Mrs. Robinson (sighs) then says:  I don't think you'll have time for that drink after all.

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-30-

presence

 

There's a thing called screen presence.  Anne Bancroft has it, in The Graduate.

Bette Davis has it, in All About Eve.

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