when the jobs left and the drugs came

 

If good people ignore politics, does that leave the practice of politics to bad people?

---------------------------

What is an elegy?

...Merriam-Webster (since 1828)

Definition of elegy

a song or poem expressing sorrow or lamentation especially for one who is dead

____________________________

The author of the book Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance, seems to be trying to position himself as a public figure.

     One Internet Comment said Mr. Vance "is a snob, and an ass."

     (lol, that's -- not his campaign slogan, is it?)

---------------------------------

several Amazon customer reviews of the book:

~ Like the book "White Trash," the time spent reading it is wasted.  There is no real revelation here.  I'm afraid this is an attempt to blame those written about for "the problem."  What this really is, is an attempt by the author to attain political currency for a run at federal office.  It is transparent and embarrassing.

~ Born, raised and lived in West Virginia all my 49 years -- and this book is ridiculous.  Don't waste your time or money.  And no, I do not appreciate being called a hillbilly and I don't know anyone who does.  This book is fiction plain and simple.  Someone trying to make it big by making up stories and selling them as truth.

~ I had high hopes for this book, based on all the reviews.  I found it to be pretty underwhelming and a bit shallow.  He mostly just talks about events that happen, but I wish he delved much deeper into history or politics or culture -- especially given that the NYT said it was "one of 6 books to help understand Trump's win."  

     I didn't really come out of it understanding any more about that aspect.  The author also seems to toot his own horn a lot.  Which is fine, it's his book.  But I was unimpressed.

~ He was from a small town when the jobs left and the drugs came.

~ What Mr. Vance says is true, but it's hardly unique.  It's been going on for decades in every region of the country....This book, to me anyway, reads like every book I've ever read from budding politicians, outlining their heart rending personal stories.  Just saying.

-30-

this song make me crazy

 

Almost heaven, West Virginia

Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River

Life is old there, older than the trees

Younger than the mountains, growin' like a breeze

Country roads, take me home

To the place I belong

West Virginia, mountain mama

Take me home, country roads

All my memories -- gather 'round her

Miner's lady, stranger to blue water

Dark and dusty, painted on the sky

Misty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye

Country roads, take me home

To the place I belong

West Virginia, mountain mama

Take me home, country roads

I hear her voice in the mornin' hour, she calls me

The radio reminds me of my home far away

Drivin' down the road, I get a feelin'

That I should've been home yesterday -- yesterday...

Country roads, take me home

To the place I belong

West Virginia, mountain mama

Take me home, country roads

Country roads, take me home

To the place I belong

West Virginia, mountain mama

Take me home, country roads

Take me home, down country roads

Take me home, down country roads

_________________________________

{"Take Me Home, Country Roads" - written by Bill Danoff, Taffy Nivert, and John Denver.  Recorded by John Denver with Fat City, in January of 1971 in New York City.}

-----------------------------------

After you go on You Tube and listen to this song, you can read here the selected Comments from listeners:

The Void knight

   Me, a Polish man living in Russia listening to American music with a little British accent:  Mr. Worldwide

Cooper_knows

   Greetings from a Russian man living in Poland, pal

Tom hanley

   They have internet in Russia?

Cooper_knows

   Tom hanley, of course, or else how will we hack your next election     :  )

Samuel Luz

   I love the fact I am a Virginian, even with the fact that I never left Brazil.

   This song make me crazy.

Bradley Tee

   This makes me miss West Virginia, and I've never left Australia.

Andreas vehmer

   So sie haben dummkopfe in australien dran

Arthur Morgan

   Und wir haben Dummköpfe in Deutschland.

Yashvi patel

   I'm a New Zealander but this song makes me patriotic for America lmao.

RedPandaGaming

   This makes you nostalgic for memories you don't even have.

TT

   Day 7 of quarantine:  I started listening to country music.

Khadija Global Education Agency

   everyone wants to go home, to his own West Virginia.

Steve Johnson

   When I blasted this song in my car it became a tractor

Rambo

   Then I did it, it became a pickup

-30-

misty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye

 

There is a movie on Netflix now that's getting a lot of negative reviews, but the ones I've seen didn't mention the points I noticed about it.

Hillbilly Elegy is based on a book of that title, written by J.D. Vance.  (Starting with that title -- to me, "hillbilly" seems like a disrespectful word, I don't know -- I read parts of that book online and, along with the title, there are some things about it that give me a little "cringe."  

Maybe it's the generalizations, or judgments, or something? -- 

Anyway, the title was given by the book's author, so that isn't the fault of the movie director or writer.  Although on the other hand, if it's a negative epithet, the screenwriter could have given the film a different title.  

Although on another other hand, in that case potential audiences wouldn't have the automatic tie-in recognition that this film is based on the book...

Anyway...) --

The Washington Post reviewed it, and so did the New York Times, and a bunch of online websites...

What I noticed about the movie, that I haven't seen anyone else mention, is -- OK, the story is based on an idea that generational family dysfunction and poverty affects a percentage of people living in Appalachia.

     But I'm watching it going, "You can see this type of appalling behavior anywhere, not just in Appalachia."  I think I would take the relative "poverty" component and set it aside a minute, and just look at what you're really dealing with there -- no matter the amount of coins in people's bank accounts, Crazy is as crazy does.  

And it's not typical of, or limited to, Appalachia, Why are we picking on the people who live there?

You can find crazy, yelling, hitting, blaming, battering, tantrum-throwing humans in any segment of society, in the South, in the North, in California or New York or Minnesota, or Russia or Cuba.  

In segments of society where most of the people in it are rich, or kind of rich--"richish"--there may, indeed, be more social pressure to behave oneself "in front of other people" because there might be more social sanction on battering, yelling, cursing, etc.  

It doesn't mean that in those segments of society crazy people are nice at home or in the workplace.  They will just modify their behavior as much as they feel they have to, in an environment or situation.  It doesn't mean that, fundamentally, they are any different from the low-rent characters in this film.  They just have more social pressure working on them.  They want to seem cool and sophisticated.

In Hillbilly Elegy, both the book and the movie, there are people who are, if we might borrow a Southern, perhaps Appalachian, expression--Plum Crazy, and they don't modify their behavior very much.  (Some sociopaths like an audience to their ickiness.)

But--bottom line, I just don't see how any of it needs to be seen as typical of, or unique to, Appalachia -- I mean, watch some reruns of Law & Order, there are no state lines containing the crazy.

     I still think the word "hillbilly" is disrespectful and "bogus," (as they like to say in Boston).  And one reviewer said the thing wasn't even an elegy, so...

     The movie was directed by Ron Howard -- Opie from The Andy Griffith Show.

-30-

what fresh hell is this

 

Been watching (letting it play on android tablet while doing chores at home) the 2019 film, Drunk Parents.  Netflix. 

I like it.  I think.  But there are parts of the plot I don't understand because I should actually watch it.  A big part of the storytelling in the film medium is visual, as Alfred Hitchcock liked us to remember.

And I only get parts of the visual when I glance at it in passing.  I hear the dialogue and the music.

The music is good.  They only have little bits of music here and there, to flow the story forward, but what they have is good.

This movie is weird, but funny.

Or maybe it's kind of slapdash with too many people contributing stuff, or -- maybe it's brilliant.

Basically, the theme is Be nice and help each other.

Alec Baldwin and Salma Hayek are terrific.  In one scene, she stomps forward, exasperated and desperate, demanding, "Oh! - What fresh hell is this?!" 

     I thought I had heard that phrase before.  Is it in a Shakespeare play?  (Googling it only increased my bewilderment.  Dorothy Parker...?  I guess?)

-30-

     

rid us of the smirk

 

     Someone in the British government named Priti Patel got reported for bullying at work.

The Guardian had an article about it; some Reader Comments:

------------ The government are clearly trolling us.  Releasing and dismissing the report into Patel's bullying at the end of 'anti-bullying' week is pure crass.  And intentionally so.  Despicable.

------ The Ministerial Code is just a serving suggestion.  Like the photo on a box of cake mix.

------- 'I now consider the case closed' says the indolent sloth of spaff.

Again.

'Ok' says the BBC.

-------------- Remember all the sad arse Tories calling for John Bercow to be sacked, dismissed and pulled apart for bullying.  Today, Patel becomes an official bully.  The same shit bag Tories support her.  Think about that.  John Bercow is NOT a bully and did not break ministerial code.

------------- Thank you to Jonathan Freedland for the following description of Britain in the depths of a pandemic and ruled by The Tory Party.  "Trump sank lower, but that doesn't mean Johnson isn't knee-deep in sleaze."  An honest piece of journalism, no holds barred.  Once again, thank you.

---------- Carrie Symonds ... Allegra Stratton ...Munira Mirza?  What a cracking week of cockups you've had ..Dom would be proud of you!

------------ If the people of England just sit back and take no action against this pile of corruption, then I do not want to hear one word of complaint...you voted this lot in, now do something to get rid of it.  Your children's futures are depending on you, not this pile of shit that calls itself a government.

Your fathers and grandfathers who fought for this country in a war, those who fought for better working conditions, those who fought for workers' rights, those who fought for the right to be represented by a trade union, those who fought for a National Health Service and for social security will be turning in their graves that you lot have thrown it all away.

Are their offspring cowards with no fight?

------- This is starting to stink like the biggest pile of dung!  Still growing!  The corruption, scandals, abuse of law and order, lack of accountability to the decent people of this country.  Is this democracy?!  Is this government really trying to push some to the brink of unrest if this continues?  

Cannot believe this axis of evil contemptible group of 'politicians' are getting away with this and this also includes parts of society who support and breathe this type of toxic criminality.  This political mafia and friends are destroying this country while filling their pockets.  No integrity left.

------------ The government have been trumpeting the various vaccines for the past couple of weeks or so now.  They better get it right or the right wing media will give them hell.  But going on previous evidence, they won't be able to resist enriching their mates/donors which will cause some sort of massive cock up.  I have stockpiles of popcorn and await the coming vaccine clusterfuck.

------------- I know the Tories are the nasty party, but I have never known as many really nasty bastards in any Tory government in my lifetime, and I've lived through Macmillan, Heath, Thatcher, Major, Cameron, May and now this lump.

---------- Priti's position seems to have gone straight to her head.  She would do well to show some humility and greater empathy.  After all she is a public servant dealing not just with administrative affairs of state but also with leadership and addressing the needs of sentient fellow human beings.

------------ Fuck the Tories

---------- Priti is the fridge that Johnson hides in....

---------- "The Prime Minister's adviser on ministerial standards Sir Alex Allan said in his advice that there was "no evidence that (Patel) was aware of the impact of her behaviour and no feedback was given to her at the time".

     Does Patel like being sworn or shouted at?  If so, then her action could be excused as blatant ignorance.  However, if she herself feels hurt or dislikes being at the receiving end of verbal abuse, then she is aware of the impact of her behaviour and should resign before she does any more harm.  At the moment, she acts with the demeanour of a deranged bull.

----------------- So she's broken the ministerial code twice now.  Maybe if she does it a third time, she'll get a place in the House of Lords.

------------- Or promotion to PM?

["PM" is prime minister]

----------- TBF anyone is better than BJ.

[BJ is Boris Johnson]

----------- Hope anyone else who has a story on Patel steps forward.  Come on, bring her down.  Johnson's 'loyalty' is nonexistent and his u-turns the stuff of legend.  Do it!  Blow your whistles.  Rid us of the smirk.

-------- I've experienced bullying at work and, as a union rep, dealt with the odd case.  It won't be long before more of her victims come forward.  It just takes one to be brave and then the less brave find their courage.  I guarantee it.

------------ Government ministers, especially Tory ones, are incredibly good at 'teeth forward' apologies.  Truth is they don't give a s**t.

------------ If PP was sacked there would have to be a new face somewhere at the table - perhaps the Brexit Barrel of Talent has been scraped clean.

---------- It was scraped clean before they did the first draft...

-------- I must not get upset if I'm sworn and shouted at.

I must not get upset if I'm sworn and shouted at.

I must not get upset if I'm sworn and shouted at.

...

Ah, Priti, would you like a nice cup of tea?

------------- Andrea Leadsom ran John Bercow absolutely ragged for alleged bullying.  Why so silent now when we have a case of real bullying?

---------- There is no ministerial code of conduct when ministers can do whatever they like without repercussions.

----------- Sage advisor to the government says the loss of trust in the government, reinforced today by Johnson's shabby 'nothing to see here' decision on Patel's bulling, is a major problem in tackling the spread of covid.  

People know she's a bully and has been found to be a bully by an independent investigator who has just resigned, and that Johnson has no moral or ethical values, also evident from his damaging defence of Cummings' outing to Durham and Barnard Castle. 

 But Johnson and his Brexit cabinet are too ideologically corrupt to care.  Is this what Allegra Stratton left journalism for?

----------- She's an overbearing oik, with no class or sense of propriety.  Not unlike Esther McVile.

--------- Weekend press, reassess her position on Monday.

------ Gone by Monday?  Let's hope so.  Johnson must know when he's backed a wrong 'en.

------------- What has the Queen got to say about all this, doesn't she have weekly briefings with the PM and give them a good ticking off.  She could do it on Zoom if they're all self isolating.  Also not sure who is deputy PM anymore, do they still have one?

-------------- Don't believe The Crown - the royals couldn't care less about us.

----------- Another Tory shit filled week over.  Stay tuned folks next week may even be much worse than this one!  Happy weekend!

----------- It will not stop over the weekend

------------- Good to see the editorial writers don't mince words:

"the guardian.com/comment is free/2020/nov/20/the-guardian-view-on-priti-patel-carelessly-giving-offence"

------------- Worst PM and cabinet ever.  Period.

----------- "It has never been my intention to cause upset to anyone."

It is just an unfortunate side effect of not making me look good.

---------- One hopes - albeit a tad forlornly - that Rutnam won't bottle it and withdraw his ET case against The Evil Smirk .....

------------ "I'm sorry if" is meaningless and insincere.  "I'm sorry if" is bullshit!

-------------- Breaking ministerial code requires no apology.  Sack her if she does not walk, she knew exactly what she was instructed to do and was doing.  Get on with it Johnson you coward.

---------- "Don't bully / Awareness week."

"Drum roll please.  'The Tory party.'  Null and void.  As you were."

------------- Not much chance of a resignation from this lot; I don't know what has to happen to elicit one of these shysters walking, look at the education secretary and Cummings and the latter wasn't even an elected representative.

It is very bad for any residual faith in democracy; there have to be consequences for government ministers and seeing someone fired from time to time is essential.

Another similarity between Johnson and Trump - undermining democracy, be it ensuring that nobody resigns or trying to close down Parliament, proper little Trump we've got.

------------- As the artful dodger said in a contrarywise situation "This ain't the shop for Justice".

------------ There was a time in this country that the merest whiff or whisper of impropriety by a minister would lead to an instant resignation because said minister realized it was more important for public trust to remove him/herself from the firing line rather than cling on shamelessly.

In those days, I would admire the ministerial code for holding ministers to a much higher level of propriety than the rest of the population.  Those days are long gone now.  Today, a minister can behave much worse than a pleb and retain his/her job whilst the latter will be sacked on the spot.

We are going backwards, folks, and slowly entering the Endarkenment...

------------- It was said earlier that no law says that said Minister should go, which shows the absolute nadir of dishonour and fecklessness our rulers have fallen to.

------------- yes, that was the beauty of it.  Said minister walked instantly and did not need to be pushed.  Now we have Trump style clinging on by Jenrick, Hancock, Williamson and now Patel.

These are retrograde times and the damage these charlatans are doing will sadly take a long while to undo...

------------ Priti Patel isn't sorry for acting like a bully because she doesn't care.  Boris seems to have given license to such behaviour as well as lying, breaking policy without consequences and a new level of cronyism, even for a Tory government.  Just what do you have to do to get sacked these days?

-------------- These are the standards of life in post Brexit Britain, falling falling falling...

----- Not only falling, but failing.  Badly.

-30-

the silent "p" in "coup"

 

headlines today

~ Trump's Attempts to Overturn the Election Are Unparalleled in U.S. History

       New York Times

~ Trump Targets Michigan in His Ploy to Subvert the Election

       New York Times

~ Why Charges Against Protesters Are Being Dismissed by the Thousands

       New York Times

~ Trump Tax Write-Offs Are Ensnared in 2 New York Fraud Investigations

       NYT

~ Pfizer Applies for Emergency F.D.A. Approval for Covid-19 Vaccine

       NYT

~ What We Know About Trump's Election Meeting with Michigan Officials

       NYT

~ Alarm over Trump's 'coup' in slow motion

       The Times Of India

~ Trump's Clown Coup Crisis

       The New Yorker

~ Can Trump actually stage a coup and stay in office for a second term?

       The Guardian

~ Stop Donald Trump's coup.  Impeach him again

       Los Angeles Times

________________________________

___________________________

     After watching parts of The Crown, I saw a 2016 article about this (then new) Netflix series in The Guardian, and made note of the following Reader Comments.

------------ I watched it, it was great, but I kept thinking "How do we still have this anachronistic institution in the year 2016?"

-------------------- You are out of your time.  just look at what is happening to "republics" around us, it's all misery, corruption, bad governance

---------- Well?  We've got that in spades and an anachronism left over from the Middle Ages.

     Anybody got a couple of highly paid taxpayer funded sinecures for two princesses of the 'royal blood'?

You know the sort of thing, couple of mill' a year plus unlimited holidays and expenses.

------------------ I am a republican but can see some value in the monarchy (at least for now).  Just as politics is falling apart with unspeakable hatreds all over the world one cannot help but respect the very real affection that the British people have for their dutiful Queen.  That is much needed at present.

--------- A republic with a non executive president will do nicely, thank you.

-------------------- Can't we just discuss the series as a piece of drama rather than get into a debate about the monarchy.  Some of you really are an awful, joyless lot.  You must get up in the morning and wait for something to complain about.

---------------- It's about the monarchy.  You're also complaining that people complain too much.

------------ Fine, but when this Queen goes can we call it a day?  Please.

------------ King Chuckles not appeal to you then?

---------------- royalty and religion--man's love affair with voluntary self enslavement

------------- It interests me that so many 'progressives' dislike the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth is an organisation of 53 countries that are not in it to make war or money, it is not a defence group or a trade bloc.  It is just a group of friends who get together every few years and talk about a shared history and future and how they can help each other, mainly through charity work, mutual support and exchanges of public servants.  

It is an organisation in which the majority are not white or Christian, and, in which little countries are equal to big ones.

It is not run by or for the rich countries in it.

It is basically the epitome of what progressives should like and want.

And yet you look at it and say it is not useful.

Being friendly as equals with lots of diverse countries is not useful?

------------------------------------------ The Commonwealth is about the only major body where African and other smaller countries have the opportunity to sit with major western powers.

I would argue that it would have greater relevance if the Americans and French were included as they could be due to history. 

But even without them, its importance is there and will increase as the world's economic power shifts away from the western bloc.

---------------- Anti-royalists who continually point out the injustices and poverty in our society and the privileged life of the royals as if they are directly related need a reality check.  There is no correlation.

Places such as Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, etc. are the most egalitarian, equal and progressive countries on earth - and are monarchies.

USA, Brazil, Russia and whole host of others could be said to have big problems with social inequality and maybe not considered so progressive (at times) but don't have a monarchy.  Equally however, you can easily find reverse examples if you look.

My point being there is no correlation, Things don't necessarily get easier for the most disadvantaged if you dump the royals.

------------ The greatest graveyard of European monarchy was the First World War, and your three examples were all lucky/clever enough to be neutral.  The correlation might be that enduring monarchies are a result rather than a cause of political stability and social cohesion.

------------------------- You might but you could also point out that right wing or communist revolutions, or religious coups, always start with getting rid of the monarchy.  Why?  Because it is a bastion against extremes.

People also talk about monarchies as if they are old fashioned and most of the world chose to move on from them.  

But hardly anyone chose to get rid of their monarchy.  

For most of the world the European empires came along and got rid of their local monarchs without asking.  

        Then the European empires when they left created new countries that did not normally match the boundaries of the old traditional kingdoms in the area, e.g. Uganda has four monarchies in it, South Africa more than that.

The ones that remained were normally ended by the turmoil surrounding WWI, WWII, and the Cold War.  They almost always were overwhelmed as their entire society fell to a communist, right wing, military, or religious coup.

-30-

negotiations

 

The Crown (Netflix) is fantastic.

The British are great story-tellers, whether because of a reverence for literature or due to manic self-obsession as a nation, or both....  Many of The Crown's episodes and dramatic sequences feature negotiations.  Is it going to be this way, or that way?

     Our name is going to be Mountbatten.

     No, our name is going to be Windsor.

     No, Mountbatten.

     Understand you're not on board for Windsor yet, but if we go back to Saxe Coburg Gotha, that be goin' over like a lead balloon.  Sir.

The production values are lavish.  The dishes.  The music.  Season 4 dropped Sunday, bringing in Lady Diana Spencer and 1980s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.  During a couple of Diana scenes they play a little part of the Stevie Nicks song, "Edge Of Seventeen."

     Just like the white-winged dove,

     Sings a song, sounds like she's singin'

     Whoo baby, whoo, whoo...

It's so good.

     The actress who plays Diana is doing a terrific job.  The Margaret Thatcher actress is excellent, too -- the real person she is based on, my God! -- she comes across as a sociopath.  And her voice!  Euaggh!  I almost called my internet provider to give back the internet and let them keep the change, just to get that voice away from me!  Lol.

     I haven't had such a strong reaction (negative) to a character since watching The Sopranos all the way through--the character Thatcher reminded me of was Tony Soprano's sister Janice.  (LOL.  Yikes!)  A thin veneer like a normal, grounded person, but it doesn't take long before the inner chaos and seething hostility towards everything just pushes its way outward.  Very interesting study in narcissism.

-30-

"the crown always finds its way to the right head"

 

Two things on You Tube to listen to:

a video titled

US Election 2020:  Is American democracy in crisis? - BBC News

3 minutes and 41 seconds

and

The Wheeler Sisters rendition of

"Heaven's Just A Sin Away"

It's good, I like it.

The acoustic guitar playing at the beginning, before the vocals start, sounds like the guitar part at the start of "Hey Mr. Tambourine Man" by Bob Dylan.

     In the BBC video, the announcer's British accent makes one want to stand up straighter and maybe audition for a small role in The Crown....

-30-

magnetting recipes to the refrigerator

 

Back in the '80s, I played records at a Country Club event one time--when I put "Heaven's Just A Sin Away" on the turntable and put needle to vinyl, people got up to dance immediately when they heard the first couple bars of the song.  I noticed that.

The recording I was using then was of course the one by The Kendalls--a few years after, in the early '90s, a country artist named Kelly Willis covered the song:  her version had more of a bluegrass basis, referencing older country styles which were being brought back front and center at the time by Dwight Yoakam, among others.

I loved that version of the song, too.  It played from a cassette in my blue Ford Tempo on drives to and from our state capital.  With a fiddle playing a tricky sort of shimmy between some of the lines of the song, its raw, edgy instrumentals I am guessing may be the "five-string" or "open tuning" guitar style Keith Richards described in his book, Life.

(Ike Turner grabs Keith and drags him into a room:

"Show me that five-string shit!")

On You Tube, you can hear the Kelly Willis version of "Heaven's Just A Sin Away."  The video uploaded by Carina Svedberg has very good sound.

-30-

devil's got meow

 

"Heaven's Just a Sin Away" is a great song.  Now that there's You Tube, I listen to it whenever I want.

Some people who are more straitlaced might say, "it's a cheating song!" and label it as immoral.

But I just like the way it sounds.  And it's an accurate expression of thoughts and emotions that some people might have, some-times.  Temptation.  ("Lead us not into temptation"...) Art expresses situations, emotions, and stories.

     As Tina Turner has remarked, The main point is not necessarily what the lyrics tell us, but rather "the feeling that a song gives."

The Kendalls' recording begins with such a powerful downbeat:  so inviting.  The lead singer's vocal style is pure Nashville, her expression precise and strong.  Her oh-whoas have about five syllables, instead of two.  The song is like a little bouncy, saily boat, up in the clouds.

Devil's got me now,

Oh-whoa, gone and got me now

I can't fight him anyhow

I think he's gonna win

Heaven's just a sin away...

I have this recollection from back in the past:  late afternoon in a bar, sitting at a table with a man and a woman.  She got up, went over to the jukebox, and played this song.  I remember thinking what a great song it was, at the time.

Now--I'm kind of like, "OK, wait a minute..."  Both of these people were married--to other people.

Me, four hundred decades later:

"Was that some kind of subliminal suggestion, from her to him?!"

     And..."Why the hell was I there??"  LOL.

...To make it look like the two of them were not meeting each other?  For it to appear like casual socializing?

I was a college student at the time.  Casual socializing--"hanging out"--was a natural state-of-being in that era.

     Yes, I was in school.  But did I forget to take a course in Common Sense 101??  LOL.

     ...I was a kid, and they were grown-ups, and I just didn't have a very suspicious mind.

We're caught in a trap

I can't walk out...

-30-

Heaven's just a sin away

 

Heaven's just a sin away,

Oh-whoa, just a sin away

I can't wait another day,

I think I'm giving in

Though I'd love to hold you tight,

Oh-whoa, be with you tonight

But that still won't make it right

'Cause I belong to him

Oh-oh-whoa-way down deep inside

I know that it's all wrong

Your eyes keep tempting me,

And I never was that strong --

Oh devil's got me now,

Oh whoa, gone and got me now

I can't fight him anyhow,

I think he's gonna win

Heaven's just a sin away,

Oh oh-whoa, just a sin away

Heaven help me when I say

I think I'm givin' in...

[instrumental interlude]

Oh - whoa-oa way down deep inside

I know that it's all wrong

Your eyes keep tempting me

And I never was that strong

Devil's got me now,

Oh-whoa, gone and got me now

I can't fight him anyhow,

I think he's gonna win

Heaven's just a sin away,

Oh-whoa just a sin away

Heaven help me when I say --

I think I'm givin' in

Heaven's just a sin away,

Oh-whoa just a sin away

I can't wait another day,

I think I'm givin' in

Though I'd love to hold you tight,

Oh-oh-whoa, be with you tonight

But that still won't make it right

'Cause I belong to him

[repeat, fade out]

-----------------------------------------

{"Heaven's Just a Sin Away" written by Jerry Gillespie, recorded by The Kendalls}

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my attorney had taken his shirt off

 

-------------- [excerpt] -------------- We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.  I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive...."  

And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about 100 miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas.  And a voice was screaming:  "Holy Jesus!  What are these goddamn animals?"

     Then it was quiet again.  My attorney had taken his shirt off and was pouring beer on his chest, to facilitate the tanning process.  "What the hell are you yelling about?" he muttered, staring up at the sun with his eyes closed and covered with wraparound Spanish sunglasses.  "Never mind," I said.  "It's your turn to drive."

--------------------- [Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.  A savage journey to the heart of the American dream.  By Hunter S. Thompson.  Excerpt in Rolling Stone magazine, November 11, 1971.]

_____________________________

...But -- you aren't going to be able to know if the movie was well-executed or not until it's finished, and you watch it.  Yet they tell us the purpose of the "pitch" in the "pitch meeting" (where you say what the movie is about in one sentence, or something) is to communicate the idea, so that they can decide to give you the money to make your movie.  

     So if the idea isn't important, then how are you ever going to get your movie financed so they can see if it's "well-executed" or not?

     Movie business has kind of become like politics:  everyone is an expert, which means no one is an expert.  As William Goldman said, "Nobody knows anything."

     Another aspect to the Theory of the Pitch Meeting is the "High Concept" concept.  In the '90s, screenwriting books, articles, and speakers often emphasized "high concept" as being a category of movie that would sell well to the people who can finance it.  High concept meant the circumstances and challenges in the plotline were in some way extreme.  Like -- the characters are in outer space, or on the Titanic, or they rob banks....

     Since characters in The Crown are members of the British Royal Family, does that make it a "high-concept" series?

     They are not on the planet Mars.  But--the vast majority of humans are not in the British Royal Family, so their situations are unique and unusual.  (Extreme?)

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three of 'em in that marriage

 

When I watch The Crown on Netflix, I always learn something.  Lots of insights, and beautiful scenery and set design:  in this one scene, there were framed pictures on a wall, just all lined up--left to right, left to right--almost as if the wall was a printed page.

Very interesting-looking.

The show's pace, at times, is languid.  And it still holds your attention with the sheer power of the story and how well it is done.

     Was recently reading the Quora-thread of an L.A. film guy's answers to people's questions:  several times he invoked the phrase "well-executed" -- it isn't really the idea for a movie that's most important, he says, it's how well executed it is.

     (In which case, the "idea" would not mean anything--it would be the finished product that you would want to look at, to judge.

     The reason people ask film guys about "pitching ideas" is because there are many (many) books about screenwriting and filmmaking that tell us we are supposed to get good at "pitching ideas" in "pitch meetings."  And then if the studio likes your "pitch," they might "green-light" your movie....)

     Anyway--what makes The Crown great is, it's Very Well Executed.

     We already know the story.  British Royal Family--

the abdication

World War II

King George dies, so Elizabeth becomes Queen

Princess Margaret yadda yadda

Diana, yadda yadda...

You don't really watch it to learn the main story line, which you already know.  You watch it to see it unfold.  (And we learn some history along the way, of course.)

Robert Redford has said he encountered some resistance to making All the President's Men because "people already know what happened with Watergate."

     There's an episode of "The Bob Newhart Show" where Bob's watching a war movie late at night and his wife Emily wants him to turn it off and come to bed.  He says he has to see it to the end, and she informs him helpfully and firmly, "The Allies win."

     But see, we don't watch to find out who won; we watch to see it dramatized.  To see the impact of what happened.  To see those pictures all lined up on the Buckingham Palace wall.  To hear Claire Foy, horse-trading with Winston Churchill (played by John Lithgow) and pronouncing the word power, as "paah."

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eccentricities

 

Aahhh!  We're into a new month -- November!  And in this month we are going to see a sweeping, dramatic change in our lives, and that change will be due to --

Season 4 of The Crown coming on Netflix, November 15th!

With the actress Emma Corrin portraying Lady Diana Spencer!

It is just what we need.

     I checked on The Guardian site, to see their articles and reviews about this Netflix show...  Anything about the British royal family attracts a whole bunch of Reader Comments saying "we don't need a monarchy" and "they don't do anything, they are just the most effective benefits scroungers of all time" etc.

Here is a Comment from December 2017:

     Mick James ---------------- Facts don't have sell-by dates.  Britain is a constitutional monarchy, and this mode of government, although eccentric, has proved to be extremely stable--not just here but in Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and post-Franco Spain.

     Setting up a successful republic is quite difficult and requires a level of constitutional genius not normally found outside late 18th-century America.  And certainly not in 20-21st century Russia.

     It's a testimony to the Founding Fathers that they at least saw Trump coming but it's proving a very stern test of the Constitution.  And the American system is, I think we would all agree, far from perfect with eccentricities of its own.

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