Vernon Baker, RIP

Saw this link over at BlackFive--Vernon Baker the last surviving black American to have been awarded the MOH is dead at 90:
http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=19738.

Tibet Primer

Think Tibet is a land of mysticism and healing and a higher level of consciousness? Think again:
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/9187/. No, Tibetans are a lot like everyone else and they make good beer. No word in the article confirming if The Lama is a big hitter or not. Gunga la gunga.

Mel Down

It gets a little more interesting every day with the release of the "Gibson tapes." The latest is that Mel works in arson and fellatio in a single sentence:
http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2010/07/exclusive-audio-out-control-mel-gibson-says-hell-burn-down-house-after-demanding. Reading some of this stuff, the following has occurred to me:

1. He's lost his shit. Seriously in the driving his car off a cliff is the next step variety of shit losing.

2. Mel is a dick. But, he's sometimes an amusing dick. Not in his aggressively misogynistic moments but some fairly funny shit inadvertently comes out of his mouth.

3. Do not ever consort with a Russian chick. They'll drive you bat shit crazy at the least and stab you in the abdomen as a matter of common everyday procedure if they're more seriously inclined. It's a known fact they all carry knives and know how to use them. They will also steal your breath at night and can simultaneously carry off a challenging sex act while jotting down your American Express card number. Ruinous vixens all of them. Ask Mel.

4. I'll miss Mel at the movies. Whatever can be said about him, he was/is a true to life movie star. Christian Bale will have to take up the torch.

5. There's a Jodi Foster directed movie starring Mel that's apparently in post production. Those are surely some happy folks who backed that project. They should maybe take Mel's advice and just go ahead and burn the set and and the film and blow each other.

6. Why the mullet in "Braveheart," Mel? Otherwise, entertaining.

Blood Sports

A review of a book on bullfighting that, of course, includes Hemingway:
http://www.tnr.com/book/review/the-death-lovers. I got on a Hemingway kick about seven or eight years ago and read a bunch of his stuff, including "Death in the Afternoon" his celebrated story of the demise of a famous bullfighter. Overall, I understand why Hemingway was a pacesetter of sorts and I very much appreciate his unapologetic masculine take on life but I do think that his stuff is now a little dated. The "McComber" story is really my favorite as are his other works set on safari or hunting in North America. I wasn't much taken in by the bullfighting stuff, though I would love to attend a bullfight and hopefully not screw up too much in the way of correct bullfight etiquette--the Spaniards are fussy about all that and I respect them for it.

I've hunted most of my life, so I do have an appreciation or understanding of the death thing as it applies to the sport. I don't live to kill or any of that rot but once you've done it a fair amount and engaged in the whole endeavor, both before and after the shot, you do get a little better acquainted with the life and death process and, I think, are able to view mortality with some additional level of clarity. People who are ranchers and farmers or those who live close to the edge understand it all very, very well and are not beset by the angst of dying and I think that is a healthy thing. The one thing that they get is that all life lives at the expense of something else and that they are part of that. They also have enough respect for the life they take to not make a mockery of it. Bullfighting treads a line on that and you can rightly argue the cons of the sport but the ritual of it is compelling to enough knuckle draggers to keep it going. When I'm in Spain, I'll let you know how it comes out.

Doing Time

Sorry, I can't resist anything that has "Lesbian Prison Gangs" in its title:
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/07/13/lesbian-prison-gangs-waiting-hands-lindsay-lohan-report-says/?test=faces.

As for me, I watch the prison shows that you see on MSNBC--the ones that drum up revenue to offset the Olbermann/Maddow sit ins--and I'm quite certain that I want nothing to do with going to jail. None. Although I do like going to jail while having to play Monopoly; it saves me from landing on Pennsylvania Avenue or Park Place or wherever and paying rent and having to get into arguments as the game inevitably dissolves into bitterness with everyone finally pulling up stakes and going off in a huff to watch Chelsea Lately or--"Lockdown San Quentin" on MSNBC.

Nighthawks Examined Even More

Seems like Hopper's "Nighthawks" was all in his head:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/05/opinion/05moss.html?_r=1.

You see that kind a thing a lot in history--both ancient and recent--that we often invent a person who we either are uncertain of his actual character or significance or just make up one entirely. I read a piece this past weekend on "Spartacus" the rebel gladiator which pointed out that we really don't have much of anything as to who he actually was beyond the escaped leader of the slave revolt. Probably Kirk Douglas' film portrayal was as good a guess as any but then again, he could have been a psychopath with a fondness for murder and ceramics. No one really knows. He wasn't no band leader, though. That we're certain.

Mockingbird Examined

If you worship "To Kill a Mockingbird" in either its book or movie form, don't read this:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703561604575283354059763326.html. Barra just repeats what O'Connor and others have said for a long time--that the book isn't what it's cracked up to be, but try telling that to middle and high school English teachers--they love LOVE it--I'm pretty sure my kids had to read it in at least two grades lest they not be properly indoctrinated in the righteousness that is Atticus Finch. I suppose it could have been a lot worse--they didn't have to tote "Das Kapital" home that I recollect.

I've always liked the movie not so much for the story--it is simplistic--but more for the fairly good portrayal of some things Southern that are steadily disappearing; accents, manners, and certain ways that crackers go about doing and saying things. The kids in the movie did a pretty good job with their accents (sometimes that can ruin a scene or movie--see the child actor who played July Johnson's rural Arkansas son in "Lonesome Dove" who spoke with a notable Northern accent). Also, the actress who played the white trash woman who accuses the noble Tom of rape was very effective in her role--I've known some people that reminded me of her. The movie also has Duvall as Boo Radley (I think it was his first film role). Never a bad thing.