Weather's a little chilly this morning, but it'll warm soon. Starting to plan my days with outside work. I may start swamping out that nasty pond in the backyard today.I ordered some fertile duck eggs to hatch. I have a plexiglass "house" I found in the garbage. I was using it for a greenhouse for herbs in winter. I cleaned it out yesterday. Today, I'll seal cracks in the floor with silicone. Tomorrow, I'll install the eggs, on a bed of alfalfa hay, under a heat lamp, in the house. Hopefully, Lucky, my Pekin drake, will have some chums and girlfriends. He's pecked my hens bald and he terrorizes the roosters.
We watched a GREAT movie last night, "Deadline" with John Hurt. Ma found it in the dollar DVD bin at Smith's grocery. We're going to buy some more for some friends, if we can find it. Rent it if you can. It's extremely topical these days. Hurt plays a British, freelance journalist in an Arabic country, about to turn fundamentalist. It's a great portrayal. I asked Ma if he was disabled, he was so convincing! You gotta get it! It's in the tradition of "Broadcast News," "Good Night and Good Luck" and "Salvador." You GOTTA see it!!!
Hurt played Mr. Haden, the billionaire, in "Contact." He was in a strange, little movie with Christina Richie called "Miranda," which I taped off UPN the other day (THAT's an excellent movie, too, by the way). He also played "The Elephant Man," which Ma and I really want to rent from Intelliflix to see again.
We get Intelliflix 'cuz it's only a hundred bucks a year, three movies out at a time, no late fees, good selection. We had Netflix, but I was anxious, waiting for movies to arrive. And it costs about five bucks more each month.
Intelli has all the usual rentals, and a good selection. They also have GOOD Queer movies and EXCELLENT documentaries. Netflix does, too.
We also watched "The Santa Fe Trail," with Ronald Reagan playing George Custar (how's that for typecasting?) and Errol Flynn. They're West Point graduates, 1854 class. They're stationed at Ft. Leavenworth, KA (the "last outpost of civilization"), trying to stop John Brown and the abolitionists from "terrorizing" the white supremacists. Kansas was a territory back then; there was great controversy as to whether it would enter the Union as free or slave.
All the main characters from West Point would end up on opposing sides' leadership during the Civil War.
The Blacks were portrayed VERY badly: stepnfetchit, Mammy... I told Ma, there's nothing I can do about 1940s Hollywood, but I don't begrudge the Black actors; they earned a paycheck.
John Brown was portrayed as half-crackpot, half-visionary (which he probably was). There was substantial revisionist history in it. His son is wounded and taken into custody by the Cavelry. We're supposed to believe they "rescued" him, of course. At first, he denies knowledge of his father's whereabouts. Later, he has a change of heart and confides to the female love interest of the flick where his father's hideout is. Then, he conveniently dies. I'm thinking the FACTS might be: He was captured; he refused to tell his interrogators anything; they tortured it out of him; he died as a result. He was fifteen.
It's interesting, really. Ma's from Kansas. We're working on a documentary about the Santa Fe Trail, from here back to Kansas.
Reagan was typecast as an awshucks, arrogant ass. Custer to a "T"
Well, it's warming up outside and I'm dawdling. Gotta put on my good gardening shoes and get out there. Ma's working on a radio drama she's producing for a class project at the university. She'll be at her office all day, editing sound.
I'm outtie. Have a bodacious day.Santa Fe Trail
Deadline
Miranda
No comments:
Post a Comment