A bit less of everything...

...is how I would describe the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie. The acting wasn't as good, the writing wasn't as good, Johnny Depp wasn't as bizarre, Keira Knightley wasn't as pretty, etc. It was okay. I knew it wasn't as good as the first one going in, but that's okay.

When you have a movie with special effects like the first one, it's almost a given that the makers will feel they have a duty to outdo themselves in that regard for the sequel. This is no exception. Undead warriors from the first are replaced by sea creature men in the second. Even when I tried to pay attention to them, I didn't really notice.

Deadwood is on, and it's just so damn good. Last weeks episode had two great speeches. One when Merrick was reading Bullock's letter to the murdered Cornishman's family, and the second when Blazanov raged against Hearst's having his foreign workers murdered. Good stuff.

I recently watched Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, which was the basis for the sitcom Alice, something I hadn't known before. Mostly because I had no idea what the movie was about in the first place. But once I saw Vic Tayback working the kitchen, it flashed into my head. I really liked that TV show.

I also watched A Night at the Opera, a Marx Brothers movie from 1935. Fantastic. The talent that each of those guys possessed is really extraordinary. Chico playing the piano might be my favorite scene.

All My Teams

It's a rare day when my favorite teams in two different sports play on the same day. Cubs, Saints, LSU, USA. Not necessarily in that order. But since the Cubs just ended a weekend series in DC, and the US Women beat Ireland 5-0 this afternoon, it got me to thinking about why I cheer for the teams I do.

The Cubs are in my DNA. They're in my bones and my skin and my hair and all those things. I didn't choose them any more than I chose my fingernails or kneecaps. If I didn't love the Cubs, I wouldn't be me. The fact that they never win is irrelevant.

I did choose LSU and the Saints. It may have been an easy choice based on the fact that they're from Louisiana, but it was still a choice.

"USA" is a rather specific category. My favorite national team is the US Women's soccer team. I started following them umpteen years ago when I read about this 14 year old girl playing at the international level. It was American soccer, and we were actually good. So a championship team in the sport that I played was really appealing. They became my brain and my heart. They play with passion and desire and love for each other. Out of all the teams I call mine, they're the most fun to cheer for.

They say that in "The Tempest", Caliban represents the unconscious mind. The inner anger and uncontrolled passion of men. This is what LSU and the Saints are. The wildest emotions and rages are present, especially at the college level. Getting to scream at the TV when things go well or badly is a great stress reliever. It's also a good way to be pissed off for an entire week if your team loses.

It's a Beautiful Day for Baseball

Here are the good things about going to see the Cubs play the Nationals today:

1) I get to see the Cubs.
2) It's hot outside, but I'm in the shade.
3) Aramis Ramirez hit two more home runs, which gives him four in the last two games. All really hammered.
4) Seeing LSU alum Todd Walker in person. I last saw him hit a grand slam in Alex Box Stadium in the College World Series.
5) Singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in the 7th inning stretch and hearing thousands of Cubs fans drown out the Nats fans with "root, root, root for the CUBBIES"

Here are the bad things:

1) Seeing Neifi Perez take the field in person. I'm pretty sure he's the most useless offensive player the Cubs have ever had.
2) Watching Phil Nevin start over Matt Murton.
3) Watching the Cubs lose.
4) Watching Alex Escobar beat the Cubs for the second game in a row. Alex. Escobar.

Just Try to Ignore the Fact That They're Nazis

I watched Cabaret recently, which was okay. I was expecting a bit more. The thing I remember most is the song "Tomorrow Belongs to Me". In the movie, it is sung in a picnic setting, started off by a member of the Hitler Youth and joined in by most of the crowd. At first you just see the kid's face, and he's the picture-perfect young Aryan man. Then you see the brown shirt and the armband and the uniform and get the full picture. But the song is great. It starts out going on about nature and the trees and the rivers and "the blossom embraces the bee". Then it goes into "Arise, arise!" and "Fatherland, fatherland, send us the sign" type stuff. But it sounds fantastic. So if you can ignore the fact that all this is a prelude to the rise of Hitler and everything that came with it*, it's really good.

*Note: You can't really ignore it.

I've gone through a lot of movies recently, probably too many to do a post on each one. So I'll run through some of them real quick.

Tom Jones: boring except for maybe the last twenty minutes.
The Greatest Show on Earth: Not bad. Charlton Heston is good. Shows a lot of the circus acts and what it takes to put the show on.
Out of Africa: Really good. Depressing, but good. Meryl Streep and Robert Redford are good. Streep nominated for Best Actress.
Oliver!: A little dull for me. Picked up towards the end. But the song about buying roses was a great one.
Three Days of the Condor: A good thriller. Redford and Dunaway go well together. I may have mentioned before that I was very pleasantly surprised by Dunaway when I watched Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown. She's good in this one too. And let me just say this about Redford: he's always good. Even if the movie is crap, Redford is good.
Capote: Just finished it tonight. I don't care too much about the story, but if you ever see old footage of Truman Capote and then watch Philip Seymour Hoffman, you'll be mightily impressed (same thing with Denzel Washington in Malcolm X. He was robbed of an Oscar that year by Al Pacino in the utterly wretched Scent of a Woman. Can't stand that movie).

Watching True Grit right now, then it's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. And then the fun begins, with four episodes of MST3K on the way.

To finish, I'll check to see if my good friend Geneva Marney is still paying attention. Hey Neva, if you've got a movie recommendation or two, send them my way.

Paradise Lost

The epic poem by Milton mentions four rivers that flow out of the lake that the fallen angels were cast into after their revolt against Heaven failed. Styx, the river of hate. Acheron, the river of sorrow. Cocytus, the river of lamentation. Phelgethon, the river of rage. I feel like I'm swimming in all four right now.

A few weeks ago I was at Sign of the Whale, and a couple of the patrons told me that the place had been sold. They didn't know when things might start to change, but they guessed around August. Now the Washington Post gives us this story, announcing that the bar has been bought by Mike O'Meara from the Don and Mike Show. "Look for an Irish pub makeover." they say. Because God knows DC doesn't have any of those.

It's almost enough to make me believe in reincarnation, and that I did some pretty terrible things in a past life. However, I've done enough terrible things in this life to believe that God is punishing for my sins by taking away my favorite place within about a thousand miles. Probably not the truth, but I'm not in the mood for reason and clear thinking right now.

Milton also mentions a stream called Lethe, the waters of oblivion. Anyone who enters this stream loses all care for the world or themselves. The concerns of life are no longer theirs. They will go through life uncaring, unfeeling, without opinion or desire for the world around them. I'm hoping that's not on the horizon.

New Orleans at the Folklife Festival

I was glad to learn that musicians from New Orleans would be at the Folklife Festival this year. I was excited to read that one of them would be Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, the leader of the Golden Eagles Mardi Gras Indians. I saw him at the Jazz Fest a few years ago and really liked the show. The best part of it was actually the crowd. He was on a big stage in front of a big open grassy area. The crowd set up reminded me of an army encampment. People staking out spots needed a way to let their friends know where they were, so there were dozens of tall poles with flags and pennants and symbols and colors and all that. It was quite a sight to see.

Also on display last night was a great guitar player. He was pretty incredible.

After the Chief got through with his set, we got to see the Hot 8 Brass Band. They were a lot younger than I thought they'd be. I was expecting older men in their 40s and 50s. The oldest were in their early 40s, and most were mid- or late-20s. However old they were, they were fantastic. They played 7 or 8 songs, had the crowd going, did a second line towards the end, did an encore, sweated up a storm, and were just terrific through and through. I wish they were performing again.

A couple of years ago when Scotland was at the Festival, they had Fiddler's Bid perform on more than one day (if memory serves me correctly).

RAN

Before we get started, let me say that one of the great things about any holiday weekend in America is the Twilight Zone marathon that comes on the SciFi channel. Fan-freaking-tastic. God bless America.

Ran is a movie based on King Lear, directed by Akira Kurosawa. Lord Hidetora Ichimonji decides to bequeath control of his family estate to the eldest of his three sons. Alas, they decide to use their new status to get rid of him (spurred on by the treacherous Lady Kaede, whose family was destroyed by Hidetora. Actors you've heard of: probably none, unless you grew up in Japan.

In basketball and golf, you hear announcers talk about a player's shotmaking ability. That's all I could think about watching Ran. Some of the shots Kurosawa puts together are really terrific. Lord Hidetora sitting alone in a burning castle under siege. The siege itself. Hidetora's face whenever life throws another flaming bag of poo in his lap by having his sons turn against him or another one of his companions murdered in front of his eyes. Every single battle scene. It's all wonderfully put together. Monumentally depressing, but really well done.