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Ava Gardner by Arnold Newman

M’s Gardner played Maxine Faulk in the film version of the Tennessee Williams play The Night of the Iguana (1964). As much as the dialog propels the story in this film as in most of Williams work there is actually more in the subtext then the actual narrative. Gardner’s Maxine makes Meredith in Grey’s Anatomy look like a novice lost in a Vegas casino, but if you’re looking for a character to invest some feelings, Maxine is really the most deserving. Her outer hedonist is just a mask for a woman who doesn’t simply want true love, she wants to believe that such a thing really exists. Until someone comes along to make her believe it does, she’ll just swim, dance, and enjoy some mindless companionship, thank you very much.

Gardner also played a small, but integral part as Ellie Holbrook in a political thriller called Seven Days in May (1964). It has become a kind of shorthand to say this movie is about a military take over of the government. Too simplistic, one of the heroes of the movie is Col. Martin ‘Jiggs’ Casey(Kirk Douglas). It was about some militaristic authoritarians on the far right that thought they knew more about what was good for America then the founding fathers and the American people. Made 42 years ago and still relevant.

The Treacherous Medium

    Susan Sontag’s On Photography was published in 1977, and it remains astonishingly incisive. It has been, rightly, immensely influential on other photography critics. And immensely influential, too, in setting the particularly reproachful tone of photography criticism. Look, for instance, at Sontag’s description of photography in the first chapter of the book, which establishes a voice, an attitude, an approach that is maintained throughout. Sontag describes photography as, among other things, “grandiose,” “treacherous,” “imperial,” “voyeuristic,” “predatory,” “addictive,” “reductive,” and “the most irresistible form of mental pollution.” A typical sentence reads, “The camera doesn’t rape, or even possess, though it may presume, intrude, trespass, distort, exploit, and, at the farthest reach of metaphor, assassinate—all activities that, unlike the sexual push and shove, can be conducted from a distance, and with some detachment.” Metaphor indeed! On Photography was written by a brilliant skeptic.

So, too, was Roland Barthes’s Camera Lucida, first published in France in 1980. Delicate and playful, this book is a love letter to the photograph. Barthes celebrates the quirky, spontaneous reactions that photographs can inspire—or at least the quirky, spontaneous reactions they inspire in him: “ A photograph’s punctum is that accident which pricks me (but also bruises me, is poignant to me).” Still, Camera Lucida is a very odd valentine, for Barthes describes photographers as “agents of Death” and the photograph as a “catastrophe”; also as “flat,” “platitudinous,” “stupid,” “without culture,” and—most unkind—‚ “undialectical.” The photograph “teaches me nothing,” Barthes insists: it “completely de-realizes the world of human conflicts and desires.”

It is not so much a matter of agreeing or disagreeing with Sontag about photography as much as painting and sculpture can also be “grandiose,” “treacherous,” “imperial,” “voyeuristic,” “predatory,” “addictive” and “reductive”.  Barthes may push it too far in the sense that the mass production of the camera makes the medium ultra egalitarian it is inevitable that out of the billions of photos that are taken that yes most of them will be “flat” and “without culture”. So what, paint by numbers kits avaibale to the masses in hobby stores doesn’t make paintiing as an art form “undialectical”. I want to think that photography can be art, but if I wanted to make the case that it wasn’t I wouldn’t start at its weakest point.

‘Flesh and Boners’ and Republican donors

 First there was Jeff Gannon, the gay prostitute and faux journo mysteriously given passes to White house press conferences. Then there was Mark Foley. But that one’s fresh in your mind.

The latest from Josh Marshall: “It turns out that the Republican National Committee is a regular recipient of political contributions from Nicholas T. Boyias, the owner and CEO of Marina Pacific Distributors, one of the largest producers and distributors of gay porn in the United States.”

The hypocrisy is frighteningly standard. The GOP’s in a bind. They need cultural conservative votes in order to win, yet they don’t give a flying f**k about their values, beliefs, or needs. As far as whom they take money from or what kind of lives their operatives and candidates lead, well, those are clearly of little to no concern.

Which is also why leaders like James Dobson, Tony Perkins and others are in danger of damaging their reputations, but good. Forced to shut their eyes to parts of the Republican Party they don’t agree with, they wind up making deals that compromise their ethics and values. When their followers get wise to the reality of politics, as they eventually will, it’ll take a herculean effort to patch things up. (emphasis mine)

This story reminds me of a pet theory. That conservatism and its practitioners make up not so much a legitimate political school of thought as much as a quasi-religion, and as such as reminds me of Thomas W. Higginson who observed, “All … religions show the same disparity between belief and practice, and each is safe till it tries to exclude the rest.” Republicans have become good at rationalizing that huge gap between what they say and what they actually do.

tram trip 

When we decide that something is beautiful or not that decision rests overwhelmingly with one sense, sight. Not a bad thing, millions of years of evolutionary trial and error has left mammals with an incredible tool. Though sight is not the only sensory tool we have to decide whether something has positive aesthetic qualities. Hearing of course. But what about the other “lower” senses like taste, touch, and smell. In other words can something taste, feel, or smell beautiful.  Reflections on an Aesthetics of Touch, Smell and Taste

 Aestheticians have also doubted that the so-called lower senses are able to achieve that structural complexity that would be required to sustain our attention over time. This objection, once raised by Harold Osborne for smells, was invalidated by the creators of fragrances, who emphasized the high number of components of each scent, as well as its multileveled structure and temporal development.

Some years ago I read that smelling something that reminded you of a person or event can bring back some of our most compelling and vivid memories. Perfumes and colognes are obvious choices, but suede jackets still bring back memories of a certain year of my life. Those memories in turn have an aesthetic value. Japanese honeysuckle and freshly cut grass always brings back memories of summer when I was a kid and my grandmother and grandfather. What scent, if you close your eyes and think about it bring back the most captivating memories for you?

 Blue jean dye kills cancer cells 

 The dye in your blue jeans could soon be used to kill cancer cells, say scientists.

UK researchers are employing tiny gold “nanoparticles”, 1/5000th the thickness of a human hair, to deliver the chemical compound directly into cancer cells, tearing them apart instantly.

The common dye found in blue jeans and ballpoint pens is called phthalocyanine and is a light-activated, or photosensitive, agent with cell-destroying properties.

This has been known for at least 15 years but, until now, scientists have not been able to successfully deliver it into cells; hence there’s no harm in wearing blue jeans.

In what I remember from my bio-chem classes one of the problems with any new drug treatment was getting the compound to be very specific so that it would not harm good cells or being able to switch the drug on and off. That they might be able to handle the second problem as regards phthalocyanine  with light is pretty amazing. And I thought my jeans just protected me from being uncomfortable while I surf the net

time and the city 

There was, before the invention of the transistor and television, but way after the invention of irritating self appointed pundits was a comic book hero called The Clock. What were his superpowers? Apparently the ability to play polo, wear a black mask and fight crime while wearing a very elegant tux. To read the comic use numbers at the bottom, the stuff on the side leads to a few other forgotten superheros.

There are many good things to say about city life. One of them is the lack of giant spiders, Video: “World’s Largest Spider” Stalks South American Jungles 

White Bread, Cinammon Toast

 Josh Marshall asks: What’s Bob Corker’s deal with Harold Ford’s sex life?”

I believe I can answer that, having seen a few Douglas Sirk movies in my time.

Bob Corker is gay. He may not know it yet, he may never know it, he may go to his sarcophagus wrapped in denial, but his fascination with Ford’s prowess and good looks gives him away, as does his political affiliation. All Republican political figures are gay, especially the men. When President Bush insists on kissing one bald head after another, the psychosexual symbolism speaks for itself. He’s planting his lips on big uncircumcised Kojak peckers. When Rush Limbaugh packs his Viagra and jets off on a tropical jaunt with the guys, it’s assumed there are saucy wenches awaiting him under the sultry palms, but I wonder–I wonder if it’s cabana boys making the hammock sway under the moonlight. Republican women–those masochistic saints–are more like Joan Allen playing Pat Nixon under layers of frosting, their rigid smiles forged by years of living a lie with a man infatuated with other men and too timid to take out a subscription to Details magazine, lest he be exposed. [ the rest at the link ]

To those that would take offense at Wolcott’s little satire, a reminder of some book titles written by conservatives: Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism, Deliver Us from Evil : Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism,  and In Defense of Internment: The Case for ‘Racial Profiling’ in World War II and the War on Terror 

Speaking of books this one is actually worth reading, How Would a Patriot Act? Defending American Values from a President Run Amok by Glenn Greenwald

m’s imbruglia tattoo larger

Natalie Imbruglia’s profile on Wikipedia.

Other recordings

In 1999 Natalie released the single “Identify,” considered by many fans to be among her best recordings despite its relative obscurity. Written by Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins fame, the dark, brooding song — an artistic departure for Natalie —appeared only on a CD single and on the soundtrack for the movie Stigmata.

Personal Causes

Natalie has campaigned to end poverty and to bring attention to the disease known as fistula, defined as an abnormal connection or passageway between organs or vessels that normally do not connect.

There are 7 tips at the link. Chris Ullrich does a very nice job of covering everything from concept to script to contracts, hiring actors and post production. Of course no blog post can tell you everything you want to know or need to know, but it is a good place to start. This is not just a blogger pretending to know more then he does Ullrich has experience producing films. B or C films, but films never the less. Just some highlight quotes from Tips for the Indie Filmmaker

1. Keep it simple – Sure, a film about World War II featuring the invasion of Normandy like Saving Private Ryan or a movie where the climax takes place on top of the Empire State Building like King King or a film with thousand of computer generated soldiers like The Lord of the Rings might seem like exciting projects, and they are just not within your budget….

get your mind wrapped around the idea of planning ahead.

Get it in writing –

A good actor can make a poorly written script come alive and turn your stale dialog into prose worthy of Aaron Sorkin or David Mamet. Well, I might be exaggerating a little there but even so, SAG actors have been vetted and in many cases are more professional

Post-production is the clean-up, and has saved more films than I can count…

And one last bit for the day, Army Blocking Soldiers In Iraq From Reading Progressive Websites, Fringe Right Websites Allowed

As most visitors here can tell I’m of the old fashioned American values Bill of Rights school. That means that among other things I’m not big on censorship. If these conservatives are so right about everything, what are they afraid of. Are they afraid that TPM will expose the troops to the truth about Republican corruption that have directly affected the effectiveness of the war in Iraq and the fight against terrorism? Or that the Huffington Post or DailyKos will pull back the curtain and expose the almost daily hypocrisy of conservatives and the untold ways conservatives are hurting America to our troops? Stalin would be proud. By any definition this kind of censorship is just plain cowardice.