Another one of THOSE days. Time for some basketball then off to bed.
Open Thread
by John Cole| 50 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
by John Cole| 50 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Another one of THOSE days. Time for some basketball then off to bed.
Comments are closed.
cathyx
There’s no link on the word THOSE. How are we supposed to know what you mean?
Higgs Boson's Mate
@cathyx:
Nude mopping? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Baud
@cathyx:
Glenn Kessler gives John four pinocchios for this post.
Omnes Omnibus
@cathyx: He was probably thinking about boobs.
Comrade Mary
You, Rosie, Lily, Tunch: that’s only four. You can’t even field one team, John.
Is this another dinner party?
cathyx
@Omnes Omnibus: If that were the case, then he would have said ‘Another day’.
eemom
Basketball already? You barely finished football. Haven’t you people ever heard of a palate cleanser?
Omnes Omnibus
@Comrade Mary: Tunch counts as two.
Suzanne
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: As long as it’s not two wetsuits and a dildo. This here is a family-friendly blog.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne:
People keep using that sentence. I do not think it means what you think it means.
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Tunch is not fat, he is floofy.
dance around in your bones
I don’t know what happened to you, dude, but lately I have alot of THOSE days.
So I commiserate.
Just to balance things out, I was just served a wonderful dinner in my room, so perhaps I …. whine too damn much.
P.S. Watching Bonnie and Clyde for the first time in about a gazillion years. On TMC, for those who are interested. It blew me away many years ago.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodinger’s cat: PotAYto, potAHto.
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus: He is not either of those, he is majestic feline, he is Downton Tabby.
dance around in your bones
Also, why do people (i.e. Bonnie and Clyde) think carrying a mattress in front of them would protect them from bullets? Duh.
I guess it (a mattress) might come in handy (MAYBE) in an earthquake, but bullets?
schrodinger's cat
Reposting from an almost dead open thread below.
Speaking of amnesty. I am not sure whether this has been posted here before.
An answer to the question
Note: I think there have been some minor changes in this after Sept 11, 2001, in that the path for some potential immigrants has gotten even more convoluted. But gives a good idea of what legal immigration entails.
J. Michael Neal
I just got done writing 5,000 words that will never appear in the novel because it’s a conversation between two characters without the PoV protagonist anywhere around. That’s a lot of work to make sure I’m comfortable with where the relationship between two characters ends up even though neither of them is the one the story is actually about.
Raven
@dance around in your bones: Harder to get a clear shot if you can’t see the target.
dance around in your bones
@J. Michael Neal: I really admire you for plugging away at your writing.
Keep it up, even the parts that don’t get into the book.
Omnes Omnibus
@J. Michael Neal: IIRC Hemingway worked that way. He would write pages as he worked out the characters, and then he would cross out everything prior to where he thought the “real” story started.
J. Michael Neal
@Omnes Omnibus: Meh. I turned most of the stuff prior to when the story started into flashbacks.
dance around in your bones
@Raven: But they (B&C) are coming out of a house that is clearly being targeted by law enforcement directly against Bonnie and Clyde (and their cohorts).
So how does the mattress help stop the bullets? Seems like they would go through it like butter.
Anyway, the whole movie goes downhill from here. Might have to stop watching before I get too depressed (like with Sonny at the tollbooth in the Godfather, even if he WAS a jerk).
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Rachel Maddow says Keith Ablow, foxnews psychiatrist and Glenn Beck co-author, is willing to run for John Kerry’s seat
My favorite of these Keith Ablow headlines
schrodinger's cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: He should get 27% of the vote.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@dance around in your bones: aw, c’mon! Some of Brando’s best scenes are after that, his conversation with Duval, calling in his favor at the funeral home, the big meeting with all the dons, “I am a superstitious man”
dance around in your bones
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
You’re right, I guess I was just equating the machine-gun multiple shots slo-mo kiling scene in Bonnie and Clyde with that Sonny gets dead scene in the Godfather.
I’d actually rather watch GF one and two any day than B&C. GF three? not so much.
ETA: Here we go, the big shoot-em-up scene in B&C. I guess the torment is over. THE END.
I DO remember it being rather shocking back in the day.
J. Michael Neal
@dance around in your bones: I’m not much of a fan of the Godfather movies. I like Goodfellas a lot more. Then again, I have a general preference for Scorcesi over Coppola.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Win.
I am tired and I want to drive over to my co-worker’s house and punch her in the face.
dance around in your bones
@J. Michael Neal: I will watch Goodfellas anytime I run across it on the TV machine.
But Coppola has had some great movies – Apocalypse Now, Outsiders, Rumblefish and many others.
I am a huge Scorsese fan, too, starting with Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and – well, too many to name.
danielx
@Suzanne:
News to me, Cole must have kicked Sarah Proud and Tall off the front page.
Also, too – The Following is one creepy-ass show.
J. Michael Neal
@dance around in your bones: I’m not a huge fan of any of those Coppala movies. All interesting but all (except maybe Rumblefish, which I haven’t seen) flawed by an immense pomposity that I take as Coppola’s inherent style. At least Francis; I love his daughter’s style in Lost in Translation.
Omnes Omnibus
@J. Michael Neal: I loved Lost in Translation, but The Virgin Suicides really didn’t do it for me.
dance around in your bones
@J. Michael Neal: Well, I respect your opinion although I do not share it.
I still think it’s great that you are working hard on your writing. I wish I could get my butt in gear to do the same, so kudos to you!
J. Michael Neal
@Omnes Omnibus: Didn’t see The Virgin Suicides so I can’t comment.
Omnes Omnibus
@J. Michael Neal: I found it too slow and too oriented on being atmospheric.
J. Michael Neal
I think my big problem with The Godfather is that it’s told in a way that indicates that we’re supposed to be sympathizing with Michael Corleone. I find that idea so repellant that I find the movie off-putting. No matter how majestic the moviemaking is, it has a bottomless hollow at its heart that reveals something horribly wrong with the people making it.
Omnes Omnibus
@J. Michael Neal: The person I sympathize with in the Godfather is Vito. I see Vito’s sons as all being lacking in something that Vito had. Michael had the brain, but not the personal touch. Sonny had charisma, but lacked brains and patience. Of course, Fredo simply lacked.
eemom
@J. Michael Neal:
um, exactly what about it gives you that idea?
Not the final scenes where he’s reciting the baptism prayers interposed with the brutal murders he’s ordered, I assume? Or where he lies to his wife’s face after telling her she can ask for the truth?
Maybe you need to see the movie again.
J. Michael Neal
@Omnes Omnibus: I have trouble sympathizing with Vito, too. At the end of the day I have trouble getting past the fact that he’s a mobster. I don’t have a problem, necessarily, with stories in which the protagonist is also a bad guy; as I said, I like Goodfellas. What I have a problem with is storytelling in which we’re supposed to accept such a protagonist as being the good guy. The ethic underlying The Godfather is repugnant. I can respect the craft that went into Birth of a Nation without thinking that the movie overall is good. I feel the same way about The Godfather.
eemom
@Omnes Omnibus:
GF II is the superior film, imo.
dance around in your bones
@J. Michael Neal:
You didn’t find it weirdly compelling that a young man who did his best to resist what he also thought of as a repulsive family business was eventually sucked into it (and later, “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in”) ?
Putting aside the weird family business, it’s a great family tale, I think.
J. Michael Neal
@eemom: My problem is that Michael Corleone has already been portrayed as the guy we’re supposed to root for. By the time the scenes you describe come along, it’s too late to establish the character.
J. Michael Neal
@dance around in your bones: No, I found it weirdly repulsive.
dance around in your bones
@J. Michael Neal: Ok.
All I can say is that was a great suite of moviemaking. YMMV and you are quite entitled to your opinion. I loved watching The Sopranos w/o supporting or endorsing mob activity.
cmorenc
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
Nude mopping to clean up some sort of mess his Jack Russell Terrier Rosie probably made. But John will forgive her…tomorrow.
J. Michael Neal
@dance around in your bones: I avoided watching The Sopranos for exactly that reason.
dance around in your bones
@J. Michael Neal:
I have a friend who didn’t want to watch Nurse Jackie because she had encountered too much addiction in her family – but it is still a great show, IMHO.
We all choose what we watch based on our own personal reasons, so I can respect that.
Mnemosyne
@J. Michael Neal:
I think you missed the construction of the story: Michael’s character arc is that he goes from being a good guy (heroic decorated soldier back from WWII) to being an evil gangster who cold-bloodedly orders the murders of his enemies while his child is being baptized.
It’s the exact inverse of the usual hero’s journey from selfish man to hero — Michael goes from being a hero to being a villain.
YellowJournalism
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t feel sorry for Cito that his sons were lacking. I feel sorry because he was lacking in something that may have made a difference in his sons. A different father would have been able to guide Sonny into a goal that rewarded his charisma and taught him patience. A better father would have nurtured Michael’s goodness and virtue, lettin him find his own path rather than follow his father down a dark road.
But Fredo would still have been a fuck-up. No turning that around. Jut give him love, because every family has one.
YellowJournalism
@YellowJournalism: that really should say Vito. Damn the mobile site for not letting me edit!