Molly at Corriganville

We took a hike in the hills of Corriganville yesterday, where many B Westerns were shot over the years. What I saw on my dog walk today was like a cheap movie.

I was walking Molly across CSUN to the post office on this hot hot afternoon. I tried to stay on the shady side of the street. As we were getting near Reseda Blvd. I saw two guys punching each other in the middle of the street and yelling at each other, as cars zipped around them. I've never seen people punch each other before. It's not the sound you hear in the movies.

I moved into a shadier area thinking I wanted to be out of any line of fire. But I kept watching. There were two other guys also watching the action, one on a skateboard, one with a backpack.

A car drove up really fast and a second guy jumped out and joined in the fight, then two of them got in the car and drove off really fast on the wrong side of the street, straight through two stop signs, heading into the campus, with cars slamming on brakes all around them.

The guy who was still on foot was catching his breath curbside. He looked like his name could be Duane: good looking skinny guy with sideburns and a Western shirt, sleeves rolled up. He said, "God damn they stole from my store." He worked, or managed Rite Aid on the corner. No sooner had he said this than cops converged from all directions. Only a beat after that and there was a helicopter over head!

The victim held his hand out for the cops as they pulled up to show them the license number he'd written on his palm! The guy on the skateboard said, "It was a 1992 4 door Toyota Corolla heading east and they drove through two stop signs. " The guy with the backpack was the one who'd dialed 911. I was just the ninny with the police dog who watched from the bushes.

The first wave of cop cars was off after them.

Another cop car pulled up and the nervous looking officers jumped out convinced that the victim was the criminal. Everyone had to put hands up. (Well, I didn't.) They couldn't decide if the story was true or not. I said to one cop, "It's true what they're saying." I was amazed how detailed the description was that the skateboard guy gave. He had long dark hair and sunglasses, with a funny hat on.

The backpack guy said to Duane, "Hey man, you should have told me you were p.a." What does that mean? The backpack guy had picked up the stuff that was dropped by the thieves and gave it back to the guy.

As I was walking back a CSUN professor on a bicycle stopped to admire Molly and I told her what had just happened. "Citizenry in action" she declared, and said she was going to tell the whole story to her students.

We stopped so Molly could take a swim in the koi pond, then headed home.

Reading Manly Men Bios!

Ha, got you there! While I was in New Jersey I read Robert Mitchum's biography, "Baby, I Don't Care." What a character, this big sexy coolster, part Norwegian, part Indian, smarter than anyone would expect and hard to define. The book is a bit long (500+ pp) but you think about him long after it's done. One of the things people remembered about him the most, aside from his "I don't care" bohemianism, and his incredible face, was that he was a great story teller.

Last summer I was really intrigued by Raoul Walsh's autobiography,"Each Man in his Time" . As a child his parents entertained famous Broadway actor of the day Edwin Thomas Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth whom Walsh was later to play in The Birth of a Nation (1915). They lived on a farm somewhere near Harlem and entertained all the most famous people of their day it seemed.

Being an autobiography, this book had a lot more insight into the life of a man who traveled with and filmed Pancho Villa in Mexico, and had stories that were just breathtaking. He didn't seem happy except when he was making a movie. He was a director for 50+ years!

Robert Mitchum and Raoul Walsh intersect briefly in the 40's.

What got me thinking was this: both men were known for being great story tellers, both men were major figures in Hollywood history. Who's a great story teller anymore? Movies today have so little story line. People today rarely tell stories in social situations. Hmm, is there something here?

And that's actually the point of this post. I got to thinking.

Governors Awards 2009

Roger Corman being toasted by Ron Howard. There were many toasts all night- something new they were trying. whew *****

Last night was the big Hollywood party at the Kodak Theatre. Since I don't have a point and shoot mini camera, I thought the cel phone would serve the trick for taking pictures. But it doesn't have flash, and half the time I forgot to click save anyway. My two pictures weren't worth posting. I found the one above on line. I was sitting right behind the woman on the right with the helmet hair.

It was an outstanding evening, written up in the L.A. Times. The food, catered by Wolfgang himself, was choice, particularly the appetizers "passed by butlers". These included tiny crabcakes, slices of Kobe beef with horseradish sauce served on a potato slice, teenser duck rolls tied with some kind of vegetable string, tuna in a cookie like cone (all these minitature) and champagne provided by Moet and Chandon.

We got there exceptionally early- fine with me-I got to sample all the appetizers. Others were letting the fancy trays pass by but I considered it a special opportunity to eat as much as I could. Besides, I got food poisoning at a Wolfgang Puck restaurant once. I had to prove him wrong. Once the crowd got roaring there wasn't much to be had. I saw Morgan Freeman sitting on the couch I'd just gotten up from. I saw Lauren Bacall pass right by looking beautiful. A woman I know asked me to hold her shawl which looked like a bathroom rug. I made a point of finding her again so I didn't have to take it into dinner with me.

We sat at the table just behind Roger Corman. Here's my take on the evening:

The lively speakers were Quentin Tarantino, Jonathan Demme, Roger Corman, Lauren Bacall, and Gordon Willis. Willis (who shot the Godfather movies), said, "Every time I worked with a beautiful actress I think she was worried I'd make her look like Marlon Brando. I just want them all to know they don't have to worry anymore."

Looking great at the awards were Roger Corman & family, Lauren Bacall, Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson (no girl friend, no sunglasses, big smiles)

Lookin like a zombie: Peter Bogdanovich.
Most pompous speaker (no surprise) : Tom Hanks.
Angleica Huston presented the award to Lauren Bacall. They had family ties that went way back. Holding her Oscar, Ms. Bacall said that she was just happy to have a "two legged man" to bring home with her.

Tied for most boring speakers: Mr. and Mrs. Warren Beatty.

At the end of this SIX HOUR affair, they gave the Irving Thalberg award to John Calley who was too ill to attend. In the process they brought up all the previous award winners including Walter Mirisch, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Saul Zaentz, Norman Jewison, Warren Beatty and Dino de Larentiis. All of them have white hair and gray beards and are about the same size, except for Beatty. Looked like Snow White and the seven dwarves!

Dessert, for those who like to know these things, was "Chocolate Tear Drop filled with White Chocolate Mousse and Fresh Cherries." (though they were actually raspberries.) Very tasty!

Oh, and as for my outfit etc. I got my makeup done for the first time ever. Geez it took a long time. Do women spend 45 minutes every day to do themselves?

Here's the before picture:


I was sitting in a high chair with my eyes closed. When the makeup artist said, "Now open" I got confused and opened my mouth- halfway thinking I was at the dentist. I could tell she thought I was a nut. She asked me what I was wearing, and I said, "It's vintage." She said, "It's SPINACH?" okay so who's the nut here!



always looking my best out by the trash cans!



looks like I just sucked on one of those lemons on the ground. My stockings were navy and silver sparkly herringbone.

Sunset Strip

We get some beautiful sunsets up here. I discovered if I set the auto to ISO it catches the light better.

Speaking of sunsets, last night we watched "Richard Pryor Live on Sunset Strip." What a brilliant and funny guy. It was released in 1982, so it was interesting that they cut away to Jesse Jackson in the audience several times, also to Alan Alda.

Lizard Head

There's a famous rock formation around here called Lizard Head. This isn't it. The famous Lizard Head is just a big block on a giant one- for years I thought the head had already fallen off. And then just walking along the Galloping Goose trail I came upon this beauty. Hey there Lizard Head!

We saw "The Hurt Locker" in Telluride last night. Wow, two films in a theatre, two nights in a row, and both directed by women! (Julie and Julia the night before.)

I liked "The Hurt Locker" ever so much better, though I could have done without all the handheld photography. It's a suspense movie set in Iraq. The lead, Jeremy Renner, has a touch of Russell Crowe and a touch of Elvis. wooh!

However, it resulted in nightmares in which I was pleading to exchange Farmville points for a "get out of the army now" pass as we marched over the Colorado mountains to Sawpit.

How's yer Mall?

Talking to an L.A. friend today who owns a theatre in a mall in Riverside. His theatre is bedevilled by gangs, who scratch their gang names in the bathroom mirrors and shove seats loose from the concrete floor.

He said he thinks commercial real estate could be the next financial bomb in the country, said that if a mall is only 15 % vacant it's doing really well, said boutiques, karate parlors and restaurants are going belly up in a hurry.

Have YOU been to a local mall lately? Is your mall looking a little lonesome?

I was puzzling over what would become of empty malls. And all those gang members. Then it came to me, of course. The new prisons! Just what Arnold's been asking for. It's already hard to get into underground parking lots- just fence them off. (Reminder to self: contact Lou Dobbs in morning.) jk

We saw "Julie and Julia" tonight. I was squirming. I am such an intolerant contemporary film viewer. The cuteness was gagging me. Besides, I have tried to cook from that cookbook and it is not easy and sometimes impossible, with ingredients like goose fat and procedures sure to make you ill. Amy whatever is not someone I enjoy listening to, the blogging delights made me mighty uncomfortable, and though Meryl Streep seemed great and reminded me of old relatives, she was also starting to remind me of Bozo the Clown.

A Grouse and a Guest

The grouse was in the driveway. The guest came to stay last night. He didn't grouse and he wasn't grouchy. He's moving back to Connecticut after years in L.A. in the movie business. This was a stop along the way. I baked a very nice peach pie.

Web Site Story

Still another creative take on West Side Story. Hope the embed works!

The Star

Where did this come from? This drive-in is in Montrose and is still up to date and functioning. You could tell from the look of the snack bar that it was an old drive-in. We only saw it because we took a wrong turn and were cruising past all the sad half built subdivisions with fancy names.

We've been coming to Montrose for groceries for about 25 years. We never knew there was a drive-in here. It was like something in a dream, the room you didn't know about.

Big River Man

Don't click on it, it's just a feeble screen shot. I have a hard time with screen shots on this laptop.

Yesterday at the Mountain Film Festival we saw an extraordinary film, Big River Man, about an obsessive Slovokian guy who swam the Amazon River from one side of the continent to the other. A strange character to say the least, but very appealing and very overweight, he drank two bottles of wine a day sometimes while swimming. Near the end of his journey he became totally delusional, but he's back in shape again and contemplating a new project. He was on stage with his son after the screening. If you ever have a chance to see this film, I highly recommend it.
The trailer for the film is embedded in Flash so I can't post it here, but you may enjoy poking around the site. I couldn't stop thinking about it last night and today.

On the way down our road into town to see a Ken Burns documentary on the National parks, Part 4, a bobcat strolled in front of the car. Highlight of the day. I reached for the camera but by that time Molly had started her barking and the bobcat took off.

I get pretty restless with Ken Burns, in fact wondered afterwards why I said I'd go see that one. The slow zooms in and out on still photos, the ponderous voice of Peter Coyote, the period appropriate but spiritless music. whew I was glad when that ended.

Looking for my Missing Cult

whew, hope I don't pick up that telephone when it rings! Might be Werner Erhard!

This self portrait was taken in a motel room in Sarasota Florida at a very far out film "festival" around 1981. A wealthy young guy invited a small group of artist filmmakers to come to his motel for a goofy get together. Films were projected on a raft on the gulf. We were all supposed to get along, as Rodney King might have said.

It was awkward, it was fun, it was weird. It was all paid for by the host. Southwest Florida at that time was a very sleepy place, strictly seniors and locals and miniature golf. 16mm films. SERIOUS artistes in a silly place. Films you'd watch and try not to look back at the projector to see how much more was still on the reel.

Francis Coppola is 70

I heard on the radio today that Francis Ford Coppola was 70. Made me think back to this party I got to go to 30 years ago for his 40th. My friend Diana Pellegrini got me invited, because she was working for him as an assistant sound editor. The guy with the flat rear end in khakis is Francis. I'm the one about to say, "Um,... interesting..", "Weally?" or something... The guy talking to Francis is Robert DeNiro, who was incredibly handsome with pale skin and red hair.

It was a party at his casa grande in the wine country, at the time he was at his financial peak I think, and all sorts of famous people were wandering around eating the free food and drinks and enjoying amazing entertainment, like a Japanese drumming band all sumo wrestler size. I wish I could remember other acts performing, but it was a long time ago. The hospitality was truly amazing. It lasted a whole weekend.

Smiley Face Titles

The track is loud be warned.

I found the original files for "Smiley Face" on an external drive deep in the closet. This is how they look in Flash reduced to about 20% of their original size. (Guess I should have put a stop button on it too.) I'm pleased that the color looks as intended, because on the dvd it looks awful. It looks really awful. It looks so awful I could only look at it one time and then put it deep in the closet. The movie went straight to DVD. Greg Araki was very nice to work for. They wanted the timing that fast-- it wasn't my decision.

This was the last animation job I did, and it was in 2007. Mothers, don't send your kids to art school!

after seeing Birdman of Alcatraz

For the first half of "Birdman of Alcatraz" I thought this was maybe the best movie I'd ever seen. The second half wasn't as moving.

It was interesting how civilized jail life on the cell blocks was portrayed. Was it really like that?

After seeing the movie I poked around facebook and made contact with friends from the past, saw friends of friends I also knew, even friends of friends I didn't want to know anymore. You can call out to them and make digital contact, but it's not the same as being in person, of course.

It was as if friends from my past were in all these different little cells calling out to me, sort of.

Coraline

Just got back from "Coraline". Saw it at a matinee at the Arclight in Sherman Oaks. $15.50 per ticket and the popcorn was $5.00 and had those nasty kernel flakes that hook onto the back of your tongue. And no Jujyfruits. The movie was in 3 D with must be returned polaroid glasses.

The movie has plenty of good things about it: the animation and design of Coraline are very nice-- love her blue hair. And I even liked her voice. She sounds contemporary without sounding like a tv brat.

I hated the 3 D. The glasses were dirty and the 3 D gave me a headache, maybe because one of my eyes is stronger than the other. Since I kept taking them off and on I can tell you not all the movie is in 3 D, but the parts that are look quite fuzzy with your glasses off. But they do allow you to fall asleep in the theatre without the person next to you noticing as long as you keep your mouth closed. Jeff Katzenberg wants all movies to be made in 3 D. I think that's a horrible idea. Something gross about putting these glasses on your head straight from someone's head at the previous show. I started tripping out thinking of the creepy things that could occur as a result.

...which shows the story didn't really grab me, and the story is full of concepts that would be terrifying to a young child in days gone by, some of which is apparent in the trailer. But none of the kids in the audience seemed troubled.

I found the aesthetics alternately charming and icky. A pair of elderly ladies made me think of those repulsive ladies made of nylon stockings that were seen in gift stores a few years ago.

Her Morning Elegance

A very nice stop motion video sent to me by Karl Cohen.

Some info on how it was done:

* The video was shot all stills - roughly 3225 still photos for the entire video, using one camera, hanging from the ceiling for the main body of the movie.
* It took 4 weeks before shooting to create an animated computer generated storyboard for the video, with 3d dummies for the characters.
* It took only 2 days of shooting for the live actors on set to re-create the 3.5 minutes computer sequence, frame by frame.

Lisa Frank and the Slumdog film

I used to love the Lisa Frank merchandise at Target, stationery and party supplies in garish gradients and intense colors, popular in the 80s and early 90s, especially with those under age 8. I checked out the Lisa Frank site recently and it had lost its uniqueness. Formerly it was all about sentimentalized animals, especially horses, dogs and penguins. Wonder why I liked it? A weird Chinese LSD look now lost.

I came upon a bunch of unused stickers from the early 90's today and was admiring them. Then we went to the Galleria for a matinee of "Slumdog Millionaire". We had free passes. Otherwise the tickets would have been $11.50 ea, or $13.50 at night. Plus you had to pick your seat. How do you know what seat, when you haven't seen the height of the person in front of you? Popcorn was $5.00 for one large. Fortunately they didn't sell any of the candy I crave. They were also selling gift art books in the lobby. Kind of nutso, considering you may get your greasy paws on the cover, or even worse spill your drink. eek, and you haven't even given it yet.
And please don't say "gifted it yet" or I'll press the eject button. They had a person with a name tag hanging on her neck to introduce the movie, in person! Guess I don't get out often enough, all seemed goofy to me. I kept thinking, "Where's my seatbelt?" It was an Arc Light CinEEma. How can they get away with these prices??

Oh the movie's alright and some of you will love it but I'm a bitchy critic. The colors were terrific, and it sure makes me want to cancel any travel plans to India. I got really disjointed by the lack of a horizontal composition line, but to others this will feel like setting yourself free. I thought a whole other story line was going to kick in near the end, but I dare not tell. Enjoy it. At least it's not boring, depressing and mostly about medical troubles, like Sch? the Charlie Kaufman movie I mentioned a few days ago.

Oh I forgot to write that there are connections between the Lisa Frank aesthetic and the Slumdog aesthetic, and it's not dogs, horses or penguins. (Idea: it's over the top and happy about it.)

Would have rather read another Lee Child novel but the library wasn't forthcoming. They seemed to have more books in the Korean fiction section than in the mystery section in English. Hey, I can sound as cranky as Sandra Tsing Loh if I keep at it.

Wish me Luck!

Got a call at 4:45 this morning that my mother had fallen. She didn't break anything but was confused about a lot the three times I spoke to her. I'll see her a week from Monday. I spoke to several nurses today and they said she had not had a stroke, though I couldn't convince her of that.

The chickens were looking good, and our house was well taken care of. There was a flyer that said a man has been peeking in windows. The next door neighbor said he promises he'll stop that!

At Lake Balboa the pelicans were back, and there were more than a hundred cormorants, and already more than a thousand coots. That was nice.

I'm going down to Hollywood Park to the races tomorrow. I've got my tip sheet all marked up. It's rumored that the great filly Zenyatta will be parading around, and everyone who pays to enter gets this poster of Zenyatta.

I started to watch the DVD of "Synecdoche New York", Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut. Awful, and grim. Why do they make movies like this? He's the smart screen writer who wrote "Being John Malkovich" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." I only got about a third of the way through this one.

Popcorn in Dreamland

I had this very static dream about popcorn-- I was holding a bag that said "kick me."

I've thought about it since. We watched a Charlie Chaplin Mutual short last week, and it was very funny. (of course.) One of the things Charlie does especially well is kick people in the rear end when they're not looking.

Then I started wondering. Did people used to kick each other more than they do now? Was this some relic from country life or the old country? Or just a stage/vaudeville bit of business? I mean, even though there are all sorts of expressions for "a good kick in the pants" etc., did you ever actually see someone kick someone else?

All I can remember is taping signs on the backs of unsuspecting school mates.

Bart the Bear

About 14 years ago we attended the first Vital Ground get together in Montana. It was before the movie celebrities got involved.

The guy who was the inspiration for Hayduke in "Monkey Wrench Gang", Doug Peacock, was there. So was Jean Craighead George, the writer. Her brothers were some of the first in the usa to study grizzlies. It was a very wonderful weekend.

This is a picture of Doug Seus with his much loved movie bear Bart. Bart passed away a few years ago. Doug did a training demonstration for us all, with Bart, that was one of the most amazing things I've ever experienced. He trained Bart using baked beans , Hawaiian Punch and love. In this shot he's ladling the baked beans. You can see a can of punch in his belt pack.