Daughter Number Three lightens the day with three photographs of a little orange Subaru. Want.
Related reading
All OCA orange posts (Pinboard)
Wednesday, July 29, 2020
Orange car art
Word of the day: buff
How rare it is these days to hear someone described as a buff. It’s a decidedly dowdy word. Buffs used to be everywhere: jazz buffs, camera buffs, stereo buffs. They were always male, and they wore madras shorts in summer, particularly at cookouts, where they spoke of Brubeck and Kenton, lenses and pre-amps. In cold weather, they switched to chinos and took the conversation indoors, sitting on mid-century chairs and sofas, with trays of cold cuts and bowls of pretzels at the ready.
That paragraph came from my imagination. The next two do not.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word and explains its surprising origin:
“An enthusiast about going to fires” (Webster 1934); so called from the buff uniforms worn by volunteer firemen in New York City in former times. Hence gen., an enthusiast or specialist. Chiefly North American colloquial.The dictionary’s first citation is from the New York newspaper The Sun (1903): “The Buffs are men and boys whose love of fires, fire-fighting and firemen is a predominant characteristic.”
It seems that the color name buff — “of the colour of buff leather; a light brownish yellow” — comes from the French buffle, buffalo. The dictionary hedges: that’s “apparently” the origin.
And once again from my imagination:
If we ever go back to having cookouts and sitting on mid-century furniture, the surprising origin of buff will be something to word buffs for talk about. Or does they already know about it?
A visit with Billy Gray
“Sure. Come on down, and we’ll chat our asses off”: Billy Gray invites the journalist Steve Unger to come over for a visit: “My Visit with Bud from Father Knows Best ” (Next Avenue).
A comment I must add: the imaginary world FKB did indeed address serious real-world troubles. This post catalogues a few.
Other FKB posts
“Betty’s Graduation” : A conversation from another world : FKB pencil sharpener : Flowers knows best : “Languages, economics, philosophy, the humanities” : “Margaret Disowns Her Family” : Scene-stealing card-file : “A Woman in the House” : “Your dinner jacket just arrived”
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
Ajax for frontline medical providers
A Theater of War event for frontline medical providers:
This event will use Sophocles’s Ajax to create a vocabulary for discussing themes such as personal risk, death/dying, grief, deviation from standards of care, abandonment, helplessness, and complex ethical decisions. The project aims to foster connection, community, moral resilience, and positive action.It’s a Zoom event, open to the public, scheduled for this Thursday, July 30, 7:00 p.m.–9:30 p.m. EDT. Register here.
For some readers or viewers, Ajax may be a play to approach with caution. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Related reading
All OCA Sophocles posts (Pinboard)
“Why should I?”
An exchange this morning between Representative Eric Swalwell (D, California-15) and Attorney General William Barr, about a point that came up during Barr’s confirmation hearing:
“You were asked, could a president issue a pardon in exchange for the recipient’s promise to not incriminate him? And you responded, ‘No, that would be a crime.’ Is that right?”William Barr makes it easy to know what to think of him. See also “Bill Barr Tests Negative for Integrity.”
“Yes, I said that.”
“You said ‘a crime.’ You didn’t say it’d be wrong; you didn’t say it’d be unlawful. You said it’d be a crime. And when you said that, that a president swapping a pardon to silence a witness would be a crime, you were promising the American people that if you saw that, you would do something about it. Is that right?”
“That’s right.”
“Now, Mr. Barr, are you investigating Donald Trump for commuting the sentence of his longtime friend and political advisor Roger Stone?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Why should I?”
[My transcription.]
Twelve movies
[One to four stars. Four sentences each. No spoilers.]
Station West (dir. Sidney Lanfield, 1948). One of the Criterion Channel’s Western noir offerings, with cowboy hats and horses instead of fedoras and getaway cars. Dick Powell comes into town as an undercover investigator and trouble finds him, in the form of Jane Greer and assorted locals. Greer, as Powell himself observes, changes in appearance from scene to scene. But watch for the moment when she reprises Kathie from Out of the Past, taking erotic pleasure in the spectacle of two men fighting. Also in town: Raymond Burr, Burl Ives, and Agnes Moorehead. ★★★★
*
The Seventh Cross (dir. Fred Zinneman, 1944). From the novel by Anna Seghers, which our household is now reading. It’s 1936, and seven men have escaped from a German concentration camp. The film follows one of them, George Heisler, an anti-Nazi machinist (Spencer Tracy), as he lives by his wits, weary and wary, trying to reach old friends who may no longer be trustworthy. Hume Cronyn, Signe Hasso, Agnes Moorehead, George Macready, and Jessica Tandy are among the (literally) supporting players in this suspenseful story of selflessness and solidarity under Nazism. ★★★★
*
The Bribe (dir. Robert Z. Leonard, 1949). All atmosphere, with a G-man (Robert Taylor) traveling to a Central American island to investigate the theft and resale of airplace engines. Once we’re in Exotica, we can stop thinking about engines and focus on Ava Gardner (café singer), John Hodiak (her husband), Charles Laughton (forever meandering, or lurking) and Vincent Price (who must be up to no good). Watch for the special effect that begins the film, when Gardner appears in a window. The final crowd scene brings the fireworks. ★★★★
*
Shadows in the Night (dir. Eugene J. Forde, 1944). Warner Baxter as Dr. Robert Ordway, the Crime Doctor, a role he played in a series of low-budget films. A woman troubled by nightmares (Nina Foch) rings the Crime Doctor’s bell at three in the morning. To solve the mystery behind her dreams, the doctor travels to a seaside estate, where various people enter and exit various rooms. The only reason to see this movie: Nina Foch. ★★
*
Loophole (dir. Harold D. Schuster, 1954). A bank teller (Barry Sullivan) discovers a $49,900 shortage in his till, and he and his wife (Dorothy Malone, not yet blonde) find their lives spinning out of control. With Don Beddoe as an unassuming thief and Charles McGraw as a maniacally vengeful investigator for the bank’s bonding company. A surprisingly moving moment: Dorothy Malone weeps amid the chaos of a tiny apartment. Plenty of desk sets, file cabinets, telephones, typewriters: whatever the plot, I could watch stuff like this all day. ★★★
*
A little Anatole Litvak
The Long Night (1947). Henry Fonda leads the cast as Joe Adams, a war vet and blue-collar worker whose story is told as he holes up in his apartment, with police surrounding the building. The bigger performances here are from Barbara Bel Geddes in her film debut as Joe’s girlfriend Jo Ann and Vincent Price as Maximilian, nightclub magician and malignant narcissist. Did Maximilian and Jo Ann ever — that’s the question that torments Joe. Strong cinematography by Sol Polito — darkness, glare, staircases, crowds — adds much to an already compelling story. ★★★★
The Journey (1959). November 1956: with Russian forces occupying Hungary, a freedom fighter attempts to leave the country with thirteen international travelers. To protect him is of course to endanger everyone else, leading to moments of moral dilemma and, later, to open debate. Yul Brynner (a Russian military commander), Deborah Kerr (an English aristocrat), and Jason Robards Jr. (the freedom fighter) are the principals, with the ghosts of the King and Anna hovering over Russian-British relations. In the supporting cast: Anne Jackson, E.G. Marshall, and Robert Morley — and watch for a nearly silent Anouk Aimée. ★★★★
*
House on Haunted Hill (dir. William Castle, 1959). Vincent Price plays a millionaire who invites five people to spend a night in a haunted house — $10,000 for each person who lasts the night. Considered as an ordinary movie, House on Haunted Hill fails spectacularly. But considered as a bad movie, it succeeds spectacularly, with every cliché of horror — a creaking door, a trick wall, a head in a box, a walking skeleton — present and accounted for, inviting laughter rather than shock. The best line: “I’ve had enough of your spook talk!” ★★★★
*
The Booksellers (dir. D.W. Young, 2019). Books, rare ones, and the people who sell and buy them. This documentary is a visual feast, spine after spine, cover after cover, shelf after shelf. But the longer it went on, the more I could feel books turning into dollars, and shelves and boxes turning into joyless claustrophobia (just wait for the drawer of purses). The best moments belong to Fran Lebowitz, talking about bookstores and reading and not having the money to buy anything rare. ★★★★
*
High Heels (dir. Pedro Almodóvar, 1991). A film-star mother, a daughter, a drag artist who performs as the mother, a husband, a lover, another husband, a police investigator: those are some of the identities that shift about in this variation on the “woman’s picture,” a story of love, murder, and doubling. (Like shoes, people come in pairs.) Marisa Paredes and Victoria Abril (two Almodóvar regulars) star. My favorite scene: a spontaneous confession on live television, with a sign-language interpreter following along. ★★★★
*
Hollywood Shuffle (dir. Robert Townsend, 1987). Robert Townsend stars as Bobby Taylor, a young Black actor trying to make it in the movies. In doing so, he comes up against white producers who want him to speak such lines as “I ain’t be got no weapon!” Filled with satire of everything from Amadeus to Blaxpolitation to Eddie Murphy to Indiana Jones to Rambo to Siskel and Ebert (“I disagree, homeboy”). I loved this movie, whose broad, sharp comedy reminded me of In Living Color, whose Keenen Ivory Wayans co-wrote the screenplay and appears in two roles. ★★★★
*
Mark of the Vampire (dir. Tod Browning, 1935). “What’s that, Tod? Lionel Barrymore — for a vampire movie, with Lugosi and Donald Meek? Sure, I’m in. And say, let’s find a spot for the Borland kid.” ★★★★
[From Mark of the Vampire. Carol Borland as Luna. Click for a scarier view.]
Related reading
All OCA film posts (Pinboard)
Backblaze, anyone?
Backblaze is an online backup service. Wirecutter continues to recommend it as “the best cloud backup service for most people.”
If you’d like a free month, follow this link. If you sign up — $6 a month or $60 a year or $110 for two years — I get a free month too.
But I hope you’re already backing up online.
Monday, July 27, 2020
Bushmiller, drawn drawing
[“Self-Portrait.” Zippy, July 27, 2020.]
Today’s Zippy is an exercise in Bushmillerian Ovidian metamorphosis. Click through to see.
As you may know, Bill Griffith has been at work on a biography of Ernie Bushmiller. Here’s a preview.
Venn reading
All OCA Nancy : Nancy and Zippy : Zippy posts (Pinboard)
The return of the Jack Elrod ball
Today’s Mark Trail marks the return of the Jack Elrod ball. James Allen and the James Allen ball are gone, and the strip is now, perhaps temporarily, in reruns by Allen’s late predecessor (d. 2016). Allen’s explanation: “I’m tired and they wanted a new direction.” But a more plausible explanation might be found by following that link and reading the comments, one of which notes that Allen recently tweeted a crude, hateful remark about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from the account @themarktrail, which now shows no tweets. Allen also appears to have modeled a recent Trail character who came to a gruesome end on a Twitter critic of the strip. Thin-skinned much?
Related reading
All OCA Mark Trail posts (Pinboard)
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