Afternoon Baseball

"Culture is worth a little risk."

Lots to talk about in an edition that almost makes it to midweek...

1. Norman Mailer, the often-crazed, old, brilliant kook, is dead, and he is remembered for his faults as fondly as his gifts by a often-drunken, middle-aged brilliant kook in Christopher Hitchens. And I use those adjectives in admiration.
I've a lot of catching up to do with Mailer, to be quite honest. I've read more about him than of him, which is a shame.

2. Mailer was a man who had his facts when he needed them and the sheer force of his considerable will when he maybe didn't. Here's a small example of what not having facts or personality does to your credibility.

3. This isn't brand-new, but the 10 films that couldn't have happened without Wes Anderson is interesting.
The maker of Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, among others, has best been copied (outside of Little Miss Sunshine)in television, where "Arrested Development" upped the awkwardness and stripped the sentimentality, and "The Office" has more caricatures but a deeper overall emotional impact, among others. One could argue Lost In Translation owes Anderson, for without Bill Murray (and parts of Scarlett Johansson), that film is a disaster.
Can't wait see if Juno is the real deal, though. With Michael Cera in it, it can't be bad, right?

3. PopMatters savages the new Avenged Sevenfold album. I liked the first single, but it had major holes. Listening to the album on The Leak, there's good stuff, but if you're going to focus on the vocals or lyrics at all, yeah, you're probably hate it.

4. Leo Durocher's ex-wife died. Laraine Day was pretty old, obviously, since Durocher was a teammate of Babe Ruth. But yeah, she was an actress. Not many left from that era.

5. Writers Guild strike getting you down? Jenna Fischer from "The Office" explains why you should not only root for them, but be glad they're striking. After all, the Screen Actors Guild strike is right around the corner.
Not sure what to think. There's no reason for them to get screwed on Internet and DVD revenue. But it's hard to feel, too, that they are the suffering masses.

6. To end with happier times and older movies, here's a collection of classic movie postings I stole from here.
And if you feel like expanding your horizon, take a chance on Cary Grant out of character (a bit) in None But The Lonely Heart.
It's not the most upbeat, not with lines like:

"When will the world awake from this midnight, when will humanity get up from its knees?" and
"They say money talks. All it every said to me was goodbye."

But it's a damn fine performance from Grant and the others involved.
Sadly, it's not on DVD.

Labels: Midweeklinks