You may need a path through Pan's Labyrinth and film critic Michael Atkinson in 1/07 Film Comment provides it by posing the question, Is del Toro a folk artist, i.e, a "toiler in fields of fable, animist anxiety, symbolic trial, the fragility of 'good', ambivalence of 'evil', and vice verso". Or is his film mere gore-soaked pulp? I think he marches with one boot in each camp but it is more of a morality tale because the visionary film director sympathizes enormously with the tragic, idealistic arena of Spanish Civil War. Atkinson, the critic, reflects that when "elephants fight, it's the grass that suffers." (Nigerian Proverb.
My companion, King of the Woobies (a private joke), who I call "the great Dane", had the desire to get cucina italia so we headed to Union Square to Scala's Bistro (scalasbistro.com;(415) 395-8555)next to the gorgeous Sir Francis Drake Hotel at 432 Powell, across from Borders. Reservations are a must here!Life is meals, eat or die! are well-worn cliches but never more true than when you stride through the Tuscan red doors for a piece of bella italia . No cheesy North Beach factory here. You feel the vibrant energy immediately as you are greeted by warm staff, a huge floral arrangement and a beuatiful refurbished interior! The place is perpetually packed and our waitress, Patricia, step mom to a young film enthusiast, seated us at a booth heir to multitudinous butts, including Elvis Costella, Boz Skaggs, and most recently, the late Princess Diana's brother, Lord Spencer, a "scoundrel" (Patricia "googled him" and dished the dirt: hes abandoned many wives & children), who is dating a local hottie. He was however a charming dapper dandy who loved his liquid lunch last Tuesday!
Back to Scala's. "Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity." (Voltaire)
Foodies love the delectable cucina cooked to perfection, which includes wild boar meatballs (12.50), Margherita pizza with fresh tomato, mozzarella cheese and basil (12.50). (Did you know that NYC claims first pizzeria in 1905. After WWII soldiers returned from Italy with stories of a wonderful food eaten without utensila. It took off).
Try the chicories with poached pear salad made with fresh herbs, dried cranberries, toasted pistachios & a blue cheese vinaigrette (10.50). Dane had the Linguine with Clams done al dente with garlic roasted tomato, white wine...a chef's special(21), and I the seared salmon, broccoli rabe, cherry tomatoes, buttermilk mashed potatoes. (23) There is only one dessert on the menu (just kidding): Boston Cream Pie, which is actually an orange chiffon cake with warm dark chocolate glaze (8.00). It's meant for sharing! I'll leave you with English writer Bulwer-Lytton's tribute in Lucile:
He may live without books -- what is knowledge but grieving?
He may live without hope -- what is hope but deceiving?
He may live without love -- what is love without dining?
But where is the man that can live without dining?Bon Appetit!
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Thursday, January 25, 2007
VENUS: PETER O'TOOLE STRIKES AUTHENTIC CHORD; LA MEDITERRANEE: ANOUSH ELLA!
Peter O'Toole is a stage and movie actor who does not merely learn his lines; he studies his parts. In his interview with Charlie Rose whom a friend calls narcissist, uncultured plebe, failed lawyer, the 80-something O'Toole, bemused and intuitive, faced Rose, the interruptor, for the first time. O'Toole said he never had to face the "catastrophe of success" (Tennessee Williams' ominous phrase) because he always replaced one fulfilled dream with another. O'Toole is a "bold boy" extremely well educated in the Irish universities AND the bars of Dublin. He "loiters with intent" and is a master of reading character(s). His first film, The Day They Robbed the Bank of England (1960) got David Lean's attention. O'Toole was cast as T.E.Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and began to voraciously devour the Seven Pillars of Wisdom -- all 7 volumes. Since then, he's given brilliant performances in Beckett; Lord Jim; The Lion in Winter; Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969); Caligula; Molokai: The Story of Father Damien (about the priest who contracts leprosy on the island of Molokai); Troy (a bomb); and the latest film, Venus, in which he plays an aging actor besotted by a young ingenue (Jodie Whittaker). Ultimately, the film fails! Had the director Roger Mitchell selected his own music --hey, why not the 3 little notes of Frankie Avalon's Oh, Venus or some humor? A friend living in lala land complained, why do the English think they can make a French film. I agree. As Nick James points out in his recent article in SIGHT AND SOUND, entitled "Greenlit Unpleasant Land," a huge chasm exists between intention and reality:
"This honeying of the sour is lamentably pervasive. Take, for instance Roger Mitchell's new film VENUS, shot from an original screenplay by Hanif Kureishi. The promise you might draw from the trailer is a a life-affirming romantic comedy that modernises the EDUCATING RITA/PYGMALION idea of a lowly born young woman and a wisdom-imparting oldster. But with Kureishi's characteristic unblinking honesty, the screenplay is in fact about how sexual desire for young women never leaves some men, no matter how old and decrepit they become. O'Toole portrays this conundrum magnificently as the ageing actor given the opportunity to entertain (and slaver over) a working-class ingenue, but this otherwise well-executed film fights its hard observations all the way with inappropriate love-of-life music. All these are symptoms of an aesthetic timidity that often prevents a perfectly good British film from becoming great."
March 17, 2006: Excerpt from Mitchell's Production Diary: Another screening. I found the first half dragged. But by and large, the second half is working and all laid out in the right order. The only ghastly section that remains if from the row in the cafe to the ambulance crew. Hanif and I went for a drink after. I say: "I don't know if it's funny, that's all. The first half should be funny, and if it's not, we're fucked." "But the second half is so powerful and moving. I reply: "But that's because we can do the powerful stuff. That's what we do. Being funny, that's hard."
Peter O'Toole: incredibly intuitive, incorrigibly optimistic, highly spirited: an original, a dreamer, a great actor who always strikes an authentic chord. Good luck, Oscar night on February 25, 2007, but I'll bet the ranch on Forrest Whitaker & his masterful portrayal of Idi Amin, in the LAST KING OF SCOTLAND. Good luck, Peter O'Toole, next time: Is 80-something the new 60? As Anatole France once said: TO ACCOMPLISH GREAT THINGS, WE MUST DREAM AS WELL AS ACT.
******** La Mediterranee (San Francisco Fillmore, Castro, Berkeley; www.cafelamed.com;(415)921-2956). It's not exactly the French Riviera, but these Bay Area restaurants have provided staples that have stood the test of time, providing excellent Middle-Eastern Med fare. Try the Middle Eastern plate, with a combo of chicken drumsticks marinated in tangy pomegranate sauce, chicken cilicia, Grecian spinach & feta, levant sandwich, lamb lule (10.50) In this dish the hummus is heavenly. Or try the quiche of the day (8.95). All house specialties come with soup or house salad served with tomato vinaigrette . Other fresh, flavorful meze is served with lightning speed (no time to crack any jokes here). Try the dolma -- grape leaves stuffed with almonds, currants, rice & spices; or the lentil salad (both 7.50). They also do catering: ANOUSH ELLA!
"This honeying of the sour is lamentably pervasive. Take, for instance Roger Mitchell's new film VENUS, shot from an original screenplay by Hanif Kureishi. The promise you might draw from the trailer is a a life-affirming romantic comedy that modernises the EDUCATING RITA/PYGMALION idea of a lowly born young woman and a wisdom-imparting oldster. But with Kureishi's characteristic unblinking honesty, the screenplay is in fact about how sexual desire for young women never leaves some men, no matter how old and decrepit they become. O'Toole portrays this conundrum magnificently as the ageing actor given the opportunity to entertain (and slaver over) a working-class ingenue, but this otherwise well-executed film fights its hard observations all the way with inappropriate love-of-life music. All these are symptoms of an aesthetic timidity that often prevents a perfectly good British film from becoming great."
March 17, 2006: Excerpt from Mitchell's Production Diary: Another screening. I found the first half dragged. But by and large, the second half is working and all laid out in the right order. The only ghastly section that remains if from the row in the cafe to the ambulance crew. Hanif and I went for a drink after. I say: "I don't know if it's funny, that's all. The first half should be funny, and if it's not, we're fucked." "But the second half is so powerful and moving. I reply: "But that's because we can do the powerful stuff. That's what we do. Being funny, that's hard."
Peter O'Toole: incredibly intuitive, incorrigibly optimistic, highly spirited: an original, a dreamer, a great actor who always strikes an authentic chord. Good luck, Oscar night on February 25, 2007, but I'll bet the ranch on Forrest Whitaker & his masterful portrayal of Idi Amin, in the LAST KING OF SCOTLAND. Good luck, Peter O'Toole, next time: Is 80-something the new 60? As Anatole France once said: TO ACCOMPLISH GREAT THINGS, WE MUST DREAM AS WELL AS ACT.
******** La Mediterranee (San Francisco Fillmore, Castro, Berkeley; www.cafelamed.com;(415)921-2956). It's not exactly the French Riviera, but these Bay Area restaurants have provided staples that have stood the test of time, providing excellent Middle-Eastern Med fare. Try the Middle Eastern plate, with a combo of chicken drumsticks marinated in tangy pomegranate sauce, chicken cilicia, Grecian spinach & feta, levant sandwich, lamb lule (10.50) In this dish the hummus is heavenly. Or try the quiche of the day (8.95). All house specialties come with soup or house salad served with tomato vinaigrette . Other fresh, flavorful meze is served with lightning speed (no time to crack any jokes here). Try the dolma -- grape leaves stuffed with almonds, currants, rice & spices; or the lentil salad (both 7.50). They also do catering: ANOUSH ELLA!
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Peter S. Beagle: THE LAST UNICORN - California Writers Club - Berkeley Branch; Kincaid's Jack London Square; Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991)
California Writers Club (Berkeley Branch) was formed in 1909 after writer Jack London and a few literati met and discussed writing while picnicking high in the woods above Oakland. CWC is the nation's oldest professional writing club, and very helpful to struggling writers in The Bay Area providing a support/critique group, FIFTH GRADE stories contest, creative nonfiction group and a chance to publicize your book or screenplay (contact Dave Sawle). See website for details.
www.berkeleywritersclub.org or Barbara Ruffner for a membership application. Monthly meetings are held the third Saturday of the month from 10:00a.m. to noon at the Event Loft of Barnes & Noble in Jack London Square.
Peter S. Beagle, whose last book, THE LAST UNICORN, has sold 5 million copies was an extraordinary speaker. He reflected on his childhood. As the son of Polish immigrants, he was raised in NYC, in proper American style, i.e. he blames his father for getting him hooked on books. He took his first snort in the 1940s. His mother didn't help: "Reading is cheaper than dope." (If you have access to used bookstores or a library card, right?). Doomed from the start, he was born into a family where artists were "like cockroaches." As a struggling writer, he had chutzpah at an early age. To feed his family of four (he married a woman with 2 children), he stole whole cases of salmon with an air of authority. Does he know Lenny Bruce's definition of chutzpah, I asked during the Q&A that followed. A man who has just slain his parents appears before the Judge pleading for mercy on the grounds that he is an orphan.
Peter relied on the kindness of friends and family and luck came his way in the form of a scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh. He became a fantasy writer ("I tried not to be!"). He recounted that when he was in the Stanford writing program in the 1960s, a feisty Frank O'Connor gave this verdict on a short story, Come Lady Death: IT'S A BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN STORY. I DON'T LIKE IT!
Peter quoted Sturgeon's Law in regard to genre writing -- this time, science fiction. "90% of science fiction is crap" a reader warned. Ted Sturgeon: "90 % of anything is crap." (I would say 99.9%).
Peter took time out from his writing schedule to join us for the ever-popular salmon lunch at Kincaid's on the Square. He's putting the final Midas touch to his book, I'M AFRAID YOU'VE GOT DRAGONS. I asked Peter which book was the absolute best he has written. THE INNKEEPER'S SONG.
At Kincaid's PBS regaled us with jokes, reminiscences, lucid memories of great writers & musicians. One, Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991), requires rereading: "Children don't read to find their identity. They don't read to free themselves of guilt, to quench the thirst for rebellion, or to get rid of alienation. They have no use for psychology. They detest sociology...they still believe in good, family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation and other such obsolete stuff." (Nobel Prize banquet, Stockholm, 1978).
After the meeting, back in SF, I asked a friend, is the unicorn a symbol of the unattainable? Not when there's a cross on it, he said. But who invented the unicorn, said silly I. HARRUMPH. Do you think there's a patent for it???
Maybe not a patent, but there definitely was an inventor of this fabulous animal with a horse's body and a single straight horn, which is featured in the Medieval French tapestries at the Cluny Museum in Paris. Who conceived of the image of the unicorn. A Greek, possibly a Roman.
Next month at CWC, Jody Carl Weiner, retired criminal defense lawyer-transplant from Chicago, will read from his published work, including a piece he had published in California Lawyer magazine about Coco, the orangutan, who was hit with a sexual harassment lawsuit back in the 90s. The California lawyers loved the piece. See you there! Contact Jody at jodycarlweiner@aol.com, for more details about this event on February 17, 2007.
www.berkeleywritersclub.org or Barbara Ruffner for a membership application. Monthly meetings are held the third Saturday of the month from 10:00a.m. to noon at the Event Loft of Barnes & Noble in Jack London Square.
Peter S. Beagle, whose last book, THE LAST UNICORN, has sold 5 million copies was an extraordinary speaker. He reflected on his childhood. As the son of Polish immigrants, he was raised in NYC, in proper American style, i.e. he blames his father for getting him hooked on books. He took his first snort in the 1940s. His mother didn't help: "Reading is cheaper than dope." (If you have access to used bookstores or a library card, right?). Doomed from the start, he was born into a family where artists were "like cockroaches." As a struggling writer, he had chutzpah at an early age. To feed his family of four (he married a woman with 2 children), he stole whole cases of salmon with an air of authority. Does he know Lenny Bruce's definition of chutzpah, I asked during the Q&A that followed. A man who has just slain his parents appears before the Judge pleading for mercy on the grounds that he is an orphan.
Peter relied on the kindness of friends and family and luck came his way in the form of a scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh. He became a fantasy writer ("I tried not to be!"). He recounted that when he was in the Stanford writing program in the 1960s, a feisty Frank O'Connor gave this verdict on a short story, Come Lady Death: IT'S A BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN STORY. I DON'T LIKE IT!
Peter quoted Sturgeon's Law in regard to genre writing -- this time, science fiction. "90% of science fiction is crap" a reader warned. Ted Sturgeon: "90 % of anything is crap." (I would say 99.9%).
Peter took time out from his writing schedule to join us for the ever-popular salmon lunch at Kincaid's on the Square. He's putting the final Midas touch to his book, I'M AFRAID YOU'VE GOT DRAGONS. I asked Peter which book was the absolute best he has written. THE INNKEEPER'S SONG.
At Kincaid's PBS regaled us with jokes, reminiscences, lucid memories of great writers & musicians. One, Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991), requires rereading: "Children don't read to find their identity. They don't read to free themselves of guilt, to quench the thirst for rebellion, or to get rid of alienation. They have no use for psychology. They detest sociology...they still believe in good, family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation and other such obsolete stuff." (Nobel Prize banquet, Stockholm, 1978).
After the meeting, back in SF, I asked a friend, is the unicorn a symbol of the unattainable? Not when there's a cross on it, he said. But who invented the unicorn, said silly I. HARRUMPH. Do you think there's a patent for it???
Maybe not a patent, but there definitely was an inventor of this fabulous animal with a horse's body and a single straight horn, which is featured in the Medieval French tapestries at the Cluny Museum in Paris. Who conceived of the image of the unicorn. A Greek, possibly a Roman.
Next month at CWC, Jody Carl Weiner, retired criminal defense lawyer-transplant from Chicago, will read from his published work, including a piece he had published in California Lawyer magazine about Coco, the orangutan, who was hit with a sexual harassment lawsuit back in the 90s. The California lawyers loved the piece. See you there! Contact Jody at jodycarlweiner@aol.com, for more details about this event on February 17, 2007.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Martin Luther King, Jr. - Sneak Peak Literary Lounge; Hotel Metropolis, SF
Playwright, Larry Americ Allen; "Shakespeare's Lost Manuscript." Hotel Metropolis, 25 Mason St. San Francisco. Mondays 6-8p.m. Downstairs is farmerbrowns which serves soul food with a California spin at this Tenderloin rookie. You'll find farm-fresh organic food from Bay Area African-American farmers. Have a Southern comfort with mint julep w/ jim beam bourbon, muddled fresh mint & soda at the long rough-hewn bar. Hipsters hang out here at this "trendyloin" upscale chowhouse. Try the Southern fried chicken w/ arugula & dirty rice (celery, onions, parsley, sweet bell peppers) or the pulled pork sandwich. They provide light refreshment upstairs at SPLL with John Templeton hosting a branD new weekly author readings. Metropolis provides the wine.
"Shakespeare..." A play reading about a Pacific Heights college professor in a life-long search for an undiscovered work by the bard who has to negotiate with a homeless sailor to finally acquire it. The black homeless man tells him, "you're a credit to your race." Americ hopes to bring the play to ACT next year. Next stop: Broadway.
***
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
What did you do on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday? His conscience would not let him remain silent. In a speech at Riverside Church, NYC,1967. "I have moved to break betrayal of my own silences and speak from burnings of my own heart...I knew I could never again raise my voice against violence of oppressed in the ghettos without having spoken clearly to greatest purveyor of violence in world today: My own government."
***
If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live." (1963)
***
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they
will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.(1963)
***Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. (August 3, 1963)
"Shakespeare..." A play reading about a Pacific Heights college professor in a life-long search for an undiscovered work by the bard who has to negotiate with a homeless sailor to finally acquire it. The black homeless man tells him, "you're a credit to your race." Americ hopes to bring the play to ACT next year. Next stop: Broadway.
***
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
What did you do on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday? His conscience would not let him remain silent. In a speech at Riverside Church, NYC,1967. "I have moved to break betrayal of my own silences and speak from burnings of my own heart...I knew I could never again raise my voice against violence of oppressed in the ghettos without having spoken clearly to greatest purveyor of violence in world today: My own government."
***
If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live." (1963)
***
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they
will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.(1963)
***Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. (August 3, 1963)
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Miss Potter: Once Upon a Time there was a dowdy spinster & 4 little rabbits...Fuzio Embarcadero
Miss Potter: Chris Noonan, director. Do you know the Tale of Peter Rabbit? "Once upon a time there were 4 little rabbits and their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter...Don't go into Mr McGregor's garden." You might end up as rabbit stew or rabbit pie, right? At the Embarcadero Cinema, I met a smart mom Laura & her 7-year old, bespectacled, daughter Sophia. We chatted about a scene in Robert De Niro's film, The Good Shepherd among the nearly sold-out crowd here to see this wonderful "little" biopic based on the life of Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) Sophia sat bleary-eyed & ate her popcorn. Question to supermom: Did she remember the Joe Pesci as neurotic, Italian mobster (what else could he possibly play?) scene in Miami where he is hired gun to counterintelligence chief Matt Damon character (Edward Wilson). The exchange is bound to rattle a few heads. "The Italians have family & Catholicism, the Irish has homeland, the Jews have tradition, and the n#$%(n-word) have music. What do you have, Edward? WE WERE HERE FIRST, AND ALL OF YOU ARE JUST VISITORS."
In Miss Potter, Renee Zellweger, plays the iconic, strong-willed spinster who created a series of books that are beloved today as 100 years ago. They have NEVER gone out of print. Beatrix swam again the tide, with great strength in a time when most women of her class (they are actually "parvenus") were looking for a good marriage. Emily Watson plays another dowdy spinster -- sister to publisher friend (Warne). They both agree men are useful for 2 reasons. "1) financial support; and 2) procreation."
Miss Potter has no friends, except for the animals who come alive in her imagination and are actually animated, jump off the parchment. Sophia, seated next to me, was nonplussed & a little confused, or so her mother intimated after the film.
Protocol forbids me giving away the ending to this somewhat sad tale. Suffice to say, it's a weepie. Men actually weep, or so we've been told by Zellweger. Did I? Yes, but not because of conventional reasons. The Weinstein brothers production could have had more intensity, conflict, drama. It's is not their usual fare! Caveat emptor! Instead it's a cut above a tv-biopic production: melodramatic mush about how one woman handles the loss of a loved one & retreats into her art & nature? Will it break her or make her stronger? I'd say wait for the video to find out
Fusio (www.fusio.com) Embarcadero One. Home of the original firecracker port fusilli, a ginger-braised pork firecaracker-hot habanero pesto & sour cream -- heat & flavor snap! crackle! pop! Come here to savor the world from Thai to Italian, one forkful at a time. Satisfying salads for the global set. Try the Chinese Chicken Salad or grilled Wild Salmon. Gabe, our waiter, a 10-year transplant from New Hampshire, looked exhausted but came alive when he talked about his other gig: rock-guitarist/teacher at Paul Green School of Rock on Geary & Mason. The kids at the school are very enthusiastic. He lives for Sonic Youth & his favorite guitarist is Keith Richards. Drop in sometime and ask for Gabe, a gracious and sensitive waitperson.
****
Huntington Square. Met Garrison Keillor looking craggy-faced & folksy in long Black coat & red scarf.
Cold as a witch's tit, I said. Sorry for the paganism! I love your Prairie Home Companion, I said, but oh! the Altman movie...
What did you think? he asked.
It's at the bottom of my top-10 2006 list but I think it does not live up to the great Altman oeuvre.
We exchanged a little laughter. (I had remembered his words, "People have tried and they have tried, but sex is not better than sweet corn.") Corn may be out of season but never "corniness" as only Keillor knows how to dish it out!
He was enjoying the sparkling sun & enjoying the family outing with his young wife and daughter, who was looking quite like a cute, toothy rabbit. Dinner at the Huntington Big Four Restaurant opposite the park. Hardly the time of year for sweet country corn but a great place to spot a celebrity in San Francisco!
In Miss Potter, Renee Zellweger, plays the iconic, strong-willed spinster who created a series of books that are beloved today as 100 years ago. They have NEVER gone out of print. Beatrix swam again the tide, with great strength in a time when most women of her class (they are actually "parvenus") were looking for a good marriage. Emily Watson plays another dowdy spinster -- sister to publisher friend (Warne). They both agree men are useful for 2 reasons. "1) financial support; and 2) procreation."
Miss Potter has no friends, except for the animals who come alive in her imagination and are actually animated, jump off the parchment. Sophia, seated next to me, was nonplussed & a little confused, or so her mother intimated after the film.
Protocol forbids me giving away the ending to this somewhat sad tale. Suffice to say, it's a weepie. Men actually weep, or so we've been told by Zellweger. Did I? Yes, but not because of conventional reasons. The Weinstein brothers production could have had more intensity, conflict, drama. It's is not their usual fare! Caveat emptor! Instead it's a cut above a tv-biopic production: melodramatic mush about how one woman handles the loss of a loved one & retreats into her art & nature? Will it break her or make her stronger? I'd say wait for the video to find out
Fusio (www.fusio.com) Embarcadero One. Home of the original firecracker port fusilli, a ginger-braised pork firecaracker-hot habanero pesto & sour cream -- heat & flavor snap! crackle! pop! Come here to savor the world from Thai to Italian, one forkful at a time. Satisfying salads for the global set. Try the Chinese Chicken Salad or grilled Wild Salmon. Gabe, our waiter, a 10-year transplant from New Hampshire, looked exhausted but came alive when he talked about his other gig: rock-guitarist/teacher at Paul Green School of Rock on Geary & Mason. The kids at the school are very enthusiastic. He lives for Sonic Youth & his favorite guitarist is Keith Richards. Drop in sometime and ask for Gabe, a gracious and sensitive waitperson.
****
Huntington Square. Met Garrison Keillor looking craggy-faced & folksy in long Black coat & red scarf.
Cold as a witch's tit, I said. Sorry for the paganism! I love your Prairie Home Companion, I said, but oh! the Altman movie...
What did you think? he asked.
It's at the bottom of my top-10 2006 list but I think it does not live up to the great Altman oeuvre.
We exchanged a little laughter. (I had remembered his words, "People have tried and they have tried, but sex is not better than sweet corn.") Corn may be out of season but never "corniness" as only Keillor knows how to dish it out!
He was enjoying the sparkling sun & enjoying the family outing with his young wife and daughter, who was looking quite like a cute, toothy rabbit. Dinner at the Huntington Big Four Restaurant opposite the park. Hardly the time of year for sweet country corn but a great place to spot a celebrity in San Francisco!
Saturday, January 13, 2007
John Lennon Educational Tour Bus - Expo
I interviewed Steve Miller, a Virginia boy, at Hotel Nikko, who is the chief engineer of the John Lennon Educational Tour bus. He gave the keynote address to 4,000 at the Mac Expo, in SF. I asked him to tell me his favorite John Lennon anecdote. When John was 9 years old, his Aunt Mimi gave him a guitar, and immediately regretted it. "The guitar is a great hobby, John, but you'll never make a living at it." (Note: The mother of Kurt Cobain issued the same warning to her son in Seattle. When someone asked him years later, what goes through your mind when you play a guitar solo, his quip? "Less than you can possibly imagine".) Steve Miller & his group criscross the country, in order to teach kids in high schools & college how to make and record videos! Some of my favorite lines by & about John Lennon:
Headmaster to the smart 5-year-old Liverpudlian. "There's no need to worry about him. He's as sharp as a needle. But he won't do anything he doesn't want to."
You say you want a revolution
Well you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be alright.
Imagine all the people
Living life as one
I know you say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one...
John Lennon (1940-1980)
A dreamer to the end...
1/13/07
Later, at the Hotel Chancello, I interviewed Ian & Dax, Software Engineers, from Quebec here for the Mac convention. Ian teased, "we were going to say we were from Texas just to be naughty & play the devil's advocate" about a remark I made about the BORAT for President button. They had this to say about the John Lennon tour bus:
Ian: It's ridiculous to correlate the John Lennon tour bus with a multi-national organization even if it IS Mac, which he supports. It's oxymoronic.
Dax: No, No, No, I disagree. A company can have its heroes: Castro, Maria Callas, John Lennon(these were some of the posters at the Moscone Center hall). Apple is GREAT!
Why? What makes it great, I asked? Dax was very forthcoming about Apple's virtues:
1. Innovation
2. Thinking outside the box.
3. Changing people's lives through technology.
The driver was waiting outside to take them to Muir Woods & I disappeared into Union Square to seize the day! Carpe diem!
Headmaster to the smart 5-year-old Liverpudlian. "There's no need to worry about him. He's as sharp as a needle. But he won't do anything he doesn't want to."
You say you want a revolution
Well you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be alright.
Imagine all the people
Living life as one
I know you say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one...
John Lennon (1940-1980)
A dreamer to the end...
1/13/07
Later, at the Hotel Chancello, I interviewed Ian & Dax, Software Engineers, from Quebec here for the Mac convention. Ian teased, "we were going to say we were from Texas just to be naughty & play the devil's advocate" about a remark I made about the BORAT for President button. They had this to say about the John Lennon tour bus:
Ian: It's ridiculous to correlate the John Lennon tour bus with a multi-national organization even if it IS Mac, which he supports. It's oxymoronic.
Dax: No, No, No, I disagree. A company can have its heroes: Castro, Maria Callas, John Lennon(these were some of the posters at the Moscone Center hall). Apple is GREAT!
Why? What makes it great, I asked? Dax was very forthcoming about Apple's virtues:
1. Innovation
2. Thinking outside the box.
3. Changing people's lives through technology.
The driver was waiting outside to take them to Muir Woods & I disappeared into Union Square to seize the day! Carpe diem!
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