"...and the Red Red Crovvy Poured Out Like an Old Friend."

I haven't been writing much lately. I haven't been as inspired to write as I have been to read, listen to books on CD, and watch movies with Shusli. I haven't even been reading much news lately. Must be the new move. I really Love this new home we live in.

Our friend Chuck let me borrow a whole bunch of his movies. He had a Tennessee Williams collection. Shusli and I watched "A Street Car Named Desire" and "The Fugitive Kind" all the way through together. Shusli has seen all but "South." I have seen bits and pieces of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman are HOTTT! together!), "The Sweet Bird of Youth," "Night of the Iguana," and "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone." All of these old movies are great, but I'll tell a little of the two I saw all the way through.

"A Street Car Named Desire" seems to really have been the stresses of the world driving a young woman insane. Tennessee has a way of describing sex in his plays and movies that is extremely hot and steam without porn like qualities. Vivien Leigh, who plays Blance du Bois moves in with her sister and brother-in-law under extreme duress and the guise of just staying for a few days. Doesn't happen that way, and we watch as she gently goes insane under the weight of the reality of her world. The famous "STELLA!" scene...HOTT!

The other night, Shusli and I watched "The Fugitive Kind," also with Marlon Brando in it. He plays a night club musician trying to stay straight and out of trouble. He moves to a small town to get a job and two women try to seduce him. This film deals with the raw racism of the South at that time. It is a beautiful and ugly story at the same time. Tragic, and so human. SEE IT!

"2012" SUCKED! Shusli and I went to see "2012," and it sucked. We are, however, into the doomsday stuff and the special effects were fun and took away from the cliche and formulaic and rather uncreative story. Woody Harrelson was a fun part of the film as well. His gloom and doom crazy character kinda made the film for us. It is a fun film, but really, all in all, a piece of shit. Shusli pointed out that the end of the world in the film is not at all the fault of humans and what we have done to the earth, but because it is 2012. Mayans hear 2012 stuff like tall men are asked if they play basketball and like folk joke with me about going to Eugene. "Eugene to Eugene, funny, huh huh."

"Paranormal Activity" gives you a few good startling moments, but there again, the plot was pretty predictable and you get the same effect if you watch "Doom House" on Youtube. It seems to be getting much praise in the press and with reviews, but really, POS.

"Midnight Cowboy" was a well acted and odd film. It is about a young man who goes to New York in '69 to work as a cowboy gigalo. He becomes friends with Rico Rizzo who is living in a condemned building, and they have a crazy adventure in the big city. It is a movie of friendship and caring for one another. A classic which came out in '69, I can see why it is still talked about and watched.

One of the books I listened to on CD is the classic, "A Clockwork Orange," by Anthony Burgess. It had an intro by Anthony about why he hates the work so much because it constantly haunts him and shadows all of his other work, much of which he considers much better. It was written in 1961, if I remember correctly, and in the U.S. and only in the U.S. (as well as the Stanley Kubrick film) the last chapter, chapter 21, was left out. Why? Becuase the main character becomes bored of violence. He grows up. I thought it would be kind of a cop out, but it actually seemed more an inegral part of the story. The book is about raw violence of youth gang members and follows the life of the main character, Eric (if I remember correctly), and three of his droogies through the violence they enact upon their community for fun. They rape, beat, murder, fight other gangs, rob, etc. Eric gets caught and goes to prison. He goes through a program that makes him sick anytime he even thinks of violence. (The funniest part to me was when he tried to read the bible after he was cured, as it were, and he got sick from all the violence.) A great book on CD, and listen or read it with the last chapter in.

"A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" is another book I listened too recently. Ishmael Beah was a boy soldier in Sierre Leone. I read the book a few years ago and interviewed Ishamel twice, once last year. If you read the book, and meet the man, you would be amazed at the transformation. As a young soldier, he killed many people and was wounded many times. He first ran from the war until it was fight or run for the rest of your life. Then rehabilitation, then UN Conferences about children in war. Then back home. Then war catching up to him again. He finally made his way out of the country in a rather dangerous journey to Ghana. Having met the young man and hugged him, he seems rather tiny, but you can feel the toughness. But he smiles, his joyous smile, a young man who lost his whole family, who witnessed so much suffering, who was used as a tool for war, a child. READ IT!

"I Like You: Entertaining Under the Influence," by Amy Sedaris, was very funny. How to entertain guests in your home by Amy is funny. This how to book is HILARIOUS! How to entertain the elderly, drunk and disorderly, out of town guests, alcoholics, etc. She knows it all, and if you have questions, go to her book.

I am currently reading three books at once, almost done with two, and half way through one.

"Gulag: a History," by Anne Applebaum and winner of the Pulitzer Prize is a detailed history of the Gulag system in the Soviet Union mostly under Stalin. Anne goes through all the details, male prisoners, female prisoners, executions, rapes, freezing, starving, shock workers, system changes, arrests, all of it. She covers all of it. I recently heard some interviews with Russians who miss and admire Stalin, young Russians, on NPR. They excuse Stalin at worst because he brought Russia to a modern age. I do not agree. Stalin was cruel and unjust and did not NEED to be in order to bring Russia into a modern age. In fact, by Anne's assertions, it probably would have progressed quicker and better without all the cruelty. But what do I know? I'm not Russian. I do know that U.S. cruelty against Indians has held back progress on our reservations, however. A must read especially since the U.S. is starting up a Gulag system of its own.

"A Farewell to Arms," by Ernest Hemmingway is a Love Story during war time. Set in Italy during the first world war, an ambulance driver falls in Love with a nurse whom he first just wants to get in the sack. The culture of that time is interesting to read. Love is always sweet and juicy when experienced. The adventures the two go through is sweet and exciting. The descriptions of the war are rather disturbing. Lots of dialogue, and it is interesting to listen to the relationships between friends and Lovers and compare them in my mind to the culture of today. My favorite line come from pages 224-5. The set up is during the big retreat from the Austrians and Germans. The masses of people are crossing a bridge, civilian and military alike. Guards that had been set up on the far end of the bridge are pulling out any officers, questioning them, and killing all who are major or above pretty much instantly. "Why are you not with your men?" "It is your fault we are retreating." But that line amongst this cowardly style of killing is this: "The questioners had that beautiful and devotion to stern justice in men dealing in death without being in any danger of it." It is one thing to fight, another altogether to murder.

"Alice in Wonderland," by Lewis Carroll is an excellent psychedelic children's classic. It is indeed a fun book with many odd twists and turns to keep not only the interest of a child, but my interest as well. Fun!