Meet Me in St. Louis

Okay, so I realize this film is in the "1001 Movies You Must See" list because of Garland and Minelli, and the musical numbers, and the sparkling high-contrast technicolor vividness of the 1944 film.

But...

I know, I know. Much beloved. Holiday favorite. Cameo by June Lockhart. Still... I'm going to admit it here: "It Is A Chick Flick!" Yep. Director Vincent Minelli made a loving portrait of a mild-mannered so-tamely-dysfunctional-it's-silly turn-of-the-last-century family melodrama... with musical numbers (The 'Trolley Song', "Meet Me In St. Louie", "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"). But that doesn't change the fact that it's a chick flick.

At least it's a pre feminist film, so while there ARE strong female leads, and they indeed "rule the roost", they don't do it by emasculating, and belittling the male characters. (ala. "Enchanted") But from my perspective, it's as if half the movie going population are left scratching their male-patterned heads, and wondering what the "Big Deal" is.

"A Christmas Story" still stands as my favorite Christmas 'feature film', while "The Hogfather" is my favorite holiday TV movie (aka 'Terry Pratchett's The Hogfather').

Oh... and I'll have to upload photos of last weekend's "SantaCon Seattle" - 400-500 Santas on a pub crawl trying to find out who's been naughty and... well... naughty mostly.

The 4 F's of SantaCon:
1) Don't F*** with Children.
2) Don't F*** with Police.
3) Don't F*** with Security. and
4) Don't F*** with Santa.

It was A HOWL!!!

An Open Letter to Francis Ford Coppola

Tonight, while watching "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse" about the filming of "Apocalypse Now", I watched the laborious undertaking of the making of that monumental cinematic experience from 1979. It took me back - naturally - to the first screening of the film as seen on opening weekend... the film opens with no credits... there are scenes of a jungle encampment going up in flames... eventually, helicopters crossing paths... and a narration, "Saigon... my God, I'm still in Saigon". And so began a story where the protagonist traveled up-river to meet the antagonist (Kurtz) in a fight to the death. It was a Greek Tragedy writ large. I pondered that film for many days, trying to understand what was going on in the filmmaker's head, and it hit me... I understood the story - and it *WAS* from Greek Mythology... only not from the 'Odyssey' (or the 'Idiocy' as Mr. Coppola refers to it)... but a completely DIFFERENT tragic Greek figure.

Since that original premiere, the film's opening was changed, and over the years the film has been edited, and tweaked here and there - much like his friend George Lucas tweaked the original "Star Wars" as early as 1978 to change the sounds of 'radio chatter' during the death star battle - including the insertion of the 'French Plantation' sequence. [A sequence that should have remained on the cutting room floor - it added nothing to moving the story forward... a.k.a. "up-the-river"... IMHO]

But in watching Hearts of Darkness, it became clear to me *WHY* he kept tweaking the film: he didn't realize what he had created because he was TOO CLOSE TO THE PROJECT!! Could it be that even today - 2009 - *HE* doesn't realize the underlying mythos that brought the story together - if only subliminally - and why it resonated then, and continues to resonate with movie goers today, even though the story line seemed somewhat random, and non-linear?

It wasn't clear to me until my second viewing of the film... and during the sequence when Martin Sheen said, "My God... I'm Still in Saigon..." I GRABBED the arms of the seat, and audibly GASPED (there suddenly wasn't enough air in the theater - I'm sure to the dismay of my fellow theater goers). Captain Willard - Martin Sheen... was a modern day SISYPHUS!!! Only instead of rolling a stone forever up the mountain, he was forever caught in a time loop riding a riverboat up the river to his mortal combat confrontation with Marlon Brando - who would probably demand another million dollars from Coppola for each subsequent trip up-the-river, in the endless progression of this Moebius strip of a movie...

It was just like Pink Floyd's "The Wall" album released the same year... very faintly in the opening moments of that seminal album, a voice can be heard saying... "...re we came in?", and at the end of the 4th side of the album, in the LAST MOMENTS... the same voice can be heard faintly saying, "Isn't this whe...", and the music loops, and loops, ad infinitum. (Side 4:"Isn't this whe... re we came in?": Side 1)

But in watching "Hearts of Darkness", it occurs to me that perhaps Mr. Coppola has never made the connection... is that possible? Was he so intimately close to the material that he didn't see the over-arcing mythological tale woven within the 'Odyssey' like narrative?

Mr. Coppola, sir: it works because it is a modern day 'Tale of Sisyphus', with Captain Willard caught in the hell that is his never ending journey up-the-river that even now is being played out on DVD, and DVR players in living rooms and home theaters around the world - technologies that weren't even dreamt of in the days when the story was first captured on celluloid.

Thank you for giving us this gift of your blood, sweat, and creative tears.

- - - - - -
Confession here: just like Brando, (and I'm not speaking of the Green Beret 'Jungle Survival Guide' of Dennis Hopper here...) I've never read *The Book* (i.e. 'Heart of Darkness')

Measured days...

I read the story this week about loneliness being exacerbated by isolation - another reason why I need to move closer to the city... The phone calls from Realtors have almost stopped, but now the snail-mail has begun - look in the recycle bin for proof. Fortunately (?) the sign company hasn't come by to pick up the post - if it hangs out for a few more days, I'll move it to behind the shed, and consider using it in the spring, and put up a big 'for rent' sign on it.

Today I'm on my own, and looking forward to a Seattle Singles (Meetup.com) Holiday party downtown... should be fun. In the meantime, my day will be measured out in coffee spoons, and T.S. Eliot... no... more like Howard Hawks, Jean Cocteau, Criterion Collection, and the like.

This past week was GREAT for film - I experienced "Being John Malkovich", "Sullivan's Travels", "His Girl Friday" and "Strange Days". Oh, I had seen His Girl Friday before, but was watching to see why it was included on the list... probably because of the breakneck pace of the dialog. The McGuffin (as Hitch used to call it) was predictable (a letter of pardon from the governor carried by an innocent oaf), but the political overtones, as well as the interaction between Cary Grant as con-man/newspaper-man and Roslyn Russell as 'Hildy' ace-reporter and city-wise no-nonsense gal made the film worth the re-watch on a Saturday morning. 'Being John Malkovich' became a must-see after watching "Adaptation" by Charlie Kaufman... just as I'm watching all of Murnau's film catalog after seeing "Sunrise", so I'm tracking down all the films written by Charlie Kaufman after seeing "Adaptation"... yes, it was THAT GOOD.

So... I should probably dust off, and give the Crash Test Dummies a listen. Oh, but everything stops at 1:30 for THE college football game of the YEAR! The Alabama Crimson (Roll!!) Tide versus the swamp rats from Florida. Drown 'em TIDE!!! ;?>

Vulture, thy name is Realtor(tm)...

Smile...
Grin and bear it.
Let it go...
[exhale]
Ahhh... better.

Anyone familiar with my house saga will remember that back in 2007 when I purchased a home in West Seattle, I got it for a price that was well under market. Since then, I gutted the kitchen and bath replaced floors, cabinets, and appliances. The exterior was repainted, the hardwood floors refinished, and I listed the refurbished house for sale in the fall of 2008.

Since that time, the term 'short-sale' has entered the real estate vocabulary, and the result is that many homes on the market today are priced below the value of the current owner's home mortgage. To qualify for a short-sale, you have to a) be willing to let your credit rating suffer for 7 years, b) be behind in your mortgage payments - 60 to 90 days minimum, and c) have good health and a strong internal constitution to enable you to live day-by-day with the stress caused by (a) and (b).

Yesterday, the current listing on my home expired - and the house went OFF the market. Today, beginning at 7:31am, I began getting phone calls from Realtors who want to RE-LIST my house. The calls have been non-stop... so much so that I changed my outgoing message to ask Realtors to please hang-up, and not to call again.

Realtors really irk me... IF I were able to sell my home for the current list price, I would be able to pay off the mortgage. But add to the sale price the 7.5% in fees and Realtor commissions, and I would be faced with writing a check for $3,000 to $5,000 dollars over-and-above the sale amount (which I *DO NOT* have lying around) to cover those commissions.

My options? The holiday season is one of the weakest times of the year for home buying, so leaving the house on the market through the holidays just seems foolish. One option is to refinance. But I'm not sure the home will appraise at the value of the current mortgage. If I *could* refi, I'd be able afford the monthly payment (without dipping into dwindling savings), and that might empower me to RENT the house to tenants, and I could rent an apartment closer to my sons in Bellevue.

Yet... they persist in calling, these princes of the sales pitch, these reformed used-car salesmen who hope to thrive off commissions . If you attempt to converse with them, they won't explain why THEY didn't bring any potential BUYERS to the house over the past year, they will instead claim the previous realtor didn't *market* the house correctly, or didn't "price it in line with the market".

When 'market prices' have been driven unnaturally downward by bank owned, short-sale, and foreclosure properties, how can one price a home in-line with 'the market' without inadvertently pricing it too low, thereby leaving money on the table at closing. No. I'm going to 'hunker down', and try to wait out the decline in housing. I realize the housing market won't fully recover until the job market recovers - it's a symbiotic relationship - but I'm hopeful things will look better in the spring of 2010.

Oh, and FYI... the count is up to seven (7) Vulture calls as of 10:45am...
update... nine (9) calls by 11:13am...

(Ironic! My phone hasn't rung in two weeks, yet today I'm the carcass du jour...)