Blogosphere
Excerpts from the blogs of Inquirer critics.
What's in President Obama's Netflix queue?
From Carrie Rickey's "Flickgrrl"
www.philly.com/philly/blogs/flickgrrl
'The first movie Obama viewed in the White House theater was Slumdog Millionaire. He loved it, and parts of the movie reminded him of his childhood days in Jakarta, Indonesia." So noted CNN reporter John King of the debut movie of the new presidential administration, a movie about adversity and hope, triumph and love.
Which gets me to thinking: How would you program the White House theater in the coming months? What should President Obama and his family watch to keep hope alive?
My top-of-the-head recommendations for education mood-movies: Laurent Cantet's powerful new film The Class, about the challenges of teaching in a Paris public school; Euzhan Palcy's Sugar Cane Alley, the tale of a young boy in 1930s Martinique whose grandmother struggles to keep him in school; and Elia Kazan's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, the classic about a girl who fights to stay in school even though her family encourages her to drop out so she can contribute to the household expenses. Compelling health-insurance scenarios (but don't let Sasha and Malia see these): Francis Coppola's The Rainmaker and Warren Beatty's Bulworth.
What would you book for the White House theater and its moviegoers?
Other People's Money
- Posted by jmc
I think I'd have him watch Sidney Lumet's film of Paddy Chayefsky's ever-more prescient Network. He needs to be reminded of the anger out there and who it's aimed at and what happens when its prophet is turned by a corporate manipulator.
- Posted by edwardcopeland
To keep my hope alive, I'd like to have him watch: Thelma and Louise, Nine to Five, The Color Purple, and If These Walls Could Talk.
- Posted by drogow
Triple feature: Sunset Boulevard, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (vote: what costume for him?), Welles' Macbeth.
- Posted by Jeff Weinstein
Bee Keeper
From Virginia Smith's
"Kiss the Earth"
gardening
Longtime flower show fans know that the Gardener's Studio in the middle of the floor is a welcome respite. You can sit yourself down and listen to short lectures on a variety of topics. Today I heard Jim Bobb of Worcester Honey Farms. Didn't stay for the whole talk but in just a few minutes I learned some fun facts about bees: Skunks like to eat them by the hundreds, for example. Jim puts his bee boxes up high, forcing the skunks to stand on two legs. This leaves them vulnerable to bee stings on their stomachs, where they're extra sensitive. Nature is ingenious, isn't it?
Also, he says bees are politically correct; they're vegetarians. And if you get stung, first thing you do is use your fingernail to scrape the stinger away. You can also use a credit card, one of the few acceptable uses in these lean times. The normal reaction to a sting is swelling. If your arm goes numb or you start having trouble breathing, you're allergic. Time to get help asap.
Someone asked Jim if the stings hurt. "The first sting each year hurts," he replied. "The next 30,000 don't."
Michelle Obama: This Week in Fashion
From Elizabeth Wellington's "Mirror Image"
mirrorimage
First lady Michelle Obama has had quite a fashionable week.
She's been spotted in an array of beautiful ensembles from a slew of high-fashion runway designers including Michael Kors (the official White House portrait) Jason Wu (sparkling, strapless gown she wore to the Governor's Ball) Alexander McQueen (a chalky pinstriped pantsuit), Tracy Reese (the beautiful pink lace dress on the cover of People), Narciso Rodriguez (purple sheath she wore to Barack Obama's Tuesday night speech). . . .
Personally, I think the first lady has looked fabulous at every event. She hasn't missed a step. Her use of color has been electrifying as she's steered clear of all things staid and boring. Michelle Obama is no fashion slob!
That's why I can't understand why people are making such a big deal over the fact that Mrs. Obama likes to show off her arms. I say bring on spring. Mrs. Obama's arms are beautifully toned. (She works out every day with her hubby.) And she's age-appropriate. I think that Mrs. Obama is wearing clothes that some of you out there wouldn't dare wear because you can't and it's driving you nuts, making you crazy. Mrs. Obama likes to shake it up. Some days she wears her hair up. Sometimes she wears it curly. Sometimes she wears her coif down. She's just as comfortable in pants as she is a dress. Here is a woman we can't put in a fashion box and it's driving us crazy. . . .
Astral Van
From Dan DeLuca's
"In the Mix"
inthemix
Lately, I've found myself on an out-of-town geezer jag. Willie Nelson in Wilkes-Barre, Leonard Cohen in New York, Ralph Stanley in Sellersville, and finally, Van Morrison doing Astral Weeks in its entirety in Manhattan on Friday night at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden.
The WaMu at MSG, by the way, besides being another venue named after a failed bank (Washington Mutual, in this case), is also known as the Felt Forum, and is the 4,543-capacity no-balcony theater that was the site of one of the signature events in Philadelphia sports history: The booing of Donovan McNabb when the Eagles picked him instead of Ricky Williams in the 1999 NFL draft.
But I digress. We were talking about Van, and Astral Weeks, the 1968 album that never made the Billboard charts when it was released, but has a deserved reputation as a masterpiece that's a deeper expression of Morrison's incantatory and improvisational mystic soul than anything else the now 63-year-old Irish troubadour has ever done. Astral Weeks didn't spawn a single hit, but its landmark songs - "Cypress Avenue," "Madame George," "The Way Young Lovers Do" - pack an emotional wallop.
In the iPod '00s, there's a countervailing mini-trend towards giving people something whole and substantive . . . and Morrison climbed aboard last November, when he did Astral Weeks front to back for the first time ever in two shows in Los Angeles last November.
I've seen Morrison a bunch of times in the last five years or so, but I've only heard him do a few AW songs here and there, so the chance to see him bring it to life live . . . made a road trip seem imperative.
I'm glad I went. But having seen Van the Man play the perverse and imperious curmudgeon many times in the past, I should have known that this wouldn't be any different. . . .