Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Vintage Whisky, 2004

After spending an hour or so re-reading myself, I am well and truly cured of any impulse to smirk and quote Oscar Wilde at customs. We learn as we go, don't we? (Well . . . I do, at any rate.)

Here are a few posts from 12 years ago that still read not-too-badly.

  • Mortality & The Mouse -- My first ode to the corporate rodent. I wrote it in my father's office, mid-visit in California. The florescent lighting, the massive colour monitor, the blue industrial carpeting . . . a flood of pedestrian sensational recollections surges through my brain, because good Lord -- were those ever heady times! Every word counted, I thought. Twelve years later, I'm more inclined to blurt and leave as is. Moving on...
"...when the dog bites, when the bee stings...."
Movies:
  • Honor Thy Sexual Partner -- I was some kind of impressed with the married sexuality portrayed in the Neeson/Lange Rob Roy flick. Still am, actually.
  • Breakfast In Translation -- a compare-and-contrast piece I did on Sophia Coppola's Lost In Translation and Blake Edward's Breakfast At Tiffany's.
  • Charlton Heston, Patrician PunchlineRIP.
  • "Gangland Violence: CAAAAAAN You Dig It?!" -- Walter Hill's The Warriors is still a rewarding video treat.
Music:
Books:
  • Robert E. Howard: The Plath Of Pulps -- with a splash of lusty-gusty Ken Kelly art thrown in.
  • Surfing The Mid-Life Tsunami -- some early thoughts on mid-life follies, specifically motorcycles and surfing.
  • The Surf Is (Usually) Mightier Than The Pen -- more thoughts on surfing.
  • Cage Match: Fussell, Eno, Lamott!! -- pretty much as described.
Life:
I'm starting my own cult:
  • The Mennonites: Your Patron Saints Of Mediocrity -- I felt a bit pissy toward my tribe after reading an account of a bunch of schlengls colluding with the Juárez Cartel. It's still going on.
  • Whisky Prajer's Christmas Appeal -- read the book of Amos, for Christ's sake.

3 comments:

Joel Swagman said...

Interesting. Some of these posts I remember, others were completely gone from the brain.

I had never heard of The Warriors until just a few weeks ago. when this Uproxx post brought it to my attention.

http://uproxx.com/movies/excerpt-rubble-kings-the-warriors/

I was intrigued enough to do some Internet research on it--couldn't find the whole movie anywhere, but watched some clips on youtube, read the wikipedia page. Interesting that you had already written about it way back in 2004.

Joel Swagman said...

As for the Charleston Heston piece...

The first time I saw Planet of the Apes (early 90s) Charleton Heston hadn't quite become such a polemical figure in American politics, so I didn't really see much of a contradiction between his onscreen role and his public persona.

But when I watched it again around 2002, I couldn't help but notice the contradiction. The movie was so anti-clerical, anti-establishment, and anti-gun. And here was the main role being played by darling of the Republican Party, and the face of the NRA.

dpreimer said...

Rubble Kings is definitely something I want to give a closer look -- thanks.

As for Heston -- I think most of his roles run left (most that I can remember, anyway). Soylent Green, The Omega Man, A Touch Of Evil. Funny how that is, eh? He marched for civil rights and was, until some point in the late 60s or early 70s, an admitted lefty. But something clicked the lightswitch, and he concluded his years on a very different note.