ask yourself . why?

Cirque du Soleil: Aerialist Yann Arnaud dies in Florida show

...Trapeze...

where does an elephant go...?

It is so sad to read (already on the cards) that Toys R Us is set to finally close or sell all of its 885 stores in the US in the coming months, the BBC understands. That move would put about 33,000 jobs at risk. A wonderful idea that became another wonderful idea and…all those happy, enthusiastic, passionate staff- where will they all go?


The Elephant Song

Tears before bedtime, Zebedee

I am so so elated by actress Sally Hawkins' Oscar win. I think I cry more than you do! :) And so so pleased for The Shape of Water. It enlists every movie trope one can imagine. Then makes it real. That said: everyone should see Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky with Sally Hawkins. How Mr.Leigh makes the real real without a single movie trope (well…he does use a little music..;) is why he is a genius also.

Phantom Thread's amazing (she is! and I would argue the whole night that without her even with that amazingly handsome chap opposite her it just would not be the great movie that it is) Vicky Krieps was working to pay her bills in Europe (her words;) but there was Lesley Manville at the Oscars. Back onstage in London tomorrow Tuesday night in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night. She plays alongside some guy Jeremy Irons..who he;) Someone is going to film that for future generations aren't they!

I want to hide under the sheets and feel very humbled. And I hate that word 'cause it is so often used so cringe make-ingly. In the case of Mike Leigh actors it is the only true quality. And I imagine the same with Guillermo del Toro actors as well. 


We know what we are trying to forget.

i remember...

I can't ever forgive you for what you did Prime Minister Tony Blair. And I can't forgive myself either for some things. You were on the massive geo-politcal stage, though. That being said, THIS Brexit interview is the wisest thing that you ever said. As a point of protocol are you Prime Minister or former PM? I rather like that White House quality of always being President even after death. One of the many ironies of the U.S.A. You don't write the cheque this week and one's name is gone pronto from the marquee. But as President no matter what one did u live on forever.

London ghosts are jealous of Colbert....

THIS is very funny....
or am i just a sad mole who has never seen a kitten....?

or a sad human who has never seen life beyond an internet's algorithms..

hey ho

we'll catch up some other time....

n ...u don't wanna fuck with the Wanda Sykes' ghosts...that's 'Arnie' on major herbal happiness..!

hey ho

make some crazyy....

Ricky Gervais on Colbert's The Late Show is the funniest most truthful thing...all year..(OK that's 1817/18) .I can imagine R.G. on a desolate soundstage after the 'big one' and a lone cockroach bitches "how the fuck did he survive out of all of the ...." "This was my moment...! "

So where were we?: Kafka and Cute Kittens....

Amerika

January film of the month is a close call between Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Of Ebbing, Missouri and Alexander Payne's Downsizing. McDonagh immediately grips his audience. Oooh ahh: this film has some space and nuance never letting you go even at the unresolved end. What intrigues is that this just isn't 'an American film'. It looks like America, sounds like America, feels like America but an hour or so after the film ends you realize it is all an elaborate theatrical black farce in the Strinbergian/Munch sense. Meaning: it really has to be 'the real abstracted'. Thus Abbie Cornish as the young intelligent wife and mother of the middle-aging small town Sheriff Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) doesn't seem at all awkwardly out of place with her Australian/Brit accent or mention of Oscar Wilde.

He is a brilliant writer/director Martin McDonagh.  Most seeing this film in the U.K. won't have an inkling of just how 'real' are these characters unless having lived Stateside. It isn't that you know these specific characters but that they embody a speciosity of human traits that you meet in one-degree of separation when you get around a bit in the States. That's McDonagh's genius: he can be the hyper-real that is so so close to the bone it's funny and painful. One Brit crit felt the only false note was the fawn that Mildred (Frances McDormond) talks to about her dead daughter. That didn't even bother me. Maybe because in reality I do talk to the doe that has frequented my garden for years. She acknowledges a voice/a scent/ then moves on chewing or licking her fawns. We 'rub along together'.

One would hope that all Americans were as nuanced as McDonagh's characters. Yet…

The greatest strength of this movie is that while you don't really forgive any of the characters for their weaknesses you hope that life will make just that little more sense next time you want to kick it in the teeth. Ironically, not a great film advertisement for small town dentistry! Breathe and think of how perilous it is to be a lame doe procreating fawn year after year after year. She is wary of me no longer scared. There is nothing to fear but fear itself.