Film Review--Daisy Kenyon (1947)

Over the years, I’ve become a bigger and bigger fan of Henry Fonda and Joan Crawford. When I first started watching a lot of older films, I avoided those with bigger stars of the day because, without having any experience with them of my own, I was easily taken in by the established personas and believed them entirely. I was a big fan of Humphrey Bogart, despite obvious acting flaws, but wouldn’t watch something with Jimmy Stewart. It all came down to my acceptance of their particular personas.

In the case of Fonda, my eyes were opened by Once upon a Time in the West, where his Frank throws the good guy image I had out the window. At the time, I understood that this role was the first villain he had played. On a scale of purely evil characters, this may be true but, the more films with him that I watch, the more I see conflict, both light and dark, in the characters he plays. Sure, there are still a lot of Tin Stars out there, but the range of characters was far more varied than I’d ever given him credit for.

Crawford’s case is different, but more important. I avoided her films because she has been presented my whole life, since the publication of Mommy Dearest, as a real life monster that should be avoided at all cost. Because of how she has been accused of treating her children, and it is deplorable, this now comes first with her actual onscreen work virtually forgotten. I know few people my age who are fans of her work, but nearly everyone knows her cruel persona. I can’t help but look at her myself through this filter, but the more I see of her work, starting in Tod Browning’s 1929 lurid classic The Unknown, the more her strength and talent overshadows whatever she may have done in her life. This comes most clear to me watching her 1947 vehicle, directed by Otto Preminger and adapted from a novel by Elizabeth Janeway, Daisy Kenyon.

Although the DVD is under the banner of “Fox Film Noir,” it’s not a genre film in any way. The only reason to call it so is its high contrast black and white photography, but that’s not a very good reason. Regardless, it is a pretty simple romantic triangle story about a commercial artist (Crawford) involved with a married lawyer (Dana Andrews) at the same time as an ex-soldier (Fonda) in the years just after WWII. She is strong, successful, and the center of the picture, with the handsome leading men competing for her affections. The world that revolves around her is definitely not a Noir world.

Joan Crawford can certainly drive a picture, and she does some great work here. She was in her forties at this point and the part was written for someone fifteen years younger (a rarity then and now). This gets hidden in superficial ways: the aforementioned darkly lit photography and the wardrobe department made heavy use of their lacey collar drawer, but it’s the strength of her performance that really makes her age irrelevant. Both leading men are conflicted and Preminger does really well keeping their motives secret until the end. Andrews, self-aggrandizing and actively aggressive, plays against Fonda and his passive-aggressive strategies very well. They are equals working against each other, while becoming friends, toward the same goal.

But it’s the details in the characters and the issues that Preminger dealt with that make the film work so well. Fonda clearly has PTSD, half a century before it was so-called. Haunted by dreams of the war and scarred in his every day life, Fonda seems as downright crazy as I’ve ever seen him. Andrews’ character has a big case defending a Japanese-American whose land had been stolen while he was interned in the camps. The still hot anti-Asian sentiment at the time of the film is directly dealt with, and is a surprising touch that does not come from the original text (in the novel, apparently, he is working on some big military spending project). There is a distinct homoerotic subtext and, with undercurrents of child abuse and divorce, Daisy Kenyon hits on a lot of taboos for 1947 and is considerably more progressive than I would have expected.

By all reports, everyone involved in the production were lukewarm to negative about the finished product. The film was afterward forgotten, and this is its first ever home release. I may disagree with the film’s misclassification, but at least its available.

Observations on Fernando Lugo's Election in Paraguay

On Sunday, Fernando Lugo, a former bishop, won the presidency in Paraguay. While some newspapers and news sources are portraying Lugo's win as just another leftist coming into office in South America, the New York Times really gets it right. Yes, Lugo's win is technically a case of a "leftist" in American parlance (which often means "center-left" in Latin America - the political skewing is our problem, not theirs), but it's a major and extremely important victory, for it finally ends the 61-year rule of the Colorado party, which had been the party of Alfredo Stroessner, Paraguay's brutal dictator for 35 years. The promise for change within Lugo's election is certainly huge, but it's still tenuous.

In this regard, I fully agree with the caution of the NYT and the Times Online. Lugo's victory, while important, was also by plurality, and he doesn't exactly have some "mandate" (except in George Bush parlance, where 51% is a "mandate"). I think the Times Online's comparison to Lula is relevant, too. Like Lula, Lugo is going to have to overcome some pretty stiff opposition, particularly given how dominant the Colorado party is within the basic state apparatus. While it may be bad for Brazil, renegotiating the Itaipu dam for Paraguay could help broaden Lugo's support along nationalist lines (though Lula has already said he won't review the treaty; that doesn't mean he won't ever, but it's definitely not going to happen easily). Lugo will definitely have to tread lightly at first, but I think there's a lot of promise here. Hopefully, he will take Lula's approach of open dialog with anybody and everybody. Paraguay probably can't benefit economically to the level that Brazil has under Lula; Paraguay simply doesn't have the presence in the global economy that Brazil already had (based on size alone) when Lula entered. Still, there is a strong chance for Lugo to turn things around, provided he works diplomatically and the opposition doesn't intentionally block any programs that could help revitalize Paraguay's economy and society.

Brrr...

Current temperature in Calgary: 14
Wind Chill: -2

Date: April 19.

Hmmm......

A Little Bit of Opera on Saturday Afternoon

For those who are interested, I can't recommend strongly enough the radio program "Metropolitan Opera with Margaret Juntwat." I'm sure there are multiple stations where you can hear it (I'm currently enjoying it via WCLV's live feed on the internet). I never knew of this program; I stumbled upon it when I learned that I am able to hear Philip Glass's (out-of-print) opera Satyagraha in its entirety for the first time. (The opera is about Ghandi - the first act just ended, and it's amazing). What really makes Juntwat's program great, though, is what happens prior to the show and during the intermissions. I've never had any opera contextualized so strongly, and during the intermissions, they have included items like an interview with Glass upon the production of Satyagraha at the Met this month, an essay on Tolstoy's influence on Ghandi, and others.

And even if you don't like Glass (or even opera) that much, you still get to listen to a live opera at the met on a Saturday afternoon for free, instead of paying a minimum of 85$. And how cool is that?

My Upcoming Anti-US Rant

As some readers know, I have a job interview next week at a Canadian school. One of the things I have to do is come up with a 15 minute talk about why to learn about U.S. history. It's not a hard thing to put together, but it's weird. I've never had to explain this question before. For Americans, I can just say that you should learn about your damn country. But for Canadian students, it's an interesting challenge.

I didn't really plan it this way, but the whole talk, and in fact just about everything I am putting together for this interview, is basically an anti-American rant. I don't want it to be necessarily, but if they want to know my feelings about these issues, well, I guess they are going to get them. My classes are notoriously depressing anyway. So I guess they will know what they are going to get. Still, I could see my images of lynchings, Wounded Knee, anti-Chinese riots, and massacres of Filipinos not going over well, particularly since there are exactly 0 images that view the US in a positive way.

On the other hand, maybe they'll think I'm trying to get out of the country! Which isn't really true, but whatever.

This is my first on-campus interview and I have this feeling of impending disaster. Who knows though. I am pretty underprepared. After a very hard year and a week after defending my dissertation, my energy to prepare three different talks is really not there.

In other news, the high in said Canadian city is supposed to be about 20 and snow. So that ought to be interesting at least.

And if anyone can suggest any good Canadian jokes to tell, let me know.

Chris Gaffney, RIP

I wrote a couple of weeks ago that the brilliant country/soul singer-songwriter-accordionist Chris Gaffney had severe liver cancer. It sounded bad and indeed it was.

Gaffney died last night at the age of 57.

A real tragedy.

Erik's Random 10

An interesting 10 this week. Any of these songs I would be happy to write something about.

Orgone is a leading band in the neo-funk/soul scene. At their best, I think they are very very good. In particular, the tracks with Fanny Franklin singing, such as "I Get Lifted" are really first rate. Bands like Orgone are breathing new life into a great musical tradition that had faded in recent decades.

I will say though that I place the songs with Franklin singing and the songs without vocals into 2 separate categories. When she sings, I am totally into it. On the many instrumental tracks, my attention wanders. A lot of bands that reach back into the glories of 60s and 70s danceable music are prone to a lot of instrumental numbers. I blame the hippies. Everyone is looking for some kind of jam-esque music I guess. Orgone seems to be no exception. But I find the vocals to be absolutely vital to this kind of music, especially when you have a real talent behind the mic. The occasional instrumental track is fine to set off the vocal numbers, but 1/2 instrumental? Not so interesting unless there is something really interesting happening, such as in creative jazz. Orgone always puts down a good groove, but groove alone is not always that riveting to me.

Either way, I do recommend their album The Killion Floor.

1. Orgone, I Get Lifted
2. Walk Don't Run, El Garage de Gina Monster
3. Pink Floyd, Echoes
4. Michael Shreve, Tell Me Everything
5. Wayne Hancock, Miller, Jack, and Mad Dog
6. Duke Ellington & His Orchestra, East St. Louis Toodle-Oo
7. The Freight Hoppers, Nobody's Business
8. Son House, Son's Blues
9. Tom Waits, Rains On Me
10. Merle Haggard, I'll Be A Hero (When I Strike)

Mister Trend's Random 10

Roland Kirk is another one of those amazing jazz musicians who seems all but forgotten today. Kirk, blind from a very young age, was technically remarkable, creating his own horns and often able to play more than one horn at the same time. It wasn't some gimmick, though, like Kenny G holding one note for forever - Kirk could flat out play. He moves from swing to dixie to bop to free jazz effortlessly from album to album, and even from song to song. Now Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful Edith, the album "Stompin' Grounds" comes from, is a minor masterpiece, with Kirk exploring nearly all styles of jazz. This isn't some hokey, tribute-type album - the music is genuinely great, and Kirk is natural in all settings. It's not my favorite of his, but it's close. His death at 41 in 1977 is as big a shame, if not a bigger loss, than Coltrane's early death, and even after his stroke in 1976, he showed no sign of creative loss. Kirk is definitely one of the 20th century's greatest jazz artists, and deserves much more credit than he gets.

1. "Pastorinhas" - Noel Rosa (with Silvio Caldas)
2. "Address" - Rashied Ali
3. "Lies" - The Black Keys
4. "Hear My Train A Comin' [Electric]" - Jimi Hendrix
5. "Despedida do Amor" - Musica Folclorica do Norte e Nordeste do Brasil
6. "Desculpe, Babe" - Os Mutantes
7. "Stompin' Grounds" - Rahsaan Roland Kirk
8. "There's No Fucking Rules, Dude" - !!!
9. "Ventolin (Video Version)" - Aphex Twin
10. "Shining Light" - Neil Young

Historical Image of the Day

Wedding dresses, 1897

My Near-Death Experience

I had always wondered what would happen if a plane hit a flock of birds. You'd think it would happen more often.

Unfortunately, I actually found out what happens when my plane hit a flock of geese at 15,000 feet when flying back from Albuquerque after my dissertation defense.

Let me tell you that the one sound you don't want to hear when flying is a loud THUMP. That can't be good. One wing had a whole in it. The other was severely dented. They got in the engines too. One engine had to be shut off.

We returned to Albuquerque. On the way, we were prepared for an emergency landing. The flight attendant told us how to operate the emergency doors. We were told that if/when the captain yelled "EVACUATE" that we were supposed to wrap our arms around our head and put it in our lap. Fire trucks and ambulances were everywhere when we landed.

Luckily, it was actually a very smooth landing. But let me tell you, those last few minutes before the plane landed were the strangest of my life. For the first time, I really thought that there was a chance I could die. It was an actual possibility. I wasn't really terrified, particularly because the plane actually sounded fine the whole time. Maybe I figured it was OK. But it was a very reflective time. I sort of decided that for 34 years, I had done pretty good. I had traveled to something like 11 countries and 40 states. I had mostly been nice to people I think. I don't know that I would have left the world better than I found it, but I tried. And I had finished my dissertation. In fact, I could read the newspaper headline, "Professor Dies in Plane Crash Days After Flying to Defend Dissertation." Gary Busey could play me in the movie.

I'll tell you one thing--it felt pretty goddamn good to put my feet on the ground that night.

As for my curiosity about the world, allow me to send a message to the powers that be--please don't satisfy my curiosity ever again. I really don't want to know the answers to these questions.

Globalization Readings

In the fall, I am teaching a history of globalization. I'm just wondering if anyone out there has some useful suggestions for readings. I am focusing on environmental change, labor issues, gender, religion, and maybe popular culture. But I am open to anything interesting.

I think I am assigning the following:

Jefferson Cowie, Capital Moves (about RCA's constant search for cheap labor
Vandana Shiva, Stolen Harvest (about globalization and the world food supply)
Alfred Crosby, Ecological Imperialisms (about environmental change and colonization)

I am probably going to assign something on the Zapatistas. I'm thinking of Ara Wilson's The Intimate Economies of Bangkok for a good book on gender. Maybe another book as well. My school assigns a lot of work so I will also be having the students read some book chapters too, where I will pick up more gender and religion issues. I am curious about the edited collection entitled Globalization, Gender, and Religion: The Politics of Women's Rights in Catholic and Muslim Contexts. Could be good for a chapter or two.

Anyhow, thoughts?

The World of Independent Baseball

King Kaufman, Salon's mild, innocuous sportswriter, today published a fairly interesting piece on independent league baseball. There was a rookie-A team (as opposed to a rookie A-Team) in Eugene growing up where I remember seeing Tom Gordon coming into the league, but nothing like this. I've never experienced this level of baseball, except for Jose Canseco and Ricky Henderson jokes, but would really like to see it for myself. Wacky promotions, direct fan involvement, and trading a player for a pallet of beer...now that's old school.

Lyrad's Occasional Image

Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg on the set of Sabotage, June 1968.

Lyrad's Random 10

Off the top of my head, Susie Ibarra is the only Asian-American female jazz drummer I can think of. I'm sure there are more, but I've never heard of them. She's an amazing drummer who has worked with pretty much everyone in the NY jazz scene over the years and has emerged in her own right as a very good improvisational band leader. "Ancients" comes from her Flower after Flower album on Tzadik. Here, she plays drums, kulintang (Filipino gamelin) and various percussion with violin, two clarinets, flute, trumpet, bass, accordion, and piano. Depending on the track, the improvisations are either quite beautiful or quite difficult, but it's an intriguing album that deserves multiple listens. Of note here is Pauline Oliveros on the accordion. She has developed a "deep listening" style of playing the instrument that uses the reverberations of the recording space (she once recorded in a two million gallon underground cistern that has a 45 second reverberation time) to influence and change her sound, often resulting in walls of noise. When this is added into this mix of master instrumentalists, it's something to behold.

1. Susie Ibarra--Ancients
2. Fred Frith, Mark Dresser & Ikue Mori--Hello, I Must Be Going
3. Ivie Anderson--Twice Too Many
4. Nico Fidenco--Make Love on the Wing (from the soundtrack to Emmanuelle and the Last Cannibals)
5. Benny Goodman--Tiger Rag
6. Seks Bomba--The Cat [for Marvin]
7. Guy Klucevsek--Viavy Rose Variations
8. Antonin Dvorak--Domov muj [My Home] (Overture) for Orchestra, Op.62a (Czech PO; Libor Pesek, cond)
9. Trusty--Goodbye Dr. Fate
10. Roy Budd--Fields of Green and Skies of Blue (from the soundtrack to Soldier Blue)

Cosmopolitan America

About a week ago, Rob had an interesting post about cosmopolitan cities in America. Comparing San Francisco to Cincinnati, he wrote

For O'Reilly, San Francisco represents a rejection of America, which is to say a rejection of the set of imaginary traditions that social conservatives hold dear. The hopeful thing, I think, is that fewer people share O'Reilly's vision than he believes; these charts seem to indicate that Americans, on the whole, are pretty tolerant of the cosmopolitan idea. I think that the failure of anti-immigration politics (in spite of the handwringing of folks like Mickey Kaus) to really gain much traction in the last couple of election cycles indicates that more people think about San Francisco in the way I do than the way that O'Reilly does. It makes me optimistic that there's space for a genuinely (almost uniquely) American civic nationalism, even if that nationalism is at deep odds with those who most enthusiastically wrap themselves in the American flag. I'm also hopeful that, in twenty years, Cincinnati will become more like San Francisco than the reverse, and that we'll all be the better for it.

Right, but it's even bigger than that. For the pleasure of people who like Afghani food and hearing different languages on the street, more cosmopolitan cities are great, but the real fear for O'Reilly and ilk is Americans beginning to understand foreign cultures, regardless of where they live.

This brings me to a conversation I had with my Mom the other day. First, a note on her. "Cosmopolitan" is not a word you would use to describe my mother. She had never been outside the country until 2 years ago. She has no interest in travel. She has always found certain Latino men sexy, particularly Julio Iglesias and Rafael Palmeiro. I tried not to explore this fascination too deeply.

Anyway, when Lyrad and I left home, she lost her identity as a mother. She never worked outside the home, mostly for health reasons and also because of our Dad's old-fashioned gender hangups. But she did start getting involved with foreign exchange students. It was perfect; hosting them allowed her to be a Mom, plus she could work on placing these students by turning Lyrad's now unused bedroom into an office.

When I was growing up she was a Democrat but then switched to the Republicans to express her opposition to the gay rights movement in the early 90s. Whether she still feels this way is another thing I don't want to explore. But through being exposed to all these foreign cultures, both her and my Dad, who is a pretty conservative guy, have had their eyes opened pretty wide.

She called me the other day asking what halal was. This is because her program is trying to place Muslim students in rural Oregon. The idea of my Mom needing to understand Islamic dietary laws was mindblowing to me and is a conservative's nightmare. Both her and my Dad are big time Obama supporters and will even vote for Hillary if she is the nominee, although neither can stand her. But they have talked to all these people about how the European socialized health care and have become converts.

But of course most conservative whites have not had their world broadened in this way. Republicans can only hope this continues. Michael Sokolove's story on politics in his home town of Levittown, Pennsylvania illustrates this point well. There are many traditional white working-class Democrats in Levittown who want Hillary to win the presidency but will vote for McCain over Obama, because they just flat out aren't voting for a black man. This is still an isolated white place with old-style working-class concerns. Certainly the Democratic Party needs to work for these voters, but these are also classic Reagan Democrats for whom race matters a lot. They don't want a cosmopolitan America. It threatens their identity as white Americans and what they believe that stands for--hearing English, eating traditional European-based foods, living and working around other whites, and making enough money to buy a new car every couple of years. Sokolove relates this incident:

Steve Woods sat drinking a Coors Light and talking with his buddies. A Philadelphia Phillies spring-training game was on TV, and he glanced up at it every time the audio picked up the crack of the bat. I asked him if the presidential campaign interested him. “Absolutely,” he said. Rapid fire, he told me the issues he cared about: “No. 1, gas prices. It’s killing everybody. No. 2, immigrants. They should go back to Mexico. Three, guns. Everybody should have the right to bear arms. In fact, everyone should have a gun in this day and age.”

I wondered if he was a Republican. “Are you kidding?” he said. “I’m a Democrat all the way. I hate Republicans.”

If McCain can tap these votes, he might have a chance to pull this election out.

But in the long run, what Rob and I hope for becomes closer to reality and what O'Reilly and the remnants of the white working class like Steve Woods hold dear is disappearing. For all that people slam on Cincinnati, I have little doubt that it is far more cosmopolitan than it was 20 years ago. The gap between Cincy and San Francisco is narrowing every day. Every time a new Spanish radio station starts broadcasting in Iowa, every time a Vietnamese restaurant opens in Utah, every time the child of South Carolina conservatives makes friends with a Guatemalan or Salvadoran-American at school, the conservatives lose. They know this and it scares the hell out of them.

Cosmopolitanism may be the hope of American society and I am confident that the nation will only get more urbane with each passing year.

Historical Image of the Day

Henry Adams, 1875. Grandson of John Quincy Adams, great grandson of John Adams. Leading Victorian intellectual. Author of The Education of Henry Adams. Perhaps America's greatest stick in the mud.

Erik's Random 10

Calm seems to be a pretty good Japanese band that mixes traditional Japanese sounds with modern dance music. Truth be told, I've only listened to it once or twice. I just got it from a collection entitled "The Very Best of the Far East." This and other similar collections are really fantastic sets, providing you with 2 or 3 CDs worth of interesting music from an area for about $5. You can get them on Amazon and I'd recommend them as an intro to both traditional and modern sounds of the world.

1. Calm, Long Way Long Time
2. The Meat Purveyors, Car Crash
3. Eyvind Kang, The Eternity
4. Drive-By Truckers, Birmingham
5. Norman Blake, The Rights of Man Hornpipe
6. Frank Jenkins, Home Sweet Home
7. Flute Solo off the album "Folk Music of Ethiopia
8. Richard Thompson, Should I Betray?
9. R.B. Morris, The Ballad of Thunder Road
10. Elvis Costello, Crawling to the USA

Mister Trend's Random 10

For all the love Lou Reed (generally deservedly) gets for his lyrics, I feel that, at his best moments, John Cale at worst matches and often is a better wordsmith than Reed. "Guts," off Cale's 1975 album Slow Dazzle, is a great example of this. It probably has my favorite opening lines of any song ever: "The bugger in the short sleeves fucked my wife. Did it quick, then split." The song's title comes from the fact that somebody (presumably the narrator) killed the guy, leaving him and his guts "all over the living room floor Like parrot shit, parrot spit, parrot shit was shot." Cale remains as cool as a cucumber throughout the cinematic portrayal of the events (the shotgun "operatic in its self disgust), until the end, when he realizes what's happened, becoming more frantic with the realizations that "the waster and the wasted get to look the same in the end." To match it all, his backing band is as rocking and dark as the lyrical content. It's just a great, great song on a great album.

1. "Shimenawa" - Bjork
2. "In a Silent Way (rehearsal)" - Miles Davis
3. "Defeito 3: Politicar" - Tom Ze
4. "Alone for a Long Time" - Charles Caldwell
5. "Stay Sweet" - Young People
6. "Untitled" - Panda Bear
7. "Guts" - John Cale
8. "Untitled 2" - Sigur Ros
9. "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" - Bob Dylan
10. "I Cover the Waterfront" - Billie Holiday

Bad News for Alberto Fujimori?

This is very good news:

A Peruvian court on Tuesday convicted a former general and three members of a military death squad of kidnapping and murder in a ruling that prosecutors say could set a precedent in the trial of former President Alberto Fujimori. The four were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 15 to 35 years in connection
with a 1992 massacre [...]
In a separate courtroom, Fujimori is being tried for allegedly authorizing the death squad to fight the guerrillas.
Jose Pelaez, the prosecutor in Fujimori's trial, said guilty verdicts in Tuesday's ruling would "establish a precedent" in the former president's case. "If the men who carried out the acts are found guilty, undoubtedly, the man at the top of the command chain, the man behind it all, Fujimori, also will be condemned for the same acts," he said before the verdict was issued.

Things are definitely starting to look grim for Fujimori. He's already guaranteed to have to serve jail time after his conviction on lesser charges. I'm not quite as confident as Pelaez that the conviction of the soldiers and the general guarantees that Fujimori will be found guilty, but the case certainly sets a precedent that doesn't bode well for the former president. Certainly, it's excellent news that the soldiers and military leaders who committed and authorized attacks on civilians are being punished with jail time; that in and of itself is a major step towards rectifying past human rights abuses in Peru. And with the precedent set, Fujimori, who as president commanded and oversaw all military (and paramilitary) activities in Peru in the 1990s is on even thinner ice. He may still be found not guilty, but the conviction of the military men was definitely a step in the right direction, and a sign of hope that other leaders involved in human rights abuses in Peru in the 90s will not get off lightly.

The 22nd Bond Movie - Now Offending Bolivians and Chileans

I'm fairly knowledgable in my James Bond movies (I've seen every movie, from the excellent Casino Royale to the painfully bad View to a Kill and the absurd Die Another Day, and all others). Given how well-done Casino Royale was, I'm pretty eager to see the 22nd movie, Quantum of Solace. However, perhaps I should have been brought on as a consultant to the film, because I'm aware of the legacy of the War of the Pacific, and I could have told the producers that using Chile to portray Bolivia would be a bad idea:

Chile-as-Bolivia has not been a popular choice, either: Hurt feelings remain between the South American neighbors over an 1879-84 war in which Chile took Bolivia's Pacific coastline. The two have not had diplomatic relations since 1978.
"We knew there was a war 100 years ago, but we didn't know it was
still an issue," [producer Michael G.] Wilson said.

Apparently, both Chileans and Bolivians are offended - Chile at being used as a surrogate for Bolivia, and Bolivia at not being used as "Bolivia." There's no real harm here, and it is a mildly amusing story. Maybe next time, the producers will do a little research on shooting locations first.