Bogie tells Bergman,"We'll always have Paris." One of the great lines from the classic wartime romance CASABLANCA. But now 70 modern years later, cool contemporaries might ask: How could there be such great romance without great sex...?
Check it out for yourself. Their lyrical days in 1940 Paris just before the Nazi's are all recalled in an 11 minute flashback. There was wine and roses, fast cars and slow nights; but never sex. Sex -- today's closeup sine-qua-non to Hollywood and television for any love story.
How then do we reconcile one of America's great love stories side by side with nary a single great bedroom scene...? Here's a thought. A thought that made more sense in 1940 than 2011, but still a thought. There will be those unannounced times when souls meet before bodies. When lives connect from the waist up. When it's friends-first-lovers-later.
A moment now for the skeptical eyebrows to drop.
If it was true then, it's still true today. Oh, not in the mainstream culture; but mainstream is not the only stream. And while this isn't meant to be a commentary on morality, it is meant to pose a deliciously prickly question. Why does one of the 20th C's emblematic love stories still get ranked among our top ten? still get on the nighttime cable channels? still get featured in college film festivals? still get written about like this?
One answer might be found in that final scene at the misty Casablanca airport. To this day directors still emulate it. Woody Allen put himself into it. Viewers like you respond to it. It's love lifted higher than passion. Love raised as high as honor. Something sex partners don't reach quite this nobly.
Nobility....! Yes, that's the word. The word their kind of love became. And still can.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
WHEN DID THE WORLD CHANGE WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!
It's an insidious little process. It begins small. Unannounced. Definitely without your permission. And yet it continues to gather speed, no matter what you do about it. In time -- usually over a period of blinking, unbelieving years -- the process peaks. The deed is done.
You are no longer the person you see looking back from those graduation and wedding pictures around the house. That was then; this is most definitely now. You should have know that morning when you reached down for your morning paper. Can you remember? The sudden realization (1) you just pulled a muscle you never knew you had before (2) you could swear you've seen that same headline before.
The ugly truth is (1) that muscle's been there ready to atrophy for years (2) yes, you've seen that headline many times before, only with different names and dates.
Rather quickly now this surge sweeps over you. You're forgetting names, telephone numbers, car keys ...skirts and pants insist upon shrinking on you...your class in the alumni news is reporting as many deceased as arrived...the cops, quarterbacks, and stars in your world have treasonously become younger than you.... movies and television are all beginning to look alike....and those new medical breakthroughs, haven't you heard these same promises and their counter-promises before?
You start remembering.
Dad used to doze off at holiday dinners. Mom had a hitch more than a skip to her step. For so many years now they had remained the same. Or had they? Had I? Had anything? The rivers flow into the deltas and the deltas mingle into the oceans. It's the image of time moving on, and everything and everyone along with it. But as the ancient Greeks wrote: No one can jump into the same river. And so it is, none of us can be the same us.
How does that grab you...? For those who don't much like who they were, it's that second chance all those how-to books are always writing about. For those who kinda like who they were, the current will carry them too. The thing to remember is this. We're all traveling the same river. We're all trying each in our own way. And the trying is what is called life...
You are no longer the person you see looking back from those graduation and wedding pictures around the house. That was then; this is most definitely now. You should have know that morning when you reached down for your morning paper. Can you remember? The sudden realization (1) you just pulled a muscle you never knew you had before (2) you could swear you've seen that same headline before.
The ugly truth is (1) that muscle's been there ready to atrophy for years (2) yes, you've seen that headline many times before, only with different names and dates.
Rather quickly now this surge sweeps over you. You're forgetting names, telephone numbers, car keys ...skirts and pants insist upon shrinking on you...your class in the alumni news is reporting as many deceased as arrived...the cops, quarterbacks, and stars in your world have treasonously become younger than you.... movies and television are all beginning to look alike....and those new medical breakthroughs, haven't you heard these same promises and their counter-promises before?
You start remembering.
Dad used to doze off at holiday dinners. Mom had a hitch more than a skip to her step. For so many years now they had remained the same. Or had they? Had I? Had anything? The rivers flow into the deltas and the deltas mingle into the oceans. It's the image of time moving on, and everything and everyone along with it. But as the ancient Greeks wrote: No one can jump into the same river. And so it is, none of us can be the same us.
How does that grab you...? For those who don't much like who they were, it's that second chance all those how-to books are always writing about. For those who kinda like who they were, the current will carry them too. The thing to remember is this. We're all traveling the same river. We're all trying each in our own way. And the trying is what is called life...
Monday, September 5, 2011
OOPS, THE NETWORKS ARE ABOUT TO ATTACK AGAIN
There will be an iffy new season of television in America's homes this month. While at the very same time an impeccable old season of Shalimar in mine. For me this is the ancient counter-point between change and continuity. We are attracted to the first; we depend upon the second. Let me explain....
September is the approved launch-date for the networks' new programming. We are advised 23 new series are about to be unleashed upon our living rooms. History shows not more than 10 will survive. The specific survivors are not important; what is, is the basic content. We can be sure this will include slightly reformulated combinations of slick cops & docs shows...ever more raunchy reality programs ...low-budget, high-sensation news documentaries...some different ways of bringing us the paparazzi's more outrageous favorites...all slathered with equal portions of violence, sex and commercials.
While politicians in Washington and clergy in pulpits think they are shaping America, 24/7 television in our homes is more likely to accomplish that. Not to put too fine point on it, but what we have here is a persistent rise in feckless entertainment matched by a discouraging fall in civic responsibility. The I'm-tired-at-the-end-of-the-day-so-let-someone-else-do-it syndrome. Not exactly new in human history, but no generation of humans has ever experienced this syndrome quite so intensely.
Now what about the Shalimar? In one of those little co-incidentals in life, both Mom and Joan chose Shalimar as their perfume. Which means that as a child, my life was tinted with the lingering scent of this wondrous fragrance; and now as an adult, the experience continues. Continuity...! the passing on from one time and place to another. It's how families and civilizations survive. Not that Shalimar has any particular impact on our civilization; but I think it has on my small piece of it.
So.
Side by side with the thrill and terror of change, we mortals harbor an affection and need for sameness. Linus chooses his little blue blanket. Diane Keaton her white gloves. Batters their wiggle at the plate. Wall Street bankers their bonuses at the end of the year. In other words fellow Romans -- excelsior, but just not too fast!
September is the approved launch-date for the networks' new programming. We are advised 23 new series are about to be unleashed upon our living rooms. History shows not more than 10 will survive. The specific survivors are not important; what is, is the basic content. We can be sure this will include slightly reformulated combinations of slick cops & docs shows...ever more raunchy reality programs ...low-budget, high-sensation news documentaries...some different ways of bringing us the paparazzi's more outrageous favorites...all slathered with equal portions of violence, sex and commercials.
While politicians in Washington and clergy in pulpits think they are shaping America, 24/7 television in our homes is more likely to accomplish that. Not to put too fine point on it, but what we have here is a persistent rise in feckless entertainment matched by a discouraging fall in civic responsibility. The I'm-tired-at-the-end-of-the-day-so-let-someone-else-do-it syndrome. Not exactly new in human history, but no generation of humans has ever experienced this syndrome quite so intensely.
Now what about the Shalimar? In one of those little co-incidentals in life, both Mom and Joan chose Shalimar as their perfume. Which means that as a child, my life was tinted with the lingering scent of this wondrous fragrance; and now as an adult, the experience continues. Continuity...! the passing on from one time and place to another. It's how families and civilizations survive. Not that Shalimar has any particular impact on our civilization; but I think it has on my small piece of it.
So.
Side by side with the thrill and terror of change, we mortals harbor an affection and need for sameness. Linus chooses his little blue blanket. Diane Keaton her white gloves. Batters their wiggle at the plate. Wall Street bankers their bonuses at the end of the year. In other words fellow Romans -- excelsior, but just not too fast!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
ARE YOU ONE OF THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE...?
People born in northern climates have bigger eyes and brains than those around the equator. Doesn't mean they're more beautiful or smart; it's simply evolution compensating for the lower light levels when living closer to the poles. Still, it does raise that aching ancient question: Am I beautiful...?
According to the dermatologists surveyed, no one seems to really like their face. All those nagging if-only's. If only a little less bone here...if only a little more lift there...well, you know the drill.
The next time you gaze into your mirror, consider this. What defines a beautiful woman and a handsome man is a moving target. Throughout history the rules of the hunt have changed. Fat in prehistoric women was prized, because it meant she had greater child-bearing capacities. During the high Renaissance, a soft layer of thigh and belly fat was the ideal painters sought in their subjects. Today, by our changed standards, even my Marilyn Monroe would be considered chunky. As for men, brawny and hairy traditionally meant meat on the table that night. Today, neither brawn nor hair is featured in the New York Times Sunday fashion pages.
Whenever I wondered about my rather commanding Roman nose, Mom would always say: "It fits your face." As I think back, I think Mom was exactly right. I mean she got it right all those years pitching fruits and vegetables. Why not noses? Why not eyes and cheek bones and chins as well?
Yes, yes, it's all too cliche to repeat the old standbys beauty-is-only-skin-deep and beauty-is-in-the-eye- of-the-beholder. But here's something beautiful about most cliches. They wouldn't still be around hundreds of years later if there weren't something enduringly credible about them.
Think of it this way. Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney may be beautiful to look at. But when they turn 70, they won't look so good. Now you and me -- well, we don't have that fear, cuz we're already there!
According to the dermatologists surveyed, no one seems to really like their face. All those nagging if-only's. If only a little less bone here...if only a little more lift there...well, you know the drill.
The next time you gaze into your mirror, consider this. What defines a beautiful woman and a handsome man is a moving target. Throughout history the rules of the hunt have changed. Fat in prehistoric women was prized, because it meant she had greater child-bearing capacities. During the high Renaissance, a soft layer of thigh and belly fat was the ideal painters sought in their subjects. Today, by our changed standards, even my Marilyn Monroe would be considered chunky. As for men, brawny and hairy traditionally meant meat on the table that night. Today, neither brawn nor hair is featured in the New York Times Sunday fashion pages.
Whenever I wondered about my rather commanding Roman nose, Mom would always say: "It fits your face." As I think back, I think Mom was exactly right. I mean she got it right all those years pitching fruits and vegetables. Why not noses? Why not eyes and cheek bones and chins as well?
Yes, yes, it's all too cliche to repeat the old standbys beauty-is-only-skin-deep and beauty-is-in-the-eye- of-the-beholder. But here's something beautiful about most cliches. They wouldn't still be around hundreds of years later if there weren't something enduringly credible about them.
Think of it this way. Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney may be beautiful to look at. But when they turn 70, they won't look so good. Now you and me -- well, we don't have that fear, cuz we're already there!
Saturday, September 3, 2011
THE PRICE THE PEACOCK WASN'T WILLING TO PAY
New York's Central Park Zoo reported one of their prized peacocks recently escaped. But that's not the story. After he spent the night on the ledge of a nearby building, watching the chaotic city below, he flew straight back to his cage at sunrise. Zoo director Jeff Sailer said: "I think he likes it better here."
I say: Who wouldn't?
Think about it. The sales of Mozart continue to top Rap decade after decade. People continue to buy cats and dogs with increasing rates year after year. And damn near anyone who has even flirted a moment with fame continues to write their-side-of-the-story memoirs. What's going on here...?
Isn't it modern humanity's need to find some kind of order in chaos? to hunt for meaning in disarray? to hope for sense among the senseless? I think so. I think maybe that peacock did too.
It would be foolish to argue our times are the worst of times. At the same time, it would be presumptuous to suggest they are the best of times. True, humanity has left the cave, tamed the beasts, conquered time and space. Why it's even aspiring to total genetic engineering, to the stars, to immortality itself. And yet such enthralling pursuits have taken us off the solidarity of the land, jammed us into teeming cities, brought us into violent competition with other pursuers. There's always a price for progress.
Visionaries are willing to pay that price. God bless them their courage, for the rest of us depend on their blazing new frontiers into which we can later travel safely. But safety -- order, meaning, sense -- are elusive in these exciting days. Perhaps mainly because everyone and every nation is pushing and shoving for the very same brass rings.
With only so many rings to go around....well, at least I have my Mozart, my faithful companion, and that happy-ending memoir.
I say: Who wouldn't?
Think about it. The sales of Mozart continue to top Rap decade after decade. People continue to buy cats and dogs with increasing rates year after year. And damn near anyone who has even flirted a moment with fame continues to write their-side-of-the-story memoirs. What's going on here...?
Isn't it modern humanity's need to find some kind of order in chaos? to hunt for meaning in disarray? to hope for sense among the senseless? I think so. I think maybe that peacock did too.
It would be foolish to argue our times are the worst of times. At the same time, it would be presumptuous to suggest they are the best of times. True, humanity has left the cave, tamed the beasts, conquered time and space. Why it's even aspiring to total genetic engineering, to the stars, to immortality itself. And yet such enthralling pursuits have taken us off the solidarity of the land, jammed us into teeming cities, brought us into violent competition with other pursuers. There's always a price for progress.
Visionaries are willing to pay that price. God bless them their courage, for the rest of us depend on their blazing new frontiers into which we can later travel safely. But safety -- order, meaning, sense -- are elusive in these exciting days. Perhaps mainly because everyone and every nation is pushing and shoving for the very same brass rings.
With only so many rings to go around....well, at least I have my Mozart, my faithful companion, and that happy-ending memoir.
Friday, September 2, 2011
IF ONLY THE NEEDLE HAD BROKEN I COUD HAVE BEEN THE NEXT HEADLINE
This year I got my flu shot from the government. Free of charge and without any hassle. Remarkably, not a single screaming headline about power-grab, wasted-funds, or infringement-of- personal-rights.
You see, this is "big government" at work working. Had there been a broken needle or a bad reaction, that might have triggered the media to rush out to my local pharmacy with their hungry investigative-reporting skills. Sorry, but I and scores of other seniors that day were served with admirable care, thank you very much.
Here's the point. Americans have been angry with "big government" ever since King George III. We pride ourselves in being free; rugged individuals; molded in the tall-in-the-saddle image of the Kit Carsons, Buffalo Bills, and Clint Eastwoods of our frontier imagination. As some candidates put it to the delight of the crowds: "Government get off our back."
Sounds perfectly American. Until we look for big government to come to our aid in natural disasters, food inspections, clean air controls, highway construction, school subsidies, college loans, and multi-million-dollar grants to zealous inventors and innovators. That's when we see our tax money for what it is: The rent we pay for living in a country.
Why then this persistent yet inconsistent grudge...? The answer back is: We're not against government, just bad government and bad leadership. Which has the sound of teens trash talking their parents. Parents and governments aren't perfect; but the reality is they're indispensable. So while kids and citizens have the right to complain, concurrently they have the obligation to support.
If we do, there comes this epiphany of sorts. Like the home-team fans in the stands, there's this realization that booing every player and jeering every miscue may satisfy our anger, but contribute nothing to our victory. These players -- like the parents and the government -- aren't trying to lose. Too often, though, too many of us almost want them to....
You see, this is "big government" at work working. Had there been a broken needle or a bad reaction, that might have triggered the media to rush out to my local pharmacy with their hungry investigative-reporting skills. Sorry, but I and scores of other seniors that day were served with admirable care, thank you very much.
Here's the point. Americans have been angry with "big government" ever since King George III. We pride ourselves in being free; rugged individuals; molded in the tall-in-the-saddle image of the Kit Carsons, Buffalo Bills, and Clint Eastwoods of our frontier imagination. As some candidates put it to the delight of the crowds: "Government get off our back."
Sounds perfectly American. Until we look for big government to come to our aid in natural disasters, food inspections, clean air controls, highway construction, school subsidies, college loans, and multi-million-dollar grants to zealous inventors and innovators. That's when we see our tax money for what it is: The rent we pay for living in a country.
Why then this persistent yet inconsistent grudge...? The answer back is: We're not against government, just bad government and bad leadership. Which has the sound of teens trash talking their parents. Parents and governments aren't perfect; but the reality is they're indispensable. So while kids and citizens have the right to complain, concurrently they have the obligation to support.
If we do, there comes this epiphany of sorts. Like the home-team fans in the stands, there's this realization that booing every player and jeering every miscue may satisfy our anger, but contribute nothing to our victory. These players -- like the parents and the government -- aren't trying to lose. Too often, though, too many of us almost want them to....
Thursday, September 1, 2011
WHAT'S HOT, WHAT'S NOT, AND WHY
Culture War has not only become part of our political lexicon. It's begun to define who we are. It's the Pluribus drowning out the Unum. It's everyone insisting their set of values are the only correct set of values. Including values as to abortion, homosexuality, gay marriage, church & state, recreational drug and sexuality.
Consider one example. The same month TV Guide reported 89-year-old Betty White as the "country's most popular and trusted celebrity" [topping Kate Middleton, Sandra Bullock and Oprah Winfrey], Vogue Magazine featured a 10-year-old girl in full makeup and leopard-print stiletto heels stretched out on a tiger skin looking back with a smoldering gaze.
More than merely objectifying the female gender, a new low in telling fourth-graders and their mothers that "hot" is what it's all about. At least until you're a grandmother. Oh but wait, grandmothers are busy with botox and halter necklines from hot stores like Forever 21!
But let us press on.
As a kind of corollary to today's Culture War we have the ascending cultural values of Silicon Valley. Here the proud vigorous source of America's greatest new ideas, products, and programming. Some economists advise that while America may be losing ground in the traditional hard-industries like steel, coal, oil, cars and washing machines, we are leading the world in the new computer-industries.
Lets hope so. And yet, we may want to weigh the culture here too. What do our bold new computer industries seem to value most.? If their balance sheets tell us anything, they tell us we most value fun, games, and diversions. The biggest companies on the big board on Wall Street include Netflix...Apple iTunes....Google...Groupon...Skype...Linkedin...and the video game manufacturers
It's far too easy to draw quickie comparisons between the United State and earlier failed empires like Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome and Britain. And yet...! In each instance, their power not only corrupted them. What may be more even more instructive, their power diverted them. Diverted them from growth to games; from pursuit to pleasure; from vigorous to vacuous.
Congress now returns from the summer. In this session, will they simply follow in the wake of such commonly accepted values? Or will they help lead their constituents in remembering there is much more to value as a nation than diversion?
Consider one example. The same month TV Guide reported 89-year-old Betty White as the "country's most popular and trusted celebrity" [topping Kate Middleton, Sandra Bullock and Oprah Winfrey], Vogue Magazine featured a 10-year-old girl in full makeup and leopard-print stiletto heels stretched out on a tiger skin looking back with a smoldering gaze.
More than merely objectifying the female gender, a new low in telling fourth-graders and their mothers that "hot" is what it's all about. At least until you're a grandmother. Oh but wait, grandmothers are busy with botox and halter necklines from hot stores like Forever 21!
But let us press on.
As a kind of corollary to today's Culture War we have the ascending cultural values of Silicon Valley. Here the proud vigorous source of America's greatest new ideas, products, and programming. Some economists advise that while America may be losing ground in the traditional hard-industries like steel, coal, oil, cars and washing machines, we are leading the world in the new computer-industries.
Lets hope so. And yet, we may want to weigh the culture here too. What do our bold new computer industries seem to value most.? If their balance sheets tell us anything, they tell us we most value fun, games, and diversions. The biggest companies on the big board on Wall Street include Netflix...Apple iTunes....Google...Groupon...Skype...Linkedin...and the video game manufacturers
It's far too easy to draw quickie comparisons between the United State and earlier failed empires like Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome and Britain. And yet...! In each instance, their power not only corrupted them. What may be more even more instructive, their power diverted them. Diverted them from growth to games; from pursuit to pleasure; from vigorous to vacuous.
Congress now returns from the summer. In this session, will they simply follow in the wake of such commonly accepted values? Or will they help lead their constituents in remembering there is much more to value as a nation than diversion?
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