Poor Things is a cross between Frankenstein and Alice in Wonderland. One of the most original and freshest films I have seen in a long while. Emma Stone is a wonder as Bella Baxter. She fearlessly portrays the evolution of the creature animated by the mad scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter, played brilliantly by Willem Defoe. Mark Ruffalo shines as the nefariously debauched lawyer Duncan Wedderburn who whisks Bella away on a journey across the continents only to be quickly ditched by her as she outgrows him.
The story has as many twists and turns as a rabbit hole as it depicts Bellas’s evolution and sexual awakening. Poor Things is a feminist tale writ large.
Visually stunning sets and costumes are a feast for the eye that combines unusual Victorian features with a sci-fi futuristic look that dazzles.
Directed by Yorgos Lanithmos, who brought you The Lobster and TheKilling of a Sacred Deer. This guy is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors.
This one will be hard to beat. I give it my highest rating. Definitely the best movie in 2023 in a field of hot competitors. Best seen on the big screen.
Do you see this image? This is a picture of a student shot dead by the National Guard at Kent State University in Ohio. I remember when this happened, and I can tell you it was a dark day in America. What were the students doing? They were protesting the war in Vietnam. It was largely because of these protests that the war was brought to an end.
Fast forward to today. We have protests all over America, indeed the world, of the war Israel is waging against the Palestinians. It is not antisemitic to protest the slaughter of thousands of innocent women and children and other noncombatants. This slaughter is inhumane and tantamount to genocide, regardless of what the U.S. Government is saying. It should be protested and attention must be paid!
We see police action and the National Guard being called up in some states to quell these protests. This must stop! We do not want another Kent State. I understand that we have to support our allies, and Israel is an ally, but this needless slaughter of the innocents must stop! It goes against American values, and it goes against my values. I stand with the protesting students.
Production of the Glass Menagerie at the Laura Peles Theatre. NYC 2010 Photo by the authorThe Glass Menagerie Starring Judith Ivy Photo by the author
In a conversation with my granddaughter, Summer, who just turned 28, a magical number by any stretch, she was telling me about a book she found at the Fat Rabbit. Now, I am a sucker for used bookstores myself, and I was infected by her enthusiasm. The book she so proudly declaimed as she pulled it from her bookbag was Tennessee Williams’, The Glass Menagerie. Imagine my surprise and happiness. The Glass Menagerie I told her is one of my favorite plays of all time. Hers too, as it turns out. I said, “You know, I have always been in love with long distance.” “I know, Big Daddy,” she shyly answered, not realizing it was a line from the play. I was lucky enough to see a production of it on Broadway a few years ago in New York. It was a wonderful production. It hit me later that the Birthday card I had given her had an image of a unicorn on it. The central symbol of the play. One of Laura’s glass animals was a unicorn representing her fragility. That gave me a chill as another moment of synchronicity had arrived. It made me happy to see Summer so excited to embrace for the first time a piece of theatre that I loved and knew so well.
I’ve been watching the James Gray New York Collection on the Criterion Channel. I can’t believe how good they are. I’ve seen a couple in the past like The Immigrant and We Own the Night, and I remember them to have been quite excellent. I don’t know how I missed some of these other little gems like Little Odessa and The Yards, which I watched last night. Outstanding performances by an ensemble cast including Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix Charlize Theron, James Caan, Faye Dunaway, and Ellen Burstyn. I will continue to watch the rest of the collection. I enjoy the character-driven stories taking place in a city that I love, New York, which has a character all its own.
It is a privilege to grow old. Not everyone gets to do so. At 75, I know I am an outlier, and I hold every moment of my existence from this day forward to be a precious one and I try to live a life of gratitude.
I ran across an article on HuffPost, by Jillian Wilson, which gives the following advice on how to increase your longevity. I am happy to announce that I practice all these things regularly and they have made life immeasurably better.
Does plagiarism still matter? I think it does. But I don’t think it should be weaponized to cancel someone’s career. Billionaire Bill Ackman brought down Harvard’s president Claudine Gay with charges of plagiarism. With perfect karmic timing, the universe disclosed that his wife, Neri Oxman, also committed plagiarism on her doctoral thesis. If Claudine Gay paid the price, shouldn’t Neri Oxman?
Let’s see, who else has committed the grave sin of plagiarism? Joe Biden! Senator Joe Biden was accused of plagiarism, proclaimed guilty, and forced to remove himself from the 1988 presidential election campaign. He admitted that he plagiarized his text and failed to provide the right citations. Melania Trump! Melania used Michelle Obama’s words in a speech she gave in 2008 without attribution, to her great embarrassment. And the list goes on. And the beat goes on.
The fact is plagiarism is fairly ubiquitous. Why do people commit plagiarism? Many reasons, but often it is accidental, unintentional, or just plain sloppiness. Laziness is also a factor. The rules of attribution and citation are fairly rigorous and hard to follow. That is no excuse, but no one should be canceled for forgetting to place a few quotation marks around a few well-placed sources.
As for Claudine Gay, I find it a little hard to sympathize with her as she is a tenured Harvard professor with a $900,000 a-year salary and the real reason she had to resign was her tepid response to a question posed to her regarding free speech advocating the annihilation of the Jews. She and the other University presidents could have and should have done better.
A man gestures as Palestinians search for casualties a day after Israeli strikes on houses in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, November 1, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed Al-Masri
Is Israel committing genocide? Well. let’s see. Let’s give it the duck test. Does it walk like a duck? Does it quack like a duck? South Africa seems to think so. They are taking Israel to an international tribunal to seek justice for the Palestinians.
But just ask Israel’s, prime minister. He says, Genocide? What genocide. Who are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?
22,000 Palestinians dead. Mostly innocent civilians. Mostly children. Forced migration, displacement, starvation, and no clean drinking water. Destruction of homes and hospitals.
Winking Blinken and Nod is doing everything he can to slow down the hostilities but because he represents the Disunited Mistakes, which is Israel’s biggest defender, there is little he can do.
Let’s review, then. What is genocide?
The current definition of Genocide is set out in Article II of the Genocide Convention:
Genocide means any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated
to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it must be a duck. If it’s not genocide it is certainly murder and the God of the Jews is pretty clear about how He feels about murder. Thou Shat Not Kill, He says. Oh, but Israel has a right to defend herself you say. Yes, but this goes way beyond self-defense.
What happened to Jews during the holocaust was a horrible tragic event of epic proportions. One of the worst cases of genocide in human history. Never Again! What happened on October 7 was a tragic horrible event and a crime against humanity. But those events do not give Israel carte blanche to destroy an entire population in retribution. You don’t use an elephant gun to kill a mosquito. You don’t use a meat cleaver when a scalpel is appropriate. In Vietnam, we used to have a saying, “We have to burn down the village to save the village.” It was an absurd notion then and an absurd notion now. Israel needs to bring this war to a conclusion and cease the hostilities at once. Those responsible for war crimes must be held accountable.
Hamas knew exactly what it was doing when it acted in such an ignominious way. They knew Israel would attack Gaza with furious vengeance. In doing so, it has turned the world’s opinion against Israel and has garnered sympathy for the Palestinian Cause. That is exactly what Hamas wanted. And Israel fell into their honey trap.
Donald Trump is disqualified from taking office by the plain language of the Constitution which reads as follows:
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
The clause is self-executing and needs no conviction to take effect. One jurisdiction has adjudicated the fact that Trump engaged in an insurrection and at least one secretary of state has found that Trump has engaged in an insurrection. That is enough.
Now that the Supreme Court has taken up the matter it will be interesting to see what weasel words the right-leaning SCOTUS will come up with to keep Trump on the ballot.
Ghost Dog 