By this time we can all agree that in every role he's taken, John Wayne plays himself. This time around he's a bit like the monolith; you know it's there and it kind of dominates the scenery but that's not the most important part of it. The Duke shares co-star status with Kirk Douglas. I like him better here, he's got that devil-may-care personality, and he gets all the best lines of the movie.
Duke plays Taw Jackson, a man wronged by Pierce--just Pierce--, a man who stole Taw's land for the gold stake, framed Taw and sent him to jail. Now that he's on parole, Taw means to get back at Pierce by robbing his money wagon. One problem: this 'wagon' is an armored carriage, with a Gatling gun, which is guarded by 30 men on horseback. No problem.
Basically it's a caper movie with cowboys and Indians. Taw hires for his crew old man Fletcher and his abused teenage wife, the 'smart' Indian Levi Walking Bear, and a drunken explosives expert, Billy Hyatt (Robert Walker Jr.). The last member of the crew is Lomax, played by the irrepresible Kirk Douglas. Pierce has a mind to hire gunslinger and safe-cracker Lomax to kill Taw, except Taw hires him first. Neither man trusts the other, but that's the sparks that keeps things moving.
Told you Kirk gets the best lines? Well, they've gone to find Levi Walking Bear and they find him all right...tied to a rock and used as target practice for a band of drunken Mexican banditos. Lomax takes one look at that and remarks dryly to Taw, "Let me guess which one's your friend."
Naturally we have the stereotypes, the drunken Mexicans and the untrustworthy Indians. Still it's an entertaining outing that never drags. The Duke is straight man to Kirk in their last film together and they milk for laughs. Recommended.
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Thursday, July 10, 2014
May Your Grandchildren Forgive You
I hope my grandchildren forgive you
for what you brought on our land
for the world we leave to them
Forgive the desert that was once California
the parched land and tongues of ordinary souls
rationed to a few drips a day
or will that be a week, who knows?
Forgive the 30 years wasted in deceit and denial
while simulations became fact
and facts piled on facts
and opportunities to act became wasted in dithering politics
And to the passing of the Floridas
while salt of sea infiltrated our children's drinking supplies
I fear not for New Orleans, she'll adapt
she always does
Forgive us the storms like no other
coming to a landmark near you
New York barraged by tides she'll not soon forget
Lady Liberty will stand as a beacon still
even waist deep in the ocean
I certainly hope they can find it in their hearts
to forgive your cowardice, your avarice,
your blind blinkered stupidity
'Cos God knows I won't
for what you brought on our land
for the world we leave to them
Forgive the desert that was once California
the parched land and tongues of ordinary souls
rationed to a few drips a day
or will that be a week, who knows?
Forgive the 30 years wasted in deceit and denial
while simulations became fact
and facts piled on facts
and opportunities to act became wasted in dithering politics
And to the passing of the Floridas
while salt of sea infiltrated our children's drinking supplies
I fear not for New Orleans, she'll adapt
she always does
Forgive us the storms like no other
coming to a landmark near you
New York barraged by tides she'll not soon forget
Lady Liberty will stand as a beacon still
even waist deep in the ocean
I certainly hope they can find it in their hearts
to forgive your cowardice, your avarice,
your blind blinkered stupidity
'Cos God knows I won't
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Jane Fonda was right--and she was wrong
Jane Fonda was partially right in comparing the Viet Cong to our heroes in the Revolutionary War. She was also catagorically wrong. Excuse me, how was that again? Sorry, I just go off on tangents sometimes. My mind has been on World War I a lot lately, it'll be 100 years ago this year that it started, and nobody seems to give a rip.
My thinking had gone in this direction: a lot of the battles of WWI came down to a strategy of attrition, which is basically throwing thousands of bodies of good young soldiers at the enemy in the hope that this will somehow wear them down. It never worked, yet we practiced the same 'strategy' in Iraq, and before that in Viet Nam which is where Jane Fonda just popped randomly into my thoughts,
People my age will remember (some better than me assuredly) that in 1972 or thereabouts Jane Fonda famously compared the Viet Cong fighters to our people fighting in the American Revolution. Let me just say I have no animosity toward Ms. Fonda; I have no bitter hatred toward her for that statement, nor have I ever had. But people tend to get uppity about such cracks, and fail to put them under a metaphorical microscope for analysis.
Well, yes it is true the Viet Cong were a rag tag army fighting the most powerful nation on Earth, and like our heroes they too were trying to repel a foreign invader. Their nation like colonial America is a strip of coastal land which they shouldn't have had a chance in hell of winning. Its at this point that the similarities end.
For one, the American colonies were not divided by an arbitrary line drawn in the map, a characteristic this war shared with Korea. For another, our rebels never practiced torture, and we never threw British prisoners into squalid hellholes to rot; there were no 'Hanoi Hiltons' in our Revolution. The 'foreign invaders' in fact were fellow Englishmen the vast majority of us were reluctant to fight, at least until Common Sense ignited our collective ire.
I suppose the biggest difference was that our leaders did not immediately turn on us once the war was won. The first eight years of our nation was under a weak central government under a weak constitution known as the Articles of Confederation. The states did not contribute their share in tax revenue, we often did not even have a quorum in Congress to conduct silly business like foreign relations and trade; and the 'President' of Congress had no power to compel Congress to act. Hell, he had to act as his own Secretary, sorting through all correspondence, foreign and domestic, without even the help of a clerk. You can see how our present Constitution is a distinct improvement.
Anyone who grew up in the 70's knows the united Communist Vietnamese government was no friend of the people. There was the usual war on intellectuals, and re-education camps. You don't think there would be so many 'boat people' risking their lives at sea in dangerously rickety boats if their government was a model of good will and generosity, do ya?
That's just my thoughts for the day. I would hope in the future some people would think things through before running off at the mouth with the first thing that pops into their heads, but we can;t expect as much from this generation of political hair-lips, can we? Thanks for the listen.
My thinking had gone in this direction: a lot of the battles of WWI came down to a strategy of attrition, which is basically throwing thousands of bodies of good young soldiers at the enemy in the hope that this will somehow wear them down. It never worked, yet we practiced the same 'strategy' in Iraq, and before that in Viet Nam which is where Jane Fonda just popped randomly into my thoughts,
People my age will remember (some better than me assuredly) that in 1972 or thereabouts Jane Fonda famously compared the Viet Cong fighters to our people fighting in the American Revolution. Let me just say I have no animosity toward Ms. Fonda; I have no bitter hatred toward her for that statement, nor have I ever had. But people tend to get uppity about such cracks, and fail to put them under a metaphorical microscope for analysis.
Well, yes it is true the Viet Cong were a rag tag army fighting the most powerful nation on Earth, and like our heroes they too were trying to repel a foreign invader. Their nation like colonial America is a strip of coastal land which they shouldn't have had a chance in hell of winning. Its at this point that the similarities end.
For one, the American colonies were not divided by an arbitrary line drawn in the map, a characteristic this war shared with Korea. For another, our rebels never practiced torture, and we never threw British prisoners into squalid hellholes to rot; there were no 'Hanoi Hiltons' in our Revolution. The 'foreign invaders' in fact were fellow Englishmen the vast majority of us were reluctant to fight, at least until Common Sense ignited our collective ire.
I suppose the biggest difference was that our leaders did not immediately turn on us once the war was won. The first eight years of our nation was under a weak central government under a weak constitution known as the Articles of Confederation. The states did not contribute their share in tax revenue, we often did not even have a quorum in Congress to conduct silly business like foreign relations and trade; and the 'President' of Congress had no power to compel Congress to act. Hell, he had to act as his own Secretary, sorting through all correspondence, foreign and domestic, without even the help of a clerk. You can see how our present Constitution is a distinct improvement.
Anyone who grew up in the 70's knows the united Communist Vietnamese government was no friend of the people. There was the usual war on intellectuals, and re-education camps. You don't think there would be so many 'boat people' risking their lives at sea in dangerously rickety boats if their government was a model of good will and generosity, do ya?
That's just my thoughts for the day. I would hope in the future some people would think things through before running off at the mouth with the first thing that pops into their heads, but we can;t expect as much from this generation of political hair-lips, can we? Thanks for the listen.
Thursday, March 27, 2014
So NOT the Dark Continent
Every Saturday at 2 p.m. growing up my brother David & I parked our butts in front of the TV for 'Jungle Theater'. We wasted many an afternoon watching the studio jungle-set adventures of Johnny Weissmuller & other Tarzan wannabes. Sundays were reserved for 'Sci-Fi Theater', another arena for bad 1950's films, which often included Godzilla flicks with awful out-of-sync voice-overs.
There are two points to be made here; (1) 40 years later & there's still nothing worthwhile to be found on Saturday afternoon TV, & (2) Most of what we 'know' about Africa is still wrong.
It was probably the mix of bad Tarzan reruns & old comic books that led to my choice of Africa as the milleu for most of my fantastic fiction. The thing is, I don't think I chose Africa, it chose ME. The things I've learned in the process of researching my stories have been rewarding in every sense--except the financial one, of course.
In developing my characters & backdrop for my first novel Butterfly & Serpent, & the short stories leading up to it, I relied heavily on Jomo Kenyatta's autobiography, Facing Mount Kenya which is not a book you tend to find in most public libraries (I found it in my high school library, actually). Locations such as the mighty Lake Turkana, the ancient Christian rock churches of Ethiopia & the ruins of Great Zimbabwe are important characters in the follow-up book which is in progress.
My biggest fear is someday somebody from Africa is going to read my stuff & he/she will proceed to tell me everything that I got wrong. And all I'm going to be able to do is throw up my hands & howl, "AAAARRRGH! He's right, how could I have been so stoopid?"
There is a history beyond what you'll learn from any Tarzan flick. Tarzan, by the way, wouldn't last a week in Africa. Or maybe Richard Pryor was right & they'd all think he was just a crazy white man, living in the trees with the baboons. Our schools take great pains to avoid the rich history Africa has to offer us. Oh you'll hear the wonders of ancient Europe--Rome, Greece, maybe the old empires of Japan or China thrown in--that's assuming any of you young whipper-snappers are even paying attention to history class. But Africa? Huh. It might as well not exist, baby.
Word up, charlie, your ancestors strolled out of Africa many moons ago, so you might as well reconcile yourself to that fact. We've all got a little African in us.
There are two points to be made here; (1) 40 years later & there's still nothing worthwhile to be found on Saturday afternoon TV, & (2) Most of what we 'know' about Africa is still wrong.
It was probably the mix of bad Tarzan reruns & old comic books that led to my choice of Africa as the milleu for most of my fantastic fiction. The thing is, I don't think I chose Africa, it chose ME. The things I've learned in the process of researching my stories have been rewarding in every sense--except the financial one, of course.
In developing my characters & backdrop for my first novel Butterfly & Serpent, & the short stories leading up to it, I relied heavily on Jomo Kenyatta's autobiography, Facing Mount Kenya which is not a book you tend to find in most public libraries (I found it in my high school library, actually). Locations such as the mighty Lake Turkana, the ancient Christian rock churches of Ethiopia & the ruins of Great Zimbabwe are important characters in the follow-up book which is in progress.
My biggest fear is someday somebody from Africa is going to read my stuff & he/she will proceed to tell me everything that I got wrong. And all I'm going to be able to do is throw up my hands & howl, "AAAARRRGH! He's right, how could I have been so stoopid?"
There is a history beyond what you'll learn from any Tarzan flick. Tarzan, by the way, wouldn't last a week in Africa. Or maybe Richard Pryor was right & they'd all think he was just a crazy white man, living in the trees with the baboons. Our schools take great pains to avoid the rich history Africa has to offer us. Oh you'll hear the wonders of ancient Europe--Rome, Greece, maybe the old empires of Japan or China thrown in--that's assuming any of you young whipper-snappers are even paying attention to history class. But Africa? Huh. It might as well not exist, baby.
Word up, charlie, your ancestors strolled out of Africa many moons ago, so you might as well reconcile yourself to that fact. We've all got a little African in us.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Edward Snowden is not our biggest national security problem
Okay, I've got your attention now, don't I? Greetings all you fellas at NSA.
I'm going to piss a lot of people off today. All the drones in the news media are harping on what a terrible thing Edward Snowden has done by exposing the NSA's domestic spying program. Oh, what a terrible thing he's done, ohh our national security has been exposed to the whole wide world of terrrorism (there's another code word, boys!), blah blah. And they swallowed the Government line hook line and sinker, no questions asked. That's the sound of Thomas Paine spinning in his grave that you're hearing, by the way.
The truth is that Snowden has not named any names; no agents in the field have been exposed thanks to his revelations. He exposed a program of government paranoia that would make Nixon smile, and which really should come as no surprise to anyone.
Nobody seemed to raise a stink when Dick Cheney outed CIA operative Valerie Plame in 2003--an act, by any definition, which constituted high treason. And he did that because her husband Joseph Wilson spoke the truth, that Cheney's justification for the Iraq War was all lies and horse pucky.
It takes a special kind of coward to go after a man by attacking his woman. Ohh, but never mind the 4,500 U.S. troops who died for that useless war, never mind the half a million Iraqis killed for no good reason so we could harvest their oil. Close to 8,000 Iraqis have died this year alone as a direct result of terrorist attacks, which are a direct result of our military intervention. But that doesn't matter, 'cos it's happening to somebody else. Who really gives a rat's ass?
The best that can be said for the NSA is that they don't actually carry out the dirty jobs their work is enabling. Let's leave that to the CIA. The NSA collects intelligence; it has helped our national securuty in the past and its a job they do very well, more than can be said for the CIA.
Here's the rub; they're part of the system of spies (including CIA and Homeland Security) that reports directly to the government which apparently has operated since the Bush Administration on the assumption that the people of the United States are not to be trusted. That's a paranoid, very Nixonian delusion which may only go to prove that the reverse is true.
The ultimate aim of any police-state is always power and intimidation. They want the people to live in a constant state of fear and helplessness. I'd shed that attitude very quickly, boys. Fear and powerlessness is not an attitude that has ever gone down well with the American people.
You parrots keep saying Snwoden has undermined our national security? Horse feathers. Oh yes, trot out that old chestnut. Tell me--how did he do that? Are you spies so mono-talented that you weren't prepared to adapt when the Chinese or Russians did break your spy codes--assuming that hadn't happened long before Snowden exposed your ditty lil' secret? Let me tell you, you blinkered children, our merest involvement in the warped politics of the Middle East is a bigger threat to our national security. Our kissy-ass kow-towing to the Saudis and the Israeli lobby is a bigger threat to our national security.Throwing up that 'ohh he;s a threat to our national security' argument is a blind, a distraction from your blind violations of the U.S. Constitution, and it's turned around to bite you square in the ass.
Thank you, NSA. Pleasant night's sleep.
I'm going to piss a lot of people off today. All the drones in the news media are harping on what a terrible thing Edward Snowden has done by exposing the NSA's domestic spying program. Oh, what a terrible thing he's done, ohh our national security has been exposed to the whole wide world of terrrorism (there's another code word, boys!), blah blah. And they swallowed the Government line hook line and sinker, no questions asked. That's the sound of Thomas Paine spinning in his grave that you're hearing, by the way.
The truth is that Snowden has not named any names; no agents in the field have been exposed thanks to his revelations. He exposed a program of government paranoia that would make Nixon smile, and which really should come as no surprise to anyone.
Nobody seemed to raise a stink when Dick Cheney outed CIA operative Valerie Plame in 2003--an act, by any definition, which constituted high treason. And he did that because her husband Joseph Wilson spoke the truth, that Cheney's justification for the Iraq War was all lies and horse pucky.
It takes a special kind of coward to go after a man by attacking his woman. Ohh, but never mind the 4,500 U.S. troops who died for that useless war, never mind the half a million Iraqis killed for no good reason so we could harvest their oil. Close to 8,000 Iraqis have died this year alone as a direct result of terrorist attacks, which are a direct result of our military intervention. But that doesn't matter, 'cos it's happening to somebody else. Who really gives a rat's ass?
The best that can be said for the NSA is that they don't actually carry out the dirty jobs their work is enabling. Let's leave that to the CIA. The NSA collects intelligence; it has helped our national securuty in the past and its a job they do very well, more than can be said for the CIA.
Here's the rub; they're part of the system of spies (including CIA and Homeland Security) that reports directly to the government which apparently has operated since the Bush Administration on the assumption that the people of the United States are not to be trusted. That's a paranoid, very Nixonian delusion which may only go to prove that the reverse is true.
The ultimate aim of any police-state is always power and intimidation. They want the people to live in a constant state of fear and helplessness. I'd shed that attitude very quickly, boys. Fear and powerlessness is not an attitude that has ever gone down well with the American people.
You parrots keep saying Snwoden has undermined our national security? Horse feathers. Oh yes, trot out that old chestnut. Tell me--how did he do that? Are you spies so mono-talented that you weren't prepared to adapt when the Chinese or Russians did break your spy codes--assuming that hadn't happened long before Snowden exposed your ditty lil' secret? Let me tell you, you blinkered children, our merest involvement in the warped politics of the Middle East is a bigger threat to our national security. Our kissy-ass kow-towing to the Saudis and the Israeli lobby is a bigger threat to our national security.Throwing up that 'ohh he;s a threat to our national security' argument is a blind, a distraction from your blind violations of the U.S. Constitution, and it's turned around to bite you square in the ass.
Thank you, NSA. Pleasant night's sleep.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Memories of a Doctor Who fan
I am SOO jealous of my daughter. She gets BBC America and I don't, which is still okay 'cause she gets to see the 50th anniversary special of DW. She's in her teens now and DW is one thing we can always talk about.
I cam to DW rather late in the game, just as Colin Baker was finishing his run as the Doctor. In those days you had to wait a year for the program to wind its way across the pond to our local PBS station. Colin Baker was my first Doctor, and I came in at the fourth episode of the Trial of a Time Lord. I had no idea--I was totally clueless. Had no idea it was NOT the norm for a story to go on for 14 episodes. By the time the 10th episode rolled around I was thinking come on, wind it up already! Then they rolled out the next Doctor, Sylvester McCoy. The first time I saw hij I thought he was a troll! Well, he kind of grew on you, but it took a whole season for them to sort him out.
Back in the day it seemed the only DW I saw before that was always the last episode of Tom Baker's first outing in 'Robot', a prime example of the crap special F/X the BBC had in the 1970's. My favorite Doctor was and remains Jon Pertwee; he seemed like a kind grandfatherly wise old man who didn't suffer fools--or the military-lightly. He just had that right mix of intelligence, wit and action that made for a scientific hero. Plus he had to make do with what he had to work with during a long exile on Earth.
We've corrupted another generation, by the way. My son Nathan grew up watching DW reruns with me every Saturday night. One of his first words was "Exterminate!", which is kind of a long word for a toddler. We'd play at faking the Dalek voice doing the "Exterminate!" shriek, and it always got a giggle out of him. Which I hope doesn't embarrass him in front of his girlfriend, telling the world like this. My daughter Kelsey got in on the ground floor when the series returned in 2005; her 'first' Doctor is David Tennant, and like I said, it's something we can always talk about. .
I cam to DW rather late in the game, just as Colin Baker was finishing his run as the Doctor. In those days you had to wait a year for the program to wind its way across the pond to our local PBS station. Colin Baker was my first Doctor, and I came in at the fourth episode of the Trial of a Time Lord. I had no idea--I was totally clueless. Had no idea it was NOT the norm for a story to go on for 14 episodes. By the time the 10th episode rolled around I was thinking come on, wind it up already! Then they rolled out the next Doctor, Sylvester McCoy. The first time I saw hij I thought he was a troll! Well, he kind of grew on you, but it took a whole season for them to sort him out.
Back in the day it seemed the only DW I saw before that was always the last episode of Tom Baker's first outing in 'Robot', a prime example of the crap special F/X the BBC had in the 1970's. My favorite Doctor was and remains Jon Pertwee; he seemed like a kind grandfatherly wise old man who didn't suffer fools--or the military-lightly. He just had that right mix of intelligence, wit and action that made for a scientific hero. Plus he had to make do with what he had to work with during a long exile on Earth.
We've corrupted another generation, by the way. My son Nathan grew up watching DW reruns with me every Saturday night. One of his first words was "Exterminate!", which is kind of a long word for a toddler. We'd play at faking the Dalek voice doing the "Exterminate!" shriek, and it always got a giggle out of him. Which I hope doesn't embarrass him in front of his girlfriend, telling the world like this. My daughter Kelsey got in on the ground floor when the series returned in 2005; her 'first' Doctor is David Tennant, and like I said, it's something we can always talk about. .
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Interview Extract: Jamai Dlamii (Fictional)
BLOG--You've consistently refused being termed a 'mutant', 'psychic', 'medium' et al. May I ask why?
JAMAI--Because they're just labels. They're another way of saying 'you're a freak, you don't belong.'
B--I take it you're not fond of labels.
J--I despise them. It's just another way of dividing people, of keeping them down. Listen, my husband's uncle once told me that words have a profound effect on our social relations. When I was young I was stupid enough to let myself be blinkered by these insults.
B--I'd never call you stupid.
J--Appreciated. I'll give you an example of what I mean from your own day and age. The great Miles Davis was invited to participate in a charity record--"Sun City", and the umbrella title for the group was Artists United Against Apartheid. The project was spearheaded by Steven Van Zandt. Miles' part was to be edited into a jazz track, but at some point in his performance, Miles started muttering, "you can't go in there, you're the wrong color."
B--"The Struggle Continues," that was the track.
J--Good. There's hope for you yet. Well, Miles' rap was entirely spontaneous, but so truthful, that they built that whole track around it.
B--I guess what you're saying is today, right now, you're comfortable with who you are?
J--Why shouldn't I be? I tried to fit in, to be like 'everybody else'. But the truth is, people or bosses or your leaders will never be satisfied no matter how much you try to fit in. Why should I change to satisfy them? Why make myself uncomfortable with myself? I'm a person and I'm different. So what? I don't have to prove anything to anyone but myself. And neither do you. If who you are isn't good enough form "them", whoever "they" are, they can get stuffed!
(shared laughter)
this writer's book BUTTERFLY AND SERPENT is still available at www.amazon.com as a paperback or Kindle. Check it out.
JAMAI--Because they're just labels. They're another way of saying 'you're a freak, you don't belong.'
B--I take it you're not fond of labels.
J--I despise them. It's just another way of dividing people, of keeping them down. Listen, my husband's uncle once told me that words have a profound effect on our social relations. When I was young I was stupid enough to let myself be blinkered by these insults.
B--I'd never call you stupid.
J--Appreciated. I'll give you an example of what I mean from your own day and age. The great Miles Davis was invited to participate in a charity record--"Sun City", and the umbrella title for the group was Artists United Against Apartheid. The project was spearheaded by Steven Van Zandt. Miles' part was to be edited into a jazz track, but at some point in his performance, Miles started muttering, "you can't go in there, you're the wrong color."
B--"The Struggle Continues," that was the track.
J--Good. There's hope for you yet. Well, Miles' rap was entirely spontaneous, but so truthful, that they built that whole track around it.
B--I guess what you're saying is today, right now, you're comfortable with who you are?
J--Why shouldn't I be? I tried to fit in, to be like 'everybody else'. But the truth is, people or bosses or your leaders will never be satisfied no matter how much you try to fit in. Why should I change to satisfy them? Why make myself uncomfortable with myself? I'm a person and I'm different. So what? I don't have to prove anything to anyone but myself. And neither do you. If who you are isn't good enough form "them", whoever "they" are, they can get stuffed!
(shared laughter)
this writer's book BUTTERFLY AND SERPENT is still available at www.amazon.com as a paperback or Kindle. Check it out.
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