Sunday, June 30, 2002

Regarding Leah's post about Burt Lancaster and how it came to be that we have been holding our very own Burt Lancaster Film Festival....

It all began last summer when Meredith and John came to visit. I had just bought a new biography of Burt by NPR reporter Kate Buford (the NPR tie-in is critical...otherwise I wouldn't have sought it out). John saw the book and mentioned how much Fran like Burt as an actor. I was impressed with stories of behind-the-scenes liberal activism in the 50s and 60s (for example, he gave $$$ to Martin Luther King and many other causes). And then there's the sheer shock factor of seeing a really youthful picture of a face you only know as an old man. For the same sense of surprise, check out Gary Willis' biography on John Wayne--the youthful photo of 20-something Wayne, whose face I always thought looked like something a truck had run over, is a sight to behold.

But the real game worth playing here doesn't have a name yet. Maybe we could call if "Reincarnation." Or, "Greek Gods-Roman Gods." Let me explain. Just as the Romans took over all the Greek archtypes and gave them new names (Hermes to Mercury, Hera to Juno, etc) so too can you take movie stars from the classic era (pre-1975, I so declare!)and describe their current "reincarnation."

Here is an example: Bruce Willis is the new (or Roman, or reincarnated version of) Burt Lancaster. Both are burly, he-men action stars with the same approximate emotional range. Burt was extremely savvy in setting up the first independent production company; Bruce was extremely saavy in accepting roles in small independent movies such as 12 Monkeys and Pulp Fiction to expand his reputation/artistic career.

Here's a more obvious one: Julia Roberts is the new Audrey Hepburn. Both starred in films that were essentially light, frothy romances with the occasion prestige big-budget picture. Julia has yet to do anything on the level of My Fair Lady, but to be fair, she can't sing and neither can Audrey--she was dubbed.

Sometimes playing the game provides a wonderful excusion into high-handed pop culture analysis. The sort of thing that was so common in the 90s were academics wrote PhD dissertations on the meaning of Madonna and gender flexibility. Not bad if you get tenue with it. (All we get for that kind of writing is hooting and hollaring over email and now blog sites.)

So here are a few more (along with the silly cultural analysis that goes with it)....

The new James Dean is.....TOM CRUISE!! This was originally going to be the subject of an entire blog while I was looking forward to seeing his new movie. How can I say such a thing? Let's see--Dean's archtypical role, his superpower as a Greek God so to speak, was his boyishness. His roles were those of the son (angry, sullen, remorseful) set against the stern, ineffectual or absent father. The archtype of the Boy or Son's journey is very popular. Of all the best actors in the 50s (Clift, Brando, Newman, Lancaster, the list goes on), no one has embodied the emotional authority or been copied as much as James Dean. The others, in fact, played men. Dean didn't live long enough to make that transition. In his sullen, defiant stance against parental authority, ie: the social mainstream of the post-war America, he also rings a chord of recognizable anxiety within the audience of that day who didn't feel too comfortable taking on the mantle of post-war World's Policeman, Imperial ruler of the Free World, etc etc. In other words, Dean PERFECTLY reflected the emotions of emerging youth culture at that time.

The next "boy" or "son" whose own life so precisely paralled the zietgiest of the time came from the world of Rock and Roll. (As youth culture moved from movies to music). I would nominate the next IDEAL BOY as a tie: John Lennon and Paul McCartney. John captures the Dean-like angst but combined with Paul's overall optimism, more clearly reflects the growing optimism of the 60s, economic prosperity, increased comfort in our society with our political role, and therefore open to ideas such as All You Need is Love. (Dean's haunted eyes seemed to preclude the possibility that love would ever be enough if, in fact, it would ever show up).

And so...we continue to grow in comfort and prosperity and now the Ideal Boy is TOM CRUISE. He's almost 40 now, but look over his career--the majority of his films are the trials and tribulations of Coming Of Age. How to Succeed in Business by doing Risky Business. All the Right Moves. Top Gun. Cocktails. Born on the Fourth of July. Magnolia. Jerry MacGruire. Vanilla Sky.

It's all about "How can he establish himself? How can he get the girl? What's at stake as he moves forward to independence and makes his (first) mark on the world? How can he combine moral integrity with a) getting the girl, b) getting the career, c) having the best haircut?

All I'm saying is that times have changed and one measure of that is the distance between James Dean, Lennon-McCartney, and Tom Cruise.


Barbara Tannenbaum at 1:08 PM

Friday, June 28, 2002

Martha found this proverb that is kind of a tongue twister, but says a lot. I often complain about loud mouthed people who seem to have confidence that they know everything, but really don't have a clue. . . they go on and on, not knowing that they don't know.


HE WHO KNOWS NOT, AND KNOWS NOT THAT HE KNOWS NOT, IS A FOOL; SHUN HIM.
HE WHO KNOWS NOT, AND KNOWS THAT HE KNOWS NOT, IS A CHILD; TEACH HIM.
HE WHO KNOWS, AND KNOWS NOT THAT HE KNOWS, IS ASLEEP; WAKE HIM.
HE WHO KNOWS, AND KNOWS THAT HE KNOWS, IS WISE; FOLLOW HIM.

Persian Proverb
R.G. Brooks at 11:45 PM

A young bongoist took up station
In front of a tavern location
His joyful hand drumming
Had customers bumming
Annoyed by the lad’s inspiration.

from my favorite police blotter, the Arcata Eye...
Leah Brooks at 4:32 PM

Ever since last winter, Barb and I have been holding a very informal BURT LANCASTER film festival. I can't quite remember how it got started, but we realized that we had seen very few of his films, so we occasionally rent one. So far, we have seen:
The Rose Tattoo
The Swimmer
Sorry, Wrong Number (I can't remember if this was during the film festival or before)
Atlantic City
Field of Dreams (this is one of my favorite movies, despite Burt Lancaster)

Last night we saw a good one (frankly in my opinion the ONLY good old one so far): The Sweet Smell of Success. It has a great soundtrack - very jaggedy jazz that went perfectly with the stark b&w backgrounds and the hip, harsh 50's New York City club scene.

I feel Burt L. is overrated. Tony Curtis stole the movie, I thought. He had the charisma, the looks, the hair, the movie star quality... Burt seemed stiff and delivered his hokey dialogue in a monotone.
Leah Brooks at 4:13 PM

Monday, June 24, 2002

I don't have time to photoshop today, but there is lots of grist for the mill at this website:
Ohio State History Project


It seems that Mark Hanna is the genetic source for our family's long earlobes.
Leah Brooks at 11:04 AM

Friday, June 21, 2002

I couldn't resist

R.G. Brooks at 4:10 PM

LOL
Meredith Brooks at 1:30 PM

History repeats itself:



Leah Brooks at 9:46 AM

Thursday, June 20, 2002

Hanna look-alike?

Meredith Brooks at 7:28 PM

It seems the blogging has been raised an intellectual notch, possibly leaving me stuttering. My previous knowledge of Mark Hanna is that his name would make a great first line to a limerick. However I do appreciate the linkage better now. I only learned of my Mother's non-biological link to Grandma when Merry told me when I was about 40 years old. I remember whispers and hints, but our family certainly kept some dark things under wrap that would have been just fine in the open. As for Barb's references to the racial pigeon holes, I think her point is, which is my view, that it is time for these things to pass on. I somehow got on a Harris poll list, and I answer web questionnaires for them from time to time; - about what appliances I buy and like (none), -or what kind of electronic toys I have or desire (many) and other subjects, most pretty transparently driven by commerce. However at the end they ask what "Nixon" group I am in and I always check the box "decline to answer". I think the more we emphasize the groups by tracking we actually influence people to think that way, rather than the intended goal of homogenization. Is that "conservative" or "liberal" to think that way?. Those are stupid pigeonholes as well, of course, since everybody's views are mixtures, and moving targets at that, if they are really thinking, not stagnated.
R.G. Brooks at 7:15 PM

MARK HANNA
Leah Brooks at 2:44 PM

Wednesday, June 19, 2002

Nonfiction essays often inspire for me thunderstorms of fleeting thoughts. More like East Coast summer thunderstorms that swirl up suddenly, let loose a downpour, then quickly retreat, the sun shining once again. The thoughts bubble and build and then drift away. If I'm not near a piece of paper, they're gone. Sometimes just sharing the original quote has to make do.

Right now I'm reading "Brown: The Last Discovery of America" by Richard Rodriguez. The ground he covers in this book is amazing. He is Hispanic although I think he laughes at the word and credits Richard Nixon as his "godfather" because in 1971, Nixon's administration came up with the five racial categories used for tallying the U.S. Census statistics: Black, White, Asian/Pacific Islander, native American/Eskimo, and Hispanic.

Rodriguez writes: "They aren't much, these drafty rooms--about what you'd expect of government issue. Nixon's fair attempted to describe the world that exists by portraying a world that doesn't. Statisicians in overalls moved India--ouffff!!--that heavy, spooled and whirligigged piece of Victorian mahogany, over beneath the green silk tent of Asia. Mayan Indians from the Yucatan were directed to the Hispanic pavilion (Spanish colonial) which they must share with Argentine tangoistas, Colombian drug dealers, and Russian Jews who remember Cuba from the viewpoint of Miami."

Anyways, there's so much more but I don't think the idea of blogging is to fill the ether with excerpts from books. Only to add that today I went into San Francisco where I bought coffee from a young man who moved here recently from Jordan (was he white?), sat in the library next to someone who might be called black, African American or maybe just North African, but anyways, he had peroxide blond dreadlocks with nice touches of magenta, and hung out with my cousin Joseph from San Diego who says riding the bus in San Francisco is unlike anything he has ever experienced at home.

One more quote from the book:
"What Latin American might give the United States is a playful notion of race. Already the definitive blond in American is Tina Turner."

Barbara Tannenbaum at 9:29 PM

Tuesday, June 18, 2002

The SF Chronicle printed a list of celebrities who are turning 60 this year. These are some of them..can you believe that Wayne Newton & Sandra Dee, who seem to be from another era, are the same age as Graham Nash & Paul Simon?? I am adding my illustrious sister to this list!

Paul McCartney, June 18 (today!)

Karen Black, July 1

Genevieve Bujold, July 1

Peter Coyote, Oct. 10

Michael Crawford, Jan. 19

Michael Crichton, Oct. 23

Sandra Dee, April 23

Roger Ebert, June 18

Michael Eisner, March 7

Linda Evans, Nov. 18

Harrison Ford, July 13

Aretha Franklin, March 25

Annette Funicello, Oct. 22

Isaac Hayes, Aug. 20

Werner Herzog, Sept. 5

Bob Hoskins, Oct. 26

John Irving, March 2

Carole King, Feb. 9

Barry Levinson, April 6

Penny Marshall, Oct. 15

Graham Nash, Feb. 2

Michael Nesmith, Dec. 30

Randy Newman, Nov. 28

Wayne Newton, April 3

Jean-Luc Ponty, Sept. 29

Lou Reed, March 2

Charlie Rose, Jan. 5

Buffy Sainte Marie, Feb. 20

Martin Scorsese, Nov. 17

Paul Simon, Nov. 5

Barbra Streisand, April 24

Brian Wilson, June 20

Michael York, March 27

Meredith Brooks, Sept. 9
Leah Brooks at 9:15 AM

Sunday, June 16, 2002

Kisay napew asiniy is the ancestral rock spirit who helps us fragile humans with thinking, speaking, singing, and praying. We humans mess up all the time; that is the nature of learning. Kisay napew asiniy sets our words straight, takes the hurtful things out, lends kindness to our tones.


Meredith Brooks at 3:40 PM

Treasure Bear Woman carved by Stewart Steinhauer ...................................................
Steinhauer in Alberta mountains

Meredith Brooks at 3:24 PM

There is something especially exciting about going to my blog to see if anyone has posted anything. It's more exciting than opening my email, more than getting an unexpected phone call. I think it harkens to the childhood thrill of the treasure box in the tree trunk. That mythical treasure trove, immortalized in "To Kill a Mockingbird", loomed large in my childhood.. I had a cigar box that was filled with private valuables that I buried under the forsythia bush in the front yard. I dug it up regularly one summer, to make sure that no one had raided it and to count my loot, which included an old broken watch, some candy cigarettes which quickly got moldy, and a green "emerald" earring. One day, I brushed aside the dirt and opened to box to discover that a new treasure had been added! It was a coin that looked ancient, in fact it had a Roman emperor's face on it and was uneven around the edges. Imagine my excitement, mixed with the terrible realization that someone had found my hidey hole. Yet instead of stealing the items in the box, that someone had added a priceless relic. It never happened again, but I always hoped it would. I took the coin to a dealer only to find out it was a replica that had once come in a cereal box. But the twinges of cynicism that came as a result never quelled completely the hope that someone is out there watching and waiting to deposit a treasure, when I least expect it.
Leah Brooks at 1:22 PM

Friday, June 14, 2002

"Large amounts of money will come to me in strange and unexpected ways."
That was an affirmation that we used to say all the time when we lived on Downey Street in the Haight. Rarely, if ever, did it come to fruition.



But perhaps it's just a matter of waiting long enough - for yesterday and today, our household has seen a series of cash influxes from a variety of sources, some expected and some unexpected:

1. company bonus check received - bigger than last year!

2. a free flight coupon from Southwest Airlines came in the mail

3. the rent check from Portland arrived

4. Barb got a letter from the SF department of traffic citations saying she had OVERpaid two parking tickets - they will refund us for 2 tickets, for a total of $73!

5. The grocery delivery came with a free gift.

6. Barb got another assignment for Sunset Custom Publishing.



Well, we have already spent some of the money, since we got new patio furniture and tickets to Maui for xmas. But it still feels good to see it come in! almost as much fun as it was to spend it.
Leah Brooks at 2:09 PM

Thursday, June 13, 2002

I notice that, of the URLs that I obsessively collect, very few are on the topic of yoga. However, I practice yoga quite a bit, second only to singing in the time and money I spend per week. Perhaps computers and yoga do not merge. When I'm doing yoga, my body does the work and my mind goes meditative. When I'm on the computer, my mind does the work and my body goes vegetative.

This is the pose I've been doing most often lately. It's good for the thyroid and is very energizing.




Leah Brooks at 12:41 PM

Wednesday, June 12, 2002

Poetry in daily life. Don't you wish you ran across more of it? Take a look at this police blotter from a little town in northern California called Arcata. Arcata Police Log

I had lunch by the pool today with some friends, and we talked about how it was Julie's last day, and how sad we were about it. She didn't seem so sad - she was wearing a "Retired" blue ribbon and mardi gras beads that someone had given her. Then we discussed Phil, someone we work with, who is in his 40s but not married. We wondered why, since he is handsome and so nice, and Julie told us about the time she had tried to match him up with someone she knew. Then Phil joined us, so we couldn't talk about him anymore. We moved on to a friend of Joan's, who is in his 50s and has decided that now he finally wants to get married and have children. He owns a bakery in Berkeley, and is an aikido expert as well as a beekeeper. Julie thought maybe that same friend of hers might be interested! They are going to try to get them together. Everyone was glad that Stella is now "attached" to Troy and is no longer someone that we have to try to matchmake for.

Then we moved on to the topic of someone else who is going to be leaving the company soon... Phil didn't want to gossip and tell us who it was, but it turned out that a couple other people already knew about it and so we figured it out. It's a small group here at the company, and sooner or later all the rumors make themselves known. We discussed urban legends and how they spread. I told about the funny drivers' license database scam that Bob had sent me. Julie treated us all to lunch, since it was her last day. Believe it or not, it was the very first time she had ever had lunch sitting by the pool.



Leah Brooks at 3:10 PM

Tuesday, June 11, 2002

Barb offers this to the BLOG:
Last night I got a phone call from muralist Judy Baca and SPARC director
Debra Padilla. They were the two main people I interviewed for the story
on LA murals in the NY Times. They called to say they had received a
$50,000 grant from the Annenberg Foundation as a result of the article.
And that another grant-giving foundation contacted them and asked them
to apply, also as a result of the article. There was more, too...things
like the city's mayor taking notice again and promising to mention the
mural in their promotional materials...stuff like that. For me, it was
unusual to hear of such immediate responses. When I was an editor at SF
Focus, one of my responsibilities was to edit the letters to the editor
page. Indeed, some months would pass with no letters, no response, no
nothin'. So I would apply my creative writing talents, or at least my
interview talents to have enough letters to fill two columns. I remember
one party in San Francisco where I interviewed three people who SAID
they read some story but would never feel strongly enough to write
someone a letter about it. (Of course, ever since I view letters to the
editor pages as possible fiction inserts.) So, here was some real-life
reaction! It's also very cool that a publication in New York can have
such far-reaching impact across the U.S. We hear about New York being
the cultural center of the country all the time. It's neat to see the
more small, subtle way that plays out.
Love, Barb
Leah Brooks at 10:58 AM

Monday, June 10, 2002

I don't have an ad at the top of this blog because I host my blog page on my own website, leahbrooks.com, instead of at blogspot. I'm sure there is space somewhere at q1 for your blog page... you had the option when you set it up to host it at blogspot or elsewhere.


Leah Brooks at 10:31 AM

Saturday, June 08, 2002

I really like your new "skin". How did you get rid of the ad?
Meredith Brooks at 12:38 PM

Friday, June 07, 2002

I spent some time today configuring a new blog skin.. and in the process learning more and more about html, merely from trial and error. I seem to have resisted learning html, and I'm not sure why. I guess it reminds me of the old word processing coding that I was so glad to be rid of at one time... seems like going backwards in technological time to have to type in the < and the > once again.


Tomorrow we are going to be attending the memorial of Thomas Ludwig, an old friend of ours who died last fall. He was living in Kansas the last years of his life, to be near his family, and so the California memorial was scheduled later on. Thomas was an incredibly special man. When I met him, I felt as if I was reconnecting with someone I had known my whole life, like a long lost family member. He had the cutest look, very impish or elvish. Dark black hair and light skin. The best laugh. I loved him immediately. He loved to gossip and philosophise, he loved to eat and he loved life. When I met him, he had already buried two lovers - AIDS. Everyone called him a "widow". Now, we mourn him in turn.
gosh I miss him so much
Leah Brooks at 2:27 PM

Wednesday, June 05, 2002

I think today is going to be the first REALLY hot day of the year. Barb is down in Los Angeles, and I woke up early this morning. I took Bailey for a walk around the Santa Venetia marsh, which is down where the creek goes into the bay. It's usually cooler down there, with the air coming off the water. But today, even at 7am, the air was very still. The birds had knocked off their morning flights early, and were calling out from down low in the bullrushes. The sunlight was very bright, with sharp defined shadows following us down the path. Bailey, who is somewhat baleful due to Barb's absence, reluctantly trotted along the path, needing some coaxing and a biscuit from time to time. She was panting before long, her black fur working against her in the early heat. The hills all around us are turning brown later than usual this year, since May was so chilly. A couple days with today's heat, and they will be scorched to their summertime color.

Tuesday, June 04, 2002

The boys are wild about legos. Here they are, visiting the ranch yesterday, waving around their spaceships in front of the company store..