Eugene Hernandez, Brian Brooks and Peter Knegt of indieWIRE hard at work on my couch on the eve of the 17th Hamptons International Film Festival.
I know, I know. I'm terribly behind on these pix, but I am trying to catch up. This show was on the night of March19-20 at the Playboy Rock The Rabbit party during the SXSW Music, Film and Interactive Festival and conference. It was their first show with their original lineup in, well, a long time! I'm not a big fan of the band, but I have to say, it was a blistering 45-minute set and the crowd left on a serious high! I'm posting a few pix here and after the jump, with 50+ more on Flickr, here: Jane's Addiction Reunion
All I have to say is: Rod Blagojevich, Elvis impersonator. No shit.
This might just be the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Read the New York Time blog piece by Robert Mackey, here.
With the passing of writer Budd Schulberg there is the usual outpouring of hosannas and allelujahs to a great screenwriter and novelist and he was indeed a talented man who penned some excellent, enduring and quote-worthy works of art and therefore I feel neither the need nor the desire to add to said heapings of praise. Instead, I'd like to put on record one of the aspects of Mr. Schulberg's life that is largely missing from these paeans.
Even the "Gray Lady" herself, the New York Times, glossed over the shameful fact that in the 1950's Budd Schulberg and his occasional collaborator Elia Kazan both testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and thus destroyed the lives of many of their former colleagues including Ring Lardner Jr., Dalton Trumbo and Herbert Biberman. He named at least 15 of his close friends, helping to send many if not all of them to jail. As I have written before this is a shocking and despicable act and it must not be forgotten.
So far, only Carolyn Kellogg in the L.A. Times has run a piece about Schulberg and his betrayals and the testimony quoted in the article gives a pretty good idea of the kind of a man Schulberg was at the time. He claimed that he became disillusioned with the the Communist Party when Stalin signed a non-aggression pact and that the CP interfered with his work.
Both are valid criticisms (assuming the latter was true) and Schulberg was perfectly within his rights to leave the party, which he did. However, going on to name names and cooperate in one of the most horrific instances of government abuse in our nation's history was going too far.
"Dalton [Trumbo] wrote one good novel and that's it." [Schulberg told Victor Navasky for the latter's book Naming Names.] Most of these people never tried to write any social realism. I think maybe [they had some] guilt about making two thousand dollars a week and doing nothing. You could make it up by paying ten percent dues [to the Party], and maybe that made you feel better about being a hack. Most of them settled for being hacks.
These people, if they had it in them, could have written books and plays. There was not a blacklist in publishing. There was not a blacklist in the theater. They could have written about the forces that drove them into the Communist Party. There was practically nothing written."
So according to Schulberg, even though his testimony led to the loss of his former friends' ability to earn a living, it was their own damn fault because they either weren't as prolific as he was or weren't able to shift to stage plays and books, thus avoiding the Hollywood blacklist? That's a level of ego bordering on narcissism. Of course Schulberg was also wrong about Trumbo's output.
Please, save your "but he was a fantastic writer and deserves the accolades" responses. Of course he was a great writer and yes, deserves to be lauded as such. That said, when one does bad deeds, when one betrays long-standing friendships, when one does irreparable damage to the lives of that many people and their families, it must be included in any wrap up of your life. You don't get to skate in death, just because you were a great artist in life.
William Shatner once again proves that he is a treasure!
Musical genius and former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr became an official member of Sheffield, UK brothers act The Cribs (twins Gary & Ryan Jarman and younger brother Ross) last year and the band have now released their first single. "We Were Aborted" is now available for free download at thecribs.com until 10am GMT on July 8th. It's fantastic, go get it!
Today, July 2nd would have been my father's 98th birthday and not a day goes by that I don't miss him. Every day, something flashes through my mind, across the computer screen or on TV that makes me, just for an instant, think I should call dad. But I can't. He's been gone a little over a year and a half and it doesn't yet seem real. How can someone so huge in life, so forceful, so robust, so devoted to the betterment of the world no longer be around, fighting the good fight? It's not fair. The world is a poorer place.
That said, his progeny and grand progeny are carrying on his legacy as best we can. We're not a large family by most standards but what there is of us is pretty special in that there are really no "black sheep" in the family, politically speaking. You hear about apples falling far from the tree but we're all clustered around the trunk.
Dad was an amazing man by almost any measure. He stuck to his principles even when doing so cost him his place at the law firm he had built for 40 odd years. He was a defense attorney who specialized in civil rights, labor and international law and counted Dr. Benjamin Spock, Dashiell Hammett (dad referred to him as "Dash"), Jimmy Hoffa as clients and friends and was a frequent chess partner of Che Guevara. He represented the government of Cuba, Papandreou's Greece, Angola and the Nicaraguan mission to the United States under Ortega, among others. He defended countless nameless teachers, union workers and anti-war demonstrators though the McCathy 50's, the 60's and the anti-Vietnam War 70's with courage and conviction, although many were pro bono and none brought him fame or fortune. He was truly an inspiration.
He and mom dragged me around the world as a kid and as such, gave me my wanderlust but I think he was happiest digging in the garden of our house in East Hampton. Summer, winter, hot or cold, you could find dad in East Hampton every weekend and most holidays. If it was too hot or too cold to work in the garden he just sat on the couch and read or on the deck and watched the squirrels try and get at the bird feeders. I think he would be very happy that I've moved out here. I don't have my feeders up yet, but I will. There will be seed in the summer and suet in the winter and if I can help it, the neighbor's cat won't get any of my birds or rabbits. Dad protected his birds, too.
Happy birthday, dad. I miss you.
Wow. I just looked at my blog and realized that it's been more than six weeks since I posted an entry! I have sort of an excuse seeing that I was homeless for a few week, looking for a place to live and then a major move to East Hampton, but still, six weeks? LAME! So here I go. Rabbi Report 3.0 starts....NOW.
I seriously don't know what the next 11+ months is going to bring for me, but suffice to say, this isn't just the rebirth of the blog. Over the past 4-5 years I've lost both parents (insert Importance of Being Earnest ref. here) lived in LA, New York and now East Hampton, worked in a variety of positions, including film festivals, freelance writing, blogging for an award-winning ad campaign and I've been a character in an ARG. And now....country squire? We'll see. For now, I am busy planting a vegetable garden, buying bird feeders and keeping the neighbor's cat away from my birds and bunnies. That and whipping the house into shape with, I am relieved to say, a little help from my friends! God knows what it would look like if I was left to my own devices.
At any rate, I'm back. There's likely to be a lot more about food and cooking, here from now on. I won't be skimping on other things, but my nine week trip through the south this Spring inspired me as a cook, as a writer and as someone who is concerned with what we're eating and drinking as a nation. I was introduced to the work of some outstanding chefs and food luminaries in my travels, including "eater/writer/educator" John T. Edge and chef John Currence in Oxford, MS; chefs Donald Link and Stephen Stryjewski in New Orleans; chef Frank Stitt in Birmingham, AL and chefs Sean Brock & Mike Lata in South Carolina. All of whom you'll be reading about, along with many more in the coming days and weeks, complete with mouth-watering pics from their establishments and maybe even some examples of my own experiments with Southern-infused Long Island cooking. Stay tuned!
Until next time, here are a few pix of my new (rented) house (after the jump) in East Hampton and a couple of yummy goodness!
Yours from Northwest Woods,
Mark
Thanks to @NathanFillion for clueing me in to the car/bike/toy of the future, the Persu Hybrid. Close your eyes and picture this: A three wheeled, enclosed vehicle that seats 2, gets 75-100 MPG, goes 0-60 in 6 seconds, goes at least 20 miles all-electric and goes at least 400 miles on each 6 gallon tank of gas and is projected to cost less than $25,000.
Now open your eyes and click the above link (yes, I do know that your eyes weren't really closed).
Also, if you think $25,000 is expensive, look at it this way:
If you drive your regular car 12,000 miles per year and get 30 MPG, that's $960/year in gas at $2.40/gallon. With the Persu, that cost drops to $384/year, a savings of $576. In five years you've saved $2,880. Add in cost of oil changes and other car maintenance and you're saving even more. Yes, I know this isn't a car for a family and is more like a 2nd vehicle, but for single people or for a 2nd car, it's rather amazing. Also, according to Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson (click on the "video" tab on the left), it's really, REALLY fun. In fact, he says it's the most fun you can have and coming from a thrill seeker, that's high praise, indeed!
Watch all the videos, read the specs and then tell me you don't want one!
Summer Hours
Director: Olivier Assayas
Screenwriter: Olivier Assayas
Producers: Marin Karmitz, Nathanaël Karmitz, Charles Gillibert
Cinematography: Eric Gautier A.F.C.
Editor: Luc Barnier
Cast: Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling, Jérémie Renier, Edith Scod
IFC Films
102 Minutes, not rated
Summer Hours, Olivier Assayas' latest film, opens with children running free through gardens and woods around a typically beautiful French summer home. Filled with antiques and objets d'art, the house belongs to the Berthier family, whose matriarch is the 75 year old but still stunning Hélène (Edith Scob). Hélène owns the art collection that was handed down to her by a deceased uncle, a famous artist himself, with whom she may have had an intimate relationship years earlier. Now, at the end of her life, Edith is beginning to make the practical preparations of passing along the collection and the house to her three grown children, Adrienne (Juliette Binoche with blond tresses), Frédéric (Charles Berling) and Jérémie (Jeremie Renier). Only Frédéric, himself the single father of a tempestuous daughter, is the only one of the siblings who wants to keep the beautiful house and leave it to the next generation. Both Adrienne and Jérémie have jobs and lives that keep them both physically and emotionally distant from France. It is emotional distance that is at the heart of Assayas' beautiful story.
William Shatner poses after receiving the Nashville Film Festival's 2009 President's Impact Award, a specially designed Gibson guitar hand-painted by artist Mandy Lawson. This year's fest saw the world premiere of "Willian Shatner's Gonzo Ballet" from director Pat Buckley. Shatner was playful during the pre-screening presentation, remarking that in the 1950's, he used to travel around with a fretboard, always intending to learn how to play. He never did, but at the screening he promised....himself, he'd learn. Alas, a rumored performance of Shatner and Ben Folds at the screening's after party at the Gibson Guitar HQ never unfolded, as Folds was a no-show and Shatner only stuck around for 15 minutes. That said, word had it he was due back in LA at 10am the next morning, so I was disappointed but can't be pissed at Bill! That said, I really would have liked to meet the legend, as his CD "Has Been" was in my top ten albums of 2004. More on the film in my indieWIRE Nashville Film Festival round up!
NB: My apologies for the lack of posts, recently. My computer died and was in the shop for a while. Now, on with the Great Southern Road Trip!
If you haven't already figured it out, a big part of this trip and my life is food. I love to cook for people, introduce them to new things and I love to try new things myself. In fact, I was very close to trying baby eel at Chez Phillippe in the Peabody Hotel in Memphis until I read that they were overfished, often counterfeited and $30 in addition to the already steep prix fixe menu... Anyway, way back near the beginning of the trip were the SXSW Film, Interactive and Music Festivals and Conferences, from which I have a lot of pix and video to come soon. But first, meat!
That's right. On this, my 3rd visit to SXSW, I finally made it out to Lockhart, Texas and Smitty's Market. SXSW Film Conference & Production Manager Jarod Neece was kind enough to put together a little outing of filmmakers, press and SXSW staffers on the last Friday of the fest and chuck us into a van for the 40 minute drive to the cradle of Texas Bar-B-Q. You see, Lockhart has not one, not two, not three but 4 "world-class" BBQ joints, or so they claim. I've only been to Smitty's, and about Smitty's I can swear that if there were a god, she'd eat there. There ain't, so I guess that makes my analogy useless, but whatever. It's some fan-fucking-tastic BBQ. Now, Texas is known for beef BBQ. if pork's your thing, I would suggest you head to Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, etc. I'll be writing plenty about the pork in those places, but for now, concentrate on the beef. Don't get me wrong, they have the pork, but in Texas it seems like the swine is a secondary food source much of the time. I beg to differ, but when in Rome....
Long time friends Jon Voight and Burt Young share a moment during the often moving tribute to the late, great director Hal Ashby (Coming Home, Harold and Maude) at the 2009 Sarasota Film Festival. Voight and Young co-starred in Ashby's 1982 film Lookin' to Get Out, the director's cut of which was recently discovered in the UCLA Film Archives and world premiered in Sarasota the night before the tribute. Ashby's daughter Leigh MacManus was on hand to accept the SFF's Master of Cinema award on her father's behalf and gave a stirring thank you speech wherein she spoke of never knowing her father and how much the closing moments of Lookin' to Get Out meant to her. I won't spoil the film for you (director's cut out soon on Warner Home Video!), but suffice to say, there wasn't a dry eye in the house and both MacManus and Voight were brought to tears during the evening.
NB: The pix are not loading well. I hope to fix them soon!
-M
Today, March 30th would have been my mother's 79th birthday, had she not passed away on January 9th, 2005 so I thought maybe I'd post a few pix and say Happy Birthday, mom! This first one is from her trip to India in the early 1960s. One of my regrets regarding my parents is he lack of conversations I had with them about their lives. At least with dad I have his book to read and re-read (will be doing so later on this trip, actually) but with mom, all I have are fragments of her memoirs, which she was working on before she died. I would have loved to talk to her more about India and the Movement, but I can't. So I make due with her writings and stories from her friends and pictures.
In 1960 mom was working for the National Guardian and it was for this newspaper that she would cover the Civil Rights movement. While packing up the apartment, I came across her official press ID card, signed by the notable and much revered journalist, James Aronson, for whom the James Aronson Award for Social Justice is named.
In 1957 mom traveled to "Red" China, in violation of a US State Department ban. (Not the first or last time she'd do something "against the rules,' BTW!) She was already at a world youth conference in Moscow, so what the hell, right? She went with 40 others, some of whom would become lifelong family friends, including my godmother Faye Goodman, the reverend Warren McKenna and his wife Elizabeth and the late Sally Belfrage, one of the finest people I ever knew. Below is a picture of mom (2nd left), Warren and Faye. Not sure who the young Chinese woman is. I suspect a translator.
Below is the New York Times article from August 15th, 1957 about the trip to China:
After visiting Gill and August's Green Building, I hopped in the car and made the 385 mile drive to Memphis and my three day stay at the Peabody Hotel. Billed as the "South's Grand Hotel," the Peabody is all it's cracked up to be. The staff in unerringly friendly and remembered my name instantly and they were very helpful about the local area, even if one of the valets had never heard of Payne's. He must have been new.... While the Peabody is indeed a fancy joint (it boasts Memphis' most fancy fine dining restaurant in Chez Philippe) there are deals to be found online. My stay was only $140/night through Orbitz but unlike some other hotels, I received no "bargain shopper scorn" when checking in. The Peabody is all class and that might have something to do with hotel Duckmaster Jason Sensat who also oversees the customer relations employees in the hotel, including front desk personnel and concierges.
More on him and the ducks in a later post, complete with video!
But now....Food! My first day in Memphis was a disappointment, since I drove out to Payne's and it was closed. A main goal of this trip is experiencing the finest BBQ known to man or beast and consistently listed on "Best of" lists and written up in any BBQ book worth its salt, Payne's (located at 1762 Lamar, Av.) was my #1 stop in Memphis. Alas, it was closed and my iPhone's map feature led me astray when I went looking for my other important stop on this trip, Cozy Corner BBQ. I ended up no where near where I was supposed to be, but instead wound up near another highly-rated joint, Central BBQ. There I made the mistake of choosing sauce on the side. Never choose sauce on the side. Let them sauce up your sandwich. I guess I'll have to go back, because it's supposed to be fantastic.
At any rate, that evening, through a suggestion from the hotel, I ate at McEwen's on Monroe and it was fantastic. I decided to try three small plates and was blown away by the Warm Hazelnut Crusted Goat Cheese Salad, the Shrimp & Grits (always a favorite) and the wholly original Red Tasmanian Sweet Crab Fritters. It was Americana with a southern bent, all prepared with care and excellent service. For dessert (I don't usually indulge, but....) the trio of sorbets was fantastic, see:
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