Harry Potter's Answer

I've read all of the Harry Potter books, but only once. I've seen all of the Harry Potter Movies, but only once.

Please share a drink with us at the weekly T Stands for Tuesday blogger gathering hosted by the Altered Book Lover blog.

Jungle Jim

Jungle Jim (1948) is the first film in a series starring Johnny Weissmuller about an African adventurer. These are wonderful! And a perfect vehicle for a slightly older Weismuller who had acted his way beyond the near-naked Tarzan films. George Reeves is the bad guy in this one. I was a serious fan of these films and the TV series based on the same character when I was in elementary school and could watch them on television.

TCM has information.

Dream a Little Dream

Dream a Little Dream:

sung by Cass Elliot, who died on this date in 1974 at the age of 32 of a heart attack. She was my favorite from the Mamas and the Papas.

Here's an interview from two weeks before her death:

Here's a Johnny Carson interview with her from the May before she died:

The American Bandstand interview from 1969:

The Memphis Botanic Gardens Rose Garden

The Rose Garden has changed a great deal since I was young and is now more suited as a wedding or reception venue with all that concrete, but there are still some roses. I've done my best to show views without the large concrete plaza in sight.

The sights and smells of roses are sweet, and I haven't lived in a home with roses in decades. It's wonderful to have the Memphis Botanic Gardens here.

Tarzan and the Lost Safari

Tarzan and the Lost Safari is a 1957 Gordon Scott Tarzan movie. It was the first color Tarzan film and is of significance because of that. I'm a huge Johnny Weissmuller fan, and Scott leaves me cold.

trailer:

Variety says, "Gordon Scott has the physique for the title role and does acceptably by it."

DVD Talk calls it an "entertaining Gordon Scott jungle romp" and says,

The movie is short on action and plays like a stage-bound television show, augmented by some beautiful African scenery and the expected cutaways to animal stock shots. The talented cast does what it can with a script with more unintentional comedy than usual.

Black Velvet

Black Velvet:

sung by Alannah Myles and released on this date in 1989.

lyrics excerpt:

Up in Memphis the music's like a heat wave
White Lightnin' bound to drive you wild
Mama's baby's in the heart of ev'ry school girl
"Love Me Tender" leaves 'em cryin' in the aisle
The way he moved, it was a sin, so sweet and true
Always wanting more, he'd leave you longing for

Black velvet and that little boy smile
Black velvet and that slow southern style
A new religion that'll bring you to your knees
Black velvet if you please

Upstream Color

Upstream Color is a 2013 Shane Carruth science fiction film about people whose behavior is altered and controlled by a parasite. The plot sounds to me like a horror movie, and I'm not at all sure it isn't. It's an interesting exploration of influence and connection. If you need a clear, linear plot, skip this.

via Youtube:

The New York Times opens by saying it's

a deeply sincere, elliptical movie about being and nature, men and women, self and other, worms and pigs" and concludes with this: "With its fragmentation and mysteries, “Upstream Color” offers itself up as a puzzle as well as a philosophical toy that you can spin and spin until the cafe closes and kicks you into the night.

The Guardian calls it "invigoratingly freaky and strange, with a Death-Valley-dry sense of humour somewhere underneath". Slate offers a FAQ.

Empire Online concludes,

How to sum up? You have to make synapse-spark connections, interpret events to your own satisfaction, pick up visual cues (a long stretch of the film is dialogue-free) and be happy with not knowing all the answers (you know, like in life — but not in most motion pictures). A perfectly judged, strikingly beautiful film, but also a lunatic enterprise which invites — even welcomes — befuddlement as much as wonder. A true original.

Roger Ebert's site says it "might be described as an oblique romantic science-fiction mystery thriller" and that it "one of those movies that you either give yourself over to or resolutely resist. If not understanding something annoys you, you will struggle against it or simply disengage." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics rating of 86%.

Still Life with a Plate of Onions

Still Life with a Plate of Onions:

is an 1889 painting by Vincent van Gogh, who died at the age of 37 on July 29, 1890. See that wine bottle? That's my connection with a beverage as I join the T Stands for Tuesday blogger gathering hosted by Bleubeard and Elizabeth.

Van Gogh lived a tragic life but left behind a body of work that delights and inspires each new generation. My favorite modern reflection on his life is actually a Doctor Who episode. It captures both the troubled state of his mind and the joy he has brought to the ages. Here's a short clip of the Doctor bringing van Gogh to a modern day gallery exhibition of his work:

It's silly, I guess, but this episode always makes me cry.

Mutiny on the Bounty

Mutiny on the Bounty is a 1935 film starring Charles Laughton as William Bligh and Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian. It's an entertaining adventure story, but is based on a novel and should in no way be confused with historically accurate information.

trailer:

The New York Times has a positive review from the time of the film's release. DVD Talk has a positive review. Rotten Tomatoes has a critics rating of 94%.

The Golden Spiders

The Golden Spiders is a 1953 Nero Wolfe mystery novel by Rex Stout. I'm working my way through this entire (and entirely enjoyable) series.

from the back of the book:

Nero Wolfe was almost as famous for his wealthy clients and extravagant fees as for his genius at detection. So why has he accepted a case for $4.30? And why have the last two people to hire him been ruthlessly murdered? Wolfe suspects the answers may lie in the story of a twelve-year-old boy who turns up at the door of his West Thirty-fifth Street brownstone. In short order, Wolfe finds himself confronted by one of his most perplexing and pressing cases, involving a curious set of earrings shaped like spiders dipped in gold. The case is all boiling down to a strange taste of greed -and a grumpy gourmand's unappeasable appetite for truth.

It was adapted as part of the television mystery series that starred Maury Chaykin as Wolfe and Timothy Hutton as Archie Goodwin. You can see it here:

I do wish that television series, with its perfect casting, had gotten more seasons.

Another adaptation of this book in a 1981 series starred William Conrad as Wolfe. It can be seen here:

Rancho Deluxe

Rancho Deluxe is a 1975 modern comedy western starring Jeff Bridges, Sam Waterston, Slim Pickens, Elizabeth Ashley, and Clifton James. Yeah. Not impressed. At all. I found it so tedious I didn't finish it.

via Youtube:

Time Magazine says, "It is so cool it is barely alive. First-rate ingredients and a finesse in assembling them do not quite make either a movie or a cake. At some point it is necessary to light the oven." Time Out says it "operates most noticeably, and in the main successfully, as a slickly packaged youth movie."

Roger Ebert gives it 1 1/2 stars and says poses this question: "whether Perry intended his film to be a comedy. The ads suggest that he did, and yet Tom McGuane's screenplay just doesn't have any laughs in it." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 69% and an audience score of 38%.

World Jump Day

Today is World Jump Day. First held in 2006, the idea was to combat global warming by getting enough people positioned so that when they all jumped simultaneously the Earth's orbit would change. There were, of course, those who wanted to counter the project with a Contra Jump.

For those without a sense of humor, there were actually sites debunking it as if people would've thought it was a serious endeavor.

Sadly, this event seems to have passed into forgotten history. I may jump anyway.

The Memphis Botanic Gardens Butterfly Garden

It had been a while since I had been to the Botanic Gardens, so I picked a recent Sunday morning and went to see how the butterfly garden was doing.

It's a gravel path, and there's plenty of seating available.

There weren't many butterflies, but the day was not sunny so that might explain it. I went to check out the Magnolia Trail:

but that season has come and gone. The entrance to the Iris Garden was also lovely:

but again the season is past to see the irises in bloom. The roses were lovely, though, and I'll post those photos soon.

Suicide Club

Suicide Club is a 2002 Japanese horror film. There is a lot of blood here, but it seems to me at root a tragic story of alienation and loss.

Moria gives it 2 out of 5 stars, saying it "starts promisingly" but that the director "has as little idea as to what is going on as the entirely baffled audience does." HorrorNews.net says, "Suicide Club, while a powerful film, is rich in it’s ability to focus in the power of youth culture." Horror Freak News recommends it.

Time Out concludes, "None of it makes any real sense, but it sure does keep you watching." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 50%.

Hip, Hip, Hurrah!

Hip, Hip, Hurrah! (1883):

by Danish painter Peder Severin Krøyer. I think it's a suitable celebratory work of art given our observance today of the Tea Stands for Tuesday blogger gathering reaching the fine age of 5, which is forever in blog years. I lift my own glass (ginger ale Amazon link)

and give you Elizabeth, who along with Bleubeard has hosted us through these several and happy years.

Cheers!

Please join the celebration.

Afterward

Edith Wharton

Afterward is a 1910 ghost story by Edith Wharton. Wikipedia describes it as "an ironic ghost story about greed and retribution". It begins,

I

"Oh, there is one, of course, but you'll never know it."

The assertion, laughingly flung out six months earlier in a bright June garden, came back to Mary Boyne with a sharp perception of its latent significance as she stood, in the December dusk, waiting for the lamps to be brought into the library.

The words had been spoken by their friend Alida Stair, as they sat at tea on her lawn at Pangbourne, in reference to the very house of which the library in question was the central, the pivotal "feature." Mary Boyne and her husband, in quest of a country place in one of the southern or southwestern counties, had, on their arrival in England, carried their problem straight to Alida Stair, who had successfully solved it in her own case; but it was not until they had rejected, almost capriciously, several practical and judicious suggestions that she threw it out: "Well, there's Lyng, in Dorsetshire. It belongs to Hugo's cousins, and you can get it for a song."

The reasons she gave for its being obtainable on these terms - its remoteness from a station, its lack of electric light, hot-water pipes, and other vulgar necessities - were exactly those pleading in its favor with two romantic Americans perversely in search of the economic drawbacks which were associated, in their tradition, with unusual architectural felicities.

"I should never believe I was living in an old house unless I was thoroughly uncomfortable," Ned Boyne, the more extravagant of the two, had jocosely insisted; "the least hint of 'convenience' would make me think it had been bought out of an exhibition, with the pieces numbered, and set up again." And they had proceeded to enumerate, with humorous precision, their various suspicions and exactions, refusing to believe that the house their cousin recommended was really Tudor till they learned it had no heating system, or that the village church was literally in the grounds till she assured them of the deplorable uncertainty of the watersupply.

"It's too uncomfortable to be true!" Edward Boyne had continued to exult as the avowal of each disadvantage was successively wrung from her; but he had cut short his rhapsody to ask, with a sudden relapse to distrust: "And the ghost? You've been concealing from us the fact that there is no ghost!"

Mary, at the moment, had laughed with him, yet almost with her laugh, being possessed of several sets of independent perceptions, had noted a sudden flatness of tone in Alida's answering hilarity.

"Oh, Dorsetshire's full of ghosts, you know."

You can read it online here or here.

42 Bird

Turn the number 42 into a picture of a bird:

Mildred Pierce

Mildred Pierce is a 1945 film noir directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth, and Butterfly McQueen. You can't like every movie, not even every highly praised classic, and I don't care for this one. It has too much of the noble, sacrificing woman to suit me.

The New York Times has a mixed review from the time of the film's release. Variety says, "The dramatics are heavy but so skillfully handled that they never cloy." Slant Magazine gives it 3 out of 4 stars calls it an "intense melodrama" and says, "Though all of its craft is accomplished, Mildred Pierce never gets deep under one’s skin the way it ought to."

Empire Online concludes with this:

Wow! It may not be art or good taste, but throbbing melodrama doesn't come with more conviction. Even to those usually turned off by the tough Crawford, Mildred is compelling.

Filmsite.org has an extensive plot description and describes it as "a classic, post-war film noir mixed with typical soap-operish elements of the woman's melodramatic picture or "weeper," including a strand of a typical murder mystery". BBC gives it 4 out of 5 stars and praises Joan Crawford. Rotten Tomatoes has a critics rating of 83%.

The Glorious Heresies

The Glorious Heresies is a 2015 debut novel by Lisa McInerney and won both the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction and the Desmond Elliott Prize. Reading about these people living at the bottom in hard times could be too bleak to bear, but the writer has a way with words that turns these sad cases into real people. A TV miniseries is planned.

from the book jacket:

From Lisa McInerney, hailed by The Irish Times as "arguably the most talented writer at work in Ireland today," comes The Glorious Heresies, a searing debut novel about life on the fringes of Ireland's post-crash society.

When grandmother Maureen Phelan is surprised in her home by a stranger, she clubs the intruder with a Holy Stone. The consequences of this unplanned murder connect four misfits struggling against their meager circumstances. Ryan is a fifteen-year-old drug dealer desperate not to turn out like his alcoholic father, Tony, whose feud with his next-door neighbor threatens to ruin his family. Georgie is a sex-worker who half-heartedly joins a born-again movement to escape her profession and drug habit. And Jimmy Phelan, the most fearsome gangster in the city and Maureen's estranged son, finds that is mother's bizarre attempts at redemption threaten his entire organization.

Biting and darkly funny, The Glorious Heresies presents an unforgettable vision of a city plagued by poverty and exploitation, where salvation still awaits in the most unexpected places.

The quotes that jumped out at me:

who can forgive what they haven't already judged?

*******

She was well aware that she lived in the past but, she decided, it was because she'd been left there.

*******

The New York Times has a positive description. The Telegraph calls it "powerful" and concludes, "There must be some hope yet, though, for a country that can still produce writing as powerful as this." The Guardian closes by calling it "an irrepressible volley of unrehearsed words from a brand new throat."

The Irish Times opens its review with this: "Biting, moving and darkly funny, The Glorious Heresies explores salvation, shame and the legacy of Ireland’s twentieth-century attitudes to sex and family". Kirkus Reviews concludes by saying, "This is a colorful, ambitious first outing that recalls Dylan Thomas’ comment on Flann O’Brien’s At Swim-Two-Birds: “Just the book to give your sister, if she is a dirty, boozey girl.”"

Lifeforce

Lifeforce is a 1985 British science fiction film directed by Tobe Hooper and starring Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay, and Mathilda May. Patrick Stewart is in this. Yes, Patrick Stewart. Wikipedia says,

the film portrays the events that unfold after a trio of humanoids in a state of suspended animation are brought to Earth after being discovered in the hold of an alien space ship by the crew of a European space shuttle

It's based on the novel The Space Vampires by Colin Wilson. Henry Mancini did some of the music. It bombed at the box office but is more appreciated today.

trailer:

The New York Times has a negative review from the time of the film's release. Slant Magazine gives it 4 out of 5 stars and opens with this: "Underneath its sci-fi horror trappings, Lifeforce is a romantic comedy with a splash of gothic longing for flavor."

Roger Ebert says,

"Lifeforce" survives and, as far as I am concerned, it plays much better today than most genre films of its time, not to mention those being produced today. It may be tasteless and lurid and demented beyond belief but, I for one, would take its glorious excesses over the turgid ones offered up by Peter Jackson''s apparently-never-ending take on "The Hobbit" in a heartbeat. Now that enough time has passed since its initial failure, perhaps it will now finally be able to attract the audience that it has always deserved.

HorrorNews.net opens by saying, "If you’ve never seen this movie it’s the one with the nude space vampires." Rotten Tomatoes has a critics rating of 67%.