WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE BOB AND REUEL? ... AND WHO ARE THIS BOB AND REUEL ANYWAY

2016 OUR YEAR 

  JAN 1. Day for TV marathons like THE NEW YEAR'S TWILIGHT ZONE MARATHON on the Syfy network. "You're traveling  to another dimension  a dimension not only of sight and sound but . . .

 

Gangster who keeps coming back, after he is killed by his partner, in different guises when his shoes are worn by someone. "The Hunt". An old man ignoring his wife's warnings goes hunting. He's drowned and is a ghost who returns. He goes to heaven's gate to find heaven won't let in his faithful dog. He refuses to enter. "Traveler's to unknown regions would be well advised to take along the family dog."

    Next. An incompetent and self-important western actor finds the twilight zone on a tv movie set. It's really the old west and he meets up with the real Jesse James indignant that westerns are giving him and his cohorts a bad name. The clownish fellow is no match. Bargains for his life and has to lose to the western "The evolution of the former western . . . "

Presented as they were originally in sequence. This one “Kick the Can” takes place in a home for the aged. Thinks mistakenly that his son is taking him away. Sees Kids playing kick the can. Thinks that there are ways to keep young. Begins acting like a kid to the disapproval of the administrator. Gets the other oldsters to sneak out and play kick the can. (A little heavy handed.) They turn into kids. "A dying place for those who have forgotten the magic of youth."

JAN 1 So we discover “Fireplace In Your Home” on Netflix and we sit mesmerized resolving to turn it (fire it up?) on as it were when our myriad guests arrive. What kick. Our intention is to install eventually a "real" electric one--incredible crackling kind--but this will do in the meantime.

JAN 1 Back to reality. BEST OF ENEMIES. We've wanted to see this for a while. A documentary on Netflix. ABC News, the underdog, got a coup during the Republican convention with this debate between William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal who detested one another. The divisions are scarily parallel to now.

JAN 2 SATURDAY. GREAT ESTATES.

Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland which was the source of Dan Brown's Davinci Code which brought out conspiracy theories and studies of symbology. Helped restore the chapel. Wife of Roslyn's present earl and a historian who helped restore it and wrote a book about it, Lady Helen, is interviewed as are stone mason's and stained glass artisans. Amazing mixture of religious symbols and the pagan.  Disagreements about whether Freemasons were involved. Many myths and legends. Little can be proved or not. Nowhere else so much 15th c carving in one place. Could have been a school for Scottish stonemasters.

SAT. SHERLOCK.

Netflix. One we'd seen before. B. "I guess I'm a little tired of the show. Hate to admit it."  R feels similarly but has no compunction admitting it.

SUNDAY JAN 3. THE BIG SHORT. "I don't know whether in that theatre or the movie that was chilling," offers Bob. Fashion Valley AMC. Excellent production, acting, pacing. Well lauded for its simplified and theatrical (cinematic) explication of difficult economic concepts that lead to the great recession economic meltdown aka the housing bubble bursting though we did get a little lost in the arcana.

SUNDAY DOC MARTIN PBS.

A PBS staple. Doc Martin's wedding. Their baby in attendance. The village sends them on a honeymoon. "Had I not been raised to show no emotion, I would cry" Eileen Adkins. Has a certain twee, if contrived, comic charm. The honeymoon night overnight is fraught with danger and hijinks. Nevertheless  we watch another episode which is funnier--a lighter hand. The uptight doc and his pragmatic new wife dealing with the zany villagers. "It's fun." Reuel

DOWNTON ABBEY. Of course.

SATURDAY JAN 30.

HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER. Netflix. Doped up man with arm in a sling decides to watch a leading tv series plot, the one with Viola Davis as the law professor defense attorney whose crack students are involved in getting away with murder. During the very early course of my putative recuperation from rotator cuff surgery which occurred January 28.

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 3. GUARDS AT THE TAJ. LJP. 

 
Folks in adjoining seats arguing whether they are 78 or 79 years old. Bob says "the conversation is going on too long--if this were a play I'd cut it." First day out in the open air never mind in society. Wearing my sling. So far ok. I never finished reading this 2 character play in Theatre Arts Magazine but found it charming up to the point I read and know it has been well received around the country.

Afterwards. Bob "a dark comedy with an emphasis on the dark. Did you like it!" "I admired it." From the perspective of a theatre director I know it will be devoured by theatre companies as it offers one set and only two characters. Two friends, lowly guards at the Taj Mahal, one an apparatchik, the other a visionary are made to cut off the hands of all those who built the Taj so there would never be anything so beautiful again. Many themes and contemporary resonances of inequality, authoritarianism, cruelty. Funny (if that's the word) of the quick exits by front row seniors at the appearance of bloody severed hands. That's entertainment.

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 7. HAIL CAESAR.

Film @ Fashion Valley AMC. 10:30 AM. Oh good. Here are some other people at 10:20. A Coen brothers production. Sitting here with my sling and faithful 24 hour nursey Bob, both in need of a few laughs. But Bob agrees with me when I say I expected something a bit more hilarious.  Instead mild amusement. Good atmospherics (the 50's--Hollywood studio) and images.

SUPER BOWL 2016! 

TUESDAY FEB 9. THE MARK.

Shocking in 1961. This "crip" being consigned to elyptical and recline bicycle exclusively at the gym is of necessity discovering TCM old movies. This one, a moody piece starring a moody ex-con pedophile played by Stuart Whitman whose sort of love object at his new job is a widow with an accent, Maria Schell. Absorbing but I don't get to see the final complications when he faces ostracism after he's accused again of pedophilia. A guy can't catch a break.

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 11.

CAROL at the local arthouse in Hillcrest. Countdown to the Oscars, this is one of the few we haven't yet seen. And it's one that has appeal (unlike “The Revenant”--our holdout along with “Brooklyn”). Under our belt thus far: Spotlight, The Big Short, Bridge of Spies).

THURS FEBRUARY 11 DR JECKL AND MR HYDE. Starring Frederick March as both J&H, I think, and Miriam Hopkins (who is quite good) as the whore with a heart of gold that Hyde, Jeckl's id, terrorizes. Fascinating that when Jeckl becomes Hyde he becomes a Negro. Noticed this old movies racism yesterday in a film also starring Hopkins living in China where the Chinese are depicted as tricky and as pan-Asian; they dance Thai dances and evidence traces of India. A kind of ‘30’s universalized stereotype.

SATURDAY FEB 13. THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY. An elyptical exercise machine special. With James Garner and Julie Andrews. Have I seen this? Brilliant anti-war film written by Paddy Chaevsky and directed by Joseph Hiller. Smart dialogue. For example Garner’s rant to Andrews war widow mother. It strives for anti- sentimentality and throws in a dollop of Hollywood romance. "For all your charm you're a scoundrel Charlie." I think it got some deserved Academy Awards.

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 13. 45 YEARS @ Hillcrest Cinemas. Getting closer to seeing all or most of the award nominated movies, this one for Charlotte Rampling's best actress nomination. Not much going on. Old couple. Rampling character has doubts about the value of her marriage, its authenticity. When she delves into a relationship her husband had years before they met where the woman who was pregnant died. And this on the eve of their 45th anniversary party. Brilliantly acted. Perhaps leaves the audience with too much burden of guessing but do we ever really know if we are truly loved.

MONDAY FEBRUARY 15. I think the title of today's "elyptical" TCM movie is “Gorgeous Hussy” starring a comparatively young (was she ever?) Joan Crawford but it doesn't seem to fit since it's about Andrew Jackson's presidency and the conflict between the federalists (Jackson) and the state's rights advocates with the intercession of love-torn young widow Crawford thrown in.

MONDAY FEB 15. GRAMMY'S. 3 hours is too long for almost anything. I watch to have some orientation to the music of now. Many talented performers sounding all the same. Lady Gaga as David Bowie is a standout.

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 18. KISMET.A. YMCA elyptical/bicycle presentation. Wonderfully campy technicolor version, not the Borodin melodies of the later Broadway and film Kismet, but Ronald Coleman as the beggar king scalawag who inveigled himself into the Caliph's palace--he who woos Coleman's daughter disguised as a lowly gardener. Then there's the impossibly exotic Marlene Dietrich dancing with silvered legs all with wonderful folio-enhanced settings. Very chipper.

FRIDAY. FEB 19. BYE BYE BIRDIE.

That "Spread sunshine all over the place" musical with Ann Margret (filling the screen at the opening as beguiling woman/child), as the small town teenager promised “One Last Kiss” on Ed Sullivan's show by pop sensation Conrad Birdie to save the career and potential marriage of Dick Van Dyke, composer, to Janet Leigh much to the chagrin of father Paul "What's the Matter with Kids Today" Lynde. How many times have I seen it and will (if there's a god of joy). 

SATURDAY FEB 20. THE MALTESE FALCON. Usually I see the ending--this time it's the first half. The bird that launched a thousand noir movies. Real actors, such as, Mary Astor and Peter Lorre, playing strange because he's supposed to be gay, and Humphry Bogart as one of the great film Philip Marlowes.

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 21. THE METROMANIACS @ THE OLD GLOBE. 2 pm. Matinees afford us the opportunity to walk through the park and this being a balmy day (in February!) it's especially delightful to do that.

This is a little known 18th century French Farce that had been adapted by David Ives (“Venus In Fur”), a major contemporary playwright, and directed by Michael Kahn (also major) so expectations are high and realized. Delightful. Expertly managed farce with brilliant, clearly articulated (this aint rap) iambic pentameter in rhyme. Takes on the genre—something about pairs of lovers—aristocrats/servants--in disguise playacting but who cares.

MONDAY FEBRUARY 22. Today's elyptical and bicycle machines TCM treat is a black and white oldie, ROMANCE, starring Greta Garbo as a celebrated Italian opera star who entices men, in particular a young preacher with whom she also falls in love but to save his career she tries to stay away--unsuccessfully. The perverse morality of the time again at the core of the film. Garbo is riveting, those silent film eyes, that bizarre accent. Some day I'll catch the last half hour. No doubt it ends badly for Garbo. We’d have it no other way.

This feature is preceded by a particularly culturally revealing short color film "Penny Wisdom" with Prudence Penny, an LA Times cooking writer who, foreshadowing the cooking shows of later decades, is called in to help a poor (well no) housewife whose cook quits the day her husband is bringing the boss home for dinner. Prudence saves the day and Penny's hubby's career with her recipes and tips delivered by an unseen narrator--a socio/cultural gem.

THURSDAY FEB 25. MY FAVORITE YEAR (A TCM elyptical selection) starring a sidesplittingly  brilliant Peter Otoole. The year is 1954 New York and the protagonist is a junior writer on a Sid Caesar-like (or Milton Berle or Jackie Gleeson) style autocrat comedy show who is charged with minding an irrepressible alcoholic actor until his actual appearance on the show. The older man leads him through a madcap journey of discovery, self and comedically otherwise. A delight.

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 26. WATERLOO BRIDGE. Directed by Mervyn Leroy. Starring Vivienne Leigh as a young dancer who is romanced by an army captain (Robert Taylor?) during WW2 Britain. When she mistakenly believes he has died, she turns to prostitution to survive and in deference to the morality of the time gives him (and her life) up despite the oh-so/heavy romance and possibility. Riveting and the camera loves it's beautiful protagonists in black and white.

TUESDAY MARCH 1. Today's ellypticals (for such they shall be called) are MYSTERY STREET, a 1950 noir starring Ricardo Montalban as a Spanish accented police detective who finds the real killer despite the interference of a blackmailing Elsa Lancaster (who gets herself killed for her pains) and thus lets an innocent man go back to his pretty wife. Leads up to an exciting chase in a railroad station for the killer's incriminating gun.

Then there's THEM, as I recall a major iconic  sci-fi flick in my youth. I don't get to see how it ends but there are mysterious doings at the hands of mutants (see how evil this nuclear testing thing is?) who mean us humans harm.

TUESDAY, MARCH 8. Fascinating in no small part because this was very nicely, thank you, directed by Ida Lupino in the 40's and  is a woman's picture, specifically about  a scheming mother who promotes at all costs the tennis career of her daughter  who, once innocent, becomes wise to the ways of the world and her mother.

WED. 3/9. MILDRED PIERCE. This must be mother/daughter week. I finally get to see this Joan Crawford blockbuster--or at least enough of a chunk of it (that's dependent on the ellyptical and Bob's whim after all) to know that Joan/Mildred will come to a bad end for her Achilles heel-/her love of her rotten apple daughter, Ann Blythe. Joan's ungrateful daughter, The Bitch,doesn't realize the sacrifices her divorced mom went through from waitress to restaurant mogul for her. And then there's that murder.  Fun.

FRI MARCH 11. Today's elyptical (read TCM) favorite.. Didn't get the name of this early color film starring Gregory Peck as a sports reporter and Lauren Bacall as a dress designer socialite. There's is a quick marriage before they know one another's backgrounds. Complication. Including Former beaus, an all singing all dancing Dolores Gray in the case of Peck. Jealousy. Feeble story but what the doc ordered. Bob remembers it as Designing Woman. We'll see.

SUNDAY MARCH 12. TCM. LORD OF THE FLIES. The great 1962 Peter Hall film of the William Golding (I think) novel. Scary metaphor--proper English boys alone on an island become savages when rules are trampled. Those seeking power, fear mongering escalating into violence and scapegoating. After watching reports of violence at Trump rallies, I'm saddened and alarmed.

SUNDAY MARCH 30. CHRISTY COPELAND DOCUMENTARY. Not enough on her early years, this lithe genius of dance.

MONDAY JAILBREAK,  TCM, a programmer. (60 minutes--done on the cheap back in the day) Reformed gangster killed in jail. Was it the ex-gangster's arch-enemy or a guard with a grudge? On the case is ex-gangster's faithful girl Friday and her aggressive reporter beau vs. the (typical) wrongheaded and condescending police investigator. Atmospheric.

FIDAY, MARCH 25. CITY OF GOLD. Film at Hillcrest Landmark. (My reward for completing a week of physical therapy). Documentary  About Pulitzer Prize winning LA food critic Jonathan Gold,  avatar of ethnic food trucks, a culinary geographer. Bob: "Interesting film but a little long. Still don't want to live in LA."

MON MARCH 27. Dirk Bogarde and Ava Gardner

TUESDAY MARCH 29. This is a red letter day on TCM on the elyptical at the Y. 42nd Street, the one featuring a remarkably clunky and dare I say talentless Ruby Keeler tapping her way from chorus girl to star on opening night. Mostly complications first half then the musical 2nd half. Everything thrown at it, even Busbee Berkely. A period piece. 

WEDNESDAY MARCH 30.

Discovering an Edward G Robinson 1956 psychological thriller in glorious black and white of course. A nervous Protagonist, Kevin McCarthy, a big band clarinetist, is hypnotized  by his neighbor to commit murder. His rather elderly brother-in-law Robinson is a detective who finally figures it out saving McCarthy's sanity. Fun.

THURS MARCH 31. Van Johnson and Keenan Wynn in a bit of fluff that is pretty feeble. Comforting to know that not all "era" movies are winners. Wynn as Johnson's loud mouthed sidekick is actually irritating. Both as rabidly heterosexual (Miss Johnson wasn't) ex marines.

APRIL 1. TCM. BABY FACE HARRINGTON. A charmer with a superb Charles Butterworth as a sweet naïf (ok dumb) who bungles his way into a gang of thieves after being accused of theft. Witty sendup of newspapers tendency to exaggerate, turning the poor dupe into public enemy number 1, even implicating his sweet faithful wife Una Merkel. Harrington unwittingly triumphs of course and true love prevails for the newly minted hero and his wife.

APRIL 3. RAIN, THE MUSICAL. Old Globe.

Our seats have been changed from the first row to the second because of a threat of being rained on. Looking forward to this world premier musical adaptation of the Maugham novel and/or the film with a world weary beautiful Rita Hayworth (Joan Crawford and Gloria Swanson preceding her.) Music and lyrics by Michael John Chiusa, directed by Barry Edelstein.

Oops sign says 2 1/2 hours. Sounds like it will need trimming. Just guessing.

Yup. At intermission agree music is lovely. "Part of problem is the set is overwhelming. Needs intimacy," Bob. I think it has possibilities. Bob thinks it's not Broadway, it's light opera. We guess who could play SadieThompson on Broadway. Me. Julia Roberts. :). Bob Laura Benotti. We agree Patti Lupine could have killed in it when she was younger."Rain will begin shortly." Really? Wrong season. Sun is out. Unfortunately the creative team didn't know what to do with the second act. The minister's wife sings an interminable and confusing song at the discovery of her husband's death. And the "finale" is Sadie's jazzy  song about putting on a "red dress--going back to her old ways I'd guess. Id have done a Porgy and Bess sort of choral number more in keeping with the established tone. (Not my show.) Two old guys (not us) walking along the park's bridge as we all exit. "It's boring." "The clergy always gets its comeuppance." Not quite amen.

SATURDAY APTIL 9. JOHN LEGUIZAMO : LATIN HISTORY FOR MORONS. LJP. "A Page To Stage Workshop Production".

Good seats, not part of our subscription series but something we want to see. And glad we do. LEGUIZAMO is a genius. Premise is that he wants to help his son find a Latin hero so he can defeat a bully and succeed in school. That's a little clunky--this is a work in progress--but L is a consummate performer, researching and explaining (as instructor with a blackboard)-- laced with profanity--various eras of Hispanic history that ended sadly, such as the Aztecs, shifting into different characters in history and in his present life. Very much a physical comedian--he tells us in the after play chat session with the audience that his model is Jonathan Winters--he breaks into an assortment of dances. The spontaneity of the evening is fun--he has to shout "line" several times, once rattling his prompter who can't find it. Worthy.

SAT APRIL 16. FIRST MONDAY. Hillcrest Cinemas. 11:15 show. We've been to the gym so it's movie time. About the staging of the most recent show about Chinese haute coutour at the NYC Met Bob tells me as we wait for the previews to begin. I count 5 others here. "About clothing as artworks". Actually this is about the third film featuring her nibs Anna Wintour not counting The Devil Wears Prada. We're suckers for fashion though you wouldn't know it by our wardrobes. And the fashion here is gorgeous, a take on western notions of Asian fashion as received primarily through movies. Chronicles the preparation for the celebrity-filled event, the budget and aesthetic squabbles as fashion is placed among the Met's Asian Art work.

SUNDAY APRIL17. EYE IN THE SKY. Mission Valley Cineplex. Taut, engrossing contemporary political modern warfare thriller starring the always reliable Helen Mirren as a tightly wound officer who struggles to get an Iraqui compound filled with terrorists bombed despite the fact that a ten year old will likely be collateral damage. Aaron Paul is the reluctant bomber piloting the "eye" in the sky. Intriguing focus on drones as the new dimension in warfare. (I especially liked the flying bug perched on a rafter in the terrorist house.) All against a backdrop of unrelenting British beauracracy ramping up the tension. Yes.

APRIL 26-MAY 4 NEW YORK CITY (See blog entry NYC 2016 for theatre mini-reviews)

 FRI MAY 6.

TCM is generous today. It's a Jeanette McDonald/Nelson Eddie pic where they are opera singers (and there are huge scenes  of opera, not operetta, where they sing forever) in love yet she married I think to John Barrymore who has fostered her career until she finally confesses her love. He necessarily shoots Eddy who of course on his death bed (and after) sings "Sweetheart Sweetheart". Wonderful.

SUN MAY 8. GATOR BY THE BAY. I really go because it's niece Beth's fave event, this and the Blues Festival, since I don't profess great fondness for Zeideko but there's also bluesy music and it's a happy time. I get to dance and dance. First band under a tent does 60's and 70's uptempo nostalgia. Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson ooh,

Love watching the dancers at the Bourbon Street stage.

But Sugar Ray is the big deal after Jambolaia with shrimp. Delish. Laurie who joins us as do the others at the East stage. Nice conversation with grandnephew Jordie. Get to smuggle in large 7 up bottle with wine.

THURSDAY, MAY 19. HIGH-RISE @ THE KEN THEATRE. This British film has a 62%  Rotten Tomato critics score (less for the layaudience, 46%!) but Bob wants to see it. And at 4:20 on a Thursday afternoon--breaking all kinds of taboos are we. But how bad can it be with such worthies as Tom Hiddleston, all the rage these days, and Jeremy Irons, always the rage.

Verdict: This film is a mess. It looked like there would be some semblance of plot at its start, but nope. Something about the fall of civilization embodied in the clash between the indolent aristocracy of the penthouse floor of the high-rise built by the architect Irons mumbling his way through his role (as does everyone--I understood almost nothing of the dialogue) and the noisy, procreating rabble on the lowest floors. Hiddleston is a brain surgeon--who fucks all the women--caught in the middle. The viewers on Tomato were right. What was that about, I ask similarly unsatisfied Bob. "Think of it as a metaphor." Trying very hard to reproduce the dystopian novel on which it is based, it doesn't succeed. Even the brilliant Elizabeth Moss (Mad Men) sporting a Brit accent as an ever-pregnent futuristic Mary Magdeline is wasted here.

FRI MAY 20. NIGHT MANAGER. Actually 2nd episode with Hiddleston--him again. Engaging.

SAT MAY 21. LJP. HOLLYWOOD. By Joe Pietro. Directed by Christopher Ashley.

Large cast of 15. "Directed within an inch of its life" says Bob at intermission "it is after all a frail little thing" we talk about this, how directors transform material. (I speak of Robert Patrick who wrote a play I directed at Diversionary and who was incensed that I wouldn't let him direct it when he visited with me during rehearsals--he didn't permit that theatre is collaborative. That's why I'm anxious to see what Pend Oreille does with my play and the Glendale people do with two of my plays.)

This is a nourish mystery/satire about the Hollywood murder of Bill Taylor, a director. William Hayes, the censor plays a role in the investigation--a little far fetched there. Bigger than life characters, well detailed.  And the 2nd act is a success, all the loose ends are tied. Harriet Harris as the unscrupulous stage mother of one of the murder suspects, an eternal virgin, is spectacular. In fact all of the actors are superb marking another A in director Ashley's column.

SUN MAY 21. GRACE AND FRANKIE. We binge watch the first episodes of the exit season of this season and series designed just for us as a demographic. So we watch 7 episodes-/1/2 way through this year's mini-series . It's a little more mordant than before.

THURSDAY MAY 26. 7:30. STUPID F##G BIRD @ CYGNET THEATRE OLD TOWN.

We passed this up in New York because we knew it would be playing in our home town. At intermission, Bob "I think you like the play more than I do." "I do." "Is it that you are not engaged with the characters and what they care about?" Bob "I don't like them. I want Chechov back. I'm not seeing what the critics saw. It's so terribly self conscious." He has a point as always and my eyes were heavy as it dragged through the second act, but I am still appreciative of the avant gardeness and fourth wall breaking of the proceedings. Some excellent performances too serving well the playwright's bold intentions. The black lead playing Con, for Konstantin, son of the self-centered famous Madame Arcady besotted by famous writer Trigorin--you know the drill--is a bit strident though, hmm, well-formed.

SATURDAY MAY 28. CAMP DAVID @ The Old Globe. 2 pm matinee.

Richard Thomas as Jimmy Carter, Hallie Foote as Rosalynne. Ned Eisenberg as Menachem Begin and Khaled Nabawy as Anwar Sadat. Playwright Lawrence Wright has written, in Bob's words, "a very careful play". It's actually very effective, maybe a tad discursive-into the weeds, though that's possibly unavoidable. The great event leavened with humor, dissections of personal relationships in scenes between Jimmy and Roslyn--she's sensitive to her husband, the hero of the piece, and sensible, between Carter and each of the combatants, as they are at the onset as he grows more exasperated and emerges as a great negotiator who achieves the prize. Of a stellar cast Thomas is the weakest but still a worthy evening in the theatre. The Old Globe is doing better work than when we had, and consequently dropped, our subscription. And the walk to and from the park on matinee days is a pleasurable bonus.

SAT JUNE 4. THE LOBSTER @ HILLCREST CINEMA. Decidedly a unique movie that received loads of accolades. Deservedly? I was not sure of the tone, this dystopian parable about people who are coerced to find partners and are converted to animals of their choice if they don't; if they can escape, as does the protagonist as played by Colin Farrell, they are then coerced into being loners against any real feelings. Bob and I agree that it dragged in its starting sendup but has great punch in its denouement when true love wins out with horrifying consequence.

SUNDAY JUNE 5. 2 pm. THE BOY WHO DANCED ON AIR. DIVERSIONARY THEATRE.

Very impressive musical (but one wonders if a musical treatment is necessary given the serious subject matter) about boys who are purchased by Afghan men to dance and provide sexual services for them. Focuses on one such boy and his relationship with his protector who is a traditionalist and cannot accept their emotional bond as the boy grows too old. There's another boy who appears to be more adventurous with whom he falls in love and flees for the city. This world premiere (good job Diversionary) needs a little pruning before hitting the big time and the two young leads are in Bob's words "a bit long in the tooth" though talented as was the entire cast of 5. Equally impressive was the after-play discussion with a gay American Afghan who taught at the American University there and caused a revolution when he came out as gay and organized LGBT cells and a former nurse who fundraised and opened schools there as, she explains, education is the only defense against the pervasive fundamentalism that is lethal for gay men and all women in Afganastan.

SATURDAY JUNE 11. WEINER. Absolutely fascinating
documentary at the HILLCREST CINEMAS. Follows Anthony Weiner around as he runs for Mayor of New York and tries to salvage his reputation after the debacle of revelations about his internet porn relationships. He slips again disastrously and loses the race. But the real interest is his wife Huma Abadeen, confidente of Hilary Clinton, and caught in the middle. Weiner's transparency is mesmerizing.

One advantage of seeing the movie at our "local"--no chance of finding it at a grand multiplex--is bumping into another "local", today Peggy Goldstein, she of the Sharon Johnson ladies-who-lunch-dine-and-opine connection. Peggy has been seeing The Lobster--which we saw last week--and we Weiner, which she saw last week. A most pleasant time ensues drinking wine and prosseco at Chocolate on Fifth and University and catching up with Peggy.

TUESDAY JUNE 14. THE OUT LIST. Netflix. Distraction for Reuel's colonoscopy prep day. Mostly gay celebrity talking heads like Neal Patrick Harris talking about coming out and concerns like gay marriage before the Supreme Court decision.

SUNDAY JUNE 19. MAGGIE'S PLAN @ HILLCREST CINEMAS. Clever intellectuals interpersonal starring Greta Gerwig, brilliant as a sweet woman whose "plans" go awry, such as having an artificially inseminated baby, Ethan Hawke as her husband and Julliane Moore, hilarious as an uptight super-academic, his ex-wife. A tad long but brilliantly scripted. And very New York. Out Woody Allen's Woody Allen.

SATURDAY JUNE 24. Evening viewing on Netflix. NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS. With Ethel Merman (Mermanesque as ever) and long legged tapping Dan Dailey as the show biz vaudeville parents of their vaudeville brood improbably roue Donald O'Connor, snappy Mitzi Gaynor, and sentimental going to be a priest twitchy Johnny Ray. Then there are those Irving Berlin songs--consequently and thankfully the sappy story doesn't matter. Perfect at-home watching.

SUNDAY JULY 3. LAST TIGER IN HAITI. LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE. By Jeff Augustin. Directed by Joshua Kohan Brody. 

At intermission. Very powerful ending to 1st Act. The older of five slave Haitian children has killed their master and implores them to flee with him to the mountains. Very skillful writing, masterfully acted. They tell one another stories that reflect their aspirations and to escape from the squalor of their lives. We decide that we"ll know if they escaped if the set is changed.

And boy has it--to a luxe oceanfront Miami beach apt. Of the now grown up little girl who it is revealed when the older man visits her was the daughter of the master. He resents her for writing a book that falsifies their lives together. 2nd act could use a little work, the first act could be shorter--but a powerful afternoon in the theatre. (See utube --url link promo below)

https://youtu.be/n15_wH-U-No

JULY 6-25 See 2016 Grand Japan cruise on the Diamond Princess for entertainment snapshot commentary in that travel blog.

SUNDAY JULY 31. See if this opens: https://youtu.be/O4LBYTT073c

JUNK: at LJP. This time the Mandell Weiss Theatre. At intermission. Bob: It's a morality play. I: It's a good play. He agrees. I note the sea of white hair in the audience. He says they don't all have access to my bottle. I note the difficulty getting out of our aisle without stepping on toes. But you get what you wish for. After all we got the 2nd oldest aisles (I having wheedled my way as "elderly" into these preferred seats. "Next you'll own the theatre," he says, which is in the spirit of this play about greed, about a Wall Street takeover from the inside. Yet it's also compassionate and funny.

After intermission it's clear that it's also engrossing.

In fact at the next interval--only 5 minutes-- I say it's a long play. Bob "But it doesn't feel that way." He agrees he has known long plays but he prefers short plays. And, in a nod to those I write, especially fond of ten minute plays. 

I hear my neighbor's saying it's very well done and it moves. I appreciate how it economically and with maximum dramatic effect shows all aspects of the unearthing of theme where money lust leads. 

As we leave the theatre--2 1/2 hour play--2 hours 15 without intermission--don't know where it needs to be cut for Broadway if that's where it's going, I hear 2 women talking, "I didn't want to take him home on Sunday. They wanted it to be Monday" "He could get into trouble if he stayed longer in the hospital." That's the conversation of old people. That's the Sunday matinee audience and it gets to see good plays here. This one sees the subject from all angles, from the journalist who sells out, to the old style capitalist to the new, the ambitious politician, the workers, the unions, the technocrats, the criminals and examines the consequences. At curtain, The mega star broker is in jail dreaming of his next scheme, the housing no money down mortgage market. Brilliant. 

SATURDAY AUGUST  6. INDIGNATION @ Hillcrest Cinemas with Beth who "spontaneously" invited me to the 4:30 show, more crowded than we matineers are accustomed to. This is a somewhat uneven but nevertheless effecting adaptation of a Philip Roth novel--those early Goodbye Columbus elements, the young Newark Jew who falls for a "shiksa"--this time he's transplanted to the alien environment of an Ohio college. The premise enunciated by the protagonist from the perspective of a young soldier facing death is that we have choice in our fates.

SUNDAY AUGUST 7. 2ND CITY FREE SPEECH @ LJP. Not part of our subscription series but we're fond of the troupes improv comedy--this time a political slant. At intermission, recognition that over the years they have become progressively less sharp. Familiar setup. 3 men, one who is always fat, 3 women ranging from young to sort of young. Good opener, one actress as God who "quits" her job. Admission that all cast members are unabashedly liberal. I say it's probably better than an afternoon of conservatives doing comedy. (Is that even possible?) Bob is enjoying it saying they occasionally miss the mark. Agreed. Same formula. Set pieces. Audience interviews. There are improvs with the audience throwing out phrases the company can work with. Act 2 works much better. More fluid, funnier. One bit, eliminating for the most privileged white man in the audience is fun. (As gays we get eliminated early on.) Long show. Driving home Bob says its cocktail time. I say "I know. Is your internal alarm clock pinging?"  

  

SATURDAY AUGUST 13. SENSE AND SENSIBILITY. @ OLD GLOBE. Matinee (as is our mode these days). Utterly charming musical version of Jane's familiar story. Female leads--the sisters left penniless to find appropriate husbands--are especially fine here. Lovely voices. Music a little too Mencken Beauty and the Beast and there is so much of it that it's almost an operetta. (Not a criticism.) 

SUNDAY AUGUST 21. CAFE SOCIETY at Hillcrest Cinemas. Woody Allen's latest and though widely hailed as a mediocre effort, we enjoyed it--yes a little watch watching going on even at 85 minutes. Always a reliable pleasure, though, is the music--a lot of Rodgers and Hart--and the scenic elements, here the 40's beautifully captured with  settings, costumes, and style. Story with Jesse Eisenberg's character leaving his Bronx family to find his fortune and the girl of his dreams (Kristin Stewart of vampire fame very charismatic here) in Hollywood as an acolyte to his uncle (Steve Carell) who eventually marries the girl. Eisenberg comes back to New York to run his thug brother's nightclub. Complications. Good Jewish family portrayals.

FRIDAY AUGUST 24. BROOKLYN.HBO.  Glad to have seen it without the tariff. It's not a greatly substantial film. Hesitate to say inconsequential . She's an Irish girl come to Brooklyn, married an Italian boyfriend and when back in Ireland courts, alas, there as well another fellow. But it has excellent fin de ciecle settings and that Oscar  nom. performace by Scioese Ronan (whom we saw on Broadway in The Crucible. 

SATURDAY AUGUST 27. SD POPS. BERNADETTE PETERS. With Beth and her English friend Candy. Bernadettte's not as magnetic as she used to be. We've heard her so often though for a gal her age she can still get up on a piano and sing a torch song. Evening memorable for my being lost after I go to the porta potty and everyone looking around frantic and angry. Conclusion: I was found. 

SUNDAY AUGUST 28.  MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS. Look how hip we are or will become after we watch--some of--this. Bad boy Kanye West starts it off by introducing the HipHop Award. Lots of black people saying strange things. Tweets. Emojis. Online voting. There's  Niki Minaj and Anjelina Grande being um  eaten by muscular chorus boys. An ad for Trojans. We hip. We hip. Memes. Whazzat? Michael Phelps introduces a singer named Future whose words are indistinguishable, Rhianna is terrific. I dance to her. 

She appears again. Bad girl. Of course Biance is the plus ultra after doing at least a twenty minute set of her latest album--political ramifications aplenty. She gets her award from the Olympic gold medal gymnasts. They are agog. She "rule the world".  Amazing visuals. 

THURS SEPT 1. STRANGER THINGS. Netflix. First day out of hospital for me so I get to watch a Netflix series that is I think highly rated. 1980's. SCI-fi. Well produced. Winona Rider a standout as a beleaguered and besieged mom. Mysterious disappearance of young boy. Appearance of young strange girl with supernatural powers. Alternate dimension stuff. A big deliberate nod to sci-fi formulaics of earlier films. Bob and I watch this moody concoction until our eyeballs ache.

AUGUST 10. DON'T THINK TWICE. HILLCREST CINEMAS. 12:20. We walk slowly to Hillcrest because of Bob's Achilles tendonitis which has been bothering him since our New Yprk trip. When I tell him it might be a fracture because it's going on too long, he says not only are you a PhD in Performance Studies but perform as an MD in real life. I reply that I am a critic of performance and his is sub-par. Of course I'm walking around with a sling protecting my new shoulder so we're quite the decrepit old pair. We opine as to how many will be seeing this film--Bob guesses ten, I seven. Right now we're alone. Okay here's another couple. 6 more needed says Bob.

 Film got a 99% tomato score. Written by, directed and co-starring Mike Birbiglia who wrote the sleepwalking movie. This time it's about standup comics seeking that big break. How they interact when one of them gets it. We enjoy.

  

SUN SEPT 11. Yup 15th anniversary of the twin tower thing. LA JOLLA  PLAYHOUSE. TIGER STYLE By Mike Lew. He's a talented playwright. Encapsulated in an overachieving Chinese-American brother and sister is the search for a Chinese American  identity. Lots of it is hilarious fast paced satire as they seek ways out of their unhappiness

SEPT 17. LITTLE MEN. Hillcrest Cinemas. Pleasure in viewing a genuine indie production. This auteur is occasionally too casual and meandering in his approach to scenes. There's one for example when one of the boys,who become friends despite their families rift when one threatens to raise the shop rent of another, is in an interminable acting class. Cut that scene! The other boy is a burgeoning artist whose parents (father the inevitably solid Greg Kinear as a struggling actor whose wife is the breadwinner) are trying to do right by him, not always succeeding. It's a slice of life, the relationships are poignant and the New York scenes stir up fond memories. But not worth the almost perfect Tomato critics score.

SUNDAY SEPT 17. EMMY AWARDS. Hey we're award show whores. Jimmy Kimmel master of cems is killing it. Who knew?  Uses Jeb  Bush to skewer Trump as Kimmel's hitch hike driver. Kimmel has a wonderful ad lib casual quality. Nice mixture of efficiency and on-target spontaneous comedy. We don't really know these shows. Hey it's MSNBC or nothing 's worth the trouble. But still the winners seem emotional enough to be passably arresting. Veep, Game of Thrones, OJ Trial, and Transparent dominate.

MON. SEPT 26. TRUMP-CLINTON DEBATE. This entry is here because I regard it as performance art. Certainly edge of seat drama for a certain kind of spectator--moi and El Bob. After all we watch hero and antihero, Protagonist and antagonist, dueling it out as the antagonist Trump becomes unhinged. He's always top of his form for reality  tv.

SUN OCT 16. SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY. We're early even for the lecture 45 minutes before the program. Lobby full of the aged audience. We're hard pressed to find anyone under age of 65. Bob opines that it's cause this is a matinee and symphonies are not popular with the young. Pity. Probably will continue with the support of the mandarin rich. Jacobs family here almost singlehandedly carrying the load.

Sure enough as we wait for our aisle door to open, a phalanx of walkers appears and pushes ahead. We're row X. But at $20 per, Brahms is the 3rd B of music. (Biance notwithstanding.) Brahms was "Maidenly" in appearance. (SYMPHONY lecturer is brilliant.) audiences flocking to the "new music". Brahms accompanist t-o violinist. List accidentally played a young Brahms piece. Brahms fell asleep. So Shumans old school took him up. 

We're going to hear his 3rd symphony. Every note relates to every other note. Can't take one away. B thought he couldn't equal it.

Take away--B didn't care how he dressed, unlike the other composers with their distinctive styles. Unwittingly drew attention to that. When Schuman went mad he moved in to protect Clara and her family.

American sound--not until Copeland found that sound in the 30's Bill Schuman--1st Pulitzer in music.(great  administrator). Used cry of NY City kids on the street. "I am key!"

In performance very frisky. And very Copeland. Brash. Out there. I guess that's American. (More Trumpian than Hillarian.)

Getting ready for the Mendelssohn. Violin concerto in E minor. Soloist Gil Shahan. Bravura. I tear up at the first so-familiar bars.

At intermission (can't take our wines to our seats) Trent Smith our old wine bar manager comes over. Brief exchange. I hadn't recognized him. Let bygones etc. Agree bravura. (I thought he had died. Bob says, well it's almost Halloween.)

Brahms SYMPHONY #3. Beautifully rendered as it is, my mind wanders. Actually fine since I play around with ideas for the ever-mutable play I'm working on now. On the way out I hear someone say "Brahms never made any sense to me." Uber and we're home in a jiffy--better than waiting 1/2 hour for the bus--$5.75--to get ready for a visit from our friend Gary. Pizza time!

THURSDAY OCT 20. LIZARD BOY. DIVERSIONARY THEATRE.
Thank you Uber. We can have a glass of wine and not worry about driving. We get a glass as well at the theatre as part of Scott Williford's $20 ticket. Good chatting with him and his husband Grant. Nice conversation with Matt Morrow, exec artistic director. I get to tell him about my experiences with Robert Patrick when I was artistic director when as part of a conversation on the input of playwrights on the production process and to parenthetically mention my membership in the Dramatists of America. (Shameless.) Nice chat with our old friend Duncan who does remarkable hospice work with families of the dying.

As to the production, brilliant guy who wrote and starred--possibly big future. Both Bob and I loved that he accompanied himself on cello. Other two cast members as the boyfriend and the nemesis female who vie for the favors and special powers of the lizard boy are talented and harmonize well. They've all worked together in great sinc since its Seattle debut. But It's a mishmash though technically well done.Finally no believable rooting interest in this plot about heroes and superheroes and both Bob and I are consulting our watches.

At breakfast next morn Bob asks me my opinion. I go on and on about a boring oversimplistic plot. How to find excuses? Maybe my arm was hurting (emergency X-rays and MRI hours before, torn scapula, etc.) and I was distracted, maybe superhero comic theme was not my interest, etc. Bob: "It's dumb." Yes. Also boyfriend, although talented, not attractive enough. The harmonizing good but their high pitched, somewhat whiny, voices tended to grate after a while.

In this case, what happens in Seattle should stay in Seattle. Ouch.

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 13.

MISS YOU LIKE HELL. LJP.

Book and Lyrics by Quiana Algeria Hudes. Music and Lyrics by Erin 2]_ a McKeown. Daphne Rubin-Vega as Beatriz the mother--a knockout performance) and Kristina Alabado as her daughter, Olivia.

The leads have intensity--events seem to matter to them. Has a sort of forced quirkiness. At intermission Bob can't decide--some very good elements. Thinks "Beth will have loved it--a real feminist show."

Essentially it's a picaresque. A Mexican undocumented mother takes daughter on trip before she is to appear in an LA court deciding her citizenship. Daughter is high-strung poetic/suicidal who is hurt that mother has abandoned her. Mother free spirit. Rather simple minded and unsparing in its progressive us against them (campaign season--blech) dichotomies. On their way they meet various down to earth enablers (no cuties allowed, which is probably admirable). Of the second act Bob sees it as "songs in search of a story" and is disappointed. He's right. Probably redeemable with more work but even in its present shape a worthwhile theatre experience as invariably LJP productions are.

SATURDAY NOV. 26.

ELLE @ Hillcrest Cinemas

Wow. Since the last time we've been here the place has been almost totally revamped--3 places inside you can buy tickets and even get a glass of wine. Incredibly luxurious seating.

Oh yes also a most intriguing film. Isabel Hubert is brilliant in her barely expressive sang frois as she is raped by her, at first unknown to her, presumably happily married neighbor. She's a type A personality, driven, wealthy. It takes this passionate violence to open her up.

Which leads us to another movie about a buttoned up woman who through the experience the plot of the film thrusts at her she finds fulfillment.

But ARRIVAL on SATURDAY am in Fashion Valley starring Amy Adams as a linguist whose husband left her and her child has died must save the world with the encouragement of Jeremy Renner. This she's to do by interpreting the intentions of octopus-like aliens despite the resistance of the rest of the world. The movie got a 98% Tomatometer score? Well developed, yes, but the pacing is s l o w.  And the story is the same pap I swallowed at the movies on Saturdays when I was ten--scientists save the world when they discover mans inhumanity to man, among other devices.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 4. THE DYBBUK @ The Lyceum Theatre. Unique experience and we don't expect the one man plus klezmer (not really) band show that it is. The one man who wanders pre-show as a guest at the wedding is the storytelling uncle and as part of his extended toast to the wedded couple, he tells and acts all the characters in the Ansky's ancient tale of the Dybbuk,  Bob. "I certainly respect it; he did a wonderful job but I didn't like it." I thought the actor was brilliant and I was absorbed by the show and it's kind of in the setting theatricality. We have champagne at our wedding guest cabaret table and sit with a pleasant mother and daughter, the mother,Anne, with whom the actor occasionally flirts. Let's face it I'm a sucker for Jewish themed fare.

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 7. NOCTURNAL ANIMALS. @ Mission Valley AMC. Bob wanted to see this (perhaps his revenge for my dragging him to the Dybbuk) and we were both fond of Tom Ford's first film, A Single Man. He found it "an interesting film". I found it a mess, wasting the talents not only of the director Ford, but of Amy Adams, unfulfilled, and Jake Gillenhall, intense, who turn in their usual fine performances she as a society artist, he as her ex-husband whose new violent novel she reads and we see actualized (to my distress--I hate violence in film) with Gyllanhall as the protagonist in it whose wife and daughter are raped and killed by Texas scum. These are two separate stories and the relationship between them if not tenuous is strained. Next time Ford directs someone else's screenplay, rather than his own as here, I'll go and be happy.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 11. Symphony.

Lecture. We're actually on time for it thanks to Uber. Pleasant Alberto.

"There are many princes. Only one Beethoven." Said to a patron. He was deaf when he composed it. 200 tries before settled on Ode to Joy movement.

Bob who was surrounded by Ives as an American Studies student professes his distaste for that composer but says his impression has improved after this rendition. The occasional jarring discordance--deliberate--supposed to be rival simultaneous marching bands in one instance--enlists my attention

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14. Hillcrest Cinema.

We had to buy tickets in advance for THE ENTERTAINER, a one-night only British National Theatre performance by Kenneth Branagh . Funny we see that the theatre is teeming, turns out mostly for another special event, Auntie Mame, theRosalind Russell original. We've got the tonier and older audience for this edition of the Lawrence Olivier bravura performance as Archie, the irrepressible fading vaudevillian who is less impressive to his family.

"Isn't this exciting? We're out for an evening," says Bob. "You're frowning." I'm not commenting. We wait for the cartoons. Nope.

Bob wonders how Olivier may have handled the role differently.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 17

LA LA LAND @ HILLCREST CINEMAS.

We've been waiting for this one. And though it doesn't for us live up to critics' overweening praise it offered a very pleasant diversion from the daily scary episodes of Donald Trump's reality show. The leads are excellent as the love-lorn lovers offering love notes to LA especially the gamin-like Emma Stone. (Bob is not fond of Ryan Gosling for some reason--doesn't think he's hot.) The story is of aspiring artists, he jazz musician, she actress. Different career trajectories. Slight. Great primary color visuals. Borne aloft in song and dance and though the central pair are not Rogers and Astaire, in fact their dancing is studied, it's well photographed and works for a contemporary duo. I find myself being emotional throughout strangely--is it because the challenges of a creative life resonates with me or is it the possibility that old fashioned movie musicals will at last have a resurgence?

MONDAY DECEMBER 19.

CHANTICLEER at Symphony Hall. They are truly remarkable this all-male acapella group from San Francisco we heard some years ago, glorious perfect sounds. The harmony is unerring. Yet there is a sameness. Brief selections, all Christmas songs carefully curated, starting with a Gregorian chant. It's a wonder they know how to rearrange themselves for each cantata. Each has a tuning fork for a particular note appropriate to the selection and held to the ear. Bob: "I think they're wonderful but the concert is essentially boring."

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 21. JACKIE @ Hillcrest Cinema. We are intrigued enough to choose it over Manchester By the Sea the other and more probable Oscar contender. Our obligation is to see as many of the contenders as possible as we did last year and we'll get to it. But when we arrive for the 1:10 show, it's sold out--oddly since the 2:10 show we are consigned to is sparsely attended.

I've already purchased $9 glasses of wine (da noive!) so in we go. A first. Bob doesn't know what to say about the movie except that this detailing of President Kennedy's assasination probably has more resonance for us than for younger people who did not live through it. He asks me if I think it's a good movie. Actually while watching it I was sure it was "good" but didn't know if it was arresting. In retrospect it seems to have been a very fine movie indeed. The focus here is on his wife and the film is complex. We see her at the moment of the assassination and the aftermath with her priest, with Bobby Kennedy, with an interviewer and with her children as she adjusts to the trauma of widowhood and as she plans for the funeral. There are flashbacks to happier times, the Camelot of American presidencies (she plays Richard Burton singing Camelot as she gulps vodka, reminisces and mourns in her bedroom post-assassination), and to her famous televised tour of the White House. We are aware of her sense of propriety and of her steely controlling nature.  A problem with historical re-creations, especially those within recent memory, is that the actors can never be completely convincing in their roles. Here there are inescapable discrepancies in looks and accents but Natalie Portman's finely layered portrayal of the almost tragic figure Jackie transcends these concerns.

THURSDAY DECEMBER 22.

THE MYSTERY OF LOVE AND SEX @ Diversionary Theatre. Rainy night but our uber arrives in 2 minutes--Eddie who likes ubering so much he's quitting his day job; we like it too. Full house. Matt, the exec hugs and kisses us because we've given the theatre money. (I'm being harsh.) Soap opera concoction about 2 college friends struggling with their sexual identities (of course! it's Diversionary) and the two parents of the girl who are at odds. Uneven.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 24. MANCHESTER BY THE SEA @ Hillcrest Landmark. Brilliant performances all around especially Affleck the younger as the almost tragic figure who, neglectful, is responsible for the death of his children and Michelle Williams in a smaller role as his ex-wife and the mother of those children who finds a way out of her despair and into forgiveness. Like the Moonlight character (below), he is a dead man walking. Faced with the  requirement of raising his dead brother's teenage son, however,  in the end he "can't beat it".

SUNDAY DECEMBER 31. MOONLIGHT @ The Ken Theatre.  Last day of the year and one requires some intense gloom. Fitting. Maybe next year will be less gloomy? This time Bob opts out and the dear man drives me to Kensington and the Ken to meet Beth who also is attracted to the gloom despite protesting later at drinks at our home that we need lighter fare to escape the era (?) --the error! -- of Trump.

Actually brilliant filmmaking here. The director gets uniformly lustrous performances from his all-black cast including the three who play the central character as a young boy, a teenager and as a man who in straightened circumstances--druggy mother, bullying at school, his burgeoning recognition that he's gay--struggles with these setbacks silently. He does this questioningly at first, then with fury and finally with recognition of his need. It's almost as if he understands that he's doomed from the onset. Yet here there's a glimmer of hope, the rays of moonlight, unlike for the equally beset central character in Manchester By the Sea. Moves slowly--deliberately--with barely penetrable dialogue, patois of the ghetto. I began to think this was a foreign language film without the captions but a very worthwhile, indeed searing, venture nevertheless. Is there hope?

SOME OTHER NOTABLES IN TVLAND

"BLUNT TALK"=GREAT FUN

"LAURA" WITH CLIFTON WEBB

"DESIGNATED SURVIVOR" IS AN ADDICTION

"PENNY DREADFUL" IS DELICIOUS

"THE CROWN" IS ABSORBING

JOHN LITHGOW AS SIR WINSTON IS BRILLIANT

"PARTS UNKNOWN"--ALWAYS A DELIGHT