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SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: I don’t want to “look inside.” I want to look inside the minds of great artists… and be inspired.
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Published: Apr 23, 2020
Category:
Pandemic: Dispatches and Essentials
If you’re feeling the days are more or less the same now — with your mood being the major variable — I’m with you.
My take: Two phenomena shape these days.
1) Stupid people do stupid, hurtful things, generally on purpose. Still hard to believe it, but the White House and its enablers increasingly seem to want to kill the poor, the aged and minorities in significant numbers, and, in the process, get richer, My friend Betsy asked how rich people could apply for government bailouts: “Do they have no morality?” I replied: “Money is sex for them.” Too simple? Read on.
2) Good people mostly get fucked, but they persevere. And do great things.
Today I’m making a Shift Change. Calling bullshit on the usual suspects, because I believe the information is important, and maybe I see more information than you do. But quickly, in headlines, then moving on. ”No point in being negative,” the Dalai Lama has written. “That only makes a bad situation worse.” Point taken.
What’s behind this shift change? Start with three death stories yesterday on the outer rim of my crew. (I’m still waiting to hear about the first “good death.”) And then my daughter’s website, which launched without my involvement or supervision, with an interview that became a conversation. As I’ve written, I say I no longer think about the future, but that’s only half-true. The other half is that Helen’s interview gave me a preview of who she might be, and I was reminded that I’m fanatically committed to helping her get there — and committed to being there to annoy her. And then — my thinking wasn’t linear — this: I will not read one more word about “looking inside” and “reflecting.” That’s never worked for me, and won’t now. This sentence typed itself: I don’t want to look inside. I want to look inside the minds of great artists… and be inspired.
So, today, I’m asking you to stop a day which, outside your home, will be a lot like every other day now. Take 139 minutes — or, if this isn’t your idea of a movie or you just don’t like it, leave when you’ve had enough — to watch “The Tree of Life.” Guarantee: You will not be “entertained” as you would be in a Hollywood movie. But you’ll get something: an experience. Which is not to say you need to “work” to “figure it out.” It’s not like that. Just go with it. Get what you get.
First, the shitstorm, in brief:
McCONNELL TO COUNTRY: DROP DEAD
from Politico:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday insisted that flailing state and local governments should be able to “use the bankruptcy route” rather than receive aid from the federal government — signaling renewed opposition to a top Democratic demand for the next coronavirus relief package.
PENTAGON PLANS TO DISPATCH BLUE ANGELS AND THUNDERBIRDS IN CORONAVIRUS TRIBUTE
from the Washington Post:
The Pentagon is planning a multicity tour of the U.S. military’s top flight demonstration teams to “champion national unity.” The Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds, the demonstration squadrons for the Navy and Air Force, will fly over some cities together and others separately, according to the memo. The flyovers will take place in the next several weeks “to thank first responders, essential personnel, and military service members as we collectively battle the spread of COVID-19.”
FORMER LABRADOODLE BREEDER TAPPED TO LEAD U.S. PANDEMIC TASK FORCE
from Reuters:
Azar tapped a trusted aide with minimal public health experience to lead the agency’s day-to-day response to COVID-19. The aide, Brian Harrison, had joined the department after running a dog-breeding business for six years. Five sources say some officials in the White House derisively called him “the dog breeder.”
Now.. some good news..
WARREN, NEW JERSEY
from Carol Fitzgerald, my business partner and then some: “The town here has come together…people donate….and local restaurants get the money….and then other people in town deliver to the hospitals in the area. After just one week, our community had raised over $14,000 from 195 contributors. In our second week we’re close to $18,000 from 233 generous donors ; a gift of $5,000 from a local anonymous resident brings our total to $23,000! In week 4, we’re up to $25,773 from 267 total donors. Here’s the Facebook page to see more about what they are doing… They take photos of the place they are picking up from and where they are delivering…so people know….keeps small businesses in the news and shows people where the deliveries are going.
FACE MASKS
Butler readers supported Alice Glass, Berkeley theater-person-turned-mask-maker, to the tune of 300 masks. She filled those orders, ran out of elastic, and is now back in production. To order, click here.
And now… the movie: “The Tree of Heaven”
Terrence Malick wrote and directed it. He makes few movies – “Badlands,” “Days of Heaven,” “The Thin Red Line” — and if he’s given an interview I can’t find it. The film stars Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain and Sean Penn. And 3 little boys — it tells you something about Malick that his team considered 10,000 boys over two years to cast these three.
The film isn’t linear, but it isn’t complicated. The mother (Chastain) represents Grace — she’s soft and loving and nurturing. The father (Pitt) represents Nature, as in “nature, red in tooth and claw.” He’s been oppressed, and now he oppresses. Penn is one of the tormented sons, now grown, still tormented.
The script was supplemented by letters Malick wrote to his actors each morning. Malick used handheld cameras, a small crew. He shot a magazine of film, paused to reload, shot another magazine. Every day, for three months. The kids had no scripts; each morning they chose the clothes they wanted to wear that day. Douglass Trumbull, who did the special effects for “2001,” did the effects here. The music is mostly classical. The ending is radiant: Everyone understands everything.
“The Tree of Life” won the Palme D’Or at Cannes. Robert De Niro, the head of the jury, said it was difficult to choose a winner, but Malick’s film “ultimately fit the bill — it had the size, the importance, the intention, whatever you want to call it, that seemed to fit the prize.” The film made more critics’ year-end lists for 2011 than any other film. It was later named the 7th greatest film since 2000 in a BBC poll of 177 critics. In 2019 it topped the Associated Press list of the best films of the 2010s. It received three Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Cinematography. It cost $32 million. In this country, it grossed half of that. [To buy the DVD from Amazon, click here. To buy or rent the streaming video, click here.]
The trailer:
A love scene:
This is what it looks like when Douglass Trumbull and Terence Malick collaborate:
The end…
I’m never at a loss for words. But here “no words” is my awed response.
ESSENTIALS AND DISPATCHES
Everything, all in one place.
UPDATE: EO Hand Soap is available again.
UPDATE: I spoke with a NYC lung specialist. He endorses Vitamin D, but warns you not to double/triple dose. In large doses, Vitamin D becomes toxic.
