October 3

   

Coffee and Politics

Something a little different today. I’ve become aware that my “Coffee” posts are a popular feature of my blog. Readers comment more on the coffee stuff than anything else I post. And I get personal questions about my coffee habits. So here’s my coffee confessional.

At home I use the Chemex method to brew coffee. I prefer the natural (brown) square cut filters. For coffee, I brew a custom combo – half Starbucks Sumatra and half 7-11 regular exclusive blend. I know. But it’s my preference. Three scoops per 12-ounce cup/mug. Multiple times per day. I can drink a mug of coffee right before bedtime, and it doesn’t keep me awake. Total coffee addict.

When ordering out, I go for an Americano with a splash of half-and-half and half a packet of Whole Earth Nature Sweet (Stevia/monk fruit blend). It took me awhile to get used to the taste of Stevia, but I can’t argue with the fact that it’s a non caloric natural product instead of a packet of chemicals. Past noon (or so) I drop the cream. Go ahead – judge me.

It seems inappropriate to post pictures of prurient interest at a time of national tragedy, so I’m taking the day off from that. Today, political frustration seems more important than soft porn. 

At the time of the Las Vegas mass shooting Sunday night, the curtain had already come down on Paul Rudnick’s (above) one act play, “Big Night”, playing at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles. Yesterday the theatre was dark, but it will be a tough performance tonight, since the show includes a mass shooting as a sub plot – a gunman enters the Los Angeles LGBTQ Youth Center and shoots 50 kids. On Oscar night.

This poorly-reviewed show is not one of the best from openly gay playwright and screenwriter Rudnick (b. 1957), who has given us such classics as “Jeffrey”, “In and Out” and “Sister Act.” Right now he is writing the screenplay and lyrics for a stage musical version of “The Devil Wears Prada”, a project for which Elton John is composing the score.

A short while ago I copied and pasted a political commentary by Rudnick in which he vented his anger toward Trump voters. Somehow today seems the right time to share an excerpt from it.

(Rudnick)...The anger is caused by a single basic fact. If I agree, or at least entertain the idea, that Trump voters had genuine grievances and hardscrabble lives, there’s still something I can’t forgive. They saw who Trump was, they knew exactly what he stood for, and they chose him.

When I’ve talked to Trump voters, they often explain that they were rolling the dice, that they were sick of politics as usual, and that Trump felt like something new. If Trump was a truly fresh face, someone who arrived from nowhere, as a genuine populist hero, I could understand this hope, this betting on change.

But Trump? Every American knew he was a blowhard, whose businesses constantly went bankrupt; they knew that he abused women and never thought of anyone but himself. They knew that his rallies were ignited by the worst lynch mob mentality, and that he celebrated not America, but hatred. And they excused these facts or ignored them or claimed they were manufactured, but they knew. They had a choice, and they chose Trump.

Even if you hated Hillary or didn’t trust her or thought she was a political hack, she wasn’t Trump. She wasn’t worse. She wasn’t a proven, inept embarrassment. If nothing else, her service to America was indisputable. Trump has never done anything for anyone: this was who you favored, to represent our country?That choice is what can’t be forgiven, because every day, that choice erodes our nation’s stability and dignity. None of Trump’s actions have been even the slightest surprise: not the fact that he champions white supremacists, or busily provokes a possible nuclear war, or mocks people suffering from a hurricane’s devastation.

Trump’s supporters are too cowardly to admit their mistake, so they blame fake news, or the Democrats, or, as one guy told me, “So what? It’s business as usual. Hillary would have been just as bad.”

Which isn’t true. No one would have been as bad. America isn’t being torn apart by policy disputes over taxes or healthcare, or an impasse between political parties; we’re suffering from the most sickening shame, and that can’t be healed by “understanding” or “reaching out” or “listening to the other side.” With Trump, there is no other side.

And from Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT):

“This must stop. It is positively infuriating that my colleagues in Congress are so afraid of the gun industry that they pretend there aren’t public policy responses to this epidemic. There are, and the thoughts and prayers of politicians are cruelly hollow if they are paired with continued legislative indifference. It’s time for Congress to get off its ass and do something.”

The real strength of Murphy’s statement isn’t its use of light profanity, but its implied acknowledgment of the twin challenges facing the gun control movement. Nothing will change without policy, and policy is near-impossible to pass due to politics. Not to mention the sobering reality that, in terms of campaign contributions, the NRA sends its money almost exclusively to Republicans, who control both houses of Congress.

We’re screwed.

February 17

With a side of socks:

Ryan Gosling’s Spiffy Wheels
In Movie Musical La La Land

It seems everyone is placing bets on how many Oscars the brilliant movie musical La La Land will win come February 26, when Jimmy Kimmel will host the 89th annual Academy Awards. It won seven Golden Globes, in every category for which it was nominated. La La Land is up for 14 Oscars, one of only three films* ever to be nominated for that many.

While other folks were banging heads, trying to name the dozens of L.A. area filming locations used in this miracle of a movie, I was intrigued by the vintage red convertible Ryan Gosling tooled around town in, disturbing the peace by constantly leaning on the horn. I think my readers know by now that I am a classic car nut. Well, I did an Internet photo search and was able to determine that it was a 1982 Buick Riviera Convertible, which at the time came in just two exterior colors (white and Firemist red) and only one interior color (red). Mr. Gosling’s ride was one of the red/red examples.

More than you want to know:  GM had stopped making convertibles in 1976, so all 1982 Riviera convertibles started out as coupes, which were then converted (at great expense) to ragtops by ASC, Inc. of Lansing, MI. They are especially rare today, since only 1,250 were produced for 1982. Because the convertible cost TWICE the price of a coupe, the reason for the low production numbers is obvious. The cars were powered by a gutless 140 hp 5.0-liter 8-cylinder Oldsmobile (!) engine, with torque delivered through a 4-speed 700R automatic gearbox to front-wheel drive. Power steering and 4-wheel power disc brakes were standard equipment. Inside, the seats were ribbed leather, but the dash and door panels were veritable shrines to (obviously) fake wood – acres of it. There was even a fake wood accent strip on the metal trim along the outer edges of the front seats. The wire wheels were also fake (hubcaps, actually). But that was GM back in those days.
 

I thought Mr. Gosling was the one weak link in the casting (much of the time he was so expressionless that it seemed as if his jaws were wired shut – but it could have been worse; I’m thinking Keanu Reeves). Being a pianist myself, I was impressed, however, with his fake piano playing, perhaps the most realistic fake playing I’ve ever seen on TV or in films. It helps that Gosling plays piano (and cello), so he was able to successfully "fake" the parts that were beyond his technical ability -- and his rhythm is razor sharp. While  he did work his butt off to learn to dance for the role of Sebastian, his voice is breathy and pitch is often vague. But that’s just me. What's more important is that Damien Chazelle created characters moviegoers really care about, and we want their relationship to succeed.

As for the musical score for La La Land, I am in awe. These days there are two types of music in films and stage musicals – the Disney stuff and everything else, which is usually dumbed-down, uninspired and forgettable (Wicked, et al) or songs full of cynicism and angst (Sondheim, anyone?). Yet composer/orchestrator Justin Hurwitz and lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul managed to produce a score that is a spot on reflection of the bittersweet optimism of the screenplay. Note: Chazelle, Hurwitz, Pasek and Paul were all born in 1985, so all four will turn 32 this year.

Trivia: Screenwriter/director Damien Chazelle once aspired to be a jazz drummer, and composer Justin Hurwitz is an accomplished pianist. But Chazelle didn't write a screenplay and just turn it over to a composer and lyricists to produce a score. Chazelle insisted on approving every note of melody and every word of the lyrics. He pushed his creative team hard, and somehow they're all still friends.

While roommates at Harvard, the film's director and composer had a band called Chester French, with Chazelle on drums and Hurwitz on electric keyboards. Lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who were classmates at the University of Michigan, also wrote both the music and lyrics for Dear Evan Hansen, a stage musical now playing on Broadway that has received widespread critical acclaim.

You didn’t hear it from me – but there is talk of a stage musical version of La La Land. Personally, I hope that prospect pans out.

*The other two? All About Eve (1950) and Titanic (1997)

November 2

Hirsute men (all natural):

Colin Higgins

Openly gay film director, actor, producer and screenwriter Colin Higgins (1941-1988) was born in New Caledonia, a French island nation east of Australia, although most of his formative years were spent in Australia and California. His father was an American, and his mother Australian. After earning a bachelor's degree in English from Stanford University, he went to UCLA, where he received an M.F.A. in screenwriting.

Although he had solid hits with Silver Streak (screenwriter, 1976), Foul Play (director and screenwriter, 1978), Nine to Five (director and screenwriter, 1980), and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (director and screenwriter, 1982 – the film adaptation of the stage musical), he is best remembered for an earlier film for which he wrote the screenplay – Harold and Maude (producer and screenwriter, 1971), which has become a cult classic. It tells the tale of a suicidal young man (Bud Cort) who falls in love with a 79-year-old woman (Ruth Gordon). Higgins wrote the screenplay, which formed the basis for his thesis while he was still a student at UCLA.

After graduating Higgins went to work for a rich man and his wife in Los Angeles as a part-time chauffeur and pool cleaner in exchange for free accommodation. The man was film producer Ed Lewis, and Higgins showed him a draft of Harold and Maude. Lewis took it to Robert Evans at Paramount, where the film project got the green light. Higgins wanted to direct the script himself, but Hal Ashby was hired as director. Ashby and Higgins were highly compatible, and both were pleased with the result of their collaboration, although it was not a great box office success upon its initial release.

Later Higgins (above left) received an offer from Jean-Louis Barrault (right) in Paris to turn Harold and Maude into a play for French actor Madeleine Renaud. Higgins took on the project, working on the French translation with Jean-Claude Carriere, and the play ran for seven years. The film of Harold and Maude continued to run in cinemas around the world, with some fans having seen it over a hundred times. By 1983 the film had turned a profit, twelve years after its original release.

In this clip from the beginning of the film, Harold meets Maude:



Higgins’ last film project was a 1986 television miniseries based on Shirley MacLaine's book, Out on a Limb. Sadly, Higgins died of AIDS-related illness in Beverly Hills, CA, in 1988, at the tender age of forty-seven.

Trivia: When Colin Higgins was having a hot tub and deck built for his backyard, he hired a young carpenter to do it. That carpenter was Harrison Ford. 
   
Sources:
Queers in History (2009) – Keith Stern
Wikipedia

Aggie Song: Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

September 8

With a side of briefs:

Moss Hart

American playwright and theatre director/producer Moss Hart (1904-1961) considered George S. Kaufman his greatest collaborator. Among the hit comedies they wrote together were You Can’t Take It With You (1936 – Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Oscar for Best Picture) and The Man Who Came To Dinner (1939). Hart also wrote a best-selling autobiography called Act One (1959), about which George S. Kaufman said, “I’m very pleased for Moss that Act One is on the best seller list. I simply feel that it should be under fiction instead of non-fiction.” Kaufman knew what he was talking about.

Hart’s wife Kitty Carlisle (1910-2007) was committed to protecting her husband’s secrets. A socialite, opera singer, stage and film actress and cabaret performer, she was married to Hart for the last fifteen years of his life, and their union produced two children. Although Hart died in 1961 of a heart attack at age 57, she lived for another 46 years, never remarrying. In Steven Bach’s biography of Hart, Dazzler: The Life and Times of Moss Hart (2001), the author revealed that throughout his marriage Hart was a closeted bisexual. Miss Carlisle made no public comment about the contents of the book, but until her death she continued Hart’s own attempt to heterosexualize his life story, despite his physical relationships with literary agent Lester Sweyd. MGM screenwriter Charles Lederer and many of the homosexuals mentioned in Hart’s autobiography. In a 1939 letter written by Hart to Dore Schary (later president of MGM Studios), he wrote the damning words, “We shall once again lay in each other’s arms and taste the sweetness of sin – I love you very much.”

After his death Carlisle sealed Hart’s diaries and prevented access to materials that contained evidence of his sexuality. Nevertheless, Hart’s name cropped up on lists of bisexuals by Yamaguchi Fletcher, Adrien Saks and others.

Suffering from writer’s block, manic depression and numerous nervous breakdowns, Hart developed an addiction to psychoanalysis. His therapist, Lawrence Kubie, strongly disapproved of Hart’s gay alliances and pushed him into eventually adopting an entirely heterosexual lifestyle. Kubie was known for “conversion therapy” that resulted in redirecting gay or bisexual patients to heterosexual lives. Kubie saw Hart twice a day and conducted shock therapy once a week. As a result, at age 42, Hart married Kitty Carlisle, an act that greatly surprised most of his friends and associates. After getting married, Hart ended his friendships with many "out" gay men, but Arthur Laurents reported his embarrassment at the wedding reception at Hart’s house in Bucks County, PA, when Hart suggested that the men take all their clothes off when there were no women around. Following a performance by Kitty Carlisle at Bucks County Playhouse in 1948, Hart proudly presented his infant son to the audience, declaring, "Now they won't be able to say I'm gay anymore."

Although a tortured man psychologically, Hart enjoyed tremendous professional success. He directed huge Broadway hits such as My Fair Lady (1956 – Tony Award for Best Director) and Camelot (1960). During the latter production, actor Robert Goulet maintained that Hart behaved in a “notably flirtatious manner” toward him; others involved in Camelot confirmed this. Hart’s screenplays included major successes such as A Star Is Born (1954) and Gentlemen’s Agreement (1947).

Personal note from your blogger: One of the first professional stage productions I ever saw was a revival of Hart's Light Up the Sky.