Sacramento area community musical theater (esp. DMTC in Davis, 2000-2020); Liberal politics; Meteorology; "Breaking Bad," "Better Call Saul," and Albuquerque movie filming locations; New Mexico and California arcana, and general weirdness.
This evening, as Jasper and I concluded the evening walk, we encountered two neighbors in the parking area just outside my back gate. They were both aghast. A dead pigeon was on the ground; it's chest expertly carved out. They asked if I could do something. I had my pooper scooper with me, so I quickly scooped the pigeon away.
What happened to this pigeon? It must be one of my birds. Then I remembered, the pigeon fell directly under the neighbors' eucalyptus tree, where I observed this guy on September 21st eyeing the spot where I feed all the local pigeons.
I've been watching a lot of The Knitting Cult Lady's videos on TikTok, and I recommend them. Many institutions in society work or act like cults, and it's important to see them for what they are, for your own sanity, if nothing else.
“The wind, the wind. It sounds so wonderful,” Trump meandered on. “The wind, the wind, the wind is, the wind is bullshit. I'll tell you. It's horrible.”
Saw this film last weekend, at the Tower Theater, on Friday, October 4th:
I was eager to see this movie since I had read about Lee Miller when studying Surrealist artists for my various "Breaking Bad" talks. She had been Man Ray's lover in the 1920s. Later, in World War 2, she became well-known for her photography of the war. Lee Miller was famous, for example, for bathing in Hitler's bathtub. Kate Winslet played her in the movie.
The movie starts in 1938, at a picnic near the French Mediterranean. I remember reading about this picnic - it was a regularly-scheduled event among the Surrealist artists, where the women were frequently topless. I expected to see Salvador Dali - he was a regular here - but by 1938 he had made off with the host Paul Eluard's wife. So, no Salvador Dali.
The movie attacks misogyny, which, of course, was rife under wartime circumstances. The most-interesting episode shown in the movie was a quick kangaroo court arranged by French villagers immediately after liberation. Numerous young women who had been in various relationships with occupying Nazis were seized and humiliated by having all their hair cut off. One woman is shown explaining to Miller that her relationship was "different": the Nazi had humanity. Lee Miller yells at an American soldier reveling in the women's humiliation.
I wondered, is this imposing the values of the future on the past? These Nazi-affiliated women ensconced in village life no doubt inflicted much pain: indulging in petty vendettas under Nazi protection; spying on others; getting all kinds of people killed - especially Resistance fighters. What would I have done under this circumstance? I probably would have gotten yelled at by Lee Miller.
I had some minor disappointments in the movie. It's a World War 2 movie, after all, and I would have liked to see a bigger spectacle, but budgets are budgets.
Nevertheless, the ending of the movie is very strong - probably the best ending of any movie I've seen in years.
I do a bit of hurricane weather forecasting for friends north of Tampa. Things are looking grim right now regarding Hurricane Milton.
“The forecasts don’t look good. On Wednesday evening, October 10th, you will suffer a direct hit by a hurricane traveling east-northeast on areas north of Tampa - the eye of the storm, basically. There will be plenty of rain in advance, so there will be nowhere for the hurricane floodwaters to go. Strength looks like a Category 3 storm - strong enough to cause serious damage. The track looks like it’ll head towards areas south of Jacksonville.”
There are also suggestions that a follow-up hurricane might occur, but no indication at this time where it might hit - Tampa, Ft. Myers, Cuba, Miami, and the Bahamas are all possibilities.
