Author: Roger

I'm a librarian. I hear music, even when it's not being played. I used to work at a comic book store, and it still informs my life. I won once on JEOPARDY! - ditto.

Oscar-nominated shorts for 2020

Hong Kong, Yemen, NYC

Feeling ThroughNormally, when I want to see the Oscar-nominated shorts, I go to the Spectrum Theatre in Albany, one of the Landmark Theatres. I generally view the Live-Action or Animated films. Unfortunately, that’s not an option; it just re-opened, but I’m not ready to go out. Nor is watching the documentaries at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady.

Luckily, they are online and I see at least some of them. This Rotten Tomatoes link from March 16 is a good starting place.

Unfortunately, I didn’t actually SEE any of the Animated Films.  Burrow, about a rabbit, is on Disney+; it doesn’t even have a trailer.  Genius Loci has a trailer on YouTube, which is lovely, but I can’t find how to access it fully.

If Anything Happens I Love You is on Netflix. “Grieving parents journey through an emotional void as they mourn the loss of a child in the aftermath of a tragic school shooting.”  Opera has bits on Instagram, but I don’t know how to access the whole thing. Vimeo has a teaser for  Yes-People.

Documentary (Short Subject)

I fared better in this category: 4 out of 5.  Colette (24:50) is on YouTube. A 90-year-old woman who was part of the French Resistance sees, for the first time, the Nazi camp where her brother died. It’s a touching character study of a woman who thought she was tougher than she was.

A Concerto Is a Conversation (13:24) is on the NYTimes.com site. “A virtuoso jazz pianist and film composer tracks his family’s lineage through his 91-year-old grandfather from Jim Crow Florida to the Walt Disney Concert Hall.” Warm conversation between the two men.

Do Not Split (35:38) is on Facebook. It “follows activists in Hong Kong as they endure violent stand-offs with police and grapple with the new restrictions imposed by mainland China.” Sometimes, it’s difficult to understand the particular strategies employed by the protestors at certain times.

Hunger Ward (45:00), from MTV,  is on something called PlutoTV. It’s about the bombing of Yemen, and the devastating effect it has on children. A six-year-old weighs 15 pounds. And it’s tough on their caretakers. Think of all of those news reports you’ve seen of exhausted and frustrated COVID nurses; that’ll give you a taste. Check out HungerWard.org to get involved.

The one I didn’t see was A Love Song for Latasha (19:00) on Netflix. “The killing of Latasha Harlins became a flashpoint for the 1992 LA uprising. This documentary evocatively explores the 15-year-old’s life and dreams.”

Short Film (Live Action)

The only one of these films I saw so far was Feeling Through on YouTube (18:25). A homeless teen meets a deaf-blind man at a bus stop. This is the film with which I was most familiar. “The film was inspired by a chance encounter with the first DeafBlind person director Doug Roland met late at night in New York City.” Marlee Matlin, an executive producer, and an Oscar-winning deaf actor promoted the film on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.

The Letter Room (32:00) has a trailer on Vimeo. “When a kind-hearted prison officer (Oscar Isaac) is transferred to the letter room, he soon gets involved in an inmate’s personal affairs.” One CAN see the film for $6.99. Also with a trailer on Vimeo is The Present. It involves a Palestinian father and his young daughter at a border.

Two Distant Strangers has a trailer on YouTube, but I don’t know how to see the whole thing. “Cartoonist Carter James’ repeated attempts to get home to his dog are thwarted by a recurring deadly encounter that forces him to re-live the same awful day over and over again.”

Finally, White Eye likewise has a YouTube trailer, and I’d like to know how to see the film in its entirety. “A man finds his stolen bicycle and it now belongs to a stranger. In his attempts to retrieve the bicycle, he struggles to remain human.”

Two interviews, one accessible

Chuck Miller

Roger.cartoonStories of two interviews.

Back on October 5, 2009, I was interviewed by Barbara Weltman for Build Your Business Radio, wsRadio.com. “Don’t mind telling you that I was mildly terrified,” I later wrote in my work blog.

“Through a series of connections, involving the business.gov website, a woman named Barbara Weltman became aware of me and my connection with the NYS Small Business Development. Her producer, Gloria Luzier, e-mailed me and asked if I would appear on Barbara’s radio show…

“I provided a few questions that she might ask me, about the SBDC, the State Data Center, and blogs. I got a call about 4:20 pm to make sure I was actually at the appointed place, then again at 4:27. I never talked to Barbara herself before or after the show, but I was in contact with other friendly and helpful people, including Wade Taylor, wsRadio, Operations Officer, and Assistant Program Director.

The next day, Gloria Luzier, Barbara’s producer, wrote me. “Thank you so much for participating in our Build Your Business Radio Show yesterday. We enjoyed the interview and believe our listeners benefited from the expertise you shared.”

I thought I’d give a listen. Unfortunately, the URL http://www.wsradiolinkinginfo.com/ is dead. I used the Wayback Machine, but that didn’t help get to the recording. As my high school prom theme noted, All Things Must Pass.

It’s Miller Time

Chuck Miller is a fellow Capital District blogger. I met him during our Times Union blogging days, about which I wrote here. Both on his TU blog and his personal outlet, he’s been a cheerleader for the local blogosphere.

Recently, he’s begun interviewing said bloggers, recording them on the ubiquitous Zoom, and posting them to his blog on Saturdays. On March 27, he posted an interview with yours truly that we did a couple of weeks earlier. I guess it went OK. I’m still not in love with the sound of my voice, and a couple of questions I could have probably answered better.

Mon Dieu, he’s so self-critical. Please tell him to stop that.

What he said.

Trinity A.M.E. Zion Church, Binghamton

telethons

cropped-Roger.singing.TrinityAMEZ.BNG_.jpg
O Come, All Ye Faithful. December 1959

For my request to  Ask Roger Anything, Carla, my friend from the high school choir asks:

Write more about your early memories of your church and school and your family!! I love those stories.

My, that’s tough. There are SO many tales. OK. I was baptized at my church, Trinity A.M.E. Zion Church in downtown Binghamton, NY in August 1953. No, I don’t remember this.

But my church moved when I was a kid to the corner of Oak and Lydia Streets. I took a search on Newspapers.com. “Bishop Walls…senior bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, will rededicate the former Plymouth Methodist Church as the new church edifice of Trinity.” This was in a story in the 8 June 1957 edition of the Binghamton Press. I vaguely remember him. 

It’s fascinating the detail given not just in this story, but all of the religious goings-on in the area. “The present Trinity Church at 35 Sherman Place recently was purchased by St. Mary’s Assumption Church as part of a site as a planned recreational center.”

Ultimately, Columbus Park was built on that site, right across the street from the Interracial Center at 45 Carroll St, where my father Les would often volunteer. Not incidentally, the park has been informally renamed for Assata Shakur.

One-tenth of a mile

The new church location was two really short blocks from our house at 5 Gaines Street. And we’d cut through the parking lot at Gaines and Oak, making the trip even faster. So we really were at church all of the time. I participated in the children’s choir, directed by Fred Goodall, who seemed to be there forever.

WNBF-TV, Channel 12 (now WBNG) used to have telethons. It was either the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon on Labor Day weekend or the March of Dimes or maybe both. In any case, our choir appeared on the station more than once. In fact, between those appearances and being on the kids’ shows, I was on local TV at least a half dozen times.

My paternal grandmother Agatha – emphasis on the second syllable, not the first – was my Sunday school teacher. She and her husband McKinley also lived upstairs from us at 5 Gaines Street. So I saw her a lot, often playing canasta at her kitchen table, until she died in May 1964. She was the first person I knew and loved who passed away.

My father Les would run off the bulletin on that mimeograph machine. I can still recollect in my mind’s nostrils that specific smell. Besides singing in the senior choir, dad also began directing the youth choir he dubbed the MAZET singers, based on the initials of the church, It included the organist’s younger daughter Lauren, my cousin Debra, my sister Leslie, and me. I recollect that we were pretty good.

OK, Carla, maybe I’ll try this again sometime.

Movie review: Another Round

tragicomedy

Another RoundThe premise of the film Another Round involves the lives of four male teachers in Denmark. They have all become rather prosaic in their teaching, and for at least some of them, in their lives.

Perhaps they need to engage in an experiment. Someone noted that Norwegian psychiatrist Finn Skårderud claimed that human beings are actually experiencing a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) shortfall of 0.05%. (The legal limit before being intoxicated in NYS is 0.08%.)

Sure enough, small doses of booze make them more creative educators. Martin (Mads Mikkelsen) riffs with imaginative dialogues with his history students about Churchill, FDR, and Hitler, making them think. Tommy (Thomas Bo Larsen) becomes an inspired tactician of the elementary school soccer team so that even the least likely player shines.

As social scientists, would it not require them to engage in more analysis to discover the optimum BAC for productivity? Naturally. And eventually, things go awry. It isn’t just the work that had become routine. Early on, Martin asked his wife Trine (Maria Bonnevie), “Have I become boring?”

Best International Feature Film nomination

Another Round is described in Rotten Tomatoes as a comedy/drama or a tragicomedy, and that’s about right. The educators made a pact as though they were teenagers in a buddy movie. And their early success is appealing. Generally speaking, these are engaging characters.

They have been hiding depression and/or a mid-life crisis. I don’t think the movie makes light of the drinking. They do delude themselves, though. “We’re not alcoholics,” says Nikolaj (Magnus Millang) “We decide when we want to drink. An alcoholic can’t help himself.”

Thomas Vinterberg, who also co-wrote the screenplay, was the only Oscar-nominated director this year whose film was NOT nominated for Best Picture. Another Round WAS nominated for Best International Feature Film, formerly Best Foreign Film. The film is in Danish with subtitles. The working title was Drunk, which would have been misleading.

I saw this on Hulu in my desperate dash to see as many films during the free trial as possible. I enjoyed this film, probably more than I expected to.

Album name appears as a lyric #2

Ian Anderson, Anthrax, Beck, Blur, the Breeders appear twice

The-Band-Cahoots-Album-Photo
Cahoots – The Band

Here is my second venture trying to find situations where the album name appears as a lyric, but it’s not the title song. There is no actual title song, but these can be ersatz title songs.

Even before my first venture, I had posted questions on various message boards. I ended up with a LOT of responses. So many, in fact, that this will be a minimum of a dozen more posts. The ones I own – and therefore should have remembered, I will note.

A

Hey Citizen – ABC. Album: Beauty Stab. Lyrics: “Beauty stab, When the good things in life Have all grown bad”

Waiting for You – Derrick Anderson. Album: A World of My Own. Lyrics: “Wide awake from silent slumber Still recalling a world of my own”. The Smithereens serve as the backing group.

Homo Erraticus – Ian Anderson. Album: Per Errationes Ad Astra. Lyric: “Let’s not worry about the wandering Man. He’ll wander hither if he can” Homo Erraticus is Latin for “wandering man”. (Is this a cheat, or very clever? Yes.)

What-ifs, Maybes and Might-have-beens – Ian Anderson. Album: Thick as a Brick II. Lyrics: “And your wise men don’t know how it feels To be thick as a brick… two.”

Time – Anthrax. Album: Persistence Of Time. Lyrics: “One day I’ll get what’s mine Through the persistence of time.”

Be All, End All – Anthrax. Album: State of Euphoria. Lyric: Life can be a real ball. State of mind: Euphoria

The Boy Wonders – Aztec Camera. Album: High Land, Hard Rain. Lyrics: “I came from high land where the hopefuls have to hesitate” and “When he’ll feel the fall of honest rain” (close enough)

B

Smoke Signals -The Band. Album: Cahoots Lyrics: “When they’re torn out by the roots / Young brothers join in cahoots”. I own this on vinyl, and it was one of the albums I played often in college.

Crippling Self Doubt and a General Lack of Confidence  – Courtney Barnett. Album: Tell Me How You Really Feel. Chorus lyrics: “(Tell me how you really feel) I don’t know, I don’t know anything.”

Octopus – Syd Barrett. Album: The Madcap Laughs. Lyrics: “The mad cat laughed at the man on the border” Apparently, David Gilmour misheard the lyrics and thought it was “mad cap” instead of “mad cat” so it became the name of the album.

Exquisite Corpse – Bauhaus. Album: The Sky’s Gone Out. Lyrics: “THE SKY’S GONE OUT – THE SKY, THE SKY…”

Good Vibrations – the Beach Boys. Album: SMiLE Lyrics: “Softly smile, I know she must be kind.” Of course, I have this album. But I’d had the song for so long, on Smiley Smile, it didn’t occur to me. Of course, Brian Wilson ALSO has a version.

All You Need Is Love – The Beatles. Album: Love. Lyrics: “Love is all you need.” Well, OK, the entire chorus. Are there other songs on the Love album that qualify?

Lord Only Knows – Beck. Album: Odelay. Lyrics: “Just passing through. Odelay, odelay, odelay, odealy.”

Little One – Beck. Album: Sea Change. Lyrics: “Drown, drown. Sailors run aground. In a sea change nothing is safe”

Prisoner of Love – Pat Benatar. Album: Crimes of Passion. Lyrics: “Cold hard labor, it’s a labor of love. Convicted of crimes, the crimes of passion.”

Communicate – The B-52’s. Album: Bouncing Off The Satellites. Lyrics: “Baby, baby bounce it off your satellite”

BL

What On Earth – Blossom Toes. Album: We Are Ever So Clean (1967). Lyrics: “You’ll feel much better the wetter you get We are ever so clean.” Described as an English psychedelic pop a la Pink Floyd or Kaleidoscope.

You’re No Fun Anymore – The Bluetones. Album: Luxembourg. Lyrics: “I can’t say the word, Luxembourg.”

For Tomorrow – Blur. Album: Modern Life is Rubbish Lyrics: “Then he puts the TV on Turns it off and makes some tea Says, ‘Modern life, well, it’s rubbish’ I’m holding on for tomorrow (-row-row)” I’ll buy that.

Ice Cream Man – Blur. Album: The Magic Whip. Lyrics: “with a swish of his magic whip”

Rock and Roll Band – Boston. Album: Boston. Lyrics: “We were just another band out of Boston.” Ah, do I keep this eponymous reference? Of course, I have this album.

Cannonball– The Breeders. Album: Last Splash. Lyrics: “I’m the last splash”. Yes, I have this on CD.

Little Fury – The Breeders. Album: Title TK. Lyrics: Round up, holler girl. Ah, I will sing Title TK If I don’t black out”

Synapse – Bush. Album: Razorblade Suitcase. Lyrics: “Razorblade suitcase, All the tricks of the trade”

My Back Pages – The Byrds. Album: Younger Than Yesterday. Bob Dylan Lyrics: “Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.” OK, it’s in the kinda-sorta category. I have the song, but on a greatest hits CD.

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