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Movie review: The Last Class

Robert Reich

My wife suggested we see a documentary film called The Last Class. I did not know this movie, but it fit into her desire to learn more about how to fight for justice. “Robert Reich teaches his final ‘Wealth and Poverty’ class to 1,000 students at UC Berkeley, ending a 40-year career that reached 40,000 students.” (Incidentally, Reich has a Wealthy & Poverty section on his YouTube page, featuring his entertaining drawings.)

The film includes a bit in which the former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration is having a difficult time trying to get rid of the actual oversized chair from his time in the office.

Teaching is his true passion, although he’s better known in political circles. He wants to ensure that the students don’t just parrot what he’s thinking but show the ability to think for themselves.

It’s a short film—71 minutes—that is frank and, in the end credits, hysterically funny. I think my wife, knowing less about him, got more from the film than I did.

Freedom Summer

Still, he tells a particular story about Michael Schwerner, one I had heard before, but surprisingly, it was still moving. Michael was Robert’s protector in his neighborhood growing up because Robert was, and is, short of stature and was bullied. He lost track of Michael until he heard that Michael was part of the campaign attempting to register black citizens in Mississippi to vote. Shortly thereafter, Robert learned that his old protector, whom he knew as Mickey, along with James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in June 1964. This instilled in Robert a sense of the need to fight for justice.

As somebody who likes to go to the movies, I’m not sure this is a film one needs to see in the theater, but I think it’s very worthwhile. My wife and I went to a weekday matinee at the Spectrum Theatre. The only other people in the viewing were a man and his son, who had just turned 21 and wanted to know how to be a better citizen. THAT was inspiring!

Thank You Art

like the rainbow door

thank you gift bag I consider Thank You Art to be the artistic collision of random things that happen in nature and/or within a structure, creating art/beauty/curiosity where you least expect it. One example is the nifty little rainbows I find on our house steps and hallway when the sun shines through the refracted view of the glass on our front door.

This one involves this bag that sits on my dresser, though unfortunately, you can’t view it. One morning around 6:30, my wife asks, “Do you see that on the bag?” And I do. It can’t be easily replicated because both of us are visually impaired enough that we can’t read the words ‘Thank You’ on the bag, which is only four or five feet away.

However, we can see a peculiar gold field that is disrupted by some flickering light. The dresser is to our left. On the ceiling above our heads is the ceiling fan, which creates an effect as the light from outside comes in with the new day.

It was wonderful, in large part because it was a random convergence of events that I wish I could have taped or photographed, but I couldn’t even replicate it. Nor should I want to, I think.

That said, what I do like about the photo is the uneven distribution of the light on the gold lettering and the shadow of the handle on the bag.

By the way, the bag itself was a giveaway at my niece, Markia’s, and her husband, Brandon’s, wedding on April 12th. It’s a nice bag and features some interesting writings to read.

Jaquandor

Kelly would understand. He noted, actually after I wrote the above, though I hadn’t posted it, “it was like the car in front of me was driving on rainbows.” He opined, “Light doesn’t just shine. It dances and bobs and weaves and flits and does all that kind of Carl Sandburg stuff.”

Sunday Stealing — 2×4

office space

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

Dr. Medusa is an associate professor who stole this meme from her friend Clare. Since Clare no longer blogs, it’s unknown whether she originated it or stole it. But that doesn’t matter. What’s important now is how you answer these questions.

The 2×4 Meme

TWO foods you can’t stand

Peanut butter: What’s odd is that, as a kid, I LOVED peanut butter. But I must have ODed on it because the smell now makes me nauseous.

2. Black olives

FOUR foods you love

Lasanga, possibly the only thing I make using the oven

2. Strawberry ice cream

3. Carrot cake

4. Deviled eggs

Location

TWO places you never want to see again

A truly awful motel in Ashtabula, OH, where we stayed for the 2016 Olin Family reunion.

2. A cockroach-infested apartment I lived in Kingston, NY for two months in late 1972.

FOUR places you’d like to revisit

Toronto, ON, Canada, where we went to just ahead of the Olin Reunion in Peterborough , ON in 2011. It was combined with a stop at Niagara Falls. I can always go to the Falls.

2. Barbados, where we spent our honeymoon in 1999.

3. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH. I’ve been there twice, in 1998 (the Carls Perkins and Wilson had recently died) and 2016.

4. Paris, France. We were in France for a few days, but not nearly enough in the capital

TWO musical artists who make you want to change the station

I don’t know a musical act well enough to hate. There are aspects of various music that I don’t enjoy: misogyny, hyperviolence.

FOUR musical artists you love to listen to

The Beatles (what a surprise)

2. Sly and the Family Stone

3. Beach Boys – Sly and Brian died recently

4. Talking Heads

The past

TWO moments you’d like to erase

Oddly enough, this came up in conversation recently. Trying to get moved from a horrendous office space in August 2017 involved yelling (not just by me), and I needed to leave to cool off, but I was physically blocked. There are more details, but suffice to say: 1) I did get to move, but 2) it took WAY too much effort.

2. One morning in June 2009, I was trying to get back from Charlotte, NC, to Albany, NY. Because of a conversation too inane to repeat, I was late for my plane and had to switch items while in the TSA line.

FOUR moments you’d like to relive. OK, I’m not sure the premise is correct for me. Do I want a rush of nostalgia? No. Do I want to “fix” the past? Maybe, but THEN what? Do I want to re-remember stuff? Well, maybe.

I’m told that, when I was in third grade, I got so angry because some kids were playing keep-away with my hat that I went home. I can totally believe it. I don’t remember this, but my friends tell me I then hopped a Crowley’s milk truck to get home. I’d only want to relive to clarify the narrative.

2. When my maternal grandmother would ramble about relatives, which she called “relations,” I would take notes the next time.

3. I would put my childhood photo album in a safer place.

4. When I took apart the front door lock when I was a kid, I would have taken notes so I could put it back together.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

Easy Listening #1s in 1975, part 1

NASA

Like the other charts, the Billboard Easy Listening #1s in 1975, the nomenclature at the time for what became Adult Contemporary, were also overcrowded. `

Something Better To Do – Olivia Newton-John, three weeks at #1

Please Mr. Please – Olivia Newton-John, three weeks at #1, also #1 pop

Midnight Blue – Melissa Manchester, two weeks at #1 – I loved that song at a point when I had no real romantic relationships

At Seventeen – Janis Ian, two weeks at #1. She sang it when she was 23.

I’m Sorry – John Denver, two weeks at #1, also #1 pop

The Way I Want To Touch You – Captain and Tennille, two weeks at #1

My Little Town – Simon and Garfunkel, two weeks at #1; this song was included on the solo albums of each artist

I Write The Songs – Barry Manilow, two weeks at #1. Not incidentally, Barry Manilow did not write it, though many people assume so. The Beach Boys’ Bruce Johnston penned it.

The rest of the songs, #1 for a single week

Only You (And You Alone) – Ringo Starr. This was originally recorded by The Platters in 1955. On Ringo’s version, John Lennon plays acoustic guitar, and Harry Nilsson sings harmony vocals

Please Mr. Postman – Carpenters, also #1 pop . Yes, it’s Carpenters, not the Carpenters. The 1961 debut single by the Marvelettes for the Tamla (Motown) label was the first Motown song to reach the number-one position on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

Morningside Of The Mountain – Donny and Marie Osmond. I had never heard this song before! Pure treacle

Best Of My Love – The Eagles, also #1 pop

Sweet Surrender – John Denver

Lonely People – America. I wrote a post about this song, as well as NASA, DC, and Charlotte, NC.

Nightingale – Carole King

Poetry Man – Phoebe Snow

Have You Never Been Mellow – Olivia Newton-John, also #1 pop

I’ve Been This Way Before – Neil Diamond

(Hey, Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song – B.J. Thomas, also #1 pop

Emotion – Helen Reddy

Movie review: Sorry, Baby

Eva Victor’s film debuts

My wife wanted to see the film Sorry, Baby. I’d seen the trailer thrice, but I couldn’t get a feel for what the film was about other than Agnes (Eva Victor) being REALLY happy to see her good friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie) when Lydie visited their college town from New York City. Lydie is a generous friend.

At first, you don’t know why Agnes is so stuck. This is a function of the fact that the five main sections are not presented in chronological order. Eventually, a significant event—not shown on screen—is revealed, and one begins to understand her dealing with her trauma as best she can.

At the same time, she becomes a popular young professor. She’s so well-regarded that one of her frenemies, Natasha (Kelly McCormack), is practically stalking her.

The film also stars Louis Cancelmi as her professor/mentor, Preston Decker; John Carroll Lynch as the helpful stranger, Pete; and Lucas Hedges, whom I have seen in a few films, as Gavin, the neighbor.

I fear some viewers might be bored by the slow pacing, but it is clever enough to recommend. Of those trailers I’d previously seen, some were laugh-out-loud funny when I saw them in the film. I didn’t understand the movie title until the final section.

I learned that Eva Victor, born in Paris but raised in San Francisco, is an American comedian who garnered fame by posting funny videos on Twitter. Sorry, Baby was her film debut as both writer and director.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the critics were 96% positive, and the audiences were 83% positive. The IMDb summary was that the movie ” carried off difficult subject matter with a light touch and wry sense of humor.” This is accurate.