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Liar

I’ve been long fascinated with lying. One of the most significant books that I’ve ever read was Lying by Sissela Bok, who makes the point that there are moral consequences of lying, even for a good cause.

I almost started watching Lie To Me, that FOX show about this guy who can always discern a liar. Almost everyone believes they recognize a liar, but listening to some of the political discourse, I’m not convinced of that.

Surely, American jurisprudence is based heavily on the notion that the jury can tell who’s lying and who is not. And it’s scary; I find that, particularly in periods of stress, I engage in behaviors commonly associated with lying, such as repeating the questioners words, so that I am not misunderstood. This is especially true when asked a question is asked negatively: “Isn’t it true that…?”

The Three Dog Night song Liar:
Video
Lyrics

Beatles Island Songs, 63-54

Peter Fonda was apparently involved.

JEOPARDY! answers (questions at the end)

THEY COVERED THE BEATLES $200: Tiffany was just 17 when she hit the top 10 with a reworked version of this Beatles song
THEY COVERED THE BEATLES $400: This duo had only just begun when they covered “Ticket To Ride” in 1970
THEY COVERED THE BEATLES $600: “We Can Work It Out” worked out to be one of the songs of his 1970 album “Signed, Sealed & Delivered”
THEY COVERED THE BEATLES $1000: Written in 1966, this song was a Top 10 hit from the Beatles in 1976 & for Earth, Wind & Fire in 1978
THEY COVERED THE BEATLES $4,000 (Daily Double): This singer got by with a 1968 version of a Beatles song.
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Peacock Lennon haunts the Beatles.

Paul McCartney has written a major orchestral work for the New York City Ballet, “Ocean’s Kingdom,” to be performed on Sept. 22..

Paul Isn’t Bothered by Artists Remixing and Mashing-Up Beatles Music

5 Reasons George Harrison Might Be the Greatest Beatle, which concentrates on his post-Beatles work
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The rules of engagement

63 Tell Me What You See from Help! (UK), Beatles VI (US). Fondness for this McCartney song is the harmony over the title and the almost Latin flavor of the bridge.
62 If I Needed Someone from Rubber Soul (UK), Yesterday and Today (US). The “If” makes all the difference in this Harrisong, that and great harmonies.
61 Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Julian Lennon’s friend Lucy, about whom John wrote, died recently.
60 Love Me Do, A-side of single. The first single, simple song. McCartney sings the end parts alone because Lennon is busy playing the harmonica.
59 Tell Me Why from A Hard Day’s Night (UK & US), Something New (US). Like this Lennon song from the intro. Also reminds me of a harmony that my sister Marcia added to it in the day.
58 I Want to Tell You from Revolver. Love the intentional distortion in this Harrisong.
57 She Said She Said from Revolver. Lennon weirdness; Peter Fonda was apparently involved.
56 Hello, Goodbye from Magical Mystery Tour. It’s a simple McCartney song, but the countermelody late, and the out-of-the-blue ending makes it.
55 I’m Only Sleeping from Revolver (UK), Yesterday and Today (US). Mood set well by Lennon.
54 What You’re Doing from Beatles for Sale (UK), Beatles VI (US). Many fine elements in this McCartney song, not the least of which is the great instrumental bridge.

What is “I Saw Her Standing There”?
Who were The Carpenters?
Who was Stevie Wonder?
What was “Got To Get You Into My Life”?
Who was Joe Cocker?

MOVIE REVIEW: Blue Valentine

This movie is best known for the fact that it was initially slapped with an NC-17 rating by the MPAA, a commercial kiss of death.

My wife and I wisely passed on seeing Blue Valentine on Valentine’s Day. Instead, we watched it on Presidents Day.

It is about love gone sour, and the flashbacks to a happier time, when love was fresh and exciting and not stifled by the routine or pathology. Michelle Williams, Oscar-nominated for this film, and Ryan Gosling, who could have been, are also executive producers of the film, which suggests that the actors really believed in the story. The film makes it easy to tell when the film is in the present-day and when it’s in flashbacks. Much of it is well done.

From John Rodat’s essay in Metroland: “Much of the dialogue of Blue Valentine was improvised, and the actors went to some lengths to develop a real-life closeness to facilitate the conversation. Early scenes of the meeting and courtship were filmed first, with later scenes of their married life waiting until after the stars had rented a house together, living and shopping on a budget appropriate to the circumstances of their characters, and learning to bicker.”

Yet we both found the film depressing as all get out. There’s no “if only he did this” or “she did that.” Love just dies. I admit I looked at my watch when one more reminder of what was once good flashed across the scene.

This movie is best known for the fact that it was initially slapped with an NC-17 rating by the MPAA, a commercial kiss of death, not that it’s going to generate boffo box office. The ruling was successfully appealed, and the simulated oral sex scene which had generated the original ruling didn’t seem any more provocative to me than any other simulated sex scene in an R-rated film.

Still, I just can’t imagine seeing this movie again, unless I have a burning need to be in a melancholy mood.

Private SNAFU

Dr. Seuss would have been 107 today!

Here are four of the 26 Private SNAFU (‘Situation Normal, All Fouled Up’) cartoons made by the US Army Signal Corps to educate and boost the morale of the troops. Originally created by Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) and Phil Eastman, most of the cartoons were produced by Warner Brothers Animation Studios – employing their animators, voice actors (primarily Mel Blanc), and Carl Stalling’s music.

Booby Traps (1944). Private Snafu learns about the hazards of enemy booby traps the hard way.

Snafuperman. Private Snafu mocks his peers who study, saying that he would rather fight. His guardian angel (1st class with a cigar) grants him the powers and a comical version of a Superman suit, which he promptly uses to create more problems than when he didn’t have any powers!

Spies (1943). Private Snafu, while drunk, reveals military secrets that allow the enemy to torpedo his ship.

The Home Front (1943). Private Snafu imagines the good times his family is having back home while he’s stationed in the Arctic. Technical Fairy First Class shows that even his family is helping with the war effort – his dad building tanks, his mom planting a Victory Garden, Grandpa riveting battleships, and his girl joining the WACs and even the family’s horse is pitching in.

Not incidentally, Dr. Seuss would have been 107 today. My daughter’s current favorite TV show is the PBS program The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! The Cat is voiced by Martin Short. Here’s the theme song.

G is for Gertrude

Gertrude means “strong spear/spear maiden.”

My grandmother was born Gertrude Elizabeth Yates on August 10. For the longest time, we all, i.e. her daughter and her family, thought she was born in 1898, which I found easy to remember: the Spanish-American War was that year. But one day in the 1960s, she decided or was persuaded, to register to vote. And we were surprised to discover that she was in fact born in 1897. Why had she lied about this fact for so many years, we never knew.
My mother was born Gertrude Elizabeth Williams on November 17, 1927. The younger Gertrude was called Gertie by her family. Turns out, she HATED being Gertie, and, at some point before I was born, became Trudy. Only some of her cousins still referred to her as Gertie.

I’m fascinated how some names somehow get dubbed as “old-fashioned.” Gertrude is a perfectly serviceable name. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Gertrude is Hamlet’s mother and Queen of Denmark. Yet, in the Social Security’s baby name register in the US, Gertrude was #25 in 1880 for girl names, the first year for which there was data, and stayed in the top 30 through 1912, but fell out of the top 100 in 1931, the top 200 in 1942, the top 500 in 1955, and out of the top 1000 in 1966, never to return.

It used to bother me, and I suspect it bugged my mother, that comedian Red Skelton, who had a variety show on CBS-TV for many years in the 1950s and 1960s, featured cross-eyed seagulls named Gertrude and Heathcliff in his act.

But I do find it interesting that Gertrude means strong spear/spear maiden since Roger means famous with the spear/renowned spearman.

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The Mission Choir, the Catholic choir that my sister sang with for years and still an inactive member, requested and was granted the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to be offered in honor of my mom. That’s pretty amazing, apparently, since they know she was not Catholic. It will be Sunday, May 1st, 2011 at noon when the choir sings: Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcala’, 10818 San Diego Mission Road, San Diego, CA 92108.

Also, a member of the Mission Choir enrolled Mom in the St. Patrick’s Mission Circle as part of the St. Patrick’s Fathers. The document says: “All members, living and deceased, are associated with the work of St. Patrick missionaries throughout the world, share in their daily Masses and prayers and in three special Masses each day as well as in sixteen Novenas of Masses each year.”

Not being Catholic, I don’t exactly know what that means, but it sounds nice.

ABC Wednesday – Round 8