Ramblin' with Roger

Movie review: I’m Still Here

Ainda Estou Aqui

Of all the movies nominated for best picture, the film I’m Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui in Portuguese) is the one I knew the least about when I went to the Spectrum Theater in late February to see it. I couldn’t even remember the name, saying to the ticket seller, “It’s the, uh, Brazilian film,” and they knew what I meant.

In 1971, “Brazil faces the tightening grip of a military dictatorship.” You first get a sense of this with a roadway police stop. Eunice (Fernanda Torres) and Rubens (Selton Mell) are living a reasonably comfortable upper-middle-class life. Eunice and Rubens clearly adore each other. They and their five children get along as well as a large family can. Rubens was in the federal legislature in the past but is long retired.

First, Rubens, then Eunice, and briefly, even one of their daughters are taken away and interrogated. This turns their world upside down, “The film is based on Marcelo Ruben Pavia’s biographical book and tells a true story that helped reconstruct an important part of Brazil’s hidden history.” This true story is just one of many families disrupted by the government.

Awards

The film won the Oscar for Best International Film. It was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture—I preferred it to Anora, FWIW—and Torres was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. She won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture—Drama, and justifiably so. Fernanda Montenegro played the older Eunice Paiva in the film; she is the mother of Fernanda Torres.

On Rotten Tomatoes, it received 97% positive reviews from critics and audiences. And it did better box office in the UK than expected.

David Sims of The Atlantic notes correctly, “By highlighting Eunice’s role as a parent, [director Walter] Salles pushes viewers toward considering the mundanity of living under a dictatorship — and the gnawing nightmare of lacking control in the face of obvious evil.” A strong film.

The Putinization of America

“anything to stop him from talking”

**Used with permission of Sarah Neff, c. https://www.sarah-neff.com/**

The Atlantic ran an article titled “The Putinization of America” by Garry Kasparov, “the chairman of the Renew Democracy Initiative and a vice president of the World Liberty Congress.” Yup, “he was the 13th world chess champion.” The subhead is “Trump’s deference to the Russian dictator has become full-blown imitation.”

It begins: “We are barely a month into the second presidential term of Donald Trump and he has made his top priorities clear: the destruction of America’s government and influence and the preservation of Russia’s.

“Unleashing Elon Musk and his DOGE cadres on the federal government, menacing Canada and European allies, and embracing Vladimir Putin’s wish list for Ukraine and beyond are not unrelated. These moves are all strategic elements of a plan that is familiar to any student of the rise and fall of democracies, especially the ‘fall’ part.”

The article hit my email BEFORE Comrade FOTUS and Juvie Vance tagteamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on February 28. As an American, I was embarrassed by the vulgar display of a transactional worldview. VZ has repeatedly thanked the US, so anyone stating otherwise is lying. (Lindsey Graham, as usual, is an embarrassment.)

I Googled Putinization of America and found these, some of which are behind paywalls:

LeMonde, 27 Feb

By Piotr Smolar. Both at home and in international relations, the American president seems to be promoting illiberal ideas and methods that are in line with those of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

“He called Volodymyr Zelensky a ‘dictator.’ He accused Ukraine of having prolonged the war for three years, which started, according to him, because of the prospect of NATO membership offered to Kyiv. Is it Vladimir Putin talking? No, it’s Donald Trump. The confusion is understandable given the incredible turnaround in Washington. A slippery slope toward illiberalism, contempt for international law, neo-imperialist aspirations, politicization of the state apparatus, confusion between public and private interests and a cult-like attitude toward his leadership both in his team and in propagandist conservative media: The United States is ‘Putinizing’ at high speed.”

The New Yorker, 20 Feb

By Susan Glaser. “No matter how many times Donald Trump openly parrots the Kremlin line, it’s never not going to sound wrong coming from the President of the United States. In 2018, at a press conference in Helsinki, Trump announced that he accepted Vladimir Putin’s claim that Russia did not intervene in American elections, despite our own intelligence agencies’ conclusion to the contrary.

“I watched the scene sitting outside in the glaring Finnish summer sun on a CNN set, with Anderson Cooper, who, after a short, stunned silence, concluded, ‘You have been watching perhaps one of the most disgraceful performances by an American President.’ Later, Fiona Hill, the National Security Council senior director who had staffed Trump at the summit, would recall what it felt like inside the room when she heard Trump’s words: she thought about faking an illness, pulling a fire alarm, anything to stop him from talking.” I knew FOTUS and Putin had the same agenda after Helsinki.

Katie Couric interviewed Glaser on February 28, after the White House debacle.

Vanity Fair, 21 Feb

By Mikhail Zygar. “The rules-based order? A relic. Trump’s casual claims to Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal—and his cozying up to far-right movements in Germany and Britain—signal that the game has fundamentally changed. As Musk put it recently in a social media post directed at Justin Trudeau, ‘Girl, you’re not the governor of Canada anymore, so doesn’t matter what you say.’ According to many of my contacts in Moscow, the statement was so emblematic of the emerging global order that it might as well be considered its new slogan.

There is an interesting Wikipedia page about “Putinisation, a term popularised by Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, is a perceived movement away from liberal democracy in certain Eastern European countries in imitation of the regime of Vladimir Putin in Russia. The process of reforming from an authoritarian rule to a liberal democracy is known as deputinisation.”

As Heather Cox Richardson noted: “On February 24, 2025, the U.S. delegation to the United Nations voted against a resolution condemning Russia for its aggression in Ukraine and calling for it to end its occupation. That is, the U.S. voted against a resolution that reiterated one of the founding principles of the United Nations itself: that one nation must not invade another.” [Emphasis mine.]

Whether FOTUS is Krasnov, owned by the Russians, or is merely a fellow traveler, the effect is the same: a danger to American democracy. The US is definitely in Putinization mode.

Roberta Flack (1937-2025)

with Donny Hathaway

The first Roberta Flack album I ever heard was Chapter Two (1970). It belonged to my sister Leslie. The opening track was Reverend Lee (Gene McDaniels), a PG-13 song about a “sexy Southern Baptist minister.” My all-time favorite Roberta song is Gone Away (Donny Hathaway, Leroy Hutson, Curtis Mayfield), which I’ve used in my depressing quartet of songs when I broke up with someone. A song I didn’t appreciate as much at the time as I did subsequently is Business Goes On As Usual, a song by Fred Hellerman and Fran Minkoff, which is a stark reflection of consumerism and war. I eventually purchased it and every other album mentioned here.

I bought Quiet Fire (1971), her third album, which starts with the anthemic Go Up Moses (Roberta Flack, Jesse Jackson, Joel Dorn). There are some lovely covers, but my favorite is To Love Somebody (Barry and Robin Gibb), especially the second half.

Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway (1972) paired two Atlantic Records artists to great commercial success, reaching #3 pop and #2 RB. The first single was You’ve Got A Friend (Carole King), #29 pop, #8 RB, #36 AC. Be Real Black For Me (Charles Mann, Donny Hathaway, Roberta Flack) would appear on the six-CD anthology 100 Years of Black Music. But the hit was Where Is The Love (Ralph MacDonald, William Salter), which got to #5 pop and #1 RB and AC.

Finally

I finally purchased First Take (1969), which reached #1 on the pop and RB album charts. It was propelled by The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Ewan MacColl) after Clint Eastwood included it in his 1971 film Play Misty for Me. The single went #1 pop and AC for 6 weeks, and #4 RB. The first song on the album was Compared To What (Gene McDaniels).

The Killing Me Softly album (1973) went to #3 pop and #2 RB. It featured Killing Me Softly With His Song (Charles Fox, Norman Gimbel) that went to #1 pop, #2 AC.

Rubina Flake

Feel Like Makin’ Love (1975) is the singer’s first album, under the pseudonym Rubina Flake, to be produced by Flack herself. I Can See The Sun In Late December (Stevie Wonder), at nearly 13 minutes, is about 6 minutes too long, but interesting. She’s Not Blind (Stuart Scharf) is my favorite song on the album. The title track (Gene McDaniels) went to #1 on pop, RB (5 weeks) and AC (2 weeks) charts.

Blue Lights in the Basement (1977) starts with the song Why Don’t You Move In With Me (Gene McDaniels); the intro is grand. When I saw Roberta at First Night in Albany, NY, in the late 1990s, she could not replicate the great piano line. The Closer I Get To You (Reggie Lucas, James Mtume) is a duet with Donny Hathaway that went to #2 pop, #1 RB for 2 weeks, #3 AC

Roberta Flack (1978) was a contractual obligation album. If I Ever See You Again did go #1 AC for 3 weeks, #24 pop, #37 RB

Dakota

Roberta Flack Featuring Donny Hathaway (1980) featured only two pieces with her old singing partner. You Are My Heaven (Eric Mercury, Stevie Wonder) #8 RB, #46 AC, #47 pop, is the last song Hathaway would ever record. “After having dinner with Flack at her residence in the Dakota, Hathaway had then returned to his suite on the fifteenth floor of Essex House, later fatally falling from the window of his suite.”

I missed buying a couple of her albums before Oasis (1988). The title track (Marcus Miller, Mark Stephens) went to #1 RB, # 13 AC

The last album of hers I bought was Let It Be Roberta: Roberta Flack Sings the Beatles (2012). Roberta lived across the hall from John and Yoko in the Dakota building in New York City. Here, There, and Everywhere is the only live track.

My post from 2012. Obits from Variety, Rolling Stone, and THR. From the latter: “In November 2022, it was revealed that she had been diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and could no longer sing. In 2016, she suffered a stroke, and she retired from performing two years later.”

Roberta Flack Performs “Killing Me Softly” and “Just Like a Woman” | Carson Tonight Show. Air date: July 13th, 1973

Coverville 1524: Roberta Flack Tribute and Mitch Ryder Cover Story

March rambling: Latibulate

a new Rebecca Jade song!

Latibulate: To retreat and lie hidden; to hide in a corner, which I’m trying very hard not to do.

Feb 28 Economic Blackout

A Paul Tonko Town Hall in Albany

As Suppression of Dissent Increases, Know Your Rights If the FBI Comes Knocking

TIME Women of the Year

Facebook & Content Moderation: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver; the 60 Minutes interview with John Oliver

EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS, Chapter 1, read by John Green

Two-time Oscar winner Gene Hackman, 95, was found dead alongside his wife Betsy Arakawa,64, and their dog, at their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I only saw him in The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Antz (1998-voice), The Birdcage (1996), Crimson Tide (1995), The Firm (1993), Unforgiven (1992), Postcards from the Edge (1990), Mississippi Burning (1988), Hoosiers (1986), Reds (1981), Superman II (1980), Superman (1978), Young Frankenstein (1974), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The French Connection (1971), and very likely some episodic television in the 1960s. I’ve been to Poughkeepsie but never picked my toes there.

HELLO! MY NAME IS BLOTTO THE MOVIE trailer.

The Birth of a Community: Early Black Churches, Schools, and Organizations that Built Binghamton, NY

Are You Lonely? Adopt a New Family on Facebook Today

The State of American History: Lincoln and Immigrants

Now I Know: Dead People, Supporting Each Other and The Loophole That Gets You Paid for Riding a Bike and How To Plant Nearly 1,000 Trees an Hour

If You Ever Stacked Cups In Gym Class, Blame My Dad

Them. Again.

2.0: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Muskrat’s Billionaire Welfare: How the world’s richest man built his empire on government funds while attacking public workers

FOTUS Says He’s Above the Law in Social Media Post Invoking Napoleon: If you haven’t started worrying yet about his plan to destroy democracy and crown himself king, start now.

Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump (2019) – Rick Reilly: “If you’ll cheat to win at golf, is it that much further to cheat to win an election? To turn a Congressional vote? To stop an investigation? If you’ll lie about every aspect of the game, is it that much further to lie about your taxes, your relationship with Russians, your groping of women?”

The Presidency and the Constitution: Mike Pence, Vice President of the United States (2010). “Those who are entrusted with [power] must educate themselves in self-restraint. A republic is about limitation, and for good reason, because we are mortal, and our actions are imperfect.”

Can Ethical People Work in the Administration?

The Republican Party’s NPC Problem — and Ours | The Ezra Klein Show

DOGE’s Illegal Takeover Pulls From Fascist Playbooks. When we see a parallel government taking shape, we should not refrain from calling fascism what it is.

FOTUS Puts America in the Axis of Evil

And. More.

From Fear and Loathing: Closer to the Edge

“We should have seen this coming. [FOTUS]… has finally cut out the middleman and put U.S. citizenship up for sale like a clearance item at one of his bankrupt casinos. For a mere $5 million, the world’s wealthiest tax-dodgers can now purchase a ‘Gold Card’—a visa so opulent and sleazy it might as well come with a free timeshare in a collapsing Florida high-rise.

That’s right, [he] has replaced America’s immigration system with a Black Friday deal for billionaires. Who needs democracy when you can just PayPal your way into the country?”

Plus, a bunch of other stuff, including his now-confirmed, terrible Cabinet. But I highlight this because I had read it in only one place, the hardly liberal Foreign Affairs:

U.S. government escalates feud with Pretoria by cutting aid and offering refugee status to Afrikaners. “Few would have foreseen an executive order awarding refugee status to Afrikaners—the white South Africans descended mainly from Dutch settlers who dominated the country’s politics and led the apartheid regime from 1948 to 1994. South African media queried whether he was even aware that Afrikaners differed from English-speaking whites like his South African-born billionaire advisor Elon Musk, whose criticisms of the South African government appear to be the source of the idea. It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the US for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the US from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship,” South Africa’s foreign ministry responded in a statement.”

And yet

Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter, R-Ga., proposed a measure that would empower FOTUS to begin negotiations with the Danish Government to acquire Greenland. The bill would also rename the territory “Red, White, and Blueland.”

MUSIC

Hello, It’s Me – Evan Marks & Rebecca Jade. Vote in this year’s San Diego Music Awards for this song in Category 21 every day through March 27!

Hostile Government Takeover (EDM Remix)

Black Bottom by Nkieru Okoye

He Will Break Your Heart – Jerry Butler, who died at the age of 85

The Message -Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five

I Put My Ring Back On – Mary Chapin Carpenter

Cabo Frio – Peter Sprague

Starburst by Jessie Montgomery

Coverville 1522: The Peter Gabriel Cover Story III and 1523: Cover Stories for Howard Jones, Steely Dan, and Smokey Robinson

Another Day In Paradise – JOYNER (from the Hulu Original Show “Paradise”)

Careless Whisper – Wham

American Eagle Waltz by Jacques Offenbach

Why Wasn’t I More Grateful (When Life Was Sweet) – Maria McKee

Suite from The Wind and the Lion by Jerry Goldsmith

Green Grass Grew All Around – Pete Seeger

Creep – [fan edit] I’m not a robot

Everybody Wants To Rule The World -SOFTBARDCORE (cover in Classical Latin)

You Make My Dreams (Come True) · Daryl Hall & John Oates

I Want To Know What Love Is – Foreigner