Mollie Sugden, RIP

A fond farewell to Mollie Sugden (7/21/1922-7/1/2009), best known for her role as Mrs. Betty Slocombe (née Mary Elizabeth Jennifer Rachel Abergavenny Yiddell) in the satirical British comedy series, Are You Being Served? (1972-1985). She -- and the show -- flashed with moments of pure genius. Class conflict in a blisteringly comic light.

I've always liked this series, especially the Mr. Lucas (Trevor Bannister) years (1972-1979). Other major characters were played by Frank Thornton (Captain Stephen Peacock), John Inman (Mr. Wilberforce Clayborne Humphries), Wendy Richard (Miss Shirley Brahms), Arthur Brough (Mr. Ernest Grainger), Harold Bennett (Young Mr. Grace), Nicholas Smith (Mr. Cuthbert Rumbold), Larry Martyn (Mr. Mash) and Arthur English (Mr. Harry Harman).

Joanna Lumley (co-star of Absolutely Fabuous) bitingly appears in two episodes: "His and Hers" (1973) and "German Week" (1975). "Are you free?"

Today's Rune: Strength. Happy Birthday, Jill McCorkle!

Robert Strange McNamara is Dead

The former President of Ford Motor Company, US Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War and President of the World Bank, is dead. He would seem to have been one inspiration for Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" (1963). Fittingly, I suppose, McNamara was born during the First World War and died during Iraq and Afghanistan.

From an early "Erik's Choice" essay (March 10, 2006):

Which brings me to The Fog of War, an excellent documentary released in 2003, centering around Robert S. McNamara, a man spookily like Donald Rumsfeld, our current Secretary of Defense.*

During the course of the film, McNamara ruminates on the excesses of past American policies and practices. Heavily involved during World War Two, McNamara assisted in the planning and evaluation of the air campaigns against Germany and Japan. With a haunting Philip Glass soundtrack overlaying his reminiscences, he recounts 68 bombings and firebombings of Japanese cities followed by the two even more horrific atomic bombings. He bluntly acknowledges that had the United States lost, he and his fellow planners would have been executed as war criminals. This is not to exculpate the Japanese policy makers (they were entirely brutal, as well), but the mass murder of Japanese civilians was one more great crime against humanity.

Lives squandered, cities in ruins. And for me, as with the Iraq War, it's personal. My friend Yoko Akiba of Hiroshima became sickly from that horrible day on, eventually dying of cancer in her fifties. An innocent little girl in 1945, she suffered the horrors of war for the rest of her life. Even her children paid -- born with severe complications, they, too, were casualties of the same war. Where McNamara really seems like Rumsfeld is during his term as Secretary of Defense during Vietnam. The same creepily calculated decision-making, the same deluded optimism, the same attitude toward the press and protesters. Now, just as then, we hear rosy predictions about a bright light at the end of the tunnel, about standing down as our proxies stand up. McNamara admits that, in retrospect, the anti-war protesters were right; American policy makers had been blinded by hubris.

*McNamara resigned in 1968 during the Tet Offensive; Rumsfeld resigned in November 2006 and left office in December, during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Today's Rune: Possessions.

Black and Crimson

Artifacts from eateries and a shop: matches as marketing. From Detroit, Mario's -- "We Feed the Whole Mob." From Philadelphia, The Black Cat. From Manhattan, Tavern on the Green and El Quijote.

Each place has its own vibe. Mario's is old school Italian, a cozy production with excellent garnishes and entertaining service. The Black Cat sells miscellaneous goods and is linked to the White Dog Cafe. Tavern on the Green is a glittery and palatial circus of a place, influenced by The Wizard of Oz and used for scenes in memorable films like Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) and Oliver Stone's Wall Street (1987). El Quijote is a groovy and affordable Spanish restaurant situated next to The Hotel Chelsea -- Janis Joplin used to hang out at the bar, and various other artists, including Andy Warhol, supped there regularly in the 1960s.

These are all cool places. El Quijote and Mario's are worth many repeat visits, while The Black Cat and Tavern on the Green are worth experiencing at least once.

Today's Rune: Signals.

Independent in Theory, Interdependent in Reality

Three more films for summer: 1) Armando Iannucci's In the Loop (2009) with Steve Coogan, James Gandolfini, et alia. Who in hell would want to start an elective war in the Middle East? Ha!




2) Michael Mann's Public Enemies (2009). With Jonny Depp as John Dillinger, Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover, Marion Cotillard as Billie Frenchette, and so on. Shot on location in and around Chicago, Wisconsin, and Indiana. Love how the film shows Hoover's embracing of the tactics of Mussolini and fellow Italian fascist thugs in his own campaign against "subversives" -- a point rarely made in mainstream American films, certainly.



3) Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker (2008) follows an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) detail in Iraq. Based on the book by Mark Boal, who also produced the film. Looks harrowing, exciting, and right on.

Today's Rune: Movement.

Whatever Works: Woody Allen's Fortieth Film

Have gotten to see Whatever Works twice now, and loved it both times: first time for the story line, second time for everything else. Larry David's Boris Yelnikoff (or is it Yellnikoff?) launches into several well-timed well-placed dark and comic jeremiads throughout the movie. The tale itself feels something close to magical realism, with luck playing a major role -- as is often the case in Woody's world.

If you like the style and outlook of Woody Allen, Larry David and Jon Stewart, this one's for you. For anybody else, it's a roll of the dice. A big fan of all three dudes (Jon Stewart is not in the film, but Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee makes a cameo as a "chess Mom"), I dig not only the film, but the digs in the film.

Today's Rune: Wholeness.

Going on Right Now, Right Here

By Birth Or By Choice: Why Do People Believe What They Do?

The cultural outpouring surrounding Michael Jackson's death reminds me of similar wakes, in death, swirling around Princess Diana, Curt Cobain, John Lennon, Elvis, MLK, RFK, Malcolm X, JKF, only now reverberating even more so through an internet echo chamber. A smaller but similar version of this came with Heath Ledger's death, come to think of it.

This phenomenon has made me wonder, again, why people believe what they believe, and why, per capita, some things seem so much more important than others, why a cult of personality revolves around some but not around most of the living or departed.

Do people believe what they do because of geography, birth, age, family, friends, personal quest, education, divine intervention, fate, kismet, luck, will, contrariness, emotional needs, personal issues, cultural exposure, brainwashing, aesthetics, self-selection? Is a religion more "important" than a "cult"?

From just a relative handful of newly created movements (since about 1800):

Was Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh / Osho a religious leader or a cult leader?

What inspired Ngo Van Chieu to create Cao Dai in Vietnam? Why is Victor Hugo a saint in the Cao Dai pantheon?

How do you define L. Ron Hubbard's Church of Scientology?

How about Sister Aimee Semple McPherson Foursquare Church? (GOP Senator John Ensign of Nevada is a member, I learned a few days ago).

What of Marcus Garvey, Haile Selassie and the Rastafari movement?

How about George Baker aka Reverend Major Jealous Father Divine and the International Peace Mission Movement?

Or Paul Twitchell and Eckankar?

Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church?

Joseph Smith, Jr., and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and related groups, aka Mormons?

James Springer White and Ellen Gould White, Seventh-day Adventist Church?

What of Mírzá Ḥusayn-`Alí Nuri (aka Bahá'u'lláh) and the Bahá'í Faith?

Jim Jones, People's Temple?

Ayya Vaikundar and the Incineration of Evil Spirits?

Charles Taze Russell, Jehovah's Witnesses?

Helena von Hahn aka Madame Blavatsky, Theosophy?

Mary Baker Eddy, The First Church of Christ, Scientist (Christian Science)?

Noble Drew Ali, Moorish Science Temple of America (Moorish Science)?

Master Fard Muhammad, Nation of Islam?

Gerald Brousseau Gardner aka Scire, Wicca?

Charles Fox Parham, Pentecostalism?

Kim Il-sung, Juche?

Clarence 13X (Clarence Smith), The Nation of Gods and Earths, aka the Five-Percent Nation of Islam?

Who is right? Who is wrong? Who plays the best guitar? What are the top five most important fill-in-the-blanks according to fill-in-the-blanks' opinion?

Born into it, chose it, was chosen by it?
Switched, fought, or walked a mile for it?

For now, I'll end with this thought: "We can act as if there were a God; feel as if we were free; consider Nature as if she were full of special designs; lay plans as if we were to be immortal; and we find then that these words do make a genuine difference in our moral life." -- William James, "Reality of the Unseen," The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1902.

Today's Rune: Movement.