News From Walhalla

isabella rossellini: Tough Guy's Moll

2009-07-06T03:27:00.000-07:00

Tentative Proposal for Autumn film-discussion series, 2009

"isabella rossellini: Tough Guy's Moll"
featuring films by: norman Mailer.guy Maddin.david Lynch & isabella Rossellini

No venue yet - proposed screening times: Monday evenings, 7:30 pm, September 21 - October 19, 2009.

Week One:
BLUE VELVET (R. 120 min. 1986)
Director: David Lynch
Starring: Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern, Isabella Rossellini
Music:

Week Two:
TOUGH GUYS DON'T DANCE (R. 110 min. 1987)
Director: Norman Mailer
Starring: Ryan O'Neal, Isabella Rossellini, Debra Sandlund, Wings Hauser, Lawrence Tierney
Music:

Week Three:
WILD AT HEART (R. 127 min. 1990)
Director: David Lynch
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Diane Ladd, Willem Dafoe, Isabella Rossellini, Harry Dean Stanton
Music:

Week Four:
THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD (R. Canadian. 99 min. 2004)
Director: Guy Maddin
Starring: Isabella Rossellini, Mark McKinney, Maria de Madeiros, David Fox, Darcy Fehr
Music:

Week Five:
BRAND UPON THE BRAIN! (NR. 95 min. 2006)
Director: Guy Maddin
Starring:

Week Six:
MY DAD IS 100 YEARS OLD (NR. 16 min. 2005)
Director: Guy Maddin
Writer: Isabella Rossellini
Cast: Isabella Rossellini - Herself, Isaac Paz Sr. - The belly of Roberto Rossellini
Music: Christopher Dedrick

GREEN PORNO. season 2: http://SundanceChannel.com/Greenporno
Director, writer, host: Isabella Rossellini
Mantis (1 January 2008) - Actress, Director, producer, Writer (writer)
Snail (1 January 2008) - Actress, Director, producer, Writer (writer)
Worm (1 January 2008) - Actress, Director, producer, Writer (writer)
Fly (1 January 2008) - Actress, Director, producer, Writer (writer)
Firefly (18 January 2008) - Actress, Director, producer, Writer (writer)
Spider (18 January 2008) - Actress, Director, producer, Writer (writer)
Dragonfly (18 January 2008) - Actress, Director, producer, Writer (writer)
Bee (5 May 2008) - Actress, Director, producer, Writer (writer)

Programmer-Host:
Clayton K. Lowe, Ph.D.
Emeritus faculty, OSU Photography and Cinema; Formerly: moderator, World Film Classics, Educable TV-25; programmer/co-host, Columbus Museum of Art Film Series; producer/co-host "It's Movie Time" WCBE 90.5 FM; Currently: occasional guest film panelist, "Open Line Weekends," WOSU 820 AM; programmer/co-host Film-Discussion series at Landmarks Theatre.

Proposed Film-Discussion Series: "The Original American Independent: John Cassavetes

2009-05-24T21:38:00.000-07:00

FILM DISCUSSION SERIES: AMERICAN INDEPENDENT - JOHN CASSAVETES

_____________________________________________________________________________________

As of 2007, John Cassavetes is one of only 7 actors to be nominated for Best Directing, Writing, and Acting Oscars over the course of his lifetime. The other 6 are Orson Welles, Woody Allen, Warren Beatty, George Clooney, John Huston and Kenneth Brannagh.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

American Independent
John Cassavetes: Actor-Writer-Director

Date: Time:
SHADOWS (US 87 min. 1960)
Director: John Cassavettes
Starring: Lelia Goldini, Ben Carruthers
Music: Charlie Mingus
The Beat generation espoused a rejection of mainstream American values, and John Cassavetes's Shadows feels like a relic from that movement, with its improvisatory bebop jazz feeling, cameras in the street, method-style performances, frustration about accepted social norms, and an interracial romance between a hipster white guy (Anthony Ray) and a light-skinned black woman (Leila Goldoni) that eventually takes over the episodic narrative. Cassavetes was pushing the envelope at the time, reacting to the formulaic techniques of Hollywood movies. Shadows will forever have the novelty of coming first—frequently credited with being the pioneer American independent movie.
Jeremiah Kipp, The Criterion Collection, February 14, 2009

Date: Time:
Rosemary's Baby (R 136 min. 1968)
Director: Roman Polanski
Starring: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes
Rosemary's Baby is regarded by many as Roman Polanski's finest achievement. Although it is now 32 years since Poland's enfant terrible brought his adapation of Ira Levin's 1967 novel to the screen, it stands up well to the test of time. Starring Mia Farrow, Ruth Gordon, and John Cassavetes, Rosemary's Baby is a stylish and brilliantly executed set piece, accurately reflecting the New York of the late 1960's. Set in the famous Dakota building - later to become infamous, following the senseless assassination of John Lennon, on its' doorsteps some two decades later - this masterpiece of suspense will chill even the most hot blooded spine.
Customer review, Amazon.com

Date: Time:
FACES (R 129 min. 1968)
Director: John Cassavetes
Starring: Lynn Carlin, John Marley, Gena Rowlands, Seymour Cassel
Financed by acting jobs in films like The Dirty Dozen and Rosemary's Baby, Faces premièred in 1968 and introduced the landscape that Cassavetes would return to again and again: the unquiet inner lives of those new houses that sprung up in the wake of WWII. John Marley and Lynn Carlin star as a couple testing the limits of their unhappy marriage, he with a call girl (Cassavetes' wife, Gena Rowlands), she with free-spirited gigolo Seymour Cassel. Partly improvised, partly scripted, and partly somewhere between the two, Cassavetes' films have frequently been likened to jazz. Faces bears the stamp of its particular era's jazz; it trades in long stretches of chaos, even ugliness, which produce unexpected passages of grace and beauty. As punishing as that ugliness can be, the graceful bits stick in the memory.
Keith Phipps, The Onion A.V. Club, October 18, 2004

Date: Time:
MINNIE AND MOSKOWITZ (PG 114 min. 1971)
Director: John Cassavetes
Starring: Gena Rowlands, Seymour Cassel, Val Avery
"Minnie and Moskowitz" isn't much like anything Cassavetes has done before, except in its determination to go all the way with actors' performances - even at the cost of the movie's over-all form. Cassavetes, an actor himself, is one of the few American directors who is really sympathetic with actors. He lets them go, lets them try new things and take risks. This can lead to terribly indulgent performances, as it did in "Husbands." But in "Minnie and Moskowitz" it gives us performances by Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel that are so beautiful you can hardly believe it.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, 1997

Date: Time:
WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE (R 147 min. 1974)
Director: John Cassavetes
Starring: Peter Falk, Gena Rowlands,
. . . Gena Rowlands is mezmerizing as the working-class housewife, who buckles under the strain of a limited existece, a brutish husband (Peter Falk, in one of several strong collaborations with Cassavetes), insensitive relatives and an uncaring world. Rowlands is in turn heartbreaking, funny, delightful and a frightening as a woman who is overwhelmed by a desperate inability to stay connected.
TLA Film and Video Guide, 1998-1999

Date: Time:
TEMPEST (PG 140 min. 1982)
Director: Paul Mazursky
Starring: John Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, Susan Sarandon, Raul Julia, Molly Ringwold
Phillip (John Cassavetes) is a successful New York architect who is fed up with his wife Antonia (Gena Rowlands), his job with a tycoon named Alonzo (Vittorio Gassman) and life in New York City. He wants to travel and dream. That wish is granted when Antonia, who is resurrecting her acreer as an actress, walks out on him. Philip takes their 13-year-old daughter Miranda (Molly Ringwald) to Greece where they meet Aretha (Susan Sarandon), a twice-divorced free spirit from Brooklyn. The threesome find their own little bit of paradise on a Greek island. Its only other inhabitants is Kalibanos (Raul Julia), a crazy man who lives in a cave with his goats.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Programmer, with guest co-hosts to be announced

Clayton K. Lowe, Ph.D.
Emeritus faculty, OSU Photography and Cinema; moderator, World Film Classics, TV-25, Educable; producer/co-host, Columbus Museum of Art Film Series; producer/co-host, "It's Movie Time," WCBE 90.5 FM; occasional guest film panelist, "Open Line Weekends," WOSU 820 AM.

For further information contact: claytonklowe@gmail.com

"The Crazy World of the Not So Crazy David Cronenberg"

2009-05-24T21:35:00.000-07:00

FILM DISCUSSION SERIES: THE CRAZY WORLD OF THE NOT SO CRAZY DAVID CRONENBERG
REAL FILM CLASSICS
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
E-mail input to: claytonklowe@gmail.com

Film Discussion Series: OSU PhotoCinema Alumni & Friends Group, Facebook
Clay Lowe, programmer/host with special guest co-hosts
Venue: Landmark's Gateway Theatre
Meeting-screening room, 1550 N. High Street, Columbus, Ohio
All invited, free admission

"The Crazy World of the Not So Crazy David Cronenberg"

Week One
Date: April 29, 2009
Time: 7:30 PM Wednesday evening
VIDEODROME (R. Universal. 90 min. 1983)
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: James Woods (Cable TV programmer)

In a bizzare demonstration of truly interactive TV, the Videodrome network unleashes its hallucinatory powers upon its unsuspecting viewers, such as Max (frantically played by James Woods), and literally sucks them into its own reality world of violence and passion. So what else is new . . ? The film's powerful and terrifying special effects. They dramatically heighten (psychologically and physically), the impact of Videodrome's violent images upon everyone who approaches the alternative reality world that diabolically lurks within its screens. Like no other film it vividly demonstrates, in extremis, how TV shapes the images that we create within our minds. A highly intelligent critique of television; but be forewarned, it's best to avert your eyes during its most difficult scenes, or you too may become one of its victims. -Clay Lowe, The Movies on Media Handbook, 1997

Guest co-host: Jennifer Ntiri, Actress-Dancer, Arts Psychology

Week Two
Date: May 6, 2009
Time: 7:30 PM Wednesday evening
The Fly (R. Twentieth-Century Fox. 100 min. 1986)
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis
Gruesome. yet witty, science fiction horrorfest that leaves the viewer simultaneously choking with laughter and gagging with nausea. The movie is blessed, fortunately, with acting talents that match the eye-catching special effects. Goldblum is perfectly cast as the somewhat nerdy, but ultimately macho, scientist leading man. Davis adds credibility as the inquisitive journalist who becomes Goldblum's lover. Her dedicated concern for him mixes well with her trace of a newsperson's quest for truth. -Wayne Miller, The Movies on Media Handbook, 1997

Guest co-host: Melissa Starker, Alive

Week Three
Date: May 13, 2009
Time: 7:30 PM Wednesday evening
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (R. U.S.-CANADIAN. 98 min. 2005)
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, William Hurt, Ed Harris, Ashton Holmes
Soft-spoken man (Mortensen) who runs a small-town luncheonette is suddenly confronted by two violent strangers--and is more than ready to respond. His actions lead to questions and repercussions. Sexually potent, harshly violent story based on the graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke is arresting entertainment that means to hit us right between the eyes. (R-98m.) -Leonard Maltin, Movie Guide, 2009

Guest Co-host: Vicki Anne Bennett, Artist/Photographer, Novelist

Week Four
Date: May 20, 2009
Time: 7:30 PM Wednesday evening
CRASH (NC-17 Canadian. 100 min. 1996)
Director: David Cronenberg
Based on: J. G. Ballard novel
Starring: James Spader, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, Roseanna Arquette
When ....Crash'' premiered in May, 1996, at the Cannes Film Festival, some people fled the theater. The movie has played in Canada and Europe to widespread controversy, inspiring polemics both pro and con. Ted Turner, whose studio, Fine Line, is distributing the film in the United States, has said he hates it. Certainly it will repel and disgust many viewers. It's like a porno movie made by a computer: It downloads gigabytes of information about sex, it discovers our love affair with cars, and it combines them in a mistaken algorithm. The result is challenging, courageous and original--a dissection of the mechanics of pornography. I admired it, although I cannot say I ....liked'' it. It goes on a bit too long. Afterward, I found myself wishing a major director would lavish this kind of love and attention on a movie about my fetishes. (NC-17-100m.) -Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, 1997

Guest co-hosts: Hope Madden & George Wolf, The Other Paper

Week Five
Date: May 27, 2009
Time: 7:30 PM Wednesday evening
EASTERN PROMISES (R. Canadian-British. 100 min. 2007)
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, Sinead Cusak
Viggo Mortensen's glower power is on full blast in David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises, in which he plays the taciturn chauffeur of a London-based Russian crime family. Naomi Watts is fetchingly fretful as the midwife who gets caught in the mobster trap after discovering a potentially incendiary diary. The stars are fine but the movie doesn't quite align: Cronenberg's Organizatsiya saga has moments that are clearly the work of a singular talent, but it frequently plays as melodrama. Dirty Pretty Things screenwriter Steven Knight endeavours once again to present London as a teeming hive of ethnic and ethical tensions, but the questions of cultural dislocation – of old and new worlds in conflict – seem cursory. There's more meat, much of it flayed and abused, in the material about Russian-prison tattooing practices, which strikes a rich metaphorical vein. The theme of the body as a kind of brutal canvas culminates in arguably the greatest set piece of Cronenberg's career – and one of the great recent movie set pieces, period. Breathless, brutal and disquietingly funny, this scene further entrenches Cronenberg's reputation as a grisly virtuoso, and unfortunately exacerbates the weakness of some of the surrounding bits. (R-100m.) -Adam Nayman, Eyeweekly.com, September 13, 2007

Guest co-host: Melissa Starker, Alive

Also, special thanks to Deep Blue Edit for links posted on Facebook's Cronenberg Events invitation.

Programmer-host: Clay Lowe
Emeritus faculty, OSU Photography and Cinema
Formerly: moderator, World Film Classics, Educable TV-25; producer/co-host, Columbus Museum of Art Film Series; producer/co-host, "It's Movie Time," WCBE 90.5 FM. Currently: occasional guest film panelist, "Open Line Weekends," WOSU 820 AM.

Note: The dicussion series is intended to be an exploration of Cronenberg's views on violence rather than an exploration of his work as a whole.

E-mail input: claytonklowe@gmail.com

Lark and Termite, Jayne Anne Phillips - Novel, 2009

2009-02-27T02:39:00.000-08:00

Lark and Termite, Jayne Anne Phillips-Novel, 2009
Clayton Kent Lowe

An astounding novel that reaches deep into the wellsprings of the
human heart, Jayne Phillips's Lark and Termite is one of the most
poetic novels I've read in years.

The structure of the novel is elegant and deceptively simple. The
action takes place in two widely separated locations. The first on a
battlefield in Korea. The second, in the small town of Winfield,
West Virginia. The events taking place are also seperated by nine
years of time.

Set in a battle zone somewhere in Korea in 1950, Corporal Robert
Leavitt reflects back on the story of his boyhood on the streets of
Philadelphia; his meeting with Lola; and his awareness that she is now
carrying their soon to be born son Termite. His last moments in life
are tragic, but heroic.

The novel then flashes ahead nine years in time to Winfield, West
Virginia where Termite-who was born handicapped- now lives with his
seventeen year old half-sister Lark, and his mother's sister Aunt
Nonie. What happened to their mother has not yet been revealed, nor
has the identity of the man who was Lark's father. There are more
mysteries yet to come.

Mythic in theme and substance (for instance, the father dies the same
moment his son is born); the characters tell their own stories using
words that appeal more to the senses than to the mind.

Termite himself, who was born nearly blind and can't walk, has to
express his view of the world through the sounds of words rather than
their articulate meanings.

Lark , who spends the most time with her little brother, attempts to
explain that: "(he) . . . remembers cadences of songs and rhymes, like
he recognizes sounds, not words." And then goes on to further
explain: "He doesn't need words. He needs his strip of blue and the
space under the rail bridge by the river. He needs to see the river
while the train roars over top."

Coming to a climax when a great flood hits the town-that's for these
folk, Biblical in proportion- the disperate threads of the story are
finally rewoven together and the novelist reveals, in her own poetic
way, how her characters come to accept the fragilities of what it means to become truly human.

A deeply moving reading experience, this novel will remind you how important it is to never lose your sense of wonder.

Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle (2008)

2008-12-12T11:10:00.000-08:00

Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle (2008)
Clayton Kent lowe

Danny Boyle has a way of extracting joy, or at the very least hope, out of the most unpromising cinematic adventures. For instance, his earlier 28 Days Later—and now his Slumdog Millionaire. Okay, just a little bit of hope in 28 Days, where “hope” means simply trying to stay alive; but a whole lot of hope and joy in Slumdog, where “hope” means winning a million dollars.

Taking his cue from the slumdog young boy, Jamal, who deliberately falls into a waste pit so he can cut through a crowd and get his favorite movie star’s autograph, director Boyle immerses us in the hellhole of Mumbai’s (formerly Bombay) vast urban slum in order to spin out his rags-to-riches tale of Jamal Malik, an eventual TV quiz show winner.

As a child, young Jamal bonds in a three-way childhood tryst with his older brother, Salim, and a younger girl, Latika, who have all been orphaned by a Hindu mob. The three of them then advance their way through childhood and adolescence as they strive to work out their final destinies, which may have already been written.

The adventures that follow are integrated into the movie’s overall structure, beginning, out of sequence, with the 18-year-old Jamal (Dev Patel) being arrested, questioned, and then tortured by the Mumbai police.

It seems, as we soon discover, that the producers of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire didn’t expect anybody to be able to win their TV jackpot, so they bribe the police to try to force contestant Jamal to confess that he’s being fed the answers.

The story flashes from the interrogation and torture scenes to scenes of the children’s early meeting in the slums, and back to the super-dramatic moments of the on-going quiz show, where Jamal keeps answering the questions that he hopes will eventually win him a million dollars.

Not avariciously motivated, however, Jamal actually agreed to appear on the TV show in the hopes that Latika (Frieda Pinto), from whom he’s long been separated, will see him on TV, and they’ll reunite once again.

Fast-paced and masterfully intercut from past to present and back again, the film’s frenetic camerawork and exuberant soundtrack help to make us forget the pains that life has inflicted upon these children and encourages us, instead, to celebrate their determination to triumph over their painful misfortunes.

Manipulative? You bet. A sugarcoated morality tale for the naïve at heart? Maybe. But, at the very least, no more than Dickens’s tales of orphans who survive and transcend the evil conditions they were born into—and none more so than the character, Oliver, who survived the slums of London in Dickens’s novel, Oliver Twist.

A glorious movie, Slumdog Millionaire will, nevertheless, not let us easily forget the horrors of Mubai’s dreadful slums, nor the ever-present ethnic and political dangers that lurk there to this day.

True to the spirit of Vikas Swarup’s novel (originally titled Q&A), Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire has become even more relevant in the wake of the terrorist attacks that occurred in Mumbai at the end of the month of November, 2008—which were, allegedly, carried out about by Muslim extremists in Pakistan.

(As edited by Kristin Dreyer Kramer and appearing under "films" at http://nightsandweekends.com.)

Walhalla Book Review: Indignation, Philip Roth, 2008

2008-12-03T10:22:00.000-08:00

Indignation, Philip Roth, 2008
Clayton Kent Lowe

Little Markie Messner always did everything just right. He received good grades, was well behaved, and, even when he became a teenager, he dutifully worked in his father's kosher butcher shop, slitting anddisemboweling chickens by knife and by hand. And he never complained because his intent in life was to please his father and to make his mother proud.

In return, his father passed his philosophy of grim resignation on to him: "You do what you have to do," and it's this self-effacing mantra that runs through Philip Roth's new novel, Indignation:

Work hard, do good, don't ask questions, and maybe, if you're lucky, you'll be socially accepted; and maybe, even more improbably, you'll make something of yourself.

That might have been an important lesson for those first immigrants who arrived in Newark around the turn of the nineteenth century, but the idea that they should keep their ambitions in check would be a source of frustration for their more upward-bound children - such as Markie."

Indignation" is set at outbreak of the Korean War, and it was the backdrop that Roth himself came of age. Not surprisingly, Roth uses one of his lead characters as a proxy for his ownself-discovery—which is a good reason to read him. On the other hand,his libido-driven male characters never seem to mature and grow up, which makes for a good reason not to read him.

Markie eventually transfers out of Newark's community college so as to escape his family problems, but he discovers that even while he's at Winesburg College in Ohio, he's still unable to escape himself and all of his emotional weaknesses.

It's at this point that, then, that "Indignation" becomes a more traditional andless sociological read. Markie fights with his roommates, has a run-inwith a popular dean, and continues to struggle with his oh-so-naïvelibido. He's also totally unforgiving of his would-be love interest, Olivia, primarily because he's never able to come to terms with the fact that she has an active libido of her own.

In this respect, young Markie becomes as reprehensible as the older womanizing professor in Roth's earlier novel, "The Dying Animal" - which was recently made into the film Elegy(http://www.nightsandweekends.com/articles/08/NW0800493.php) that starred Ben Kingsley as yet another of Roth's professors of desire.

The sub-theme of "Indignation" is centered on the fact that Markie discovers that he can't escape the reality that his parents are Jewish; nor can he accept the fact that neither they, nor he, will ever be fully accepted into mainstream 1950s Americanculture. Yep, one more layer to an already conceptually complex novel.

Roth isn't an easy read, and it's easy to write him off as a novelist who has, himself, never emotionally matured, but that hasn't prevented him from continuing to add to his supply of literary trophies, which include a Pulitzer Prize. So perhaps you're going to have to read him yourself in order to find out what this guy's all about.

My own opinion? The jury's still out. And perhaps that's why I've had such a hard time writing this review.

"Indignation" is less precious than Roth's long ago "Goodbye,Columbus" and is more similar in tone to his recent novel "The Dying Animal". Nevertheless,Roth's novels are still much sought after as prime source material for Hollywood filmmakers. Maybe it's because filmmakers, especially independentfilmmakers, just love all of his angst.

Consequently, stay tuned for the upcoming movie version of "Indignation", because the producer of last year's critical hit(http://www.nightsandweekends.com/articles/07/NW0700649.php) "No Country for Old Men", has already bought the rights to the novel.

But as regular readers of Roth have already discovered, it's no country for young men in Roth's novels, either.

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Australia," "Twilight," "Four Christmases"

2008-12-01T10:13:00.000-08:00

WCBE90.5 FM: "Australia," "Twilight," "Four Christmases"
Recording time: Wednesday, 9:00am, November 26, 2008
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm & 8:01 pm, November 28, 2008

Clay

"Australia" is a good ole, rip-roarin' big screen epic . . .

John"Twilight" should get teen age girls' blood pumping . . .

Clay"Four Christmases" celebrates four family gatherings too many . . .

HIT MUSIC ("Star Wars"), THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .

MUSIC DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . ..

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe.

MUSIC DOWN AND OUT

John ("Australia")

Baz Luhrmann's Australia is one of the best epics ever, a down under Gonewith the Wind.

Clay

Or maybe even a George Steven's "Giant" . . .

JohnThe romance of history and adventure is present in every frame. In 1939 Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) voyages from London sell her largeAustralia ranch. Competition with the largest land owner over supplyingcattle for the Australian Army's war effort cannot eclipse the epic fightto save the Aborigines from cultural extinction.

Drover (Hugh Jackman), the embodiment of the romantic Aussie is more than People Magazine's sexiest man.

Clay

How can you be more than sexy?

John

But the real prize for this film must go to the cinematography for its epic sweep and robust movement. As he did in Moulin Rouge, Luhrmann creates visuals that draw the audience in and thrill with innovation and vitality.

Clay ("Australia")

No doubt Ausie cinematographer Mandy Walker's heading for a nod from Oscar, and there might also be one in line for the movie's composer David Hirschfelder. They are the one's who have made "Australia" such a successful spectacle.

Sure Hugh Jackman will having them swooning in the aisles when he ripples all of his "X-men" developed muscles, and Nicole Kidman will cause off the audiences to swoon over her own specially designed curves.

But special mentions should go to Brando Walters, the young lad of mixed-breed, who holds his own with both Jackman and Kidman; and to David Gulpilil, who plays King George, but who originally starred as the young Aboriginal boy in Nicholas Roeg's "Walkabout."

He has now come full circle.

John ("Twilight")

Almost every teenage girl knows the impossibly popular Twilight series byStephanie Meyer is about 17-year-old Isabella Swan's love for 17-year-oldEdward Cullen, a very handsome vampire.ClayI'd give my eye teeth to look like him.JohnOh, the longing. The nuns made us fear this as if girls were vampires.

Twilight does as well as any film could in figuratively embodying theRomeo-and-Juliet-like difficulties of romantic connecting.When director Catherine Hardwicke lingers over the hero and heroine withtheir painful stares of desire, you may wish for some stock vampire stuff to relieve the tedium.In fact, I am beginning to long myself for the hammy other Bella as Dracula (1931) to satisfy my yearning for scary bloodsucking.

Twilight advances the accepted interpretation of vampirism as unbridled lustand civilizes it.

Clay ("Four Christmases")

Unbridled lusts? Uncivil behavoir? Who needs vampires when family gatherings play host to the scariest blood suckers of them all? At least that's what Hollywood has recently been telling us at the approach of every new holiday season.

From Thanskgiving disaster films such as "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles," to "Home for the Holidays," and from "Christmas with the Kranks," to "Bad Santa;" Hollywood has been reacting for over a decade to the old, warm and fuzzie holiday films of the 40's and 50's.

And the reaction against those sentimental films continues with this year's "Four Christmases."

Featuring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon as a marriage-shy couple, their worst dreams are realized when they visit the four respective families of their now divorced parents.

Take heed though, if you've seen the trailers, you've seen the movie. (pause)

But enough of waltzing with Jackman, vamping with Cullen, and choking on holiday treats, John, because it's grading time.

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR :

John

Holy Bela and the blood-loving babes, Hooray!"Australia" earns an A because AUSTRALIA is full of AMOUR . . .

Clay

"Australia" gets an "A" because AUSTRALIA'S ABORIGINES finally get their due .. .

John

"Twilight" earns a "C" because it CAN'T hold a CANDLE to CATHOLIC CONSUMMATION . . .Clay"Four Christmases" gets a "B" because BAD Santa movies have become pro forma . .

DRUMS OUT, THEN SNEAK UNDER THE MUSIC "WALTZING MATILDA"

John

Clay, you stayed at Christ Church, New Zealand, while Ivan and I detoured to Sydney many years ago. Were you just being your usual ornery self, or was there something secret you stayed for?I'd like to think it was a young lady, for instance. It's the romantic in me.

I'm outta here.

Clay

Well, kind of a secret, I was just working on my novel called: The Auto-Biography of A Grizzly.

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

http://wcbe.org

Walhalla: Election Night Elegant Responses & Comments

2008-11-07T07:40:00.000-08:00

World News: The World Responds to Obama''s Electionhttp://article.wn.com/view/2008/11/05/World_leaders_congratulate_Obama_on_election_win/?section=TopStoriesWorldwide&template=worldnews%2Findex.txt

The Washington Post: Editorial on Obama's Electionhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/04/AR2008110404508.html

The London Standard: The Full Text of Obama's Chicago Speechhttp://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23582266-details/Obama%3A+the+victory+speech/article.do
The Anchorage Press Responds to Palin's Return to

Alaskahttp://www.adn.com/palin/story/579161.html
The Full Text of McCain's Concession Speechhttp://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hmJfimrZW3jBur_BmaFtqj7mfFgQD948JFJG5

WCBE#390-Final: "What Just Happened?,” "I.O.U.S.A.," "Changeling"

2008-11-04T07:05:00.000-08:00

WCBE#390-Final: "What Just Happened?,” "I.O.U.S.A.," "Changeling"

(Text to be added)

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Rachel Getting Married," "The Duchess," "Religulous," "Eagle Eye-The IMAX Experience"

2008-10-08T10:27:00.000-07:00

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Rachel Getting Married," "The Duchess," "Religulous," "Eagle Eye-The IMAX Experience"
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Recording Time: Wednesday, 10 am, October 8, 2008
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm & 8:01 pm, October 10, 2008On demand: http://wcbe.org

John

"Rachel Getting Married" is about surviving the family minefield . . .

Clay

"The Duchess" is about surviving British costume dramas . . .

John

"Religulous" is Bill Maher irreverent. . .

Clay"Eagle Eye - The IMAX Experience" is all about Big Brother and Big Sister . . .

HIT MUSIC ("Star Wars"), THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .

MUSIC DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe . . .

MUSIC DOWN AND OUT

John ("Rachel Getting Married" )

Weddings are tough: resentments, secrets, lies, jealousies, and the king of them all–memories.

Clay

And don't you ever forget it.

John

Out in a couple of weeks in Columbus, Rachel Getting Married deftly navigates among the revelers of a Connecticut wedding that must deal with Anne Hathaway’s return from nine months in rehab.

Her sister Rachel tries to balance the joy of her own wedding against confrontation with memories of the past that Hathaway seems unable to stop from happening.As in Mike Leigh's Secrets and Lies, the family that finally tells the truth may survive the hell that seems to accompany many family gatherings trying too hard to be happy.Anne Hathaway proves she’s not just an interesting face. She plays spot on the gifted but difficult one whose past continues to color their present.

Clay ("The Duchess")

Well, folks, Keira Knightly is a talented beauty whose character in "The Duchess" finds herself unhappily married to the Duke of Devonshire, chillingly played by Rayf Fynz.

Her problem seems to be that the Duke wants only two things from her: a male heir and her forbearance in his numerous marital indiscretions. Such a deal.

So what's a poor girl to do, but deliver him a baby girl, then indulge herself in affair with the lucky (and later to be ennobled) Earl Grey (played a bit dully by Dominic Cooper).

Set among the royal courts of late 18th Century England, "The Duchess" is everything a Brit period piece should be: colorful, genteel, a little bit naughty, and sometimes a little bit clever.

John ("Religulous")

Religulous, Ridiculous, whatever, but clever it is.

Bill Maher’s irreverent take on major world religions—Catholic, Jewish, Islam are the most prominent--makes no pretense of admiring religious devotees.As an interviewer of some well-known religious fanatics, and some ordinary believers, Maher can’t contain light disdain for their certainty when juxtaposed with his agnosticism. For instance, virgin-birth was not sufficiently important to be included in two of the four gospels. How could such a miracle be left out? Maher asks. The reason to him is obvious: It is probably made up.

Clay

Yeah, well, it worked for Joseph.

John

Tell me it ain’t so, Joe.

Maher is so good as an easy-going reporter with impeccable comic timing that he finds a Vatican priest to claim the bible as not history but morality tale. Maher’s purpose is to lampoon: Serious argument need not apply

Clay ("Eagle Eye")

Well, folks, I don't care that Roger Ebert hated the new would-be terrorist thriller, "Eagle Eye," although some of my favorite local critics also agree.

Sure, many of their points are well taken. "Eagle Eye" is often hard to follow. It IS full of plot twists that are hard to believe, and it DOES seem to overstate the ability of bad guys to turn our technological playthings (computers, cell phones, global positioning devices) into weapons to use against us.

Hey, that's like believing there'll be cameras prowling around all of the streets of the world's major cities; maybe even Columbus. Or that someone may be able to track us on our cell phones.

Who cares? It's still a well directed relevant film. (Pause)

But enough of family weddings, forced weddings, spoon fed religion, and snoopers with eagle eyes, John, because it's grading time.

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR:

John

Holy fumbling families, Hooray!

"Rachel Getting Married" earns a “B” for its BARELY disguised delight in family dysfunction. . .

Clay

"The Duchess" gets a "B" BECAUSE of its BEAUTIFUL settings and costume design . . ..

John

"Religulous" earns a “B” for its BORAT director’s restraint in exposing religious BOOBS . . .

Clay

"Eagle Eye" gets a "B" because BOOBS as well as non-BOOBS will never again be able to hide . . ..

DRUMS OUT

John

Clay, the virgin birth business bothers me also because finding one is such a tiring task.I'm outta here.

Clay

As usual, John, the fun is more in the searching than in the finding.

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC AND CLOSING, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright John DeSando & ClayLowe 2008

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Battle in Seattle," "Miracle at St. Anna," "Elegy"

2008-09-27T09:49:00.000-07:00

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Battle in Seattle," "Miracle at St. Anna," "Elegy"
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm & 8:01 pm, September 26, 2008On demand: http://wcbe.org

John"Battle in Seattle" shows a war yet to be won . . .

Clay"Miracle at St. Anna" is Spike Lee's take on what it was like to be a black soldier during World War II . . .

John"Elegy" is about life, not death. .

HIT MUSIC ("Star Wars"), THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .

MUSIC DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe .

MUSIC DOWN AND OUT

John ("Battle in Seattle")

Clay: As a liberal, I empathize with the protestors in the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. The need for world organizations to consider the health of poorer countries is paramount.Battle in Seattle uses stock docudrama devices: intercutting between scenes of police and protestors and interspersing authentic footage with the dramatized. The dilemma of how far either side should go is palpable.

Clay

At the very least.JohnBut the facile mixing of truth and fiction leaves me a bit cold, as if I were the victim of a fraud.

ClaySounds like real life to me.

John

Yeah, I’ve been victimized more than once.

Clay

Do tell.

John

No.

As history has written, little progress has been made though the WTO talks were stopped in Seattle. But as one of the combatants points out, only by small steps and persistence can the battle be won.

Clay ("Miracle at St. Anna")

Well, folks, if you had to come up with the number of steps it took to defeat the Germans in WWII Italy, that number would be at least comparable to the amount of money we're currently dumping into our failed banking system.

John
Gov. Palin will solve the problem.

Clay

Sure she will.

Clay (continues)

Fortunately, Spike Lee's new film, "Miracle of St. Anna," confines its coverage to a series of battles that an all black company had to fight in order to turn the tide against the Germans in Italy's rural Tuscany in 1944. Outstanding cinematography, brilliant editing, and a core of actors who are as loveable as U.S. soldiers are supposed to be in Hollywood war films; the storyline, unfortunately, is so complex that it deadens the impact of Lee's intended message.

John ("Elegy")

Then here’s life:

As a professor, I bring to Elegy experience and sympathy. Ben Kingsley's performance as a still-sexed sexagenarian professor is a gem of understated accuracy for those of us who, as in my case, have been there seldom but memorably.

Clay

Well, John, as Lyle Lovett once wrote: Once is enough to fall in love.

John

More than capturing the ripe world of higher education dedicated to advancement of the mind and spirit, Elegy poetically portrays an aging Lothario facing his loss of time and independence: He falls for voluptuous student Consuela (Penelope Cruz), more than thirty years his junior, and proceeds to act like a teenager in love with all the jealousies and diffidence of inexperience. The ending of this slow-moving but absorbing drama is too easy and sentimental. Nothing about love is ever that easy—in life or in film.

Clay ("Elegy")

Well, folks, the movie "Elegy," of course, is based on one more of those Philip Roth's novels that re-work the obsessions of his brilliant professors who become totally befuddled by the forces of desire. Particularly, the desires he has for all those bright young students out there who hang on his every word and nuanced gesture. Talk about power. Who better to play the self-deceitful professor, than Ben Kingsley, who has developed a knack for playing evil hearted leads who have disdain for the rules of behaviour.

Think of his villainous portrayal of the mobster in his award winning "Sexy Beast."

John

Great movie, great role.

Clay (continues)

For the softer side of Kingsley/Roth's character, note his relationship with Patrice Clarkson, who finally provides him with fulfillment, merely by talking. That's my kind of lady, John

But enough of retro protestors, black, white, Italian, and German soldiers, as well as unaware professors, John, because it's grading time.HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR:

John

Holy HITLER, Hooray!"Battle in Seattle" earns a “C” for CAREERING to the left . ..

Clay

"Miracle at St. Anna" gets "C" because it's far too CLUTTERED and needs to be CUT down to a more manageable size . . ..

John

"Elegy" earns an “B” for depicting a profession never BORING . . Clay"Elegy" gets a "C" for too much wine, soft music, and rolling waves of the ocean to be realistically CONVINCING . . .

Hey, John, don't ugly beer drinkers ever fall in love?

John

Yes, with their beer. (Pause)

Clay, did you see yourself at all in Kingsley’s randy old professor?
I'm outta here.

Clay

I'll tell you what Oscar Wilde's Lady Bracknell taught me, that I too often forget: for people, both public and private, it's always better not to wash your dirty linen in public.I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING THEME MUSIC ("AIN'T WE GOT FUN"), THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

The award winning It's Movie Time is produced, written, and directed by John DeSando and Clay Lowe and is on demand at WCBE.org.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright by John DeSando & Clay Lowe 2008

Stardust Memories: Back From New York City

2008-05-09T08:22:00.001-07:00

Great visit with Neil, Scott, and Adam this past weekend. To the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Neil (walked from 47th & Park to 80th & 5th) for Poussin & Courbet show. Spent several hours at the Museum of Modern Art with Scott (with special attention to Chagalls, Van Gogh's, etc.), then leisure walk through Central Park. Sunday afternoon at the Music Box Theatre with Adam for a marvelous production of August: Osage County, followed by food at The Red Flame Restaurant and a visit with the Algonquine cat Matilda in the hotel lobby.

All enjoyed together our late Saturday afternoon dinner at O'Neal's Restaurant while bitterly sweetly over the bar we watched the Kentucky Derby drama/trauma.

Overall wonderful weekend.

(Also Neil and I hooked up with Alex & Michelle from Columbus for a snack at Ellen's Stardust Cafe.)

The U.S. Press: Commentaries on Imus Affair & Exposition of U.S. Government's Prosecution of Anti-Terrorists

2007-04-16T02:53:00.000-07:00

April 16, 2007

Excellent, articulate commentaries on:

1. The Dan Imus Controversy and Cultural Biases (FOX News commentary)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,266143,00.html

2. Articulate exposition of Bush administration tactics used to prosecute "terrorists"
(The Christian Science Monitor)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0416/p01s03-usju.htm

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Inland Empire," "Perfect Stranger"

2007-04-13T08:03:00.000-07:00

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Inland Empire," "Perfect Stranger”
It's Movie Time: Written, directed, and produced by John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, April 13, 2007
Streaming live on the web and always on-demand at http://www.wcbe.org

John

"Inland Empire" is David Lynching Hollywood again with velvet gloves . .

Clay

"Perfect Stranger” may or may not help Halle Berry and Bruce Willis pay the bills . . .

HIT MUSIC ("STAR WARS THEME"), THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .

MUSIC UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe.

John ("Inland Empire")

Clay, returning to themes mined in Mulholland Drive, David Lynch’s Inland Empire explores the disjointed world of memory, sex, and celebrity only on Lynch’s fragmented terms where Laura Dern’s film actress and her role converge.

Images clash and merge like memory itself—imperfect and random, dwelling on the ends of experience, either ecstasy or defeat and seldom the softer center.

Clay

I love soft centers.

John

Inland Empire might best be approached like a poorly organized photo album: Although the images evoke the joys of familiarity, even warmth, they cover a world of greed and lust at war with love and happiness.

Clay

Mmmmm, I like that.

John

Empire is a tough three hours but ultimately worthwhile if it only jogs the memory to face the effects of the past and dread of the future.

Clay ("Inland Empire")

Folks, "Inland Empire" IS another journey into dread on a David Lynch's lost highway. Featuring Lynch behind the camera, and Laura Dern out front, Lynch takes full advantage of the new digital technology by gathering in images on the fly, and worrying about how they go together later.

Luckily he has a disciplined eye, a strong sense of mood, and a cast of
actors who know how to exude their on-screen personas.

Laura Dern's troubled expressions from Blue Velvet bleed through her
garishly lit close-ups. And movie-within-a movie director Jeremy Irons' presence reminds us of his similar presence as an actor in love in "The French Lt's Woman."

Troubled dreams? Primal screams? Not to worry folks, it's only a movie.

John ("Perfect Stranger”)

Returning from visiting my Hollywood talent agency son, I remember the corporate L. A. operating principles are networking and sex, the sum of which is power.

Clay

That's it, the women supply the sex and the men supply the power.

John

Even on the East coast.

Clay

Yep.

John

The formulaic Perfect Stranger summarizes in various amounts of sleaze the similar New York corporate engine.

Rowena (Halle Berry), an investigative reporter, goes after Ad agency tycoon Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis) because she believes he murdered her childhood friend in an act of preservation mostly coming from his affair with her and legions of other vulnerable females, many working for his firm. I’ll bet even you could figure out who wins this battle.

Clay

I'll bet you'll not even care.

John

Well, I did enjoy trying to figure out plot twists (the last one is a challenge) and watching a beautiful star. Nothing is perfect about Perfect Stranger but Halle Berry’s face.

Clay ("Perfect Stranger")

Folks, this is a three ending weekend. David Lynch, reputedly, shot three different endings with three different killers for his Inland Empire. And Lawdy, Lawdy, rumor has it, that James Foley did the same for Perfect Stranger.

Unfortunately, Foley's outclassed by Lynch this time around. You'd never guess from this film that Foley's the one who brought us the noirish thriller "After Dark My Sweet."

For in "Perfect Stranger" the blistering action scenes turn out to be scenes of an investigative reporter (Halle Berry) text-typing messages to a would-be killer (as played by a smarmy Bruce Willis).

So, if you enjoy watching fingers on a keyboard, and if you love Halle Berry, you might find you've been charmed by a "Perfect Stranger."

John

I was.

Clay

If not, try the novel.

John

O.K.

Clay

But enough of dark images and dully plotted non- thrillers, John, because it's grading time.

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

Holy Halle, Hooray!

John

"Inland Empire" earns a “B” for BANISHING logic from the kingdom . . .

Clay

"Inland Empire" gets an "A" because no one more ADEPTLY manufactures cinematic ALLUSIONS than David Lynch . . .

John

"Perfect Stranger" earns a “C” for CAVING to power and sex rather than solid filmmaking . . .

Clay

"Perfect Stranger" gets a "D" for DULLING the excitement of texting for sex . . .

HIT TODAY'S CLOSING THEME (CD: TRUE ROMANCE), THEN UNDER FOR:

John

Clay, our heroes today struggle with sex and memory in failed attempts to control both. You, similarly, are constantly brokering for power at our station, and as for sex, that remains for you a perfect stranger.

I'm outta here.

Clay

Hey, John, without power our station wouldn't be on the air; and even perfect lovers can end up being perfect strangers. Been there, done that.

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

MUSIC UP, THEN UNDER AGAIN FOR:

Richelle

It's Movie Time is written, directed, and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe and is now streaming live on the web and on demand at WCBE.org.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2007 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Grindhouse," "The Animation Show 3," "Blades of Glory"

2007-04-05T17:45:00.000-07:00

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Grindhouse," "The Animation Show 3," "Blades of Glory”
John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, April 6, 2007
Streaming live on the web and on-demand at http://www.wcbe.org

Clay

"Grindhouse" is Stanley Donen's "Movie, Movie" some twenty-nine years later . . .

John

"Animation Show 2007" is Darwinian Donald Duck . . .

"Blades of Glory" gaily skates around some light laughs . . .

HIT MUSIC ("STAR WARS THEME") THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .

MUSIC UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe ("Grindhouse: 'Planet Terror' - 'Death Proof'')

Folks, back in 1978 director Stanley Donen paid tribute to 50's double-features with his clever "Movie Movie." Yep, with movie trailers and all.

So, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's "Grindhouse" ain't nothing new. However, their take on the schlock sex-and-action movies of the seventies is, deadly, right on.

"Planet Terror" is pure Rodriguez: blood, guts, and tons of thrown-away body parts. Rose McGowan's one-legged go-go dancer Cherry is one hot momma, and Bruce Willis's tough-nutted army Lt. Muldoon gets just what he deserves.

John

I don’t know the meaning of “tough-nutted,” but I’m getting the idea.

Clay (continues)

I'll bet you are. Anyway, fans already know Tarantino's "Death Proof" is fat too talky, but his car-chase scenes are finally able to get the movie up to speed when his favorite stunt girl (Zöe Bell of Kill Bill fame) spread-eagles into action on the hood of a Dodge Charger.

Wowie, zowie, Zöe.

John ("The Animation Show 2007")

Oh, Zounds!

The Animation Show, with allegedly the world’s greatest animated shorts, is touring with its 2007 edition, locally at Studio 35. It’s friendly to geeky cinephiles liking their images abstract and dark.

What images you ask? How about a defecating dog, a stick figure with Lion King slippers, a failed guide dog, Asian warriors like Wily Coyote, and even voracious old Pac-man.

Clay

Yum, yum.

John

The animation is wildly diverse from kaleidoscopic images in a short called Collision to a hippo, an alligator, and a deer accurately depicted while they argue like jealous humans, to a cut-out animation of a weird rabbit.

I didn’t see Vice President Cheney. Or maybe he was Pac-man digesting his enemies till only he’s left. You can never really tell with these formalistic frolics.

Clay ("The Animation Show 3")

You know, John, if I knew what a "formalistic frolic" was I might agree. But I don't, so here's my take on this collection.

Intro'd by Beavis and Butthead, The Animation Show 3 is a collection of eleven, sometimes clever, sometimes just weird films whose characters could never make it into a Disney movie.

The nastiest is Run Wrake's "Rabbit" which features Dick-and-Jane-like characters who take great delight in cutting open their favorite barnyard pets. The good part is you learn the words printed on-screen next to each of the slaughtered animals.

John (sarcastically)

Nice.

Clay

The smartest film is "Everything Will Be OK" which, these days, is good to know.

And "Guide Dog," the funniest, could have sprung, ironically, from the pages of The New Yorker.

That's it for me, game over . . . Bleep. Bleep.

John ("Blades of Glory")

Not so fast—the ice man cometh.

Clay

Oh, poor ice man.

John

A bit of ballet, precision, and dignity accrue to figure skating, a small world where civility dances with ability. Enter Will Ferrell, the deflator of formula racing and TV broadcasting (among other occupations), to skewer the rarefied competition of Olympic figure skating in Blades of Glory.

With Jon Heder of Napoleon Dynamite slacker blasting, Ferrell’s mock machismo makes him the Tom Jones and Heder the Owen Wilson of ice. They’re disqualified from competition because of their infantile public combat. They reconcile in time to enter competition as a team.

The climactic competition concludes with an amusingly outrageous assault on JFK and Marilyn Monroe . . .

Clay

Oh, dear.

John (continues his sentence)

. . . An affront to those who revere those icons but a delight to those who see pretense and revisionist history as fair game for Saturday Night Live and Will Ferrell.

Clay

Fair game,sure, but enough of sawed-off legs, stunted stunt men, sliced up rabbits, and gay bladed ice skaters, John, because it's grading time.

John

Holy HARRIED HARES, Hooray!

Clay

Overall "Grindhouse," gets a "B" because it smacks every Grade B movie right where it hurst . . .

John

"The Animation Show" earns a “B” for BLITHELY BURYING an ordered universe . . .

Clay

"The Animation Show" gets a "C" because it's a CLEVER showcase for arrested adolescent development . . .

John

"Blades of Glory" earns a “B” for BLADING close to BANALITY . .

Clay, I think the brother/sister skating couple in Blades is incestuous . . .

Clay

Oh, my.

John

But then I think Ferrell and Heder aren’t gay. I’m so confused I think I’m bipolar.

I'm outta here.

Clay

Ice it, John, because, with global warming and such, being bi-polar today would be more than you could bear.

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING THEME MUSIC("AIN'T WE GOT FUN"), THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

The award winning It's Movie Time is written and directed by John DeSando and Clay Lowe and can now be heard on-demand at: http://www. WCBE.org.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2007 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "The Namesake," "The Lookout," "Reign Over Me"

2007-03-29T17:09:00.000-07:00

WCBE 90.5 FM: The Namesake, The Lookout, Reign Over Me
John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Recording Time: Wednesday 1:30 pm, March 28, 2007
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, March 30, 2007
Streaming live on the web and on-demand at http://www.wcbe.org

Clay

"The Namesake" is a tale of two cities . . .

John

"The Lookout" is not really about a bank heist . . .

Clay

"Reign Over Me" is more Dylan than Sandler . . .

HIT MUSIC(THEME FROM "STAR WARS"), THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .

MUSIC UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe . . .

John ("The Namesake")

Clay, for an example of the word “saga,” see Mira Nair’s [nyer’s] Namesake. She traces a young Indian, Gogol, from his youth through his almost mid-life in New York with the attention to detail we all should hope from our biographers.

Clay

Yeah, well, the devil IS in those details.

John

Nair’s gentle narrative shows that no character’s fate seemscapricious, no culture overwhelming enough to keep a progressive child from emigrating to the New World.

In a way, Nair [nyer] has caught the bittersweet nature of change, embodied in America as the Promised Land and India as the nurturing, safe past. In Namesake both worlds are the province of the adventuresome child, whose challenge is to retain the values of both.

No one who has seen Salaam Bombay or Monsoon Wedding can question Nair’s romantic capture of culture crude and sublime.

Clay ("The Namesake")

Well, folks, Nair's "The Namesake" is based on a three-hundred some page novel that details a Bengali Indian family's move from Calcutta to New York City. Picking up on the novel's theme about the difficulties of cultural transitions, Mira Nair (Nyer), obviously identifies with the plight of the young man whose parents made him the namesake of a Russian novelist.

Neither truly Indian, nor truly American, Gogol thus comes to resent both the loss of his cultural identify and his own inability to more fully
integrate himself into his not so brave new world.

Playing down the exotic cultural differences she so colorfully featured in
"Monsoon Wedding," Nair (Nair) flattens out the differences this time, and forces us to more fully identify with the characters themselves.

John ("The Lookout")

Character? You want character?

You want a heist film? See Dog Day Afternoon. Don’t think the sweet Lookout will carry the same tension because Lookout heavily relies on the character exposition of its protagonist, Chris (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). The heist is just an artful ending to an absorbing study of depression and rehabilitation.

Chris, a rock-star hockey player in high school, terminates that celebrity with a reckless accident that leaves him impaired emotionally and physically. So he’s easy prey for a gang that entices him to help them rob a rural Kansas bank, where he is a janitor.

The Lookout is a small film, an invigorating study of humans under stress. All of us should “lookout” where we’re going, either on a lonely road or in a foolish heist.

Clay ("Reign Over Me")

And all of us, folks, should look out for movies that feature characters more media inspired than real. Case in point, Adam Sandler's psychotically grieving character in Mike Binder's new movie "Reign Over Me."

Seemingly inspired more by Bob Dylan album covers than the events of 911, Sandler's [former dentist] character dresses like Dylan, poses in the movie's poster like Dylan, and walks around with the hang-dog look of Dylan's adopted persona.

Come on, Binder and Sandler, get Real.

Mimicking the persona of a pop cultural icon, and borrowing pop music themes to serve as your movie's theme, has got to show through as shallow and false. And shallow and false it does show through with Sandler failing to exhibit real grief in this (too bad) pseudo-reality based film.

Nice try guys, but there'll be no Grammies this time.

(Pause)

But enough of inappropriate monikering, dufus grievering, and pop-cultural posturering, John, because it's grading time.

John

Holy HAPPENING HEIST, Hooray!

HIT DRUMS THEN UNDER FOR

John (Cont.)

"The Namesake" earns an “A” for brilliantly ANALYZING the notorious melting pot. . .

Clay

"The Namesake" gets a "B" because it's much longer than it needs to BE . . .

John

"The Lookout" earns a “B” for BASKING in characterization . . .

Clay

"Reign Over Me" gets a "C" because COMIC CHARACTERS become only more COMICAL when they try to be too serious . . .

John

Clay, my dentist, Dr. Dan Ward, could show Adam Sandler a thing or two about a happy practice without stress. I'm outta here.

Clay

John, Dr. Dan practiced good on you, and you've got the pearly whites to show it; but I'm cancelling my next visit to Dr. Sandler.

I'm outta here too.

HIT CLOSING THEME MUSIC("AIN'T WE GOT FUN?"), THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

It's Movie Time with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2007 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Flannel Pajamas," "Breaking and Entering," "Premonition"

2007-03-17T05:59:00.000-07:00

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Flannel Pajamas," "Breaking and Entering," "Premonition"
Co-hosted. written, and produced by John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, March 16, 2007
Streaming live on the web and on-demand at http://www.wcbe.org

Clay

"Flannel Pajamas" is not smoother than silk . . .

John

"Breaking and Entering" is a broken romance not entered for an Oscar. . .

Clay

"Premonition" is full of hunches to die for . . .

HIT MUSIC (STAR WARS THEME), THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .

MUSIC UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe . . .

John ("Flannel Pajamas")

The deconstruction of modern romance, marriage, and divorce is never pretty, as many of us who have lived the scenario can attest.

Clay

No doubt.

John

Jeff Lipsky’s engrossing Flannel Pajamas entertains with an uncompromising screenplay but depressing circumstances—the romantic meeting and disintegration of a marriage through minor character flaws.

Verisimilitude is the strength of Flannel Pajamas.

Clay

Sounds true to me.

John

But an American audience may not warm to scene after scene of mundane dialogue, the weight of which is in the details of failure to listen or to adjust to another’s rhythms.

Hubris wins the day. Pride in this drama hides behind glib talk and sexual longing, both of which fade and should cede to sacrifice and support. All the characters face is self-centeredness, a recipe for loneliness if ever there was one.

Clay ("Flannel Pajamas")

Well, John, to our ancient generation who grew up watching couples
eviscerate themselves in Ingmar Bergman films, "Flannel Pajamas" looks a little bit like child play.

And of course, that's what it is. Two, as you say, rather self-centered adults flailing away at each other. Sometimes grandstanding, sometimes genuinely damaged by the other's barbs and unconcerns.

John

Hmm, was that my wife number one or two? I can’t remember.

Clay

I'm sure I don't know. (continues)

A rather conservative film stylistically - full of one shots, two shots, and
covers; the movie is also dramatically mundane.

Featuring diner shots, office shots, and domestic settings, "Flannel
Pajamas" picks up on the nastiness of Bergman's warring couples. Then copies the endless dialogues of Eric Rohmer to advance the story of the painful collapse of their relationship.

Lacking Bergman's depths, and Rohmer's charms, however, "Flannel Pajamas" will make you think twice before getting involved.

John ("Breaking and Entering")

Twice did it for me. I’m outta that. But here’s another broken couple.

Breaking and Entering is a heart breaker: Juliette Binoche can’t warm up to the charm of actor Jude Law, who walks through another role as a child-like heart hunter. Add to those heartbreaks an ending not even remotely plausible and as romantically unresolved as any recent film’s.

Clay

Just another night at the movies, eh.

John (continues)

The premise is intriguing: Jude law’s architect gets involved with the
mother of a thief who has cat-burgled more than once his building project in London’s Kings Cross district.

The renovation of the “dicey” Kings Cross with Law’s project is symbolic of his need for a do-over. Yes, London looks good to this Anglophile. But in the end, the locale, classy figures of speech, and Underworld’s original score can’t overcome a cold hole in the film landscape that no building can overcome.

Clay ("Premonition")

Well, folks, Sandra Bullock's recent vehicle "Premonition" will have you admiring the actresses stoic talents, but will have you wondering what this movie's all about.

Too confused herself, Bullock's character must face the death of her husband, the maiming of her child, and an endless week that, then, takes it all back.

Part "Ground Hog Day," part "Momento," and the third part "Sliding Glass Doors," Mennan Yapo's "Premonition" is directed with a sure and steady hand. But the screenplay will leave you wondering what Bullock's character has done to deserve all of that suffering.

Maybe that's the point, even when you can see it coming. stuff just
happens. (pause)

Clay (then continues)

But enough of bedroom brawling, loveable break-ins, and ill-fated housewives, John, because it's grading time.

John

Holy Hubris, Hooray!

HIT DRUMS THEN UNDER FOR

John (continues)

"Flannel Pajamas" earns a “B” for its BITTER criticism of modern love. . .

Clay

"Flannel Pajamas" gets a "C" because their analysis is more painful than their
CRIMES . . .

John

"Breaking and Entering" earns a “D” for DUMBING DOWN Juliette Binoche . . .

Clay

"Premonition" gets a "C" because COUPLES CRASH when CAUGHT second guessing . . .

John

Clay, our couples today DIDN’T fare well over the long haul, not like us anyway who stopped hauling long ago.

Clay

Hey, our journey's not over yet, my dear friend. Who knows what might happen just down the road ahead?

I'm outta here too.

See you at Cleveland Film Festival, folks.

HIT CLOSING THEME MUSIC (AIN'T WE GOT FUN), THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

It's Movie Time with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by
John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus,
Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2007 by John DeSanto & Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "The Lives of Others," "Miss Potter," "Zodiac"

2007-03-10T15:40:00.000-08:00

WCBE 90.5 FM:
It's Movie Time: "The Lives of Others," "Miss Potter," "Zodiac"
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, March 9, 2007
Streaming live on the web and on-demand at http://www.wcbe.org

Clay

"The Lives of Others" might have been better called "The Listener" . . .

John

"Miss Potter" is a celebration of Beatrix’s gifts . . .

Clay

"Zodiac" is CSI on steroids . . .

HIT MUSIC (STAR WARS THEME), THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .

MUSIC UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe . . .

John ("The Lives of Others")

Clay, when I saw 2006’s Oscar winning The Departed, I was satisfied it could be the best picture of the year; then I saw Lives of Others, the best foreign film, and I knew it was the world’s best film of the year.

Clay

You've got it. The Departed is great craft, The Lives of Others is great drama . . .

John

It has interesting characters, thrilling plot, superb acting, and thematic weight. It’s East Berlin, 1984, still feeling the tremors of Nazism, in this case the Stasi, a government agency similar to the SS. A coldly efficient information gatherer surreptitiously watches a playwright and his actress girlfriend to get compromising details that would damn him and open the romantic way for the culture minister.

Clay

Bad for him.

John

Few other films could mine as well the rich conflict between the loyalties of friends and lovers and the crushing exigency of survival.

Here’s looking at you, best film of the year

Clay ("The Lives of Others")

Folks, "The Lives of Others" is also about conflicts INTERNAL.

Sure the movie's playwright refuses to write things that might upset the
East German government. But he also discovers his own guilt when his colleague is blacklisted for being more courageous and less cautious than he is.

And sure, the playwright's girlfriend loves him, but she must decide whether or not to betray him in order to save herself.

Finally, the listener, who has them under surveillance, must decide if he should turn state's evidence against them. For, it would seem, his eavesdropping has, ironically, caused him to respect them.

Beautifully acted, written, and directed, "The Lives of Others" is not only a deeply moving film, it is also far more relevant than it should be.

John ("Miss Potter")

Here's a lady who will always be relevant for kids.

As I said a while ago, in Miss Potter, Beatrix (Renee Zellweger) says, "There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story." Yes, it’s a sentimental but endearing biography of the creator of Peter Rabbit. Although we never really get to know the depths of Potter’s genius, Zellweger gives her a sunny optimism that is unusual in our cynical times.

Clay

She would have loved Katie Couric.

John

Potter’s romance with her publisher, deftly underplayed by Ewan McGregor, is about the only dramatic conflict in the story, which tends to imitate its benign little world of rabbits, ducks, and frogs. The touches of magic realism reinforce the romantic aura.

This film deserves praise for gently supporting a proto-feminist writer who resisted the social convenience of marriage in favor of her creative gifts.

Clay ("Zodiac")

Well, John, the social convenience of marriage was a drag on Jake Gyllenhal's character, who was obsessed with the Zodiac killer. Just check out his frustrated wife (Chloe Sevigny), who spends most of the movie trying to hold back her anger.

Praised by current San Francisco film critic, Mick LaSalle, because of the filmmaker's accurate adherence to detail; LaSalle also criticizes that detail when it gets in the way of the drama.

The movie's best performance is turned in by Robert Downey Jr. who plays the Chronicle reporter who originally covered the story. Tormented by his own demons, you begin to suspect that he might just turn out to be the killer.

Who knows, because we never find out.

John

Oh, no.

Clay

A bit of a comedown, eh, after 2 1/2 hours?

But enough of tormented journalists, governmental snoopers, and furry little bunnies, John, because it's grading time.

John

Holy Hares, Hooray!

HIT DRUMS THEN UNDER FOR

John (Cont.)

"The Lives of Others" earns an “A” for ASTOUNDING filmmaking from a first-time director . . .

Clay

"The Lives of Others" gets an "A" because it's ALL ABOUT learning how to live with yourself . . .

John

"Miss Potter" earns a “B” because BEATRIX was BORN to love BEASTS . . .

Clay

"Zodiac" gets a "B" because some BEASTS are more allusive than their hunters . . .

John

Clay, we're not above spying ourselves, me observing the absurdities of government officials and you the welfare of beautiful young women.

There is a difference.

I'm outta here.

Clay

John, a little spying goes a long way, and sticking your nose into somebody else's business can have its downsides.

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING THEME MUSIC (AIN'T WE GOT FUN), THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

It's Movie Time with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John
DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2007 John DeSando & Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Wild Hogs," "Bridge to Terabithia," "Amazing Grace"

2007-03-03T23:37:00.000-08:00

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: "Wild Hogs," "Bridge to Terabithia," "Amazing Grace"Co-hosts, writers & producers:
John DeSando & Clay Lowe with guest film Kristin Dreyer Kramer
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, March 2, 2007
Streaming live on the web and on-demand at http://www.wcbe.org

Clay

"Wild Hogs" is a whole lot funnier than you'd think . . .

John

"The Bridge to Tarabithia" is a bridge to imagination and friendship . . .

Clay

"Amazing Grace" is a heavy handed tribute to Brit abolitionist William Wilberforce . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Clay

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando, Clay Lowe and today's special guest, on-line film critic Kristin Dreyer Kramer . . .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

I'm Clay Lowe . . .

Kristin

And I'm Kristin Dreyer Kramer . . .

MUSIC DOWN AND OUT

Clay ("Wild Hogs")

Kristin and John . . .

Last week I promised that "Wild Hogs" would come roaring into town this weekend blowing smoke out of its tail pipes. But when it comes to trying to explain what makes the movie funny, it all boils down to: set-up, casting, and timing.

John

I've heard that.

Clay

Unfortunately, the set-up for "Wild Hogs" couldn't be more clichéd. Four middle-aged suburban men, who play macho on the weekends, hop on their cycles for a cross-country trip in an attempt to recapture their lost manhood.

Kristin

That sounds like trouble.

Clay

Fortunately, the casting was better. Tim Allen as the anchor, Martin Lawrence as everyman, William Macy as a closet hero, and John Travolta as the clown. But, even then, you still couldn't be sure the movie was going to be funny.

So what was left? Chemistry and timing.

And that's where they got it right, and that's why audiences will be howling.

John ("The Bridge to Terabithia")

Clay and Kristin:

Yes, buddies to the end.

Nothing is as satisfying in this life as friends to share love and imagination. Such is the good fortune of fifth-grader Jesse in the smart film, Bridge to Terabithia, adapted from the Newbury winning children’s book.

This film is unencumbered by the demands of eye-popping computer graphics, although it has some, but is centered on such universal themes as loyalty and creativity. Jesse is a fifth-grade pariah who befriends an eccentric female classmate. They create a magical forest with a giant troll and menacing squirrels among other exotica.

Kristin

Oh, I do hate the menacing squirrels.

Clay

But I love the exotica.

John

Not all turns out well, as it doesn't in real life, but enough good happens to give hope that the bridge will always help adolescents move to richer lives of friendship and love.

Kristin ("Bridge to Terabithia")

Maybe that bridge will lead them to friendship and love, John-or maybe it'll lead them to a prescription for Prozac.

John

With Clay as co-host I need one every week!

Kristin (continues)

The kids in this movie deal with poverty, death, and merciless bullies. Sure, it's honest, but it's pretty heavy stuff for kids-and for grown-ups, too. With a little more magic-and, yes, a few more effects-maybe it would have been easier to stomach. But, unfortunately, this good old-fashioned family movie isn't quite as delightful and enchanting as its ad campaign suggests.

Bridge to Terabithia does tell a touching story that will hit home with most kids, but it's not as magical as it could be. It's a simple, honest movie-but it might be a little too simple and a little too honest for
younger viewers.

John

Yeah, like our show.

Clay ("Amazing Grace")

Well, folks, the simple truth is that Michael Apted's "Amazing Grace" is an important movie. What could be of more historical importance than telling the story of the man who helped bring about the abolition of slavery in England?

Unfortunately, however, because Apted has chosen to direct "Amazing Grace" with more authority than wit, he has unwittingly stripped away most of the movie's passion.

Part of the problem's the casting. For though he called upon the likes of Albert Finney and Michael Gambon to play strong supporting roles, he cast a rather dull actor to play William Wilberforce. Imagine the well-intended Al Gore in the role and you'll get the picture.

John

I dunno; I’m feeling WARM about Goreacle.

Clay

You would. But it's still too bad that Apted succeeded in documenting the facts, but failed to capture Wilberforce's evangelical passions.

But enough, for now, of wild huggers, fantastical bridges, and bloodless crusaders, Kristin and John, because it's grading time.

John

Holy Hogsbreath, Hooray!

HIT DRUMS THEN UNDER FOR

Clay

"Wild Hogs" gets a "B" because BOYS will be BOYS even after they've BECOME men . . .

John

"The Bridge to Terabithia" earns an "A" because ADOLESCENTS can be dreamers, too . . .

Kristin

Bridge to Terabithia earns a C for CONTRIBUTING to the despair of a whole new generation.

Clay

"Amazing Grace" gets a C because it failed to COMMUNICATE what it was that made Wilberforce tick . . .

John

Clay,

Kristin and I are kids at heart, so we're going now to explore the dark woods and don't need any deep-voiced, Greek-hatted troll following us!!
I'm outta here.

Clay

Not so, folks. Kristin and I will be the ones running on ahead, and it's little Johnny who'll be wagging his little tail behind him.

I'm outta here too, but ya'll come back again soon, Kristin, do ya heah?

Kristin

Obviously, you old guys are living in a fantasy world if you think you can keep up with me.

I'm outta here too.

Clay

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING THEME MUSIC, THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

It's Movie Time with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2007 John DeSando & Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "The Astronaut Farmer," "Ghost Rider," "The Number 23"

2007-02-25T16:07:00.000-08:00

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: "The Astronaut Farmer," "Ghost Rider," "The Number 23"
Co-hosted, produced & directed by John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, February 23, 2007
Streaming live on the web and on-demand at http://www.wcbe.org .

Clay

"The Astronaut Farmer" is "Apollo 13" on horseback . . .

John

"Ghost Rider" blazes with banality. . .

Clay

"The Number 23" adds to the dross of this pre-Oscar season . . .

HIT THEME MUSIC

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

I'm Clay Lowe . . .

John ("The Astronaut Farmer")

Clay, as I asked last week about Breach, how do you take an inherentlyinteresting true story, this time about a former astronaut drop out who launches himself into orbit, and make that story slow, dull, and corny?

Clay

I still don't know.

John

The Astronaut Farmer reaches that state.

Charles Farmer (Billie Bob Thornton) is determined to achieve his quixotic goal at the risk of jettisoning his family and close friends by losing his too-well-ordered farm and his loving, dutiful, and way too accepting wife, Audrey (Virginia Madsen), a clichéd part like all the others.

Everyone is a caricature, as the film itself is almost a parody of the American dream: It relies on the American tradition of individualism, even at the expense of those closest to the dreamer.

Clay ("The Astronaut Farmer")

Folks, "The Astronaut Farmer" IS as caricature of weird-geek heroes. If you've seen the Polish brothers even weirder "Northfork," you'd get the picture even better.

So, they do get the weird part right, but their heroes come off as being so self-satisfied that you find yourself, finally, not caring what happens to them.

John

Hey, that’s ME!

Clay

Billy Bob Thornton made us love him in his own written and directed film, "Sling Blade." And Sam Raimi extracted an even more subtle performance out of Thornton in the wonderful movie "A Simple Plan."

John

Right!

Clay

But three weirdos do not make a right, and the Polish brothers plus Billy Bob transform this movie's would-be Don Quixote into Sancho Panza.

Thank god for Virginia Madsen's accepting wife, John, she would have made a fine Dulcinea.

John ("Ghost Rider")

She’s DULLINEA to me.

Clay

Too bad.

John

How about some more space-out junk? Ghost Rider is a forgettable comic book adaptation.

Clay

Too many of them are . . .

John

Nicholas Cage plays Johnny Blaze, who sells his soul to Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda—who else would be peddling chopped bikes?). Now Blaze rides his cycle at night, skeleton head ablaze, protecting the innocent and being very bad about bad boys.

Cage is miscast with abs that must have been digitized (he couldn't be in all these second-rate films and develop a six pack like that). As for the cleavage of his girlfriend played by Eva Mendes, that looked real to me, a typical comic book TITillation.

Clay

John, it's time somebody weaned you.

John

(Laughs, then goes on.)

The computer graphics of ghosts and wrecks is just fun enough for comic book geeks to enjoy and regular geeks like me to think I should read the comic to get really in on the action.

Clay ("The Number 23")

John, if it's action on the biker circuit you want, then skip "The Number 23" and hold out for next week's "Wild Hogs." Now that's a movie that going to be a hot entertainment. But, unfortunately, "The Number 23" fails to add up, no matter how you tally the figures.

And that's all Jim Carrey does in "The Number 23. " He is incessantly obsessed with that number, and spends the rest of the movie trying to extract the meaning of his life from that particular numerary.

The only thing this movie shares with the far more creative "The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is its lead character and dark shadows. And nobody does dark shadows darker than "Number 23's" director, Joel (Batman Forever) Schumacher.

John

That's dark.

Clay

Trust me. It's an inexplicable downer.

But enough of space-suited Quixotes, blazing bikesters, and misguided numerologists, John, because it's grading time.

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

Holy Hot Honda, Hooray!

"The Astronaut Farmer" earns a C for its CATATONIC pace . . .

Clay

"The Astronaut Farmer" gets a "C" because Mark Polish is no CERVANTES . . .

John

"Ghost Rider" earns a C for its faux COMIC book CANdescence. . .

Clay

"The Number 23" gets a "D" because its DARKNESS DOES not become it . . .

TAKE DRUMS UNDER, THEN OUT

Clay (continues)

But one quick note, John, before we leave. Check out the DREXEL Gateway's Oscar Party this Sunday night. And double check out its talented MC, our Wild Hog buddy, Johnny DiLoretto.

John

Clay--I’ve ridden motorcycles for over 30 years, and I dare say the ladies thought I blazed. I’m outta here.

Clay

Wrong again, John, they said you're flamed out. Shazaam!

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING MUSIC, THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John DeSando and Clay
Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio

Copyright 2007 John DeSando & Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Breach," "Children of Men"

2007-02-19T07:29:00.000-08:00

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: "Breach," "Children of Men"
Co-hosted, produced & directed by John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, February 16, 2007
Streaming live on the web and on-demand at http://www.wcbe.org .

Clay

"Breach" is based on the true story of a religious zealot turned traitor . .

John

"Children of Men" is the Central Ohio Film Critics Association pick for best picture of 2006

HIT THEME MUSIC

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

I'm Clay Lowe . . .

John ("Breach")

Clay--go figure: FBI agent Robert Hanssen was the most notorious spy in American history. How could you make a dull movie out of this setup? Director Billy Ray has achieved the impossible: Robert Hanssen’s capture in Breach is less interesting than Paris Hilton partying with Britney Spears, even with panties.

Clay

I prefer my LAMBCHOPS with panties.

John

Breach provides little character motivation or excitement. If you consider getting Hanssen’s palm pilot contents or electronically sweeping his car exciting, then you haven’t seen Casino Royale or even The Good Shepherd, a slow thriller but a veritable potboiler by comparison.

Breach does succeed in depicting a depressing world of lies, failures, and conversations centering around whether or not an FBI career is worth it. I suppose “Yes” if your job is going through X Files. Otherwise, drive a truck.

Clay ("Breach")

Depressing world of lies and failures, John? Well, of course - the movie's set in Washington.

But instead of being another political thriller about betrayal in high places - think this year's [2006 ?] The Sentinel with Michael
Douglas. "Breach" is a colorless rendition of Hanssen's real-life story of misplaced trust.

Fault not Chris Cooper, however, for failing to get a handle on what it was that made Agent Hanssen tick. Fault the movie's writers instead. And fault the director who turns this intriguing tale into something dullish and bland. Unfortunately, the movie's visual ambiance is also as dull and lifeless as is the movie's narrative.

However, Ryan Phillipe is quite good as the young agent who outfoxes the fox.

John

And you—he’s as dull as the movie itself.

Clay (continues)

You're wrong . . .

And, Laura Linney turns in an impressive (ouch) imitation of Jodie Foster's character in Silence of the Lambs.

John ("Children of Men")

In 2027, women have been infertile for 18 years.

Clay

Someone fell asleep at the wheel.

John

An excellent addition to the sci-fi canon, Children of Men shows how everyone is out for numero uno, except former British freedom fighter, Theo (Clive Owen), who tries to save the only surviving pregnant woman.

As always, it seems only one man can bring salvation, a scenario getting a bit worn by now. Children of Men opened, after all, on Christmas day.

Director Alfonso Cuaron’s bleak visual design is inspired by Mad Max and Blade Runner; it is also the work of production designers keeping Theo in garbage, battered buildings, and burned-out vehicles.

Children of Men doesn’t nurture the big themes as much as I’d like because of the emphasis on visual design and sparse substantive dialogue.

Clay ("Children of Men")

Well, folks, director Curon, who also brought us Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkahban, has turned his "Children of Men" into an equally fabulist film. What a year this has been for the Mexican magical-realists - think also Pan's Labyrinth and Babel.

So, though set in and around London in environs that echo the earlier worlds of Dicken's Oliver Twist, Children of Men's real setting is in an imaginary world of darkling plains where human beings act out their final scene.

Clive Owens is brilliant as the movie's hero/anti-hero. Michael Caine is superb as the hobitt-like wiseman whose forest retreat is the only sane place left in the world.

And special praise to Claire-Hope Ashitey, whose character carries within her womb the last great hope for humankind's survival.

But enough of gray walled FBI offices and end-of-the-world-scenarios, John, because it's grading time.

John

Holy Jalapenos, Hooray.

"Breach" earns a C for not CARING about DRAMATIC intrigue . . .

Clay

"Breach" gets a "C" because we never find out why COOPER's CHARACTER betrayed his COUNTRY . . .

John

"Children of Men" earns an A for ASTONISHING APOCALYPSE . . .

Clay

"Children of Men" gets an "A" because there ARE moviemakers who care . .

John

Clay, Hanssen’s doing 23 hours a day in solitary. I doubt if ANYONE in the current Bush administration will do an hour of solitary for the BREACH in the Libby case.

“Once more unto the breach, dear friends.”

I’m outta here.

Clay

Solitary would be too good for them, John. They should be forced to share one cell, and one bar of soap.

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC, THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

HiT MUSIC, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2007 John DeSando & Clay Lowe

FRONTLINE (PBS): News Wars (Four Part Series)

2007-02-13T23:43:00.000-08:00

FRONTLINE (PBS)
Excellent four part series on media, government, and the news

Parts I & II: Secrets, Sources & Spin (February 13, 2007)
Extensive look at the issues involved in the "Valerie Plame" CIA leak case.

Part III: What's Happening to the News (February 27, 2007)

Part IV: Stories From a Small Planet (March 27, 2007)

All programs are available for download or can be ordered on DVD.

For more information see:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newswar/

SEE ALSO: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Plame

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Because I Said So," "Chinatown," "Harold and Maude"

2007-02-09T05:43:00.000-08:00

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: "Because I Said So," "Chinatown," "Harold and Maude"
Written, produced, and directed by John DeSando and Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, February 9, 2007
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org
Download at http://www.wcbe.org ("arts")

John

"Because I Said So" is a comedy no one should SAY is good . . .

Clay

"Chinatown" is a film noir masterpiece in full color . . .

John

"Harold and Maude" is a comedy I SAY is better than most . . .

HIT THEME MUSIC (STAR WARS)

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

I'm Clay Lowe . . .

John ("Because I Said So")

Clay, Diane Keaton in Because I Said So plays an obsessed mom on a campaign to marry off a daughter, Mandy Moore, whose catering business has become her love rather than an eligible man.

Clay

You mean she's not happy catering to men?

John

The only way to save this lame romantic comedy, which exists to showcase the aging Keaton’s remarkable body and lingering Annie-Hall flourishes, is to include enough pratfalls, cakes in the face, and other comic clichés to hope that the pre-Oscar audience, hungry for even a whiff of entertainment, will ignore the stupidity of the script and Keaton’s forced performance, surely signs that this actress knew it all was weak from the get-go.I was embarrassed for Moore, who deserves much better material.

Clay

Boy, you hate this movie.

John

Avoid Because I Said So because I said so.

Clay ("Chinatown")

Well, folks, I SAY, if you're listening to our three o'clock show you'll be able to catch "Chinatown" (1974) tonight at the Wex. But if you're listening at eight, best settle for a rental because it's booked only for a one night stand.

In a mood, thicker than evil, director Roman Polanski goes for substance rather than show. Steven Soderberg should have taken his lessons from him on how to really capture the spirit of film noir.

John

I presume you’re referring to the not so Good German.

Clay

Jawol! (quick pause, then)

Go for the acting: Polanski centers on Jack Nicholson, the personification of the busted-cop turned private private eye.

Go for the dialogue: Robert Towne's tailored his script to match the cynicism of Nicholson's persona.

And, finally, go for the heart: let Jerry Goldsmith's steamy music drive home the mood.

HIT MUSIC (CAT STEVENS), THEN UNDER FOR NEXT TWO REVIEWS

John ("Harold and Maude")

Oh, those steamy ‘70’s. Here’s another one:

Last week, we saw Peter O’Toole’s ancient Maurice courting a woman more than
60 years younger. This week at Studio 35 we study Ruth Gordon’s 79 year old Maude courting 20 year old Harold in the splendid 1971 comedy Harold and Maude.

Clay

Must be something in the water.

John

My screenwriting daughter calls it an inspiration for her writing career. I count it a hilarious affirmation of the bond between the young and the old, and the living and the dead, Joyce’s melancholy unity.

Clay

More like the quick and the dead . . .

John

Mmm . . . a younger Sharon Stone in leather . . .

Harold and Maude has a carpe diem motif best described by Maude: “We have only now. We own nothing else.”

Maude also counsels Harold to “go out and love some more.” If that doesn’t catch the spirit of the free-love seventies, then you, Dr., are not the hermaphrodite of love, the embodiment of O’Toole and Gordon.

Clay ("Harold and Maude")

Well, folks, the high cliffs and rolling hills of California's Big Sur have always embodied the sense of place for wounded souls.

Think the poet Robinson Jeffers. Think photographer EdwardWeston. And think prose writers: Jack Kerouac and Henry Miller. Something there in those barren landscapes that attracts free spirits.

So what better place could Harold retreat to when he needed to mourn his loss of Maude. I know, John, it's a spoiler, but come on she was even older than we are.

John

IMDB didn’t forgive you for spoiling and I won’t either.

Clay (continues)

One of those genuinely sweet movies (that don't torture your teeth), Harold and Maude counters its inherent over-the-top romanticism with it use of equally over-the-top black humor.

Score one for the hippies, and one more for the music of Yusuf Islam, the former Cat Stevens.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

But enough of reincarnated Annie Halls, slit-nosed detectives, and sagging bodies, John, because it’s grading time.

John

Holy Has-Been Hippies, Hooray.

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER

John (Cont)

"Because I Said So" earns a D for DAMAGING DIANE’S career . . .

Clay

"Chinatown" gets an "A" because good writing and good directing ALWAYS
triumph over time . . .

John

"Harold and Maude" earns an A for AUDACIOUS AMOUR . . .

Clay

"Harold and Maude" gets a "B" because even singing troubadours have to move on . . .

John

Clay, we’ve had incest and incontinent lust today. “Who knows the secrets
of the human heart?”

I'm outta here.

Clay

Elementary, dear doctor, our vice-president knows, but he's not talking.

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC (CAT STEVENS "IF YOU WANT TO SING OUT"), THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright John DeSando & Clay Lowe 2007

WCBE 90.5 FM: "The Good German," "Venus"

2007-02-04T09:34:00.000-08:00

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: "The Good German," "Venus"
Co-hosted, produced & directed by John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, February 2, 2007
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org
To listen to this show, cut and paste here:
http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/.artsmain/article/13/22/1034740/It's.Movie.Time.On-Demand/It's.Movie.Time,.February.2,.2007.On-Demand/

John

"The Good German" is good technique but bad film . . .

Clay

"Venus" is a tongue-in-the-cheek to eccentric old men . . .

HIT THEME MUSIC

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

I'm Clay Lowe . . .

John ("The Good German")

"Look at these sleeves, all this ruching! Nobody ever wears anything like
this anymore!"

Clay

Whatever that is.

John

That’s Cate Blanchett’s survivor in 1945, using her body to get out of Berlin in The Good German, a kind of film they don’t make anymore either. George Clooney tries to help his former lover. It is difficult to find dialogue that can recreate the idealism and world weariness Bogey and Bergman easily projected.

Steven Soderberg recreates the look of Casablanca: Lenses are fixed, CGI takes a vacation, process shots are obvious, and booms might show anytime without wireless recording.

It’s all style, 40’s style, and the actors force their characters into the same style, awkwardly and artificially.

They don’t make films like this anymore, they never did, and they shouldn’t.

Clay ("The Good German")

Well, folks, though the black and white visual look of "The Good German" IS scrupulously authentic, it seems to have been achieved at the expense of his cast. So, while Soderberg was running around setting the lights and running the camera, who was left to work with the actors?

John

I don't know.

Clay (laughs)

No one.

Sure, George Clooney looks great in uniform, but he's never acted so wooden and blank-faced on-screen. And that's too bad, because it's impossible to believe in the passion he's supposed to have for his former lover, played equally distanced, by his Garbo-like co-star, Cate Blanchett.

Worst of all, Toby McGuire's character is so obnoxious that you can't wait for him to get blown away.

But, fair enough, if Van Sant can muddle "Psycho," then Soderberg should be able to bumble "Casablanca."

John ("Venus")

Let me play this quote again, Sam:

“Do no let me hear
Of the wisdom of old men, but rather of their folly . . . .”

That's T. S. Eliot

Clay

Oh, I thought it was DeSando.

John (goes on)

In Venus, Maurice (Peter O’Toole) is an aging thespian who meets a buddy’s young housekeeper and forms a friendship built on his impotent, prurient interest in her as the embodiment of Velazquez’s Venus and in her sassiness and openness.

Although O’Toole plays Maurice too infirm for me, he is as always a delight. As good as Maurice and Jessie are at sparring, he and his ex-wife Valerie (Vanessa Redgrave) are a better match with a low-key sentimentality characteristic of this enjoyable film, in which old age is infirm but indomitable.

O’Toole again in a leading role shows greatness that endures beyond the physical fading to black.

Clay ("Venus")

Folks, you can almost feel the London damp and smell the camphor in Maurice's small apartment filled with the persona of a shaggy, shaggy Peter O'Toole playing his character as though he were ten years older than he is.

Nevertheless, O'Toole, even playing an ancient, is able to keep it bright and light because he has never lost the evanescent twinkle of his ever so clear and blue eyes.

The wonderful, and quite naughty message of "Venus" is what clever old men have come to learn over the passage of time namely, that the way to sing a young woman's body-electric is to plug your charm into her mind.

John

“Thoughts of a dry brain in a dry season.”

Clay

Seeds in a pod. Tick. Tick. Tick. (continues)

O'Toole's performance may not win him his Oscar, but it does further endear him to our hearts.

But enough of neo-realists, failed Nazis, and wicked old men, John, because it's grading time.

John

Holy Gerontion, Hooray.

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER

John (continues)

"The Good German" earns a “C” because noir needs CHARACTER as well as CINEMATOGRAPHY . . .

Clay

"The Good German" gets a "D" because good DIRECTORS DON'T hang their actors out to DRY. . .

John

"Venus" earns a “B” for BARELY BARING O’Toole’s talent . . .

Clay

"Venus" gets a "B" because Peter O'Toole has still not lost that BULGE in his BREECHES . . .

John

Clay, I’d say you’ve experienced a few Venuses in your time. “Chaste and from afar,” isn’t that how you’ve described it all to me, Don Quixote? Oh, yeah!

I'm outta here.

Clay

Well, John, my own image of Venus long hung over my piano; and I loved, even her, pure and chaste from afar.

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC, THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM,WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

HIT THEME CLOSING THEME MUSIC: THE FRENCH NATIONAL ANTHEM FROM "CASABLANCA"

Copyright 2007 John DeSando & Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Catch and Release," "Smokin' Aces"

2007-01-26T21:51:00.000-08:00

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: "Catch and Release," "Smokin’ Aces"
Co-hosted, produced & directed by John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, January 26, 2007
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

John

"Catch and Release" is the worst romantic comedy of the year . . .

Clay

"Smokin’ Aces" is the bloodiest . . .

HIT THEME MUSIC

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

I'm Clay Lowe . . .

John ("Catch and Release")

She has dimples, an upper lip looking like a hammer hit it, and she gets the best Hollywood roles. As that Julia Roberts glides into middle age, her younger version, Jennifer Garner, may be the heir apparent but not for her role as Gray Wheeler in Catch and
Release.

Gray's fiance has died and she discovers his indiscrete past. The film has nothing new or comic to say or laugh about grief and discovery, just about unchecked lusts for love and food (Clerks’ Kevin Smith is a sloppy, overweight, loveable friend, infrequently funny, as when an erotic massage therapist literally jumps his bones).

Catch and Release is a romantic comedy whose romance is low-grade (she just lost her fiancé, for goodness sake) and comedy low-ball.

Clay ("Catch and Release")

John, low-grade indeed. "Catch and Release" writer, Susannah Grant, who brought home the goods with her feminist friendly "Erin Brockovich," has waded in way over her head this time around. And this, her first attempt to direct one of her own scripts, only further muddies the waters.

Too bad for ingenue Jennifer Garner, because not even Julie Roberts, nor even the great Hepburn, could have helped to save this picture.

Garner's character, understandably, is in a gray funk during most of the film's opening scenes. But neither the director, nor the script, nor the movie's fairly talented cast is able to metamorphose the movie's tragic opening into a heartwarming comedy.

The good news is, the movie's trendy Colorado setting will have you thinking about planning a vacation there, come June.

John ("Smokin’ Aces")

OK—How about Nevada’s Lake Tahoe, then?

It’s not the witty Departed or the verbally abusive Reservoir Dogs, but Smokin’ Aces is bloodier than both and may rival Dogs and even Pulp Fiction for amusing absurdity. Aces is aces for a kind of sick mayhem that can be funny, often because of the street trash talk and off-the-wall plot.

The film traces several hit men and women converging on a Lake Tahoe resort where a notorious gangster is dieing but calling for the heart of a rival for $1 million. It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World with guns, a treasure hunt that brings in FBI agents, hookers, and international stars of the mob world.

Director Joe Carnahan doesn’t have the finesse of Quentin Tarantino, yet he does have a deft hand at making violence interesting.

Clay ("Smokin’ Aces")

Violence interesting, John, where have you been during the evening news? Violence, it would seem, is intrinsically fascinating.

What a no brainer. Our culture is in love with violence. So, if you accept that, "Smokin' Aces" is just perversely bloody fun.

But, because Carnahan, like Tarantino - and Kubrick before him, has a talent for morphing the elements of extreme pop culture: music, fashion, jivey talk (and our the love of guns), into grand cinematic blood baths . . . perhaps they'll finally help us get the picture that violence is indigenous, at least to culture as we know it today.

"Smokin' Aces," along with "Kill Bill" (and Mel Gibson's recent "Apocalypto"), may be nothing more than outrageous appeals to our baser instincts. But that turns out to be a message of its own, eh?

But enough of swelling lips, bloody hipsters, and pop-cultural introspection, John, because . . . it's grading time . . .

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR:

John

Holy Herpes, Hooray

"Catch and Release" earns a “D” for DEADLY DIALOGUE . . .

Clay

"Catch and Release" gets a "D" because good writers do not always make good DIRECTORS . . .

John

"Smokin’ Aces" earns a “B” for BLOODY BUSINESS that’s not BAD . . .

Clay

"Smokin’ Aces" gets a "C" because it's CLEVER, but not CLEARLY intended . .

John

Clay, I hope after YOU leave this world YOUR girlfriend doesn’t find out about all the indiscretions YOU’VE left behind . . .

I’m outta here.

Clay

Having a girlfriend would be an indiscretion for me, John, and whatever I leave behind will be under lock and key.

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING MUSIC: "AIN'T WE GOT FUN," THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe iswritten produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM,WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2007 John DeSando & Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Letters From Iwo Jima," "Miss Potter," "Sweet Land"

2007-01-19T07:14:00.000-08:00

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: "Letters From Iwo Jima," "Miss Potter," "Sweet Land"
Co-hosted, produced & directed by John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, January 19, 2007
On Demand at http://www.wcbe.org

Clay

"Letters From Iwo Jima" is a Japanese language film directed by Clint Eastwood . . .

John

"Miss Potter" is an placid biography of a famous children’s author . . .

Clay

"Sweet Land" is a sweet movie about a shy homesteader and his mail order bride . . .

HIT THEME MUSIC

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

I'm Clay Lowe . . .

John ("Letters From Iwo Jima")

Clay, General Tommy Franks couldn’t withstand the biographical scrutiny Clint Eastwood gives to the Japanese commander in Letters from Iwo Jima. The ill-conceived preparations for the Iraq War pale next to the care General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe), took at Iwo.

Clay

And many of his own officers violently disagreed with his tactics.

John

I AGREE with you.

Clay

Good choice.

John (Continues)

Although the outcome of the battle was preordained because by February of 1945 the Japanese war machine was almost depleted, Eastwood suffuses the network of 5000 caves with a light that symbolizes the Japanese soldiers’ love of country and belief in its destiny.
It may not be the Oscar winner for this year, but it is another first-rate film the director has slipped in at the end of the year in an apparent strategy to get us to notice it.

He had my attention at Mystic River.

Clay ("Letters From Iwo Jima")

That river flows on, John, as do the tides of war.

Kudos, therefore, to Clint Eastwood for bringing into closer perspective what it was like on both sides of the bloody battle for Iwo Jima during in the closing days of WWII.

Not so much a counter-part to his "Flags of Our Fathers," which depicted how it all seemed for the invading American foot soldiers, "Letters From Iwo Jima" takes us behind the battle lines of the Japanese defending their homeland island.

"Flags," however, focuses primarily on how those events impacted the post-war memories of the U.S. soldiers. Conversely, "Letters" takes greater interest in revealing the internal struggles taking place between the militarist Japanese officers and their more humane commanding general.

My, oh my, whatever happened to "Dirty Harry"?

John (Miss Potter)

He’s lost in Iraq.

Clay

No, that's dirty George.

John (Continues)

When Beatrix Potter (lovingly played by Renee Zellweger) says in Miss Potter, "There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story," you can anticipate a sentimental but endearing biography of the Tale of Peter Rabbit’s creator. Although we never really get to know the depths of Potter’s genius, Zellweger gives her a sunny optimism infectious in our cynical times.

Her romance with her publisher, deftly underplayed by Ewan McGregor, is about the only dramatic conflict in the story, which tends to imitate the benign world of rabbits, ducks, and frogs. The touches of magic realism reinforce the romantic aura.

This film also deserves praise for supporting a pre-feminist writer who resisted the social convenience of marriage in favor of her creative gifts.

Clay ("Sweet Land")

Well, folks, "Sweet Land" is also in gentle contrast to Eastwood's film about the yapping dogs of war.

But war was not a forgotten issue among the rural villagers whose sons and fathers had fought the Germans during the first Great War.

Featuring a shy young farmer, who invites a mail order bride from Norway to be his helpmate, he and the town are shocked when they discover she’s German and can speak only that language.

Shades of the Hun-haters "Bad Day at Black Rock".

So, can this lovely lady, with her good looks, and sweet music (she has brought along a phonograph player), win her way into the hearts of these people?

You bettchum.

"Sweet Land" is a visual delight that will, begrudgingly, charm you.

But enough of humanized enemies, anthropomorphic rabbits, and winsome beauties, John, because it's grading time . . .

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR:

John

Holy Happy Hares, Hooray!

"Letters From Iwo Jima" earns an “A” for its depiction of heroism from an ANAMOLOUS point of view . . .

Clay

"Letters From Iwo Jima" gets a "B" because Eastwood gets BOGGED down during the ending . . .

John

"Miss Potter" earns a “B” for help BRINGING animals into kiddy lit . .

Clay

"Sweet Land" gets a "B" because it's a BEAUTIFUL film that got made outside of the system . . .

John

Clay, Potter was filmed in the England’s Lake District, where you refused to photograph a dead sheep for me. I can’t forgive you. I’m outta here.

Clay

John, when I'm worried I don't count sheep, I count my blessings; and so should you while there's still time . . .

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING MUSIC, THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM,WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2007 John DeSando & Clay Lowe

Central Ohio Film Critics Association Awards: Best Films, 2006

2007-01-15T18:54:00.000-08:00

The 5th Annual Central Ohio Film Critics Association Awards, honoring the best in film for 2006, were announced on January 11, 2007.

Best Film
   1. Children of Men
   2. The Departed
   3. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
   4. Pan's Labyrinth
   5. Little Miss Sunshine
   6. Brick
   7. United 93
   8. Babel
   9. Thank You for Smoking
  10. Casino Royale

Best Director
  • Martin Scorsese - (The Departed)
  • Runner-Up: Alfonso Cuarón - (Children of Men)

Best Actor
  • Leonardo DiCaprio - (The Departed)
  • Runner-Up: Sacha Baron Cohen - (Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan)

Best Actress
  • Helen Mirren - (The Queen)
  • Runner-Up: Meryl Streep - (The Devil Wears Prada)

Best Supporting Actor
  • Eddie Murphy - (Dreamgirls)
  • Runner-Up: Alan Arkin - (Little Miss Sunshine)

Best Supporting Actress
  • Jennifer Hudson - (Dreamgirls)
  • Runner-Up: Rinko Kikuchi - (Babel)

Best Ensemble
  • The Departed
  • Runner-Up: Little Miss Sunshine

Actor of the Year (for an exemplary body of work)
  • Clive Owen - (Children of Men, Inside Man)
  • Runner-Up: Leonardo DiCaprio - (Blood Diamond, The Departed)

Breakthrough Film Artist
  • Jennifer Hudson - (Dreamgirls) - (for acting)
  • Runner-Up: Sacha Baron Cohen - (Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby) - (for acting and writing)

Best Cinematography
  • Dean Semler - (Apocalypto)
  • Runner-Up: Guillermo Navarro - (Pan's Labyrinth)

Best Screenplay - Adapted
  • William Monahan - (The Departed)
  • Runner-Up: Alfonso Cuarón, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus, and Hawk Ostby - (Children of Men)

Best Screenplay - Original
  • Rian Johnson - (Brick)
  • Runner-Up: Michael Arndt - (Little Miss Sunshine)

Best Score
  • Gustavo Santaolalla - (Babel)
  • Runner-Up: Nathan Johnson - (Brick)

Best Documentary
  • An Inconvenient Truth
  • Runner-Up (tie): Wordplay
  • Runner-Up (tie): Jesus Camp

Best Foreign Language Film
  • Pan's Labyrinth
  • Runner-Up: Letters from Iwo Jima

Best Animated Film
  • Cars
  • Runner-Up: Monster House

Best Overlooked Film
  • Brick
  • Runner-Up: The Descent

See: http://www.cofca.org/awards.php

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Volver," "Freedom Writers," "Notes on a Scandal"

2007-01-12T17:39:00.000-08:00

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: "Volver," "Freedom Writers," "Notes on a Scandal"
Co-hosted, produced & directed by John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, January 12, 2007
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

Clay

"Volver" reminds us that Penelope Cruz is both beautiful and talented . . .

John

"Freedom Writers" is not just another educational film . . .

Clay

"Notes on a Scandal" makes it hard to love the movie's two teachers . . .

HIT THEME MUSIC

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

I'm Clay Lowe . . .

John ("Volver")

Clay-Volver (“to return”), starring Penelope Cruz, begins with an establishing scene unlike any other this year: The tracking
camera shows scores of Spanish women scrubbing the graves of their beloved deceased. The tone is happy, almost lyrical, and appropriate to mirror the admixture of living and dead in the story, with the dead seriously influencing the living.

Clay

As they should be.

John

Writer/director Pedro Almodovar flirts with magical realism without compromising his signature love of people and eccentric lives. Typically few men intrude into this gynecentric world.

Clay
Why would they?

John

Because unlike us, they’re WUSSES.

Almodovar has not only successfully visited his past, but he has also made almost poetic the return of anyone, living or dead, to make amends and renew a love once strong but now compromised by all the mistakes of an imperfect
life.

Clay ("Volver")

Folks, in the Spanish language film Volver, Penelope Cruz returns to the screen, not as a dippy sex bomb, but as a strong independent wife-mother who's struggling to give to her daughter the love she failed to share with her own deceased mom.

Set both in Madrid and in the small rural town of La Mancha, Volver, gives director Almodovar an opportunity to revisit the childhood he also spent in that dusty little village.

Much as Fellini revisited and revered his boyhood spent among the peasants in rural Italy, Almodovar romantically indulges the villagers strengths, superstitions, and quirky weaknesses.

And like Fellini, Almodovar, is so skillfully able to draw us into their lives, that we too begin to believe that the dead can return to lovingly haunt us.

John (“Freedom Writers”)
Freedom Writers is not clichéd;

Clay

Who said it was?

John

Paris Hilton . . .

Clay

Of course.

John

It’s based on at-risk students in early ‘90’s Long Beach, relating the essential truth about education: Most students have a voice if a teacher can find it; most students can thrive when a teacher creates a sense of family amid chaos, as Emily Gruwell (Hilary Swank) did.

The diaries her students wrote inspired students around the country to do the same. But those actors as students: They’re too old to be playing 14 and 15 year olds.

Freedom Writers reminds us why we love a profession that gives us a chance to save souls in the only way we can outside the uncertain faith of religion. This film is a front-running entry in a long history of teaching brought to its ideal form in film.

Clay ("Notes on a Scandal")

Well, John, saving souls is not exactly what's on Sheba Hart's mind when she enters a darkened art room one night and gives herself over to one of her boyishly handsome high school students. Oh, the shame of it all.

And that, of course, is why the movie's called Notes on a Scandal. Ta Da!

To make matters worse, Sheba (as played by Cate Blanchett), is both a married woman and a mom.

John

Yes, the combination is so scandalous!

Clay

Not scuzzy enough? Blanchett's Sheba then discovers she's also the secret object of an older colleague's lonely-lust (Judith Dench).

Unfortunately, everything happens so fast in the film you never have time to either understand or care about the characters.

So, is the movie about abusive power relationships? Or, is it about developing self-awareness? Who knows?

John

You obviously don't, thereby missing the film's strengths.

Clay

Bottom line, folks, this Scandal is no Madame Bovary.

But enough of thespians Cruz, Swank, Dench, and Blanchett, because it's grading time.

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR:

John

Holy Harridans, Hooray

"Volver" earns a “B” for BARING Penelope Cruz’s BEAUTY . . .

Clay

"Volver" gets an "A" because ALMODOVAR'S women are ALWAYS stronger than the men . . .

John

"Freedom Writers" earns a “B” for BETTING on the promise of youth . . .

Clay

"Notes on a Scandal" gets a "C" because the real scandal is we don't CARE
what happens to the movie's main CHARACTERS . . .

John

Clay—Teachers like us in Higher Education just never had it rough in the
class room, except for your photo/cinema classes, where points were awarded
for point and shoot, or was that a porno film? I’m confused, and I'm outta
here.

Clay

Point and shoot? No way, John, at Ohio State, the Department of Photography and Cinema went down and out, just like our gridiron colleagues.

I'm outta here, too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING MUSIC, THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM,WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2007 John DeSando & Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: Films That Move Us - "McCabe & Mrs. Miller," "Casablanca"

2007-01-12T17:36:00.000-08:00

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: "McCabe & Mrs. Miller," "Casablanca"
Co-hosted, produced & directed by John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, January 5, 2007
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

Clay

"McCabe & Mrs. Miller" from 1971 is Robert Altman's moodiest and most haunting film . . .

John

The 1942 "Casablanca" has the best dialogue of any movie ever made . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle"

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. . .

MUSIC UP THEN DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay (Intro: Films That Move the Heart - 258 words)

And I’m Clay Lowe.

HIT CD: LEORNARD COHEN: CUT 2 (THE SISTERS OF MERCY), ESTABLISH THEN UNDER FOR:

Folks, not only is a new year upon us, so is the arrival of our 300th show. So to celebrate the occasion John and I are going to finally respond to one of our most frequently asked questions: What is your favorite film? And, of course, the inevitable follow through: Why?

Fair enough, that's easy, for of all the films I've seen, Robert Altman's "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" is the film that has most deeply touched my heart. And isn't that what we expect from our movies?

Featuring the visually seductive cinematography of Vilmos Zsigmond (who most recently lensed "The Black Dahlia"), and the brooding music of Canadian folk balladeer, Leonard Cohen, Altman gets everything just right. The turn of the century mining town in the Pacific Northwest. The smoky interiors of the local pubs and whorehouse, with all of the oddball drifters, opportunists, and ladies of ill repute this new little town can support.

Warren Beatty, as McCabe, first comes mumbling his way into town from out the midst of a snow storm. Then he meets Julie Christie, as Mrs. Miller, a fetchingly beautiful and soulfully wise business woman who offers to help set up the town's most thriving enterprise, next to the mines.

So, while the snow continues to fall and Cohen's melancholy music quietly drones on, McCabe continues to find himself sinking his way deeper and deeper into the tragedy of his own making.

Loners and dreamers and losers, John, "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" is the film that's been cut most closely to my size. (258)

CROSSFADE MUSIC TO "ROMANTIC MOVIE THEMES FOR THE LOVER IN YOU" (CUT 8: "AS TIME GOES BY"), THEN UNDER FOR:

John ("McCabe" response then leads into “Casablanca”)

I can’t believe you HEAR any of that mumbling, crisscrossing dialogue. Fortunately Altman didn’t use that technique in Prairie Home Companion, so I enjoyed its conversations and music.

Clay

John, when you get as old as I am, you'll begin to treasure more dearly the visual and non-verbal clues that are concealed within the text of a film.

John

It’s true true, you visual, me verbal.

Now here’s a favorite of mine where dialogue is never lost; in fact, I bet it's the American film with the most memorable lines.

When I recently read about the discovery of a homoerotic sub theme in Michael Curtiz’ Casablanca, I knew it was a classic that could hold up under the most bizarre interpretations from our slightly-crazed fellow critics.

Clay

Such as Kristin, Hope, and Johnny?

John

They’ll qualify.

The American Film Institute declared Casablanca, with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, the best romantic film of all time, so I offer it as a film that moves my heart.

The love is self sacrificing, not typically American; it requires the two lovers to support the resistance to Nazi Germany in WW II at the cost of their romance.

And its award-winning script has the most memorable lines, for example, “Here’s looking at you, Kid”; “Round up the usual suspects”; “I stick my neck out for nobody”; but, as students of trivia know, not “Play it again, Sam.”

Clay

Blame that on Woody Allen . . .

“Casablanca" IS a lovely, touching film, John, completely worthy of someone who is more adept than Karl Rove in coming up with good lines.

John (Wrap up)

Clay, I have to admit, Altman is a man for all our seasons, studying the changes in whole nations through characters little by comparison to their cultures, but big on a screen, magnifying our human nature.

McCabe and Casablanca let the dialogue carry the characters. Both films are centered on human beings, making these gifted directors true artists of the humanities-- and film the most influential modern art.

In the end, for me it’s words more than images. You and I are lovers of words, if only second to women, but that may be the point: Wherever the women go, there go our tongues.

I'm outta here.

Clay

Somehow I see your statement as being more strikingly visual than literal - and that is just another way we differ.
Three hundred shows and still counting, John, I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC (FRENCH NATIONAL ANTHEM), THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM,WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2007 John DeSando and Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Dreamgirls," "The Good Shepherd," "Pan's Labyrinth"

2006-12-27T19:44:00.000-08:00

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: "Dreamgirls," "The Good Shepherd," "Pan's Labyrinth"
Co-hosted, produced & directed by John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, December 29, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

Clay

"Dreamgirls" is three parts heart and one part Soul . . .

John

"The Good Shepherd" is a GOOD cold war film . . .

Clay

"Pan's Labyrinth" is full of shadows and fears . . .

HIT THEME MUSIC

Richelle"

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

I'm Clay Lowe . . .

HIT CD: DREAMGIRLS (CUT 15: ONE NIGHT ONLY - JENNIFER HUDSON), THEN UNDER FOR BOTH REVIEWS

John ("Dreamgirls" 128 words)
Clay, to compete with Moulin Rouge or Chicago, a musical must be robust and unique with actors beautiful and talented. Dreamgirls is a lively film of the Broadway musical about three talented girls who make it big with the help of a sometimes ruthless manager.

Could be the Supremes or the Pips, but these actresses carry plenty of their own charisma, especially the American Idol graduate, Jennifer Hudson, who belts gospel and pop with equal measures of lustiness and soul, a combination of Ella Fitzgerald and Barbra Streisand.

Clay

Maybe even better than that.

John (Chuckles and continues)

It’s entertaining beyond the clichés and show stopping songs such as "And I Am Telling You I'm not Going” and "Cadillac Car.” It’s glitz and superficiality with a heavy dose of melodrama, but it is as enjoyably American as that Caddy.

Clay ("Dreamgirls" 127 words)

Well folks, when it comes to holiday movies, glitz is what we want and glitz is what we get. So head out in your Caddy van or SUV and see for yourselves why audiences are bringing down the house when they see Dreamgirls on screen.

Never mind that the material's old. Sure it opened on Broadway twenty-five years ago. And, sure, it's set in Detroit some twenty years earlier. But not to worry, because writer-director Bill Condon (who wowed us with "Chicago") has added some new songs and has done a fine job in casting the film.

Beyoncé is nothing short of classy as the groups' lead singer, Anika Noni Rose is a great backup artist, and Jennifer Hudson's performance (surprise, surprise) is pure Oscar gold.

John

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

John ("The Good Shepherd” 128 words)

I don’t think it’s THAT good, but here’s another GOOD.

The Good Shepherd depicts the beginning of the CIA. Director Robert De Niro knows about intrigue given the dark figures he has played as one of America’s leading actors. His lighting is consistently low key, as if a secret world lies behind every shot. His frame is frequently static and spare, as if the void will be filled by inexplicable pain.

Clay

It always is.

John (Continues)

De Niro knows atmosphere and he knows lonely, isolated characters, as if Travis Bickle were being channeled into Matt Damon’s super spy, Edward Wilson. Damon plays Wilson so minimalist that knowing the interior of his character is impossible. But then, cold is a cold does.

Clay

That's what I've heard.

John (Finishes his review)

The Good Shepherd is coldly satisfying despite almost three hours of the hero's dark loneliness.

It’s rough out there. Just ask Rummy.

Clay ("Pan's Labyrinth" 128 words)

Well, folks, even Rummy might be uncomfortable in Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth," which is an allegorical tale about a mother and her young daughter who find themselves beholden to a Fascist Captain who is intent on terrorizing a small rural village in Franco's post-Civil War Spain.

John

Grim.

Clay

One part Alice in Wonderland, one part Greek Myth, and one part "Harry Potter," "Pan's Labyrinth" may exist only in the mind of the eleven-year-old Ofelia, but you're never 'really' quite sure - even after the closing credits have rolled.

The cruelty of the officer is brutally depicted, as are the creatures grotesque who rule the underground where young Ofelia finds herself wandering at night.

A study in terror, but also a study in courage and hope, "Pan's Labyrinth" will both frighten and delight you.

John

Great!

Clay

But enough of Motown showgirls, CIA shepherders, and underworlds dark and deep, John, because it's grading time.

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

Holy Holiday Harpies, Hooray

"Dreamgirls" earns an “A” for its entertaining AMERICAN ARSENAL of music. . .

Clay

"Dreamgirls" gets an "A" because underdogs ALMOST ALWAYS win our hearts . . .

John

"The Good Shepherd" earns a “B” for BARELY warming up the New Year . . .

Clay

"Pan's Labyrinth" gets a "B" because fantasy is sometimes no BETTER than the real . . .

John

Clay, I’ve made a New Year’s resolution to dream more about girls and less about spies.
Do you dream while you snore at our PREVIEWS?

I'm outta here.

Clay

Only if I'm having nightmares about doing 300 more shows with you.

I'm outta here, too.

See you at the movies, folks, and have a Happy New Year!

HIT CD: "DREAMGIRLS" (CUT 5: LOVE YOU I DO), THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM,WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright by John DeSando and Clay Lowe, 2006

WCBE 90.5 FM: "The History Boys," "We Are Marshall," "Rocky Balboa," "Fur"

2006-12-21T06:43:00.000-08:00

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: "The History Boys," "We Are Marshall," "Rocky Balboa," "Fur"
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Recorded: Wednesday, 1:30 pm, December 20, 2006
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, December 22, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

John

"The History Boys" had a successful HISTORY in London and New York and NOW on your screen . . .

Clay

"We Are Marshall" is as much about tenacity as it is about football . .

John

"Rocky Balboa" is a little film about a big guy . . .

Clay

"Fur" is a little film about little people and the woman who took their
pictures . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle"

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. . .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

I'm Clay Lowe . . .

John ("The History Boys" 128 words)

“History is just one f’n thing after another.”

Clay

John, that’s the only stale line in the movie.

John

This quote from The History Boys is the ANTITHESIS of the high-minded quotes and philosophies spouted by teachers and aspiring “Oxbridge” scholars at a public grammar school in Yorkshire.

Clay

Now, THAT'S true.

John

How nice of you.

That quote epitomizes the sub-textual disdain for intellectual snobbery and solipsism that hangs about academic institutions anywhere, anytime.

It’s 1983 in a boys’ public grammar in Yorkshire as the gifted “history boys” prepare for entrance to Oxford or Cambridge. Learning French by acting out a scene in a brothel is the preferred mode of preparation.

Clay

That's what I do.

John

The latent and sometimes overt homosexuality is just another learning experience for the boys. If you love to hear English as it was meant to be spoken, albeit highly stylized, see The History Boys.

Clay ("We Are Marshall" 131 words)

Folks, if you want to hear English spoken the way it is back in the hollars of West Virginia, then “We Are Marshall” is a far better pick.

Sure the ruddy Brit boys heading for Oxford or Cambridge are wittier and classier than their rowdy homespun college counterparts from small town America. But the sons of farmers and factory workers in “We Are Marshall” make up for in spirit and determination what they lack in manners and intellectual shine.

Set in the year following a tragic plane crash that killed most of
their football team, “We Are Marshall” is the story of one of the team's survivors, a newly hired coach, and their old college president who finally catches on to what it means to go for broke.

John ("Rocky Balboa" 129 words)

Here’s another one of those unaassuming films that contribute to a merry Christmas.

Just as Citizen Kane was as much about the rise and fall of Orson Welles, Rocky Balboa is as much about Sylvester Stallone's going one more round with a movie industry unsympathetic to aging. It is a small, underplayed drama about an older man, like you, who still has life and more importantly--spirit.

But Stallone's script and direction emphasize the rightness of Rocky's
trying himself again, having some confidence in his physical ability to stay in the ring with the young man. Actor/director Stallone gives a
sweetness and almost Zen-like wisdom to the boxer's decision.

Stallone has succeeded in giving dignity to his boxer and aging in general, with an attendant life lesson to act always with a charity that helps outside the ring and maybe even inside.

Clay ("Fur" 133 words)

Folks, it’s too bad that the movie “Fur” doesn’t tell you more about the movie’s heroine, the late photographer Diane Arbus. But then it’d be just another bio.

Nicole Kidman, thankfully, rises above this and is able to
capture the sensuality of Arbus while at the same time she is able to expose Arbus’s vulnerabilities as mother, daughter, and wife.

“Fur” is a mythopoetic tale that explores the inner recesses of the mind of the Diane Arbus, who though growing up in the midst of privilege, ended up becoming fixated upon the grotesqueries of lives that existed outside the confines of her own narrow realities.

Part Alice in Wonderland, part a retelling of “Beauty and the Beast,” “Fur” is a great film to kick-off a discussion about what it is that motivates artists to create.

But enough of those cheeky boys, grunting jocks, and furry, erotic,
monsters, John, because it’s grading time.

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

Holy HAPPY HISTORY, Hooray

"The History Boys" earns an “A” because the ACADEMY hasn’t been ACES like this since Dead Poet’s Society . . .

Clay

"We Are Marshall" gets a “B” because it’s a B Movie delight . . .

John

"Rocky Balboa" earns a “B” because BOXING is not BORING. . .

Clay

"Fur" gets an “A” because it ALLUDES to realities that ARE beyond the senses . . .

John

Clay, all this talk of aging and history makes me wonder how you have defied the actuaries and the fur-loving women you have left behind . . .

I'm outta here.

Clay

John, never take on the odds, go with the flow, and when things get too furry, go for the clippers and razor . . .

I'm outta here, too.

See you at the movies, folks and have a happy holiday.

HIT CLOSING THEME THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM,WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Charlotte's Web," "The Pursuit of Happyness," "The Holiday"

2006-12-15T06:53:00.000-08:00

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: "Charlotte's Web," "The Pursuit of Happyness," "The Holiday"
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, December 15, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

Clay

"Charlotte's Web" is a live action version of a famous farmyard story . . .

John

"The Pursuit of Happyness" is the pursuit of BOREDOM . . .

Clay

"The Holiday" is all fluffy white pillows and lovers with bright shiny teeth . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle"

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

I'm Clay Lowe . . .

John ("Charlotte's Web" 129 words)

Clay: The Maine farm is idealized, as if there were no smells from farting cows or slops muddying the barn. In the new Charlotte’s Web both are sweetly displayed in a pristine world where a pig wins your heart and a spider is all heart.

This new version, standing proudly with the first Babe, is refreshing with understated computer graphics and an absence of sardonic pop culture references. Just a solid classic where a lovely spider named Charlotte (the voice of Julia Roberts, which may be her best work yet!) saves a loveable spring piglet runt named Wilbur (Dominic Scott Kay) from the smokehouse by relying on OUR only effective arsenal, Dr., words.

This film, together with the word-heavy History Boys, has renewed my enthusiasm for solid, satisfying holiday fare.

Clay ("Charlotte's Web" 128 words)

"Charlotte's Web” IS a satisfying movie, folks, though it’s a tad too cutesy and about a spoonful of sugar too sweet. Sorry, John, Julia’s Charlotte is a bit too precious for me. Spiders are much more interesting when they have a more sinister edge. But you’re right, Julia’s voice is probably more true to the author’s intentions.

The movie is saved for us cynics, however, by the nasty barnyard rodent as voiced by the lovingly slimy Steve Buscemi, who in many of his own real-life movies finds himself playing a rat.

Not surprisingly words rule the day in this barnyard created by the imaginative mind E. B. White and it’s his elements of style, both verbal and visual, that rule that the day.

A holiday plum for the whole family pudding, indeed.

"John ("The Pursuit of Happyness" 126 words)

Here’s a sour plum.

The Pursuit of Happyness has a down and out dad in 1981 who tries to gain employment at Dean Witter by joining an unpaid internship program. All the charm of Will Smith as a bright but sometimes dimwitted bone density scanner salesman in pricey San Francisco couldn’t possibly pay bills there.

How mom could let a cute kid go to an underachieving father and how he could sell out his stock of useless scanners within a month are just two of the plot holes in a holiday film that makes a strong case for his incompetence.

Because of a malfunction, I missed the last reel. The story up to this
point wasn’t worth telling anyway.

Let’s lace the nog with rum and forget art at its most mediocre.

Clay ("The Holiday" 130 words)

The movie "The Holiday" features an all star cast who in other films have dazzled us on screen. Think the feisty Kate Winslet, the irascible Jack Black, the infectious Cameron Diaz, and the boyishly handsome Jude Law. Sounds like it COULD have been a winner.

Sure writer-director Nancy Meyers had a bit of a loser in her "What Women Want," but that starred a miscast Mel Gibson, who didn't look that great in panty hose. Jack Nicholson, however, brought down the house with her directed and scripted "Something's Gotta Give.”

Her new film, however, "The Holiday," appears to be nothing more than a feel-good film designed to help lonely ladies fill in the empty spaces of their lives during holidays.

At that level, it may be a winner.

But enough of barnyard hijinks, unhappy daddies, and romanceless old maidens, John, because it’s grading time.

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

Holy HOG HEAVEN, Hooray

"Charlotte's Web" earns an A because you’re certain to lose your ARACHNOPHOBIA

Clay

"Charlotte's Web" gets an “A” because AUDACIOUS ANIMALS will ALWAYS win their way into your hearts . . .

John

"The Pursuit of Happyness" earns a “C” for its CHRISTMAS CHUMP . . .

Clay

"The Holiday" gets an "F" because it’s too FRIGGIN’ pretty for an old grump like me . . .

John

Clay, I’m going to find a PIG to make my holiday sloppy and sexy.

I'm outta here.

Clay

John, old hams like you never die, they just sizzle or fizzle away.

I'm outa here, too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING THEME THEN UNDER FOR

Clay:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM,WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright by John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Apocalypto," "Blood Diamond"

2006-12-09T09:54:00.000-08:00

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: "Apocalypto," "Blood Diamond"
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe with guest film critic Kristin Dreyer Kramer
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, December 8, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

John

"Apocalypto" is another violence showcase for drunken driver Gibson . . .

Clay

"Blood Diamond" is a well intended thriller as seen through the wrong pair of eyes . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Clay

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando, Clay Lowe and today’s special guest, on-line film critic Kristin Dreyer Kramer . . .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

I'm Clay Lowe . . .

Kristin

And I'm Kristin Dreyer Kramer . . . ("Apocalypto" 130 words)

John and Clay,

In Mel Gibson's latest film-set toward the end of the Mayan civilization-a young Mayan named Jaguar Paw, played by engaging newcomer Rudy Youngblood, is captured and marked to be sacrificed to the gods. Jaguar Paw manages to escape, and, with a group of warriors close behind, he races back to his village, where he's hidden his son and his pregnant wife.

Apocalypto is a stunning film with a fascinating story, but it gets lost in scene after scene of unnecessary carnage. If he'd left a few things to the imagination, Gibson would have had a brilliant film on his hands-but he gets so caught up in decapitations and human sacrifices that, as a result, Apocalypto is little more than an exquisitely done horror movie.

John ("Apocalypto" 127 words)

“Stunning,” “fascinating”—Kristin, you’re starved for good movies. From Jesus to a Jaguar, this director is obsessed with blood, on which he slips every time.

Clay

Hey John, the same could be said of that blind poet Homer.

John

Homer may nod, but he never slips.

Gibson loves gore. No, that's not a new political eccentricity for the
mercurial director, but an inference I am drawing from his recent films and his notorious traffic violation.

His fictional Mayan hero, a Braveheart of the jungle, experiences torture at an unprecedented scale, but not improbable for those who have seen Passion of the Christ or traveled in the Yucatan to see the murals depicting throat slicing and decapitation.

Yes, the jungle tracking sequences are worth suffering through the rest of the bloody raids, chases, and sacrifices.

Yes he has missed the opportunity to depict the decline of a great
civilization.

Clay ("Apocalypto" 128 words)

Well, folks, there's no doubt the take-no-prisoners depiction of violence in "Apocalypto" is disturbing. And there's no doubt that director Mel Gibson specializes in the depiction of violence the way that horror movie makers do. Think Wes Craven.

But whether or not Gibson uses violence for a higher purpose or whether he's just trying to time satisfy his own blood lusts - who can truly say?

John

I can say!

Clay

Of course you can, the point is the use of violence in "Apocalypto" is the key to its meaning.

Violence was the hallmark of the Mayan's fear culture, and violence was the way they maintained control.

Like it or not, "Apocalypto" is a brilliantly made movie that even has a few things to say about those who would use violence and fear to control us today.

John ("Blood Diamond" 127 words)

Yes, W and Rummy will love Apocalypto.

Clay

Rummie's gone, John.

John

Civil war and diamond lust rule West Africa’s Sierra Leone, 1999. Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond, starring an excellent Leo DiCaprio, touches TOO many incendiary bases: towns pillaged for young boys to be recruited for rebel armies, big diamond firms manipulating the market to keep the price of diamonds high, foreign concerns such as the US walking narrowly between outrage at human rights violations and interest in the country’s vast resources such as rubber and gems.

Zwick captures ironic beauty through visually stunning landscapes juxtaposed with shots of poverty and mayhem.

Clay

I can't believe you cut him more slack than you do Mel Gibson. As a
director he's clearly inferior.

John

And that’s the problem: Gibson should be superior to Zwick but isn’t.

Blood Diamond turns on love after all, both for a land and a people. If Zwick had stayed longer with the big issues such as politics and corporate corruption, his film would have achieved an Out-of-Africa mystique.

Clay

Folks, enough of fear cultures, shame cultures, and bloody hot diamonds, because it's grading time.

John

Holy BLOODY BUSINESS, Hooray!

John

"Apocalypto" earns “C” for CODDLING audiences with CARNAGE COCAINE . . .

Kristin

Apocalypto earns a C for carelessly chopping off heads instead of capturing viewers' hearts.

Clay

"Apocalypto" gets an “A” despite its gutsy gore because Gibson’s film, this time, IS bloody brilliant . . .

John

"Blood Diamond earns a “B" because this director is interested in MORE than BLOOD . . .

Clay

"Blood Diamond" gets a "C" because it CONTINUOUSLY patronizes the natives . . .

John

Clay and Kristin, I bought a diamond recently for my Russian interpreter, but she BLOODY well refused it.

I guess if modern heroes like me get their heads chopped off spending five grand for rejection, maybe diamonds as well as civilizations ARE not forever.

I'm outta here.

Clay

Better your head than other key portions of your anatomy, John, I'm outta here too, and ya'll come back again Kristin, do ya heah?

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING THEME THEN UNDER FOR

Clay:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5
FM,WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright by John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Bobby," "For Your Consideration," "Shut Up and Sing"

2006-12-01T06:30:00.000-08:00

WCBE 90.5 FM
It’s Movie Time: "Bobby," "For Your Consideration," "Shut Up and Sing"
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Recorded: Wednesday, 1:00 pm, November 29, 2006
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, December 1, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

Clay

"Bobby" is an uneasy mix of fact and fiction . . .

John

“For Your Consideration" should be not be CONSIDERED for an OSCAR . . .

Clay

"Shut Up and Sing" showcases the integrity of the Dixie Chicks . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak McCuen

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John: I'm John DeSando

Clay: And I'm Clay Lowe

John ("Bobby" 127 words)

“His passion has aroused the best and the beast in man. And the beast waited for him in the kitchen.” Theodore White about Bobby Kennedy

Film clips in the flaccid film Bobby of him before his assassination are a reminder of the Kennedy charisma and the loss both brothers’ deaths brought. Besides the obvious Crash parallel, Bobby takes the late Robert Altman approach to the day of Robert Kennedy’s death to show in the hotel the intersecting lives that’ll be defined by this history.

Perhaps the point in the disappointing vignettes at the Ambassador Hotel is that all these characters are allowed to age with unremarkable lives while this promising young leader will be shot down.

“Has anybody seen my friend Bobby? Where has he gone?”

Clay ("Bobby" 126 words)

He’s gone with the wind, John, like our youth, but he’ll not be forgotten. Perhaps loved, perhaps hated, but not forgotten.

Too bad, however, that the movie wasn’t more about Bobby and less about the lives of the people who just happened to be there the night he was murdered.

The “Grand Hotel” set-up was not a bad idea. Robert Altman pulled it off brilliantly in “Nashville” (which also happened to end in an assassination).

Unfortunately, “Bobby’s” director, Emilio Estevez, was not able to as skillfully weave together the disparate hopes and dreams of the movie’s background characters into an equally meaningful metaphor.

Maybe that’s why you leave the theatre wishing the movie had been less about the minor characts and more about the issues “Bobby” believed in with such passion

John ("For Your Consideration" 129 words)

Here’s even LESS less:

Whenever I review a film, I put out my sensors for the “buzz,” that mysterious rumor cloud praising or damning a film most critics haven’t seen, much less those doing the praising or damning.

Christopher Guest’s For Your Consideration satirizes this subtle form of marketing or sabotage, sometimes spot-on funny, but most of the time tired.

However, I was certainly amused by the take on the film critic duo, whose obligatory disagreements turn them into mush when they have to agree---MAYBE like us!
Creative minds need to take a different angle or perhaps a stronger light on the Hollywood spoof, in the spirit of the cinematographer in the film who says when asked to heighten the key light: "It's brighter than Stephen Hawking in here."

Clay ("Shut Up and Sing" 131 words)

Well, folks, you may or not believe that the Dixie Chicks have creative minds, but you’ll walk away from “Shut Up and Sing” knowing they’ve always been willing to speak them.

Veteran documentary filmmaker Barbara Koppel, teaming up with Cecilia Peck, spent three years following this outspoken trio of country singers as they achieve both wanted and unwanted fame,
At issue, in the film, is a remark made three years ago by lead singer Natalie Maines while singing at a concert in London. Distressed by our going to war in Iraq she lets her audience know she’s ashamed that President Bush is also from Texas.

Bring on the swift boats.

“Shut Up and Sing” may not a great documentary, but you’ll be glad you found out about what they’re all about.

But enough of flaccid films, over-hyped movies, and angry Southern warblers, John, because it's grading time.

John

Holy HYPING Hollywood, Hooray.

HIT DRUMS

John

"Bobby" earns a “D” because it’s a DISASTROUS attempt to capture a true hero . . .

Clay

"Bobby" gets a "C" because it's a CRIME it wasn't better . . .

John

"For Your Consideration" earns a “C” because it’s a CONSIDERABLE disappointment . . .

Clay

"Shut Up and Sing" gets a "B" because the angrier they got, the BETTER they sang . . .

DRUMS OUT

John

Clay: There is more truth in David Hockney’s painting, Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy, which I saw last week at London’s National Portrait Gallery, than all the hours of documentary we’ve seen this year.

Or have you so influenced me that I now accept portraiture as superior to caricature?

This is all too deep for me.

I'm outta here.

Clay

Not to worry, John. As Paul Klee once said, "My faces are truer than life," and that certainly holds true for the ones I've taken of you. They too will someday hang in a rotunda.

I’m outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING THEME THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and now produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright by John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Goldfinger," "Casino Royale-67," Man with the Golden Gun," "Die Another Day"

2006-11-24T17:39:00.000-08:00

WCBE: James Bond EVERGREEN-Final
"It’s Movie Time: "Goldfinger," "Casino Royale 67," "Man with the Golden Gun," "Die Another Day"
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 8:01 pm, November 24, 2006
streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

John

Sean Connery in "Goldfinger" is the gold standard of the Bonds . . .

Clay

David Niven plays an aging James Bond in the first "Casino Royale" . . .

John

Roger Moore in "Man with the Golden Gun" is the fool’s gold of Bonds . . .

Clay

Pierce Brosnan snuggles up with Halle Berry in "Die Another Day" . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak McCuen

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe

Folks, what with the release of a highly rated collection of James Bond DVDs (20 in all), and the arrival on the scene of Daniel Craig as a new James Bond starring in a "Casino Royale" remake, it's time to take a quick look back at some of the former James Bond's and how they have fared on the screen.
John ("Goldfinger" 130 words)

My enduring affection for the Bond series was born in my fascination with the beautiful women, astonishing technology, and eccentric bad guys of Goldfinger from 1964. Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore is rude and independent, claiming she is immune to Bond’s charms while Shirley Eaton is a golden girl whose painted skin has limited breathing space.

Gert Frobe is an unforgettable villain, Goldfinger, whose modest plan is to take over Fort Knox. Besides his solid gold auto, even his furniture moves with the push of a button. His mute Korean manservant, Oddjob, sails a deadly derby as smoothly as a talented collegian’s frisbee on a summer’s day.

The Gold prize goes to the Astin Martin, which spits out oil, bullets, and
an occasional driver when the going gets rough

Clay ("Casino Royale" 126 words)

Well, folks, the first “Casino Royale” (1967) is still the wackiest Bond film yet.

Starring David Niven as the most proper of the Bond Brits, the original also featured various Bond clones including Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, and a couple of now forgotten Jamie Bond girls.

Further complicating this psychedelic mess were five different directors who shot their own individual segments, and then, left it up to coordinating director, Val Guest, to let it all hang out in splashy, dashy, and hashy, sixties’ style.

If your idea of evil is a villain who sets out to create a world populated by beautiful women and men no taller than four foot six, then this version of “Casino Royale” is bound to be one of your favorites.

John ("Man With the Golden Gun" 127 words)

Arguably the worst Bond film, Man with the Golden Gun has more self-referential jokes than any other Bond film and some of the silliest villains, while Roger Moore shows signs of becoming droll enough to enjoy the jokes on the house.

Some of the usual Bond types appear, such as Herve Villechaize, the diminutive but lethal Nick Nack, and Britt Ekland as the helpful in many ways Mary Goodnight.

The only actor playing it straight is arch villain Christopher Lee as Scaramanga in the titular role. He’s a world class assassin, paid $1 million per job, but his Achilles’ heel may be his respect for his prey, James Bond. Bond has to find him before he finds Bond and the Solex Agitator, which harnesses the sun’s radiation.

Clay ("Die Another Day" 128 words)

Well, folks, things were also heating up in "Die Another Day" which starred Peter Jennings-Brian Wilson look-alike Pierce Brosnan as the James Bond prototype alpha male, who was always willing to take risks, but never willing to offer regrets.

Sounds downright presidential, eh?

He also takes as his villains the North Koreans (isn't this where we came in?), then fearlessly surfs mile high waves, skates down shattering cliffs of ice, and then risks ultimate meltdown in the arms of an ultra sexy Jinx who is played to the hilt by the ever so sensuous actress Ms. Halle Berry.

Fast forward through the movies sagging middle but slow down when the movie finally starts exploding in a spectacular climax.
Brosnan was good, but Halle was even better.

John (Summary and "Outta here")

I watched the Bond franchise grab hold of the American imagination, helping transform an Eisenhower, post war conservatism into a Beetles loving, free loving open society. Once you accept James Bond’s amoral amour and lethal professionalism, the world seems both more romantic and more dangerous, a preparation for the duality of contemporary global equality and terrorist possibility.

Sean Connery’s Bond cannot be duplicated, but some form of Bond will always be with us to remind that the world is a fun place to visit if your real and figurative guns are loaded and charming.

I’m loaded and charming and outta here.

Clay

John, you ARE charming when you're loaded, but you're also way outta here, to which most of our imbibing female companions will most readily agree.

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe iswritten and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright by John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Casino Royale," "Fast Food Nation," "Happy Feet"

2006-11-17T03:03:00.000-08:00

WCBE#293-FINAL
It’s Movie Time: "Casino Royale," "Fast Food Nation," "Happy Feet"
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, November 17, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

Clay

"Casino Royale" unveils Daniel Craig as the blonde bomb James Bond . . .

John

“Fast Food Nation" is not fast enough to derail the fattening of America . . .

Clay

"Happy Feet" will have you tapping your feet to the penguins' cool tunes . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak McCuen

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John: I'm John DeSando

Clay: And I'm Clay Lowe

John ("Casino Royale" 129 words)

what was James Bond like at the beginning of his career?

The new Casino Royale depicts a younger, tensile 007 (Daniel Craig) with darting intelligence and hard body, doing what the mature Bond does mostly but with less success: He awkwardly pursues an arch villain who bleeds in one eye, and he dangerously falls in love with a complicated babe, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green).

The cell phones and lap tops update Bond while Craig makes him a believable candidate for the 00 license to kill because he’s very bright and physically agile. Yet Craig shows corners of emotion and vulnerability foreign to the more elegant and remote Sean Connery.

The casinos of Montenegro and the canals of Venice are inviting, but at 144 minutes Casino Royale is too long.

Clay ("Casino Royale" 125 words)

Folks, all of the scenery in this "Casino Royale" is beautiful, including the hard loving, hard charging bodies.

Taking his cues from his last Zorro pic (that began with Zorro leaping from roof top to roof top), director
Martin Campbell carries on his good guy-bad guy high flying tradition with Bond duking it on the i-beams high above a waterfront construction site.

As cool and cold blooded as his crystal blue eyes, Craig's James Bond is as tough-guy flashy as the handfuls of diamonds he keeps finding in his pockets.

Featuring an international cast more diverse than Bush's Iraqi coalition, you know things are going to turn out well for this new Bond, but be forewarned, and some of the violence against Bond is painfully tortuous.

John ("Fast Food Nation" 127 words)

Fast Food Nation is a languorous, episodic fiction about the horrors of abominable abattoirs and mistreated Mexicans. It is too underplayed for America’s deathly dance with contaminated fast food; the money shot at the film’s end is too late showing suffering animals and their arterial cascades in the slaughterhouse.

Richard Linklater, who directed the romantic Sunrise/Sunset duo, just doesn’t take his subject here seriously enough. Bruce Willis’s cattle supplier gives the laissez-faire attitude of the whole film when he claims about the feces-tainted burgers, "We all have to eat a little '____' from time to time."

Read Upton Sinclair’s 1906 muckraking novel, “The Jungle” if you want to see how fiction changes things.

Clay

Good choice!

John

Eat a Slider if you want to know why it's so difficult to say "No" in a fat food nation.

Clay ("Happy Feet" 132 words)

Well, John, there's not much fat in the new animated feature "Happy Feet."

That's because (O Dear) the penguins gathered together under those icy cold cliffs of Antarctica have had to finally conclude that they're facing a famine. You know, like, someone’s been eating their fish.

Drawing upon the Biblical imagery of the Israelites in search of their Promised Land, with a heavy dose of gospel-like music thrown in on the side, the Patriarchal penguin fathers admonish their flock to watch and wait and sing and pray.

Well, maybe it's not quite that heavy handed, because things do lighten up when the young penguin called "Mumble" (he can’t sing) IS able to DANCE his way into their hearts because he discovers what it is that’s happened to all of their little fishies.

But enough of hard bodies, bloody burgers, and deep sea fish fries, John, because it's grading time.

HIT DRUMS

John

Holy Happy Hoofers, Hooray!

"Casino Royale" earns a “B” for BOOSTING BOND once more with love . . .

Clay

"Casino Royale" gets a "B" because all Bond's look the same under the sheets . . .

John

"Fast Food Nation" earns a “C” because a little CACA in your burger just CAN’T hurt enough . . .

Clay

"Happy Feet" gets a "B" because when you've seen one animated penguin, you've seen them all . . .

DRUMS OUT

John

Clay, when we saw penguins from our ditch in New Zealand, they weren’t dancing---or maybe they were, and maybe Ivan’s martinis kept us from seeing them clearly.
I'm outta here.

Clay

John, after you and Ivan had finished your martinis and went roamin' off, I stayed behind and was able to soberly see those yellow-eyed penguins quite clearly.

I’m outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING THEME THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with
90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright by John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006

WCBE 90.5 FM: "A Good Year," "Flushed Away," "Stranger Than Fiction," "Babel"

2006-11-14T05:07:00.000-08:00

WCBE 90.5 FM
It’s Movie Time:
"A Good Year," "Flushed Away," "Stranger Than Fiction," "Babel"
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Aired: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, November 10, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

John

"A Good Year" is good to go en Provence . . .

Clay

"Flushed Away" demonstrates that girl sewer rats are more assertive than house mouse males . . .

John

“Stranger Than Fiction" is no stranger to the danger of fiction . . .

Clay

"Babel" is a four-part parable about the fragility of our interconnections . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak McCuen

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John: I'm John DeSando

Clay: And I'm Clay Lowe

John ("A Good Year" 129 words)

Clay: I have excessively drunk the house table wine at lunches in Provence, and I won’t forget them for their savory simplicity and seductive subtext. A Good Year is about Max Skinner (Russell Crowe), a Brit en Provence who loves wine and women although he could skin you alive as a world-class stock trader.

As the new owner of an aging estate in Provence, however, he is as likely to be fleeced by local vintners and irritable restaurant owners.

A Good Year is an endearing fluff piece about the intrigues of wine making, estate ownership, and that French staple, love. The film has a hearty, occasional slapstick I don’t remember in the romantic novel.
No matter, the beauty of Provence and its ladies are fully exploited in this midlin’ comedy.

Clay ("Flushed Away" 128 words)

Well, John, no midlin’ comedy is “Flushed Away.” Rather, it is a rip roaring animated feature created by the artist who delighted us with his very clever “Wallace & Gromit.” Featuring Hugh Jackman, as the voice of Roddy the shy Kesington mouse, and the voice of Kate Winslet, as the movie’s more aggressive sewer-rat heroine, Rita; “Flushed Away” WILL hold its young audience’s attentions, that is until it finally manages to deaden them.

Seven year old Jacob, who watched it with us during the preview, gave it four stars, and called it one of the best movies he’s ever seen. But his six year old sister, Maddie, said she could only give it three stars because she hasn’t seen enough movies, yet, to give it that high of a high rating.

John ("Stranger than Fiction" 130 words)

Here’s one of the worst movies Maddie will see this year.

Death and Taxes is the telling name of the novel Stranger than Fiction’s writer (Emma Thompson) is trying to finish. She needs to figure out how her protagonist, Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) will die. The only problem is he lives and carries out daily the life she is writing for him.

The film has Twilight-Zone quirkiness.

Stranger than Fiction is a slow starter partly because Ferrell slowly underplays his I.R.S. agent as an introverted nerd obsessed by his job, numbers, and rigid daily routine. Ferrell doesn’t crack a smile and makes me long for his Talladega Nights redneck race driver.

The film deals superficially with the limitations of authorship, the frustration of writer’s block, and the urge to break through the barriers writers build for themselves in their own narratives.

Clay ("Babel" 127 words)

Well, folks, there’s nothing superficial about Alejandro González Iñárritu’s newest film called “Babel.”

A spin off on the Old Testament story of the builders of the tower that reached too far into the heaven’s, “Babel,” the movie, further illustrates the consequences of our hubris that drives us to create worlds we are unable to control.

Set, respectively, in Morocco, San Diego, Mexico, and Tokyo, the players in this drama eventually, as in all of Iñárritu’s movies, find they have been bound together in worlds that, like it or not, interrelate.
Most dramatic is the movie’s implied message: Those from the world’s center of powers become equally vulnerable when they have to play by the same rules that govern those who weren’t born into power.

Confusing? You bet.

But enough of romantic sunsets, flushing toilets, anal tax men, and desperate lives, John, because it's grading time.

HIT DRUMS

John

Holy TAXABLE TRUFFLES, Hooray!

"A Good Year" earns a “B” for BEING just BON . . .

Clay

"Flushed Away" gets a "B" because you should never throw out rats with the BATHWATER . . .

John

"Stranger Than Fiction" earns a “C” for a CLUELESS CHARACTER . . .

Clay

"Babel" gets an "A" because ALL nuclear families are under ARDUOUS stress.

DRUMS OUT

John

Clay, the electorate this week overcame its writers’ block by preparing political demise for its taxing twit of a protagonist president.

Viva la revolution.

I'm outta here.

Clay

John, all of us are revolting at some time or other, it’s just that some of us are more revolting than others.

I’m outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING THEME THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe iswritten and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright by John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006

WCBE 90.5 FM: "The Queen," "Running with Scissors," "Borat," "Renaissance"

2006-11-03T11:24:00.000-08:00

WCBE 90.5 FM
"It’s Movie Time: "The Queen," "Running with Scissors," "Borat,""Renaissance"
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, November 3, 2006
streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

Clay

“The Queen" is regal but frigidly rigid . . .

John

“Running with Scissors" cuts and runs . . .

Clay

"Borat" is as politically incorrect as Rush Limbaugh’s riff on Michael J. Fox . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak McCuen

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe

Clay ("The Queen" 128 words)

Folks, if there’s a theme to be found in Stephen Frears’s “The Queen,” it could be simply stated: let the Queen be the Queen, let Tony Blair be Tony Blair, and let the Princess Diana rest in peace.

Set in London in the summer of 1997, “The Queen” begins just after Tony Blair has become England’s Prime Minister, and just before the cheeky Princess Di comes face to face with her untimely fate.

An engaging exploration of how the powers of tradition, political ambition, and the resistance to power interact, “The Queen” is a brilliantly written and marvelously acted morality play that reveals that Queens, Prime Ministers, and even Princesses can get themselves in trouble by remaining true to who they are.

Could Shakespeare have been wrong, John?

John (“Running with Scissors” 127 words)

No, only Blair is wrong, very wrong.

"Where do I begin to tell the story of how my mother left me, and then I left her?"

After this promising opening in Running with Scissors, narrated by Augusten Burroughs (Joseph Cross), director Ryan Murphy, adapting the 2002 successful novel of the same name, piles on sometimes funny scenes in the spirit but not the success of Royal Tenenbaums and Little Miss Sunshine.

Augusten samples a fringe life of Freudian scatology and shock treatments for fun. There is no character, not even the narrator (played too remotely) who commands sympathy or with whom an audience can identify. The Tenenbaum love/hate glue is absent.

What does happen, though, is your desire to go to the book to enjoy the faultless deadpan narration that endears readers to Augusten.

Clay (“Borat” 129 words)

Well, John, “Borat” is outrageously funny because he does not go by the book, nor does he play by the rules.

Brit comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s "Borat" also proves that even the smartest among us can be fooled by a pro. It wasn’t till half-way through the movie that I finally figured out that Borat was NOT really a funny filmmaker from Kazakstani TV. Oh, shame.

It remains to be seen whether or not Cohen’s Borat will remain as funny when everyone else discovers his character is only a sham.

But what with recent appearances on David Letterman and an upcoming appearance with Jon Stewart in Columbus, the whole world will soon find out that neither Borat, nor Letterman, nor even Jon Stewart is really that real.

Go figure.

John ("Renaissance" 126 words)

How about ANIMATION figure?

Rotoscoped animation renders actors into comic-book characters in stark black and white, recently exemplified in A Scanner Darkly. The best combination of style, characterization, and imagination was Sin City. Renaissance, with the voice of Daniel Craig as a futuristic cop, does not measure up.

The plot, with Craig’s police captain Karas searching for a missing prominent researcher, has the usual violence and sex and not much more worth mentioning as it follows the formula for animation thrillers and James Bond fantasies. The brilliant black and white often looks like an Edward Munch Scream in motion and the women are, well, predictably babes.

Those seeking a serviceable product of the genre will not be disappointed. Those searching for Japanese anime-like complexity may not find their target.

Clay

But enough of queenly queens, schizoid cut-ups, whacked out comedians, and screaming Munchkins, John, because it's grading time.

HIT DRUMS

John

Holy Royal Highnesses, Hooray!

Clay

"The Queen" gets an "A" because it is deserving of numerous ACADEMY AWARDS . . .

John

"Running with Scissors" earns a “C” because even an Annette Bening Oscar COULDN’T save IT. . .

Clay

"Borat" gets an "A" because AUDACIOUS is as AUDACIOUS does . . .

John

"Renaissance" earns a “C” because “CARTOON CHARACTERS” need originality, too

DRUMS OUT

John

Clay: Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana remind me of Condi and Hillary. I guess you can’t MAKE women love each other-- except for a fiction like Running with Scissors, where in its masturbatiorium they can at least love themselves. I'm outta here.

Clay

Well, John, the love of self is the beginning of wisdom, and the strongest man (or woman) is still he/she who stands most alone. Thank you, Mr. Ibsen.

I’m outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING THEME THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright by John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Death of a President," "Catch a Fire," "The U.S. vs. John Lennon"

2006-10-27T06:56:00.000-07:00

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: "Death of a President," "Catch a Fire," "The U.S. vs. John Lennon"
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, October 27, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

Clay

“Death of a President" is kinder to the Prez than it is to the Veep . . .

John

“Catch a Fire" catches the furor of apartheid . . .

Clay

"The U.S. vs. John Lennon" is about trying to give peace a chance . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak McCuen

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe

John ("Death of a President" 129 words)

President Cheney!

The faux-documentary Death of a President is not about his military state in 2007 after Bush’s assassination, nor is it really about Bush’s blunders. It is about what the investigation into a presidential assassination would be like from the moment the bullets hit to the enduring mystery of responsibility.

The use of footage from contemporary TV clips to fictionalize, for instance, Cheney’s eulogy of Bush is one of the film’s strengths and warnings. By doctoring images or manipulating evidence, the government itself is in a position to rush to judgment about alleged assassins as it did about weapons of mass destruction.

Death of a President ends up a successful screed against versions of the
Patriot Act that in the future may seriously compromise the rights of
innocents.

Clay (“Death of a President" 128 words)

Well, folks, "Death of a President" uses all the usual TV techniques
(talking heads, archival footage, brooding music, etc.) to help its viewers
imagine what might happen if President Bush were shot and Vice President Cheney took the occasion to expand his powers.

Heavy stuff, eh? But except for its explosive concept and its controversial assassination scene, “Death of a President,” unfortunately, turns out to be a bore. Everything’s of one piece. The narrators and the talking heads drone on and on. The media frenzy is kept at a minimum. And the only moral outrage we really see is that exhibited by the protestors in the movie’s anti-war crowds.

Hey, at least on the evening news, there’s still a chance for us to become a part of those crowds.

John ("Catch a Fire" 129 words)

I’m watching from my balcony.

The powerful Catch a Fire catches the mean spirit of apartheid.
Like Hotel Rwanda, a man risks all he has to help others in need. Fire
explores deeply the conflicts and weaknesses of real-life Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke) as he gradually becomes an avenger against the white regime, symbolized by Police Colonel Nick Vos (Tim Robbins), the chief of anti-terror operations.

As in Flags of Our Fathers, Catch a Fire shows the flawed nature of heroism and as in Death of a President, it reminds us about the dangers of police detaining and torturing without challenge and the intertwining of personal passion and the larger issue of freedom.

It’s the stuff of epic made real and accessible that doesn’t forget it’s the
small stories that tell the big history.

Clay ("The U.S. vs. John Lennon" 125 words)

Well, folks, the story of John and Yoko Lennon's peaceful protest against the shooting war in Viet Nam was, perhaps, naïve. What could be more innocent than John and Yoko romping in their protest bed, smiling out at the world through their round-owl little glasses? But don’t count them down and out too soon.

Though they were under surveillance by the F.B.I. and on President Nixon’s List of Enemies, they were not cowered, and, as this movie shows, their innocence prevailed even if it did in personal tragedy.

And, for our old generation, John, what could be more nostalgically glorious then hearing them sing “Give Peace a Chance” and “Revolution” while masses of hippies reigned gloriously supreme on the TV and movies screens of America.

But enough of angry protestors, bull-headed politicians, and sweet singing innocents, John, because it's grading time.

HIT DRUMS

John

Holy Harried Heroes, Hooray!

"Death of a President" earns a “B” for its BREACH of faith in democracy . . .

Clay

"Death of a President" gets a "C" because being relevant doesn't forego the need to dramatically COVER your subjects . . .

John

"Catch a Fire" earns an A because APARTHEID is ANATHEMA . . .

Clay

"The U.S. vs. John Lennon" gets a "B" BECAUSE all they're still saying is give peace a chance . . .

DRUMS OUT

John

Clay, all this TALK of the government compromising our first amendment rights makes me reluctant to TALK about the MASTURBATORIUM in next week’s Running with Scissors.

Should I be worried? I'm outta here.

Clay

Well, John, I was always taught not to run with scissors for fear of falling and cutting off my pleasures before I got a chance to use them. Ouch! I’m outta here.
See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING THEME THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5
FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright by John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Flags of Our Fathers," "Marie Antoinette," "Shortbus"

2006-10-21T07:46:00.000-07:00

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: “Flags of Our Fathers,” “Marie Antoinette," "Shortbus"
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, October 19, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

Clay

“Flags of Our Fathers” is an Eastwood red flag . . .

John

“Marie Antoinette" should have its head chopped off . . .

Clay

"Shortbus” is a joyous romp through mounds of flesh . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak McCuen

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe

John ("Flags of our Fathers" 130 words)

Flags of Our Fathers is about images: the WWII photo of the Iwo Jima flag rising and the surviving soldiers’ heroic images. For this theme of flawed hero worship, the director is laudably consistent, indeed relevant to the current celebrity craze fostered by film imagery.

What’s wrong is confusing the soldiers’ identities, both in war and as old men, leaving no hero to attach to emotionally, and a surfeit of
anticlimaxes.

Clint Eastwood chose a Longest-Day motif and lost himself in period details to the exclusion of dramatic details that would have made Flags of Our Fathers a satisfying experience for those not in the Greatest Generation.

A retired captain says, "If you can get a picture, the right picture, you
can win a war.” But not an Oscar.

Clay (“Flags of Our Fathers” 125 words)

Folks, Eastwood’s “Flags of our Fathers” is not intended to be a satisfying experience. The drama of the movie is rooted in the power of images to forever impact on the memories of the men who experienced them first hand.

Images like Joseph Rosenthal’s raising the flag on Iwo Jima was the kind of image that the American public wanted to remember and believe in because it inspired patriotism and further fueled the public’s fantasies about the glories of war.

The images of gore and the horrors of war in Eastwood’s film are not merely flashbacks Eastwood uses to advance his story; they are constant reminders that strong memories, like strong images, are incredibly hard ever to get out of your mind.

John ("Marie Antoinette" 134 words)

Balderdash—despite your elegant prose, it’s still boring.

Speaking of . . . How is it possible one of the most sumptuous-looking films in years is also a story devoid of character and drama?

Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette is about a 14 year old Austrian girl
imported To France for breeding purposes. The subject demands an informed, vital discovery of her real place in the Revolution.

We get only emotional distance as almost an entire film is dedicated to inaction in the bed of a future king and queen and their sumptuous quarters.

The lack of drama is surprising for a director whose strength is revealing understatement and sub-textual significance.

Visit Versailles if you want o understand why the poor and hungry of 18th century France eventually had her head. This film remains clueless.

Clay ("Shortbus" 131 words)

Well, folks, you’ll not long be clueless about John Cameron Mitchell’s
intentions in his new film “Shortbus.” Just as in his earlier film,“Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” Mitchell continues to pursue the theme that we all have two selves that are born separate from each other (call it anima and animus) and that we work out our lives yearning to somehow get them back together.

As in “Hedwig” the primary crusaders in the movie happen to be gay men who are trying to come to an understanding about what relationships are all about.

But the needs of straight ladies and straight couples are not left out in
this search for oneness and truth.

Sexually explicit, openly honest and true, “Shortbus” is a sometimes
playful, sometimes naughty journey into the unknown.

But enough of journeys, queens, and memories profane, John, because it’s grading time.

John

Holy Hoary Heroes, Hooray!

"Flags of Our Fathers" earns a “C” because it CAN’T be Saving Private Ryan and From Here to Eternity at the same time . . .

Clay

“Flags of Our Fathers” gets an “A” because it’s ALWAYS ABOUT the AWARENESS of things past . . .

John

"Marie Antoinette" earns a D for being expensive ENNUI . . .

Clay

"Shortbus" gets a “B” because everyBODY loves someBODY sometime . . .

DRUMS OUT

John

Clay, Eastwood at 76 is at the top of his game. Close to his age, you
remind me, however, of Louis XVI in bed—NOT on top of HIS game.

I'm outta here.

Clay

Well, John, seeing you’re up on both the shortcomings of King Louie and me, you've surely been on top of your game much longer than I.

I’m outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING THEME THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright by John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006

wCBE 90.5 FM: "The Last King of Scotland," "Infamous"

2006-10-15T11:42:00.000-07:00

WCBE#288
It's Movie Time: “The Last King of Scotland," "Infamous"
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, October 13, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

John

“The Last King of Scotland" has a performance fit for a king . . .

Clay

"Infamous" is about a famous writer and an infamous killer . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak McCuen

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe

John ("The Last King of Scotland" 127 words)

Clay, The Last King of Scotland is a fictionalized version of the rise of INFAMOUS African dictator Idi Amin through the eyes of his young personal physician.

Forest Whitaker carefully constructs his Amin out of bluff, charm, and
incipient madness, never over the top, always alluring as a larger than life man, general, and despot.

When Amin watches Deep Throat at a party and asks his physician about the reality of Linda Lovelace’s physical anomaly, the film captures the debauched naivety of an ignorant and ignoble leader.

Clay

Boy, I must have been choking on my popcorn during that scene.

John (Ignores him)

Too much time is spent with the doctor's melodramatic dalliances with lost ladies such as Amin’s wife, and not enough with the enormously dangerous and interesting Amin.

But Forest Whitaker confirms he is one of the best actors of our time.

Clay ("The Last King of Scotland" 128 words)

Best actor, indeed, John, or at least he’s worthy of an Oscar for his
performance as Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland.”

Always intense, and nearly always charming, Whitaker’s Idi Amin
demonstrated he was also quite capable of carrying out extreme acts of
violence whenever he so chose.

Whereas Sean Penn’s Willie Stark in “All the King’s Men” became increasingly self-centered, and amoral, as he gradually accumulated power, Forest Whitaker’s Idi Amin increasingly became unspeakably cruel.

Far more focused in its writing and performances, and far more violent than “All the King’s Men,” “The Last King of Scotland” is an even more frightening example of what happens when people with power are able to dull the sense of outrage of those they’ve conned into supporting them.

John ("Infamous" 130 words)

Whew! I’m glad THAT could never happen TODAY in the usA!

Truman Capote described murderer Perry Smith as between the “tender and the terrible.” Such may be said about Infamous, a tale of Truman Capote’s (Toby Jones) love affair with his innovative fictionalized novel, In Cold Blood, and its protagonist, Perry Smith (Daniel Craig).

The “tender” is Capote’s love of his female friends, especially Harper Lee (Sandra Bullock) and Smith (Daniel Craig); the “terrible” is the slaughter of the Kansas farm family in 1959 by Smith and friend DICK Hickock.

Jones’s Truman Capote is more complex than Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s Oscar winner last year for Capote. The love between Truman and Smith is avoided in Capote but highlighted in Infamous.

Infamous makes real the fabulous artist who’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “In Cold Blood” are classics of 20th century popular culture.

Clay ("Infamous" 128 words)

Well, folks, Toby Jones, as well as the whole cast of “Infamous,” take the story of the 1950’s Kansas farmhouse murders through greater depths of feelings than did last year’s movie “Capote.” I hate to admit it, John, but you’re right this time around.

However, in this year’s version, based on the novel by George Plimpton, it is the intensity of the relationship between the writer and the murderer Perry Smith that fires and drives the film. So it’s also not surprising that the explicit nature of that attraction is what fuels the flames of the film.

Supplementing the movie’s main relationships are the outstanding
performances of Gwyneth Paltrow, Sandra Bullock, and Daniel Craig

No disrespect for Phillip Hoffman’s “Capote,” but compared to Jones’
performance, Hoffman’s is strictly 2-D.

But enough of sadomasochistic dictators and amorous villains, John, because it’s grading time.

HIT DRUMS

John

Holy Dick de SADES, Hooray!

"The Last King of Scotland" earns a “B” for Whitaker’s BRILLIANT BAD BOY . . .

Clay

You’ve got to be kidding, "The Last King of Scotland" gets an “A” because it’s, by far, the best film of the year . . .

John

"Infamous" earns an “A” because Truman Capote CAN withstand ANOTHER biography . . .

Clay

"Infamous" gets an “A” because great ACTORS ARE not AFRAID to let it ALL hang out . . .

DRUMS OUT

John

Clay, Idi Amin died in luxurious exile. I wonder if lame goddess Nemesis simply does NOT catch up with ALL the DICtators, even when their names are DICK.

I'm outta here.

Clay

Well, John, what with Dick Nixon and Dick Cheney, I think THIS country has had its own share of tough-talking Dicks.

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING THEME THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright by John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006

WCBE 90.5 FM: "All the King's Men," "The Last Kiss," "Flyboys," "Studio 60 Premiere"

2006-09-21T08:10:00.000-07:00

WCBE #285-Final
It's Movie Time: “All the King's Men," "The Last Kiss," “Flyboys,”
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Taped: 1:00 pm, September 20, 2006
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, September 22, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

John

“All the King's Men" is less interesting than a WHITE HOUSE press conference . . .

"The LAST Kiss" shows young men in their LAST moments of LUST. .

Clay

"Flyboys" takes us back to World War I when the bad guys were the Germans . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe

John ("All the King's Men")

Clay, All the King’s Men is ABOUT the interesting and manipulative Willie Stark aka Huey Long (Sean Penn), governor of Louisiana in the ‘50’s but CENTERS on his much less interesting publicist, Jack Burden (Jude Law).

This disappointingly distant and cold adaptation of Robert Penn Warren’s novel, previously made into a black and white film classic starring Broderick Crawford, has Burden losing his better angel of idealism to his demon of ambition.

Penn tries too hard to portray good and evil in Stark. Kate Winslet’s Anne Stanton, Stark’s lover, seems lost in the period trappings with nothing to do but look sorry for the trouble she’s causing. Law underplays to successful effect an insider trained to look from the outside but unable to leave ambition just to his pen.

Clay ("All the King's Men" 110 words)

Folks, this most recent film version of All the King's Men fails most of all because it's more of a stage play than a movie.

Too tightly shot, too darkly lit, too dependent upon dialogue, and not dependent enough upon the ambient powers of Willie’s Po Boy South, the movie's director and scriptwriter fail to deliver the novel's most powerful warning: Beware of the politician who would do anything to hold on to power.

Though Sean Penn's Willie is impressive as a ranter and raver who can stir his people into a frenzy, he unfortunately never successfully reveals why he is so willing to betray those people who love him.

John (The Last Kiss)

I don’t know about YOU, but maintaining LOVE amid the pressures of modern society makes ME feel every time as if this kiss were the last kiss.

Clay

Judas would have understood.

John

Will she tire of me? Will marriage lock me in to my future without my control?

Clay

Oh, poor John.

John

These and other contemporary questions are the purview of The Last Kiss, a realistic melodrama that watches the disintegration and sometimes rehabilitation of every relationship in the film.

The Last Kiss does not attempt to glamorize or accessorize the everyday challenges of maintaining love. [As writer Paul Haggis did with Million Dollar Baby and Crash, he fashions reality-like dialogue around common struggles, which he elevates to universals.]

Ibsen crossed with Pinter is the closest I can come to the style and tone. It’s as good an explication of modern romance as we're going to get this year.

Be prepared to face yourself if you have a last kiss.

Clay ("Flyboys" 130 words)

Well, folks, the romance in "Flyboys" is as bittersweet as is the movie's last good-bye, [but when the goings get good it doesn't get any better.]

One of those rock 'em, sock 'em, war movies that Hollywood was so good at making in the black and white forties, this current color version of what it was like to fly and die in the skies during the early days of the First World War is destined to become a genre class.

The sky battles are magnificent. The writing is as clever as it is introspective. And the actors are as handsome as they are charming.

Could it be that war is really all about killing?

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

But enough of navel gazers, political demagogues, and lovers’ last kisses, John, because it's grading time.

John

Holy Heartbreaks, Hooray!

"All the King's Men" earns a “C” for its COINCIDENTAL BUSHWACKING . . .

Clay

"All the King's Men" gets a "C" because it’s both COLORLESS and CLAUSTOPHOBIC . . .

John

"The LAST Kiss" earns a “B” because BOYS DESERVE to be kissed LAST . . .

Clay

"Flyboys" gets an "A" because it's ALL ABOUT what makes war heroes tick . . .

John

LAUGHS . . . Clay, I suspect you may NOT remember YOUR last kiss . . .

I'm outta here.

Clay

Wrong again, John, I remember her sweet lips as well as I remember her kids that kept calling me daddy.I'm outta here too.

But this TV note before I go, last Monday night's premiere of "Studio 60" indicates to me that this it has the potential of being one of the hottest shows of this new TV season.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING THEME THEN UNDER FOR
Richelle:

The Award Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright by John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Hollywoodland," "Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man"

2006-09-11T08:29:00.000-07:00

WCBE #283-Final
It's Movie Time: “Hollywoodland,” “Leonard Cohen: I’m You Man”
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, September 8, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

John

“Hollywoodland” is a film about broken dreams . . .

Clay

“Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man” features the music of a beautiful loser . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe

John (“Hollywoodland” 131 words)

Hollywoodland: The title may be a reference to Disneyland, itself a Hollywood spin-off full of dreams shallow and disappointing while offering only immediate gratification.

Clay (laughs)

Sounds promising.

John

The same can be said of the film Hollywoodland, a noir in the tradition of Chinatown with a detective, played by Adrien Brody, out of his league as he snoops around the real-life “suicide” of the ambitious George Reeves, who played Superman in the popular ‘50’s TV series.

There even might be homage to Citizen Kane with Kane’s reporter trying to find out the meaning of Rosebud and Reeves’ manager looking like Kane’s manager Bernstein. But be assured, Hollywoodland is in no where near the greatness of these classics.

Hollywoodland is a B movie with an ambition like its characters—doomed to be devoured by Hollywood.

Clay (“Hollywoodland” 129 words)

Folks, Allen Colter has directed some of TV’s hottest shows (from The Sopranos to Sex & the City), but directing a feature film calls for some skills that Colter has not yet perfected. Case in point, Hollywoodland, which is his very first feature film.

Though his producers pulled together an excellent cast, he wasn’t able to guide them into an ensemble performance. Adrien Brody’s private eye doesn’t blend in with the rest of the cast because he thinks he’s Nicholson in Chinatown.

Ben Affleck as George Reeves is so low key that when he finally does lose it, he ridiculously goes over the top. And, it’s the same for the ladies, their performances are fine, but they too seem to be in different films.

You’re right, John, a classic film Hollywoodland is not.

HIT CD: “LEONARD COHEN: I’M YOUR MAN” (CUT 13: SUZANNE), ESTABLISH THEN UNDER FOR:

John (“Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man” 129 words)

Here’s a doc about a CLASSIC guy.

I once succeeded with an attractive older woman because we shared poetry lovers’ delight in Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne.

Clay

Maybe that's because you drank her tea and ate her oranges.

John (Ignores)

Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man is an entertaining tribute documentary from a concert in January 2005 at the Sydney Opera House. Although Nick Cave and the Wainrights among others could hold their own in concert, when they successfully cover Cohen’s songs here, there’s a slight disappointment that
the basso gravel voice himself is not singing.

When Cohen finally sang Tower of Song, I knew why he was being feted, and why he sings his compositions better than anyone else.

His smirk is not smug either: It mirrors a translucent soul loving
humanity in all its weaknesses, as he loves himself in all his. Deservedly.

Clay (“Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man” 130 words)

A translucent soul indeed, John, few singer-songwriters are more soulful than this 72 year-old troubadour from Montreal.

And, like his voice of the poet in his “Bird On a Wire,” few
singer-songwriters have so longed for freedom. You know: freedom from guilt. Freedom from betrayal. Freedom from Being. If you want to intellectually understand Cohen trying reading Nicolai Berdyaev’s The Destiny of Man.

John

Yes, Sir, Rev. Dr. Professor.

Clay

But, if you just want to emotionally understand him, slide on down in your theatre seats and listen carefully to the music in “Leonard Cohen: I’m the Man.” You might even find yourself fascinated, as was I, at how his presence seems to fill the musicians as they sing his words and play his songs.

Not a perfect film, but when Cohen’s on screen the experience is
transcendent.

MUSIC DOWN AND OUT

Clay

But enough of lamenting Supermen, Russian theologians, and wailing Canadian poets, John, because it’s grading time.

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR:

John

Holy Tobermory, Hooray!

“Hollywoodland” earns a “C” because a CAREER can go south faster than a speeding bullet . . .

Clay

“Hollywoodland” gets a failing grade because both ‘Hollywood’ and ‘land’ end in a “D”. . . .

John

“Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man” earns a “B” because his songs BEG to be sung BY this man . . .

Clay

“Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man” gets a “B” because you’re right, John, no one does it BETTER than Cohen . . .

John

Clay, Son Erik and buddy Kato Katlin in Hollywood don’t seem to be anywhere near George Reeves’ depression.

Do you suppose it’s because they don’t fly or because they nurture young female companionships?

I’m outta here.

HIT CD: LEONARD COHEN: I’M YOUR MAN (CUT 6: “CHELSEA HOTEL”), ESTABLISH, THEN TAKE DOWN AND UNDER FOR:

Clay

Got me, John., Hollywood’s your Nirvana; mine’s at the Chelsea Hotel . . .

I’m outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

CONTINUE WITH “CHELSEA HOTEL” HELD UNDER THE ANNOUNCER

Richelle:

The Award Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT TO TIME

© 2006 John DeSando and Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: A Salute to Spike Lee - "Inside Man," "Do the Right Thing," "Summer of Sam," Malcolm X"

2006-08-30T06:04:00.000-07:00

WCBE 90.5 FM: A Salute to Spike Lee
It's Movie Time: “Inside Man,” “Do the Right Thing,” “Summer of Sam,” “Malcolm X”
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, September 1, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

The script:

Clay

The hard hitting documentary: “When the Levees Broke” mandates another look at some of the other films of Spike Lee . . .

“Inside Man “ is, ironically, full of more 9/11 relevancy than Oliver
Stone’s “World Trade Center” . . .

John

“Do the Right Thing” does the right thing to boost the career of Spike Lee . . .

Clay

“Summer of Sam” is a steamy plate full of coiled spaghetti, lumpy meatballs, and layered Italian Lasagna . . .

John

“Malcolm X” amalgamates Lee’s concerns about racism . . .

MUSIC UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe (Intro & Inside Man - 156 words)

Folks, bravo to HBO for its support of Spike Lee’s four-hour documentary “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.” Few Hollywood directors have shown more care for America’s underclass than has Spike Lee.

Michael Moore has shoved his camera more often into the faces of the rich and powerful. And Oliver Stone has more brutally detailed the horrors of war. But no one has captured, more effectively, the urban beat of America.

In “Inside Man” (starring Denzel Washington) Lee’s ever moving camera details the efficiencies, and the confusions, of New York City’s Police Department as it moves into action. That the movie’s bank heist and hostage situation takes place just a few blocks away from the remains of the World Trade Center only further focuses the film’s power.

John

What a stretch-- EVERYTHING is a few blocks away!

Clay (Ignores him)

More than an action-thriller, however, Inside Man, is about human need and greed. And about how some people can rise above it, and some people can’t.

John ("Do the Right Thing” 133 words)

Here are some who can:

Samuel L. Jackson, Rosie Perez, John Turturo, and Spike Lee in Director Lee’s 1989 Do the Right Thing—Everybody’s career was ascending, not least of all Lee’s, soon to be the most recognizable African-American director in film.

What was revealed about an auteur in the making in Right Thing was his ability to take the hottest day in Bed-Sty and stir racial tensions to a
boiling point that resolved nothing about racism but showed everything about ignorance, both black and white.

What is the RIGHT THING to do? Murder, arson, cop brutality are just a few of the WRONG things on this poor city block.

What’s right is that with no answers to racial tensions in the late 20th
century, director Lee spreads humor and humanity, becoming the RIGHT director for our times

Clay ("Summer of Sam” - 130 words)

Well folks, the Summer of Sam (1977) was the wrong time for just about everybody in New York City but the New York Yankees - which Spike Lee duly notes throughout this film.

Set in a dead-end Italian neighborhood the movie features a gang of tough-guy hoods; a spiky-haired wanna-be rock star and a weirdo serial killer who talks to dogs and calls himself the Son of Sam.

The girlfriends and wives are a world apart from the macho men around them. You know, the guys who walk around clutching their crotches and try to bully everyone who’s different or smaller.

John

You don’t mean Cheney, do you?

Clay

Come on, show some respect for our President.

Anyway, Summer of Sam is a violent and angry film, because it's mostly about what
happens when the heat rises in the city and clueless young men feel their
hormones kick in.

John (“Malcolm X” 137 words)

You want “violent and angry”? I’ll give you “violent and angry.”

Spike Lee’s acclaimed biopic Malcolm X treats honestly the ill-fated life of the titular African-American leader. Although the name “Black Panther” immediately instilled fear in the general populace, Lee shows a sympathetic side to the most famous Panther.

From Malcolm’s early life as a gangster, his discovery of the Nation of Islam and writings of Elijah Muhammad, to his conversion as a Sunni Muslim and eventual martyrdom, Lee captures it all with his characteristic eye for the uncompromising truth and his affection for the weakness and nobility of
humanity.

Lee’s direction of Denzel Washington as Malcolm is successfully even-handed: Washington is memorable both as a Zoot-suit gangster and a peace–seeking preacher. Washington was nominated for an Oscar.

Although Malcolm’s life can still be argued as one of dangerous violence, Lee’s film is both dramatic and empathetic.

John (Continues with wrap up of Spike Lee 55 words)

There has never been such a boyish, basketball-loving director as Spike Lee. For the weightiest topic in the history of American culture, race relations, Lee brings an artist’s sensitive eye and sense of humor without sparing the violent ends still prevailing in the ghettos and battlefields.

And his films are entertaining. THIS is an auteur.

John

Clay, I have to find a BORING Spike Lee film to bolster my reputation as a “fair and balanced” critic who always “does the right thing.”

I’m outta here.

Clay

John, your reputation precedes you, because even your family knows you’ve got us all BAMBOOZLED . . .

I'm outta here, too

See you at the movies, Folks.

HIT MUSIC

Richelle:

The Award Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

© 2006 John DeSando and Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: A Salute to Spike Lee "Inside Man," "Do the Right Thing," "Summer of Same," "Malcolm X"

2006-08-30T05:44:00.000-07:00

WCBE 90.5 FM: A Salute to Spike Lee
It's Movie Time: “Inside Man,” “Do the Right Thing,” “Summer of Sam,” “Malcolm X”
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, September 1, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

The script:

Clay

The hard hitting documentary: “When the Levees Broke” mandates another look at some of the other films of Spike Lee . . .

“Inside Man “ is, ironically, full of more 9/11 relevancy than Oliver
Stone’s “World Trade Center” . . .

John

“Do the Right Thing” does the right thing to boost the career of Spike Lee . . .

Clay

“Summer of Sam” is a steamy plate full of coiled spaghetti, lumpy meatballs, and layered Italian Lasagna . . .

John

“Malcolm X” amalgamates Lee’s concerns about racism . . .

MUSIC UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe (Intro & Inside Man - 156 words)

Folks, bravo to HBO for its support of Spike Lee’s four-hour documentary “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.” Few Hollywood directors have shown more care for America’s underclass than has Spike Lee.

Michael Moore has shoved his camera more often into the faces of the rich and powerful. And Oliver Stone has more brutally detailed the horrors of war. But no one has captured, more effectively, the urban beat of America.

In “Inside Man” (starring Denzel Washington) Lee’s ever moving camera details the efficiencies, and the confusions, of New York City’s Police Department as it moves into action. That the movie’s bank heist and hostage situation takes place just a few blocks away from the remains of the World Trade Center only further focuses the film’s power.

John

What a stretch-- EVERYTHING is a few blocks away!

Clay

More than an action-thriller, however, Inside Man, is about human need and greed. And about how some people can rise above it, and some people can’t.

John ("Do the Right Thing” 133 words)

Here are some who can:

Samuel L. Jackson, Rosie Perez, John Turturo, and Spike Lee in Director Lee’s 1989 Do the Right Thing—Everybody’s career was ascending, not least of all Lee’s, soon to be the most recognizable African-American director in film.

What was revealed about an auteur in the making in Right Thing was his ability to take the hottest day in Bed-Sty and stir racial tensions to a
boiling point that resolved nothing about racism but showed everything about ignorance, both black and white.

What is the RIGHT THING to do? Murder, arson, cop brutality are just a few of the WRONG things on this poor city block.

What’s right is that with no answers to racial tensions in the late 20th
century, director Lee spreads humor and humanity, becoming the RIGHT director for our times

Clay ("Summer of Sam” - 130 words)

Well folks, the Summer of Sam (1977) was the wrong time for just about everybody in New York City but the New York Yankees - which Spike Lee duly notes throughout this film.

Set in a dead-end Italian neighborhood the movie features a gang of tough-guy hoods; a spiky-haired wanna-be rock star and a weirdo serial killer who talks to dogs and calls himself the Son of Sam.

The girlfriends and wives are a world apart from the macho men around them. You know, the guys who walk around clutching their crotches and try to bully everyone who’s different or smaller.

John

You don’t mean Cheney, do you?

Clay

Come on, you should respect our President.

Anyway, Summer of Sam is a violent and angry film, because it's mostly about what
happens when the heat rises in the city and clueless young men feel their
hormones kick in.

John (“Malcolm X” 137 words)

You want “violent and angry”? I’ll give you “violent and angry.”

Spike Lee’s acclaimed biopic Malcolm X treats honestly the ill-fated life of the titular African-American leader. Although the name “Black Panther” immediately instilled fear in the general populace, Lee shows a sympathetic side to the most famous Panther.

From Malcolm’s early life as a gangster, his discovery of the Nation of Islam and writings of Elijah Muhammad, to his conversion as a Sunni Muslim and eventual martyrdom, Lee captures it all with his characteristic eye for the uncompromising truth and his affection for the weakness and nobility of
humanity.

Lee’s direction of Denzel Washington as Malcolm is successfully even-handed: Washington is memorable both as a Zoot-suit gangster and a peace–seeking preacher. Washington was nominated for an Oscar.

Although Malcolm’s life can still be argued as one of dangerous violence, Lee’s film is both dramatic and empathetic.

John (Continues with wrap up of Spike Lee 55 words)

There has never been such a boyish, basketball-loving director as Spike Lee. For the weightiest topic in the history of American culture, race relations, Lee brings an artist’s sensitive eye and sense of humor without sparing the violent ends still prevailing in the ghettos and battlefields.

And his films are entertaining. THIS is an auteur.

John

Clay, I have to find a BORING Spike Lee film to bolster my reputation as a “fair and balanced” critic who always “does the right thing.”

I’m outta here.

Clay

John, your reputation precedes you, because even your family knows you’ve got us all BAMBOOZLED . . .

I'm outta here, too

See you at the movies, Folks.

HIT MUSIC

Richelle:

The Award Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

© 2006 John DeSando and Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM "Little Miss Sunshine," "Sketches of Frank Gehry," "Who Killed the Electric Car?"

2006-08-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time:
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Reviews: “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Sketches of Frank Gehry” “Who Killed the
Electric Car?”
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, August 18, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

The Script:

Clay

"Little Miss Sunshine” is full of naughty words and grumpy fun . . .

John

“Sketches of Frank Gehry” will make you love buildings again. . .

Clay

“Who Killed the Electric Car?” gets lost in its own ozone . . .

MUSIC UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe

John ("Little Miss Sunshine” 130 words)

Clay: Little Miss Sunshine is the best comedy of the year.

The Hoover family is traveling by VW bus to the Little Miss Sunshine Beauty
Pageant. A few family members are dad (Greg Kinnear), a
motivational speaker; Alan Arkin as potty-mouthed, tell it like it is
grandpa; brother in law (Steve Carell) has tried suicide more than
once.

My VW bus broke down as does theirs. They always do on long trips, a
metaphor for the romantic growth of our country and the flowering of character. This
film shows more character development than most of the films this summer
combined.

Along the way the Hoover family will face its darkest secrets, keep a sense
of humor, and confirm the importance of love, which the poet says
“comforteth like sunshine after rain.”

Clay ("Little Miss Sunshine” 132 words)

Folks, in tribute to the hippie families of the seventies who let the
sunshine in through their long hair and VW bus windows, comes a comedy
that’ll leave you laughing even when it hurts.

Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, “Little Miss Sunshine” is a
perfect feature debut for this award winning team who have produced MTV
videos for REM, Smashing Pumpkins and (dare I say it?) the ever-so-naughty
Janet Jackson.

From the suburbs of Albuquerque to the concrete expressways of L.A. “Little
Miss Sunshine” takes us on a giddy romp that most of us have been waiting
for all summer.

Credit Greg Kinnear for playing a father who doesn’t always know best,
Paul Dano who melts our hearts as the brooding son, and three cheers for
little Abigail Breslin who takes the movie home.

John ("Sketches of Frank Gehry” 130 words)

Here's a "home" movie of sorts:

The Sketches of Frank Gehry documentary tells of a jolly little Jewish man
whose Guggenheim Balboa may be the most celebrated museum architecture of
modern time. This informative and humane documentary is directed by Sydney Pollack (Tootsie), who knows nothing of architecture and therefore is perfect for the job, according to Gehry.

The doc’s singular weakness is Pollack’s regular intrusions, even having
another camera recording him while he is recording Gehry.

Enjoy the moments when Gehry lets us into his creative process, for
instance, by constructing a new building model of flexibly-placed cardboard
pieces he changes before our eyes with good reasons. When he shows how he
took a Hieronymous Bosch painting and created a building out of its
composition, I was a happy human listening to a god’s creation.

Clay ("Who Killed the Electric Car?" 130 words)

Well, John, writer-director Chris Paine is no god, just a first time
documentary maker who tries to persuade us in “Who Killed the Electric Car?”
that good guys drive electric cars and bad guys drive internal combustion
engines.

This may or may not be true, but he doesn’t prove it. Sure he has some
celebrities who leased the prototype cars in the 1990s, such as a weird bearded
Mel Gibson, an ever sincere Tom Hanks, and the wild and wacky Phyllis
Diller.

His villains of choice? The car companies, the oil companies, the compromised
politicians, and everyone else who failed to lease one.

“Who Killed the Electric Car?” is not a good documentary, but it is a great
commercial. I’d buy one today, but too bad, folks, GM long ago, decided to
trash them.

But enough of bright yellow microbuses, architectural prodigies, and little
engines that could, John, because it’s grading time.

John

Holy Hippies, Hooray!

“Little Miss Sunshine” earns an “A” for the best ensemble ACTING this
summer . . .

Clay

"Little Miss Sunshine” gets an “A” for being ANOTHER ribald road
romp across AMERICA . . .

John

“Sketches of Frank Gehry” earns a “B” because BEAUTIFUL BUILDINGS BELIE a
humble architect . . . .

Clay

“Who Killed the Electric Car?” gets a “C” because it CONFUSES more than it
CLARIFIES . . .

John

Clay,

I wonder what a VW bus trip would do for Bush, Cheney, Rice, and Rumsfeld.

I’m outta here.

Clay

I don’t really know, John, but I'm they'd be happier in a Hummer . . .

I'm outta here, too

See you at the movies, Folks.

HIT MUSIC

Richelle:

The Award Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is
written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with
90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

© 2006 John DeSando and Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "The War Tapes," "Talladega Nights," "The Heart of the Game"

2006-08-10T03:43:00.000-07:00

WCBE 90.5 FM: It's Movie Time:
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Reviews: “The War Tapes,” “Talladega Nights” “The Heart of the Game”
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, August 11, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

The script:

Clay

"The War Tapes” should be seen by everyone who cares about America . . .

John

“Talladega Nights” is a comedy racing on full satire. . .

Clay

“The Heart of the Game” is a great film built on bad metaphors . . .

MUSIC UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe

John ("The War Tapes" 128 words)

Clay, in The War Tapes, one soldier says, "A good American will always love his country and be suspicious of his government." This statement isn’t a criticism of neocons but a self-protective code of behavior devoid of politics.

Three National Guardsmen were given cameras in 2004 to film their personal points of view one year after the beginning of the Iraq conflict. The result is a mixture of grunt humor, often better than anything scripted, and unsettling danger, such as the cry of one narrator, ''This is the most helpless feeling you've ever had,'' about the awful omnipresence of improvised explosive devices they never see coming.

Ditto the enemy. The documentary brings to the screen the reality of all war from those who know it best, the foot soldiers.

Clay ("The War Tapes" 133 words)

Folks, the screen reality we’ve seen from Iraq has become increasingly graphic and violent. Not so the early years of the war when images of dead bodies were verboten and cheerleading was expected from imbedded reporters.

But despite the Iraqi elections, and despite the continued promises of hope, the daily violence continues. So, not surprisingly, more graphic images of that violence have gradually found their ways on to our screens. But, none so dramatic nor graphically violent than those taken by those three National Guardsman who documented their year in Iraq.

There’s boredom, anger, humor and fear, all mixed in together with images galore of bloodshed and gore that Americans haven’t seen on the screen since the Viet Nam war.

Folks, The War Tapes, like it or not, have brought the war home.

John ("Talladega Nights" 126 words)

Talladega Nights is funny because of redneck dumbing down and Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as believable race car drivers with slow wits and big hearts.

Ferrell screams, “Help me, Jesus! Help me, Tom Cruise! Tom Cruise, use your witchcraft to get the fire off me!” after an accident, and his wife is a hot blonde who goes where the earning potential is greatest. I frequently laughed out loud as they confirmed my best Jeff Foxworthy insights about rednecks.

Ferrell’s motto is “If you’re not first, you’re last.” Nights is not my first-ranked comedy of the summer (Little Miss Sunshine is), but it stands with Clerks II as a humorous look at a prominent subculture whose political clout is approaching the status of “soccer moms.”

Clay ("The Heart of the Game" 130 words)

Folks, the new documentary The Heart of the Game manages to not only capture the passion and the energy of a high school girls’ basketball team, it also captures the eccentricities of its male coach. You know, the kind of guy who shouts out “kill ‘em” and “rip out their throats” in order to keep them fired up.

There are tears, joys, disappointments and fights with the powers to be who wouldn’t let one of the girls come back to play after she had dropped out of school to have a baby.

Filmed over a period of six seasons, the filmmakers of The Heart of the Game have proven, most of all, that they have as much heart as their subjects.

But enough of exploding Hummers, hard charging race cars, and snarling high school girls, John, because its grading time.

John

Holy Halliburton, Hooray!

“The War Tapes” earns an “A” for being AUTHENTIC and without ARTIFICE . . .

Clay

"The War Tapes” gets an “A” because ALTRUISM is not ALWAYS rewarded . . .

John

“Talladega Nights” earns a BE for BODACIOUS fun at the expense of red-state Americans. . .

Clay

"The Heart of the Game” gets a B because BEING aggressive is not the only way to play a game . . .

John

Clay, I wonder if NASCAR enthusiasts listen to our show?

I’m outta here.

Clay

You’ll have to ask my two daughters, they love racing, but I’m not sure they're that high on our show.

I'm outta here, too

See you at the movies, Folks.

HIT MUSIC

Richelle:

The Award Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

© 2006 John DeSando and Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "World Trade Center," "Miami Vice," "Lady Vengeance"

2006-08-04T04:22:00.000-07:00

WCBE 90.5 FM #278-Final: World Trade Center, Miami Vice, Lady Vengeance
It's Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 3:01 pm & 8:01 pm, August 4, 2006
Streaming Live on the web and on-demand at: http://www.wcbe.org

The Script

Clay

World Trade Center does not carry the signature stamp of Oliver Stone . . .

John

"Miami Vice" is NICE for a summer. . .

Clay

"Lady Vengeance" is a black comedy about the desire for revenge . . .

HIT MUSIC: "STAR WARS," THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.''

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

John ("World Trade Center" 122 words)

Slow and pointless, that's the new Oliver Stone film, World Trade Center. Taking the story of two Port Authority Police who survived, starring Nicholas Cage, Stone manages to make the singular event of the last decade a boring made-for-TV story of two cops buried and waiting rescue, by the Marines no less.

The set design is memorable, however.

Cutting as often as he can to the dull families in New Jersey waiting for word about their lost loved ones, Stone fails to make even this horrific event worth watching. It's as if he promised Hollywood after the disastrous Alexander that he'd be a good boy and not editorialize about 9/11.

Clay

And he doesn't.

John

Heck, point of view IS Stone: Remember the conspiracy theory of JFK?

Clay ("World Trade Center" 130 words)

I didn't do it.

But, John, there are no conspiracy theories about anything in World Trade Center, which was bound to disappoint true blue liberals such as we.

John

You’re wrong—There are theories and I’m independent.

Clay

That's an understatement. (Pause)

So, it's hard know what we expected, but an Oliver Stone film minus bites and growls is comparable to a Michael Moore film absent of his rants and raves about power and greed.

But that's not what's at the heart of the failure of this film. Simply put: It is not a well told story. It is full of empty dialogue, and it never attempts to put 9/11 into a larger or more meaningful context.

Yes, families suffered. Yes, hundreds needlessly died. And yes there were heroes who risked all to save those they could - but this movie isn't about them. It's about two security guards who got trapped in a ton of rubble before they got around to doing what they had set out to do.

That's pretty much it.

John ("Miami Vice" 130 words)

And that makes Vice look PRETTY cool.

The new "Sunny" Crockett and "Rico" Tubbs are not prettier, but Colin Farrell and Jamie Fox are at least as competent as the infamous "Miami Vice" cops of early 80's television days.

Miami Vice is a guilty sin of a rapid refill from the original prescription. Fast cars, boats, women, and camera. The look is grainy, hand held jitters with the multi-informational HD digital advantage in dark scenes, a precise metaphor for the dark, ruthlessly edgy world of narcotics and its companions, guns.

Crockett still is searching in the urban jungle for love and justice. When a high angle shot of him and a babe in a sleek boat shows them taking off for Havana, his search is again on for fun and naughtiness in the embrace of justice.

Clay ("Lady Vengeance" 128 words)

Naughtiness and justice, John, stayed tuned.

For a start, it's hard to tell in Lady Vengeance just what Korean director Park Chan Wook intended to say.

It is clear, however, what the movie is about. It is about a murderous child abuser. It is about one of his victims who unwittingly goes to jail for his crimes. And it then follows this victim, played by the attractive TV actress Lee Young-Ae, who waits 13 years to seek her revenge.

A bizzare stylistic blend of Alice in Wonderland, the Brothers Grimm, and the most recent films of Lars Von Trier, Lady Vengeance raises a host of disturbing issues: Why do the innocent suffer? Should their sufferings be avenged? And, most important of all, why are human beings driven by the blood lust for revenge?

Park Chan Wook comes up with no better answers than did Oliver Stone.

But enough of visions of Jesus and pictures of crying and dying children, John, because it's grading time.

John

Holy Hezbollah, Hooray.

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

"World Trade Center" earns a C because it’s Stone COLD . . .

Clay

"World Trade Center" gets a "B" because the event is important but its retelling is a BORE . . .

John

"Miami Vice" earns a B because BABES BRING the BATTLE BACK to the BANAL . . .

Clay

"Lady Vengeance" gets a C because it, like Hard Candy, it's more about seeking revenge than it is in trying to understand it . . .

DRUMS OUT

John

Clay: I'm Googling Loose Change to see more about the alleged Neocon/ 9/11 conspiracy. Surely sharpshooter Cheney couldn't have been complicit in that tragedy!

I'm getting way outta here to Interlaken, Switzerland.

Clay

John, professors who profess conspiracy theories tend to get fired, and you'll find no place to hide, not even on top of the Jungfrau.

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING THEME, THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

The award winning "It's Movie Time" is co-hosted, written, and now produced by John DeSando and Clay for WCBE 90.5. FM

MUSIC DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2006 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe

My Books, My Life: Maginal Notes & Underlines From Poetry Books (A-R)

2006-07-04T23:03:00.000-07:00

My Books, My Life:
Marginal Notes & Underlines
From Poetry Books (A-R)
Clayton Kent Lowe
(b. 1936- d. 20xx)

Agee, James
The Collected Poems of James Agee, edit,Robert Fitzgerald (1970)
Bought: Salvation Army Bookstore, Washington, D.C. (June 17, 1981)

“To those living and soon to die who tell truth or tell of truth, or who honorably seek to tell, or who tell the truths of others . . . “
- James Agee, “Permit Me Voyage: 1934”

Akhmatova, Anna
Selected Poems Translated by D.M. Thomas (1976)
Bought: Half Price Books - Bethel Road, Cols., Ohio (December 6, 2000)
It was not the touching of her body that was her father’s sin, it was the wounding of her soul - ckl (12/26/00)

“We are brief guests of the earth, as it were,
And life is a habit we put on.”
- Anna Akhmatova, “There are Four of Us,” 1961

Ammons, A. R.
Sphere: The Form of a Motion (1974)
Bought: Gift from David & Lee (December 25, 1995)
“Walhalla living room - fire in fireplace, snow on ground outside (7:30 pm, December 25, 1995)

“ . . . . most of our writers live in New York City
densely: there in the abstractions of squares and glassy
floors they cut up and parcel out the nothingness they

think America is: I wish they would venture the rural and
see that the woods are undisturbed by their bothering
reputations and the the brooks have taken to flowing

the way they always have and that the redwing pauses
to consider his perch before he lights in a cedar . . . .”
A. R. Ammons, Sphere 38, 1974

Arnold, Matthew
The Works of Matthew Arnold
Bought: Half Price Books - Bethel Road, Cols., Ohio (August 12, 1997)

Underlined (August 15, 1997) - ckl
“Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.”
- Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach, 1851

Auden, W. H.
Selected Poetry of W. H. Auden (1959)
Bought: No place listed (April 23, 1974)

Auden, W. H.
The English Auden: Poems, Essays & Dramatic Writings (1927-39)
Bought: Gift from Neil & Marge (December, 1978)

Underlined (January 4, 1978) - ckl
“When people are anxious, leisure becomes a vacuum to be forcibly filled--never be alone, never stop to think. Half the machinery of the world is running to-day not to satisfy any real want, but to stop us remembering that we are afraid.”
- W.H. Auden, How to be Masters of the Machine (April 28, 1933)

Auden, W. H.
Thank You, Fog: Last Poems by W. H. Auden (1974)
Bought: No place listed (December 25, 1974)

Underlined (11:15 pm, December 26, 1974 - The Farmhouse) - ckl
“But Time, the domain of Deeds,
calls for a complex Grammar
with many Moods and Tenses,
and prime the Imperative.
We are free to choose our paths
but choose We must, no matter
where they lead, and the tales We
tell of the Past must be true.”
- W. H. Auden, Aubade
And decisions had already been made when the above was underlined that consequently altered my family’s lives - ckl (1 am, June 11, 2006)

Bachelard, Gaston
The Poetics of Reverie: Childhood, Language & the Cosmos (tr1969)
Bought: Time and date lost, first half of book xeroxed
Part of this copy read in Tobermory during the summer of 1989 - ckl

Bachelard, Gaston
The Poetics of Reverie: Childhood, Language & the Cosmos (tr1969) Bought (second copy): SBX, Columbus, Ohio (June 29, 1991)

Baudelaire
Flowers of Evil (1857, 1861 - 1958 tr. Jacques Leclercq))
Bought: Chapter I (November 10, 1984)

Benet, Stephen Vincent
Western Star (1943)
Bought: Salvation Army Bookstore - Columbus, Ohio (May 19, 1981)

Berryman, John
Collected Poems: 1937-1971
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (April, 2004)

Berryman, John
The Dream Songs (1959)
Bought: Student Book Exchange - Cols., Ohio (August 29, 1978)

Blake, William
Milton: A Poem by William Blake (1805-1810)
Bought: Village Bookstore - Linworth, Ohio (No date)

Blake, William
Poems and Prophecies
Bought: Wycliff Books - Columbus, Ohio (September 26, 1983)

Blake, William
A Selection of Poems and Letters (edit., J. Bronowski, 1958)
Bought: Salvation Army Bookstore - Cols., Ohio (March 30, 1981)

Underlined August 15, 1981 - ckl
“ . . . . he sometimes spoke as if no one had thought of the things he thought about. His visual imagination made everything that he said more than life-size, and as disturbing as a dream which is unreal because it is too real. He never tried in the least to fit into the world; simply, innocently, and completely, he was a rebel.”
- J. Bronowski, Introduction

Blake, William
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Bought: The Book Rack - W. Henderson Rd., Cols. (November 11, 1980)

Bly, Robert
The Light Around the Body: Poems by Robert Bly
Bought: Salvation Army Bookstore - Columbus (January 9, 1980)

Underlined November 1980 - ckl
Source of my OSU “506” Syllabus Quotation - ckl
“For according to the outward man, we are in this world, and according to the inward man, we are in the inward world . . . . Since then we are generated out of both worlds, we speak two languages, and we must be understood also by two languages.”
- Jacob Boehme, The Two Worlds

Our streets and backyards
Filled with snow last night
And glistens now in the morning sun
Fresh and clean
As a new sheet on a
Winter’s night bed.
- ckl (November 26, 1980 - Walhalla)

Bly, Robert
Silence in the Snowy Fields
Bought: Salvation Army Bookstore - Columbus (July 10, 1980)
Began: 11:36 pm, July 27, 1980 (Walhalla)
Rain following an earlier earthquake felt in Columbus, Ohio - ckl
Finished: 11:45 pm, August 2, 1980 (Walhalla)

Bronte: Emily, Anne, and Charlotte
Best Poems of the Brontë Sisters
Bought: No time, nor date

Brooke, Rupert
The Works of Rupert Brooke
Bought: Half Price Books - Bethel Road, Columbus (February 22, 1997)
Began: 11:30 pm, October 30, 1997 (Walhalla)
Halloween eve - ckl

Browning, Robert
The Selected Poems of Robert Browning (1942)
Bought: No time, nor date

Burns, Robert
Robert Burns’s Complete Poetical Works (1900)
Bought: August 26, 1975

Burgess, Anthony
Byrne: A Novel (1995)
Bought: Half Price Books - Bethel Road, Columbus (October 17, 1999)

Byron, George Gordon Lord
The Poems of Byron
Bought: St. Stephens Bookstore - Cols. (August 2, 1979)

“When a man hath no freedom to fight
for at home,
Let him combat for that of his neighbors;
Let him think of the glories of Greece and
of Rome,
And get knock’d on the head for his
labours,
To do good to mankind is the chivalrous
plan,
And is always as noble requited;
Then battle for freedom wherever you can,
And if not shot or hang’d, you’ll get
knighted.
- George Lord Byron, Stanzas, November 1820

Byron, George Lord
The Selected Poetry of Lord Byron
Bought: Salvation Army Bookstore (September 7, 1979)

Cervantes (Miguel de Cervantes Sassvedra)
Don Quixote of La Mancha
Bought: Lawton, Oklahoma (1975)
Began: 11 pm, April 10, 1975
Not yet finished (Last read 1:30 pm, July 5, 1975)

Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales
Bought: Salvation Army Bookstore - Columbus (July 25, 1974)

Chmielarz, Sharon
But I Won’t Go Out in a Boat (1991)
Bought: Half Price Books - Bethel Road (February 16, 1995)

Ciardi, John
Lives of X (1971)
Bought: Whetstone Library - Columbus, Ohio (July 27, 1994)

Ciardi, John
Selected Poems (1984)
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (September 18, 2003)

Clare, John
The Works of John Clare
Bought: Half Price Books - Bethel Road, Columbus (February 22, 1997)
Began: Introduction (7:15 am, April 17, 1997)
North end of Lake Windermere, Ambleside, England - ckl

“Perhaps most interestingly for the modern reader, with our intense consciousness of green issues and the lost rural past, Clare is valued as the verse-spokesman for the villager and the village community. Even more than Wordsworth he is the champion of the local and the particular, the marginalized and the undervalued, both in the human world and in all those fragile and vital areas of nature, threatened then (and now) by human predation and exploitation.”
- John Goodridge, Introduction to the Works of John Clare, 1994

Margin note while reading John Clare’s “Address to Plenty”
A white swan just whirred in for a landing on Lake Windermere - ckl

“O here’s thy comfort, Solitude,
When overpowering woes intrude!
Then thy sad, thy solemn dress
Owns the balm my soul to bless:
Here I judge the world aright;
Here see vain man in his true light;
Learn patience, in this trying hour,
To gild life’s brambles with a flower;
Take pattern from the hints thou’st given,
And follow in thy steps to heaven.”
- John Clare, Solitude
Read: (8 am, September 17, 1998) - Cottage #2, Tobermory, Ont. - ckl

Cohen, Leonard
The Energy of Slaves (1972)
Bought: No place listed (February 6, 1975)

“I left a woman waiting
I met her sometime later
she said, Your eyes are dead
What happened to you, lover

And since she spoke the truth to me
I tried to answer truly
Whatever happened to my eyes
happened to your beauty

O go to sleep my faithful wife
I told her rather cruelly
Whatever happened to my eyes
happened to your beauty.”
- Leonard Cohen
Read: (11 pm, May 11, 2003 - Mother’s Day)
Anchorage, Alaska - My journeys led northward as I knew they always would - ckl

Cohen, Leonard
Selected Poems 1956-1968
Bought: Salvation Army Bookstore - Columbus (March 27, 1982)

“It is not malice that draws me away,
draws me to renunciation, betrayal:
it is weariness, I go for weariness of thee.
Gold, ivory, flesh, love, God, blood, moon -
I have become the expert of the catalogue.

My body once so familiar with glory,
my body has become a museum:
this part remembered because of someone’s mouth,
this because of a hand,
this of wetness, this of heat.

Who owns anything he has not made?
With your beauty I am as uninvolved
as with horses’ manes and waterfalls.
This is my last catalogue.
I breathe the breathless
I love you, I love you -
and let you move forever.”
- Leonard Cohen, The Flowers That I Left in the Ground
Read: (June 17, 1992) -Tobermory, Ontario - Cottage #2 - ckl

“I’m still sort of friend,
I’m still a sort of lover.
But not for long:
that’s why I’m telling this to the two of you.

The fact is I’m turning to gold, turning to gold.
It’s a long process, they say,
it happens in stages.
This is to inform you that I’ve already turned to clay.”
- Leonard Cohen, The Cuckold’s Song
Read: (11:45 pm, June 24, 1992)
Tobermory - After a call to Robin in Columbus - ckl

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge: Poems and Prose
Bought: Village Books - Linworth, Ohio (January 10, 1987)

“Henceforth I shall know
That Nature ne’er deserts the wise and pure;
No plot so narrow, be but Nature there,
No waste so vacant, but may well employ
Each faculty of sense, and keep the heart
Awake to Love and Beauty!”
- Coleridge, This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison
Read: (June 6, 1987)

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
Inquiring Spirit: A Coleridge Reader
Bought: Student Book Exchange - Columbus (October 10, 1978)

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
The Selected Poetry and Prose of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Bought: Salvation Army Bookstore - Columbus (August 27, 1979)
Read introduction: 6:30 am, March 2, 1982

Crane, Hart
White Buildings: Poems by Hart Crane
Bought: Village Bookstore - Linworth, Ohio (March 1, 1981)

“I am not ready for repentance;
Nor to match regrets. For the moth
Bends no more than the still
Imploring flame. All tremerous
In the white falling flakes
Kisses are, --
The only worth all granting.

It is to be learned--
This cleaving and this burning
But only by the one who
Spends himself out again.”
- Hart Crane, Legend
Read at 5 am, March 3, 1981 on Shelly’s 17th birthday - ckl

Creely, Robert
Selected Poems (1976)
Bought: St. Stephens Bookstore - Columbus (September 4, 1979)

Cummings, E. E.
Complete Poems: 1913-1962
Bought: No place listed (December 29, 1972)
Shared early on with Shelly - ckl

“Scorning the pomp of must and shall
my father moved through dooms of feel;
his anger was as right as rain
his pity was as green as grain”
- e. e. cummings, “My Father Moved Through Dooms of Love”

cummings, e e
six nonlectures
Bought: No place listed (July 3, 1973)

Dante Alighieri
The Divine Comedy (Trans. The Rev. Henry Francis Cary,
Bought: Volunteers of America - Columbus (September 15, 1981)

Dickey, James
James Dickey: Poems 1957-1967
Bought: Wycliff Books - Columbus, Ohio (January 13, 1998)
Robin M. has 1st copy - autographed by Dickey ? (We heard him read at the Cultural Arts Center in Columbus after he had been held up by the Columbus Marathon and arrived late - ckl

Donne, John
John Donne: A Selection of His Poetry
Bought: Salvation Army Bookstore - Columbus (March 31, 1981)

Durrell, Lawrence
The Poetry of Lawrence Durrell
Bought: No place listed (February 4, 1975)

Eliot, T. S.
T. S. Eliot: Collected Poems 1909-1962
Bought: Gift? (December 25, 1973)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Bought: St. Stephens Bookstore - Columbus (November 18, 1981)

“Rhodora! if sages ask thee why
This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,
Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,
Then Beauty is its own excuse for being . . . “
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Rhodora
Underlined on Mary 11, 2003 - ckl

Ferlinghetti, Lawrence
A Coney Island of the Mind: Poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Bought: Salvation Army Bookstore - Washington, D.C. (June 24, 1981)

Ferlinghetti, Lawrence
Starting from San Francisco: Poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Bought: Salvation Army Bookstore - Washington, D.C. (June 24, 1981)
Began: 4 pm, June 24, 1981 (The Dubliners Pub - Washington, D. C.)
Finished: June 24, 1992 (Bed - Cottage #1, Tobermory, Ontario)
Heading back to house on Walhalla on Sunday morning - perhaps the last I’ll leave here for there . . . - ckl

Frost, Robert
The Poetry of Robert Frost (1969/1972)
Bought: No place listed (March 24, 1973)
Self inscribed with the poem:

“The milkweed brings up to my very door
The theme of wanton waste in peace and war
As it has never been to me before . . .”

“He seems to say the reason why
so much
Should come to nothing must be
fairly faced.”
- Robert Frost, Pod of the Milkweed

Giovanni, Nikki
Those Who Ride the Night Winds (1983)
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (December 7, 1998)
(ADD: “Hands” which I read in church on Mother’s Day - ckl)

Goldman, Michael
First Poems (1966)
Bought: No place listed (September 20, 1973)

Goldsmith, Oliver
The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith (1911)
Bought: Volunteers of America - Columbus (June 17, 1980)

“A time there was, ere England’s griefs began,
When every rood of ground maintain’d its man;
For him light labour spread her wholesome store,
Just gave what life requir’d, but gave no more:
His best companions, innocence and health;
And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.”
- Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, 1770

Goodman, Paul
Hawkweed: Poems by Paul Goodman
Bought: Volunteers of America - Columbus (December 11, 1979)

Goodman, Paul
Collected Poems
Bought: Village Bookstore - Linworth, Ohio (November 9, 1985)

Goldman, Michael
First Poems: Michael Goldman
Bought: No place listed - Gift? (December 25, 1973)

Graves, Robert
Robert Graves Poems 1965-1968
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (September 2, 1994)

Gunn, Thom
My Sad Captains and Other Poems
Bought: University of Georgia Bookstore (April 17, 1972)
Rediscovered in Walhalla garage, December 1994, among mom’s boxes - note inside says: To Neil from Clay, Jan and kids - ckl

Gunn, Thom
Collected Poems
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (August 6, 1999)
Several quotations, marginal notes and underlines yet to include - ckl

Hardy, Thomas
Selected Poems of Thomas Hardy
Bought: No place listed (May 15, 1978)

Heaney, Seamus
Opened Ground: Selected Poems 1966-1996
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (2000)

“There were dragonflies, spotted butterflies,
But best of all was the warm thick slobber
Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water
In the shed of the banks. Here, every spring
I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied
Specks to range on window-sills at home,
On shelves at school, and wait and watch until
The fattening dots burst into nimble-
Swimming tadpoles.
- Seamus Heaney, Death of a Naturalist, 1987
Marginal note: cf. “the pond” by Aunt Frances’s yellow house back from the pines on Melbourne Street in Vestal, New York - Spring, 1943 - ckl

Henley, William Ernest
Poems by William Ernest Henley (1920)
Bought: Salvation Army Bookstore (November 24, 1979)

Herrick, Robert
Hesperides: Poems by Robert Herrick (1887)
Bought: St. Stephens Bookstore (September 1981)
A previous existence - ckl

Hirsch, Edward
The Night Parade: Poems by Edward Hirsch (1989)
Bought: Half Price Books - Bethel Road, Columbus (February 6, 1995)
Began: 12:30 am, February 11, 1995 (Walhalla bedroom)
Finished: 5:30 am, February 18, 2003 (Walhalla downstairs study)

“Sometimes it is enough just to remember
There was once a time before we knew about time
When the self and the world fit snugly together.”
- Edward Hirsch, Proustian
See also “Evening Star” on Georgia O’Keeffe in Palo Duro Canyon - ckl

Houseman, A. E.
A Shropshire Lad (1932)
Bought: No place, no date

Hughes, Ted
Birthday Letters (1998)
Bought: Border’s Books - Henderson Road, Cols. (May 29, 1999)
Began: 12:15 am, March 30, 1999 (Walhalla bedroom)
Eddie in blue room next door - ckl
Finished: 12:45 pm, April 28, 1998 (Walhalla plant room sofa)
First book completed this year (1998) - ckl

Hughes, Ted (Photographs by Fay Godwin
Remains of Elmet (1979)
Bought: No place listed, no date

Jeffers, Robinson
Cawdor (1928) and Medea (1946)
Bought: No place listed (August 22, 1978)

Jeffers, Robinson
Selected Poems (1963)
Bought: Gift from Jan (July 10, 1971)
Inscription: From your wife - ckl

Jeffers, Robinson
The Women at Point Sur and Other Poems (1977)
Bought: Village Bookstore - Linworth, Ohio ( March 4, 1978)

“Imagination, the traitor of the mind, has taken my soli-
tude and slain it.
No peace but many companions . . .”
-Robinson Jeffers, Prelude
Began to read 9:30 pm, June 6, 1978 - ckl

Johnson, E. Pauline (Tekahionwake)
Flint and Feather (1972)
Bought: Half Price Books - Morse Center (March 24, 1980)

Jong, Erica
Here Coems & Other Poems (1975)
Bought: St. Stephens Bookstore - Columbus (July 5, 1979)

Keats, John
The Complete Poetical Works and Letters of John Keats (1899)
Bought: No place listed (August 26, 1975)
(Original book plate inside cover is from Yale University Library, 1928)

Keats, John
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Complete Poetical Works
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (July 30, 1996)

Kenji, Miyazawa
A Future of Ice: Poems and Stories of a Japanese Buddhist (1989)
Bought: Half Price Books (December 1993)

Olds, Sharon
The Father (1994)
Bought: Half Price Books - Brice Road, Cols., Ohio (December 28, 1994)

Ovid
Ovid in Love
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (November 26, 2002)
(Translation by Guy Lee, Illustrations by John Ward)

Pavese, Cesare
Hard Labor (1979)
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (December 14, 1993)
Read: Introduction (10 pm, January 19, 1994)
Souffle’s 15th - couch floor by fire, Walhalla, -10 degrees outside, Watched A Man in Love today - ckl

The Biography of a Grizzly and An Enemy of the People all in one . . . ckl
“But if his isolation needed friends, his pride and shyness (especially with women) made him keep them a a distance, where, he hoped, they would understand his loneliness without asking him to leave it. In return, he was thoughtful and affectionate, a kind of self-effacing friend. He prized solitude, his own rich inward life, but he lacked the true hermit’s vocation; all his life he wanted a home, a wife, children, even while knowing that he needed solitude more . . . .

“He wants to be alone -- and he is alone -- but he wants to be alone in a circle of friends aware of his loneliness . . . “
- William Arrowsmith, Introduction

Oliver, Mary
American Primitive (1983)
Bought: Half Price Books - Columbus (April 5, 1990)
Read in Tobermory the summer of 1990 - ckl

“you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.”
- Mary Oliver, In Blackwater Woods

Oliver, Mary
New and Selected Poems 1991-1992
Bought: Little Professor Bookstore - Lane Avenue (June 17, 1993)
Began: 7 am, July 1, 1993 (Tobermory, Ontario)
Sitting rock by harbour - ckl
Finished: December 23, 1993 (Walhalla)
Living room rug in corner - my 57th Christmas but 12 hours away - Soufflé & I at Walhalla - ckl

“She knows how people always plan
To live their lives, and never do.
She will not tell me if she cries.”
- Mary Oliver, A Letter From Home

Parini, Jay
Town Life (1988)
Bought: Half Price Books - Bethel Road (June 30, 1998)
Began: 10:30 am, July 1, 1998 (Walhalla living room couch)
Finished: 5 pm, July 10m 1998 (Walhalla)
Paul David spending the night at Walhalla after “Big River” - ckl

“He vows to quit his salaried position
one fine day, returning to this spot
to sip forever as the mountains rise.”
- Jay Parini, Passing Through Vermont on Three Martinis
And so I did in my own way - ckl

Piercy, Marge
Hard Loving (1969/72)
Bought: Gift from Gail - ckl
Began: July 10, 1975
Inscription:
May the long-time sun shine on you,
All love surround you,
And the pure light within you,
Guide your way on - Love, Gail

Piercy, Marge
To Be of Use (1973)
Bought: No place listed (July 9, 1974)
Of seminal influence on my life at that time - ckl
Began: 5 am, July 10, 1974 (age 38)

“With living creatures
one must begin very early
to dwarf their growth . . . “
- Marge Piercy, A Work of Artifice

“Wherever you find yourself eating
is home, the center
where you must make love,
and wherever you wake up
is here, the right place to be
where we start again.”
- Marge Piercy, The Spring Offensive of the Snail

Plath, Sylvia
The Collected Poems (1981)
Bought: Warehouse Books (May 17, 1989)
Began: August 5, 1993 (Cottage #64, Tobermory, Ontario)
Blanket in the sun - ckl
Last Read: 3 pm, September 1, 1993 (Cottage #2, Tobermory, Ont.)
Blanket-sun after swim in outdoor Lodge pool with Jack Sponable -ckl

“each day demands we create our whole world over,
disguising the constant horror in a coat
of many-colored fictions . . . “
- Sylvia Plath, Tale of a Tub

Plath, Sylvia
The Collected Poems (1981), second copy
Bought: Village Book Store - Linworth, Ohio (March 28, 1999)
Began: 3:45 am, April 16, 1999 (Walhalla bedroom)

Plath, Sylvia
The Colossus and Other Poems (1968)
Bought: Half-Price Books - Morse Center (March 24, 1990)
Began: April 7, 1990
Finished: July 29, 1991 (Tobermory, Ontario)
End under a milky gray sky topping my weaving willow while smells of a campfire from the cottage next door fills the air - age 55 - ckl

Plath, Sylvia
Crossing the Water (1971)
Bought: Chapter One (November 5, 1982)
Began: 8 pm, December 17, 1982 (Walhalla)

Pope, Alexander
The Poetry of Pope: A Selection (1954)
Bought: Volunteers of America (March 4, 1982)

“Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air,
In his own ground.

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire,
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter fire.

Blest, who can unconcernedly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away,
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day,

Sound sleep by night; study and ease,
Together mixed; sweet recreation;
And innocence, which most does please
With meditation.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown,
Thus unlamented let me die,
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.”
-Alexander Pope, Ode to Solitude, 1717-1736
Read 9:30 pm, June 29, 2006 (Walhalla study) while listening to iTunes on iMac - ckl

Pound, Ezra
Selected Poems of Ezra Pound (1957)
Bought: St. Stephens Bookstore - Columbus (August 21, 1980)

Pushkin, Alexander
The Poems, Prose, and Plays of Alexander Pushkin (1936/1964)
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (December 13, 1994)

Pushkin, Alexander
Pushkin Threefold: Narrative, Lyric, Polemic and Ribald Verse (1972)
Bought: Student Book Exchange - Columbus, Ohio (November 1, 1978)
Began: February 9, 1979 (2337 Neil Avenue, Columbus, Ohio)
Cold, crisp, snow-frozen night - ckl
Finished: September 12, 1991 (Dunks Bay, Tobermory, Ontario)
The afternoon sun bright-white in the sky full of mare’s tails clouds swirling in a vivid blue sky - a gull passes my blanket as he walks thru the sand - the silvery blue bay is calm except for a regular shimmering beat of surf turning under on the shore - The pines on both shores a yellow green in the sun with rust colored patches of autumn mixed in.- ckl

“What is there to regret? If you knew,
If you could imagine
The servitude of stifling towns!
There people in throngs behind a barrier
Do not breathe the morning cool,
Nor the vernal perfume of meadows;
Of love they are ashamed, thought they persecute,
They trade their freedom,
Bow their heads before idols
And ask for money and for chains,
What have I given up?”
- Alexander Pushkin, The Gypsies, 1824

Pushkin, Alexander
Eugene Onegin (1831)
Bought: Village Book Store - Linworth, Ohio (October 12, 1991)
Began: 7:45 am, October 19, 1991
Finish: 8:06 am, October 27, 1991 (Walhalla)
Time on the set back clock - summer’s heat still lingers in the folds of Autumn’s tattered -colored frocks - ckl

“To me, Onegin, all this glory
is tinsel on a life I hate;
this modish whirl, this social story,
my house, my evenings, all that state -
what’s in them? All this loud parading,
and all this flashy masquerading,
the glare, the fumes in which I live,
this very day I’d gladly give,
give for a bookshelf, a neglected
garden, a modest home . . . “
- Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin (XLVI)

Rich, Adrienne
Diving into the Wreck: Poems 1971-1971
Bought: No place listed (March 17, 1975)
Begin: March 18, 1975 (Natchez Trace, Tennessee)

“Out here I feel more helpless
with you than without you . . . “
- Adrienne Rich, Trying to Talk with a Man

Finish: 2:30 pm, March 19, 1975 (DesArc, Arkansas)
Spend the oncoming night at campgrounds at Lake Wister, Oklahoma - ckl

“There was a profound indifference to the objects of our pleasures and of our fictitious needs; there was still . . . so intense a passion for the freedom of the fields . . . that he would certainly have escaped into the forest had not the most rigid precautions been taken . . . “
- Adrienne Rich, Meditations for a Savage Child (I)

Rich, Adrienne
The Dream of a Common Language: Poems 1974-1977
Bought: Village Bookstore - Linworth, Ohio (March 18, 1979)
Began: April 14, 1979

Rich, Adrienne
Leaflets: Poems 1965-1968
Bought: Student Box Exchange - Columbus, Ohio (August 19, 1968)

Rich, Adrienne
Necessities of Life (1966)
Bought: Village Bookstore - Linworth, Ohio ( March 4, 1978)
Begin: March 4, 1978

Rich, Adrienne
Poems: Selected and New, 1950-1974 (1974)
Bought: No place listed (July 31, 1975)
Began: August 8, 1975 (Farmhouse, 2814 Kenny Road, Columbus, Ohio)
A month and a half before Jan tells me she’s leaving me - ckl
Finish: July 15, 1989 (Tobermory, Ontario, Canada)

Rich, Adrienne
Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law: Poems 1954-1962
Bought: Village Bookstore - Linworth, Ohio (March 4, 1978)
Began: March 4, 1978

Rich, Adrienne
The Will to Change: Poems 1968-1970
Bought: April 7, 1976 (4th or 5th copy)
Began: May 2, 1976

“In a flash I understand
how poems are unlike photographs
(the one saying This could be
the other This was
The image
isn’t responsible
for our uses of it
It is intentionless
A long strand of dark hair
in the washbasin
is innocent and yet
such things have done harm”
- Adrienne Rich, Photograph of the Unmade Bed

Rilke, Rainer Maria
Duino Elegies (1978)
Bought: Village Bookstore - Linworth, Ohio (May 11, 1980)
Begin: 11:30 pm, May 30, 1980
End: November 9, 1986 (Walhalla)
Early morning Sunday sun now moving out of the frame of the blue bedroom window - ckl

Rilke, Rainer Maria
Rilke On Love and Other Difficulties (1975)
Bought: Village Bookstore - Linworth, Ohio (February 23, 1979)
Began: February 24, 1979 (Neil Avenue)

“A togetherness between two people is an impossibility, and where it seems, nevertheless, to exist, it is a narrowing, a reciprocal agreement which robs either one party or both of his fullest freedom and development. But, once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue to exist, a wonderful living side by side can grow up, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole and against a wide sky!”
- Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke’s Letters on Love
Partially used in the vows between Robin and Clay during wedding ceremony in Chillicothe on the evening of December 27, 1980 - ckl

Rimbaud, Arthur
Complete Works (1976) This edition
Bought: Volunteers of America - Columbus, Ohio (August 28, 1981)
Began: 7:30 am, September 24, 1981 (Walhalla)

Roethke, Theodor
The Far Field: Last Poems (1964)
Bought: No Place Listed (April 7, 1976)
Began: April 30, 1976

“Lust fatigues the soul,
How to transcend this sensual emptiness?
(Dreams drain the spirit it we dream too long.)
- Theodor Roethke, The Longing

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel
Poems and Translations (1912 original edition)
Bought: No place listed (August 26, 1975)

My Books, My Life: Marginal Notes & Underlines From Novels(T-Z)

2006-07-04T11:16:00.000-07:00

Tanizaki, Junichiro
Some Prefer Nettles (1928)
Bought: St. Stephens Book Store - Columbus (January 6, 1998)
Began: 11:30 pm, January 20, 1988 (Walhalla)
Finished: 11:20 pm, February 1, 1988 (Walhalla)
Warm rain out window - ckl

“It’s got so that to some extent every woman tries to make herself look like an American movie star and naturally takes on a little look of your courtesan. It’s happening in Shanghai too.”
- Junichiro Tanizaki, Some Prefer Nettles

Tarkington, Booth
The Magnificent Ambersons (1918)
Bought: The Book Rack - Columbus, Ohio (June 21, 1980)
Began: 4 pm, August 8, 1980 (Walhalla Road - Columbus, Ohio)
Finished: 1 pm, August 10, 1980 (Sunday afternoon on porch of Walhalla, humid-milky blue sky day - ckl)

[For quote see page 139 on the “automobile - used in syllabus for 506/606 courses at OSU]

Thackery, William Makepeace
Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero (1847-1848)
Bought: No place nor time listed
Began: 6:30 pm, September 2, 2004 (Walhalla bedroom)
Bush speaks at the Republican convention tonight - ckl
Finished: Quit reading on page 296 (10:30 pm, January 16, 2005)
Tried reading it in parallel with Beth M. from MACS’s Cafe - we both gave up on it. - ckl

Thurm, Marian
Henry in Love (1990)
Bought: No time nor place listed
Began: 1:40 am, June 24, 2004 (Walhalla bedroom)
Finished: 9:30 or so pm, July 31, 2004 (MACS CAFE , Columbus, Ohio)
Walk back up High Street to Walhalla ahead, Blue Moon, yet to rise - ckl

“It occurs to me that no one’s asked me if I’d seen that last Mary Tyler Moore show, which I did, probably more than once. And the image of Kate and Darian, Cynthia, Nina, and Day, all with their arms wrapped around each other, is a pleasing one to me. All of them in my house, my bedroom, a constellation of mourners standing over me and weeping until at last they slowly and reluctantly come apart . . . “ - Henry in Love

Note in margin:
Thinking here of Jack Leigh, not me. My turn will come in due time - ckl

Tolstoy, Leo
Anna Karenina (1876)
Bought: No place listed (August 16, 1975)
Began: 7 am, April 16, 1976 (My apartment on S. Neil Avenue)
Break record against the wall later that evening when angry at Robin - ckl
Finish: 5:10 pm, April 23, 1977 (North Neil Avenue apartment ?)
The last night of Columbus’s “Cultural Explorations” Conference, I a member of the committee of one hundred - League of Women Voter’s sponsored - ckl

Underlined at 6:30 am, May 11, 1976
“As he saw all of this, there came over him for an instant a doubt of the possibility of arranging the new life, of which he had been dreaming on the road. All these traces of his life seemed to clutch him, and say to him: ‘No, you’re not going to get away from us, and you’re not going to be different, but you’re going to be the same as you’ve always been; with doubts, everlasting dissatisfaction with yourself, vain efforts to amend, and falls, and everlasting expectation of a happiness which you won’t get, and which isn’t possible for you.’”
- Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Trevor, William
Felicia’s Journey (1994)
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (January 6, 1997)
Began: 12:04 am, January 25, 1997 (Walhalla bedroom)
Finished: 5:20 pm, February 4, 1997 (Walhalla living room couch)
Inside all day fighting a cold that began last week, breaking into sneezing this late rainy-sky day. Closing note: Look to the sun and lift your face to the gently falling down rain - The true pleasures are Elemental - ckl

Tyler, Anne
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1982)
Bought: Gift from Robbie, Christmas, 1982
Began: 10 pm, December 31, 1982
Finished: 10:45 pm, January 26, 1983 (Walhalla bedroom)
Kim & Paul moving into their own home Saturday; David visiting Shelly, Jan and Michael in Pittsburgh - then on to see Scott & Karen in New York City. Rob in bed beside me asleep. - ckl
“There ought to be a whole separate language, she thought, for words that are truer than other words -- for perfect, absolute truth. It was the purest fact of her life: she did not understand him, and she never would.” - Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant

Ullman, James Ramsey
The White Tower (1945)
Gift to Scott Lowe (December 25, 1973)
Classic adventure novel read when I was, perhaps, in my late teens or early twenties - ckl

Updike, John
Bech: A Book (1965)
Bought: St. Stephen’s Book Store - Columbus (December 12, 1985)
Began: 10:45 pm, January 9, 1986 (Walhalla)
Finished: 8:30 pm, January 17, 1986

“In short, one loses heart in the discovery that one is not being read. That the ability to read, and therefore to write, is being lost, along with the abilities to listen, to see, to smell, and to breathe. That all the windows of the spirit are being nailed shut.” - Bech

“Difficulty of women sleeping on trains, boats, where men are soothed. Distrust of machinery? Sexual stimulation, Claire saying she used to come just from sitting on vibrating subway seat, never the IRT, only the IND. Took at least five stops.” - John Updike, Bech, 1965

Updike, John
Brazil (1994)
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (January 6, 1995)
Began: 10:50 pm, February 20, 1997 (Walhalla bedroom)
Up to speed after 2 week cold - swam 1st time again this morning - ckl
Finished: 2:20 pm, March 2, 1997 (Walhalla bedroom)
Re-arranged yesterday, first time since Robin left four years ago - ckl

“’Women, too, resent the tyranny of sex, and the necessity to make lasting social attachments of what was meant by nature, perhaps, to be a passing fit. Women and men occupy two different realms - their mating is like the moment when a bird seizes a fish.’” - Brazil

Updike, John
The Centaur (1962)
Bought: Salvation Army - Columbus (November 24, 1979)
Began: 10:45 pm, January 30, 1983 (Walhalla bedroom)
One day after Kim & Paul move into new home at Gerbert - ckl
Finished: 11:27 pm, February 25, 1983 (Walhalla bedroom)
Out earlier in the evening to see: “The Verdict” with Robin - ckl

“This mile or so, then, was a rural interspace, a remainder of the country’s earlier life. We would pass the old race track, abandoned and gone under to grass, and several sandstone farmhouses each accompanied, like a mother with a son, by a whitewashed springhouse of the same stone. Quickly crossing the harsh width of a three-lane highway, we would enter on a narrow path the museum grounds, and an even older world, Arcadian, would envelop us.” - The Centaur

Updike, John
The Coup (1978)
Bought: Salvation Army - Columbus (January 18, 1980)
Began: 5:45 pm, February 26, 1981 (David’s “green” room, Walhalla)
Finished: 4:15 am, March 11, 1981 (David’s room, Walhalla)
The day my open letter ad to Dan Rather (CBS) about El Salvador is to appear in The Lantern at OSU - ckl

My Underline:
“So these gestures of economics are like the reaching gestures on Géricault’s painting of the raft of the Medusa, gestures that will never grasp their objects, because the raft is sinking. Your Communism is such a failed gesture. In the industrialized countries of Western Europe, where Marx reasoned the uprising must come, the Communist party officials wear suits with vests, and sidle forward for their share, as you Americans say, of the pie.”
- John Updike, The Coup

“So the nation of Islam was just another gangland after all. In the strength of his disillusion Oscar became a trainee with the Chicago police, and with unfeigned enthusiasms helped bop long-haired protester heads at the 1968 Democratic Convention, at the same time as his repudiated brother was fomenting the revolution that overthrew Edumud IV and brought Islamic socialism to Noire, renamed Kush.”
- John Updike, The Coup

Updike, John
Marry Me (1971)
Bought: Salvation Army - Columbus (July 26, 1980)
Began: 10 pm, June 23, 1985 (Walhalla Ravine porch)
Finished: July 4, 1985 (Walhalla porch)
Still diffused light gray sky seen through the trees on the ravine - ckl

“She saw each thing only as something to tell him about, and without him there was nothing to tell; he had robbed her of the world.”
- John Updike, Marry Me

Updike, John
Memories of the Ford Administration (1992)
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (February 10, 1995)
Began: April 26, 1995 (Walhalla bedroom)
Breezy, sunny, warming to 60s today - ckl)
Finished: 1:50 pm, May 2, 1995 (Blue bedroom - Walhalla)
A return to the blue bedroom and new mattress for the first time since Robin moved her bed out in 1993 - ckl

“However much Carter wanted to be liked, we could not quite like him: the South couldn’t quite like him because he was a liberal and an engineer, the Northeast liberals couldn’t because he was a Southerner and a born-again Christian, the Christians were put off because he had told Playboy he had looked upon a lot of women with lust, and the common masses because his lips were too fat and he talked like a squirrel nibbling an acorn. Blacks like him, those blacks who still took any interest in the national establishment, but this worked in his disfavor, since the blacks were more and more seen as citizens of a floating Welfare State concealed within the other fifty, and whose settled purpose and policy was to steal money from hard-working taxpayers. Carter and the other liberal Democrats were white accomplices to this theft, this free ride. Furthermore he told us things we didn’t want to hear: We should turn our thermostats down and our other cheek to the Iranians. Our hearts were full of lust, we were suffering from a malaise. All true, but truth isn’t what we want from Presidents. We have historians for that. - Memories of the Ford Administration.

Updike, John
A Month of Sundays (1974)
Bought: Chapter I - Columbus (February 26, 1983)
Began: 8:15 pm, March 6, 1983 (Walhalla)
Finished: 6:43 am, March 7, 1983 (Walhalla)
End as tangled black limbs from Walhalla ravine become more clearly outlined as the earth turns and begins to immerse itself in the steely blue morning light - ckl

“For we do not want to live as angels in ether; our bodies are us, us; and our craving for immortality is, as Death’s great philosopher Miguel de Unamuno so correctly and devastatingly remarks, a craving not for transformation into a life beyond imagining but for our ordinary life, the mundane life we so driftingly and numbly live, to go on forever and forever. The only Paradise we can image is this Earth.”
- John Updike, A Month of Sundays

Updike, John
Of the Farm (1965)
Bought: The Book Store - Columbus (August 2, 1985)
Began: 12:10 am, August 3, 1985 (Walhalla)
Finished: 11:16 am, August 8, 1985 (Lakefront Howard Johnson’s, Cleveland, Ohio) Watching a boat on Lake Erie from my 9th floor hotel room window. - ckl

“’Well I don’t wonder,’ my mother said, ‘living in that air-conditioned city where the seasons are all the same. Here on my farm every week is different, every day is a surprise. New faces in the fields, the birds say different things, and nothing repeats. Nature never repeats; this August evening has never been before and it will never be again.’”
- John Updike, Of the Farm
And it hasn’t . . . Katie Lowe is born on the 15th the following Thursday - ckl

Updike, John
Rabbitt at Rest (1990)
Bought: Half Price Books - Bethel Road, Linworth (February 28, 1994)
Began: 7:12 am, October, 1994 (Walhalla bedroom)
Hopefully to Philly & Douglassville this weekend to visit Shelly & Michael and A.J. and to talk to David - hung up in pain on Saturday - ckl
Finished: 4:15 am, November 23, 1994
So it goes the day before Thanksgiving, 1994 - Kim, Paul, Dani & Paul David ‘s second year at Paxton - Shelly, Michael & Aaron’s 1st Thanksgiving (and they’re in Florida) - Scott, Karen, Katie & Amelia are in their new place on Brown Avenue - and David in Chestnut Hill - Heading to Mom, then Eddie’s today, Cheri & all at Aunt Martha’s tomorrow. Rob in Chillicothe, naturally. - ckl

Updike, John
Rabbit is Rich (1981)
Bought: Half Price Books - Bethel - Columbus (September 22, 1994)
Began: 3:30 am, September 23, 1994 (Walhalla bedroom -self)
Finished: 4:30 am, October 24, 1994 (Kim & Paul’s bedroom - Paxton)
We move inextricably - not to our own ends - but to the beginning of the cycle out of which we first emerged. Nothing is ever lost, it merely changes form. -ckl

“Beneath them, through the scratched oval of Plexiglas, there is the South, irregular fields and dry brown woods, more woods than he would have expected. Once he had dreamed of going south, of resting his harried heart amid all that cotton, and now there it is under him, like the patchwork slope of one big hill they are slowly climbing, fields and woods and cities at the bends and mouths of rivers, streets eating into green, America disgraced and barren, mourning her hostages.”
- John Updike, Rabbit is Rich (1981)

Updike, John
Rabbit Redux (1971)
Bought: Volunteers of America - Summit (February 24, 1994)
Began: 11:50 pm, August 28, 1994 (Walhalla bedroom)
Overhead fan - Soufflé buried under rocks outside on the Ravine - thunderstorms earlier - ckl
Finished: 10:52 pm, September 12, 1994 (Chateau #14 - Tobermory)
On the eve of my entry into my third year of abstinence - The memory of my last afternoon in the Green Room still having its hold on me, making completion of this novel and the above scene one more of the ironic interstices of my life and my literary meanderings. -ckl

My underline:
“The open country south of Brewer, the Amish farms printed on the trimmed fields like magazine covers, becomes the ugly hills and darker valleys north of the city, where the primitive iron industry had its day and where the people built of brick, tall narrow-faced homes with gables and dormers like a buzzard’s shoulders, perched on domed lawns behind spiked retaining walls. The soft flowerpot-red dark like dried blood. Though it is not yet the coal regions the trees feel darkened by coal dust.”
- John Updike, Rabbit Redux

Updike, John
Rabbit, Run (1960)
Bought: Half Price Books - Bethel Road, Cols (June 6, 1994)
Began: 11 pm, June 18, 1994 (Cottage #2 -bed- Tobermory)
Finished: June 26, 1994 (Cottage #2 - Tobermory)
Blue sky again, on couch, cooler - the Chee-Cheemaun preparing another run. - ckl

My underline:
“But he is going east, the worst direction, into unhealth, soot, and stink, a smothering hole where you can’t move without killing somebody. Yet the highway sucks him on, and a sign says POTTSTOWN 2. He almost brakes. But then he thinks. If he is heading east, south is on his right. And then, as if the world were just standing around waiting to serve his thoughts, a broad road to the right is advertised, ROUTE 100 WEST CHESTER WILMINGTON. Rout 100 has a fine ultimate sound. He doesn’t want to go to Wilmington but it’s the right direction. He’s never be to Wilmington . . . . He doesn’t drive five miles before this road begins to feel like a part of the same trap. The first road offered him he turns right on. A keystone marker in the headlights says 23. A good number. . . . Trees overshadow this narrower road.”
- John Updike, Rabbit, Run

Updike, John
Roget’s Version (1986)
Bought: Bookman’s - Tucson, Arizona (November 9, 1997)
Began: 8 am (MT), November 10, 1997 (Tucson, Arizona)
Tim & Sarah Gassen’s living room couch - Copper Street - ckl
Finished: 8:30 am (CT), November 11, 1997 (The Sunset Limited) Heading to Savannah from Tucson, Arizona - somewhere now near Huston, Texas and the former Kay Kinney - ckl

“I think the way people were designed originally the tribe used to raise the children, on the young mother had them. There was an overall program and everybody shared it. Now, there is no tribe. There is no overall program. It’s hard.” - John Updike, Roget’s Version (1986)

Updike, John
Toward the End of Time (1997)
Bought: Dalton Bookstore - Chicago (September 9, 1998)
Began: 10:55 pm (CT), September 9, 1998 (Union Station, Chicago)
AMTRAK “3 Rivers” - Chicago to Fostoria, Ohio - 2 hours late
Finished: 7 am, September 19, 1998 (Cottage #2, Tobermory, Ontario)
Michael and I at Grandview last night with Katherine, Suzie, and Deb - see pictures - ckl

My underline:
“Malls have become a public habitat soaked in slovenly intimacy; its customers step naturally from huddling around television in their living rooms to cruising these boulevards of superfluity where fluorescent-lit shops press forward temptations ranging from yogurt-coated peanuts to electric-powered treadmills . . . . I was the only person in sight wearing leather shoes and a necktie. Deirdre parked me outside Banana Republic and at the end of my ordeal took me into Brooks Brothers and bought me a striped shirt that answered some gangsterish beau ideal of her own. She has, it almost made me weep to think, a splinter of feeling for me somewhere in her polished brown machine of a body. Easy weeping is another sign of dotage . . . “ - John Updike, Toward the End of Time (1997)

Vercors
Sylva (1962)
Bought: Phoenix Books - Owen Sound, Ontario (June 22, 1992)
Began: 8:30 pm, June 27, 1992 (Cottage #1, bedroom, Tobermory)
Finished: 11:15 pm, July 6, 1992 (Walhalla bedroom)
Cool night under blankets - ckl

My underlines:
“This evening I am walking alone - I always walk alone, but this evening, “I don’t know why, the rustle of the leaves under my boots exacerbates my loneliness. Can it be that it is beginning to weigh on me? And yet, I could continue to walk untiringly if the last light of day were not fading fast. I am strolling slowly back toward the house, its calm and comfort already beckoning as I inhale the scent of moss and mushrooms. No, this lonely life does not weigh on me, I still love it as much as ever. I am happy, peaceful, infinitely calm” - Vercors, Sylva

“That to hope that one might acquire understanding and at the same time preserve one’s instinct was an absurd wish. That every conquest made by reason or by the will involves as a corollary the surrender of an innate but unconscious knowledge. And this relinquishment, I told myself, is the price we pay for our freedom.” - Vercors, Sylva

Vesaas, Tarjei
The Bridges (1966)
Bought: (January 31, 1974)
Began: 10 pm, February 14, 1974 (Rightmire Boulevard, Columbus)
Finished: 8:45 pm, February 22, 1974 (Rightmire Blvd. - wind & snow)

“We lie like longing beside the footpaths.
We lie like fear above the hurrying highway where life goes to waste, where man hurries and hurries after emptiness. We are beside the houses in which they shut themselves away: the fortresses they have built in order to shut themselves in with their brief joys.
We are the thin, complaining wind that brushes past, searching for what cannot be present.
We are the wind behind the wind -- that searches in defiance, in case something is to be found all the same.
We are where everyone is, and where no one was. We search night after night.” - Tarjei Vesaas, The Bridges (1966)

“The Wings of Time” from Peter on phonograph player - ckl

Vesaas, Tarjei
The Boat in the Evening (1968)
Bought: St. Stephens Books - Columbus (November, 1980)
Began: May 30, 1983
Finished: Not yet finished

Vesaas, Tarjei
The Current Cycle (1934)
Bought: St. Stephens Bookstore - Columbus (April, 1981)
Began: 11:30 pm, April 25, 1988
Finished: 12:14 pm, May 23, 1988

Vidal, Gore
Julian (1962/64)
Bought: Trade or Swap - Philadelphia (March 25, 1989)
Began: 11:20 pm, April 16, 1986
The afternoon with Kim, Dani, Paul David & I at the O’Shaughnessey & Hayden Run Falls, also stopped by the open house at 6,000 Dublin Road (for sale again) - ckl
Finished: July 3, 1989 (Cottage #2 - Craigies - Tobermory, Ontario)
Night sky a silver gray backdrop against the willow as mist and the smell of rain comes in from off the harbor at Tobermory - the wind increases - ckl

“I shrugged, ‘The golden age ended. So will the age of iron, so will all things, including man. But with your new god, the hope of human happiness has ended.’

‘Forever?’ He taunted me gently.

‘Nothing man invents can last forever, including Christ, his most mischievous invention.’
. . . . With Julian, the light went, and now nothing remains but to let the darkness come, and hope for a new sun and another day, born of time’s mystery and man’s love of light.”

- Gore Vidal, Julian, 1962/64

Vidal, Gore
Myra Breckinridge (1968)
Bought: Salvation Army - Columbus (September 15, 1979)
Began: 11:30 am, September 3, 1984 - Labor Day
Finished: 10:43 am, September 10, 1984 (Walhalla living room)
Emma at my side - on floor in the living room - cool & gray outside - breeze coming in through the porch door. Rob, Amy, Bob in Avalon, NJ -
ckl

“Incidentally, I noticed a quotation scribbled in one of the margins of the notebook. Something she (I hate to say “I”!) copied from some book about Jean-Jacques Rousseau. I don’t suppose it’s giving away my secrets to say that like so many would-be intellectuals back East Myra never actually read books, only books about books. Anyway the quotation still sort of appeals to me. It is about how humanity would have been a lot happier if it had kept to ‘the middle ground between the indolence of the primitive state and the questing activity to which we are prompted by our self-esteem.’ I think that is a very fine statement and one which, all in all, I’m ready to buy, since it is a proven fact that happiness, like the proverbial bluebird, is to be found in your own backyard if you just know where to look.” - Gore Vidal, Myra Breckinridge

Warner, Sylvia Townsend
Four in Hand: A Quartet of Novels
Lolly Willowes (1926)
Mr. Fortune’s Maggot (1927)
Summer Will Show (1931, 1936)
The Corner That Held Them (1948)
Bought: No place listed (May 20, 1986)
Finished: None yet read (only first few pages of Lolly Willowes)

Watkins, Paul
The Forger (2000)
Bought: Christmas gift from Neil & Marge (2002)
Began: 2 am, January 2, 2003 (Walhalla bedroom)
Finished: 7:43 pm, August 5, 2006 (Cafe Table across from Mall Clock at Easton)
The light from the setting sun highlighting the faces of the people crossing through its beams as they head toward the Easton clock high above the entrance to the enclosed Mall. ckl

"I understood better now how difficult it must have been to live in the shadow of a man like Pankratov. He was built for always moving on, leaving no attchments to tear up his heart with regret. I wondered how many people he had left behind in his life. Even his own artwork, when he felt himself become attached to that, was fed to the flames rather than become a weakness."
- Paul Watkins, The Forger (p. 173)

Watkins, Paul
The Story of My Disappearance (1998)
Bought: From Neil & Marge (December 25, 2003)
Began: March 17, 2004 (Walhalla bedroom)
Finished: 9:30 pm, March 31, 2004 (Walhalla living room)
Room full of silence - ckl

“Out on the water, I discovered, everything is what it is. The life is too hard and too dangerous for it to be any different. That is why people who go to sea fall in love with it. Because what you do is who you are. And what you think becomes known, whether you say the words or not.”

“I knew than that even if she did fall in love with me, as I was falling for her, she might never tell me so. She might never say the words -- at least not the great declarations of love, without which I had once believed it was impossible . . . . She had lived too long among lies. Each friendship was filtered through the lies she’d told before. She’d had to find some other currency than words, even if I was the only person to whom she could tell the truth. She might prove she loved me, but she would have to show it, and in her own way. The clues of her devotion would be clear once I learned how to see them.”

- Paul Watkins, The Story of My Disappearance, 1998

Wells, Rebecca
Little Altars Everywhere (1992)
Bought: Gift from Robin Craig (March 14, 1997)
Inscription: “Clay, One of the greatest directors of our time.”
Began: 1:45 pm, March 17, 1997 (Franklin Cty Court House, Court Rm 7B)
Finished: 3:35 pm, March 27 (Twin Lakes, Shawnee Hills, Ohio)
At the top of the hill of pine woods at Twin Lakes in Shawnee Hills, Ohio - The breeze turning cool - the shadows falling on the pungent moist-dry needles, longer - ckl

“Your first dive into the water in the morning is the finest thing in the world. It’s never too cold. It’s Louisiana summer creek water,not some northern-state water--where I’ve never been, but I know it’s so cold it takes your breath away and would give Daddy a heart attack. Little Spring Creek is the kind of water that lets you wake up slow, lets you roll over on your back and float and stare at the clouds without getting the shivers, without having to swim fast to keep from freezing to death. Mama says, This is the kind of water that spoils Southerners for any other part of the country.”

“This is the thing about living in a small town. I once dated Kidd Gerard. I broke the man’s heart while he was at Auburn, sending me telegrams once a week. I know he’ll do what I ask, even though he hasn’t kissed me on the lips in twenty-two years. I always tell my two daughters: Don’t ever underestimate the power women have over men. And don’t ever let them know you have it either.”

- Rebecca Wells, Little Altars Everywhere, 1992

Welty, Eudora
The Ponder Heart (1953)
Bought: The Book Store - Columbus, Ohio (August 1, 1979)
Began: 10:30 pm, August 2, 1979 (3742 Hoover Avenue - Endwell, NY)
Finished: Not yet finished

West, Nathanael
Miss Lonelyhearts (1933)
Bought: No place listed (February 24. 1979)
Began: 2 am, March 31, 1979
Finished: Not yet finished or just not noted.

==========================================================================

There was the outward me, the insecure, easily intimidated by money and authority me, who joked and cut up and clowned his way through socially difficult situations. Then there was the inward me, who retreated into books and words and sometimes images created by hand and sometimes created by camera. And finally, there was the sexual me who throughout life never overcame his obsessive fixation on the mysteries contained within the genitalia of the female adults who surrounded the edges of my being.

==========================================================================

My Books, My Life: Marginal Notes & Underlines From Poetry Books (S-Z)

2006-07-04T11:01:00.000-07:00

Salter, Mary Jo
Sunday Skaters (1994)
Bought: Half Price Books - Bethel Road (November 28, 2000)
Began: 1 am, November 29, 2000 (Walhalla bedroom)
Finished: 10:35 pm, December 10, 2000 (Walhalla)
A week’s gone by that’s taken “Ripley” from the earth and Kim into a separate apartment from Paul - ckl

“The most inalienable right of man
is to go to hell in his own way . . .”
- Mary Jo Salter, Frost at Midnight

“Your days that spun unnumbered through their arc
from now on make their mark.”
- Mary Jo Salter, Lines Written on Your Face

With warts, lumps, brown spots, sores, empty space between your teeth, eyes weakened, ears given out, you doze in movies and classrooms - your longest sleep yet ahead - ckl

Sandburg, Carl
Harvest Poems 1910-1960
Bought: June 8, 1979

Sandy, Stephen
Man in the Open Air (1988)
Bought: Half Price Books - Bethel Road, Cols., Ohio (February 6, 1995)
Began: 10 pm, February 6, 1995 (Walhalla bedroom)
5 degrees or so - ckl

Santos, Sherod
The City of Women (1993)
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (October 25, 1999)

Sexton, Anne
All My Pretty Ones (1961)
Bought: January 10, 1973
One of several copies I’ve had - ckl

Sexton, Anne
The Awful Rowing Toward God (1975)
Bought: March 17, 1975
Began: March 19, 1975

Shakespeare, William
The Sonnets (1609)
Bought: Salvation Army Bookstore (March 30, 1981)

Great Sonnets (Edited by Paul Negri)
Bought: Village Bookstore - Linworth, Ohio (January 21, 1998)

Stafford, William
Stories That Could Be True: New and Collected Poems (1977)
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (March 7, 1995)
Began: August 19, 1999 (Walhalla living room)
Raining -Theresa here - CKL

Stevens, Wallace
Poems (1947)
Bought: One (June 6, 1981)
Began: July 6, 1983

Swenson, Karen
A Sense of Direction (1989)
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (April 20, 1998)
Began: 11:25 pm, April 20, 1998 (Walhalla bedroom)

Tennyson, Alfred Lord
Idylls of the King and a Selection of Poems (1961)
Bought: No place, No date

Tennyson, Alfred Lord
Locksley Hall
Bought: November 29, 1979

Tennyson, Alfred Lord
The Poetical Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson (1897/1900)
Bought: St. Stephens Bookstore - Columbus, Ohio (March 12, 1980)

Millay, Edna St. Vincent
Collected Sonnets (1959/1960)
Bought: Salvation Army Bookstore - Washington, D. C. (June 17, 1981)
Began: June 14, 1992 (Tobermory, Ontario, Canada)
Finish: June 17, 1992 (Cottage #2 - Tobermory)
Warm, gusty winds from front bedroom window of Cottage #2 - ckl

Thomas, Dylan
Collected Poems ( 1957)
Bought: Gift from Neil & Eddie (December 18, 1972)
Second time began: July 14, 1989 (Tobermory)

“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
- Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

“Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.”
- Dylan Thomas, Fern Hill

Thomas, Dylan
Under Milk Wood: A Play for Voices (1954)
Bought: Beo’s - Wellington, New Zealand (May 20, 2000)
Began: 7 pm, May 20, 2000 (St. James Theatre - Wellington, NZ)
Waiting for Ballet’s presentation of “Dracula,” this copy of book one of many previous copies - ckl

Thomas, Edward (1878-1917)
The Works of Edward Thomas (1994)
Bought: Half Price Books - Bethel Road, Columbus (February 22, 1997)
Began: March 1, 1997 (Walhalla)

“Open you eyes to the air
That has washed the eyes of the stars
Through all the dewy night:
Up with the light . . . “
- Edward Thomas, The Trumpet

Unamuno, Miguel de
The Last Poems of Miguel de Unamuno (1974)
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (September 16, 1996)
Began: 4:30 pm, September 16, 1996 (Walhalla)
Walhalla living room couch by window - rainy late afternoon - ckl

“Dante’s journey home is also Unamuno’s, with the sole difference that the modern poet has no other Vergil as guide than his own wavering between faith and despair, darkness and light.”
- Edita Mas-Lopez, Introduction

Updike, John
Collected Poems 1953-1993
Bought: Little Professor Bookstore - Lane Avenue, Cols. (June 17, 1993)
Began: Preface - 11 am, July 7, 1993 (Cottage #64 - Tobermory)
Cool breeze - ckl

Updike, John
Facing Nature (1985)
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (July 16, 1997)
Began: July 16, 1997 (Walhalla)

Valéry, Paul
Selected Writings (1950)
Bought: November 15, 1993

Villon, François
The Poems of François Villon (1965)
Bought: Salvation Army Bookstore - Columbus (December 21, 1979)

Walker, Alice
Good Night, Willie Lee, I’ll See You in the Morning (1975)
Bought: Half Price Bookstore - Bethel Road, Cols. (January 4, 2000)
Began: 7 am, March 20, 2000 (Port Elgin, Ontario, Canada)

“’Oh, he was a quiet man,’ they told the romantic young girl, ‘and he loved women not just to lie with but he would stand up with them when no one else would. A quiet young man. A woman could speak in his company. A man could touch his shoulder with his hand and call out his own heart for review.”
- Alice Walker, Introduction

Wakoski, Diane
Greed: Parts 8, 9, 11 (1973)
Bought: No place, No date
Began: July 10, 1989 (Tobermory)
My 43rd birthday, read parts of this at Cinda’s son Michael’s memorial service in Grove City - ckl

Wakoski, Diane
Inside the Blood Factory: New Poems (1968)
Bought: Public Library - Endicott, New York (May 21, 1999)

Wakoski, Diana
The Motorcycle Betrayal Poems (1971)
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (January 13, 1995)

Wakoski, Diane
Virtuoso literature for two and four hands (1975)
Bought: No Place listed (June 22, 1975)
Began: 4:30 pm, June 22, 1975

Wakoski, Diane
The Man Who Shook Hands (1978)
Bought: Village Bookstore - Linworth, Ohio (August 6, 1983)
Began: August 25, 1991 (Tobermory, Ontario, Canada)
Finish: August 27, 1991 (Tobermory)
Cottage on couch mid-day as the wind makes rushing sounds as it sweeps across the by - ckl

Wakoski, Diane
Trilogy (1974)
Bought: George F. Johnson Memorial Library - Endicott
Began: May 26, 1999

Wakoski, Diana
Waiting For the King of Spain (1976)
Bought: My Back Pages - High Street - Columbus (April 27, 1977)

Warren, Robert Penn
Audubon: A Vision
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (May 16, 1994)

Warren, Robert Penn
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce: A Poem (1983)
Bought: Columbus Metro Library (May 24, 1994)

Whitman, Walt
Complete Poetry and Selected Prose (1959)
Bought: March 17, 1975
Began: Dark - March 18, 1975 (Camping at Natchez Trace, Tennessee)
Many passages read aloud during trip out West to Big Sur and back to the Farm House in Columbus - ckl

Wilbur, Richard
The Poems of Richard Wilbur (1965)
Bought: Half Price Books - Bethel Road, Columbus (January 22, 1995)

Williams, William Carlos
Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems (1962)
Bought: St. Stephens Bookstore - Columbus (May 2, 1979)
Began: 2 pm, May 14, 1979 (Tobermory, Ontario)
Again on a sleeping bag on the grass by cottage #64 in the wind - ckl

Wordsworth, William
Favorite Poems (1992)
Bought: Village Bookstore - Linworth, Ohio (January 21, 1998)

“Therefore let the moon
shine on thee in they solitary walk;
And let the misty mountain-winds be free
To blow against thee: and, in after years,
When these wild ecstasies shall be matured
Into a sober pleasure; when thy mind
Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms,
Thy memory be as a dwelling-place
For all sweet sounds and harmonies; oh! then,
If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief,
Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts
Of tender joy wilt thou remember me . . . . “
- William Wordsworth, Lines
Composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, on revisiting the banks of the Wye during a tour, July 13, 1798

Wright, James
Saint Judas (1959)
Bought: Columbus, Ohio (August 21, 1973)
Began: 10:30 pm, December 2, 1981 (Walhalla)
Finish: 11 pm, December 2, 1981 (Walhalla)
In bed with Muffy cradled under my left arm - ckl

Yeats, William Butler
Selected Poems and Two Plays
Bought: Salvation Army Bookstore - Columbus (June 11, 1980)

Yevtushenko, Yevgeny
Bratsk Station and other new poems
Bought: Student Book Exchange - Columbus (November 22, 1978)

Yevtushenko, Yevgeny
From Desire to Desire (1976)
Bought: Columbus Metropolitan Bookstore (November 17, 1999)
Began: 11:15 pm, November 17, 1999 (Walhalla)

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Superman Returns," "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont," "The Devil Wears Prada"

2006-07-02T05:21:00.000-07:00

WCBE 90.5 FM #273-Final
“Superman Returns,” “Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont,“ “The Devil Wears Prada”
It's Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers:
John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 3:01 pm & 8:01 pm, June 30, 2006
Streaming Live on the web and on-demand at: http://www.wcbe.org

The Script

Clay

“Superman Returns” because he forgot to tell Lois goodbye . . .

John

“Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont” should have stayed at the Regent Palace . .

Clay

“The Devil Wears Prada” and Meryl Streep looks great in stilettos . . .

HIT MUSIC THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.''

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

and I’m Clay Lowe

John (“Superman Returns” 126 words)

Clay, I’ve always thought I’m like Superman: heroic, above the crowd, strong, selfless. The excellent new film Superman Returns reveals that HE is just like ME: weak, self-absorbed, self-righteous, mortal, and wobbly with women.

Superman exhibits human vulnerability when he faces Lois’s having a boyfriend and child (This kid is unworldly strong. Could the Man of Steel have acted like a real man that night?)

Clay

Well, SOMEBODY sure supercharged her.

John

The special effects are, well, special: Superman flies like Baryshnikov, and the universe, from the titles on, looks as real as a night at the Palomar Observatory. Superman Returns confirms the messianic motif and the idea that men, such as Lois’s boyfriend, struggle with an idealized superman in the sub consciences of the women they love.

Even Lex Luthor loses that battle.

Clay (“Superman Returns - 129 words)

Folks, Bryan Singer’s “Superman Returns” is as true to the themes of John Milton as it is to the themes of the Gospels. Conflating the stories of the biblical Samson and the four Synoptics, Superman is shorn of his god-like powers, not by a conniving woman, but by the hungry-for-power villain Lex Luthor.

Except for a painfully slow start (a Bryan Singer trademark), Superman Returns does finally get up to speed, and if you’re any kind of fan, you’ll end up cheering him on in the aisles.

If you still miss Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeve give yourselves time to warm up to the new Lois and Man of Steel, because these days you have to take your heroes where ever you can find them.

Democrats, please take note.

John (“Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont” 130 words)

Oh, Hillary, you should have been Palfrey.

In Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, the idea of an elderly lady moving to a London residential hotel regretting the loss of her late husband and wanting to be near her grandson demands a supply of tissues. However, Joan Plowright carries enough dignity and understatement in the titular role to override the clichés.

Mrs. Palfrey’s accidental friendship with hunky, struggling writer Ludovic has the naughty hint of Harold and Maude. Alas, no intergenerational sex, just growing respect and support. The inattention of her real grandson, Desmond, allows her peering neighbors to believe that Ludovic is Desmond. But don’t think for a minute the film is in Oscar Wilde territory, for it has none of the playwright’s wit.

Yet, the spirit of an older woman still valuable and loveable serves as a sweet counterpoint to our youth-obsessed times.

Clay (“The Devil Wears Prada” - 131 words)

“Well, folks, Meryl Streep plays a slightly older women in The Devil Wears Prada, but loveable and sweet she is not. Neither is she as phony as Sigourney Weaver’s exec in “Working Girl,” nor is she as ruthless as Michael Douglas’s Gordon Gekko in “Wall Street.”

Streep’s Melinda is, however, super sleek, faultlessly coifed and as steely cold to her associates as Vice President Dick Cheney is to the press on a bad hair day.

Not quite up to the challenge of being on screen with Meryl Streep (who is?), Miranda’s girl Friday (Anne Hathaway) is able to prove she can stay above the fray and save the day even when on the receiving end of Miranda’s nastiest barbs.

If you’re into summer high fashion and gloss, you’ve found it.

But enough of superheroes, noble old ladies, and young ingénues on the way up, John because it’s grading time.

John

Holy Hilfiger, Hooray!

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

“Superman” soars to an “A” for marrying ACTION to AFFECTION. . .

Clay

“Superman Returns” gets a “B” because it’s too long BEGINNING but not BAD when it gets up to speed . . .

John

“Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont” earns a “B” because BRIT comedy was BRIGHTER at the Ealing Studios. . .

Clay

“The Devil Wears Prada” gets an “A” because it will make you feel AWFUL ABOUT the way you dress . . .

John

Clay, Mrs. Palfrey DOES make me want to return to my beloved London with my beloved Russian interpreter, who by the way smartly sees my similarity to SUPERMAN, especially at the robust Regent Palace Hotel in Piccadilly.

I'm outta here.

Clay

John, I’m afraid your robust peccadilloes at the Palace are of far more interest to your paramour than they’ll ever be to us . . .

I’m outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC, THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

The award winning "It's Movie Time" is co-hosted, written, and now produced by John DeSando and Clay for WCBE 90.5. FM

MUSIC DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2006 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: Oliver Stone Sampler - "Platoon," "Born on the Fourth of July," "JFK," "Nixon"

2006-06-25T08:31:00.000-07:00

WCBE 90.5 FM: OLIVER STONE SAMPLER (EVERGREEN FINAL):
“Platoon,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” “JFK,” “Nixon”
It's Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers:John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, Friday, June 23, 2006
Streaming Live on the web and on-demand at: http://www.wcbe.orgThe Script

Clay

The release of “World Trade Center” mandates a second look at some of the earlier reality-based films of Oliver Stone . . .

John

“Platoon” marches to a unique drum . . .

Clay

“Born on the Fourth of July” is full of anger red, white, and blue . . .

John

“JFK” assassinates the lone-assassin theory . . .

Clay

And “Nixon” was, indeed, the one . . .

HIT THEME MUSIC (STAR WARS), THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.''

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

And I’m Clay Lowe (102 words)

Folks, Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center is a fact-based story about what happened to two of the Twin Tower survivors on 9/11. That the movie has a hidden political agenda, Stone could convincingly deny. [But those familiar with his impassioned style of filmmaking might find that hard to believe.]

So, John, why on earth would a filmmaker NOT want to make a film that expresses his feelings? Part of the power of Stone’s film “Platoon” comes from the fact that he was a Viet Nam Vet and that he had experienced, first hand, the outrages we saw depicted in that film.

HIT CD: BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY (CUT 9: "PROLOGUE," WRITTEN BY JOHN WILLIAMS,) THEN UNDER FOR

John (“Platoon” 130 words) (1986)

Although I’ve often thought of Oliver Stone as “his highness of histrionics,” I must admit there is less of his egocentric grandstanding in that 1986 Platoon than almost any of his other films. And it won Oscars for Best Director, Best Editing, Best Sound, and Best Picture.

This discursive and uncompromising version of hell stars an effective Charlie Sheen as an upper-middle class soldier who changes from the first minute he meets combat. Besides realism that some may say borders on Stone’s typical hyperbole, there are sequences that hark back to My-Lai and forward to the current investigation into US soldiers vengefully murdering innocent civilians in Iraq.

Apocalypse Now and Deer Hunter are worthy contemporaries of Platoon, but they are not close to its infamous horror.

MUSIC UP AND CROSS FADE TO CD: BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY (CUT: 3 “BROWN EYED GIRL,”) THEN UNDER FOR

Clay (“Born on the Fourth of July” - 129 words)

Oh, the horror, the horror of it all, indeed, John. But unlike the other
famous Viet Nam films, Stone’s “Born on the Fourth of July” focused in on one of the war’s strongest supporters. A gung ho U.S. marine by the name of Ron Kovic (played by Tom Cruise) who volunteered for a second tour of duty in Viet Nam because he so loved his country.

That his view changed when he caught a bullet in the spine is not what disillusioned him; it was the way he was treated, or not treated when he found himself confined for life to a wheel chair. His angry turn about eventually made him a leader of the U.S. Anti-War movement and, even today, fuels his opposition to the war in Iraq.

MUSIC UP, THEN CROSS FADE TO CD: “BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY” (CUT: 14 “BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY,” JOHN WILLIAMS), THEN UNDER FOR

John (“JFK” 1991) (122 words)

Let’s go, then, to POLITICAL combat.

Stone’s 1991 JFK tells us nothing about the glamorous president but everything about his assassination in 1963--except who conspired with Lee Harvey Oswald. Although Kevin Costner’s believable Big Easy prosecutor Jim Garrison makes a convincing case against businessman Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones), Shaw is exonerated not without a subsequent claim by the CIA’s Richard Helms that Shaw perjured himself.

So Stone has an axe to grind against Shaw but can’t make the final statement. What he does do, however, is advise the world that a conspiracy must have existed, the Warren Report notwithstanding.

For conspiracy theorists JFK is history at its best; for cinephiles it is
Stone working at his best looking at history through his very personal lens.

MUSIC UP, THEN UNDER AGAIN FOR:

Clay (“Nixon” - 133 words)

Aye, John, and that’s the rub that angers Oliver Stone’s critics. Should
filmmakers hedge on how they see the truth simply because the people are so easily “taken in” by a filmmaker’s manipulations?

There is no doubt that Olive Stone’s vision of Richard Nixon is as dark as Orson Welles’ vision of Charles Foster Kane. And there’s little doubt that parallels exist between Stone’s life and that of Nixon. [Just as parallels existed between the lives of Welles and Kane.]
Though not as brilliant as Citizen Kane, Stone does borrow many of its
devices. The camera moving through the gates of the White House, the
newsreels advancing the story, and the shots of the estranged husband and a wife at the opposite ends of the dinner table.

Two tragic men, two tragic women, and two tragic films.

MUSIC UP, THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John (47 words)

Oliver Stone is a certifiable auteur: His stamp is on every film he makes.

Although he may bend history for his own agenda, few can deny he provokes debate and creates lasting images.

Stone the artist teaches and delights, accomplishments any other director should envy.

John (Continues)

Clay, Oliver Stone exhausts me. I’m going to talk myself to sleep about wars and presidents with my Russian interpreter.

I'm outta here.

Clay

Well, John, if you’ll tape that sleep-talk, I’ll see that it gets archived,
with no missing gaps, on WCBE.org.

I’m outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CD: “BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY,” (CUT 6: “SOLDIER BOY,”) THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

The award winning "It's Movie Time" is co-hosted, written, and now produced by John DeSando
and Clay for WCBE 90.5. FM

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2006 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "An Inconvenient Truth," "Over the Hedge," "L'Enfant"

2006-06-16T05:43:00.000-07:00

WCBE 90.5 FM: An Inconvenient Truth, Over the Hedge, LEnfant
It's Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 3:01 pm & 8:01 pm, June 16, 2006
Streaming Live on the web and on-demand at: http://www.wcbe.org

The Script

John

An Inconvenient Truth CONVENIENTLY reminds us that Al Gore is warming along with the globe . . .

Clay

Over the Hedge is where the wild things are people . . .

John

LEnfant is TERRIBLE MAIS BON . . .

HIT MUSIC THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.''

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

and Im Clay Lowe

John (An Inconvenient Truth 126 words)

Al Gore is not waffling these days: He believes deeply in humanitys acceleration of global warming through harmful practices known well around the world. His documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, is also 100 minutes of mildly engaging Gore, not the failed campaigner for president in 2000.

The waffling comes now from the general population divided on the causes and remedies. But photos of earth before and after showing retreating shorelines and shrinking glaciers are convincing.

A subtext of this smartly-crafted doc is whether or not Al Gore can be a viable candidate in 2008. Yet the more salient question is whether the planet can SURVIVE long enough to let him do what he couldnt in eight years as vice president: Halt the inescapable warming of the earth.

Clay (Over the Hedge 130 words)

Well, folks, in Over the Hedge you may only partially warm up to the noisy little creatures who wake up one morning and discover their woodlands have been edged in by a huge hedge. That will teach them to sleep all winter.

But RJ the Raccoon (voiced by Bruce Willis) has already been over on the other side exploring the endless expanse of suburban homes whose cupboards are chocked full of fast food.
So, in the best heist tradition, RJ gathers together his forest friends and persuades them to joinhim in a quest to liberate that food.

On the human side is the Home Owners President who screams she will do whatever it takes to drive out her woodland invaders, even if she has to violate the Geneva Conventions.

And so it goes.

John (L Enfant 130 words)

This next film may drive them right back into hibernation.

The most exhilaratingly depressing movie in years is L Enfant, a winner at Cannes about street-gang Bruno and girlfriend Sonias out of wedlock baby. The central incident is his selling the baby and his attempt to get it back when she is hospitalized upon learning about his irresponsibility.

As only Europeans would dare to do, most of the shots are close-ups and glacial next to quick-cut American films. L Enfant miraculously keeps our sympathy for Bruno while he commits numerous antisocial acts.

Making him sympathetic is a marvelous feat given his slacker, emotionless persona.
Although Bruno has been damaged in his childhood, he shows an ability to be kind that partially redeems him in our eyes while never demanding we forgive him or predicting his success in life.

He is an enfant.

Clay (L Enfant 130 words)

An enfant, indeed John, as are we all in our most helpless moments. And thats where we find our characters when this story begins. Set in a bleak industrial town in eastern Belgium, its no wonder that these young people reflect the despair of the landscape around them.

Sure, they start out happy just to be together. They laugh, romp, roll, and playfully kiss but Brunos inner demons (or emptiness or lack of purpose) will not let him be. But its not until we witness his complete disregard for the feelings of others that we become convinced he is un-redeemable.

Dont give up too soon, however, or you'll miss the films astonishing
close. For during that last scene youll finally come to understand why despair can sometimes leadto catharsis.

But enough of global warming, urban sprawl, and blighted industrial landscapes, John, because
its grading time.

John

Holy HOTTIE Gore, Hooray!

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

An Inconvenient Truth earns a B for making Al Gore a man less than BORING . . . .

Clay

Over the Hedge gets a C because the CAUSE is right, but the movies CUTE little CREATURES are far too hyper . . .

John

L Enfant earns an A because ADOPTION is NOT an OPTION . . .

Clay

L Enfant gets a B because its a BIT unfair to wait until a movies last scene before your characters finally connect with their audience . . .

John

Clay, Im wondering why its so easy NOW to warm up to Al Gore. Maybe I should ask Karl Rove how THIS global warming could happen.

I'm outta here.

Clay

Well, John, Karl Rove probably couldnt care less about global warming, but he may still be worried about all that gore in Iraq . . .

Im outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC, THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

The award winning "It's Movie Time" is co-hosted, written, and now produced by John

DeSando and Clay for WCBE 90.5. FM

MUSIC DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2006 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "A Prairie Home Companion," "Cars"

2006-06-08T08:35:00.000-07:00

WCBE 90.5 FM: “A Prairie Home Companion,” “Cars”
It's Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers:
John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 3:01 pm & 8:01 pm, June 9, 2006

Streaming Live on the web and on-demand at: http://www.wcbe.org

The Script

Clay

“A Prairie Home Companion” is as warm as the sun and as dry as the dust . . .

John

“Cars” races to a box office victory . . .

HIT MUSIC (“STAR WARS THEME”), THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.''

MUSIC UP, THEN SEQUE TO (CD: “A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION,” CUT 3: MUDSLIDE), THEN UNDER FOR

John

I'm John DeSando,

And I’m Clay Lowe.

MUSIC UP, THEN UNDER AGAIN FOR:

John (“A Prairie Home Companion” 130 words)

Clay: If there is anyone more laid back or brighter than Garrison Keillor in show business, let me know, because Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion, based on Keillor’s long-running Minnesota Public Radio success, shows Keillor as an audience sees him each week—like a god gently guiding an eccentric ensemble through excellent performances made to look as easy as his demeanor.

Clay

An easy demeanor indeed, John.

John

This film stands near Altman’s Nashville as a testimony to the director’s gift for sustaining strong characters in layers of dialogue approximating overlapping conversations at an interesting party.

So enjoyable are Altman, his ubiquitous HD camera, and his busy dialogue that you feel a part of the proceedings, catching the sweet smell of success for everyone attached to this thoroughly realized song of love to radio, music, and creativity.

Clay (“A Prairie Home Companion”)

Well, folks, you’ve got to love a movie that has my co-host waxing poetic. Especially over an old radio show that’s chock full of wisdom and nostalgia that’s homespun. But, in this case, he’s dead-on.

Because just as Jonathn Demme made Nashville’s old Ryman Auditorium glow in his film “Neil Young: Heart of Gold,” so too does Altman bring to glowing life the old Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul, which is of course, the home of the real “Prairie Home Companion.”

Credit Keiller for keeping his script as easy going as his persona, and credit Altman for discovering a kindred spirit in this man who has managed to keep “A Prairie Home Companion” on the air for thirty-two years.

And don’t forget the musicians and cast. They are marvellous too.

MUSIC UP, THEN SLOWLY UNDER AND OUT

John (“Cars” 121 words)

In Cars, the creators of Toy Story take us to an imaginative world with just autos grooving to the sounds of competition, love, and family values.

The heart of Cars rests on heart: preserving the past of small town values with big heart. Because Cars is red-state red meat, Hollywood may be pandering to its neocon critics. But the film delivers sentiment closer to reality than toys or bugs or closet bugaboos could ever do. It’s about love in all its forms as the source of happiness.

However, J.D. Salinger keeps us grounded when he says, “I don’t even like old cars . . . . I’d rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God’s sake.”

Clay (“Cars” 130 words)

Well, folks, Salinger may have never watched a race horse break a leg, but lots of people have watched race cars slam into walls, crash into crowds, and of course, smash into each other. And that’s no doubt, part of the draw of this Pixar-animated, fast-paced, G-rated film.

But “Cars” delivers more than thrills and chills. Because, despite the arrogance of Lightining McQueen, this red-hot rookie race car (voiced by Owen Wilson) is forced to learn some lessons in humility when he dead-ends in Radiator Springs, somewhere along Route Sixty-Six.

But that’s not all, he also learns to have fun . . . And, yep, he even falls in love. So send the boys out for popcorn when that happens, so they can get back in time for the big race.

But enough of Robert Altman, Garrison Keillor, and Rusty old diners, John, because it’s grading time.

John

Holy , Hooray!

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

“A Prairie Home Companion” earns an “A” for ARTFULLY ACCEPTING death within life . . .

Clay

“A Prairie Home Companion” gets an “A” because its “AW-Shucks” cast is both AWKWARD and ADORABLE . . .

John

“Cars” earns an “A” for ANIMATION that goes beyond ANIMATION. . .

Clay

“Cars” gets an “A” because it’s lots of fun even though it’s ALSO very noisy.

HIT MUSIC (CD: A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION, CUT 25: GUY NOIR), THEN UNDER FOR

John

Clay, here’s how I first became interested in radio. It was Marilyn Monroe speaking about posing nude on her famous calendar:

“It’s not true that I had nothing on. I had the radio on.”

What got you interested?

Clay

Well, John, because I was only five when I began to listen to the radio, my first hero was Orson Welles, who was the original voice of The Shadow . . . and that’s the naked truth.

I’m outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC (CD: “A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION,” CUT 5: GUY NOIR), THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

The award winning "It's Movie Time" is co-hosted, written, and now produced by John DeSando and Clay for WCBE 90.5. FM

SEQGUE TO CUT 15: “FRANKIE & JOHNNY, MUSIC UP THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2006 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: "The Break-Up," "Water," "Keeping Up With the Steins"

2006-06-03T05:05:00.000-07:00

WCBE 90.5 FM: The Break-Up Water, Keeping Up With The Steins
It's Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 3:01 pm & 8:01 pm, June 2, 2006
Streaming Live on the web and on-demand at: http://www.wcbe.org

The Script

Clay

The Break-Up is another break-out comedy for Vince Vaughn and his real-life honey . . .

John

Water SWIMS in social protest and sentimentality . . . .

And Keeping Up With The Steins barely keeps up with the satire . . .

HIT MUSIC THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.''

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

And Im Clay Lowe (The Break-UP 130 words)

Folks, it wasnt long ago that when I heard a new Vince Vaughn movie was coming to town, Id deliberately miss the screening. Think of him trying to play Tony Perkins in Gus Van Sants Psycho, for instance.

But ever since Wedding Crashers Ive begun to like the guy. Nevertheless it was with an ever vigilant attitude of hope that I attended an early screening of The Break-Up.

The good news? Its not bad. The bad news? Its not Annie Hall. But give Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston credit, their rapid fire attacks on each other are charmingly delightful even though what they say is nasty and mean.

Forget the rest of the cast, these two are the perfect failed couple.

Maybe thats because shes a woman and hes a man.

John (Water 128 words)

She IS a woman!

Clay

Indeed.

John

Bollywood and Hollywood with a dash of serious cinema: Thats Deepa Mehtas Water. In 1930s India, widows are an oppressed class, relegated to an existence without meaning because their usually older husbands had the temerity to die while some of the girls were too young to have even seen the old men.

Clay

Shame on them . . .

John

I know you feel their pain.

Water is Mehtas statement about the crushing power of tradition and the sacrifices necessary to stop corrupt caste and custom. The upbeat music and scenes with two unearthly beautiful lovers remind me of the glossy feel-good sequences endemic to Bollywood musicals and Harlequin novels.

Mehta saves the film from the maudlin with a denouement reflecting the exhilaration of idealism over pragmatism and the reality of payments due for each humanistic advance.

Clay (Water 130 words)

Folks, its is easy to be a bit flippant about this movie because the filmmakers send us mixed signals.

When the young 8 year old widow is shorn of her hair and sent to a convent-like retreat full of lifelong grieving widows, it looks like a scene from Oliver Twist or The Sisters Magdeleine.
But when the young girl finds a beautiful new friend among the widows, new life comes to them all. The films colors become more lush, the music richer, and even the mean old head of the widows asylum warms up to her charges.

That some religious sects oppress women is serious business. But that the film Water states the problem, then paints rosy hues around its edges, does damage to its pleading call for reform.

John (Keeping Up With the Steins 125 words)

And the law is now on their side, but tradition is the tyrant, such as in Keeping Up with the Steins, a comedy about Benjamin Fiedlers competitive bar mitzvah. That 13 year old jumps into the backyard pool to avoid his dysfunctional family.

Benjamin Braddock of The Graduate he is not, nor does director Scott Marshall have even an iota of Mike Nichols ability to draw a witty comedy from a scathing satire of ambitious Southern California parents and their clueless sons.

Adam Fiedler (Jeremy Pevin) wants to best neighbor Arnie Steins outlandish bar mitzvah for his son, which included a Titanic theme that almost outdoes the disaster film in theatricality and expense. But Benjamin is not with the program, having far less ambition, really just wanting to get through the ceremony.

The film sinks after that humorous, skewering Titanic sequence.

Clay

Well, enough of sinking ships, John, quarreling couples, and waterlogged widows, because its grading time.

John

Holy Harlequins, Hooray!

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

Clay

The Break-Up gets a B because its good summer fun that's BOUND to make you laugh and cry . . .

John

Water earns a B for its BREATHTAKING cinematography and tradition-BENDING tale .. .

Clay

Water gets a C because its CAUSE is good, but its look is far too pretty . . .

John

Keeping Up With The Steins earns a D for DAMAGING the DELICATE art of satire. . .

Clay, with 30 million widows in India alone, Im sure theres an older one out there who would put up with a contrarian, celibate critic such as you . . . I'm outta here.

Clay

Put up with, put out with? Come on, John--

Neither rain, nor snow, nor gloom of night shall keep this celibate from continuing to make his solitary rounds.

Im outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC (BRENDA LEE), THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

The award winning "It's Movie Time" is co-hosted, written, and now produced by John

DeSando and Clay for WCBE 90.5. FM

MUSIC DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2006 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM "The Da Vinci Code," "X-Men: The Last Stand"

2006-05-26T07:48:00.000-07:00

WCBE 90.5 FM: “The Da Vinci Code” “X-Men: The Last Stand”
It's Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 3:01 pm & 8:01 pm, May 26, 2006
Streaming Live on the web and on-demand at: http://www.wcbe.org

The Script

Clay

“The Da Vinci Code” foreshadows Madonna’s “Crucifixion” . . .

John

“X-Men: The Last Stand” stands behind Da Vinci for summer delights . . . .

Dan Mushalko (WCBE Program Manager)

Who am I? Why am I here? . . .

HIT MUSIC THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.''

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

I’m Clay Lowe

Dan

And I’m guest mutant manager of media madness, Dan Mushalko . . .

John (“The Da Vinci Code” 128 words)

Clay and Dan:

“The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost” headed for the coast. The Sisters of Saint Joseph had a decidedly different take for this Catholic boy, one that brooked no argument against the divinity of the Son, Jesus Christ.

So with what glee have I read the Da Vinci Code and seen the faithful film version. Proposing Jesus marrying Mary Magdalene is balm to this critically thinking, Jesuit-trained film critic, whose skepticism the well-wimpled ones punished regularly.

Clay

Dan, even I don’t know what he’s talking about.

Dan

(Quick quip?)

John

Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ dwells overly long on the physical suffering of Christ; Howard and Brown dwell too much on the thrills of the chase. But this is summer, so who cares? Da Vinci Code may turn out to be the best movie this summer.

Clay (“The Da Vinci Code” 127 words)

Well, folks, I care, and I was not looking forward to seeing this movie. But surprise, surprise, I got hooked. I loved the thrills of those chase scenes. Just as I loved the movie’s elegant settings, and exquisitely lit scenes that were more Rembrantian than Leonardian. Nor could I help swooning at the movies’ strong performances. Ian McKellen’s two-fisted cane-carrying cripple spoke in such authoritative tones I’m sure he could silence a hailstorm with a mere whisper.

Paul Bettany’s self-abusing albino comes right off the pages of a southern gothic novel; Tom Hanks plays Robert Langdon with an appropriately furrowed brow; and wide-eyed Audrey Tautou plays her part with a dignity both fitting and proper.

What more, pray tell, could you want from a block buster movie?

Dan (“X-Men: The Last Stand” 125 words)

Well, say your prayers, Clay, because Angel and a host of new mutants come to life in the comic-book translation, “X-Men: The Last Stand”.

t’s the latest installment in Tinseltown’s successful adaptation of the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby created comic book series. This time, though, the movie moves squarely into the pubescent alienation, teen angst, and adult racism that evolved the X-Men comics under the inspired writing of Chris Claremont.

Like the comic, the movie tackles these issues – especially racism – both head on and in graduating layers…perhaps too many layers for a typical action-seeking American audience to fully grasp. Still, make no mistake, here’s mutant mayhem and artistic action galore. The downside: some overly clichéd dialogue, and a flat ending for you credit walkers.

John (“X-Men: The Last Stand” 123 words)

This last X-Men flick DOES RELY heavily on the allegorical elements that make alternative life styles and George Bush come to mind without much work. As successful as the multiple-approaches are for literary sleuths like me, they are not dealt with deeply enough because the American obsession with graphics almost always trumps the themes.

But this is summer, and X-Men: The Last Stand stands tall with MI-3 and right behind Da Vinci Code for highly entertaining, light fare that occasionally rips itself from special effects to entertain philosophies European cinema takes for granted.

Yes, Dan, our audience should be uncharacteristically American and sit through the very last shot and the credits to see if the future of X-Men can be finally predicted, The Last Stand NOTWITHSTANDING.

Clay

Well, enough of circumSCRIBED Catholics, Kelli-Eyed “Rogues,” and MULTIplying mutants, John, because it’s grading time.

John

Holy Heroic Fanboys, Hooray!

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

The Da Vinci code earns an A for ANNOYING the ANNOINTED guardians of Catholic ARCHIVES.

Clay

“The Da Vinci Code” gets a B because it’s BETTER than most critics BELIEVE it should BE . . .

Dan

“X-Men: The Last Stand” earns a B for bad boss’s bantering, but emboldened by blistering bad guy bashing.

John

“X-Men: The Last Stand” earns a “B” for saying good BYE with a BANG

Clay and Dan: I’m going to Paris and sit in the entrance of the Louvre to see if a Mary Magdalene might come MY way . . .

I'm outta here.

Clay

That’s not a good idea, John, with your PURE white hair and Pale white skin someone’s bound to conclude that YOU’RE the evil Albino .

I’m outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC (“AIN’T WE GOT FUN”), THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

The award winning "It's Movie Time" is co-hosted, written, and now produced WCBE 90.5 FM:

MUSIC UP AND OUT

Copyright 2006 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM: “The Notorious Bettie Paige,” “Goal!, The Dream Begins,” “Don’t Come Knocking”

2006-05-17T07:03:00.000-07:00

WCBE 90.5 FM: “The Notorious Bettie Paige,” “Goal!, The Dream Begins,” “Don’t Come Knocking”
It's Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Record Time: 1:00 pm, May 17, 2006
Air Time: 3:01 pm & 8:01 pm, May 19, 2006
Streaming Live on the web and on-demand at: http://www.wcbe.org

The Script

John

“The Notorious Bettie Paige” is a PAGE out of Clay Lowe’s youthful pinup fantasies. . .

Clay

“Goal! The Dream Begins” is the story of a young Mexican illegal immigrant who becomes a world class soccer player . . .

John

“Don’t Come Knocking” knocks the heck out of romantic notions about family and heroes . . .

HIT MUSIC THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.''

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

And I’m Clay Lowe

John (“The Notorious Bettie Paige” 124 words )

Clay: as I said a few months ago, The Notorious Bettie Paige is about the most famous pin-up next to Marilyn Monroe.

A fetchingly dark haired Paige is innocently naughty with some outrageous bondage costumes or none at all because Bettie could do it all with a naiveté to make you believe she thought her soft–core, sadomasochistic photographs innocent indulgence for nice people.

Clay

Well, they were.

John

I said NICE people.

Gretchen Mol plays Paige as the perfect embodiment of sex without guile. The Notorious Bettie Page fails only by denying us a look at her emotional life either by herself or with an important man.

From Genesis: “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” When Bettie is naked, she never seems ashamed either.

Clay (“Goal!, The Dream Begins” 128 words)

Well, John, in “Goal!, The Dream Begins” the young hero is not ashamed that his father snuck their family into the U.S.A.. But he is ashamed that his father would rather have him be a gardener than a player of soccer.

Too bad. For guess what? A former soccer star sees him playing in a scrub game and immediately knows this kid’s championship stuff.

Sure the movie is riddled with clichés, but what rings true is the lad’s sincerity, that in turn, engenders the sincerity of those around him. Club owners, sports agents, and even his bad boy superstar teammate are smitten by his infectious idealism.

“Goal” The Dream Begins” is a rapid moving, kick ball, bang bang of movie that strongly foreshadows there’s more yet to come.

John (“Don’t Come Knocking” 125 words)

Don’t Come Knocking’s hero is an aging cowboy movie star, Howard Spence (Sam Shepard), who leaves the set of his movie on horseback to seek out the family he left behind decades ago. He finds his ex-girlfriend Doreen (Shepard’s real-life love, Jessica Lange) and children he never knew about.

Shepard’s dialogue is spare enough to make Harold Pinter’s seem wordy: It draws us into the real world of simple people who speak simply, but whose subtexts are filled with the agony of living everyday with departed dads and half-demented kids.

Shepard is capably aided by Wim Wenders, who directed Shepard’s Paris, Texas.

Howard’s mother (Eva Marie Saint) asks him, “How did you get to be such a mess, Howard?” She could’ve asked us all that.

Clay (“Don’t Come Knocking” 132 words)

Oh, John, a fine mess indeed, but who’s to say whose life was the messiest?

Perhaps it was the Mom who lived in that well ordered house full of his childhood memories.

Or perhaps it was the mother of his children who betrayed her orderly life when she dropped her guard and passionately kissed him?

Or perhaps it was his zombie eyed son whose monotonous songs could have come from Blue Velvet.

Sure they were all caricatures, and sure it’s been said before. Think Altman, Coppola, and Tommie Lee Jones.

What “Don’t Come Knocking” does best, however, is to haunt you with its imagery, and taunt you into believing, as have the best Westerns, that the only answers worth finding are those that can only be found by riding into a sunset.

But enough of naked Betties, soccer boy heroes, and cockeyed cowboys,
John, because it’s grading time.

John

Holy Bettie’s Brokeback, Hooray!

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

“The Notorious Bettie Paige” earns a B because BETTIE is one of the only innocent BABES in cinema. . .

Clay

“Goal! The Dream Begins” gets an “A” because its more about Aspirations then it is about winning . . .

John

“Don’t Come Knocking” earns a B for sacking sentimentality while BRINGING out the BABY . . .

Clay

“Don’t Come Knocking” gets an “A” because it’s about a movie star who can’t go home again . . .

John

Clay, why don’t I remember Bettie Page as vividly as you do? Is it your rich imagination or your lingering libido?

I'm outta here.

Clay

John, when me and my friends were lusting after Bettie Paige, you were still trying to figure out which end of the bottle had the nipple.

I’m outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC, THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

The award winning "It's Movie Time" is co-hosted, written, and now produced by John DeSando and Clay for WCBE 90.5. FM

Copyright John DeSando & Clay Lowe 2006

WCBE90.5 FM: "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story," "Ask the Dust," "Blue Velvet," "The Saddest Music in the World"

2006-03-30T12:30:00.000-08:00

WCBE 90.5 FM: “Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story,” “Ask the Dust,” "Blue Velvet," "The Saddest Music in the World”
It's Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers:
John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 1:01 pm & 8:01 pm, March 24, 2006
Streaming Live on the web and on-demand at: http://www.wcbe.org

The Script

Clay

“Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story” is a wacked out salute to an unfilmable novel . . .

John

“Ask the Dust” is Robert Towne’s dusty descendent of his Chinatown . .

Clay

“Blue Velvet” is Guy Maddin’s pick to screen at the Wexner this week end . . .

John

"The Saddest Music in the World” is sadly too complex for its music . . .

HIT MUSIC THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.''

MUSIC UP, THEN UNDER FOR

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe (“A Cock and Bull Story” 129 words)

CROSS FADE MUSIC TO EITHER HANDEL'S “SARABANDE” OR NINO ROTA’S “AMACORD” THEN UNDER FOR

Folks, not since Laurence Sterne destroyed hundreds of acres of trees to come up with enough paper to publish his eight-volume novel, “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy,” has an author spent so many pages detailing the events that led up to his character’s birth and conception.

And not since the narrator of Big Fish sent his character squirting out of his mother’s womb and sliding down a slick hallway, has a new born baby made such a sensational entrance on film.

Chock full of surprises, none is more so than director Michael Winterbottom’s decision to make “Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story” into a movie about making a movie. The result, of course, is chaotic, but it’s that chaos that sources the movie’s sheerest of delights.

John (“Ask the Dust” 137 words)

“I am a lover of beasts and men.”

Clay

Sounds like a lead in to The Aristrocrats, John.

John

Not QUITE that crude.

Colin Farrell’s writer, Arturo Bandini, reveals his humanistic longings and along the way his inexperience with humans. His love is the Mexican beauty Camilla, played better than Katy Jurado could by Salma Hyeck, with whom he fights to the very end. But it is a passionate love nevertheless.

This is 1935 LA, land of love and art, with a whole bunch of racism thrown in between the abstractions.

Cinematographer Caleb Deschanel's shots are each a marvel of painterly cinema, just the right brownish, noirish lighting and shadows to create a marginal world of dream and destitution where only love could sub for wealth.

Towne, however, tempers the darkness with hope, reminding us at the end of his towering Chinatown that it’s out of our hands.

Clay (“Blue Velvet” 136 words)

There’s not much hope in David Lynch’s dark and jazzy “Blue Velvet,” folks, but the film does hold its own with the more recent edgy cinematic offerings: “True Romance,” “Fargo,” “Kill Bill,” and “Dogville.”

Firmly rooted in the surrealistic traditions of Bunuel and Dali’s “Un Chien Andalou” -- you know the movie with the slashed eyeball and the disembodied hand?

John

Unforgettable images.

Clay

Indeed.

Anyway, Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” features a discarded human ear that’s discovered in a vacant lot by an innocent young man who lives in an equally innocent town that’s located somewhere smack in the middle of America.

The lid soon blows off the town’s delusional innocence, however, when further acts of sadism and violence are quick to follow

Despite the terribly overwrought performances of Dennis Hopper and Isabella Rossellini, “Blue Velvet,” still manages to pack a deadly wallop.

John (“The Saddest Music in the World” 136 words)

Help me find my WAY with this puzzle.

Guy Maddin’s` The Saddest Music in the World is a `musical' set in Winnipeg in Depression 1933, where Lady Port-Huntly (Isabella Rossellini) is holding a saddest music contest.
The film is surrealism of the sort that marries the Melies brothers in their `Trip-to-the-Moon' wildest to `The Twilight Zone' in Rod Serling's most hilarious moments (and that's pretty unusual). Saddest Music satirizes old movies and creates a new look built on nostalgia and freedom from convention that some call “expressionism.”

”Saddest Music” is bizarre enough to satisfy the geekiest cultist in our audience. For the rest of us, just trying to appreciate all the signposts Maddin constructs to further his absurd vision is, well, exhausting.

Wordsworth's thoughts apply because we at least hear “the still, sad music of humanity.”

Clay

Enough of Cockeyed Winterbottoms, Small Town Violence, and Mad Man Maddin, John, because it’s grading time . . .

MUSIC OUT, CUT TO DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR
John

Holy Blue Bulls, Hooray!

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

Clay

“A Cock and Bull Story” gets an “A” because it’s a muddle of a movie ABOUT making a movie that works . . .

John

“Ask the Dust” earns a “B” because it’s a very good “B” movie . . .

Clay

“Blue Velvet” gets an “A” because evil ALWAYS sucks us in unAWARES . . .

John

"The Saddest Music in the World” earns a “B” for its BRAINY BEAUTY . . .

Clay, given your Canadian sympathies, I can see you drinking beer out of Isabella Rossellini’s artificial leg.

I'm outta here.

Clay

Drain out the beer, John, because after all these dark movies, I’m ready to down a Black Russian . . .

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC, THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

The award winning "It's Movie Time" is co-hosted, written, and now produced by John DeSando and Clay for WCBE 90.5.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Caché," "Freedomland," "Mrs. Henderson Presents," "Ushpizin"

2006-02-22T09:18:00.000-08:00

WCBE #257-Final: "Cache," "Freedomland," "Mrs. Henderson Presents,” “Ushpizin"
It's Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Times: 8:01 pm, February 24 & 1:01 pm, February 25, 2006
Streaming Live on the web and on-demand at: www.wcbe.org

The Script

Clay

"Cache" is a politically relevant mind blower . . .

John

"Freedomland" is lost like its child . . .

Clay

"Mrs. Henderson Presents" naughty shows during the London blitz . . .

John

"Ushpizin" will change your attitude toward guests . . .

HIT MUSIC THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.''

MUSIC UP, THEN UNDER FOR

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe ("Cache" - 153 words)

Folks, if you’re drawn to the visual equivalents of crossword puzzles, acrostics, and cryptograms, your left brain is going to crash when you try to figure out what’s going on in Michael Haneke’s new film “Caché.”

Roughly translated into English as the word “hidden,” Caché is, on the surface, a simple story about a couple who discovers their everyday lives are being taped by a hidden camera. Shades of Jim Carey’s plight in Peter Weir’s “The Truman Show.”

But instead of playing it for laughs, Haneke focuses on the masochist recriminations the spied-upon couple unleash on each other when they attempt to discover what they’ve done to deserve this surveillance.

Not since Resnais’ “Last Year At Marienbad” and Antonioni’s “Blow Up” have critics, audiences, as well as a film’s own characters, been so confused by a director’s deliberate intentions.

But not to worry, if you’re not planning on being watched, the question is moot.

John ("Freedomland") (134w)

How about a RADIO SHOW not being HEARD!

Oh, well, listen here! Julianne Moore is looking for a child again, but this time it’s real-time, hardscrabble New Jersey projects.

Moore plays Brenda Martin, who claims to have lost her son to a carjacker abscondong with her son sleeping in the back seat. Veteran detective Lorenzo Council (Samuel L. Jackson) is indeed the counseling type, whose patience with the ranting Martin wears thin as he suspects lies among her details of the abduction.

Director Joe Roth goes to lengths to show white police confronting black protesters, who are rightfully furious at the support for the disappearance of one white child when many more black missing children barely cause a ripple.

Freedomland turns on social tension but never gives it a chance to
be fleshed out. The issues are lost like the child among too much Moore moaning.

Clay ("Mrs. Henderson Presents" - 134 words)

Folks, there’s moaning galore in Stephen Frear’s new film Mrs. Henderson Presents. A kitschy crowd pleaser, the movie shamelessly carries on the shoot-the-moon traditions of “The Full Monty” and the all-nudie tableau traditions of Las Vegas.

If it weren’t for the integrity of the director, one might suspect a bit of a pander.

Starring as a widowed dowager is Dame Judi Dench. And standing by as her mismatched co-star is Bob Hoskins, a rather ill-defined character she hires to run her newly-bought theatre.
Set in London’s West End at the advent of World War II, Mrs. Henderson Presents cashes in on the patriotism of those invincible Brits, who, as we shall see, carried on with a stiff upper lip even when Hitler continued to blitz them.

Though Dench is good, Witherspoon and Knightly are better.

John ("Ushpizin" - 149 words)

Then let’s see what Jerusalem can offer.

It’s pleasant to view a parable like Ushpizin, given its locale
and the durable hatred between Jews and Arabs.

All this film REALLY cares about is the reconciliation between impoverished Moshe and his God, who seems to have neglected him and his wife around Succoth holiday, when ultra-Orthodox Jews find temporary housing in frond-covered shacks and invite Ushpizins (holy guests) to join them.

Be careful what you pray for because Moshe gets money and 2 guests, the latter bringing more chaos to Moshe’s life than the money. After all, one of the 2 guests is named Eliyahu, who in Jewish legend comes calling on houses in disguise. Both guests are escaped convicts testing Moshe and wife at every turn.

The lesson is that if good things don’t happen, it’s because you don’t pray enough. Ushipizin is that simple minded; just think Tevye in Fiddler.

Clay

Enough of TV snoops, kidnapped kids, naked chorines, and pray-for-pay pilgrims, John, because it's grading time . . .

MUSIC OUT, CUT TO DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

Holy Hootch, Hooray!

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

Clay

"Cache" gets a “B” because its BARK is as BAD as its BITE . . .

John

"Freedomland" earns a “C” because a missing CHILD is not enough to CARRY a film . . .

Clay

"Mrs. Henderson Presents" gets a “C” because it’s less CLEVER than CUTE . .

John

"Ushpizin" earns a “B” because BEING Jewish isn’t always BEING BRAVO at the BOX OFFICE . . .
DRUMS OUT

John

Clay, I encourage you to start your own nubile revue, something like "Dr. Lowe Presents His Full-Monte Shadowbox."

At your age, what harm could there be? Or more to the point, will you even care about the nudity as much as the wardrobe savings?

I'm outta here.

Clay

No nudity for me, folks, I’d rather hob nob with the rich and shoot quail with my lawyer.

I'm outta here, too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC, THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

The award winning "It's Movie Time" is co-hosted, written, and now produced by John DeSando
and Clay for WCBE 90.5.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006

Selected Quotes: John Updike, Bech, 1965

2006-02-18T11:03:00.000-08:00

“In short, one loses heart in the discovery that one is not being read. That the ability to read, and therefore to write, is being lost, along with the abilities to listen, to see, to smell, and to breathe. That all the windows of the spirit are being nailed shut.”

“Difficulty of women sleeping on trains, boats, where men are soothed. Distrust of machinery? Sexual stimulation, Claire saying she used to come just from sitting on vibrating subway seat, never the IRT, only the IND. Took at least five stops.”

- John Updike, Bech, 1965

WCBE 90.5 FM: "The World's Fastest Indian," "The White Countess," "Eight Below"

2006-02-16T08:56:00.000-08:00

WCBE 90.5 FM: “The World's Fastest Indian,” “The White Countess,” “Eight Below”
It’s Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 8:01 pm, February 17 & 1:01 pm, February 18, 2006
Streaming Live on the web and on-demand (iPod) at: www.wcbe.org

The Script

Clay

“The World's Fastest Indian” gets off to a slow start. . .

John

“The White Countess” is Ivory Gold . . .

Clay

“Eight Below” is a polar adventure that features dogs rather than penguins . . .

HIT MUSIC THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

“It’s Movie Time” in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.’’

MUSIC UP, THEN UNDER FOR

John

I’m John DeSando

Clay

And I’m Clay Lowe

John (“The World's Fastest Indian” - 126 words without interjection/139 with)

“I might be a bit deaf, but I'm not stupid.”

You could have said that on our trip to New Zealand.

Clay

I did but you didn’t hear me.

John (As usual ignores him)

In The World’s Fastest Indian, Burt Munro’s challenge is to get himself and his 1920 Indian Motorcycle from down under to Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats for world land speed competition.

Sir Anthony Hopkins is worth every million he makes by making us love his absent-minded, strong-willed racer. Only David Lynch’s “Straight Story” could compete for pulling a winner film out of an old man’s random encounters on a slow-moving road trip.

The film’s disadvantage is that this down home wisdom and eccentric behavior seem forced.

Overall the film successfully shows that breaking the rules should be on everyone’s to-do list, especially at your age, Dr.

Clay (“The World’s Fastest Indian” - 147 words)
At my age, folks, being able to break the rules is more fantasy than aspiration. But the real rule breaker in The World’s Fastest Indian was Burt Munro (played by Anthony Hopkins), a real life motorcycle speedster, who burned his way into the record books on the Salt Flats at Bonneville, Utah.

An eccentric old guy (is there any other kind in the movies?), he borrows carving knives to trim his tires . . . waters lemon trees with his bodily fluids . . . and makes all kinds of friends in his journey, by ship and by car, from New Zealand to L.A. to Utah.

Along the way he meets a friendly motel clerk, a friendly used car dealer, and even a friendly old gal who shares with him her bed, as well as her body. And, yep, you’ve got it. When he finally arrives, he takes home all of the gold.

John (“The White Countess” - 136 words)

"Between the erotic and the tragic"

So Ralph Fiennes describes both his “perfect little bar” and a perfect woman in 1936 Shanghai, with the Japanese preparing for invasion as part of another wearisome world war.

This Merchant-Ivory classic has the right balance between Jackson’s Rick Blaine-like isolationism and Natasha Richardson’s former-Russian-countess elegance decidedly less erotic and more meretricious in these exile days, not unlike Ingrid Bergman.

It’s a world more Graham Greene than E.M. Forster, with intrigues floating in and out of the neutral White Countess bar as physically blinded Jackson in his figurative blindness tries to solve the world’s unrest through congenial neutrality, an improvement over Bogart’s self denials in his Café American.

Fiennes is no Bogie, but his gruff American naivete and rude attitude are reminders of just how great a film Casablanca is.

Clay (“Eight Below”- 144 words)

Well, folks, there is no White Countess in Eight Below but there are miles of frozen ice. Featuring the Antarctic landscape that backdropped the mating games in The March of the Penguins, Eight Below features a team of spirited sled dogs who are as clever as Lassie and as determined as Old Yeller.

But unlike The March of the Penguins, Eight Below also features real life humans. There’s Jerry, the resident guide. Charlie (Jason Biggs) his map making sidekick. Davis, an uptight and irritable scientist and finally Katie, the movie’s love interest, who also happens to be able to fly.

When asking the young 5 and 6 year neighbor friends who saw the movie with me what they thought about the film, they said they liked it, but asked me to warn kids about the scary scene with the leopard seal.

Consider it done.

But enough of eccentric old men, ivory women, and leaping angry seals, John, because it’s grading time . . .

MUSIC OUT, CUT TO DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

Holy Hypothermia, Hooray!

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

“The World's Fastest Indian” earns a “B” because the race doesn’t always BELONG to the BOYS . . .

Clay

“The World’s Fastest Indian” gets a “C” because CROCHETY old men just don’t CUT it for me any more . . .

John

“The White Countess” earns a B because BOGIE and BERGMAN are BORN again . . .

Clay

“Eight Below” gets a “B” because dogs (too BAD) are still a man’s BEST friend . . .

DRUMS OUT

John

Clay, my Russian interpreter reminds me of Natasha Richardson. I hope my blue eyes are as sexy as Ralph Fiennes’ blindness.

I’m outta here.

Clay

No, but your eyes do match the blue orbs of Disney’s handsome huskies. Arf. Arf.

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC, THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

The award winning “It’s Movie Time” is co-hosted, written, and now produced by John DeSando and Clay for WCBE 90.5.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Final Destination 3," "Pink Panther," "Something New," "The Matador"

2006-02-10T07:40:00.000-08:00

WCBE#255-FINAL
“Final Destination 3,” “The Pink Panther,” “Something New,” "The Matador"
It’s Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
WCBE 90.5 FM
Air Time: 3:01 and 8:01 pm, February 10, 2006
Streaming Live on the web and “It’s Movie Time” on-demand at: www.wcbe.org

The Script

John
“Final Destination 3” should be the final destination for this franchise . . .

Clay
Steve Martin’s “Pink Panther” should be seeking its final destination too . . .

John
“Something New” is something new . . .

Clay
“The Matador” is a dark comedy about an assassin in need of a friend . . .

HIT MUSIC THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:
“It’s Movie Time” in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.’’

MUSIC UP, THEN UNDER FOR

John
I’m John DeSando

Clay
And I’m Clay Lowe

John (“Final Destination 3”)
Director James Wong’s Final Destination 3 may be the end of a franchise that has profited from a formula so trite as to elicit laughsthat may not have been intended. You know them: the smart-mouthed, big-breasted teenagers just asking to be cut down in their prime; the ominous carnival setting where the devil can openly operate a death coaster; the brunette who is the only one to foresee the final destinations; and the race with time to solve the devil’s murders before they happen.

Maybe I can save Final Destination 3 by likening its theme to Woody Allen’s in Match Point. Both films make visual statements about luck and the randomness of the universe, Allen with the uncertain trajectory of a tennis ball and James Wong with domino-effect sequences.

Wong will make more money on this film than Allen in all his sophisticated pictures. There's Luck.

Clay “The Pink Panther”
Well, folks, as luck would have it Pink Panther X has finally lost its charm and that’s too bad, because in ‘63 and ‘64, director Blake Edwards and Brit comic Peter Sellers had us howling in the aisles, but that was before the studios ground out seven more sequels.
Blake Edwards made a career out of attempting to squeeze all the juice he could out of the scripts and even Peter Sellers tried to help keep the series alive, but then he up and died and so should have the series.

So, is Steve Martin able to resurrect the bumbling Clouseau? Nope, because he’s left to do it alone. Sure, Beyonce belts out a sexy song and competently speaks her lines. But, lawdy, lawdy, Kevin Kline is not only miscast, he also spends most of the movie trying to decide whether he should or should play it with an accent.

Hey, John, you were right to stay home.

John (“Something New”)
I was busy reading The Detroit Free Press report that 42.4% of black women have never been married.

Clay
That adds up to 21.2 per cent for each of us . . .

John
Is that all?

Clay
That's enough.

John
With stats emphasizing marriage a challenge for blacks, the film Something New deftly shows what a bright and accomplished young black professional, Kenya (Sanna Lathan), goes through before she finds the right man, in this case not an IBM (ideal black man), but rather very white hunk Brian (Simon Baker), a landscape architect just too nice to be believable.

The value of this film over recent attempts involving barbershop clients and hip-hop heroes is that as a romantic comedy, it is breezily enjoyable with something new to say about lingering racism in love and work.

The film uses effective dialogue about interracial romance AND the universal struggle of substantial women to find substantial men.

Clay (“The Matador”)
Folks, I hope “The Matador” is still playing this weekend because it’s a substantially enjoyable film.

Set in Mexico City, Vienna, Denver, Vegas, and Budapest, “The Matador” has done for the early-forties’ set what Wes and Paul Thomas Anderson have done for the late-teener and early-twenties male bonders.

Gregg Kinnear plays “Danny” a domesticated husband who loves the sense of danger he smells in the air when he meets “Julian the Assassin,” played to a “T” by the usually ever so slick Pierce Brosnan. Throw in Hope Davis, who also falls for Julian’s dangerous scent, and then add in Phillip Baker Hall’s tough guy and you end up with a bright and colorful comedy-dark that should leave you silently smiling.

But enough of panthers, romancers, and hipster assassins, John, because it’s grading time.

MUSIC OUT, CUT TO DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John
Holy Hip-Huggers, Hooray!

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John
“Final Destination 3” earns a “C” because COMEDY and CLOSURE are tough twins . . .

Clay
“The Pink Panther” gets an “F” because the FUNNIEST scene in the FILM FEATURES Clouseau FIGHTING a bad case of FLATULENCE . . .

John
“Something New” earns a “B” because a BABE is a BABE regardless of her race . . .

Clay
“The Matador” gets an “A” because it’s a well-cast, well-acted buddy boys-get-the-girl ASSASSINS ADVENTURE . . .

DRUMS OUT

John
Clay, if my lover looks like, say Halle Berry rather than Queen Latifah, how really hip am I ?
I’m outta here.

Clay
I'm way ahead of you, John. I fell in love with Diahann Carroll when I saw her romancing Richard Kiley on Broadway in “No Strings” in 1962 . . .

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC ("AIN'T WE GOT FUN"), THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle
The award winning “It’s Movie Time” is co-hosted, written, and now produced by John DeSando and Clay for WCBE 90.5.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006

News From Walhalla: My Books, My Life

2006-02-07T16:20:00.000-08:00

“’In every dictatorship,’ he said to Bianchina, ‘just one man, even any little man at all, who continues to think with his own head puts the whole public order in danger. Tons of printed paper propagate the regime’s order of the day, thousands of loudspeakers, hundreds of thousands of posters and handbills distributed free, and stables of orators in the squares and crossroads, thousands of priests from the pulpit, all repeat to the point of obsession, to the point of collective stupefaction, these orders of the day. But it’s enough that a little man, just one little man says NO for that formidable granite order to be in danger.’” - Ignazio Silone, Bread and Wine,