DJANGO Unchained

Quentin Tarantino fills my revengeful soul like no other filmmaker.  He portrays Nazis as  cultured and articulate men you can't wait to be killed (painfully).  And now Southern slave owners are played as mean to the core, chillingly violent, and in one silly scene stupidly dependent on their wives to make proper KKK hoods.  I just LOVED this quintessential Tarantino film.  He gives a revisionist view of history where slaves (oh yes, called n****** throughout) rise up and are amazingly successful in retribution.  "You wanna cut off my balls?  I'll shoot you in yours."  Who could not cheer for that moment?
Christoph Walz, Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel Jackson and Kerry Washington are perfectly cast and brilliantly deliver. The dialogue is wonderful, as is the photography.  Alas, Tarantino's editor recently died so there is too much of the stuff he loves (she would have deleted), but nevertheless a GREAT film.  A great re-making of American history.

HOLY MOTORS

What a ride!  What a performance by Denis Lavant.  Suspend all thoughts of a film that follows any film making formula and let yourself enjoy this zany, insane, provocative ride with a beautiful older woman chauffeur who takes her passenger to nine stops where he becomes nine different characters.  And when he finally returns home you will laugh and shake your head.  I can't think of a better film to see if you're feeling weighed down by the stuff in our world right now.

Armadillo Crafts Bazaar

Since arriving in Austin one of my favorite annual events is this crafts sale at Palmer Events Center where I hear great music, drink wine and support local artists.  I visit the fare a couple of times, pick my selections and then bring Abe back to confirm that he likes what I do.  This year it's a mosaic owl from Aly Winningham, my favorite mosaic artist in Austin, and an acrylic painting (rooster named Chester) by a folk artist, Jackie Haliburton (no relationship to Cheney whatsoever), who travels from Houston with her husband to sell her wonderful paintings of African American figures.  While I am not a lover of Christmas shopping I do love supporting local artists and this venue is perfect.  It's where I first heard Ray Wylie Hubbard and I've been a fan since!  Alas this year there was no Asleep at the Wheel.  KUT tells me Ray Benson is off in Montana.  There's always next year.

LIFE OF PI/Thank-You Ang Lee

Ang Lee, a masterful filmmaker, has created a film which embodies the power of  film.  A film that lifted me from a week of grief and bereavement I have felt since the shootings of children in Connecticut. A film that reminded me of the power of art to demonstrate the human capacity and potential to survive enormous loss.  A film that proved a non-actor could reach into his being to bring us a performance like Suraj Sharma did.  A film that reminded me once again of  the incredible story telling talents of Irrfan Khan.  And all of the technology that went into keeping me captivated by beauty, natural and otherwise was, on this occasion, so appreciated.  A reprieve from madness that surrounds us is, for me, the power of film.  Always always I found myself in a theater since I was a little girl in the Bronx to help me face the demons of this world.  Thank-you Ang Lee for this exquisite film.

Only Two Can Play/Austin Film Society

Last night was the end to our Welsh Essential Cinema Series and an end to Tuesday nights at Alamo South Lamar.  We're being sent up to the Alamo Village for 10 months (bet it's a year) while Tim League builds his empire.  (I'm smiling.)  This was a great B/W film starring Peter Sellers as a loathsome character who you really quite like!  A philanderer, theater critic and librarian.  Who treats his wife shabbily (she's really quite cute) and lives a pretty difficult life in a flat with his wife and two kids and a parade of Welsh characters.  Jim Kolmar's notes as always provided enormous background information and I will never look at THE PINK PANTHER in the same light.  Peter Sellers I learned was a magnificent talent who dealt with his tormentors of self loathing as so many artists do, with drugs and alcohol.  What a shame!  Thank-you Jim and AFS for this wonderful series.

UT/RTF End of Semester Films

Tonight we headed up to the Mc Cullough Theater where we had a chance to view the films made by students in Nancy Schiesari and Kat Candler's Narrative classes.  We were so impressed with the talent, hard work, creativity and collaborative effort demonstrated by these students.  So good to see and hug Amada Yam, Ta Neil Dodson and Skylar Moran. And to let them know I feel like a proud mama watching their accomplishments. One of the best parts of my transition to Austin was meeting and working with these fine young filmmakers.

UNFATHOMABLE GRIEF

I taught two children how to ride the NYC subways when they were 11 years old.  By themselves.  I taught them how to go to middle schools  in Brooklyn called "ghetto schools" and to be wise and safe.  I sent them off to the heartland of America, Wisconsin and Texas where they were surrounded by kids whose families had guns, and I said "have an open mind."  But NEVER EVER could I prepare a kid to go to kindergarten and be safe from a family's dysfunction.  And evil. And a shooter.  Enough of your guns America!  Enough!!

RADIO UNNAMEABLE/AFS Doc Night

I was 19 y.o. in 1967, living in The Bronx, traveling 3 hours each day to and from  Queens College and working two PT jobs.  There was little down time  and so a midnight radio show that spoke to rebelliousness, counter culture events and people was perfect!  I did my sleeping on the 3 buses and subways I rode to get to school!  And Bob Fass, the creator and DJ of this midnight radio show spoke to thousands of us when he created hippie events (an Easter Be-In at Central Park and a Fly-In at Kennedy airport in the dead cold of winter) and we all showed up!  And peace, pot, balloons and human warmth was the common denominator.  He did all of this without Facebook. 

Last night's documentary was a wonderful walk back in time with photos illustrating the gritty, edgy New York I loved so much.  Where I began my first social work jobs working in the East Village with runaways and foster care throwaways.  A shout out to Jessica Wolfson and Paul Lovelace for creating this documentary about a man who brought so much culture to so many of us (my first Alice's Restaurant, Mr. Bojangles,  and introduction to Abbie Hoffman and his band of YIPPIES) first came from Bob Fass.  And when he traveled to Chicago for the notorious Democratic National Convention he reminded us first hand that the world was changing and becoming extremely polarized.  We were in a transition which would have us end up in the brain numbing world of extreme materialism where your worth was valued by what you could buy instead of your creative thoughts.

Thank-you AFS for this fabulous film.  When an audience member thanked the filmmakers from the bottom of her heart for bringing her memories of the Be-In and Fly-In right back to her I wanted to give her a hug and stand by her side.  Like I once did in 1967.

Winter Vegetarian Cooking Class @ Whole Foods

Tonight Liz and I ventured to Whole Foods to learn how to cook some winter veggie dishes.  Her birthday present to me.  While I love to cook I was a bit apprehensive as I shy away from 5 star restaurants and their chefs.  I find the recent attention to  high end food and it's preparation to be over the top, trendy, and intimidating.  But this class was great and not intimidating at all.  The teacher, Jason Edgar, Senior Chef Instructor was expert at making you feel relaxed and capable.  His assistant Chris was a great help as well. The menu this evening was delicious:  Wild Mushroom and Kale Tartlets;  Cinnamon Roasted Whole Carrots; Sunchokes with Bourbon Lacquered Cranberries and Pecans and Caramelized Parsnip Soup. 

I liked Jason's flexibility and when we told him we preferred to leave our soup chunky rather than  blended he didn't make us feel like we were committing a food crime.  I learned some very basic principles this evening:  how to properly cut and chop an onion; to never brown garlic first or with an onion; that roasted parsnip or sun chokes with olive oil, salt and pepper are the best potato substitute in the world!  And most important that fine food preparation does not have to be an intimidating exclusive club for food snobs.    Lovers of POLVO'S are certainly welcome.  A perfect birthday gift Liz.

LATKES,LATKES,LATKES

GREAT success.  Our girl Liz has got to have the cutest, sweetest friends.  It's 2:20 a.m. Just finished cleaning.  Abe will vacuum manana.  Sent everyone home with food and home baked goodies.  Malina Panovich, my very first UT RTF director stayed and helped me clean. 

The festival of light.  Gratitude for oil lasting 8 days rather than one.  What a cool thing to acknowledge.  No shopping or gift giving required.  Just  a chance to honor an unusual event that made people happy and brought light into darkness.  My kind of holiday.  Shalom Y'all.

ROSS Dept Store and a Snooty Shopper

New Yorkers can be very very snooty about shopping.  Even those of us who shop in NYC at Century 21, H&M, and Macy's with coupons.  We just have this POV that our shopping sites have superior choices.  Maybe that's true for some parts of the country but not Austin.  You just have to refigure your brain about what a department store looks like, and also lunge into the creativity of Austin's scene for style.  Liz taught me to refrain from buying anything that's reproduced on the rack 20 times.  Sometimes I even follow her suggestion.  Yesterday was my second trip to ROSS and I must say it was amazingly successful.  Abe and I like clothes (an unusual quality for two social workers I've always believed ) and yesterday I was so happy to be able to find jackets for him, dresses for me for unbelievably reduced prices.  Won't be so obnoxious to mention labels but they're goooood!  I love telling my friends back in Brooklyn about my finds. They are truly envious and happy at the same time.  They've found a new shopping destination!

TIGER BAY/Austin Film Society

12 y.o. Hayley Mills delivers a performance that is so authentic, real, powerful and just plain excellent in this 1958 film shot in Cardiff, the coal capital of the world.  Horst Buchholz (damn, I just read he died in 2003) and John Mills are fabulous in their roles as well.  This is a thriller involving a murder, a street urchin who has developed all of the survivor skills all these kids have, and a sailor.  It's a black and white film with great shots of the harbor, the docks and dock workers, and the diverse families who call this rough area home.  Reminds me in many ways of the waterfront dock neighborhoods in Brooklyn.  We've been reminded by Jim Kolmar, AFS guest curator, that these diverse neighborhoods no longer exist in Cardiff and as always it reminds me of all that is lost when we lose that diversity.

Many of us wanted the murderer to get away with his crime.  Not just because he's the gorgeous Horst Bucholz, but because we really cared about him and the relationship he developed with Gillie.  For me, that is the most important element of a film.  This is a gorgeous film, spellbinding and realistic.