This week, I finished reading David Spiller's Blame It On My Youth: A Story About Mabel Mercer -- if you have Kindle Unlimited, you can read it for free.
I think the book hooks you from the beginning.
I knew the name Mabel Mercer and that she was a singer and that's all I knew when I started the book. I read the book, in fact, because I felt like she was someone I probably needed to know about. Spiller makes that clear from the start by opening with Mercer, at the end of her life, in a hospital when an aid comes in excitedly telling her she has to take a call, she has to. She picks up the phone and it's Frank Sinatra who is checking on her and who is paying respects to her for all the influence her singing had on him.
I think that was a very smart opening. It grabs your interest and immediately sets up that you're reading about a legend.
Mabel was born in England to a White British woman and her Black American father died before she was born. As a child, her mother puts her on the stage and demands that she sing. When Mabel says she can't sing in a theater, her mother tells her that yes, she can, and that she will because this is where she's going to be singing. Then her mom drops her off at a convent -- immediately after making her sing, basically -- for schooling. She's the only Black girl there and some of the other girls call her a "golliwog." She doesn't know what it means -- nor did I, I had to look it up, it's an insult to dark skinned people -- even dark skinned White people. Despite that, she grows to like living in the convent and she makes friends.
Many years later, she's got the choice to go off with her Aunt Rhoda or to become a non. To pull her weight in the family, she has to get a job. She auditions at a music hall -- as a dancer -- and she's not picked despite being the best of the three women auditioning. (She's 14 but lying that she's 16 as her aunt told her to do.)
Instead, she ends up a part of her aunt's vaudville group, The Four Rings. She's a minor success. Death comes along. Her cousin George (part of The Five Rings -- as they were known after she joined) dies in the war. Her friend from the convent, Queenie, is married and pregnant and takes her own life by jumping out the window on the third floor.
She goes to Paris. She meets Bricktop and sings at Chez Bricktop. And does well. She meets Cole Porter at the club when she sings his "Night And Day" and he advises her to use a microphone when she sings. He also praises her phrasing and compares it to Mozart.
And that's really the beginning of what will become a glorious career. Then as you come to the end of the book, the author admits that he's been creative because very little it known about Mabel's life.
If that detail was shared in a page at the front before chapter one, I missed it. But that's fine. While reading the book, I got Mabel Mercer & Bobby Short At Town Hall and it's a great album.
Friday, October 7, 2022. BROS, Iraq, Julian Assange and much more.
On BROS, I made the points I wanted to make in the last
two snapshots (here and here) and thought we were not going to cover it
today. Then came the online push claiming that FIRE ISLAND does what
BROS did not.
No, it doesn't.
You
have no understanding of film if you believe that. First off, FIRE
ISLAND did not become a conversation. Second, it wasn't a strong film.
The first act is slow and weak. Ava and I covered it when it came out:
Jane shouldn't do stand up. Stand up comedian Joel Kim Booster
shouldn't try to write screenplays. He wrote the script for FIRE ISLAND
-- an update on Jane Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. The first forty
minutes are excruciating. Once we get into Joel's character and the
film's Mr. Darcy, it begins to work. You actually care about those two.
Otherwise?
Too many movies -- and TV shows (think NAOMI) -- are just spitting out characters and confusing audiences.
The reason films used "types" -- Thelma Ritter and others for character
roles -- was to help the audience follow. It's also why famous and
semi-famous people are often cast in roles. Outside of Margaret Cho,
most of the cast is unfamiliar to movie goers. Joel' screenplay starts
with too many characters and they really needed to cast recognizable
faces or at least distinct ones. CLUELESS, another update of Jane
Austen, worked because it established characters and used 'types' -- the
skateboarder, the preppie, etc.
There
is also the fact that it's a celibate film. Did no one notice that?
Honestly, a number of gay people on Twitter are pimping this as better
than BROS but it's a chaste little film for the female/male lead. If
you don't get it, it's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen. It's an
adaptation. Joel Kim Booster makes a lovely Elizabeth Bennett, but not
much of a gay man living in 2022.
The
film has many things going for it. But it's akin to an independent
film like IT'S MY PARTY in terms of look and feel. It wasn't an advance
and considering Joel's remarks in his NETFLIX special -- his angry
screeds -- I'm surprised anyone's pimping this. Ava and I also noted
that, "His persona may just be saying things for humor. If that's the case,
keep it up. But if he's serious about getting complaints from gay
people about his jokes, he might try grasping that he's not The Voice
for Gay America."
I'm glad that
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE still resonates. But FIRE ISLAND reminds me of the
play a famous blowhard wrote in college. It was his life story. He
made himself front and center in the play. And every other character
existed to tell him how great he was. They really weren't characters in
their own right. After he started writing films (and, later, bad TV),
he just knew his play would connect with me. (I'd passed on his
previous projects.) I was ambushed while having lunch (a friend tipped
him off). I was still a smoker then, thank goodness because I couldn't
have made it through his play without a vice. Indulgent was the kindest
term.
I told him it was
as though Jules (Demi Moore's character in ST. ELMO'S FIRE) had written
her own story. There was no understanding of the world around her (I'm
not talking politics or anything other than her immediate world) and
that the other characters were all props for the main character (him).
There was no arc of growth. It was just one indulgent scene after
another.
I know
screenplays, I've read a number, I've acted a number and I'm also good
at plot points and finding where the beat should be (those last two are
with regards to films I'm not a part of but that friends who are
directors seek my opinion on).
There
are many reasons you can like a film. It can be a hideous mess like
1987's ANNA but you can love it for Sally Kirkland's outstanding performance. Jane
Fonda elevated KLUTE to film classic with her performance -- the finest
performance by any actor or actress in a film that was released in the
second half of the 20th century. You can love a film because the
character reminds you of someone you love -- or of yourself. A film can
be a significant piece of art all around -- SOME LIKE IT HOT, for
example -- and you love it for that reason.
And
there are aspects to applaud with regards to FIRE ISLAND. But, no,
it's not on the level of BROS. It's screenplay dithers at the start.
It's casting is way off. It feels like a Greg Berlanti project and, no,
that's not a compliment. Greg wasn't the unnamed blow hard I was
referring to above. That blowhard is straight.
It may reflect your life onscreen and that's great if it does. But by any critical measure it's just an okay film/TV movie.
It's not revolutionary or brave -- I think Doris Day got more action in PILLOW TALK than Joel Kim Booster did in FIRE ISLAND.
And to be clear, FIRE ISLAND isn't a bad film. It's a weak film. AMERICA'S SWEETHEARTS is a bad film.
Fire Island came out with a bang as not only was it released during pride month, but according to Mashable, it was the sixth most streamed film during the week of its release, outperforming Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Meanwhile, Bros was unable to outgross the Avatar re-release and is currently being vastly outperformed by the new horror film, Smile.
May
24th is when SONIC 2 came out on streaming. That means it was in its
fourth week of streaming release when FIRE ISLAND 'beat it.' JURRASIC
WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM is a 2017 movie. And that week that is
highlighted? FIRE ISLAND is not the number one streaming film -- not
even number one of rom-coms. No, Sandra Bullock's LOST CITY is number
three -- and it came out on streaming May 10th -- and weeks and weeks later
it still beat FIRE ISLAND. I don't know how you see that as a win but
most people aren't stupid enough to scan Crapapedia and then write a
report. You can call it cribbing but let's be honest, it's plagiarism
-- and plagiarism of a very bad source.
BROS
came in number five last weekend. It's harder to sell tickets -- a
pandemic, Hurricane Ian, fears of harm over buying a ticket to a movie
with a storyline about gay people, etc -- so don't compare the two --
but if the metrics were exact, BROS still did better. Yet WE GOT THIS
COVERED starts out their (mis)report insisting BROS bombed. (BROS sold
1.5 million in tickets -- that's Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday --
Thursdays numbers will be released later today. People are continuing
to see the film.)
Another
thing, stop writing about the movie if you didn't see it. And I'm not
really sure what you can understand about a film and its response in the
United States when you're writing from Australia -- in other words,
maybe butt the hell out. It's interesting that BROS is said to be "less
gay" than FIRE ISLAND. That's not accurate. Again, maybe don't
comment on the movie you didn't see. Aaron (Luke MacFarlane) is a "BRO"
singular. And Bobby (Billy) thinks Aaron only likes BROS. But Aaron
is the only BRO in the film. (Some men in the club may or may not be
BROS -- they don't have dialogue and we don't know.) I'm sorry that
idiots on Twitter who haven't seen the film have influenced an idiot at
WE GOT THIS COVERED to write about something that's completely
inaccurate. There are tons of characters in the films -- gay, lesbian,
bi, trans, etc -- Aaron's the only BRO. We assume that his old friend
from high school is probably a BRO. (Bobby makes that assumption when
he's worried that Aaron doesn't find him attractive.) But Aaron spent
his life assuming that his hockey team buddy was straight. And he's not
acting very BRO when he's in bed with Aaron, Bobby and Steven.
Jamyl
Dobson's character may strike some as a BRO but a BRO wouldn't have a
Barbra Streisand poster up on their wall. Again, it helps, when
critiquing a film, to have actually seen it.
There are a multitude of characters in BROS -- they are not all the same.
And
that's what screenwriter Joel Kim Booster doesn't grasp -- not everyone is alike,
not everyone is the same. Actors in FIRE ISLAND can only do so much
with a weak script.
The
idiot at WE GOT THIS COVERED is repeating a false charge and that is why
you really need to see a movie to comment on it. The exception is
commenting that you have no interest in seeing the film. I'm fine with
that. I have always been fine with that. But if you don't see the film
you really shouldn't be talking about what it is or what it isn't
because you honestly don't know.
I
loved WORLD CAN'T WAIT and Debra Sweet (I know Debra). But when she
started slamming a film and calling for it to be censored -- when she
hadn't seen it? We dropped WORLD CAN'T WAIT.
I'm
an artist first and foremost. And I'm not ever going to support cries
of censorship to begin with. But when you start attacking a work that
you haven't seen?
Go find another person to plug your activities because it won't be me.
You
failed to do the basics before jumping into this conversation. You're
an idiot, Erielle Sudario for writing the article. And it reveals how
vested you are in attacking Billy and what he has done that you rush
your ill thought out words into print. They couldn't pass a fact check.
Don't they teach journalism in Australia?
Equally
true, since I'm now writing on the topic again, let me plug my friend
Luke who is better looking than anyone in FIRE ISLAND. He has true
charisma. Not just chemistry with Bobby, but true charisma. And he looks hot as hell in the film.
We need to point out the sexism involved in Twitter segment that WE GOT THIS COVERED elected to amplify. A small
group of gays are saying FIRE ISLAND is better because it's their life
(they wish) and they're worried about representation.
Really?
Or are you just self-involved jerks?
Because I only saw Margaret Cho playing a lesbian in FIRE ISLAND.
14 people in the main cast and only one's a woman -- and this is representative?
If that truly reflects your life, what a sad life you live.
(There
are 21 characters in the main cast of BROS. I am counting Debra
Messing who plays herself -- and is hilarious -- as a character because
she's in more than one scene. I am not counting Kenan Thompson, Ben
Stiller, Amy Schumer, Seth Meyers or Kristin Chenoweth as characters --
they do cameos. Explain to me also which FIRE ISLAND characters were
bi, trans or non-binary? Again, a small group of Twitter trolls are
playing 'woke' but just sporting their hatred of women and anyone who
isn't like them.)
The
unruly Twitter children are out of their minds as they drool over their
own mirrored reflections. It's why they rush to celebrate FIRE ISLAND
-- a bunch of young, gay men -- and say BROS -- whose characters truly
are LGBTQ and straight -- isn't 'representative.'
COFFEE
AND TEQUILA has offered two strong pieces covering BROS this week.
We've already noted the first one in a snapshot but let's put it in this
snapshot too.
And now here's the more recent one.
Let's note
one more time that today is October 7th. Why? Monday will be October
10th. It's very unlikely that, over the weekend, Iraq's politicians are
going to pull their act together. October 10, 2021 was when Iraq held
elections. Still waiting on the formation of the new government. No
new prime minister. No new cabinet of ministers. No new president.
It
will be one full year on Monday. And there's no end in sight. Blame
it on a Biden? Iraq's always struggled some but the last time it took
this long? Joe Biden was in charge of Iraq. Then-President Barack
Obama had put Joe in charge. It was 2010. It took 289 days for the
government to be formed -- 289 days after the election.
In
that instance, the incumbent -- former prime minister and forever thug
Nouri al-Maliki -- refused to honor the results and step down. So Joe
oversaw The Erbil Agreement -- a contract signed by Iraq's political
leaders which tossed the votes aside and gave Nouri a second term.
This
go round, Joe's been notoriously absent from the scene of the crime.
Despite repeating urging from the Congress, he's done nothing. Well,
sometimes doing nothing is sending a message. Noted failure Mustafa
al-Kahdimi is the 'caretaker' prime minister at present since the
Parliament still can't name one. And Mustafa and Joe are not, to put it
mildly, close.
Joe doesn't go to Iraq. They don't talk.
Now
Mustafa did visit the US last month. He and Joe were both at the
United Nations. But Joe ignored him and didn't visit with him. He met
with many -- including the Prime Minister of Japan -- a man whose name
the White House struggled with repeatedly in press releases announcing
the visit. They sent out a written message on each meet up.
There was no meet up with Mustafa and, as a friend with the State Dept stated to me, "That was the message."
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi's visit to Erbil looks like a
courageous step in the current delicate circumstances that Iraq, one of
the most important countries in the region, is going through.
This step proves that Kadhimi, although he leads an outgoing
government, wants to be the prime minister of all of Iraq and of all
Iraqis.
Let's translate that whoring into reality. This is what Khairallah's really saying:
My
buddy Mustafa and I remain close and I don't disclose it anymore than
various press outlets Mustafa used to work for ever disclose that
Mustafa was their employee before he became prime minister. That's why
we pimp him as some great leader when he's an inept failure who has
accomplished nothing despite being handed the post of prime minister.
The US Ambassador has told Mustafa that now is not the time for oil
disputes -- not with Opec's recent moves and inflation -- and, Iraqi
court verdict or not -- Mustafa was told to get his ass to the KRG and
try to make some sort of peace between the KRG and Baghdad and do so
quickly because the US government is really tired of Mustafa.
You
can pin a lot of the blame on the press that covered for Mustafa and
pretended he wasn't the problem. He didn't fix anything. Things got
even worse under his 'leadership.'
Prominent Iraqi cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr has ordered armed groups under his control to suspend their
activities in almost the entire country in order not to increase
tensions after weeks of heavy clashes in Basra province between the
cleric's forces and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a coalition
of pro-Iranian militias.
Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr today
announced the freezing of all his armed factions across Iraq, except the
northern province of Saladin.
Saleh Mohamed Al-Iraqi, a leader of the
Sadr's movement, said the influential cleric also "banned the use of
weapons in all provinces except Saladin and Samarra city."
It was not yet clear why Saladin province was not included in the ban.
Salih Mohammed al-Iraqi, a close associate of Sadr, said in a statement on
behalf of the Shiite leader that they were freezing all armed factions,
including the Saraya al-Salam, and banning the use of weapons in all
Iraqi provinces except for Salahaddin to “avoid sedition” in Basra,
adding “otherwise, we will take other measures later.”
Iraqi also called on the commander-in-chief of the armed forces Kadhimi
to control the “disrespectful” militias of Qais al-Khazali,
secretary-general of AAH, as they “know nothing but terror and money and
power.”
AAH? Danny gets that part right "the League of the Righteous (Asaib Ahl al Haq or AAH) militia."
January
10, 2020, the US State Dept designated Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq as a terrorist
organization. Prior to that, it was most infamous for killing US
troops in Iraq. You'd never know that from the sobbing some in the US
gave when one of its leaders was killed. Long before that happened, it
was a terrorist group and Barack Obama was happy to make deals with the
group.
For those unfamiliar with the League of
Righteous, among other things, they kidnapped 5 British citizens in
Baghdad and, when Barack Obama's
administration entered into negotiations with them, released 3 corpses
and 1 hostage alive (Peter Moore was the one alive) after their leaders
were released from prison and, much later, released the corpse of the
fifth British citizen. The four turned over dead were Jason
Swindlehurst, Jason Creswell, Alec MacLachlan and (turned over much
later) Alan McMenemy The Obama administration's decision to enter into
talks with the group was shocking considering the group also brags of
their attack on a US military base in Iraq in which five American
soldiers were killed.
This morning the New York Times' Alissa J. Rubin and Michael Gordon offered "U.S. Frees Suspect in Killing of 5 G.I.'s." Martin Chulov (Guardian) covered the same story, Kim Gamel (AP) reported on it, BBC offered "Kidnap hope after Shia's handover" and Deborah Haynes contributed "Hope for British hostages in Iraq after release of Shia militant" (Times of
London). The basics of the story are this. 5 British citizens have been
hostages since May 29, 2007. The US military had in their custody Laith
al-Khazali. He is a member of Asa'ib al-Haq. He is also accused of
murdering five US troops. The US military released him and allegedly did
so because his organization was not going to release any of the five
British hostages until he was released. This is a big story and the US
military is attempting to state this is just diplomacy, has nothing to
do with the British hostages and, besides, they just released him to
Iraq. Sami al-askari told the New York Times, "This is a very sensitive
topic because you know the position that the Iraqi government, the U.S.
and British governments, and all the governments do not accept the idea
of exchanging hostages for prisoners. So we put it in another format,
and we told them that if they want to participate in the political
process they cannot do so while they are holding hostages. And we
mentioned to the American side that they cannot join the political
process and release their hostages while their leaders are behind bars
or imprisoned." In other words, a prisoner was traded for hostages and
they attempted to not only make the trade but to lie to people about it.
At the US State Dept, the tired and bored reporters were unable to even
broach the subject. Poor declawed tabbies. Pentagon reporters did press
the issue and got the standard line from the department's spokesperson,
Bryan Whitman, that the US handed the prisoner to Iraq, the US didn't
hand him over to any organization -- terrorist or otherwise. What Iraq
did, Whitman wanted the press to know, was what Iraq did. A complete lie
that really insults the intelligence of the American people. CNN reminds the five US soldiers killed "were:
Capt. Brian S. Freeman, 31, of Temecula, California; 1st Lt. Jacob N.
Fritz, 25, of Verdon, Nebraska; Spc. Johnathan B. Chism, 22, of
Gonzales, Louisiana; Pfc. Shawn P. Falter, 25, of Cortland, New York;
and Pfc. Johnathon M. Millican, 20, of Trafford, Alabama." Those are the
five from January 2007 that al-Khazali and his brother Qais al-Khazali
are supposed to be responsible for the deaths of. Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Robert H. Reid (AP) states
that Jonathan B. Chism's father Danny Chism is outraged over the
release and has declared, "They freed them? The American military did?
Somebody needs to answer for it."
They
never did answer for it. People treated it as normal that a leader
responsible for the deaths of five Americans was released from American
custody. Barack should have been called out.
Well he was.
In
the Arabic media, the League of Righteous called him out, mocked and
made fund of him, bragged about delaying the release of Alan McMenemy to
show Barack who was running things.
But he
should have been called out in the US media. The news of it registered
with military families but otherwise it was just a headline quickly
forgotten.
Land of snap decisions
Land of short attention spans
Nothing is savored
Long enough to really understand
In every culture in decline
The watchful ones among the slaves
Know all that is genuine will be
Scorned and conned and cast away
Dog eat dog
People looking seeing nothing
Dog eat dog
People listening hearing nothing
Dog eat dog
People lusting loving nothing
Dog eat dog
People stroking touching nothing
Dog eat dog
Knowing nothing
Dog eat dog
Land of short attention spans.
US
President Joe Biden continues to persecute Julian Assange for the
'crime' of exposing War Crimes carried out by the US in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Let's again note this Kevin Gosztola report on a British
television discussion of Julian.
A segment
on Piers Morgan’s “Uncensored Program” yesterday provided its mass
audience with a rare and unvarnished demonstration of the two sides in
the case of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, who is imprisoned in
Britain and faces extradition to the United States for exposing American
war crimes.
On the one hand, Assange’s wife Stella Moris outlined the dire
precedent that the US is seeking to establish by prosecuting a
journalist for publishing true information. She spoke eloquently in
defence of the democratic rights of Assange and the population at large,
as well as on the importance of upholding international legal norms.
On
the other hand, John Bolton, a lifelong Republican politician and state
apparatchik, ranted and raved as he asserted the “right” of the
American government to ruin the life of anyone who gets in the way of
its “national interests.”
The program was broadcast on British
television’s TalkTV station, and has already been watched hundreds of
thousands of times on social media.
The response demonstrates the
true public opinion of Assange, which is generally buried by the
official media. Moris has received widespread praise for her thoughtful
and principled comments, including her statements on Bolton’s own
relationship to war crimes. Bolton’s remarks have been condemned as
dangerous and frightening.
Morgan began by noting that Assange has
been locked up in Britain’s Belmarsh Prison, a “very high security” and
“grim” facility, for almost four years, following seven years of
arbitrary detention at Ecuador’s British embassy. Where did Moris think
the case would go, and what did she hope to achieve, he asked.
Moris,
who is herself a widely-respected human rights lawyer, explained:
“Julian faces a potential sentence in the United States of 175 years for
doing journalistic work. For receiving information from a source and
publishing it, and it was in the public interest. It was about US war
crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he revealed tens of thousands of
civilian deaths that had not been acknowledged before.”
Morgan said that he would play “devil’s advocate,” repeating the oft-repeated claim that while the Guardian and the New York Times had redacted the material from whistleblower Chelsea Manning, WikiLeaks had dumped it online, placing individuals at risk.
Asked
if she accepted this argument, Moris replied forcefully: “I don’t
accept it, because it’s not true. WikiLeaks did actually redact all of
those documents that Manning gave to WikiLeaks, and in fact it was in
cooperation with those newspapers.”
WikiLeaks, Moris noted, had
withheld 15,000 documents from the US army’s Afghan war logs, and had
been criticised by some for extensive redactions of the Iraq war logs.
The publication of 250,000 leaked diplomatic cables, in full, had not
been the doing of WikiLeaks. Instead it was the outcome of Guardian journalists recklessly publishing the password to the tranche in a book.
While the US government persecutes Julian Assange, it meets-and-greets and celebrate nazis. Jacob Crosse (WSWS) reports:
Last month leading members of both US political parties met with
high-ranking soldiers of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion at the Capitol in
Washington D.C.
The week-long meetings in Washington by the
fascist delegations, who were warmly greeted by Republican and
Democratic politicians alike, have gone virtually unreported in the
press.
In their posts first exposing the visit, journalist Moss Robeson
revealed that one of the Azov soldiers that visited the Capitol was
Giorgi Kuparashvili. Robeson wrote that Kupraashvili is a “a
co-founder of the Azov Regiment and the leader of its Yevhen Konovalets
Military School, named for the founder of the fascistic Organization of
Ukrainian Nationalists.”
The Azov Battalion was founded in 2014
by white supremacist Andriy Biletsky. The organization is teeming with
fascists and racists who idolize Stepan Bandera,
a fascist who as a member of the OUN-B collaborated with the Waffen SS
during World War II in carrying out the Holocaust in Ukraine.
The
embrace of neo-Nazis in the Capitol by both big-business parties
obliterates any pretense that the US government is fighting for
“democracy” or “human rights” in Ukraine, or anywhere else.
In
publicly available Telegram posts, the Association of Families of
Azovstal Defenders, an organization comprised of family members of Azov
soldiers, boasted that Kateryna Prokopenko, Yuliya Fedosyuk and Alla
Somilenko joined Azov soldiers, Kupraashvili, Vladyslav Zhaivoronka and
Artur Lypka in holding face-to-face meetings with Democratic and
Republican legislators alike.
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