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THE QUOTE
“There is a distinct difference between having an open mind and having a hole in your head from which your brain leaks out.” — James Randi
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CELESTIAL BEAUTY
Just a reminder, the transit of Venus will be visible in these parts in the hours just prior to sunset Tuesday evening.
The phenomenon has only been seen by human eyes seven times.
Wear #14 welder’s glasses or get a pair of those neat eclipse glasses that look a bit like movie theater 3-D glasses. The transit also is visible through one of those pinhole projection boxes the geeky kids in seventh grade always knew how to make when there was a partial solar eclipse.
Eclipse Cheaters
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Which leads me to my fave beat-the-dead-horse question: Why believe in magic and monsters when real life itself is so spectacular?
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WE HAVE A MOVIE
Man, you blew it if you were unable to catch the Italian movie “We Have a Pope.”
I just caught the Ryder Film Series offering last night at the SoFA small theater and it was a delight.
A cardinal named Melville is elected Pope and just as he’s about to greet the crowd in St. Peter’s he suffers what can only be described as a nervous breakdown, brought on primarily by his long simmering lack of self-confidence.
The Moment Before The Breakdown
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The assembled Cardinals, who by canonical law cannot leave the Vatican until the new Pope greets the crowd, panic and eventually bring in a shrink in an effort to get the new boss to the balcony window.
By and by, the new Pope escapes the Vatican and a certain madness ensues.
The beauty of a lot of non-Hollywood movies is they don’t have Hollywood endings. That’s all I’ll say about that.
The movie will run on cable’s Independent Film Channel and if Peter LoPilato can ever get it back here in Bloomington, don’t blow your chance to see it again.
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GO! — NOW!
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UNINTENDED PR CONSEQUENCES
WHaP reminds me of all the foofaraw over Martin Scorsese‘s “The Last Temptation of Christ,” based on the eponymous book by Nikos Kazantzakis.
Released in 1988, TLToC dealt with the fever dreams of Christ as he hung on the cross, baking in the sun, driven mad by pain. He imagines an alternative existence wherein he settles into a simple life, marrying Mary Magdalene and not carrying the burden of all humankind’s sins.
The Man Wants Out; The Deity Has A Responsibility
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It’s one of the most pious, spiritual, and reverent movies ever made.
I mean, the whole idea of Christ’s death, as I understand it, was that he was tempted to avoid his fate, but his faith and obedience to his “father in heaven” overcame his human need. And therein, I always thought, lay the foundation for Christianity.
But when TLToC played at the Biograph Theater in Chicago, Catholics and other defenders of the one and only big daddy-o in the sky picketed and shouted and otherwise drew more attention to the film than it ever would have garnered otherwise.
Go figure.
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CANDID
BuzzFeed the other day ran a list of the most powerful photos ever taken.
Which got me to thinking which pix I’d pick. Ergo, here they are (in no particular order):
☀ The French guy crying as the Nazis march through Paris
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☀ Vietnam: The naked girl running, the self-immolating monk, the Saigon police chief executing the guy in the street
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☀ The JFK assassination: LBJ takes the oath, Ruby shoots Oswald, JFK Jr. salutes
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☀ Earthrise from Apollo 8
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☀ The Chinese student and the tanks
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☀ Martin Luther King lay dying
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☀ World War II: Marines reenact the flag raising at Iwo Jima, the sailor kisses the nurse on V-J Day
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☀ The National Geographic Afghani girl
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☀ Che
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☀ Protest: John Carlos and Tommie Smith give the Black Power salute, Kent State, the flowers in the gun barrels
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(All photos copyrighted.)
There. How about you? Tell us what’s on your list via the comments.
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