The only commercials you see people my age in are ones for people with medical problems. I’m not too old to have fun like young people.
You know all those skinny young people you see in beer commercials? They can’t be beer drinkers. You cannot drink beer and stay that thin. This is based on personal experience.
In the 1970s, Iron City Beer had commercials featuring a middle-aged guy, Al Luccioni. Al looks like he drinks beer.
Trump’s frequent visits to his golf courses have drawn a lot of media attention. One of the main reasons is his double standard. He wrote 27 tweets bashing Obama for playing golf. Trump said he wouldn’t have time to play golf when he was the president but he has been to one of his golf clubs 92 times so far. His administration claims that he is meeting with members of Congress there but that’s a scam too – it hasn’t happened often. Sad!
Trump is supporting anti-government protesters in Iran but Iran is one of the countries on his Muslim ban so he doesn’t want them to come here. That’s hypocrisy. Sad!
I thought Republicans were opposed to government intervention in private business. Yet, Trump:
He’s wrong to say things like this but the gutless hypocritical Republicans in Congress won’t stand up to him. This doesn’t even cover the conflicts of interest from his businesses competing with private businesses not owned by government officials. That’s wrong, too. Sad!
I get ideas about films to watch from tweets discussing film series shown in New York and elsewhere. The Brooklyn Academy of Music showed a series of Mexican Horror Films in late 2017. This column has descriptions and commentary. I have tried to find them on DVDs and Blu-ray discs and have now seen most of them. I recommend all of the ones I have seen (in italics in the chart below) but especially The Brainiac. This is one bizarre film about a character that eats brains.
| Film title | Year | Availability |
| Santa Sangre | 1989 | DVD and Blu-ray on Amazon and eBay |
| La Tia Alejandra | 1979 | DVD on Amazon and eBay |
| Cronos | 1993 | Criterion Blu-ray/DVD |
| Alucarda | 1977 | DVD on Amazon and eBay |
| Veneno para las hadas (Poison for the Fairies) | 1984 | DVD on Amazon and eBay |
| Canoa | 1976 | Criterion Blu-ray/DVD |
| El espejo de la bruja (The Witch’s Mirror) | 1962 | CasaNegra DVD |
| El Vampiro | 1957 | CasaNegra DVD |
| La maldición de la llorona (The Curse of the Crying Woman) | 1963 | CasaNegra DVD |
| El barón del terror (The Brainiac) | 1962 | CasaNegra DVD |
The CasaNegra DVDs are excellent but are out of print. They are usually good transfers of the films with fine special features. They are available on eBay. Some are also available at Oldies.com. CasaNegra also made DVDs for other films not on the list above: The Living Coffin (El Grito De La Muerte, and The Black Pit of Dr. M. There is also a sequel to El Vampiro called El Ataud Del Vampiro which CasaNegra bundled with El Vampiro. The CasaNegra DVDs are all from the late 1950s and early 1960s and are generally in black and white. The Criterion Collection always does an outstanding job and their discs contain many supplemental features.
More on Mexican films:
I have a proposal to change the NFL rule for determining who gets the ball to start overtime in NFL games. Instead of a random selection by coin flip, the ball should go to the team that had the ball at the end of the fourth quarter. They should also get the ball at the spot where it was at the end of the fourth quarter. The team with the ball has earned the right to keep the ball and field position.
Trump outdid himself with his tweets this morning. Do you think you would keep your job if you tweeted stuff like this?
Randy Newman’s satirical “Political Science” (1972) reminds me of Trump’s foreign policy bluster. It was funny 45 years ago but it sure isn’t funny now. Sad!
A retrospective of seven films directed by Max Ophuls is discussed in this column. It includes films he made in the US and films he made later when he returned to Europe. His films are well worth seeing both for their style, which features long tracking shots, and their romantic stories.
The writer provides a fine description of Lola Montes which is where I would start if you are not familiar with Ophuls. It is based on a novel about Lola Montez (1821-1861). She lived primarily in Europe but is buried in Brooklyn. I also strongly recommend The Earrings of Madame de… . I have also seen Caught but not the other four.
The following films in the retrospective are available in the US on discs.
The Earrings of Madame de… and Lola Montes are available on Blu-Ray discs and DVDs from the Criterion Collection.
Letter from an Unknown Woman and Caught are available on Blu-ray discs from Olive Films.
Peggy Cummins, who starred in the 1950 film Gun Crazy, passed away on December 29, 2017.
Gun Crazy is worth seeing. It’s a low-budget precursor to films like Bonnie and Clyde. Here’s Ms. Cummin’s first appearance in the film.
update: Warner Archive will release Gun Crazy on Blu-ray.
Sad! 