Archive for February, 2011

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Obit watch: February 4, 2011.

Friday, February 4th, 2011

Maria Schneider.

Edited to add: LAT obit. I know this is short, but there’s really nothing I can say without making a tacky joke involving dairy products.

Edited to add 2: Seems it has been a bad couple of days for stars of “adult” films. The Onion A.V. Club is reporting the death of Lena Nyman, star of “I Am Curious (Yellow)”, “I Am Curious (Blue)”, and “Autumn Sonata”. I’ll admit that I’ve kind of wanted to see the “I Am Curious” films ever since reading Joe Bob Briggs’ write-up in Profoundly Erotic: Sexy Movies that Changed History; however, Briggs makes the two films sound less erotic and more like documentaries about Swedish radical politics in the late 1960s. Which is kind of a drawback…

Posted in Movies, Obits | Comments Closed

Obit watch: February 3, 2011.

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

Barney Hajiro.

As angry about Pearl Harbor as anybody, many Japanese-Hawaiians were eager to fight. Mr. Hajiro was one of the first to volunteer, in March 1943.

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a newly formed unit, would go on to be called the most decorated regiment for its size and length of service: its 14,000 men earned 9,486 Purple Hearts, 8 Presidential Unit Citations and 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, the second-highest individual honor in the Army. Mr. Hajiro received three of those.

He and many of his comrades were decorated for the regiment’s most celebrated operation, known as “the rescue of the Lost Battalion,” in which they saved 211 fellow soldiers trapped in southern France while suffering more than 800 casualties.

Here’s Mr. Hajiro’s Medal of Honor citation:

Private Barney F. Hajiro distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action on 19, 22, and October 29, 1944, in the vicinity of Bruyeres and Biffontaine, eastern France. Private Hajiro, while acting as a sentry on top of an embankment on October 19, 1944, in the vicinity of Bruyeres, France, rendered assistance to allied troops attacking a house 200 yards away by exposing himself to enemy fire and directing fire at an enemy strong point. He assisted the unit on his right by firing his automatic rifle and killing or wounding two enemy snipers. On October 22, 1944, he and one comrade took up an outpost security position about 50 yards to the right front of their platoon, concealed themselves, and ambushed an 18-man, heavily armed, enemy patrol, killing two, wounding one, and taking the remainder as prisoners. On October 29, 1944, in a wooded area in the vicinity of Biffontaine, France, Private Hajiro initiated an attack up the slope of a hill referred to as “Suicide Hill” by running forward approximately 100 yards under fire. He then advanced ahead of his comrades about 10 yards, drawing fire and spotting camouflaged machine gun nests. He fearlessly met fire with fire and single-handedly destroyed two machine gun nests and killed two enemy snipers. As a result of Private Hajiro’s heroic actions, the attack was successful. Private Hajiro’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon him, his unit, and the United States Army.

Mr. Hajiro was nominated for the Medal of Honor at the time, but did not receive it until 2000, after a Pentagon investigation into why more Asian-Americans had not received the MoH.

Posted in Clippings, Heroism, Obits | Comments Closed

Suffering.

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

For some odd reason, I have this song stuck in my head. And I don’t even like it that much. So I’m going to make you guys suffer along with me.

Posted in Music | 3 Comments »

“The Leonard Cohen of drinks”?

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

That’s the NYT‘s description of sake: “passionately adored by a small cadre of loyalists, but relegated to the category of ‘mysterious obscurity’ among the masses.”

In spite of this unfortunate metaphor, the actual article, about Japanese restaurants in Las Vegas that serve very high end sake, contains some interesting bits. For example, there’s Frozen Beauty sake, aged for 12 years in cold storage and selling for a mere $2,388 per (720 ml) bottle.

The tale of Watari Bune, meanwhile, seems like something out of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” The sake is created from a rare strain of rice that is so vulnerable to the nibbling of insects and the pummeling of typhoons that it had nearly lapsed into extinction in Japan. But in the 1980s Takaaki Yamauchi, from a brewery called Huchu Homare, met an old farmer who wistfully told him that the lost rice used to make sake of unsurpassed deliciousness.

A hunt began. In 1989, Mr. Yamauchi managed to acquire 14 grams of Watari Bune seedlings that the Japanese ministry of agriculture had freeze-dried and stored in a gene bank. He planted the seeds, grew the rice and brewed what we might think of as a drinkable time capsule. Thanks to Mr. Sidel and his team, it can now be found around New York at restaurants like Sakagura and Robataya, where it costs $160.

And let us not overlook Divine Droplets, “made by hanging canvas bags of fermenting mash in a handmade ice dome, during the frigid winter in the Hokkaido Prefecture, and patiently letting the sake filter out in a slow, pure drip.” That’s a mere $72 a bottle. (I am assuming that all of these bottles are 720 ml, but I’m not sure; the NYT annoyingly doesn’t specify.)

Posted in Clippings, Food, Mixology | Comments Closed

TMQ watch: February 1, 2011.

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

And so we slog ever closer to the end of another TMQ season. What does Gregg Easterbrook bring us in this, the off week before the Super Bowl? Let’s open up this week’s column and find out after the jump…

(more…)

Posted in Geek, Neuroscience, NFL, Sports, TMQ watch | Comments Closed

Yahoo Serious Film Festival.

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

Okay, not really. But Insta had a link up to a list of “memorable movie hitmen“, and that list prompted some discussion with Lawrence.

I’d never heard of “Charley Varrick” until I read that list, and I find myself intrigued; directed by the same guy who directed “Dirty Harry“, and starring both Walter Matthau and Mitchell? This sounds like a must-see. (However, as Lawrence pointed out, this looks like a crappy transfer with a screwed-up aspect ratio.)

Anyway, that got us talking about a potential lineup for a “70s Crime Film Fest”. My rules for this were:

  1. I wanted to pick somewhat less celebrated films. “The French Connection” and the two “Godfather” movies are wonderful, I’m sure, but I was looking for stuff people hadn’t seen before.
  2. One film per director.

Here’s a tentative list we came up with:

  • “Prime Cut“: Gene Hackman? Lee Marvin? Michael Ritchie? I’ve heard good things about this one.
  • “The Friends of Eddie Coyle“: now available from the Criterion Collection, no less.
  • “A New Leaf”: the availability of this on DVD seems somewhat iffy, but I’d like to see it if we could find it. Walter Matthau again, directed by Elaine “Ishtar” May, in an adaptation of a short story by the great mystery writer Jack Ritchie. (If you’ve never heard of Jack Ritchie, well, one, you’re unfortunate, and two, he was basically the Howard Waldrop of mystery writing.) I’m thinking this would be a nice, light, funny film; sort of a sorbet to clean the palate.
  • “Mean Streets“: neither one of us has seen this, and the reasons for including it should be obvious.
  • “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot“: Clint Eastwood! The Dude! Michael Cimino before “Heaven’s Gate“!
  • “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three“: the original one, not the crappy remake. Matthau again; I’m worried this list might have too much Matthau.
  • “The Laughing Policeman“: especially if I include this one, which is a bizarre adaptation of one of Sjöwall and Wahlöö’s Swedish police procedurals, moved to San Francisco.
  • “Family Plot” or “Frenzy“: I bow to nobody in my love for Hitchcock, but I’d always heard “Family Plot” was…well…not good. Lawrence informs me, however, that Roger Ebert gave it three stars. So how bad could it really be? “Frenzy”, on the other hand, gets four stars from Roger. Plus violence and nudity! But “Family Plot” has Karen Black! Decisions, decisions…

Something I stumbled across while researching this list, and feel a need to mention here, is “Made in U.S.A.“. Wow, this is…odd. Jean-Luc Godard directing an adaptation of one of Donald Westlake writing as Richard Stark’s Parker novels. And not the first one, but one from later in the series (“The Jugger“). Except the amoral thief Parker seems to have been replaced by a leftist writer named Paula. And the characters have names like “Richard Widmark”, “Donald Siegel”, “David Goodis”, and “Richard Nixon”. And apparently, Godard adapted Westlake’s novel, but didn’t feel any need to, you know, actually pay Westlake anything for the rights. So Westlake sued (Pay the writer you a–hole!) and had the film suppressed in this country until after his death.

This movie prompted me to ask the question: “What the f–k was Godard smoking?” However, as a 1966 film, it falls outside the scope of our planned 70s crime film festival.

Anyone got any other suggestions for 70s crime films I missed? Leave them in the comments. Those of you who are local and who we know personally, we’ll let you know if we pull this together as a real event.

Edited to add: Lawrence pointed out that I forgot the original “Get Carter” on our list.

Edited to add 2: I think it is required by the Internet police that any reference to Karen Black has to include a link to The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black.

Posted in Movies | 4 Comments »

The Flying Dutchman and the Sisters.

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

Today is cold and wet and gloomy, and I’m pulling a long shift.

So here’s a little story that might brighten your day. Last year, a former employee of Ford passed away. He had no children and no wife, so he left his entire estate to the organization his sister belonged to: the School Sisters of Notre Dame. (The gentleman’s sister was a member of the order; she preceded him in death.)

The heartwarming part of the story is that his estate is estimated to be worth more than $1 million dollars, which will go a long way towards helping the work of the sisters.

But here’s the best part of the story: that estate included an original T206 series Honus Wagner baseball card, which was recently sold for $220,000. (If that seems low for a T206 card, you’re probably right; this one was not in mint condition.)

Here’s a nice bit of detail from the NYT story:

Long before the card was sold, sports were popular at Villa Assumpta, which houses about 75 retired and ill nuns. In the common room, baseball and football games are often shown on the big-screen television. The local teams are the favorites, with some nuns sporting team colors on game days.

Sister Mary Agatho Ford, who died at 100 in 2003, had received a signed photo and baseball from Cal Ripken for her 98th birthday. They are displayed in a glass case next to other cherished items, including chalices that deceased sisters held dear.

My opinion of baseball is well known, but God bless you, Sister Mary. And God bless Cal Ripken, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, and the gentleman in question (who is not named in the NYT article).

Posted in Clippings, Sports | Comments Closed

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