TV/Film/Book

Television 

The Academy Awards nominations are coming soon. I was a loyal watcher for a while. I was a regular moviegoer and watched many of the films. Over time, I watched fewer films and stopped watching. I know little about most of the nominations these days, except by reputation (at times). 

I never was a regular watcher of other award shows. Still, it was nice that Christiana Applegate (born a few weeks after me) received a large round of applause when she showed up (with a cane, per her MS) to present the first Emmy. I know her as Kelly Bundy, Amy Green (two great guest appearances on Friends), and various films (including Anchorman). She also now and then showed up on Twitter. 

Film 

Over the weekend, I caught Fourteen Hours on one of the classic movie channels (this one with commercials). It is a good B picture with various familiar faces (including Grace Kelly in an early role). The voice of a gruff, but fair/competent police deputy was familiar. He played Ben Franklin in the film version of 1776. It involves a person on a ledge.

(One almost amusing aspect is the somewhat heavy-handed psychoanalyzing of a therapist on hand.) 

Queen of Glory is a contemporary independent film. I was flicking through the channels and caught that one too. It's under eighty minutes long and is a bit undernourished in certain respects. For instance, the ending seems a bit tacked on, needing a bit more connective tissue. Also, her relationship with a married guy (white) and her plans to follow him to Ohio seem dubious. Why would a smart woman like her do something like that? 

Still, overall, it is a well-acted snapshot of a Ghanaian-American woman dealing with the death of her mother and other issues in the midst of getting her doctorate. It provides an interesting look at another subculture with good use of home video. She inherits a religious bookstore in the Allerton section of the Bronx, making it somewhat local to yours truly. 

==

Meanwhile, I have been tired of the latter films in the Blondie film series shows on a classic channel each Saturday. 

I referenced some films here. My limited reference of late is thus explained. I saw a bit of the next one. Then, there is one left. 

The film today is notable to show how "Baby Dumpling" now has teenage boy problems. I continue to think Blondie (Penny Singleton) is underused (for instance, it was great when she had a chance to sing). Bumstead's bumbling, even when it's something simple, gets tiresome. 

Books 

Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South by Elizabeth Varon is overall a good book. I was somewhat tired of hearing him whine for the nth time that he was right about certain military strategies (neither side was totally right). Still, it was about the right length at somewhat over three hundred pages long, dealing with his long life. 

(Three phases. Antebellum and Civil War. His decade in Louisiana. And, then his final thirty years in Georgia.)  

It is a fascinating look at someone who fought for the Confederacy and later became a Republican until he died. He was a state militia leader of black troops in Louisiana. At the end of his life, he was a railroad commissioner for President McKinley. He wasn't quite John Marshall Harlan-level pro-civil rights, but he supported Republican policy overall all the same. The book suggests he at times hesitated some but it really is not to be expected someone like him would totally change his tune. 

He was not the only leading Confederate to become a Republican (John Mosby is one example) but he surely was the most elite (Longstreet was nicknamed "Number Three" after Lee and Davis). Longstreet ("Old Pete") argued that when he surrendered, the quid pro quo of the surrender terms was that he accepted the victors' policies. His young second wife herself had a change of heart in the 20th Century, supporting civil rights. 

It would be interesting if there was a book that talked about other Confederate military people who became Republicans. 

---

Meanwhile, The Psycho Boys by Beverley Driver Eddy is a short account of a largely unknown tool to win World War II. 

A collection of men prized for their language skills served a range of roles, including interviewing prisoners, encouraging surrender, doing radio and media work, and later helping judge if people were properly de-Nazified. The book covers training, travel to the field, the push toward Germany, liberating the concentration camps, and after the war.  

A lot of pictures and personal accounts enrich the volume.  

==

One more thing: The continual attempt to find a means to prosecute Alec Baldwin for his part in what looks like a horrible accident in 2021 from my vantage point appears very misguided. A failure of an earlier attempt should have been a warning. 

Maybe, the person actually behind mistakenly putting real-life ammo in the prop gun is somehow criminally liable. It is hard to understand how Alec Baldwin was supposed to know, especially clearly enough to convict him of involuntary manslaughter.