The Case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia

If there is anything that represents the peak capricious cruelty of Donald Trump and his snivelling syncophants, it's the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is from El Salvador.  He was caught up in ICE's net back in 2019, accused of being a member of the vicious MS 13 gang. A judge ruled at that time that Kilmar Abrego Garcia could be deported but a second court determined the first court merely accepted the government's word of Kilmar Abrego Garcia's association with MS 13.  

There was in fact no evidence to connect Kilmar Abrego Garcia to MS 13 and the reason the guy had escaped El Salvador in the first place was to get away from the gang. 

The second court issued an order of protection that Abrego Garcia could not be deported to El Salvador.

ICE picked him up again in March and now he's in prison in El Salvador.

Administration officials continue to insist that Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 gang member but failed to provide any evidence to that effect.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt cites as evidence of Abrego Garcia's guilt the ruling in 2019 by the first court he appeared before, totally disregarding the second court appearance.

Abrego Garcia does not have a criminal record and is married to a U.S. citizen and the father of a child with autism.

In an unaminous ruling (yes, that means even Trump loving Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas were on board), the Supreme Court says the Trump administration needs to immediately secure the release and return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Trump says they can't do that.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele who came to Washington this week for a play date with Li'l Donnie says he can't send him back, citing it would be like "smuggling a terrorist into the United States." 

Reminder that there is no record that Abrego Garcia has committed a crime.

That does not stop Trump and his cronies from describing Abrego Garcia as a member of the MS 13 gang as if it is an incontravertable fact.  

Bukele and Trump appear to take delight in fucking over Kilmar Abrego Garcia.  

Also Trump was caught on a hot mike telling Bukele his plans to start shipping "homegrown" criminals to be jailed in El Salvador. And if that his feelings about American citizens, well you know he does not give a fucking goddam about Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

I fear that one reason for Trump's refusal to cooperate with the Supreme Court is that Kilmar Abrego Garcia literally cannot be returned because he is dead.  

If Kilmar Abrego Garcia was alive and was returned, I imagine he would have quote the story to tell of how he was treated by agents of ICE and tortured by his El Salvadoran jailers. 

Such testimony would be quite "inconvenient" for Trump and Bukele.  

"Incovenient" would be easily changed to "convient" if Kilmar Abrego Garcia simply just disappeared. 

I hope I am wrong.

I have a bad feeling I'm not.

And this is what America has come to under Donald Trump.  

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Elton & Brandi & Other Things

Welcome to the Tuesday TV Touchbase, my weekly blog post on Tuesday where I touch base on what I’ve been watching on TV.   

 

Everybody clear on the concept? Let’s move on.

 

Let’s start today’s touchbase with a special.  

A week back, Andrea and I watched the Elton John & Brandi Carlisle special.  Centered around a live performance at the Palladium in London recorded in March, the show spotlights music from the new album by Elton and Brandi called “Who Believes In Angels?” but also features performances of classic Elton John tunes and Bardi Carlisle’s catalog as well.

 

Brandi’s acoustic set of “Me Without You” (a song about a mother realizing her child doesn’t need her anymore) made Andrea cry.  I will admit it was a very moving performance.  

 

Interspersed with the music were interview segments hosted by Dan Levy.  Elton and Brandi have been friends for 20 years and mostly it's Dan getting the two of them to say how great each other is.

 

And we see clips from a behind the scenes documentary on the making of the new Elton/Brandi album.  Warning: Elton can be a bit of a diva during the writing and recording process. 

 

Well, it seems that whatever came out of the process is good.  Everything I’ve heard from “Who Believes In Angels?” so far sounds fantastic. 

 

At 78 years old and beset by various health ailment, Elton John still sounds in fine form during this special. 

This is not from the special but here is the music video for my favorite track from the Elton/Brandi album, "Swing For the Fences".  

Other Things

A 5th season Phineas & Ferb will be debuting this summer.  Meanwhile, Anderea and I are halfway through season 1. 

Phineas and Ferb plot different ways to do something extraordinary with each day of summer vacation. These schemes often defy laws of physics and logic and poor put upon sister Candace can never quite catch them in the act to tell on them: "Mom! Phineas and Ferb are defying the laws of physics and logic again!"  

While they are doing their crazy plans, Phineas and Ferb's pet platypus Perry works as a secret agent for a government organization named O.W.C.A. ("Organization Without a Cool Acronym") with the objective of defeating the schemes of Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, an evil scientist driven largely by a need to assert his evilness over the "Tri-State Area".  

I finished season 1 of A.P. Bio.  Jack Griffin uses his A P Bio class he refuses to teach biology for his own selfish purposes, specifically to seek revenge on his arch rival Miles Leonard and to help Jack extricate himself from Toledo, Ohio. Ultimately Jack and the class are able to destroy Miles' reputation but at the cost of getting Jack out of Toledo. 

My favorite student in Jack's class is Heather, a quiet, shy mouse-like girl who turns out is handy with a meat cleaver and  becomes one of Jack's most devoted disciples in his quest to destroy Miles. Do not let that timid, reserved demeanor fool you; Heather is not to be fucked with.  

Yesterday, I watched Gayle King (anchor of CBS Mornings) go into space! She was nervous as hell about it but apparently Oprah Winfrey double dog dared her to go and no one says "no" to the Oprah. 

Yeah I know it's just billionaire Jeff Bezos playing with his toys paid for with the hard work of Amazon employees who are not allowed pee breaks but it was still kind of cool to see Gayle and the rest of an all female crew pop into space for a quick sight see. 

 That is that for this week's Touchbase 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.   

Garden State

Today is National Gardening Day.

I will celebrate it by not gardening. 

A number of people I work with count gardening as a hobby.

To me, "gardening as a hobby" is like having "prostate exams as a hobby" or "doing my taxes is a hobby". 

By the way, April 15th is tax day which is tomorrow. Be sure to pay your taxes so we can pay for motherfucker Donald Trump's goddamn golf trips to Mar A Lago ever goddamn motherfucking weekend.

But I digress....

Where was I?

Oh yes, gardening.

Any potential love I had for gardening was beaten out of me when I was kid.  

My parents would try to grow shit I didn't want to eat like tomatoes and I was made to go out to the garden to weed or pick tomatoes. 

With salty sweat dripping in my eyes as I was beseiged by gnats. Yes, I was a whiny little bitch about it but come the fuck on! My childhood brain could only see this as some kind of hell.

And there are people who do this for fun?

I sort of envy those who can kneel on the ground and find peace and contentment, cultivating the nourishment of vegetables or the beautiful spectacle of flowers.  

I see people who find joy in gardening and I wonder what the hell is wrong with these people. 

Gardening is work.

It is hot, sweaty work. 

Beseiged by flies and bees and mosquitos and gnats! 

Oh, the gnats!  Which are attracted to the salty sweat pouring into my eyes!!! 

Gardening as FUN?!?!

There's a level of Hell where the scheduled torment is gardening! 

Me in Hell 

Demon: You have a choice of having this red hot poker rammed up your ass or gardening.

Me: (no response)

Demon: Well?

Me: I'm thinking it over!  

If you are one of those weirdos who find joy and contentment while gardening, well Happy National Gardening Day! 

And if like me you see gardening as a torment of heat, sweat and bugs, National Gardening Day can just fuck right off.

And I am so glad my suffering amuses you. 

Doctor Who Is NEW: The Robot Revolution

Welcome to Doctor Who Is NEW! where I post about the latest new episode of Doctor Who.

Season 2 or Series 15 or however you want to count it kicked of yesterday so let's see what's up with that.

There may be spoilers, honey! 

The Robot Revolution

by Russell T Davies 

17 years ago, Belinda Chandra is given an unusual  birthday gift by her boyfriend Alan: a certificate showing he has had a star named after her. 

The name of that star is Miss Belinda Chandra.

Including "Miss" in the name is not the only indication of Alan's outdated parochrial attitudes.  He also assumes she has poor math skills because she's a girl. 

Still, the star naming certificate is a harmless gesture, right?

Well...

17 years later....

After finishing her shift as an ICU nurse, Belinda returns home where alien robots land on Earth to take her back to their planet to be their queen.

The Doctor is in hot pursuit of the robots and Belinda when the robot's rocket ship hits a time fracture and we get...

Wibbly wobbly timey wimey.  

The TARDIS gets knocked off course and lands on Belinda's destination 6 months before she gets there.   

On the alien world, everything is named Missbelindachandra.

The robots are Missbelindachandrabots.

The planet is Missbelindachandraville.  

Anyway, it seems the robots and the humanoids co-existed peacefully until the coming of the A.I. Generator and the Missbelindachandrabots turned against the organic lifeforms on Missbelindachandraville.

Only the wedding of Belinda Chandra and the A.I. Generator will restore peace and equanamity. 

Yeah, this is bonkers.

The Doctor has ingratiated himself into the society of Missbelindachandraville's human population and has set himself up to save Belinda and stop the revolution. 

Things, of course, do not go smoothly. 

Belinda is a quick study and more than capable of keeping up with the Doctor. She also demonstrates the depths of her humanity and empathy by immediately going to work to help humanoids injured in the robot attacks.  

Ncuti Gatwa is a delight as the Doctor and feels more in tune with the role than he did last season. And Varada Sethu brings a sense of depth to Belinda that makes her immediately relatable and interesting. 

Belinda is a companion who does not want to be a companion. "I am not one of your adventures," she emphatically tells the Doctor, making it clear she has one goal: to get back home. 

Home is Earth on May 24, 2025. 

The Doctor seeks to oblige but the TARDIS keeps bouncing off of  May 24, 2025.  A final shot shows the Eiffel Tower and a pyramind and other debris floating in space. 

Well, that can't be good.   

"The Robot Revolution" is not a great story but is redeemed by it's goofy retro sci-fi charms (the robots and their rocket ship are straight out of a 1950's science fiction movie) and strong performances from our two leads. 

Next week: It's Miami, FL in 1952 and a cartoon comes to life and threatens... death! 

 

Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post: Stage Fright

After a few days away, the blog is back and it's time for another edition of Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post.

April begins with "A" and so does Alfred Hitchcock so I will continue with my series of posts about Alfred Hitchcock movies I have seen.

Today's film is a 1950 British film noir called Stage Fright.

Our cast of characters include:

Eve Gill, an aspiring actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. 

Jonathan Cooper, actor, Eve's friend (but Eve is crushing hard on him). 

Charlotte Inwood, a flamboyant stage actress and singer. Charlotte and Jonathan are having an affair.  

Via a very extensive flashback sequence, Jonathan tells Eve that Charlotte came to him wearing a blood stained dress and confessed to killing her husband.  Jonathan went to Charlotte's home to get her another dress but was seen by the maid and now the police suspect Jonathan of the murder.  He needs help.  

Suspecting Charlotte set up Jonathan to frame him, Eve begins her own investigation.  She crosses paths with Detective William Smith who of course doesn't need this amateur interloping into his work but she's quite persistent and he takes a liking to her.

Eve moves her crush from Jonathan to William. 

But she's still determined to prove Jonathan's innocence.   

Eve discovers Charlotte is having an affair with her manager Freddie Williams. Although allegedly in mourning for her dead husband, Charlotte continues to perform in her West End musical show.  

William and Eve collaborate on a sting operation to get Charlotte to confess. 

And she does....

Except...

She admits she planned her husband's murder.  

But guess who she suckered into actually doing to deed?

I know, I know,you figured out it was Jonathan several sentences back. 

It turns out Jonathan has killed before and now has Eve in his sights.  

Well, that ain't good. 

Don't worry, Eve will be OK. 

As for Jonathan, eh, not so much.  

Stage Fright is not regarded as one of Alfred Hitchcock's great films but it is a taut and intriguing murder mystery. 

At the time of it's first release, the film did get some negative pushback for the extended flashback sequence when Jonathan tells Eve what's been going on. It bothered people that Hitchcock put that much time and detail into a sequence where basically it's all a lie. 

Another thing working against the movie is the title, Stage Fright which suggests a more suspense thriller oriented film than the murder mystery Alfred Hitchcock delivered. 

Hitchcock cast his daugher Patricia who was enrolled as a drama student at the Royal Academy. She was cast as a friend of Eve with the unflattering name of Chubby Bannister. Gee, thanks, Dad! 

With the exception of American Jane Wyman (Eve) and  German-born Marlene Dietrich (Charlotte), the cast is derived from British stage and screen.  It was the last film Alfie made in England until 1971. 

Next week, I'm back with another Hitchcock film about a man who might be trying to kill his wife.

Surely Cary Grant is up to no such thing! 

______________________

Tomorrow....   Doctor Who!

 

Side Effects May Include No Blogging

 

Well, you know what that image means.

It's blog break time.

My endeavors to be a pin cushion for big pharma to lose weight continue.  

The intended results of this effort are being realized but unfortunately so are the side effects.

Starting this past Friday, my dosage was increased and I spent Sunday sidelined by gastrointestinal side effects. I wasn't feeling much better on Monday but I pushed through for a full day at work but Tuesday, I was totally exhausted and called in for the day.

I understand this will be good for the long term goal of losing the bulk of a whole grown ass adult from my frame but the short term side effects make it a bit tough.

And it messes with my ability to blog. Creativity is hard to come by when your stomach is doing loop the loops. 

Blog break through Friday.

I will be back on Saturday with another Alfred Hitchcock movie and a post on the latest Doctor Who on Sunday.

Until then, remember to be good to one another.   

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Happy's Place and Daredevil: Born Again

Happy's Place managed to slip a season finale past us without Andrea and I noticing. Networks these days usually promote the hell out of season finales and even mid-season finales but it appears Happy's Place reached it's season ender without any such fanfare.  

There are shows Andrea and I are both on board for. Then there are series where one of us is more invested in it than the other.  Happy's Place is one for Andrea that I tag along for.

Happy's Place is set at a bar and restaruant named "Happy's Place".  Reba McIntire is Bobbie, Happy's daughter who runs the place after her father's death. Reba runs the place with her sister Isabella that Bobbie did not know about until after Happy died.  

After some initial tension, Bobbie has come to accept Isabella as her sister and her partner in the bar.

A lot of hijinks revolve around the clash of Bobbie's down home wisdom and Isabella's collegiate intelectualism.   

Happy's Place is mildy amusing elliciting a few chuckles from me but really, I often don't find it to be that funny or emotionally engaging.  

Well, it's been renewed for a 2nd season so maybe by then, Happy's Place will find it's groove.

Meanwhile, it makes Andrea happy so I'm good.

Then there's the stuff that I follow that she tags along for.

Like Daredevil: Born Again.  

God, this show is relentlessly bleak. Wilson Fisk aka The Kingpin has become mayor of New York City and that's just grim. Kingpin as Mayor? That seems so unlikely. It's like what if Donald Trump was the Presi--- ooops! Never mind.

Matt Murdock spends several episodes not being Daredevil, a role he resolved to no longer play after his best pal and law partner Foggy Nelson was murdered by Bullseye in episode 1.  And Daredevil dropped Bullseye from top of a 6 story building. (Which inexplicably did not kill him.)  

Andrea may not be a totally reluctant passenger for this particular television journey. Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock is charming as hell when he's not being super intense.  

A serial killer known as the Muse in on the loose in NYC and has gotten away with 60 or more kills. Which drives Murdock to dig the old crimson suit out and become Daredevil once more. 

Meanwhile, Fisk (the always remarkable Vincent D'Nofrio) is really not dealing well with containing his rage and his ego in deference to the job requirements of mayor. Inching closer and closer back to the habits of the Kingpin, Fisk wants things done his way and now and he doesn't care who has to pay to make that happen.  

Daredevil: Born Again has some unexpected connections to the larger Marvel universe.  We get an appearance by Jack Duquesne aka the Swordsman who appeared in the Hawkeye series.  And we meet Yusuf Khan who is the father of Kamala Khan from Ms. Marvel.  

So far no word if Jessica Jones, Luke Cage or Iron Fish (who teamed up with Daredevil in the Netflix series Defenders) are going to show up.  

Daredevil: Born Again is a dark and gritty look at the super hero world, a street level view not unlike The Penguin series from last year.  

Speaking of penguins....

That is that for this week's Touchbase 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.   

Feeling Tariffic!

Last week Donald Trump unleashed a shit ton of tariffs against every country in the world (with one notable exception). Why Li'l Donnie did this depends on the hour of the day among the reasons:

• curb illegal immigration
• stop the flood of fentanyl into the United States 
• to bolster manfucturing here at home
• to screw over other countries who have been screwing us
• some vague concept of a plan to usher in a Golden Age of America 
• because he can

Virtually every economist in the world says Trump tariffs are a very, very no good, bad, terrible, horrible idea. 

And it's not just people in the present critical of these tariffs. History shows that tariffs do not work.

Trump loves to quote McKinley has his role model for invoking tariffs. A lot of wealth was accumulated under McKinley.

Yeah, if you were already rich. 

The Trump tariffs were rolled out with a handy dandy chart for how much we were zapping each country in the world for what Li'l Donnie calls "reciprical tariffs".

Why, we are only fucking over countries to the same degree they fuck us over. What's the harm in that? 

Like all things Trump, the chart is a lie.

The column that shows tariffs other countries charge the United States are not actual tariffs but trade imbalances.  

Some trade imbalances exist because countries that are smaller that us obviously cannot buy as much stuff from us.  

Then there is the matter of the penguins.

Including on the tariff list are the Heard and McDonald islands, 2 small outcroppings of land near Antartica where NO humans live.

The islands sole inhabitants are penguins.

One country was NOT on the Trump tariff list: Russia.

Well, Trump is Putin's bitch.

This is going to royally fuck over history students in the future.

Question: In the Trump Tariffs of 2025, who were tariffs NOT assessed against?

A. The French 

B. The British

C. The Russians 

D. Penguins 

Boy are those students going to be surprised to learn the answer is NOT penguins.

 Meanwhile, Wall Street has been in freefall for 2 days and who knows how bad it will be this morning. Investments and retirement plans are being decimated.

Trump spent the weekend playing golf not giving a single goddam fuck that people are worried and scared.

And so are the penguins. 

This (Non) Sporting Life: The Not So Good Goodbye

Welcome to This (Non) Sporting Life, a sports themed blog post written by a guy who does not know a lot about sports.

I am sad to report there is no joy in Mudville.

The mighty Cooper has struck out.

It is a not so good goodbye to the Duke Blue Devils for another college basketball season.  

As I wrote here in Dave-El Vs. The Dramatic Narrative and again here  back in 2022, sports are frustrating not obligated to follow any sort of dramatic narrative. The whims of the orange ball to go through the hoop or bounce off of it are not necessarily in alignment with my hopes and expectations.

This year was sadly no different. 

The Duke Blue Devils were a team of destiny. Headed up by the indominable Cooper Flagg and backed up by a phenomenonally talented team with Tyrese Proctor, Kon Knoeppel and more, the Duke Men's basketball team was a vertitable stacked deck. 

Destiny demanded that Duke would win the Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament.  

The Houston Cougars had different ideas about what destiny may or may not want.  

Now I may not understand much about sports but it does seem odd a school would choose divorced middle aged super horny women as their mascot.

OK, my bad. Their mascot is named for the wild cat native to North America. That makes more sense.

Explains that person in the cat suit dancing near the Houston cheerleaders. 

Where was I?

So Saturday night Duke and Houston met for battle in San Antonio and for a long time, the game seemed like a typical Duke game with the Blue Devils in control and their opponent struggling to keep up.

But then, nearing the final minutes of the 2nd half, something changed. 

Duke went cold, running long stretches without scoring.

Just as Houston got hot, scoring with impunity. 

I may not be a big sports guy but I've watched enough of these things to sense when the momentum shifts. 

Houston had momentum.

Duke did not not.

With half a minute to go, Houston takes a 1 point lead.  

Two more points and no time left, Duke's team of destiny were defeated by a meltdown for the ages. 

Houston 70  Duke 67 

The movie in my head was not supposed to end this way. 

Sports is not a movie and does not care for my dramatic narrative.   

Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post: Invaders From Mars

In anticipation of the return of Doctor Who Is NEW to the blog next week, this Sunday edition of Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post will look back at a sci-fi cult classic that was released 72 years ago on April 9, 1953, Invaders From Mars. 

Warning: I will disclose (and bitch about) the ending.

Late one night, a young boy named David MacLean is awakened by a loud thunderstorm. From his bedroom window, he sees a flying saucer descend and disappear into the sandpit behind his house. 

He tells his scientist father George, who goes to investigate but disappears.  David's mother Mary is worried and calls the police.  The police officers go to check out the sand pit.

But then George suddenly appears back at home but he's acting all squirelly, cold, hostile, talking in a monotone and really obsessd with telling David not to tell anyone about what he saw last night.  

David notices an unusual puncture on the back of his father's neck. Well now THAT can't be good at all!

The policemen return from the sandpit and they're acting like George.   

Away from the house, David witnesses others behaving in a similarly odd fashion. 

Holy crap!  David's father and others are being controlled by aliens from outside space! 

David does try to tell somebody but he is disregarded because he's just a kid or the adults in question are also under alien control.  

David finally finds an advocate in Dr. Pat Blake. She figures at first he's under some delusion or fantasy that has gotten out of hand but she has eyes and can see that people are acting weird!

Holy crap!  David's right and people are being controlled by aliens from outside space!  

David and Dr. Blake consult local astronomer Dr. Stuart Kelston, who theorizes that the flying saucer is likely the vanguard of an invasion from the planet Mars. Their target is a nearby government reseach facility (where David's scientist dad George works)to stop work on a prototype atomic rocket, which could reach Mars. 

Which is a really good theory because that's EXACTLY what the Matians are up to. It's like local astronomer Dr. Stuart Kelston has a copy of the script in front of him or something.  

Holy crap!  People are being controlled by aliens from outside space!  

Kelston contacts the U.S. Army and convinces them to investigate. 

It doesn't take a lot. The Army is always looking for an excuse to blow stuff up real good. 

Alien invaders? 

Holy crap!  People are being controlled by aliens from outside space?  Let's blow some shit up! 

Tanks and troops show up lickety split and surround the sand pit and the research place! "Surround everything with everything we got, men!" 

Plot stuff happens that conspires to place Dr. Blake and David underground by tall, slit-eyed green humanoids and taken via tunnels to the flying saucer. 

It is here where David will have the life changing experience of meeting life forms from another world! 

And seeing a woman's bra! 

Dr. Blake is knocked unconscious and is laid out on a slab. (Bring out the alien probes!) The top button of her blouse has come undone and her shoulder is exposed, showing us a bra strap! (And nothing more, damn you Hays office! Poor little David might die here without seeing a woman's bra!) 

The army and the Martians start to throw down and Dr. Blake and David need to get the hell out of the alien space ship.

SPOILER! 

I am going to tell you how this ends.

Amidst explosions and falling rubble, little David McLean is running and running as he minds replays the events of the movie so far...  including scenes he wasn't actually present for.

And then...

And then...

He wakes up! 

NO! Reallly?

David is back in his bed on the night of the storm. He runs into his parents' bedroom, confused and frightened; they reassure him that he was just having a dream. 

This ending sucks... so hard! 

David returns to bed just as he sees a flying saucer descend into the sandpit.

What the fuck is this? 

Up pops the film's "The End" title card and as ethereal music plays over thge end credits, we are left to ponder these possibilites:

• Is young David still asleep, trapped in a recurring nightmare?
• Is his bad dream a premonition of a real and terrible future?
• Or the writers had no fucking clue how to end this and I wasted 90 minutes of my time on Earth for this?

Misbegotten ending aside, Invaders From Mars is a tight little sci-fi excursion steeped in Cold War paranoia.  Kids in movies can be percocious and annoying but Jimmy Hunt is pretty good as young David. And Helena Carter as Dr. Pat Blake is a bit ahead of her time, her role is determined by her professional standing as a medical doctor without being hampered with some kind of romantic love interest.  

Invaders From Mars is perhaps not a bad movie. Except for that ending.

It's all a dream? Damn!

_______________________

Next weekend...

Saturday is the return of Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post as I write about another Alfred Hitchcock movie.

And Sunday marks the return of of Doctor Who Is NEW!

Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post: Lifeboat

Well, April is upon us which begins with the letter "A"

Also beginning with "A" is Alfred as in Alfred Hitchcock.

As I did last April, it's a month long look at Alfred Hitchcock movies that I have seen.

This week we begin with a cinematic experiment from 1944 called Lifeboat.  

In the aftermath of their ship being sunk by a German U-oat, a handful of service member and civilians are adrift in a lifeboat.

In the attack, the German U-boat sustained damage and also sank, with one survivor, a man named Willi. He perports to only speak German and was only a mere crewman on the vessel. 

There is some debate as to whether to throw the German overboard to drown. Voices of mercy carry the day and Willi is allowed to stay. 

SPOILER: Willi is no mere crewman, he was the captain of the damn U-boat and he damn well does know English. And he's up to sneaky shit. 

Meanwhile, there are other problems.

Among the survivors from the ship is a young woman and her infant child. Or more to the tragic point, a young woman and her deceased infant child. She refuses to releases the child's body and when she can't cope with the reality of her child's death, she slips over the side of the boat to drown.

And there's the matter of poor old Gus with his badly injured leg. It will need to be amputated or the infection will kill him. 

In the cramped confines of the lifeboat with few and dwindling supplies, the disparate group of men and women try to make the best of what little they have as they set a course for Bermuda.  It is a dreary journey punctated by outbursts of temper and descents into depression.  

Willi seems to be coping well but he has is own personal flask of water and a secret compass and the son of a bitch may not be guiding the lifeboat to Bermuda but towards a German war ship.

It's tough telling a story in a visual medium with only one location but Alfred Hitchcock pulls it off.  

In case you're wondering, in a movie with only 1 location and a restricted cast, how did Hitchcock work in his cameo? There's a newspaper on board the lifeboat and our dear Alfie is pictured in an ad.

Today Lifeboat is seen as a storytelling triumph, a veritable caudron of human drama. What else would one expect putting a group of people from different walks of life in the pressure cooker of very finite space with their very lives on the line.

With World War II still raging when it was released, there was some push back that the film portrayed the German character in a positive light. On one hand, yeah, Willi was an avuncular gentleman who seemed to know what he was doing compared to the squabbling American and Brits. But on the other hand, it is quickly obvious that Willi is up to shit and not to be trusted.

Hitchcock defended his portrayal of the German captain.  "I always respect my villain, building him into a redoubtable character that will make my hero or thesis more admirable in defeating him or it." 

Lifeboat is a powerful character study and a worthy test of Alfred Hitchcock's skills as a director.

Next Saturday, I will post about another Alfred Hitchcock movie. 

Your Friday Video Link: Spider-Pig!

Your Friday Video Link for this week is a scene from The Simpsons Movie where Homer introduces us to Spider-Pig with a catchy little ditty.  

Composer Hans Zimmer translated that catchy little ditty into a choral arrangement that plays over the closing credits of the movie.   

Here is a performance of that choral arrangement by the Dordt College Senior Talent Show - Concert Choir.

I want this performed at my funeral.  

This is not negotiable.  

Dave-El's Book Report: Houses of the Unholy

As is my frequent want here in these posts of Dave-El's Book Report, I will extoll the talents of writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips with their series of graphic novels.  

Brubaker and Phillips have carved a successful niche noir crime novels that are engaging and challenging.

I am almost a broken record about how much I enjoy their output.

But today's post....?

Well...

Houses of the Unholy may well be a rare misstep in the Brubaker/Phillips bibliography.   

Natalie Burns is a young woman leading an aimless life, putting some cash in her pocket as a bounty hunter.  

She encounters FBI Agent West who seeks to draw her into his investigation into a sinister conspiracy involving a satanic cult. He's following a trail of dead bodies which are connected to Natalie. 

They were all people from her childhood and they were all caught up in a twist web of allegations involving satanic activities in their home town. 

Via flashbacks, we explore Natalie's childhood where she and some other kids attending a summer camp got caught up in the hysteria of grown ups who just knew the counselors were into some kind of devil worshipping shit. 

Brubaker is tapping into the "Satanic Panic" of the 1980's where God fearing Americans just knew the Devil himself was literally lurking around every corner waiting to pounce.

There are charges, investigations, arrests and trials to root out the truth of this evil lurking ever so close to their precious children. 

The children are told to tell only the truth of what happened at the camp. 

The children also understand what salicious "truth" their parents want to hear. 

The whole thing blows up when under the cold light of day, there's clearing nothing there.

But not before the head counselor, her reputation destroyed, kills herself.

The guilt and grief over her role in this debacle as a child wrecked Natalie, akways on the move, avoiding connections with people, moving as far away as she can from those terrible days.

But now this FBI agent wants to pull her back in. 

Some of the kids from that time convinced themselves there really was a dark and terrible power in the haunted woods outside their summer camp. 

And as adults, they are determined to gain that power for themselves.

Well, it sounds like we got ourselves a real firecracker of a plot, don't we?

But do we have a story?

 People flit in and out of both the present and past narratives to service the plot but leave little impression. 

Agent West is little more than a plot device to get Natalie Burns into the plot.

About a quarter of the way near the end, we're informed Natalie has a brother who we did not know about before and is needed to help Natalie with the next step of her journey. 

His fatal fate at the hands of the satanic conspirators should've landed harder but hey, we just met the guy.  

I think that perhaps Houses of the Unholy may have been better served by a longer structure of being serialized as a comic book series, allowing more time to invest in the characters. Instead everything is compressed into a single graphic novel. 

The book still has flashes of the brilliance we expect from a Brubaker/Phillips production but I think Houses of the Unholy is not the best representation of their work. 

The next time I do a Book Report post, we will delve into the life and time of one Sir Patrick Stewart.

Val Kilmer

 The wrong people keep dying.

God damn it, now Val Kilmer's dead?

Really?

Dead of pneumonia at age 65.  

Geez! 

Val Kilmer had a long and varied film career, ranging from comedy (Real Genius) to drama (he played Jim Morrison in The Doors).  

Of course I saw him in Batman Forever where he took on the role of the Caped Crusader.  He lacked the sly wit and unhinged intensity of Michael Keaton but I thought he did really well as Bruce Wayne/Batman. 

A very funny and off beat movie Kilmer was in was Top Secret!, a film from the fine folks who gave us Airplane!  Val played Nick Rivers who is a rock star/super spy fighting Nazis. It's basically every Elvis Presley movie distilled to it's most absurdist form. 

Here is a clip where Val gets his Elvis on.

In 2014, Val Kilmer had throat cancer and while he recovered from that, it still left a major impact on his health. 

Kilmer was able to pull it together for a cameo as Iceman in Top Gun Maverick.  

One of Val Kilmer's strangest roles ever was perhaps in this SNL Digital Short with Andy Samberg and Katy Perry in a perky little number about friendship. Kilmer is a mad scientist who wants to be friends too!

The homeless drug addict was Matt Damon.

Anyway, Val Kilmer is dead now and life is just unfair. 

Rest in peace, Val.  

Greenland Is Just Not That Into Us

So last week J D Vance and his wife Usha visited Greenland.

Ostensibly Usha was there to go see a dog sled race. 

J D decided that sounded like fun and decided to go.  

Greenland's government reminded the Vances that no one invited them. 

After some staffers went from door to door to find someone, anyone who wanted a photo op with the Vances and were uninfomly told to fuck off, the couple wound up cooling their heels at the United States Air Force base.  

Where J D Vance decided to engage some charm with a 3 point presentation.

• Greenland sucks!
• It sucks because Denmark who owns Greenland sucks!
• Greenland would not suck if it were part of the United States!

There were some objections to these cogent arguments from Greenland and Denmark. 

• Greenland does NOT suck!
• Denmark does NOT suck! 
• You know who sucks? The United States sucks SO hard!!!

Gee, I wonder why Greenland does not want to be a part of the United States?

And miss being part of all this?

Chaos? Cruelty? What's not to love about the USA right now?

Why wouldn't Greenland want to be a part of this great nation?

Could it be they don't want to lose their 37 hour work week or the nearly 3 dozen days a year of paid time off every one gets or the year long maternity leave or the universal health care or the safety from mass shootings? 

C'mon, Greenland! Join the United States of America and not have any of that! Free from socialism! YAY!!

Why can't Greenland respond to our charm offensive and just give us what we want? 

Why would Greenland have a problem with that?