Friday, November 24, 2006
Well... That was an interesting Thanksgiving - was it not? Not...
Oddness that television networks chose to broadcast a slew of "sure-fire ratings-getters" on that most STUFFED of all evenings... Don't they fear that such material will be hard to digest at this time, hmm? ;)
One of the oddest picks was Spider Man 2 - you know, the one where Doctor Octavius Octopus provides the amicable opposition to thy friendly neighborhood's wall-crawler? Never mind that for now though...
My favorite moment remains when Peter P, on a moment that can only be described as "an exuberant feel-good high", runs like the wind, leaps off a rooftop (intent on landing on another) and, instead, plummets down, not to his doom but to a most painful crashing return to reality - landing finally between two stationed cars, on the asphalt, and going "ow - my back!"...
That'll teach him to think himself to be able to go "up, up and away!", eh?
Okay - that is NOT really thy celebral, philosophical, deep-thinking, all-around luminous blogger's actual favorite part in that one - no! My favorite part comes in two parts really - I am, after all, one to write with continuity in mind and so I appreciate seeing it elsewhere as well... That includes REAL LIFE, where synchronicity, meaningful coincidence, irony, serendipity and the like play a huge role in shaping my daily witticisms and such thingies - but that is another story!
Hence, my favorite part(s) in that so-so sequel are as follows: Peter P sips in some time-honored wisdom from his Aunt May (the only moment in the flick where there's a true "thanksgiving feeling" really...) and then, later on, he repeats, word for word, ad verbatim indeed, the pearls of wisdom that he got from his dear auntie, to his foe, Doc Ock (not quite a case of "pearls being dispensed to a swine" at all there - since Doc is an educated man! He simply has got... well... issues? He was most brilliantly played by one of the best character-actors around, Alfred Molina (Alfred? Isn't that Batman's butler though? I digress...) and, quite frankly, I'd take an octopus or squid or calamari over an arachnid every day of the week and thrice on Sunday - but that is, again, another story...)
Such wisdom it was too - that, sometimes, one has to give up even one's dreams in order to do what is RIGHT...
I'd be hard-pressed to get such refined wisdom from MY aunties though! To get equally sound pearls and greater gems in my own family tree, I have to go further back to my GREAT-GRANDMOTHER (not my " great grandma" - no, my "great-grandmother" - as in my grandmother's mother! Yeah - it's all been downhill in the wisdom department since then - not to say that mom isn't wise - she is - but she is also extremely old-fashioned... Hard to adapt her advice to today's situations... Never-the-less, she serves as the great-grandmother's voice in terms of passing general wisdom along - she remembers her granny far better than I do...! That was a long parenthesis - was it not? *lol*)
One of the life lessons that sticks the most, which was bequeathed to me through this grapevine of sorts, is the following: "to know the true core nature of a friend, to know if it is a genuine friend, you have to test your friend's patience, just a little bit... Contrariate them on something, one thing only... Their reaction will tell you if they are true friends or not."
Indeed, a true friend will remain so IN SPITE of everything - he or she will forgive all minor divergences of opinion and move on, bypass all the "small stuff" (and who is again that said that "it is all small stuff anyway"...?) and remain steadfastily by your side through thick or thin. True friends will be there at the worst of times, not vanish when these roll around - because, sooner or later, they sure will roll around... True friends are NOT just party-crashers who let you pick up the tab... It doesn't even begin to describe what a "true, caring, genuine friend" is all about!
I mentioned character-actors earlier on here - in Tinseltown, they are the best buds one can find! They are content with the parts that they do get and, if they do steal the spotlight, it is through sheer talent and not out of malicious intent...! Alfred Molina follows in the tradition of such great ones as Leo McKern, Walter Matthau, Lou Jacobi, Herschel Bernardi and... Philippe Noiret.
Most of these are dead now. Noiret just passed away yesterday, losing his battle with cancer at 76 years of age, with his Monique by his side - his wife of 40 years...
Noiret was one of the greats, who'd worked with all the directors that mattered (Malle, Blier, Hitchcock) and was thus seen in over 125 films... (NOT counting television work!)
Click on today's link for a little eulogy to the 'beautiful actor'... :)
He must have been a role-model for Molina and countless others...
He certainly was one for this luminous blogger too...
Just as Oliver Platt can lay claim to being a new Oliver Reed, Alfred Molina can be a new Philippe Noiret, with the exact same range and diversity of roles that Noiret had. And so on with all the others, verily; replacements can be found, whether in Tinseltown itself or across Europe and around the world - but the first ones can never be truly replaced; they can only be duplicated to some degree...
My great-grandmother has never been truly replaced herself - that is for sure!
And she would agree with this brand of wisdom too...
Link
One of the oddest picks was Spider Man 2 - you know, the one where Doctor Octavius Octopus provides the amicable opposition to thy friendly neighborhood's wall-crawler? Never mind that for now though...
My favorite moment remains when Peter P, on a moment that can only be described as "an exuberant feel-good high", runs like the wind, leaps off a rooftop (intent on landing on another) and, instead, plummets down, not to his doom but to a most painful crashing return to reality - landing finally between two stationed cars, on the asphalt, and going "ow - my back!"...
That'll teach him to think himself to be able to go "up, up and away!", eh?
Okay - that is NOT really thy celebral, philosophical, deep-thinking, all-around luminous blogger's actual favorite part in that one - no! My favorite part comes in two parts really - I am, after all, one to write with continuity in mind and so I appreciate seeing it elsewhere as well... That includes REAL LIFE, where synchronicity, meaningful coincidence, irony, serendipity and the like play a huge role in shaping my daily witticisms and such thingies - but that is another story!
Hence, my favorite part(s) in that so-so sequel are as follows: Peter P sips in some time-honored wisdom from his Aunt May (the only moment in the flick where there's a true "thanksgiving feeling" really...) and then, later on, he repeats, word for word, ad verbatim indeed, the pearls of wisdom that he got from his dear auntie, to his foe, Doc Ock (not quite a case of "pearls being dispensed to a swine" at all there - since Doc is an educated man! He simply has got... well... issues? He was most brilliantly played by one of the best character-actors around, Alfred Molina (Alfred? Isn't that Batman's butler though? I digress...) and, quite frankly, I'd take an octopus or squid or calamari over an arachnid every day of the week and thrice on Sunday - but that is, again, another story...)
Such wisdom it was too - that, sometimes, one has to give up even one's dreams in order to do what is RIGHT...
I'd be hard-pressed to get such refined wisdom from MY aunties though! To get equally sound pearls and greater gems in my own family tree, I have to go further back to my GREAT-GRANDMOTHER (not my " great grandma" - no, my "great-grandmother" - as in my grandmother's mother! Yeah - it's all been downhill in the wisdom department since then - not to say that mom isn't wise - she is - but she is also extremely old-fashioned... Hard to adapt her advice to today's situations... Never-the-less, she serves as the great-grandmother's voice in terms of passing general wisdom along - she remembers her granny far better than I do...! That was a long parenthesis - was it not? *lol*)
One of the life lessons that sticks the most, which was bequeathed to me through this grapevine of sorts, is the following: "to know the true core nature of a friend, to know if it is a genuine friend, you have to test your friend's patience, just a little bit... Contrariate them on something, one thing only... Their reaction will tell you if they are true friends or not."
Indeed, a true friend will remain so IN SPITE of everything - he or she will forgive all minor divergences of opinion and move on, bypass all the "small stuff" (and who is again that said that "it is all small stuff anyway"...?) and remain steadfastily by your side through thick or thin. True friends will be there at the worst of times, not vanish when these roll around - because, sooner or later, they sure will roll around... True friends are NOT just party-crashers who let you pick up the tab... It doesn't even begin to describe what a "true, caring, genuine friend" is all about!
I mentioned character-actors earlier on here - in Tinseltown, they are the best buds one can find! They are content with the parts that they do get and, if they do steal the spotlight, it is through sheer talent and not out of malicious intent...! Alfred Molina follows in the tradition of such great ones as Leo McKern, Walter Matthau, Lou Jacobi, Herschel Bernardi and... Philippe Noiret.
Most of these are dead now. Noiret just passed away yesterday, losing his battle with cancer at 76 years of age, with his Monique by his side - his wife of 40 years...
Noiret was one of the greats, who'd worked with all the directors that mattered (Malle, Blier, Hitchcock) and was thus seen in over 125 films... (NOT counting television work!)
Click on today's link for a little eulogy to the 'beautiful actor'... :)
He must have been a role-model for Molina and countless others...
He certainly was one for this luminous blogger too...
Just as Oliver Platt can lay claim to being a new Oliver Reed, Alfred Molina can be a new Philippe Noiret, with the exact same range and diversity of roles that Noiret had. And so on with all the others, verily; replacements can be found, whether in Tinseltown itself or across Europe and around the world - but the first ones can never be truly replaced; they can only be duplicated to some degree...
My great-grandmother has never been truly replaced herself - that is for sure!
And she would agree with this brand of wisdom too...
Link
