(title taken from "A Hazy Shade of Winter" on the 1968 Simon and Garfunkel Bookends album)
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) when they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.
7/14/2021: If you’re tempted to ask “Well, what’s the other guy look like?,” I’ll have to admit the “other guy” is a treadmill in my condo complex’s little gym that clearly won this encounter because—due to my congenital heart condition of a bicuspid aorta value; most people have a tricuspid—as this valve’s been slowly closing up over the years I wasn’t aware it had reached a dangerous level (I did notice being a bit short of breath in recent months if I exerted myself, wondering if the awful “cold” I had in January 2020 was actually a mild case of COVID-19, leaving me with some slightly-diminished-lung-capacity, but, no, it’s more troubling than that) so I blacked out, fell on the device (the EMTs think it continued moving for the next 15 min. of its programmed time, likely the reason why my face is so scarred [along with blood on the t-shirt they had to cut off of me]). I’m fortunate a passing security guard noticed me after I’d been out for about 20 min., called 911, and soon I was off to a nearby trauma center. As I now know, my problem was with the heart value which will soon need to be repaired by some form of surgery (I’ve already been sewed up on my lower lip which I must have deeply bitten on the way down), so with that looming over me I have no idea when I’ll return to posting Two Guys in the Dark reviews (don’t count on my good buddy, Pat Craig, to pick up the slack; I wouldn’t want to spoil his no-reviews-perfect-record); however, I was already planning to announce taking next week off while I turn cook for a change (nothing fancy, just spaghetti, spinach salad, and Chianti), giving my wonderful wife, Nina, some kitchen time off while we do our annual screening over 3 nights of Francis Ford Coppola’s magnificent Godfather trilogy (1972, 1974, 1990).
When I’ll be back after that I can’t say right now, but, hopefully, I won’t be unavailable for too long. However, given that I’ve lost a good bit of my usual preparation/writing/posting time for this week already while recovering/being diagnosed under great attentive care at nearby Eden Medical Center (Castro Valley, CA), I’m going to post what I already have just to get you caught up on my situation, then I’ll update this with the review of The Tomorrow War over the next couple of days. Wish me well under the knife; I’ll be back as soon as I can (at least in this miserable photo I’m in the realm of creativity, sitting in Nina’s greeting-card-making-workspace; better things to look at there than me).
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): You’ve had enough chatter already so to get to the point of the posting I’ll give you a review of a sci-fi movie on Amazon Prime video streaming (no cost to subscribers, 30-day free trial still available for the curious) that combines alien invasion and time-travel in a generally-fun-enough-to-watch-story starring Chris Pratt (all a bit too long, though, with repetitious scenes of humans shooting at aliens), as long as you don’t question some of its premises too much. Also, in the Short Takes section I’ll offer suggestions for some choices on the Turner Classic Movies channel (but too much extra text for line-justified-layout like you see here [Related Links stuff at each posting’s end is similarly-ragged], at least to be done by this burned-out-BlogSpot-drone—oh, tedious software!) along with my lovely standard dose of industry-related-trivia.
Here’s the trailer for The Tomorrow War:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate
that same button or use the “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $. To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid those important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters like this:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens: In 2022 Dan Forester (Chris Pratt), a high-school biology teacher, along with wife Emmy (Betty Gilpin), and young daughter Muri (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) are a stable, happy family although Dan’s disappointed he hasn’t been chosen for a job at a top-notch-research-center, wants to do something special with his life. As we flow into 2023, though, everything changes for the human population of planet Earth as soldiers transport themselves through a time-travel-device—the Jumplink—from 2051, desperately in need of physical peoplepower (able-bodied women along with men) to be transported back to the future (not with Doc Brown [Christopher Lloyd], though), providing lots more defending forces to help stave off a horrible alien invasion of blood-thirsty-monsters, the Whitespikes, who’ve already reducing the human population to about 500,000 after first appearing in 2048. Through cooperation between the futurers and global governments, the world’s military jumps to the future but only 30% of them survive so a mandatory draft notice goes out, rounding up scores of recruits but with the restriction the people being sent onward must have already died before 2051 so that no time-space-anomalies will crop up from a person meeting themselves (although that didn’t seem to be a concern in Back to the Future Part II [Robert Zemeckis, 1989], yet the parallel versions of Marty McFly [Michael J. Fox] never actually encountered each other anyway); to further keep the timeline stable, travelers from the future are all young enough to have not been born yet in 2023, offering another level of insurance (but that means these folks giving orders are like our Millennial high-tech wizards while the draftees heading to 2051 are middle-aged at best, a bit of a disconnect).
Dan gets a no-avoidance draft notice (if he slips out somehow, Emmy will be forced to go in his place), reports for duty to have a time-travel-device attached to his left arm, although Emmy—a PTSD counserlor—wants them all to hide anyway, convinces Dan to visit his long-estranged father, James (J.K. Simmons), who abandoned his family years ago after coming home from the Vietnam War, feeling he was too dangerous for them to be around. However, Dan and James just revive their dispute, Dan ultimately decides to make the future jump in hopes of providing a stable world for Muri and other children to grow up in. (Despite The Tomorrow War being an action-packed sci-fi thriller, the circumstances do reflect contemporary concerns: With the ongoing spread of COVID-19 [not a factor in this movie, just for us in real life] and increasingly-devastating-climate change what kind of future are we creating for the younger generations on our planet? If such chaos is inevitable, why bother with anything—student loans, job searches, pollution—when the future’s doomed to failure?)
However, when Dan and his group arrive in 2051 they immediately encounter additional chaos because a teleportation glitch has them pop out in the sky above Miami instead of on the ground so only those who happen to fall into hotel swimming pools survive. Once they regroup they’re told by Col. Forester to evacuate some nearby lab personnel before the whole city’s bombed in an attempt to take out as many Whitespikes as possible, but when the team arrives the humans are already dead although their research data is secured before another onslaught from the monsters. When Dan—and companions Charlie (Sam Richardson) and Dorian (Edwin Hodge), a 3-time time-jumper—wake up, they’re in the Dominican Republic where Dan learns Col. Forester’s his daughter Muri (Yvonne Strahovski), angry at him because his depression over that lost job led to him deserting his family, then dying in a car accident in 2030. Nevertheless, she wants him to accompany her in capturing a rare Whitespike female (sort of a queen bee of this species) so she can extract fluid to help produce a toxin to kill these beasts. That mission’s accomplished but their lab facility’s attacked by a swarm of male Whitespikes—Muri dying in the process—so Dan’s mission is to return to 2023 with the toxin, have it mass-produced, then bring it back to the future to kill all the aliens. However, when he arrives in 2023 somehow the Jumplink breaks down so there’s no way to return to 2051, further encouraging the desperate 2023 population to riot, assuming there’s no future worth living for.
⇒Determined to act resourcefully against these complications, Dan noticed volcanic ash on one of those predators so he consults with Emmy who thinks they’ve actually been buried on Earth for a long time before coming forward; Dan wants to pursue this, gets no help from the government, turns to his student, Martin (Seth Schenall), who has an intense interest in volcanoes, uses some sort of infrared computer program to locate a hot spot under the ice in Siberia where they theorize the monsters have been buried since 946. Given the lack of official support, Dan recruits Dad and a few others, they secretly fly into Russia, burrow through the ice to where a spaceship’s buried, find the dead pilots are some other species than the Whitespikes (Maybe they were being transported here? Maybe this was a crash landing? But it’s clear global warming allowed the creatures to break loose to the surface in 2048, multiply, go on their destructive assault.) then start to use the toxin to kill some of the hibernating Whitespikes. Yet, that wakes the others who kill most of the humans until Dan, James, and Charlie go out to pursue/kill the escaping female while Dorian blows up the ship, terminating himself and the remaining aliens. Dan brings James home to meet his family; we get the sense the future timeline’s now changed, so Dan will indeed enjoy an ongoing life with everyone.⇐
So What? By the time you get this far into this posting you should know I’ve got a lot of things on my mind, some quickly-scheduled doctor visits, etc., so I hope it comes as no surprise that these final 2 sections of the review aren’t going to belabor the movie’s situations in my standard fashion but will be pounded out rather quickly, getting to primary points without elaborating them too much. (What’s that you say? Could I somehow come up with a new medical crisis more often to bring about briefer reviews? Well, I’ll see what I can do about that, especially as the COVID-19 delta variant keeps exploding in my area, but in the near future I hope to keep gassing on as you’ve come to know and love me [you do, don’t you?].) Case in point here: While The Tomorrow War provides plenty of action scenes of humans desperately trying to kill vicious attacking aliens you might want a little more sense of narrative considerations being more-fully-thought-out as there are plenty of opportunities to raise objections to how events are transpiring on-screen. But rather than elaborate all of those continuity-challenges myself, I’ll simply refer you to this video (11:56) which raises several reasonable, unanswered questions, then another one (10:58) which is essentially a movie-summary but with concerns how the script evolves along the way, and, finally, I'll refer you to the second item connected to The Tomorrow War in the Related Links section much farther below, a humorous twist on a fictional pitch of this story to a film studio executive where he keeps noting similar conceptual problems which the concept-pitcher always tries to deflect with facile responses (of course, all of these have numerous spoilers, so keep that in mind before watching any of them).
Without elaboration, I’ll just note there are fundamental questions about the strategies the future humans are using against the aliens regarding bringing in additional warriors from the past, why no better weapons exist beyond our current types of assault rifles to do battle with these ravenous creatures, and what becomes of Dan‘s previous timeline when he returns to his present day: will his life go on so badly (as his daughter recounts it to him in the future) if he’s changed everything by his unselfish actions in the final scenes? (Detailed questions along with possible—yet clumsy—answers are noted in these 3 videos, so I’ll let you work through all this if you wish to, but you really should watch the movie first just to see what satisfaction it might bring because if you go into it loaded with plot objections you’ll just be sitting there the whole time ranting along with these critical-questioners.)
Bottom Line Final Comments: It’s clear the sort of probing questions noted just above about plot viability (even in a fictional, time-travel, attacking-aliens, sci-fi, escapist-diversion from real-world-traumas about a pandemic and politics) in The Tomorrow War were simultaneously on the minds of the OCCU as the Rotten Tomatoes critics could come up with only 54% positive reviews, the ones at Metacritic (not surprisingly) lower—not by much this time—offering a 45% average score. Yet, despite all of this negativity it’s apparently doing well enough in its streaming existence on Amazon Prime (they’re still offering a 30-day free trial if you care to look into it) that a sequel is already under discussion—apparently something along the lines of more of a prequel, as with the more recent episodes of the Alien franchise, where we’d learn more about the origins of these monsters, possibly why they came to Earth (and maybe whether there are more of them out there somewhere that we need to remain on watch for). Further, the reviews aren't completely negative (just about half, as you can see by the numbers above) with some offering support, such as Mick LaSalle from my local San Francisco Chronicle: “The action is gripping but not overdone, and the aliens are more disturbing than revolting. Despite the running time, nothing is belabored.” (not sure I can fully agree about acceptability of the running time, though)—yet he’d easily find arguments in those videos I’ve already cited above to this statement: “Part of what makes ‘The Tomorrow War’ a successful movie is that screenwriter Zach Dean not only comes up with an interesting concept, but he also thinks it through.” Mick’s obviously not bothered by the questions these others have raised, which he’d counter with “At its core, this is just a really good monster movie. All the same, there’s a touch of beauty to it.” But, as we all know, beauty’s in the eye of the beholder, so behold as you will.
OK, that’s about all I’ve got at this point so I’ll finish in the usual fashion with a Musical Metaphor to speak in aural terms about what’s been under discussion, with the choice this time relating to Dan‘s fierce determination to find a strategy for conquering these vicious invaders, not so much to save all humanity but more so to help create an alternate future that will be hospitable for his daughter rather than Muri becoming one of the last survivors of our species; with that in mind, I’ll turn to Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” (on his 1989 debut solo album Full Moon Fever) at https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=JMzW42zZVN0 (live 2006 performance with The Heartbreakers), me having Dan in mind regarding lyrics like “You can stand me up at the gates of hell But I won’t back down […] I know what’s right I got just one life In a world that keeps on pushin’ me around But I’ll stand my ground And I won’t back down.” I won’t back down either; see you again on the other side of heart-healing.
SHORT TAKES
While I don’t have another offering for you under review this week I’ll backtrack a bit to my recent comments on No Sudden Move (Steven Soderberg; review in our July 8, 2021 posting) because—while I said in that discussion it’s hard to follow in places—I wondered if I had given it a fair shot while trying to watch it as I was constantly distracted by what sounded like gunshots from loud fireworks in the neighborhood (explanation in that review as to why I was seeing it on July 4, not my original intention) which proved distracting even with our door and windows shut. So, with some free time available this previous weekend (and only The Tomorrow War, I was remotely interested in seeing), Nina and I decided to give No Sudden Move another screening (a rare circumstance for me except for revisiting true classics as we’ll be doing next week with The Godfather films) which led to my embarrassment of realizing some notable details correctly this time, contradicting things I’d said in the review. (Admittedly, it’s hard enough scribbling enough reminders to be able to bring back what I saw during any screening [inevitably leading to probably missing about a third of what’s going on because while I may be hearing dialogue as I’m taking notes it doesn’t always register properly as to accurate plot continuity], but I resist using pause, rewind, re-watch as I’m still trying to emulate the theatrical experience in anticipation of sometime relatively soon when I venture back into my local theaters]; normally, that all works out reasonably well, but, when you add the constant attack of the Independence Day revelers, I’ll admit in retrospect I just got a few things wrong in my initial posting.)
I’ve now corrected all the misspoken aspects of the No Sudden Move review, feel further assured it’s worth 4 stars, yet still defend my previous statement there’s a lot of plot complexity here which isn’t always clear (even when it’s supposed to be) as we’re moving quickly through the story, especially because there are notable characters (Frank Capelli, Hugh Naismith, Aldrick Watkins) who have important impacts on our 2 protagonists (Curt Goynes, Ronald Russo—see the review for naming the various actors) yet we don’t see most of them until deep into the film, just as there’s an unexplored backstory about Curt recently being in jail, then comes to see Clarisse (Lauren LaStrada)—ex-wife? sister?—to retrieve his suitcase, implying a lot more we might want to know but aren’t going to learn about at this time. Bottom line here: No Sudden Move is one of the best cinematic experiences of 2021; see it if you can on HBO Max; if not, at least you'll have my amended review.
Suggestions for TCM cablecasts
At least until the pandemic subsides Two Guys also want to encourage you to consider movies you might be interested in that don’t require subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime, similar Internet platforms (we may well be stuck inside for longer than those 30-day-free-initial-offers), or premium-tier-cable-TV-fees. While there are a good number of video networks offering movies of various sorts (mostly broken up by commercials), one dependable source of fine cinematic programming is Turner Classic Movies (available in lots of basic-cable-packages) so I’ll be offering suggestions of possible choices for you running from Thursday afternoon of the current week (I usually get this blog posted by early Thursday mornings) on through Thursday morning of the following week. All times are for U.S. Pacific zone so if you see something of interest please verify actual show time in your area for the day listed. These recommendations are my particular favorites (no matter when they’re on, although some of those early-day-ones might need to be recorded, watched later), but there’s considerably more to pick from you might like even better; feel free to explore their entire schedule here. You can also click the down arrow at the right of each listing for additional, useful info.
I’ll bet if you checked the entire schedule link just above you’d find other options of interest, but these are the only ones grabbing my attention at present. Please dig in further for other possibilities. As I’m not sure when I’ll be back with more reviews, here’s an extra-long-dose of TCM options for you.
Friday July 16, 2021
6:45 PM Body Heat (Lawrence Kasdan, 1981) Somewhat of a remake of the equally-great Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944) this is the story of a not-as-bright-as-he-thinks-he-is Florida lawyer (William Hurt) seduced by a woman (Kathleen Turner) to help kill her husband (Richard Crenna) for a fat inheritance, but after the crime his seemingly-safe-alibi weakens as other aspects of the plan also start to unravel. Steamy attraction of the criminal couple, great acting, marvelous atmosphere.
Tuesday July 20, 2021
8:15 AM Splendor in the Grass (Elia Kazan, 1961) Set in 1928 Kansas, this is the sad story of a teenager (Natalie Wood) who resists sex with her boyfriend (Warren Beatty) until marriage but in the meantime he has to deal with his scandalous sister (Barbara Loden), only for each of them to suffer various forms of anguish when the Depression hits, further increasing the ongoing drama (still plays as truly tragic, not corny, at least for me). William Inge won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
5:00 PM Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955) Iconic James Dean role, a strong contender for best of his 3 powerful cinematic appearances (before his untimely death), as he plays a troubled teen whose independent streak just brings more difficulties from adults (including his parents) and a local gang, even as he tries to distance himself from his problems, escape from all of this hostility into a new life with his new friends (Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo), but further crises swirl around them.
Friday July 23, 2021
5:00 PM Blood Simple (Joel & Ethan Cohen, 1984) A great debut, for the Coens as directors-screenwriters and Frances McDormand. A detective (E. Emmet Walsh) gathers evidence of a woman (McDormand) having an affair with her husband’s (Dan Hedaya) bartender (John Getz).
Lots of double-crossing, murder, suspense, & the most fantastic roadside burial scene you’ll ever see, plus Walsh’s great line: “What I know about is Texas, and down here, you’re on your own.”
Saturday July 24, 2021
12:45 PM The Misfits (John Huston, 1961) In its own way a bit of a swan song for Old Hollywood, with script by Arthur Miller, direction by Huston, the final screen appearances of Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, one of the last by Montgomery Clift (Thelma Ritter and Eil Wallach are in there too), sort of a western but set in contemporary Nevada with interpersonal angst, drunkenness, desperation among the starring characters. A flop in its time, much more highly regarded today by the critics.
Sunday July 25, 2021
11:45 AM The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, 1946) A richly-deserving Best Picture Oscar winner (along with a cluster of others including Best Director, Actor [Frederic March], Supporting Actor [Harold Russell], Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, plus an Honorary Oscar to Russell, an actual WW II vet amputee), focused on the difficulties of 3 returning G.I’s each with individual problems (a marvelous example of deep-focus-cinematography by Gregg Toland; I once got a chance to talk with Wyler about his intentions with this visual style).
Monday July 26, 2021
11:00 AM A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan, 1951) From Tennessee Williams’ equally-searing play (it’s more cruel, as Hays Code-dominated films had to conform to “decency” standards), this masterpiece of interpersonal-brutality stars Marlon Brando at maybe his best but acting Oscars went to Vivien Leigh (Actress), Karl Malden (Supporting Actor), Kim Hunter (Supporting Actress), plus one for B&W Art Direction and 7 other noms including Best Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay (Williams). “Stella!”—what more can I say? Even with the censorship, an all-time cinematic triumph.
9:15 PM Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) Do you really need my description to know what this one’s about? If so, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre are “looking at you, kid,” to watch it! (A movie truly defining what I consider to be a 5 stars-“classic,” celebrated for decades as a story of hope, patriotism, and making the right decision when romance conflicts with greater needs in the early years of WW II.)
Tuesday July 27, 2021
1:15 AM The Searchers (John Ford, 1956) Widely-regarded as one of the best westerns ever as well as part of the long deconstruction of the genre, this focuses on a Civil War Rebel vet (John Wayne) with a hatred for Indians especially because they kidnapped his niece as a child, killed some other relatives; he’s on a quest to bring her home, but adolescent Debbie (Natalie Wood) wants to stay with Chief Scar causing further trouble, intolerance, deaths as neither side can tolerate each other.
Wednesday July 28, 2021
9:30PM The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich, 1971) Maybe it’s because this film reminds me of my more nostalgic aspects of those many years in Texas, but I think it’s a marvelous adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s semi-autobiographical novel of growing up in an early 1950s version of the Lone Star State (filmed in Archer City, standing in for fictional Anarene) about interpersonal-interactions among strong characters played by Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burstyn, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, Cybil Shepherd; Johnson and Leachman won the Supporting Acting Oscars.
11:45 PM Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967) Great example of American film beyond the boundaries of the old Studio System with Depression Era-outlaws played by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway (Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons, Michael J. Pollard also in the gang). Romanticized version of history as robbers are Robin Hood-antiheros in their day, represent anti-establishment values for ‘60s audiences; shocking bloody ending. Parsons won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar; the film also got another one for Best Cinematography. Excellent use of Flatt and Scruggs music.
If you’d like your own PDF of the rating/summary of this week's review, suggestions for TCM cablecasts, links to Two Guys info click this link to access then save, print, or whatever you need.
Other Cinema-Related Stuff: Here are some extra items you might like: (1) New on Netflix in July, 2021; (2) New on Amazon Prime in July, 2021; (3) New on Hulu in July, 2021; (4) New on Disney + in July, 2021; (5) New to HBO/HBO Max in July, 2021; (6) Disney reveals streaming revenue for Black Widow ($60 million), but will the other streamers follow such disclosures? As usual for now I’ll close out this section with Joni Mitchell’s "Big Yellow Taxi" (from her 1970 Ladies of the Canyon album)—because “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone”—and a reminder that you can always search streaming/rental/purchase movie options at JustWatch.
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
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Here’s more information about The Tomorrow War:
https://www.amazon.com/Tomorrow-War-Chris-Pratt/dp/B093CNZ7ST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzdm_YWwEbA (8:42 funny, fictional pitch meeting that supposedly led [sarcastically] to The Tomorrow War [ad interrupts at 2:50]; SPOILERS, though,
even as they legitimately critique several flaws in the plot), but for me the best absurd pitch for a proposed media project is found in this meta-concept-skit at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvnA8Vtf3rA (NBC TV’s Seinfeld episode, “The Pitch,” [2:35] from season 4, episode 3,
originally aired on 9/16/1992)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_tomorrow_war
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-tomorrow-war
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If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here please use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work. (But if you truly have too much time on your hands you might want to explore some even-longer-and-more-obtuse-than-my-film-reviews-academic-articles about various cinematic topics at my website, https://kenburke.academia.edu/, which could really give you something to talk to me about.)
If we did talk, though, you’d easily see how my early-70s-age informs my references, Musical Metaphors, etc. in these reviews because I’m clearly a guy of the later 20th century, not so much the contemporary world. I’ve come to accept my ongoing situation, though, realizing we all (if fate allows) keep getting older, we just have to embrace it, as Joni Mitchell did so well in "The Circle Game," offering sage advice even when she was quite young herself.
By the way, if you’re ever at The Hotel California knock on my door—but you know what the check-out policy is so be prepared to stay for awhile (quite an eternal while, in fact). Ken
P.S. Just to show that I haven’t fully flushed Texas out of my system here’s an alternative destination for you, Home in a Texas Bar, with Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker. But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion, lover, and wife, Nina Kindblad, so here’s our favorite shared song—Neil Young’s "Harvest Moon"
—from the performance we saw at the Desert Trip concerts in Indio, CA on October 15, 2016 (as a full moon was rising over the stadium) because “I’m still in love with you,” my dearest,
a never-changing-reality even as the moon waxes and wanes over the months/years to come. But, just as we can raunchy at times (in private of course) Neil and his backing band, Promise of the Real, on that same night also did a lengthy, fantastic version of "Cowgirl in the Sand"
(19:06) which I’d also like to commit to this blog’s always-ending-tunes; I never tire of listening to it, then and now (one of my idle dreams is to play guitar even half this good).
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