Now, back to the usual—less significant but helpfully-diversionary—content.
(opening graphic from Spencer, but applies to The Harder They Fall also)
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.
Spencer (Pablo Larraín) rated R 115 min.
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): Once again I’ve defied COVID-Delta and ventured into a local theater, this time to see Spencer (while still being able to sit comfortably away from my fellow patrons along with also comfortably sipping my small soda for 2 hours to verify my need to unmask; actually it was 2½ hours because the previews ran for 26 min. after the stated starting time! plus I had to make-do with Cherry Coke with no option for blessed Dr. Pepper or even Coke's rip-off version, Mr. Pibb), an afternoon basically well spent due to the marvelous performance of Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana, although the content of the film as a whole gets a bit tedious as she’s just about always in a state of misery due to the protocol-confinements she finds herself in during a much-less-than-ideal-Christmas “celebration” back in 1991 (where the ghost of Anne Boleyn keeps showing up to remind her of how being at the near-peak of the imperial-ladder isn’t all it’s cracked up to be as seen from the outside). In the Short Takes section I’ll render some opinions on a most-unique-western, The Harder They Fall, where a couple of outlaw gangs in the Old West set out to make life miserable for each other as we get to see a rare focus on Black cowboys taking center-stage in a revered American genre. Spencer’s only in theaters; The Harder They Fall is available on Netflix streaming. Also in that 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, ye tedious software!) along with my standard dose of industry-related-trivia.
Here’s the trailer for Spencer:
(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 $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens: Based in a fictionalization of Diana, Princess of Wales (Kristen Stewart), focused just on the 3 days of her 1991 Christmas extended-family “holiday” (which was anything but joyful for her) but featuring speculation on that event even as most of the main cast are historical figures (some fact vs. fiction here), we observe a woman now 10 years married to Prince Charles (Jack Farthing) but clearly with little love between them (especially due to the barely-secret-affair he’s having with Camilla Parker-Bowles [Emma Darwell-Smith]), her only joy being the time she spends with her sons, William (Jack Nielsen) and Harry (Freddie Spry). Almost suffocated by the pomp/expectations/traditions of her royal lifestyle (where we see all the attendees at the massive Sandringham country estate [20,000 acres; enormous main house, an army of servants left to attend to the celebrants after the actual army brings in huge boxes of food for the lavish meals during this holiday gathering]), Diana insists on driving herself to the event, gets lost even though she grew up in nearby Park House estate (now abandoned, closed up) so she’s late for Christmas Eve lunch, to the irritation of her family (also some of the servants—privately, of course—especially Major Alistair Gregory [Timothy Spall], brought in to oversee the ceremonies of these days as well as keep the paparazzi at bay, given their obsessions of photographing the famous-but-publicly-reclusive-Diana).
Once she finally arrives—after stopping by a field to walk quite a ways over to an old scarecrow, taking its jacket (seemingly her father’s, as we gather from a later flashback when this “sentinel” was dressed by young Diana and her siblings)—she faces an endless barrage of requirements about what she should wear to each meal, how she should keep her curtains drawn while dressing so sneaky photographers won’t capture her semi-nude body, and other matters of protocol, with her only true friend (besides her boys) being her Royal Dresser, Maggie (Sally Hawkins). To further traumatize Diana’s mind (and stomach; she’s bulimic as we often witness her private upheavals after eating [sometimes before when the tensions accumlate]), she finds on her bed a book about Anne Boleyn (Amy Manson), King Henry VIII’s storied second wife, put to death after being accused of an affair (just as Charles makes assumptions about his wife’s late arrival, when he’s the true adulterer).
This leads to Diana occasionally seeing what seems to be the ghost of Boleyn (head intact, though), including at the Christmas Eve dinner where Diana, under dart-eyes from Queen Elizabeth II (Stella Gonet), first refuses to eat her soup along with everyone else at this huge gathering, then fiddles with the pearl necklace Charles gave her as a present (she’s angry, having seen newspaper photos of Camilla wearing the same necklace) until the stones fall into her soup after which she eats them. This proves to just be a frenzied-fantasy, but Boleyn keeps appearing to Diana, even as she’s constantly chastised for her inattention to the historical expectations of her royal role (including by Major Gregory after she sneaks into the kitchen that night, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, to snack on the enormous plates of leftovers from the previous meal). Further frustrations arise on Christmas Day when the Major sends Maggie back to London, then Diana worries about her sons who are required to go pheasant hunting the next day even though they don’t want to, topped off by Charles confronting Diana on her lack of displaying a proper-public-persona (see Related Links far below for analysis of this scene), so that night she skips Christmas dinner, sneaks over to her old home, has a conversation with Anne Boleyn (who encourages her to make her own decisions), then actually tears apart that infamous necklace, the pearls bouncing down a staircase, followed by a montage of Diana at various ages, in various clothing and activities. ⇒Come Boxing Day, Maggie returns so she and Diana drive off to the nearby beach where Maggie confesses her love for the Princess, knowing full well nothing can come of it. Diana then marches across the fields to the pheasant hunt, stopping its progress so she can leave with her boys, to which Charles reluctantly agrees. Back in London (after we see the scarecrow dressed in various clothes of Diana’s) Mom and her kids order ordinary-drive-through-food from KFC where she gives the name Spencer (her "maiden" heritage) to the server⇐ (Diana and Charles would separate in 1992, divorce in 1996, then she'll die in a car wreck in 1997).
So What? I guess that, if nothing else, Spenser deserves to be my lead review this week as it’s the only film I can remember since the pandemic began, lo those many months ago, to take out a full-page-newspaper-ad listing all the theaters where it’s playing in my San Francisco Bay Area, so clearly the studio’s trying to make a notable splash with it. At one level you’d think the ongoing popularity of/fascination with Princess Diana (a good friend of mine in Austin, TX once had a huge photo of Di and “Chuck” over her bed—I never really knew what her husband thought of it—don’t know if it’s still on display; she also has one of my paintings there so I’m more concerned about whether that’s still to be found in her house [but I’m kinda afraid to ask about either large image]) would be easy to sell (especially with solid reviews for Stewart’s performance), but then again we’ve already had a lot of (mostly TV) depictions of Diana, both before and after her death, so one could wonder if these versions would be enough (although most of them are likely obscure by now): Charles & Diana A Royal Love Story (James Goldstone, 1982) staring Caroline Bliss, TV movie; Diana: Her True Story (Kevin Conner, 1993) starring Serena Scott Thomas, TV movie; Princess in Love (David Greene, 1996) starring Julie Cox, TV movie; Diana: A Tribute to the People’s Princess (Gabrielle Beaumont, 1998) starring Amy Seccomb, TV movie; Diana (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2013) starring Naomi Watts; Season 4 (2020) of the TV miniseries The Crown with Emma Corrin as Diana (available on Netflix; Seasons 5 and 6 of The Crown will begin in 2022 with Elizabeth Debicki as Diana); Diana, a Broadway musical starring Jeanna de Waal opens on Nov. 17, 2021, a filmed version of the play's available now on Netflix; and there’s the CNN 6-part-documentary-miniseries, Diana, which has aired since Oct. 10, 2021 (see this site for options of catching up on it if you wish).
Yet, this saturation of Dianamania wouldn’t likely keep anyone truly fascinated with her from seeing the current film, even though it’s a specific look at a mere 3 days in her 36-year-old-life, with the attempt to have these few events imply the much-larger-picture (including the tragedy to come a few years later). Critical response has been quite good at the CCAL (Peter Travers, ABC News: “there is no ignoring the Stewart tour de force in ‘Spencer.’ [… which] shows Diana in the revitalizing act of escape from her privileged prison. And thanks to Stewart’s brilliant, bittersweet, utterly transporting performance, we get to watch her fly.”), although you can always find a curmudgeon somewhere who’ll debunk it (Mick LaSalle, the San Francisco Chronicle: “But ‘Spencer,’ the new biopic about the Princess of Wales, reduces her to an eating disorder and a series of twitches, presenting her as a self-preoccupied, self-pitying nuisance. It’s a distortion of her character and a disservice to history.”). Although I will admit that I generally agree with LaSalle on this specific point: “The main problem with Stewart’s performance as Diana is that she gets wedded to a pattern of speech, which she applies to virtually every line of dialogue in the film. She takes a deep breath and gushes out each line in a fast, breathy whisper. She speaks this way to servants, to Queen Elizabeth and to her two children. She speaks this way when she is indoors and outdoors, when she is speaking to someone next to her, and when she is speaking to a crowd.” That kind of constant whispering does get irritating, as does the soundtrack at times when either violins or trumpets manifest themselves in a foregrounded manner that make it all to clear what we’re supposed to think about what we’re seeing. On the whole, though, this is a generally-impactful-film, one that tries to show great empathy for Diana, largely succeeds, certainly puts Stewart in the forefront of Oscar’s Best Actress nominees.
Bottom Line Final Comments: To flesh out what I noted above about the CCAL we have the Rotten Tomatoes critics offering 83% positive reviews while the ones at Metacritic are more generous than usual with a 77% average score as just about everyone's (except contrarian LaSalle as an example) offering extensive praise for Kristen Stewart’s interpretation of these miserable days of the world’s beloved Princess. I agree with the accolades for Stewart, but therein lies another sense of limitation for me about this film: the constant dreariness of it. Back in 2016 Larraín also directed Jackie, starring another favorite actor of mine, Natalie Portman, as Jacqueline Kennedy (focused on the personal/national-traumatic-time just after the assassination of husband President John F. Kennedy, so we don’t get into her later years as Jackie Onassis; see our review from the January 4, 2017 posting for more), which I find to be a bit more successful overall (LaSalle didn’t care for that one either, though) in that while it also deals with a woman suffering intense grief it gives her a sense of humanity that I’m not quite seeing in this rendition of Diana who's constantly angry, morose, bitter about her situation (only a couple of scenes with her sons bringing any joy into her life during these dreary days), so I’m not as assured as I might be to why I should be empathetic with Diana’s situation. (Surely, as an aristocrat herself she had a clear idea of what she’d be getting into by being immersed into the royal family—or maybe she was a bit seduced by the thought of one day becoming queen only to find out Elizabeth seems to be on track to outlive her; yet, who knows?)
As it is, Spencer’s all constructed well but overall it’s an intentionally-miserable couple of hours so you might want to consider that if you choose to venture out to a theater to see it (I did, largely to see if Stewart’s as good as she’s been presented to be so I have that understanding when awards season begins; clearly, she’s great), currently in 996 domestic (U.S.-Canada) venues where it brought in only a paltry $2.1 million in its debut weekend while Eternals (Chloé Zhao)—in 4,090 domestic theaters—grabbed much of the cash, $71.6 million ($165.7 worldwide [even though that was widely-considered as "under performing"]) so, if interested, you might get going soon as the winter’s-intended-blockbusters may push Spencer off-screen in a few weeks. If that happens to you, at least maybe I can compensate with a cluster of review-ending considerations for a Musical Metaphor, starting with Paul Anka's "Diana" (on his 1958 self-named-album)—even though Ed Sullivan gets the song title wrong in this clip—where he speaks even today for countless fans of Ms. Spencer in his plea to “stay by me” even though she’s been gone for so long now, yet the mood of this movie’s clearly noted by The Beatles in "Misery" (1963 U.K. debut album Please Please Me; 1964 U.S. album Introducing … The Beatles) even though it’s about a guy losing a girl (metaphor, remember?) because just about all we see of Diana is how “The world is treating me bad Misery,” although you could also see this as her in mourning for her younger self (“Send her back to me ‘Cause everyone can see Without her I will be In misery”), just as we see Diana in a montage toward the film’s end at various ages happy while dancing or running. But, in all seriousness, this movie’s not showing what became of our precious Princess after 1991, although we all know too well what fate awaited her, thus we can maybe understand better the sorrow that permeates these chosen days from her complicated life, so my real Metaphor here has to Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind 1997” (also known as “Goodbye England’s Rose”) sung live at her 1997 funeral at https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=1o9rLDCfO6o, a massive-single-hit (seemingly #2 All-Time behind Bing Crosby's "White Christmas") but never put on any of his albums, nor sung publicly by him after that.
SHORT TAKES (spoilers also appear here)
A very powerful (also violent) western where one gang of outlaws is made more sympathetic than another one (not unlike in The Godfather) so when the smaller gang steals robbed money from the larger gang an inevitable confrontation takes place with lots of killing to top off the interesting drama previously established; starring Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Delroy Lindo, Regina King, Zazie Beetz.
Here’s the trailer:
Before reading further, please refer to the plot spoilers warning detailed far above.
This movie also begins with a graphic disclaimer—“While the events of this story are fictional These. People. Existed.”—in its own way clarifying we’re observing a fact/fiction mix, but as with the “True Tragedy” aspect of Spencer there’s a sad reality to acknowledge here, that the active presence, 1 in 4, of Blacks as cowboys (many of them freed slaves) in the latter-19th-century Old West has gone so long unknown/ignored (except in occasional dramas such as Unforgiven [Clint Eastwood, 1992] or the satire of Blazing Saddles [Mel Brooks, 1974]) a point has to be made of it, both in that opening statement and in the intentional casting of this western movie where Whites are the ones who rarely exist in this territory. In traditional academic terms the long-standing-impact of this genre, both at the box-office and in its contributions to our self-made-American-myth, is due to its depiction of the conflicts in our emerging nation between concepts of the “garden” (civilization: technologies, laws, land-management, heritage) and the “desert” (idealized wilderness: independence, individuality, rugged rule over huge uncaring, demanding environments) with earlier celebrations of the latter (Stagecoach [John Ford, 1939 {see below for an upcoming TCM cablecast}]) forced to acknowledge the ultimate triumph of the former (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence [Ford, 1962]), the protagonist of these stories often being some type of law-enforcer (even the “law” of the open range: the Ringo Kid [John Wayne] in Stagecoach or the reluctant gunfighter in Shane [George Stevens, 1953]) who serves as a hero, both physically and philosophically, imparting some sense of nobility to the needed resolution of clashes between needs of the community vs. desires of the individual (a conflict still forcefully with us today as Q-Anoners, anti-vaxxers, etc. continue to shout “freedom” for themselves, even as their assumptions butt up against structures, safety, needs of the rest of our hostile-society).
For me, the last great western (truly the best) was Unforgiven as it challenged much of what has presented as “nobility” in these earlier stories, giving us at best an anti-hero as the flawed-principal-character whose destructive-revenge-abilities can come forth only when he’s drunk, opposed by a sheriff whose concept of community protection verges on fascism; in The Harder They Fall we once again have an anti-hero, Nat Love (Jonathan Majors), as our protagonist, an outlaw whose small gang—Bill Pickett (Edi Gathegi), Jim Beckwourth (RJ Cyler), later joined by Stagecoach Mary Fields (Zazie Beetz)—find themselves at war with the larger, more vicious gang led by Rufus Buck (Idris Elba), featuring Trudy Smith (Regina King) and Cherokee Bill (Lakeith Stanfield), because Love’s guys stole $25,000 that belongs to Buck, now back in action after federal incarceration, freed by his gang from a prison train, although political corruption’s at work too as Buck’s been pardoned from his many crimes for no clear reason (also, hatred of Buck goes back to Love’s childhood when the older thug killed Nat’s parents, carved a cross on the little kid’s forehead)—by the way, Love, Buck, Pickett, Mary, and a few others are all historical figures, fictionalized here, while Mary’s friend Cuffee (Danielle Deadwyler) is inspired by Cathay Williams (the first Black woman in the U.S. Army).
Buck takes control of a Black town, Redwood City, where Mary and Nat are later taken hostage until Nat (and Cuffee) rob a bank in a White town at Buck’s demand, ⇒but instead of simply bringing back the cash they’re helped by Marshall Bass Reeves (Delroy Lindo) and former Redwood City honcho Wiley Escoe (Deon Cole) to hide guns and dynamite in wagons, setting off a wave of explosions, showdowns, shootouts leaving Beckwourth, Pickett, Cherokee Bill, and Buck dead (along with many others) but not before Rufus confesses to Nat they actually share the same abusive father, whom Buck killed sometime ago. At the end, the survivors bury Pickett and Beckwourth, but also “Nat Love” whom Marshall Reeves will report as dead so Nat can begin a new life with Mary, as Cuffee becomes a lawman with Reeves.⇐ All this is staged well, easy to watch, but beyond the pleasure of seeing so many Black actors in a spin on the western where it’s pretty much all “desert” with little hint of a “garden” (a rarity, as with Posse [Mario Van Peebles, 1993] which also features a large African-American cast) it gets repetitious to me watching so many of these folks kill each other as interesting backstories are quickly revealed just before the final wrap-up when they could have been more-usefully-woven into the overall plot; further, I’m not exactly sure why the historically-based-characters are used here, given how different they are in this story from their actualities, except maybe as an incentive to further explore who these people truly were as well as understand how they fit into aspects of our U.S. history many of us know so little about (including the difficulty of maintaining those rare Black towns, as presented in Posse about troubled Freemanville).
The CCAL’s somewhat more supportive than me, though, with the positive RT reviews coming in at 86%, although the MC average score aligns with me at 68% (my 3½ of 5 stars is 70%, although you might know I rarely go above 4 which confounds direct percentages on my ratings, I admit, but then, 5 stars-films like Unforgiven just don’t come along too often). To see The Harder They Fall requires you to be a Netflix streaming subscriber, but anyone’s welcome to hear my Musical Metaphor, Jimmy Cliff’s “The Harder They Come” (from the 1972 Jamaican movie [Perry Henzell] soundtrack of the same name) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Znh0OM9jiA, which also deals with crime, revenge, and death: “Well, they tell me of a pie up in the sky Waiting for me when I die But between the day you’re born and when you die They never seem to hear even your cry So as sure as the sun will shine I’m gonna get my share, what’s mine.” Seems to me at least the title of this current movie might have a connection to this song, but that’s also “historical speculation" so just listen and enjoy.
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 that 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.
Thursday November 11, 2021
5:00 PM 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). This film's highly recommended to watch any time it may be shown but especially on Veterans Day.
Saturday November 13, 2021
5:00 PM The French Connection (William Friedkin, 1971) Based on a real situation, we follow the grind of NYC narcotics cops Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) and Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider) as they stumble onto a huge dope ring run by Frenchman Alain Charnier (Fernando Ray); it features one of the greatest car chase scenes ever filmed as Popeye’s racing under the elevated tracks of the subway, dodging danger. Won Oscars for Best Film, Director, Actor (Hackman), Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing, plus additional nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Scheider) and Cinematography.
Monday November 15, 2021
11:15 AM Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939) Brought the genre up to a more adult level with themes of East vs. West values, letter vs. spirit of the law, a story elevating John Wayne to the realm of major star (but Claire Trevor, as Dallas the prostitute, got top billing). Wayne’s an escaped (framed) jailbird out to avenge dishonor to his family (Indians aren’t treated well here either). Also stars Andy Devine, John Carradine, Thomas Mitchell (Oscar, Best Supporting Actor); Oscar for Best Music Scoring.
Wednesday November 17, 2021
1:15 PM PM The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940) A screwball romantic comedy standard (adapted from a popular play that starred Katharine Hepburn, as does this movie) with Cary Grant as Hepburn’s ex-husband; she’s set to remarry when her ex shows up along with pulp-journalist James Stewart. Potential bride is re-attracted to Grant, intrigued by Stewart as the triangle (plus the would-be groom) continues right to the end. Oscars for Best Actor (Stewart), Best Adapted Screenplay.
If you’d like your own PDF of ratings/summaries of this week's reviews, 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: (1) No Eternals in some Arab countries because of gay superhero; (2) Audiences beginning to return to cinemas (not at the showings I’ve attended, but those were at Cinemark not AMC). 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 search streaming/rental/purchase movie options at JustWatch.
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts.* Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage. If you’d like to Like us on Facebook please visit our Facebook page. We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it!
*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problem’s been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.
Here’s more information about Spencer:
https://www.spencer-themovie.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx4eaAREEmk (10:06 interview with director Pablo Larraín [ad interrupts at 4:55]) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2PahapYPM8 (10:32 scene analysis [Diana and Charles in confrontation] by director Larraín and actor Kristen Stewart)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/spencer_2021
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/spencer
Here’s more information about The Harder They Fall:
https://www.netflix.com/title/81077494
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDaQgQUJJT8 (3:32 actor Jonathan Majors on his role as Nate Love in this movie) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwa-pygeXwE (4:38 5 things you missed when watching this movie; a minor degree of Spoilers of course)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_harder_they_fall
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-harder-they-fall
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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 get tired of listening to it, then and now (one of my idle dreams is to play guitar even half this good).
But, while I’m at it, I should also include another of my top favorites, from the night before
at Desert Trip, the Rolling Stones’ "Gimme Shelter" (Wow!), a song always “just a shot
away” in my memory (along with my memory of the great drummer, Charlie Watts; RIP).
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