The Daily Grand and Sundry

This is the 500th Edition of THE DAILY GRAND and SUNDRY Blog.

This Blog  would like to honor this occasion by ruminating on the TEA PARTY, WILD RIVER and Ms. Jo Van Fleet, and the prescience of Elia Kazan. Fifty years ago, his film,  WILD RIVER was released; in it is the best explanation of TEA PARTY principles ever given, by Jo Van Fleet to Montgomery Clift. 

Over the  course of the last year, I have gotten quite a few emails from denizens of Europe asking me to explain the notorious TEA PARTY. 

To my European readers, The TEA PARTY is deeper than a slogan, or fecklessness, or cribbing glibness, or designer shallowness. It is Jo Van Fleet in WILD RIVER(1960). Fifty years ago, FIFTY YEARS AGO, 50 years ago, Jo Van Fleet laid it all out in the film WILD RIVER.  Jo Van Fleet gave birth to the TEA PARTY right then. 

BACK STORY

The Tennessee River was a killer, so the United States Government, under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, decided to tame the river, the wild river, by creating the Tennessee Valley Authority(TVA) and building a series of dams along the river.

The dams would flood out old homesteads, so Federal agents fanned out through the path of the floods to buy the land.  WILD RIVER is about the one woman who would not sell out to the Federal Government, the first Tea Partier.

WILD RIVER is one of the great American films EVER made. It starred Montgomery Clift as the young do gooder from Washington, brought in to convince the lady farmer to sell out, and a radiant Lee Remick as the young widow who falls for him.

It was Directed by the towering genius of American theater and film, Elia Kazan.

If you have ever wondered where the ideology of the TEA PARTY comes from, it comes from Jo Van Fleet articulating the rights of the people above the rights of the government, even above the rights of progress(something we should all remember concerning the situation in Afghanistan).

With great honor, and humility, in this 500th Edition, this Blog honors the 50th anniversary of WILD RIVER by sharing with you, Jo Van Fleet in WILD RIVER.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mUepS6mhL4

 Elia Kazan

This  Greek, born in a country which no longer exists(the Ottoman Empire) came to America at the age of four. This immigrant knew more about America, and the Tea Party  than any living pundit or politician, including Mama Grizzlies.

Jo Van Fleet in WILD RIVER, The First Tea Partier

” I am a retired fireman, I loved your blog about Obama as Barzini, I am enclosing this information, Thanks for your blog. F“

AND A THANK YOU TO YOU F.

Obama as BARZINI

http://gerrymaxeyworkshop.com/blogging/?p=3686

Little did I know at the time I wrote the blog, the reason the Health Summit reminded me so much of THE GODFATHER  is simple, the GODFATHER is President Obama’s favorite film, as revealed in 2008 to Katie Couric.

Life follows art, again.

COURIC: What is your favorite film?

Obama: Oh, I think it would have to be the Godfather. One and two. Three not so much. So–so–but that–that saga I love that movie. 

COURIC to Obama: Do you have a favorite scene?

Obama: Love–love those movies. I–you know–so many of them. I think my favorite has to be –you know, the opening scene of the first Godfather where, you know, the opening scene of the first Godfather where the caretaker comes in and, you know, Marlon Brando is sitting there and he’s saying “you disrespected me. You know and now you want a favor.” You know it sets the tone for the whole movie.”

That is interesting choice,popular with men of his age(Howard Stern LOVES THE GODFATHER); but the film is not about heroism, nor grandeur, but about the loss of grandeur, the loss of a fixed point,  decline, treachery, conspiracy, the conduct of bitter politics. The Survival of the Smart One.

 It is about the beneficial tonic of vengeance.

McCain’s favorite film is VIVA ZAPATA!, directed by Elia Kazan and written by John Steinbeck; it is about the martyrdom of a rebel.

Every week I get together with some old buddies from my days at the Defense Department, all divorced. Some weeks we play poker, other weeks we are engaged in a chess tournament, which I am losing.

Six guys, all of whom have acquitted themselves well in dangerous situations; all have proof that we are not cowards. We would all like to get married again; but each and  all are deathly afraid of modern women, not the power of modern women(that is a challenge), but their insane internal logic.

One of our favorite programs is the JOY BEHAR SHOW; it consoles us. After watching it, we know it is better to be single than married to one of those nitwit ninnies who appear on her program. Her show is a great relief to the loneliness of divorced men.

Case in Pont

See  this toothpick below , she wants a baby….at 35….so she is having IVF treatemnts which are televised on her own reality TV show.Her Doctor says that gaining five to ten pounds will enhance her chances of having a baby naturally, and she desperately wants a baby. But she does not  want a natural baby, naturally enough to gain five pounds. She thinks she looks good the way she looks now; thank God for Dominican women.

We use to hang Germans as war criminals when they made women this skinny.

My question is, with thinking like that, can the Apocalypse get here soon enough?

 

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT FOR HER APPEARANCE WITH HER DOLT HUSBAND ON THE JOY BEHAR SHOW, THIS IS UNEDITED.

GIULIANA RANCIC, E! NEWS: That was scary. You never want to hear your doctor say, “I`ve never seen that before.”

BILL RANCIC, “GIULIANA & BILL”: Yes, that`s not good.

G. RANCIC: So usually, the uterus in the middle?

B. RANCIC: Right. And this (INAUDIBLE) half their lifetime.

G. RANCIC: How weird is that.

Immediately I was like, we can`t have a baby. This is the problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BEHAR: She is the beautiful managing editor and anchor for “E News” and he`s the handsome winner of the first season of “Apprentice”; probably the best-looking one on there, besides Donald, of course.

Today they make married life look easy; I guess, they`re also magicians. On their hit reality series “Giuliana and Bill” on the Style Network.

Joining me now are Giuliana and Bill Rancic. Thanks for being here, guys.

G. RANCIC: Thank you Joy.

BEHAR: You know, you guys have been trying to get pregnant this season and I see that the cameras are right up there; a little intimate. I mean, Katie Couric did have a colonoscopy on television. So we`re sort of used to it at this point.

G. RANCIC: Right.

BEHAR: Are you?

G. RANCIC: If she did it, I can do it.

BEHAR: Yes.

G. RANCIC: You know what I mean, I know a lot of people call me and my mom is like, must you show your uterus on television? And I`m like, “Hey, mom if it`ll help people, you know and educate women, why not?”

BEHAR: Right.

G. RANCIC: Because what we are talking about and fertility is something that`s very taboo that a lot of people don`t talk about, especially people in Hollywood.

BEHAR: Why is that?

G. RANCIC: There`s a stigma tied to having a baby the unnatural way.

BEHAR: Oh yes.

G. RANCIC: But the way we feel is, it doesn`t matter if you have a baby through IVF, if through a surrogate mother, if you adopt a baby. At the end of the day, you have a baby, right?

BEHAR: What about the stork, have you considered that?

G. RANCIC: The stork?

BEHAR: Go ahead, Bill.

B. RANCIC: I just want to say, it`s amazing how many couples out there it affects. And how many people have identified with what we`re going through on the show. I don`t think a day has gone by in the last two months where someone hasn`t come up to us, whether it`s at an airport or whether it`s you know, walking across the street and saying, “I`m going through the same thing or my sister is going through the same thing.”

So a lot of people certainly have been identifying with we`re sharing in the show.

BEHAR: Do you like that when people come up and say I`ve seen your uterus on TV?

B. RANCIC: Well –

BEHAR: And I was wondering if you could help me.

G. RANCIC: Only when they compliment and when they go my God it`s a beautiful uterus.

BEHAR: What a gorgeous uterus you have.

B. RANCIC: That`s the best looking Italian uterus that I`ve ever seen.

G. RANCIC: You know, it`s a little funny at first –

BEHAR: Yes.

G. RANCIC: — but people used to come up to us for different reasons. And I actually would like them coming up to us for this reason, you know and saying thank you for helping us. More than seven women had problems getting pregnant.

BEHAR: It`s an age thing, right?

G. RANCIC: It is an age thing.

BEHAR: Mostly.

G. RANCIC: Yes.

B. RANCIC: For couples 35 years of age or older, it`s a — to get pregnant naturally on a monthly basis, you have about a five percent to seven percent chance. So the numbers are stacked against you –

BEHAR: Five to seven percent chance –

B. RANCIC: — of you getting pregnant –

BEHAR: — per month.

B. RANCIC: — per month, right.

BEHAR: Ok.

B. RANCIC: Of actually conceiving a baby.

BEHAR: Naturally, yes.

B. RANCIC: So — when you`re — when you`re 35 years old, the deck is — the odds are stacked against you.

BEHAR: I know.

B. RANCIC: You know, it`s not good.

G. RANCIC: When you`re 20, you can get pregnant like that.

BEHAR: I know and they never want to.

B. RANCIC: Right, right.

G. RANCIC: They never want to.

BEHAR: That`s the irony of it.

G. RANCIC: Of course and so meanwhile, they`re — we are — and that`s what I thought, I was in my 20s and I thought, my gosh, I would look at these women in Hollywood, these actresses with these kid and I would say, “Oh, when I`m 35, 40, I`ll pop out a couple of twins, too.

BEHAR: Yes, yes.

G. RANCIC: And then I reached 35 years old and I realized this is very difficult.

BEHAR: Yes, a lot of women in their 50s and 60s are having babies, too.

G. RANCIC: They are. They`re using surrogates, by the way. It`s because the egg –

BEHAR: Oh, right, so what about a surrogate?

G. RANCIC: You know, we`re not at that point yet. We`re not at that point yet, right now we`re starting our first round of IVF next week. So we`ll see what happens.

BEHAR: Right, now you were on “The View” this morning with me.

G. RANCIC: Yes.

BEHAR: Both of you. And people are buzzing. Of — after you left, there was buzz, buzz, buzz about your reluctance to gain weight. You`ve got a — let me show people what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

G. RANCIC: My doctor recommended that I gain weight in order to start ovulating consistently. You know –

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like a lot of weight like does he say like 15 pounds, 20 pounds?

B. RANCIC: Five to ten –

G. RANCIC: He said five to 10 pounds –

B. RANCIC: Yes.

G. RANCIC: — which I know isn`t a big deal and if you want to have a baby you should do whatever it takes. But it`s just — I had to bite that bullet.

B. RANCIC: Yes.

G. RANCIC: I finally did gain -

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How much?

G. RANCIC: — five pounds, five pounds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BEHAR: Now, you realize if you get pregnant you`re going to gain weight.

G. RANCIC: Of course.

BEHAR: You know that?

G. RANCIC: Of course, but here`s the thing. I look at all these women who are thin and get pregnant. Look at Nicole Richie, she weighs 80 pounds.

BEHAR: She was considered anorexic at some point.

B. RANCIC: Right.

G. RANCIC: She had a couple of kids.

BEHAR: Yes.

G. RANCIC: You know, look at Angelina Jolie who carried twins, who`s half my size. So I see a lot of these women and my sister`s friends, I know a lot of people who have been very thin and gotten pregnant. Let me tell you something. If infertility were that easy, if the answer was to gain five pounds, infertility wouldn`t be a problem.

That`s not the real problem.

B. RANCIC: Yes.

G. RANCIC: And unfortunately we work in a very shallow business –

BEHAR: Yes.

G. RANCIC: — especially I do. Over — we`re not doing hard- hitting news over at E!, we`re critiquing fashion and the way people look. And so it`s a tougher bullet to bite. He doesn`t agree of course.

BEHAR: What do you think, Bill? Come on.

B. RANCIC: No, I think that`s — is that a factor? 100 percent, I think weight is a factor. When you exercise a lot, that puts a lot of stress on your body.

BEHAR: Yes.

B. RANCIC: Working the hours that she works, you know, you`ve got to — at some point you`ve got to slow the train down because your body is saying you`re not going to be able to have a baby with this pace and with this lifestyle.

G. RANCIC: But I have, I have.

BEHAR: But she has, but she`s reluctant.

B. RANCIC: Oh, very reluctant, yes.

BEHAR: She`s reluctant.

G. RANCIC: I`ve done, 35 years I`ve been busting my butt, you know, working hard. I don`t want to stop. I want to keep going –

BEHAR: I know, but that is that is the dilemma that women face constantly.

G. RANCIC: Right.

BEHAR: Because you know it`s a man`s world, Giuliana.

G. RANCIC: Yes.

BEHAR: I mean, really it is.

B. RANCIC: I don`t know about that.

BEHAR: In any way.

G. RANCIC: Yes.

BEHAR: It has to be, because who else gets IVF treatments and hormone shots and everything else.

B. RANCIC: Yes.

B. RENCIC: She`s got the hard job in this.

BEHAR: We had a guy on today who — his sperm count was like the worst. Yet his wife had to go through four years of IVF treatment.

G. RENCIC: Isn`t that incredible?

B. RENCIC: Well, it`s a bad deal.

BEHAR: But you know, I think, Giuliana, you might have to put some pounds on. Just gain some –

B. RENCIC: We`re going to take her out for a big bowl of pasta.

BEHAR: You know how to lose weight. You gain 10, you lose 10 the next month.

G. RENCIC: I know, I know. Everyone at home likes to e-mail and say, are you pregnant? You look fat today.

BEHAR: I know. But it`s unbelievable.

(CROSSTALK)

It is unbelieveable; she wants a kid, but won’t gain five pounds to get a kid, how do you deal with a mentality like that?

As we played poker, we were watching this show as background noise;as we paid attention, the six of us became very quiet, all born out of our time. We are six orphaned Knights Templar,all in love with Lee Remick(Yes Richard I read your email)

. LEE REMICK about to make a man out of Montgomey Clift in WILD RIVER.

WILD RIVER Directed by Elia Kazan is one of the great American films of all time, with two of the greatest female acting experiences ever, the one by Ms. Remick, and the towering one by Jo Van Fleet. 

BRIDGEVILLE, Pa. (AP) — George Sodini went to a sprawling L.A. Fitness Club, turned out the lights on the Tuesday night “Latin impact” dance-aerobics class for women, and opened fire with three guns, spraying dozens of bullets before committing suicide.

….videos apparently recorded by George Sodini and posted on Starcasm.net show him touring his suburban Pittsburgh home. He also stands in a doorway and talks about hiding his emotions.

Sodini kept an online diary saying he felt ignored by women and had an “exit plan” to avenge his rage.

In the videos, he highlights his handiwork in the basement where he says he installed paneling and a suspended ceiling. He says “women will really be impressed” by a matching sofa and chair in his living room.

He also focuses on a book on a table titled “Date Young Women.”……He couldn’t understand why women ignored him, despite his best efforts to look nice. He hadn’t had a girlfriend since 1984, hadn’t slept with a woman in 19 years.

“Women just don’t like me. There are 30 million desirable women in the US (my estimate) and I cannot find one. Not one of them finds me attractive,” the 48-year-old computer programmer lamented.”

George is going to hell, not just for the barbarity of his murderous actions, but because of the absudity of the barbarity. He let frustration lead to the murder of innocent women going about their business. I have this great urge to find George and just bitch slap him for allowing, in himself, a thought process which made murder a logical conclusion to frustration.On a moral level, his actions are equal to the murders of all those women in  Cuidad Juarez, Mexico(According to Amnesty International,  more than 800 bodies had been found, and over 3000 women were still missing). On a stupidity level, his actions are equal to all those misguided teenagers who commit suicide before they spend a week in Paris. 

George  had a house, a job, medical benefits, all in a recession, and yet still could not find a female mate? I submit to you that an alternative to murder is a mail order bride from Russia, Colombia, or the Philippines.

But that solution to loneliness was not good enough for good old George, with his job and house; he was seeking a female mate where the most narcissistic females congregate, a gym.

On a specific level, George allowed himself to be evil, so to hell with him. But on a general level, his tragedy might be an exemplar of the difficulty in modern gender relationships.

What do men want?  That has already been answered in a Country and Western song, by Charlie Rich, ‘ BEHIND CLOSED DOORS”

Behind Closed Doors      Charlie Rich

    My baby makes me proud.  Lord, don’t she make me proud
            she never makes a scene by hangin’ all over me in a crowd
              Cause people like to talk. Lord, how they love to talk
               But when they turn out the lights I know she’ll be leavin’ with me
CHORUS:
 And when we get behind closed doors then she lets her hair hang down
 And she makes me  feel like  I’m a man 
 Oh, no one knows what goes on behind closed doors 

So there you have it, men really desire a woman who is a woman of probity in public, sort of a mini Mother Theresa, but in private turns into Angelina Jolie. Men understand, a little hypocrisy in a relationship goes a long way.

I personally set out in my life to find a mate like ELIZABETH BENNETT from PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, most guys do. She has spunk. Now on reflection, she is the biggest Gold Digger ever outside of a Balzac novel( Ladies, save your angry emails, I belong to the Jane Austin society, but seriously, Ms. Bennett  only starts loving DARCY after she finds out he lives in the BIGGEST manor house in Christendom). Knowing all that, I would still try and tame her.

Ok, so our stupid, evil murderer is seeking the girl of his dreams,  a girl who will be impressed with his suspended ceiling, paneling and matching chair and sofa.  Now a mail order bride from Moldavia would be impressed with all three items, but George rejected that option.

He centers his hopes around women in a gym. I assume he is working on the assumption that to find women, he should go to where the women gather. WRONG. You go to where you think the women you want will gather. George had a better chance of finding the woman of his dreams hanging around the Unemployment line in Pittsburgh than at LA FITNESS. Unemployed women would have adored his house and matching sofa and chair. George had a better chance of finding  the woman of his dreams  hanging around a HOME DEPOT than a gym; the women at HOME DEPOT may have been impressed with his suspended ceiling.

George was employed as a Computer Systems man, did he ever think of going back to night school? and hitting on all those divorced women with two kids desperate for making their lives better. Oh no, George wanted a  BAD GIRL from Reality TV.

Did George ever volunteer to teach English to immigrants at ESL schools?, a lot of hot chicks there. Did George ever contemplate becoming a Mormon?if nothing else Mormons will get you married. No, George just bought a self help book,”DATE YOUNG WOMEN”. Well, the self help book did not help.

George wanted a woman manufactured by Reality TV to appreciate his humbler self. Good luck.

A few months ago, I attended a production of Harold Pinter’s play, A NIGHT OUT starring Nate Golon and Kimia Sun; the play is about a straight man who hates women. George could have stepped full blown out of that play.

To all my single male readers out there, cleaning their guns on a dateless night, the problem is not women but your paradigm of women. Change your paradigm. To help you do that, rent the following films:

HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY  Directed by John Ford

THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES Directed by William Wyler

WILD RIVER Directed by Elia Kazan.

Those films have the women you want, not reality Tv. Now go find them.

There is a  great scene in WAR AND PEACE in which Prince Andrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky sees Countess Natasha Ilinichna Rostova  at the Grand Ball, and walks through the masses to her, bringing her ROMANCE.

I believe that one scene is the benchmark for all female aspirations and dreams. Prince Andrei will see her at the ball, and come to her through the dancing herd. This is what happens in real life, Prince Andrei will see you, and will start across the Grand Ball to bring you Romance, but halfway to you, he will be intercepted by YOKO ONO, and he will be lost, forever.

Have you ever wondered why all the nice guys in the world are married to bitches like Yoko Ono? The answer is simple, nice guys have no social skills. They don’t. Nice guys are either career orientated, solitary, mother’s boys, or reserved. Because they have no social skills, they are fodder for predatory women. So while the nice girl waits for the nice guy to find them, he has been already eaten alive by the predator.

First rule for nice girls seeking a male mate, be predatory. Call him. Hunt him. Track him. Seduce him. You must be  Joy Davidman Gresham to his C.S. Lewis. Heaven will forgive you, you have saved him from Yoko Ono.

Second rule, there is no “meeting cute” in real life. Never get involved with a guy you stumble across. There is no fate when it comes to Romance. Finding the right guy should have the same importance to a woman as finding the right college, and/or the right job. Modern women spend more time on their selection of Majors than on their selection of mates,  big mistake.

Third rule, Never marry, or even date anyone you meet in a bar. You can have a one night stand, but nothing more. If you have equipped yourself for interesting men, go find interesting men, don’t let dullards find you in a  bar.

Fourth Rule, The Pimp rule;Pimps know women better than women know themselves; they don’t hold their stable of hookers together by sex. Hell, hookers have ten sexual experiences a day.Pimps hold their women by Romance.

Find a Romantic guy.  Find Prince Andrei and get to him before Yoko Ono.

Are there Romantic guys out there? Yes….even more importantly, are there STRAIGHT  ROMANTIC guys  out there? Yes, and I know where they are.

So to find out

send me $5.00, cash or cheque or money order to

Gerry Maxey

PO Box 10561

Marina del Rey, Ca 90292

with an email address, and I will tell you where the gathering of Princes reside. No refunds.

As I was watching the scenes between O’Rourke and the female actor who played the daughter, I kept going back to Peter O’Toole’s performance, as a disappointing father, in MY FAVORITE YEAR. There is a scene in the film, set after O’Toole has gotten the audience to love him, in which his big, black limousine drives out to some suburb to reconcile with his young daughter. The automobile stops, and across the way, the young daughter is playing in the yard.  The camera lingers on the car just sitting  still, and the audience is rooting, begging, imploring O’Toole to get out of the car and embrace his daughter, reconciliation, redemption. But his car slowly drives away; with his daughter watching it leave, astride her bicycle, knowing that it was her father running away from her again.

As  a  father who lost his daughter permanently, the heartbreak of that scene, of missed opportunity, is overwhelming.

Anyway, Marisa Tomei was wonderful.

On another issue, in fifty years, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE  will have as much classic cred as IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE.