August 2, 2013
Dear Everyone:
Three years ago a
German film director made a movie “inspired” by a
“limited edition” comic book called
RED.
The film was predicated on the firm belief that “old age and
treachery can always defeat youth and vigor”.
It boasted an absolutely fabulous
cast of “over 50s” led by
Bruce Willis,
Morgan Freeman,
John Malkovich
and Helen Mirren, among others, with
Mary-Louise Parker as the “token”
last vestige of the
post-World War II Baby Boom.
It also featured
Ernest Borgnine, who was over 40 when “Jeannie”
was born, as (my personal favorite) “Henry, the Records Keeper”.
The title, RED, came from a notation in the
CIA file of one, Frank Moses
(Willis), marked as “Retired, Extremely Dangerous”.
The movie did well at the box office.
If you’ve never seen it, it’s popping up on TV these days.
Because it did well, they decided to make a sequel,
RED 2.
“Jeannie” and I went to see it and while it was not quite the
marvelous romp that RED was,
we enjoyed it very much.
We also saw the new film version of
Much Ado About Nothing.
Joss Whedon, who gave the world
Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
Angel,
Firefly (and its sequel,
Serenity), and
Dollhouse,
recently “graduated” to directing a major action film based on even more
comic books,
The Avengers.
In the midst of filming, he wanted to do something during the
evenings and weekends that would help him to relax.
“I know,” he said to his friends, “let’s put on a show!”
So Joss, and just about every actor he’s ever worked with (and liked),
plus a whole boatload of extras, proceeded to film
Shakespeare’s play in
and around Joss’s own house in Southern California in less than two
weeks. The film was done in
black-and-white to give it a reminiscent feel, along with the costuming,
vaguely 1930s to 1940s, to tie in with the “screwball comedies” of that
period.
The whole thing is so clearly a “labor of love” that its charms outweigh
a few pretensions. The
principal actors probably got little more than union wages, if even
that, but we suspect all the extras (yards and yards of names in the
closing credits) got onscreen credit to help them with their
union
membership requirements (so many points earned when your name appears in
the credits.)
In other news…
After nearly five weeks of spinning my wheels at work, I think I’m
finally getting some traction.
At least I’m having fun explaining the “deltas”, which this time
means “differences” instead of “things we don’t like”, about the “old”
software versus the “new/upgraded” software that is coming soon.
By the way, we have a young woman here from the
Buenos Aires office.
She’s part of our “Training Team” and has been here in the
Bay
Area for about three weeks.
After this weekend, she’ll spend another three weeks in “Hobby” before
taking everything back with her to
Argentina.
Whenever I use an idiom like “spinning my wheels” or “grinding to a
halt”, she quickly asks, “What does that mean?”
Then we have a fun time explaining Americanisms and their
origins.
There’s one expression I’ve been very careful to avoid.
When we were kids, our mother was fond of saying, “I want you
bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the morning.”
I know what it means:
Focused and alert.
But I’ve never been able to find anyone who can tell me where it began.
Any takers?
Love, as always,
Pete
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