I have lived more than nine months of my life in Boulder, Colorado, one week at a time. Here I am again. Here more than anywhere else I have heard for the first time about more new things, met more fascinating people who have nothing to do with the movies, learned more about debate, and trained under fire to think on my feet. So please don't zone out on me because I use the zzzzz-inducing term "Conference on World Affairs."
For 61 years, this annual meeting at the University of Colorado has persuaded a very mixed bag of people to travel to Boulder at their own expense, appear with each other on panels not of their choosing, live with local hosts who volunteer their homes, speak spontaneously on topics they learn about only after they arrive, are driven around town by volunteers, fed at lunch by the university, and in the evening by such as CWA chairman Jane Butcher in her own home. For years the conference founder Howard Higman personally cooked on Tuesday night. The hundreds of panels, demonstrations, concerts, polemics, poetry, politics and performances are and always have been free and open to the public.
Now it is springtime in the Rockies, although some years that doesn't preclude two feet of snow. The birds are singing in the trees, and I stroll beside the bubbling brook and look upon the bridge where Jimmy Stewart kissed June Allyson in "The Glenn Miller Story." In every place like this I have sacred places where I touch base in order to preserve the illusion of continuity.
After the second session of "Cinema Interuptus" (involving Ramin Bahrani, his "Chop Shop," Jim Emerson and me and several hundred eagle-eyed Interrupters), I paid a ritual visit to Daddy Bruce's Bar-B-Q, where I was greeted by Daddy Bruce Junior and purchased the Three Meats Platter for Chaz. After untold decades in business, Daddy Bruce's still lacks a refrigerator. All meats are fresh today, hickory-smoked over real logs. Cold drinks are kept in a big picnic cooler filled with ice. The interior is large enough for a few counter stools, two tables for two, and Daddy Bruce Junior's piano, which he claims he can teach you to play in one day.
I go back so far I remember Daddy Bruce Senior, famous in Denver for his free Thanksgiving feeds. Bruce Junior is 82 years old. At least Daddy Bruce's is still here. "You know Tom passed?" Bruce asked me. "You always liked Tom's." Yes, I did. Tom's Tavern is no more, replaced by--I can't bear to tell you. There Howie Movshovitz the film critic and I would make an annual pilgrimage without fail, to talk about how we had been eating Tom's hamburgers since 1969 and the rest of life was a Platonic illusion separated by visits to Tom's Tavern. Maybe that was more my theory than Howie's.
Opening day march down the quad, 2005: I'm with CWA director Jim Palmer, participant Charles Krauthammer, jazz vocalist Juli Steinhauer, and Chancellor Phil Distefano
The Stagehouse II is also no more. I walked into this vast used book store and art gallery when a 30-something man was unpacking cardboard cartons to open up shop. This was Richard Schwartz, an example of the sort of person a college town will attract: Well-read, intellectual, funny, setting down roots and making a difference, because a college town without good used book stores is not worthy of the name. It was Dick who sold me my first Edward Lear watercolor. Let me tell you how engaging he could be. Calling me in Chicago, he started chatting with Diane Doe, my secretary at the Sun-Times, and something traveled through the phone wires and into their hearts. They were married for 25 years before Dick passed away. Now the site of the Stagehouse II is occupied by--I can't bear to tell you.
Boulder is my home town in an alternate universe. I have walked these streets by day and night, in rain, snow and sunshine. I have made lifelong friends here. I grew up here. I was in my 20s when I first came to the Conference on World Affairs. I returned the next year, and was greeted by Howard Higman, its curmudgeonly founder, with: "Who invited you back?" Since then I have appeared on countless panels where I have learned and rehearsed debatemanship, the art of talking to anybody about anything. "Ask questions," advised Studs Terkel, who gave the keynote one year. "If you don't know anything, just respond by asking questions. It's not how much you know. It's how much you find out."
Astronomer and cyberguru Clifford Stoll on "Beyond Computers: Living Face to Face"
There are world-famous scientists here, filmmakers, senators, astronauts, poets, nuns, surgeons, Indian chiefs. One year Chief Fortunate Eagle, who led the sit-in at Alcatraz, was astonished to be picketed by a cadre of topless lesbians, who objected to--I dunno. The exploitation of Pocahontas, maybe. Here I discussed masturbation with the Greek ambassador to the United Nations. I analyzed dirty jokes with Molly Ivins, the cabaret satirist David Finkle and the London Guardian's Parliamentary correspondent Simon Hoggart. Here Margot Adler, the famed wiccan, drew down the moon for me. Here I met Betty Dodson, the sexual adventurer, who arrived one year wearing a sculpted brass belt buckle in the form of a vagina. Here I asked Ted Turner how he got so much else right, and colorization wrong. Here Patch Adams turned up wearing a psychedelic suit and floppy red clown shoes. I rather avoided him until he crossed a room and announced, "I agreed with every word of your review of that loathesome film about me."
I wrote about such events in a diary one year for Slate.com. "You give the wrong impression!" Chaz told me. "It's not all witches and topless lesbians. It's mostly serious." Quite true, and improvisational, and surprising. In this lockstep world of sound bites, how refreshing to witness intelligent people actually in spontaneous conversation. No papers are allowed to be read. It is unusual to listen to people in the act of having new ideas occur to them.
I could tell you about some of the people here this year. The Irish storyteller. The blind New Orleans pianist. The fire-walking astrophysicist. The SETI guy. But I don't want to make a roll call. I want to be impressionistic. I want to describe a week when bright, articulate people think on their feet. No, not all pointy-headed elites. Over the years, Temple Grandin, who is autistic and the designer of most of the world's livestock-handling chutes. Buckminster Fuller, who, when you said "Hello," responded, "I see you." Dave Grusin, the Oscar-winning composer. A bricklayer. A monk. Designers of solar energy systems.
Our founder, Howard Higman, preparing beef stroganoff for his annual CWA dinner
TV talk shows used to be open-ended. People talked so late on Saturday night the station started playing the "Star Spangled Banner" to start their Sunday morning programming. Now a two-minute "guest shot" on cable news seems long. "Spokespeople" repeat the same talking points again and again and again. A generation is being trained to base relationships on 140 characters or less.
Ramin Bahrani, who won a Guggenheim on Wednesday, was here all week to discuss his "Chop Shop" in minute detail. It was astonishing. The smallest details of the film reflected the vision of Bahrani and his cinematographer, Michael Simmonds. He explained why every shot was chosen. How it was choreographed. How the plot, which seems to some to unfold in a documentary fashion, has a three-act structure, a character arc, and deliberate turning points. Why there was a soccer sticker on the back of a pickup truck. How every visual detail, including the placement and colorization of junk in the far background, was consciously planned. How certain shots were influenced by Bresson, Antonioni, Alexander Mackendrick, Godard. How the colors were controlled. How he worked in real situations by backing off and using long shots. How he worked with non-actors for months. How 25 takes of a shot were not uncommon. How he had prepared on the location for six months. How the film was anything but improvised.
Macky Auditorium, home of Cinema Interruptus and a whole else. (all art clickable)
In a widely-read recent New York Times article in praise of Bahrani, A. O. Scott described this as "neo-neo-realism." In a New Yorker blog, Richard Brody attacked Scott for praising, and I quote, "facile realism." As applied to Bahrani, this is a surprisingly unobservant criticism. If the jaded Brody could have heard Bahrani so carefully discussing his methods and philosophy, he would have crawled under his seat and ordered out for sackcloth and ashes.
Every year there is a jazz concert featuring world-class professional musicians, performing for free, convened by the Grusin brothers, Dave and Don. This year there were 14, from Lebanon, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Cuba, Germany, and all over America. I heard a set of bongo drums played by Rony Barrak more rapidly and with more precision than I have ever heard before. The flautist Nestor Torres playing Bach with heart and then segueing into Latin jazz, with one of three songs composed specifically for this night.
But I don't want to review the two-hour concert. I want to talk about the spirit. During the last song, the charismatic jazz vocalist Lillian Boutte, from Germany out of New Orleans, was so infectious and happy that people started dancing in the aisles. People, from my knowledge, ranging from 16 to 80. You know these days how people when they're dancing sometimes look intensely serious about how cool they are? Their arm movements look inspired by seizures and the hammering of sheet metal. These aisle dancers weren't like that. They were feeling elevation. They weren't smiling. They were grinning like kids. On the stage, the musicians were grinning, too. There was a happiness storm in old Macky Auditorium. After all their paid gigs in studio recording sessions, how often do 14 gifted improvisational jazz and Latin artists get to jam together just for fun? All free, all open to the public. And a few blocks away, Daddy Bruce Junior ready to teach me the piano.
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A panel in the Glenn Miller Ballroom. At the left, David Finkle. Photo montage by Andy Ihnatko, who must have been seated directly on top of the POV.
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Molly Ivins' final CWA keynote address. (Link to video)
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Shodekeh, who performed at the jazz concert, explains beatbox on a CWA panel:
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Daddy Bruce Junior: An American life
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It's good that great minds can all get together and just do their thing, without comforming to other lockstep conference rules and the like. I've always enjoyed reading your vignettes, I hope to go down to one of these conferences someday, even though I'd be out of my league they wouldn't let me know it, at least that's what you make it sound like. A nice place for sure!!!
I can only imagine that the feeling you get at the CWA is akin to the feeling Woody Allen gets while playing bass clarinet-- "it's like being bathed in honey." Are there any credentials one needs to attend the CWA other than the ability to hold a conversation with the Charles Krauthammers and the Rahmin Bahranis of the world? If so, I'd sure like to know what those are. The way you write about the CWA, ordinary life forever after would be a disastrously dull experience.
Ebert: Free and open to the public. The utter lack of commercialism, everyone there voluntarily, is its soul.
Hi Roger, you made Keith Olbermann's Best Person in the World the other night!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9AVx3Y0NvY
Do you think Bill O'Reilly will go after you on his show?
Ebert: It would be such an honor.
As a burger fanatic, how would describe the burgers at Tom's Tavern? Since I'm on the subject of burgers, what's the best cheeseburger to get if I ever make my way to Chicago?
Ebert: A very hefty but not excessive patty of prime beef, a healthy slice of sweet onion, pickle slices, lettuce, mayo. No secrets: Simply done perfectly.
Best cheeseburger in Chicago? Cheessbooger! Cheessbooger!
Hi Roger,
Wow, wish I could be there. I am jealous of you getting to spend so much time with Ramin Bahrani. Man Push Cart moved me so much that every one I knew got a gopy on DVD. I only got to see it at... of course... Ebertfest. I got to spend a few moments talking with Ramin outside the theater and was seriously impressed. He described living from one friends couch to the next as he was tapped out financially making Man Push Cart. It's great to read of his successes since. His story from the interview on stage about his time in Iran was amazing. When Chop Shop was making the festival circuit the buzz was so good I was sure it'd be in the local theater by summer, but alas it did not make it. I am seriously looking forward to seeing him (and yourself)and Chop Shop in Urbana Champaign in a couple of weeks.
Best wishses and Happy Travels
Don
I have always admired you as a writer, Roger. Personally, I would always think of you not as a critic, but as a writer who happens to really enjoy (and write about) movies.
But damn, you're getting better, if that's even possible. On the surface, I really have no interest in Colorado, gatherings of thinkers, etc. Yet I read the whole thing, enjoyed every word, felt like I was there, and dammit, now I want to go. I'm even sad the burger place has been replaced (I do love a good burger.)
Thanks, Roger.
Intellectuals are decadent societal parasites and contribute nothing. Decrepit leeches with May 68 posters in their contrived homes. Everybody march.
Reliving the past and collecting their cultural trinkets. Exploiters.
Only feasting maggots will mourn the baby-boomers and the collapsing society that only exists in their minds.
Ebert: Don't stop with us. Share a little something about yourself.
I've been listening to Andy I talk about CWA for the past few years on various podcasts and now this. I really must find a way to "dig the scene".
Thanks for the reference to A. O. Scott's review of Goodbye Solo. I saw it one week ago at the Wisconsin Film Festival after I read your comments here. I had seen Man Push Cart a few years earlier. Amazing work. So deceptively simple. So rich. So deep. So human. I love his dense colors and his night scenes.
Roger your blog amazes me more with each entry. I work in Boulder (5 plus years) and live in Denver (16 plus years) and did not know that you regularly visit Boulder and also did not know about this amazing event held each year. What is even more amazing is that it's free!
Those of us who are lucky to live in these places sometimes don't realize it until someone from outside points it out to us.
I only wish I had known about this earlier as I would have made an attempt to see at least one event.
Is there a website with info on this?
Ebert: http://www.colorado.edu/cwa/
So thumbs up for Boulder huh.
I'm glad to hear what Patch Adams thought about his movie. Movie here meaning "Rejected as a Lifetime movie for being to sappy and somehow came to theatres."
Anyway, sounds like a nice place.
A wonderful recounting of an event and place I have never been, yet now someday hope to be. Thank you!
Thanks for the great post, I hadn't heard of this conference but one TED conference had Mythbuster Adam Savage give a great speech on his attempts to build a perfect replica of the Maltese falcon prop and on the creative process in general. It's available online and well worth the time it takes to watch it.
Sounds like a great get together, but how do we get the trilateral commission types and others who rule the world to attend?
Is enlightenment possible?
Sounds wonderful! Life is touched by life alone......the benign energy of nuclear fusion of the sun is because the molecules come evvvv-er so close......the wisest guy I have known said "when we meet a person we change".....I can smell from your so effectively communicative essay how much illumination this Mega Symposium among the mountains of Colorado must be generating as mind clashes mind...this is the soft power which I am sure will do the requisite healing...
To quote Dr. Daisaku Ikeda
"How can 21st-century humankind overcome the crises that face us? There is, of course, no simple solution, no "magic wand" we can wave to make it all better. The core of such efforts must be to bring forth the full potential of dialogue. So long as human history continues, we will face the perennial challenge of realizing, maintaining and strengthening peace through dialogue.
Dialogues are like a drama in multiple acts. There are moments when sparks fly, and moments of sheer delight when chords of sympathy reverberate. Lively, vigorous dialogue is satisfying and overflowing with dynamism."
Roger, your blog entries are like sudden breezes that catch me unawares, carrying wafts that are intellectual and emotional, rather than olfactory in nature. Just as certain scents can carry me off to a past or distant place, with remembrance my only guide, so do your musings.
This one took me back to an era long gone; the late 60's and early 70's, when I spent many an evening in small rooms filled with the haze of aromatic (and illegal) herbs. Back when when our conversations would last for hours. We talked about everything with great wonder and earnestness: Sex, the War in Vietnam, philosophy, money, sex, politics, science (both real and fictional), movies, sex, Women's Liberation, music, our jobs, over-population... which always led back to sex once again.
I won't apologize for the repetitive use of the word "sex". We were young American males in our late teens or early twenties, just at the point when we first believed we might be beginning to understand women. Of course we were wrong about women, but naturally sex was a frequent topic; it was one of the driving forces in our lives.
(40+ years later that is still true, but my focus has changed. What was then a desire for sexual accomplishment has grown into an occasion for shared joy; a much more deeply gratifying goal, and not nearly as fear-inducing as sex was at that tender age.)
Like you, I have a deep love for intellectual and emotional challenges. Like you, I find much value in discussing anything and everything with people who are morally honest -- even when they are wrong and disagree with my opinions. [laughter]
With fools or dogmatic barbarians, I will discuss nothing of greater significance than the weather or the time of day. Give me someone who actually has ideas, who is willing to discuss and defend them, and who is also willing to listen, and I'm as merry as a leprechaun with a tot of 100 proof, fine Irish whiskey.
I feel the same way when I am silent; awash in the flow of emotions that engulf me when special films, books or songs move me deeply. Such rapture, to be reminded of what a gift I have; the gift of being human, which is a source of endless wonderment and moments of sheer joy.
In the end, we are all human. In the end, we all end. But before then we should all live; and I mean really live.
Thank you for another dose of happiness. You seem to have found a wonderful source of your own.
Ebert: Spoken like a born CWA panelist.
I have heard about CWA(from you and Wikipedia), and CWA must be a lot more energetic than the conferences I have attended. It must be like swimming in the sea full of interesting things. I would be at a loss If I were on CWA panel, but I'd love to listen to them. By the way, Thanks for Molly Ivin's keynote speech. It must have been great fun to be there. It reminds me of the variation on the joke I've heard during my childhood.
Father is disappointed with his son's exam score.
Son: "But American President George W. Bush did not do well in the school!"
Father: "Well, son, at least he is good at Eng...(watching Bush on TV) never mind."
Came here for a lively discussion of Veblenian economics, left severely disappointed.
Roger -
It's interesting for me having grown up in Boulder and on your reviews synthesized once again.
I think what's so stimulating about Boulder is that it's a place where a Native American community organizer and topless hippies meet in one place and seem to get along.
It's almost a surreal environment, one where your wisecracking humor and cinematic insight has ALWAYS been prized amongst my friends and family.
On Wednesday I got to meet you and Mr. Bahrani, and it was possibly the closest thing to a religious experience I've ever had.
I hope you keep returning to CWA, making it the amazing event that it is.
Ebert: No, no, no. I am only John, to Bahrani's...
Great title for today's entry. It hurts to think what kind of world we could have for ourselves if more people in high places had read Thorstein Veblen instead of Milton Friedman.
I'm currently unemployed - living la vida hobo! - but am planning on some travel for next year. I'm in Kansas City and it occurs to me that Boulder isn't too terribly far away; is the conference open to the public?
Ebert: You bet.
Only this week did I realize that 2009 marks my 10th year as a CWA speaker. Do I get a pen and pencil set?
People ask me to describe this event. If they're looking for the short answer, I say "It's a conference where I have proudly fixed the phones and computers of the smartest and most interesting people in the world."
The long form answer begins by explaining that it's absolutely the worst pitch to a potential speaker possible. I'm on as many as ten panels, I often feel as though I'm in way over my head, my lack of a Pulitzer is never so sorely felt, it's a week of added stress in what is already the most stressful month of my year, it's an expense I can barely afford, I have practically no free time of any kind...and I wouldn't miss it for anything.
Perhaps the new "medium" answer was created last night. "I left the Thursday night party for 90 minutes to give a talk at a user group meeting and damn the luck...I missed the aeronautical engineer's fire dance performance!"
Twitter has added a new twist to my panels. As I'm walking out of the room at the end of the session, I thumb a button on my iPhone and can immediately read the "reviews" of everything the panel said and did, as reported by the Twitterers in the audience. Suffice to say that only the Kennedy assassination was documented more thoroughly than today's panel on Twitter and Facebook.
I mourn the passing of Tom's Tavern and many other places you brought me during my first year. But we create new traditions. It'll take me an early rise and two buses, but as I have done every year since I learned of its existence, I will make my annual visit to Time Warp Comics on 28th and its truly heroically broad range of mainstream and independent comix.
Ebert: Looked like you took some video of the musicians performing at Jane Butcher's party Thursday night. Going to post it on your site? Also saw you chatting up a chick (no doubt an engineer). Posting about that?
Unfamiliar with "The Annual Conference on World Affairs" I went to their website to learn more about it:
http://www.colorado.edu/cwa/information.html
Where I watched a video and then took a look at their list of 2009 Participants. There's 110 in all and of that number just 28 are women. Less than 30% at a converse on "world" affairs. And of that 28 only one, Lesa Snider King, is even remotely in my area of the Arts; she's a stock photographer and published Photoshop CS4 expert and corporate trainer; being creative with graphics on a Mac. That aside, there's a man named Allan Peterson, a poet and visual artist; mixed mediums.
Don't get me wrong, it looks like an interesting thing to attend, it's just that from my perspective, the selection strikes me as typical of what all Artists - especially women artists continue to face; the never ending up hill battle to be seen and heard for want of being more valued.
From the CWA Homepage...
"Molly Ivins, a frequent participant over 25 years, wrote that CWA offers "whole new ways of looking at old questions and information that can transform the way you look at things."
Not new enough, imo. 110 participants and just "two" in visual arts.
"Ebert says, “Why is this week like lifeblood for me? Once we settle into our life’s careers, most of us charge the line with our heads down. I have a tendency, for example, to think the world revolves around movies. Once a year at the Conference, I am forced to think on subjects not of my own choosing. I get to talk to people from other worlds."
Yes you do. But how many will get to talk to someone truly outside their world? Ie: what's more outside than someone struggling to get in, eh? And even those who've managed to get in the door, still struggle to sit at the table. Hello Judy Chicago and "The Dinner Party".
Okay, end of polite rant. :)
That aside, you own an Edward Lear watercolor! I've seen some of his at the British Museum. Was it a landscape from Greece? Or one of his birds? I remember his "The Owl and the Pussycat" and how Lear was famous for limericks; chuckle!
Ebert: I own about 30 Lears, but no birds--they're too expensive. Almost as highly regarded as Audubon. I believe Edward Lear may have invented the limerick. He was a portly, middle-aged Brit with epilepsy, who journeyed by horseback for months or even years through France, Italy, Turkey, Greece, the Holy Land, Egypt, Persia, Afghanistan and India, often sleeping rough, sketching and drawing. Accompanied only by "the faithful Suliat," his servant, who rests next to him (and his cat) in San Reno cemetery.
I went! I went! I've been there! 1988 or 1989, when I was doing my young bumming around, I lived in Leadville and I dragged my boyfriend-at-the-time along. I knew nothing about it but the (I thought) grandiose name and the open admission. It felt like someone took me mind in their hand ad gave it a good shake to get the dust and sleep out. Soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend wasn't so into it then but he still talks about it with interest when we bump into each other.
Maybe I can talk current-boyfriend into taking the train out there next spring... I've got a year to work on it.
I grew up in Boulder. I attend NYU now and I find it hard to explain to my east coast schoolmates what kind of a place Boulder is. It's not a "city", the same way New York or Chicago is, but it would a worse mistake to call it a suburb. People who've never been tend to assume that anywhere in Colorado is a small, rural community (or, if they're trying to be witty, they call it a "bumblef***" community).
I think you've hit on precisely what makes Boulder so nice. It's got the friendliness and intimacy of a small town, but the dynamic, multifaceted array of people associated with larger cities.
Two years ago, I had a summer job at a grocery store. One of the few interesting moments came when Bruce Junior stopped by and packed his shopping cart full with loaves of white bread. He bought something in the vicinity of 50 loaves at once.
Ebert: Former city councilman and Colorado Daily editor Paul Danish became a friend of mine when we joined in founding the U. S. Student Press Assn. I believe he wa still writing column for the Daily 20 years later.
I'm a former student volunteer stuck in boring Washington D.C. when all the fun and exciting intellectual debate is happening in Boulder!
This entry struck a chord with me, as a million of my own memories came flooding back. As someone who has danced in those aisles at the jazz concert, I have felt that grin. Thank you for the beautiful piece of writing. See you on the webcast!
Roger, your stated respect, admiration or whatever it is for Charles Krauthammer has me concerned. The man is an outspoken neocon, about as bellicose and as far to the right as possible to get without falling off the edge of the planet. Seriously, I think the man is dangerous and was a major facilitator of Bush's brutal war policies. He's basically Cheney without an electoral mandate. I know you're just trying to be civil, but no one in the American media gives an iota of deference to men on the "opposite" side of the geopolitical spectrum, such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Fidel Castro who are no more provocative in their rhetoric (not that I am defending these dictators) than Krauthammer. Leftist intellectuals, like Noam Chomsky, are routinely demonized by the American media, though they are men of peace. Hell, even slightly left of center media commentators like Keith Olbermann are bashed by most of the rightist-controlled American media. Frankly, what have we learned from President Obama's reaching out to the conservatives/Republicans? That they look at civility as a weakness and return the gesture with mocking disdain. Sorry, but I could never get cozy in private with a man who makes the public commentary that Krauthammer does. The same goes for the rest of the so-called luminaries of the extreme right, like Richard Perle or Paul Wolfowitz. I'll listen to what they have to say, for the same reasons that we need to pay attention to anything dangerous, but I'm never getting chummy with them. I just don't get why you've praised this guy twice in two days and consider it an honor to be on a panel with him. (Being on the panel, per se, may be the honor; to me, his membership is irrelevant.) Doesn't he believe that dissent is dangerous for America and that Bush should have had a blank check to run this country? Didn't he advocate the domestic spying, rendition, torture and curtailment of our constitutional rights in the name of security? Or was that some other Charles Krauthammer who frequently writes for Time Magazine and other periodicals? Sorry for the rant, but expressed admiration for the likes of Krauthammer sets off an endless logic loop in my circuits of the sort that James T. Kirk routinely employed to defeat evil computers controlling alien worlds.
Ebert: I was suggesting, and I believe, that a newspaper editor seeking a conservative columnist would be much better served by Krauthammer than Squeaky.
What a huge treat, to have the movie's creator by your side in the Interruptus, with so much to say about every little detail of the moviemaking process! I'm painfully sorry I haven't made it out there in recent years.
"An intellectual Disneyland", you told our little CompuServe enclave, some 13-or-so years ago. I was persuaded to drive the 1100 miles out there to see what the fuss was about, and did not regret the decision. What a giddy environment, to be surrounded by people, every one of which is brilliant and has an interesting story to tell! The abrasive and flamboyant Jean-Jacques de Mesterton, International Man Of Mystery, and his beautiful Japanese wife. Leonard Schlain, the Laparoscopic surgeon, who, in his spare time, writes books that transform our view of society, language, and religion. The friendly and unassuming Bill Nack, who elevated sportswriting to a literary form. The God-King of the uber-geeks, Andy Ihnatko, of Macquarium fame, singing "Springtime for Hitler" in his debut panel.
Look at Andy's montage, three rows back, just to the right of the center aisle. That's me, waving at the camera.
Ebert: Jean-Jacques, who wore spats and dressed like Fred Astaire in "Top Hat," carried a sword cane, and early one morning got into a fencing match with the cane-carrying Howard Higman.
This was my first CWA. I went as a fanboy of Andy but I have already decided I will be dedicating vacation time to spend the full week at CWA every year from now on. It is simply amazing and you have nailed the feeling of being here dead on. I have already sent this article to several people with the note "THIS is what I was trying to say when I tried to describe this week to you!!!"
Thank you!
Early morning reading blogs and newspapers and becoming more and more discouraged with the hatefulness...glen beck..really..and then I remember to go to your site.
Thanks Roger
I've never considered myself particularly tied to place, but you've captured so much of what the Boulder vibe is that I find myself terribly homesick right now. Thank you for this and all your writings.
I was fortunate to marry a rennaisance woman. For me, every day with her is like attending a conference. At the breakfast table I never know whether we will be discussing health reform, the perfect chicken enchilada, the IMF, Frieda Kohlo, free form pottery, telecommuting...a week after receiving her PhD she was in Hungary, visiting with the Minister of Agriculture and touring rural medical clinics, a few months after that she was hanging out with the president of Chile at an airport in a valley of the Andes and promoting an exchange of University personnel in the Nursing programs of sister universities then it was off to the Institute of health to study and research genetic links to asthma, a disease that nearly killed our son.
Not bad for a sharecropper's daughter from the Mississippi Delta.
Peace,
from kerry of inframan...who sings the body electric and leaps small buildings with a single bound and wonders what the Masters would look like if all the golfers sufferred from multiple personality disorder and who will take you to his leader if asked (but don't say I didn't warn you) and wonders whether or not Ben and Jerry's will ever name an ice cream after Keanu Reeves and who sleeps with a pillow signed by Roy Rogers AND Trigger, that talented palomino would have been able to hold his own on any CWA panel I have no doubt.
Ebert: Roy Rogers was showing an interviewer Trigger, who he had stuffed.
"And when I die," he said, "I want to be stuffed and mounted on Trigger."
"Now Roy," Dale Evans said, "don't you go gettin' any ideas about me."
Ebert: Don't stop with us. Share a little something about yourself.
Now,now,Mr. Ebert.
now that you've heard what bill o'reilly had to say on his show about you and your letter, what do you have to say?
Ebert: What did he say?
Tom passed? Oh. I don't know why that makes me so sad, but it does. I never even met him, though I have many memories of eating there as a child.
It's interesting to read about Boulder from an avid tourist's view. I grew up there, but was more than happy to move away from what was rapidly becoming a yuppy's mecca. Now, when I return to visit family and friends, it hurts to walk down the mall and see how few of the treasures remain. Some still exist, like Into the Wind and that gyros place next to Antica Roma, but it's a far cry from when Wendy's was drummed off of the mall because it was too... I don't know... brand name?
This entry makes me bummed that I never did attend any CWAs. It sounds like fun, rather than the crowded tourist trap it seemed to be. Funny how narrow a world view children can have. It disrupted the normal flow of life in my home town, so therefore it was bad. Maybe I'll get to one eventually, even if it is as a tourist in my home town.
Ebert: This is the philosophy that has destroyed the individuality of so many towns and cities: Tear down the old and good, and replace it with the new and shabby.
I went to college and grad school in Boulder. I live 5 miles from it and work 5 miles outside of it. I worked at Time Warp Comics, mentioned by Andy I. for years. Yet I never saw the town the way you describe it.
Thanks.
As a senior at the University of Colorado this will be my last Conference on World Affairs (as a student). Unfortunately with my schedule of classes I rarely could not go to any event which is a shame. I guess my own education is more important than that. However I did go my freshman year before you had your cancer. I remembered the event as you showed us The Long Goodbye. That was my first time seeing it. I was not expecting to watch that film instead something along the lines of Fellini, Bergman, or others. I am a fan of Robert Altman but at that time I only saw a few of his films (McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Player, Nashville, and Gosford Park) so I was puzzled about why you chose this film. To me it was a pleasure to watch because I liked how Altman changed the conventions of Philip Marlowe into the present day than retread what Bogart did in The Big Sleep. It was great because of the subtle parody of Hollywood and how Marlowe was this figure who was out of his time doing what he does as a detective that is unconventional to the standards of film noir. The dissection of the film was one the nicest pleasures of my times at the university even though I am a film student. Even though I could not make your event I guess I made it up by watching Wild Strawberries and Amores Perros for my film classes this week.
TV talk shows used to be open-ended. People talked so late on Saturday night the station started playing the "Star Spangled Banner" to start their Sunday morning programming.
Lordy, is that inspiring. As a kid who's founded his own talk show for the sole purpose of putting more long-form, in-depth conversation (as opposed to the standard-issue "interview) in the world, hearing the past's great examples of this hearkened back to imbues be with a tad more faith that, yes, it can be done. (I admit that the faith occasionally falters.) And those "two-minute guest shots"... let's just say they pain me. So thanks for turning me on to this conference; it's now a goal of mine to get there.
(And thanks, too, for turning me on to Ramin Bahrani with your earlier post. There's a man I'm going to want to interview -- er, converse with.)
It was so great to have you back at the CWA this year. My friend and I work on campus and we cannot wait every year for the conference, and your Interruptus panel in particular. We start checking the CWA website in February to find out what the film is going to be, even though we know it usually isn't announced until March. Having Ramin there to answer our questions and describe his motivation and design made it truly unforgettable. Roger -- you have this incredible way to take a film that I would have easily passed up and in five days (four this time around), make it incredibly meaningful to my life. Thank you so much for coming into my community/workplace and showing us beauty where we may have never seen it.
I love going to conferences, mainly because it's a group of like minded individuals coming together to discuss all sorts of wonderful and intriguing issues. I've attended the MBLGTACC (look it up, I don't feel like typing it out) and come back feeling refreshed, recharged, and mentally stimulated. I'll definitely have to come out to Boulder some time.
Ebert: Jeez, I hardly feel like typing out MBLGTACC itself!
I love Boulder! My little sister moved there not long ago, and I was able to pay her a birthday visit last year. Such a wonderful place. Great people, great activities, a nice walkabout downtown with great bookstores and great food... Did you ever eat at Lucille's? My sister's house was three or four blocks away, and I ended up eating there three mornings in a row... even on one memorable day when I had eaten a huge bowl of oatmeal not an hour earlier. I just walked by, and forgot that my stomach was full. Best biscuits and gravy ever. Also, great ketchup. All made in house. Anyhoo, thanks for giving me two more reasons to visit the great city of Boulder, CO. I've just gotta try that barbecue, now.
Ebert: I love the Boulder Book Store, and its discount/used section next to the steps down to the coffee house. Also the book shop a block west, with its own coffee shop, and so many New Directions overstocks. And the mystery book shop. And not to forget the world-famous Beat Book Store about six blocks east on Pearl. And the big Red Letter Used Book store near it. And the endless magazines at Eads' Smoke Shop.
I haven't been so hungry in quite a while! That wonderful documentary short has again confirmed my belief that restaurants are like films... the passion of the independent! What a character. Here in the Twin Cities of Minnesota we have Art Songs for our Bar-B-Que pleasure. Not a clue if it can be referred to as "authentic"- but it's Damn good! Just an ugly little dive that you want to take your food Out of.
Reminds me of my favorite hot dog stand in Chicago... Jimmy's Red Hots on Pulaski. Little concrete building with nothing but a counter to take your orders. No fancy tables or stools... and no Ketchup! I believe it's the week old grease that gives their fries something special.
Ebert: What is "authentic" anyway? Chili lovers can't even agree on beans or no beans. My dad always started with a strip or two of chopped bacon.
Ah, I'm so jealous! What it must feel like to be surrounded by interesting, thoughtful people with a passion for ideas! I've never once found myself in a situation like that, not even in college. Must be like a cool drink of water, but everywhere.
And a question: How do you manage, Roger, to be equally elegaic and cheerful? Because you do.
Ebert: Something wonderful may be in my past, but at least it happened. When I write about it, in some sense it happens again.
Could you bear, for a moment, to tell us?
I promise to join you in your resentment of whatever replaced them.
Ebert: I cannot bear. But I will tell you that the cozy, sun-warmed, labyrinthine Aion Books on the Hill has been replaced by a god-damned restaurant.
Regarding the rather paranoid above comments about Krauthammer and Ebert's admiration for him: It is sad enough that some people refuse to watch or try to understand movies not made in their own countries or within their own lifetimes. It is sadder still that some will not listen without prejudice or try to understand any ideas or opinions different from their own. It is saddest of all that some won't even allow themselves friends who have different views from them. If such people had their way, there would be no CWA or At the Movies, because they would consider all arguments settled and unworthy of further discussion.
Quite incidentally, I probably agree with Krauthammer more than any other syndicated columnist apart from George Will.
Ebert: Agreement is not the point anyway. You're right. I would expect to disagree politically with a replacement for O'Reilly. But can I read him? I have long subscribed to the right-wing magazine Spectator from England because, word for word, it is so well-written.
Story told to me Wednesday night by Simon Hoggart, parliamentary correspondent of the (left wing) Guardian and wine columnist for the Spectator:
Conrad Black, owner of the Spectator, questioned hiring "that bloody Communist" as the wine critic.
"I don't anticipate," the editor replied, "that Simon will review only red wines."
Now Simon is reviewing the telly. Here he is writing about the host of a BBC travel series: "Whicker always looked like the kind of chap who would take a young gel in his Bentley to a country hotel, only emerging from the room to place a few bets. Now he resembles the oldest member of the golf club, though his ties might be banned in some. One scary stripy job was in cerise, orange, navy, lime green, primrose and royal blue."
Your Leisure of a Theory Class is a marvelous piece of writing and made me nostalgic for Boulder and some of the terrific people I met there. I grew up in Denver, and thanks to an enlightened history teacher at my high school, Mr. Remmes, I was able to go with my class to the Conference on World Affairs as a field trip. Imagine – high school students being exposed to the wonderful mélange of thinkers, artists, and statesmen. I attended the University of Colorado for two years as an undergraduate and then went back for a master’s degree there, many years later.
I remember seeing Michael Wadleigh at the CWA not long after he made Woodstock. One year Huey Newton spoke to a packed auditorium. Another year, I, too, saw Molly Ivins and heard Ted Turner’ address in Macky Auditorium. Of course, I attended a Cinema Interruptus session in Macky, and you had chosen Silence of the Lambs as the film. Although Johnathan Demme was not there to talk about how each shot was carefully designed and no detail too minute to consider, through your analysis and the dialogue among the attendees, it was clear that nothing usually is left to chance in moviemaking.
I believe it was that same week that you visited my film criticism class, which was being taught by Howie Movshovitz. No one knew you were coming, and it was a delight to spend an hour or so with you, Howie, and my classmates, talking movies and criticism.
As for Daddy Bruce Jr. and his restaurant, I’ve had the pleasure of eating there, but not for many years. You have inspired me to drive to Boulder (from Denver) for barbecue ribs and sweet potato pie. Maybe he’ll play the piano.
Ebert: That was a great film to Interrupt. Here's the article I wrote about the Secrets of the Lambs:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19920426/COMMENTARY/44010319/1023
You were on the Bill O'Reilley show talking about rfid implants. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arUMVF2kYIc
Keith out.
Ebert: What did I know?
Hal9001,
"...Bush's brutal war policies"
It did have a human rights cause of removing Saddam Hussein, who the previous President allowed him to slaughter some 300,000 shiites and 10s of thousands of kurds who he had fight by our side then suddenly decided to pull all coalition forces out. But who was Saudi Arabia's greatest threat? Saddam Hussein. So, I think that's why we went into Iraq, even if it were the son trying to right the massacre of his father's error.
"...extreme right, like Richard Perle or Paul Wolfowitz. I'll listen to what they have to say, for the same reasons that we need to pay attention to anything dangerous..."
This is a little off the subject, but I was driving my 12 year old cousin around and turned it to the Michael SAvage show for the same reasons (extreme right-winger) and coming back from commercial it said "this show contains adult language and psychological nudity." And me and my cousin were almost in tears laughing at that. So, I changed it and thought I got my money's worth already, but decided to change it back and right on que he was saying very seriously "Don't scare the crackhead." And I felt like rolling on the floor laughing. He was advising how to win a gun fight with a crackhead I think.
Ebert: Am I sensing thread stray?
intelligent people discussing things intelligently? how novel
i loved the fred friendly seminars on pbs .
in the early 90s tom snyder had a talk show on cnbc; i caught him every time i could.
I ride Go-Karts professionally.
Ebert: Now that I would never have guessed.
BTW, I liked the word usage in your post.
After reading this article I feel terrible that I couldn't spend more time at the CWA. All I had time for was Cinema Interuptus I, which amazed me. I actually live in Longmont, right outside of Boulder, so I know in the future I will spend more time there. I can't believe how many talented people dedicate their time to the CWA. When I read the brochure with all of the speakers in it, while waiting for Interuptus I, I was astounded by the various people. I can't believe so many brilliant people would spend a week of their time just talking with people.
P.S. Tell Mr. Bahrani I watched Chop Shop on DVD the night before Interuptus 1, and I had no problems with the sound.
Ebert: Nor do I. I believe the treble came through too much.
How I rejoice that I attended this year's gathering---in a parallel universe. Perhaps someday in this universe. But probably not.
Sorry Roger for nearly knocking you over on Monday in Macky. We who don't have to travel so far, have been beneficiaries of countless acts of generosity. You panelists have shared with us candid moments that are as improvisational as a breath and though off balance as some of you feel, with some quirky topic. Over time we like all opportunities and years we delighted in Citizen Kane with you at the Fox and moving on to what is as fresh as Shodekeh beat boxing today with Hal Cannon the Cowboy Poet. It is the rare honor for Boulder to host such distinguished guests as yourself. Thank You
Mr. Ebert, (Roger, if I may),
Thank you so much for feeling so "at home" in Boulder. You seem to love Boulder, and I assure you Boulder loves you back just as much.
In my 30th year living in Boulder, I started attending CWA sessions as a CU student and I hope to continue doing so as a retiree...
The only cinema interruptus I attended with you was "The Silence of the Lambs". It was such an amazing experience that I never dared go again in subsequent years. I wanted to forever preserve that amazing memory of having the best movie critic on Earth comment on a movie "live" for you, right there, as you watch.
Thank you so much for your valuable contribution to the Conference and to Boulder and to the world of film.
From the bottom of my heart, I wish you good health and many happy returns.
Z
No disrespect intended, but--"Jane Allyson"?!!
Ebert: Gak! Fixed.
Not much to add but a wistful thought that since I attended CU Boulder for 2 years, I wish I had gone to one of these conferences. Boulder is such a special place. I'm glad I have a small bit of it in my memories. Thanks, Roger.
I wish I could travel more and go see these things. A forum for everything imaginable sounds amazing! I wish I could talk to all these people. And a concert!
I'm just. Going to. You know. Sit here enviously.
I feel so culture-starved now. It's like realizing how small your world is. I wish I could go. I doubly wish I could actually participate -- not that I'd have much to say. I'd probably end up babbling incoherently on poetry and Romanticism and Dostoevsky or something.
I'm going to hope the CWA is still around when I'm old enough to drive. XD.
- A kid.
Ebert: "I'd probably end up babbling incoherently on poetry and Romanticism and Dostoevsky or something."
I'm really good at that.
"I have lived more than nine months of my life in Boulder, Colorado, one week at a time"
That makes 36 (snowy?) Woodstocks ! No wonder your mind is what it is, having partaken of such rich fare for so long! Perhaps your misfortune was to be too fortunate---we have to love the only life we have, and play out the cards we are dealt to our best ! That's karma, another name for free will and the availability of choice....and faith.
Ebert: I love the Boulder Book Store, and its discount/used section next to the steps down to the coffee house. Also the book shop a block west, with its own coffee shop, and so many New Directions overstocks. And the mystery book shop. And not to forget the world-famous Beat Book Store about six blocks east on Pearl. And the big Red Letter Used Book store near it. And the endless magazines at Eads' Smoke Shop.
And now there are six more reasons, even though I spent more than a few hours perusing a few of the aforementioned book stores. I believe that my sister's carpet will have a Zach-shaped imprint for quite some time...
On another note, your aside about Buckminster Fuller's response to "hello" triggered a memory:
In Laurens Van der Post's "A Story Like the Wind," the main character, François Joubert, the young, wise-beyond-his-years son of French settlers in Africa, meets and saves the life of a young Bushman man, Xabbo. Raised by a Bushman nanny, François is fluent in the native's tongue. When he greets Xabbo, the words are translated roughly as: "I see you! Oh, how I see you!"
This is a fairly shaky memory, as I loaned a former friend my copy, and never got it back. I've gotta buy a new one. I know the words are right, I'm just not as certain about whether it's directed at Xabbo, or another integral character. Either way, "A Story Like the Wind," and its sequel, "A Far Off Place," are some of my favorite books. A movie that I didn't think was lousy until I read the books it was based on came out in the early nineties, which you rightly panned. It was a shallow, pitted and pitiful reflection of somewhat rambling, but magnificent, prose.
So, after a long day of combing through Boulder's bookstores, where did you like to satisfy your hunger, aside from the places you have already mentioned, that are still around?
Ebert: I mostly ate at CWA feeds. But I ate at a lot of vegetarian restaurants over the years--Indian, Tibetan, Thai. And the Red Lion Inn and Gold Hill Inn up above town in the foothills.
Further ramblings:
This appears to be the real-life equivalent (nay, perchance it is the inspiration!) for the occupants of Bill and Ted's time traveling phone booth: Socrates, Beethoven, Napoleon, Joan of Arc, Billy the Kid, two hot chicks from medieval England (who should have had bad French accents, not bad British accents, but I digress), George Carlin, Abraham Lincoln, Death, Evil robot duplicates, a couple of aliens (the most intelligent species in the universe) recruited from Heaven, and, of course, two boneheaded stoner-metalheads. In other words, a complete, beautiful mishmash of every conceivable thought process and mindset, thrown into a small space. How delightful it sounds!
"I don't anticipate," the editor replied, "that Simon will review only red wines."
Absolutely classic! One dreams of being able to bon mot this wittily, at the drop of a hat.
Ebert: Something wonderful may be in my past, but at least it happened. When I write about it, in some sense it happens again.
I read "Slaughterhouse Five" today. This is a somewhat Tralfamadorian response. It is comforting to think that my father is still alive, and all I need do is travel back to a memory to visit him. Vonnegut was a bloody genius. I always wish people well on Armistice day.
Here's a great photo of Bucky Fuller by the great Elliott Erwitt: http://www.newyorker.com/online/2008/06/09/slideshow_080609_fuller
What was the first thing you saw/heard/participated in at the CWA that knocked your socks off? Just, blew your mind like a flushed cherry bomb?
Also, how did you prepare your ideal burger at home, if it's not too personal?
Ebert: I can't remember the first. But here's a story.
Many locals attend the CWA. Many of them are a little older (my age) but present as hip-progressive-Green-cool-backpack-water bottle-longhair. I was on a panel once with the husband and wife who wrote The 60-Minute Orgasm. A woman in the audience, matching that profile, asked, "Could you recommend something around ten minutes?" It was her tone of voice that I loved. She could have been asking, "Could you substitute tofu?"
I'll going to be sending this article to my uncle, who lives in Estes Park. He hates Boulder, and thinks the town should be burned to the ground. This article will probably reinforce that opinion.
Ebert: Agreement is not the point anyway...I have long subscribed to the right-wing magazine Spectator from England because, word for word, it is so well-written.
That's pretty much the same reason why I cherish every new edition of David Thomson's Biographical Dictionary of Film as they come out. As strongly as I disagree with many of Thomson's critiques, the beauty of his prose completely captivates me.
And on the last day of the Interruptus, I got to meet one of the best, long-time commenters/contributers to my Sun-Times/RogerEbert.com blog, who had driven up from Denver just to see us! For a week, the center of my universe is right here in Boulder.
Ebert: And that person was...?
"RWA on April 10, 2009 3:05 PM
Regarding the rather paranoid above comments about Krauthammer and Ebert's admiration for him: It is sad enough that some people refuse to watch or try to understand movies not made in their own countries or within their own lifetimes. It is sadder still that some will not listen without prejudice or try to understand any ideas or opinions different from their own. It is saddest of all that some won't even allow themselves friends who have different views from them. If such people had their way, there would be no CWA or At the Movies, because they would consider all arguments settled and unworthy of further discussion.
Quite incidentally, I probably agree with Krauthammer more than any other syndicated columnist apart from George Will."
RWA you are describing yourself and Krauthammer to a tee. I am totally informed as to his geopolitical philosophy because I have suffered through reading his nonsense all too often. You and he are the paranoids, along with the entire Bush administration, that wantonly killed upwards of a million innocent Iraqis (scientific study published in the British medical journal The Lancet, not government propaganda) in pursuit of a lie. The proper intelligence was there before the bullets started flying. Bush and Cheney knew that Saddam had no WMD and posed no threat even to his neighbors, let alone the United States. Scott Ritter, Richard Butler, Hans Blix, Mohamed ElBaradei, UNSCOM and UNMOVIC knew the facts and tried to aprise the world that the Bush administration was just bullshitting us. I was able to read all of that information from numerous international sources on the internet at the time events were unfolding, were you willing to do so RWA? Or did you only want to listen to Bush and Powell, considering any other viewpoint mere paranoia? Enough facts have relentlessly poured in that it should now be perfectly clear to anyone with a rudimentory ability to think and reason that Bush and Cheney wanted to impose their will in the military arena, bag a bogeyman W's father helped create, and control a major supply of oil in the middle east, not to protect America from Saddam and not to bring "democracy" to the Iraqis. America was never in danger from Saddam and Iraq had not the slightest connection to 9-11. But Bush played on YOUR paranoia to convince you otherwise and Charles Krauthammer was a shameless mouthpiece in that endeavor. Anyone who wanted to understand exactly the ideas that Krauthammer was representing had only to read the essay composed by a coterie of neoconservatives, including Richard Pearl, Paul Wolfowitz, Krauthammer, Jeb Bush and several others, entitled "Progress for a New American Century" (PNAC) and initially pressed upon President Clinton for his implementation. Fortunately, he didn't fall for it.
Sorry to use your blog to rehash such a painful subject, Roger, but RWA and "Anonymous" shouldn't be allowed to get away with their attempts to rehabilitate Bush's catastrophic policies without rebuttal. I wonder how these folks chimed in on your blog about cause and effect? If one believes that Republican administrations really have long term geopolitical strategies (rather than ad hoc scattershot responses to shit that happens), one is tempted to posit that Reagan-Bush actually created Saddam (funded him, armed him, sold him chemical and bio-weapons and provided him with military intelligence) so they could later bring him down when advantageous. Looking backwards, the dots all connect up to the moment April Glasby claimed to have no position regarding internecine Arab conflicts. The rest has been a continuous and escalating involvement of the US military in that region at enormous cost to ourselves and the indigenous people. Whether due to monumental stupidity or diabolical design, the results of the Reagan-BushI-Clinton-BushII policies in that part of the world have been nothing short of catastrophic. (We might even go back farther in search of causes for our predicament in the region to the Carter administration when Zbigniew Brezinski helped create the Mujahideen under Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets as one more knee-jerk cold war policy; or the toppling of democratically-elected Iranian president Mohammed Mosaddeq by the CIA under Eisenhower. Lots of long-lasting blow back from both escapades.) Come on, what's your description for something that causes so much killing, maiming, destruction of property, squandering of treasure and extinguishing of good will? It sure isn't "wise," "smart," "prudent," or "advisable."
And, Anonymous, if you think gun fights with crackheads are real hilarious, both you, your cousin and Michael Savage need some serious psychological help. OBTW, I realise it is rightwing code to refer to Obama as a crackhead, when, in fact, it was really Bush who was hooked on the stuff for years. That is another slander I cannot tolerate. Again, apologies to you, Roger, but not to these two posters.
Ebert wrote: "I own about 30 Lears, but no birds--they're too expensive. Almost as highly regarded as Audubon..."
Most Art is - once the painter is dead. But that's only because the world loves us best when we're no longer around. :)
And yeah, Lear's birds! Definitely more than the cost of a movie ticket. Far more affordable are his little travel sketches and what have you. In fact...
On April 28th 2009, Bonhams in London will have the following Edward Lear landscape up for auction - lot.41 "Lago di Garda" a pen & ink with watercolor:
http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=EUR&screen=lotdetailsNoFlash&iSaleItemNo=4231428&iSaleNo=16780&iSaleSectionNo=2
It's all relative of course, but I think it's readily within reach of most mortals. Although I dare say no one will ever find a deal as good as "The Vincent Price Collection" from 1967 at Sears...
Picasso "Girl with a Boat" - $800
http://www.theapesheet.com/archivefour/vprice.html
Or how about a Rembrandt or signed Toulouse-Lautrec print..? And to think 40 years ago, this is how Art was regarded by so many in North America.
Vincent Price gives the sales pitch...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIQj7_zVzxA&feature=related
If I ever do make it one day to the Conference of World Affairs, as much fun as "babbling incoherently on poetry and Romanticism and Dostoevsky" sounds, I think I'd probably just end-up getting drunk somewhere in pub and shouting "WHERE'S THE ART?!" until I was rescued from myself. :)
Ebert: I have mostly the watercolor landscape sketches. He intended them as notes on possible oils, which he rarely actually painted. I love his faint little pencil notes to himself: "greeny," "shrimps," 'hazy."
Hey Roger, my gf's from Boulder, and after two years I wish I could meet all those interesting people and learn the interesting stuff you do. All I encounter is hordes of hippies who speak in tones that belie wisdom but beget boredom. Keep it up, good sir!
Ebert: Something wonderful may be in my past, but at least it happened. When I write about it, in some sense it happens again.
Even if something didn't happen, to write about it is in a sense as though it did. Even as I set out on my first journey abroad in a week's time there is a feeling of deja vu because I seem to have been everywhere like an Ariel in the company of Herzog, Lean and Co. and why not the Bard himself. Of course the dangers one has to live through, like Herzog carrying the ship over a hill.
To imagine a great and positive future is to contribute to its creation. Life is eternal if we passionately choose to believe it to be so. The universe is not matter alone.
A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Ebert: Where are you going abroad? Will you be online?
I can barely type from laughing so hard. I know that tone of voice. Oh, man, that's gonna stick with me for a while. Thanks!
http://blog.hgtv.com/images/design/irked-pin-cushion-tofu.jpg
See, stopping a film shot by shot, discussing it, et cetera, that's what I thought I was going to be doing in University Film Studies. Instead I am stuck in a very dark place right now... reading intellectual-based theories about approaches to film...
When I think about all the time and thought these writers put into formulating and researching for their theories, I feel like Roger and Gene in that review of "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer", crying on the inside as I think about all the better causes these sharp minds could have been working towards...
I wonder what these writers do when they watch a movie. Is there any movie they can watch and feel for a character on screen? Or are they too busy watching the audience react to what's happening on screen, taking notes on how their reaction relates back to their theory on ideology, or psychoanalysis or...
These people do not love film. They love ideas about film. The leisure of the theory class indeed... But, alas, I have to get a degree in something so I don't look like a failure to the family/ look like I'm not an idiot to future employers. The irony is I could learn all these theories inside out and Ramin Bahrani's films still show more intelligence than anything any film theorist has ever written.
(And I know you're talking about different kind of theorists Roger...)
Ebert: A great deal of academic film theory is masturbatory nonsense, performed not for love of film but for love of tenure.
A shining exception is David Bordwell, who writes in real (and elegant) English. He doesn't theorize about Ozu. He looks. The frame captures in his book on Ozu taught me to see the films. His writing is a stinging rebuke to the constipated theorists, who write as if frowning over their own shoulders.
Academic literary criticism suffers from the same plague. I came along when authors and books were still loved. I had a doctoral course in Milton at the U of C with George Williamson, a man who had lived his life with Milton, and was capable of saying:
"But he clearly is wrong, for, as Satan points out on the previous page..."
Here is the blog written by Bordwell and his equally gifted wife Kristin Thompson, who adds archeology to her interest in film: http://www.davidbordwell.net/
Check out the essays down the left-hand column. His entire Ozu book can be downloaded for free in PDF here: http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cjs/publications/cjsfaculty/Bordwell.html
And do not miss, lower on that page (no downloading) his essay about how he came to love Ozu. Now that's film writing! David and Kristin will be at Ebertfest.
I was thrilled to be able to attend Cinema Interruptus this year (well most of it--my kids' schedules made me late every session!) What a treat it was to have Rahmin Bahrani there along with you, Chaz, and Jim Emerson. I loved it when Bahrani explained the care taken in things that I didn't notice, yet surely affected my viewing experience. I also enjoyed hearing the connections that other audience members made. My biggest disappointment was getting to the last session too late to ask a question about a particular scene. But all in all, I think one thing may change the way I watch movies from now on: I asked a question and Bahrani responded "I'm glad you noticed that!" (a response he also gave to a number of other audience members questions/comments as well). That, more than anything else, gave me a real sense of being an active participant in the seemingly passive act of watching a movie. Even though I probably won't have the writer/director there again while I enjoy a movie, I think I will sill feel happy that he/she/they would be glad I noticed that! Thank you so much for giving us Boulderites this wonderful opportunity!
This is totally off-topic, but I wanted to say that your review of Tokoyo Sonata is the greatest review I have ever read. I haven't seen the movie, but your review makes me yearn to as no review I have ever before read has done. It reveals nothing important, and yet everything critical. I find myself almost desperate to see what is meant by your cryptic descriptions, and at the same time utterly sure that the revelation will be fulfilling.
.
I didn't write this for any reason other than that, given such an opportunity to easily convey my gratitude for your wonderful piece, I have no excuse not to do so. That is all. Thanks again Mr Ebert.
Ebert: If you see it, you'll understand why I was vague about the unexpected character and the people who stand without moving. It would have been a crime to describe them.
Agreement is not the point anyway...I have long subscribed to the right-wing magazine Spectator from England because, word for word, it is so well-written.
I take issue with this, though I understand it. But for me, politics is never far from what politics actually is and actually means - it's about how well people live and how we can help people suffer less on the earth. And I can never forget that the politically far right are fighting with all their strength to hurt people, or rather to help themselves and their kind at the expense of so many others. I always see everything in politics undisguised for what it is and so I'm never able to appreciate the prose style, divorced from the content and purpose of that prose, of a writer on the far right. I don't consider it a weakness on my part to be unable to enjoy such aesthetic pleasures as might be found in propaganda whose purpose, at which it often succeeds, is to make a few people's lives better while hurting so many people who are hurting already. Some things are more important than my enjoying good prose. Among them - solidarity and seriousness of purpose. If I ever treat politics as some mere gentlemenly game, or any sort of game at all (ie, it's 'my side' vs 'their side', rather than a righteous fight to end human suffering) I believe I will have let myself down.
My $0.02.
Ebert: Well spoken. It helps that the Spectator thought the war in Iraq was insane and Bush an imbecile. Also, politics occupy only about 20% of the magazine. It was in its pages that Jeffery Bernard wrote "the longest-running suicide note in history."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Bernard
[This is off-topic. Sorry.]
Roger, in your reveiw of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, you made mention of the fact that Adventureland (which came out last week) and Mysteries of Pittsburgh (which comes out this week) are both coming of age films set in the 1980s. You didn't mention that both films are set in Pittsburgh.
When I saw Adventureland, my first thought was 'this reminds me of the book "Mysteries of Pittsburgh"'. I can't help but wonder if there was some studio arm wrestling going on.
The Chabon book is quite good actually, but reading your review of the film adaptation of Mysteries of Pittsburgh, the adaptation sounds like a travesty.
A few things that strike me...
-Arthur, the book's protagonist, is the son of a Mob accountant. If he was a "big man in the mob", it was only because he knew where the money was. He reads as being a bit nebbish. Arthur's father wanted to keep his son removed from the mob, which is one of the implicit reasons Arthur ended up going to University in Pittsburgh when his family lives in Seattle.
-Arthur was an english lit student and an aspirant writer. This is sort of important to understand why he viewed every situation from a somewhat detached perspective.
-Another principle character in the book, also curiously named Arthur, was gay. "Gay Arthur" was the catalyst for most of the events that take place in the book. As with any book that involves two characters with the same name, Arthur and "Gay Arthur" have a certain undeniable duality which begs the question whether they might be the same person. This might explain the film-makers decision to remove "Gay Arthur", but to me that's like removing Tyler Durden from Fight Club.
-Phlox was needy and somewhat reckless, but still a bookish introvert. If she ever acted boldly, it was only when nobody else was watching.
-The dramatic tension of the story mostly revolved around the two Arthurs and Phlox. Jane and Cleveland would drop in suddenly and at awkward times to become game changers.
-Cleveland was always aware of Arthur's father's connections to the mob. This might have been the reason Cleveland gravitated toward Arthur. Arthur's father warned Cleveland not to get involved in his son's life.
I would not be surprised if the end of the movie was disappointing. The end of the book wasn't great either.
Ebert: Chabon is a wonderful novelist. I've never read this one, though. You can imagine that Nick Nolte would not be the right casting choice for an accountant. He's the boss.
As is evidenced by the horror expressed at how Roger Ebert could possibly want to hear the opinions of Charles Krauthammer, one of the great joys that is lost on the current generation is that of listening. We're all so protective of our own opinion that we've lost the ability to appreciate someone else's. Half the fun of Roger's blogs are the replies. I don't agree with all of them, some make me mad, some make me laugh, some make me think, all of them make me smile.
The whole point of the CWA, as I see it, is to mimic the bull sessions you find in bars around 2am when the alcohol is flowing freely and no one has yet reached the point of incoherence. It's not (again, my opinion) about being right or wrong but about ideas. Ideas are wonderful products of the human psyche. They're not liberal, they're not conservative. They just are. They exist to be poked and prodded and examined by the curious mind. You look at them, hold them up to the light, show them off to other people, argue about their merits or faults. You crack a few jokes, make a few serious somber points, but above all there is always that purest joy of discussion and contemplation. A joy that started when you were a toddler, looked at the sky, and for the first time in your life went "I wonder...?"
It's like Roger's reviews. I've never read one because I want it to parrot my own opinion. What fun would that be? What would I learn from it? I don't agree with his review of "Blue Velvet", for example, but his theories and ideas are worth reading. They certainly help me look at the film in a different light. Do I think he's right? No, but he makes me rethink myself, and that's the whole point of LISTENING to someone.
If you're only exposed to things you agree with all the time, it's like putting a mirror up to another mirror. All you'll see is nothing and nothing, reflected forever.
And what's the point in that?
PS: Totally off topic. I rarely agree with Krauthammer, but I love the man's name. It sounds like something you'd give the grizzled Nazi killing hero in a WW2 flick.
Ebert: A name like that, you don't give to a community organizer.
Japan,for just a week next week, no.
Ebert: Have an interesting time and tell us when you get back.
A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.
Arthur Schopenhauer
On reconsidering the above quote which I myself had casually shared, I find that Schop is not correct----as a matter of fact the essence of free will is that we can want what we want to want----and this is a strange, beautiful and momentous reality.
Roger, if all we did here was read Bazin, Sarris, Kael, Bordwell and Thompson and especially Jim Emerson - and other critics who have written essays on film, such as yourself - I'd wake up dancing every morning.
These writers I mention try to explain what they see in a film, how they feel about it, their understanding of their own personal tastes. Their writing is passionate about cinema; they love the movies and that comes across. And they try to write clearly versus the other theorists who seem to almost deliberately pick words that will alienate you. Reading the work of most film theorists is like reading the musings of a cyborg. Ya know, like the ones off that Star Trek TV show with Patrick Stewart and the guy who plays Data?
As of now I am having to write an essay on 'ideological state apparatus' and what it has to do with movies. By comparison, a shot by shot look at Ozu's films, led by David Bordwell, would be a trip through heaven.
And I can never forget that the politically far right are fighting with all their strength to hurt people, or rather to help themselves and their kind at the expense of so many others.
They don't see it that way, of course. Each side (not counting dictators or most politicians here!) believes it has the correct answer. And I see that as not only OK, but necessary.
To me, an equitable civilization has a populace that falls along a spectrum from far right to far left. They are balanced on a teeter-totter, with most people bunched somewhere nearish the middle but with a continuum of people along the lengths. A few balance at either end. The teeter-totter tips one way or the other as people adjust their positions to suit the times - but as the machine gets too unbalanced, people adjust again, and a reasonable equilibrium is achieved. The founding fathers of the US wrote a marvelous document to help keep that teeter-totter working. I think all of us are necessary, even those at the very ends of the machine, if the machine is to work properly.
Even though you may not approve of the other side's rhetoric, it's a good idea to read and listen to it, if only to know your adversary better. ;-)
I loved seeing you at the CWA back when I was a CU undergrad. All my professors told me, "whatever you do with your four years here, don't miss the CWA." So every year I would go to watch the debates. At first I would go to the debates only that interested me, and as a film major it happened to be the Cinema Interuptus. I was a bit intimidated by the entire set up. I could shout "stop!" at any time to ask you about a scene? That seemed crazy to me. I was expecting chaos when I sat down in the middle of one of the sessions. But it was civil. There was even some structure to it. You navigated and steered it brilliantly. It's one of my greatest memories from that school.
Now I have to queue up The Glenn Miller Story on my netflix. I wasn't aware they shot it in Boulder.
Straying from the thread, a human being is a creature(if you dont object to the word) who can mould itself, to any extent---and that is what free will means to me. We can always "outfrown false fortune's frown" and that is freedom. The illusion of freedom is the reality of freedom. We are what we choose to regard ourselves as. We need not ask the mirror,mirror on the wall who we are. We have rather to decide what we want to be. If we choose life as eternal, there is nothing to regret because there are no endings, every moment of life and specially the final one is a fresh beginning shining with hope like a penny new from mint. As they say it's all in the mind.
Yeee Haaa For Paul!
His 2 cents is more like 2 trillion.
I'm not sure I can read this blog anymore; it's too full of the life abundant. Misery wants, and maybe needs, company.
Roger,
So glad that you could make it to the CWA again this year, 2009, and with Chaz as well. Your essay kindles memories--I was the press liaison for the Conf. in 1988, and lived for a time in Higman's house. Take good care.
Ebert: A generation is being trained to base relationships on 140 words or less.
In deference of your encroaching snarkisticism may I point out that the generation to which you refer has already been trained.
Don't fret so much, man - intelligence will always find its own level and nature will always have its twitterers.
Thanks for the wonderful tour behind Boulder and the awe-inducing peek into Bahrani's process (color matched junk -yeow!).
"PS: Totally off topic. I rarely agree with Krauthammer, but I love the man's name. It sounds like something you'd give the grizzled Nazi killing hero in a WW2 flick.
Ebert: A name like that, you don't give to a community organizer."
Personally, I "affectionately" refer to him as "Cabbage Wacker." I think some people here are making the incorrect assumption that because I don't LIKE what Krauthammer says, I don't listen to or (more often) read what he says. I don't like him because I DO read him and know quite well what he stands for. Enough on Cabbage Wacker already! (And, yes, a lot of our last names have funny or curious meanings in foreign languages, mine included.)
Hal9001, (I posted as ANONYMOUS, by accident,
But first,
Ebert: Am I sensing thread stray?
Sorry, Roger.
Hal9001,
I wasn't trying to "attempt to rehabilitate Bush's catastrophic policies." Here me out, I voted against him in 2004 for my first vote when I was 20 because the war in Iraq. Now here me out, please, because I think you misunderstood what I wrote.
Fact: Senior president Bush (the 1st one) invaded Kuwait and rallied hundreds of thousands of Shiites and 10's of thousands of Kurds to fight by our side. Then he suddenly decided to pull out allowing Saddam Hussein to massacre ("the Shiite Massacre", its called) some 300,000 Shiites and 10's of thousands of Kurds. This is beyond words and is comparable to Stalin when he did the same allowing the Nazi's to slaughter the Red Army.
Was Bush's reasons for the Iraq war trying to right this error of his father? In my response I typed, no. Should we have invaded Iraq at all? Not as a top priority, no, when there were other worse offenders-including Saudi Arabians, who also funded 9-11 and countless other terrorism funding. Saddam Hussein was actually Saudi Arabia's greatest threat. It was his threat that forced them to allow U.S. troops onto their soil, which would otherwise have concerned them because have we had every justificaton to seize their oil from which said wealth financed attacks on America. And also by keeping Iraqi oil off the market, it has allowed them to jack up the price of oil in the past couple of years, causing present recession--now--around the world. You say we invaded Iraq for oil? Saudi Arabia would have been a much more lucrative place to go, and as I said, justifiable.
Fact: Every time there has been an oil price hike in America, recessions have followed.
By invading Iraq we dramatically weakened our leverage with dealing with the Saudis.
Fact: Colin Powell, a week after he retired, heard a knock on his door and Prince Bandar (Saudi ambassador) was there to give him a key to a Jaguar parked out front, which would have been illegal while he was in office. Bandar quoted to the Washington Post: "If the reputation then builds that the Saudis take care of friends when they leave office, you'd be surprised how much better friends you have who are just coming into office." And they are.
So, I think the Saudis had the Bush adminstration on a string because there is staggering evidence of such malfeasance...another thing...
Fact: Spencer Abraham, Bush's first Secretary of Energy, gave us the false promise of hydrogen cars. And he is now a paid lobbyist or agent making six figures for the Saudi government through the United Arab Emirates.
So, I think we should have removed Saddam Hussein as a moral enterprise, but it should not have been nearly a top priority, such as dealing with the Saudis. We have strengthened them by going there, and they probably orchestrated it themselves, (this is why I think they went into Iraq and made us all paranoide..wasn't even our own country--its the Saudis who wanted to scare us because they were scared of Saddam Hussein. There's your conspiracy, sir, Hal9001, which I myself subscribe to. JOin in: it's very plausible, that's the reason why they scare us. They are riding the Saudi Arabian gravy train.) Of course, there were no WMD's, which would have been the invasion of Iraq unthinkable. Mandating all new cars sold here to be flex-fueled, as states Obama's energy policy, is the way to break the power of oil (much of the conflicts you alluded to involved oil power.)
I'm not sure Michael Savage was talking about gunfights with a crackhead, I confess, because I changed the channel after I had my laugh. What else do I do but to laugh at some of these things extreme right-wingers say? And I didn't say Obama was a crackhead in any type of code? Why so paranoid? These 9/11 scares had a purpose, which I've just outlined in some detail. The enemies are in plain sight: the Saudis. They supply the gravy on the train. Take away the gravy, and the politicians will get off the train. And stop scaring us for their own pocketbooks. Do you know why George W. Bush of all people has his own library?
Fact: Prince Bandar donated a million dollars to help build it.
Ebert: After this round, let's stay on topic.
Boulder sounds a lot like the Uptown and Dinkytown neighborhoods in Minneapolis, where cafes and coffee shops are wedged between bookstores. Two of my favorite bookstores here are Uncle Hugo's and Uncle Edgar's, and I think you can tell by their names what they specialize in. Unfortunately, that old adage that Minneapolis has two seasons, snow and construction, are all too true, and I never get to visit them as much as I'd like to.
Incidentally, has anyone here ever been to the very similar ideaCity conferences in Toronto? They're organized by Moses Znaimer, the Ted Turner of Canada, but non-Canuck film fans know him best as the lead bad guy in Louis Malle's great Atlantic City.
Hal9001,
Your alluding to Mossadeq inspired/reminded me to go rent "Persepolis." (Roger's four-star review inspired it, but you reminded me.) I always try to walk out of a debate with much more than I brought, not saying you didn't bring anything. You did.
Another great post, Roger! Clearly a more intelligent discussion on the importance of knowledge and Boulder, Colorado in the springtime. I can not understand as to why the Conference on World Affairs does not get the needed attention that other international summits, such as the World Economic Forum, do receive.
In the initial post and the 85 thus far comments and replies, it seems we have neglected, absent-mindedly, a rather noteworthy part of the Conference: the film being shown at the "Cinema Interruptus" section of the conference that you and Jim Emerson have hosted for quite some time. Sadly, due to my busy schedule, I was not able to make it to Boulder this spring. It would have been a great experience to be in that audience discussing the merits of the movie in question.
Thus, if it can be told, just what was the film involved in this year's "Cinema Interruptus?" In a related note, will there be another Great Movies essay and/or book to be published soon? It has been those essays and books over the years that has gotten me to have a greater appreciation of the craft of movies and moviemaking. I would even say that, outside of these journal posts, the Great Movies may just well be your magnum opi(?).
Thank you again, Roger, for letting me publish a comment for the second time. This is certainly on my favorites of web sites. Happy Easter and continued improvements in your health and your loved ones' health.
Regards,
Robert Kelly
rkelly83@optonline.net
Ebert: Post when you want! The film was Bahrani's "Chop Shop." Looks like there will indeed be The Great Movies III.
Let me just make one last response to Keith Carrizosa, Roger, and then we'll put Iraq behind us.
I'm glad you explained yourself, sir. Now you're making a lot of sense, certainly more than Cabbage Wacker does. The Saudis (both the royals and the Wahbist fundies) were/are major factors/players in all the intrigue that goes on in the region, though I don't believe they are at all pleased with the influence that Iran has suddenly been given because we busted up Iraq which served as their buffer state against Shia influence. Gravy is a good word to describe how the Bushies considered Iraqi oil, not the prime objective but a perquisite of power. I think they viewed nabbing that oil like taking candy from a baby. Some baby the various Iraqi factions turned out to be.
I'm cool with you, you think things through. (You'd never get that concession from anyone on Topix, so kudos also to Roger for running a thinking person's blog.)
Ebert: And that's a wrap.
Wonderful piece on the conference and on Boulder. As a visitor, I fear you see Boulder thru rose colored glasses however. Nothing wrong with that, I love MY visits too (the U. of Colorado runs a nice Shakespeare festival in the summer, btw). Plus, you get to meet wonderful people during the conferences. I would go bonkers if I had to LIVE there though: the density of yuppy, largely brainless (often bc of WAY too many drugs, legal and otherwise, but sometimes just congenitally), granola heads would drive me to thoughts of atrocities very, very quickly.
I'm not sure I can read this blog anymore; it's too full of the life abundant. Misery wants, and maybe needs, company.
Dont worry,dear Anonymous Miserable, you have everybody for company. Even Royalty maybe particularly, going by the witness of Shakespeare for one.
Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion states:"Nanak dukhiya sab sansar" or "Nanak the whole world is suffering."
The Buddha discovered that the four fundamental sufferings, namely birth, old age, sickness and death are universal. A dash of misery is nice, like tobasco and nicer still if on screen. I myself haven't fully fallen out of love with it myself.Anmd Hardy:"Happiness Was But The Occasional Episode In A General Drama Of Pain"
Hope this is not threadus interruptus.
To wallow is a luxury if one can afford.
Daisaku Ikeda:
Happiness doesn't exist on the far side of distant mountains. It is within you, yourself. Not you, however, sitting in idle passivity. It is to be found in the vibrant dynamism of your own life as you struggle to challenge and overcome one obstacle after another, as you clamber up a perilous ridge in pursuit of that which lies beyond
Joy is still in the process of invention. In some countries the Ode to Joy is sung at massive public gatherings :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIDBQ1e7j1g
I wanted to also mention, reading your blog the last few months has had me wanting to start keeping a journal of my own- this article cinched the idea. Feel good about yourself, this'll probably be really beneficial for me.
Christ! Im going on and on about Ozu in previous posts and I barely get you to mumble something about Ritchie. To find out you were sitting on this! Jesus! Thanks, I guess.
A few words of warning: this post comes completely out of nowhere, having nothing to do with the subject of this blog. Maybe it does, though. You can judge; right now, I'm just venting and riffing. This seems to me the most intelligent and appropriate venue to share.
A little over a month ago, I attended my town's film festival, the Sedona International Film Festival. The last two festival films I saw have etched themselves in my mind, and were brought into stark contrast tonight, when I watched "Observe and Report." Before I go any further, a confession: I laughed.
The last films I watched were both thought provoking, intelligent films, about going beyond knee-jerk reactions and learning to not just cope with circumstance, but actually learn and grow into more fully realized human beings. "Observe and Report" was also intelligent, but celebrated all of the aspects of humanity that the festival films evolved beyond. Sure, it celebrated that advice of Polonius, "...to thine own self be true," but that self is an off his meds, gun-and-self obsessed bipolar, who has changed (a little, a very, very little) by the end of the film. Between the beginning and the end, though, was such an outpouring of anger and loathing. This is the movie that kids are going to see, and emulate. I don't envy the tasks of the security personnel at the Winrock Mall in Albuquerque (which my step-brother and I used to ride our bikes and buses to on a regular basis, way back when) over the next few months. It did have one truly surprising moment, but that moment was one of shocking violence.
When I compare the messages of "O n' R" against these two films, one, an actor's directorial debut, a narrative film, of which will likely see something approximating a major release later this year, the other, a documentary, likely to see almost none, my internal CPU crashes. Maybe, with the new administration in the White House, messages of forgiveness and heartfelt willingness to converse - rather than condemn out of hand - will be more welcome to the commercial market. Right now, though, I am in something rapidly approaching despair. I'm sick of laughing at the misfortune of others; how I long for a mainstream film that delights in the growth of human spirit, rather than the numbing of emotion and spirit.
One of the trailers preceding "O 'n R" was for "Transformers 2," directed by the great commercial director Michael Bay. I say great, because he put together the first half dozen or so "Got Milk" commercials, which were so fantastic, that I still love them almost 15 years after they were made. As for his feature films, the best that I can say is that the cinematography and special effects are just jaw dropping. Watching the preview, laden with special effects of comets (again, Mr. Bay?) or space-missiles destroying beautiful architecture and mighty American fleets of aircraft carriers and their support ships, my heart rate actually went down. I checked. I just didn't care. Aren't I supposed to care? Isn't that rule one? I'm reminded of an old SNL skit, where John Belushi plays an eccentric European film director: "Nobody care when 'Jaws" die; nobody cry when 'Jaws' die! When my crocodile die, EVERYBODY cry!" I want to cry when 'Jaws' die. Make me care!
The narrative film I saw was "Gospel Hill," directed by Giancarlo Esposito, a very eloquent and intelligent man. It played at President Obama's inaugural party, and can be purchased on Amazon for about $19.
http://www.gospelhillfilm.com/
The documentary is called "Lord, Save Us From Your Followers: Why is the Gospel of Love Dividing America?" It sounds like some Michael Moore-style film lambasting the various churches purporting to follow the words of Christ. It is, instead, a very touching, funny, thought provoking film by a devout Christian about what it truly means to be a Christian in today's world, examining why his faith has become so reviled in this country. It has broad appeal; the director was told by a Seventh Day Adventist preacher and non-Christians (me, among others) that the film would appeal to one crowd, but not necessarily the other. Each crowd appealed to canceled out the other. Meaning, basically, that "Lord, Save Us..." actually should appeal to everyone, since it pulls no punches in finding the humor and tragedy in the life of the modern day Christian.
DVD's can be purchased from the website for the film. Also, the companion book. It really is worth a look.
http://lordsaveusthemovie.com/
http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Save-Us-Your-Followers/dp/0849919932
Why these film stuck with me, in the end, is that they are teaching tools that don't force the thoughts and objectives of the filmmakers down your throats with treacle and sappy music, but actually trusted me, the watcher, to pay attention and learn for myself. Also, it was so refreshing to see films about not taking revenge, but actually making adult decisions and choosing to live life, rather than take it. Come to think of it, "Revenche" was the first film I saw at that festival. I love a good bookend.
Ebert: The pop culture mainstream is inspiring and profiting from the brutalization of our children.
Roger, I know this has nothing to do with your blog, but I think you were dead on about Bill O'Reilly. This guy is a blow hard that was mistakenly given a microphone when it was probably better for him to stay with "Inside Edition". I think that everyone is entitled to their opinion, but when it is to undermine free speech - the very thing that, unfortunately, allows O'Reilly to keep his lips waving in the breeze - then I become flabbergasted. The first time I heard O'Reilly away from an anchor format to throwing out his rants and raves, I knew someone had made a mistake. Can we ask the producers of his show to exchange him with Deborah Norville, who seems stuck on "Inside Edition"? She is probably more interesting to listen to and a whole, helluva lot better to look at!
As a student at CU-Boulder it's always a treat come April to walk around campus and see a certain life that isn't necessarily witnessed on college campuses. Walking the pathway from Mackey to Hellems on my way to class through a sea of flags and non-student types is always a sight to behold and something I will miss come my graduation, whenever that may be. I digress. Mr. Ebert, it was a breath of fresh air to hear CU and Boulder described in terms other than "hippy pot smoking commune" as I usually do when discussing the place I have spent my life for four years. While Boulder and CU do have their drawbacks, the CWA is an exceptionally bright spot to be proud of. This year I got to experience a different side to the CWA, as my roommate is one of the volunteers you speak of in your blog. Last night (Friday) my roommates and I were graced with many of the volunteers and a few of the participants in our humble abode at no earlier than 2 am. Only at the CWA could one experience Shodekeh sitting on your couch, talking about whatever, while the editor of Time International looks at your magazine collection and politely informs you that he was the first economist to actually write for the Economist, and a split second later ask you if it's alright to smoke a cigarette in your house. Mr. Ebert thank you for your kind words on the CWA and Boulder, I hope to see you here next year.
Excellent descriptions of CWA! I have been to only few, as a student myself in the late 90's, and more recently as a homeschooling parent, bringing my children to a select few talks and concerts over the week, and going still more talks while the children get some grandpa time (thanks grandpa!).
This year my oldest son (who is only 8) had a chance to jam with Shodekeh (if anyone has video/photos/sound recording and wants permission to include Keith, this is unofficial but go for it or reach me at melinda dot carter at comcast dot net if you need a signature). He also learned that his mom understands a lot more about "big" science than he had previously thought. We talked about cooperation as a family after I'd sat in on a discussion on the US and the UN. I picked up my husband, a born Louisianian, from his N Boulder office and brought him to a duet by Lillian Boutte and Henry Butler. More moving to me, though, is how approachable everyone is over the week. I have had both Lillian Boutte's and Shodekeh's arms around me in hugs. I have waved at Kiki Sanford and had her bright infectious smile in return.
CWA rocks, and I hope to get involved this fall - perhaps next year I can be to blame when someone asks "who invited you back??
Ebert: I was on a panel with Henry Butler, who said that since he had been born blind, he had no awareness of missing anything. What he missed, he said, was his house destroyed by Katrina. He spoke of his photographs. "I can't see them," he said, "but when I show one photo to 10 people, I get 11 descriptions." I wanted to ask him, but didn't get the chance, "What does 'seeing' mean to you?"
I really miss Studs Terkel and Molly Ivins.
I'm not sure I can read this blog anymore; it's too full of the life abundant. Misery wants, and maybe needs, company
More bad news to cheer you up. Happiness is contagious by more than 34 percent, says Harvard Medical School. I quote:
Clusters of happy and unhappy people are visible in the network, and the relationship between people’s happiness extends up to three degrees of separation (for example, to the friends of one’s friends’ friends). People who are surrounded by many happy people and those who are central in the network are more likely to become happy in the future
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/337/dec04_2/a2338
Ebert: I wonder if that theory applies to the internet. Maybe that explains why so few fanboys hang out here. They always seem mad at each other.
If I were there I'd be going around asking people what kind of ideas they have for movies if they would make one and see where that goes. That always gets something cooking.
Ebert: I wonder if that theory applies to the internet. Maybe that explains why so few fanboys hang out here. They always seem mad at each other.
Punching keys is easier than punching. And free.
I gotta agree with HAL here, Roger. BillO is nothing but a circus sideshow for the resentful and marginalized; Krauthammer, for some unfathomable reason given his remarkable streak of being wrong, in fact and in principle, on so many things, has achieved some sort of Beltway credibility. The last thing he is is a true conservative; the policies and actions espoused by his ilk would be considered nothing short of radical to, let's say, an Eisenhower-era conservative. They are far to the right even of Nixon, and they must have, figuratively if not literally, stakes driven their blood-sucking vampire's hearts.
Two of my very favorites: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackknife_juggernaut/2020098049/sizes/o/. Look on the left sleeve and the fifth signature down from the Literacy Chicago logo. (You might also recognize the one two below Studs'.)
CWA is definitely fun. I was too preoccupied this year to attend in person, although I'm doing some catching up via webcasts (you'll find them at the CWA web site http://www.colorado.edu/cwa).
As for attention from the outside world, please, no. CWA benefits from benign neglect. I'd hate to see the glitterati and paparazzi show up and spoil this nice little gathering.
Cheers!
I can't imagine why i missed this, i live only an hour north of boulder. next year look for me.
Ebert wrote: "I have mostly the watercolor landscape sketches. He intended them as notes on possible oils, which he rarely actually painted. I love his faint little pencil notes to himself: "greeny," "shrimps," 'hazy."
Ooo, envious stare! I saw works akin those at the Tate Gallery! Lear sketches with notes etc. It was nice to see the ties that bind us, as Artists; for we all do that, either in the body of the sketch or off to the side.
Note: sometimes, when I accept a commission without any pleasure to be had in the doing of it, for there is none, it's just about paying bills, I sometimes amuse myself by adding a small note to the work via covert "under" painting. A message which will never be seen by a living soul; not unless you x-ray the canvas. :)
Is that wrong of me? 'Cause I sure hope so.
Have you ever read "Victorian Trickster: A Jungian Consideration of Edward Lear's Nonsense Verse" by Clifton Snider - a Literary Critic and Lecturer at California State University? I thought it was really interesting and I learned tons of stuff. Here it is, if you're curious:
http://www.csulb.edu/~csnider/edward.lear.html
Ironically, I found it a while ago while searching for stuff about Charlotte Brontë! Snider also wrote an piece titled "The Imp of Satan: The Vampire Archetype in Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre" and it came up in a Brontë Google search! Bronte and Vampire types?! Well gee, that sounds totally boring and of absolutely no interest to me. :)
Side note: I found his text easier to read than most and thus a pleasure to. He's actually trying to communicate something as opposed to "impressing you" with it - unlike those who enjoy wanking to Academic Film Theory (types begging to parodied by Woody Allen and made to watch the film repeatedly.)
Ebert: I wonder if that theory applies to the internet. Maybe that explains why so few fanboys hang out here. They always seem mad at each other.
I don't think it owes to happier people inside the Blog, so much as to what you won't enable; the dragging down of it by those at their worst.
Which isn't to say that you don't enjoy the odd "skirmish" now and again. I've seen you playfully encourage one to start in a Science or Religious related thread; smile. Your mind perhaps restless and thus hungry for a bit of sport - but that's all and no harm done; at least from where I've stood and for viewing it as just evidence that you're missing Gene and in the mood to enjoy what you both often did; the trust and parry of quick wit and points well scored. And whenever tempted to enjoy it too much, there's always some kind soul in the Blog who'll tap you nicely on the shoulder, "Now, now Roger." (Yup; I saw that!)
Fanboys on the other hand, albeit depending upon the variety, get their fun in the spilling of blood and the more of it yours, the better. For once down and defeated they can stand upon the corpse and admire the imagined inches they've added to themselves. And to date, you've never allowed THAT to roam free inside the Blog. I've seen you let a fool hang himself so as to spare you the effort but once done, so is he. Otherwise, any truly malevolent forces of E.V.I.L on a self-serving mission to overthrow the universe with their relentless negativity seeking to gain a foothold inside this sector of the quadrant, are immediately repelled and shown a black hole. :)
Which is where I'd like to toss "Observe and Report".
No, I haven't seen the film; just the R-rated trailer for it which includes a borderline date-rape scene with the girl in question barely conscious for having drunk way too much and covered in her own vomit. Sigh. I don't "really" need to see this jettisoned into space, I can share the planet, but... gee. It's depressing how easy it is to get funding for a film these days about nothing and conversely how hard others have to fight when they actually do have a vision.
Either that, or it's brilliant and I'm judging it unfairly. But I don't care. Money may be printed on paper but it doesn't grow on trees. I'm going to spend my dollars on "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" instead. A tale of unyielding dedication and enduring friendships and the triumph of the human spirit! And they're Canadians! Rock on, dudes and follow that dream. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umAxeO-QfmY
So there really is a conspiracy. You lucky bastards.
It has been one of the great joys of my life to have been a participant at the conference for the past five years. I wish ALL of the panels could be recorded for the web, but you can watch nearly 70 previous year's panels at http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Conference+on+World+Affairs&hl=en&emb=1&aq=f#q=Conference+on+World+Affairs+Boulder&hl=en&emb=1
My own lecture on the Mexican drug war "Year of the Dead" is available here: http://vimeo.com/4072325.
It was lovely too see you back this year, Roger, and a delight to meet Chaz!!!!
Ebert: It was so nice to have that chat with you! What a terrific year.
Ebert: And that person was...?
Hi, Roger. I believe he's referring to me (Jason, but I post under the handle haggie). I got a chance to chat with Jim but I didn't have the opportunity to meet you as you had a long line of admirers waiting to speak with you. You might remember me as the guy who stopped the film to mention the relative stillness/smoothness in the camerawork in the US Open and shoe store scenes compared to the rest of the film (our version of the US vs his). Or as the guy who posted to your blog about his dad's Studebaker graveyard. Next year, I'll have to get in that line of admirers rather than just being a voice in the crowd!
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you (and Jim! And Ramin!) for making the trip out to Boulder to present Chop Shop. What a fantastic event!
Ebert: I remember that graveyard. Didn't some of the drivers insist on being buried with their Hawks?
Roger,
My all-time favorite joke I’ve heard just once, more than twenty years ago. It’s ultra vulgar, so I shall use ***s:
A teacher is using an exercise designed to help her first grade class learn the alphabet. She calls for a word that starts with ‘A’.
Dirty Ernie shoots his hand up immediately. The teacher, knowing Ernie, is confident his response will be ‘ass’, so she calls on Jenny. “Apple”, says Jenny.
“Good, Jenny. Now ‘B’.
Ernie is waving his arm. The teacher thinks to herself, ‘he’s going to say ‘b*tch’ or ‘b*stard’. She calls on Martin. “Balloon”, says Martin.
“Very good! How about the letter ‘C’?
Dirty Ernie is now standing, waving both of his arms. The teacher thinks, ‘he’s going to say c*ck or c*nt’. She calls on Amy. “Cake”, says Amy.
The teacher runs through the letters of the alphabet, continually avoiding calling on Ernie. She gets to the letter ‘R’ and Ernie is standing on his chair begging to be called upon. The teacher, try as she might, cannot think of a single vulgarity that starts with R, so she says, with confidence, “OK Ernie, it’s your turn.”
Ernie immediately shouts out, ‘Rats!’. He pauses. The teacher smiles. Then, “Big M***erF***er’s!!”
Ebert: **** **** ****** *****.
Having read the piece, it brought to mind an anecdote about my interpretation of a particular scene in Neil Jordan's The Crying Game (BEWARE: spoiler): I saw Jody's death by APC as symbolic of Britain's ultimately self-destructive policy of intervention in Northern Ireland. When I met Mr. Jordan, I asked him if that had been his intent. He looked at me ruminatively, and said, in that wee brogue of his, "No, but..."
There are so many great memories from the CWA, but among my favorites was laughing, hard, at the nearly invisible inside joke by the Cohen brothers in Fargo and revealed at Interruptus. They had placed photos of you, Gene and other critics on the wall of Employees of the Month. STOP! I will never watch a movie the same again. It's great to look for the subtle framing, notice the rich detail and feel how a camera angle communicates as much as any dialogue and "get it." Thanks, Roger, for your generous contribution of time over the years.
Ebert: That came with a nice plaque and a $10 gift certificate at Denny's.
Dear Roger,
Thank you so much for coming to the Conference this year. It was wonderful to have both you and Chaz in Boulder and I really value both of your insights about life, love and film. I only wish that I could have worked up the courage to talk to you at one of the parties (despite the very personal interactions one is able to have at the Conference, I still found it much to hard to talk to talk with someone whose intellect I've admired for so long!). I wish you both the best year and maybe at CWA 2010 I'll work up the nerve to say 'Hi'.
Ebert: You know, I really like your blog's name.
I have no excuses, and no holds to bar me. I will see you in Boulder, CO next April. This is a promise Roger.
Stirring, informative, heartwarming, as ever. Thanks.
Your "140 words or less" remark was, I take it, a veiled barb at Twitter. If so, the situation is far more dire than you portray it, Roger: all you get is 140 *characters* (or fewer). That we're no longer measuring in words is what alarms me, not the arbitrarily chosen number. You might have seen the clever video parody Slate made about the latter. It was a joke, but my intuition tells me we haven't seen the worst.
Yours Truly,
@marvindanielson
This is off topic, but I thought I'd mention it to you.
A few weeks ago I decided to take on "La Belle Noiseuse" just so I could finally see a Jacques Rivette movie - as a good number of them aren't on DVD in America. While watching it I was fascinated by Rivettes willingness to depict some things in real time. Especially in shots that would hold four or five minuets on a canvas or sketchbook. Even still I found the movie a bit tedious. I'd be curious to hear what a painter would say about this film. (Just as I'm excited to attend a screening of "12 Angry Men" at the Music Box this weekend with a discussion moderated by top Chicago judges and lawyers.)
In a way though I can see it as a great movie. It just might fall into the rare category of being a great movie that I never want to see again. I might feel the same way about Barbet Schroeder's "Maitresse".
Roger,
I've never commented on your site prior to this but I've been sitting here thinking about the arc of my own life, and what my own touchstones might be. You, Roger, have certainly been one of them for about as far back as I (care to) can remember.
Having grown up in the Chicago suburbs in the 60's, 70's, 80's and half way through the '90's (still growing up?) the tastes, sights and sounds of my life included the likes of yourself, Mike Royko (damn your entry on Mike was wonderful!), Larry LuJack, Steve Dahl, Garry Meier, Gene Siskel, (you and Gene on the Steve & Garry show was always beyond funny. I would love to have audio of those shows!), the Cubs, The Bears, amazing (really amazing) food, awe-inspiring buildings, WXRT (and all the incredible music they introduced to a couple of generations of mid-westerners), The Sun-times, The Tribune, The Chicago American, The Chicago Daily News, WGN, Jack Brickhouse (HEY, HEY!), Harry Carey (Holy Cow!)Ray Raynor, Bozo (we had the REAL one!), The El, the Art Institute, Wrigley, Soldier Field, ChicagoFest, Jane Byrne, Harold Washington, Bobby Rush, the Aldermen, the neighborhoods, the live theater scene, the Fine Arts (where, in my early twenties I saw you at a showing of The Dresser, said hello and you said hi back!), North Avenue Beach, Montrose Rocks, Hyde Park (where my two great aunts Flossie and Elsie lived together, in about a four-block radius, for over 95 years!), Marshall Field's, State Street at Christmas, my first apartment on the corner of Broadway and Waveland (when the wind was blowing out I could hear the organ music from Wrigley), Lincoln Park, the people, the food...did I mention the FOOD?!
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that you've been an important part of the lives of so many people, myself included. I thank you for adding to the fabric of life in the city I miss so very much.
Ebert: I miss a lot of what you mention also. Marshall Field's is now Macy's? I refuse to enter the doors. If Macy's in New York had become Marshall Field's, there would have been dancing in the streets.
The CWA must be the best-kept secret in the Denver-Boulder area. I've lived in the north Denver area for two decades, been an Ebert follower for three decades (since you started on PBS with Gene), but never heard of this conference until a friend told me about it (and your appearances there) just before this year's conference. I was only able to go to one session of Cinema Interruptus, but it was fascinating. I was there on Wednesday, and only waited a few minutes after the session to get to tell you how much I appreciated your work all these years. I've seen so many "small" movies over the years like "My Dinner with Andre" that I never would have bothered to seek out had it not been for the great recommendations of you and your co-hosts. Here's to many more years of writing and reviewing, and I hope to see you in Boulder next year.
My girlfriend is a devoted attendee at the conference. I wanted to go with her this year, but it happened to fall on the first week of a new semester of school, so there was no way I could make it. Thanks, Roger, for autographing my (and your) book and getting Andrea to actually listen to a film lecture for once in her life!
I read this blog entry when it was first published, and have now come back and read all the comments. I was quite involved with the CWA for awhile, heading up the sports, business, and tech series. Then my time availability changed and I haven't been able to go.
It's truly a treasure for Boulder. It's free and open to the public, which is pretty much unheard of for conferences of this quality. And the audiences are part of the charm. They are smart and curious and contribute to the discussion with their comments and questions. Since the conference has a rule that locals aren't invited to be panelists (the goal is to bring in people from other places), there is a lot of local talent that participates from the floor. Boulder is an international city in terms of the quality of its thinkers and entrepreneurs, so what you find among the locals is very high caliber.
As for Boulder, there is more diversity than most realize. There are lots of people from other countries connected to the University, to various research labs, or working for tech companies. Plus significant communities of people from Mexico, Tibet, and Nepal.
Because Boulder is geared for students, there is a lot of multi-family housing, so it isn't as expensive to live here as people imagine. You may not have a three-bedroom house, but if you are willing to live close in and in a smaller space, you can live within walking distance of shopping, libraries, public transportation, bike paths, etc. Everyone in my neighborhood gets around by walking and riding a bike.
People who don't see diversity in Boulder aren't looking. Go to Target and listen. I can guarantee that you will hear a variety of languages being spoken by the people shopping there.
Ebert: I miss a lot of what you mention also. Marshall Field's is now Macy's? I refuse to enter the doors. If Macy's in New York had become Marshall Field's, there would have been dancing in the streets.
My parents met as Christmas help at Marshall Field's in the mid-50's. It became a quazi-family tradition to have lunch at the Oak Room (remember that crazy-big sandwich with the thousand island dressing???) at least once during the season. My brother, sisters and myself would be in awe of that huge tree in the middle of the room. Then we go down to look at all of the fantastic window displays along State Street. My great-Aunts Flossie and Elsie would meet Rose Crown for lunches at Field's once a month up until into their 90's. Those memories literally bring tears to my eyes.
I remember when they tried to switch from the green bag to a brown bag...oh the uproar! And rightly so. And now it's a Macy's. Horrible. Where oh where can you get a good Frango Mint any longer?
And don't get me started on Fannie Mae Candies!
Thanks again Roger.
Wonderful writeup on the event, Roger! I'm always trying, failing, to describe CWA to people when they ask me why I've been disappearing to Boulder for a week over the last 3 years. So now I'm going to forward this to them. Thanks!
And after missing you my first two years, I am so glad that you finally made it back to CWA and that I finally got to meet you!
(And OMG, did Roger Ebert really just reference me in HIS blog???) :D:D:D
with best regards til we meet again,
-the fire dancing aerospace engineer
Ebert: To say I had heard a lot about you would be putting it mildly!
Thank you Roger for the most touching memoir of the event. I hope to have the honor of taking part in in some day. Thank you again
Seeing Clifford Stoll's picture brought back memories of his fascinating book from the 80's, The Cuckoo's Egg. I wondered whatever happened to that guy, and what he might have had to say at the conference in Boulder. I found this video of a talk he gave in 2006
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/clifford_stoll_on_everything.html
, and I just sat there with my mouth open at what a fascinating genius he is.
Roger -
Thanks so much for sharing your prospective from many years of attending the conference. I have been going to the conference every year since 2002, and look forward to it every year. You have encapsulated well the lively debates and discussion that bring my mom and I back every year. I feel grateful to live a in Boulder, both for it's general uniqueness and for this amazing annual event.
Roger, a great write-up (I also mourn the passing of Tom and his Tavern) and, I notice, a mention of my mother in dispatches, excellent! She will be thrilled.
I just wanted to say that the 'See no evil...' plenary was one of the most moving and inspiring things I have witnessed at CWA.
This year has probably been my personal favourite so far.
Also, I think it is interesting to note how many Coloradoans, indeed, Boulder natives, have commented here that they have not heard of or had a chance to attend the conference and I wholeheartedly hope that 2010 will see a lot of new audience members.
I have never had much of a chance to interact with you at any of the evening events, but I do want to thank you for the kindness which you showed to my mother and I three years ago in Denver, it was and is still very much appreciated.
Clare.
Ebert: At least we had a hug on the Sunday night.
I am basically immobilized, recovering from the latest well-deserved beating to this ageing frame. My wife M-J, a lady of superior taste and unfailing kindness, moments ago led me to Roger’s terrific blog, where one may read Eric Isaacson’s amusing mini-racontage of how things used to be long ago….
The Conference on World Affairs is a wonderful levelling device: the great, the grand, the grim and the nauseatingly brilliant come together for cafeteria food and a healthy co-mingling with local potentates and those who serve them in an atmosphere of proto-freedom and dazzling hypocrisy mixed with genuine understanding and honest debate—damnit if it isn’t addictive!
My memories of CWA include a fond friendship with Joaquin Muñoz, a young, intelligent, civilized participant from Tucson, Arizona, and the true pleasure of fighting hard ‘til dawn with Howard Higman about the value of human life in a world gone mad; and the joy of singing show tunes late into the night at Howie’s pad with the splendid and profoundly decent Roger Ebert, whose encyclopedic knowledge of the best lyrics is enough to shame a lesser man (yup)—and of nearly losing my mind at the very end, when the stench of divisive and moronic low-grade “feminism” poisoned my last panel to the extent that I went postal and stormed out of the conference, after spewing a blue streak of very naughty words.
But I have always loved this wonderful event, and even now treasure my memories of that great American Howard Higman, a man of towering moods and of abiding integrity, even in the fog of debilitation which his failing body visited cruelly upon him during the last years of his remarkable life. Charles de Gaulle appealed to the French people by stating that he must be elected to the presidency of the republic, “Pour que Vive la France!” This was a clever and profound double-entendre that first played on the slogan Vive la France! (Hail France!); while also suggesting strongly that France might actually live again if he were elected. The noble, combative spirit of Howard Higman, founder in 1948 of the Conference on World Affairs, thankfully lives in Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.
Toujours Fidèle
Jean-Jacques de Mesterton
P.S. I respect and admire Roger Ebert and would stand up for him any time, anywhere (as soon as I can stand again properly, that is…). Linked, please find a recent picture of M-J and me on the stairs which lead to the roof of her painting studio.
Ebert: Jean-Jacques! I miss you! One of a kind. I will never forget your definition of what your job ("facilitator") entailed. You should contribute again to this blog. I would be fascinated.
Didn't you once get into a fencing duel with Howard?
I miss you, too! But at least I can read your excellent analyses, while a creature like me exists in a kind of parallel universe.... Please know that I was impressed with your warrior spirit as you sought to defeat illness--you are an absolute prince of a fellow, Roger.
Howie's big mouth was at the root of the exchange to which you refer; and I am compelled to admit that what he lacked in finesse he more than made up for in sheer aggressiveness: there were five swift passes in our "duel", the last of which yielded a friendly but firm tap from my rosewood cane to his backside. When the contest was over, he abused me terribly with the scathing and belittling language that was so often his bread and butter, but I swear by my wife M-J's ample breasts that we sealed our lifelong friendship on that angry morning.
Bless your good heart; and please convey my compliments to your charming, elegant wife, Chaz.
Toujours Fidèle
Jean-Jacques
Ebert: A splendid creature like you? By coincidence, parallel universes are one of the preoccupations of the comments on my current blog entry:
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/04/how_i_believe_in_g.html
Brilliant treatise! Funnily enough, my own beliefs closely echo yours...; and I grew up first with the nuns then with the Jesuits, whose rigour bred in me a discipline of thought which has made life very rough, indeed. But you needn't concern yourself with abstraction, because your orderly, analytical yet expansive mind seamlessly merges with a profound humanity which is always in evidence: in your writing, in the way you give odd-balls a chance, in the broadness of your acceptance of persons and ideas that are outside the common range of progressive thought--you are the best sort of generous, elegant gent, a man of courage, conviction and heart.
Toujours Fidèle
Jean-Jacques
The Conference sounds like a little slice of heaven.
On a side note, Nestor Torres cost me a date once. I went to see him perform once with a couple of friends and this girl I liked. Had to wear a suit and everything. I figured I'd ignore the music and focused on her. But Torres turned out to be good. Really good. At one point the girl told me she was cold, I agreed and we kept enjoying the music. After we dropped her off, the other couple scorned me.
Suffice it to say, from then on I made it my lifelong mission never to deny my jacket, sweater or coat to the woman with whom I'm out. Lesson learned, Nestor.
Ebert: Nestor Torres is beyond great. And he loves playing so much. And he is so warm.
The Conference is like the rest of the best of Boulder, good-natured even when it's pretentious, casual and intelligent, optimistic even when it's affecting Continental despair, wanting to be friendly even while trying to sneer at opposing opinions. It's lovely and bracing and exasperating and takes itself way too seriously some of the time. I've lived in Boulder almost fifty years and most days still feel lucky to be here.
As for "hippies", they haven't been able to afford to live here for over a generation. Peter Jennings wrote about Boulder in In Search of America, covering a high school production of Hair where the kids, who could understand Showboat and Sondheim without subtitles, needed every aspect of the plot explained to them--their now-prosperous, highly-educated, mainstream parents had lived it but had not passed on any of that era to them.
Stephen King set The Stand here, the place where the good people gathered. The bad people went to Las Vegas, along with the engineers who liked to see things get done rather than discussed to death as in Boulder. That's us. Nobody knows how to mend a fuse, but a metaphysical, or Einsteinian, lecture on light will gather a crowd.
I hope the Conference keeps going, stays openminded and quirky and enlightening and fun. Boulder's changes aren't all good, Western Victorian becoming clunky moderne, friendly cafes vanishing, the climate heating up and drying out, the bridge from The Glenn Miller Story losing its arbor of trees to disease, housing prices still inflating beyond the average reach in defiance of the economy, Ward Churchill coming back to roost. It's still a place to walk and talk and breathe the air and get excited by ideas, and CWA is at the heart of that. Thank you for celebrating it, Mr. Ebert.
Ebert: If this downturn leaves us nothing else, I hope it drives franchise operations to close shop and free their real estate into the hands of real people.
For me, Boulder will always be the Boulder I knew growing up in the 1970's. You brought a little bit of that Boulder back to me after reading your article on the World Affairs Conference and I don't know whether to thank you or curse you.
It was an absolutely amazing place and time to be a child. I often wonder, as I get older, if the beauty of Boulder I still have in my head isn't merely the beauty of childhood that everyone has in their respective heads. So many places gone, Tom's and the Stagehouse II hurt especially. I know it is the lament of age, but I can't imagine the Boulder youth of today mourning the loss of the Baby Gap (or whatever icky thing) that sits on the corner of Broadway and Spruce, formerly home to the beloved Aristocrat steakhouse.
Life goes on. My folks still live there and I too make a pilgrimage back home, once a year, in summer to experience the unparalleled "Boulder Summer."
Here's to frisbee tag in the 9th street cemetery, at dusk, in august with KPKE playing album sides all weekend long!
Roger,
Just the "kid who's founded his own talk show for the sole purpose of putting more long-form, in-depth conversation (as opposed to the standard-issue 'interview') in the world" who commented above coming back to comment again, because I now actually have interviewed Ramin Bahrani, as I said your post about him made me want to. If you're interested, it's downloadable on the show's web site [ http://www.colinmarshallradio.com/marketplace/ ] or on iTunes [ http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=266539442 ].
Again, thank you so much for informing me and much of the filmgoing world about Bahrani and his spectacular (though without spectacle) films. It was a joy to spend the hour talking with him.
Best,
Colin