November 22, 2006

• WEDNESDAY MOVIE

  The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
  
  
  It’s been so long since I posted on a movie that I’ve actually seen
  several I really liked.  The Departed has got to finally win
  Scorsese an Oscar this year – knockout cast (Pacino, DiCaprio, Damon,
  Wahlberg, and on and on), genius plot twists, breathless pacing. 
  On DVD, I saw The Proposition, an Australian film starring the
  hawk-faced Guy Pierce as an outlaw forced to assassinate his older
  brother in order to save his younger brother from execution – all this
  in the outback of the late 19th century.  Character actor Ray
  Winstone (getting lots of work lately) shows up in both films. 
  The Proposition surprised me.  Again, the action was
  lickety-split, the running out of the plot line riveting.  So if
  you can take the R-rating for violence in both of them, they’re top of
  their genre.  But turning to something completely different is The
  Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, the true story of Mark Bittner,
  homeless former street musician in San Francisco, and his relationship
  with a flock of wild green-and-red parrots.  The filmmaker asks
  him during the film why he doesn’t work or pay rent or cut his hair,
  etc.  And you learn that this isn’t a shiftless bum or a drug
  addict or a mentally ill person,  but a thoughtful, gentle,
  compassionate, stubbornly individualistic and searching, big old
  sweetheart.  Happening upon free rent in a cottage on this famous
  landmark hill in SF, he begins to make friends with the parrots who
  live there and to feed them and care for them.  He becomes a kind
  of landmark himself, publicized eventually in the media, and we learn
  how he painstakingly gathers information about these elusive birds and
  how they live and relate to each other.  It’s a family movie for
  sure (and I watched it with my daughter and grandchildren), role
  modeling that there are many paths to fulfillment and they are not all
  corporate.  It’s beautiful to watch and has a lovely ending even
  though there are some sadnesses and losses, like we must all expect in
  life.  The perfect holiday film.  You can read more about
  Mark Bittner and his current projects here.
  And Happy Thanksgiving!  May it be just how you want it to be.
  

  ---

  Deep Thought: 
  “One Thanksgiving my parents did something I don’t know if I can ever
  forgive them for. We were eating our turkey dinner when suddenly I
  realized I hadn’t seen my pet turkey all day. “Where’s Mister Gobble?”
  I asked. Dad seemed confused. “Mister Gobble?” “Yes,” I said. “My
  turkey. The one I picked out at the supermarket, and then after he
  thawed out I made him do a funny little turkey dance. Mister Gobble.”
  Dad’s silence said it all. We were eating Mister Gobble! I ran crying
  from the table and locked myself in my room. Later, Dad knocked on the
  door and said he had some dessert for me. When I opened the door, I
  couldn’t believe it. It was a slice of Pumpkie, my pet pie!”
  Today I am grateful for:  Somewhere to go tomorrow and be thankful.
  Guess the Movie:  “You lay life on a table and cut out all the tumors of injustice. Marvelous.”  Answer:  Doctor Zhivago, 1965.
  
  Iraqi deaths hit new high, many emigrate
  
  Wed Nov 22, 2006 6:25 PM GMT20
  
  By Claudia Parsons
  BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi deaths hit a new high in October and 100,000
  people are fleeing abroad every month to escape worsening violence that
  is segregating the country on sectarian lines, a U.N. report said on
  Wednesday.   (Rest of article here.)

  • 4:04 pm
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