Category
Life
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Life, Movies
The End of the West, The End of the Western
This past weekend I watched a really good movie called Ride The High Country. An old lawman and gunfighter takes a job protecting a shipment of gold. As he arrives in town he meets an old friend, and asks him if he wants a job helping out. So they, and the friend’s young partner, head off to the remote mining camp to pick up the gold.
Two old cowboy actors, Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott, star as the two old cowboys, and the movie is really about getting old. Are you the same man you used to be if you can’t do the things you once did? It’s an old-fashioned Western, with just enough melodrama and just enough gunplay, but it got me thinking about another Western – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
That movie debuted just seven years after Ride, and despite the huge differences in style and perspective, they do have some similarities. Both have a sort of sad, elegiac tone. In Ride it’s because these two old men have reached the end of their line. In Butch Cassidy it’s because the new West has no place for outlaws. They will be driven out, hunted to extinction.
I had to wonder, watching these two movies only a month or six weeks apart, if a little of the lament in Butch Cassidy wasn’t for the kind of people who watch the old Westerns. Society was changing, and fast, and even sophisticated cowboy flicks such as Shane semed simple-minded in the world of M*A*S*H.
It’s not too surprising, I guess. Into the middle decades of the 20th century there were lots of people in this country who lived in ways not too different from the cowboys they watched on the screen, and not too different from others throughout the world. But just since 1970 or so, many of the old certanties of life have changed. (Many for the better, let’s not forget.) Out with the old, in with the new.
Now I don’t believe that America ever really loses its innocence – each generation, and each person, loses that on their own – but I do wish we were still a country that could go see a movie about heroes on horseback wearing white hats, and the black-hatted baddies who were bound to lose in the end.
Well, there’s still Rango. That’s something.
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Celebrities, Life
Christopher Hitchens
I’ve always thought Christopher Hitchens is a bit of a blowhard. Probably that comes from his writing style. He’s not there to analyse or inform. He’s a polemicist, and he’s there to heap abuse on whoever has aroused his ire. And in his unbound fury he can be funny and entertaining.
I do, however, have a great deal of respect for him. This is they guy who let himself be waterboarded so he could make his own determination of whether in constitutes torture. On a trip to Lebanon he saw a street sign bearing the symbol of the Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party, which bears a resemblence to the Nazi swastika, and wrote on it “No, no, Fuck the SSNP”. For this he very nearly got his ass kicked.
So I’m not a huge fan of his writing, but when it comes to his beliefs he’s willing to put his money where his mouth is, and I respect that.
He recently published a memoir entitled Hitch 22, but on the eve of his book tour he was forced to cancel it, because he’d been diagnosed with esophagal cancer. This is considered a very dangerous form of cancer, because it’s usually no discovered until it’s had time to spread, and in fact it looks as though his lymph nodes are now also affected.
Hitchens is also an athiest, and in fact an opponent of organized religion. Despite this fact, when he announced he was ill there was an outpouring of sympathy, including many who said they’d keep him in their prayers. Some of the athiest community, who can frankly be as dogmatic as the most zealous believer, were offended by this.
I suspected Hitchens himself, who after all is suffering a life-threatening disease, would not turn away the kind wishes even from his political adversaries. And I was right.
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Life
Funeral For A Friend
Last weekend the husband of a good friend of mine died in a whitewater rafting accident. In about half an hour I’ll be heading out to the funeral.
I learned long ago that there’s nothing you can say in times like these – showing up, showing you care, that’s all you can do. But this has got to be hard to face. Losing the person you planned on spending the rest of your life with, and in such a tragic way… I don’t know what I’d do in similar circumstances.
I know this is old advice, but be sure to kiss your loved ones today, and let them know how important they are to you. Because you never know.
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Life, Self Pity
Wildfires in Weatherford
High winds blew through the area yesterday, sparking a number of wildfires west of Fort Worth. One of them was in Benbrook, only about ten miles from my house. In fact, I can see Lake Benbrook from the end of the main street past my development.
About 20 houses have been reported destroyed so far, including the house of writer James Reasoner, which burned to the ground. He and his family are OK, but they only got out with the clothes on their backs. All his books, comics, everything was destroyed.
I guess I’ll quit complaining about the fence that blew down in my backyard.
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Football, Life
The Best Sports Story Of The Year
“And I remember I wanted to be strong for my family. I didn’t want them to see me sad or crying.”
A prediction: During the Buffalo Bills’ first home game next year, Kevin Everett will run out onto the field – not roll out in a wheelchair, or even walk – and he will call the coin when the referee flips it. And the crowd will go wild.
According to the article Everett will probably go into coaching, and my guess is he’ll be a good one.
As for the Bills, they’re making a serious push for the playoffs. I hope they make it but the odds are against them, with Jacksonville and Pittsburg currently holding down the AFC wild card spots.
Correction: The Steelers are leading their division, it’s Jacksonville and Cleveland who are the current wild-card holders. And Buffalo plays Cleveland this weekend, with the winner having the inside track for the sixth and final playoff spot.
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