Black Mass

THC finds Johnny Depp annoying in his silly and mannered roles like Pirates of the Caribbean and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but quite good in more serious work such as Donnie Brasco.  Black Mass falls in the latter category.  The story of the rise and fall of Boston mobster Whitey Bulger, whose brother was the most powerful politician in Massachusetts from the mid-1970s through 1990s, along with the rise and fall of those in the Boston office of the FBI who hitched their stars to Whitey's supposed value as an informant and who ended up as his enablers and protectors.

A mutant version of the Bulger story appeared in Martin Scorsese's film The Departed but because that movie was primarily based on the excellent Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs it often "departed" from Bulger story and Jack Nicholson's operatic performance was not based on Whitey (for more read I'm Shipping Up To Boston).

In contrast Black Mass is a straightforward telling of the story from Whitey's rise in the 1970s until he evaded arrest and fled Boston in 1994 remaining as a fugitive for sixteen years.   For those of us familiar with the Whitey canon of crime it is accurate with the challenge for the film makers being choosing what to include and leave out from the astonishing story in order to fit the confines of a two hour film.

Black Mass is a grim and well-done film that doesn't spare showing us the ugliness of Bulger's world nor the appalling actions of the FBI.   The performances are uniformly outstanding.  As dedicated THC reader LDC (aka The Other Larry) pointed out when we saw the movie there is a big contrast between Depp and the other actors.  Depp's Whitey Bulger is The Devil.  Wearing contacts and heavily made up he seems like a creature from another planet, smarter, more manipulative and intimidating than anyone else which you can confirm by watching the movie trailer which features perhaps the most chilling scene in the movie, a dinner party with Bulger, his partner Stephen Flemmi and two FBI agents.

Depp's portrayal reminds THC of a scene from near the end of Breaking Bad in which two DEA agents are trying to persuade Walter White's young accomplice Jesse Pinkham to cooperate with them in return for which they promise protection.  Jesse tells them:

"You guys are just guys, okay?  Mr White, he's the devil.  You know, he is . . . he is smarter than you, he is luckier than you.  Whatever you think is supposed to happen, I'm telling you, the exact, reverse opposite of that is going to happen." 

The eeriness of Depp's portrayal is reinforced by the naturalistic acting of the rest of the cast.  Joel Edgerton, an Australian actor, plays John Connolly, the FBI agent who recruits Whitey as an informant and ends up an accomplice to murder (he's currently serving a 40-year sentence for second-degree murder).  Connolly was a childhood friend of Bulger and Edgerton looks and sounds like a guy from South Boston (and by the way, another thing THC liked about the movie was that no one overdid the Boston accent).  Benedict Cumberbatch, the English actor currently playing Sherlock Holmes, plays Whitey's brother, Billy, who at the time was the President of the Massachusetts Senate.  Cumberbatch looks nothing like Billy but THC can attest, having been in a couple of small meetings with Senator Bulger in the 1980s that he has captured his mannerisms quite well.

The movie was filmed in and around Boston and though the city looks much different from the 70s and 80s it does a good job of capturing the feel of that time and place.

The film rates a definite thumbs up from THC.

Stanserhorn

From the Stanserhorn, a 6,000 foot mountain in the Swiss Alps.  Idyllic, isn't it?  (From Twisted Sifter).  It reminds THC of hiking 20 years ago in Grindelwald underneath the Eiger (below).

Good News On Electoral Reform!

A recent SFGate news article alerts us to some welcome progress on ensuring we get the election results Progressives deserve.  This is the first success of the Administration's pilot program first announced right after the 2014 election and which THC broke as a nationwide story.  As a reminder:

November 5, 2014
Associated Press  - Surrounded by Democratic party leaders and an inclusive and diverse coalition of leading political activists, President Barack Obama today announced a bold new initiative to "get big money out of politics".  The President declared "Let me be clear, it's time to end the corrupt influence of special interests in our electoral system and it's time for the people's will to prevail".

Under the White House proposal it would name a special commission of the most highly regarded political science professors from Harvard and Yale, assisted by volunteers from Google and Facebook, to develop an algorithm based upon a voter's ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation and class characteristics designed to ascertain how each voter should vote.  Once this is determined votes would be cast electronically on behalf of each voter, based upon how they really would have wanted to vote as determined by the expert-developed algorithm.  The President went on to say that such a system would eliminate the need for campaign ads and expenditures and finally end "the reign of big money.  And Koch Brothers".

Questioned by reporters the President insisted that the proposal was not prompted by the results of the mid-term elections and was instead driven by the urgent need for change to "get the American people on the right side of history".

While the algorithm is still under development by the really smart people the White House decided to launch several pilot projects using variants of its proposal, deciding to first experiment through the public educational system, an approach enthusiastically supported by the National Educational Association.

According to SFGate, the initial triumph of the new approach occurred at the Everett Middle School in San Francisco's Mission District.  The demographic profile of Everett:






This fall the school held elections for student council.  Examining the results, alert Middle School Principal Lena Van Haren realized something was amiss.  She saw that her deluded students had not voted in accordance with their ethnic and racial identities.  As she later said:

“It’s not OK for a school that is really, really diverse to have the student representatives majority white,”  

After all, what perverted lesson could the children take from this result?  The merits of a particular individual and the views of their fellow students really don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world, do they?

White Privileged Principal Van Haren attempts to atone
  Principal Van Haren took the only responsible course of action - she delayed announcing the election results for a week while she sought a solution worthy of the diversity of her students.   Demonstrating the astuteness of her action to correct the rampant bourgeois cult of individuality, one student, obviously aspiring to be a future representative of the heteronormative patriarchy, Sebastian Kaplan, said of the delay “they want everybody’s voices to be heard but then when they don’t like the results, they don’t respect students’ choices."  How presumptuous coming from someone born of the oppressive class!

According to SFGate Van Haren remarked that "she wanted to wait until there was a plan — created with student input — to increase diversity among student leaders, perhaps by adding positions."

Another article clarified that she's thinking of adding council positions specifically reserved for African Americans and Hispanics, commenting that just such an ethnic and race based approach   "worked wonderfully for Yugoslavia!" and adding that "it is important to ensure that at a young age students are sensitized so that they do not ignore the overwhelming importance of voting according to race and ethnicity".

It is heartening to see the creativity encouraged by the new Federal pilot program.  White House sources said that focusing on children in the pilot was appropriate since the adult voters ultimately intended to be covered by the initiative are "essentially child-like".

My Generation

The Who Singles 

It'd been more than five months since the release of The Who's second single, Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere but it was worth the wait.  Released in the U.K. on October 29, 1965 My Generation was a revolution in rock:

The lyric: "Hope I die before I get old"

The stuttering vocal

Three key changes

That insane feedback/drum thing at the end

The bass solo by John Entwistle: still the best 50 years later

My Generation reached #2 on the British charts but failed to chart in the United States.  The first time THC heard it was sometime in 1967.


Here is Pete Townsend talking about Entwistle in a recent interview.  It's Townsend, one of the most blunt and intelligent people in rock, so it's worth listening to the whole thing.  At the 9 minute mark he talks about the challenge of "filling the air" when The Who play live now that Entwistle is gone (he died in 2002) and at ten minutes talks a bit about the My Generation bass solo.  He explains just how revolutionary Entwistle's approach to the bass was and that it was at the live shows and live recordings you could most clearly hear the difference.

And finally THC will throw in someone's excellent cover of Entwistle's bass part from 1973's The Real Me off the Quadrophrenia album.

Along The Dordogne

Mrs THC used the Brushstroke App to create these nifty painting-like versions of some photos she took during our recent visit to Perigord.

Along the Dordogne River At Limeuil

Moonlit Park in Domme 

From the Castle at Beynac

Good lookin' guy in cafe at Carennac

Riffmaster Joe Walsh

As promised THC compiled a Joe Walsh guitar mashup showcasing some of his best riffs.  This 14-minute clip features 20 selections from 14 tunes as listed below.  THC had forgotten how much good music Joe made.  All the songs are from Joe's solo album except where otherwise indicated.  It's best to listen to this LOUD.

Fun fact THC came across while putting this together.  Joe and Ringo Starr are brothers in law; Ringo's been married to Barbara Bach since 1981 and Joe married her sister Majorie in 2008.

The good news is that Joe has been sober and drug free for twenty years and is back on the road playing.  You can watch a recent interview with him here.  And here he is playing one of his new tunes with Daryl Hall and his band.

Selections In Order:

County Fair
Turn To Stone
The Bomber (James Gang)
Life In The Fast Lane (Eagles)
All Night Long
Walk Away (James Gang)
The Confessor
Funk #49 (James Gang)
Rocky Mountain Way
Hotel California (Eagles - dual guitars at end with Don Felder)
Welcome To The Club
Life's Been Good
Funk #49 (James Gang) 

Time Out
The Confessor
In The City
Walk Away (James Gang)
Funk #49 (James Gang)
Life's Been Good
County Fair