Recordando a mi hermanita Betty Noviembre 2023 (de mi mama)

Recordando a mi hermanita Betty Noviembre 2023

1939-2023

No dejan de venír a mi mente pequeñas viñetas e imágenes de aquella lejana época en que eramos las tres niñas del Rey - famosas en varios círculos por responder con palabras de 

cortesía que eran la norma y tarjeta de presentación en la casa del Rey-Leñero. 

                "Con mucho gusto"

                "Por favor" 

                "Sí fueres tan amable”
                “Muchas gracías"

                "Le ofrezco mil discupas"

                "Le agradezco mucho"

                "Discúlpeme"

                "Perdone usted" etc.  

En el Kinder en donde trabajaba la Tía Pepis sus compañeras le pedían que llevara a sus sobrinitás para que nos vieran comer usando los cubiertos a perfección. 

Era el orgullo de Mary de nuestrá Nanita, el traernos muy bien vestidas, con trajecitos iguales que ella inclusive nos compraba con su sueldo cuando mi mamá decía que no había dinero para estar comprando vestiditos. Mi Mamá siempre se estaba quejando de que Papaíto no le daba más dinero...Esa fue una obsesión de Mamá: Quería tener más dinero en sus manos, no sólamente en el Banco, ni en posesiones ni en una vida afluente ni acomodada...Mi pobre Mamá rica!

Todos los niños del Rey tuvímos la suerte de asistir as Colegio León, escuelita local, católica - en la época post revolucionaria de influencia laica. En la que el presidente Calles furiosamente combatía a las escueles crístianas. Todos nosotros recibimos excelente instrucción en el Colegio Refugio G. de León en todas las materias e inclusive las maestras nos prepararon para recibir nuestra Prímera Comunión. 

Cuando entré a Secundaria me dijeron que mi examen había obtenido el primer lugar entre cíentos de alumnus de todas las escuelas del D.F.

Ibamos caminando a la escuela pues nos quedaba cerquita, sobre la misma calle de Tuxpan. Era una casa adaptada por las señoritas León Lupe, Cuca, Queta y Elena la directora.

El Colegio era el sueño vuelto realidad de don Luis G León y su hermana Doña Refugio G de León y su esposo. Los tres estudieron y pusieron su talento junto para educar a la juventud Mexicana dentro de las normas de la decencia, la cultura y la religión católica.

A la salída de la escuela casi siempre Mary iba a recogernos y cargaba nuestros útiles (por lo menos algunos). Betty iba adelate bailoteando como mariposa y cantando las nueves cancioncitas que había aprendido como:

                   "Pollito = Chicken; 
                     Gallina = Hen; 

                     Te quiero = I love you;
                     Hello = Como está usted?"

Betty era muy risueña. Al sonrier se le hacián hoyitos en sus mejillas y mostraba sus dientecitos tan pequeños como los de Mamamita y de casi todos los del Rey. 

Cuando nos mudamos a San Angel, Teté y Betty ocuparon la recámera más alta en el tercer piso con linda vista hacia el templo de Nuestra Señora del Carmen y salida a la azotea.Tenía baño con regadera y ropero. Yo dormía en el mezzanine con el ropero antiguo y con la Nena. En la siguiente recamarita con ropero y cómoda estaban Yoyita con Mary. 

En el segundo piso estaban en las esquina viendo al jardin con la fuente. Cerca de ellos tambien viendo al jardin estaban Juan y Gabriel. Por el otro lado con la música de la calle Revolucción estaban Bol y Pepe.  

Vivímos grandes experiencias en San Angel en nuestra mejor edad y con muchos amigos.

Las distancias eran tremendas para ir a la escuela o para ir al centro. Excepto para ir a la universidad. 

Cada domingo íbamos con papaíto a Misa a la Congregación Mariana en la Sagrada Familia y después nos llevaba a desayunar a Sanborn’s junto con todas nuestras amiguitas. Enseguida del desayuno ibamos a nuestras misiones. Teté y Betty iban a visitar los asilos de ancianos. Juancho y sus amigos, Tócho, Manuel Enríque, Carlos Rodríguez, “Tell-me-Water”, iban a la Correccional. Yo con mis amigas iba a dar Catecismo, teníamos muchos centros de catiquesis, el mío era el de Tepito. 

Al fin de nuestra labor terminábamos en San Carlos #1 a la hora de la comida, allí estabamos muy puntuales todos los amigos de Juancho, mi hermano, junto con los de casa… Y se fueron quedando algunos…Yo me casé y mi esposo me llevó a vivir a San Francisco…Teté se casó …Betty se graduó de CPA de la ESCA…Tócho fue enviado a Tabasco. Oh aquí…se inicia otro capítulo.

Tócho se graduó de Ingeñero en la UNAM y fue enviado a trabajar a Tabsco en un lugar inclemente y selvático. Venía al D.F. a visitor a Betty y a su familia esporádicamente, quejándose amargamente de su suerte. Mientras tanto, Betty siete años menor, tenía otros amigos seguía estudiando…Cuando Tócho venía, ella aceptaba salir con él sin compromiso y así iba pasando el tiempo. Un día Tócho vino y Betty había salido con un muchacho… Al día siguiento llegó a San Carlos acompado de su hermano y un fraile a pedir la blanca mano de su bella dama.   

Me pidío Betty que: fuera su madrina de boda, lo cual me llenó de alegriá pero commencé a ver las dificultades:

1)la primera es que mi esposo había sido
    llamado a servico activo para
    la Fuerza Aérea US Air Force
    por el conflicto con Cuba. 

2)Segunda, teníamos dos bebés Ida Zara
    de dos años y John Leal de meses. 

3)Tercero, no tenía quien me ayudara
    a conseguir ropa adecuada para mi
    para ni para los niños para la boda. 

4)Económicamente también serían gastos
    inesperados muy inconveñientes. 

Pues, puse a funcionar mi máquina Singer y llegué a Mexico vestida decentemente con todo y pequeñitos muy elegantes para bendecir a los recién casados. 

El retorno a Sacramento fue aun más emocionante. Me enteré que Don Alfonso Ochoa, el papá de Mati iba a viajar a San Franciso ese día y me atreví a pedírle que me llevara a John Leal en brazos. El buen señor, Don Alfonso aceptó y solo así pude regresar a casa. Dios le de la Gloria a Don Alfonso. 

La vida de mi hermana Betty ha estado entretejida a la mía siempre auque hemos vivido en distintos paises y vivdo diferentes experiencias. Siempre hemos estado en contacto y guardado mucho cariño en nuestro corazón para cada una .Y para Tócho su esposo y sus hijos Betty, Guillermo, Cami, Juliana, David, Ana Violeta y Ana Victoria. 

Para todos estoy dejando estos recuerdos con mucho cariños. 

Tía Evis

Homage to my mentor Sharon Bower - Dec. 9, 1932 - April 9, 2023

 

                        Homage to my mentor Sharon Bower - Dec. 9, 1932 - April 9, 2023

Today, on July 12, 2023, I went to Sharon's former home at Stanford University for her memorial service. 

Usually on a trip down to the peninsula I plan a lot of other things but today I just woke up relatively late at 11:00 am and left by 12:00 to get to the service at her home by 4:00 pm which I thought was a decent hour. 

I had worked for Sharon since 2006. She was my teacher at Stanford University Extension Class on Asserting Yourself. Then I followed her to her other class on Painless Public Speaking. I took her up on her 1 hour private consultation and soon I was her teacher's assistant putting together her folder packets for her classes. The sheets were color coded so she could say, take out this color and the folders were full of activities and handouts. 

When she retired she had a lot of personal archival activities she wanted to complete. We went through a whole basement of photo albums. I digitized many of them for her and we sent many to people she had met around the world. 

She wanted all the addresses of the people she knew around the world digitized as well. So I did a huge excel database with maybe 1,000 names address and phone numbers that we referred to constantly for the next 17 years. 

The database also enabled me to do mail merges and print out labels for Christmas Cards each year. Although in the last few years she was still having write letters for her but liked the expediency of text and email messages. My personal email account has more of her friends than mine in it. 

What did I say at the Memorial?

I listened to really good music all the way down to Stanford and really did not think of anything to say. My Apple playlist was on shuffle so it was going from Chopin to Kanye to Vanessa Paradis it was a treasure trove. 

I wasn't planning on saying anything, but when I heard others speak I wanted to expound on what they said - I think in some 12 step groups they call that cross talk and it is not allowed. ha ha. 

I said that her granddaughter Elle had talked about her grandmother's (mema's) fingernails. I said how Sharon dressed up everyday that I knew her. She did not ever wear sweatpants. She would always wear a lovely outfit and have her hair done and fingernails and wear some jewelry. Just for me. 

I would take her to a little place off of El Camino at California Street and park illegally on the sidewalk for her to get her hair done and next door her nails. Then I'd wait for her at Peets until she was done. 

She was always very well put together and carried herself with so much dignity. That is something I would like to aspire to for myself. 

Then I mentioned that her grandson Micah had mentioned that she kept in touch with childhood friends. I said if someone would die she would have me call around to get the phone number of the daughter so she could call or keep in touch with her. 

Before I would go to Sharon's house I'd always call her from Trader Joes and ask her how many Birthday or Anniversary cards would you like me to bring today? She remember every one of those dates.

When Herb Cohen mentioned her publications and brought and showed them, Painless Public Speaking, The Assertive Advantage and Asserting Yourself (written with Gordon). I mentioned that there is a library resource called Worldcat.org where I showed Sharon that her books were in libraries all over the world. 

I mentioned how I had worked for her but also was a client and she charged me double of what she paid me. She helped me write a speech that I gave to the American Library Association about Ten Years of Librarianship. We worked on it for three months. Not only the writing but the speech intonation. 

After I gave that speech, I was approached by Neil Schuman the publisher to write a chapter in their book. The book, Staff Development Strategies that Work: Developing New Library Managers and Leaders.  I wrote chapter 13, Professional Development through Associations Conferences, and Meetings.

Sharon also helped me write the chapter. 

What I enjoyed the most was meeting Sharon's grandchildren and I feel like that finally gave me closure. 

I had been seeing pictures of them ever since they were born and each time I met with Sharon she would give me updates on how each of them were doing in life - good or bad. She would worry for them or glow in their victories. I never had a grandmother present in my life - one in Mexico who was wonderful for sure, but I enjoyed that she shared their lives with me. 

Micah greeted me right away. The triumph Stanford graduate of the grandchildren. He told me he is starting his own business and lives in San Francisco and where do I live? He has the moxie of someone who is already a billionaire. He looks the part, dresses the part, speaks the part and is intelligent and witty. I was touched by what he had to say about getting to know his grandmother better coming to Stanford and some personal stories where he almost cried. 

Elle came up to me with a warm hug and a huge smile. I know she was her grandfather's favorite. All his passwords were Elle. Sharon also would always want to include so many more pictures of Elle in all the collages we made. Her smile is sincere and infectious. She has a job for the Forestry Department. I'm so glad her dreams came true. She has been a hiker and nature lover all her life. She doesn't belong in an office. 

Ana and Nicholas I especially wanted to meet as they were both artists. Both lived far away and were the hardest to know, less talkative. However, I was so curious about their artwork. I talked to Nicholas first about his photography and then Ana came by and talked about her painting and they started talking about collaborating and thinking out the details. 

After the memorial I sat with the two. I had had a glass of wine and got too chatty. I didn't ask Ana where she was living now but she had gone to the Pennsylvania or is it Pittsburgh Art Institute? A good one. I told her I had bought a painting recently with my tax refund check and it was $450 and the guy charged me $50 tax and I was upset about that. She said she had never thought about tax. 

I asked her how she felt about selling her art and she said sometimes she feels like when something leaves she priced it too low or maybe shouldn't have sold it but most of the time it is ok. 

Nicholas went to France this summer to study his photography and stayed in an international dorm. This fall he will go to NYU. I am so excited for him. He looks like an artist, like his cousin the artist. 

I mentioned to him that I had been to the Ansel Adams show in San Francisco at the De Young Museum the week before and maybe they could go see it before they left. He said, well I saw some of his work in Paris. Then he started talking about his interesting laboratory work and how me manipulated the negatives the way photographers now use photoshop. He was very serious when he started talking about him. It was interesting.

Ana asked me what I was up to and I said the usual answer that I was taking care of my 90 year old mother and still had my place in San Francisco and would come there sometimes. 

Then they probed a little deeper and asked well, what else do you do? 

I said, well, I was working for your grandmother until last year and then I also finished a degree in film studies at San Francisco City College in 2022. I had worked on it casually for 7 years. I was better on the film history than the cinematography. 

Like you Nicholas would have been great. I'm terrible with lenses and i called the i stops but i meant fstops and lighting. He was modest and said he didn't like taking a video making class. 

Then Ana said, well, I guess you're off to a new stage in life then. 

I hadn't thought about that. 

It's true.

I need to move.

I need new goals.  

Thanks for the goals that you helped me meet in my life Sharon.

link to Sharon's Obituary

Homenaje a mi mamá

                                    Homenaje a mamá

In a Party Boat in Puerta Vallarta - 90th Birthday

Tengo nada que mucho amor para toda la famila aquí hoy esta noche y toda mi corazón para mi mamá. Quien me ha asustado un par de veces últimamente y pensé que la perdería.

Pero qué milagro que ella esté aquí y que todos ustedes hayan venido a demostrarle a mi mamá que la aman también.

Esta es una breve historia de mi madre después de que se fue de México en 1962.

Mi madre siempre se ha portado con mucha dignidad y tiene un carácter amable pero fuerte.

Mi padre hubiera sido feliz si mi madre se hubiera quedado en casa y nos hubiera cuidado y disfrutado.

Pero mi madre es una mujer extraordinaria y ella hizo un montón de cosas con su tiempo libre.

Ella misma hizo todas las tareas domésticas habituales, pero también mama nos enseñó a mi hermano y a mí a hablar en inglés y en español. 

Tengo un secreto, mi madre nunca cocinaba bien, pero cosía maravillosamente. Cosió todas las cortinas de la casa, así como toda nuestra ropa y la de ella.

Mi madre tiene una mente académica pero creo que ella también podría haber sido ingeniera por sus cálculos que fueron tan exactos que todavía tenemos algunos de estos artículos en nuestra casa.

Le he preguntado a mi madre si alguna vez enfrentó racismo aquí en los Estados Unidos como mexicana. Me dijo que había recibido algunos comentarios de algunas personas ignorantes pero que no se aplicaban a ella.

Mi mami siempre ha tenido muchisima dignida y ha tenido mucha autoestima. Hay un dicho en Italiano, ‘Meglio solo que mal accompanati.’ En español eso significa mejor solo que mal acompañado.

Cada amigo que eligió aquí en los Estados Unidos era educada y de buen familia y lugar en Mexico. Ella hizo un muy buen grupo de amigas

Este grupo tuvo a sus hijos al mismo tiempo y todos sus esposos se hicieron amigos.

Se reunían a menudo y hablaban sobre sus hijos y las cosas que pasaban en las carreras de sus maridos. Mientras tanto mi madre era la única que trabajaba mientras ella terminaba su segunda maestría en Sacramento State University. 

En unos años más terminó su doctorado en el University of Davis. Estoy muy orgullosa de que mi madre aún viniera a casa y preparara la cena para nosotros y trabajara y terminara su doctorado.

La tesis de doctorado de mi madre fue sobre la poesía de Juan Ramón Jiménez.La mujer, símbolo y realidad, en la poesía de Juan Ramón Jiménez.
Rey da Roza, Evangelina del. [Davis, Calif.] 1979.

Al año siguiente, una universidad se puso en contacto con mi madre y le preguntó si podían digitalizar su tesis.

Querían tener este trabajo disponible para todos los estudiantes académicos. También podemos acceder a esta obra.

Tengo un regalo para todos en esta sala. Es un mini libro con la dirección de internet del libro de la madre. Ahora puedes leer mi hermoso trabajo y escritura.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.x13432&view=1up&seq=15

Love you mother, 

Ida Zara

Escrito para la fiesta de cumpleaños número 90 de la madre pero no leído.

Posted on Mother's Day 2023

Faux Banksyish Show

 

Fun experience - my rating 3

Not quite Banksy

Don't Look Up! - Interview via SFFILM

Don't Look Up! - Interview via SFFILM

I was the dummy who watched in real time not knowing it would be
recorded. The most interesting was listening to Adam McKay.

Link found off middle of this page - Click here

Also interview regarding the film Cyrano - I did not see. 

Link midpage - click here

Paul Schrader's Non-Narrative Film Chart

Paul Schrader's Non-Narrative Film Chart
(Saw this in my Pure Cinema Film Chat Group 9/17/21)

Explanation was given in this Indie Wire article Here

From Lynch to Kiarostami to Ozu:
See Where Your Favorite Directors Fall on Paul Schrader’s Chart of Non-Narrative Cinema

Exclusive: Schrader wrote a new 35-page introduction to his 1971 “Transcendental Style in Film” and found a unique way to chart the progression of arthouse cinema.

Filmmaker Toolkit Editor

Author: Chris O'Falt
May 24, 2018 11:30 am
@https://twitter.com/cofalt/

In 1972, future screenwriter (“Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull”) and director (“First Reformed,” “Hardcore”) Paul Schrader was a young film critic who wrote a highly influential book about how three filmmakers – Robert Bresson, Yasujiro Ozu, and Carl Dreyer – had forged new ground by bringing a spiritual dimension to film language. Schrader showed how these directors’ use of shots – ones that were longer in duration and locked down (fixed frames with no movement), all the better to withhold visual information and capture slower unfolding action – served as a distancing device that “could create a new film reality – a transcendent one.”

This week, the University of California Press is reissuing Schrader’s “The Transcendental Style in Film” with a new 35-page introduction by the author. Schrader wanted to revisit the book because he had come to realize that what he chronicled 46 years ago was actually part of a larger trend in filmmaking. There were many directors after World War II that had moved away from narrative cinema and toward a slower cinema, but they weren’t necessarily interested in the transcendental or spiritual.

“The mistake I made with the book was I thought this thing called transcendental style was a standalone phenomenon,” said Schrader in an interview with IndieWire. “I came to realize it that it was part of the larger phenomenon, post-war Neo-Realism, or what [French philosopher] Gilles Deleuze called the ‘time-image’ – the shift in the history of cinema from the movement inside the image being critical to the shift of the length of the image being observed.”

The new introduction highlights how, after World War I, directors like Vittorio De Sica, Roberto Rossellini, Ingmar Bergman, Jacques Rivette, and Bresson started slowing things down and changing the way audiences watched movies. These filmmakers, according to Schrader, skillfully used “dead time,” or what he calls the “scalpel of boredom,” and engaged their viewers in a new way.

“These first masters of the ‘scalpel of boredom’ were quite good, but now, like any other movement, as it progresses and becomes more extreme,” said Schrader. “You’re getting more and more cases of boredom for its own sake, which is completely artistically valid, but it’s not really part of the tradition of commercial cinema.”

In the new introduction, Schrader diagrams the larger movement by showing how well-known filmmakers move in three different directions as they push away from narrative. There are the “Surveillance Cam” filmmakers (Abbas Kiarostami), who emphasize capturing day-to-day reality. There is “Art Gallery,” cinema which is a move toward pure imagery: light and color, which can manifest itself in films that are abstract, or dream-like (Lynch). And the third direction is what Schrader refers to as Mandala, or “meditation” cinema, films that work on the viewer almost like a trance (Ozu).

“I laid out this cosmogony of where all these directors were after breaking free from the nucleus of narrative and they’re electrons shooting off in these three directions,” said Schrader. “I also drew what I called the [Andrei] ‘Tarkovsky Ring.’ What happens when an artist goes through the ‘Tarkovsky Ring,’ that’s the point where he is no longer making cinema for a paying audience. He’s making it for institutions, for museums, and so forth.”

Paul Schrader’s “The Transcendental Style in Film”

University of California Press

"N" stands for Narrative Nucleous in the center.
Errant electrons run in one of three ways:
1)The surveillance camera 
2)The art gallery
3)The Mandela
These electrons run through the Tarkovsky ring separating theatrical cinema
  and film festival and...

This is an excerpt from the book - Paul Schrader’s “The Transcendental Style in Film”

A YouTube Interview with Paul on topic - Here

Comment from a person in group: I think answering what does this mean?

first person:
The actual photos from Schrader book of what he writes regarding the mandala section in the comments but, in simplest summarized terms it means that he is designated those directors as making films with a meditative or spiritual tint with the films being able to be utilized as non-narrative visual meditation aids similar to the large scale mandala paintings made and used by Eastern religions like Buddhism and Shintoism.

second person (I don't think this guy is right, except what he says about Italian Neo Realism is obvious)
Art Gallery-Snow, Brakhage etc-
Avant-Garde experimental filmmakers- Jarmusch-Malick-Lynch, etc-
Maverick filmmakers-Bresson, Dreyer, Ozu etc-
International filmmakers from different countries-Tarkovsky was Russian-pedestrian filmmaker-Warhol-minimalist-Chantal Ackerman-Gus Van Sant etc-
Camera is a metaphor for spying-Italian Neo Realism-film movement Rome Open City etc-
Non professional actors-location shooting, minimal editing etc-
Genre filmmakers-auteurs-experimental filmmakers-film movements

Comment from another person: 
Personally, I think Schrader list needs a bit of adjusting on where certain directors are placed. Jia Zhangke, in my opinion, for example should be within the Tarkovsky Circle and closer to Surveillance Camera side. Malick and Parajanov should be closer to Mandala side. Tsai Ming Liang should be between the Art House Surveillance Categories and Costa should be on the mandala side.

Post from another person:

Another post on director Bela Tarr

Biographical email bits I sent friends and they didn't appreciate

Biographical email bits I sent friends and they didn't appreciate...
So I will keep and enjoy for myself. 

I think this first one freaked my cousin out -- I think it's a great autobiographical bit...

9-4-2021

Thanks Diane, 

I was stressed until I got your email. 

My mom really is a genius and I've been enjoying that now over the last twenty years. 

I saw her tapping her fingers in an unusual way and asked her if she was thinking of a song and she said said no that she was thinking of a poetic passage of Pablo Neruda in her head and clicking on the rhythm of the poem. 

Tonight watching Classical Arts Showcase, I asked her who the conductor was and she said that was Strokowski and that he was 95 years old when he died. It's amazing. 

She was/is a perfectionist but I learned later in life that it was also the whole issue of being the first born of an immigrant who doesn't understand this country and they expect that you will automatically know things of her culture. She was also very confused by typical American things and teenagers did like sleepovers and I had to be the one to introduce a lot of cultural things to her which she didn't understand and didn't like. Now I see shows on tv like that great one on Netflix, Master of None which shows what I didn't understand about the home internal cultural clashes. 

I wish I had a good memory / or maybe like you say, try to ask my mother sometime. She doesn't really like to talk about her struggles here...I've tried many times as I'm sure she has had some...I heard some mouth dropping racist stories the family members said to her out of not knowing better, but she is very proud and feels like she has always believed in God and her life has always worked out fine. 

Thank you for the positive words... you've always been an inspiration to me and thus going to Santa Clara. 

Ida

Too controversial - no reply. 

Me To Suz: Why would you want to go to our High School Reunion??

AND THE INSENSITIVE AWARD GOES TO ME

Responding to someone:
Me: Sorry I was a bitch yesterday. I shouldn't have said anything about your mom. 
Also I did not mean to diminish what you've gone through as just a bad decade. 

From Erik in Que: Hi Ida - Only to say Hello. 

Me: Hi, let me show you an experimental film clip I did Click here for video

HOUSE Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977

HOUSE (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977)

Finally watched HOUSE tonight is has been on my watch list forever. It was a delight for me speaking some rudimentary Japanese. I loved the experimental film techniques and editing. In a later documentary they say that they all had so much fun on this set and it shows. It is a fun film, limbs are flying off and it's just a spectacular in how it happens and the insane visuals. 

On the Criterion Channel I get the great extra features that come with DVDs. I'm watching the documentary extra called  Nobuhiko Obayashi and Crew on HOUSE (Criterion, 2010).

Just wanted to jot down a few thoughts from his... cinema was die-ing (sp?) in the 60's because everyone was watching tv (same as in the U.S. before the Hollywood rebirth). The film Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975 ) made a big impression in Japan and TOHO asked Obayashi to make a similar horror film. They green-lit his idea for HOUSE, but it was stalled two years because no one wanted to direct it. It is very experimental. 

As I was watching Obayashi talk about how happy he was that they tried all tried of new experimental techniques, that they wanted cinema to have magic that it used to have. Create a magical world. I thought about George Méliès. How he was literally a magician but brought that to filmmaking and also unlike a lot of others of his time, had his films inked with colors. He also used ghost and witch plots themes.  It was a true feast to be at the cinema. 

Obayashi also talked about how the critics were so shocked by the film that they didn't know how to review it and called it trash. It became a huge hit in Japan especially with lines around the block with children under fifteen. I can't believe they would let young kids see this...not now a days with the violence and nudity.  He said that many of the kids that were fifteen at that time were so moved by that film that they have became a generation of filmmakers inspired by that that groundbreaking film. 

It also reminded me of the Czech experimental film Daisies (Věra Chytilová, 1966) with the cut out pieces of film, spliced back in - the mirror - the cut fingers playing piano - the cut out lips...

 

 

Broken Flowers - with fondness

Broken Flowers - with fondness - little remembrances...

Broken Flowers (Jim Jarmusch, 2005)

Love the Jarmuschism in film...

Getting the middle seat in the place... the repetition and coincidences of the color pink...vintage or dive diners ... snail mail...typewriters...detectives...ambivalence with comedy...suburbs - in on the joke...excellent music...cool ethnic someone. 

Partial essay words from Roger Ebert

May 18, 2005 from Cannes...

"Don sets out stoically to visit each of the candidates (who might be the potential mother or his potential child from an anonymous note - my words): a widow (Sharon Stone) whose husband died in a car race "in a wall of flame." A real estate agent (Frances Conroy) who sells prefabricated mid-level luxury. An "animal communicator" (Jessica Lange) who discovered she could hear animals talking. ("Is he saying something?" Don asks about her cat. "He's saying you have a hidden agenda.") And a tough broad (Tilda Swinton) whose lawn is decorated with rusting cars and motorcycles in various stages of repair.

Does he find the mother of his son? Is there a mother? Is there a son? Not really the point. The point is the Bill Murray performance, and the six kinds of counterpoint provided by the women and Winston the neighbor. Murray has often worked by withholding emotion, by inviting us to imagine what he's thinking behind a protective façade. Curiously, his technique can be more emotionally effective than any degree of emoting. In "Lost in Translation," his loneliness and emotional need were communicated in the silences between the words. In "Broken Flowers," he communicates with even less apparent effort, all the more difficult because, as I neglected to mention, the movie is a comedy -- or in any event, a serious personal quest during which the audience finds itself laughing a lot."

Pictures of the Queen with U.S. Presidents

In light of President Biden meeting Queen Elizabeth II, 

I've enjoyed the various pictures posted of her with all the U.S. presidents. 

I officially counted fourteen visits, the royal family in their Instagram post said thirteen.
There are notes at the end. 

Queen Elizabeth II was born April 21, 1926 - today she is 95.
Parenthesis show the dates of the U.S. President's term.

Herbert Hoover (1929–1933)

Herbert Hoover: Hoover finished his tenure as President long before Elizabeth ascended to the throne. However, the opportunity for a meeting between the two arose in 1957 during the Queen's royal tour of the United States. Hoover is seated here to the Queen's right.

Robert W. Kelley/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945)

Did Queen Elizabeth meet Franklin D. Roosevelt? 
No - I did find these notes in the FDR Library

 - Eleanor Roosevelt and Queen Elizabeth II

While the Queen’s reign began after the Roosevelt years in the White House, there was a relationship between the Roosevelts and the Royals. Her parents, King George VI (r.1936-1952) and Queen Elizabeth, had visited the United States in 1939, and Eleanor Roosevelt had traveled to the United Kingdom in 1942 to visit troops during World War II and again in 1948 to unveil a statue of FDR. Eleanor also had been invited to
  The wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip in 1947.
While she was unable to attend, afterwards she was sent a piece of the royal wedding cake.

The Queen’s coronation was held on June 2, 1953. Eleanor was invited but unfortunately she was unable to attend due to a prior commitment to be in Japan.

In her letter to the Queen, Eleanor writes:

I shall think of you on Coronation Day and wish you God’s blessing. May your reign be long and peaceful and prosperous for  your people. I know that all you can do for the good of your own nation and the world, you will do in these years to come.

Harry S. Truman (1945–1953)

Then-Princess Elizabeth with President Harry Truman. 1951.

(Getty Images via Town and Country)

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961)

Queen Elizabeth with President Eisenhower in October 1957.
(Getty Images via Town and Country)

Eisenhower was the first serving President who Elizabeth met during her reign.

John F. Kennedy (1961–1963)

John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie, were dinner guests at Buckingham Palace in June 1961.

Photoquest/Getty Images via CNN

Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969) - NO

Richard Nixon (1969–1974)

President Nixon and Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace 1969 with Prince Philip, Princess Anne, and Prince Charles. Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images via Yahoo

(Allegedly, he tried to set up his daughter Tricia with Prince Charles)

 

Gerald Ford (1974–1977)

President Ford and first lady Betty Ford pose with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip outside the North Portico of the White House in Washington on July 7, 1976. The Fords are hosting a state dinner for the Queen of England in the Executive Mansion. AP Photo via Insider.

Jimmy Carter (1977–1981)

The Queen, Prince Philip, and Jimmy Carter at a dinner at Buckingham Palace. 1977.

(Getty Images via Town and Country)

Ronald Reagan (1981–1989)

U.S. President Ronald Reagan, on Centennial, and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, on Burmese, go horseback riding on the grounds of Windsor Castle, England. 1982.
Bob Daugherty, File/AP via Insider

George H. W. Bush (1989–1993)

Queen Elizabeth II posed with President George H. W. Bush and first lady Barbara Bush in the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace before lunch on June 1, 1989.
Ken Towner/Evening Standard/REX/Shutterstock

Bill Clinton (1993–2001)

(I looked for one hour for a black and white photo, I hate inconsistency)
Saturday, June 4, 1994 file photo, Britain's Queen Elizabeth smiles, as she sits alongside President Bill Clinton at a dinner in the Guildhall in Portsmouth, England, commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-Day. AP Photo/Doug Mills, File

George W. Bush (2001–2009)

George W. Bush and Laura Bush, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.

Grand Foyer of the White House for a State Dinner in Washington May 7, 2007. REUTERS/Jason Reed.

Barack Obama (2009–2017)

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, and U.S. President Barack Obama during a state banquet in Buckingham Palace, London, on Tuesday May 24, 2011. Lewis Whyld/AP

Donald Trump (2017–2021)

First lady Melania Trump, Britain's Queen Elizabeth and President Donald Trump in the Grand Corridor during their visit to Windsor Castle, Windsor, Britain, July 13, 2018.

Photo - Steve Parsons/Pool via Reuters 

(President Donald Trump committed several royal faux-pas during his summer 2018 visit to England — including being late to meet the queen at Windsor Castle, walking in front of her, shaking her hand instead of bowing, and turning his back to her.)

Joe Biden (2021–)

(Same exact place as with picture above of Trump)

Instagram Picture and Post of  @theroyalfamily Verified

June 13, 2021, The Queen received President Biden @potus and First Lady Jill Biden @flotus at Windsor Castle. Her Majesty has received 4 other Presidents of the United States at Windsor Castle in recent years. President Biden is the 13th serving US President to be met by Her Majesty.

As Head of State, The Queen regularly speaks to world leaders and key diplomatic figures.

The President and Dr. Biden are in the UK for the G7 Summit. The Queen and Members of The Royal Family attended the G7 Leaders Reception on Friday.

Her Majesty greeted The President and First Lady on the Dias as The First Battalion Grenadier Guards gave a Royal Salute and the US National Anthem played in the Quadrangle.

💂President Biden inspected the Guard of Honour, accompanied by their Commanding Officer, Major James Taylor. The Guard of Honour is formed of the @britisharmy ’s most senior regiment of Foot Guards, The Grenadier Guards. 

The President and First Lady then joined Her Majesty 

for tea in the State Apartments at Windsor Castle.

((Who are the 4? according to this link they are:

George W. Bush, Barak Obama, Donald Trump & Joe Biden))

Final Count Thirteen or Fourteen?

I counted 14 presidents, but I guess she didn't include Herbert Hoover since
it was an official state visit meeting. 

Herbert Hoover (1929–1933) yes

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945) no

Harry S. Truman (1945–1953) yes

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961)yes

John F. Kennedy (1961–1963) yes

Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969) no

Richard Nixon (1969–1974) yes

Gerald Ford (1974–1977) yes

Jimmy Carter (1977–1981) yes

Ronald Reagan (1981–1989) yes

George H. W. Bush (1989–1993) yes

Bill Clinton (1993–2001) yes

George W. Bush (2001–2009) yes

Barack Obama (2009–2017) yes 

Donald Trump (2017–2021) yes

Joe Biden (2021–) yes

From Royal family website

Place settings at formal dinners at Buckingham Palace 

source: https://www.gentlemansgazette.com/dinner-etiquette-formal-dining/

(This was confirmed on two sites and contradicted on others. Let me know what
you find out.)

10 Ways 2020 Changed the Film Industry - Indie Wire

 

10 Ways 2020 Changed the Film Industry, from Streaming Wars to Film Festivals

This seismic year impacted every aspect of the way movies are made and experienced around the world. Here are the biggest takeaways

There is a lot about 2020 that has been unprecedented. While this pandemic isn’t the first in human history, the entertainment industry has never grappled with anything on this scale before, and it’s safe to assume that it will never be the same again. Film festivals were canceled. Productions were shut down. Studios went to war with exhibitors and it’s unclear if they’ll ever see eye to eye. How does one parse a year overloaded with so much upheaval? Screen Talk is here to help. In this special episode (recorded last week), Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson provide their list of the 10 ways that 2020 changed the film industry — with some additional predictions about how 2021 might go.

Link to video and podcast Click Here

By Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson, 

Posted on  Indie Wire 1/01/2021

Indie Wire - viewed 1/1/2021

(Post script 6/14/21 - that was really lazy of me not to transcribe this catchy headline and then link to a podcast. I'll transcribe later.)

The Queen's 73rd Wedding Anniversary

 

The Queen married at 21 Philip Mountbatten was 26 at Westminster Abbey

11/20/2020        Now they are 94 & 99