Apr 25, 2018
seen from Türkiye
seen from Kazakhstan
seen from United States
seen from Netherlands
seen from Germany
seen from Australia
seen from United States
seen from Romania
seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Russia
seen from France
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
Fall forest colors in New York State, looking north towards the mountains and hills of New Hampshire
Tim Robbins played a nonviolent action hero, a baseball flake, and the friendly face of political evil. And that was just the beginning. A few quirky films from a great actor’s early years:
Harry in Five Corners. D: Tony Bill (1987). Harry is a street tough in the Bronx, circa 1964, who saved Linda (Jodie Foster) from being raped by Heinz (John Turturro). Now Heinz is out of jail and trying to contact Linda, who wants protection from Harry who, inspired by Martin Luther King Jr., has taken an oath of non-violence. Robbins dilemma fuels a not-seen-enough film (with an imaginative script by playwright John Patrick Shanley) about the limits and perils, of violence. His performance gets at the moral dilemma of a man whose two sides are at war with each other, trying not to lose himself.
Ebby Calvin ‘Nuke’ LaLoosh in Bull Durham. D: Ron Shelton (1988). In the best baseball movie ever made, Robbins is a rookie pitcher with “a million dollar arm and a five cent head” whose rangy body and expressively perplexed face take the sting out of his hot-shot cluelessness. He makes LaLoosh both the slapstick center of the film and its straight man. He proves a comedy axiom – it takes a smart man to play a guy this dumb.
Bob Roberts in Bob Roberts. D: Tim Robbins (1992). Robbins is famous for his leftist politics but he played a right-wing Senate candidate folksinger (The Times They are A-Changin’ Back” is his signature song”) in this biting satire of the confluence of entertainment and politics. The film is funny (Roberts message to kids” “Don’t smoke crack. It’s a ghetto drug) but unsparing of the way political extremists can call themselves “entertainers” to play peek-a-boo with the first amendment (In Roberts case to a Senate seat). The film was made twenty-eight years ago and it could have been made yesterday.
5 Corners
Take A Breath acoustic show
The Smiling Moose, Pittsburgh, PA
2-27-15
Baristas
Cannot wait for day light saving time.
Its to dark when I wake up in the 5 corners