1. If it were 1995 today instead of 2019 and I were living in Eugene and not in Kellogg, I would have called Dad and wished him a Happy Birthday. So, I was left to imagine, if instead of Dad dying twenty-three years ago, in 1996, what might we have talked about today on his 89th birthday? In my imagination, he's living in the house I'm living in now. I'm in Eugene. We'd talk about the World Serious (as he called it) and discuss the upcoming Game 6. He'd have been thrilled that, like him, I married a teacher, that I am a stepfather, and that he is great-grandfather five times over and so he'd ask me how all the kids were doing and tell me he enjoys looking at pictures of everyone when Christy or Carol bring over their computers. He'd tell me he wished he felt better because he always wanted to go to New England and see the fall colors and maybe see a ball game in Fenway Park and he'd want to know more about my last visit to D.C. and New York and that he liked the pictures I sent him and Mom. He'd tell me it's awfully cold in Kellogg, that he turned off the outside water and needs to get the hoses in and that everyone was over on Sunday for an early birthday dinner and Mom fixed everyone a sirloin steak and a baked potato and tonight he's drinking some Christian Brothers brandy and Christy helped him find a music station on the Dish tv that plays the music he loves and I can hear the sounds of Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn, and Teresa Brewer in the background as we finish our conversation and I hang up the phone and finish drinking what he calls my "crap beer" ("I don't know how you can stand that shit"), and put my dinner dishes in the dishwasher.
2. The other day I bought a couple of smoked ham shanks and today I put them in the crock pot with onion and celery and cauliflower and salt and pepper and it's simmering away and will soon become the stock for another batch of soup. While it bubbled away, I chopped up onion, garlic, and celery, got it cooking in the cast iron pan and added some ground beef and cooked it all together. Later I added a can of black beans and I boiled some noodles, added them in, and I enjoyed eating this modest concoction for dinner.
3. Charly was a little bit whimpery early this evening -- possibly just a little restless. I had thought I might go out tonight and see a play at the high school, but I decided I didn't want to leave Charly home alone this evening -- especially since I'm going to Spokane to play Tuesday night trivia and am returning to Spokane on Saturday for a Whitworth jazz concert and spending the night.
The Blu-ray version of the movie, Mud, came floating into my mailbox from Netflix a while ago and I decided that since today was a travel day for the Astros and Nationals that I'd see if Charly would like to be in the Vizio room with me while this movie was on.
Charly did want that. In fact, she quieted down, relaxed on the rug, got comfortable, and we had a good evening together.
Soon I was absorbed in this movie. I gave myself over to its blend of realism and fantasy. On the one hand, the movie explores the lives of two teen-age boys living broken and breaking lives in rural Arkansas on the Mississippi River. One boy, Neckbone, doesn't know who his parents are and lives with his uncle. The other boy, Ellis, is living with his mom and dad whose marriage is disintegrating.
The more (to me) fantastical dimension of the story involves an island on the river. The boys sneak away to this island in a motorboat and discover a boat up in a tree. On one of their visits, they discover that a man lives on the island.
His name is Mud.
The movie is mostly focused on the relationship between Mud and the two boys.
I'll leave it at that -- except to say that a story exploring Ellis' loss of innocence (not in a creepy way) and his gaining of experience unfolds on the island, back in town, and between Ellis and his mom and dad.
When I popped this movie into the machine, I knew Matthew McConaughey played the role of Mud to well-earned acclaim. What I didn't realize, though, was this movie was loaded with other superb actors. The roles of Ellis and Neckbone were played brilliantly by Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland. Sarah Paulson and Reese Witherspoon play their small roles with power. In a perfect world of movie making, two spin off movies growing out of Mud, each focusing on each of these characters' stories, would get filmed and we'd watch Paulson and Witherspoon flesh out their complicated characters fully and see the full range of their prowess as actors.
I loved seeing a grizzled Sam Shepard in this movie. Michael Shannon played Neckbone's hard-working, roguish, and caring uncle masterfully. Joe Don Baker brought both menace and a kind of corrupted gravitas to his minor role. Lastly, I hope to dive deeper into the work of Ray McKinnon. I am eager to see if he occupies other character roles as fully in other shows as he occupied being Ellis' laconic and confused dad in Mud.
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