Another perfect storm coming?

 

Thursday, August 13, 2009

 

Thunder storms sweep across the state towards us and I feel the world rumbling beneath my feet.

After the last few weeks of political and personal woes, I keep waiting for the next shoe to drop – the way it did back in 2001, when the perfect storm hit, the arrest of county executive Janiszewski, the attacks on the Worth Trade Center, the anthrax attacks, George Harrison’s death, and finally, most disastrously, the death of my mother.

Life happens in clumps.

The death of my cat, the political arrests, my ex-wife’s heart troubles, and other events make me feel as if storm clouds once more gather for yet another dramatic significant event. If not a terrorist attack, then something equally out of the blue.

I’m discounting the death threats the two gay guys, formerly of Secaucus, claim that might be aimed our way because we dared tell the truth about a pack of rats who can’t control their urges.

My life is about telling such jerks off. I see this as a solemn duty to make sure that the so called tough guys, who think they are not bound by civilized rules, get told off by somebody when most of the world is too scared to.

The two gays from Secaucus compare their oppressors to the KKK. This is apt, but the term needs to be modernized. These guys who harassed the gays are terrorists, getting their kicks off causing fear. They don’t even have the excuse of religious conviction the terrorists who struck the World Trade Center had. These guys in this small town terrorize to feel important, the way the bullies used to do this when I was in high school, always picking on people they know are helpless to strike back.

Even the law can’t stop them. I heard reports that they still drink in the fire house, and, in fact, one friend saw one of them carrying a keg through the back door the other day. You have to wonder are they still enticing underage girls to put on wet t-shirt contests? Or worse?

 

*************

 

Finally got a copy of “Harvey” and watched it several times. If anything is a vehicle for a Spielberg film, Harvey is it.

I’ve come to understand Spielberg films are far less about story than they are about image. His best films work well on both levels, but even those films whose stories seem to falter are often masterpieces of image.

Crystal Skull is a perfect example.

The original Harvey even uses many of the stylistic touches typical of Spielberg, such as the grouping of people and the long shots with action going on at various depths of field. As I watched some of the scenes – such as the opening and closing of pocket doors – and realized these same things would become even more powerful in Spielberg’s hands.

The question is: how will Spielberg modernize the film – the way he did with War of the Worlds?

Will he keep it a period piece? How much more special effects will he use.

Since Spielberg also is noted for drawing upon the full cannon of material for such works, I’m almost positive he will make use of the original play – in much the same way he used other HG Wells stories for making of his War of the Worlds, and other Philip K. Dick stories for his making of Minority Report.

The play differs from the film in some curious ways, and the potential for the new adaptation is almost endless.

Spielberg also tends to pay tribute to the original star so that he will likely insert visual or story references to other Jimmy Steward movies.

I’m almost breathless in anticipation.