‘Arts’ Archives
TODAY MY HEART IS HEAVY
By BARB TILSEN May 25, 2022 Today my heart is heavy Whenever the news arrives of children dying The six year old found in the trunk of a car Shot by his mother While that story is still freshly told the News brings yet more details of the shooting yesterday with the horror of deja vu Nineteen children in Texas 2nd graders 3rd graders 4th graders Beautiful and precious Murdered By an 18 year old With an assault rifle he bought On his birthday Leaving his childhood behind In bloody footprints Bringing haunting memory Of another school shooting of our young children Carried in Sandy Hook’s river of tears Bringing the stark truth that lies at the center of our country’s stalemated inaction We are a nation that allows our children To be murdered It is our legacy It is our history The heartbreaking picture comes to the fore Large numbers of beloved Native children Stolen away to [...]
Movie Corner: Elvis
Elvis Warner Bros. Pictures 2022 ★★★★★ By HOWARD MCQUITTER II Elvis died tragically at the age of 42 on August 16, 1977. But when he died, the rock star had recorded about 700 songs and sold more than one billion records worldwide, which was more than anyone in the record industry. Australian director Baz Luhrmann's (William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet , Moulin Rouge! , The Great Gatsby ) new film project is Elvis, starring Austin Butler who plays the character Elvis in exceptional fashion. Austin's performance is worthy of an Oscar nomination in a leading role. The film starts with Elvis (Chaydon Jay)as a boy in Tupelo, Mississippi, who is exposed to Black music - both profane and gospel - living in a mostly Black neighborhood. Those were the days: 1940s, the pre-Civil Rights era when de jure segregation was solidly in place. Fast forward to Elvis' teen years on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee, where he mingles among the Black people going [...]
Movie Corner: The Phantom of the Open
Comedy/Drama Sony Pictures Classics 2021 ★★★★☆ By HOWARD MCQUITTER II The opening film for the 2022 Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival starts with a chuckle, a laugh, and guffaws. I think it was a brilliant move for the Festival to open with a comedy/drama after these last few years of COVID 19 and unrest. Mark Rylance plays a real-life Maurice Flitcroft, a crane operator for Vickers shipyards, following in his father’s footsteps. He is married to his lovely wife Jean (Sally Hawkins) and has 3 sons: Michael (Jake Davies) and twins Gene (Christian Lees) and James (Jonas Lees). In the movie we get a peek of Gene and James as disco dancing champions. Maurice has no hobbies. Jean suggests he find one. One day he’s watching a golf tournament on TV and has the idea that he could play golf even though he never swung a golf club. Despite their misgivings, Maurice’s family encourages him to golf. He tries repeatedly to join elite golf clubs but [...]
