“I’d like to pretend that I’ve never seen anything, never read anything, never heard anything… and then make something.” -Keith Haring 💬

Ten movies that stay with me, day two. Hearts of Darkness, a documentary on the making of Apocalypse Now.

I enjoy almost any documentary about the making of a movie, as long as it isn’t a mindless promotional puff piece. Filmmaking is fascinating to me. This is the best “making of” films I’ve seen. To me it’s even better than the film itself, which is a masterpiece.

Francis Ford Coppola made Apocalypse Now after the success of The Godfather I and II. It was an audacious move at the time - an unflattering film about the Vietnam War made during the war. Coppola’s wife Eleanor filmed and recorded much of the goings on during shooting. Years later, she and others turned it into “Hearts of Darkness, A Filmmakers Apocalypse.” It’s anything but a puff piece.

Coppola threw himself, his money, and his family fully into the film. Everything went wrong. I won’t give it away, but he had major issues with the cast, the weather, and the arguments with the Philippine military who were providing his helicopters - in the middle of a real war of their own. His perseverance didn’t just border lunacy, but crossed the line and kept on going. Fascinating. The end result was one of the best war films ever made.

The only thing I find confusing is the title. Apocalypse Now is based on the Joseph Conrad novel Heart of Darkness. I guess they wanted to use a similar (appropriate) title, and it fits, except the pluralization of Hearts. This is clearly about one heart, that of Francis Ford Coppola.

The documentary opens with a period statement from Coppola which sums it up nicely(?):

“My film is not a movie. My film is not about Vietnam. It is Vietnam. It’s what it was really like. It was crazy. And the way we made it was very much like the way the Americans were in Vietnam. We were in the jungle. There were too many of us. We had access to too much money, too much equipment. And, little by little, we went insane.”

Dinner.

Facebook people are doing the “ten days ten films that stay with you” thing. I’ll try it here. My first film is Koyaanisqatsi, by Godfrey Reggio with music by Philip Glass.

I first ran across this documentary-ish film of beautiful landscapes and new-to-me dazzling music in college, on a rented VHS tape. Koyaanisqatsi is Hopi for Life Out Of Balance, or (my preference) A State Of Life That Calls For Another Way Of Living. Intense is an understatement.

I’ve been lucky to see it on the big screen twice, both with music performed live by Philip Glass and his ensemble. It’s the first of a trilogy, followed by Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi.

Koyaanisqatsi is on YouTube. The conversion from film isn’t as good as the Blu-ray, but not bad.

Find the biggest screen you have, turn off the lights, crank the volume to eleven, and click m.youtube.com/watch

My kids want to use Netflix Party. I won’t install Chrome on Mac, but figured I’d try a managed account. Wow. At launch It tries accessing countless IPs, and they change each launch. Impossible to manage. So scary Chrome is so popular. Sorry kids, no Netflix Party for you.

Chili for dinner.

This morning’s project is cleaning dog nose prints off the windows. We have just one dog, but his nose sure gets around.

Desperate times call for desperate measures: Borrowed chromebooks from the kids’ schools so they would stop fighting for the household shared Apple tech when doing schoolwork.

Our kids (age 10 and 13) convinced us to order 24 whoopee cushions. Today they’re driving around town, dropping them in friends’ doors and mailboxes. Because everyone needs a little whoopee these days…

Wonder what I’ll be doing this weekend…

We’ll be feeling the economic impact of this long after the disease itself is forgotten. I’ll bet more Americans will die from the economic impact (lost health care, suicide, malnutrition, economic-driven violent crime) than of the disease. Crazy.

Our daughter caught on a security camera, using a Skip-It to release some of that housebound energy.

Making what we can of the pandemication. Art class, taught by an on-screen Mo Willems.

The pasteboard security hole has bugged me for years. My radar (now FB5520772) has been open four years, and I’ve discussed with Apple engineers at WWDC. I hope this post generates interest. www.mysk.blog/2020/03/1…

Almost forgot it’s a national holiday.

Our local elementary school’s annual pancake breakfast this morning was cancelled, so we had our own. Pancake with blueberry and chocolate chips, fresh whipped cream, and caramel.

Trying a poorly-planned sous vide brisket. My usual container was too small so using a giant storage bin. Expectations are low, but I’ll know more tomorrow.

Things are still ok when kids aren’t consumed by the chaos.

I walked by this new sign today, which is about as Debbie Downer as a historical sign can be without representing any actual tragedy.

Happy Purim! In this holiday we celebrate our ancestors rebelling against a bad man by eating a cookie shaped like his hat.

While on a walk through the local cemetery today, I ran across this large and nifty hunk of a tree trunk. Roughly five feet thick. Must have been a heck of a tree.

My car has two digital clocks. Each must be set separately via different controls. Neither know anything about Daylight Savings Time. The car also has a cellular connection, GPS, and regularly-connected CarPlay, all of which provide precision clock data. Ah, technology…

Bonfire.

Random thought to restructuring democracy: President gets elected roughly same as now. After two years (a probationary term) the country has a confidence vote: keep or ditch the president. Must pass with a supermajority (60 or 66%) of the popular vote. Passes, gets another 2-4 years. Fails, an election in two months and the sitting president isn’t permitted to run. Deals with the electoral/popular vote issue, and forces an attempt to expand their base.