William Horberg

The Chicago Cardinals

They may be the Arizona Cardinals to the rest of the world, but they'll always be the Chicago Cardinals to pockets of die-hard fans in certain neighborhoods of Chicago.

If they win the Super Bowl on Sunday, it will be the first time for the Cardinals franchise since their dramatic victory in the 1947 NFL championship game.

They left Chicago for Los Angeles in 1959, the year I was born, but I'll still be rooting for them, given their place in Chicago sports history, in the big game tomorrow.

william

My New Best Friend

Out with the old, in with the new.

After a tearful parting with my cherry-red Mercian ten-speed racing bicycle, purchased as a teenager and clung to as an emblem of my youth through the ensuing decades, I'm happy to report that I'm on the mend and in a beautiful rebound relationship with my new comfort bike, the Masi Soulville.

Raised handlebars, a kick stand, coaster brakes, seven-speed handlebar gear shift, alloy fenders and a cool retro style make this the perfect no-carbon footprint way to commute to my new office.

Masi is a fairly venerable name in racing bikes, but they have made a comeback of sorts recently with a more diversified line of bikes catering to us aging boomers.

Soulville even got a review in Wired magazine which you can read here.

I don't know if I'll manage to keep this one for 36 years like my last bike. But it might make a damn nice hand-me-down for Diego one day if I keep it in good enough shape.

And it keeps ME in good enough shape!

william

Mirror, Mirror, on the.....turntable?

We have been having a lot of fun at our house lately, going back to some of the low-tech but high-marvel wonders of the past to find some simple non-television, non-dvd entertainment for the kids.

It is amazing how diverse and creative many of the simple toys from the mid-20th century were, but none more so that the Magic Mirror technology from the 1950's, which is a version of the successor to the zoetrope, known as a praxinoscope.

This simple multi-faceted mirror in a colorful carnival-like top sits on top of the spindle of your turntable, and when played with the accompanying Red Raven records with their hand-drawn animation on the center label of the discs, the rotating mirror creates a magic lantern effect of an animated cartoon movie to accompany the music.

Every once in a while you can find the Magic Mirror and sets of Red Raven Records crop up on eBay like these discs here.

The kids LOVE it, and we do too. 

As the world gets more and more digital and electronic, it is a real pleasure to find joy in these more simple and imaginative pastimes.

william

The Man Who Loves Books

I got a letter today from an old friend.

Actually, I have never met this person, and I know little about his life, his family, his age, his politics or even what he looks like.

But I consider him a friend because he has stayed in touch with me over the years, has provided me with great moments of insight, pleasure and inspiration, and because the one thing that I do know about him is he is one of the most passionate people about books and authors and stories that I have ever come across.

Dennis McMillan says he has been publishing books for 26 years now, so I must have stumbled across the first McMillan book I bought, a paperback edition of "The Blind Pig", with this amazing cover art by Gahan Wilson, sometime back in the 1980's.

When I saw that Dennis was also publishing the work of one of my all-time favorite hard-boiled crime authors, Charles Willeford, I sought out and bought a few of his beautiful hardback editions of some of his more obscure titles.

Look at the loving attention to detail in the design of the book's interior cover. They don't reproduce as well here, but those guns are gold-embossed.

Most of his covers were original art by artists that McMillan would commission to design these collector's editions. But here he found inspiration by borrowing from a master. Willeford and Munch, what a wonderful combination!

Later, my satisfaction with the books I got from Dennis McMillan lead me to try other of his authors whose work I was less familiar with at the time, like the weird and wild writing of Frederic Brown. If you are willing to jump down the rabbit hole, you'll find a whole world of little-known noir and pulp fiction in McMillan's catalogue.

More recently, he has been publishing mostly new work, from authors like Lono Waiwaiole, Jim Nisbet, Bob Truluck, or Kent Harrington, whose novel "Red Jungle" I enjoyed a few years back.

What publisher have you ever heard of that even came close to this level of dedication and passion???:

"Anybody who wants any number of these titles for their own collection and can't pay [sic], can make arrangements with me to pay "on time", or however it's possible for the person to do it. My goal is to sell my books to those collectors/readers who really appreciate them; that's what I've been doing for the past 26 years, and the "economic crisis" we are going through right now should not be allowed to prevent somebody who really wants to own one of my books from having it/them. If I had wanted to be "rich", I would have done something else with my life, income-generating-wise, believe me! 

My goal is, and has always been, to turn people on to writing and authors that they would not otherwise have been aware of, and would thoroughly enjoy."

Thanks, Dennis, for living your passion and sharing it with us! 

william

The Truth

"Journalists distrust the central claim of fiction: that by lying you get to the truth." - David Hare

I tend to agree with this central claim myself, and yet I have also come to feel over the years that the very best documentary films, which can take a journalistic approach to getting at the truth, but also find a sublime, poetic way to express that truth, are often more compelling and satisfying that most of our current "fiction" films.

Of course, as Werner Herzog is fond of pointing out, all films, even the most journalistic of docs, "lie" in their own way. Editing. Music. Dramatic recreation of events. Just the mere act of pulling out a camera and aiming it at someone has an affect on the nature of the "truth" being observed and recorded.

Hoop Dreams, Crumb, The Staircase, The Fog of War, Man on Wire, most of Herzog's documentaries and even the animated doc Waltz for Bashir, just to name a few, for me are among the most interesting and artful examinations of the human condition on film.

None of the documentaries I saw at Sundance last week rose to quite this level in my pantheon, but I found each of them interesting and worth mentioning to you to keep an eye out for as they struggle to make their way to you by any platform necessary, i.e. theatrical, television, internet, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, iPhone, you name it.

 - "Art & Copy" is filmmaker Doug Pray's latest, and I found it a fascinating and entertaining look at the history of the advertising business over the last 40 years and the larger-than-life creative personalities behind some of the most memorable images and propaganda that has shaped our culture and our consciousness, for better or worse. Great archival footage, music, interviews. And what really got me is that the guy you loved the most was Hal Riney, the clever bastard behind Ronald Reagan's infamous "Morning In America" commercial, and that other one where Reagan invokes the Russian boogeyman with "there's a bear in the forest" as we see a big brown bear padding around. Think those weren't damn effective, look at the numbers of the 1984 election!

 - "The Glass House" from Iranian filmmaker Hamid Rahmanian and his wife, the writer and producer Melissa Hibbert, was a gripping look at the lives of a group of marginalized young women in contemporary Tehran, and an extraordinary organization that is a shelter and halfway house where these girls can take refuge from the savage vicissitudes of their families and the street, and learn life lessons and self-empowerment. The film is filled with amazing characters and stories, but of all of them, I'll never forget fragile Sussan, who has suffered a blow to the head from either her brother or her "temporary" husband, which is just the latest and most severe blow that life has dealt her, as she struggles to survive and find crumbs of happiness wherever she can.

 - "Thriller in Manila" - British director John Dower revisits the intense professional and personal rivalry between Joe Frazier and Muhammed Ali in this sports documentary for HBO. Although there were elements of the telling that bothered me (equating the Nation of Islam with the Klu Klux Klan felt wildly over-the-top and inappropriate), it was compelling to see these famous fights and political events of my youth replayed from Frazier's perspective. An aging, still bitter man, filmed in the run down gym where he still lives and trains in the Badlands of Philadelphia's inner city ghetto, Smokin' Joe recounts his early friendship with Ali, the help and support he gave him during Ali's own down period when he was exiled from the sport for several years after his refusal to fight the "Viet Cong", and how this was repaid by a vicious black-on-black racism, with Ali caricaturing him as an ignorant "Uncle Tom", and finally a "gorilla", even buying a little gorilla doll and mocking him mercilessly with it, before their third and most brutal match in Fredinand Marcos' Phillipines dictatorship. The film could be accused of being one-sided, but it is a side we haven't seen before, and for me at least, doesn't diminish my childhood hero Ali, but makes him more human, after all the deification he has received.

I'm no film critic, but I wanted to tip you to these three interesting docs to look out for if they come your way.

Of course, they are all a pack of lies, like any film, but they use their artifice well and often get at something close to the truth.

william

  

PGA

THE PGA.

No, not the Professional Golfer's Association.

It's the Producer's Guild of America, and this Saturday night was their 20th anniversary awards show.

Elsa and I attended, and although Slumdog Millionaire quite deservedly won the Darryl F. Zanuck producer of the year award for its producer Christian Colson, it was nice to see "Milk" get special recognition as producers Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks picked up the Stanley Kramer Award for work that 'dramatically illuminates provocative social issues.' 

Growing up, I was never the biggest fan of Stanley Kramer's rather earnest social dramas, although Gus Van Sant and I joked that we both had a fondness for "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." 

But now I love the guy! :)

Seriously, what I most admire about "Milk" and its makers is how it transcends so many pitfalls inherent in this kind of material, as a biographical story, as a film about a politician, as a "social issue" film, even as an adult drama, to find its true soul and deliver an exciting, emotional, lyrical and cinematic experience to the audience.

It was also great to see Jeff Skoll, one of the founders of eBay and his socially conscious media company Participant pick up a "Visionary" award from the Guild. He was our partner and co-financier in the making of "The Kite Runner" and someone for whom I have a lot of admiration. He views storytelling in film and television as great instruments and opportunities for positive change, and puts his resources behind his commitment to making the world a better place, and has been behind some damn good movies in the process.

Congrats, Jeff!

william

Jackie Gleason Said.....

"How  Sweet  It  Is"

BEST PICTURE

Milk (Focus Features), A Groundswell and Jinks/Cohen Company Production, Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, Producer

BEST DIRECTOR 

Milk, Gus Van Sant

BEST ACTOR
Sean Penn in Milk 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR|
Josh Brolin in Milk

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY 

Milk - Written by Dustin Lance Black 

COSTUME DESIGN 
Milk - Danny Glicker

FILM EDITING 

Milk - Elliot Graham

MUSIC (SCORE) 

Milk - Danny Elfman 

Congratulations to all of the hundreds of crew and thousands of extras involved in the making of this beautiful movie.

And to the nine individuals above for their Oscar nominated work and well-deserved recognition.

Bravo!

william

Party Like It's 1987

The world premiere screening at the Eccles Theatre at Sundance was over, the q+a from the enthusiastic crowd was handled masterfully by filmmaker Greg Mottola, and the "Adventureland" team had crossed town to the after-party at a restaurant underneath the Park City chair lifts, when the first review from IndieWire came streaming in to producer Anne Carey's cellphone:

SNAPSHOT REVIEW: “Adventureland”

Nobody really expected Greg Mottola to screw this one up. The “Superbad” director makes a triumphant return to Park City (his debut, “Daytrippers,” played at Slamdance a decade ago) with one of the sharpest coming of age movies in years. No hyperbole there; despite the implications of his resume, Mottola is something of an antithesis to the Judd Apatow oeuvre, creating smart comedies where the humor emerges from the naturalism of his highly complex characters.

Set in 1987, “Adventureland” centers on a broke college graduate (Jesse Eisenberg) in need of a summer job to pay for grad school. Winding up at the eponymous theme park, he develops a fragile relationship with one of his troubled coworkers (Kristen Stewart). Conventional relationship issues eventually emerge, but Mottola refrains from overplaying the drama or hammering down on the formula. With a gentle, almost Altmanesque touch, Mottola guides a talented ensemble cast through his undeniably sharp script. The score by Yo La Tengo, coupled with a delicious soundtrack of classic eighties hits, provide a nifty supplement to this infectious romance. Mottola doesn’t simply enjoy teenage angst—he gets it (even the awkward makeout scenes are well-choreographed).

Stewart, now basking in the monumental success of “Twilight,” finally reaches her understated potential, while Eisenberg remains his predictably klutzy self. A supporting cast, including Bill Hader and the delightfully geeky Martin Starr, keep the side stories in check. It’s impossible to disregard the charm of “Adventureland,” despite its extreme overexposure. Now that Mottola has the limelight, he should get the chance to soak it in. [Eric Kohn]

I would guess one line in particular was quite a flattering comparison for Mottola:

"With a gentle, almost Altmanesque touch, Mottola guides a talented ensemble cast through his undeniably sharp script."

The spirit of Altman, known to have an occasional good time in his lifetime, seems to also have infected the revelers at the after-party.

Producers Ted Hope and Anne Carey

Director Greg Mottola with his friend Steven Soderbergh (can you tell which is which??)

Kristin Stewart and Vanessa Wanger (Hope)

Mike White and Bill Hader

Kristen Wiig and SKE's Jodi Hildebrand

Mottola's movie is set in 1987 and full of the music, styles and vibe of that era. 

So what was the now-revered but then barely-working Robert Altman up to in 1987?

It was the year of the release of what is generally considered to be one of his worst movies, "Beyond Therapy", starring Jeff Goldblum.

I wonder if Mottola, or any of his "Altmanesque" characters in Adventureland might have seen it at a neighborhood theatre that summer? Perhaps in a pot haze on one of their days off from working at the amusement park in Long Island that was the inspiration for the location of this movie?

What a nice ironic coincidence of history that would be; fun to imagine, anyway. Glad to see Altman's spirit lives on, at least in the eye of one early reviewer!!!

william

Oh Happy Day

I was flying back from Sundance yesterday, so I only caught the inauguration on the television at the gate at the airport. Even still, it was quite exciting, as a crowd of people stood and watched, old, young, black, white, asian, rich, poor, conservative, eccentric, and not too many kept a dry eye through the proceedings.

At the moment that Barack Obama was sworn in as president, the group burst out in applause. 

Obama's powerful speech itself was occasionally drowned out by the tannoy's voice over the airport loudspeakers making their rote announcements about security and gate changes, which was frustrating, as we were all hanging on every inspirational word.

But as usual, it is Miss Natalie who has the Last Word and defines the exuberant spirit of an amazing day as she came home from school with her own drawing to share.

Thanks, Natalie.

I hope the world you inherit will be a slightly better place because of the big step forward we all took as a nation today!

william

The Presidents

There have been eight American presidents sworn in to take the oath of office since the Jewel Food Store on Broadway in Chicago put out this collection of 35 White Men as a promotional giveaway in the early 1960's.

Today, our 44th president, and our first person of color, becomes the next Jewel in the crown. Something that must have been totally unimaginable when these plastic figures and carved styrofoam columns were being fashioned and shipped out to the kids of America.

Amazing.

(Not to inject a note of dissent to this otherwise glorious day of celebration, but when are we going to find someone to revise the consensus discourse of our historical narrative that has every commentator across the political spectrum left or right, giving a free pass and adding to the hagiography of Ronald Reagan, who for me, and I suspect others, as the vanguard of the conservative takeover of government and the real architect of supply-side economics and deregulation, not to mention Star Wars and the uber-propagandanda of "morning in America" and Iran-Contra, is the real Worst President Ever, and the author of much that is so terribly wrong in the world we now live in ?).

"We are the change we have been waiting for."

william