A Movie You Might Have Missed #11: Payback

It's been 10 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed.

11. Payback

Porter knows his worth.

$70,000.

That is the amount that his erstwhile partner, who now works for the syndicate, stole after double crossing and leaving him for dead. And that is the amount Porter wants back. No more, no less. He will do whatever it takes to get it.

So begins the grittiest movie I have ever seen Mel Gibson in. Porter is the anti-heroes' "hero" so to speak, a guy who has only one goal and only one redeeming quality, which is his love for Rosie, the requisite hooker with a heart of gold. I suppose he actually could have two redeeming qualities, the second being his stubborn determination to take only the money that was stolen from him. (My full review here.)

Catching Truth in Our Net

In life and art both, as it seems to me, we are always trying to catch in our net of successive moments something that is not successive ... I think it is sometimes done — or very, very nearly done — in stories. I believe the effort to be well worth making.

C.S. Lewis, On Stories

Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

Inari Jizo

Inari at Takayama Inari Shrine Aomori, by Keey
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

I loved these statues which looked like dogs with napkins tied around their neck. I discovered they are actually foxes with bibs around their necks. They are Japanese deity statues and the bibs signify different purposes.

You may read about Jizo here and the bibs here. As for the fox,

The fox, symbolizing both benevolence and malevolence, is sometimes identified with the messenger of Inari, and statues of foxes are found in great numbers both inside and outside shrines dedicated to the rice god.

Encyclopedia Britannica

Pan Bagnat (Provençal Tuna Sandwich)

I grew up with a version of this sandwich which my parents made regularly in the summertime. We loved it. Loaded with different ingredients, bathed in a vinaigrette (the title means "bathed bread"), weighted down and left for all the flavors to meld — it was the perfect summer meal.

So I was intrigued when Cooks Illustrated had their own version and tried it out last weekend. I loved this version too. Get it at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

Solitude

Hans Thoma, Solitude
via Arts Everyday Living

Rereading: Mrs. Appleyard's Year (and Mrs. Appleyard's Kitchen) by Louise Andrews Kent

My current bedtime reading - again. Gentle, funny, and perfect for nodding off. Here's my original review from years ago:

I know, I know. This looks like the lamest old book ever. Yet after enjoying the clever, gentle humor of the commentary in Mrs. Appleyard's Kitchen (see below) I was intrigued enough to find a cheap copy of this book. Truth to tell, I was thinking it might be good to read to my mother-in-law (she suffers from slight dementia and so far Cheaper By the Dozen is our favorite to share together on my visits).

At any rate, as I was looking through this I found myself continually pulled into the story and laughing. Louise Andrews Kent pays us the compliment of not underestimating our intelligence. The imagined life of the Italian family living in the hedges (prompted by a gardener's unpleasant joke) or Mrs. Appleyard's defense of her family to a British aunt allow us to enter a world long gone but to realize that people were still the same then as now.

I have been waiting for at least a month to read this on Forgotten Classics and am excited that Mrs. Appleyard's time to shine has finally come. Pull up your rocking chair on the porch, have a glass of lemonade and rock in the cool breeze as we follow Mrs. Appleyard through her year.

Note: I read Mrs. Appleyard's Year over a year at my Forgotten Classics podcast. Pull up your rocking chair on the porch, have a glass of lemonade and rock in the breeze as we follow Mrs. Appleyard through her year. Listen here.

This is the book that led me to Mrs. Appleyard's Year. It is an absolutely delightful "forgotten classic" that I discovered in my parent's basement. Hilarious and intentionally so ... Mom and I kept picking it up and reading each other snippets all day ... and laughing our heads off. It is a cookbook but each recipe deserves reading because they are larded with small stories, humorous comments, and personality ... somewhat in the same way as the recipes in The Best Cook in the World. It often winds up on my bedstand for nighttime reading.

Modern Man and "The Old Days"

I find that the uneducated Englishman is an almost total sceptic about history. ... To us the present has always appeared as one section in a huge continuous process. In his mind the present occupies almost the whole field of vision. Beyond it, isolated from it, and quite unimportant, is something called "the old days"—a small, comic jungle in which highwaymen, Queen Elizabeth, knights-in-armor, etc. wander about. Then (strangest of all) beyond the old days comes a picture of "primitive man." He is "science," not "history," and is therefore felt to be much more real than the old days. In other words, the prehistoric is much more believed in than the historic.

C.S. Lewis, Christian Apologetics essay

This still rings true which does account for the rising inability to understand "context" of people's writings and actions in "The Old Days" which do not conform to modern thinking. On only one action deemed inappropriate may great men and women be judged to be evil. All because they are not in the days we live in ourselves.

Mt. Fuji seen from Mt.Takabocchyama Nagano

Mt. Fuji seen from Mt.Takabocchyama Nagano, taken by Koichi_Hayakawa.
Via Calligraphy in the view, (Licensed under CC BY 4.0)

This photograph is featured at FIND/47: Japan's hidden visual delights.

Japan is home to 47 prefectures offering 47 distinct experiences shaped by the natural scenery, historical architecture, and local traditions unique to each region.

Even after a dozen visits, there will still be more that you have yet to see.

FIND/47 offers a dynamic visual platform for discovering aspects of Japan you didn't even know you were looking for.

There is some stunning photography there and I will definitely be sharing some of it from time to time.

Rereading — The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall

Vish Puri, Most Private Investigator, does what is needful to solve his cases. They usually involve investigating prospective brides and grooms for arranged marriages, but there are also big, serious cases. Such is the main problem in this book where Puri has to save a crusading lawyer's reputation while discovering what happened to the missing servant the lawyer is rumored to have murdered.

A judiciously quirky Indian detective (meaning realistic) and his operatives are highlighted, as well as his Mummy who sets out to solve a mystery that her son does not take seriously. This was an enjoyable "cozy" sort of mystery, like a trip to India. Rereading it seven years after the last time (for A Good Story podcast #63), I am struck by just how realistically regular Indian life is portrayed. I say that after watching so many Indian films in the last couple of years that I noticed tons of authentic details that slid past me in previous readings.

Ultimately, this was a classic mystery in many ways and yet it still managed to fool me. Extremely well done and gave a bird's-eye view of India without needing tons of info-dumps. Highly recommended. (P.S. I am a big fan of his Mummy-Ji.)

Chilly Spring Morning

Chilly Spring Morning, Remo Savisaar

Savory (Ham, Mozzarella & Basil) Brioche Couronne

Couronne means "crown" and this is obviously named for the shape. However, it is also fit for royalty. An enriched brioche dough is filled with ham, mozzarella and basil to make a wonderful meal.

Get it at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

Dog Politics

We got out two new rawhide bones and Rose said, "Let the dog politics begin." Because, you know, power is all about who controls the bones.

Soon afterward, we had this peaceful scene. Kaylee is just taking a peaceful snooze, coincidentally between the two bones.

So peaceful ...

Or is it?

Another angle shows a different story.

A story of supplication and longing for just one of those tasty bones. You can't hear the heartfelt whining but rest assured begging for bones is both physical and verbal. The bones which Kaylee controls with a simple, steely look into Jeeves' eyes.

A story of power and politics.

Fairy Tales

A mother reads to her children, Jessie Willcox Smith

I love this picture. It perfectly captures the feeling of reading to your children, especially when everyone is enjoying the story. I read to the girls for years and years until they grew out of it, which thankfully they did relatively late.

Now that a grandchild is on the way, this is one of the things I am really looking forward to — sharing all those wonderful story-filled moments together.

A Movie You Might Have Missed #10: Double Indemnity

Be still my heart. Do not miss this classic.

It's been 10 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed.

10. Double Indemnity

A famous film that I, nevertheless, have to beat people over the head to watch. The screenplay is by director Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler and the dialogue crackles with iconic film noir style.

Fred MacMurray is the insurance salesman who comes up with the perfect murder scheme to rid femme fatale Barbara Stanwyck of her husband's annoying presence. Edward G. Robinson is MacMurray's boss, a wily insurance investigator who feels that things don't quite add up. Told in flash-back, the film nonetheless maintains dramatic tension the entire time.

Ironically, all three stars did not want to do the film. MacMurray and Stanwyck because they were cast against type as evil. Robinson because he was not the main star ... yet he carries the film at the end as his line sums up the movie perfectly.

Word on Fire Bible — A Cathedral in Print

I've been waiting for this ever since Word on Fire mentioned they were working on a Bible. Go watch the video. This is beautiful with tons of art — way more than I imagined it would be.

Word on Fire Bible

There is a detailed review at National Catholic Register that tells more (just makes my mouth water, to be honest). Here's a bit:

As Bishop Barron explains in the introduction, the commentary is meant to be, above all else, evangelical in its purpose: “First, it is specifically geared toward those who, for a variety of reasons, are not affiliated with the Christian faith, or indeed with any organized religion. … Secondly and relatedly, its commentaries hone in on two simple but fundamental questions: Who is God, and who is Jesus Christ?”

At the same time, those two questions plumb, even for the most confident believers, wells whose ultimate depths we will never reach in this life. Those of us safely in the Catholic fold have plenty to learn from the commentaries of those who have pondered the Gospels over the centuries. Yes, the intelligent seeker will be enlightened by the Word on Fire Gospels. And the believer who regularly reads Scripture will become well-disciplined by this text: It forces us to slow down rather than zoom through that daily chapter. It compels us to consider the thoughts of greater minds and holier souls than ours on this or that particular passage.

What's your hurry?

“What's your hurry?"

"Because now is the only time there ever is to do a thing in," said Miss Ophelia.”

Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin

Three Brave Ones

Three Brave Ones, Remo Savisaar

The Continual Tide of the Human Condition

Treading water isn't good enough. There is a continual tide of the human condition that can carry us away. If we're not actively trying to move forward, then we're falling behind.

Father John Libone

Oh and how well I know it. I still catch myself trying to float on that tide, so to speak, for a bit of a holiday. And how do I catch myself? Because I realize how far I've been swept back by the tide.

I am chasing a dream.

I am chasing a dream. I want the unattainable. Other artists paint a bridge, a house, a boat; and that’s the end. They’ve finished. I want to paint the AIR which surrounds the bridge, the house, the boat; the beauty of the air in which these objects are located; and that is nothing short of impossible. If only I could satisfy myself with what is possible.

Claude Monet

(Monet at Giverny by Caroline Holmes)

Woman in the Garden

Woman in the Garden
a study in the effect of sunlight and shadow on colour
Claude Monet