Kinsey

Kinsey the movie was on TV last night. Better by far than I expected. As a retired actor - shoot I can prove I was an actor: I could post the $0.28 residual check I received a couple of days ago; it came via a $0.39 US postage stamp.  Somewhere or another, on television I assume, an episode of a TV series in which I played a Principal role, or more accurately, had a 'Principal' SAG contract, was replayed. All I can remember about the job is that the lead actor kept giving me angry glances as if getting ready to pull rank should the director slip up and put the camera too close to me. On most sets, so help me, humans return to infancy.

That's why Kinsey is stunning. Most of it is thoroughly adult. The role of Kinsey's wife, Linnley (?) in the acting was perfect and very surprising from an American actress (so kill me; calling a woman an 'Actor' strikes me as stupid) who usually play kitten not woman.

The trouble with the storytelling is that Kinsey is depicted as 'naughty' rather than as a scientist. The actual words say he is a "scientist" but the acting is too weak to convey that truth. The lead actor sabotages the story, just as he ruined Schindler's List, playing Schindler.

Kinsey's work still deserves wider distribution. His first book, on men, which I read at Lowell High School in San Francisco half a century ago, is now out of print. And the second volume, on women, I've never read. Didn't know there was such a book.  After three marriages (tenth child on the way; please say a prayer for safe delivery) I smugly insist I know what's to be known about female human sexuality. If I didn't I sure would be a slow study. I'm more than willing to grant there is also a strong thread of mystery running through the subject, for women and men.

The front page of THE NEW YORK POST a couple of days ago featured a shot of murder suspect John Karr seated on the plane which brought him to Los Angeles from Thailand. The 'screaming' headline read, "Snake On A Plane." Since the story broke the paper has referred to him a "the perv." I doubt anything of Kinsey is on the shelves at the offices of that NY rag. The automatic condemnation cries out, 'we're pure, we're pure' when all the time they are flat out evil condemning before the man is even charged!   I subscribed the other day for two reasons: to get free Dodger tickets, and to kid my New York friend by sending him clips from that paper, just as he sends me clips from that paper.  We go way back.

In history the collection of Kinsey's data must have been done lovingly and without judgment. When a teen, reading the first volume, I thought it was funny. For example, a very tall black man had a string tied to his member and when, lying down, he had an erection it rang a bell. I thought, and still think, that is fuuuuuuuny. One fine day when the sun comes up unobscured, and birds sing in the trees, we'll all be much more relaxed about, and appreciative of,  sex, wonderful sex.

Barry 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

The Female Brain

For years now, decades, the impact of the zenith of the feminist movement which in America I think was around 1989 (when, against my will my marriage number two collapsed, just as against my will as my first marriage ten years earlier) I've been guilty feeling and acting in the certitude that men and women were different. Now, finally I've stumbled upon recent wisdom, this time from Science.

It's Sunday. I'm reading the Sunday paper Book Section. This will be a Red Letter day in my life. 

From THE FEMALE BRAIN , by Louann Brizendine, M. D. Morgan Road Books: 280pp:

"There are still those who believe that for women to become equal, unisex must be the norm. The biological reality however, is that there is no unisex brain. The fear of discrimination based on difference runs deep, and for many years assumptions about sex differences went scientifically unexamined for fear that women wouldn't be able to claim equality with men."

Break out the champaign! Uncork the wine! Musicians, give us your sweetest music made in the name of Mother!

Oh what a relief it is!

I'm too giddy with happiness to continue this, for now. The ramifications will be enormous.

Barry

 

 

 

 

 

 

Readers Message Board Palaver

<< "Kind of marvelllous that the world's first novel can be on your just list. Strictly personal, I'd substitute Great Expectations for your pick, but I don't quarrel with yours, not one bit." >        - BB3 < "I absolutely, positively HATED Great Expectations.  Pip had to be the most whiny character I have ever encountered.  Two of my three kids have also read it and feel the same way.  I loved David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol, etc.  But I would leave Great Expectations OFF any *must read* list of mine.  I would also scratch Lord Jim off any list.  IMO, it was slim pickings the year the powers that be added Lord Jim to a classics list.  I did like Conrad's novella, Heart of Darkness though." > From: MarySkl   A classmate, David Kenneth Israel, apparently talked our Literature professor - whose name escapes me this second - into allowing me, an undergraduate, to take a graduate course, a single author course, actually called a 'Graduate Seminar' in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard in the 1950s. I think I got a B-. Hey, I passed!  Here's the poop. Dickens' reputation was given a boost by the publication of a new biography by one, Johnson, not long before I took that inspiring course. Great Expectations can be read as a rewrite of David Copperfield written 35 years later. David had to learn caution and discretion, while the trajectory of Pip's life taught him to stop being such a snob. You're absolutely right/correct/on-target David is infinitely more likeable than Pip. One might say that the later novel was almost a confession by the narrator. I believe it is now generally believed that the later novel is the stronger work of art written by a very great artist at the peak of his powers. Barry

Buddy Lists

My Buddy List has drastically shrunk. There's good ol' Ally and good ol' Zoe, and my daughter who won't speak to me, ha ha ha ha, but today's shrinkage suggests my 'buddies' get Online via airplane. AOL, TIME WARNER was the kiss of death.

So now it's free, this AOL. If I'm offered the very latest AOL software I decline on the grounds that it's probably not to benefit me, but to benefit AOL getting even more advertising machinery on board this sinking ship.

Oh well. A new 'Buddy' of mine will show up around March 20 2007. I'm 73, the woman (mother/wife) is 35, and the buddy-to-be is about two months old. Crazy, right? Hey, this is America, "Home of the Brave." And no, it was not caused by invitro fertilization, but by the old-fashioned way. Clue: Two hours or so after swimming 1500 meters the other day, swim training for Masters swim Meets, my blood pressure taken at home read 114/64 - resting pulse. the third number I record, might have been a bit high but that was not typical. If the first figure is 170 or over a doctor will not write a Viagra prescription. So the motive to swim-train puts on some muscle.

To make room for our new Buddy we will need a vehicle with six seats. So for the price of most late model used ("previously owned" in typically evasive American lingo) cars we got a new Mazda MPV3 gorgeous thingum with front wheel drive and a hot four cylinder (good MPGs) transverse engine and transmission with overdrive. Years ago I owned a rotary engine Mazda that I totalled, replaced with another identical, and both were made sloppily. Mazda suffered a class action suit at about that time. Mazda, I figure, is still trying to climb back from their manufacturing nightmares for which I admire them tremendously. All that has to happen now is for 'Buddy's' mother to transform her driving permit into a license. In the meantime she back-seat drives ME. Ha ha ha ha ha.....

Hey, we aren't all going to abandon ship are we?

H   e   l   p    !   !   !   gulp   gulp   gulp    gulp...........

 

Barry xxx