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