Epeolatrix

The CIA in Hollywood: How the Agency Shapes Film and Television by Tricia Jenkins (ISBN: 9780292772465) "The CIA in Hollywood offers the first full-scale investigation of the relationship between the Agency and the film and television industries. Tricia Jenkins draws on numerous interviews with the CIA’s public affairs staff, operations officers, and historians, as well as with Hollywood technical consultants, producers, and screenwriters who have worked with the Agency, to uncover the nature of the CIA’s role in Hollywood. In particular, she delves into the Agency’s and its officers’ involvement in the production of The Agency, In the Company of Spies, Alias, The Recruit, The Sum of All Fears, Enemy of the State, Syriana, The Good Shepherd, and more. Her research reveals the significant influence that the CIA now wields in Hollywood and raises important and troubling questions about the ethics and legality of a government agency using popular media to manipulate its public image." It sounds like more of a muckraking book than it is, and it was interesting to learn about the process of getting access or equipment in exchange for cooperation between studio and military/government.

My first R-rated film was probably High Plains Drifter. I was a small child, taken to the drive-in because my uncle was babysitting me instead of going out with his wife. Their idea of a good compromise was a trip to the drive-in, figuring I'd just sleep through everything. I didn't. For years all I could remember about the movie was the town being painted red; in my bad dreams afterward, it was blood and not paint.

The Yeoman of the Glass and China Pantry isn't just there to fold napkins, he is also responsible for maintaining the glasses and dinnerware collections. I think the napkin-folding is highlighted because it sounds silly; the overall job is more serious. They also head the team that has to lay the table for state banquets (except for the silverware, which is the Yeoman of the Silver Pantry). It's on par with museum work, with additional issues that come from frequently using those hundreds of museum pieces. I'd read up on this out of curiosity and there's a lot of prep work for state occasions. In the US, this is part of the role of the White House Chief Usher and their staff. Same job, but we don't have the archaic names.

I just started it this morning after hearing about it on a podcast. I currently lean toward her being a reluctant participant and not the murdery-sex-kitten of pop culture, but I'm only on episode two. Absolutely grossed out by the police interrogation of her, regardless of her guilt or innocence.

The Godfather is one of my favorites, too, so having a dramatization of the behind-the-scenes stuff has been rewarding. What's funny to me is that I've read a lot of books on The Godfather, and a lot on Old Hollywood, but somehow I managed to learn next to nothing on Robert Evans. Now I need to read "The Kid Stays In The Picture".

I thought the lightsaber / beskar scene was meant to mirror a similar scene in the Lone Wolf and Cub movie (or manga). That it wasn't meant to be cruel, but instead it was a way to know where Grogu's instincts pushed him. It's possible that he can't articulate his feelings (mentally, not verbally) to the degree that Luke needs in order to be sure. And Luke obviously has his own Jedi bias, so seeing Grogu's choice would be the clearest demonstration of what Grogu wanted.

A Killer by Design: Murderers, Mindhunters, and My Quest to Decipher the Criminal Mind by Ann Burgess Okay, I admit, I've been waiting for this book for decades. Prof. Burgess was one of the original members of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, along with Robert Ressler and John Douglas. While they and other men of the BSU have written multiple books, this is the first retrospective by Burgess about her time and work with the FBI. Initially I had an unfortunate tendency to conflate her with Dr Wendy Carr of the Netflix series Mindhunter, but that faded quickly. I enjoyed hearing about her experiences and her insights, and it was good to get her point of view on the things Douglas and Ressler had also written about.

This is only sort of true crime, but it's related enough that I think people here might be interested: "Shooting Zodiac" by Robert Graysmith, released Aug 2021. It's a document of the making of David Fincher's Zodiac movie, and Fincher's efforts to make it as accurate and truthful as possible. I've only just started, but it's been pretty good so far. I think a key as-yet unspoken element is that Fincher's obsession with getting everything right was very attractive to Graysmith, whose own obsession with the Zodiac case led to his two most famous books (the ones that were optioned for the movie). We get insight into Fincher's research process and the depths he pursues to get as much detail as he can, as well as the minutiae of film production (getting the right studio and funding, getting actors, etc). There are interesting conversations with some of the original detectives, a couple of Arthur Leigh Allen's family members, and eventually surviving victims. [Edited to add: This book is lead-up to the making of Zodiac, focusing on Fincher's extensive research phase. There is not nearly enough actual making-of data, but the pre-production stuff is still fascinating.]

Just finished "Murder Capital of the World: The Santa Cruz community looks back at the Frazier, Mullin, and Kemper murder sprees of the early 1970s" by Emerson Murray. The structure of the book is that he went through past recorded information (interviews, news articles, police reports, etc) and did new interviews to come up with an oral-history style account of the murders. I thought it was really interesting, but I must advise that it can get a bit graphic in parts. Yeah, I know it's a book about murder, but there were details I had not heard before about Kemper's crimes and I was a bit squicked, even though I am not normally squeamish.

I hear it's because "the kids" don't want to watch old movies (anything before 2010), and the people who like old movies are old and don't stream (and are an undesirable marketing demographic). The main hopes for older films are the niche re-publishers like Arrow and Shout Factory. On a related note, if you're in the US, check out Shout Factory TV (they specialize in the sort of titles you mentioned). I go to Shout Factory for their physical media, though, so I can't say a lot about their streaming service other than it exists and is inexpensive (or free with ads?).

Hannibal Lecter's office. I really like it as a set design, although it's not quite what I think of as a 'livable' space.

The Owens House from Practical Magic.

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I really liked this doc, although yeah, some of that involves nostalgia. My Seattle friends and I were lying in wait for a good alternative station, some of the new DJs couldn’t handle local place names, and Lollapalooza was pronounced Lola Paloosa a significant amount of the time. I hated the grunge scene at the time because it overshadowed everything else and brought in hordes of people looking for the hot new trend, and it took years before I’d admit to liking any of the music. This makes a good double feature with the documentary “Hype!”.

Snuggle down for a CBeebies Bedtime Story with Tom Hiddleston? Friday 25 June, the BBC series "CBeebies Bedtime Story" adds Tom Hiddleston to the roster of actors and celebrities reading bedtime stories to those of us at home. I mention this in case anyone wants to hear Supertato by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet.