NEWS FROM PLANET FRIGIA

FRIGIA — (An outer space adventure fraught with imminent danger.)  Capt. Flash Zarkin reports that the expedition to the lost planet of Frigia had its anxious moments as the Electronic Stability Control (skid) light blinked wildly on the module of the Dodge space vehicle.  The air in the space capsule was quite “blue” as  Dr. Zarkor swore never to return to this remote planet lacking “any intelligent life.”   But that wasn’t entirely true since Frigia’s Princess Fria was hosting at Lund’s & Byerly’s deli on France Avenue.  The normally cheerful Princess muttered something about leaving this “frozen hell hole” for a more hospitable planet where icicles don’t hang from the eyebrows.  Could that be Mongo where the crazed Ming the Merciless rules until the third week of January?  Hello Mongo, goodbye Fria! (Next chapter: Zarkor Meets the Death Ray).

 

Weber Book As Related to Urban Renewal in 60s

The University of Minnesota Mapping Project which documented systematic racial segregation through racial covenants and redlining has been “‘the single most important recent gift to Minneapolis,” according to Tom Weber in his book “Minneapolis, an Urban Biography.”  Having been a student in a summer’s class on this eye opening topic, I agree.  Furthermore, before it was Minneapolis it was Dakota land and “we newcomers have generally been rotten guests,” he added.

Urban renewal here resulted in demolition of the historic Metropolitan Bldg.  Whereas, Boise enhanced it’s ethnic downtown diversity (Basque block) and didn’t demolish any businesses that made downtown attractive. Less is more in the case of Boise vs. Minneapolis. 

Minneapolis: White and Black neighbors didn’t “just happen,” but were the result of long standing processes carried out thousands of local residents and overseen “by exclusive leadership in the city.”

Pain & Glory, Bundle of Joy, Mpls Bio

 Spanish director Almodovar’s 2019 film “Pain and Glory” could be autobiographical about the life of a gay movie director growing up in rural Spain and then experiencing first love in Madrid.  What hit me hard was the vibrant interior colors; orange, red, purple and green.  Very Mediterranean.  It’s a tonic for the pandemic grey day winter blues. 

CINDERELLA. It’s Christmas Eve, a time honored tradition where I watch America’s cutest couple — Eddie and Debbie — in RKOScope’s “Bundle of Joy,” a lovely Cinderella story for the holiday.  Our Debbie, a newly minted mom, has been fired from her department store job but is saved by the handsome prince, Eddie, who’s the son of the boss.  Several catchy tunes carry the story including a jitterbug contest with Debbie, 7 months pregnant then, flying through the air of the RKO soundstage.

Kudos to Tom Weber for his recent book, “Minneapolis, an Urban Biography,” with a chapter on local discrimination, which was infamous.  White and Black neighbors didn’t “just happen,” but were the result of long standing processes carried out thousands of local residents and overseen “by exclusive leadership in the city.”

CITIZEN KANE, MANK

MANK. Income inequality and blatant disregard for the working class may have prompted Herman J. Mankiewicz (Mank) to write a screenplay in 1940 that Orson Welles crafted into the greatest movie ever made, “Citizen Kane.”   With Hearst’s fairy-tale lifestyle and conspicuous consumption exemplified by his monumental San Simeon Castle, Mank had the incentive to craft a compelling screenplay.

You don’t need to know the back story to appreciate the Netflix movie “Mank” where the writer’s angst builds around W. R. Hearst’s newspapers brutal propaganda against progressive author and gubernatorial candidate Upton Sinclair.  Fueling Mank’s fire is movie mogul L. B. Mayer, state GOP party chair, who produced phony “newsreel” interviews with “voters” that further destroy Sinclair’s chances. The specter of “socialism” is the dog whistle employed then as it is now by the Republicans.  

Watch “Mank” in tandem with “Citizen Kane” where in an interview with the reporter “Jed,” played by Joseph Cotton, the case against Hearst/Kane is candidly stated. (“He did brutal things.”)  “Mank” connects the dots on the CK puzzle that has entertained many for almost 80 years.  For more on Hollywood writers, watch “Trumbo” and “The Player.”https://www.netflix.com/title/81117189