Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia had a very
successful premiere at Tribeca Film Festival, but director Nicholas Wrathall and his team still need help with the final
archival materials and post production.
You can help...and be mentioned in the credits!
Check out the Kickstarter campaign.
But deadline is fast approaching… please get involved.
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Here's the official website of Nicholas Wrathall's new documentary Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia:
The documentary garnered a great review by Erica Abeel (author, Conscience Point) in HuffPost:
For sheer entertainment value, few docs can equal Gore Vidal the United States of Amnesia...a portrait of the novelist, playwright, polemicist, public intellectual, and bullshit detector. Screenings at the Tribeca Film Fest [sold out].... Vidal (who died at 86 in 2012) was of the aristocracy and related to American royalty (his mother married an Auchincloss). Yet he betrayed his class a la FDR with a vengeance. An iconoclast ahead of his time, he candidly wrote about homosexuality in an early novel, The City and the Pillar, which got him blacklisted by book critics at the New York Times. He knew everyone and went everywhere but became mordantly critical of privilege and what he called the "American Empire," offering, in his view, "socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the poor."
The documentary was written up in Rolling Stone recently, and Robert De Niro stated that it was on his personal short list of must-see films at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival. Ron Mwangaguhunga of IFC TV tweeted "amazing documentary on the irrepressible Gore Vidal "The United States of Amnesia" is the best doc I've seen in years.…"; Carl Ansley the tech entrepreneur and investor in TapMesh and TxVia tweeted, "really funny, thought-provoking shit-stirring stuff. Needs/deserves/will get a wide audience"; and Bevy Smith tweeted it was "More than a doc it was an autobiography" of a man she "long admired."
See the interview with Nicholas Wrathall on HuffPostLive about the documentary:
Remember, you can help fund the completion of this documentary to ensure it enjoys a post-Tribeca life.
You can make a tax-deductible contribution via USA Projects (deadline May 13, 2013) or you can contribute via Kickstarter (deadline May 11, 2013).
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[W]hen in 1963 Ray Cusick was asked to design some villains for a new BBC science-fiction series [Doctor Who], he sought something different.
.....
The Daleks—mutant monsters in sinister shells—trundled into the clapped-out studio reserved for children’s programmes.
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Critics were sceptical, until the fan mail arrived. Children across Britain huddled behind their sofas in squeaking, enjoyable terror....They were among the greatest science-fiction monsters ever conceived.
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For all their gimcrack genesis Daleks were—and are—no joke. For adults in 1960s Britain, they were Nazis on castors. “Ex-ter-min-ate” was their ecstatic catchword, death rays their miracle weapon.... Their obedience to orders was unquestioning. Obsessed with their own superiority, their goal was to destroy other lifeforms, if necessary enslaving them first.
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Many a serious British professional has a toy Dalek on his desk. In unguarded moments he may even play with it.The Daleks’ glory reflected greatly on Mr Cusick. But the colossal sums of money they made went elsewhere..... Mr Cusick was a salaried BBC employee and entitled to nothing but thanks. “Is any of this money coming my way?” he asked. It wasn’t.... Only after a long struggle by a loyal boss did he receive a token £100.
Yes, I own a toy Dalek, but the Hasbro C-3PO and R2-D2 retain pride of place. After all, I'm a Yank. Curiously, British actors inhabited all three canister characters: unnamed tricycle riders, Anthony Daniels, and Kenny Baker respectively. Even Respectably.
Hmmm. My spellcheck doesn't like "Daleks". Stupid machine.
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On whether he thinks there's ever been a time where he's gone too far
"Honestly, on a few things I think I was in bad taste. Maybe in Blazing Saddles. But I don't mind it. ... The whole movie's in bad taste. But I like bad taste."
NPR's interview with Brooks: www.npr.org
Well, then I guess I have bad taste, too.
Hedley Lamarr: Meeting adjourned. Oh, I am sorry, sir, I didn't mean to overstep my bounds. You say that.
Governor William J. Le Petomane: What?
Hedley Lamarr: "Meeting is adjourned".
Governor William J. Le Petomane: It is?
Hedley Lamarr: No, you say that, Governor.
Governor William J. Le Petomane: What?
Hedley Lamarr: "Meeting is adjourned".
Governor William J. Le Petomane: It is?
Hedley Lamarr: [sighs, then gives the governor a paddleball] Here, sir, play with this.
Image: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
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Remember, remember,
The Fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot;
For I see no reason
Why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Here are eight of of the 18 photos from Bonfire Night in Lewes - one of my (Isefire) curated digital gallerys on Flickr; click through to the gallery; once there, click the Next button to view the images.
via www.flickr.com
And this year, Instagram is in on the remembrance act, too. #guyfawkes and #bonfirenight
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I like East Sussex. Sometimes, I wonder if it would be feasible to retire there. I think the short answer is no. And, my old bones then might prefer Florida's warmth. I like East Sussex's countryside and rich history. Few places in Britain are more historic than Hastings. I'm a big fan of Foyle's War, too, which is set in 1940s Hastings. And Brighton is interesting. I like its comparative social and cultural liberalism--liberal compared to typical Britishness, that is, which can be famously conservative. I'm unfamiliar with the British seaside in general, but in Brighton at least, some homes sported cheery pastel colors. (
So, I was pleased to stumble across Oleg Pulemjotov's Brighton Folk project. Since the project is mostly candid shots of people in Brighton, the subjects are outdoors where--one gets the impression from Brighton Folk--Brighton is lived almost entirely. Perhaps it is moreso than many place in Britain! I've only been to Brighton for one day many years ago. Brighton Folks suggests a city's whose inhabitants spill out from interior spaces, sitting on sidewalks, standing on rooftops, leaning out of windows, meandering in alleys, and resting on buildings' entrance stairs. In one photo, a bloke's banging away on a piano almost curbside.
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September 22nd is the birthday of Anne of Cleves. For a scant few months the fourth wife of Henry VIII, Anne of Cleves also famously did not have her head cleaved from her shoulders. Henry VIII married her for political reasons and is said to have found her physically repugnant.
Henry had the marriage annulled as quickly as possible and gave Anne a great settlement, including Richmond Castle, but also what's now called simply the Anne of Cleves House. It's in Lewes, East Sussex, and I enjoyed visiting it in August 2011.
Anne of Cleves is buried in Westminster Abbey.
(Portrait of Anne of Cleves by Hans Holbein, 1539; click to enlarge.)
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If you have access to a UK-licensed version of iPlayer for TV programming, you can watch online BBC Four's 2-part Omnibus program about Gore Vidal.
(Contrary to popular believe, one can access UK-licensed iPlayer TV programming from outside of the UK--iPlayer radio is almost always widely available--however it requires a paid subscription to a VPN service, usually for around only $10 a month.)
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In Memoriam
Left: Warrant Officer Junior Grade Gore Vidal circa 1944, the Gore Vidal Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University; right: Gore Vidal in 2006 © Stathis Orphanos
October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012
Writer and provocateur of America's mid-century political and literary circles, Gore Vidal was raised in a prominent Washington D.C. Democratic family but describes himself as a conservative. He was the son of airline pioneer Eugene Vidal, grandson of Oklahoma Sen. T. P. Gore, stepbrother of Jackie Kennedy, and friend of writers and actors including Tennessee Williams, Anaïs Nin, Christopher Isherwood, Tim Robbins, and Paul Newman. A man of contradictions, he has been described as controversial, playful, acerbic, arrogant, and warm; as a gadfly, a conspiracy junkie, a paleo-isolationist, an America-hater, and a patriot; but also "the master essayist of our age" by the Washington Post and America's "greatest living man of letters" by The Boston Globe. He explored history, religion, sex, politics, and power in 25 novels--including his "Narratives of Empire" series about American history--several plays, movie scripts, and more than 200 essays.
PHOTO GALLERY, The New York Times: Gore Vidal 1925-2012
The New York Times: Prolific, Elegant, Acerbic Writer
San Francisco Chronicle: Gore Vidal, Celebrated Author, Playwright, Dies
BBC News: US Author Gore Vidal Dies Aged 86
The Guardian: Gore Vidal, US writer and contrarian, dies aged 86
CNN: Chronicler of American life and politics, dies (and CNN "This Just In" blog: A dozen thoughts from Gore Vidal)
The Atlantic: Gore Vidal - A Salute to Self-Absorbed yet Selfless Genius
Word & Film: Remembering Gore Vidal - Cultural Polymath, Political Gadfly, and Social Butterfly
AntiWar.com: Gore Vidal - the Last Jeffersonian
HuffingtonPost: The Legacy of Gore Vidal
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