Fixes

Here’s something not seen every day. Prince William was out on the streets of London selling a magazine that focuses on homelessness. Photo from Google Images:

Wow. From an NYP article by Erin Keller, in my own words: In 1998 an electrician in Iceland was electrocuted. Doctors amputated both his arms. In France in 2021 he received the world’s first double arm transplant in France, donated in the same way organs are. He can now hug his wife, kids and grandkids. Photo from GI:

Quote from an article by Isabel Vincent at nypost.com: “We’re losing more people to fentanyl overdoes than guns, suicides and traffic accidents combined.”

NYP headline: “Battle wounds: Ukraine seeks more weapons as up to 200 troops die each day.”

Headline from newsmax.com: “RNC Blasts Soros-Funded Takeover of 18 Hispanic Radio Stations.” He knows polls are showing Latinos are fleeing Dems and he will try to stop it with propaganda.

Another new first. According to AAA, the average USA price for gasoline tops $5 a gallon.

Friday night’s movie fix was one of those film’s that is respected rather than liked. Narc (2002) stars Jason Patric and Ray Liotta as Detroit detectives investigating the shooting death of an undercover cop. It is grim and violent, revealing a world that would terrify most folks, a stark portrayal of humanity’s depths and the psychological damage it may do to those battle it. When thinking of cinematography, most fans will conjure the beautiful. This film is shot by Alex Nepomniaschy with a bleakness that fits the theme perfectly. My only quibble is that the camera work is too frequently arty, although the quick flashbacks the protagonists experience are excellent. It was writer/director Joe Carnahan’s second film. He went on to write and direct the vastly underrated The Grey (2011), one of my faves. His most recent title was Cop Shop (2021), a rousing, crazed actioner. He did three episodes of The Blacklist, including the pilot, and served as producer on 17. 41,000+ users at IMDb have rated Narc, forging to a consensus of 7.1 on a scale of ten. It’s running time is 1:45. Surprisingly, given its uncompromising grimness, it was successful financially, returning more than $12 million worldwide on a budget of $6.5 million. Add DVD sales and rentals and streaming, and the profit may have tripled. Obviously, the film is not for the squeamish. Here are the stars in character:

My thanks to Bill Brown, author of Words and Guitar: A History of Lou Reed’s Music and other fine books, who bought The Scandal of the Century: And Other Writings, a collection of articles by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; and to Monse`, who purchased three Nat Geo’s in Spanish for her brother; and to the woman who selected Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson; and to the one who chose a cook book in Russian; and the one who for the fourth consecutive Saturday took home a bunch of Russian DVDs, and gave me a large paperback novel.

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