by John Walters
A Song Of Ice And Fire
A volcanic eruption in Iceland, as if that nation doesn’t already have a surfeit of natural wonders. Meanwhile, above, a divine marriage of technology and nature. Shot by drone. Not an opening for a new season of Game Of Thrones.
These gawkers do realize that slipping into a flow of lava is instant death, don’t they? Have they never watched a James Bond film?
The Jean Genie
The unofficial mascot of 2021 March Madness: 101 year-old Sister Jean of Loyola, whose Ramblers advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. She’s older—by nearly 20 years—than the NCAA tourney itself. Loyola is one of ELEVEN schools that were seeded five or spots below the team they beat this weekend and we’re not even fully to the Sweet 16 (the previous record through two rounds was ten).
Fast forward two years when Betty White, now 100, wins an Oscar for her portrayal of Sister Jean in Rambler Resurrection. It’s the role that White was born (in 1923) to play.
As of this morning, the tourney still has UCLA, whose 11 national championships are the most in the tourney’s history, but the next four biggest winners—Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke and Indiana—did not even make the tourney.
The tourney has never been set up better for a Gonzaga triumph. The Zags are undefeated and could become the first school since the Hoosiers in 1976 to cut down the nets with an undefeated record.
The Chase
I only caught the last 20 minutes of it, so I’m unable to endorse my channel guide rating of two stars for The Chase, a 1966 film that aired on TCM on Friday. However, if that rating is accurate—when’s the last time you saw a Guide synopsis that read “a disappointment”?—we may have a winner in the “Best Cast, Worst Movie” sweepstakes.
Look at this cast: Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Angie Dickinson and the immortal Miriam Hopkins (one of Hollywood’s most luminous starlets back in the ’30s). And yet the movie was a pfffft, both critically and commercially. And not even bad enough to be a cult classic.
Although, it is odd (and SPOILER ALERT here) that a film based in Texas a few years after the Kennedy assassination has as its dramatic climax a captured man being gunned down by a stranger who steps out of the crowd as he’s being escorted by a lawman to jail. A little too on the nose and a little too soon, no?
Foooooore!
This kid better make his high school’s golf team this spring.
Just Stay Tuned
Hey, JW, do you just post Rex Chapman tweets in order to avoid having to write more or to avoid posting political stuff about how 21st century Republicans are flat-out garbage?
That’s a very good question. But this is a quality video, no?
The boating video: bay at Cabo San Lucas. We had witnessed the same as our outboard boat came up alongside a fishing cruiser. Wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t same harbor seal! He’s got his MO down!