{"id":231007,"date":"2021-04-04T07:41:28","date_gmt":"2021-04-04T07:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=231007"},"modified":"2021-04-05T07:43:42","modified_gmt":"2021-04-05T07:43:42","slug":"fred-reed-joe-biden-and-john-cassavetes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=231007","title":{"rendered":"Fred Reed, Joe Biden and John Cassavetes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Linh Dinh \u2013 The Unz Review April 3, 2021<\/strong><\/h1>\n
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John Cassavetes and his wife, Gena Rowlands in 1959. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

My illness is mostly over, I think. There\u2019s still residual coughing, weak, tremulous breathing and difficulty sleeping, but I\u2019ve been able to walk for miles each day, a restorative act that gets my blood flowing, and, of course, seeing people lifts my spirits. Here in Tirana, there are enough benches and green spaces to rest, and a strong sun has been out.<\/p>\n

Although Tirana has almost no ornate buildings commonly associated with Europe, no fancy friezes, wrought iron balconies, fluted columns or caryatids, etc., Tiranians maintain southern European habits. Weather permitting, they prefer to be outside among their kind. Cafes and restaurants spill onto sidewalks. Yesterday, I walked by four old men playing domino, with a small crowd watching them. At another concrete table, there was a card game.<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s certainly collective grief, physical pain is always private, and once you\u2019re afflicted with anything, all you can think about is escaping that condition. During the worst days of my illness, my small room suddenly appeared huge, simply because everything in it was so inaccessible. The distance from my bed to the bathroom door became a much dreaded challenge, often to be postponed for hours.<\/p>\n

Though it was hard to think about anything, I thought of Fred Reed\u2019s 2019 article<\/a> about having 14 operations on his eyes, after they were injured in Vietnam. I was too much of a mess to reread it, however, but this morning, I finally revisited this unspeakably painful account, and the incredibly tough man who could endure such ordeals, though, typically, Reed downplays this aspect.<\/p>\n

A 12.7mm round had gone through Reed\u2019s windshield, \u201cSo I got choppered to the Naval Support Activity hospital in Danang with the insides of my eyes filled with blood, which I didn\u2019t know because my eyelids were convulsively latched shut. An eye surgeon there did emergency iridectomies\u2014removing a slice of the iris\u2014so that my eyes wouldn\u2019t explode. He also determined that powdered glass had gone through my corneas, through the anterior chamber, through the lens, and parked itself in the vitreous, which is the marmalade that fills the back of the eye. It had not reached the retina, though they couldn\u2019t tell at the time, which meant that I wasn\u2019t necessarily going to be blind. Yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

With calmness or even a weird sense of humor, Reed recounts one horrific operation after another, \u201cThe thing is, the patient can see all of this going on inside his eye. Really. It\u2019s like watching shadow puppets. The microvit is clearly visible like a little rotorooter and you can see the snipping action of the cutter-part. Ms. Pacman, I tell you. I remember watching it go after a piece of black crud of some sort, snipsnipsnip, and eat it. It is a tribute to the efficacy of federal dope that the patient doesn\u2019t leap up and run screaming from the room. You just don\u2019t care. The whole business is dreamy, a sort of warm glowing Buddhist light show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thinking about Reed\u2019s enduring hell puts everything into perspective, all right, so whatever I have is no more than a minor bout of hiccups, and it\u2019s almost over. Having cured myself, though, I can safely declare myself, with no immodesty, as a medical doctor, physical therapist and shrink. Fortified with this body of knowledge, I must send an urgent message to Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

Listen up, Joe. What\u2019s the point of having six million Jewish geniuses in your administration, if none of them can point out the obvious solution to this Covid crisis? Why hasn\u2019t Rachel Levine, for example, whispered in your ears, \u201cMr. President, you must sign an executive order immediately, mandating butt plugs for all Americans.\u201d Levine is already an expert at rearranging everything downstairs, even with the nastiest scalpels, so this is nothing but the gentlest of remedies.<\/p>\n

There you have it. Why bother wearing three or four masks and keeping your social distance if the other end of your plumbing is exactly like a howling tunnel in the middle of a hurricane? Farting away, all the Covid-infected are gassing up America with a massive apocalyptic miasma of toxic viruses, so all you\u2019re breathing in, night and day, is this evil exhalation.<\/p>\n

You must lead by example, Joe. To reassure your anxious citizenry, you, and Kamala, too, must show everyone how it\u2019s done.<\/p>\n

Biden, \u201cGood evening, my fellow Americans. Tonight, I have great news for everyone. After more than a year of collective suffering and collective sacrifice, not to mention collective loss of living, we\u2019ve reached the end of the tunnel, and I mean this literally, as you shall soon see. Tonight, I\u2019m signing an executive order mandating butt plugs for all Americans, even the newborn, and you must never take it off. With this easy, affordable and painless solution, Covid will finally be defeated.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of you may not even know what a butt plug is. You may think, Doesn\u2019t it sound rather pornographic? Not at all, my fellow Americans. It\u2019s just a piece of rubber that you shove up your anus, like this,\u201d and here Biden pulls down his pants, with admirable dignity, to show a snugly fitted and even stylish purple butt plug up his ass. \u201cKamala, will you show them yours?\u201d<\/p>\n

She readily complies. Her crimson butt plug is so huge, however, several journalists can\u2019t help but gasp. They pull their pants up.<\/p>\n

Biden, \u201cThey come in all sizes and colors, my fellow Americans, and many are quite cute, I must say. Even wholesome. X-ray scanners will be installed in all public buildings, including supermarkets, restaurants and bars, to ensure compliance. With this simple solution, our lives can return to normal, immediately!\u201d<\/p>\n

At the nadir of my sickness, I had basically one emotion, dread, so to warm up my soul again, I listened to Glenn Gould and watched John Cassavetes\u2019 Minnie and Moskowitz<\/em> and Woman Under the Influence<\/em>, movies I hadn\u2019t seen in more than 30 years.<\/p>\n

Cassavetes\u2019 films are characterized by long takes of people making each other uncomfortable, although this is almost never their intention. Many of them are just too self-absorbed, thus lost. Tension abounds, screaming erupts, and too often, there\u2019s even physical violence. Almost never entertaining, his flicks are excruciating investigations into the hidden pains of being humans, especially American ones. You go along, endure these torturous scenes, because you recognize yourself, or should, in all these characters.<\/p>\n

Minnie (Gena Rowlands) has a lunch date with Zelmo (Val Avery), an Armenian who oddly declares himself an Arab.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo\u2026 I mean, I don\u2019t look like an Arab. I don\u2019t wear blankets like that and I don\u2019t have any camel. How tall are you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with the \u201cHow tall are you?\u201d there\u2019s already an awkwardness between them, but Cassavetes\u2019 characters blunder routinely, just like we do in real life.<\/p>\n

At the restaurant, Zelmo tries to get Minnie to talk about herself, a basic tactic, but when she\u2019s unresponsive, he has no choice but to go on about himself. Too vehemently, he snarls, growls or shouts, \u201cI hate business, Minnie. It\u2019s funny, \u2018cause I\u2019m a fairly rich man, but I hate making money. I don\u2019t know what to do with it. I get up in the morning, I ask myself, Zelmo, what am I gonna do with my money? I give it to charity, I give it to friends. I buy a big house, take a vacation\u2014from what, I don\u2019t know? I\u2019m not married anymore. I was married to a woman that was\u2026 a very nice woman, we had no children\u2026 it didn\u2019t last\u2026 not very long\u2026 I made a mistake on our wedding night\u2026 personal stuff, you know. You\u2019re very easy to talk to, Minnie. You look like you care about me. That\u2019s a terrific quality to have\u2014a rare quality. I think those people that can listen endlessly are much more fascinating that the people that talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Digging deeper, he tells her, \u201cMinnie, I got to tell you\u2026 my problem is that I have hair down my back, and on my chest, and down my arms\u2026 but not on my legs\u2014my legs are very smooth. I don\u2019t know why I\u2019m telling you this\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s all right. I have the veal piccata.\u201d With Zelmo talking so much, they haven\u2019t even ordered.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at a man like me, Minnie, and what do you see?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI see a very nice man who\u2019s taking me to lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t seem to make you feel what I\u2019m feeling. It\u2019s very hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVery hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

More of the same, and these takes are usually very long, and Minnie has finally enough, \u201cZelmo, I have absolutely no interest in you personally. All I wanted to do was to go to lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot one dirty thing did I say. Not one off-center thing did I say.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cZelmo, I want to go. I\u2019m terribly sorry.\u201d They have eaten nothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways with blondes. They got some kind of Swedish suicide impulse in them. Took a girl out to lunch once\u2014the next thing you know she wants me to kick her. I said\u2014me kick you\u2014for what? What\u2019s that supposed to be\u2026 something?\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Minnie runs outside, with Zelmo chasing after and shouting. The sunny parking lot is a relief after the claustrophobic restaurant scene, yet even here, Zelmo can\u2019t shut up, \u201cI took you out, I was sorry for you. Bleach blonde hair, $90 a week worker\u2026 I wanted to take you out. Give you a little education. Let you understand there\u2019s some kindness in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seeing Minnie abused, the parking lot attendant, Moskowitz, has to intervene, thus begins their unlikely relationship.<\/p>\n

If anything, Woman Under the Influence<\/em> (1974) is even more painful to watch, for it involves Gena Rowlands going mad for nearly two hours, and I found myself howling at points, with tears streaming down my face, but hey, all of my emotions, even those I didn\u2019t know I had, were revived. Great art does that.<\/p>\n

For Woman Under the Influence<\/em>, Cassavetes got an Academy Award nomination for best director, and Rowlands got one for best actress. Even the lowbrow New York Daily News gave it a glowing review, but America was a much different country then It was much more serious place, with people who could still think.<\/p>\n

The movie\u2019s simple yet very poignant and elegant soundtrack was done by Bo Harwood. To celebrate their Academy Award nominations, Cassavetes and Harwood went onto a fire escape to drink some cognac.<\/p>\n

Harwood, \u201cHe brought two shot glasses, and he poured one for me, and one for himself, and he looked at me with that wonderful smile of his, and he lifted his glass over the city, and he looked at me and he said, \u2018Fuck them!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

I interpret that to mean Cassavetes made movies to follow, most ruthlessly, his own vision, and nothing else. Of the major studios, Cassavetes laughingly said, \u201cThey help us destroy them [\u2026] If we make a good film, they will only suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Awards would be nice, but you must never pander, \u201cYou have to fight every day to keep your sanity, and stop from censoring yourself.\u201d To censor yourself, then, is to lose your sanity, but that\u2019s all we do now. Cowering, we\u2019ve long lost our minds.<\/p>\n

In the safest space online, we can still flaunt our belligerence, glibness and stupidity, but that\u2019s just more proof of our cultural, intellectual and emotional regression.<\/p>\n

Linh Dinh\u2019s<\/em><\/strong> latest book is Postcards from the End of America<\/a>. He maintains a regularly updated photo blog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recovering from a bout of Illness in Tirana, Albania, Linh Dinh reflects on the writings of Fred Reed and John Cassavetes’ films<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=231007"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231041,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231007\/revisions\/231041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=231007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=231007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=231007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}