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Harrison Ford: By The Numbers

jake — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:10:47 +0000

Anyone who knows Jesse is aware that he has a penchant for delightfully long rants about various icons of pop culture, which he then usually emails or (sends via Facebook) to a list of people who care about such things. It’s a short list, and I consider myself privileged to be on it.

Recently, I stumbled upon this clip thanks to Videogum (which, by the way, is currently tied for first place on the List of My Favorite Things Ever [with The Best Show on WFMU]). Being that he and I are both connoisseurs of Harrison Ford’s work (we’ve had a Harrison Ford-related music project in the works for a few years now), I figured he’d enjoy it, and I sent it his way. Take a look-see for yourself:

In response to this video, I received the following email:

From what I can tell, these are the what clips are from:

Air Force One

Firewall

Frantic – they have quite a bit from the underrated Frantic (one of the only Roman Polanski films I really like, probably because Ford is in it). This is the one where he is going around asking about his wife being kidnapped (Someone should do this with Polanski and films featuring bad things happening to women – Frantic, Rosemary’s Baby, Tess, and incest in Chinatown).

The Fugitive

Random Hearts

Patriot Games

In the 29 feature films Ford has starred in, 6 of them he is married and something happens to his family. These are all the above films. I am not counting [Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the] Crystal Skull, although he gets married in the finale and he is ostensibly fighting for his family throughout the film. I am also not including What Lies Beneath, in which he murders his wife. That’s about 20%. Note: the first film he did this in was the aforementioned Frantic.

In those same 29 feature films, Ford is married in 12 of them (again, not counting Crystal Skull), which means he is predominantly single in his film career (60% of the time). However, ever since Presumed Innocent, he has been married in 10 of those 15 films, meaning that since 1990, he has been way more married than the first half of his career.

I don’t know about Crossing Over, the film he did earlier this year. It was only a limited release.

Writing these kinds of emails is what Jesse does, and I don’t think it’s just luck that he happens to associate with folks like me who appreciate them to no end. But I thought that this analysis might have a little more impact with some visual flair, so I whipped up some art to help bring this data home. I therefore proudly present the Harrison Ford “Get Off My Family” breakdown:

A few things to note here, aside from what Jesse already pointed out about What Lies Beneath and Crystal Skull:

I chose Mosquito Coast instead of Presumed Innocent to start the second count, because it’s Ford’s first starring role in which he is married. That film was shot in early 1986, while Ford was 43. I guess Hollywood decided he finally looked old enough to play a family man.
We’ve assumed Ford is single in all films in which that topic is not specifically addressed; if I’m not mistaken, that is true in both Force 10 from Navarone and K-19: The Widowmaker. I can’t remember if the topic comes up in The Frisco Kid.
One could argue that Ford’s family isn’t exactly living in the safest of conditions in Mosquito Coast, but I think that goes against the spirit of what we’re doing at here. We’re looking at cases in which Harrison Ford is specifically struggling to find or protect his family, which is why What Lies Beneath doesn’t fall into the “Family in Trouble” category either.
It is also interesting to note that in three of the twelve films in which Ford is married, he has committed adultery (What Lies Beneath, Presumed Innocent, Regarding Henry). That’s a 25% adultery rate, just below the average rate for American males, which MSNBC puts at 28% (though obviously that’s a tough statistic to measure accurately). It is also interesting to note that all three of these indiscretions took place before the start of their respective films; as far as I know, Ford has never committed adultery on screen (unless you count Hanover Street, in which he is the other man).

Lord knows it’s been a rough fifteen years for us Ford lovers (he is, in my opinion, two for ten since Clear and Present Danger), but let’s all just hang in there, and here’s hoping he gets back on track.

South by Southwest Awards ’09

jake — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:49:15 +0000

This is the last SXSW post for a while, I swear, but it’s the only one that really matters. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great honor to present to you the second annual (last year’s awards are here and here) SXSW awards, which I am hereby affectionately dubbing “The Rutty Swesties.” Get it? Too bad. Let’s begin with…

Best Suprise

Monotonix (Tel Aviv, Israel)

Holy moly. I’m not even sure if I’m that into these guys’ tunes, but you cannot help but be completely hypnotized by their antics. They seriously spent more time crowd surfing or climbing up the walls than standing on the stage, and most of the time they were playing their instruments on top of the crowd. Did I mention the fifteen minute drum solo while they changed an amp that they blew in the middle of the show? I’ve pretty much never seen anything like this, and what a way to close out the trip. If only they did fire tricks… OH WAIT:

The “I Can’t See These Guys Enough” Award

Gil Mantera’s Party Dream (Youngstown, OH)

Two clinically insane geniuses who strip down to their banana hammocks while simultaneously dancing their asses off, playing the shit out of matching Lucite guitars, and blowing everyone’s minds with their incredibly catchy electro-pop (which is drenched in vocoder vocals, brain-crushing hooks, and Stevie Nicks covers). Just go with it.

Runners up: Marnie Stern, Still’ Flyin

Most Overrated

Vivian Girls

My take on the Vivian Girls record was that it was highly mediocre, so I was sure there was a reason these ladies were getting so much attention. I figured the live show was the key, and I really wanted to see what they were all about. Turns out they are all about: being somewhat cute, wearing short shorts, and not being able to play their instruments (or faking as such, which is even worse). I’ll take Marnie Stern’s sick chops any day of the week over this derivative slop.

Worst of the Worst

Kevin Devine and the Goddamn Band

THEY ARE CALLED KEVIN DEVINE AND THE GODDAMN BAND.

Best Show of the Festival

Titus Andronicus

The Titus Andronicus debut The Airing of Grievances is an odd and invigorating combination of erudite wordplay and punk rock sensibility; these guys have no problem quoting a few lines from an existentialist philosopher and then closing a song by screaming “Fuck you!” at the top of their lungs. It’s weird, and kinda great. But walking into a show after hearing an album like that, it’s tough to know if you are going to get the punks or the professors. About five seconds into their set, it was clear that the punks had come out to play. The setting was perfect: no stage, just a cleared out corner of a parking lot at a backyard barbecue. The crowd was stocked with uber-hipsters and gutterpunks alike, and everyone in attendance was treated to a simple, unpretentious, and completely furious ass-rocking. Kudos to you, Titus Andronicus. You win SXSW.

Runners up: Mojo Nixon, Monotonix

Technical awards:

Most Likely to Die in a Horrific Stagediving Accident: Ami Shalev of Monotonix (Tel Aviv, Israel)
The “Nastiest Chops” Award: Marnie Stern (New York, NY)
The “Prima Donna” Award for longest and fussiest soundcheck: The Rosebuds (Raleigh, NC)
The “Please Don’t Ever Hang It Up, I Don’t Care HOW Fat You Get” Award: Mojo Nixon (Chapel Hill, NC)
Shortest Shorts: Hutch Harris of The Thermals (Portland, OR)
The “Nice Job Pissing Off The Meatheads In Front of Me” Award: HEALTH (Los Angeles, CA)
Most Judy Garland T-Shirts Per Capita: Abe Vigoda (Los Angeles, CA)
Most Brew Grooves Jammed: Still Flyin’ (San Francisco, CA)

And if you think I am going on about Marnie Stern’s chops too much, suck on this:

A Family History Lesson

jake — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 22:50:40 +0000

Last week, I signed my family up for Geni, which is a great site that allows you to create a family tree for free (here’s mine), and then use that family tree as a small social networking site; like a mini Facebook, just for your family. Building out my family tree inspired me to finally get around to digitizing the tape recording I have of my (paternal) grandmother Rosie’s testimony before the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1952. For those of you that care about such details, the cassette tape recording I have was copied from another cassette tape, which itself was recorded from a vinyl pressing which had been handed down since 1952. Needless to say, it wasn’t in great shape. I converted the tape to digital using my M-Audio box, and then ran it through a few noise reduction filters, and the resulting WAV and MP3 sound much better than my copy of the tape ever did, which is great.

A little bit of background here for the few of you who may not have heard me ramble on about this at length: in 1952, my grandmother was a forty-seven-year-old immigration and civil rights attorney practicing in Los Angeles. She was indeed an active member of the Communist party, and did extensive work with the LA chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and worked cases for the Los Angeles Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born. She was a communist until the day she died, which was soon after I was born. The tape is a bit of a family heirloom and a pretty amazing piece of living history, so it’s great to finally have it saved as an MP3 and be able to share it here.

However, even after the cleanup work I did, there were still a few parts of the tape that were unintelligible, so I went looking for a transcript of the audio. It took me a few hours of digging, but I eventually found the full archive of HUAC papers on archive.org. As it turns out, the printed copies of all the HUAC hearings, reports, and findings are all available at the Boston Public Library, but they’ve been scanned and posted online thanks to the Internet Archive. Further investigation turned up a number of reports referencing Rosie’s name (see the image right for a page from one report entitled “Communist Legal Subversion: The Role of the Communist Lawyer“), transcripts of her serving as counsel for other people brought before the committee, the transcript of her second testimony in 1963 (of which my father and I were unaware) regarding her trips to Cuba, and most rewardingly, the full content of HUAC’s 1952 investigations into “Communist activities among professional groups in the Los Angeles area”, which contains the transcript of our recording. This was particularly exciting, mainly because I have heard the tape many times since I was a child, and now I can finally understand certain parts of the audio (especially the parts at the end during which everyone is talking over each other and arguing about book burnings). Regardless, here’s one of my Grandmother’s better diatribes, and then the link to the audio.

Mrs. Rosenberg. There will come a time in this country when there
is no climate of fear and coercion and hysteria, and people will of their
own free will declare with pride and with honor as the Puritans said
they would be glad to — to declare their faith, but not under compulsion,
and not because there will be a subpoena over my head or a blacklist,
and not if the result will be loyalty oaths. This is precisely what has hap-
pened in civilizations that you’ve asked that question — the Puritans
were proud of their faith, the Jews were proud, too, and yet when
they were faced with Torquemada and with Hitler, what would you have
expected, sir, that they should rise up and say they are Jews? If that
cost of that would be their heads? Today the cost of declaring one’s
faith — which I say you have no right to ask me about — is a blacklist and
a subpoena and a loyalty oath and book burnings. This has been the
result of the force and violence of this committee.

Testimony of Rose Rosenberg before HUAC, October 1, 1952

One particularly fascinating part of the tape which I was never able to make out before is an aside from Rep. Donald Jackson of California, who is obviously frustrated and throws in a jab that seems to be apropos of nothing, but is quite telling:

Mrs. Rosenberg. In Oklahoma books were burned, and do you know
what the American Library Association said?

Mr. Jackson. Is this in answer to the question asked by counsel?
If there weren’t so many witches who left their brooms and tall hats
around, we would not have so much work to do.

Pretty amazing (and shameless) stuff.

Additionally, while I was searching for information on the HUAC hearings, I came across the website for a book written by Eric Etheridge called Breach of Peace, which contains photos and information about the 328 freedom riders who converged on Jackson, Mississippi in 1961, and there was a “Rose Schorr Rosenberg” listed there. A quick call to my father confirmed that Grandma did, in fact, go on a freedom ride in 1961, and when I contacted Mr. Etheridge, he sent me a link to the Mississipi Department of Archives & History, which has digitized all the records of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission.

There, I found numerous photos and files referencing Rosie, including her mug shot taken on July 15, 1961 (shown right; also appears in the aforementioned Breach of Peace), the police report of her arrest, and a number of documents and fascinating articles, including ones showing that the DA in Jackson was working with the the folks over at HUAC in attempting to use her communist ties to discredit the riders. There was even one article written by Bob Novak which paints the entire civil rights movement as having sold its soul to the far left (sound familiar?), and another AP article which mentions my grandmother and her traveling companion Jean Pestana by name, the title of which was “Jackson Cops Link 2 Riders to Red Groups“.

I’m pretty excited by how much I found, and always suprised by how much information is available on the internet. I’ve asked my brother to dig out Rosie’s memoirs so that I can scan and digitize them for preservation, and maybe learn a bit more about what happened to her in Mississipi (she was issued a $200 fine and 4 months in jail, but I’m unaware at this point how much time she actually served). I’m also working on an audio project that will contain discussion of the tape by my family members with portions of the tape cut in. I think it will make for a compelling story.

Just Wait ‘Till Next Year?

jake — Fri, 09 May 2008 01:41:12 +0000

I needed a few days to get over the Sharks’ heartbreaking 129 minute loss to the Dallas Stars on Sunday. By the end of that game, watching the players gasp for air was so painful that I almost forgot the Sharks entire season was hanging on one goal. And then it was all over. Regardless, it’s been a great season. I’ve really enjoyed being at the games, especially the incredible game 7 win over Calgary, which was by far the best sporting event I’ve ever been to:

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Meanwhile, the NHL experts blog at Yahoo! Sports has been running some very funny eulogies for teams that get knocked out of the playoffs, and the Sharks eulogy is up here. Honestly, it’s not that great; it’s not nearly mean enough. This one for the flames is totally brutal, which is what makes it hilarious. I was really hoping for some nasty digs at my favorite players (Brian Campbell in particular has been made into a hot scapegoat for this year’s annual second round breakdown), and some potshots at the city of San Jose. This comic was good, though:

Anyways, like I said, it’s been a fun season, and I’m (once again) looking forward to next year with high hopes. Maybe I’ll get a Brian Campbell jersey so when they release him in the off season I’ll have a jersey for a guy that was only on the team one year, that’s always fun. And meanwhile, I get to watch the Stars get completely thrashed by the Wings (ooh, I should submit one of those obits for the Dallas stars when after they get trounced), and the series in Pennsylvania should be really fun to watch. And I’d better enjoy it while it lasts, since the period between the end of the NHL playoffs and the start of football season usually involves listening to my friends blab on and on about fantasy baseball every night.

Listening to: Dinosaur Jr. – Let It Ride

Well, That’s Just Delightful

jake — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:31:57 +0000

Seen on tumblr…

Listening to: ABBA – Mamma Mia

Sourdough, Indeed

jake — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 23:04:48 +0000

WFMU‘s annual pledge drive was a couple weeks ago, and as I’m an avid listener of The Best Show on WFMU I decided to show my support for Tom and what he does there. I made a pledge during his show, and this week I finally listened to the podcast of the marathon show, which included guest appearances by Patton Oswalt, Ben Gibbard, and Ted Leo. As Pseu read out the names of people who donated, Patton was handing out nicknames, and to my delight, I’ve been christened anew… take a listen:

I do love sourdough (untoasted, of course), so from now on you dudes can go ahead and call me Sourdough Jake. If you go to the podcast and listen to the whole show you can hear them thank Joe as well, as well as Ben of The Bay Bridged fame. Way to do the right thing, guys.

Also, check out this in-studio video of Ted Leo and Ben Gibbard doing Neil Diamond’s "Porcupine Pie", which Tom has proclaimed to be the worst song in the history of mankind.

Now hop on over to WFMU’s Beware of the Blog to see all the other great vids, or to Pitchfork for some pics.

Summer Fun

jake — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 02:01:50 +0000

Well, the big pool party I’d been planning went off this weekend… everything went very smooth and I think everyone had a great time. The turnout was great, and I must say I was very flattered by the utter pandemonium that broke loose when I finally jumped into the pool. Plus Kellie had the (ingenious!) idea of buying a couple disposable underwater cameras and passing them around, which worked out awesome because (1) the things worked amazingly well and gave us good pics and (2) I actually get to be in some of my own pictures. I think I’m gonna start doing that for all my parties, even the ones on dry land. That said, I take full credit for the idea of passing teeny little squirtguns. I have my moments.

Anyways, it was enough fun that it demands to become a tradition. Just wait till next year.

MC Enelow

jake — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 03:21:50 +0000

So Wu’s sister found this video clip on collegehumor.com… it’s of Dr. Enelow (my high school english teacher) reciting the Canterbury Tales in old english in a very rap-like manner. What’s funny about this (other than the obvious):

It was randomly found on the internet. I once happened upon pictures of my dentist on vacation on Flickr (no shirt on, yikes), and I swear think I could find a video of my dermatologist doing the jitterbug to death metal if I looked hard enough. God bless the internet.
It was recorded this year, and I remember when he did it when I had him in 1996. That means he’s been doing this for at least 10 years; it’s probably more like 30. Awesome.

In all seriousness, this guy was probably the best teacher I ever had. Mock not, lest ye be mock’d.

EDIT: Turns out, this was my one hundreth post!
Ironically, this comes just four days after the two year anniversary of the blog… my first post was on April 20th, 2004 (4-20 DUDE! ZOMG!!!11one). So, that’s an average of four posts a month or one a week. Not that bad. Congrats to me!!

Questionable?

jake — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 01:48:46 +0000

Today a friend turned me on to a web comic called Questionable Content. It’s great. Read it from the beginning to really appreciate it. Personal favorites include:

This diatribe on the Fiery Furnaces. Notice the description of the band, which bears a striking similarity to my own description two months earlier (in my Top 30 of 2004), when I said they sounded like “The Who, Gilbert & Sullivan, and P.J. Harvey had sex on a piano and gave birth to ADHD boy/girl twins” (ok, so maybe I’m just pretty proud of that line and was looking for an excuse to bring it up, so what).
This one featuring a guest artist who tries (sucessfully) to piss off the indie kids.
And this one about record reviews which details a thought process I have at least ten times each day.

Anyways, I’m off to go see Of Montreal. The supporting band, Tilly and the Wall, has a tap dancer as their rythm section. Seriously, that is ridiculous.

Playlist rotation / Fahrenheit 9/11

jake — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 18:29:50 +0000

Major playlist rotation; here’s the new list:

A.C. Newman – The Slow Wonder
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – I See A Darkness
Devendra Banhart – Rejoicing the Hands
Joanna Newsom – The Milk-Eyed Mender
Loretta Lynn – Van Lear Rose
Mirah – C’mon Miracle
Mission of Burma – ONoffON
The Soviettes – LP II
The Unicorns – The Unicorns 2014
V/A Kill Rock Stars – Tracks and Fields

Kind of an ecclectic week… a lot of solo artists for some reason. Anyways, I’ve also got the Ted Leo demos (aka The Homsars, I love it) and the Spoon demo in there.

The Decemberists totally kicked ass and I think my rents were really into it, what a blast. Plus my old buddy from school Marc Pestien was in town for the weekend and I got to hang with him, so that was very cool.

Also, I caught Fahrenheit 9/11 yesterday. I actually dislike Michael Moore most of the time (even though I agree with most of his viewpoints) because I think he does more harm than good by painting liberals as wingnuts, and more importantly because he often plays with numbers, which really bothers me. That said, this movie was fantastic, and it’s about damn time. As one-sided and blatantly opinionated as it is, it raises some great points that people need to hear. I hate to stoop to their level, but maybe it’s time that there is some inverse propaganda on the air to counter Fox News.