Open Mike: What I Did on My Winter Vacation (OT)

Aimi Kobayashi in 2021

So, to start with, did you know there are a lot of great movies on YouTube for free right now? I'm in the middle of Licorice Pizza, which I watched half of last night. I'm perilously close to being bogged down and giving up—I don't care for Paul Thomas Anderson. He's what I call a puppetmaster director—one who toys with the lives of his characters as if they were props. Although not nearly as bad as that other Anderson. But I digress. And I know many people love them both, so I'll shut up about that.

Annie Hall, True Grit (the Coen brothers' one, not the sunnier, simpler, earlier John Wayne vehicle), The Truman Show, Heathers, Train to Busan, The Best Years of Our Lives (I loved that and have written about it), The Great Escape, No Country for Old Men, The Insider, Jiro Dreams of Suchi, Irma La Douce, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Fences, Airport, etc. All free.

With one caveat—I don't know if you have to see ads if you don't pay for ad-free YouTube. I don't know.

Anyway the one I watched was Downfall, for the second time. That was the movie with the Bruno Ganz "Hitler rants" scene that spawned a thousand memes back in the 2000s. In the one I first encountered, he's ranting about the price of the then-new Nikon D3x.

But that eventually led to me to see the movie, and it's outstanding, really good, if something so, well, bad can be said to be good. That's available for free on YouTube too. That in turn led me to a site called Five Books, where historian Keith Lowe recommends five books on the aftermath of Hitler's war. I found just the descriptions of the books fascinating. I tend to like reading books in pairs, or in sets; it lets me vector in on a subject from several perspectives at once. So I dove in, and have gotten engrossed in Tony Judt's Postwar, a history of Europe from 1945 to Y2k more or less. The print book is 955 pages, so it might take me a while—I don't spend as much time reading as I used to—but so far there's a revelation on every page. His description of the many "civil wars" spawned by WWII, like a hurricane throwing off tornadoes, is news to me. And did you know that four out of ten of the living prisoners liberated from the concentration camps perished in their etremity after being rescued? They were too far gone, and the medical care that could be brought to bear just wasn't enough to save them. R.I.P. Tony Judt also offers opinions throughout, which I like. I half think it's the only really honest way to write.

Here's another little factoid: of the 28,000 German pilots who served in the war, only 1,200 survived—and the survivors were vilified and persecuted in postwar Germany by the population, who blamed them for not protecting them from the bombing. That comes from another title on my on-deck pile, A Higher Call, about the Stigler-Brown incident.

Gratitude
From this little dip of the toe into the Judt, I got one more thing for which I can be eternally grateful: that I haven't had to live through disruption and suffering on that scale. The stories are beyond dreadful. I've always maintained that heaven and hell are simply ideas extracted from the best and worst that humans can experience right here on the crust of our little blue pearl. I have known little snippets of heaven, but thankfully, no hell.

One more recommendation for streaming content: Aimi Kobayashi performing the lesser of the two Chopin piano concertos at the 18th Chopin Competition in Warsaw in October of 2021. (She didn't win, usually a good sign.) It's absolutely exquisite, the best I've ever heard the piece played, not that I'm any big expert. Check it out, if you're of a mind to, and, as they say, enjoy.

Mike

P.S. I have the 13 Baker's Dozen pictures chosen and processed and ready for upload—that's the next task, for after breakfast and some attention for Butters—and will be working on sequencing next. I hope you like the choices; I didn't go for beautiful, mostly. There would have been all kinds of ways to go with this one. Thanks again to all who participated. The next Baker's Dozen will be "Realistic Minimalism," of course. We have to. Probably this Spring.

Original contents copyright 2024 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

Simon: "Thank you for the link to the Kobayashi performance. I’ve not heard Chopin’s orchestral work previously (which is a pity, it seems) and I love listening to musicians who prioritise communicating depth and emotion over technical prowess. Also kicking myself for not seeing Lee in the cinema when I had the opportunity. Oh well."

Richard Tugwell: "Don’t know about others, but I use Brave browser which seems to suppress YouTube ads in its default configuration. I'm sure other options are available."

John Shriver: "See Daniel Yergin's The Prize: The Epic Quest for Money, Oil, and Power for why the German pilots could not defend Germany. The Allies systematically took away all places where the Germans could drill for oil, and constantly bombed all the plants that they had to convert coal to aviation fuel. The Germans had nothing to power their planes with.

"Really, much of World War II, from a military point of view, was about starving the Axis of fuel. Much of the territory Japan seized had oil wells. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor because we would not sell them oil.

"There's also a PBS series, 'The Prize,' based on the book, six one-hour episodes that can be found online."

Mike replies: America was the Saudi Arabia of the era. Kevin Phillips says that the US supplied four out of every five (?) barrels of oil used to fight WWII. Part I of his book American Theocracy, entitled "Oil and American Supremacy," is the best 96 page primer I ever read about the issue. I'll look into the Yergin book; the sample is enticing.

Gary Merken: "Hang in there with Licorice Pizza. It's loosely based on Anderson's early life. Yes, some of the set pieces go on too long. But the performances by Hoffman and Haim are good—I knew nothing about Alana Haim and her family, who also appear in the film—and Tom Waits has a nice cameo. When my kids were learning to drive and would park too far from the curb with me in the passenger seat, I'd quote Woody Allen's line in Annie Hall: 'It's okay. I can walk to the curb from here.' Best Years of Our Lives was the very first DVD I ever watched, back in the late 1990s when my then-new Dell desktop had a DVD slot. Borrowed it from the library. Teresa Wright is luminous. The storyline, especially about the double-amputee Navy veteran, is sensitively told. A treat to see Hoagy Carmichael on screen.

"As I'm sure you know, Mike, Chopin was a much better composer for solo piano. The Nocturnes (introduced to me by a college girlfriend). Ballades. Scherzos. Mazurkas. Preludes. Etc. Now I'm gonna put on the record with Artur Rubenstein playing the Nocturnes she gave me all those decades ago."

Mike replies: That's one of the very best, especially if you have sentiment attached to it. I have Claudio Arrau, which is also wonderful.

Trevor Johnson: "About Gary Merken's comment about Rubenstein playing Chopin Nocturnes. I knew Rubenstein as he was a great friend of my piano teacher: Rubenstein was a most entertaining person. I also met Vladimir Horowitz, when he was in the UK, as they both shared the same UK manager. The Chopin Concertos are interesting and I have a vinyl recording that Rubenstein signed. As for me, I still play piano every day, although I'm principally a classical pipe organist, but I went into healthcare, on my father's advice, to earn some money and now work at a few universities and the NHS, etc., part-time."

Mike replies: What a great opportunity, and lucky for you. Nice to have you here.

Comments

[John Krumm]

I recently subscribed to YouTube, wanting to avoid ads and give it a shot. I had read this recent article on how well it's doing, and though still skeptical, gave it a try: https://rosselliotbarkan.com/p/bet-on-youtube

I'm now a YouTube convert, and like the newly converted, I keep preaching to others about its rich offerings, and I have to stop myself so I don't sound like a bore. But I've been diving into documentaries on film photography and street shooting, plus some great classical performances, and anything else that strikes my fancy. Subscribing gives you a slight bump in video quality as well, so it looks fantastic with I watch it on the large screen tv.

I also find great political content, though that takes more work, and the algorithm keeps trying to feed you the opposite of what you want.

[Terry Burnes]

You seem to be energized. Good for you.

[Chuck Albertson]

Harald Jahner's "Aftermath" (post-war Germany) and David Nasaw's "The Last Million" (post-war refugees) are also worth reading about the time period.

[AN]

Your criticism of the two Andersons is understandable, but I would suggest trying P. T. Anderson’s There Will Be Blood and Wes Anderson’s recent Roald Dahl shorts and Asteroid City. I couldn’t stand Wes Anderson’s first several movies, but his most recent efforts are unexpectedly growing on me.

[Albert Smith]

I liked Licorish Pizza. Being that I was about the age (maybe a bit older) of the protagonist at that time of the '70s, I liked that the movie didn't have any glaring errors in terms of historical references from that time. The Sean Penn character was a conglomerate of several older actors, so that was fictional based on various events, but it's not a documentary. It was also nice that the late Philip Seymour Hoffman's son was given the lead after all of the actor/director collaborations. The kid did a good job.

FWIW... the title is a bit of a confusing thing. It was the name of a record store in the '70s, get it? A record being flat and black... a Licorish Pizza.

[Philip]

I'm not familiar with Judt, but you made me think of an article I recently read in Compact titled The Rise of Post-Literate History by Matthew Walther. It's a critique on writing style disguised as historiography. It's not too long, and it has a couple of illuminating excerpts I think you would enjoy.

https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-rise-of-post-literate-history/

[MikeR]

Before you finish watching Licorice Pizza, find on YouTube the Haim sisters official video of "Want You Back." I stumbled onto it a few years ago, and return to it once or twice a year, because ...

... it's one long "take." Fascinating. I recall reading that it was filmed in the Sherman Oaks area, along what looks like their "auto mile."

On a par with the opening of "La La Land," which got off to a good start, but kinda got lost about mid-way.

[Clayton]

I like the way Jason Isbell thinks about gratitude in "Relatively Easy".

[Richard Tugwell]

Don’t know about others, but I use Brave browser which seems to suppress youtube ads in its default config. Im sure other options are available

[BB]

"the many "civil wars" spawned by WWII, like a hurricane throwing off tornadoes," This sounds like the Middle East, still suffering tornadoes after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire over a hundred years ago. How do these things linger so long? Well, look at the USA South, still lamenting the defeat in our Civil War.

[Nigli]

Mike, regarding the German WW2 pilot survival rate: can you provide a source for that, if it's not too much trouble? My wife's late grandfather was one of those who lived.

[It's in the Amazon sample for the book I linked. --Mike]

[Sean]

I remember watching Magnolia with my wife, her friend and their partner on DVD. When the cast started signing Wise Up, the guy looked bemused and said: Well, that wouldn't happen

I haven't seen him since

[robert e]

While visiting family in Virginia, I was treated to a brief visit to two special exhibitions of photography at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, one about photographing the American South and the other, American, Born Hungary, celebrating a remarkably large and influential number of Hungarian photographers who settled and worked in America in the 20th century. Many personal favorites next to unfamiliar images and names, though time was too short for much more than a walk-through. The latter show debuted in Budapest earlier this year and that page has a more complete list of the photographers.

One fascinating effect of the world wars was a significant and ongoing migration of thinkers and creatives from Europe to the US. Perhaps it was inevitable that the American commercial and pop culture that they influenced would resonate with Europe's postwar generation of artists.

Oh, and I thought the photographs were adequately lit--maybe not ideally, and some of the rooms themselves were dim, but well enough.

[Tom Burke]

WWII oil production figures: Your figure is about right. I found a couple of sites (on YouTube!) of the ‘moving bar chart’ type that give oil production figures by country and by year from 1900 to 2023, and in the period 1939-1945, the USA did indeed produce about 75% of the world’s oil. However, I’ve got a bit of a caveat: that same video shows Russian production suddenly appearing at the top of the table in 1985, from nothing. I’m guessing that oil production figures started being reported (this was Gorbachev’s Soviet Union era). So it is possible that oil production in the Soviet Union was already high during WWII - we just don’t know how high.