Month: December 2021

Thanks to this bastard COVID virus my in-theater movie going has slowed down to just a handful of films seen over the past 22 months. I used to catch 3 to 4 movies a month, sometimes more when the high quality releases hit big screens in the fall of each year.

Anyway, this year I was able to resume my long running Christmas Day tradition of seeing a film in the theater.  (And I’m not even Jewish)  I chose the much hyped “Licorice Pizza”, the latest offering from Paul Thomas Anderson.  P.T. Anderson has written and directed great movies like “Boogie Nights,” “Hard Eight”, “Punch Drunk Love”, “Magnolia” and one of my very favorites, “There Will Be Blood.” 

So, at 3:15 p.m. on Christmas Day I walked out of the Oak Brook AMC Theater (just 2 days after 4 people were injured by gunshot at the adjoining mall which is a story in and of itself) and tried to figure out what I just watched for the last 2 hours.  From the grumblings I heard after the film from the crowd leaving that screening room, I think everyone else was in my boat too.

“Licorice Pizza” is a look at goings on in the San Fernando Valley circa 1973.  Cooper Hoffman (son of the late great actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman) plays Gary, a fifteen-year-old child actor who pines for twenty-five-year-old photography assistant Alana played by Alana Haim, she from the real-life L.A. based sisters band Haim.  Gary is upfront about his feelings but Alana plays him off as only a business partner in his water bed store.  He then veers into other business attempts and Alana volunteers for a guy running for mayor of Encino, California. 

I could tell you more but it would be hard to explain.  Hard to explain the Japanese restaurant connection (which involves some complained about racial stereotypes) and the weirdness of Jon Peters (played by Bradley Cooper) who acts half-crazy over his affair with Barbra Streisand.  Then there’s the 10 minutes of screen time devoted to Sean Penn as a movie maker and his old pal played by Tom Waits who re-live some past movie stunt they made but in the most insane and befuddling way!

“Licorice Pizza”, as many of the glowing reviews states, is a film more about incidents than plot.  If you want a much better movie that is more about incidents than plot, right off the top of my head I’ll tell you to re-watch Barry Levinson’s classic “Diner.”   And if you want a movie about a young guy meeting and wanting a woman in California, I’ll tell you to check out the criminally under-appreciated “Dean.”

The trailer for “Licorice Pizza” earns an A+ grade.  Lots of fast cuts, wacky short glimpses and ‘boy meets girl/girl flashes bare chest to boy’ stuff shown.  I read this movie was Paul Thomas Anderson’s nostalgic look at life in the Valley as he remembered it in the early 1970’s.  Whatever. I gave the movie a C+ which may have been a plus sign too generous. 

Regarding “Licorice Pizza’s” trailer, I put movie previews into three categories.  The first trailer being like Anderson’s movie preview; weird, quirky parts of a film that make you say, “Hey, this looks like something different and special!”  But it isn’t that special.

The second kind of trailer can show us those wacky glimpses but it IS special and memorable.  Think of movies like “Rushmore,” “The Big Lebowski,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel” or recent Oscar winner “Parasite.”

Then there’s my LEAST favorite movie trailer, the one where most if not all the twists, turns, jokes and spoilers are shown WITHIN the three-minute preview!  Hollywood often treats us movie goers like five-year-olds who cannot wait or tolerate being surprised. 

You want to see a quality movie trailer that gives away nothing and has more twists and turns than a tub full of snakes?  Check out this old one for “The Usual Suspects.”

So here I close out 2021 with a disappointed look back at a movie that sure looked good or at least somewhat interesting.  I hope 2022 brings us all good health, lower prices on goods we buy and yes, better films that fulfill the promise of their previews.

Mick Out

Words cannot describe how thankful I am that the first semester of the 2021-2022 school year is over.  It’s been the most challenging 16 weeks I’ve ever had in teaching. 

This year my self-contained class is eleven students, ten of whom seniors.  All the kids were well behaved with few disciplinary problems.  The challenge was each of my seniors has varying course requirements to earn credits towards their graduation. Their official transcripts dictated me setting them up in a wide variety of classes.  Normally we teachers are used to running and planning 5 to 6 courses total.  This semester I had 23 different courses to plan, monitor and teach!  Back in August, it took me two weeks just to sort out this mess and properly plan matters out.  This wasn’t the kids’ fault, or anyone else’s, it was just unfortunate happenstance.

The best way to describe this mish-mash of classes is this:  Pour a bag of M&Ms, a bag of Skittles and a five lb. bag of brown sugar on the floor.  Now separate each of those elements with a broom.  

Add to all this, thanks to that bastard virus we’re all still masked up.  Movement around the school is limited to staying in our room & P.E. time in the gym.  These students are tired of school and understandably restless.  They ask for and get frequent trips to the restroom just to move about and get a break.  I don’t blame them, again it’s bad circumstances and they’re making the best of it. 

I can’t forget to note how scheduling left me with a load of IEP meetings.  Between late August and mid-November, I had to be a part of 13 such reviews and transition meetings.  Three of these meetings were for one student due to red tape and other needs.  Another student required 2 meet-ups.  And it’s not just the meetings, it’s the planning and other paperwork that needs to be covered.

To make things more difficult, during this semester, our school has been short of staff members. We’re still in need of teachers, paraprofessionals and behavior workers.  Everyone in the school is exhausted from covering for staffers who were absent for whatever reasons.  Ms. Cat, my assistant is a fantastic help to my room but even she had to miss several days due to unforeseen things that came up.  

Still, everyone with all hands-on-deck, made it to the Winter Break.  I told some co-workers we might be working with a skeleton crew, but that skeleton has arms that are long and strong.  Anyone who knows me knows nobody outworks me, it’s one of my best assets.  It was that way in my radio days and remains that way with teaching; yet these past four months were harsh and hard.     

The best news out of all this is one of our students made a full transition to their home school and three other kiddos graduated!  I’m thrilled for and proud of them.  The hard work they put in and the support we give them does pay off.

Come early January when we return, I’ll be starting with a lighter caseload of students and fewer courses to track.  It SHOULD go smoother and hopefully what I dealt with between mid-August and now made me stronger and more bullet proof of tough challenges.

For our winter break, I’m happily laying way low.  No need to run out to a bunch of holiday events and that’s just fine by me.  This is a chance to re-charge and catch my breath. 

TIME FOR A COLD BOTTLE OF SHINER BOCK BEER. OR TWO OR THREE…

Enjoy the holidays folks, I’ll be back in January.  Class is happily dismissed!

In wrapping up this semester and this year, I defer to Eric Church’s tribute to hard workers, “Drink in my Hand.”