Jyms of Wyzdom for September 20, 2019

Autumn:…is about to descend upon us…today…tomorrow? Anyway. Autumn is my favorite season and one thing I simply love about West Virginia is that we have four distinct seasons. When we lived in California (my life until I married Bonnie and we moved to the Northwest), you only get spring, summer, late summer, and spring…boring.

It is high time for me to depart, for at my age I now begin to see things as they really are. [Philosopher Le Bovier de Fontenelle]

They Shall Not Grow Old: If you missed the single showings at our cinemas some months ago, you can now see this masterpiece of modern film on HBO. This film is Peter Jackson’s masterful assemblage of WWI documentary film marvelously restored, colorized and with sound effects and some dialogue. You think you are watching a current film—it’s that good. You can see the film on HBO on these dates: Sept. 21 at 4:15 PM; 25 at 3 PM and 27 at 4:30 PM. When they put it out on DVD, I will certainly be buying it and will save it for a future Film Forum selection.

Worrying is the most natural and spontaneous of all human functions. It is time to acknowledge this, perhaps even to learn to do it better. [Pathologist Lewis Thomas]

Having done a quick reading of The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt after we saw the first movie preview, we went to see the film with a bit of trepidation since the Times review was kind of so-so. No worries…the film is wonderful, slow-moving, telling bits of the story in flashbacks. The casting is just right and the direction sure, by John Crowley, who gave us Brooklyn. It is in town at the Regal, so go with my blessing.

Dying is a very dull, dreary, affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it. [Writer W. Somerset Maugham, to his nephew Robin]

More entertainment: Brad Pitt in space, or Ad Astra, and Downton Abbey open today; Turner Big screen Classics is showing The Shawshank Redemption on Sunday at 4 and on Wed. at 7; and Mud, the first production of the School of Theater at WVU opens next week. Mud is by Maria Irene Fornes, a really edgy Cuban-American playwright, that built her iconoclastic reputation as writer, director and teacher in the 1960s. Each play tends to be an often nearly unbearable examination of some human foible, filled with comedy, tragedy, satire, et al. I’m not a fan but if you like this kind of raw drama, give it a try. Oh, and the CAC box office has been closed—don’t know why, yet, so call for tickets or go to the Lair.

I get up before anyone else in my household, not because sleep has deserted me in my advancing years, but because an intense eagerness to live draws me from my bed. [Writer Maurice Goudeket]

Excellent Goodman lecture and OLLI Fall Reception this week. Lots of goodies coming up in the Fall Term. See you then…Jym