To thine own self be true

Top notch: Kenneth Branagh as the nasty R III. Sends more individuals to their deaths than Iago or Macbeth. Good performances by all with engaging sound effects and transitional music.

The ltd. ed. chapbook is finally in for printing (2 years after it was ready).

My favorite living actor. 6 entertaining CDs of memories and taking stock in that warm, familiar Cockney voice.

Caine had been this way before in 2 previous autobios, but this one offers much life advice mixed in with the movie and star memories.

The opening CDs cover his early days and his ignoble starts blowing lines and repeatedly falling off an ornery horse in Zulu. He looks back at his past as a study in survival, surviving what he calls “knock-backs”, and taking advantage of “opportunities” afforded by errors. As he common-sensibly puts it, he always looked for positives in his failures and never made the same mistake twice.

Caine has long been a dedicated craftsman, giving 100% to each role, and, even if he hadn’t ‘made it’ he still would have pursued a long-term acting career. Later, he outlines his priorities in picking scripts with artfulness at the top and the money-makers (e.g., to buy a home for his mother) at the bottom. As he repeatedly remarks, some practical good came out of every flop and disaster.

He spends some time analyzing Zulu, his first hit Alfie, and The Ipcress File–all which made him a star. Many times before those movies, he was told by directors and producers (people like Otto Preminger) to get out of acting and that would never become a star. Caine persevered despite all these soul-destroying recommendations and proved his early critics wrong.

His favorite actors and directors were John Huston, Humphrey Bogart, and Chris Nolan (the latter who came to house one morning o offer him the part of Alfred, Batman’s butler). The favorite movies he made include Alfie, The Man Who Would Be King, The Quiet American, Sleuth, and Educating Rita.  The best early advice Caine got was from John Wayne, who–because of his own experience in a washroom when a fellow urinal patron turned to chat him up and peed on Wayne’s suede shoes–cautioned Caine never to wear suede shoes. Such are the odd, unexpected, amusing anecdotes that slide into the narrative from time to time.

Caine’s main regret on roles not played was the movie The Dresser. He memorably turned down Hitchcock who wanted him for the Barry Foster Cockney psychopath role in Frenzy. After that, Hitch snubbed him whenever Caine greeted him in public. There are many insights like this into difficult people in the industry.

His participation in remakes seldom worked except in Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels, a remake of the Brando-Niven bomb Bedtime Story. Interestingly, Caine never learned to drive until he was 50. Of aging, he says he feels ageless and has opted to keep on working in film. His most recent role was last year at age 88. (Since this audiobook, Caine says he has retired from films and turned more to writing.)

His views on death and his personal reactions to death are quite interesting, culminating with an anecdote about a visit to his dying friend John Huston, who told him to get the hell out and go have a good time; advice which he is still adhering to at age 85, as the book ends.

Highly recommended for anyone who is a Caine fan, for anyone who wants to know about how difficult an acting career can be, for anyone who remembers English culture from the ’50s to ’70s, and for anyone who is looking for valuable life lessons from one of the most popular, likable actors of the last 60 years.

will take care of some boaring, obnoxious, out-of-control politicians.

(containing “Preludes”, a poem I read in 1st year u)

(wasp leaving nest before spraying

that when one begins work for the government, you have to take an oath that you will not go to the press or reveal any behind-the-scenes government goings-on. That’s how it keeps workers in line and workers are then punished or fired accordingly.

You can be sure Dr. Yiu will no/never reveal any secrets after being let go by the UCPs today. She doesn’t want her golden handshake or pension to be endangered. So much for truth at the top in this province.

(Shades of The Wild and Jack London amidst our quiet suburban neighborhoods.)

CTV News’s extended excerpt of the parents’ response to their kids being mowed down by a reckless teen driver. See the whole press conference with mother’s and father’s responses.

Incredibly tragic, touching, truthful, painfully honest and accurate, and exceptionally eloquent. Not a word to be edited. This brave couple says it all for any families who have been devastated by dangerous driving within cities.

These speeches should be enshrined as mandatory viewing before kids get their driving licenses. It should also be a resource of MADD and other similar organizations. In the world of consciousness, these speeches speak far and wide, potentially, beyond the deaths of these kids.

This is a remarkably strong production of Dickens’ autobiographical classic, published in 1849, which reminds one of many things about life.

1. The relevance of his topics goes on today in Third World and Western countries alike. Relevant still are his themes on the status of women in marriages, the English class structure, the criminal justice system, the quality of schools, the employment of children in hard, and menial work situations.

2. Dickens’ world is mainly one of unique, interesting, memorable characters. He holds two main views of people; one view is that people can be incredibly evil, cruel, mean, nasty, and bitter, as in the cases of Uriah Heep, Edward and Jane Murdstone, Creakle, Emma Steerforth, Rosa Dartle is likewise timeless. Also, timeless are his naïve, innocent, good, or decent characters of which there are, significantly, more of: David’s mother Clara, Betsey Trotwood, Mr. Dick, Peggotty, Freddie Barkis, Agnes Wickfield, Daniel and Ham Peggotty, Wilkins Micawber, Dora Spenlow, and David himself.

3. Dickens also shows how one can be mistaken by first impressions as in the case of David’s perceptions of Steerforth and Dora. The novel is a Bildungsroman about a young orphan who undergoes many hardships and setbacks to achieve positive personal and moral progress and development. Through his experiences, David becomes more responsible, conscious, and autonomous. (In contrast, Great Expectations is a more mature, realistic book about large social forces that leave Pip, the main character, sadder but wiser, though disillusioned unlike David.)

4. Ultimately, Dickens reveals life process through his main character with all his various setbacks, challenges, learnings, failures, and successes.

5. He equally shows that life is something that happens to one and that one can also be an agent, sometimes unwittingly or unintentionally, in the lives of others.

6. Dickens equates happiness more with relationships than with work and career, though the latter (David becoming a writer) may prove to be therapeutic and potentially fulfilling.

The production script, sets, costumes, music, cinematography, and direction are uniformly flawless, faithful to the original novel, and quite effective. The acting features strong performances by Daniel Radcliffe, Bob Hoskins, Maggie Smith, Ian McKellen, Zoe Wanamaker, Trevor Eve, Ciaran McMenamin, and Nicholas Lyndhurst.

In two parts: 190 mins., hosted by Russell Baker. Highly recommended for its perspectives on life, Victorian times, coming-of-age theme, and wide assortment of characters.