The Deuce ~ A Capsule TV Review

The Deuce ~ A Capsule TV Review by Allen Kopp

The new HBO series, The Deuce, set in New York City in the early 1970s, shows us the underside of the city: the sleaze of Times Square, the sex for sale, the rampant drug use, the pornography. If you go a little deeper, you see the lives of the people involved in these activities. Twins Vincent and Frankie (both played by James Franco) live on the edge. Vincent is a barman with an unfaithful wife (he is also unfaithful to her), two small children, and a load of debts. Frankie is an irresponsible gambler, in debt to loan sharks, who doesn’t mind leaving his gambling debts for Vincent to pay. Vincent is looking to improve his lot in life and be his own boss; he takes over the management of an unpopular bar and believes he can turn it around by making his waitresses wear skimpy outfits while they serve the customers. Neither Vincent or Frankie are the opera-loving, wine-sipping types with stock portfolios.

The most interesting character is “Candy” (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal.) Candy, whose real name is Eileen, is a not-so-young prostitute who works the streets of Times Square at night. Some of the “pimps” want to manage Candy, but she works independently. We know that Candy is taking a terrible chance every night, but she seems to know how to take care of herself and she has a young son to support. When Candy sees how lucrative pornography is for some people, but not for others, she takes steps to become involved in the pornography industry, which is a step up from being a whore.

The other whores, besides Candy, have pimps to “manage” them. The pimps are alternately caring and viciously brutal if something goes amiss with their money, so the whores are, with good reason, afraid of their pimps, while, at the same time, adoring them. When Lori gets off the bus from Minnesota, the pimp named C.C. takes her under his wing. Lori is no innocent, though; she has been whoring in Minnesota since she was sixteen and can teach C.C. a thing or two. Ashley, one of C.C.’s proteges, is jealous of Lori because of the interest that C.C. shows in her. Innocent-seeming Darlene, whore though she is, becomes interested in great literature through one of her “regulars.” Abby is a college dropout, who, while drifting, drifts into Vincent’s sphere. Will she become Vincent’s new girlfriend or will she herself turn to prostitution?

The world of The Deuce is the world of Taxi Driver and Midnight Cowboy. These are people living on the fringe, outside the law. Three episodes have aired so far, so there is much more to come and, after season one, there’ll be a season two. We’re definitely hooked.

Copyright © 2017 by Allen Kopp

by allen0997

Jesus, a Biography from a Believer ~ A Capsule Book Review

Jesus, A Biography from a Believer ~ A Capsule Book Review by Allen Kopp

Jesus, A Biography from a Believer by Paul Johnson is exactly what it says it is: a concise, reverent chronicle of the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth, the most influential person who ever lived. He was without politics or national identity. He was a revolutionary, a threat to the status quo because they didn’t understand him. They didn’t understand that his kingdom was not of the world, but a kingdom of heaven. He didn’t come to the earth to lay down a set of rules for people to follow. He came to prepare people, anyone who believed in him, for the next world. He extolled the lowly and the powerless among men, the weak and the poor. Whoever is last shall be first, he said. He loved people from all strata of society and would always take the time to talk to anybody who wanted to speak to him. He spoke in a way that was easy for people to understand. His speech was poetic but never lofty or scholarly. People were drawn to him because of his easy and open manner. And then there were the miracles. He performed miracles sparingly and only when he thought the occasion warranted it. He didn’t want to be thought of as a wizard or a magician. Those who saw him perform miracles became easy believers, but he knew that most people would never have the benefit of seeing the miracles firsthand. In people, what he most admired were humility, sincerity, but, above all, faith.

If there’s nothing much new in this book that we didn’t already know, we at least get a feeling of what Jesus was really like as a man. He knew that people were weak and flawed and corrupt—he lived in a corrupt world—but he forgave those who could believe in him. If you already have faith, reading this book will strengthen your faith.

Copyright © 2017 by Allen Kopp    

by allen0997

Boy Erased ~ A Capsule Book Review

Boy Erased ~ A Capsule Book Review by Allen Kopp

Boy Erased is a nonfiction book, a “memoir,” by a writer named Garrard Conley. It is a first-hand account of a Christian-based therapy program whose goal is to turn homosexual people (male and female) into heterosexual people.

In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental illness. However, that didn’t stop the formation of Love in Action (LIA), a nondenominational fundamentalist Christian organization that promised to cure all LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) congregants of their “sexual addictions.”

Garrard Conley is the “boy” in question. He is from a strictly religious, Missionary Baptist family in Arkansas. His father is a fundamentalist minister who believes in a strict interpretation of God’s word. When Garrard realizes he’s gay, he has to keep it a secret because he knows his parents will never understand or accept his sexuality. They discover the truth about him when he is a college student. They view homosexuality as a “condition” or an “addiction” like alcoholism that can be “cured” through prayer and counseling. (LIA uses some of the techniques of Alcoholics Anonymous.) Garrard’s father tells him he will not continue to finance his education unless he submits to “ex-gay” therapy and becomes “cured.”

The therapy consists of first writing about and then talking through one’s sexual feelings in front of a group of strangers, feeling contrite and ashamed, and praying that God will make you “pure.” The idea is to remove all temptation and sinful thoughts that lead to sinful acts that will assure the practitioner will spend eternity burning in the fires of hell. It is a kind of brainwashing that sometimes leaves participants suicidal. There is no evidence, from a scientific point of view, that a person’s sexual orientation can be changed in this way.

Boy Erased is an interesting story about what one young man went through in an effort to please his parents and make himself acceptable in the eyes of the world. A better idea might have been to provide “re-orientation” therapy and counseling to the parents to get them to accept their son and his sexuality. The upshot of the book is that ex-gay therapy doesn’t work and apparently does more harm than good.

Copyright © 2017 by Allen Kopp  

by allen0997

It ~ A Capsule Movie Review

It ~ A Capsule Movie Review by Allen Kopp

Early in It, a small boy named Georgie has an encounter with a strange, though interesting, clown in a storm drain during a rainstorm. That’s the last that’s seen of little Georgie. His older brother Bill misses Georgie terribly and refuses to believe he’s dead. Bill and his group of adolescent friends (all troubled in some way) believe there’s something terrible going on in the little town of Derry, Maine, in the late 1980s. There are far too many missing kids and nobody knows what’s happened to them. The self-absorbed adults in the town don’t seem very interested in solving the mystery, so it’s left to Bill and his friends to confront the evil force, whatever it is. Welcome to the world of Stephen King. It is based on his massive, 1200-page novel.

There’s a pattern to the bad things that happen in the town. In 1908, an ironworks exploded, killing over a hundred people. Every twenty-seven years since 1908, tragedies have occurred. It’s now 1989 and that’s twenty-seven years since the latest town tragedy in 1962. By studying maps, the boys figure out that the places where the tragic events occurred all have something in common: they are all connected via the town’s sewer system and a thing called the well house. Just where is this well house, and how do the boys find it?

The clown, Pennywise, is by far the most interesting character in It. He is the personification of the evil force in the town. He lives in the town’s labyrinthine sewer system. Depending on your own perception of clowns (I like them), Pennywise is grotesque, scary, fascinating, creepy, compelling, or silly. Maybe all of these things.

Most of the characters in It are like cardboard cutouts. Some of the kid actors who play the parts talk so fast that we don’t understand a lot of what they say and they aren’t very convincing or likeable, with the exception of stuttering Bill and the one girl in the group, Beverly, who has to fight off the advances of her creepy, leering father.  If you are a Stephen King fan, you will probably love this film adaptation of one of his most famous works. If you are not a Stephen King fan, you might find the onscreen horror of the ho-hum, obvious kind involving thirteen-year-olds and things jumping out at you in the dark.

We don’t know until the end of It that we have just seen chapter 1 of the story, meaning there will be more. The young girl who plays Beverly in the movie looks very much like the fortyish actress Amy Adams, so I’m figuring that Amy will be in the next movie playing Beverly as she would now look in the year 2017. And Pennywise? He’ll be back! He may be down but not out. Oh, that clown!

Copyright © 2017 by Allen Kopp

by allen0997

Suffused with Light

Suffused with Light ~ A Short Story by Allen Kopp

Phillip Call awoke at the usual time, washed the sleep from his eyes, brushed his teeth and dressed himself. He went into the kitchen, expecting to see his mother sitting at the table drinking coffee, but she wasn’t there. Neither was she on the couch in the living room, in her bedroom, or anyplace else in the house. She hadn’t told him she was going to be gone. He wondered where she was but he wasn’t worried.

He was twelve years old and in the seventh grade. He didn’t like school very much but he tried to make the best of it. He was a fair student, better in English and reading than in math and science. In a few years when he was finished with school, he wanted to go into the navy and have a different kind of life where he would see places like Italy and South America.

He never knew his father. His mother had been married, but not to Phillip’s father, and then the man she was married to left and was seen no more. He knew she wasn’t a very good mother. She took pills, chain-smoked cigarettes, and drank whiskey and wine. Some days she didn’t even get out of bed or she laid on the couch all day in front of the TV. She had moods where she cried and yelled at him for no reason, only because he was there, and at those times he tried to stay away from her.

He had a piece of toast with jelly and set out to school. He was going to write his mother a note for her to see when she came home, but she would know that he got himself up and off to school and would be home at the usual time.

The day at school was uneventful. In his usual quiet way, he didn’t speak to anybody and nobody spoke to him. He had a spelling test, on which he scored a hundred percent, and a math quiz. Two eighth grade boys got into a fistfight in the cafeteria and had to be pulled apart. He spent the hour in study hall reading out-of-town newspapers on sticks. All in all, a very routine day. Nothing to write home about.

When he got home, his mother still wasn’t there. He looked for a note that she might have written, but there wasn’t any. He dug up something to eat for supper, did his homework and watched TV until bedtime. He expected her to come home all evening but she didn’t.

The next morning when he got up, she was sitting on the couch in her bathrobe. She was crying, smoking her Camels and drinking shots of whiskey. When he walked into the room, she didn’t look at him.

“Where were you, mother?” he asked. “I was worried.”

“I couldn’t take care of a kid,” she said, sobbing. “I hated to do it but I couldn’t go on any longer.”

“What?”

He stood right in front of her and still she didn’t look at him.

“I’ll have to tell them it was an accident. That I found him that way.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

“I didn’t really poison him. He took those pills by mistake. He had a toothache and he thought it was something for the toothache.”

“Who are you talking about?” he asked.

He spoke in a very loud voice and she didn’t hear him. He waved his arms and she didn’t see him.

“Then he turned over and his face was smashed into the pillow,” she sobbed. “He couldn’t breathe. Poor little thing!”

“Mother!” he said. “Why won’t you answer me?”

“Now I can get away somewhere and start over. I’ll just have myself to take care of and I’ll get along fine. I’ll get myself cleaned up and forget all this happened.”

Somebody came quietly up behind him and touched him on the shoulder. When he turned to look, he saw a man whose face was a bright spot of light. He could only see the outline of the head, ears and a neat brown haircut.

“Who are you?” Phillip asked. “How did you get in?”

“It doesn’t matter,” the man said.

“Are you my grandpa?”

“No.”

“Why can’t I see your face?”

“You’re to come with me now.”

“Where?”

“Away from here.”

As the man began to lead him away with a gentle pressure on the shoulder, Phillip turned for a last look at his mother, who saw and heard nothing.

“What about her?” Phillip asked.

“She’s already said her goodbyes,” the man said.

Copyright © 2017 by Allen Kopp

by allen0997

His Master’s Voice

On July 10, 1900, “His Master’s Voice” was registered with the U.S. Patent Office as the trademark for the Victor Recording Company (later known as RCA Victor). The painting of a terrier named Nipper looking into the horn of a phonograph machine is by British artist Francis Barraud.  The image became an icon and one of the most recognized corporate trademarks of the 20th century and beyond.

by allen0997

Rabbit is Rich ~ A Capsule Book Review

Rabbit is Rich ~ A Capsule Book Review by Allen Kopp

John Updike (1933-2009) was an American writer who wrote compellingly about ordinary people. He was a chronicler of his age, in much the same way that F. Scott Fitzgerald and John O’Hara were of their age.

Updike’s series of four “Rabbit” novels (Rabbit Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich, Rabbit at Rest) are about the different stages in the life of one Harold (Harry) “Rabbit” Angstrom: high school basketball star, linotype operator, husband, son, father, brother, lover, and Toyota dealer.

Rabbit Angstrom is a sort of contemporary antihero. He is flawed. He is less than admirable. He is sentimental. He is sex-obsessed (as Updike male characters always are). In Rabbit is Rich, he is forty-six years old and overweight, in what you might call the third quarter of his life. He has reached the stage of his life where he knows affluence for the first time, thanks to his father-in-law, Fred Springer, who brought him into his Toyota dealership in Brewer, Pennsylvania, and then conveniently died, leaving Rabbit in charge. Rabbit and his ditzy wife Janice live with his crabby, Charlie’s Angels-loving mother-in-law, Bessie, in her stately house.

Rabbit and Janice have a son, Nelson, a confused and rebellious young man who dropped out of Kent State one year short of graduating. Nelson has just married pregnant Pru (whose real name is Teresa). Pru and Nelson seem mismatched. We know it’s a union that isn’t going to last. Rabbit is sexually drawn to Pru. (When it comes to sex, nothing is off limits with these people.) Nelson doesn’t want to return to college but instead wants to work at the not-very-successful-these-days Toyota lot with his father. Rabbit will have to let one of his long-term employees go to make a place for Nelson and he doesn’t want to do that. The women in his life (his mother-in-law and his wife) are pressuring him to bring Nelson on. He knows that Nelson will mess it up, as he has messed up everything else in his life.

Rabbit thinks a lot about death. He can’t stop thinking about his deceased working-class parents and about the other people in his life who have died. He and Janice had an infant daughter named Becky who Janice accidentally drowned in the bathtub when she was drunk. Rabbit has, or believes he has, an illegitimate daughter from an affair he had twenty years ago. He is sentimental about his supposed illegitimate daughter; he fantasizes about encountering her and introducing himself to her as her father, even though she believes another man holds that title.

Rabbit is Rich is a slice of late-1970s life. It’s a rich reading experience about marriage, disillusionment, mortality, fatherhood and success. It shows us how good contemporary American literature (after Hemingway, Steinbeck, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald) can be in the hands of a master. If you are a reader, you owe it to yourself to read all four of the Rabbit novels in order.

Copyright © 2017 by Allen Kopp

by allen0997