Always has been, always will be. |-)

Leonardo Dicaprio and Clint Eastwood GQ October 2011

Clint Eastwood: I was an Eisenhower Republican when I started out at 21, because he promised to get us out of the Korean War. And over the years, I realized there was a Republican philosophy that I liked. And then they lost it. And libertarians had more of it. Because what I really believe is, Let’s spend a little more time leaving everybody alone. These people who are making a big deal out of gay marriage? I don’t give a fuck about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?! We’re making a big deal out of things we shouldn’t be making a deal out of.

I’ve had this linked saved for quite awhile (have no clue how I stumbled on it, not a GQ fan) but seeing Eastwood in the Chrysler Super Bowl ad reminded me of it.

The Outlaw Josey Wales was my introduction and I’ve had nothing but respect for him since.

Elsewhere:

• Chrysler spokesman Eastwood was critic of auto bailout
  “We shouldn’t be bailing out the banks and car companies,” actor, director and Academy Award winner Eastwood told the Los Angeles Times in November 2011. “If a CEO can’t figure out how to make his company profitable, then he shouldn’t be the CEO.”

Ever since Yahoo stole my automatic subject generator, I have relied on my own sense of whimsy to grab someones attention. I considered “public enemy” and of course as soon as I saw it on the page I thought of “pubic enemy” but that would ultimately disappoint the awedience.

You owe to yourselves to look into “Cheech Marin” the iconic actor perhaps best known as half of “Cheech and Chong”.

He’s an avid art collector, and an authentic American, with all the seriousness that proper punctuation suggests.

I love it when he talks about the “Cheech and Chong” experience:

The quintessential american hippies are a chicano low-rider and a half-chinese hippy guy. To our ignorant but well loved friends who don’t understand what america was supposed to be, and is doing an excellent job of, this is a great example.

“Cheech and Chong”, as icons of Americana.

Oh yeah, and President Barrack Obama as the boomers slowly, slowly, gray.

I’m watching Elia Kazan’s movie from 1957, “A Face in the Crowd”, on TMC.

I’m mostly a fan of script (screen writers), and directors. The movie helped make Andy Griffith a star. Many others were to follow and came before.

“A Face in the Crowd” satirizes the very thing that Andy Griffith would become later in his career. The character Lonesome Rhodes could very well be the “personality” that Andy Griffith became. It’s an article in itself.

This is about Elia’s being black-listed by the ones who said they were against it.

I watched the 1999 Academy Awards when they were giving Kazan a lifetime achievement award. Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese were standing on the stage with him and gave eloquent personal remarks. Warren Beatty and some others stood and applauded heartily. Steven Speilberg, Tim Robbins/Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte, amongst other notables, refused to stand or applause.

Elia was summoned to the McCarthy witch hunt in 1952 and eventually named names. He named 8 people who were already known to the HUAC committee. Who knows why, but probably so he could continue to work.

The part that people who hold it against him refuse to remember is that the names he named were already known to the committee. No doubt this is why he “remembered” these names.

Hard times for the ones who were harmed, lives ruined. But the ones who hold a grudge for the sake of political correctness after the fact are just grandstanding, Taking advantage of an opportunity to look good themselves by his mistakes.

They overlooked or conveniently forgot his contributions to the industry. He co-founded the Actors Studio. “The Method” actor.

I’ve loved movies since I was little. I learned later that my favorites were always directed by and used actors that had common ideas about what made good movies. The script is first and foremost, but it’s a different job than the acting or directing. Of course you need a script, but these people breathe life into it.

I’m sober and unemployed, but not bored. Important art does more than entertain - It comments on the times and events we live. It expresses and records.

I wish I knew how to make my opinion important. Better yet, get paid for it.