Film photos from tennis today:

We were all creative weirdos, basically. Like this kid, I was once an “OL” — in 1998. We were still using VHS camcorders back then, but if digital video (or the internet) had existed in the form it does now, I definitely would have gone to town and made something even dorkier for incoming students:

I watch so many Brando films, it occurred to me that a review process might be helpful for other fans. I’ll start from “most recently watched” and work backwards, updating whenever I watch a new one.

New! 35. VIVA ZAPATA (1952) ****
“A monkey in silk is still a monkey.” We got to see this tonight on the big screen during the Elia Kazan tribute at Harvard Film Archive. Very cool. Ok, I was initially rather put off by Brando’s faux-Mexican ethnic makeup, then I remembered it was 1952 Hollywood. Not to mention one of Brando’s first films! Kazan’s directing was great, and of course Marlon was in fine form, as usual, as the illiterate, enraged agrarian freedom fighter with a heart of gold, a fake mustache and a white stallion. Ample humor in the film as well. See it.

New! 34. THE BRAVE (1997) *
One of Brando’s last films, and Johnny Depp’s one and only directorial debut (he also stars in it). Why was this never released in the U.S.? Why did we have to buy it on eBay and import it from Korea? Because it’s t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e. I mean really, really bad. (No offense, Johnny, I still love you.) But it was overly cheesy, boring, and a lame script (which Depp co-wrote alongside his brother). The only redeeming feature is our man Brando, of course, who embraces his old man soliloquies with the cool disregard of an overweight legend. He only agreed to be in this film as a favor to Depp, and was only in it about 10 minutes. Oh, what a masterpiece the two of them could have made! Le sigh.

33. DESIRÉE (1954) ***
Another early Brando film! My boyfriend got bored after ten minutes and left the room. “Brando was still taking himself really seriously as an actor back then,” he commented. I knew what he meant, but disagreed that it was a tiring awesomeness. Brando had just played Julius Caesar. He was at the top of his game. Now in this film he plays Napoleon…a wonderful performance, I think, if not tortured and dramatic. Obviously the star has been born, even though the female lead tries valiantly to keep up. A little hokey at times, but traditionally stellar stage-like performance by our man. And he was my age at the time this was made. Oy!

32. A DRY WHITE SEASON (1989) ***
Good film. Brando has a brief but brilliant performance as an anti-apartheid human rights lawyer who tries in vein to prosecute the government Special Forces for their murder of a Black South African and his son. Knowing that racial and ethnic persecution was the cause for which Brando was always on the forefront of fighting, it’s no surprise he handled this role with passion, albeit physically sluggish (he’s hiding in a robe again). Bonus: Kiefer Sutherland’s dad does a very good job as the star of the film.
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This is the first place I went in rural Peru. We went for a walk during a multi-day ICT training for internet entrepreneurs, and discovered this lovely cow. I inserted a clip of it into a preliminary cut of a short promo video I made for the telecom, but the cow appears right after an important government official, and the transition is jarring. At least that’s the feedback I got. So the cow’s gotta be axed from the video, but I wanted to at least memorialize him (her?) somewhere. Voila.

(It’s a song. Google it.)

Well, another summer is coming to a close. I’ve got a new baseball glove and some shoes to show for it. I’ve got blueberries. I’ve got pieces of video. I’ve got the echo of a Peruvian sunburn that will stain freckles on my chest for months. I’ve got a 90% designed yet unedited book of mediocre poetry almost ready to self-publish. I’ve got some lofty plans.

What I don’t have is a proper thesis topic. I don’t have a plan for getting hitched, other than a to get hitched at some point in the near future. In a foreign country. With no one there. I don’t have time/motivation to do pottery or go swimming, I don’t have a proper schedule (not a complaint), I really don’t have any complaints at all right now.

But it’s summer (and another, and another), and this weekend is a birthday party and a wedding and soon school begins again, my last and final year EVER EVER, which in itself is a little sad. “I want a new beginning. / I want a mango. That’s it.”