A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

“Hate is the complement of fear and narcissists like being feared. It imbues them with an intoxicating sensation of omnipotence.”   ―  Sam Vaknin ,  Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited People - mainly those individuals who are blissfully unaware of my family history - often ask me, "Why can't you get along with your sister? She's your closest relative now that your mom is gone, and she's so nice/generous/loving. Can't you try and be her friend?" While it is true that my half-sister is my closest family member and, as far as I know, my only living relative in the United States, I have to say that as much as I'd like to be Vicky's friend, I can't. She is a seriously disturbed narcissist who has done me (and our mother) much more emotional harm than she had done good. She (and her small retinue of vocal supporters) will deny it, of course. Like many narcissists, Vicky has an uncanny talent for cleverly projecting a self-image of being an a

(C) 2007 Random House/Vintage In 2007, three years after the publication of Max Hastings’ “Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-1945,” the British imprint HarperPress published a companion volume about the end of World War II in the Pacific, “Nemesis: The Battle for Japan 1944-1945.” Like its predecessor set in the European Theater of Operations (ETO), “Nemesis” is an examination of the various military and political maneuvers that led to the Allied (primarily American) victory against the Japanese Empire during the war’s closing months. When Knopf, Hastings’ U.S. publisher, released the book for the American market as “Retribution: The Battle for Japan 1944-1945.” In this highly readable 688-page tome, Hastings depicts the earthshaking events that led to Japan’s defeat in the Pacific War in vivid prose and clear-eyed analysis of the various campaigns and battles that culminated with the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hastings sets up his Pacific War chessboa

In July of 1989, Columbia Pictures released “When Harry Met Sally…” a witty romantic comedy written by the late Nora Ephron (“Sleepless in Seattle”) and directed by Rob (“Stand by Me”) Reiner. Starring Billy Crystal as Harry Burns and Meg Ryan as Sally Albright, “When Harry Met Sally…” is a clever, humorous, yet unexpectedly moving look at the relationships between men and women. It covers various aspects of love and gender roles, but its most famous theme is Can men and women really be friends?   “When Harry Met Sally…” follows the course of the titular characters’ relationship over a 12-year period that begins in 1977 and ends roughly in the movie’s Present Day. As Ephron and Reiner set up the scenario, Harry and Sally have jgraduated from the University of Chicago and are headed east to start new lives and careers in New York. They have never met before, but Sally’s a friend of Harry’s girlfriend Amanda (Michelle Nicastro) and has agreed to take Harry along as a co-driver

March 1982 1 I first met Lauren Hitchcock when I was a 17- year-old junior at South Miami High. It was a spring day in 1982, and I was making my way from my third period class (English Three, College Bound) to my fourth period one (Mixed Chorus). I walked quickly – or, rather, as quickly as possible in a corridor full of my fellow high school students trying to get to their classes before the bell rang. I had attended South Miami for nearly two years, so I had lots of practice in weaving through the crowds and clambering the stairs from the Language Arts department on the second floor down to the music department wing on the first. I had just pushed open the door that led to the stairs when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a svelte jeans-and-blouse clad girl sitting alone on the landing. Her algebra textbook lay on the floor to her left, and her leather purse sat on top of a green Mead Organizer to her right. She slumped forward on the top step, and her dainty hands covered

Hi there, Constant Reader. It’s 4:21 p.m. on a chilly Monday afternoon in the Sunshine State. As I write this, it’s 66 degrees Fahrenheit under partly sunny skies. Though it’s not as cold as it was earlier today, the temperature is low enough for it to be a hot-chocolate-with-warm donuts day, at least for me! I’ve lived in (or visited) several cities (Bogota, New York City, and Seville) where it gets awfully cold, and chilly weather tends to make me want to bundle up in bed with a good book. I was going to write a movie review earlier today, but my eyeglasses broke; I’m nearsighted, and although I can see most of what’s on the big television screen, my eyes get awfully tired without my glasses. Worse, if I want to read the “news ticker” at the bottom of the screen when perusing CNN or the local news channels, I have to mosey up close to the TV to see the lettering. My spectacles are irreparably damaged and I need new ones, so my mission of the day has been to try and call Visionwo

Toxic relationships are dangerous to your health; they will literally kill you.   – Bryant McGill It’s a nice early January day in the Sunshine State. As I write this, it’s 81 degrees Fahrenheit under sunny skies. The house is quiet and peaceful – so much so that I’m thinking of playing some music…as soon as I decide what style of music I feel like listening to. Maybe I’ll grab a Frank Sinatra CD, or maybe I’ll listen to some classical music. Something calm and peaceful; I’m not in the mood for anything “bombastic” or “operatic” a la John Williams today. As I sit in my quiet (for the moment, anyway) study, I’m trying to figure out why I can’t have a solid and loving relationship with my older half-sister Victoria. After all, she is my closest living relative, and we were supposed to get along a bit better after Mom’s death a year and a half ago. Was our estrangement inevitable, or should I have kept trying to close the breach that has existed between us for nearly 30 y

What do you get when you combine the talents of writer-director Lawrence Kasdan, whose films are character-driven and meditative, and Stephen King, whose stories often focus on ordinary people in extraordinary (and often horrific) situations? You probably expect to see an odd hybrid that is part “The Big Chill,” part “Stand by Me.” Well, if you toss in a smidgen of thematic material from Byron Haskin’s 1953 invaders-from-Mars classic “The War of the Worlds,” the result of such a mashup is Kasdan’s 2003 film “Dreamcatcher,” a science fiction/horror tale based on King’s eponymous 2001 novel. Co-written by Kasdan (“Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”) and William Goldman (“A Bridge Too Far,” “Misery,” “The Princess Bride”), “Dreamcatcher” tells the tale of four lifelong friends (played by Damian Lewis, Thomas Jane, Jason Lee, and Timothy Olyphant) who stumble upon an alien invasion while on their annual hunting trip to a cabin near Derry, Maine. Kasdan be

Family portrait, circa 1986.  I am happy without toxic people in my life, Part II “Toxic people attach themselves like cinder blocks tied to your ankles, and then invite you for a swim in their poisoned waters.”  ― John Mark Green It’s been nearly six months since I last saw my toxic half-sister, Victoria Pineros, as she made a hilariously melodramatic exit from the waiting area outside Judge Bernard Shapiro’s chambers in a Miami-Dade County courthouse building. I watched her turn her back to me and stalk off, trailed by her attorney and a retinue of supporters that included her cousin Juan Manuel and his wife Barbara. I suppose I should have felt some regret, some sense of loss at the thought that we were parting not as friendly siblings who had lost a parent but as bitter enemies. I also suspect that she sees herself as the aggrieved party who was “robbed” of her rightful inheritance by her selfish, scheming younger half-brother. And I have no doubt, no doubt a

“There’s folks you just don’t need. You’re better off without ‘em. Your life is just a little better because they ain’t in it.” ― William Gay Well, here we are on January 3, 2017, nearly 72 hours into the New Year. I can’t say that I’m unhappy that 2016 is over; last year had its good days, of course, but overall it sucked. The Presidential election here in the States was one of the weirdest and least satisfactory in the nation’s history, lots of beloved celebrities died, and Islamic terrorist attacks here and elsewhere widened the chasm between the West and the Muslim world. On a personal level, 2016 was one of the toughest years I’ve ever lived through. It was the first year since Mom’s death and, of course, it marked my first year as a homeowner. I was used to running my household way before Mom passed away; she handed me the reins, so to speak, when she became seriously ill in 2010, so I was used to making decisions and paying bills on time already. It was a tough and some

The Movie Originally released on January 25, 1970, director Robert Altman’s “MASH” is an antiwar black comedy set in the 4077 th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War. It was adapted from Richard Hooker’s “MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors” by Ring Lardner, Jr. and though it was set in South Korea, the film’s sardonic and irreverent tone was really a commentary about the then-ongoing Vietnam War. “MASH” was both a commercial and critical success; it earned five Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, Best Film Editing) and won one (Best Adapted Screenplay). It also spun off three television situation comedies – “M*A*S*H,” “Trapper John, MD,” and “AfterMASH.” Starring Donald Southerland as Capt. Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce, Elliott Gould as Capt. “Trapper John” McIntyre, Tom Skerritt as Capt. Duke Forrest, Sally Kellerman as Maj. Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan, and Robert Duvall as Maj. Frank Burn