Thursday, April 14, 2016

Once Upon a Time in... Debate

Tonight there'll be another Democratic debate aired on TV, this one from New York City, after which Bernie Sanders will be travelling to the Vatican to take part in a conference tomorrow. It's all go !

The New York debate is an overture to the state's primary, due in 5 days' time. Result of the New York primary could well be the deciding factor, delegate-wise, as to whether Senator Sanders will still have any possible path to nomination; same could apply to Donald Trump for the Republicans.


There's a whole lot of New York state outside of New York City, but much attention will be on the City itself.

Never having visited New York City, I've relied on movies for my impression of it - there are many. West Side Story - iconic, musical, tale of life in New York City; Midnight Cowboy, Breakfast at Tiffany's all attempt to depict various facets of life in the city during certain decades.

The first film that comes to my own mind when thinking about New York City is Once Upon a Time in America, set 'twixt the 1920s and 1960s. Sadly the film on a tape we have is a truncated version of the original, made for US audiences. The film's original, almost four hours long, has been mauled terribly over the years, for showing in cinemas all over the world. I saw what I suspect was the longer (possibly original) version aired on TV back in the UK in (I think) the late 1980s, presented as a two part mini-series. After watching our thrift store VHS tape, I discovered that some scenes, important ones I clearly recalled from long ago, simply weren't there. There is, now, a special edition Director's Cut available which is said to be nearer to the original version. In general, I dislike gangster-type tales in the Godfather or Sopranos genre, yet this one had long remained in memory. It really is a classy production, great background music, great acting, a film not properly appreciated, initially, in the USA. It was before its time, I guess.

Speaking of class, and returning to the debate, I trust we'll see some of that tonight!

NOTE
Husband's photograph titled "Are you here for the debate?" at Flickr (SEE HERE) was among the top 500 chosen from millions to be a part of Flickr Explore's "most interesting photograph of the day", during this week. I suspect the title, and comments under the pic, had as much influence in its choice as the photograph itself, taken in some antique store we'd visited.

13 comments:

anyjazz said...

I remember scenes that were not included in our tape version of the movie, “Once Upon A Time In America” which we watched this week. I am certain that many epic movies like this one have been re-edited for this venue or that, according to the needs at the time. I saw “Mad Mad Mad Mad World” in the wide-screen movie theater when it was first released. The televised version and the subsequent video tape versions were half the length, omitting many of the carefully crafted cameos and gag scenes that were really the reason for the movie. The editors are less interested in retaining story continuity than they are in making places to insert advertisements. Today a 90 minute movie will rarely fit into a two hour time slot.

Commercialism has become so important to our corporate leaders that their advertisements seep subtly into the movies themselves. The choice of a Pepsi can over a Coke can in a kitchen scene depends on which company was willing to pay a fee to have their product visibility boosted in that scene. I remember reading that this was the reason why Reese’s Pieces were used instead of M and M’s in the 1982 movie “E. T.: The Extra Terrestrial” when it was made; a decision that Mars, Inc. probably regretted.

R J Adams said...

Anyjazz sure has a way with the old Brownie Box. I agree with his observations above, also.

mike said...

I don't receive CNN, so I'll have to rely on the "live Tweets" or whatever is available on the internet, which is a sliced-diced version of the tweeter's assessment. Sometimes "Nightline" has a synopsis segment when it comes on at 11:30 PM. Last night's "Nightline" had a campaign segment showing how the candidates were campaigning in the big city...Bernie attracted 27,000 supporters at one of his rallies held outside! I anticipate a different match-up tonight...this debate is critical for both Hillary and Bernie, and I think there will be more antagonism expressed. Transiting Moon in early Leo will be in grand trine with Venus and Mars, which is good for entertainment of the public. Bernie will have transiting Mercury and Pluto trine his Sun...and transiting Sun on his Moon (new Moon), which is good for presentation to the collective, specially with transiting Jupiter Rx on his Sun. Hillary will have the transiting Moon square her Sun, with transiting Venus and Mars forming a grand trine with her Mars-Pluto conjunction, but with transiting Mercury square her Mars-Pluto conjunction in Leo...I think she'll be viewed as an aggressor and threatening. Bernie will have a better night than she.

I've been a visitor to NYC numerous times and always enjoyed my stay, but I wouldn't want to live there. The TV, comedic series "Seinfeld" captured the zeitgeist of NYC well, I thought. Fascinating how each very large city has its own personality and NYC's is distinctive.

Nice photo, anyjazz!

Twilight said...

anyjazz/RJ Adams/mike ~

Thank y'all for your observations, astrological and otherwise.

Fingers crossed for Bernie tonight, tomorrow in Rome, and on 19th in NY!

LorrieU said...

Here's a good post re. what to know about upcoming primaries and caucuses!...

Election Fraud: Why Are Voter Registrations Changing?

Here’s what you need to know.

http://heavy.com/news/2016/04/election-fraud-voter-registration-changed-suppression-party-affiliation-sanders-clinton-ca-ny-az-md-pa-what-to-do/

LorrieU said...

Mike - You can live stream the debate on The Young Turks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=a48o2S1cPoo&app=desktop

mike (again) said...

LorrieU - Thanks, but "The Young Turks" is offline right now, so I don't think they are providing coverage. CNN has it online, but when I click on the "Watch CNN Live", it does nothing...LOL. As always, I'll have to suffice with Tweet updates and view the dust-up video segments on the news later.

Bobby Baby said...

HI LORRIE!

For Music Monday

Never thought of myself as being old until after I had lived 71 years.
Record player? Record player? What, pray tell, is a record player?

Dodgy Doings

Love clips, videos, of the House of Commons.

Annie, you say Skinner's hair was still mostly black. Do you recall what color yours was at the time? Blond, brunette, red, black, brown, platinum, blue, pink, silver?
The thought of posting using all of the words in the list has crossed my mind.
How do you feed a brown egg - or any egg for that matter?

Political chickens (not the ones in Congress), Blue chicken, Polka Dot chicken, lost hippy San Jose chicken, chicken in a bar meeting Babe, the pig, Carmenized chicken, the plain (rainbow) chicken, chicken convention, collection of chickens - wanted I reckon, judging by the the prices on them. Was anyjazz abandoned by chickens when he was a lad?

Twilight said...

Lorrie U ~ Hi there! Thank you for these links - I shall peruse them carefully tomorrow morning. I'm all politicked out for tonight after the debate etc. ;-)

Twilight said...

Bobby Baby ~ I was going to move your comment to appropriate posts, but changed my mind - what the heck - it'll be fine here - relates to Monday's and yesterday's I think.

My hair was mostly dark brown back then.

That list of words reminded me of George Carlin's list of 7 words not to be used on TV (though that was a more fruity list by far). :-)

Anyjazz does have something of a chicken fixation - he photographs 'em a lot whenever we find some in antique stores, surprisingly often actually - never real ones though.

Twilight said...

mike ~ Debate, as you predicted, got quite animated at times. Clinton is a more practiced debater, but I find her style, very irritating. Bernie attacked quite a bit more than he has up to now. I didn't watch much of CNN or MSNBC afterwards, but for the short time I watched they were definitely all up for Clinton - naturally, they would, being on corporate TV channels!

mike (again) said...

I read The Guardian and Politico synopses this morning, plus I followed as best I could with the "live Tweets" (ugh) last night. From what I can gather, neither made points and both have received derision for their performances. All-in-all, I'd still say Bernie had the better night, as he put Hillary on the defensive and he effectively called her out on several items. His exasperation directed at Hillary didn't seem to go-over with the Tweeters at the time, but the pundits seem to be interpreting Bernie's behavior more favorably this morning. He allowed Hillary to essentially state that electing Hillary is a continuation of the Obama administration.

Twilight said...

mike (again) ~ I've done a quick scoot around the blogs/websites this morning. Some consider the debate a tie, which was our conclusion. Each scored points but no true knock-out punch was delivered, and I doubt anybody's mind has been changed by anything said in that debate. For New Yorkers who have been too busy to follow previous debates, though, this one might have been a revelation - in Bernie's favour, I hope!