Of Jean Seberg, and Jeanne d'Arc

I thought it was a little over the top that the opening scene of the Amazon film Seberg showed actress Jean Seberg being burned at the stake while playing Joan of Arc. But after watching the movie, starring Kristen Stewart in the title role, I realized it was perfectly appropriate.



Jean Seberg was a 17-year-old girl from a small town in Iowa when she was entered in an international talent search to find someone to play Joan of Arc. Director Otto Preminger cast Jean after reportedly testing 18,000 young women for the title role in the 1957 film St. Joan, with a screenplay by Graham Greene from the George Bernard Shaw play of the same name.

Seberg was badly burned filming the scene where Joan is put to death, but she later said the emotional scars she endured were worse. Those she got from the critics and from working with Preminger, who was notoriously abusive to his actresses. (Robert Mitchum once slapped Preminger on the set, after he demanded repeated takes of Mitchum slapping actress Jean Simmons.) Seberg went on to become a darling of the French avant garde cinema for her role in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, and also starred in Hollywood pictures, like Paint Your Wagon and Airport.

Jean as Jeanne

Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc) was also 17 when she announced her calling to fight the English invaders in France. Among the many accusations against her were that she danced as a child in Domrémy at a "fairy tree," "hanging on the boughs garlands of different herbs and flowers, made by her own hand." She rather admitted to that, but denied ever using or seeking out mandrake—a root that contains hallucinogenic alkaloids—although she said she had heard of it. 

The two saints who spoke to her were St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Margaret the Virgin. Some modern scholars think that the legend of Catherine was based on the life and murder of the Greek philosopher Hypatia, (with reversed roles of Christians and pagans). As Saint Marina, St. Margaret is associated with the sea, and possibly the goddess Aphrodite.

Like Jeanne before her, Jean stood up for causes she believed in, namely the Black Panther Party, which was funding schools and meal programs, as well as engaging in more militant rhetoric and activity. Dialog from Seberg about the violent mistreatment of blacks by police echo in protests of today over those ongoing abuses.

Something to Watch if You're "Bored to Death"

From the opening credits of "Bored to Death"

I was feeling a little, well, bored to death while sheltering at home, so it seemed like the kiss of Kismet when I noticed that Amazon Prime is running the 2009-2011 HBO Series Bored to Death through 5/21.

I knew I would like it right away when, in the cartoon-drawn opening credits, Ted Danson's character George hands a joint to Jason Schwartzman playing Jonathan, an insecure writer who tries his hand at being an "unlicensed" private detective after reading too many Raymond Chandler novels.

The show almost has social distancing
down (with Olivia Thirlby).

In the pilot episode Jonathan loses his girlfriend (Olivia Thirlby, from The Wackness) because he won't stop drinking and smoking pot. He cuts down to white wine, but smokes in almost every episode with his friends George, a womanizing magazine publisher, and Ray, an infantile cartoonist played by the always-funny Zach Galifianakis, who's probably most famous for lighting up a joint on Real Time with Bill Maher.

Jonathan hilariously captures his prey with kindness, acting more as a psychotherapist than a detective much of the time. But as the series evolves he finds his courage, as does Ray, whose spoofy cartoon character "Super Ray" gains his powers when his huge penis touches a subway rail. (Yes, we're in New York City.) Ray and George bond over some weed-fueled revelations while they wait for Jonathan on a stake out, leading to more madcap adventures.

Jonathan (Jason Schwartzman) and Stella (Jenny Slate) on a date. 

One of the girls gets to have her ganja fun when Jonathan meets the pro-pot Stella played by comedienne Jenny Slate. "She's beautiful, she's Jewish, and she's got a great vaporizer," he says after Stella invites him over to try her new Volcano vaporizer.

Mothering and Marijuana

UPDATE: Finn has responded to her critics in a second oped: "MY KIDS WATCH ME DRINK WINE. PRETTY OFTEN. IS THAT A PROBLEM?"

The website of a mother who objected to legal cannabis in the LA Times. (Accessed 4/13/20.)

While we're all homebound during the COVID crisis, the usual "Mommy Needs Her Wine" memes have proliferated, with lines like, "Can anyone recommend a good breakfast wine?" and the ominous prediction, "You think it's bad now? In 20 years our country will be run by kids who were home schooled by day drinkers." There's even a Facebook group, "Mommy Needs Vodka." But mothers who use cannabis haven't reached this level of acceptance, despite a new study finding that 16 percent of moms say they are using cannabis to cope with COVID, compared to 11 percent of fathers.

Meanwhile, the LA Times has seen fit to publish for 4/20 an op-ed from a mother irate about the presence of cannabis clubs and billboards around Los Angeles. The author Robin Finn, a “Writer/Coach/Inner Peace Enthusiast,” displayed at the top of her website (at the time) a picture of herself with a glass of wine in her hand with the headline, "Be right there. I'm working...." apparently shirking her parental duties to do some drinking. Finn, who has a public health degree, is addressing our current crisis with weighty articles like, “What is the proper footwear for a Global Pandemic?” “Why A Global Pandemic is not a Good Time to give up Your Anxiety Medication” and “This is Not About Coronavirus. It’s About Tits.”

Ms. Finn frets about her kids becoming drug addicts if they try marijuana, as I'm sure a lot of parents do. She mentions the movie Beautiful Boy, in which a father (played by Steve Carrell) admits to his drug-addicted son that he used drugs in his past, but fails to take the opportunity to discuss the important differences between hard drugs and marijuana, or the value of moderation.

Jennifer Connelly talking with her son (Nat Wolff) in "Stuck in Love"

This is strikingly different from movies like 9-5, Peace Love & Misunderstanding and Stuck in Love where mothers or grandmothers are able to talk to teens about these important distinctions.

Review: "Grass is Greener" from Netflix

The Netflix marijuana documentary “Grass is Greener” is a milestone in the form, told from the perspective of the African-American community that has been so hard hit by the War on Drugs.

Directed and narrated by Frederick Brathwaite, better known as “Fab 5 Freddie” who DJed a hip hop show on MTV, the film features interviews with Snoop Dog, Damian Marley, B Real, Killer Mike, and others, as well as women like Reggae artist Jah 9.

With awesome graphics, music, and archival materials throughout, it starts with the history of cannabis use and prohibition in the US, interviewing pioneer authors Larry "Ratso" Sloman and Steve Hagar, along with Criminal Justice Professor Baz Dreisinger.

The connection between marijuana and music is made right away, starting in New Orleans with the story of Louis Armstrong, and interviewing old-time musicians who have used cannabis for 60 or 70 years. Mezz Mezzrow, the Jewish jazz clarinetist who supplied Harlem with "reefers" back in the day is compared to the modern Mezz, a dealer named Branson who has been extolled in dozens of rap songs.

Everything from the 1944 Laguardia Report, to Nixon's burying of the 1972 Shafer Commission report and subsequent racist comments made by him and his aide John Ehrlichman, and Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign to the rise of pro-legalization Reggae artists Bob Marley and Peter Tosh are given their due.

These are familiar themes, but where "Grass is Greener" departs and breaks ground is where it goes from there, starting with examples of Hip Hop songs that warned against hard drug use, and Snoop's admission that, as a cocaine dealer, he grew distressed at watching the damage that drug caused. Weed, however,  was "fly" and he made it his mission to turn the world onto the better drug. Soon Cypress Hill was smoking weed on SNL, Dr. Dre released his CD "The Chronic," and there was no putting the ganja genie back in the bottle.

Chrissie Hynde Remembers the Kent State Shootings

It's 50 years today since the Kent State shootings, when the National Guard shot 67 bullets at college students, injuring nine and killing four.

A 15-year-old Hynde in her Ohio backyard. 

One student who witnessed the shootings was the 18-year-old Akron native and Tokin' Woman Chrissie Hynde, who went on to move to London, have a kid with Ray Davies, and front her band the Pretenders. She knew the shooting victim Jeff Miller, who was dating a friend of hers.

Hynde describes those "four days in May" in her 2015 memoir, Reckless: My Life as a Pretender. "We were proud that KSU was a recognized 'antiwar' University like Berkeley in California," she writes. "The war was a terrible blight on our certainty that we were making the world a better place—more conscious, more inclusive, more free."

"The real problem was that none of us understood why we were actually in Vietnam. No one seemed to be able to offer a clear explanation. The spread of communism was the reason given," she wrote. "Seemed a little abstract to us pot-smoking peaceniks."

"The draft system was devised in such a way that the offspring of the affluent would never have to got to war," she continues. "The only song I remember that addressed this omission was 'Fortunate Son' by Creedence Clearwater Revival."

After the shootings, Crosby Stills Nash & Young released their single "Ohio."

 

Hynde writes,"A couple of weeks later on the radio, we heard a new song by Neil Young, "Ohio," about the horrible event. That made us feel better; we needed to be acknowledged. It was a big element in easing us out of shock."

The line, "What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground?" from "Ohio" referred to the 20-year-old student Sandy Scheuer, who was walking to class when she was shot. The others killed that day were Bill Schroeder, 19, who was also walking to class and not part of the protest; Allison Krause, 19, and Jeffrey Miller, 20, who were protesting the US Cambodian invasion.

A beautiful online remembrance from Kent State happened at noon today and can still be viewed. It begins with a vocal performance of Stephen Stills' composition "Find The Cost of Freedom" that was the B-side to "Ohio." A bell was rung six times, for the four Kent State students who died and the two killed at Jackson State in Mississippi eleven days later. They were Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, 21, and James Earl Green, 17.

RIP to the Heavenly Shirley Knight

The accomplished, sensitive, and exquisitely beautiful actress Shirley Knight has died at the age of 83.

Knight appeared as Heavenly Finlay in the 1962 movie Sweet Bird of Youth, based on the Tennessee Williams play in which Paul Newman tries to blackmail an aging actress over her hashish habit. The story is about hypocrisy and corruption, with Knight's character trapped into playing a pure paragon of womanhood by her politician father, and Chance (Newman) desperately trying to break her free. (The play was written for Tokin' Woman Tallulah Bankhead.)

Knight was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Sweet Bird, one of two nominations she earned while still in her 20s. She won a Tony Award, a Golden Globe, and three Emmys during her career.

Towards the end of her career, Knight played an older woman who gets to enjoy cannabis tea without ramifications in Grandma's Boy (above).  In on the fun with Knight are Doris Roberts and Shirley Jones, who beat out her fellow Shirley for the Supporting Actress Oscar in 1961 for her role as a Jezebel in Elmer Gantry; Knight was nominated for The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.

Other notable appearances from Knight include roles in The Group, based on the Mary McCarthy novel; The Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood; As Good as It Gets where she plays Helen Hunt's mother; Hot in Cleveland as Valerie Bertinelli's mother; and Redwood Highway, a wonderful movie she made in 2013 at the age of 77 about a woman who walks 80 miles to the coast of Oregon. Also in that film are Tom Skerritt, who was so good as the comical motorcycle cop in Harold and Maude, and Sam Daly, who plays the marijuana lobbyist on TV's Madam Secretary.

SF Mayor Recommends Netflix and Chill for 420 Revelers

If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair...

But not this year. And don't smoke your flowers there either, this 4/20.

To be clear: 4/20 will not be tolerated this year.

Do not come to San Francisco to celebrate. We will cite people. We will arrest people if necessary.

Order food. Watch Netflix. Stay home and stay safe. pic.twitter.com/4w2T9XJrej

— London Breed (@LondonBreed) April 13, 2020

It's long been known that the April 20 celebration at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco—which has been happening spontaneously since the 1970s, drawing upwards of 10,000 celebrants—has been out of control. Organizers tried to take over the event a few years back, holding a celebration in Robin Williams Meadow with vendors and sponsors to pay for services and clean-up.

Organizers cancelled the event and San Francisco's Mayor London Breed has a strong message for anyone tries to show up this year: don't. Robin Williams Meadow will be fenced off, and officers will patrol the area, making sure people don't gather there or elsewhere. “We will not allow this unsanctioned event to occur this year, especially in the height of a pandemic,” Breed said

Her pledge to cite and arrest people is real: It's technically still illegal to smoke (or vape) in the park, so violators could be cited for that, as well as charged with a misdemeanor with a $1000 fine for violating sheltering orders.

On Twitter and Facebook, Breed suggested an alternative: "Order food. Watch Netflix. Stay home and stay safe."

What to Watch

Mary-Louise Parkers Stays at Home with a Pot Plant on "Weeds"

Luckily, there are plenty of weed-themed shows to watch on Netflix, starting with "Weeds," the series in which Mary-Louise Parker plays a comely widow who grows marijuana to save her family. It's a good time to catch up on the series because a sequel, "Weeds 4.20," is due to come out next year, on the Starz network.

(Actually, I notice several of the movies I recommend on my 420 movie list this year are available with Starz subscriptions via Amazon Prime).

Rita Moreno  after eating an edible in "One Day at a Time" 

Other Netflix shows with Weed (and Women):

-"Grace and Frankie" (of course; a new season is planned for it this year)

-"The Last Laugh" in which Andie MacDowell turns Chevy Chase onto pot and more.

-"Dead to Me" on which Linda Cardellini "reacquaints" Christina Applegate to weed.

-"Disjointed" with Kathy Bates running a marijuana dispensary

-"One Day At a Time" - Rita Moreno enjoys eating an edible on the "Nip It In the Bud" episode, which raises some interesting questions about race and marijuana.

-"Cuckoo" with MacDowell's wacky character running a pot farm

-"That 70s Show" where the gals and guys sit in The Circle and even mom has some brownies.


Also on Netflix:

- "Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle" (a cut above the usual stoner buddy movies).

- "Cheech and Chong: Up in Smoke" - a classic.

- "Grass is Greener" - a 2019 documentary with Snoop Dogg, Killer Mike & others talking about the history of cannabis from the jazz era until today.


On Hulu:

- "The Breakfast Club" - a group of teens stuck in detention learns to bond over a joint

- "Grandma" - Lily Tomlin plays an awesome pot-smoking feminist poet

- "Saving Grace" - Brenda Blethyn grows weed to save her Conwall home

- "9 to 5" - Tomlin, Jane Fonda, and Dolly Parton have "an old fashioned ladies' pot party" and plot to overthrow their boss

- "Bad Teacher" - Cameron Diaz lights up the screen in more ways than one

- "Life of Crime" - Jennifer Aniston enjoys being kidnapped so much more with a little weed

- "It's Complicated" - Meryl Streep and Steve Martin "poke smot" and feel groovy.

- "Being John Malkovich" - Diaz, Catherine Keener,  and John Cusack get stoned together and explore consciousnesses in this brilliant, offbeat comedy.

- "Bored to Death" - with Jenny Slade as the pot-loving love interest of Jason Schwartzman with Zach Galifianakis, Ted Danson. Wickedly funny. (Also on Amazon Prime.)

- "Half Baked" - Dave Chappelle's marijuana movie; he quits smoking to please a girl (unless you watch the alternative endings). 


On Amazon Prime: 

Maude Instructs Harold

- "The Only Living Boy in New York" where Jeff Bridges plays a much more interesting stoner than The Dude.

- "Ride" where Helen Hunt learns to surf, smoke, and fall in love with Luke Wilson.

- "Annie Hall" with Diane Keaton in her Oscar-winning pothead role. (Also on Hulu)

- "Harold and Maude" where 80-year-old Maude turns on a young man, and teaches him to love life.

- "Mozart in the Jungle" - classical musicians and their drugs in NYC.

- "The Dressmaker" - where Kate Winslet and Judy Davis bake special cakes for their neighbor in pain.

- "Fleabag" has Phoebe Waller-Bridge flashing back to toking up with her lost girlfriend Boo.

Also on Amazon:

- "Grass" - excellent 1999 documentary narrated by Woody Harrelson about the history of hemp.

- "Super High Me" - Comedian Doug Benson's amusing take on "Supersize Me"

- "A NORML Life" - A history of the OG marijuana rights organization.

- "Cheech & Chong: Still Smokin" - self-explanatory. Also on Hulu.

- "Emperor of Hemp - The Jack Herer Story" - the man, not the strain.

- "California 90420" - a 2013 documentary about California's attempt to legalize marijuana in 2010.

- "Reefer Madness" - the 1930s anti-pot propaganda film. Also viewable is "She Shoulda Said No," an even worse documentary starring Lila Leeds, the starlet who was arrested with Robert Mitchum for pot in 1948.