#Confessions Of A Driving Instructor (1976)

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Thanks to @spac3hopp3r for finding the gems

Confessions of a Driving Instructor - Rugby match scene

1976 film, Watch out for the bearded Lewis Collins (The Professionals) who appears as an extra as one of the Monks Hill players (in red #10)

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Movies I watched this week (#186):

“How can Zuckemborg let this happen?…”

Thelma (2024) is a lightly-paced, adorable comedy about a strong-willed 93-year-old June Squibb, who's scammed of some money, and is determined to get it back. I loved it because she reminds me of my own independent mother (94), and because we need more non-condensending movies about really old people. Also starring very old Shaft (Richard Roundtree) in his final role, very old Alex deLarge with an oxygen tank, and as 'Winston', the very same guy from 'Focus Group'. 9/10.

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Last week I discovered British auteur Terence Davies, and saw 5 of his movies. Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) is the first feature he directed, another period piece based on his own tortured youth in poor working class Liverpool of the 1950's. With abusive father Peter Postlethwaite, his traumatic memories remain bearable only when he reflects on the other members of his family. They only survive because they can sing. Unvarnished pub-life, where the rituals of drinking, and carrying on together transcend. No wonder the British film critics hold this film is such high esteem.

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2 by Yugoslav Zvonimir Berković:

🍿 My apartment (1963), a young girl narrates her impressions of moving into a new apartment. A lovely snapshot of post-war realism.

🍿 Rondo was decidedly not what you would expect from socialist entertainment of that time. A psychological play of ménage à trois between a sculpturer, his wife, and a judge who starts as a chess partner to the man, becomes a friend of the two, and then seduces the woman. It was interesting, but eventually became unfocused. The actress, Milena Dravić, was one of these pretty European divas from the 1960's. 5/10.

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My 17th & 18th by Agnès Varda, both about Parisian streets:

🍿 Varda made Daguerréotypes in 1976, when she had to stay at home with her baby. So she shot around the street where she lived, 90 meters on each side. It's basically the life of the little stores, and the customers who visit them. The local boulangerie, plumber, hardware store, butcher, accordion repairman, the small grocery, perfume maker and barber. Also, a driving instructor and a magician who dropped by for a show. Absolutely beautiful.

🍿 L'opéra-mouffe (Or as it was called in English Diary of a pregnant woman), one of her own favourite films, is a wordless, impressionistic poem about the Rue Mouffetard street market. What a great photographer eye she had! Lovely visuals with lovely-as-always score by Georges Delerue. Perfect! 9/10. [*Female Director*]

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Three ages (1923), the first feature Buster Keaton wrote, directed, produced, and starred in. A 3 part anthology about love, repeating the same story during the "stone age", Roman times, and at present. The Stone age predate The Flintstones aesthetics. Includes some great, classic gags.

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2 Nordic Noir (both from 1949):

🍿 Another classic Danish Noir from their most prolific period of the 40's and 50's, John and Irene is about a pair of small time ballroom dancers who travel all across Scandinavia, struggling to make a living. The woman, Bodil Kjer, is tired of their hardship, the man is naive and tries his best. Her unhappiness, and yes, nagging, driving over the edge. It's dark and tragic, dealing with powerlessness in a slightly different way.

🍿The debut film by Edith Carlmar, Death Is a Caress was the first Norwegian film directed by a woman. It used the same framing devise of flashback confession, and told again of an obsessive, ill-suited love affair. This time between a young auto mechanic and an older wealthy femme fatale. But it was weak and completely unconvincing. [*Female Director*]

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Watching John Wick (after reading this fluff piece on GQ about the saintly Keanu Reeves). They killed his dog, so he seeks revenge on the evil Russians, check. I am not the target audience for this type of action flicks. But it's filled with nothing but male cinematic cliches: The Mustangs always revs, Whiskey for breakfast, it always rain during funerals, and the video game-action, wow, the action... 2/10.

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2 shorts about pussies:

🍿 Pussy (2016) is a line-drawn animated short about a woman who relaxes alone at home, decides to smoke some pot and play with herself in the bath. Delightfully funny first film for a young Polish maker. Sweetest NSFW film of the week! [*Female Director*].

🍿 Pussy's Breakfast, a fantastic 1905 film about a girl and her cat eating breakfast, enhanced and colorized version. 9/10.

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3 horrifying documentaries:

🍿 "Why have you avoided confronting your family past?"

I've been obsessively thinking about the Nazi "Final Solution" for 50+ years, so I've come to despised most movies about the holocaust. 'The Zone of interest' was different, because it tackled the subject soberly, with unsentimental brutally. Now comes the new documentary The Commandant's Shadow, which is like a companion piece to 'Zone', tackling the same topic, Rudolf Höss’ family life. But it approaches it from a different angle: The generational trauma suffered (only partially by his son who's 87 now) but mostly by his grandson. And it contrasts that with a parallel story about a Jewish survivor, now 98, and her adult daughter. Together, these four deal with the burden of knowledge, shared guilt over unspeakable horror that was not of their doing, but which cannot be diluted even after 80 years. It features (new-to-me) footage from inside the camp, including many of the selection. Harrowing and hard. 9/10. [*Female Director*]. [Screenshot Above].

🍿 Retribution, "Investigating Trump, Project 2025 and the future of the United States". A scary Australian doc. which was released just after the assassination attack on Trump, so it's very current. They interview both critics as well as some of the proud architects of Project 2025. Absorbing, alarming and well-done. 8/10.

🍿 People You May Know (2020) is about Cambridge Analytical, and the misinformation warfare conducted by the ultra-right with the help of Big Data. How the The Council for National Policy and others brainwash and radicalize evangelical Christians, in order to merge State and Church. It's highly disturbing and mostly-known information, but it was done in a sloppy, amateurish way.

I must stop watching documentaries about religion - It does nothing but aggravate me!

(These last two were found on a list by Mara Einstein, a professor of media studies with a specialty in religion and cults. She recommends the documentary 'Bad Faith' as the best documentary on the subject. Having seen it recently, I agree.)

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3 more by Russian Aleksandr Petrov:

🍿 Petrov is a Russian animator who employs pastel oil paints on individual glass plates, a tedious process which causes his films to look dreamlike and surrealistic. He usually tells stories with old-fashioned agrarian themes, like classic Russian literature. I previously saw his Oscar winner 'The old man and the sea'.

The Dream of a Ridiculous Man is based on a Dostoevsky story, and is narrated by Alexander Kaidanovsky ("Stalker"). A suicidal man finds a reason to carry on after meeting a little girl. Fantastic hallucinations. 8/10.

🍿 My love, a romantic story about a boy and two young girls, done in the same dreamy style. It was released by Ghibli Studio, as they expanded their world-cinema offerings.

🍿 The cow (1989) is a symbolic little story about a village boy and his cow. Nominated for an Oscar.

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A bunch more short films:

🍿 Larisa is a tribute to filmmaker Larisa Shepitko, made in 1980, a year after she died in a car accident at the age of 40. It's my first film by her husband, Elem Klimov. (I know! I couldn't make myself watch his 'Come and see', but now I'll see that, as well as her 'The Ascent')

🍿 Students at an Hungarian film school were shown a black & white photo of three peasant women standing all looking outside the frame, and were told to write a short story about it. Wind ("Szél", 1996) is the award-winning, stunning result.

🍿 In All the World's Memory (1956) Alain Resnais explored the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the enormous depository of everything that was ever published in France, as well as extensive collections of manuscripts, artworks, and priceless historical artifacts. As a record, it's rudimentary, and at 21 min. too short. But now I want to see a newer, better film about the topic. This National Library must be one of the greatest institutions in the world.

🍿 The French An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge won the 1963 Oscars. It is based on the Civil War writer Ambrose Bierce's story. A man is about to be hanged from a bridge, and his life flashes in front of his eyes before his neck breaks.

🍿 The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra was a renowned avant-garde short from 1928, one of the few experimental silent film to receive general distribution. It was famously made for a total of $97 in German Expressionistic style, and was the first film shot by Gregg Toland.

🍿 "...It was time for secret games and conspiracies. The workers were ready to rebel. They had learnt a new word... Exploitation. Strangely enough, the three leaders of this underground movement went missing over a year. Rajan Shreshta, Narbu Lama, Charmie Gurung..."

Six Strands is a poetic Bengali story about mysterious, lonely lady who produces the most expensive Darjeeling tea in the world. It opens like a loving, magical nature documentary, but turns into a subtle, symbolic political manifesto. 8/10. Now I must see his award-winning feature 'Court'!

🍿 Outside in, a personal diary by an Irish filmmaker about the surreal experience of living in New York during Covid, when the the city was shut down and the streets were empty. Well done. 7/10.

🍿 A supercut of movie scenes that feature eggs, from a YouTuber named Patrick Tommaso. The list is here. Now I want eggs.

🍿 Stanley Pickle, a strange British short, with even stranger pixilation-type animation, about an automated boy who lives in the middle of nowhere. [*Female Director*]

(I also dreamt that I was running a marathon carrying two heavy backpacks, and that it was like watching myself actually doing it in a movie, but it was very difficult, and fortunately after a long while, I woke up…)

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"Haben sie Homer und Peter mit Chevron pump?"

Because of this clip, I watched my first few episodes of Family guy, pulled randomly out of a list. S2E3, S4E1, S9E7, S11E4, S13E1, S17E11 .. I could easily add some more. Seth MacFarlane must be a fun guy to hang around and crack jokes with. Lots of gross-inappropriate sex and drugs jokes. I'm not too familiar with much Adult Animation otherwise.

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(My complete movie list is here).

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一个驾校教练的自白

Confessions of a Driving Instructor（1976） #电影

[vintage-london-images]

Images from around London in the heatwave of 1976, we can almost smell the hot tarmac and the exhaust fumes from the cars and buses queuing in the stationery traffic.

Cinematic delights showing in London at the time include, Confessions Of A Driving Instructor, Clockwork Nympho and At The Earth's Core.

[diabolikdiabolik]

Confessions of a Driving Instructor (1976)

British sex comedies in the 1970s were as bad as the German ones.

[thelegendaryvhs]

Wyznania instruktora nauki jazdy

aka Confessions of a Driving Instructor

Director: Norman Cohen

1976

imdb

ITI Home Video

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[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

30Will Michael Cohen flip? The media has been debating that question ever since the FBI raided the office of President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer on April 8. Cohen is under investigation for bank fraud and campaign finance violations, and while that case is separate from Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election, many have wondered if Cohen will be tempted to help Mueller in exchange for a little leniency on his own legal troubles. The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, one of the country’s foremost Trump whisperers, said on CNN that Cohen could end up having to choose between “his life or the president’s.”1

But the key question about somebody like Cohen is not only “will he flip” but also “should we trust him if he does?” A Cohen flip would be a big red flag to researchers who study what’s known as “accomplice witnesses” — people who agree to testify against former colleagues and receive, in return, lighter sentences for their own, related, crimes. These kinds of witnesses aren’t treated with enough scrutiny by juries, experts said, and the use of accomplice witnesses and other informants by prosecutors is largely unregulated and undocumented. That’s led some experts to be suspicious about any case that hinges on testimony from someone who is incentivized to talk.

Now, their skepticism is about informants, generally, and doesn’t have anything to do with Cohen or the Mueller investigation specifically. Moreover, incentivized informant testimony — both from accomplice witnesses and from “jailhouse informants” who pass on information gleaned from cell mates — isn’t inherently bad, said Jeffrey Neuschatz, professor of psychology at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Nobody knows the rates at which they provide inaccurate information (although we do know that humans are willing to alter their behavior in big ways for even small incentives). And both law enforcement and prosecutors say these kinds of witnesses are sometimes necessary to prove a case — especially ones involving complex criminal enterprises where it might be easy to catch a low-level perpetrator and much harder to catch his boss’ boss.

But what we do know is that, when researchers study situations where people went to prison for crimes they did not commit, informant testimony was one of the four major factors contributing to those convictions.

Informants can be a key factor in wrongful convictions

Types of evidence involved in the 330 cases exonerated by DNA evidence in the U.S. as of 2015

Type of Evidence No. of Cases Share of Cases Eyewitness misidentification 236 72%

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Poor-quality forensic evidence 234 71

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Incentivized informants 80 24

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False confessions 68 21

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Most cases involved more than one type of evidence

Source: Cambridge University Press

For instance, out of the 330 people exonerated by DNA evidence as of 2015, 24 percent of those convictions involved informant testimony, according to research by University of Virginia law professor Brandon Garrett. An earlier study from the Northwestern University School of Law’s Center on Wrongful Convictions, which focused just on capital cases, turned up even higher rates: Of the 111 death row inmates exonerated between the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976 and 2004, 45.9 percent of their cases involved informant testimony. According to both Garrett and the National Registry of Exonerations, the use of incentivized informants seems to be more common in capital cases than it is when the stakes are lower.

In that way, incentivized informants are similar to three other major issues in the criminal justice system that have also been shown to heavily contribute to wrongful convictions: eyewitness misidentification, false or coerced confessions and flawed forensic science. But while those issues have received widespread attention in recent years from the media, scientists and legal reformers, the problems in incentivized witness testimony have largely flown under the radar. In a 2016 American Criminal Law Review article, Yeshiva University law professor Jessica Roth wrote that no one has any idea how frequently incentivized testimony is used and juries don’t always know when the testimony they are seeing was incentivized. There are no federal requirements that it must be backed up with corroborating evidence, no judicial tests for how it should be used and balanced against civil liberties (unlike, say, the famous Miranda rights that regulate confessions), and no federal investigations or research commissions that have been convened to drive reform.

The inherent risks and lack of oversight are enough that even a former prosecutor like Daniel Blinka, professor of law at Marquette University, said incentivized informants should be a last resort in court — particularly because there’s an inverse relationship between the kinds of cases where these informants are used and the availability of corroborating evidence. “If I have a mountain of corroboration already, I don’t need to give anyone a deal,” he said.

The use (or misuse) of informants has huge stakes. When informants do testify, research suggests that their words could have a significant effect on jurors’ behavior. Neuschatz and Butler University psychology instructor Stacy Wetmore found that incentivized testimony makes mock jurors more likely to convict, even when they were explicitly told by an expert witness that such testimony is unreliable. In a paper soon-to-be-published in the “Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology,” Neuschatz even found that incentivized testimony can make people distrust their own eyes. After watching a video of a crime and choosing the perpetrator out of a lineup, participants were told who a jailhouse informant had fingered for the crime. Of the people who picked a different perp, 80 percent changed their story to match the informants’. Regardless of whether we should believe people who flip, we do.

The Mueller investigation doesn’t involve a jury, but Neuschatz said incentivized testimony can shape the direction any investigation takes. In addition, some of the reforms suggested by experts like Neuschatz, Blinka, Wetmore and Roth would apply to Mueller’s work. Requiring incentivized testimony to be reviewed in a reliability hearing before a judge, for instance, or requiring prosecutor’s offices to adopt formal policies governing when they will and won’t use incentivized sources and how incentives can and can’t be offered. Even simply increasing transparency by requiring that all incentivized testimony be recorded — every interview, not just the final one — would help, according to both Roth and Blinka: Informants are often given multiple attempts at telling their story, and can sometimes change it to fit what prosecutors want to hear. Until reforms happen, Blinka said, we’re often left with little choice but to trust people we shouldn’t and hope justice is served even if the details may be tainted.

It’s still unclear what all this means for Cohen, Mueller and Trump. But if Cohen does flip, it’s worth thinking critically about his motivations — and your own in believing him.

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A Journey Against a Raging Historical Backdrop

If there is anything the year 2020 has shaken into the very fabric of our imperial society, it’s that nothing ever goes according to plan, rarely is anything absolutely assured. While a biological threat has upended not only our nationalist pride as a world hegemony, it no doubt has uprooted many personal obsessions with career paths and lifestyle. That most provocative of American film directors, Oliver Stone, has now released a passionate and absorbing memoir, Chasing the Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador and the Movie Game, which in its own way, is fully apt for our time. More than any other work of autobiography to be released this summer, Stone’s account of going against the grain and demanding to be allowed to live off his vocation reads like a tonic.

For consumers of cinema, Stone remains a filmmaker eternally divisive. Whether it be his style, and above all, his politics, he inspires admiration and derision. He probably remains best known for his work from the ‘90s, especially the technical masterpiece JFK, which somehow collages every conspiracy theory surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and Natural Born Killers, a visually anarchic satire crystalizing our American obsession with violence and celebrity. Agree with their theses or not, the fact that both films remain instant pop cultural reference points is a testament to their lasting value as art. I dare argue Stone’s 1995 opus Nixon, is a grossly underrated and vital drama unmatched by anything released since when it comes to cinematic political biography. This article could continue on and discuss Stone’s hallucinatory Jim Morrison biopic The Doors or his 1999 football epic Any Given Sunday, written and shot with the spirit of a Roman gladiator.

But Chasing the Light is powerful reading precisely because it is about those years before Stone reached Hollywood prominence. It is a book full of memories, self-doubt, stirring experiences and that ever so hard, grinding need to push oneself towards a stubborn goal. It helps that Stone is a natural born writer, chronicling his early years with a crisp, eloquent prose. But pulsing in nearly every space of subtext is a spirit of surviving by going against the grain. Stone even brushes aside the stale sugarcoating of other Hollywood biographies. He is blunt about sex, the personalities of others, and of course, his political opinions.

As evident in his work, Stone is obsessed with history and its lessons, the way it casts a shadow over our daily lives, whether we notice it or not. His book opens in 1976, as the U.S. celebrates it bicentennial and Stone stares out New York Harbor. Chapter one opens with a line recognizable to any dreamer without immediate resources, “I was coming up on thirty, and I was broke, but I didn’t want to think about that anymore.” The Statue of Liberty, the pomp of American Independence Day, even as the country was reeling from Vietnam, only adds to Stone’s sense of personal limbo. The narrative then shifts to a reverie going back to 1946, when Stone was born to Lou Stone and Jacqueline Goddet. Stone was himself a direct product of history. Lou was in General Eisenhower’s staff as a military man stationed in post-World War II France. Jacqueline was a French upper class girl who fell for the American G.I. fantasy. But like all dreams, the shores of reality provide a hard crash. Stone would be born into privilege, with Lou described as one of the last breed of Wall Street brokers still imbued with a slight sense of morality. He had lost it all before in the crash of 1929, but would lose more again. Sent off to boarding school, it was there that a young Stone would receive a blunt phone call informing him his parents were getting a divorce. In a swerve away from the typical image of 1950s America, Lou and Jacqueline were pretty blunt with young Oliver about their extramarital activities. On top of that, Lou was wallowing in debt.

It is this shattering of the ideal atomic family, white, affluent, basking in the delights of American capitalism, that seems to be the first real catalyst in the formation of Oliver Stone. In 1967, at the eve of turning 21, Stone is on his way to Vietnam after having enlisted. Here the rebel emerges, running from the plasticity and lies of the American privileged class, deciding on his own he wants to taste the real world. Raised in a conservative environment, Stone has little to say about the early cultural shocks of Elvis or the Beats, it simply wasn’t much a part of his world. What he does carry in him to war is a love for Homer, Greek mythology and its potent lessons. A Homeric view of combat, its bloody terror mixed with boredom, the cast of warriors in his platoon, would stay with Stone forever. This literary view sustains him as he returns to a country embroiled in radical cultural change.

If there is a romantic, almost Hemingway tone to the early sections of Chasing the Light, relatable to anyone who has ever felt like running away, even if it means to seek something greater in a tumultuous world, the second half of the book becomes one of the great recent testimonials of the struggling artist. What Stone knows from the beginning is that he is a writer. Words are his vocation. But after penning a failed, hallucinatory novel (later published in 1997 as A Child’s Night Dream), Stone realizes screenwriting is the new literary form of the age, because it is also an age of cinema. Books may never entirely go out of fashion, but the masses consume images, coupled with sound and music. This seemed to Stone, who confesses his mother would play hookie with him to see movies, like a better pathway to express the ideas and memories swirling in his intense psyche.

NYU would be where Stone would attend film school with Martin Scorsese as an instructor described as wonderfully manic and passionate. In the ‘70s a B.A. in had even less job market value than today, and Stone is soon driving cabs to survive, admitting that he wanted to avoid practical jobs as much as possible. Stone’s life reads like those classic, romantic authors of decades past, who would defy the norm, live in poverty and peck at their manuscripts. Stone eventually marries Najwa Sarkis, a Lebanese UN worker serving the Kingdom of Morocco. She provides Stone with a comfortable home as he writes scripts and treatments, and directs his first, low-budget feature, a horror film named Seizure. It fails, playing in a small grindhouse spot as a double bill in New York City. This is when Stone makes that difficult decision of again casting aside comfort, ending the marriage so he can move to Los Angeles with a script in hand based on his Vietnam experiences, Platoon. As Stone boards the plane for L.A., history both political and cultural blaze in the background. Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter are some of first cinematic attempts to grapple with Vietnam. Stone admires their scope, but they are obviously grandiose films made by directors who never fought in the war.

When Stone lands in the city of angels with its Hollywood promises, it is Platoon that gets him work. Through talent and stubbornness, Stone comes across as rather the lucky writer. His first major studio assignment, Midnight Express, based on a book by Billy Hayes, who was arrested and imprisoned in Turkey for smuggling hash, is for then emerging British director Alan Parker and becomes a smash hit, winning Stone his first Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. The passages describing the cocaine-fueled ambiance of the Golden Globes before they were a live broadcast show are hilariously decadent, as well as the party atmosphere of late ‘70s Hollywood. Stone vaguely recalls writer Gore Vidal attempting to seduce Mick Jagger at one gathering.

Some of the warmer passages in the book involve Stone meeting his second wife, Elizabeth Cox, a blonde Texan who Stone describes as everything he would have ever wanted in a partner at the time. One gets the feeling of Stone constantly battling between the search for domesticity and his own impulses to go further, experiment and search as a young writer. He wants to be both loved and a libertine. He’s also a collaborative type of partner, giving Elizabeth a speaking role in his second feature, the box office bomb The Hand, which like Seizure, has not aged terribly and retains an eerie psychological force. When acting is not Elizabeth’s calling, Stone hires her as his typist.

Yet even as Stone basks in both the bacchanalia of the times and a loving relationship, developing a dangerous coke habit along the way, he writes every single day and manages to put his stamp on projects that would later be remolded by other filmmakers. Stone includes pages from his early drafts of Conan the Barbarian, which read like a Wagnerian fever dream. There’s still a sting of regret in the way he describes macho director John Milius taking the script and cutting it down to more of a B-movie romp to show off Arnold Schwarzenegger. The colder, by Stone’s observation slower, Brian De Palma would provide a better learning experience however, when Stone is hired to write the enduring cult classic Scarface. The infamously violent update of the 1932 Howard Hawks classic, starring Al Pacino as a Cuban refugee rising in the cartel world of 1980s Miami, would bring Stone into contact with underworld elements. There’s a darkly fun moment where he recounts meeting with Colombian gangsters and then unwisely dropping the name of a certain lawyer.

Through Scarface and other projects, Stone vividly remembers all the characters, some endearing and others downright venal, one encounters along the way of attempting success in this field where creativity and greed are nearly Siamese twins. What is eternally admirable about Stone is that he refuses to sell out. Even when slammed as overly violent or on the nose, preachy and despairing in his work, Stone’s voice is his own. He reserves low-grade acid in his prose for New Yorker critic Pauline Kael, who would write with a condescending, almost pathologically obsessive hatred for Stone’s scripts. And history is always in the background. The loose ‘70s would give way to the ultra-capitalist, hyper nationalist Reagan ‘80s. At one point Stone was even offered the chance to write Top Gun, still seen as a defining example of the post-Vietnam, macho American military movie meant to stir hearts to Uncle Sam’s marching call.

It would be history that would come and save Stone as well. Disappointed in the way the system seems to use writers as nothing more than hired hands, yearning to direct but having burned bridges in his wilder days, Stone puts it all on the line to make an independent war movie about the then raging civil war in El Salvador. Based on the experiences of  wild man journalist Richard Boyle (who provides page after page of colorful anecdotes in the book’s latter half), Stone’s movie stars James Woods as Boyle and Elpidia Carrillo as the young Salvadoran peasant he loves. Outrageous, bloody, with a Hunter S. Thompson tone, Salvador has a making of story as intriguing as the movie. Nothing can stop the hungry director whose time has come. Stone tries to shoot in El Salvador itself amid the war, meeting with fascist military figures with Boyle. When that falls apart the production moves to Mexico as producers sweat over depleting funds. Yet Salvador opens the door for Stone to make his beloved Platoon, casting an unknown Charlie Sheen in the role based on himself. It’s quite the shift from capturing war in Central America to then reliving his memories from Vietnam, in a powerful opus featuring Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger as well, both embodying figures Stone remembers from his days in combat.

Both Salvador and Platoon not only close the book victoriously, as one becomes a sleeper hit and the other a box office sensation that would win Best Picture and Director Oscars for Stone, they also crystalize the historical obsession that defines his journey. Like few, if any, movies made about Latin America since, Salvador is about a war in which the United States intervened to prevent revolutionary forces from overcoming a local regime and aristocracy firmly beholden to U.S. interests, and Platoon is about Stone having been a young man holding the rifle used by American power to impose its order on the world. He has been an agent of history, which is why it haunts his mind even now with his recent documentaries, the most controversial being a sit-down with Vladimir Putin.

Chasing the Light is like a tonic in these times when the world becomes increasingly unsettled, as if hurtling towards major conflagrations but our movies are now devoid of radical politics or even political passion, with a few exceptions. Great directors who begin with promise then get lured by the bigger system, and they end up contributing to the “Marvel Cinematic Universe.” Agree with him or not, Stone at least celebrates two things in this book we can all agree on: The hard work wanting to write demands, both in commitment and honing of the craft, and the need to engage with the wider world. Film obsessives and Stone’s fans will no doubt eagerly await the next volume, I know I will, when he will surely explore his defining political films. For now, Chasing the Light is a volume to give comfort to wandering talent out there, writing deep into the night, wondering if anyone will ever read it or care.

-Alci Rengifo, “Oliver Stone’s Chasing the Light Chronicles the Great Director’s Journey Against a Raging Historical Backdrop,” Riot Material, Sept 3 2020 [x]

[chicagocityofclans]

Russel Jordan → Sasha Roiz → Hyena

→ Basic Information 

Age: 143

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Straight 

Born or Made: Born

Birthday: April 28th

Zodiac Sign: Taurus 

Religion: Christian

→ His Personality

(one to two paragraphs)

→ His Personal Facts

Occupation: Fire Chief and Acting 2nd (Originally 3rd)

Scars: Multiple 

Tattoos: Multiple

Two Likes: Large Cities and Lizards (Food/Snack)

Two Dislikes: Fox Nimbles and Sleeping 

Two Fears: Deep Water and Sharks 

Two Hobbies: Multiple Physical Exercises and Learning Languages 

Three Positive Traits: Calculating, Protective, Natural Leader 

Three Negative Traits: Snarky, Ruthless, Opportunist

→ His Connections

Parent Names:

Ryan Jordan (Father): Ryan was more like a drill instructor than a father. Ryan cared more about fighting for male hyena rights. Russel was raised by his paternal grandparents, who are both still alive, and in Chicago with him.

Melissa Jordan (Mother): Melissa died while trying to give birth to Russel’s little sister. He doesn’t remember much about Melissa and Ryan never talked about it.

Sibling Names:

Unnamed (Sister): Melissa and Russel’s little sister died during the birthing process. Ryan never names his sister and she was buried with their mother. 

Children Names:

Makayla Jordan (Daughter): Makayla is the first child that Russel has claimed and accepted as his own. She is nearing 55 years old and has a family of her own. Russel was torn when Vashtie left with Makayla and did everything in his power to get her back but as a female, Vashtie had more pull than Russel. As time passed, Makayla went from being daddy's little girl to absolutely hating Russel. It wasn’t until Makayla was well into her 30’s did they rekindle their relationship.

Brek Jordan-Ruso (Son): Brek just turned 18 and is getting ready to attend a university outside of the state. Russel was hesitant at first because Massachusetts has no known hyena clans but Lisa and a few of his packmates have talked him into being more laxed. Russel only agreed when Brek promised that he would return and work towards becoming Liaison or taking over as 3rd. 

Aarif Jordan (Son): Aarif is the only child of Russel’s that he has raised completely from infancy. He was unexpected but Russel definitely wanted him. Russel is proud that Aarif is a miniature version of himself and thoroughly enjoys having his son around. While Russel is pushing for Brek to be Liaison or 3rd, he believes that Aarif would make an amazing 2nd or leader one day.  

Romantic Connections:

Sabina Wook (Ex-Girlfriend): Russel met Sabina while on vacation. Russel spent a majority of his vacation between her legs. He thought about her often when he returned home and made several attempts to contact her without luck. Nearly a year later, Russel came home to her and a baby on his doorstep. Sabina left in the middle of the night, after only a day, while Russel and Aarif slept. Russel has made no moves to contact Sabina but will kill her if she ever shows up again.

Lisa Ruso (Ex-Girlfriend): Lisa was a quick fling that resulted in Russel’s first son, Brek. They still mess around, even while Russel was with Vashtie and Sabrina, but lately Russel has been pulling away from her. Lisa wants to settle down and try for more kids but Russel refuses; at least not with her. 

Vashtie Jordan (Ex-Wife): Vastie and Russel dated for 6 months before getting married and staying married for 11 years. In 1976, Vashtie left with Makayla for California. Married life wasn’t for them and they tried to stick it out for Makayla. Especially since Russel didn’t want to be a repeat of his father. Vashtie and Russel are on speaking terms, however, Russel hates the frequent new men in her life. 

Platonic Connections: 

Kylo ‘Nada’ Rajui (Packmate/Friend): Russel has known Nada for most of his life, both of them being a part of the original pack that migrated to Chicago. Nada and Russel clearly have different views but they’ve always been able to maintain their friendship, while also acknowledging each other's differences. Russel has taken to watching MMA fights at Nada’s place with Silas and Eli. 

Eli Kohen (Future Packmate/ Best Friend): Eli and Russel have formed an unlikely friendship. Russel was the one who confessed that they were hyena animal shifters when Juliette refused to tell Eli. Russel has been giving Eli all of the information he needs about hyenas. It irks Russel that Juliette still hasn’t told him about hyena and the danger she has placed him in because of it. 

Silas Moebius (Packmate/Friend): Silas is a newer addition to the pack but most of them are familiar with Silas as an arson investigator. Russel and Silas clicked immediately when they met years ago. Russel knows with the right direction that Silas could go far. Russel and Nada quickly took Silas under their wings. Silas usually join them at Nada’s house for sports/hanging out, steaks and beer. 

Raja Lankala (Packmate/Friend): Russel was surprised that Nada and Raja had gotten together and he lost his chance to get with Raja. Before Nada and Raja engagement he was allowed in their bed, and they participated in sharing Raja. Weeks after their engagement, Nada and Raja decided to practice monogamy. Russel is glad that things aren't weird and haven’t pushed to join them again.

Benjamin ‘Ben’ Nile (Packmate/Coworker): Russel has known Ben since he was 9 years old. Russel’s past has always given him a soft spot for motherless or emotionally abused children. While Nada encouraged him into music, Russel made sure Ben was prepared for life in general and eventually fire captain. 

Luke Bowick (Packmate/Coworker): Luke would be an amazing fire chief and pack 2nd if he dedicated himself more toward his work. Russel is unsure if it is because Luke is still young or his friends group but his potential is wasting away. 

Gretchen Sims (Packmate/Coworker): Russel agrees that Gretchen would make a great leader for their pack but she has no drive. He has spoken to her many times in the past few weeks, trying to encourage her to take responsibility and step up. This seems to have gone nowhere; however Russel believes that possibly with a little push and a few deaths that Gretchen can be what they need. 

Vanessa Armstrong (Campaign Manager): Russel wouldn’t mind sleeping with Vanessa but Nada had already warned him to keep it in his pants and reminded him of the importance of this campaign. Russel has been with a few nimbles, wolves and heavies but never with a jackal. Russel has been playing his hand as a perfect gentleman and is leaving the rest up to Vanessa. 

Robert J Fischer (Mayor Candidate): Russel and Nada were surprised when the human shifters came to them for support. The risk was high, giving their strong relationship with the local rat pack. It took a lot of negotiating on Nada’s, Sarah’s and Vincent's part to move forward with the plan. Robert seems like the type of guy that Russel can stand behind completely. They’ve recently invited him over for drinks at Nada’s house and Russel enjoyed himself. 

Hostile Connections:

Juliette Willott (Packmate): Russel is good friends with Juliette’s boyfriend and father of her children, and he hates the way she has gone about everything with Eli. Russel cannot stand her and belittles her whenever she is near. 

Lawrence Cocci (Irritates): Russel is sure Lawrence has been the culprit behind a series of arson but Russel has no way of proving it. Luke, Gretchen and Lawrence are close friends making it harder for Russel to make a move without his packmate disapproval. That doesn’t mean he can’t make Lawerance’s life hell.

Emmett Wilhelm (Irritates): Emmett is a fire starter just like Lawerance. Russel doesn’t suspect him of arson but Emmett also does nothing to reign in his friend.

Pets:

None

→ History (paragraph(s) on background) → The Present (paragraph(s) on how the character connects to the plot)

→ Available Gif Hunts (we do not own these)

Sasha Roiz (Russel Jordan) [1][2][3]

[chicagocityfclanspromoblog]

Russel Jordan → Sasha Roiz → Hyena

→ Basic Information

Age: 143

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Straight

Born or Made: Born

Birthday: April 28th

Zodiac Sign: Taurus

Religion: Christian

→ His Personality

(one to two paragraphs)

→ His Personal Facts

Occupation: Fire Chief and Acting 2nd (Originally 3rd)

Scars: Multiple

Tattoos: Multiple

Two Likes: Large Cities and Lizards (Food/Snack)

Two Dislikes: Fox Nimbles and Sleeping

Two Fears: Deep Water and Sharks

Two Hobbies: Multiple Physical Exercises and Learning Languages

Three Positive Traits: Calculating, Protective, Natural Leader

Three Negative Traits: Snarky, Ruthless, Opportunist

→ His Connections

Parent Names:

Ryan Jordan (Father): Ryan was more like a drill instructor than a father. Ryan cared more about fighting for male hyena rights. Russel was raised by his paternal grandparents, who are both still alive, and in Chicago with him.

Melissa Jordan (Mother): Melissa died while trying to give birth to Russel’s little sister. He doesn’t remember much about Melissa and Ryan never talked about it.

Sibling Names:

Unnamed (Sister): Melissa and Russel’s little sister died during the birthing process. Ryan never names his sister and she was buried with their mother.

Children Names:

Makayla Jordan (Daughter): Makayla is the first child that Russel has claimed and accepted as his own. She is nearing 55 years old and has a family of her own. Russel was torn when Vashtie left with Makayla and did everything in his power to get her back but as a female, Vashtie had more pull than Russel. As time passed, Makayla went from being daddy’s little girl to absolutely hating Russel. It wasn’t until Makayla was well into her 30’s did they rekindle their relationship.

Brek Jordan-Ruso (Son): Brek just turned 18 and is getting ready to attend a university outside of the state. Russel was hesitant at first because Massachusetts has no known hyena clans but Lisa and a few of his packmates have talked him into being more laxed. Russel only agreed when Brek promised that he would return and work towards becoming Liaison or taking over as 3rd.

Aarif Jordan (Son): Aarif is the only child of Russel’s that he has raised completely from infancy. He was unexpected but Russel definitely wanted him. Russel is proud that Aarif is a miniature version of himself and thoroughly enjoys having his son around. While Russel is pushing for Brek to be Liaison or 3rd, he believes that Aarif would make an amazing 2nd or leader one day.  

Romantic Connections:

Sabina Wook (Ex-Girlfriend): Russel met Sabina while on vacation. Russel spent a majority of his vacation between her legs. He thought about her often when he returned home and made several attempts to contact her without luck. Nearly a year later, Russel came home to her and a baby on his doorstep. Sabina left in the middle of the night, after only a day, while Russel and Aarif slept. Russel has made no moves to contact Sabina but will kill her if she ever shows up again.

Lisa Ruso (Ex-Girlfriend): Lisa was a quick fling that resulted in Russel’s first son, Brek. They still mess around, even while Russel was with Vashtie and Sabrina, but lately Russel has been pulling away from her. Lisa wants to settle down and try for more kids but Russel refuses; at least not with her.

Vashtie Jordan (Ex-Wife): Vastie and Russel dated for 6 months before getting married and staying married for 11 years. In 1976, Vashtie left with Makayla for California. Married life wasn’t for them and they tried to stick it out for Makayla. Especially since Russel didn’t want to be a repeat of his father. Vashtie and Russel are on speaking terms, however, Russel hates the frequent new men in her life.

Platonic Connections:

Kylo ‘Nada’ Rajui (Packmate/Friend): Russel has known Nada for most of his life, both of them being a part of the original pack that migrated to Chicago. Nada and Russel clearly have different views but they’ve always been able to maintain their friendship, while also acknowledging each other’s differences. Russel has taken to watching MMA fights at Nada’s place with Silas and Eli.

Eli Kohen (Future Packmate/ Best Friend): Eli and Russel have formed an unlikely friendship. Russel was the one who confessed that they were hyena animal shifters when Juliette refused to tell Eli. Russel has been giving Eli all of the information he needs about hyenas. It irks Russel that Juliette still hasn’t told him about hyena and the danger she has placed him in because of it.

Silas Moebius (Packmate/Friend): Silas is a newer addition to the pack but most of them are familiar with Silas as an arson investigator. Russel and Silas clicked immediately when they met years ago. Russel knows with the right direction that Silas could go far. Russel and Nada quickly took Silas under their wings. Silas usually join them at Nada’s house for sports/hanging out, steaks and beer.

Raja Lankala (Packmate/Friend): Russel was surprised that Nada and Raja had gotten together and he lost his chance to get with Raja. Before Nada and Raja engagement he was allowed in their bed, and they participated in sharing Raja. Weeks after their engagement, Nada and Raja decided to practice monogamy. Russel is glad that things aren’t weird and haven’t pushed to join them again.

Benjamin ‘Ben’ Nile (Packmate/Coworker): Russel has known Ben since he was 9 years old. Russel’s past has always given him a soft spot for motherless or emotionally abused children. While Nada encouraged him into music, Russel made sure Ben was prepared for life in general and eventually fire captain.

Luke Bowick (Packmate/Coworker): Luke would be an amazing fire chief and pack 2nd if he dedicated himself more toward his work. Russel is unsure if it is because Luke is still young or his friends group but his potential is wasting away.

Gretchen Sims (Packmate/Coworker): Russel agrees that Gretchen would make a great leader for their pack but she has no drive. He has spoken to her many times in the past few weeks, trying to encourage her to take responsibility and step up. This seems to have gone nowhere; however Russel believes that possibly with a little push and a few deaths that Gretchen can be what they need.

Vanessa Armstrong (Campaign Manager): Russel wouldn’t mind sleeping with Vanessa but Nada had already warned him to keep it in his pants and reminded him of the importance of this campaign. Russel has been with a few nimbles, wolves and heavies but never with a jackal. Russel has been playing his hand as a perfect gentleman and is leaving the rest up to Vanessa.

Robert J Fischer (Mayor Candidate): Russel and Nada were surprised when the human shifters came to them for support. The risk was high, giving their strong relationship with the local rat pack. It took a lot of negotiating on Nada’s, Sarah’s and Vincent’s part to move forward with the plan. Robert seems like the type of guy that Russel can stand behind completely. They’ve recently invited him over for drinks at Nada’s house and Russel enjoyed himself.

Hostile Connections:

Juliette Willott (Packmate): Russel is good friends with Juliette’s boyfriend and father of her children, and he hates the way she has gone about everything with Eli. Russel cannot stand her and belittles her whenever she is near.

Lawrence Cocci (Irritates): Russel is sure Lawrence has been the culprit behind a series of arson but Russel has no way of proving it. Luke, Gretchen and Lawrence are close friends making it harder for Russel to make a move without his packmate disapproval. That doesn’t mean he can’t make Lawerance’s life hell.

Emmett Wilhelm (Irritates): Emmett is a fire starter just like Lawerance. Russel doesn’t suspect him of arson but Emmett also does nothing to reign in his friend.

Pets:

None

→ History (paragraph(s) on background) → The Present (paragraph(s) on how the character connects to the plot)

→ Available Gif Hunts (we do not own these)

Sasha Roiz (Russel Jordan) [1][2][3]

[jacewilliams1]

Night, mist, haze, and all that jazz

Sometimes when we look back to our earliest periods in aviation, we are rightly hounded by some of the infamously stupid things we did—or tried to do. But if you’re like me, you can honestly say you just didn’t know any better at the time, and that there was no one around to warn you of the dangers. We all have to learn. And every once in a while, the learning unveils itself ex post facto. Shockingly—like the last man on the trail being the only one to spot the coiled snake.

In doing the historical research for this story, I re-discovered that I hadn’t been checked out and endorsed for night flying until two years and one month after passing the private pilot flight test with my instructor/examiner. And that important aviation milestone occurred seven months and only four hours and fifteen minutes of logged night time before the following event took place. I was twenty years old.

The date was March 1, 1976, and it was a beautiful, mostly calm, just-barely-cool day in Roanoke, Virginia. I spent that gorgeous day cooped up in the operator’s cab of an overhead, 30-ton crane at the Blue Ridge Steel Company. It wasn’t where I really wanted to be, but attending community college at night and working for my father during the day was my lot in life for the time being. I was fortunate, actually, to have the job…

Destination: the bustling (not really) Bridgewater, Virginia, airport.

The steam whistle finally blew at four o’clock in the afternoon, and I was out and down the ladder like a full-pockets swabbie starting his first shore leave. My excitement had been building intensely because this was the day on which I would pick up my girlfriend after work and then head to Woodrum Field to prepare a new 1975 Cessna 172 for our 50-minute flight down the Shenandoah Valley to the tiny Bridgewater, Virginia, airport.

Once there, we would meet my close friend from high school, Garland—now a music major in college—to make the short drive to Harrisonburg’s James Madison University, our final destination. That night, the school was hosting a free concert in Wilson Hall by the premier US Air Force jazz orchestra, The Airmen of Note. The band did and still does play as tightly as any large jazz group in the world. And (being the jazz enthusiasts we were at the time), we weren’t about to miss them.

Upon the successful completion of all the required tests and check rides on the road to becoming a licensed pilot, an extremely heavy burden is placed squarely on a new aviator’s shoulders. Comprising a portion of that burden is the need for the new airman to quickly develop the traits of, pardon the expression, sort of a benevolent authoritarian. Yes, an authoritarian. Only because of one concern or another about the safety of flight, there are times when a pilot must say, “no, absolutely not,” and stick to his guns. Quite often, the weather predominates these germane elements of concern. And that night in Harrisonburg, Virginia, was no different.

My girlfriend and I arrived with my high-school pal at the concert hall and rendezvoused with some additional friends—Gary and Jody, who were brother and sister, both my age, and their parents. The four of them had driven to Harrisonburg from Roanoke earlier in the day. Now all together, we took our seats and eagerly prepared for a great time of music and friendship.

However, being ever-the-pilot, those nagging “pilot-worries” kept creeping back into my mind time and time again as the concert progressed. I just couldn’t seem to relax and enjoy the show like everyone else could. I was concerned about two specific facts: one, the temperature outside was noticeably cooler than what had been forecasted; and two, the air was hazier and more moisture-laden than I had expected. During the flight down the valley to Bridgewater, I had noticed that the visibility had gradually begun to decrease the further north and east we travelled; when we landed in the early evening we couldn’t see more than around six or seven miles. I made a mental note of it but didn’t carry the thought any further at the time.

After the show, almost everyone wanted to go out to eat and party at a good place they had heard about in town. I say almost everyone because I knew then that I should have said “no” and started back for home, but I also knew that I would have never heard the end of it from my girlfriend if I had. So, I reluctantly gave in. I caved. I should have been strong and stood my ground, but I was a coward. It shames me to say it, but that’s the truth. I was afraid to make waves. Later on, in the restaurant, I silently tried to rationalize my self-humiliation: “Well, more than likely, the weather will be okay; the forecast was for clear air. And besides, who really wants to be labelled, ‘Party Pooper?’” Meanwhile, outside, the temperature kept dropping and the mist started gathering.

Why is there mist forming?

By the time we finally got back to the Bridgewater airport, it was around eleven o’clock at night. Gary and Jody both had decided that they wanted to fly back to Roanoke with us in the plane rather than endure the two-hour car ride. Gary had been drinking beer and was worried about walking through the terminal with a six-pack under one arm and an open can in his other hand. Of course, when we got to the airport he realized his fears were unfounded. There was no terminal. There was no one on the little airstrip but us. In fact, there wasn’t even an outside telephone. So, there was no way I could check the weather. So I didn’t.

So we just loaded up, started the engine, and took off—into a moonless night, with mist and haze which had now cut the visibility down to around four miles, in an almost maximum gross weight Cessna 172, down a black valley bordered by high mountains, with a pilot who had but four hours of night time and no experience in the clouds whatsoever.

We often read about accidents stemming from scenarios exactly like this one. Hapless novice pilots get themselves into situations from which they can’t recover on what seems like a regular basis. What scorches my mind suddenly like a bare hand on a hot stove is the speed at which I recognized we were in trouble.

Barely a few moments after leaving the ground I knew we were in distress. There was just enough forward visibility, initially, to keep myself oriented with the lights on the ground. But we were over open farm land. And soon, what few lights there were began to appear fuzzy, with little halos around them. The higher we climbed the worse the visibility became, and I started losing sight of any lights at all except the ones practically straight down. I had thought I’d be able to spot Interstate Highway 81, with its heavy traffic, after passing the city of Staunton and follow it all the way to Roanoke, but that idea rapidly became a cruel joke. We watched the town pass by on our left, but we never found the highway.

On the flight northeastward to Bridgewater, I had chosen 4,000 feet for the cruise because that altitude seemed like an acceptable compromise between the desire for sightseeing and the need for a safety margin while over the taller hills within the deep valley. Now, however, on the flight back to the southwest, I realized that I couldn’t climb much higher than 4,000 feet or so without losing sight of every light on the ground. So, I stayed as high as I could while clinging desperately to each of those dim little lights of orientation like an exhausted swimmer struggling from one life ring to the next.

Not the place to get lost at night.

As pilots, you’re now up to speed concerning the pickle I got myself into. So, in an attempt to be as brief as I can and not drag this thing out any further with dramatics, I’ll list only the pertinent facts from here on out:

Since we were too far away from Roanoke to receive any signals from the ROA VOR at our altitude, I simply chose the reciprocal of our outbound course for our return course. I thought that heading would keep us in the wide valley.

The MOL VOR was either out of service that night or my navigation radio wouldn’t tune it. Either way, it was not available to us.

The only navigation aid I had left was the ADF. I used it to tune in and navigate to a local broadcast radio station in Roanoke: WFIR, 960 AM.

I had no idea how to track a low frequency station, so we homed in on it. By the time we were close enough to Roanoke to receive an adequate signal from the ROA VOR, I located us on the 094 degrees radial.

After passing Staunton, Virginia, I recognized nothing until I confirmed the lights of Roanoke ahead, at about 8 to 10 miles.

Now, if you are still with me and interested in this open confession of incredulous ignorance, get your sectional chart and plot this flight yourself while reiterating these facts: the pilot departed Bridgewater, Virginia late on a cool, damp night in what really were instrument conditions. He confirmed the passing of Staunton, Virginia, on his left a few minutes later. The pilot had only a Private license with 156 total hours of flight time and a paltry 4.2 hours of night flying experience—with of course, only minimal instrument training. The pilot had never before flown in clouds. He maintained a cruising level which averaged about 4,000 feet msl. Mystifyingly, the pilot approached Roanoke not from the northeast as he had planned, but unexpectedly from the east without ever seeing anything on the ground except a few lights scattered here and there—almost perpendicular to his flightpath—until within ten miles of downtown Roanoke.

Ladies and gentlemen, I’ll allow you to vocalize your own epithets at this point. How we survived that night I’ll never know. It must have been either divine intervention, fate, or just pure dumb luck. Say what you will… I’ve said enough.

Editor’s Note: This article is from our series called “I Can’t Believe I Did That,” where pilots ‘fess up about mistakes they’ve made but lived to tell about. If you have a story to tell, email us at: editor@airfactsjournal.com.

The post Night, mist, haze, and all that jazz appeared first on Air Facts Journal.

from Engineering Blog https://airfactsjournal.com/2020/07/night-mist-haze-and-all-that-jazz/