Again into the mailbag. We can be contacted at thethirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com and at common_ills@yahoo.com.
Barry notes Trina's "He Ran All The Way: The Life of John Garfield" about the John Garfield book. Is it really that bad?
Ava and C.I.: Trina got it right, it's a really bad book. An obvious example? Page 162 notes John Garfield does the film BETWEEN TWO WORLDS with, among others Eleanor Parker. Page 168 notes the film PRIDE OF THE MARINES and, of the cast, "Eleanor Parker, a vivacious and talented new find" with no apparent realization that he's mentioned her six pages prior, that this is Parker's second film with Garfield or that he might need to note who Parker is beyond "a vivacious and talented new find." She was a three time Academy Award nominee. Her most famous film is CAGED, the women in prison film co-starring Agnes Moorhead, among others. Her other films include THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM, A HOLE IN THE HEAD and THE SOUND OF MUSIC -- the first two with Frank Sinatra. So it's a bad book. But is it bad for John Garfield? Not at all. Carly Simon has her own memoir, the book GIRLS LIKE US and then another book written by a friend of her brother's as well as a book about her by her ex-husband. That's great. That's four books on the stacks about Carly. Marilyn Monroe probably has more books about her than any other woman in the 20th century. Some are good, some are bad, but they have helped her become a legend that lives on. Books have done the same for Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and others. Loretta Young and Myrna Loy haven't had as many books and are more likely to be forgotten. In music, Bob Dylan and Frank Sinatra have had the most books. For women? Joni Mitchell and Diana Ross -- but it's not a big competition. Even Aretha Franklin has only about six books -- she certainly deserves more. But the point is, good or bad, factual or false, every book is another chance to reach someone and turn them on to the subject of the book.
Renee writes, "Hate to harp on something forever gone but I really do miss the collages."
Jim: Won't believe it, but so do I. They took forever to do. But I do miss them and I was actually suggesting we try one in the coming weeks. I really miss them. Maybe we will try it again.
XXY22 e-mails: "Are you done with comics?"
Jess: I would hope not. I enjoyed it when we did our comic features and I also enjoyed our survey pieces on magazines. That said, we have done it and we do need to move forward sometimes. It can get old just repeating yourself so we might want to try to do something new. Any suggestions?
Brandon wants to know what we are watching right now or what we last watched?
Dona: Jim and I are watching THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX on NETFLIX right now. It just came available after the Super Bowl.
Ty: For me, it was the half-time show at the Super Bowl, I hope to have a piece on that this edition.
Jess: I was watching THE SIMPSONS on FX or FXX whatever it is on HULU LIVE. I was doing season six, I think. It's the one that starts with the new pool which makes Lisa popular and leaves Bart with a cast so he sees what he thinks is Flanders committing murder -- a la REAR WINDOW -- and the season ends with Mr. Burns being shot.
Ava and C.I.: We're reading scripts to three shows we may review shortly. The last thing we watched was the ALTERED CARBON show we review this edition and the last film we watched was THE GREATEST SHOWMAN which we saw tonight.
Can their be more book coverage in the community wonders Peter B?
Ty: That would be up to everyone at their own site. That said, we know Marcia's planning to write about a book either this week or next at her site. In terms of here, we probably should do another book roundtable -- it's been forever.
Liz Louvish says, "It's been way too long since you did a mailbag."
Jim: We agree and we're trying to take care of that now.
Jenny F feels, "There are a lot of political issues I feel are being ignored by you."
Dona: Really? Issues or talking points? We're not here to be MSNBC -- most of their talking points are neither interesting nor news. I wish we did more, to be honest. I hope we'll do a piece on the memo this edition -- even if it's only two or three lines. But that might not be possible.
Alex writes, "I'm a veteran and I served and I can't believe that the war is still going on in Iraq or that no one seems to care online. When I was in Iraq, if I could get online, I could see various blogs that covered Iraq. Now days, it's like they only mention it to score a political point."
Ava: I'm not going to disagree with you, Alex. If it helps, there is a thirst for discussions of the Iraq War. We see that when we're traveling around the country speaking to groups about it. Part of the reason for the 2016 turnout was that the Democratic Party refused to acknowledge the ongoing war and even ran a candidate who voted for it. This was a major event and they don't want to deal with it. They try to run from it. Voters aren't rushing to embrace that. They've exposed themselves -- politicians -- as liars and hypocrites.
Danny wants to know what we'd be doing right now if we weren't on this edition?
C.I.: I would be asleep and dreaming. They've got 15 minutes before I say "that's it for me" for this edition. I'm tired, yes. But I want to go to sleep and get some dreaming in during the 3 and 1/2 hours of sleep I'll get .
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