The Perfect Air Conditioned Movie

 

In my movie going life, there are probably a hundred or so reasons why I end up seeing a film.   

This is one of them.

Last week in Los Angeles was very hot and sticky and uncomfortable.  It was a humid reminder of where I come from...New York.  In fact, TV weather people were bloviating that the current humidity in LA was currently the highest of any city in the US.

Hmmm.  Back in the NY day, such weather would propel me to the Chilly Willy sign in my local cinema house.

"It's Komfortably Kool in Inside."

For some strange sensation in SoCal, I felt like I needed to go to a movie.  There would be extra points if it was mindless.   Your basic popcorn entertainment.  Forget the fact that my apartment here has wonderful central air conditioning.  I needed to lose myself in the dark for a few hours.

And that's how I wound up at "The End of Oak Street."   And I'm glad I did because the film is perfect summer hot weather fare.

The first thirty or so minutes are quiet and almost boring.   It's your typical suburban neighborhood.   One family of two parents and two kids have their issues.  Mom and Dad (Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor are on the edge of divorce.  

And then there's some sort of cosmic event and, as the poster above shows, this movie becomes a little...not, a lot...different.   Suddenly, it's an episode of "Thirtysomething" mixed with a season of "Stranger Things" mixed with about three "Jurassic Park" films.  As a matter of fact, there are so dinosaurs in this one that even Steven Spielberg might feel inadequate.

Once the creatures appear, there are the usual set pieces where one member or another of the family needs to be saved.   There is one big scare, accompanied by a super loud sound effect, that could have knocked the theater's AC off.  And that wouldn't be a good thing.

As popcorn movies go, this is one you need to get with extra butter.  And maybe some of that caramel seasoning.   "The End of Oak Street" is worth the calories.

After all, you weren't going to exercise in this heat, were you?

LEN'S RATING:  Three-and-a-half stars.

Dinner last night:  Salad.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - August 31, 2026

Wrapping up our Marx Month with this classic moment from Groucho's TV quiz show.

Dinner last night:  Ribeye steak.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - My Short Political Career

 

I just snickered as I wrote the title of today's Memory Drawer.   You're probably perplexed.

Len as a community activist?   The guy who hates virtually all politicians.   Today's blog must have been hijacked by that AOC screwball.

Nah, it's me.   And, yes, I was.  For a while.

The picture above is Yonkers City Hall and I hung out there a bit when things got really hot in town.   No, I don't mean the temperature.  I had totally forgotten about all this until HBO last weekend began to run a mini-series that revolves around those very years where I might have been found at a city council meeting.  I watched the first two hours of the production and was amazed by its attention to detail.  Much of the footage was shot in Yonkers itself.

And the memories flooded out of my TV and onto these virtual pages today.

The miniseries depicts all the governmental unrest that arose as a result of the NAACP's lawsuit against the city of Yonkers for allegedly practicing segregation in new housing.  A Federal judge got involved and started to impose major fines and potential jail sentences against dissenting City Council members.  In the middle of this fracas was a 30 year-old and virtually inept Mayor Doogie Howser.  He eventually blew his brains out while standing over his father's grave.   You couldn't write this stuff.

Of course, somebody did and now HBO has filmed it in exact and precise detail. Naturally, when it comes to subjects like the construction of low income housing, you have a lightning rod for middle class home owners who see the value of their well-earned properties plummeting.  I had just moved into Yonkers myself and suddenly I found myself in a city that was ripe for tar and feathering.  Since all this nonsense was regularly in the news, I couldn't resist the temptation to watch the weekly fighting that went on at City Council meetings.  It was fun to watch as an innocent bystander.

But then I had my first set of income tax done as a Yonkers resident.  All those fines stemming from the lawsuit were flipped over into city tax that all of us common schlubs were being asked to pay.  For the first time ever, I wasn't getting a tax refund.   And it was all because of the Yonkers city tax.  

Now I was mad.

I started to watch the cable telecasts of the City Council meetings with more fervor.  And then, one week, I somehow found myself propelled to go and see them in person.  What I found there horrified me.

Homeowners showed up and screamed at the council members and the Mayor. The council members screamed at the Mayor.  The Mayor screamed back at them.  It seemed like there was always somebody rapping a gavel trying to bring some order into somewhere.  This was our government in action.  And it was nothing more than an episode of World Wide Wrestling.

But, deep down, I was intrigued by the process of running a city and how ordinary citizens might play into the mix.  Somehow and somewhere, things could get done.

Then I was moved to act myself.  Because ugliness hit home to me not once, but twice.

I was working in Manhattan those days and taking the Metro North train from the Greystone station to Grand Central.  I was parking my new Camry at the adjacent parking lot and paying over fifty bucks a month to do so.  I got off the train one night to find the hubcaps removed.   And gone.

WTF.

Of course, I went through the whole police report business and questioned why my car wouldn't be safe at a public parking lot.  Apparently, my vehicle wasn't the only one to have hubcaps stripped.  Great.  I went through the expense of getting four new hubcaps from Toyota.

Which were promptly stolen two weeks later at the same train station parking lot.

WTF!!!!!!!

The police took my crime reports which I was now getting good at filling out. But I needed something more to appease my wounded self.  For the first time ever, I wrote a letter to my City Council representative.  I had a new guy just elected and he had said that if any of us had a problem, we should reach out.

I reached out.   Three nights later, my phone rang and it was him.  Two days later, there was a noticeable police presence at our train station parking lot. Just like my council representative had pledged there would be.

I had raised an issue to a politician and it made a difference.   Hmmmm.  Maybe there was something to this local government business.  Maybe I should be more active.

When my City Council guy became Mayor, he started some sort of community activist group.   I asked if I could be on it and was welcomed in.   

And then I had the misfortune of attending their first meeting.  The Mayor himself was not there.  But a lot of the usual Yonkers residents were.   The same ones who were always screaming at people.   The cacophony was endless.   I realized that, while I had gotten something done, it was a rare incident. For the most part, issues get lost in the weeds of personal agendas that are dying to be addressed.

I was done.   I skulked back to a world of political indifference.   And I still reside there today.

The HBO miniseries, however, was a good reminder of how things are...and shouldn't be.  In Yonkers.  In Los Angeles.  In your town.

Dinner last night:   Hot dog.

Musical Comedy Production Number of the Month - August 2026

 Woo hoo.  A five month Saturday means we get to sample the best from Broadway.  Here's one of the many great numbers from "Hello Dolly," this time from the Bette Midler version about 8 or 9 years ago.   Excuse the Asian subtitles but also don;t miss Bette tripping on stage.

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

Len's Juke Box of the Month - August 2026

 

You got a better idea for this month's record spin.   And I was at this concert.  Thanks for everything, Dolly.

Dinner last night:  Grilled beef sausage.

Liz

 

There was probably no bigger star in the universe than Elizabeth Taylor.   When I was a kid, I remember how my dad and his contemporaries would salivate at her photos and movies.   How they would have liked to be one of the two dozen men she got involved in.

Some of her movies were damn good.   Most were trash and that includes the big bust...no pun intended..."Cleopatra."   That film, of course, was big news because of the super public affair she carried on with Richard Burton.

All of the above goes to explain why I was drawn to the HBO documentary "Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes."  The premise is that, back in 1964, Liz sat down with an interviewer who recorded everything she had to say.   And a lot that, as shown in the movie, was damn interesting.  She certainly was candid.

But the problem is that she did these tapes in 1964.   Meanwhile, she lived another 47 years and most of that is not included in the documentary.   As a result, it's a compelling albeit incomplete life story.

But what the hell it is Liz Taylor and my father would have accepted nothing less than...

LEN'S RATING:  Three stars.

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

This Date in History - August 26

 

Happy birthday to Macaulay Culkin...who doesn't look anything like this today.

1278:  LADISLAUS IV OF HUNGARY AND RUDOLF I OF GERMANY DEFEAT OTTOKAR II OF BOHEMIA IN THE BATTLE OF THE MARCHFELD.

Ottokar?  Isn't that a ride at Disneyland?

1346:  THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR - THE MILITARY SUPREMACY OF THE ENGLISH LONGBOW OVER THE FRENCH COMBINATION OF CROSSBOW AND ARMOURED KNIGHTS IS ESTABLISHED BY THE BATTLE OF CRECY.

So far, this is shaping up as a boring day in history.

1466:  A CONSPIRACY AGAINST PIERO DI COSIMO DE MEDICI IN FLORENCE, LED BY LUCA PITTI, IS DISCOVERED.

Such a pitti.

1498:  MICHELANGELO IS COMMISSIONED TO CARVE THE PIETA.

And later the turkey on Thanksgiving.

1748:  THE FIRST LUTHERAN DENOMINATION IN NORTH AMERICA IS FOUNDED IN PHILADELPHIA.

Good.  I have some place to go on Sundays.

1768:  CAPTAIN JAMES COOK SETS SAIL FROM ENGLAND ON BOARD HMS ENDEAVOUR.  

Later they sent this boat up to space?

1789:  THE DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND OF THE CITIZEN IS APPROVED BY THE NATIONAL CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY OF FRANCE.

This day in history?  Still boring.

1791:  JOHN FITCH IS GRANTED A UNITED STATE PATENT FOR THE STEAMBOAT.

I thought this was Robert Fulton and not the guy who later partnered on clothing with Abercrombie.

1821:  THE UNIVERSITY OF BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, IS OFFICIALLY OPENED.  

What time does the book store open?

1883:  THE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA BEGINS ITS FINAL, PAROXYSMAL, STAGE.

Doesn't that sound dirty?

1909:  ACTOR JIM DAVIS IS BORN.

Jock Ewing!

1910:  MOTHER TERESA IS BORN.

She died in 1997 and they carted her body around for a couple of weeks or so.

1914:  WORLD WAR I - THE GERMAN COLONY OF TOGOLAND SURRENDERS TO FRENCH AND BRITISH FORCES AFTER A 20 DAY CAMPAIGN.

Out in LA, Togoland is a sandwich shop.

1920:  THE 19TH AMENDMENT TO THE US CONSTITUTION TAKES EFFECT, GIVING WOMEN THE RIGHT TO VOTE.

As long as the ironing is done.  Okay, that's a joke and not my real belief.

1930:  ACTOR LON CHANEY DIES.

The man of a thousand faces.  

1935:  POLITICIAN GERALDINE FERRARO IS BORN.

I sat behind her on a flight to NY the day Elliott Spitzer got in trouble.   Her Black Berry at Baggage Claim was buzzing like a bee hive.

1944:  WORLD WAR II - CHARLES DE GAULLE ENTERS PARIS.

This is news?

1970:  THE NEW FEMINIST MOVEMENT, LED BY BETTY FRIEDAN, LEADS A NATIONWIDE WOMEN'S STRIKE FOR EQUALITY.

Jeez, you can vote now.   What else do you want?  Okay, again, that's a joke and not my real belief.

1974:  PILOT CHARLES LINDBERGH DIES.

Dirtbag.

1977:  THE CHARTER OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE IS ADOPTED BY THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF QUEBEC.

Still bored by this date.

1978:  ALBINO LUCIANI IS ELECTED AS POPE JOHN PAUL I.

Don't get too attached, folks.

1978:  ACTOR CHARLES BOYER DIES.

Killed himself two days after his wife died.

1980:  ACTOR MACAULAY CULKIN IS BORN.

He's still with us.  His career, however, is not.

1986:  ACTOR TED KNIGHT DIES.

Sad.   He appeared on an episode of my college radio sitcom.

2009:  AUTHOR DOMINICK DUNNE DIES.

He never got over that OJ Simpson verdict.

2011:  THE BOEING 787 DREAMLINER RECEIVES CERTIFICATION FROM THE FAA.

Upgrade please.

2018:  PLAYWRIGHT NEIL SIMON DIES.

No joke on this one.   Guy was a friggin' genius.

2023:  TV HOST BOB BARKER DIES.

Come on up.

Dinner last night:  Salad.