Losing Altman

It’s partly the fuller ability to feel anti-war sentiment now that the right wing stranglehold on government has been broken. 

It’s partly the sudden and immediate recall of those phrases: “tune in, turn on, drop out”; “hell no, we won’t go”; “don’t fold, spindle or mutilate”; “don’t trust anyone over thirty.”  (You can “keep on truckin'” in the comment thread with your own other favorites.)

It’s partly the fact I’ve been in Barcelona for three months now with zero homesickness (except the morning after the election, when I imagined that many of you were dancing in the streets); tomorrow is “Dia de Gracias” in the States;  it will just be business as usual here (except for siesta time, of course); and no one I’ve mentioned it to has ever heard of Thanksgiving.

The “it” is the powerful reaction I had when I heard Robert Altman had died and I saw this image leading off his photo gallery in the NYT.  (BTW, I also loved the Vincent and Theo shot, as well as Altman in the kitchen at Gosford Park.)

As BAG adherents can well understand, Altman was a great inspiration to me for his ability to capture and trap the cultural/political tone and mood.