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adonisfm · 14 days

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› born into the silver of a moon & the curve of a bow .

( muse . pinterest . biography . )

HEXMORE WAS FOUNDED BY WITCHES, BUT IS NOW HOME TO, BENJAMIN “BENJI” LAVERICK (MASON GOODING). HE/HIM IS a 30 YEAR OLD, Witch. BORN IN Hexmore, THEY HAVE RESIDED IN HEXMORE FOR THEIR WHOLE LIFE, WHERE THEY WORK AS a professor at the Academy. THEY CONSIDER THEMSELVES TO BE AFFILIATED WITH the Hexmore Court AND THE DISAPPEARANCE OF HAZEL MORA HAS LEFT THEM REALISING heartbroken.

about .

› name: benjamin "benji" laverick › age: thirty › gender: cis man › pronouns: he/him › sexuality: bisexual › species: witch › affiliation: hexmore court › occupation: history/magical history professor at the academy › time in hexmore: his whole life

aesthetics .

champagne coloured nights ; a hunger bellowing in the dark marrow of your bones ; loud music coursing deep into the night ; wood panels lifting, splinters tearing fabric ; charming laughter that makes hearts swoon ; paper cuts from old books ; fireworks lighting up the sky ; a coloured pill on your tongue ; early morning conversations under the warmth of a moon ; red wine shared on park benches ; getting lost to languages in the library ; loosely done button ups exposing a bare chest ; bags under your eyes ; tendrils of cigarette smoke catching glimpses of a somber light ; reading poetry to each other with wine stained lips ; crumpled bed sheets ; pressing fingertips into bruises ;

about .

Benji comes from a large family, with a long line of strength- even a few supreme's in his lineage. While he was born as the second child in the Laverick family, is was just as much a curse as being born the first. You see there’s the family secret that happens to pass whispered lips, that his elder sibling was born from an affair their mother was having for quite some time. Which made Benji the first real Laverick.

He’s always grown up with the town’s eyes on him, watching his every move. His family constantly reminding him of expectations that come with such things as being a Laverick. To be golden, to be graceful with every step, and powerful with every word. The expectation was clear from the day he was born, but Benji would always be the first to shrink responsibility.

He’d learn his texts, and cite from old literature and references like they were a second language to him. Studying for hours on end, when all he wanted to do was play with the other kids in the forest, or at the park. He longed to run his hands through the mud, and feel branches grazing his skin as he climbed trees. Quite often he’d sneak out of private tutoring lessons, or be the first out of bed in the morning just to be dragged back in by the collar trudging mud all through the hardwood floors of their old home. His parents were always eager to remind him at every turn that he was born to be the next supreme- born with this crown upon his head he could never quite shake the weight of.

Too many things in life would come all too natural to Benji, call it luck, or talent accumulated from all the forced hours of study and training. But he was powerful- more powerful than he’d ever cared to be. Or he ever knew to put to any decent use. More often than not finding the most meaningless ways to make entertainment from his magic, despite how often others insisted what he’d be able to do if he just tried. To him it was all just for a bit of fun. Mischief and pranks, he enjoyed playing tricks and games with his magic, even use it just for the most mundane tasks. It was never a gift, it was just a part of him. The same as breathing, and laughing- Magic never empowered him despite how often he was told it should make him powerful.

It was easy for him to find ways to get what he wanted, perhaps spoilt, or perhaps never asking much from life in the first place. The way his powers came so naturally, and the way things would just get handed to him. He was fortunate like that in a way he’d never understand.

And as he grew older, and their parents welcomed more children into the world, two younger siblings, and Benji only found more and more excuses to give the responsibility to someone else. Not that it managed to deter his parent’s insistence that it was him who would be one of the next supremes. But like all things forming under pressure, Benji began to act out. Everything would begin to turn to a game. Pushing buttons, and testing limits. He’d teeter and test his family, staying out long after curfew, only to be the first one up in the morning cooking breakfast. He’d find ways to embarrass himself, the family name, and do so with a brimming smile. There was never any real cause behind his rebellion, he was never fighting for anything besides just to enjoy himself. That was the most important thing to Benji.

Coming home late, grazed knees with plasters covering them. When will he grow up? Only the question had been asked ever since he was a child. It always seemed the way growing up inside the Hexmore court.

He always knows how to be the life of any situation, loud laughs filling the air with warmth. The type that tempts to draws people closer, no matter how often they get burnt in his presence. Jokes and harmless pranks, even the ones that would get him sent to detention more often than not. Some think he’s no more than a spoiled rich kid and maybe they’re not far off. But what Benji wouldn’t do to trade it all in just to be no one for a little while.

Hazel and Benji met through the coven, she saw potential in Benji in a way that he always brushed off so flippantly. Over the years despite the age difference they formed a friendship, and to Benji it felt like she was the first person in the coven who didn’t want him to change. She welcomed his jokes, and the spark of life he brought into every situation. He'd be the first to admit she was probably wasting her time hanging with him, and yet despite that the two were still close.

She was even the person who got him the current teaching job at the academy, a somewhat respectable image for him. If she was leading to trying to convince him to be a Supreme, she’s probably one of the few people in this world who could have actually convinced Benji to such a position that he’s spent his whole life resenting the idea of.

For the longest time Benji would have believed there wasn’t a thing he cared about in this world, besides his siblings. Everything else would always seem too fleeting, too trivial- too boring. Never serious about anything a day in his life, that was until the disappearance of Hazel. He’s starting to realise maybe there was something he cared about. And he’d do anything it took just to have her back again.

#hexintro #( benjamin laverick )#( into . benjamin )

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heytheredeann · 1 year

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lol i had to really go looking for this but its called the benjamin button affair and hes nt as young as the art but hes still baby its so good

THANK YOU FOR SHARING ANON

I'LL CHECK THAT OUT ASAP

@chestnut-devil here are the answers

#!!!!!!!!!!!!#extremely important information #thank you for looking it up asdfghjkl #ely replies #napoleon solo #not spn #tmfu #anon #Anonymous

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fukublrblog · 3 months

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”The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” Review

2008 film

Director: David Fincher

★★★★★

I had the chance to see David Fincher's film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story, which portrays the life of Benjamin Button, a man who is born old, ages backward, and dies as an infant. It may sound like science fiction, but actually, it is a beautiful love story between the central characters, Benjamin and Daisy.

However, my favorite part of the movie is not about their relationship but about his first love. During his stint as a tugboat man in Russia, he crosses paths with Elizabeth, a married woman from the UK. At first, they just meet in a hotel lobby and talk, but one night they enjoy caviar and vodka together in a nice restaurant and become romantically involved.

I think there are three elements that make this series of scenes impressive: CGI, makeup, and Brad Pitt's performance. The use of CGI and makeup transforms Pitt into a middle-aged man, while his performance captures the innocence of a young boy experiencing his first love. Without these elements, the scene would not be as fantastic as it is. It may resemble an unappealing affair scene between a middle-aged couple.

As for the acting, Benjamin is portrayed by several actors, including Brad Pitt, since the movie covers Benjamin's whole life. Nevertheless, because of the seamless application of CGI, the transitions appear so natural that it seemed to me that Benjamin was played by the same person (Brad Pitt). In my view, all the performance are commendable, and all in all, I loved the movie so much that I became a fan of the director.

#movie review #david fincher #brad pitt

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literarytourist-blog-blog · 1 year

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Gerry Butts and John Duffy on How Canada Works

Last year when John Duffy, a Canadian political strategist and writer, died at the age of 58, I noticed an outpouring of genuine love, and sadness, on Twitter, along with frequent references to his book Fights of our Lives. It was called one the best ever written on Canadian politics. So I picked up a copy. It's filled with dozens of old photographs, and images of period posters, and flyers, buttons, correspondence, and other fascinating bits and pieces of ephemera and memorabilia: the 'confetti of history' as Walter Benjamin liked to put it, plus it features these great 'diagrams' of game plans, 'playbooks,' that John came up with to explain the strategies and tactics used in what he considered to be the five most consequential elections in Canadian history. It was visually captivating, and a fun informative read, so I decided to feature it on The Biblio File Book Club. But who to engage with?

Several people suggested Justin Trudeau's close friend and advisor, Gerry Butts. After a bit of toing and froing, and my prematurely and, as it turns out, quite erroneously, dismissing him as a typical political bounder, it all came together. Gerry agreed to play ball. We met in person several days ago at the Chateau Laurier hotel in Ottawa.

Gerry is currently Vice Chairman of The Eurasia Group, a risk management firm with offices around the world. We talk here about John Duffy's optimism, about whether or not elections matter; about cynicism, championship debating, Canada's business elite, the PBO's report on income inequality, the urban-rural divide, 1300 Dollarama stores, lifting children out of poverty, the King-Bing Affair, SNC Lavalin, the Manitoba School crisis, Wilfred Laurier and Justin Trudeau's 'Sunny Ways,' kicking the can down the road; Lament for a Nation, and Mel Hurtig. There's a James Joyce quote. Gerry tells a joke about Franz Kafka on the way out the door, and I recommend that he reads Nora Krug's illustrated edition of On Tyranny.

Plus another thing: we're both convinced that John Duffy's Fights of our Lives (egregiously it's both out of print and published by an American multi-national) should be made into a TV Series as soon as possible.

Check out this episode!

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aclslibrarian · 2 years

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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

UnCovered review by Collette Jones, Branch Manager, Egg Harbor City Branch

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which was published in Colliers magazine in 1922 and later anthologized in Fitzgerald's short story collection, Tales of the Jazz Age. The story describes events in the life of Benjamin Button, who is born in Baltimore in 1860 as an aged man, who proceeds to age backwards over the course of the story. It remains one of Fitzgerald's better-known short stories and was adapted in 2008 into a feature film starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. The story illustrates that a good book is worth reading 100 years later. It is a quick, fantastical read.

We learn that a child was born in 1918, the same year the clockmaker created his clock for the train station. The child, though only an infant, appeared as an elderly man and was abandoned by his father on a doorstep after the mother passed away while giving birth to him. The child is found by a woman named Queenie and a Mr. Weathers who work at the nursing home where the infant was abandoned. Queenie chooses to raise the child, and with the years passing, the young man, Benjamin grows up with the mentality of a child in an old man’s body. At his youthful age, he appears as if he is as old as every person in the nursing home. He struggles with his hearing and his eyesight and understanding. When Benjamin is 12 he meets a young girl, age 7, named Daisy, and they become very close friends.

Eventually, Benjamin leaves Queenie and what he has known as home and joins a tugboat crew, as the Captain believes him to be far older than he is truthfully. Benjamin is constantly mistaken as being an older man as his body grows and he seems to become more and more youthful. Benjamin volunteers to join the Captain in salvage work and survives the crew, including the Captain, as he continues to get younger and stronger in body, mind, and spirit.

Benjamin then returns to his home in New Orleans and to his adopted mother, Queenie, and also reunites with Daisy shortly after. And, finally, Benjamin learns the identity of his father, Thomas, whom he meets as while suffering a terminal illness. He learns that Thomas has a button factory, which is bequeathed to Benjamin, as is his estate.

Two years pass, and Benjamin strikes out to New York City where Daisy lives as a dancer in the ballet, but he learns that she has fallen for another man and is crushed. It isn't until years later that the two meet again after Daisy has been injured in Paris ending her dancing career, but she demands he not stay around, as she is devastated by her injury. Eventually, Daisy returns to New Orleans and they begins a love affair resulting in marriage and a daughter.

Benjamin fears that his reverse-aging will not allow him to be a good father and decides to leave his new family, leaving behind a bank book so that they will always be taken care of financially. Ten years later, Benjamin arrives back in Daisy's life, but she is remarried and their daughter is much older. Daisy hides Benjamin's true identity from everyone and admits that he made the right choice to leave. They have a final night of romance before Benjamin leaves this time for good.

Their paths would cross one final time as Daisy, whose name was found in Benjamin’s diary, is called by a social worker who has found a young Benjamin displaying early signs of dementia, though he looks as young as 12. Daisy cares for Benjamin until his death. He is an old man in an infant’s body. His death comes one year after the clock in the train station, which had been running in reverse since 1918 was replaced. Daisy has told this story to her daughter so she would finally know the true identity of her father. Even though this story is 100-years-old it is a good story that deserves to be read all over again.

#read #Atlantic County #acls #aclsuncovered #aclsreads

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therogueheart · 2 years

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20-something napoleon would look adorable in illya’s big clothes and he would wear them just because he knows the power he holds in them. That bitch would look so adorable. Also let’s talk about how much he would love to take advantage of his state to hide behind illya so he could be all over him w his protectivness

Look at these babies. These dumb, precious, totally in love idiots. Here it looks like Illya is just feeling even more guilt for Napoleon being in this life because this is probably how old Napoleon was when he was in the midst of war, and 'Leo is trying to reassure Illya that by his side is exactly where he wants to be.

Smart-ass Napoleon after batting his lashes and getting Illya to do the leg work fending off the bad guys they encounter on their journey to the Winchesters. He's far too pretty to get in fights, you see. And why fight when he can cower behind a giant Russian and enjoy the view of having his life defended so determinedly?

They're a few days into their journey when they stop at a gas station and Illya realises the jacket Napoleon is wearing is both two sizes too big and very familiar. Napoleon knows he knows, just offers a too-sweet smile and a shrug as if to say, if you want it back, take it off me.

#tw: flashing #tw: flashing gif #tmfu #t.m.f.u #napollya #napollya au #illeon #the man from u.n.c.l.e #the man from uncle #alternate universe #illya kuryakin x napoleon solo #napoleon solo x illya kuryakin #napoleon x illya #illya x napoleon #illya kuryakin/napoleon solo #napoleon solo/illya kuryakin #gifs #gifset #the benjamin button affair

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taffetastrology · 4 years

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The signs as even more Best Costume nominees

Aries

Taurus

Gemini

Cancer

Leo

Virgo

Libra

Scorpio

Sagittarius

Capricorn

Aquarius

Pisces

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folkloreholland · 4 years

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Happy Sunday Mr. Miyagi is in his Cat-Igan and he says “stream folklore for clear skin” ☺️

@taylorswift @taylornation

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lancestans · 4 years

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and that’s the thing about illicit affairs,

and clandestine meetings and longing stares.

illicit affairs, taylor swift 2020

#folklore #taylor swift #taylornation #folklore era #lover #reputation #1989 #red #speak now #fearless #taylor swift debut #swifties #meredith swift #olivia swift #benjamin button swift #taylurking #illicit affairs

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anastampp · 5 years

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If we’re going to be together, you’re never allowed to look at me during the day, we must always part by sunrise, and we can never say “I love you”.

Benjamin button movie - Elizabeth

#benjamin #benjamin button #love quotes #movie quotes #movie quote of the day #affair #never

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pulpwriterx · 3 years

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Meanwhile on Ahch-To...

“Master Luke, what was Ben like, before he was Kylo Anybody?”

When Luke returned to his hut in the morning, Ben and any trace of him were gone.

Luke pretended he knew nothing, and made a cup of tea for himself, and for Rey.

“Ben loves the wild, desolate places of the world. Mountains. Forests. Tundra. Deserts. He comes by it, honestly. He’s a Wookiee.” Leia said.

Rey laughed, a little.

“I’m not kidding. Ben is a member of the Clan Wroshyyr. Chewie is his godfather. Ben has a Wookie name. Kallaurra. Out of the four of us, me, Han, Leia, and Chewie? Chewie did the best job. You know that strange, halting, flat, quality in the way Ben talks? How he growls his words, sometimes? That’s because Basic is not his first language. Shriiyywook is. He said all of his first words in Shriiyywook. He never spoke a word of Basic until he was five and we sent him to school. He understood Basic, and he could already read and write it, but, it’s not his language. Shriiyywook is. Han was OK with it. He encouraged Ben. Do you know what Kallaurra, his Wookiee name means? Wild Man. That was Ben. He was a wild man, and he was his own man, from the time he was a little boy. He went his own way, and along that way? He questioned every tradition, and broke every taboo.”

“Do you think he’s just crazy?”

Luke smiled, in spite of himself.

“Look out at the stars, Rey. Why do they move in their orbits? Why do the suns of a planet rise and set? Why do asteroids crash into each other? Why do meteors flash across the sky, and sometimes fall to the ground? Is it from anger? From madness?”

“No, Master Luke. All those things happen because of the forces of nature.”

“And Ben’s actions are like those heavenly bodies. Driven by the forces of nature. Ben is a force of nature. He is in balance with the raw power of the Force, as it exists, untamed, in nature. Keep looking at the stars. Ben used to tell me, look at the stars, Uncle Luke. The stars belong to me. They are cold and distant. But not to me. And he was right.”

“That’s him.” Rey sighed

“Who?” Luke asked.

“The man you just described? That’s the man I fell in love with. What happened to him?”

Luke shook his head, sorrowfully.

“A great many things. First? There were his mother's expectations. She had his whole life planned out. His Royal Highness, Prince Benjamin Skywalker Organa-Solo. He was going to be the perfect Jedi, the perfect young leader, the perfect fair-haired son of the New Republic. He wasn’t supposed to be a giant behemoth of a man, who was too much like his father and his grandfather to fit in any mold. Nor was he supposed to be a funny, cute, smart but very headstrong and eccentric little boy. Han and I pretty much figured that Big Ben would be going his own way in life by the time he was six. His hair was down to his waist, and he’d scream and break the scissors with the Force if you came near him to cut it. We used to braid his hair, before he went to school. And at home? He wouldn’t wear clothes. Just a pair of underwear, if you were lucky. Like I said, he wanted to be a Wookiee. He wouldn’t speak Basic. Just Shriiyywook. We worked it out. But Ben never really changed.”

“I know. He hates clothes. It’s funny, because when he gets dressed, he wears such elaborate outfits. But he never wears clothes in his house. Not even undershorts. He really hates undershorts. He doesn’t like wearing pants, so why would he want to wear another pair of pants, under his pants. And I had to learn Shriyywook.”

Luke sighed.

“As Ben grew to manhood, I started seeing my nephew as a monster. His obsession with his own duality, and that of his grandfather. He began to adopt this outlaw iconoclast persona. Whatever it was? Ben was against it. Then there were his heretical leanings toward the Grey Path. And his vows? Forget vows. Not my nephew, the king of taboo. He would sit, and read copies of the Jedi texts, and understand them. And laugh and ask me, are they serious? Jedi are supposed to take vows of chastity, and honesty. To have control over their emotions. Ben sold cigarillos, wine, and rubbers from his father’s smuggling operation out of my father’s TIE Fighter, his personal vehicle. I remember, once, he was changing the oil on it, and he explained to me why he was a Grey Jedi, and why that was the only thing that made sense, and it almost convinced me. No, Ben was always honest. It was chastity he couldn’t manage.”

Luke laughed, shaking his head.

“I got Ben when he was 13. And he was already girl-crazy. All ready to fall in love and get laid. Because Ben’s a nice boy, he has to fall for a girl before she can have him. Ben lost his virginity when he was 16 to his mother’s Kesshiri secretary, who was 37. Ben was crazy about Minerva. He thought it would be forever. I think Leia should have at least fired her, even though Ben was the age of consent. They had an affair for a year, and then she married a diplomat from her home planet and walked out of Ben’s life. He was crushed. After that? He went looking for love in all the wrong places. Any of my female students who were curious about their resident Rebel Angel? Let’s just say, Ben never failed to satisfy their curiosity. He didn’t listen to me when I tried to stop him. He really thought he meant something to these girls. Especially one he had gone to school with. After all, they meant something to him. He was so crushed when I had to break it up, with his old school friend, and she blamed him because she thought I'd expel her.”

“But it wasn’t all Kylo’s fault!” Rey protested.

“That’s what I told her. It takes two, I told them, and I suspended all three girls. And Ben, too, for a month. He was gone for six months. Even Han couldn’t find him. The betrayal by his fellow student, his girl? It just crushed him. Finally, he showed up shaggy, unshaven, dirty and drunk, with broken knuckles, a dirty shirt with half the buttons gone, sporting a fresh blaster scar on his shoulder, and a black eye. The occasion? His 21st birthday party. He and Leia had a huge fight, and she told him she was going to pull him out of the Jedi Temple and have his father rent him by the hour out of the spaceport garage next to the cantina in Mos Eisley, if all he was going to do with his life was drink, fight, hustle contraband around the Galaxy and lay pipe to more women with less discretion that any cheap spaceport gigolo.”

Rey laughed.

“Master Leia said that to Ben?”

“She did. I was there. He never spoke to her again, after that, but I think he took it to heart. And you made an honest man of him, in the end.”

“He did listen to his mother. I was…well I would have…I was interested in Ben before he let on that he was interested in me. And you know, I was, um, a little pushy about it. And he told me that he was going to treat me with respect, and give us some time to get to know each other, because he knew what it was like to be used. It’s fun at first, and you really think they like you. But when you find out you’ve been used and then you get discarded? It hurts.”

“It hurt him. Badly. I used to get so angry with him about the TIE Fighter, and the smuggling, and the girls. He didn’t trust me to tell me how the Dark Side, how Snoke was stalking him. That he had to get away from the Temple, to get away from Snoke. He had been so troubled. I went to check on him, that night and I felt the Dark Side all around him. I thought he had given himself over to it. That was when I attacked him. But Ben didn’t let Snoke kill all of his fellow students. Guess who he saved? The very women who had thrown him under the speeder bus.”

“Well, he did forgive me for maiming his face, and trying to kill him, seconds after I did it.”

“The boy is a mystery to me. In some ways? He always has been. I never really knew what to do with him. I mean, how do you teach a six and a half foot tall force of nature who has been using the Force since he was a toddler in a crib to open the cupboard and get the cookies?”

Rey laughed.

She put her teacup down.

“You know I’m going to the Supremacy. You know you can’t stop me.”

“I’m not even going to try.”

Want more? Feed me some likes.

#reylo #ben solo lives #save ben solo #tros fix it #ben solo redemption #rey x kylo ren #reylo fanfic #kylo ren is a ruthless man #reylo married #reylo romance

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birdlord · 3 years

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Everything I Watched in 2020

We’ll start with movies. The number in parentheses is the year of release, asterisks denote a re-watch, and titles in bold are my favourite watches of the year. Here’s 2019’s list.

01 Little Women (19)

02 The Post (17)

03 Molly’s Game (17)

04 * Doctor No (62)

05 Groundhog Day (93)

06 *Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home (86)

07 Knives Out (19) My last theatre experience (sob)

08 Professor Marston and his Wonder Women (17)

09 Les Miserables (98)

10 Midsommar (19) I’m not sure how *good* it is, but it does stick in the ol’ brain

11 *Manhattan Murder Mystery (93)

12 Marriage Story (19)

13 Kramer vs Kramer (79)

14 Jojo Rabbit (19)

15 J’ai perdu mon corps (19) a cute animated film about a hand detached from its body!

16 1917 (19)

17 Married to the Mob (88)

18 Klaus (19)

19 Portrait of a Lady on Fire (19) If Little Women made me want to wear a scarf criss-crossed around my torso, this one made me want to wear a cloak

20 The Last Black Man in San Francisco (19)

21 *Lawrence of Arabia (62)

22 Gone With the Wind (39)

23 Kiss Me Deadly (55)

24 Dredd (12)

25 Heartburn (86) heard a bunch about this one in the Blank Check series on Nora Ephron, sadly after I’d watched it

26 The Long Shot (19)

27 Out of Africa (85)

28 King Kong (46)

29 *Johnny Mnemonic (95)

30 Knocked Up (07)

31 Collateral (04)

32 Bird on a Wire (90)

33 The Black Dahlia (05)

34 Long Time Running (17)

35 *Magic Mike (12)

36 Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (07)

37 Cold War (18)

38 *Kramer Vs Kramer (79) yes I watched this a few months before! This was a pandemic friend group co-watch.

39 *Burn After Reading (08)

40 Last Holiday (50)

41 Fly Away Home (96)

42 *Moneyball (11) I’m sure I watch this every two years, at most??

43 Last Holiday (06) the Queen Latifah version of the 1950 movie above, lacking, of course, the brutal “poor people don’t deserve anything good” ending

44 *Safe (95)

45 Gimme Shelter (70)

46 The Daytrippers (96)

47 Experiment in Terror (62)

48 Tucker: The Man and His Dream (88)

49 My Brilliant Career (79) one of the salvations of 2020 was watching movies “with” friends. Our usual method was to video chat before the movie, sync our streaming services, and text-chat while the movie was on.

50 Divorce Italian Style (61)

51 *Gosford Park (01) another classic comfort watch, fuck I love a G. Park

52 Hopscotch (80)

53 Brief Encounter (45)

54 Hud (63)

55 Ocean’s 8 (18)

56 *Beverly Hills Cop (84)

57 Blow the Man Down (19)

58 Constantine (05)

59 The Report (19) maddening!! How are people so consistently terrible to one another!

60 Everyday People (04)

61 Anatomy of a Murder (58)

62 Spiderman: Homecoming (17)

63 *To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (95) Of the 90s drag road movies, Priscilla is more visually striking, but this has its moments.

64 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (92)

65 *The Truman Show (98)

66 Mona Lisa (86)

67 The Blob (58)

68 The Guard (11)

69 *Waiting for Guffman (96) RIP Fred Willard

70 Rocketman (19)

71 Outside In (18)

72 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (08) how strange to see a movie that you have known the premise for, but no details of, for over a decade

73 *Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country (91)

74 The Reader (08)

75 Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (19) This was fine until it VERY MUCH WAS NOT FINE

76 The End of the Affair (99) you try to watch a fun little romp about infidelity during the Blitz, and Graham Greene can’t help but shoehorn in a friggin crisis of religious faith

77 Must Love Dogs (05) barely any dog content, where are the dogs at

78 The Rainmaker (97)

79 *Batman & Robin (97)

80 National Lampoon’s Vacation (83) Never seen any of the non-xmas Vacations, didn’t realize the children are totally different, not just actors but ages! Also, this one is blatantly racist!

81 *Mystic Pizza (88)

82 Funny Girl (68)

83 The Sons of Katie Elder (65)

84 *Knives Out (19) another re-watch within the same year!! How does this keep happening??

85 *Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (10) a real I-just-moved-away-from-Toronto nostalgia watch

86 Canadian Bacon (92) vividly recall this VHS at the video store, but I never saw it til 2020

87 *Blood Simple (85)

88 Brittany Runs a Marathon (19)

89 The Accidental Tourist (88)

90 August Osage County (13) MELO-DRAMA!!

91 Appaloosa (08)

92 The Firm (93) Feeling good about how many iconic 80s/90s video store stalwarts I watched in 2020

93 *Almost Famous (00)

94 Whisper of the Heart (95)

95 Da 5 Bloods (20)

96 Rain Man (88)

97 True Stories (86)

98 *Risky Business (83) It’s not about what you think it’s about! It never was!

99 *The Big Chill (83)

100 The Way We Were (73)

101 Safety Last (23) It’s getting so that I might have to add the first two digits to my dates...not that I watch THAT many movies from the 1920s...

102 Phantasm (79)

103 The Burrowers (08)

104 New Jack City (91)

105 The Vanishing (88)

106 Sisters (72)

107 Puberty Blues (81) Little Aussie cinema theme, here

108 Elevator to the Gallows (58)

109 Les Diaboliques (55)

110 House (77) haha WHAT no really W H A T

111 Death Line (72)

112 Cranes are Flying (57)

113 Holes (03)

114 *Lady Vengeance (05)

115 Long Weekend (78)

116 Body Double (84)

117 The Crazies (73) I love that Romero shows the utter confusion that would no doubt reign in the case of any kind of disaster. Things fall apart.

118 Waterlilies (07)

119 *You’re Next (11)

120 Event Horizon (97)

121 Venom (18) I liked it, guys, way more than most superhero fare. Has a real sense of place and the place ISN’T New York!

122 Under the Silver Lake (18) RIP Night Call

123 *Blade Runner (82)

124 *The Birds (62) interesting to see now that I’ve read the story it came from

125 *28 Days Later (02) hits REAL FUCKIN’ DIFFERENT in a pandemic

126 Life is Sweet (90)

127 *So I Married an Axe Murderer (93) find me a more 90s movie, I dare you (it’s not possible)

128 Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (67)

129 The Pelican Brief (93) 90s thrillers continue!

130 Dick Johnston is Dead (20)

131 The Bridges of Madison County (95)

132 Earth Girls are Easy (88) Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum are so hot in this movie, no wonder they got married

133 Better Watch Out (16)

134 Drowning Mona (00) trying for something like the Coen bros and not getting there

135 Au Revoir Les Enfants (87)

136 *Chasing Amy (97) Affleck is the least alluring movie lead...ever? I also think I gave Joey Lauren Adams’ character short shrift in my memory of the movie. It’s not good, but she’s more complicated than I recalled.

137 Blackkklansman (18)

138 Being Frank (19)

139 Kiki’s Delivery Service (89)

140 Uncle Frank (20) why so many FRANKS

141 *National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (89) watching with pals (virtually) made it so much more fun than the usual yearly watch!

142 Half Baked (98) another, more secret Toronto nostalgia pic - RC Harris water filtration plant as a prison!

143 We’re the Millers (13)

144 All is Bright (13)

145 Defending Your Life (91)

146 Christmas Chronicles (18) I maintain that most new xmas movies are terrible, particularly now that Netflix churns them out like eggnog every year.

147 Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse (18)

148 Reindeer Games (00) what did I say about Affleck??!? WHAT DID I SAY

149 Palm Springs (20)

150 Happiest Season (20)

151 *Metropolitan (90) it’s definitely a Christmas movie

152 Black Christmas (74)

THEATRE:HOME - 2:150 (thanks pandemic)

I usually separate out docs and fiction, but I watched almost no documentaries this year (with the exception of Dick Johnston). Reality is real enough.

TV Series

01 - BoJack Horseman (final season) - Pretty damned poignant finish to the show, replete with actual consequences for our reformed bad boy protagonist (which is more than you can say for most antiheroes of Peak TV).

02 - *Hello Ladies - I enjoy the pure awkwardness of seeing Stephen Merchant try to perform being a Regular Person, but ultimately this show tips him too far towards a nasty, Ricky Gervais-lite sort of persona. Perhaps he was always best as a cameo appearance, or lip synching with wild eyes while Chrissy Teigen giggles?

03 - Olive Kittredge - a rough watch by times. I read the book as well, later in the year. Frances Mcdormand was the best, possibly the only, casting option for the flinty lead. One episode tips into thriller territory, which is a shock.

04 - *The Wire S3, S4, S5 - lockdown culture! It was interesting to rewatch this, then a few months later go through an enormous, culture-level reappraisal of cop-centred narratives.

05 - Forever - a Maya Rudolph/Fred Armisen joint that coasts on the charm of its leads. The premise is OK, but I wasn’t left wanting any more at the end.

06 - *Catastrophe - a rewatch when my partner decided he wanted to see it, too!

07 - Red Oak - resolutely “OK” steaming dramedy, relied heavily on some pretty obvious cues to get across its 1980s setting.

08 - Little Fires Everywhere - gulped this one down while in 14-day isolation, delicious! Every 90s suburban mom had that SUV, but not all of them had the requisite **secrets**

09 - The Great - fun historical comedy/drama! Costumes: lush. Actors: amusing. Race-blind casting: refreshing!

10 - The Crown S4 - this is the season everyone lost their everloving shit for, since it’s finally recent enough history that a fair chunk of the viewing audience is liable to recall it happening.

11 - Ted Lasso - we resisted this one for a while (thought I did enjoy the ad campaign for NBC sports (!!) that it was based on). My view is that its best point was the comfort that the men on the show have (or develop, throughout the season) with the acknowledgement and sharing of their own feelings. Masculinity redux.

12 - Moonbase 8 - Goodnatured in a way that makes you certain they will be crushed.

13 - The Good Lord Bird - Ethan Hawke is really aging into the character actor we always hoped he would be!

14 - Hollywood - frothy wish-fulfillment alternate history. I think the show would have been improved immeasurably by skipping the final episode.

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introvertguide · 3 years

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The Graduate (1967); AFI #17

The current film under review is the classic comedy, The Graduate (1967). This moving is one of most well known and referenced films that I know of in American film. It was the last film to win only Best Director while also being nominated for other categories. This makes sense because the acting was good with many newcomers and character actors of the time, but there was some stiff competition at the Oscars that year. Director Mike Nichols did an exceptional job telling a story within a story utilizing symbols and camera movement to let the viewing audience know what the characters were thinking. Show not tell, which is perfect for this sort of media. Let’s go through a summary of the story before looking at any more of the technical or behind-the-scenes notes. This, of course, is always kicked off with...

SPOILER WARNING!!! I AM ABOUT TO GIVE AWAY THE ENTIRE PLOT!!! THERE IS A LOT MORE TO THE STORY OF THIS MOVIE THAN JUST THE PLOT, BUT IT IS STILL GOOD TO WATCH THE WHOLE THING THROUGH BEFORE DISCUSSING IT!!! IF YOU DON’T WANT IT SPOILED, STOP NOW AND WATCH THE MOVIE THEN COME BACK AND CHECK OUT THE REST OF THE ARTICLE

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Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) is a 20-year-old man who just recently graduated from an East Coast college and has returned to Pasadena, California to stay with his parents and figure out what to do with his life. He is embarrassed by his doting parents at every turn when they invite all the family friends to come see him. The wife of his father’s business partner is Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), a middle aged women who seems unhappy with her marriage and convinces Ben to drive her home where she tries to seduce him. He runs away but later calls her and meets her over at the Taft Hotel and starts up an affair.

Benjamin spends the summer relaxing by the pool and going off on trysts with Mrs. Robinson at the hotel. During one night at the Taft, Mrs. Robinson reveals that she only married her husband because she was pregnant. Ben knows her daughter, Elaine (Katherine Ross), and jokes that he should date her. Mrs. Robinson is not happy with this and forbids him from seeing her daughter. Unfortunately, Ben’s parents think it would be a great match and set up a date between the kids.

Ben tries to sabotage the date in the most cringe-worthy way. He ignores Elaine and drives like a crazy man. He takes her to a strip club and sits her right next to the stage. It is so bad that Elaine runs away crying and Ben feels remorse. He actually likes Elaine and they go and have burgers at a drive-thru. They want to have a late night drink and the only place close that is open is the Taft Hotel. They go in and everyone there recognizes Ben which makes Elaine believe he has been seeing an older women. Ben says it is true and the affair is over, so the two plan another date the following day.

Mrs. Robinson threatens to tell Elaine when Ben shows up at the house to pick her up, so Ben tells Elaine first to ruin any blackmail. This upsets Elaine and she returns to Berkeley to go back to school and avoid seeing Ben.

Ben decides to move to Berkeley in hopes of getting back with Elaine and takes up residence in an all male dorm house. Ben finally runs into Elaine and she says her mom told her that Ben had gotten her drunk and raped her. (Wow. Keep this in mind because I will bring this up again in the conversation section.) Ben explains to Elaine and she forgives him. They hang out and Ben asks her to marry him, but she apparently has promised to marry some other guy named Carl Smith. Unfortunately, Elaine’s father shows up at Ben’s apartment to tell him that he is getting a divorce from Mrs. Robinson and forcing his daughter to marry Carl Smith. He makes a major ruckus and Ben is thrown out by the dorm manager.

Ben goes back to Pasadena and breaks into the Robinson house in search of Elaine but only finds Mrs. Robinson. She calls the police claiming there is a burglar. As Ben escapes, she says that he can’t stop the marriage between Elaine and Carl. He drives back to Berkeley and finds out were the wedding will take place (Santa Barbara) and rushes to the church. He can’t get in the front door so he runs up to the organ room upstairs and bangs on a glass barrier that looks down on the ceremony. He shouts out for Elaine and she eventually yells back in front of all the guests. She runs out and meets Ben, who pins the door closed with a large cross.

Elaine and Benjamin elope by jumping aboard a bus and sit among startled passengers. Their ecstatic expressions change to looks of uncertainty as the bus drives away.

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I have a list of questions that people have asked me when I told them I was doing an analysis of The Graduate, so this will act kind of like a FAQ sheet for the film and hopefully answer some questions:

Dustin Hoffman doesn’t look like he just graduated from college in the movie. How old was he?

Lot of questions about the age of the actors. At the time the movie came out, Katherine Ross played Elaine the college student at 27 years old, Dustin Hoffman played the recent graduate Benjamin at age 30, and Anne Bancroft played the part of middle aged Mrs. Robinson at age 36. It kind of made sense about Dustin Hoffman because he is a very small man with great hair and can look the part of somebody much younger. Katherine Ross lied about her age for years so directors thought she was 3 or 4 years younger than she really was. Anne Bancroft is the one that stands out the most because they put in a couple of grey streaks in her hair and added some crows feet around her eyes and called her 10-15 years older. I think Director Mike Nichols knew this so Elaine and her mother have almost no screen time together.

Didn’t that movie win an Oscar for the music?

It did not. In fact, the song that the film is known for, “Mrs. Robinson,” was not played beyond instrumental snippets. The film was not even nominated for anything music related.

I think I have seen the movie before because it feels familiar.

The film is set in California and has some of the most well known scenes in American cinema. The initial seduction scene between Mrs. Robinson and Ben captured the hopes of college boys everywhere. The idea of finding a beautiful and experienced woman that aggressively makes all the first moves is the dream of many a man. The famous scene right after Mrs. Robinson reveals she married because she was pregnant and didn’t love her husband shows Ben about to leave and framed by the leg of Mrs. Robinson putting on a stocking. I have never seen wrongful lust depicted any better and it really sticks with you. The final scene in the movie in which Ben stops the wedding and runs away with the bride has been used in many movies and TV shows and really displays Hoffman’s acting because we slowly realize that the new couple has no idea what to do next. I only remember one other non-speaking acting performance were a realization is revealed purely through a slow facial close-up, and that was from Jack Nicholson in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

I remember there was some kind of accusation of rape that is never resolved. Did that really happen?

Yup. It did. I never realized how awkward a brush over this was until I specifically looked for it. Mrs. Robinson told her daughter that Ben raped her and Elaine still talks to him instead of calling the police. A rape allegation is not a light thing and there would not be pleasantries at the zoo if this was the case. Why would a girl who believes she is talking to a man that raped her mother and was now stalking her college aged daughter do anything but get the police involved? Elaine actually entertains the thought of marrying the guy. She thought Ben raped her mother and Ben says that the mother seduced and slept with him. She is apparently OK with this. I wouldn’t be.

Do they actually show Mrs. Robinson naked?

This was asked more than the age question. The answer is “yes, sort of.” There is a very brief shot of Anne Bancroft’s bare chest for two or three frames. If you consider that movies are generally filmed at 24 frames per second, this is very brief. I can’t imagine how many desperate people were quick on the pause button when the movie came out on video.

Did they use this movie for a Simpson’s episode?

Not just one. The famous shot with a leg in the foreground was in the episode “Homer of Seville” and “Beware My Cheating Bart” while the famous “Mrs. Robinson, you are trying to seduce me” line from the same scene was used in the episode “Lisa’s Substitute.” An homage to the end of the movie was used twice for Grandpa Simpson in the episodes “The Last Temptation of Homer” and “Lady Bouvier’s Lover.”

So now to the questions I answer for every movie on the AFI top 100. Does this movie belong on the list? Of course. It is a well directed movie full of symbolism. It is the first major role for Dustin Hoffman (one of America’s most well known movie stars). It is engrained in American vernacular: I knew that “she went all Mrs. Robinson” referred to an older woman seducing a younger man years before I ever saw the movie. Mrs. Robinson is a classic villain and that character alone deserves a spot on the top 100. Would I recommend it? Sure would. It is a little cringy at times for me, but it is legitimately funny. There are a couple of topics that are sometimes weird and sometimes uncomfortable, but the direction is good enough to move quickly through these parts to suspend disbelief. Check out the movie and check out the soundtrack because both are great, widely available, and great pieces of classic Americana.

#the graduate #mrs. robinson #dustin hoffman #katherine ross #anne bancroft #simon and garfunkel #great movies #1960s #classic american films #introvert #introverts #california

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sstthings · 4 years

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President John Tyler - by Dr. Lyon Gardiner Tyler

My granddaddy, John Tyler, was President of the US way back in 1841-45. He was born in 1790, 228 years ago. My Aunt Pearl died in 1947 at a ripe old age and whose grandfather was John Tyler, Sr., the president’s father, who was born in 1747. This marvel, that 3 generations could span 200 years, was written up in Ripley’s Believe It or Not. My “little 89 year old brother” and I are already at the 228 year old mark.

I heard too much about presidents growing up. A few years ago I met a lady who told me that she had come to our house in Virginia when I was probably 3 or 4 years old and I met her at the front door. She said that she had asked me, “Are you going to be President when you grow up?” and I said, “I’ll bite yo head off.” She said she said “And what will you do with the bones?” and I replied, “I’ll pit ‘em out!” In college, a buddy of mine brought me down to earth by saying, “Tyler, the best part of your family is underground.” I had to agree.

John Tyler was President of the United States from 1841-45. He agreed with the principles of the Jeffersonian tradition of limited federal government, strict construction of the Constitution and fiscal frugality. He opposed the American System of Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams, which advocated federal building of roads and canals, a Bank of the United States, controlled by private interests, and a high tariff on imported goods. Tyler believed in the so-called “manifest destiny” of the United States to expand across the continent and to help. the blessings of freedom__ and democracy around the world.

John Tyler’s father, also named John, was Thomas Jefferson’s roommate at the College of William and Mary. Jefferson and John Tyler, Sr. shared the same political views, played their fiddles together in college and remained life-long friends. John Tyler, Sr. was speaker of the House of Burgesses, and he and Patrick Henry organized a militia company just prior to the American Revolution. John, Sr., served in the Virginia legislature, where he made the motion that eventually led to the United States Constitutional Convention. He also served successively as Judge of the Admiralty Court, the General Court and the Supreme Court of Appeals, as well as on the U.S. District Court at President Jefferson’s urging. He also was Governor of Virginia. He had 8 children. After his wife died, when the future President was just seven years old, the father took care of all of them, besides serving as surrogate father for 15 or 20 foster children. A busy man!

John Tyler entered the College of William and Mary at age 13 and graduated soon after his 17th birthday. He gave the Valedictory address, remarkably, about the importance of women’s rights – especially in the field of education.

Before I attempt to discuss Tyler’s presidency, let me say a few words about his previous career and some things that can show us the kind of man he was:John Tyler was a state legislator in his early 20’s. Then he was a congressman, Governor of Virginia and US Senator. As a senator he was a loyal Democrat, but was disturbed by some of President Andrew Jackson’s over-reactions, similar to his earlier unauthorized invasion of Spanish Florida and his later reaction to the South Carolina attempt to nullify the Federal tariff when Jackson threatened to hang John C. Calhoun, his Vice President.

Both Jackson and Tyler opposed the recharter of the Bank of the United States, a privately owned bank which kept the government’s funds, but Tyler thought Jackson had gone too far when he removed the government’s money from the bank before its charter expired and put it in state banks which had supported him, hence known as Jackson’s “pet banks.”

Tyler in his campaign for the U.S. Senate had stated that as a Senator he would obey the instructions that might be given him by the state legislature. But he would soon face a dilemma concerning that promise. The US Senate had adopted a resolution to censure Jackson for removing the funds from the Bank. Then the Virginia legislature instructed Tyler to support a measure that would rescind the censure, which he felt was wrong because Jackson had broken the law. At the same time Tyler could not go back on his campaign promise to obey the state legislature. So he resigned and made this statement:By the surrender of the high station to which I was called by the people of Virginia, I shall teach them to regard as nothing place or office, when either is to be obtained or held at the sacrifice of honor.President John F. Kennedy included John Tyler in his Profiles of Courage for this incident.

It was always his children who were his primary concern. In his letters to his many sons and daughters the need for honesty is a regular refrain. Hear, for example, this from a letter to his son, John, Jr., back in 1832:

Truth should always be uttered no matter what the consequences. Nothing so degrades a man as equivocation and deceit. When I am in company with a double-dealing man – one who has one language on his tongue and another in his heart—I am involuntarily made to avoid him as I would a poisonous reptile. Trust such a person with not even the slightest circumstance on earth; for he will deceive you, if it be to his interest to do so. Learn then, my son, to speak the truth always. By doing so in trifling matters, it will grow into a habit from which you will not afterwards separate yourself.

In the words of a toast once offered to Tyler, he was a man “too firm to be driven from his principles—too upright to be swerved by the laws of ambition or power.” Indeed he was known as “Honest John.”

In 1840, the Whigs chose as their candidate William Henry Harrison, former Governor of the Indiana Territory, and victor over the Indians in the Battle of Tippecanoe and then the British in Canada in the War of 1812. For the Vice Presidential spot Henry Clay and the Whig Party settled on John Tyler of Virginia, hoping he could attract disgruntled Democrats.

It’s interesting that the future President Harrison and Vice President Tyler in this election grew up in the same small Virginia County just ten miles apart. Actually through Tyler’s mother they were kin. Through my mother’s side I am not descended from President Harrison, but I am from his father, Benjamin Harrison, Governor of Virginia and signer of the Declaration of Independence.

The Whig campaign of 1840 was the first modern campaign with all the trimmings: buttons and banners, songs and slogans. The Whig slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler too,” really meant, “We’ll give you Harrison, a war hero. He’s for a strong national government, roads and canals, a national bank, and a high tariff, but if you don’t like that; we’ll give you Tyler. He’s for states’ rights and against all that other stuff.

The Whigs won easily and Harrison became president, but Harrison had already given away the store. He had agreed to be a one-term president and to have just one vote in the Cabinet which was to be hand-picked by Henry Clay, but Harrison died of pneumonia a month after the election. Nobody, including John Tyler, expected that he’d become president. The Whigs in Congress were shocked. They refused to recognize Tyler as the real president, since this was the first time a president had died in office.

But Tyler believed that according to the Constitution he was the President and he was determined to be President. He would make the decisions. He would not promise to let Henry Clay run the show. As a matter of fact when Henry Clay showed up to tell the Accidental President whom to appoint and how to conduct his office, Tyler thundered, “You go, Mr. Clay, to your end of the Avenue where stands the Capitol and there do your duty as you see fit and, so help me God, I will do mine at this end of the Avenue as I see fit.” From then on Clay had the votes but Tyler had the vetoes.

Tyler’s first act as President was to proclaim a National Day of Fasting and Prayer, to mourn the death of President Harrison, in which he stated, “When a Christian people feel themselves to be overtaken by a great public calamity, it becomes them to humble themselves under the dispensation of Divine Providence, to recognize His righteous government over the children of men… and to supplicate His merciful protection for the future.”

If Tyler had gone along with Clay and the Whig majority in Congress he could have had an easy road and many would have deemed his presidency successful. But he refused to take the easy road. He vetoed the bill to re-charter the Bank of the United States and the Whigs read him out of the Party. The veto caused his Cabinet to resign, except for Daniel Webster, his Secretary of State. Instead Tyler proposed a banking system with a Board in Washington and branches in various parts of the country, a system almost identical to the Federal Reserve System which was subsequently adopted in 1913.

Tyler was unable to do much of anything in the domestic area, but his administration is being increasingly recognized for his accomplishments in foreign affairs, including the settlement of the boundary line between the United States and Canada over half way across the continent. Tyler invoked the Monroe Doctrine to prevent the British and French from taking over the Hawaiian Islands. He sent the first American mission to China, which resulted in a treaty in 1844, opening for the first time the profitable trade between the two countries and granting American citizens in China extraterritoriality, the right to be governed by their own laws and not those of China. Tyler pushed through the annexation of Texas at very end of his administration by the novel use of a joint resolution by both houses of Congress.

Tyler’s first major biographer called him a Champion of the Old South – but I believe that is “incorrect.” Tyler had troubling doubts about slavery and never saw it as a positive good, though he was a slave owner. In 1832 he had introduced a bill to end the slave trade in the District of Columbia. He was also president of the Virginia Colonization Society, which aimed to resettle freed slaves in Liberia.

Tyler’s administration was hog-tied but its social life excelled. His first wife Letitia Christian, a beautiful Christian woman, was an invalid when Tyler became president and died during his second year in office. His daughter-in-law, Priscilla Cooper Tyler, then served as White House hostess, with the help of former first lady, Dolly Madison.

Tyler’s second wife was Julia Gardiner, my grandmother, a 24 year old debutante and beauty from Long Island, New York, who married the President when he was 54. Tyler was completely captivated by her vivacity, good humor, poise and stamina. When someone asked him if he wasn’t too old for her, he replied, “Well, I’m in my prime.” The reply was “When she’s in her prime, where will your prime be?” But John Tyler kept his into his seventies, later siring seven more children by her.

There was tragedy in their love affair, however. The navy had a new ship, the “Princeton, which was equipped with a huge new cannon dubbed the “Peace Maker.” The President, his cabinet, and all the important people in Washington were invited to a cruise down the Potomac. The cannon was fired when they passed Mount Vernon and everyone retired below for food and music. On the return trip someone suggested they fire the cannon again. Most of the people went up on deck but the President and Miss Gardiner stayed to hear one more song. The cannon was fired and it exploded killing the Secretary of State Abel P. Upshire, the Secretary of the Navy Thomas Gilmer, and others, including Miss Gardiner’s father. She fainted at the tragic news and President Tyler carried her down the gangway and sent her to the White House. Soon afterwards they eloped to New York City and were married there.

Tyler’s new young bride, Julia Gardiner Tyler, was a great political asset. The Whigs called Tyler “a man without a party,” but most everyone in Washington turned out for Julia’s parties. Julia had made the grand tour of Europe and had been presented at royal courts. She had been the first woman ever to be featured in a newspaper ad. She was called the Rose of Long Island.

After John Tyler retired, the couple went back to Virginia to the place he had purchased during his term in office. For a time he was very unpopular but he harbored no bitterness and he eventually regained the respect and admiration of the people of his state. Since he had incurred the displeasure of both parties and since he was accused of being an outlaw like Robin Hood, he renamed his plantation “Sherwood Forrest.” Julia made the plantation the social center of Charles City County. She decorated and they enlarged the dwelling until at 100 yards in length, it became the longest frame house in America. John and Julia had seven children to go with the eight that he had produced in his first marriage. The ex-president loved children. He never tired of them, took them hunting, fishing, riding and boating. On summer evenings, he would play the fiddle and sing with the black and white children.

He ran the farm himself. There were no whips, lashes, or brutal overseers. He saw that the slaves were adequately fed, clothed and honored. He would not sell any or break up families.

My great, great grandfather on my mother’s side was Edmund Ruffin, known as the “Father of scientific agriculture in America.” He was the same age as the ex-president but two more generations back from me. He had opposed Tyler, but he came to visit and was captivated by him. Ruffin would give up farming and research for politics. He was to be one of the fire-eaters who stirred up the South to Secession and he hated Yankees. He would wrap himself in a Confederate flag and commit suicide after the South lost the war and leave these last words in his diary, “Would that I could bequeath these words to every Southerner living or yet to be born, to have no traffic with Yankees nor any political, social or business dealings with the vile, perfidious and malignant Yankee race.”

Nevertheless, Ruffin could recognize virtue even though he could not seem to exercise it. In spite of all the ex-President’s enemies, Ruffin had hardly heard an unkind or hostile remark from Tyler and he would confide to his diary after the ex-President’s death in 1862 these thoughts: “How difficult and how much worse would I have acted in this their situation. I should have returned these undeserved manifestations of hostility, and of ingratitude, with scorn, contempt and hatred. I would have so increased and kept alive and increasing, the hostile feelings of all other persons to me - and I should have become a miserable misanthrope, living and dying without a friend. But more wiser and more politic was John Tyler.” Ruffin would even say that John Tyler completely exemplified the description of love as found in St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.

After Henry Clay died, Tyler spoke at his memorial service. Tyler admitted that “We gave each other a few bruises, but he was a great man.” He noted Clay’s many accomplishments including his work in effecting the Compromises of 1820 and 1850, which helped to keep the nation together for a considerable time.

When the Deep South states seceded Tyler pleaded with the Virginia legislature to call a meeting of the Border States to try and form a bridge between the two sections. But the state delayed and invited all the states to what was called the “Peace Convention” which sought to find a way to restore the Union and prevent a war. John Tyler addressed the assembly in this manner:” Our godlike fathers created; we have to preserve; they built up. You have a new task equally grand, you have to preserve the Government and to renew and invigorate the Constitution. If you reach the height of this great occasion, your children’s children will rise up and call you blessed.”

But it was too late. On the same date the convention met at the Willard Hotel in Washington, the seven Deep South states met in Montgomery, Alabama, to establish the Confederate States of America. President elect Abraham Lincoln soon after arrived in the Capitol City in disguise for fear of assassination and told Tyler that it was too late to reconcile the sections, that the die was already cast.

When Virginia seceded Tyler saw no other course than to stick with his state. Elected to the Confederate Congress, he died suddenly before he could take his seat in 1862.

The unknown President could be an example to us all. We might ponder these observations from people who knew him:

“An honest, affectionate, benevolent, loving man, who had fought the battles of his life bravely and truly, doing his whole great duty without fear, though not without much unjust reproach.” (Henry A. Wise)

“A career which for rapidity in achievement, consistency of conduct, and exalted moral character, finds few equals, and no superior in the annals of American history.” (George L. Christian)

On the grave marker of his horse “General,” John Tyler wrote these words: “He never stumbled. Would that his master could say the same.” John Tyler was not perfect, but he came close.

#john tyler #lyon gardiner tyler

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