A 1990s Modern Moron Movie Review

Herion's dark slumbers fuel its infested minds, and you can't stop dreams, they move in crazy pieces. (Jim Carroll)

It was a dream, not a nightmare, a beautiful dream I could never imagine in a thousand nods. I saw this girl next to me who wasn't beautiful until she smiled, and I felt that smile come at me in heatwaves... soaking through my body and out my fingertips like shafts of color and I knew somewhere in the world, there was love for me. The poetry in the movie is from Carroll's 1993 book, "Fear of Dreaming."

"Basketball Daries" is laden with delicious deceits and dialogue. This 1990 movie was inspired by a book, written by Carroll when he was 17-year-old.

This isn't a typical drugs are bad for you flick, it's a story birthed on poetry in which the author details his time on the streets of New York as a homeless child slamming dope while playing high school basketball for a championship caliber team, if not the U.S. champions in the 1960s, I honestly cannot remember. Regardless, Carroll was a gifted basketball player. 

"People Who Died," a featured song was written and performed by the Jim Carroll Band. and it has that 1970s rock 'n' roll punch.  

Mark Wahlberg is great as Mickey, teammate and friend to Jim, marvelously portrayed by Leonardo Dicaprio. The all-star cast also features Juliette Lewis, Bruno Kirby, Lorraine Bracco, twins Cynthia and Brittany Daniel. Michael Rapaport and Ernie Hudson. 

...in the end, using junk is just another nine to five gig, the hours are just more inclined to shadows. (Jim Carroll)

A solid four and a half star rating for "Basketball Diaries."

Mark Izzy Schurr 

  

 

Library Legacy, A Modern Moron Book Review

Coach Sam Babb was at the right pardine shifting interpretation of the universe in 1931, fueling the success of women's basketball. 

The sport of basketball was invented in 1891 and the 1932 and 33' Oklahoma Presbyterian College women were arguably the toughest and best team in the entire realm of female sports, past or present.   

Simple facts, the OPC Cardinals won 89 straight games, including two consecutive championships between 1931-34.' These Oklahoma college girls awoke at 3 a.m. during basketball season for practice in depression era America and were required to maintain a B average or higher. 

The list of rules included eating healthy and no sweets during the season, although some players cheated by consuming one of the players' homemade fudge now and again to celebrate certain victories. Their measure of tenacity on and off the court has embedded coach Babb and his players into the heart of time itself.

Coach Sam Babb was 39-years-old in 1931 and previously the head coach of both the high school boys' and girls' basketball teams somewhere in Oklahoma, because the prior coach of the girls' team had sexual liaisons with one of the players while married with three children.  

Babb was truly a good man, he wanted young women to succeed in life and basketball decades before women's sports were popular. Babb was the one who enforced the B average for all players on his team. Many of his players started life after college making $75.0 or more a week using their college degree. Earning nearly $400.0 a month in the 1930s after college was a fantastic start to a career, especially for a woman.

The first women's college basketball championship was played in 1926 and before the OPC women's rise to fame, the Dallas Golden Cyclones were the powerhouse team. By 1931, the Cyclones were often referred to as the Dallas Damsels, queens of the basketball universe. 

The Dallas Golden Cyclones won the AAU championship in 1931. The following year, the Cyclones still had their 20-year-old staller stud, Babe Didrickson, named female athlete of the year by the Associated Press in 1931. Didrickson also set national records in track and field, including the 80-meter hurdles, javelin throw and the long jump. 

Coach Babb for the Oklahoma Cardinals had his own star player in Doll Harris. Harris was not just a clutch shot maker, she was also the assistant coach much of the time. Harris also learned about fund raising and scheduling games. Fund raising for women's basketball in the early 1930s was an arduous task, yet coach Babb and Doll Harris got the job done. 

On February 10, 1931, the Cardinals faced the Cyclones and their All-American player, Babe Didrickson for the first time as heavy underdogs on their home court, The Buzzard's Roast. Cardinals guard Hazel Vickers held the mighty Didrickson to six points, enroute to a 33-28 victory. Three days later, the Cardinals beat Dallas on their court 22-21, as 100 of their fans also made the road trip. 

"Dust Bowl Girls" is a book I found by accident at one of the Santa Rosa libraries. and also details Indian life in Oklahoma in the 1930s. This book sparks interest and enlightenment, a solid five-star rating. 

Give Doll the ball was often heard at The Buzzard's Roast. 

Juanita 'Bo-Peep' Park, a sophomore guard for the Cardinals often drove the team bus and did many of the repairs. 

College days or high school days, what does it matter? There're days that will forever be cherished in my heart. In remembrance of the sweetest friendship I have ever been part of-Toka Lee Fields. Fields wrote this in Doll Harris's yearbook. Yes, the players were nonblood family, and winners on and off the court. 

Mark Izzy Schurr 

 

 

Rude and Raunchy Margaret Cho, A Modern Moron Review

 

 More raunchy than the likes of Sam Kinison, Redd Foxx, Richard Pryor and George Carlin at times, and she hates Trump passionately, Margaret Cho rocked the casino tonight.  

To administer oral sex on a woman whose panty heaven fits your mouth like an oxygen mask. Cho was extremely graphic joking about oral sex, and verbally X-rated without being offensive. I understand, it's not humor for everyone, but I liked it. 

The Opener was equally vivid about his sexual liaisons, and I laughed with a chorus of others.   

Headphones or speakers? Cho terminology for vaginal or anal sex. 

A lesbian who hates men but loves their genitals. An aroused Johnson is a turtleneck, Clo said. My Documation of tonight's show is far less graphic than what she actually said.  

A gasless nymph, an absurd aspiration, yet hilarious in her stand-up. 

The slivers on an iceberg are all I've mentioned in last night's "Live and Livid" tour at Graton Resort and Casino. My tongue must tread lightly talking about her act on the clock. 

The spider was Schurr Shot with my Pro 7 Moto. 

Mark Izzy Schurr 

  

 
 

Modern Moron Book Review

Eating all the Halloween chocolate, blaming in on her little Brother, and lying to her mom about brushing her teeth every night, Olivia now faces the consequences of Hada, the tooth fairy's greedy sister. 

Skeletina and Olivia journey into the in-between world. Skeletina exudes positivity from beginning to end.     

If your ever sad and scared, having Skeletina around is always a good thing. Released this year, Susie Jaramillo's "Skeletina and the Greedy Tooth Fairy" is riddled with cool artwork by Jaramillo. A story geared for the very young works well with adults too. Bravo to Jarmillo, four and a half stars easy for nearly three dozen pages of a clever story and sly artwork.

Mark Izzy Schurr 

Schurr Shot

The mystic vapers of laughter and creativity weaves into the fabric of time amidst the chaos of the human spirit.  

Adorable gods radiate passion to live, to have purpose, goals, a sense of understanding and humor. 

I dwell among others, but I'm always apart. I have lost all feelings, nothing has meaning, I feel the pull of the next world calling me, but I resist, there can be no final peace for me until I snap the perfect Schurr Shot. 

My heart and mind have returned to the here and now, I no longer follow dictates, save my own. 

Mark Izzy Schurr

 

The Caressing Ambience of the Camera's Eye

To crest the waves of insanity while soaring through the shores of serenity. 

 

At long last my mind is keen and my thoughts are clear. Decades have passed since my last hit of LSD, and nearly a half a decade since imbibing alcohol. 

The trendiness of unfriendliness has ignited my desire for solitude. The sweet sensation of the written  word dissolves unreciprocated smiles. Shafts of moon light on the sands of the seas reaches into the mystic vapors of imagination. It threads the fabrics of fantasy and fact into a blissfully bizarre realm of love and laughter.   

My camera's eye harbors hope, joy and inspiration. Amidst the shores of Medicine Lake, I snapped these pictures. 

The caressing ambience of inner space, where time has no meaning, and the savage ignorance of humankind is washed away in the waters of eternity, and I admired the allure of campsite 66, the two pictures below. This campsite was the gateway to the entire shores of Medicine Lake. 

Sunday, the 9th, the American bald eagle graced its presence in the eyes of my Sony DSL camera. I captured a cool shot of a bald eagle, yet I cannot get a volleyball pancake on camera, but the season starts again soon, as does youth basketball. 

Local volleyball and basketball are my two favorite live sporting events these days, and it's not easy for me to get a perfectly focused action shot, as you can see, but I like some of my Schurr Shots. 

They weren't beautiful until they smiled, and I felt that smile, and the soothing sensation of bliss dominated my soul because of these three hitchhikers in Oregon last month. Below, the Aftershock competing in Sacramento in March. 

Mark Izzy Schurr 

 

Jaiden got ups. 

Another Modern Moron Book Review

Hoka-he, it's a good day to die, kill them all, (whites) Crazy Horse said to his Oglala warriors before a battle in the Black Hills War.

Several U.S. Cavalry soldiers including General George Armstrong Custer and Captain William Judd Fetterman were pulverized battling Cheyenne and Sioux warriors. 

The U.S. Army lost every battle during an entire summer in the Black Hills War. Custer's dead body was left nude with an arrow in his groin in Little Bighorn. Captain Fetterman's throat was slit by American Horse, and all 80 of Fetterman's soldiers were slain by the native American warriors, thus learning in battle; the Indian's were not lazy savages, they rode horses better, shot better and outnumbered the U.S. Cavalry in the Black Hills War.

The Native American's were here 100s if not 1,000s of years before the white man came and fucked everything up with power and money for the sadistic few. Killing babies, raping Indian women and breaking treaties because of gold, oil and / or lavish lands. 

On Nov., 29, 1864, before the Black Hill war, more than 100 Indian women and children were brutally slain by 700 soldiers from the Third Colorado Cavalry under the command of Colonel John M. Chivington. Reproductive organs from Cheyenne and Arapaho women were used to decorate the saddles of the Bloody Third's horses and some of the children's heads were severed.

"The massacre lasted six or eight hours. I tell you Ned, it was hard to see little children on their knees and have their brains beat out by men professing to be civilized. They were all scalped and horribly mutilated. You could think it impossible for white men to butcher and mutilate human beings as they did. Every word I have told you is the truth and this they do not deny. I expect we will have a hell of time with the Indians this winter," a U.S. officer wrote in a letter to a fellow solider.

June 25, 1876, the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Crazy Horse and his Cheyenne warriors along with Sitting Bull and his Sioux sensation attacked General Custer and his 210 cavalry troops, killing every single one of them. Fleeing U.S. soldiers 100s of yards away from the battle grounds and waving white flags were still slain. General Custer was 36-years-old, the same age as Crazy Horse. 

In April of 1877, Crazy Horse surrenders, and that was the year the Indians were no longer a serious threat to whitey. By 1883, Sitting Bull is fully subdued by the Army and touring America with show business entrepreneur William Cody, aka Buffalo Bill. Little Annie Oakley, five-feet tall becomes friends with Sitting Bull while touring with him. Sitting Bull names her Little Sure Shot and that remained her show business name. 

"Killing Crazy Horse the Merciless Indian Wars in America" was released in 2020 and written by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard. A very solid four and a half star read I acquired from the Sonoma County library. I merely scratched the surface talking about this fantastic history book. This book details how both the Indians and whites were nefarious. 

Mark Izzy Schurr 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Little Libraries, Another Modern Moron Book Review

Women, booze and opium roam back and forth from the tangible and spirit world, calling attention to the supernatural phenomena in 1985s "Great Ghost Stories."

My world is remote with a select atmosphere of books and dreams. ("Keeping His Promise," Algernon Blackwood) 

To obey the dictates of prudence and seek and understand solid facts, which students of the occult don't do E.F. Benson said in 1911s "Caterpillars." 

This 91 page book contains six short stories from the days of old. "The Squaw" by Bram Stoker is the newest story in "Great Ghost Stories." I acquired this book from one of my neighborhood Little Libraries. 

All six stories are by different authors between 1890-1914. 

Three and a half stars for this cool easy read.  

Mark Izzy Schurr

 

"Yoga Mythology" Another Modern Moron Book Review

Do we live true to our nature or constantly adapt or pretend to adapt to an environment that knots our minds? 

Yoga is a timeless wisdom, not bound to history or geology and popularized tantric literature more than a 1,000 years ago. Yoga delves into the spiritual and mystical realms of oblivion and infinity; it's a fascinating mind journey pursuing all angles of the imagination and reality. The infinite aspects of religion and the occult weaves its way into the zealot minds of its advocates. 

Some Hindu advocates claim the spirit is infinite, and when its body dies, the soul is released into another body or the infinite realms of sheer bliss, where its body is nourished on tranquility and love as opposed to food and water.   

"Yoga Mythology" refers to all religions as mythology, including Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christian Mythology. 

Do you think you're not living in some sort of mythology? Gradually we're living in a world of ideologies transmitted through our educational, intuitional and social media outlets constructed on a day-to-day basis. (Devdutt Pattanaik / Matthew Rulli)

God, nor justice is a universal concept. Fact is everybody's truth based on measurable evidence. Fiction is nobody's truth based on fantasy, yet myth is somebody's truth and establishes a cultures word views.   

"Yoga Mythology" doesn't condemn any religion, it simply points out their philosophy's. Hinduism is the only major religion that has many books, and many gods, 330 million to be precise. Christianity has the Bible and the "Book of Mormon" while books on Hinduism would fill one shelf in every library in America. 

The Hindu view of god has more to do with the evolution of the mind rather than the rules.   

Tapasya is a Hindu word, and it means to churn the fires of our minds and burn the knots out of our brains. I so loved reading "Yoga Mythology." My Sister Linda gave my this book, and its words are teachers and transmitters of living knowledge. 

"Yoga Mythology" details many yoga poses, but its words did it for me. Without goddess, there cannot be god. Learn to dance with a lady, rather than seek to control her. This 2019 book is mostly about Hinduism with occasional detours into Buddhism, Jainism and Christianity while fueling the flames of the mind. 

Humans have been around for about a million years, and the written word has only been popular for about 2,300 years. "Yoga Mythology" also details the sensory control needed for true yoga, to have complete control of the restless mind, a patience I'll never have, nor the desire to be honest, but this book was a marvelous mind journey. 

Yoga is a psychic unity for truth and exquisite beauty, a gateway to combating the demons of ignorance and imagined memories and releasing the mind into its pristine state.  Hinduism is a spiritual reality without rules, nor judgements, only karma to dictate one's fate in eternity. 

Fantastic theories on the body and soul, and if you're really interested, read page 197 in this book. 

Four and a half stars easy for "Yoga Mythology," and thanks again Linda for giving me this book. 

Mark Izzy Schurr

Between the Devil and the Dead

To pierce the veils of time and penetrate the void while basking in a world of imagination, where love and laughter are currency and our bodies are nourished on tranquility and peace. (Silver Surfer comic book / myself)

Hell's time is hard to measure. The black wheels of time inside the Devils head is a cosmic extravaganza of ego, sanity, heaven and hell and everything else in between. Light beer, Trumpism, wars and child suffering are proof of an existing evil entity, both physical and formless. ("Silver Surfer Devils Reign" / myself) 

Unlike most other souls, the Devil's spirit has no place to go. Heaven is denied him and his own off spring has barred him from ever returning to hell. (Silver Surfer Devils Reign")

What is the dream, and who is the dreamer? My words fall on empty air, alone in my thoughts and fascinations. The beckoning call of imagination is a glistening study of grace and skill. (Silver Surfer comic book / myself)

Furrow into the uncharted depths of some adorable god. How much longer am I to endure a fate I cannot comprehend? ("Silver Surfer Origins" / Devdutt Pattanaik, "Yoga Mythology")                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Eventually the soul moves on into the boring and decadent light or the enticing and all consuming darkness, Mephisto said. Mephisto is the devil in the "Silver Surfer Between the Devil and the Dead!" written by J.M. Dematteis and Tom Defalco. 

    

I am alone upon this hostile world, forsaken, I crest the waves of infinity amidst this lunatic sphere called Earth, but time is long and fate is fickle, and my destiny still lies before me, and where it beckons, there shall soar the Silver Surfer. ("Silver Surfer Origins")

Mark Izzy Schurr 

 

Free Minds

Within works gilded cage, I am nothing, an invisible entity with no sense of purpose or worth. outside these cages, I'm a sagacious ball of wisdom basking in the eternal winds of jubilation.

Away from the laughless lands of work, I can smile and be happy, and it's shared.                                                                                            Picture is Bodega Bay, Schurr Shot in March.                                                                                     Mark Izzy Schurr

 

Serene

To the end and beyond, a joyous journey into the realms of eternity where I gazed upon the inviting eyes of delicious damsels eager for pleasure... 

Mark Izzy Schurr  

Another Modern Moron Movie Review

The new "Scream" is not a sequel to its predecessor's, it's a requel, Mindy said. Even Mindy couldn't fully explain what a requel is, but in a nutshell, it's a sequel more bombastic than its previous flicks. 

Mindy, marvelously portrayed by Jasmin Savoy Brown is one of the many suspects who might be the killer. Mindy along with the two sisters Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera are the core four. The 4th person is Chad, (Mason Gooding) who founded the core four. 

If you like any of the five other "Screams," I betcha you'll love this one, or at least put "Scream VI" as the best one yet. Regardless, it's my favorite one. The characters make fun of the genre their in and Hollywood itself. 

Kind and nefarious souls are brutally slain in "Scream" fashion, and I couldn't solve the mystery of the weirdly masked murderer. 

The killer is after the two sisters, Tara and Sam Carpenter, Ortega and Barrea. The two sisters decide to become the hunters as opposed to running prey with the aid of their friends who may be the killer or killers themselves. 

Screen play writers James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick displayed tribute to the awesome cast by using a 1930s film credit format, showing the names and faces of the actors at same time during the ending credits. 

"Scream VI" has officially been added to my Halloween collection of flicks to watch every October. 

A solid three and a half stars for "Scream VI," just released today. 

Mark Izzy Schurr 

Another Modern Moron Movie Review

Evil entities from the Outworld have zero conscience when it comes to murder, and they set out to kill all the chosen warriors on Earth before they learn their supernatural powers.

Back in the 1990s, when I played video games, "Mortal Kombat" was a favorite, and 2021s "Mortal Kombat" has some clever and funny references to the video game. The movie, like the game has its signature fatality moves, sheer graphic violence executed innocuously.

"I have risen from hell to kill you," Scorpion said. 

Scorpion, aka Hanzo Hasashi is a valued ally for the Earth warriors, especially when the Earth realm is on the verge of catastrophe. 

"Mortal Kombat's" tale begins in Japan, 1617. Subzero kills Hasashi along with wife and very young son. Subzero is definitely an Outworlder you don't want against you. Unknown to Subzero, Hasashi's infant daughter is saved by Raiden, an Outworlder you totally want on your side.

The storyline weaves wonderfully, and surprisingly funny with the graphic combat scenes. "Mortal Kombat" may be geared for teens and early 20s audiences, yet it seized my attention enough to watch it four times, and I'll watch it again. 

Three and a half stars easy for this entertaining flick. 

Mark Izzy Schurr

 

 

"Yoga Mythology" and Everything Else

Tapasya, a Hindu word meaning to churn the fires of our minds and burn the knots out of our brains. 

Without Goddess, there can be no God, God is as useful as a corpse without His Goddess, and Hindu gods don't judge. Our rewards or punishments in eternity are dictated by karma. (Hinduism)

I'm no Hindu by any stretch of the imagination, I'm not a vegetarian. "Yoga Mythology" is very descriptive about the spirit realm, and I'm stoked I have more than 30 pages of notes to use at my discretion.  

Some people believe there is justice in the world, others don't. People have the same thoughts about God. 

"Yoga Mythology," a 2019 book ignites intrigue to Hinduism. Duel author's Matthew Rulli and Devdutt Pattanaik who's written more than 50 books did a fantastic job on the idea's and facts of Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Christian mythology. Yes, the authors refer to all five religions mentioned as mythology.  

Thanks to my sister Linda, I read "Yoga Mythology." This book taught me a lot of cool phrases, and its philosophical words on spirituality gave meaning to eternity.  

Hindu's view of God has more to do with the evolution of the mind and less about the rules. 

Do we live true to our nature, or constantly adapt or pretend to adapt to an environment that knots our minds? ("Yoga Mythology") 

Sheer paradise is being nourished on love and tranquility as opposed to food and water. The abundance of  laughter and pleasure are added perks in paradise. Hindu haven would suit me just fine!

Yoga is a gateway to heaven, or at least to peace of mind, and its been in literature for more then a 1,000 years. ("Yoga Mythology")  

The soul, like matter can't be created, nor destroyed. The soul is immortal, thus it's not hungry and doesn't fear death. Our souls are associated with the Goddess, aka Parvati and the feminine nature of things. Parvati is The Goddess. (Hinduism) She's the mother of the lord of all lords, Ganesha, or so it was written centuries before the Bible, if not longer. 

As we all know from our reading, Parvati granted Ganesha the power to be lord of the universe. When Ganesha, the elephant headed god was a mere child, he won his mother's heart when he and his brother, Skanda were challenged to race around the universe. Skanda vanished instantly into the stars and immediately took a massive lead over his brother Ganesha. Ganesha simply walked a full circle around his mother and said she was his universe. Parvati's heart was cerebrally melted and Ganesha won his race across the universe handily.    

"Yoga Mythology" doesn't condemn Christianity, Hinduism or the other three religions, it simply illustrates their differences and similarities. 

The Bible has the tale of Noah's Ark when the world was flooded thousands of years ago. 

The great flood over came the universe, not just the Earth. The oceans engulfed the stars and the planets as well. Upon this universal mass of water, a baby god, Vishnu, who represents preservation, was amidst this water wrapped in a banyan leaf, and thus, humanity treads on. (Hinduism)   

Even today, we live in myth. Gradually we're all living in a world of ideologies transmitted through educational institutions and social media constructed on a daily basis. Tribal mythology creates its loyalist and national mythology creates patriotism. 

All religions create class and gender roles and cultural hierarchies to value a favored few. Words from India have been mainstream for more than 2,300 years. The Goddess is the heart of wisdom. Dance with a lady rather than seek to have control over her. (Hindu literature) 

Hinduism is by far my favorite religion. Of the top five most popular faiths, Hinduism has many gods, not just one. Every book on Hinduism would fill a library shelf in every library across America, while Christianity has only the Bible and "The Book of Mormon" as its official doctrine.

Having read "Yoga Mythology," I still cannot grasp the concept of leaving your body as if it were a shell to travel across the astral realms and back to Earth again and again. 

Serious advocates of yoga master a certain group of 64 yoga poses in order to achieve a perfect state of consciousness, or at least journey their minds in that direction. Yoga postures are more than 4,000 years old, a timeless wisdom unbound to history or geography. Yoga popularized tantric literature more than 1,000 years ago. Om, the Hindu chant known to all is the primal sound of the universe. It created a series of vibrations that eventually led to life itself. (Hinduism) 

Imbibe the nectar of immortality representing knowledge, because we as humans have the power of imagination. 

Five stars easy for "Yoga Mythology," only my third five star rating. Thanks again Linda! 

The picture is a beach in Jenner, Schurr Shot in February. 

Mark Izzy Schurr 

    

     

Beautifully Brutal

Friday's release of "Cocaine Bear" drew me into the Airport Stadium 12 box office, and as expected, it was a bizarre journey into a comedic parade of graphic horror.

The story is based on a drug smuggling plane that crashed in a northern Georgia town, just south of the Tennessee border in 1985. The plane was piloted by convicted drug dealer, Andrew Thornton who died in the wreck. Several hundred pounds of cocaine were lost in one of Georgia's state parks, and it's proven a bear tore into 40 different containers of that cocaine. (New York Times) The rest is screenplay writer, Jimmy Warden's imagination. 

The police are aware of the lost nose coke, and the duel conflict between the law and the crazed criminal trying to find and retrieve the devil's dandruff gels well with the mother searching for her adolescence aged daughter in the woods where a wired-out bear roams. 

This movie is a farce with heart and insanity with laughter.  

Mark Izzy Schurr 

Another Modern Moron Book Review

 

Substance to fantasy, love pirates and sex bitches who showed the world how attractive sin and beauty are while having a keen knowledge of evil. 

Some starlets in the silent era of movie making were described as perversely beautiful with an intoxicating allure. Seductively calculating and wonderfully wicked women who cast spells on some men, causing them to lose all thoughts of their past and sending them into the realms of amnesia, all this power over men with a simple gaze. ("Sex Goddesses of the Silent Screen")  

Some doctors claim it's possible for a man to get a blood clot in his brain with simple thoughts of love. 

The unrelenting vehemence of Barbara Lamarr put so much pressure on one man's brain, she inadvertently killed him in 1914. Lamarr was guilty for having soft soulful eyes and radiating a depth of experience, uncommon for her young mind. ("Sex Goddesses of the Silent Screen") 

A young man infatuated with Lamarr more than 100 years ago was diagnosed with a permanent brain disorder, causing insanity before his death. Her lips, nose and mouth were perfect, as if drawn by an artist, and one man's insane allure to her looks eventually ceased all of his brain functions.    

"The Queen of Tragedy to Wed the King of Comedy" was a 1922 Los Angeles Times headline when Charlie Chaplin was engaged to actress Pola Negri. 

Negri wrote and directed herself in the movie "Love and Passion," and was happy she never went through with the marriage to Chaplin, who was overly jealous and constantly bothersome, she said. By 1923, she was making $500,000 a year.    

Norman Zierold's 1973 book, "Sex Goddesses of the Silent Screen" was inspired by the ancient tabloids of the 1920s and years earlier. Upon the release of this book, even Zierold was oblivious to all five of the women he wrote about, yet illustrated the facts and fantasy with signature prowess. 

"My heart is ice, my passion consuming fire, men beware," Theda Bara said. "The Devils Daughter," starring Bara still has some punch for a movie more than 100 years old.  

Hypnotic eyes and her dark lustrous hair cascading in great waves across her bare shoulders ignited her fabulous frame. Bara was called a serpentine of sexuality who adverted the minds of movie goers who were reading about the disheartening figures of American soldiers killed in World War I. 

Bara was described as having a generous voluptuous fame that seldom moved to an ordinary beat. She said she was an ordinary woman, a little tall, a little thin. 

From beginning to end, the personal lives of these women were of little interest to me, except for Clara Bow, yet there were some fascinating facts on all five lucrative actresses featured in this book. 

Clara Bow, 1920s

Clara Bow, "Dangerous Curves," 1929

Clara Bow, 1920s

Pola Negri & Charlie Chaplin

Clara Bow, 1920s

Clara Bow, left, 1927s "Hula"

Clara Bow, 1927s "Hula," left and 1929s "Dangerous Curves." 

Clara Bow was the number one box office draw in America, if not the world for a few years during the 1920s and starred in 1927s "Wings," the first movie to receive best picture of the year.

The sex oracle or her time, Elinor Glyn, a risque and acclaimed novelist before 1910 found many of her stories transformed into screenplays, and Bow was a featured actress in some of these flicks.

"When they line up a story for me, the first thing they think of is how do I get Clara undressed?" Bow said.  

Zierold's synopsis of Bow's career and personal life is no "Running Wild," and it doesn't need to be. Bow was indeed a mega movie star before she was 21-one-years-old, and lived the hype of the Roaring Twenties.  

• Bow was the ideal woman of the 1920s, hot cha-cha, an adolescent rebellion with a reckless hilarity, suitable in an era of short skirts, bath tub gin and hip flasks a journalist said. ("Sex Goddesses of the Silent Screen)

Excessive boozing, hard drug use, and lascivious desires achieved from both genders were mere pieces in the puzzle in Bow's life. Her mother entertained abusive Johns before she was 5-years-old, and she witnessed her best friend Johnny die from severe burns before her 10th birthday. 

Bow moved away from Los Angeles in the early 1930s to live with her lover, Rex Bell on his ranch in Nevada. She married Bell in 1931, and made her last movie in 1933. By 1938, she had two boys with Bell and the two lived together on the ranch until his death in 1962. Bow was institutionalized briefly in the 1950s for her mental health. She made her second to last public appearance in 1952, and her last one at her husband's funeral in 1962. She passed away peacefully in 1965. 

At one point, she was receiving 40,000 fan letters a week, and her ambivalence toward a Yale football player summoned his attempted suicide by slashing his wrists. While recovering in the hospital from his self inflected wounds, a doctor said women slash their wrists when committing suicide, men use a gun.

"The more I saw of men, the better I liked dogs...I've never done a thing everyone else in Hollywood hasn't done. I may have made mistakes, I must have certainly been foolish, but my greatest mistake seems to have been I was open and above the board about everything," Bow said.

She retired when she was 28-years-old and by the 1950s, she was reading about four dozen books a month. 

All five women featured in "Sex Goddesses of the Silent Screen" had youth, beauty and wealth while living in the spirit of the Roaring Twenties. Four stars easy for this book, and thank you Steve for giving me this book, a great read.

Mark Izzy Schurr 

 

  

      

Government VIII

 

The blood of slain justice flows into oblivion as media misinformation feeds too many minds.

The politics of world power are a kaleidoscope of catastrophe and if women ruled the world, there wouldn't be bombs that kill, just ones that make you feel real bad, Robin Williams said.    

Mark Izzy Schurr

A Schurr Shot picture of a Trinidad beach in 2020 or 2021. 

Modern Moron Reviews

 

The critique of commercial Christianity was derailed in Hollywood as early as the 1920's and 30's, and December's movie "Babylon" weaves fantasy and reality into a crazed cocktail of movie magic, and sordid sexuality away from the cameras eye.   

For many, including myself, movies are an opiate to the senses, venturing into the frontiers of free expression and the kaleidoscope of imagination lures us into darkened movie venues laden throughout the lands.  

As advertised, Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie) was loosely based on the iconic 20s actress, Clara Bow. Like Bow, LaRoy sheds tears on cue for the camera, and claims it's easy to cry instantly simply by thinking of her home life. Having read 1988s, "Clara Bow: Running Wild" by  David Stenn, Bow indeed was able to shed tears instantly on camera if the scene dictated so. 

"Crying is easy, I just think of home," Clara Bow said. 

Between 1906-1910, before she was old enough for kindergarten, Bow's mom hooked herself to abusive men while under her supervision, and that's just the tip of the ice berg on Bow's torrid childhood. I have an extensive and geekish knowledge on the gossip of this Roaring 20s flapper. Eight of the 13 movies I've seen of Bow's are worthy of multiple views.

"Babylon" (s) LaRoy indulged in sex, cocaine and life itself as did Bow during her peak years as a star. Once Upon a time, Clara Bow was the number one box office draw in America, if not the world. 

LaRoy mounts an ice sculpture at a ritzy premiere party, and a studio executive says to another higher up, 

"Yep, that's our new star, fucking the ice sculpture."            

I honestly don't remember Bow fucking an ice sculpture in front of strangers, but it's certainly unsurprising if she had. "Running Wild" is a fitting title for Clara Bow's biography. 

Other similarities to Bow occur, then "Babylon" becomes its own story.  

Insane sexual references to Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle, are suggested in "Babylon," I perceive. 

Fans of twisty, yet comprehensible dialogue should like "Babylon." A solid three star rating from myself. 

Mark Izzy Schurr