Now the film review and a link to a longer Body Impolitic piece on Fat Men in Film:
Briony Kidd's short film about an Australian fat man on welfare playing Macbeth , Starring Xavier
had me searching the internet for "fat men on film." I did a guest blog for Body Impolitic on that subject, which you can read here.
Kidd's hero, Xavier, beautifully played by actor, Jason Seperic, finds himself an object of ridicule in an amateur theatrical for "unemployed losers." Gradually, he begins to understand Macbeth's dark ambitions and finds ways to dig himself out of his depression and fight for what he wants. By the end of the film, he discovers a voice he did not know he had..
Starring Xavier is a 15-minute film and, due to my elderly TV/DVD player, I had to watch on my computer, but it was an uplifting experience. In an email, Kidd mentioned that a small film like this can take years to put together. My admiration for independent filmmakers increases the more I learn about this kind of devotion.
From March 14, 1979 to May 1, 1979 I read:
I Am Blind and My Dog Is Dead (cartoons) by S. Gross
Line of Duty by earnest Tidyman
Freeway by Deanne Barkley
Jazz-Rock Fusion, the people, the music by Coryell & Friedman
The Japanese Corpse by Janwillem van de Wetering
Idi Amin, Death-Light of Africa by David Gwyn
Instant Beauty, the Complete Way 6to Perfect Makeup by Pablo of Elizabeth Arden
The Great movie Comedians by Leonard Maltin
One Man's Fancy by Saxon
The Wolf by the Ears: Thomas Jefferson and Slavery by John Chester Miller
The Wise Wound - Eve's curse and Everywoman. Menstruation as a powerful and positive resource by Shuttle & Redgrove
1979 note didn't finish but will check out again- quite good
2009 note: I LOVED this 2009 blogger response, at Period Piece, "wtf"!
Mood Control by Gene Bylinsky
True Confessions by John Gregory Dunne
Callahan's Cross time Saloon by Spider Robinson
Fat and Alive and Thinning in America by T. I. Rubin, MD
The Women We Wanted to Look Like by Brigade Keenan
Buried in so Sweet a Place by Stanton Forbes
Grave Humor by Fritz Spiegl, Ed.
Writing a Novel by John Braine
My note: A good book, but not a good time for me to read it. Made me impatient so I skipped around in it.
A good review of it
Jack's Book, an oral bio of Jack Keroac by Barry Gifford and Laurence Lee
Note from the future, interesting that Barry Gifford would speak to our Mystery Writers of America group about Black Lizard Press
Celluloid Rock by P. Jenkinson and A Warren
Our Kind of People, American Groups & Rituals by Bill Owens
link
He, an irreverent look at the American Male by Florence King
My note: very funny
2009 note I later read her Southern Ladies and Gentlemen, also funny link
Big Star Fallin' Mama, 5 Women in Black music by Hettie Jones
Hettie Jones website
From March 14, 2009 to May 1, 2009
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Great book. Sad that
Larsson Larsson died in 2004, but at least he finished the trilogy.
Carved in Bone by Jefferson Bass
website
Spyderwick Chronicles, book 1, by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
I have to stop here. If my hands could hold out I'd type a wonderful Holly Near quote I copied by hand in 1979 that starts "Popular music has contributed more tothe misery of women in the United States than any other single thing except maybe film and television"
Later maybe.
