Xan Cassavetes: 'Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession' (2004)

Xan Cassavetes: Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004). 

This is an alluring documentary that dives back into the 1970s and 1980s, beginning as an origin story and ending with the collapse of Los Angeles-based Z Channel (1974-1989), after a murder-suicide perpetrated by its talented, mentally ill main programmer, Jerry Harvey (1949-1988).

Subscription TV (now streaming, too) began in earnest with the likes of Home Box Office (HBO) in 1972, The Green Channel in 1973 -- which morphed into The Movie Channel (TMC) in 1979 -- and Z Channel. The latter included an influential sampling of international movies with subtitles, director's cuts, B movies and independent films. 

Z Channel had a profound impact on its market, especially among directors, writers, and other "creatives." Xan Cassavetes gives us a taste of representatives from this class, ranging from Penelope Spheeris to Jim Jarmusch. 

When a cool movie or director was featured on Z Channel, this was an event that could be shared in "real time," not just recorded for later, or plucked out of the ethersphere at will, or binge-watched down the pike.  

We may well wonder about delivery and recording systems now vs. then, and now vs. in the future. In those years, battle was also joined globally in the videotaping field between Sony's Betamax (Beta) and JVC's Video Home System (VHS) tapes, with Beta starting in 1975, VHS in 1976, and both lines ceasing production only in 2016.

Digital services now available dwarf what was around in the 1970s. All you need is money, access and time!

In 1975, the global human population was about 4.079 billion, 38% of it urbanized. As of 2018, it has already jumped to 7.633 billion, with 55% urbanized. What do you suppose those numbers will be in 2060?  Imagine the delivery systems forty-two years from now, when handheld devices, streaming services, driverless cars and delivery drones are old hat?  

Today's Rune: Movement.  

'Fahrenheit 451' (2018)

Ramin Bahrani's 2018 adaptation of the 1953 Ray Bradbury novel Fahrenheit 451 on HBO stars Michael B. Jordan as Montag, Michael Shannon as Beatty, and Sofia Boutella as Clarisse.  There's enough action in the novel to make a mini-series; it's harder to pull off in a 101-minute movie. I like the new version, however. It's updated to include recognizable social media and contemporary variations on book burning. In this version, too, the carriers of books and oral traditions are "eels" - derogatory slang for "illegals." Some technology critics seem to hate all of this new stuff, but they also seemed to have missed the boat, the train and the book. When the US is led by a man who does not read, the nation is already half in the bag of dodoville. It's a worldwide trend -- backward. In light of today's socially retarded emotional fascism, one cannot afford to be too subtle. 

In the opening sequence of Fahrenheit 451, there are images of burning books and visual art and, at one point, a picture of Frederick Douglass (circa 1818-1895).

Fact number one: in the first month of taking office, the current American president said this: "Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice." (Multiple sources. Here's one: David A. Graham, "Donald Trump's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass," The Atlantic, February 1, 2017). Fact number 2: Douglass was born a slave and died long before Trump's birth,  but as he (Douglass, not Trump) learned to read, the possibilities of freedom became more palpable, and eventually he escaped to freedom.

Some folks didn't like the carrier bird in this version of Fahrenheit 451. I thought it was totally cool. Incidentally, I also just saw Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), in which books also play a big part -- as do carrier pigeons, which were also important during the Great War of 1914-1918, of which this year is the centenary of its last year. 

Finally, the flames. I had an English teacher who had my class read Max Frisch's Biedermann und die Brandstifter / The Firebugs, a play that was first published in 1953 -- the same year as Ray Bradbury's original Fahrenheit 451. In The Firebugs, arsonists are stand-ins for totalitarian brutes who talk their way into people's homes, only to torch them in the end. She --- Joan Boyd -- also had us read Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932). Ann Barlow, another inspiring English teacher, strongly encouraged outside reading, including in my case several novels by Ray Bradbury. Such wonderful English teachers would be classified as "eels" in the new movie, which is like a blend of The Firebugs, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four (1949), Brave New World, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1985) and Fahrenheit 451. Dig it or douse it -- your choice. 

Today's Rune: Breakthrough.

Mary Harron: 'I Shot Andy Warhol' (1996)

I Shot Andy Warhol  (1996), director Mary Harron's (b. 1953) first film, centers on Valerie Solanas and her fringe relationship with Warhol. Harron's prior experience as a punk rock journalist probably gave her an insider's perspective -- certainly she recreates the Factory milieu with precision of detail. She orginally envisioned a documentary on Solanas and her infamous works, The SCUM Manifesto, Up Your Ass , and her attempted assassination of French publisher Maurice Girodias (she tried to shoot him at the Hotel Chelsea, but he was out) and Andy Warhol, but after discovering that there wasn't enough archival Solanas footage and few who would speak for her, opted for a dramatic account.

Lili Taylor portrays Solanas as a damaged soul. She's been abused and neglected growing up, and is on her own in the world for the most part, street hustling. But she's smart, and very frustrated. A lesbian turning tricks with men, she is drawn into the Warhol crowd through meeting transvestite Candy Darling (played sympathetically by Stephen Dorff), and tries to interest Andy in her writing. His open door policy lets all sorts of weird people into an already weird Factory scene -- open until she later shoots him, which changes everything.

I Shot Andy Warhol  is an interesting exploration of how commercially successful artists and aspiring artists interrelate. Solanas' feminism plays an important role, too -- her SCUM Manifesto cries foul at men and men's power. A la James Brown's 1966 song "It's a Man's Man's Man's World," Solanas believes it, and thinks the world needs a reverse shakeup. Ideally to her, all men should die. 

Though demented in many ways, Solanas has a point. Why are there so few high profile women equivalents of Andy Warhol? Indeed, even by 2018, why have there been no women presidents in the USA? Why is such a crude and brutish man the current American president, beloved (and also hated) by millions? 

Harron herself, as a woman filmmaker and writer, is rare -- only something like seven percent of directors are women.

The actors put in good performances. Taylor (HBO stalwart on Six Feet Under  and The Notorious Betty Page ) is edgy, scary, mouthy and believable. Jared Harris (Mad Men, &c.) plays Warhol with appropriate cool and nervousness. Donovan Leitch (son of the singer) is fun as Gerard Malanga, and Michael Imperioli serves up Warhol's sidekick Ondine with bitchy camp -- and strong hints of his Sopranos' character, Christopher. Mark the scruffy Revolutionary is played by Justin Theroux in his first movie (Joe from Six Feet Under; Mulholland Drive ): it's his Beretta that Solanas uses to shoot Andy.

After I Shot Andy Warhol, Harron went on to write the screenplay for American Psycho (2000), which she also directed. She also worked on HBO's Six Feet Under  ("The Rainbow of Her Reasons," 2005) and made The Notorious Betty Page (2005). She did The Anna Nicole Story (2013), too. There is continuity in all of her work so far -- exploration of gender issues, fame and notoriety. All interesting stuff. And unsettling. Some of it's funny, some of it's gravely serious, not unlike Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, with whom she clearly feels an affinity for women and mystery.

Today's Rune: Gateway. 

Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown (2014)

Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown (2014): Directed by Alex Gibney, produced by Mick Jagger. Aired on HBO and available with extras in DVD format. 

This one's an entertaining and insightful documentary for any and all James Brown fans. The archival footage is worth the whole package; newer interview footage is also better than the usual in such motion documentaries. 

I'm pretty well-versed in James Brown musicology and cultural impact, but even so, with Mr. Dynamite I learned a lot of new stuff, new ways of considering things. 

(In one of the more surreal scenes of Mr. Dynamite, see presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey sing along with James Brown in 1968. It's plain bizarre!) 

Alex Gibney is a trenchant documentary filmmaker -- compare with some of his other works such as Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005); The [Lance] Armstrong Lie (2013); We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks (2013); Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (HBO, 2015); Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine (2015).

Today's Rune: Gateway.      

  

Laura Poitras: 'Citizenfour' (2014)

Laura Poitras' Citizenfour (2014) is well worth seeing and thinking about. And discussing. Saw it on HBO. 

That's all for now, folks. The rest is up to you. 

Today's Rune: Separation (Reversed). 

Hiding Out in the Casbah: Julien Duvivier's 'Pépé le Moko' (1937)

Julien Duvivier's Pépé le Moko (1937) bears seeing once, twice, thrice. . . or more. Professional criminal Pépé le Moko (Jean Gabin) is holed up in the Casbah / Kasbah quarter of Algiers / Alger in between the world wars -- and he's really trapped. The police can't grab him from within the labyrinthine (or labyrinthian, if you prefer) recesses of the Casbah, but they will nab or kill him if he leaves it.  Excellent premise for the whole film.

Besides Gabin, who has been fantastic in everything I've seen him in, cherchez la femme: actually there are two key paramours involved -- Inès (Line Noro), from Algeria, and Gabby (Mireille Balin), from Paris, the latter carried along to Algiers by her Daddy Warbucks while he's on (colonial exploitation) business. Also involved are fellow criminals of dubious stability, numerous Algerian "hosts," French and Algerian police and Pépé's crafty, somewhat smarmy frenemy-nemesis, Inspector Slimane. 

Julien Duvivier's Pépé le Moko is not only a fun and imaginative movie, it's also an absorbing cultural artifact wide open to consideration from various engaged perspectives (postcolonialism, feminism, etc.).   

The tone of Pépé le Moko moves along and includes dark as well as comic moments -- very much like HBO's The Sopranos. The paramours have real "sex appeal" (a term used in the film itself), covered by humor. What have Pépé and Gabby been doing so clandestinely in the Casbah? "Painting watercolors together," Pépé quips.

The movie, which has been remade by other directors under different titles, is based on the 1931 novel Pépé le Moko by "Détective Ashelbé" (aka Henri La Barthe, 1887-1963). 
  
Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.

Journey to Sevilla / Seville: Part V (2014)

Some parting images from Sevilla / Seville, Spain, right now (at the time of this posting) being used as a working film set for HBO's Game of Thrones -- for the next season, to be aired in 2015. Here, snakes slither around columns, or pillars if you prefer.

Lush green pergola on the grounds of the Alcázar at what looks like a Dutch angle.

Yes, Virginia -- palm trees. From the Alcázar. 

A touch of blue and red for transition -- ceramic tiles.   

Parque de María Luisa (Palacio de San Telmo) by horse-drawn carriage.

Gustavo Bacarisas' poster for the Exposición Iberoamericana de Sevilla of 1929-1930. 

Plaza de España, built for the Exposición Iberoamericana de Sevilla of 1929-1930.  

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.

Nancy Buirski: 'The Loving Story'

Nancy Buirski's The Loving Story (2011; HBO 2012), focuses on Mildred (Jeter) Loving (1939-2008) and her husband Richard Loving (1933-1975), their desire to remain legally married in the Commonwealth of Virginia after marrying in Washington, D.C. in 1958, and the Supreme Court ruling on Loving v. Virginia (1967) that struck down then still existing state laws (in sixteen states, all of them in the South), thereby making "mixed marriages" legal throughout the USA ever since. 

The Loving Story is beautifully done, with fantastic archival footage of the Loving family, their lawyers, and some of their opponents. It's a microcosm of American history, and completely pertinent to battles over marriage even now, in 2014. It's quite moving. 

The Lovings come across as gentle, yet firm people. Though Mildred communicates more openly, there are worlds of depth in Richard's soulful eyes, and in hers, too.  It's also interesting that Mildred was part African American, part Cherokee and part Rappahannock, the latter a small amalgamated tribe that has survived in the area of Caroline County (northeastern Virginia, about 90 miles from Washington, D.C.) since the 1600s. 

Today's Rune: Signals.  "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." -- Frederick Douglass (1857). 

Sugartime

Finally checked out Sugartime (1995), the HBO movie directed by John N. Smith about the amour fou romance between Sam the Cigar Giancana (John Turturro) and Phyllis McGuire (Mary-Louise Parker) of the goody two-shoes McGuire Sisters. Inherently interesting in both the time-bound and timeless ways of the world.

And then there are the intriguing connections between Chicago, Vegas, Miami, Cuba, Fidel Castro, the Kennedys, Dan Rowan of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In -- and Frank Sinatra. Reality is a wild ride, but how closely do the dots connect? 

Of the three McGuire sisters, Phyllis is the only one still living -- she's 82 and lives in Vegas. 

Mistress mayoress complained 
that the pottage was cold;
"And all long of your fiddle-faddle," quoth she.
"Why, then, Goody Two-shoes, what if it be?
Hold you, if you can, your tittle-tattle," quoth he.
(-- Charles Cotton, 1670)

Today's Rune: Fertility.      

Bill Maher in Durham

Saw & heard Bill Maher tonight at the Durham Performing Arts Center (capacity about 2700 people).  He's sharp and wicked, more relaxed than on TV, clearly enjoying every minute of his performance - and it was a generous one, pushing two hours straight. Looked like he was wearing a Cuban style shirt, more casual than on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher. The audience was eclectic and appreciative. I loved it!

Bill Maher's stand-up topics in Durham ranged through all the impolite, telling topics like politics (including North Carolina's politics), religion, sex and social mores. It's a way fun job, but somebody's got to do it.

From Mormons to Catholics, Bill Maher does not spare the rod, yet when it comes down to it a la Flannery O'Connor's way of seeing and not unlike the great Voltaire, he's still pretty Catholic.

Last time I visited Tar Heel Land, the Tibetan Buddhists were in Saxapahaw. This time, Bill Maher in Durham -- and the Durham Bulls right next door, complete with fireworks and a victory.

Today's Rune: Joy.   

Behind the Candelabra

Steven Soderbergh's Behind the Candelabra, a tale revolving around Liberace (Michael Douglas) and Scott Thorson (Matt Damon), his "special man friend" from whose 1988 memoir the movie is adapted, gives its audience one nutty ride, and beyond that, a compelling glimpse at social relationships, celebrity status and the grandiose lifestyle that wealth makes possible. "Palatial kitsch," as Liberace quips. Every major element of this film works together, amounting not to a tragedy so much as an often comic, sometimes bleak true story, more touching than snarky. "Baby Boy," indeed.

Today's Rune: Journey. 
    

Phil Spector

David Mamet's Phil Spector (HBO, 2013) could have just as easily (and more accurately) been named Phil Spector and the Preparations for His First Murder Trial. It cries out for a deeper biopic of The Life and Times of Phil Spector. As is, it rates about a B -- not bad. Al Pacino gives a reasonably clownish version of the man. Helen Mirren is fine as one of his main albeit sickly legal defenders in the first trial for the murder of Lana Clarkson. The rest of the cast if perfectly able, as well. The Spector-themed music is good and the backdrop understandable. But where's the beef? In the immortal words of Iggy Pop, "I want more than the ordinary grind." Don't you?

The best parts of Phil Spector come when Linda Kenney Baden (Mirren) arrives at The Mansion and meets The Man. We see statues of owls lurking in high places and, among other delights, dramatic homages to Abraham Lincoln, Lawrence of Arabia, and Spector himself. Like Elvis Presley's Graceland or Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch, there are wildly tacky indulgences seen in abundance. The Man is deluded and egomaniacal and likes to bandy about with his gun collection. He is temperamental and often menacing. And, he is (or was) talented, produced a lot of enduring music. He showcased his people in The Big T.N.T. Show (1966) and even produced a Ramones album (End of the Century, 1980). Finally, in a connection to the posts immediately proceeding this one, Spector had a brief role in Easy Rider (1969), which also featured Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson. In Phil Spector, we see the movie poster prominently displayed on a wall in The Mansion. Nice touch.

Finally, in case anyone was wondering, the giant fro donned by Spector at his first trial was an "homage to Jimi Hendrix." Ha.

Today's Rune: Signals.       

Society to Stamp Out "You're *Very* Welcome"

"Attention must be paid" -- Arthur Miller (and Tennessee Williams, too, maybe).

The Buddha (paraphrase): Be mindfully aware before you leave this place and time.

Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm (paraphrase):  Be mindful of some rules, or anarchy will prevail.

Today's guilty phrase, most hideous foul: "You're very welcome."

I've been noticing this popping up more and more. First I thought it was just in Texas, then I heard it in Arkansas, and now I'm supposing it's spread everywhere, like alien pods from Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

There's no hope for social graces if this contagion continues to spread.

When I was interning in London a while back, whenever someone bumped into another person, they'd quickly whisper, in a faux sincere tone, "Sorry!"

"Sorry," as in: I meant no deliberate insult, harm or provocation by my seeming clumsiness. We need not fight now.  

"Sorry," as in, from a darkly British war movie: "Sorry, sir, I didn't see the white flag," said by a sergeant in Libya during World War Two, after he guns down surrendering weaponless Germans. (The twist: they're actually British soldiers who'd escaped through German lines after a secret mission -- shot by their own comrades).

In any case, what exactly does "You're very welcome" mean?

What, indeed, is the difference between saying "You're welcome" and "You're very welcome?"

Nothing, except for the unnecessary addition of the adjective "very," possibly intended as a (lame) intensifier.

Again, what does "You're very welcome" mean?

A. Nothing; or

B. Nothing on a literal level, but rather it serves as an implicit acknowledgement of some kind of social interaction (favor, gift given) or socioeconomic exchange (service for money, including perhaps a tip).

C. The person who says this really means it this time! Usually, without using adding "very," he or she is not being in the least sincere.

Verily, what say ye, dear readers?  Meanwhile, You're very thank you!

Today's Irish-themed Rune: Signals.  

Enlightened

Laura Dern, Mike White, Diane Ladd and Luke Wilson rock in the HBO series Enlightened (2011-present).  The whole cast does. 

For now, a couple of things to note. One, at the start of the series, Amy Jellicoe is relegated to the H (= Hell or Hades) level of Abaddonn Industries, a demotion, despite having worked there for fifteen years.

Why Abaddonn? 

"Sheol and Abaddon are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied" (Proverbs 27:20).

Sheol = Hell; Abaddon(n) = Destruction. That's certainly one way to look at it.

Mike White is a cool writer -- and an excellent actor, too, here playing Tyler, a "mole" also relegated to H level, working on Cogentiva, a software program that tracks workers' "productivity."

Today's Rune: Signals.

Jill Sprecher's Clockwatchers: Take One

Jill Sprecher's Clockwatchers (1997) runs along a continuum of memorable movie and TV depictions of the post-World War II office milieu. It covers a social and technological setting more recent than AMC's Mad Men, before Office Space, and lately carried forth into the nightmarish underworld (akin to Philip K. Dick) depicted in the HBO series Enlightened.

It's conciousness-raising to sample Clockwatchers along with the rest of these, blending them together over a short period. Mind-blowing, really.  

What's very noticeable from the perspective of 2013 is:

1) The division of labor by gender in Clockwatchers (mid-to-late 1990s) is still largely intact from the Mad Men period (1960s).

2) In Clockwatchers, technology is just beginning to transition away from typewriter and landline-driven communications. As things stand among the temp workers of the mid-1990s, they still resemble the Mad Men period. This transition can clearly be seen increasing in speed by the time Office Space comes out in the late 1990s -- a mere two years after Clockwatchers.

3) In Clockwatchers, male bosses hand scrawled drafts to female secretaries who are expected to type them into impeccably polished letters -- if lucky, on IBM Selectric typewriters. A lot of letters and forms come in duplicate and triplicate, requiring extra care in processing. 

4) Most clocks are analog, not digital. 

5) There is a lot of time spent on manual filing systems that take up a lot of physical storage space.

I could go on, but you get the idea.  

Today's Rune: Signals.
     

Villains and Antiheroes

In a lot of the more alluring teleseries since the 1990s, the protagonist is an antihero. In watching one like Dexter, figuring out antagonists, antiheroes and villains is sort of like looking through a kaleidoscope -- it may shift depending on one's point of view. Is Dexter's half-sister Deb a fallen hero? Remembering that all heroes are flawed, is Angel a hero? Isaak Sirko is an anagonist, but seems too cool to be a true villain. How would they rate relative to each other within the universe of the story itself?  

How about Ray Drecker in HBO's Hung?  I'd say hero (however unconventional). And one of the great characters of recent times, Tony Soprano? Antihero. Nurse Jackie as character? Hero? (Again, all heroes are flawed)?

What think ye?  Any favorites?  Any hated protagonists or antagonists in recent years?

Today's Rune: Wholeness.     

The Rolling Stones -- Crossfire Hurricane

I'd intended to record The Rolling Stones -- Crossfire Hurricane, a new documentary directed by Brett Morgen, and I did. But while doing so, I also found myself drawn into it immediately, no saving it all for later. Indeed, I found it so mesmerizing that I ended up watching the whole thing straight through.

If you're a Stones fan, go all in! The "archival" footage is worth the whole shebang. But wait, there's more: the now older and wiser bluesmen/rock stars comment about various and sundry aspects of the band's arc along the way, in a refreshing manner (sans talking heads, sticking mostly to action footage and high-intensity music with only their ghostly voices in the background). 

In Crossfire Hurricane, we don't hear about Marianne Faithfull, Anita Pallenberg or various others of cultural import in the 1960s, although their are certainly visual clues of their spectral presence. Rather, the documentary focuses on the main dudes of the band, set within the context of changing times. Overall it's raucous, raunchy, and riveting. I was delighted. Can you dig?

Today's Rune: Signals.

Ernst Lubitsch: Design for Living / Sérénade à trois

In Design for Living (aka Sérénade à trois, 1933), Ernst Lubitsch, through the scrim of Ben Hecht's screenplay, rearranges Noel Coward's 1932 stage play of the same title. I haven't seen the stage version, but the film is highly entertaining and even in 2012 remains subversive in the realm of sexual politics. Such creative, unconventional ways of living are rarely depicted, though François Truffaut's Jules et Jim (1962), Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) and the HBO series Big Love (2005-2011) dare to explore similar themes.

Design for Living stars Miriam Hopkins (Gilda), Gary Cooper (George), Fredric March (Tom) and Edward Everett Horton (Max) -- all excellent. Gilda is the strongest character and has the best lines, such as: "It's true we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman." Ha! A true "Bohemian rhapsody."

 

Today's Rune: Strength.        

Lenny: A Film by Bob Fosse

Initial response to Luis Buñuel's L’Âge d’or / The Golden Age (1930) included physical attacks in movie theatres by fascists and other "right wing" types offended by its subversive freedom of expression and satire of "traditional values." The film was pulled from general circulation -- globally. It wasn't even widely available in the United States until 1979 and after!

Move the clock forward from 1930 through the rest of the 20th century. The use of napalm, atomic weapons and poison gas on the one hand, the freedom to use words on the other, and civil rights, human rights in general. It seems that even now in the early 21st century, many people in the US are far more concerned about Second Amendment (especially gun rights) than First Amendment rights -- i.e. freedom of speech, writing, publishing and assembly. Between the time of Buñuel's early work and the 1960s, the imposition of Hollywood Codes and various "official" policies around the US chilled serious and comedic exercise of freedom.

The situation changed only when people challenged the new status quo. As Frederick Douglass framed it in 1857, "power concedes nothing without a demand." He also observed this: "If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters."

In free speech matters during the mush years, Lenny Bruce (1925-1966) became one of the demanders. He pushed and pushed, using "blue language," spotlighting hypocrisy in social mores, questioning American society's tolerance of violence vs. its treating sex like a "dirty shameful thing." He challenged the status quo directly and helped liberate the use of language in the USA.

Bob Fosse's Lenny (1974) is a good place to see how events played out. Lenny Bruce was arrested, charged, fined, banned and convicted along the way. He died of a drug overdose in 1966 and, at least in New York State, was only officially "pardoned" in 2003!

Even while he was alive, Lenny Bruce's influence was immediate and not just among the ranks of comics (George Carlin et alia). Take Jim Morrison, for example, and go from there. Even now Home Box Office (HBO) has the spirit, for instance.

Today's Rune: Warrior.