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BORAT 2, HOLIDATE AND EMILY

  From Worldometer:

        DAY  USA  WORLD   Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9     1093    4732        1185       246          82
July    22     1205    7128        1293      1120         572
Aug    12     1504     6556       1242       835         130
Sept     3      1094    5886        830     1083         174
            9      1208    6222        1136      1168          82
Oct      8        957    6420         730       967        160
          12       316     3757           203       710          83
          13       843     5006           354      723       165
          14       970     6075           716       694       123
          19       442     4392           321       594         21
          20       952     6169           662       714       164
          21     1225     6849            571       703         85
          22       973     6470           503       683       102
          23       903     6526          566       656        48 
          24       784     5599          398       575         53
          25       442     4629          237       463         24
          26       529     5095          288       505        40
          27     1039      7023          530       519         45
          28     1030      7116          487       509         58
          29     1047      7172          565       568         53

Summary:  
  • Yesterday the USA had 91,530 new cases of COVID-19, the highest ever.  Worst states:
    • Texas:  7,187
    • Illinois:  6,363
    • Wisconsin:  4,870
    • Michigan:  4,109
    • Indiana:  3,618
    • Ohio:  3,579
  • But Europe is in real trouble (new cases):
    • France:  47,637
    • Italy:  26,831
    • Spain:  23,580
    • UK:  23,065
    • Belgium:  21,048
    • Poland:  20,156
    • Germany:  18,732
The positivity rate is becoming the key factor in determining whether a state opens up the economy and schools.  This is the total number of positives divided by the number of tests, times 100.  In general:
  • Guide for decision-making:
    • Less than 5%, but hopefully much less, officials are allowing the return of the economy and schoolroom teaching.
    • At 10%, everything begins to close.
  • Here are the positivity rates of some states:
    • South Dakota:  46.3% (I haven't seen anything before so high)
    • Idaho:  34%
    • Wyoming:  31.8% (yikes, Hawaii is playing Wyoming in Laramie today)
    • Iowa:  30.6%
    • Kansas:  27.6%
    • Alabama:  25.9%
    • Nebraska  23.8%
    • Nevada:  23.2% (most large Las Vegas casinos remain open)
    •  
    • Arizona:  9.8%
    • Texas:  8.8%
    •  
    • New Mexico:  8.1% (New Mexico's football team comes to Honolulu next Saturday)
    •  
    • California:  3.3%
    •  
    • Hawaii:  2.1%
    •   
    • Vermont:  0.5%
Here is a map of the World positivity rate as of today:


About November 3, now only four days away, pundits are seriously indicating that the results won't be known until the next day, if not Thursday or Friday.  My sense is that the victor will become obvious by 3PM Hawaii time on Tuesday, or 9PM Eastern Daylight Time.  Why?  Florida will have most votes counted and reported by that time.  Here is something from The New Times this morning:

Consider that Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, will be campaigning today in Texas, a state that President Trump won by nine percentage points four years ago and that Barack Obama lost by 16 points in 2012. 

Interestingly enough:

More than 9 million Texans have cast ballots so far, 

surpassing the state’s total votes cast in 2016

If this is happening Texas, Florida in 2020 can't today be like 2016 and any time before.

On this Friday, I will review three shows for your possible consideration this weekend:

                                                             Rotten Tomatoes                  My Grade
                                                          Reviewers  Audiences

Borat 2 (Prime)                                         85             70                        C-

Holidate (Neflix)                                        50             59                        C+

Emily in Paris (Netflix)                             63             62                         B

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is an over-the-top...no, make that below-the-bottom, effort to insult as many people and organizations as possible, especially the Trump organization.  As that poster symbolizes, this R-rated film should have been given an X.

The producers were allowed to use real clips of Rudy Giuliani and Mike Pence, but took them out of context.  That was hilarious, but there is a supersaturation of sexual body parts.  How the reviewers gave the movie so high a rating is beyond me.

There is discussion about Borat 3.  Borat 1 was 14 years ago, so the timing is about right if that ever happens.


Holidate was disappointing.  Not sure what went wrong.  Sometimes funny, many times silly, with a lot of bumps.  Yet, it was reasonably entertaining.  I didn't see a maturity rating, but it might well be a mild R, but compared to Borat 2, this was more like PG.


Emily in Paris is a series with ten episodes.  I've only seen one, and was impressed enough that I'll go back  soon for #2.  The attraction is Paris, which I hate.  The problem is the Roma gypsies.  I thought they came from Romania, but it turns out they're from northern India.  Actually, there are almost 2 million of them in Romania, so there is a link.  There could be up to half a million in France, and in Paris they are known to surround you in groups to pick your pocket.  They prey on the feeble, like me. Turns out that the USA is home to a million Romani people.  Tracey Ullman is one.

Anyway, about the series, what you see are the splashy attractions of Paris, which is a fascinating city.  That is just about right for me, as long as I'm not there.  Much of the activity has to do with Emily, who speaks no French, trying to build relationships in the office her company has taken over.  Lily Collins does well as a fresh and somewhat naive American in a sophisticated society.


Song #61 will from:

Showboat came much earlier, starting with Edna Ferber's 1926 novel of the same name, covering life on the Mississippi River from 1887 to 1927.  The Broadway show was first produced by Florenz Ziegfeld in 1927, and was a radical departure from the norm.  The key roles were played by Norma Terris as Magnolia, Howard Marsh as Gaylord, Helen Morgan as Julie and Jules Bledsoe/Paul Robeson as Joe.  The music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II (but this is the same person as the next two productions on this finalist list).  Films followed in 1929 (Irene Dunne,Allan Jones), 1936 (also Dunne/Jones/Robeson) and 1951 (Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, William Warfield).   Ol'Man River and Make Believe were subsequently sung by the above.

Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein had two great Broadway shows during World War II:  Oklahoma in 1943 and Carousel in 1945.  Similarly, the films accordingly followed, with the former in 1955 and latter in 1956.

Oklahoma was Rodgers and Hammerstein first musical, based on a 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs, with the setting in Claremore, Indian Territory in 1906.  Wow, they eventually won a Pulitzer Prize in 1944 and Oscar for the film in 1956.  The original cast included Alfred Drake, Joan Roberts and Celeste Holm.

The movie (RT: 88/76) came in 1955 and featured Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones, Rod Steiger, Charlotte Greenwood, Eddie Albert, and James Whitmore. First film on Todd-AO 70 mm widescreen, and simultaneously in CinemaScope 35 mm.

Carousel ran on Broadway so long that the primary performers included John Raitt, Howard Keel, Jan Clayton, Barbara Cook, Audra McDonald, Renee Fleming, Jerry Orbach, Fisher Stevens and Edward Everett Horton.  Christine Johnson Smith was the original Nettie Fowler who sang my #61 song, You'll Never Walk Alone.  She died a decade ago at the age of 98.  Rene Fleming sang that song on Broadway and here again two years ago.


The film (RT: 83/61) was released in 1956 and starred Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones.  Claramae Turner sang You'll Never Walk Alone in the movie.

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