MONSTER HUNTING and the CHICAGO 7

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

            9      909     5806          658      929       139

          10       723     5162            544      921        126   

          11       325     3874            270       813       107

          12       316     3757            203       710        83

          13       843    5006           354       723       165

          14       970    6075           716       694       123

          15       873    6106           734       835       158

          16       928    6189           716       886         61

Summary: 

• The USA with 71,687 new cases is back in first place. 
• Five European countries at quintuple digits in new cases, with France now the world #4 with 25,086.
• How are our states doing compared to the World?
• Total cases/million (with tests/million in the parentheses)
• World   5,076  
• Qatar   45,941   (306,729)
• Israel   32,823   (451,784)
• Peru   26,051   (126,323)
• Chile   25,474   (199.392)
• USA   25,040   (373,179)
• China   60 (111,163)
• Taiwan   22 (4,137)
• North Dakota   40,045   (352,559)
• Louisiana   37,566   (551,232)
• Mississippi   36,710   (316,359)
• Florida   34,847   (265,919)
• Vermont   3,069   (284,193)
• Hawaii   9,784   (331,728)
• Total deaths/million
• World   142
• Peru   1016
• Belgium   890
• China   3
• Taiwan   0.3
• USA   676
• New Jersey   2,839
• New York   1,720
• Massachusetts   1,408
• Alaska   90
• Hawaii  131

I usually provide movie reviews on Monday, but I just saw two new Netflix releases, so will do them now:

                                         ROTTEN TOMATOES  My Rating

                                         Reviewers   Audiences

Babysitters Guide

  to Monster Hunting          63                    47                C-

Trial of the Chicago 7        94                     94               A-

The above scores very well rated these films, although I would have given BGtMH a 35.  I think this had everything to do with age, and perhaps mentality, too.  I was close to just shutting this film off half a dozen times, but did watch it till the end.  The worst film I've seen this year, neither funny nor scary.  The beasties are more cute than frightening, but, I guess somewhat timely for Halloween.  Clearly, the producers are expecting to make a sequel, for the ending pretty much said so.  Don't waste your time, unless you happen to be....nah, that would be an insult.

Conversely, The Trial of the Chicago 7 was gripping and compelling, from beginning to end.  In a way, this was also a movie of the moment, with November 3 around the corner.  Sacha Baron Cohen of Borat fame was outstanding as  Abbie Hoffman, while Eddie Redmayne did well as Tom Hayden, who was kind of a villain as one of the seven (there were 8, but Bobby Seale got kicked off in a mistrial).  Joseph  Gordon-Levitt was also excellent as the prosecutor, maybe because he showed more heart than anyone in the film.  I'm not giving anything away, because this is written history, but five of the seven were given 5-year sentences, for which there was a mistrial, and no government follow-up. 

Aaron Sorokin wrote and directed, and well.  He is of course famous for A Few Good Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, The West Wing, A Few Good Men, Moneyball and The Social Network.  In many ways, TTotC7 was a typical Sorokin.  Nothing particularly surprising if you remember history half a century ago.  Could get Academy Award notice.

What happened to the principals is always of interest, with the most successful being Tom Hayden, who went on to marry Jane Fonda and become a seven-term California state legislator.  Jerry Rubin got rich on Apple stocks, but died soon after jaywalking and being struck on the street.  Abbie Hoffman was bipolar, kept getting arrested and committed suicide.

#74 is Sh-boom by the Crew-Cuts, released in 1954.  It was a cover of the song by The Chords, who wrote it, and is said to the first doo-wop song to reach the top ten.  It's ranked #215 in the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.  The Chords were a one-hit group.  There is even some contention that Sh-Boom ranks up there with Rocket 88 as the first rock and roll song in history.  Then there was the Stan Freburg re-cover spoof.

The Crew-Cuts (as you can see above, their hair style in those days was called a crew-cut) all came from St. Michael's Choir School in Toronto, which also produced The Four Lads, and there is a mix of the same singers in both groups.  The Crew-Cuts came through the Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts and made a living covering R&B songs.  They had a second big hit with Earth Angel, courtesy of the Penguins.  And here is the R&B group singing this song in 1999.

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