HEADING SOUTH

Several years ago I watched Charlotte Rampling on the BBC. The actress had been a fantasy of mine after seeing THE NIGHT PORTER and the 60-year-old was promoting her new film by Laurent Cantent's HEADING SOUTH.

This movie featured a rare examination of sex, lust, and lust set in Haiti of the 1970s and Charlotte Rampling played a well-educated tourist frequenting a Caribbean resort for liaisons with young Haitian men.

Having lived in Pattaya I had grown accustomed to the sight of older men with younger women, but older western women have also taken up the trend of December-May relations as a fountain of youth, as long as you don’t look too closely at the reflection in the mirror, then you can get away with believing your lies.

While the West might frown on this difference of age between the sexes.

My sister-in-law called it obscene. My brother said it was a sin. Their daughter rightly protested their stances by saying neither of them turn their heads for someone their own age. They had once tried to fix me up with their friend. She was 40. I was 50. She was a great woman without the usual hang-ups. We had laughs but it never went anywhere. Later she met a man in her 60s and she said, “But he’s so old.”

Youth so wasted on the young, which is why someone older can offer a helping hand to a younger protege so both parties are get what they want and sometimes more, however the subject has seldom been explored from the viewpoint of a female other than a brief glimpse of tropical parity in NIGHT OF THE IGUANA when Ava Gardner vamps with her Mexican pendejos, although John Huston the director depicted her character as an aging nympho. I had thought of her as an early Mrs. Robinson and went to Puerto Vallarta to see that beach. The actual beach boys bragged about their exploits. Ava had done her research.

Sex for older women in America was mostly a memory and Ms. Rambling’s character, Ellen, stated, “If you’re over 40 and not as dumb as a fashion model, the only guys who are interested are natural born losers or husbands whose wives are cheating on them.’’

This movie sold a glimpse of paradise.

Which supposedly long longer existed in Haiti due to the country’s complete collapse. Wrong. I’ve heard of older women going there, Mozambique, Brazil, Angola, and Cuba. I have also seen these women in Bali and Lombok.

Slender men with large women.

Both happy in the trade off without asking too many question since languages get in the way of true understanding. During a long session of raki drinking I asked the Lombok boys how they could satisfy women twice or three times their size. To a man the beach boys raised their fists and pummeled the air like a jack hammer. They obviously had learned the technique from the same master.

Puritan people in the west will excoriate HEADING SOUTH as an anathema to Christian life and call the women with the Balinese beach boys names under their breath, however I think they have found the courage to achieve equality with men their own age who refuse to accept a life of utter loneliness in which no one ever touches anyone.

It’s an illusion, but better than the reality. And the motto is like Vegas 'Whatever happens here, stays here'. Older women aren’t going to get pregnant. They don’t have to fall in love. Except like the men coming to Pattaya, these women in HEADING SOUTH confuse lust for love.

It’s an easy thing to do in an age of no-love.

GOP Shutdown

The GOP's hard-right members have refused to relent on their demand that Obamacare be delayed for one year or else they will not approve a budget to finance the government. House Speaker John A. Boehner has attempted to reason with the Tea Party representative, whose leaders are adamant on their stance against any form of public health care, which they consider a step toward socialism. As reported in the New York Times President Obama said Saturday: “Republicans in the House have been more concerned with appeasing an extreme faction of their party than working to pass a budget that creates new jobs or strengthens the middle class. And in the next couple days, these Republicans will have to decide whether to join the Senate and keep the government open, or create a crisis that will hurt people for the sole purpose of advancing their ideological agenda. The American people have worked too hard to recover from crisis to see extremists in their Congress cause another one.” Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers retorted, “The president is now demanding that we increase the debt limit without engaging in any kind of bipartisan discussions about addressing our spending problem,” she said. “He wants to take the easy way out — exactly the kind of foolishness that got us here in the first place.” The government has been shut down seventeen times and here are those occasions; Shutdown #1: Sept. 30 to Oct. 11, 1976 when Gerald Ford vetoed a funding bill for the Departments of Labor and Health, Education, and Welfare in order to stop spending. Shutdown #2: Sept. 30 to Oct. 13, 1977 was against abortion, although more about funding for Labor and HEW. Shutdown #3: Oct. 31 to Nov. 9, 1977 was another dogfight about abortion. Shutdown #4: Nov. 30 to Dec. 9, 1977 was the GOP refusing to fund Medicaid payment for abortion of rape victims. Obviously there's a trend here. Shutdown #5: Sept. 30 to Oct.18, 1978 Carter regarded funding for a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier as wasteful along with more pork to Congress. Shutdown #6: Sept. 30 to Oct. 12, 1979 Carter fought against a pay raise for Congress, while the GOP wanted to cut funding to abortion. How long did it last? 11 days Shutdown #7: Nov. 20-23, 1981 reagan refused to approve any budget that didn't include his wish for $8.4 Billion. Shutdown #8: Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, 1982 Congress forgot to fund the government. Opps. Shutdown #9: Dec.17-21, 1982 Jobs were cut to finance nuclear missiles. Shutdown #10: Nov. 10-14, 1983 Reagan wanted money for Israel. The Democrats wanted money for schooling. Guess who won? Shutdown #11: Sept. 30 to Oct. 3, 1984 Crime versus college funding. Police won and black students lose under Reagan and every other president. Shutdown #12: Oct. 3-5, 1984 Reagan wanted it his way or no way, especially if the case of money for the anti-Sandinista forces fighting an illegal war in Nicaragua Shutdown #13: Oct. 16-18, 1986 Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill of the Democrats faced off over Big Oil versus education. Once more Big Oil won. Shutdown #14: Dec. 18-20, 1987 More money for the Contras who shipped cocaine to America which was then processed into crack. Thank you very much, Mr. Reagan. Shutdown #15: Oct. 5-9, 1990 Daddy Bush wanted to cut the deficit. No one thought about shutdown of the Pentagon. Shutdown #16: Nov. 13-19, 1995 Clinton versus Ginrich. The GOP wanted to cut health benefits to the people in order to give tax cuts to the rich ie the trickle-down effect. Shutdown #17: Clinton v. Gingrich Part II Dec. 5, 1995 to Jan. 6, 1996 The GOP wanted to cut more money from social services. Same as now. Fuck the GOP. They suck. But not the Beach Boys' song SHUTDOWN. To hear the live version please go to this URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxXWjR6q5u4

Shut Down 2012

The Beach Boys released SHUT DOWN on the B-Side of their 1963 single SURFING USA and according to Wikipedia the lyrics detail a drag race between a Super-Stock 413 cu. in.-powered 1962 Dodge Dart and a fuel injected 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. The chorus was a simple boast "Shut it off, shut it off Buddy, now I shut you down." The song reaching #23 on the charts was an amazing accomplishment for a record targeting white male teenagers, but those teenagers became adult and many of white males support the GOP. Shut down Medicaid, shut down medicare, shut down food stamps, and damn shut down social security. The Republican's candidate for Missouri US Senate seat pushed the policy to another universe by announcing on TV, "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down, so pregnancy as a result of rape from what I understand from doctors is really rare. Todd Akin immediately retreated from the blowtorch of negative criticism. "I misspoken." According to the BBC NEWS spokesmen for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan declared that "a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape". Neither candidate said those words for TV. In their hearts they know that women 'shut it down', because unlike the Beach Boys, the candidates don't know how to rev it up. ps Congressman Akin is leading in the polls. Go white man go.