12 | July | 2025 | Bob Schwartz

The Rewatchables: Chinatown

Here is one thing I’ve learned from having a near-infinite choice of media—music, movies, TV, books—to consume. The more I search, I still go back to the greats to relisten, rewatch, reread.

Today, after a search, I ended up at Roman Polanski’s Chinatown (1974), which I’ve watched countless times. It is fifty years old, so you do hear some newer generation movie aficionados saying “I don’t get why it is on so many best of lists.” Best of lists are never objective, even those generated by “experts”, because we are all still affected by different tastes.

But in the opinion of many lists, including mine, Chinatown is one of the greats, near the top. You can find millions of words written and spoken about it, so I won’t add to them. I will say that if you love movies as entertainment and/or as craft, you owe it to yourself to watch Chinatown.

Maybe you will never watch it again. Maybe you will think about the two hours and ten minutes you could have spent doing something else. Or maybe like me, you will watch it again and again, relishing and remembering every scene.

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July 12, 2025

“Whatever you want, others all want as much; so act accordingly!”

“Whatever you want, others all want as much; so act accordingly!”
Patrul Rinpoche (1808–1887)

The Kadampa teachings say that if we use our activities to open ourselves to the world with loving-kindness, patience, and understanding, we’ll bring the lojong spirit into everything we do. While our practices may be diverse, if our bodhichitta* attitude is natural and self-correcting, we’ll be doing everything with one intention. Patrul Rinpoche relates the following story to illustrate this:

When Trungpa Sinachen asked him for a complete instruction in a single sentence, Phadampa Sangye replied, “Whatever you want, others all want as much; so act accordingly!”
(Patrul Rinpoche, Words of My Perfect Teacher)

Traleg Kyagbon, The Practice of Lojong

*Bodhichitta. There are two aspects to enlightened heart: an ultimate and a relative one. Ultimate enlightened heart refers to the nature of the mind and relative enlightened heart refers to the cultivation and generation of compassion.

This sounds familiar, like a version of the Golden Rule, which instructs us not to do to others what we would not have done to us. A difference is that this goes beyond what we and they do. It is about what is in our and their mind, what you and they want. Which, surprisingly or not, is elementally the same. What we do or don’t do follows from what we think. So this might be considered the precursor or foundation of the Golden Rule.

July 12, 2025

Under Pressure

Can’t we give ourselves one more chance?
Why can’t we give love that one more chance?
Why can’t we give love, give love, give love, give love
Give love, give love, give love, give love, give love?

When I saw a playlist with a 2020 cover recording of Under Pressure by Karen O and Willie Nelson, I was curious but skeptical. I shouldn’t have been.

The original by Queen and David Bowie (1981) is fast, loud and desperate—pressurized. This version is slow and lyrical. Which gives us a chance to hear the lyrics below.

As appropriate as any song I’ve heard lately.

Under Pressure

Pressure
Pushing down on me
Pressing down on you
Under pressure
That burns a building down
Splits a family in two
Puts people on streets

It’s the terror of knowing what this world is about
Watching some good friends screaming, “Let me out”
Pray tomorrow gets me higher
Pressure on people, people on streets

Chipping around, kick my brains ’round the floor
These are the days, it never rains, but it pours

Turned away from it all like a blind man
Sat on a fence, but it don’t work
Keep coming up with love, but it’s so slashed and torn
Why, why, why?
Love, love, love, love, love
Insanity laughs under pressure we’re breaking

‘Cause love’s such an old-fashioned word
And love dares you to care for
The people on the edge of the night
And love dares you to change our way of
Caring about ourselves

This is our last dance
This is our last dance
This is ourselves
Under pressure