The Umbrella Man

On the 48th anniversary of the assassination of JFK, Errol Morris talks to Tink Thompson about "The Umbrella Man", a gentleman who was pictured in the Zapruder film standing with an open umbrella near where Kennedy was shot on a sunny day. The result is a nifty six-minute film.

For years, I've wanted to make a movie about the John F. Kennedy assassination. Not because I thought I could prove that it was a conspiracy, or that I could prove it was a lone gunman, but because I believe that by looking at the assassination, we can learn a lot about the nature of investigation and evidence. Why, after 48 years, are people still quarreling and quibbling about this case? What is it about this case that has led not to a solution, but to the endless proliferation of possible solutions?

The Updike piece from the New Yorker is available here (subscribers only, but the abstract is informative):

For example, "the umbrella man": though the day was clear and blowy, he can be detected, in photographs, standing on the curb just about where the assassination would in a few seconds occur, holding a black umbrella above him; seconds later he is again photographed, walking away, gazing tranquilly at the scramble of horrified spectators. His umbrella is now furled. Who was he? Where is he now?

The film pairs nicely with Morris' recent interview of Stephen King about the latter's new novel based on the Kennedy assassination.

Kennedy's catchy jingle

From The Living Room Candidate, a site which houses presidential campaign commercials from 1952-present, comes a 1960 commercial for John F. Kennedy. How the ad positions Kennedy reminds me of the delicate fusion that Barack Obama is attempting with his relative newness to politics and readiness for the job.

Do you want a man for President who's seasoned through and through but not so doggoned seasoned that he won't try something new? A man who's old enough to know and young enough to do...

What a great ad...I wish they still made 'em like this. You may remember seeing this on Mad Men.

How could Oswald have fired three shots

How could Oswald have fired three shots in such a short time in assassinating John F. Kennedy? Max Holland and Johann Rush suggest that a misunderstanding of the Zapruder footage is to blame.

If this belated revelation changes nothing from one perspective -- Oswald still did it -- it simultaneously changes everything, if only because it disrupts the state of mind of everyone who has ever been transfixed by the Zapruder film. The film, we realize, does not depict an assassination about to commence. It shows one that had already started.

Newly released footage of John F Kennedy

Newly released footage of John F Kennedy right before he was assassinated. Story here.

"Since the summer of 1962, a fire, fueled

"Since the summer of 1962, a fire, fueled by rich anthracite coal deposits, has been burning beneath the mining town of Centralia, Pennsylvania." This fire is almost old enough to have remembered where it was when JFK was assassinated. (thx, gerard)

Stablized version of the Zapruder film of

Stablized version of the Zapruder film of the Kennedy Assassination (mirror). Stabilized means the camera movement has been digitally edited out...the video is super-clear now.