Monday, June 23, 2003

Sacramento ablaze -- not These are a few Associated Press photos of protests in Sacramento this past weekend gearing up for the three-day international agriculture conference that begins today. I live close to downtown Sacramento, where these photos were taken and where All Hell is supposed to break loose, and so far I've seen nothing out of the ordinary except for a few more law enforcement vehicles than you normally see in Sacramento. This isn't going to be another Seattle, folks. Sadly, Sacramento can't even get anarchy right...  Update (Monday, June 23, 2003, 10:30 p.m.): Another fairly peaceful day here in Sacramento, with not even a single Starbucks window smashed. Yawn... Media photos taken today like those below might suggest that Sacramento is anything like Seattle, but it isn't. The protests are happening in a small area of downtown Sacramento and injuries and property damage and even the number of arrests have been relatively minimal. Had I known there would be a nekkid guy there, I might have gone to the protests today... Update (Tuesday, June 24, 2003, 11:30 p.m.): Yawn. The Sacramento Bee reports that the cops outnumbered the protesters today... Update (Saturday, June 28, 2003, 10 p.m.): It's all over and it was no big deal. The local media won't come right out and say it because nothing exciting ever happens here in Sacramento, and if there's even the potential for something big to happen here, the local media are going to milk it. So you have to look for the truth buried in there somewhere, like this nugget of truth in the fourth paragraph of a Sacramento Bee article wrapping up the Ministerial Conference and Expo on Agricultural Science and Technology: "There were no significant injuries or property damage, and as of Thursday afternoon, only 66 arrests." (That wouldn't have made a very interesting lead, would it?) The real story is the police overkill, which the Bee reports will cost taxpayers $2.3 million. The real story was in the Bee article -- if you read that far. The last five paragraphs of the story are: Law enforcement agencies, reacting to militant chatter on the Websites of a few of the protest groups, prepared for "Seattle times 10," a reference to the rioting that shook that city in 1999 during a World Trade Organization meeting. They braced for as many as 10,000 demonstrators. In the end, an estimated 2,000 demonstrators marched in the streets, policed by some 1,000 officers. While the strong show of force relieved some merchants and residents, others felt stressed by the constant drone of low-flying helicopters and the specter of streets lined with police in riot gear. [This was the case only in downtown Sacramento, not in all of Sacamento. I live only a mile or two from all of the "action," and my neighborhood was nothing like this. It was business as usual.] Stacy Selmants, who lives close to the [Sacramento] Convention Center, wondered why the numbers weren't pared down when it became clear the large numbers of protesters expected were not materializing. "It was like living in a scene from 'Apocalypse Now,' " Selmants said. "The noise and excessiveness began to annoy almost everybody in my neighborhood. Today, I woke up and it was very bizarre: There was no noise for the first time in four days." 7:12:20 PM    Comments []

Film reviews Fish & game Albert Brooks voices Marlin (below) and Ellen DeGeneres voices Dory (above) in "Finding Nemo." Finding Nemo "Finding Nemo," Pixar Studio's latest offering, is the summer's -- and perhaps the year's -- best film so far. In "Finding Nemo," juvenile clown fish Nemo (voiced by Alexander Gould) is captured by a scuba-diving dentist, who adds him to the aquarium in his office. Nemo's father Marlin (Albert Brooks) embarks on a journey to save his son, meeting a variety of creatures -- and dangers -- along the way. Marlin is accompanied by the blue fish Dory (the show-stealing Ellen DeGeneres), who suffers from short-term memory loss and who thus provides most of the film's humor. (Those with short-term memory loss might be offended, but, luckily, they'll soon forget about it.) I won't ruin the fun of "Finding Nemo" by rehashing its entire plot; not knowing what comes next is what makes the film enjoyable. "Nemo's" visuals are stunning and its screenplay is remarkably airtight, causing Salon's reviewer to remark that the film "works terribly hard for every scrap of charm or humor it imparts." Not true; we're just not used to seeing such a tightly put-together film. Well, actually, we are; "Nemo's" biggest fault is that it steals too much from Pixar's past films, which are also tightly wrapped. In "Toy Story," Pixar's first wide-release feature-length film, toys Woody and Buzz Lightyear find themselves cast from the safety of their 6-year-old owner Andy's bedroom and they must face the dangers of the outside world. Eventually they find themselves trapped in the bedroom of the rotten brat Sid, who lives next door to Andy and who dismembers toys and rearranges them, a la Dr. Frankenstein, into grotesque reconfigurations. It is up to the rest of the toys from Andy's bedroom to save Woody and Buzz from a sure and horrible mutilation at the hands of Sid. Similarly -- too similarly -- in "Finding Nemo," while Marlin and Dory face various dangers in the vast ocean while trying to get to Nemo, the other captives in the dentist's aquarium work together to try to reunite Nemo and Marlin before the dentists gives Nemo as a gift to his spoiled brat of a niece Darla, who wears menacing braces and kills fish through neglect. Darla is a female Sid, and the journey that Marlin and Dory take to save Nemo is essentially the same journey that Woody and Buzz take to get back to the safety of Andy's bedroom. Still, with its abundant humor, much of it geared toward adults, and its incredible visuals, "Finding Nemo" is highly entertaining. I dragged my animated-film-hating friend and former roommate Margie to it, promising her that if she didn't like it I'd reimburse her the price of her ticket. I didn't have to reimburse her, and that's saying a lot.   My grade: A+ P.S. Stay throughout the end credits. Canadian geese are a long way from home in a still from "Winged Migration." Winged Migration The documentary "Winged Migration" is a visual film, so words won't do it much justice. It must be experienced. "Winged Migration" chronicles the migration and the habits of several species of birds, including ducks, geese, swans, penguins, puffins, pelicans, cranes, storks, macaws and birds of prey. According to the film's Website, five film crews filmed the birds over three years over seven continents.   Many of the aerial visuals are mind-blowing and we are left to wonder how the filmmakers got shots that look as though the birds were fully cooperating with them, like actors. (At the beginning of the film we are assured that it employs no special effects.) In one of the many poignant scenes, a gaggle of geese fly past the still-standing World Trade Center. In another scene, the geese look quite out of place in the desert Southwest. Although it's rated G, "Migration" more appropriately should have been rated PG, as it is not for small children. The beauty of the birds' behavior is punctuated by some rather harsh doses of reality, such as a sea bird with a broken wing that becomes lunch for a crowd of crabs, baby birds in a nest in a field about to be hacked to pieces by approaching farm machinery, and geese that are minding their own business migrating until some NRA-card-carrying idiots blow them out of the sky after they've already come God-knows-how-many miles toward their destination. Probably "Migration's" biggest flaw is that it alternates between narration and subtitles to tell us, every once in a while, what's going on. It should have picked one method or the other, and when narration or subtitles do break in, most often what they tell us isn't very interesting or critical to our appreciation of the film. The film probably could do without them altogether, as it's more of a meditative piece than it is the usual informative nature documentary. "Winged Migration" would bore to tears those who crave car crashes, explosions and action sequences -- I found myself momentarily bored once or twice -- but it's also an an antidote to the usual summer movie fare. Those who appreciate animals and natural photography and have had enough car crashes, explosions and action sequences should find it worthwhile. My grade: A- 5:42:18 PM    Comments []