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Michael Parker's Journal
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Thursday, September 30, 2004 |
I don't know how you define domination but Kerry had Bush on the defensive as early as 15 minutes into the debate. From that point on, Bush had to use four or five of the extra 30 second time allowances in order to defend himself against Kerry. To my recollection, Kerry only requested one additional allowance of time. I call that domination.
Kerry's responses were more substantial, replete with stats, figures, names, treaties, etc. He showed more depth of knowledge in regards to American and international history. He used phrases spoken by Bush's own administration to defend Kerry's stance and remarks against Bush, including Powell's bucket analogy "If you break it, you fix it."
Kerry's responses often showed more depth of thought than Bush's. When replying to Bush's comments regarding how he feels about the troops fighting and dying in Iraq, Kerry's reply contained this bit of wisdom-- "Don't confuse the war with the warrior."
Bush, on the other hand, struggled most of the evening, especially during the extra time allottments, to come up with different ways to explain himself. He was stuck in the rut of using phrases over and again-- "a war at the wrong place at the wrong time" (5 times), "this is a grand diversion" (3), "we're getting the job done" (4), "we looked at the same intelligence" (4), "America will be more secure" (2).
I thought Bush was at his lowest point when asked if he thought attacks similar to 9/11 would occur under a Kerry presidency. In a rather defiant, smug manner, looking off into some nether region of the stage, he replied that he didn't think it will happen again because Kerry won't become president. (Hopefully this psychic is better than the one that told him that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that we would be greeted as liberators.)
And if one were to judge this debate solely on how the candidates looked, Bush would lose hands down. Bush is an open book. Every time Kerry spoke, Bush showed what he was feeling and thinking on his face. Bush was never comfortable having to listen to Kerry talk, no matter what Kerry's topic, even when Kerry wasn't slamming him. See Bush roll his eyes. See Bush scowl. See Bush chew on his lip. (This is the same look he displayed when he was listening to the kids read "My Pet Goat.") And see the corners of Bush's mouth droop below his chin and nearly off his face.
And the most uncomfortable moment for me was having to watch Bush give his closing remarks. His eyelids were blinking faster than windshields in a Florida hurricane. Call it the nerves, but it surely didn't look presidential.
Kerry, on the other hand, showed confidence, diplomatic composure, and had a presidential air to him. And this is key--no unusual faces.
10:14:05 PM  | |
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Tuesday, September 28, 2004 |
(2004)
Written and directed by Kerry Conran
Starring: Gwenyth Paltrow (Polly Perkins), Jude Law (Sky Captain), Angelina Jolie (Capt. Franky Cook), Giovanni Ribisi (Dex Dearborn), Michael Gambon (Editor Morris Paley), Ling Bai (Mysterious Woman), Omid Djalili (Kaji), Trevor Baxter (Dr. Walter Jennings), Julian Curry (Dr. Jorge Vargas), Peter Law (Dr. Kessler), Jon Rumney (German Scientist)
Special Appearance by the late Laurence Olivier (video archive) as Dr. Totenkopf.
Rated PG (for sequences of stylized sci-fi violence and brief mild language).
Who is Kerry Conran? Well, if you don’t know, it’s high time you did because his eight-plus-year project Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is movie magic!
Nearly a decade ago, so the story goes, Conran started Sky Captain on his Mac. He put together a seven-minute digital conceptualization of the film in order to convince Gwenyth Paltrow to come on board the project. When she saw it, she promptly signed on board, winning the role as the strong-willed investigative reporter, Polly Perkins.
Conran’s technologically advanced vision was costly at $70 million dollars and was no small feat. Consider the technical process he followed to achieve the amazing product we see:
Created a series of storyboard drawings.
Converted drawings into digital images on his Mac.
Images were refined and animated to produce live-action reality.
Digital actors, known as animatics, were added.
Lighting, depth, and composition were enhanced.
A grid was created for each slot and mapped out on the blue screen stage floor.
Acting doubles were brought in and used to pinpoint the actor’s placement and movements for each scene.
The actors, Jude Law, Gwenyth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and others were brought in and filmed in a blue room. Paltrow described it in a BBC interview as working in a "sea of blue." The only non-digital items on the film were the actual objects the actors touch in the film. Dots were in place to orient the actors where digital objects were located. The actors viewed the motions of the animatic actors to visualize where they needed to go in a scene. The actors were only on set for a month.
Adjustments of angles and shadows were made to produce a cohesive rough cut. The stars were muted in soft focus to give them the textured look of black-and-white movies.
I’ve heard it say that quality is achieved by a concentration on the details. I feel Conran’s film epitomizes this rule. The visual effects, indeed, the entire film is of such high quality that it is simply an amazing, impressive cinematic achievement. Forget about Spider-Man 2. The visual effects nomination and Oscar should be coming Conran’s way.
The visual concept for Sky Captain is ingenious. Conran sets his story in a time and place reminiscent of how the cartoonists and science fiction writers and artists of the late 1930's and 40's viewed the future-- Zeppelin passenger airships (e.g. Hindenberg) dock on the tops of skyscrapers; and flying robots and saucers (like those featured in Orson Welles terror-inducing War of the Worlds) invade and try to take over the world; and heros of the land and air (i.e. Flash Gordon) fight the forces of evil to save the world.
I think the genius lies in how the film looks. Everything is done in a scepia-like wash that has the lighting and shadows of the old black-and-white films. The effect makes you feel like you are watching an old film; and a classic one at that.
The script itself is a delighful surprise.
What endeared me to the film was Conran's references to the film The Wizard of Oz. For example, consider one of the early scenes in the film: Someone is kidnapping or killing scientists. The investigative reporter, Polly Perkins has just received a lead from a scientist, who has requested that she meet him at Radio City Hall. As they talk in the balcony, the premiere of the film Wizard of Oz is playing on the screen in the background. We watch Glenda, the good witch, materialize on the screen behind their faces. Soon afterword, when the theater's sirens sound, we hear Dorothy say "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore." This symbolizes a loss of innocence, if you will, a foreshadowing of doom, the turning of the green season to Fall and Winter.
Another reference occurs when Sky Captain, Polly Perkins, Dex, and a few of the kidnapped scientists stand at the great door of Dr. Totenkopf. As one of the scientists approaches the door, a giant head materializes above them and proceeds to berate them for seeking out the doctor. It echoes Dorothy's visit to the inner-sanctum of the Wizard's palace and their conversation with the overly mean Wizard.
The song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is also used. It plays in the closing credits and seems to highlight Conran's obvious adoration of this classic film. But, I add, it lends a masterful final touch of class to this film as well.
The Oz references are highly fitting for a couple of reasons. Though Sky Captain is not the first film to use computer-generated sets and effects, it is the first film to use the medium on such a grand scale-- the only things that are real are the props the actors actually use. In comparison, The Wizard of Oz was an achievement in film in 1939 because it was the first film to incorporate technicolor.
More than this, though, I like the reference to Oz for symbolic effect. Oz is about numerous themes-- the loss of innocence; finding yourself off course and in search of your way home; the search for the meaning of life; overcoming your fears and/or weaknesses; finding the personal strength to fight your enemies; realizing what matters most in life; and the adventure of finding your purpose in life.
Sky Captain incorporates many of these same themes. One thing that Sky Captain has that Oz doesn't is a cleverly written love story in which Perkins and Sky Captain spar over their broken relationship with the same type of caustic enthusiasm as Princess Leia and Han Solo.
Lastly, I want to laud the performances of all the actors, especially Jude Law, Gwenyth Paltrow, and Angelina Jolie. I could not help but compare the performances in Sky Captain to those of the actors in the latest Star Wars episodes 1 and 2. The actors in all of these films acted in front of blue screens. In Star Wars, I felt the performances were as dynamic as card-board cutouts. This puzzled me because the actors (Liam Neesan, Ewan McGreggor, Natalie Portman, and Hayden Christensen), in my opinion, are quite capable, talented actors. I wonder if the performances are fashioned by who is directing the film. In light of this, Conran obviously is the better director.
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is one of the best surprises of the year. It's fun, it's smart; and it's one hell of an action ride.
Note: Technical aspects of the film used from the BBC article, Sky Captain’s Blue Screen Magic.
9:42:27 PM | |
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The latest edition of Virtual Occuquan, or as it looks like it is called on the table of contents page, The Occuquan Inquirer, is online today. And my review of "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" is just one of the many fine articles and stories found within.
"Lindsay, Lindsay, Lindsay......Lohan, Lohan, Lohan!"
6:22:50 PM | |
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Monday, September 27, 2004 |
My blogging may be sparse this week. The big marathon is this Saturday morning and I need to get my sleep. I say "big" because it is the last big marathon in Utah--6,400 runners; best supported race; and most fans.
My goal is to shave 12 minutes off of last year's time so that I come in under 4 hours. If I get my sleep, follow my hydration plan, and carbo-load, I am confident I will have the energy to sustain me throughout the race, especially if it gets hot. The weather channel is predicting thunder storms and rain. Rain would be a welcome guest.
I'm dedicating this race to my friend, Daniel, who is unable to run the marathon this year. I'll run the race with his name on my bib. This race would have been his 8th. On the 29th of August, Daniel was riding around the neighborhood trying out the new dirt bike that he had purchased. His daughter was riding on the back.
As he was coming up onto a corner, a teenage driver was coming the opposite direction going too fast and cutting the corner. To avoid what Daniel saw was an evident collision, he swerved the bike to the right and dove off the bike. His daughter held fast to him. She got scratches and a couple of sprained fingers. As Daniel dove from the bike, however, the bike fell on his right leg, twisting it and breaking bones in 5 places. He underwent an operation last week. He has a metal plate stabilizing the tibia, secured with 7 screws. He will not be able to run until April. The metal plate comes off in a year from now. He will not be able to run a marathon until 2006.
Daniel and his wife Nina have been great friends for many years. It is an honor to run in his memory this year. (Another great reason to rock the clock!)
9:10:31 PM | |
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The Hollywood Reporter announced the release of the extended version of the Oscar winning film, The Return of the King. December 14. Just in time for the Christmas rush.
The extended version features 50 additional minutes of footage, including a cameo appearance by Peter Jackson getting shot by an arrant arrow.
The report gave some impressive stats. Check this out:
- The theatrical version of Return of the King has sold more than 10 million combined DVD and VHS units since its May 25 release.
- The extended-version releases of the first two films The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, have sold about 5 million combined DVD and VHS units each.
There is a limited collector's edition DVD also being released. It contains everything inlcuding a fifth disk :
The limited collector's edition DVD of the "King" extended version includes a fifth disc that contains a 52-minute feature, "Howard Shore: Creating the Lord of the Rings Symphony -- A Composer's Journey Through Middle-Earth." The bonus feature includes excerpts of live concert footage of the Lord of the Rings Symphony recorded with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. There's also a hand-painted polystone sculpture of Minas Tirith and its accompanying keepsake box.
I can't wait for this release. We've been waiting for it since we saw the film last year!
8:43:36 PM | |
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Friday, September 24, 2004 |
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Thursday, September 23, 2004 |
Kos, over at DailyKos asked his readers to submit questions that they would ask the president if they could attend the debates. He received over 500 of them. Here are some that jumped out:
Why have you lost interest in Osama bin Laden, the leader of the organization that attacked the United States of America on September 11?"
Mr. President, in July of 2003 you said if anyone wanted to attack our troops in Iraq, they should bring it on. In March of this year you appeared at a reporters' dinner and ran a video in which you jokingly stumbled around your office looking for weapons of mass destruction. Can you explain this behavior to the families who have lost loved ones in Iraq?"
You recently received a formal intelligence assessment provided by your own agencies, indicating that our mission in Iraq was in great danger of failing. You described this as the CIA 'just guessing'. and indicated that you did not believe what it said. What intelligence sources do you trust when it comes to giving you an accurate assessment of the situation in Iraq?
Do you believe it is best to stick to your guns on an issue even when history is proving the decision incorrect? What about the example of older members of your party were adamant segregationists who have now changed their views and don't apologize for this change of heart. Would you call this flip flopping and a moral weakness? Are there times when admitting your previous position was a mistake is actually a sign of strength?
"If Andrew Card came to you in that Florida classroom and told you that your family had been carjacked on September 11, would you still have sat there for seven minutes and done nothing?"
And from Atrios today, I found this question posted by Bernard Shaw. He cites a few quotes from the president and one from Dan Bartlett:
Bush, various times :
"I hug the mothers and the widows of those who may have lost their life in the name of peace and freedom." - February 10, 2003
"I'm the person in this country that hugs the mothers and the widows if their son or husband dies." - February 10, 2003
"I understand what it means to put somebody into combat. I know what it means to hug mothers and wives." - January 29, 2003
"There's only one person who hugs the mothers and the widows, the wives and the kids on the death of their loved ones...Having committed the troops, I've got an additional responsibility to hug." - December 2002
Danny Boy, this morning:
He's the one who hugs the widows and consoles the families of those who have sacrificed for this very great cause.
Debate question:
Mr. Bush, just how many widows have you hugged?
Personally, I highly doubt the president will be asked such thought-provoking, meaningful questions. Instead, we might hear something along the lines of these terribly dumbed-down, mind-numbing, or absolutely meaningless drivel:
Your father hated broccoli. What’s your least favorite vegetable?
What’s your favorite state and why?
Who’s your favorite president and how is he an influence on your presidency?
If you could give the world a gift, what would that gift be?
What three qualities do you think a president needs to have?
Considering how the world is turning its back on us, do you stay away from eating foreign foods?
If we needed to bring democracy to more countries, which countries would that be and why?
What is your favorite Arnold Schwarzeneger character and why?
Do you prefer wearing jeans or slacks; and cowboy boots or loafers? And why?
If you could spend five minutes with anyone who ever lived, who would that be and why? What would you talk about?
Some of your phrases have become legitimate words (i.e. bling bling). If you could put any other term into the dictionary, what term would that be and why?
What characteristic is the world most in need of and how would you help the world obtain it?
I guess it would be a cold day in hell if someone asked him how to spell the word "nuclear" or what other books, besides "My Pet Goat," does he feel is a reflection of his presidency?
8:13:54 PM | |
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Wednesday, September 22, 2004 |
The information in Juan Cole's article should be read from the housetops of America. One cannot be more descriptive than this. Bravo Juan Cole! Here are a few excerpts. You should read the whole thing, though, really you should....
President Bush said Tuesday that the Iraqis are refuting the pessimists and implied that things are improving in that country.
What would America look like if it were in Iraq's current situation? The population of the US is over 11 times that of Iraq, so a lot of statistics would have to be multiplied by that number.
Thus, violence killed 300 Iraqis last week, the equivalent proportionately of 3,300 Americans. What if 3,300 Americans had died in car bombings, grenade and rocket attacks, machine gun spray, and aerial bombardment in the last week? That is a number greater than the deaths on September 11, and if America were Iraq, it would be an ongoing, weekly or monthly toll.
And what if those deaths occurred all over the country, including in the capital of Washington, DC, but mainly above the Mason Dixon line, in Boston, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco?
What if the grounds of the White House and the government buildings near the Mall were constantly taking mortar fire? What if almost nobody in the State Department at Foggy Bottom, the White House, or the Pentagon dared venture out of their buildings, and considered it dangerous to go over to Crystal City or Alexandria?
What if all the reporters for all the major television and print media were trapped in five-star hotels in Washington, DC and New York, unable to move more than a few blocks safely, and dependent on stringers to know what was happening in Oklahoma City and St. Louis? What if the only time they ventured into the Midwest was if they could be embedded in Army or National Guard units?
There are estimated to be some 25,000 guerrillas in Iraq engaged in concerted acts of violence. What if there were private armies totalling 275,000 men, armed with machine guns, assault rifles (legal again!), rocket-propelled grenades, and mortar launchers, hiding out in dangerous urban areas of cities all over the country? What if they completely controlled Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Denver and Omaha, such that local police and Federal troops could not go into those cities?
What if, during the past year, the Secretary of State (Aqilah Hashemi), the President (Izzedine Salim), and the Attorney General (Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim) had all been assassinated?
.....What if no one had electricity for much more than 10 hours a day, and often less? What if it went off at unpredictable times, causing factories to grind to a halt and air conditioning to fail in the middle of the summer in Houston and Miami? What if the Alaska pipeline were bombed and disabled at least monthly? What if unemployment hovered around 40%?
.....What if municipal elections were cancelled and cliques close to the new "president" quietly installed in the statehouses as "governors?" What if several of these governors (especially of Montana and Wyoming) were assassinated soon after taking office or resigned when their children were taken hostage by guerrillas?
What if the leader of the European Union maintained that the citizens of the United States are, under these conditions, refuting pessimism and that freedom and democracy are just around the corner?
8:25:35 PM | |
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Jason Burke, the Chief Reporter, at The Observer reports:
The British Army is to start pulling troops out of Iraq next month despite the deteriorating security situation in much of the country, The Observer has learnt.
The main British combat force in Iraq, about 5,000-strong, will be reduced by around a third by the end of October during a routine rotation of units.
The news came amid another day of mayhem in Iraq, which saw a suicide bomber kill at least 23 people and injure 53 in the northern city of Kirkuk. The victims were queueing to join Iraq's National Guard.
More than 200 people were killed last week in one of the bloodiest weeks since last year's invasion, strengthening impressions that the country is spinning out of control.....
News of the troop withdrawal comes at a difficult time for Blair, with the publication yesterday of leaked documents suggesting that he was warned a year before the invasion that it could prompt a meltdown.....
In another embarrassment for the Prime Minister, a draft report from the Iraqi Survey Group, set up to investigate Saddam Hussein's weapons programme, has concluded that the former dictator's only chemical or biological armament was a small amount of poison for use in political killings.
I wonder if this pull-back of about one-third of their infantry is due to the pressure put on Blair the past couple of days? I don't know much about military manuevers or strategy. Right now, it seems that Iraq needs more troops to stabilize the increasing numbers of insurgent attacks, not less. But maybe the problem is the lack of strategy and control. So it doesn't matter how many troops you have stationed there.
8:13:19 PM | |
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As reports were surfacing late yesterday afternoon about Hensley's decapitation, my friend asked me if I had heard the fact that the morning these men were kidnapped, that their body guards didn't show up. I had not heard that. I found this fact reported by the AFP back on September 19. This is the excerpt:
Americans Jack Hensley and Eugene "Jack" Armstrong and British engineer Kenneth Bigley were snatched from their house in Baghdad's upscale Mansour district by gunmen on Thursday.
Patty Hensley said she and her husband had had "our usual daily conversation of how are things going for you, how are things going for me" about 45 minutes before the abduction.
Accustomed to tension and threats that came and went, the three sensed something wrong in the days before they were taken.
"They were provided with round-the-clock guards at their home, Iraqi guards who were armed, and the guards had stopped showing up for work or showed up for work and had some excuse as to why they couldn't stay.
"The morning they were abducted there was no guard as there should have been," she said.
"Everybody was working on it, trying to figure out what's wrong and what do we need to do, and before they had an opportunity, this happened."
I have a few questions.
Who hired the Iraqi security guards? Were these guards employed by the same private Gulf-based equipment firm that Hensley, Armstrong, and Bigley worked for? Or did their employer hire contract security guards from a security-for-hire service? What were the names of the hired guards? What is being done to find them? Did one or all of them have ties to the terrorist group who kidnapped them?
The company they worked for failed in some regard to check the background and credentials of these guards. And the company should be held completely liable for the tragic deaths of their employees.
7:53:37 PM | |
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Tuesday, September 21, 2004 |
John Kerry was on the David Letterman Show last night and he prepared a top ten list on Bush's Tax Proposals. If Kerry indeed made these up, I think it shows a flair for great wit. Here's the list:
10. No estate tax for families with at least two U.S. presidents.
9. W-2 Form is now Dubya-2 Form.
8. Under the simplified tax code, your refund check goes directly to Halliburton.
7. The reduced earned income tax credit is so unfair, it just makes me want to tear out my lustrous, finely groomed hair.
6. Attorney General (John) Ashcroft gets to write off the entire U.S. Constitution.
5. Texas Rangers can take a business loss for trading Sammy Sosa.
4. Eliminate all income taxes; just ask Teresa (Heinz Kerry) to cover the whole damn thing.
3. Cheney can claim Bush as a dependent.
2. Hundred-dollar penalty if you pronounce it "nuclear" instead of "nucular."
1. George W. Bush gets a deduction for mortgaging our entire future.
# 3 is especially hilarious!
7:41:39 PM | |
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Monday, September 20, 2004 |
I've been reviewing my notes of the Erol Morris documentary of Robert McNamara, The Fog of War. There are two comments of McNamara's that seem fitting with today's news. 1) The human race needs to think more about killing, about conflict. Is this what we want in the twenty-first century? And 2) We must try to place ourselves in thier shoes and think how they think.
With over 1,025 soldier's dead and Iraq spiraling further out of control, with a likelihood of civil war, one has to ask themself if the hard questions are being asked by those who took us to war. After a year and a half, have we heard a strategy for winning the peace? It is commonplace these days that the media is hounding Kerry to state his plan for Iraq. How would you do this differently? I was asked this question myself today by a friend. My reply was simply: This is a tall order. I don't even know if the President of the United States has even told us his solutions.
Today on NPR, they discussed how Bush was catering his compassionate conservatism to women, in hopes of winning their vote. The ideal of compassion means, in a matter of speaking, that you can place yourself in someone else's shoes and understand where they have walked and where they are walking to. IN light of the current state of Iraq, and the beheading of Eugene Armstrong, do you think Bush fits the definition? I think if he were compassionate, there would be more substance to his policies, less bravado, less fear-mongering, less reactionary behavior, and sincere dialogue. I don't think we would be at this point.
INstead, I fear, we have a man-boy for president who hasn't ever learned how to cope with not getting everything he wants, who has never had to go out and find a job, who has never had to go without a meal or two, who has never had to live from paycheck to paycheck, who does not know what it feels like having a son or daughter off to war, who has never had to rely on the goodness of others in order to give his kids a decent Christmas. He has a disconnect with the common American. He has a disconnect with anything he has no interest in. He is part to blame for the disconnect with the world and its peace.
Bush is not one to put on other people's shoes.
The other night, my wife and I drove by a used car dealership. Advertised all over its building and lot was the phrase "No Lemons Here." We laughed and commented that the reality must be that they do in fact sell lemons. Bush trying to sell us over on his compassion looks and feels the same way.
Here is the AP report about the beheading of Eugene Armstrong. One of these days, do you think someone will say enough is enough?
By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The militant group lead by al-Qaida ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi posted a gruesome video on a Web site Monday showing the decapitation of a man identified as American civil engineer Eugene Armstrong and said a second hostage — either an American or a Briton — would be killed in 24 hours.
The grisly beheading was the latest killing in a particularly violent month in Iraq, with more than 300 people dead in insurgent attacks and U.S. military strikes over the past seven days. Earlier Monday, gunmen in Baghdad assassinated two clerics from a powerful Sunni Muslim group that has served as a mediator to release hostages.
The video of the beheading of the man said to be Armstrong, whose age was not known, surfaced soon after the expiration of a 48-hour deadline set earlier by al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group for the beheading of the three civil engineers. The men — Armstrong, American Jack Hensley and Briton Kenneth Bigley — were abducted Thursday from their home in a wealthy Baghdad neighborhood.
A militant whose voice resembled al-Zarqawi read a statement in the video saying the next hostage would be killed in 24 hours unless all Muslim women prisoners are released from U.S. military jails.
"You, sister, rejoice. God's soldiers are coming to get you out of your chains and restore your purity by returning you to your mother and father," he said before grabbing the hostage, seated at his feet, and cutting his throat.
In Washington, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Armstrong's body had been recovered, but the official would provide no information about where or when.
The taped beheading appears to be of Armstrong, but the CIA is still studying it to be sure, the official said.
The 9-minute tape, posted on a Web site used by Islamic militants, showed a man seated on the floor, blindfolded and wearing an orange jumpsuit — similar to the orange uniform worn by prisoners at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — with his hands bound behind his back. Five militants dressed in black stood behind him, four of them armed with assault rifles, with a black Tawhid and Jihad banner on the wall.
9:47:43 PM | |
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Saturday, September 18, 2004 |
John O'Farrell's column "Hugh Grant's got my vote" is the most hilarious piece of commentary I've read on the American elections and on how European citizens can help Kerry win the election. (O'Farrell writes regularly for the Guardian Unlimited.) I know that I'm not supposed to post whole articles. But on this one, damn me to hell. I just don't care. It's that good.
Researchers in Maryland recently completed a world-wide poll to see how citizens of countries beyond America would vote in the forthcoming presidential election. They rang millions of random numbers all across the globe, with one particular call certainly taking Osama bin Laden by surprise.
"Hello, we are phoning from the United States to see if you are a supporter of George Bush."
"Um...no, not really..."
"Do you think he has done enough to catch Osama bin Laden?"
"Yes, plenty, there's nothing else he should do..."
"OK, could we just take your name, please?"
"It's Mr Bin-, I mean, Robinson, Monty Robinson, from Reykjavik, oh yes, I love fish."
As it turned out, Osama suddenly began to worry that John Kerry might be lying about his war record and so ended up plumping for Dubya.
But just about everyone else seems to be hoping for a Democrat victory. In Norway, the margin was 74% for Kerry and only 7% for Bush, with the president getting the same level of support in Spain and only 5% in France. Even if Bush got this share of the vote at home, he'll somehow manage to fiddle it so he wins.
It is hardly surprising that Kerry has inspired so many people around the world, because his outstanding attributes are plain to see. Firstly, who can have failed to notice that wonderful "not-George-Bush" quality about him? Plus there is that certain "un-Dubya-ness" he seems to possess, not to mention what the French call the "il n'est pas George Bush" aspect of his personality.
Many of us have been moved to tears by his speeches. "Is that the best the Democrats can do?" we wept. And there is the fact that he served in Vietnam, where he was seriously injured by enemy fire, leaving army surgeons with no choice but to amputate his charisma.
But the tragedy is that while millions of us in Europe and beyond desperately care about who becomes the next president, none of us has any influence over the outcome. The time has come for European liberals to get together and do something about this.
One possibility might be to make commercials of our own to put out on American TV. Obviously, we couldn't let on that we were a bunch of lefty foreigners - we'd have to give our organisation an authentic-sounding alias - something neutral like the American Creationist Freedom Rifle Patriots for Truth.
But imagine the impact of some grainy footage of a young Dubya, with a gravelly voice-over whispering: "Everyone knows that George Bush did not fight for his country during the Vietnam war. This is because he was actually fighting for the Vietcong, leading the infamous Gay Jihad Atheists Squad, who captured American soldiers and forced them to become vegetarians and play soccer."
Never mind that every time we express outrage that George Bush wriggled out of going to Vietnam, we privately think: "Excellent move, George, that's exactly what I would have done." By the time the facts were checked the damage would be done, and Bush would be 20 points behind in the polls.
The only trouble with this idea is that the various European directors would never be able to agree on a style for the commercial. The French would want to film it as an allegorical three-hour internal monologue from a chain-smoking poet battling writer's block.
The British would have Hugh Grant as a love-struck ex-Beatle who gets mistaken for John Kerry by Emma Thompson. In the end the whole project would be handed over to the experimental Prague Cartoon Workshop, which has just won lots of awards for its unusual animation style when in fact it's just not very good at drawing.
If the advert idea is a non-starter, there is a more direct way that non-American liberals can get involved in the US election. Why don't we just offer to buy the votes of all those US citizens who aren't really that bothered? A majority of Americans won't even take part in the most important election in the world, and I'm sure they'd appreciate the $20 or $30 that lots of us would quite willingly pay to cast their votes for them.
So I call on all apolitical skint Americans to get themselves a postal vote and auction it on eBay. What could be more in the spirit of American capitalist democracy than disenfranchising yourself for the sake of some cash?
The laws of the free market would settle the price of a ballot paper; votes from swing states would go for that much more, of course, although personally I'm hoping for a vote in Texas, because it will be so humiliating when Bush even loses his home state. Sadly, in my first attempt to bid for a vote, I lost the auction to someone calling themselves GWB@whitehouse.us.
Still, the winner was kind enough to send me an email. It said: "Nice try, limey, but we've got a lot more money than you and you're not the first person to have this idea. P.S. How do you think I got in last time?"
6:01:21 PM | |
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Friday, September 17, 2004 |
(2004)
Directed by: Sara Sugarman
Screenplay by: Gail Parent
Starring: Lindsay Lohan (Mary Elizabeth Cep/Lola), Adam Garcia (Stu), Glenne Headly (Karen), Alison Pill (Ella), Eli Marienthal (Sam), Carol Kane (Miss Baggoli), Megan Fox (Carla), Sheila McCarthy (Mrs. Gerard), Tom McCamus (Calum), Richard Fitzpatrick (Mr. Gerard), Sheila Sealy-Smith (Sgt. Rose), Ashley Leggat (Marcia), Barbara Mamabolo (Robin), Maggie Oskam (Paige), Rachael Oskam (Paula).
Disney stuck their head in the ugly-bucket on this film!
Yes....oh yes....many things went wrong somewhere in the creation of Confessions, starting with the story itself. It seems to have been thrown together faster than you can actually say the title of the film. It’s simply implausible and cliche.
Was it a first draft? Did the dog get a hold of it on the way to the studio? Was Gail Parent abducted by DreamWorks and brainwashed? Note to self: call DreamWorks and try blackmailing them on this. Might be lucrative.
I simply think it was a matter of money. Maybe Disney was salivating over the monstrous success and acclaim of Freaky Friday and their teenage star Lindsay Lohan. (After all, she does have a highly endearing film presence full of characteristics like charm, spunk, and wit. She reminds me of that young child-star Jodie Foster.) So, in order to capitalize on good fortune, and not let the sun go down on the memory (and wallets) of the fickle movie-goers of America, they had to hop on the next Lindsay Lohan film, and pronto.
"Damnit people," I can hear an executive scream. "I don’t care if you have to chain Gail Parent to her computer. Threaten her. Tell her you’re going to take away her fingers if she even appears to stop typing!"
[The executive sips from his water bottle. Stands up. Starts pacing at front of room.]
"And while I have your attention, this is what I want. [Suddenly pounding fists onto the table.] Lindsay, Lindsay, Lindsay!.....Lohan, Lohan, Lohan! She is our ticket. She is our friggin’ golden ticket! I want her with a new look so we can market the Lindsay Lohan line. I want her rolling her eyes and tossing her head to the side in disgust in every scene. I want her competing with the prettiest girl at high school. I want cat- fights and parent fights; unreasonable adults; stupid adults; stupid teachers; drunken rock stars. I want Lindsay solving all their problems. I want her saving the day. I want her dancing. I want her singing. I want a friggin’ Lindsay Lohan soundtrack that goes double platinum! This is our moment people! Now you get me that script and you get it to me yesterday!"
And maybe because there was this rush to write the script, there was also a rush to proofread it for basic holes in logic. But maybe this line of thinking is inaccurate because someone sure did spend a lot of time creating the annoying and meaningless paper-cutout animated flashbacks and/or dream sequences.
But back to the logic line-of-thinking. The whole premise seems to require you to forgo any sense of reality-two teenage girls go to Manhattan by themselves for a concert; Mary’s father appears out of nowhere and follows them; the girls trying to get into the concert; the girls going around to the back door of the concert and there is no security there; the lead singer coming out the back door (totally pissed) while the girls are standing there; and so on till the end of the film.
What annoyed me most however was Carol Kane’s caricature of Miss Biggoli. Her performance was so over-the-top at times that I found it hard to believe that she was not a patient at an asylum, let alone being a drama teacher at the high school and the writer, director and choreographer of a very highly polished, contemporary musical version of Pygmalian. Should we blame this on Sugarman’s direction?
I wanted to like Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen because of Lindsay Lohan. But, alas, I was sorely disappointed.
Lindsay, keep your chin up; be more selective; and hope to see you soon in drama. If you’re anything like Jodie, like I sense you are, you’ll be going places.
5:23:41 PM | |
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Thursday, September 16, 2004 |
The Guardian Unlimited published the poem School In Beslan, written by Yevgeny Yevtushenko and translated by Jason Longacre. I like it because of its message. I like it because the narrator throws images at us in small incessant phrases, like explosions with accompanying shrapnel flying willy-nilly. I like the narrator's internal conflict-- it's sincere, angry, guilty, redemptive, devastating. In his picture of Beslan, I see the broken school, the mayhem, the wounded children, the townsfolk scurrying frantically trying to find and save the children, and the terrorists dressed in the color of night, of sleep, of death, towering over the innocent children like monsters they might see in late-night television movies or in their nightmares. I think terror has made many of us callous; and angry. Where have we come from? Where are we going after the smoke clears and the bodies are buried? I think Yevtushenko attempts to find the answers in the ruins of Beslan.
Here are a few excerpts from his poem:
I am a drop-out of all the world's schools.
I am an exile from everywhere for somebody's sins.
But I came to you, Beslan,
to learn from the ruins of your school.
Beslan, I know I am a bad father.
What, if I, myself, would see with my own eyes
the death of all my five sons,
only to survive into old age for my punishment?
*****
Between charred school desks and clouds of smoke,
Mohammed and Christ wander like brothers
picking up the children by little pieces.
Our multi-named God, embrace all of us!
Help us survive, hot buried ingloriously
together with omni-religious children,
not saved by us....
******
As more and more dead bodies are behind us,
the price of all living is cheaper and cheaper.
But vengeance doesn't help anything.
Multinamed God, save us from vengeance!
If there are still some living children here
let's not forget that only, sacred word "together".
Someone, who didn't save children - not a hero.
All of us are naked before a naked truth.
I am together with the charred children.
I am one of them. I, too, am from the school of Beslan.
......How the face of the sky changes,
when the darkness roared with tanks in Beslan,
and with a premonition of the end
in that school, in that basketball hoop
trembled explosives, hung by Stalin.
10:26:46 PM | |
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Wednesday, September 15, 2004 |
There are two items I came across today about the 9/11 Widows and their endorsement of John Kerry today.
1. Kristen Breitweiser gave some incredible comments in a CNN interview with Judy Woodruff. LiberalOasis believes that Breitweiser may be the "most powerful advocate for Kerry in the country." Consider excerpts from the transcript. (Thanks to LiberalOasis for the link.)
Read the whole transcript here.
BREITWEISER: ...I spent, along with the other 9/11 family members, three years trying to get 9/11 issues addressed by this administration.
And it's been a long fight, and I use the word fight because that's what it was.
And I think it's disappointing to be this far removed from 9/11 and to still not feel as safe as we could be feeling...
...We tried to have accountability assigned, and it's just not happening under this administration.
And I have a five-year-old daughter. I want to know that I'm safer than I am right now.
And President Bush has not put me in that place, and I believe Senator Kerry will.
WOODRUFF: You said that you voted for George W. Bush in 2000. What has turned you around?
BREITWEISER: I think my own personal experience in the last three years...
...I'd hoped that President Bush -- someone that I voted for, that my husband voted for -- would have been my biggest ally in trying to correct the problems that occurred on the morning of September 11th and trying to make this nation safer.
And what I found out, for the last three years, is that he was our biggest adversary.
And I'm very disappointed --
WOODRUFF: Specifically because he what?
BREITWEISER: With regard to the 9/11 Commission, President Bush:
Fought the creation of the commission;
Fought the legislative language to make sure the commission was set up in a bipartisan manner;
Fought the funding of the commission;
Fought an extension for the commission;
Fought access to individuals and documents.
...
WOODRUFF: But in the last analysis, the president did come around on most of that, didn't he?
BREITWEISER: He came around after he was backed into a corner and after a 90-8 vote in the Senate. And it was a long year.
And I wonder, what if the president had started his own commission in the days after 9/11, much like happened in Pearl Harbor.
Maybe this wouldn't be a campaign issue this year. Maybe national security would be taken care of. Maybe I would feel safe.
Maybe I wouldn't be so scared three years since 9/11.
And I think it's terribly sad that it is an issue in this campaign, because it's an issue -- because it hasn't been taken care of.
WOODRUFF: Are you going to get involved in his campaign? Will you campaign for him?
You were just telling me that you haven't flown in an airplane since 9/11.
BREITWEISER: I have not flown in an airplane since 9/11.
When I see planes in the sky, I have flashbacks of the plane entering my husband's building.
I have committed to the campaign that I will travel. I want to get the word out.
I want the people in this country to understand that national security must be a priority -- a priority in action, not just in words.
And I'm willing to get on a plane. And assuming I can do that, I will do that.
And that is how committed I am, and how much I believe in Senator Kerry being our president.
WOODRUFF: Some people are going to ask, were you in any way used by this campaign?
Are they in any way taking advantage of your obvious and understandable emotions in order to get you to --
BREITWEISER: And I can tell you from my heart, I reached out to the Kerry campaign.
I reached out after the Republican convention that was in New York.
And I felt that listening to people talk about 9/11 as incessantly as it was done during the campaign, or the convention in New York --
If you're going to use 9/11, use it to make this nation safer than it was on 9/11.
And that's not being done...
...Don't use 9/11 to go to war in a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 -- not on my husband's name. The war in Iraq has increased recruitment of Al Qaeda. It has increased animosity and hatred toward Americans. I want to know that I'm safer. I lost my husband. I want to know that my daughter and I are safer. And President Bush hasn't done that.
2. Salon printed a feature article "President Bush Thwarted Our Attempts at Every Turn" about the endorsement today and how the 9/11 Widows, because of their determination and thirst to know the truth, are the reason we know what we know about 9/11 today. Here are a few excerpts from that article:
Over the last three years, the group of 9/11 widows turned activists dubbed the "Jersey Girls" have become a fixture on the Washington political scene. Some of them are Republicans, others Democrats or independents. But they are all determined to hold official Washington accountable for the attacks that killed their husbands and nearly 3,000 others. They have held news conferences, lobbied members of Congress, pored over documents, and forced the White House to accept an independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Along the way, the women have learned about coverups, obfuscation, political cowardice, deceptions and the dangers of eschewing international alliances for a go-it-alone foreign policy.
And their conclusion: For the sake of the country's future, John Kerry must replace George W. Bush.
*****
The Jersey Girls are. They have read seemingly every scrap of information about 9/11 and al-Qaida, from news articles to affidavits to footnotes in obscure government reports. And their command of the facts is what has made them so effective. On Sept. 18, 2002, when much of the public was still sympathetic to the Bush administration position that the attacks could not have been foreseen or prevented, Breitweiser gave a statement before the joint House-Senate investigation into intelligence lapses; it may have changed the course of history.
And you know what makes this endorsement highly legit? The fact that they approached Kerry. Kerry didn't come after their endorsement.
9:38:06 PM | |
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The other evening, while driving to the gym, I heard Melissa Block’s touching interview with Sam Swopes about his new book I Am A Pencil. Years ago, Swopes was struggling as a writer. The ideas weren’t coming to him as freely as usual; his passion to write was weak. So he chose to help children at the local elementary school in Queens develop skills of writing and expressing themselves. What started out as a 10-day project for third graders turned into a three-year project. He mentored students from 21 countries. I Am A Pencil is a culmination of his experiences with his students and the stories and poems created by his students. The most touching aspect of Block’s interview came when she walked Swopes through a series of questions about the poems created by the children during their 17 days visiting Central Park. Since these kids lived in the inner-city, going to Central Park was the first time they had ever been in nature. Some of the poems Swopes and Block read on air, especially one from Su Jung, were thoughtful and impressive, considering these were mere fifth graders.
For your consideration, this is an excerpt about his student Maya: Maya was a model student with a peaceful, pleasant manner. When we studied Stevens, I did not sense that anything was wrong, and did not know her favorite uncle had just died, or that her best friend had betrayed her. It wasn’t until sometime later that her mother called to tell me Maya was often overwhelmed with tears and cried out to her parents, "I want to die! I want to die!"
As still as night
as night is
still
The wind blows
the bird chirps
the dog barks
but still
the tree is still.
The bark falls off
but there is no sign
of pain, or suffering.
How can this be?
No pain,
no nothing that a
human has.
So giving
and strong,
nothing really
in its way. -- Maya
Read more excerpts from this book here.
8:59:30 PM | |
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Tuesday, September 14, 2004 |
I received these enhanced photos via email today. Maybe you have seen them too. I think they are hilarious! To whomever created them, marvelous job! BRAVO!
I've got your conservative compassion right here!
 
 
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Monday, September 13, 2004 |
As we head into the last quarter of the year, it is only apporpriate to look at a few stats regarding film so far in 2004.
Let's start off by looking at the Top Grossing Films of 2004 so far.
- Shrek 2 $438.478
- The Passion of the Christ $370.233
- Spider-Man 2 $369.889
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban $248.345
- The Day After Tomorrow $186.370
- The Bourne Supremacy $164.769
- I, Robot $141.887
- Troy $133.228
- 50 First Dates $120.777
- Van Helsing $120.025
- Fahrenheit 9/11 $118.003
- DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story $113.726
- The Village $112.179
Last year, there were 25 films that broke the $100 million milestone. 2004 only needs twelve more films to match 2003. Will 2004 do it? I think it's going to be close. I'm counting on at least nine films to break the milestone. Here is a list of my predictions, with accompanying release dates:
Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow (September 17, 2004 )
If this sci-fi film starring Jude Law, Gwenyth Paltrow, and Angelina Joley has half a decent script, it will bring in the crowds. The visual effects look incredible.
Shaun Of The Dead (September 17, 2004)
A zombie comedy from Britain? Can you say cult classic? It is such a whacked premise that it just might work.
Shark Tale (10/1/04 )
This DreamWorks' underwater CGI comedy has the potential of finishing in the top 4. Move over Harry Potter, Will Smith is moving in.
Finding Neverland (10/22/04 )
Never underestimate the amazing draw of Johnny Depp. In this film, he portrays the author of the much loved character, Peter Pan.
Alexander (11/5/04 )
If Brad Pitt can break $100 million with Troy, I think Colin Ferrell can do it in this Oliver Stone directed film about Alexander The Great. This film also stars Anthony Hopkins, Rosario Dawson and Angelina Jolie.
The Incredibles (11/5/04 )
Disney and Pizar film about a group of middle-aged superheros could win the hearts of the wanna-be's and the has-beens and end up grossing enough to beat Shark Tale. I'm thinking somewhere in the top 5.
The Aviator (Nov 2004)
Leonardo DiCaprio should draw the crowds in to see him portray the business mogul Howard Hughes. Directed by Martin Scorcese. Stars Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale and Jude Law.
Ocean's Twelve (12/10/04)
Do you remember Ocean's 11? Alright then. Enough said. Directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (12/17/04 )
Jim Carrey plays a different sort of Grinch. Call him Goth Grinch without the hair. If the macabre sets and dark humor don't turn people off, Carrey will be singing all the way into the $300 million range. Adapted from Daniel Handler's popular children's book.
******
Finally, I thought you would be interested to know what the most critically acclaimed films of the year are thus far. I like to use Metacritic to view the composite scores of all released films. They display a list of the highest scoring films for the current year. As of this week, here are the films on that list, with their correlating composite score:
- Before Sunset, 88
- Maria Full of Grace, 85
- Festival Express, 83
- Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring, 82
- Hero, 80
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 80
- Spider-Man 2, 80
- Bright Leaves, 78
- Riding Giants, 78
- Story of the Weeping Camel, The, 78
- Red Lights, 77
- Control Room, 75
- Manchurian Candidate, The, 73
- Corporation, The, 72
10:23:55 PM | |
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Sunday, September 12, 2004 |
While I was researching the topic of the soul's journey after death, I came across the remarkable paintings of Sarah McBeath. Sarah is from New Zealand. Her paintings reflect the Maori sense that landscape plays a part of a person's life. I am posting her painting "The Ancestors" for you. The description of the painting is in her own words.
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The idea of the sky being a place of messages (light and cloud patterns say the coast is near) developed further in the Ancestors paintings It was easy to extend this idea to build up patterns that relate to more human concerns.
The ancestors are many different aspects: first they are the planet and the atmosphere (earth and sky) from which we have evolved. Earth and sky also form the starting point of nearly all my paintings - which also makes them the ancestors of my paintings. The pattern in these skies are a reference to the some of ancestors of art - Renaissance, Maori and Celtic art. |
Ancestors 4 1990 oil on board 800x1200mm |
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Saturday, September 11, 2004 |
I found an excerpt from a William Butler Yeats' poem "Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen" that hit me between the eyes today; it could be describing our current environment.
Now days are dragon-ridden, the nightmare
Rides upon sleep; a drunken soldiery
Can leave the mother, murdered at her door,
To crawl in her own blood, and go scot-free
The night can sweat with terror as before
We pieced our thoughts into philosophy,
And planned to bring the world under a rule,
Who are but weasels fighting in a hole.
From William Butler Yeats, Edited by M. L. Rosenthal, Collier Books, New York, 1987, page 116.
4:20:02 PM | |
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Directed by: Lars Von Trier
Starring: Nicole Kidman (Grace), Paul Bettany (Tom Edison), James Caan (The Big Man), Patricia Clarkson (Vera), Stellan Skarsgard (Chuck), Chloe Sevigny (Liz Henson), Jeremy Davies (Bill Henson), Lauren Bacall (Ma Ginger), Ben Gazzara (Jack McKay), Philip Baker Hall (Tom Edison Sr.), Blair Brown (Mrs. Henson), and John Hurt (Narrator).
Rated R for disturbing images and rape.
Lars Von Trier is not a conventional filmmaker. If you have seen his critically acclaimed films Breaking the Waves or Dancer in the Dark, you know this.
Dogville is even more unconventional. You realize this from the opening shot, high above a sound stage. Dogville's church, doctor's office, store, homes, bushes, and streets are drawn in chalk, like the outline of victims at a crime scene.
It's the bare bones of the town, sparsely enhanced with a few props that dot the interior of these homes and establishments. There are pews in the church that are used for worship, but mostly for town meetings. A chalk board in Chuck and Vera’s home is used for home-schooling their children. A window display at the general store holds a menagerie of porcelain figurines that no one seems to want because they are too much like the people of Dogsville. A medicine cabinet sits at the back of the doctor’s office. In Mr. McKay's house, a red velvet sitting chair sits in front of luxurious drapes that are purposefully drawn shut to hide the beautiful view behind his house. The Old Lady’s bench at the front side of Dogsville sits on the knoll that overlooks the apple orchard and the valley below. And the church steeple (that holds the church bell) hangs in mid-air. It's like the heart of town--the bell is used to inform townsfolk when there is an emergency, when someone is approaching the town, and when an hour has transpired. The town would quickly become dysfunctional without it.
Von Trier’s minimalist approach to the set is refreshing, fascinating. It seems to highlight the claustrophobic feel of a small town, the sense that everyone lives nearly right on top of each other, and the sense that your neighbor knows everything about you. Von Trier's approach also allows the viewer to focus on some of the characteristics of the small town-- the disregard for individuality, the focus on conformity and unity, the apathy shown toward abuses; and its healthy dose of xenophobia, to name a few.
Specifically, Dogville is a story about Tom Edison (Paul Bettany), who we see in the beginning of the story trying to convince the townspeople of their pride, their lack of unity, community spirit. It is also a story about a young woman named Grace (Nicole Kidman) who wanders into town trying to escape from her dad and her past.
Tom stumbles upon Grace when she tries to steal a bone from the town dog, Moses. Tom learns of her plight and comes up with the grand thought that Grace can be the vehicle that will change the problems that Tom sees in the townsfolk.
Knowing that the townspeople will not agree to harbor Grace, Tom comes up with the idea that if Grace spends one hour a day serving every single person in town, the townspeople will get to know her and allow her to stay. The townspeople decide to give her two weeks to prove her worth. Not having anywhere to go, Grace accepts.
For two weeks, she serves each of the townsfolk. And sure enough, the townsfolk become quite fond of her. At the town holiday, in fact, they toast her for bringing the town closer together.
Before long, however, the townsfolk begin to take advantage of her. They expect more of her. Some of the men in town mis-interpret her kindness and interest in their work. They abuse her. Tom's grand schemes of service and eventual salvation for Grace leads into indentured servitude. We sense he might have desired this from the beginning.
Roger Ebert, in his review of the film, felt that Von Trier’s vision of Dogville is "a parable of America," creating characters that "are xenophobic, vindictive, jealous, suspicious and capable of rape and murder." He further adds this assessment of Von Trier-"His dislike of the United States (which he has never visited, since he is afraid of airplanes) is so palpable that it flies beyond criticism into the realm of derangement."
Now, I greatly admire Ebert. His understanding of humanity qualifies him, in my book, as one of the most insightful film critics to have graced the art. I have not always agreed with him, but more times than not, I have agreed and come away from his reviews wiser for reading them. In regards to these statements, however, it seems Ebert is concentrating too much on Von Trier and missing the broad themes of the film.
I don’t see it as a parable of America as much as I see it as a parable of humanity in a microcosmic view. Dogville is a film about the grand ideas set into motion by men of thought who desire to save the problems facing their nation, community, group, etc. It is about how these grand solutions eventually prey upon the weak of society, the minority classes, the poor, the naive, the easily duped, etc. And it is about the darker side of human nature--that if people feel threatened, they will fight to protect their territory, their way of life, etc. If men know they can use their authority and control over people, unchecked, they will abuse those people.
In literature, the themes of Dogville remind me of Margaret Atwood's novel, The Handmaid's Tale, in which young women are used as servants and/or as child-bearers. Nathanial Hawthorne’s novel A Scarlet Letter, also reminds me of Dogville--it follows the plight of a woman who is forced to live with a scarlet letter on her chest for fornicating out of wedlock. Her punishment is thought up by the priest who impregnated her.
Finally, I was also reminded of the classic Shirley Jackson story "The Lottery," in which the citizens of a small town stay true to their tradition of stoning one of their own each June in order that the harvest will be good in the fall.
History itself validates Von Trier's themes. It is rife with examples of nations, communities, relgious groups, exhibiting the characteristics Ebert attributed to Von Trier's townsfolk --"xenophobic, vindictive, jealous, suspicious and capable of rape and murder."
For example, consider the experience of Asher Levy and the first Jews who landed by boat in New Amsterdam in September of 1654, penniless.
The governor of the province, Peter Stuyvesant, did not want the Jews to be a part of the community. However, he was forced to give them refuge because they had fought for Holland, the ruling nation of New Amsterdam.
Stuyvesant, however, made the stipulation that the Jews could not become a burden to the community; they had to support themselves; they could not serve with the military; they could not care for the safety of their own people; and they could not obtain property. If they could not live up to these stipulations, they would be forced to leave. (Asher Levy eventually challenged Stuyvesant and obtained basic rights for his people.)
Other examples of historical events in America, consider the plight of the Mormons who were persecuted and driven from Missouri (by an extermination order by the governor) and later Nauvoo, Illinois. Consider the persecution of Catholics or of the Irish immigrants.
Indeed, the themes of Von Trier's Dogville are universal and timeless. Dogville is a highly worthwhile film.
1:06:57 AM | |
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Thursday, September 09, 2004 |
I'm writing reviews for the following films (not in any order). Hopefully, I will get them published here soon.
Dogville
Fahrenheit 9/11
The Fog of War
Kill Bill Volume 2
In the Company of Men
Taking Lives
The Barbarian Invasion
Ella Enchanted
13 Going on 30
The Bourne Supremacy
Russian Ark
10:43:54 PM | |
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War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
-John Stuart Mill
My friend Brian sent this to me via e-mail today. The subject line read "Food for Thought."
In today's atmosphere, I could see how people could zealously throw this quote around to prove the point that pacifism is a "decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling"; that pacifists are "miserable creature[s]" who have "no chance of being free"; and, thus, pacifism is worse than war.
Right off the top of my head, I believe this quote is from Mill's treaty On Liberty, in which he suggests that people were becoming apathetic, too carefree in their feelings about their personal freedoms, and that they too easily conformed to the status quo. (If there is anyone out there familiar with On Liberty, I would love to hear from you.)
Mills himself was brought up in the classics, philosophy, and economics. His knowledge of war, to my recollection, didn't go much further than the textbook. I don't think he served as a soldier; I don't think he fought in any war. So I don't trust his notion that war is not the "ugliest of things." I suggest it is mere opinion, if not figurative conjecture.
I do trust the thoughts and observations of the esteemed war journalist, Chris Hedges, who explains in his work War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning the odd allure of war. Consider this introductory paragraph from page 3:
I learned early on that war froms its own culture. The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug, one I ingested for many years. It is peddled by mythmakers-- historians, war correspondents, filmmakers, novelists, and the state-- all of whom endow it with qualities it often does possess: excitement, exoticism, power, chances to rise above our small stations in life, and a bizarre and fantastic universe that has a grotesque and dark beauty....
The enduring attraction of war is this: Even with its destruction and carnage it can give us what we long for in life. It can give us purpose, meaning, a reason for living.
Besides the allure of war, Hedges relates his experiences of documenting the wars he's covered and numerous tales of soldiers and victims of war, painting a vivid picture that war is nothing more than tragic and ugly. In comparison, Mill's statement on war (above) simply lacks experience enough to make it valid.
In regards to pacifism and pacifists, the use of this quote in today's environment is disingenous. It's a myth that Democrats are pacifists. Democrats are fully behind the war against Al Qaeda, the culprits of 9/11. But this war on terror is different that Bush's war on Iraq. Iraq could have and should have been avoided. There were no weapons of mass destruction. There was no nuclear bomb that could hit London in 45 minutes. Saddam posed no immediate threat to the United States.
In light of this, Mill's quote once again seems nothing more than the rantings from a mind full of fancy, dramatic, yet one-sided ideas-- where is the consideration that pacifism is good in many situations? Where is the consideration of diplomacy?
I would like to propose that the truths gleaned from Mill's quote be kept strictly to the anthropological study of On Liberty-- how the different social classes become numb or apathetic in periods of peace.
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Tuesday, September 07, 2004 |
The Associated Press reported today that director Michael Moore, winner of the Palme d'or at Cannes, will be marketing his film for the Best Picture Oscar this year, rather than submit it for consideration in the Best Documentary category. Fahrenheit 9/11, which has grossed an astounding $117.3, is the biggest grossing documentary film to date. His documentary Bowling for Columbine was the top grossing documentary till Fahrenheit at around $16 million. The report cited that Moore chose this strategy for two reasons: 1) he felt Fahrenheit had a better chance in the Best Picture category; and 2) he wanted to be "supportive of [his] teammates in nonfiction film." Consider these excerpts:
So many documentaries -- such as the gonzo fast-food satire "Super Size Me" and the sober look at Arab television news in "Control Room" -- have made the rounds in theaters recently that Moore, who won the best documentary Oscar for "Bowling for Columbine," said he wanted to give others a chance.
"It's not that I want to be disrespectful and say I don't ever want to win a (documentary) Oscar again," Moore said. "This just seems like the right thing to do. ... I don't want to take away from the other nominees and the attention that they richly deserve."
Moore also hinted in a recent interview in Rolling Stone he would like the movie to play on television before the presidential election. According to the rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, playing on TV would invalidate its contention in the documentary category, but not for best picture. With the movie coming out on DVD Oct. 5, it's not clear whether the TV deal would happen.
....Regardless of who wins the election, Moore said the movie's presence at the Academy Awards in February will provide another forum for Americans to think about its message.
"The issues in the film -- terrorism, the war on terrorism, the Iraq war -- will be with us five months from now, sadly," Moore said. "The issues that the film raises will be no less relevant, in the new year."
Michael Moore's film might have a chance at a nomination, if not the win. If the nominations were announced this week, I'm afraid they would be The Passion of the Christ, Shrek 2, Kill Bill Vol. 2, and Fahrenheit 9/11. Is there even another film worthy of a mention right now? Collateral?
And with this line-up, I think that Gibson and Moore would battle it out for top prize for the sake of what their films have accomplished. They both have been a cultural phenomena in their own respect. (For me, however, I would vote for Kill Bill Vol. 2. More on this later.)
But fear not, we still have four months and a couple of weeks until the end of the film year--the time a film can qualify for Oscar consideration. And on average, the Best Picture nominations and the winner are released later in the year.
This might be fine with Moore, however. The real Oscar for him would be Bush's defeat in November.
9:09:59 PM | |
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20+ years of being controlled by a Republican majority in the state legislature and there is no wonder why the state has been flushed down the toilet. Consider excerpts from the article "Numbers Talk" by Shane Johnson in the underground magazine The City Weekly:
....In 2003, Utah, a so-called "right to work" state, had the fifth-lowest rate of unionization in the nation among employed wage and salary workers. Only Arkansas, Mississippi and the Carolinas had fewer organized workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
....In 2003, Utah’s per capita income of $24,977 ranked fourth lowest in the nation, squeaking by Mississippi, West Virginia and Arkansas, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
With so many workers eking by, there isn’t much left over for frills-like public education. At $4,890, per-pupil spending is Utah’s perennial badge of shame-a category for which Mississippi (the backwater runner-up) could do no worse. And, as Morgan Quitno Press reports in its 2004 "Most Livable State" publication, Utah scored second-worst for its teacher-to-pupil ratio. (In 1995, Utah won the livability title hands down, but has since slid to 19th place.)
....15.2 percent of Utahns faced food insecurity in 2003 which, according to the famed USDA, places Utah at the bottom of the proverbial barrel, empty as it may be.
....Using stats from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United Health Foundation reports that in 2003, just 58.4 percent of pregnant women in Utah received adequate prenatal care. Only North Dakota ranked worse. And Utah babies don’t get much more respect once they reach daylight. KSL News reported in July that Utah has one of the worst records in the nation for testing for newborn diseases.
....the Children’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported in 2001 that Utah ranked fourth-worst among reporting states for the ratio of children to assessment workers, 1:243. Also, as a proportion of all types of abuse reported-either neglect, medical neglect, physical abuse or sexual abuse-Utah had the seventh-highest rate of reported sexual abuse, at 22.7 percent of all cases reported. What’s more, the state provided future preventive services to only 3.3 percent of those children reporting abuse, ranking it fourth worst in the nation.
.....Utah remains among the top 10 methamphetamine-producing states and, according to U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon, Utah reigns supreme for its prevalence of "speed cookeries."
....Utah tops the nation in prescriptions for antidepressants. According to a 2002 study by Express Scripts Inc., a pharmacy-benefits-management firm, Utahns, per capita, pop the candy-coated devils at nearly twice the national pace.
.... At 42 concealed weapon permit-holders per 1,000 adult residents, Utah has the seventh-highest rate of heat-packing citizens, according to data from the Utah Bureau of Criminal Investigation and other sources.
Better to shoot women with. Or so it would seem. According to a recent report in the Deseret Morning News, Utah women are murdered by their male intimate partners at a clip 21 percent above the national average. Add to that Utah’s tragic distinction as the forcible rape capital of the nation. The National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center estimated in 2003 that 20.6 percent of Utah women had been victims of rape, more than in any other state.
....the state ranks 46th in the nation for equitably compensating women’s toils in the work force. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Utah women earn 70.3 cents to every dollar earned by a Utah man.
....Utah ranks first in personal bankruptcies, first in early-payment mortgage defaults (which indicates at least some fudging of the numbers on loan applications) and fifth in overall mortgage fraud. A casual reading of the daily papers indicates a possible cultural culprit. Just recently, the Deseret Morning News reported the arrest of two local boys who allegedly swindled $30 million or so from unsuspecting investors. Under the banner of "Operation Good Samaritan," one schemer targeted members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whom he convinced to invest in a slice of mortality-an imaginary $1.6 trillion trust created by the descendants of church founder Joseph Smith.
Woe is Zion! Thanks for the compendium of facts that have stored under the proverbial carpet far too long, Shane. I wished this piece had the latest facts on how poorly the Utah schools did in relation to President Bushie's No Child Left Behind Program. Nearly all the high schools failed, even though ACT scores are some of the highest in the nation. Approximately 200 schools passed. A special memorandum was passed in order for 300 more schools to meet the qualifications of the program. When school districts and government have to jump through hoops in order to meet qualifications in order to receive basic funding to teach our children, that is more than a joke! It's simply absurd!
8:26:48 PM | |
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Monday, September 06, 2004 |
James Bowman wrote five poems for NPR's coverage of the Republican National Convention. I liked his poem in response to Bush's speech, titled "Captain America and the World of Tomorrow":
In Roman times, prospective consuls would
Go down to some Plebeian neighborhood
And show the scars they’d gotten in the war,
And smile and promise cheap bread theretofore.
Such Condescension, though a clear charade
Of popular control, did not degrade,
But now our candidates for office must
Spend all their time eating Plebeian dust.
It’s not enough to pledge easy solutions,
You’ve got to share the common folks’ illusions.
The chief of these, the Brighter Future, is
What gives our party gatherings their fizz.
All optimists, we cling to that "right track"
And cry, with Bush, "Nothing will hold us back."
The way to a "safer world" must run on rails
For Leadership, in prospect, never fails.
Yet why should we repine the campaign long
At what the Romans knew kept countries strong?
Come November we’ll know just what to do
In choosing who’s the fitter of these two.
For sure that candidate has got to go
Who drops the mask and lets his Nuance show.
6:12:45 PM | |
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Thursday, September 02, 2004 |
Yesterday, I commented on Laura Bush's RNC speech in which she tried to tell us in a round-about way that her husband is the best thing for this country because blah, blah, blah <fill in the blank>.
I think Nicolas Kristoff’s analysis of Bush in Tuesday's NY Times paints a better, more accurate picture of George W. Bush. His argument is even more enlightening because he uses the characters of Shakespeare to outline Bush's characteristics. Consider these paragraphs:
The paramount lesson in Shakespeare's plays is that the world is full of nuances and uncertainties, and that leaders self-destruct when they are too rigid, too sure of themselves or - Mr. President, lend me your ears - too intoxicated by moral clarity.
....Shakespeare admires Henry, who, like Mr. Bush, is strong, decisive and funny to be around, as well as a victor in overseas battles that help soothe doubts about his legitimacy. Thus for several hundred years, the play "Henry V" was regarded as a celebration of Henry's invasions of France, and for that reason George Bernard Shaw and other liberal critics recoiled from it.
Yet beginning in the 20th century, critics began to see another subtext in "Henry V": an unblinking examination of the brutality and inevitable excesses of war, even depicting the Abu Ghraib scandal of the 15th century: Henry's order to murder French prisoners at Agincourt. Shakespeare's play can be seen as scorning the empty-headed jingoism that inflicts so much suffering as the ruler wraps himself in the flag. As Shakespeare writes in "Henry V" about wars of choice:
"But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make when all those legs and arms and heads chopped off in a battle shall join together at the latter day and cry all 'We died at such and such a place,' some swearing, some crying for a surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left. I am afeared there are few die well that die in a battle."
Consider these thoughts regarding Bush’s trust in false information:
A related lesson for Mr. Bush, if he has time to read Shakespeare, is the inevitability of intelligence failures. In just about every play, characters put their faith in information that turns out to be catastrophically untrue. Lear believes his elder daughters; Romeo believes that Juliet is dead; Othello believes Iago's lies.
Shakespeare begins "Henry IV, Part 2," with the character of Rumor (who could today be played by Ahmad Chalabi), and he shows how kings get in trouble by relying on partial truths or flattery spun by sycophants like Goneril Tenet and Regan Wolfowitz.
....Instead, Mr. Bush emulates Coriolanus, a well-meaning Roman general and aristocrat whose war against barbarians leads to an early victory but who then proves so inflexible and intemperate that tragedy befalls him and his people.
Unless Mr. Bush learns to see nuance and act less rashly, he will be the Coriolanus of our age: a strong and decisive leader, imbued with great talent and initially celebrated for his leadership in a crisis, who ultimately fails himself and his nation because of his rigidity, superficiality and arrogance.
What say ye dear reader?
7:09:07 PM | |
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Wednesday, September 01, 2004 |
Last night, looking uncannily like a character straight out of the film The Stepford Wives, Laura Bush took center stage at the Republican National Convention to paint a picture of her husband for the viewers of America. Specifically, she set out to convince us why we should re-elect her husband. She used the following characteristics to describe him:
* has led our country with strength and conviction...
* tell[s] you what he really thinks.
* You can count on him, especially in a crisis.
* His friends don't change and neither do his values.
* boundless energy and enthusiasm for his job and for life itself.
* treats every person he meets with dignity and respect
* dignity and respect...for the office he holds.
* a loving man with a big heart.
* strong and determined leader
But when it comes to President George W. Bush, the American voter should measure him on his performance and actions. No matter how loving or big-hearted George appears to be to Laura, he has put on a different face to a majority of Americans. Consider these thoughts:
If he has strength and conviction, why did he hang out in that elementary school room while the World Trade Towers were burning? Why did he scurry off to an unknown location in Nebraska until the threat of terrorist attacks on Washington D.C. dissipated? Why did his White House staff lie about a threat against Air Force One that day?
The truth is that we cannot count on Bush in a crisis. On 9/11, he was not on the scene making decisions. He was not the one that grounded all flights. He was not the one to decide that a jetliner would be shot out of the sky if it didn't land.
Rather, we can count on Bush to create a crisis, whether that be his flawed No Child Left Behind program, his tax cuts that have plummeted us into a deficit nearly beyond repair (not to mention that the cuts favored the wealthy); his foreign policy; his blind eye toward greedy energy corporations; his pre-emptive war against Iraq that was poorly planned and executed; his environmental policies; his resumption of nuclear weapons development and testing; etc. There is a crisis in every aspect he's had his fingers in.
Laura suggests that we can count on George. But how can we count on him when he has spent nearly 40% of his presidency on vacation in Crawford? How can we count on him to make a logical decision for America when he struggles to answer questions at press conferences and town hall meetings in complete and competent sentences?
How can we count on this president to win the fight on terror when he has neglected to fund our major cities and ports in order to create better and more substantive first-responder units and upgrade their hazmat/security tools? And how can we count on this president when he has to be forced to investigate the events of 9/11, the leaking of Valerie Plame, or the tortures of Abu Ghraib?
The George that Laura knows might have values; he might be a loving man with a big heart. But from what we have seen the past four years, he has orchestrated over an administration that has displayed none of these characteristics to foreign officials (except the ones they like) and to their foes (McCain in 2000 and most especially Democrats). They are exclusionary, devisive, arrogant, secretive, manipulative, presumptuous, greedy, egregiously idealistic, obfuscatory, prevaricators, and narcisstic.
Yes, these are the characteristics I've come to see in our dear President Bush since he took office on the wings of a highly controversial Supreme Court decision nearly four years ago. And it's been a journey from one crisis to the next ever since.
10:16:33 PM | |
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My friend Shawn sent this to me. I do believe he saw it on CNN. Is it an amazing metaphor or what?
8:06:21 PM | |
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Sorry this is late news but Helen Thomas lends a valid argument for the resignation of Rumsfield because of the Abu Ghraib abuses and torture, as published at Seattlepi.com:
Several reviews of the military mistreatment of prisoners have been under way but the Schlesinger panel was the first to assign any responsibility to the highest levels of the Pentagon.
"There is both institutional and personal responsibility at higher levels," the Schlesinger report said.
Schlesinger said the prison problems were "well known" and corrective actions "could have been taken and should have been taken."
Despite all of this, the report concluded that Rumsfeld and other senior leaders, including Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, should not be forced to resign.
Since he is a Washington "establishment" figure who headed the Pentagon in the Nixon era, Schlesinger was not about to go any higher than a brigade commander to parcel out responsibility.
Schlesinger said Rumsfeld's resignation would be "a boon to all of America's enemies and consequently, I think that it would be a misfortune if it were to take place."
Wrong. It would show the world that Americans are not afraid to topple leaders when the country is dishonored on their watch. For those who have lived under totalitarian rule, a challenge to the leadership could have dire consequences. But that's not our system. In a democracy, public servants must be held accountable.
Rumsfeld should have thrown in the towel months ago for this scandal.
In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, the Rumsfeld coterie bragged about the "shock and awe" of the planned U.S. invasion. The secretary has since lost some of his swagger and is no longer a TV rock star. As the gravity of the scandal gradually sunk in around the world, Rumsfeld has become virtually invisible to the public.
Rumsfeld stands indicted by the very panel that he appointed to assess responsibility. The fact that the Schlesinger panel veered sharply at the last curve and said Rumsfeld should keep his job can't bury the reality that they traced the footprints right to Rumsfeld's office.
It's time for him to take responsibility for this scandal. It's time for him to leave office.
7:47:15 PM | |
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The Seattle Times, which endorsed Bush in 2000, has decided to endorse Kerry. Here is an excerpt of their reasons:
Four years ago, this page endorsed George W. Bush for president. We cannot do so again -- because of an ill-conceived war and its aftermath, undisciplined spending, a shrinkage of constitutional rights and an intrusive social agenda.
The Bush presidency is not what we had in mind. Our endorsement of John Kerry is not without reservations, but he is head and shoulders above the incumbent.
Read the editorial in its entirety here.
Any support from the conservative Northwest and Rocky Mountain states is impressive.
7:38:45 PM | |
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