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Michael Parker's Journal
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Friday, December 31, 2004 |
This list gives me a chance to highlight films that I feel the whole family might enjoy remembering when they look back at this year in film.
In many respects, family-friendly films not only ruled the box office in 2004 but won over the hearts of the critics as well, especially SpiderMan 2, Shrek 2, The Incredibles, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
(Speaking of critics and their accolades, all three of the sequels I just mentioned were reviewed as being the best of their series, especially SpiderMan 2, which not only appeared on Roger Ebert's top ten best of film list but was reviewed by Ebert as being the best comic book film of all time.)
I'm torn between three films -- Shrek 2, The Incredibles, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I've written this introduction so many times I've lost count. In each writing, I have picked a different film as my top choice. In one writing, I even determined that they all deserved the top spot for some reason or another. So after nearly two weeks of writing this, I'm simply tired of bleeding over it. Here is my final list, understanding that the difference in ranking of the top three films is minute.
1. Shrek 2
Shrek is king.
The clever little tale of Shrek and Fiona going to meet her parents in Far Far Away brought out the families to the cineplexes across the land to the amazing tune of $436.47 million. That folks translates into the biggest grossing animated film of all time and the fifth biggest grossing film of all time! Phenominal achievement, especially for a sequel. (Not even SpiderMan 2 can claim such success.)
In a year of high-octane-grossing-type films such The Passion of the Christ, SpiderMan 2, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and The Incredibles, Shrek 2 jumped past Gibson's violent film (which by the way became the top grossing "R" rated film of all time-- a fact I find most ironic since the Christians are so at odds of supporting them) after six short weeks and not one film has come close to knocking it off. The Incredibles, in contrast, has only made $240 million dollars, nearly $200 million dollars less.
Shrek 2 also reigned atop Billboards as the top-selling soundtrack of the year, selling over 708,000 units. And in fifteen short days after being released on DVD, Shrek 2 made $212 million dollars in sales to top the overall list of yearly sales for DVD's as of 11/20, beating out the Star Wars Trilogy and The Return of the King (not the extended version).
What most impressed me about Shrek 2 was the clever and ingenious script that reels us in by mimicking famous movie scenes (a.k.a, Pinochio's attempt at saving Shrek and Donkey mimicks Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible or the Giant GingerBread Man as a play off the Giant Marshmallow man from Ghostbusters); by cleverly satirizing current social satire (a.k.a, consider the scene in which Shrek and Donkey are captured by the LAPD in a complete rip-off the TV super show COPS, or the scene in which the giant Gingerbread man rips off the latte cup from the top of Starbucks and the patrons run out of the store and across the street to the other Starbucks store). And the sub-plot developed through the character Fairy Godmother represents our overly-fascinated mindset that we are not truly happy or capable of being loved until we look like a Hollywood superstar gives Shrek 2 more of a realistic or historical edge to it than The Incredibles.
And that is where the strength of this film lies--in the message that beauty is not what one can see but what is in a person's heart. It's about falling in love with someone for who they are and not what you want them or expect them to be. The Shrek franchise make us feel good about who we are and inspire us to treat others a bit better too because it teaches us to see them through real glasses.
2. The Incredibles
Brad Bird's film about a super hero who decides to come out of government-protected seclusion in order to give his life meaning again, but, who gets into trouble and has to have his family (who are also super heroes) rescue him is a pure delight from beginning to end. Where Shrek 2 used the same winning formula of the first film as a template for their script, The Incredibles script seemed fresh and down-right clever, even from the opening scenes showing retired superheros being interviewed about life. Crisp and dazzling animation, ingenious weapons, and the most delightfully entertaining character of the year (Edna, the fashion designer), make The Incredibles one of the best animated films of all time.
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Three films into the world-renowned series and this is the best of them all, thanks to one of the most admired directors of our time, Alfonso Cuaron. Cuaron's interpretation of Hogwarts and the surrounding landscape is richer; his direction graduates the young roles into more complex and psychological intriguing characters, something even adults can sink their teeth into. And the cinematography not only lends a psychological element to the story but is beautifully alluring. Azkaban is one of the most artistic films of the year and simply one of the best.
Prisoner of Azkaban has some of my favorite scenes in film this year:
1) When Harry runs away from the Dursley's, reeling mad after hearing Aunt Madge insult the character of Harry's dad and mom, he runs out into the damp and dark night. As he is walking down the street, we hear the sound of his rolling suitcase echo off the houses, concrete, and asphalt. We see him walking off into a distance that is crowded with homes with lighted windows, but we know, as does Harry, that none of those homes are his. There is a moment when this dawns on him and he stops and sits down on a dimly lit curb. The park behind him is as empty as it is dark. The scene added a visually symbolic exclamation point that Harry was not just alone, he was lost and empty. Knowing his circumstance, we knew this emptiness was the void left from not knowing his parents, not having them.
2) When Harry encounters the Dementors, whether that be on the train, in the Quidditch match, when Lupin trained Harry to dispell attacking Dementers, and when Harry and Black were attacked in the forest. The Dementors added a touch of horror to Harry Potter as assuredly as the Ringwraith's did in Peter Jackson's adaptation of Tolkein. Yet, the Dementors were even more horrific because of how they could kill you, by sucking out your goodness, or your soul (if you received the "kiss"). The visual effects depicting the Dementors sucking the goodness out of you were masterfully realized, cleverly accomplished, bone-chilling, and horrific.
3) The time transition in which Harry's owl flies from the forest toward Hogwarts.
4. SpiderMan 2
The didactic story of Peter Parker's struggle to live a normal life won over audiences and critics, capturing $373.38 million in receipts, the second top-grossing film of the year. SpiderMan 2 gave us the best villain, Dr. Octopus, who was more intriguing, intellectually developed. The script was much better. It had more heart to it. The visual effects were better. And the acting was better. One of the most memorable scenes from this film is when Peter reveals to his Aunt that he was the reason why her husband (his uncle) died. It's a scene that shows the strength of the script and the great acting.
Roger Ebert penned it the best comic book hero film ever made. I'm not sold on this--I'm a bit impartial still to the first Batman film with the masterful Jack Nicholson as The Joker and the soundtrack supplied by Prince.
5. Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow
Kerry Conran's eight-year project is technologically an impressive cinematic achievement.
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. Intriguing and dazzling.
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. (Speaking of old films, what endeared me to the film was Conran's references to the film The Wizard of Oz.)
The script itself is a delightful surprise, including 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..
I applaud the performances of all the actors, especially Jude Law, Gwenyth Paltrow, and Angelina Jolie. They gave believable performances despite acting solely in front of a blue screen. I like to believe that good performances are fashioned by the director, like putty on a mason's wheel. In this light, Conran does a noteworthy job.
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.
6. Napoleon Dynamite
Sure, many of you will question why on God’s green earth I chose this film for my list. Let me assure you it is not because I enjoy laughing at nerds. After all, Jared Hess’ surprise dark-horse hit Napoleon Dynamite isn’t about that. Somewhere behind a basic high school plotline about a nerd who attempts to 1) survive being picked on in high school on a daily basis; 2) get a date to prom; and 3) get his friend Pedro nominated as school president is a discomfortingly insightful film about small town life and (more importantly) about the people who live there -- how they are stuck there for some reason or another and attempt to make a living the best way they can.
Costing approximately $440,00 dollars to shoot, it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival last January, was purchased for $3 million, and has gone on to gross nearly $45 million at the box office.
Don’t be surprised to learn that teens these days from L.A. to Manhattan are dressing like Napoleon. Don’t be surprised if you suddenly hear these new phrases flying from their lips in anger or mocking glee-- "frickin’ idiot" , "Gosh!" , "flip" , "heck", "you fat lard!", or these one liners:
"Why don't you go eat a decroded piece of crap!"
"I could make that much money in, like, five seconds!"
"What the heck are you even talking about!?"
"What ever I feel like doing--GOSH!"
This would be the influence of Napoleon Dynamite. From the way he gazes out of that ugly mop of a hair-do to the way he dresses; from his passive-aggressive replies and mannerisms to his chicken-liver attempts at courage, Napoleon has come to be the Everyman of teen angst.
Yes, folks, get past how the characters look and you’ll find an oddly endearing and meaningful Everyman’s-type tale with heart and a decent message, one about coping with the pain of losing chances and opportunities and developing future dreams by going after them now. As Napoleon said to Pedro (when Pedro confided in him that he doesn't know what to say to the student body): "Just tell 'em you'll make their wildest dreams come true."
7. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Despite its flaws, primarily Jim Carrey’s too-much-like-Jim-Carrey performance as Count Olaf, this Burtonesque film of three children (Violet, Klaus, and Sunny) orphaned after their parents die in a fire is a dark yet fascinating and at times heartwarming delight. It shines especially when the kids are on the screen. The script is clever; the narration by Jude Law is superb. The set design and art direction for the film, and especially the closing credits, should be recognized by the Academy come January.
One of the most memorable scenes (besides the masterful closing credits) this year occurs in this very film. Before the children are to be driven to another one of their relatives’ homes, the caretaker drops them off at the place that used to be their home. They get out of the car, walk up the stairs, and walk into a beautiful entry hall. Then, before our eyes, and theirs, the beautiful hall slowly transforms itself into the ruins left by the devastating fire. It’s a scene in which the whole of the heart of the film rests -- this is the visual representation of the children’s passage from innocence into reality. Masterfully done.
8. Mean Girls
Sometimes when we talk of family films we think solely of kid-friendly fare and forget that teenagers belong to the demographic as well. IN 2004, we witnessed the release of teen-targeted (especially young women) films such as Princess Diaries 2, 13 Going on 30, A Cinderella Story, Sleepover, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, New York Minute, and Chasing Liberty. Well, let me introduce you to the best teen comedy of the year -- the nasty-mean film Mean Girls.
Tina Fey's masterful script portrays high school dynamics in all of it clique-ish ugliness, often comparing the social interactions between students to those not any more developed than the wild animals of the Serengeti, the place in which her heroine, Cady Heron, grew up.
Mean Girls shows through Cady's journey to becoming friends with the most popular girls clique that there are consequences to what comments flow from our mouths, who we choose to hang out with, the path we chose to follow. It's about friendship --that it takes effort to procure and sustain -- and understanding that in order to sustain social harmony we must get along with others, no matter which clique they belong to. Mean Girls, directed by Mark Waters, is the smartest teen film to come along in a long time.
9. The Polar Express
Though three elements of this film deeply troubled me -- (1. that a stranger is going around picking up kids and telling them he's going to take them to see Santa; 2. that there were no women incorporated into the vision of Christmas this story depicted; and 3. that their depiction of Christmas is completely exclusionary to the children of North America) -- no Christmas film has made the child in me come alive like this film did. That ecstatic, longing feeling that accompanied the days leading up to Christmas Eve all came rushing back. I wasn't expecting it. Whether critics liked the animation in this film or not (I was not bothered by it), The Polar Express will become a Christmas classic.
10. Ella Enchanted
Laugh if you must, but this remodeled story of Cinderella, written by Laurie Craig and directed by Tommy O'Haver, is fun and delightful. Ella, since an infant, was blessed with the gift of obedience, (something we wish all of our children were implanted with at birth). But being incapable of thinking for herself, she becomes victim to anyone's spurious whims. She sets out on a journey to find her fairy aunt and have the spell undone, along her way befriending the outcasts of society. References to Monty Python’s The Search for the Holy Grail add to the fun.
Note: Give me a couple more weeks to prepare the Best of Film 2004 list.
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Thursday, December 30, 2004 |
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Wednesday, December 29, 2004 |
I found this exceptional eulogy of Susan Sontag and her impact in social, political, and intellectual circles around the world.
Susan Sontag: Remembering an Intellectual Hero
by Christopher Hitchens
Masterfully written opening excerpt:
Between the word "public" and the word "intellectual" there falls, or ought to fall, a shadow. The life of the cultivated mind should be private, reticent, discreet: Most of its celebrations will occur with no audience, because there can be no applause for that moment when the solitary reader gets up and paces round the room, having just noticed the hidden image in the sonnet, or the profane joke in the devotional text, or the secret message in the prison diaries. Individual pleasure of this kind is only rivaled when the same reader turns into a writer, and after a long wrestle until daybreak hits on his or her own version of the mot juste, or the unmasking of pretension, or the apt, latent literary connection, or the satire upon tyranny.
The 20th century was perhaps unusual in the ways in which it forced such people to quit their desks and their bookshelves and to enter the agora. Looking over our shoulders, we do not find that we have much respect or admiration for those who simply survived, or who kept the private life alive. We may owe such people more than we know, but it is difficult to view them as exemplary. Our heroes and heroines are those who managed, from Orwell through Camus and Solzhenitsyn, to be both intellectual and engaged. | |
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Tuesday, December 28, 2004 |
Other than the devastating earthquakes that ravaged Turkey, this natural disaster may be the worst I have heard in my lifetime. As I compile this, the death toll from Sunday's tsunami rose from 44,000 to 50,000. 11 countries comprising Asia and Africa were hit A few towns closest to the sea were completely razed from the surge of water that has been described as three stories high.
I've picked out a few excerpts from articles I've read on the disaster this morning.
Death Toll Reaches 44,000
Sunday's massive quake of 9.0 magnitude off the Indonesian island of Sumatra sent 500-mph waves surging across the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal in the deadliest known tsunami since the one that devastated the Portuguese capital of Lisbon in 1755 and killed an estimated 60,000 people.
Amid the devastation, however, were some miraculous stories of survival. In Malaysia, a 20-day-old baby was found alive on a floating mattress. She and her family were later reunited. A Hong Kong couple vacationing in Thailand clung to a mattress for six hours......
"We had never seen the sea looking like that. It was like as if a calm sea had suddenly become a raging monster," said one woman, Haalima, recalling the giant wave that swept away her 5-year-old grandson, Adil.
Adil was making sandcastles with his younger sister, Reeze, while Haalima sat in her home Sunday morning. Haalima said the girl ran to her complaining that waves had crushed their castles, then came screams and water entered the home. "When we looked, there was no shore anymore and no Adil," she said.....
A new danger emerged Tuesday: the floods uprooted land mines in Sri Lanka — a nation torn by a decades-old war with Tamil separatists in the north. The mines now threatened aid workers and survivors, UNICEF said.....
The disaster could be history's costliest, with "many billions of dollars" of damage, said U.N. Undersecretary Jan Egeland, who is in charge of emergency relief coordination.
Asia Struggles with Disaster Aftermath, 50,000 Dead
In northern Indonesia's remote Aceh region, closest to the epicenter, bodies littered the streets. About 1,000 people lay on a sports field where they were killed when the three-story-high wall of water struck.
Mahmud Azaf, a referee, lost his three children.
"I was in the field as a referee. The waves suddenly came in and I was saved by God -- I got caught in the branches of a tree," he said.
Miles of shattered hotels along Thailand's Khao Lak beach, a magnet for Scandinavian and German tourists, began yielding up dead, bloated, gashed and mangled bodies.
The 770 dead so far counted at Khao Lak came from dozens of countries as well as Thailand.
"My son is crying for his mother," said Bejkhajorn Saithong, 39, searching for his wife at a hotel on the beach that had been knocked off its foundations. Body parts jutted from the wreckage.
"I think this is her," he said. "I recognize her hand, but I'm not sure."
Here are a list of personal account articles:
Scenes of horror at French-run resort in Thailand
The Sound of Roaring Thunder...then Screaming by an Australian survivor Alexa Moses
In Their Own Words: More Accounts from Survivors
"The whole town is full of her family, and we've heard this morning that the entire village has been swept into the ocean and there's nothing but dead bodies. They can't find anybody and she's just ... I don't know what to bloody do."
- Steven Day whose Indonesian-born wife Ena Jenkins fears she has lost her entire family of almost 40 people to the waves which swamped villages in Aceh province on Sumatra.
The Sea Decided who was saved
The water hit as Kalaimaran pulled the freshly caught crabs and prawns out of his net. Like the other fishermen on the beach, he started running. When he saw his 4-year-old daughter, he yelled: "The sea is coming! Run!"
But she disappeared. For hours after he made it to safety, Kalaimaran searched for his missing family members: His daughter, his younger sister, his mother. He looked up and down the coast, under palm trees and in the wreckage of his village.
"We didn't know anything," said Kalaimaran, 34, who like many in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu uses only one name. "We just ran. Those who escaped, escaped. And those who were stuck, they died."
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Everyone in Mariayi's village of Devanampattinam seemed to have lost someone--wives, husbands, daughters-in-law, sons, granddaughters, families. Here, the water came so quickly no one had time to run.
"The sea pushed us down," said Karthik, 20, whose wife and infant daughter perished. "And the sea decided who was saved."
About 300 people, mostly children, died in the village. Hundreds were buried in a grave about 100 feet wide and 20 feet deep. Survivors were taken to wedding halls, turned into makeshift shelters, less than a mile away. None wanted to go home.
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If you want information regarding the quake, hit this link to the the blog WorldChanging.
If you want to see a visual of the path of the tsunami radiating out from the epicenter of the quake, go to this NOAA site. (Requires QuickTime or WindowsMediaPlayer to view it.)
If you want information about the science of predicting tsunamis, see the article Scientists in USA Saw Tsunami Coming
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Thursday, December 23, 2004 |
We are all thrilled for Christmas. IN years past, Christmas has come and gone so quickly that I hardly had time to celebrate. So I told the kids at the beginning of the week that we were going to celebrate Christmas every night.
On Tuesday night, I took them to see the new Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Last night, we sat around the computer and created our own SuperHero using the UGO superhero generator on the Internet.
K (nearly age 5) created a superhero called Wonderful Butterfly, decked out in purple and pink clothes and a magician's coat full of stars. Butterfly wings allow her to fly and if she's confronted by a sinister enemy, she has the ability to shift her size and hide in ways she cannot be seen. Mind waves come out from her head, allowing her hero to control peoples minds.
M (age 8) created Unstoppable Skeleton, a fierce looking skeleton decked out in torn red clothes and heavy black boots and gloves. Fire is his aura and he can summon the power and heat of the sun, not to leave out his influence over the Dead.
I created a handsome superhero ArkAngel, dressed in dark blue tights and shiny white armor with an insignia of the falcon. ArkAngel has great gray wings. He has power over the elements of the air, including the power of electricity and lightning. Though he can fly with the speed of Mars, he prefers riding in on the backs of great storms. If needed, he can summon troops of angels. His utmost desire is to do good.
I was sad that J wasn't able to create a superhero. She was busy with our real-life infant superhero M2, whose sole powers are the ability to drink an immeasurable amount of mother's milk and relieve himself whenever his skin feels the faintest hint of a chill. Anyone in the proximity of this latter ability is doomed.
M believes his hero is unbeatable. He might be right.
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Wednesday, December 22, 2004 |
Last year, there were 25 films that broke the $100 million milestone. This year, with only 9 days left to the year, only 18 films broke the century mark. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Yep, there were not as many good films, even those that made the money. Here's the list of the films that people paid to see:
1. Shrek 2 ($436.47 m) (#5 film of all time)
2. Spider-Man 2 * ($373.38 m)
3. The Passion of the Christ ($370.27 m)
4. Harry Potter 3 ($249.36 m)
5. The Incredibles ($232.57 m)
6. The Day After Tomorrow * ($186.74 m)
7. The Bourne Supremacy ($176.05 m)
8. Shark Tale ($159.27 m)
9. I, Robot ($144.78 m)
10. Troy ($133.23 m)
11. National Treasure ($124.07 m)
12. The Polar Express ($123.00 m)
13. 50 First Dates * ($120.78 m)
14. Van Helsing ($120.03 m)
15. Fahrenheit 9/11 ($119.08 m)
16. Dodgeball ($114.32 m)
17. The Village ($114.20 m)
18. The Grudge ($109.90 m)
19. Collateral ($100.00 m)
I think Lemony Snicket might have an chance at breaking the century mark before the end of the year.
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Monday, December 20, 2004 |
In 1988, Patrick Stewart's one-man show of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol started playing on Broadway to critical acclaim. In 1991, after a sold out season, he was awarded the New York Drama Desk Award for 1991.
This same year, his award-winning adaptation was recorded by Camm Lane, Inc. and Simon & Schuster Audio. I picked up this two-set CD in the 1990's and listen to it each Christmas season.
I just finished the CD's today. And as always, Stewart's retelling of the old and hard-hearted codger (whose attitude toward life and his responsibility as a human being changes after the visitation of three ghosts) opened my eyes and warmed my own heart. Stewart does a masterful job with the story, even incorporating a different voice for each character in the book. Some of them are so convincing you forget that it is Stewart actually behind the voice. Most notably is Stewart's voice of Scrooge, Scrooge's nephew Fred, and Tiny Tim.
Stewart's adaptation of the story is masterful, highlighting some of Dicken's most thoughtful, descriptive, and haunting passages. He seems to keep the tone of Dicken's social commentary--that the affluent of London have forgotten their role in the good of all of humankind.
Patrick Stewart is most notable as Captain Jean Luc Picard on Star Trek: Next Generation. He has also appeared in the famous series X-Men. He was trained in acting and was an associate of the famous Royal Shakespeare Company for over twenty years. He has played some of the most famous characters in Shakespeare and literature, including Captain Ahab, Oedipus, Claudius, and Shylock, to name a few.
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Sunday, December 19, 2004 |
I first read about Susanna Clarke's fictional masterpiece Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell in a review at Salon.com. They named it one of the best reads of 2004. So when I received a gift certificate to Barnes & Noble on Friday, I decided to give it a try. (I have not read fiction for many years, feeling that I am wasting time when I could be learning about the world, people, and/or history.)
But before the last words of chapter 1 presented themselves, Clarke's story of magicians in England posturing how and why magic had ceased being performed in England in 1806 had cast its spell on me and I can't stop reading it nor stop thinking about it when I'm away from it.
If I may be more specific, Clarke's style of writing is highly readable. But it is the details of the time period and of the situations she describes her characters having (even as early as chapter 1) that are engrossing and fascinating. She won me over with this paragraph:
Mr Norrell led the other two gentlemen along a passage -- a very ordinary passage thought Mr Segundus, panelled and floored with well-polished oak, and smelling of beeswax; then there was a staircase, or perhaps only three or four steps; and then another passage where the air was somewhat colder and the ffloor was good York stone: all entirely unremarkable....Mr Segundus was one of those happy gentlemen who can always say whether they face north or south, east or west. It was not a talent he took any particular pride in -- it was as natural to him as knowing that his head still stood upon his shoulders -- but in Mr Norrell's house his gift deserted him. He could never afterwards picture the sequence of passageway and rooms through which they had passed, nor quite decide how long they had taken to reach the library. And he could not tell the direction; it seemed to him as if Mr Norrell had discovered some fifth point of the compass -- not east, nor south, nor west, nor north, but somewhere quite different and this was the direction in which he led them. Mr Honeyfoot, on the other hand, did not appear to notice any thing odd.
Not only is her descriptions of what the characters are experiencing detailed but I love how she reinforces the development of each of her characters--i.e., her last sentence, which might seem to some readers as a basic throw away sentence, actually enhances what she has already described of Mr Honeyfoot. She has a style reminiscent of Jane Austin--her detail to: conversation, people's characteristics, and landscapes and buildings.
(For example, when Norrell leads Segundus and Honeyfoot into the library, they not only look at books but Clarke has devised titles, descriptions, and historical background for the ones mentioned. My favorite title, thus far, is the old book titled How to Putte Questiones to the Dark and Understand its Answeres.)
This is going to be a great Christmas!
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Saturday, December 18, 2004 |
Tis the season every one and their dog comes out with their best of lists. Being a lowly blogger , I fit in to that "and their dog" part of the phrase. Nonetheless, I've been formulating what is going to show up on my Best of Family top ten and my Best of Film top ten. Here are the films I'm considering, not in any order of significance:
Shrek 2 (Family)
The Incredibles (Family)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Family)
Million Dollar Baby
Maria Full of Grace
Collateral
Kill Bill 2
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Sideways
The Life Aquatic
Fahrenheit 9/11
The Avaiator
I Heart Huckabees
Finding Neverland (Family)
Napoleon Dynamite (Family)
Garden State
Vera Drake
The Polar Express (Family)
House of Flying Daggers
Hero
SpiderMan 2 (Family)
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (Family)
Closer
A Very Long Engagement
Kinsey
The Motorcycle Diaries
Ella Enchanted (Family)
This is just a first pass through my head. I'm sure I'm forgetting something.
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Wednesday, December 15, 2004 |
You probably have noticed that I've been light on the blogging. I can't tell you how much time and energy is involved in helping take care of a new baby. And no one is sleeping through the night yet so I could land a role in any zombie movie being cast at the moment. Hands down!
But I am enjoying every minute of this. Today, I came home from work, walked in the door, and started talking. He immediately started looking around trying to see where I was. For a one month old to do that, I thought that was quite impressive. Of course, our own kids are the smartest on the planet, right?
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I've been a fan of VO ever since I was born into the blog-o-sphere and knew what it was. Mark Hoback and Paul Hinrichs gather great stories, essays, opinion pieces, satire, photos, and artwork for every edition. I have been most fortunate and honored to be part of a few of their editions. (Thanks guys! You're the best! I owe you beers or coffee or lattes or soda refills--whatever your fix is.)
For this edition, please check out my review of a Christmas film released last year, Love Actually. I was greatly enamoured by the story, music, cast, and acting. It's one of my favorite holiday films.
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Monday, December 13, 2004 |
There is a simple test you can take that explains what type of soul you have.
This test, which takes approximately ten minutes to complete, prompts you to select an answer that best fits the eight or nine questions/statments posed to you, such as:
- Which of these statements best describe your personality?
- Which characteristics best describe you at your best and worst?
- Which statement best describes you when you are in love?
- Which best describes your relationship with your friends and family?
- Which phrase best describes your influence on others?
- Which best describes your ideal lover?
- Are you introverted, extroverted or both?
The results of this test, you must understand, reflect the mood you are in when you take the test. I realized that many of the statements were true at various times in my life. I had to remember to pick the best statement that reflected how I felt now, at this season of my life. I am not surprised with my results. My mom has told me from a young age that I'm a peacemaker.
| You Are a Peacemaker Soul |
You strive to please others and compromise anyway you can. War or conflict bothers you, and you would do anything to keep the peace. You are a good mediator and a true negotiator. Sometimes you do too much, trying so hard to make people happy.
While you keep the peace, you tend to be secretly judgmental. You lose respect for people who don't like to both give and take. On the flip side, you've got a graet sense of humor and wit. You're always dimplomatic and able to give good advice. Souls you are most compatible with: Warrior Soul, Hunter Soul and Visionary Soul |
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Friday, December 10, 2004 |
Rex is one of my wisest friends (and one of the most amazing). One day I hope he gets the time (and probably finds the patience) to write the story of his life because it is one the world would be better off having around. You might recognize his name because he every so often leaves comments to my posts, such as the one for "Rummy and the Soldier."
The purpose of this post, however, is to share with you some thoughts that Rex shared with me years ago on the meaning of writing. They are insightful, thoughtful, and brilliantly spot on. I have kept them around to review every now and then. Right now, I wish to share them with you.
Frost said, "The poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom." Later he rephrased that: "Poetry begins in trivial metaphors, pretty metaphors, 'grace' metaphors, and goes on to the profoundest thinking that we have."
There is a line from [the film] Howard's End where the character says, "How can I know what I think until I see what I say?"
This has been a major part of my life, that writing is more of a process to know what I think by seeing what I say. I have been known at certain lower-than-low-points in my writing skill to talk about the paper god. To me, the process of writing is a process of knowing.
I love his expression the "paper god." I've thought about his meaning.
Writing at its root is an evolutionary process of creation that demands unique characteristics and skills, the foremost being the ability of awareness, enhanced with a knack for seeing details, understanding and appreciating the subject matter, and the gift of creating persuasive and stimulating sentences, to name a few.
With this in mind, I like to think that the paper god grants success if you are in tune. It grants wisdom if you approach It in like manner, with wisdom, understanding, and respect. In other words, It will stay silent if you step upon Its sacred ground to taste of Its fruit of knowledge without first taking off your shoes.
11:43:12 PM | |
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Thursday, December 09, 2004 |
You've all heard about the soldier who asked that highly valid question to Rumsfield about US troops not having security gear for themselves and the vehicles they drive. Did you hear what Rumsfield said to reporters today about the soldier?
I don't know what the facts are but somebody's certainly going to sit down with him and find out what he knows that they may not know, and make sure he knows what they know that he may not know, and that's a good thing. I think it's a very constructive exchange...
Let me translate:
"We will make sure that a few of our boys sit on him and find out where the hell he's been getting his information and who he's been talking to....let him know that he made a complete ass out of me in front of the world and he will never do that again because we will instruct him until he knows what we want him to know, to speak how we want him to speak, and to shit how we tell him to shit....And that is a good thing because we can't have any soldier from the slums mouthing off to his superiors. This will be a very constructive exchange."
And something must have gone down because this evening on Channel 4 news at six, they reported that the soldier may have been persuaded to ask that question by a reporter. It can't simply be a good question, can it?
10:34:13 PM | |
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I've been working toward this interface change for a couple of months. IN the testing environment, I like what I see. Let's see if this works Live.
(So far this is only implemented on the home page.)
9:28:47 PM | |
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Wednesday, December 08, 2004 |
The number of our dead soldiers crept higher in small increments.
It was too easy to forget the tallies of two, four, eight, or ten.
We concentrated on other things--
what needed to be purchased at the store,
which blockbuster film to see on Saturday afternoon,
which season opening show we could not miss and
which ones we’d have to TiVo,
who won the election debates,
which stores carried the kids desired Halloween costumes,
who was going to prepare the rolls and pies for Thanksgiving,
which day we would string Christmas lights on the house,
and which teams would the elitist BCS grace with
an invitation to the grand New Year’s Day bowls.
We were deaf to the news of one-thousand dead soldiers yesterday
as if it were simply just another unmemorable holiday figure --
how many lights were fastened to your Christmas tree,
how many dinners were ordered for the company party,
how many frozen turkey’s were donated for the homeless,
how many shoppers were stuck in long lines,
how many more tickets our school sold to the Big Game.
Sales numbers generated on Black Friday received more attention.
God help me. A thousand numbers with no faces or names.
All I remember of these expired soldiers is slivers of news stories--
a mother from Arizona, upon hearing of the death of her son,
dropped to her kitchen floor and died from a heart attack;
a father from California, upon hearing of the death of his son,
ran out of his house and started the Marine’s van on fire;
and Lila Lipscomb, from the film Fahrenheit 9/11,
traveled to Washington to the gates of the White House--
She came in hopes of displacing her pain.
She came to gaze upon the place she would forever blame.
6:18:00 PM | |
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Tuesday, December 07, 2004 |
The last chapter in Chris Hedges' masterful book War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning discusses Freud's fascinating theory that human nature is torn between two motivating forces: love and death (annihilation).
"...the Eros instinct, the impulse within us that propels us to become close to others, to preserve and conserve, and the Thanatos, or death instinct, the impulse that works towards the annihilation of all living things, including ourselves. "
Regarding war, Freud was pessimistic that it would ever be eradicated. The inner-drive of death is too strong.
This chapter consists of some incredibly poignant and disturbing stories told by people who have witnessed war and death first hand (i.e. Sen. Bob Kerrey who revealed in 2001 that he was involved in the slaughter of a village full of women and children).
Hedges also discusses our role in the perpetuation of Thanatos by buying into the myths of war. He contrasts this with the dichotomy that exists between soldiers and citizens at home, specifically that the soldiers find they can't fit back into society because of how society is lost in a fog of myths and lies.
"There is among many who fight in war a sense of shame, one that is made worse by the patriotic drivel used to justify the act of killing in war. Those who seek meaning in patriotism do not want to hear the truth of war, wary of bursting the bubble. The tensions between those who were there and those who were not, those who refuse to let go of the myth and those that know it to be a lie feed into the dislocation and malaise after war."(page176)
In light of this, Hedges frames this chapter with an amazing yet disturbing poem by Philip Larkin that addresses our nature to go along with life and avoid the realities of war and death.
Beyond all this, the wish to be alone
However the sky grows dark with invitation-cards
However we follow the printed directions of sex
However the family is photographed under the
flagstaff--
Beyond all this, the wish to be alone
Beneath it all desire of oblivion runs
Despite the artful tensions of the calendar,
The life insurance, the tabled fertility rites,
The costly aversion of the eyes from death--
Beneath it all desire of oblivion runs.
If you have not picked up your copy of this book, run out and get it now.
P.s. Have I told you that this book was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction?
10:38:26 PM | |
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Thanks to MJ for helping me with this. I added the following code into the s= line:
+ string (adrpost^.title) +
If this works, I'll be in archive heaven. I'm pressing Post & Publish and crossing all digits.
7:57:36 PM | |
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Monday, December 06, 2004 |
The titles are also missing from each post. Does anyone know how I can edit the text of the thisMonth macro in order to look for <%Title%>?
Thanks in advance.
6:43:45 PM | |
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Trying to get my archive pages up and running. The content is displaying but paragraph styles are not showing up. Can anyone advise me on resolving this issue?
5:45:02 PM | |
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We were attending the congregation my sister and brother-in-law attend and one of the speakers quoted these lines from Shakespeare's "Rape of Lucrece":
What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?
A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy.
Who buys a minute's mirth to wail a week?
Or sells eternity to get a toy?
I thought these lines most poignant. And I reflected on many occurrences in Shakespeare's plays in which characters would sell their very soul to fulfill their hunger for power--Iago sold his respect and friendship in order bring down his friend and master Othello; Macbeth likewise sought the rulership of the kingdom so badly that he murdered in order to achieve it; Claudius killed his brother King Hamlet in order to marry the queen and become Denmark's new king; to name a few.
This quote stands as an excellent question we can pose to ourselves in moments of introspection-- what part of ourselves do we sell out in order to get what we want? Once we know these weaknesses of character, we can set out to correct them.
When I got home and searched out the quote in order to post it, I discovered this gem of a line following right after the quote above:
For one sweet grape who will the vine destroy?
I could not help but think that a modern example of this would be the Bush Administration's invasion of Iraq.
2:22:28 PM | |
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Saturday, December 04, 2004 |
Just over a year ago this past November, I reviewed Mario Frangoulis' extraordinary first single "Vincero, Perdero" from his debut CD titled Sometimes I Dream, which is currently sitting in Billboard's Classical Crossover chart for 90 consecutive weeks.
His sophomore effort, titled Follow Your Heart, hits stores in the United States February 1st.
Follow Your Heart, according to the press release, is a "soulful collection of smooth pop ballads and classical flavored songs." His first single, "Here's to the Heroes" is a tribute to the athletes of the Summer Games in Athens. If you visit Mario's website, you can view the video for the song. The lyrics by Don Black are simplistic yet touching; and they help showcase the beautiful melody which was adapted from John Berry's Oscar-winning main theme from the film Dances With Wolves. The melody, in turn, is a great vehicle for Mario's voice, which soars into the high notes with a clarity that is rich and deep.
Frangoulis works with the Latin Pop Stars Alejandro Fernandez ("Hay Mas") and Melody ("Cumme").
Follow Your Heart will highlight Frangoulis' classical side with songs such as "Another World," which was adapted from the popular chorus to "Va! Pensiero" from Giuseppe Verdi's opera Nabucco, and "Adagio," which was taken from the famous Oboe Concerto of Italian Baroque composer Alessandro Marcello.
Personally, I'm looking forward to hearing Mario's rendition of "Come What May," which showcased Ewan McGregor's amazing voice in the hit 2001 film Moulin Rouge.
10:54:30 PM | |
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Thursday, December 02, 2004 |
I was reading through my favorite blogs the other day and was thrilled to find Atrios' post on a Spanish poet I had never heard of before, Miguel de Unamuno. I was fascinated by Unamuno's biography, that he stood up to fascism during his time. I was inspired by the poem Atrios posted, titled "Throw Yourself Like Seed."
Here is the content of the bio and the poem:
When the fascist General Milan-Astray stormed into the University of Salamanca to confront the elderly professor and poet-philosopher Miguel de Unamuno over his criticism of Franco and the fascist cause, Unamuno said to him: "At times to be silent is to lie. You will win because you have enough brute force. But you will not convince. For to convince you need to persuade. And in order to persuade you would need what you lack: reason and right."
The general shouted, "Death to intelligence! Long live death!" and drove the ailing poet out of the university at gunpoint. The poet suffered a heart attack and died within the week.
*****
Shake off this sadness, and recover your spirit;
Sluggish you will never see the wheel of fate
That brushes your heel as it turns going by,
The man who wants to live is the man in whom life is abundant.
Now you are only giving food to that final pain
Which is slowly winding you in the nets of death,
But to live is to work, and the only thing which lasts
Is the work; start there, turn to the work.
Throw yourself like seed as you walk, and into your own field,
Don’t turn your face for that would be to turn it to death,
And do not let the past weigh down your motion.
Leave what’s alive in the furrow, what’s dead in yourself,
For life does not move in the same way as a group of clouds;
From your work you will be able one day to gather yourself.
Unamuno’s thoughtful, nearly mystical phraseology and message is enlightening. I love the image that people can spread (share) their lives, as if the action of spreading goodness and offering lovingkindness is like throwing seed onto fertile soil that one day can be harvested.
It lends credence to my belief that developing awareness allows us to be responsible human beings and more able to help and server others.
I also think his notion of work lends viability to the plain and simple truth that we are responsible for our actions. The Zohar, one of the Jewish mystical canon, teaches that "a person should always imagine that the fate of the whole world depends upon his or her actions." (II:42a).
Understanding and being accountable for our responsibilities, actions, and words not only enriches us but enriches the lives of others. Life ultimately is more consistently rewarding.
And what is the meaning of his last two lines?
"For life does not move in the same way as a group of clouds; From your work you will be able one day to gather yourself."
With beautiful imagery, possibly that the results of our actions are not random or fleeting as the everchanging formation of clouds. They are as solid and real as the grain and vegetables we gather in the harvest.
10:17:17 PM | |
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