Month: April 2007

MOVIE REVIEW: The Namesake


The wife and I got to go to the movies on Good Friday. After going to an Indian-Pakistani buffet, we went to a movie at the Spectrum about a Bengali family from India. It was made by Mira Nair, who made the charming 2002 film Monsoon Wedding, as well as the entertaining 1992 interracial romance Mississippi Masala. we had been looking forward to seeing this picture, having seen the previews a number of times in the winter movie-going period.

Nair’s new film, The Namesake, though it also contains a wedding, paints with a broader palate. This is both the movie’s strength and weakness. Its most positive attribute is that it is a movie of scope, covering this Indian couple who come to the United States and raise a couple American kids who are less than enamored with the old traditions. The name of the male child is an important part of the story. The problem is that some segments are far weaker than others, and both Carol and I got impatient at times.

I find I almost entirely agree with the reviews, both positive AND negative.
(NEGATIVE) The episodic structure grows rather rambling over two hours.
(POSITIVE) The movie might be perceived as being a little slow but it’s surprisingly engrossing, and the occasional bits of humor are welcome and in keeping with the tone of the entire piece.
(POSITIVE) It’ll make you want to a) book a holiday to India and b) call your mother.
(POSITIVE) Sprawling but affecting family drama, marked by sensitive direction and fine performances.
(POSITIVE) A rich, if not completely satisfying, pleasure.
and especially this one
(POSITIVE) The Namesake takes in a lot of territory, and at times is too diffuse, too attenuated. But the actors are so expressive that they provide their own continuity. They transport us to a realm of pure feeling.

Ultimately, it’s worth it to see “Kal Penn [have] something more substantial on his resumé than Harold & Kumar Get The Munchies.” Days after seeing the film, the characters still resonate with us, especially the parents. It is another worthwhile film by Mira Nair about the immigrant experience.
***
Got this e-mail about a new animated film from an adoption group participant and wanted to know if anyone has seen the film – I haven’t – and if so, if he or she thinks the comments in the letter below are valid:

We feel that it is important to warn you about a Disney movie called “Meet the Robinsons” that is now playing at many local cinemas. The advertising for this animated feature makes it sound like a great movie for any young child. Fortunately, one of our adoptive parents alerted us about the negative adoption messages in the story and the very unhappy experience she had with both of her children who were very greatly disturbed by the messages conveyed in this film. As a result, I went to
see the film to decide if it warranted putting out an alert to our adoptive parent community. Indeed, I thought that the concerns raised were completely valid.
The movie is filled with extraordinarily inappropriate messages about adoption. The basic story is about an adorable baby whose birth mother leaves him on the doorstep of an orphanage. Portrayed as loving, sweet, extremely smart and overly appealing, he spends the next 12 years of his life wanting a family and being turned down by one family after another – in all, 114 couples refuse to adopt him. One scene shows a prospective dad losing interest in adoption because this very smart little boy is
more interested in science than sports. The prospective parents leave the disappointed child in a huff when he accidentally splatters them with some liquid from his science project. This is supposed to be funny.
Since no one else wants him, the child invents a time machine in order to go back in time to find his birth mother. The “bad guy” in his time travel journey turns out to be his best buddy from childhood, once his orphanage roommate. Now an emotional wreck resulting from being left behind when the orphanage was closed and shut down, the once-cute orphan is now mean and devious. Another chuckle. Various monsters attack the child as he continues his birth mother search. You get the picture!
I found “Meet the Robinsons” to be both tasteless and totally insensitive regarding adoption issues. Please think very carefully before taking your child to see it, whether adopted or not. I will write the Disney Corporation to let them know about my concerns about their flippant way of dealing with issues that are extremely important and not funny for millions of adoptees and their families in this country and around the world.

ROG

ROG

Be Selfish


Someone (I thought it was Lefty, but I could be wrong) wrote down his or her personal mission statement, as it were, about who that person is. I’m thinking something along the lines of the famous What I Believe by Steve Martin, or maybe My Conviction from the Broadway musical Hair, a statement of beliefs. And since my birthday passed last month, now’s a good a time as any for mine.

Be selfish.
If you can’t find a good reason to do good, find a selfish one.
Don’t lie, not because it’s morally wrong, but because it’s just too inconvenient to keep track of.
Shovel your walk, clean up your property, not because it’s the neighborly thing to do, but you don’t want a summons from the city or a lawsuit.
Give blood for the free cookies.
Be a courteous driver because, if you end up in an accident, the paperwork alone will negate the time you saved running the red light.
Let people off the bus before you get on, because there will then be more room for you.
Be selfish. For everyone’s sake.

I need more, but that’s a first pass.
***
BTW, the picture was inspired by someone – OK, Lefty’s wife – who takes a word, puts it in Google, and posts the image; the word here, of course, is selfish. The picture came from here. I don’t get it, but it’s so interesting that I couldn’t resist.
***
Lefty reviews my Mixed CD. I think he liked it, but I’m not sure.
***
Tosy accepts my mild tag.
**
Spatula Formula, Nik’s “ramblings of an American expatriate in New Zealand”, turns three. Happy blogiversary.
***
Did I mention I’m seeing Sean Lennon tonight? A review, eventually.

ROG

So I’m a Tree Hugger: Wanna Make Somethin’ Of It?

This is one of those things I got from Jaquandor who was practically apologetic about posting it, even though he thought it was pretty accurate. Well, I think this one’s pretty reflective of me, too.

What Be Your Nerd Type?

Your Result: Social Nerd

You’re interested in things such as politics, psychology, child care, and peace. I wouldn’t go so far as to call you a hippie, but some of you may be tree-huggers. You’re the type of people who are interested in bettering the world. You’re possible the least nerdy of them all; unless you participate in other activities that paled your nerdiness compared to your involvement in social activities. Whatever the case, we could still use more of you around. ^_^
Drama Nerd
Science/Math Nerd
Literature Nerd
Musician
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Anime Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type?
Quizzes for MySpace

***
Johnny Hart died this weekend, apparently having a stroke while at his drawing board. I’ve long had mixed feelings about him. On one hand, growing up in Binghamton, Broome County, NY, not only did I read the strips B.C. and later The Wizard of Id for years, but I knew that Johnny Hart was from the area, a source of parochial local pride. The B.C. Open golf tournament, named for both the strip and the county, was aided by Hart, a big deal for the region. To this day, the early Wizard of Id joke, “The peasants are revolting!”/”They certainly are” produces an embarrassed chuckle; I always heard the king’s line in the voice of Henny Youngman or Rodney Dangerfield.
Eventually, though, I seemed to outgrow the strip at a point when Hart’s overt, and occasionally controversial, religiosity would creep into the strip.

Was this panel offensive to Islam? Was it supposed to be? To the latter point, I don’t know, and my homer mentally says I hope not.
Mark Evanier’s observations about Hart.

ROG

ROG

Lent’s Over Already?

At my current church, we used to have an associate pastor who I really liked. He was a pleasant person, but he described himself as a Lenten kind of guy. I think I can relate.

Easter’s great: Christ is risen, the core of the Christian faith. Yet, it is the period before Easter that somehow has always caused me more pleasure. Maybe it was the reflective nature, not so much the “giving up”” something, as I learned it in my childhood, but rather the taking on of something, whether it be a devotional or trying to think more of others.

Lenten music is also better than Easter music.

I found that I have agreed with George W. Bush, not once but twice this Lenten season – no, this is not an April Fools joke – and it was essentially based on him acting in what I would consider a Lenten manner.

One time as when he apologized for the dreadful conditions in parts of Walter Reed Hospital. You can see this as political expediency, and maybe it was, but I found it refreshingly different from his Decider mode.

The other time was when he participated in the Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony Honoring the Tuskegee Airmen, when he essentially apologized for the indignities endured by these black fliers: “I would like to offer a gesture to help atone for all the unreturned salutes and unforgivable indignities.”

Of course, announcing my W support, in this limited context, at the Y, which was an attempt to show that even he isn’t all bad, merely helped crystalize the differences I had with another over foreign policy, which was not the intent of the comment, and I regretted the tone the conversation ended up taking..

More Lenten reflection is needed, I guess.
***
Meanwhile, Good Friday service did not go well for me. I sang what I could, which was probably not much above an A below middle C. But by the fifth moment in the DuBois, I felt the need to cough uncontrollably. I stifled it as much as possible, then left at the end of the movement. Since I’m near the middle of the choir loft, there’s no way to do this unobtrusively, but I went out a side door that leads to the outside, came in another door, and listened to the rest of the service.
This event was:
*depressing – you work to learn the piece then you can’t sing it
*irritating – the body fails me
*embarrassing
I put my robe away, with about a dozen people saying, “Are you all right?” Well, apparently OK for talking, but not for singing. I left before talking to at least three old friends from my former church choir. (Sorry, Bob, Holly and Kathy.) I caught a bus home. The one good thing about is that was that I literally put out a fire someone had started in the bus kiosk.
ROG

ROG

Techno QUESTIONS

I saw this article a while back: “According to the Consumer Electronics Association, the average home has 26 consumer electronics devices — anything ranging from a radio to a PDA.” The writer decides the cellphone is the most important item he owns and would be the leasst likely to give up. Also, I read in Parade magazine this article in which the cellphone is on the Top 10 of the Most UNWanted Inventions.

So what devices do you have? What do you need? What would you give up? What would you couldn’t live without?

I have no cellphone, but I do have a phone that I can remove from the base, something my wise parents-in-law bought for us just after Lydia was born. Its best feature, though, is the homing device at the base which I push to find it. (I ‘d love that for the remote on the DVR.)

Have a DVR. Don’t NEED the DVR. I do like the DVR, a lot actually. Still have the VCR, which is good because I still have a bunch of VHS tapes, which the child watches on occasion.

I have a stereo with a turntable that’s in need of repair. The turntable operates only when I spin it manually, then it catches. I also have a 78 player in the attic in need of a cartridge. (Yes, I have 78s. No, I’m not THAT old. I was living in an apartment building, and the nice old ladies who lived upstairs gave them to me when we all got thrown out of the building so the landlords could renovate and go upscale.)

For me, I suppose, my technology keeper has become the computer. I communicate with it (e-mail and blog), I watch stuff on it (videos, though rarely), I listen to music on it (well, the one at work), I keep track of my schedule with those Windows pop-ups. I could watch TV on it, and did, a little, for college basketball.

What says you?
ROG

ROG
Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial