Month: June 2010

MOVIE REVIEW: Crazy Heart

The familiar hellholes Bad plays in is reminiscent of the familiar, easygoing and peaceful characters Bridges has played in the past.


Strange. I saw Crazy Heart back in March, in the theater, just before the Oscars, and was going to write about it then, but couldn’t find the right angle. Then I figured that the next movie I saw would motivate me to finally write about it, but I haven’t SEEN a film since then, aside from a partial one. Now it’s three months later, the movie’s available on video. I was going to say at the time that it was a good rental rather than necessary to see in the cinema, but now I’ve waited so long, that’s about the only way you’re likely to see it.

As you probably know, Jeff Bridges won the Best Actor Oscar for playing rundown country singer Bad Blake, an alcoholic on the downward slope of his career, forced to play small venues such as bowling alleys. He manages to hook up with his female fans as he travels from town to town. His former protege, Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell), makes it known through Bad’s manager that he wants buy some of Bad’s songs, but Bad’s hidden pain blocks his creativity. Meanwhile, a roving reporter (Maggie Gyllenhaal) falls for him.

The familiar hellholes Bad plays in is reminiscent of the familiar, easygoing and peaceful characters Bridges has played in the past. It’s a good role, and he plays it well, but it is not groundbreaking cinema, and the award, I suspect, is as much a reward for lifetime achievement as for this particular performance.

It’s not that I didn’t like Crazy Heart – I did – but it had a certain “I’ve seen this before” feel. And I didn’t quite buy the hookup between Bad and the reporter, though, oddly, I did believe the relationship subsequently.

Oh, for Christmas 2009, I got the soundtrack for this movie, which is quite good. But it’s better once you see the movie and understand the context. Both Bridges and Farrell do their own singing, and they’re quite competent.

30-Day Challenge: Day 6 – Favorite Song

I own the vast majority of the music released in the 20th Century on the Rolling Stone magazine list, but did only so-so on this past decade.

If you had access to the soundtrack of my mind – my, that’d be VERY scary, and you don’t know how lucky you are – you would know that picking a favorite song is nigh unto impossible. I did select 100 songs that moved me, with my #1 pick here a couple of years back, but such a list is highly fungible.

Besides, that doesn’t mean any of them are my favorites. I’m always thinking, “How could I forget THAT one?” Experienced that phenomenon just recently when I was watching an episode of Glee and hear the song “A House Is Not A Home” and thought, “I’m very fond of the Dionne Warwick version of that song; should have made the list.”

So, I decided to pick a list of three of my favorite songs that namecheck other songs by that same performer:

3. Creeque Alley by The Mamas and the Papas, with the final line, “And California Dreamin’ is becomin’ a reality…

2. Glass Onion by the Beatles with references to Strawberry Fields Forever, I Am The Walrus, Lady Madonna, Fool on the Hill, and Fixing a Hole

1. Sly and the Family Stone – Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) that mentions, almost in a row, Dance to the music, Everyday people and Sing a simple song


Rolling Stone has updated its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Since none of them are from before 1940, I assume we’re talking popular, recorded songs, not of the classical or jazz genre. Still, I note that I own the vast majority of the music released in the 20th Century on the list, but only so-so on this past decade. I own the first 50, indeed, the first 99; #100 is Crazy by Gnars Barkley.

The Tony Awards, celebrating Broadway’s finest, are on this Sunday, broadcast on CBS-TV. I always watch because it’s generally more entertaining than any other awards show. There’s a large number of actors more associated with TV and film who are nominated this year. Also nominated for Best Musical: American Idiot, based on the Green Day album.

U is for Unabomber and Understanding

At least part of the basis for David Kaczynski’s death penalty antipathy is the sheer number of wrongful convictions, some of which have been documented in a report by the Innocence Project.


I became fascinated by the story of the Unabomber, not because of his heinous activities, but because 1) how he was captured, and 2) what happened afterward.

I don’t know how infamous the Unabomber was internationally. The story was fairly well known in the United States. A guy born Theodore John Kaczynski in Chicago, on 22 May 1942, was extremely inteligent and highly educated. Yet, by 1973, he became a recluse in a remote part of Montana, and between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski sent 16 BOMBS to targets including UNiversities and Airlines (thus the term UNABOMB), killing three people and injuring 23.

“Kaczynski sent a letter to The New York Times on April 24, 1995 and promised ‘to desist from terrorism’ if the Times or The Washington Post published his manifesto. In his Industrial Society and Its Future, also called the “Unabomber Manifesto”, he argued that his bombings were extreme but necessary to attract attention to the erosion of human freedom necessitated by modern technologies requiring large-scale organization.” The letter was eventually published in September 19 of that year, after approval of the FBI and the Justice Department.

Years of FBI investigation did not turn up the Unabomber. It was David Kaczynski, Ted’s younger brother by eight years, who “encouraged by his wife Linda…follow[ed] up on suspicions that Theodore was the Unabomber. David…progressively began to take the likelihood more seriously after reading the manifesto a week after it was published… David Kaczynski browsed through old family papers and found letters dating back to the 1970s written by Ted and sent to newspapers protesting the abuses of technology and which contained phrasing similar to what was found in the Unabomber Manifesto.”

David worked with the FBI, not only to stop his brother’s activities, but to try to save his brother’s life. Ted was arrested in Montana, and once he “was sure that he would be defending himself on national television, the court entered a plea agreement, under which he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.”


But what happened to the soft-spoken David? “David had received assurance from the FBI that his identity as the informant would be kept secret, but his name was leaked to the media.” I recall vividly the television pictures of the reporters camped out in front of David and Linda’s home in Schenectady, NY (near Albany) for days. “In addition, [David] sought a guarantee from federal prosecutors that Ted would receive appropriate psychiatric evaluation and treatment, since he suffers from schizophrenia. The Justice Department’s subsequent active pursuit of the death penalty for Ted and Attorney General Janet Reno’s initial refusal to accept a plea bargain in exchange for a life sentence was seen as a betrayal by David and other Kaczynski family members… In 2001, David Kaczynski was named executive director of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty” – since 2008, now known as New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Not incidently, David donated the $1 million reward money, less his expenses for lawyers and investigators, to families of his brother’s victims.

David sought out and became friends with Gary Wright, one of Ted’s victims in 1987, after Ted was detained in 1996. The explosion Wright experienced “severed nerves in {his] left arm and propelled more than 200 pieces of shrapnel into his body.” David Kaczynski and Wright have occasionally conducted speaking engagements on reconciliation together; I have seen them speaking together in Albany a few years ago, and it was a truly remarkable experience.

On that same program, Bill Babbitt spoke about having to turn in his brother, Manny, a wounded Vietnam veteran, only to have Manny subsequently executed. David writes that it was the outcome of Manny’s case, not Ted’s, that “galvanized [his] opposition to the death penalty into a public campaign.” Bill Babbitt calls David’s mom Wanda “Momma” and “she in turns calls him her ‘fourth son’ – after Ted and me and my other honorary brother, Gary Wright…”

The fourth speaker that night was Bud Welch. “In April 1995, Bud Welch’s 23-year-old daughter, Julie Marie, was killed in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. In the months after her death, Bud changed from supporting the death penalty for Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols to taking a public stand against it.” He recognized that killing McVeigh, who was executed in 2001, would not bring back his beautiful daughter. Indeed, Bud reached out to Bill McVeigh, Timothy’s father, to show that Bud did not blame Bill. It was an extraordinary talk.

At least part of the basis for David Kaczynski’s death penalty antipathy is the sheer number of wrongful convictions, some of which have been documented in this report by the Innocence Project. Read about other death penalty issues, including the fate of some tried, convicted, yet innocent, here, including some people who confessed under duress.

So, David went from being a quiet social worker to a quiet, yet eloquent speaker for an issue in which he believes in fervently. You can read his blog here, and watch a video of David here.


ABC Wednesday

Wicked Wednesday Meme: John Lennon

I’m religiously cynical. Or cynically spiritual.

I discovered a new meme: “Hi and welcome to our brand new Wednesday Wickedness. We are like other memes in that we will ask you ten questions each and every Wednesday. But our little ‘twist’ is that each week we will pick a famous person and pick ten of their quotes. Each of our questions will be based on the quotes. Got it? Great! Let’s begin this week’s meme!

“Today we picked John Lennon. Here’s Wednesday Wickedness!”

1. “Since light travels faster than sound, people appear bright until you hear them speak.” Who was the last celebrity that you thought was bright until you saw them interviewed?

Actually, this happens all of the time, not so much with celebrities as much as with politicians. I keep thinking that they got nominated or even elected, so they must have brains in their respective heads. But not necessarily: see Dr. Rand Paul, e.g.

2. “Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.” Do you get upset, and do you think you’re being lazy when you do nothing?

Last Saturday, all I did was write a few blog posts, read a week’s worth of newspapers, watch a week’s worth of news. Was that “nothing”? Define “nothing”. In any case, I don’t get upset even if others might consider it laziness.

3. “If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliché that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that’s his problem. Love and peace are eternal.” Do you think that the U.S. and our wars seem to just ignore our history?

Well, not just our history. The Afghanistan war seems to be ignoring Afghanistan’s history; see, e.g., the Soviet Union’s failed attempts to “fix” the country.

4. “I’m not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I’ve always been a freak. So I’ve been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I’m one of those people.” Do you feel you conform just to fit in?

To a degree, don’t we all? That said, I do have my freak elements.

5. “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.” Do you feel that you at times do not enjoy the moment because you are worried about what comes next?

On the contrary, I think I probably should worry more about the future, but I tend to have a que sera, sera attitude.

6. “The more real you get, the more unreal everything else is.” Does it seem that when you learn more about yourself, that others’ opinions of you are more likely to seem stupid?

All unwarranted negative opinions about me are stupid, by definition. Thing is, I care less than I used to about what other people think.

7. “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.” Do you feel that when you share beliefs with someone, there is more likelihood of accomplishing a goal?

Sure, but only because I’m undisciplined and need someone to shore up my weak spots, as I do with another.

8. “God is a concept by which we measure our pain.” How religious or spiritual are you? Or how cynical are you? (Pick your question.)

I’m religiously cynical. Or cynically spiritual. I’m a person of faith, but I know that, to some degree or other, we all create our religion in our own image. I buy into the loving, compassionate, just God. Others, in my opinion, buy into a warlike and/or punitive deity.

9. “Before Elvis there was nothing.” Do you think as rock ‘n roll history is concerned, that Elvis had that big an impact?

Of course. He legitimized rhythm & blues and gospel and country to a larger audience. My father hated Elvis, but his commercial success, particularly before he went into the Army, was an important development in the roots music eventually coming more to the fore.

10. “Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that.” Do you feel after what has happened on Wall Street and our financial institutions, that his quote is more relevant today?

That there are maniacs is clear. The financial meltdown is only one small part of it. You have global warming deniers making death threats against the scientists who accept global warming. You have politicians that just boldly lie, even though the public record is clear. You have politicians calling simultaneously for less government and more, depending on their issues. Add to that, birthers and other loonies…

MOVIE Demi-REVIEW: Despicable Me

I’m no fan of 3D for 3D’s sake – I submit this would have been fine in 2D

I get a phone call Friday night asking whether I wanted some tickets to see a sneak preview of the movie Despicable Me the next morning at 10. I must admit I have zero ideas what that film was. But, since The Princess and the Frog disaster, I figured a movie with that title would be a no-go for the Daughter and declined. For some reason, I told her about it and she said she wanted to go. I looked up the word “despicable” in the dictionary, but since the definition was unuseful (“worthy of being despised”), I didn’t belabor trying to explain it any further.


So Saturday morning, we took the bus to Crossgates Mall. I must note that I almost never go there, in no small part because the place is just too damn big for my taste. Astonishingly, we actually found the theater, screen 4 of 18, and took our seats behind a young man of about 10. Unlike most of us, he was wearing TWO pair of 3D glasses. Eventually, his mother returned from wherever, and he gave her a pair.

The story is about Gru (voiced with some vague Eastern European accent by Steve Carrell), a mean supervillain type who has competition in the criminal world by Vector (Jason Segal), though adored by his minions.

Meanwhile, there are three orphan girls Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Elsie Fisher) forced to sell cookies by Miss Hattie (Kristen Wiig), the selfish orphanage operator.

I’m enjoying this. There’s even a snarky Lehman Brothers reference. While I’m no fan of 3D for 3D’s sake – I submit this would have been fine in 2D – it was enjoyable enough. For me. NOT for the daughter, who got more and more uncomfortable. And when Gru and the girls got together in his less-than-childproof home, and my child began crying, well, that was the end of this experiment.

So, I missed the “domestic bliss”, which I saw in a television commercial afterward (and also shown in this trailer. It wasn’t a bad film, as far as we saw it, and damn, now I want to know how it ends. I may have to see it, if not in the theater, then at least on video.

Another trailer.

***
Of course, Rue McClanahan died this week. While best known for The Golden Girls, I remember as well for her performance on Maude. Check out her facial expression when she discovers that Maude is pregnant.

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial