Month: March 2012

MOVIE REVIEWS: The Oscar-Nominated Live-Action Shorts

I must say that The Shore was the most fully realized film, dealing with the current economic woes, as well as The Troubles, and it deserved to win.

I had thought they had already gone away but discovered that the Oscar-nominated live-action shorts were still playing at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany. So, taking advantage of having a child sitter, the Wife and I went to the movies a week ago Sunday.

Pentecost (Ireland / 11 mins)

Damian, who messed up his last chance to serve as an altar boy, gets a reprieve, with the carrot of getting to watch his beloved football. The pep talk one priest gives to the altar boys was reminiscent of a sports coach’s pep talk before the Big Game. Slight, but extremely funny.

Raju (Germany / India / 24 mins)

The most serious of the five films.

“A German couple adopts in Kolkata an Indian orphan.” Then they discover more than they bargained for. It’s quite good.

The Shore (Northern Ireland / 30 mins)

This about says it all: “Two boyhood best friends – Joe…and Paddy…- divided for 25 years… When Joe returns home to Northern Ireland, his daughter brings the two men together for a reunion, with unexpected results. What happened all those years ago? Can old wounds be healed? The answer is both hilarious and moving.” Includes one of the most organically funny scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie. I loved this film.

Time Freak (USA / 11 mins)

“A neurotic inventor creates a time machine…” and, let’s say, did not take full advantage of the technology. Silly fun.

Tuba Atlantic (Norway / 25 mins)

Oskar, 70 years old, is told by his doctor PRECISELY how many days he has left to live. He wants to reconcile with his estranged brother who lives in New Jersey. Inger, an unlikely public “death angel” is sent out to help Oscar through his remaining days. Will Oskar contact his sibling before it’s too late?
Funny, in a dark, Scandinavian sort of way. (My wife’s least favorite film.)

I managed not to know the winner until after I saw the presentation. I must say that The Shore was the most fully realized film, dealing with the current economic woes, as well as The Troubles, and it deserved to win.

Your Post-Birthday Present to Me: Ask Roger Anything

That’s right, ask me ANYTHING. Anything at all.

 

The notion that I should limit my birthday to, I don’t know, 24 hours, is such a silly notion when I can be celebrating it all month. And I know that you meant to get me something a couple of weeks ago, but you just didn’t know what to pick out. (It CAN be tough.) I know you are very upset about this, as well you might be. Well, I’m here to tell you that your existential agony could be over!

All you need to do is Ask Roger Anything. That’s right, ask me ANYTHING. Anything at all. And, here’s the kicker – I have to answer it, in this here blog. The answer must be, more or less, truthful, though, if, given the opportunity, I might just obfuscate a tad.

And if you’re shy and prone to embarrassment, you could even e-mail your questions to me at rogerogreen(AT)gmail(DOT)com. The rest of you brave souls, though, can leave yours in the comment area of this particular post.

Oh, I should note that I’m not one of those take-take-take kinds of people. For similar requests, I’ve provided questions to Lefty Brown and Jaquandor, here and here, among others.

J is for Jubilee

People of Christian faith often ask God to “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”


“Proclaim liberty throughout the lands and to all the inhabitants thereof, it shall be a jubilee for you.” – Leviticus 25:10. In the Judaic tradition, during the Jubilee year, debts were forgiven and land that had been sold to repay debts was returned to the original owners. “What was sold shall remain with the purchaser until the year of jubilee; in the jubilee, it shall be released, and the property shall be returned.” – Leviticus 25:28. In both Judeo-Christian and non-Biblical traditions, there has been an understanding that forgiveness of debt, when that debt becomes so onerous that one cannot ever get from under it, is both fair and practical.

Julius Nyerere, former President of Tanzania, asks, “Must we starve our children to pay our debts?” As Jubilee USA Network notes: “In the world’s most impoverished nations, the majority of the populations do not have access to clean water, adequate housing, or basic health care. These countries are paying debt service to wealthy nations and institutions at the expense of providing these basic services to their citizens. The United Nations Development Program estimated in 2003 that 30,000 children die each day due to preventable diseases. Debt service payments take resources that impoverished countries could use to cure preventable diseases. Debt cancellation frees up resources to reverse this devastating reality.” And, in many cases, the debt has already been paid, or would have, had the interest rates been reasonable.

The primary argument against debt jubilee is the notion of moral hazard; i.e., “situation where the behavior of one party may change to the detriment of another after the transaction has taken place.” People who enter into contracts should fulfill contracts, lest others be tempted to renege as well. Too often though, the original loan was consummated without the borrower having all the information. Or that the borrower is a nation that generated debt under a previous regime. This writer submits that when debt is essentially fraudulent, then debt forgiveness is both the logical and the only remedy.

People of the Christian faith often ask God to “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” To me, that suggests that the way to show God’s love involves showing much more compassion than many financial institutions have shown to their customers. The United Church of Christ, for one, “has joined with other faith communities and organizations to call on governments to cancel the debts of poor countries and restore just economic relations between nations.”

Many US householders understand this concept on a micro-level. They buy a house, lose their job, and, instead of the banks agreeing to negotiate interest rates with the borrowers, the lenders choose to foreclose. And this mass seizure of homes has forced cities such as Cleveland, Ohio to raze some of its housing stock, since banks, by their nature, are ill-equipped to actually protect and take care of the buildings in their ownership. How much more reasonable and mutually beneficial it would have been if money lenders had been able to agree on a lower interest rate with homeowners,as some of the largest banks have finally been forced to do.

The business magazine Forbes asked last year if a debt jubilee might help kick start the American economy. As any good accountant will tell you, debt or credit which cannot be paid back is never an asset; it is always a liability.

ABC Wednesday – Round 10

Requiem of the week: Fauré

Camille Saint-Saëns said of it, “Just as Mozart’s is the only Ave verum Corpus, this is the only Pie Jesu.”

This late 19th century piece, by composer Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924), is probably my second favorite requiem. My current choir has performed it at least twice, in 2005 and 2009. It runs about 35 minutes, and consists of seven movements; the linked audios are from sundry sources.

I. Introït et Kyrie (D minor)
II. Offertoire (B minor)
III. Sanctus (E flat major)

Yes, the call-and-response is important, but it’s the violin that makes it.
IV. Pie Jesu (B flat major) A lovely soprano aria, often used in films, etc. Camille Saint-Saëns said of it, “Just as Mozart’s is the only Ave Verum Corpus, this is the only Pie Jesu.”
V. Agnus Dei et Lux Aeterna (F major) – but it’s almost always the Agnus Dei that gets to me.
VI. Libera me (D minor) Wish I could sing like this baritone.
VII. In Paradisum (D major) Another popular work in other media.

Ah, here’s another In Paradisum

You can hear the whole thing, if you have the right media player, here.

Kegs and Eggs Riot, plus one year

The solution designed by UALBANY was to have its mid-semester break, not during Presidents Day week and/or around the Christian Holy Week, but rather this past week.

Apparently, for years, there had been these “kegs and eggs” parties, although I had been blissfully unaware of them until 2011. I gather the “point” of the activity was to drink beer all night, have some eggs for breakfast, then continue to “party” through that day’s St. Patrick’s day parades and other celebrations.

Except that, in the “student ghetto” a half dozen blocks from my house, the morning marauding after breakfast turned into a riot; check out some pictures here.

Interestingly, some students objected to the term “riot” for their behavior. Let’s look at the dictionary: 1) a noisy, violent public disorder caused by a group or crowd of persons…, 2) Law. a disturbance of the public peace by three or more persons acting together in a disrupting and tumultuous manner in carrying out their private purposes. 3) violent or wild disorder or confusion. Yup, it was a riot all right. I think some rejected the term because it’s something that someone ELSE does.

In any case, the solution designed by UALBANY was to have its mid-semester break, not during Presidents Day week and/or around the Christian Holy Week, but rather this past week. Unfortunately, St. Paddy’s Day is on Saturday this year, and I have to wonder if a bit of partying stupidly by students will still be taking place tonight. Or last night, for that matter, with students crashing at the houses of townie friends.
***

Almost everyone in America deigns to be Irish on this day, whether they actually are or not. As it turns out, Barack Obama, back in 2007 during his initial campaign for the Presidency, found out about his Irish ancestry. “Last year, he traveled with the First Lady to pay a visit to Moneygall, the town of 300 people where his great-great-great-grandfather was born, and jokingly told a crowd there: ‘My name is Barack Obama, of the Moneygall Obamas, and I’ve come home to find the apostrophe we lost somewhere along the way.'”

Naturally, his reelection campaign has seized on the opportunity to sell T-shirts. $30? You’d think it was a rock concert. Or maybe campaigns ARE rock concerts.

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