Category: Uncategorized

As you might have heard, or seen in the previews, Little Miss Sunshine is a road movie. In the subgenre that includes movies from Rain Man (oddly not noted in this extensive list or indeed other rosters I’ve checked) to last year’s Transamerica, a bunch of disparate people come together and learn something about each other at the end. The fact that these folks are actually related to each other does not preclude the initial mutual alienation from each other.

Little Miss Sunshine is such a film. Whether it works or not depends on the acting and script, and for this movie, both are quite good. Some of the analyses of the movie I’ve read is that it’s a bunch of “quirky” characters, which I did not find at all. Greg Kinnear, who plays the father, is a guy who thinks he knows all the answers, but doesn’t have a clue, just like a former relative of mine. Toni Collette, who plays the mom, is denial about her bad habit. Paul Dano plays the teenager who won’t talk; I can relate. I’ve known salty old men like the grandfather, played by Alan Arkin. Certainly, the desire to fit in of Olive, played by young Abigail Breslin, is a universal theme. Finally, don’t we all know a gay, suicidal Proust scholar after a failed romance, such as Olive’s uncle, played by Steve Carell? You don’t? Yet, he too rang true.

Moreover, this movie is intelligently FUNNY. Sometimes, laugh-out-loud FUNNY, especially in the second half, yet touching without being preachy or saccharine.

I must admit that when the family makes it to the contest, I was slightly weirded out. All the contestants, save for Olive, reminded me of slightly older JonBenet Ramseys.

Still, this critically acclaimed film is a must-see.
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The Conversation (on TV)

There were two very good Francis Ford Coppola films in 1974. One was The Godfather, Part 2, which was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, and won 6, including 3 for Coppola (best picture, directing and writing: screenplay adapted from other material, with Mario Puzo). The other was The Conversation, which was merely nominated for best picture and writing: original screenplay (both Coppola), as well as sound (Walter Murch, Arthur Rochester).

I’d heard about this movie for decades, but never saw it in the movies or on tape or DVD. So when TCM was showing films by independent movie directors back in July, I made a point to record it. but I didn’t get a chance to actually watch it until a couple weeks ago.

This movie, I thought, started off slowly, with me trying to decipher just what the heck is going on beyond Gene Hackman’s character following around a young couple; the young woman was played by Cindy Williams, then recently seen in American Graffiti, pre-Laverne & Shirley. Another American Graffiti alum, Harrison Ford, comes in and plays a pivotal role. I think this review gets it right: “slowly-gripping, bleak study of electronic surveillance and threat of new technologies that is examined through the private, internalized life of a lonely and detached expert ‘bugger.’ ” The movie becomes more compelling by the second half, as the pieces comes together. Also, one can certainly discuss the film in terms of the current (lack of) privacy conversation.
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Invincible (another in the theaters)

We had babysitting grandparents, so we went to see ANOTHER movie with Greg Kinnear, the Rocky meets The Rookie football film with Mark Wahlberg. If I say it was “pleasant”, “inoffensive”, “competent” or even “enjoyable”, it seems to damn the movie with faint praise. It’s a true story, I knew how it was going to end, one plot line was WAY too transparent, and there was TOO MUCH ’70’s music to no particular end. But you know what? I bought into the story anyway. It’s a movie I could take my mother and my niece to, even though neither of them are particularly football fans. Not a must-see, but worthy of a rental.
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From e-week:

Not that there haven’t been earlier responses, from Macca’s well-meaning but insipid tune “Freedom” to some Michael Moore film and other conspiracy theorists. But in the last few weeks, there have been two major motion pictures and seemingly dozens of TV movies, documentaries and “specials”.

So, what I am thinking about five years on? (And how many people will be ticked off by same?)

1. Well, let’s start with an analogy. I felt really badly when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. It wasn’t because I liked him , but because I didn’t. I didn’t trust him as Attorney General, and wasn’t convinced of his transformation as a populist. So when he was killed, I felt a sense of awkwardness.
But nothing like I felt in 9/11. When the Twin Towers were built in the 1970s, I thought they were awful. Ugly. Ostentatious. Did NOT enhance the classic New York City skyline. So when they collapsed, I felt just a little…guilty. And even more so, when in coming days, I learned they were targeted precisely because of their prominence. Actually, I felt AWFUL, as though, in some small way, it was somehow my fault.

2. I believe Usama bin Laden does not belong on the FBI Top Ten list. You may or may not know that he’s on there for “MURDER OF U.S. NATIONALS OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES” (I assume this refers to the two 1998 US embassy bombings in Africa; “CONSPIRACY TO MURDER U.S. NATIONALS OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES” (ditto); “ATTACK ON A FEDERAL FACILITY RESULTING IN DEATH” (I guess the 2000 attack on the USS Cole.)
He is NOT on the list for 9/11, because, by the definition established by the FBI, the 10 Most Wanted list “is designed to publicize particularly dangerous fugitives who might not otherwise merit nationwide attention.” People such as Bucky Phillips, who allegedly shot three state troopers, killing one, and was fortunately caught on Friday. Now, one may not have known the name bin Laden after the African bombings or after a hole was blown in the Cole, but certainly no one has forgotten him now. Or have we?

3. The near deification of police departments all across America has made me somewhat…uncomfortable. I mean no disrespect to officers who died trying to save others, but the notion that, suddenly, police officers everywhere were exempt from criticism just didn’t/doesn’t sit right with me. (Apparently, other people have their Forbidden thoughts about 9/11.

4. I can’t help but to remember that most of the headlines in the New York Post in August 2001 about Rudy Giuliani were about his messy divorce.

5. Lots of people were collecting LOTS of money – over $1 billion by some estimates – after the event. Some people, including me, were made to feel somehow “unpatriotic” for not contributing. Some of these groups I had never heard of, and I was reasonably (I thought) suspicious.

6. Patriotism is NOT defined by American flag lapel pins, bumper stickers, or ratty-looking flags on their cars (which ought to be destroyed, respectfully), but by being an informed citizen, writing letters to the editor, writing letters to one’s representatives, and especially, voting. Which reminds me:

7. September 11, 2001 was Primary Day in New York State, ultimately postponed. As the law stands now, it will be Primary Day (for all races except the Presidency) on average every seven years. Some people think it ought to be changed to a week later, in order to “Honor the dead”. I don’t. September 11 is a GREAT day to exercise one’s freedom. Besides, I think the state primary is too late anyway. At some point in my adult life, all the primaries in New York were in June, but as they moved the Presidential primary earlier, they found the need to move the other primaries later, which tends to advantage the incumbents and/or the candidates with the most money.

8. After the towers were hit, there was a call from the American Red Cross for blood, anticipating that there would be large numbers of non-fatal casualties, when in fact there were maybe a couple dozen. Then the lines were out the doors of the blood centers, and there were complaints that they weren’t “more prepared” for an unprecedented outpouring. Some of the blood ended up being tossed, which created even more outrage. In fact, I’m a regular blood donor, scheduled weeks before to come in on September 19, and I was asked NOT to come in that day, but to wait a couple weeks. They thought (correctly) that I’d come back, and that most of these folks would not. So, if you donated after 9/11, and not since, go donate again; I promise you the need is great. This is not to say that the Red Cross didn’t make mistakes at that time, such as putting money people wanted to donate to 9/11 victims to the general fund. But go donate anyway.

9. I had some real difficulty with the 9/11 fund that parced out based on the likely income potential, so the three-piece suit families fared far better than the restaurant worker families. And I wonder what the plan will be for the next disaster.

10. I don’t care how he spins it now: GWB and his administration repeatedly mislead the American public into thinking there was a link between 9/11 and Iraq. But still: In a February 2005 Harris poll, 44% of Americans thought that there were Iraqis as pilots on the 9/11 planes, up from 37% in the previous poll. (I haven’t seen a subsequent survey.) This is not Iraq/9/11 terror link opinion, some alleged (though unlikely) secret meeting between Saddam and bin Laden. This is an issue of FACT. Reading that really hurt my head.

Attorney General: the frontrunner is Andrew Cuomo, son of former governor Mario. He was HUD Secretary under Clinton. Ran for governor four years ago against Carl McCall, a bruising fight he finally quit only a week before the primary, which left McCall in a weakened position against the incumbent Pataki. Not inclined to vote for him.

Mark Green (great last name!) was a former NYC public advocate. He was endorsed by the NY Times. He’s a possibility.

Sean Patrick Maloney: I was previously inclined for him. I’ve been getting e-mails for his campaign. And let me tell you my bias; Sean is gay, and I am generally inclined, all other things being equal, to support the gay (or black, or woman candidate). But I found him less impressive in a five-way discussion that Time-Warner Cable arranged last month.

Conversely, Charlie King, who I really didn’t know at all – he was a former leader of Manhattan’s Democratic Party – fared much better with me, and not because he is black- in those discussions.

So, if I were to vote my gut, I’d probably vote King. If we had IRV, I’d vote for King as #1, Green as #2, Leonard as #3. But King (and Maloney) are trailing badly in the polls, and, in fact, King has dropped out of the race this week and endorsed Cuomo, as did Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. This means I’ll probably end up voting for Green. Stll, I’ll vote for ANY of the Democratic candidates for AG against the Republican, Jeanine Pirro, who wanted to run against Hillary Clinton for the U.S. Senate, but was “persuaded” by the Republican party bosses to run for A.G.

The primary and subsequent election for governor appears to be actually a coronation of current Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi never gained any traction, and his Republican opponent, John Faso, I think is too conservative to win. Still, there is one issue on which I agree with Suozzi and disagree with Spitzer, and it is not inconsequential to me: the death penalty. Suozzi’s against it, as am I, and Spitzer’s for it in certain circumstances. What gives me SOME comfort is that Spitzer’s hand-picked Lieutenant Governor candidate, David Patterson (black AND legally blind, BTW), is also openly against the death penalty, so maybe that’ll soften Spitzer’s stance.

We had a Congressman around here forever named Sam Stratton. When Stratton suddenly retired in 1988, the Republicans had already picked their sacrificial lamb (a guy I played volleyball with at the time, it turned out), and the Democratic machine was able, without the need for an untidy primary, to annoit Michael McNulty as the nominee. The Republicans certainly would have picked a more formidable candidate if they knew they weren’t running against Stratton, and there were several Democrats who might have sought the job. So, I’ve NEVER voted for McNulty in the primary or general election. But I might now – even though, as anincumbentt, he probably doesn’t need my support: his primary challenger really bugs me. His great complaint about McNulty is that he has steered Homeland Security money to…helping local fire departments? Horrors! More importantly, McNulty, an early and ardentsupporterr of the war in Iraq has had a major change of heart in recent months – one of the several pieces of mail I’ve received from his campaign is solely on his “out of Iraq now” position – and I find the need to reward that.

So much for the secret ballot.

To that end, many colleges utilize something called The Hahm-Beller Values Choice Inventory, which is “designed to evaluate moral reasoning in the sport milieu. Participants read twenty-one short common sport scenarios and evaluate each situation based on a five point Likert Scale from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree. The HBVCI is the only inventory specifically focused on sport and developed using moral theory as a guide.”

The following questions describe incidents that have occurred in sport settings. Each question addresses moral issues. Because there are no right or wrong answers, please circle the answer that best describes your feelings. SA = Strongly agree; A = Agree; N=Neutral; D=Disagree; SD = Strongly Disagree.

4. During a youth sport football game, an ineligible pass receiver catches a long touchdown pass and scores. The officials fail to determine that the player was ineligible. Because it is the referee’s job to detect the ineligible receiver, the player or the coach does not have to declare an ineligible receiver.

So, the questions are these:

Do college (high school, professional) sports strengthen character? If so, how? (Building camaraderie, e.g.) If not, why not? (Pressure to compete, leads to violence, e.g.)

Something that wasn’t part of the vocabulary when I was growing up: non-competitive sports, where “everybody is a winner”. Is this a good idea? Or do you believe, “it’s a competitive world out there”, and kids might as well learn early?

Meanwhile, my late summer allergies to whatever grasses I react to, which usually settle in in mid-August, were postponed until this week. I have laryngitis (which some people say is a blessing), a sore throat, and I feel achy. Our new co-pastors, Miriam and Glenn Leupold, are being installed on Sunday, and I’d love to sing for the event, but if I feel – and more importantly, SOUND – like I do now, no way.