WEDNESDAY MOVIES

The Golden Globes

The nominees for Best Film for 2005 are:

Brokeback Mountain – I’m pretty fascinated by the media hype for this film. I’ve seen the trailer in the previews out at the plex a few times and quite a bit on TV by now, and the buzz is that it’s going to do well. Who would have thunk? Gay cowboys played by two of Hollywood’s niftiest young hunks. I have to wonder if the envelope would have been pushed even further if the characters had been played by two gay actors. Is it that America is not quite there yet? At any rate, whatever can carve some inroads into someone’s homophobia is good by me. I’m also glad to see that Heath Ledger is turning out to be a Real Actor, instead of just a pretty face. Maybe he will be the surprise Adrian Brody/Jamie Foxx of this year’s awards.
Good Night and Good Luck – A black and white flick makes good??! George Clooney is really showing me some pizzazz here lately. I didn’t realize he had such interest in political stuff. He’s turning into quite the versatile guy – producer, director, actor, activist. I’m looking forward to seeing this movie, especially since my own parents had such a personal connection to the McCarthy era.
Match Point – Woody Allen irritates me as a person and a filmmaker and I probably should calm down and force myself to watch his latest effort. I do love tennis. Maybe it will change my mind.
A History of Violence – Saw this and reviewed it awhile back. It didn’t quite measure up for me to the adoration I heard at the time. Definitely an interesting idea – how to take the violence out of a violent man. Love Viggo Mortenson and the fact that he’s kind of an eccentric loner type guy. Expect more interesting films from him in future.
The Constant Gardener – Saw this too and reviewed it. Ralph Fiennes is another odd fascinating actor who can play a huge range of roles (see him as grisly in the latest Harry Potter). Again, I wasn’t quite as thrilled as most with this film.
I’d be interested to hear what anybody else thought of any of the above. I love awards time.

Deep Thought: “If you’re being chased by an angry bull, and then you notice you’re also being chased by a swarm of bees, it doesn’t really change things. Just keep on running.”
Today I am grateful for: Boxes
Guess the Movie: “Well, as I said, I’m still… collating, actually, but uh, I have confirmed that he’s got an outer layer of protein polysaccharides. Has a funny habit of shedding his cells and replacing them with polarized silicon, which gives him a prolonged resistance to adverse environmental conditions. Is that enough?” Answer: Alien, 1979. Winner: tearsign.
At the Gates of San Quentin
by Norman Solomon
No buzzards were gliding overhead, but several helicopters circled, under black sky tinged blue. On the shore of a stunning bay at a placid moment, the state prepared to kill. (Rest of article here.)

MONDAY READING

Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize for Literature 2005

Last Wednesday, as is the custom, and because he has throat cancer, Harold Pinter delivered an acceptance speech via satellite, sitting in a wheelchair at the age of 75. He’s British and over the last almost 50 years he’s written 32 plays. He became a theater director in 1973. He declined a knighthood in 1996 but has accepted other honors. In January of this year he announced he was retiring from writing plays to devote himself to political campaigning. He’s been outspoken for freedom of expression and against torture and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. He has called Bush a mass murderer and Blair a deluded idiot. His lecture for the Nobel Prize called Art, Truth, and Politics is blistering. You can read the whole thing here. A small excerpt:

“Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.

As every single person here knows, the justification for the invasion of Iraq was that Saddam Hussein possessed a highly dangerous body of weapons of mass destruction, some of which could be fired in 45 minutes, bringing about appalling devastation. We were assured that was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq had a relationship with Al Quaeda and shared responsibility for the atrocity in New York of September 11th 2001. We were assured that this was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq threatened the security of the world. We were assured it was true. It was not true.

The truth is something entirely different. The truth is to do with how the United States understands its role in the world and how it chooses to embody it.”

Well, of course, we never see this guy on TV, but I have to say I’m thankful that there’s just enough freedom of speech left in this world that he could give that lecture and we could read it. Too bad 99.9% of the world never will.

Deep Thought: “I hope in the future Americans are thought of as a warlike, vicious people, because I bet a lot of high schools would pick “Americans” as their mascot.”
Today I am grateful for: Not having to bow to anyone.
Guess the Movie: “You can tell her that when you found me, I was with the only brothers I had left. And that there was no way I was deserting them. I think she’d understand that.” Answer: Saving Private Ryan, 1998. Winner: tearsign.
Pinter Lays It All Out: Indict Bush, Blair
by Matthew Rothschild
Occasionally, an award recipient will chuck the clichés and park the platitudes and actually say something meaningful, something daring. (Rest of article here.)

SUNDAY GOOD NEWS

Click here and come with me.

Deep Thought: “Just as bees will swarm about to protect their nest, so will I “swarm about” to protect my nest of chocolate eggs.”
Today I am grateful for: Books
Guess the Movie: “ I’m da boss, I’m da boss, I’m da boss, I’m da boss, I’m da boss… I’m da boss, I’m da boss, I’m da boss, I’m da boss, I’m da boss, I’m da boss.” Answer: Raging Bull, 1980.
Feingold to Fight Patriot Act Reauthorization
by John Nichols
Four years ago, when U.S. Senator Russ Feingold stood alone in the Senate to oppose the Bush administration’s Patriot Act, he was portrayed as a political fringe dweller whose determination to defend basic liberties was out of touch with the realities of the post-9/11 era.
This year, as Feingold leads the fight to block a flawed proposal to reauthorize the Patriot Act, he does so as the voice of a national movement that includes conservatives and liberals, Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Libertarians and independents, and residents of all 50 states and the District of Columbia. And he has enough Senate allies to speak seriously about launching a filibuster to block the measure. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:13 pm
+ = Sun and cold but no snow or rain.
- = Grandson has pneumona for second time in 3 months

THURSDAY WHATEVER

Can’t let the day go by without pausing to reflect on the memory of this unique musician and the “where was I when” moments that connected me to him. First time hearing the music of the Fab Four was in a little bar on Ibiza, an island off Spain, having just traveled by train along the coast of that country being pointed at and called “existentialisti” by the Spaniards because my boyfriend had what would come to be called a “Beatles” haircut. (see Autobiography in sidebar) Love Me Do hit the top of the US charts that May 1964 and by August their first album, Please Please Me, was released. Meteoric – and I had no idea how high the trajectory would take them then. They were all so bright and interesting, and of course, musical geniuses. But of them all, John was the most political in the sense of speaking out, taking a stand, making waves. When he died on December 8, 1980, at 40, my flower child years were long over, and I was back in Oregon, the corner of the world where I’d grown up (and have been ever since). My own trajectory was looking pretty doomed at that point too. It would be another four years before I pulled out of the dive, and as of 3 days ago it will now be 21 years that I’ve lived on in Recovery. He left a big footprint in my life, we were only a year apart in age, and I keep a watch out always for someone with that kind of spirit to emerge again, to urge us to Imagine peace. Hello and goodbye once more, old friend.

Deep Thought: “You know what would be the most terrifying thing that could ever happen to a flea? Getting caught inside a watch somehow. You don’t even care, do you.”
Today I am grateful for: Boats
Guess the Movie: “So I guess this is where I tell you what I learned – my conclusion, right? Well, my conclusion is: Hate is baggage. Life’s too short to be pissed off all the time. It’s just not worth it. Derek says it’s always good to end a paper with a quote. He says someone else has already said it best. So if you can’t top it, steal from them and go out strong. So I picked a guy I thought you’d like. ‘We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.’” Answer: American History X, 1998. Winner: tearsign.
The Night John Lennon Died
by Henry Marchand
Twenty-five years is a long time, set beside the life span of the average human being. One quarter of a century, that’s time enough to experience all the usual milestones. But sometimes it seems a blink; sometimes, something that happened twenty-five years ago remains so vivid in memory, the passage of so much time is astounding. (Rest of article here.)

TUESDAY POLITICS

You probably already heard how pissed the 9/11 Commission is in their findings on the progress of protection against terrorism inside our country. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Trust for America’s Health, a national non-profit organization dedicated to protecting our health and safety in the area of bioterrorism or mass emergencies just turned in its third annual report and it just ain’t pretty. The Feds got a D+ for starters. More than half the states got a score of 5 or less out 10 points. Those of you who live in Delaware, South Carolina or Virginia can breathe the easiest. You did good. Alabama, Alaska, Ohio, and New Hampshire brought in the rear. Flu pandemic and pathetic vaccine preparation is pretty high on their freak-out list. To look up your own state and see how it did, check it out here. Let’s see, Bush keeps saying the war on terrorism is at the top of his agenda. What is missing in this picture?

Deep Thought: “Too bad you can’t just grab a tree by the very tiptop and bend it clear over the ground and then let her fly, because I bet you’d be amazed at all the stuff that comes flying out.”
Today I am grateful for: Blood
Guess the Movie: “We can teach these barbarians a lesson in Western methods and efficiency that will put them to shame. We’ll show them what the British soldier is capable of doing.” Answer: The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957. Winner: LovesTo.
9/11 panel: U.S. not safe
Report card blasts progress on counterterrorism measures
By Dan Eggen, The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — The federal government received failing and mediocre grades Monday from the former Sept. 11 commission, whose members said in a final report that the government has balked at enacting numerous (Rest of article here.)

MONDAY READING

Wage peace with your breath.
Breath in the firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings
and flocks of redwing blackbirds.
Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children
and freshly mown fields.
Breathe in the confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen
and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.
Wage peace with your listening:
hearing sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools:
flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.
Make soup.
Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages.
learn to knit, and make a hat.
Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty
or the gesture of fish.
Swim for the other side.
Wage peace.
Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious.
Have a cup of tea and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Don’t wait another minute

(by Judyth Hill)

Deep Thought: “Let’s be honest: isn’t a lot of what we call tap-dancing really just nerves?“
Today I am grateful for: Being in Recovery for exactly 21 years
Guess the Movie: “My guess might be excellent or it might be crummy, but Mrs. Spade didn’t raise any children dippy enough to make guesses in front of a district attorney, and an assistant district attorney, and a stenographer.” Answer: The Maltese Falcon, 1941. Winner: tikhead.
Arab World Remains Hostile, Fearful Toward US
by Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON- While the past 15 months have brought a slight decline in anti-U.S. sentiment, public opinion in the Arab world about Washington’s policies and intentions in the Middle East remains overwhelmingly negative and deeply sceptical, according to a major new survey released here Friday. (Rest of article here.)

SUNDAY GOOD NEWS

First week of December and time to come up with some creative new Xmas present ideas. What could be better than the Swash High Tech Toilet Seat? Coming to your neighborhood and bathroom soon (depending on how spendy your neighborhood is), this invention has been made by the Japanese and common in Europe for 20 years but is just now catching on here (through a firm called Brondell) because it includes a “bidet” feature that’s a new concept to us Americanos. And that, in case this isn’t more than you cared to know, is a warm water spray that sprays your butt and then air dries it afterwards. Plus: the toilet seat is heated. Now that I’d pay big bucks for on these winter days when I’ve just waked up and have to sit on that ice cold throne half asleep. Oh, and the lid doesn’t bang down, it slowly lowers. And the seat is anti-bacterial. And all for a mere $469 or $599 on current sales and depending on which model you choose. I’d run right out and get one this minute if I didn’t have a few hundred other items I had to spend that money on first, but if I get lucky enough this coming year maybe I’ll save up. I think my butt deserves it.

Deep Thought: “I’m not sure it’s good to think back to my childhood memories, because I end up feeling happy and sad at the same time, and that gives me a weird “neutral” feeling.”
Today I am grateful for: That I didn’t live at the time of the Black Death
Guess the Movie: “You’re the first man in five years who didn’t tell me I look like Veronica Lake inside of a minute.” Answer: LA Confidential, 1997. Winner: strawberry14.
Iraq ex-PM says survives assassination in mosque
By Khaled Farhan
NAJAF, Iraq, Dec 4 (Reuters) – Iraq’s former prime minister Iyad Allawi said gunmen tried to assassinate him in Shi’ite Islam’s holiest shrine on Sunday, forcing him to cut short an election campaign visit pursued by an angry mob.
“It appeared to be an assassination attempt,” the secular Shi’ite said on his return to Baghdad from the holy city of Najaf. (Rest of article here.)

FRIDAY FIVE

Appetizer – When was the last time you did something you would consider courteous, what was it, and who was it for?
Oh wow, didn’t courtesy go out in the ‘50’s? But actually, I had a young computer geek in my house today helping me upgrade my Mac OSX to 10.2.8 and I offered him coffee and jelly beans to keep his brain cells moving. Caffeine and sugar is the fitness diet of geeks.
Salad – If you were to have a painting done of you alone, what would you want the background to be?
Now there’s an idea I’ve never had – a painting of me. I’m sure I’ll make it through my whole life without that experience – but if….. Let’s see, I’d want the background to be my two children and two grandchildren and looking happy.
Soup – Describe your voice.
I’ve been told it’s soft, but I’ve learned voice projection over the years. Also sometimes people ask me what my accent is. That must be because they come from somewhere with an accent because people who were raised in Oregon don’t have accents.
Main Course – What is something you would like to do, but you’re afraid of the risk(s)?
Travel to many exotic lands, but now that they’ve reinstituted carrying on sharp objects on the airplanes I’ll probably pass.
Dessert – What was the last television show you watched?
I’m currently watching the second year of Six Feet Under. God, I love that show.

Deep Thought: “”As the snow started to fall, he tugged his coat tighter around himself. Too tight, as it turned out. “This is the fourth coat crushing this year,” said the police sergeant as he outlined the body with a special pencil that writes on snow.”
Today I am grateful for: Billionaires who help out the rest of us (See yesterday’s blog)
Guess the Movie: “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night!” Answer: All About Eve, 1950. Winner: Eliminate_the_Impossible.
Cities Voice Opposition to War in Iraq
Resolutions part of trend, experts say
by John Yaukey
WASHINGTON — Cities don’t make foreign policy.
But that hasn’t stopped dozens of towns from Berkeley, Calif., to Chicago to Cambridge, Mass., from passing resolutions calling for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. (Rest of article here.)

UPDATE: See the similarity? Clues were Washington, rich, activist and looks like his dad. I’m amazed nobody figured it out.
THURSDAY WHATEVER

Know who that old guy is? Clue – he turned 80 yesterday. Clue – for his present, his son, who is famous and looks a whole lot like him (and has the same first and last name), gave him an endowment named for him of law scholarships worth $33.3 million for 5 students a year at the University of Washington if they commit to a career in public service. Clue – he’s a Washington law graduate himself, long-time lawyer and civic activist. The program is designed to last for 80 years. I tell ya, that’s a gift that warms my heart. I don’t hang out in the kind of circles where we can front that level of bucks for anything, but I do believe if you’ve got it (and about 1% of the country does) it sure beats spending it on yachts and playboy mansions and gambling casinos and whatever else most rich people spend their money on. Happy Birthday, Old Guy!

Deep Thought: “It was really sad when I went to visit my friend Jim at the state mental institution. He was convinced he was on a tropical island with no cares and no worries. It took me a long time to convince him that no, he was in a room with bare walls and a bare bed and he was wearing a straitjacket.”
Today I am grateful for: Belly laughs
Guess the Movie: “ I don’t want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.” Answer: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975. Winner: Iby1014.
Where’s Hillary on Iraq?
by Jimmy Breslin
Beautiful. I am in receipt today of a mailing from the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign. This is different from the letter she sent out by e-mail in a rush. I don’t know who got the e-mail. She announces it is 1,600 words long. That much of her sentences could end reading. The letter I got is more than a dead dry political mailing. I found it such compelling reading that I drop everything and share with you promptly and thus prominently. (Rest of article here.)