I'm immersing myself in high-modernist dreams of a forward-looking society in which all can live in harmony and peace, reaping the benefits of modern development and building a better tomorrow through a futuristic vision of the world.
Either that, or I'm off to Brasília on an open-ended research trip, so blogging from me will be non-existent for the next week or two.
I want to mention that today is Woody Guthrie's birthday. He would have turned 95.
Just so we remember, here are the full lyrics to "This Land is Your Land," anti-private property lines and all:
Chorus:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me
As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!
Chorus
In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.
Chorus (2x)
Just wanted to point people to this story from The World, a radio show on PRI. They reviewed three amazing new releases from different parts of Latin America.
The Bahamaian CD is "Cult Cargo: Grand Bahama Goombay." Imagine a mix of late 60s soul with the unique percussive styles of those islands.
The Cuban is entitled, "Si, Para Usted: The Funky Beats of Revolutionary Cuba Volume One." This is really freaking hot. It's never been released outside of Cuba before. I had no idea such awesome music was coming out at that time. All you hear about here is the repression of the Buena Vista Social Club generation. This stuff is pretty freaking amazing. Very funky and pretty weird.
The Brazilian album is "The Inspiring New Sounds of Rio de Janeiro." Now, I personally don't care how inspiring an album is. I'm glad these favela kids are recording cool music. But that's not a reason to buy it. The song played on the show was a hip-hop tune that was heavily influenced by samba. Pretty good.
I personally like the Bahamian and Cuban releases the best, but the Brazilian seemed good too. I'm not such a hip-hop fan so I may not be the best source on this. But all three are clearly worth buying.
Imagine my surprise this morning to check nytimes.com and discover that Akron was at the top of the main page. Apparently, their story on the re-opening of the Akron Art museum with its daring new modern architecture was interesting enough to warrant space there.
I've seen the building coming together in chunks in my random visits back home over the few years, but have yet to see the interior (I hope to do so in September for my first quick trip back to the states in over a year). However, having seen the slideshow attached, I have to respectfully disagree with critic Nicolai Ourousoff. Absolutely, the modern design on the outside and the lobby look wonderful. And, as brutal as his portrayal of downtown Akron as part of "the dark side of the America recalled by Robert Venturi: a haunted Main Street U.S.A. of decrepit brick buildings, vacant windows and empty storefronts" is for the most part accurate. Akron was devastated in the 1970s and 1980s as the economy was in recession and the tire companies (save for Goodyear) all relocated their corporate headquarters and major production units (although, to be fair to Akron, if Ourousoff thinks its awful now, he should have seen it in the early- to mid-1990s, before the downtown revitalization projects.)
But having seen the slideshow attached, I'm not so sure the interior is as miserable as he makes it out to be. Is it daring and exciting? Certainly not. It's just a standard art gallery, meant to have blank walls and not-offensive spaces to display art, trying to put the emphasis on the art and not the room. Is this a bad thing? Maybe it is to an architectural scholar/critic/whatever, but to me, honestly, it looks not any different in terms of interior, display space than the galleries of MoMA in New York, the National Galleries in DC, or even the amazing (and underrated) Cleveland Art Museum (at least before it began its 6-year total renovation project in 2005). I am curious to go see the building, and I respect that Ourousoff knows a lot more about these kinds of things than I do, but if the general public likes it, I don't see the harm. I guess that's the difference between me and art critics, though - function over form.
I'm sure we'd all like to wish a happy 100th birthday to plastics.
That's right. On July 13, 1907, Leo Baekeland submitted his patent to the United States government for the invention of plastic.
We need to thank God for all the consumer products we can own because of plastics. Computers, cars, etc., blah, blah, blah.
But I'd like to thank Baekeland for a few special products.
Where would we be if we couldn't have handy dandy products where we could microwave our eggs?
I'd like to express my gratitude that materials science people have found plastics so useful in creating ever more powerful weapons that are currently being used to kill Iraqi men, women, and children.
And of course, we need to laud plastics for providing young girls with Barbie's unreasonably large breasts. No one has done more to tell women that large breasts are synonymous with attractiveness and therefore give young girls feelings of inadequacy.
Thank you plastics! Where would be without you!!!
Is there anything as frustrating as looking for housing in a town you don't know? I am about to move to the Georgetown, Texas area for my new job. I am debating either living in Georgetown or in Austin, which is about 25 miles away. Usually, you can find classified ads online for different kinds of housing. But all I can find for this area are gross apartment complexes. I really don't want to live in one of those, but I am afraid I will have to. Craig's List has a few homes, but they are all huge houses that are too big and expensive. Is it that hard to find some rooms in an old house? Or a small house in an older part of town? Or something that doesn't reek of corporate developer scum? Or am I just not smart enough to work the technology to find what I need?
Today, the Pan-American games kick off in Rio, and among the many sports involved in competition here, there is, of course, baseball. Regular participants like the U.S., Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic will all be present. However, Brazil will also be fielding a team this year, complete with some professional Brazilian players who play in Japan and even the U.S., and this is nothing but good news.
While I knew that Brazilians were playing professional baseball in Japan at all levels, I did not realize that the Phillies and Blue Jays have Brazilian prospects in their farm systems. I cannot stress strongly enough how great this is. If baseball wants to keep growing (and it should), it should move not just to create interest in China and Europe, but in the southern part of Latin America, as well. As I commented earlier, baseball could provide a great outlet for great athletes who do not always make it big in soccer, given the competition in Brazil.
Certainly, Brazil has a rough road ahead in the Pan-American games, being put in the same bracket as the U.S. and the Dominican Republic. However, the best thing that could happen to baseball is that Brazil makes it out of the first round (even if that means the U.S. loses - I have no false, or even genuine, nationalism in sporting events) and makes it to the quarterfinals or beyond. Brazilians always follow feverishly and avidly any sports in which their team is doing well (hence the huge popularity of volleyball here, and the growing popularity of basketball and gymnastics), even if they didn't follow the sport or know little about it, and baseball would be no exception. It won't make a bit of difference that 16 of the 20 players are Japanese-Brazilians; Brazilians see players in the Brazilian jersey, and they will root for them, regardless of sport or background.
And anything that can increase baseball's presence in Brazil, that can make kids see it and say, "hey, I want to play that", is a great thing indeed.
In the wake of revelations on official police repression of any details of the 1968 massacre of students in Mexico, news comes out today that former president Luís Echeverría (and secretary of the interior in 1968) will not have to face charges after all.
Suffice to say this is an extremely troubling decision. Now, it may be that Echeverria had no direct hand in the 1968 massacre of students in Tlatelolco (though as he was the practical leader of Mexico while Ordaz Diaz was out of the country, it's hard to believe he would have been unaware). However, the courts have already ruled that the 1968 murder of hundreds of students was not due to rogue elements of the police, thereby implying orders from above. Yet now that the focus of blame has gone to "above", the courts have ruled that the highest-ups did not know about the orders to kill students, thus rendering neither the perpetrators nor their superiors "guilty". It strikes me as unlikely that Echeverría will ever see jail time for his role (even if he didn't order the massacre itself, he can certainly be charged with poltiical negligence and cover-ups). But the worst part of this decision will be that hundreds of unarmed students were shot like fish in a barrel in a closed-in plaza (police opened up from the surrounding buildings and even from helicopters above), and their families and friends will probably never have any peace in knowing that somebody, anybody, was held responsible.
Others have ably dismantled Kimberly Kagan's unconvincing defense of the Kagan Family Surgeshow, but I found this bit particularly amazing:
The larger aim of the new strategy is creating an opportunity for Iraq's leaders to negotiate a political settlement. These negotiations are underway. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is attempting to form a political coalition with Amar al-Hakim and Kurdish political leaders, but excluding Moqtada al-Sadr, and has invited Sunnis to participate. He has confronted Moqtada al-Sadr for promoting illegal militia activity, and has apparently prompted this so-called Iraqi nationalist to leave for Iran for the second time since January.
Greenboy has a good post on declining amounts of key resources. Not only our oil supplies drying up, but we are seeing rapidly depleted sources of iridium, hafnium, silver, tin, and uranium. All of these elements play key roles in producing products we use every day.
We of the developed world have lived like kings for decades. We haven't given a second thought to our footprint on the soil, where our computers and other consumer products come from, or how our consumption affects people around the world. Now, China, India, Brazil, Mexico, and other "developing nations" are demanding resource consumption on the same level as the United States, western Europe, and Japan. We can't supply those products. We're already seeing rising oil prices. Expect to witness huge increases in the prices of computers and many other products in the next twenty years, prices high enough to be a slug in the gut to world economies.
Every human-made thing you see around you comes from somewhere. Most of it goes through heavy industrial processes to get there. Look around carefully. You are the last generation to live at this level of luxury.
1. A Woman Under the Influence was my first Cassavetes film. He's just one of those guys that I never got around too. I'd have to say that it is, well, fine. I can see why he's was so influential to the indie film movement. This movie shared both many of the strengths and flaws of indie film. He got some great performances, but the script seemed awfully weak at time. It could be emotionally powerful, but also not thought through so carefully. It was raw in both the good and bad ways. Do I need to see more Cassavetes? I'm fairly indifferent.
2. I've always wondered how Peter Falk got to be such a big actor. Not that he's bad. But rather, how did an actor with a lazy eye rise up past all the pretty boys? I don't know his biography that well, so I don't have an answer. I do have to say that I didn't find his performance particularly compelling here. It consists of lots of random yelling. He had some good scenes and I suspect the yelling thing was at least as much Cassavetes as Falk.
3. Gena Rowlands carries this film. She was pretty remarkable. I tend to be skeptical of mental illness on film. Lots of people exclaim what a great acting performance someone has because they are mentally retarded in the film. DiCaprio in Gilbert Grape is a prime example. But how hard is it to act retarded? Not too difficult, actors I have known told me. Much more challenging is having a condition, like DeNiro in Awakenings. Despite my trepidations about mental illness on film, Rowlands is a powerhouse here. She conveys so many emotions at one time. Quite remarkable.
I've been enjoying the live recordings at Wolfgang’s Concert Vault, which has full concert performances for dowload from the formidable archives of Bill Graham Productions. Some favorites: Sly and the Family Stone from 1968, Albert King from 1971, Herbie Hancock performing solo from 1978, The Clash from 1979, and The Pretenders original lineup from 1980.
It's rare to say that I am happy to be a Mariners fan. But yesterday was truly a great day.
1. Ichiro wins the All-Star game MVP after hitting an inside the park home run.
2. Reports come out that Ichiro is on the verge of signing a 5 year, 100 million dollar contract to stay in Seattle. This would keep him through his first 12 years as a major leaguer, meaning he would probably retire in Seattle and go into the Hall of Fame as a Mariner.
3. Reports also come out that the Mariners are calling up Adam Jones, their top prospect and benching the horrible Jose Vidro. This probably moves Raul Ibanez to DH, getting his iron glove out of LF and replacing with a batter who seems clearly ready.
4. The Mariners start the second half 13 games over .500 and 2 1/2 behind the Angels for the AL West lead.
5. The Yankees suck.
It's still hard to imagine Seattle competing for the playoffs. But at least for right now, it feels really good to be a Mariners fan. As one of the writers for USS Mariner says, "As a lifelong Mariner fan, I’m used to finding a pot of crap at the end of the rainbow. I like this better."
Indeed!
Despite its proximity to the U.S., for many reasons Mexico's massacre of upwards of 700 students in 1968 has gotten lost in the narratives of state-led mass murder by Pinochet, in Nicaragua, in El Salvador and (to a much lesser extent) in Argentina in Brazil. This story reminds us one of those reasons why - in 1981, 13 years after the fact, the state police were still silencing anybody who dared to mention the possibility that the state murdered hundreds of peaceful activists (not a couple "subversives", as the Ordas Diaz government, with later-president Luis Echeverria as titular head of the police, maintained in 1968). Recently, charges have been brought against Echeverria, but it's not hard to understand why Americans seem to have forgotten (if they ever knew in the first place) how the PRI operated as a "one-party dictatorship" that was not immune to state-led terrorism.
I was extremely impressed by Knocked Up. Not only a funny movie, but a first rate film all around. I'm sure that a large number of you have already seen it, so maybe I'm not saying new here. But to describe the film to those who haven't seen it, I'd say it is 1/3 stoner comedy, 1/3 Woody Allen, and 1/3 Eric Rohmer. I saw it with Lyrad and another friend and it seemed that I liked it better than either of them. But then again, it fit into an overarching theme of films I like, which are really smart movies about romance and love. I hate most romantic comedies, but a really good movie about these universal themes is tough to beat. That's why I love Rohmer so much. A bit more distant, but the films of Yasujiro Ozu fit into this overarching theme as well. Rohmer, Ozu, Knocked Up--all enter into important discussions about love, family, obligation, romance, and sex (well maybe not sex for Ozu). It's unfair to compare Knocked Up with these other films, but it is in the same ballpark. That's why I liked the film more than The 40 Year Old Virgin. Virgin is funnier, but Knocked Up goes to a deeper level of human experience and does it amazingly well for what it is.
A few general comments:
1. Seth Rogen has a lot of potential. I suppose people have known that since "Freaks and Geeks," but he really would be perfect in a Woody Allen movie when Woody made worthwhile films. He's really funny and can act. It will be interesting to watch him develop.
2. We are really in a high point in the history of American comedic films. I suppose the last comparable period would have to be the early 1980s, when Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, John Candy, etc., were making really good work. Today, with Steve Carrell, Will Farrell, Rogen, and related comedic actors, we are seeing quality comedy coming out seemingly every month. Compare this to 10 years ago, when you actually saw films starring Rob Schneider. Good comedy is so hard to pull off that's it's a real treat when it happens. How long will this continue? Again, it's really hard to stay funny. Look at Ben Stiller. He has done little but dreck for the last few years. His next film hardly looks better. He's a tremendous comic actor. But either the roles aren't there anymore for some reason or he's gotten stale. I don't know. Probably the former. How long will Ferrell stay funny? How many sports movies can he do before the act gets old? Hard to know. But I'm savoring it while it lasts.
3. One thing that Judd Apatow does really well is give the jokes to the supporting cast while letting the main characters play out their story. The Indian guys (hell, the whole cast) in Virgin were terrific, letting Steve Carrell be funny but not too jokey. Same here. Rogen is a tremendously funny guy, and he told his share of jokes here, but it did not overwhelm the story. Again, the supporting cast was first rate here. Rogen's stoner friends did a good job and the jokes about the bearded guy were pretty funny. Leslie Mann as Debbie did a great job as did Kristen Wiig as the negative studio executive. Paul Rudd is always solid. And I'm always happy to see Harold Ramis and Loudon Wainwright III. Just a great cast all around.
4. Well, pretty great anyway. Katherine Heigl was fine. She was acceptable in that role. But she's not really funny in any way. She is certainly beautiful. But there lies the problem, not just with this movie but with the entire film industry. Seth Rogen is a fine looking guy but hardly is a sex symbol. He can have a major Hollywood career. Kristen Wiig was really freaking funny in the film. She's an attractive woman. But is she going to get leading roles? No, of course not. Because she's not stunningly beautiful. Not only does this reflect our society's inherent sexism, but it hurts the quality of films. Again, Heigl is good enough in this movie. But did she blow anyone socks off? Not through her acting. Should we expect to see her in 20 years? Probably not.
5. Not to nitpick, but it's always hard for me to accept things in movies that don't make sense. I'll suspend reality for the right movie and I did here. But it was hard to understand how a character who works as a personality for a major cable television network doesn't seem to have a salary. Heigl lives with her sister and is reliant on Rogen to support her and the baby afterwards??? Wouldn't someone in her position be pulling a 6 figure salary? That didn't spoil the movie for me but it was kind of absurd and problematic.
