XMen 3 - 2006

Been an X-Men fan sometime in the early to mid '80's. Bought the comics every month for many years. Stopped sometime in high school as the art quality and storylines declined. Was very happy with the first two movies. Just saw the latest one today. Really enjoyed it. Think they've really geared these movies towards the more hardcore fan and I'm ok with that. The series has played fast and loose with much of the comic book 'history' and I'm ok with that too. I haven't known how any of them would really play out and that's a nice thing for a movie.
[Spoiler warning] This movie wastes no time with the return of Jean Grey. The commercials really didn't make her resurrection any kind of surprise I guess. What is surprising is the death she causes when she comes back. In fact this movie didn't shy away from killing people. Lots of death. And some surprising loss of powers.
This movie centers on a controversial cure for mutation. The manufacturers see mutants as damaged people and are wanting to help them. Mutants are justifiably upset that such a thing exists. What's interesting is that some mutants see this 'cure' as a road to a better life. (There's a scene where Magneto proclaims that 'We are the Cure'. Um, not without Robert Smith you're not.)
Magneto uses the threat of this cure as a way of creating a mutant army. He attacks the lab on Alcatraz island to destroy it. To do so he rearranges the Golden Gate bridge, which kinda seems like overkill. A big battle ensues and so on.
This movie brings out one of my favorite villans, Juggernaut. Big, stupid and unstoppable (and lots of fun). It also introduces Kelsey Grammer as the Beast. It's actually an inspired choice. One unexplained abscence is Nightcrawler (my personal favorite). Colossus is back and actually used to some extent. And Wolverine, the star of the team, is finally let loose.
I liked it.

UPDATE: Just found out that there's more movie after the credits. We didn't know that and left the theater. Whoops!

Random FP Gal comment

"Watch out for Mr Hooper and the forklift!"

This may become an ongoing series.

Isolation & Curiosity

 

The Right Stuff - 1983

In the late 70's Tom Wolfe (yes that Tom Wolfe) became interested in test pilot culture. He started interviewing and writing and came up with 'The Right Stuff'. It started as featuring test pilots and bleed into the Mercury astronaut program. The 'Right Stuff' by the way refers to an almost indefinable combination of courage, instinct and smarts that separates good pilots, great pilots and extraordinary ones.
The movie version follows the general plan of the book. It begins with Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier. With broken ribs no less. It continues by introducing several of the Mercury astronauts. The tests that they used to select them are particularly interesting. They focused on the psychological things rather than the physical ones. Really they weren't looking for pilots, they were looking for people that would sit there and not mess things up.
The movie continues through the failures of the initial tests and finally successful space shots. It details Grissom losing his capsule. And moves on to the real star of the program, John Glenn. Glenn's attitude and personality made him into a celebrity.
The close of the movie intermixes the introduction of the astronaut program to Houston with a memorable test flight of Yeager's. The Houston show featured lots of barbecue and a fan dance from Sally Rand (nearly 60). It's hard to imagine any large public gathering featuring a sitting Vice President using nude dancing as entertainment.
I want to love this movie. Being something of a space nut and all. But the story is sprawling and not well tied together. Different elements aren't really fleshed out or explained in enough detail to be understood. It's a good movie but it pales in comparison to more focused films like Apollo 13.

Heinlein Prize

This is pretty cool.

X Prize founder wins prize: The impresario behind the $10 million X Prize for private spaceflight, Peter Diamandis, has won a prize of his own — the first-ever $500,000 Heinlein Prize, endowed by the estate of the late science-fiction great Robert Heinlein and his wife.

Didn't even know that there was such a thing. The prize is for commercializing space. Heinlein believed that it was important for mankind to move into space and onto other planets. Mr Diamandis is one of the people moving things in the right direction.

Various views

 

Weekend update

• We're leaning towards Ozzie (short for Ocelot) for our kitten. Well, I'm leaning. The FP Gal has already fallen over for it. It's mere coincidence that it's the same name as my favorite manager. To answer Hans's question, we kept an eye out for extra toes but didn't have any luck.
  
• The other two cats aren't really taking to this well. Mostly sulking and uneasy. This will pass at some point. Sana will come to understand that she doesn't have to be low on the totem pole. And Calypso will just forget that anything was ever different.
• We've got Ozzie isolated in his own little room. The Humane Society warned us that there is a possibility of respiratory infection. Until we can get him into the vet or at least be certain that he's ok, we'll keep him away from the other two. We're lucky that we have the space to do this! We'd be luckier if the forecast wasn't for 91 today.
• Something non-kitten? I've heard back about the training position. They've pushed any hiring back until next year. Disappointing but not really unexpected. I'm still doing a lot of training while I'm there. Did about 10 hours this week and will do a similar amount next week. It suits me.
• No special plans this weekend. Kind of excited to see a certain movie about mutants. It's called 'Cherynobl Remembrance' or somesuch. Possible review tomorrow.
• One more kitten thing, Ozzie is nonstop adorable!
  

Bright light!

 

A new kitten

is what we've got. And a very very cute one too! The humane society named him Spike but I think we'll try and improve that.

A new addition

 

New Ballparks

Over the weekend the state legislature approved plans for new Gophers and Twins stadiums. They've both been subject to long long long debates. The Twin's debate was especially lengthy and contentious. The sticking point has been about who will be taxed and what manuevers will allow that taxation to go into place.
Color me as 'against' using public money for sports stadiums. But I'm not really torn up about this. I can think of worse things to spend the money on (light rail in the wrong place). I am excited to see baseball in a new park. The dome is an awful place for baseball. It always seemed that the Twins would be home on the weekend when there was perfect weather. You just can't ask a Minnesotan to put up with six months of winter and then use up a sunny day inside of a teflon bubble.
It's not too late to make funding dependent on a better mascot, is it?

Midnight's Children

About five years ago I picked up a used copy of 'The Satanic Verses'. I knew the book had created a fuss (actually a fatwa) and I was curious. So on a vacation to Hawaii I read it. And enjoyed it. A couple years later I picked another Salman Rushdie novel, 'Midnight's Children'. And I loved it.
It's a sprawling book (to put it lightly). The idea is simple, a child is born at the precise moment that India becomes an independant nation. His life and his families history strangely mirror the events that happen to his country. This novel details a complex interwoven family tree. It deals with mixes of religions, politics and cuisine. Rushdie's talent for a turn of phrase is nothing short of delightful.
Since then I've read four or five other of his books. Loved them all (except 'Fury'). Recently I decided to reread 'Midnight's Children'. What I didn't realize is that this is the 25th anniversary of it's publication. And I've run across the new introduction. (My personal rule is to skip the intro on a first reading but I find it useful to read it on the second pass.) What I hadn't realized is how much controversy this book had caused. Apparently Rushdie was sued by then Prime Minister Indira Ghandi for a brief passage regarding her relationship with her son. The legal theory that he came up with was novel.

The case never came to court. The law of defamation is highly technical, and to repeat a defamatory rumour is to commit the defamation oneself, so technically we were in the wrong. Mrs Gandhi was not asking for damages, only for the sentence to be removed from future editions of the book. The only defence we had was a high-risk route: we would have had to argue that her actions during the Emergency were so heinous that she could no longer be considered a person of good character, and could therefore not be defamed. In other words, we would have had, in effect, to put her on trial for her misdeeds. But if, in the end, a British court refused to accept that the Prime Minister of India was not a woman of good character, then we would be, not to put too fine a point upon it, royally screwed.

A few weeks later she was assassinated. Very interesting stuff.

10 things I hate about the Commandments

Hysterical recut trailer here. (Warning, brief profanity near the end.) h/t The Corner

Been around

create your own personalized map of the USA
or write about it on the open travel guide

Roxane's tree

 

Planting a tree

We finally got clearance to plant out tree. Well, 'finally' is kind of strong. It was just picked up on Saturday. What I meant is that the we were cleared of any powerlines and whatnot so we could dig a spot to plant the tree. Actually, I don't know about the whatnot but the powerlines weren't any danger.
So we planted it. And we buried Roxane (she's been in our little kitty morgue). I wrote a little something about her and sealed it with a picture near her. It feels like the closing of a chapter and that's a good thing.
We still miss her of course. Keep expecting her to meet me at the door when I come home. But now I can think of her with this tree. Hope she enjoys that the birds and squirrels are finally close enough to reach. Hope that somewhere she's happy.

Crib sheet for Christianity

found here (via Baseball Crank). Very funny stuff. My favorite

Catholics
Catholics are the New York Yankees of Christianity. They are the biggest and wealthiest team, and their owner is intensely controversial (this makes St. Francis of Assisi the Derek Jeter of Catholicism: discuss). Catholics all wear matching uniforms, and are divided into "parishes," or "squadrons," to make choosing softball teams easier. Catholics are rigidly controlled by a hidebound hierarchy that starts with priests and ends with priests' housekeepers. Catholics are not allowed to read the Bible, eat meat, or refrain from worshipping statues.

Interesting...

This article in the Strib caught my eye this morning. It's a poll that gauges Minnesota's political leanings and it's found something surprising. It found a slightly larger number of GOP voters than DFLers. This is most interesting in regards to the upcoming Senate race. With a slight Republican majority in the Senate, it would only take a few Democratic victories to swing it. A Dem loss in MN would make that swing unlikely.
But how likely is that loss? On election day of 2004 I spent the afternoon here in south Minneapolis watching early poll results. Three different DFL workers stopped by the house to make sure we'd voted. The machinery to create turnout here is truly amazing. As the 2004 tide turned more and more Rep nationwide, MN was an exception. Based on those things, I've assumed that this particular Senate seat would remain Dem, and frankly I still do.
But...individual elections turn on many things. The relative strengths of the candidates as people is one of the biggest ones. Local (statewide) issues are also important. And events on the ground can always make unexpected changes.
Should be an interesting six months.

The Dresser - 1983

This is a movie about a Shakespearean theater troop during WWII. It stars Albert Finney (referred to only as Sir) as the lead actor. He's trying to keep the troop going even though the war has depleted the ranks of available actors and the bombings make the shows a little dicey. He's attended to by a dresser (Tom Courtenay) who helps him through each night.
The problem is that Sir's grip on reality is clearly slipping. He's having fits in public. A breakdown puts him in the hospital and threatens to cancel the next show. But he soldiers on, checks himself out and returns to the theater. His dresser cajoles him into costume, makeup and so on. Eventually he's prompted on stage where he is revived into action. There are some other shenanigans including shuffling the remaining cast to help with the production and a young actress trying to sleep her way to the top.
Can't really recommend this movie. I'm a huge Shakespeare fan and movies about theater always intrest me. This one left me cold. The acting is good but the story isn't. An entirely forgettable movie.

Banana notes (or A Typical Monday Morning)

• The bananas are too green to eat yet.
  
• We wanted the bananas for peanut-butter banana sandwiches.
• The FP Gal thinks that bananas were the first fruit to have stickers on them. I have no serious thoughts on this beyond, "other fruits have stickers on them?".
  
• Apparently other fruits have stickers on them because grocery workers aren't expected to know all of the fruits anymore.
  
• The above note makes no sense to me.
• Really, who can keep all of the fruits straight anymore? We used to only have apples, oranges, grapes and bananas right? When did we get all of these other foreign fruits?
  
• If you put a banana sticker on your cat's head, she'll try to shake it off. Failing that she'll run upstairs and hide.
  
• Maybe the bananas will be ready to eat tomorrow.
  

Amateur empowerment?

Close. Actually a hurried mistake. Story here (with video). A hurried production manager was searching for an expert to comment on the Apple/Beatles case and accidentally grabbed...his cabbie. The poor man was rushed in front of the camera and gamely tries to answer the interviewers questions. The initial look of horror makes the whole thing. (via Volokh Conspiracy)

Gone fishin'

 

Back from the game

in which the Twins beat the White Sox 8-4. Had a good time anyway. The White Sox record in games I attend at the Metrodome is something like 2-18 so I'm kind of used to this by now. And yes, I should just stay away.
The Twins mascot is a cutsie bear named T.C. I'm not a fan of baseball team mascots for the simple reason that they feel forced and silly. T.C. is no exception to this. But...the Twins have added someone else that I might actually enjoy. They've added a fish. Seriously. They've got a guy in a fish costume helping out with the mascot duties. It's important when you're envisioning this to see the fish walking around looking straight up while the human feet are at the fish tail.
Two years ago the FP Gal and I went to a game at the dome. Before the game the Twins had a contest where two people in a boat tried to cast lines at several of these same fish. When the fish were hit, they would fall down and flop around. One of the most surreal things I've ever seen at a baseball game. I'm amazed (and pleased) that one of them survived and is still running around.
I hope this isn't just for the fishing opener. The Twins could use some sheer goofiness to counter the sacharine sweetness of T.C. Fish forever!

The Price of a First Class Upgrade

is service apparently. My (increasingly techno) mother flew to Seattle today and had an interesting experience. Actually a rather pleasant one. Other Northwest flights reviewed here. (Adorable pictures of neice and nephew found here. Upper right-hand corner.)
And while I'm at it. The FP Gal is currently giggling about this site.
Hope everyone has a good weekend!

How much is that Sana in the window?

 

Celtic Pride

An article by Terry Jones (of Python fame) suggests that the Celts have unfairly been seen as barbarians when in fact they were a fairly advanced people. The examples he gives have to do with roadbuilding and toolmaking. The Roman advantage, he suggests, was almost solely having to do with a professional army. The article is interesting and includes stuff I'd never heard about.
But...the article misses a pretty big point. Well, it mentions it but goes past it quickly. Written records. They're the foundation of civilization. They allow ideas (and laws) to be transmitted near and far. They create a sense of permanence that allows for (or at least encourages) longer range planning. It's no fault of the Celts that the Romans had them beat there. These things happen.
And a superior army is important too. We've become so used to thinking of civilization as 'peace, love and understanding' that we forget the need for rough ready men willing to put their butts on the line and kill the enemy before they are killed. And they need to be able to do that outfighting. Hence a superior army.
I don't want to suggest that this is the only (or even most) important quality for a civilizaton to have. We can recognize the beauty and art of less prominent peoples. And there is certainly an inherent dignity in all groups. But it's important to remember the less pretty bits too. A civilization that forgets the need to be ugly is in danger waters.

Pity the Fool

Didn't know about this. Any chance he could deck the mascot there?

United 93 - 2006

This movie is a real time depiction of the morning of September 11th. It follows the events surrounding UA 93 as well as the general reactions at the FAA and within the military. It's amazingly powerful. Obviously the story is well known but I'd like to mention some of the things that I really liked.
The movie doesn't overly dramatize. The passengers are depicted as normal everyday people in an awful situation. The hijackers aren't cartoonish madmen. They're commited and savage but they're real people.
Also really liked the movie showing people on the ground trying to come to grips with an unthinkable situation unfolding. They thought that hostages would want to talk to them. When they didn't do so, the FAA wasn't sure what to do or even if a real hostage situation was going on. Watching them try to figure their way through is gripping.
A scene near the end shows the passengers talking on phones to their loved ones. All goodbye, I love you messages. Very powerful. Couldn't help but put myself in their shoes and wonder what I would have done.
There's some debate as to whether it's too early for this movie. It didn't feel that way to me. There was genuine heroism that day and it's important to remember that. Those brave passengers fought back and saved some bit of tragedy from happening. They also closed the door on that particular method of terrorism. They deserve to be honored.

The Big Chill - 1983

This movie is about a group of college friends getting back together years after college. The occasion is a sad one, the funeral of one of their number. The group is in their mid thirties and their lives have drifted in different directions. Some are having success. Some have had breakdowns. Some are uncomfortable with their success. It's almost a coming of middle-age movie.
The cast is strong and stories are interesting. This must have been an extremely well thought of movie, considering the memories of those who remember it from way back when. It's a very good movie.
The music is a very good collection of (mostly) Motown. The FP Gal has (and loves) the soundtrack. The one weak spot is a Rolling Stones tune that doesn't really fit.

A Lighter note on Iran

From Lileks, excerpts from the recent 18 page letter we recently received from Iran:

. . . and if you had the problem I have with razors you would know why my beard seems so tentative at times; if I may speak with you man to anointed hastener of the Apocalypse, how do you get such a smooth shave? A hot towel? Perhaps the Five-Blade Razor of which we have heard muttered rumors? Personally, I use an exfoliating agent which (8343 words excised)

Good stuff.

Weekend update

• A slow and refreshing weekend here. Well, for me at least. The lovely and talented FP Gal shot a wedding yesterday, went garage saling and is rebuilding our automatic litter box. Sometimes it pays to be the decorative type.
• Watched the Kentucky Derby. It's called the most exciting three minutes in sport and that's with some justification. The FP Gal has called the winner correctly each of the last two years. This year she called it and then changed her mind. Each year we talk of actually putting money down on it in the future. Probably little danger of that. (My pick? Came in second. You want me to pick your horse, put the word 'cat' in the name.)
• I'm two reviews behind with the movie project (The Big Chill and The Dresser). Doing the 80's is very different than the 90's and in some ways more rewarding. I've hardly seen any of these movies and some I've never heard of. It's strange seeing these actors look so young. The 70's next year? FP Gal says we'll be too busy having a baby. And no, that's not an announcement.
• Major find at the grocery store this morning. We found...Smart Food. The most perfect white cheddar popcorn imaginable. Yum!
• Read two very good columns from Mark Steyn today. The first has to do with the Sudan and reliance on the U.N. to help out there. It argues that if one really really cares about whats going there, well:
  

If you think the case for intervention in Darfur depends on whether or not the Chinese guy raises his hand, sorry, you're not being serious.

• The second column has to do with the Moussaoui trial and what the trial says about America. Agreed with most of it, but the huge question of what alternative from a trial would be is unanswered.
• Watched some baseball this weekend too. Haven't said much about the White Sox this season. Most of it would boil down to 'they're playing really well'. And that's just not interesting commentary.
• Anything else? I won two of three games of Yahtzee last night. We're a pretty wild couple.
  

Le Tigre Triomphant!

Taken a year ago while I was in Paris. 

"America, you lost"

The Moussaoui sentencing occurred yesterday. The jurors decided on life in prison with no chance of parole. The reaction from the guilty? "America, you lost! I won!".
This was a man who was complicit in the murder of nearly 3000 people. There wasn't much question of guilt as he openly proclaimed it. Frankly, he deserves to be executed. Can't help but agree with Peggy Noonan here, this seems to be a 'dizzy failure of nerve'.

This is what the jury announced yesterday. They did not doubt Moussaoui was guilty of conspiracy. They did not doubt his own testimony as to his guilt. They did not think he was incapable of telling right from wrong. They did not find him insane. They did believe, however, that he had had an unstable childhood, that his father was abusive and then abandoning, and that as a child, in his native France, he'd suffered the trauma of being exposed to racial slurs.

As I listened to the court officer read the jury's conclusions yesterday I thought: This isn't a decision, it's a non sequitur.

And yet they chose a lesser punishment. I'm not one of those calling for him to be drawn and quartered. I'm completely fine if he doesn't suffer at all. Gas chamber or lethal injection are fine with me. But he really does deserve to be put down. If any case calls for execution, it's this one.
But isn't life in prison really a harsher penalty? That really doesn't matter to me. I wasn't looking for the worst thing I could do to him, I wanted the most appropriate measure of justice. When there is no doubt of guilt and the crime was heinous, the most appropriate answer is execution. That's my honest opinion. I wouldn't use the death penalty in a knee-jerk fashion but this case calls for it.
But won't we just be turning him into a martyr? Possibly. But let's do a little thought experiment here. Imagine that you're a recruiter for terrorists. What would you do in this situation? If he's executed, you present him as a martyr. If he's not executed you present America as soft. 'Don't worry if they catch you, they're too weak to kill you.' Either way it's folly to make this type of decision based on how it'll be represented by your enemies. They will always twist your words and actions to their own benefit.
I expect his time in prison will be short anyway. It wouldn't surprise me to hear about another prisoner killing Moussaoui. Nor would I shed a tear. Is it wrong that I hope it happens before the inevitable book deal?

Chicken Dance

A recent post by my friend Jodi recommends a new version of the Chicken Dance to listeners. She closed her post by threatening to delete any comments comparing 'L'dance du poultrie' to the highly evolved art of polka. This goes back to a looooong (and continuing debate) as to the classification of the song. My argument has always been that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it's probably a duck (is it bad to mix waterfowl?). Hers is that the Chicken Dance is a mere gimmick song unlike a true polka, like 'Who Stole the Keeshka'. Well, where could I go to find this type of information? If only some tool existed that had virtually all of the information in the world at it's fingertips...
Wait a minute! I'll ask my good friend Google! Let's see, is the chicken dance a polka? Hmmm, well the first hit suggests that the song was popularized on polka albums. (It also includes it's own soundtrack!) The second link doesn't say much. The third one lists it as Chicken Dance (Polka).
Ummm, the seventh link is about Wisconsin declaring the Polka as the state dance. The blurb says that it was picked instead of the Chicken Dance. Is that conclusive? Well, using the well established maxim that 'Wisconsin is probably wrong', I'd say that helps my side. Hmmm, I'd say that pretty much proves my point.

Random Tuesday morning thoughts

• I've lost any remaining respect for Cleveland Indian fans. Jim Thome returned to Cleveland last night and got lustily booed by the fans. He started his career in Cleveland, established himself as a great player and left as a free agent. Bitterness is understandable but they were ugly. In the ninth inning Thome was nearly hit in the face by a pitch. That brought the biggest cheers from the Cleveland fans. Ugly.

• Experts are divided on whether Tyra Banks ego can be seen from space. Apparently, taking a person, elevating them for their looks and then giving them a talk show has that effect on people. Hosting a show where she gets to tear apart young girls who are trying to be her also has some effect.
  
• Contrary to popular myth, the Great Wall of China can't be seen from space.
  
• Calypso spent large portions of yesterday hunting a spider. Isn't 'housecat' the best job?
  

1982 in review

E.T.
Missing
Tootsie
The Verdict
Ghandi

This was a year of high highs and low lows. Both 'Missing' and 'Tootsie' are good movies but in very different ways. 'The Verdict' was utterly forgettable. I'm guessing at least ten movies from 1982 would have been more deserving of this nomination. Maybe fifty. 'E.T.' is a great movie and it aged very well. And 'Ghandi' was a very deserving Best Picture.

Ghandi - 1982

(FP Gal review: Good guy, too bad they shot him. This is why I write the reviews.)

This is a powerful movie about a man who believed in the goodness of mankind and the ability of one person to make a difference in the world. The movie opens with Ghandi's final moments and then flips back to his youth in South Africa. As a young man he learned of discrimination there and found ways to fight it. His method was novel, break the law peacefully and don't fight back. His cause was just and the obvious cruelty that he endured made him a cause celbre. Journalists told his story and the British government caved into his reasonable demands.
When he returned to India he was already a national hero. The Independence movement tried to adopt him as their own but they found him difficult to lead. He quickly adopted (returned to?) the methods of the more simple villages. His nonviolent protests quickly caught on and the nation loved him. The Brits responded with violence (the massacre at Amritsar being the worst). The movement towards an indendent India was finalized in 1947. At which point the country erupted in sectarian violence that Ghandi was instrumental in stopping. Truly powerful.
The lessons of Ghandi are tricky. He was undoubtably a successful figure. But...he had the right opponents for his methods. The British public were quickly ashamed at the thought of brutalizing the weak. They respected Ghandi and his followers. At a point late in the movie, Ghandi is being interviewed. He's asked if his methods would work against Hitler. He remarks that the price would be terrible. I believe the price would have been catastrophic.
The second crucial component that benefited Ghandi was the attention of a media free to investigate and report on what they saw. If the Brits had cut off the press, the nonviolent movment would have smothered. These are important considerations as pacifism is considered.
The movie is powerful. Ben Kingsley is outstanding. His work is all the more impressive when you consider the enormous make up job he must have gone through. The story is well told. This is a great movie.

Weekend stuff

Went to see my Mom last night (with the FP Gal in tow). Got to see her pictures from Japan (where she went to visit my brother, sister-in-law and their children). Looked like a very fun trip (with a great shot of Mt Fuji). Had some pizza and dessert (choice of red velvet cake or boston cream pie).
Then...finally...helped her set up her own blog (where she complains about rain). This completes the set as my whole family is now blogging (though most aren't updated often). Guess this means we're a modern family (who'd a thunk it?).

Roxy tribute

The lovely FP Gal has used her video skills to put together a tribute to Roxane. It's very touching. (The music is by Simple Minds. She thinks it's too 80's but Roxy liked it that way.)