Why I Don’t Like Tom Hanks…

When I was in elementary school, “Bosom Buddies” was in syndication.  This is the first time I had ever seen Tom Hanks in acting.  Admittedly, I liked the show, particularly, the opening credits where the character played by Peter Scolari was holding a paper bag and the Tom Hanks character was throwing oranges into the air which Peter Scolari’s character would then catch.  There was something about the two characters living a dual existence, kind of a split personality.

Then they didn’t show the show in syndication anymore.  But Tom Hanks continued to work in movies.  In particular, he showed up in comedic movies.   Splash, The Money Pit, Turner and Hooch, The Burbs, and Joe Versus the Volcano.  He was fine in this role as a kind of comedic actor.  His kind of laid back enthusiasm made him the perfect person to play these roles much like Will Ferrell plays his roles to well.

But, unsatisfied with this role, Tom Hanks attempted to move into more dramatic roles.  This is where my dislike of him began.  Mr. Hanks was inappropriate for the role of a gay actor in Philadelphia.  I found his acting unconvincing and awful.  The funny thing about it is that because of the movie’s topic, Mr. Hanks was destined to be lauded for his performance; how could anyone fail when such a good cause was on the line.  Almost anybody would have been lauded in that role.

Then, because of the stepping stone that Philadelphia gave Mr. Hanks, he was able to other roles he was inappropriate for merely because of his status.  Mr. Hanks was a terrible voice choice for Woody in Toy Story.  (So was Tim Allen for Buzz, consequently.)  He not convincing as a mentally challenged person in Forest Gump.  Role after role he landed but was ill-suited for.

Thereafter, he began his power play, stepping behind the camera and turning his attentions to directing and producing.  I think thereafter he held his grip on Hollywood, and hence the nation, by advancing his own agendas at the expense of the true art that movies are meant to be.

I think the icing on the cake was his role in the Di Vinci Code.  As a Catholic, anyone supporting an anti-Catholic agenda has lost my respect.  For a man who holds the nation’s attention in his sway, he should have known better to star in a movie which is blasphemous and disrespectful to a faith. 

In a word or two, Tom Hanks is an actor of circumstance who, instead of recognizing where his talents should best would be applied, i.e., low-budget comedic films, has grasped the neck of Hollywood, in attempt to make himself forever relevant.  This in a word is why I will not willingly spend another dollar in support of Tom Hanks.

Technorati Tags: Tom Hanks,Splash,Toy Story,Bosom Buddies,Peter Scolari,movies,Philadelphia,Hollywood,agenda

The best things in life aren’t free, but they are cheap.

When I was in high school, when I had a minimum wage job, at least for a little while, money was tight.  As a high schooler, most of my money went toward music, entertainment, and food.  Because I did not make a lot of money, I had to pinch every penny.  When my friends and I ate out, I always looked for the cheapest food possible.  At that time, a Taco Bueno had opened up in our small bedroom community.  They great thing about Taco Bueno is that you could get a chicken taco for less than 50 cents.  If you had three dollars, you had a meal, with free unlimited re-fills on your drink. 

As I have grown older, I noticed that even though I can afford a lot more than I used to, I still am looking for the bargain.  For example, an outlet mall just recently opened in our area.  At the outlet mall, a Converse store opened up.  I told my wife that I wanted a pair of high tops, which the store had plenty of.  Most of them were priced anywhere from $59.99 to $29.99 which was straight out.  The store had clearance shoes, too, for $19.99.  Even this was too much for me.  I would not buy a pair of canvas of high tops until they were $14.99.  Sadly, I took at least a half an hour to determine whether I wanted the shoes.  I bought them, and I love them.  But I think I got a fair deal. 

I have received many expensive watches and pens as various gifts.  Although I cherish each and every gift, the watches and pens that I have cherished the most are those that I have purchased at a great deal.  Funny enough, most people have notice that the cheaply purchased pens or watches are as awesome as I believe them to be.  (I suspect that my love for these items imbue them with desirability.)

You would think that the more valuable an item, the more I would value it.  This isn’t true.  I remember meals that I spent over a hundred dollars on and though to myself, “I’ld rather have had a hamburger.”  Perhaps it was in the build-up that I felt somehow jipped by the experience.  Perhaps seeing money pass through my hands made me have higher expectations than was warranted. 

Usually, the cheap items are also unique items.  There was a time that Mervyns Department Store sold canvas Airwalk shoes on clearance.  I believe my mother had purchased them for less than nine bucks for me.  At the time, I had no idea what skate shoes were or who Airwalk was.  I just liked the shoes and so I bought multiple pairs.  I wore the hell out of those shoes, so much so, that I wore them well after they had been poked open with holes.  Eventually, they ripped open from the front of the shoes all along the sides to the point where when I walked the shoes flopped and I ended up walking like a clown in them.  The point being, no one else had those shoes, and, despite my return to Mervyns to obtain another pair, I was unable to see them again.

In fact, in our household, we have a saying.  “You better get it now because you never see it again.”  Without exception, the saying holds true, and my wife and I have also bloodied our feet kicking ourselves for leaving behind items we knew we should have bought. 

So, my advice to you is this.  Always check the cheap bin, look for the deal, seek that which is close to free but not quite.  These are the precious items of the world, the treasures to be snatched up and cherished.

Technorati Tags: free,cheap,shoes,Converse,Airwalk,watches,pens,food

Why I dislike intelligent people…

When I was teaching eighth grade English, one of the stories we read, the eighth graders and I, was “Flowers for Algernon”.  A kind of one hit wonder like the song “I’ll Stop the World,” it was made into a novel and then into a movie.  I found the plot a bit moronic, but, for eighth graders, who knows, it might have been right on level.  It was after all in the their textbook.

The story is about a mentally challenged person who underwent surgery to allow him to become more intelligent.  It was sound discovered, however, that eventually the treatment lost its effect and that the person receiving treatment returned to their initial state.  The tone of the story was sad; the reader was made to feel sorry for the main character who the writer made seem so lowly in his ignorance. 

I always thought that the story missed the point.  Somehow, ignorance is always seen as something as a bad thing.  Don’t get me wrong.  I think an education is very important.  Children need to be taught how to reason and the skills needed to obtain a job.  However, somehow, the idea has been passed around that the pinnacle of human development is intelligence.

I think intelligence is overrated.  Intelligence when exuded by intelligent people is somewhat comes off pompous and a little obnoxious.  I can’t think of a single time when someone was being intelligent when they were using it in a way to destroy something beautiful or somehow changing, modifying, or otherwise manipulate something creative in a way to destroy the simplicity of it.  I think this is due to the fact that there are very few people who can carry off intelligence.

The saying goes, “Ignorance is bliss.”  I think no truer statement ever existed.  Simple thinking allows you to shut out dangerous thinking.   Things don’t seem to be bother you as much.  When you are not attempting to be intelligent, to be humane is not so much a stretch.  The happiest people I know all are people who are not necessarily the smartest people I know.  The most miserable people I know always seem to be depressed or angry or just plain mean.  As the other phrase goes, intelligent people seem to over-think everything.

Of course, it impossible to become less intelligent without causing yourself brain damage.  If you do, then you are not as intelligent as you think.  What I am suggesting is perhaps, instead of wielding your intelligence, you should perhaps think in a more simple and humane way. 

Technorati Tags: intelligent,ignorance,bliss,Flowers for Algernon,simple,simplicity

My Five Favorite Music Videos (that I can think of sitting here)…

Growing up, music was always a part of my life.  I was the band in middle school and in the first couple of years in high school.  I have spent countless dollars on records, tapes, and cd’s as well as concerts.  I visit music website fairly often.  It is not odd then that one of my blogs would be about music videos. 

When I though about the my top five videos of all time, I had a hard time of thinking of five videos.  I know that I would have a terrible time picking my five all time favorites songs, there are so many of them.  But videos are a little different.  Often, the video is the vehicle for the song rather than the other way around.  I think the videos below stand out from the song themselves.  Enjoy!

1. Disillusion – Badly Drawn Boy

In addition to being one of my favorite badly drawn boy songs, this video is brilliant.  I love the concept of human serving as a taxi service.  The icing on the cake is the booting suffered by Badly Drawn Boy.  The sprinkles is the end where Badly Drawn Boy, the human taxi is taxied by someone at the end of the video.

2. Island in the Sun – Weezer

I like Weezer.  I don’t necessarily love Weezer.  But I love this video.  There is something in the simplicity of a Mexican weeding which I adore.  It is a show case of humanity for all to see.  It a different slice of life for all to see.

3. You Keep It All In – The Beautiful South

There are so many bands that I instantly grew in love with based on seeing one video late night on Mtv’s 120 minutes.  This is one.  By the way, Penguins rock!

4. Here Comes Your Man – The Pixies

Another great song from the Pixies, but not, in my opinion, representative of their true genius.  Again simple in the message but truly unique for its time.  No lip syncing.  Just mouths ajar.

5. Ana Ng – They Might Be Giants

I remember before Beyonce there were the Johns with there own choreography.  I remember dancing to the video with brothers and friends with frantic, jerking movements, imitating what we saw on the television.  By the way, interestingly enough if you shift the letters in the title one to the left, you are left with Bob Oh!

Technorati Tags: they might be giants,the beautiful south,weezer,Mexican,music video,music,badly drawn boy,the pixies

My Five Lenten Resolutions…

Tomorrow is Mardi Gras.  Traditionally, the days leading up to Mardi Gras have been filled with sin and debauchery.  People drink as much as they can and expose themselves in the most inappropriate ways.  All of this is done with the idea on the Wednesday following, i.e., Ash Wednesday, it all comes to a sharp end.  Thereafter, the Lenten season begins and lasts for forty days, to represent the forty days of Jesus fasting in the desert. 

Lenten tradition holds that Catholics should sacrifice during this season.  In particular, Catholics are encouraged to give some excess or bad habit that they have.  There are many standards that people give-up for the Lent.  The Church holds that no one should eat meat on Friday.  (For me, this is not really a sacrifice since I love fish, especially the cheap fish they sell at Long John Silver’s.)  Others cut down on chocolate, drinking, television, or eating.  These I don’t really think are vices I have, (all except eating in general which I probably could do not stop.)

Below, I have listed the five vices I am considering giving-up as a part of Lenten season. 

1. Yelling at the Television

Every morning, I watch the national news channels in order to get caught up on what is going on in the world.  I lack the patience to making it through the morning commercials, and, inevitably, I move through the channels to see if one of the happens to be on while the others are showing commercials.  I always seemed to land on Fox News, listening to the “fair and balanced” channel give its own right-wing slant to the news.  I always get frustrated so that I end up yelling at the television.  I have decided to change this bad habit by seeing the channel for what it is, an entertainment channel.

2. Understanding that All People May Not Share My Interests

I have very little tolerance for people who do not share the same interests as I do.  Accordingly, unless you have something interesting to say, I generally do not give the time of day to you.  Needless to say, I do not do well at parties or other social gatherings.  I have decided to feign an interest in what others have to say.

3. To Become More Focused

I have a hard time on focusing on tasks, especially when they require long term planning.  For example, I am trying to write a novel.  In order to write the novel with any success requires planning and focus.  Without planning and focus, I could spend my time vegging out in front of the television and mindless surfing the internet.  Accordingly, I have decided that I will write the novel and do other important things while watching television or mindless surfing the net.

4. Not Make Excuses For Things

I have tendency to make excuses for things happening.  For example, I am often late because other people are driving on the road too slow or the traffic lights have been timed against me.  From now on, I will just admit to my mistakes.  If I am late, I will just admit that I did not care enough about the meeting to get there on time. 

5. Stop Trying to Improve Myself

Over the years I have tried to improve myself.  I have gone on multiple diets.  My favorite was the cabbage soup diet.  I have vowed to exercise more, with little success.  I decided to get up an hour or two earlier to get a quicker start to the day.  All of these things I tried without any success at all.  In fact, usually I go down in flames in two weeks.  I have decided this year to stop trying to change myself and just to accept myself as the rotten individual that I am.

Technorati Tags: resolution,lent,lenten,Mardi Gras,Ash Wednesday,list

The Difficulty of Habit…

I am cursed with laziness.  I think it may be a product of my time.  There are so many things in the modern era that keep us so distracted and glued to one place.  The television is great at doing this.  I have a television in my room which I watch before I go to bed and in the morning before I get out of bed.  It has so much control over my life that I actually set the television to go off in the morning as a second alarm clock just in case the first one does not go off. 

I also have a Sony Playstation 2, my wife reluctantly bought for me.  My favorite game at the moment is World Cup Soccer ‘08 which takes up large amounts of time when I play.  I usually play to win cups.  To win a cup, you have to play several games to do so.  And once you get started on a roll, you usually have a irresistible urge to continue on your winning streak.  This is also true with the other games you can by for this system.  God knows what might happen if there were two people in our house liked to play the game.

Finally, I have the computer.  It was up until recently that all I liked to do on the computer was to surf the websites looking for free stuff, free music, freeware, free desktop images.  I read up on bands, perhaps looked up the odd map.  But it can be addictive as well.

When I was in college, I was required to ride a bike or walk everywhere I needed to go.  The college was a few miles from where I lived. Where I worked was a few miles from where I lived as well.  This daily exercising was great for my body.  I was never thinner.   In fact, my in-laws at that time had a nickname for me, Soup Bone.  After I graduated from college, I no longer needed to bike or walk, I lost the benefit of this exercise.

About seven years ago, when I lived in apartment who had installed a gym, I tried working out on a daily basis.  I ran on a treadmill or rode a bike everyday.  I did weights everyday.  I liked it because it kept me active.  Interestingly enough, people noticed a change in me, asked me if I was working out.  I liked working out too, the way that it made your muscles ache in a good way.  The way that a good soak in a bath or a shower afterwards may your body tingle.  I always like flexing my calf muscles, its hardness impressing me.

And then, I caught something, the crud, a cold.  I am not sure what you would call it.  However, this put a halt to my exercise regime.  Even after I recovered, I was not able to get back on the exercise bike or the treadmill.  The allure to exercising was not there anymore.  I was tapped.    Even when I tried to go to the well, I could not muster up the interest to go downstairs to exercise.  I am no longer living at that apartment complex and that opportunity has passed me by. 

I have looked at exercise bikes and tread mills.  Honestly, they are not as expense as you would think they would be.  The real problem is the space.  That, and I would want to use it on my own terms, i.e., watching television.  I don’t think my wife wants an exercise bike in the middle of her living room, and, certainly don’t think we are going to drop money into a new television at this point. 

Both she and I have nice bikes sitting in our garage which we keep saying we need to get refurbished.  But as the saying goes, saying and doing are two different things.  Besides, I don’t think I could handle the gawkers watching me, a large man on a skinny bike riding through the city.  There is a walking path locally at the park which I have thought might be a good place to run.  But I have not gotten the motivation to go run it.  In short, I have the horse ready to ride but am unwilling to get on.

This is the story of all my good habits.  I have dedicated time to do something, and have done it substantially, and, then, when things get tough or I suffer a setback, I stop never to return to it.  I can’t tell you how many novels or short stories I have started only to leave them abandoned.  I have tried to start a blog like three or four times; somewhere out in the internet, there is dead pages of my lingering like ghosts between electronic impulses. 

As I am writing this, I am thinking how hard it was for me to even think of writing the blog today.  I had turned the computer on and started up the blogging program.  However, the well was dry.  However, I am bound and determined to continue, a blog a day, not only as goal to blog everyday, but an exercise of keeping with the good habits.

Why I hate the Oscars and all other award shows…

It seems like every other week a new award show is on television.  Apparently, some one has sold the entertainment industry a box full of metal statues, so many in fact that they have to give them away, (although, it’s possible that for the entertainer to get the free reward they may have to pay for the same, either by buying up ad space or air time or by selling their soul to the devil.)  Many industries and social groups have their own award presentations where members of the industry and social group dress up in formal ware tuxes and sparkling dresses and furs, even those occupations that are considered base.  I bet you somewhere in the United States, there is an awards presentation for trash collectors.

I do not have a problem with awards presentations per se.  It is wonderful to be rewarded for the good things you do.  If you have served faithfully as a police officer or fire fighter for twenty years, you deserve an award.  If you have brought profit to your company, you deserve recognition.

The problem I have with televised awards shows is that there is an expectation that individuals outside of the industry should some how care what happens regarding what films, actors, or actresses are the best.  And it is not as simple of determining what film, actor, or actress is the best; rather, tied with the award is a political point often at the expense of what film was truly the best.

Over the years, the award shows have grown even more self-absorbed and self-indulgent.  E! Entertainment Television does a “red carpet” show.  (Apparently, it is not enough to see three hours of persons who earn more in one year than most would see in in several lifetimes; we must also see hours of them arriving to the three hour bore fest.) 

What gets me even more frustrated and angry is the disgusting manner in which the persons attending the Oscars get lavished with gift baskets worth thousands of dollars.  I had to laugh when I recently saw on some faux news (entertainment) show indicating that in light of the economic troubles that face the United States, the Oscars was going to cut back to show their concern for the average man. 

I would call on actors, actresses, musicians, film makers, directors, all in the entertainment industry, to keep your award ceremonies to yourself.  Let us find out about the winners through the news.  We did not need you to make all of us “regular” folk feel like dirt because we don’t live the lavish life-style you do.  In short, entertainers show some humility and, if you can’t share your wealth that you probably don’t deserve, keep your wealth hidden from all of us suffering to get by.

Technorati Tags: Oscars,actors,entertainment,actresses,entertainment industry,musicians,television,music

The Argument of Stone, Wood, and Metal…

Wood, metal, and stone sat at a table playing poker.  The night was late, but no one of them were any more richer or poorer than when the night began. 

The three were tired but none of them would relent to leave the table.  It was metal and stone whose obstinacy prevented an end of the game.  It began when metal challenged stone’s efficacy. 

“Stone, why don’t you just call it a night now?  You know that you will be giving me all your money anyway.  You’re too rough and disorganized to beat me.”

Stone did not say anything to Metal but gave him a cold look that was meant to cut Metal to the core. 

Wood cut into the conversation, “Sirs, there is no need for this disagreement.  Such talk is not gentlemanly.”  Wood’s words were hand crafted with red-brown warmth. 

Stone looked at Wood.  Stone was as old as wood, but, Stone was much more experienced.  In fact, it was Stone who introduced Wood to the its own functional uses.  Wood remembered the day distinctly.  Stone had been chipped down into an edge which he applied to Wood standing in his natural state as Tree.  When Tree/Wood had been laid to the ground, Stone shaped him into many things.  All the while, Stone had not lost his form.  For this, Wood and Stone formed a bond.

Metal spoke up.  “Old men, it is time for you to ante up.  Place your bets.” 

Stone placed flint on the table.  Metal laughed and hearty laugh.  “Flint?” 

Wood brought forth a violin, beautifully constructed and with beautiful notes that sprung forth from a hole in its torso.  Metal laughed again.  “What use are these things in a modern world?  You two are so outdated that you have become irrelevant.”

Metal placed upon the pile a bar of gold.  “This, men, is value."  And he smiled.

Wood, not to let the slight do, responded.  “You, sir, are unnatural.  You are the dictate of mankind.  A bastard son.” 

Metal became hot, so hot in fact that he began to steam and expand.  “Me, I am the steel girders of the world.  I am not mankind’s bitch! I am its savior!”

Wood smiled a deep grainy smile.  Stone looked at Metal and Wood with the same vacant look he had since he walked into the game.  He rose the ante by placing a stone tile on the pile. 

Wood again spoke, “Ingenious move, old friend.  Ingenious move.”

Wood placed upon the pile an ornate desk with inlay.  Metal put on the pile a shiny metal pistol.  “This, sirs, is what makes the world go round.  It is power incarnate.”

Stone shifted in his seat, and the table and chairs in which everyone sat rumbled.  Wood withdrew slightly into himself.  Metal smiled a greedy smile.

Stone said nothing but laid his cards out on the table in a sign of calling.  Wood and Metal followed suit.

The Complexity of the Simple…

My favorite poet, hands down, is Williams Carlos Williams.  A part of the Imagist movement of poetry, William Carlos Williams’ poetry was pure and simple.  The subject matter was often everyday items in everyday settings. 

Take for example his poem “The Red Wheelbarrow”.  Each word is so simple that a any child of pre-school age understands the words with little or no explanation.  The poem itself is a single sentence long, so short that if you read it like a sentence or speaks it like you would state any fact, you would miss its magic. 

Yet hidden within the simple words, there seems to be a complex message framed lovingly in the broken line and the separation stanzas.  I have no idea what that message is.  I believe it is found in the words “so much depends upon.”  There is desperation in those words, a sense of urgency, which belies the following words, the rustic idyllic image he paints thereafter.

Similarly, Kazimir Malevich painted the painting to the left, an image that leaves most proclaiming, “I could have done that.”  It is is simple.  Yet, within that simplicity, Malevich sought to express an complex idea.  Hidden within the four corners is the destruction of the history and tradition of art that preceded its creation.  It was the creation of a new way of talking about art and how to walk your way around it.  Like “The Red Wheelbarrow”, it was a way to infuse the simple with a beautifully complex message.

I remember during my student teaching days, I was teaching a class of high school seniors.  One of my students was a teenage boy who had recently transferred from a private school.  My sponsor teacher informed me ahead of time, imparting to me that it was a real struggle for the student’s father to go to public school.  Therefore, it was with trepidation that I told the student that he needed to tone down his vocabulary, i.e., try to convey his message simply instead of seeking antiquated and intelligent sounding words.

He responded by writing me a poem in which he used even more intellectual words to convey a message that was “lost in translation.”  What I tried to convey to him is what Williams and Malevich have conveyed so well without even trying, that if done right, simplicity holds a universe of complexity and that before attempting to build more and more complex things, we might return to look back to the simple things and look within them for depth and meaning.

I would leave you with one last image, simple, and, yet, in its simplicity, infinitely complex, it is from the play the Cherry Orchid written by Aton Chekhov.  There is a part in the play when the audience hears the breaking of string off in the distance.  The string totally out of place, simple, echoes a complexity that perhaps makes the whole play.  It is in that breaking of the string, we understand more about the characters and the surrounds in which they are placed.  You can download a copy of the play here.

Below is a clip from the 1962 film version starring Judi Dench, which I think echoes the sentiment of the Imagists, the simplicity of the image, i.e., the description of the cherry orchid, the holder of a complex image.

Technorati Tags: The Cherry Orchid,The Red Wheelbarrow,Kazimir Malevich,Malevich,William Carlos Williams,The Black Square,simplicity,simple,complexity,complex

Are inability to see but one (the Problem with Creationists and Darwinists)…

There is a wonderful picture that motivational speakers and lecturers use alike.  Depending on how you look at the black and white sketch, you either see the image of an old hag or a young woman.  Motivational speakers and lecturers use the picture to make a apparent poignant message: things change depending upon how you look at it.  (I am amazed how in the depiction of the image, its message is subtly revealed.  The young woman refuses to look at us; he face is hidden.  The old woman, hideous, faces us, at least more so than the young woman.)

Most of the time, the speaker takes a poll of his (or her) audience to see if they can identify the image.  The crowd gives differing answers causing confusion until an explanation of the image is given to the audience.  At this time, everyone gets the idea that there are different ways to perceive things.  It is an inherently great message, one which most people understand but do not live out. 

There are many divides caused by the inability of two sides to see the different aspects of things.  The news channels constantly blast us with the girlish gossip of capital hill about how the Democrats and Republicans are at each others’ throats.  There are age old disputes about who displaced who from which sacred land.  The debate I find most interesting is the inane battle raging between so-called Creationists (recently reforming themselves under the flag of proponents of Intelligent Design) and the Darwinists marching under the almighty power of Science.

For all their differences, these two armies crusading for truth have at least common theme between them: their inability to see the multiplicity of things.

I recall a time in high school during study hall when I saw a fellow student working on a map as a part of his Geography homework.  I noticed in particular that he had labeled the colored pencils he was using to color the map pursuant to its particular color.  To me, labeling the pencils was somewhat girlish and moronic, and I told him so in the way that only a moronic high schooler could.

Boy did I feel stupid when he explained to me that he was color blind.  He obviously could not differentiate between certain colors.  I remembered after he chastised me of the image in my Biology text book the little image composed of green and red circles organized to show a green 3 on a red background.  This did nothing to increase my understanding of his condition only to make me feel sorry for the guy.  (To this day, I wonder if he was allowed to drive without being able to see the green “go” light or red “stop” light”.  Perhaps, he saw the location of the lights and knew.)

It wasn’t until the daily newspaper started printing images like those 3-D posters so popular in the 90’s, the ones filled with dots of color, I begin to understand the disability he lived with.  I had the inability to see the images in the dots no matter how much I strained or crossed my eyes.  I saw waving lines, but I couldn’t see the car or boat, just a bunch of dots floating across my eyeballs.

Perception, whether it is seeing colors or images in in dots, is important two persons to have the common knowledge in order to discourse.  The problem is that sometimes, having a common perception is impossible.  It is like trying to see the young woman and the old woman at the same time.  Your eyes and your mind just will not let you do so.

This is why Creationists and Darwinists will never be able to reach common ground.  Excusing my large generalization, Darwinists are unable to understand a concept of a God because for a Darwinist there is always a scientific explanation, usually an evolutionary one, for phenomenon.  The beauty of flowers, the majesty of mountains, the wonder of the sunset, all are a result of scientific forces in play.  (I recall a friend I once had who refused to buy or receive flowers because he found offensive the offering of the sexual organs of living things as a sign of affection.)

Creationists on the other hand adhere to an equally obstinate position.  For the Creationist, the Bible is the only explanation for the way things are.  As a result, the only acceptable interpretation of the Bible is a literal one, and one only makes sense in the shoes of the modern Creationists.  For them, the Earth was made in seven days, with each day having 24 hours each.  There is no room for an interpretation of a day to incorporate more than 24 hours. 

Multiplicity is the key, seeing that there is in fact layers of truth which might co-exist with one another.  In order to truly understand the Universe, one has to be able to switch from “old woman” to “young woman” and understand that these layers work together in conjunction with each other to create the whole.  Until then, we can never hope to have the mutual tolerance we all seek.

Technorati Tags: Darwinists,Creationists,color blind,science,religion,God,3-D,perception

The Golden Age of Disney Animated Movies

I love animated movies, even now as an adult.  For me, what a director can do in an animated movie is so much more than one can do in a live-action film.  The animated film has the ability to present in an more artistic and more interpretive way subject matter than a live-action film ever could.  For me, the point of an animated movie is to present the story in a with unique images we would never see in real life.  Animation itself is antithetical to realism.

Oddly enough, the recent trend in animated movies is to do all the animation by computer to give the characters a more realistic look and feel.  Each hair must be added in and accounted for.  Each pixel purposefully addressed.  The one animation studio that seems to have capitalized on this computer animation craze is Pixar. 

Don’t get me wrong.  There are charming features to the Incredibles, Finding Nemo, and Monsters Inc.  However, I tend to think that what carries these films is not so much the animation as the script and voice acting.  But why have an animated movie when your goals is realism; a live-action film is probably better suited and a whole lot cheaper.

If I recall correctly, Disney in fact started creeping in computer animation with Beauty and the Beast (1991).  They paraded out the scene of Belle dancing with the Beast in a grand ballroom.  For me, the scene was the most awkward.  The ballroom looked cold and unappealing.  The ceiling and the chandelier looked fake.   The reflections on the floor looked weird.  It was as if they pasted drawn figures on a computer animated screen, which is essentially what they dead.  

Apparently, Disney and other animation studios corrected the problem by making all of the elements computer animated.  Accordingly, instead of having soulless computer animation suck out the warmth of animation hand drawn by skilled artists, the animation studios the movie is entirely put together with computer animation.  The effect, for me, is to make the movie lacking with artistic merit.

When I was in elementary school, I remember a Native American came and gave a lecture on Native American culture.  Among the different things he talked about, he discussed Native American crafts.  He pointed out that all Native American craft had some flaw in it as a way giving the item humanity.  I’m sure that the Native American was probably stretching some generalization a little thin.  However, the message was good, and, I believe equally applicable to animated films.

There is something beautiful about the way that hand drawn movies were put together.  For example, in Robin Hood (1973), you can almost see the pencil marks of the artists like loose strings flying off the figures.  The movement of the figures are unnatural, only just so, to give the movie a wonderfully awkward flow.  The colors were not perfect, but, in their imperfection, made the film more intimate and human.  For example, there is a beautiful scene when almost all the good characters have been placed in jail.  Grayness sits upon the whole scene and washes over the rest of the colors.  Everything looks like it is about to crumble.

The hand-done drawings somehow held a curiously adult message.  There was no adult language in the movie, no nudity, but, in the put-together, the adulthood conspiracy came through.  Scenes were oddly quiet and morose.  This is no more true than in the Rescuers (1977), a movie about a child, Penny, kidnapped to be used by her kidnappers as a plunderer of pirate treasure.  There is not one scene in this movie pleasant or vibrant; rather, each scene dripped with despair and desperation.  All seems dark and thickly ominous. 

It appears that Disney was echoing the Film Noir movies made after World War II.  Dark and complex, they showed life not in the ideal but as it really was.  There were no good characters.  Darkness washed everything.  Film noir tried to show the human condition.  Although the films were about the fantastic, the stories were grounded.  Perhaps it was the Vietnam War (1959 to 1979) making the animators bitter and angry, their despair over the number of men being killed in an unwinnable pouring over to their work. 

Each of the movies made during this time seem to be a fight against those in power and a call for change.  101 Dalmations (1961) is about going up against a rich, wealthy woman wanting to skin the coats of Dalmatians for the purpose of making a coat.  The Sword in the Stone (1963) is about the reestablishment of a king who has been properly schooled in the ways of not just men but all of the world.  The Jungle Book (1967) is a movie about a kid who shuns man’s world to live in commune with the natural world.  The Aristocats (1970) is about pampered cat heiress who finds love among the common cats of the city.  Thereafter, you have Robin Hood, the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which is sad and lonely in its own way, and eventually the Rescuers.

It was not until the Fox and the Hound (1981) when the images and the messages seemed less bleak and little more watered down.  Certainly, the Fox and the Hound was much briter than the Rescuers, the movie that preceded it.  Even the sad scenes were had a sweeter quality to it.

This was also the time of Ralph Bakshi, a man whose animated films were notoriously made for adults such as Fritz the Cat and more recently, Cool World.  For a filmography, click here.  Perhaps too much adult content. 

Something happened between that golden age of animated films and the late 80’s/early 90’s which destroyed the wonderful richness that the animators had put in the films.  The animated films lost their humanity and become cold, lifeless, and bland.  Perhaps it was the result of the Reagan era, which  seemed to put a gloss over everything. Things were better and brighter; people were making money and were able to afford things.  Even though the Cold War raged, people felt secure.  This idealism carried through the Clinton era with the afterglow fwlling out in the Bush era.

With the downturn in the economy and true uncertainty facing United States as well as the World, the time may be ripe for the more human and darker animation to make its reappearance.  It is clear that computer animation has made its mark such that it is unlikely that it will not ever lose its grip in the animation production.  However, the chance for the kinds of stories from my childhood that I grew to love, dark and beautifully morose stories, may now be coming back. 

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Theological Mathematics

She.

 

She is O.

 

She is yin.

 

She is hollow and empty.

She is the darkness and cold of space.

She is infinity.

 

She is the vastness of the ocean,

its frosty, salty waves licking the air

with foamy tongues.

 

She is a warm, wet womb,

a protector of all within

her castle walls.

 

She is a vessel, a receptacle,

a cage,

a treasure chest,

holder of secrets,

a mystery.

 

He.

 

He is l.

 

He is yang.

 

He is solid and full.

He is the light and warmth of Earth.

He is finite.

 

He is the length and width of a peninsula,

jutting out into the ocean and sea,

an interruption of the natural flow of the Earth’s waters.

 

He is a violator,

An army at the fort gates waiting out the siege.

 

He is a blade, a probe,

a key to the cage,

to the treasure chest,

a revealer,

a prophet.

 

I.

 

I am lO.

 

I am the juncture of yin and yang.

 

I am complete and done.

I am the universe itself, spinning in a radiant swirl.

I am the process of rebirth.

 

I am the intemperate beach,

my sandy borders edging along both water and land,

changing always as they rub against each other.

 

I am the child,

the weak, the innocent created in nothing,

by the violation of something,

the sacrificial lamb,

the savior.

 

I am the locked away item,

the stowed away treasure,

the prisoner,

the secret.

Thoughts about “Arrested Development,” the television series, as commentary on feminism…

Perhaps the best comedy series ever written for television is “Arrested Development”.  Unfortunately, the talk about how great the show was was more popular than the show itself; as they say, it’s the greatest show you never watched.  (As I write this, I am reminded of the more recent show “30 Rock” which has been hyped by the critics but no one seems to watch, including me.)   

The essential premise of the show is a family-run construction company is in disarray after the patriarch of the family is arrested.  One of the sons who is a widower and is much maligned by his siblings and his parents attempts to pick up the pieces of the company.

The show had no end of acting talent in its ranks.  The cast included Jeffrey Tambor, Will Arnet, Jason Bateman, David Cross, Portia de Rossi, Jessica Walter, and Michael Cera.  Each of these actors were brilliant in their roles so much so that even after the end of the series, whenever I see the actors in other projects, I see the Bluth family and all its inanity.

I prescribe to the the Greek tradition that any good drama should both teach and entertain.  “Arrested Development” certainly entertained me.  (I purchased the complete series on dvd to watch as often as I can.)  However, I never really thought about what lessons that the show had to offer.  

After wondering about the same, I came upon this thought.  “Arrested Development” is about the power of women.  That’s right.  I said women.  Of course, the action appears to center around Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) as he struggles with the hurdles of putting the family business back together again, hurdles placed in his way by his own family. 

However, these struggles are merely a screen behind which the true message lies.  The show is subtle both in the way it is humorous and how it presents the message.  The women in “Arrested Development” seem to be a part of the scenery around which the men of “Arrested Development” react and resolve their conflicts.  I am reminded of an set of episodes in which Michael Bluth and his brother Job compete, (one of many competitions, I might add) for the affections of Job’s wife, a Mexican telenovella actress, from whom he is separated.  The conflict circles around her but does not involve her such that she does not struggle with the love triangle, at least not in the way Michael and Job do.

The power of the women of “Arrested Development” however is not a power we might associated with notions promoted by the Feminist movement (at least as I understand that movement).  The power itself is one of femininity itself, subtle, almost imperceptible if you are not paying attention. 

For example, one on occurring story-line was the struggle of George Michael Bluth (Michael Cera) had with the strange emotions he had for his cousin Maeby Bluth (Alia Shawkat).  She at the same time somewhat unaware the power she had over him.  The strange relationship between George Michael and Maeby have led to strange moments like this one.  Similarly, George Michael becomes infatuated with another girl, Ann, whom seemed to lead George Michael to perform like a circus monkey.

The perhaps the real symbol of the subtle power of the feminine is  the Lucille Bluth (Jessica Walter) who is the matriarch of the Bluth clan.  She plays her role as mother and wife beautifully, exercising her control with a kind of grace and confidence.  She expresses a naivety about the business and other matters of import, concentrating on things more in the realm of relationships.  She relishes in the love/hate relationship she has with Buster Bluth (Tony Hale), enjoys the competition between her husband and his twin brother.  Perhaps her power over the men in her life can be seen here.

Unlike a lot of excellent shows that die a ratings death, “Arrested Development” resolved itself wonderfully.  Among other plot twists needing resolution, it was in the series finale that we finally learn who has  the real control of the business, it is Lucille Bluth who masterminded all of the misdeeds for which George Bluth, Sr. went to prison.  It took three seasons for us (and perhaps I just I speak only to men here) to learn that, despite all appearances, men have no real control; it is women who rule this world.