Wednesday, January 16, 2008
The Bush Effect
There have been a slew of movies and TV show episodes that have come out recently that all deal with a central core theme: doing the right thing, fixing wrongs, and trying to achieve atonement for those wrongs.
These have always been big themes in dramatic screenplays, but it seems to me that they are occurring with greater frequency, and in unexpected places. It appears that writers are trying harder to fit these themes into their scripts.
The largest example is one that no one has really talked about. In the summer of '07, a blockbuster movie came out called Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End. This movie was recently rated as one of the most underwhelming movies of 2007 according to Entertainment Weekly readers, I have a separate blog entry about the silliness of that. But for the purposes of this entry, the plot is the important thing. People found it convoluted, which is fine. But why was it convoluted? Because people kept switching sides, switching allegiances, making back-room deals to try and get what they wanted. The screenwriters performed these machinations for entertainment value, and perhaps just out of sheer audacity and bravado, to see how complicated they could make things, how tight they could spin the top before they set it loose. But then they did something interesting. They showed quite clearly the consequences of those actions, how everyone's own interests conflicted with each other. Kiera Knightley's character had to deal with the fact that she had sent Johnny Depp's character to his death when they resurrected him. Orlando Bloom's character had to deal with the repercussions of backstabbing everyone to try and rescue his father. Along the way, those who had made poor decisions attempted to correct their actions and atone for them. Most notable was Jack Davenport's character, who chose to save his own hide by selling out the pirates, and then realized his mistake and freed the pirates at one point, only to lose his life in the process. The movie was all about living with the consequences of one's choices, and trying to correct them when they proved to be the wrong ones.
Another movie released later in the year, around the holidays, is I Am Legend. Ostensibly a simple sci-fi zombie movie, like all interesting movies it anchors itself on something much more real and grounded. From the beginning we see that Will Smith's character feels personally responsible for practically destroying humanity, and that he is willing to go to incredible lengths in order to fix the problem, staying in the city, maintaining a lab where he runs experiments to try and find a vaccine, even capturing zombies for the purpose of trying to cure them. From the beginning to the end, he lives consumed by his guilt over the mistake he believes he has made, and is determined to fix it. In the end, he gives his life to make sure the cure is preserved. Again, the theme of the movie was atonement for one's mistakes, even at the cost of one's life.
Then today, I watched an episode of Law & Order. Like all the best episodes of that franchise, it started in one direction and ended in another one entirely. It began with a dry cleaning service being sued by an irate customer because he received the wrong suit pants, and ended with a low-price mega-chain superstore being grilled for covering up the import of antifreeze-filled toothpaste. Along the way, a former police inspector sold his soul to the mega-chain superstore in order to protect his well-paying job. Many Law & Order episodes have ended with someone lying and being proven wrong, this is not entirely new. Most such episodes end with the person needing to live silently with his/her treachery, and/or being prosecuted for perjury. This one, however, ended in dramatic fashion with the police inspector up on the stand purging his soul, ratting the company out for its conspiracy, and cleansing his conscience. For once, the character did the right thing and achieved atonement at the end of the episode.
Why the seeming barrage of plots that involve characters trying to correct their wrongs and achieve atonement? I think there's a simple reason for that: our lovely boy-President. A person who won't come clean, a person who lies, a person who does things for all the wrong reasons, and doesn't care that he is dragging the entire country in the process. We all want to see people do the right things on TV and in the movies, because in real life we see a President who is not doing the right things.
Congratulations, George W Bush. This is your effect on Americans.
These have always been big themes in dramatic screenplays, but it seems to me that they are occurring with greater frequency, and in unexpected places. It appears that writers are trying harder to fit these themes into their scripts.
The largest example is one that no one has really talked about. In the summer of '07, a blockbuster movie came out called Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End. This movie was recently rated as one of the most underwhelming movies of 2007 according to Entertainment Weekly readers, I have a separate blog entry about the silliness of that. But for the purposes of this entry, the plot is the important thing. People found it convoluted, which is fine. But why was it convoluted? Because people kept switching sides, switching allegiances, making back-room deals to try and get what they wanted. The screenwriters performed these machinations for entertainment value, and perhaps just out of sheer audacity and bravado, to see how complicated they could make things, how tight they could spin the top before they set it loose. But then they did something interesting. They showed quite clearly the consequences of those actions, how everyone's own interests conflicted with each other. Kiera Knightley's character had to deal with the fact that she had sent Johnny Depp's character to his death when they resurrected him. Orlando Bloom's character had to deal with the repercussions of backstabbing everyone to try and rescue his father. Along the way, those who had made poor decisions attempted to correct their actions and atone for them. Most notable was Jack Davenport's character, who chose to save his own hide by selling out the pirates, and then realized his mistake and freed the pirates at one point, only to lose his life in the process. The movie was all about living with the consequences of one's choices, and trying to correct them when they proved to be the wrong ones.
Another movie released later in the year, around the holidays, is I Am Legend. Ostensibly a simple sci-fi zombie movie, like all interesting movies it anchors itself on something much more real and grounded. From the beginning we see that Will Smith's character feels personally responsible for practically destroying humanity, and that he is willing to go to incredible lengths in order to fix the problem, staying in the city, maintaining a lab where he runs experiments to try and find a vaccine, even capturing zombies for the purpose of trying to cure them. From the beginning to the end, he lives consumed by his guilt over the mistake he believes he has made, and is determined to fix it. In the end, he gives his life to make sure the cure is preserved. Again, the theme of the movie was atonement for one's mistakes, even at the cost of one's life.
Then today, I watched an episode of Law & Order. Like all the best episodes of that franchise, it started in one direction and ended in another one entirely. It began with a dry cleaning service being sued by an irate customer because he received the wrong suit pants, and ended with a low-price mega-chain superstore being grilled for covering up the import of antifreeze-filled toothpaste. Along the way, a former police inspector sold his soul to the mega-chain superstore in order to protect his well-paying job. Many Law & Order episodes have ended with someone lying and being proven wrong, this is not entirely new. Most such episodes end with the person needing to live silently with his/her treachery, and/or being prosecuted for perjury. This one, however, ended in dramatic fashion with the police inspector up on the stand purging his soul, ratting the company out for its conspiracy, and cleansing his conscience. For once, the character did the right thing and achieved atonement at the end of the episode.
Why the seeming barrage of plots that involve characters trying to correct their wrongs and achieve atonement? I think there's a simple reason for that: our lovely boy-President. A person who won't come clean, a person who lies, a person who does things for all the wrong reasons, and doesn't care that he is dragging the entire country in the process. We all want to see people do the right things on TV and in the movies, because in real life we see a President who is not doing the right things.
Congratulations, George W Bush. This is your effect on Americans.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Scared Little Bostonians
So Comedy Central hires some riff-raff to put up "trendy" advertisements for Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Boston freaks out and thinks that they are bombs. They shut down traffic, bring in the bomb squad, etc. etc. Now Turner Broadcasting, the company that owns Comedy Central, apologizes and will probably have to reimburse Boston for the costs that were incurred.
There are two problems though. First is that these things simply look like Lite Brites. They might be suspicious, but I don't see how people would have gotten that worked up about them. And second is that in all the other cities that these things were put up in, nobody else got freaked out! There were no bomb scare threats called in New York or Los Angeles. So what do we make of Boston's reaction?
Some would point to the fact that Boston's Logan airport is where three of the four airlines used in 9/11 took off from. That's certainly true, but what people forget is that those planes TOOK OFF from Boston. They didn't ATTACK Boston. Boston is not a terrorist target. The reason Bostonians got all freaked out is because they don't recognize this simple fact.
Once upon a time, many centuries ago, Boston was a very important US city. The Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere, and all that jazz. A central part of the American Revolution. Unfortunately, time has passed Boston by. The city of Boston is only the 20th largest city in the United States. That's right, 20th. Cities that are more populated? How about Columbus, Ohio (15th). Or Memphis, Tennessee (18th). According to 2005 estimates, El Paso, Texas has surpassed Boston (the estimates have Boston slipping to 24th as of 2005). Aside from producing two of the least memorable presidential candidates of the past few decades (Dukakis and Kerry), Boston and the state of Massachussetts in general has simply not been that important in the overall scheme of the United States. That's why the terrorists didn't bother to fly any of those jets into Boston landmarks ... Boston is no longer a symbol of America, for better or worse.
But having lived in Boston for four years, I can tell you that this fact has not yet sunk in with the people of Boston. To them, they are still the intellectual and political capital of the United States. The high concentration of old money and well-respected colleges in the area has led to a distorted sense of self-importance that does not reflect the region's actual place in the United States.
Thus, when mysterious blinking things get posted onto bridges and public buildings, they overreact and assume that they are being attacked. Nevermind that the place that did, in fact, get attacked (NY) didn't freak out and overreact.
That's not to say that blinking lights placed on public buildings shouldn't be a cause for concern. The ad campaign was quite irresponsible and not very well-thought-out. The police should have approached them with caution, figured out what they were, and then removed them, without a doubt. However, it really wasn't necessary for all the streets to be shut down and the bomb squad to be called in and hysteria to be raised.
There are two problems though. First is that these things simply look like Lite Brites. They might be suspicious, but I don't see how people would have gotten that worked up about them. And second is that in all the other cities that these things were put up in, nobody else got freaked out! There were no bomb scare threats called in New York or Los Angeles. So what do we make of Boston's reaction?
Some would point to the fact that Boston's Logan airport is where three of the four airlines used in 9/11 took off from. That's certainly true, but what people forget is that those planes TOOK OFF from Boston. They didn't ATTACK Boston. Boston is not a terrorist target. The reason Bostonians got all freaked out is because they don't recognize this simple fact.
Once upon a time, many centuries ago, Boston was a very important US city. The Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere, and all that jazz. A central part of the American Revolution. Unfortunately, time has passed Boston by. The city of Boston is only the 20th largest city in the United States. That's right, 20th. Cities that are more populated? How about Columbus, Ohio (15th). Or Memphis, Tennessee (18th). According to 2005 estimates, El Paso, Texas has surpassed Boston (the estimates have Boston slipping to 24th as of 2005). Aside from producing two of the least memorable presidential candidates of the past few decades (Dukakis and Kerry), Boston and the state of Massachussetts in general has simply not been that important in the overall scheme of the United States. That's why the terrorists didn't bother to fly any of those jets into Boston landmarks ... Boston is no longer a symbol of America, for better or worse.
But having lived in Boston for four years, I can tell you that this fact has not yet sunk in with the people of Boston. To them, they are still the intellectual and political capital of the United States. The high concentration of old money and well-respected colleges in the area has led to a distorted sense of self-importance that does not reflect the region's actual place in the United States.
Thus, when mysterious blinking things get posted onto bridges and public buildings, they overreact and assume that they are being attacked. Nevermind that the place that did, in fact, get attacked (NY) didn't freak out and overreact.
That's not to say that blinking lights placed on public buildings shouldn't be a cause for concern. The ad campaign was quite irresponsible and not very well-thought-out. The police should have approached them with caution, figured out what they were, and then removed them, without a doubt. However, it really wasn't necessary for all the streets to be shut down and the bomb squad to be called in and hysteria to be raised.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Our Silly Little President
Oh, what can you do but laugh at this point, really? Mr. Bush says if we don't like his little Iraq plan, we should come up with something better. Apparently he's forgotten that HE'S THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. He was elected to come up with something better! If we're the ones coming up with the better plans, why the f*ck is he the President? Why the f*ck does he get to send Americans off to a desert to die for oil while we pay the bill? What a moron.
Mr. Bush, please just resign. You clearly aren't fit for this job.
Mr. Bush, please just resign. You clearly aren't fit for this job.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Apparently there are only two races in America
Perhaps somebody should let CNN and the rest of the academic in on a little-known secret: there are more than two races in this country.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/12/racism.poll/index.html
Here's another even smaller known secret: there are now MORE HISPANICS in this country than there are blacks.
I don't know, maybe people should just do a search-and-replace on all their "racism" studies and change it to "racism against blacks by whites", just to be more accurate, instead of implicitly pretending that 20% of the population doesn't matter. Just a thought.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/12/racism.poll/index.html
Here's another even smaller known secret: there are now MORE HISPANICS in this country than there are blacks.
I don't know, maybe people should just do a search-and-replace on all their "racism" studies and change it to "racism against blacks by whites", just to be more accurate, instead of implicitly pretending that 20% of the population doesn't matter. Just a thought.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Nancy Pelosi, First Female President?
I'm sure I'm not the first person to notice this, but if Nancy Pelosi does in fact officially become the Speaker of the House, she would be third in line to become the President of the United Status (POTUS) according to the Presidential Succession Act. Many have speculated that Hilary Rodham Clinton might run for POTUS in 2008 and take a shot at becoming the first female President in history, but Pelosi might beat her to it if something were to happen to Bush and Cheney.
Friday, November 03, 2006
The Honorable Rev. Ted Haggard
I don't normally care about what the evangelists spew out of their mouths, and even when they say inflammatory things about family values or homosexuals or whatever, I usually don't think it's worth even retorting. There's a completely different culture over in that realm, and attempting to have a rational discussion with those people is usually rather pointless. It always turns into a religious debate, and I see no reason to get into such arguments because there is no end to them.
But what Haggard is saying now in attempting to defend himself from allegations that he had a sexual relationship with a male prostitute is really going way over the top. He's claiming he bought meth but didn't use it and just wanted a "massage" from a male prostitue? Is this guy for real? Did the dog eat his homework, too??
At this point it's basically an insult to hear stuff like this. We all know that Clinton lied when he said he "didn't inhale", and I thought everyone learned from that episode that it's simply better to say you've done drugs and you don't do it anymore than to come up with some lame excuse that only elementary-school teachers ever hear. Apparently Haggard didn't learn that lesson, so instead he wants us to believe that he bought a bunch of meth, just that once, and threw it away instead.
But the real insult is to claim that he called up a male prostitute because he wanted a "massage". I don't know about you, but I have never thought to myself, "Hey, I want a massage, why don't I call up a prostitute!". It's so ludicrous I can't even begin to describe how mad I get when people say things like this! It assumes that we are so stupid we would actually believe something so idiotic and nonsensical! There are plenty of real massage therapists who are easily locatable who will give massages, both in an office and in your own home. Haggard doesn't claim he tried calling one of those therapists and was mislead, he admits he knew he was calling a prostitute! No one in their right mind would call up a prostitute just to get a massage, give me a break!
Hey Haggard, guess what? YOU'RE GAY. It's not a big deal, just admit it. God would prefer that you were gay than that you were a LIAR, and right now He knows that you are BOTH.
But what Haggard is saying now in attempting to defend himself from allegations that he had a sexual relationship with a male prostitute is really going way over the top. He's claiming he bought meth but didn't use it and just wanted a "massage" from a male prostitue? Is this guy for real? Did the dog eat his homework, too??
At this point it's basically an insult to hear stuff like this. We all know that Clinton lied when he said he "didn't inhale", and I thought everyone learned from that episode that it's simply better to say you've done drugs and you don't do it anymore than to come up with some lame excuse that only elementary-school teachers ever hear. Apparently Haggard didn't learn that lesson, so instead he wants us to believe that he bought a bunch of meth, just that once, and threw it away instead.
But the real insult is to claim that he called up a male prostitute because he wanted a "massage". I don't know about you, but I have never thought to myself, "Hey, I want a massage, why don't I call up a prostitute!". It's so ludicrous I can't even begin to describe how mad I get when people say things like this! It assumes that we are so stupid we would actually believe something so idiotic and nonsensical! There are plenty of real massage therapists who are easily locatable who will give massages, both in an office and in your own home. Haggard doesn't claim he tried calling one of those therapists and was mislead, he admits he knew he was calling a prostitute! No one in their right mind would call up a prostitute just to get a massage, give me a break!
Hey Haggard, guess what? YOU'RE GAY. It's not a big deal, just admit it. God would prefer that you were gay than that you were a LIAR, and right now He knows that you are BOTH.
Friday, October 13, 2006
RFID tagging airline passengers?
This is possibly the worst idea I have yet heard to come out of all of the security hysteria that the Bush administration is instigating. Apparently "suspicious people" can be tagged with RFID devices so that security personnel can monitor them everywhere they walk in an airline terminal. This is supposed to help make sure they don't go into "restricted" areas. How stupid is this idea?! How about simply securing restricted areas so that "suspicious people" can't get in there in the first place? And how are these "suspicious people" supposed to get these RFID devices attached to them? How are they going to be forced to keep these devices on at all times?
This has so many civil liberties violations all over it that I can't believe anyone is actually wasting time building such a system. Sell it to some fascist state that doesn't believe in freedom for its citizens, but keep it out of the US please. Otherwise we will become one of these fascist states that we claim we abhor.
This has so many civil liberties violations all over it that I can't believe anyone is actually wasting time building such a system. Sell it to some fascist state that doesn't believe in freedom for its citizens, but keep it out of the US please. Otherwise we will become one of these fascist states that we claim we abhor.
