They Go

The kids are so different so
raw and exposed to the elements.
Ready.
So native.
More looking ahead than back
at us
they wander off eager to the boats.

My generation and the ones before
were supposed to be the settlers/pioneers
but they’re the ones.

A lengthy transition, they said.
And we thought twenty years was long.
It isn’t.

Left behind to die.

I know, it’s the way of life,
nestling kicked out and all.
Going to make their own way
but
you can’t help but feel it.

And we’re obsolete with our supplements.
Way too old before our time.
A few letters to show the years.
After their toil there
is no electricity
to write with.
And ours shows
yellowing walls
we just stare at.
Unfit to move on.

20090227

Being There

I introduced the 1979 classic, Being There, to my kids the other day. I turned autocrat, as parents often do, and dragged the two boys away from their electronics to this great teaming of Director Hal Ashby and comic comedian Peter Sellers. Luckily they both enjoyed it!
I think this is Sellers’ best movie. So understated, exceptionally cast and acted, such perfect timing, it is very close to being the perfect comedy. The only thing recent that compares, for me, is Stranger than Fiction. Although I must say that Ashby’s other gem, the incredible Harold and Maude (1971), is almost as good.
So why should you see this 30-year-old film if you haven’t yet? Well, here are seven reasons:

• if you like Peter Sellers and want to see how good an actor he really was, this is the movie to see:  as an actor he really walks on water here
• Ditto for Shirley MacLaine
• Politics are treated here as they should be: as Theatre of the Absurd
• To understand how ironically perfect Louise’s quote is:  “It’s for sure a white man’s world in America. Look here: I raised that boy since he was the size of a piss-ant. And I’ll say right now, he never learned to read and write. No, sir. Had no brains at all. Was stuffed with rice pudding between th’ ears. Shortchanged by the Lord, and dumb as a jackass. Look at him now! Yes, sir, all you’ve gotta be is white in America, to get whatever you want.”
• This is a satire of everything:  politics, literature, sex, mass media, class, money, race — you name it.  And yet, unlike many satirical works, this one is timeless
• For the extras:  showing something too funny even for Peter Sellers to get out without laughing
• For the ending:  Life really is a state of mind!

Very, very highly recommended.

Crispin Glover on Letterman

Crispin Glover’s infamous appearance on Letterman was in 1987 and yet it still is a hot topic on the internet. That fact, in itself, shows how cool the internet is. I, for one, love it when a host like Letterman is challenged by someone trying something original like Glover or, more recently, Joaquin Phoenix. I love the part where David interrupts Crispin to ask Paul about people who drown or die on stage and Paul retorts “Are you talking about you or him?” Great answer. From what I saw it was Letterman who was drowning there… so much so that he left the stage with none of his sense of humour intact. I love the audience booing Letterman at the end!
No one should deserve to be in such a position of power that they can’t or won’t be moved by something new. Perhaps David was having an off night but it all works out, in a funny way, to be a really cool segment. I watched this recent clip with Crispin Glover talking about it and found it interesting and hilarious! Of course, later on, Letterman was able to be big enough to have Glover back on.

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist

I was disappointed in this movie. It is purely teenage genre flick like Superbad whereas I was expecting something more. Something more like the Juno it was clearly trying to emulate.
The film started well but really went to pieces when Nick (Michael Cera) and Norah (Kat Dennings) go ‘home’ to her father’s recording studio to make out. It just makes everything ‘adult’ that Nick and Norah were both striving to achieve empty, ignorant and shallow sounding.
Not recommended.

Seed to Harvest

Anything written by Octavia E. Butler is science fiction gold IMHO. I just finished the quadrology entitled Seed to Harvest which contains the following novels in story chronological order:

• Wild Seed
• Mind of My Mind
• Clay’s Ark
• Patternmaster

The first two books tell the story of mutations in the human species that produce telepathic, telekinetic, shape changing and healing humans and the third; the birth of a new hybrid human through mixing with a microscopic but incredibly aggressive alien species. The last book describes when these two forms of human clash.
Butler was a visionary and her stories really bring you into a completely new and, I think, entirely possible and plausible future. It’s great and hard science fiction. But what makes her so interesting is that her focus is on more than just new gadgets and technology, she really explores social issues like slavery and race, religion, sex and politics. And through it all, she provides strong female role models but also develops strong male characters as well. Another interesting focus of hers is extending biology into the future: that is something (as a trained biologist myself) I often see done very simplistically in SF. Butler does it in a realistic and yet imaginative way. You can see this especially in Wild Seed with the character Anyanwu and in Clay’s Ark with the doctor Blake Maslin.
The actual books in the Patternist collection, her first series, were released as a set of five over an eight year period in this order:

1. 1976 Patternmaster
2. 1977 Mind of My Mind
3. 1978 Survivor
4. 1980 Wild Seed
5. 1984 Clay’s Ark

so Butler actually expanded her original idea into four other books by writing prequels. And yet, when assembled in the proper order in Seed to Harvest they read very well.  Survivor, in story time, should come between Clay’s Ark and Patternmaster; it wasn’t reprinted like the four others – possibly because Butler didn’t like it afterward. And so it’s the only Patternist novel I haven’t read yet. It may be hard to find (I know my library doesn’t have it) but I’ll look anyway.
Also, during this eight year period, she had time to write Kindred too.  This shows how prolific an imagination and writing ability this author was gifted with.
Very Highly Recommended!

The Kite Runner

As I wrote previously, I’m a fan of Marc Forster. I finally watched his 2007 movie The Kite Runner last night and it did not disappoint.
The location in China, the acting (especially the two boys from Kabul: Amir and Hassan played by Zekeria Ebrahimi and Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada), the cinematography were all fantastic. The moving book by Khaled Hosseini was a richer experience, of course, but the film was pretty much dead on. I would have liked a little more reality when it came to the hell Amir had to endure to get Sohrab back to the US from Pakistan in the book, but you can’t have everything.
Khalid Abdalla did an incredible job at keeping the complexity of the older Amir believable. This antihero role was played meek, forceful, hopeful and tragic in all the right places. I also loved the beautiful work in showing the kites flying in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Very highly recommended whether you’ve read the book or not. Not for young children.

Far from the Madding Crowd

This movie portrayal of a Thomas Hardy book by Director John Schlesinger was released in 1967. I don’t care much for the one-dimensional way women are portrayed by Hardy and in this film even though both Julie Christie and Prunella Ransome do their best with Bathsheba and Fanny. The male characters are far more interesting and the three actors Peter Finch (William Boldwood), Alan Bates (Gabriel Oak) and Terence Stamp (Frank Troy) each do an excellent job particularly Finch.
But what I really like about this film is the capturing of the semi-fictional Wessex countryside and the camera work.  The cinematography at the beginning where Oak loses his entire livelihood due to his mad dog forcing them over a cliff was stunningly stark.  It really put me in that devastating scene and made me care for Oak’s loss.
I don’t think I’d rush out to buy it for my film collection but it was certainly worth watching once.

Sayings of Dr. Who

I have always loved the television show Dr. Who and so enjoyed seeing a quotation from that character on my quotes of the day feed:

There’s no point in being grown up if you can’t be childish sometimes.
Doctor Who

I’m not sure I fully grok that quote but, as old as I am, I’m not willing to give up the right to be childlike (and sometimes childish) either.
The program itself is in Guinness World Records as the longest running SF TV show and, as it began in 1963, is exactly as old as I am although it took a break between 1989 and 1996 and then again until 2005.  I missed it terribly.
For those Who fans who haven’t see it I recommend the Rowan Atkinson (et. al.) parody.