From an open letter on the inauguration of Barack Obama, by Nigerian poet and playwright Wole Soyinka: Americans are not exempt by special dispensation from the mines that litter the field of social transformation across the world, nor endowed with any special talent for their avoidance or deactivation. A slow, painful phase of correction and readjustment from multiple ills is inevitable. But let me end, as I began, on a note of euphoria. It is crucial that we seize upon... Read more
Mrs. Cameron doesn’t approve of Hattie Durham’s behavior here and she doesn’t want viewers to approve of it either. That disapproval is evident here. And because we can see that disapproval, we can also see the person doing the disapproving — the actress Chelsea Noble. And since there isn’t room here for both the actress and the character, Hattie gets squeezed out. We can’t glean whatever it was that motivated Hattie to go to Rayford’s house and beg/threaten/negotiate for their... Read more
You're going gray, my baby … "Day 1," Explosions in the Sky"Day After Day," The Pretenders"Day After Day," Texas"Day After Tomorrow," Tom Waits"The Day Before I Went Away," Texas"Day by Day," The Hooters"Day for Night," Matthew Sweet"Day Tripper," The Beatles"Day Tripper," Otis Redding"Daybreak," Chet Baker"Daybreak," The Stone Roses"Days Go on So Long," The Frogs Two from Texas, because Sharleen Spiteri's got some pipes. Read more
Temple Grandin was on NPR's "Fresh Air" last week. Grandin, a professor at Colorado State, looks at the world with a different perspective than I do. I don't mean that figuratively. Grandin, who was diagnosed as autistic in 1950, really does see and experience the world differently than neurotypicals like myself. As she and radio host Terry Gross discussed her latest book, Animals Make Us Human (co-written with Catherine Johnson), they touched on the subject of animals exhibiting compulsive, repetitive... Read more
We left off with poor Clarence Gilyard, alone in an inappropriately Lutheran looking church. I have to give the filmmakers some credit here for including this scene at all. In the book, the Rev. Bruce Barnes’ story is recounted second-hand, without any sense of immediacy, but director Vic Sarin and the screenwriters here at least recognize that Bruce’s situation deserves a bit more attention. The man was a professional Christian minister in a rapture-obsessed congregation. Yet here he is, left... Read more
Modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom … "California," Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers"California Girls," Magnetic Fields"Caligula," Macy Gray"Call It Democracy," Bruce Cockburn"Call If Off," Tegan & Sara"Call Me," Al Green"Call Me," Blondie"Call Me the Fool," Mark Heard"Call Me When You're Sober," Evanescence"Calling All Angels," Jane Siberry"Calling All Angels," Train"Calling All Nations," INXS Read more
To be fair, illustrating the personal finance page is a difficult and thankless job. Being asked, week after week, to draw a picture of abstract ideas like “the importance of maximizing your 401(k) contribution” — on deadline — is not an easy task. There are only so many giant piggy banks, ladders and staircases one can get away with. So I’m not trying to pick on hj, our paper’s talented illustrator, for coming up with the drawing to the right... Read more
With all due respect to India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and with sympathy for the tragic loss of life his country recently suffered in the murderous attacks in Mumbai, it’s still necessary to point out that his statement earlier today grievously — and destructively — mischaracterizes those attacks. Here is what the prime minister said: “There is enough evidence to show that, given the sophistication and military precision of the attack, it must have had the support of some official... Read more
There's that moment in a race when you're about to get lapped and you look in the rearview mirror and see the other driver coming up on you. With a bit of creative delusion and the power of positive thinking you can, at that moment, pretend that you're actually ahead of the other guy. After a string of LB Saturdays and LB Mondays and what threatens, this week, to turn into a Left Behind Wednesday, I'm thinking that a bit... Read more
I've already discussed acting more than I intended to, but we should note here that Janaya Stephens has two Big Dramatic Scenes in this slice of the movie. The first is with CamCam, the second is with Brad Johnson. The difference is instructive. Scripts matter, but who you're working with matters just as much. Chloe and CamCam head back to the airport — a trip that seems particularly uneventful and un-post-Event-ful, particularly in light of CamCam's dire warning ("It's madness... Read more
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