I apologize ole blog for not posting for such a long time. The winter blues has set in and it is difficult for me to wrap my head around anything.
With the Oscars coming at us today, I wanted to spend sometime talking about a film that actually deserves some accolades. I learned today that Jake LaMotta the boxer from the 1980 film Raging Bull is actually a real person. He was a middleweight boxer with an 85 and 4 records. After he was done with his boxing career, we was an actor. He appears in several films most notably in The Hustler, the great Paul Newman flick, as the bartender.
Robert De Niro won an Oscar for his intense portrayal of La Motta in Raging Bull. The Academy seems to have a record of awarding Oscars to performers portraying real mostly-famous people. This year (tonight), we will see. A few of the best actor nominees portray real people, but none as famous as Idi Amin portrayed by one of my favorite actors, Forrest Whitaker. Same could be said about the Best Actress category with Helen Mirren portraying Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen. Guess who is considered the front runners this year? You got it.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Presidential Libraries
The US capital moved to Washington DC from Philadelphia in 1800. When it did Congress earmarked $5,000.00 for the purchase of books that would become the Library of Congress. During the War of 1812, the capital building was burned to the ground by the British. In September 1814 Thomas Jefferson donated his personal library to the Library of Congress so that it could start over. Three wagons carried the over 6400 books fromMonticello in Virginia to the building in Washington DC.
Today, some of Jefferson's books are still used. On January 4th this year, when Congress swore in its first Muslim Congressman, Keith Ellison from Minnesota. Jefferson's Koran was used.
Franklin Roosevelt was the first President to create a presidential library. He was president for so long, he accumulated a lot of books and documents that he thought should be preserved. So he donated them to a library in Hyde Park, NY upon his death. Since then, it has been expectation for a president to have a Presidential Library.
One has to wonder what W. Bush is going to be donating to his library. Can you have a library with only a kids section featuring My Pet Goat?
Today, some of Jefferson's books are still used. On January 4th this year, when Congress swore in its first Muslim Congressman, Keith Ellison from Minnesota. Jefferson's Koran was used.
Franklin Roosevelt was the first President to create a presidential library. He was president for so long, he accumulated a lot of books and documents that he thought should be preserved. So he donated them to a library in Hyde Park, NY upon his death. Since then, it has been expectation for a president to have a Presidential Library.
One has to wonder what W. Bush is going to be donating to his library. Can you have a library with only a kids section featuring My Pet Goat?
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Why is crime going down?
Why is crime going down? No one seems to know.
I listened to Professor Franklin Zimring on KQED last night via the Forum's Podcast. He was talking about his new book The Great American Crime Decline and it was pretty amazing hearing him talk about what has brought about the American decline in crime since 1991. There has been some amazing examples of declines in crime, like New York City's crime rate dropping 75% in that time, but overall crime has dropped everywhere in the states and much of the industrialized world. New York's drop is twice the national average.
While conservatives will say that the increase in the number of prisons and prisoners is the explanation ... and liberals will say that it is the conditions of society (the economy, education, etc.) that brought crime down. Zimring says it is neither but combinations of these and a variety of other things. While all of these things did fluctuate throughout this time, crime steadily dropped. He is a professor of law at Berkley and the head of the criminal justice department, but he seems to be a statistician at heart. He says that a 5% change/improvement in the social fabric of New York City, resulted in 75% a decrease in crime.
The most interesting part of this program I found was when the public kept calling in with their own theories and he kept knocking them down.
Like the theory that the passing of Roe vs. Wade in the 1970s had something to do with it. The thought is that once abortion was legalized in the 1970's, by the 1990's we had much less adults who had grown up unwanted by their parents. This was very interesting to me but then Zimring mentioned that a similar drop in crime happened in a lot of countries around the world that didn't make abortion legal in the 1970's or country that it had always been legal. So pro-choice folks would love this to be the case, but it doesn't appear to be true.
Someone else mentioned the Brady Bill being passed that made for more gun control, but he pointed out that some states like California already had a bill that was/is even stricter than the Brady Bill and the drop in crime there was similar to the other states without such laws.
I am adding this book to my Wish List on Amazon.com but it is unfortunately I could not have called into this show. I believe that Internet helped decrease crime. I heard no one mention of this. I believe that loneliness is awful things and that when one is lonely there is no telling what someone will do just to remind oneself that one is alive. The Internet has been an amazing tool to connect people around the world. I realize sometimes it makes us more isolated, but overall, I can hardly feel lonely with there being people IMing all day.
I listened to Professor Franklin Zimring on KQED last night via the Forum's Podcast. He was talking about his new book The Great American Crime Decline and it was pretty amazing hearing him talk about what has brought about the American decline in crime since 1991. There has been some amazing examples of declines in crime, like New York City's crime rate dropping 75% in that time, but overall crime has dropped everywhere in the states and much of the industrialized world. New York's drop is twice the national average.
While conservatives will say that the increase in the number of prisons and prisoners is the explanation ... and liberals will say that it is the conditions of society (the economy, education, etc.) that brought crime down. Zimring says it is neither but combinations of these and a variety of other things. While all of these things did fluctuate throughout this time, crime steadily dropped. He is a professor of law at Berkley and the head of the criminal justice department, but he seems to be a statistician at heart. He says that a 5% change/improvement in the social fabric of New York City, resulted in 75% a decrease in crime.
The most interesting part of this program I found was when the public kept calling in with their own theories and he kept knocking them down.
Like the theory that the passing of Roe vs. Wade in the 1970s had something to do with it. The thought is that once abortion was legalized in the 1970's, by the 1990's we had much less adults who had grown up unwanted by their parents. This was very interesting to me but then Zimring mentioned that a similar drop in crime happened in a lot of countries around the world that didn't make abortion legal in the 1970's or country that it had always been legal. So pro-choice folks would love this to be the case, but it doesn't appear to be true.
Someone else mentioned the Brady Bill being passed that made for more gun control, but he pointed out that some states like California already had a bill that was/is even stricter than the Brady Bill and the drop in crime there was similar to the other states without such laws.
I am adding this book to my Wish List on Amazon.com but it is unfortunately I could not have called into this show. I believe that Internet helped decrease crime. I heard no one mention of this. I believe that loneliness is awful things and that when one is lonely there is no telling what someone will do just to remind oneself that one is alive. The Internet has been an amazing tool to connect people around the world. I realize sometimes it makes us more isolated, but overall, I can hardly feel lonely with there being people IMing all day.
Monday, January 22, 2007
The First 40-40-40 Man
In the 2006 Major League baseball season, one of the players achieved something that no other player ever has. Alfonso Soriano of the Washington Nationals became the first player ever to hit 40 home runs, 40 doubles and steal 40 bases in one season. There have 40-40 players in the past, quite a few have hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases, but never also achieving the 40 doubles as well.
I know some Cubs fans that are going to be very happy to hear this. Mr. Soriano went to the Cubs with a multi-million dollar eight year contract. He should be a good match for the great fans of Wrigley.
I know some Cubs fans that are going to be very happy to hear this. Mr. Soriano went to the Cubs with a multi-million dollar eight year contract. He should be a good match for the great fans of Wrigley.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
If Genius is Kept Down, Does It Turn to Madness?
I was surprised to learn that many critics consider Marilyn Monroe not only a comic genius but a great actress. She was so overcome by her rolls that she tackled them with an intensity that sometimes scared the other performers. Due to her beauty, her incredible figure, blonde hair and out of control popularity early in her career, the good roles didn't come her way easily. The studios wanted to pay her to be the dumb blonde or the eye-candy behind the "big" talent which she found unchallenging and demeaning. After making, The Seven Year Itch, where she was filmed in the famous sewer grating scene with the wind blowing her dress up and showing her panties, she left Hollywood in a personal search. The film of the scene not only took four hours to film, but took place in front of a NY City street crowd of rowdy and sometimes obnoxious fans. Her husband at time, Joe Dimaggio, got so infuriated by the incident, many believe it lead to her hospitalization at his hands later that day and to the couple's eventual divorce. The marriage lasted under a year (the damned Yankees).
The Seven Year Itch was the last of such films. She fled Hollywood for the Actor's Studio in New York even though she had a contract for four more of these films. Her time among the New Year theatre world (where she met her third and last husband, playwrite Arthur Miller) not only helped her refine her acting craft, but helped her get some leverage from the studios in Hollywood. They needed her to make money. Her new contract was for more money and gave her the ability to chose which films she would make. This was unheard of at the time in Hollywood. It was in this time that she made her best fims with her best performances, including Bus Stop, Some Like It Hot and The Misfits (based on the Arthur Miller play).
Unfortunately for her, this success came too late. Many years of insonmia, paranoia and the popping of sleeping pills (Nembutal).... the outrageous demands on her time and energy ... contributed to making her quite mad. She was unruly and late to the sets of all her later films. She was enventually found dead in her own bathtub at age 36 from an overdose of Nembutal.
The Seven Year Itch was the last of such films. She fled Hollywood for the Actor's Studio in New York even though she had a contract for four more of these films. Her time among the New Year theatre world (where she met her third and last husband, playwrite Arthur Miller) not only helped her refine her acting craft, but helped her get some leverage from the studios in Hollywood. They needed her to make money. Her new contract was for more money and gave her the ability to chose which films she would make. This was unheard of at the time in Hollywood. It was in this time that she made her best fims with her best performances, including Bus Stop, Some Like It Hot and The Misfits (based on the Arthur Miller play).
Unfortunately for her, this success came too late. Many years of insonmia, paranoia and the popping of sleeping pills (Nembutal).... the outrageous demands on her time and energy ... contributed to making her quite mad. She was unruly and late to the sets of all her later films. She was enventually found dead in her own bathtub at age 36 from an overdose of Nembutal.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
She Was the First of Her Kind, He Was the Last
I just watched a truly excellent film called Stage Beauty. It really
surprised me. I heard it was good, it really was great. It reminded me
of Shakespeare in Love but with a better story, deeper theme and all
around better performance from the cast. It co-starred one of my
favorite new actresses Claire Dane (who was excellent in Shop Girl) and Billy Crudup (also excellent in Almost Famous and Jesus's Son.
The film takes place in the 1660's in London where it is illegal for woman to appear on stage in theatre. So male actors would have to take the female roles. Crudup plays a very famous actor of the time, Edward Kynaston. King Charles II did away with this law and such actors as Kynaston were without a job or had to learn how to act like a man on stage.
The real star of the film is Dane with her portrayal of Margaret Hughes the
first of the female actresses in London. I discovered with a quickgoogle search after watching the film that these are indeed real people. The film has Hughes and Kynstaon as lovers in the end but I have found no evidence of that. Later in life, Hughes married a Duke and I cannot find much about Kynaston other than that he became a very successful Shakespearean actor late in his live.
surprised me. I heard it was good, it really was great. It reminded me
of Shakespeare in Love but with a better story, deeper theme and all
around better performance from the cast. It co-starred one of my
favorite new actresses Claire Dane (who was excellent in Shop Girl) and Billy Crudup (also excellent in Almost Famous and Jesus's Son.
The film takes place in the 1660's in London where it is illegal for woman to appear on stage in theatre. So male actors would have to take the female roles. Crudup plays a very famous actor of the time, Edward Kynaston. King Charles II did away with this law and such actors as Kynaston were without a job or had to learn how to act like a man on stage.
The real star of the film is Dane with her portrayal of Margaret Hughes the
first of the female actresses in London. I discovered with a quickgoogle search after watching the film that these are indeed real people. The film has Hughes and Kynstaon as lovers in the end but I have found no evidence of that. Later in life, Hughes married a Duke and I cannot find much about Kynaston other than that he became a very successful Shakespearean actor late in his live.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
The Rock N' Roll Chameleon
I don't hide it, I think David Bowie is probably the coolest person alive. I think the only person that comes even close to him in coolness is Beck and that is pushing it since Beck hasn't been around half as long as Bowie.
Bowie's been called the rock n' roll chameleon because of his ability to change along with music trends year to year ... decade to decade. But I don't think this analogy is altogether accurate because a chameleon changes itself based on its environment, the reptile doesn't change its environment. While Bowie does. Bowie may not have created glamour rock or acid rock nor did he introduce an element of theatre into the show (Peter Gabriel probably did that) ... but he made these things cool. When he did these things ... others could follow.
It is obvious from reading this that I have been a big fan most of my life so it is not often that I learn anything new about the Thin White Duke. Today, I learned a few.
* As a boy, Bowie's first instrument was the saxophone. He wanted to play for Little Richard's band. He still plays on some tracks today. I knew he played, I just didn't know it was his first.
* I knew the name of his early bands back in the early 60's were The King Bees, The Mannish Boys and The Lower Third. But what I didn't know is that the lead guitarist of The Mannish Boys was a young guitar player named Jimi Page which you hopefully recognize as the lead axe from Led Zepplin. I could imagine that The Mannish Boys is lifted from the Muddy Waters song but I have no proof of this.
* Bowie has always had some great guitarists on his records and tours with him. The three most famous of "Bowie" guitarist are probably Mick Ronson, Carlos Alomar and the vibrator wielding Reeves Gabrelle who are basically just famous for playing with him, but Bowie has also done work with such greats as Peter Frampton, Nils Lofgren and Stevie Ray Vaughn. What I learned today is that Stevie Ray was an obscure unknown musician before he played on the Let's Dance disc and toured on the Curious Moonlight tour. Stevie turned some heads.
* One of his eyes is partially blind due to a fight he had with one of his best friends in childhood. He has little depth perception in this eye (not sure which one) and little distinction of color. Something to think about next time you see him running around on stage or see something that he painted. I know that his eyes are different colors but I don't know if this has anything to do with this accident.
* He took his name from John Bowie of Alamo fame, the creator of the Bowie knife. Why I don't know. This was news to me. I know he had to change his name because his was already taken by Davey Jones of the Monkees and god knows, one wouldn't want to be mistaken as a Monkee.
* He is currently working on a rock opera based on the graphic novel, The Watchmen. Wow!
And proof that coolness begets coolness, I just discovered that Beck sampled a guitar riff off of Bowie's song Win on one of my favorite Beck songs, Debra. I will have to listen closer to this now.
Bowie's been called the rock n' roll chameleon because of his ability to change along with music trends year to year ... decade to decade. But I don't think this analogy is altogether accurate because a chameleon changes itself based on its environment, the reptile doesn't change its environment. While Bowie does. Bowie may not have created glamour rock or acid rock nor did he introduce an element of theatre into the show (Peter Gabriel probably did that) ... but he made these things cool. When he did these things ... others could follow.
It is obvious from reading this that I have been a big fan most of my life so it is not often that I learn anything new about the Thin White Duke. Today, I learned a few.
* As a boy, Bowie's first instrument was the saxophone. He wanted to play for Little Richard's band. He still plays on some tracks today. I knew he played, I just didn't know it was his first.
* I knew the name of his early bands back in the early 60's were The King Bees, The Mannish Boys and The Lower Third. But what I didn't know is that the lead guitarist of The Mannish Boys was a young guitar player named Jimi Page which you hopefully recognize as the lead axe from Led Zepplin. I could imagine that The Mannish Boys is lifted from the Muddy Waters song but I have no proof of this.
* Bowie has always had some great guitarists on his records and tours with him. The three most famous of "Bowie" guitarist are probably Mick Ronson, Carlos Alomar and the vibrator wielding Reeves Gabrelle who are basically just famous for playing with him, but Bowie has also done work with such greats as Peter Frampton, Nils Lofgren and Stevie Ray Vaughn. What I learned today is that Stevie Ray was an obscure unknown musician before he played on the Let's Dance disc and toured on the Curious Moonlight tour. Stevie turned some heads.
* One of his eyes is partially blind due to a fight he had with one of his best friends in childhood. He has little depth perception in this eye (not sure which one) and little distinction of color. Something to think about next time you see him running around on stage or see something that he painted. I know that his eyes are different colors but I don't know if this has anything to do with this accident.
* He took his name from John Bowie of Alamo fame, the creator of the Bowie knife. Why I don't know. This was news to me. I know he had to change his name because his was already taken by Davey Jones of the Monkees and god knows, one wouldn't want to be mistaken as a Monkee.
* He is currently working on a rock opera based on the graphic novel, The Watchmen. Wow!
And proof that coolness begets coolness, I just discovered that Beck sampled a guitar riff off of Bowie's song Win on one of my favorite Beck songs, Debra. I will have to listen closer to this now.
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