A Cinematic Holiday Season

I'm going to blog about the holiday trip as a whole, but first, I've got to talk about some of the movies I've seen this season.

I'll say it started with Tron: Legacy.  When I saw the original, I was taken with its personification of programs within the computer world, and I've always loved any decent sci-fi film.  This one is decent, but that's all.  As is often the case, the filmmakers clearly gave more thought to the 3D effects than any rigorous conceptualization of the world they were creating.  There are a few interesting ideas, though, and Jeff Bridges was excellent.

Then it was Christmas day and time for my annual watching of Bad Santa.  The film does not disappoint. 

It's more than just a bunch of off-color jokes though.  By tearing down the artifice and sanctimony surrounding the holiday, it shows us what the holiday is actually about, sharing time with people who care about each other.  That, and--"Fuck me, Santa.  Fuck me, Santa.  Fuck me, Santa."

Then we went to Toronto and the Bloor Cinema, a great repatory theater in a wonderful old building.  The place is enormous; the balcony alone would be a large theater in and of itself.  In fact, the balcony has its own nicely appointed lobby.

A corner of the Bloor's lobby to its balcony.

 (Two years ago, we watched Obama's Inauguration there, and you can see coverage of that in this video, starting at the 8:24 mark.  It gives a sense of the theater, including some footage of Nicole and myself.)


This time at the Bloor, we saw Fair Game, which told the story of how Dick Cheney outed covert CIA agent, Valerie Plame.  It also stunningly puts the lie to the oft-quoted meme, "The intelligence community got it wrong."  No, the intelligence community did not get it wrong; Dick Cheney actively worked to fabricate bullshit to start that fatuous war.  The performances by Naomi Watts and Sean Penn are excellent; I cannot recommend the film enough.


On the plane I got to see the documentary Inside Job.  It is to the 2008 financial crisis what Fair Game is to the Iraq War.  It calls people out on their bullshit.  It was so refreshing to see the filmmaker interviewing people from Goldman Sachs and Bush's financial team.  They'd frequently try to drop misinformation, and the filmmaker, who was actually knew about the subject, would call them out on it.  Watch this movie.


Then, still on the plane, I got to see Howl with James Franco playing Allen Ginsberg.  The film alternates between an interpretive animation over Franco's reading of the poem, a re-enactment of Lawrence Ferlenghetti's obsenity prosecution for publishing the poem, a re-enactment of a long interview of Ginsberg, and biographical episodes.  Unfortunately, I only got to watch about half the film before they threw me off the plane, so I really want to see the rest.


Last night, back in St. John's, we saw True Grit.  I'd seen the original.  This one is much better.  And Jeff Bridges is great.

Today we plan to see Black Swan.  And I still want to see the Fighter and the King's Speech.  I said it's a cinematic holiday season.

(Don't go see "The Tourist."  It's not right that Angelina Jolie cheated another mannequin out of a paying gig.)

Canadian Milestones

This week, I've passed several milestones for life in Canada.

I've had my first visitor to St. John's.  (I know--that was fast.)  Elana had actually planned the trip before I got the job here.  (So she's staying in a hotel and not sharing the inflatable mattress with me.)  Circumstances provided a fortuitous bit of company and a good excuse to go out and drink more.  I also got my first taste of local music, a pretty good local band Quiet Elephant.  I'm glad I got to see Elana again.  She and her wife, Lisa, have been among the best friends Nicole and I have made in Toronto.

Second, I got my Ontario Health Plan card.

Me, post-sex & name changes.

That's right!  The horror of socialized medicine is upon me.  Oh, and the death panel--THE DEATH PANEL!  I felt like Charlton Heston in "The Planet of the Apes," stripped down and made to stand before that board of bureaucratic baboons.  They only gave me two years to live!  And I said, "Well hell, why bother with this fucking job, then?"  Oh, Auntie Sarah Palin, why didn't I listen to you?

Ahem, so this is where I point out that, based on everything I observed over 2+ years, there's no perceptible difference between the quality of treatment you receive in Canada vs. the US.  Are there waits?  Sometimes, but no different  than those you'd find in the US.  If you need immediate care, you go to a walk-in clinic or emergency room, just as you would in the US.  The big difference is that, here, there's no bill waiting for you.

I know, I know, that bill is in the higher taxes, right?  Because everyone knows in Canada they take half of your salary in taxes, yes?  Well, I just got my first paycheck in Canada, and its deductions for taxes looked no different than what I'd experienced in the US for comparable pay. 

It's almost like someone lied to us, so thoroughly flooding public discourse with misinformation that the misinformation becomes the default public perception, even when the perception bears no semblance to reality.  Why would anyone do such a thing?  I can't imagine.

New Daily Kos post

I've made a new post to my Daily Kos page, Public, Schmublic, regarding Obama's decision about public financing.

Read at your own risk

Here's an article that should be read by everyone who loves New Orleans or is a Louisianian: How Karl Rove played politics while people drowned. The title--get it?

I recommend you have some Pepto-Bismal in your stomach when you start and a stiff drink ready for when you're done. I'm not joking. It is, of course, damning of Rove and Bush but also Nagin and Vitter.

My letter about the article to salon is the third one posted under Mr_Humidity. Since I first posted, it's been made Editor's Choice.

About that Obama thermometer on the right . . .

If you've read this blog, you know I'm definitely for Obama. If you know me, you know I'd done as much volunteer activity as I could for Gore and Kerry's campaigns. Going into this campaign, my intention was simply to vote; I was burned out.

But then I got to listening to Obama, and then I got moved, and then I got inspired. And so now I'm doing everything I can, from Canada, to help his campaign. It turns out I can do a lot; he's got an extremely sophisticated web site. Using Vonage, I've been phone-banking. And now, I've got a fundraising page for the campaign.

I'm not going to solicit you one-on-one (via email, in person, or otherwise) for money. But I thought this blog was a good way to prompt the people I know to donate without pressuring them. Some time, I'll write more about what his campaign means to me.

Anniversary

Today's the first anniversary of our house fire. I think about where the time went and what's changed.

For me, the most painful thing about the house fire was the death of my cat, Oleanna. I'd had her for 14 years, my first pet I'd gotten on my own, and a companion through every significant phase of my adulthood. She was a smart, funny, loving cat. In a strange way, I feel some guilt about having moved on without her.

So where has the year gone? I realize now it can be divided into three phases. First, the insurance post-mortem from June to October. Second, our period in Oakville, Ontario from October to Februrary. Our period in Toronto from February to the present. Each phase was four months, strange.

What do I have to show for the year? Insurance money and much, though not all, of my belongings replaced. Life in a (slightly) different country.

The most significant accomplishment was writing my screenplay Alien Harvest, and by a fluke of timing, yesterday I mailed that script to Ridley Scott's assistant. I realize the odds aren't good, but at the risk of indulging in some writerly jargon, I feel like I owe it to the characters to give them a chance.

I've gotten some really positive feedback from the three people who've read the script--Nicole, Bart, and my friend here John O'Neill. None of them (not even Nicole) dole out compliments insincerely, which I appreciate. Two of them said one of the best things a writer can hope to hear--Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down. (I've gotten some very helpful suggestions, too.) So I'm hoping that Ridley Scott's assistant is curious enough to pick it up and just read the first few pages.

Also, yesterday, my attorney filed suit against the company whose product started the fire. We've all heard of the elderly woman made a millionaire because she spilled McDonald's coffee. So what sum do you think you could pursue from a company whose product burned your house down, killed your cats, and put your life in a tailspin? Well, not much, no where close to what that woman got. Part of that has to due with the conservative judges appointed in New Orleans, yet another way the Bush administration is fucking me over.

I don't want to end on that negative note. So I'll say that I feel like my life is moving in a positive direction. I don't know the external destination, but inside the trip feels OK with the possibility of improving.

Thoughts on public transit

As I whined earlier, public transit is really expensive here, and that's just within the city. If you have to take the commuter train to the suburbs, that can be $15 per round trip. How in the hell is anyone supposed to afford that? Though I'd prefer to use public transit, this cost actually creates an incentive to drive if I know I'm going somewhere I can park for free.

I always found it odd that public transit is something one has to pay for. I think public transit should be public the way the public libarary is--that is, free. As curbing greenhouse gases becomes a greater and greater concern, this approach seems more and more appropriate. Cities could pay for the transit by gathering money from the drivers though gas taxes, fees, parking fines, parking meters, etc.

One of the things about charging for the public transit is that doing so put an enormous burden on the transit agencies. Public transit exists to move people around. But much of their equipment and personnel are there to gather fares. If transit were free, you wouldn't have: turnstiles, token machines, drop boxes on buses, people in booths sitting top of the money. Most of the equipment and people that public transit users interact with are involved in gathering fares, not transporting people. One thing is certain; a lot of the fares gathered goes to the continued gathering of fares. I would love to know what the typical proportion is; it must be significant.

Also, the gathering of fares makes the transit system inefficient as well. On a busy bus route, each stop is slowed because every new passenger has to line up and pay the fare. If there were no fares, the bus would stop, both doors would open, people would get out, then people would get on. Much faster.

These are the things I think about.

Well, today, I'm getting a bike, so I'm looking forward to avoid transit fares the old-fashioned way.

Why I live in Canada

This American Life's most recent episode, "The Audacity of Government," gives a good rundown of some of the reasons why I wanted to live in Canada. One of the acts describe a situation that could be directly applicable to Nicole and me. I post about it because I think everyone needs to know what their government is up to and how much their government has changed under this administration. It also illustrates why I hold so much animus for this administration.

Another Clinton Moment

What's striking about this video is all the detail she claims to recall about the trip. She's not vague at all. And she would discredit another person's account of the trip. She's actively foisting a crock on the public in the interest of bolstering the perception of her foreign policy credentials. The Washington Post has an article about this here. According to this Huffington Post article, her campaign responded by deepening the lie.

To be clear, I don't think the absence of sniper fire matters. What does matter is what this incident reveals about how she regards the public, and it appears to be a rather contemptuous, cynical view. I've maintained the way one campaigns reflects the way they would govern. Hillary's campaign has been reprehensible.

My Clinton Post

Keith Olbermann aptly sums up the state of the race for the Democratic nomination:



Just two months ago, I posted that I was neither an Obama supporter nor a Hillary detractor. In fact, over the past fifteen years, I have been a reliable cheerleader of both Clintons. But the way Hillary has run her campaign has made me doubt she would be much better than the Republicans.

Update: Tracy Morgan gave an able follow-up on SNL.

Wanna see something ugly?

If you want a window into contemporary racism and self-delusion, click here. (Granted, why would you want to look through that window?)

The link is to a discussion I started, as jharris, on the message board of my alma mater, Louisiana Tech University. I posted a video of President Bush pointing out some of the terrible history of lynching. I was hoping that might have an effect, since most of the people on that board admire Bush, though I never believed it would turn people around exactly.

This is the kind of culture I grew up in. More often than not, I'm pissed off about that fact.

More on Electoral Integrity

The New York Times has an article about voting irregularities in the New York primary. Here's the first paragraph:

Black voters are heavily represented in the 94th Election District in Harlem’s 70th Assembly District. Yet according to the unofficial results from the New York Democratic primary last week, not a single vote in the district was cast for Senator Barack Obama.

That's right--a district in Harlem and no one voted for Obama. According to the article there's 80 such districts.

Valentine's

Last night, to celebrate Valentine's Day, Nicole and I went to Spuntini's, a lovely Italian restaurant. Inside the foyer of the restaurant were a bunch of photos of celebrities who'd dined there, and the one that got a laugh from me was of Fred Thompson. (I was sorry to see him leave the race, just because he was so unintentionally funny.) We ate so much good Italian food, we went into food comas. As a gift, I gave her the DVD of the first season of the "Flight of the Conchords." It was a lovely evening.

Some of you might think a DVD is not the most romantic of gifts, but that's only because you haven't seen the Flight of the Conchords in action. Watch the clip below, and you'll understand they're all about romance in the extreme.



I enjoy surprising people with gifts they'll love. Last night, I had the unusual opportunity to give Nicole a gift I knew she'd love, though she didn't know it existed. That is, Nicole had seen the clip above, loved it, but had no idea about its source. She just attributed it to that guy from "Eagle vs. Shark". So she was happy. And now, it's business time.

My Obama Post

Near the conclusion of his Super Tuesday speech, Obama said the following: "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." I found that incredibly empowering, a needed change from the cynicism of most politicians. He went on to refer to the rebuilding of New Orleans.

Here's his speech in New Orleans yesterday.

Barack Obama speech

New Orleans, don't let me down tomorrow.

Update: When I posted the speech, I'd only watched the first 40% of it. I watched it all today, and I've got to say, even as someone supporting Obama, I was surprised and encouraged by what he said. That is, he articulated a vision for the city post-Katrina that many of us had immediately afterward--keeping the best parts, losing the worst, creating an example of a just city.

Also, according to Huffington Post, there's a low turn-out expected in Louisiana. Hey--it's Saturday afternoon! Do you know where your ballot box is?

Ash Primary

With the presidential primaries as tight as ever, it looks like it's good that Louisiana's primary is all by itself this Saturday. I hope that it affords the state some much-needed attention from the Presidential candidates.

Get out and vote y'all (for Obama).

I had two ways to vote: through an absentee ballot from Louisiana or through Democrats Abroad. I received an absentee ballot, but went with Democrats abroad just because I'd have to return the absentee ballot by Friday, which would be a hassle. The Democratic party affords 11 delegates to all Democrats living abroad, and they offer two ways to vote in that primary. Vote on-line or in person. Last night, I voted in person. The polling center was a pub, and it was packed. All the TV's were on the election returns, not hockey. I'm glad I voted. But Nicole was really turned on by it. After I voted, I said "That's the way we do it. No pledge to the queen, no nothing!"

Told you so

When the polls preceeding the New Hampshire primary were way off (in a direction I didn't like), I cried conspiracy. Bart said maybe the polls were just wrong, but I wasn't buying it. Now that the South Carolina polls were just as wrong but in a way I like, am I crying conspiracy? Well, there may be a conspiracy, but I ain't crying about it, if you know what I mean.

Actually, I don't know. I don't know a lot of things. I don't know how South Carolina counts their votes; I'd guess it's the same way (or worse) that New Hampshire does. Bart's point may very well be correct. With the prevelance of unlisted cellphone numbers, it may not be possible for pollsters to get a representative sampling, rendering contemporary polling irrelevant. And I don't know what the outcome in New Hampshire will be. That "recount" stopped after recounting just 40% of the votes, and there's considerable evidence that the handling of the ballots was shoddy at best.

One thing that is clear though is that the state of electoral integrity in the U.S. is disgraceful. Looking at the New Hampshire recount, you see margins of error fluxtuating between 1 and 10%. That's just absurd. Everyday billions and billions of dollars are withdrawn, deposited, and counted in computer systems infinitely more complex than any ballot box, and there aren't errors between 1 and 10%. If there was, banks wouldn't use them. The U.S. doesn't even meet the Carter Center's baseline standards for free and fair elections.

Politically, I find myself in the strange situation of pulling for Obama but voting for Edwards, because I want to support his anti-corporate positions. There's talk that Edwards could be made attorney general. That wouldn't be bad.

New Hampshire

Are you like me and the rest of the human race who were shocked this week to see Hillary Clinton win the New Hampshire primary? It's prompted some troubling questions about the integrity of the vote there, most notably that the Diebold voting machines which are used throughout New Hampshire are easily corruptible. Some think those machines were hacked by Republicans to give Hillary the win, simply because the GOP would prefer to face her than Obama or Edwards. I am one of them.

You can hear some really interesting and worthwhile discussion of this matter on the Stephanie Miller show.

Here Stephanie interviews Brad Friedman, a journalist who's been following the issue of the Diebold machines for some time.

Here Stephanie interviews Dennis Kucinich about his subsequent call for a recount in New Hampshire.

Raising this question raises the specter of conspiracy, a possibility which is all but verboten in our society. But as you listen to these interviews (and you really should), note how utterly reasonable what they're discussing is. If the possibility of criminal conspiracy cannot be considered, then that grants a license to commit criminal conspiracy to those so inclined.

FYI, I'm voting for Edwards, though Obama wouldn't be bad, and Hillary beats any of the circus freaks in the GOP. (I apologize to any circus freaks I may have offended.)