Bill and the Deep Blue Sea

Random thoughts while watching college basketball; specifically, watching Texas and Kevin Durant get massacred by USC. First, I know they’re young, but could there be a bigger disconnect between the Longhorns’ talent and their ability to play as a team? Second, despite my Bruin bloodlines, it’s fun to see the Trojans have some success in roundball; it’s no fun beating up on a bad team. Now if we could just wake up Karl Dorrell…

Still catching up: Movie review

Anchorman (2004). Mildly amusing and generally inoffensive; Will Ferrell pulls off being a likable boor, and his co-stars are adequate. But the setups are much funnier than the bits themselves; there were a lot of those “boy, this is gonna be funny…. ummm, well, kind of…” A lot like an SNL sketch; funny premise, disappointing execution. Some potentially great cameos suffer the same fate; there are several well-known faces given almost nothing amusing to say or do. One telling sign of its mediocrity: you walk away remembering no killer lines that bring to mind killer scenes. Okay, I'll give them one: during anchor Ron Burgundy's struggle for newsroom supremacy, his signature sign-off is sabotaged on his teleprompter, and what results is pretty funny. That's one. Maybe I'm just not Ferrell's demographic; to paraphrase the late great Dr. Frank-n-furter, "I didn't make it for you!"  C+

Still catching up: Music review

Two Lights, Five for Fighting (2006). I really liked “Superman,” but I didn’t buy FFF’s first CD. I really liked “100 Years,” but I didn’t buy the 2nd CD either. So when I heard “The Riddle,” I thought it was time to buy the CD. Good call. Reallygood call. John Ondrasik (yes, it’s a guy, not a band) is clearly a product of his influences; Elton John, Billy Joel, James Taylor, a certain ineffable Southern California point of view). This album is mostly piano ballads; several are topical, about a nation at war (“Freedom Never Cries,” “Two Lights”), some are dreams of a better place (“World,” “Road to Heaven”), and some are simply love songs (e.g., “I Just Love You,” which at the end gives a wonderful twist on the relationship being considered). But it’s certainly not all ballads; “Policeman’s Xmas Party” is truly odd but great fun, “California Justice” is sarcastic without being strident (and is full of SoCal references), “65 Mustang” is an upbeat throwaway, and “Johnny America” is out and out exuberant. If you like Harry Chapin and Steve Forbert  and my patron saint, Jackson Browne, I think you’ll like this. If you prefer songwriters to poseurs and melody to noise, and if the presence of a piano doesn’t cause you hives, I think you’ll like this. Grade: A.

Happy birthday to George Foreman

He’s 30 today. That probably needs some explaining. Spiritually, it’s his birthday; 30 years ago today, after losing what appeared to be his last heavyweight fight, Foreman had a religious experience that turned him to Christ. "He was a bad guy," says boxing promoter Bob Arum. "Surly. Mean-spirited. He had abused women, got in a lot of street fights. He was selfish, self-centered, had episodes of mistreating people if he didn't get his way.” A changed man, Foreman retired, started a ministry, and spent ten years quietly serving God before launching a comeback that would improbably result in regaining the heavyweight title. He’s left boxing for good now, but he’s still God’s man: "It's a pleasure to be a part of his life," says Arum. "He's a kind, caring, terrific person…. It's sincere, man, it ain't an act."  Foreman is throwing himself a huge birthday party in Houston. Happy birthday, brother…

On my small screen this week

The Life Aquatic (2004). They’ve got cameras. They’ve got glocks. They’ve got a ship you wouldn’t cross the LA River in, ‘though it does have a sauna and a very nice kitchen. They’ve got funding issues, interpersonal issues, mutiny issues, midlife crisis issues, love triangle issues, pirate issues… they’re Team Zissou, and they’re in search of Bill Murray’s personal Moby Dick. 

Talk about a movie that defies analogy and categorization; in plot and look and feel, it’s not really like anything else out there. It’s a feast, visually and musically; wonderful undersea footage (and stop-action animation), richly saturated colors, and a Bowie-based score with throw-ins from the Zombies, Bach, and Iggy Pop (of course, the Bowie cuts are all sung in Portuguese, so there!). The oversaturated colors and writer/director Wes Anderson’s unconventional cuts (and a couple of truly amazing theater-style scenes on a cut-away version of the ship) give it a delightful but somewhat artificial feel, the feel I get from a well-done comic book; enjoyable but very clearly not ‘real’ (which could of course spark the Film School 101 argument about what cinema is supposed to be, anyway…).

Yet it’s also neither zany, nor naïve, nor even melancholy; gently surreal, maybe, like a mild buzz from the joints Murray’s character smokes throughout. Murray has nearly perfected droll-and-despairing; one reason the movie works so well is that its pacing matches Murray’s perfectly. Anjelica Huston is, well, Anjelica Huston; Owen Wilson plays southern-sincere so syrupy that he’s almost Leslie Howard; Cate Blanchett does okay with an interesting but oddly unfinished character; Willem Dafoe gets to turn his trademark intensity on its ear; and for heaven’s sake it’s got Jeff Goldblum and Bud Cort in the same movie! What more could you ask for? It’s truly odd, but not odd in a dark way at all… if you’ll grant Anderson his conceits and just enjoy the ride, it’s a heckuva ride indeed. A-

The Cost of Hubris

The GOP loses both houses of Congress. I know there are a dozen things to point to, including failure to acknowledge Wallace Shawn (“never get involved in a land war in Asia”). But I would still argue that it goes back to Gitmo and Abu Ghraib. Americans don’t torture. Americans don’t incarcerate without trial. The documents guaranteeing these ‘rights’ may technically not apply to non-citizens, but they are based upon a Weltanschauung that says these are inalienable and thus universal. More practically, whether we are or not, we like to imagine that we are above that sort of thing; that in world affairs, we have the moral high ground.

It will take some time and some hard, smart work to re-establish that in the eyes of the world. And of course, that it was the responsibility of perhaps the most explicitly evangelical-Christian President we have ever had is the hugest disappointment; more than any other, it should have been this President who said, “we will do what is right, we will take the high road, even if it is not expedient, and even if it is dangerous.” But trust requires humility. Hubris has its price.

This is hardly exclusively a GOP problem; recommended reading, “The Best and the Brightest” by David Halberstam, about the American (specifically, the Democratic) arrogance that landed us in Vietnam.

Better late than never department, Part 1

I finally saw “American Beauty” (1999) on DVD. After 20 minutes, I was ready to turn it off; I hated pretty much everybody in the movie, and I’m less tolerant than I used to be of cynicism passing itself off as black comedy. But I stuck with it… and I realized that I was being played. The marketing theme was ‘look closer,’ probably playing off the rather tired idea that beneath the orderly streets of suburbia lurks chaos… but it was more than that. It took ‘looking closer’ at the characters, and realizing they were more than tired caricatures… there were pretty good reasons why they were what they were.

And all of them step right up to edge of the abyss, but only one steps over… in a satisfyingly twisty sort of way. The acting was amazing; Annette Bening, never a favorite of mine, was absolutely astonishing. I don’t know if you can take away a single moral from it; I counted half a dozen almost immediately. But maybe the one that stuck with me the most was, sometimes you get a second chance… and sometimes you don’t.

Better late than never department, Part 2

Simple Plan’s Still Not Getting’ Any (2004). Well-produced post-punk-pop (along the lines of newer Green Day); ‘Shut Up’ and ‘Welcome to My Life’ got substantial airplay. But the revelation here is “Untitled,” the final cut and whose lyrics are curiously left off of the booklet. It’s teen angst and dissatisfaction wrapped in a classic power ballad (which of course meant I immediately liked it), but more significantly, it’s about the tragic aftermath of teenage drunk driving. The song is powerful; the video is devastating. Show it to your kids next time they head out to a party.

And the obligatory sports comment

how ‘bout those Knicks? This is a team that I loved as a kid, second only to my hometown Lakers. Walt Frazier was the coolest of cool, Jerry Lucas was a rock, Willis Reed was a lion, and my favorite non-L.A. player of all time was Dave DeBusschere… and I’ve left out Bill Bradley and Earl Monroe and Phil Jackson. But now the expectations are so low that getting to within six games of.500 earns coach Isiah ‘Midas Touch’ Thomas a contract extension. Amazing. If he wins a playoff game, he might get a lifetime appointment. And if this is good coaching, what adjectives do we have for Phil Jackson riding his one-trick pony to sixth place in the much tougher West? 

To close…

Kevin Spacey’s final, post-mortem monologue from “American Beauty,”

“…it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much… my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst...and then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain…

“…and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life... (chuckles) You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry...

[FADE TO BLACK]

“You will someday.”

Who Is This God, Anyway?

I’ve been reading through the book of 1st John recently. I don’t need too many more complications in my life, and this is a very uncomplicated book, with a very uncomplicated message: God is love.

Henri Nouwen says that “knowing God means to consistently, radically, and very concretely announce and reveal that God is love and only love... and that every time fear, isolation, or despair begin to invade the human soul, this is not something that comes from God. This sounds very simple and maybe even trite, but very few people know that they are loved without any conditions or limits. This unconditional, unlimited love is what John calls God’s first love: Let us love, because God loved us first.”  

God’s love is first; human love came second. And Nouwen notes that human love often leaves us “doubtful, frustrated, angry, and resentful... there is always the chance of rejection, withdrawal, punishment, blackmail, violence, and even hatred... these are all the shadow side of this second [human] love... [flawed by] the darkness that never completely leaves the human heart... The radical good news is that this second love is only a broken reflection of the first love, and that the first love is offered to us by a God in whom there are no shadows...”

Henri Nouwen

Dallas Willard

Dallas Willard is one of the truly wise souls in our world today... and this is his take on who this God is, this God that asks for nothing less than all we are: 

 “The acid test for any teaching about God is this: Is the God presented one that can be loved—heart, soul, mind and strength? If the thoughtful, honest answer is “not really,” then we need to look elsewhere or deeper. It does not really matter how intellectually or doctrinally sophisticated our approach is. If it fails to set a lovable God—a radiant, happy, friendly, accessible, and totally competent being—before ordinary people, we have gone wrong. We should not keep going in the same direction, but turn around and take another road.”  Our journey, then, is on the road to learning more about that God.

If God is love, how should God’s family live? How is that shown among us? There is a story told about John the Apostle, the writer of this letter, very very old now, so old that he had to be carried into the meeting place... and once there, all he would say, every week, was “Children, love one another.” Finally, one of his students asked, “Master, why do you say this same thing, week after week?” John smiled. “Because,” he whispered, “it is the Lord’s command... and if you do this and only this, it is enough.”

1 John is one of my three favorite books in the Bible... Galatians, because it talks so powerfully about grace; Ephesians, because of the incredible and beautiful picture of the church, the body of Christ... and this book, because it takes me right to the main thing. The main thing is love. Jesus had 2 commandments; love God, love each other.  

Because (and I’ll let you in on a little secret), for all the talking we seminary grads do, the Christian life is very very simple; not easy, but simple. It’s love. It’s that little U2 riff... “and you give yourself away... and you give yourself away... and you give yourself away...” If we’re not doing that, not much else that we do matters.

Things That Aren't Here Anymore...

Ralph Story

Grumpy Old Man Mourns Passing of Other Grumpy Old Man

I thought it was worth noting that we lost a great gift today. Former Los Angeles television newsman Ralph Story passed away at age 86. If you never saw Ralph, well, he managed to be both Mike Wallace and Huell Howser for LA in the 60s & 70s. Warren Olney, another LA treasure, not unexpectedly did a wonderful job of summarizing what made Ralph great: “He was able to use humor and irony to make a serious point, something you virtually never see on television anymore…. [His] attitude of amused detachment could transmit devastating critiques and probing analyses without being harsh or mean-spirited, much less boring. He made serious journalism a pleasure to watch."

Of course, that was when there was serious journalism on local newscasts. That, and now Ralph himself, have joined his own list http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0325841/, of “things that aren’t here anymore.”

Christopher Knight

Totally unconnected sidenote on beer

I’m English by lineage… one summer when I obviously had nothing else to do, I traced the family line back to Northamptonshire, England, mid-1500’s. So, yes, I’ve got some pride in my heritage.

But the English drink their beer warm. Good God, what an awful idea. Drinking unrefrigerated beer is like watching a VH-1 reality show; every minute, you’re reminded “this is just wrong.”

Of course, you can help the beer situation by just burying that baby in some ice for a few minutes. I’m not sure what can be done for Christopher Knight.

From today’s news, Sept 26, 2006!

Gibson's Promotion of New Movie Leaves Jews Baffled

Director’s cut of “Passion” has Jesus come down off cross and beat Pharisees senseless with a bottle of Tequila, then drive away in Lexus LS 430. 

Have You or Your Kids Had Problems With Rubber Clogs?

You know, if you’d be more careful what you put down it, it wouldn’t clog.

Dallas Cowboys’ Terrell Owens In Suicide Attempt

What, he just realized Drew Bledsoe is quarterbacking this team?

Air Force Jet Wins Battle in Congress

Multiple strafing runs wear down beleaguered and outgunned legislators.

For the Third Time, a Jury Fails to Convict Gotti

This just in: Most humans still averse to having kneecaps broken.

Mr. Blutto

Source of Spinach Taint Located

“I didn’t do nuthin’ wrong,” claims farm owner A. W. Blutto.

Secretary Vows to Improve Results of Higher Education

“Anticipating at least six more years of a GOP-led government, we need to prepare graduates for the real American economy,” said Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. “We’re therefore cutting English, literature, and philosophy, and requiring 12 units of Computer Game Beta Testing and Bedpan Changing. The foreign language requirements will also be reconfigured so that each graduate will be tested on their ability to say ‘Welcome to Wal-Mart’ in 12 different languages.”

And finally, on the sad state of American manufacturing,

Wagoner Says GM Can Save Itself but Open to Alliances

Of course, why didn’t we think of this before!

Dad at the Anime Expo

I went to the Anime Expo with my 11-year-old daughter today. For all of you out there who make fun of Trekkies (Trekkers?) and their conventions… oh my, you have no idea. I had forgotten how much work a teenager will put into becoming someone as far removed from themselves as possible. All that eyeliner and hair-gel and Styrofoam and hot glue and hair dye and spandex. There’s even a word for it, “cosplay,” or costumed role-play. Yet somehow they all still looked like the president of the chess club or the assistant editor of the index for the yearbook. I couldn’t believe nobody thought to book a Clearasil booth.

Actual conversation with my daughter as we sat against the exhibit hall wall sucking down overpriced drinks:

Me: “Look at this program! There’s six different rooms running 24 hour videos! There’s everything! They’re running Miyazaki! Oh my lord, they’re running Astro Boy!” (begins waving arms frantically).

Daughter: “Dad, stop acting weird! You’re embarrassing me!”

[Three six-foot goth girls walk by, with black, white, and pink hair, in 14 inch platform shoes. One may have been male.]

[Long pause]

Daughter: “Never mind.”

The number of women in this industry is pretty amazing, as was the number of girls at the Expo. I’ve been to a few comics conventions, and there’s like three women in the whole building, and two are paid to be there. But more than half the panelists here were female, and the ‘artist’s room’ where original art is sold and created was almost all women.  

Not that there weren’t lots of males around. Lots of anxious Asian teen boys taking millions of cellphone pictures of giggly skimpily-costumed Asian teen girls. And maybe it’s just me, but a 40-year-old guy dressed as Mario, including plunger, kinda creeps me out. That, and the handful of guys dressed in all black, with gray hair to the middle of their back and looking vaguely like Christopher Walken. Does Alberto Gonzales know about this place?  Does Agent Mulder?

Now, when I was young, like I said, anime was Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion. I even pre-date Speed Racer. And I finally saw Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle the other day and almost fell off my chair; this guy has an imagination that just puts Lucas and Spielberg and maybe even the Pixar guys to shame. 

But I’m not sure where the rest of this stuff is going. Some of the video screenings that were on: Desert Punk, Place Promised in Our Early Days, Paranoia Agent, Irresponsible Captain Tylor, His and Her Circumstance, Fruits Basket, Slayers Great (and, as an upgrade, Slayers Premium), Read or Die, Boys Over Flowers, Magical Shopping Arcade, Strawberry Eggs, Burst Angel, Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch, Strawberry Marshmallow (what’s the thing with strawberries?), Scrapped Princess, Cutie Honey, This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, and of course, Doggie Poo. I’m assuming the Farrelly brothers have already locked up the English-language rights for that last one. We missed the American Idol contest; if the judges were overdubbed Japanese (like “Iron Chef”), I’m buying the DVD. 

When we got home, my daughter looked a little shell-shocked. My wife tried to explain to her that it was like a cross-cultural experience, and those can be inordinately tiring. My daughter seemed to think the problem was more likely blisters. I’m going to try and drag her back tomorrow, but I’m not going to push my luck; we’re supposed to go to the San Diego ComiCon in three weeks and I don’t want to burn her out. I told her that Ray Bradbury was going to be at the ComiCon, and she said, “Who?”

Sigh. At least she knows who Miyazaki is.