Verbatim Ross Douthat:
At times, Ted Kennedy's fervor on abortion felt like an extended apology to his party's feminists for the way the men of his dynasty behaved in private.Which, besides being utter horseshit as an argument about abortion rights or feminism or just about anything else it purports to be, would make of the chaste,
Ponyo (2008) 9/10
Ponyo is a magical fish who escapes her wizard father. Sosuke is a five year old boy who finds her and loves her unconditionally. Because of his love, Ponyo turns herself into a little girl, but the magic she unleashes to do so has cataclysmic results. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
This is sort of Little Mermaid without the sexism and campy villain. It is the youngest Miyazaki movie I've seen, in the sense that it really is for little kids, and one of the most Japanese (compared to, say, Howl's Moving Castle, which is based on a Welsh story).
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There is so much to love about Ponyo. It is one of the most joyful movies I've ever seen. A long, almost wordless sequence of Ponyo, in girl form, chasing Sosuke & his mother in a car by running across the back of a giant fish, is exquisite. I mean, happiness isn't as easy to depict as you'd imagine. She's happy, she's full of life, and no words are needed. Later, she runs around a house, exactly as a five year old girl would, so joyful you want to applaud.
Then there is a rich realism. Like I said, Ponyo runs like a girl. Both kids act exactly like kids; not gussied up and fictionalized. On a couple of occasions, Ponyo falls asleep with exactly the entertaining loss of consciousness every parent has seen. Even better, Sosuke's mother, Lisa, is a wonderfully true character. She gets angry at her husband and pops a beer, then lays on the floor, tipsy and fuming. She's accepting, she's playful, she's disorganized, she's just...human. Not "Mom" or "Cartoon Mom," but human. I loved her.
Ponyo is the oldest of a large school of fish, the children of a wizard and magical mother we know little about until later in the film. She has enormous power but is just a little tot, so her father keeps her confined to prevent trouble. Naturally, she hates her confinement and "swims away." So far, we're in cliché land. I see a female protagonist being raised by a father, naturally I assume it's the classic Motherless Girl syndrome. In fact, Ponyo does have a mother, and it's a delight when we meet her. Since that information is held back in the film, I won't give it away, but her motherlessness serves as a perfect parallel to Sosuke's fatherlessness.
There's also a lot of juxtaposition of youth and age. Lisa works in a Senior Center that is next door to Sosuke's daycare. A five year-old boy drives the action, largely supported by a group of old ladies.
Needless to say, the film is exquisitely beautiful. Because I like to allow my eyes to focus on the imagery, I prefer dubbing to subtitles, but I know I'm a minority among film buffs. For that reason, I haven't dwelled on the Western voice actors in the dubbed version, but they do a great job, and they're quite a pedigreed bunch: Tina Fey, Liam Neeson, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Lily Tomlin, Betty White, Cloris Leachman, and more.
(Cross-posted)
Seriously: over at Reason, or 'Reason', Ronald Bailey uses a whole mess of words (no rationing there!) to argue exactly that. Here's Bailey quoting himself:
It's not rationing if an individual decides to spend his money on a 16-ounce steak-[d'Fuh?]—but it is rationing if he can only purchase a USDA prime rib eye when he has a coupon issued from a government agency. In other words, true rationing occurs when individuals are forbidden from spending their money on products or services they want to buy.Right. And as David St. Hubbins says, it's such a fine line between stupid and clever.
Karl Hector & the Malcouns - Mystical Brotherhood
Cracker - Hold of Myself
Talking Heads - Born Under Punches
RJD2 - Final Frontier
Kinks - David Watts
Residents - Kawliga
Ramones - I Don't Wanna Grow Up
Mo-Dettes - White Mice
Buena Vista Social Club - Dos Gardenias
Gedu Blay Ambolley - This Hustling World
Mo-Detterrific video below the fold. What are y'all listening to?
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The really obvious point is that while Tom Coburn may or may not help this woman and her husband (we'll see), he can't possibly help everyone in similar circumstances. Every Senator and Representative working full time on medical horror stories alone can't possibly help everyone in similar circumstances.
The other really obvious point is that "neighbors helping neighbors", however well-intentioned, are completely inadequate to the economic scale of even a single situation like this. We're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars here--more than you can raise with a bake sale or a car wash.
But it's actually much worse than that. People tend to live around people like themselves--that is, people in a similar income bracket. Tom Coburn is a doctor, and pretty well off (his net worth in 2007 was $1,358,097 to $4,250,000); odds are pretty good that his neighbors are comparably well off. Tom Coburn's neighbors probably could raise money for a medical emergency like this one. Tom Coburn's neighbors are also much more likely to have adequate insurance.
Conversely, people living in low-income neighborhoods are much more likely to be uninsured.
That's the really perverse thing about Coburn's "neighbors helping neighbors" comment: the greater the likelihood of needing help, the less available that help is, and the more your neighbors are able to help, the less likely it is you'll ever need it.
Although I've only lived in Massachusetts for 23 years now, Ted Kennedy was my senator for much longer than that, since the things he cared about and fought for are the things my parents cared about, fought for, and taught their kids to care about -- peace, justice, and opportunity for all Americans.
This is from a post I made on Blue Mass Group in '06, after Senator Kennedy appeared at a Deval Patrick campaign event in Worcester:
Ted Kennedy is not so smooth in front of a crowd these days, but seeing him and hearing him reminded me [...] of his astonishing term of service to the country - the last twenty years of it as my senator -- spanning most of my lifetime, and characterized not only by loyalty to his constituency and his principles, but his ability to foster bipartisanship in getting things done.He was flawed as a man, a husband, a candidate, and a leader, but not as a champion for all of us who are only human. His humanity, and the fact that he fought for the least of us despite coming from a privileged family, gave his idealism a veracity and power that were unique in my lifetime.
I remember sitting with my parents in the gallery of the U.S. Senate in December 1963, the nation still in mourning over JFK's assassination. One after another, the senators gave tribute to the late president; finally, a very young Ted Kennedy - one year into his first term - rose to acknowledge the memorials and give his own. I wish I could remember even a little bit of what he said -- I was eight years old. I just remember the gravity of the moment, and how moved my parents were. As had many of their generation, they had heard JFK say "Ask not..." and taken it to heart.
Winding down the General's Highway into the foothills, I started seeing this outlandish flower that looked like a morning glory on steroids. My first assumption was that it was some invasive species; happily, I was wrong. It's Jimson Weed (Datura wrightii), a member of the Solanaceae family; like most of the other members (nightshade, tomatoes, potatoes), it is highly poisonous.
(This may be a little inside baseball for people outside Alabama, but I do think it's worth knowing what the Blue Dogs get up to when they're home.)
I'm beginning to think the only reason Parker Griffith (D R ? - AL 5) ran as a Democrat in 2008 was the handwriting on the wall that the Dems would win a big majority in the House. Apparently he's lost his memory -- along with his integrity -- and can't remember to which party he belongs.
The union man was angry.
He loudly reminded U.S. Rep. Parker Griffith, D-Huntsville, of a promise he made to U.S. Steel Workers Local 193 in Courtland last spring that if they helped him get elected, he'd do everything he could to get health insurance for all Americans.
While surrounded by many more conservatives than liberals in the Monday night town hall meeting at the University of North Alabama, union President Phil Everett wanted to know: "Are you a Democrat or are you a Republican?"
The Democratic congressman took a negative stance on the Democratic-proposed economic stimulus package and the cap-and-trade pollution bill, and has offered conservative-leaning answers to dozens of questions on health care reform.
In fact, applause nearly drowned him out as he walked over to shake the unhappy union man's hand and said, "I'm an American, and a good one." [emphasis mine]
Another speaker commended him for his stance, but said he was concerned that if Pelosi was privy to everything he was saying, "she might not let you back in chambers."
Griffith laughed and said, "If she doesn't like it, I've got a gift certificate to the mental health center."
Christie Carden, the 25-year-old organizer of the Huntsville Tea Party Movement, asked if he would vote for Pelosi for speaker again. Griffith said that if matter came up for a vote today, "I would not vote for her. Someone that divisive and that polarizing cannot bring us together."
I think he's lost his mind. The local Republicans hate the guy because he kept trust-fund baby, empty suit Wayne Parker out of Congress. They're laying for him big time, and even if he pushed Pelosi off a cliff they wouldn't vote for him for dog catcher.
On the other side, he has the Democrats who held their noses, campaigned, and voted for him. Does he think that the GOP will nominate someone so horrible that we'll have no choice but to vote for him? He's burned so many bridges locally with black voters, unions, health care reform people, etc. etc. that I can't see anyone knocking themselves out to even vote for him - much less get out and campaign or contribute.
And the DCCC will receive NOT ONE PENNY of my money if they try to use it to prop up shills like Parker Griffith, Jim Cooper, etc. etc.
Julie & Julia (2009) 8/10
"Based on 2 true stories:" Julia Child (Meryl Streep) and her husband Paul (Stanley Tucci) move to Paris, and Julia struggles to find something that interests her to occupy her time, finally enrolling in the Cordon Bleu; Julie Powell (Amy Adams) writes a blog chronicling her process of working her way through Child's cookbook over the course of a year. Written & directed by Nora Ephron.
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Every single reviewer who has written about this film has remarked that Julia is more interesting than Julie, and that's true. The Julia sequences have two of the great watchable actors, Streep is astonishing, Tucci is astonishing, it's like a houseful of astonishing. The Julie sequences have Amy Adams, who is lovely and very good, and Chris Messina who is also good, but come on! The Julia scenes also have world travel, period clothing and settings, and snooty Parisians, so who could compete with that?
But the movie brings something more to the table than simply dividing it into two and comparing sides. It is full of warmth; indeed, it is full of love. Here is a story in which both female leads are married to good, loving men and have okay lives. They're trying to find themselves and they do so through cooking, but they are not tragic, desperate, ridiculous, or slapstick.
Early on, I was surprised to discover that Julie Powell is a really good cook. This project was not disproportionate to her skill, despite her insecurity. I had expected something more laughable. More of a movie, I guess, and less of a life. I realize that much of Julie's life is fictionalized, but it feels grounded.
What struck me as I left the theater was that there were no weirdly awkward scenes, no twists, no complicated rom-com goofy switcharoos, no nothing except joy and discovery and hard work and a sense of both its frustrations and rewards. It's a movie that is not at all dull, and yet not dependent on cinematic situations to keep it interesting. It has good friendships, good conversations, wit, sex, and lots and lots of wonderful food.
I think you should see it.
(Cross & post)
Minutemen - #1 Hit Song
Yulduz Usmanova - Shoch va Gado
13th Floor Elevators - May the Circle Remain Unbroken
Shriekback - Sea Theory
Material - Seven Souls
Beatles - Hey Bulldog
Young Marble Giants - Include Me Out
Steinski - The Payoff
Shoukichi Kina - Jing Jing
Sleater-Kinney - Start Together
No video this week. What are y'all listening to?
Fort Miller Clarkia (Clarkia williamsonii) along Highway 41 north of Oakhurst.
Bear Creek Spire reflected in one of the lakes of Little Lakes Valley, Rock Creek drainage, John Muir Wilderness.
A message to Congress, from Mr. William Shakespeare:
MACBETH: If we should fail?Meanwhile, go read Rick Perlstein.
LADY MACBETH: We fail!
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we'll not fail.
X-Ray Spex - Oh Bondage Up Yours
Soft Boys - Cold Turkey
Joy Division - Insight
Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls
Portishead - Biscuit
Gang of 4 - Capital (It Fails Us Now)
Big Dipper - Loch Ness Monster
Tikis - Rick-O-Shay
Tony Bowens & the Soul Choppers - Boilin' Water
Buttersprites - Kokeshi Doll
Hmmm...looks like '80s Classic Rock Week here. Accordingly, some vintage video below the fold.
What are y'all listening to this morning?
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I'm afraid Steve is right about why the right is winning the spin war on the town hall thuggery:
The last two election cycles were fun, but for decades we were told that right-wingers and Republicans are "normal," even when they engage in racist attacks or blow up federal buildings, while liberals and Democrats are dirty hippies who don't go to church and eat arugula and use four-letter words in public. That ingrained notion doesn't go away overnight, or even in a few years. And the right-wing/corporate noise machine knows just how to tap into it.But there's another problem here (apart from the fact that nobody took my advice): as long as the conflict is between 'people' and 'politicians', people are going to instinctively side with 'people', even to the brink of physical violence. If it were clearer that this is a conflict between 'people' and people--that the thugs aren't just getting in the face of 'politicians', they're actually trampling all over the right of other people to be heard--I think the polling would be very different. As it is, though, the people who are getting shut out of the process (not just supporters, but non-crazy people with legitimate questions) are virtually invisible in all of this.
Shrubby Cinquefoil (Potentilla fruticosa) on a very cold morning in Little Lakes Valley on the east side of the Sierra. Less frosty specimens below the fold.
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Also in Little Lakes Valley. 
At Diamond Lake, Trinity Alps Wilderness.
Democrats have gutted their health care plan of its key components in a bid to placate Republicans and win bipartisan support. Some of the progressive ideas removed from the plan include: Euthanizing your grandmother, nationalizing hospitals, government-subsidized abortion on demand, unlimited free health care for illegal immigrants, and government control of your bank accounts.
With these concessions having been made, I trust that we can now move forward on health care reform with a broad, bipartisan consensus. Blue Dogs and Republicans, you can now rest easy knowing that the concerns of the town hall protesters have been met. While the progressive dream of a nation in which old people are slaughtered to pay for the abortions of ACORN-employed illegal immigrants will again have to be deferred, we are willing to settle for a bill without these measures in the name of bipartisanship.
Kissing Jessica Stein (2001) 10/10
Jessica Stein (Jennifer Westfeldt) is a neurotic, brainy single woman seeking a man. Helen Cooper (Heather Jurgensen) is a sexually voracious woman eager to try the one thing she hasn't tried: sex with a woman. Despite Jessica's misgivings, they tentatively enter into a relationship.
This is one of my favorite movies, and I've seen it several times. Looking back, I see I've included it in Tuesday Trivia no less than three times. Yet I've never reviewed it here! It's come up in conversation lately, since I'm going to L.A. and might be meeting Jon Hamm, (!) and Jennifer Westfeldt is his long-time girlfriend (Hamm has a small role in the movie). So, having said how much I loved it during the day, we sat down and watched it this evening.
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It has all the great things you could want in a romantic comedy. It is witty, it is character-driven; populated by real people with real lives; every supporting player has motivation and personality. Take Jessica's friend Joan (Jackie Hoffman). She's riotously funny, and moves the plot along in exactly the way a conveniently-placed friend must. She's also a fleshed-out person with her own trajectory in life.
Speaking of characters, Tovah Feldshuh as Jessica's mother really enriches this movie. She only ever gets to play the one role in movies, but she's magical in it every time.
Kissing Jessica Stein is frankly, boldly sexual, and very funny about sex. I have to say that "I was surprised to learn that lesbians accessorized," is one of my all-time favorite quotes, and there is a funny bit about blow-jobs that brings tears to my eyes.
What gets me most about it is that it's one of those movies, like The Object of My Affection (but way better), that explores the strange gray region between friendship and romance; between love and "love," and does it brilliantly.
(Cross-posting Jessica Stein)
Shorter Ross Douthat: "Lowbrow rules my world and it will. not. end. well."
My Morning Jacket, "Picture of You" The Tennessee Fire
Menlo Park, "I Don't Know" Way Beyond Nashville
John Oszajca, "Where's Bob Dylan When You Need Him" Monitor This!
Billie Holiday, "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)" Songs for Distingué Lovers
Jay Farrar, "Fortissimo Wah" Sebastopol
Twinemen, "Signs of Life" Twinemen
Lucinda Williams, "Crescent City" Lucinda Williams
Lou Ford, "How Does It Feel?" Sad, But Familiar
NoahJohn, "Bitch Lounge" Had a Burning
John Coltrane, "It's Easy to Remember (But So Hard to Forget)" Ballads
Bonus: Eef Barzelay, "Escape Artist" Bitter Honey
Sorry for the delay. I just realized that Tom has gone back to the mountains. Please leave your list in comments.
Shorter Peggy Noonan: "Lefty terrorists* are making the teabaggers crazy."
*Verbatim Noonan: "You are terrifying us." Also, approvingly, on the teabaggers' townhall conniptions: "This is democracy's great barbaric yawp." Peg can only hope the "unnecessarily and unhelpfully divisive and provocative [bombthrowers on the left, who are] mocking and menacing concerned citizens" at healthcare townhalls, don't cause things there to "get too hot, or get out of hand."
Attica! Atticaaa!!@! Or something.
Blue-Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium bellum) in Morgan Territory Regional Park.
Maureen Dowd on Bill Clinton:
His plane is rolling down the runway in Pyongyang with the two pardoned women on board? Zowie!"Maureen Dowd on Bill Clinton"! Wowza, yowza, sperzoomiewoomiezowza!
Bill had the additional schadenfreude spritz of knowing that he had usurped three men he'd had fraught relationships with — Bill Richardson, Jimmy Carter and Al Gore (whose media company the women were working for) — by getting the high-profile assignment to rescue the damsels in distress.
...if I were running a town hall meeting and Republican thugs were trying to take it over, is I would have a sound system all ready to play the national anthem. The minute things get out of control, start it up.
There are two ways that plays out. The first is that the thugs could quiet down, put their hands over their hearts, and wait out the song. In which case you've broken their momentum and calmed things down (temporarily), and that's a (temporary) win. And when they start getting out of hand again you start the anthem again. Over and over and over until they get the message.
The other way it could play out is that they don't quiet down--they just get further enraged at this transparent attempt to shame them into shutting up. In which case you get priceless YouTube videos of Republican thugs disrupting the national anthem.
Either way, you win--or at least you salvage what you can from the situation, which is a better result than we've seen so far.
Coraline (2009) 10/10
The Jones family has moved to a new home, a 150 year old Victorian. Coraline (voice by Dakota Fanning) feels neglected and bored. She finds a door behind the wallpaper that leads to a magical alternative house, where her mother (voice by Teri Hatcher) dotes lovingly, the food is delicious, and even the neighbors are delightful. But all is not what it seems.
Recently I saw someone characterize all of Neil Gaiman's stories as "hapless young person finds a passage into another world in which he/she has a larger destiny." You got your Stardust, your Mirrormask, your Neverwhere all supporting that thesis. And truly, I laughed.More...
Coraline Jones finds a door into another world, but she is not hapless, and she doesn't have a larger destiny. She is angry, and tough, and longing for more, and for a while, she thinks she's found it. But, like Pinocchio's Pleasure Island, the joys of the Other Mother's domain are merely enticements designed to ensnare Coraline, and before long she learns other children have been trapped here as well, their ghosts longing for freedom.
She's a marvelous character, Coraline; annoyed, strong, innocent, and perfectly childlike. She is smart without all that "wise beyond her years" crap. Her life is rooted in reality, her animated stop-motion world is rich in texture. Coraline's bedroom, her garden, her insane neighbors, are all incredibly detailed.
The terrors of Other Mother's world sneak up on you. Everyone on the other side has button eyes, and Other Mother wants Coraline to sew buttons into her own eyes as a condition of staying there. Button eyes are creepy. They are just flat-out disturbing. There's the blankness, the way the perfect roundness defies even the illusion of expression, and let's not forget, they're sewn on. With a needle. So there's that.
I actually had a little trouble sleeping afterwards. These are some seriously disturbing images. Which the film producers apparently fail to understand, since the previews were all for cutesy kid movies. And 9, so apparently all animation is equally cute, no matter the subject.
Oh, yeah, the animation! The beauty of this film is beyond my ability to describe. I've simply never seen anything like it. We were sucked in by a DVD sale at Target: 4 free pairs of 3-D glasses! But after about ten minutes, we couldn't get past the muddy colors, took off the glasses, and switched to 2-D.
So, pretty much a must-see. A rich animation experience, a complex main character, a fully-realized world, and buttons.
(The Other Cross-post)
