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L I N K S zipsix.com bemackey.com |
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Friday, January 23, 2004
Lithwick hits hard. 2:40 PM posted by Steve Abreu Wednesday, January 07, 2004 House of Sand and FogThis took place via-email while P11 was disfunctional. Steve:I saw House of Sand and Fog last night. I'm still kind of torn about it, while it was playing I thought it was really great. But now I'm just kind of wondering why it kept spiraling downward like it did. Certainly a dread-rollercoaster. It was certainly well made. Jennifer Connolly is yummy. Anyway I think at some point it got a little cartoonish in its depression, but I still think it was an excellent movie. Brian:For me, "The House of Sand and Fog" joins "Vanilla Sky," "Dancer in the Dark" and "Wages of Fear" as movies that I am glad I saw, but that I could never sit through again, knowing what's coming. I would have included "Pay It Forward," but I'm still a little bitter about those 123 minutes I'll never get back. I am not as dismayed at the downward spiral. When you look back on the movie in the cold, harsh, cliched light of day, I can see where you feel it went out of control. But while watching it, nothing seemed that far out of line with what had come before. Again, compare it to "Vanilla Sky," when Cameron Diaz completely out of line with everything that has happened so far. But when the Colonel dons his uniform and chooses the most bad-ass way to off oneself I have ever seen, it's sad but utterly reasonable for that character. I also thought it was masterful in its moral ambiguity and journalistic objectivity. Two people could walk away from the same film with different ideas about who was right and wrong. It's a sort of Rorschach test: Nickie sympathized more with Kathy (Connelly), while I was more on the side of the Colonel. The only "evildoer," to quote our favorite president, is the county assessor (and maybe Deputy Doofus). And Ben Kingsly: what an actor, goddamn. I mean, he's Gandhi, for Vishnu's sake! 5:14 PM posted by Steve Abreu The best defense is a good offense. 5:03 PM posted by Steve Abreu Tuesday, March 04, 2003 check.1, 2, 3 2:28 PM posted by Steve Abreu Monday, February 17, 2003 Alinghi leads 3 races to 0Brian, I hope you've been watching what's been a pretty exciting America's Cup Finals, including Race 1 where Team New Zealand had to abandon the race because the were taking on water. In Race 2, Alinghi passed NZL on the last leg, downwind, with about three minutes to the line, and won a close race, and tonight in Race 3, Alinghi was being pusued by a faster NZL, yet as NZL rounded the final mark, it had some big trouble with its spinnaker set and lost four boat lengths. Reminds me of late nights in 305. 8:29 PM posted by Steve Abreu Thursday, February 13, 2003 The best defense... An interesting article in The New Republic ponders the historical inability of Senators to make an immediate leap to the White House. Only two have done so since 1900 (bonus points if you can name the one who isn't JFK). Among the strategies suggested to current senate candidates (one that was successfully employed by then-Senator Kennedy): attack the President on defense from the right: Indeed, the most important lesson Kennedy offers today's Senate presidential contenders is his strategic decision to attack the Republicans not from the left but from the right. Instead of promising a revived New Deal, as Johnson did, or stitching together a coalition of liberal interest groups, as Humphrey did, Kennedy ran as a cold war hawk, accusing Dwight D. Eisenhower and his vice president, Nixon, of letting the Soviets gain a nuclear advantage (the "missile gap") and of being soft on Fidel Castro. When a crisis came--the Soviets' downing of a U-2 spy plane in May 1960--it was Kennedy who hit the administration hard while Senate grandees were reduced to bleatings of patriotic support. If the administration's current performance in Afghanistan is any indication, even a fairly "easy" military victory in Iraq will be only a limited success in the long run. It seems to me there is room for a candidate to say, "why are we supporting dictatorial regimes and religious extremists around the world? Does that make us safer? What price will you pay for your security? $2.00/gallon? $3.00?" The current administration is acting with something other than the best interest of America at heart. They may not realize it, but it is nonetheless so. Continued reliance on foreign oil, support of oppressive regimes, and arrogant foreign policy puts us at risk. For the love of God, Mr. President, please read this book! 10:46 PM posted by Brian Mackey Monday, January 27, 2003 "we could find new ways of living make playing only logical harm /.../ but she can read / she can read / she can read / she can read / she's bad." 9:50 AM posted by Steve Abreu Monday, January 20, 2003 Hey Brian, do you think Al Sharpton's campaign will be harmful to the overall message of the party entering the general election? 7:43 PM posted by Steve Abreu Sunday, January 19, 2003 Will brian tolerate the new layout? Stay tuned.... 4:15 PM posted by Steve Abreu Wednesday, December 11, 2002 Dahlia Lithwick, the breakfast table, Slate, June 24, 2002, available here "I think men get nervous when women start counting the number of female senators, and whites become edgy when they hear the next Supreme Court seat will probably go to a Latino. This isn't always because they object to sharing the spoils, by the way; it just reminds us that the melting pot may not be working, and we haven't yet achieved the ambiguous national dream of becoming a nation of indistinguishable beige atheists. " 5:03 PM posted by Steve Abreu Sunday, December 08, 2002 dancer...it's funny because this was one of Dustin's top three movies of the year. and i can see why it appealed to him, because of its just unyielding force and spartan approach. but i sat and watched and suspended disbelief and was just kind of physically abused at the end. to which i said: wow. but a few days later all i really thought was: no. that's not plausible, and therefore merely emotionally manuipulative. but again, i think you have to separate out whatever political tones the director tried and failed at with just the sheer force of bjork's performance which i think is transcedent, or in other words: really fucking good. 6:29 PM posted by Steve Abreu Notes on Dancer in the Dark
3:47 AM posted by Brian Mackey Tuesday, October 15, 2002 blogger problems. 2:16 PM posted by Steve Abreu Monday, October 14, 2002 Sending a girl to boot camp for having sex at 16 is like levying fines for people who "top off" at the gas pump. sure it could start a fire, and there are plenty of warnings not to do it, but fuck me if i'm going to pay 14.82$ 16 year olds have sex. people breathe oxygen. hockey is played on ice. and for as bad as georgia is, always remember, florida is south of georgia. 8:03 PM posted by Steve Abreu Sunday, October 13, 2002 Georgia On My Mind Law.com recently published an interesting article on the upcoming docket of the Georgia Supreme Court, including a challenge to one of the state's sex laws. That case is about a couple of 16 year olds getting it on. On the girl's bedroom floor. Did I mention that her mother walked in on them? The girl's probation officer (shocking) filed charges resulting in guilty verdicts that sent the girl to boot camp and fined the boy $250 and required him to write an essay (topic suggestion: Why I Shouldn't Have Gotten It On With Your Daughter On Her Bedroom Floor). The A.C.L.U. stepped in to help the boy challenge the constitutionality of O.C.G.A. § 16-6-18, a law containing the word "fornication." Their challenge is based on Powell v. State, a 1998 decision of the court in which a 6-1 majority overturned the state's [anti]sodomy laws on privacy grounds. It should be noted that the lone dissenter wrote, "Presumably, under this new standard, the State can no longer enforce laws against fornication or adultery." Georgia: Building a Bridge to the Seventeenth Century. 4:12 PM posted by Brian Mackey Monday, September 30, 2002 Thank you again for driving me to the airport. If i get a job offer in Chicago, then we're well on our way to living in a warehouse so that we can park our cars right next to our respective beds. 7:07 PM posted by Steve Abreu |
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T O P I C S Ethnic Diversity Dancer in the Dark White Sox fans |
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