He Knew All The Words

Archive for January, 2009

Notes on the Cinema

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Recently Seen Movies That May Have Something To Do With That Upcoming Awards Show

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Slow, visually captivating, great special effects, and Brad Pitt looking hot. What more can we ask for from Hollywood? The most interesting thing about this film is that I loved it more the day after I saw it than I did when I left the theater. It’s long, but it’s totally absorbing. Is it the Best Picture of the year? Certainly not.

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
My celebrity crush on Leo continues unabated. And Kate Winslet continues to prove that she basically cannot make a bad movie. The movie’s a bit frustrating because at various times you want to smack each of the lead characters in the face and tell them to get over themselves. But then at other times you sympathize with them both, too. So that’s a good sign that we’ve got very real, in-depth characters. Two people recently told me that the book is terrific, and though I’m not much of a novel-reader I think I may take a look at it. Number of Oscars this movie will win: zero.

MILK
I love Gus Van Sant so much. And I love Sean Penn. And I love James Franco. And Penn and Franco kissing?!?!? Well, okay, actually this is a serious movie, about an important politico, at a pivotal moment in the still-continuing struggle for gay rights. It’s easy see the parallels between this story and recent events like Proposition hate Eight in California and new anti-gay anti-adoption legislation in Arkansas. The movie, though, does a good job of telling its story in a very focused way, so that it achieves universality through specificity. Penn is terrific, and all smiles. If he loses the Oscar to Mickey Rourke it’ll be a shame (haven’t seen the Wrestler yet, so I’ll do a proper compare/contrast when I do). And as much as I would love to see Van Sant win Best Director and Best Picture, I have the feeling that’s not going to happen. Because of Slumdog.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
This movie is wonderful, but don’t let me raise your expectations too high. The film does nothing new, it does nothing extraordinary, it has no single wow-factor performance, and it doesn’t fit into a category of indie outsiderness like other recent Oscar favorites like Juno or Little Miss Sunshine. What it does do is take a traditional movie theme (a good person born into shit overcoming all obstacles) and makes a perfect movie out of it. It’s neither believable nor incredible. It’s just perfectly executed. You’ll cry, you’ll have your heart warmed, you’ll smile, and you’ll want to cheer at the end. Yeah, but is that enough to earn the votes for Best Picture and Best Director? Hell yes.

Recently Viewed DVDs That I Recommend

The Taming of the Shrew – Elizabeth Taylor, once again playing a cRaZeE wench, and Richard Burton–no less crazy here than his then-wife–looking all manly and controlling. Another Zeffirelli adaptation of Shakespeare that is winning in almost every way–including the film debut of Michael York!

The Lovers: Louis Malle once again throws Jeanne Moreau at us with all the pouty sexiness she can muster. Scandalous and moving and tres French, in a vivid new transfer from the ever-great Criterion Collection. Rent this one immediately.

Love Songs: Louis Garrel is my boyfriend. If you love me, you must love him too. Did I mention this is a musical love story about young French bisexuals? I mean, it will make you hate yourself both for your advanced age and for not being French. It’s wonderful.

Written by David Zaza

January 31st, 2009 at 7:14 pm

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Good One

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Finally the Democrats have some balls. And it takes a woman to prove it! Senator Claire McCaskill has introduced legislation to limit all employees of financial institutions that receive federal bailout money to a compensation package no greater than that of the President of the United States. Brilliant. The limited would be Obama’s salary of $400,000–and that includes salary, bonuses, and stock options. Right on.

Now, I don’t see any reason why this will actually get through and made into law. I mean, the corporate forces are probably strong enough to prevent this from passing. Probably the best we can hope for is a watered-down version that’s limited to corporate officers not being allowed to make more than $20-gazillion or something. But in the meantime, headlines like Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street ‘idiots’ look really, really good.

My suggestion to the readers of this humble blog: Call your senators and ask them to co-sponsor McCaskill’s bill! Here’s the phone number for the Senate switchboard:
(202) 224-3121

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UPDATED at midnight to give you the video:

Written by David Zaza

January 30th, 2009 at 4:42 pm

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Oh, Aretha!

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Oh, Aretha

Written by David Zaza

January 29th, 2009 at 12:24 pm

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Salt Talks

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A recent article in The New York Times is interesting not just for what it shows about our city health commissioner, but what it says about the Times itself.

Dr. Thomas Frieden is the man behind Mayor Bloomberg’s successful health initiatives–all the good stuff from the smoking ban to free condom distribution, electronic health records, and the elimination of transfats from NYC restaurants. He’s widely recognized as a true leader in the overlap area of government and medicine that is known as Public Health. His newest initiative is a reduction in the salt content of mass-produced foods. His aim is for this reduction to be voluntary on the part of the corporations that produce mass-market foods (including large chain restaurants). His pitch to the food industry, from the article:

Over the next five years, identify the foods that are contributing the most sodium to people’s diets and cut the level of salt by 25 percent. In a decade, cut it by another 25 percent. And do it in unison with your competitors.

If they refuse?

“If there’s not progress in a few years, we’ll have to consider other options, like legislation,” he said in an interview last week.

The article talks about how the high-profile moves New York has made under Frieden–like posting calorie-counts at fast food chains–have led other areas of the country to follow suit. Not only could this new initiative be expected to do the same, it’s actually being touted by Frieden himself as a national initiative.

But then the Times seems to go out of its way to swing the article toward undermining the commissioner. They naturally run quotes from a food industry group–the Grocery Manufacturers Association–which introduces legal and political issues that do not get picked up on again in the article, nor is anyone given the opportunity to refute them. Summarizing the spokesman for the GMA, the article suggests that “getting many companies to do something at the same time might have antitrust implications.” One can imagine the Mayor’s office might have a reply to that, but the article’s author, Kim Severson, doesn’t go there so we never find out.

And while the initiative has the support of “a half-dozen other health departments around the country and organizations like the American Medical Association” the last word on any medical issues is given to the contrary position:

Beyond the technical hurdles, Dr. Frieden might encounter resistance on scientific grounds. Some medical researchers question whether a mass reduction in sodium is the best way to spend public-health resources when losing weight and quitting cigarettes would do more for the country’s heart health.

Some medical researches, huh? Which ones do you think those are? The Times doesn’t say. (And what about the weird linguistic jujitsu in that short paragraph? “Resistance on scientific grounds” has “medical researchers” offering a budget analysis of the initiative. The only science I detect in that is political science.)

I’m glad that our local (and national) paper of record is giving us information about the newest undertakings of what is arguably one of our city’s most successful departments, but the kind of weird political undertone to the article makes me think either the paper or the reporter has some agenda against this initiative that isn’t being revealed. That may not be the case, of course. But allowing industry spokespeople to raise issues in opposition to the plan without digging deeper into those issues, along with the age-old media reliance on the ever-mysterious “some” who “say” something or other simply to make it look like a reporter is covering both sides of a question, both give me pause.

Written by David Zaza

January 28th, 2009 at 9:03 pm

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Resolution

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I, David Zaza, being of totally unsound mind, do hereby resolve to update this blog at least once every single day from today, Tuesday, January 27 through Monday, February 23, 2009. Four solid weeks of updates. Now, I make no promise as to the length or quality of these alleged posts, but given the sheer quantity involved I’d say that at least some of them are bound to hold your interest for at least the time it takes your mind to wander back to the news, your sex life, politics, sports, your friends’ new baby, President Obama, the damn TV, your upcoming vacation, or the new Cavafy poem in The New Yorker.

So there. 1 day down. 27 to go.

Written by David Zaza

January 27th, 2009 at 9:35 pm

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Happy New Year

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What’s ahead for 2009?

January
Our long national nightmare ends!
January-Obama.jpg

March
I finally return to Paris–this time with my sister!
Return-to-Paris.jpg

April
Orlando, anyone?
Orlando.jpg

June
Lordy Lordy!
40th.jpg

Also in June
Woohoo!

…click for larger… or see original VIndicator article here.

…after that, well, we’ll see. I might have to do something special in December for my mom’s birthday ;) Happy New Year, Everyone.

Written by David Zaza

January 1st, 2009 at 12:59 am

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