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NHL Playoff Reform: First Past the Goalposts

2011-05-05T06:40:00.000-07:00

These NHL playoffs have been overlong and complicated. Seven games? How many series? All for a silver cup that you can't even keep! In the interest of saving ourselves a lot of time, and the players a lot of energy, let's talk playoff reform.

I for one, would like to advocate a first past the post method for the NHL. It has worked magnificently in a diversity of other sports such as horse racing, the grand prix, the backstroke, and polar exploration.

Right now the NHL playoffs pit each team against a powerful adversary who tests their strengths and weaknesses over several gruelling matches, forcing each team to clearly demonstrate their right to victory. The winning teams advance and do it all over again until one team has demonstrated it's momentary superiority over the other contenders. Holy Inefficient Batman!

It's just a freaking sport! Do we really need to create statistical evidence to support an ethos of agreement around who deserved to win this time? Color me, I don't think so. We Won, Get Over It is a long and healthy tradition except in the few places where it is the basis for civil war and/or junta toppling.

I submit two readily apparent approaches to first past the post Hockey playoffs.

The first approach hardly even impacts the present structure. Begin as usual with all the teams pitted against a powerful adversary. Whichever team, in all the games, scores the most goals, is declared the new Stanley cup champion. The obvious objection is, what if two or more teams score the same high number of goals?

First of all, there should be a recount of the goals, if, after that, there is still a tie, the trophy could either be shared, or barring that, a second series of games could be held to determine who scores the most goals again. Of course the second solution is inordinately complex and there is a risk that most Canadians would not be able to understand what is happening. For this reason, I admire Tim Horton's recent proposal that a box of silver donuts replace the aging Stanley Cup trophy. A box of donuts is both easy and fun to share.

However there is a second approach that I far prefer. It offers greater efficiency, reduces the chance of tied matches and perfectly illustrates the matchless beauty of the first past the post system. Again, it hardly impacts the present structure. All the teams begin as usual, but this time its one night of sudden death, wherein the first team to score a goal in any match is immediately declared playoff champs. Talk about intense!

Also, if the team is so good, this should happen only once every four years. Like the Olympics.

To be sure, this is a complicated proposal and I can already hear the slothful ignorami rolling on their couch springs to groan, “the first past the post mechanisms that you propose cannot possibly address the complexity of hockey. Hockey is fundamentally a team struggle against a variety of opposition and the whole point of the struggle is to prove, through a sequence of selective pairings, to fans and to foes, that this time, they are most worthy of our collective adulation and respect, however begrudgingly we allow it to be wrung from us.” Sigh.

Obviously hockey and its silver crown holds a treasured place in the nation's psyche, and it is important to fans that the crown be awarded only after a series of controlled tests have tried the contenders against each other in a variety of measured, one on one pairings, and so assured that only the candidate which is demonstrably most deserving of trans-regional collective respect does take the crown.

And frankly, upon consideration, the sentiment gives me pause and I am forced to wonder, if the average Canadian is capable of following the complexity of NHL hockey stats on an annual basis, perhaps they could be trusted with something more complex than marking a single X on one Olympian night of sudden death. Of course, I am making reference to Tim Horton's recent proposal that we adopt a such a first past the post method for democratically electing a national team to provisionally train and compete in polar exploration, should mass hysteria create the psychological need for such a team, and for such an exploration. It's happened before, folks. Next time, we can be ready.

Until then, share and have fun,

Andre Harden

Winter's Bone

2011-04-08T18:01:00.000-07:00

Ree Dolly's father has left her alone

Stuck on a farm she soon will not own.

It was put up as bond for his most recent bail

So Ree has to find him, she dare not fail.

If she loses the farm she loses her brother,

She loses her sister, and her role of mother;

For Ree runs the house and fills it with life.

Her real mom is sick, her mind lost to strife.

But life in the Ozarks is not very sweet,

It's peopled with folks unpleasant to meet.

They're rude up front and violent soon after,

And Ree's short search quickly ends in disaster.

But things aren't quite as bleak as they seem

For Winter's Bone has an interesting theme:

Success can't be forced by a strong individual,

It grows from the weakness that's to us residual.

As foes shift their stance and offer Ree aid

She finds new hope that her farm can be saved.

But why does she search when she could be free?

That was the question that kept coming to me.

Ree fights for a prize that few would admire:

An anchor of blood in a gene pool of ire.

But Ree cannot fathom the graces they lack,

She's too gratefully bound to the weight on her back.

It Might Get Loud

2011-04-07T13:45:00.000-07:00

It was said long ago that three is a crowd.

This theory is tested in IT MIGHT GET LOUD,

When The Edge, Jack White and old Jimmy Page,

Three great guitarists of the electric age,

Speak from their hearts of their love for the axe,

And how it was shaped by their favourite tracks.

Individual segments shed light on the mystery

Of each of the artists's unique sound and history.

Intercut this with them jamming together,

Summoning storms of musical weather.

Fingers flash down for a strong string lashin',

Thunderous howl of a grown man's passion,

That further refines and expresses their joy,

Of the electric guitar - part tool, part toy.

Save the Cat

2011-02-13T08:05:00.000-08:00

Blake Snyder's how-to-write-a-screenplay-that-people-will-want-to-buy book has been one of the most popular how-to screenwriting books since it was published back in 2005. It's taken me a while to get to it, but due to the saturation of Blake's ideas in the marketplace, I had become famililar, in a sketchy way, with quite a bit of his content and approach. What made Blake uniquely suited to write this book (he passed suddenly in 2009) was that he was a bonafide spec screenwriter, specialised in the PG family comedy film, who, over the course of his career, developed and sold over a dozen scripts to top Hollywood studios. Consider that the cake. The icing is that he wrote the book with an accessible, conversational style that keeps things simple while addressing the tasks you need to accomplish if you want to create and write a dramatic and well structured story.

Most how-to screenwriting books are written by non-screenwriters. A frequent complaint leveled at such gurus is "How can you teach me how to write a screenplay when you can't actually do it yourself?" But Blake tips his hat to some - he has learned a lot from theorists, like Syd Field who wrote the seminal book, Screenplay. But as a working writer Blake goes beyond theory and is able to offer a wealth of practical truths and tools that he's developed and discovered to help him consistently craft stories that can hook studios and generate sales. This is really helpful because in theory, crafting a great story is pretty simple, in practice it's pretty difficult to get things to work out.

Blake focuses on structure and maps his process, from starting at the logline, moving through genre to laying down a beat sheet and mapping the scenes on The Board. He closes with some helpful thoughts on revision and trouble shooting. He does kind of skip over the writing part, but that's where talent comes in and you have to bring that yourself. That first set of pages is your problem, but Blake is essentially handing you a tool kit and a pretty good map of the minefield. If you're a decent writer with an idea, it's enough to help you get that first draft done. And even you can't write well, you might craft a decent story that someone else can move forward.

Blake's fresh approach to genre and the beat sheet has spawned a whole new development vocabulary that includes genres like: Monster in the House, Golden Fleece and Dude with a Problem. In all he's named ten new genres that shake up one's approach to story telling...and the genres "feel right".

Save the Cat moves to the top of my recommend list for aspiring screenwriters. It shouldn't be the only book one reads, but it does tell you what the job is. And Snyder is fun to read, even if you have a different taste in films than he does. He has such winsome confidence that it's fun to see him trash films such as Memento and Unbreakable, which quite I enjoyed. The book is also worthy reading for anyone who wants to better understand the film industry, particularly why some films (scripts) get made and others don't.

Fast Food Nation (book)

2011-02-10T17:57:00.000-08:00

Eric Schlosser's investigation into "the dark side of the all-American meal" uncovers a lagoon full of unsavory facts. Published in 2001, it reflects the world at that time. It is an unsettling expose, not just of the fast food industry, but of corporate greed and power in general. The fast food industry, being by far the largest employer in the economy, has been profoundly influential on a variety of industries. Schlosser makes a case that such influence has been catastophic to the general interest, contributing to an increasingly unskilled workforce that is both underpaid and overworked, chronic employee dissatisfaction and turnover, the normalization of aggressive child targetted advertising, widespread interference in the formation of government policies and subsidies meant to support small business and workplace health and safety, and a school system infested with corporate interests that range from corporate sponsored textbooks which flat out misrepresent reality in favour of corporate agendas, to advertising in the classroom, and forcing students to market corporate products. Oh. And there is shit in the meat.

Each of these areas should be of profound concern, especially given the rapidity at which these consolidating corporations have been taking control of how we eat, work and think.

Directing advertising to children used to be illegal, and in many countries, still is. This is because children are not able to to distinguish between reality and advertising and cannot critically consider a commercial's hidden agenda. The fast food industry has led the way in advertising to children attempting to create a feeling of friendship because they know that if a consumer can learn, as a child, to associate their logo with positive, accepting feelings, they will be especially receptive to the ongoing grooming which will make them life-long customers. There is a direct correlation with the boom of fast food consumption and the rise in child obesity rates. Though Schlosser's book doesn't look at this, I would not be surprised that children's average television viewing hours correlate with the rise of both.

Despite the fast food industries attempts to consistently reduce their need for skilled labour, they receive hundreds of millions of dollars from the government in the form of subsidies to train workers in a skill, and in the form of loans that are intended for small businesses. Workers generally do not learn skills, nor are these businesses small. Health and safety organizations have made numerous attempts to better regulate the industry and these have largely resulted in failure and a decrease in regulation. While watchdog groups are able to force recalls of dangerous toys and other products, it is actually against the law for them to force a recall of lethally tainted meat. This has cost lots of lives.

The high likelihood of tainted meat is why our mothers always told us to make sure we cooked the meat really well. I just thought we were trying to kill the bacteria that were naturally present in the meat, but the bacteria that needs killed is actually not native to the meat. It grows in fecal matter. Shit. Thanks to the application of mass production mechanization to the slaughterhouse process our meat is habitually splattered with shit. The lines run too fast for the workers to always cut the digestive systems free of the carcass without rupturing it. In up to 20% of the carcasses, the organs are cut and waste spills over the meat and line. No big deal. Just make sure it's cooked. Cooked waste can't kill you. And with the magic of chemical flavorants, it can be made to taste and smell delicious. In fact some feedlots make waste a signifigant part of the meal for their cattle. In addition to rendering dead pigs and horses into feed, they also do chicken manure.

According to Schlosser, fast food locations are one of the most dangerous locations a person can work. More fast food workers are shot and killed on the job than are policemen. This is because they are targets for armed robbery. In most cases the robbers are former employees, angry with being underpaid. Meatpacking plants are rife with accidents, most of which are unreported. Some companies have even kept two copies of their accident reports, a real one, and a much, much shorter one to show investigators. When found out these companies got their hands slapped, rallied their political allies (why is it always Repbulicans?) and were given the power to regulate themselves.

It is a disconcerting read. Apparently in the ten years following publication there has been some changes. The outbreak of "mad cow" disease (which occured as a direct result of feeding dead animals to cattle) hurt the beef industry and forced changes in federal government policy on cattle farming. According to wikipedia later editions of the book discuss these developments with the view that further change can be made to happen if enough political will is applied.

I'm not so sure. So much of my recent reading of history and present observation of policy and politics has left me convinced that the government is primarily interested in protecting the wealth and property of the rich. The wealthy families and merchants of generations past have evolved into corporations that are daily reaching new heights of power and influence. It puts me in mind of this video of David Simon, creator of The Wire, discussing the end of the American empire. Perhaps the end of the illusion of American ideals is a better description of the reality, because I'm forced to agree with Simon when he observes that the government, when asked to choose between the common good and corporate gain, seems to always choose corporate gain -- and if they don't -- it seems due to an awareness that the gain must be temporarily postponed until the people are desperate and distracted enough to bear it.

Jellaby

2011-02-10T15:29:00.000-08:00

When Portia, a lonely young girl, discovers a lost dragonlike (in the scaly, winged, purple, cute and adorable sense of the word) creature, she makes quick friends, but soon realises a true friend would help Jellaby find his way back home. When Jason, an energetic young boy, also discovers Jellaby, they use Halloween as a cover to all sneak off to Toronto with the hope of finding a mysterious door that they think might lead to Jellaby's home.

It does not go smoothly.

Kean Soo's style and story may seem to target young children, and while they'll certainly find Jellaby appealing, Soo's story is really universal in its appeal and execution. The purple palatte lends a sombre tone to the overall story and his toonish art distills character and emotion, rather than reducing them. Indeed the stakes and situations in the second volume are quite high and could prove scary to some young readers, even as they prompt deeper thoughtfulness from older ones.

There is a medition here on selflessness, and of learning to put the needs of those we care about ahead of ourselves, as best we can, despite our own hurts and shortcomings. Portia and her mother and Jason are flawed enough that we can identify with their pains and struggles and happiness. Our whole family, adults, kids and teens, loved really enjoyed the two volume story. As Jeff Smith, creator of Bone says, "Jellaby will steal your heart."

Kean Soo has a website: http://www.secretfriendsociety.com/ where you can check out some Jellaby shorts, and read a preview for the graphic novel. Also hosted there is Hope Larson's Salamander Dreams, which I haven't yet read.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

2011-01-31T12:34:00.000-08:00

The third book in Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy, concludes the events begun in The Girl Who Played with Fire. The strengths of the previous books are again present - strong characterization, high stakes that are deeply personal, and an intricate web of deception and secrets brought sequentially into the light. Blomqvist and Salander remain intriguing protaganists, even when operating at a distance from each other.

More than just a mystery thriller, the heartbeat pounding at the core of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, is friendship. Through it's diversity of characters, the narrative offers a look at the different shapes friendship takes when people feel compelled to offer it. At this point in the story characters are largely formed and must decide how to respond to Salander's critical needs. While it's a hurdle for people to offer their friendship to Salander, it's as a much of a hurdle for her to receive it. This important component of the story is especially interesting where the study serves to break down common cultural stereotypes.

If you've read the first two books, you're certainly going to read this one. I expect you'll be quite satisfied.

It's Kind of a Funny Story

2011-01-20T15:10:00.000-08:00

Drowning in a mix of teenage angst and depression brought on by cultural ideals of success, academic and parental pressure, and an infatuation with his best friend's girl, sixteen year old Craig fears he may finally act on his chronic suicide fantasy so decides to check himself into a hospital. Once committed he's placed in the adult ward (the youth ward is closed for renovations), and though he quickly realizes his problems are minimal and tries to check out, a minimum five day observation period means he's stuck. Which turns out to be just what he needs, because though his problems may appear small in comparison to others, they are nonetheless real problems and Craig's inability to with them are, in fact, causing a tormenting level of frustration and sadness that really does endanger his life.

The film is however, very much a comedy. Craig's easy-going nature, kindness and relatively good mental health allow him to be a ray of light in the ward, which is peopled with patients suffering from a range of mental illnesses. Most are played for comic effect because the film wisely limits its thematic consideration to depression and self-esteem that leads to suicide. Over the course of the story, through a reciprocal mentoring friendship with Bobby, a middle aged father, who fights his deep depression with spontaneous break outs; a friendship and budding romance with another depressed teen patient, Noelle; in the discovery of his own artistic talents; and with some helpful Q&A therapy sessions, Craig comes to an understanding of why his life is causing him unhappiness and begins to grasp the intellectual and practical tools that can help him make decisions that lead to satisfying action.

It is quirky and arty - but nicely done and with a stand out performance by Keir Gilchrist, whose portrayal of Craig is so rich and convincing that he seems like a real person. He carries a bundle of teen emotions -- easy joy, lingering sadness, a longing to please, abundant confusion -- and he's great at the understated, dry comedy that peppers the script. The supporting cast is also strong. The script is very well written script and delivered in a style that emphasizes Craig 's imagination and reinforces the idea that we're ultimately watching a fantasy, albeit a fairly realistic one more in the tradition of Lars and the Real Girl.

Some reviewers seem to have missed this point as they sought to find continuity between this film and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest or Girl, Interrupted. They seemed to discount the stakes of Craig's problem because they thought his illness mild. They failed to understand that from Craig's point of view, there was nothing trivial about his illness. It was only by gaining a broader understanding of other people's lives, that he was able to change his ideals of success and failure and begin to construct a life that would satisfy him. You don't need blood on the walls to do that. You don't need meanness to do it.

As with Lars and The Real Girl, a spirit of kindness and concern infuses this film. It's a fantasy, because the people in the story are kinder than we might hope to find in real life, but their kindness is what allows the story to progress and resolve in the time allowed by the movie. Being a fantasy of this sort does not make it unrealistic as much as it makes it counter-cultural. It is within our power to see and treat people kindly.

Ultimately, I found It's Kind of a Funny Story, to be a delightful, charming film that succeeds as a genuinely funny date movie while also offering up a hopeful challenge for us: To consider our lives: our positive and negative feelings, and the incidents that trigger them - and talk about them. Kudos to writers/directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. The film is based on Ned Vizzini's novel of the same name.

Jar City

2011-01-19T10:11:00.000-08:00

It's not just revenge.

Murder of any sort is best eaten cold. And it's hard to imagine a colder, bleaker, darker setting than Reykjavík, Iceland, in the winter.

Detective Erlandur, the hero of Arnaldur Indridason's series, seems a reflection of his environment: quiet, cold, rugged...unforgiving, but with a volcanic fire and warmth that simmers underneath and sometimes breaks through. He has long been alone, but is only recently lonely. Long divorced, the young children he abandoned have found him. Now grown up, they struggle with addictions brought on by their own loniliness and abandonment and Erlandur longs to do right by them, but is unsure how. He is an ill equipped workaholic, who struggles with his own depression and is morosely obsessed with the stories of those accidentally killed by exposure.

Erlandur's work is assisted by his partner, Sigurdur Oli, a family man who is proud of having studied police work in America. They work together well, though Sigurdur Oli's wife is concerned about Erlandur's lack of relationships. Elinborg is a young, idealistic female detective, who sometimes becomes emotionally connected to the investigation. Miriam Brieme is Erlandur's former mentor, now retired, but lonely and rich with knowledge of old cases. She can pester Erlandur, still trying to teach him, and he resists her, perhaps because he knows he is doomed to follow in her footsteps if his emotional life remains closed.

Indridason's murders are clever and his investigations grow like a trees from a seed. They branch out in many directions, sometimes branching again and again before they seemingly lead to dead ends...or converge in a tightly woven revelation. No false trail is uninteresting because the characters are rich and nuanced, likely to lie and mislead investigators for personal reasons, which simply trigges closer investigation and exposure. Probing into the people's secrets weighs on the team and feeds Erlandur's own need to find positive human connection, and to reflect on and make sense of his own life and depression.

In Jar City, as the investigation leads the team to dredge up witnesses and victims of crimes that may have happened thirty years in the past, they are forced to ruminate on the long arm of crime, how it effects people far outside of the immediate victim, even years after the original crime was commited. It is also concerned with privacy, and the way information can inadvertently be obtained through modern technology, particularly genetic databases. It makes us ponder how connected we are to each other, even apparent strangers, for our lives do have tremendous impact on those around us.

While Jar City (also published under the title Tainted Blood) is the starting point of the series (at least in English translation) the books can be read and enjoyed in any order. I read Hypothermia first, really enjoyed it, and didn't even realize it was in a series until after the fact.

The series has won mutiple crime writing awards.

The Ghost Writer

2011-01-17T14:55:00.000-08:00

It begins with a car, abandoned on a small ferry, and a body laid out on the beach. It belongs to the ghostwriter of the former British prime minister's memoirs, product of a book deal valued at seven figures. An accident? The saturation of alcohol in his blood suggests so. In any case, the death creates an opportunity for a new ghost writer to step in and quickly complete the project.

While not without reservations, the unnamed Ghost (Ewan MacGregor) is flown to America and hastily ensconced in an island retreat meant to be reminiscent of Martha's Vineyard. He catches up on the horribly written memoir and meets former prime minster, Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), just as the international news breaks: Adam is accused of illegally handing suspected terrorists over to the CIA and torture.

While the above merely sets the scene, the magic of this film is that, by this point, the story is saturated by a thick sense of forboding peril. It's partly generated by the chilly, gray, overcast setting, partly by the suggestion of murder, partly by the volatile reaction to secrets being exposed. And yet these elements are handled in such a way that they seem incidental, and nothing to deter the amiable ghost writer from his work. He makes friends and starts in, while as a viewer, I presume the old ghost murdered and am desperately trying to glean what clues I can from every scene, looking for a sign of the villain and finding none. Soon I hold everyone suspect. Suspect of what? I'm not sure, but I desperately hope I'll find out before it's too late.

It was a pleasure to be drawn into this film, to feel the peril, to take the psychological ride. I wouldn't be surprised if this comes to be appreciated as one of Polanski's masterpieces. It is one of those rare films that strikes and perfectly maintains, beneath any subtle permutations, a beautiful, sombre tone.

Roman Polanski co-wrote the script with Robert Harris, whose novel, The Ghost, is the basis for the film.

Child 44

2011-01-12T11:52:00.000-08:00

The notion that everyone is guilty of something pervades many of the world's cultures. It is the shadow side of having ideals. Wherever one fails to live up to an ideal, even if it is not realistic or taken seriously, one is thought of, at least intellectually, as having failed to be their best. Some cultures are interested in only the most serious physical crimes; they care little about philosophy, so long as citizens get along peaceably. Others focus their attention on philosophical ideals, believing that proper thinking, and by this I mean idealised thinking, will be the salvation of every other area of life. Which leads us to the premise Tom Rob Smith's debut novel, Child 44:

There cannot be a serial killer loose in Stalin's Russia because ideal Russian society cannot produce such a monster--and to admit such a thing, even in the quiet of one's heart, is treason. And yet, there is a serial killer loose in Stalin's Russia.

At first, Agent Leo Demidov, a former war hero, now a privileged agent with the MGB, is incapable of imagining such a thing. In his world, crimes are solved by selecting the guilty suspect, apprehending them, and torturing them into a confession. The system is one hundred percent successful until Leo faces the realization that it isn't. His slow awakening leads him to reevaluate all he has believed, and as he grows and is able to take in new ideas, he comes to see that he has misread much of his former life, including his most meaningful relationships.

It is only after his identity, and the security it brought him, has collapsed that Leo able to recognise that a horrifying series of crimes has been, and is still being, commited. And yet, even as he realizes this and begins his attempts to solve it, he must face the reality that his country has no mechanism in place to help him catch such a criminal, and its very ideals protect against the creation of such a system or investigation.

As Leo loses his faith and attempts to create an identify he can be proud of, his actions draw the scrutiny of those who'd like to take his job (and his wife), and he must race to solve the mystery and find the killer before he is discovered, imprisoned, or perhaps even killed.

The story is based on a series of real killings, which happened in a later day Russia. Setting the story in Stalin's era, and changing the motivation of the killer, creates a fascinating arena in which to showcase a man's inner awakening. Leo's journey, from dedicated son of the state to desperate fugitive with a mission, doesn't miss a step. Excellent characterization conjures up a world that is piece by piece dissembled, until it hangs, dark, oppressive and threatening to collapse, while a small light shines brighter and brighter against that darkness.

The Wire (HBO)

2011-01-10T14:20:00.001-08:00

Finally got around to watching The Wire, an HBO series which ran for five years and garnered much critical acclaim. There's little praise that I can add. The show has already been called extraordinary and revolutionary and very unlike "other" shows. In a nutshell, where other shows settle on a genre and follow a set group of people around, The Wire oscillates between genres and groups of characters in order transcend its form and show, in some small, but somehow gesturingly comprehensive way, what a City (particularly Baltimore) is like. It shows how people from greatly varied walks of life live, and how those lives connect and effect each other.

The list of characters is vast and fascinating. They are blessed with superlative writing, directing and performances. There are iconic characters like Omar Little, Bubbles, McNulty and many, many more. The richness, diversity and sheer number of compelling players is a testament to the show's unwavering decision to bend the medium's narrative to the intent of the show, which is to reveal the connections that underpin a large, corrupt and crumbling city, rather than to craft a simple crime story.

For myself, it was less like watching TV, and more like sitting back in wonderment, watching as these peoples' lives unfolded. There was not often the usual sense of good and bad, but more so an awareness that no matter where people come from, they are a product of their surroundings and are mostly trying to do the best they can with what they've been taught. And as new experiences are had, new possibilities are created. It is at times hilarious or inspirational or heartbreaking. The care and love for 'real' people is palpable and its depictions are honest and together, this ultimately gives the alternative fictional craftsmanship its power.

Not everyone is ready for The Wire's artistry and/or depicition of life, but there is much entertainment and food for thought to be gained here.

Lost City of Z

2011-01-05T13:34:00.000-08:00

The impenetrable jungle.

The words conjure a number of images. Vines that clutch. Small serene lakes and rivers that rage and cascade over cliffs. Bright birds and poison frogs. Insects that creep and crawl. Machetes raised and brought down, hack-hacking a trail into green shadow. Natives naked or dressed in skins and feathers, arrows as long as their bodies. And beneath the leafy green, forgotten in the embrace of vines...lost cities, the cultural bones of peoples who are no more.

It is a deadly place.

This much has the author, David Grann, an armchair adventurer, turned journalist, turned Amazonian explorer/documentarian, discovered in his book's opening chapter. He starts his narrative at the end, when his research is done and he has made his own journey into the Amazon. Deep in the jungle, he reveals he has lost his way, his guide, his map and ultimately his obsession. It's clear he will make it out to write and publish his book, but as his full tale reveals, many who lose their way in the jungle are never seen again.

The focus of Grann's book is Col. Percy Fawcett who explored the Amazon region for many years before entering it one last time in hopes of reaching his late life obsession: a lost city known only as "Z". Z is the modern equivalent of the El Dorado legends of the late middle ages and is possibly the same location. Fawcett believed that discovering the city would prove that the Amazon basin, despite it's seemingly inhabitable nature, had once supported a civilization that would have rivaled its European counterparts. So certain was he, that when he entered the jungle for the last time, in 20 April, 1925, he took his own son, and his son's best friend as his travelling companions. On May 29, they sent their last communication and were never heard from again.

Grann's book introduces Fawcett and charts his development as one of the great explorers of his era. He was both drawn to the romance of a harsh and mysterious world in which he seemed genetically predisposed to thrive (he never took sick and seemed impervious to many insects), and squeezed out of urban life by the inherent classism of his Victorian society. Part of what makes Grann's narrative so compelling is the social aspects of the various generations who have become generally obsessed with the possibility of lost Amazonian cities and particularly obsessed with discovering what happened to Fawcett's party.

Grann's research touches upon the various expeditions that have sought to find Fawcett - preparation for his own expedition - and it is ominous that none of the expeditions have met with success, and that some, even very recent attempts, have been disastrous.

In the end Grann is indeed rescued from the predicament that set the book's tone and goes on to discover new information concerning Fawcett's end, and the existence of Z. It's a satisfying conclusion to a visceral, multifaceted narrative.

Barnes and Noble named Lost City of Z the best non-fiction title of 2009. Brad Pitt's production company has optioned it for development into a feature film.

The Undiscovered Country

2011-01-05T11:32:00.000-08:00

From Scott Smith's The Ruins...

"It will be whatever it is, no? Nothing, something--our believing one thing or another will matter not at all in the end."

This line and the truth in it jumped out at me as I was reading.

Beliefs are by definition ideas which we are unsure about. Despite our obvious uncertainty we are cultured to hold our beliefs, whether these are harmless fancy, racial prejudice or religious dogma, very tightly, as if our world and life will fall apart if we stray from what we believe. And knowledge and emotion can be the opponent of our beliefs. Contrary truths that we discover, forbidden love that we find--or do these both find us?--can erode our beliefs like wind and rain break down mountains. And this is good news for anyone whose ever had a bad idea.

Beliefs are ultimately not a part of reality, are they? They're pseudo-observations, and though we technically know not to give them power of actual observations, we sometimes want to give them a greater power, that of a blind faith that trumps all we know and feel. But our beliefs, however strong we hold them, don't shape the afterlife, if there is such a thing. It will be what it is regardless of our quick strut upon the stage.

But our beliefs are profoundly important because they guide our actions - which shape our present, which is our shared life together on this planet. As I think about what sort of beliefs foster a culture of care and co-operation, two come to mind as integral.

1. My life is good.

My life is worth living. Living is the point of it. Life connects me to the world - to God, the Creator, to the creative intention behind What Is. As a member of creation the divine spark is in me. As one surrounded by creation, the divine spark is all around me.

2. People are good.

They are like me. See above. They are what my life connects me to. They are each as important as me. Each enriches my life, the life of the world, in a way that I cannot perceive or fathom. But for an accident of birth I could be my neighbor.

US Tax Cuts: Sad Day

2010-12-17T07:59:00.001-08:00

It's a sad day when the wealthy hold the ax over the heads of the poor and unemployed in order to hold onto tax cuts which threaten the economic and social health of the entire country. I increasing wonder if America has a united future. There are such extreme differences in morality and value in that country and it largely seems split near the middle. By extreme differences I don't mean that the country is split into right and left as so many American shouters believe. The so called American left is basically moderate middle while the right is extremely self-serving to the point of being irrational and revisionist.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12015672

The Girl Who Played with Fire

2010-12-08T20:21:00.000-08:00

The second book in Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy continues the story of journalist/editor Michael Blomkvist and hacker/investigator Lisbeth Salander. As the title suggests, this is a tale of consequences, and how they play out in a very terrible way for Lisbeth.

It's remarkable how much Larsson can make us care about his fictional characters, especially Lisbeth, who, as a waif on the periphery of society, seems to embody so many contrary traits, and yet carries them in such a way that she seems absolutely authentic.

The plot rolls along in several threads, the mystery being how the various threads will tie together. The suspense is masterful, not only because the plotting is deft, but because the scenes plotted are scenes which pull us deep into the psychology of the very human characters. My interest in the solution of the mystery was not merely intellectual, but deeply emotional. Hence my stress when I discovered the book doesn't end, so much as it gets interrupted by the back cover. Sure the answers to the mystery have been discovered but...what happens to these people?

I expect if I had The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest in my possession when I finished this book I would have been in for a long night.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

2010-11-16T10:09:00.000-08:00

Reading the book and immediately watching the movie has been an interesting excercise. A film adaptation forces a variety of changes onto a story. It must translate literary action into visual action and, even more of a challenge, it must cut the original story and rearrange it so an approximation of it can be told in only a fraction of the time taken to read a novel. It's always interesting to see what choices the film makers made. Sometimes they are able to replicate the original story and characterization. Sometimes they sacrifice character for the flow of plot. Sometimes they add new material to re-characterize people according to who they want or need them to be in the film. And, of course, the tattoo, which in the book only spans the length of the girl's shoulderblade, must be resized to cover her entire back.

While both the book and the film versions of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo are good, the film does suffer from a lack of characterization; the scope and subtely of which was a great strength of the novel. The time constraints force a plot which rolls along a little too conveniently with little time available for nuancing character. On the other hand, the book, especially at the beginning, is sometimes slowed with exposition which didn't seem to be all that necessary--It's the sort of book one might be tempted to set back down after fifteen or twenty pages. But it certainly takes off. The film moves along like a rocket. Both deliver an interesting mystery that is ultimately solved by Blomkvist, an out of favour business journalist, and Salander, a socially alienated computer hacker. In the book and the film, they are a great pair and I'm eager to read and watch the next installments in the series.

I will be reading first, however, because the Salander of the book is vastly more interesting that the Salander of the film, who was signifigantly simplified. For instance the film character has never visited her insitutionalized mother--an element which reinforces her alienation--and when she finally does her mother has a plain, answer giving conversation with her, whereas the book character consistently visits her mother, despite her mother's inability to recognize her or provide any coherent commentary on Salander's past. And that makes her much more interesting.

Lake of Fire

2010-11-12T13:59:00.000-08:00

Is a Tony Kaye documentary which chronicles the abortion issue in the United States. It was shot over a period of 15 years and released in 2007. If it makes an argument, it is that the issue is deeply complex, which is ultimately an argument for choice. However, the documentary does not present abortion as an easy choice, or as one without grave emotional and physical cost. It includes graphic recordings of abortions in progress and many images that visually argue and demonstrate that developing fetuses are human. It's portrayal of the pro-life movement largely consists of religious fundamentalists who seem to be a very unhappy and hate-filled group, but is balanced by some very sane pro-life commentary.

It left me thinking.

Abortion policy is all about a conflict of values. Everyone is basically pro-life. Everyone has certain values that may come into conflict with their belief that others lives should be preserved. Some people cross this line very easily.

I think of war. Soldiers kill people, and one should ask why it is alright for them to do so. If we consider Iraq, we would conclude that it becomes okay to kill other people, if we come to be afraid that they or their leaders might mean us or our friends harm. The fact is war is not about killing only people who are a direct threat, but about killing whoever happens to be between a soldier and their target. The news is full of reports of civilians and children who are routinely killed, and it is also well documented that the killing of civilians is often misreported as enemy kills. As a pacifist, this is not acceptable for me. A consideration of war forces us to admit that our society considers it acceptable to kill other people for having values and interests which conflict with our own; or economically interfere with our plans. This is the story of Vietnam, and many other conflicts which the United States has engaged in South America and around the world.

Surely anyone who thinks war is acceptable must also think abortion, as a microcosm of economic inconvenience, is also acceptable. I am not pro-war. I am a pacifist, so I would not be able to serve in the military. I suppose if I got organised I could hold pro-life rallies which were against war. It would make sense. I'm not able to see a legitimate difference between the two.

I think of capital crimes. Some people think it okay to take a life of someone who has commited certain crimes. Unfortunately there is great debate over which crimes should be capital. Some people would say murder and rape. Other people would include theft and treason. Others demand death for adultery or pre-marital sex. Or homosexuality. Or blasphemy. Or swearing. Or dissent. The list goes on and you can look at some countries and see where it leads...stonings on the street. Or lynchings. Or dropping a drunk outside city limits in sub-zero temperatures. And I have to wonder why some people feel so justified in killing people who (so seemingly mildly) offend their sensibilities.

My wonderment only lasts until I remember by own evangelical tradition, which in too many instances, holds values derived from a bloody, death oriented religion. When one believes that other people are essentially evil and deserving of death (and eternal torture) it certainly effects one's assessment of other people's value, as well as one's notion of what values God Almighty may have. The answer to the question, "What Would Jesus do?" changes radically depending on whether one imagines the humble Jesus of the gospels (for the vast majority of his life the answer to WWJD was carpentry) or the apocalyptic avenger who will supposedly return to judge all sinners, damning all who have not submitted to his reign.

Despite some claims that the Bible presents a coherent and consistent view of God, to me it seems to chronicle radically different views which cannot possibly be reconciled. But that's what thoughtful reflection and prayer is for. My own experience of God, in prayer, reflection, and study, is that he is a loving God who yearns for us to find our real selves in union with him. The theology doesn't matter. God is present, and when we loosen our ties to our own selfish wants, we lose some of our false selves, and find some our real selves, which is The Self which ultimately resides in God. This is deeply relevant, because it follows that God is present in other people, and I can't do violence to them without doing violence to myself and, let's continue to call it: God.

So back to abortion. I am truly pro life. And because of that I must be pro choice. Life is full of harrowing choices and experiences precisely because God/The Universe does not attempt to control our actions. We are free. Choice is not a right - it is the nature of existence. Life is making choices; and the meaningful life is learning from and growing because of the choices we and others are forced to make.

As we learn and grow may we find ourselves more and more able to love and help each other.

The Caretaker of Lorne Field

2010-11-09T14:02:00.000-08:00

If ever there was a story where the weight of the world rested on the shoulders of one man, this is it.

For three hundred years the heir of the Durkin family has sacrificed all dreams and opportunity to pull weeds from Lorne Field. From sun up to sun down, from first thaw to first frost, he must pull the "weeds" before they grow too high and too strong; before they grow mature enough to fight off the Caretaker, before they grow able to tear themselves from the soil and destroy the world. As a result of the family's dilgence, the field remains tended and the weeds have not matured. As a result of this good work and sacrifice, the town that supports the Caretaker and his work has grown out of their belief in the old stories.

But Jack Durkin, ninth heir and current Caretaker, believes--in the face of scorn from his wife and eldest son, and the growing scorn of the community who has always supported his ancestors--he believes and labours through all manner of mockery and indignity. But every man has a limit and Dave Zeltserman's sharply characterized, pulp-like novel tests for Jack's while positioning the to reader wonder whether Jack and his forebears are mad, or the day by day saviours of the human race.

Wet, Waterton and Work

2010-06-18T06:19:00.000-07:00

Sending lots of good energy out to Michelle today - she's in Lethbridge, starting an intensive yoga teacher's training. We dropped her off in the early afternoon and drove back to Caronport. The entire prairie region was getting heavy rains yesterday. When we left Waterton and through to about Fort Mcleod, we saw flooded rivers and yards and the sides of bridges being pushed by the overflowing waterways.

Lots of water in the fields. Moose Jaw has had over nine inches of rain since April.

Will be back writing today, then am meeting another writer this morning, then will have to get the kids year end reports together and out by late afternoon. When Analena sorts through her pictures of our Waterton trip, I'll post some more here.

Michelle, Thayne and Analena did wind up seeing a bear.

Waterton: The Crypt

2010-06-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Waterton National Park Monday and have been having a great time. Today it is raining hard, however, so we'll see what we can find to do. Yesterday was sunny, warm and dry and we did the Crypt Lake hike; a 16 km there and back with 2200 elevation. It's across the lake and you get to and from the trailhead by boat. As we bought our tickets the host asked, "You know there's snow on the trail?" We didn't. Neither were we daunted.

The hike climbs through a large sloping valley and offers views of four waterfalls, some quite spectacular. It was neat to approach a fall, seeing it high above, then, a half hour later, look down on it before passing it by. This picture shows Michelle (bottom right corner) a little more than half way up, looking back on the valley we've been climbing through.

The hike travels through forest for about 2/3 of the way, then enters a subalpine of sparse trees before, at the end, proceeding to the alpine level: bare rock - and on this trip - snow.

Actually we hit snow about 2/3 of the way in. At first it was just a little span and we were glad to use it to cool down. About ten minutes later we were slogging above and through it. Mostly it was hard packed, but it was steeply angled (if you fell you would slide down - I rolled a little snowball down the slope and it didn't stop rolling) only a narrow footpath stepped into it and weather was so warm enough to make it very slippy.

When we traversed the last valley it was all snow and we could usually stay on top, but I broke through a few times and sank to my hips. Where the few trees ended the snow was broken in a few spots and a river roared beneath it. As Michelle stood on the bank, it broke away beneath her, soaking her feet.

As I pointed out to Matthias, who had been GREAT, all this way, that we would now be going up what looked like the sheer face of the rock above us, he decided he was finished. But we were very close so we continued across the snow pack, soft, falling through quite a bit, and reached a skree of broken stone, and climbed down, rocks shifting, to a narrow trail. Unfortunately nature stopped us here. The trail, just a narrow footpath on a very steep ledge, was buried by two spans of snow laying at, no exaggeration, at an 80 or higher degree angle. We were about a 100 yards from the ladder and tunnel through the rock that would take us through into Crypt Lake, but given all the slippage we'd encountered on much gentler slopes, we couldn't risk these spans, both of which slid straight to cliffs. This image, taken before we had entered the last, snow filled stage, shows our destination on the far peak. The red circled area is where we stopped. You can see where the two slopes of snow cover the trail. What you can't see is how steep they were.

So we ate lunch enjoying the incredible view:

Then made our way back down, this time, looping out to see Hellfire falls. The descent on this loop was extreme - Hellfire is what you feel in your legs if you decide to take this route. Anyway, it was great.

Video Fun

2010-03-10T14:09:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to post this for a few days.

The band is OK Go and they've made a number of music videos that are very fun to watch. You can find some of their others here:

http://www.okgo.net/media/videos/

On Judging Tiger Woods

2010-02-19T10:22:00.000-08:00

Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that Tiger Wood's televised apology was followed up by a string of commentators crassly judging the validity and intent of his apology. But I was surprised, and it wasn't just because the critics' baseless speculation was so obviously baseless speculation; but that such critical judgment could plainly have no meaning or purpose beyond the critics attempt to publicly put themselves forward as morally superior to Mr. Woods. I wonder how many of these critics will look in the mirror tonight and realize that they have condemned themselves.

Their criticism did not possibly stem from observable fact. Those judging the sincerity of Mr. Woods apology do not know him and, given that his apology had just been broadcast live, demonstrate their disinterest in scientifically evaluating Mr. Woods apology by his actual post-apology behavior. If their rampant criticism and mockery does not stem from Mr. Woods actual behavior (which is what it would take to prove or even to suggest insincerity) we are forced to acknowledge that it stems from the commentator's own understanding of How The World Works. In other words, the impulse to mistrust and belittle was already present and waiting to express, and Mr. Woods triggered it by suggesting a story of repentance and forgiveness.

The tragedy of this type of criticism is that the critic dismisses a story that might well be sincere, not because it is proven insincere, but because the critic can imagine and put forward an alternate story, which seems, based on their own values and experience, more plausible to them. When a critic puts forward an alternate story which projects the target in the worst light, the critic truly is judging himself because his accusations arise from his own imagination and essentially present a picture of how the critic imagines he would behave in the target's situation. The motives he attributes to the target are not factual, but simply represent the behavior that makes the most sense to the critic.

This is why it is said, "As you have judged others, so will you yourself be judged". It's not actually a two stage process - the act of speculatively condemning another is, necessarily, an act of self-condemnation.

But we don't have to imagine alternate stories which are negative.

If we believe in love, acceptance and forgiveness; if we believe in spiritual revelation, growth and maturity; if we believe that We're All In This Together -- and those beliefs represent the values and experiences we have gained while shaping our sense of How The World Works -- then it will seem more and more natural for us to imagine stories that invite our neighbors into their best light, even if they are neighbors we don't really know.

Excellent Article on War and the Sacredness of Human Life

2010-02-18T11:00:00.000-08:00

In this interview from the 1970's, Rev. George B. Zebelka, Catholic chaplain to the group of US soldiers who extensively bombed Japanese civilians with incendiary and atomic weapons, talks about his role in the war, his burden of guilt and his ultimate revelation that the human body is the temple of the Christ and the subsequent implication that violence to others is sacrilege. He mourns Christianity's large scale departure from the early church's pacifist roots and observes that one cannot follow Christ and do violence to their enemies.

It's a short but profound read and one that provides a helpful distinction between "the teachings of Christ" and the religion of "Christianity" which essentially modified and reinterpreted Christ's teachings so they would be compatible and even useful, to an imperial state. The contrast is very difficult to see from within Christianity, because seventeen hundred years of theology and long childhoods of steady indoctrination have convinced a lot of wonderful, caring people that our kingdom really is of this earth and that we really should kill people and take their stuff; or at least kill them before they take ours. But the difference is glaring to some who have not been indoctrinated to 'find agreement' between the expedient theology of the day and the Bible - I expect we've probably all directly encountered people who wonder at the different behavior attributed to Christ and performed by Christians. And of course every devout Christian knows they don't live up to Christ's example; this is in fact a wonderful revelation. Why?

Becoming aware of the disunity between the spirit of Christ and one's own self-interested machinations is an invitation to radically change one's understanding of life and reorient into unity with God's spirit. But this doesn't always happen. Too often, those who glimpse the disunity simply look away, and interpret it as natural outcome of their unconsummated faith. The effect of this latter interpretation is widespread acceptance of (and participation in) systemic injustice and an decreasing ability to perceive one's entrapment in it; after all, a strong sense of self-righteousness covers a multitude of sins.

A quick update

2010-02-17T18:14:00.000-08:00

I've been reading and writing lots over the last month and as a result the blogging tends to fall by the wayside. Mainly I've been working on short stories. I've got two still in progress. The Lost Ones, a short vampire story is set in a secret 1960's research base. The Breadbox's Daughter, a short novella, is about a little girl who has to find her way after her superhero father is injured and forgotten by the Superhero Union. Hopefully I can finish The Lost Ones by the end of the week, and Breadbox's Daughter by the end of next. Those will just be first drafts, but then I'll have five stories to revise and polish into pieces I can send out.

I've had good news with movie writing. I will be doing a second draft screenplay of Run, Run Fast as You Can, for Forty Below Films. RRFAYC is based on Mike McIntyre's true crime novel The Yuletide Bandit. MadCap Entertainment has recently optioned a story outline from me; more on that later.

It's still snowy and cold outside. Haven't done much out there but scuttle. I wouldn't mind going for a walk, but there's really no where to go. Which is conducive to reading lots.

I've read a few books since the last post. Two by Graham Greene. 21 Short Stories was an interesting collection. A number of the stories were very good. Deeply provocative. They carried a great sadness that made me sad for Mr. Greene as the result of reading the work was the sense that he had experienced many disappointments and carried the spirit of that with him. I also read his novel, The Quiet American, which was excellent and brilliant and if you haven't read it, you should. Or at least watch the movie version, which while not as rich as the novel, does the book great justice and is excellently cast with Brendon Fraser and Michael Caine in an Oscar winning role. But the book is beautiful and wise and leaks all the passion that its protagonist can no longer feel - and it's a metaphor and seriously, go read it.

Stephen King's Under the Dome shows King in pretty good form. The book is a Massive Tome peopled with characters that, as usual, feel like neighbours. Evil. Murderous. Neighbours. For all its size he really keeps the story moving.

Shusako Endo's, Wonderful Fool begins as a really funny comedy before evolving into a fine, but very earnest moral tale. A key problem with moralizing is that the author winds up forecasting where the story's going to go. Endo is talented enough to keep the journey interesting but we're not drawn forward by our need to know what happens; we're really going along to find out how the hero is proved noble and valuable. This is somewhat lacklustre in that instead of coming to a great revelation, we really just experience a confirmation of our moral point of view.

For fun I've breezed through some of the newer Dark Horse Conan collections. Pretty good adventure stories for the most part. I've just dipped into a collection of Guy de Maupassant's short stories.

And I've been reading Matthew Goodman's The Sun and The Moon, which is a fascinating history and "Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth Century New York". You might as well follow the above link to learn more as it's the article that led me to seek out the book.

I haven't been following the Olympics.

But I have watched a few good films.

DISTRICT 9: Really great. Fabulous story telling approach that mixes some faux documentary snippets with the non-documentary scenes, effectively enhancing the realism and sinister atmosphere of the story world by creating its own commentary on the film. The story itself is really a complex riff on the 'buddy' movie; but we've never seen one like this.

MASTER AND COMMANDER: Peter Weir's adaptation of Patrick O'Brian's Aubery & Maturin series. It's a rollicking good time that pulls a number of 'best parts' from the books and ties them into a single, rich and exciting narrative. It's great vicarious adventure.

RAN: Akira Kurosawa's late life masterpiece retells King Lear in the context of a collapsing samurai dynasty. The slow start gives way to a blitzkrieg second act of sweeping battle and desolation. It's all the more beautiful for its 'staginess'.

THE BAND'S VISIT: An Israeli movie about a visiting Arabic police band which winds up stranded in the wrong village, where in the words of a local restaurant owner, "There's no Arab Cultural Centre, no Israeli Cultural Centre, no culture at all." The band winds up imposing on the hospitality of the locals and the awkward situations result in a deep revelation of their shared humanity. It's much more of a drama than a comedy, which surprised me given the rich comedy implied by the situation - but it's played very honestly and it's the quiet, simplicity of the drama that reminds us that we are never alone in feeling lonely.

Oddity of American Politics

2010-01-31T07:20:00.000-08:00

In the light of the republican party's ability to rally the poor to protest against health care reforms that would provide them and their children with the care they cannot presently afford comes an interesting BBC article concerning why people (in America) often vote against their own interests.

Hair and a Cool Fusion Experiment

2010-01-29T18:07:00.000-08:00

Michelle picked up a bleach kit for Thayne and, last night, helped him apply it with this result:

Looks good to me. I wish I had bleached my hair when I was younger; I just don't have the strong desire to try it now.

In other news, I was interested to read this BBC article about the laser fusion experiment conducted by the US National Ignition Facility. They focused 192 high powered lasers on a "centimetre-scale cylinder of gold called a hohlraum (which) contains a tiny pellet of fuel made from an isotope of hydrogen called deuterium." While forty years of theory had led them to expect the lasers to create a plasma which would limit the fuel from absorbing the laser's energy, they were amazed to discover that 95% of the energy was absorbed and that the plasma could actually be manipulated to encourage even absorption of the energy. With this success they believe they are on the way to replicating atomic fusion by the end of the year. There's a lot more information and some cool photos on the BBC site.

One stamp, three pieces of mail

2010-01-28T09:40:00.000-08:00

This morning I went to the post office to mail the legals for a story that a Vancouver company just optioned with the intent of developing into a film, which is good and exciting news not dampened by my finding this in the mail box:

If you can't see it well, the letter has been mechanically separated into three pieces and, along with bits of the exposed note, there's bits of cash. The pieces are taped into their present arrangement and are sealed in a small plastic bag pre-printed with an apologetic We Really Do Try Our Best statement from Canada Post.

I admit I've always had a laid back attitude toward sending cash in the mail, but I've never seen such a mangled piece of post before so I will take it a lesson. As far as I know banks will recognize taped up tender so long as the serial numbers are a match. Having opened the package, I see that the cash has been cleanly torn into three pieces and should tape together nicely.

Also Thayne's hair looks pretty much the same this morning as it has every other morning of the last week. He is considering professional help.

I finished Jeff Smith's Bone series last night. Excellent. It's a nine volume graphic novel series about three Bone cousins who find themselves lost in a strange valley peopled by dragons, rat creatures, and, er, people. It's targetted at kids, it's scope is epic fantasy, it has great and rich humour and has garnered wide accolades.

Also finished Michael Chabon's Werewolves in Their Youth, a collection of short stories and particularly enjoyed the last in the volume, a wonderful little Lovecraftian horror story written in the persona of August Van Zorn, a character from Wonder Boys.

I thought my next read was going to be Stephen King's Under the Dome, as I picked it up from the library yesterday, but Michelle claimed it while I was finishing Bone. I also picked up some Graham Greene (three novels and a short story collection as Thayne has just finished The Human Factor and wanted to read more by Greene) so I will probably attack one of those.

Now to get some writing done.

Dangerous Roads

2010-01-27T21:28:00.000-08:00

Did some writing this morning then took Matthias and Thayne into Moose Jaw. Matthias got a pair of skates and Thayne got his beginner's driving license. He then spent part of the evening putting hydrogen peroxide in his hair. We didn't see a huge difference immediately, but it'll be interesting to see what happens. He might have to go to an actual hairdresser to get the desired effect.

Now Playing on the Wall

2010-01-27T09:09:00.001-08:00

This morning the coffee shop succeeded in evoking a Fahrenheit 451 feel by projecting the Canada AM television show on the side wall, but with good reason. Local Moose Jaw hangout Joe's Place has been vying for a $50,000 Aviva Community grant and won. Canada AM was basing part of their show out of Joe's Place and kept returning there with updates of how Joe's Place works and how the money will be used to benefit them. I'm happy for them.

It's freezing outside! -30 with the windchill but it feels colder. Really.

Also in the news, though this won't be new to those who live there, Vancouver is officially the most expensive city in which to live, with a housing value to income ratio of 9:1. To put this in perspective, a 3:1 ratio is considered sustainable/affordable.

There She Blows

2010-01-24T15:31:00.000-08:00

A wild snowstorm, now in its second day, has been engaged with the task of burying the town. The kids headed out this morning to play in the waist high drifts, as I write this in the late afternoon the drifts are in places up to six feet tall. The dike to the north of the tenement has filled with snow and Thayne, Matthias and a friend of Thayne's are excavating a fort. The wind is strong and full of dust but they are scarved and squinting and enjoying themselves immensely.

Drag Me to Hell

2009-12-17T09:58:00.001-08:00

This was fun, sharp and clever with just the right mix of relational emotion and yikes. When a poor, young loan officer tries to impress her boss by refusing to extend the defaulted loan of an old gypsy witch, we know she's going to be handed a dreadful curse that she doesn't really deserve. But even the stuff we expect arrives in unexpected ways and each part of this film is surprising and fun to watch. It's definitely a horror picture but there were chuckles and I laughed out loud more than once. More than twice, more than thrice, really.

While the various sequences are scary and creepy, the film is great because we care for the main character and her boyfriend. We can see that they're nice people and would like them to be happy and have the chance to work though some of the family and work challenges facing their relationship. But alas -- a monstrous Lamia demon plans to torment her for three days, then manifest and drag her straight to hell. It's terribly unjust and I was happy to hope that they would find a way to rectify the situation.

Those able to note some important details may see where the film is going, but knowing won't diminish the ride as there's no give away as to what will happen when we get there. Ultimately Drag me to Hell is an up down maybe she'll break the curse--oh no she's doomed roller coaster ride all the way to its satisfying end.

Mountain Patrol

2009-12-17T08:23:00.001-08:00

Mountain Patrol: Kekexili follows a rag tag group of vigilantes as they head into the frigid mountain-deserts of Tibet in an attempt stop the poaching of the endangered Tibetan antelope. This condensed, fictionalized story is based on the real life experiences of the volunteer group that sprang up, willing to risk their own lives, to defend the antelope, whose numbers had fallen from over 1 million to less than 10,000 within just a few years. The scenes are apparently shot in the same locations as similar events actually occurred.

The setting is incredible, both for its beauty and its harsh environmental terror. Kekexili, the mountain/plateau upon and around which the life and death story unfolds, is over 5,000 meters above sea level. It's an entirely unique and unforgiving landscape and while the patrol and poachers are willing to hunt each other to the death, even they must sometimes ally against the land itself.

While the adventure is fast paced and incredibly intense it is not a story of white and black hats. Simple morality and notions of environmental protection are strained against the complex realities of changing climate and economy. Survival for oneself and family is key, and even the idealistic volunteer patrolmen, who are unpaid and largely unemployed, can sometimes only ensure their survival by crossing their own moral lines.

As viewers we essentially share the revelatory journey of Ga Yu, a young, naive journalist from Bejing who arrives to do a story on the patrol. He finds them burying of one of their own, a man captured and executed by the poachers. They reluctantly allow Ga Yu to accompany the patrol as they head out for revenge. He asks all the questions we want to ask, and while some are answered in words by the patrol's respected leader, the will and endurance and tenacity of the patrol cannot be explained -- only witnessed. As the days stretch out and the patrol is tasked beyond it's resources Ga Yu witnesses the extremes of human obsession and lives to tell the tale.

On an historical note, media coverage of the patrol led to government intervention on their behalf. An official military patrol now protects the Antelope, which are recovering their numbers.

Olive Kitteridge

2009-12-15T10:40:00.001-08:00

Elizabeth Strout's pulitzer prize winning collection of short stories is focused on Olive Kitteridge, a large, abrupt, unapologetic woman whose invasive ways effect the lives of her neighbours in the small, coastal town of Crosby, Maine. Olive plays only a supporting or peripheral role in most of the stories, which is apt, for despite her tragic weaknesses, she is a supportive force in the larger life of her community.

Olive is dreadful and wonderful, a loveable monster, a marvelously perceptive literary creation who is both lamentable and gracious. She is, perhaps above all, recognizable, and our ability to see and understand who she is, how she thinks and needs and fails and succeeds and learns and ignores brings great power to the stories and to the collection as a whole. Olive's complexity makes her seem like a real person; but it also allows us to read her into the stories where she appears the most peripherally, for the main characters in those stories face challenges that are riffs on Olive's own challenges. As much as Olive seems like her own self, the stories use and develop her in such a way that she becomes an everywoman, struggling on behalf of the whole of humanity. Olive is a wife, a mother, a school teacher, a neighbor, a friend, an enemy. She's surrounded by people and she's alone. She knows what she wants and she has no clue. She accepts her life and lives.

Heavy but important themes of need, loneliness, suicide, entrapment, and mental illness are bouyed up by Strout's tight, comic writing. Her style helps us empathize with the characters, yet keeps us elevated above the mire of emotion so we can see the wider perspective and glimpse the truth that kindness, forgiveness and sacrifice are avenues to hope and perhaps even freedom. But these are the roads less taken. Pride, humility, self-deception, ignorance and even deep sorrow guard these forks and many turn away though they long to be kind and to love.

It's deeply refreshing to read a wonderfully written, honest collection that doesn't sacrifice plot for character observation. Elizabeth Strout delivers everything one could want from a great read.

Taeguks and Sashimi Sightings

2009-12-13T19:59:00.000-08:00

On Saturday Analena and Matthias tested for their black stripe belts. They have been working and developing their skills in Tae Kwon Do for years. It's great to see them sticking with it and remaining conscious of so many patterns and kicks and techniques. Many of their fellow students also advanced. Thayne is waiting until spring to take his first dan test.

Thanks to the recent opening of The Sushi House on Main Street, Moose Jaw, we were able to resume a much loved tradition: Victory Sushi Meal. And it was very good.

According to the Doctor

2009-12-09T13:44:00.000-08:00

My throat looks "horrifying". I shall retire with tea.

Watched a PBS documentary on Nikola Tesla this afternoon with the kids. Fascinating scientist, inventor and visionary who created a variety of electrical phenomena, from alternating current and wireless electricity that could power hand held light bulbs and generators, to 'harmless' electrical flames wreathing his body or shooting forth from the palms of his hands.

Kids have their last Tae Kwon Do meeting of the season tonight (Analena and Matthias test for their black stripe belt on Saturday). It might be Michelle who takes them in.

Vinyl Cafe Live

2009-12-08T12:44:00.000-08:00

Last night Michelle and I had to brave -30 C weather, which is basically like traveling through outer space, to see Stuart McLean and guests perform at the Conexus Art Centre in Regina. It was a great night of those ancient entertainments, story and song. His guests included the Vinyl Cafe band, which is a strong piano, upright bass and violin/sax trio, and a pair of award winning east coast musicians, Jill Barber, a jazz vocalist with a retro style and Matt Andersen, a phenomenal blues guitarist/singer. The show featured the animated telling of four Dave and Marley stories, two of them new, an autobiographical tale about Stuart's own first Christmas away from home, and lots of great music and radioesque entertainment.

Fast Food Nation

2009-11-15T15:18:00.000-08:00

A structurally interesting film that looks at the fast food industry from several angles. While the story's plot mainly focuses on the plight of imigrants whose limited options force them to work in the stomach turning conditions of a large meat processing plant, it also presents a naive marketing executive who discovers profitability is more important than excellence, and a teenage fast food worker who comes to morally object to 'version of reality' presented by her workplace. We like and feel for each of these people.

The film is co-written by Eric Schlosser, the author of the non-fiction book, and director, Tim Linklater, and they've created an engaging web of characters whose attempts to grow and live with integrity are confronted with the facts and situations uncovered by Schlosser's investigative journalism.

The film succeeds in a variety of ways. It exposes the 'machine' that is the industry with an unexpected compassion that acknowledges how tied into the fast food culture many (likable) people are. The industry is not seen as entirely villainous but the various storylines do give us insight into the wide range of issues which are connected to the industry and to the psychological element of working at a slaughterhouse, the restaurants themselves or even in a 'plastic' environment like fast food marketing. Voicepiece characters are well rounded and motivated, their conversations are not just instructional but find their expression in realistic arguments. The film doesn't try to convince us toward any 'big level' action, and just lets us enjoy a provocative tale of personal implication and responsibilty that, for some, leads to a larger awareness and a willingness to take personal action.

The Difficulty of Remembrance Day

2009-11-13T13:34:00.000-08:00

I find Remembrance Day to be a difficult holiday.

It doesn't seem to be about remembering the truth of what lies at the base of most conflict, but seems to be about reinforcing the myth that our present peace and security is due to our military's ability to intercept and defeat various foes who are clamoring to invade us. I'm afraid I don't believe this, beyond the obvious nod to Hitler (but even here one should remember that the US remained out of the war until they were sure they could end it on their terms, an incredible contrast to the British point of view, and one befitting a nation who, like Germany, Japan and the USSR, saw it's own chance to carve out an empire). When I pause to think of war and those who have lost their lives to nationalism it's difficult to see beyond the systematic aggression that underlies our our peace and prosperity. Canada is small potatoes compared to some other countries, but our troops are caught in the larger problems of western economic domination.

Canada's last major war, Korea, was actually fought to prevent Koreans from repatriating their country. At the end of world war 2, the Russians liberated what is now North Korea. They removed the Japanese, put the Koreans in charge and went home. The south part of Korea was occupied by the United States who refused to return the 'liberated' country to Korean control. When the local Koreans protested, demanding their country back (the Japanese had conquered and enslaved Korea around 1915) the US, who had kept on the brutal Japanese police force to keep control, began a campaign of terror which resulted in the death/murder of 100,000 dissidents (the US used the same strategy in South America adding Nazi outposts to the payroll rather than disbanding them). The free North Koreans were outraged and invaded. The South Koreans helped throw off the oppressors, and the invading force swept over the country in a matter of months until all that the US held was a little army base. At this point the US said they were being attacked by communists and Russians, though the Russians had not helped invade. Western troops came in and violently retook the country from its own people - and might have taken the whole thing if China had not stepped in to help the Northerners hold the line where the border remains today. We tell the story as if the west was defending democracy, which is in complete contradiction of the facts.

A different story, more in line with the facts, is that our peace and wealth derive from the intentional destabilization of various foreign countries, who are often not our foes until their governments decide to look out for their own citizens instead of western interests. Possibly without exception, the countries which are rife with violence and suicide bombings are countries which have been deeply managed by western powers in order to exploit the locals. Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, El Salvador, Panama, Nicaragua all suffer or suffered a lack of peace because western intervention intentionally placed tyrannical despots in power. Such despots were the ones willing to exploit their people for bribe laden foreign interests. If these people are our foes it's because our troops and agents have exploited and murdered their family members in order to benefit our economy.

Again, it seems that most of the countries infected by generational violence are artificial countries whose borders were imposed on them mere generations ago by the west so that theoretically they could be independent while in practice they could be administered by corrupt officials who would ensure that the new nations prioritized western economic interested over long term national development. The mixed tribal nature of these nations does not work within these sorts of boundaries and racism, racial violence and even ethnic cleansing have become par for the course in these managed territories, and recently in the case of Rwanda, were partly incited by Belgian and French interests. But this destabilization, however much its lamented in the press (and I believe people are really starting to care more), is precisely what the west has wanted and benefited from. Even in Iraq and Afghanistan, the western militaries' most recent projects have already been shown to have instated corrupt officials and Iraq, in particular, was notable for how brazen the US was in controlling and 'selling' off reconstruction contracts.

And while we might yearn to praise the west for giving foreign aid to these hurting countries, even here we may find strings attached. In many cases the west 'gives' money to a country, but then dictates that it be spent buying resources from the gifting country. ie. The US gives $10 million dollars to a country where parts of its population is starving, but stipulates that the money must be spent buying American grown grain. So the $10M dollars actually goes to American farmers and at the same time collapses the local market prices in the foreign country, worsening the local economy and compounding the actual problem. Worse, the aid money is not a 'gift' but a loan, and the country will now have to pay the gifting country back the $10 million plus interest.

Remembrance Day would have more value if we remembered that many of the young and brave soldiers who have been sacrificed in foreign violence have lost their lives not because we were in danger; but because our society wanted to maintain and increase our economic superiority and felt that the lives of other people's children were a reasonable sacrifice for obtaining it.

Matthias's Deep Thoughts

2009-11-09T11:42:00.000-08:00

Matthias asked Thayne, "If you could know everything about anything, what would it be? I would choose dinosaurs so if they ever came back I could be like (he points) 'Arrrgh! It's a T Rex!'"

Insane, Cursed and Trapped in an Underwater Cave

2009-11-08T09:49:00.000-08:00

That's how I spent about half of last night's game of Arkham Horror.

I was playing Rex Murphy, a reporter desperate to find proof of the supernatural (not to be confused with the CBC newsman). But while I was trying to uncover a conspiracy I lost the few clues I had and accepted that I would always be cursed. Then I went insane and was attacked by a nightgaunt the moment I stepped out of the asylum. It sent me to another dimension and I barely escaped to the watery cave off the coast of Innsmouth - where I waited and waited.

Could have been worse, I guess. Analena's spy got picked up in a federal raid and was devoured while sitting in the Innsmouth jail. But it was better for some. Thayne's federal agent also went insane, but managed to overcome his schizophrenia to became the deputy of Arkham. Logan's gravedigger, who was a monster slaying machine, kept both his sanity and his life. Ultimately the team prevailed by settling Arkham before the great old one awoke.

Let The Right One In

2009-11-07T21:54:00.001-08:00

This Swedish film has been called the "Best. Vampire. Movie. Ever." I'm not sure it surpasses my teen experience of watching the much less subtle Lost Boys in the 1980s, but Let The Right One In certainly earns a place in the library of great vampire films, and for reasons one might not expect. The film is great not only because it captures a unique take on the vampire mythos, but because it captures childhood, both in its depiction of Oskar, a bullied child forgotten by his parents, and Eli, the 12 year old vampire that becomes the girl next door. Driven by loneliness, Oskar and Eli become each others only friends, but their friendship is tested as they learn of each other's problems and work to discern if they've found the right one to let into their hearts. As the enemies of Oscar and Eli draw near the pair comes to the bittersweet realization that their own needs might provide the solution each others unique problems.

Investing with Long Arms

2009-11-07T16:21:00.001-08:00

Today I signed up with Kiva and leant money to an electronics shopkeeper in Iraq and an embroidery artist in Kenya. Though the amounts I loaned were small ($25 USD each) Kiva pools my money with that of other investors to finance microloans to small business people throughout the world. With the money, pooled and distributed through local microloan partners, the shopkeeper will be able to increase his stock and the embroidery artist will be able to upgrade her sewing machines. As the money is repaid, I can take it back or reinvest in other businesses.

If you're unfamiliar with Kiva or with microloans in general, please take a minute to visit their website and look at the variety of opportunities there are. You can search by location or by business type so you can likely find one that fits your interests.

Birthday Boy

2009-11-04T16:59:00.000-08:00

Matthias had his ninth birthday on October 30. Michelle made him this great quilt, which appears to be appreciated. His Nana and Popa came to visit the days just before his birthday and on the day he had a few friends over for a party. The object of the party was a treasure hunt (courtesy of Thayne and Analena) where each of the clues was marked by a lit jack o lantern. Pretty cool. He chose to have pizza with banoffee pie for dessert. After warming up with the candlelit treasure hunt, the guests decided they'd like to eat their dinner in the dark by the light of faint glow sticks and a few candles. No problem.

Cthulhu O'Lantern

2009-10-30T17:43:00.000-07:00

Every year I get a kick out of carving a Halloween pumpkin. This year I began a Jack within a Jack and, I guess I had Lovecraft on the brain, because a sanity sucking abomination slowly took shape and began to devour the...pie?..out of the hapless Jack.

In The Sky

2009-08-12T08:17:00.000-07:00

Tonight we arrived at the cottage, sat on the deck as night settled, and watched an amazing show unfold above us. The lower third of the sky was thick with storm clouds that were alive with sheet lightning, flaring and rippling, almost constantly. Fork lightning shot down from the clouds in single lances and complex nets. Above the line of clouds, the greater part of the sky was perfectly clear. Stars shone brightly and every few minutes a meteor from the Perseids star shower shot overhead. We sat there, happy, dry and perfectly entertained.

Mouse Guard: Winter 1152

2009-08-02T17:08:00.000-07:00

Occasionally reading a book does not feel like reading a book.

Such is the case with Mouse Guard, a comic series by the young, yet incomparable, David Peterson. Reading Mouse Guard is like falling into a different world, a medieval world of duty and honour and the corruption thereof; a world where valiant bands of rangers patrol the wild to ensure trade and communication between towns and outposts in the sprawling Mouse Territories.

How can a book about anthropomorphic mice be so involving and immersive? The art is extraordinary. From the lines to the painting, Peterson has mastered the look of his world and presents it from unique angles that capture both the emotion of his characters and the grandeur of their environment. In a single frame, Peterson conjures the atmosphere of a location; in a page, he captures the perfect turns in an intense battle between a pair of guards mice and an owl; giving you the sense that this all must have happened long ago.

This volume sends the guards out into a harsh, predatory winter in order to secure urgently needed supplies. On the return trip the guards are separated, some returning home through the seemingly abandoned ruin of a subterranean weasel empire, the others flying overland with predators pursuing. Every intense story beat is an opportunity for the richness of character to unfold - for the depth of the story, world and characters matches the artistry, the great variety of which is a visual feast.

It is a must read.

A Voyage Long and Strange

2009-07-26T18:34:00.000-07:00

Tony Horwitz, in an engaging 'let's see what's out there' style, digs up the history of colonial North America and contrasts it to the present day realities he encounters as he retraces historic paths. His murky notion that matters of note occurred before the Pilgrims set down on Plymouth Rock is illuminated and his descent into fact, myth and 'Ameritrash' modernity (I mean that in the nicest way) is indeed a voyage long and strange.

His method of doing initial research, then traveling to the local and roping in local guides and assistants to help him find the rest of the story, makes for quite an engaging read. Beginning in Newfoundland with the Vinland excursions reported in the Norse sagas, Horwitz moves to Columbus's discovery and settlement of the West Indies, to the Spanish conquistadors, to the French Hugenot outposts and ultimately to the English settlements, of Roanoke Island, Jamestown and finally Plymouth, which has strangely rooted in the American mind as the beginning of the nation.

Taking Horwitz's journey ultimately leads to a revelation about the relationship of fact and myth. While we have an awareness of facts, we don't live and dream according to them - we, much like our forebears, live and act according to our myths, hopes and dreams. For instance, it was not facts, but myths of gold and opportunity that brought and kept bringing explorers and settlers to North America. Our myths define the facts we are able to discover. And in the face of difficult facts, we will draft new myths to guide us toward the discovery of 'better' or more hopeful facts. In all it makes for a light, but perceptive study of the period.

Forget Summer Arts Festival

2009-07-26T18:26:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to Forget, Saskatchewan where Michelle had an artisan booth displaying some of her work. We sat in the warm weather, reading a lot and enjoying the great, live music that played throughout the festival. Hosted by Don and Shannon Shakotko of the Ananda Arthouse in Forget, it was a great weekend. And Michelle sold three pieces. Including another that she had sold prior to the festival, that's about half of her inventory.

However, despite her success, we think a gallery would provide much better placement for her work. People were constantly impressed by her work, but didn't really have the environmental opportunity to ingest the detail of the work. But first, she intends to create a few more pieces and to take her time doing so.

Post Captain

2009-07-23T19:24:00.000-07:00

The second installment in Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubery-Stephen Maturin series is an enjoyable read that takes the friends, so well developed at sea, and lands them in a variety of predicaments. Jack, without a ship, and with his prize money withdrawn, finds himself suddenly indebted and unable to pursue marriage. He finds solace with a certain widow, but she happens to be the infatuation of Stephen and their friendship cools - by the later part of the book it is downright icy. A plot featuring Napoleon's new war, an hilarious escape from the continent, Jack's double bowed monstrosity - The Polychrest, Stephen's new occupation as a spy, and a cabin full of bees, culminates in a smashing victory that earns Jack the rank of Post Captain, a great sailing frigate, and gives both men, their friendship renewed, a chance to share in one of the great prize takings of the war.

O'Brian again shows his wonderful ability with character, moving them about with ease, capturing scenes with a minimum of words, often letting his superb dialogue carry the action.

Insisto 4.5!

2009-07-20T08:11:00.000-07:00

Robin Dudgeon of the The Winnipeg Sun gives Insisto: Beating Like a Hammer 4.5/5! Run Winnipegers, Run, while there's still time to see the show! It is at Prairie Theatre Exchange, Venue 16.

The Bow

2009-07-19T13:24:00.000-07:00

Sometimes films run amuck.

I don't usually comment on films I've watched and not admired, but I really enjoyed Kim Ki-Duk's Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...Spring, and so was quite disappointed by The Bow. It had a lot of promise which was squandered by a lack of creative self-control. The Bow begins with a potentially interesting scenario: An old fisherman comes upon a young girl, 'adopts' her and raises her alone on his charter fishing boat with the plan of marrying her on her seventeenth birthday, however, as the date approaches a young love for one of the boat's clients blossoms in her heart and she becomes resentful of the old man.

The title comes from a bow, routinely used as a weapon to intimidate the clients, who, almost without exception, are vulgar, would-be rapists. It is also routinely, and impossibly, played as a musical instrument - complete with dubbed music that is completely out of touch with whatever simple sound such a bow might have made. While the visuals would seem to call for a simple one instrument track, the bow, as violin, drums and synthesizer, etc., creates a wash of muzak which consistently ruins the music. Lastly, the bow is used to divine the fortunes of clients. Despite the results of the fortunes (bad people get bad fortunes, good people get good), divining them is a complex process. Whilst the girl swings along the side of the ship, the old man shoots arrows through her arc to illuminate her (and horrify witnesses). She whispers the fortune to him, and he whispers it to the client. One gets the sense she's just making it up.

Oddly, apart from these whispers, which prove neither is mute, they never speak. This, as much as anything else, utterly destroys any sense of realism or rationality in the film. Scene by scene the magic of the concept fades and is ultimately lost in a mire of obtuse behaviour and a drawn out climax (viewers will recognise an unintentional pun there) which has become unable to communicate meaning except by bold, dramatic, magical acts which are utterly disconnected from the earlier flow of the film.

But Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...Spring is excellent.

Maria Full of Grace

2009-07-19T11:32:00.000-07:00

Maria lives in a small Columbian village. She dislikes her job at the flower plantation, is forced to support her ungrateful family, and has a boyfriend she doesn’t love. When she discovers she’s pregnant she takes the only action that seems to offer an escape – working as a drug mule. A long, suspenseful sequence simply shows us what it is like to be a mule.

Maria and several other girls swallow as many deadly drug packets as their bodies will hold and fly to New York as tourists. Maria and another girl are caught; but Maria must be released as her pregnancy prevents the authorities from taking a conclusive X-ray. They meet their low-life contacts and wait for the drugs to pass through them, but a girl becomes increasingly ill – a packet has broken inside her. When Maria wakes to find the girl dead and the contacts out disposing of the body, takes her friend, the drugs they’ve expelled and escapes into New York City.

Now comes the essence of the film: Maria attempts to find the freedom she has been seeking, and yet is haunted by the consequences of her actions, both in terms of the lies she has told her friends and family, and in the theft of the drugs as she left. She is just a child, really, who has lacked the experience needed to give her courage and a will to consider others. As her child grows within her and her deceit-based world collapses, she is forced to learn from her mistakes, and from the kindness of strangers, and choose a way forward from her very limited options.

The film gives an interesting perspective on the drug trade and how ‘innocent’ some of its most desperate members are. The film isn’t concerned that the idea of muling drugs would be unconscionable to some (those who live in comfort with no worries of their survival). Here, it is a natural consequence of an unexamined selfish life. By the end of the film Maria has gained enough experience of horror and grace from others that she is able to embrace a wider sense of self and make a brave decision.

The title of the film is an obvious reference to the Hail Mary prayer, and, in context of the story, a less obvious reference to a scripture that states women may be saved by childbirth. Apart from this governing symbolism, the film is not religious or didactic in any way. The film is at its best when it is simply showing us what Maria’s quietly desperate life is like. Catalina Sandino Moreno’s understated performance as Maria earned her an Academy Award nomination.

Week's End

2009-07-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

A rather busy week.

Returned to an old screenplay idea, turning it into an outline with a rather different plot and theme. It's a vampire story, one I've written full screenplays for twice. The first time was about ten years ago, then again probably seven years ago. This time I'll try and get partners aboard at the outline stage.

Had a couple boardgames arrive in the mail: Traders of Carthage and Dominion: Intrigue (our Race For the Galaxy expansion was, to our surprise, not in the box, but apparently it will come early this week). Very fun games that stole more than a couple hours.

Harry Potter 6 last night. Also highly enjoyable. But alas for those who only know the series through the movies. There is so much they don't know.

And, of course, the novel, trying to lurk, but, as present as paint on the walls.

Public Enemies

2009-07-08T12:19:00.000-07:00

There are two competing ideas in Michael Mann's well realized film. The first is captured in the way J.D. introduces himself to a would-be girlfriend, “I’m John Dillinger and I rob banks.” The second is idealized by J. Edgar Hoover as he tries to put together a national police force built on the principles of information gathering, scientific analysis and the technology that makes it possible. This second idea is equally represented by Capone’s mob, which seeks to profit of the same techniques. Dillinger is a man of the past, a western gunslinger whose traded his horse for a Ford V-8 but still gets by on daring and panache, not technology and smarts. He wants to live free and take what he wants, but a new world of telephone surveillance, logistics and even photography, make a web he cannot escape.

John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) is no more good or evil than Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), the man hired to head the force that will catch him. When J.D.’s gang eludes capture, Hoover’s ideal of an ‘upright’ national force is discarded as incapable of getting the job done, and a harder set of men, capable of anything, are brought in to redefine the force and its methods. Dillinger’s associates are killed, his girlfriend is captured and he is ultimately betrayed by the mob, who has no place for him in their new, enlightened and efficient approach to crime. He’s gunned down outside of a movie theatre.

The film presents Dillinger as a confident man who cared about his friends, who needed a gang around him to feel like he had a function. He was deeply social and oriented toward those close to him. One can speculate that he robbed banks because, at first, it was easy money in the depression era, and later because it was the only way to support his lavish lifestyle. But the film demonstrates that he did it because he was good at it, and he enjoyed it. Common people responded to his daring and freedom – or was it merely his celebrity – and branded him a hero. In the end they were just as happy to catch a glimpse of him dead as they were to see him alive.

It’s an interesting film that presents callousness toward life as universal, except perhaps for Melvin Purvis, who always seems slightly effected by the violence and brutality required in the work of crime, be it committing it or fighting it. We’re told he quit the force a year after capturing Dillinger, and later took his own life. These facts greatly informed Bale’s characterization.

Lots of close ups capturing emotion or the lack thereof and lots of heavy gun battles which captured the frenetic, wild clashes of the era. Ultimately I thought it good and provocative film with much food for thought re: technology’s impact on freedom and the immorality of those who seek power, even if (perhaps especially if) they do it by legal means or with a veneer of self-righteousness. Surveillance changed the world and continues to change it. It broke the spirit of crime in America but perhaps it broke the spirit of freedom as well.

What is a Literal Video Version?

2009-07-08T12:12:00.000-07:00

I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s the actual music video of Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart, but with new lyrics that simply describe what’s happening moment by moment in the video. The descriptions are sung and - bonus - they rhyme. It’s a bizarre video to begin with and, partly it's the novelty, but it had me laughing so hard I was wiping tears. Thanks to Kevin Miller for making me aware of it.

Up The Yangtze

2009-07-07T12:50:00.000-07:00

Yung Chang's 2007 film documents the slow, steady rise of the Yangtze river as it gathers behind the Three Gorges Dam. Simple but easy to read signs ascend the green mountainsides like distance markers at a driving range, but here they anticipate and measure the height of the swollen river.

Beneath the water are drowned farms; on the edge of history are the abandoned buildings of Fengdu, a necropolis which will soon be submerged. Above the water, but not high enough to escape its slow climb is a the temporary homestead of a poor farming family. Their family home is long underwater; this one has been cobbled together so the family can farm the fertile area while they can. They are not sure where they will go when the water comes, but they are looking for opportunities for their eldest daughter Yu Shui.

Yu Shui attends school and imagines she would like to go to university, but her despite her defiant plans her grades are poor and her dream unreasonable. She knows her parents are keen to send her to work, and she resents this, refusing to help out at home unless ordered to do so, and denying that he mother loves her. When she is given a job on a cruise ship she has to make the trip alone.

Yu Shui and her co-workers are all given English names. Hers is Cindy. She is put to work in the kitchen and shares a room with three other girls. Cindy begins work with a defeated spirit and difficulty doing the work, which she thinks is unfair. In contrast, tall, good looking "Jerry" works directly with the guests as a porter, bartender, and sometimes entertainer. His family is well off, but even so, his tips are making him more money than his parents make.

As they work on the boat, the homestead floods and Cindy's family is forced to move to a city. They will now have to pay rent and buy food and take whatever work they can find. There is much frustration and sadness amongst those marginalised by the rising river. People whose businesses and livelihoods are ending cannot get good value for their goods because people know they must sell. An initially proud man breaks into tears bemoaning the fate of those who are nobodies in China. As our farmers evacuate their homes onto rickety carts and haul them up the mountain, they are observed by tourists (mostly Chinese) who marvel at the rising river, seeing it as a sign of China's great power and maturity as a nation.

On the ship, Cindy slowly and tearfully learns to work hard, to make friends, to stand straight, how to dress and how to talk to people. The ship's head of staff explains his mission: to teach the next generation how to succeed in the new China; which can perhaps be summed up as gaining a respect for yourself and others. When the probationary work period comes to an end, Cindy is kept on as a promising worker, and Jerry, who has been unresponsive to correction around his greed, is let go.

China is complex and so different in its ways that its mystery is millenia old. Life is hard there, no doubt about it. But it's also a place where a poor young girl with no connections, prospects or skills is given a fair chance at a desireable job. I find myself doubting that she'd have been given such a chance here. This film captures the complexity as well, and as beautifully, as a ninety minute film can, braiding a variety of threads together into snapshot like tapestry that shows what life in this area of China is like, right now. Majestic. Sorrowful. Promising. Mysterious.

Insisto

2009-07-02T20:45:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning Analena and I met with Insisto, a group of multi-talented performers who are preparing for a show at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival. Kalyn and Jane are old friends whom I've had the pleasure of working with numerous times, but I've never worked with Insisto, who is from left to right above, MJ, Jane, Kat and Kalyn.

Insisto is mainly a drumming group, but their wide range of talents expand their show into a many textured experience that is grounded in choreographed, story driven percussion and dance, but includes other instruments, including their voices, all brought together in a creatively staged package that takes one through a whole range of emotions. They even did a scary/creepy number where they danced like lifeless masked machines which was really cool - and there were several moments of real beauty and wholeness, if it works to call it that. They are very creative and shiny and it was fun to spend our morning with them.

I thoroughly enjoyed their work and should you be in Winnipeg while they are performing I imagine you would be delighted if you went to their show. They're at Prairie Theatre Exchange for the duration of the Fringe, July 15 - July 26.

There and Back Again

2009-07-02T20:26:00.000-07:00

Analena and I drove to Stony Mountain on Tuesday. Stony is where we used to live before moving to Bowen Island in 2005. My parents and my sister's family live just outside the town. It was a very quick trip, a working trip really, but Analena came along as she had some interest in the work. But before work there was play.

It turns out Tuesday night was Stony Mountain's annual block party which means the closure of main street (not that it gets use in the evening anyway), music, drinks and pony rides. We met my sister, Amy, my brother in law, John, and my two nieces, Brooklyn and Leah there. This picture shows Analena and I with Amy, Brooklyn and Leah. It was really nice to see them, especially Brooklyn and Leah who are growing up quickly.

I also got to chat with my friend Darrin, who'll be stopping by with his family for breakfast Sunday morning on their way to Calgary. Travellers - did you know you can get breakfast here? it is sometimes a possibility if you call ahead.

On the way there and back Analena and I listened to books on tape. First, John Wyndham's The Trouble With Lichen. Then Yann Martel's Life of Pi. We finished the first story, but left Pi Patel and Richard Parker floating floating on an island of green algae; which for them is actually a high point.

It was fun to travel with Analena. After Wednesday's work (more on that in another post) we went to The Burger Place for lunch and some of the best cheeseburgers , fries and milkshakes in Winnipeg.

Wherein The Secrets of the Templar Knights Remain Elusive

2009-06-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

Thayne and his guest, Davis Plett, found a geocache in Moose jaw that was purportedly left by the Templar Knights or some agent working on their behalf. We're certainly aware that the KT is likely only a front group for a more secretive, persistently influential order. In any case, the agent had left a cache of unknown value in Moose Jaw and hidden it's location with a coded message.

After a some significant work on the message we were able to decipher coordinates and all went to look for the cache. Though we were in the right location (and could see that we were!) we were unable to discover the secret hiding place of the cache, which I expect was too small to hold a grail anyway.

Nonetheless it was a good time, which is more than can be said for most crusades.

Sky Above, Grass Below

2009-06-26T19:38:00.001-07:00

We drove down to the West Block of Grasslands National Park yesterday and discovered a vast stretch of rolling prairie. It was extremely cool, both on the large scale and on the small. We drove through the park, pulling off the road three or four times to walkabout different areas. It was very different to be out in the open prairie with no fences or light posts in sight and, furthermore, no trails to follow. You just pick a spot on the horizon and start walking. Of course, no matter how interesting the sky is, you have to keep your eyes on the ground or else you might step on one of the plentiful, ground hugging cacti, of which we saw many, or a rattlesnake, of which we saw none.

There was a mind-boggling number of flowers and interesting stones on the ground. The stones were the most unexpected find. There seemed to be every kind of rock in every colour imaginable simply strewn across the ground, and along the side of a sandy pit, Thayne and Davis found glass-like sheets fused into the sand, which we assumed were the result of lightning strikes.

A herd of 130 bison roams freely in the park, but we did not see them on this trip - we saw cute little bunnies. One of the most remarkable things we saw looked like a collapsed homestead.

On closer inspection it proved to be the roof joists of a large, subterranean barn. The stalls are were still standing along the right side and the shade had allowed the ruin to develop its own ecosystem completely unique from the surrounding area. Note the cute bunny on the lower left.

It was a very enjoyable day and we look forward to returning for an extended trek.

Since Otar Left

2009-06-26T12:19:00.001-07:00

Three generations of women share an apartment and eke out a living in Tbilisi, Georgia. The loss of power and water is routine and there is little in the way of work. Ada is finishing up her last year of high school and receives good grades, though these seem meaningless against the lack of opportunity that surrounds her. Her mother, Marina, makes a living selling scrounged goods, and painfully awaits the day when she can sell the family treasures her mother prizes. Eka, the elderly matriarch tinkers in her garden, a small green space in the grey decay of the city, eagerly awaiting a letter or phone call from her beloved son, Otar, who has 'escaped' to France and supports them as he can.

When Otar is killed in an accident, the word comes first to Marina and Ada and, in their grief, they conspire to keep it from Eka. It falls to Ada to write new letters from Otar, but the ruse cannot hold for long; Otar has stopped calling and sending money, and Ada fears they are turning him into a villain, and that her mother may have intended it to get back at Otar for leaving her to care for her mother alone. And yet despite Ada's desire to be honest, the truth is so painful to bear, and the lie so sweet to imagine, that Ada hesitates. The deception creates unexpected results and by the time Ada decides to tell the truth, Eka has taken a decisive action to contact Otar and it is too late to stem the consequences. More surprises come on the way to a very interesting conclusion.

In addition to giving us a provocative, satisfying story; Julie Bertucelli's film provides a remarkable look at the resilience, sadness and joy of a family enduring a difficult life, struggling to making a living and to care for each other as best they can; a task which is not at all straightforward.

Transsiberian

2009-06-26T11:57:00.000-07:00

An American couple's relationship is put to the test when they encounter mysterious strangers on the Transsiberian express. Roy and Jessie are apparent do-gooders, taking the long way back to America after a church sponsored mission trip to China; the other couple, Abby and Carlos, are presumably connected to the drug related murder that opened the film. Forced to share a berth, they realize each others' relationships are strained and yet we, as viewers, follow Jessie's perspective and are left wondering how mysterious (and dangerous?) Abby and Carlos are. The story moves forward on the knife edge of their growing friendship, always threatening to slip into something else while we wait to discover who Abby, Carlos and Jessie really are and whether or not the unrestrained and potentially corrupt Detective Grinko will catch his killer.

The suspense is masterful and pervades many scenes - sharp direction by Brad Anderson creates a rich atmosphere. The acting is strong; Emily Mortimer in particular displaying a wide range. The setting makes for great film images. Thematically it asks us to consider whether one's true character (or the depths of one's character) is only expressed under duress and whether our more commonplace 'selves' are merely who we pretend to be; as if we adopt a sense of who we are based on what we like to do; and can then be surprised at 'who' we become in certain situations. We invest a lot in these considerations as we follow Jessie through the story, anticipating what her decisions might be, and how close they would be to our own.

Becoming a Fan

2009-06-22T18:16:00.001-07:00

Today in my inbox from Facebook:

Matt Epp suggests you become a fan of Matt Epp.

Which struck me as rather bold. Of course, I already was a fan of Matt Epp, having a hosted a house concert of his on Bowen Island, but I was not a Facebook fan and I followed the link to correct that. Matt is a great singer-songwriter and you can listen to a lot of his music on his myspace site. To me his voice sounds like Marc Cohn, others compare him to Ryan Adams or Woody Guthrie. Really, he's just one of those blessed people whose voice can actually do justice to the range of human emotion. Add to that strong, story based lyrics that are in rich in metaphor, good simple melodies and a hell of of a lot of facial hair (this pic is out of date) and you have Matt Epp.

Today in my mailbox from Jason Goode:

Post Captain, the second book in Patrick O'Brian's Aubery-Maturin series. When Jason learned that lack of the book was keeping me from moving (quickly) forward in the series, he offered to send me his extra copy. Thank you, Jason.

Today in my sent box:

I wrote the kids' year end reports today - and can say with certainty that I am not a fan of reports, though I suppose it's something to see some of the years accomplishments condensed into a two page snapshot of where we are at this point.

I got a bit of writing done this morning but mainly was working on the reports. Thayne and I are off early in the morning to pick up Davis Plett, one of Thayne's friends, who will be staying with us for a week.

And the rain continues.

Standing up at a Puerto Rican Wedding

2009-06-21T23:09:00.000-07:00

Analena and Thayne made me breakfast this morning: oatmeal blueberry pancakes with maple syrup. Very good. Later we played a game of Puerto Rico and I wasn't the bride or bridesmaid - I wound up in third place with lots of goods in my warehouse, but too few on the boat. Thayne, Matthias and I were only 1 point from each other, but Analena won by six, largely due to shipping corn.

It was a pretty quiet father's day. They got me Satoshi Kon's Tokyo Godfathers as a gift, but it's still in the mail. Hopefully it will come this week; we've been wanting to watch it for years.

Ended the day by watching the last two episodes of the third season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Still a great show.

Bazaart and Dinner, now with free spiders

2009-06-20T23:21:00.000-07:00

Writing The Replacements at the coffee shop this morning. When I walked back home I passed a couple garage sales and picked up a collection of ee cummings poems and the dvd of The Gift.

At three pm, Michelle and I ran to Regina to take in Bazaart, an art show/sale at the Mackenzie Art Gallery. On the way in we listened to The Eels and I wrote a bit more on The Replacements. There were lots of cool exhibits at the art show, including a quiltster and marvelously bright paintings by Leah Dorion. We'd have liked to get one of her pieces but our bank accounts are on the Old Mother Hubbard side (think bareness) .

We mainly went to see the jewelry of Kirsten Matthies, who had had a very good day by the time we arrived. She still had a range of beautiful pieces in a variety of tones which showcased her creativity. It's something she just started this year, but her work is exceptional and, in the near future, may well be making an appearance on the necks of people we know.

We went to La Bodega for dinner, which is a very nice tapas restaurant on Albert Street. We had a new dish, creviche, which is cold marinated halibut, scallops and prawns with corn chips - it was great. Partway through the meal, a diner on the other side of the patio called out to informed me I had a spider crawling up my arm. I couldn't feel it yet, and my first impression was, wow, he's sitting quite far away to see a spider, it must be -- and mid-thought I felt it's heavy feet step from my shirt sleeve onto my arm. I casually - but quickly - flicked it onto the floor and returned to my meal without screaming like a girl.

Michelle and I had wondered about going to Drag Me to Hell, but it's no longer playing in Moose Jaw. I'm hoping they'll get Moon, which I would very much like to see. But something tells me I'll be waiting for the dvd.

Master and Commander

2009-06-17T19:51:00.001-07:00

Jason Goode (and through him, David Mamet) recommended that I start Patrick O'Brian's Aubery-Maturin series. I'd seen and enjoyed the film version back when it came out and expected to enjoy the book. I made the mistake of picking it up when I was quite busy; it was so entertaining and readable that I found it hard to put down. When I was able to commit the time to it, I breezed right through, carried along by the brisk plot and the highly efficient, yet wonderfully realized story-telling.

This is a series that many love and much of that love has been posted on the net so I'll be brief in my praise and avoid matters of plot. To me, the book was, in a word, beautiful. It captured, in perfect glimpses, brave men in action, thoughtful men in repose, passions being chased and the awkwardness apparent when a master of one trade finds himself called upon to muddle through another.

The entire tale is infused with a wonderful sense of humour that is at times very cutting, yet always folded into character and O'Brian's voice captures both the era and the social strata. I look forward to the next nineteen volumes and encourage you to seek this one out, if you have the time to put your feet up and enjoy.

The Fifth Mountain

2009-06-16T17:30:00.001-07:00

Paulo Coelho tells the story of Elijah's time in Zarephath, fashioning it into a powerful tale of faith and doubt, love and duty, ignorance and learning. The question explored throughout is how one can and should face the 'unavoidable' - Coelho's term for the trials and ordeals which we certainly would avoid if only we could. Elijah is confronted with a number of unavoidable challenges. God chooses him (gifts him) as a prophet which forces him to flee his home with a price on his head, while the prophets who remain in Israel are slaughtered. The foreigners who take him in do so under the proviso that they can ransom him to Jezebel at an time. His faith is misunderstood by his neighbors and more importantly, by himself. He longs to return to home, but is forced to linger until he 'learns how to rebuild".

Despite his trials and uncertainties, Elijah invests himself into the city and the family that has taken him in, and discovers love, both for the people and for the widow that is his host. When the city is beseiged by an invading army, he yearns to see them saved and God presents him with a choice - Elijah may save his adopted city, or Israel. The decision is too much for him and he decides to reject his prophet's calling. And yet as he continues along his path, and learns what only the unavoidable can teach him, he discovers that, God invites wrestling and blesses those like Jacob, who refuse to give up grappling with him. Elijah does indeed learn to build, and many learn along with him before he realizes he is to return to his native Israel.

Coelho's writing is deceptively simple yet dramatically charged. It's instructive in the way a fable can be and the characterization is uncluttered, which focuses the drama and keeps the reader's mind directed on Coelho's themes. I found it thoughtful and enjoyable.

Moose Jaw Air Show

2009-06-14T10:47:00.000-07:00

It was cool but we had to leave before the Snowbirds show. We saw the rest of jets fly though, including a Snowbird with a Hornet and another jet, whose name escapes me. We had a tour through a search and rescue Herc, a radar training plane, and a mock cockpit of a Hornet, which the kids could sit in.

Matthias, in particular, liked that.

Moose Jaw's Crescent Park

2009-06-14T10:40:00.000-07:00

While the kids were warming up for their belt test, Michelle and I walked into the park and enjoyed the one of our first 'nice' days. This is a shot of Crescent Park with the tower of St. Andrews united church in the background. The YMCA is attached to one end of the park, the library and art gallery to the other end. A man-made river cuts a valley through the centre of the park and it is as lovely as one might expect by looking at this photo, however the river itself is seasonally possessed by swans. Yes. Possessed.

One Step Closer

2009-06-14T10:25:00.000-07:00

At the end of May I moved one step closer to achieving a childhood dream: becoming the head a group of covert international assassins/adventurers. Granted, this dream died back in the 80s, while the A-Team was still airing, but still, at the end of May my children each advanced to another level of study in Tae Kwon Do.

Analena and Matthias advanced from brown to red, which puts them two ranks from black. Thayne advanced from black stripe to school black, which is like graduating. In six months he can test for his 1st dan, the first level of what could be thought of as post-graduate study. We're very proud of their significant accomplishments, and for the life-lessons they are learning through their study of the art.

Also in the picture is our friend and former neighbor, Hannah McCutcheon, albeit a flat, portable version of her, who came to visit us and see what our lives on the prairies were like. Apparently, we eat lots of frozen treats.

Michelle's Work

2009-06-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

Michelle has spent much of the last couple months designing and creating fabric artwork. Though her interest in fabric and design has been around a long time, she discovered a passion for this kind of art on Bowen. Initially her approach was much more abstract, and included some experimentation with paint and canvas. Now she is focusing on fabrics and a more representative approach (though she root of her work remains symbolic).

She's been creating a series of prairie images and a series of 'burning bushes' which present an interesting contrast in theme and colour. She will be showing/selling her work at several shows this summer; the first is Park Art which will be in Moose Jaw, July 1st, the next is the Forget Summer Arts Festival in late July. She has about ten pieces finished in a range of sizes, and ideas for many more.

I love how she captures certain ideas. She does it much better than, say, our camera, for instance, which has muted the images somewhat.

May Explained

2009-06-02T15:12:00.001-07:00

Man On Wire

2009-04-22T12:14:00.000-07:00

This modern documentary captures the intense drama surrounding Philippe Petit's covert 1974 tightrope performance between the two towers of the World Trade Center. With all the atmosphere and risk of a bank heist, Philippe and his evolving team case the target, craft and refine their plans and ultimately infiltrate the WTC, and spend a problem-fraught night rigging a wire between the towers. As the day dawns Philippe spends 45 minutes dancing 450 meters above New York. The film is very well crafted and through a mix of archive footage, stills and re-enactments enhanced by voiceover narration, succeeds in creating suspense, mystery and, most deservedly, awe.

Philippe convinces us that walking the rope is an art, and that his stunts are an extraordinary gift offered to all who see them. People give testimony to the fact and it is easy to imagine how truly awesome it would be to see a man walking in the air, suspended above Notre Dame Cathedral, or Sydney Harbour Bridge or ultimately, between the two towers. From a young age, long before the towers have even been built, Philippe is deeply driven to conquer the towers. His magnetic personality pulls deeply loyal people into helping him achieve his dream - at great personal and moral risk to themselves; yet Philippe's focus is so entirely on himself, on his abilities and his dream that he seems unable to truly identify with those who help make his dream possible.

One of the most interesting elements of the film is the relationships Philippe has with his team. It is apparent early in the film that they did not remain close after the stunt and the reasons for that become manifest as the story unfolds. Each member of the team seems to have been touched extraordinarily, perhaps even spiritually, through witnessing Philippe's gift and by helping him stage the once in a lifetime stunt. But just as the film makes these elements certain it also suggests that some of the people who invested so much energy and love into Philippe's dream were left to wonder if they were merely equipment required for the stunt.

The film leaves us asking "Why?" but it also offers the lesson that "Why?" isn't always the right question, and is rarely the question that will get an answer from Philippe. Asking "Why?" presupposes that the reasons for human behavior are walking on the street, ready to be ordered and understoood by anyone who can ask a one syllable question. But the secrets of human behavior and obsession are lofty mysteries obscured by the mists of emotion and the distance between the heart and the skin; they may dance toward us smiling and reaching out to tease us with the touch of knowledge, but at the last moment they suddenly turn and elude our grasp, dancing where we cannot follow.

Who is David Mamet?

2009-04-22T12:10:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of Moses?

As Moses is to the Israelites, so David Mamet is to the dramatists. He is the great lawgiver who is able to lead actors and writers and directors out of the wilderness and into the promised land of truth communicated through action. His brilliance is that his laws, his keen perceptions of the phenomena of drama, are often overstated and it's in the act of sifting through the bombast, using one's own experience and understanding, and Mamet's own clues as a sieve, that one "gets" Mamet. At the core of Mamet is the quicksilver arrow of plot, realized only by characters in conflict, desperate, at this very moment, to act on their individual need and achieve their goal by whichever strategy seems most promising.

Professor Watterson

2009-04-21T16:03:00.000-07:00

I came home to make lunch and discovered that Matthias, curiosity peaked by reading certain Calvin and Hobbes cartoons, had taken it upon himself to spend the morning reading one of our science encyclopedias. As I made Vietnamese rice bowls he pontificated at length on the nature of atoms and molecules, and in his own terms, the laws of kinetics and gravity. Whatever I did earned comments as he noted various laws in practice - like the sugar not quickly dissolving in cold water, whereas it would in hot water, and why isn't gravity keeping the coffee in the bottom of the carafe when I pour it.

We discussed quarks and atomic density, then I asked him why he thought it was that cold water melts ice faster than warm air. He knew that the molecules in the water were hitting and running over the ice to break it down, but didn't realise the molcules in the seemingly static air were doing the same thing - except that they were spread so far apart, that far fewer molecules hit the ice. He put one ice cube in a static bowl of cold water and another in an empty bowl, and by the time we'd eaten, the ice in the water was gone, and the ice cube in the empty bowl had hardly melted.

I'm glad he's enjoying it. And that our Christmas gift of the complete Calvin and Hobbes is paying off unexpected dividends.

FADE IN:

2009-04-20T16:55:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I started a minor polish on a screenplay I wrote a while ago. It involves a new opening scene and as I wrote the words "FADE IN:" at the top of a blank page, this crazy sensation bubbled up - I haven't started a screenplay in over a year. It didn't feel foreign to be back at it - what seemed foreign was remembering how immersed I was in writing for that particular medium up until I shifted over to novels, a transition that has gone better than I anticipated.

The feeling lasted for as long as it took me to write "EXT. BORDER CROSSING - NIGHT", which was the next line, and then it was just me and the story, picking things up like old friends who haven't seen each other in a while.

War Dance

2009-04-18T16:55:00.000-07:00

In Northern Uganda, a camp which was originally designed to house five families has overflowed its borders to contain 50,000 Acholi refugees. For many of the children in this camp, music and dance are more than a distraction; they are the means by which they disconnect from the horrors of their past and the tedium of the present and re-create themselves in their own minds as people who are unbound and free to accomplish anything. Such is the power of hope and imagination - it knits together shattered psyches with whispers of redemption.

In 2005, the children of the camp's primary school won their regional music competition and were invited to compete in the nation's capitol. It's not just a test of their skills - it's a trial which tests the identities and hopes the children have been forging.

Filmmakers Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine follow the school's preparation for the national competition by focusing on the lives of three children. Dominic, a 14 year old xylophone player; Rose, a 13 year old singer; and Nancy, a 14 year old dancer. The film captures both the anxiety and hard work of training as (initially skeptical) government sponsored professionals arrive from the south to coach the kids into top form, and the isolation, sadness and despair that haunts the children in their more private moments. Some have seen their parents murdered. One, freed by the anonymity of the camera, confesses to the murders they were forced to commit while held captive by the Lord's Resitance Army. Against the crippling horror of their experiences, they hold up the competition as their chance to be found worthy.

Surrounded by hostile territory, the children must be ferried to Kampala at high speeds over rough terrain in trucks defended by gunmen, and when they land, their poverty and backwardness is immediately apparent to the other competitors and the dread of failure challenges the kids. It's extraordinary to see them rise to the challenge and give their best in eight events which culminate in the dance competition - where each competing tribe dances their ancient tribal dance; the dance that makes them who they are. The competition and the awards ceremony make for a satisfying conclusion to the film.

Watching War Dance is like following an uplifting and colorful thread as it weaves through a very dark tapestry. While the film is conscious of following the bright thread, we can't help but gain a sense of the bigger, darker picture which is the humanitarian mess that civil war has made, and continues to make, of Northern Uganda.

Gran Torino

2009-04-16T12:29:00.001-07:00

Clint Eastwood is a great storyteller. He's known for shooting screenplays essentially as they're written, without trying to dress things up. He doesn't try to capture overly emotional performances and generally tends to let the scenes do their work. With the exception of Eastwood's character, Walt Kowalski, Gran Torino is not particularly strong in terms of performances or character design, but the films mediocrities (it would be misleading to call them weaknesses) do not impede the delivery of Gran Torino's great story.

Walt is an elderly man who immerses himself in the role of the coarse, hardworking badass to cope with his haunting experiences in the Korean War. Over time the consequences leave him alienated from his grown children, fueding with his Hmong neighborhood, and stalked by his recently deceased wife's priest, whom she has bound to hear Walt's confession. Fearing death and unwilling to learn from a young, inexperienced priest, Walt carries on in his badass ways eventually standing up to a gang that troubles the neighborhood. The altercation earns him the enmity of the gang and the unexpected friendship and respect of the community, which beings to shower him with reluctantly received gifts and hospitality. Walt begins to take a fatherly interest in his teenage neighbors, watching out for them and trying to offer parental advice from the point of view of the culture the kids are trying to assimilate into. When the gang returns to take vengeance on the neighborhood, Walt, who has been slowly softening, realizes that standing up to the gang isn't enough - they will need to be taken care of for good.

The story, which begins with the funeral of Walt's wife, is blatantly concerned with life and death and the fears associated with it. It asks how can one live and shape one's life according to meaningful values when beneath the surface, one's soul is reeling with confusion and doubt. It suggests, as the name implies, that great pleasure and meaning are to be taken from the simple things in life, ie. a treasured car, but also that even simple pleasures must be shared in order to bring satisfaction to life. I can't divulge more as the action of the film's ending is the final meditation on certain ideas raised earlier in the film.

Definitely worth seeing.

Devotion Concert

2009-04-09T20:34:00.001-07:00

Steve Bell has a concert airing tomorrow evening (from his Devotion CD) at 8pm on CBC Radio 2 - and Kerri Woelke opens the show. Both are great musicians and friends and they're playing with a great band. If you can't tune in you can listen to the concert on demand whenever you like by clicking here.

Writing An Intense Scene

2009-04-09T11:51:00.000-07:00

I'm writing a novel that is an an action-horror story with a strong relational base that underpins everything. I was writing a particularly intense scene today, one that was intense in several ways, reversing from one level of intensity, to another and then finally another as the stakes got higher and higher. After just a couple hours my shoulders and arms were so tense I had to stop writing and come home early for lunch.

Yesterday I was writing a guy looking for his mother at the local bar when I thought of a way of reversing the scene that was logical, connected to theme, and made the already bad situation absolutely terrible for the hero. I still managed to get him out there, but he left very scathed, carrying burdens that will certainly be revisited later in the story, and actually had some of their first payoff in what I was writing today.

Lots of fun. Now back at it.

Starting Out in the Evening

2009-04-05T18:55:00.000-07:00

Frank Langella portrays Leonard Schiller, an aging writer who has poured the last ten years of his life into a novel he is unable to finish. Feeling his age and believing his days are numbered, he tries to devote the time he has left to completing his work, but he is distracted when a young woman enters his life. Heather Wolfe is an aggressive grad student who, due to the fact that Leonard's first two books championed an embrasure of freedom which changed her life and made her who she is, has selected Leonard as the topic for her ambitious critical thesis. On a more personal level, she hopes her project will help her 'get' Leonard's later two novels, which seem to have been written from a different heart. Against his better judgement, he accepts her intrusion into his life for reasons that only become clear later in the film.

Illuminating another facet of his life, is his close, but strained, relationship with his daughter, Ariel. Five years ago she walked away from the love of her life because he refused to father a child. Now he returns at the worst possible time, when Ariel lonely, turning forty, and deeply desperate, both to have a child and to be loved.

Frank Langella delivers a vulnerable and profoundly nuanced performance as a guarded man, burdened by age and concerned about his legacy. He wants to be known as a champion of freedom, and yet, has come to believe that people are not free.

This film really is an extraordinary gem; very strong in all it's aspects. It takes us through an incredible examination of several kinds of love, weaving them into an honest and complex story that is sometimes funny, sometimes uncomfortable, often touching and always true. Perhaps its greatest achievement is that through its intimate study of the quiet lives of people who seem so very normal, so very bound and set in their ways, it leads us, through them, to the revelation that one can, with courage, start out again, no matter how late the hour.

The Witch of Portobello

2009-04-04T18:54:00.001-07:00

The narrator of Paulo Coelho's, The Witch of Portobello, is almost absent in this novel, which takes the form of a collection of interviews gathered to piece together the life of Athena, a modern day witch/prophet, after her grisly murder. Her adoptive parents, birth mother, ex-husband, co-workers, teachers, and friends talk about the person they knew, loved and respected, or in some cases, didn't like much at all. Through their stories we can put together the rough chronology of a woman who searched for her roots and found them in learning to connect with the Great Mother, who, here, is the Creator God who invests all things with her presence.

It's a didactic book, interested in inviting our hearts on a journey like Athena's - but it rises above the genre by creating, in Athena, a character who would be quite hard to follow. Athena's journey, which is quite full of doubts and fears and the struggle to abolish them, is more like a series of signposts, by which the reader might find themselves thinking about their own fears and doubts, and how they deal with them. She talks about her difficulty dealing with 'the empty spaces' in her life where she is not busily active. That sounds familiar.

While Athena struggles with doubt and fears - she is nonetheless very courageous and confident. Perhaps it is her courage and confidence that enables her to challenge the status quo and to dig, always deeper, for a richer understanding and experience of life. By life she does not merely search for happiness - she seeks to commune with Life - the creative force which made her and draws her to be known, and to teach.

While many religious people would be quick to condemn the book as presenting a pagan understanding of creation, Coelho, by direct quote and specific allusions, seems well aware that he is crafting a prophet that is, in many ways, like Jesus.

I found its questions extremely interesting, its plot meandering, its dialogue lacking in reality (perhaps this is the fault of the translator - I don't know), and its characters poorly fleshed out, but at the same time more fleshed out (and more flawed) than one would expect in a book that reads like a prescriptive, modern fable. Overall I found it very interesting and easy to read. It's made me keen to read The Fifth Mountain, where Coelho writes about Elijah.

Sanctum

2009-03-29T10:21:00.000-07:00

In the near future the USS Nebraska, a technologically advanced nuclear submarine patrolling the coast of Syria, picks up a low range distress signal at a depth that would test its own benchmarks. Following the signal leads them into a crevasse and a cavern which houses a massive sunken temple and a prototypical Russian submarine lost since the 1950s. Investigations plunge the crew of the Nebrasksa into encounters with the temple's nightmarish entity and divide them on several courses of action: immediate escape, rescue of the exploratory team, and attempts to decode and solve the mystery of the temple.

As a story it evokes tensions similar to those in films as The Abyss and Event Horizon, but with an archaeological twist that's evocative of the Lovecraftian mythos. Xavier Dorison's story is tight and multi-layered. Christophe Bec's art is sharp, realistic and brings great texture to Dorison's tale, strongly depicting both the monstrous and human, and and capturing the claustrophobic atmosphere of both the submarine and the temple, which, though frighteningly large, is choked with shadow and darkness.

The Fall

2009-03-23T12:13:00.000-07:00

In a 1920's Los Angeles hospital, a stuntman (Lee Pace), paralyzed after falling from a bridge, becomes friends with a little immigrant girl (Catinca Untaru), who has broken her arm after falling from a tree. The girl's cuteness has given her the run of the hospital, and the stuntman makes use of this - He tells her a fantastic story, and once she's caught up in it, won't continue unless she gets him more medicine, which he plans to use to kill himself.

Tarsem Singh's film, a remake of the 1982 Bulgarian film Yo Ho Ho! (though The Adventures of Baron Von Munchausen will come to mind for some), is the most visually spectacular film I've seen since Zhang Yimou's Hero. Right from the opening scene, a black and white slow motion approach to the rescue of the stuntman, shot from different angles that slowly give shape to the scene, the visuals and costumes are stunning. Later, as the fantastic story is brought to life we are treated to some of the world's most exotic locations - and see their beauty enhanced by the drama of the unfolding story.

The performances are incredible. The girl in particular turns in a performance so natural that one is left questioning if she even knows she's in a movie. Her scenes, just talking with the stuntman are beautiful and tender, and real in a way that brings extraordinary contrast to the fantasy portions of the film. The story the stuntman tells features a collection of heroes on a quest for revenge, and we see their adventures as imagined by the girl, set in the some of the world's most exotic locations and peopled with faces familiar to her. The ice delivery man is The Slave, the Sihk orange picker as The Indian (she's as yet unfamiliar with the American Indian the stuntman is talking about), an orderly is Charles Darwin, and the stuntman's friend is The Explosives Expert, and while the main hero is a masked bandit originally modeled on the girl's father, she eventually decides to cast the stuntman as the hero. But he is no hero - he is a coward who does not believe in happy endings - and once he identifies the main character as himself, the story begins to unfold according to his own fears and despair, and the girl must enter the story to save it - and him.

In addition to being an excellent film it's also a thoughtful rumination on the nature of story and what happens when we consciously share our stories with each other. To a greater or lesser extent our stories are intertwined with those around us; family, friends, neighbors - and it's valuable to have this truth illustrated for conscious consideration in such a beautiful way.

The film is rated R, which is Ridiculous. There is one frightening sequence that may push beyond the boundary of PG fantasy violence - but we'll plan to watch it with the whole family.

A Complicated Kindness

2009-03-22T11:34:00.000-07:00

In Miram Toews award winning book, Nomi Nickel tells us what it is like to grow up in an oppressive, Mennonite community,a community whose religious spirit has shattered her family, driving away, at different times, her mother and sister, leaving her alone in a decaying house with her repressed, schoolteacher father. Miriam Toews's fluid writing captures the reality of a people and a place experienced through the eyes of an outsider whose only concept of 'an outside' has trickled in third hand.

Soiled by religious concepts that she in part believes, but finds wholly inaccessible and contradictory, Nomi struggles to grow and become a self, herself, in a community that that only equips people to conform and consigns the non-conformant to the vortex of cliched rebellion. Despite its heavy material, the book is a joy to read, its gravity bouyed up by the brilliance of Toews's humour. She can tell us of a tragic, heart-breaking event so that it's laugh out loud funny - and still a heart-breaker.

The reader may notice palpable similarities to Alice Sebold's, The Lovely Bones (at least Michelle and I did). Both books show us a teen girl's perspective on a particular type of deceitful community - suburban pastiche in TLB and religious control in ACK. Both examinations navigate the mysterious currents which make families draw together and then decay, attempting to discover how (or to hope in the face of mystery that) a distinct and confident self can nonetheless take shape and emerge from the soil of contradiction, pretence and unknowing. But where Bones attempts to offer some answers that are, perhaps, too lovely, Kindness remains complicated right to the end, as it must for all of us who live on this side of life's dusty, shadowy border.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union

2009-03-19T11:48:00.000-07:00

Is a mystery set in an alternate time line where Sitka, Alaska, opened for Jewish settlement in 1941, has grown into a Yiddish metropolis. Chabon's "what-if" Sitka is home to millions of Jews, exiles from the world's nations and refugees from the fledgling state of Israel, which was overrun by Arabs in 1948.

Unwelcome in most of the world, they had little choice but to flock to Alaska, where the US allowed temporary settlement in it's northernmost state. For sixty years the settlement has grown (even hosting the world's fair in 1977) but now only two months remain until Reversion - the expiration of the temporary settlement and the coming eviction of up to 90% of the population. Some hopefuls have applied to be part of the few that can stay, others are preemptively emigrating where family members can take them in. Others, like detective Meyer Landsman, are too depressed to give it much thought. Divorced, faithless, drunk and weary, Landsman is a man falling down, who gets to his feet each day to do the work of a cop in the time he has before the precinct folds.

When a murder occurs in the sleazy hotel that Landsman calls home, there are few leads to follow and his boss and ex-wife (same person) Bina Gelbfish, tells him the orders from above are to bury the case along with the ten other unsolved murders he and his partner, his half-Tinglit-Jew cousin, Berko Shemets, have on their desk, so they can hand over a clean slate at Reversion. But Landsman, alone and lonely, reduced to living in a cheap hotel, can't help but think of the victim as family. He digs deeper and discovers that the murdered man was once a figure of hope, considered by some to be the one born into the present generation as a potential messiah.

As Landsman probes the mystery he drags his reluctant partners (Berko and Bina) into a dangerous quagmire of organized crime and religion, and his own equally reluctant soul onto the thin ice of hope and faith as he inches his way toward justice and redemption.

This is a fabulous read that just picked up this year's Nebula award as the finest science fiction novel of the year. It also picked up the Hugo and the Locus awards for best novel and is being adapted into a film by the Coen brothers. The book is not really science fiction - it's speculative fiction and is more likely to be shelved with straight fiction or literature, or with mysteries, than with sci-fi. Heartily recommended.

The Wrestler

2009-03-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

Is the story of Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a once great wrestler, capable of filling arenas, now past his prime and doomed to haunt community hall circuits, brutally punishing his body in front of crowds of fifty or a hundred people, to take home fifty or a hundred dollars. But Randy is not alone, he's found a soul mate in Cassidy, a stripper, also past her prime, who bares her body to a crowd of fifty, or in private dances for a fistful of cash.

But even though there's an attraction, she won't let herself close to Randy - partly she's afraid that he only likes her stripper character and not the person she really is - a struggling mother - and partly she's disturbed by Randy's passion for self-mutilation, which she likens to Jesus's flogging as portrayed in Mel Gibson's, The Passion.

It's not until Randy suffers a heart attack and decides to quit wrestling, that he's forced to shape a new life, and he means to shape a life that includes Cassidy and his estranged daughter. With Cassidy's help he begins to reforge a bond with his daughter, and make a new life behind the meat counter of the local grocer; but it is a very different life far from the crowds that Randy loves and Randy is forced to choose whether he wants to be who he really is, Robin Ramzinsky, or who a few people think he is, Randy "The Ram" Robinson.

The beautiful and engrossing direction captures excellent performances by Mickey Rourke and Marissa Tomei and captures the horrible complexities of despair, hope, broken identity and addiction. While the middle is soaringly hopeful, the film ends as a powerful, gut wrenching tragedy, that ultimately rings too true.

Matthias's Cultural Influences

2009-02-26T06:17:00.000-08:00

On Friday afternoons I go to Bobby's, an 'olde' world style pub, with a few friends, but on Wednesday, as I'm putting on my coat to go write at the library, Matthias asks "Are you going to Moe's?" "Where?" I said, giving him a look. "Oh, I mean Moby's." says Matthias.

On Lying Awake in Bed

2009-02-08T09:05:00.000-08:00

Most nights I lay awake for hours. I'm simply not tired in the early night. I fell tired when I wake or sometimes in the early evening if I've had a hot drink. By the time midnight rolls around, I tend to be wide awake. For the most part I enjoy lying awake in bed; it's the perfect opportunity to think and imagine (or to paint pictures on the ceiling, but I am not so inclined - I'll leave that to GKC). I usually drift between prayer and work; concentrating on whatever comes to mind.

I may ask God some of my own questions and listen for guidance; or will find others brought to mind and know that God is also mindful of them and their concerns. Other times the stories I am writing come to mind and I imagine the characters lives and settings, imagine where their paths might go and look for 'moments that matter', key events/conflicts which suit the character and the larger story. Each of these activities is greatly enjoyable and sleep eventually comes.

Anyway - last night was such a night - and now, after waking late, I am ensconced in the local coffee shop, trying to finish the first draft of a short story before family arrives for the afternoon.

THE WINDOWS ARE BARRED!

2009-02-07T12:04:00.001-08:00

The cricket bats are at hand! The peanuts are bowled! Queen is playing on the jukebox! And we all remain anxious after Analena, on a photographic excursion, came across clear evidence of a zombie attack. Apparently the unknown victim had a box of vinyl records and was willing to sacrifice the Bill Gaither Trio's The Very Best of the Very Best to stun (and perhaps kill, given the damage to the record) the zombie whilst they escaped to The Winchester or some other safe location. Godspeed, whoever you are.

Under The Cold Hard Ground - sort of

2009-02-06T11:07:00.000-08:00

Analena and Matthias had friends for a sleepover last night. Matthias and Talia slept in the living room, Analena and Charis slept in the quinzee - a mound of snow with a cavity cleaned out of it. The 'igloo' as the kids refer to it has been standing in our back yard for a couple months. Analena and Charis put in a tarp, multiple sleeping bag and slept out there for most of the night. I checked on them at two am and they were sleeping fine. But when I woke up at eight, they were in the living room with Matthias and Talia. They made the migration at 4:45 after a rather fitful sleep in the snow.

In the picture above, the flash has turned the outer shell of snow too white to be seen. As you can see by the size of the cavity, the dome is quite large.

The Pearl

2009-02-05T20:30:00.000-08:00

John Steinbeck's short novel, based on a Mexican folktale, is a tragedy, not, I think, primarily about the lure of wealth, but about the systemic and seemingly inescapable oppression of the poor.

Kino, Juana and baby Coyotito are poor fisherfolk, but deeply content - for they have the little they need and take great joy in each other and in the handed-down ways of their people. This contentment is shattered when Coyotito is stung by a scorpion and the doctor will not see him because Kino cannot pay. Kino dives for a pearl that will save his son's life and discovers the greatest, largest pearl in the world, and while he dives, infant Coyotito recovers on his own.

It's in this moment of double blessing (a restored son and unlooked for fortune) that Kino allows himself to dream: he could buy a harpoon (absurd!) - he could buy a rifle (unheard of!) - but these material concerns quickly fade into a dream of liberation. He will use the pearl to educate Coyotito; his son will become a wise and learned man, a reader of books and laws who can lead his people out of ignorance and oppression and into a world of freedom.

His dream is immediately challenged by everyone around him. The doctor takes advantage of his ignorance to poison his son and earn a fee for curing him. The pearl buyers collude to cheat Kino, offering a him a worthless pittance for the gem. When he refuses to sell, his neighbors break his boat (destroying his livelihood) and attempt to kill him. When Kino kills a man in self defense, he is certain that he will be convicted for murder and flees for his life.

Are all these trials the fruit of greed? Perhaps - but while Kino is imperfect and impetuous, the greed does not seem to be his, and while the pearl is the object of greed, it is cannot be said to create it. In the world of The Pearl, systemic evil lurks, and I believe its attention is merely drawn to Kino. Evil has a tendency to escape our notice when we are content and our gaze is turned only to the welfare of ourselves and our family. Those who look beyond and imagine a better world for their fellows draw the vindictive ire of those who would keep the status quo.

Steinbeck's telling of the story is spare but lyrical, intentionally black and white, but perhaps much more politically nuanced than it immediately appears.

Happy Groundhog Day

2009-02-02T07:47:00.000-08:00

I wrote a little song for my friend Stefan and thought I'd share it here:

Rise and seek, our furry friend
Forecast that this snow will end.
Tell us that the thaw will come
Or we will roast and eat your bum.

I have never eaten rump roast of groundhog, but if it will hasten Spring's arrival I am willing to do my part.

The Host

2009-01-30T08:01:00.001-08:00

A struggling multi-generational family faces ultimate tragedy when a monster emerges from the river, rampages through the park and takes young Hyun-seo: daughter, niece, granddaughter. The event pulls the estranged family together and they make a pact to hunt the beast down and kill it. It seems an idle pledge at first, given both their imprisonment in a US military quarantine camp and their persistent personal faults - but when Gang-du, an incompetent but loving father, receives a phone call from Hyun-seo saying she survived the initial attack and is now trapped in one of the city's sewer chambers, the family's spurious pledge becomes their chance for rescue and redemption.

The film delivers on a number of levels. Dramatically the family is forced to take on a task they don't have the character or skills to accomplish - a situation we may relate to, but here the consequences are magnified. The family is keenly aware that the monster didn't just take Hyun-seo - but that her father's incompetence allowed her to be taken. Yet the film doesn't take itself too seriously. There are many opportunities to laugh and the approach to the story never let's us forget that we're supposed to be enjoying the movie. The horror elements are fresh - it's nice to start a middle of the day, fully lit rampage and move toward searching the dark sewer tunnels, and the grim lair of the monster. There's even a strong political subtext as the American military are blamed for the creation of the monster, and a continued oppression which keeps the Park family from looking for their girl.

The story also has some nice surprises and additional tensions that flesh it out - essentially giving one a full meal deal for the price of a fun 'creature feature'.

The Good Night

2009-01-30T07:18:00.000-08:00

The Good Night is a comedy about fantasy and reality and our desire to control both. It's also about our search for acceptance and love. Gary (Martin Freeman) is plagued by multiple disappointments: a failed vocation, a failing relationship (Gwyneth Paltrow), and an egotistical best friend (Simon Pegg) bent on self-destruction. He retreats to the world of sleep and there encounters a mysterious woman (Penelope Cruz) who seems to exist only for him. Gary quickly begins to obsess about her - as he confesses to his friend - "I can't remember the last time I felt like someone loved me."

Choosing fantasy over real life, Gary begins to structure his world to maximize his sleep. His studies of the field lead him to Mel (Danny Devito), a 'Lucid Dreamer' who teaches Gary how to control his dreams. But the problem for Gary is that he doesn't know what he wants - is his dream girl an exotic model or is she really an idealized version of his current girlfriend, Dora? Does he want to give up on real life and look for happiness only in his dreams? As he faces these questions his dreams change and he begins to discover what he really wants in life.

There are some good moments in this thoughtful examination of what makes us tick.

Why I Am Catholic, Garry Wills

2009-01-27T07:24:00.001-08:00

Garry Wills is a popular historian and religion writer. I've found his What ____ Meant (fill in the blank with Paul, Jesus, The Gospels) series insightful. He believes that Jesus is God and that the Christian Scripture describes the true event of God breaking into history to redeem Mankind, but also places a high value on modern textual criticism and thus rejects a wide range of conservative views regarding scripture. He's obviously a devout believer and makes a helpful example of how one can extricate themselves from certain conservative views as a way of moving closer to Christ instead of sliding down the proverbial slippery slope.

So I found it odd that the bulk of Why I Am Catholic reads as a history intended to discredit the papacy's claims for itself. The first eighty to ninety percent of the book is a thorough history lesson on how the Roman see was pedestrian, powerless and unheeded for it's first few centuries, and then alternately powerful, heretical and worldly, and occasionally for sale. While this information isn't new to a student of history or a critic of the church, it's surprising to find these matters treated with such scope in a book of this title.

Discrediting the papacy is necessary for Wills to make his case, because while the papacy has, through the ages, sought to set itself at the top of a changeless, heirarchical faith, Wills champions Vatican II, a revolutionary council which 1) as much as admitted that the church does (must!) change and 2) empowered bishops and catholics all the way down to act and believe according to conscience, essentially freeing them from papal authority. At least that's his interpretation - it's obviously not the magesterium's interpretation of the council.

Wills argues that the magesterium has fought against Vatican II reforms and based on the persistent perception of Catholicism as a top-down religion, I would say the magesterium has been largely successful. But Wills, and many like him, are comfortable defying the authority of the magisterium because, backed up by Vatican II, he doesn't look up to the pope to see What the Church Believes - he looks down the pew at his neighbors - for they are the church. He believes we are in another era of history where it is the people of God who must direct the papacy into the leading of the Spirit and not the other way around. Wills is able to argue that over 90% of Catholics live in defiance of papal rule (ie. contraceptives) without any sense of guilt or sin.

He completes the book with references to the creed - the reason he is a Catholic. However, I found that this presented why he was Christian -not why he was Catholic. In the end I cannot help but suspect he is Catholic because he was raised Catholic, and when he looks at his brothers and sisters who are with him, the people of God, he does not see Catholicism as compared to Eastern Orthodoxy or the protestant denominations - he sees his mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers - he sees his home.

The Orphange

2009-01-24T11:46:00.000-08:00

Juan Antonio Bayona's The Orphanage is so much more than a Spanish horror film - it is as dramatic as it is frightening and it is also a brilliant spiritual metaphor. It has been called this year's Pan's Labyrinth, and this comparison is well earned.

The plot centers around the abduction of Simon, the young son of Laura and Carlos. As the police search for Simon, Laura is haunted by evidence of the supernatural in their home and becomes convinced that Simon has been kidnapped by a ghost. Carlos, a doctor, is unable to sense the ghosts and cannot bring himself to accept Laura's explanation. The mysterious physics of the supernatural is explained by a medium encouraging Laura to keep looking for her son. "You've heard that seeing is believing. It is really the other way around. You need to believe in order to see. Believe and you will see."

The film has no cheap scares. There are some shocks, and a couple frightening images, but it tends to be the masterful blend of score and camera movement that keeps the heart rate high. Not driven by cheap scares, the film is able to build a rising tide of mystery while showing us Laura, Carlos and Simon in their new home, the former Good Shepherd Orphanage, where Laura spent her happy childhood. These are such good people that their only desire is to open their home to care for a small number of special needs children - a dream that's shattered when Simon is abducted.

In the aftermath of loss, we find a story about a woman searching for her treasure, that which she values over all other things. Not only must she find it - she must discover what she is willing to do in order to have it restored to her. While the film is chilling throughout, it delivers a full range of emotion (I was choked up by the beauty of it at one point) without telling the tone on which it ultimately ends.

It's the sort of movie that I'd love to watch with a group and talk about afterward.

Mongol

2009-01-24T11:01:00.000-08:00

Temudjin seeks to survive a host of enemies and a life of enslavement while remaining true to his bride, Borte, and the needs of the Mongol people. This film, first of a planned trilogy, follows young Temudjin from age 9 through to middle age, when he is finally able to unite the Mongol people under one banner and a new law.

While the history may be disputable, the shape it takes in this film is highly entertaining. It's an epic which delivers romance & battle, myth and harsh reality, loyalty & betrayal. It's easy to root for Temudjin as he faces extraordinary hardship, one wonders how he ever survived childhood.

The camera captures the beauty and diversity of the Mongolian steppe, a land of deserts, hills, mountains, forests and undulating plains. The grandeur of the land enhances the epic story. More than a backdrop, the hardships of the land create the people who live upon it and help demonstrate the endurance and adaptability of the clans.

The casting is excellent, as are the performances. Tadanobu Asano as Temudjin is gentle, likable and exudes honor and wisdom. Sun Honglei as his blood-brother, Jahmukha, can hoot and howl like a wild man, but at his core is as shrewd and calculating as a cat. Khulan Chuluun as Borte is beautiful, resolute and heroic.

Made for only $20 million in remote locations with a crew representing 40 nationalities, the film is a remarkable accomplishment - a tribute to its own theme of unity and commitment triumphing over hardship. It's a gem and I'll look forward the next installment, The Great Khan, expected in 2010.

Analena's 13th Birthday

2009-01-24T10:49:00.000-08:00

Analena is 13 and we're very proud of the young woman she is becoming. We celebrated her birthday January 17, with her requested meal of pizza and chocolate cake, followed by the movie, Groundhog Day, which she received as a gift from Matthias. Thayne gave her a camera case for the camera she purchased a couple months ago. Michelle and I gave her an angry robot messenger bag and plan to take her to Coraline when it comes to theatres.

Analena has a growing interest in photography and is often taking pictures. She likes to play music, currently on the oboe, and to babysit, which she does fairly often. She's highly relational and loves her friends.