According to a local news reader, “Classes are canceled today at the University of California in Santa Barbara for the victims of the mass murders.” Not to put too fine a point to the message, but classes are canceled for all the rest of the UCSB students because “the victims of the mass murders” are no longer alive whether classes are canceled or not.
Say what you mean and mean what you say.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Saturday, May 17, 2014
A Tangled Web of Storytelling
My movie buddy and I went to the new Spiderman movie as we both enjoy an action flick, as well as the first Spiderman movie with Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone in the starring roles. At the midway point of this newest release, however, we were ready to bow out gracefully as the movie became a tangled web of 6 separate stories that would literally stop, then begin another plotline, creating mini-episodes rather than a cohesive plot. The movie slams its way to an ending that serves the purpose only of leaving room for another sequel by introducing yet another character that Spiderman has to handle.
The first plot focuses on Spiderman’s relationship with Gwen Stacy, played by Emma Stone. They get more serious and seem to be moving toward a real relationship when shazaam! Another story takes off in a different direction, this time focused on Peter Parker’s father’s role in genetic engineering of spiders and hidden venom that could save the life of Harry Osborne, played by Dane DeHaan, who is dying of the same disease that takes his father’s life in the beginning of the plot line. Then there’s the move by the board of OsCorp to take control of the company away from Harry. Zap! Onto a fourth plot line, this time featuring Max Dillon (played by Jamie Foxx), who morphs into Electro and throws electrical charges at people and places, shutting down New York’s power grid, but that’s okay because that storyline would have us believe that Gwen Stacy, Peter’s girlfriend, knows how to restart the entire power grid of New York City! The next plot begins with yet another Spiderman nemesis coming after Peter Parker, but I cannot tell you which one of the villains this is until I see the next Spiderman movie installment.
The last storyline is the deepening love between Peter and Gwen, but SPOILER ALERT Gwen dies and I did not see that coming, especially not based on the movie subplot about their relationship, which led me and my buddy to believe that they would be together, forever, rama rama ding dong!
No, I did not like this movie primarily because whoever was in charge of editing it did a poor job of deciding what to include and what to delete. I almost felt as if I had picked up six different comic issues of the Spiderman series and had to read them all at the same time and make sense of all of them at the same time. I go to movies to be entertained, not irritated!
The first plot focuses on Spiderman’s relationship with Gwen Stacy, played by Emma Stone. They get more serious and seem to be moving toward a real relationship when shazaam! Another story takes off in a different direction, this time focused on Peter Parker’s father’s role in genetic engineering of spiders and hidden venom that could save the life of Harry Osborne, played by Dane DeHaan, who is dying of the same disease that takes his father’s life in the beginning of the plot line. Then there’s the move by the board of OsCorp to take control of the company away from Harry. Zap! Onto a fourth plot line, this time featuring Max Dillon (played by Jamie Foxx), who morphs into Electro and throws electrical charges at people and places, shutting down New York’s power grid, but that’s okay because that storyline would have us believe that Gwen Stacy, Peter’s girlfriend, knows how to restart the entire power grid of New York City! The next plot begins with yet another Spiderman nemesis coming after Peter Parker, but I cannot tell you which one of the villains this is until I see the next Spiderman movie installment.
The last storyline is the deepening love between Peter and Gwen, but SPOILER ALERT Gwen dies and I did not see that coming, especially not based on the movie subplot about their relationship, which led me and my buddy to believe that they would be together, forever, rama rama ding dong!
No, I did not like this movie primarily because whoever was in charge of editing it did a poor job of deciding what to include and what to delete. I almost felt as if I had picked up six different comic issues of the Spiderman series and had to read them all at the same time and make sense of all of them at the same time. I go to movies to be entertained, not irritated!
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Soundbite of History
It is a large book of non-fiction, 480 pages including the 13 pages of sources used, hardly a tome most people would characterize as a page-turner, but it is. Bill Bryson, who is one of America’s finest modern writers, takes a look at One Summer (the title of the book), the summer of 1927, and presents a confluence of people, places, and events that forever changed America, and, by extension, the rest of the world. There are people’s names that will ring a bell in the reader’s memory, such as Babe Ruth, Charles Lindbergh, and Al Capone, and other important people whose names are not so well-known, such as Charles Francis Jenkins, Robert G. Elliott, and Willis Blakely.
Charles Lindbergh did more to advance aviation in 1927 than any other pilot, and, yes, there were other pilots, as well as regularly-scheduled flights between major cities in Europe. I had always pictured the Wright brothers initial flight as a “one of,” but was surprised to know that Europe was well ahead of the United States in the development of aviation. Lindbergh’s contribution stemmed from crossing the Atlantic Ocean, thus validating inter-continental flight development. His relentless publicity tour of the United States following his memorable flight across the Atlantic forever linked Lindbergh’s name to the development of aviation, but what he primarily accomplished was publicizing aviation, not creating it.
Also during the summer of 1927, the name of Alfred Ponzi, perhaps only known for what became a Ponzi scheme, made his name forever synonymous with generating huge amounts of money on the backs of hapless investors who lost everything they put into Ponzi’s investment schemes. The motion picture industry thrived with the advent of talking films, wherein the soundtrack was invented that would allow characters to talk and actions to have appropriate noises. Alvin “Shipwreck” Kelly climbed a flagpole on top of a building and spent 49 days sitting there. Mount Rushmore began to take shape, but its sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, did not live to see it completed. Most interestingly to me, this is also the summer when four financiers met in secret to formulate financial plans that led directly to the stockmarket crash and the Great Depression of 1929.
Bryson’s work is a study in American history and should be required reading for every student in the United States school system, whether at the high school level or under-graduate degree programs at community colleges, as well as universities. The narration is easy to read while also being content rich. The strands of the story, from May through September 1927, are woven carefully to form a cohesive over-view of what it was like both in America and the world during this time, and forms the significance of people, places and events in a way that brings the story alive. The twelve pages of bibliography, in a very small typeface, as well as the end notes, also prove to any student that there are sources available to tell any story – if the writer cares enough about the subject matter to research it.
Charles Lindbergh did more to advance aviation in 1927 than any other pilot, and, yes, there were other pilots, as well as regularly-scheduled flights between major cities in Europe. I had always pictured the Wright brothers initial flight as a “one of,” but was surprised to know that Europe was well ahead of the United States in the development of aviation. Lindbergh’s contribution stemmed from crossing the Atlantic Ocean, thus validating inter-continental flight development. His relentless publicity tour of the United States following his memorable flight across the Atlantic forever linked Lindbergh’s name to the development of aviation, but what he primarily accomplished was publicizing aviation, not creating it.
Also during the summer of 1927, the name of Alfred Ponzi, perhaps only known for what became a Ponzi scheme, made his name forever synonymous with generating huge amounts of money on the backs of hapless investors who lost everything they put into Ponzi’s investment schemes. The motion picture industry thrived with the advent of talking films, wherein the soundtrack was invented that would allow characters to talk and actions to have appropriate noises. Alvin “Shipwreck” Kelly climbed a flagpole on top of a building and spent 49 days sitting there. Mount Rushmore began to take shape, but its sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, did not live to see it completed. Most interestingly to me, this is also the summer when four financiers met in secret to formulate financial plans that led directly to the stockmarket crash and the Great Depression of 1929.
Bryson’s work is a study in American history and should be required reading for every student in the United States school system, whether at the high school level or under-graduate degree programs at community colleges, as well as universities. The narration is easy to read while also being content rich. The strands of the story, from May through September 1927, are woven carefully to form a cohesive over-view of what it was like both in America and the world during this time, and forms the significance of people, places and events in a way that brings the story alive. The twelve pages of bibliography, in a very small typeface, as well as the end notes, also prove to any student that there are sources available to tell any story – if the writer cares enough about the subject matter to research it.
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