Samsara

Is the finest cinema experience you are likely to have at a motion picture theater this year...

Just go see it.

You can thank me later.

Fizzle Yield

A very loose collection of ideas - some of them clever - trying to achieve critical mass...

It arrived without any fanfare (rarely a good sign) or advance screenings for the critics (never a good sign) but the movie Branded nonetheless caught my eye and a couple hours of my time this week.  It features actors Max von Sydow, Leelee Sobieski, and Jeffrey Tambor.  Set and filmed in post-Soviet Russia this 2012 film is nominally a fantasy science-fiction story.  

Nominally.

In practice it's some sort of post-Communist allegorical - and phantasmagorical - screed aimed at the excesses of modern marketing, capitalism, corporate amorality, materialism, personal excess, and consumerism.  There are American spies using USAID as a front (like that would ever happen), Lenin as the inventor of scientific marketing, a gullible populace whose easily manipulated opinions are transmitted to them via reality programs and TV commercials (Pshaw!), traffic jams that transform Moscow streets into parking lots - and bedrooms (did I mention Leelee Sobieski?), a plan that turns "thin is in" inside out, a ritual sacrifice of the red heifer performed in the traditional Hebrew style, and an ambivalent marketing whiz who can perceive the spiritual manifestations of his own and his competitors' campaigns.  It was probably a brilliant short story.  As a movie Branded is a goofy, stylish, kinetic mess.

Memorial Bowties?

Really, that's the best you can do to perpetuate the horror?

I thought we Americans would eventually get over the nasty sucker punch we took on September 11th, 2001.  Instead we've made 9/11 a national holiday and ground zero into a police state theme park.    

This week, on the occasion of the 11th anniversary of Osama bin Laden's terror attacks, Slate has an excellent essay online this week.  Written by a very talented Mark Vanhoenacker and titled Do You Have a Photo ID, Young Man?, it questions the excessive security in place at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum (& Gift Shop).  Bruce Schneier was interviewed for this edgy piece and he does not fail to deliver.

Schneier responded to a description of the memorial’s visible security with a pointed question: Is the memorial to the victims—or to our collective stupidity?   The tactics, Schneier said, “assume we can guess the plot. But as long as the terrorists can avoid them by making a minor change in their tactics or target, they're wastes of money.”

 

In one of many pointed paragraphs from this excellent essay:

In terms of balancing America’s most cherished values, no other American memorial marking a terrorist act has struck anything like the “balance” New York has. The Oklahoma City memorial, the Flight 93 memorial, even the Sept.11 memorial at the Pentagon: None require advance names, photo ID, or airport-style security, let alone all three ... Abroad, access to highly urban memorials in freedom-loving countries better acquainted with terrorism - Spain, the United Kingdom - is unfettered. Neither the memorial to the London July 7, 2005, attacks nor the Madrid station bombing memorial require preregistration, ID, or security checks.

I remember the horrible morning of 11 September 2001, but a decade and a year later I choose not to be crippled by fear, or to let my judgement be clouded by anger. But neither will I celebrate it.  The USA and its coalition members have killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, Afghanis, Pakistanis, and Yemenis  in reprisal for Al Qaeda's dastardly attacks.  Perhaps it's time to share some of our national outrage with those who have cynically guided, leveraged, perpetuated, and profited from our reflexive and jingoistic response to the original offense. 

We have sacrificed the lives of more than 6,000 military personnel and maimed tens of of thousands, spent two trillion dollars and have not stopped counting, cheered while the alphabet agencies told the Congress precisely where to gut-rip our Constitution, and now stand patiently in cattle chutes while the TSA gropes our grandmothers and looks at naked pictures of our children.

All that's left is to send Al Qaeda GeeDubya's "Mission Accomplished!" banner.

And when you're done refreshing your dread at ground zero don't forget to visit the Gift Shop where you can purchase four dollar rubber bands, co-branded NYPD ball caps ($18.00) and NYFD T-shirts ($22.00), and memorial bowties ($57.00?!!).

How About You?

What books have you read more than once? 

An interesting quote of the day from GoodReads has got me thinking.

“If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads.” - François Mauriac

According to my best recollections at my GoodReads account I've read something like a thousand books.  Among them I've read the following more than once:

• African Rifles and Cartridges, by John "Pondoro" Taylor
• The AK47 Story: Evolution of the Kalashnikov Weapons, by Edward Clinton Ezell
• American Hunting Rifles: Their Application in the Field for Practical Shooting, by Craig Boddington
• The Andromeda Strain, by Michael Crichton [The first novel I ever owned]  
  
• Anvil of Stars, by Greg Bear
• Beyond Fair Chase: The Ethic and Tradition of Hunting, by Jim Posewitz
• The Body, by Stephen King
• The Book of the Garand, by Julian S. Hatcher
• Combat Shotgun And Submachine Gun: A Special Weapons Analysis, by Chuck Taylor
• The Complete Book of Combat Handgunning, by Chuck Taylor   
• The Complete Walker III, by Colin Fletcher
• Cooper on Handguns, by Jeff Cooper  
• Dune, by Frank Herbert
• Dune Messiah, Frank Herbert 
• Endymion, by Dan Simmons
• The Fall of Hyperion, by Dan Simmons
• The Fighting Rifle, by Chuck Taylor 
• Fireworks, by Jeff Cooper 
• The Forge of God, by Greg Bear
• Goodnight Moon*, by Margaret Wise Brown
• Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond
• Hyperion, by Dan Simmons 
• The Illiad, by Homer (Fagle translation)
• Longbow: A Social and Military History, by Robert Hardy
• Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
• The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick
• The New Testament, by multiple authors 
• The Odyssey, by Homer (Fagle translation) 
• Of Arms and Men: A History of War, Weapons, and Aggression, by Robert L. O'Connell 
• On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society, by Dave Grossman
• Plagues and Peoples, by William H. McNeill
• The Polar Express*, by Chris Van Allsberg
• Ringworld, by Larry Niven
• The Rise of Endymion, by Dan Simmons
• The Runaway Bunny*, by Margaret Wise Brown
• Safari Rifles: Doubles, Magazine Rifles, and Cartridges for African Hunting, by Craig Boddington
• Shots at Big Game, by Craig Boddington 
• Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut 
• The Snowy Day*, by Ezra Jack Keats
• Stalking & Still-Hunting (The Ground Hunter's Bible), by G. Fred Asbell 
• The Stand, by Stephen King 
• Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
• Startide Rising, by David Brin
• Sundiver, by David Brin 
• Where the Wild Things Are*, by Maurice Sendak
• Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief, by Andrew Newberg, Eugene D'Aquili and Vince Rause

* Okay, the books we read the kids may be a cheat, but these are among the better ones and we read them many, many times.

There are probably a couple others; I'll think on it. 

How about you?

Always Charming

Temple Grandin never fails to impress...

Temple Grandin, Ph.D., world-renowned specialist in facility design, livestock handling, and animal welfare, successful author, and champion of persons living on the autism spectrum was interviewed by Indre Viskontas this week on one of my favorite podcasts, Point of Inquiry.

In course of a very lively hour Dr. Grandin offered her perceptions on animals, children, the internet, the Mars Curiosity rover, pink slime, and more.  She is a seriously interesting person who offers us a very special perspective on our humanity.

Her life story is told in the movie Temple Grandin in which she was played by Clarie Daines in an award-winning performance.  She has also spoken at TED.  Her talk there is a fine way to begin to understand her if you don't have an hour for the podcast or a couple for the movie.

Image credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Grandin