Agreed

Anne Hathaway is not your friend.

I recognize that there is an entire publicity industry designed to get us to "like" people whom we essentially pay to see work. 

And perhaps it's fair to judge whether or not that industry has been effective in making you think you know Hathaway in a way that you probably do not. But the fact remains that you don't really know any of these people. Anne Hathaway is an actor. This is not a synonym for "Homecoming Queen" nor "special friend." She does her job better than most. That should be enough.

Indeed, we are so hard on people these days, it's a wonder anyone wants to be in the public eye.

Logging

Book:  The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

A Christmas gift, a book about the Arab wars, I thought it would be good.  I decided to stop reading.  It wasn't bad, it just wasn't good.  And I've gotten to the point where I realize there is so much good writing out there, there it just isn't worth the time on the lesser stuff.  Not when I already don't read enough to begin with.

California Teachers Union

Someone needs to take them on.

The common mantra are teachers are important and they should get paid more.  Hogwash.  They get paid adequately for working 9 months out of the year, generally having stability, and the lack of market pressure stress.

Consider the results of shitty public education in California:

1.  Eliminating equality of opportunity.  Everyone knows education - in theory - should be the great equalizer and the primary way for disadvantaged people to rise up out of poverty.  Shit, it might be the only way with a real and lasting impact.

2.  Hurting home prices and living standards.  Anywhere with shitty public schools runs the risk of being ghettoized and/or a two-tiered society.  Los Angeles is ground zero of this.  Communities become the super rich and the people who work for them.  The super rich send their kids to great private schools and the people who work for them send their kids to shitty public schools.  And they live on top of one another.  This is the stuff of Latin America in the 80s.  American democracy, quite simply, will fail if this model persists.

If California fancies itself as being the most progressive state in the Union, the very least we should have is top tier public schools.  This is a stain on our community.

Bob Woodward

Calls Obama not deploying an aircraft carrier because of the sequester a form of madness unseen at a Presidential level.

Of all people, he would know.

Alex Smith

Traded to Chiefs.  I hope they make the playoffs.  I root for the guy.  A good challenge for he and Andy Reid.

Don't Do That, Stef Curry

Warriors-Pacers shoving match.  Stef Curry tries to shove Roy Hibbert.  Not a good idea.  What is Stef Curry 160?  Crazy.

Logging

Film:  Minnesoda Clay

New Bev screening.  A little messy, felt a bit like a first draft screenplay made into a film.  I still enjoyed it.

Older Entrepreneurs Better Than Young Ones 

From Instapundit.

“I came away from that meeting, and many that followed, convinced that not only were these older entrepreneurs equal to their younger counterparts in passion and commitment, but when it came to interpersonal skills, business experience and networking they were clearly superior. . . . While young entrepreneurs enjoy an obvious edge when it comes to energy, health and irrepressible optimism, much of that advantage is dissipated on endless searches for connections and capital, unrealistic product dead-ends and on-the-job training.”

I'd bet it applies to most jobs, not just entreprenuers.

Oscar Thoughts

I've come not to expect much from the Oscars and why should we?  It is one of the few events which should be for everyone and hence, somewhat tame and boring.  If it were up to me, I'd try to keep it classy (as opposed to "relevant") only because that's the myth we're trying to buy into with the Oscars - that there is such a thing as excellence and timelessness and those things ought to be celebrated.

For that reason, I will avoid whining about Argo and Life of Pi winning many awards because I did not love the movies.  That said, a few notes:

- Tony Kushner was robbed of best adapted screenplay.  The craft of the screenplay from all the source material and history is simply astounding.  I was happy for the young Argo writer because I'm sure it means something for his career, etc, but in terms of accomplishment, these scripts were in way different leagues.

-Michelle Obama was a real turn off moment for me.  I didn't understand it at all.

-Didn't like the John Wilkes Booth joke.  Ugly.

-Why were we watching musical numbers from Chicago and Dreamgirls?  This made no sense.  They aren't old enough to be classic and not from this year.  Very, very odd.

-I was bummed Buzkashi Boys did not win best short film only because I know Sam French from film school and would have enjoyed his speech.  In fairness, I have not seen any of the short films.

But hey, I hear the ratings are up and the Oscars lives to see another day.  The year was strong for movies and that is a good thing.  Nowadays I'll just happy if the movie biz can continue to truck along.

Logging

Film:  Superman, the Richard Donner version

Not enough credit is given to this film for laying the groundwork of what Batman and Marvel are now doing.  People talk about Nolan putting Batman into the real, contemporary world, but the entire 2nd half of the Superman film essentially does the same thing.

Some notable things about the movie, since I hadn't seen the film since I was a kid:

-My god are the beginning scenes on Krypton bad looking.  Even by 1978 standards.  It really makes you remember how remarkable the visual design of the original Star Wars exceeded anything else being done at the time.  I would think TV Star Trek was better designed than Superman.

-Lex Luther is not even mentioned until 1 hour into the movie.  Superman does not meet Luther until almost 2 hours into the movie.

Candy

Dwight Howard on candy:

"Am I a big candy person? That's an understatement," he joked. "My pantry is full of candy. Skittles just sent me 30 pounds of Skittles. I have a nightstand full of every candy you could think of. Skittles, blow pops, Laffy Taffy, Reese's Pieces, Kit Kats, all types of candy was in the drawer. They had to clear it out."

He and Lamar Odom should have a Halloween candy eat off at the Staples Center.

More Screenwriting Podcast

I made fun of Craig Mazin in an earlier post, but I really enjoyed him talking about what it was like to get terrible reviews.  Remarkably honest.

America's New Mandarins

McArdle nails the phenomenon.

All elites are good at rationalizing their elite-ness, whether it's meritocracy or "the divine right of kings". The problem is the mandarin elite has some good arguments. They really are very bright and hard-working. It's just that they're also prone to be conformist, risk averse, obedient, and good at echoing the opinions of authority, because that is what this sort of examination system selects for.

In conclusion:

But they are not the only qualities worth having, and the things that mandarins know are not the only things worth knowing. My grandfather had maybe ten books in his house (that weren't written for children), but he could take a failing service station and make it succeed, while I'm pretty sure that I would take a successful gas station and make it fail. He also, I might add, was very successful at actually running a small town (as an alderman) and a charitable institution (the local Rotary). I'm not sure we're better off cutting off the paths to success and power taken by people like him, so that we can funnel it all through a series of academic hoops. I'm not sure we haven't ended up with a class of people who know everything about gas stations except what it takes to make one succeed.

Why Are Romantic Comedies So Bad?

The writer has some answers:

Among the most fundamental obligations of romantic comedy is that there must be an obstacle to nuptial bliss for the budding couple to overcome. And, put simply, such obstacles are getting harder and harder to come by. They used to lie thick on the ground: parental disapproval, difference in social class, a promise made to another. But society has spent decades busily uprooting any impediment to the marriage of true minds. Love is increasingly presumed—perhaps in Hollywood most of all—to transcend class, profession, faith, age, race, gender, and (on occasion) marital status.

Yup.

The 3 Page Challenge

John August, Craig Mazin, and Aline Brosh McKenna critique amateur writers 3 page challenges on their podcast.

Craig often has especially harsh words for the writers, criticizing their lack of voice, their lack of originality, and lack of understanding of the present state of comedy.  And I can't help but think - isn't this the guy who wrote Hangover Part 2 and Identity Thief?

Anyhow, public critique - particularly of amateur work - isn't a pretty sight.  But maybe there is a learning element in there.

I Rather Like This Quote

To admire an artist for his own sake, although certainly a compliment, can also be a way of suggesting that he has no place in the larger scheme of things

But I'm not entirely sure what it means.  I suppose it has something to do with the ideas and the work as separate from the artist-the-person.

In film, I've been searching for alternative theories to explain the filmmaking and film watching experience beyond the auteur theory because I find it very limited and limiting in how we think about movies.  Or at least misused and certainly excessive in many film watching circles.

Here is a dismissive quote from Sarris in one article, that maybe deserves more weight:

"Obviously the auteur theory cannot explain every vagrant charm of the cinema."

But I'm still not behind the simple premise that bad directors will always make bad movies and good directors will always make good movies, or at the very least, movies worth paying attention to.  We end up putting the cart before the horse in order for the theory to hold and ascribe importance to films that may not deserve it and neglecting others which may matter in some ways more.  I just think ideas and stories matter on their own, beyond the force of personalities behind a film, not to mention a certain technical competence that comes from a myriad of forces, some arranged by the director, but others arranged by money and skills of hiring and good luck.

MFK Fisher

A wise woman:

“Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly.”

Logging

Film:  Skin Game

A Western showing at the New Bev starring James Gardner and Lou Gossett about two con men trying to get ahead in the slave trade.  Basically the idea was to take the Maverick character and pair him up with a young black man and make a racial comedy.  The film was middle of the road.  I enjoyed some bits, but it wasn't laugh out loud.  Certainly had some elements Tarantino took for Django.  Fun to revisit the New Bev.  Don't go there enough.  Oh...one bummer...the print was made for TV and was a pan and scan cut.  Ugly to watch.

Brave New World

VDH makes some points.

To understand the effect of no, or very low, interest, think of the billions of dollars in cash that are silently transferred from those who have saved to those who have no cash. The former receive little or no interest from the banks. The latter take out mortgages or car loans at historically low interest rates.

and this

Does it really make all that much difference whether you are a doctor at 70 who religiously put away $1,000 a month for thirty years, compounded at the old interest, and planned to retire on the interest income, or a cashless state employee with a defined benefit pension plan? The one might have over $1 million in his savings account, but the other a bigger and less risky monthly payout. Suddenly the old adult advice to our children — “Save and put your money in the bank to receive interest” — is what? “Spend it now or borrow as much as you can at cheap interest”?

Jordan at 50

A terrific article on Michael Jordan at outside the lines.  On what Michael Jordan used to do with his dad:

"The thing we'd do," he says, "we'd stay up all night and watch cowboy movies. Westerns." 

Jordan still watches them obsessively, and it's easy to imagine he does it to feel the presence of his father. 

One of his employees joked that she'd rather fly commercial than on Jordan's Gulfstream because a passenger on his plane is subjected to hours of shootouts and showdowns. 

"Name a Western," George says. "He'll tell you the beginning, middle and end." 

"I watch 'em all the time," Jordan says. "I watch Marshal Dillon. I watch all of 'em." 

"I think his favorite Western is my favorite Western," George says. "You and I have three we really like," Jordan says. 

"'Outlaw Josey Wales,'" George says. 

"That's my favorite," Jordan says. 

"Two Mules …," George begins. 

"… for Sister Sara," Jordan finishes. 

"The other one I like is 'Unforgiven,'" George says. 

"My father loved that," Jordan says.

This is why we make movies.