PPP Driving Miss Daisy

A promotional video for my latest show, PPP's production of Driving Miss Daisy.  Look for me a little ways in - I'm playing Boolie.

SPIDERMAN HOMECOMING TRAILER (2017) *** Details You Missed ***

Jeff offers a pretty nifty breakdown of the new Spidey trailer.  Check it out!

Board Games & Politics

Several weeks ago, just after the new year began, I was invited to the home of some friends for a Friday night of drinking and board games.  Along with the massage I had scheduled for earlier that evening, this promised to be a great ending to my work week and a good way to get my weekend started.  Little did I realize though that I would end the evening with an interesting political allegory about which I would feel inspired to write.

Going into this social situation, I didn't know that I would be the only liberal present, a situation that in and of itself isn't all that surprising given the socio-political make-up of Sussex County, Delaware.  I was surprised though to be among ardent Trump supporters.  Although I do count Trump supporters among some of my friends, family, and colleagues, I wasn't prepared to be surrounded in so intimate a social situation and to be the target of some good-natured ribbing for my liberal viewpoints.

Don't get me wrong - I didn't feel there was anything malicious in the teasing, and I was certainly giving as good as I got.  I just wasn't expecting this type of encounter among people I consider friends and contemporaries.

The evening commenced with a series of board games of varying levels of complexity.  The first game we played was Apples To Apples, which is essentially a clean version of Cards Against Humanity.  A round consists of one player reading a question or statement with a fill-in-the blank.  The other players provide responses from the cards they have, and the reader selects what he/she feels is the best answer, usually the one that is the most clever or the funniest.

Round after round, I noticed something.  The Trump supporters were, to put it kindly, stepping outside the bounds of the rules to get their cards selected.  There were not-so-subtle hints thrown out as to which card the reader should select.  Some of the readers at times clearly picked the card of someone they have a more personal connection to, like a spouse, rather than actually picking one that was actually funny or clever.  And, most interestingly there was some irritation expressed whenever a reader failed to pick a certain card, particularly a card in which the player had done everything he or she could to get it selected.

I, the bleeding heart liberal, stuck to the rules and came in last.

However, the next game we played saw a turning of the tide so to speak.  We set out to play something called Finish Lines, a game in which a player is given a portion of a quote from anything ranging from song lyrics to a literary text to a famous speech and has to finish the quote.  It is a game that requires a certain measure of cultural literacy as well as a certain precision in the use of language in order to be successful at it.

It is also a game in which it is very difficult to rely on special favors and secret hints in order to win.  And, I noticed that the Trump supporters began to flounder as I took a decisive lead.  In other words, the liberal excelled at the game that required a base of knowledge and education, not side deals and underhanded maneuvers.

The final game of the evening served up the last major point of the little political allegory I was observing.  I had never played Cranium before, so I asked for someone to explain it to me.  I was told that the game requires at least two teams of two people to compete against each by completing cooperative tasks and problem solving.  I was paired with one of the Trump supporters and faced off against the other two.

Almost immediately, my partner and I dominated the game, winning one round after another, completing our tasks well within the time limits placed on us.  Anything ranging from acting out a scenario to constructing objects with clay - nothing daunted us for too long, and we found ourselves easily working in tandem to move further along the board.  As our imminent victory became more assured, I couldn't help but take pride in the fact that the liberal was succeeding at the game that required cooperation and problem solving skills.

You probably noticed that I didn't mention any names in this little anecdote I've laid out.  That's because I have no desire to embarrass my friends.  And, I don't mean to imply that some lighthearted rule breaking during an inconsequential board game indicates a lack in moral rectitude.  These individuals are fine people with whom I always have a good time.  However, I could not ignore the obvious political parallels I could draw between what was happening during this pleasant evening of recreation and what has been playing out on the national stage over the last year.

What-to-Watch Wednesday - The Nines (2007)

If a movie gives me something to think about then I can forgive it almost any flaw.  Such is the case with The Nines, a film that ponders some rather deep existential matters even if its efforts aren't 100% successful the whole time.

The film stars Ryan Reynolds in three different roles that seem to be in three different stories, but they are in fact connected in a single narrative.  The film's events though are disjointed and surreal, leaving the viewer wondering what is real and what might be the product of a deranged mind.  What remains consistent in each story is that the Reynolds' character starts to see his world unravel in some way.  There are also two characters who continuously pop up (played by Hope Davis and Melissa McCarthy) and engage in a tug-a-war in which they try to keep him away from the other.  Their actions are what result in each world starting to come apart.

The mystery behind what is happening slowly reveals itself, and the answer tackles some rather big issues about the nature of existence, of how we determine the reality in which we find ourselves.  It also ponders the relationship a creator has with his creations.  Does the creator owe any allegiance to that which he has created?  Is he free to destroy that which he creates simply because he was the one who created it in the first place?

Writer/director John August tackles these questions in a story that functions as a show business allegory on one level but evolves into something much deeper and profound as the "rules" of movie storytelling are slowly and systematically ignored to reveal hidden truths beneath the surface.  Like David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, The Nines brings attention to itself as a movie by breaking the rules it establishes at the start and isn't afraid to confuse the audience with inexplicable dialogue and random jumps in time and space.  Unlike Mulholland Drive, however, The Nines isn't cynical and has, in fact, a great deal of heart at its core.

And that is where the film loses some of its power by being a touch too sentimental about its subject matter.  It doesn't quite make the leap into brilliant satire because it feels the need to give its characters some closure.  But, you know, that's okay.  By the time all is said and done, the audience has connected enough to the characters, even as they continuously change, to want them to find some sort of happy ending.

JUSTICE LEAGUE TRAILER (2017) *** What To Look For ***

Jeff does a breakdown of the new Justice League trailer.  Check it out!

Did HAN and BOBA FETT and MACE WINDU Survive?

So, Jeff had me help out with this one.  Look for me playing a smarmy Disney executive.

I really like this one because Jeff shows his strong, acerbic view on some of the more "extreme" aspects of Star Wars fandom.  I can't say I agree with him 100%, but he is a good enough friend that I am okay with him being completely wrong sometimes.  Haha!

Lessons From a Comic Book: Rising From the Shadow

My first entries in this series focused on two of DC Comics' Big Three (Superman and Wonder Woman), so the natural assumption would be that the next one would examine Batman.  However, I came of age reading comics when Batman was pretty uninspiring as a hero.  Certainly, he was cool (and still is), but he was being depicted in the comics as something of a sociopath with a dark and unwelcoming personality.  There was little kindness in him, no sparks of warmth that would take the edge off his more intimidating characteristics.

I've written about this portrayal before, and I still say it damaged the character most noticeably in how it limited what could be done with him in the comics.  Fortunately, such has not been the case with the supporting characters of the Batman mythos.

Although I never read any of the core Batman comics on a regular basis, in the 1990s I found myself reading two books that were considered part of the Batman-family of books: Nightwing and Birds of Prey.  Nightwing was the first solo book for Dick Grayson, who had long since dropped his Robin identity to forge his own way as Nightwing.  Birds of Prey focused on two female leads (a rarity even in today's comics), one of whom was Barbara Gordon aka Oracle.  At the onset of each title's run, the books were being written by legendary writer, Chuck Dixon, who took the characters in directions that carved distinctive identities for each of them.

Nightwing had long been considered the most popular super-hero to not have his own book.  DC Comics seemed noncommittal to the idea of giving the character a solo book until a costume change and a successful mini-series effectively poised the character to carry his own series, beginning in 1996.  Immediately, the series distinguished itself from the core Batman books through its look and content.  In Scott McDaniel, the book had an artist that highlighted Nightwing's acrobatic movement and a fighting style shown from angles that made the action look truly death-defying.  All of this was placed within the context of a story about a young man making his way in a strange city, determined to forge his own path.

In contrast, Oracle was a character born out of tragedy.  Barbara Gordon had her career as Batgirl ended when the Joker shot a bullet through her spine, turning her into a paraplegic.  From this horrific experience, she created the identity of Oracle, a computer and technology expert who functioned as a powerful information broker for DC's metahumans.  Still, she was little more than an occasional supporting player until a succession of one-shots and minis paired her with the equally under utilized Black Canary.  The popularity of the pairing paved the way for an ongoing series in which Oracle functioned as mission coordinator while Black Canary was the field agent in their partnership.

My reading life has taught me that sometimes certain books find you when you're ready to read them.  I've come to believe that such was the case with Nightwing and Birds of Prey.  I was reading both books at time when my life was stalled - I had left college, was working some dead end jobs, and had no clear prospects to get on track to a real career.  Obviously, my choices were very much in contrast to what Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon were accomplishing with their lives.  And, on a certain level, their active stories served to highlight how mine was going nowhere.

I won't be so melodramatic as to say that reading these comics galvanized me into taking some drastic action with my life and finally getting it into gear.  It took a series of circumstances and a lot of much needed life experience for that to happen.  However, I think I can honestly say my reading these books kept me from becoming too complacent in what my life had become at that time as well as helping me not lose focus on my long-term goals, even though many were telling me to give them up.  

Like Dick and Barbara, I, too, felt the pressures of living up to the expectations of my parental figures and wanted desperately to be accepted on my own terms and for what I wanted to be.  At times, I understood all too well what it was like to be part of an all-encompassing family that left little room for individuality and where there was an expectation to fit into the common narrative of the other members regardless of whether or not that narrative fit into the one I was writing for myself.  The balancing act that Nightwing and Birds of Prey achieved on a regular basis taught me it was possible to have one's own space while also fitting into a larger context.  One doesn't necessarily have to reject one in order to have the other.

Movie Crushes

Clockwise from top: Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman,
Black Lively in Age of Adaline, Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast At Tiffany's

A couple weeks ago, I watched Age of Adaline for the first time.  It had been sitting in my Netflix queue for the longest time, and my rotation of receiving movies on DVD (a much slower rotation than my viewing of streaming movies) finally brought Age of Adeline to the top of the list.

When it arrived, I let it sit for a few days until I had an opportunity to watch it.  To be frank, I didn't have a burning desire to see it right away.  From everything I had heard about the film, it sounded like very predictable fare.  But, I was interested to see Harrison Ford in it as he had gotten some good notices for his performance.  And, I wanted to see the actor who plays Ford's character as a young man, as he is supposed to have an uncanny impression of both Ford's mannerisms and voice.

However, when I started watching it, what I did not expect was to witness a revelatory performance by Blake Lively, whose most notable roles thus far have been in the awful Green Lantern film and the TV show, Gossip Girls.

As the movie went on, I was drawn to the grace and maturity Lively projects as a woman who has inexplicably stopped aging.  I couldn't take my eyes off her whenever she was on screen.  Not only is she incredibly beautiful in the film, but her performance was so soulful that I can say without hyperbole that I was deeply moved emotionally.  Everything about me as a man was fully charged by how this character spoke, how she walked, and how she always seemed to be holding back a little something from the other characters as well as the audience.

In short, I was crushing on the character of Adaline in a major way.  And, I want to make a clear distinction: I was indeed crushing on Adaline, not Blake Lively.  I'm not so deluded as to crush on someone I haven't met, and I am smart enough to know that an actress's performance in a film in no way represents who she is as a person.  Plus, she's married to Ryan Reynolds, so there is no way I could ever compete with that.

Still, I was crushing, and it made me think back to times when I had similar feelings wash over me when watching movies.

My first true movie crush occurred when I was fifteen years old and watched Pretty Woman for the first time.  Julia Roberts was a relatively unknown film actress at the time, who had garnered some success with her performance in Steel Magnolias.  But, it was her role as Vivian in Pretty Woman that propelled her to super stardom.

The first time I saw Roberts walk out in that red formal gown was the first time I was truly charmed by feminine beauty and grace, albeit slightly awkward grace as Vivian is defined by a somewhat gangly and uncertain demeanor.  The shapeliness she has in that dress, though, the gentle womanly curves she displays, all had me enthralled.  And that laugh.  A guffaw really, when Richard Gere pretends to close the jewelry box on her hand.  A genuine and honest reaction which would hearten most men and give them a resounding sense of accomplishment should they succeed in making a woman laugh like that.

I wouldn't be dumbfounded in such a way again until I watched Breakfast At Tiffany's a few years later.  The casual elegance of Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly sitting in a window sill singing "Moon River" filled my heart with something I can't quite express, a longing maybe, some sort of ache.  Holly emerges briefly framed in that window, her guard down, dressed in a sweater and slacks, and manages to be more enchanting than she has thus far been in the whole film.

The simplicity of the scene is an enticement in and of itself.  It makes the mystery surrounding Holly seem within reach, knowable.  Personally, I am most taken by the dust rag in her hair.  So commonplace, so ordinary, yet she wears it as some kind of crown, an accessory to her natural beauty and style.

As I write this, I know that it is very easy to think I'm just spouting on and on about some movie stars I think are hot.  True, I find Hepburn, Roberts, and Lively to be very beautiful women, but my crushes are more than some expression of libidinous desire.  They are about the projection of my own emotional needs onto these fictional characters, and what qualities I respond to in a woman.  Not a reality based reaction by any stretch of the imagination, but I do find it fascinating how we can become emotionally attached to people we see in a movie.

What-to-Watch Wednesday - Teacher of the Year (2014)

"In my class on Monday, it's Wednesday."

This line when delivered in Jason Strouse's Teacher of the Year was one of several times I guffawed during my first viewing of the movie.  It's a ridiculous line that makes no sense.  However, when it is said and how it is said - and by who - wraps the line's absurdity in a rhetorical stylization I have become all too familiar with as a teacher.

The real power of Teacher of the Year is that, just like that line, it is a clever satire with a heart for the ridiculous.  Even in its most outlandish depictions of public education, there is a kernel of truth that will strongly resonate with teachers who have been in the profession for a while.

Take for instance the spineless administration, the useless guidance counselors, and pointlessly competitive teachers featured in the film.  All are cartoonish and exaggerated portrayals, but any long-term teacher will see qualities they recognize and have encountered at some point in their careers.

The film's authenticity comes from the fact that Strouse (who both wrote and directed it) is a high school English teacher himself.  Or, at least he was at the time the film was made.  As such, his writing and directing, although over the top at times in how they approach the subject matter, show a sharp insight into the joys and frustrations of public education.

The story follows Mitch Carter, an English teacher at a California charter school, who has just been named State Teacher of the Year, as he navigates the ins and outs of being an educator.  In faux-documentary style, the film reveals Mitch's personal feelings about his career as well as those of his colleagues.  We learn that Mitch is a good, dedicated teacher, one who truly deserves the honor he has been given, but he has slowly become disillusioned by the state of his profession.  When a lucrative job offer comes his way, he is torn between a career that is personally fulfilling and one that would mean more financial security for him and his growing family.

It is the film takes a serious tone towards what teachers are thinking and feeling.  Some moments, particularly during the interview segments, are cringe-worthy because they are too real.  It is in these moments that Strouse manages to capture a variety of teacher voices and attitudes, all of which ring true on some level, ranging from the young energy of new teachers to the grizzled, been-there-done-that stillness of the veterans.

Everything about Teacher of the Year shows a precision and craft that are not only needed in true satire but also make for a damn good film.

Spray Painting Space and Stencil Tutorial

My buddy, Jordan, shows off his skills  at spray-painting art.

Travelers: A Hidden Sci-Fi Gem On Netflix!

Jeff highly recommends this series.  Take a look to see what he has to say about it.

Six Reasons Logan is Savage (2017)

Another great commentary video from my buddy. Jeff.  Please, enjoy...and share.

What-to-Watch Wednesday - Frailty (2001)

The recent death of Bill Paxton brought to mind a film of his I haven't thought about in some time, which is a shame because it is one of his best: Frailty.  The film, directed by Paxton, stars Matthew McConaughey as a distraught young man who shows up at a Texas FBI office claiming to have information about a serial murderer called the God's Hand Killer.  He says his name is Fenton Meiks and demands to speak only to the agent leading the investigation, and when the agent (Powers Boothe) shows up, Meiks reveals that his brother, Adam, is the famed killer and begins telling the tale of their growing up.

In the flashback scenes that follow, Paxton plays the father of the two boys.  A single father whose wife died in childbirth, he looks after his boys as best he can and seems to have forged a stable, happy family life for the three of them.  Early scenes show him to be an attentive, caring father who loves his sons, and they dote on him in return.  This is an especially important detail for the audience to ponder in order for what happens later to have any real resonance.

One night, the father bursts into the boys' bedroom and explains that he has been visited by an angel who has tasked them with hunting down and destroying demons in human form.  The boys are baffled at first, but then one of them becomes skeptical towards his father's claims while the other supports them wholeheartedly.  The flashbacks then center around what the skeptical son does in response to what he believes is his father's growing madness.

I hesitate to say anything further since part of the film functions as a thriller with plot twists and surprise reveals.  But, I do want to point out that Frailty is a horror film in the truest sense of the word and one that is masterfully directed by Paxton.  Rather than relying on graphic violence,  Paxton achieves a pervasive mood throughout the narrative that is a mixture of fear and sadness.  And, all of it is centered around a once happy family starting to crumble apart.

The final moments of the film leave it open for debate about why certain events occurred.  However, it is a debate that won't offer up an easy side to be on because it largely depends on how much of an optimistic outlook one has about life and how much faith one has that rational thought is a guiding principle in the world.  If you decide to believe in a more rational explanation, you have to accept some pretty unlikely coincidences; if you lean towards a supernatural cause, you have to believe that the God as presented by Judeo-Christian beliefs does not exist - at least not within the world of this film.

Severus Snape is the ONLY Right Answer

Jeff's newest video.  He makes a good, sentimental argument for why Snape should be saved from death over other Harry Potter characters that met their demise.  I would argue they all died deaths that were too important to the overall narrative to be overturned.

The Epidemic of Passable Movies

This guy makes some pretty astute observations about "passable movies."  Although I agree with much of what he is saying, he doesn't give enough credit to the social value of films, particularly popcorn flicks.

Nerd U: Ep. 05 - Why Wonder Woman is the Most Important Movie of the Year

Jeff covers what promises to be the must-see super-hero film of 2017.  He makes some good points about what the movie has going for it.

To My Sister...

To My Sister…

There isn’t a word yet
For two different stories written on the same page,
Following separate, winding paths that, although intersecting at key points,
Have a disunity in which they seem to fight for space

Yet, as the tales progress, growing richer and more detailed,
They gently guide each other,
Shaping each other’s plot, molding perceptions of the characters,
And offering hope of a resolution

They bring counterpoint
And illumination
On the events of one
The tone of the other

Making them each stronger and more defined

And those mutual page turns-
They can be exciting,
And sometimes sad,
But they are always worth the passage into a new understanding

There is no word for any of this,
No single way to encompass the push and pull
Of the enriched overall narrative

Brother
Sister
Sibling

Are the closest we get.

Nerd U: Episode 01 - Intro to the Channel

My buddy, Jeff, has started his own YouTube channel.  I vehemently disagree with him on several things (because DC is better than Marvel, LOTR is superior to Harry Potter where it really counts, and Spider-man 2 with Tobey Maguire is actually the best Spider-man film done so far), but his coverage of all-things nerdy is quite interesting to watch.  Check it out!