Breakfast in America

I realise I should say more about my feelings on Obama's election and my "Hope" post. I'm happy that Obama was elected. I frankly don't know how I would've felt if Bob Barr had actually won, probably more personally arrogant for having had a hand in it than excited about the country's prospects under a Libertarian administration.

I was trying to say in my previous post on this topic that enthusiasm is to be expected and welcomed, but at some point he'll have to actually govern. I don't want to be swept up in Obamania before actually seeing what he does in office.

The South Park episode (I seldom disagree with their opinion on anything.) from the 5th of November proposes that McCain, Obama, Palin, and some others are all part of a diamond heist team that has been working for ten years to win the Presidency so that they can have access from the Oval Office to a tunnel that goes under the Hope diamond in the Smithsonian. The part of their plan that is applicable to my interest is that they tried to have a particularly divisive race so that after the election the nation would be distracted by their extreme reaction from the result. In the episode, the McCain supporters are fearing apocalypse because of Obama's incompetency leading them to either find fallout bunkers, or to attempt to take their own life. Obama supporters on the other hand are so paralyzed by partying in the streets that they are also distracted from anything.

And I my frustration with some of the black reaction is that the Obama victory is for the whole country, not just for blacks. Before Election Day, Chris Rock said that he was happy that Obama was running President and that he would not have the same amount of pride if Flava Flav were running for President. I feel that overemphasis of Obama's race (only half, by the by) detracts from any supposed civil rights victory, the civil rights victory would be when we are so excited because of his competence, and I get that feeling from all of my non-black friends who are excited about his election.

I hope this clears some things up.

Real Movie Magic

Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, Lana Turner

Last week I watched a double feature of the 1932 and 1941 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from Netflix. The 1932 version has Fredric March in the title role, with Spencer Tracy in the same role in the 1941 version. The two films have the same plot (1941 executing its better), both differing from the original tale by adding a love rectangle with Dr. Jekyll and his fiancee, Mr. Hyde and his barmaid, and the barmaid and Dr. Jekyll.

1941 has the three actors from the top and they all share the screen only once, that I can recall. But do I ever enjoy recalling that moment. It takes place when Jekyll first tries his potion. After taking it, there is a dreamlike sequence of various images--waves, explosions, shots of his fiancee (Lana Turner) and the barmaid (Ingrid Bergman), then there's a shot of him whipping two horses, one white and one brown. It cuts to him again and when it cuts back to the "horses" it is the two women being whipped, presumably naked. I was quite taken by the scene, from surprise, and the willingess of the actors to partake.

In other news, my latest trip through the dictionary to find out why fritz is used in the phrase "on the fritz" to mean something isn't working (no explanation in the OED) surfaced the word frisesomorum, a mnemonic (I first typed pneum-) device used by those in Logic for a first-figure syllogism using i, e, and o to represent two minor positives and a major negative, or something along those lines.

A subsequent search for the history of cretin (Latin Christian) turned up another Logic mnemonic, darapti. My frustration is that I have the definition of these words, but no examples.

Me Time.

Within the brackets is a post I started on August 28th. Without the brackets is new stuff.

[What I've Seen: Tropic Thunder, twice. Samurai Jack, first 33 episodes.

Tropic Thunder is very funny. I really enjoyed it, and the first time watching it, I noticed that not only was I laughing a lot, I was also finding it quite brilliant. Apparently an Orlando reviewer said this is the movie that will go on Ben Stiller's epitaph. Not too shabby.

Back when Cartoon Network was playing Samurai Jack, I would catch an episode or two, and I enjoyed it. So when it came up on my NetFlix recommendations, I swooped it up, and after watching the first two seasons, and the first disc of season three, I'm not regretting my decision. Genndy Tartakovsky, aside from having a really great name, is a gift to animation. The plot is that Samurai Jack has a special sword, and just before killing Aku, the shape-shifting demon that has spread his evil to the world, Aku sends him to the future. Now Jack must fight the evil of Aku while trying to find a time portal back to the past. This framework allows Tartakovsky two benefits, which he uses well. First, because it is in the future, the villians are more often than not robots. So instead of blood gushing everywhere, we just have sparks and wires, much more palatable for the Y-7 crowd the show is rated for. The second gem of the framework is that Jack is in a new culture/world/environment every episode. One episode he has to save a medieval type town from a dragon, another he learns how to jump really high from a group of ape type creatures in a jungle, another he is in a Roarin' 20s speakeasy working from the inside in a Capone type gang. But no matter the situation he is still Samurai Jack, which is what makes the format work so well. Even after he's been turned into a chicken by a curmudgeonly wizard, you can still tell he's Jack.

I mentioned before how Genndy is a gift to animation. Just as he keeps Jack consistent in any environ, he adapts the music and cinematography to match each genre. My television has been having issues and occasionally has a green wash, and I wait til it is done with its pouting before I watch another episode, because they are so beautiful to see.

What I've Read: The Hobbit by JRRR Tolkien] I read this because I heard that Guillermo del Toro is directing the film, and while it is a personal point of pride that I've yet to read a word of the LoTR trilogy, I figured this wouldn't be too bad. My assessment of the book is that it is fine. He has fun creatures doing a little quest thing. Nothing too complicated. Maybe if I were younger, I would have enjoyed it more, but I'm not, so I didn't.

What I'm Reading Now: The Watchmen by Alan Moore, illustrated by Dave Gibbons. This is another British book that is being made into a film. It's also a graphic novel that is on Time's top 100 of all-time list. I'm enjoying it. It is funny to me that after first seeing promo pics of the actors in their costumes and the trailer (I saw it in front of the Dark Knight.) that the characters that I was going to enjoy most aren't the same after reading the book. I thought Dr. Manhattan was going to be a really interesting omnipotent and omnicient being, but instead he's just an omni-tool. Rorschach was a character I didn't care for in the trailer and pictures, but whom I really like in the book. I also like how Moore frames his story with supplementary items at the end of chapters, like exerpts from an autobiography from one of the earlier masked heroes, or newspaper clippings, or an exerpt from a book by the scientist that was working at the facility where Dr. Manhattan had his accident, the file from the police department on Rorschach. It is an effective way of providing expository material that might be too dense for the graphic form. He also uses epigrams nicely, blocking a few choice words from a quote into the opening pages of a chapter before including the whole quote in context at the end.

What I'm Imbibing:
Scotch. The first time I had scotch whiskey was at Scrumpy Jack's in Lincoln. I had some Dewar's on the rocks. I didn't care for it. That was about three or four years ago. I recently watched Great Scotch Whiskeys from NetFlix and it did an excellent job of explaining the different regions of production and the different characteristics. Plus I'd since learned that bourbon barrels go to Scotland to age their whiskey after they're done in America. After learning about the differences of single malts, I was more open to them, because I appreciate a lot of different beers because of their provincial origins and characteristics.

So when the time came, I got a bottle of Bowmore, an Islay, which is an older variety and is a balance of some of the characteristics you can get from an Islay. I was happy to be drinking the liquid smoke, but I was even happier as the sea started coming through, just like the narrator said it would. I'll eventually work my way around to lowland and highlands, but I've got plenty to get through before that time.

Dry Soda. I've had the lemongrass and rhubarb, and I have the lavender sitting in my fridge now. I haven't seen the juniper berry or vanilla bean yet. The lemongrass is not that special and the taste and mouth feel is like those dry Clearly Canadian waters that were popular a while back. I really like the rhubarb, and while it isn't potent enough to be made into a sorbet like I was hoping, it is very solid. I'm guessing the lavender will taste like perfume, just like lavender and rose ice creams do. I'll keep you updated.

What I'm Going to be Making:
Russian Cheese Buttons. I finally got the recipe from my old assistant cafeteria lady at DAA, Delilah Treft. The recipe is a quart of dry curd cottage cheese, three beaten eggs, two cups of sour cream, three cups of flour and 1.5 tsp each of baking soda, baking powder, and salt. The tricky part was finding the dry curd cottage cheese in Lincoln.

On my way home from work last night I stopped at three grocery stores, Russ's on Hwy 2, Leon's Gourmet Foods, and Open Harvest. Once I got home I went to Guerrero's Mexican Grocery, then called three more stores, Russ's on 17th, Sunmart on South, and Super Saver on 48th. Still no luck. Then I went to 27th and Pine Lake Super Saver, before getting a really cool ice cream scoop from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. After there, I went to Super Target on 40th.

Finally, at the Super Saver on 56th, I found my dry curd cottage cheese.

Movie Magic

So I rented two movies (Chaplin and Blood Simple) this last week from Blockbuster because they're not available on Netflix.

I liked both, but the best part is the commentary from Kenneth Loring of Forever Young Film Preservation Society on Blood Simple. It is quite comical. He describes the different processes necessary to make "movie magic." For example, in the opening scene where the "agreeable fellow" and the lead actress are driving in a car, the crew had to film the scene upside down and backwards to get the lights of the oncoming traffic to synch properly. This of course required considerable amounts of hair gel so that the actors' tresses would not give the technique away. He also supplements a side story that was cut out of the original film because a producer named Adrian Butts is a moron. This story involves the P.I. having a Bulgarian father who was part of the revolution with flash backs to the boy in Eastern Bloc school rooms. I don't know who Kenneth Loring is, but he adds quite a bit to the Coen Brothers' first film.

Hope.

Hope is a good breakfast but a bad supper.

So I went to bed last night hearing the tail end of Obama's speech on the radio, because my DirecTV is down right now because of some wiring issues. I didn't have a particular emotion or reaction to the result. Then this morning I had a sort of morose feeling and thought of my epigram.

The Democrat's House majority is the largest they've had in 15 years. They have control of the Senate too, with Biden's vote to break any ties. Until Mid-Term Elections in 2010, they have the mandate of the people and control of the Executive and Legislative branches of government. I hope for their and Obama's sake that they make hay while the sun is shining, because if they don't, they might not get another shot for a while.

I have friends that are staunch Democrats, and I have friends that are staunch Republicans (they still hold a grudge for when FDR let cattle die in the fields to boost beef prices.) My Republican friend tells me that in 2010 Bush's tax cuts expire. So the promise of no tax increases from Obama will be tested at that point, because he also promises $1 trillion in domestic spending in the first two years (more than the entire Iraq war has cost to this point), for the poor essentially. Another thing I never heard from McCain when talking about tax cuts for corporations and small businesses is that the government and the IRS receive their largest revenues after tax cuts. 2006 and 2007 were record revenue years after Bush's tax cuts. Apparently when people don't have as many taxes they are more willing to use their money to stimulate the economy especially if they are the corporate types that can have a large impact with their spending. I don't know if any of these things are true.

But I do know that after caucusing for Obama in February (Nebraska's first such event), I realized that people I really don't like at all wanted Obama to win. So for the sake of Schadenfreude, I wanted to see their reaction if he lost, plus the Democrats have a knack for messing up elections they should win, so it is fun to pile on them. I still couldn't vote for McCain because I don't like him (or Palin) or his policies in comparison to Obama, so the other alternative was Bob Barr and Wayne Allyn Root, the Libertarian ticket.

I voted Libertarian in the last Presidential election because I'm a usually a one issue man and my issue that year was the legalization of marijuana. But this year I actually went to their website and read their stance on the "issues." I really liked what they said. I knew that they were for small government, and with it smaller taxes, but I didn't know about their faith in Capitalism and the free market or their Ron Paul-like passion for the Constitution. I loved how they want to get out of Iraq, not for any moral reasons or because of the horrors of war, but because it costs too much and the longer we prop them up economically the longer it will take them to stand on their own. I once did a research paper about the financial burden of capital punishment, so that was right up my alley. They are kinda out there when it comes to the education system, but every platform needs some weak planks to give it some character. So they got my vote.

Back to that morose feeling. I think it comes from a couple places. One is that the people I wanted to see disappointed were overjoyed. Another is that I get the feeling that Black people think this is a victory for them, and that they feel they are better than others because they won. And maybe I'm upset because I'm racist at heart, and I realize that I'm racist, and that isn't a good thing to be. I hope not.