Australia Takes You on a Journey

Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) and Nullah (Brandon Walters)posted by John85 (Flickr)

I saw Australia the other day and absolutely love this film. It is epic filmmaking at its best. Kenneth Turan of the L.A. Times compared it to Giant, Gone With the Wind, and Lawrence of Arabia. All classics and Australia will be one as well.

The cinematography is pure perfection like what we saw in Sydney Pollack's film, Out of Africa. I was wondering if this film could top Out of Africa, one of my favorite love stories. They are tied, but in different ways. Australia is not just a love story, but encompasses racial prejudice, evil deeds, and the war.


Sarah Ashley ( Nicole Kidman) posted by beast and bean (Flickr)




Mandy Walker, the cinematographer, deserves the Academy Award. Wait until you see the scene when the cattle are on the run near a canyon. I was on the edge of my seat and do not know how she got those shots. Baz Luhrmann directed this film, but did he ever make the right choice in hiring Ms. Walker to shoot his vision.

Sarah and the Drover posted by beast and bean (Flickr). Not the first kiss, still a great shot.


Ms. Walker got the perfect angle and lighting on the first time the Drover (Hugh Jackman) kisses Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) on the cattle drive. I think that is the best I have seen Kidman look ever. You will see what I mean. Of course I am in love with Hugh Jackman now and am looking for my own Drover.
Photo of Nullah (Brandon Walters) posted by Asso Pixiel (Flickr)

The little boy in the film, Nullah, reminded me so much of the student I met my first year teaching who was from Micronesia. I was completely relating to Sarah Ashley in her scenes with Nullah.

Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) and Nullah (Brandon Walters) posted by Asso Pixiel (Flickr)

Nullah is played by Brandon Walters and I will say he nearly steals the show. I hope he wins all the awards. The film touches on the Stolen Generation, a bit of history I am sure the Australians are ashamed of, and rightfully so.

I do not know if any of you have seen Peter Noyce's film, Rabbit Proof Fence, but it is about the Stolen Generation and shows how mixed race Aboriginal children were removed from their homes and raised in mission schools. Can you imagine? This went on until the 70s when it was finally outlawed.
A young David Gulpilil in Roeg's film, Walkabout posted by Positively Puzzled (Flickr)

Nullah's grandfather, King George, is played by David Gulpilil, the same man who was the star in Nicolas Roeg's film, Walkabout. I think Walkabout was made in the early 70s. Anyone see that film? Highly recommend you put it in your on line rental queue. It is about two white kids who end up on a "walkabout" with a young Aboriginal man.

I was lucky enough to see that film shortly after it was released at my school. I went to a middle school in Northern California, near the radical bay area in the early 70s. At the time, I had no idea my teachers were such radicals. One of them had the foresight to show us the film, Walkabout. This film changed me forever.

Walkabout photo posted by Positively Puzzled (Flickr)

I hope Baz Luhrmann paid David Gulpilil a lot of money, but I am guessing money means nothing to this man. I am so glad Luhrmann found him to play the part. Gulpilil was just so perfect. You will see what I mean.

Walters, Gulpilil, Kidman, Jackman and all supporting roles give award-winning performances. The director, cinematographer, art director, and sound man better get awards as well. The film is 2:45 minutes, but the time just flies. I cried at about four or five different points, but laughed as well. At one point in the film, King George tells Sarah, "You have been on a journey." This film takes you on a journey you will not soon forget.

The Drover (Hugh Jackman) posted on Flickr by Asso Pixiel

I heard that Luhrmann changed the ending several times because of audience screening reactions. Audiences thought the ending too sad. However, I heard the man himself interviewed and Luhrmann said films go through many script changes and his ending had nothing to do with private audience screenings. I thought the ending was perfect.

Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) posted on Flickr by Asso Pixiel

Lastly, I saw this film with a friend before we went over to Gil and Shelly's fabulous Thanksgiving dinner. Gil is a cinematographer and there are some film people who come to these dinners.

The Drover (Jackman) posted by beast and bean (Flickr)

Anyway, at this 40 foot long table, I happened to sit across from a camera man who has worked with Mandy Walker. I told him that I had just seen screen perfection. I asked what Ms. Walker was like. Before he answered, I said, "I bet she is a complete perfectionist." He said, "You're right, but she is great to work with on set. A true professional." I hope we will be seeing her name in the credits of films a lot now.

Catalina's Dad

Photo of Catalina Vargas courtesy of Catalina Vargas

Catalina forwarded this email that her father wrote after our recent elections. She said her dad usually does not send emails like this, but was so moved by our elections, that he wrote it. He sent it to all three of his children, all adults in their late 20s or early 30s.

I had the pleasure of meeting her dad a couple of times while I was teaching in Bogota, Colombia. I remember one conversation we had about judges in Colombia. I remember him telling me it was hard to have justice when the judges get killed all the time for trying to rule in a just way. I never forgot that.

Anyway, her dad attended Harvard University during the turbulent civil rights era. Please read below for his heartfelt reaction to our elections and what he experienced
as a young man in our country during the civil rights movement.

Hello Kids:

Last night you were witnesses of a very historic change: a black man was elected president of the USA. I did have the opportunity to live in Harvard through the difficult times of segregation, racism and all the problems that the Civil Rights Movements brought out to the public in the 60s and 70s.

I was a tutor in an all black "Upward Bound Program" in Darien, Conn, in 1967, for 150 black kids with high-school problems for being underachievers. For me, it was a summer of reflection and deep worry when I saw the profound hatred between the races. The young negroes simply reacted violently to violent laws and treatment, there was not a chance to try for peaceful talk as most meetings with students ended in bad words, violent remarks and plain threats. To be in the middle of all that was my introduction to the racial problems of the USA, something that I did not fully understand, but I sensed that it was wrong.

Fortunately I was a foreigner, a "martian", and this provided me with a shield that made me invisible to most of them and did not have any trouble with the black majority living and working day by day and night by night there.

Well, yesterday I witnessed the "end of an era". Only that will be enough to ensure a legacy for Mr. Obama. And although I am a non-political animal I am glad that I lived to see it. That is democracy at its best. Anybody should have the chance to run its country if he/she is a law abiding citizen, and that happens only in the USA. In addition to the cheers and the speeches of last night, I saw a huge technological show on TV where results and opinions were shown live and direct. As your mom said: "if you present all the numbers for everybody to see–demographics and political – then you have transparent elections"

I hope you learnt from this election. Regardless of the future, Obama is a model of politician for everybody. Respect and fairness for your contenders are the weapons of real democracy. When do we expect to see something similar in Colombia? No one knows, but certainly I will never see it. I sincerely hope that you do.

DAD

Mumbai Attacks Censored on CNN, Deepok Chopra's Comments Cut Off

Photo of Taj Mahal Hotel taken by Rubaljain (Flickr)

I watched excitedly as I heard Deepok Chopra explain the attacks on Mumbai on CNN International. Then CNN abruptly cut Chopra off. It was an overt display of censorship. Chopra was merely speaking the truth.

Last I heard, we live in a democracy. I thought that freedom of the press and speech were cornerstones of our democracy. It is what differentiates us from living under a totalitarian regime.

Mumbai Street, Pan-African News Wire (Flickr)





Our press is controlled more and more by the dictates of the advertisers. The Chopra interview aired on Wednesday night, November 26th was proof enough for me. I can just picture the CNN executives wringing their hands as calls from advertisers began pouring into the studio during the interview. I imagine executives ordered some producer to yell in the journalist's ear piece, "Cut Chopra off now!"

Mumbai Carnage, Pan-African News Wire (Flickr)




It is up to us, the viewers, to demand the truth. Until we do, the advertisers will keep controlling what the press are brave enough to report. I seriously wonder if these executives ever took a journalism class. A class that perhaps discussed the evils of censorship. I bet they all have degrees in marketing. This is wrong on so many different levels.

I encourage all of you to send an email to CNN comments and ask why they cut this interview off.

Photo of Deepok Chopra taken by Yodel Anecdotal (Flickr)

Here is a transcript of the CNN interview with Deepok Chopra.

Chopra: What we have seen in Mumbai has been brewing for a long time, and the war on terrorism and the attack on Iraq compounded the situation. What we call "collateral damage" and going after the wrong people actually turns moderates into extremists, and that inflammation then gets organized and appears as this disaster in Bombay. Now the worst thing that could happen is there's a backlash on the Muslims from the fundamental Hindus in India, which then will perpetuate the problem. Inflammation will create more inflammation.

CNN: Let me jump in on that because you're presuming something very important, which is that it's Muslims who have carried out these attacks and, in some cases, with Washington in their sights.

Chopra: Ultimately the message is always toward Washington because it's also the perception that Washington, in their way, directly or indirectly funds both sides of the war on terror. They fund our side, then our petrol dollars going to Saudi Arabia through Pakistan and ultimately these terrorist groups, which are very organized. You know Jonathan, it takes a lot of money to do this. It takes a lot of organization to do this. Where's the money coming from, you know? The money is coming from the vested interests. I'm not talking about conspiracy theories, but what happens is, our policies, our foreign policies, actually perpetuate this problem. Because, you know, 25% of the world's population is Muslim and they're the fastest growing segment of the population of the world. The more we alienate the Muslim population, the more the moderates are likely to become extremists.

CNN: I hope you're - you've -

This is where the interview is cut off. No segue like, "we have to stop for a commercial break." Nothing. The journalist does say, "Indian physician and philosopher, Deepok Chopra."

Greed, Jealousy, Envy and the Bail Out

Photo taken by David D. Muir "The Big Money" (Flickr)

All I've got to say is what I have said before, and I am quoting Lefebvre: "We live in a bureaucratic society of controlled consumption." However, in this instance it would seem that the controlled consumption got way out of control in a way Lefebvre could not have ever imagined.

We only have to look around us to see what he meant. He had the foresight to see what has been happening in the 80s, 90s, and up to now.

Just look at the cars, clothes, and eyewear even. Remember in the 70s when we all wore Levis and they were a reasonable ten bucks? Some of us wore Lee jeans. Now a pair of designer jeans will set you back $100 or more. And if you are not wearing them you are not cool. Your car is especially important here in So Cal. Sad, but true. Folks are still driving SUVs. Why?

I was at Big Lots the other day looking for deals and the little cashier was wearing eyeglasses with giant letters of the designer on the side. I do not remember the designer. Madness I say. She earns minimum wage.

Anwyay, I could rant on and on, but I won't. Lucky you. I feel very sorry for the folks who bought houses and were not told the whole truth about their loans due to the greed of the realtor.

If you have not read Thorstein Veblen's book The Theory of the Leisure Class, I highly recommend you do. It was recommended reading in Kurt Vonnegut's Palm Sunday. I picked up a used copy of the Veblen book while living in London. Loved it. When I was studying at UCLA, it was required reading for one of my courses. It is a book that will make you laugh at our "conspicuous consumption." Veblen hits the nail on the head.

One last thing, everyone is talking about American greed, but lets not forget jealousy and envy. Being jealous of what someone else has makes you want it. Being envious also makes you want it. Both lead to bitterness and resentment. Don't go there. Instead go to Big Lots and leave happy you found a good deal.

Better yet, go live in the Amazon for 6 months like my friend Marcela did. Or go to Zambia for a year like Chas and June. Go volunteer somewhere and help those who need it most. I guarantee you will leave feeling better than if you spent a couple hundred on a pair of sunglasses you are bound to leave in a restaurant somewhere.

Just my two cents...not that you asked for them.

Society of the Spectacle and the Bail Out

Photo taken by 62Lofu (Flickr)








I am pasting 3 paragraphs from an essay written by Doug Kellner and Steve Best in their on line series Illuminations. They are very illuminating.:)

I discovered this website while on a teaching assignment in Bogota, Colombia. On my prep time, after finishing my lesson plans, I would research and print out these essays to read after school.

Kellner taught at University of Texas until a few years ago. He is now at UCLA. Kellner has a brilliant mind and is an expert on critical theory, the Frankfrut School and the Situationists which Guy Debord and Henri Levebvre were involved. They were part of the Dada and surrealist movement among other movements.

This essay fleshes out Debord's ideas presented in his book, The Society of the Spectacle. A very good book by the way. Kellner and Best discuss what is happpening in our society. If you read the whole article (I'll post the link), you will understand how we got to where we are now. We live in a society of the spectacle alongside a bureaucratic society of controlled consumption.

I hope you find this information illuminating.

http://www.uta.edu/huma/illuminations/kell17.htm

The spectacular society spreads its narcotics mainly through
the cultural mechanisms of leisure and consumption, services
and entertainment, ruled by the dictates of advertising and
a commercialized media culture. This structural shift to a
society of the spectacle involves a commodification of
previously non-colonized sectors of social life and the
extension of bureaucratic control to the realms of leisure,
desire, and everyday life. Parallel to the Frankfurt School
conception of a "totally administered" or "one dimensional"
society (Adorno and Horkheimer1972; Marcuse 1964), Debord
states that "The spectacle is the moment when the commodity
has attained the total occupation of social life" (#42). Here
exploitation is raised to a psychological level; basic physical
privation is augmented by "enriched privation" of pseudo-needs;
alienation is generalized, made comfortable, and alienated
consumption becomes "a duty supplementary to alienated
production"(#42).

The shift to a "bureaucratic society of controlled consumption"
(Lefebvre 1971 and 1991) organized around the production of
spectacles can be seen as the exploitation of use value and
needs as a means of advancing profit and gaining ideological
control over individuals. Unlike early capitalism, where the
structural exigencies lay in the forceful exploitation of labor
and nature, and in defining the worker strictly as a producer,
the society of the spectacle defines the worker as a consumer
and attempts to constitute the worker's desires and needs,
first creating then exploiting them. In this sense, Debord
claims that use value was resurrected as a referent of
production: "In the inverted reality of the spectacle, use
value (which was implicitly contained in exchange value) must
now be explicitly proclaimed precisely because its factual
reality is eroded by the overdeveloped commodity economy and
because counterfeit life requires a pseudo-justification" (#48).
It is not that exchange value no longer dominates, but that use
value is now deployed in an ideological way that exploits the
needs of the new consumer self.

The spectacle not only expands the profits and power of the
capitalist class, but also helps to resolve a legitimation
crisis of capitalism. Rather then vent anger against
exploitation and injustice, the working class is distracted
and mollified by new cultural productions, social services,
and wage increases. In consumer capitalism, the working
classes abandon the union hall for the shopping mall and
celebrate the system that fuels the desires that it
ultimately cannot satisfy. But the advanced abstraction of
the spectacle brings in its wake a new stage of deprivation.
Marx spoke of the degradation of being into having, where
creative praxis is reduced to the mere possession of an
object, rather than its imaginative transformation, and where
need for the other is reduced to greed of the self. Debord
speaks of a further reduction, the transformation of having
into appearing, where the material object gives way to its
semiotic representation and draws "its immediate prestige and
ultimate function" (#17) as image -- in which look, style, and
possession function as signs of social prestige. The production
of objects simpliciter gives way to "a growing multitude of
image-objects" (#15) whose immediate reality is their symbolic
function as image. Within this abstract system, it is the
appearance of the commodity that is more decisive than its
actual "use value" and the symbolic packaging of commodities --
be they cars or presidents -- generates an image industry and new commodity aesthetics (see Haug 1986).

Book Review: When the Kissing Had to Stop

Photo of Pacific Coast Highway taken by Spoon Monkey (Flickr)




I am reading a book by John Leonard called When the Kissing Had to Stop. Leonard wrote for the New York Times Book Review and other literary publications. My hero Kurt Vonnegut said Leonard was the smartest and most well read person he had ever met.

Any friend of Kurt Vonnegut's is a friend of mine. Sadly, Leonard died recently. I am reading him for the first time and so glad to have discovered him. He writes at rapid fire speed. While reading him, I feel like I have had 20 espressos. He is brilliant. And funny as hell. I highly recommend this book of essays.

Leonard keeps referring to the Joan Didion book, Play It As It Lays. I don't know about any of you, but I have had plenty of Joan Didion "Play It As It Lays" moments.

In case you haven't read the book, in short, Joan is driving the freeways of the L.A area aimlessly to escape her mundane reality. I usually drive Pacific Coast highway down to Laguna Beach or up PCH through Malibu. A much nicer drive than the freeways. Cool ocean breeze and spectacular views. I roll down all the windows, listen to music real loud and dream.

Here is a link to an article in The Nation where Toni Morrison, et al, share their thoughts and feelings about John Leonard.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081208/john_leonard