Archives

Aug092004

Movie Review: The Bourne Supremacy

One of the more lamentable cinematic fads of the last few years has been the use of the “Shaky-Cam,” that unstabilized, handheld camera perspective that looks like what you could expect if you turned over your Super8 to a caffeine-buzzed four-year-old. When used sparingly, this technique can provide a sense of immediacy, a “you-are-there” feeling. The problem is that many modern (and presumably younger) filmmakers are too enamored of the device. Basically, they use it too much, even in situations when it simply isn’t necessary, no doubt because they think that having the picture jerk and weave like a punch-drunk boxer will give their project that all-important “edge” that appeals to the skateboard-and-Xbox crowd. Combine the shaky-cam with the curious reluctance of modern directors to shoot anything from a distance — I have a theory that everything is shot these days with the eventual DVD release in mind, so directors don’t want their actors to look too small on a television screen — as well as the hyperkinetic, post-MTV editing style that requires a jump-cut every two seconds, and you end up with quite a mess. You end up, in fact, with The Bourne Supremacy.

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Aug062004

The First Amendment, Dissent, and Being An American

Comic-book writer Peter David maintains a blog that, much like Simple Tricks, is a mishmash of whatever happens to be on the guy’s mind, including David’s rather, ahem, strong political opinions. These opinions (which are of the liberal variety) tend to ruffle the feathers of those who disagree with him (conservatives), leading to some interesting discussions in the blog’s comments section. Most of the time, these discussions are fairly rational and extend no farther than the blog itself. In today’s entry, however, David rages over the efforts of one of his detractors who wasn’t content to hash out their differences on the website. This dipshit instead sent a letter to Joe Quesada, David’s editor at Marvel Comics, to inform Joe that he would never again buy a book written by David because of the opinions expressed on David’s site.

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Aug042004

Comments Problem

I noticed this afternoon that several people have left comments over the last couple of days. Nothing too odd about that, except that I didn’t receive the usual e-mail notification that there are new comments. In other words, Simple Tricks is not telling me when I’ve had visitors, and I don’t know why. I’m looking for the cause of the problem. In the meantime, don’t get your feelings hurt if you leave a comment that I don’t promptly acknowledge…

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Aug042004

The Bean

Chicago’s Millenium Park must have been built on an old Indian graveyard or something. It’s the only explanation for the evil I keep seeing in that place.

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Aug042004

UPDATE: Jack and Nat’s Bundle O’ Joy

As I figured he would, Jack has posted the details of his son’s birth over at his Web site, just in case anyone out there is interested in reading more on that subject. He also offers up “tacky, sentimental, poorly framed, badly lit photos of the chap.”

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Aug032004

Dinner for Four

Anne and I went to dinner last night with our friends Jack and Natalie Hattaway. We usually average one night out with them per month, and lately it seems like we’ve bumped up the frequency a bit. These evenings together are always relaxed, low-key affairs, filled with laughter and endless talk about… well, not much of anything, really, but the discussion is always entertaining.

Last night, however, felt different. Our conversation wasn’t exactly heavy but there was definitely something in the air, the same mildly anxious feeling you get as a kid when the back-to-school sales begin. You know a particular time of your life is winding down and a new one is about to begin. Change is imminent, and while the change may not be unwelcome, there is always some concern about exactly what it will mean. Last night this concern manifested itself in a reluctance to let the evening end. I believe all four of us felt it. We felt compelled to watch just one more episode of Samurai Jack, even though it was already past Anne and Jack’s bedtime. And we had to stand together on Jack and Nat’s front porch for just another couple of minutes, talking about just one more topic before we called it a night. As I backed my car out of their driveway, I looked toward their house and saw Natalie still standing on the porch. Natalie, looking very round and uncomfortable and ready to not be pregnant anymore. Change was imminent.

The change arrived this afternoon with the birth of the Hattaways’ first child, a boy named Cole. I’m sure Jack will be posting the relevant statistics soon on his own Web site, so I will say only that mother and child are doing fine and Jack sounded only moderately shell-shocked when I spoke with him on the phone. He and Natalie have Anne’s and my congratulations and fondest wishes. I’m sure the future will hold many more shared dinners and bowling games and trips to the Shakespeare festival and perhaps to other destinations as well. But I also know that things will be different now, and that makes me just a bit sad.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m thrilled for my friends and look forward to seeing their boy. I know they’re going to be fine parents and that this event will bring them much happiness. But I am also glad we managed to have last night, just the four of us, because I know there will never be another night exactly like it. Thanks, guys, for calling me yesterday afternoon…

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Jul312004

Movie Review: De-Lovely

As I demonstrated recently, my knowledge of so-called higher culture is pretty shaky. I’m especially ignorant when it comes to music, at least of the pre-rock ‘n’ roll variety. To me, “The Great American Songbook” and “Tin Pan Alley” are vaguely understood terms at best, and up until a couple of weeks ago the only Cole Porter tune I could name was “Anything Goes,” and that’s only because I’ve seen the opening credits of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom so many times.
But then I saw De-Lovely, an unconventional biographical picture about Porter, and I realized that I do, in fact, know quite a few of the popular songs from the first half of the 20th Century. I’ve heard them for years in movies both new and old, and I think it’s fair to say that they are woven into the fabric of our cultural consciousness; in other words, everybody knows these songs, even if their origins are cloudy these days. (I’m personally quite fond of “Begin the Beguine,” which I knew from the film The Rocketeer, and from a CD collection of Big Band music I picked up a few years ago, but I never realized it had been written by Porter.) De-Lovely is filled with Porter’s music, performed by modern-day singers such as Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, Alanis Morisette, and others whose faces I recognize but whose names I escape me. The film actually is a sort of musical, although the songs are used more to punctuate a given scene’s emotional impact than to drive the action or reveal information, as they do in a more traditional musical. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

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Jul302004

Can We All Grow Up a Bit?

I’m a little slow getting around to blogging about this, but here we go anyway. I saw on the local TV news a few nights ago that Vice President Dick “Go F*** Yourself” Cheney paid a visit to my hometown on Wednesday to rally the troops. He needn’t have bothered. To paraphrase Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, Utah is kind of a sure thing for the Republican Party. Our electoral votes would go to the GOP if they ran a one-legged platypus as their candidate, just so long as that platypus wore an American flag pin and mouthed the appropriate slogans about “family values.” (Insert wisecrack about family values and publicly telling senators to perform anatomical impossibilities on themselves here.)

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Jul272004

Choose to Form a More Perfect Union

On Monday night, Bill Clinton addressed the Democratic National Convention in Boston. I’m willing to bet that most of the people I know were not watching him, either because they hold certain, shall we say, strong feelings about the former president, or because my friends are the types that would consider watching a national political convention comparable to having their eyes melted out with an acetylene torch. And that’s a shame because it really was a remarkable speech, possibly the best one this man has ever given, and that’s saying a lot. In an age when public speaking is a lost art and discourse has been reduced to rancorous barbs, his elegant, carefully chosen and well-spoken words reminded me of what political statements should be like. More importantly, they painted a picture of what America should be like.

I’ll be honest: I’m not a huge fan of John Kerry. He’ll be getting my vote less for what he represents than for what he does not represent, which is four more years under an administration that I don’t trust and don’t believe in. But Clinton managed to make me feel far less grudging of a vote for Kerry, and he managed to articulate many of my feelings about how I think this country should be run and why the last four years have been a failure.

Therefore, as a public service for those who didn’t see the speech but need to hear its words, I am going to reprint the text of it here on Simple Tricks, slightly edited to eliminate the tedious “thank-you’s” and greetings that always precede the meat of any political address.

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Jul262004

Germany Photos

Just a quick note to let everyone know I’ve added a new album to my long-neglected photo gallery. This one contains pictures from a trip I took to Germany last fall. I’ve actually been working on this album for quite a while, scanning and adding photos a few at a time, so some of you may have already seen some of these shots. Even so, the album is finally in its finished form with captions and descriptions, so I invite everyone to go check it out.

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