The Lincoln Lawyer

Over the weekend I watched the Blu-ray version of “The Lincoln Lawyer,” starring Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Philippe, Marisa Tomei, William H. Macy, Michael Pena, John Leguizamo and Josh Lucas. I had read the book a while back an enjoyed it quite a bit, so I was reticent about checking out the movie. My fears were ungrounded. Actually, I think I like the movie better than the book.

Because the plot is full of twists, shocks, and surprises I will only say that the film worked for me on every level. I thought it was well directed, giving off a real “Los Angeles vibe” that was essential. I like McConaughey, but feel like he has been miscast in a lot of his movies. Here, he is absolutely perfect to the point of me thinking at the end, “no one else could have played that part as well as he did.” The script is snappy and smart, but serious and weighty when it needs to be.

In short, I really had a good time with the film, and I’ll bet you will too. So, next weekend, rent the DVD (Blu-ray if you’ve got a player), pop up a batch of popcorn, grab a Coke, plop down on your couch, and have a fun evening. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

~ Tom

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"A narcissist is someone better looking than you are."

Gore Vidal

Mick puts Dixie in its place

As I have noted in the past, Mick LaSalle is currently my favorite film critic.  In addition to his reviews, he has a Sunday column titled “Ask Mick LaSalle,” which I always look forward to reading.  This week, in answer to a fan’s question: “Which Civil War movie would you recommend?”, Mick uncorked the following, which is pretty awesome, and which needed to be said:

Dear Mick LaSalle: Which Civil War movie would you recommend?

Martin Vesely, San Jose

Dear Martin Vesely: The treatment of the Civil War in our popular culture has been fairly peculiar. For reasons that are understandable, the North has felt it necessary to act the way you do when you win an argument with your spouse: "No, honey, you weren't completely wrong; you had a point." After all, if you win completely, it's always smart to make the other party feel as good as possible. And so our national culture has turned itself inside out ignoring that the Confederacy was a disgrace - that the leaders who brought it about were uncomfortably close to Nazis, willing to ruin the Earth's last best hope for the sake of perpetuating an absolutely evil institution, which they not only wanted to maintain but also to extend all the way to the Pacific and into Central and South America. For all their noble cavalier posturing, they were greedy, cruel, power-driven and yet somehow convinced of their own superior honor and virtue, and they came closer to obliterating this great country than Adolf Hitler ever did in his wildest dreams.

Honestly, I find it astounding that schoolchildren are still taught about the Civil War as though it were a misunderstanding between two equally worthy sides. Such misinformation helps to perpetuate and give sanction to much residual psychosis in American life. Anyway, for these reasons, I just like straight-up Civil War movies that give you the facts and are biased toward the North and sanity. "Gettysburg" is particularly good along this line.

The fat lady has not sung

I’m loving the President’s latest positions and speeches whereby he is making the right wing look like the crass, greedy, and hypocritical trolls they are.  Two simple examples:

First, after the President made the speech calling for the rich to pay taxes at a rate at least equal to the rate being paid by their secretaries and housekeepers, the right wing noise machine launched the “talking point of the week,” which was that Obama was engaging in “class warfare.”  This was  a ludicrous argument in view of the stark, undeniable fact that the right has been at war with the middle class for the last 30 years.  Even average citizens without a lot of political savvy were almost laughing at these cry-babies.   Hence, the word went out to abandon the class war talking point and move on to something else, as explained next.

Second, now they are blaming the President for taking extreme non-negotiable positions – “he’s taking his ball and going home before the game is finished,” etc.  This is even more ludicrous than the class warfare nonsense, in view of the fact that the Tea Party and the Speaker have said over and over that increased revenues/taxes are off the table, end of story!  And, that little twerp Eric Cantor actually walked out on the President in the debt ceiling blackmail episode.  Talk about taking your ball and going home. 

Once again, I think the President may be a lot smarter than I am.  While we were all on his back for trying to be reasonable and deal with the intransigent righties, he was laying the trap for them.  He had to keep the country from defaulting on the debt, but once he cleared that up until at least after the election, he was free to take the actions he has taken in the last few days.  The righties are now looking a lot like Captain Queeg (Humphrey Bogart) in “The Caine Mutiny” at his trial, melting down while rolling those steel balls around in his hand.

I think the Prez is fired up, and the cry-babies can’t handle it. 

Some simple relief

This is something that should cheer you up and bring you a little fun. And, it’s totally trippy!

P.S. You can grab the lines by either end to move or re-size them.

Can I get a break here?

Man, I am getting depressed over all the bad news for the President.  His predicament seems to me much like that of a pro football coach whose owner has given him a losing team.  Even though the coach was highly regarded by the fans when he was hired, they are now souring on him because the team keeps losing games.  The coach, who is really top-notch, would clearly win almost all of his games if he just had better players.  But, the fans don’t care about that.  Inevitably, they start calling for his head.  The latest polls regarding the President seem to support the analogy. 

Then, on top of all that I spotted this article from Mother Jones.  It’s worth reading it all, but you should at least scan it to understand what the right is up to on this front.  This threat is all too real, and goes hand-in-hand with the right wing’s blatant attempts to suppress voting by those likely to vote for Democrats, particularly the President. 

I’m hoping the President can right the ship because the thought of a president Rick Perry terrifies me.  It looks like the President will have to wait for the next election to get some better players, but in the meantime he needs to come up with some trick plays.

I’ll take today

I was stumbling around on the Web and this popped up. I’m not gonna discuss the 1,000 or so entries that are listed.  Instead I want to riff on the lamentations of vinyl devotees.   Even then, I’m not venturing into the ongoing squabble as to whether vinyl or digital produces the better sound. 

No, having lost everything in the Oakland firestorm in ‘91 has let me know what it feels like to loose everything, and equally importantly how to replace it.  I lost thousands of negatives (as a semi-professional photographer,)which (by definition) can never be replaced.  And, I also lost a shit- load of LP’s.  Were it not for CD’s and digital media, I would have had little chance of replacing those LP’s.  In the era in which I acquired all of those LP’s, the only way you could replace one of them was to find it new in a store, like Tower Records.  Later, one was reduced to finding it  in a used LP store, and even then it was hit or miss as to whether you could find it, and then whether it would only have even a tolerable level of scratches and other surface damage.

After the fire, I was prescient enough to realize that most all of the LP’s I had lost would eventually come out as CD’s, and I did not want to buy a new turntable. Moreover, to be quite honest, there were a lot of the LP albums that I had no urge to replace, having “moved on” from what they once had to offer. It turns out to have been a choice I do not regret. 

So, getting back to the attached file, I love having lived as long as I have.  Now, I can hear pretty much all of these albums on Rhapsody, and  if I want, download them at a reasonable cost. Equally important I do not have to endure the scratch that occurred when a girl at my party fell into the turntable, or the pizza damage that occurred when a dude (or possibly moi) made an ill-advised transfer of dinner to media.   Nope, these days I can get it on CD or digital download from Rhapsody in pristine condition. 

There are quite a few albums on this list that I have not heard, so eventually I will jump on Rhapsody and check them out at no cost to me other than my subscription.  If I like them (or  just certain tracks), I will download them and make them part of my current collection.  What I WON”T be doing is going to Berkeley or San Francisco record stores and buying old vinyl “ears unheard,”   vinyl, and that’s even assuming they would have  the desired platters in stock.

~ Tom

My Dog

I’ve had dogs off and on my entire life.   I’ve loved them all and mourned their passing, but the dog I have now is the best so far.  He is a pure-bred Border Terrier whose grandfather was judged “Best of Breed” at the Westminster Dog Show.  We got him from Skyline Border Terriers in Los Angeles.   If you are familiar with the movie “Something About Mary,” the dog in that film was a Border Terrier from the same breeders. ( Obviously the scene where the Terrier attacks Ben Stiller uses a stuffed dog for a lot of it, but you can see the real Border from time to time.)

The story of how I came to choose a Border Terrier as our next dog is interesting.  We have small grandchildren, so I wanted to make sure the dog was going to get along with children.  I found a Web Site that listed every breed of dog for its compatibility with children, “1” being the best and “5” being the Wild Dingo!  Prior to that we had been thinking about a Jack Russell Terrier because we both wanted a terrier this time around.  It turned out that the Jack Russell was rated a “4” so that was out.  The only terrier rated “1” was the Border Terrier, and that was the first I had ever heard of the breed.  Anyway, we then did a bunch of research on the breed and went to some dog shows to see them in the flesh.  Based on that we decided we just had to have one.

We named him Spenser after the character in Robert Parker’s novels.  (Eileen has read every one of Robert Parker’s books, including the “non-Spenser” ones.)  Because he is a terrier he must have a lot of exercise every day or he will just drive you nuts.  So, we walk at least two miles or run 3.5 miles every day.  The point here is that I know that I would not be getting that much exercise if it were not for Spenser – I would be making all kinds of excuses to avoid taking a walk or running.  So, I figure he is going to add another 10 years to my life from the exercise he makes me do and the joy that he brings to me each and every day.

Here is a great picture I took of him recently, which is now the wallpaper on my computer.  Click to enlarge it.

Arf!