A Comic Masterpiece At The Walter Reade

Even for a broadly-defined blog, this doesn't really fit into it, but so what. Monday the 5th of January the Walter Reade Theater in Lincoln Center is screening Play Time, Jacques Tati's stunning comedy about the sleek, modern world of Paris and the crazy humanity that lived in it. Everyone who reads this blog should go see it. I've found one review here. The Criterion Collection synopsis is here:

Jacques Tati’s gloriously choreographed, nearly wordless comedies about confusion in the age of technology reached their creative apex with Playtime. For this monumental achievement, a nearly three-year-long, bank-breaking production, Tati again thrust the endearingly clumsy, resolutely old-fashioned Monsieur Hulot, along with a host of other lost souls, into a bafflingly modernist Paris. With every inch of its superwide frame crammed with hilarity and inventiveness, Playtime is a lasting testament to a modern age tiptoeing on the edge of oblivion.

The Rick Warren Controversy

I thought I’d say something about the Rick Warren-Obama inauguration flap. Obama has assigned the invocation at the ceremony to Reverend Rick Warren, pastor at the Saddleback church in California. This has gotten a lot of criticism because Warren was one of the main supporters of Prop. 8 in California. Warren is completely opposed to gay marriage and has equated it with incest and polygamy. (Melissa Etheridge claims he told her he regretted that choice of words and it's not the way he thinks. I’m a bit skeptical. Has he publicly disavowed these statements?)

I find the selection upsetting. To choose this man as the primary pastor presiding over the inauguration feels like a slap in the face not just to homosexuals, but to the principles of basic equality under the law. Obama has said that selecting Warren is about unity, about including people in a national conversation that others might disagree with. I get his point. True unity for the country means engaging people with whom you passionately disagree with and Rick Warren is a such a person. Unity, and real change, Obama is saying, is wrenching. I think, to have included Rick Warren among other pastors would have been exactly the right thing to do. He is an important member of the evangelical community and represents beliefs held by a sizeable percentage in this country. But giving him such a prime position is to associate him too closely with Obama’s vision for the entire country. I acknowledge that for Obama unity is an extremely important value. But I think that for me, basic rights are a bit more weighty on the scale. The decision feels against the spirit of inclusion and basic civil equality.

That said, I reserve final judgement on Obama. Symbols matter, but they are still only symbols. Obama’s ultimate test will be what substantive changes for gay rights he will achieve. If he were to get rid of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and even legalize civil unions, then none of this would matter.

I want to say something else about Rich Warren. In that video that I linked to above, Warren is also asked this:

Q: Which do you think is a greater threat to the American family? Divorce or gay marriage?

Warren: That’s a no brainer. Divorce. There’s no doubt about it.

Q: …So why do we hear so much more, especially from religious conservatives, about gay marriage than about divorce?

Warren: Oh, we always love to talk about other sins more than ours.

“A no brainer”! “We always love to talk about other sins more than ours”! I know he's still being intolerant of gay marriage, he still considers it a sin, but still, these are not statements I expect to hear from a figure on the religious right. Rick Warren is an interesting figure in American evangelical movement. I remember reading a New Yorker article on him a few years ago and he seemed like someone who was trying to move past the issues normally associated with the religious right. He focuses on poverty, HIV. He truly practices what he preaches: he reverse tithes, giving away 90% of what he makes. He seems much more reasonable, and positive, than someone like James Dobson or Jerry Falwell. He is not pathologically, and creepily, obsessed with issues of sexuality like others seem to be. Warren represents a more hopeful future for religious conservatism in this country. He is someone who needs to be engaged, not pushed away.

Physics for Presidents (And Citizens, Too)

I recently found an interesting video called Physics 101: What Our Next President Needs to Know. It’s a lecture at UC Berkley given by Robert Muller. It’s a good primer for the science behind some of the most important issues of our time: nuclear terrorism, global warming, etc. The guy is a good lecturer, it’s not too technical, I don’t think, and it also addresses some of the misinformation regarding this stuff. You’ll learn things like:

- Radiological terrorism – a “dirty nuke” – is extremely hard to do and the fear is overblown. The most likely impact of a radiological bomb is to slightly increase the rate of cancer death rather than massive death at the scene.

- A straightforward explanation of why the World Trade Center fell.

- Spy satellites are increasingly useless at spying.

- The global warming that has occurred over the past 200 years until 1957 is actually not attributable to humans. It is only since 1957 that human activity has contributed to global warming.

- NYC does not have to worry about flooding due to rising sea levels. (Phew!)

- No matter how green our economy becomes, it will never be enough to solve global warming. The only way to really fix the problem is to pay developing countries to use green technology.

The professor starts talking at 7:20 and the video lasts about an hour. I know it’s a lot, but if you have some time I recommend it.

Machine In The Ghost, Ctd.

Before my little hiatus I posted this video:



I called it entrancing, fascinating and prophetic and was disturbed by the way, from what I saw, it depicts a human body under the control of external electronic signals. But a few commentors have taken me to task, and added some interesting nuances.

According to one commentor, we’ve even been able to induce emotional states in animals through electrical stimulation -- the kind of human/technological integration in this video is nothing new. That's true, of course. For a long time we have had heart pacemakers, brain pacemakers, cochlear implants, and more recently brain implants that allow for control of things such as robotic arms and computer interfaces. (Here is an interesting 60 Minutes report that shows some of the state of the art)

But I do maintain that the fact that, to me, it looks like his face is seemingly taken over by the music is a bit creepy. (I should say here that some people on YouTube have wondered if the effect is even real. I think it is. Watch some of his other videos, here, and here. It doesn’t seem possible for someone to control his face to this degree.) Pacemakers, cochlear implants, these affect involuntary systems inside the body. People that are able to control a robotic chair by thinking (as in the 60 Minutes video) are still in control of what they are doing. My point here is that this artist has voluntarily given up control over his muscles and lets them do what they will in response to the music. The feeling is one of willing surrender to overwhelming forces. One way that I look at it is as a metaphor for a future where humanity starts giving in to technological forces that it doesn't fully understand.

Commentor Invisible Man, however, does make an interesting and more hopeful point: the artist composed the very music that is being used to drive the electrodes that contract his muscles. So, in this sense, the artist is still in ultimate control over everything and his face becomes his instrument. Conceptually it isn’t that different than a singer or a dancer. In this case the control is just roundabout and indirect, but he is still in ultimate control. What this artist is doing is, I think, both a disconcerting and a reassuringly human use of technology. It points in brand new directions of how we can express ourselves, directions in which our own biology is plastic and malleable. I can imagine lots of very weird, freaky variations on this example. What if someone were playing this music live and had someone else hooked up by electrodes. Imagine a music and dance troupe: Four people make up the band, and play music normally. But then there are two other people, one of whom is the instrument for the other. One person plays the other like a puppet, interpreting the music that the regular band plays! A completely new kind of human performance!

I think I just blew my own mind.

Caroline Kennedy... Worse Than Palin

Back to politics. The more I read about Caroline Kennedy running... I'm sorry, presenting herself, for Clinton's soon to be vacated senate seat, the more pissed off I get. She's never run before for anything, claims she isn't running a campaign, claims that raising a family is a qualification for the office (these are mostly from this New York Times article) , and then says something like this today in an interview with NY1:

Dominic Carter: Okay. If [Governor Patterson] doesn't select you, will you run, right around the corner in 2010?

Caroline Kennedy: Well, if he doesn't select me, I would support the person that he does select. You know, I would love to do this, I feel like I have a lot to bring, and I would love to deliver for the people of New York. But, there's, you know, many ways that I can serve, and I can, and as I have been doing.

[and later]

Carter: ...There is also some people who perhaps may have not known Caroline Kennedy if her last name was not Kennedy we would not been having this conversation.

Caroline Kennedy: Well if my last name was not Kennedy maybe I would have run for office a long time ago. I don’t know.

As long as one person is selecting me then I'd be happy to serve. If the whole state selects me, then I'm not really interested. It seems like she wants to become a senator without going through the actual process of running. A once in a lifetime opportunity came up for someone with a famous name to bypass the democratic process and she took it. Wow, she must be so qualified she can't take the chance of mucking about in the tawdry world of electoral politics!

Sara Palin ran for city council, mayor and governor before running for... shudder... the vice-presidency. This is worse than Palin.

Of All the Charlie Browns In The World, You're The Charlie Browniest

My other Christmas related post (this was the first) is about my favorite Christmas music ever. It probably won’t be too surprising that it’s the soundtrack to the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. Not only is it intensely nostalgic, reminding me of so many winters watching the show as a kid, but it, alone among all the Christmas music I can think of, captures the grey, mixed feelings that is an unavoidable part of the holiday and of winter in general.

On a first pass, Christmas is a time of seeing family and giving gifts, of “holiday cheer” (I think it’s clear by now that what I’m talking about is the secular celebration of Christmas). And yet, there’s a flip side to that: the extreme commercialism and consumerism, the feeling of loneliness, the feeling of being out of place, of not getting invited to Christmas parties, that sense of forced cheer. The fact that it happens during the cold and short days of winter only intensifies everything. This is what the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack says in spades. To listen to it is to become Charlie Brown trudging through the snow, wondering why no one has sent him a Christmas card and yearning for something deeper from the season than pink, plastic trees. Now, my attitude doesn’t descend to his level of despair. Yes, I go to parties and get and give gifts and feel authentically cheerful. But, not all the time. The bitter cold, the disappointment when you get a gift you don’t really want, the sense, when it’s all over: “is that all there is?” It's all inevitable. A Charlie Brown Christmas is about reflecting on this. It reminds me that the holiday can sometimes get you feeling a bit down precisely when it’s supposed to pick you up. It expresses that sentiment back to you and becomes your companion in melancholy.

(NPR has done a few reports on the soundtrack over the years. They're good and they are here and here.)

It’s a Gap Christmas Flashback

I’ve always loved the Christmas season. I love the nostalgia it makes me feel for my childhood. I love the communal experience of it, how everyone shares in it in one way or another, the general feeling of warmth and community with my family and friends. And, I love how this feeling is extended when it’s incorporated into pop culture at-large. (If this post makes some people throw up for my shameless sentimentality, I’m sorry, but I’m sentimental about this) If it’s well done (that is, tasteful, not like a recent commercial where Santa Claus tries to buy sleigh, I’m sorry, car insurance. Groan!). One of my favorite examples of this is a series of commercials that Michel Gondry (director of the very good Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) created for the Gap in 1999.







Like the best Gap commercials, they are 30 second expressions of pure pop fun done in the most elegant way. They never stoop so low as to mention what is actually being sold (though, of course, the instant association of the brand with a broad cultural feeling is the point). They bring together a big-sounding version of the song Sleigh Ride (conducted by John Williams, I think) with, unexpectedly, yet wonderfully, Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice. To top it off, the kaleidoscopic images of people dancing and skating is so playful, and done with such freedom, that, to me, they feel joyful. These commercials are quintessentially modern without sacrificing a genuine Christmas feeling. I watch them every year.

Where Have I Been For Two Weeks?

I think if there is one iron rule of blogging it’s probably this: you have to keep writing! Unfortunately, I have violated that rule in a big way, not posting anything since December 10th (and even then, it was a pretty lame post: Joe The Plumber?? Ugh!). Well, I am back. Hopefully, there are still one or two loyal readers left. I use Google-Analytics to track how many people read the site and I’ve been dreading checking the latest numbers. For a blog that is just the personal opinions of a political layperson, I’m frequently surprised that it’s more than just a few good friends who seem to read it -- for the last month it’s averaged about 18 visitors per week, peaking at 28 one week (who are these people?!) So much has happened in the last few weeks – Madoff, Blagojevich, the final Obama cabinet picks, the auto bailout, the Mumbai fallout, the shoe thrower – and I haven’t commented on any of it. I just hope that this time away hasn’t permanently lost me my “base”.

To quickly mention why I’ve been away: First, I’ve been working a lot on the other main occupier of my time: a film script, which I’ve been working on for a year. Secondly, it’s the season of Christmas parties, and this year I’ve gone to more than in any other. Christmas parties mean a fair amount of drinking, and that, alas, does not go well with the focus that I like to bring to the blog. But now, that’s all done with. My head is clear and the posts will start to flow. But, I want to just dip my toe in first. Two Christmas-related, non-political and media-laden posts are in order.

Joe The Plumber, Class Act

Joe Wurzelbacher says that he was "appalled" by McCain on the campaign trail. He almost left the campaign bus at one point, but he thought Obama would be a lot worse. Palin, however, was the "real deal." God help us.

Shiv-seki

On Monday morning Obama announced that he has chosen retired General Eric Shinseki to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs. I don't know what the Secretary of Veterans Affairs does exactly, but as far as the symbolism goes it is an impeccable pick. Shinseki was the guy who told the country that the Bush administration was living in a fantasyland when it came to preparing for Iraq. He is the one who went before Congress and said that it would take, "something in the order of several hundred thousand soldiers" to occupy Iraq successfully. He is the one who, as Obama said on Meet the Press on Sunday, "was right."

Also, I think it's great to know that Shinseki was able to speak truth to power and eventually have his dignity restored. I would like to think that he been chuckling to himself a lot lately.

Morever, the pick illustrates Obama's deft political ability or, as James Fallows writes so well, his, "extremely refined aspect of sticking in the shiv." Obama can keep his rhetoric bipartisan and classy, his demeanor lofty and presidential, while still grinding the faces of all those responsible for the awful pre-war planning in the dirt. He doesn't need to say anything about what the previous administration did. He doesn't need to list and go off on their massive failures. The pick says it all.

"Revenge is a dish best served cold." (An Old Klingon proverb, I believe.)

What The Hell Is This??

So I just googled my name, something I haven't done in a long time, and this site comes up: http://www.axuve.com! What the hell is going on here? It's a very strange site that claims to be about foreign currency calculators, though, in reality, I think it's just some hacking site: other than explaining the different types of calculators out there it doesn't do anything; it has one sub-page -- axuve.com/axuve.html -- that I clicked on and took so long to load I stopped it for fear the site was doing something to my Mac. It also has space for you to sign up for a newsletter at the top, but it doesn't mention the newsletter at all in the body of the text. I would think that if it was designed to get you to enter in your email and name then the page would actually ask you to fill in your name and email. Weird. But weirdest of all... why is there a site out there with my name as its domain?? And it's the first thing that comes up in a Google search! Is this some ploy to get people who are looking for trapped in an internet scheme? Is this a trap for me somehow?? Any of the people who visit this site know a way to find out more about this site? It's very disconcerting.

Machine In The Ghost, Ctd.

A few commentors have wondered what is so "prophetic" about my previous post. Well, what I'm thinking is that the video points to the way in which human biology and technology are coming together. We are all familiar with prosthetic limbs, pacemakers, artificial hearts, etc. But within my lifetime, I think I will see a much deeper level of integration between the two, particularly involving digital information technology. We may one day augment our own mental abilities with computer chips. At that point, where the boundary is between man and machine becomes blurred, it seems to me. For those people who choose to incorporate this kind of technology into themselves, will it be accurate to describe them as human beings? Will their technology be dictating their actions to some degree? At least, will the fact that they incorporate so much technology into themselves make their behavior unrecognizable to non-technological humans? It's a huge question, and a huge subject, but it seems to me that the fact that technology will change our behavior so much that it becomes a major determining factor in that behavior is inevitable. We will be subject to technology in ways we can't yet imagine.

And this brings me back to the video. What is so interesting and disturbing and prophetic about it is that, in it, computer technology controls human muscles, not the other way around. The human being is subordinate here, the medium by which the music and the technology expresses itself. When the music really gets going, the expression on the guys face is almost one of being overwhelmed by the electronic pulses making his face spasm, like a swimmer out at sea giving in to the constant barrage of waves that bat him around.

Machine In The Ghost

This has go to be one of the most entrancing, fascinating, prophetic, and disturbing videos I've ever seen on the internet.

The National Security Team

So we now have Obama's national security team, and for the most part, I like it. Gates staying at Defense is a strong choice, from what I've read. He has started to turn the department around, he actually respects and listens to the military more than Rumsfeld ever did, and seems able to work with people instead of maneuvering around them. I believe he comes from the classic realist school of foreign policy, so the Iraq War is something that he would probably have been skeptical about from the beginning. And yet he has also come to understand the inescapable reality of the 21st century where America will need to be deeply involved in the world for the foreseeable future. Retreating inside fortress America and worrying about narrow economic and military interests is not an option.

Eric Holder seems like perhaps an excellent choice. Here is someone capable, and more importantly, someone who might actually care about the law, the constitution and executive power, someone who has pointed out that the Justice Department must stand with some distance from the rest of the White House, and who said today that Justice plays a, "unique role," in the administration and that, "it is incumbent those of us who lead the department to ensure not only that the nation is safe but also that our laws and traditions are respected." I'll take it with a grain of salt until I see actual results, but he feels like a clean break from Bush enablers like Gonzalez and Mukaskey.

Of James Jones I have read little except that he's opinionated and another foreign policy realist who's come around to seeing things a little differently, like Gates. He should not be the failure that Rice was. He will hopefully have the strength to wrangle the heavyweights Obama has chosen.

Lastly, of course, is Clinton. My feelings about her as Secretary of State are mixed. She has star power and intelligence and toughness, all of which help her new job. But she was a terrible manager of her campaign and is a... Clinton, which always means ego and potential for distracting, high drama (and it always means Bill!). On that tack I hope Obama knows what he's doing. I really, really do. And, on substance, while I initially wondered why he chose her, I'm starting to see that it fits with Obama's foreign policy beliefs and general character. During the campaign, they were never that far apart on policy, but there were some interesting, and telling issues where they differed, and where I agreed with him more: on Cuba, where he was for greater openness and rapproachment, on nuclear proliferation, where he was more clearly for significant change (I think), and on the initial vote to go to war, of course. These are not major differences, at least not now (though they disagreed on the vote for war, that's not a barrier to them agreeing on getting out), but still they made me wonder if the two saw eye-to-eye on that as much as they should.

After listening to Obama today, it occurs to me that to focus on these issues is to miss the forest for the trees and ignore who Obama is. He and she may have differences on some things, but as he said today, on the overall course U.S. foreign policy should take, they are in, "almost complete agreement." The point here is that what he really cares about is the overall shape of his foreign policy. The other, individual issues are simply not that important to him. He's focusing on grand strategy, as is his tendency: Obama has always tended to "go big" on issues and ignore or compromise or postpone dealing with smaller issues. Even if he would like to, say, have a closer relationship with Cuba, he has too many other problmes of global scope on his plate to have his main goals disturbed by a regional issue. On the broad strokes, I bet Clinton really does agree with him and that is why he chose her and she accepted. She has always been a bit of a hawk, but he has also made somewhat aggressive, or just plain agressive, comments: on killing jihadists inside Pakistan, on Russia invadeing South Ossetia, on the issue of Jerusalem in any Israeli/Palestinian agreement. When it comes to overall foreign policy I think he's actually a pretty pragmatic realist who wants diplomacy to work, but has no problem using physical force when necessary. (Obama has been known to admire George Bush, Sr.'s foreign policy, and has received advice from Brent Scocroft.)

Finally, part of the reason for agreement I think might also be that, because things are in such a bad place right now for the U.S. in the world, the different branches of U.S. foreign policy (minus the crazies -- isolationists or neoconservatives) have come into closer agreement on what that policy should be. Both progressives, liberal hawks and realists all feel that we must: pull out of Iraq, repair our international relationships, shift more of our resources away from military spending and more towards aid and diplomacy, and take greater action on issues such as climate change, energy security and nuclear proliferation. The previous eight years have just made these issues very clear and a rough consensus has emerged. At least for now. If Obama is successful and a good part of these issues is taken care of, then, ironically, I wonder if more cracks will start to show as everyone's differences become magnified. It's entirely possible that this team works precisely because the U.S. is in such a bad place that what we have to do to get out of it is obvious to everybody. What happens later is a different story.

Mumbai Motivation

At Counterterrorism blog there is an interview discussing the motivations behind Mumbai. I don't know this guy's reputation, so, just skimming it I don't know how authoratative he is, but his analysis is very plausible. I should have seen it, knowing what I know from my class: First, this is about sparking a war between Pakistan and India. Second, this is about sparking such a war so that pressure is relieved from Pakistan's Western front, where Pakistani soldiers are fighting jihadists. Third, Al-Qaeda is probably involved in this at some level -- if not at the operational, planning level, then at the inspirational, global strategy level. This kind of attack, whether directed by Al Qaeda or not helps its overall mission, and, as I mentioned, helps its current state of health in Pakistan by potentially making the Pakistani forces that are fighting it withdraw to go fight along Pakistan's Eastern border in a conflict with India. The whole point of terrorism is to create an overreaction from the countries involved.

Oui Nous Pouvons!

Sheesh! Sarkozy is just shameless! A reader of Andrew Sullivan's blog sent this in to him from Paris.