September 04, 2008

iShares Poster Ads: What Were They Thinking?

Walking through the tunnels of Grand Central Terminal today, commuters see a new "Better World" ad campaign for iShares, along the theme of "see through the clouds." That's good advice for investors, to make sense of murky investment options. The test-heavy print ads are quite acceptable.

The subway posters, however, are unintentionally jarring, in a major way.

I'll update this entry with a photo soon, but I'll describe the posters. They show New York buildings through clouds that look to me much more like . . . smoke. With 9-11's seventh anniversary next week, the imagery is so stunningly reminiscent of photos of that day that I cannot believe somebody at iShares' agency didn't see, wait a minute, let's rethink this.

Van | 09:05 PM | 09/04/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: NYC

September 01, 2008

What I Did on April 29, 1972

On April 29, 1972, I bought the triple-album Woodstock soundtrack. I know, because I wrote the date on the album, as I have done with almost every album and CD I've bought in the last 35 years (not that I'm obsessive or anything). As a rock-lovin' eighth grader at Mission Junior High School in Texas, the album connected me to the big, skinny-dipping-hippies world out there.

On August 31, 2008, over 36 years later, I FINALLY made it to Woodstock as I drove 130 miles to the town in the Catskills region of New York that lent the concert its name. I took my son, now 14, to the "Original Woodstock Museum Film and Video Festival" to see the area and check out the documentaries at the festival, which had the theme "Freedom."

Continue reading " What I Did on April 29, 1972"

Van | 08:50 PM | 09/01/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Sensual pleasures

August 26, 2008

Signs of Apocalypse: Real Estate Crisis Ruins My Day

The subprime mortgage situation officially became an urgent national crisis when I got a letter from a former employer over the weekend. "What could this be?" I mused as I ripped it open. Just-discovered bonus check? Unpaid expenses from that trip to Cleveland in 1999?

The headline read: "Impact of Limited Liquidity in the Real Estate and Related Securities Portfolio." I got the point quickly: The regret letter involved my 401-K, still parked at the company.

The letter detailed problems with investments in the real estate fund in my 401-K at the company. Key sentence:

Given the severe correction in the debt market and related adjustment in the commercial real estate market, these two private property partnerships may prevent redemptions altogether for a period of time.

Being keenly insightful about the world, the company outlined the impact of this: I need to redirect future contributions (not a problem since I no longer work there); executions of redemption requests will be delayed (not a problem since I'm still not terribly close to retirement age); and execution of year-end reallocation requests will likely be delayed or only partially implemented. OK, I get it, I'm stuck in the fund. Fortunately, I had spread my investment as the company among six different options, so the real estate is just one busted egg in the retirement Easter basket.

Thank goodness I have the hedge funds and mysterious "special situations" to keep my portfolio there perking along.

Van | 06:56 AM | 08/26/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Natural disasters

August 25, 2008

Signs of Apocalypse: Newspaper Prints Same Story 3 Times

I know the Newark Star-Ledger is struggling financially, but aren't ANY editors left? I got the Sunday paper yesterday during a lonnggg bus trip home from Washington, and noticed that the paper printed the same article three times. Pages 2, 3 and 31 printed "A Barren Forecast for Russian Oil Fields" by Tom Lasseter of the McClatchy-Tribune News Service:

The Russian oil boom, which has produced a gusher of cash, political power and an opulent elite — and has helped fuel the country's renewed assertiveness in Georgia and elsewhere — is on shakier ground than officials in Moscow would like to admit.

It's a solid story, but couldn't the Star-Ledger find something else to run in the space? Just look at the AP ticker and pull off the dog-show results, if nothing else.

Van | 07:10 AM | 08/25/08 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Linkfest

August 12, 2008

Obama Delivers! (Some Mail)

No sooner do I wax eloquent about mailings from John and Cindy McCain than the mighty Democratic Party direct mail beast awakes, stretches, yawns, and delivers its first envelope of Obama campaign literature to me.

Alas, it had no glossies and no bumper stickers, but it was a pleasant, fact-free multi-piece mailing that even used my name repeatedly. I felt a shiver of connection with that, let me tell you. However, the piece referred to Hillary Clinton's campaign and how it "changed the America in which my daughters and your daughters and granddaughters will come of age."

Whoa -- I don't have any daughters, so obviously this personalized piece mail came to the wrong Van Wallach (yes, there is another one out there). Eager to see a hard reason to vote for Obama, all I found were attacks on the Republicans and passing referencs to Obama's time as a community organizer.

After hearing so much about Obama, some of the mailing did have a "where have I heard that before?" sound to it. My favorite part as with the money pitch, which scaled the heights of baffling grammatical constructions:

Dear Barack Obama, I agree! We are the ones we've been waiting for . . . we are the change we seek.

What on earth does that mean? We've been waiting for ourselves and we are something we have been looking for. That sounds like out-take dialogue from Pineapple Express to me.

Van | 09:41 PM | 08/12/08 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: - GOTV '06 to '08

August 10, 2008

My Letter to the New York Times, or, "Adventures of Boysenberry Finn"

The August 4 New York Times gave writer-Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn the full send-off, with an obit that ran two full pages. The Times had years -- decades! -- to prepare and polish this obituary.

The Times still screwed it up, in some breath-taking ways. I noticed one glaring error and sent the paper this letter:

A subhead in the obituary of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn says he was "Born With the Soviet Union." The text says he was born in 1918, "a year after the Soviet Union arose from revolution." Sorry to burst your enthusiasm for the fruits of the revolution, but the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was not formed until December 1922. The October Revolution only put the Bolsheviks in power and did not immediately create the USSR. Check your stories from correspondent Walter Duranty -- he could probably help you set the historical record straight.

My letter didn't appear, but the correction did, along with other corrections that show an amazing inattention to basic facts of the man's life.

Continue reading " My Letter to the New York Times, or, "Adventures of Boysenberry Finn""

Van | 07:06 PM | 08/10/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Life and how to live it

August 08, 2008

John and Cindy Send Me Pictures

Last fall several KTers and I attended a Rudy Giuliani fundraiser on the Upper West Side, where we dined on kosher sushi and heard a fervent pitch from members of his Jewish committee.

Rudy tanked, but the donation I made lives on, and on, as I can tell how my contact details got passed up the line to the various tentacles of the Republican Party. They have been reaching out in recent weeks, desperate to slither into my pockets and shake loose some spare change for the dear old GOP.

Since I'm a registered Democrat, I find the efforts amusing. I've already picked up a black-and-white McCain bumper sticker, and in recent days I've excitedly ripped open envelopes to find 8 x 10 "signed" glossies of John and Cindy McCain. One says, "Thank you for everything you do for our Party and country, John & Cindy," while the other says, "Thank you for for commitment and support, Cindy & John."

What I liked most about the glossies is how well Cindy wears her four strands of pearls. The perfect Republican First Lady!

Lately the mailings have come from other directions. I got one with the envelope teaser,

I'm not the type of person today's lilberal Democrats want to see in Congress. I'm a woman . . . a minority . . . and a conservative

I know you're curious, so the letter came from Dr. Deborah Honeycutt in Atlanta, running for the House.

Don't think the GOP is a soft touch, however. It expects results from its direct mail campaign. Just today, I got a scolding letter from the Republican National Committee.

Continue reading " John and Cindy Send Me Pictures"

Van | 08:08 AM | 08/08/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Domestic Politics

August 05, 2008

Tania Grossinger's Wild Catskills Girlhood

If you've ever considered the movie "Dirty Dancing" more a lifestyle template than a movie, then read Tania Grossinger's book Growing Up at Grossinger's for an inside look at the fabled resort -- from the inside. Just reissued after first appearing in 1975, the book combines family and social history, well-polished celebrity sightings and lots of adolescent angst, with a couple of Patrick Swayze types around to keep the narration sweating and the poodle skirts bouncing.

The book provides an especially frank view of the social pressures on young Jews of the 1940s and 1950s. Today's lingering years (or decades) of being single didn't fit the norms then. Grossinger, who actually lived with her mother at the resort, zeroes in on the brute facts of life as existed from a very young age. Writing about "summer seasonal" families that spent weeks on end at the resort, with the fathers schlepping down to Manhattan for the work weeks, she observes

They (the mothers) sent their children to the Day Camp (which is how I met most of them) and on Saturday evenings many would dress their little girls as miniatures of themselves -- bouffant hairdos, spike-heeled shoes, a rhinestone or two, and if the daughter was 11 or 12, perhaps a mink "stolette" (a tinier version of their own full-length model). I remember the first time I overheard a mother asking her 12-year old if she had a date that night. When told no, she chided her unaggressive child and told her in no uncertain terms: "Why do you think I brought you here? it's never too early in life to meet the right kind of people. They boys you are playing with may very well grow up to be doctors and lawyers someday."

Tania worked at the resort in various roles starting when she was 14. Her first job descended to the level of Stephen King-like horror. I lack the stomach to set up the full context, but the passage includes the nightmarish quote, "Don't be afraid to put some on my tushy."

Grossinger headed for Brandeis for college, where she rubbed elbows with Abraham Maslow and other luminaries. Her hierarchy of values led her to journalism and public relations, and the world is a better place for that. The hotel closed in 1986, but this website stands as a picture-packed memorial to it. The condition of the place in "before and after" pictures up to 2006 is horrifying, like photos from abandoned Chernobyl. But the before pictures show it during the glorious era Grossinger writes about.

For a fun beach spin with plenty of name-dropping and gobs of mother-daughter conflict, Tania Grossinger delivers the goods. Care for another helping?

Van | 07:10 PM | 08/05/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Doing Jewish

July 24, 2008

Sopranos Meets L Word, Hilarity Ensues

First I got hooked on The Sopranos and powered my way through every DVD set. I even wrote an essay using material from the show. Now I'm grinding my way through "The L Word," which is growing on me bit by bit with its intelligent scripts, philosophical issues, questions of identity and acceptance, and friendship.

The Sopranos is 100 percent New Jersey material, L Word comes from Los Angeles. Still, in my mind the shows cross-polinate. Musing on the train, I imagined the casts switching places. That would give the material new meaning. Familiar faces in unfamiliar roles. I can see Tony in the Jennifer Beals role, other Sopranos actors in other roles where they can emote, swim, dance, laugh, cry -- all kinds of emotions and intense bonding. Jennifer Beals as Tony Soprano? I can see that, too.

And if that doesn't happen, I'll move on to 24, a very LA-centric show, colliding with L Word. I think Jack Bauer could teach the L Word characters a thing or two, and I'm sure they would take Kim Bauer under their wings.

America's gone too long without 24. My mind is starting to wander without my weekly fix.

Van | 10:03 PM | 07/24/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Sensual pleasures

July 21, 2008

Sen. Pat Leahy: Dark Knight and Dead Head

With The Dark Knight giving Obama a run for the buzz-money these days, let's pause to consider the role of Senator Pat Leahy, who has carved out a role for himself in the Batman entertainment monolith. His role in Dark Knight is just the latest for the Vermont Democrat:

Leahy had a nonspeaking cameo in the 1997 film "Batman and Robin," did a voice-over for the part of a governor in a Batman cartoon, and wrote the prefaces for a "Batman" anthology and a Batman comic book about the danger of land mines. Once he was spotted doing wheelies on his grandson's toy Batmobile down the long marble hall outside his Senate office.

But wait, there's more! Leahy is also a tiedyed-in-the-wool fan of the Grateful Dead. I know because when Jerry Garcia died, Leahy beelined to the studios of the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour to talk about his enthusiasm for the group. I heard him. The Dkospedia (yes, there is such a thing) sums up the Leahy's adventures in Oaxamaxao Land:

Senator Leahy is a fan of the Grateful Dead. He has not only attended concerts, but has taped them, and has a collection of Dead tapes in his Senate Offices. The late Jerry Garcia visited him at his Senate offices, and the Senator gave a tie designed by the late band leader Jerry Garcia to Sen. Orrin Hatch (who responded by giving Leahy a Rush Limbaugh tie). Surviving band members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart have participated in fundraisers for Leahy and his Political Action Committee, the Green Mountain Victory Fund. Leahy also appeared offered a videotaped tribute to the Dead when they received a lifetime achievement award at the 2002 Jammys. His Senate web site notes this response to a question from 7th Grade Students from Vermont's Thetford Academy who asked Leahy which Dead song was his favorite, he replied: "...my favorite is Black Muddy River but we always play Trucking on election night at my headquarters."

Now, if he wants to really get "hip" with today's new breed of young Democrats, I'd like to see Sen. Leahy start groovin' to the tunes of Amy WIinehouse or L'il Kim. Or maybe I'll just keep thinking of him as Senator Casey Jones.

Van | 06:36 AM | 07/21/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Domestic Politics

July 06, 2008

Che: The Man, the Magic, the Lifestyle

The Colombians pulled off a dazzling Entebbe-style July surprise on FARC, and I hope the raiders involved go on to even greater accomplishments in their country. May the spirit of Jonathan Netanyahu be with them always.

Details of the planning and execution of the raid will surely come out. One fascinating detail is that, to fool FARC, some of the rescuers wore Che Guevara t-shirts. That makes perfect sense. In the US and elsewhere, nothing says, "I'm down with the progressives" more than wearing a shirt with a picture of the Motorcycle Diarist on it.

The shirt, however, is the just the beginning of the Che lifestyle. Visitors to Cuba can indulge in the entire Che weltanshaaung of clothing, CDs, books, postcards, carved statuary, posters and even cellphone holders -- so I'm told. For those who want a 3-D experience, the Museum of the Revolution in Havana even offers Che: The Diorama. Below you see Che on the right, advancing toward the socialist future with companero Camilo Cienfuegos.

Van | 08:47 PM | 07/06/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: - Power to the People

June 06, 2008

Latin for the Candidates

The book "Amo, Amas, Amat and More" is full of Latin phrases and translations. Some have direct application to the Democratic candidates. Two of my favorites, for your consideration.

Might Hillary return to Chappaqua declaring, "Vulneratus non victus" -- "Wounded but not conquered"?

And for BHO, how about this sentence from the Odes of Horace:

Integer vitae scelerisque purus non eget mauris iaculis neque areu. -- An upright man, free of guilt, needs no weapon to defend himself.

That could be meant ironically, as we peruse the connections with Rezko, et. al. but I will let the gods decide that matter.

Van | 07:04 AM | 06/06/08 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Domestic Politics

June 01, 2008

I'm Sure Glad Her Name Isn't "Harriet Katzenellenbogen-Shapiro"

The Democrats are providing so much video entertainment these days that I'm running out of popcorn. Hot on the heels of Father Michael Pfleger, but with a different perspective, is NYC Hillary supporter Harriet Christian, now a Youtube Toober of the Day.

In her video comments in Washington, Christian lets it all hang out on the Democrats' not seating Florida and Michigan delegates, and declares that McCain will be the next president.

What really grabs me is her name -- Christian. The opportunities for creative headline-writing are huge: "Christians go to war over Obama." "Christian wants to throw Obama to the lions." Can you imagine the shrieks of rage if she were Jewish and saying what she says? What would Jews For Obama have to say?

Fortunately, she has a Telfon-coated name that completely severs any links to the Jews. Thanks, Harriet! (The check from ZOG is in the mail.)

Van | 05:51 PM | 06/01/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: - GOTV '06 to '08

May 29, 2008

Che Moods

Che Guevara is coming at me from all sides. First, there's film Che, courtesy of Steven Soderbergh's four hours of fatigue-clad fun divided into two chunks, The Argentine and Guerilla. I haven't seen it, so I'll withhold comment, although I'm not expecting it to be a Chequivalent of the riveting Hitler movie I just saw, Downfall.

From the literary side, I got a big dose of the darling of the revolution in the novel Killing Che, which is a very high quality spy novel complete with hot gringo-y-Latina shtupping, cattle-prod torture and double-crosses galore, grim stuff with flashes of humor and truly great writing by Chuck Pfarrer on every page. A sample, in which burned-out CIA contractor Paul Hoyle surveys the scene at a gala ball in La Paz, Bolivia, 1967:

Hoyle drank a second champagne without the slightest sensation of irony. There were a million places in the world where the rich danced while the poor starved. Hoyle had been around the world, and it had beaten sense into him. He knew that injustice was a phenomenon as irresistible and inescapable as gravity. The privileged always danced and drank champagne. They did so in Saigon, in Johannesburg, in Havana; it could not be different here.

Hoyle was not cruel, but he was not an empathetic man. He looked at the crowd with narrowed eyes and thought, It’s coming for you. It did not matter that Hoyle was here to stop that day of reckoning, or at least forestall it. In that mission, he took no joy beyond a certain dark pride in his work. His was an assignment, not a personal aspiration. There remained the very real possibility that Bolivia would succumb to revolution. If it came, the people around him would be swept away, perhaps even liquidated as a class. Hoyle did not pity them. In plain truth, he hardly cared for them at all.

It just doesn't get any better than that.

Van | 10:17 PM | 05/29/08 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: WWIV

May 26, 2008

Shouldn't They Be Studying Torah, or Something?

I went to David Broza's free concert in Wilton, Conn., yesterday evening, which drew a huge crowd, by Connecticut standards. That had to be gratifying for the local federations that pitched in on this Israel 60th anniversary event.

What surprised me more than the crowd was who else Broza "attracted." Heading back to my car, who was there waving signs and being annoying but a crew from Neturei Karta -- the last people I would expect to be fans of secular Israeli music.

While they had to listen, the NK nudniks really just wanted to do their little bit to ruin the anniversary celebrations. Fortunately, penned outside the concert area, they were barely visible in the nutmeg darkness. I saw a few people stop to argue with them, and that was the extent of their impact.

Still, the cognitive dissonance of Keturei Karta running amok in bucolic Fairfield County is enough to make my head spin. A shot of Slivovitz set me straight.

Van | 10:21 PM | 05/26/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Doing Jewish

April 28, 2008

Lincoln-Douglas Debate? No. Try TLC.

Hillary has thrown down the gantlet, challenging Obama to a Lincoln-Douglas style no-moderator debate. Obama, trying to play out the clock, says no, we've had 21 debates.

I think Hillary needs to up the ante. Forget about polite harrumping about health care and Iraq and Rev. Wright. Let's settle this once and for all with a genuine slammin' TLC match to see who claims the nomination, no holds barred.

What's TLC? you might ask. As well you should. TLC refers not to how Hillary treats overseas campaign donors, but rather Tables-Ladders-Chairs, a wrestling format in which contestants use the props to grab a championship belt suspended above the ring.

That would be political theater of the highest order and the greatest pay-per-view event ever, to see Hillary "Bill Crusher" Clinton battle Barack "The Hawaiian Weatherman" Obama in for the Democratic nomination. Let's stop playing nice and get out the heavy equipment so they can really pummel each other in glee.

Continue reading " Lincoln-Douglas Debate? No. Try TLC."

Van | 06:44 AM | 04/28/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Domestic Politics

April 25, 2008

Lena Guerrero, Remembering a Life Too Short

First came a text message, then an email: friends in Texas heard the news that Lena Guerrero had died yesterday after battling brain tumors for eight years. She was 50, and I remember her life as one of the great what-ifs of American politics. She was a member of the Texas House of Representatives at age 26, Texas Railroad Commissioner, speaker at the 1992 Democratic convention. But then . . .

First, some history.

Lena and I were classmates at Mission High School in Texas, Class of 1976. She was the student council president, I was the newspaper editor -- teen-age obsessions that immediately pegged our career arcs. She had a great political astuteness and drive from a very young age, and attended American Legion Auxiliary's Girls State and Girls Nation program, quite an honor. The photo belows shows her in action leading a Student Council meeting.

Continue reading " Lena Guerrero, Remembering a Life Too Short"

Van | 06:57 AM | 04/25/08 | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Life and how to live it

April 16, 2008

Cloverfield (The Chabad Re-Make)

Pedestrians gazed in awe Wednesday at lunch when Chabad unleashed its fearsome 770th Mechanized Cavalry on the streets of Manhattan. Dozens of Mitzvahmobiles thundered up 6th Avenue in a pavement-rattling demonstration of spiritual firepower and amplified music complete with an NYPD escort.

If only Pope Benedict XVI had been around to see it! Perhaps Chabad is planning a repeat performance to get in on the excitement already building at Park East Synagogue, where the Pope will drop by for some Abrahamic shmoozing on Friday.

Van | 11:17 PM | 04/16/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Doing Jewish

April 07, 2008

David Harris, Here's Your New Radio Ad Schedule

The radio station of the New York Times, WQXR, has refused to run an ad from the American Jewish Committee (AJC). Dealing with the rocket attacks on Sderot, the ad was read by AJC's executive director, David Harris. I listen to WQXR at work, and have heard the AJC ads.

The Times turned down the ad for various moronic reasons, which Harris explains here:

Here’s the written explanation from Tom Bartunek, president of New York Times Radio and general manager of WQXR:

”In my judgement several elements of this spot are outside our bounds of acceptability. First, the opening line— `Imagine you had fifteen seconds to find shelter from an oncoming missile’—does not make clear that the potential target of the missile is not our listening area, and as a consequence, runs the risk of raising anxiety in a misleading way. Second, the description of the missiles as arriving `day or night’ and `daily’ is also subject to challenge as being misleading, at least to the degree that reasonable people might be troubled by the absence of any acknowledgement of reciprocal Israeli military actions. Finally, in my judgement the `countdown’ device and the general tone of the message do not meet our guidelines for decorum.”

WQXR joins Ms. Magazine in the proud ranks of principled, progressive media outlets that refuse to demean themselves by accepting certain types of filthy Jewish advertising. As I wrote during the Ms. dustup in January, I'm happy to offer the AJC alternative media outlets for its thoughtful ads. If the AJC moves them to another outlet, I will be sure to offer that station (and its many fine, upscale advertisers) my support. So, David Harris, here's your new radio schedule:

Continue reading " David Harris, Here's Your New Radio Ad Schedule"

Van | 09:59 PM | 04/07/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: - Antisemitism watch

April 06, 2008

Charlton Heston, Sci-Fi Visionary

When I think of Charlton Heston, who died yesterday, I think of him in his three epochal sci-fi roles: Planet of the Apes (1968), The Omega Man (1971), and Soylent Green (1973). I saw the latter two when they first appeared, Planet of the Apes as an adult. I found all three hugely entertaining and among the very few movies I have watched more than once.

'SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!!!"

Sorry, I just had to get that out of my system. I feel better now.

Of the three, The Omega Man had the biggest impact on me when I saw it as a 13 year old in 1971 at the venerable Border Theatre in Mission, Texas. Everything in the movie dazzled me, from the eerie, empty streets of Los Angeles to the extreme irony of Heston, as sole survivor scientist Robert Neville mouthing the words to "Woodstock" as he watches it in a theater. What really gripped my imagination? Hint: what would most appeal to a 13 year old curious about the many-splendored possibilities between a man and woman?

Continue reading " Charlton Heston, Sci-Fi Visionary"

Van | 07:43 PM | 04/06/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Sensual pleasures

April 04, 2008

Imaginary Duets: Mac and Lazarus

Last night I had the pleasure of watching Black Snake Moan with Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci. Besides having the greatest poster so far in the 21st century, Black Snake Moan gives a heartfelt picture of failings and redemption in the South. It takes its religion seriously, something that I imagine made as many people uncomfortable as the movie's premise. A classic line in the film summarizes the plot: "A half-naked white girl chained in your house?"

Jackson plays the farmer Lazarus (more than a little symbolism in that name), embittered by the end of his marriage, who finally gets back to his true calling of blues musician through his friendship with trailer-park strumpet Ricci. In watching Jackson play and the plot unfold against the background of sinners trying to get right with God, I was struck by the movie's spiritual connection to Robert Duvall's Oscar winning Tender Mercies, from 1983. While Tender Mercies got great reviews and rewards, Black Snake Moan was considered exploitative dreck by some reviewers.

But it's not. I'll tell you why.

Continue reading " Imaginary Duets: Mac and Lazarus"

Van | 02:47 PM | 04/04/08 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Sensual pleasures

March 31, 2008

Hillary Goes Counterintuitive

I saw a re-run of Hillary Clinton's appearance on Saturday Night Live, then on Sunday morning read an eye-opening opinion piece in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. I can't improve on the beginning of the piece, by publisher Richard Scaife:

Hillary Clinton walked into a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review conference room last Tuesday to meet with some of the newspaper's editors and reporters and declared, "It was so counterintuitive, I just thought it would be fun to do."

The room erupted in laughter. Her remark defused what could have been a confrontational meeting.

More than that, it said something about the New York senator and former first lady who hopes to be America's next president.

Maybe I'll take another look at Hillary. If Scaife can, I can, too.

Van | 06:51 AM | 03/31/08 | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) | Categories:

March 30, 2008

McCain-Leiberman: It's a Lock

I heard Sen. Joe Lieberman on ABC's "This Week" this morning going mano-a-mano with George Stephanapoulos. Lieberman sang a stirring love aria to Senator McCain, hitting high notes such as his appeal to moderate Democrats and independents (I'm both, so I listened with both ears).

It's obvious to me: McCain is going to go for a fusion ticket with Lieberman as VP. Unless he decides to go really innovative with Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana or some other innovative choice, McCain has made his choice. Get ready for an old-fashioned White House seder with all the fixins!

Also spracht Kesher Talk.

Van | 10:38 AM | 03/30/08 | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: - GOTV '06 to '08

March 09, 2008

Raiders of the Lost Menorah

When I visited Rome in 1989, I thrilled at the site of the menorah carried by the victorious legionnaires on the Arch of Titus. It marked a Jewish defeat, to be sure, but the fact that 2,000 years later we are still around to look at it transformed the defeat into a victory. The "Am Yisroel Chai" graffiti on the arch didn't hurt, either.

Now, Meir Soloveichik has a long and riveting article in Commentary on the image and use of the menorah. He writes,

But if the menorah has indeed been returned, and if the defeat wrought by Titus has been reversed, why then do observant Jews continue to mourn what Titus brought about? Why does the ninth of Av, which embodies the twin ideas of exile and dispersion, need to be observed at all?

In answering this question we need to examine the enigmatic image of the menorah more closely, and revisit a mystery that has confounded many over the centuries.

It's well worth printing and reading.

Van | 07:09 PM | 03/09/08 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: Doing Jewish

March 04, 2008

Rendering Unto Caesar, God and the Yankees

My camera phone came in handy as I snapped this photo of the car of a New Yorker who wants to cover all his bases in temporal and spiritual realms. Or perhaps he a true believer who is showing his allegiance to two saviors.

Van | 10:33 PM | 03/04/08 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Categories: - GOTV '06 to '08