Meniskus 'Partier' Coming

Last night my wife and I went with a friend to the Draft House in Boulder (great chocolate stout and "pork roll" sandwich!) to see Meniskus, a band that I am becoming increasingly impressed with.

Do yourself a favor and go to iTunes to download at least "Letters" and "Overbearing (Part 2)," both available on the Foreign Beyond album. If you like these tracks, then you'll like Meniskus, and you'll become excited to learn...

Meniskus is recording their third album, and it will include "Partier." (I don't know if that's the song's official name, but everybody's going to call it "Partier" anyway.) It seems to me that, if Meniskus is going to have a breakthrough hit, it's going to be "Partier." Then, I hope that a lot of people drawn to that popish, rhythmic party song look into the previous albums.

We're blessed with some very good music in Colorado. DeVotchKa is one of my favorite groups of all time. Meniskus is working up the list, and I really wish these guys success.

* * *

In other music news, I was excited to see that Depeche Mode has a new album out that Amazon is selling for $3.99 for today only. The first track was bizarre and off-putting in the preview, but the other tracks sound interesting. I figured that for four bucks it's hard to go wrong. Unfortunately, after buying the album and downloading Amazon's mp3 downloader, I got nothing. But I called Amazon on the phone, and they solved the problem very quickly. So, yea for real customer service.

Rushified

I've been Rushified. The best thing about the new film I Love You, Man is the tribute to Rush -- the band even plays a song in a cameo.

I thought it was a fun but not hilarious movie about male bonding, and I really like the cast. (I went with my wife, though obviously I should have planned a "man date." Maybe for the DVD release.)

If the official web page's hurdles annoy you, you can find most of the best clips through YouTube. Check out the man cave, for instance.

A Rush fan site has some more info on the links between the movie and the band.

Gotta go now -- got a Rush DVD in the computer.

L. Neil Smith Serializes Ceres

Colorado science-fiction author L. Neil Smith has written a new novel called Ceres, a sequel to Pallas, my favorite novel of his. (Actually he wrote the novel some time ago, but it is just now coming out.)

Big Head Press is serializing the novel online.

The story takes place on a terraformed asteroid. "Chapter Zero" begins to reveal the life of a young woman devoted to ice skating, which on a low-gravity asteroid is a rather different sport. With Smith, we can count on heavy doses of action and intrigue as the story progresses.

(Don't) Lie to Me

On a friend's recommendation, my wife and I started watching Lie to Me, the new Fox show starring Tim Roth. Last night we watched through the sixth episode, the latest one. I really like this show.

The premise is that Roth's character (Cal Lightman) and his colleagues are experts at reading emotional expressions. A smile, a hand gesture, a shrug reveals the truth -- or a lie. Lightman's firm hires itself out to government agencies, corporations, and individuals who need to get to the bottom of something, be it a criminal allegation or doubt of a book's authenticity. One of the show's fun gimmicks is to compare the expression of a character with that of a famous person -- Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George Bush, O. J. Simpson -- to indicate the universality of some expressions.

The show is "based on the real-life scientific discoveries of Paul Ekman," a psychologist who studies emotional responses. The show also has obvious moral implications: it shows that lying in a misguided attempt to gain values pits one against reality and causes internal conflicts (a lesson I also learned the hard way when I was young and dumb).

The show's big challenge is that its actors must convincingly mimic expressions of deception and of truth. This is sometimes done awkwardly or too obviously. It also points to a limitation of the psychology: if actors can mimic these expressions, can't real liars do it, too, at least sometimes?

Thankfully, Lie to Me does not present emotional detection as some sort of formula or as anything that is obvious. A person's uncoached, authentic responses can say a lot about the person's emotional state. But emotions are highly complex, and expressions of it are physical. So is a smooth forehead an indication of an emotion or of Botox? And detecting a lie, for instance, says little about what the person is lying about. Lightman is as much an investigator as he is a psychologist, and reading expressions is only his most obvious and specialized tool for getting to the truth.

One interesting point is that Lightman sometimes lies to his subjects in order to provoke emotional responses, pointing to the legitimate distinction between dishonesty and the broader category of deception. (One need not tell the truth to a criminal wanting to know the location of his would-be victim, for instance.)

So, while Lie to Me presents some interesting paradoxes of deception, its broader theme is the power of honesty.

Don't Watch the Watchmen

Who watches the Watchmen? Me, unfortunately. But you can learn from my mistake and stay away, far, far away, from this viciously repugnant film. I cannot explain what is wrong with the movie without revealing key elements of plot, so if you are already determined to see the movie, DO NOT read on. At least you can't say I didn't warn you.

Though a movie superficially about "super heroes," these "heroes" are either brutal murderers, vicious psychopaths, or impotent sideliners.

I'll get right to it. In order to get the United States and Soviet Union to start working together in a common cause, rather than blow each other up in nuclear war, Ozymandias murders some 15 million people in various cities around the world and lets the world believe Dr. Manhattan, another of the Watchmen, is to blame. Dr. Manhattan, who set up Richard Nixon for additional terms as president, "understands" this mass murder while neither condoning nor condemning it, right before splattering another of the Watchmen for threatening to tell the truth about what happened.

The theme of the movie, then, is that the ends justify the means, however barbaric, murderous, unprincipled, detestable, and horrific. (In reality the chosen means would achieve only suffering, tyranny, and death.) Notice a couple of things. It is the very existence of Dr. Manhattan and his support of Nixon that led to Nixon's continued presidency and the continued cold war, and thus the "need" for Ozymandias to murder 15 million people. And Ozymandias is known as the "world's smartest man." The movie thus attacks heroism as such at the deepest level.

The film's stylish artistry, along with its two characters of any virtue, serve only to mask the film's basic indecency. Ultimately, though, those two characters -- Silk Spectre II and Nite Owl II (brilliantly portrayed, I confess, by Patrick Wilson) -- serve only to illustrate the fundamental futility of true heroism.

Though Flibbert is basically correct about the film, he doesn't get these characters' relationship quite right. Owl can't express his romantic interest in Spectre so long as he surrenders to fear. So he comes out of retirement and, with Spectre, first saves people from a burning building and then breaks a compatriot out of prison. Here these characters are tough, resilient, actually heroic, and very bad-ass. But these adventures do not impact the broader course of the movie. In the end, they accomplish nothing. Ozymandias claims that their greatest triumph is failing to stop the mass murders.

This disgusting film -- which got a 65 percent "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, leading me to question the sanity of movie critics -- made $55.7 million opening weekend. It cost around $130 million. My only hope is that those of us suckered into seeing it tell all our friends to abstain from rewarding this monstrous film with additional ticket dollars.

Dollhouse

Joss Whedon's new television show, Dollhouse premiered last Friday, and the first episode is now available online. I've seen it twice, and it held my interest both times. Whedon is obviously planting the seeds for a lot of backstory and plot lines, including the apparently criminal mistake made by the lead character, known as Echo once she enters the Dollhouse. (Eliza Dushka of Buffy the Vampire fame plays Echo.) The first episode also hints at something interesting -- and disturbing -- in the past of a doctor at the facility played by Amy Acker, another of Whedon's top finds from Angel.

What is the Dollhouse? It's an illegal operation that signs up semi-willing participants to have their personalities erased so that they can be reprogrammed for particular missions -- er, "engagements" -- ranging from high-end escort services to mercenary-type actions. In the first episode, Echo helps negotiate the release of a kidnapped girl.

I'm looking forward to more. Just don't screw it up, Fox. By the way, Universal, where are the Serenity sequels? If you get your marketing act together, I'm confident two additional films would make money, especially now that the stars are better-known actors.

On a completely unrelated note, we watched Blindness, an awful, terrible, grotesque little film to be avoided at all costs.

Slumdog Millionaire

In my recent list of "good cross-cultural" movies, I forgot to mention the spectacular film, Slumdog Millionaire. Oscar gave me a helpful reminder by nominating the film for 10 of its awards.

It's about three impoverished Indian children who struggle to survive and reach adulthood with their spirits and bodies intact. The "Millionaire" part comes in when one of the trio, as a young adult, lands a spot on the native version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." The young man does very well, which leads to suspicion. He tells the story of his life in flashbacks. This is not a story about becoming a millionaire, but about fighting for one's loved ones, no matter what. If features very fine acting and directing.

What's culturally interesting about the film is that it's an English film set and filmed in India, mostly in English, and its gimmick is an international game show. Wikipedia notes about the game show, "The format is owned and licensed by the Japanese production company Sony Pictures Television International." So it is a truly global film.

My only minor gripe with the movie is that it shows some of the economic development of India without indicating why it happened. But that's background.

Wiki also notes the film had a budget of $15 million, yet it is phenomenally better than many films that cost ten times more.

Good Cross-Cultural Movies

By coincidence, my wife and I have seen several movies lately that deal with themes of ethnic relations. Culture clashes can give rise to funny as well as poignant moments. Last November, we saw Outsourced, in which an American goes to India to train his replacement.

Gran Torino remains in theaters. Clint Eastwood plays a widowed war veteran with rough and bigoted language. His neighborhood has been largely bought out by Asian immigrants, and an Asian gang roams the streets. Yet Eastwood's character finds that he has more in common with his new neighbors than he thought, and he resolves to help them fight off the local gangsters. Unfortunately, some idiot reviewer spoiled the ending for me. But I still really enjoyed the movie, even though it takes the bigoted language too far and features some occasionally clunky acting.

Under the Same Moon tells the story of a boy living in Mexico who travels to the U.S. illegally to join his mother, also in the country illegally to find work. I enjoyed the story for two main reasons. The boy shows amazing determination and cleverness in making his journey. And a friendship that the boy develops on the road proves inspiring in its bonds.

The Visitor also deals explicitly with the immigration issue. Richard Jenkins brilliantly portrays a man who has lost the meaning of his life. He finds it again when by chance he meets a young foreign couple. He is inspired by the couple's love and by the young man's devotion to African drumming. The fact that the film takes an overtly political turn in the end didn't diminish my enjoyment of it, though it will turn off some.

August Evening is a slow, ponderous film about an elderly man and the young widowed woman once married to his son. I really enjoyed the acting in this movie, especially by Veronica Loren, the young woman. Both the main characters struggle to move into the next stage of their lives. The father-in-law struggles to find work and maintain bonds with his family, and the woman tries to push out new love. The pair moves around Texas, staying for a time with the man's two surviving children. Not much happens in this movie, but it's a nice portrayal of a loyal friendship. And there is one very funny scene that I won't describe here.

In The Band's Visit, the band is from Egypt, and its members accidentally visit a tiny town in Israel. Very strong acting, especially by Saleh Bakri, who plays a young womanizer and musician, and Sasson Gabai, the band's leader who often clashes with the younger player. As with August Evening, there's not much going on plot-wise, but these characters are mesmerizing to watch, and again parts of the movie are very funny.

Finally, I will mention The Kingdom, in which FBI agents travel to Saudi Arabia to figure out who attacked an American installation. The best part of the movie, besides its heroic and tense finale, is the friendship between the lead American and the local officer assigned to protect and monitor the group. I must offer special praise to Ashraf Barhom, whose touching portrayal of the Saudi officer makes the film. Barhom, like Bakri, is from Israel. I hope to see much more of both of them.

We live in a global economy, in which international travel is easier than ever before. One reason I like these movies is that they help us discover the richness of our world, as well as the themes universal to humanity.

Meniskus

Last night I saw Meniskus at Nissis. Thanks to a friend who has dragged me to several shows, I've finally become a fan. While I was underwhelmed at an early show, I think because the band wasn't taking the venue seriously, last night the group was completely on its game, and its members did full justice to their compositional prowess.

Meniskus consists of a violinist who also sings am amazingly wide range, an acoustic guitarist who also picks up an electric bass, and a fabulous drummer who backs up vocals and plays a keyboard on the side. They're very good musicians, and they've written several great songs. I hope that brings them success.

Meniskus has a couple albums out, and I think Foreign Beyond is the one to pick up. (ITunes has it.) They have a video out on YouTube for "Letters."

This is a Colorado band that deserves a listen.

Six Good Paintings

Ivar Zeile of Denver's Plus Gallery wrote in to tell me that I have a narrow mind for failing to confuse expensive garbage with art. I thought I would take this opportunity to indicate just how narrow-minded I am when it comes to art. My view of art is so narrow, and my view of good art narrower still, that I think most of what falls under the misnomers of "abstract" or "conceptual" isn't even art, and I am drawn only to a small portion of real art works.

Here I will mention only two artists that I've recently discovered through Art Renewal.

Donato Giancola often paints things like book covers and trading cards in the science-fiction and fantasy genres. But his best work rises above such limitations. I love his "Mystic and Rider" and "Ashling" (both of which appeared on book covers). His playful "Museum" also merits attention. "Cartographer" is a fantastic portrait, though I find the flowing maps a bit overbearing.

One thing I like about Giancola is that he is unapologetically a commercial painter. He prices his prints to sell to the general public (and indeed I purchased two). While some of his works are too tied to some particular backstory to be of general artistic interest (including his portrait of Superman), his best paintings break all such ties.

Duffy Sheridan is perhaps the better technical artist, but his work is less accessible (literally, not as art). I asked whether prints of one of his paintings are available; I was told they weren't because of the rough economy (which struck me as a peculiar answer to economic trouble). Nevertheless, I adore his "Confidant." It is beautifully, vividly painted (though I doubt I'll ever get the chance to see the original). And the expression it captures! Take a look also at Sheridan's "Trust."

What the hell -- I'll brake out of my narrow artistic confines and add a seventh painting that I've long admired: Michael Newberry's "Denouement," perhaps the finest expression of romantic love ever to grace a canvas.

While these are only a few of the works of art that I love, I do want to emphasize just how extremely narrowly I direct my artistic adoration. My contempt for faux art ranges rather more broadly.

Pretend Art Uglifies City

I suppose because Denver is a cow town, its residents must demonstrate to the world that they can compete with the best in erecting ugly, ridiculous mounds of crap and pretending that it's art.

I learned about the latest blob from Vincent Carroll, one of the few true artists of the city, who describes John McEnroe's National Velvet as "a towering stack of crimson intestines, or slippery sausages, or whatever they are, plopped on a pedestal near the pedestrian bridge at Interstate 25 and Platte Street."

The cost to taxpayers? $53,000. Because, you know, it's not as though Denver is in the midst of a bona fide budget emergency.

Jim on Light pointed me to Joel Warner's list of more descriptive titles for the work: “Wet Salami,” "Penis Bags," "Kidney beans," "Tower of Power," and the winner, "Saggy-Boob Electric Penis."

Just great. Denver is now home to the Saggy-Boob Electric Penis. No cows here -- just high culture.

Here's yet another photo of it in case you just can't get enough.

Thankfully, we have Denver's Top Progressive Contemporary Art Gallery to let us know what we're supposed to think of the new work:

Todays Rocky Mountain News continues the coverage with art critic Mary Chandler weighing in [on December 12]. Chandler is one of the more reasoned voices in the debate, having followed McEnroe's public and gallery work for many years...

[N]ow the famous internet site [YouTube] adds a new piece to the collection called "Biggest Dick in Denver." This of course would be relating to Plus Gallery's infamous contemporary artist who apparently knows how to swing a racket but is most widely known for his cutting edge approach to contemporary art. "National Velvet" recently drew the wrath of a local right-wing radio station and the ire of select people in the community who neither understand or appreciate public art. A good citizen of the state has decided to post a reflection on the debate that is both entertaining and thought provoking on the subject, see for yourself...

He swings quite a racket, all right.

I love the gallery's progressive attitude: if you disagree with the gallery, you're just stupid, and no explanation is either possible or necessary.

We'll start with the YouTube video. The point of the video is that people can't figure out what the piece is, so they suggest it looks like all sorts of things, while a couple of silly radio talk show hosts insisted it is a collection of penises, which supposedly says more about the radio hosts than it does about the work.

Well, it is a stretch to insist it looks like penises. The fact is that it doesn't look like anything, which is why people see similarities with various other things. But the fact that some red blob looks vaguely like a pile of kidney beans or various other things to different observers doesn't demonstrate that the blob is provocative art. It may be provocative, but so what? One can find things equally provocative-looking in any dumpster for free. What it is not is art.

I also love the gallery's self-serving conflation of "public art" with tax-funded art. Obviously the two are not the same thing at all. If some group had purchased the Ugly Red Blob with its own money and erected it outside on the group's own property, it still would have been "public art" (or at least a public display), it just wouldn't have been purchased through inherently unjust wealth transfers. The rest of us would have remained free to condemn the work esthetically, but we would have been bound to recognize the rights of its owners to purchase and display it.

Now for Chandler's article, which reminds us that the pending demise of the Rocky is not in every respect a disaster. Chandler's basic theme is that, if you reject the Blob, you're hysterical and "allergic to free-range culture." An argument like that needs no reply.

The one useful thing that Chandler contributes is a note connecting the piece to Denver's Percent for Art program. According to one document I looked up, "The program directs 1% of the money used for capital improvement projects on land owned by the City & County of Denver to be applied to works of public art. Each project engages a volunteer selection panel that includes local community members, facility representatives, and arts experts."

While I'm at it, I might as well indicate some of Denver's other ugly art and artistic pretensions. Actually, The Poorest Tourist does a pretty good job of it. I had in mind particularly the piece that Tourist dubs "A Side of Fries," though his other selections are also pretty damned ugly (though most do at least fall within the category of art). Here's a much better -- uh, much more vivid -- picture of the ugly blue demon horse out at the airport.

No catalog of ugly Denver art is complete without special mention of Daniel Libeskind's House of Horrors art museum. Some require the use of nausea medication in the building to keep from vomiting. It looks as though it were once a proper building, but a giant Samurai warrior chopped it into pieces with his giant sword, letting the pieces fall where they may. The joke is that the building is at least protected from terrorist attacks -- because it already looks like it's been hit.

But remember that there is beauty in the world. After all of the above I need a good long break with Art Renewal.

Enya's Winter Night

Enya's new album, And Winter Came, contains several tracks that rank among her best work (with her collaborators, the Ryans.) It's a great Christmas album, and obviously marketed for that, but it's a great album period.

Listening to one of the online mini-documentaries, I learned that Enya writes the music first, then Roma Ryan works up the lyrics. The lyrics read by themselves don't always seem especially impressive. "Have you seen the mistletoe? / It fills the night with kisses." But, from the same song, these lines, though equally obvious, seem poignant:

Green is in the mistletoe
and red is in the holly...
Gold is in the candlelight and
crimson in the embers.
White is in the winter night...

But when Enya sings it, everything seems lovely and meaningful. Of course it fills the night with kisses!

I think the entire album is worth your collection. However, if you're picking out tracks from iTunes, here are my recommendations, in the order they appear on the album:

1. "White Is In the Winter Night" -- The lyrics above are from this song. As Roma Ryan suggests, you could sing this one around the fire with your family.
2. "Trains and Winter Rains" -- This song, set in winter but not about the holidays, is musically the most interesting of the album, I think. You can watch the video on Enya's web page.
3. "Last Time By Moonlight" -- A lovely and lyrical piece.
4. "One Toy Soldier" -- As we might expect, the song has a great rhythm. It's about Christmas, but more deeply it's about the worry of disappointing oneself and others, then overcoming that by finding the right beat.
5. "My! My! Time Flies" -- This is Enya's swingingest song, and playful, and I quite like it. Be sure to read the fun lyrics. It's a song about reflection, and moving forward.

Outsourced

Outsourced surprised me with its warm humor and thoughtful treatment of culture clashes. The premise is that an American is sent to India to train his replacement. The job is "selling kitsch to rednecks" over the phone.

The inevitable romance seems contrived, but I quite like the actors. More compelling are the friendships the American forms with his new coworkers (including his love interest).

I also like the film for some of its cultural themes: cultures have much to offer each other, we do well to pick up the finer aspects of other cultures, and outsourcing brings its benefits as well as its difficulties.

The film looks mostly at the brighter side of India, which is indeed heartening as economic opportunity makes headway. The film barely touches on the continuing problems of India, but, hey, it's a romantic comedy.

And the film mostly was filmed in India by local crews, so the film manifests its own theme. Apparently the big difference is that Bollywood typically films first, dubs later, while this American project filmed with the sound, creating a few problems. (Watch the documentary material when you rent it.)

I had really been looking forward to Wall-E, which I found to be a disappointment with its ridiculous premise. I was grateful that in the same week I found the truly enjoyable film Outsourced.

Anathem Worth the Digging

About a hundred pages into Neal Stephenson's new novel Anathem, I didn't think I'd be able to make my way through it. In addition to being overlong (do I really need such a detailed knowledge of a building's staircases?), the book requires the reader to memorize -- or at least recognize -- many terms unique to the fictitious world and an entire alternative history. The book contains a timeline in the front and a glossary in the back.

Now that I'm about a third of the way through the book (past page 300), I'm finding the lengthy prologue to have been worth it. Stephenson has crafted an action mystery grounded in philosophical thought.

Notably, Stephenson, or at least his protagonist, is a Platonist. I knew this even before starting the book, because I happened to note in the back (page 937) an acknowledgment of "a philosophical lineage that can be traced from Thales through Plato, Leibniz, Kant, Godel, and Husserl." That's not exactly a line that typically gets me excited, at least in a positive way. I don't know yet quite where Stephenson is going with all this, but it makes for interesting reading. Themes of Leibniz are especially well integrated into the story.

A word of caution: a few years ago, I heard Stephenson talk about a previous book, and I recall him saying something to the effect that he wrote to get his mind into a particular sort of worldview. So it may not be obvious where Stephenson stops and his characters begin. That said, Stephenson's interests are largely revealed by what he chooses to write about.

The science-fiction setup is straightforward, but unfortunately I cannot mention what it is without ruining the mystery of the first few hundred pages. I will note merely that this is a book that requires a bit of patience.

DeVotchKa's Faithful

This Halloween I saw what must be among the greatest shows of the evening worldwide: DeVotchKa's performance. (The crowd's costuming was a performance in itself.) The production was not nearly as extravagant as it was last year, as two nights at the Boulder Theater replaced one large performance in Denver last year. But this is not a band that needs props, given Nick Urata's sonorous energy, Tom Hagerman's virtuoso musicianship (he is a symphony-caliber violinist), Shawn King's intricate and precise percussion, and Jeanie Schroder's steady bass and tuba lines. (Actually it's a sousaphone.)

I don't know who does the heavy writing -- I suppose Urata and Hagerman -- but this band has created some very fine music. I recall going to see another local band some years ago and seeing DeVotchKa in the lineup by accident; it's the only group of the evening that I remember. Then came "How It Ends" and the film "Little Miss Sunshine," for which the band provided the music. And this local band has made it big, perhaps surprising given its eccentricity.

I wasn't sure I'd like the band's new album quite as well, based on my iTunes sampling of "A Mad and Faithful Telling." But I picked up a copy at the concert (for a mere $10 -- modern technology is extraordinary), and so far I've listened to it a half dozen times or so. It is a great album. I don't recognize singles as rousing as the older songs "Death By Blonde" or "The Enemy Guns" -- there seems to be less raucous guitar -- but the album is marked by sophisticated and heartfelt music. I like DeVotchKa's first album, and the other three studios are favorites of my collection.

On stage, Urata said he wished the audience could see the world through his eyes. At least we can hear the world as he hears it.

The Visitor

The Visitor is a great movie of both powerful writing and acting. First the basic story: Walter Vale is a lonely, burned-out college professor who meets a young couple when he shows up at his city apartment and finds the two living there. Okay, so it's a device: the couple are the victim of a scam; they thought they had rented the apartment. Obviously, the three become friends, and this opens up Vale in some interesting ways. The major theme revolves around Vale seeing the meaningless of his life -- and then finding meaning in new friends and hobbies.

Politically, the movie is a sustained and emotional critique of America's immigration policies. The couple are immigrants and in the country illegally. Vale's anger at irrational and immoral U.S. immigration restrictions is powerfully portrayed by actor Richard Jenkins, who is amazing in the film (as are the other major actors).

Not long ago I was talking with a smart, well-educated, affable European -- who may not be able to stay in the country. I've heard enough maddening immigration stories that The Visitor steamed me. Indeed, the film's strong political theme is also a distraction, for those of us who care about this issue. See it, whether in spite of or because of the film's politics.

New Hard Rock

Hurrah! From the local rock station The Fox I learned of new music from AC/DC and Metallica. This follows the release of Rush's "Snakes and Arrows" last year; I regard those three bands as the greatest of hard rock. So far I've spent only a few minutes listening, but I'm excited so far. Metallica's "The Day That Never Comes" indicates the band has gotten comfortable again with subtle composition; the group's best songs are very well written. And piano on "Unforgiven III?" Take that, genre zealots. It's a good song. And nothing else matters.

Persepolis, Virgin Territory

Recently my wife and I watched two films on DVD that we quite enjoyed.

The first is Virgin Territory, very loosely inspired by Boccaccio's Decameron. Completely ignore the stupid publicity blurb that accompanies the movie. This is pop comedy, nearly soft-porn with its nudity, yet beneath it all there is a sweet love story. The cast is lovely and talented; for the first time ever, I'm convinced that Hayden Christensen (of Darth Vader fame) can act. If you approach it as a sexual fairy tale, rather than as a period piece, it can be fun.

The second film is considerably more serious in tone and content: Persepolis tells the story of a girl who grows up in Iran as witness to revolution and war. It is based on the life of Marjane Satrapi, who also co-wrote and co-directed the film. Again I am reminded of what went wrong in Iran, a nation torn between tyrants, Marxists, and theocrats. Be sure to watch the special features, which I found as interesting as the film, as they show what happened to Satrapi after she moved to France. One thing that struck me about this film is the strong American influence it reveals, even as told by a woman from Iran living in France who doesn't seem to have any special sympathy for the U.S. We watched the French-language version with English subtitles (the default on the video we rented), which I recommend, as I'm not persuaded the English dubbing was as good. I really like the original voices, and the animation was completed around the French recordings.

Why Harry Potter Fans Should Read Ayn Rand

This article originally appeared in Grand Junction's Free Press.

September 1, 2008

Why Harry Potter fans should read Ayn Rand

by Linn and Ari Armstrong

As September 1 marks the first day of school at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, we decided to ignore Colorado's political scene for the moment and focus on something truly important: great literature.

We've both long been fans of Ayn Rand's works. In fact, when Ari was young, Linn read aloud Anthem as a bed-time story. Anthem is Rand's novelette about a dystopian future in which people are known by numbers, not names, and the word "I" has been outlawed. The hero of the story rediscovers electricity in secret and eventually escapes with his beloved to freedom. The book inspired Ari's preoccupation with liberty.

More recently, Ari has grown passionate about another novelist: J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series. Ari has even written a book of literary criticism called Values of Harry Potter; see ValuesOfHarryPotter.com. In its focus on the heroic valuer, the book explores Rowling's themes of courage, independence, and free will, then critically examines her minor themes of self-sacrifice and immortality.

Ari's shared passion for Rand and Rowling is no coincidence. The two authors explore many of the same themes and offer their readers gripping, tightly plotted stories filled with great heroes, dastardly villains, and intriguing ideas. Fans of Rowling easily could fall in love with Rand's works, and vice versa.

Both novelists have written great Romantic works. In her introduction to The Fountainhead, Rand writes that Romanticism "deals, not with the random trivia of the day, but with the timeless, fundamental, universal problems and values of human existence." That helps explain why Rand's books remain strong sellers decades after their initial release and why Rowling's books have appealed to readers across continents in many languages. These are not stories of the neighbor next door and his neuroses. These are grand epics of monumental clashes between good and evil.

As Ari argues in Values of Harry Potter, the central theme of Rowling's novels is the heroic fight for life-promoting values. Harry and his allies fight courageously to protect their lives, loved ones, futures, and liberties from the vicious tyrant Lord Voldemort. For example, in Sorcerer's Stone, Harry gives a fiery speech to his friends Ron and Hermione, persuading them to take action against Voldemort to save their lives and world.

Rand's characters, too, fight passionately for their values. In The Fountainhead, Howard Roark refuses to compromise his integrity as an architect, even if that means he must work in a granite quarry or blow up a building that has ripped off and debased his design. In Atlas Shrugged, John Galt and Francisco d'Anconia walk away from their normal lives in order to finally subvert the evil men and ideas taking over the world.

After learning he's a wizard, Harry takes the Hogwarts Express to a magical world filled with wonder, possibility, and great champions like Professor Dumbledore. Hogwarts is Harry's escape from the oppressive Dursleys. In Atlas Shrugged, Dagny Taggart's Transconinental Railroad also symbolizes movement into a world of near-mythical champions such as the steel-producer Hank Rearden.

While Harry has Hogwarts, Dagny discovers Galt's Gulch, the place where her heroes live. After Dagny crash lands her plane in the Gulch, she experiences, "This was the world as she had expected to see it at sixteen... This was her world, she thought, this was the way men were meant to be and to face their existence..." It is to this spirit of youthful passion and confidence that both novelists remain true.

As Rand explains, free will is the foundation of Romantic literature, because free will is what enables a person's "formation of his own character and the course of action he pursues in the physical world." Because of the fact of free will, people can form or reform their characters and act for their values. This is the premise behind any compelling plot, which depends on the characters making and then enacting choices toward some goal. It is no surprise, then, that Dumbledore endorses free will, saying "it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be."

Rowling and Rand share an interest in other themes as well. Both authors love liberty and hate tyrants; both John Galt and Harry Potter work outside the established government to fight those wielding power corruptly. Both authors present fiercely independent heroes who refuse to unquestioningly follow self-proclaimed authorities.

Of course the writers also have their differences. For example, while Rand solidly rejects religion, Rowling includes the Christian elements of self-sacrifice and life after death in her novels. Yet their similarities are more intriguing.

If you haven't yet read these novels, then you are in for an enthralling and potentially life-altering adventure. It is yours to discover your own Hogwarts or Galt's Gulch, not merely in the realm of imagination, but in your daily life.

Hellboy II

I was pleasantly surprised by Hellboy II. I remember the story from the first one being completely ridiculous. Here the main story is more interesting if hardly plausible, but the rich characters make it a memorable movie. Center stage are two romances. Even though only one of these four characters is human (and two don't even look human), their relationships are quite compelling. The bad guy is the son on an Elvish king and the brother of one of the love interests. He's a "complex" villain, meaning that the viewer is supposed to sympathize with him. This leads to a bifurcated character.

The movie is hilarious. Truly, deeply funny. This from the guy who gave us Pan's Labyrinth. Two of the fight scenes are an absolute riot (given that our hero is nearly indestructible). And there are some very funny moments in Hellboy's love life. So "funny" comes to the fore, leaving melancholy to fill the recesses. I have no interest in seeing the first film again, but I'm sure I'll rent the second film down the road.

Dark Knight Shines

I loved Dark Knight, the latest Batman film. The acting is superb -- I already loved Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, MIchael Cane, and Morgan Freeman, and they certainly live up to expectations here.

Ledger's performance is everything the hype suggests. However, I found him to be frightening not because he played it "over the top," as some critics have alleged, but because he is at times so chillingly calm. I confess to mentally leaving the movie for a moment in sadness as the Joker tells Batman, "We could do this forever." No, they can't.

I was not overwhelmed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, whom I generally like, but who couldn't seem to spark much excitement here. I just couldn't buy a romantic link between her and either of the two men in her life (Bale's Bruce Wayne or Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent).

This is a movie of serious ideas as well as superbly crafted action, and I like that. Americans, it seems, hunger for intellectual material, so long as it's part of an interesting and heroic story. Sadly, some of the ideas the film presents are terrible.

Spoiler Alert: From this point on, I'll be discussing details of the film's plot that you probably won't want to read until after you see the film.

There are three main thematic elements to the film. The first may be summarized, "Don't negotiate with terrorists." The Joker is essentially an urban terrorist, motivated not by some religious cause but by raw nihilism. He hates societal order, hates good people planning their lives, hates the good-faith pursuit of values. His goal is to destroy values, destroy peace, and destroy the best people. So the film creates a very compelling villain.

Much of the film involves the Joker unleashing mayhem in order to blackmail Batman into turning himself in to the authorities and removing himself from the action. For a time, Wayne considers doing so. But Dent, the District Attorney, refuses to allow Batman to give in to the Joker, and turns himself in as Batman instead.

Another significant part of the non-capitulation theme rests with an employee of Wayne's who has discovered the secret identity of his boss. He threatens to out Wayne -- until the Joker also threatens violence unless somebody kills him. Then the employee learns quickly why it's a bad idea to play games with terrorists and give in to demands. This first thematic element is positive and a huge reason why the film succeeds.

The second element is closely related to the first. Will people remain decent when pressured by a violent madman? The key sequence involves two ferries, one filled with good people of the city, another with criminals. The Joker loads both boats with explosives and gives each boat a detonator to the other boat. If one boat doesn't blow up the other by a set time, the Joker will blow up both boats.

This is obviously a set up, but it plays well, and the dramatic suspense is palpable. This sequence involves a truly great moment aboard the criminal ferry. In many emergency contexts, I would choose to save the lives of decent people over criminals. However, in the context of the film, the people are aware that the Joker gets a special thrill out of manipulating people, and they also know that Batman as well as the authorities are on the case. So I think that the actions the people take -- not to blow each other up -- are defensible on grounds of not negotiating with terrorists. As others have noticed, this sequence has a lot to do with game theory in economics.

The third main thematic element is the fall of Dent from a respected District Attorney to villain, and the response of Batman to this. The fall of Dent from criminal-chasing hero to embittered villain is not set up well enough be be plausible. The only way such a fall would be possible is if Dent had dramatic personal problems that he'd been hiding. There is a hint of previous trouble: he was once known among police as "Two-Face Harvey." He goes from making his own luck to thinking the world is fundamentally unfair and that such a condition excuses his vindictive violence. I knew the turn was coming, so I wasn't too upset about it. Nevertheless, the mostly inexplicable turn of a hero into a villain is deeply unsatisfying and morally distressing.

Even worse, though, is Batman's reaction to Dent's fall. Batman wants to preserve the people's faith in a hero, so he decides to take the wrap for Dent's crimes. That's horrible, horrible, horrible. Deception can never be the basis of a healthy social reaction. Batman's action is profoundly unjust, not only to himself, but to Dent (who deserves condemnation for his fall), and, more importantly, to the people he claims to defend. Assuming that people must be deceived if they are to do the right thing is fundamentally disrespectful of those people.

I got the idea that the film was trying hard to make Batman a particularly "dark" knight. We can't have him seem too heroic! Given that despicable goal, dinging Batman for crimes he didn't commit is the least-bad way of mucking up his character.

As much as I hate Batman the Liar, the ending does not ruin the film for me. The dominant theme of standing up to villains saves it. That's good, because there's far too much talent here to waste.

Great Debaters

The Great Debaters tells the (fictionalized) story of a black college debate team in 1935. What I like about the movie is that it takes education and language seriously. This was a serious college that attracted top-notch faculty and dedicated students. Be sure to watch the documentary, which includes interviews with people associated with the school in that era. I find myself contemplating a local debate club; the film inspires students and adults alike to reaffirm their commitment to education.

By its subject matter, the film necessarily deals with the politics of Jim Crow, segregation, and related issues. What I found unfortunate is that the film conflates left-wing themes with its universal themes of liberty. But it was an era of socialist ideas, and some of the people on which the film is based held such ideas.

Also unfortunate is the film's gratuitous and implausible love triangle. Not every movie needs a sex scene, and this one seemed quite out of place.

Maybe it's just because I'm getting a little older, but it seems like practically every movie coming out these days is terrible. The three most popular genres seem to be ridiculous horror, mindless action, and stupid comedy. So this film about discussion and the intellect is quite welcome.

Everwood

Based on a friend's recommendation, my wife and I rented a disk from the first season of the television serious Everwood, and we liked it so much we purchased the set. The title is based on the name of the fictitious Colorado town where the story develops. The premise is that a talented New York doctor -- among the finest brain surgeons in the world -- loses his wife and, in his grief, resettles his family (he has a young daughter and teenage boy) in Everwood, a town in the mountains a tolerable drive away from Denver.

The central character of the show, Dr. Andrew Brown, portrayed by a wonderful Treat Williams, is a glowing figure. Obviously he suffers from the loss of his wife, and he fights with his son and faces various other problems. But he reveals magnificent force of character and an underlying benevolence. The writing of the show is both sweet and moving, despite a few oblique religious themes and the fact that Brown works without compensation for reasons that are not entirely convincing.

The show treads lightly into politics, and it does so with particular poignancy in the twelfth episode of the first season. When an elderly florist dies, the town discovers that she was growing marijuana in the back room. A debate about medical marijuana erupts. Even though the setting of the debate is artificial -- the town government holds a public meeting to decide the fate of the florist's marijuana, which is not how things work in real-world Colorado -- the discussion is thoughtful and rounded. Ultimately the show leans toward toleration. Yet none of this seems like a political sermon; it is part of a thoughtful story that contains another significant plot development. In the funniest line of the show, a daughter tells her father (something like), "I thought marijuana was only supposed to make you paranoid after you smoke it."

But I don't wish to scare away opponents of medical marijuana; I love the show even though it presents some ideas with which I disagree, and I think you will enjoy it, too.

Demonic International Airport

The Denver Post hosts a photo and description of the giant new Mustang that now sits on the road to Denver International Airport. "Denver officials commissioned 'Mustang' from [sculptor Luis] Jimenez in 1992," the Post reports.

My first reaction to the sculpture was that it's "repugnant." My wife said, "It looks like it's possessed."

My wife's view seems to be a common one. On a separate blog post, the Post includes a number of comments about the piece that are almost entirely negative. Here are the highlights: "diabolical," "hideous," "a demon horse... melt it down," "truly horrifying," "looked better when it was wrapped in plastic," "waste of tax payer money... beautiful if you are a satan follower," "more appropriate in a horror type theme park," "a debacle," "an embarrasment to Colorado," "likely to give children nightmares."