Everything (Potpourri) – Page 20

What Religion Means to Me

With Passover beginning today and with Easter taking place this Sunday, I spent some time recently thinking about religion. On my travels, I’ve traveled to majority-Protestant countries such as Anglican Great Britain, and to majority-Catholic countries like Mexico. I have had the good fortune to visit majority-Muslim countries such as Turkey, heavily-Buddhist countries like Thailand, mixed-religion countries such as India and the United States, and Communist countries like China, where Atheism is officially encouraged but where most locals actually worship the State.

Of course, those descriptions are broad and somewhat simplistic. As such, I hope you don’t get too wrapped up in the semantics. Allow me to continue.

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Top Ten Outdated Movies

Last month, during TCM’s annual “31 Days of Oscar” feature, during which time the network airs nothing but Oscar-winning/nominated movies, I stayed up late one night to watch “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.” I hadn’t seen it in many years but remembered loving it, and was thrilled over having the opportunity to see it again.

Wow. This movie, which tackles the subject of race in a we-are-all-one-rainbow-nation kind of way, has not aged well. Although it boasts a legendary performance by Spencer Tracy, and a strong cast that also includes Katharine Hepburn and Sidney Poitier, the language of the time is now considered offensive, while the film’s message means well yet comes across as condescending today.

I started thinking. What are other movies that, typically through no fault of their own, have not withstood the test of time? One of the first to come to mind was 1979’s “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.” Although that movie was given an enormous budget by Paramount Pictures, its special effects have aged poorly, and the Starfleet uniforms (including Persis Khambatta’s hideous, too-short white onesie) went out of style exactly five minutes after the movie premiered. But then I remembered attending a theatrical re-release of 1982’s “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” that took place in Los Angeles in 2011. That film, widely considered by Trekkies and Trekkers alike to be the series’ best, moves at a snail’s pace by today’s standards, and also hasn’t aged well. Paul Winfield and Kirstie Alley in supporting roles? What, were Robert Guillaume and Dee Wallace Stone unavailable?! I quickly realized that I could fill this list with “Star Trek” films. That was too easy, so I opted to disqualify all of them.

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Barrios Bravos: Doctores

The next Barrio Bravo that I have decided to revisit digitally is south/southwest of the Centro Histórico. Although the “tough neighborhood” in question is neither as sprawling as Iztapalapa, nor as dense as Tepito, nor as jam-packed with history as Tlatelolco, it houses several hundred thousand Chilangos and has just enough points of interest to merit a few paragraphs in this blog series.

Doctores is so named because several of its streets are named after various doctors of some renown. Dr. Olvera, for example, was an 18^th-century forensic scientist. Roughly speaking, the large colonia stretches runs from Arcos de Belén in the north to Viaducto in the south, and from Avenida Cuauhtémoc in the west to Eje Central in the east. The entirety of Doctores lies within Cuauhtémoc delegación (borough), which also governs the always-bustling Centro Histórico.

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Photo Locale of the Month – March 2015

To celebrate the arrival of spring, this month’s photo feature takes us to the tropics of South America. Exactly two years ago I visited the Colombian cities of Bogota, Cartagena, and Santa Marta, as well as the pre-Hispanic ruins of Ciudad Perdida. Cartagena (full name: Cartagena de Indias) was the trip highlight.

I was especially taken by Cartagena’s Colonial-era City Walls. They were built by the Spanish conquistadors to protect from maritime invaders…and have never been breached.

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Reflections from the Street Corner (It’s Not What You Think)

I have a job! I decided to join the ranks of the employed, and found part-time work as a marketer for the local franchise of a national income tax firm (think H&R Block). While on the job, I occasionally canvas local neighborhoods and business with pamphlets and other leave-behinds, but mostly I am a costumed “waver” who stands at the street corner, holding signs and waving at passersby whilst dancing a jig or shaking my booty. The goal is to get people to smile, honk, or wave back (and maybe visit our shop to have their taxes done). Here is a pic of Yours Truly in company colors. How do I look?

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The Inter-Review

You surely remember the hubbub last December when, following the hack of Sony Studios computers, Sony decided to cancel the theatrical release of “The Interview.” The film’s premise: The travel plans of a U.S. journalist and his producer who journey to North Korea to interview Kim Jong-un are compromised when the pair is handed an assassination mission by the CIA. Although the film is a comedy, news of its existence is was said to have ruffled the feathers of high-ranking muckety-mucks in North Korea. Upon learning of the film’s release last fall, Kim Jong-un supposedly called the plot “an act of war.”

It was later revealed that the Sony breach was the handiwork of a group of terrorist hackers from (or sympathetic to) North Korea that called themselves the “Guardians of Peace,” and that this group promised multiple acts of terror should the studio release the film. Caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place, Sony announced that it would not release the movie, and was put in an even worse position when the Hollywood elite screamed about freedom of speech violations. The decision by Sony ultimately cost the studio $45 million and cost the studio’s chairperson, Amy Pascal, her job.

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Photo Locale of the Month – February 2015

It is the second consecutive month for this feature. Last month’s entry focused on Mexico City’s Chapultepec Castle, which contains two centuries of history and boasts impressive city views.

For February, let’s travel halfway around the world to Agra, India, home of the world’s most famous monument built “for love,” the Taj Mahal.

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Oscar 2014-15 – predicting the winners

This year’s list is a bit late in coming. I took advantage of being snowed in over the past week to catch up on many of 2014’s Oscar nominees. (Netflix is my new best friend.)

I have seen most – but by no means all – of the nominated films and performances. As with last year, three of the four acting categories are near locks, and the closest race is for Best Picture. (For a somewhat-lengthy examination of my 2013-14 picks, click here…and know that I correctly guessed seven of those eight major category winners.) Better late than never, here are my predictions for tonight’s Neil Patrick Harris-hosted ceremony.

Best Picture

Nominees:
American Sniper
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash

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The Great Tennessee Snowpocalypse of 2015

Greetings from Tennessee, Loyal Reader…where I’m snowed in!

The same weather system that is making its way towards New England, where Bostonians fear it may drop another 18 inches of snow, tore through Southern Kentucky and Eastern Tennessee late yesterday. We only received a few inches, but it was preceded by sleet and freezing rain.

A proper ice storm brought down power lines in my neighborhood twice last night, for five hours altogether. The power was restored after the first outage just in time for the evening news, during which the anchors reported that an estimated 40,000 people were without power. Governor Haslam had already proclaimed the state a federal disaster area when the broadcast began at 11 p.m. Just two hours later, the power went out again.

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Finding Bush in Tennessee (It’s Not What You Think)

Tennessee continues to surprise me. I will go several weeks lamenting about the fact that there are no bars, Indian restaurants, or art house cinemas where I live…but then I’ll read about a scenic hiking trail close to home, or drive through a picturesque Civil War-era town, or stumble upon a surprising museum, and feel invigorated again.

It is this last discovery about which I want to write a few paragraphs today.

The Bush Beans Museum and Visitor Center

A few years ago, my parents toured the Bush Visitor Center in Chestnut Hill, TN. I remember their enthusiastic review of the experience, particularly their raves about the on-site restaurant. They suggested a return visit one day last week, and if I wasn’t as excited as they were about the prospect of touring a plant that is most famous for its production of baked beans, I nonetheless agreed to tag along.

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