Yes CJ, its story time with Gerry once more.
There was a story on the CBC morning radio program this morning about David Eby, executive director of the BC Civil Liberties Association, being ‘pie-ed” last week.
Although no one publicly aligned with the loose Olympic protests will speak about it, we have been led to believe that this is probably in retaliation for Mr. Eby’s non-support of the protests which took place Saturday February13 along Granville street in the Vancouver downtown.
Apparently the Civil Liberties Association was asked to not send down observers to the event. We in the non-protester world would call this a warning signal. David Eby has voiced the opinion that the protesters, on that day, were out of control, and had no explanation why his association would not see the warning signal. It appears that payback indeed is a… pie.
On the day in question, a group of protesters closed down everything around Granville & Georgia to protest, um, wait now, um…. I’m not quite sure. Hooded, with only their eyes visible, and clothed in black (Ninjas?), a number of protesters spray-painted cars, destroyed property, and finally smashed windows at the Bay and London Drugs.
As near as anyone can tell, the issues the protesters have is that there is poverty in Vancouver while we are hosting the Olympics, some of the Olympic events are being held on First Nations disputed lands, and there is too much commercialization of the Olympics.
So, were they blaming The Bay for poverty in Beijing 2 years ago? Will The Bay be responsible for the poor in London in 2 years? The Bay is an official Olympic sponsor, but London Drugs? An innocent bystander?
And what of the First Nations issues. Yes the games are taking place on some areas that are being disputed by claims. I remember reading that 250% to 300% of BC land is under various claims from various First Nations bands. This is a very serious issue and, can be addressed by all the First Nations peoples associated with these protests. Anyone?… Bueller?... Bueller?...
There was, I believe on the previous evening, a bit on the radio (CKNW) about one of their reporters asking someone, a Ninja perhaps, protesting the commercialization of the games, about the Nike’s they were wearing. Since this is a radio reporter, who I am assuming had a microphone and a recording device, and we did get audio of the Q & A, the response was probably unsuitable for polite company. Do you talk to your momma with that mouth?
I try not to believe everything I hear on the radio, or read in the papers. But without any news to contradict them, it is hard not to believe the various reports postulating that we are dealing with a central core of “professional” protesters. According to the media, APEC in Vancouver in 1997, through the 1999 Seattle WTO riots, and various other protests since were the breading grounds for this group. They supposedly thrive on the juice of the confrontation; it can’t be the publicity because the Ninja uniforms hide their faces.
As I write this, 11 people have been arrested in connection to these protests. The supposed ringleader, Guillaume Beaulieu, has previously been arrested for throwing water on a Philadelphia cop, who then died of a heart attack. They tried charging him with murder, but settled for aggravated assault. I believe some of the conditions of his current release include not gathering in groups and to not conceal his face. I bet his family is proud of him. Or perhaps they would prefer he hide his face.
On Friday February 12, the tactic was to taunt and swear at the police in order to provoke a confrontation. On Saturday February 13, the tactic escalated to throwing pieces of wood, traffic cones, and garbage in order to provoke a reaction from the cops. Fortunately, or unfortunaterly if you are a Ninja, the police did not react to the provocations.
I opined above that London Drugs was probably an innocent bystander. The protesters seem to not care about innocent bystanders, including everybody else in Vancouver. This is an excellent way to garner support for their cause.
The real question I would like answered by these people is this: Does your mother know what you’re doing? How does she feel about it? Do you think she’d be proud that you are making your point about the poor of Vancouver by launching Vancouver Sun vending machines through the windows of The Bay and London Drugs?
And to those upset about the commercialization of the games, when your children ask for their own Nikes, will you also conveniently suspend your beliefs, for them as you have for yourself? After all, Nike is Nike. One can’t look good without that swoosh!
I wonder, when launching items at the police, if the protesters were channeling Pierre de Coubertin; “Swifter, Higher, Stronger”?
L’Chayim
Friday, February 26, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Greed
Yes CJ, its story time with Gerry again.
A number of months ago, some of my old chums suggested I write about greed, after my post on the HST. One really can’t discuss greed without quoting from “Wall Street” the immortal words of Michael Douglas’s character Gordon Gecko;
“The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.”
Johnny Silver (Hood) started the conversation saying he would love to see something about corporate greed. Jim Grant followed that comment with the opinion that there is no corporate greed, only greedy people within these corporations.
Although it may seem like I disagree with my buddies, I am taking their point and moving it along further, much like Jim did with John’s original thought. I do agree with Jim that only persons can be possessed of human foibles or virtues, but I think he would initially disagree with my postulating that basic greed, wanting, is a virtue.
Wanting to be swifter, higher, stronger is good. It was good enough for Pierre de Coubertin. You see, this is the Olympic motto, proposed by de Coubertin in 1894 and adopted for the Paris games in 1924.
One can also make the argument that fame is also a good motivator. Wanting to be famous has given us some great politicians; Obama, Trudeau, Lougheed, Bourassa. Unfortunately, with politics some bad comes with the good. It hurts not to, but I won’t delve into the bad politicians list. I do not, and will not, ever say that fame is the only motivator for those who attain fame, but it is one of them.
Wanting becomes greed when it becomes an obsession. Greed is one of the 7 deadly sins when it is blind or uncontained wanting. When our ethics (knowing and choosing between good and bad) are overcome by our wanting, you have greed.
My experiences that have left their mark and have me made what I am because I have responded to them. These choices now shape me and allow me to demonstrate to my staff what I think is the right way to behave. As well, my superiors are afforded the opportunity to reward or recognize behaviors they approve of, or conversely admonish me for behaviors they do not support. Not all of these signals are overt; body language and intonation are a large part of how we communicate.
So John & Jim, Enron was not greedy, but Kenneth Lay et al were. Enron, its board of directors, and its management were responsible for fomenting bad corporate ethics, and promoting to their upper management levels, people whose judgment allowed their wanting to become greed; Ken Lay et al.
Ethics, or the lack thereof was responsible for the fall of Enron. And it was infectious because it spread to their audit firm , Arthur Anderson, at the time one of the top 5 audit firms in the US. Once exposed to the light of public scrutiny, neither could survive. There are many other examples, even some north of the 49th parallel, but I only need one to make my point.
The US sub-prime mortgage was/is rife with thousands of other examples to make my argument, but boiled down to the catalysts, we have greedy bankers, credit rating agents, investment advisors, and legislators. All these greedy individuals directed their companies, and their lobbyists to change the rules. Unfortunately, Alan Greenspan, George W Bush, and their administrations allowed themselves to be duped. Greed? Pride? Who knows.
In recent weeks, Canada’s banks were concerned that we might experience our own bubble in real estate. Although none were brave enough to be seen as the voice of reason, and thus the decliner of mortgages, they implored the Minister of Finance to change the rules, and be the bad guy.
This resulted in a win-win-win situation. We have reasonable qualifications for a mortgage for both down payments and interest rates. The banks are not seen as the bad guy because they manipulated the government into enacting the changes. And finally, the Minister of Finance gets to appear ministerial by doing exactly what the banks told him to.
Bloody good thing our bankers’ ethics more closely match our own, instead of the ethics of the bankers south of the border. Pity that our politicians are so easily manipulated on either side of the border.
So Mr. Gecko, greed is not good. Wanting is good, but needs to be guided and marshaled by our ethics. Our ethics are only of use if we are capable of knowing the difference between good and bad AND do not cross that line. Then we are in company of Abraham Lincoln and not Kenneth Lay. Right Tiger?
Cheers folks!
A number of months ago, some of my old chums suggested I write about greed, after my post on the HST. One really can’t discuss greed without quoting from “Wall Street” the immortal words of Michael Douglas’s character Gordon Gecko;
“The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.”
Johnny Silver (Hood) started the conversation saying he would love to see something about corporate greed. Jim Grant followed that comment with the opinion that there is no corporate greed, only greedy people within these corporations.
Although it may seem like I disagree with my buddies, I am taking their point and moving it along further, much like Jim did with John’s original thought. I do agree with Jim that only persons can be possessed of human foibles or virtues, but I think he would initially disagree with my postulating that basic greed, wanting, is a virtue.
Wanting to be swifter, higher, stronger is good. It was good enough for Pierre de Coubertin. You see, this is the Olympic motto, proposed by de Coubertin in 1894 and adopted for the Paris games in 1924.
One can also make the argument that fame is also a good motivator. Wanting to be famous has given us some great politicians; Obama, Trudeau, Lougheed, Bourassa. Unfortunately, with politics some bad comes with the good. It hurts not to, but I won’t delve into the bad politicians list. I do not, and will not, ever say that fame is the only motivator for those who attain fame, but it is one of them.
Wanting becomes greed when it becomes an obsession. Greed is one of the 7 deadly sins when it is blind or uncontained wanting. When our ethics (knowing and choosing between good and bad) are overcome by our wanting, you have greed.
My experiences that have left their mark and have me made what I am because I have responded to them. These choices now shape me and allow me to demonstrate to my staff what I think is the right way to behave. As well, my superiors are afforded the opportunity to reward or recognize behaviors they approve of, or conversely admonish me for behaviors they do not support. Not all of these signals are overt; body language and intonation are a large part of how we communicate.
So John & Jim, Enron was not greedy, but Kenneth Lay et al were. Enron, its board of directors, and its management were responsible for fomenting bad corporate ethics, and promoting to their upper management levels, people whose judgment allowed their wanting to become greed; Ken Lay et al.
Ethics, or the lack thereof was responsible for the fall of Enron. And it was infectious because it spread to their audit firm , Arthur Anderson, at the time one of the top 5 audit firms in the US. Once exposed to the light of public scrutiny, neither could survive. There are many other examples, even some north of the 49th parallel, but I only need one to make my point.
The US sub-prime mortgage was/is rife with thousands of other examples to make my argument, but boiled down to the catalysts, we have greedy bankers, credit rating agents, investment advisors, and legislators. All these greedy individuals directed their companies, and their lobbyists to change the rules. Unfortunately, Alan Greenspan, George W Bush, and their administrations allowed themselves to be duped. Greed? Pride? Who knows.
In recent weeks, Canada’s banks were concerned that we might experience our own bubble in real estate. Although none were brave enough to be seen as the voice of reason, and thus the decliner of mortgages, they implored the Minister of Finance to change the rules, and be the bad guy.
This resulted in a win-win-win situation. We have reasonable qualifications for a mortgage for both down payments and interest rates. The banks are not seen as the bad guy because they manipulated the government into enacting the changes. And finally, the Minister of Finance gets to appear ministerial by doing exactly what the banks told him to.
Bloody good thing our bankers’ ethics more closely match our own, instead of the ethics of the bankers south of the border. Pity that our politicians are so easily manipulated on either side of the border.
So Mr. Gecko, greed is not good. Wanting is good, but needs to be guided and marshaled by our ethics. Our ethics are only of use if we are capable of knowing the difference between good and bad AND do not cross that line. Then we are in company of Abraham Lincoln and not Kenneth Lay. Right Tiger?
Cheers folks!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Les Olympiques
Yes CJ, its story time with Gerry once more.
As I have stated in previous posts, I am very pan-Canadian. There are 3 Canadian Olympic cities, and I have lived in all 3. I was born in Montréal and used to walk to school, through 3 feet of snow, uphill both ways… Sorry, wrong story.
I was 17 when the Olympics happened in Montréal. It was a very special time. There were all kinds of events happening throughout the city, but what I remember most was all the tourists. Montréal is a very tourist friendly city and it wasn’t a shock to see tourists, but the volume and the influx were astounding.
I do remember running into a multitude of accents, in both languages, and I think my knack for identifying them was honed during the 1976 Olympics. Some were easy; French from Germans versus Moroccans, or English from Scots or South Africans. Some were very hard; English speaking Finns and Swedes.
As far as getting into the Olympics, I was 17, so I did not have the wherewithal to buy tickets. I do remember asking a scalper in front of the Forum, with a pair of tickets in the reds, how much he wanted for tickets to see Nadia Comaneci, 2 nights after she received her first perfect 10’s. He told me $5000, and when I commented that $2500 was a little steep for a ticket, he told me it was $10,000 for the pair. I turned around a relayed the story to my friends, and at story’s end, he had already sold them.
I lived in Calgary, just not in 1988. I was living in Ottawa, so I did not have much of a connection to the games, save for what CBC brought into my home. The legacy in Calgary includes Olympic Plaza in the downtown, the Olympic Park (which figures into directions into anywhere in the North West), and world class sledding and ski jump runs. (I purposefully did not mention Montréal’s legacy because I’m writing a blog, not a book)
Living in Vancouver, we have been bombarded by any and every story anyone could possibly write about the Olympics. I have no idea how many times I have read, seen, and heard stories about Canada being the only host nation to have never earned a gold medal on their soil. Blah, blah, blah…
A Canadian gold in Canada is not the most important thing about the Olympics, but it is nice. Yes, this is written in the present tense. As I write this, I have just finished watching Alexandre Bilodeau collect his gold medal. It was very inspiring and moving. I think the whole country was cheering for him yesterday.
Almost as inspiring as Shane Koyczan’s “We are More”. Nita & I were incredibly moved by his performance, and awed by his words. I spent the weekend trying to figure out who he was, and if I could locate a book written by him. Chapters lists “Visiting Hours” at $17.05, but “Temporarily Unavailable to Order New”. They do have 5 copies in their used and rare section, but they range in price from $50.46 to $105.11. I wonder how much they listed for last month?
As far as I am concerned, the Olympics are about events that touch us and the memories we carry from these great parties. Once everything is said and done, and after all the taxes are paid (I think Québec finally paid off 1976 a few years back), what is most lasting is what we take away in our memories.
I will always remember being thrilled that Greg Joy received a silver medal in Montréal for the high jump. You see, at the time, our expectations were to host an excellent event and party. Getting a medal was just icing on the cake. I’m fairly certain Greg Joy wasn’t disappointed about not getting the first gold medal for Canada on Canadian soil. And I remember the media at the time being overjoyed that we had actually received a medal.
In 1988, Elizabeth Manley, the darling of Ottawa, was awarded the silver medal. Figure Skating judging at the time, at the Olympic level, was almost always decided beforehand. The favorites, Katarina Witt and Debi Thomas both performed poorly, but the judges somehow managed to still give Witt the gold. We knew Manley was cheated by rigged judging, but she put in a gold medal performance in our hearts.
And lastly, I think Alexandre put in a phenomenal run which was thrilling to watch. But my memory of the race will always be Frédéric’s reaction at the end of the race. He knew his brother had put in a gold medal performance, and you could see it on his face and in his reaction.
So my Olympic memories will always be that lanky guy in those embarrassing red short-shorts missing the bar 3 times at 2.25 meters, the little blond who burst into tears because she knew she skated her perfect program, and the slam poet who almost made me cry. But I know that I will always remember the love and devotion of the brother who couldn’t, and how it inspired the brother who could, to do it.
Go Canada, Allons-y!
For a different version of Shane's "We are More", please see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsq68qRexFc
As I have stated in previous posts, I am very pan-Canadian. There are 3 Canadian Olympic cities, and I have lived in all 3. I was born in Montréal and used to walk to school, through 3 feet of snow, uphill both ways… Sorry, wrong story.
I was 17 when the Olympics happened in Montréal. It was a very special time. There were all kinds of events happening throughout the city, but what I remember most was all the tourists. Montréal is a very tourist friendly city and it wasn’t a shock to see tourists, but the volume and the influx were astounding.
I do remember running into a multitude of accents, in both languages, and I think my knack for identifying them was honed during the 1976 Olympics. Some were easy; French from Germans versus Moroccans, or English from Scots or South Africans. Some were very hard; English speaking Finns and Swedes.
As far as getting into the Olympics, I was 17, so I did not have the wherewithal to buy tickets. I do remember asking a scalper in front of the Forum, with a pair of tickets in the reds, how much he wanted for tickets to see Nadia Comaneci, 2 nights after she received her first perfect 10’s. He told me $5000, and when I commented that $2500 was a little steep for a ticket, he told me it was $10,000 for the pair. I turned around a relayed the story to my friends, and at story’s end, he had already sold them.
I lived in Calgary, just not in 1988. I was living in Ottawa, so I did not have much of a connection to the games, save for what CBC brought into my home. The legacy in Calgary includes Olympic Plaza in the downtown, the Olympic Park (which figures into directions into anywhere in the North West), and world class sledding and ski jump runs. (I purposefully did not mention Montréal’s legacy because I’m writing a blog, not a book)
Living in Vancouver, we have been bombarded by any and every story anyone could possibly write about the Olympics. I have no idea how many times I have read, seen, and heard stories about Canada being the only host nation to have never earned a gold medal on their soil. Blah, blah, blah…
A Canadian gold in Canada is not the most important thing about the Olympics, but it is nice. Yes, this is written in the present tense. As I write this, I have just finished watching Alexandre Bilodeau collect his gold medal. It was very inspiring and moving. I think the whole country was cheering for him yesterday.
Almost as inspiring as Shane Koyczan’s “We are More”. Nita & I were incredibly moved by his performance, and awed by his words. I spent the weekend trying to figure out who he was, and if I could locate a book written by him. Chapters lists “Visiting Hours” at $17.05, but “Temporarily Unavailable to Order New”. They do have 5 copies in their used and rare section, but they range in price from $50.46 to $105.11. I wonder how much they listed for last month?
As far as I am concerned, the Olympics are about events that touch us and the memories we carry from these great parties. Once everything is said and done, and after all the taxes are paid (I think Québec finally paid off 1976 a few years back), what is most lasting is what we take away in our memories.
I will always remember being thrilled that Greg Joy received a silver medal in Montréal for the high jump. You see, at the time, our expectations were to host an excellent event and party. Getting a medal was just icing on the cake. I’m fairly certain Greg Joy wasn’t disappointed about not getting the first gold medal for Canada on Canadian soil. And I remember the media at the time being overjoyed that we had actually received a medal.
In 1988, Elizabeth Manley, the darling of Ottawa, was awarded the silver medal. Figure Skating judging at the time, at the Olympic level, was almost always decided beforehand. The favorites, Katarina Witt and Debi Thomas both performed poorly, but the judges somehow managed to still give Witt the gold. We knew Manley was cheated by rigged judging, but she put in a gold medal performance in our hearts.
And lastly, I think Alexandre put in a phenomenal run which was thrilling to watch. But my memory of the race will always be Frédéric’s reaction at the end of the race. He knew his brother had put in a gold medal performance, and you could see it on his face and in his reaction.
So my Olympic memories will always be that lanky guy in those embarrassing red short-shorts missing the bar 3 times at 2.25 meters, the little blond who burst into tears because she knew she skated her perfect program, and the slam poet who almost made me cry. But I know that I will always remember the love and devotion of the brother who couldn’t, and how it inspired the brother who could, to do it.
Go Canada, Allons-y!
For a different version of Shane's "We are More", please see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsq68qRexFc
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Movies
Yes CJ, its story time with Gerry once more.
I would like to open with an apology; it has been quite a while since I have posted, and common courtesy demands I apologize to my loyal follower. Sorry Mom.
I have been a movie buff for a long, long time. I love movies. At one point, my wife Nita was given a courtesy card to an un-named chain from her sister. We have seen many movies together. Some really good, some really bad, and many in the middle. We only ever walked out of 1; “The Story of us”.
When we lived in Toronto, we attempted to discover a movie reviewer we could rely on. We found the best we could get was about 50%, so we saw quite a few movies in the 2nd and 3rd criteria listed above.
Getting to the end of the available reviewers, I came across this dude in the Star who was brutal; we agreed with him less than 20% of time. I was inspired and threw inverse logic into the calculation, and he became my Bizzaro reviewer; if he hated it, we usually liked it, and if he loved something, we would save our money. It worked quite well.
A few years ago, when I purchased my first iPod, I was trolling iTunes and discovered podcasts. It was wonderful; here were audio, and sometimes video, snippets of people’s shows or ramblings, and they wouldn’t cost a cent. I also discovered that sometimes the snippets were entire programs, like the audio from “60 Minutes”.
One of my first discoveries was “Filmspotting”. This is a wonderful reposting of a Chicago public radio broadcast. These guys are great. I have been listening to them since late 2007. The podcast is simply a couple of guys intelligently and astutely discussing movies. I don’t always agree with them, and they don’t always agree with each other, but it is always very entertaining.
Adam and Matty are somewhat director-centric in their views, but they do not fill their time with technical-ese. They are also responsible for 2 of my favorite new sayings. “Getting dusty” is a term they use when a movie plays to your emotions. Their second is something that many people I know think about me; “I hear what you’re saying, but you’re completely wrong”.
I’m hitting about .700 with these guys, so I think I’ll stick with them. And yes I used the baseball analogy for Matty “Ballgame” Robinson, who refers to “Major League” as his favorite movie. Nita is not so enamored with some of my recent rental choices, with good reason.
These guys have however turned me onto a web site called “Flickchart”, which is fun, free, and addictive for all you movie lovers. Once you have signed up, you are presented with 2 movies, and you simply select which one you liked better, and the site tracks all your answers. I have been wasting time on the site for a few months now, and my statistics show that I have ranked over 3300 times on 600 movies. My top 5 movies are an eclectic mix; “X-Men”, “Ray”, “Slumdog Millionaire”, “Little Miss Sunshine”, & “Snatch”.
This is usually fun and you sometimes end up having to make odd and challenging choices. Just look above; choose between “A Clockwork Orange” and “The Godfather”??? Really? What about choosing between “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Goodfellas”.
When it comes to movies, however, my favorite stories are centered on movie critics and reviewers. All too often, we are presented with the views of someone who has grown into an aficionado, or perhaps a critic who has discovered he gets more feedback when he mercilessly tears a movie to pieces. Either one of these 2 scenarios are also self fulfilling scenarios. The more movies you see, the more you know, or the more you ravage movies, the more you want to.
In 1939, 2 movies were almost universally panned; the critics at the time hated them for various reasons. In my lifetime, one of the worst reviews I read was in 1977 was peppered with words like schlock , gimmicky, and too loud.
The reviewer at the time, and probably also those in 1939, forgot one of the basic rules about movies. Movies are made to entertain us. Not every movie needs to be a statement or teach us about our world. Sometimes movies just need to make us laugh or get a little dusty. This is good; even more so when that was the film makers intention.
In closing, I do love my movies, and probably always will. I will not regale you with my favorites, because I am neither an authority nor an expert. But when next you see me, I would be more than happy to share my views on what I have seen recently; I always have and always will.
For those of you paying attention, the 1939 movies were “Gone with the wind” & “The Wizard of Oz”, and the 1977 bomb was “Star Wars”. Fortunately, Hollywood producers don’t always listen to the critics.
Cheers folks!
www.filmspotting.net (Also see iTunes for their podcasts)
www.flickchart.com
www.imdb.com (The Internet Movie DataBase)
I would like to open with an apology; it has been quite a while since I have posted, and common courtesy demands I apologize to my loyal follower. Sorry Mom.
I have been a movie buff for a long, long time. I love movies. At one point, my wife Nita was given a courtesy card to an un-named chain from her sister. We have seen many movies together. Some really good, some really bad, and many in the middle. We only ever walked out of 1; “The Story of us”.
When we lived in Toronto, we attempted to discover a movie reviewer we could rely on. We found the best we could get was about 50%, so we saw quite a few movies in the 2nd and 3rd criteria listed above.
Getting to the end of the available reviewers, I came across this dude in the Star who was brutal; we agreed with him less than 20% of time. I was inspired and threw inverse logic into the calculation, and he became my Bizzaro reviewer; if he hated it, we usually liked it, and if he loved something, we would save our money. It worked quite well.
A few years ago, when I purchased my first iPod, I was trolling iTunes and discovered podcasts. It was wonderful; here were audio, and sometimes video, snippets of people’s shows or ramblings, and they wouldn’t cost a cent. I also discovered that sometimes the snippets were entire programs, like the audio from “60 Minutes”.
One of my first discoveries was “Filmspotting”. This is a wonderful reposting of a Chicago public radio broadcast. These guys are great. I have been listening to them since late 2007. The podcast is simply a couple of guys intelligently and astutely discussing movies. I don’t always agree with them, and they don’t always agree with each other, but it is always very entertaining.
Adam and Matty are somewhat director-centric in their views, but they do not fill their time with technical-ese. They are also responsible for 2 of my favorite new sayings. “Getting dusty” is a term they use when a movie plays to your emotions. Their second is something that many people I know think about me; “I hear what you’re saying, but you’re completely wrong”.
I’m hitting about .700 with these guys, so I think I’ll stick with them. And yes I used the baseball analogy for Matty “Ballgame” Robinson, who refers to “Major League” as his favorite movie. Nita is not so enamored with some of my recent rental choices, with good reason.
These guys have however turned me onto a web site called “Flickchart”, which is fun, free, and addictive for all you movie lovers. Once you have signed up, you are presented with 2 movies, and you simply select which one you liked better, and the site tracks all your answers. I have been wasting time on the site for a few months now, and my statistics show that I have ranked over 3300 times on 600 movies. My top 5 movies are an eclectic mix; “X-Men”, “Ray”, “Slumdog Millionaire”, “Little Miss Sunshine”, & “Snatch”.
This is usually fun and you sometimes end up having to make odd and challenging choices. Just look above; choose between “A Clockwork Orange” and “The Godfather”??? Really? What about choosing between “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Goodfellas”.
When it comes to movies, however, my favorite stories are centered on movie critics and reviewers. All too often, we are presented with the views of someone who has grown into an aficionado, or perhaps a critic who has discovered he gets more feedback when he mercilessly tears a movie to pieces. Either one of these 2 scenarios are also self fulfilling scenarios. The more movies you see, the more you know, or the more you ravage movies, the more you want to.
In 1939, 2 movies were almost universally panned; the critics at the time hated them for various reasons. In my lifetime, one of the worst reviews I read was in 1977 was peppered with words like schlock , gimmicky, and too loud.
The reviewer at the time, and probably also those in 1939, forgot one of the basic rules about movies. Movies are made to entertain us. Not every movie needs to be a statement or teach us about our world. Sometimes movies just need to make us laugh or get a little dusty. This is good; even more so when that was the film makers intention.
In closing, I do love my movies, and probably always will. I will not regale you with my favorites, because I am neither an authority nor an expert. But when next you see me, I would be more than happy to share my views on what I have seen recently; I always have and always will.
For those of you paying attention, the 1939 movies were “Gone with the wind” & “The Wizard of Oz”, and the 1977 bomb was “Star Wars”. Fortunately, Hollywood producers don’t always listen to the critics.
Cheers folks!
www.filmspotting.net (Also see iTunes for their podcasts)
www.flickchart.com
www.imdb.com (The Internet Movie DataBase)
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