Author: NewMexiKen

‘Goblet of Fire’

With the fantasy kicked up a notch and a new director, Harry Potter catches ‘Fire. ‘It’s taken them long enough, but the movies have finally gotten Harry Potter right. Despite the reported $2.7 billion earned by the series’ three previous attempts, it’s not until “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” that a film has successfully re-created the sense of stirring magical adventure and engaged, edge-of-your-seat excitement that has made the books such an international phenomenon.

Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times

Reviewers everywhere seem to like this film. For my part, I liked this paragraph in Manohla Dargis’ review in The New York Times:

Now 16, Mr. Radcliffe pouts reasonably well, but has yet to develop the skill to make that pouting feel emotionally substantive. This might pose a serious obstacle for the films, but it hasn’t yet, largely because watching him and his young co-stars – the excellent Rupert Grint as Ron, the touchingly earnest Emma Watson as Hermione – grow up onscreen has its dividends. Cinema doesn’t just immortalize actors, locking them into youth, it also solicits our love in a way that books do not, since it isn’t just the characters we fall for, but the actors playing them, too. Mr. Radcliffe isn’t an acting titan or even one of the Culkins, but you root for him nonetheless, partly because you want Harry to triumph and partly because there is something poignant about how this actor struggles alongside his character.

And this, also from Dargis:

[Ralph] Fiennes is an actor for whom a walk on the darker side is not just a pleasure, but liberation. His Voldemort may be the greatest screen performance ever delivered without the benefit of a nose; certainly it’s a performance of sublime villainy.

PG-13 now, no longer just PG.

‘Walk the Line’

Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon do first-rate work — they sing, they twang, they play new-to-them instruments, they crackle with wit and charisma, and they give off so much sexual heat it’s a wonder they don’t burst into flames. Theirs are the kinds of performances the Academy Awards live to reward, comprising as they do a sort of acting decathlon. But the best thing about Phoenix and Witherspoon is their emotional connection, which carries the movie and transcends the material.

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times

On their show last week Ebert and Roeper just couldn’t praise this film and Joaquin Phoenix enough (he does all the music himself). Phoenix is better than Jamie Foxx as Ray, Ebert claimed.

Best line of the day, so far

“The only U.S.-produced items that I can think of that exist in large quantities in China are dollar bills.”

Matthew Crabbe, the managing director of Access Asia Ltd., a market research firm, in an article in The New York Times on the struggle facing American brands in China compared “to European brands and even some Chinese brands.”

“The United States is buying $6 worth of goods from China for every $1 worth of goods it ships to China.”

A couple of other indicators from the same article:

G.M. has started building the Cadillac CTS sedan and Cadillac SRX car-based utility vehicle for the Chinese market in a 50-50 joint venture in Shanghai with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation.

Caterpillar, based in Peoria, Ill., has been one of the most successful American companies in the Chinese market, but now relies heavily on factories in China to supply the market.

A piece of legislation so bad it’s almost surreal

From Paul Krugman:

“Lots of things in life are complicated.” So declared Michael Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, in response to the mass confusion as registration for the new Medicare drug benefit began. But the complexity of the program – which has reduced some retirees to tears as they try to make what may be life-or-death decisions – is far greater than necessary.

One reason the drug benefit is so confusing is that older Americans can’t simply sign up with Medicare as they can for other benefits. They must, instead, choose from a baffling array of plans offered by private middlemen. Why?

Here’s a parallel. Earlier this year Senator Rick Santorum introduced a bill that would have forced the National Weather Service to limit the weather information directly available to the public. Although he didn’t say so explicitly, he wanted the service to funnel that information through private forecasters instead.

Mr. Santorum’s bill didn’t go anywhere. But it was a classic attempt to force gratuitous privatization: involving private corporations in the delivery of public services even when those corporations have no useful role to play.

The Medicare drug benefit is an example of gratuitous privatization on a grand scale.

Those naval officers sure have a way with words

“I have not yet begun to fight!”
Captain John Paul Jones, during the battle between Bonhomme Richard and Serapis, September 23, 1779

“Don’t give up the ship!”
Captain James Lawrence, during engagement between his ship, the U.S. frigate Chesapeake, and HMS Shannon, June 1, 1813 (Lawrence died and the ship was lost, but it became a rallying cry for the Navy)

“We have met the enemy and they are ours…”
Oliver Hazard Perry, dispatch to Major General William Henry Harrison after victory in the Battle of Lake Erie, September 10, 1813

“Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”
Admiral David Glasgow Farragut in Mobile Bay, Alabama, August 5, 1864, after the first ship in his attack was demolished and the second stopped by mines

“You may fire when you are ready Gridley.”
Commodore George Dewey, at the Battle of Manila Bay, Spanish-American War, May 1, 1898

“Sighted Sub, Sank Same.”
AMM 1/c Donald Francis Mason, after the sinking of a German U-boat off Argentia, Newfoundland, January 28, 1942

Best line of the day, so far

“I like guys who got five deferments and (have) never been there and send people to war, and then don’t like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done.”

Representative John Murtha, referring to Vice President Dick Cheney. Murtha is a retired Marine colonel who was awarded a Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts and the Vietnamese Cross for Gallantry.

Update: Laptop for Every Kid

A Wired News interview with Nicholas Negroponte. A couple of points:

… Wired News: The machine is expected to start mass production late next year, and the governments of Thailand and Brazil have already said they’re serious about placing $1 million orders for their school kids. Others are close to lining up.

… Negroponte: Clearly (though) in some countries even $100 spread over five years is too expensive. So in those countries we have to find other means to pay for it than the normal education budget. But at least half of the developing world — certainly half the population, probably half the countries — could afford the $20 per year.

Vine Deloria Jr.

The funeral for Vine Deloria Jr. is Friday in Golden, Colorado. NewMexiKen has been wondering why this great leader hasn’t seen more national honors since his death Sunday. Someone I read wrote that Deloria was to American Indians as Rosa Parks was to African-Americans. I would say more that Vine Deloria Jr. was to American Indians as Martin Luther King Jr. was to African-Americans — an intellectual and spiritual leader.

I don’t know his wishes, those of his family or his religion, but I believe it would have been fitting if Mr. Deloria had lain in state in the rotunda of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington.

‘Run It!’

After coming in second for four straight weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, Chris Brown’s “Run It!” finally seizes the No. 1 position. The cut takes over for Kanye West’s “Gold Digger” featuring Jamie Foxx, which held the top spot for 10 consecutive weeks.

Billboard

Chris Brown is 16-years-old. Listen (iTunes).

I Vant to Drink Your Vatts

From an article in The New York Times:

Households across the land are infested with vampires. That’s what energy experts call those gizmos with two sharp teeth that dig into a wall socket and suck juice all night long. All day long, too, and all year long.

Most people assume that when they turn off the television set it stops drawing power.

But that’s not how most TV’s (and VCR’s and other electronic devices) work. They remain ever in standby mode, silently sipping energy to the tune of 1,000 kilowatt hours a year per household, awaiting the signal to roar into action.

“As a country we pay $1 billion a year to power our TV’s and VCR’s while they’re turned off….”

This is one of the reasons NewMexiKen unplugs many devices when I’m away (for more than a day or two). The other reason is I once had my house hit by lightning and it was a real hassle fixing and replacing so much gear. If I’m not here, why not eliminate that possibility? It’s easy if you have surge protectors. Just click them off.

Interested in the truth?

With this introduction, Knight Ridder addresses the administration’s main assertions.

The administration’s overarching premise is beyond dispute: Administration officials, Democratic and Republican lawmakers and even leaders of foreign governments believed intelligence assessments that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. That intelligence turned out to be wrong.

But Bush, Cheney, and other senior officials have added several other arguments in recent days that distort the factual record.

Block That Mascot? Bite Your Tongue

Marc Fisher in The Washington Post:

Two major studies show that while activists are busy suing teams, many Indians take no offense. A survey of Indians conducted in 2002 for Sports Illustrated found that 81 percent don’t think high school or college teams should drop Indian nicknames. Asked about the Redskins, 75 percent said the name doesn’t offend them. Last year, the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Election Survey found that 90 percent of Indians did not consider “Redskins” offensive.

Best team name mentioned in the column: Southeastern Oklahoma State University women’s teams — the Lady Savages.

Happy Birthday

… to Gordon Lightfoot. The singer is 67.

… to Martin Scorsese. The director is 63

… to Danny DeVito. The actor/director/producer is 61.

… to Lorne Michaels. The producer of Saturday Night Live is 61.

… to Tom Seaver. Tom Terrific, the baseball hall-of-famer is 61.

… to Elvin Hayes. The basketball hall-of-famer is 60.

… to Howard Dean. The politician is 57.

… to Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. The actress is 47.

… to Daisy Fuentes. The hottie is 39.

Rock Hudson was born on this date in 1925; he died in 1985.

Soichiro Honda was born on this date in 1906; he died in 1991. Honda started as an auto mechanic at age 15.

An oldie but a goodie

NewMexiKen watched the 1946 film The Best Years of Our Lives this evening and recommends it, especially if you’ve never seen it or haven’t seen it in decades. (I had never seen it.) The film won seven Oscars* in all — best picture, best actor, best supporting actor, writing, directing, best film editing and best music.

The story is set at the end of World War II with the return to the same hometown of three veterans — one a middle-aged sergeant (Oscar winner Frederic March), one an air officer (Dana Andrews), and one a sailor who has lost both hands (supporting Oscar winner Harold Russell, who actually did lose both his hands in the service). The film depicts the anxieties, tensions and dissapointments each faces. Myrna Loy, Virginia Mayo, Teresa Wright and Cathy O’Donnell play the women in their lives. Famed songwriter Hoagy Carmichael (“Stardust”) is delightful to see in a minor role.

It’s a long film (2:48) and, I suppose, somewhat coventional and dated — no car chases or explosions — but a superbly rendered drama great for the DVD player. As Brosley Crowther wrote in The New York Times 59 years ago next week, “It is seldom that there comes a motion picture which can be wholly and enthusiastically endorsed not only as superlative entertainment but as food for quiet and humanizing thought.” Indeed.

[* Eight actually. Actor Harold Russell was presented with a special Oscar “for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans through his appearance in ‘The Best Years of Our Lives.'” He is the only actor ever to win two Oscars for the same role.]