READING:
The Leftovers
Tom Perrotta

Imagine The Rapture – the ascension into heaven of all true believers – actually happended (without the end of the world). Or a Rapture-like event, when millions just disappear.

What would do to those left behind? How would they cope? Especially when many of the departed were non-Christians, or truly evil persons. And many of those left behind (the leftovers) consider themselves true, god-fearing Christians. What does that do to individuals, families, communities?

That’s the clever premise of Perrotta’s 2011 book. Great premise, and he keeps his focus on just one community – mainly just one family.

But the book – clocking in at 350 pages – should really have been a novella. Some good issues examined, but too much filler, too much of the same over and over again.

And the ending of the book is just bizarre.

Fun “what if?” but Perrotta just doesn’t pull it off.

All books

The Academy Awards is this evening, and I’ll probably watch most of it.

Not quite sure why, but whatever.

And while I have absolutely no skin in the game – no bets out, no crushes/hates on any actors/directors – it’s still fun to try to read the tea leaves to see just who might win.

Note: By no skin in the game, well maybe that’s not completely totally true. I’ve seen none of the films up for awards; I think the only 2012 film that I saw was Lawless, and I thought the movie was forgettable but for two things: The soundtrack, and Jessica Chastain’s performance. And she’s up for Best Actress (Zero Dark Thirty), so maybe I have some skin….

Here are my guesses for the top honors; again, just my reading of reviews and buzz:

• Best Picture – Argo. Why? In large part because its director – Ben Affleck – was snubbed for Best Director. Sorry Lincoln, payback’s a bitch. Also, Hollywood loves movies about Hollywood – see 2011’s Best Picture, The Artist. Correct
• Best Director – Steven Spielberg. With Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow (why?) shut out, it comes down to Ang Li (Life of Pi) and Spielberg. Ang won for Brokeback Mountain recently, and Lincoln is going to run away with a lot of awards. It’s a Big, Serious Movie, and Hollywood loves that. Incorrect, but it went to Ang Li, who I said was the runner-up.
• Best Actor – Daniel Day-Lewis. Why? Because he deserves it. This will make him a three-time Oscar recipient; this is Meryl Streep territory. Impressive. Correct
• Best Actress – Tough call. Jessica Chastain was the early favorite, but the political controversies surrounding Zero Dark Thirty have hurt her chances (and probably cost Bigelow the nod for Best Director nominee). Jennifer Lawrence is the current favorite (Silver Linings Playbook), but that’s as much for her work in other films (Winter’s Bone, Hunger Games) as it is for her nominated film. I think this is one of those cases where Chastain had the better performance, but Lawrence will win due to her overall likeability. Correct
• Best Supporting Actor – Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln). Why? It’s between him and Django Unchained’s Christoph Waltz. Waltz happens to be in a movie that doesn’t seem to be getting a lot of Hollywood love; Lincoln does. Incorrect, but went to my second pick.
• Best Supporting Actress – Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables ). This is a lock. Correct

Update: Well, I got four out of six correct, and in the two that I missed, my runner-up won. Not bad for just knowing nothing!

REVIEWED:
30 Rock – Season One
Starring: Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Jane Krakowski and many more

The last episode of the last season (7) of 30 Rock aired about 3 weeks ago, but – until this weekend – I had only seen one episode of this generally well-received series.

This weekend I watched all of Season One, and, hey, it’s a really good show. Not up there with M*A*S*H, Seinfeld or other arguably great sitcoms, but very good, even for the first season.

Lots of topical humor, some inside references to movies such as Fey’s Mean Girls, and host of guest stars that are a testament to the respect Fey commands (LL Cool J, Isabella Rossellini, Chris Mathews, Rip Torn, Nathan Lane and a bunch of SNL former/curent cast members – and that’s just a quick list).

The series reminds me a bit of both Al Franken’s too smart for its own good Lateline, as well as the always underrated NewsRadio – 30 Rock is an ensemble cast that is about, in this case, a live weekly TV comedy show (think of Saturday Night Live, obviously).

Overall, light, entertaining and funny in a sad-but-true way. Everyone takes a turn at looking sane/insane (like Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser on Mad About You). Looking forward to seeing more of this series.

All reviews

Apropos of nothing, I noticed recently that I have stopped carrying change.

And that got me to thinking about other things that I always did that I no longer do.

I no longer (or rarely):

• Carry change – I still keep a bunch of quarters in the car for that random parking meter (in the suburbs this is rare), but I virtually never carry change anymore. And if I ever get some for change, it goes in the change jar when I get home. There are two reasons for this: 1) I now carry my smartphone in my change pocket (keys in the other), and I don’t want to bang up the phone; 2) I rarely use cash, so change is not an issue.
• Pay with cash – At Starbucks, it’s the Starbucks card. At the pump or in most stores, I’ll use the self-pay with a credit card. And – frankly – I’m not in stores much anymore. I buy online. And I rarely go out for lunch at work. I think I took $200 out of the bank sometime around last Christmas, and I’ll bet I still have about half of it in my wallet.
• Read the newspaper – While I’m probably at a high in the amount of news I consume, it’s very rarely from the newspaper, for two reasons: 1) By the time the paper arrives (we still get the Sunday paper – Chicago Tribune), I’ve pretty much read all the “news” it has to offer; 2) The paper sucks. Sorry. Typos, sentences that make no sense, and lame stories that have no place in a newspaper in an effort to keep readers. It’s a sad reality; I used to love to read the paper.
• Wear a watch – When I was a studio photographer, it was mandatory to have a watch. The big view cameras – under the tungsten lights – needed long, exact exposures. Yet that wasn’t a big deal, as I had always, since high school at least, worn a watch. I don’t recall when this stopped, but why wear a watch today? There’s a clock in your car, on your computer, on your phone.
• Watch network televison – I’ll watch an occasional live event (news, Oscars) and some late-night comedy (Stewart, Colbert, an I’m-bored-let’s-watch SNL), but I can’t remember the last time I watch a TV comedy/drama (I don’t do any of the reality shows). One caveat: I do enjoy binge-watching a good TV series on DVD, to go though an entire season in a weekend or two. I just watched the first season of 30 Rock last weekend. Good stuff. Well, second caveat: I frequently catch up on Stewart and/or Colbert online.
• Buy computer books – I have – there’s no other way to put this – a crapload of computer books surrounding me. How to navigate the internet (pre-world wide web!), VRML, DOS, ColdFusion, PHP, Perl, CSS and so on up to my last purchase, a jQuery book. The latter was an outlier: It was the first computer book I had purchased in years. Today, you just dive into a new language/framework or whatever, and when you get stuck, you google the issue.
• Use/own Yellow/White Pages phone books – Any questions?

As you can probably see, the common thread of most of the above is technology: How technology has changed the ways we do things.

On the other hand, I still buy DVDs and CDs (with occasional iTunes singles purchases), and I now go to the bank, which is an odd event for me. Why? My current employer doesn’t have direct deposit, so I swing by on my way home to deposit the check. With other jobs, between direct deposit and ATMs, going into a bank was a very rare event. And I don’t have an ereader; still reading books the old-fashioned way.

So I’m still a Luddite in some ways. Fair enuf. I’m sure that’ll change in the near future, as well.

OK, you don’t see many of these…

This past Thurday’s commute home was marred by what was, in this mild winter, somewhat of a messy snowstorm.

We ended up getting around 3 inches of wet, sloppy snow, and this was on top of ground that was either already wet or, in some cases, icy.

So my – albeit, modest – commute was slowed and it forced me to pay more attention to the vehicles around me than normal.

As I was checking out what might be hurtling my way, I was struck by the conformity of vehicles: For the most part, there were only two vehicle types around here – SUVs and four-door sedans (for the latter, think Honda Accord, Nissan Sentra, Toyota Camry…).

And I pass a couple of schools on the way to/from work. Whenever there is a queue of vehicles waiting out front of the school, or waiting to turn in, it’s usually mostly SUVs. Sure, there are still minivans, but very few.

It’s winter, so the sports cars may well be in the garage until the salt goes away, but virtually all the pickups you see have company logos on them. When we were in Montana a few years ago – even in a college town (Missoula) – you’d see a fair number of pickups in the mix of passing vehicles. Here they are not an oddity at all, but just not that numerous.

For what it’s worth, I reside in the near northwest burbs of Chicago, so your mileage may vary. But it was striking: Minivans have been, overall, replaced by SUVs, and two-door coupes (not sport cars) are dwindling to an almost negligible percentage of traffic. Station wagons are, of course, dead (as they have been for years), and any kind of hatchbacks are rare, though the crossovers like Subaru Forester and some Toyota and Ford model have the large back door instead of a trunk.

But – overall – it’s SUVs and four-door sedans.

Just an observation.

Our house is a very, very, very fine house
With two cats in the yard…
— CSNY

Well, we signed the (bazillion) papers to refinance our house today.

Previously:

• First mortgage, in 1999, was for 30 year, high 7% interest. Yeah, paid off target in 2029.
• Refinanced in 2004, 15 year mortgage at some 5.x% interest. OK, paid off target in 2019. Shaved a decade off the old mortgage (with lower payments)
• Today: Five year mortgage at 2.357%; the monthly payment is ~$300 less than the current (15-year) payment. Score! Target payoff in 2018.

Refinancing – or any bank stuff – is, to the non-bank people (me), odd and frustrating,

At the end of the day, I’m totally glad we refinanced.

WATCHING:
Mean Girls
Starring: Tina Fey, Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Neil Flynn, Amanda Seyfried

Like Clueless, this movie is a not great but a touchstone pic.

I’m not the target audience of the movie – for tween females, I’d guess – but it’s still a sorta stupid but fun movie.

Formula movie – in this case, high school boy meets girl/girls bond[not] with others – that exceeds the formula.

Written by Tina Fey; any questions?

All movies

Thus far this so-called winters, we’ve broken records for most days in a row without snow (290+ days), days in a row without 1+ inches of snow (320ish), yet had some almost record-breaking cold.

Currently, it’s 63 degrees out there, and it’s raining like hell, with thunder and lightning, to boot. And because of the heavy rain and frozen (but snow-free) ground, we have flooding advisories, as the water is going to just run off paved and unpaved surfaces and collect at low ground.

The rain is supposed to give way to snow and much colder temperatures (hello icy roads!), and we’re supposed to see a high of 16 degrees on Friday – a swing of almost 50 degrees off today’s high.

This is what winter in Chicago is like this year: a smorgasbord of weather.

It’s like that old Mark Twain saying about New England – if you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute.

Wild.

Update Saturday Feb.2: Yesterday had early-morning temps of zero, and today we woke up to about 2-3 inches of snow. Roller coaster weather…

From Readwrite.com

From Slate.com

Personally, I don’t this is going to change Polaroid’s future much, but I also thought that the Apple store was a dumb idea. Yeah, I was obscenely wrong.

Time will tell…somebody’s got to be wrong.

It’s the time of the year for “Best of 2012” lists, including movie lists.

I’ve only seen a handful of 2012 flicks, and not the ones that’ll probably be up for Oscars, that’s for sure.

But it got me thinking: What are my current favorite movies of all time? Not necessarily the BEST movies of all time, but just my favorites.

Worth putting down, so in a decade or so I can re-read this list and silently curse myself for being such a tool.

Whatever – here goes, in no particular order (with the exception of the first one, which is probably my all-time fav):

• Casablanca – My all-time favorite, and it should be on virtually any list of best movies as well.
• The Dish – Quirky Australian film about the radio dish in that country that helped relay data from Apollo 11. Just fun.
• The Great Escape – Still my favorite Steve McQueen movie (but I’ve yet to see The Getaway). A blockbuster cast – it stars just about everyone – and the classic story of smart Allies beating the Nazis in WW2.
• About a Boy – In this British film, Hugh Grant plays a cad. How out of character, right? But here – was well as the movie below – Grant plays the role very well, and there is actually some emotional depth to his character.
• Four Weddings and a Funeral – A group of British friends party, marry and die together. An ensemble cast that just works (Andie McDowell plays, essentially, an American floozy).
• Toy Story – The first was the best to me, and still my favorite of all the Pixar and other CGI movies. It was a real breakout when it was first released for the technology, but it has a great story behind it, as well.
• Almost Famous – God love rock and roll. Based on Cameron Crowe’s real-life adventures as a 16-year-old Rolling Stone feature writer, this movie captures the soul of 70s music as well as any I can recall.
• The Maltese Falcon – Not as good as Casablanca, but the same brilliant writing, great minor characters (Peter Lorre is in both; deliciously weaselly in both). And it has a very different story to tell than Casablanca, one that is actually resonates more for the current year than the Moroccan tale.
• Groundhog Day – Wild premise (living the same day – Groundhog Day – over and over) sold by the brilliant acting of Bill Murray. I wonder how much of this was improvised. Like Murray or not, you have to give him credit for being so fast on his feet. I watched a Chicago Cubs game where he did color for Harry Carrey and I almost wet myself. Brilliant.
• Stealing Beauty – Flawed – for example, I think Jeremy Irons’ character could have been lost – but memorable for many other reasons. Beautiful scenery (Tuscany, Italy), a killer soundtrack and Liv Tyler.
• 500 Days of Summer – As the intro to the movie declares, this is a story about boy meets girl etc, but this is not a love story. Bittersweet. Great performances by Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, with nuanced supporting characters. Great soundtrack here, as well: This movie introduced me to Regina Spektor. Even if the movie sucked, it would make this list for that reason alone.

OK, I ended up with 11 movies. Sue me.

WATCHING:
Legends of the Fall
Starring: Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Aidan Quinn, Julia Ormond

Second time around on this movie; I think I liked it better this time.

A story of family, loss, guilt (Pitt is unable to prevent his younger brother from dying in WW!) and how circumstances change everything.

Julia Ormond comes to the Montana ranch of a father (Hopkins) and his three sons (Pitt, Quinn and Henry Thomas). She is to marry the youngest (Thomas) but he goes off to war before they are wed. With Thomas gone, both Pitt and Quinn are attracted to the woman, both for different reasons.

Hard to really sum up the book in a short review like this; there is so much going on that is not said.

Beautifully photographed (outside of Calgery, CA, just east of the Rockies). It’s worth a watch for that alone.

All movies

I watched Legends of the Fall – for a second time – yesterday, and right afterwards, I read the Jim Harrison novella upon which the movie was based.

How to compare…

The movie is a little over two hours long; the book is only about 80 pages. Most of what’s in the movie is in the book, but often in very different ways. For example, there is an ambush scene near the end of the movie, and one of the ambushers’ – a ranch hand – part is in the book, but not as part of this particular ambush. In the movie, he does what – in the book – had taken place at least a decade ago for wildly different reasons.

And Susannah – played by Julia Ormond in the movie – comes out to Montana from Boston to marry the youngest of three sons in a family in the movie version. In the book, she comes out to marry the middle son (Brad Pitt). And they are actually married; in the movie, after the death of the youngest son (they never married), Ormond becomes romantically involved with Pitt, but they never marry.

I don’t know why I first picked up the book – it was before the movie came out. Just one of those things – I got it for $1 at a local thrift store (The Brown Elephant) when I was living in Chicago. That was over 20 years ago.

When the movie finished yesterday, I just figured it was a good time to kill an hour and finally read the book (actually, it’s one of three short pieces in the book of the same name).

Overall, I think I liked the movie better than the book, and that’s unusual. The book was somewhat disjointed, and – for all its brevity – went on at times, such as about the route taken by a schooner the main character (Tristan) was on. And the movie has lush cinematography (it won its only Oscar for this), and it focuses on an area of the country that I find incredibly beautiful: The eastern edge of the Rockies up near the US/Canadian border (it was supposed to be northern Montana; actually filmed just west of Calgary). We went to Glacier National Park a few years ago; I want to go back!

But both the movie and book were satisfying, in somewhat different ways.

Google is well known for being very, ummm, persnickety, about its landing page, and I understand its concern.

Yet in the wake of yet another mass shooting – this time including the murder of 5- to 10-year-old children – Google actually added load to its sacred page as a note of condolence to all those affected by the tragedy.

It’s just an image (a vigil candle); no link. Just a message when you mouse over the (subtle) image that the company is thinking of the community.

One could get all cynical about this placement, but I’m not going there. Just a nice gesture that kind of sums up what many of us are thinking/feeling. No judgement, no links to calls to action. Just an indication of just how unique this situation is, and how – at least for one day or so – everyone is touched by what happened in Newtown, CT.

According to Mayan legend, today – Dec. 12, 2012 – is supposed to be the end of the world.

Or is it Dec 21? Whatever. (Update: Yep, 12/21, not 12/12. Well…same message, different day. Apocalypse Then.)

Well, I’m not buying it. It’s almost 5pm and we’re still around…and listening to REM’s excellent – and appropriate It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

Uh oh, overflow, population, common food, but it’ll do.
Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed dummy with the rapture and the revered and the right – right.
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light, feeling pretty psyched.

It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

— Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe

Yeah, I’m not really taking the “end of the world” seriously.

If I’m wrong, won’t really matter what I write here, ja?

At some point, the video below will/might die. I hate embedding anything that is not mine, just because I can’t guarantee that (whatever) will be here tomorrow. *sigh* You’ve been warned.

That said, an awesome (to me) mashup of REM’s End of the World cover videos. The good, the bad, the ???