Racial Equality, the Fight Continues in Even the Smallest Corners

If you are a regular follower of my blogs you know that I live in Marshall, Texas. The civil rights history of Marshall is long and storied. It is said the sit-in was invented here. 

At the Paramount Theater, if you were black during the eras before the 1960s, you walked past the front theater door where whites entered and rounded the corner to buy your ticket. You walked a steep flight of steps to enter and sat in the "Buzzard's Roost." Blacks weren't allowed to sit with whites, obvious in Jim Crow Marshall, but blacks weren't even allowed to enter with whites. CORE founder James L. Farmer Jr. who grew up in Marshall was so incensed that he went to Washington in 1941 to fight for civil rights.

The 1949 film "Pinky" became the subject of a tremendous battle when the city fathers decided it could not be shown in Marshall because the picture depicts "(1) a white man retaining his love for a woman after learning that she is a Negro, (2) a white man kissing and embracing a Negro woman, (3) two white ruffians assaulting Pinky after she has told them she is colored."The cinema owner was convicted of violating the ruling and was fined $200. He appealed the conviction all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court where he eventually won his appeal.

I mention this because Marshall Cinema is showing "White House Down" this week. It's the story of Channing Tatum saving the President of the United States played by Jamie Foxx from home grown terrorists. To the right you will see how it's posted on the Marshall Cinema website (as of July 6, 2013 at 10:30 am).

As you can see, this movie evidently doesn't star Jamie Foxx. It stars Maggie Gyllenhaal. Really? Yes, she's in the movie and she's important to the action but she isn't the star of the show. It's Tatum and Foxx, and for one reason or another Jamie Foxx isn't on the bill. 

Even in the smallest corners of our nation and our cybernation, discrimination exists. There is no other reason I can imagine leaving Jamie Foxx off of their web page. Do people not know? Are people so afraid of Jamie Foxx that even though his picture is on the page his name dare not be listed? Is Maggie Gyllenhaal a bigger draw? 

I find it hard to consider, but not so hard to believe, that even in the quietest moments, in the smallest corners of the internet, this fight has to continue.

Thanks to the Shreveport Times, http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20080217/LIVING/802160309/On-trail-history-Marshal-Texas-offers-black-heritage-tour

and Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinky_(film)

Pastor Paul's "The Dark Knight Rises" Review

Let's begin with this, there is no real way any movie in this series can beat "The Dark Knight." Director Christopher Nolan (who also co-wrote the film with his brother Jonathan) and actor Heath Ledger did such a great job between themselves to make "TDK" such a physically and emotionally visceral movie that "TDKR" (The Dark Knight Rises) can only pale next to it. Getting that out of the way, I liked it.

I liked the action. I liked the story (when I could follow it). I loved the visuals. The audio was even great. The cameos made this a great movie. Bringing back Cillian Murphy, who played Dr. Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow in "Batman Begins" was a stroke of genius! Liam Nissan coming back as Ra's Al Ghul was brilliant.

Honestly though, Bane as the chief antagonist is kind of boring. He's a brute, not much more. Even when we find the reason behind his brutality (and Darth Vader starter kit face piece) there isn't that much.

Some have pooh-poohed Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, but I liked her spin on the character--and the way she can kick ass in high heels. (I don't know if it was a stunt woman or not, and I don't care. I will forever think it was her kicking ass.)

There is one controversy that has come from this, Rush Limbaugh's Bane vs. Bain controversy...

As you can see in the clip, Limbaugh links together the villain Bane and Mitt Romney's Bain Capital hence Romney becomes the face of Bain/Bane. He fears this will influence "brain dead voters" who will link the two. For me, there was a message in the movie that should irritate and worry Rush more.

The movie make a great deal of what happens when the poor and downtrodden, with a powerful charismatic leader (Bane), decide the day of the 1% is done and it's time for the 99% to give it a go. In a plot point that shouldn't be much of a spoiler, it doesn't rue well for the power elite when the disenfranchised have the opportunity to turn the tables.

I think this should have been the big point that should have scared Rush to death because blowhard talk show hosts would be on the top of the list of power-elite banner carriers the tribunal would try. If the argument is that the 99% can't stay organized, that's probably true, but it's like the two guys trying not to be eaten by the bear. I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you.

If you're looking for a plot point in TDKR to be afraid of, that's the one.

Standing Up for a Super Model

Yeah, I'm defending a super model. You've seen this somewhere either on the tube or online, I'm sure. Here's the take from TMZ...

Well, let me make a couple of points.

• It was a private moment in a public space.
• Yes, she was being goaded.
• She didn't "know" she was being recorded.
• Yeah, she should have known better thank to think she wasn't being recorded but...
• Frankly, she wasn't completely wrong.

In the end, she was doing what any guy can hope his Brazilian super model wife would do for him. She was standing by her man in the face of rowdy hooligans (an American football version of hooligan, mind you). If your teammates can't handle that your wife doesn't know "the code" of not talking down your teammates then apologize for her. Tell them you're sorry she lit the fuse, but she's just a feisty, long-legged, hot-blooded Brazilian super model and you can see her apology "in full" in the next Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.

So in honor of Gisele standing by her Tommy, I give you The Blues Brothers. Enjoy.

Paul reviews "Paul"

The UK Release Poster

Marie and I say "Paul" last night at the local cineplex and absolutely loved it. She could not stop laughing and neither could I. The movie contained some of the best sight gags I've ever seen. But honestly, there are some things about the movie you might not like.

1. If you don't like gay innuendo jokes, steer away.
2. If you don't like or get nerd humor, steer away.
3. If you are a fundamentalist Christian and really hate it when people make fun of you and your faith, don't even steer into the parking lot.

Honestly, this is going to be the focus of my review because it's a review of me. I really hated the way the writers, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost who also starred in the movie, dealt with fundamental Christians as people who are ignorant and simple. They treated the fundamentalist characters as less than human because they eschewed sophistication for faith in something greater who is the Creator (as they see the creator of course).

Frankly, I wasn't fond of this portrayal because I share enough of these prejudices that it makes me uncomfortable.

Now the movie was hilarious, I laughed out loud several times.  It's a great "fish out of water" movie.  It's a great "sure, we're nerds, but we are who we are" movie.  It's a great road trip movie.  It's a great buddy movie.  The love story, not so much but oh well, love stories in comedies that aren't romantic comedies always fall short. (So do the recent crop of romantic comedies, but that's another matter.) There's a sight gag at the end of the movie that's worth the price of admission.

But I can't get past the whole fundamentalist thing.  If you think you're smarter than a fundamentalist Christian and you think that makes you better than any fundamentalist Christian, well, then this won't bother you.  Honestly, I have to admit as I point this finger out, three others point back at me, and I'm paying attention.

I say let it bother you.  Reflect on what this type of joke says about us and how we look at humor.  We don't laugh at black-face any more.  We don't laugh at stoner humor (much) any more. Why do we make fun of people like that and when can we stop.

I recommend this movie, and so does Marie.  Just keep in mind, gay nerd fundamentalist Christians will want to spend money on another movie.

If This Is Food for Thought, We'd Better Chew

I watched Quentin Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds" this weekend and I enjoyed it, but I didn't find it to be as cool as most critics think it is. Well, so be it. So the subtitles were hard to read and were important so that was inconvenient, the pacing wasn't as good as I expect from Tarantino, and if you are getting sick of Tarantino's signature film elements you were rolling your eyes quickly.

Frankly, I am not sick of the director's signature moments. From Samuel Jackson's cameo as The Narrator, the uber violence, flashback moments, and even the director's own cameo, I love that stuff. It makes the film an event for folks who know what to look for with out distracting the QT first timer.

And Christoph Waltz was fabulous. Sure, other characters were great fun, but Waltz as Hans Landa, the brutally effective Sicherheitsdienst officer, was dead solid perfect. He has all ready won several awards for this performance and should win many more.

It is Hans Landa who gives us the food for thought. In one of the climactic scenes, Landa has captured two of the Basterds, 1st Lieutenant Aldo Raine and PFC Smithson Utivich. (Raine is played by Brad Pitt in a truly odd and wonderfully off center performance.)

Landa describes two possible outcomes for the evening. The Basterds are trying to blow up a movie theater and everyone in it. When talking about their plan, a plan to kill 350 people including the entire German High Command along with some civilians and doing extensive property damage, Landa describes the plan saying, "some would say this act of terror."

This act of terror.

Here is what we need to chew upon. What constitutes an act of terror? Is it the person who does it? Is a turban or Yemeni passport required to commit an act of terror? Are we as Americans incapable of committing acts of terror against others? (Tim McVey proved we can commit terror against ourselves, such is the horror of terror.) Or is it an act itself which defines terror?

Tarantino is making the case that it is the act, not the actor, where the qualification for terror lies.

Let me just say that when I heard Landa say this, I knew it was going to make me think. What do you say--Can we give Christoph Waltz the Academy Award now?

Gophers and Whatever Else

AMC has just finished showing Caddyshack for the umpteenth million time. If you don't want to see the spoiler, don't play the video.

When I was living in Lamar, Colorado, there were a billion gophers. One day, a friend's brother hit a worm burner (low golf shot, just at the top of the grass) as a gopher was coming out of his hole. I was told the impact looked like the Zaprudder footage. Swat! Splat! Blood and gopher guts all over his ball. I often wondered if he got to clean his ball before the next shot.

There's No Crying in Plagerism

The Bravo Cable Network's show "Make Me A Supermodel" has begun another season. This week's episode features the models wearing what appears to be gold body make-up and the weirdest hair styles devised by chimps, or that's what the ad looked like to me. Evidently one of the models begins to weep. Maybe she had a brief fit of self-esteem?

Anyway, one of the judges cries out "There's no crying in modeling." Theft is so unbecoming on a supermodel judges panel.

Friends, let me show you how the line should be delivered as it was in the movie "A League of Their Own." Please, enjoy.