Wisdom of the Sages
Episode X
October – Autumn 2011
Hello People of the World;
It is now the fall season and Oh’s No (!) it’s getting chilly! Who’d of thought, it would get colder as we get closer to winter? Not me! I’m used to the exact weather that makes me comfortable. I really need to get over myself! You’re welcome.
Well, I guess Nature cut you a break and heated things up for a little bit just to give you something to complain about, I suppose. So. Here we are at the tenth month, closer to the end of 2011. Time flies when you’re having fun right? I have no idea where this year went.
Let’s get started, shall we?
1:[ First item of the month: So, here we are, living in a time when people are being executed with so much doubt, where the economy continues to tank with the rich staying healthy and the sick staying poor, and where we are still very divided as a “One Nation Under God” and yet, here we are all are, crying about Facebook changes?
Seriously?
2:[ Introducing, another semi-regular item:
Movie Time Adventures
So, the other day I decided I wanted to see “Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame”, the latest Tsui Hark movie at the theater in Evanston (The only other theater playing it.) found it to be a rather enjoyable, romp of a film; big, bombastic kung-fu mystery with Andy Lau playing a disgraced inspector called from prison to determine why people are suddenly bursting into flames before the Empress can be crowned Emperor of China. It involves talking deer, an albino, a seedy dark underground, and a fight with a herd of stags. Yep. It is an awesomely weird flick.
+ Anyways, standing outside the theater, as I had arrived early to get a good seat, I find a group of citizen outside waiting. It turns out the doors were locked and it was getting close to show time. I remember one guy, those talker types, kept pulling on the doors as if they would suddenly be unlocked. So, we are all waiting there for maybe 15 minutes. Well, 15 minutes from when I got there, it looks like some were waiting longer. It struck me to ask if anyone had tried calling the theater to see if they could open up. But as I inhaled to speak, Talker bangs on the doors and soon someone comes down to open the door. As we enter, I crack wise about tickets remaining the same price. So, after I get in line and purchase my ticket the ticket seller suddenly asks, “Are you really a Native American?”
“Yeah,” it is hard for me to not, at least, get a touch mad, but as always, I get over it really quick because it is simply unfair. “What are you, tribe, I mean.”
“Northern Arapaho, from Wyoming,” to which she says, “That’s really cool. I asked because you don’t see any of you around any more.”
To which “I do” almost slipped out of my mouth. But hey, she was absolutely right from her perspective. Instead, I say “Yeah, that’s true.”
She smiles and says it again “It’s pretty cool meeting a Native. We don’t see much of you around now.”
I just give her a wave and go to the theater.
SPOLIER ALERT: Review of “Warrior”: Basically “Two Rockys”. Two down-on-their-luck underdogs have a single chance to win the big fight. Both are brothers, which is the twist of the story. The movie stars Tom Hardy (Inception, Bronson) as Tommy, an ex-Marine Corp Gulf War veteran that is homeless and Joel Edgerton (Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and The Thing 2011) as Brendan, a suburban high school teacher who is suspended for fighting to raise money for his house payments. Nick Nolte also stars as the brother’s father, an ex-alcoholic that was estranged from them both.
Both end up in the final match of a UCF-style fighting tournament vying to win the big cash prize for their own purposes: Tommy’s is to help a dead friend’s family after promising to do so, his friend being the only family he’s had. His friend was a Hispanic man. It seems Tommy saved a bunch of fellow Marines and now he is here to take the prize home to help the widow of his friend.
Brendan needs to make a house payment. Yep. That’s it. That's his reason.
While I found much to like about this tale, the overall message did not sit well with me. Only those who are living the “American Dream” deserve to get the prize over those who have never had it to begin with.
What I also hated was how suddenly the strongest fighter in the entire tournament was suddenly weak just so the hero could win. They built him up to be this invincible fighter and when he comes up against our suburban hero, suddenly he is defeatable. Don’t come at me with some sort of “That’s the way it goes in the UFC, it’s anybody’s game” nonsense. This was a story and it smacked of weak storytelling. The guy was knocking everyone out and walking out the ring, but when he comes up against Suburban Teacher, the message was very clear: Only those who are living the “American Dream” deserve to get the prize over those who have never had it to begin with. That’s what bugged me. Good story but not good on following through with the character they built.
Review of “Drive”: Neat little film. I do wish I liked it more than I did. Ebert compared this to “Le Samourai” though the comparisons seemed superficial. It had a 70’s car flick vibe mixed with an 80’s sensibility. It tells the tale of a man so good at stunt driving, that he hires himself out as a driver for what ever you need driving for. Think, a much slower moving “Transporter”. Here, he hooks up with a beautiful waif and her cute son and suddenly all hell breaks loose. (I mean, why would hell break loose for an ugly chick and her obnoxious kid?) Still, it is a neat, slow-paced tale. I just wish Brian Cranston would quit playing Malcolm’s dad. Otherwise, I recommend.
3:[ I finished reading Christopher Welles Feder’s autobiography. It was a sweet reflection on living in the shadow of someone who was not considered a genius until after he passed away. To view him through the eyes of his very awestruck daughter and how she had to come to terms with how very human her great figure of a man was. It inspired me with what Welles went through in his filmmaking career. He was a man much like myself and that is also inspiring, both in beliefs and viewing the nature of art. There also the possibility that they will only love me after I’m dead….
4:[ Time is beginning to show itself to me. It appears that both REM and The BoDeans, two of my favorite all-time bands have decided to break up. REM felt that it was time to quit, while a key member of The BoDeans quit on his own. REM, after completing a 31-year retrospective decided that now was a good time to simply call it quits. Their music fed my brain during my high school and college years. “Losing My Religion”, “Drive”, “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?”, “Stand” and more gave me great comfort that I had a rather unique taste in music as well as finding another band, not U2 that spoke to me as me.
While The BoDeans are still around technically, they are not “The BoDeans” without Sammie. His vocals and songwriting were key to the sound of the band. Remove him and they are not The BoDeans, but are “The BoDeans”. Their strange combo of voices between Kurt and Sam fueled many singalongs while I drove all over the place. Their lyrics and harmonies are something I never heard before or will again. I was introduced to them via my brother Ken. It is amazing how much influence all my big brothers have had.
So, all of this has shown me that I am simply getting old and the old touchstones of my youth are slipping past….
5:[ Ah yes, settle in Readers for more of:
Adventures at the Coffee Shop!
+ You learn something new every day; as I found out today when instead of a coffee I grabbed a bottle of green tea and a bottle of water and the barista asks why I’m changing it up. I reply that I’m re-hydrating. He tells me that tea would dehydrate me more. Less so than coffee I reply. “No,” he says, “tea is….”
He then turns to an off-duty barista and a regular, both of whom just happen to be sitting next to each other and puts the question to them, “Which is more of a diuretic, coffee or tea?”
Both agree: it’s tea. I nodded my head at this new fact because hey, tea is more of a diuretic than coffee. See? I’ve learned something new, even how to spell “diuretic”.
So, I paid for my tea and bottle of water….
+ There are very few baristas that appear to enjoy their work. Many talk like they have better things to do than be here serving the masses their coffee drinks. There is one fella I see that really does the sh*t out of his job. He just does it well. He gets my order, gets my drink and takes my payment all the while concentrating on what he does. Everyone else tends to talk to one another while the customers wait in line and for their order. Not this guy.
It always reminds me of what Louis CK said, to paraphrase, if you have a sh*t job, why do a sh*tty job, wouldn’t that make it worse for you? Many act like they have better things to do, like shows and projects and the like, when, to paraphrase LCK again, you’re wearing an apron the same color as the building! Come on!
6:[ It’s kind of funny to hear your own beliefs spoken back to you and they sound silly and self-righteous. I walk into the comic books store in Evanston and here the two workers in there talking about the abject failure of the whole Occupy Wall Street movement. How they feel that it just made up of a bunch of spoiled kids looking for their entitlements. Sure there is more to it than that. But, in the end there are several different methods for making a protest.
I have learned some of the more ineffectual ones and some of the more notorious ways for affecting business as a means of protest. Which is why I am never really all about the political idealism that anyone chases after. You can find better ways to fight the status quo but many people like the status quo as long as they are on the well-receiving end of it. Which is why many are hesitant to rock the boat, or when the balance finally shifts them out of favor, suddenly they need to occupy somewhere and protest. To refurbish one Facebook posters comment: "they are looking to get back their piece of the pie, never caring for those who never got one to begin with."
So it was strange to hear my own POV of things echoed back at me, and, yes, it did sound very silly and self-righteous. But then again, it didn’t help to have them spoken by self-entitled comic book workers….
7:[ And now Wisdom of the Sages presents:
“An Ever-growing List of Things That MUST Stop!”
+ Speaking of busses, there was this woman and her kid on the bus this morning complaining about the lateness of the CTA. No small part due to the article on bus drivers playing hooky on duty that was in the paper yesterday. So, she doesn’t get loud, but she does not make her discussion with a fellow passenger private either.
She blamed the drivers and it was not at all her fault for not having foresight to leave a bit earlier. Anyways, I get off the bus and she and her kids get off with me. But as I wait for the WALK light as the street light turned red, the lady drags her kids into the oncoming traffic to get to the other side. CRAZY! Cars had to slow for her, hitting the brakes and all. And you know what? She did it just to run into the convenience store on the corner. That disregard for the traffic needs to stop….
+ Still parking in the spot painted for the space beside the handicapped space, even though its for a van with a handicap-accessible side door to park there, just to run in a get a quick bottle of organic juice? Stop that.
+ Zombies: really. I just finished watching Season One of “The Walking Dead” and I’m sorry, I am not impressed. I never got the appeal of zombies. I find them quite boring. The inherent danger of zombies is rendered null and void once, you know, once you really think about them.
I guess it comes down to our desire to really just kill other people, doesn’t it? We measure manhood, falsely, I might add, by our ability to kill things, I think. The larger the thing, the more intelligent, the more “Manly” we are. So, zombies fulfill that desire to harm our fellow by othering them into undead entities.
I find “The Walking Dead” to be like any primetime soap but with Zombies. Everyone sing with me:
Zombies are such a serious thing/
These problems matter!
+ Lately, while getting ready to cross the street at a crosswalk I find myself mutter as some car, that obviously has the Right-of-Way, to go, “F*ckin’ GO, if you’re gonna GO!” I need to stop that….
+ Really people, with the world as we have it now, the primary thing on people’s minds are the costumes for superhero movies? Really? …Really? Getting mad about Catwoman’s ears? Superman’s red undies? Seriously? Man, we need to grow up. And this is coming from someone who bought comics today. Speaking of….
8:[ So, today I bought some comic books for the first time in quite a few years. DC Comics decided, rightly so, to reboot their entire line of comics, dispensing with the monstrous amount of continuity to free writers to write compelling stories without fear of discontinuity. So, after being left behind in the storylines of Batman, I felt it would be a good chance to hop aboard a regular comic again without having to worry about missing something cool for not keeping up with Batman’s history.
So, I grab a Detective Comics #1 and a Catwoman #1 (I know) and go to get them rung up. I still have to grab a Batman #1, though. Wouldn’t you know it the cashier is WAAAAAAAAAY younger than I am…. I felt like an old geeky man….
9:[ From the “This Just In” Department: I’ve been warning you, Dear Readers, of the next big resource battle coming up and here is more information: Mexico’s newest import to US may be water!
10:[ Last Item of the Month: Many have made a huge deal about the passing of Steve Jobs, which is appropriate, he and Apple, Inc. have changed the face of the world with their innovative technology. However, Dennis Ritchie, who developed the Unix system and C-languages for programming, having as much an impact on our world, as the Internet may not have been possible with out these, receives no such fanfare, there are no Internet Meme-orials for the man who literally wrote the language of the Internet…. May they both rest in peace.
That will do it for this month.
Of late, I’ve had to take a long drive to get to work. It has been quite a number of years, at least four, by my calculation that I had feared that I would not remember how to drive in the big city. But after a few trips north I find that I am very vocal when in the car by myself. I shout insults and am just a miserable person in general. Which is funny because I really like driving long distances.
Feel free to comment, critique, contradict or correct my nonsense, wouldn't want to come off and angry and self-victimizing, right? I hope this finds you all well. Sorry about the late posting, I got really sick over the past couple of days. On top of a chill I caught in me noggin, my Char got herself an Xbox 360 and got “Portal 2” which, watching with this head-chill, sent me into a rather nasty bout of extreme dizziness. I had to forget meeting my friend Larry about restarting “Hamlet” and I went home and slept for 13 hours. So. There’s that. Write me, let me know how you are all doing.
Until Next Time, “I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control everything really are.”
© 2011 Ernest M. Whiteman III
