What I Watched -- Skyfall

On a day last weekend when I felt like doing nothing, I went over to T's house, where he was doing some paperwork.  I pretended to work on my computer, but really I was spending most of my time watching Skyfall.

I have lost track of the order of the recent James Bond movies, and I know I haven't seen all of them.  This is one of the ones I hadn't seen, and I don't know why.  I won't even bother explaining the plot.  Every Bond movie goes like this: 007 suffers some setback.  He has to catch a bad guy in order to save England.  There are girls in tight clothes, or nothing at all.  Bond wins.  Bad guy doesn't fare so well.

And as with every Bond film every made, this one is a ton of fun.

Bottom line: I think I just said this: a ton of fun.

What I Watched -- Foxcatcher

Foxcatcher is not the movie I expected.  I didn't even know it was based on a true story, although there has been some controversy about that since the movie came out. 

Here's the rundown: Channing Tatum plays Mark Schultz, an Olympic wrestler in need of a patron.  Mark Ruffalo plays his older brother David Schultz, also an Olympic wrestler.  Steve Carrell plays John du Pont, an eccentric millionaire who sponsors the younger brother at his family's estate, Foxcatcher Farms.

As Mark's fame increases, du Pont pours and increasing amount of money into his own training program at Foxcatcher, eventually enticing David to live there as well, to train and coach.  He also became a major sponsor of USA Wrestling.  du Pont's behavior becomes increasingly odd, and (SPOILER ALERT, if you didn't know the true story) he shoots and kills David.  The closing text of the film lets you know that John du Pont died in prison in 2009.

Now, to the controversy.  du Pont was convicted of the murder of David Schultz, and he did die in prison.  There are some historical inaccuracies though.  David was killed in 1996, and the entire movie (including David's death) is set in the 1980s.  This was done so that the film could portray Mark and Dave as living at Foxcatcher concurrently, which does not appear to be the case.

Probably the most contested issue, though, is that of whether a homosexual relationship developed between Mark and du Pont.  I felt like the movie implied that one did, but that point has been vehemently disputed by Mark.  Mark's reaction to the film has been strange though: first he liked it, then he blasted the director, Bennett Miller, for telling lies about him (specifically related to the suggestion of his intimate relationship with du Pont), then he apologized for blasting Bennett Miller.  He is using the film as a tool to sell his book, and his Twitter feed is full of identifications of the inaccuracies in the movie.

Bottom line: there were some excellent performances in this movie, but it is not one I will watch again.  Disturbing.

What I Watched -- Happy

Want to learn a few things about happiness?  Happy can teach you.

Here's a sneak preview on how to get yourself a jolt of happiness:
-- Find a way to make your body release dopamine.  One surefire option: aerobic exercise, especially if done in a novel way (like participating in a gorilla run).
-- Do an activity that allows you to find your "flow."  Experiencing that energized focus that comes with being "in the zone" is great for your state of mind.
-- Count your blessings.
-- Perform acts of kindness.  It's contagious.

Some other fun facts:
-- Our baseline level of happiness is about 50% genetic and only 10% situational.  The other 40% is due to our behavior or other aspects which are under our control.
-- Happy people aren't always happy.  They have a normal response to adversity in the moment, but they come back to their baseline of happiness more quickly than unhappy people.
-- Hedonic adaptation is a major enemy of happiness, insofar as our expectations tend to rise as our condition improves, which leads to little or no recognition of "how far we've come," and hence, a general blindness towards those blessings we're supposed to be counting.

Bottom line: good lessons, that's for sure.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

T got us tickets to see Neil deGrasse Tyson when he came to St. Louis to speak a while back.  His lecture was titled "Science as a Way of Knowing."  My favorite part: the first thing he did when he came out on stage, as he was giving his little intro -- about how human senses are only a teeny sliver of the spectrum of scientific senses -- was take off his shoes!  And he gave the rest of the lecture in his socks.  A man after my own heart.

Over the course of the talk, he covered many subjects in astrophysics, relativity, astronomy, planetary exploration, food science, Star Trek, biology, and bears (audience question).

I can't possibly recap the humor with which NdGT discussed these topics, so I won't try.  All I'll say is this: if you get a chance to see a lecture, go.

What I Watched -- A Separation

A Separation got lots of Oscar buzz in the year it came out, and in fact won the statuette for best foreign language film.  The scene that I saw in all the previews, where an Iranian wife is asking for a divorce from her husband, actually happens right at the beginning -- that's not the big conflict of the movie, as it turns out.  It felt a bit like false advertising to discover that the true legal issue in the film is a criminal one; the husband is accused of pushing a woman (not his wife) down the stairs, causing a miscarriage. 

I was distracted while I was watching this, and it is subtitled, which is not a good combination.  But it is at heart a simple story of a marriage falling apart, for reasons we know and reasons we don't.

Bottom line: not something I would call enjoyable, but worth seeing if you're into the film festival movies.  Otherwise, skip it.  It's a bit depressing.

Goal #30

Goal #30: recipe organization.

I have amassed quite a collection of recipes.  They need a bit of organization and mostly need to be put away.  I'm tired of looking at them on my table!

Recap of goal #29: I finally did start reading my book on California.  I didn't get very far, but I started!

Random Links

Some promising news out of Texas.

The science of boarding an airplane.

My recent design/reading/podcast obsession now has travel guides, and the first two profile my two favorite cities, in order!

A fascinating, real-life version of Big Business.

Some old-fashioned comedy.  And drinking.  And smoking.

Anyone up for a ride?

What I Watched -- Kill the Messenger

T and I took advantage of his fancy TV to catch a movie not too long ago.  Kill the Messenger is based on the true story of a investigative journalist named Gary Webb.  Webb worked for the San Jose Mercury News when he investigated and, in 1996, published a series of stories which amounted to an indictment of the CIA for supporting the importation of cocaine from Nicaragua into urban areas in order to fund guerrilla forces in Central America (which Congress had refused to fund otherwise).

There were some problems with the reporting that were honed in on by other news sources who either thought they were doing there job or were overly aggressive because they were mad about being scooped, depending on whom you ask.

In any case, the whole business eventually cost Webb his job at the Mercury News.  He never made a living as a journalist again.

His work, however, did spark a justice department investigation into the same subject matter.  Their findings, which were released in December 1997 and supported some (but not all) of what Webb had claimed, were not widely reported in the media.  And yes, this is letting the fox guard the hen house.  If you want to read the findings for yourself, they're available here.

Gary Webb was found dead in his home in 2004 with two gunshot wounds to the head.  His death was ruled a suicide.  (It appears that that's possible.)

My Fair Lady and Buddy

P has been kind enough to invite me to two Muny shows this season, and they have both been so much fun -- and more importantly, not too miserably hot!

First up was an old classic, My Fair Lady. Every time I see this show, I am surprised that there is a second act.  The entire premise which is set out at the beginning of the show -- that Professor Higgins will pass off Eliza Doolittle as a lady at an embassy ball -- occurs in the first act.  All the songs I love to sing are in the first act.  So, much to my surprise, the show does not end at intermission.

There is an entire second act which follows!  As far as I'm concerned, it pales in comparison to the first.  Sure, the real heart of the show is in the second act.  But the fun is in the first one!  Nevertheless, always an enjoyable experience.

Show the second was a new one on me: Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story. Prior to the show, the extent of my knowledge about Buddy Holly was that he died in a plane crash with some other musicians.

Now that I've seen the show, I know a few more things: Buddy was only 22 when he died; the other musicians were Ritchie Valens (age 17) and J.P. Richardson (aka "The Big Bopper); Buddy's meteoric rise to fame only lasted a couple of years; I know more of his music than I realized; Buddy married a girl to whom he proposed while they were out on their first date.

This show was especially fun because it was really just a concert of 1950s rock music.  What's not to love?

Goal #29

Goal #29: California, take 3.

If I don't start planning soon, the trip just won't happen.  I'd like it to happen, so I suppose I have to get to work!

Recap of goal #28: I survived for a week without buying the new bike toys that I want.  One down, 22 to go until Christmas!