Movies I've liked this year; Animal Kingdom, Another Year, The City of Your Final Destination, Conviction, Howl, The Inside Job, The Kids Are All Right, The Kings Speech, The Last Station, Love & Other Drugs, Made in Dagenham, The Runaways, The Social Network, Exit Through the Gift Shop.
Need to see; Winters Bone, White Material, True Grit, Black Swan, The Fighter, The Way Back and Rabbit Hole.
Any recommendations for others I've missed?
Ones to avoid -- Somewhere and The Tempest.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Bruce Meyers Christmas Party
Got to spend some time with the inventor of the dune buggy, Bruce Meyers and his wife Winnie last week at their home near Temecula, California.
Bruce is one of the original members of the first wave (no pun intended) of the California surf culture. Growing up in Manhattan Beach in the '30s he spent his formative years fooling around on the beach and tinkering with cars.
This cross pollination of two sub cultures culminated in the invention of the classic Meyers Manx dune buggy and his many adventures in off road racing in Baja.
Late, as usual, I missed the sing along as Bruce and his buddies strummed guitars, ukeleles and singing just like they have been doing since they were boys hanging out on the beach. There's even a section of the State beach at San Onofre named after these veteran beach rats, "old mans." It's their section of the beach and you'll find them every Wednesday during the summer -- playing music, grilling some burgers, having some beers (not supposed to do that now that it's a State park), and paddling out to catch some waves.
Their sense of adventure and desire to live life to its fullest is infectious. Another slice of the many California sub cultures -- surfing, hot rodders who set records at the dry lakes, the fly boys who soared over head with the right stuff, the rocket men at JPL who shot for the stars, the aviators like Douglas who invented an industry, hippies and poets that Howled, cooks who created Asian fusion or changed the culinary world with Chez Panisse, guys who cobbled together computers in their garages and gave us the PC, geeky engineering professors who linked computers together and gave us the internet, toy makers who begat Barbie and movie makers who've captured the imagination of the world -- Bruce is one in a long line of innovators that flourished in a State that's more than a physical place but a true state of mind that nurtures creativity and innovation.
It's a privilege to know Bruce and to have taken a ride in his dream -- the Meyers Manx.
Monday, December 13, 2010
NEH Bridging Cultures Through Film Grants Awarded
The first round of documentary filmmaker recipients of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) new Bridging Cultures through film initiative were announced today.
“These were made, for a total of $1,116,715-- three for development, and two for production of documentary films,” said Paula Wasley, Public Affairs Specialist at the NEH.
These were the first Bridging Cultures through Film grant awards. The film grants are part of a larger Bridging Cultures initiative that was implemented by NEH chairman James Leach, who as a former member of Congress, developed an expertise in foreign affairs while chairing the House subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs.
The selected documentary film projects look at international and transnational themes in the humanities.
“Among the projects supported in this category is a film exploring the evolution of economic, social, and cultural relations between China and Africa from the fifteenth century to the modern day, and a documentary on the Balkan civil war and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia’s prosecution of war crimes against women,” said Wasley.
And the winners are:
CALIFORNIA
Oakland
Raymar Educational Films, Inc. Outright: $75,000
Project Director: Erica Marcus
Project Title: Africa's Freedom Train and Other China-Africa Tales
Project Description: Development of a 60-minute documentary film exploring the history of relations between Africa and China.
ILLINOIS
Chicago
Kartemquin Educational Films Outright: $75,000
Project Director: Maria Finitzo
Project Title: Encounters with the Other
Project Description: Development of a documentary film examining the indigenous Tsimane people as they transition from a traditional to modern way of life.
MARYLAND
Takoma Park
JWM Productions, LLC Outright: $517,330
Project Director: Christine Romero
Project Title: Besa: The Promise
Project Description: Final production of a 90-minute documentary on the history, culture, and beliefs of Albanian Muslims who worked to rescue Jewish refugees during World War II.
NEW YORK
New York
Arcadia Pictures Ltd Outright: $43,675
[Bridging Cultures Through Film]
Project Director: Andrea Simon
Project Title: Angel Wagenstein: Art is a Weapon
Project Description: Development of a documentary film that explores the life and work of Angel Wagenstein, a Bulgarian filmmaker, war hero, and novelist.
WNET.ORG Outright: $405,710
Project Director: Pamela Hogan
Project Title: Women, War and Peace: The Balkans
Project Description: Production of a one-hour documentary examining the impact of civil war in the Balkans on women and the first international trial for crimes of sexual violence in wartime.
For more information about Bridging Cultures and to read the press release with all of the NEH’s grant recients.
There is some more detail about the grant program in the Bridging Cultures Through Film grant guidelines:
Monday, December 6, 2010
Condomgate -- Was Wikileaks Chief Leaker Set Up?
Wikileak's founder, Juilian Assange’s defenders are now claiming that the first woman that filed allegations against him for not wearing a condom while having sex is affiliated with the CIA and that obviously, this was an attempt to set him up by using what is known in the spy trade as a “honey trap.”
If the CIA was able to compromise him with a plot using a “seductress” who would later go to the police with false allegations, it would be because they knew of his susceptibility to flattery and insistence on unprotected sex. Knowing that, it seems unlikely to me that a woman could be convinced to have sex with someone who may very well be teeming with disease due to his reputation to engage in condom-less sex with numerous partners. In addition, his defenders ignore the inconvenient truth that two women filed a complaint with the police.
Then there’s the tradition of accusing innocent women of being the bait in a honey trap. The most famous is Mata Hari, who was executed by a French firing squad in 1917. After the war, French officials revealed there was no evidence to back up the charges.
Assange’s allies are lining up as a self-appointed firing squad, hurling a volley of character assassinations in another time-honored tradition to kill the allegations, by defaming the victims and questioning their motives, reputations and veracity. Blame the victim, anyone?
They want us to believe that once a woman agrees to consensual sex with a man, she abdicates any control over the type of sex they have and her decision about whether or not to become pregnant or to be exposed to contracting a disease. If she complains, it’s because she’s been jilted, is a gold digger, a man hater, or now, a CIA operative.
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