House, MD and Risk

My favourite show on network tv is House. It’s a popular enough show that I assume anyone reading this already knows the premise: Greg House is the head of a medical team that deals with the cases that baffle everyone else. He’s a medical Sherlock Holmes – almost literally; references to the Sherlock Holmes stories abound in the series.

The series is remarkable in a particular way – it illustrates one of the big debates in social theory today. The first side of this debate is represented by the German philosopher Jurgen Habermas. His position is basically in support of the standard liberal democratic attitude: 2 opposing sides in an argument sit down and have a rational discussion. Person A presents his case, and person B presents his. Either A or B is expected to present a more rational, fact based case, and so their position is selected to act upon.

The other side of this social theory debate is represented by folks like Zizek and Alain Badiou. In a nut shell, their position is that rational, fact based thought does not always lead to a clear course of action. Whether through insufficient data or through some constitutive limitation of the situation, there must come a point at which the rational discussion ends and a decision is made. A risk must be taken, perhaps in defiance of the standard democratic expectation of majority rule or individual choice.

House consistently finds himself between these two positions. In every episode, he and his team write down a list of the patient’s symptoms. Often, the team is split as to what the diagnosis should be. The doctors on his team are obviously intelligent, and at least one of them is every bit as excellent a doctor as House himself is. That’d be Foreman, for those who watch the show. The other two members of the team are Cameron (who just happens to be played by the hottest woman on tv) and Chase.

The patient is always, of course, in imminent peril. They’ll die in 24 hours if House’s team doesn’t come up with the answer. Often the symptoms conflict with one another; symptoms 1 & 2 suggest diagnoses X, but symptom 3 seems to rule out X and suggests diagnoses Y.

House stands by and occasionally interjects while Foreman, Cameron and Chase debate the possibilities. Foreman insists the diagnosis is X, while Cameron and Chase insist on Y. Eventually House stops the discussion and orders them to treat the patient for a wholly other diagnosis, Z. What follows is a replay of a famous anecdote from one of GWF Hegel’s lectures: Foreman (standing in for one of Hegel’s students) says the facts don’t fit Z, and House basically says “So much the worse for the facts.”

So they treat for Z. Sometimes House is right, and the patient is cured. Sometimes House is wrong, and the patient develops a whole new problem.

Sometimes the doctors find themselves in a situation where diagnosis X seems correct, but the lab test to confirm it will take 48 hours, whereas the patient only has 24 hours to live. If X is the wrong diagnosis, the treatment will kill the patient almost immediately. I think part of the reason House is such an admired character (despite his abrasive personality) is that he is capable of making a firm decision to treat. He says to forget the test and just administer the treatment; how many of the rest of us would hem and haw and fritter away the patient’s life trying to discover new and more reassuring facts?

So my suggestion is that decisions always come down to something like this. Take any ethical dilemma you please; you’ll often find yourself in a situation in which the facts don’t produce a clear answer. It is the same with politics; the situation rarely tells you what must be done. Sooner or later, an authoritative decision must be made. The rational, democratic discussion must end, and action must take place.

Year That Was, 2007

Like last year, this isn't a best-of 2007 list, but rather a list of the best things I first encountered in 2007.

Movies

Ten Nights of Dreams -- The best movie of the year, easily. I had the pleasure of watching this at a Montreal film festival. 10 short segments of various styles. Some hilarious, some sad, some horrifying, all utterly beautiful. Highly recommended.

No Country for Old Men -- I'll discuss my feelings on the book a little later, because my thoughts about the two are increasingly different. Which is odd, since this is one of the most faithful book to movie adaptations I've ever seen.

"No Country" is an exsquisite mix of chaos and stillness. There's no soundtrack, and the landscape is always still and quiet. The characters speak in hushed tones with a stoic ethos; and yet the hurricane winds of evil are all about.

The story telling structure is ballsy. Things happen off screen that any other story teller would have had front and centre. The ending doesn't really wrap up the plot, but if you have to be shackled to the plot, then you're missing something about how stories work.

I'll come out and say it. "No Country" separates people that have taste from people without taste. If "No Country" isn't in the top third of your own top ten of 2007 list, then you have bad taste. It's that simple.

I didn't feel this way after first seeing the movie. I thought it was amazing, but I've since read an incredibly insightful and persuasive review at this blog, which I recommend in general for strong truth. There's a quote from Jean-Luc Godard there:

"To me, style is just the outside of content, and content the inside of style, like the outside and the inside of the human body—both go together, they can’t be separated."

Can the Coens top "No Country"? We'll all be better off if they do.

Inland Empire -- David Lynch's latest act of insanity. The question I always come away with from his movies is about the position of the irrationality. Is the insanity accounted for within the world of the movie, i.e. one of the characters is crazy? Or is the insanity an excess, something that has no real place within the movie? Is David Lynch just crazy? I dunno, but I enjoy trying to find out.

The Bourne Ultimatum -- Once again, the character of Bourne is the smartest, most capable fellow around. That's a repetition of the first two movies, of course. There's basically one reason this movie is on this list: the rooftop chase in the middle east. It reminded me of this article, which reveals that the Isreali Defense Force is making certain philosophy books required reading for the brass. The idea is to fashion a new form of urban warfare, in which inside is the outside. The chase scene in this movie seemed to fit that model perfectly. Who says philosophy isn't useful?

Paprika -- Some well badass anime. A great soundtrack, and a dose of Lynchian insanity. Highly recommended.

Honourable Mention: 28 Weeks Later, 300

Yeah, slim pickings this year. It's strange. Why did I see so few good movies?

Music

The Boxer by The National -- Nice mellow rock. A friend with a better ear for music than I tells me that the drummer is a genius.

Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? by Of Montreal -- I fell in love with the first cute girl that I met who could appreciate Georges Bataille. That's right, its an album by a bunch of theory geeks, so hey. Plus the music is awesome.


Books

The Ticklish Subject by Slavoj Zizek -- Universal subjectivity is back, and it exhorts you to dare. The chapter on Alain Badiou alone is excellent, and the chapter on Heidegger's reading of Kant is required.

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie -- I'm actually not yet finished this book, but so far it is a serious work of art. The density is incredible; there is more meat on a page of this book than in entire chapters of, say, Orson Scott Card. This might be a test case for taste in books, like "No Country" is a test case for taste in movies.

Ethics: An Essay On The Understanding of Evil by Alain Badiou -- A highly readable book on why the standard blathering about morality and human rights is really just a cover for a lack of adventurousness in life.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche -- Does reading this book accord with good sleep? Thankfully no.

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy -- Sparse prose and the ballsy structure that inspired the Coen Brothers movie. An amazing book, but I think it actually translated into a better movie.

Blog Tag: The Hills Are Alive

Well, I've been drafted in a game of blog tag by Titus, which means I actually have to write something, as opposed to just copying/pasting assignments. Sigh!

So what are the songs I'm loving right now?

1. Intervention by The Arcade Fire. An epic organ tune about working for the church while your family dies. This song is as least as fine as anything from their previous album, and the rest of the songs come through too.

2. There is No There by in The Books. I dunno who these guys are, but this album - and this song particular - is beautiful like a pacific sunset. There is No There is a ridiculously baroque tune that could have felt like a self-indulgent mash up... instead it's the song I'll be listening to once I step outside today, into the sun.

3. The Past Is A Grotesque Animal by Of Montreal. The first epic pop song of 2007, I tell you. I also would fall in love with the first cute girl that I met who could appreciate Georges Bataille. A song about the most violent, ecstatic kind of jouissane. Excellent music by fellow theory geeks.

4. The Universe! by Do Make Say Think. Fine instrumental work. Horns, strings, everything in there. I saw these guys in concert not too long ago, and it was a reallywonderful cacaphony. An enjoyable kind of night.

5. Imperial by Seefeel. Part of my ambient electronica kick. Seefeel is pretty versatile music - I can use it as background stuff for cleaning or work, or for walking at night, or just for listening on its own. It's not often I find music that I can listen to in so many different contexts.

6. Hey Jude by The Beatles. Pure awesomeness. I don't think I'll ever get tired of this song. I wish I could sing like these guys.

7. Heartbeats by The Knife. Weird, minimalist, dancy, electronica. The vocalist is arresting, and so is the synth. Highly recommended.

Year That Was, Vol. 2

I'm going to go ahead and insist that my little blogging sabbatical is over. How can I not take advantage of this fancy new template?

It's the end of the year, and that means its time for a best-of. This list isn't confined to the best art and media produced in 2006; it's more about the things I encountered for the first time in 2006.

Movies:

Once Were Warriors

A New Zealand film that a Kiwi friend introduced me to. It's the story of a Maori family disintergrating into chaos. Top flight acting and story, though there's a pivotal plot point that struck me as melodramatic. Nonetheless, this is one of the best movies I've ever seen... maybe top twenty quality.

A Bittersweet Life

A Korean gangster/revenge flick. It's pretty straightforward: one man insults another man, and the sheer quantity of testostone flowing through their veins makes apology impossible. It's not some slapdash action flick, though; the cinematopgraphy and acting (mostly) are top flight. The violence is keen too.

Ichi the Killer

If you think Han Solo or The Punisher are "anti-heros," you need to be introduced to this movie. Just... don't watch it with your mother.

Takashi Miike puts love into his violence. That's all there really is to say about this.

Fiction Books:

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Murakami is a Japanese author I came across this past year; I've read 3 of his books, and they are all fantastic. I'm choosing Wind-Up over Norwegian Wood and Kafka on the Shore because, well, Wind-Up was my first. This novel has some of the most truly gorgeous and affective writing I've ever come across; sensuous and dreamlike. Hiding behind the story of a rather passive man looking for his cat is an epic, sprawling battle for the soul of the Japanese people. I can't recommend Murakami enough, though if you wanted to dip your toes into something shorter begin with Norwegian Wood.

In The Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami

A lot of the reviews I've seen around the net are pretty cool on this book; my own memories are strong and pleasant. I admit this might have something to do with the circumstances under which I read the book: on the flight home from Korea. The cabin was dark, and everyone around me was sleeping. I was in my own dimly lit little world while reading about a young Japanese man leading, and being led by, the vaguely mystical Frank through the back alleys of Tokyo. I remember it as a hazy nightmare. These two Murakamis aren't related to one another, by the way.

Wizard and Glass: The Dark Tower IV by Stephen King

I'm slowly working my through King's Dark Tower series, enjoying every step of it. This has so far been my favourite installment of the five I've read. This book is essentially a booklength flashback, a prequel of sorts. The characters in this novel - long dead by the time of the larger storyline - are more interesting than the primary characters of the serious. There's a paradox here; the strength of this book is therefore the weakness of the rest. I hope books VI and VII have a lot more Cuthbert and Alain in them.

Non-Fiction Books:

Being and Time by Martin Heidegger

This isn't the book of answers. It doesn't tell you if God exists or if eating babies is bad or who you should vote for. Heidegger's modest project just tells you how you can ask those questions in the first place.

Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza

Written in 1677, it offers us a pretty good understanding of why Spinoza was kicked out of the Jewish community and labelled an atheist by... well, pretty much everyone.

It would be easy to see this as a stone-cold calculating book, but there's always an explosive Jewish mysticism just lurking beneath the surface. Forget the Kaballah, make this mandatory reading. For everyone; especially Intelligent Design fans. Spinoza pretty much curb stomps standard religious beliefs like final causes and anthropomorphic gods.

Music:

Talking Honky Tonk Blues by Buck 65

It's a mix of country, hip-hop, folk-rock and electronica. Yeah. And it all works to make my favourite album of the year. If you have an interest in any of those genres... Buck 65 can't be reccomended enough. Everyone should be this creative.

By the way, he's giving away the tracks from his new EP on his website. Go listen to all five, and tell if that this man is not going to single handedly save country and hip-hop from themselves.

Anger Do Not Enter by Beef Terminal

Why yes, I've picked up a taste for ambient beats. This is pretty much perfect night walking or reading music. It's about as relaxing as anything I've come across.

The Dusty Foot Philosopher by K'naan

This is definately runner up for my favourite album of the year. An unstoppable tour de force of world beat hip-hip.

So that's the year that was. An extraordinary year for music, books and movies all around; I'm very impressed with 2006 all around.

Year That Was

This is my second night back after returning from Canada. I was there to attend my brother's wedding, and I'm thinking about giving that topic a post of its own.

Here's a list of the best stuff that I've encountered this year. All in no particular order.

Movies:

Batman Begins - Best comic book movie ever. That's all there is to say about it. And unlike X-Men or Spiderman or even the original Batman movie, this movie escapes its adolescent comic book trappings to be a truly good story. It's the first comic book movie that truly deserves to be on a year-end-best-of list.

The Devil's Rejects - I saw the trailer for this movie, and was immediately interested. I later discovered it was the sequel to the gorefest House of 1000 Corpses, which I decided to rent. 1000 Corpses was terrible, an utter waste of time. That dampened my anticipation for Devil's Rejects somewhat, but still decided to see it once it hit theatres. I'm glad I did, because The Devil's Rejects was definately one of the best movies of 2005. It uses the same crazy killer family from the first movie, but actually fleshes them out and makes them characters. The movie's greatness comes largely from its ability to screw up the audiences sympathies - just who are we supposed to identify with: the Firefly family, or the increasingly brutal sheriff hunting them down?

Serenity - Shiny! Fox might have stabbed Firefly in the back, but you can't keep a good story down. Whedon went to the mat to get this one produced, and the few who saw it are glad he did. The best dialogue and most original take on the English language since A Clockwork Orange.

Revenge of the Sith - Yeah, a Star Wars prequel is on my year end list. Who'da'thunk it?

King Kong - After Jamie's notice that The Life Aquatic was actually released in 2004, I had to add a different movie. King Kong makes the grade, as it has grown in my memory. I've skimmed the IMDB message board for Kong, and it is full of retarded fools. They seem to have seriously misunderstood this most joyous and innocent of movies; they complain about how the battle between Kong and the 3 T-Rexes was "unrealistic." The tone of the movie seems to escape them, and that baffles me. A fine follow up to LotR, all considered.

Music:

(Both the music and books section will be about things I encountered for the first time in 2005, not necassarily things produced in 2005.)

You Forgot It In People by Broken Social Scene - Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl is going to be a timeless tune. Meloncholy and original, the whole album is perfect for spending 13 hours staring out the window of a 747.

I'm Wide Awake Its Morning by Bright Eyes - It's kinda pretentious and maybe a bit insincere. That being said, there isn't a single mistep on the album. It all fits together. This is one of the few bits of music that proves country music doesn't have to be creatively bankrupt.

Wise and Otherwise by Harry Manx - Technically, I heard the song Only Then Will Your House Be Blessed several years ago. It wasn't until this past spring that I heard the rest of the album, however. And what an album it is - blues punctuated by a sitar. If the songs Coat of Mail or Don't Forget To Miss Me don't make you choke up just a little, you must be a zombie.

If I Should Fall From Grace With God by The Pogues - like Spirit of the West and Great Big Sea, but with more alcohol.

This music section could go longer, but I'm still jetlagged and want to go to bed. Honourable mentions would include Tom Waits, Snow Patrol, Spirit of the West, Bruce Cockburn and The Levellers.

Fiction:

The Gunslinger by Stephen King - "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." So begins the 7 book series that took King more than 25 years to write, and will take me about a year to read. I just finished book 3, and am hooked. Just what awaits Roland & I at the Dark Tower? If you spoil if for me, I will hunt you down and kill you.

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown - Just kidding! What a crap book. The movie might be ok, though.

Hmm... remembering what fiction books I read this year is a tough task, seeing as I don't have any of them with me. Maybe I'll complete this another time.

Non-fiction:

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond -How did the west come to dominate the world? Jared says the answer is rooted in geographical concerns. It was a fascinating read, if only to gain a panoramic view of human history; a subject so vast it can't be reduced to any single narrative.

An Essay on Man by Ernst Cassirer - Another one of those books that has burrowed its way into my consciousness so much that I can't distinguish between my own thoughts and those that come from this book.

Erotism: Death and Sensuality by Georges Bataille - Bataille, in this and other writings, showed me how fruitful, useful and empirical philosophy really can be.

The Dynamics of Faith by Paul Tillich - The indirect cause of this post. Tillich's discussion of the nature of faith has become central to my own views and my new interest in theology.

Love, Power, and Justice by Paul Tillich - The Dynamics of Faith changed the way I think about faith, and this book changed the way I think about ethics. I have come to disagree with a substantial portion of what Tillich says here, but I still like Tillich's overall project.

And that's all, folks. Happy New Year!

Review of Batman Begins

Gladiator. Aliens. Saving Private Ryan. The Matrix. The Bourne Identity. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Every once in a while, the Hollywood* machine manages to produce a film that manages to effectively meld spectacular action and drama. It's not an easy task; I really believe that the two together tend to dilute one another. Drama is dependant on drawing the audience's heart, soul and mind into a story. Action is about getting their hearts racing. They are like nitro and glycerin; it takes an accomplished director to put the two together.

I think superhero movies are great examples of this difficulty. I really enjoyed the X-Men and Spiderman movies, but mostly on a surface level. They were a lot of fun; but the superb action tended to dilute the drama for me.

But sometimes, just sometimes, someone gets it right. Maximus asking his fellow captors if any of them have been in the army; "Then you can help me." Or Tom Hanks' "See you on the beach."

Batman Begins is another of those movies. It just... it just kicked ass. This is without a doubt the best superhero movie ever made; more than that, it's going to be on of the best movies of the year. It's on my radar the way no other superhero movie ever has been before. I loved Spiderman 2, but I'd rather watch Lost in Translation. The former I remember as a particularily tasty treat; the latter I harbour as a warm memory.

See Joel's blog for a description of the characters. They were fantastic. The action was great. it was just... yeah, it was ALL great.

It's fighting The Life Aquatic and Revenge of the Sith in my mind for favourite movie of the year. RotS, I believe, will slowly lose luster as I view it more critically.

So right now, Batman Begins is either the best or second best movie I've seen this year. That's a first for an action movie, nevermind a superhero movie. That's how good it was. I'm blown away.

Blogger Tag

This is one of those chain letter things. I think everyone who reads my blog will already know what they are, so without further explanation...

Number of Books That You Own

I own about 150. The other members of my family probably own about 150 collectively.

Last Book Bought: Three together on a spending spree at City Lights.

Twilight of the Idols / Anti-Christ - Frederich Nietzsche.
Left Behind vol. 1 - Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.
The Silmarillion - JRR Tolkien

Last Book I Read:

The last book I finished was Ernst Cassirer: A Repetition of Modernity by Steve Lofts. It's Cassirer's philosophy of symbolic forms as seen through the eyes of contemporary continental philosophy. It finds a structure to hold language, myth, religion, science and art and explain their functions in human life.

Five Books that mean a lot to me: (In no particular order)

Basic Writings of Nietzsche - Trans. by Walter Kaufmann.

Particularily for The Genealogy of Morals contained therein. Nietzsche's reframing of the moral impulse was, to this rookie philosophy student, mind-blowing. It helps that Nietzsche is a bright and witty writer, and left me grinning madly more than once.

Survival in Auschwitz - Primo Levi.

Unfortunately, this book wins the award for most retarded title-change in the history of translations - Levi's title for it was If This Is A Man. But that's really neither here nor there. This is, to put it mildly, a work of humanistic scripture. Levi has wrestled a treatise on ethics, hope, dignity and evil out of the abyss, and he has the scars to prove it. Subsequent generations ignore this book at their peril.

Arslan - MJ Engh.

My favourite novel, hands down. The crazy little scenario: a 3rd world dictator takes over the world, then sets up his HQ in a midwest American town. The best discussion of authority, fatherhood, masculinity and politics I've ever seen. The characters are engaging and the writing is excellent. At times, the writing simply becomes gorgeous.

We All Fall Down - Brian Caldwell

The perfect antidote to the mind numbing idiocy of the Left Behind series. The protagonist wakes up to discover that the rapture has occured, all the Christians are gone, and the Anti-Christ is taking over the world. Now surprisingly, this is not a Christian novel by any means. This is a novel about Christianity. The protagonist, understanding full well what is happening, refuses to either become a Christian or side with the Anti-Christ. I used to think this book was a brilliant portrayal of Christianity; now I see several limitations. And the writing doesn't necassarily hold up well. For a while, though, it capitivated my thinking and buried itself into my mind.

Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card

Yeah, politically speaking Card is a lunatic. And as a writer, he is hit and miss. But oh boy, when he hits, he hits. Speaker is a compelling story about truly good people, the type that only exist in fiction. Ender Wiggin's deep empathy had a major impact on the way I think about ethics.

As for my "tags," just look at the list of blogs I link to. Consider yourself tagged.

Review of Star Wars Episode III

This review needs a bit of context. I went into this movie with thoughts of Ep 1, 2, and Return of the Jedi in my mind.

I came away giving Ep 3 the benefit of the doubt in two aspects. One, Episode 2 should have been Episode 1. And this movie - Revenge of the Sith - should have been split in two. There was simply too much ground for one movie to cover. I don't believe this should be held against Episode 3 as a movie as such. Sins of the father and all that.

Second, I had watched Return of the Jedi the night before, my personal favourite of the originals. I haven't seen any of them in quite some time, and watching it now it hit me just how pulpy those movies were. I don't mean that as an attack, of course. RotJ has plenty of bizarre plot points and the Ewoks were obviously the spiritual predecessors of the Gungans. In a word, the original trilogy was not infallible, and it is unfair to compare the prequels to them as if they were. This doesn't redeem Eps 1 or 2 in any way, but it gives some leeway to Ep 3.

I think that takes care of two of the main criticisms that could be levelled at Ep 3. Too much happened, and there was an awful lot of pulpiness.

One thing the originals always had that the prequels don't, of course, is humanity. Watching RotJ, it's easy to be reminded how cool Han Solo was. There is no one truly likable in the prequels. All three are much more sterile.

Now, Ep 3 itself. Specific annoyance: A2D2. The first half hour of the movie, he was a smug little toy that could have been blown out of an airlock and the audience would have cheered. Then he went away. Enough said.

The dialogue, for the most part, was very workhorse. Very little that was clever or interesting. Same with the acting; though Hayden Christensan managed to upgrade from whiny bitch to angsty teenager. Same species, just a little less grating.

This changed in the last half hour. When Kenobie confronts the newly minted Vader and Yoda goes after Palpatine, I thought the acting and dialogue finally found their footing. Ewen McGregor in particular did a fantastic job with some genuinely sad dialogue, half mourning, half pleading. And Yoda had the best line of the movie, in response to Palpatine's "The Jedi are no more!" --- "Not if anything I have to say about it."

This was probably the best looking movie ever. The battle scenes were spectacular; I promise, these are the best fantasy-sci-fi battle scenes ever filmed. I can't imagine them being topped anytime soon.

When the climax was arriving, I was riveted. As Samuel L. Jackson's character went to confront Palpatine, I was into it. I even had a sense of dread, something the other prequels never generated.

So. Keeping in mind that this movie gets a free pass on the many silly plotpoints and the overstuffed narrative, I'm going to just say it: Episode III can stand with the original trilogy. My first instinct was to call it better than Return of the Jedi; maybe I was hasty. But it certainly is a contender. Maybe the best I can say is this: the sins of Jar Jar have been erased. That might be enough.

Sarah McLachlan Concert

Rather than repeatedly tell people what I thought of the Sarah McLachlan concert on Sunday night, I figured I'd just write it out here.

Every artist has their own demographic. Avril Lavigne has her teenypoppers, 50 Cent has his suburban white boys, and Nine Inch Nails have their angsty, black-wearing Trenchcoat Mafia types.

After standing around at the JLC for 5-10 minutes, McLachlan's own demographic becomes obvious: women. Lots of them, of all ages. McLachlan's record label no doubt has a second target demographic, at least for concerts: boyfriends and husbands.

So there I stood, the only single, straight male for at least a mile. I made a lesbian joke or two in an attempt to maintain some semblence of masculinity, but I'm not sure it worked.

So we made our way into the arena, and the first band came out: the Toronto-based Samba Squad. It was a great way to kick off the night; they really pounded the beats out. As far as opening acts go, this one was surprisingly good.

The Perishers stepped up to the plate next, and struck out nicely. It's a toss up as to the worst opening act ever: The Perishers, or "Shaker," who opened up for Great Big Sea last year. Boring, emo mush rock. I might have gnawed my leg off at the knee to dull the pain from their music, but luckily they were short.

Then McLachlan began her set with "World on Fire" and "Building a Mystery," my favourites. Oh, the World On Fire Video is very cool. Clicky.

I'm not enough of a fan to know the names of most of the songs, but they were good. She obviously has an amazing voice. Once or twice, it sounded like she was about to break out into gospel R&B, and boy did I lean forward in anticipation. Didn't quite happen, though. She stayed the songbird path, what she does best.

The most spectacular performance was for "Possession." Great lighting, and played with obvious passion.

Her stage banter was charming, definately better than The Perishers' "uh... yeah, we're The Perishers... buy our CD, or something..." She rambled a bit, like she was doing an episode of VH1's Storytellers. It was nice.

She tossed in a cover of "Salsbury Hill," I guess a ode to her home, Canada. Great stuff.

So what if I'm not her target audience. So what if I listened for every hint of rock from her voice, hoping for me. It was a great concert.

Slacktivist's Left Behind Archives

We interrupt this Law series to point out one of the blogs I've linked to on the left. Each Friday, Slacktivist considerately discusses 2-3 pages of the first Left Behind novel, giving us a hilarious deconstruction of the literary, religious and political foibles therein. Presenting: The Left Behind Archives.

An excerpt:

"Our heroes, isolated from the world aboard their transatlantic flight, have thus far received no news from the outside world, and are still unaware that the mysterious disappearances are a global phenomenon. That changes when, "Finally [Rayford Steele] connected with a Concorde several miles away heading the other direction."

Left Behind was published in 1995, so the authors' failure to foresee the end of commercial Concorde flights is understandable. Compared with their other bizarre predictions and otherwise miserable record of prognostication, this is a minor failing.

The Concorde pilot informs Steele that he will not be able to land in London, and should turn around and head for Chicago, one of the few places he still might be able to land. Airports are closing because of the chaos following the mass disappearances, which the Concorde pilot says are "all over the world."

"We lost nearly fifty," passengers from the Concorde, he reports.

Keep in mind that this is the Concorde we're talking about, a plane that catered exclusively to the literal jet-set. This was one of the priciest tickets in the air -- one available and availed of only by those with swollen bank accounts and a swollen sense of self-importance. This super-elite carrier of the overclass seated an even 100 passengers.

LaHaye and Jenkins would have us believe that nearly 50 born-again, evangelical Christian millionaires were visiting Paris and were willing and able to spare no expense to return to New York City as fast, and in as much luxury, as humanly possible. This seems unlikely.

It also contradicts L&J's insistence that evangelical Christians are a marginalized and persecuted minority. If they're such a despised and disenfranchised group, how did they come to comprise nearly 50 percent of the super-elite passengers on the Concorde?"

So yes. Check it out. It's spot on.

Reviews of Collatoral, Alien vs. Predator and The Exorcist

Well, I've seen three movies this weekend, and all three need to be commented on. This is all spoiler free.

The first was Collatoral, on Friday night. I was blown away. Jamie Foxx dominated this flick, and Cruise kept up nicely. The dialogue and story were great, and the violence was keen.

The stuff I was most surprised about was the photograhy and the soundtrack. Both kept me thinking about my favourite movie from last year, Lost in Translation. Director Michael Mann did his best to make Los Angelas look ethereal and beautiful, and he mostly succeded. LiT's Sophia Coppola did a better job, (of course) but maybe Tokyo is just a better looking city than LA?

I haven't seen a movie with a such an effective soundtrack since LiT, either. Maybe Eternal Sunshine. Again, LiT wins out, but I still might have to buy the Collatoral album. An awesome range of music, and it enhanced the mood everytime.

I'm thinking that Collatoral is the second best movie I've seen so far this year, rating just behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

The second movie was Alien vs. Predator, a movie in which the director probably fired every single person on the set who exhibited an ounce of imagination.

remember during the production stage, how the directer kept bragging about the intense buildup in the first part of the movie. It wasn't a mindless action movie, he said - there was a plot. Build up! Character development before the fighting!

Bollocks, the movie was painfully boring and stupid, right up to the moment when a Predator goes hand to hand with an Alien.

And even then... it was kind of like watching a WWF match.

The people who made this movie had no imagination, no love for these alien creatures. The Predator just kind of stalked about, though he did get some good slicing and dicing in.

The portrayal of the Aliens continued to evolve in this movie, thankfully. Now, they scamper about like insects. It was strange to watch them move in groups - it was like watching ants, maybe.

Remember the animatronic Alien Queen from Aliens? Well, she's back, she's CGI, and she's an Olympic Track star.

The humans were stupid, just stupid. The buildup didn't generate worthwhile characters or suspense, it was just made for a useless first act that could have been filled with Predators going Samurai on a pack of Aliens.

There were really only two scenes that I was actually excited in, and both, the Predator was showing off excellent fighting ability. The rest was very workmanlike, with no imagination at all.

I've been waiting for this movie since I saw the Alien skull in the Predator ship in Predator 2... was the wait worth it?

Sure, I guess. Predators still fought Aliens, and... well, now I want to see Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash. Bring it!

And the third movie, The Exorcist. Well, I keep reading about how scary it was... not terribly scary at all. Some shocking stuff, of course. The imfamous alternate use of a crucifix scene was strange to see. But scary? Eh. The skeptical priests investigating the possible possesion were all pretty cool, asking intelligent questions and generally being smart about it.

But scary? Eh. The Ring beats the pants off The Exorcist.

Kurt Vonnegut

I have fallen in love.

With a man.

But don't worry, I'm not gay.

At least, I don't think.

The object of my affections these days is Kurt Vonnegut. I've only had the fortune to read one of his novels, Breakfast of Champions. I've got a standard list of adjectives that I apply to works of art that I like, and this one fulfills them all. Funny, sad, wise, etc. Clicky the link, then read the book.

Otherwise, I've been thoroughly enjoying Vonnegut's essays written for the site In These Times. If you're looking for a standout example, check out Cold Turkey.

Notable excerpts.

But back to people, like Confucius and Jesus and my son the doctor, Mark, who’ve said how we could behave more humanely, and maybe make the world a less painful place. One of my favorites is Eugene Debs, from Terre Haute in my native state of Indiana. Get a load of this:

Eugene Debs, who died back in 1926, when I was only 4, ran 5 times as the Socialist Party candidate for president, winning 900,000 votes, 6 percent of the popular vote, in 1912, if you can imagine such a ballot. He had this to say while campaigning:

As long as there is a lower class, I am in it.
As long as there is a criminal element, I’m of it.
As long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

Doesn’t anything socialistic make you want to throw up? Like great public schools or health insurance for all?

How about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes?

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. …

And so on.

Not exactly planks in a Republican platform. Not exactly Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney stuff.

For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere.

“Blessed are the merciful” in a courtroom? “Blessed are the peacemakers” in the Pentagon? Give me a break!

Read the rest of the essay. Make time for it.

And hey. If any Christians down in the US start a campaign to place the Beatitudes on government buildings, I'll support it.

The Village Review

There might be one or two very mild spoilers in this review of The Village. Very mild.

I'm having a hard time formulating an opinion about Sham... Shamalan... er, you know who I'm talking about. Night's new movie, The Village. My initial reaction was mostly positive, but I'm inclined to love everything the man does.

All I can say is this. The Sixth Sense left me deeply unsettled and Signs left me euphoric. Unbreakable took a little while to grow on me, but nowadays, my opinion of that movie is almost entirely positive.

So maybe The Village will need to grow on me. There's lots of good stuff that I remember - the romantic relationship that was sweet and entirely believable, and several rather scary scenes. The technical stuff was superb - great photography, etc.

Here's where the mild spoilers begin.

There's some bad stuff too, though. The dialogue could be termed atrocious, though many will forgive this for plot reasons. One character that is built up to be very sympathetic, and then essentially disappears from the movie. There is at least one plot point that is left dangling, for no apparent reason. And one character acts in a way that should be far beyond his capabilities, though perhaps there is a subtle plot explanation for this that I've missed.

So I'm not sure. I'll have to chew on it a bit more.

3 Days, Three Concerts

3 Days, 3 Live Shows.

I suppose I should have posted this on Sunday or something, but I was just lazy.

Last week, I had the chance to see three concerts in three days. It made for an awesome weekend, and some of the most fun I've for as long as I can remember.

Thursday night, I saw Christopher at a local club, Call The Office. This was the 2nd time I've seen them live. Once the opening act - which consisted of a screaming high schooler - was over, the guys hit the stage and played some great music. The crowd size grew as they played. The Christopher song that qualifies as the most fun was an instrumental scottish reel, performed on a guitar.

If you want to hear some quality local music, look up Christopher, see when they're playing Call The Office next. And they've got a CD coming out sooner or later; I intend to buy it.

Friday night! Ah, Friday night. I saw my second Great Big Sea concert, and it was pure pleasure. The opening song, Beat The Drum, was a typical GBS crowd pleaser about how great it is to be "young and daring". The crowd, as seems to be usual, took a while to warm up. I think the turning point in the show was "Scolding Wife" - that's when the crowd really seemed to get into it.

The only regret of the night - it was too crowded. There was no room to dance, and what's a GBS concert without dancing?

Saturday night, I got my wish. Spirit of the West capped off the trinity of concerts with of all things a free show down at Harris Park. From the opening strains of "Political", I knew it was going to be a great show. They hit many of their crowd pleasers, like "Venice Is Sinking" and "This Old Sod".

Their newer material tends to be less popular with crowds; it's just not as much fun. Songs like "Be A Guy" didn't grab me at first, though the single from their newest album, "Small World", was a great rock tune.

Spirit of the West had the crowning moment of all three concerts, however. For their last song, they played "Home For A Rest." It begins with a soft instrumental of the chorus; anyone who had been sitting jumped up and ran to the front. The entire park belted out the lyrics to the chorus; then the band paused, we all took a deep breath, and the song really began. "Home" solidified its title as the most entertaining song ever written, hands down. By the third chorus, I had no breath to sing any longer. It was pure adrenaline.

So yeah, a great three days. Even if you didn't dance!

Saved! Preview

Whoa, two posts in one day. But I have to snip this review of the new movie Saved! from the always wonderful Pluggedinonline.com. It's about a Christian High School, and it sounds amazing on so many different levels.

“Saved! is like those monster vampire high school kind of movies, only here the monsters are Jesus-freak teenagers.” —producer Michael Stipe (of R.E.M. fame)

According to Hilary Faye, the only person attending American Eagle Christian High School who isn't a born-again Christian is Cassandra, a Jewish "bad-girl" whose immoral reputation ("She was a stripper before she started going here!") has been juicing up the school's gossip mill. Hilary brags that she'll be the one who finally converts Cassandra, and turns the girl's eternal destiny into a horse race. When she finally has the opportunity, she approaches the "task" of leading Cassandra to the Lord as a dentist would a root canal, fretting that she doesn’t have all her “gear” with her to do the job right. Cassandra, in response, taunts and ridicules Hilary by feigning the salvation experience, then telling her it "didn't take," and that she converted to Satanism the following day.

I can't wait to see that.

A slightly more subtle mockery is made of very young children accepting "Jesus into [their] hearts and getting saved." The same applies to God's divine plan for His children. Bible studies. Christian clubs. Prayer meetings. And Christian education. Christianese lingo—made to feel insincere—is trotted out at every turn ("Let's get our Christ on," "Let's kick it Jesus style," "Down with G.O.D.," "You're not born-agay, you're born again").

That's right. Let's get our Christ on. I love it.

Mary gets pregnant when she has sex with her boyfriend, Dean. (The camera focuses on the shaking bed.) Why does this young Christian virgin, committed to remaining pure until her wedding night, choose to consummate her affection for Dean? After Dean informs her that he’s gay, she takes it upon herself to win him back, finally concluding that the only way to straighten him out is to sacrifice her virginity "for the cause." (She tells her friends afterwards that Jesus told her to do it and that He promised he would restore her virginity if she did what He said.) Upon completion of the act, she rolls over in bed (showing moviegoers her—very thin—sports bra) and whispers, "Thank you Jesus." I should note that before going all the way with Dean, Mary tries to wake up his masculine attraction to women by making out with him and having him fondle her bikini-clad breasts (in-frame). [Spoiler Warning] Neither make-out sessions nor copulation work. Dean ends up “happily” dating another guy after meeting him at a Christian rehab facility known for its "degayification" processes.

Oh, that'll be classic.

A girl confesses to God that she "let that Promise Maker (a dig at Promise Keepers) touch me in the rectory." When Cassandra bares her breasts during the school chapel service, the camera glimpses skin. (There are no full-on shots.)

Quality. Pure... quality.

T.V. And Story Telling

(This post completely spoils the series finale of Angel)

Well, it's the end of an an era for these guys. But while they are talking about the end of their church, I'm going to talk about TV!

As a cultural medium, TV doesn't get much respect. It's the boob tube, the idiot box. I tend to think otherwise: I think TV is an incredible medium for both non-fiction (think journalism) and story telling. It's all in how the program is handled. Certainly TV has its fair share of stupid content; but really, how many books on the shelves at Chapters are worth reading?

I think fiction on TV is always best in an hour long serial. This allows the writers maybe 16 hours of screentime a year (not counting commercials) to tell a story.

It tends to be science-fiction/fantasy series that do the most to take advantage of all that screentime. Consider Babylon 5; an epic story that filled some 75 hours of screen time. The character and plot development possible in those 75 hours just isn't present in a 2.5 hour movie. Enemies became friends, friends became enemies. Cowards became heroes, murderous fools became religious leaders.

I want producers to take advantage of this more often. With so much screentime, so many amazing characters and stories can be told. Emotional weight be slowly built up over the years, slowly, carefully, and the viewer can enjoy an amazing payoff when the story concludes.

A fine example of a long buildup paying off: the series finale of Angel that aired last night. A series cut down in its prime but still given enough warning that the story could be concluded, the series ended in an unflinchingly courageous finale.

The thematic backbone of the last five years of Angel's run was summarized in the penultimate episdoe: evil exists not to be defeated, but to be faught. And the finale stayed true to that perfectly. Extraordinary sacrifices were made, and they gave evil a vicious kick to the nether regions. But evil wasn't vanquished or exiled, and the good guys didn't win. All they did was fight, and fight hard.

The final scene sees the four surviving members of the group in a dark alley, with the rain pouring down relentlessly. One is mortally wounded and soon to die. They stand quietly talking, and then the camera pans to their left. There is a huge demon army marching towards them, complete with dragon and a good dozen cave-troll like creatures.

Spike asks their leader Angel, "Anything in the way of a plan?" and Angel replies "I kind of want to slay the dragon." Angel picks up his sword, and calmly says "Let's go to work." The four heroes walk towards the army... and thus ends the series. They didn't win, they didn't vanquish evil, but they sure fought it. I wonder if a 2.5 hour film could have created a final scene with such resonance? I doubt it.

Let's hope there are more people like Joss Whedon and Michael Strazynski out there who will take advantage of all that screen time. The budgets might be lower and the glory not as great, but there are still amazing stories to be told.

So farewell to Angel. Like any good ending, it left me with fulfilled sense of meloncholy. It was a great ride while it lasted and I'll be able to watch it in re-runs, just like I can rent a movie again or pick up a book a dozen times, but I'll never be able to experience it again for the first time.