The Dower Power Hour

There’s been a lot of hype surrounding Heath Ledger’s final performance as the Joker in this summer’s Batman movie. I must admit I was extremely skeptical. Lets face it, when a celebrity as loved as Ledger dies in a freak accident (his drug overdose was of the innocent, Doctor-screw-up kind) the public needs closure. However, the tragedy that is Heath Ledger’s death is only heightened by the “fact” that his final performance really was masterful.

I say “fact” in quotation marks because something as innately opinionated as the quality of an actor’s performance can never really be considered fact. However, after watching The Dark Knight with a fair share of skepticism, I have to admit that his role as the Joker was not only good, it was extraordinary. I much prefer his portrayal of the character to that of Jack Nicholson in the 1989 Batman. The aptly named Dark Knight was dark, cynical even in its portrayal of the heroic characters. It was also extremely entertaining. I know the “audience at the edge of their seats” cliche is over used, but in this case it definitely merits use. The only criticism I have is that the film was a bit long. While I never felt that the movie dragged, there were several scenes where it felt like the movie was going to draw to close, only to have it continue for another 40 minutes. However, considering the quality of that extra 40 minutes, a length of 152 minutes is easily forgiven.

I love it!

Downfall is a 2004 German film depicting the last days of Hitler’s life, and therefore the Third Reich.  It focuses primarily on Hitler and his closest companions and officers as they attempt to hold off the invading Russians from conquering Berlin.  Bruno Ganz portrayal of Hitler is amazing - a fine piece of acting!  The movie is based upon the books: “Inside Hitler’s Bunker, by historian Joachim Fest; portions of Albert Speer’s memoirs; the memoirs of Traudl Junge, one of Hitler’s secretaries; Hitler’s Last Days: An Eye-Witness Account, by Gerhardt Boldt; doctor Ernst-Günther Schenck’s memoirs; and the memoirs of Siegfried Knappe.” - Wikipedia.  I highly recommend renting it; you should be able to find it at a Blockbuster or Hollywood Video.

There is a scene in this film in which Hitler’s Generals finally convey how utterly hopeless the situation is to their Fuhrer.  Orders to attack that Hitler gave earlier in the film had not been carried out because the unit to whom he sent the command is so hopelessly disorganized and beaten that they had no ability to function cohesively.  Hitler orders most of his lower officers to leave the room and then goes a tirade about how he has been betrayed and how he “should have purged his officers ranks like Stalin did.”  This is actually one of the most powerful scenes in the movie and, again, is an amazing portrayal of Hitler, particularly considering the entire film is in German which gives it so much more authenticity than any English production could have, such as “Hitler: The Rise of Evil.”

However, the fact that the scene I described is all in German has given rise to yet another entertaining and frivolous web meme.  The premise is fairly simple: add subtitles to the scene that totally change the meaning of what Hitler and his Generals are saying.  Several popular examples include: Hitler ranting about the loss of HD DVD to Blu-Ray, Hitler ranting about his console getting banned by Microsoft, Hitler ranting about a bad suggestion for the replacement of his stolen car, Hitler ranting about the loss of Hillary Clinton during the primary, and (perhaps most creatively of all) Hitler ranting about becoming an Internet meme.

Now I have always taken the stance that any Hitler or Holocaust joke is “too soon,” and will always and forever be “too soon.”  Nothing funny about that, period.  However, I have to admit that I find these parody clips extremely entertaining.  In fact, it was one of these parody clips that led to me watching the actual film; I was so impressed by the acting in that scene that I wanted to watch the rest of the movie.  Maybe because, to me, they are more poking fun at the film-makers’ intent than they are the actual historical events.

Perhaps the film-makers are aware of this, because many of these clips have now been removed from YouTube.  I had a much harder time finding links than I would have a month ago and I expect the two I embedded will become non-functional at some point in the near future.  It’s a shame.  While I recognize the extreme copyright infringement that was going on, at the same time I know I never would have discovered this excellent film had I not stumbled across the Blue-Ray War version of the scene.  I am sure that I am not the only one.  If you do stumble across any other “Downfall” clips, I highly recommend that you watch them… and then go rent the film.  I definitely recommend both.

Well, I’m in another public office that should probably limit the extent to which I use this to express political views. This is a big reason I have stopped updating this regularly, unfortunately.

Which, of course, leads me to my favorite television show at the moment, Battlestar Galactica. The fourth season isn’t as good as the previous three but it’s still keeping avid fans like me eagerly awaiting the next episode. There is a lot of plot to resolve.

The reason I am posting this is two-fold. First, I think if I talk about BSG, when someone searches “Battlestar Galactica” this site might come up, which should get me more hits. Yes even though I rarely update this thing I am still desperate for attention. More hits would inspire me to update it more regularly. It’s a vicious cycle.

Secondly and more importantly there is an amazing historical parallel to something that happened in the show at the end of the third season. I tried searching to see if anyone else noticed the striking similarities, but nothing came up. Therefore, I can only assume I am the only person to make this observation! (Although I’m sure that as soon as I post that, someone will come out and correct me.)

At the end of the third season, a former Vice President is put on trial to determine whether or not they were guilty of treason. The President at the time of the trial, and President during the term of aforementioned Vice President, is absolutely determined to see the former VP found guilty. However, they are acquitted due to lack of evidence which further drives a wedge between the President and several of her former political colleagues.

Of course in the show I am talking about Vice President Gaius Baltar and President Laura Roslin. However, taking the names out, this positively screams the Aaron Burr trial. The parallels are undeniable. After killing Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr went on to lead an ill-fitted attempt to… do something out west. It’s actually difficult to figure out what his plans were because he had so many different lies. It was definitely one of the following: attack and annex much of Spanish Mexico on behalf of the United States, lead an insurgency against the United States (on behalf of Britain), lead an insurgency against the United States (on behalf of Spain), or manipulate both and lead an insurgency against the United States on behalf of Aaron Burr (the most likely).

Jefferson was pretty angry about all of this, but unfortunately Burr was so popular out west that they chose to have the trial in an eastern state where they thought they could get a more friendly jury. Unfortunately, all the juicy evidence required them to be in a western state where it could be used (I’m not sure exactly of the specifics, it’s been a while since I read about this), and so they simply couldn’t muster enough concrete evidence to nail down his involvements or his intentions, despite the defection of one of his key conspirators, General Wilkinson. Who, it should be said, was extremely incompetent in every sense of the word. Like Gaius Baltar, Aaron Burr got off because the prosecution couldn’t muster a strong enough case against him, even though it was pretty apparent he was guilty.

If you’re interested in this time period (the Aaron Burr trial that is, not Battlestar Galactica) I highly recommend What Kind of Nation: Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and the Epic Struggle to Create a United States. There are many books about the early American Republic but this is definitely one of the better ones, particularly if you have any interest in the history of the Supreme Court.

A few months ago I came up with an idea for a short film. The plot was very absurd, but I thought the humor in the movie might appeal to people besides myself. Every year my college has a film festival and so I decided to ask around to see if anyone else thought my idea had potential. This is the result.

I wrote the script, my friend Tristan did all of the post-production editing, and my friend Katie carried the story with her acting abilities (neither Tristan and I can act to save our respective lives.) We ended up winning the People’s Choice Award, which was the only at-large award at the festival. I encourage all of ya’ll to check it out. Thanks.

I haven’t updated this thing in a while. This is for a number of reasons: lack of readers, lack of time on my part, having the campus newspaper A Modest Proposal as another outlet to voice my thoughts. However, I’ve noticed that for some reason my views have started steadily increasing over the past few weeks. Even though I haven’t written any new posts in months, I’m getting about 10 views per day. So if people have decided to take an interest in my thoughts I might as well throw up a post to keep it active.

Let me first say that the “phenomena” I’m about to describe will only make sense to people that actively use some sort of instant messaging program on the Internet. I am mentioning it because I discovered an interesting parallel between the digital social situation and a common in-person social situation.

If you are in a conversation with someone and they tell you they have to leave, you usually expect them to sign-off the program. Signing off makes it impossible to send messages back and forth and is a definitive end to the chat. However, sometimes the other person leaves their instant messaging program on after they tell you they are going to leave. When this happens to me, I often find it awkward. Even though I know they’re either not there or are too distracted to respond, in the back of my mind I always wonder whether they were just tired of talking to me and are still actively at their computer communicating with others.

This is analogous to a situation in which you are talking with a friend on the street (or on campus for those high school/college students) and you say goodbye but then coincidentally end up walking in the same direction. It’s uncomfortable because socially you have already declared an end to your interaction but the physical proximity hasn’t caught up to the social realities. This forces you to either restart the conversation (which is pointless because it will imminently be brought to an end) or deal with a prolonged silence as you walk together.

That’s it. I thought it was an interesting comparison, but certainly not worth writing about anywhere else but a blog.

A nice little history lesson here. I liked their selection and the commentary.

From an actual Theodore Roosevelt eulogy given at the time of his passing: “Death had to take him sleeping, for if Roosevelt had been awake there would have been a fight.”

If I could change one thing, I would have added some things about Quincy Adams; I felt like their explanation of his badassery was insufficient. For example, Quincy Adams was a terrible communicator and he was extremely distrustful of the masses. Although he was the probably one of the smartest men ever to hold he office, he had a nasty habit of saying things like, “most voters are stupid and are swayed more by popular sentiment and emotional appeal than a solid understanding of the issues.” Which, while as true in the 1800’s as it is today, isn’t the sort of thing you say when you’re trying to get votes.

I actually don’t have much to say about this, except that this video is probably the best explanation I have heard for what happened. To top it off, it’s actually a comedy sketch in the form of an interview. If you watch it, you will probably learn something and you might get a good laugh out of it too.

Well, here we are in 2008. Instead of doing a New Year’s Resolution for myself, this year I think I am going to make resolutions for the planet as a whole. Since I never keep my personal resolutions, despite my best intentions, I might as well throw my support to broader issues. Therefore, my 2008 New Year’s Resolutions are as follows:

• To see North Korea give up its WMD program(s) and pursue strictly peaceful nuclear ambitions, and preferably none what-so-ever.
• To have Iran back down from its aggressive rhetoric, continue to disavow nuclear ambitions, and cut all support to the Iraqi insurgents.
• To watch pressure for democratic reform within China continue to mount as the educated and growing middle class realizes that wealth is not enough to keep them content.
• To witness the slow but steady withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, replaced by nationalist security forces with genuine loyalties to the democratic government rather than their own local and religious leaders.
• To enjoy the political decline of the Chavez government and the continued rejection of his undemocratic, radical socialist reforms by the populace.
• To end the genocide in Darfur, without the need for unilateral action from any western country.
• To see Afghanistan and Pakistan return to a stable, democratic status quo with the defeat (or at least prolonged retreat) of the Taliban and other militant religious forces.
• And finally, to see someone with common sense, intelligent advisers, and a progressive agenda in the White House. (Personally, I’d prefer Obama or Hillary but McCain would also be acceptable if it’s going to be a Republican.)

Just when I thought I couldn’t take our President any less seriously, it turns out that Iran suspended its nuclear program in 2003. What’s worse, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell had this information in August, months before Bush started escalating the rhetoric and tossing out such exciting statements as “World War III” to describe the explosive potential of the situation. Here he is being questioned by reporters about the details of this miscommunication.

In short, either this administration has the worst internal communication of any in U.S. history, or the President deliberately misled the American people about the nuclear potential of yet another Middle Eastern country. Oh, and Bush is still insisting on aggressive rhetoric because, “What’s to say they couldn’t start another covert nuclear weapons program?”

I think we can all agree that Ahmadinejad is basically the Middle Eastern Hitler. He scares the heck out of me whenever he talks about Israel. But we shouldn’t be talking about the potential of attacking a country based on the possibility of them starting nuclear research. Every country on Earth has the potential to start nuclear research. Experts say that even if Iran restarted their nuclear program today, it wouldn’t be anywhere near ready to produce a nuclear weapon until at least the next decade at the earliest. And when we use aggressive rhetoric, what are we actually asking them to do? If they’ve already stopped their nuclear program, that doesn’t leave much room for further… stoppage.

We should remain alert about Iran and be wary of any future attempts to obtain nuclear weapons either directly or through research. But perhaps we also ought to take things back a notch on the aggressive stance. Or at least, take the phrase “World War Three” out of the conversation.