Documenting My Audacity

I saw the new Alice in Wonderland film today.  The one directed by Tim Burton.  This one:

The movie is sitting at 54% on RottenTomatoes.com, the review aggregator that I find incredible useful.  This qualifies it as “Rotten,” but I disagree.  I liked the film a lot.

The complaints about the movie seem to have merit at first glance: it sacrifices Lewis Carroll’s books to develop a Tim Burton film, the scenery/mis-en-scene trumps the plot, and the characters are not fully developed.  I would say many of them are legitimate, but at the same time, I think a lot of the folks who dislike the movie are misinterpreting it.

I read Lewis Carroll’s original fiction of Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass for the first time at age 16.  At that point in my adolescence, it had become all the rage to do kind of strange things in the name of originality.  Reading this  book fit right in, because it was so strange:

Honestly, I don’t really know how Walt Disney managed to make the first Alice in Wonderland:

The fiction which both of these films are based on is entirely whimsical and, in my opinion, not fit for making any sort of plot-based literary criticism.  The book came out of crazy stories which the author told to a (presumably) very strange kid.  When I was very young, the things which would have kept my attention were not the character arcs or internal conflict within the protagonist, or the motivation of the antagonist–it was the crazy stuff that went down.  I would have loved for somebody to have told me a story about a caterpillar who smoked a hookah, or a cat which could disappear!

So, what Burton had to work with as far as original fiction was a mythology.  A world in which cats disappeared, and hatters and hares drank tea together, where queens of cards cut off people’s heads, and where rabbits carried pocket watches and were always late.  If Carroll’s books had a purpose, it was to showcase the incredible ability of human imagination, and the power of the impossible.  So Burton built on that.  Of course he didn’t stay true to Carroll’s fiction–that could not work as a film.  Burton utilizes Carroll’s imaginative world and developed a plot which he used to prove Carroll’s point in his own way.

The film Burton leaves us with is of course not perfect.  It’s not even close.  I would give it 3 stars, or a 7/10.  The script is a bit contrite and childish, in a way which is not approachable for adults (unlike, say, Where the Wild Things Are).  The characters are a bit stunted, probably because a few are forced into the film to give each of Carroll’s incredible characters a chance to shine on screen.  And the film is presented in 3-D for really no reason (I didn’t even see the 3-D version).   I am not trying to say that this film is a masterpiece, or one of Tim Burton’s achievements, or even the best movie out right now (or even a movie you will remember in 5 years).  But what we do have is a movie worth going to see.

Or at least, I liked it.

Alice In Wonderland: 7/10

It’s been a long while since I updated the ole blog, but I suppose now is as good a time as ever to start writing again.  I think it’ll take a different path this time, though.   I am busy working on a master’s degree in public policy, so when I write about politics/policy, it will be from a more philosophical/technical side than strictly partisan writing.  Not only is that the smart thing to do for my future, its how I am feeling more and more often.

Anyways, I’ll also probably write more about sports/film/spirituality than I have in the past also.

So, I guess you should get ready to be amazed by my incredible writing skills again.  Because I’m back!

A while ago I tweeted about 5 times in 5 minutes about my experience getting a bike parking sticker from Parking and Transportation Services at the University of Kentucky.  The process of getting the  pass wasn’t so bad (besides being forced to pay all my outstanding parking tickets before they’d let me buy a pass), but the underlying theory of bicycle registration has a whole bunch of people uneasy, and unbeknownst to many cyclists at UK, opposed to some of their greatest advocates.

News about the bicycle registration program broke last Spring in the Kernel, and immediately caused a huge firestorm.   The step of registration had apparently been in the works for a long time, and had the backing of Shane Tedder and Taylor Shelton, major players in all things involving sustainability at UK (Shane even founded Wildcat Wheels, the on-campus bike shop at UK).  However, the step seemed like a powerplay by many of the average bikers at UK–as was witnessed in letters the the Kernel’s editor, comments on their website, and by organizing on facebook, as well as casual conversations I’ve had with many of my biker friends.

Taylor and Shane, as far as I can tell, are the two people who ride bicycles who support the registration program.   The vehement opposition obviously is a function of lots of different feelings–mistrust of PTS because of their autocratic behaviors involving car parking at UK, the initial news that the registration would include a fee, or anger at the aestetic price which placing an unattractive barcode on one’s seat post included.  There is a stereotype of bicycle riders as more liberal and less trusting of authority.  If that stereotype is grounded in truth (which I believe it to be), that quickly could translate to opposition to this plan.

I understand the case for registration as laid out by Shane and Taylor.  As far as I understand it, the case is that registration acts as a theft deterrent (via the barcode on the seatpost), PTS requiring registration legitimizes bicycling as a transportation choice, and initially, the funds recouped would have been used for improvements in bicycle infrastructure.   However, I have my doubt about all of these points.  First, the sticker could be removed with by anybody with a little goo-gone and about 10 minutes.  No more theft deterrent.  Second, the law already legitimizes bicycling as a transportation choice.  Finally, the fee was removed immediately after the plan was announced, meaning that we will recoup no funds for infrastructure improvement.

Honestly, PTS did what they should have done in order to ensure this plan had the backing of the bicycle community–they went to all the right people to ensure the plan would be accepted by the bicycling masses at UK.  However, the plan is, as far as I can tell, pretty useless.  The bike racks at UK are very rarely full, and do not merit the registration program in terms of space requirements.  The only end I see for this plan is PTS using bikes to generate funds.  If the plan had included a method of raising funds, I might have supported it, but I cannot see any end-game I can see from bicycle registration is a reduction of bicyclists at UK.  While I hope that is not the case, I feel that it will be.

This puts me in a pretty awkward position.  I don’t think I’ve ever opposed Shane or Taylor in any reform effort on UK’s campus ever.  However, I side with the great majority of bicyclists at UK and oppose this change.  I guess this goes to show you that you never agree with everyone all the time.

But nothing seems to get me excited anymore.

I said I would write more earlier this summer, and up to this point I have been nothing but an utter failure in that regard.  I will try to make it up to all of you with a post today.

Almost always, I am proud to be an American.  The history of our great history is not without its blemishes, but no country on Earth has a spotless record.  However, every once in a while something happens in the United States which makes me hang my head.  This occurred when I heard about Guantanamo Bay prison, and what was happening there.  America’s sins often happen because of an overzealous desire for our way of life–for example, supporting dictatorships in South America in order to defeat communism.  However, Guantanamo Bay occurred DESPITE of our belief in our way of life.  One of the items which has stuck with me since I read it is this article from the Washington Post.  Read the whole thing if you want to, but the long and the short of it in my words is this: Bush’s policies with regards to the detainees at Guantanamo were more focused on interrogation rather than prosecution.  The Executive Branch owns no complete case files on these detainees, and cared little for their legal status.  The only thing which they cared about was the information which many of them didn’t even posess.  Once they couldn’t find any more information, they didn’t care any more.  In other words, my country showed nothing but disdain for the legal procedures so important to our founders–something I find absolutely awful.

I was so relieved when President Obama, back when he was still candidate Obama, promised to close Guantanamo Bay.  However, that promise has run into a severe snafu.  Republicans (with key support from conservative Democrats) in Congress shut down an attempt to close the prison, citing an incomplete plan for housing the detainees in the United States.  A recent Pew research poll states that less than half of Americans want to see the Prison shut down within a year.   How shameful.  This number was once higher–and I am not blind enough to say it is not because of some mishandling of the issue by Barack Obama’s administration, but I still am a little ashamed of my fellow countrymen for not believing more in the due process upon which this country was founded.

Finals are over, my diploma should be in the mail, and its warm outside.  Which can mean only one thing: time to book up ole DMA, where this summer I will be dispatching all the things that cross my mind with no regards or cares about anything else.  Get ready for insanity, if you want to.

I got a job this summer, because I have to pay for graduate school.  Apparently, the downturn in the economy means that there exists much less money for scholarships than in previous years.  Which kind of sucks, but thats okay.  So I’m waiting tables and making money to pay the Martin School at the University of Kentucky about $7000.  Excellent.

The most fun thing I’m going to be doing this summer, however, will be the Robert Kahne Film Festival.  I’m going to be watching one movie every day this summer.  Each of these movies shall be marked by the fact that I have not seen them, and am embarassed to say that I have not seen them.  Today starts with a Double Feature:  The Big Lewbowski and The Life Aquatic.

That’s all for now, probably more later.

The church I attend, Calvary Baptist in Lexington, participates in this program for homeless men in Lexington called Room in the Inn, which rotates between different churches each day of the week and provides shelter for about 15 men a night.  This program’s existence is necessary because of the lack of any sort of social safety net for homeless men in this city.  At any rate, tonight the College Ministry at my church set up and hosted the men for the night.  After working to put together all the mattresses and making the coffee and preparing the food and whatnot, we had a chance to sit down and talk to these guys.

I ended up eating dinner with three guys, all of whom were exceedingly friendly and nice to me.  I heard a little of their stories, and learned that one of the guys with whom I ate played basketball for Austin Peay for 4 years in the 1970s and has played basketball in Madison Square Garden and once played in the NCAA tournament.  At any rate, what I learned tonight was that the slumping economy sucks for everybody.

I don’t know why, but for some reason I thought the crappy economy wouldn’t have too much of an effect on homeless people.  I guess I thought that since they didn’t really have much to lose, they couldn’t be hit too hard.  However, I forgot one key thing–the thing which sustains almost every homeless person I have ever met is the idea of Hope.  Hope is key in homeless life because it presents the idea that they will someday get a job, or someday find an apartment they can afford, or someday be able to sustain themselves without having to depend on the handouts of others.  This hope has been badly hit by this economy.  Don’t get me wrong–these guys were nothing if not cheerful.  They loved talking about sports, history, and the places they had been.  However, they seemed downtrodden.  One man had just gotten a job and was in the process of looking for an apartment when he was laid off after less than a month on the job.  One of the guys we talked with had just recently become homeless after losing his job and was looking for work as a groundskeeper.

Life is rough for everybody–us included.  However, I think its worth our time to take a step back and realize it could be a lot worse.  Economically speaking, it doesn’t get too much worse than what I saw with these guys tonight.  However, the effect on their disposition, while existant, pales in comparison to what I’ve seen out of some people.  I learned a lot from the guys I talked to today.  I hope that in my life, I can learn to appreciate what I have.  Because really, I’ve got a lot for which to be thankful.

So today was the Super Bowl and everything.  The game was really exciting, which is good (a good development in recent years: good Super Bowls).  I was rooting for the Cardinals, mostly because I hate every team in the AFC North except the Bengals (which is a sad, sad life).

Anyway, the thing which has been foremost in my mind politically in recent days has been the stimulus package put together by The President (Barack Obama….glory).   In the early days when this thing was being put together, President Obama made a plea for bi-partisanship.  This set off a small firestorm amongst some of my more strident friends and a few of the more pragmatic writers whom I read.  Their beef: they felt that the President should have made an attempt to pass the “best bill possible” without attempting to compromise in any way.

Honestly, they have quite a point.  Elections have consequences, and the American people elected the Democratic Party to lead it out of the wilderness in which it finds itself.  However, I think it is worth noting that one of the main reasons which the American people elected the Democrats was because of our promise to seek bipartisanship and and inclusive program.

The attempt at bi-partisanship did not go very far.  John McCain (who during the campaign said he didn’t know anything about the economy anyway) and John Boehner complained bitterly about the stimulus plan to the press.  During a meeting with the President, some Republican’s twittered their chagrin.  When the rubber met the road, in the House, 0 Republicans voted with the President.  So disheartening.  Some attempts were made to assist them–stripping out family planning for the poor, for example.  Some of the more progressive provisions which I had hoped to see didn’t come to fruition (see stuff from Rep. DeFazio from Oregon for good examples).

The bill still passed, even without any Republican support.  This will probably happen often in the House.  Now, the stimulus package awaits the Senate, where a totally different political game shall be played.  The Senate has 59 Democrats (or will, once Al Franken is seated).  Therefore, one more vote is needed to suppress a filibuster.  We’ll see if that happens.  Hopefully, all the Democrats will be whipped correctly.  Ben Nelson (D-NE) has already expressed that he’s not so sure if he wants to vote for it.  I suspect it will pass without too much hassle.

Which, if you were still wondering, I consider a good thing.  Paul Krugman (who just won the Nobel Prize) articulates pretty effectively why in this video, but if you don’t want to sit through this, here is a quick synopsis for you: monetary policy is the way to go to stimulate the economy, but we’ve run out of policy options since interest rates are mostly zero.  Fiscal policy is our only weapon left, and we have to come out swinging.  So we need a huge stimulus package.   I would have like to have seen more internal investment, but whatever.  It’s pretty good.  I just hope it works.

This post isn’t about politics in the slightest.  It’s about the Bible.  If you need to, you can stop reading now.

I started class this week.  One of the classes I’m taking this semester is “Old Testament as Literature,” which required me to buy the JPS translation of the Old Testament.  This brings me to the total of 5 study Bibles, an amount which I still feel is, if anything, inadequate.

JPS stands for Jewish Publication Society.  They publish the standard Bible for Jewish audiences, and there are substantial differences between this Bible and the Old Testament translations of my other Bibles.  Some of the articles I’ve read for my class state that viewing the Jewish scriptures without the influence of the New Testament creates a translation which differs from Christian Bibles.  I’m not really sure if I buy the fact that this encompasses the whole difference between these two Bibles.  I’m looking forward to identifying the differences and seeing if this fact is indeed the whole reason they are different or if there are more cultural reasons for the differences.

The other 4 study Bibles I own all serve a specific function.  My main Bible is the HarperCollins NRSV Study Bible.  This, in the opinion of many folks teaching in divinity schools and universities, is the most academic of all Bibles.  I really like using it because it is mostly void of spiritual advice, opting instead to let me make up my own mind.  However, this Bible still posesses an ample amount of footnotes, revealing hidden meaning of the text without presuming any particular view point.  In addition, I really enjoy the New Revised Standard Version translation.  This translation is gender neutral, taking into account the nuance of meaning in Greek and Hebrew words–which the words can be gender neutral, they are.  Most translations in the past opted for using male pronouns, which I think takes away a lot from the meaning of the text.

Another study Bible I use serves the function of a reference.  It is the KeyWord NASB Study Bible.  This translation, the New American Standard Bible, is the tranlation thought to be the most word-accurate Bible in the eyes many Bible publishers.  This Bible includes a Greek and Hebrew dictionary, plus lexical aids in its references and most of the words are underlined with their Strong’s Number referenced.  I really love this Bible because it allows me to look up individual words giving me problems and find what they meant in their original language and finding what different meanings of those words might be in different passages.

The final two Bibles I use are more typical, spiritual application study Bibles.  While not as blatantly self-centered as the Life Application Bible, these two Bibles very blatantly come from a point of view and give footnotes which obviously come from that point of view.  They are the TNIV Study Bible and the ESV Study Bible.  I read these two at the same time.  Many see the ESV and the TNIV as foils of one another.  The TNIV comes from a considerably more liberal viewpoint–it is, like the NRSV, a gender-neutral translation and opts for simpler, more approachable language rather than keeping old English around (“right before dawn” rather than “the fourth watch of the night” or “foreigner” rather than “alien”).  The ESV stays directly in line with the older translations, and many see it as born out of angst against Zondervan and their NIV/TNIV translations.  The notes in these Bibles come from those standpoints.  The ESV Bible, in my opinion, tells me exactly how to think.  There are many times I will highlight a note in that Bible and make some snide comment about it in the margin because it allows no room for thought or consideration from any viewpoint other than theirs.  The TNIV is not so blatant, but it is obviously written from a more liberal point of view, presenting a lot of viewpoints that would be considered heretical by ESV readers.  I like to read both of these Bibles in conjunction with one another because they present the text in sometimes opposing ways.  I like to take into account both viewpoints and make my own decision.

The translation of the Bible into English’s history is a long one, maybe for another post.  But this is how I read the Bible.  It’s a hard thing to do, and I have many leather bound books to show for it, but to me, discovering what the Bible really means is the most important thing I can do.  So, if anything, I don’t do enough.

Something caught my eye a few days ago–a post on Tom Eblen’s blog.  Eblen writes for the Herald-Leader and uses his space to tell of exciting, new, and cool ideas about Lexington and beyond.  Two days ago, he wrote a piece about revitalizing the Tennessee Valley Association.  I really enjoyed this piece, and apparently, I wasn’t the only one.

I hope everybody has heard about the atrocities that occurred in Tennessee when a TVA coal-fired power plant dropped about 1 billion gallons of coal ash into surrounding communities, perhaps causing permanent damage to their water supply.  Taylor Shelton points out the fact that the TVA has become one of the biggest cheerleaders for Mountaintop Removal coal mining, but the piece by Eblen shows that the TVA was once the country’s leader in conservation education.

Eblen’s piece does a great job of showing a possible future.  I think its worth noting that the former chairman from Eblen’s piece was nominated by Jimmy Carter–the last Democratic President who had any sort of progressive energy/environmental policy.  Hopefully President Obama will pick up on the possibility of returning the TVA to its roots.  Doing so would create jobs, make farming a more sustainable lifestyle choice, and help the environment.

So, lets hope it happens.