Halloween at the Bijou

I don't think Mommy likes me -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
I just returned from a week-long vacation in LA and Palm Springs. As soon as I gather my thoughts and notes about all that, I may post a travelogue; I caught a bad cold halfway through the week and it has slowed down my thought process. That doesn’t stop me from doing a movie review (triple-header) however...

ORPHAN
This morning I watched a movie made for Halloween -- Orphan. The movie is basically a retelling of 1956’s Bad Seed which has Patty McCormack as the evil, possessed child. Orphan features less well-known actors, and has a very talented 12 year-old named Isabelle Fuhrman in the role of the disturbed 9 year old orphan, Esther. The movie has received some bad press because it seems to cast shadows on the whole adoption process. The movie company had to change it’s ad campaign as a response. "It must be difficult to love an adopted child as much as your own," was switched to "I don’t think Mommy likes me very much."

I wasn’t too keen that (early in the movie) she was singled out as potentially evil for being precocious or having a large vocabulary for her age. What are we implying? Must you be a dunce to not be evil? There I went and used a word like “dunce” -- hoping that doesn’t put me in the evil category. The movie has you believe that the step siblings wouldn’t report Esther’s bizarre, violent behavior to the parents. I guess movies need incredible events to proceed. Have to confess that I enjoyed some of the sillieness -- it's easily worth a $1 redbox rental fee.

WHATEVER WORKS
This small-budget Woody Allen movie challenges our assumptions about what normal really is, when a “normal” family from the deep south dissolves. The daughter seeks life’s answers in Manhattan, rooming with an old, acerbic retired physicist played by Larry David. The mother tracks her down, soon followed by the father. I won’t divulge what happens but each person experiences self-discovery in the unfettered setting of the Big Apple. I can’t say that the movie is ground-breaking since Allen and others have done similar topics in movies like Annie Hall and Manhattan.

MAIDEN HEIST
Can’t help but think that this was a “straight-to-video” movie since I never saw theater ads for it. It features three museum guards who scheme to keep a new curator from moving some of their favorite exhibits off to a museum in Denmark. They work up a plan to substitute forgeries for the real items and all manner of buffoonery ensues. With Morgan Freeman, William H Macy and Christopher Walken, even this “B” movie was an enjoyable use of time while I was answering the door for trick-or-treaters. I am reminded of what Carrot Top said on Jay Leno: “I make my movies right in the video store, and cut out the middle man”. While that makes no sense it still made me laugh out loud.

OK, I’ve had my 3rd dosages of Wal-Phed and still feel like crapola. Have done all the usual things -- fluids, rest, chicken soup. Maybe about three more movies will bring me around. I have a busy week at work next week, as well as my first on-call rotation so we’ll keep our fingers crossed that everything works out OK.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Fear No Evil

Nurses in training during the 1918 Pandemic -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
With all of the attention being given to H1N1 in the media, it’s interesting to compare this pandemic to the notorious Spanish Flu of 1918. The Spanish Flu was named for Spain because Spain (which remained neutral in WWI) is the only country that would give flu updates during the war-time news blackout. Spanish Flu was actually world-wide. It was a form of influenza A and a subtype of H1N1 – the same lovely bug we have now.

There are lingering arguments about whether it was avian or swine, and how exactly it started. Spanish Flu raged from 1918 to 1920 and is thought to have killed 50-100 million people worldwide. A third of the world’s population was infected and it’s deemed by some to be the worst epidemic in medical history. In the USA, 500,000-675,000 people died. The statistics are sketchy because some people struck by the flu actually died from more immediate causes – like preexisting diseases or accidents.

It’s thought that the disease originated in China, came to Boston, MA where it mutated and then forged on to Brest, France. The ongoing World War I abetted the virus due to frequent troop movements, and troops living in close quarters. Some historical perspective has probably been lost, because so much more focus was given to World War I (another kind of “pandemic” where humans kill humans for territorial reasons – another blog entirely).

There are some things about Spanish Flu that were oddities in 1918 but mirror the situation today. Many of the 1918 victims were healthy young adults. Half the fatalities were people between 20 and 40 years of age. A rapid response (called a “cytokline storm”) from a healthy immune system caused young peoples’ lungs to fill with fluid. Other symptoms differed from now and were quite alarming -- bleeding from mucous membranes and the ears. The Spanish Flu was at its worst during summer months where “normal” flu outbreaks more typically happen in the winter. Spanish Flu came in two waves. The first wave was more innocuous – the second wave of late 1918 was far deadlier.

Very oddly, the Spanish Flu ended as suddenly as it started. In Philadelphia, 4,597 died one week in October; one month later there were no fatalities and almost no one with any lingering illness. Some people speculated at the time that treatments improved dramatically – but there’s no real evidence of that. More recent speculation is that the virus might have done a “self-limiting” mutation to quit killing its human hosts. It’s actually in the interest of the virus for its host to live a long life (for viral reproduction) – hence the non-fatal staying power of viruses such as chicken pox and various herpes strains.

There is a long list of well-known people who suffered from the 1918 pandemic including Walt Disney, Lillian Gish and English prime minister David Lloyd George. The Spanish Flu has resurfaced in pop culture – in David Morrell’s If I Die Before I Wake (1997) and Thomas Mullen’s Last Town on Earth (2006) which both speak to the impact on small American towns. The H1N1 that we have now is alarming by 2009 standards but has taken a comparatively paltry 5000 lives worldwide. Still, we have to wonder “what evil lurks” not just in the hearts of men, but in ordinary proximity to poultry, pigs and other well-meaning humans.

© 2009 blogSpotter

DART Has Arrived

Look a-yonder comin'... -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
DART is the Dallas Area Rapid Transit – it came into existence in 1983 as a regional replacement to the more local Dallas Transit System. Featuring 45 miles of track (not counting another 45 miles under construction) and 115 Kinki Sharyo rail cars, DART is the nation’s largest and most rapidly expanding light rail project.

DART had a dodgy beginning; many Texans didn’t think that light rail would work for a Texas maverick state of mind. Coppell and Flower Mound even voted themselves out of the project early on. With the advent of the blue/red lines in the mid-1990’s and the green line in 2009, the rail system has proved the naysayers wrong – daily ridership is currently at 228,300 and going up as we speak.

I’ve already shared my feelings of civic appreciation and amazement in one of my earlier blogs (“Dallas Under the Wrecking Ball”). In that blog, I lamented the destruction of Dallas’s historical landmarks but held DART as a saving grace for an otherwise commercially oriented city. Also, I marveled at the fact that a Bush/Perry-loving red state could have such an exemplary mass transit project. Mass transit after all, is vaguely socialistic in its goals. It’s the ultimate democratization of transportation. The irony, the irony.

How do I love light rail? Let me count the ways….

ECOLOGY
Clearly, the fewer cars on the road, the less the air pollution. Even beyond that, you can reduce the need for highways, parking lots and parking garages. Also fewer unsightly auto-related enterprises – service stations and oil change shops. In Dallas, that should be no great loss to our suburb-oriented economy but a great boon to the visual appeal of the city proper.

ECONOMY
Transit oriented development is a fact in established Northern cities like NYC and Chicago. Dallas has had major transit development at Mockingbird Station, City Place and Eisemann Center in Richardson. To borrow from Kevin Costner: if you build it they will come. People who dread parking downtown or fear having their cars towed at the State Fair will now hop on a train.

TOURISM
I’ve traveled to Paris, France and Sydney, Australia. In both cities, I must confess that I didn’t do my homework and figure out a visitor itinerary. Each city’s subway map gave me an excellent start in spite of that. The city’s promoters make sure to put a stop at anything remotely interesting. Museums, parks, historical monuments, trendy bar areas and shopping districts will all get a stop as well as informative blurbs in the maps about what all to see at each station. People can get off at a station, explore the local ‘hood, and hop back on.

STRUCTURE
A transit system gives structure, even meaning to a city suffering from urban sprawl. A “what are we about” and “where are we going” discussion is the very literal precursor to any new track being laid. What’s that you say? There’s no DART train going to Lancaster Avenue or La Prada in Mesquite? Well, it could be that those areas lack the potential ridership or places of interest. Also, could be the member cities cheaped out on the DART tax. Planning, discussion and more discussion – all are required to put rail into place.

CONCLUSION
What to make of all this? It’s very nearly socialist in nature. Every committed DART rail user is flipping a finger at Ford, Audi or Shell Oil. Any opportunities lost to the auto or oil industry are gains to transit-oriented construction, general retail, the arts and tourism to name but a few. If you haven’t already, set aside one sunny afternoon to check out the exhibits at Fair Park in Dallas – and by all means take the Green Line to get there.


© 2009 blogSpotter

Redbox Killed the Video Store

The little red box that could... -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Redbox LLC is a company that specializes in vending machine retail of DVD's. I recently started seeing these "red boxes" popping up at various familiar places around town -- HEB, Walgreens and Wal-Mart to name a few. Thought nothing much of it; I currently rent movies from Apple TV which is the ultimate in butt-on-the-couch convenience if you don't mind the $2.99 rental fee for a standard-definition movie. Netflix offers a similar service with the Roku set-top box -- customers can rent and stream a movie to the TV without leaving the house (or even the couch).

Not everyone can afford Netflix or Apple TV -- both of these services have hefty entry fees (purchase of the set-top box) or a monthly service charge. When I recently visited my Mother in Round Rock, she lamented that her favorite Hollywood Video was being shuttered. She doesn't have Netflix or Apple and the nearest Blockbuster is a ways away from her house. We were in a bit of a quandary until we saw the Redbox summoning us at a nearby Walgreens.

Several things amazed me right off that bat. The vending machine has an easy, intuitive interface with a huge selection of recently released movies available for rent. More amazing is the price structure:

$1/movie per night.
$1/night late fee.
After 25 nights, you’ve purchased the movie for $25.00.

All transactions are Debit or Credit card; you can get a receipt and track late fees if you supply an optional email ID. My Mom and I rented 3 movies (Wolverine: X-Men for me, Management and another chick flick for her). Total cost with tax, for 3 new movies: $3.25.

That same 3 movies would run about $9.71 from Apple or Blockbuster. They’d be cheaper on Netflix but since most of Netflix movies are mailed you have a very delayed movie gratification. Apple, Blockbuster and Netflix have the advantage of selection depth. If I want Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Redbox won’t have it. I discovered one other Redbox drawback when returning my movies; there can only be one person served at a time. All I wanted to do was return 3 movies – had to be patient and let the customer make his careful choices. It was lightly misting so I got to get wet while I waited.

Redbox had a little hiccup when 3 movie studios (Universal, 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers) thought that Redbox’s cheap prices would eat into their own sales. The studios put in a 28-day delay for new releases, prompting a suit from Redbox. As of this writing, the suit is still active, advantage Redbox. Looks like the studios’ actions could be seen as monopolistic although the jury is still out.

CONCLUSION
If you are a person “of means” you might like Apple TV best of all. You have a huge selection with instant streaming delivery to your TV. You don’t even have to put down the popcorn or the remote control. Netflix is a middling choice – I personally don’t want to wait for a movie to be mailed to me. Blockbuster is becoming less and less relevant (except for their own DVDPlay vending machines which compete with Redbox). Very shortly the only customer base for Blockbuster will be technology-challenged old people or the economically disadvantaged who can’t afford broadband.

What does that leave at the “economy” end of the DVD rental market? It leaves Redbox of course. People will brave the wind, rain and occasional waits to rent fantastic movies at $1 a pop. Chances are, you have a Redbox machine at the end of your street. And chances are, after you see the amazing convenience and selection to be had, you’ll be a Redbox convert.

ADDENDUM
This blog has some erroneous info and I need to amend it. First a simple factual correction -- the Netflix box is Roku not Roxio as stated earlier.

Also, Apple appears to have the 20+ day delay on current movie releases. Several movies now on redbox won't be available for rent from Apple until mid-November. Frequently the Apple movie server is slow and your movie selection isn't available to view until hours after it's been rented. This makes the "instant gratification" factor cited above way less important and less accurate. Apple is still great -- when it serves up the movie quickly or it's the exact movie someone is looking for. But redbox is looking better all the time.

© 2009 blogSpotter

Stupid Human Tricks

Say what? -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Before tackling the Letterman topic, I'd like to talk about Obama. A letter today in the DMN described this term as "Yes We Can't". Obama's health care initiative stalled out in committee, he was rebuffed on his quest for Chicago Olympics, and according to Paul Krugman (in today’s op-ed), we still have a recession and need more stimulus. Also, Afghanistan is getting uncomfortably close to a quagmire status with no end in site. If I were a Sunday pundit, I’d be giving Obama a “C” right now. It’s still better than Bush’s “D-“ but not much. Obama needs to lead now, and quit speechifying.

LETTERMAN
I was really surprised last Thursday when David Letterman told his Late Show audience that he had just been victimized with blackmail and extortion. It seems Robert Halderman, a producer on 48 Hours, was threatening to disclose information about a series of sexual affairs Letterman carried on with staffers (including recently). Halderman was seeking $2 million to quiet the story and was justifiably arrested for his actions.

The story did pique my curiosity because a successful producer at the same network hardly seems like your average extortion artist. Why would he sacrifice so much for really so little? It turns out that there’s quite a bit more. Halderman was having dire financial problems, facing bankruptcy. Still, that wouldn’t necessarily push someone to do something desperate and illegal. But on top of that, Halderman and Letterman were romancing the same young woman. Apparently Letterman maintains a “stabbin’ cabin” right there at the Ed Sullivan Theater for all his staffing dalliances. This woman was a “dalliance” to Letterman, but a serious love interest to Halderman.

Now we’re talking. In the “what I did for love” annals, this could be an entry. Maybe Halderman’s defense could be “crazy in love” or “insanely jealous”. He had both a romantic and monetary motive – neither one sufficient to justify blackmail or extortion.

What of Letterman’s career and marriage? Well, he’s not a politician so the bar is a little lower for showbiz types. That a talk show host diddles around isn’t nearly as momentous as for politicians who are supposed to be perfect. He made a public apology yesterday to his wife, Regina, and one just has to hope that it takes. When I look at Letterman’s bespectacled, slightly befuddled picture I have trouble seeing him as a Don Juan. This old grandpa with heart trouble was breaking hearts?!

Whatever. I still like Letterman and could care less about his private life. Hope he works it out with the wife and doesn’t let up on the Elliot Spitzer jokes. We care about the sex lives of presidential candidates and attorney generals. Talk show hosts? Not so much.

© 2009 blogSpotter