Sports: Remembering Happier Days for the Mets

I was disappointed when the Mets didn't make the World Series this year. I had them picked to play the Yankees in another subway series, shows how much I know about baseball. With injuries to the Mets pitching staff, though, the Cardinals, who I had picked last make it all the way to the Fall Classic.

In any event, I was waiting for this clip to hit YouTube, when things were looking up for the Mets. A single with men on first and second for the Dodgers should have spelled trouble for the Mets, but instead it turned into the greatest, and dumbest, double play in playoff history. I watched this live and could not believe my eyes. Thanks to DVR I got to not believe my eyes the second and third time either.

Entertainment: Fearless

***1/2 - Fearless stars Jet Li as Huo Yuan Jia in this movie based on a true story from turn of the century China. As China is being ruled and influenced by outsiders, Huo battles in the arena against the best fighters of their occupiers for Chinese pride. At least that's the story suggested by the commercials, and while that is a great part of the story there is much more to this film.

What this movie is really about has nothing to do with national pride but rather personal salvation and how mastering oneself is a greater and harder task than mastering others. We are first introduced to Huo as a child who has great affection for his father but doesn't understand him. Huo watches as his father is beaten in the arena by a rival and swears to never be defeated in his own life. I didn't fully understand Huo's motivation, as his fathers defeat wasn't particularly embarrassing and no one in his house encouraged Huo's lust for revenge, but I guess Huo was just one of those kids with a little bit too much drive in him for his own good. Even after Huo grows and accomplishes his quest, even beating the son of his fathers rival, it is not enough for him.

Huo indulges himself a little too much, his "students" are nothing but drinking buddies who eventually lead him into trouble; financial, spiritual, even his family is not spared. No one can defeat Huo, but it is those around him who are made to pay for his arrogance. This is not just a martial arts film, it is also a compelling and emotional story and I felt Huo's losses, he suffers a great deal and the director never shies away from his anguish. This is essential because it fuels the second half of Fearless, the redemption of Huo.

While Huo does come back from a self-imposed exile and fight foriegn nationals, he does so more with contrition than with pride. He admits to being a bad father and a bad son, but he also has an inner calm that only seems to come to those who have seen and dealt with their own inner evils. He doesn't fight for personal glory, he is fighting to redeem his lost family and himself.

I didn't find this movie to be particularly deep, but there are some philosophies on fighting that Huo shares which help develop him as a character. He has an interesting conversation with a Japanese fighter before a match about different kinds of tea and why Huo doesn't judge them. He feels that people who judge and rate the quality of tea say more about themselves than they do the tea. Everyone has different tastes, and it's the perception that changes, not the tea. It is the same with martial arts, he doesn't feel one school of art is better than another, only that some practitioners are better than others, and the better ones are the those who are winning the struggle within. The arts merely give you tools with which to conquer the conflict within oneself.

I probably would have liked the film more if there had been a little more subtlety. Even in the fight scenes, which are well done, the use of slow motion photography and special effects are a little detracting. Whenever these two techniques are used it always seems to take something away from the reality of the fight. I think what the human body is capable of is amazing and entertaining enough on their own without needing embellishment. Having said that this film is beautifully filmed and is a pleasure to watch. Whether Huo is engaged in battle or working a rice patty every frame is well thought out and full of color and life.

Even if you're not interested in martial arts films, there is much more here for you to enjoy. The film is well rounded, the story is one worth telling, and the relationships depicted are real and carry emotional weight. While not great, I think this movie could appeal to just about anyone.

Society: Why DRM is Stinky

Defective By Design - This is a great ad, I hope lots of people see it. This is why I'm so against DRM (Digital Rights Management). It used to be when you bought a copy of something, you owned it. You could do whatever you wanted with it, other than make copies for other people. You were even allowed to show it to other people, just so long as you retained ownership of your copy. Even then, you could resell it to someone else. Not any more, if the companies using DRM have their way. They don't even want you owning it within your own library for too long, they'd rather you have to liscence it to keep listening to it year after year.

Sigh. I could go on, but... The good news is DRM is fairly easy to defeat for the geeks out there. Every piece of DRM that has been written has either been broken or will be, it's the nature of the software. You can't give someone the lock and the key to play the music or movie with, no matter how well you disguise the key, before someone figures out how to make copies of the key.

Entertainment: Superman Returns

***1/2 - After disappearing for five years (more like nineteen years in real life) Superman returns to the big screen in this sometimes clunky, often poorly thought out, yet nonetheless effective as a whole film from director Bryan Singer.

As a whole I enjoyed this picture, so I’ll start with the things that didn’t work first so I can end with what I liked. The details of the story often don’t work or are just plain stupid. There’s an opening scene where we see how Lex Luther, played by Kevin Spacey, made his initial fortune, basically through an inheritance, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the rest of the plot. It’s not even an interesting or original approach to obtaining money so it’s not necessary. We then see Superman’s return to Earth and find that his reason for the abscence makes no sense. He left to find Krypton which we know to have been destroyed, because astronamers thought they had located it. Again, this doesn’t add anything to the overall plot and does nothing for the movie other than add another ten minutes.

Then there's Luthor's diabolical plot... err... on second thought, just Luthor's plot, there's nothing really diabolical about it. Luthor reasons that the only thing that's ever truly been worth money is land, and since all habitibal land is now habitated, he sets out to make new land made of Kryptonite, basically by pushing the existing United States out of the way. Why he wouldn't just take the pre-existing land by some genious plot is a mystery. Especially once we see the Kryptonite island (remember, we've always seen it as a crystal), it's hard to imagine that kind of land having any real-estate value at all. It's hideous.

Then there are a couple of creepy or wierd aspects to this Superman. He's not quite the alter boy he was in previous films. He spies into Louis' house on one occasion, listening in on her conversations. He's also apparently fathered an illegitamite son with her, as we learn towards the latter half of the film, though you can figure it out pretty quickly. I know I've given something away, but that's because it really doesn't matter to the plot, and that was my problem with that plot point and Superman's blatent violations of peoples right to privacy. Had they served a greater purpose to the story I could accept them, but they don't.

Kate Bosworth's portrayal of Louis Lane is forgettable. To be honest I never really liked the Louis Lane character, but Bosworth made it even worse for me. Louis was always a driven, independant, woman, but in this portrayal she is just completely unlikable. She's not independant with charm, she's femenine elitist, icy cold, and it's hard to imagine what Superman would possible see in her, she's so uninviting. Not to mention Bosworth is too young for the role, it doesn't sync with the earlier movies.

Brandon Routh, on the other hand, is perfect as Superman. He doesn't bring anything new to the character, but his Christopher Reeve impersonation is spot on, sometimes eerily so. Having said that, the one thing Routh does lack is the chops to pull off Clark Kent's goofiness half as well as Reeve had done with the role. But Routh looks and acts the part, and it's easy to accept him as Superman.

What I did like about Superman Returns is that it did one thing done of it's four predecessors did, which was make me care about Superman, as a person. As a kid I wanted to be Superman, but I never cared about him as a character. This newfound appreciation is thanks in large part to the analogy of Superman as a Christ figure which comes up several times. Superman was sent, after all, and as we are reminded by several clips of his father speaking to him from the original Superman (Marlon Brando's voice), by his father to save mankind. I had really missed this point of view in my earlier viewings of Superman. I never really understood what Superman's motivation was before, I guess I just thought of him as being a swell guy, which is kind of boring, but Superman Returns hammers home the point the Superman is here on a mission. It also never lets us forget, thankfully, that he is not one of us. There is a scene in which Superman, frustrated with his relationship with Louis, flys high above the Earth and begins listening to the millions of voices below, looking for those who need his help, and you get the real sense of who Superman is, a father looking over his children.

This caring for humanity is displayed in one other fascit that caught my attention. At no point in this film, that I can recall, does Superman ever do an aggressive thing. In other films Superman has always been tempered, but particularly after he had lost his powers and then regained them in one of the movies, I can't recall which one now, there was a sense of revenge in his tone as he settled a few scores, mainly for comedic effect. None of that here. Superman doesn't even hurt people to stop them from whatever evil it is that they're doing. Mostly he only uses his powers to undo or prevent the evil workings of man. Even when battling Luthor, Superman mainly focuses on reversing what Luthor has done. There is a scene in which Superman is shot in the eye, and after watching the bullet fall harmlessly to the ground we might expect Superman to clobber the guy, or incompasitate him in some, but he merely smiles at the criminal, and the scene ends. This is effective. It highlights Superman's mission, to protect mankind and show them a better way. It also makes him appear to be tougher and stronger that even the special effects can make him look. This is a man so powerful he doesn't need to be violent.

At the end of the film I thought they took the Christ analogy a little too far, though, as Superman nearly sacrifices his life to save humanity. The part I thought was over the top was a shot of Superman falling back to Earth, unconsious, with his arms spread to each side like Christ on the cross. I don't mind analogies, I don't need to be hit over the head with them either. Even so, the shots of his lifeless body falling from outer space all the way down to the ground of Metropolis, to the people he has saved, is well done and effective. I realized Superman's love for mankind is paternal, he is willing to sacrifice himself for people, many of whom will never appreciate it, because knows there is good in them waiting to be saved.

Society: Internet Reveals People in Their Natural Habitat Are Wierd

Ever make those audio tapes as a kid like you were doing a radio show? Ever wonder what would happen if they actually got played on the radio? I guess that's kind of what YouTube is.

Entertainment: Stupid People, Alcohol, and Fire

YouTube - Okay, part of me just wanted to see what it would be like to embed a YouTube file. So there, now I've done it. But this is awfully funny, to me at least. Can you imagine a worse combination, drinking and being on fire? I particularly like the kid's screaming dance while is leg is burning. That'll help. I've seen other videos where the flaming drink trick goes wrong, and you'd think people would realize that playing with fire is dangerous enough, let alone while you're intoxicated.