Arts + Life Nick's List - May 12 | Nick's List - May 12 |
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| By Nick Otten, Special to the Beacon | |
| Last Updated ( Thursday, 05 June 2008 ) | |
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Movie 47
Speed Racer
Book 23
Palestine
OK, try this: Imagine that the WW II winners were the Germans. Would they maybe be interested in a little partitioning of conquered territories? German culture is fascinated by American Indians. Germans often know information about them that we Americans never know. Some Germans can actually identify Indian tribes by their geography and clothing. Germans even hold historical re-enactments of life in American Indian towns every summer, much as we hold Civil War enactments of battles. So: Picture the Germans, having won World War II, with a little revenge on their minds, deciding to give some U.S. land back to the Indians. They want them repaid for the profound mistreatment they suffered, but they also want them out of the way. So, the Germans decide to give the Indians a piece of land all for their own: Texas! Not only do the conquerors give Texas to the Indians, they also supply them with superior fire power, billions of dollars worth whenever necessary, and they let the once-scattered, now re-organized Indians officially disenfranchise the previous “Texans.” The old USA would still exist in the surrounding states, lurking, waiting. Just ask yourself: What do you think would happen for decades to come? As I read Joe Sacco’s already-classic comic journalism account, that’s what seems to have happened in Palestine.
Movie 44
Charlie Wilson’s War (2x)
Like everybody else, apparently, I first heard of Charlie Wilson’s story in this charming, vaguely worrisome movie. So, I read the book (see last week), which is astounding, outrageous, thought-provoking and very, very complicated. So, when the DVD came out, I came back to the movie for a second look. Now it seems downright frivolous. If it’s an exposé, it backfired. If it’s a satire, it backfired. If it’s just a jolly joke, it’s a sick one. Curiouser and curiouser.
book 22
Nicholas
But, mainly, a pleasing anarchy reigns. Of course, when little French boys run away from home, they do it old school. Nicholas claims he’ll come back years later, rich and famous, but he only lasts until he’s late for dinner. He does not return as, say, a contract killer.
Movie 45
Grosse Pointe Blank
Movie 46
High Fidelity
Movie 43 Silent Movie
(Mel Brooks, 1976, silent, 87 m.)
book 21
The Salaryman’s Wife
Movie 42
My Brother Is An Only Child (Mio fratello e figlio unico)
Book 20
The Complete Poems of Stephen Crane
They look so easy. After three or four, they start working on you, tunneling in until they find hidden caves in your mind. Emily Dickinson, indeed. I always know I’m facing strong poetry when I start trying to write my own. If I open an old copy of The Song of Songs or Tao Te Ching I find little groups of lines and questions all over the pages, just as I try to make up songs after I hear Paul Simon or John Prine or Hank Williams. This paperback combines Crane’s two books of poetry, Black Riders and Other Lines and War is Kind plus all the uncollected or unpublished for a total of 135. His first set is better by far.
Movie 41
Baby Mama
Nick Otten is assistant director in the Theater Program at Clayton High School and adjunct professor in the graduate Communications MAT Program at Webster University. He consumes vast quantities of books and movies. In his description of Nick's List, he says, "For every single work, I’ll quickly post a brief commentary — each week, at least 1 book and 2 movies, usually more. Maybe a paragraph, maybe a page. Sometimes, not often, I may go crazy and write some kind of extra, a page or so, on some movie or pair of movies or some genre, actor, or something else, or how one book relates to another or a movie or you or me or us. Such stuff will be just one click away, guaranteed." To read the previous Nick's List posts click May 5 , April 28 , April 21 , March .
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The flashin’est-assed movie I ever saw. Wanna see what can happen when the Matrix Brothers are in a really good mood? The Incredibles go NASCAR. Only it’s not quite a cartoon. The colors are almost garish, but no, they’re — a carnival. Only no grease, no grime, it’s all clean-clean. The heroes drink milk and eat p&j sandwiches made by mom. What a trip! Believe me, 10-year-olds all over America (you can include Canada and Mexico) are re-imagining their personal futures to include being the next Speed Racer. The Racer family has John Goodman as Dad, who can spin a ninja over his head; Susan Sarandon as Mom, nuff said; two of the coolest Racer brothers ever devised (especially Emil Hirsch as Speed). The
dessert is little brother Spritle and his sidekick chimp; they always
manage to save everybody simply by showing up wherever they shouldn’t. And the best corporate villain (Roger Allam) in years. Even his teeth are vicious. How could a little boy NOT like this movie. It also has some kissing but that’s OK, with Christina Ricci cleaned up and shining like a porcelain doll (girls can punch, too). Even the clothes are incredible, and the credits list as many costumers as stuntmen. This movie was made by a behind-the-scenes group of exactly one infini-zillion people, from California to Germany. How can you not admire Industrial Light and Magic yet again? How can you not love a little boy with monkey jammies and his monkey with little-boy jammies? The nation will fall in love with this movie at first sight.
Originally a series of nine comic books, 24-32 pages each, reissued last year as a hardcover book in nine chapters. Sacco does book-length editorial cartooning. The form is unusual and confusing but also growing. Some call it graphic-novel journalism. Sacco calls himself “a comic book artist” and calls his work “comics journalism.” After reading his sharp and thoughtful book on the Bosnian wars of the 1990s, Safe Area Gorazde, I decided to try his earlier work on the Israelis and the Palestinians. I’ve never understood Palestine. And whenever I don’t understood something, I try to find a local analogy. For Palestine, that trick has given me a frightening surprise. What started me thinking about an analogy to the U.S. was a character’s claim that the meanest Israelis are the ones from Europe. An old Palestinian in Hebron tells Sacco that the Eastern Jews from Iran and North Africa are easier to live with. I realized that Israel, as we know it now, is a kind of left-over action from the old British Empire or, if you prefer, the WW II Allied partitioning of the world. The British put Israel into that spot, neatly getting the profoundly mistreated Jews out of Europe and into their ancient homeland. Safe and out of the way. Of course, the locals didn’t agree. The Israelis saw a huge empty land with a few scattered towns in the way. The Palestinians saw a national land grab and 700,000 people native to the area having to flee.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, as the rough-talking working-class CIA spy, Gust Avrakotos, nearly walks away with yet another movie — and that’s significant considering the movie keeps presenting beautiful women, sometimes naked, and eventually turns to big-time explosions of Russian weaponry, sometimes real. The script is also exceptionally witty and rude. Plus Julia Roberts and Amy Adams. Tom Hanks as Charlie Wilson is a cross between Davy Crockett, Dennis the Menace and a slick realty agent. The whole movie is just eye-popping fun, besides being more or less true.
Nick’s List is barely a month old and already I have made a factual error. So, this will be a confession, dammit. Two weeks ago, I reported that I had read a wise little book, It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be, and said I bought it at the Art Museum. Wrong. My confusion was clear even in the commentary. I actually bought that book — I don’t like this — at the Anthropologie store at the Galleria. Maybe the girlie-est store I know of. I remember going in there now. I clearly suppressed the fact in my subconscious. See, they have of all these weird old workbenches in there, that’s what drew me in, not any clever candles or scented dress hangers, OK? Anyway, they had books in there! Some surprisingly cool books. For instance, they had On Bullshit. I already have that book, but I was impressed. So that’s where I really bought It’s Not How Good You Are… . While I was there, I found another book that interested me. What can I say, the title was Nicholas. Written by the Frenchman who wrote the great Asterix comics and illustrated by JJ Sempé, who is still doing New Yorker covers. Nicholas may as well be just another American boy, except in France, and he’s always in hilarious trouble. (Describing Sempé the illustrator, the book says, “Born in Bordeaux, France, in 1932, Sempé was expelled from school for bad behavior.”) The kid’s pals are all as good-bad as he is. I admit that the translator makes the story a bit Brritt-ish sometimes: “I started crying, to be on the safe side, because Mom was looking very cross indeed, so then Mom didn’t say anything, she took me into the bathroom and sponged me with eau de Cologne and gave me clean pyjamas because the ones I was wearing had got milk and cream cake all over them.”
More John Cusack. Lotsa fun, post-teenage style. Here’s a pipe-dream for you: run away from school on prom night of senior year and become a contract killer (of bad people only). You get to wear all black all the time and return 10 years later to smoke a little with old friends and give your hot ex-girlfriend an airplane and kill people at the class reunion with complimentary inkpens and stuff. You can even get your old house blown sky-high sorta. Oh yeah. John Cusack, forever young. Minnie Driver, hot. Dan Aykroyd, over the top. Jeremy Piven and Joan Cusack, cool and cool. Plus funny surprise details, if you care about such stuff: Alan Arkin, Jenna Elfman, Detroit (clean), title allusions.
John Cusack once again as the all-time American un-grown-up man. (What’s with the British, anyway? Peter Pan is sort of a girl, OK. For the alert reader, this parenthesis is an ironic riddle. Hint: Nick Hornby.) So Cusack hangs out in Chicago with super-slackers like Jack Black and gets all women but acts like he doesn’t and he deejays and produces CDs for killer music kids with killer hair and it’s just so — yeah. This movie will talk to you — no, really, it actually talks directly to you. Feels like teen spirit, right down to the thrift shop tee shirts. More to the point, most teenagers I know claim they couldn’t live without their music. They know — even their own lives feel so random without a soundtrack. And if I can’t make the compilation CD of my unique life, who can? OK, fine, maybe these guys can.
Totally dumb. Also, it’s actually even silent for the first 60 seconds or so. Maybe the volume is broken? That’s already a bit funny and nearly frightening. Then the first gag happens, also funny, and then the music finally comes on. The “nonstop parade of sight gags” begins, plus many jokes about what the screen shows them saying versus what the next card says they said. Although the whole exercise was mostly tedious, I still laughed out loud five or 10 times. ‘Exercise’ is perfect because the experience felt like calisthenics, but funny anyway, almost as if Mel Brooks somehow cheats. I sat thinking, ho-hum, maybe I’ll quit — then, pow, LOL. Brooks and his usual crew (Marty Feldman, Dom DeLuise, Sid Caesar, et al) are so inexplicably funny sometimes they can take over your brain. I even laughed aloud after the movie, just remembering. My personal favorite is a love scene that includes road apples from a horse — a sight gag that will make you laugh even though I told you it’s coming. -- Want to read more about silent movies. 
First in a series of murder mysteries featuring a feisty young Japanese-American woman living in Japan. She’s an antiques expert and independent as hell, even rude about it. The series is already up to five titles or more. The author herself is one seriously global woman. She’s born in England of parents from Germany and India and lives in Baltimore. Her bilingual sleuth is Rei Shimura, whose requisite gang-of-helpers includes at least four good men: a studly Scots solicitor, a 50ish American businessman, Rei’s gay Canadian roommate, and her Japanese cousin, the handsome doctor. For a first novel, this story is complex, long, smooth, and fast — perfect for mystery-lovers. It won an Agatha Award for best first novel in 1997. Number two in the series is Zen Attitude, which I intend to try.
I found this movie odd, first, then more and more interesting. The story is basically about the love-hate wrangles between a Communist brother and a neo-Fascist brother in Italy in the late 1960s and 1970s. That may sound daunting but it’s really a comic family love story soaking in politics. The setting in the town of Latina is presented with all the weight that name can carry for Italians. The point-of-view comes from the Fascist younger brother (Elio Germano), nicknamed Accio, “the bad one,” but he’s funny even while he’s trying to be tough. He says things like, “I’m your Uncle Accio, not your accio uncle.” And he keeps trying to fix Everything, which continuously seems to be crashing all around him. The Communist older brother (Riccardo Scarmacio) is Accio’s dashing mentor-nemesis. The story also contains a splendid heart-breaking girlfriend, a few genuine thugs and a curious ending. But I keep going back to the struggle between Communist and Fascist politics and thinking that this movie felt so foreign. (Coming to Plaza Frontenac May 16)
Having told a teacher that I read all the poems of Stephen Crane every year or two, I got out the book just to take a look and spent the evening working my way through again. His strange little poems are notoriously simple-looking. Legend says he was inspired by listening to William Dean Howells read Emily Dickinson’s newly published poems to him aloud. Crane’s poems are all numbered and untitled, unrhymed and short, often philosophical little arguments between gods, mountains and men. Some are like Zen koans, some like Christian parables. Here’s a sample, No. 29:
Funny while you’re there, then it’s over. A little too sitcommy for me. Sometimes I felt like I was watching Mary Tyler Moore navigate the totally-unmean streets. Considering the title — the cool black doorman (Romany Malco) says: “You pay the bills and she has the baby. Every black man in Philadelphia knows what that means.” — you’d think this movie would have some more edge. It does have a thieving white trash couple at the center, but they’re so clean. When a grown woman pees in a sink and she just looks cute, you know something PG-13 is happening. Tina Fey is the cool but uptight exec who wants a baby so bad she’ll pay another woman to carry it. Amy Poehler is Tom Sawyer with a womb for hire.
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Editors' Picks
- Books
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The demise of the book is greatly exaggerated. The phone book, dictionaries and encyclopedia are over. But life will go on for beautiful printing that provides words that transform. | James Gleick, New York Times
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"To Kill a Mockingbird" is the selection for the upcoming St. Louis Big Read, which is organized by Washington University. Dozens of events, including a staging of the play at the Edison Theater, will take place throughout January and February 2009.
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Author Michael Crichton dies at age 66: The creator of "Jurassic Park" and "Andromeda Strain" had been battling cancer, his family said. | New York Times
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Roger Ebert: To Studs: With Love and Memories. | The Huffington Post
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- Theater/Dance
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Ballet Eclectica’s “The Little Dancer Goes Around the World!” will be presented by the COCA Family Theatre Series for four shows at 7 p.m. Dec. 12, 11 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Dec. 13, and 1:30 Dec. 14 AT COCA, 524 Trinity Avenue. Tickets are $14 and $18 and are available through MetroTix and COCA Box Office (314-725-1834 x124).
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Come to the Union Avenue Christian Church, 733 Union Avenue, from noon to 1 p.m. Dec. 10 as students from nine St. Louis Public Schools perform international dances. The program is sponsored by Springboard to Learning & Young Audiences of St. Louis.
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The New Jewish Theater presents "The Last Seder" Dec. 3-21. Four daughters, each with a respective partner, have gathered to say goodbye to a loved who is already gone - patriarch Marvin who suffers from Alzheimer’s.
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"9 Parts of Desire" opens Nov. 7 at the St. Louis Actors' Studio. The play runs through Nov. 23 (Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Sundays at 2 p.m.) at The Gaslight Theater 358 N. Boyle Ave. For tickets, Ticketmaster.com or 314-421-4400.
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- Music
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Come to the Touhill Center at UMSL from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Dec. 3 for the third “Warren Bellis Clarinet and Saxophone Festival,” a series of clinics and performances. For info: 314-516-2263.
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Jason Braun's project - Jason and the Beast - mixes hip hop with retelling classics from Homer to Shakespeare. Check out the work in an all-ages show at 8 p.m. Dec. 17 at the Focal Point in Mapelwood. $5 at the door.
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The UMSL Community Chorus, University Singers, University Orchestra and Vocal Point will put on a holiday concert at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 9 at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center. For information about the free concert call 314-516-5980 or go to www.umsl.edu/~umslmusic/ The concert will include "Christmas Oratorio," "Carol of the Bells," traditional carols, Trumpet Concerto by Felix Mendelssohn and "O Magnum Mysterium."
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UMSL will present "Soul of the Season with Brian Owens and faculty and students from the Department of Music at UMSL at 7 p.m. Dec. 11 at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $5. For information, call 314-516-4949. Proceeds will benefit the Office of Multicultural Relations at UMSL.
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- Neighborhoods
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"Gorillas in Her Midst" is the topic of a lecture by Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, African conservationist, at the St. Louis Zoo on Dec. 9. Doors will open at the Living World building at 6:30 p.m., with the lecture starting at 7 p.m. Reservations are encouraged 314-646-4771.
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Alice S. Handelman, president of The Press Club of Metropolitan St. Louis,has been honored as a 25 year member of National Federation of Press Women.The recognition was presented in Idaho Falls, Idaho, at the annual nationalcommunications conference of NFPW. Handelman was community relations director at Jewish Center for Aged for 18 years.
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Come to the Missouri Botanical Garden from 9 am. to 5 p,m. the Best of Missouri Market where you can find more than 120 artisans from throughout the state.
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Come to the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House from 5:30-7 P.m. on Oct. 3 and 10 for OctoberOwl Outings. Reservations, which are required, can be made online or at 636-733-2339. The "owls" are owl butterflies, which get their name from the underside of their wings, which resemble a bright yellow owl eye surrounded by rich, chocolate-colored feathers. These creatures are also most active in the evening.
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- Visual Arts
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Come to COCA, 524 Trinity Ave., from 6-8 p.m. Dec. 5 for the opening reception for Jill Evans Petzall: In-Different Light. The free exhibit continues through Jan. 18, 2009. For information, 314-725-6555.
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Mark Douglas, Bob Reuter and Antje Umstaetter have their photography on view at the Gallery at the Regional Arts Commission until Dec. 21. For info, visit www.art-stl.com
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Get Out the Vote - an installation of 22 posters - is on view now through 2008 in the Arthur and Helen Baer Visual Arts Galleries in the Centene Center for Arts and Education, 3547 Olive Street in Grand Center. The galleries are open Monday-Friday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
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Too often elitism is linked with being snobbish and condescending when in fact for many people it is a commitment to quality in various, if not all parts, of our lives. The Atlantic reports on the affecting elitism of Phillippe de Montebello , soon to retire as director of one of the world's greatest museums, the Metropolitan in New York City.
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- Movies/TV
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Project Runway: Bravo won't accept Heidi's "auf wiedersehen." The Weinstein Co. sold the rights to the series to Lifetime, but NBC Universal sued, saying it had a right of first refusal (Bravo is owned by NBC.) A judge has issued a preliminary injunction preventing Lifetime from promoting or broadcasting "Runway." | The New York Times
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"City of Lost Children" La Cité des enfants perdus plays at 8 p.m. Dec. 3 at Schlafly Bottleworks, 7260 Southwest Avenue, Maplewood, as part of the Webster Film Series. $4.
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Eating St. Louis, hour-long program based on the book of the same title by Patricia Corrigan, will be broadcast at 7 p.m. Dec. 1 on KETC/Channel 9 . The show explores five aspects of food culture in the area, from farming to how St. Louisans like pizza prepared.
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Co-writer of movie "Meet Me in St. Louis" dies at age 94: Irving Brecher was nominated for an Oscar for his work on the 1944 Judy Garland film. | Los Angeles Times
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Firecracker Press
To read the story about the upcoming Community Cinema showing of "Helvetica," which will include a demonstration by Eric Woods and Matty Kleinberg of the Firecracker Press, click here .
Voices
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In the News
What do we make of an online publisher in Pasadena who hires reporters living in India to cover his community? It is apparently a business model that works. Beacon contributing editor Dick Weiss and McGraw Milhaven discuss this and one reporter's method of dealing with the buyout blues on the McGraw Show on KTRS-AM (550-AM). Click here to listen to the podcast.
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Editorial Cartoons
Shopping and bailouts and Christmas wishes - it's all economy all the time. Check out the work of Marshall Ramsey, John Sherffius, Bruce Beattie and Gary Markstein.
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In the News
Posted 12:10 p.m. Mon. Dec. 1 - The circumstances in this presidential election made it extremely difficult for any Republican to win. But political scientist Lana Stein points out that bashing opponents is becoming old had and people may well start to turn off or tune out those ads. (Illustration from a cartoon by Chris Britt.)
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Beacon Columnists
Posted: 5 a.m. Wed. Nov. 26 - Columnist M.W. Guzy looks back on the time the police department boxing coach asked him to join the team. Even though he declined, "reasoning that if
training would minimize my chances of getting hit, staying out of the
ring entirely should pretty much neutralize the threat," he still recommends supporting and attending the annual "Guns 'N Hoses" event, which supports the Backstoppers organization.
The Lens
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Looking back at the St. Louis International Film Festival, this committed movie watcher says the vast majority of offerings were well done.
Giving Back
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