- My brain was comfortably shut down for the holidays, and this film single-handedly jolted it back into action.
- I do not want to like George Clooney. I managed to resist really liking him after Out of Sight and Ocean's Eleven, by watching Solaris, and always remembering that he was once a handyman on the The Facts of Life. Now, I actually feel badly for him that he somehow got roped into starring in Batman & Robin.
- I do not want to like movies where the consumption of cancer sticks are celebrated. Almost every frame of the film had cigarette smoke in it. Worse yet, if Edward Murrow had not been such a damned chain-smoker, he might have lived an extra decade or so instead of developing lung cancer. And let me tell you, even an additional year of Murrow lost is something to be mourned.
- I do not want to like movies that are period pieces. Really, I feel too much of the time, period pieces are nostalgia for things I am not nostalgic about. I'm not nostalgic for the days of slavery. I'm not nostalgic for the days before women could vote or own land. I don't enjoy celebrating a time when rich white people got to throw posh parties and flounce about in nice ballroom gowns. Granted, the 1950's are not quite that period, but it still always strikes me with a tinge of "ah, so this is an excuse for why they don't have any sort of diversity in their cast." But still, I can't rant about this in Good Night, and Good Luck. It almost seemed the point of the movie. Yes, this is about a time where average white people were afraid of being branded reds, but the parallel to current day is plainly obvious.
- There is no Murrow of our generation. When we walked out of the theater, SP and I could only come up with Jon Stewart, and he is a comedian, and also not above reproach. I do not mean that Stewart has obvious flaws. But Murrow had cred. He had rose to fame during his coverage of WW II, and that gave him the ability to take on someone as powerful as McCarthy. Moreover, the way the media was previously positioned was so vastly different than it is today. Now, as soon as someone comes out and takes a stand, a rival network comes out and brands that as biased journalism. Murrow could get away with putting his foot down and saying "I can't accept the idea that every issue has two equally reasonable sides to it." No one seems to be able to proclaim that about even the simplest of things (that was my obligatory Intelligent Design pot-shot for the day).
- In the movie theater, a pair of aged hippies were whooping it up during the previews, and whispering excitedly during the beginning of the film, no doubt taking a walk down activist memory lane or something. Hey, it is San Francisco, and I have to admit that I was actually rather amused by it. But then, a current activist, Berkeley-froed punk turned and told them to keep it down. Dude, there was an age gap of at least 30 years between them. He shushed his elders?!?
Because I was all riled up by the movie, I was pleased to reconnect with my NPR morning routine on work days. And yes, for some bizarre reason, I am working today. The company gave us the entire week between Christmas and New Year's off, but today, when everyone else and their brother has off, they felt we should be plugging away. Fine with me. There is actually such a low turn-out that one of my co-workers wants to do a poll tomorrow to see how many people knew they were supposed to be in today.
On NPR this morning were two pieces that warmed me right up on this cold, rainy San Francisco day. I woke up to Alan Lightman detailing what he believes, but a guest blogger on Saheli's site has done a much better job of capturing that than I could. The other piece was also written up in the NYT- D.C. as a state (not as the nation's governing centre) increased minimum wage. Since California is currently governed by someone once termed the Terminator, a proposed minimum wage hike in this state was vetoed. Still, seventeen states have increased the minimum wage from the paltry $5.15 an hour set by the federal government. The reason this news warms me up is that people are getting tired of all the bullsh*t at the federal level. I know some economist could read this and give me a laundry list of reasons why raising the minimum wage is bad. But the fact that states are passing this legislation means that constituents support it. Constituents are not being adequately represented in Congress, and they are choosing to take it to the streets, in a manner of speaking. And if you want to know why that warms my cold, dead, black heart, it's because that is how the progressive movement started in the early part of the last century.
Another piece of news warmed me up after giving me an initial myocardial infarction. My friend B, the only non-blogging friend who knows I blog, left a ridiculously calm message on my answering machine last night that involved the bombshell news that she was proposed to on New Year's Eve. Note to future people delivering such news: sound unusually peppy, so that I have some warning, and don't do a doubletake that gives me whiplash at 11 pm at night. And yes, that is my way of saying congratulations, and I am immensely happy for you. In other news, I was also proposed to, but on Christmas, and by a drunken GBF. Not quite as bombshell news, but it did earn me a kiss when the clock struck twelve on New Year's.
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