Similarity

It would appear to be a hair match.
Um, who is Lalaine?

Carols

Thanks to Jay for sharing the following seasonal funny (and providing further proof that ADD and ME share some commonalities). Enjoy!

Mental Health Christmas Carols

• Schizophrenia - Do You Hear What I Hear?
• Multiple Personality Disorder - We Three Kings Disoriented Are
• Dementia - I Think I'll be Home for Christmas
• Narcissistic - Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me
• Manic - Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees and.....
• Paranoid - Santa Claus is Coming to Get Me
• Borderline Personality Disorder - Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire
• Personality Disorder - You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, Maybe I'll Tell You Why
• Attention Deficit Disorder - Silent night, Holy oooh look at the Froggy - can I have a chocolate, why is France so far away?
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...

Seeing

There's a movie review coming. First, an aside: Channel flipping this weekend I came across the movie Timeline, based on the formulaic but entertaining Michael Crichton novel. I had wanted to see how they turned book into movie but heard outcome was rather poor, so it seemed a good Sunday afternoon freetime flick. Yup, book got lost in the transfer (which if you know the story has double meaning). But that wasn't the point I planned to make. One of the characters was played by Tony Blair, or rather the actor who had quite ably portrayed Tony Blair in The Queen. He's rather distinctive looking and I commented to David how strange it was that I had no recollection of having seen him in anything and then he appears in two movies in a row I'd watched. Well, he is also in Blood Diamond. How weird is that? Three movies in a row. Michael Sheen--keep an eye out for him.

MOVIE REVIEW
Blood Diamond stars Leonardo DiCaprio in yet another action adventure message movie about good and bad coexisting and there being no easy answers. Well, apart from the apparently easy choices of protecting innocent lives and not coveting falsely rare diamonds. David commented that the backstory introduction about unrest in Sierra Leone was simplistic. At the end I asked him for his view on the accuracy and he conceded the movie was pretty good. So I can with an informed spirit tell you I recommend this movie. It's got violence and guns and lots of dead people (some bad/corrupted men and boys, and lots of innocent people). There is not one sex scene (David guessed it wouldn't be fitting the style of the movie and he was right). DiCaprio and Djimon Honsou are good; the secondary characters are thoroughly predictable types.

Oh, what's it all about? It's just your everyday quest for life, peace, wealth, justice--in shifting order. The journey focuses on two men. Denny Archer is a diamond smuggler in the diamonds-for-weapons trade of Africa (movie serves as passionate introduction to conflict diamonds). Archer lives by a fatalist philosophy of TIA--"This is Africa". He encounters an idealistic, adventure-seeking, comely female American reporter (played by Jennifer Connelly) who wants Denny's story; she's frustrated that nothing meaningful about this horrid business can be fact checked for publication (Her part is I suppose necessary to story but frustratingly simplistic). She sees the good in Denny, though he's not so ready to be good. Then there's Solomon, a nice African villager whose world falls apart one day when the Revolutionary United Front come and take him away, destroy his village, then take his promising young son into their arms (a nice play on words I did there). Solomon is forced to pan for diamonds in Kono, where he finds and hides a massive pink diamond. Denny learns of this diamond and convinces Solomon to take him to it so they both can get what they want.

As the Rolling Stones pointed out, "You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometime, well you just might find, you get what you need." Blood Diamond is a bit preachy in spots, and the violence is brutal, but it rings true, and the pace and story keep you interested. I liked the complexity of the two main characters and the focus on important world events that don't get even the "one minute on CNN" that Connelly's reporter character predicts for them.

Queenie

MOVIE REVIEW
The following movie came out two months ago, but it's still in theaters here and thus still eligible in my world for a posted review. Catch it before the Oscars because I have a feeling star Helen Mirren (always fabulous) will be nominated.

The Queen feels every bit the docudrama that it is. Director Stephen Frears weaves news footage of Princess Diana (her royal and post-royal life and the public grief over her death) with dramatized showings of the response by HRH Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Tony Blair (along with their capable assistants). What is most surprising about the story is not that the familiar events lend themselves so well to a movie but that the characters turn out to be so compelling. Tony Blair appears the most sympathetic with Prince Charles a distant second (surprised?). But as the story unfolds clarity falters, sympathies become less clear cut, and her Majesty's part--positively villainous from the start--deepens in emotion and human complexity. Don't despair, though; there remain one or two clear villains (I'll let you guess and see).

I asked David for his comment on the movie, and it was: "She was very stiff." Uh, okay, I'm guessing we can all figure out who "she" is.

The lowdown: The Queen is a solid docudrama both in style and substance. These are clearly actors playing real people (they look unapologetically more like themselves than their "characters", so they are open to doubtful interpretation), but well done and nuanced performances allow you to overlook what seem to be truly inconsequential bits of reality. Good pace, clear point to be made in the end without being at all preachy, and thought provoking for range of topics from mundane to philosophical. Highly recommended.

In an odd, related but unrelated note, I found that the British monarchy has an official website. Is that not a trifle strange?

Gangs

As I finish up my papers this semester I am reviewing some earlier writing. My professor praised a paper I wrote about gangs (I won't break my arm patting self on back). I thought I'd share a bit (which may sound familiar to you long-term readers)....

I smoke, I snort…I been begging on the street since I was just a baby. I’ve cleaned windshields at stoplights. I’ve polished shoes, I’ve robbed, I’ve killed. I ain’t no kid….I’m a real man. –City of God, 2002

To be there for young people, we adults need to get our own acts together. The negative world that gangs inhabit is no anomaly. When I contemplate who is responsible for seeing to it that young people are nurtured and entrusted and made to feel secure, I might say adults. However, how might adults provide this when so many—maybe even most or all—are themselves living lonely, insecure, medicated, or downright destructive existences? What does it mean to be an adult anymore? The above quote by a child running wild on the streets of the City of God hints at the confused notion of adulthood that some young people, and probably some adults, hold true. There is no clear and healthy delineation in our society between childhood and adulthood. Traditional rites of passage have been supplanted by sex, violence, and extreme limit testing. Assuming it ever was, childhood is no longer a safe haven, and adulthood seems to be more about emotional hardening than maturity. Adults can be powerful influences in the lives of children; in order to be positive influences, we need to attend to our own needs. It’s like the rules when you travel on a plane: in the event of an emergency, put on your own oxygen mask before assisting someone traveling with you. It is impossible to take care of others when you are incapable of taking care of yourself.

Seasons

Congrats to the UH Cougar football team. Last night they came from behind (and a paltry first half by many measures) to soundly defeat Southern Miss, 34-20, for the Conference USA championship. I'm thinking I bring football success to graduate schools. Maybe I should go out on the road with my skills, shop it when I seek a post doc. While I was attending BU they had their best football season ever, finishing (I think) #2 in Division I-A. Of course, shortly thereafter the program was disbanded for lack of interest/funds. I won't mention that part when I market my skills.