Ebertfest 11

It's that time of year again. Like Christmas, except better. I abandon my family and friends and spend five days at the lovely Virginia Theater with 1,000 film nerds like me to watch great movies.

Usually, I cover Ebertfest by writing blog entries at The Unofficial Ebertfest Blog with P. Gregory Springer. This year, PG and I are going legit, by covering it for Smile Politely. I'll be writing a few of the daily wrapups, plus splogging throughout, and also doing some movie reviews. I even have a press pass. I knew this Smile Politely thing would be useful someday.

Daily Show on the Torture Memo

The Daily Show on the torture memo stuff:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
We Don't Torture
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

I also like Dan Froomkin's response to Cheney claiming we are more safe when we torture people: Call his bluff.

However, in the end, it doesn't matter whether we are more safe, or feel more safe, when we torture people. It's wrong. If we want to be a country with any moral authority, we need to stop doing it. It's nice to have a president that fundamentally understands this.

Lazy Friday Video: Guitars, Guitars, Guitars

This kid is amazing:




I love how his head shakes as he gets into it:



This is fun too:

What's Up With the Tea Parties?

I'm trying to understand these conservative tea parties being promoted by Fox News.

As I understand it, conservatives are mad that the government is trying to stimulate the economy, and showing their outrage by sending teabags to Congress, because teabags, of course, symbolize taxation without representation, and also Obama is a socialist because he is raising taxes 3% on those in the top 5% of the tax bracket. Or something like that. Help me out here, Bob.

While I applaud people's interest in civic engagement, I wish they'd do something constructive. Like protest the lack of government oversight and collective greed that led to this mess. Instead, it seems they are protesting in favor of greed. I guess being pro-war, pro-torture, anti-science, and anti-civil-liberties got old.

My favorite part of this is how much Fox News is outright promoting these parties, showing once again the double standard in news expectations. Can you imagine the conservative outrage had CNN outright promoted war protests? Sean Hannity's head would have exploded. Which is saying something, given the size of his head.

Tim pointed out Krugman's take on it here, which is always right on the money. I liked Rachel Maddow's segment on teabagging too.

The Bush That Lived

This is the bush that lives at the end of my driveway. It's the one that blocks my neighbor's view when he pulls out of his driveway, and I agreed to cut down, being the good neighbor that I am.

Three times I have hacked this bush down to its stumpy core.

I have twice poured root killer on its roots, after slicing them open.

I once even poured a toxic mixture of paint thinner and deck stain on it, which is probably illegal to do. A prime example of how frustration breeds criminality.

But it's spring again and the evil bush is back.

Actually, although you can't see it so well from this angle, a lot of it has died. Just not all of it. It is the Voldemort of bushes. I believe it has split its soul into seven pieces, even though I've killed it nine times.

So, good readers, how do you kill the final piece of a soulless, undead bush?

Just don't recommend setting fire to it. That pole sitting next to it supports all the electricity going to my neighborhood. I'm sure they would find me if I burned it down. Plus, I'm not even convinced that would kill the bush. I need an elderwand or basilisk fang or something.

Copyrights and Art

This week's Smile Politely piece is another Nina Paley interview. Actually, it's the same Nina Paley interview, but this is the second part of it:

Copyrighting away culture: An interview with Nina Paley

I wonder if artists should even be able to sell copyrights on their art. It makes total sense that artists who create something should benefit from their sale. But it doesn't make sense to me that corporations can buy those rights and hold them forever, preventing other people from using the art, or incorporating it into new art (I'm talking about copyable art here, not paintings and such).

At some point, especially after an artist has died, art should belong to the culture, to humanity, to everyone, and not to entities whose only interest is financial.

Are you a Richard Jenkins fan?

I saw The Visitor a few weeks ago, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Richard Jenkins got an Oscar nomination for the lead role, and I knew I had seen him before in lots of movies, but couldn't quite place which ones. He's one of those perennial bit-part actors who shows up a lot here and there.

So, of course, I IMDBed him. Turns out I'd seen him only a week or so earlier when I watched Burn After Reading. Also, I guess I am a huge Richard Jenkins fan, since I've seen 25 movies he's been in. And, I've never even watched Six Feet Under, which he is apparently most famous for. If you've watched any smattering of movies over the last 30 years, you are probably a fan too. See here for all the movies you've seen him in.

Here's my list:

Burn After Reading
The Visitor
The Kingdom
Rumor Has It...
Fun with Dick and Jane
I Heart Huckabees
Cheaper by the Dozen
Intolerable Cruelty
Changing Lanes
The Man Who Wasn't There
One Night at McCool's
Say It Isn't So
Snow Falling on Cedars
Outside Providence
There's Something About Mary
Absolute Power
Flirting with Disaster
The Indian in the Cupboard
It Could Happen to You
Blaze
Stealing Home
Little Nikita
The Witches of Eastwick
Hannah and Her Sisters
Silverado

As I look over this list, I notice that he has been in a lot of crappy movies. Unfortunately, that also means I've seen a lot of crappy movies.

Lazy Friday Video: The CrockoEagle

QualComm is surprisingly funny in their April Fool's Day commercial:

IllumiNating Vacation

Tonya asked whether I had fun at Epcot. My answer is embedded within this week's Smile Politely column: Spring Break Confessions.

Amish Ice Cream

While in Florida, we discovered an Amish Ice Cream shop at Madeira Beach:


At first, I thought it a joke, or at least something incredibly inauthentic. However, there is apparently an Amish settlement near Sarasota, and the place was run by some folks from Pennsylvania, which all by itself makes it partially legit. The ice cream was fantastic.

The only other report from Florida is that the economy can't be in too bad of shape. There were approximately 4 billion people at Epcot with us on Tues (yes, that's right, over half the population of the earth). Our friend Tonya wisely did not join us.

So. Anyway.

Blogging has been sporadic lately, because I went to visit my dad last weekend, the kids were mostly off school this week, and we are leaving tomorrow for a week in Florida.

However, I did squeeze in an interview with an EbertFest filmmaker who is originally from Urbana. It's over at Smile Politey: The triumphant return of Nina Paley.

So. Anyway. We usually have to steal wireless from the other condos while we are in Florida, so blogging will continue to be sketchy for the next week. In this case, sketchy means "likely non-existent."

Loser Dad

Being a good or bad parent is hard to judge on a day-to-day basis. Often, it's not until your child successfully finishes therapy as an adult that the full verdict can be rendered.

Nonetheless, every now and then you engage in a symbolic act of parenting that provides a hint of how you are doing. For example, throwing a baseball around with your son is an iconic act of a good dad. Even if you throw balls at your son’s head during off days, you can always point to the day when you were out on the lawn playing catch as evidence that you were a good dad, at least that one time.

These don’t have to be public acts, they just have to be iconic. For instance, parents who have to be woken up by their children so they can get to school on time is an iconic bad parent moment. Every movie that ever depicted a bad parent has a scene where the responsible kid has to wake up the irresponsbile parent.

Why do I mention this? Because I have gotten into the habit of having my son wake me up so he can get to school on time. Regardless of how well I do on most days, this iconic bad daddy moment keeps happening. That makes me a loser dad.

In my defense, my wife and I have clearly defined morning roles: shepherding and chauffeuring. The shepherd’s job is to get the kids moving in the morning and deliver them to the doorstep of our house in time for school. At that point, the shepherd's job is finished, and it is the chauffeur's job to shuttle the kids from our door to their respective schools. My wife is the Shepard, and I am the Chauffeur. I’m not a morning person and one of the (only) perks of being a writer-dad is that I don’t have to be at work at any certain time (I can feel bad about my writing anytime of the day). Because of this arrangement, I technically only need 2 minutes from the time I wake up to the time I need be a “responsible” parent.

But my son’s school starts unreasonable early, in my opinion, and we have to leave at 7:30. To me, this means I need to wake up at 7:25. However, he wants to get there early and play with friends, so he is often in my room at 7:10, trying to rouse me.

A few nights ago he begged me to wake up earlier, so he can get to school earlier. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a bad daddy movie, but this nonetheless gave me a vague sense of discomfort. An alarm was ringing, but I could quite place what is was. Nonetheless, I decided to do better. It lasted one day, until this morning, when he had to wake me up again. I am a loser dad.

I’m a good dad in a lot of ways. I succeed with many other iconic dad moments. I do play catch with my son. I attend all my daughters’ plays. I taught all my kids how to ride bikes (hint: lean the bike into the direction it is falling). My kids aren't the ones whose parents forget to pick them up. I don't yell at them in public for failing in sports. I don’t send them down to the liquor store to buy cigarettes for me. I don’t even yell at them not to block the TV, unless it is really important.

Still, it sucks to be a loser dad for any of the iconic moments. Since my internal alarm isn't working so well, I’m going to start setting my actual alarm clock.

Chernobyl Images

I'm always fascinated by pictures of Pripyat, Ukraine when I stumble across them on the net. It was a town of 50,000 people when the Chernobyl nuclear accident happened in 1986. It remains a radioactive ghost town. There's a new batch of pictures here.





There's just something about abandoned disaster areas. Dreadful, engaging, even awe-some, all rolled up into one.

Sorting Clothes and Cultures

This week's Smile Politely column is up: Clash of cultures, clothing edition, where I talk about sorting clothes with the Old Order Mennonites down in Arthur.

The Meaning of Gosh

Things often heard around our house, which now contains two middle school girls:

It’s None of Your Business!

Gosh!

I Can Do It My Own Self!

Gosh!

Go Away!

Goodness!

Why DO YOU Care If I Have Homework?!!

Gosh!

Get Out of My Room!

Gosh!

My Day Was Fine!

Gosh!

Goodness!

Don’t Look at my Facebook Screen!

Gosh!

Stop Bothering Me!

Goodness!

I KNOW I have to [practice piano][do homework][get ready for school][do my chore][any reminder for any activity at any time]! I’m not Stupid!

Gosh!

(sweetly, earnestly) Dad, will you please, pretty please, take me to the mall?


One bright spot is that even though “Gosh!” really means “You’re an Idiot!” and “I’m So Embarrassed By You!” and “I’m so Embarrassed For You!,” all rolled up into four short letters and an exclamation point, at least they are saying it using “Gosh!” and not something stronger. Small victories are important during the middle school years.