Thursday, July 31, 2003

Wanna see my bike (again)?

It's so lovely...and it's for sale!



And here's my wonderful trailer...also for sale! How convenient!



More later...
Paul

Tuesday, July 29, 2003

Inglewood Blues.

So the jury in Inglewood is undecided on whether it's legal for police to beat a man in handcuffs. Sure, that sentence may be oversimplifying the matter, but oversimplification has been the defense all along. People in favor of unchecked police brutality rarely want to consider the complexities involved in enforcing the law. The facts of this case (which I don't really know because I didn't attend the trial) probably point to multiple areas that caused confusion in the jury room. But instead of deliberating further and gaining more understanding, the jury decided that they couldn't make a decision. And by declaring themselves "hung", they forced the judge to declare a mistrial, letting the officers off the hook and lending credence to the long-held belief that it's okay to physically abuse suspects.

Would there have been a different verdict if the victim were a 19 year old white woman?

More later...

Tuesday, July 22, 2003

Is the Draft on the way back?

I don't know what got into me, but I watched the CBS Evening News with Dan "what's the frequency, Kenneth?" Rather last night. I'm not going to get into the many Ratherisms and the story flow, but one factoid stuck out in a bad way: CBS reported that America has military forces in 139 countries around the world.

I can't even name 139 countries.

The point of the story was that we may need to send more troops to handle the ugliness in Liberia, but are troops are already spread thin worldwide, and Senate Armed Services committee is already discussing the need for more people in uniform.

So here we go. The unemployment rate is at a new high, the economy is still in the doldrums, interest rates are plummeting, inflation is rising, the deficit is ballooning and now, any day now, the call will go out to impoverished young men and women across the land: "Uncle Sam wants YOU!"

More later...
Paul

Friday, July 18, 2003

This is not what we wanted to hear.

Kobe, you let us down. You let your wife down, you let your daughter down, you let your family down, you let your team down, you let your fans down. I know what you obviously know now: there’s no way that your marital indiscretion with a 19-year-old girl, no matter how hot/nice/sweet/sexy she seemed to be at the time, is worth the price you must now pay.

It may very well be that you are now telling the truth about the alleged assault, but it doesn’t even matter now. You have taken your crystal-clean image and smashed it into a thousand pieces. And, as I feared, you have given racists more fuel for their foul fires. Take a look at this article, and then look at the message board attached. There are hundreds of crazy people just eating this up, using your actions as proof that there is something dangerous about black men. Yes, they would act the same even if you had not had sex with that woman, but brother, you’re not helping things.

I am disappointed in you Kobe. You blew it.

More later...
Paul

Thursday, July 10, 2003

Kobe.

Kobe, Kobe, Kobe. Please tell us you didn’t grab that little girl’s butt while you were relaxing in Colorado. Please tell us that you didn’t let a little harmless flirtation turn into a sexual assault charge. Please tell us that you had nothing to do with the 19 year old woman, and that this whole thing has been a set-up from the start. Kobe?

This has nothing to do with your formidable basketball skills, you know that right? This has nothing to do with your three championship rings, your scoring records or even your now-on-hold multi-million dollar Nike contract. This is all about the fate of black men across the nation. You were an inspirational figure: clean cut, polite, well-behaved. You had no children out of wedlock. You married early and quietly. You seem to be a genuinely good guy. If it all turns out to be a sham, a manufactured image, then just watch: the reputations of good black men in every state will be called into question. Bigots will have a field day.

“I told you all along they can’t be trusted, ESPECIALLY the nice ones.”

The problem is this, Kobe. You made a mistake. Hopefully, you didn’t make a big mistake and actually do what you’ve been charged with. But unfortunately, you made the seemingly small mistake of being in a position to be compromised. Now it’s international front page news. Did you or didn’t you?

The spin has already started on the woman’s side. An article in today’s Los Angeles Times has begun the process of painting the woman as “a friendly, wholesome young woman” who lives at home with her loving parents. Her friends have described her as “funloving, outgoing and emotional”.

Kobe, Kobe, Kobe. I don’t think you did it, but it doesn’t really matter what I think.

More later…
Paul

Tuesday, July 01, 2003

The Matrix Reloaded: for true fans only.

I have been perplexed that it has taken me so long to gather my thoughts enough to write a review of this film, but finally, after another viewing and after seeing “The Animatrix”, I am ready to commit words to weblog. So here’s my take: “Reloaded” is a great installment in the Matrix trilogy, but you have to be a true fan of the series to really enjoy it.

If you like action, and if you like long, drawn-out chop-socky fight scenes, then you will definitely get a kick out of this movie. But if you didn’t “get” the first film, if the true subject matter of the story…the battle for the survival of the human race….doesn’t interest you, then the movie will probably seem like so much techno-babble.

As for me, I wasn’t particularly impressed with the fight scenes. Yes, they are masterful pieces of fight choreography, but I kept wondering why Neo (who had figured out the whole Matrix/Agents thing at the end of the first movie) insisted on hand-to-hand combat instead of doing that special, superhacker stuff. Leave the fighting for the “other” humans, Neo was supposed to be “The One”. In “Reloaded”, the main way Neo manifests his “specialness” is by flying around like Superman. And it looked as corny as it sounds. My biggest beef is the scene in which Neo battles a league of Smiths. Once the scene gets too crowded, and the Smiths (heh heh, where was Morrisey?) started getting the upperhand, Neo simply flew off. Why he didn’t do that in the first place really bugs me. What bugs me even more was the Smiths’ reaction: they simply meandered off…to where? Where were they going? Home for dinner?

Mrs. Smith: Hi honey, how was your day?
Agent Smith #245: I’m bushed! We tried to kick Neo’s ass again, but he flew away. Got any more apple pie, babe?

Don’t get me wrong, there were some pretty decent special effects going on (the car chase is incredible), but for me the most captivating parts of the film involved dialogue. The gist of this installment is pretty straightforward: the machines are launching a full-scale assault on Zion (the last outpost of humanity, hidden far underground), using a massive army of “sentinels” (the octopus-like robots that nearly killed Neo, Morpheus et al in the first movie). According to Morpheus (good ol’ Laurence Fishburne again), the “prophecy” states that the battle will be over soon…all they have to do is get some advice from the Oracle. Unfortunately, no one knows where she is. And when they finally do find the Oracle, the only help she provides is to send Neo on an adventure to find another clue in the puzzle, which leads to yet another clue, which leads to….well, if I told you, you’d kill me.

Here’s the deal, though. Even if you are a die-hard fan of the Matrix, you MUST see the “Animatrix”, a DVD collection of 9 animated stories, all written by the Wachowski Brothers and produced by some of the greatest creative minds working in Anime today. These short masterpieces provide the backstory for the entire Matrix series, filling in many of the holes and setting the scene for what occurs in “Reloaded” and the third and final installment of the trilogy, “Revolution” (due in theaters this fall). Trust me on this one: these are not lighthearted cartoons. They are complex, sophisticated, violent, gory works of art and they were definitely intended for mature audiences only. While all 9 stories provide much needed information and fresh perspectives of the Matrix backstory, of particular interest are two pieces titled “The Second Renaissance, Parts 1 and 2”. These shorts tell exactly what happened to generate such animosity between the machines and man. It’s nothing like the Terminator series, in which AI (artificial intelligence) agents just up and decide they don’t need humans around anymore. No, instead we get a story of how man had built machines to serve him, and ended up enslaving and abusing the machines until they wouldn’t take it anymore. Some of the scenes in these clips are downright horrifying.

The Matrix has become more than just a movie, so it’s easy to overlook some of it’s cinematic shortcomings…but they’re there. Most of the actors do very well in their roles. Jada Pinkett-Smith’s appearance was much anticipated, and her character (as Morpheus’ former lover) adds a new wrinkle, but not much more. Hopefully she’ll get a better turn in part III. Monica Bellucci added quite a bit of sensual glamour in her role as Persephone, and while some might see it as a mysterious throwaway, upon further inspection it appears that she brings in a whopper of a clue as to what’s really going on. Plus, she got to strut her considerable stuff in a form-fitting latex dress…yum!

Some fans have complained about the “rave” scene, and after watching it a second time, I can honestly say that…I still don’t get it. Even after Morpheus delivered his speech about not being afraid to the people of Zion, I don’t really know why they decided to have a big throwdown in the face of near-certain death. At first, I figured that it was a tribal thing, like they were doing a massive war dance. But when the camera moved in for closeups, it was obvious that the dancers had just one thing in mind: getting their freak on! It was nice to see that the youth of Zion were all hardbodies and could dance fairly well, though. Must be the low-fat diets they subsist on. If someone else has figured out the meaning behind this particular scene, please help a brother out…!

So how did I really feel about “The Matrix: Reloaded”? I’m looking forward to seeing it a third time. I might really figure out who the heck Trinity really is…!

More later…
Paul