#SummerofBond

The Cigar Parentals acquired this glorious set of blu-rays recently so I (along with the Missus) have started working my way through all five decades of the Bond Franchise.  Rather than reviewing every single movie on here (that'd be a lot of typing that I'm just not sure I'm willing to do) I decided to take to Twitter and discover whether or not brevity really is the soul of wit...  So if you're bored and want to see what Bond flick I've reached, check out my Tweets at:

https://twitter.com/churchillscigar

So far I've watched Dr. No  (I did go back and watch Quantum of Solace again just to see if it was as bad I remembered it being but surprisingly, it wasn't-  but I'll get back to that one eventually as I'd like to try and do these in order.)  And I'll say I finally understand the appeal of blu-ray thanks to these films--  the quality on Dr. No was fantastic and crystal clear- it was like watching a totally different movie.  (I think I've only seen it once before and that was in black and white on VHS)  I look forward to mixing martinis and enjoying more this summer...

No Sonics Yet

A potential return of the Sonics is looking increasingly bleak these days as it seems that the NBA Owners are engaging in shenanigans to force the current owners of the Sacramento Kings to accept a low bid.  I've been mildly interested in a possible return of the Sonics but I don't have all the details on the deal- but if Slate.com is to be believed, the Seattle deal would have had the Seattle bidders building a new arena for the team while the Sacramento deal has the City of Sacramento itself ponying up the cash for new digs.

Suddenly the picture becomes clearer...  the owners don't want to set a precedent of paying for new arenas themselves when public money might be available.  Plus they can essentially use Seattle as a whipping boy to cough up new arenas as needed (in much the same way the NFL uses Los Angeles).  Why on Earth would they want to lose that?  I'll believe in the Sonics when I see 'em again...  until then, I'll just have those moments where I struggle to remember Shawn Kemp's name and think of the good times, when the NBA actually interested me far more than it does now.

(BTW:  Seattle doesn't seem all that impressed by this- especially given the long, hard process of getting the deal together to begin with.  Wonder if the NHL would move a team up there?  It's always struck me as weird that the Northwest has been the one area of the country that doesn't really seem to have that many hockey teams.  Other than the Canucks, I guess.)

Still Voting Yes

Kids, nothing has changed since November.  I voted in favor of the new Justice Center then and next week, I'll be voting in favor of it again.   I don't really have a lot to add to the existing discussion of this issue but I'll just say this:

1.  I am against the industrialization of our prisons.  I find it inherently dangerous this idea of monetizing everything because sooner or later some company somewhere is going to get it into their heads that the more people they put in prison, the more money they're going to make.   Johnson County spends a sizable sum of money each year sending our inmates to other counties because we don't have the space to house them.  I wanted to see a proposal for the new jail that balances the need for future growth while limiting the opportunities for Johnson County to cash in by housing inmates from other counties as well.  The reduction in the proposed size of the Jail (as well as the reduction in cost) since November addresses those concerns nicely.

2.  I keep hearing a lot about 'disproportionate minority contact.'  I'm not entirely sure what that means but I think it means that jail opponents want to paint law enforcement in the county as inherently racist. Where are these arrests coming from?   Are they officer initiated calls or calls that officers are dispatched too?  (The racism charge would be easier to prove with the former, not so much with the latter.)   Disraeli once said that there were only three kinds of lies:  lies, damned lies and statistics.  As a lifelong townie, it was a hard realization to come too, but really and truly underneath the veneer of progressive tolerance and academic hoity-toity-ness Iowa City is just a hick town that happens to have a University in it.  And if there's one truth about hick towns its that hicks don't like outsiders-  the race issue in Iowa City goes way beyond the issue of the Jail.

3. If voting against the jail would end the war on drugs or produce more sensible laws about alcohol enforcement, I would do it in a heartbeat.   But it won't do any of those things and voting against it to make a point about the war on drugs just seems, well, self-defeating somehow.  It won't help and doesn't change the fact we need a new jail.

4.  If people really want more money drug diversion programs or a drunk tank for students instead of intox arrests, well then, we need someplace to put them.

I don't think this is going to pass.  I think Sporkgate (an inmate at the Jail was charged with destruction of property or something for breaking her jail-issued spork.  The charges were dropped but it was all over the local media) and this sudden emergence of a locking issue that will require clearing out the Jail for a couple of months at great cost were bad PR that Justice Center proponents didn't need and the quick turnaround time between November and May gives the impression that the County wants to rush this through.   Which, given the need is somewhat understandable but at the same time, there are some real, valid concerns out there and a six month time period between votes doesn't give the impression that the county is listening all that hard.

Undoubtedly, they'll try again and while the arguments for and against are many none of them can obscure the fact that I think most everyone agrees on:  we need a new Jail.

Poetry Slam 2013, Week #4

Rounding out the 2013 edition of poetry slam, I went with some Langston Hughes.  Poetry units were a yearly torture in every English class I ever took in high school- but one of the poems we always read was this one and for some reason, it's always stuck in my head.   (Random flashback to American Lit Class: There was one memorable occasion where there was a fierce debate on whether a red wheelbarrow in one particular poem might represent communism.  Our teacher ruled that it did not.)

Anyway- enjoy it- and you know, I think I'll do this again next year.   A little poetry now and again can't hurt.

I, Too: Langston Hughes
I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes, 
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll date
Say to me,
'Eat In the kitchen,'
Then.

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--

I, too, am America. 

This Week In Vexillology #26

This week, we've got the Tango and Cash, the Laverne and Shirley, the Cagney and Lacey of the nations of the world.  That's right kids, put your hands together and give it up for one of the young countries of the world: Bosnia and Herzegovinia!   The current version of the flag (the one pictured above) was adopted on February 4th, 1998.

The yellow triangle represents a couple of things:  the three points stand for the three constituent peoples of Bosnia: Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks- but it also is representative of the shape of the country itself, which bears a passing resemblance to a triangle or a heart (indeed, I didn't know this but Bosnia is often referred to as 'the heart shaped nation..')  The stars are meant to represent Europe and they're meant to be infinite which is why they run continuously for the length of the flag.   The blue and the yellow were taken from the flag of the European Union and are also colors traditionally associated with Bosnia as well.

This is the second flag for Bosnia since independence in 1992.  The first one looked like this:

This flag was adopted on May 4th, 1992 for National and Civil usage.  The shield is taken from the arms of King Stephen Tvrtho who ruled the country before the Ottoman Empire conquered the area.   The fleur-de-lis recall family ties to the Anjous, who were the ruling dynasty of Hungary in the 14th Century.  After the Dayton Agreement in 1998, this flag was viewed as representing Bosniaks more than Croats and Serbs and so a design process began to change it into the current flag seen above.  (Wikipedia has a nice section on the alternative proposals considered under the re-design that's worth a peek.)

(For the political science majors out there, Bosnia is worth a look if only to understand it's somewhat unique structure.  The country is actually made up of two main federative parts, the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovinia and has a rotating triumverate for a Presidency.  Read this and dork out, fellow poli-sci nerds!)

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together and give it up for Bosnia and Herzegovinia!  And until next time, remember to keep your flags flying- FREAK or otherwise!

Our Re-Alignment Revels Now Have Ended...

Yes, kids, the re-alignment merry-go-round seems to have stopped for now with the news that the ACC got their member schools to give the conference a grant of media rights through the 2026-2027 season.  That effectively means that hunting season on the ACC is over and it leaves, curiously enough, only the SEC as the last major conference without a grant of media rights.  (Not that I think anyone is going to want to leave the SEC anytime soon...  with the possible exception of Mizzou-- though I think the bags of money the SEC schools get will undoubtedly ease the pain of being a cellar dweller for the near future.)

So thank GOD.  I am spared having to witness the heartburn inducing horror of seeing UNC in the B1G and having Jim Delaney's plans for World Domination grow the conference to ridiculous sizes like 16 or 18 or 20 or whatever number he feels like that particular day.  I've made peace with the fact that Maryland and Rutgers are joining our merry little band-- I think they give us a nice, solid presence in the Mid-Atlantic States and while that's not the Carolinas or SEC Country, it's pretty damn good, all things considered.  Notre Dame remains aloof and independent having traded a partnership for the Big East for one with the ACC (nice move Swofford!)  And really and truly with the Big 12 grant of media rights and now the ACC grant of media rights, the Carousel has finally stopped rotating.

And remarkably, the biggest losers in all of this are UCONN and Cincy.  I feel bad for both of those schools and I do think if the Big 12 gets an itch to get back to 12 members in a couple of years, Cincy will be very high on their list of candidates (and maybe Air Force and/or BYU as well) but Cincy will now have to play the waiting game and UCONN...  I don't even know what UCONN's going to do.  The ACC might expand more but I doubt it.  So they're stuck in the America 12 or the American Athletic Conference or whatever the hell the old Big East is called now.  (A startling thought for UCONN to consider:  drop football and join the new Big East?  Yeah, like that'll ever happen...)

The dust still hasn't completely settled, of course:  with the formation of the new Big East, the A-10 and the Missouri Valley found themselves in the markets for new members and I'm sure there are mid-major football conferences ranging from the Old Big East to C-USA to potentially even the MWC who might grab a few here or there- but in one fell swoop, John Swofford has essentially shut the door on major conference realignment for a very long time.  (There are also rumblings about the B1G adding Johns Hopkins for Lacrosse only but I haven't seen anything about that since February so I'm not sure what, if any progress has been made on that.   I do think it'd be very very cool if Iowa got into the B1G Hockey and Lacrosse.  I think the latter is more likely than the former... when it comes to B1G Hockey, I guess it's Go Gophers!  Which isn't something I often say, believe me.)

So, now I guess I'll have to find a new hobby.

(Random Tangential Post-Script for Everyone to Consider:  Given how smoothly Swofford thwarted Delany's plans for World Domination, which would you rather see:  a chess match or a Ninja-style fight to the death between the two?  Consider carefully and leave any thoughts you might have in the commands.)

(Second random tangential post-script:  I love how they scheduled an announcement to reveal the name of the new College Football Playoff only to have it be called:  The College Football Playoff.   Biggest letdown EVER.)

Food Adventures #29: Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Kids, a couple of weeks back I found myself with a craving for Spaghetti alla Carbonara and by happy circumstance, we had turkey bacon, parmesan cheese, eggs, spaghetti and thanks to a late Easter present from the Mother-In-Law (in the form of a box full of food that had too much sodium for her Diet) we had peas as well.   The last time I had Carbonara was when I took the Missus to Tucci Bennuchi in the Mall of America on our Labor Day trip up to the Twin Cities- and Tucci added peas to theirs as well as amazing bacon so I thought I'd do the same!

The thing about Carbonara that always worried me a little bit was the eggs.  Technically, they're uncooked.  You whisk 'em up good with the cheese (Tyler Florence's lofty recipe called for freshly grated Parmesan but I cheated, used the Kraft stuff I had in my fridge and ended up with a nice paste that looked a lot like polenta, come to think of it) and you've got to get it mixed with your pasta kind of fast- because you want the heat to cook your eggs but not too much (otherwise, you'll scramble them) and not too little because well, undercooked eggs usually don't end well for people.  In this case, I freakin' nailed it.

I'll have to have a consultation with Mother Cigar about she does her Carbonara but what made this recipe brilliant, I thought was that it tells you to sauteé the bacon and garlic in one pan and then, once the fat has rendered down a bit to throw the spaghetti into that pan so you can coat it with the bacon yumminess before adding your egg and cheese mixture.   The turkey bacon was all the bacon we had in the house but can you imagine the possibilities if you used some real bacon?  Wow. 

There were some logistical issues with this--  I couldn't, for the life of me, get the peas mixed into the rest of the pasta.  Damn things kept wanting to sink to the bottom.  And I kept wondering if you could throw in some red onion or red pepper for added flavoring.  (I've become a big fan of red onions.  Not that I have anything against the yellow or the white variety but I'm finding that red onions have the most complex flavors of the bunch, I think.  Though the Sweet Vidalias are good too.)

My Verdict:  I'd do this again in a heartbeat.  I'd love to try it with real parmesan, real bacon and chuck in some red pepper and red onion too just for kicks.

Poetry Slam 2013, Week #3

This week, I'm kicking it old school with some Shelley.   If there's a poet that I'm sort of obligated to give a shout out too, it's Shelley for two reasons.  First, his wife wrote Frankenstein, which is really cool but second of all, this guy is lurking somewhere back in the far and distant recesses of my family tree.   And that's really cool...

He ended up drowning at the age of 29- but his memorial in Oxford is beautiful:

It's located at University College in Oxford- but it's not open to the public- but if you go to the northwest gate and sweet talk the porter, he might just let you take a look at it.  (For the record, if memory serves we might have been in the middle of exam week when were in Oxford so it could be a little more open to the public at other times during the year- but for whatever reason, we had to ask nicely to go see it.   And it's worth seeing...)

So without further ado:

Ozymandias: Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: 'Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert.  Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear--
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains.  Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.'

This Week In Vexillology #25

Grab your elven cloaks, fake Hobbit feet and put 'Greatest Hits of OMC' on your iPod, kids because this week, we're going further down under with New Zealand!

Adopted on June 12th, 1902 for national usage, the flag of New Zealand is pretty similar to the flag of Australia except it doesn't have the six pointed Commonwealth Star that Australia's flag does and this version of the Southern Cross is represented by four white bordered red stars.   The Union Jack in the canton, as with Australia's flag recalls New Zealand's historical links with Great Britain.  This flag, interestingly enough is not the first flag of New Zealand (we'll get to that one in a second) and it was, in fact, designed in 1869 for restricted use and only became the official national flag in 1902.

The first flag of New Zealand looked like this:

This flag belonged to the United Tribes of New Zealand and was adopted in 1834 thanks to the efforts of James Busby who had been sent to New Zealand in 1833 to establish some kind of framework for trade between Maoris and Europeans.  After rumors spread that the French were considering setting up an independent state at Hokianga it spurred British efforts to lock down a treaty and establish a confederation of some kind.   According to Wikipedia (The Font of All Knowledge) Busby's efforts were so successful at pacifying and calming down the Islands that they began to consider outright annexation which lead to the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.   

It appears that the question of the Treaty is where things get a little dicey.  From the point of view of the British and Colonial governments, the sovereignty of the United Tribes was absorbed into the new Colonial government of New Zealand- though Maoris and non-Maoris in New Zealand have very different points of view on what exactly it says and requires on the part of the government of New Zealand even today.  Which leads us to this flag:

This is the Tino rangatiratanga flag which translated from Maori means the 'absolute sovereignty' flag.   Rosetta Stone not being available in Maori (at least not that I know of) and definitely not being available in 1840 at Waitangi this flag has come to represent all Maori.  The semantic controversy:

In the English text of Article One of the Treaty, the Māori signatories cede their sovereignty to the British Crown. For the Māori text, since there was no direct Māori translation for the idea, the missionary neologism 'kawanatanga' (= 'governorship') was used to represent the concept of sovereignty. This word was based on the transliteration "Kawana" (= 'governor'), which had been invented by Bible translators to explain Pontius Pilate's authority in Judaea. Kawana was also used prior to 1840 to describe the Governor of New South Wales. 

In the English text of Article Two of the Treaty, signatories are assured that the full exclusive and undisturbed possession of their Lands and Estates Forests Fisheries and other properties would remain for so long as they chose. In the Māori text, signatories are assured that their tino rangatiratanga will remain undisturbed over their lands, kainga and other taonga (te tino rangatiratanga o ratou wenua o ratou kainga me o ratou taonga katoa, literally the absolute chieftainship of your lands, your homes, and all your treasures/taonga).

You see the problem?  Article One says the Maori signatories cede their sovereignty to the British Crown while Article Two says that their tino rangatiratanga or absolute sovereignty shall remain undisturbed.    (And to think Americans complain about how hard our Constitution is to interpret.)   This flag was designed in 1990 and in 2009 won official recognition from the New Zealand government as a flag for the Maori people which permitted it to be flown on Auckland Harbour Bridge and at some official buildings on Waitangi Day.

So kids, as you can see there's more to New Zealand than meets the eye*- a lot of it really quite fascinating and worth reading more about I think.  This is a country that's more than just Middle Earth, Kimbra and Flight of The Conchords so put your hands together and give it up for New Zealand!

And until next time, remember to keep your flags flying.  FREAK or otherwise!

*Please keep in mind, I'm getting a lot of this info via Wikipedia and Google.  The controversy surrounding the Treaty of Waitangi is very real, very difficult and very much debated even today- so if I get something wrong, please let me know.

Crisis Porn versus Actual, Real Life News

Oh CNN.  Just when I think you might actually be making strides towards competency again, you have to go and fuck it all up in the space of about an hour- which is fairly impressive, even by your standards.   (Does anyone else remember when CNN used to mean something?  Back in the day, a half hour of CNN would actually leaved you informed as to the events of the day.  There might have been some fairly thoughtful, cogent analysis included in there as well and you'd have a halfway decent idea of what was going on in the world as well.  Oh, those were the days...)

For the record- I stand by what I said yesterday.  I didn't think CNN did a horrible job on Monday.  We had CNN on for the full eight hour shift I worked that day and from what I could tell, they were restrained, they weren't talking out their asses and although there was some speculation it didn't descend to the mindless circle jerk orgy of speculation that we saw in the wake of the Sandy Hook Massacre (most of what was reported that day turned out to be completely wrong.)  Monday was, I thought, a mildly competent day for CNN and given their ratings and their descent into mediocrity that's currently ongoing, I felt good for them.

Then, came yesterday.   (I'll let Jon Stewart do the full skewering, here.)  Basically, CNN was told that an arrest had been made in the Boston case.  And then they were told that no such thing had apparently happened and spent the rest of the afternoon sowing mass confusion amongst the media as to what the fuck was going on.   That brief shining moment of endearing competency was replaced by a shitstorm of incompetency and it just turned into, well, I'm not sure what it was, but it sure as hell wasn't competent news.

It's becoming an increasing problem in the age of Twitter and social media for news networks to get a handle on just what the hell is going on during situations like this.  I'm not sure what other networks are like but CNN seems to have developed an unfortunate tendency to read something on Twitter, assume it's true and then just blurt it out onto the air. (They were especially bad during the Egyptian Revolution.)   You can wave your hands around and tell us that 'this hasn't been confirmed' but what you're really saying to people is 'we're talking out of our asses, here, can't you tell?'  People can tell.  Just look at CNN's ratings.   While I understand that in the age of mass media, you're going to want to get the story before anybody else does, blurting shit out without actually taking the time to verify anything will get you into trouble every. single. time.

My high school journalism teacher used to tell us that the last reporter to get absolute truth from a source was Moses. But today, the emphasis seems to be on crafting a narrative before you even have credible, verified facts to craft it with.   It's not news, whatever it is- it's crisis porn, plain and simple and there's only so much you can watch before you cease to get useful information out of it.

Don't get me wrong:  after something horrible like Boston our initial instinct is to want to find the bastards and get 'em- right now, not later and I can't really fault CNN for buying into that.  But the situation on the ground contained plenty of other stories- from the runners that kept running to give blood, to Peter Sagal from NPR who was actually running the Marathon as a guide for a legally blind friend of his (there's a fantastic column on Runner's World but it appears to be lodged behind a Paywall.)- all things which were happning right then and right there all of which contained plenty of facts that were totally true and verifiable.  (There were also plenty of Facebook charity scams that popped up right away not to mention the stories of the people of Boston who helped out marathon runners who were stranded by the incident.)  Instead of fixating and speculating on what you don't know,  how about reporting what you do?

The 'Accidental Racist' Controversy

The interwebs erupted last week after Brad Paisley's new song 'Accidental Racist' debuted with a little bit of an assist from LL Cool J.  After listening to the song and reading plenty of the commentary about it, I want to offer my sincerest congratulations to Mr. Paisley and Mr. Cool J.   This song was designed to be controversial and it was designed to be so provocative that, like a car accident that motorists slow down to gawk at, everybody was going to hop on YouTube and give this song a listen.

It wasn't what I was expecting, I'll give them that.  For some reason, I've come to associate Brad Paisley's music with fun, vaguely dirty humor (see: 'Ticks', 'Online', 'Alcohol') more than serious topics like racism (I don't know how you'd make a fun, upbeat song with vaguely dirty humor about racism but I was curious to see if Paisley had attempted to and if so, what had resulted.)  So I was surprised when it was sort of a dreary, depressing song that seems to center around the fact that he doesn't want to feel judged for wearing a Skynyrd T-Shirt to Starbucks on Main Street.

For his part, LL Cool J doesn't want to feel judged for wearing saggy pants and a do-rag I guess.  And overall the message of the song seems to be that if we don't judge each other and let the past be the past, we can all get along just fine.  (I'm not going to re-print the lyrics-  find them here and take a listen to the song over here.)

Personally, I don't find Skynyrd T-Shirts to be all that racist.  Everybody knows that Skynyrd is all about 'Southern Rock' and provided it actually has Skynyrd's name somewhere on it and given the real, honest to goodness issues of race that this country has to deal with if people want to start picking fights over t-shirts, well then, they kind of need to grow up. Do-rags don't bother me all that much and if it's judgemental of me to think that people that chose to walk around with their ass hanging out of their pants look like idiots, then so be it- but given the fact I've seen plenty of white people do it too, I don't really think that's racist of me.

What did bug me about this song was Paisley's view of history.  The idea that we should just let bygones be bygones is a tricky notion when you think about it.  Do I think we should go down south and blame the people who live there now for starting the Civil War?  No.  I think that's dumb- it was 150 years ago and most of the people down there didn't have anything to do with it.  But I also think we can't ignore it either. 

When The Quiet Man and I went down to Shiloh for the 150th Anniversary last year one of the more revealing facets of the trip was just how alive and real the Civil War is down South as a posed to up north.   Part of that probably stems from the fact that most of the Civil War was fought down there but I got the feeling that even now, the conflict is less academic and more personal for folks down south than it is for folks up north.  I saw a guy wearing a t-shirt that was marking the 150th Anniversary but his t-shirt was for 'The Southern War of Indpendance' and not 'The Civil War.'  The visitor's center at Shiloh had three donation boxes- one for Union States, one for Confederate State and one for states that were Territories at the time of the Civil War.  The boxes for the Union States and the Territories were empty.  The one for the Confederate States was bulging at the seams.  None of this really offended me all that much-- but what did bother me was the sight of a young renactor standing guard at the entrance to the Military Cemetary where the Union soldiers are buried.  He was snapping out salutes and posing for pictures- but he was in a Confederate Uniform.  (It bothered me but I also think it was kind of a good thing too-  sent a message that every soldier in that conflict was an American.)

Where this song fails and fails badly, to me, is in the cookie-cutter ideas of history that Paisley plays with.  This is not going to be easy for a lot of people to just sweep under the rug.  Is it an idea worthy of thoughtful debate and discussion?  Yes.  And that's a good thing- and I get that you can't really pack a lot of historical analysis into one country song- but I also think it's a little crass to write a song that you know is going to be controversial just to get paid.  Which is what this feels like.

Bookshot #60: The Human Division

I've been fascinated by the concept of John Scalzi's latest novel, The Human Division for awhile.  It's coming out in usual book form shortly- but what he did that really got my attention was serialize it and release it once a week in 'episodes' for Kindle at .99 cents a pop.  While many people remain unconvinced that the self-publishing e-book thing is going to catch on one thing the change of format does is it allows potential authors to break free from and play with the idea of what makes a novel a novel and this serial experimentation worked quite well here.

The Human Division consisted of the following episodes:

Episode #1: The B-Team
Episode #2: Walk The Plank
Episode #3: We Only Need The Heads
Episode #4: A Voice In The Wilderness
Episode #5: Tales From The Clarke
Episode #6: The Back Channel
Episode #7: The Dog King
Episode #8: The Sound of Rebellion
Episode #9: The Observers
Episode #10: This Must Be The Place
Episode #11: A Problem of Proportion
Episode #12: The Gentle Art of Cracking Heads
Episode #13: Earth Below, Sky Above

Some were longer than others-- and the finale, Earth Below, Sky Above was a double-length episode as Scalzi had a lot of action to pack into it.   For the purposes of this review, I'm going to concentrate on the whole of the story rather than attempt to review each episode individually- but there are a few individual episodes that stood out above the rest (but I'll get to those in the a minute.)

With The Human Division, Scalzi returns to the universe he established in Old Man's War, The Ghost Brigades and The Last Colony where the Colonial Union is now in a tricky and perilous position.  A new Alliance of alien races, The Conclave is at their door and Earth, their most reliable resource for supplying soldiers and colonists has cut off all ties to them.  As ships disappear, mistrust between the Colonial Union and the Conclave only grow and a war that could threaten the very existence of humanity itself.  Into that breach is sent a team of diplomats headed by Lieutenant Harry Wilson who spend the thirteen episodes trying to make the Colonial Union new friends amongst the alien races of the galaxy as well as trying to heal the breach in humanity and regain the shattered trust of Earth once more.

I'll admit right off the bat that I was a little disadvantaged going into this:  I had read Old Man's War and I think The Ghost Brigades but certainly not Zoe's Tale or The Last Colony which is where the titular division of humanity began- this novel only deals with the fall out from that but despite that I slipped back into this universe very comfortably and Scalzi brings a writing style to the table that is peppered with the sort of wry, understated banter and humor than I enjoy while crafting an intergalatic space opera worthy of the best in the genre.   As I mentioned before, several episodes are worth mentioning individually:  The Back Channel introduces us to Hafte Sorvalh, a member of the alien Conclave opposed to the Colonial Union and one of the more fascinating charaters of The Human Division that Scalzi leaves the reader wanting to know more about.   For science fiction with a humorous understone, The Dog King is a winner.  (I think this probably my favorite out of the bunch) and I really enjoyed the dramatic change of pace of This Must Be The Place as well.  (Which tells the story of Hart Schmidt returning home to visit his family- plus it's a great Talking Heads song.)

Overall:  You could argue that there's not too much about this that's ground-breaking or new but you could also argue that it doesn't really matter.  Scalzi seems to be hell bent on crafting a story that will entertaining his readers first and foremost and that's almost refreshing, in a way.  The Human Division is one hell of a ride and entertaining space opera at its finest- I look forward to more.   Scalzi also gets props for breaking the boundaries a little bit with his serialization of the novel- a format that I found to be creative and entertaining at the same time.   My verdict: **** out of ****.

On Boston

In the wake of yesterday's tragedy in Boston, there's always a struggle to figure out what to say- but after a day or so to reflect, I've come up with the following:

1.  Patton Oswalt probably sums it up the best.

2.  In Dispatch, if we're not keeping an eye on an Iowa Football or Basketball game, we're usually watching CNN- who has been less than impressive in recent months but yesterday, I have to admit there was a certain amount of restraint on their part- especially early on- and while the blanket media coverage and the frankly pointless eye witness interviews got tiresome after awhile (after a certain point it all becomes what one internet commentator called 'crisis porn' which seems pretty accurate to me.  I've got no problem with journalists interviewing eyewitnesses to something like this but inane questions like 'What was it like for you?' are just pointless.  What do you expect someone to say after something like this?  'Yes, I thought it was the best thing EVER!'  Come on now.)  But all in all, it was better than I thought it was going to be.

3. My thoughts remain with the victims, their friends, their families and especially the First Responders that responded to the scene. (As our Department has two bomb detection K-9's, I was glad to see some shout-outs for their work yesterday especially from the German Shepherd Community.)

4.  Glenn Greenwald's column was particularly ironic, I thought.  While it's true, there are always people that rush to look for Muslims behind tragedies such as this and there's a certain amount of fear-mongering on the part of the media in the quest for ratings, there's always some hippy-dippy leftist that wants to find a way to blame the evils of American Imperialism for something like this.  In this case, it's apparently Mr. Greenwald that's decided to tilt at that particular windmill.  (Greenwald gets some points from me for being a vocal critic and consistent critic of Gitmo and America's use of drones- something that's carried over from Bush The Younger's Administration into President Obama's- but not much else.)  It's as tiresome as those that want to score political points off of tragedies like this, blame Muslims for tragedies like this or fear monger up some ratings for their television network and it needs to stop.

5.  In the midst of unspeakable horror, the best of humanity was on display yesterday.  I take a great deal of comfort in that.

Food Adventures #28: Cold Brewed Coffee

I read Cory Doctorow's latest novel Homeland not that long ago and one of the many things that caught my eye as I was reading was the main character, Marcus' love of cold brewed coffee.   This intrigued me as iced coffee is something that I have never really been able to wrap my head around.  I can get behind it when there's a shitload of cream and flavoring but black iced coffee?  Iced coffee with just plain old skim milk?  Not so much- and summer is coming and I'm always looking for a refreshing drink to keep cool.

The basic recipe- and this is taken straight from the book itself, is as follows:

Just grind coffee--keep it coarse, with grains about the size of sea salt-- and combine it with twice as much water in an airtight jar.  Give it a hard shake and stick it somewhere cool overnight (I used a cooler bag loaded with ice from ice camp and wrapped the whole thing in bubble wrap for insulation).  In the morning, strain it through a colander and a paper coffee filter.  What you've got now is coffee concentrate, which you can dilute with cold water to taste-- I got about half and half.  If you're feeling fancy, serve it over ice.

Sounds pretty basic, right?  How could I resist something as simple as this--  not only is Doctorow usually on the cutting edge of technology in his novels but his politics aren't bad either and both of his novels have been packed with real world technology and issues you can read about in his book and Google if you're interested in learning more.

So I found me a mason jar, grabbed a bag of unground Caribou Roast and ran into a problem.  I didn't have a coffee grinder.   When the Missus suggested the Food Processor we gave that the good old college try and that's when things got messy- because we discovered that coffee beans have this tendency to fly out of a food processor when you're trying to grind them.  And covering the opening at the lip of the jug didn't help us much either.   But we switched to the blender got the job done and added the appropriate amount of water, gave the mason jar a good hard shake and put it in the fridge overnight.

The next morning, I ended up with this:

After I had strained out my yummy coffee concentrate, I decided I'd stick with the recipe from the book and just go with half concentrate, half water and I got a big enough glass that I could just use all of it and then I did something that I don't normally do:  I drank it straight black.

My Verdict:  I have a sneaking suspicion you could get the same results with a French Press but the recipe isn't wrong.   The coffee that results is more flavorful and less bitter than usual and there are hints of chocolate and hazelnut that make it seem sweeter than usual.  The only downside is that it's a little time consuming and the payoff amount to one extra large cup of coffee. I'll give this another shot though-- and maybe this time, I'll add milk.  Or creamer.  And see what it tastes like then.

Poetry Slam 2013, Week #2

OK, this week, I went with a long one.  Don't ask me why- because I really don't know why, but I've always really liked this poem.  It's a little long (as you'll notice) but the imagery and the descriptions throughout are very vivid and help the overall poem come alive in ways that not a lot of poems do.  Samuel Taylor Coleridge is considered one of the most important poets in English literature and Kubla Khan is one of his best.  So, enjoy...

Kubla Khan
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gradens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree:
An here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacres river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise

This Week In Vexillology #24

Kids, this week we've got one of my favorite countries in the entire world.  Once known as French Somaliland and from 1967-1977 as the somewhat cumbersomely named Territory of the Afars and Issas in 1977 it gained full independence as... 

Are you sure you can handle it?  Do you already know which country I'm talking about? Fine, kids...  sit down, stifle your giggles and get ready- because this week- it's DJIBOUTI! (By the way: the capitol of Djibouti is Djibouti.  Which means if you live there, you live in Djibouti, Djibouti- which is almost, but not quite as cool as living in New York, New York.)

Adopted on June 27th, 1977 for National and Civil usage, the flag draws on the colors of the party that led Djibouti to independence, the Ligue Populaire Africaine Pour L'Indépendance (LPAI)- white, green and light blue.  The colors also represent the union of the two main peoples of Djibouti, the Afars (the green- which represents their land and links to Islam) and the Issa (the light blue.)  The red star represents the unity of the diverse state.    The original flag of the LPAI had a red triangle with a white star something that was reversed for the national flag of Djibouti. 

As a bonus, because this is one of my favorite countries in the entire world, we've also got the Coat of Arms of Djibouti as well:

The red star is a traditional symbol of unity while the centerpiece is a Somali shield and weapons: two hunting knives and a spear.  

So, ladies and gentlemen put your hands together for Djibouti!  And remember, until next time keep your flags flying.  FREAK or otherwise!

Whiskey of the Month #7: Canadian Club

I finally did it.  I stepped north of the border.  I was going to hold out for some Crown Royal Maple or some Pendleton but an extensive and wide-ranging discussion at work, of all places got me several hearty recommendations for Canadian Club, so off I went to score a handle of the stuff down at the Waterfront Hy-Vee Wine and Spirits.

It's affordable- at $14.99 a bottle, it's perfect for fans of whiskey on a budget (or those that don't care to break the bank with single malts) and a tag attached to the bottle proclaimed it 'Prohibition's Favorite Whiskey' while exhorting the consumer to tune into Boardwalk Empire on HBO.  As Templeton Rye has also been featured on Boardwalk Empire, I was curious to see if the claim was as good as it advertised.

And I have to admit, I was a little surprised to find out that it was true.  Not true enough to make me want to spring for HBO anytime soon but true enough that a peruse of Canadian Club's Wikipedia page was somewhat fascinating.  (They've received Royal Warrants from Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, George V, George VI and Elizabeth II, while having Al Capone be one of their most important clients during prohibition as well as being the drink of choice for Mad Men's Don Draper.   It was also randomly featured in Slapshot, I guess?  Not having seen Slapshot, I can't attest to that but Wikipedia (the Font of All Knowledge) has spoken.)

The lowdown on Canadian Club...

Color: Amber (I think you could also make an argument for dark honey as well, but amber is the predominant color here.)

Body:  It smells good, I'll give it that.  This is probably one of the better smelling whiskies I've ever smelled.   The most prominent notes are brown sugar and molasses

Palate:  The smell is amazing but the taste, the taste is a huge letdown to me.  It tastes weak and watery and while that makes it very drinkable (you can swill it like water, it's dangerous that way) it's something of a disappointment to me.

Finish:  It's not harsh and in fact it warms up nicely as it goes down.   While the palate might have been disappointment, the finish isn't- it's very smooth.

Overall:  It's drinkable, it's affordable- but it's also underwhelming.  I'd give this an overall 'meh' and stock up Dr. Pepper if you're looking for something to mix it with.

Margaret Thatcher, 1925-2013

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died today after suffering a stroke in London at the age of 87.

It appears that divisive figures are set to pass from this Earth this year and while the death of Venezuelan Strongman Hugo Chavez drew adulation from those on the Left and scorn from those on the Right, it seems that the passing of Mrs. Thatcher is doing much the opposite and drawing scorn from those on the Left and adulation from those on the Right.   As with all things in life, the truth is more complicated than anyone would care to admit.

I've always been a fan of Margaret Thatcher.  In an age where politicians seem to prize being wishy-washy and spineless above all else, politicians that had the courage of their convictions and stuck to their guns to defend the principles that they believed were right were a rare species indeed- perhaps even a dying breed and Thatcher was one of the last, truly visionary leaders that the West has ever produced.   Agree with her or disagree with her (and you can do both very easily) you have to admire her belief in her principles and the fact that she was willing to stand behind her convictions even when it was incredibly unpopular for her to do so.

Her legacy is far more complicated.  Not being alive in 1979 I can't really attest to the what shape Britain was in at the time but by all accounts, it wasn't exactly the hippest, most prosperous place to be.   Thatcher had to do some fairly brutal things to the British economy to right the ship all of which impacted real people at the time but, I think, helped create a stronger, more robust British economy for the 1990s.  She also broke the power of the trade unions- something that is still held against her today, especially in Scotland and Wales but with socialism thoroughly discredited, she also freed the Labour Party from much of the ideological baggage that weighed down its electoral prospects and by 1997, Tony Blair and Company swept into office for 13 years in power.

Her party has been wiped out north of the border in Scotland and west of the border in Wales and still engages in hot debate over the balancing act that is the European Union.  More integration or less?  Monetary union or no?  (Though Business Insider is pointing out that Thatcher foresaw some of the very problems the EuroZone is struggling with today and wanted no part of it as a result.)  Love her or hate her, she stands with Gladstone, Disraeli and Churchill in that club of Prime Ministers that cast very long shadows indeed over the United  Kingdom and I expect people will be debating her legacy and her place in history for decades to come.

Internationally, she was a staunch opponent of communism yet one of the first to embrace the reforming efforts of Mikhail Gorbachev.  She was as uncompromising in foreign affairs as in domestic policy which drew controversy during the Irish Hunger Strike and plaudits as she intervened militarily to face down Argentina's dictatorship and secure the rights of the residents of the Falkland Islands to determine their own fate.  Together with Reagen and Pope John Paul II she is generally considered to have been one of the many factors that were key in ending the Cold War and bringing down the Soviet Union. 

She was ready to make the tough decisions and speak plainly about them.  She never compromised on the principles she believed in and whether you agreed with those principles or not, you have to respect her for that much at least.  She made handbags cool in that 'you better believe I'll beat the shit out of you in a dark alley' kind of way and it was perhaps her most memorable quote that summed her up perfect:  'U-turn if you want to.  The Lady's not for turning.'

Leadership of her quality comes along once in a generation- if you're lucky.  And right now, looking at the mess in the world, we could use more people like her- people willing to make the tough choices and do what needs to be done.   Whatever her legacy, good or bad, she will be missed.

Poetry Slam 2013, Week #1

I heard on the radio yesterday that it was National Poetry Month so that got my thinking.  Not about how much I like poetry-  I really don't.  Poetry isn't my medium but there have been both poets and poetry that I like and been inspirational to me so I thought I'd take my Sundays this month and feature a random selection of my favorite poetry.

First up, 'Invictus.'  Most people will remember this movie which featured the poem but it was written after it's author, William Ernest Henley had his leg amputated below the knee at the age of 17.   According to Wikipedia (the Font of All Knowledge) stoicism inspired him to write the poem and ultimately, even without a foot, he lived an active and healthy life until his death in 1903 at the age of 53.

So kids, put on your berets and black turtlenecks and head down to the local coffee shop and get ready for a month of poetry goodness and enjoy this:

Invictus: William Ernest Henley
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have no winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

This Week In Vexillology #23

How do you say 'land of the eagle' in Albanian?  If you said Shapipëria you'd be correct and this week, we've got a double headed eagle on tap for everybody with the flag of (if you haven't already guessed it) Albania! Adopted for national usage on April 7th, 1992 the design of the flag recalls the Albanian Kingdom that existed from 1912 to 1944- the centerpiece of which is the double headed eagle.

The eagle is taken from the Arms of Albania and the black eagle has been an emblem of Albania since the 15th century.  However, the double headed eagle first appeared on flags during the struggle against Turkish occupation.  (Albania was first part of the Byzantine Empire then the Ottoman Empire before gaining independence in 1912.)  From 1944 to 1991 it was under strict Communist rule.  The flag shifted a little after the Italian Invasion of 1939- where parts of the Italian arms were added to the flag but the original design was restored in 1942.   Once the Communists had consolidated their rule a gold-edged red star was added above the eagle but that was removed by the new multiparty government in 1991.

Ruled with an iron fist by Enver Hoxha until 1985, the Communist regime in Albania was especially harsh and brutal- despite breaking with Moscow to become an ally of Maoist China before breaking with China after 1978 to become officially Hoxhaist for the remainder of the Cold War.  It's also left a legacy of bunkers all across Albania.  (No seriously...  Hoxha was all about bunkers.  Everywhere.)   It's sad to say but other than this episode of The Simpsons, the knowledge of Albania in the American consciousness is pretty limited- unless you're a massive history buff that's really into Rebecca West and books about the fall of Yugoslavia and the Balkans.

Ladies and Gentlemen, put your hands together for the double headed eagle- because this week, it's Albania!

And remember, until next time- keep your flags flying, FREAK or otherwise!

The Rutgers Thing

Fire everybody.

The more I read and see about this mess, the more I think that might just be the best possible solution here.  Obviously, you fire the Coach.  You should have fired him when you first saw this footage which, ridiculously enough, was way back in December when nobody knew or cared.  (Sorry, but Rutgers is fighting I don't know how many sports teams for coverage out there.  The fact this slipped under the radar for as long as it did only undermines the somewhat shakey argument that Rutgers deserved inclusion in the B1G because it 'get us NYC.'  It also doesn't help when your basketball team isn't up to much, winning wise.)

Oh, there's also an underling that thinks that verbally and physically abusing players is fine and dandy?  Fire him too.

Maybe you let your Athletics Director resign.   I would have been tempted to go for the Trifecta and fire him as well, but by all account, Tim Pernetti is a decent enough fellow.  He scored Rutgers an invite to the B1G which was a neat trick and one that'll be making your Athletics Department a shit ton of money (supposedly) once you join.   You also let him resign because the idiotic attempt to 'rehabilitate' the Coach was just that.  Idiotic.  If there's video of anything like this, it was bound to get out.  They can't have been silly enough to think that it wouldn't get out- and that when it did come out, the reaction was going to be what they expected.  Making like a Tammy Wynette song to 'stand by your man' when the reputation of the school and program was at stake was idiotic.  And so you let the AD fall on his own grenade.   Boom goes that dynamite.

Where things get dicey is the cover-up.  And there was a cover-up.  Not like a Penn State cover-up or a Watergate cover-up but they decided to rehabilitate this guy and keep on keeping on despite having seen this footage for themselves.   What the hell any of them were thinking is beyond me- which brings us to Rutgers University President Robert Barchi.

Yeah, fire him too. 

I get that basketball coaches can get a little crazy-  having been to a few Iowa games of both the latter days of the House of Lickliter and the start of the Fran McCaffery Era the contrast between the professorial, demure style of Lickliter and the full bore occasional Fran-Hulk rage eruptions of McCaffery is palpable.  But the key word with McCaffery is 'occasional.'  He's got fire in his belly and a will to win and if he's got to get in the faces of his team now and again to motivate them, he will.  He controls his Inner Hulk and uses it as a motivational tool more than anything else.  Fran's destroyed one unfortunate chair so far.  He hasn't thrown any and I would be downright shocked if he physically laid a hand on any of his players. 

There's crazy and then there's assholic.  This Coach?  Total asshole. And an abusive one at that--  even Hoosier fans could only tolerate so much of Bobby Knight throwing chairs and raging out before he was shown the door.  (Winning national titles for a program tends to buy you some leeway with the lunacy but there are limits.)  This Coach went way beyond any raging loony basketball coach I've ever seen.   The appropriate people at Rutgers knew.  And they didn't do much.

And that's inexcusable to me.  After Penn State (which is on a total different level than this-  totally different.  Way worse.) you would have thought that universities across the country would have learned that sunshine is the best disinfectant.  Transparency, especially when you're dealing with people's kids- college aged or not, should be the watch word and you should never, ever, ever cover anything up.  Ever.  Now the the footage is out, it looks like Rutgers was caught with its hand in the proverbial cookie jar trying to cover this up and you've got a mess on your hands.   If the President of Rutgers still has a job by next week, I'll be surprised.  Given the reputation of Governor Chris Christie as being a tough-talking, no nonsense type of guy, I think once he's got all the details in front of him the decision will be an easy one to make.

In the meantme, you've got a program rocked by scandal and you need someone to clean it up.  That's going to be hard sell in the rapidly rotating world of the coaching carousel.  Whomever ends up as the new Rutgers AD should take solace that you've already got a Hall of Fame Coach on staff and hired.  I doubt she'd want to double up and Coach both teams (if you can't hire a Coach by October, you're in some serious doo-doo) but if anyone is up for the challenge, I think it could be Coach Stringer.  At the very least give her a call and ask for her advice.   If this Coach didn't know how to run a program, she, at least does.

Food Adventures #27: The Bacon Cheeseburger Experiment

Kids, the idea was to make Bacon Cheeseburger Wontons.   After all, I tackled Bacon Mac N'Cheese Wontons last month and had plenty of wonton wrappers left, so they had to be used sometime.  When the Missus suggested maybe mixing up some ground beef and creating bacon cheeseburger wontons- the lightbulb was officially lit and we started cooking.   What we ended up with was this:

What's this, you ask?  Well, it's ground beef, plenty of turkey bacon and about half a red onion and some tomatoes we had laying around the place too.   We browned up the beef real good and then threw in the bacon.  Once that got nice and crispy we added the onions and then the tomatoes to get one big pan of goodness going.  But then fun didn't stop there!  The Missus (she gets full credit for this awesomeness.  I was merely her sous chef this time out.) added generous helpings of ketchup, mustard and then in a stroke of genius, Sriracha sauce as well.  We got some cheese ready and prepared for wontons!

Only then we found out that our wonton wrappers had gone bad.  (We've picked up this unfortunate tendency somewhere.  We get an idea and buy way more ingredients than we need and then they end up sitting around until we attempt to do something with the aforementioned ingredients again.  And that's when we found that they've gone bad and/or mouldy.)  Happily, however, we had the perfect improvisational tool at hand and this resulted:

Wa-BAM!  Throw some shredded cheese on top and cut up some kosher dill pickles and you've got a Bacon Cheese Burger Quesadilla.  The perfect lunch (and dinner, it turns out) for anyone craving the burger flavors but who isn't ready to get out the grill just yet.  Overall:  a would-be glorious fusion experiment ultimately changed into an entirely different fusion experiment and worked out fantastically.   Bacon purists might object to the use of the turkey bacon- and I agree, you'd probably get more bacon flavor by using real bacon but the turkey bacon brought a good bacon flavor to the party.  What really pulled it together though was the perfect amount of Sriracha- just enough to give it a kick but not enough to drown you in spice.   I'd totally mix this up again- only maybe next time, I'll put it in egg rolls.

'Argo' --A Review

For the second half of our Easter Double Feature, the Missus and I picked up this year's Best Picture winner, Argo for our viewing pleasure- and much like Zero Dark Thirty, although you know the ending well in advance, director Ben Affleck manages to create a gripping story about 'The Canadian Caper-' a little known facet of the Iranian Hostage Crisis which saw Canada along with the CIA (with a helping hand from the UK and New Zealand, although that's not really mentioned in the film- more on that later) smuggle out six Americans who had managed to escape from the Embassy before it was taken and the hostage crisis had begun.

From the very beginning, Affleck takes great pains to set the scene correctly- opening with a brief prologue set to movie storyboards to give the view some background to the events of the Iranian Revolution and using such period artists as Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Dire Straits and The Rolling Stones as well as more minor touches like using the old school Warner Brothers logo to open the film as well as a stereotypical '70's font' for the opening credits.  (Plenty of archival news footage is used throughout to add to the gritty, dirty, authentic 70s vibe that Affleck really nails quite well.   He 'located' this film perfectly.)

The story opens as the crowds are growing outside the US Embassy as diplomats look on with concern.  When people begin scaling the walls, there's a frantic effort to burn all classified material and destroy equipment as the American soldiers stationed at the Embassy try desperately to hold off the crowd with tear gas and smoke grenades.  When the incinerator breaks down, they're forced to shred documents and as militants storm the Embassy and begin taking hostages, six diplomats (played by Tate Donovan, Clea Duvall, Christopher Denham, Scoot McNairy, Kerry Bishe and Rory Cochrane) manage to escape via a back door, eventually ending up at the residence of the Canadian Ambassador (Victor Garber).

As the Hostage Crisis deepens, the presence of the six diplomats remains a closely guarded secret as the State Department and the CIA start exploring options to exfiltrate them back to the United States.  A CIA Exfiltration specialist by the name of Tony Menedez (Ben Affleck) is brought in to help develop a plan to get them out and is eventually inspired when watching a science fiction movie while taking on the phone with his son to make the six part of a film crew scouting location for a science fiction movie.   Menedez and his Supervisor Jack O'Donnell (Bryan Cranston) eventually call in Hollywood make-up artist John Chambers (John Goodman) who puts them in touch with a producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) and from there, the plan comes together.

Chambers, Siegel and Mendez secure a script to a science fiction movie named 'Argo', set up an entirely fake film studio, get financing, securing a production office along the way, all in the name of making it look like they're making an actual movie.  Meanwhile, the six diplomats grow increasingly strained and frantic as it's revealed that the Iranian housekeeper of the Canadian Ambassador has figured out just who their houseguests are.  

Mendez secures cover identities for the six and flies out to Iran via Istanbul, where the group is initially distrustful of his plan- but agrees to it, when they realize that Mendez is putting his life on the line as much as they are.   A location scout to the Grand Bazaar goes badly and the six are photographed by an unseen photographer as Iranians in the Embassy get closer and closer to reassembling six shredded mugshots and disaster strikes as Washington calls to inform Mendez that the operation has been called off.

After a night thinking about it, Mendez calls his boss and tells him he's going to go through with it anyway, prompting a frantic race to get the plane tickets approved through SwissAir (something that takes a Presidential order in the movie) as Mendez and the six navigate through passport control, airport security before finally being grilled by the Revolutionary Guard at the final checkpoint.   One final telephone call to the production office in Los Angeles is answered at the last possible second and despite the Iranians figuring it out and attempting to chase down the departing SwissAir flight, they're too late the six hostages escape to freedom.

Although Argo has rightfully won heaps of critical acclaim and the Best Picture Academy Award, it's only based on a true story-  it's not actually supposed to be an actual portrayal of what really happened.  Affleck takes some license with the actual events and that provoked some mild outrage in the UK and New Zealand as their role in getting the hostages out (they were initially hosted at the British Embassy and diplomats from New Zealand helped drive them to the airport) was completely left out.  (Affleck himself has acknowledged this, thank goodness.) The film has also taken some criticism from Canadians- as they were portrayed as the junior partner in the affair while the CIA lets them take all the credit.  In reality, the Canadians with an assist from the Kiwis and the British took the lead with the CIA supporting them.

The six were also in nowhere near as much danger as the movie suggests and six escaped with relative ease- I'm willing to cut Affleck a little slack on this point as the man was trying to direct a gripping political-historical thriller.  He had to get tension from somewhere.   While I'm somewhat irked by the fact that British and the Kiwis didn't get their due in the caper, I'm glad that Affleck acknowledged the fact that it was something he struggled with which is at least a head nod towards the fact that he had to leave some stuff out and it's relatively minor compared with monumental abomination of historical inaccuracy that was U-571.

Overall:  While Zero Dark Thirty was all about the realism of the events it was portraying, you really got a sense that Affleck was about more than just realism- he wanted to tell what remains a fascinating, entertaining story about events that not many people knew about and he wanted to do so in an entertaining why.   While Affleck took license with some of the events the trade off was a movie that practically vibrated with tension that only grew to almost unbearable levels as the climax of the film drew near- and, I'll admit, it made for one hell of a movie. My verdict: **** out of ****

P.S.  Bonus for Six Degrees of Separation/Early Edition fans...  both movies featured Kyle Chandler in totally different roles.  Which is almost, but not quite as good as Kevin Becon.

'Zero Dark Thirty' --A Review

After the usual Easter Festivities of church and brunch, the Missus and I found ourselves with an afternoon to kill and although it turned out to be not quite warm enough to lure us outside (those days are coming soon, though, I expect) we did score a couple of movies that we had both wanted to see and had a mini movie night kicking things off with Zero Dark Thirty.

There's been a lot of controversy surrounding this movie, which I'll cover in a minute but one thing I liked right away was that the filmmakers pulled no punches and punctured any illusions the viewer might have right away by introducing two characters- Dan (Jason Clarke) and the central character, Maya (Jessica Chastain) who are conducting an interrogation of a detainee named Ammar.  It's a fairly graphic scene right off the bat but I felt that it let the viewer know that they were going to be realistic about the story they were telling, they weren't going to do some kind of hagiographic puff piece about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden and it basically says that despite what we'd like to believe, the United States, on occasion does very ugly things in dark corners in the name of defending freedom.  Whether that's justified or not is something that the film wisely leaves in the hands of the viewers.

After some harsh interrogation, Ammar (Reda Kateb) gives up the name Abu Ahmed who he says is a personal courier for Bin Laden- and this is in 2003, where the film begins.   The bulk of the story involves Maya, who displays a single-minded zeal about tracking down Bin Laden, sifting through scraps of information, detainee interrogations and interrogating detainees themselves, trying to get the one big break she's looking for in the case.  The trail goes cold several times (another connection she finds is to a man named Abu Faraj- but under interrogation, Faraj refuses to give up the name Abu Ahmed) and Maya survives bombings, loses one of her close friends and sees Dan transfer back to CIA Headquarters in Washington, warning her that politics are changing and their harsh interrogation techniques are falling out of favor.

When a detainee says that the picture they have of Abu Ahmed is actually of a man that died in Afghanistan, the trail appears to go completely dead- and Maya's efforts seem to be for naught but are soon revived by the news that the photograph they had believed to be of Abu Ahmed might actually be of his brother.   Soon enough, they're back on the hunt and eventually with one purchase of a Lamborgini for a Kuwaiti source get a tap on his Ahmed's phone and eventually track him to the compoud in Abbottabad, Pakistan.   The CIA keeps the compound under surveillance for months but are unable to provide visial photographic proof that Bin Laden is there.  

Despite that, the National Security Advisor tasks the CIA with coming up with a plan to capture or kill Bin Laden if he can be confirmed to be inside-  top CIA officials (including Dan) meet with the Director (James Gandolfini) and assess the chances of Bin Laden being inside at 60%-80%.  Maya (also in attendence) puts it at 95%-100% and eventually the raid is authorized.  The raid is successful, the body is brought back to the US Base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan and Maya visually confirms that the body they have is, in fact, Osama Bin Laden.   The film ends with Maya alone on a military plane, unsure of where she wants to go, weeping quietly.

I think it's difficult to tell stories when people already know the ending.   You start this movie knowing full well what it's about and knowing exactly how it's going to end and yet the filmmakers managed to make a gripping, tense, brutally realistic film telling that story.  Realism drips from every frame of this thing- through the portrayal of torture of detainees to the tradecraft and surveillance techniques used throughout to track down Bin Laden and the military raid itself.  (I mean, not knowing or having been in the Navy Seals, I'll take their word for it.)  Yet despite all that, there are some tense, thrilling moments and you find yourself biting your nails and actually getting nervous about what's going to happen.

This film wasn't free from controversy either-  filmmakers were accused of getting improper access to to classified materials (so far, a charge that hasn't been proven), they were accused of politicizing the film with a release so close to the Presidential election (President Obama plays no part in the film and is seen only once, in passing in a television interview when he still Candidate Obama) and they were also accused, funniliy enough by film critics aplenty of being pro-torture.

I can't speak to the first charge and the second charge never really bothered me (I think the economy was far more important in the election than Bin Laden or when some film was released) but as to the third charge, well, I'd say it's tricky.  The impression the film left me with was a sort of 'just the facts' mentality that was designed to let viewers draw their own judgement about the issue.  I didn't get the sense they were condoning or condemning the practice but they weren't about to sugar coat it either which I liked a lot.  It's hard to watch, I'll admit but you can't really tell the story of Zero Dark Thirty without portraying it.

Overall: Gripping, tense, thrilling with beautifully taut performances from the entire cast.  I can see why this was nominated for Best Picture and although I haven't seen Silver Linings Playbook yet- so I can't judge Jessica Chastain's performance against Jennifer Lawrence's but one of these days Chastain is going to bring home an Oscar (she won a Golden Globe for this role)- and she'll richly deserve it.   My verdict: **** out of ****.

Bracketology 2013: Post Second Weekend Autopsy

Well, something interesting has transpired, kids.   My main bracket, as is its habit has gone to hell in a handbasket-  I'm sitting at 38.5% with a ranking of 5,011,622 according to ESPN.com.   Out of the Final Four in this bracket, I picked one correctly- going with Louisville, who worried me for a little bit after Kevin Ware's horrible injury against Duke but who came back strong to blow the Dukies out of the water.  (Which made me happy.  As a side note, I think Duke is now approaching that sweet spot that UNC currently occupies in my basketball universe:  not my favorite team out there, probably not going to pick 'em but if they're genuinely good and talented, I have no problem with them winning the whole ball of wax.   Couple of more years, Duke should qualify.)

My nieces did surprisingly well picking the South Region-  especially given the fact that they're two and this is their first time out.   In the bottom half of that region, they picked Minnesota, Florida, FGCU and San Diego State correctly- the top half, not so much, though they would have had me sitting pretty had their  pick of the Hilltoppers of Western Kentucky proven to be correct. 

The Cinderellas of Wichita State and La Salle did the top half of my West Region in.  (Again:  Damn you, Gonzaga!) And although my East Region in this bracket was my best overall, I should have listened to my gut about the Hoosiers- trusting them, like trusting Gonzaga ultimately proved to be foolish.  Marquette was also a pleasant surprise in that region as well.

Now my second bracket is what's interesting... currently, it's sitting at 95.9% with a ranking of 322,156 according to ESPN.com- so I've got a passing grade and then some in at least one of my two brackets.  Here, although Gonzaga and Indiana screwed me, I managed to get Louisville and Michigan correct out of the Final Four.  In what's probably a personal best for me- though I admit I might have put a wee bit more thought into this year than I normally do, I swept the First Round games in the East Region and barring Marquette (again, an altogether pleasant surprise) I would have swept the Second Round as well. 

The West Region was probably my worst (again, the dark horses and the Cinderellas did me in) but I managed to three out of four teams right in the Sweet 16 in the South and picked both Michigan and Florida in the Elite 8.

So we're down to the Final Four.  None of my teams save Louisville in one bracket and Louisville and Michigan in another bracket are still standing.  My picks of Gonzaga and Indiana to win it all proved wrong so what do I think will happen?   My prediction:  Louisville versus Michigan and in one for the ages, Michigan pulls it out.  Go Blue! (Why?  Well, the Wolverines are playing really well right now- they've got momentum and the players they need to have big games are doing so.  Though if they're not ready for that Hoosier confounding zone that 'Cuse runs their run could end in the Final Four.  Louisville blew Duke clean out of the water and have been dominating everyone.  Now watch as the 'Cuse zone takes down the Wolverines and the Shockers of Wichita State shock Louisville and I'm proven totally wrong again.  Isn't this fun?)