Snuffing Out The Cigar

Kids,

It's moving day here at The Cigar.  After five years I've decided to move on to bigger, better and more professional looking things so we're migrating to Wordpress and, we're changing our name to boot, so follow me to our new home:  The Daily Quixotry

The name, I know, is a little unusual, but it fits me better I think.  I liked the alliteraration of Churchill's Cigar, but all in all, this blog has had very little to do with Churchill or Cigars.  I hate cigars.  I lack the patience required for cigars and unlike Churchill, I don't really enjoying chewing on the damn things either.

So, stop by tomorrow and check out the new digs!  It's been a real pleasure blogging here, but I'm ready to take things up a notch and I hope everyone whose dropped by from time to time will come check out my new digs as well.

thanks
Tom

'Veronica Mars' --A Review

A long time ago, we used to have a network named UPN- if you haven't heard of them lately at all, that's because they merged with the WB to become the CW.  And anyway, about a decade ago now, the UPN premiered this quirky television show centered around a teenaged private eye.  Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell's breakout role) could have been described as 'Nancy Drew' for the New Millennium, but she was way too cynical and way too jaded for that- sixteen going on fifty.   The show was intelligent, watchable and thanks to the easy, believable chemistry between Veronica and her Dad Keith (Enrico Colantoni) had one of the best father-daughter relationships ever portrayed on television.

And like all intelligent, watchable television shows, it lasted for three seasons and was then promptly cancelled.

But then a funny thing happened:  the show gained a vocal cult following and both Kristen Bell and the show's creator, Rob Thomas expressed interest in making a movie.  And then another funny thing happened: they decided to promote their potential movie via Kickstarter and ended up raising more than $2 million dollars in the space of about ten hours or so.  (They added a further $3 million over the course of the rest of their one month Kickstarter period.)  That convinced Warner Brothers that there was enough interest out there to warrant making a movie, so a little more than a year later, here we are with Veronica Mars:  The Movie.

Picking up ten years after the end of the television show, we find Veronica (Kristen Bell) on the verge of breaking free from her old life in Neptune once and for all.  She's got a successful boyfriend, Piz (Chris Lowell) (who works with Ira Glass at This American Life, I guess) and she's on the verge of landing a job at a prestigious New York law firm, headed up by Jamie Lee Curtis.  But just as everything seems to be coming up roses for Veronica, she gets a call from her old boyfriend, Logan Ecchols (Jason Dohring).

Logan has been implicated in the death of his pop star girlfriend, Bonnie Deville, who used to go by the name Carrie Bishop and attend high school with both Veronica and Logan.  Quickly enough, despite her determination to get out and stay out Veronica finds herself back in the private eye business and just in time for her ten year high school reunion with friends Wallace (Percy Daggs III) and Mac (Tina Majorino)- where she realizes that the more things change, the more they stay the same and that the key to finding out if Logan is innocent or not is to be found smack dab in the middle of her former high school classmates.

As she reconnects with old friends, including a reformed ex-biker, now straight up family man Eli Navarro (Francis Capra) the allure of her old life and her connection with her ex-boyfriend threatens to rekindle their old flame together, Veronica finds herself drawn back to Neptune as her quest to clear Logan's name threatens to reveal secrets that some people would prefer to stay buried.

Fans of the television show are going to absolutely love this movie.  It's nice to see Veronica, again of course, but going back to Neptune and reconnecting with all of her old high school buddies?  It's like the ten year high school reunion you actually want to go to!  Meeting these characters again is a lot of fun- Veronica's surprise at finding out former bad boy biker Weevil is now a settled, stable family man is genuine enough to make fans of the show stand up and cheer.  Every character, major or minor that fans of the show loved seems to make an appearance.

But, beyond that- the movie is peppered with celebrity cameos that actually work really well and don't seem all that jarring and out of place.   Justin Long, Harvey Levin and Ira Glass all show up- inevitably, because James Franco has to be in everything these days, he shows up as well.  And Mr. Kristen Bell himself, Dax Shepherd shows up for a brief, funny cameo that is over far too quickly.

Don't be afraid, though: if you have no idea what 'Veronica Mars' is going into this movie, you won't be left out in the cold.  There's a brief prologue at the start of the film that does an effective job of providing context as to who Veronica is and what her story is- and after that, you can just sit back, relax and let yourself enjoy an engaging, intelligent, thriller of a movie that will leave you wanting more- or, at the very least, leave you wanting to get your hands on the television show so you can find out what you've been missing all these years.

Overall, this movie is incredibly good.  It manages to balance itself between being a love letter to fans of the television show while introducing these characters to new and (hopefully) eager audiences, which is a feat in and of itself.  The actors haven't missed a beat and settle back into their roles with gusto and enthusiasm and the writing remains intelligent, the dialogue snappy and the plot moves right along.  It's good to have Veronica Mars back.  You can only hope enough people out there agree with that sentiment to warrant a sequel.   My Grade: A+

This Week In Vexillology #80

This Week In Vexillology, I'm actually in Arizona.

So, it seems only fitting that for a special 'vacation edition' of This Week In Vexillology, we take a look at the flag of the Grand Canyon State.  The thirteen red and gold stripes on the top half of the flag represent the thirteen original colonies as well as the colors of Spain that Coronado carried into the region in 1540 on his expedition to find the Golden Cities of Cibola.    The copper star represents the mining industry in the state, while the bottom half of the flag is blue, which represents liberty.

The arrangement of the stripes on the top half of the flag is also meant to represent the beautiful sunsets so common in the state.   Wikipedia has a pretty good summary of the history behind the flag and how it was designed and the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA!) rated this flag as one of the ten best flags on the continent and it's easy to see why.  Arizona, much like it's neighbors New Mexico, Colorado and California, is a departure from the usual state flag of 'let's slap our state seal on a color' that seems so sadly predominant for many of the other states.  It's unique, well designed and a beautiful flag.

So while I'm going to get back to enjoying my vacation, you all should give it up for the flag of Arizona and remember, until next time, keep your flags flying, FREAK or otherwise.

Pink: The Redux

Ack, again with the pink locker rooms?

I'm not entirely sure why people and by people I mean academics choose to tilt at this particular windmill every so often, but they do.   When they were originally installed in 1979, the color psychology behind the move seemed to indicate that pink was a 'calming' color and then Coach Hayden Fry, who had studied psychology thought it seemed like just the color for the visiting teams locker rooms.   The University kept the pink locker rooms after the renovations to Kinnick Stadium in 2005 and since then controversy seems to have bubbled up now and again.

This year's edition has some obvious flaws in it's argument and it takes a left turn to a deeply trouble assertion about halfway through.  The money quote:

If UI President Sally Mason is really serious about cultivating a campus environment that will eliminate sexual assaults, then she should end this retrograde football tradition.  Every time she cheers on the Hawkeyes from her skybox above the pink locker room, Mason is rubber stamping a hyper-masculine culture that undermines her recent efforts.

If anyone out there thinks that the first step to ending sexual assaults on campus is to give the locker rooms at Kinnick a paint job, they are in dire need of a cat scan.  I also tend to reject notions that put all the blame on any 'hyper-masculine' culture as well.  It's a typical response:  instead of growing a healthier masculinity where rape and domestic violence are never considered acceptable because men 'couldn't control themselves' or 'she was asking for it', academics love to engaging in man-blaming, because you know, making it clear to men that they should be ashamed of themselves and their gender and how they're all potential rapists and abusers is sure to produce the positive outcomes necessary to make real progress on these issues.   Right?  Man-blaming is the new slut-shaming.   It needs to stop.

There's a difference between challenging 'hyper-masculinity' and tearing it down.  I may not have been a women's studies major in college, but it seems to me that the feminism I can get behind is one that favors equality between the genders and not one that favors tearing one down to replace a patriarchy with a matriarchy.

But the more important point is that the pink locker rooms just don't work.   It's irrelevant to the team's win-loss record.  When the Hawkeyes are good, they're good.  When they're not, they're not.  The color of the locker rooms makes no difference either way- which proves, at least to me, that the heteronormativity that the author is so against doesn't work!

Either way it's an entirely stupid thing to argue about and given the amount of rich alumni out there that fill the coffers of the Athletic Department with the Benjamins, it's a quest that's unlikely to succeed.  I'd make a point about refusing to give the University any money if it did succeed, but I already work for them, so they're already getting my time.  They're not getting my cash money.  And needless to say, ending gender violence and sexual assault doesn't begin with a paint job.

P.S. (Oh brother.  There's going to be march.)

'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' --A Review

Originally published in The Little Village, 4/15/14

Captain America returns for an engaging, tense and action packed thriller of a sequel in Captain America:  The Winter Soldier.  The opening of the movie finds Captain America (Chris Evans) becoming more comfortable with life after his seven-decade stint as a human ice cube.  He has an apartment, he’s thinking about asking his neighbor (Emily VanCamp) out on a date and he’s made a new friend, fellow soldier and para-rescue veteran Sam (Anthony Mackie) but he’s growing increasingly uneasy working for SHIELD with fellow Agent Natasha Romanoff (The Black Widow) (Scarlett Johansson).

His unease only grows when Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) shows him Project Insight- three new heli-carriers with weapons arrays and a program that will track threats and eliminate them pre-emptively.  This doesn’t sit well with the Captain, who begins to question his place and his role within SHIELD when things like privacy and freedom are increasingly under threat from those that he considered to be ‘the good guys.’

When Nick Fury is assassinated by a mysterious masked assassin with a metal arm named The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), the Captain’s unease seems prescient- even as the Secretary of SHIELD, Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) moves to initiate Project Insight, he finds himself on the run with The Black Widow and his friend Sam (equipped with a pair of mechanical wings to become The Falcon) trying to find out the secret of The Winter Soldier and to root out enemies within SHIELD itself.  Captain America soon finds himself haunted by the ghosts of his past- both enemies and friends as like as he fights to save SHIELD and prevent the destruction of everything he holds dear.

Marvel continues to set the standard for ‘comic book movies’ and Captain America 2 is no exception.   The directors, Joe and Anthony Russo bring lots of experience in television to the picture and what results is a pulse-pounding two and a half hour movie that moves and a break neck pace, never feels slow and keeps the viewer rooted to their seat.  But more importantly, having been freed of the constraints of telling an origin story, they give all the characters room to grow and change- especially Scarlett Johansson’s character, The Black Widow.  

The Black Widow has been floating in the background of various Marvel movies dating back to Iron Man 2, but was given a more prominent role in The Avengers and moves into a lead role here.  Her back story has been hinted at throughout in a frustrating, maddening way that leaves viewers wanting to know more about her, but in this movie, she comes into her own.  You can bet that it’s only a matter of time before she gets a movie of her own.

If there is a concern about these loosely connected movies, it’s that a viewer could be lost without watching the prior movies first.  That’s not necessarily the case- it’s a big help, but the Russo Brothers conveniently have Captain America visit a Captain America exhibit at the Smithsonian, which fills new viewers in on the events of the first Captain America and integrates it seamlessly into the movie itself.

Overall: If actors with the pedigree of Robert Redford can show up in comic book movies, maybe it’s time to start taking them seriously.  Captain America 2 has opened the summer movie season with a bang- it’s one ride you won’t want to miss.  Grade: A+

This Week In Vexillology #79

Last week, we paid a visit to Merry Old England to take a peek at the Cross of St. George...  this week, I'm sort of behind the curve so after some thought and a peek at the This Week In Vexillology Archives I decided that we're going to sneak south to the land of good food and embittered old white guys who own bars and have their resident pianists play the same damn sad song on the piano over and over again--  I think this might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship, because this week, we've got the flag of Morocco:

Speaking of friendship: Morocco was on the of the first countries to grant recognition to the newly independent United States following the American Revolution.  Recognition was granted in 1777 and a Treaty of Friendship was signed in 1786.  It was renegotiated in 1836 but remains in force to this date, making it the longest unbroken treaty in US History.  So how do you like them apples? #TheMoreYouKnow

The design of the flag is pretty simple- a green pentagram on a field of red, but packed full of historical significance.   Red is the color of the royal Alaouite Family, which is descending from the Prophet via Fatima, the wife of Ali, the 4th Muslim Caliph (and, if I'm remembering my Islamic Studies class correctly, the last of the rightly guided Caliphs.)  From the 17th Century until about 1915, the flags of the country remained plain red until the green interlaced pentangle was added to the flag. 

The current flag was adopted on November 17th, 1915 for national and civil usage.  The red in the flag represents hardiness, bravery, strength and valor.  The green, five pointed star represents the Seal of Solomon. 

So there you have it- the flag of one of our oldest and bestest friends in the whole wide world- literally.  Give it up for Morocco!  And remember, until next time, keep your flag flying, FREAK or otherwise.