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Up to the minute notes on the current state of free thinking and free living: Kentucky moonshine - original analysis and reporting from MoreThings, and all round pop culture museum of sight and sound - photo galleries, mp3 and video downloads.
Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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September 04, 2003
Perhaps Arnold Schwarzenegger really IS a machine
Maybe Arnold Schwarzenegger really IS a machine. The day he skipped the first scheduled debate (an interesting and somewhat ballsy move itself), Arnold got hit with an egg while he was out pressing the flesh. Watching the video, he just walked right through it. He barely made any facial reaction at all, and didn't really even slow down. He stripped off his jacket, which caught the main hit, and kept walking.
It reminded me of some of his Terminator scenes where he gets shot, and keeps walking right through it with no emotional reaction whatsoever. I assume that if he were actually shot, it would slow him down. Nonetheless, the total control of his own reaction fascinated me. The presence of mind and quick, understated response were just dead ON it.
Who knows how it will all play out on election day, but his whole campaign so far strikes me as surprisingly skillful and professional, in the best sense of the word. I'm quite impressed with how he's staging his entire campaign. At this point, I'm starting to think that even the Warren Buffett bit on Prop 13 was stage managed. Did he have the 500 sit-ups quip for the press in hand before Buffett even made the comment?
A few minutes after the egging, Arnold said "This guy owes me bacon now." That's a decently clever line. Even more clever, I'm wondering if he didn't anticipate specifically getting egged, and therefore already had a clever response line in the can. I'm guessing now that he's got a prepared line or two to use if he gets hit with a tomato.
Other than the classic T2, I've never been particularly a big fan of his movies. I also have serious reservations about a lot of his political statements.
However, Arnold continues to impress me with his campaign performance. Again, note that I'm talking about the presentation of his campaign, rather than the specific substance.
He's had another little move in the last couple of days that impresses me in its precision, reacting to the old interviews being dug up with talk about drugs and wild sexual exploits. He has suggested, quite plausibly, that not every single such thing that he said was actually true. The now famous Oui magazine interview among others was done when he was promoting a movie, and some of those crazy personal stories were really just PR hype. Then he uses THAT to brag on his success in promoting the sport of body building. Seems reasonable.
That's just PERFECT politics for this situation. Without denying or lying, he's giving more conservative voters a feasible reason not to believe some of the wildest stuff. Particularly in the context of California politics, his liberal opponents both on the ballot and in the press are going to look pretty dumb if they now start trying to nail him down about specific stories. This election is about the future of California, not stories about the sex lives of body builders from a quarter century ago, etc.
Beyond any questions about policy issues, stuff like this makes me think the guy actually is smart and subtle enough to really do the job.
posted by Al at 9/04/2003 01:38:00 AM
September 03, 2003
The Governour's fyn castel for to wyn
Only the National Review's John Derbyshire would write a parody of the California recall based on The Canterbury Tales. The raucous, bawdy Chaucer masterpiece turns out to be just the right basis of comparison for our classic modern crazyness.
The really impressive thing, though, is that Derbyshire wrote the whole column in a very effective parody of the now quite obscure Middle English that Chaucer was working in. That's a decent technical achievement even beyond the political content or the parody.
Chaucer wrote this somewhere around 1390. Most people now read "translations" of this poetry that is today barely recognizable as English. Indeed, searching Amazon, it's somewhat difficult even to find the original text among all the translated versions.
Then again, ol' Derb is the kind of guy who'd write a whole book length biography of an obscure mathematician from even a little before Chaucer's time.
posted by Al at 9/03/2003 11:59:00 PM
One good thing about Tom Cruise
In all fairness, Tom Cruise really isn't the greatest actor around. Hardly anyone would claim that he is. He's reasonably competent, but he's not going to make anyone forget Sidney Poitier or Sir Anthony Hopkins.
One big thing in defense of Tom Cruise, though: quality control. He does far better than average in picking his projects. More important really than any fancy personal performance, you can pretty well count on his name meaning that the whole movie will be worth seeing. Rain Man would make a good example of this.
He rarely makes a pure suckfest of a movie. Granted, he sometimes runs a bit to the safe side (The Firm, say), but even the safer movies are generally decently written and thought through. He DOES put out consistently professional quality product. You can generally feel safe in investing time or money in a Cruise movie, confident that it will be worth the bother of watching.
To pick a contemporary of approximately equal professional stature, compare Cruise's career to Robin Williams. Williams probably has nearly equal stature to Cruise in getting his pick of material, but a BIG percentage of Robin Williams movies just plain goddam suck. By rights, Williams is a better actor, and a far more unique talent. Damn, man, look at One Hour Photo. That's some good work.
Yet- for whatever reasons- Williams picks out a LOT of crappy movies to attach his name and reputation to. For every one challenging classic One Hour Photo, the poor beleaguered consumer gets to buy several maudlin Patch Adams love-me crapfests. A double fistful of clunkers like that, and your brand name starts getting diluted.
He may not be the most accomplished actor ever, but the consistent quality of Cruise's work is critical to his high commercial status. Not even his devotion to the Mindfu-, Mindheads...I mean Scientology will cause him to make a Battlefield Earth.
posted by Al at 9/03/2003 10:08:00 PM
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