E.R. Torre's Blog, page 148
December 10, 2015
Football
I stumbled upon this article for Salon.com and by Steve Almond regarding the professional (and extremely popular) sport of football:
The article follows some inflammatory statements ex-Quarterback Danny Kanell made in response to an editorial published in the New York Times by Dr. Bennett Omalu, a forensic pathologist who first identified chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in many ex-football players:
The war on football is real. Not sure source but concussion alarmists are loving it. Liberal media loves it. Doesn’t matter. It’s real.
“Concussion alarmists”.
It’s an interesting choice of words and echoes the same (to me) ridiculous arguments against the validity of climate change.
Look, I’ll be the first to admit it: I really like watching football. I wish my team (the lackluster Miami Dolphins) were in contention.
Having said that, Mr. Omalu’s studies (which are the subject of the upcoming Will Smith movie Concussion), I believe, point out something that by now should be obvious to anyone: Football is an extremely violent sport that breaks down its participants’ brains and bodies and, in many cases, leaves them with a future of pain…and worse.
How could it not?
Running back Reggie Bush stated playing through a single professional football game was akin to experiencing several car crashes and the body (and mind) needed time to recover.
This point was driven home to me when a little over a year ago, while driving with my wife, younger daughter, and her friend, we slowed and stopped at a red light and the person behind us, going no faster than 15-20 miles an hour, didn’t realize we stopped and rear ended us.
The damage to our car was minimal (we needed to replace our car’s rear bumper). The car that rear-ended us, however, had its front end crumpled and blew out its radiator. Given the age of the car (it was an older model Civic, if memory serves), it was probably a total loss. The couple that rear-ended us were fine. My wife and I, as well as my daughter’s friend, were also fine.
My daughter, however, happened to be sitting with her back against her seat and looking to her right, at her friend, when the car hit us. Because of this, she experienced whiplash and, in the days and weeks that followed, some at times very intense headaches. We sent her to a doctor and then to physical therapy to help her. Fortunately, after a while -and through the therapies, which were very effective- her symptoms faded and she recovered completely.
In light of that, think about the hits that professional football players receive in the course of a full game. Not just one “hit” like what my daughter experienced, but potentially several dozen during the course of a game.
Remember, we’re talking players who are in peak physical shape running at full speed -and colliding!- with each other. We’re talking about hits that make the relatively minor car accident my daughter experienced look like a walk in the park.
How does the human body cope with all that trauma, only to experience it again the very next week?
For that matter, think about the hits football playing high schoolers and college students receive as well. At least the professional player is being paid for their participation in the game. High Schoolers and University players? Not so much. And very, very few of them reach the pro’s and receive a paycheck.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love watching football but I think the sport will not survive in its present form for very long.
I believe that, contrary to Mr. Kanell’s pronouncements, the medical data will eventually prove overwhelming and, as popular as the game of football is, who will want to send their kids to participate in something that slowly but surely kills you?
December 9, 2015
Like something out of The Twilight Zone…
Found this on CNN.com:
It seems Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Malaysia has three abandoned cargo jets parked on their lot and have posted a notice that if someone doesn’t claim them (and pay the parking fee owed) they will be sold:
Malaysia Hunts Owners of Boeing 747’s Abandoned at Airport
How…weird. Especially the fact that no one knows who owns these aircraft and, obviously, the fact that someone would simply leave them -all three!- abandoned like that.
I’ve seen/heard of businesses abandoning products or material because they simply could no longer pay for them, but three 747 jets?!
Weird.
About that David Bowie play…
Looks like they had a preview of the musical Lazarus and Chris O’Leary for Slate offers his take on it:
There’s A Showman, Waiting in the Sky
Sounds interesting. I have to agree with Mr. O’Leary that much of David Bowie’s oeuvre does hint at his desire to have a musical, from his earliest works to his many theatrical transformations. Now, heading into the twilight of his career, it would appear he finally has his musical show and, at least based on this review, it appears to be a culmination of all things Bowie and set on stage.
Is that a good thing?
I wonder. I also wonder if I’ll get a chance to see it…
The Final Girls (2015) a (mildly) belated review
Can’t recall where I first heard about The Final Girls, a gentle tribute to and comedy related to the “slasher” films of the 1980’s -and more specifically Friday the 13th– but I was intrigued enough to put it on my Netflix que and yesterday finally got a chance to see it.
The Final Girls starts with our two main characters, Amanda Cartwright ( playing -and succeeding- in the most challenging roles in this film) angrily emerging from an audition and meeting up with her waiting daughter Max () in their car.
Amanda, we find in short order, is a frustrated actress quite literally haunted/typecast by her most famous role, that of a camp counselor/victim in the “classic” Camp Bloodbath, a fictional 1980’s film which is very obviously is based on Friday the 13th. Though bitter and knowing that her most current audition went nowhere (“He said he’d keep me in mind”), Amanda clearly doesn’t want to bring her daughter down.
It is during the first few minutes of the film, where we see the dynamic between Mother and Daughter, that the film succeeds the most. In those very short scenes we discover that Max is very much a realist while Amanda is a free spirit who recognizes she’s made many mistakes in her life but clings to her one very bright success: Her daughter.
Which makes what happens next all the more heartbreaking (Mild spoilers, although the trailer pretty much gives this away and it does happen within the first five or so minutes of the film): Amanda wrecks the car and we’re rapidly transported to three years later. Amanda, we find, died in the car accident while Max survived.
Now living with her aunt, Max is a high schooler who still misses her mother greatly. When she learns there will be a theatrical presentation/tribute to the Camp Bloodbath films, she at first doesn’t want to go. The reasons are many and obvious: Seeing the movie means Max sees her beloved mother in the role that typecast and ultimately stunted her career. Further, she is a victim of the slasher killer…why would she want to see her mother die all over again?
Nonetheless, she is convinced to go to the film and, while with her friends, watches along. When the movie comes to the scene where her mother is about to be killed by the slasher, Max needs to leave the theater. However, just as she heads to the exit a fire breaks out and, with her friends in tow, they “escape” the theater through the projection screen…
…only to find themselves within the Camp Bloodbath film!
The Final Girls cleverly and at times hilariously explores the conventions of these slasher films. The “real” people try their best to help out the movie characters to survive and, ultimately, kill off “Billy Murphy”, the Jason-like machete killer targeting everyone at the camp.
While the film is at times quite funny, there remains the bittersweet/sad undercurrent of Max meeting up with her mother once again, even though this time around she really isn’t her mother but rather Nancy, one of the soon-to-be victims in the Camp Bloodbath movie.
I don’t want to give too much more away but the film is a pleasant, very good comedy that falls just shy of being great.
Where does it fall short?
I think part of the problem lies in the film within a film needed to be a bit closer in its look to the actual Friday the 13th films. By that I mean there needed to be a greater sense of darkness and foreboding, something the Friday the 13th films did even when not showing graphic violence. Speaking of which, some have argued the film should have gone the “R” rated rather than PG-13 route, that if you’re making a “tribute” to the slasher films of the 1980’s there should be nudity and graphic violence. Given the sadness which lies beneath the laughs, I’m not sure about that.
People might have been turned off had Amanda/Nancy actually stripped or been shown graphically murdered. Further, once I got to know some of the other characters in the movie within a movie, I felt for them and worried about their predetermined fate(s). I didn’t need to see them then die in very graphic ways…then again, that’s just me.
Regardless, The Final Girls is very much worth a look, especially if you are familiar with the films it most gently -and at times hilariously- skewers.
Recommended.
December 8, 2015
My my…
I really, really don’t like to get into politics on this site. I mean, most authors use their blog to talk about their latest works and promote them. I do as well, though not as much as I could. Frankly, I prefer to do so when I have concrete news to tell you regard a new work…more specifically when it nears completion/publication.
Getting back to politics, of late I find the whole thing so damn depressing. A few years back when George W. Bush was president and pundits were ripping him and his policies, conservative mouthpiece Charles Krauthammer stated that Bush’s opponents were suffering from “Bush derangement syndrome”. In other words, they could not see past their hatred of the man to more reasonably look at his policies.
However, there is little doubt that many of Bush’s policies, including the disastrous (and arguably justified by outright lies) decision to invade Iraq, the pathetic response to Hurricane Katrina, and the way the economy crashed during his watch, created a sense the critics were more right than “deranged”.
When Mr. Bush left office there were very few -and that goes for today as well- who spoke kindly about his term in office. Rather than defend him, most in the Republican Party or those who espouse conservative values, chose to ignore his time in office and, instead, focus venom on the current officeholder, Barack Obama.
And yet, if there is any case of a “derangement syndrome”, it would have to be regarding Obama’s term in office. Say what you will about his time in office but at least we have had a continuously improving economy, health care legislation (good or bad, the fact is that we are one of the last of the first world countries to move in this direction and we should applaud this legislation even as we work to make it better), and no new (idiotic) wars.
Before you start screaming, let me say this: Is all milk and honey? Absolutely not. There are many things I’ve felt Mr. Obama should have done but hasn’t. At times I feel he is too meek and wish he had (yes) George W. Bush’s backbone.
But what bugs me the most about the people who so despise Barack Obama’s presidency is the fact that they don’t realize he, like Bill Clinton before him, are most akin in policy to yesteryear’s Republicans.
Indeed, the patron saint of today’s Republicans, Ronald Reagan, would probably be derided as too leftist to these new conservatives which goes to show just how far the right in this country have moved.
Most worrisome to me is the level of hate they project. At a family dinner, I was amused to learn, and subsequently mentioned, the news that during a Republican Jewish Coalition speech Republican Presidential contender Ben Carson (no brain surgeon…oh, wait) talked about Hamas yet referred to them, over and over again, as…Hummus.
Yikes.
When I mentioned this, my relative almost jumped down my throat, first saying something to the effect of “well, I hope they (I’m assuming Hamas?) are insulted by being called that” before realizing what Mr. Carson said was yet another boneheaded line (of which there are more) and defending him by absolutely ignoring what he said and focusing instead on just how much Obama has ruined this country.
The wide-eyed hatred spewed was, frankly, startling, as was the lack of specifics as to just how Mr. Obama had ruined the country.
Naturally, I’m not the first person to go to a family function and get involved in a political spat nor will I be the last, but I was surprised at just how much this individual bought into the conservative Obama “derangement”.
As I already mentioned, there most certainly are things to criticize about Mr. Obama’s presidency (as there are for most presidencies), but I don’t and can’t see his failures as being anything on the level of “disastrous.”
There is no moral to this story and there is no clever conclusion to offer except this quote, which I’ll reproduce here from memory and therefore may not be verbatim, regarding the current state of Republican candidates for presidency:
“I hope one day the candidates turn to face the camera and say ‘April Fools!’.”
This is weird…and amusing
It also seems like a Monty Python sketch:
I suppose we’ll be getting the 2015 nominees soon but, come on, how can you not like people with names such as…
Dr. Loki Skylizard (this is an actual name, though according to the article the man came up with it when he was 9 years old and his parents were crazy free-wheeling enough to allow their children to choose their own names).
and
(name removed at the request of the name-inee)
And I thought my name was bad…
December 7, 2015
December 7
As strong a memory as 9/11 is for those who witnessed the event either live or via television back in 2001, there was another equally shocking event that galvanized the nation and which occurred on December 7th.
Today marks the 74th anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day. On this day in 1941 the Japanese attacked the U.S. military base on Hawaii in the hopes of critically injuring the U.S. fleet and therefore have free reign on the Atlantic Ocean.
The shocking attack, however, turned out to be Japan’s biggest miscalculation.
Not only did the attack formally bring the U.S. into the Second World War -there were many politicians and prominent personalities railing against joining the war up to that point- but the attack itself, as harrowing as it was, wasn’t as successful as the Japanese hoped it would be. The U.S. fleet wasn’t crushed and, as history attests, our nation was more than able to contain and eventually defeat the Japanese advance.
Admiral Yamamoto, the architect of the attack, reportedly had second thoughts regarding the action and came to realize it was a big mistake. One of the most famous quotes linked to him (though there is no hard evidence he said it) is that the attack on Pearl Harbor “Awoke a sleeping giant“.
Way, way back when I was in Hawaii, I made it a point to visit the Arizona Memorial. As others have noted, there is still oil coming from the sunken ship. But the experience, in the end, was both haunting and sad. One immediately realized, upon arriving at the memorial, the number of people lost to this attack as well as those who were soon to be lost in the war that followed.
I haven’t been to New York since 9/11 but I suspect the same feelings must fill visitors to the site of the Twin Towers.
There are great wounds left upon the land and tributes to the same. The wounds of December 7th and the war that followed, through the passage of time, have led to healing. Perhaps one day the same can be said for 9/11.
A little bit more on self-driving cars…and their effects
Found this fascinating article:
Driverless Cars Could Spell the End of Domestic Flights
What’s fascinating about the article is not only the impact such vehicles would have for domestic flights, but another thing I hadn’t considered: The effect on Hotels and reststops/restaurants along a commonly used route.
The crux of the argument is this: In the future, when we have self-driving/driverless cars, the vehicles may no longer resemble what we commonly think of when we think of cars.
Imagine there is a fleet of “rentable” long distance vehicles (you wouldn’t need to own one of them). You decide one weekend that you’d like to go to, say, a beach some five or more hours drive away.
You pull out your smartphone and call in the vehicle once you have all your and your family’s gear ready. The vehicle arrives and you put away your suitcases, etc. and get into the driverless car.
What you have inside the car is like a small room. The car’s seats fold down to make beds and you have a screen (or several!) available for entertainment. Should the trip be a very long one, you can order your car at night and sleep in while the driverless car takes you to your destination.
You wake up/arrive at your destination refreshed and ready for fun instead of tired of driving all that way. If you’ve “rented” the car for several days, it will sit waiting for you. If not, you may use a Hotel and after you’ve had your vacation, call in another car to take you back home.
Which brings us back to the article above. Why use an airline for relatively short flights when you can use a driverless vehicle? If, say, you want to take a trip from New York to Atlanta or Atlanta to Miami and are loathe to spent most of the day driving, you might take a flight.
In the driverless future, however, you finish up your work, head home, grab your bags, and call in a driverless car to take you to your destination. The interior of the car will be comfortable and filled with entertainment or work options. You are essentially in a bedroom or an office on wheels and don’t have to worry about the trip at all.
No ticket/boarding passes, no checking in luggage, no driving seven plus hours…
On the minus side: Yet more job disruptions. The Hotels that may lie in the middle of longer trips and service people who need a rest stop will of course be impacted, as will restaurants. Given our move toward electric cars (which I believe will also happen), there will come a time when gas stations will no longer exist, replaced (perhaps) with charging stations.
As for airlines, they’ll have to contract their services. Airlines will continue to exist but they will deal with longer trips. And think about it: What will be considered a “short” trip?
If the theoretical uses of driverless cars are taken to their limit, we might have driverless cars running in specific highway type lanes at better than 100 miles per hour. Now say you wanted to go from Miami to New York or 1089 miles. If you had a self-driving vehicle that managed 100 miles (or more!) an hour, you’re looking at a trip of 10 hours.
Let’s return to that vacation scenario I mentioned: You get home, pack your bags, have a meal, and summon a driverless car. Let’s say you’re in the car by 8 pm. That means if we have a car capable of speeds of at least 100 miles per hour, theoretically you could be in New York ten hours later, or by 6 am the next day.
Again, you were not driving. You might well have spent a few hours catching up on movies or listening to music then sleeping in the driverless car’s bed.
When you wake up, you’re in New York and at your destination, fresh and ready to have some fun or get to work or what-have-you.
As I’ve said many times before, the future of the self-driving car is a fascinating one. Let’s see how it all works out…
December 4, 2015
Scott Weiland, RIP
Fame is so fleeting.
The other day while looking around Amazon.com I noticed there was a deluxe edition release, to coincide with its 20th anniversary, of Alanis Morrissette’s Jagged Little Pill.
For those who weren’t around at the time, the best description one can make regarding the explosion of sales, interest, and radio play from the songs on that album and at that time was very much akin to the current release of Adele’s 25. But unlike Adele, Alanis Morissette appeared to come out of nowhere and each new song pulled from that album did just as well, or better, than the last.
Mrs. Morissette continued her musical career -even to this day- but none of her subsequent releases captured the public’s imagination quite like Jagged Little Pill.
That decade, the 1990’s, were also the era of “grunge” rock and Nirvana was arguably at the top of the heap though there were other bands whose style was looked at as in Nirvana’s “vein”. Some had modest success, others none at all. One of the bigger bands to emerge during that time and in Nirvana’s wake was Stone Temple Pilots.
Their first album, released in 1992, was Core. Featuring Scott Weiland on vocals, the album was a hit and featured songs such as Plush…
…and Creep…
Their follow up album, Purple, featured what to me is their absolutely best song, Interstate Love Song. I recall driving around one day and listening to a local radio station. It played this song and I was enraptured by it. I didn’t have the -gasp!- CD at the time but resolved at that moment to buy the album the first chance I had. When the song reached its end, I was bummed. I wanted to hear it again! Incredibly, when the DJ came on after the song was over, he said: “Sorry, I have to hear this again” and proceeded to play the song a second time! One of the few times in my life a wish was granted…
The group would release a third album in 1995 titled Tiny Music…Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop, which featured songs such as Lady Picture Show…
The band was a great success but bad things were happening behind the scenes. It was becoming common knowledge that lead singer Scott Weiland had drug problems. In fact, after the release of that third album the band went on something of a hiatus, reformed, then eventually divorced themselves from Mr. Weiland and re-formed with another singer. Mr. Weiland would go on to sing for Velvet Revolver and, at the time of his passing, The Wildabouts.
He was only 48 years old.
I go into this history not to diminish Mr. Weiland and the troubles he faced but rather to recall the joy he and his band gave me with those initial three albums. While I admit I wasn’t that big of a fan of Mr. Weiland’s post-STP work, those three albums worth of songs, and most especially Interstate Love Song, are near and dear to me.
Therefore it’s a great pity to hear that someone who gave you so much joy is gone. Mr. Wieland was a great talent, this is true, even if he was also faced difficulties in his personal life. My condolences to his family and friends.
As for me, I’ll go play Interstate Love Song once again. Then maybe repeat it a few more times.
Rest in Peace, Mr. Weiland.
December 3, 2015
Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice Trailer #3
Aired last night (featuring Ben “the bomb” Affleck!):
What has me the most curious are the various comments from people. While there are those who like what they saw, there is soooo much hate directed at this film…a film that hasn’t even been released yet!
Why is that?
I suppose in part its leftover feelings toward Man of Steel. I can understand if you were disappointed with the film and, given the fact that the same director returned for this film, you’re pessimistic.
But have the clips/trailers released so far been that bad?
Really?
So I’m thinking maybe we’re dealing with something else. Way back when there was this whole “Marvel vs. DC” mentality. There were comic book fans who absolutely refused to read DC comics because Marvel comics were “the best”. When the current wave of superhero movies came out, there was little doubt the Marvel movies this time around were doing very well for themselves, with some minor exceptions.
During this period of time we’ve had a large assortment of Marvel movies and, from DC, the completed Nolan trilogy of Batman films and Man of Steel. I enjoyed the Nolan Batman films though I considered them flawed. I also enjoyed many of the Marvel films and consider Captain America The Winter Soldier one of the absolute best superheroes ever made. Even as I say this, for the life of me I can’t understand what people found so good about Guardians of the Galaxy (hated that film, sorry!).
What I’m trying to say here is: I take each new movie as it comes, even as I (paradoxically) fear that we may eventually -perhaps very soon- reach a (ahem) supersaturation point.
I have yet to see Man of Steel (though I have the BluRay) and can only judge Batman v Superman based on the trailers/clips. And based on that…I’m digging what I’ve seen so far.
In this newest trailer, I like the interactions between the characters. I laughed at the way Lex Luthor gets between Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne and (without him knowing it?) presents what I’m assuming is the plot of the movie in his small soundbite. Lex notes how he “loves to introduce people” then states of Clark “you wouldn’t want to get into a fight with him”.
You can accuse the writers of going for cheesy, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t find it…fun.
So many people lamented the dour tone of Man of Steel and the seemingly equally dour tone of this movie as presented in the previous trailers and clips. And now, when a commercial hints to the possibility that the film may have a light/humorous touch as well, they jump on that and say the dialogue is ridiculous.
Has the whole Marvel vs. DC thing spread to the movies as well? And of those people who express the most vitriol against this not-yet-released film, will their opinion change when they see the entire film?
More importantly, could it change?
For all I know, Batman v Superman might wind up being a terrible film. But based on the trailers and clips I’ve seen so far, I’m optimistic.
