Tuesday Tunes: Jingle Belle

One of the most distinctive (and one of my favorite) voices in contemporary pop music has lent her Scottish pipes to some familiar and not-so-familiar Christmas tunes on a new holiday CD: A Christmas Cornucopia. If you've been hanging out in a Starbucks in the last couple of weeks, you've probably heard at least one of the tunes. Incidentally, that's also one of the places you can find it. However, the one I'm sitting in right now is sold out of it, so don't dilly-dally if you want one.
Here's a sampling of the album:

The song that jumped out at me is her version of the French Christmas Carol "Il est né le divin enfant" a song we don't hear very often in America, but I wish we did.

Here's a full version of the tune as performed by the Salt Lake Children's Choir:

Nice, huh?
Oh, and just for the record, I don't make any money off of hawking Annie Lennox's CD or any of the other music or movies I write about here. I just write about what I like and think you might like, too, and I still have to pay for my coffee no matter how many times I mention Starbucks in my blog. Which reminds me: I need a refill.
Happy Tuesday, cherubs.

Monday (Tuesday) Motivator: Programming

I know that I missed my regular Monday Motivator entry. I was having some technical issues. So, please, stop looting, put out the car fires, and, for the love of Michael Jordan, stop hoarding all of the canned goods!
Here's the entry that was supposed to be here yesterday . . . today. All is right with the world again.

Denis Waitley is a well-known motivational speaker and author who has coached and counseled top CEOs, Olympic athletes, and even the Apollo astronauts. He has some advice for you and me as well, regarding the importance of taking control of our own brains. The computer- programmer acronym GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out) applies equally to binary code as it does to human grey matter. Yes, I said "binary code." If you've got a problem with that, I'll challenge you to best 2 out of 3 at Pitfall.

Honestly, I sucked at Pitfall. I suck at all video games. I'm thinking of
changing my Night Elf Mage's name to "Cadaver."

Anyway, here's Denis's advice:

Have an adventurous week, cherubs, and watch out for scorpions and crocodiles.

Superhero Sunday: Soundtrack of a Superhero

There are a lot of songs about superheroes in popular culture. I can think of three that reference Superman alone: The Kinks's "Superman"

The Spin Doctors's "Jimmy Olsen's Blues"

And Five for Fighting's hit song also called "Superman" (subtitled "It's Not Easy.")

Superman's cousin is also featured in a self-titled song by XTC: "That's Really Super, Supergirl."

Suicide's "Ghost Rider" strangely did not make its way into the big budget Nicolas Cage feature (but it probably couldn't have saved it anyway.)

And, of course, there is the Ramones's cover of the theme song from the 1960s Spiderman cartoon.

One that tends to be off the radar of a lot of comic buffs, however, is this song by Jim's Big Ego from the perspective of Barry Allen - the second man to assume the mantle of the Flash called "The Ballad of Barry Allen":

There are many more, of course, but I'll leave you with those for now. Do you have a favorite that I didn't feature here? Drop a note in the comments.Maybe I'll put it in a future entry. (This is an interactive blog.)

Save the World Saturday: Alternatives

I read recently that on Black Friday in 2009, retailers took in over $10 billion dollars in sales - just on that one day. I wonder what people bought for their loved ones on that day? I know! Clean drinking water! That's a big one around the holidays. Medicines, too. Medicines are a popular gift. Also, notebook paper and pencils is always a great gift idea. Or maybe people spent that money helping sexually-exploited young women to get off the streets and learn a vocation. Or maybe they bought a goat for the impoverished family down the street so that they could have milk daily to nourish their children.
So, what cool gift did you get last year?

Oh, sorry. Well, at least it wasn't a chia pet.
Say, can I make a suggestion?

That commercial ran in the UK a few years ago, but the World Vision alternative gift catalog is available in the U.S. and online. Child sponsorship is, of course, always an option as well.

Ten billion dollars spent last year - on one day. How much of what was bought is sitting in someone's closet gathering dust right now? Why not give a gift that really means something this year?
Just a thought.

Friday Film Buff: Into the Sunset

Blake Edwards 1922-2010

I decided to remember Blake Edwards today by sharing one of my favorite lesser-known films in the great director's career: Sunset. Based on an idea by Rod Amateau, Edwards wrote and directed this adroit murder mystery set in the days of early Hollywood. At the core of this fictional story are two true-Hollywood facts:

Fact 1: Famed Western lawman Wyatt Earp worked in early Hollywood as a technical advisor on Western films including some starring Tom Mix.
Fact 2: Mix and Earp became good friends.

The real Wyatt Earp

The real Tom Mix

Bruce Willis was riding high on his popularity from the ABC television series Moonlighting, but had not yet broken out as the mega-action star he would become. (Die Hard was released a few months after this film.) He had the perfect mix of charisma, wit, leading man good looks, and action-hero brawn to play the larger-than-life Hollywood cowboy Tom Mix in 1929. Technically, in 1929, Wyatt Earp would have been 80, but - with a bit of artistic license - Edwards cast James Garner, his leading man from Victor/Victoria (1982),  to play the aging lawman Wyatt Earp. (Garner was 60 at the time.) Throw in a sinister murder mystery, and you've got the makings of a pretty darn good buddy action film.

SUNSET: Movie Trailer. Watch more top selected videos about: Movie Trailers, James Garner

Unfortunately, the film did not do well at the box office, and it was disliked by critics. Roger Ebert said it felt like the plot was borrowed from a Raymond Chandler novel. There are elements of Farewell, My Lovely, sure, but I do think it stands on its own, and I like the seedy, hard-boiled aspect of the film. Ebert also felt that Willis should have played Mix a little less down-to-earth, but I kind of like that Mix and Earp are two men whose legends precede them a bit more than they'd like. (The catch-phrase of this film is "That's the truth - give or take a lie or two.") I really think this film's failure among critics and audiences comes down to a matter of timing - not comic timing, Garner and Willis are spot on, in my opinion.

In April of 1988, The Rockford Files was eight years off the air, and, with the exception of a couple of action films (I recommend The Glitter Dome), James Garner was known most recently to audiences for his romantic comedies (I recommend Murphy's Romance) and his witty Polaroid commercials with Mariette Hartley. Die Hard hadn't been released yet, so Bruce Willis was primarily known for playing over-the-top wise-cracking David Addison on Moonlighting. Add to that Blake Edward's renown for slapstick comedies, and you've got a whole lot of people looking for a laugh-fest. There's humor, for sure, but this is more of an action-comedy, and the bad guys (no spoilers) are very bad guys.
I think this film deserves a second chance. It's a different kind of a movie from one of the great directors of the late twentieth century.

Theatre Thursday: Images

It has been a couple of weeks since Alastair Macauley's New York Times review of The Nutcracker sparked off controversy with his assessment that ballerina Jennifer Ringer "looked as though she'd eaten one sugar plum too many." This was further exacerbated by Macauley's response to the backlash that "If you want to make your appearance irrelevant to criticism, do not choose ballet as a career," and his refusal to apologize for his words - even after being reminded that Ms. Ringer had battled eating disorders.
I think enough people have taken their shots at Alastair Macauley's behavior on this issue, so I'm just going to say that - if you've read this blog or know me at all - I think you all probably know what I think of Mr. Macauley.
I would like to add something in rebuttal to Mr. Macauley's statement about a ballerina's appearance not being irrelevant to criticism, and that is simply a photo of Jenifer Ringer, the "fat" ballerina he criticized:

Billie Piper

Really, Mr. Macauley? You don't think you were just being mean for the sake of being able to make a pun in your column? If she danced poorly, then say she danced poorly. I understand that a dancer's "line" is very important in ballet, and I suppose that a significantly overweight ballet dancer might have a very contrasting "line." (Though the comment would still have been nasty.) However, that does not appear to be the case here, and requires a level of scrutiny that - with what we now know about healthy body types - really needs to now belong to another era.

Hilary Swank

I realize that I must temper my frustration with Mr. Macauley with the realization that he, like many people, is the product of some unhealthy ideas about beauty that tend to perpetuate themselves in the media. When a Hollywood actress or pop star puts on a few pounds, she is savaged by unkind gossip columnists and even more so on internet forums. Seldom does an actress with curves play a romantic lead on television or film, and, if she does, it is hit with a spotlight for being so out of the ordinary. People use phrases like "a breath of fresh air" or "isn't that great?" as though they want credit for being enlightened enough to see beauty in a non-stereo-typical body type, and maybe they do. In many ways, this almost over-the-top attention kind of perpetuates the stereotype.

Indira Varma

Jennifer Love Hewitt

I will not claim to be particularly enlightened in this area myself. I have been subjected to the same images and stereotypes for the last 37 years that all of you have. I don't think I would have had the same assessment of Jenifer Ringer as Mr. Macauley, but it's possible that I might have been distracted if she had been significantly heavier. I wouldn't have made fun of her in publication, however. I would have, as I often find myself doing as an audience member and as a director and, frankly, as a heterosexual, red-blooded American male, asking myself, "Do I really think she is somehow less beautiful, or am I reacting to years of visual programming?" Often, the answer is the latter. Actually, the answer is almost always the latter. I love women. (I really, really love women.)

Sarah Parish

I still know, though, that I am often influenced in my choices in women by what I have been told through the media is beautiful or ideal.
I have a sister, Ashley, who is younger than me by 15 years. As I watched her grow up, I often wondered about how she  saw herself in the mirror compared to the images she saw on television and movies and in the Barbie dolls she played with - some of which I bought for her. 

Jewel Staite

When I cast one of my first shows as a director, Ashley was about four, and, after the auditions, I was going over my notes and assigning roles in the living room while Ashley played with her dolls. At some point, Ashley got up and left the room, leaving a half-dozen naked Barbies lying on the floor, and I was struck by their uniformity: all the same shape, and height, and size, and measurements - physically impossible measurements at that. My little sister was play-acting little stories with figures of women who all looked the same. I think at that point, I crumpled up the rough cast list I had made and started over. I decided in that moment that - as a storyteller - I was going to tell stories in which the beautiful princess doesn't have to be the skinny princess, where the guy falls head-over-heels in love with the girl who isn't 5'9" and built like a supermodel.

Kate Winslet

Have I always succeeded in this? No. Sometimes I succumb to pressure from producers, though a lot of times I do fight with producers who want their musical to look like the movie or Broadway version, or who have a particular actress in mind for the lead.
I have an idea for The Music Man which throws out a lot of the conventions often associated with the musical (though not inherent to the story). Some of the ideas are about the characterizations and "look" of the show, but some do have to do with stereotypical body types. I think it makes the story more rich and poignant. Will I ever get to make this musical? So far, nobody's been interested. If I do find a producer, will audiences respond to the show the way that I hope? Who knows? I'll be working against a lot of ingrained imagery.

Katy Perry

Let me leave you with a few sobering statistics that I will preface by saying that not every person who has body-image concerns has an eating disorder. I think that makes these statistics all the more sobering. 
Ten million women battle eating disorders in America, and so do one million men. Almost seventeen thousand people die every year from eating disorders. If you break it down, that's over three hundred per week and roughly two every hour. Forget swine flu or E. coli or Mad Cow disease. Eating disorders are the deadly epidemic in this country.

Kristin Chenoweth

Given the topic, I hope you will forgive the following metaphor, but I often hear about how we are "force-fed" these images by the media. I don't think that's entirely true. The media may often try to direct us toward certain things it wants to sell us, but, ultimately, they're going to spend the majority of their efforts selling us more of what we tell them we want to buy. The power - and the responsibility - of changing unhealthy ideas about body-image and beauty and what a ballet dancer should look like is in our hands.
Now, you may be wondering why I have peppered this column with images of celebrities. Do they have eating disorders? I have no idea. Do they have body-image issues? Probably. They live on this planet. They're human. But, again, I honestly don't know.

Sophia Myles

Their significance is that they are all women I find very attractive. I just sat down and wrote down the first ten names that came to mind without trying to pick a "variety" of types. (For bandwidth reasons, I limited myself to ten.) I put their pictures on this blog so that we can look at them and think about our personal ideas about beauty and body-image. What do my choices say about me in regard to a stereotype of beauty? What does your personal assessment of each woman say about yours?
This is not about throwing around judgments or trying to make you or myself feel guilty for harboring stereotypes. It's about acknowledging that they exist and thinking about what we can do to change them.
Finally, I will leave you with the story of Andrea Smeltzer:

Eating Disorders Can Be Deadly--But Healing IS possible!  Become a Friend of Andrea's Voice from Doris Smeltzer on Vimeo.

Andrea's Voice.
If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, here's a number you can call:
800-931-2237
National Eating Disorders.org

Wildlife Wednesday: Big Orange

I think my first exposure to Orangutans was actually via the Clint Eastwood films Every Which Way But Loose and its sequel Any Which Way You Can. The main character Philo's companion was an Orangutan named Clyde played by a couple Orangutans named Buddha and Manis (I think.), but as a kid I had my doubts that it wasn't in fact a human in an ape suit. This is what is so remarkable about Orangutans. As you can see in this BBC video, their ability to learn, mimic human behavior, and reason further closes the link between apes and humans.

Sadly, their similarity to humans is also the cause of many of their problems with man. Mother Orangutans have been killed by poachers so that their "human-like" babies could be sold to wealthy families as pets. Orangutans are often captured to be used as performing animals, and, while the conditions for animals in American films have improved significantly over the years, it is worth mentioning that rumor has it that the Orangutan Buddha was reportedly severely beaten by his handlers for stealing donuts on the set of Any Which Way You Can and died as a result of his injuries.
Orangutan Foundation International is working to prevent tragedies like those listed above through forest preservation and animal rehabilitation at special centers where Orangutans are cared for that have been rescued from, well, people who aren't supposed to have them.  Here's a video of a baby orangutan at one of O.F.I's Centers in Borneo.
Here's a video of a baby orangutan at one of O.F.I's Centers in Borneo.

Here's a fun trivia fact for you: the name "orangutan" has nothing to do with describing the animals' reddish-orange fur. It comes from the Malay language. "Orang" means "man" and "hutan" means "forest," so, essentially, "man of the forest."
I encourage you to read more about the foundation's work (lots of cool pictures on the site, too), and be sure to check out the pics of this baby orangutan mugging for the cameras at ZooBorns.com.
Remember, too, that here in Denver we have our own baby Orangutan, Hesty, who can be seen right now at the Denver Zoo.