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Tropic Thunder's Defensive Politicking

Perhaps some of you have been following the controversy surrounding the film "Tropic Thunder." And it's not as if the cast and film crew were unaware that their work would raise some eyebrows, as their omnipresent media campaigning demonstrates. Robert Downey Jr's role as a white actor who dyes his skin to play a black soldier is discussed in just about every interview and set piece on the film that I've seen, with each focusing on how the point of the film is to mock Hollywood, not offend "real" people. And, given what I've seen of the film's reviews, their strategy seems to have worked. Stiller is given much credit for an entertaining film that turns Hollywood pompousness on its head, and Downey earns raves for following his Iron Man success with an iron-jawed, intentionally self-absorbed caricature. So, why is there so much controversy? Probably because the filmmakers and reviewers all anticipated the wrong controversy, and this error in judgment tells us a lot about the current state of identity politics and cultural politicking today.

Books I own (that I've actually read)

On vacation last week I went looking for a book and never found it. As I rummaged through the various eddies where books tend to collect in this house, I started wondering what percentage of the books in his building I've actually read -- either cover-to-cover, or in the case of some reference books, at least substantially engaged.

This doesn't include most of our coffee table or picture books, nor does it include the multiple "For Dummies" books we've collected over the years.  It includes some collections (The Portable Curmudgeon, for example) but not others (Idiots in Charge or Things A Man Should Never Do Past 30). And this list reveals that I've lost track of an alarming number of quality, first-edition books over the years.

If I'm right in assuming that I've read about 15 to 20 percent of the books that we own then... well, it's pretty clear why we're running out of house...

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes vander Xark

My last day working at the paper (I'm taking a buyout) after more than 14 years on the job will be Aug. 22. As things work out, that means there are just four more caption contests.

I'm going to miss those.

An important message from Barrack Obama

XARK TV: 2007 MFL Draft review show

2007 MFL Draft in review from Dan Conover on Vimeo.

This week's XARK TV episode isn't for everyone, but if you're a fantasy football player and/or a member of the Manly Football League, give this one a try.

The MFL will hold its 18th draft on Aug. 23. Not bad for a bunch of newsies from Waynesville, N.C.

The (over-)Thinking Man's Guide to Dr. Horrible

I tried to watch Joss Whedon's buzz-generator Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on its premiere day, but traffic was so heavy I  gave up. Here's the complete three-act musical (42 minutes, with some short commercial breaks), and it's worth a watch.

But how do I feel about it? Not so easily capsulized.

The most obvious observation is this: When you're a cult celebrity with a body of successful work (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Serenity), a relatively small amount of money, plenty of talented friends and too much time on your hands (Dr. Horrible came out of the writer's strike), you can get plenty of publicity and great production values out of a low-rez media form like web video.

Another obvious observation: Neil Patrick Harris is an extremely funny guy.

Yet none of that particularly interests me. Yes, Dr. Horrible likely will be remembered as a historic milestone in the development of web video as an independent medium, but that was almost assured from the moment that news of the project started racing around the Twitterverse.

No, what I want to talk about requires spoilers. So don't read past the jump until after you've watched the final act.

The Newspaper Industry Meltdown

Two weeks of cartoons

The next two weeks (I'm on vacation) of blank cartoons (already posted at Xarktoons) for the caption contest, with my super-secret personal captions affixed. 

"Crap! We haven't even finished mopping up the last one!"

"I'm going to have to have a looong talk with Yoder."

What's scaring me today

A friend sent me this link to a minor, if interesting, piece:

"Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed....
 
DHS officials said that the newly disclosed policies — which apply to anyone entering the country, including US citizens — are reasonable and necessary to prevent terrorism...

We knew it was happening.  I'm glad they've finally admitted it.  It's a step in the right direction.  "Secret laws" are wrong and can too easily become evil.  (I do not use the word "evil" lightly.)

The US slipped across a line in the last few years.  Once upon a time the Constitution was honored in the breach nearly as much as in the maintenance.  You can argue that it even started off that way. 

The "line" crossed is that we're no longer even paying lip-service.

R.I.P. The US Bill of Rights.  c. 1789 - c. 2004.  215 years isn't a bad run.

One of the reasons I want Obama in office is that, despite the fact he's going to screw me in taxes and probably do significant damage by socializing many private programs (it's a Democratic Party view of life) *and* take my guns, I think McCain will try to go status quo on "civil liberties" (once called "civil rights").  I'm guessing Obama will be the best in that direction, and it *might* be enough to recover.  I want the full Latin:  "status quo ante bellum".  (No, not *that* far ante bellum, for all you Yankee readers reading far too much into this.)

I hope Obama's at least somewhat as idealistic and he wants to appear, and I think it would be good for our next President to be an ex-civil rights lawyer who comes at least partially from a culture on the wrong side of the power base.  He's more likely to think about how to limit the power base (not that any politician can be successful without participating in the power base).

McCain comes from a family tradition of trading individual rights for the security of the country (i.e. military service).   I think that's beyond a good thing -- that's a noble and laudable tradition.  All honor to him.  (I say that quite seriously -- no sarcasm at all.).  I like the idea of a Commander-in-Chief who's been there making the decisions.  He, personally, knows the cost of war better than most anyone else, certainly better than Obama.

Such tradition must, however, influence his thinking.  The problem with trading civil rights for security is that civil rights are not our income, they're our capital.  What happens when you spend your capital living day to day instead of investing?  That's right, eventually you have no capital left to spend and the bills still come in the mail. When you're flush in civil rights, such a trade might be reasonable. When you've built up a deficit you should stop spending -- that applies to civil rights just as much to dollars, and the Bush administration has run up quite a debt in both. 

I sure do miss the old Republican Party -- and by that I mean the goals of minimal Government, individual rights and responsibilities and leaving social activism to societies.  And yes, I do realize that what I miss is more mythology than history.  So what?  What's our current mythology?

I just hope our next President keeps the space program going so in a few hundred years people can get the hell out.

And last, I'll offer an apology:  I'm currently reading a dystopian post-H5N1/global cooling apocalyptic near-future SciFi novel right now, so perhaps I have an overly pessimistic view of things and certainly an overly cynical one.