Movie Review: Spectre (2015)

Spectre (2015) directed by Sam Mendes

The latest Bond flick starts with a classic over the top action sequence that doesn't seem connected to the main plot; it's like those cartoon shorts they show in front of Pixar films. Or the opening sequences of the old Bond films. Pretty soon after the credits, the opening sequence turns out to follow directly from the last film. Judy Dench's M left a video message for Bond to kill someone and go to their funeral. Bond is dutifully doing what he does best...without telling the new M (Ralph Fiennes). So Bond is on the outs with his superiors. Interestingly enough, the whole Double-O initiative is on the outs with MI-5, whose head, C (Andrew Scott, who plays Moriarty on Sherlock) is ready to junk M's division. C is working on approval for a monitoring system that will invade everyone's privacy, including Double-O and MI-5 agents. So while James is tracking down a shadowy agency lead by a guy who first appears literally in a shadow (Christoph Waltz), M is fighting the good fight to keep the Double-Os online and tanking C's plans.

The two slightly convoluted plots do converge by the end of the film, which may be the main problem of the film. The story bends over backwards to fit together not only the two separate plot threads (which isn't so unbelievable) but all the other Daniel Craig movies as well (unbelievable even by Bond standards). The revelation is unconvincing and disappointing. The bad guys have plenty to do without trying to take credit from previous films.

The other problem is the villains. C is a good villain but his plan seems like a re-run of a dozen other films. Christoph Waltz's villain is surprisingly bland. Waltz tries to give him some character but the performance just doesn't work. He's not particularly menacing or campy. Without a good villain the movie is less satisfying.

On the other hand, the action sequences are amazing and the location spectacular (as you'd expect in a Bond film). Craig is great as Bond. Fiennes makes a good, hands-on M and the other regulars (Q and Moneypenny) work well with Craig's Bond.

I can't really recommend this film except for Bond completists. And if you haven't seen the film by now, you probably aren't a Bond completist.

First Communion 2016

First communion has come for our first born son! The long year of preparation has been exciting and challenging. The challenges have been extra classes and some extra homework to fit into our busy schedule. But this sacrament is the most important thing, so everything else has given way.

First communicant photos in the church's narthex

Close up of my son

Toddler looks for his photo--doesn't realize he has a six or seven year wait

In the last few weeks of preparation, we received an email from the religious education department asking if our son would be a lector at the Mass. He agreed readily and we practiced at home. In the final week before the happy event, we went to the church to read in the actual building. Since no photography was allowed during the Mass, I took a quick snap at the rehearsal. Naturally, on the day of the event, he was wearing much nicer clothes.

Reading at rehearsal

Close up

Okay, so someone else snapped an unauthorized photo!

Saturday morning the much nicer clothes came out for both my son and my daughter (who is just along for the liturgy).

The first communion suit

Dressed up for big brother's big day

The toddler was less cooperative dressing.

He lacks...focus

Happily the toddler used up his reserve of uncooperativeness at home and was quiet and low-maintenance for most of the Mass. My son did a great job reading the First Reading. He had a strong voice and good inflection. He was even better at communion, which was a happy and blessed moment.

When Mass finished, the first communicants processed out for a picture on the church steps. The picture was taken by the Director of Religious Education, who is posting/posted it on Facebook.

The children took the outside route to the church's social hall while the families and friends walked through the narthex and down some stairs to the hall.

Waiting in the social hall

Individual photos of the communicants were taken in the social hall and also posted on Facebook.

My son gets his snap

At the reception we picked up his certificate and a special gift, a cross. My son also got a hug from his religious education teacher. At one point during the homily, the pastor asked for the most holy girl and most holy boy to come up to help him with the homily. He wound up choosing two random children and asking them a bunch of questions. I mention it because the teacher said the first boy she thought of was my son!

With his teacher

Back at the house we had a big party with lots of friends. The weather cleared so the kids played outside while the adults chatted and ate inside. It was so much fun that I forgot to take pictures! We did get some pictures afterward while presents were opened.

Opening the first present with scribe dutifully taking notes in the back

Reading a card

It was a blessed day. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate and special thanks to those who worked hard getting the events going and keeping them moving smoothly.

TV Review: The Returned Season Two (2015)

The Returned Season Two (2015) created by Fabrice Gobert

See my review of part of season one here. I guess I never reviewed the second half! It's worth watching if you have the stomach for it (there's a lot of sex/nudity and some violence).

After a three-year hiatus, the second season of the French zombie series The Returned has finally come. The intriguing ending of the last season, where some of the unnamed French mountain town is flooded again, is the starting point for this series. The military has moved in to help evacuees and to figure out where the dam is leaking. Thirty-five years earlier, a previous dam burst and flooded the same part of town quite quickly, killing many people. Unfortunately for the local residents, those people have returned from the dead and are in a more zombie-like state than the zombies from last season (who were all pretty normal except for not remembering their deaths and not aging since their deaths). The new zombies don't speak--they just stand around and menace people who are trapped in a mysterious part of the town. They seem to be waiting for something.

Meanwhile, some survivors have been staying at The Helping Hand, a charitable organization run by Pierre, who is desperate enough to find out about the undead people that he is willing to do very questionable things. He's turning the charity into a cult with himself as leader. Other survivors have been staying in a higher part of town, trying to help and/or hide the undead people from the military, the police, and The Helping Hand. One woman, Adele, is pregnant and having nightmares about her unborn child. The dad is Simon, her ex-fiance from ten years ago. He's also one of the dead returned to life, making her a bit crazy about the child. Simon wants the baby; Pierre wants the baby; those dam undead also want to do something with the baby.

The show is intriguing and follows the Lost pattern of having episodes focus on one person in particular while both answering some questions and generating new questions. Happily, toward the end new questions stop coming, though enough was unanswered by the start of the final episode that I thought they would not be able to wrap up everything with this season. They did tie off most of the loose ends and provide an ending (which is good, because some of the child actors would be way too old in another three years!). I wasn't as satisfied as I'd like to be with the ending. The actors are all good and the show keeps a good, creepy atmosphere. The music works well to enhance the mood.

Parental warning: The first series was surprising to me in the amount of sexual content and nudity, of which there is almost none in this series. The show still has some violence and gore, though not the usual stuff in zombie shows (only once do viewers see one person eating another; there are some human and animal corpses that have been eaten but the depictions aren't too graphic). I'd recommend this for teens and up (though it would be tough to watch without seeing the first series, which I would recommend for adults only).

The series is currently (May 2016) available for streaming on Netflix. I'm sure it will come out on DVD sooner or later. I plan to watch the American version of the show, so maybe there will be a dual/duel review in the future.

Book Review: Chocolate: The Consuming Passion by Sandra Boyton

Chocolate: The Consuming Passion written, illustrated, and overresearched* by Sandra Boynton

In this cute, quick book Sandra Boyton covers a bit of history, a bit of amateur psychology, a bit of culinary styles, and a couple of recipes all about chocolate. The book is very light hearted and has plenty of illustrations that are classic Boynton (like her classics Moo, Baa, La La La and The Going to Bed Book). The book debunks myths about chocolate and provides both shopping advice (grocery stores are not as fun or satisfying as a gourmet shop) and cooking tips (including advice on repurposing failed desserts). She also provides handy translations of the phrase "Excuse me, where is the nearest chocolate?" into eleven different languages, including Klingon and Pig Latin.

Highly recommended for a fun time!

Sample quote: from the author's note at the back of the book...

So why did I decide to take on this difficult project [i.e. writing the book]? It was probably for a lot of noble and idealistic reasons. It certainly wasn't that I was somehow luted by the giddy prospect of being able to cliam all of my chocolate-related expenditures as actual business expenses. Oh, wait. Yes it was. [inside back cover]

*That is a direct quote from the cover of the book--check out the jpeg!

Releasing Butterflies

My daughter received a "grow your own butterflies at home" kits for Christmas. Since Spring is finally springing, we sent off for the starter jar of caterpillars. I forgot to take early pictures, but the growth phase was fascinating. A tiny jar with five little critters came in the mail a few weeks ago. We followed instructions carefully. We watched as the critters turned into normal-looking caterpillars. About a week later, they formed their chrysalises. A week after, some beautiful painted lady butterflies poked their way out.

The instructions said to let them out after a week on a day of at least 55 degrees Fahrenheit. The day came and my daughter took the butterfly cage outside to release them.

A cage fit for a butterfly

 Outside, a quick unzipping meant freedom for the butterflies.

Opening the cage

The expected burst of butterflies flying off to freedom did not happen. The butterflies were a bit reluctant to leave such a nice home, so my daughter had to reach in to try and help them out.



The orange slice was a happy home. Eventually the creature got himself off the orange.

First free 'fly

The butterfly walked across the front porch to the wood chips nearby!

Crossing the barren desert

Butterfly close up

The other butterflies were fairly patient waiting to come out. Next came a butterfly sitting on the tinfoil where the orange had been.

Who's next?

Laying him outside

The next two actually walked onto my daughter's hand a flew off on a fresh breeze. The last fellow made another ground exit.

Putting the tinfoil back in to get another butterfly

Last release

The experience was a lot of fun and we will probably order another cuppa caterpillars, with the plan to document things from the beginning!

Book Review: The Flight From Woman by Karl Stern

The Flight From Woman by Karl Stern

Two forms of knowing are commonly contrasted. On one hand is scientific, rational, discursive knowledge, the sort represented by the classical syllogism "All men are mortal, Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates is mortal." On the other hand is intuitive or poetic knowledge, the sort represented by the "lightbulb" moment when an idea becomes crystal clear instantly. Scientific knowledge breaks down a thing into its parts and sees how it is put together from an objective viewpoint. Intuition takes in the thing as it is and immediately grasps one or more characteristics of the thing. The first knowing is typically considered masculine and the second feminine. Which is not to say that discursive reasoning is only done by men and intuition is only done by women. But that is how they are stereotypically identified. In the modern era, credit for "real" knowledge is given almost exclusively to discursive reasoning (especially for its basis in mathematics, a field with unquestioned objectivity). Intuition is considered unreliable and suspect.

Karl Stern argues in this book that the divide between the two is a fairly recent development in human history, starting from Descartes's distinction between the material (res extensa or extended things) and the spiritual (res cogitans or thinking things). Cartesians see the divide as unbridgeable and that the res extensa is the mathematically verifiable, sure knowledge. Stern gives a thorough examination of Descartes' writings and his life to show both that Descartes would probably disagree with his followers and that he gives poetic knowledge the same certainty even if it is subject to different criteria of estimation. Stern gives an extensive psychological analysis of Descartes that is informative and persuasive.

Stern examines the lives and the writings of many other famous figures after Descartes (Goethe, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Tolstoy, Ibsen, and Sartre) to develop his theme further, namely that the divide between the two forms of knowing leads to problems. Those figures all have challenging interactions with women in their lives (sometimes mothers, sometimes wives and lovers, sometimes others) that have an impact on their work. By the time of Sartre, intuitive knowledge of things is a thing that leaves him with nausea.

Stern ultimately concludes that the conflict and the evaluation is false. Rather than being opposite or irreconcilable ways of knowing, Stern sees reason and intuition as complementary. They can come to the same truth in different ways and can fill in the weaknesses of each other. Intuition can grasp things that are beyond the scope of scientific reason, beyond the merely quantifiable. And they have equal validity (even if they do not share the same process of validation). Stern agrees that the rational/mathematical inclination is stronger in men and the intuitive inclination is stronger in women. But both sexes are capable of both ways of knowing and merely focusing on one way of knowing is limiting, if not harmful to the knower. Integrating the two is a way to greater personal harmony and happiness.

Stern writes from a psychoanalytical and phenomenological perspective. Thus his writing is sometimes technical. Keep a dictionary nearby. Also, he is well read in western literature and thought which also required occasional research on my part (I know about Faust and Don Juan but Ahasver and Hedda Gabler are new to me). The effort is well worth the rewarding insights found in this book.

Movie Review: Brooklyn (2015)

Brooklyn (2015) directed by John Crowley

Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) is a young woman working part time at a grocer's store in a small Irish town. She doesn't have many prospects so her sister has arranged with an Irish priest in America for passage  to the New World. Eilis is excited but worried. It's 1951, so she still has to take an ocean voyage. The trip is rough because of the weather and the inconsiderate people who share her cabin's bathroom. Her roommate helps with the situation and gives Eilis a lot of good advice to get through customs and immigration. Eilis is soon settled in a boarding house with four other young Irish women and a job at a local department store. She is very homesick and shy, so the priest, Father Flood (Jim Broadbent), gives her some more help--he has her signed up for night classes in accounting. She goes to the church's weekly dance where she meets a nice young man, Tony, who is Italian. Her homesickness melts away as she becomes more comfortable with her new home. She faces more problems when a tragedy happens back in Ireland.

The movie is very sweet and charming. While the romance is the central element of the story, the movie also gives an interesting look at the immigrant experience. Saoirse Ronan gives a great performance as Eilis, a very likable if not perfect character. Her challenges are interesting and compelling. The story is very satisfying dramatically as well as romantically.