Good Sunday morning!
A bit of a random (and long) update follows, as not much else is going on in my neck of the woods so I figured i would dump here...
So, the cable saga continues. As you may (or may not) recall, the cable compnay did not show up Wednesday. So, I was re-scheduled for Saturday. This time they did show up. Only it turns out, the room where the cable enters the building is locked. My building manager, who is usually the shit, was not around. Sooooo .... we had to re-schedule again.
They wanted to do Wednesday, but that's a no-go as that is "the day" (re: the exam). Friday morning was the next available. It's a bit of a pain in the ass. I mean, we're not TV junkies and we have plenty of movies to kill time with in the evenings. But I am *paying* for it. I might call and see if I can get the next week credited. So it goes - just a spot of bad luck, no big deal, I will survive and all that jazz.
Last night, I had a whole new experience: I went to the movies *alone.* I've never done that before. It was pretty nice - I thought I'd be bored or feel weird (I fear change!). But, nope - it went marvy.
It *was* a bit rough figuring out what to see: I had to find something that looked entertaining *but* that my wife also didn't want to see. I settled on Unleashed - the Jet Li flick written and produced by Luc Besson of The Professional and The Fifth Element fame. It was not just good, but a damn spot better than I had predicted. Li finallly made an American move that showed off not just his bad ass moves, but a bit of charisma. Kudos to him. Bob Hoskins hams it up to great effect, Morgan Freeman is solid as always, and Kerry Condon is adorable as a piano student with verbal diarrhea.
You can see Besson's fingerprints all over the movie, though the flick was directed by Louis Leterrier. In fact, the whole fucking movie is practically just The Professional II: Leon is Now Asian. I mean, dig it: the themes are similar (violent man redeemed), the characters are similar (crazy villian, deadly man with a heart of gold, and kind girl who changed said fellow), and the *settings* are the same (gritty urban environments and fights in apartment buildings). What saves the whole thing is that Besson creates great characters and sets up great action scenes. The stories themselves just don't fit together: hit man adopts girl? Blind man brings home strange wounded man to live with his teenage daughter?
But it all works. Why? Because Besson's movies take place in their own universe. I think, in all honestly, Besson has more in common with filmmakers like Woody Allen, Wes Anderson, David Mamet, and TV maven Amy Sherman-Palladino (Gilmore Girls) than any action/kung-fu director. Like the aforementioned, Besson's films have a *magical realism* - a world that is like ours, but not quite: Besson's creations are ultimately too *precious* to be real. Sure, Besson's movies are in the seedy part of Allen's or Anderson's cities - Besson is more "gritty fantasy" - but they're definitely all in the same zip code.
Best thing about Unleashed (besides the punishing fight scenes - and it was nice to see that over the ballet of wire-fu): the fun riff on Hegel's master-slave dialectic: thus, it is only through the eyes of others that Li is able to realize his own humanity. However, he has to *realize* humanity for hiimself (as in: only *he* can leave his past voluntarily). In other words, no one can change your consciousness for you. Other people are part of the process, but self-realization ultimatley *does* require, ya know, the self.
But the movie goes farther. The master-slave is a real point of contention in Hegel. Some think that Hegel is arguing that masters can USE slaves to get their own recognition - they (masters) realize their own humanity via the coerced recogniton of a slave. This certainly seems troubling, giving Hegel is all about freedom. Some read master/slave in a more metaphorical/shifting way, such as: we're all masters and we're all slaves, using others and in turn being used by them for self-realization.
Personally, my favorite read is that master's are trying to recognize their own humanity via slaves, but ultimately fall short because the relationship is not reciporical. And this works for Unleashed - as Hoskin's mad criminal is clearly inhuman, not just despite his enslaving of Danny but perhaps *because of it.* In enslaving another human being and denying them humanity, Hoskins does not have another rational, human foil to validate him. There is no dialectic. In that way, Besson has, again, made a movie about universal humanity. Now see, action movies *are* educational.
Today, more reading. On the plate: Shades of Citizenship, about the census and race. Yesterday, I read V.O. Key's *brilliant* Southern Politics in State and Nation. Everyone who believes in deliberative democracy should be forced to read this book. Key looks at Southern politics, post-WWII, which is dominated by the Democratic party. In fact, the only semblance of political conflict in the South at this time is factional and *within* the Democratic party. Key argues this is bad for democracy, as it makes it easier for elites to control the party and provides no long-term alternative for have-nots to organize behind. In the end, it enables cronyism, corruption, undermines responsible parties, makes illegal activity easy to hide, hurts responsiveness, leads to the avoiding of major issues, and so on. Coflicts, as E.E. Schattschneider pointed out, are GOOD for democracy and informing voters.
The point for deliberative types is: consensus can easily be manipulated, especially when structural inequality abounds. Basically, in a consensus models, the average voter would lack the resources to become fully informed, and would be easily led about by "elites" (it seems same to presume that elites of some type will always emerge). Sure, sure: deliberative types often believe in redistribution; but that seems less likely than deliberative models. Further, it doesn't mean that things like uninformed participants or demagoguery will happen, once a deliberative model's rubber hits the metaphorical road of governing. Obviously, Key isn't talking about discourse models at ALL. I just think it's worth thinking about Key's points in conjunction with those types of systems.
Tomorrow - my wife returns! She said yesterday our wedding pics were great. Hurrah! I think we might see a movie tomorrow nite. What do you think: Episode III or The Exorcist prequel? I'm leaning to the latter just a bit.. if only because it won't be around that long. Thoughts?
OK I've inflicted enough on you. Enjoy your Memorial Day!
A bit of a random (and long) update follows, as not much else is going on in my neck of the woods so I figured i would dump here...
So, the cable saga continues. As you may (or may not) recall, the cable compnay did not show up Wednesday. So, I was re-scheduled for Saturday. This time they did show up. Only it turns out, the room where the cable enters the building is locked. My building manager, who is usually the shit, was not around. Sooooo .... we had to re-schedule again.
They wanted to do Wednesday, but that's a no-go as that is "the day" (re: the exam). Friday morning was the next available. It's a bit of a pain in the ass. I mean, we're not TV junkies and we have plenty of movies to kill time with in the evenings. But I am *paying* for it. I might call and see if I can get the next week credited. So it goes - just a spot of bad luck, no big deal, I will survive and all that jazz.
Last night, I had a whole new experience: I went to the movies *alone.* I've never done that before. It was pretty nice - I thought I'd be bored or feel weird (I fear change!). But, nope - it went marvy.
It *was* a bit rough figuring out what to see: I had to find something that looked entertaining *but* that my wife also didn't want to see. I settled on Unleashed - the Jet Li flick written and produced by Luc Besson of The Professional and The Fifth Element fame. It was not just good, but a damn spot better than I had predicted. Li finallly made an American move that showed off not just his bad ass moves, but a bit of charisma. Kudos to him. Bob Hoskins hams it up to great effect, Morgan Freeman is solid as always, and Kerry Condon is adorable as a piano student with verbal diarrhea.
You can see Besson's fingerprints all over the movie, though the flick was directed by Louis Leterrier. In fact, the whole fucking movie is practically just The Professional II: Leon is Now Asian. I mean, dig it: the themes are similar (violent man redeemed), the characters are similar (crazy villian, deadly man with a heart of gold, and kind girl who changed said fellow), and the *settings* are the same (gritty urban environments and fights in apartment buildings). What saves the whole thing is that Besson creates great characters and sets up great action scenes. The stories themselves just don't fit together: hit man adopts girl? Blind man brings home strange wounded man to live with his teenage daughter?
But it all works. Why? Because Besson's movies take place in their own universe. I think, in all honestly, Besson has more in common with filmmakers like Woody Allen, Wes Anderson, David Mamet, and TV maven Amy Sherman-Palladino (Gilmore Girls) than any action/kung-fu director. Like the aforementioned, Besson's films have a *magical realism* - a world that is like ours, but not quite: Besson's creations are ultimately too *precious* to be real. Sure, Besson's movies are in the seedy part of Allen's or Anderson's cities - Besson is more "gritty fantasy" - but they're definitely all in the same zip code.
Best thing about Unleashed (besides the punishing fight scenes - and it was nice to see that over the ballet of wire-fu): the fun riff on Hegel's master-slave dialectic: thus, it is only through the eyes of others that Li is able to realize his own humanity. However, he has to *realize* humanity for hiimself (as in: only *he* can leave his past voluntarily). In other words, no one can change your consciousness for you. Other people are part of the process, but self-realization ultimatley *does* require, ya know, the self.
But the movie goes farther. The master-slave is a real point of contention in Hegel. Some think that Hegel is arguing that masters can USE slaves to get their own recognition - they (masters) realize their own humanity via the coerced recogniton of a slave. This certainly seems troubling, giving Hegel is all about freedom. Some read master/slave in a more metaphorical/shifting way, such as: we're all masters and we're all slaves, using others and in turn being used by them for self-realization.
Personally, my favorite read is that master's are trying to recognize their own humanity via slaves, but ultimately fall short because the relationship is not reciporical. And this works for Unleashed - as Hoskin's mad criminal is clearly inhuman, not just despite his enslaving of Danny but perhaps *because of it.* In enslaving another human being and denying them humanity, Hoskins does not have another rational, human foil to validate him. There is no dialectic. In that way, Besson has, again, made a movie about universal humanity. Now see, action movies *are* educational.
Today, more reading. On the plate: Shades of Citizenship, about the census and race. Yesterday, I read V.O. Key's *brilliant* Southern Politics in State and Nation. Everyone who believes in deliberative democracy should be forced to read this book. Key looks at Southern politics, post-WWII, which is dominated by the Democratic party. In fact, the only semblance of political conflict in the South at this time is factional and *within* the Democratic party. Key argues this is bad for democracy, as it makes it easier for elites to control the party and provides no long-term alternative for have-nots to organize behind. In the end, it enables cronyism, corruption, undermines responsible parties, makes illegal activity easy to hide, hurts responsiveness, leads to the avoiding of major issues, and so on. Coflicts, as E.E. Schattschneider pointed out, are GOOD for democracy and informing voters.
The point for deliberative types is: consensus can easily be manipulated, especially when structural inequality abounds. Basically, in a consensus models, the average voter would lack the resources to become fully informed, and would be easily led about by "elites" (it seems same to presume that elites of some type will always emerge). Sure, sure: deliberative types often believe in redistribution; but that seems less likely than deliberative models. Further, it doesn't mean that things like uninformed participants or demagoguery will happen, once a deliberative model's rubber hits the metaphorical road of governing. Obviously, Key isn't talking about discourse models at ALL. I just think it's worth thinking about Key's points in conjunction with those types of systems.
Tomorrow - my wife returns! She said yesterday our wedding pics were great. Hurrah! I think we might see a movie tomorrow nite. What do you think: Episode III or The Exorcist prequel? I'm leaning to the latter just a bit.. if only because it won't be around that long. Thoughts?
OK I've inflicted enough on you. Enjoy your Memorial Day!
obd:
I still have not seen episode III [I may need to go alone]. The only movie I've ever seen by myself was Lost Highway when I lived in Paris of all places. creep - py.