Place du 14 Juillet One service admirably accomplished by the municipal, provincial, and federal government in Tours is the creation and maintenance of public spaces. Throughout the city, there are dozens of locations where citizens may relax, play chess or pétanque, view gardens or pieces of art, and otherwise enjoy themselves at no cost (I assume that they are paying for it with tax dollars but at least they get to benefit from their contribution to the system). Over time, parts of Tours have been destroyed due to fire, Huguenots, Reformists, the French Revolution, and the air bombings of the …
The Pope Tried to Dunk…
Cave des Roches Tunnel My group visited four locations today and witnessed several instances of how people love to shoot themselves in the foot. But otherwise, the places were all very nice and pretty. La Cave des Roches: Despite being told that there were 120 kilometres of limestone tunnels (blue foot mushroom tunnel shown) spread out over seven levels and that someone got lost last week, members of the group continued to press on without the guide in order to take photos, doubling the length of the tour. Les Caves Monmousseau: Luckily, some of the students were impatiently waiting for …
Two Hoops
Two Photos of Basketball Hoops that I Took Today
House Alone
In the fourth season premiere, House – without his usual team – faces a philosophical dilemma. Normally, the doctor believes that people lie but symptoms speak truthfully. Throughout the episode, the patient’s reactions contradict the information on her chart and her health deteriorates. Cuddy becomes so infuriated by House’s actions that she commands him to find a new team and orders other hospital staff to “stop enabling him” with conversation. The solution is simple: an allergy goes undetected because family members have misidentified the victims of a building collapse, resulting in swapped charts. The delay was not necessarily caused by …
Shine a Light
Martin Scorsese’s film about a Rolling Stones concert, Shine a Light, puts on a good show. I was expecting more of a documentary; not This Is Spinal Tap but a film that shone light on the band’s intricacies, like how that Simpsons’ episode revealed that Keith Richards spikes his lemonade and Mick Jagger mows his own lawn. Bill Clinton introduces the Stones and mentions that he did likewise at a climate change fundraiser because “they care as much about this issues as we do.” Hopefully they purchased carbon emission credits to make up for lights that were “burning [Mick Jagger’s] …
Best Seat in the House
Spike Lee’s “basketball memoir”, Best Seat in the House, provides a unique perspective on the sport and frank commentary. Despite his film background, Lee is tremendously knowledgeable about basketball and how it is intertwined with New York City’s culture. He has attended hundreds of games, from Game 7 of the 1970 Finals when Willis Reed emerged from the locker room to deflate and defeat the Lakers to Game 7 of the 1994 Eastern Finals when the Knicks returned to the Finals for the first time in twenty years, and he describes the city’s euphoric reaction to these moments. Thousands of …
Cities
Recently, I read Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities and Jonathan Mahler’s Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning. Due to her residence in New York City for many years, Jacobs’ theory is illustrated by the real-life examples of politics, economics, and city planning recorded by Mahler in his study of 1977 Gotham. Both authors display a strong understanding of history and the events that have led to the current state of New York City. Unfortunately, both possess a rambling writing style that creates many excruciating chapters. Editors have jobs because they do good work. Written …
Babar is an Example of Bad Keynesian Economics
Though he remains a hero to children worldwide, Babar the Elephant is a terrible economist. Watching an episode of the Nelvana-animated television show documented his monarchy in the Kingdom of the Elephants, it became clear how his fiscal policy is a disaster waiting to happen. Major capital expenditures are required to bring the jungle up to modern standards of civilization and the ongoing war with King Retaxes and the rhinoceroses must be an enormous money pit. After fleeing to France after watching poachers kill his mother, Babar meets a kindly old lady, who unbeknownst to him is a fervent colonialist. …
I’m Not There
Six actors, portraying six diverse phases of Bob Dylan’s life. Under aliases, a half-dozen stories intertwine smoothly, roughly, and sometimes indescribably. Certainly, the creativity of the protagonist(s) and the director remain the film’s defining quality. Themes such as conformity, change, and challenges also abound, as illustrated by forums like a Macarthyism-style hearing, a 1960s documentary, and a fictional epilogue for Billy the Kid, if he survived Sherriff Garrett’s bullets. Spectators draw their own unique conclusions, branches of the same tree. Everything is nothing without the people who define it. Je est un autre. Jane Jacobs argues that every city, neighbourhood, …
The Game
Put in uniform at six or seven, by the time a boy reaches the NHL, he is a veteran of close to 1,000 games-30-minute games, later 32-, then 45, finally 60-minute games, played more than : twice a week, more than seventy times a year between late September and late March. It is more games from a younger age, over a longer season than ever before. But it is less hockey than ever before. For, every time a twelve-year-old boy plays a 30-minute game, sharing the ice with teammates, he plays only about ten minutes. And ten minutes a game, …
I Wrote this While Watching House on DVD
The Trailer Park Boys Movie featured a major new character: Sonny, owner of the nearby Gentlemen’s Club. The Simpsons Movie introduced Russ Cargill of the Environmental Protection Agency, who appeared far too frequently. These prominent characters could have been replaced easily (Cyrus and Ten-Gallon Hat Man are two possibilities) and should have been excised from the films because they fell flat in their roles (whether furthering the plot or attempting to make a joke.) When asked to explain his team’s recent success on the road (five points in three games), Alexei Kovalev said that, “On the road, [the Montreal Canadiens] …
Peut ce qui veut
David Cronenberg’s latest film, Eastern Promises, bears a handful of the director’s trademarks. Some scenes of violence are blunt, though it is not yet time for our William Tell routine. The plot is tense and (obviously) leads to an ambiguous ending. Viggo Mortensen’s tragic hero, Nikolai, earns the sympathy of the audience because of his subdued performance. Questions of commitment arise from both sides of the ledger: how far will you go to achieve your goals? «Peut ce qui veut.» Values are vague — like other recently reviewed films, less separates good and evil than it first seems. One decision …
No End in Sight & Shake Hands with the Devil
No End in Sight, a documentary by Charles Ferguson analyzing the United States involvement in Iraq, was released to very little fanfare this past week. The only theatre in town screening the film was the Bloor Cinema on a Friday night. Ferguson sought to encompass the perspectives of the American decision-makers, tying them to the events that covered the first critical year of the Iraqi occupation in 2003. In many ways, U.S. choices made regarding the Iraq War paralleled British decisions in the Crimean War. In explaining how the entire war has been comprised of one fiasco following another, No …
The Reason Why
The Charge of the Light BrigadeLord Alfred Tennyson Cecil Woodham-Smith wrote The Reason Why to document the circumstances that led to one of the most disastrous military ventures in history: the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War. I read it on the recommendation of David Halberstam, who said it made history come alive for him, and found it to be an excellent metaphor for leadership – in any field. 1. Half a league, half a league,Half a league onward,All in the valley of DeathRode the six hundred.“Forward, the Light Brigade!“Charge for the guns!” he said:Into the valley …
3:10 to Yuma
Compared to other western films that I have screened recently, 3:10 to Yuma compares quite favourably. I thought that it is one of the best films that I have seen this year. Like The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, it explores the life of a Wild West outlaw who has reached the end of the road and must change their direction. Unlike Jesse James, it doesn’t drag endlessly and offers a tense and surprising conclusion. 3:10 to Yuma is driven by its lead characters, Dan Evans (Christian Bale) and Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) who initially represent …
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Interesting film. Promoted to excess. Well shot and director although it could lose a half-hour in length. One of Brad Pitt’s best performances although the supporting cast did better. All things considered, certainly worth seeing in theatres. Certainly, the wide-angle shots of the Midwest make this movie. Viewing this movie at home rather than at the theatre would detract significantly from the experience. I appreciated the time-lapse shots of the sky and the recurring motifs of wheat crops and reflections in glass. There was a feeling that significant events passing and recognition of the characters’ introspection. The film provides intriguing …