The Saga of Sotomayor

This blogpost has been a long time coming. Ever since Obama announced his choice to be the next Supreme Court justice-Sonia Sotomayor-Republican smear artists and obstructionists have been trying to demean her as a racist. Now, let's address this issue head-on. At a conference on Latino diversity in the workplace, Sonia Sotomayor said that someone like her, a woman from a working class, minority background, had more to offer to the legal profession than a white male "who had not lived that life."

I'll gladly admit that Sotomayor's comments were not totally appropriate, but claiming that they were patently racist is offensive. In fact, I think that at the heart of her statement is a sentiment that should be embraced-that being that people from minority backgrounds have much to offer. She was trying to challenge the white male-dominated status quo of her profession, which I think is completely valid.

The point is... this woman is not a radical or a racist. She was originally appointed to the federal bench by George H.W. Bush, how extreme could she be? From what I've been able to cull from her record, she tends to defend the rights of organized labor and the freedom of expression guaranteed in the first amendment. She's more than qualified to be on the Supreme Court and should be appointed.

Top 100 Films

Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm crazy lister, particularly with films. Recently, I've started restructuring my top 100 films of all time. I have some very firm beliefs when it comes to these kinds of lists. First, I don't separate my favorite films and the films I consider to be the best, which is a distinction that I know other people make. Rest assured, if you're one of the many that does this, I think that it's perfectly fine. The reason I personally don't make such distinctions is because I think there is too much of a perceived gap between popular cinema and art house cinema. Anyway, here's where I am so far with my restructured list:

1. JFK (1991, dir. Oliver Stone)

2. Rear Window (1954, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

3. Schindler's List (1993, dir. Steven Spielberg)

4. Children of Men (2006, dir. Alfonso Cuaron)

5. The Insider (1999, dir. Michael Mann)

6. Blue Velvet (1986, dir. David Lynch)

7. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship (2001, dir. Peter Jackson)*
-Just another note... I don't believe in grouping together trilogies as a single unit. I see this
happen frequently with the Lord of the Rings films, and while I understand the inclination to
consider the films as a singular statement, I can't agree putting them all together. It's not a
single film. There are important differences between each that have be acknowledged.

8. The Verdict (1982, dir. Sidney Lumet)

9. Psycho (1960, dir. Alfred Hitchock)

10. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986, dir. Woody Allen)

Star Trek and Terminator: Salvation

So... the first movies that I've seen this summer are Star Trek (2009, dir. J.J. Abrams) and Terminator: Salvation (2009, dir. McG), and I wasn't seriously impressed with either. Star Trek was certainly the best of the two. To it's credit, it's a entertaining and competantly made movie, but those are about the best compliments I can give to it. I wasn't enamored with Chris Pines' performance and I thought the time-travel angle needlessly complicated the narrative. I have to admit I'm slightly biased here, because I'm not a huge fan of J.J. Abrams as a director, and I didn't like Mission Impossible 3. Basically, I find J.J. Abrams directorial style very by-the-numbers... high octane, but still by-the-numbers high octane.

Now... Terminator: Salvation... oh, Terminator: Salvation. I actually thought that this movie was very entertaining at points and I was genuinely engaged by the Marcus Wright strain of the narrative, but this movie had a number of problems. I hate to say this, but one of the main problems was Christain Bale's performance. Technically, it wasn't poorly acted, just poorly conceived. John Connor should a complicated figure, a person who struggles to understand how he is the savior of humanity when he has much frailty and doubt as anyone. Instead, Bale's performance was all gruff, adrenalized fury. I've loved Christian Bale's work in the past-his performances in American Psycho and The Machinist were remarkable-but let's be honest, Bale's serious John Connor voice was exactly the same as his serious Batman voice.

Another problem with Terminator: Salvation was it's own thematic and intellectual simplicity. The film had pretentions of "exploring humanity", but essentially this exploration boiled down a last-minute voice-over where John Conner ponders, "What is humanity? It's not something you can program. You can't put it in a computer chip..." OK... and...? I think the problem with the movie is that the Marcus Wright narrative did raise serious questions about the combination of humanity and technology, but these were questions that were explored in more detail and with more artistry in Battlestar Galactica (I know, I went there).

School's Out for Summer... school's out forever...

The first official week of summer has passed and I still don't have a job. After a recent debacle at a casino where I lost three hundred dollars playing texas hold'em (I'm really pretty good), I was hoping to start accumulating some income rather than just burning through it.

I'm not in total despair just yet, though. I just applied for a summer internship with the Louisiana Democratic Party and If I'm accepted it'll be a great opportunity to participate in the political process. I know there are a lot of people who are reading that last statement and thinking to themselves, "why would you to participate, voting is hard enough?" The crazy thing is... I really believe in the system (not every aspect of the system. We need more parties, the more democratic proportional representation, less influence from corporate interests, etc.). I don't know if I'll get the internship, but I hope I do.

Well... since this is my first blog post, I'll keep it brief and stop right there. Tomorrow I'll go over my thoughts on some of the new summer blockbusters (hint: McG won't be happy with my review of Terminator: Salvation, not that he would even be remotely aware of it. Let me rephrase that... McG fans won't like my Terminator: Salvation review.)