The Station Agent

As I was watching The Station Agent, I was thinking that anyone with talent could have made this movie.  It doesn't contain any special effects, explosions, or car chases, and the filiming was done in places that anyone could access.  There isn't much of a plot, and there really isn't any ending.  Yet I thoroughly enjoyed it.

What does happen is that a guy named Finbar, or Fin, who happens to be 4'5" tall, moves out of the city and into an abandoned train depot that his friend left him in his will.  Fin wants to get away from people, but very near his train depot is a hotdog and coffee truck run by a guy named Joe, who talks all the time and tries very hard to engage Fin.

Fin resists at first, but in time he begins to appreciate the contact, and he also crosses paths with a few other locals:  an artist still mourning the loss of her son, a schoolgirl who lives close, and a young lady who works in the library.

And really, that's it, and then the movie ends.  We see Fin go from shunning all attention to appreciating a few friends, and not much more.  But it's a good story scene by scene, and it kept me engaged all the way through.  It's surprising what someone with talent and a camera can do.

And if you see this movie, you should stick through the credits to hear the theremin playing the last song, if you like that sort of thing.

The Aristocrats

The Aristocrats is a movie about a single joke.  About 100 comics talk about and tell this one joke, which is something of a legendary joke among comedians.

So the first thing you should know is that the joke is not very funny, and neither is the movie.  That doesn't mean it's a bad movie, but just don't get it because you think you will bust a gut laughing.  You won't, or at least I didn't.

Here's the joke:  A guy walks into a talent agents's office and says, "Have I got an act for you!"  He then describes a shockingly horrific act that may involve incest, bestiality, scatology, cruelty to children -- almost anything as long as it's shocking.  The talent agent finally asks, "So what do you call yourselves?"  And the guy says, "The Aristocrats!"

There are a few funny takes on the joke.  A couple of comics turn the joke around, describing a sophisticated act with a vulgar name.  Several of the comics won't tell the joke but tell a different one.  There are some funny moments in the film; for me, the biggest laugh came when Robin Williams and another comic told a different joke, a good one.

The joke does not have to be dirty; one of the funnier versions of it in the film is very clean.  However, most of the comics see it as a chance to be as outrageous as possible in describing the act, sometimes going on and on.  And that is where the film gets somewhat tedious, as hearing comics try to outdo each other by saying something more disgusting or inappropriate than the last person isn't particularly funny.

The more interesting part of the movie is hearing the comedians talk about the joke.  They describe it like a jazz standard; you have the basic setup, but exactly how it gets told is up to the joke teller.  You can make up the act as you go, try to get as disgusting as you can, drag it out ten minutes.  It might have a different feel for a woman comic or a black comic or a gay comic.

The film has a definite low point.  For a couple of minutes, Sarah Silverman puts on one or the most pathetic, cringe-worthy, unfunny performances ever seen.  No matter how good your mood, she will kill it for a brief while.  The rest of the film stands out as brilliant by comparison, but anything would.

In the end, I can't quite give this one a thumbs up.  Comics talking about comedy is interesting, but there are a few too many lame attempts to tell a mediocre joke.

American Movie

It is not likely anyone will ever make a documentary about my life.  My life is just way too ordinary.  If you are going to make a documentary about someone, it probably helps if they are quite strange, because that makes them interesting.  American Movie is a documentary about a very unusual guy.

American Movie is also very much a film about failure.  Mark Borchardt calls himself a filmmaker, but he has never actually made any films.  What he really is -- no offense dude -- is a loser, deep in debt and marginally employed, with no education.  He can't stand the idea of a normal job or being like everyone else, and he has wanted to make films from the time he was 14.

At the beginning of American Movie, Borchardt is going to make a full-length movie called Northwestern.  This is not a Hollywood movie, but rather a super-low-budget independent film to be written, directed, and produced by Mark Borchardt.  Since Borchardt is broke and owes money to everybody including the IRS, even the super low budget seems beyond his reach.

Borchardt assembles a fairly large filmmaking crew from local talent, but they quickly abandon him when it becomes apparent that the film isn't going anywhere.  It turns out that Mark has been making this film for six years, but he has never completed it.  When it becomes clear to him that he cannot make the film without some money, he decides to complete another film he has been working on for three years, a short black-and-white horror film called Coven.  Incredibly, Coven is pronounced with a long O:  Coe-ven.  Someone tells him how to pronounce the word, but he just says that sounds wrong, it has to be Coe-ven.  The idea is to finish Coven and sell enough copies to raise the money to make Northwestern.

American Movie is also about friendship.  Mark's friends don't seem like the most reliable lot, but they stick with him and help him make his movies, because that what he wants to do.  Mark himself is up and down, energetic and manic about working on his films, then depressed and questioning his own sanity, trying to analyze his own inability to complete his work.

The movie has a bit of a happy ending, as Coven gets completed and shows in the local theater.  According to Wikipedia, Borchardt eventually sold over 5,000 copies of the film (his goal was 3,000), although I'm sure American Movie helped, as they actually tell you how to buy Coven at the end.  According to IMDB, Northwestern was never completed, and Borchardt is working on another film that was supposed to be released in 2005, but is still not complete.  However, IMDB also shows Borchardt with 22 acting credits, 3 as a writer, 3 as producer, 2 as director, 2 as editor, and 1 as cinematographer.  Most of those are in his own films, but some of the acting credits are in actual commercial films.  It doesn't look like he has that much of a career, but this is a guy with a definite dream to make movies, and it seems he has at least been able to live the dream a little.

I suppose I should add, I loved this movie.

Working

It's easy enough to talk trash about our jobs, and we all do it to various degrees.  However, when you look at your accomplishments in life, the work you do is a big piece.  It's the thing that pays for your stay on this planet, and maybe part of some other people's.  It is also a big investment of time and effort for most people, and if you are going to spend that much time doing something, it might not hurt to make the most of it and maybe be proud of your results.

My career hasn't always been the most stellar.  Like a lot of young people, I kicked around for awhile trying to figure out what I was going to do, but I kept doing that into my thirties.  Then I started making a career out of accounting, but I kept changing jobs every few years.

Finally I ended up at Farmers, and I have been there ten years.  I am a first line manager in financial reporting.  Not exactly a dream job -- literally no one anywhere ever dreams of getting this job -- but it's not all that bad either.  When I start feeling like I haven't accomplished all that much, I like to think how the other people in the building would feel if they could do what I do.  For maybe 100 or so of the 600 who work with me, it would be a step down.  For most of the other 500, it would be a step up; for the majority of them it is well beyond anything they could ever hope to reach.  The thing is, it's really a pretty good position, and I'm sort of pleased that I made it this far.

Day of the Jackal

Red wine and a movie review.  This could be a nice tradition.

I noticed that even though both Miller's Crossing and Day of the Jackal have 90% good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, Vincent Canby of The New York Times gave negative reviews to both.  I'm going to have to start paying more attention to Mr. Canby.

Day of the Jackal is a 1973 movie based on a Frederick Forsyth novel.  I have read at least one Forsyth book.  He is a Robert Ludlum type of writer -- major international intrigue, with lots of detail about how the espionage business works behind the scenes.  This story takes place in France, as a hired killer -- the Jackal -- tries to kill Charles de Gaulle, and French security tries to stop him.

The movie isn't too bad, but I can't really recommend it either.  The first part is slow, as the Jackal makes his preparations and then French intelligence gets wind of the plot and tries to find him.  As the Jackal prepared a new ID, had a special gun made, made plans to change his appearance, etc., it all reminded me of a business project -- very detailed and meticulous, but with no sense of malice.  Meanwhile the efforts by French intelligence feel like a police procedural.  It's probably more realistic than a white-knuckle, Bourne Identity (a Ludlum book) scenario, but it didn't have me engaged until halfway through.

The Jackal never really feels all that threatening, even though he kills a few people and seems very businesslike about it.  I kept thinking about Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men -- particularly after one scene in which the Jackal is injured in an accident but limps away and stays on task --  and how truly evil he felt.  Somehow the Jackal just never rose to that level of menace.

Maybe it was the ascots.  He wore a series of brightly-colored ascots around his neck.  Was that ever a popular thing to do?  It must be difficult to look scary in ascots, but then Bardem managed it even with that bad haircut.

Part way through, the chase gets more tense, and the movie becomes enjoyable enough.  Still, it feels a lot like two men doing their jobs, one with the job of killing de Gaulle, and the other with the job of stopping him, and we get to see in detail how they go about it.  A well-crafted tale, but not one that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Friends

No, not the TV show.  This post is about friends in my life.  My TV show, pictured over there on the left, just got cancelled by the way.

"Your friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you." - Elbert Hubard.  That quote would be a little better if it weren't so gender-specific, but still.

It is easy enough to find information on the Internet that tells us that relationships are the biggest key to happiness.  So what about someone who is a fairly strong introvert?  Well, the great book of collected wisdom also tells us that introverts (a group that definitely includes me) still want relationships, but it's the quality of those relationships that matters, not the quantity.

There have been times in my life when I had a lot of friends, actually.  Those times are easy to identify -- high school and college (at Berkeley.)  Elementary school and middle school too, if you want to go back that far.  It's easy to meet people when you are in the same classes with them day after day for years, or when you live on the same dorm floor with them.

However, since Berkeley, which I left when I was 19, I don't think I could ever say that I had very many friends.  Sometimes I have enjoyed a small circle of friends at work, but as I have moved from one job to another, I have lost them.  I've never been good about keeping in touch.  Other times, I have gone for long periods with few or even no real friends and have only stayed close to family members.  I can't say I'm really proud of that record; I should have done more to cultivate relationships and to keep the ones I had.

The good side of that is that now is one of the times that I have a few close friends that I really enjoy.  For the first time in my life, I have worked at the same company for more than four years -- ten in fact -- and I have eaten lunch every day with some of the same people for the last six years.  We don't do much outside of work, but we go out to lunch on occasion and at least acknowledge birthdays, and we know each other well by now.  I also keep in touch with one retiree who used to eat with us, and I enjoy the coworkers I carpool with.  That may not seem like a big batch of friends, and it isn't.  But trust me, it's a very high-quality group.

Black Book

Black Book is a film directed by Paul Verhoeven, who directed, among other things, Robocop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, and the immortal Showgirls.  This film is in Dutch (Zwartboek is the untranslated title), and it is based on the true story of a Jewish woman in World War II who adopted a non-Jewish identity and spied on the Nazis by sleeping with them.

I have to point out here that, right at the beginning of the disk, there is a screen saying that the film is rated R, in part for "graphic nudity," and my first thought was that I was meant to be European.  Not British -- they seem so silly sometimes, but Dutch would be fine, or French or German.  Europeans can just be so much more adult about nudity, sex, drugs, taxes, social welfare, workers rights, helping each other, taking long lunches...  I think I will have some more wine.

Ok, glass of wine (red) at hand.  In the last half hour I have had a man at he door looking for the girl next door and a call from a guy looking for Kim.  Anyway, I thought Black Book was very entertaining.  It's a suspenseful story with a fairly involved plot that includes trying to identify a mole within the Dutch resistance, and there are several twists to the story, but it is never hard to follow or believe, and it always kept me engaged.  The morality of the characters, even the heroine, is not as clear cut as you might expect from a movie about fighting Nazis, and I think that adds something to the film.

So I would recommend this one to people who enjoy foreign films.  As for the nudity, yes there is some, but nothing a good European would think twice about.

Family

My closest family would be my wife and the boys; however, this post is not about them, as I have already written about marriage and children.  This would be about other family, primarily my siblings, with maybe a few others thrown in.

One of the strongest forces that influences my relationship with my siblings is the memory of my mother's desire that we should always remain a family.  It was important to her that her children retain some connection to each other, and it was a big reason why she wanted us to keep getting together at Christmas even after we were older, some of us had moved away, and my father was gone.  As a parent, I can understand the desire, but I also see how even brothers and sisters can drift apart as they grow older and move away.  My siblings and I have always kept in touch at least on occasion, and I think we would help each other if the need arose.  My sister from Oregon has visited several times, and we travel her way as well.  We are not all as close as we once were, but the bond is still there.  In addition, my brother and I, who were the two oldest, remain very close and always will.

Since I did not grow up with cousins and aunts and uncles much, I don't have a big extended family.  I hear from two neices and a nephew on Facebook, including many IM sessions with my nephew, and I'm glad to keep in touch with them.  I knew them well when I lived in California and they were very young, but we didn't communicate much for awhile after I moved to Washington, until Facebook came along.

One group I do not see as often as I would like is my in-laws.  I used to go to Oklahoma every year or two with Jackie and the boys, but as the boys got older it became easier for Jackie to go without me, and that has become the norm.  Her father and grandmother are both ill, and her niece had a baby in the last year or two, but I have only been back once in the last five years, so I feel a bit out of touch.  I get all my news of them second-hand from Jackie.

Looking at those paragraphs, it doesn't seem like there is a lot of family interaction going on.  We don't all get together anymore for family vacations or even for holidays.  We have never staged a family reunion.  Nevertheless I'm happy that we have stayed in touch and on good terms.  I'm not sure if Mom would have thought it was enough, but then, she was always hard to please.

At the Movies

I have about 20 movies in the queue to watch while Jackie is away, so I think I'll write reviews.  Most of the movies are either old movies or foreign.  Tonight I watched Miller's Crossing.

Miller's Crossing is a classic Coen Brothers movie from 1990, starring Gabriel Byrne, whom I like, and it has a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so all very promising.

I didn't care for it much.  The main character, Tom Reagan (played by Byrne), gets beat up several times during the movie, sometimes badly, and is nearly killed several more times.  That happens in movies, i.e. James Bond, but generally the person facing all this danger has some purpose in mind that makes it all worth the risk.  It's never clear, even at the end, what Reagan is getting for all the danger he faces.  You never get the feeling that he has any real purpose in mind.

Reagan is a brooding, self-assured guy, who is supposed to be the brains of a mob operation, right-hand man to the boss.  But his plans don't seem all that bright, and he doesn't have any reason to be so sure of himself given all trouble he gets into.  In the end, he's lucky to be alive, probably will suffer chronic health problems from all the beatings he has taken, and gets nothing out of it.

It all comes off as very stylish, with some very memorable scenes and a number of good actors, but the plot doesn't really hold together.  I have heard about this movie for years, always wanted to see it, but I wasn't impressed.

Kids

"The most important task of each generation is raising the next one."  George Will

Actually, I am paraphrasing Mr. Will from memory, but he said something like that, and I liked it.

Kids certainly give some meaning to life -- the ability to give someone else the chances you had, and maybe steer them clear of some of the mistakes you made, is a worthy task for anyone.  Children also provide some sense of immortality.  After I am gone, my children will live on, and their children, and maybe the world will be a little bit better because of that, and my life will not necessarily be inconsequential in 100 years, or so I hope.

I feel comfortable saying that Jackie and I have put a tremendous effort into raising our kids to be everything they can be.  You can always point to something that could be better, but we have lived our lives centered around them for 16 years now, and  we will continue to do so for several years to come.  They have consumed our time and financial resources, impacted decisions about where we would live, what kinds of cars we have, what jobs we took.

And that's pretty much the deal when you have kids; you don't put everything else on hold, but they become your focus, and you sacrifice your own desires for their needs.  In return, you get to watch them grow up, and you help shape their lives.  It's an accomplishment raising children, one worth being proud of.

Jackie and I have done our best to give the boys numerous opportunities.  We homeschooled them because we thought it was good for their education, but also because it seemed like a much better experience for them than being bused off to a classroom every day.  They have owned hundreds of books, videos, video games, toys, board games.  We got them involved in Boy Scouts, drama, archery, chess, music, social groups, church, and more.  They have gone to camps and gone with us on vacations across the country and beyond a few times.  We have given them chances to develop as well as opportunities to find and pursue their own interests.

As for the boys, they seem to be doing well.  Lucas is a top student, with a grade point average well over 3.9 in his online high school courses.  He is also a good archer and will compete in the outdoor national championships next week, and he is well on his way to becoming an Eagle Scout.  Lucas seems to do well at everything he puts his mind to.

Jarrod is a bit of a different animal, but he also tests well, particularly in language skills.  He will surprise you with very sophisticated questions.  He loves drama and does well at it.  He is outgoing and easily makes friends and likes to be the center of attention.  Jarrod likes to cook sometimes, and will add his own touch to things he makes.  Looking at that list, I have to say he is almost the complete opposite of me.  We still sometimes wonder where he came from, but he's a very good kid.

So this is the one area of my life that I can say I am most proud of.  You never know what will happen, but for now I will say that we have made a respectable effort to raise our kids well, and the results are worth the effort.