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Oscar-nominated animated shorts 2017

Tthe pic pairs gravelly voiceover with luridly colored frames recalling some indie comic books.

Every year I try to see both the Oscar-nominated animated shorts and their live-action counterparts. The documentaries, alas, don’t seem to make it into this neck of the woods.

This year’s roster:

Borrowed Time -a weathered Sheriff in the Old West returns to the remains of a terrible accident. It was done by a couple Pixar folks, so it is of high quality. I had seen this before online, and while it’s evocative of a mood, it didn’t quite satisfy.

Pearl – a father/daughter relationship from the point of view of the family car, and especially the music played therein. It is my wife’s favorite piece, and we saw it in a conventional theater. Watch it here or here or here.

Blind Vaysha – based, i think, on an old folk tale about a girl with cursed eyesight. One eye sees visions of the past, while the other peers into the future. It’s done in the style of German expressionist woodcuts. This was possibly my favorite. If you’re in Canada, you can see it here.

Piper – this is the Pixar piece, which I saw before Finding Dory. It had a photorealistic look of a newborn bird trying to find food on his own. I actually liked it more in the rewatching. See it here.

Then there was the warning about the final piece that contains sex and violence and language and that you might want to get the kiddies out of the room. I saw a movie a couple years back like that; it was quite terrible.

But before that, a few of the also-rans:

Asteria – wo astronauts make an unexpected discovery on a barren planet. A silly, yet quite pointed observation about the human condition.

The Head Vanishes – a woman is determined to make her annual train trip to the seaside when she quite literally loses her head. this about dementia, of course, which my late mother experienced in her later years. This too you may be able to see in Canada.

Once Upon a Line – a dialogue-free film using a clever pen-and-ink style continual illustrations in which a humdrum guy’s life gets upended by romance. It should have been in the final five in lieu of Borrowed Time.

Pear Cider and Cigarettes – “the aforementioned naughty film, which at 35 minutes is also four times the length of any other nominee. Apparently drawn directly from writer/director Robert Valley’s life, it tells of his friendship with a hard-living character named Techno, who winds up stuck in a Chinese hospital awaiting a liver transplant. Covering decades of up-and-down friendship in a hard-boiled but persuasive style, the pic pairs gravelly voiceover with luridly colored frames recalling some indie comic books. Though very tied to the specifics of Valley’s larger-than-life subject, the bittersweet featurette depicts a sort of character many older viewers will recognize: the kid who could be in charge and out of control simultaneously, who did what others feared until life caught up with him.” My wife and I really related to thie Techno character; we’ve both known that guy with a lot of potential who frittered it away.

It occurred to me that most of these films are about memory, in one form or another. All the nominated films, plus, of course, The Head Vanishes, fit into the category. A worthwhile visit to the Spectrum Theatre.

Mandated Workplace Violence training

For the next two days, it was all we talked about; if that were the intent, it worked.

All of us SUNY Central employees were required to register for, and attend, a 90-minute Workplace Violence training session back in August.

“In accordance with NYS Law, SUNY System Administration has implemented required/mandatory Workplace Violence training to help ensure a safe working environment. This training extends to all employees who work within our System Administration locations, inclusive of our Research Foundation and Construction Fund colleagues.

“Even in the absence of any identified risk, employees should be knowledgeable about measures they can take to protect themselves in the workplace. Learn how to:

• Identify Risk Factors
• Prevent Workplace Violence Incidents
• Enhance Personal Safety
• Increase Survivability in Critical Incidents

“Be a part of our pro-active preventative approach to keeping the SUNY community safe!”

I had the idea that the workshop would spend more time diffusing a potentially volatile workplace situation. There was lip service about recognizing someone in a workplace situation who might be “ready to blow.” But it wasn’t the primary focus.

Instead, it was a lot about how you might live if an active shooter situation. There was a lot about flight or fight – flee if can, fight if getting away or hiding is not an option.

The speaker managed to namecheck all sorts of mass shootings, from the school kids and educators in Newtown, CT, to the assassination attempt on Gabby Giffords in an Arizona strip mall that left six dead and the Congresswoman gravely wounded to the shooting in Binghamton, NY that killed 13. But there were a whole lot that you never heard about.

The takeaway, my colleagues all agreed, is where the heck would you hide, or run to, if you had to? Those folks with doors were subsequently issued door stops, but those with partial glass walls were less than comforted by this.

As someone with no office door, where I would run would to would depend on what direction the disturbance was coming from. The offices are in one big circle, and I am near the diameter.

For the next two days, it was all we talked about; if that were the intent, it worked. But it mostly made me depressed as hell.

How do you solve a problem like the Donald?

If each of us writes even a single postcard and we put them all in the mail on the same day, March 15th, well: you do the math. No alternative fact or Russian translation will explain away our record-breaking, officially-verifiable, warehouse-filling flood of fury.

There’s been a LOT of advice out there about what to do, and NOT to do, in response to the current American regime.

As someone who’s gone to more than a few demonstrations, and written some letters, in his time, some observations:

We all have different gifts; it’s Biblical. So it is unrealistic to suggest that we ALL should act on a list of ALL things ALL the time. Among other things, that will create burnout, which is the enemy of change.

Find the thing or things you can do. Be aware, though, that it may be something you’ve never done before. There was a guy on NBC Nightly News this month, who looked to be over 35, who had NEVER been to a protest march before 2017. Now he is getting guidance from the Indivisible guide every day. Or you could sign up for ACLU ACTION TEXTS. e.g.

Keep repeating the narratives, especially the ones you don’t think are getting adequate coverage, on social media. I was reading a piece in fivethirtyeight about what makes a story stick. Sometimes it’s just timing. “Persistence matters.”

One story I’d personally like y’all to beat to death is that the family’s elaborate lifestyle is a ‘logistical nightmare’ — at taxpayer expense. Some fiscal conservatives might be appalled to discover that we’re paying for the Secret Service for his two eldest sons to do business deals in Dubai, lining not only their own pockets but their father’s. And at this rate, it’ll cost more to protect 45’s family for six months than it cost to protect 44’s family for eight years. If you want to mention how 45 ironically complained about 44’s Hawaii trips, feel free.

Get your Senators and Representatives to pledge to oppose his agenda. Whether flooding Congressional phone lines is the best use of your time, I can’t say. I DO love the fact that after accusing protesters of being ‘paid,’ Utah rep is getting invoices from protesters.

Demonstrations are good, and I think the energy of the already-planned women’s marches of January 21 has become a stimulus for more activity. The reactions at airports against the Muslim travel ban, I think, were fueled by it. The “day without immigrants” on February 16, which closed businesses, had a visible impact that showed up on the national news. The April 15 march to demand Trump report his taxes may not succeed, but it would make a lie of the notion that “nobody” cares.

Personally, I like actions when they are specific, such as when ICE agents threaten folks in the community. It’s important to make bug your local officials to make, or keep your places sanctuaries. Push progressive causes at your state and local levels, and encourage people you know to run for office.

Not only boycott all Trump products, real estate, hotels, resorts, obviously but consider tying up their phone lines for 10 minutes pretending to make a reservation; grab him by the wallet.

Write letters to the editor of your newspaper and op-eds. Contribute to the opposition, whether that be Planned Parenthood or reliable news feeds.

And this is what you ought not to do: we mustn’t chastise our allies for our priorities if you are all working to stop the retrograde flow. We have different interests. Don’t say not to bother with new Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, because EPA head, and former EPA opponent, Scott Pruitt is worse. They’re BOTH terrible.

I saw this when the former Breitbart “news” head Steve Bannon was getting on the National Security Council, and some people thought that all energy had to be directed there. But a writer, I recall not who, correctly noted: “Would the well-meaning and overzealous please stop talking about the Muslim Ban as a ‘smokescreen’ and STOP referring to what’s ‘really happening’ or forwarding articles that lead with ‘while you were protesting…’ and other such disturbing language?… There’s no smoke, friends. It’s all on fire.”

Someone else wrote: “Not only do those posts downplay something real and serious affecting people’s lives in devastating ways, but they also often imply somehow that protesting a really bad thing is less important than being the smartest one who has figured out ‘the real worst thing.'”

I must admit I am rather fond of the Ides of Trump, because it plays on his reality-show roots:

“Just as the Romans did for Julius Caesar, you and I will now do for Donald J. Trump — only with postcards …

“Each of us — every protester from every march, each Congress-calling citizen, every boycotter, volunteer, donor, and petition signer — if each of us writes even a single postcard and we put them all in the mail on the same day, March 15th, well: you do the math.

“No alternative fact or Russian translation will explain away our record-breaking, officially-verifiable, warehouse-filling flood of fury. So sharpen your wit, unsheathe your writing implements …

“Write one postcard. Write a dozen! Take a picture and post it on social media tagged with #TheIdesOfTrump ! Spread the word! Everyone on Earth should let Donnie know how he’s doing. They can’t build a wall high enough to stop the mail. Then, on March 15th, mail your messages…”

And the reason I like it is that it’s fun, even silly. Robert Reich wrote about the 4 dangerous syndromes of coping with him. “We need you in the peaceful resistance.”

Applaud articles that give hope: American institutions are pushing back: the bureaucracy, the press, the judiciary, and the public.

Watch and read things that make you happy, whether it’s John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, a newly energized Trevor Noah on the Daily Show or Melissa McCarthy’s spoof of Spicer on Saturday Night Live. Try a binding spell.

But don’t spent time with articles claiming that these things make him crazy. Or that he IS crazy or narcissistic or whatever; he may well be, but I’m not qualified to diagnose, and probably neither are you.

Don’t pass along stories that are false; there are plenty of accurate stories that need sunlight. Admittedly, it can be difficult to avoid the Milo trolling playbook, but we must stop playing right into it. And, in the sign of the times, label the articles from The Onion and the Borowitz Report in the New Yorker as satire, because – and this has happened to me – otherwise you may be labeled as a purveyor of fake news.

Try not to get too discouraged. I was watching Samantha Bee, and she had a segment about people who were at the August 1963 March on Washington, which was a vacation compared with trying to get black people registered to vote in the South, where they might get one person a month. The Montgomery bus boycott took over a year. Cesar Chavez’s lettuce boycott took much longer. Not everything will succeed, but it’s a long struggle, not a sprint.

I believe in peaceful resistance as a matter of course. Whether you end up choosing to break the law – which I expect will become easier to do over time in this iteration of America – is a very personal decision. Know that:

“Those who sheltered Jews in hidden rooms, attics and basements during the Holocaust were breaking the law. Those who smuggled 7,000 Jews out of Denmark were breaking the law. Schindler was breaking the law. The Underground Railroad broke the law. Harriet Tubman broke the law. MLK broke the law. Hell, the effing Boston Tea Party broke the law.

If saving friends, family, and innocent people are breaking the law, break the law. If standing up for truth and justice is breaking the law, break the law.

The law is unjust. The law is morally wrong. Break the law.” — A.J. Tierney

And as Shane Claiborne, co-author of Jesus for President, noted on Presidents Day, resistance is Biblical:

“Every time the early Christians proclaimed, ‘Jesus is Lord’, they were also saying ‘Caesar is not.’ It was deeply and subversively political… It was an invitation to a new political imagination centered around the person, teaching, and peculiar politics of Christ. That’s why the early Christians were seen as a threat to power, enemies of the state, and accused of treason and insurrection.

“The norms of the Kingdom of God are the inversion of the world. It’s been called ‘the upside-down empire’ – where the poor are blessed, the last come first, the hungry are filled, and the mighty are cast down from their thrones. It means aligning ourselves with the prophets who speak of beating our weapons into farm tools, rather than conforming to the patterns of violence and the business of war. Our King does not rule with an iron fist, but with a towel, humbly washing feet.

“Jesus spun the whole political system on its head… He challenged the chosen and included the excluded. He said to the religious elites, ‘The tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom ahead of you.’ He was in constant trouble with authority, taken to jail as a political prisoner, accused of insurrection for claiming to be King. As he rides into his trial and execution, he enters Jerusalem on the back of an ass. It was wonderful street theater, and the fulfillment of prophecy (donkeys weren’t icons of power … it would have been like a President riding a unicycle into Inauguration).”
***
The Environmental Protection Agency shall terminate on December 31, 2018. That’s H. R. 861. Not the title of H. R. 861, it’s the whole bill.

G is for “The Great One,” Jackie Gleason

Gleason’s first album, Music for Lovers Only, still holds the record for the album longest in the Billboard Top Ten Charts

I recently noticed that actor/comedian Jackie Gleason would have turned 100 on February 26, 2016, and will have been dead 30 years come June 24, 2017.

When I was growing up in the 1960s, I used to watch his Saturday night variety show on CBS fairly regularly. Gleason played a variety of characters, including the snobbish millionaire Reginald Van Gleason III, the put-upon character known as the Poor Soul, and Joe the Bartender, who always greeted the bug-eyed “Crazy” Guggenheim (Frank Fontaine) before the latter would break into mellifluous song.

The show featured Sammy Spear and his orchestra, and the June Taylor Dancers, who were often shown in aerial pattern kaleidoscope formations, probably my favorite part of the show.

Before that show aired, there was The Honeymooners. Gleason was Ralph Kramden, on a series also starring Audrey Meadows (pictured with Gleason) as his wife, and Art Carney and Joyce Randolph as the apartment building neighbors. It is a classic 1950s TV program, though I didn’t much like it when I saw it in reruns as a child. The bus driver really bugged me with his rants such as “to the moon, Alice,” as though he were going to punch out his spouse. The Honeymooners was reprised in the 1960s with Carney, but with different actresses.

My mother had several albums of music with Gleason’s name attached. He lent his imprimatur to “a series of best-selling ‘mood music’ albums with jazz overtones for Capitol Records… Gleason’s first album, Music for Lovers Only, still holds the record for the album longest in the Billboard Top Ten Charts (153 weeks), and his first 10 albums sold over a million copies each.

“Gleason could not read or write music; he was said to have conceived melodies in his head and described them vocally to assistants who transcribed them into musical notes. These included the well-remembered themes of both The Jackie Gleason Show (‘Melancholy Serenade‘) and The Honeymooners (‘You’re My Greatest Love‘).”

Jackie Gleason had a decent movie career. I watched him, much after the fact, in The Hustler (1961) as pool shark Minnesota Fats. I saw him in the first two Smokey and the Bandit films, but not the third one. I recall enjoying his last film, Nothing in Common (1986), with an upcoming actor named Tom Hanks.

But perhaps the strangest thing in his career took place January 20, 1961: “‘You’re in the Picture‘ was a… replacement game show. Contestants would stick their heads through a cut-out board and guess what character they were. The first installment was so much of a failure that on the second week of the time slot Jackie Gleason came out, sat in a chair, and talked about how horrible the first show had been. He was hilarious.”

Presidents Day 2017: Nixon’s the One

JFK Calls about Furniture

George Washington’s first inaugural address (April 1789), referring to himself: “One, who, inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpractised in the duties of civil administration, ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies.”

Now I Know: The Case of George Washington versus Pinocchio

John Quincy Adams: When The People Cheered

Presidents in Our Backyard – Part 1 (Martin Van Buren, Chester A. Arthur, Ulysses S. Grant)

The highest-ranked President who only served one-term is James Knox Polk.

Sarah Knox Taylor, the second daughter of Zachary Taylor and the first Mrs. Jefferson Davis

This is an actual standard fantasy I’ve had over the years: I’m captured, and the Americans think I’m a spy. I name all the Presidents correctly, including the year entering the office and political party – I really CAN do that – then they shoot me, because OBVIOUSLY, I’m a Soviet/Russian/Chinese spy, since NOBODY knows Millard Fillmore (1850-1853, Whig), who was New York State Comptroller before becoming Vice-President.

Worst president ever: The ignominy of James Buchanan – On the way to the Capitol for the inauguration of his successor on March 4, 1861, Buchanan told Abraham Lincoln, “If you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland [his home in Pennsylvania], you are a happy man indeed.”

Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address (1861)
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Lincoln’s Great Depression

Now I Know The Vice:President (David Rice Atchison) and John Wilkes Booth’s Heroic Brother

Are You a Presidential Beard Connoisseur?

Ulysses S. Grant’s Veal & Sweet Potato Fries

The first President to ban immigrants?

Chris Churchill: A chat with President Chester A. Arthur

Now I Know: Grover Cleveland’s Pole Tax

‘All for each and each for all:’ Teddy Roosevelt’s Square Deal

Theodore Roosevelt holds that it is “unpatriotic, servile, and morally treasonable to proclaim that there must be no criticism of the President.” (1918)

Who was the first president to visit Canada? I was surprised.

Quora: Which US President had the most foresight?

Listening In: JFK Calls about Furniture (July 25, 1963)

Lyndon Johnson Speech Before Congress on Voting Rights (March 15, 1965): “There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem. And we are met here tonight as Americans—not as Democrats or Republicans–we are met here as Americans to solve that problem.”

Lyndon Johnson orders pants.

Nixon Aide Reportedly Admitted Drug War Was Meant To Target Black People. “Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course, we did.” Anyone who read Michele Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow already knew this.

Nixon’s Vietnam Treachery. This was treason.
US fatalities in the Vietnam war:
1969 – 11,780
1970 – 6,173
1971 – 2,414
1972 – 759
1973 – 68
1974 – 1
1975 – 62

Now I Know: The Red Menace (Nixon in China)

Three Presidential $1 Coins were issued in 2016, the final year of the program, for Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, and Ronald Reagan. Jimmy Carter had the audacity of still being alive; hope he’ll get one down the line, after he passes away.

Now I Know: Reagan and Gorbachev’s Green Pact

You Must Remember This podcast – Storm Warning: Ronald Reagan, the FBI and HUAC (THE BLACKLIST EPISODE #8)

10 Books to Understand the Obama Presidency

Presidential Payroll: What Commanders in Chief Have Earned Since 1789