International Women’s Day 2024

gender inequality underpins many problems

In the ebb and flow of the fight for equality – Women win lots of Grammys!  Women continue to experience violence and repression! – I see the need to note International Women’s Day 2024. From the website:

“Imagine a gender-equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together, we can forge women’s equality. Collectively, we can all #InspireInclusion.

“Celebrate women’s achievement. Raise awareness about discrimination. Take action to drive gender parity.”

From Amnesty International: “We are all entitled to human rights. These include the right to live free from violence and discrimination, enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, be educated, own property, vote, and earn an equal wage.

“But across the globe, many women and girls still face discrimination based on sex and gender. Gender inequality underpins many problems that disproportionately affect women and girls, such as domestic and sexual violence, lower pay, lack of access to education, and inadequate healthcare.”

Health care

ITEM: From Center for Reproductive Rights:  The Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) is pending federal legislation that would create “a new legal protection for the right to provide and access abortion care, free from medically unnecessary restrictions and bans on abortion. The need for WHPA is more urgent than ever.

From Wolters Kluwer:  How abortion bans prevent clinicians from providing essential women’s health care.

“Some states have exceptions for abortions in ‘medical emergencies’ but, as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) explains in Understanding and Navigating Medical Emergency Exceptions in Abortion Bans and Restrictions, since clinicians often ‘make medical decisions in gray areas [with] unique medical considerations,’ many are confused about what constitutes an ’emergency.'”

Census

ITEM: National Women’s History Month honors the successes and sacrifices of U.S. women. It dates to March 8, 1857, when hundreds of women from New York City garment and textile factories rallied to protest harsh working conditions. In 1909, New York City became the site of the nation’s first Women’s Day celebration, a year after 15,000 women there marched to demand shorter working hours, better pay, an end to child labor and the right to vote. More than seven decades later in 1981, Congress set aside the second week of March as National Women’s History Week. Six years later, Congress expanded the week to a month. As we celebrate Women’s History Month, we reflect upon the advances women have made, including increased earnings, educational attainment, and job opportunities. Lots of stats

ITEM: From the US Census Bureau: Is the Gender Wage Gap the Same at Different Education Levels?

“The gap in average earnings from 2005 to 2019 was consistent across all education levels…  Women with a certificate degree earned 71.2 cents for every dollar earned by men with a certificate degree. In other words, the gap was 28.8%. For graduates of the most selective bachelor’s institutions, as defined by Barron’s Admissions Competitiveness Index, the gap was 28.4%.”

Replacing Diane Feinstein

ITEM: From the Los Angeles Times. “At least one woman has represented California in the U.S. Senate for the last three decades, a historic feat given that men account for 97% of the members who have served there since the birth of the nation. That streak [will] come to an end after the 2024 Senate election.” Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D) of Burbank and former MLB first baseman Steve Garvey (R) were the top two candidates to run in November’s general election. Reps. Katie Porter (D-Irvine), who would have been my pick, and Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) lagged in the March 5 primary. 

The blogger is 71

I say it’s my birthday….

(Checking the calendar.) Oh, I see the blogger is 71 today. 71 is kind of boring. To its credit, it IS a prime number. I Googled it, and the first several references were to a 2014 movie called  ’71 about “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland, with which I was unfamiliar.

I came across a website called SunSigns, which told me: “Angel Number 71 symbol is a confirmation from the angels that all your ambitions will be fulfilled because you have the helping hand of the divine energies. This suggests that you are on the right track, and you are being rightly compensated for your hard work.” OH…kay…

Still, since my last birthday, I’ve traveled more than usual. I will remember the Summer Olympics were in Paris in 2024 because I was in the city the year before. (In 1995, I was in Atlanta, the year before THOSE Summer Olympics.)

I can rarely remember where the Super Bowl is played each year. Still, I might recall the one in 2024 because I was in Las Vegas in 2023.

Anyway, I don’t write a blog post on my birthday. But I should note that the photo above is a selfie on my phone, taken at the Museum of Broadway in NYC in January 2024. No, I was NOT on drugs.

Ciao.

Academy Awards for 2023

I love American Fiction

The Academy Awards for 2023 are airing on Sunday, March 10, 2024 on ABC-TV. I’ve given up on seeing all the nominees.  The ones I DID see I have starred (*), and I’ve linked to my reviews the first time listed.

*American Fiction – my favorite

*Anatomy of a Fall – maybe the best

*Barbie – good movie, great box office

*The Holdovers – I’m very fond

Killers of the Flower Moon

*Maestro – my least favorite

*Oppenheimer – worthy

*Past Lives – I liked it, but it seemed SO long since I saw it

*Poor Things – surprisingly good

*The Zone Of Interest – it’s good, but so bleak

*Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest

*Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things

*Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer. My rooting interest

Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon

*Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall

*Bradley Cooper, Maestro

Colman Domingo, Rustin – damn Netflix…

*Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers

*Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer – maybe the best

*Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction – my favorite

Annette Bening, Nyad

Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon

*Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall. I’m invoking the Diane Keaton rule. She won for Annie Hall, but her strong performance in Waiting For Mr. Goodbar sealed it. Hüller was also great in The Zone Of Interest.

*Carey Mulligan, Maestro

*Emma Stone, Poor Things

*Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction

Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon

*Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer. The old rust bucket wins in a battle between Iron Man and the Hulk.

*Ryan Gosling, Barbie

*Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things

 Best Supporting Actress

*Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer

*Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple

*America Ferrera, Barbie

Jodie Foster, Nyad

*Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers. Yes.

*Anatomy of a Fall – the best 

*The Holdovers – I’m fond of this

May December

*Maestro

*Past Lives

*American Fiction – very good

*Barbie – adapted from what? A toy? My rooting interest.

*Oppenheimer

*Poor Things

*The Zone of Interest

The Boy and the Heron

Elemental

Nimona

*Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Robot Dreams

*Barbie – three very different movies, but my rooting interest is here

Killers of the Flower Moon

Napoleon

*Oppenheimer

*Poor Things

*Barbie

Killers of the Flower Moon

Napoleon

*Oppenheimer

*Poor Things – my pick

El Conde

Killers of the Flower Moon

*Maestro

*Oppenheimer – my pick

*Poor Things

*Anatomy of a Fall

*The Holdovers

Killers of the Flower Moon

*Oppenheimer – my marginal favorite

*Poor Things

*Golda

*Maestro

*Oppenheimer

*Poor Things – very surreal, so sure

Society of the Snow

The Creator

*Maestro

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One

*Oppenheimer

*The Zone of Interest – in a competition between an atomic bomb and the steady drone of the Holocaust, the latter

The Creator

Godzilla Minus One

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One

Napoleon

*American Fiction

*Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny 

Killers of the Flower Moon

*Oppenheimer

*Poor Things -yes

The Fire Inside (Flamin’ Hot)

*I’m Just Ken (Barbie) -yes

It Never Went Away (American Symphony)

Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People) (Killers of the Flower Moon)

*What Was I Made For? (Barbie)

Bobi Wine: The People’s President

The Eternal Memory

Four Daughters

To Kill a Tiger

20 Days in Mariupol

*The Teachers’ Lounge, Germany

Io Capitano, Italy

Perfect Days, Japan

Society of the Snow, Spain

*The Zone of Interest, United Kingdom. For sure

I’ll note the shorts separately after I see some today.

Too much clutter

in many varieties

Like any good American, I have too much clutter. My mother often said, “A place for everything and everything in its place,” but I have not mastered that skill.

My office has piles of stuff that need to be weeded methodically. Not long ago, I had a stack of paid medical bills for which I could get reimbursed if only I did the tedious task of filling out the paperwork. Now, it’s a haze of chaos that needs to be reordered.

The second-floor landing at our house has become a repository for everything that eventually needs to go somewhere else, to the office (but where?), our bedroom (ditto), or the attic. Meanwhile, the cats jump onto the pile and knock over loose items that end up on the floor.

Our sofa is a sectional, so naturally, more items that one could think would be humanly possible reside there.

When I’m on the laptop, I have so many tabs open that I don’t always remember what I’m working on when I’m interrupted by a phone call or something more pressing.

e-pollution

But the greatest clutter might be my email. A lot of it is things I purportedly will take some action on, though they become so numerous that I occasionally fail to do so promptly.

In the middle of the month, I spent over an hour deleting items I didn’t want anymore. Some are receipts I wanted until I received the item. I might use some news feed articles for the blog, but I decided against them. Vendors who I used one time keep trying to sell me stuff.

But by far, the bulk are solicitations from political campaigns seeking my contributions. I did not ask for the vast majority of them; my information was passed on from someone else’s political action committee. Even though I unsubscribe regularly, the spambots are more efficient than I am. 

You’d think that being retired would make this easier to deal with. You would be wrong.

Movie review- Bob Marley: One Love

Landmark

Let it be known that the last movie my wife and I saw at the Spectrum 8 Theatre under its agreement with Landmark Theaters was Bob Marley: One Love on Thursday, February 22, at 4 pm. The theater was crowded, including a woman with five children in our row.

I had heard a lot about the making of the film. Kingsley Ben-Adir was on CBS Mornings; the show and the movie are under the Paramount Global umbrella. The six-foot British actor explained his surprise to be cast to play the musician who was six inches shorter. He had to learn how to play guitar, but most importantly, approximate the patois of the Jamaican legend.

Unfortunately, the movie was a largely by-the-numbers biopic. The review at RogerEbert.com is a fair representation. For instance, the script is described as “a horrendous, unshaped stream of events rendered with the subtlety of bullet points.”

Less of an issue was that I couldn’t understand the dialogue occasionally. It could have used subtitles in places.
Family ties
One hoped for more. Bob’s son Ziggy promised us at the beginning of the film an “authentic depiction.” Bob’s widow, Rita, is an executive producer. Another of Bob’s sons, Stephen, was involved musically.

And yet…

The music resonated more than any recent film I’ve attended. Many of the tunes I knew. I particularly loved hearing War and the early hit Simmer Down. Also, if you were unfamiliar with Bob Marley, this would be a basic primer.

This may explain why the Rotten Tomatoes score was 43% positive with the critics but 92% positive with fans.  As critic Neal Pollack noted: “This movie isn’t great, but it’s just enough. When you have a built-in audience willing to forgive a multitude of cinematic sins, every little thing about it is gonna be all right.”
For the record
My wife gave me a $100 Landmark gift card for Valentine’s Day. But she bought me TWO, one of which she was going to give me for my birthday in March.

There are a relatively small number of Landmark Theatres; AZ-1, CA-9, CO-4, DC-2, FL-1, GA-1, IL-2, IN-2, MD-2, MA-1, MN-1, MO-1, NJ -1, PA-1, TX-1, WA-1.. Spectrum 8 was the ONLY one in all of New York State. We will unlikely see a film in Cambridge, MA, or Philadelphia.

The films playing at the Spectrum 8 on its last day of being a Landmark Theatre were:

2024 Oscar Nominated Short Films – Animation, one showing. I saw it at the theater.
2024 Oscar Nominated Short Films – Live-action, one showing. I probably would have seen it, given more time.
Bob Marley: One Love, Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green. Two showings. I saw it at the theater.
Madame Web, Directed by S.J. Clarkson. Two showings. As this article suggests, audiences, including me, suffer from superhero fatigue.
Lisa Frankenstein, Directed by Zelda Williams. Two showings. I saw the trailer; I’m not interested.
Argylle, Directed by Matthew Vaughn. Two showings. I saw the trailer; I’m not interested.
The Teachers’ Lounge, Directed by İlker Çatak. One showing. I saw it at the theater.
American Fiction, Directed by Cord Jefferson. Two showings. I saw it at the theater.
The Zone Of Interest, Directed by Jonathan Glazer. Two showings. I saw it at the theater.
Origin, Directed by Ava DuVernay. One showing. I probably would have seen it, given more time.
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