Anthony Minghella

These many years later, The English Patient is getting a bad rap from people. "Faintly silly" in the Atlantic I notice. Dudes, it's still a good movie, don't go trashing it because it won Best Picture and because it's ... you know, sappy.

Anyway, Minghella is a very good director, and as the Atlantic piece goes on to say, his best film is The Talented Mr. Ripley. I would absolutely agree. There is a scene part way through this film that has got to be one of the most violent acts I've seen on film, and it's not because it's that bad visually, it's because of the emotional coil that unwinds with it. It's disturbing, scary, and it draws you in to root for Ripley a bit. Matt Damon is awesome, Jude Law is awesome, Phillip Seymour Hoffman (in a small role) is awesome. And Gweneth Paltrow is pretty awesome too. Here's Ebert's 4 star review of the film.

Minghella is also the director of the upcoming "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency," which I believe he finished before he died. It will be interesting to see how it turned out. The author, McCall Smith, will be in Tacoma next month. I'll be interested to hear what he says about it as well.

"What do you think you're doing, Dave?"

Arthur C. Clarke died today at the age of 90. I have not actually read anything other than the 4 books of the 2001 series, and I would recommend 2001, 2010, and 3001 to anyone who might like a little sci-fi in their literary diet. 2061 had some good parts and some not-so-good parts.

He wrote some good things. Here's the obit at the New York Times.

Madeleine L'Engle 1918 - 2007

Children's lit author Madeleine L'Engle died yesterday.

Like many a child reader, I loved Madeleine L'Engle's books. "A Wrinkle in Time" was thrilling and exciting and by the time I got to "A Swiftly Tilting Planet" it felt like I was reading a more grown up book. These were wonderful books as a kid.

David Minikel, 1941 - 2007

David Minikel, a local civil lawyer and civil rights activist, died over the weekend.

I first met David in 2004 when he sat on the hiring committee of the Grand and brought me aboard. We worked pretty closely together during my first year at the Grand when he was Treasurer of the Board.

David seemed to be working all the time, going from his work to the Grand to a legal fight against the City. He was very passionate, whether he was talking about open government or film (a favorite topic, as you might expect, at the Grand).

So long, David.

A quick word on Boris

Boris Yeltsin died today.

He is most often remembered now as a drunk by Americans and an awful President by Russians. But on today at least it's worth remember that during the 1991 Soviet coup, Yeltsin stood on top of a tank outside the Russian parliament and railed against the "junta" that had seized power. That coup led to the end of the Soviet Union and a Russian flag was finally flown over the Kremlin (I was fortunate enough to be in Russia for the 10th anniversary of the coup).

It is hard to dismiss how important Yeltsin was during the three day coup. The courage he showed standing on the tank, how he lambasted Gorbachev in Parliament immediately after. For three days he was the right man in the right place at the right time. August 1991 is the way to remember Yeltsin today.

For Kurt Vonnegut

Vonnegut was an odd, odd writer. He seems to have gone off the proverbial deep end along with Harold Pinter in his old age. If you don't believe me, check out his interview with Rolling Stone last year.

I haven't read everything he's written, but I've read a lot of good stuff. "Slaughterhouse Five" and poor Billy Pilgrim ... "Cat's Cradle" and a new kind of Ice (Ice 9, of course) ... and his really wonderful collection of short stories, "Welcome to the Monkey House."

I have fond memories of this book. When sailing on the SSV Westward in the Caribbean during college, my friends and I read short stories to each other on the roof of the lab late at night and under the stars. "Welcome to the Monkey House" was one of our favorite books for this.

I wasn't such a fan of some of the others, especially his more recent "Timequake". Until the last page, that is. I love the last page.

So long, KV. You wrote some good stuff.

Old Theaters Don't Die ...

... they just fade to black.

I hope there are still enough embers buring that a new TAG--likely called something else--can rise up in the new few years, as it sounds like after "Proof" TAG had to shutter its doors yesterday. It's a very sad end for a theater and an old Tacoma institution.

We'll probably hear more this week. Until then ... Goodnight, sweet Prince. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

1,000 Days Author Dies

I didn't mention this before, but Arthur Schlesinger died last week. I only have read one of his books: A Thousand Days, about the Kennedy White House.

I rather like his profile in the NYT that was published today. Here's a fun quote to ponder.

Mr. Schlesinger was plainly confident that [Robert] Kennedy stood up to such large terms, and his narrative clinches that claim. It is hard to imagine our more recent leaders being discussed in such lofty terms.

Might they be unworthy? Well, the Kennedys may have been, too, if we measure them by the standards now applied to political figures. The point is not that our leaders have shrunk, but that, in some sense, our historians have.

And it concludes:

If our own anxious age is to attain similar heights our historians must help lead the way.

I know several history majors who will rather like that quote.

Also ...

The picture on Andrew Sullivan's blog pretty well sums it up, I'd say.

I'd also like to point out that the NYT refers to Anna's life as "hardscrabble." This is, of course, what they called Tacoma last June (here's my post on it). I'd say the description is far more apt for her.

On Anna

What else to say, but this: what a sad, hard life.

Her wikipedia page has some more information, but I want to pull out the basics from that page.

Pregnant at 16. Separated at 17. Waitress at Jim's Krispy Fried Chicken, Red Lobster, and also a Wal-Mart employee. Finally turns to exotic dancing.

At 25, she's on the cover of Playboy, because of her loose resemblance to Marilyn Monroe and extremely large breasts. She becomes Playmate of the Year the next year.

The year after that she marries a former customer and fan when she was an exotic dancer, an oil billionaire, 63 years older than her. He dies the next year.

She spends the next few years self-financing awful movies and fighting in court with the oil billionaire's son (who is older than her) about the money.

After winning her Supreme Court case last year, it was pretty much a downhill slide. The paternity of her daughter was in question and a judge ordered a paternity test to establish who the father is. Just days after the birth of her daughter, her son died in the hospital room from a drug overdose.

And now she goes, at 39, for causes still unknown.

I'm not sure why I wanted to write all that out. I haven't posted something about a star's passing on this blog since Robert Altman, and plenty have passed since then. Certainly her young age has something to do with it. But at the same time I never liked her; I thought she was a golddigger; I never got the appeal of her as a sex symbol ...

But after reading the news on the NYT earlier and then finding her wikipedia page made me feel just plain sad. Viewed at the end, you can see a life of struggle, ridicule, probably not a little shame, bankruptcy, drug addition, litigation, litigation, litigation, and a lot tragedy.

It's just plain sad.

Milton Friedman

The man was a strict conservative economist with market freedom as one of his biggest priorities. I'm usually a pretty darn liberal thinker. But Milton Friedman was frequently very very convincing. I read some of his non-academic stuff in classes before and thought the man was brilliant. Here's Steven Levitt on the news on his Freakonomics blog.