Filed under: Films
I strongly dislike animated films. However, tonight I finished ‘Ratatouille’ and haven’t been this impressed since Beauty and the Beast. I was first hooked on the original score – stunning and unexpected in an animated film. Secondly, the all around good feeling the movie leaves you with is something I have never felt after an animated movie. A great story about the endless possibilities life has to offer, no matter who you are. This is much more than a kids movie and a well deserved Oscar win.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ratatouille/
Runtime: 1 hr 51 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release: Jun 29, 2007 Wide
Box Office: $206,435,493
Synopsis: With astounding animation, inspirational messages, and endearing characters, Pixar Animation Studios (THE INCREDIBLES, CARS) and Walt Disney Pictures have whipped up something special with RATATOUILLE. A rat named Remy (Patton Oswalt) lives in Paris with a dream (and the talent) to be a chef. Opting to raid the kitchens of Paris rather than the garbage cans and sewers of the city with his family, Remy is inspired by the philosophy of one of the city’s most legendary chefs, the late Gusteau (Brad Garrett). One night, Remy can’t resist practicing his skill in Gusteau’s restaurant. While his guard is down, Remy is discovered by a klutzy young man, Linguini (Lou Romano), who cleans the kitchen. Together Remi and Linguini become a culinary duo, with Remy playing puppeteer by concealing himself under Linguini’s chef’s hat. Remy pulls Linguini’s hair to direct his hands, helping to bring Remy’s creations to life. Soon Gusteau’s restaurant becomes the talk of the town–but would it still be the toast of Paris if everyone knew a rat was running the show? The positioning of a city-dwelling rodent with a distinct palate and the aptitude to concoct mouthwatering dishes in one of Paris’s finest eateries is the winning ingredient in RATATOUILLE’s inspirational presentation. And Remy’s brave conviction to break away from the pack and risk his life for what he loves and believes in gives the film a positive and heartwarming message for all ages. [Less]
Filed under: Current Events
40th General Election
OCTOBER 14, 2008
Vote.
Filed under: Films
Renaissance Man: Ricky Gervais
Before we walk into the galleries of the Getty Museum, Ricky Gervais feels the need to lean against a railing overlooking the hills of Los Angeles and quote Keats’ When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be. At length. “I know what he means now,” he says. “You hit an age and you realize, What is your legacy? And you don’t want to waste your time on things that you’re not proud of.” Dude, I’m thinking, let’s go make fun of paintings! But I can’t stop him. I’m not asking questions, yet he starts telling me about the existential quality of his work. And about how money isn’t important to him. This is not cool.
Luckily, it lasts only 10 minutes, and then we’re inside, and Gervais proves to be the best person in the world to go to a museum with. He has a shocking knowledge of art history, gets swoony over tiny details and moves at a reasonable pace, which is to say very quickly. And yes, he makes fun of paintings. The one where the Virgin Mary has her fingers outstretched? “She’s talking ’bout the bloke she met last night,” he says. He barely looks at a depiction of plump martyr St. Andrew as we pass. “That cross,” Gervais says, “would never hold the weight.” It is the first time I have spent two hours in a museum and wanted to stay longer.
Sure of His Awesomeness
Still, I can’t shake those first 10 minutes. The guy couldn’t be nicer or humbler or easier to talk to, everything I hoped for as a fan. But how could the actor and writer who–first in The Office, then in Extras–mastered the cringe comedy of unaware arrogance have earnestly quoted Keats at me? This is a man who starts his latest stand-up comedy tour, to be aired on hbo on Nov. 15, by walking out in a cape and crown as giant letters spelling out his first name explode in the background. Could it be that Gervais takes the piss out of arrogance because there’s so much of it in him? Because when you watch–and you must–the video of More to Lose, the early ’80s single from his very serious pop band Seona Dancing, in which Gervais stares moodily into the camera, his hair flapping like a flock of seagulls, you realize this is not a man unsure of his awesomeness.
That self-assurance is why he’s been turning down movie roles ever since the second episode of The Office. He had no interest in starring in a film he didn’t have complete creative control over. His new movie, Ghost Town–a small, hilarious romantic comedy about a dyspeptic dentist besieged by the dead to help them complete their unfinished business–opens Sept. 19 and marks the first time Gervais has taken a major role in a movie he didn’t write and direct. “I was being a baby. I didn’t like being away from home. I don’t like not being in charge,” he says. “I think I grew up a little bit.”
Even so, being in charge retains its appeal. Gervais did Ghost Town in part to help prepare for shooting This Side of the Truth, an $18 million film due out next year, co-starring Jennifer Garner, about a world in which he’s the first person to lie. He financed it without a studio so he’d have control. And he’s working on a movie with his writing partner on The Office and Extras, Stephen Merchant, called The Man from the Pru, about a group of twentysomething friends in 1970s England trying to escape from their poor, small town. It’s what Gervais did, leaving Reading, England, to go to college and then play in a rock band, eventually getting a job at a radio station when he was 36.
Pushing the Discomfort Zone
Now he and his girlfriend, whom he met in college, live in London and have bought a second home on Manhattan’s Upper East Side because it’s close to the museums. At 47, he still has the impishness of someone who unexpectedly made it. When he spots a sign pointing upstairs to paintings, the L.A.-ness of it cracks him up. “Paintings! That’s great. They have to be very specific. Like ‘Things Made of Clay.’ It’s a bit like This Side of the Truth, where there’s a sign that says CHEAP MOTEL FOR SEX WITH A NEAR STRANGER.” On the Ghost Town set, he’d do 15 takes of a scene, trying out different runs; here he flits among the artworks, making great jokes, most of which I have to promise not to print since they’re about religious paintings and he’s an atheist who likes to offend without hurting box-office receipts. “It’s more amazing to me that a man walked around and said that stuff,” he says, looking at a painting of Jesus Christ. “There’s nothing more amazing than human kindness. You don’t have to say later, ‘Oh, probably half-God.’”
That boyish awe, which even his most detestable characters possess, comes out increasingly as earnestness, from the tear-jerking Extras finale to the touching moments in Ghost Town. In his stand-up, he starts with fat jokes, moves on to aids and then, when you’re expecting rape for the comedy trifecta, spends an hour deconstructing fairy tales. “For a cynic and a misanthrope and the generally unpleasant persona that he projects, he’s actually very sentimental,” says David Koepp, who co-wrote and directed Ghost Town. “Which is usually the case with comics, but they’re not always good at channeling it.”
Gervais spends 10 minutes in front of a portrait, wondering what the royal guy is pointing at. He considers asking the guard but worries the guard won’t know and will be embarrassed, and then worries he’s being a snob by assuming that the guard won’t know. In the end, he decides it’s best not to risk it. Gervais, whose comedy is all about pushing discomfort, is not fond of it in his life. “I’d love to take Ricky camping,” says his Ghost Town co-star Téa Leoni. “It would be the most entertaining four days of my life. I think it would be the first time he’d have lit a fire or been out in the wild.”
Gervais already has deep thoughts about the wild. As we exit the galleries, he finally notices the view I was trying to show him by the railings. He stops and is quiet. Then he says, “Nature wins, doesn’t it? You can’t really compete with a few hundred million years of evolution.” As we contemplate our mortality, I feel bad for judging him for quoting Keats; he has earned the right to ponder without having to amuse me. But then he adds, “Except spiders. Lose them. Nothing needs eight f______ legs.”
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1840580,00.html
Filed under: Life
It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated.
Alec Bourne
Normally the first day back to class doesn’t stress me out but that was when I went to a normal and civilized university. Two out of my three classes today were in rooms too small for the number of students in attendance. All my classes are back to back and I have to walk across campus for both of these classes therefore it will be very unlikely that I arrive early for either. Which would normally not matter but now that I have to compete for desks it really adds to the irritation that is building up inside me.
1. Who is in charge of coordinating classrooms? Do they not count the number of desks and compare that to the class size?
2. People who are ’shopping’ for classes should be forced to sit on the floor at the front of the room and under the chalkboard so that paying customers can view the board and write on a solid surface.
It is possibly to store a windowless cell with dozens of students and still leave not one of us educated. I will be too busy straining my neck and bumping elbows to even see more than half the letters and numbers being written on the board.
Filed under: Current Events
By David Ljunggren
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN0132620920080902?sp=true
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will as expected this week ask for a dissolution of Parliament and call an election for October 14, the Canadian Press quoted senior government sources as saying late on Monday.
Hours earlier, Harper failed to persuade the country’s main opposition leader to keep his minority Conservative government alive.
Harper aides have already pointed to October 14 as a likely date for what would be Canada’s third election in four years.
A spokeswoman for Harper declined to comment on the Canadian Press report, while the prime minister’s chief spokesman did not respond to phone and e-mail questions.
The breakdown of the talks between Harper and Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion was not a surprise.
Harper, who won power in January 2006, has made it clear over the past few weeks he thinks an election is the only way to fix what he sees as a dysfunctional Parliament.
Before an election can be called, Governor General Michaelle Jean, who represents Canada’s head of state, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, must agree to a formal request from Harper to dissolve Parliament. Her approval is considered a formality.
Harper and Dion blamed each other after an unproductive 20-minute meeting at Harper’s official residence, with both sides insisting the other wanted an election.
Chief Harper spokesman Kory Teneycke said Harper would “have to deliberate over the next few days and make a decision in due course” on an election call.
Opinion polls show the most likely result of an election now would be another minority Conservative government.
Teneycke said Dion had rejected a request from Harper to keep him in power until October 2009, which under fixed date legislation is the scheduled time of the next election.
“We are simply looking for broad areas of agreement … there were no areas identified by the opposition leader where he had any common ground,” Teneycke told reporters.
“The opposition obviously want an election,” he said. “If they wanted to avoid an election, they would identify areas of common ground where the government could move forward. And without exception, none of them have been able to (do so).”
CARBON TAX PROPOSAL
Dion’s main plank in the election campaign will be what he says is a revenue-neutral carbon tax designed to cut emissions of greenhouse gases.
Harper says the tax would be a disaster at a time when the economy is suffering from the U.S. slowdown, and points to muttering inside Liberal ranks about the wisdom of the move.
Dion said he had pressed the prime minister to explain why he was breaking the spirit of the fixed date legislation.
“The reason he mentioned — that Parliament is not working — is only a charade, it’s a fake,” he said. “He’s doing it … because he doesn’t want Canadians to have too much time to see how ill-prepared he is to face the economy.”
Asked if there was going to be an election, Dion replied: “Oh yes. We all know that … he had decided that anyway.”
Harper says the fixed date legislation — which he himself introduced — was never supposed to apply to minority governments, a stance that has prompted widespread criticism.
Harper took over from former Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, who won a minority government in a June 2004 election.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Dysfunctional Family
Filed under: Current Events
We are happy the the damage was less than anticipated? Right? Debbie Downer reports:
Canadian oil stocks tumble in aftermath of Gustav
By Jeffrey Jones
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Canadian energy stocks, including heavyweights Suncor Energy Inc and Imperial Oil Ltd, tumbled with oil and gas prices on Tuesday after initial assessments showed Hurricane Gustav spared major U.S. Gulf production facilities.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s oil and gas group, which includes integrated oil companies, independent producers and oil field service providers, sank 26.05 points, or 6.5 percent, to 375.20.
It was the major factor in a more than 3 percent retreat by the broad S&P/TSX composite index.
The drop came as oil fell 5 percent to $109.71 a barrel, and natural gas futures skidded 8.6 percent to $7.261 per million British thermal units.
Canadian spot natural gas in Alberta sank to an eight-month low, averaging C$6.13 per gigajoule.
Oil could get stuck in the current range, assuming minimal storm damage to Gulf facilities and slack demand for crude amid the weak U.S. economy. Working against that could be a cut in production from OPEC, which meets next week, FirstEnergy Capital Corp analyst Martin King said.
But natural gas prices may be in for a further slide, with inventories climbing quickly after moderate North American weather in the second half of August.
“There’s no OPEC to fall back on for this one,” King said.
“It’s tough to find any bullish factors for gas right now.”
Oil and gas producers said remote sensors indicated major platforms in the Gulf of Mexico did not move from where they were moored before the storm roared through. The U.S. Coast Guard said it saw no signs of major damage during post-hurricane flyovers.
However, Royal Dutch Shell, the region’s largest producer, said it could take three to five days before it restores output.
Full resumption of output in the region — where 25 percent of U.S. oil and 15 percent of the country’s natural gas is produced — could take a couple of weeks, according to U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.
The industry shut down all the region’s daily production of 1.3 million barrels of oil and 7.06 billion cubic feet of gas before the storm.
Among the big Canadian energy names losing ground on Tuesday, Suncor fell nearly 10 percent C$54.91, Imperial dropped more than 8 percent to C$50.05 and Nexen Inc, which has U.S. Gulf operations, sank 8 percent to C$30.68.
Nexen spokesman Michael Harris said the company, Canada’s No. 4 independent oil explorer, did not know yet whether any of its Gulf of Mexico facilities suffered any damage.
Filed under: Current Events
I didn’t even know MTV covered ‘real’ news.
A day after the announcement that Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter is five months pregnant, everyone from Lindsay Lohan to evangelicals to residents of the Palin’s hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, have been weighing in with opinions. It’s the most talked-about teen pregnancy since Jamie Lynn Spears’ bombshell of last December.
And while teen pregnancy is on the rise in the U.S. for the first time in 14 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, many are wondering just what kind of message Bristol Palin’s news and the reactions to it are sending.
While it’s impossible to know what it’s like to be 17, pregnant, the daughter of a presumptive vice-presidential candidate and the talk of the nation — Bristol has not spoken publicly about the matter yet — the issue is especially sensitive given Sarah Palin’s and many Republicans’ endorsement of abstinence-only education and opposition to abortion.
However, in terms of the larger issue, Bristol is hardly alone: According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unwanted Pregnancy, approximately 42 out of every 1,000 girls in America between the ages of 15 and 19 becomes pregnant before they turn 20.
“One of the things that is so fascinating about this situation is, everybody is saying they support her — ‘We are happy she is having a baby’ — but [Bristol] probably came from a family where sex before marriage was not OK,” said Dr. Logan Levkoff, a sexuality educator, advice columnist and author of Third Base Ain’t What it Used to Be.
“There is a tremendous disconnect to say babies are wonderful but sex is bad,” she continued. “We shouldn’t hold this girl up on a pedestal because of the mistake she made and then the decision she made afterwards. Whether or not she keeps this baby, teen pregnancy isn’t a good thing.”
And while the statement issued by Bristol Palin’s parents did focus on “the difficulties of raising a child” and the fact that Bristol will have to “grow up faster than we had ever planned,” the emphasis from Sarah Palin and the Republican camps is focused positively on her decision to have the child.
Approximately 17 out of every 1,000 Alaskan teenage girls become pregnant before they turn 20, according to the state’s Department of Women’s, Children’s & Family Health. While that percentage is not high, according to MTV’s Alaskan Street Team reporter Dani Carlson, 23, teen pregnancy is not viewed terribly critically in the state.
“Nobody really bats an eyelash,” said Carlson, a longtime Palin follower. “In Alaska we have a very live-and-let-live philosophy. People don’t go around butting into your business or throwing around moralistic judgments.”
Carlson also said Governor Palin’s public reaction to her daughter’s pregnancy is fairly commonplace.
“Her daughter is pregnant and there is nothing she can do about it,” said Carlson. “Fortunately she comes from a large, close family that puts a lot of emphasis on children. She’s very lucky to have parents who are so supportive.”
That aspect of the situation was echoed by Bill Albert, communications director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unwanted Pregnancy.
“I suspect most teen mothers don’t have the support system she has,” he said. “We all wish Bristol well and we are sure she will get a lot support, but the truth is most teen mothers don’t fare very well. Only 40 percent of women who have a child while they are in high school finish high school. Children of teen mothers are much more likely to grow up in poverty. Also, the daughters of teen mothers are much more likely to become teen mothers themselves.”
While many are rallying around Bristol Palin’s stated plans to marry the baby’s father, 18-year old Levi Johnston, teen marriage can be just as tricky an issue as teen pregnancy.
“Getting pregnant and fast-forwarding that component of your life does not mean you will have a stable home life,” Levkoff said. “Just because a relationship is right when you are a junior or senior in high school doesn’t mean it will be right 10 years later. … That doesn’t mean these two can’t be in love, but those feelings evolve.”
“Bristol Palin underscores this fact that teen pregnancy is on the rise and it happens to everyone, even the daughters of vice-presidential candidates,” Albert said.
But despite the attention and discussion the matter has received in the past year, one wonders whether Bristol Palin or Jamie Lynn Spears should be the issue, instead of teen pregnancy itself.
By Michelle Rabinowitz
mtv.com
