HERE'S A WELL MADE POINT

I'd have had a few different things on the list and wouldn't have ended the same way, but this makes the point very well (and thanks to my old friend Tom Wilson for hipping me to it):

(click on it to make it bigger)

PETE POSTLETHWAITE R.I.P.

A terrific actor I wish I'd had to opportunity to work with.

He was perfect in every role he played that I saw, but my favorite is the father of Daniel Day Lewis's character in IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER (and most recently the evil crime boss in THE TOWN).

He was only 64, a shame. Our condolences to all his family and friends and fans.

Here's two more images, one very early and one more recent (playing "Lear" I believe) that show the power of his mere physical presence (and he was pretty diminutive, but still held the screen with a power greater than most, if not all).

THIS ABOUT SUMS IT UP

Today's NY Times column by Bob Herbert.

THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Hard to deny this is a terrifically made movie. Aaron Sorkin's ability to write vibrant dialogue (as we all learned during his days writing The West Wing) has not diminished, as evidenced in the opening scene of this movie, which is like a very short one-act play with two characters, Jesse Eisenberg playing Mark Zuckerberg and Rooney Mara playing Erica Albright.

It had me smiling with satisfaction and anticipation, knowing I was in for some great film making. But it also immediately raised one of the two major caveats I have about this film. That it's an excellently made movie, both in the writing and direction—which includes the acting, especially the leads, like an already much noted tour de force turn by Justin Timberlake as Sean Paker—is a given, but that it represents the true story of Facebook founder Zuckerberg's personality and life during the period covered, is not so solid.

As others have noted elsewhere, Zuckerberg went to an elite prep school where he not only was into computer technology and programming, but was a classics scholar as well, reading Greek and Latin, as well as captain of the fencing team.

From what I've read, he not only had a wide circle of friends and interests, he also during the time the movie covers, had a very attractive and accomplished steady girlfriend (who happens to be Asian-American and who he now lives with as she finishes her medical studies), and had no burning desire to be in an exclusive Harvard club or hang around with or get revenge on the wealthy WASP "legacy" students (children of alumni etc.).

And yet THE SOCIAL NETWORK not only portrays him as a monotone figure who's total focus on Facebook is a result of these drives—to avenge not being among the elect and to impress girls who he otherwise is portrayed as too nerdily socially dyslexic to have any success with.

Oddly, the only sexual contact/conquest the movie depicts of Zuckerberg's is a spontaneous encounter with an attractive Asian-American student who is portrayed as a groupie/fan of his Facebook creation and treated like a groupie by him in the movie, used and discarded.

Which brings me to the other caveat I have about this flick, if I were an Asian-American woman I'd be pretty offended by the way Asian-American coeds are treated as single-mindedly in pursuit of Jewish-American nerds with successful computer skills that make them look like future big-money-makers.

Brenda Song has the thankless role of the most extreme version of this, as Zuckerberg's original partner, Eduardo Saverin's, (more like financier, played by Andrew Garfield) witch of a girlfriend. I recognized Song from a Disney kid show my youngest used to watch incessantly, and whether it was that or just the way the role was written, I found her acting the weakest in a movie with almost no weak links in the cast (one of my favorite roles was of Zuckerberg's lawyer "Sy" played by my old friend John Getz, a seasoned actor you have probably seen in numerous roles on TV and in film, but he first made his mark as the lead in BLOOD SIMPLE).

So, THE SOCIAL NETWORK is a really terrific movie, like I said, but it is a bad rendition of a real person's life and motivation. My take on Zuckerberg is that like many artists and other creators he's motivated not by some obvious and easily dramatized personal agenda like getting back at the girl who rejected him or getting even with the WASPs who act superior to him, but by doing something that excites his interest and challenges his intellect and skills and that often turns out to be original, or innovative and has an impact on those who encounter it, no matter how many or few.

But as we well know by the dearth of films that actually convey that kind of motivation and process, it is very hard to make work as drama, without either making things up or focusing on extraneous but more dramatic stuff like addiction, alcoholism, sexual or romantic betrayal etc. In fact, I can't think of any film offhand that truly captures the spirit as well as the reality of how most creators I've known do what they do and what inspires them to do it.

So, if you haven't seen this movie, it's well worth watching, just take the characterization of Zuckerberg and his moment of inspiration, and the process that that led to with a grain of salt, as they say (though I haven't any idea why they say it). And maybe write a letter to Sorkin and David Fincher (the director) pointing out how biased the film is toward young Asian-American women.

JUST A THOUGHT

Back in Jersey, where the mercury climbed well above normal for winter, and it rained, like a Spring rain, this weekend.

Fortunately, because we already had three feet of snow on the ground at my place, it's now only down to one foot or so. So it still looked like winter on our arrival back, but didn't feel like it.

I wonder why the rightwingers who go on and on about how the winter weather we had last week with the big snowstorm here somehow proves that there is no such thing as global warming with their sarcasm and smugness, somehow thinking that winter weather in winter disproves the reality of temperatures descending every year so far in this century (the yearly average of course, though they seem incapable of that kind of abstract thinking, like, duh, it's cold in winter global warming must not exist) but the minute—or day or days or weeks or more—the thermometer rises to above the average for the season, sometimes way way above, they clam up, no word, change the subject, etc.

Just a thought.

CHECK THIS OUT

This singer/songwriter/dancer has been getting some attention as one of the bright spots of 2010, but I wasn't aware of her until the drummer in Bell Engine sent my older son Miles this video and he hipped me to it.

There's other stuff of hers out there with even more amazing dance moves, but something about the limitations of a late night TV show (on which she's making her television premier) makes this video even more special to me.

Watching this young woman in 2010 channel James Brown, among other great musical artists, is a total delight (but you have to watch it all the way through to get that). Check it out:

1/1/11

Just had to write that.

Hope your New Year's Eve was as wonderful as mine. I'm up in the Berkshires with my youngest and spent last night at an old and dear friend's with other old and dear friends and a few new ones. (Got to bed at 4AM, later than I have in quite a while.)

Nothing like stimulating conversation and good goof (that's one of those typos I'm constantly making still, poet (there's another, I mean "post") brain op, but this one I had to leave, what I meant to write was "good food"). And it wasn't my only option.

Bell Engine, the band my older son is in was playing a private party in another town up here last night and my daughter-in-law and grandson and my youngest all went to that party where there were also lots of people I know and would have loved to have seen. And that party had a lot more dancing (though the hostess at the dinner party I went to, my dear old friend, was doing some boogieing that I had to join in on).

I think for my money, good conversation is still one of the top three pleasures that involve other people, and sometimes it can be the most fulfilling. My mother used to say whatever you're doing New Year's Eve you'll be doing all year long. Which is great, because I was enjoying good company, conversation and food that filled me with joy and satisfaction. Makes me look forward to 2011.

(Starting with tomorrow, before we head back to Jersey, when we'll get together with my daughter and son-in-law and granddaughter at their place for lunch and a late exchange of Christmas presents, as the holidays continue for us.)