Arts & Culture

Bobby

Bobby is an ensemble film about the disparate characters at the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel during the events leading up to Robert Kennedy's assassination there in June, 1968. Directed by actor Emilio Estevez, the film portrays various racial and class conflicts among the characters. They include a retired doorman, a soldier to be and his fiancée, an aging alcoholic singer and her miserable musician husband, two campaign workers who drop acid with a hippie, a Czech reporter who tries to get an interview with Kennedy, only to be rebuffed by a campaign official, to name a few characters.

It’s been a big week for the atmosphere. Monday, the Supreme Court ruled five to four (Hang on, Justice Stevens!) that the Clean Air Act does allow the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant. Just because the EPA can regulate CO2 doesn’t mean it will, at least not under the current administration, but we can all hope 2009 is not too late to pull the planet back from the brink of destruction.

In another Monday ruling – this one unanimous – the court ruled that existing power plants that have been rehabbed or expanded must meet the same (stricter) standards as new power plants. Just to clear up any confusion, this case has been kicking around since 1998, when the Clinton administration tried to hold utilities to the higher standard. It’s unlikely the case would have been generated under the current boss.

Hollywood has recently released a popular film that, once again, reveals much about the film industry. While Hollywood is not monolithic institution – the same entity is capable of producing some noteworthy works from time to time – it is still composed of conglomerates occupied by a large number of artistically ignorant executives, careerist filmmakers and actors concerned only with profit and careers. Typically, the "blockbuster" film brings out the worst of the film establishment. These movies often operate on a visceral level and whether the creators do so consciously or not, endorse the status quo by upholding the establishment's outlook on society. The film reviewed here is an example of this.

Parts missing,follow the signs.
Chickens,turkeys and game hens
marinating in cheap wines.
Shake and bake or barbeque
let the party begin,
no talk of war,
more vodka more gin.

A man kills his wife
and chops her to pieces,
not equated with war,lies
or humanity breaches.
The religious right
clucks their tongues and snort,
no excuse for parts missing,
for coming up short.

Shop 'til you drop
a presidential order.
There's chaos and killing
don't look over your shoulder.
Hide the flag draped caskets,
concentrate on filling up shopping baskets.

Support the troops
'til death do we part.
Parts missing replaced
by a cold Purple Heart.
Give them stitches,titanium and gold.
Put them in moldy,rat infested barracks until their story is told.

Vet, soldier,brave marine
brought to lasting peace under cemetery green. Parts missing implied by
the limp,black plastic bag.
Hands outstretched to receive
a folded American Flag.

The Lives of Others (Der Leben der Anderen) is an account of East Berlin artists under surveillance by the Stasi, the German Democratic Republic's feared secret police, during the GDR's last years. The film brings to light the systematic destruction of cultural creativity under authoritarian communism, in this case, East Germany. After the fall of Nazism in the 1940s, Germany became an occupied country - the capitalist U.S., U.K., and France to the west (including West Berlin) and Stalinist U.S.S.R. to the east (as well as East Berlin). The GDR, modeled after the Soviet Union's totalitarian, bureaucratic regime, proved to be no better than the Nazis. It is the East German setting where the fight for artistic freedom against Stalinism takes place.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan has been hailed by many critics and viewers as brilliant satire. The mockumentary stars British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and is based on Cohen's television character. The premise has Borat, a Kazakh reporter, traveling to America to make a documentary about the American way of life. Along the way, Borat, an anti-Semite, misogynist, and homophobe, meets various characters ranging from veteran feminists to a jingoistic rodeo producer. He becomes enamored with Pamela Anderson and vows to marry her.

Right-wing thugs run amok; the minister of propaganda is a master of his craft; enemies of the state are intimidated, arrested, and tortured in secret prisons; basic civil liberties are suspended; the government's spying apparatus is everywhere; and a not-very-bright war criminal is running the country. So much for the United States today. Last night I went to see Cabaret.

Shadowbox's "Cabaret" is not your usual Easton fare. It is a musical, well sung and danced, but we all know the unhappy ending. What makes the stage version of Cabaret so provocative are the original Nazi newsreels playing in between acts. We see a desperate, unqualified extremist clawing his way to power after losing a contested election. After assuming power, we witness the new nationalist leader taking advantage of the tragedy of the Reichstag fire to suspend the German constitution. Within a month, the first concentration camp is opened, with prisoners forced into slave labor as the government spin doctors tell the public that 'work makes freedom.'

Dr. James H. Fetzer, Ph.D. spoke before an audience of about 80 at the main auditorium of the Columbus Metropolitan Library downtown on the afternoon of Saturday February 17, 2007. His presentation was directed at “exposing falsehoods and revealing truths” about the events of September 11, 2001 (911). Fetzer, a professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota in Deluth has a long list of credentials and professional accomplishments. These include the authorship of numerous academic publications in his field of expertise the Philosophy of Science.

Fetzer is more recently renowned as a writer of popular works on assassination and conspiracy. He has authored two books on the assassination of JFK, The Zapruder Hoax, and Murder in Dealey Plaza, and co-authored one book on the purported assassination of the popular senator from Minnesota, Paul Wellstone, American Assassination: The Strange Death Of Senator Paul Wellstone. His book on 911, The 9/11 Conspiracy is scheduled for release at the end of March.

Review of Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Southern Theater
Columbus, Ohio

If music be magic, the hypnotizing harmonies of Ladysmith Black Mambazo manage to go even a step beyond.

Performing before a packed house of devoted fans who braved last night's deep snows, these eight magnificent South African men warmed a lot of hearts. Led by Joseph Shabalala, who founded the group 46 years ago (but who looks way too young for that), the deep, exquisitely soft acapello tones filled the theater with a sound that is hauntingly spiritual and entrancing.

The End Of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
by Sam Harris
W.W. Norton and Company, 2004. 237 pages.
Available for $11.00 (21% off the list price) online from www.burnedbookspublishing.com.

Sam Harris’ book The End Of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason takes an unflinching look at faith and comes to the following conclusion: “The idea that any one of our religions represents the infallible word of the One True God requires an encyclopedic ignorance of history, mythology, and art even to be entertained…” This conclusion, drawn on page 16, leaves Harris with the next 221 pages to burn his point into the readers mind. In these early pages Harris wonders why it is considered impolite to question a person’s faith but it is acceptable to question a persons understanding of math, physics, or biology. Harris decides to abandon politeness.