People Before Profit blog

Thrills are alive with sound of Audra McDonald

Thu, 31 Oct 2013 13:39:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - During her one night only concert on Oct. 26 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion here awesome Audra McDonald revealed herself as not only possessing a stellar soprano voice, but also a sparkling wit, winning personality and a strong social consciousness and conscience. This was the first time she was back at L.A. Opera since co-starring with Patti LuPone in Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny in 2007.

McDonald's repertoire was, in her words, "a hodgepodge of musical theater...from 1927 to 2011." Accompanied by an on-stage trio, McDonald performed standards by Broadway masters; songs from movie classics; as well as numbers by relative newcomers still carving out a space for themselves in the musical world. In the first category the five-time Tony winner regaled the nearly sold-out throng with spirited renditions of tunes by Irving Berlin, Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner, and Stephen Sondheim.

Other pieces by lesser known, up and coming composers/lyricists displayed a great sense of humor, not only in content but in delivery, too. Gabriel Kahane combined Craigslist classified online ads with the rarefied genre of German art songs for solo voice and piano called Lieder, and the result as rendered by La Audra was a deliciously droll concoction called Craigslistlieder. A witty song called "Baltimore," about a dad warning his daughter to avoid dating certain types of men-including "navel gazing actors"-had us in proverbial stitches, thanks to Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich's lyrics.

McDonald's banter with the audience and pianist/music director Andy Einhorn, bassist Mark Vanderpoel, and percussionist Gene Lewin-she jokingly referred to them as "my white boys"-was likewise lighthearted. Early in the concert she advised ticket buyers who wanted to sing along, "Don't you dare-this is my concert!"

The statuesque two-time Grammy Award winner, clad in a full-length black gown striped with golden bands, also showed she has a romantic sensibility in songs such as Frank Loesser's "Can't Stop Talking About Him." She also has a philosophical side, performing Jule Styne, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green's "Make Someone Happy" from Do Re Mi as a sort of credo McDonald introduced by urging audience members to "love one another." In this more wistful, reflective mood McDonald tickled the ivories herself in honor of her father, a pilot who died a few years ago in a plane crash, accompanying herself as she sang Cabaret co-creators John Kander and Fred Ebb's "Go Back Home" (which is also the name of her first album in seven years, released on the Nonesuch Records label) from The Scottsboro Boys.

McDonald took the time to explain to the audience who the Scottsboro Nine were-African-American youths wrongfully accused of and incarcerated for allegedly raping two white women during the 1930s, one of Depression-era America's greatest cause célèbres. She went on to rather boldly defend same-sex marriage from the stage, declaring, "I am a beneficiary of the Civil Rights movement," and strongly defending equal rights for all, to much applause.

Pronouncing herself to be a fan of Judy Garland, McDonald stated that after Garland's untimely death in 1969, some of her gay fans were holding a party to honor her in Greenwich Village, when the police raided the bar, called the Stonewall. Saying that this "Stonewall Riot" was the start of the gay rights movement, during her encore McDonald serenaded her enraptured listeners with Garland's signature tune, "Over the Rainbow," by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. (What McDonald did not say is that Harburg was a socialist who was later blacklisted.)

For a second encore, McDonald gave us "Summertime," from Porgy and Bess, for which she won her first leading actress Tony in 2012.

Next up for McDonald is a co-starring role as the Mother Abbess in a live NBC-TV broadcast on Dec. 5 of Rodgers and Hammerstein's beloved antifascist classic The Sound of Music. Her one-night-only gig at the Dorothy Chandler marked the Los Angeles leg of her four-month, 22-city North American tour.

The new book co-authored by L.A.-based reviewer Ed Rampell, "The Hawaii Movie and Television Book," published by Honolulu's Mutual Publishing, appears Nov. 25. See: http://hawaiimtvbook.weebly.com/.

Photo: Audra McDonald (watchwithkristin/CC)

Horror movies with a conscience?

Thu, 31 Oct 2013 13:27:00 +0000

Editor's note: If you know of other horror films with a progressive bent, be sure to let us know! Happy Holloween!

Horror films tend to espouse a pretty bleak worldview. They exist, basically, to throw our own mortality into our faces, in all its blood-gushing, maggot-eaten terror. Sometimes they can be an odd reflection of the political times, too. Recall how the AIDS-denying and "War on Drugs" of the Reagan-Bush era corresponded with the explosion of "slasher" films featuring young, sexually active, pot-smoking, white suburbanites getting massacred by anonymous killers.

There's a rarer breed of horror film that attempts to go beyond mere shock and exploitation. These films at least take a stab at being relevant, "socially conscious," and even "progressive." They are fantasies based on real, immediate, contemporary threats: the "monsters" of environmental degradation, right-wing extremism, and the nightmares awakened by war. Here are five notable ones:

The Last Winter

2006. Dir. Larry Fessenden. Not rated.

This eco-horror film features the great Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Enemy at the Gates) as the global warming-denying manager of an oil company project to build an ice road through the Northern Artic Wildlife Refuge in the quest for "energy independence." He chides government scientists accompanying the crew for their "hand-wringing" over climate change. When bodies start appearing, the scientist blame gases escaping from the melting permafrost, but they can't explain the visions of a vengeful nature spirit. The final shot is a haunting vision of an indescribable environmental calamity.

Dead of Night (AKA Death Dream)

1972. Dir. Bob Clark. Rated PG

In this variation of "The Monkey's Paw, " a mother makes a wish that her young son would return from Vietnam alive. He does, but he comes back to his small town changed-he's now a ghoul who needs fresh human blood to stay alive. At one point, the vampire vet tells a victim: "I died for you...now why shouldn't you return the favor?" This film is an extremely dark envisioning of war "coming home" to the disintegration of a Middle American family and a terrorized community.

Frontier(s) (original title: Frontière(s))

2007. Dir. Xavier Gens. Rated NC-17

In this European "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," France of the near future is rocked when a national crisis helps an ultra right political party to sweep elections, causing widespread riots. Arab youth from the city flee to the countryside and stumble on the homestead of a bizarre family of bloodthirsty neo-Nazis. The fascists in this gory nightmare literally are butchers, and this is, perhaps, the only slasher movie that quotes Hegel. At one point an octogenarian Nazi intones: "the spirit is a bone."

Red State

2011. Dir. Kevin Smith. Rated R

Kevin Smith merits praise for creating a horror movie version of the Westboro Baptist Church. This film envisions a right wing hate group that is also a violent, terrorist cult. Michael Parks, as the cult's patriarch, and John Goodman, as the lawman who leads a Waco-style siege against him, turn in dynamite performances. However, the film is ultimately undone by Smith's wordy, self-indulgent script.

The Snowtown Murders

2011. Dir. Justin Kurzel. Not rated.

This disturbing Australian film is based on the true story of Australia's worst serial killer, John Bunting. Bunting terrorized rural small towns in the 1990's, targeting LGBTQ people, drug addicts, and people with mental illness for kidnapping, torture, and murder. The most horrifying aspect of the story is the way Bunting is able to use hatred and violence to manipulate other marginalized people around him into helping him dispatch his victims.

Photo: Maud Forget in Frontier(s). Lions Gate Home Entertainment

"The Lion in Winter" delivers royal drama with rip-roaring wit

Tue, 29 Oct 2013 15:45:00 +0000

James Goldman's The Lion in Winter is an actor's actor piece of theater. The 1968 movie adaptation with stellar performances by Peter O'Toole as England's King Henry II and Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine left an indelible impression. The supporting (!) cast included Anthony Hopkins as Richard and future James Bond Timothy Dalton as King Philip. Lion received four Oscar nominations, and won two-Hepburn for Best Actress, and Goldman for Best Writing.

So with much anticipation I visited the newly refurbished Sierra Madre Playhouse to see the theatrical version of this medieval drama, which had premiered on Broadway in 1966. I was not disappointed.

John Rafter Lee and Diane Hurley deliver bravura turns as the title character and his imprisoned, estranged wife Eleanor, whom Henry has permitted to leave her house arrest during the Christmas holidays of 1183. She joins Henry at the royal court in his castle in Chinon, France (the French-born British monarch presided over an empire), where their three sons are gathered as the 50-year-old grapples with the thorny issue of succession. The lads vie with one another to become heir to the throne: The eldest, Richard Lionheart (Adam Burch); the overlooked middle child Geoffrey (Clay Bunker); and teenaged John (James Weeks). Despite being the youngest and the least sharp rapier in the scabbards, John for some reason seems to be the affection-starved Henry's favorite. (It never crosses their noggins that maybe the peasants should, like, vote on who shall lead them.)

Joining this big, if not so happy family are France's King Philip (the Machiavellian Macleish Day) and Henry's mistress, the French Princess Alais (Alison Lani), whom the conniving if convivial Henry hopes to marry off to one of his sons. Thrown into the mix, this makes for a most combustible concoction with more conspiracy theories than an Oliver Stone movie. Above all, the devious Eleanor and Henry match wits, as they eternally plot against one another.

It all plays out like a Eugene O'Neill drama set in the Middle Ages, although the relatives in question have vast powers and domains at their disposal. In addition to love between spouses, parents, children, and lovers, the temporal stakes are far greater than in O'Neill. But beneath it all are all too human frailties, not least of them the need to be loved, writ large on an imperial scale.

The play is funnier than the more dramatic film version, making for plenty of sparks a-flying and witty dialogue. Although after almost three hours (with one intermission), the verbal one-upmanship becomes somewhat tedious-not the fault of the acting, under Michael Cooper's able direction. I think the problem lies with the type of characters portrayed.

During the Middle Ages European royalty reigned due to "divine right": Those born of "noble blood" were pre-ordained by God to rule. But what Lion's action, characterizations, and dialogue reveal is that rather than being superior to the rest of us, monarchs are instead merely more bloodthirsty and avaricious. They may believe themselves our social betters because they are smarter than the 99 percent, but in reality they're just more cunning than the masses because they're motivated by greed and lust for power. Ever has it been so, down to our own Gilded Age of wild wealth disparity. So it does become tiresome to watch these "Type A" personalities compete for dominance, because truth be told, they're just a pack of royal a-holes.

Albeit, as said, well-acted ones! On the theater's new rake stage, sloped upwards away from us, the players seem truly larger than life. The period costumes designed by Carlos Brown delight the eye. If ticket buyers plunk down our buckeroos to see a period piece, most of us want the stage to act like a time machine and transport us long ago and far away.

Sammy Ross's cleverly designed lighting imparts the sensation of flickering candlesticks, which is period appropriate. Gary Wissman's set likewise helps us to willingly suspend disbelief, although the backdrop of a plain curtain becomes a bit dull.

This Lion roars, providing lovers of live performance with a rip-roaring night of thee-a-tuh that transforms the playhouse into a veritable lion's den of drama amidst the jibes.

The Lion in Winter plays through Nov. 16 on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2:30 p.m. at the Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre, CA 91024. For more info: (626) 355-4318; www.sierramadreplayhouse.org.

Photo: John Rafter Lee and Diane Hurley of "The Lion in Winter" at Sierra Madre Playhouse. Gina Long.

“Do You Dream in Color? Insights from a Girl Without Sight”

Thu, 24 Oct 2013 14:03:00 +0000

A recent concert in Los Angeles featured the blind mezzo-soprano Laurie Rubin giving the world premiere of the orchestral setting of a poem she wrote, "Do You Dream in Color?" by the contemporary American composer Bruce Adolphe. It's a successful, affecting, thought-provoking piece perfectly suited for programming during Disability Awareness Month-or any time.

In different musical circles I had heard of Ms. Rubin; but the main reason I happened to go that night was that a lobby art display by blind or partially sighted artists from the Braille Institute included a print by a close friend of mine. I'm grateful for the chance encounter with Rubin, because I purchased a copy of her memoir, "Do You Dream in Color? Insights from a Girl Without Sight" (Seven Stories Press, 2012) during the intermission. Maybe I would learn something about what it involves to be friends with a blind person.

Rubin's book reminds me somewhat of another inspiring memoir about disability, Harriet McBryde Johnson's "Too Late to Die Young," highly recommended for its searing, scathing perceptions of a world not set up for the physically challenged. While Johnson makes no secret of her avowed socialist outlook, and Rubin doesn't even mention the word, any reader will be moved by the similar expression of honesty and clarity about how we look upon difference.

Rubin calls it as she sees it. Lucky for her, she was born into a family with an enviable level of creature comforts, who spared nothing to give her the best education and the widest opportunities to develop her singing voice. Her gratitude for that is boundless, as it is for those along the way who saw what she could do and gave her the chances to do it. At the same time, Rubin also questions the institutional rigidity and shallow understanding of human potential found in schools and some governmental and charitable organizations meant to help.

In simple, direct language with little pretense, and with an artful economy of storytelling, Rubin recounts her life as a gradual unfolding of self-understanding that also grants her understanding about the world around her, with its snobbishness, exclusivity, and limited imagination. Surely she is aware that not all kids grow up with the advantages she enjoyed: It's perhaps the only criticism I might have of her book, that she doesn't use it, except by inference, to comment on the generally inadequate resources provided for most blind people.

In a book explicitly published "for young readers," Rubin is to be congratulated for the way she portrays her emerging sexuality. From the very beginning we are aware that Rubin has matured into an open lesbian, with her life partner Jenny named first and lovingly on her dedication page. In her exuberant uniqueness, she represents Everywoman, entitled to her quirks of personality, her individuality, and her commonality with all of us as we experience the human condition.

"Everyone in the world wants to feel needed," she writes, "and to understand her purpose. Mine is to be an artist, an educator, a responsible tax-paying citizen who is paid her worth, and to be a contributing member to society who just so happens to be blind."

Rubin's book is a heart-warming "human interest" story a reader will grow from, into a wiser, more compassionate fellow citizen. I can only hope her book earns her a heap more lucrative singing gigs. And let's hope we find some good social purposes for the income tax she'll responsibly pay!

Photo: Mezzo-soprano and author Laurie Rubin (via Seven Stories Press)

“Final Fantasy,” capitalism, and the environment

Thu, 24 Oct 2013 13:30:00 +0000

Early next year, Square Enix will release a new game for current generation systems in its popular "Final Fantasy" series. With this ahead, it's worthwhile to revisit the most critically acclaimed title in the franchise, "Final Fantasy VII," released in 1997 for the original PlayStation, which is often cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. Compared to the medium's typical fare, the title holds a progressive perspective on capitalism, the environment, and the relationship between the two.

"Final Fantasy VII" centers on a militant ecological group called AVALANCHE, which is trying to stop the Shinra corporation from destroying the planet in its pursuit of Mako energy. The game appears to reject the capitalist environmentalism that sees ecological crisis primarily as the result of individual choices, such as taking too-long showers or failing to turn off lights when one leaves a room. Instead, the title places blame squarely on Shinra's relentless search for wealth.

In a representative comment about the corporation, a central character says, "They're evil and destroyin' our planet just to...build their power and line their own damn pockets with gold! If we don't get rid of them, they're gonna kill this planet!"

As socialist author Chris Williams points out, capitalism is based on a constant expansion, profit, and short-term outlook, which is at odds with the public interest in environmental sustainability. Whether the game recognizes these systemic problems, or merely sees Shinra as a "bad apple" on the corporate tree, is debatable. But at the least "Final Fantasy VII" suggests a need for significant reform that goes beyond the focus on the lifestyle choices of individuals, which seems to be the current, mainstream prescription for ecological crisis.

That said, AVALANCHE, the rebel organization to which the player belongs, uses terrorist tactics shunned by conventional socialist opinion. AVALANCHE launches a secret bombing campaign against Shinra, instead of, say, rousing the residents of the capital's slums to fight the corporation on their own behalf.

Most socialists don't have a moral opposition to violence, but recognize it's generally incapable of creating large-scale, permanent change when carried out by individuals or small groups. Vladimir Lenin, with whom I have problems as a civil libertarian, sums up the socialist case against what he termed revolutionary adventurism by writing, "Only new forms of the mass movement or the awakening of new sections of the masses to independent struggle really rouses a spirit of struggle and courage in all. Single combat however...has the immediate effect of simply creating a short-lived sensation, while indirectly it even leads to apathy and passive waiting."

Unfortunately, in the real world many radical environmentalists today, whose commitment cannot be questioned, frequently exalt these tactics when employed by groups like the Earth Liberation Front. Far from the symptom of a robust movement many supporters believe individual violence to be, resorting to such desperate actions represents an inability to garner the mass support needed to create real change.

"Final Fantasy VII" also emphasizes the farcical nature of capitalist democracy. Karl Marx writes, "The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs" of the rich. Similarly, in the early stages of the game, the mayor of the planet's capital confides in the player matter-of-factly, saying, "Actually, I'm mayor in name only. The city and everything in it is really run by Shinra, Inc. My only real job is watching over Shinra's documents."

Additionally, "Final Fantasy VII" encourages skepticism of corporate news that recognizes coverage reflects the class interests of ownership. For instance, at one point a TV broadcast portrays AVALANCHE in a particularly unfavorable light, quoting the president of Shinra and the mayor of the capital without including any sort of progressive rebuttal. At another point a central character questions the accuracy of a report, saying, "Shinra, Inc. owns the paper, so you can't rely on that information."

For years there have been rumors that Square Enix might remake "Final Fantasy VII." According to gaming website IGN, the developer's president has said such a turn toward the company's past would not happen until it created a title that "exceeds the quality" of the older title. Were Square Enix to pursue a remake, which would undoubtedly please many fans, let's hope they'd inject the game with an even more class-conscious sensibility than the original that truly recognizes how deeply the fights for economic democracy and environmental sustainability are intertwined.

Take heart in struggle for freedom, see “12 Years a Slave”

Wed, 23 Oct 2013 15:31:00 +0000

My daughter's college friend said he saw "Gravity" over the weekend and loved it. He said it made his palms sweat because it confronted his worst fears. My daughter said she saw "12 Years a Slave" and it was "intense, realistic and numbing." I agreed, and it was then I realized this review would be a challenge. Most people want fantasy escapism - to get their adrenaline pumping by watching someone else confront their worst fears - not realism.

Truth be told, I wanted to start this review differently. I wanted to start with a quote from the great American hero, Frederick Douglass, whose own story of being a slave along with his insightful analysis of the economic, psychological and human toll of the system that deals with buying and selling of people, was embedded in the film; as was Harriet Jacobs' who wrote "Incidents in a the Life of a Slave Girl." I wanted to talk about how the movie captured the degradation of humanity (both black and white) from the brutal system, and the genteel mask the slavocracy hid behind. There were so many meaningful scenes I wanted to analyze. But then I remembered my daughter's friend and thought all that wouldn't necessarily inspire him (or me) to go.

So this review is an attempt to reach the "Gravity" crowd, a movie that continues to gross at number one for the last three weeks. If you want your hands to sweat, if you want to confront your worst fears, then see "12 Years a Slave." If you want to see a work of film literature, then see "12 Years a Slave." Americans love to watch all sorts of violence and evil - so if you want that, this is your movie too. The movie is racking up awards, and the acting is phenomenal. Amidst the difficult and tear-jerking scenes is something unique for movies: redemption.

I can't put my worries that people won't turn out in numbers that this movie deserves on audience preferences alone. U.S. slavery - like modern day racism, its offspring - has never been a big topic for the Hollywood film industry. But when it has been, the slavocracy's myths, distortions and lies permeate; just think of the Academy Award winning "Gone With the Wind," a 1930s production that has become a cultural icon for generations. There has never been a serious attempt to portray truthfully a system so powerful it caused the Civil War, until now.

The film distributors must have thought about this challenge, as the first weekend release was limited to art houses and theaters with large Black audiences. This weekend it will open to more theaters. The reports are the movie's ticket sales were good; grossing almost $1 million, which industry experts say is "impressive" for the limited number of screens. The theater we went to was packed with black and white moviegoers of various ages. That was heartening.

"12 Years a Slave," directed by UK director Steve McQueen and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northrup, is revolutionary. Based on a narrative written by Northrup in 1853, the film takes you inside slavery, from the slaves' point of view, with complex, nuanced and varied responses by both black and white to man's inhumanity to man.

Northrup was born a free man in New York. Married with children, he made his living as a musician. But in 1841, he was lured by slave traders to Washington D.C., where slavery was legal, to be kidnapped, transported and sold at auction to a Southern sugar plantation owner. Northrup is eventually rescued but millions of others remained behind.

Slave narratives were popular literature during the 19th century, promoted by the abolitionists - a movement of black and white men and women dedicated to ending slavery - and widely read. Northrup's narrative was a "best-seller," as was Douglass' and many others. This is where the redemptive part comes in. There was a movement of black and white Americans who fought the system and demanded its immediate abolition; first and foremost - the slaves themselves with their resilience and resistance. Northrup joins the anti-slavery abolitionist movement, a fact that is not shown in the film but is mentioned at the end. Northrup also enlists a travelling carpenter (played by Brad Pitt), who lectured the savage Epps (played by Michael Fassbender) on the evils of slavery, to assist his escape.

Called "sublime piece of cinema," "harrowing and illuminating," "powerful and unforgettable," the accolades and awards for the film, its director and cast keep pouring in and rightfully so. I would add my own accolades: truth telling, revolutionary and terribly evocative. This movie is not for the faint of heart, but for those who take heart in the enduring power of the struggle for freedom and humanity. I wish everyone in America would see it.

"12 Years a Slave"

Directed by Steve McQueen

2013, Rated R, 133 min.

“In Organic We Trust” exposes falsely organic foods

Mon, 21 Oct 2013 11:06:00 +0000

Concern about food safety prompted Americans to spend $28.6 billion on organic foods in 2011. Organic labels have popped up everywhere in supermarket aisles. However, according to Kip Pastor's "In Organic We Trust," the product you are buying that is labelled organic maybe a dud.

To be truly organic, farmers must be inspected by a certifying agent accredited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ensure they are not using harmful pesticides, chemicals, antibiotics, sewage sludge, radiation, or genetic modification on crops and livestock. Then their products can display "USDA organic." This means that many food items claiming to be organic really are not, says Pastor, who puts the U.S. food industry under a microscope in this well made, engrossing documentary.

However, there are defects in the system as certified agents earn their salary by charging organic farmers to check the crops. "They charge organic farmers additional money to be organic. They have it all ass backwards," says organic farmer Jimmy Williams." They should charge the people who are using chemicals. Those are the people who are destroying the soil."

There is also concern that because agents are paid by farmers, there is a real incentive not to fail anyone if they are cutting corners.

Furthermore, large corporations are buying smaller organic companies, meaning the organic food you buy may not be locally grown or fresh. Big companies are importing an estimated 20 percent of organic fruits and vegetables that might not be grown in ideal soils and whose nutritional value is diminished from long journeys overseas.

Despite these flaws, Pastor still comes out in favour of buying USDA labelled organic products.

Pastor also offers a broad critique of the U.S. food industry. The main problem is that the U.S. government subsidizes big corporate farms, in the hundreds of billions, that grow corn, soy, and wheat that provide ingredients for unhealthy processed junk food, ensuring they are cheaper at the supermarket. However, vegetables are not subsidized. As a result, obesity and diabetes is rampant, and life expectancy is falling.

Then there is the problem of pesticide and chemical residue in foods that Americans consume. According to Dr. Jennifer Sass, senior scientist for the National Resource Council, the U.S. uses 60 billion pounds of harmful pesticides each year that end up in food and water. Sass says studies prove that these organic phosphate chemicals attack the brain and central nervous systems.

Harvard School of Public Health Assistant Professor Dr. Alex Lu says U.S. government health agencies have never required that these pesticides and chemicals be tested. "Were being used as an experimental animal." The huge rise in cancer, Parkinson's disease, autism, childhood disorders, birth defects, leukemia, and asthma, among others, is linked to these chemical residues, suggests Lu.

These pesticides also poison farm workers and their families, which Pastor unfortunately does not mention.

Despite the grim situation, Pastor offers some hope. He shows positive examples of local efforts to grow organic food in urban areas and serve healthy foods in schools. He says that there are over 7,000 farmer's markets across the U.S. that sell locally grown, organic fruits, and vegetables.

Pastor's "In Organic We Trust" is a must-see documentary that reinforces the importance of supporting organic agriculture.

"In Organic We Trust"

Directed by Kip Pastor
Produced by Pasture Pictures, 2012, 120 minutes

Photo: "In Organic We Trust" Facebook page

"American Horror Story" welcomes viewers into its coven

Tue, 15 Oct 2013 16:18:00 +0000

Now in its third season, American Horror Story is a horror anthology series with a rotating/recurring cast, always led by the talented Jessica Lange. In 2011, the show turned the "haunted house" trope on its head; 2012 gave us something akin to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest-meets-The Exorcist. This time, it's American Horror Story: Coven, and the subject matter is witches.

A school has opened in New Orleans to protect young witches and keep their 300 year-old secrets (dating back to the Salem Witch Trials) safe. Before you start drawing Harry Potter comparisons, you should know that the showrunners are hip to that joke - and many others. "Don't make me drop a house on you," says one witch, played by Lange, to another. And it gets increasingly self-deprecating from there.

The biggest thing the series has going for it this season is introducing A-lister Kathy Bates as a main character. She plays racist socialite Madame Delphine LaLaurie (a real historical figure), who is brought back from 1834. Other newcomers include Angela Bassett, Emma Roberts, and Gabourey Sidibe. Returning actors include Evan Peters, Taissa Farmiga, and Sarah Paulson. Seeing the ensemble interact and play off one another in the Big Easy, with, at times, some weighty dialogue that reflects on the tragedies the city has endured, is really something.

The cast, in fact, is the biggest thing this installment in the series has going for it: it's almost entirely female. That's especially significant, given the fact that this is unfortunately still a world where TV insists on putting actresses into overtly sexualized or unrealistically glamorized roles, i.e. reality shows and vampire dramas. Even there, it's all about the male characters. AHS: Coven blatantly ignores that formula and gladly hands the reins to Lange, Bates, and the young witches. And it works.

Coven is also not afraid to tackle real-world horrors. If you have not read up on history and the struggles of African Americans enough to truly despise slavery, this show will really make you hate it, as well as Bates' LaLaurie, who is somehow more evil than her character in the film Misery.

Coven also tackles how young women are too often degraded and abused by young males (in this case frat brothers) in a to-the-point, though not exploitative, scene that may nonetheless have some viewers reaching for their remotes. (Don't worry, the perpetrators get what's coming to them.)

But Coven is too wacky to be taken as a social lesson wrapped inside a layer of horror, and the series revs up the camp to remind us of this - and to perhaps keep things from getting too dark. The writers for the show are obviously well aware that AHS is meant to be a gory, splattery melodrama where incomprehensibly lunatic scenes splash onto the screen, one after another. After two seasons of such, the audience is surely prepared for this.

Because of the chaotic ingredients that make the show what it is, it's okay that the first episode was a bit vague in telling viewers what to expect, story-wise, for the whole season. When a series is this ridiculous, the form seemingly creates the content on a whim as it goes along.

Too gruesome for some, too campy for others, American Horror Story is one of those shows that finds and snags a niche audience, though that viewership increases with each season. It will undoubtedly expand threefold this time around, as viewers are put under the spell of some great acting, side-by-side with some creepy witchcraft and voodoo down in New Orleans.

Photo: American Horror Story: Coven official site

Great outer space “Gravity” and other film pleasures

Mon, 14 Oct 2013 10:27:00 +0000

Sometimes one needs to step away from serious political fare and enjoy some films that appear to simply entertain. There were many of those to choose from at the Toronto International Film Festival. Although these were not on my "A" list of 50 "must-see" films, they provided stunning filmic experiences.

I must start with the most stunning, a 3D film that had me jumping and falling out of my seat throughout the entire exasperating journey. Gravity by the great Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men), stars only two actors, the venerable debonair George Clooney, and down-to-earth Sandra Bullock in perhaps her finest role. But they command the stage, or rather space, since they are floating around miles from earth outside their space shuttle which was destroyed by a meteor shower. Clever witty dialog with a wink often associated with Clooney is cleverly paired with Bullock's convincing bravura of a performance as a neophyte astronaut discovering the shocking reality of endless space, as they both float hopelessly, running out of oxygen. As a veteran astronaut close to retirement, Clooney's task is to keep Bullock positive, thinking they're really not in that much danger. Directed with technical wizardry and special effects, with an amazing humanist angle, Cuaron has possibly crafted the greatest social-realist outer space film made to date.

From a big movie to probably one of the smallest, Little Feet touches the heart in another way. Famed indie director Alexandre Rockwell (In The Soup) filmed his two little children in such a fresh imaginative manner that you feel he invented a new way to make movies. Totally unorthodox in its approach to acting, filming and directing, Little Feet will charm the most jaded filmgoer with another humanist statement about the human condition, as these two little children take a magic journey to the river.

Did you know that Jimi Hendrix got his start in England? Apparently he was discovered by Keith Richards' girlfriend in a dingy bar in New York, where Jimmie James and his band were being ignored by the inattentive audience. She scooped him up, got him a new manager, Chas Chandler former drummer from The Animals, and they enticed him to London to record in the growing rock music scene there. He began to develop a following, and the rest is history. All Is By My Side is so well acted - André Benjamin sings, plays and looks so much like Hendrix he really is Hendrix - that the movie seems like an actual documentary in its realism. Issues of race, drugs and spousal abuse add weight to the story of one of the world's greatest, most gifted guitarists. Director John Ridley (Three Kings) had the blessings of part of the Hendrix family, now living in Canada, but had to creatively make up for the lack of rights to the music.

And finally, a film added so late to the festival that it wasn't even listed in the catalog, Salinger, appeared like a golden bonus. It offered a treat to fans of the late author J.D. Salinger and anyone who has read his masterpiece, Catcher in the Rye - now over 65 million copies sold! In the Q&A with director Shane Salerno, he offered a suggestion to budding filmmakers, "Don't spend 10 years making a film." Of course, he hadn't planned it that way, but new elements kept popping up in his search for the truth behind the elusive, but not a hermit, writer, as is made quite clear in this unprecedented look into the secrets of Salinger. This is a loving tribute to an iconic author seldom seen in public and rarely photographed.

The movie moves well considering the lack of material available. Many little known facts are revealed about Salinger and his personal life, none more profound than his wartime experiences as a soldier on the war front from D-Day to V-Day in Europe, 300 constant days of battle. It deeply affected the rest of his life and all his writings. The most amazing revelation is that his estate has organized a timed release of all his unpublished writings, which include the full story of his Franny and Zooey Glass family, two more books on Catcher in the Rye central character Holden Caulfield, an autobiography of his life in the military, and much more. He wasn't wasting all those years while trying to avoid the media. He literally lived in a "bunker" behind his house in New Hampshire for weeks on end constantly typing, while his family was deprived of his presence. But the world will soon be treated to new writings from one of America's finest authors.

Photo: Gravity official site

Cutting-edge films bring Middle East headlines to life

Fri, 11 Oct 2013 12:25:00 +0000

Last month's Toronto International Film Festival featured, among its 146 world premieres from 70 countries, cutting-edge films from the greater Middle East. (See separate article about films by and about Palestinians.)

Many of the films are documentaries on the cutting edge of not only technology but coverage of critical world events. History is now being recorded by cellphones and small camcorders easily accessible to the masses.

Along with professional filmmakers, Egyptian activists recorded their grassroots revolution at every phase along the way. Personal interviews and candid footage of battles, police brutality, political rallies and even detention centers were all recorded for posterity, some poorly filmed but much of it shockingly moving.

Filmmaker Jehane Noujaim was there from the beginning of protests in 2011 and is still filming the daily actions and working in coalition with other filmmakers.

There've been a lot of great and informative films about the Egyptian revolution, but Noujaim's The Square has surpassed them all. Spanning the time from the first action in Tahrir Square, January 2011, to the latest developments with the removal of Morsi and the army takeover, the film grabs you by the heart and mind and pulls you through the front lines of battle.

There are moving scenes with activists, including Egyptian-born actor Khalid Abdalla (The Kite Runner) who played a lead role in organizing the people's social media network. An activist named Ahmed featured throughout the film and involved in every phase of protest, stated, Wwe removed Mubarak, then the Army, then Morsi, and we're ready to remove anyone else." Ahmed now actually lives in Tahrir Square, the focus and symbol of hope for democracy.

The Square's convincing message is one of optimism, demonstrating the determination of Egyptians to forge a true people's democracy regardless of what happens next.

The film is clearly titled and structured which aids in clarifying the many stages of advances and retreats. Having so much footage to choose from, and placed in the hands of skilled documentarists, creates a dramatic, informative and gripping film totally effective to the end. The Square won the Audience Award at Sundance this January, was re-edited in the summer to update current events, and then won the Peoples Choice Award in Toronto in September!

Another film at the Toronto International Film Festival dealing with the Egyptian revolution, Rags and Tatters, takes the viewer on a journey to lesser known areas of Egypt. Taking a more dramatic approach, with minimal dialog, long shots and rare locations, director Ahmed Abdalla mixes documentary with drama, following escaped prisoners, some of them thugs and criminals, wending their way back home through the chaos of the revolution. The film offers rare but true stories about the many overlooked people from the far corners of the country who were affected one way or the other by the social upheaval. Asser Yassin, acting his part often among non-professionals, draws a compelling character discovering surprises among the quickly formed neighborhood watch groups, the garbage collectors settlement and the Mawaldeya people, Sufis dedicated to the art of religious chanting. Although not directly filming the revolution, it provides the visuals and realities that created and shaped the people's revolt.

A charming and thought-provoking film from Morocco, Rock the Casbah, includes among the cast the legendary Egyptian icon Omar Sharif (Dr. Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia) and Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass (Miral, The Visitor, Amreeka). It deftly addresses the issues of women and their role in a religion-dominated patriarchal society. When the patriarch (Sharif) of a powerful Moroccan family dies, his family of mostly daughters gathers at the funeral. One rebellious daughter left the fold years earlier and went to Hollywood to make it big. Instead she's been playing mostly roles as a "terrorist," a fact ridiculed by the rest of the family who remained mostly in Tangiers. What starts out as a light but cautious reunion of family members who have held long untold secrets develops to an ending beyond the imagination of most viewers. Sharif, as the ghostly departed father, regularly offers satiric asides directly to the audience as the unbelievable story unfolds. It's for you to discover when you watch this highly entertaining film from Morocco.

With Syria constantly in the news, and with its people continuing to endure the worst hardships, it's hard to imagine films coming out of the war-torn country. They actually aren't, except for Ladder to Damascus, filmed during the beginning of the civil strife until it became unbearable. This is a stylish minimalist interpretation of the Syrian dilemma as young people who are forced to move to the city are confronted with a growing militant resistance movement. Filmed at great danger, the drama defends the secular revolutionary cause that has lately been usurped by religious extremists.

The other film at the Toronto festival about Syria, Border, was actually filmed in Italy by director Alessio Cressolini, known for his script on Private, a 2004 allegorical study of Palestinians held captive in a house by the Israeli military. Border carries the same sympathies to Serbians being forced to leave their country because of growing civil war. The film follows two young Muslim sisters attempting to find a safe escape but limited by their religious dress and beliefs that make it difficult to camouflage their appearance and manners. One of the sisters' husband has defected to the Free Syrian Army which puts their lives in jeopardy as they flee with the assistance of people they can't totally trust. With minimal dialog, and scenes shot mostly indoors and in the forests, the film carries the viewer through a journey of fear and hope and offers a closer look at the realities of the Syrian war.

Censorship in the arts in Iran took on a new level when famed director Jafar Panahi (The Circle, The White Balloon, Offside) was arrested in 2010. Sentenced to prison for six years and barred from filmmaking for 20 years, he became a frustrated man without a camera. Devising ways to circumvent the sentence, Panahi sat in his apartment while being filmed by a buddy and released This Is Not a Movie, which skyrocketed to fame in the film festival circuit. Now he has moved on to a more multi-dimensional project, which for some reason has missed the eyes of the censor. Closed Curtains is a much darker allegory of an artist imprisoned in a darkened room unable to offer his light to the world.

Panahi depicts a man, removed to his seaside beach house, dealing with his past accomplishments, which are referenced by movie wall posters throughout the house. He has a pet dog that allows reference to the restrictive new law banning dog walking in public. A man and woman continually enter and exit the beach house without invitation or reason, supposedly representing the role of actors who are key elements of his films. For an artist denied the tools of his trade and the freedom to create, Panahi has somehow found a way to circumvent both by presenting yet another thought-provoking essay on censorship.

Another film addressing censorship in Iran is from fellow filmmaker and prisoner Mohamad Rasoulof, who was arrested along with Panahi in 2010 for "acting against national security." It's a much stronger critique of the Iranian regime and its attempt to assassinate 21 writers and journalists in 1995. Manuscripts Don't Burn won the FIPRESCI Prize (Film Critics) at Cannes, for its bold and creative style of addressing censorship. Rasoulof plays with time, examines collective memory and shows the physical and psychological destruction caused by a right-wing theocratic regime. Although the Iranian revolution freed the country from American influence and corruption, it punished and killed many in the left. Talented filmmakers are in the forefront of documenting these historical developments.

Photo: Scene from The Square. Film website

Alice Munro, Canadian writer, wins Nobel Prize in literature

Thu, 10 Oct 2013 14:03:00 +0000

STOCKHOLM - Canadian writer Alice Munro won this year's Nobel Prize in literature today. The Swedish Academy, which selects Nobel literature winners, called her a "master of the contemporary short story."

Often compared to Anton Chekhov, the 82-year-old writer has attained near-canonical status as a thorough, but forgiving, documenter of the human spirit.

Her published work often turns on the difference between Munro's growing up in Wingham, a conservative Canadian town west of Toronto, and her life after the social revolution of the 1960s.

"She is a fantastic portrayer of human beings," said Peter Englund, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy in an interview immediately after the announcement, adding that Munro's consistent depiction of the rural Canadian landscape proves that "she has everything she needs in this small patch of earth."

The Nobel Prize revealed via its Twitter account that it wasn't able to get hold of Munro, but left a phone message. CBC World Report said that Munro's daughter woke her up to share the news. "I knew I was in the running, yes, but I never thought I would win," Munro told the Canadian Press.

Alice Munro is the 17th literature laureate born in Canada and the 27th literature laureate writing in English. She is the 13th woman awarded the Nobel Prize in literature so far. She is also the 110th literature laureate in total.

In an interview with Associated Press in 2003, she described the 1960s as "wonderful." It was "because, having been born in 1931, I was a little old, but not too old, and women like me after a couple of years were wearing miniskirts and prancing around," she said.

Munro's writing has brought her numerous awards. She won a National Book Critics Circle prize for "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage," and is a three-time winner of the Governor General's prize, Canada's highest literary honor.

The Nobel Prize may very well be the last award of the 82-year-old author's career, as she told Canada's National Post earlier in the summer that she was "probably not going to write anymore."

Her recent books include "Dear Life," "Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You," and "The View from Castle Rock."

In 2008, Munro's daughter Sheila wrote the intriguing memoir, "Lives of Mothers & Daughters: Growing Up with Alice Munro." A review in Booklist, published by the American Library Association, praised the memoir: "The book seems in many ways a typical family story, replete with abundant photographs from the family album, images from the 50s through the 90s. What makes the book extraordinary are the extraordinary accomplishments of the mother under consideration - Alice, a woman who somehow managed to integrate domesticity with a writer's life and who did it, by Sheila's account, with considerable grace and intelligence. Alice Munro's readers will be especially interested in Sheila's descriptions of family events that worked their way into her mother's stories.

In 2006 the Canadian film "Away from Her" debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film, directed by Sarah Polley, is based on Alica Munro's short story "The Bear Came over the Mountain," from the 2001 collection "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage."

The film stars Gordon Pinsent and Julie Christie as a couple whose marriage is tested when Christie's character begins to suffer from Alzheimer's and moves into a nursing home, where she loses virtually all memory of her husband and begins to develop a close relationship with another nursing home resident. The film received universal acclaim from critics.

Karl Ritter and Malin Rising of the Associated Press contributed to this article.

Photo: Canadian writer Alice Munro, who won this year's Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2013. AP

“The Summit:” Adventure, death, jaw-dropping cinematography

Wed, 09 Oct 2013 16:29:00 +0000

The Summit provokes many questions, but should appeal to aficionados of adventure (in particular mountaineering) and/or jaw-dropping nature cinematography, armchair travelers, and even mystery buffs. It's about the 2008 expeditions to the peak of K2, the second highest mountain on Earth (after Mt. Everest), located in a remote Himalayan region between Pakistan and China.

One out of every four trekkers who ascend the so-called "Savage Mountain" never makes it back down to live and tell the tale. In August (a month when melting ice causes increased hazards) 2008, 18 climbers, including various European, Asian, and international mountaineers, and their Sherpa guides, reached K2's pinnacle. But then, in one of the deadliest episodes in mountaineering history, 11 of them mysteriously perished on the way down.

Director/producer Nick Ryan and writer Mark Monroe use various film techniques to try and unravel the enigma of what happened. The filmmakers artfully utilize archival footage, in particular of an earlier 1954 Italian expedition to K2, which similarly resulted in controversy. There are also many original interviews with the survivors. The differing takes on what occurred and why is Rashômon-like.

The Summit also uses amateur video shot by a number of the climbers using various recording devices to document their ascents and descents. How exactly were the filmmakers able to get that footage? Is it possible that, due to innovations in lightweight, reasonably priced video equipment, all of the scenes were authentic and shot by the summiteers? If so, this motion picture pushes the envelope of documentary-making.

Unfortunately, a substantial portion of the film is composed of reenactments. In fact, Ryan took a camera crew more than a continent away from Pakistan to shoot at the Eiger Mountain near the Jungfrau, with the Swiss Alps doubling as the Himalayas.

The thorny issue of recreations in "documentaries" has bedeviled cinema since the 1920s, when Robert Flaherty shot his ethnographic films Nanook of the North and Moana of the South Seas, which seemed to be realistic records of his far-flung indigenous subjects' way of life. As it turned out, Flaherty's Eskimos and Polynesians reenacted various activities, as opposed to merely being captured by his poetic camera eye.

The Summit is debatably a combination of feature and documentary filmmaking, where elements of fiction and nonfiction commingle.

Another noggin-scratching factor is the climbers' motivation. Why would anybody risk life and limb to ascend this death-defying mountain? The reason for this passion for peaks piques one's interest.

One of The Summit's interviewees blithely says, "The bigger the dream, the bigger the risk." And the wife of the Irish summiteer Ger McDonnell, a focal point of this semi-doc, tells the camera, "He knew he could climb it and climb it safely."

But apparently not, because, along with 10 others, he didn't come back alive. Even among the survivors, two of them reportedly lost toes to frostbite.

A female interviewee remarks, "People think we're mad" - but then the film stoically marches on. The biggest lacuna in The Summit is not trying to get under the skins of its thrill-seekers, to find out what makes them tick. Are their routine lives back home so boring and meaningless that they try to fill the void with these dubious deathly enterprises? Do they need the rush of adrenalin to prove they are still alive, and that life has a purpose? Are they sexually dysfunctional? Inquiring minds want to know! But the filmmakers might possibly have lost the cooperation of their subjects if they pursued a less admiring, more critical line of questioning.

Nevertheless, The Summit depicts admirable, as well as despicable, qualities. Some are so hell-bent on their quest to conquer K2 that they decline to help endangered climbers in their moments of need; others, such as McDonnell, display courage and compassion in their efforts to help. Above all there are the Sherpas, the Nepalese guides who are professional mountaineers. The intrepid Pemba Gyalje appears to be a genuinely heroic and capable figure. Pemba is a Nanook and Moana for our time: He, along with the awe-inspiring scenic cinematography, are the high points of The Summit.

"The Summit"
Directed by Nick Ryan
2013, Sweden, rated R, 95 min.

Photo: Official site

Finding her authentic voice

Wed, 09 Oct 2013 11:29:00 +0000

Waving to the Train and Other Stories, the recently published book by Hadasa Cytrynowicz (Blue Thread Communications), begins with a quote from the brilliant novelist Gabriel García Márquez: "Life is not what you've lived, but what you remember and how you remember it to tell it." Ms. Cytrynowicz's collection (translated to English from the original Portuguese by this reviewer's occasional co-writer Eric A. Gordon), is an unfolding of short pieces reflecting the author's life experiences beginning with her early childhood in Lodz, Poland.

The reader journeys with her across four continents, including a war-time sojourn in the Soviet Union, a failed return to her native Poland, a short stay in a camp in Stuttgart, emigration to Israel in 1949, then a half-century somehow still temporary "refuge" in Brazil, and finally to her present-day residence of Los Angeles, always searching for a place to call home. Waving to the Train is told in what her son Roney describes in the preface as "fictional memoir." It is often a painful story to traverse.

Jewish families living in Poland in 1939 had the gravest of misfortunes foisted upon them as they were kicked to the curb by history. Those who survived, like Hadasa, born in 1935, after Hitler's rise to power, were seared with deep psychological wounds- whose damage dominated the internal narratives of so many, and sadly would be carried through a lifetime.

In the piece "Footsteps," we are witness to little Hadasa's bone-chilling panic in her family's house in Poland, where the "perfect black boots, shining Aryan boots" came to the door and demanded to know if her mother had any sons. In "You Can't Talk, You Can't Cry," another tale oozing with childhood trauma, the tiny youngster is warned not to utter a sound when the family silently crosses the Bug River to the Polish city of Bialystok, occupied by the Soviets, in abject flight from the Nazis. This tale of the nightmarish silent escape is an emblematic foretelling of Hadasa's lifelong anxiety-laden quest to find her authentic and integrated voice as she diligently copes with learning the new languages and absorbing the foreign cultures of her successive dwelling places.

Now fluent in Polish, Russian, Yiddish, Hebrew, and Portuguese, the author's facility with language is a testament to her resiliency and drive, an unintended positive consequence of a turbulent early life.

Hadasa's memoir belongs to what will surely be the last generation of eye-witness accounts of the World War II era. It invites readers to contemplate the thorny issue of Stalin's place in history as the Soviet Union became a safe haven for Europeans of various stripes, including Hadasa's immediate family, on the run from Hitler's inhumanity. Hadasa was able to have some enjoyable times during her six Soviet years.

In "The Little Purse from Zakopane" we learn that she was able to dance, sing, and recite poetry while in kindergarten, and that she loved every minute of it!

Hadasa's family returned to Lodz after the war but all was certainly not right. Believing she would be welcomed back to a place of familiarity, she was instead a stranger in the land of her birth, doomed to suffer the ravages of Polish post-war anti-Semitism: She recalls a scene of being shamed and insulted during a classroom blackboard exercise.

Extended family becomes a means of staying connected to the world as Hadasa and her story mature. She marries in 1954, and with her husband is soon bound for São Paulo, Brazil. The struggle to fit in, to be part of something larger than her immediate family, is repeated yet again in South America as Hadasa continues to learn important skills despite formidable cultural barriers. She teaches languages at the local university and raises a family.

Several stories reflect her gnawing awareness of severe class and ethnic disparities in her adopted land. "The Girl with the Single Little Braid" introduces us to a Japanese immigrant girl "who had saudade for something that not even she could name ... who had no country, had no friends, had no paper to write on and send kisses, who didn't understand the language of the people running in the street, but who had fear, a great fear ... who had the lack of a smile." Hadasa could relate!

Life continues in Los Angeles. Now, at age 78, one can only hope that one day soon Hadasa can feel truly, fully at home.

Photo: Amazon

Replaying Zelda from a progressive perspective

Tue, 08 Oct 2013 15:23:00 +0000

This year marks the 15^th anniversary of the release of "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time." Critics frequently laud the Nintendo 64 title as the greatest video game ever. To mark the occasion, I will try to examine the classic from a progressive perspective, analyzing its portrayal of class, race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, and species.

Some readers may take criticism of "Ocarina" as dismissal of the game. But this isn't the case. As Feminist Frequency blogger Anita Sarkeesian says, "Remember that it's both possible and even necessary to simultaneously enjoy media while also being critical of its more problematic or pernicious aspects."

Because games' technological capabilities have increased so rapidly since "Ocarina" was released, I suspect the title's reputation is somewhat inflated due to nostalgia of critics of a certain age. But it's a nostalgia I share. There is no game with which I have more fond memories. So criticism here should be interpreted as loyal opposition.

The game's perspective on class issues perhaps can be seen in its portrayal of the Kakariko carpenters and the wealthy family in the House of Skulltulla.

The relationship between the self-described "boss" of the carpenters and those he calls "my workers," appears to be one of a guild member and apprentices or journeymen. This is suggested because the boss refers to himself as a master craftsman and states the group was hired by the royal family to improve the village. The preeminent communist Karl Marx described this relationship as one of "oppressor and oppressed," comparing it to that of "freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, (and) lord and serf."

"Ocarina" portrays these apprentices or journeymen as lazy and shiftless, with the boss shown to be the only one willing to work. In short, it's a complete reversal of reality. Throughout history those who are paid the least tend to be those who work hardest.

"Young men these days don't have any ambition," the boss says. "Do you know what I mean, kid? My workers are just running aimlessly around the village, and they're not making any progress at all... Even my own son doesn't have a job, and he just wanders around all day! They're all worthless, I tell you!"

Some may interpret the fate of the wealthy family, who are transformed into spider-like creatures, in the House of Skulltulla as a condemnation of an exploitive class system, but that would be a mistake.

"Folks around here tell of a fabulously rich family that once lived in one of the houses in this village," an elderly character in Kakariko confides. "But they say that the entire family was cursed due to their greed! Who knows what might happen to those who are consumed by greed."

By focusing on the greed of individuals, the game ignores how private property incentivizes and even mandates such behavior. And with this moralizing focus comes a belief that society's economic ills are intractable because of humanity's admittedly flawed nature.

The racial, ethnic and religious traits of the "good characters" and the "bad characters" within the game imply xenophobia. All of the good characters, such as the Hylians and Kokiri, are white. In contrast, all of the bad characters, such as the thieving Gerudo and their king, Ganondorf, have brown skin. The Gerudo live in the desert, and in case it wasn't clear what real-life group of people they are based on, the original Gerudo symbol is strongly reminiscent of the Islamic star and crescent.

The title's perspective on sex is arguably summarized in an advertisement for "Ocarina," which asks, "Whilst thou get the girl? Or play like one?" The game utilizes a damsel-in-distress trope that suggests women are weak and in need of male protection. Just like every other game in the series, Princess Zelda is incapacitated and in need of rescue from the central character, Link. The repeated use of this sexist cliché helps to, as Sarkeesian says, "normalize extremely toxic, patronizing, and paternalistic attitudes."

For a portion of the game's plot, Zelda is represented as an imposing warrior. But, as Sarkeesian points out, she is only able to achieve this disguised as a man and she's kidnapped within minutes of revealing her true identity.

Sure, Link is also at times injured or captured. At one point, for instance, he's locked in a Gerudo jail cell. But, as Sarkeesian says, Link, and male protagonists in general, usually get themselves out of the situation. And that ability to overcome obstacles is integral to their development as heroic characters.

Apart from Zelda, who Sarkeesian mentions, Link rescues other female characters who arguably fall into damsel trope, such as Saria, a friend from his Kokiri childhood, and Ruto, princess of the aquatic Zoras.

In addition to reinforcing classist notions, the Kakariko carpenters are exploited for laughter based on their implied sexuality or non-traditional gender performance. Besides running in a stereotypically-feminine style, in the Japanese version of the game made in the developers' native language, according to ZeldaWiki.org, "All of the carpenters use female first person pronouns like あたし and あたい. They also have a tendency to end their sentences with the particle わ, which is usually only used by women to express emphasis or emotion. (One of the carpenters) also calls Link a "cute boy" when he is rescued."

The game's representation of species is best displayed in the idyllic Lon Lon Ranch, a small farm operated by a human father-daughter duo. Entering the location, "Epona's Song," a tranquil and nostalgic piece by composer Koji Kondo, plays in the background. The wistful choice in music isn't surprising, given widespread yearning by industrialized human populations for a recently-abandoned, romanticized pastoralism.

From the perspective of domesticated animals - whose mental capacities could be compared to young, human children and humans with profound mental disabilities - agriculture of the past was a gentler prospect than the modern, factory-farm system. But for non-humans the pre-industrial farm, as symbolized by Lon Lon Ranch, was still a place of exploitation and violence, where their lives, in general, would be significantly shorter and more circumscribed than those of their nearest, wild cousins.

In the game, domestication is portrayed as a mutually beneficial, voluntarily arrangement. The anthropomorphized cows of Hyrule speak to Link, literally saying, "Have some of my refreshing and nutritious milk!" Of course depicting a relationship as anything like symbiotic when one party kills and eats the other, as well as the latter's children, would be laughable if it wasn't so appalling.

On this fifteenth anniversary of the game's release, I encourage readers to dust off their Nintendo 64 and return to Hyrule. Hike up Death Mountain. Swim in Lake Hylia. Explore the Lost Woods. "Ocarina" is a fantastic piece of art we can enjoy while being aware that, like anything else, it's a product of a particular era and thus influenced by problematic views of the period.

New movies: thrillers, farmers, communists and Armstrong’s lie

Mon, 07 Oct 2013 15:52:00 +0000

TORONTO - The Toronto International Film Festival groups its more than 300 films into specific groupings, such as Contemporary World Cinema, Masters, TIFF Docs and a dozen more. And it's to be expected that bilingual Canada offers several French-language films from Quebec and other French-speaking regions of the country. Directors from these areas have honed their artistry and created some of the finest films at the festival.

This year that includes two from master Quebec director Denis Villeneuve, whose growing popularity has drawn him to Hollywood to make Prisoners, a thriller allegory about U.S. foreign policy featuring a dream cast including Hugh Jackman, Terrence Howard and Melissa Leo. Jake Gyllenhaal stars in both Villeneuve's films, the other being Enemy, another stunning thriller about a man who discovers his double.

Another Quebecois director worth watching is Sébastian Pilote, who presented Le Démantélement (Dismantling). A Quebec farmer (Gabriel Arcand) balances his personal life with his diminishing bank account and realizes it's time to pack it in. Life didn't unroll the way he planned, and his two daughters are recipients of his love and the few dollars he has left. It's a touching humanistic paean to farming, and an ode to the graceful demise of the independent farmer.

The latest from up-and-coming director Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy, Meek's Cutoff) is again a carefully paced introspective study of common people confronted with moral challenges. Night Moves is more political, though, following three environmentalists plotting to blow up a dam. At once both a moral study and a suspense thriller, the story focuses as much on the unexpected aftermath, the psychic dilemma that ultimately threatens to destroy the well planned scheme.

In a festival this size there are bound to be several biopics and documentaries about prominent figures. This year featured Jimi Hendrix and Simon Bolivar, Lech Walesa, Nelson Mandela and Lance Armstrong, to name a few.

Controversial biker Armstrong was featured in political documentary champion Alex Gibney's (Taxi To the Dark Side, Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room, Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer) newest investigation, The Armstrong Lie. Gibney lost faith among some progressives in his recent attack on Julian Assange in We Steal Secrets.

Eastern Europe was represented in Toronto by typical anti-communist diatribes, most obviously Walesa: Man of Hope, by Poland's master chronicler of everything bad about communism, Andrzej Wajda (Man of Iron, Man of Marble).

Another Polish master filmmaker, Agnieszka Holland (Europa, Europa, Olivier, Olivier), brought Burning Bush, a chronicle of everything bad about communism in 1969 Czechoslovakia, where a student protester sets himself on fire and a frightened regime tries to cover it up. Unstable Elements exposes everything bad about communism in current day Belarus, where "Europe's last dictator" hides out. The Belarus Free Theater produces shows that antagonize the authorities while gaining praise in the West.

Sort of a biography, but more an expose of Pat Robertson's self-serving involvement in Africa, is the highly entertaining and revelatory Mission Congo. Reminiscent of last year's expose of the international House of Prayer (that's right, IHOP) entitled God Loves Uganda, this one also shows the hypocrisy of religious cults supposedly saving souls but more likely filling pockets with money. Robertson shamelessly scams Rwandan refugees with a front organization, Operation Blessing, that covers up his real project of mining diamonds in a neighboring country.

Photo: Prisoners official site

Artist, teacher, Chicano activist, Jose Montoya made history

Mon, 07 Oct 2013 15:01:00 +0000

Much-beloved California artist, teacher, and former poet laureate of Sacramento, Jose Montoya died Sept. 25 at the age of 81. Montoya played a leading role in labor, the Chicano civil rights movement, and the arts since the 1960s.

Montoya was born in New Mexico in 1932. His family later moved to central California where he grew up. The family first moved to Delano, Calif., birthplace of the United Farm Workers, before eventually relocating to the town of Fowler, 10 miles outside of Fresno. From the time he was 9 years old, he worked alongside his family in the fields picking grapes. His mother worked stenciling images in churches and homes to supplement the family's income. Montoya assisted her in grinding pigments.

He later credited this experience as giving him his start as an artist.

After high school, Montoya, determined to not to become trapped working in the fields, enlisted in the Navy during the Korean War. After serving, he received GI Bill funds that enabled him to study at San Diego City College, and then to attend California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts) in Oakland to obtain a teaching credential.

In 1969, Montoya and colleagues Esteban Villa, Juanishi V. Orosco, Ricardo Favela, and Rudy Cuellar were teaching art in Sacramento and were frustrated with the marginalization of Chicano artists. That same year, the struggle of the farmworkers in California made front-page news, with leader Cesar Chavez bringing to light the abuse and exploitation of the thousands of Latino field workers laboring in California agriculture.

These artists formed an art collective which blossomed into a movement to support the budding farmworkers' union, producing many vibrant and iconic posters and images associated even today with the UFW, including the famous "HUELGA" eagle flag. The collective at first called itself the "Rebel Chicano Art Front" and used the initials RCAF on screen-printed posters as a signature. The initials were the same as those of the Royal Canadian Air Force and the collective often heard queries about their connection to Canada and its air force. In an ironic response, the artists embraced the concept and renamed themselves the Royal Chicano Air Force, creating a fictional quasi-military identity that also underscored the militant politics of the labor struggle they were involved in.

The artists obtained vintage U.S. Air Force uniforms and a World War II Jeep, producing a strong public image during the era's grape boycotts at grocery stores in California that gained the attention of the media. The artists also created a mobile art squad that loaded up a silk-screen press into a Volkswagen van, driving to agricultural sites and creating flags and posters for activists to use on the spot.

Despite their satirical military identity, the collective was committed to peaceful nonviolent work. Rudy Cuellar said, "Our bullets were our posters, our bombs were our prints." The artists also aligned their identity with the political activism of Mexican political muralists such as Jose Clemente Orozco, David Siquieros and Diego Rivera.

"Commandante" Jose Montoya would become an organizer for the UFW, spending Fridays and Saturdays at Safeway supermarket grape boycott picket lines. In addition to supporting the UFW, the RCAF, taking inspiration from programs started by the Black Panthers, launched "Breakfast for Niños," serving breakfast to schoolchildren in poor communities. They also started a community neighborhood art center in Sacramento - Centro De Artistas Chicanos - teaching silk-screening workshops and providing space to make art.

Montoya's fellow RCAF founder Juanishi Orosco, in the 1995 documentary on RCAF entitled "Pilots of Aztlán," said, "Cesar [Chavez[ recognized early on the importance of the artists' community and how to best utilize them for the United Farm Workers movement. We don't need to go back into the fields and help pick. Now we've moved beyond that. We're artists, and we can say things that relate on large scales and address specific issues with our talents."

Montoya taught and mentored students in arts and ethnic studies as a professor at Sacramento State University for 25 years. There he helped establish the Barrio Art Program, a hands-on university course of study that sends teaching students out into communities to teach art classes in under-served neighborhoods in a cross-cultural program.

On his death, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez and Paul Chavez, director of the Cesar Chavez Foundation, said, "We will always cherish Jose for how he inspired us as well as so many others through his art. But we will also remember him for the countless times when he walked picket lines, helped organize UFW events and fed the farmworkers during every major strike, boycott and political campaign. He was truly a servant of the farmworker movement and we will always be in his debt."

Jose Montoya talks about the Royal Chicano Air Force (produced by UNITYLab):

Online archives of the Royal Chicano Air Force.

Video of Jose Montoya reading from his celebrated bilingual poem "El Louie."

Photo: Poster by Jose Montoya announcing the "1,000-mile journey of our brother, Cesar Chavez," an event held in Merced, Calif., year not given. Online Archive of California/UC Santa Barbara

Skagos' “Anarchic” disregards the “laws” of its genre

Mon, 07 Oct 2013 14:45:00 +0000

Skagos is a Canadian black metal/folk metal band that focuses on nature, mysticism, and environmentalism. A part of the rapidly expanding Cascadian Black Metal scene, the two-member band released its second full album, Anarchic, this year. Composed of two musical pieces, each over 30 minutes in length, the release offers a poetic perspective on the current state of the natural world.

As per the album title, Skagos musicians Ray Hawes and Isaac Symonds continue onward in their own style, oblivious to the musical "laws" established by the traditional black metal artists that preceded them. Incorporating folk music and acoustic guitar sections into what is typically an abrasive subgenre of heavy metal is not easily done. Skagos are among the few artists who have mastered the technique. Black metal was, when it first developed in the 80's, a genre with a rigid set of rules; raw production, shrieked vocals, and heavily distorted guitar were its hallmarks. These aspects have always been attractive to fans of the genre, who were looking for something atypical and outside of the mainstream.

And yet, there are many musicians within the scene, like Skagos, who have decided to break away from that rigidity and integrate other elements into the overall sound.

Anarchic is demonstrative of that willingness to be creative and experimental, particularly in the lyrics department. They sing and scream about environmental degradation and the effects of humanity on wildlife:

I can't see whatever was here before there was trauma

All I can sense is the horrible motion of everything in existence,

flinching from injury, fleeing from the source of its pain

In rage, the sun teeters on the axis that sets it down

In rage, the mountain strains against the tether of the ground

In rage, the tree defies the soil in which it is bound

In rage...

But the songs eventually focus on an optimistic outlook, suggesting that nature is cyclical, and will someday revert to a pristine state:

We may topple the monolith of cedar

But from its crumbling bark and sodden core

rises a new chute, feeding on those who came before

From the dying heart will sprout a new seed

All its light will come to live within me,

and I must shine with it...

I am all my brothers and sisters of every kind

We are a circle and we must rise

Though Skagos never directly reference it, they evoke recent issues of environmental tampering, making one think of destructive operations like deforestation and mountaintop removal. Such thoughts, it turns out, aren't too far off the mark: Skagos have a progressive recent history, having previously recorded a split-release with black metal-bluegrass band Panopticon, whose recent songs deal with the anti-worker behavior of the coal mining industry and the industry's detrimental effects on the Appalachian region, particularly in Kentucky.

On that split, Skagos focus in particular on the forgotten or often blatantly disregarded cultures and traditions of Native Americans:

All I see are saplings shackled to stone,

a genocide of all we've sown

The last communities dance with the guile of wraiths...

Ancient fires are eclipsed,

but never are they extinguished,

as the embers of atavism smolder

As Ray Hawes put it in an interview last year, the songs simply offer an environmental perspective on what classic black metal was saying all along. "Black metal can be argued to have emerged as a cultural rejection and resistance to the status quo," he said. "It was always birthed of a deeply forlorn knowledge that things were not always as they are, and the idea that we may never again know what has been lost to us." Such an idea seems highly referential to the environmental purity that has been lost to the hands of oil corporations, coal mining companies, and other profit-driven groups that have taken away some of the natural beauty that once was. In critiquing such devastation, Anarchic conjures up some of that beauty once more.

Photo: Skagos Big Cartel site

<a href="http://skagos.bandcamp.com/album/anarchic" mce_href="http://skagos.bandcamp.com/album/anarchic">Anarchic by Skagos</a>

Saudi girl's story exposes oppression of women

Mon, 07 Oct 2013 10:58:00 +0000

In the foreground of this outstanding movie, an ordinary girl from a middle-income family aspires to own a bicycle. In the background, woman's oppression wraps its constricting coils around all the characters like an unconquerable anaconda. Wadjda's mother desperately clings to a marriage that many American women wouldn't have on a gold platter. Her stern teachers betray the contradictions in their rigid religious forbiddings. The other girls studying the Qur'an with Wadjda are threatened and humiliated for the slightest infraction such as painting their toenails!

The film audience cringes as Wadjda's flowering pre-teen youth is hammered with humiliations and denials of even the slightest sign of human growth. Wadjda, supremely aware of her great crime (being a girl), has to figure out how to assert herself, support her mother and the other females, defy authority, and assert her right to be a deserving human being.

Everybody in the movie, and everything that happens, tells Wadjda to give up. Everything says that women's oppression can't be can't be overcome whether in the extreme Saudi Arabian form or in the everyday discrimination we see at home.

Women's oppression, we are told, will continue to one degree or another as long as we live in class societies. At the same time, victories are possible. And Wadjda may get her bicycle!

"Wadjda"

Directed by Haifaa Al Mansou

97 minutes

Art project asks: Is capitalism working for you?

Fri, 04 Oct 2013 16:20:00 +0000

How's capitalism working for you?

That's the question a new interactive art installation will ask passersby in New York City's Times Square, October 6-9.

Sponsored by United for a Fair Economy (UFE), a national think tank concerned with issues of income inequality, the project is the brainchild of artist Steve Lambert. The presentation is part of the 2013 Crossing The Line Festival in conjunction with the Times Square Arts project.

The installation consists of a giant glitzy display stating "Capitalism works for me" with an electronic counter labeled "true" and "false." Participants are encouraged to think about the issue, vote one way or the other, and to discuss their answer. Volunteers will be on hand to encourage participation and to discuss issues of income inequality.

A UFE statement states, "Our country has fallen victim to historic levels of income and wealth inequality and is becoming a land of haves and have-nots. The question of which category you fall into is complex. But, most of us agree that inequality has gotten out of hand and needs to be addressed. The goal of this project is to more openly examine those complexities and bring the debate more into the public eye."

The project coincides with recent new data on the growing gap between rich and poor and the ongoing GOP-initiated government shutdown.

The display will run from noon to 7:00 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday, October 6-9, 2013 in the heart of Times Square.

Locked-out musicians "devastated" by director's resignation

Fri, 04 Oct 2013 16:08:00 +0000

MINNEAPOLIS (PAI) -- Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra, locked out of their jobs for the past year, were devastated by the Oct. 1 resignation of its music director, Osmo Vänskä, who quit when management refused to end the lockout in time for rehearsals for a concert at Carnegie Hall.

Vänskä's departure, which made clear that he sides with his orchestra, came the same day as another major organization, the New York City Opera, announced that a last-ditch month-long $7 million fundraising campaign had failed. The opera said it would shut down and cancel the rest of its season after its current opening production.

The lockout in Minnesota and the closure in New York are the latest developments in almost a decade of tension between musicians and boards of their orchestras. Other noted ensembles, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, have also slammed their union members. That orchestra declared bankruptcy at one point.

In Minneapolis, the director of the orchestra's Composer Institute, Aaron Jay Kernis, also resigned, saying he was "baffled and dismayed at what has been done to allow the dismemberment of this superb orchestra at the height of its powers."

Their announcements leave the Minnesota Orchestra, one of the nation's leading symphonies, in shambles, with many of its most talented artists having left for other venues. The locked out musicians, members of the Twin Cities Musicians Union, are holding their own concerts.

Vänskä resigned just a day after a pro-musician rally drew hundreds of people to downtown Minneapolis. Ray Hair, president of the Minnesota local's parent American Federation of Musicians, blasted the orchestra board for its demands - topped by a 25% pay cut and imposition of regressive work rules - and refusal to bargain.

"The board decided to use starvation as a weapon against defenseless orchestra musicians to force unjustified contract concessions unparalleled in the workplace of an orchestra of this stature," Hair told the rally. The board's lockout also deprived the musicians of health insurance coverage, AFM noted.

"The board has brought shame upon itself, upon the Twin Cities area, upon the state of Minnesota, and upon orchestra managements across the country. It has shown no remorse for the pain inflicted upon these great musicians," Hair added. He suggested area residents boycott the firms whose representatives sit on the board.

Vänskä's departure left the very upset musicians to issue an open letter to the city and the subscribers, posting it on their website. "It has been a devastating day for us all," their letter said, after noting they are "honoring a commitment we had made" to play an educational concert for orchestra and band students at a local high school.

"We know there is tremendous hurt, frustration, and anger in our community right now over the inability of everyone involved in this dispute to come to an agreement and bring the music back to Orchestra Hall. We know there is dismay, even among some who have supported the musicians throughout this ordeal, that we were unable to avert Osmo's resignation through some last-minute compromise. We have spent the past several weeks, and this past weekend in particular, in dogged pursuit of just such a compromise, but have found ourselves rebuffed at every turn," their statement said.

The parent AFM said the orchestra's management had bypassed and rejected mediation efforts by retired U.S. Sen. George Mitchell to solve the dispute.

"There will be a time, and it will be very soon, to begin dissecting the reasons these negotiations have led us to such a terrible pass, but tonight is not that time," the Minnesota musicians continued. "Tonight is a night to celebrate the remarkable tenure of Osmo Vänskä, to hold all that we accomplished together up to the light, and to reflect on what has been lost today...Thank you, Osmo, for everything."

Photo: In an undated photo, Osmo Vänskä leads members of the Minnesota Orchestra in practice at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. Brian Peterson /The Star Tribune/AP