politics

Great Escapes

Posted on

If you have paid any attention to the news lately, you would have to agree that “escape” would be the theme of the month.

Just about two weeks ago, a disaster occurred in the Gulf of Mexico which has caused millions of gallons of sweet crude oil to escape into the water. All plans thus far on stopping the flow have been for naught and the Gulf Region, five years after Katrina’s disaster, is facing another disaster, this time in many respects much more dire. A hurricane destroys structures but not an ecosystem. While shrimpers were able to recover from Katrina, shrimpers may not be able to recover from Deepwater Horizon. This story continues to unfold because oil continues to escape. BP, the company in charge, is trying today to drop a giant 100 ton concrete-and-steel box over the leak to cap it though no one knows if this will work because the leak is over 5,000 feat underwater and this has never been tried for a leak this deep. I guess we’ll see if it works (we now know it failed). I’ll be having some good old Creole food this weekend though because a fried oyster po’ boy just might be extinct pretty soon (I did – went to Acme for lunch and had a half shrimp / half oyster po’ boy with Uncle Bob’s red beans as my side).
Just about two days ago, a near disaster in Times Square almost occurred and the cause of said disaster, an American citizen that developed and placed the car bomb, tried to escape and was literally caught in his seat just as he was leaving the country on an Air Emirates “Islamabad via Dubai” flight. Only 53 hours passed by from the time of the attempt to the time the authorities captured Faisal Shahzad and that was almost too much. While many will trumpet how the bomber was an Islamic fundamentalist, most will never mention that the street vendor who alerted the police was not just a Vietnam Vet, he was among other things a Muslim. The fact that this almost happened in such a low tech way, and the speed in which the authorities responded, is both terrifying and gratifying. I’ve often said that while NYC is a tremendous target, the NYPD is a defacto small army and I feel safer here than anywhere else. Two weeks have passed and nothing has happened on either of the issues above, unluckily and luckily. You can check out the Big Picture’s dramatic photos of the continuing disaster in the Gulf. You can also walk through Times Square because nothing but a scare or two has happened since the attempted car bomb. We’ll see what the future brings. All I know is that terrorism wins when people adjust their lives. In the big scheme of things, the good will triumph over the evil. Society responds and unites because there is more that unites us than separates us.

movies

Too Many Summer Movies 2010

Posted on

Just in time for the summer blockbuster season is my list of movies that I will hopefully see either in the theatre or much more likely on my television screen at home. This is the fourth time I’ve made such a list and its been very helpful in remembering what movies I (at least at some point) wanted to see.
In updating these previous posts to cross off the movies I’ve actually seen, I was disappointed to note that I only saw 1 out of the 11 films I wanted to see over this past holiday season. Also, in the process of checking up on my viewing progress, I decided to rename two previous posts where the word “Winter” was replaced by “Holiday” as these movies covered the 2009/2010 holiday season and not winter (which is technically December 21st through March 21st).
So, here in order of release, here the 37 (!) films that I would like to watch this coming summer season: The Infidel, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, Babies (playing at “The Paris” – I hope to see it there as I’ve never been to that classic movie house before), Iron Man 2, Robin Hood, After the Cup: Sons of Sahknin United, Holy Rollers, Macgruber, Perrier’s Bounty, Solitary Man, Sex and the City 2, Agora, Micmacs, The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Get Him To The Greek, Killers, Whiz Kids, The A-Team, Jonah Hex, The Last Airbender, Twelve (must read book first), Cyrus, Despicable Me, Predators, Inception (new by Christopher Nolan – one of my favorite directors), Dinner for Schmucks (also known as any holiday meal – I kid, I kid…), Life During Wartime, Centurion, The Other Guys, Animal Kingdom, Down Terrace, The Expendables (starring Sly Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts and Mickey Rourke – I am not making this up), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, A Film Unfinished, The Freebie, The American, Born To Be A Star