Music Reviews: Billy Joel's Laura

Although I am something of a Billy Joel fan I hadn't heard this song until recently. "Laura" was on The Nylon Curtain album. The only songs I was familiar with from that album were the ones like "Allentown" and "Pressure" which got heavy radio play and "Goodnight Saigon" which shows up routinely on greatest hits compilations. The Nylon Curtain came out shortly after John Lennon's death. The album in general and this song in particular had a strong Beatles influence. The guitarists on "Laura" sound like George Harrison while Billy Joel appears to be doing his best John Lennon vocal impression. And the backup vocals are very Beatle-esque. All in all it sounds very much like something Lennon or McCartney could have written. The lyrics contain the only profanity which Joel had used up to that point, perhaps his only profanity ever as far as I know. Perhaps that is why I never heard this song on the radio back in the day.

For the longest time (heh-heh) Joel was cagey about what had inspired this song or what the lyrics meant to him. When pressed he would say that the lyrics could be about anyone (family member or romantic partner) who knew just when and where to push your buttons for maximum emotional damage. This might or might not be malicious on their part. After his mother's death, Joel admitted that the song was at least in part about his complicated relationship with her. As he mentioned the line about the umbilical cord should have been a dead giveaway. 

Movie Reviews: Oldboy, The Dark Corner

Oldboy
directed by Spike Lee

This is a remake of the classic South Korean movie of the same name. Sadly I hadn't seen the original in full because of an unfortunate chain of events with a now defunct video rental store. I was thus only slightly familiar with the story. I had no idea of any plot twists or turns, which of course won't be discussed here. I had heard mostly negative things about the Spike Lee remake. I was still willing to give this movie a chance because in some circles it's become popular to bash Spike Lee regardless of whether the film he directs is actually any good. I wanted to make up my own mind. Although there were certainly a few directorial choices I didn't care for, this remake of Oldboy wasn't anywhere near as bad as many people claimed. This film was a box office failure. I think that some people want Lee to only stick to a certain kind of movie. I think because the original is so iconic that some people wouldn't have cared for any American remake regardless of the producer or director. I might well feel the same way about a remake of the South Korean movie Train to Busan. 

But people probably shouldn't be so snobbish about remakes. People always like seeing movies in languages they understand with actors they already know. It's just human nature. And some important American movies like The Magnificent Seven are remakes. So just because it's a remake doesn't mean it's a bad movie. Just because it's a Spike Lee film doesn't mean it's a bad movie. There are just a few points in this movie where it's obvious to the casual viewer such as myself (not a film student or professional) that this is a Spike Lee film.

Movie Reviews: Flatliners, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Flatliners(2017)
directed by Niels Arden Oplev

Flatliners is a remake of the 1990 film of the same name that starred such Hollywood luminaries as Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Oliver Platt, and Kevin Bacon among others. The story is a familiar one. People cross boundaries that shouldn't be crossed. Initially the people who broke the rules seem to be doing well. In fact they are doing better than ok. They have abilities and knowledge that can't be explained. But there's no such thing as a free lunch. The transgressors start to have problems. Big problems. There are things that we aren't meant to know. Hopefully the smarter or more moral of the protagonists can find the key to making things right before everyone has to pay with their lives or sanity. 

There aren't too many surprises when a story adheres to this theme.  What counts is the style, not the details. Flatliners starts out with style and creepiness but almost immediately falls back on the same generic jump cuts and did or didn't I see that spookiness that make up the majority of horror/thriller movies today. This movie was almost the definition of bland. A medical student is fascinated with the idea of what lies beyond the limit of death. There is still some brain activity beyond the point of what we call death. What's going on in the brain for those few seconds?

Movie Reviews: Project Almanac, Dunkirk

Project Almanac
directed by Dean Israelite

This older sci-fi film works the same side of the street as such stories/films as A Sound of Thunder and to a lesser extent Looper and Predestination. Unlike the two latter films Project Almanac doesn't have any deeper underlying story or external clash between good and evil. The struggles are almost entirely internal and prosaic. It's been too long since I've  read any physics texts or explanatory books but my understanding is that although faster than light travel is impossible time travel into the past may well be possible. There's some books on this I'm looking forward to reading in the near future that will hopefully explain some of this stuff in layman terms that I might more easily understand. College physics was a long time ago. The problem with time travel of any sort though is causality. If you are already here than obviously you can't go back in time and kill your grandparents before they had your parents because apparently you already failed. And everything that exists today is the result of an infinite number of decisions that were taken by many different people as well as chance. If you change any of those inputs, perhaps you don't have the same outcome. Or perhaps you can't change the outcome in your universe but do so in another universe. Perhaps there are an infinite number of universes that branch off from every possible decision made by every human who ever existed or who ever will exist. We may never know.

Project Almanac examines those questions. Rather than place the characters in a dystopia where government agents or hit men are the time travellers, this movie puts the time travelling protagonists in high school. 

Trump's Tax Bill Passes

The Republican Tax bill passed the House and Senate. Trump will soon sign it. I've written elsewhere about why I think it's not a very good idea. I'll probably save a few bucks. Some very wealthy people I know will save much more. Most of the people I know will probably break even, give or take a few hundred dollars. I do not think that the change in tax policy will bring about the alleged stated benefits. We've run this experiment many times before, most recently in Kansas. Supply-side economics doesn't work. I do think that Republicans will use the increased deficits to justify slashing their real targets of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. You can read for yourself why my favorite economist believes that this "tax reform" is a terrible, horrible, very bad, no good policy move, here, here and here. I'm not necessarily interested in rehashing all of that though obviously I generally agree with his take. There were three points that intrigued me about the tax bill and the Democratic reaction to it.

While driving home listening to Democratic or liberal politicians and pundits on various SIRIUS XM stations, I was grimly bemused by how many of them were outraged that the Republicans were able to pass this bill without a single Democratic vote. They seemed to think that this was proof positive that the bill was illegitimate. Well, what goes around comes around. Republicans used the same talking point about passage of the PPACA. Democrats were just as scornfully dismissive of those complaints then as Republicans are today. What matters is do you have the votes. And Republicans did. 

John Henry

John Henry was a little baby, sitting on his papa's knee
He picked up a hammer and little piece of steel
Said "Hammer's gonna be the death of me, Lord, Lord
Hammer's gonna be the death of me"

The captain said to John Henry
"Gonna bring that steam drill 'round
Gonna bring that steam drill out on the job
Gonna whop that steel on down, Lord, Lord
Gonna whop that steel on down"

John Henry told his captain
"A man ain't nothing but a man
But before I let your steam drill beat me down
I'll die with a hammer in my hand, Lord, Lord
I'll die with a hammer in my hand""

Now the man that invented the steam drill
Thought he was mighty fine
But John Henry made fifteen feet
The steam drill only made nine, Lord, Lord
The steam drill only made nine

John Henry hammered in the mountains
His hammer was striking fire
But he worked so hard, he broke his poor heart
He laid down his hammer and he died, Lord, Lord
He laid down his hammer and he died

John Henry" is a folk-blues song that is more closely associated with the Appalachian-Piedmont blues tradition than the Mississippi one. Like many of the best folk songs, it may have been based on real life events. It was certainly used as a rallying song during the civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties. It has foreboding, superhuman heroic acts, and of course, death. In the very first stanza of the song the hero, then just a child, knows that he's not long for this life and will die in a heroic sacrifice. Of course, the nature of the sacrifice is debatable, especially in today's post-industrial world where physical labor often is considered suitable only for people not smart enough to do anything else. There are many different interpretations of this song. As with most blues songs there are several different lyrical variations. But every version hits the key points. John Henry was a steel driving man who, when threatened with loss of his livelihood via automation, takes up the challenge and beats the machine, but only at the cost of his life.

Book Reviews: The Escape

The Escape
by David Baldacci

This was another book that I picked up on sale. Although it was part of a series, and not the first, I didn't know that before I purchased it. And it really does stand alone. There was never a point in this story where I thought that I should have read the other books before reading this one. The author gives you just enough back story to let you know the major points. But because of the how the story is set up and progresses, there's really very little back story needed. So if you are a person who normally refuses to read an installment in a series before you've read the first one I don't think you'll need to adhere to that rule in this case. If you do you'll miss an entertaining story.

This book opens up with a bang, literally. In Leavenworth, Kansas there is a very bad thunderstorm. During this storm the generators and the backup power supply go out at the United States Disciplinary Barracks. That's not supposed to happen, ever. All the cell doors open. There are apparently shots fired. And that's pretty scary because none of the guards are supposed to have guns at this military prison. When power is restored, the guards do a headcount. It looks like every prisoner is accounted for except for one, perhaps the most important prisoner. Disgraced Air Force Major Robert Puller, previously convicted of treason and espionage, is missing. And there's an unidentified dead man in his cell. Until his conviction, Robert Puller, a certifiable genius, was on the fast track to high rank and great responsibility in the Air Force. Robert's areas of expertise included military intelligence, WMD verification and cyber-security. Robert would have been one of the youngest Lieutenant Colonels, youngest Colonels and eventually one of the youngest Generals. But right now Robert is just an escaped convict whose capture is considered one of the nation's highest national security priorities.