Wall E
If you are like me and wonder how Pixar can pull off one creative blockbuster after another, here is an interesting peek behind the scenes of the studio. In an interview the writer and director of Finding Nemo and Wall E, Andrew Stanton, intimates that Finding Nemo did not work as a film until very late in the production process when creative team figured late in the production process that they needed to change the personality of Memo of give the film its captivating dramatic force. Pixar movies, we learn, are not the superb product from day one, but gradually improve. Wall E took over a decade from the initial conception to the completed film. The finished product is yet again a masterpiece. Unlike previous Pixar films, Wall E has a dead serious subject. Planet earth is a post-apocalyptic rubble field, inhabitable by humans. The only creatures left behind is the little robot Wall-E and a cockroach that roam what appears to be the greater New York area.
“Socialism arrives in America”
Maureen Dowd commenting on the meeting at the White House last week.
It was quite a memorable moment in history for the M.B.A. president and the nominee of the party of business. Who would have dreamed that when socialism finally came to the U.S.A. it would be brought not by Bolsheviks in blue jeans but Wall Street bankers in Gucci loafers.
Continue Reading3:10 to Yuma
To test the picture quality of a Blue-Ray high definition TV video disc, I watched 3:10 to Yuma. This western, starring Russel Crow and Christian Bale, has beautiful landscape photography that is much sharper on Blue-Ray than anything I have seen on TV before. The film itself was pretty mediocre except for the last 20 minutes, when it becomes psychologically interesting. Good and evil suddenly turn and you don
Reactions to the first Presidential Debate
I thought that McCain was very weak during the Republican convention. He exceeded my expectation today. He was quite good in separating himself from Bush. I don’t agree with McCain and I want Obama to win the presidency. But today’s debate was a tie in my view. Once again MCain proved that he can speak intelligently about foreign policy but simply recycles Ronald Reagan statement on the economy. The most interesting summary of reaction to the debate was published on Time.com.
John McCain: Drama Queen
I don’t remember a time in my life time were a non-violent event caused so dramatic a situation as the financial crisis that is unfolding in the U.S. right now. Mickey Kaus captures well on Slate.com the fickleness of John McCain:
Drama Queen: No convention today! ... OK, it’s on! ... The economy’s sound… No, wait, it’s going to fall apart unless I go to Washington tomorrow! ... We need a commission! ... We need to fire somebody! ... Get me Andrew Cuomo! ... I want ten more debates! ... But let’s postpone the one we’ve scheduled! ... Do you get the impression a McCain presidency would be a bit exhausting? ...
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JUICY BITS: Cheney Unchained
The best details from Barton Gellman’s new book on the vice president.
By Juliet Lapidos (Slate.com)
It’s often said on late-night TV that given Dick Cheney’s cardiovascular problems, George W. Bush is just a heartbeat away from the presidency. In his new book, Angler, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barton Gellman suggests that this joke contains more than just a grain of truth. By immersing himself in details about national security and numerous other hot-button issues that the president was too lazy or too incurious to study, Cheney often managed to position himself as the real “decider.”
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