The Weekly Commuter

George Bush speaks American

Shouldn’t you?

In need of a cloud
to carry us –
the kind that keep
a hold and move
like the wide world, so
imperceptibly slow,
past planets small
as stars, with the earth
so far below somehow
life stills,
the swirls of white
on blue
obscuring the shapes
of landmasses
we learned in school.

Usually I am a big fan and am glad you returned to Salon.com after a five-year hiatus. Recently, however, you wrote something that called into question your aesthetic taste:

A quite different film that I’ve recently enjoyed re-seeing and studying is “Revenge of the Sith” (2005) from George Lucas’ “Star Wars” saga. The climactic light-saber duel between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi on the volcano planet of Mustafar (with footage of actual explosions and lava flows at Mount Etna in Sicily) is nearly mystically sublime in the High Romantic sense. The convulsive, manly passion between the two tortured Jedi is hyper-sustained by John Williams’ powerful music. Then there’s Anakin’s shocking mutilation and Wagnerian immolation, leading to the grisly Frankenstein surgery that turns him into Darth Vader and that is cross-cut with a parallel hospital sequence, as Anakin’s wife, Padme, dies while giving birth to the twins Luke and Leia.

 

It’s amazing how much primal emotion Lucas is able to generate from such scenes. The finale of “Sith,” with an adoptive couple tenderly cradling the infant Luke (separated from his sister) as they stand before a brilliant sunset, is reminiscent of “Gone With the Wind,” produced at a time when Hollywood could speak in universal emotions (rather than cheap irony) to a mass audience.

My God, woman, have you lost your mind? To say you enjoy studying Revenge of the Sith is akin to saying you enjoy studying the back of a box of Fruit Loops.

The only emotion Lucas generates in the final scenes is astonishment. How could he accomplish so little when supplied with an abundance of film’s raw materials: story, character, and budget? The “light-saber and lava” eye-candy only distracts us from an awful love story and tepid attempt at tragedy.

There is more emotional resonance in Obi-Wan and Vader’s second light-saber duel in A New Hope. Sure, it’s now rendered implausibly tame by the prequels, but it stands for much more in terms of story and plot. Hayden Christensen’s acting doesn’t convince me of Anakin’s passion. Ewan McGregor, normally a fine actor, made the best out of a bad dialogue. You’d find more of the “mystically sublime” and “manly passion” playing the video game Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast.

The effort, the deep down-hinge of wings
a sea sigh
we feel
as the osprey rise
ever higher, into thinner
atmospheres, and
we can’t remember, sand
in the corners of our eyes.

Great post by Timothy Egan of The New York Times pinpointing exactly why Mitt Romney’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination failed:

Anti-Mormon bias on the part of evangelical Christians, who believe the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to be a cult. In the eyes of these evangelicals Mormonism isn’t even a religion, let alone the one true.

No surprise that Huckabee cleaned up in the Deep South. Evangelical Christians there would rather vote for a mule than a Mormon.

Referencing the much-ballyhooed speech Romney gave last December, Egan writes, “If [Romney] had been honest on [the issue of his religion], addressing it head on, perhaps his fate would have been different.”

Mr. Egan needs to keep in mind though that as an upstanding member of the LDS Church it was impossible for Mitt Romney to speak publicly about his religion. Public discussion of the tenets of Mormonism is just not something Latter-Day Saints are allowed to do. Their leaders seriously frown upon such discourse.

When the playwright and filmmaker Neil LaBute had “Bash: Latter-Day Plays” produced and performed in 1999, he was not only disfellowshipped but also approached by members of his church who told him not to write anything involving Mormons again. An impossibility for Mr. LaBute, certainly, whose work has nevertheless, with the exception of “Bash,” steered clear of using the words ‘Mormon’ or ‘Latter-Day Saint’ or ‘Mormonism’ while at the same time embodying many of the themes consistent with the oldest home-grown American religion.

To tell the world what Mormons believe would have put Romney at odds with his church leaders, his childhood, all the memories, good and bad, he had of growing up and staying true to his family, his people. In essence he would have been ratting out those he cared about most: Saints the world over.

And now he’s out, and will we ever see a Mormon in the White House? Someday, perhaps, someday.

Night and herons pass
between trees,
the intermittent bus,
with its dim
foci, approaching.

Home, by unfamiliar
roads, in the clearing
the low moon
shows. Routine
passengers drift
near sleep. Alert
to passing time, I am
awake with the wait.

Have you ever been outbid in the final moments of an eBay auction?

You were probably auction sniped.  Sure, it’s likely someone was up at 3am, clicking refresh every few minutes, waiting patiently to torpedo your bid for the 1969 release of The Stooges.

But why bother? It’s much easier to sign up for one of several auction sniping services.  Just give them the item number and a maximum price you’re willing to pay.  Then, seconds before the end of an auction, the automated process places your bid.  No more fumbling with page reloads. No more emotional outbidding wars.  No more bidding at work.  No more lost sleep.

Now, I can’t vouch for any of these services, as I haven’t used them.  Caveat Emptor.

One side effect of auction sniping is that it reduces the chance of counter bids, as other bidders often do not have time to react.  Without counter bids to help drive up the final price, sellers make less money.  However, I suppose a low price is better than no price.

I don’t see how sniping is all that bad.  It is essentially automating a task you could do yourself, if you wanted to park yourself in front of the screen and hover over the “Place Bid” button. It requires evaluating the maximum value of an item well before bidding, which emphasises rational behaviour over the need to outbid an adversary.

The winner of an auction still comes down to a maximum bid, not beating the clock.

In hammocks you collect
ceilings, my hairweight
household (especially us
sigh gnats – littlemouthed
to sound
to us
like much). All thin fingers,
you spin wooly air
nets – not so high,
not quite as carefully,
whine lazy passersby –
the cat, a sound wave,
a broom, the usual roomful
of interested
in the day to day, the way
webs take influence easily.

The other day NPR was interviewing Republican voters in the state of Northern Florida (as opposed to the state of Northern Minnesota) about the current field of GOP candidates. Who would these voters pick if the primary were held that very moment? The views were decidedly mixed. Most every voter interviewed admitted that he or she was undecided. Only one voter was certain of who he would choose come January 29….Mitt Romney.

So why Mitt?

“He looks presidential,” this voter was quoted as saying. “He talks presidential, he acts presidential. He just seems like a president.”

(As opposed to, say, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.)

Looks presidential. Talks presidential.

Looks presidential.

Let’s face it: the other nominees–McCain, Giuliani–look like they’re getting up there in years. In McCain’s case it’s actually happening: the former senator from Arizona, whose Wikipedia page does a good job of deemphasizing his birth date (one could even argue that the birth date is somewhat hidden, appearing at the bottom of McCain’s wiki-resume and not at the top as is the standard) is a whopping 71 years old. Though Giuliani is only 63 he too looks the worse for wear (September 11th took a lot out of him, apparently).

Now there’s Huckabee. He’s certainly the youngest–younger even than Romney–at 52, and he looks his age as well (he’s the man who, after all, lost all those pounds), but come on, could you really hail a President Huckabee? It would be like having a President Kaybee or President May in the Oval Office. Just not gonna happen.

But Romney. President Romney. Nice. Sounds good. Good name. Good image. Looks presidential, like the voter said. Strong. Doesn’t have big ears, still has all his hair. Looks like a guy who will lead us out of darkness, or at least turn the game around. Why, Romney sounds like a football player (I know Steve Young will vote for him).

Which is why Romney, age 60, will win the Republican nomination, no doubts here. McCain has age against him. Huckabee has his last name. Giuliani has his…well, have you seen his face lately?

Only Romney, out of all the presidential contenders in the GOP field, has the two things that matter most in America now: looks and money.

Looks and money. Huh. I like that. So should you.

And the floodgates open.

Macworld is over. Boo-hoo-hoo-dee-doo.

I went. I walked around. This is what it looked like:

I stayed for an hour and thirty-five minutes, and when I at last emerged from Moscone Center South I had this sneaky sense that I should get more into, you know, technology. There’s a whole other world out there, man.

The most accessible “booth” I encountered during my travels had to have been the Best Buy station. Not only were helpful staff on hand to answer all of my pressing questions, of which I had none, but the highlight of the presentation centered on two DJs, VJ Culture and David Starfire (cool name, that).

These guys were spinning like we were in Dallas all over again! Sadly, the several patrons who had gathered to watch–with the exception of one slightly head-bopping gentleman in a polo shirt that wasn‘t dark blue–did not share in the button-musicians’ enthusiasm for the sights and sounds on display. But the presenters tried, you gotta hand ‘em that on a plate.

The Best Buy show was actually, I’m pretty sure, a demonstration of some kind of new technology that I had not the patience to hang around and discover. I kept moving. Found out the iTrip my girlfriend and I got for Christmas is already obsolete: there’s a new gadget that will play your iPod in the car without any static while charging it! The device is brought to you by a company called Kensington and I was told all I had to do was go to the iLounge (I assume this is an online spot, but I could be wrong) to find out the nitty-gritty.

Other than that, I can’t say much else gave me pause at this year’s Macworld. If there’s something you think I missed, do let me know.