Sunday, September 29, 2013

Breaking Sad – Looking To Life After Breaking Bad


First appeared on Blogcritics.



felina 2I woke up this morning – a beautiful day here in the New York City area – and I felt a deep (and it will probably be an abiding) sadness. While I have anxiously waited for this day to arrive, facing the series finale of Breaking Bad also elucidates an irrefutable fact: after today there will be no more new shows. That is why this morning I am breaking sad and then some.


Recently on AMC there has been a Breaking Bad marathon, which has allowed BB junkies like myself a chance to flip on the TV and drop into an episode. Now, while I have seen them all over the years, it is like catching up with an old friend. How much fun it was to see Jesse (Aaron Paul) jumping out the neighbor’s window in episode 1 of season 1, after having a fling with the woman next door to the meth lab where Hank (Dean Norris) and the DEA were arresting his accomplice. Walter White (Bryan Cranston), along for a ride with his brother-in-law to see what his job is like, incredulously watches Jesse jump into the street, the woman throwing his clothes after him, and he utters the line “Pinkman?”


To say that scene brought a smile to my face was an understatement, but it was followed by a precipitous frown when I recalled how Walt says “Pinkman” in an entirely different way in episode 14 of season 5, basically giving up the guy who was like an adopted son to him. In a way it’s a great qualifier, how far we came from those first episodes, which while having drama and danger seemed to have much more humor in them. In this recent season the specter of fear and death are unrelenting, with only Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) providing any glint of smile for me. Now, with him packed off to Omaha to manage a Cinnabon for unsuspecting customers, any hope of humor is gone for episode 16.


felina 1I suppose I saw this coming, knew all along that things would end poorly, but you live sometimes in a fog of your own creation. Sooner or later all of Walt’s actions had to coalesce into one big mushroom cloud of accountability, but the collateral damage may be just too much for us (well, at least me) to take. Not only am I facing the fact that some characters on the show are in danger of imminent death (Skyler, Jesse, Walt. Jr., Holly, Huell, and yes, even Walt) but I am also dealing with knowing tomorrow morning means Breaking Bad is done. Yes, there will be the inevitable DVD collection – one which promises to have amazing extras as well – but it won’t be the same any more. No new episodes mean exactly what it is – the end!


I have allowed myself (with two young children there is no other way to say it) to get pulled into the extended viewing of only certain TV series. I pick and choose mostly because I don’t have the time to become invested in too many shows because they take serious time away from other things (like playing with toys or watching Disney Junior). So the shows that I chose and have loved that have ended their run – 24, The Sopranos, The Shield, Lost – are gone and, while I felt some loss afterwards about their absence, it is nothing compared to Breaking Bad.


I suppose I became inextricably involved with these characters because show creator and executive producer Vince Gilligan saw to it that these people living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, became so real. Whether the characters were good or bad and if they were regular players or even just briefly seen, a visceral connection was made that kept me wanting more. That is a credit to Gilligan, the writers, directors, and actors. This series became an addiction, and I think that is why now, facing the inevitable end, I am not prepared for my ensuing and painful withdrawal in life without the show.


The thought of character deaths is also disturbing (whether they are actual deaths or disappearances). I don’t like that Huell is just gone, like Richie Cunningham’s brother on Happy Days who ran upstairs with his basketball and was never seen again. No explanation, nothing. I hope (and it will be difficult and probably impossible) loose ends like Huell are tied up, but I am not counting on it. Maybe we will see more of Huell in Better Call Saul, the new show coming from Vince Gilligan that I am assuming will have lots more humor thanks to Odenkirk’s presence.


As for now I fear that we will see annihilation in tonight’s episode that will be unprecedented in a TV series. Yes, one can say that almost everyone died on Lost, but that was more a case of perception and the characters (and the audience) catching up to what was a pretty obvious fact all along. Here we have living and breathing people, characters we have come to care about deeply, and they are not safe – and read this carefully: none of them are safe. None of them.


I believe that “justice” will be fleeting because this is Breaking Bad and not some series that was written by guys who forgot what the characters did in the last episode. There has been an arc of accountability on this show, and eventually people get what’s coming to them – think Gus, Mike, Tuco, the twins, and so on. However, there are also those who didn’t deserve to die but did so anyway – Gale, Jane, Drew Sharp, and Andrea. The truth is that, unlike on other shows, anyone was expendable at anytime.


Therefore, I believe there will be a bloodletting tonight. I think Skyler, Walt, Jesse, and even Walt Jr. are on the list to meet their maker. I also feel like Gilligan (who wrote and directed “Felina”) will make sure that Todd, Uncle Jack, and company are cut to shreds by a man dying of cancer who happens to have an M60 machine gun. Lydia, Gretchen, and Elliot will probably be spared – as a way of saying that the machinations of the bigger world will go on, even as some people live and some people die.


felina 3My thinking is the survivors will be Marie, baby Holly, and Brock. Wouldn’t they make a stranger than strange family unit? One has to never forget that Drew Sharp died for nothing, and when Gilligan took that giant step – allowing Todd (Jesse Plemons) to shoot the kid for no other reason than target practice, we went where we never expected to go. If that kid on the bike could be shot like that, anything is possible and anyone can die.


So now we are facing the end of Breaking Bad. I am sure there will be plenty of tears at 10:15 EST, and then we can all tune into Talking Bad directly afterwards and watch Chris Hardwick try to make sense of it all. Get out the Kleenex and beverage of your choice and prepare yourself for “Felina.” Unless I am wrong, none of us will have ever seen anything like it and perhaps never will again.


Photo credits: AMC

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Breaking Bad Finale – Blacker Than Night Were the Eyes of “Felina”


First appeared on Blogcritics.


bad 15 ii



As we lurch toward the series finale of Breaking Bad, episode 16 of season 5 entitled “Felina,” the anticipation is worse than waiting for the ketchup to drop from that bottle of Heinz (many of you probably don’t even remember that commercial with the Carly Simon soundtrack). The point being that we are all waiting impatiently and being inundated with predictions about what will happen, but judging the entire arc of the story that creator and executive producer Vince Gilligan has given us, there are no safe bets anymore; however, there is the knowledge that due to Gilligan's respect for the fans, the ending will no doubt be a way to tie up loose ends as well as satisfy them.


bad 15 ivLuck seems to always be an elusive thing, but as I was driving today and changing the radio channels, I heard “El Paso,” an old song by Marty Robbins. I remembered the song very well, and was struck that the story of a doomed cowboy involved a woman named Felina. Once I got home I went online and looked up the lyrics to go over the song again, and it struck me as a fine qualifier for what has been going on in the series, and perhaps what will play out in the finale.


“Blacker than night were the eyes of Felina/Wicked and evil while casting a spell.” While the song is about a woman who drives a man to kill, in the series Walter White (Bryan Cranston) has been driven to kill by something that has cast a spell over him as well – one could call it greed or the desire to be finally acknowledged. Walt’s own belief is that everything he has done has been for love, much like the cowboy in the song, but for both of them a dangerous thing called pride gets in the way.


Gilligan has always noted that Breaking Bad is like a modern western, and isn’t it odd that the cowboy in the song escapes from town and hides out in “the badlands of New Mexico?” Of course, I could be grasping at straws here, but in search for something definitive about the finale, and wondering just what Walt will do with that M60 machine gun, the song just captured my imagination and I could picture Gilligan (who wrote and directed the finale) listening to this song as he decided to make “Felina” the title.


By now so many theories have been put out there, and they all can seem valid enough. There are those on Team Walt who, even after all that has happened, would like to see him walk away, get a miracle remission for the cancer, and end up sitting on a beach sipping cocktails as Hans Gruber imagined in Die Hard, only he hoped to be earning interest as well on his ill-gotten money. The others, whether they are Team Hank or Team Jesse or whatever, want to see Walt pay with a pound of flesh and then some. Maybe none of them have it right, or maybe they all do. Who knows at this point?


bad 15We have had some pretty despicable protagonists in TV series in recent memory, including Dexter Morgan (Dexter), Tony Soprano (The Sopranos), and Vic Mackey (The Shield). None of them receive true justice at the end of the respective series; however, their endings could be seen as ambiguous enough that there is no lasting happiness. Attribute it to DVD and merchandise sales, or the fact that producers fear pulling the plug in case there is a down the road film planned, but nonetheless this seems to be a pattern. I do believe that Gilligan thinks very highly of the show’s fans, but he must realize that there will be no pleasing all of them no matter how it all plays out.


In terms of climax for the series, a bloodletting could be as satisfying as the last scenes of Hamlet where virtually everyone goes down. People who have felt Walt was a victim of cancer, of Elliot and Gretchen Schwartz, of poor medical coverage, of a brother-in-law who thought he was a geek, and even an overbearing wife, would no doubt like to see Walt erupt in one final Rambo with the big gun sequence, blowing away the control centers that have ruined his life. We also cannot forget that Uncle Jack and Todd and their Nazi friends robbed him of most of his money, so there is also that indignity to set right (and Jack killed Hank and Todd killed Andrea).


When Walt returns, like the gunslinger coming back into town in “El Paso,” everyone will be gunning for him. In the song the cowboy is no match for the posse that guns him down, but here I think Gilligan will twist the story around. There will definitely be confrontations for Walt, and I for one would like to see Walt confront Elliot and Gretchen and Lydia (who wanted Todd to kill Skyler and the kids). Surely there must be enough ricin for the three of them. Then there is Uncle Jack, who forced Walt into a handshake to show things were okay between them. Walt did not look at Jack as they shook hands, but instead stared into the camera in his best Heisenberg scowl to let us know nothing was okay in the least.


The final showdown could be Walt against the Nazis with the machine gun, but then I remembered season one in the very first episode, when Walt took care of the drug dealers by using his intelligence instead of any brawn. Maybe while Jack and all of his buddies are sitting around watching The Jesse Pinkman Show on the big TV, Walt will use the ricin on them. We cannot be sure how it will play out, and that is the exciting and frustrating thing for us as we all wait.


There is, of course, the question as to if Walt will survive. I think the song “El Paso” ends in the same way that the series will. Shot in the chest and dying, the cowboy manages to crawl into Felina’s arms.

From out of nowhere Felina has found me,
Kissing my cheek as she kneels by my side.
Cradled by two loving arms that I'll die for,
One little kiss and Felina, good-bye.


Walt has told Skyler (Emmy winner Anna Gunn) that she is the love of his life, and everything he has done, whether or not it is actually true to us, we know that Walt believes (and I think will do so until his last breath) he did for her and the family. The ending of the series demands to finish almost the way it started, but in a tragic manner. How fitting if a wounded and dying Walt makes it into Skyler’s arms for that last kiss.


True fans will recall the scene of Walt and Skyler in bed in episode 1 of season 1. After a horrific day where he cooked meth and killed drug dealers, Walt comes home exhausted but somehow invigorated by it all. He makes love to Skyler with obviously unprecedented exuberance, and Skyler asks, “Walt, is that you?” Sadly, as the grizzled Walt with beard and curly hair comes to her one last time, she may pose the same question to the dying man who thinks he did it all for love.


In the end what will we take away from Breaking Bad? Is it that a good man broke bad for all the right reasons (providing for his family), without envisioning that the actions he was taking would bring hellfire down upon them all? Or is it that Walt always had Heisenberg simmering within him, and that all he needed to do was have something, like in his chemistry class, start a chemical reaction to bring forth his inner Mr. Hyde?


I will have much more to say after the series finale of Breaking Bad, but until then I will leave you with the sign-off I used for every article I wrote about the amazing series 24.

Klaatu barada nikto.

Photo credits: robbins-wikipedia; Cranston –AMC

Monday, September 23, 2013

TV Review: Breaking Bad – “Granite State” of Mind



First appeared on Blogcritics.


granite 5Oh, if only Breaking Bad had ended in episode 14, with the image of Walt waiting for the "vacuum" man or looking at his reflection in the side view mirror of the van, driving off into a sunrise with the dog running across the road afterwards. We could be left to all sorts of thoughts about what happens, what the fate of each character would be, and we would not have to descend into a far more horrific place than depicted in “Ozymandias.” Of course, series creator and executive producer Vince Gilligan is not having any of that. He wants to take us deeper into the nightmare world that Walter White (Bryan Cranston), chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin, hath wrought.

Episode 15, “Granite State,” opens as slickly as any previous one ever, using the device of deflecting us from the scene we are waiting to see for one we get. The “vacuum” guy’s van pulls into a deserted looking warehouse (is there any other kind on TV?). We get a glimpse of him for the first time (an excellent Robert Forster) who slides open the van door to allow – Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) passageway. We were expecting to see Walt and we get Saul, who also is making himself disappear, in his case to Nebraska.

Saul gives the episode brief humor, expressing surprise that the “vacuum” guy does indeed repair vacuums in the vast warehouse. He also changes people’s identities to help them go off the spectrum, and we discover Walt is still waiting downstairs because his case is the most difficult one Mr. Hoover has ever handled.

granite 2Saul and Walt have their usual testy exchange. Saul explains that Skyler (Anna Gunn) and the kids are forced to live outside a now gated-off house (recall the flash-forward of episode 9). Walt seems upset by this, thinking that they would be okay with the house and their bank accounts (now frozen). Saul tells him to turn himself in to make it easy on the family, but Walt tells him it’s not over and that Saul is going with him, but Saul wants no part of it. Walt begins having a coughing fit, and Saul takes his cue to grab his luggage and make flight to Omaha where he plans on being a manager of a Cinnabon.

granite 4Meanwhile we see Marie being driven home by some DEA agents, and she is told that they have every intention of finding Hank and Steve. Marie is visually despondent, and then as they pull up to her house, it is obvious there has been a break in (by Todd and Uncle Jack to retrieve Jesse’s confession tape). Marie is whisked off to safety, apparently also as homeless as Sklyer and her children.

Skyler sits with her lawyer and prosecutors, and they are discussing the case. All the details are lost to her as she sort of zones out, thinking about everything that has happened. Walt has exonerated her in the phone call, but she is left with the detritus of his nefarious deeds. With no place to live and working part-time as a taxi dispatcher, using her maiden name, and facing all sorts of obstacles, Walt has left the family he professed to love so much in a precarious situation.

Later on Skyler will confront masked intruders in her hotel room. Todd and friends have come to give her a message – not to ever speak of Lydia (Laura Fraser) who came to the car wash. Skyler is distraught as the men in black hover over baby Holly’s crib (Hasn’t this kid been through enough?), and she promises that she will say nothing. Todd, in his best Richie Cunningham voice, tells her he will have to come back if she does. Once they leave Skyler grabs Holly and almost breaks down. How much more can she endure?

granite 3Walt arrives in the “Granite State” in the belly of a propane truck, crawling out into the bright New Hampshire sunshine and shielding his eyes like a denizen of hell brought back to earth. Walt has traded one stark landscape – the New Mexico desert – for the bleak, snow covered mountains not far from Canada. Hoover tells Walt it is a nowhere place, perfect for him to relax and think about things. “It’s really kind of beautiful,” Hoover tells him, but Walt is in no mood to appreciate the scenery.

Walt is ensconced in what one could only describe as an alternate prison cell. With no phone, radio, TV, or Internet, he is virtually cut off from the world. In this small wooden cabin he has basic amenities – a wood stove, a refrigerator, and a bathroom – but it certainly resembles a jail cell. This is Walt’s lot because he is a wanted man, his face splashed on every newspaper, TV show, and tabloid. Hoover promises to come back in one month, and warns him that if he leaves the cabin and goes down the road to town that he will be caught.

Back in New Mexico Jesse (Aaron Paul) is desperate to escape Todd, Uncle Jack, and all the rest of the Nazi Cunninghams that have taken him prisoner. Using a paper clip, his figures how to undue his shackles, and manages to flee the hole that he had been cast into. Unfortunately, as he tries to run for it, his image is caught on a security camera, and Todd and crew are hot on his trail. He begs them to kill him, but they have a better idea.

granite 1At this point Jesse has suffered more slings and arrows than anyone since the Biblical Job. You have to wonder how much more he can take, and then they bring him (all beaten up again) to Andrea’s house and force him to watch Todd execute Andrea on the front porch. Jesse’s torture has reached what could be a breaking point, as he is reminded that little Brock could be next (I shivered as I thought of this child waking up for school and finding his mother dead).

All of this horror leads back to Walt. We can accuse Jesse of not leaving – how many times did he have the chance and did not? We can blame Skyler for forming an alliance with her Macbeth, and we can say that Hank’s hubris drove him to death just as much as Walt’s alliance with the neo-Nazis; however, it all comes back to Walt. The family he said that he did everything for is now in tatters, and his legacy is irreparably damaged.

Back at the cabin Walt does put on the Heisenberg hat, in a scene that is shot from behind. It is the moment we have been waiting for now for weeks – Walter White is completely subsumed now; he is Heisenberg completely. Yet he still clings to some hope that he can help his family, dumping $100,000 into an Ensure box (Hoover brought the drinks there to beef up his withering frame) and wrapping it to send off to Skyler. Walt’s plan is to send the box to one of Junior’s friends.

He shrewdly enlists the aid of a barmaid in town to call Junior at school and pretend to be Marie. Once Junior is on the phone, Walt tells of his plan to send the cash to the friend. Junior (RJ Mitte in another fine performance) explodes at his father. He tells Walt that they don’t want or need anything from him. Echoing Marie from earlier in the season, he says “Just die.” Walt hangs up and then calls the police. He tells the operator that he is calling about the Walter White case. When asked who he is, he says, “Walter White.” He leaves the phone off the hook, goes to the bar for a drink, and waits for the police to come and get him. After speaking with Junior it is clear the only thing he can do for his family is turn himself in.

Then the oddest twist of fate happens – the bartender switches TV channels and Walt sees Elliot and Gretchen Schwartz on Charlie Rose. He watches in horror as his old “friends” denigrate his contribution to their company; in fact, they say all he was responsible for was the name. When Gretchen goes even further, saying that the real Walt was a good and sweet man, Walt stares at the screen with deadly Heisenberg eyes. Yes, that Walt is dead and gone. By the time the New Hampshire police arrive on scene, Walt has gone (but does not forget to leave his bartender a tip).

Apparently seeing the celebrity of the old friends on TV is salt in the wounds, as he is almost relegated to nothingness – no contribution, no recognition, no family, and even no name. Whatever else we can say about Walt at this point, we know he is not going to go quietly into that good New Hampshire night. What comes next is up for debate, but we can imagine that we will revisit the scene of Walt going into his ravaged home to retrieve the Ricin cigarette, seeing the name “Hesienberg” spray painted on the wall. This is not the notoriety he wanted, not the legacy he expected, and we can envision that he will use that M60 in the car trunk to make sure everyone will say his name.

As we reach this point Team Walt may still stubbornly cling to the false sense of Walt being a victim here, but I wonder how long anyone can keep deluding him or herself. Will Walt make a last stand – perhaps comparable to Al Pacino in Scarface – as he tries to wipe out an evil greater than his? Will he free Jesse from imprisonment and then allow Jesse to free him from the mortal coil? I wonder how easily Jesse will be able to shoot Walt, even after Jane and Andrea and Brock and everything else.

If Walt does take out Todd and Jack and crew, is there any redemption there? Or is it a case of Stalin helping to take out Hitler, one evil defeating another? And, when the dust settles, will Skyler and her children ever be able to live normal lives again, or will the money still come into play? I have a feeling Skyler is going to want to wash her hands of everything, take her kids far away, and hope for some kind of redemption for herself. But will that be possible with the heft of Walt’s actions weighing on her and the kids for the rest of their lives?

“Felina,” episode 16 and the series finale, is one of the most anticipated shows in recent memory. Will Walt go out with a bang or a whimper? Place your bets, but my money is on the big bang theory ending things for the chemistry teacher who aspired to be greater than his lot, only to see everything wasted away, and thus makes one last effort for everyone to know his name.

Photo credits: AMC

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Study Shows Happiness in School Leads to Better Grades – But Should We Care About the Grades?


happy 3 123rf.cvomArticle first appeared on Blogcritics.


We all talk about being “happy.” Being happy seems to be something we desire, and everything we do could be seen as a course to happiness. If I ask people what makes them happy, I get responses such as shopping, eating, sleeping, reading, watching TV, going to the movies, kissing, hugging, walking, fishing, skydiving, and so many other activities. I know when I see someone jogging in the park, he or she tends to look happy. Yet many times, sitting on the subway in the morning, I witness people on their way to work who look decidedly unhappy. Why is that?


I recently read an article about a study that suggests that “being happy in school” is inextricably linked to success. While the study notes the obvious reasons why happiness would help students do well, the author also makes clear that happiness “might be the most overlooked variable of all.” School officials concerned about test scores rarely think about students’ happiness.


If they want their teachers to continually to teach to basically meaningless assessments (meaningless unless you are school district leaders who have sunk millions of dollars into the testing programs), students are not going to be very happy. A school day dedicated to learning how to take an assessment is a day that is not about opening the children’s eyes to the more important educational objectives – most notably learning about the world in which they live, how to read and write effectively, and knowing how to compute and reason in real life situations. All teaching to the test does is prepare you for the test. Not much happiness can be found there.

This article reminded me of John Lennon’s famous quotation about being “happy.” Lennon’s mother told him that it was the most important thing in life, and when he went to school and was asked what he wanted to be, he was basically told that “happy” was not the answer. Lennon wisely noted that they didn’t know anything about life, and all these years later we have to recognize that Lennon’s mother and he were right about the happiness factor.


As a teacher and administrator at all levels of education for over 25 years, I have seen both sides of the spectrum. I have been in classrooms and buildings where “happy” must have been a word in a foreign language. I witnessed students who went about their daily routines in true and deep solemnity, and most of this had to do with an administration and teachers who had no concept of “student life.” They had all the curriculum covered, all the exits clearly marked, and the rooms properly ventilated, but whatever the policies were and however they were enforced led to markedly unhappy students. You could also tell the teachers were unhappy, breathing deep sighs as they went about their machinations. One golden rule of school is this: if the teachers are unhappy the students will be too.


I think we have reached a point in time where “grades” have been so over emphasized that they are becoming detrimental to the emotional and social health of students in many schools. I know in my own family, I have seen certain kids shaking about a test being given the next day. This can also go back to parents who express that nothing less than an “A” is acceptable. So those kids who see other students celebrating their “B” or “B+” on a test are going home with a “B+” expecting (and probably getting) the wrath of an seemingly unloving parent.


The first blame has to be placed on educational institutions that have pressed assessment as the great panacea of our time. High scores will help districts get more funds from the government, so the politicians are responsible for this mentality as well. Programs like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top never recognized that some kids will not keep up or be able to climb the mountain. School is about learning and becoming aware of life and understanding how to be socially successful; it should not be about the best grades and using the grades to break students’ spirits or remove supposedly ineffective teachers. All of this is very political and has nothing to do with real education.


The current emphasis on teaching to the test is leading to a breakdown of what we all want for our children. It is time to face some hard truths – unhappy kids will grow up to be in even worse emotional states than those unhappy people I have seen taking the subway to work each day. We are missing something along the way and need to rethink what is happening in our schools.


I recall observing two lessons in different first grade classrooms. Both teachers were doing a spelling lesson. One wrote the words on the SMART Board, asked students to repeat them, and then asked them to write the words in their notebooks and to make up a sentence for each one. The teacher put great emphasis on their penmanship (which I found to be a bit excessive at this grade level), and students raised their hands because they were having difficulty. Sadly, these kids were not smiling even though the teacher was doing what she felt was her best to accomplish the lesson.


The second teacher told the students to clear off their desks and put everything away. This immediately stirred excitement and expectation. She wrote the same words on her SMART Board, and then she distributed large pieces of paper to the students (who sat four to a table). She told them to “put on your smocks” and then produced finger paints. They were to write each word on their papers with the paint and then a sentence for the words, and she promised to later hang the papers prominently in the hallway. The kids were laughing and smiling throughout, and I know they were learning and enjoying the moment at the same time.


What it comes down to is the teacher, of course, being brave and flexible enough to not just think out of the box but to throw the box away. It is also essential that teachers have administrators who support their efforts to make education something that lights up children’s faces and doesn’t put frowns on them. The overemphasis on grades has led to a dour atmosphere in many classrooms.


happy 2 huff postTeachers, understandably worried about losing their jobs if test scores are not up to par, are not in the mood to smile because they are nervous. They are then positioned to do only what is expected of them – teach to the test and get those scores up! In this climate there is no room for happiness, and that is a travesty for our students and their parents.


John Lennon moved to New York City because he was “happy” here. Lennon’s last years were spent embracing his new home, a place he loved, and if you saw him walking through Central Park, he was happy mostly because people left him alone (he could never have walked through Hyde Park in London without being mobbed). Lennon was living the life that he spoke about in school when he was 5 years old. The key to life is to be “happy,” and being happy is something that parents and guardians should want for their children.


I would like to revise many things in education if I could and, besides changing grading systems (eliminating them in favor of projects and portfolios would be even better), I think we should be teaching “happiness” at every grade level. I would propose that even when students are freshman in college that they should have a required course – Happiness 101. It most definitely must be taught by professors who are not afraid to smile and share the joy with their students.


Next time you are in your children’s schools, look around at the faces of the other students. Are they smiling? At the end of the day do they look as if they are coming out of the circus or the morgue? Sit with your own children at dinner and, after asking about homework and tests, ask the more pertinent question: “Were you happy today?” The answer should surprise and delight you, and if does not then you have some work to do. In fact, I would dare say that we all have work to do for our children and generations to come to acquire more than knowledge but sustained and lasting happiness. Anything less should be unacceptable.


Photo credits: Lennon- sramirezhscomplit, huffington post; kids – 123rf.com

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Breaking Bad – Chemical Reactions


First appeared on Blogcritics.


bad toy 3 revision-systems.co.uk
6.4 million viewers tuned in to watch “Ozymandias,” episode 14 of season five of the amazing AMC series Breaking Bad. Even those who do not watch the series may know that the basic story line is a mild-mannered chemistry teacher named Walter White (Bryan Cranston) is diagnosed with inoperable cancer. Devastated as he is, White decides that he will provide for his wife and children’s future by using his knowledge of chemistry to make meth. He hopes he will make enough money to leave them something substantial for when he is gone.


That seemingly simple premise has spawned a TV hydra known as Breaking Bad, with White doing the breaking and becoming something else, an “other” that I suspect even he doesn’t recognize anymore. White tells his high school students that chemistry “is the study of change.” How apropos that Walt becomes Heisenberg in a chemical reaction that is as nefarious as anything Dr. Jekyll could have conjured in Mr. Hyde.


bad toy 2As the days pass between the last episode and the penultimate one, “Granite State,” that will air on Sunday, to say the “buzz” about the series is viral is an understatement. People are talking about the show, writers are writing about it, and the dissection of good and evil and all parts in between will no doubt go on long after the series ends.


Today I went to the local toy store to get something for my son. As I walked down the aisle in the action figure section, I saw two very striking items – both featuring images of Cranston. One depicts Walter White in a hazmat suit as seen in the show when he is “cooking” the meth. The other is White’s alter ego Heisenberg, so I immediately thought Jekyll-Hyde as I inspected the boxes. Both items are manufactured by Mezco Toyz. The figure in the hazmat suit is a bobble-head; the other is a posable figure featuring White in dark hat, sunglasses, and carrying a gun. An accessory – a satchel full of cash – is included in the package.


As I was looking at these items an older gentlemen came alongside me and noted, “I’ve got both of those on my desk.”


I looked at him and nodded. “Big fan of the show I guess, huh?”


bad toy  1He was holding a two boxes with action figures from the AMC series The Walking Dead. He looked down at them and said, “Oh, these are for my grandson. I am really going to miss old Walter White.”


We both went our separate ways after that, but I sensed that anyone who would have both of these figures on his desk doesn’t view Walt as scum of the earth or spawn of Satan. In fact, this fellow is not alone. I have heard from many people since my last article – I like to call them “Team Walt” – who swear that White is the victim and everyone else is worse than he is. I tried to rethink my position on this, because of the combustible reactions that are occurring since I wrote my last review of “Ozymandias.” Basically the thought process is that Hank and Jesse are getting everything they deserve. I have been told that the best thing Walt could have ever done for Jesse was to let drug addict Jane die. I am reminded that Walt told Hank to “tread lightly,” but Hank was having none of it. As for Marie, I have heard some people say that she had some nerve to go to the car wash and tell Skyler what to do with her son. Who the hell did she think she was? Telling Junior should have been Skyler’s choice when she was ready.


While I have some trouble with these points of view, I can understand the Walt apologists and where they are coming from. They have invested a great deal in these five seasons, and they also rationalize that Walt is a victim – of circumstance, of fate, of greed, avarice, and whatever else – and all that he has ever done is try to provide for his family. I recall being at wakes years ago, and my old Italian female relatives would stand around the casket saying, “He was a good provider.” Perhaps this is the mentality, the feeling that a man’s duty is to “provide,” and no one could argue that Walt didn’t do just that – until Uncle Jack and Todd and company stole most of his nest egg. But along the way people forget that all Walt's wealth came at a terrible cost for him and everyone with whom he was connected.


Can anyone not feel that Hank was slightly infected with the same ego problem that plagues Walt? When he said he was ASAC Hank Schrader to his killer, I was almost convinced that Gilligan meant to connect “Ozymandias” as much to him as to Walt. No one “trembled” at those words; in fact, they only caused Jack to kill Hank faster. And where is Hank now but lying under the desert sands similar to the ones in the poem. Hank’s biggest mistake was wanting it all, to bring in the fatted calf on his own. His desire for triumph prevented him to call for the “cavalry,” which he tells Jack is coming. Had Hank been half as smart as Walt, DEA helicopters would have met them at the meeting place in the desert and Jack and company would have turned around and been arrested.


What of Jesse? He has been the heart and soul of the series for many of us, the one watching the chemical reactions and knowing the formula just isn’t right. However, I have heard from a number of people who felt Jesse made many mistakes – his biggest not getting into the van and disappearing. Had Jesse done that, we could argue that Hank would be alive, Walt would have his money, and there’d be nothing for us to grumble about.


The final person to receive maybe the most wrath is Skyler herself. Many of us – including this writer – were painting her as Lady Macbeth. After all, didn’t she say of Jesse’s impending death, “What’s one more?” Yet Skyler is a mother and sister before she is a wife and an accomplice, and knowing Hank was dead certainly set off some kind of maternal instinct, causing her to grab the knife instead of the phone. Team Walt says she should have called 911, but the threat was then and there and how many women with orders of protection are dead because they called 911 instead of defending themselves?


Bottom line is that this TV series has caused people to react emotionally. It is a credit to series executive producer and creator Vince Gilligan, the writers, directors, and most especially the cast for getting people to care so passionately. Bryan Cranston, of course, has gained the following he has deserved for portraying White/Heisenberg as living in a gray area concerning his health, his motivation, and his professed love of family. One could argue that Walter is no better or worse than corporate executives, politicians, and extremely wealthy people who sometimes leave nefarious footprints on the road to success.


The show has definitely brought good and evil into focus, and for one to say Walt is entirely evil is like saying Hank is entirely good. Hank allowed the worst parts of his personality to get the better of him. Had he thought more rationally, rather than on the emotional level of “I got him” now, Hank would be having dinner with Marie and Walt would be languishing in prison. We could even say that if Jesse was so good why was he ever involved with Walt in the first place? Good and evil discussions are like red state and blue state ones – you can only end up losing if you engage in them.


There are enduring images from “Ozymandias,” but the one that I keep thinking about is the dog running across the road at the very end. Many people have mentioned what they think it means, but I have heard no one say what I am thinking – I believe it is the dog that guards the gates of hell. As Walt drives off to the “Granite State,” we know tombstones are made from that kind of stone and that Walter White is now officially dead.


I mentioned that this scene when Walt looks at his reflection and leaves Albuquerque behind could have been the last one of the series, but like his creator Mr. Gilligan, Walt says that he has things he has to do. We can imagine that disappearing is not going to sit well with the one who knocks. Whatever he does – and the flash-forwards seem to indicate that an M60 is going to figure prominently in the picture – Walt is going to make sure that his last chemical reaction is going to be the biggest bang of all.


Photo credit: revision-systems.co.uk

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

TV Review: Breaking Bad – A Colossal Wreck


First appeared on Blogcritics.

 
bad 1 amcWatching episode 14 of season 5 of Breaking Bad, one could not help but think that everything expected almost came to fruition. Still, when the feces literally hits the fan, you just never know how far it will fly. This is in essence all of Walter White’s (an increasingly excellent Bryan Cranston) chickens finally coming home – into the bosom of the family that he professes to do everything for – to not only roost but to ultimately rot.


bad 3“Ozymandias,” the title for this episode, comes from great poet Percy Bysshe Shelly’s poem of the same name. Series creator and executive producer Vince Gilligan paired this title with this episode because of the almost perfect fusion of poetry and visual prose. What is Walter White but a now dethroned king, rolling his last barrel of money across a landscape as bleak as hell itself, hoping for one last shot at significance. It is a pathetic moment proving that, as the poem calls the long forgotten Egyptian king, White is a colossal wreck. His plans have all come undone, and his legacy is torn to shreds.


If you have not seen this episode stop reading, for the rest contains spoilers, even though for many of us none of this is ultimately a shock. Seeing Gomez and Hank (Dean Norris in his best performance in the series) get gunned down was expected, but it is the way it happens that has meaning. Hank is defiant, even as Walt is willing to give away his entire fortune to save Hank’s life. It is Walt’s last chance really at any kind of hope – he tells Nazi nutcase Uncle Jack that there are $80 million waiting for him if he just spares Hank’s life. Hank, ever noble to the end, robs Walt of this attempt at redemption, goading Jack into shooting him in the head. Walt falls to the ground, shattered not just by seeing Hank’s brains on the desert floor, but also in knowing that there is no turning back, everything has changed, and what was remaining of his humanity and decency is irreparably damaged.


bad 4When Jack asks nephew Todd (Jesse Plemons) to release Walt from the handcuffs, Todd says, “Sorry for your loss” almost like a robotic choirboy. Todd is referencing the loss of “family” in Hank’s demise, but it is a microcosm of the greater losses to come. Todd is like a homicidal Richie Cunningham, and that is what makes him even more eerie. When he offers to take Jesse (Aaron Paul) back to home base for questioning because they have “a history,” you get to thinking of Richie tying Potsie Webber to a bed of nails and torturing him. Happy Days are here again and then some.


Of course, the worst is yet to come. Jack and his minions take almost all of Walt’s money, leaving him one barrel containing $11 million. This is the barrel that Walt, after running out of gas because of a bullet hole in the gas tank, rolls across the bleak landscape until he reaches a poor Native American’s hut. He “buys” the old man’s pick-up truck for a pile of cash, and then steamrolls home where he begins throwing all the clothes into luggage.


While all this is happening, Walt’s wife Skyler (a simply amazing Anna Gunn), her sister Marie (equally amazing Betsy Brandt), and Walt Junior (RJ Mitte’s most powerful performance to date) sit down to have “the talk” that we all have been dreading. I have always wondered how Junior would find out, and I felt it would have been more by default – like finding Walt doing something wrong. But in this way, with Walt offstage, Skyler and Marie break the infinitely bad news to him. Junior cannot fathom – even remotely – that his father could be this way. It proves the web of lies had been so successful for so long, and Junior really knows nothing about his father.


When they go home and find Walt packing for a Disney cruise to infinity and beyond, the line is finally drawn in the sand. Walt tells them to “trust” him and pack quickly, but Skyler knows what this means. She has just left Marie who thinks Walt is in Hank’s custody, but we all know Hank is now six feet under the desert sand. Skyler demands to know what happened to Hank, and Walt claims that he tried to save him, but even in this moment Cranston’s expression is like that shattered statue in Shelley’s poem – allowing Skyler to know the utterly despicable truth about Walt.


bad 2Skyler then goes Jamie Lee Curtis against Michael Meyers in Halloween, grabbing a kitchen knife and having a knockdown fight with Walt. I started shivering as I watched this, remembering the bacon in the shape of 52 in the flash-forward, and I thought, “This is it!” Miraculously, Junior intervenes, saving his mother from Walt and calling 911. It is an astounding moment – Walt has lost one "adopted" son (Jesse) that day and now the biological one has turned on him. Walt sees that the “family” he has supposedly done everything for is irrevocably fractured, so as a last resort he grabs baby Holly and her things, jumps in the pick-up, and drives off with her. As Skyler runs down the street after him there is such an angst, such a total sense of loss and betrayal, and Gunn nails the moment as the most heartbreaking one in the series.


Later on Walt calls Skyler from a roadside on is cell phone. We have just seen him like any other Dad, changing Holy’s diaper, talking to her like a loving father, and the scene is plausible because Walt still thinks he is not that truly bad guy even though he is. All his machinations to distance what he did as “Heisenberg” from what he did as Walt are for naught. As he holds baby Holly up and talks about buying her a car seat, the child speaks the most profound word in the entire episode – “Mommy.” Cranston allows facial ticks at the register of the word, has Walt hug her lovingly, and we get the realization is there that the daddy-daughter road trip is not to be.


So he makes that call to Skyler, knowing fully well that police and FBI are there. In his most scathing verbal assault yet on the woman he professed to have loved so much that he had done it all for her and the kids, Walt proceeds to destroy her and call her a “bitch” and warn her that she will get the same as Hank. Marie, who is also listening, breaks here because she knows Hank is gone. As Walt goes on he indicts himself in everything and, in one shrewd manipulation, exonerates Skyler of everything. She knew nothing of the business, etc, making her the Sergeant Schultz of Breaking Bad.


In the last scene Walt sits roadside, where we had last seen Jesse sitting waiting for the guy who erases identities. Behind him is some sort of aqueduct that looks like rows of tombstones. The “Ozymandias” factor is reinforced one last time – Walter White is as good as dead. He throws his things and barrel of money in the van, and takes one last look at his reflection in the passenger window. There is no more Walter White after this. The van drives off into the glow of a sunset and the screen fades to black. In some ways this could have been the very last scene of the series.


If we were taking the Hemingway Iceberg Theory way out, an ideal ending is one such as this. Hemingway’s concept was the story is the exposed part of the iceberg, and the rest of it is what the reader puts together and believes what will happen or what he/she has seen happen. Gilligan could have ended it right there, and we would have everyone screaming about a last scene worse than The Sopranos fade to black. One thing that Gilligan has always said is that he wants to give the fans the ending they are not just expecting but are wanting, so we have two more episodes to get to the dénouement that the series (and the fans) deserve.


What will happen now to Jesse (chained like an animal in the meth lab by Todd). Jesse is badly beaten and motivated to “cook” because Todd has pinned a picture of Andrea and Brock to the wall. Jesse also has had to absorb the realities of what Walt (Mr. White always and forever to him) has actually done, including Walt’s revelation that he allowed Jane to die. At the time it seemed less evil and more like Walt trying to save Jesse from her drug oblivion, but now it seems more methodical, more dastardly, and he tells Jesse this as the young man goes to what seems certain death as to put just so much more salt in the wounds. Will Skyler, Marie, Junior, and Holly (presumably returned to her mother by the Albuquerque Fire Department after Walt left her on their doorstep) form some kind of new family unit? Are they in danger because Uncle Jack and Todd will come looking for the video that Jesse blabbed about being in Marie’s house?


How will Walt feel after becoming someone else? Will the $11 million ever be enough? Or will he go back with his M60 machine gun to settle the score with Jack and Todd, get his money back, and still keep some delusion that he can have a “family” again? We know from the flash-forward in episode 9 that Walt comes back to his house in ruins, the word “Heisenberg” spray painted across the wall. Who does this? My bet is it is Todd as he scours the house for evidence, but it could also be Skyler herself, broken but still not defeated, defiantly marking the house that Walt mistakenly thought could be a home even after all his terrible deeds and lies.


With two episodes left there are more than enough balls in the air, but if anyone can keep them going it is Gilligan. Episode 14 may be the one we were all waiting for, but I have a feeling the next two will be the ones we wished never would have come. We must wonder whether Walt’s “last stand” will make him like Al Pacino in Scarface, or if he will eventually just fade away from the cancer in a hospital? Perhaps the worst thing of all is for him to be penniless, without a family, and sentenced to live with what he has done – a dethroned king forced to stare at the devastation of his kingdom for the rest of his life. In the end death may just be too good for Walter White.


Photo credits – AMC

Thursday, September 12, 2013

TV Review: Breaking Bad – Froot Loops, Good Stuff!


First appeared on Blogcritics.

bad 6It has taken me a couple of days, and several times watching and re-watching episode 13 – “To’hajiilee” – to actually digest what happened and be able to write about it coherently. After watching it initially, I thought something went wrong with my television or cable box, but I realized they were working fine and that last second of Walter White (Bryan Cranston) cringing in the back of an SUV during a firefight really was the end of things for now.


So much happens in episode 13 that it may be impossible to do it justice, but the most important scene involved Froot Loops and a little boy eating breakfast. Despite the many other things happening, to me the essence of what Walter White was, what he has lost, and what will be his downfall all become manifested in that scene. What is more natural than a kid eating his breakfast and reading the back of the cereal box before school? The normalcy is cut to nil because the boy is Brock – the child Walt poisoned – and he is there to see Brock’s mother Andrea in hopes of flushing out Jesse (Aaron Paul) from hiding in order to kill him.


bad 2Brock looks up at Walt with some kind of recognition and a bit of fear – making us wonder if he knows this is the man who tried to hurt him. Walt falls back on the old teacher mode, saying “Froot Loops, good stuff!” This underscores the essence of his evil in the mundane ridiculousness of calling the bowl of sugary colored circles and milk “good.” His attempt to get Jesse is thwarted despite his indecency to face Andrea, the mother of the child he poisoned, as if he were a goodwill ambassador and there to save Jesse from another fall off the wagon.


When he leaves the house and goes back to the car, he tells the killers waiting for Jesse to make sure they take him elsewhere because he doesn’t want the boy or his mother to see anything or be involved. Walt has completely fallen at this point, believing he has some kind of decency to protect Andrea and Brock, even though killing Jesse will destroy them. Jesse never shows up because he is being kept “safe” by Hank (Dean Norris) and his DEA partner Gomez (Steven Michael Quezada), and they are preparing a trap for Walt out in the desert.


An elaborate scheme has been hatched to make Walt think that his buried money has been discovered. Using information from Saul’s lackey Huell, Jesse texts Walt a picture of a garbage pail with what looks like his money. Walt tears out of the car wash, where his wife Skyler (Anna Gunn) and son Walter Jr. (RJ Mitte) stare at him and wonder where he is running off to so quickly. Of course, we know that Skyler is waiting, just as Walt is, to hear about Jesse’s fate, so her complicity is sealed and she is as guilty at Walt at this point.


Walt is driving like Dale Earnhardt, Jr. over the highways out of Albuquerque to get to his money hiding spot near To’hajiilee, a Native American reservation. He speaks to Jesse on the phone, and all Heisenberg’s cunning and calculations are thrown to the wind. This is the frail, vulnerable, and broken Walter White – the chemistry teacher who contracted cancer and was down and almost out for the count until he discovered his inner meth cooking self. Now he is just Walter, spewing over the cell phone a litany of his misdeeds, telling Jesse he did all these things to protect him too. He even admits to poisoning Brock, of giving him just the right amount in order not to kill him but just to make him sick. I couldn’t help thinking about that boy’s face, innocently eating his Froot Loops. This is how despicable Walter White has become, and we wonder if this is all being recorded in order for Hank to drive the nail deeper into Walt’s coffin.


bad 3When Walt gets to the site of his buried treasure, what to his wondering eyes does appear but nothing Рjust the stark desert landscape. Cranston allows the moment to register in such depth in his facial expressions, revealing how Walter knows he has been had, has lost to his prot̩g̩, that Heisenberg has not just lost but has been defeated.


But in glorious Breaking Bad tradition, nothing is as it seems. Walt sees a car coming, dashes behind some rocks, and makes a panic call to Todd (Jesse Plemons) and his white supremacist Uncle Jack and crew. He gives them his location via the handy-dandy lottery card possessing the area's coordinates, and tells them there are three men to deal with now – until he realizes Jesse has come with Hank and his partner.


bad 7Cranston’s expression again is overcome with realization – an awareness that now the game is over. He tells Jack not to come, and then he rises to face Hank in the glaring desert sun. Show creator and executive producer Vince Gilligan has mentioned on numerous occasions that this show is like a western told in modern times. Isn’t it fitting that Walt stands there holding a gun wearing an off-white jacket, while Hank is the man in black. It is a reversal of the old western good guy in white hat motif, and it would seem to be a perfect chance for a gunfight at the less than okay corral, but Walter has become one with his inner wimp again, dropping the gun and raising his hands in surrender.


Soon the handcuffs are being slapped on Walt, and Jesse stares in disbelief as we at home do the same. After all this time, we can’t process the image of Hank winning, of Heisenberg’s web being unraveled, of Walter White finally being read his rights and taken off to jail. It is an astonishing moment, but Breaking Bad fans have seen the flash-forwards, and we know that when Hank won’t get in the car and drive away, but instead relishes the moment to call his wife Marie (Betsy Brandt) to gloat and let her know that he has Walt, that things are decidedly not okay. Then we see the trucks rolling up – Todd, Jack, and the Klan that couldn’t shoot straight show up with their automatic weapons locked and loaded. We can only imagine what Hank and Gomez are thinking, even at first wondering if they were “reservation police.” That is quickly discounted when Jack – in Gilligan’s cunning nod to the classic The Treasure of the Sierra Madre scene (the oft misquoted line "We don’t need no stinking badges”) – asks Hank and Gomez to show them their badges.


With Walt handcuffed in one car, and Jesse watching from the front of Walt’s car, we witness Walt’s last chance at redemption. He screams to no avail from inside the SUV with closed windows. He yells to Jack that “It’s off.” He attempts to stop what he and we know will happen – and the seriously outgunned Hank and Gomez begin engaging in a vicious firefight that ends the episode. We are all once again left on the edges of our seats, wishing next Sunday were now.


Since the next episode is entitled “Ozymandias,” (based on the poem of the same name by Percy Bysshe Shelley), we can start thinking of how this will play out. Shelley’s poem tells of us a once great king whose impressive works are all but forgotten, and just a small remnant of his reign is left to warn those who pass to look upon his works and fear him; however, nothing exists but a shattered statue in the desert.


Walter White/Heisenberg is the broken king, his meth empire gone and what is left of his life crumbling there in that moment. If Hank, Gomez, and Jesse die, and some of Todd and his group also die, what is left for the handcuffed Walt? If Todd and Uncle Jack (based on their superior firepower) kill Hank and Gomez and Jesse, and then take Walt prisoner (to force him into labor to make the “blue meth” all of Europe seems to crave), we have a set-up for the flash-forward.


On levels of evil we have Heisneberg and then we have the white supremacists – as if Gilligan is saying there is breaking bad and then there is really breaking bad. As the gunfight ensues and no one gets hit (at least by the end of the episode), I kept thinking of those good old A-Team gunfights where the same thing happened. How can hundreds of rounds go off and no one die? Sadly, at the beginning of episode 14 there will inevitably be a body count. One person we know who will survive is Walter White, but we don’t know how he will get there and what will happen when he does. My feelings are that Schwarzenegger machine gun in the flash forward isn’t for the DEA or the police, but for the pernicious group led by Uncle Jack and Todd. Walter sees what they can do, and in a final confrontation with them Walt will break something worse than Heisenberg, worse than a man who will poison a child, and kill a friend. We have to get there still – and there are many other events to take place, but Walter White’s fate is already sealed. He just may be the last man standing – outgunning the worse guys more successfully than Al Pacino in Scarface when he beckoned his assassins with “Say hello to my little friend.”


The truth is that Walt’s surviving may be worse than his dying, especially if everyone he loves is gone and the money he worked so hard to make disintegrates under the desert sands. Shelley ends his poem telling us “the lone and level sands stretch far away,” but at the heart of the poem is a decay that even a king could not control. Walter White’s life was about chemistry; Heisenberg’s was about chemical reactions, and their intertwined fate may just be that a destroyed legacy, no family or friends, and living with what you have done is the worst sentence justice could have ever devised.


Photo credits – AMC

Sunday, September 8, 2013

U.S. Open Tennis Finals – Fee-Fi-Ho-Hum


First appeared on Blogcritics.


Serena Williamsazarenka ustaI enjoy tennis more when it is not in “grand slam” mode. Sometimes the best matches I have seen are those in between times – not Melbourne, Paris, London, or New York. Perhaps we expect too much from players in the slams; however, I think it is also a case of seeming to get (again and again) more of the expected. Such as the case with the finals that will take place at the U.S. Open 2013.


nadal apI understand that many are people are salivating at the prospect of seeing Serena Williams go up against Victoria Azarenka (2). It seems a given that we want to see number one play number two, but that is the ho-hum element for me. Both of these fine players went up against all these other competitors, and in the end we get number one and two. It just seems too easy (though I know it is not), but it is sort of like those action movies when the good guy kills off all the goons and ends up fighting the main bad guy. I know this is what audiences want and expect, but is it what we really need? Is this truly the best tennis we are going to see until the next slam in January?


Then let’s look at the men’s side. What do we have here? Why we have Novak Djokovic (1) playing Rafael Nadal (2). Do we see a pattern here? Yes, once again they played tough matches to get to this point, but the truth is that is what was expected – no more or less. The fact that the number ones and twos are facing off in the finals to me signifies that there is nothing to dazzle me in this slam, no unexpected wunderkind who will rattle professional tennis’s cage, and it’s kind of disappointing.


Novak DjokovicMy father passed away early this year, but he was the one who sparked my interest in tennis. When I was younger, he and I would hit the court and play – hard. My father had a terrific serve, one that whizzed by me like a rocket. It got to the point that I didn’t even bother to return his serve, and he would get a laugh or two out of that. As I got older and stronger, I eventually returned that serve. He said I got him through “attrition,” and I guess he was right about that.


Above all my father was a tennis purist. He felt the rankings were not “pure” in any sense of the word. Ranking was based on something other than great tennis in his mind – and more about which players were in the most tournaments throughout the year, thus giving more opportunities for victories and a higher ranking. So he would see certain people ranked two or three and scoff at it.


2013 US Open - Day 4Now from his ethereal place he no doubt has a front row ticket at the slams. I am sure that he is very disappointed that his favorite – Roger Federer – is not facing Nadal in the final (as am I). In my mind this would be the anti-expected but desired final. Everyone keeps talking about Federer losing his game, and at 32 there is no doubt that he has lost a few steps, but I bet there wouldn’t be one disappointed fan in Arthur Ashe Stadium if it was Federer facing off against Nadal. That is the match that should have been, the one that would have compelled me to watch every second even if it went five sets.


Now, I will watch the women and men’s finals because this is the U.S. Open, and one never knows when greatest moments will happen. But my father is probably grumbling on the other side, and I will be as I sit in front of the TV. The excitement that used to be found in early September in New York doesn’t feel the same anymore. Maybe watching the matches without Dad is part of it, and maybe I long for the days of Ashe, McEnroe, Connors, Sampras, Agassi, Graf, Seles, Goolagong, Navratilova, and Everet. It seemed back then it was less robotic, less of the expected, or perhaps I just saw the matches I wanted to see.


I’ll never forget watching the famous match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs with Dad. This wasn’t great tennis, and my father almost didn’t say a word through the whole thing. In the end – when King beat Riggs – my father got up from his chair and said, “The fix was in on that one.” We never discussed the match any further, but that was how Dad thought. All these years later, “the fix” seems to be that number one faces number two in the finals.


While I doubt anything nefarious is going on here, the bottom line is that we get what we expected in the finals – not perhaps what we wanted. By getting the expected we get less of what great tennis can and should be. So I will watch and hope to be dazzled, but I have a feeling that Williams and Djokovic will be taking pictures together at the end of play on Monday.


Fee-fi-ho-hum indeed. Photo credits- USTA; federer - getty images; nadal -AP

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Obama Losing Support on Syria – Send Dennis Rodman to Damascus Now!


First appeared on Blogcritics.


den 1 tvrage.comEccentric former NBA player Dennis Rodman just completed another trip to North Korea, visiting once again with his “friend for life” Kim Jong Un . Rodman arrived in Beijing with rather unkind things to say about President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton; however, the flamboyant Rodman had only good things to say about the North Korean dictator.


On the surface this may seem like another grandstand by Rodman, but looking deeper into the situation we must consider that Kim Jong Un – one serious basketball fan – sees Rodman as some sort of deity who has descended from the hoops mountaintop. There is no denying that they have formed some sort of friendship, and considering the alternative of war, President Obama would do well to cultivate whatever seeds Rodman has planted in the soil of that austere nation.


den 2 washpostSome people were hoping this trip would provide an opportunity to free jailed U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae, who was charged with “hostile acts” against North Korea. Rodman came off the plane in Beijing with no answers about Bae’s situation, telling reporters to ask Obama and Clinton. He did share photos of the North Korean leader and him. He also let it be known that the leader enjoyed drinking with him, especially Rodman’s new Bad Boy vodka. One can only wonder what these two said as the drinks were flowing, but it seems all is very amicable between them.


Rodman did tell reporters that he and Kim Jong Un talked about “peace and sports,” which is infinitely better than talking about topics like nukes and war. Whatever the unlikely pair sees in each other notwithstanding, it seems that Rodman has found a way to approach North Korea that President Obama should consider as a hopeful sign for future engagement.


den 3 straightfromtheaNow that Rodman is out of North Korea, the president would be wise to use him in the latest crisis – as an ambassador of goodwill to Damascus. We don’t know if Syrian leader Bashar al Assad likes basketball, but we can imagine that Rodman could work his “magic” on the leader. After all, it seems that Rodman is adept at dealing with so called despots or dictators. If he can extend an olive branch to Kim Jong Un, why not try it with Assad? If we can get some kind of basketball diplomacy program going, think how much that could assist us in hot spots all over the world.


It would be much better to be shooting basketballs in North Korea and Syria instead of bombs. Rodman is a resource that Mr. Obama should tap as soon as possible. Maybe after a few shots of Bad Boy vodka, Assad and Rodman will be bosom buddies and drunk dial Kim Jong Un or maybe even get him on his iPhone for a little Face Time. This unlikely triumvirate could decide to get a basketball league going – the Axis of Evil Tour – with eyes on Tehran as Rodman’s next stop.


President Obama is facing opposition for his plan to attack Syria from world leaders, Congress, and the American people. The “go it alone” mentality, which Secretary of State John Kerry has hinted at as a possibility, would be a bad choice for Mr. Obama. The days when the U.S.A. takes on issues that are world problems should be over. There is no reason for us to bomb a foreign country that is engaged in a civil war. Imagine if the Russians, French, and British had decided to bomb New York, Boston, and Washington during the American Civil War – we would have seen that as foreign interference in a domestic situation. We should also respect that the same holds true here and back off from any kind of military strike.


den 5 ifood.tvMuch more amenable, and with a possibility of being a great deal more effective, is to find diplomatic and peaceful means of reaching guys like Assad and Un. Dennis Rodman has proven that he can hold his own with a “dictator” and come away smiling, and apparently leaving positivity in his wake. Any way we can promote peace is a start, and Rodman seems to have the secret to reaching those whom we have deemed as remote and anti-American.


Can you just imagine Rodman holding court with Assad, Un, and new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani? Perhaps they can play cards, pass around the vodka, and share a few laughs. Rodman could open the doors to a whole new type of foreign policy – one that replaces speak softly and carry a big stick with yell loudly and bring lots of booze. Anything has to be better than our present course of action that always seems to result in loss of American lives and treasure.


John Lennon once wrote “Give peace a chance.” In keeping with that philosophy, Mr. Obama should give Dennis Rodman a chance. Like Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, his approach may be our only hope for a peaceful outcome in Syria and other places in the world.  


Photo credits: rodman-tvrage.com, straightfromthehea.com, ifoodtv.com; with Kim – washingtonpost.com 

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Happy Rosh Hashanah: The Joy of Holidays Independent of the Secular Calendar


First appeared on Blogcritics

rosh 3 ayedison.orgI have a little confession to make – I have always wished I could have been Jewish. No, that is not like this Mets fan saying that he wished to be a Yankees fan – that indeed would be sacrilege, but I have always been fascinated by Jewish traditions and customs. The thing I have always found most intriguing is the faith's connection to the earth and sky. That natural component has always seemed to me to be inherently linked to something “other,” whether that was God or the universe.


I first began being fascinated with all things Jewish in Catholic school. Since more than half the Bible that we studied was the Old Testament, we learned a great deal about the way Jewish people lived and worshipped before Jesus even came into the story. What really captured my attention was the way Jews marked the Sabbath on Friday evenings. It had nothing to do with an exact time – they didn't do this every Friday at 6 o'clock; instead, they lit their candles when the sun went down. In my young mind this made complete sense but also made me tingle with excitement because the celestial connection felt like it carried more weight.


When I learned about more Jewish traditions over the years, my fascination continued. I recall one year – and I’m thinking it was in second or third grade – our teacher allowed us to participate in a Seder. There was something that felt so surreal about this, with blood marking the classroom door (ketchup was used), the cup waiting for Elijah, and the “wine” that still seems like the most delicious grape juice I ever tasted. And, when we got to the questions, especially “Why is this night different from all other nights,” I felt like an angel would soon be swooping down the school hallway and sparing our room from something terrible happening elsewhere.


rosh 2Now as an adult I like to share my enthusiasm and excitement about the Jewish traditions with my children (who are being raised Catholic as I was). I explained how tonight at sundown it will be a “new year” for Jewish people (5774), and that this Jewish calendar has nothing to do with the one that is hanging in our kitchen.


This year Rosh Hashanah has come very early, but this is based on a lunar calendar that defies the Gregorian. The celestial nature of this practice still fascinates me. Many school districts here in New York, faced with the realities of the Jewish new year, have postponed the first day of school until next Monday (September 9). Here we see the celestial having an effect on the secular in a rather powerful and amazing way. My daughter, who attends Catholic school, says “It’s not fair” regarding her public school friends having this extra week of summer vacation while she is in school, but I explained that this year another Jewish holiday (Hanukkah) will come much earlier for Jewish people (starting the night before Thanksgiving). Yes, the way it falls the children will be off from school anyway, but the Menorahs we usually see lit in windows will be darkened well before we start putting up Christmas lights this year. That seemed to get her thinking that in some strange way she was getting back these “lost” September days later this year.


The concept of marking holidays based on natural events (sundown, phases of the moon, etc.) is still very appealing to me. Some will call it old fashioned, but I like the notion that the Jewish calendar respects a higher authority (sort of like Hebrew National hotdogs?). Our secular modern calendar is remarkably static with everything happening based on numbers and not nature.


rosh 4 chgs.umn.eduMy daughter did bring up some good points. She noted that only the Fourth of July and Christmas (December 25) fall on the same day every year. She said that Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Mother’s Day never fall on the same date, but I countered that, while this is very true, it is not based on natural phenomenon but rather on rather secular reasoning. Mother’s Day is always the second Sunday of May; Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November, and so on. No matter how I look it,


I still appreciate the Jewish tradition of linking celebrations and traditions to the celestial rather than the secular. Perhaps it feels like a simpler and more realistic way to stipulate how to worship, and I especially like the thought of lighting candles just as people have done for the last 5774 years. It is not as much antiquated as it is more essential, reminding us of all our long ago ancestors living in caves and huddling around fires. They depended on fire for everything – light, cooking, heat, and safety. Why should it be surprising that eventually that fire would be linked to worshipping the "one" whom they believed sent it to them in the first place? After all these years Jewish people still recognize this salient connection of God and light. Maybe the rest of us just need 3,761 years to catch up and embrace this concept.


So this evening, as the sun slips behind the edge of the earth, I will wish Happy New Year to all Jewish people (and those who wish they were). Shanah Tovah to one and all.


Photo credits: moon – NASA; rosh hashanah – ayedison.org; candles – chgs.umn.edu

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

TV Review: Breaking Bad - Even a “Rabid Dog” Has Its Day


First appeared on Blogcritics.

bad 2We have reached a point in this final season of the phenomenal series Breaking Bad where the characters are self referential, and when we hear them speaking of metaphors and euphemisms, we do not even bat an eye. That is the nature of Breaking Bad, which is like a rich, textured novel, and it forces us to keep turning the pages, wanting to know what happens but wishing it would never end.

In episode 12 entitled “Rabid Dog,” we have sleazy lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) actually sounding like a logical Spock to the more emotional Walter White’s (Bryan Cranston) Kirk. While Saul references the film Old Yeller in suggesting how to deal with an out of control Jesse (Aaron Paul), Walt is not ready to consider this. Those of a certain age do not even have to be told anything about the film, as they no doubt cried throughout the ending the way other generations did during Bambi and The Lion King.

As Walt notes later on to his wife Skyler (Anna Gunn), Jesse is not some “rabid dog,” but a human being whom he thinks of as family. It is telling that both Saul and Skyler are voices of reason - sort of insidious voices similar to Iago in Othello and Lady Macbeth in King Lear respectively - but Walt is not having any of it. Even after Jesse pours gasoline all over Castle White, Walt refuses to think about killing him off because of some warped fatherly allegiance that goes beyond even what viewers have expected at this point.

Jesse (Paul’s acting becomes more and more outstanding each week) is going off the deep end. He is snorting coke or meth off a CD in Saul’s stolen car before he breaks into Walt’s house, but as he prepares to create an inferno worthy of Dante, DEA agent Hank (Dean Norris) stops him from doing it. Instead, Hank offers an unholy alliance of a sort to “burn” Walt truly, madly, and oh so deeply.

Later on, the most humorous and tragic scene of the episode occurs when Jesse wakes up from his druggie haze on a bed in Hank and Marie’s (Betsy Brandt) guest room. He finds himself staring at a picture of Walt dressed as Santa Claus, and the expression on Jesse’s face depicts all the emotions the audience feels. Yes, I was thinking Bad Santa as many others probably were too, but this picture of a smiling Walt is clearly from before his cancer and fall from grace. This is the "Mr. White" Jesse knew from high school, the teacher whom he truly admired.

bad 4Jesse does provide Hank and his partner Gomez (Steven Michael Quezada) a video confession, wisely done off stage. But before he spills the beans, Jesse provides a qualifier for Hank and his partner. Walt is “smarter” than they are and he is “the devil.” This is sort of like townsfolk talking to the sheriff before the bad guy rolls into town, and Jesse also reminds them that there is no tangible evidence, that it is his word against Walt’s (dueling video confessions as it were).


Meanwhile, Hank’s wife Marie is going off the deep end herself. She admits to her therapist that she is researching untraceable poisons, and we kind of wonder about this as a Gertrude from Hamlet moment, sort of akin to Skyler’s Lady Macbeth who shrugs her shoulders and says of killing Jesse, “What’s one more?” Yes, the Lambert sisters have come a long way and it is getting uglier each week. If both their husbands’ hands are dirty, we kind of feel like it’s because these women aren’t willing to clean up the mud.

Perhaps the most crucial scene of episode 12 occurs when Jesse is wearing a wire and goes to meet Walt in Civic Plaza, an open air public place in Albuquerque. Surely, as Jesse is walking towards Walt, he believes Walt is setting him up. Jesse’s face is a tortured mask as he looks around, spots someone whom he believes is a shooter waiting for him, and then runs to a public phone and calls Walt. Here, Jesse makes either the biggest mistake of his life or the move that will finally bring down Walt/Heisenberg. He tells Walt he is coming for him and that he is going to get him “where he lives.” Yes, the rabid dog does have his day in this episode!

We can assume that Jesse doesn’t mean the less than impregnable castle that he has already invaded, but the inhabitants of that abode. Jesse understands better than anyone Walt’s allegiance to family, so the threat seems to be to get Skyler and the children (we have to wonder how far Hank is willing to go at this point).

bad 3Now, we haven’t seen Walt don the Heisenberg hat yet in these new episodes. When he went to get the gun from the car wash, he didn’t stop somewhere else and put on the hat. I think this is purposeful, the duality of the man clearly defined by that chapeau. While he is still Walt at this point, none of us are convinced Heisenberg is gone for good. It’s sort of like Dr. Jekyl not being able to control Mr. Hyde. Eventually, Walt is going to put on that hat again, and then we will have that bad man rolling into town indeed.


The last scene involves Walt calling Todd. In keeping with the series' inherent Shakespearean connections, Jesse is kind of like Edgar (the legitimate son in King Lear) and Todd is more like Edmund, the bastard and pretender. Jesse is a lot like Edgar - mostly not in touch with reality and not up to inheriting the castle - while Todd is a good deal like Edmund - devious, calculating, and homicidal. If anyone is capable of running Heisenberg's empire, it is Todd (who has spoken admiringly of the man in the black hat). We assume that when Walt asks for Todd’s help, it means that he has exhausted his feelings for Jesse and now will have him killed.

Of course, another “son” comes into play here - Walt’s biological son Walter Junior (RJ Mitte). Perhaps the toughest of all characters to deal with on an emotional level, Junior asks Walt to just tell the truth, and our hearts break because he believes the cancer is causing Walt’s trouble, but we all know Heisenberg is hiding behind the curtain. The revelation of Walt being Heisenberg is going to be most devastating for Junior, and that is a scene we have to dread though we know it’s coming.

And we can make no mistake because it will be revealed. We recall the flash-forward from episode 9 when Walt goes into his abandoned house and sees “Heisenberg” spray-painted on the wall. The ugliest of truths is coming, and show creator and executive producer Vince Gilligan teased us with that view of future Walt (with full head of hair), retrieving the infamous ricin cigarette from the ravaged house. We also got a teasing glimpse of the Schwarzennegger machine gun in Walt’s trunk, and that has me thinking of all sorts of crazy endings, just as I am sure Gilligan intended.

Now that Walt has called in Todd, we realize things are going to go from bad to worse. The question is exactly how it will transpire. Before episode 9 I had predicted Walt would wither away from cancer, but now it could be that he goes out in a blaze of glory, sort of like Al Pacino in Scarface on that balcony with the machine gun. Walt has the ricin and the big gun and could be heading off to a showdown with other drug dealers, the DEA, Todd and crew, or a combination of adversaries. It is so exhilarating to think about yet exasperating at the same time.

Meanwhile, as always with Breaking Bad, we have more questions than answers. What happens to the Whites now? Do they ever go back to that gasoline-soaked house (my feeling is that Skyler will never feel safe there again)? Will Marie use that poison on Walt or, in a fit of madness, on Hank? Will Todd be called in to kill Jesse (as we assume), or will it be to go after Hank?

bad 1My feelings about this being like a Shakespearean tragedy continue to be confirmed as Walt, the tragic hero with more tragic flaws than Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear combined, heads toward that final scene of the last act and it figures that the stage will be littered with bodies. Will we count Skyler and Marie among them? Will Jesse somehow survive and walk on stage like Fortinbras and look down at all the dead bodies?


No one can be sure at this point, but the most frightening image of the night involved Walt sitting at the hotel swimming pool and staring into the night. No doubt he is slipping into Heisenberg mode at this moment, plotting and planning as he has before, and when that happens there is impending doom. We all know what’s coming - like a killer tornado - but it seems none of us has the desire or ability to get out of its way. That is why the dubious pleasures of Breaking Bad keep us wanting more and more. With four episodes remaining, I want to savor every excruciatingly solemn and glorious moment, like the funeral of a beloved friend that we wish would never end.

Photo credits: AMC