Thursday, October 31, 2013

Halloween Treat – Watch George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead

First appeared on Blogcritics.


Dawn_of_the_dead wikipediaAbout a year ago I came across a box of old videotapes filled with classic movies that I had recorded from cable TV over the years. One of the movies I was fortunate enough to have taped was George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978). Before all the Michaels and Jasons, before the lovelorn vampires and conflicted werewolves, and especially before the AMC phenomenon The Walking Dead, there was Romero and his zombies. Watching the film again last night, I am pleased to say it not only stands the test of time but gets better with age.


I remember first seeing this film in the theater and people going wild. After all, we had waited ten years since Romero’s classic Night of the Living Dead. Despite that film’s simplistic power, the “sequel” (if you can call it that because no one from the first film is present) has a bit of an edge on the original.


dawn basement rejectsFilmed in "living" color for all those wonderful gory scenes of squiggling intestines, devoured limbs, and machetes to the head, we follow the story of four survivors who barricade themselves in a suburban shopping mall. Having escaped the insanity of an unraveling Philadelphia in a stolen helicopter, Stephen (David Emge), Peter (Ken Foree), Roger (Scott Reiniger), and Fran (Gaylen Ross) fly over the widespread conflict that they note “is everywhere.” While the power of the first film was being trapped in a small farmhouse and not being privy to what was happening in the world (except through brief glimpses on TV), here we understand that the National Guard and the Army are involved but slowly losing the battle.


Landing on the roof of the mall to give pilot Stephen a chance to rest, Peter and Roger (both AWOL guardsmen) see the benefits of staying put for a while and doing some shopping – lots and lots of shopping. Besides having all the amenities they could possibly want, the mall also provides a secure location – if only they can get rid of all the zombies roaming the place. I won’t spoil the fun for you if you have never seen this film, but there is plenty of action and zombie kills. Romero spoofs the original in the sense that these survivors taunt the zombies with punches, karate chops, and even pies in the face. There is also a wry commentary on our nature as consumers, with the zombies being the ultimate all-night shoppers. Fran asks, “Why do they come here?” Stephen replies, “This was an important place in their lives,” and apparently in their deaths as well.


dawn studentarchiveThe best comment comes from Peter (the excellent Foree who should have gone on to be a huge star), who tells them about what his grandfather (a voodoo priest) once told him. “When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.” I guess Satan seriously overbooked his guestrooms.


While all the blood and gore should satisfy the horror purists, what makes this movie a cut above the usual slasher-pics is that we have four main characters that are fully developed. We actually care about them, get to understand their motivations, and we really don’t want to see any of them die. When Roger and Peter go out on a mission (to take tractor trailers and block the entrances of the mall), there is a palpable sense of foreboding that something will go wrong.


The Walking Dead is a fine successor to Romero’s work, but he got it right first and is still the master. If we like that show because of the human interactions more than the zombie kills, it is because they learned from Romero that you have to care about the survivors in order to make the whole thing count. When Jason and Michael are dispatching hapless victims, we almost cheer the killers because each one is as expendable as the last. Not so in Romero’s world, which is why his films (particularly Dawn) are still the gold standard of horror.


Do yourself a favor this Halloween (or any other time of the year), and go rent George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. I guarantee you it will have some tricks but a good deal more treats for your viewing pleasure.


Photo credits: poster-wikipedia, gun scene-basementrejects.com; zombies-studentarchive.com

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Common Core Wars: New York State Begins To Face Reality About Standardized Testing

First appeared on Blogcritics.

citizenship.aie.org An interesting recent article in The New York Times reveals that New York State "will seek to ease the burden of testing." Apparently state officials, led by state education commissioner Dr. John B. King Jr., are waking up and realizing what parents, teachers, and this writer having been saying all along - the testing linked to the new Common Core State Standards is excessive and intrusive. Its very nature does nothing to enhance the educational atmosphere in schools and, in fact, inhibits best instructional practices.

web.scott.k12.va.usOf course, don't plan to run the flag up the pole and have a celebratory parade just yet. As in all things here in New York, what King is announcing amounts to baby steps. While Dr. King says that there is "more testing than is needed" (if ever there was an understatement this is it) which prompted this decision, the assessments that are being reduced or eliminated are minimal at best. This plan includes giving students with English language struggles tests in their native languages, disabled students would take different tests than their peers in the specific grade, and a math assessment would be eliminated for some 8th grade students (those who take algebra and must also take a state Regents exam).


While this is a start, so much more needs to be done in regard to the assessments. King worded his comments carefully and said, "The amount of testing should be the minumum necessary to inform effective decsion making." If you know what's happening here in New York, state officials wanted to link teacher evaluations (and ultimately retention) to these assessments. When dismal results came back regarding this year's assessments (students performed miserably across the board), parents and teachers reacted with anger and dismay. How can you evaluate teachers based on student performance on questionable assessments? How can student's academic standing be determined based on these same faulty instruments?


Everyone from Dr. King to New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg had no satisfying response for months. Of course, Bloomberg and Cuomo had grand plans to use the assessment results to rid the system of so-called "dead weight," which basically means teachers with seniority and higher salaries. This has been Bloomberg's goal for years in NYC schools, where he has repeatededly closed schools and opened smaller charter schools that do not need to follow union rules or salary scales.


State and city parents have been outraged as have been educators. Teachers were never truly prepared to teach the CCSS last year, and yet they were forced to basically teach to the test all year, knowing that their jobs were ostensibly on the line if children performed poorly on the assessments; however, since teachers had never been properly trained in the standards (many still are not), how could the city and state expect them to teach effectively?


Teaching is a grand and sacred profession, and most people who enter into it are charged with something much more than earning a salary. They believe in the sacred trust that comes from standing in a classroom as a professional and imparting knowledge of subjects to students. Parents appreciate this symbiotic relationship, and they cherish the opportunity for their children to learn from these dedicated professionals. Unfortunately, something nefarious comes between the parent-teacher-student relationship when teachers are forced off course by pernicious attempts to rattle their cages, which makes teaching into something less than it should be. With the albatross of these assessments hanging around teachers' necks, they are compelled to do something opposed to their inherent nature, to go against every educator's fiber to teach to a test they know is deficient and will lead to unreliable results.


king usny.nysed.orgPerhaps Dr. King's announcement is a glimmer of hope, or it could be a case of smoke and mirrors. Teachers and parents would do well not to ease their protests at this point. If things stand as they are, an entirely new round of ineffective assessments will be given across the board next spring. We now have an opportunity to use this opening as a chink in the armor of the state and school districts. If these changes can be made, more can follow.



The CCSS were created to bring a deeper and more meaningful education to students. There is nothing wrong with that, but there is a salient difference between teaching for rigor and relevance and teaching to the test. As long as this dynamic exists, CCSS will be viewed as negatively by many as the assessments themselves. The key is to push for a uncontested divorce, separating testing and standards and eventually advocacy for elimination of all standardized testing. This may be wishful thinking, but standardized testing does nothing but prove something to people who never step into a classroom. We send our children to school to learn deeply and meaningfully and not to be tested to death.


Common Core Wars should have never happened in the first place, but now that we are sucked into this conflict, we can only hope that voices of reason will be heard and things will change. That has started to happen in New York, and other states should take note. A bell has started to toll here in New York and its mournful sound is bound to increase across the land. For whom does the bell toll? It should be for these inadequate assessments and the politicians, state officials, and district leaders who have lauded them.


Photo credits: dr. king-usny.nysed.gov; student-web.scott.k12.va.us; test-citizenship.aie.org

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Don’t Hate Me Because I'm Rich Girl – Another Sad Case of Those More Fortunate

First appeared on Blogcritics.
 
porr little wikiSomewhere between those born into wealth and loving it and Shirley Temple as "The Poor Little Rich Girl," we have a young woman who pens an essay about her sea of troubles as a poor little rich girl in New York City. Her essay “I’m Not Going to Pretend That I’m Poor to Be Accepted by You” is a good example of a freshman comp first draft gone viral. I don’t know much about her, but it seems that she is claiming to be upset because she has money and perceives that she is being treated poorly because of it. Oh, woe is her and then some!


Of all the indignities of the world, I image that being born rich must be the worst of all. I recently became aware of her story when I read an article in the New York Daily News. What a travesty that has been thrust upon her. I would cry tears if I could, but alas I feel nothing about her rant except an urgent need to ride the subway and rub shoulders with real people.


While this young woman feels she has been frowned upon for walking around town in designer clothes and carrying a Mulberry shopping bag, let’s look at the other end of the spectrum. Can you imagine the looks poor people get when they would even try to walk inside a store like that? There is without question an expression of disdain and deep contempt when you don’t look the part here in New York City, or apparently in many other places in the world as well if you recall when Oprah Winfrey was prevented from shopping in a Swiss store because she didn’t look like she belonged.


I grew up here in New York City in Queens. Most of my friends had fathers who worked very hard (like mine who was a NYC cop), and because of that we maybe didn’t see them as much as we would have liked. Overtime has a way of cutting into father-son time, but when food needs to be bought and rent paid, there is no complaining to be done about not playing catch with dear old dad. You understand the implications of his not working, so you keep your mouth shut and appreciate the times when he can go to your ballgame or maybe play checkers with you.


Obviously, I don’t know what gilded slings and arrows this young woman has had to endure, but I wonder how she would feel if she knew what it was like for us. There are real people who work and pay rent in apartments of this city, many of whom can barely make ends meet – people who indeed live from paycheck to paycheck, hoping that the job is there for them next week. We have seen the other side of the coin, the waiters and the sales clerks and the doormen and every other person who looks us up and down and thinks we don’t belong there.



george youtube I always remember a great line uttered by Jimmy Stewart playing George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life. He was speaking to the rich old goat Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore). Potter has been complaining about the riff-raff in town and how George is helping them to get out of his crowded apartments and buy nice houses. George stands up for the poor (for he himself is one of them) and tells Potter, “These people do most of the living and working and dying in this town.” As George goes on, Potter yawns and covers his mouth. Apparently he was another poor rich kid that everyone misunderstood too.


This young woman also denigrates public colleges, saying that it’s not her fault that her father could send her to an elite school. Well, as a proud graduate of the City University of New York, I believe I had a superior education. I never regret my college days and actually treasure the fact that I got to go to a school where most everyone I knew appreciated being there. They weren’t bored wealthy undergrads just blowing their parents money because they didn’t know what else to do with their lives. And most of us, after a long day of classes, rushed off to our after school jobs and then went home late and started studying. Oh, it should have been such agony but it was actually one of the best times of my life.

I am happy I was born to my parents and lived where I did, and I have never wished that my dad was someone else or that I was born into wealth. I was well loved and cared for, and I may not have gotten a BMW for my 18th birthday, but that old Chevy I bought with my own money seemed like a luxury car to me.

After all these years I am still friends with a group of guys I have known since I was five years old. We get together, share memories, and have a few drinks. None of us is bitter about how we used to live, and I believe we all cherish where the journey of life took us more because we remember where we came from.

Still, you could say that I know my place in the world. If I get a dirty look from someone who thinks he or she is better than I am for whatever reason, I basically ignore it. I have never allowed insults to be taken personally because that only empowers a person. So if wealthy people don’t like the way I look, I hope they enjoy the feeling of superiority that gives them. Maybe they can go into their penthouses, sip their cognac or champagne, and feel better about themselves. I’ll even lift my bottle of Poland Springs water and say “Cheers!” to them.


Back to our friend the poor little rich girl. So misunderstood is she, that now she fears someone “will spit in my face.” Oh, the tragedy of it all! Perhaps she should carry disinfectant wipes because you know all us poor folk are riddled with diseases. Protect yourself, dear girl, from us all. It’s one mean city out there; however, New Yorkers don’t spit into the faces of rich people; they have better things to do with their saliva.


I for one would like to thank her for her essay because it opened my eyes to the plight of the wealthy. I never realized how bad they had it, and now I wonder if we should start a movement of some kind to assist those more fortunate than ourselves. Perhaps we can raise the consciousness of regular people to understand that the wealthy have such a rough go of it. We New Yorkers always rise to the occasion, so I am sure we can muster something substantial like the Fresh Stare Fund – an organization making sure that no one will ever look down on the wealthy folks again.


Besides, what do I care about what rich people think? I don’t know a single one of them to be honest. I will never pretend to be rich to be accepted by anyone because I have friends, family, and love; therefore, I am already wealthy in ways that go far beyond dollar signs. That, dear readers, is priceless.

Photo credits: george bailey-youtube; shirley temple-wkipedia

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Giant Asteroid Could Hit Earth in 2032 - Time for the World to Work Together Now

First appeared on Blogcritics.


aster 1 getty News that a huge asteroid could hit the earth in 2032 got me thinking: will we be able to stop this kind of thing? Doing a little research, the answer is a resounding "No." This massive rock (dubbed 2013 TV135) went past us last month, and not a hair on our heads was disturbed; however, it was at a distance of 4.2 million miles (6.7 million kilometers) away, so a bad hair day was nothing to worry about, at least not yet.


The asteroid was spotted by Ukranian astronomers only ten days ago, and the asteroid had passed us on September 16, so we had a close encounter and didn't even know it. The return of 2013 TV135 will be perhaps closer, but experts estimate that there is a 1 in 63,000 chance of it hitting the earth. Don Yeomans, of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office, said that the current projection means about a "99.998% of no contact" with the asteroid in 2032. I guess we can breathe a sigh of relief, but I wouldn't get too comfortable.


Let's think about the implications of this story. The Ukranians noticed the asteroid "ten days" after it had already passed, which scares me more than anything. In other words, we had this gigantic piece of space rock hurtling towards us and passing through the neighborhood, and we didn't even know it was out there. How many more really big ones (maybe like the one that hit in Siberia in 1908?) are out there that we do not know about yet? Maybe Mr. Yeomans and his group need to be a little more vigilant.


The salient point is that even if we knew that good old 2013 TV135 were heading directly for us, there is nothing we can do right now. Supposedly the United States and Russia have been in talks about nuclear options of stopping an asteroid. The Russians have a vested interest in this since earlier this year an asteroid exploded there injuring over a thousand people. No one saw that one coming either.


space gettyCharles Bolden, the chief of NASA, during a meeting  with The House Science Committee, was asked if a big rock were coming directly towards us and would hit us in a few weeks what could we do? He told them to "Pray." This is, of course, due to a fact that Bolden made clear to the representatives; when NASA asked for funds for this kind of thing they never materialized.


My feeling is this is a bigger and much more serious issue than NASA and Congress can handle. Okay, so the Russians have been talking about nukes with the U.S., but there is something frightening about that too. Right now we have no capability of delivering the nukes to get the giant rock before it enters our atmosphere, and by then it could cause complications with worldwide implications if we took it out with nukes, one terrible scenario being replaced by another.


All the countries of the world have a vested interest in this. If we all pulled together, kind of like in the movie Independence Day, then maybe we could defeat this alien rogue as well as in the film. A rock from space is just as dangerous, probably much more so, than any little green men and women from another galaxy. We can all pool our resources and create something substantial, perhaps a United Nations Space Defense Force, and construct some kind of space stations strategically positioned in orbit and equipped to take out asteroids. Yes, I know this will take time and great effort, but we should actually take this threat as seriously as we do hurricanes and earthquakes.


aster 2 NASATo scare you a bit more, Bolden noted that there are approximately "9,600 near earth objects" that NASA is currently tracking, many of them 60% larger than 300 kilometers. The one that exploded over Russia earlier this year was just 17 kilometers wide, so magnify that and imagine one of these huge rocks dropping in a major city or even in the middle of the Pacific, and the impact on earth would be catastrophic. There is so much that divides us in the world, but one thing we can all agree on is preservation of our planet. The threat of an asteroid hitting us may seem remote, but tell that to the dinosaurs.


Yes, a big rock like that is said to only hit once every 20,000 years, but the experts could be wrong. It is time to face the situation and use it to bring the people of the world together. While I deeply respect prayer, that is not going to stop a 400 kilometer asteroid from wiping out everything. Of course, in our politically challenging times it would be hard to expect Congress to do much of anything. We saw that we recently went to the brink of financial ruin. If our people in Congress can barely agree on fiscal responsibility, how can we expect them to worry about what's coming from space?


We need to rally key and influential members of the world community to begin an exploration of how we can fund a realistic (and relatively fast) defense of the planet from these asteroids; otherwise, annhilation from the devastating impact of a large space rock could be a real possibility. In that scenario we won't be sent back to the Stone Age but into oblivion, and all the praying in the world won't be able to stop it.

Photo credits: asteroid and Bolden-Getty Images; space map-NASA

Monday, October 14, 2013

The Walking Dead – “Thirty Days Without An Accident”

First appeared on Blogcritics

0848d720-32a9-d40b-ee74-7bdc109bbb5a_F.JPG This review does contain spoilers from the October 13, 2013 episode.


I don’t know about you, but whenever I start thinking something like “It’s been a long time since…” it comes around and happens. So the premise of the title of tonight’s episode is that Beth is keeping tabs on the community’s safety record, in essence to foster some semblance of normalcy while surrounded by insanity, so it’s a given that someone is going to get hurt and soon.


dead 2As season four opens we get an almost idyllic setting – if you discount the hundreds of walkers (walking dead people) outside the gates of the prison. Rick Grimes now is content to listen to his iPod while farming, ignoring the walkers completely as he tills the soil. This is a far different Rick, one less haunted by the loss of Lori and all the deeds he has been forced to commit. Hey, he’s in such a good place, he doesn’t even carry his gun anymore.

We quickly get caught up to speed with old friends and get to meet some new ones. We learn Daryl and Carol may be an item (I just can’t imagine anyone calling Daryl “Pookie”), Glen is worried about Maggie going out on runs (He thinks she may be pregnant), Beth is seeing new guy Zach (I sort of knew he was a goner when she refused to say goodbye to him), and Tyreese and Karen are getting close. There is a new kid named Patrick (whom I immediately dubbed Harry Potter because of his glasses) who idolizes Daryl, who makes sure he licks his fingers clean of barbecue sauce before shaking hands with him.

All seems right within the prison gates, and then along comes Michonne riding a horse. Instead of her characteristic sneer she has a smile and seems to be on some sort of quest (looking for the Governor) that keeps her going. She even manages to joke with Rick about his beard, so we know she is in a different place than when we last saw her crying with Andrea as she lay dying. Two important things happen next. Rick and Carl have a nice father-son chat, and we can that they are in a much better place too. There is typical father and son banter about comic books and going to “school” (Carol is holding classes for the other kids that have joined the group). Carl refers to a sick pig as “Violet,” and Rick cautions him about naming animals that will be slaughtered. This could be a metaphor for the walkers themselves, who are unnamed and killed daily by groups of "terminators" along the fence line. As long as they have no names, the job is infinitely easier.

dead 4The problem with a zombie narrative is exactly when those who have names become infected and die. We have seen it again and again in the first three seasons, and it happens again in episode 4-1. There is an inherent price to be paid by losing those we love to the epidemic, and then we will find out later in the show that there is even more to worry about than being bitten by walkers.


Rick also talks with Hershel (ever the font of wisdom and sanity) who cautions Rick not to go checking his traps without a gun. The ruling council has requested that he take his gun with him. One could see this as a device to show that Rick has connected with being a farmer and trapper, so much so that he wants to remove himself from the killing process entirely. Other groups are killing walkers along the fence daily because their numbers are increasing and, as Carol warns Daryl, it may be that their numbers are getting too big to handle.

As Rick goes to check his traps, Daryl, Glenn, Michonne, Sasha, and newcomers Zach and Bob go to town for supplies. Of course, one of the staples of the show is getting more “stuff” needed to live. The fact that any store would even have goods after all this time is amazing, but Daryl knows the place and they go there.

Rick encounters a strange woman in the woods who is barely alive (and looks almost worse than a walker). She begs him to come and meet her husband and let them become part of the group. Rick walks with her to a camp that seems unlikely to be a place to survive (but we have seen this before in the TWD universe), and Rick discovers that hubby is a walker – but only his head remains. The woman wants to kill Rick to feed him to her beloved, but Rick pulls the gun (the one he was cautioned to bring) and she stabs herself. As she is dying, she asks Rick to tell her the three questions that they would ask anyone before they can join the group – have you killed walkers? Have you killed people and if so why? – and she answers them (the only person she has killed is herself). She also asks Rick not to kill her and let her expire and join undead hubby’s head, and he agrees.

Meanwhile the group that went shopping has a worse time of it in the big box store. Seems a helicopter that crashed on the roof is weakening it, causing walkers to suddenly rain on their parade. Bob causes the deluge when he is drawn to the liquor on the shelves (are we being told he has a Hershel problem?) and knocks them over, trapping himself and drawing the walkers to the noise. Zach is bitten and the rest barely survive, and then Daryl returns and tells Beth her paramour is dead. She hugs him, remains dry-eyed, and puts the days without an accident number back to zero. I don’t know what’s more disconcerting in this scene – Beth’s being inured to death or the fact that the zero probably isn’t going to change for a long time to come.

Rick returns from his encounter and sees that Violet the pig could be dead. What happened to her is foreshadowing because Harry Potter gets sick as he attends Carol’s “class” with Carl. Carl (actor Chandler Riggs has shot up since last season) has really grown up and realizes that Carol’s reading of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is sort of like a primer (Becky and Tom are trapped in a cave). She then perfectly segues into the uses of knives. Hey, a kid has got to get an education, right?

The episode ends even more ominously as Harry Potter goes to the bathroom even sicker, loses lunch all over the water supply, and then drops dead (no magic wand could apparently help him here). With his black-rimmed glasses lying on the floor, Harry starts turning into something that would make Voldemort proud. His eyes change and we know next week a walker will be on the wrong side of the fence.

New showrunner Scott Gimple appeared on Talking Dead after the show, and he seems cut from the same cloth as Vince Gilligan of Breaking Bad. Comic book and show creator Robert Kirkman has entrusted him with the franchise, and judging from this first episode, we will have a rocky but exciting ride in season four. He hinted that things will get decidedly worse from here on in, and the fear (as is always the case with this show) is that a beloved character will be next.

This gets us back to Violet the pig. Although Arnold Ziffle of Green Acres fame might disagree, she should never have been named. Harry Potter took over the barbecue from Carol and Daryl, and we have to figure that those ribs people have been eating may not be Grade A quality. We are left with a queasy feeling that a new and probably more pernicious virus is going to hit the group hard, and Potter will probably be a pain in the neck (and arm, leg, and hand) for a few innocents next week.

The extended metaphor for this season could be in place – it’s one thing to kill unnamed walkers outside the gates, but it’s another thing to kill them when you know their names. It seems we are going to be in for a lot of that kind of bloodshed and soon, and despite that I cannot wait for the next episode.


Photo credits: AMC

Sunday, October 13, 2013

The Walking Dead Season 4 – What AMC Should Learn from M*A*S*H

First appeared on Blogcritics.

dead 1

With AMC’s The Walking Dead beginning its fourth season, there is great excitement and anticipation. In the wake of the Breaking Bad series finale, there is a void that definitely needs to be filled, and TWD is an excellent opportunity to enjoy Sunday nights again. That said, as it moves into season four, the executive producer Greg Nicotero and new showrunner Scott Gimple (the third in four seasons) will want to take note of another show that stumbled in its fourth year: the iconic sitcom M*A*S*H.


mash wikipedia

Like TWD, M*A*S*H lost two key cast members going into its fourth year. McLean Stevenson (Lt. Colonel Henry Blake) and Wayne Rogers (Trapper John) opted out of the show, and the loss of such popular characters was upsetting. I recall people writing to CBS to complain about their replacements, and I myself did not watch much of that season. I was annoyed that Blake died and Trapper was sent home without so much as a goodbye. The facts about why they left mattered less than that their absence changed the nature of the show.


dead 2 Looking at season three of TWD, we lost two main characters in Lori and Andrea. The emotional heft, especially of Andrea’s demise locked in the room with Milton turning into a zombie, hit hard. There was an introduction of new characters – and many more it seems are on the way – but there is a concern that Gimple (a long-time writer on the show) should recognize. Key characters have been lost before, but more of the same this season may hurt the series more than ever before.

Take the romance between Maggie and Glenn. In one of the more gentle relationships in the show, there is the prospect of hope for the future. They are in love and could eventually have children, but the ever present threat that one of them could become zombie food is always there. This would be a difficult thing for fans to digest (I couldn’t resist), and I am hoping that Gimple realizes the bigger picture as the need for Maggie and Glenn’s hope for the future of humanity certainly outweighs the dramatic impact of one (or both) of their deaths would inflict on the rest of the survivors.

dead 3 There is also the possibly blossoming relationship between Daryl and Carol. Both have suffered tremendous loss (one of the best scenes of the series was when Daryl’s brother Merle turned zombie and Daryl became conflicted before killing him) and there seems to be something drawing them together. That said, there is the cryptic preview line from Carol about there not being many of (the original survivors) left. I’m hoping that is not foreshadowing of the worst kind in regards to her or her possible paramour.

Getting back to M*A*S*H, I feel that series and TWD also have the similarity that the protagonists are surrounded by an unrelenting enemy – in M*A*S*H it was the North Koreans and Chinese, in TWD its zombies. While these opposing armies are very different indeed, the metaphor is essentially the same. Humanity is threatened by an external force. How many times did we get scenes of the surgeons operating as bombs shook their surgical room? In TWD it is similar, an encampment that is the last best hope for what’s left of the human race.

Zombies and enemy combatants differ in one key way – zombies are involuntary murderers, while soldiers are sworn to uphold their duty. Much talk last year centered around “evil” in terms of the Governor and his nefarious plans to take the prison and kill all of its inhabitants, and this threat subsumed in many ways the zombie threat. Zombies were part of the equation but sometimes actually just seemed to be more in the background, a fact of life like rats in the NYC subway system. In terms of “evil” there is no intent for a zombie. It is pure instinct that drives it to kill and eat; however, if we learn down the line that some kind of evil force created a virus that caused the zombie mutations, then that will be a different thing to deal with.

At the center of both shows is the main protagonist – Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) in TWD and Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda) in M*A*S*H. No matter how many characters come and go, they are essential to the story moving forward. While I was annoyed that Trapper left, I came back to M*A*S*H mostly to see what Hawkeye was up to. The same must be said about Grimes, who lost his way last season and that bothered me at first, but I recalled the same thing happening to Hawkeye. You cannot be overwhelmed by events and not pay an emotional price. Rick did come back in a huge way – facing off with and eventually defeating the Governor.

So I am not sure which direction TWD will be taking this year, but I fear always that one of our favorites will die. It’s a staple of the show, and you know that everyone is fair game. I have also read that David Morrissey (the Governor) is signed on to guest star, so we must assume he is not done with his quest to get Rick and company. He was a complicated character, and as a villain he could smile all the while he was stabbing you in the back, so that is good news for fans. Here’s hoping that Michonne gets a chance to finish what she started last season when he does come on the scene. I am looking forward to this season but with trepidation.

While I have enjoyed other AMC shows like Breaking Bad and Mad Men, to me this is one of the strongest TV dramas ever. It has managed to transcend the genre tag that could have afflicted it, and its popularity (around 12 million viewers per episode) indicates how it has found and kept an audience. The question is how much do Nicotero and Gimple respect that core group (we have to hope as much as Breaking Bad’s Vince Gilligan did his fans)?

There is always danger in a fourth season in that we have come to care deeply enough about the characters, and that is why we keep coming back, but it is also why we have to know that things are probably more precarious than ever before. I am just thinking that Rick and his kids Carl and Judy are going to be threatened, but Rick has become such an iconic presence, that I almost wish for someone (or thing) to go after them, because that will bring out Rick’s inner warrior, one that Shane Walsh and others discovered all too well.

The good news is The Walking Dead is back, but that is also the bad news because death is always a factor in this series. While I hope my favorites survive, I have a feeling that more graves will be dug (maybe even in the very first episode). Yes, we are angry when someone we care about dies, but this is a war zone. Sometimes even good people like Henry Blake and Andrea don’t make it. Just as in life, we may not like it, but we have to live with it. TWD keeps us coming back because, despite all the loss, at its heart is the preservation of humanity in the face of madness. That glimmer of hope is what keeps me hooked, even if I will be sitting on the edge of my seat each week.

Photo credits: M*A*S*H – Wikipedia; TWD- AMC

Saturday, October 12, 2013

NYC Subway Token of My Appreciation



First appeared on Blogcritics.


token 3There was a time years ago when a small coin was the most important thing in my life. I couldn’t buy anything with it in a store, make a phone call with it (hard finding a working payphone these days in New York City), or use it in a parking meter (those are disappearing now too), yet it seemed worth everything to me. I am talking about the legendary New York City subway token. The token guaranteed me transport, and as a young person in need of getting here to there, the subway and bus were my lifelines; therefore, it was imperative to have enough of these tokens for a given day or week.

I have to laugh now when I use my MetroCard – the simplicity of it is so apparent – and remember all those tokens jingling in my pocket. The great thing about having a number of them in your pocket was their heft; you felt like you were carrying quite a load but there was confidence in that. And with a glorious thing in NYC known as a “transfer,” the possibilities of bus and subway became endless. There was no place I could not go – to the beach, the park, Shea Stadium, museums, Times Square, Central Park, and even the Staten Island Ferry! All five boroughs were just waiting to be reached via the small little coin with a Y carved into it.


token 1So recently I was going through my “junk” drawer and discovered a token. I literally gasped and my kids wanted to know what was wrong. When I showed it to them, I must have acted like I was Indiana Jones discovering the lost treasure of the Incas. It was indeed like finding a priceless relic. “It’s just a coin, Dad” I was told.

I launched into a soliloquy worthy of one of the Bard’s tortured souls. “A coin? Why just a coin; wherefore base?” You get the idea. I went on and on about its merits, about its inherent beauty, about its tremendous value on the ramparts of my soul’s castle. And then, alas, I realized that to my kids it was as meaningless as my childhood memories of running home from school to watch Dark Shadows or my 45 records gathering dust in the basement. This token was never important to them and I do understand that. I really do. Really.

Still, there was a misty feeling of another time and place as I sat with my token in my hand. I recalled when my palms were sweaty during a long ago summer, taking the subway to a concert in the Central Park to see Simon and Garfunkel (my kids have no idea who they are either). There was something so pure about the feel of the coin, moist and yet gritty from my pocket, and then I slipped it into the slot, the turnstile spun as I pushed ahead, and my young limbs ran onto a subway train that would take me to a station where I jumped up the steps and into the sunlight as I yearned to hear “The Sounds of Silence” with hundreds of thousands of my fellow New Yorkers in the sweltering heat. I also recall the cold winter days when those tokens in my pocket felt frozen against my leg, and I had to take my glove off, feeling the stinging ice of the coin in my fingers as I prepared to put it into the slot.
token 2

There was no sterility to a token, for it picked up all the detritus of the city and the many fingers that possessed it. While we can see discarded MetroCards lying all over the place in the street and on the subway platforms, I never saw a token on the ground anywhere. I may have found a quarter or dime here and there in my life, but never a token. Subway tokens were New York City gelt, and the precious little coin with a Y was kept safe because it was so dear to everyone.

Now those days are gone. I can add money to my MetroCard very easily. It slips into my pocket quietly, never making any noise as tokens did. There is no feeling of this card being used by someone else, no thought that it had passed through the hands of the huddled masses, for each time I buy a new one it comes out of a machine new, fresh, and dandy. There is such great sadness in this efficiency, and yet there is no turning back. The token is gone forevermore.

crunch redcrosshat.orgI have put my token in a special place – inside my Cap’n Crunch treasure chest (which I once sent away for with coupons cut from the cereal boxes). As a boy I ate my cereal right from the treasure chest, as it was perfect for use as a bowl. Now it contains other relics – including my Neil Armstrong landing on the moon button, a Beatles magnet, a James Bond watch, and a Batman ring. None of these things mean anything to anyone but me, but I kind of like it that way.

Now, I am on to the day ahead. The MetroCard will no doubt come in handy, but now every time I use it I will be thinking of my little friend with the Y in it.


Photo Credit: Cap’n Crunch – redcrosshat.org

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Breaking Bad – The Fine Art of Walter White’s Fall


First appeared on Blogcritics.


finale 2 This article contains possible spoilers.


 We have all had time to process the series finale, “Felina,” of AMC's Breaking Bad. There were those who loved the finale, those who despised it, and many people didn’t watch it, mostly because they had never watched the show before. But now as the dust and gunpowder have settled, as we think about the whole series that culminated in that finale, we need to take a few steps back and think deeply about what was one of the greatest TV dramas ever.

guernicaTaking those steps back, it is almost as if I am in a museum studying a piece of art. When you can look at something so overwhelmingly powerful and almost perfectly conceived, let’s use Pablo Picasso’s Guernica as an example, you cannot stand too close, but you also don’t want to stand too far away. So how do you begin to truly appreciate something so massive, so complicated, and still not miss something? One thing is to not negate the work with brevity, and another is to revisit it often enough to gain understanding, to see something missed last time, and to try to appreciate the whole as well as the individual parts from which it is composed.

To me Breaking Bad is very much like Geurnica, including the requisite violence that comes with all wars. Guernica shows the devastating impact on individuals from a bombing during the Spanish Civil War. What was Breaking Bad but a show that illustrated the effects on individuals from a mushroom cloud called Walter White (Bryan Cranston). His violent explosions as Heisenberg set events in motion that finally became totally clear in the last three episodes, but anyone who watched the show over five seasons had to know where it was heading, unless some viewers were wishing it would not be so or tragedy could be averted.

Show creator and executive producer Vince Gilligan has been known to say that Breaking Bad was the story of Mr. Chips becoming Scarface, but that doesn’t begin to do justice to what happened during those five seasons. This is why we need to step back, to admire that work of art, and try to assess it on the “whole” work rather than a few final episodes.

From the first episode in season one, we saw the scope of Walter Hartwell White’s drop into the depths away from the light. By making a conscious decision to “cook” an illegal drug for profit (even if ostensibly to make provision for his family after a diagnosis of terminal and inoperable cancer) Walt chose to enter a world where violence and death were always seconds away. He fortunately escapes the first episode with just some damage to his RV, but in the process he has broken the law and taken out two drug dealers. This start of things opened us up to go along for the ride, to see how this seemingly mild mannered chemistry teacher could turn into something even he himself won’t recognize.

After that first episode, I know I was hooked and would be there (62 episodes later) when it all would end. Perhaps none of us accepted where Breaking Bad was going, but as Walt became increasingly dark, and the heft of his deeds started involving more people, we had to begin facing the inevitable. I know that Jane’s death sort of caught me by surprise – I didn’t think Walt would let her die, but the after effects (especially the plane crash), shook me up and made me realize that Walt was digging a hole from which there would be no escape.

There is no way to truly think of him as “good” after that, and yet we still see him going through the motions, being the family man, and professing even to himself that all he is doing is for his wife and children. People wanted to believe it because Walt wanted to believe it too, and if it were other than that then the evil heft of his deeds would be almost unfathomable. This is why when Walt finally admits to Skyler “I did it for me” in “Felina,” there is a slap across the audience’s faces louder than Cher hitting Nicholas Cage in Moonstruck. If we were still in a collective fog, that slap had to bring us out of our trances. It was finally the “confession” that Walter Hartwell White needed to make, and not that it provided Walt redemption (that would come later with Jesse), but it allowed him to settle things with Skyler and to see his baby Holly one last time.

So looking at the whole series, the first episode and “Felina” provide apropos opening and closing to the video novel. We got hooked at the start, kept reading all the way through, and got to the last page and felt closure, even as our anti-hero lay in his own blood staring at the camera. We take a step back, and just as the whole of Guernica involves all its parts, every episode moved the story along the way to its only logical, and painful, conclusion.

No, amazingly most of us never wanted Walt to die, but that seemed rather incongruous since we knew from the start that he had inoperable cancer. It was likely that he would die from a bullet first (as he does), but the cancer was always there, with his bald head a constant reminder of the fact. We also never wanted Hank to die, but looking back over the series that likelihood should have never been discounted. Even in the first episode Hank is depicted as having cockiness and an edge that bothers Walt a little bit. The way he holds his gun, shows it to Junior, and then invites Walt for a ride along to a DEA arrest scene should have been foreshadowing that Hank would not survive the finale.

Now that we all know the ending, I suggest that you to go back and look at the beginning again and try to go all the way through the episodes (Netflix is your best bet right now). You will appreciate Gilligan’s mastery of tone and his visual acuity, and there will be a growing sense in you of an appreciation of direction. We may not have known where Walter White and company were going, but it’s clear that Gilligan knew all along. 

finale 3There have been some negative reactions to the finale, especially about the way Walt seemed too conveniently to tie up loose ends. The truth is that it makes perfect sense that a man who knew he was dying would want to do this. How it happens follows what Jesse told Hank on the video confession; Walt was smarter than everyone and luckier too. That is why when he rigs the machine gun to go off at a touch of a button, we should have appreciated that this is Walt using that intelligence and luck to outsmart and outgun the neo Nazis who seemed to be a good deal worse than he was.


Walt’s final actions save Jesse’s life in more ways than one. By diving on Jesse, Walt shields him from the bullets and takes a couple in the process. He also is liberating Jesse from the meth lab hell where Jesse would no doubt have spent the rest of his life until Todd’s Uncle Jack no longer had use for him. Just like the old gunslinger sliding a gun across a saloon bar, Walt slides a gun along the floor to Jesse. Not only has he saved him, but now Walt is giving him the chance to take revenge on him. The fact that Jesse lets him live is more about Jesse saving his own soul than allowing Walt to live. Jesse drops the gun and tells him to do it himself, so when Walt and Jesse stand outside the bullet riddled clubhouse where all of Jesse’s captors lay dead, there is a final nod between them, sort of like two gunslingers in the street deciding not to draw after all.

After Jesse drives away in the happy lunacy of freedom, Walt goes into the lab to look at the set-up but also to say goodbye, not just to the meth making process that empowered him but to the chemistry that was his first love. When Badfinger’s “Baby Blue” starts playing, and as Walt falls to the floor and dies, we know that the “blue meth” was his true love all along. Walt is finally at peace in the place where he was always going to end up being. The fact that he tied up loose ends just keeps within his character’s keen intelligence and need to be in control. Why wouldn’t he be that way right up until the end of his life?

Breaking Bad is real art and something we can appreciate for years to come. All the recent hype would make one think the only thing that mattered were these last episodes, but the truth is that all the others leading up to the end are worth seeing again, appreciating them for such great craft, and realizing that in this case the artist respected his audience as much as he loved his show. This is why it is so sad to see Breaking Bad end, but by ending it so decisively and distinctly, Gilligan proves that he is a true artist whose work will be remembered and appreciated for many years to come.

Photo credits: Guernica- hyperhistory.com; Cranston – AMC

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Breaking Bad Finale – Sympathy for the Devil


Appeared first on Blogcritics.



finale 2 Please beware that this article contains spoilers. Okay, it took me a while to compose myself after watching “Felina,” episode 16 of season 5 of Breaking Bad. It was hard enough dealing with the end of things, knowing there will be no more new shows, and basically I got what I have wanted all along from the show. It seems that series creator and executive producer Vince Gilligan (who wrote and directed this episode) crafted the ending in such a way as to give as much of a satisfying ending as possible within the context of the history of the show. Perhaps that is my problem with it, or should I say I am not having any problem with it – I know that does not make sense, but my not having a problem with it is a problem because this is Breaking Bad.


I think that by giving most everyone much of what they wanted, “Felina” may have been just too perfect. Also, with the accumulation of emotion from “Granite State,” the previous episode, we came into the dangerous territory of, despite all his many transgressions, feeling sorry for Walter White (Bryan Cranston). Credit that to the writing, the directing, and mostly to Cranston’s acting. He has an incredible way to transmit pain and affliction – with a grimace, a smirk, or even a deadpan stare. In lesser hands this would have been maudlin and ineffective, but instead we got into the suffering and felt it personally, causing us to have sympathy for the man who Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) called the devil.


So I guess my issue with “Felina” is that it is too perfect, just too damned good even though I wanted it to be that way. From those first moments in the frozen car in New Hampshire, Walt sits there in the dark as the lights from police cars go by. Damn, I should want him to be caught (even knowing from the flash forwards that he will not be) and yet I am right there with him, wanting him to get back to New Mexico to take care of business. Then he starts the car and strains of Marty Robbins’s “El Paso” play on the car stereo, and we know the direction we are heading in.


finale 4By the time we get to the palatial home of Elliot and Gretchen Schwartz (Adam Godley and Jessica Hecht), Walt is sitting in the shadows waiting for them. As they come into their swanky digs and make insipid rich folk talk, Walt emerges from the vapors like a walker (from another great AMC show The Walking Dead). Walt glides along the floors like a ghost, touching walls and curios as if to feel the wealth that he could have had (if not for leaving Gray Matter) permeate his skeletal hand.


When Gretchen sees Walt she screeches, causing Elliot to come running to her defense with a butter knife. Walt tells him if he wants to go that way he needs a bigger knife. It is a brief comical moment, but then we get to the reason for his visit. No, he’s not there to poison the champagne with ricin, but rather to enlist them in making sure that Walt Jr. will get his money, almost $10 million of it. He explains that they will do this as what will seem like a goodwill gesture on Walt Jr.’s 18th birthday. While Walt and we sense that they may renege on the deal, two beams of red light are trained on Elliot and Gretchen by “assassins” waiting outside in the dark. He warns them that they will be watched for the rest of their lives by these killers, so they better make good on the deal. When Walt leaves we can only imagine Gretchen and Elliot will have to change their underwear.


Back in the car we get our second and last glimpse of humor in the episode, in the form of Badger (Matt Jones) and Skinny Pete (Charles Baker). They are feeling a little bad about using laser pointers to scare the beautiful rich people, but Walt hands them each a wad of cash to get them feeling better. They also reveal an important factoid – the blue meth is still out there, forcing Walt to believe that Jesse has teamed up with Lydia (Laura Fraser) and Todd (Jesse Plemons). He will later meet up with them at Lydia’s favorite café and give her a going away present in her tea (the ricin disguised as stevia sweetener).


finale 5The rest of the episode filters down from there, with Walt basically crossing his t’s and dotting his i’s. He goes to see Sklyer (Anna Gunn), again a wisp of his former self standing in the little kitchen of her rental. This scene is beautifully rendered, bringing together all the years of lies and pain and suffering when Walt reveals the most important and salient truth – “I did it for me.” All the doing it for his family stuff is thrown away, and this truth allows him to have some kind of final peace with Skyler. He gives her the lottery ticket which bears the coordinates of Hank and Steve’s graves, and even in this gesture he grants Marie (Betsy Brandt) a closure she may have never had.


At this point we are building our sentiments and getting closer to seeing redemption as a possibility for Walt, and here is where the episode disappoints me the most. After he reveals the “I did it for me” truth, there should be no sympathy at all for this devil. He was the man who professed to be “in the empire business,” and now we know it was always his goal to rake in the money and establish a legacy, one perhaps on par with what he would have done if he had stayed with Gray Matter. But Gilligan has crafted yet another twist that will get us liking Walt a little more than we should – he is given the chance to save Jesse.


When he goes to see the neo Nazi crew at their compound, he talks to Uncle Jack (Michael Bowen) about a new method of making meth, and there seems to be a clear purpose to take everyone out – including Jesse. He has rigged the M60 machine gun to go off with the touch of keychain car alarm fob (like Hank said, he was the smartest guy he knew), but things are not going well and it seems Jack is going to kill him, so once again Walt plays the Pinkman card.


No matter how much Jack doesn’t like Walt and wants to kill him, he has some kind of dubious code that makes him not want to be associated with a “rat.” He tells Todd to go get Jesse from the dungeon where he has been cooking the meth, and once Walt sees Jesse brought into the clubhouse in chains, ragged from months of imprisonment, something overcomes him. In this moment – one might even call it Walt’s reclamation – he dives at Jesse, knocking him to the floor as he pushes the button. The machine gun satisfyingly tears all the Nazi gang to shreds, leaving Jack barely alive and Todd unscathed.


As Todd crawls to the window to see who attacked them, Jesse takes his chains and wraps them around Todd’s neck. I can imagine a collective scream of “Yes!” from viewers as Jesse sucks the life out of killer Richie Cunningham, and Walt walks over to the wounded Jack with a gun. Jack begins to warn Walt that he will never find his money, but doesn’t get to finish his sentence as Walt shoots him in a way reminiscent of how Jack killed Hank. There is no mercy for Jack, of course; but, more importantly, Walt does not even a care about the money because, as he said earlier, “It’s over.”


finale 3Walt slides the gun across the floor to Jesse and tells him to kill him. Jesse holds the gun and contemplates killing Walt, but notices that Walt is wounded. Whether or not Jesse realizes it, Walt took that bullet for him when he knocked Jesse to the floor. Jesse cannot kill Walt, and he tells him to do it himself. At this point Todd’s cell phone rings, and Walt answers it and hears Lydia ask if the job is done. Walt tells her that she is poisoned and basically she’s had her last chamomile tea.


As Walt and Jesse leave the clubhouse together it is unsaid that it is truly over between them. Jesse gets into a car, drives off into the night, screaming and laughing and crying like a loon. Of course, most everyone sees Jesse – even despite his own transgressions – as being the victim of circumstances in this equation, wanting out but never being able to get free. Finally and irrevocably Jesse has that freedom. You can just imagine him putting the pedal to the metal and not stopping until he gets to Juneau.


finale 6Walt staggers into the sophisticated meth lab where Jesse toiled for so long. One man’s prison can be another’s paradise, and Walt lovingly touches the equipment, and we know from what he told Skyler that making meth made him feel alive. As police cars start pouring into the compound, Walt falls to the floor and dies staring up at the ceiling with his arms widespread. Badfinger’s “Baby Blue” is cued up, and as we hear the lyrics “Guess I got what I deserved,” we get the feeling it is much more powerfully connected to the last seconds of this show than Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” was to the last moments of The Sopranos


As Walt stares lifelessly at the ceiling, we should admit to ourselves that he got nothing of what he deserved. While the story has been crafted so carefully and lovingly, it is clear that Gilligan and company wanted Walt to almost take it all. In good conscience they didn’t let him walk away, say off to Omaha where could have haunted Saul Goodman’s Cinnabon, but the way it ends Walt rights almost all the wrongs, kills all the people supposedly worse than he is, gets the money to his son, and saves Jesse’s life. If that is not setting him up for redemption 101, I don’t know what is.


Still, we are reminded of the “Ozymandias” episode and the poem of the same name, and we wonder if all his works are truly decimated if he had his cake and almost ate it too. If Walt dies on his own terms (and clearly that is the case), does it not stand that he not only got away with it but comes off looking like some kind of anti-hero?


In the end I am as guilty as the next person for wanting Walt to do all the things he did in “Felina,” but somehow I can’t get myself to feel good about it. In an alternate universe, if the Nazi gang killed Skyler and kidnapped the kids, or even if Walt had been caught, the money taken away, and he had to rot in a jail cell with no one ever visiting him as he slowly died from cancer, that may have been the right and “just” way to go. I wouldn’t have liked it perhaps, but I would have felt better in the end.


As it is the meth king is dead – long live the king. And indeed Walter White will live on in our memories and, his saga will be available on a DVD compilation that will inevitably be diagnosed for a long time to come. Breaking Bad was one of the most powerful, creative, and original series to appear on television. Its legacy is definitely secure, even if the finale made us have a little too much sympathy for a devil who wanted everyone to know his name.


Photo credits: AMC