Here and There

I started meeting them last week. You know the types … “Oh, The Departed doesn’t deserve to win Best Picture because it’s a remake” is their motto. They’ll admit to having appreciated the movie, some more so than others, as with any movie. But they’re not willing to admit to its proper place in the upper echelon of American cinema, and only because this filmic production of the story wasn’t its first.

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to have seen Infernal Affairs (one of the most infernally titled translations ever) at the Asian Film Festival in San Francisco. It was a nice surprise. What sounded good enough to me (a movie about cops and gangsters) turned out to be somewhat of a thinker’s movie. Wait, let me take that back. It was a popcorn movie, to be sure, but one that also makes you think, keeps you on the edge of your seat, and has some kick-ass fight scenes.

I may have seen another movie or two at that year’s festival, but it was Infernal Affairs alone that stuck with me.

When the rumblings began that Scorsese was remaking a Hong Kong cops and gangsters movie, the thought occurred to me that the original could be Infernal Affairs. Then I heard Leonadro DiCaprio signed on and I was equal parts thrilled and repulsed. But I knew the story, and I knew Scorcese’s ability as a filmmaker to be equally capable of killing a decent plot or seeing it out to its natural end. I saw The Departed.

Like Scorcese, DiCaprio is not always on the mark, but when he is, it’s a good time. And I really can’t think of any actor who wasn’t just this side of superb in the movie. From Alec Baldwin to Mark Wahlberg to Kevin Corrigan to Matt Damon, the characters were caricatured enough, but not too much, to be both believable and entertaining.

Now, about the re-write. People have been revisiting works of art for centuries. Cover songs, rewritten novels, remade movies, they’re uniformly viewed as legitimate forms of art in their own right. I don’t think it’s fair to dismiss a song, book, movie, or whatever outright just because the performer/author/director isn’t the work’s first render. Certainly it’s more complex than that.

First, the original has to be good, but not exclusively. Second, and here’s where personal preference comes into play, the remaker chooses between staying “true” to the original and making it their own. Those are the extremes, and there’s plenty of room in the middle. Scorsese was in the middle. He ported the Hong Kong thriller to Boston, Americanizing the story just enough as to render it palatable to those who never saw the original.

I think it’s really easy to take a good story and fuck it up (the Star Wars prequel trilogy, anyone?). It’s also possible to take a bad story and make it good. The Departed took a solid foundation and built upon it. Making it American, and doing a seamless job of it, automatically translates it for thousands, possibly millions, who otherwise wouldn’t experience it.

And I’m not necessarily arguing that winning an Oscar for Best Picture automatically validates a movie. I would’ve written this post regardless of last night’s ceremony. It does add a gram of weight to the argument that The Departed, though a remake, gets a lot of things right.

Well, maybe he never really had it, but this is proof that Ken Garcia is completely out of touch with the average earth-dwelling human being.

Garcia actually argues that, for silver-spoonfed brats like his little Laura, Muni’s fare collectors shouldn’t enforce Muni policy that applies to, oh, the rest of the population. His precious shouldn’t have to pay $1.50 when her transfer expires, just like … yeah.

One thing is, in a way I agree slapping these kids with harsh fines is, well, harsh. But deal with it, Kenny boy. Think Laura will ever hop fare again? And if she does, it’s no longer on your shoulders. Kids are people too.

I wish fare enforcers were more stringent. I understand every once in a while you really need to get somewhere and you don’t have change to ride the bus or train. Such instances can be left up to the discretion of the vehicle operator. But the point of any civic project, be it public transportation, social security, or the installation of new sewer pipes, is not to dole out freebies. We’re all in it together, so to speak, and we must all contribute equally based on individual usage.

Okay, I’m stepping down off the soap box now.

It’s just that Garcia’s article yesterday struck me as coming from the same mind that bitches about service cuts (in fact, he does so within the same article), but doesn’t want to pay. If I didn’t work in the same building as Ken, I’d really wonder whether his editors read his “work.” And what pieces of “work” they are.

In today’s paper, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman discusses (podcast) some things California has done right (subscription-only article) over the years when it comes to reducing energy consumption, and what the nation as a whole could learn from the state.

Is it okay to post New York Times podcasts, when the original articles are Times Select-only? I think it is. That way, I’m not giving you absolutely nothing. And you could always get a subscription. Me, I just held onto my Sunday-only subscription to the dead-tree paper, with which you get the NYT magazine as well as Times Select access. Okay, now I sound like a saleman. I’ll stop. Enjoy the podcast.

I stumbled across (okay, okay, I’m lying. I work wtih the author of) a nice little blog whose M.O. is the discussion of topics concerning grammar, words + copy (sound familiar?).

Mike’s tagline for Copy-Editing Corner (his treatment with that obnoxious hyphen, not mine): “You can talk about commas here without fear of scorn or looks of confusion.” Nice. Sounds like my kind of place. My kinda place. Whatever.

Why is that?

Contrary to what you may be thinking, I don’t smoke anything other than the occasional cigarette, so that’s a nonstarter.

I will look into this in the coming days, and report back.

P.S. Sadly, there’s nothing to satiate me here at home.

UPDATE: Cheesebikini? confirms rumors that Ritual is working on a new place, to open sometime this year, complete with outdoor area. No word yet whether it’s true, or where in S.F. it would be. But a relish-worthy thought…

I live more or less between two very different cafes. In fact, one’s a cafe, the other a boulangerie. But it’s still a public place with tables that serves coffee and pastries.

Let me be more specific. I live 1.5 blocks from Ritual Roasters. It’s that place on Valencia in San Francisco with no clear sign with words, but merely a red-flag play on the sickle-and-hammer of the U.S.S.R. Since it opened a few years ago, Ritual has been a local hit. Filled as it tends to be with the beautiful set, the trendy twentysomethings of this city, with their laptops, fixies, little hats, and general conviviality.

Ritual’s coffee used to leave a lot to be desired. But late last year, they began roasting their own beans in the store, and the flavor picked up quite a bit.

The biggest downfall of Ritual: no free refills.

The best thing about Ritual: (tie) free wifi and no dirty looks for connecting; roominess.

The other place, a mere 2.5 blocks away, is Tartine Bakery. It’s that place at the corner of 18th and Guerrero with green paint and (ha!) no signage whatsoever. It opened, I’m guessing, in 2004, to great fanfare and instant lines out the door and down the block. In a sense, rightly so, with their fresh Euro-style croissants and other savory and sweet foodstuffs.

One of Tartine’s trademarks, though, is slow service. Another is very limited seating. My estimate is a a 20-person occupancy. Typically, there are more people standing in line, chatting idly and drooling, but not really thinking about what it is they’ll order once it’s their turn.

Tartine supplies Mr. Espresso coffee, a dark, bold roast that’s really close to perfect. Free refills and self-serve. Nice.

But here’s the thing, and the reason I’m writing this comparison: I went to Tartine yesterday, ordered my coffee, asked to share a table (only open seat in the house) and was instantly given dirty looks. I had a couple of magazines with me, as well as my laptop. I really just wanted to connect and check my email and the news. The dirty looks got dirtier. I actually felt bad. And the connection was spotty at best.

Simply put, fuck that.

SO…

For now, I’m sticking with the slightly inferior drink at the place with better atmosphere, better music, better art, and closer to home.

My two cents.

JetBlue announced today their own company bill of rights for passengers.

There are some valuable points to this, such as mandatory deplaning after a certain amount of time on the tarmac (five hours, in JetBlue’s case), and the option of refunds in addition to vouchers in the case of cancelled flights.

But besides not going far enough, there is no accountability (other than the arbitrary whims of marketplace mechanics) to ensure the contingencies are followed.

Which is precisely why we need federal legislation.

Please sign the petition and call/write/email your representatives in Congress. Whether or not you fly, or fly frequently, getting stuck on a plane without food, water, clean air, or clean toilets is surely something you want to safeguard against.

Hendrik Hertzberg has an amusing article on the correct punctuation of the name many give to today in this week’s New Yorker.

Taking my best stab at logic, I vote for “Presidents’ Day,” as we are meant to honor more than one (mainly Washington and Lincoln, but also maybe Reagan and William Henry Harrison). And, it is their day. Dead though they be, they own this one.

In other presidential news, a filmmaker has announced the discovery of previously unseen footage of JFK’s Dallas motorcade just before the assassination.

One of Ben Franklin’s thousand toys is being tinkered with again, and rightly so. Maybe.

This year, through a 2005 act of a Republican-controlled Congress, Daylight Saving Time (often the “Saving” gets pluralized, erroneously) will come into observation beginning the second Sunday in March (March 11), rather than the first Sunday in April. Clocks will “fall back” to Standard Time the first Sunday in November, the fourth.

The idea is to get more daylight hours in the evening, and thereby, the theory goes, use less energy. Well, surely, fewer light bulbs would be used during that hour. But with large swaths of the country subject to severe heat (assuming summer 2007 is anything like, oh, the last 10 or so years), wouldn’t we also be exposing ourselves to more hot hours in the evening, necessitating the use of more energy (and with it, more pollutants) to cool us down?

It wouldn’t come as a shock. The Congress of 2005 the lapdog of the energy industry. It wouldn’t be the first time legislation exacerbates the exact problem it intends to resolve.

Yesterday, I pissed into the wind (called one of my representatives in Congress). Not sure how many of you have done this before, written a letter, sent an email, made a phone call. I’d rank it as one of the most futile activities, right up there pigeon netting and street sweeping.

And I know I can’t take sole credit, but the person whose office I spoke with was Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, today announced that she plans to introduce legislation, in coordination with Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, to establish an airline passengers’ bill of rights*.

As avid Here and There readers know all too well, I was stuck on a plane in late December for 8.5 hours, not allowed to go to the gate, not allowed to fly. A group of us have been organizing since, and thanks largely to the efforts of Kate Hanni, have been pushing media coverage, successfully I’d say (some day I will do my best to catalog all the video and clips I can).

And as I posted yesterday, it happened again this week, as several Jet Blue planes were stranded in New York for up to 11 hours.

So, with the legislation gaining traction, the effort is just beginning. Some officials are sympathetic, but there will be (already is, to a degree) a huge pushback by one of the most powerful industries in the country.

Let the fight begin.

*All American air carriers shall abide by the following standards to ensure the safety, security and comfort of their passengers:

• Establish procedures to respond to all passenger complaints within 24 hours and with appropriate resolution within 2 weeks.
• Notify passengers within ten minutes of a delay of known diversions, delays and cancellations via airport overhead announcement, on aircraft announcement, and posting on airport television monitors.
• Establish procedures for returning passengers to terminal gate when delays occur so that no plane sits on the tarmac for longer than three hours without connecting to a gate.
• Provide for the essential needs of passengers during air- or ground-based delays of longer than 3 hours, including food, water, sanitary facilities, and access to medical attention.
• Provide for the needs of disabled, elderly and special needs passengers by establishing procedures for assisting with the moving and retrieving of baggage, and the moving of passengers from one area of airport to another at all times by airline personnel.
• Publish and update monthly on the company’s public web site a list of chronically delayed flights, meaning those flight delayed thirty minutes or more, at least forty percent of the time, during a single month.
• Compensate “bumped” passengers or passengers delayed due to flight cancellations or postponements of over 12 hours by refund of 150% of ticket price.
• The formal implementation of a Passenger Review Committee, made up of non-airline executives and employees but rather passengers and consumers – that would have the formal ability to review and investigate complaints.
• Make lowest fare information, schedules and itineraries, cancellation policies and frequent flyer program requirements available in an easily accessed location and updated in real-time.
• Ensure that baggage is handled without delay or injury; if baggage is lost or misplaced, the airline shall notify customer of baggage status within 12 hours and provide compensation equal to current market value of baggage and its contents.
• Require that these rights apply equally to all airline code-share partners including international partners.

Today is dollar coin release day. Sure, it’ll be awhile before the non-collector nerds among us get to handle one, but in my mind, the wait will be worth it. It’s never too late to keep trying the same thing over and over and over … though there are those who still prefer stinky, wear-outable, easily-counterfeitable paper money.

This time, it was Jet Blue, whose planes were stuck, in some cases, for 11 hours in NYC Wednesday.

Pleas sign the petition for a Passenger Bill of Rights, call your senators and representative in Congress, and generally raise hell. If that’s your thing.

UPDATE: word is Joe Scarborough was stuck on one the planes in New York yesterday, and now Bill O’Reilly (the most unlikely of bedfellows) is pushing for … well, something. It could be hearsay, but I may have to give Bill a click tonight to see him turn his infamous rage on an issue actually worthy of it.

It is so on. We’re gonna do this, and fuckall.

In direct contradiction of statements made yesterday by someone who may actually have insight into the matter (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace), President Bush today said the following:

• “We know that.” (referring to Iranian involvement in supplying arms to Iraqi insurgents)
• “What’s worse? That the government knew, or that the government didn’t know?”
• “There’s no contradiction,. I can’t say it more plainly.”
• “I intend to do something about it.”

Now, except for that last statement, all of the above aren’t really true. Bush may truly believe them as the words leave his mouth, but they aren’t certainties. At the very least, such statements and bold declarations demand rigorous scrutiny by the best and brightest minds in the military and intelligence communities.

But the transitive action statement is the one he means. It translates roughly as, “It’s on motherfuckers.”

Amazing. Bush’s final two years in office may be his most dangerous in terms of far-reaching, thorough disaster. It could easily bump him down beyond Millard Fillmore and his ilk as the worst president in the history of this country (which may see its “last throes” with a guy like Bush leading the show).

I don’t think this administration sits around in a room with a Risk board game in front of them saying “Hey, dude, let’s see how much of this we can totally destroy and render hopeless.” That’s the scary part. They really think they’re bringing about a fundamental bettering of the world. Delusion is more hazardous than malevolence.

Endnote: In a rare, captured exchange of actual journalism, CNN’s Ed Henry stuck to his guns in question White House press secretary Tony Snow yesterday about the Bush/Pace contradiction. Video here.

I can’t do it anymore because of my schedule, but I’ve always been a proponent of napping. Same rule applies as “hungry, eat” here. Tired, nap.

Now there’s some proof of the benefits of brief slumber.

We’ve been through this before. We tried, and failed. We tried again, and there are remnants still with us, reminding us every once in a while what could’ve been.

I’m talking of course about the relationship we all have with dollar coins. And of course they’re at it again, releasing the first of the Presidential Dollar Coins this week.

Hello George! Can’t wait to get my hands on you. You can bet I’ll be using you.

Now if we can convince them to stop minting all those goddam pennies.