My dear Spuds

Just want to wish all the mothers out there in Spudland a Happy Mother's Day. The Wife is a happy mom because she's got both her kids coming over to cook her a great Mom Day dinner. It doesn't take much to make a mom happy. But they will, nonetheless, never scoff at a gift of really expensive jewelry.

Cheers

Mur

PS Don't forget to check out the blog this week. It's usually updated by Sunday morning.

http://couchpotatonews.blogspot.com/

 

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V O L U M E 253

BOB HUNTER RIP

1 I was flipping around early this evening, and stopped at CITY-TV which is the only news show that I can actually stomach and was saddened to find out that they lost one of their own today. Bob Hunter, who was their environmental reporter passed away at the age of 63. For those of you who don’t know, Mr Hunter was an extremely well respected man here at Spud Central and in a lot of other parts of the known universe. He was a world class champion of the evironmentalist movement, not just here in Toronto, but everywhere on the planet. Bob was one of the co-founders of Greenpeace and one of the small handful of activists who actually kick started the entire environmental movement, which, believe it or not, is prolonging the life of this planet. I used to watch Bob regularly in the morning for quite a while. He had this show where he would sit in his study at home with his bathrobe on and dissect the news. Nobody did it better than Bob. He reported the real news. The stuff that the megacorps were always trying to skate around or sweep under the rug. He was a very unique individual. because he practiced what he preached. He lived large and he made a lot of lives better because of it. And he will be missed here at Spud Central. So long Bob.


THE QUEEN’S CASTLE (2 SPUDS) (TV DOCUMENTARY)

The thing about having a democratic marriage and a Wife who is a devoted monarchist is that, whether you actually like it or not, you end up watching a lot of stuff about those wacky Windsors. Now usually this is a rehash of the latest tabloid trash talkin’ that goes on all around these people. But every once in a while you stumble across something that’s quite interesting.

The Queen’s Castle is just such a show. It’s being shown as a three part series on CBC and will undoubtedly be out on DVD at some point in the near future, or will run again. So you should make a note of it. This is a beautifully photographed documentary about Windsor Castle and all the behind the scenes stuff that goes on there to keep the jam packed schedule of events running smooth as silk. Windsor Castle is the Queen’s home away from home, about a two hour drive from Buckingham Palace in London. The Queen, as it turns out, is quite the commuter, tripping back and forth most weekends and staying there for big hunks of time in the spring and summer.

I’ve always been really interested in the way things work and this doc really gives you a vivid picture of the inner workings of Windsor Castle. There’s like 250 people who work and 2 live there full time. They even have their own clockmaker (apparently they have 450 clocks and it takes this dude two or three days to reset them all when the time changes). They also have this crusty old guy whose only job is to stand on a turret and raise the family colours when the Queen’s Jaguar convoy arrives from the big city.

Windsor Castle itself is kind of like a small city with all sorts of stuff going on all the time, and the producers concentrate on a lot of the detailed processes that go into keeping it very much both a public showplace and a private home for the Royals. It’s pretty cool stuff.


JAG -- A FINAL SALUTE

While it never has been a serious contender for a Big Kahuna in any given year, and while for about half a season, it actually lost me, when the stories started to take a back seat to the characters and there was a certain amount of silliness injected into the proceedings, JAG has nonetheless been a staple here at Spud Central for pretty much all of its 10 year run, which came to an end this week. Because of the production and political complexities involved, there really aren’t that many series that have to do with the inner working of the military establishment. So in its category, JAG is pretty much a unique entity.

While there have been relationship threads that have been woven through the series over the years, JAG, for the most part has been a kind of crime/mystery show set inside the world of the armed forces. A lot of people have argued that JAG is nothing more than a propaganda tool for the US military establishment, and I can see their point. But that’s the kind of argument that you could use anywhere. Like NYPD Blue being a propaganda tool for police recruitment etc. However, if I was a young stud in America facing an uncertain future, I might be persuaded that entering that world could eventually hook me up with someone like superbabe Katherine Bell, who plays Marine Colonel Sarah MacKenzie. And of course, you also get all that ‘we’ll make a real man out of you’ stuff as well.

As opposed to being a propaganda tool, my theory is that it’s kind of the opposite. Because if you watch this series regularly, you start to see that, here and there, and very subtly, the producers have used this series to take well-measured shots at US Imperialism. It’s cleverly disguised, usually as courtroom banter, or off the record discussions, but it’s there. And more power to it.

JAG, except for the aforementioned half-season when things got a little silly, has generally been a solid hour of entertainment, one that I try not to miss each week. Last year, the producers morphed JAG into a new series, Navy NCIS, which is a consistent top 20 performer, although there is more emphasis on forensics and less on military justice and US imperialism. So while JAG is no longer, its spirit sort of lives on through NCIS.

At the end of the day, any series that makes it through 10 years in the nano-second attention span world of TV, deserves a big round of applause and a great syndication deal, which is just what it has. JAG re-runs can be seen at various times on the History Channel.


SPANGLISH (2 SPUDS) (DVD)

The creator of this movie, James L. Brooks, is without question one of the most literate film people working in the world today. His movies from Broadcast News to Terms of Endearment to As Good As It Gets to Spanglish all crackle with an intelligence that most people nowadays don’t really get. Which may explain why this movie, Spanglish, didn’t do boffo box office in its general release. Spanglish is the story of a Mexican mother and daughter (Paz Vega and Shelbie Bruce),who get caught up in the an upper middle class power struggle between a man (Adam Sandler) and his manic wife, (Tia Leone, who gives one of the best tortured woman performances I’ve seen in years). But because it was written, produced and directed by the extremely intelligent Mr Brooks, it cleverly sidesteps the big puddle of soap that it could have, under a less intelligent individual, easily fallen into. This 3 is a movie that is all about emotions, and in order to make it clear what’s going on, the characters often have to wear them on their sleeves. But that’s alright, because there’s a real intelligence and dignity underpinning this film, that forces you back to a time when movies actually were about something other than murder and mayhem. Granted movies like Spanglish movies are nowhere near as popular as the M&M type films, but they’re at least a hundred times more interesting. And of course, they are the principal vehicle for Oscar nominations in the acting and music categories.

Spanglish, the title of which I guess is the attempt to combine the two of the warring sensibilities in this film, takes the time to let its characters develop so that we get a lot closer to them than we’re usually allowed to in movies these days. Paz Vega is a slightly less glamourous but equally as beautiful Penelope Cruz type, who is extremely wise and deliberate, powered only by the strengths of her beliefs and the love of her 12 year old daughter. Adam Sandler plays a successful chef/restaurateur in an extremely dysfunctional relationship with Tia Leone, whose every manic move is well intentioned but completely misdirected. Cloris Leachman is also pretty amazing as the retired lounge lizard mother of Tia. Her wisdom guides and controls her whacked out daughter and brings a good deal of comic relief to what is otherwise a fairly heavy drama.

There was a bit of controversy about whether or not Adam Sandler could pull of a role as a straight ahead dramatic lead. Well screw that, because Adam Sandler is as smart an actor as there is in Hollywood. He made that character work beautifully, but without having to sacrifice any of his essential charm and eccentricity. I guess you get the picture here. This is an extremely well rendered story about love and passion and life in the high suburban cotton. It is powerful filmmaking by people who know what they are doing and well worth seeing for the refreshing intelligence of the script, the dignity of the characters and the tour de force performances right up and down the line.


THE INTERPRETER (2 SPUDS) (BIG SCREEN)

As both a producer and director, Sydney Pollack has a filmography that anyone in Hollywood would kill to call theirs. (See listing below). Although he’s quite eclectic, the majority of his best stuff falls into the thriller category. The Interpreter is pretty much the ultimate Sydney Pollack movie. It’s a political thrilla, starting super cute Nicole Kidman, a world weary Sean Penn and the UN building in New York City. Unlike say a Bruce Willis thriller, there is a political and personal underpinning to The Interpreter that gives the story a real human feel and provides the actors a great deal of motivation. They aren’t just dashing through their parts avoiding getting nailed by the bad guys till the bad guys screw up and get nailed themselves. This story runs much deeper. Kind of like the proverbial onion and it gets more and more complex as you peel away the layers.

This is a movie that you should see without knowing very much about the plot. Because then you can marvel, not just at the film making or the quality of the acting, but at the consummate skill that Mr Pollack exhibits in making the story itself a star of the film, without detracting from anything else. This movie is a real accomplishment because it dares to be powerful without resorting to sensationalism. And it gives its characters strong back stories that both explain their motivations and get you on their sides. This is shit hot big time Hollywood film making by a master of his craft. Go see it for sure.


THE ESSENTIAL SYDNEY POLLACK

Random Hearts • The Firm • Out of Africa • Tootsie • Absence of Malice • The Electric Horseman • Bobby Deerfield • The Way We Were • The Yakuza • Three Days Of The Condor Jeramiah Johnson • Castle Keep


THE SPORTS POTATO CHRONICLE SNORTS FROM ALL OVER THE PLACE

What The Hell Is Going On With The New York Yankees?

The Bronx Bombers are off to their worst season start in many moons. What’s the problem here? With a payroll that totals a whopping big 202 million dead presidents and a wall to wall roster of bona fide superstars you’d think they would be just sautéing the competition on a nightly basis. Nut nooo. They’re playing like bums. They’re having trouble beating the lowly Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who are perhaps the 6th worst team in all of baseball. But I guess it just goes to show you that the best team money can buy isn’t the way it works in baseball. The Blue Jays, on the other hand look extremely solid. I only hope that by saying that, I haven’t put some kind of weird spud curse on them and now they start losing every game from here on out. I mean it’s gonna be a long hot summer and without the Jays to root for it’s gonna be even longer.


The World Hockey Championships.

All this points out is that even though they haven’t played NHL style hockey since late last spring, most NHL players have stayed in pretty good shape and are stomping their Euro-trash competitors into the ground. Look for a Canada vs US final if you give a shit, which I no longer do. The reason for this is that, well I just never liked hockey much before it went away and now that it’s gone, the jungle vegetation of other sports has grown into to replace it. What was I talking about, oh yeah, hockey. I used to play it when I was a kid. I was a goalie and a damn good one if I do say so myself, except for the time, in midget, when Bobby Orr scored five goals on me. Yep, another brush with greatness. I’ve had a few.


Poor Chris DiMarco.

This is a sentiment that anyone who follows the PGA tour will certainly share. Chris got beat in the Masters in a sudden death playoff with Tiger Woods, and then blew another one the next week. This guy is extremely likeable, fiercely competitive, totally on top of his game and has everybody cheering for him big time. But he just can’t buy a thrill.


The Nets—Too Little…Too Late.

They fought valiantly, but the poor New Jersey Nets were simply out manned and outgunned by the juggernaut Miami Heat. Too bad because I was really hoping that Vince Carter, Jason Kidd and company would have at least given the Heat a run for their money instead of going down in four straight, if for other reason than to stick it up the wazoos of all the Vince Carter haters here in Toronto. Funny thing is that Tracey McGrady, who is now a superstar two guard for The Houston Rockets left Toronto under very similar circumstances to Vince’s departure, but nobody seems to have bore him any ill will. Go figure. Anyway, with Richard Jefferson back and some smart horse trading in the summer, I thing the Nets will be a force to be reckoned with next season.


The One Hundred Thousand Dollar Van Gundy Snafu.

Houston Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy was fined $100,000 by the NBA this week for telling the press that he was told there was a conspiracy on the part of NHL referees to target his 7’ 5” Centre, Yao Ming. By targeting, I mean calling fouls on him early, which would take him out of the game and or force him to play very conservatively. Furthermore Van Gundy implied through his statements that the instigator of this anti-Yao conspiracy was none other than billionaire propellerhead and Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban, who seems to be becoming more and more of a schmuck every time you hear about him. This was the biggest fine ever levied in NBA history, and true or not, this allegation by Van Gundy has probably screwed Houston’s chance of beating Dallas in their quarter final series. Not too bright, Jeff.


Hockey Horror—How Long Till Somebody Calls It Child Labour?

Here’s a textbook example of just how obscene pro sports has become. There’s this 14 year old kid named John Tavares who, as of yesterday will be allowed to play in the Junior A Ontario Hockey League. This means he could be playing in the NHL at 16. Lucky John gets to bang around with guys up to 6 years older than him and basically sacrifice all of his teenage years for the sake of a game that, when they NHL owners get through with it, won’t provide him with much at all in the way of a salary or anything else to fall back on after his career is done. Now, on the one hand, it’s none of my business. One the other hand there’s the philosophical question of just how young should these pro sports teams be recruiting. In my opinion, I think all pro athletes should attend and graduate from college (even if it’s a ruse), before being allowed to enter the pro-ranks. But what the hell do I know anyway?

I’m out.