A Culture Minister for the U.S. - Yes!

Quincy Jones is spearheading an effort to get Obama to appoint a "culture czar" for the United States. Does U.S. Need a Culture Czar? (NPR story); Quincy Jones Lobbies Obama for Secretary of Culture Post (Rolling Stone). You can sign an online petition in support of the position here. I think this is a great idea at a time when public schools are cutting down on music and art classes, cultural institutions are shrinking and groveling for money, and the arts in general are denigrated as a career option. Not to mention that many other countries have a minister for culture. It would highlight the importance of the arts in our lives.

Obama cookies!

Obama cookies! Acquired at my local Safeway.  Washington is overrun with Obama memorabilia, but I never expected to see his face on a cookie. Too funny.

And here's the cookie post-3 year old munching.  Hopefully it's not an omen for the fate of the Obama administration.

The Further Adventures of Joe the Plumber

Joe the Plumber becomes Mideast war correspondent for a conservative website. Incredible. What are his qualifications?

Calvin Trillin Inauguration Poem

I heard Calvin Trillin reading a poem he wrote called Anticipating The Inauguration Of Barack Obama on NPR today. It's quite wonderful and I wanted to share it. You can see the poem and listen to him reading it here.

You Know You're a Lawyer When...

You drive past a church in your neighborhood and wonder whether churches are zoned for commercial activity or if they have their own special zoning. (Noticing how churches are interspersed in residential neighborhoods with no other businesses.)

Atheist Bus Messages

Akira Suemori/Associated Press

Atheists Send a Message, on 800 British Buses

I love this.

Similar bus messages apparently are appearing in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the American Humanist Association(link is to their campaign website), but they don't seem as fun, and they're geared to Christmas. Leave it to the Brits to be drolly cheeky.

Illinois Senate Seat Circus Continues

Burris is Blocked from Taking Senate Seat This is so dramatic. Apparently Roland Burris, appointed to replace Obama by alleged felon Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, walked into the Senate today and presented his credential to the Senate Secretary, who denied him the Senate seat. What a mess! It was also the day the new Congress was sworn in.

The Reader

Go see this movie! Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes star in an adaptation of the bestselling German (Swiss) novel of the same name by Bernhard Schlink. Here's the description from Oprah's Book Club selection:

Originally published in Switzerland, and gracefully translated into English by Carol Brown Janeway, The Reader is a brief tale about sex, love, reading, and shame in postwar Germany. Michael Berg is 15 when he begins a long, obsessive affair with Hanna, an enigmatic older woman. He never learns very much about her, and when she disappears one day, he expects never to see her again. But, to his horror, he does. Hanna is a defendant in a trial related to Germany's Nazi past, and it soon becomes clear that she is guilty of an unspeakable crime. As Michael follows the trial, he struggles with an overwhelming question: What should his generation do with its knowledge of the Holocaust? "We should not believe we can comprehend the incomprehensible, we may not compare the incomparable.... Should we only fall silent in revulsion, shame, and guilt? To what purpose?"

Kate Winslet plays Hanna, and Ralph Fiennes plays the grown-up Michael, who is featured mostly in the last third of the movie. Kate Winslet's performance is exquisite and subtle in a role that is not always sympathetic or attractive. Fiennes nicely portrays the conflicting motivations of Berg. The younger Michael, who is on screen for most of the movie, is well played by David Kross. Stephen Daldry directed. (He also directed The Hours, a beautiful movie.) I've always liked Kate Winslet and I admit to having a bit of a thing for Ralph Fiennes (even when he was playing an SS commandant in "Schindler's List"); I think it's the eyes.




Official Movie website Trailer:



The Reader on imdb.com

This is depressing

Bill Richardson withdrawing from Commerce Secretary cabinet appointment This is disconcerting. I've always liked Bill Richardson. There must be some pretty bad evidence if he's withdrawing completely. Or Obama didn't want to fight for him.

Damages on FX

Here's a show I forgot to mention in my preview of January TV to watch: Damages on FX. The first season of this aired quite a long time ago, perhaps the year before last. A second season was apparently waylaid by the writer's strike last year, but it's going to start airing in January. I really loved this show. It stars Glenn Close and Ted Danson. It's a twisty thriller that takes place in the NYC legal world. Rose Byrne plays a beautiful new lawyer who gets hired by Glenn Close, a very successful personal injury attorney with a lot of secrets, for whom the end usually justifies the morally questionable means. Ted Danson played the bigger than life business magnate under investigation for questionable financial dealings. I'm not sure if he's in Season 2, but William Hurt as coming on board, and he's always an interesting actor. I can't really tell you more without giving away crucial plot points if you watch Season 1. Suffice it to say that this a show with fantastic twists and turns and a lot of nasty surprises.

Trivia note on Rose Byrne for Doctor Who fans: She played the older Casanova's (Peter O'Toole) storytelling audience in "Casanova", which starred David Tennant (who plays the Tenth and current Doctor in Doctor Who). Casanova in imdb.com. "Casanova" was written by Russell T Davies, the creator of new Doctor Who and Torchwood (object of my fannish obsession, see sidebar, which sometimes lops over onto Dr. Who and David Tennant) and was a mini-series on BBC and PBS in the US in 2005, available now on DVD.


You can watch previews and recaps of Season 1 here.

And here's a preview of Season 2. (It looks like they've really glammed up Rose Byrne for the 2nd season.) Just watch. It's as good as it sounds.

Sphere

I'm adding a Sphere widget to my posts. This enables you to connect to related articles on the topic of the post. This is an experiment. Theoretically, Sphere is supposed to list my blog also. So if you click on the globe below a post, you can go to related articles.

Iraq, Chinese Milk Scandal Update, Vatican and Italy

Happy New Year! (if anyone is reading this blog other than a couple of my friends, haha!) A round-up of recent news items of interest to me.

* How could I have missed this? Somehow I had no idea this was going to be happening, and it seems very important. Baghdad Green Zone Handed Over to Iraqi Control at Midnight, New Year's Eve Despite the formal handover, however, American soldiers will be in charge of security for the next 90 days. And some Iraqi soldiers in the Green Zone said they would still be under American supervision. So it sounds like the situation is in flux and somewhat uncertain.

* This is an update on the Chinese dairy scandal. An executive in the dairy company responsible for tainted dairy products plead guilty to charges that she knew of problems for months before informing authorities. At least someone is being held accountable. However, it's disturbing that the death penalty is a possible penalty. China's legal system leaves a lot to be desired. For one thing, they impose the death penalty for relatively minor crimes. I didn't approve of the Olympics being given to China because of the appalling human rights situation there. And there's no indication that holding the Olympics there improved the situation at all. China Dairy Executive Knew of Problems with Milk

* Vatican severs ties to Italy's laws I don't know why I find this kind of fascinating. Must be the lawyer in me. The Vatican will no longer automatically adopt new Italian laws as its own, as some are at odds with Catholic doctrine, according to this news blurb. I wonder why this is happening now? How strange that the Vatican even exists as an independent political entity. It seems so medieval. It's as if the White House were an independent country, at least on a physical level. The Vatican is just a collection of buildings smack dab in the middle of Rome. Obviously, it's the headquarters of the Catholic church and the home of the Pope, but the fact that it's technically its own country seems bizarre.