Blog

  • Personal Review: Raiders of the Lost Ark (Part 2)

    This will be a series, as I showed this movie to my daughter for the first time over the weekend, and I will share her reactions to it.

    Raiders of the Lost Ark is my favorite action movie, in case you missed that from yesterday. This weekend, we decided it was time to watch the movie with my daughter. She is six and a half, which was about the age that I first saw Raiders. I had a few reservations about showing the film to her, and was also curious how she would react to a movie that has no CGI in it.

    Now, we are a nerdy, sci-fi/fantasy media devouring family. We have a video of our daughter at about six months old, totally mesmerized by the opening of Doctor Who, so we started early with this kid. She has watched all the Star Wars movies, all the Marvel Movies, the Batman movies (1989 to 1997,) she saw the new Star Trek, and Star Trek II. I feel that we have done a good job of allowing her to see movies that we feel inspire her imagination, and, with the exception of the Batman movies, show that doing the right thing is the right thing to do.

    About a year ago, at the start of the pandemic, I showed the kid the first ten minutes of Raiders, more or less to gage here temperature on the film. She wasn’t too impressed. I just chalked it up to that not everything I like the kid will like. Then over the weekend, as we were trying to find a movie to watch, the kid brought up that Raiders was my favorite movie, and she wanted to watch it. (I do have a Raiders poster in the office, and I own an Indiana Jones Fedora, but I’m not obsessed or anything.)

    This time around, she got into it pretty quickly, though she did think Indy had a lasso, and not a bullwhip. Some of the reservations I had were about the amount of violence in the movie. Unlike all the other action movies we had shown her where the violence is bloodless, characters in Raiders bleed when shot and punched. I would say that Spielberg’s Nazi rule was in full effect with my kid. As Spielberg said, no one feels bad if a Nazi gets hurt or killed. As for the stuntman/practical effects, she was totally on board; from the snakes, to the plane, to the truck scene, she was all in. I won’t lie, that did make me feel good that my kid hasn’t been warped by CGI.

    And then the melting face part came. As the scene started and the Angel of Death appeared, my kid didn’t make a sound. Nazis get shot by God lightening, she was silent. Faces melt and heads explode – she didn’t even cover her eyes. I thought, oh well, this must look fake to her. When I was a kid, it scared me shitless. My kid sat silent all the way to the end. When the credits started to roll, she looked at me and asked, “They just put it in a box and stored it away?” I seemed to remember asking my brothers the same question. Before I could answer that question, she added, “I don’t want to go to bed. The melting faces scared me.”

    Score one for the old special effects.

  • Personal Review: Raiders of the Lost Ark (Part 1)

    This might be a series, as I showed this movie to my daughter for the first time over the weekend, and I will share her reaction in a follow up post.

    Raiders of the Lost Ark is my favorite action movie. Even though I knew about the movie from my older brothers telling me about it, and seeing clips on TV, I didn’t see the whole movie until it was on cable; I’m sure it was a free preview as my parents didn’t get the extra movie channels. I know I saw it before Temple of Doom came out, which would means I saw it before the summer of 1984, so I was either 6 or 7. What I can remember about watching it for the first time, was the feeling of having no idea what would happen next! Just being totally sucked into that movie.

    And that has become the bar that I judge all action movies by. The older I get, the lest often it happens, but when I land  on a movie where I can’t figure it out, or I get sucked in to the point that I don’t know what will happen, I get to relive that experience of sitting on the edge of the couch wondering how Indy will stop that truck full of Nazis and get the Ark back.

    Much has been written about Raiders, but I think it is important to point out that this movie was still early in Spielberg’s career, which I feel like he still had something to prove, With the help by the great cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, there are shots using lighting, shadow, and depth that are pretty arty for an action movie. Sadly, action directors seem to have moved on to prefer spectacle, I am sure due to the success of Raiders, and have lost touch with using image, through action, to forward the story. If you can remove an action sequence from a movie, and it doesn’t change the plot, then your action scene is meaningless.

    As I watched Raiders again this weekend, which was like visiting an old friend, I put my focus on the stuntmen. All of those guys hanging off trucks, being set on fire, climbing, jumping and throwing punches. The practical effects that had a human connection. It’s an authenticity that movies struggle to have today. Don’t get me wrong. I like that planets can collide, and worlds can be dreamed up that are breathtaking in their artistry. But, if you are going to have a guy get dragged behind a truck, I want to see a stuntman do it.

  • New Mask Rules

    So, we don’t have to wear masks, pretty much, anymore. That happened a lot faster and sooner that I thought. Not that I am complaining, but if that is what science is saying…

    I am aware that you still need to have a mask on for public transit, and I’m cool with that.

    The funny thing is that yesterday, the kid and I decided to take the subway to a playground because, well, we can do that again. We can go out and explore our city. We found a playground that wasn’t too far away, but wasn’t too close. We masked up on the ride down to the park, and I kept mine on as we entered the playground. I found a bench to sit at, and took my mask off as I can, now. The kid, on the other hand, kept her mask on as she ran around and made new friends.

    We were there for a long time, as it was a nice day, and the kid deserved some freedom. As the time to head home neared, I got up, and put my mask on the cross the playground, and then SNAP! The elastic that fits around my left ear snapped. I was mask-less, and I didn’t have a backup.

    What an ironic conundrum to be in. Only an hour or two earlier the CDC had said that masks weren’t required, but I needed a mask to ride the subway home. The easy answer was that I just had to retie the elastic so it would fit around my ear, but for a minute, I wondered when will we be able to ditch all the masks?

  • Riding the Subway Again

    I am fully vaccinated against Covid-19. I received my second Pfizer shot over two weeks ago, so I am cleared to not wear my mask when outside, and I can ride on mass transit, provided I still mask up.

    The subway is my big test. I have not used mass transit since March 2020, so it has been 14 months that I have stayed in my neighborhood to run errands by myself. When the wife is available, we use our car, but that means it has to be after work or on weekends. Though it works, it’s not always practical. For us to get back to “normal” I need to use the subway to run errands in the City.

    Yesterday, I rode the B train from 125th street to 96th so I could shop at the 93rd Street Trader Joe’s, and then back. This was my test day, and I know that it was a test that I would easily accomplish, so I guess it was more like re-experiencing normalcy.

    Standing on the platform at 125th, I put my headphones on, and listened to music, which I really hadn’t done outside of the home in a while. It was reassuring to hear the overhead announcements about the incoming train stopping on the local track. The smell from the tunnel as the wind rushes up when a train approaches; that twisting smell of tar, and exhaust, and a hint of garbage.

    When I boarded the train and sat, there were very few people around. I wasn’t sure what to do with myself for the short ride. I was listening to music, but I felt that I needed to do something. So, I pulled out my phone and played a game. I wanted to look around, but I felt that I should stay in my little bubble.

    I got out at 96th, and walked down Central Park West. It was reaffirming to listen to music, meandering down the street, and see people coming and going; kids and dog walkers, delivery and doormen, people strolling and self-involved.

    The shopping at Trader Joe’s was normal, or Covid normal. A short line out front, people keeping their distance in the store, and a very long checkout line. My groceries filled two double bagged paper bags, so a modest haul for my family of three, but it was also two heavy bags that I had to carry three blocks and an avenue.

    I was out of shape for that; carrying stuff any distance, and it really wasn’t that long of a distance. We had been doing big grocery shops with the car, so I had forgotten the rule of “You only buy what you can carry.” By the time I made it back to the 96th station, I began to feel the strain in my shoulders.

    I took another B train, uptown this time, and when I stepped on, I took a seat where someone had been sitting who had just gotten off. This was something that everybody does all the time on the subway, and as I sat down, I had the thought that maybe it’s not safe to sit where someone had just been sitting? Then I had to remind myself that I’m vaccinated, and you can’t get it from a surface.

    I departed the B at 125th Street, and when I stepped off the train a smell of fish hit me. I had forgotten that there is a spot on the uptown side of the platform that is right under a fresh seafood shop. It was a little reminder of the quirks at the station. It was a detail that was a fun reminder, but come the sticky heat of summer, it will no longer be so pleasant.

    I made it home, and the total time that the errand took, from leaving the apartment to returning to it, took one hour and thirty minutes. If memory serves, I used to be able to accomplish the task in one hour flat. So, I have something to work towards. Because, I will be doing this again; The riding and walking and carrying, but at some point, I won’t have a mask on, right? That’s the real return.

  • Hey NYC Mayoral Candidates, Buy a Home in Brooklyn

    I quote Desus and Mero on this, “Why would anyone want to be mayor of New York?”

    It is a job where 80% of the city hates you, at any given time, no matter what you do.

    Mind you, I have only lived through two mayors in my time here; Bloomberg and de Blasio. Neither one of those guys inspired me to vote for them. But this election cycle, I feel more civically involved and plan on voting this time around. The truth of the matter is that the Democratic Primary for Mayor is the real election, as the Republican candidate doesn’t stand a chance. Full disclosure, I am not registered as Democrat, I’m an Independent, so I will not be allowed to vote in the primary of either party. General election all the way for me.

    So, there are eight people running for the Democrat nomination; Andrew Yang, Kathryn Garcia, Shaun Donovan, Scott Stringer, Maya Wiley, Ray McGuire, Eric Adams, and Dianne Morales. I haven’t done much research on any candidate, so I’m not sold on anyone. But, the nomination is out of my hands, so, I’ll have to see who is selected.

    But, there are a few things I do want whomever becomes mayor of this city to be aware of, and that’s how much it costs to live here, which is stupidly expensive. (Not San Francisco stupid which is like a whole other planet of unreasonable stupid.) Donovan and McGuire were asked what they thought the median home price in Brooklyn was, and their answer was in the range of $100,000 and less. So you know, the median price of a home in Brooklyn is $900,000. You can read the story here for more information on what the other candidates said, which was closer to being correct.

    Odds are that Donovan and McGuire, who are not leading in the polls, won’t get the nomination, but still, how did these two come up with that number, which was so far off? Clearly, they are out of touch, but do they think $100k buys a lot, or do they think that $100k homes are still available today, or was that what $100k could buy 40 years ago and they just defaulted back to that number?

    Either way, except for Yang, all the candidates got he question wrong. It doesn’t bode well for us if the person who wants to lead has no idea how difficult it is to live in this town. See, who wants this job?