Friday, March 30, 2018

Educational Prison

The news these days seems to be saturated with headlines about the Parkland school kids and the social movement they've engineered against gun violence. While politicians try to figure out how to keep kids safe in school, I've been reminded of my own school days in Detroit. I remember when metal detectors were installed at my high school in the 1980's. You had to go through a metal detector in order to get into the school. There were also buckets where you could dump anything that might get you flagged (like a knife) before you entered so the powers that be gave you a chance to get rid of any contraband. I don't recall there being any guns dumped in these buckets. In the mid to late 80's when I was in high school, guns weren't a huge problem at school even in Detroit. (Well, they weren't a problem at the high school I went to.) Making students go through metal detectors might seem harsh to people who didn't grow up in a city like Detroit, but I didn't have a problem with it. You do what you have to do to keep violence at bay and maybe that's what needs to be done at these suburban schools like Parkland. No one wants to feel like they're going to school in a prison, but if that's the only way to keep guns out of schools, then maybe metal detectors are the way to go.

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Fellow Travelers

I went to see a performance of the opera Fellow Travelers presented by Chicago's Lyric Opera this afternoon and really enjoyed the show. I am not an opera person at all, but I read Thomas Mallon's book Fellow Travelers that the opera was based on and really liked it so I was anxious to see the novel presented as an opera. Fellow Travelers is the story of a young, naive recent college graduate named Timothy Laughlin who falls head over hills for a dashing older man named Hawkins Fuller in Washington, DC during the 1950's. Because of the times and the on-going fear from the McCarthyism was running rampant in the country, Tim and Hawk are forced to keep their relationship under cover and the strain of it all causes heartbreak for them both.

The opera was great because the performers were great. The men who played the roles of Tim (Jonas Hacker) and Hawk (Joseph Lattanzi) were excellent and had wonderful chemistry. When I saw the actors on the Lyric's website before the performance, I worried that the singer playing Hawk was too young for the role (and he was), but he was such a delight in the role that I overlooked that minor issue during the actual performance. He's also very good looking and there were a surprisingly plentiful number of scenes where he appeared shirtless or in various states of undress during the show which wasn't a bad thing.

If Fellow Travelers comes to your town, I highly recommend checking it out. I also recommend the book if the opera is or isn't your thing.


Wednesday, March 21, 2018

The Machine Grinds On

So the Illinois primaries are over and I, for one, am glad I won't have to watch anymore ads for the candidates running for various offices in the state. (Well, not until the November elections anyway.) Sadly, the machine candidate won the democratic spot for governor and now we'll have to millionaires running for office.

In other political news, I'm not sure why actress Cynthia Nixon feels she's qualified to run to be the next governor of New York. I could see her getting involved in politics by starting at the local level and maybe running for a city council position or something. But governor? Really? Don't we have enough celebrity politicians already? (Yes, I know she's not Donny T., but still.)

It really is a shame that normal, regular folks who aren't millionaires or celebrities or people backed  by some political machine don't get the encouragement to run for office.

And, finally, after reading about all of the data mining going on with Facebook, I'm happier than ever that I shut my account down in 2010 and never looked back. I think I missed it for a week or two and then forgot about it. Then again, I'm not exactly a person who lives or dies by social media, so shutting my Facebook account down wasn't really a huge sacrifice. I'm also paranoid about putting too much of my business out in the universe.

Friday, March 16, 2018

The Machine

I got a text a week or two ago asking if I was going to support JB Pritzker for Governor of Illinois. I texted back: I don't think so. JB is part of the Illinois Machine with Rahm, Blago, and others. I received no response. The Illinois political machine is alive and well and I will do what I can to avoid voting more people into office who help run that machine. Corruption runs long and deep in Illinois politics and it's high time the tide turned. We really have to stop electing people who aren't interested in serving our  communities and their citizens. We can't keep electing the same people and expecting different results. We also can't elect new people who we know are awful just because they've got money or name recognition or run a ton of commercials on television. It's a shame that so many people who may truly be interested in serving their community are scared off by the ugliness and divisiveness of politics today. People used to run for office because they were truly interested in solving problems and helping people. Nowadays it seems like people run for office because they're ultra wealthy and want the power that comes with a political position. Sad.

Sunday, March 11, 2018

Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

Once again, our current POTUS has been out doing what he does best: acting like a spoiled child. He calls adults by stupid nicknames, he Tweets garbage, he has constant diarrhea of the mouth, he watches TV and complains about it, blah, blah, blah. And, while doing all of this, one wonders when does he actually do any real work??? Uh...he doesn't. What sense does it make to hire "the best people" (which he doesn't do anyway, but let's, for the sake of argument say he does) only to dismiss the advice they give and go for what you think (what your fat gut) tells you is right? Why would anyone with half a brain even put up with a boss like that? How many times do you have to hit your head against the wall before you realize your efforts are ultimately fruitless and you might as well throw in the towel, resign, and try to move on with your life? This freak show is mentally exhausting. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does!

In non-Donny-related news, I went downtown yesterday and had a nice dinner out. I was surprised to see that the Chicago tourism folks are offering boat tours at this time of the year. It's freezing outside, yet some brave souls were out riding on the open-air boats that float down the Chicago River. More power to them.


Thursday, March 8, 2018

Post-Oscar Thoughts

I'm a little late with my post-Oscar thoughts and I'm sure everyone has moved on from Sunday's Academy Awards by now, but there weren't any surprises for me. As I predicted, there was no way Timothee Chalamet was going to beat actors like Gary Oldman and Daniel Day Lewis and he didn't. I watched most of the show and found it to be a little dry. Kimmel did a good job, but I didn't care for the long movie montages or the musical performances. Ratings for the show were down this year and I wasn't surprised by that either. People just aren't interested in awards shows like they used to be in the past. Why sit through three hours of a show when you can just catch the highlights online the next day? It's not like the old days when you had to watch something or you missed it entirely. Also, the attention span of a lot of people is just reduced now. Sitting through a three-plus-hour show on TV just isn't happening for many folks these days, especially those in the treasured demographic of young people.

Sunday, March 4, 2018

Pre-Oscar Thoughts

I'm planning to watch at least some of the Oscars tonight mainly because I actually saw a lot of the movies nominated. Normally I skip the show because I haven't seen a lot of the movies/performances up for awards, but not this year. While I did see Lady Bird, Call Me by Your Name, Get Out, Phantom Thread, and All the Money in the World, I didn't see Dunkirk, The Darkest Hour, Three Billboards, The Post, or The Shape of Water (and had no desire to see them). I enjoyed all of the movies listed that I saw, but do I think they're all Academy Award winning? No. For example, Lady Bird was a good movie with great performances, but do I think the movie and those performances were the best of the best? No. The same goes for Call Me by Your Name. As lovely as the movie was, Chalamet made that film for me. He was great and deserves all of the kudos he received for his performance. But will he win the best actor award over Gary Oldman or Daniel Day Lewis? Not bloody likely! Plus, I think if he did win, he'd fall under the Oscars curse and end up fading into obscurity and he deserves better than that.

I remember a time when I used to go the movies pretty regularly, but those times have changed. It takes a lot for me to go to theater now and see a movie. If I only kind of want to see a movie, I'll wait for it to come on Netflix. Plus, a lot of the movie trailers I see are for films I have no interest in seeing. Rarely these days do I see a trailer and think, I've got to see that when it comes out! Hollywood needs to do a better job of putting out films that aren't revisions of movies that were already made or movies about superheroes. Seriously.