Great Conversations

Tomorrow is our last meeting for Great Conversations 2, which is: Eichmann in Jerusalem. We were going to move on directly to Great Conversations 3, but it will not be available for at least another month. So rather than wait, we decided to do another anthology series: The Critically Engaged Reader and then go on to GC3 afterwards.

Our books new books will be handed out tomorrow; so our first discussion will probably be May 11: Selections from Politics, by Aristotle. The following selection will be poetry: Waiting for the Barbarians, by Cavafy.

Our group has been very stable for the past two years with the same eight members. We do have very interesting and lively conversations considering our demographics: six liberals and two conservatives, four male and four female, the median/average age being 75 years.

Our venue is also quite nice. We use the public meeting room, in the basement of the county Court House, in downtown Klamath Falls. The building is very modern with all the audio/visual equipment necessary, and a full kitchen; we do not have WiFi, but we hope it will be added soon. We always have coffee, cookies, or other pastries, and sometimes a peasant lunch.

MOVIE REVIEWS

It’s not that I’ve not been seeing any films lately; it’s that I haven’t gotten all that excited about what I’ve seen.

I was desperate for a movie last Friday so I went to Blockbuster and rented three DVD’s hoping at least one of them would be OK. I watched all three Friday night; all three were interesting, worth the time to watch them, but none of them great! Saturday night I went to the Pelican Cinema and watched The Last King of Scotland, it too was OK but not great.

THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
This film, adapted from Giles Foden’s novel of the same title, tells a story of a short segment of the life of the Despot Dictator of Uganda, Idi Amin, through the eyes of his personal Physician, Nicholas Garrigan.

This film does offer a moral message: Evil does exist in this world, in and of its self; and evil does corrupt the idealistic, egocentric, and those with less than a full measure of character.


NOWHERE IN AFRICA
The story of a Jewish family fleeing anti Semitism in 1938 Germany settles into the rural country side of Kenya Africa.

They have to come to grips with the fate of their loss of prosperity, and life style, as well as the death of their family members left behind. Also adapting to the both the African native, and white Gentile cultures, as well as the managing of a farm, and the coming of age of their daughter, task them to their limits, and beyond.

This story comes full circle with a realistically mundane, bittersweet ending.

HARSH TIMES
A morally challenged Gulf War veteran returns home to Los Angles and tries to integrate himself back into American society.

Due to his moral challenge and total lack of character he suffers one failure after another ultimately destroying the lives of himself, several other characters of similar virtue, and his best friend. The friend is the sad irony of the film: not being morally challenged, but of minimal character, he is not able to resist the temptations of his friend and follows him down the pathway of destruction.

The story starts out dingy and gray and steadily turns totally black; it offers no moral, or character redemption, or insight. This is, in my opinion, just a random isolation, from society, of a few abject people going nowhere.

CROSSOVER
Another story of African American inner city youth with idealistic dreams trying to overcome the temptations and pitfalls of their environment to make their way into mainstream society, and do the right thing.

The film/story does have a Basketball theme, but any other theme would suit this story as well.

This story does have a positive, and moralistic, message for disadvantaged and economically deprived youngsters of the inner city: live up to ones dreams and aspirations, and all ways do the right thing, according to your own conscience.

GREAT CONVERSATIONS

Our reading group, Great Conversations, met today at O’Connor’s restaurant in the farming community of Dairy today.

We met there to celebrate upcoming St. Patrick’s Day. Everyone had Corned Beef and Cabbage except me; I had a Corned Beef Sandwich. O’Connor’s, as the name implies, serves up an Irish menu 365 days per year.

An interesting sidelight to today’s meeting/excursion, for some, was a side trip out to the seven mile marker on Swan Lake Road to view the Sand Hill Cranes feeding in the fields there.

Aside from the social aspect of today’s meeting we did agree on our next reading series from Great Books: The Civically Engaged Reader. This series offers over forty different selections from preeminent Philosophers, Classical Novelists, Economists, Political Scientists, Poets, and Sociologists.

We are all looking forward to the new series; and maybe another meeting/excursion.

FRANK MILLER’S, THE 300

WHAT A KICK ASS MOVIE!

It never lets one rest, BIFF, BAM, KAPOW, UGH, WHEW, #&!*@^+, &*#$%!

This is, absolutely, the best film I’ve seen in ten years!

I love this new genre of film making: the exaggerated images, sounds, scenes, cinematography, the very essence of static, super impact, comic book imagery translated into motion picture, with the emphasis on IMPACT and MOTION!

This story is perfect for this genre of film making. I’m sure that many more films in this genre and similar stories will follow in the wake THE 300’s success and popularity.

Check out these links: 300 300 Spartan Warriors

"The most valiant are sometimes the most unfortunate. Thus there are triumphant defeats that rival victories. Nor did those four sister victories, the fairest that the sun ever set eyes on - Salamis, Plataea, Mycale, and Sicily - ever dare match all their combined glory against the glory of the annihilation of King Leonidas and his men at the pass of Thermopylae." - Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)

MOTORCYCLE DIARIES

This is a beautifully photographed and edited film.

This is film tells the story of two idealistic young men setting off on an adventure of discovery, seeking to find the ways of the world and life. They travel with the least of resources, existing, for the most part, on the gratuity of fellow down and outers, and that of affluent patrons as well.

The world they discover is profoundly discouraging to them. They see the beauty of nature all around them, the majesty of the mountains, the plains, the weather, and the seasons; contrasted by the pitiful and tragic day to day existence of the most common of mankind, in the 1950’s Third World environments of Argentina, Chili, and Peru.

At their journeys end, weary, disillusioned, and sad, they separate and each return to their former lives to resume their planned life ambitions.

At this point, of the film, I’m thinking that this has been a fairly interesting, coming of age film, with a bitter message, reminding the rest of us, the First world, of the suffering and plight of the less fortunate.

But the epilog of the film goes on to reveal that the younger, and more sensitive, of the two adventurers goes on in life to become Che Guevara, and the other to also make his way to Cuba to live out his life as a doctor. In the “revelation” of the identity of Che Guevara it is noted that he was, “Murdered, by the CIA”, in Bolivia in 1967.

I was very disappointed to find out that this beautiful film was in fact a very well disguised pro statement for Communism, and a sympathetic tribute to Che Guevara.

This Link will provide one with many interesting reviews and opinions about this film.

LAIRD’S LANDING

The local birding buzz around the Klamath Basin lately has been that there are hundreds of Bald Eagles, and many Golden Eagles, to be seen, around late afternoons, at Laird’s Landing.

Mel Bruce and I went out there today to see the Eagles. The Eagles were there, as advertised, but in smaller numbers. We saw approximately six or eight at any given moment; as they were coming and going, to and from, their hunting grounds in the Lower Klamath Wildlife Refuge, just immediately to the north. We met a California Wildlife officer out there that advised us that he had seen over one hundred Bald Eagles, right where we were, the day before around 5:00 P.M. He went on to tell us that this location was an historical landmark: Laird’s Landing.

Laird’s Landing was/is located at the southern shore of the once Lower Klamath Lake. Lower Klamath Lake no longer exists; it was drained/reclaimed by the BLM somewhere in the early Twentieth Century teens. The area once occupied by the lake, some 625 Sq. Mi/400,000 Acres, it is now 85% farmland, and 15% the Lower Klamath wildlife Refuge.

Between 1905 and 1909 the Steam boat “Klamath” was the primary transportation method between northern Siskiyou County and the city of Klamath Falls. The trip from Laird’s Landing to Klamath Falls would have been around twenty five to thirty miles, across the lake. The site is still occupied by the Laird family ancestry, who still maintains farming operations there.

Mel and I plan to be back out there next Friday, in the late afternoon, to see the Eagles in their hundreds! I’ll try to make another posting Friday evening, with digital images, if possible.

Check out these Links for more information: Link 1, Link 2.

HALF LIFE

My friend David White has introduced me to the online gaming world of Half Life.

I have downloaded Steam, the engine, and purchased the original version of Half Life.

After a few adventures into the game, I can see that it will be a lot of fun, once I become skilled enough, to stay alive long enough, to figure out what is going on! With the articulation of the keyboard commands, learning the successful strategies of the game, and the various “Maps”, I can see it will take a while. Right now, during a typical fifteen minute session, I manage to get killed about forty times, with only two or three kills for myself. The thing that really gets me is that it’s probably a bunch of fourteen year old Geeks kicking my ass all over the map! I just hate it, getting stomped on that bad!

My son-in-law, Mike, made a BLOG posting about this game a little over a year ago; I wonder if he plays online? Mike: if you read this let me know if you are a regular or sometimes player; maybe we can get online at the same time someday.

WILD HOGS

The funniest movie I have seen, in since I can’t remember when.

It is an absolute, unreal, fantasy; but one that every guy dreams of.

I laughed so hard, and so often, that I had tears in my eyes, couldn’t get a breath, and my sides ached all at the same time. The entire audience was just as affected as I was.

I’m predicting that the Harley Davidson stock will soon up sharply; because, come Monday morning thousands of wannabe, “Easy Riders”, will be at their local Harley dealership getting their, “HOGS”.

So, if you want to just feel good, get a good laugh, and not have to try to figure out what’s happening in the movie, go see WILD HOGS.

300

THE

MOVIE

Opens March 9, 2007

The Battle of Thermopyle
300 Spartans against Xerxes’ army of over 100 thousand

Victor Davis Hanson: one of the world’s leading scholars, and writer of many books on ancient Greek history and warfare, has a nice preface on this film posted on his Web Site, Works and Days.

He has been invited to attend the premier of the film, in Hollywood, March 5, in appreciation of his writing the introduction to the picture book accompanying the film.

VDH reminds us, in his preface, that this film is a stylized adaptation, not intended to follow exactly the story right out of the pages of Herodotus or Plutarch; but it does portray the message of Herodotus, through the impressionism, of the Spartan’s holding the pass.

To read VDH’s complete preface visit his Web Site, Works and Days.

I, for one, will be at the Pelican Cinema, on tenterhooks, to see this film on opening day.