Bags o' Money

Image credit here, found via Google Images

The bride and I were recently watching Outlander or something else set a couple hundred years ago--before people used wallets and paper money--and a financial transaction was being done.

When it was time to exchange the money, the buyer tossed a bag of coins to the seller.

They always toss the bag.  They never just hand the bag to the seller.

So anytime you see a bag of coins in a film or on TV, rest assured that it will soon be airborne.

Remember the movie reviewers Siskel and Ebert?  I recall one show where they pointed out the presence of a fruit cart in the film, saying that the sole purpose of including a fruit cart in a shot is its inevitable upset.  Fruit carts never remain intact and part of the background.

Interstellar...and Ultrarunning

[Editorial update: going with a slightly modified design for the blog]

Image credit IMBb

The bride and I watched the film Interstellar last evening.

A great site that a close friend and movie buff constantly mentions is IMDb, a treasure trove of all things film.  Here's the summary story line on Interstellar:

In the near future, Earth has been devastated by drought and famine, causing a scarcity in food and extreme changes in climate. When humanity is facing extinction, a mysterious rip in the space-time continuum is discovered, giving mankind the opportunity to widen its lifespan. A group of explorers must travel beyond our solar system in search of a planet that can sustain life. The crew of the Endurance are required to think bigger and go further than any human in history as they embark on an interstellar voyage into the unknown. Coop, the pilot of the Endurance, must decide between seeing his children again and the future of the human race.

All in all, I liked the movie, although it dragged a bit at times, and the science was sometimes tough to follow (probably why the bride was lukewarm about it).  But the main theme about the film that really resonated with me was the need for humankind to explore, to get off the earth, to ensure the survival of the species (plus there was a good love story component).

But the reason I even mention the film today is that coincidentally I was just reading a post of Phil Plait's over at Bad Astronomy--which you really should read at least weekly--a post about the SpaceX company proposed mission to Mars.  Phil took a tour of the SpaceX plant at the invitation of the founder and owner, Elon Musk, and came away very impressed about Musk's answer as to why explore beyond the Earth:

Musk didn’t hesitate. “Humans need to be a multiplanet species,” he replied.

And pretty much at that moment my thinking reorganized itself. He didn’t need to explain his reasoning; I agree with that statement, and I’ve written about it many times. Exploration has its own varied rewards ... and a single global catastrophe could wipe us out. Space travel is a means to mitigate that, and setting up colonies elsewhere is a good bet. As Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (the father of modern rocketry) said, “The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot live in the cradle forever.”

The overall atmosphere in the factory was one of working at a progressive company on an exciting project. Of course: They build rockets. But the feeling I couldn’t put my finger on before suddenly came into focus. The attitude of the people I saw wasn’t just a general pride, as strong as it was, in doing something cool. It was that they were doing something important. And again, not just important in some vague, general way, but critical and quite specific in its endgame: making humans citizens of more than one world. A multiplanet species.

It’s easy to dismiss this statement, think of some snark as a way to minimize it and marginalize it as the thinking of a true believer. But—skeptic that I am—I’ve come to realize this is not minimal. It is not marginal. This is a real, tangible goal, one that is achievable. And SpaceX is making great strides toward achieving it.

That’s when I also realized that the initial question itself was ill-posed. It’s not why Elon Musk wants to get to Mars. It’s why he wants humanity to get there.

I think that's a pretty good idea.

And since the U.S. government is not prioritizing NASA, it seems that it may be up private individuals, such as Elon Musk, to get us off the planet.

Oh, and I'd better bring in the mandatory Ultrarunning reference.  It's not hard, actually: seems to me that the same compulsion that propels us to run vast distances in the backcountry is the same compulsion that will lift us off this planet.

Go. See. Lincoln.

Here at Mister Tristan (the blog, not the 4 year old human being) I sometimes give advice but never give orders.

Well, I'm breaking that rule now:  You MUST go see the film Lincoln, directed by Steven Spielberg.

Daniel Day-Lewis' performance as Lincoln was absolutely perfect.  Unlike other actors and other roles, not once did I ever think, "That guy's an actor and this is a movie."  Rather I felt--as did the bride--that I was really seeing the 16th president in action through some miracle of time travel or magic of film making.

The movie focuses on Lincoln's efforts to secure passage in the U.S. House of Representatives (the Senate had previously approved) the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.  If the House passed it by a 2/3 majority, the amendment would go to the states for ratification, where passage was expected.

The House was bitterly divided on the amendment; Lincoln's skills as a president were sorely tested as tried to secure sufficient votes for passage.

Oh, and here's the text of the proposed amendment: 

Section 1.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

 

Section 2.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
 

So, the 13th Amendment abolishes slavery in the United States.  Today, nearly 150 years later, it seems self-evident, yet the decision at the time was momentous.

There were those Congressmen that were on the right side of history and those who were on the wrong side of history.  I see exact parallels to today, where restrictions on women's rights and on the rights of gays are similarly being debated, and again we have those who are on the right side of history and those who history will record as being on the wrong side.


Harper Weekly was an influential magazine in 1865.  Some history-minded person (bless them!) has recreated every issue of the original periodical.  The 11 Feb 1865 issue, here, has the original list of how each member of the Congress voted on the issue of the 13th Amendment.

You must click on the thumbnail image at the upper left to enlarge the page.  And you should do that--actually take the time to glance through the names of those who voted for the amendment and those who voted Nay.  The latter group deserves the everlasting censure of history.

Why am I passionate about this?  Simply put, I have black and mixed race people in my family.  They are no different than you or me, and I cannot see how anyone can look at them and see something less than I see.

If Nicolas Cage Were an Ultrarunner

The bride and I watch a fair number of movies, and probably my least favorite A-list actor is Nicolas Cage.  Flipping thru the channels, I just saw him again a couple weeks ago in Windtalkers, the WWII flick about the war in the Pacific and him protecting the Navajo code talkers.

To me, it always seems like he's acting, like I can never suspend my disbelief enough to think "That's a real character."  I always think, in this example, "That's Nicolas Cage pretending to be a Marine."

It wasn't much of stretch to imagine him--acting poorly, of course--in an Ultrarunning movie.  You wouldn’t be able to believe that he's a real Ultrarunner; you'd know that it was Nicolas Cage only pretending to be an Ultrarunner. Imagine that Nicolas Cage syrupy voice saying lines like these:

"You run up the trail.  You puke your guts out.  Then you wipe your mouth and keep on running."

"Your manners are terrible [cocks pistol, points it at a rude runners head, at an aid station]. You say "Thank You" to the nice volunteers because it's the right thing to do, because nobody's holding a gun to their heads like I am doing to you, making them stand out here for hours handing you water."

"I stopped wearing shoelaces.  Now I just ziptie my shoes on my feet and keep the same shoes on the whole race.  If I die during the run it'll be like the ultra equivalent of dying with my boots on."

"Pissing in the woods?  Crapping?  That's for wussies.  Real men can hold their stuff."

[channeling Steve Prefontaine] "A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts."

"I don't use Body Glide or any of those products on my junk or anywhere.  Lube is for wimps.  I want the total experience, pain and all."

"Buckles?  You mean those shiny trinkets you get for finishing a 100 miler? I keep my buckles right up here, where it really counts [taps head]."

 

James Franco…and Ultrarunning

(Image credit here)

Courtesy of our friends at NETFLIX on Sunday night the bride and I just watched 127 Hours (since Breaking Bad doesn’t start for another week!).  Now, many of you are probably cutting edge when it comes to films, seeing new releases in the theaters.  Or if you didn’t, then seeing newly released DVDs immediately.

Well, the bride and I are usually neither.  We only go to the theater maybe 2 or 3 times a year (most recently was for Johnny Depp in some movie about pirates).  And our DVD watching is sporadic—bursts of activity followed by weeks of inactivity.

That said, I wanted to comment upon 127 Hours, the story of Aron Ralston, the outdoor enthusiast who got trapped in a slot canyon in Utah when a small boulder fell, pinning his arm.  After several days and with death by thirst looming, Aron managed to hack off his arm to save his life.

The film was excellent.  This direction and editing was edgy, the music was great, and James Franco was utterly believable as Aron. I’m now thoroughly a James Franco fan.

Oh, and the connection to Ultrarunning? There are several obvious ones: Aron has completed some 100s after the accident.  Of course, always tell someone where you are going in as much specificity as you can (Aron did not).  Carry more water than you think you’ll need.

But the real takeaway for me was redemption: Aron got a do-over.  From the literal brink of death, summoning inner mental and physical resources that amaze me, he survived to live out the rest of his days.

Without sounding preachy, any one of us can get a do-over of our lives, like starting RIGHT NOW, if you wish.  You don’t have to go through a life-threatening experience.

 

True Grit 2010

The bride and I went on a date today for dinner (Italian) and a movie (True Grit).

Both of us are big fans of westerns, and big fans of Jeff Bridges.

Bottom line: Go. See. It.  Repeat:  Go. See. It.

Why?   Because the Dude abides.

Next related activity is to watch the John Wayne original.  I see where it'll be on AMC on 8 Jan at 8 PM EST.  Set your DVRs.

Movie Plots That Could Have Been Solved in Minutes

(Photo credit here)

I try to make my on-line time productive, so that I have something (even if invisible, i.e., mental growth or knowledge) to show for it. So when I confess that I frequently visit Cracked.com, I justify that fact by saying that’s it’s great just to laugh.

Anyway, that’s the preamble. They had a great take-down some weeks ago about flawed movie plots that just about made me blow coffee out my nose. I particularly loved the one on Raiders of the Lost Ark:

Writing movies is hard. Especially when audiences stubbornly demand you entertain them for at least 90 minutes. This is why, in movie-land, characters are so often forced to drag problems out for an hour when, in reality, the situation could have been solved during the opening credits.

What Happened:

Archaeologist Indiana Jones is briefed by Army intelligence that the Nazis are looking for the fabled Ark of the Covenant because, through some ass-backward logic, they think that the best way to kill the Jews is by invoking the God of the Jews. Sure enough, Indy agrees to "get a hold of the Ark before the Nazis do," and kick as much Nazi ass as he can along the way.

The Nazi's logic seems airtight. In the Bible, the Ark tends to make the armies that carry it invincible. Sure those armies tended to be made up mostly of Jews, God's chosen people and the Nazi's chosen extinction target, but the God of the Old Testament wasn't one to get bent out of shape over a minor technicality. Of course, as we find out in the climactic scene, Indy knows a secret about the Ark the Nazis don't: It has a habit of melting faces right the hell off their skull.

What Would Have Made More Sense:

The most sensible response for the Army to this whole Ark business is coincidentally the easiest: Do absolutely nothing.

The Fuhrer's army, lacking Indy's superior archaeology skills, misunderstood the location of the Ark to begin with. Without Indy's meddling, the Nazis would have blown millions of dollars from their 1936 budget digging in the wrong place.

But let’s say the Army doesn't know the Nazis are geographically challenged. All the more reason not to do shit. Instead of stealing and re-stealing the Ark from the Nazis, Indiana Jones and the U.S. Army should have been rooting for them to find it. Their best case scenario is that the Nazis mission goes exactly according to plan: find it, ship it off to Germany and open it in a lavish pageant in Berlin with the whole Nazi high command in attendance. That was what they had planned to do all along. All the top Nazis in Berlin, including Hitler, front and center at the grand opening of a device that has a reputation for melting the faces of anyone in its vicinity.

It'd not only be the end of the movie, but of the whole damned war.