Big weekend. Lotsa fun. Here are some details:
I saw a couple of great movies:
Friday night, I watched Planet of the Apes. I actually hadn’t seen it in its entirety in what I’m guessing is 12 or 13 years, so it was a nice way to spend the evening — kind of like catching up with an old friend. I know that sounds nerdy, but hey, that’s who I am.
The movie has everything I love about science fiction and the 60s — it’s full of action (not the Michael Bay, exploding cars and bloodied hero type of movie action, but action no less), great dialogue — and subtext. Oh how I love meaning in my geek movies.
Planet of the Apes, in case you’ve been hiding under a rock since the 1960s, is about three space explorers who volunteer for a trip that will take them hundreds of light years away from Earth in the space of about a year. Even though they’ll age only about one year, because of the physical distance of the trip, they’re actually about 2000 years into the future. They know they’ll never return home.
The group lands on an Earth-like planet and finds that there are humans there — but they’re mute and primitive. Ruling the planet as humans are talking apes, who quickly imprison one of the humans (Charlton Heston) and suspect him of being some kind of mutated man who poses a threat to the ape society.
The movie is full of commentary about human society (duh) is full of the fairly typical 60s movie theme that nuclear weapons are bad. And it’s got one of the best twist endings ever. I knew what was going to happen, but seeing the movie in full for the first time in ages, it still felt powerful.
Favorite line: “You cut up his brain, you bloody baboon!”
Sunday, I watched Martin Scorsese’s first gangster film, Mean Streets.
It stars Harvey Keitel and Robert DeNiro as a couple of low-level mafia associates against the backdrop of early 1970s Little Italy. Another thing I’m a big fan of is a good mob movie, and this didn’t disappoint. In fact, if you’re a fan of Scorsese’s later mob work like Goodfellas and Casino, I’d go so far as to say this is a must.
DeNiro especially was great to watch, partly because he’s so young, and partly because his character is such a loser. His roles as Sam Rothstein (Casino) and Jimmy Conway (Goodfellas) bear little resemblance to this role — in Mean Streets he’s no good, he’s dumb, he’s self-destructive, and it does him in.
The movie is a little harder to watch than later Scorsese fare — I think that has to do more with when the movie was made than anything else — it’s dark and at times frustratingly too quiet or too loud, but it’s worth it and it really adds to the film’s character. That’s kind of how I picture New York in the 70s.
Favorite line: “We ain’t gonna pay because we don’t pay mooks.”
I recommend either movie.
I watched the end of the World Series:
I hate the Red Sox.
I even did some work:
I interviewed Bill McFadden, who has worked here in Lee County (as well as Chatham) as a provider of immigrant services for several years. He helps people get their citizenship papers, and he worked at CCCC for years as director of a program that led to what he says is a mostly-stable immigrant population here in Lee County. I’ll be writing a story about him later this week as part of our Nuestros Vecinos series on the immigrant population here in Lee County.
I found McFadden to be one of the more interesting people I’ve met through my job at The Herald, and I think my talk with him is going to lead to a really cool story.
And there was even some politics:
I got a call Sunday night from Charles Taylor, one of two candidates seeking the Ward 2 seat on the Sanford City Council. Incumbent Dan Harrington is also seeking the seat.
I’ve known Taylor basically since I started my job here at the paper and he’s always been a good guy to deal with. When he called me last night, he said he wasn’t calling me in my capacity as a reporter but rather as a citizen of the ward he’s seeking to represent. He’d gotten a list of voters throughout the ward and was calling every single one and personally asking for their vote.
Now, my job kind of precludes me from telling any candidate for any seat that I am or am not going to vote for them, and I told Taylor as much last night, but I also said that I was impressed that he’d call as many voters as he could and speak with them personally.
Too often, I think politicians spend time only talking with each other or with their political supporters and forget that the vast majority of voters don’t have a whole lot of interest in the workings of city hall or the state capitol or even D.C., other than to make sure their basic services — police, fire, water, trash — get delivered. Taking the initiative to talk to potential voters was a good move.
Finally, over the weekend my blog reached 2,000 hits. I know I started kind of slow on this and I don’t know who all is reading this thing, but thanks to whoever you are. This has been one of the funnest parts of working here so far.
