LIGHTS AT THE CASTLE and BETWEEN TAKES ON THE TODAY SHOW-BACK THEN

YULE NIGHTS

 We had the good fortune of an invitation to see the Christmas decorations at San Simeon, the Hearst Castle.

   It is a visual blitz of texture, detail and history.

 Halls are decked.

 The juxtaposition of the tapestries hint at multi dimensional story lines.

 The kitchen is a world unto itself.

  It was a windy and foggy night on the mountain as we moved around the massive grounds.

   

A visit to the indoor pool, beneath the tennis courts, 
before our drive down the mountain to reality.

Some nights as I stand gazing at the deep star field arching from the coastal mountains to the wide sea it's easy to imagine that six miles up the Pacific coast the Hearst Castle is a door to another world. Crossing the threshold is magical.

THROWBACK 

JANE PAULEY & TOM

   The Today Show broadcast live from Indianapolis in the mid '80s.  As the local NBC affiliate anchor we did live reports around the NBC Today Show live telecast.  During a break Jane Pauley and I chat.  We were friends from her pre television days in Indianapolis.  We shared a high school speech and debate instructor as well.  Jane remains one of the most authentic people who have achieved great celebrity. 

HUNGERING FOR MORE?

    The Hunger Games Mocking Jay is not as good as the first two films in what has now become a franchise. Jennifer Lawrence is still exceptional as is Donald Sutherland as the contemptible character President Snow. Julianne Moore was especially good in this installment. Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Elizabeth Banks continue in their well portrayed character roles. Same for Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth. Acting is not the issue, it is the thinning of impact and weakening of integrity that happens when a good idea gets overplayed.  

    Hunger Games was always about being a commercial success, but the narrative theme and social comment woven into the dystopian drama had more impact in the first book and films. Now it is beginning to feel like serial and as good as she is, we know Lawrence is capable of more than the script is giving her.

    Still, there are moments. The frightening politics of a too powerful state, of huge economic gaps, of surrendered liberties and a manipulative media are still vivid. I also thought of Syria, Iraq and Libya when viewing the affect of war on communities.  

    It's time to resolve this conflict, for liberty and justice to prevail and for Donald Sutherland/President Snow to get his smug face and well coiffed beard stomped in the muck, at least. On further consideration, it may be those widening economic divisions that undergirds the sense of justice that flys with the Mocking Jay.

   See you down the trail.

THE CONSEQUENCE 

"The voice of the intellect is a soft one,

but it does not rest until it has gained a

hearing.  Ultimately, after endlessly 

repeated rebuffs, it succeeds.

This is one of the few points in which

to be optimistic about the 

future of mankind."

Sigmund Freud

      Analysts of the social scene, sociologists, psychologists, theologians and others have noted the apocalyptic nature

and almost obsession of film, games, literature and other

cultural symbols designed for and sought by people 18-35.

      To mine the deep implications and causes can fill books. But a shorthand version is an attitude about the future that is not all sunshine and roses.  Some of those reasons may smack us in the face if we look closely.

       Think of the impact on younger minds of just these events:

        THE MEDIA COVERAGE OF KATRINA

        WITNESSING THE WORST ECONOMIC COLLAPSE SINCE

THE DEPRESSION

         FUKISHIMA 

       I chose those three because they are linked by a seemingly helpless situations played out large and in detail in a media saturation. But there are multiple such examples and other complexities of modern life that also work to destroy optimism.  

       Bringing it back to Freud then, is the soft voice of intellect being heard?  Or is it being drowned out in a world of social media where Kim Kardashian has 9 to 10 million "followers?"

REEL THOUGHTS

THE HUNGER GAMES

       We became two of the most recent of the millions who are making this film a box office smash.  Talk about dystopian!  The Suzzane Collins young adult novel which was a sensation, is even more so in the hands of Director  Gary Ross who wrote and directed Pleasantville, Seabiscuit and Big.  Ross is a very good film maker and his screenplay with Collins is of a world that is a continuation of the bleak future theme.

        Lana is more enthusiastic about the film than I am.  It is  an entertaining, big budget action adventure thriller focused on kids surviving a decadent societies' game. She sees the hope expressed in the story line.  I see a clever portrayal of a society that becomes increasingly self indulgent, hooked on cheap thrills and riven with a wealthy elite controlling poor, working masses.

       And it is probably just me, but the brilliance in the film

is the parody of our obsession with "reality game shows."  How far will we go?  When I was ceo of a television production company we'd joke about how outrageous game shows could become.  This film is a punctuation point.

      Stanley Tucci as the television host, Caesar Flickerman

is delightful.  Jennifer Lawrence as the heroine continues to show remarkable talent, first seen in Winter Bone.  Elizabeth Banks as vacuous Effie Trinkle is superb.  She captures the empty values and superficiality of a society that can enjoy watching children kill each other.  Woody Harrelson as the burned out former hero provides a nice nuanced and textured performance.  And Donald Southerland as the contemptible president Snow is a poster boy for legalizing assassination.

       I'm struck by how this is a film for and about youth and even in a kind of victory there is an uncertainty and looming shadow.

"Have I not reason 

to lament what man has made of man?"

William Wordsworth

REALITY CHECK NOW

MORE OF THE SAME

     A new public awareness campaign has been launched.

It is the most recent voice in the escalating fight over 

fracking.  

     There may be places where fracking has not done harm.

But clearly, there are places where it is doing severe harm.

"A simple child,

That lightly draws its breath.

And feels its life in every limb,

What should it know of death?"

William Wordsworth

        I've been accused of looking on the bright side of things.   Not sure about that, rather I'm a pragmatist who understands the value of doing something. In engagement is opportunity, and hope. That attitude was honed in Paul Hamori's class on Hegelian dialectics.

"The history of the world

is none other than the progress of the 

consciousness of  freedom."

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

See you down the trail.