Letters to the Editor
Lcantet
Published Letters: 43
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Go "Hedwig" or "Lagaan"
[Read the article: "Rent"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The last recent American movie musical I thoroughly enjoyed was "Hedwig And The Angry Inch." From lyrics to cinematography to animation, it had a memorably edgy energy that the film adaptation of "Rent" never even comes close to duplicating. For one thing, Hedwig is allowed a significant moment where she acts like a creep whereas the "Rent" characters come off as mildly annoying at worse. The musical numbers in "Rent" work because of the performers' energy, and not Chris Columbus' pedestrian direction. I didn't get the feeling that Columbus instinctively understood how the bohemia of New York's East End thrived despite the lack of Middle American creature comforts.
"Rent" did have "Seasons Of Love," "Light My Candle," and Angel and Collins' fabulous musical numbers. But at the end of the day, if I want to watch an edgy and memorable musical, I'll catch "Hedwig And The Angry Inch" again. If I want to watch a recent musical that has archetypal characters and great music and dancing, I'll check out "Lagaan" or some other musical from Bollywood.
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A Couple Of Corrections
[Read the article: "Transamerica"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The director of "Transamerica" explained at a film festival Q & A that he had decided from the get-go to cast an actress in the role of Bree. Traditional Hollywood depictions of transsexuals usually went for the "guy in a dress" stereotype, and the director felt following that "humorous" tradition would undercut his attempt to treat Bree with dignity.
There is a reason why Bree and Toby's relationship seems distant. Toby's endured a life where he expects people to screw him over emotionally. Guardedness is his emotional fallback position. Bree sees Toby as a physical manifestation of the past that she feels she needs to bury in a very very deep emotional hole before she can move forward with her life. She doesn't have any idea what part if any Toby will play in her future life, and doesn't want to deal with the emotional inconvenience.
Bree's bad makeup job made emotional sense, as this was someone still trying to get the little everyday details right about being a woman. The director did try to do his homework to render Bree's life as accurately as possible. Obviously, Stephanie Zacharek felt he did an inadquate job of translating those details into something dramatically compelling.
Aside from the encounter with Bree's family, I don't recall any other middle Americans really giving Bree a hard time about her transsexuality. Nor does "Transamerica" take "A History Of Violence"'s attitude of "scratch beneath the bland surface to uncover the monster at Middle America's heart." For me, it was simply a movie anchored by an incredible and dramatically challenging performance by Felicity Huffman. Needless to say, Huffman met the challenges of her role.
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Bernard Goldberg vs. Robert Fisk
[Read the article: Blood and betrayal]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Robert Fisk's definition of journalism clearly illuminated to me what is evil and wrong with Bernard Goldberg's attacks against liberals and lefties in American journalism. Goldberg would classify Fisk's duty of a journalist "to challenge authority - all authority - especially so when governments and politicians take us to war" as proof of liberal or left-wing bias. The Goldberg jounalistic standard would require journalists to be apologists for power or the verbal equivalents of maids cleaning up a particularly rowdy employer's mess. Sadly, far too many American journalists have chosen the Goldberg route.
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Pro-military Moderates Yes, Clueless Moderates No
[Read the article: Jolting Joe]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Moderate Democrats with a real-life appreciation of military issues definitely need to be part of the Democratic Party. They provide the type of practical perspective that balances out against more leftish Democrats' over-optimistic visions. That's why I'd like to see Paul Hackett secure the Democratic senatorial nomination in Ohio.
My trouble with Joseph Lieberman is that his desire to look out for the national interest has blinded him to the deadly incompetence of the Bush administration and the current power structure. I have seen insufficient proof that the GOP-controlled US government has moved away from an attitude that "bipartisan cooperation is date rape." The GOP generally remains dedicated to the untrammeled exercise of power for their corporate supporters, and damn the national interest. Lieberman's public apologies for Bush and his ilk remind me of a physically abused wife who's willing to rationalize her bruises as a clumsy fall down the stairs in order to keep her family together.
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GST Acronym
[Read the article: The CIA's dirty war]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So what does GST stand for?
Great Secret Tortures?
George Sanctions Torture?
Get Screwed, Terrorists?
George Smashes Terrorism?
Guantanamo Standards Totally?
George's Secret Treason?
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Bye-bye Domenech
[Read the article: Domenech resigns]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Pardon me if I don't shed any tears over Domenech's resignation. Any swine who publicly defames a civil rights leader such as Coretta Scott King instantly loses credibility in my book.
Does this affair demonstrate once again that right-wing journalists let political partisanship override the journalist's professional commitment to the truth, even if it afflicts the comfortable?
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Personal Destruction Politics
[Read the article: How will you remember Tom DeLay?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's funny that the right wingers eulogizing the fall of Tom De Lay should carp on the politics of personal destruction. The very right wing-funded Swift Boat Veterans For Truth definitely didn't count as a John Kerry lovefest campaign. But should I be horribly surprised? The right-wing crowd have a gift for publicly ascribing to their political opponents sins that they themselves would eagerly commit in a heartbeat.
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What Respect?
[Read the article: A Democrat knocks Colbert, says Bush "deserves some respect"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No person, even the President of the United States, deserves respect until he or she has done something to earn it. Bush has started an unnecessary war which has taken thousands of lives, repeatedly kowtowed to the American jihadists known as the Christian Right, and constantly shows that he has very little truth in him. In what way does Bush's behavior prove he's earned respect?
Too bad Hoyer is not running for re-election and I'm not one of his constituents. I'd rather vote for his non-right wing opponent rather than this cowardly schmuck.