Can't wait: Soderbergh's take on Che Guevara

I eagerly anticipate the commercial release of Steven Soderbergh's 4.5 hour Guevara biopic. Based on the description in this article, which characterizes the work as a non-narrative series of "impressionistic glimpses" of Guevara throughout his career, I'm hoping for something that looks like Soderbergh's work on Unscripted and K Street, in which we see stories unfold through montages of the characters in their everyday life. In my mind, each of those series was highly underrated (neither lasted past one season). However, I found them both truly compelling and have a feeling that they reflect SS's artistic direction. I'm hoping I'm right here.

One of my favorite things about Soderbergh is the fact that, despite his works' artistic riskiness and integrity, he has been able to achieve (and has embraced) commercial success, which has given him great access to the type of resources needed to do something like an epic biopic of this nature. Here's hoping it will be as artistically huge as it is substantively.

A heart-wrenching television moment

Fred Rogers for President

Interview with Mayor Shirley Franklin

Lately, I've been curious to learn more about Atlanta's mayor, Shirley Franklin. My interest was peaked after seeing a recent documentary on PBS about the emergence of black political leadership during the 1970's, which prominently featured Maynard Jackson's rise to the Atlanta mayorship. NPR's "News and Notes" program has some great audio of an interview with Franklin, as well as several other Atlanta figures. Check it out HERE.

The ING marathon comes through Decatur

rachel, amy, amanda, accordion
Originally uploaded by jamieradford

We set up a cheering station in downtown Decatur for the runners in the 2008 ING marathon. The air was cold, wet and windy from the rain the night before. We made signs for our friend Lauren, who was running her first marathon. Amanda played the accordion, which most of the runners found strange, but I think they got a kick out of it. They enjoyed the orange slices we set out as well. More photos here.

And here's a video illustrating the whole thing:

ING SUPPORT BAND

I'm being repressed!

"C'mon, you guys, we weren't doing anything violent!"

Here is a video of some freshman philosophy majors and high school thespians "protesting" outside the Scientology church in Dunwoody, a suburb of Atlanta. The video reminds me of this one time, in law school, my friend and I attended a meeting to volunteer as "police watchers" at a protest of the G8 summit or something. Our job was ostensibly to watch police and make sure they weren't repressing anyone. It became clear to me that the protestors had only a very nebulous idea of what they were even protesting, and the real point was to go and be harassed by the police and gain some sense of rush or importance from standing in a group of people, holding signs and shouting slogans.

The protest in this video seems even more absurd, in that these are kids, presumably not members of the Scientologist church, protesting, supposedly, the church's deprivation of its members' right to free speech. These kids seem very unsure of what they're protesting. They're just having a lot of fun hanging out together and getting the attention of the police. I remember a time when I would have done the same thing, so I can symphathise.

It's just that... ok: I've been watching a PBS series lately about the civil rights movement, and I can't help but think how pitiful these kids are, feigning outrage at the interruption of their meaningless protest, holding themselves out as something comparable to the people who marched in Alabama and Georgia, at great peril to their own safety, for rights as basic as the one to eat your lunch in a restaurant or send your child to school.  I'm not trying to hate on these kids, but their posturing is undeniably irritating. 

"The Wire:" debating its finale

Joey, whose blog was one of the first that I began reading on regular basis, has a very well-thought out post on The Wire's final season and episode. He was disappointed with both, and, while I generally disagree with his take on this, his post is a definitely must-read for those who, like me, devote a lot of thought to this show. Also, check the comments section for some smart debate on the finale.