George W. Bush the current President of the United States was elected to office in 2000 as our 43rd President. Since becoming president he signed into law the most comprehensive education reforms in a generation, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
Each figure is limited in production (generally around 10,000) and includes an individually numbered certificate of authenticity, biographical pamphlet and comprehensive time line. The figures clothing is made from actual suit material and is custom tailored and era specific. All figures also include a fully adjustable doll stand. These are fantastically detailed and respectful products that will be cherished for generations to come.
This figure has 25 voice clips using the actual voice of the president.


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'Reconciliation' by Palatable Replacement: the 'Pretendian'
Posted on June 25, 2020 by Blog Woman!!!
Race-shifting to Indigeneity is so prevalent in Canada, that to say it's rampant wouldn't be much of an exaggeration. The big question is, who's going to be responsible for halting these destructive behaviors? The Canadian Government; the Indian Act department, CIRNA; every Indigenous nation encroached upon? Where do employers, educators and media fit in?
Over the last few years, I've learned "pretendians" vary in reason for their desire to be Indigenous and that they cut a wide swath in professions, learning institutes, and even within Indigenous communities.
When we point out an uncovered discovery publicly, this is about far more than 'shaming'. This is more than 'gate-keeping'. This is protection and an effort to stanch the continuing effort to dilute, diminish and degrade the teachings & traditions and resources of entire cultures.
The sheer numbers today make the fight against race-shifting feel futile at times because Indigenous peoples are striving to re-educate an entire country that has decades of deliberate mis-education and obfuscation about them. While they pursue that, they also have to put out as many of these current fires as possible; it's a constant, agonizing game of whack-a-mole.
How do the Indigenous fight the enormous numbers of non-Indigenous who have chosen to speak over them and for them because of reasons like this:
They want part of the mythical 'free money' they were told repeatedly by Canada that the Indigenous receive.
They want the hard-won restoration of harvesting rights of the Indigenous.
They want the hard-won land titles, such as they are.
They want to act on behalf of Canada as "consent givers" for resources extraction.
They want to make claims on those big money resources.
They want to receive the jobs, grants, scholarships, and awards set up to lend a helping hand to the marginalized.
They want the acclaim of being an 'Indigenous success'.
They want to write governance policy for the Indigenous.
They want to continue to re-write history to wash over the truths.
They heard they had an Indigenous ancestor somewhere in their background and now they are suddenly fulfilled as a whole being and must dance to the drums of 'their ancestors'.
They are bereft of culture and need to be fulfilled emotionally, spiritually, and mentally.
These people aren't readily identifiable as terrible trespassers. They are neighbors, co-workers, friends and sometimes, family. Many are exceptionally friendly, articulate and some are very charismatic, which makes for frustrating, vigorous protection by those around them when questioned.
Some of the roles where we've found these people are:
Senatorial assistants & policy writers
Facebook "Educator" pages, some with several thousand followers
Radio show hosts
Students in all levels of education
Prison and medically centred "Indigenous Elders"
Ceremonial Elders / Spiritual guides
Other social media accounts for various "Indigenous products"
The list continues to grow.
What we often hear, when this is brought to the attention of an employer or a position of authority is, "what are we to do about it"? The efforts of the 2015 "Truth and Reconciliation Report" with its 94 calls to action have yet to be realized in a substantial way by the Canadian Government and its citizens.
This isn't to step over those who are making an effort to follow-through, but how can that follow-through be meaningful and effective if the very people they're turning to for direction and education are not Indigenous; are not involved in any community in a genuine way; and certainly have no idea of the issues and needs of the many and various Indigenous communities?
How is this not a national concern by this time? How is Indigenous identity still managed by the Canadian Government and its 'self-identifying' citizens, those who believe any claim of blood quantum is their entitlement?
Residential schools all finally shut down in 1996, but their teachings are still being readily applied. The point of those schools, to Canada's great shame, was only about re-imagining and shifting who the Indigenous are. They wanted the Indigenous to be demeaned enough to be easily cleansed away. Canadians do not like the term genocide applied to their country, but hiding it isn't making any of it go away. It only changes its shape until it's palatable enough to ignore.
Now there are thousands of Canadians who've shifted their identities, insidiously continuing the legacy of removing Indigenous voices for gain. They are indeed very welcomed as a seemingly more palatable "Indians".
2020 has been a year for critically exposing our societal failings and as a catalyst for revolution and evolution. What a revelation it would be, if we all started to seriously assess and question why it's normal to assume the Indian Act system, with its +4,500 employees is still a reasonable normal in the 21st century? Surely at a minimum, we could ask why the Indigenous aren't overseeing Indigenous identity and citizenship themselves on a national level?
Addendum: For a fuller picture of the race-shifting phenomenon, I recommend the book, "Distorted Descent", by Dr. Darryl Leroux, along with the works of Chris Anderson, "Métis" Race, Recognition, and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoplehood; and "The Northwest Is Our Mother", by Jean Teillet.
Also published at Medium.com https://medium.com/p/22fe175f4d60
This entry was posted in Canada, Indigenous Peoples, Uncategorized and tagged Indigenous History Month, raceshifting by Blog Woman!!!. Bookmark the permalink.
1 thought on "'Reconciliation' by Palatable Replacement: the 'Pretendian'"
calmkate on June 25, 2020 at 15:42 said:
Congrats on the publication and for saying it as it is Robyn!
It does seem like yet another phase of misrepresenting the truth … keep calling it out, name and shame them!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Neuroendocrine perspectives on social attachment and love
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 1998 Nov;23(8):779-818. doi: 10.1016/s0306-4530(98)00055-9.
C S Carter 1
1 Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park 20742, USA. cc11@umail.umd.edu
The purpose of this paper is to review existing behavioral and neuroendocrine perspectives on social attachment and love. Both love and social attachments function to facilitate reproduction, provide a sense of safety, and reduce anxiety or stress. Because social attachment is an essential component of love, understanding attachment formation is an important step toward identifying the neurobiological substrates of love. Studies of pair bonding in monogamous rodents, such as prairie voles, and maternal attachment in precocial ungulates offer the most accessible animal models for the study of mechanisms underlying selective social attachments and the propensity to develop social bonds. Parental behavior and sexual behavior, even in the absence of selective social behaviors, are associated with the concept of love; the analysis of reproductive behaviors, which is far more extensive than our understanding of social attachment, also suggests neuroendocrine substrates for love. A review of these literatures reveals a recurrent association between high levels of activity in the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis and the subsequent expression of social behaviors and attachments. Positive social behaviors, including social bonds, may reduce HPA axis activity, while in some cases negative social interactions can have the opposite effect. Central neuropeptides, and especially oxytocin and vasopressin have been implicated both in social bonding and in the central control of the HPA axis. In prairie voles, which show clear evidence of pair bonds, oxytocin is capable of increasing positive social behaviors and both oxytocin and social interactions reduce activity in the HPA axis. Social interactions and attachment involve endocrine systems capable of decreasing HPA reactivity and modulating the autonomic nervous system, perhaps accounting for health benefits that are attributed to loving relationships.
Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System / physiology
Love*
Pair Bond
Parent-Child Relations
Pituitary-Adrenal System / physiology
Sexual Behavior / physiology


The widely accepted assumption that the equilibrium beach profile in the surf zone corresponds with uniform wave-energy dissipation per unit volume is directly examined in six cases from the large-scale SUPERTANK laboratory experiment. Under irregular waves, the pattern of wave-energy dissipation across a large portion of the surf zone became relatively uniform as the beach profile evolved toward equilibrium. Rates of wave-energy dissipation across a near-equilibrium profile calculated from wave decay in the surf zone support the prediction derived by Dean (1977). Substantially different equilibrium beach-profile shapes and wave-energy dissipation rates and patterns were generated for regular waves as compared to irregular waves of similar statistical significant wave height and spectral peak period. Large deviation of wave-energy dissipation from the equilibrium rate occurred at areas on the beach profile with active net cross-shore sediment transport and substantial sedimentation and erosion. The rate of wave-energy dissipation was greater at the main breaker line and in the swash zone, as compared to middle of the surf zone. Based on analysis of the SUPERTANK data, a simple equation is developed for predicting the height of irregular waves in the surf zone on an equilibrium profile. The decay in wave height is proportional to the water depth to the one-half power, as opposed to values of unity or greater derived previously for regular waves.
Wang, Ping and Kraus, Nicholas C., "Beach Profile Equilibrium and Patterns of Wave Decay and Energy Dissipation Across the Surf Zone Elucidated in a Large-Scale Laboratory Experiment" (2005). School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications. 576.


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Home » Posts Tagged "Kansas City 2015"
Letter to my Mennonite church
Apr 4, 2016 by Anita Swartzendruber
I love my Mennonite church. I love to see the old and the young worshiping together. I love the diversity and the heart of our Mennonite people to break down walls and love each other with the holy love of...
Finding the Spirit in anxious times
Sep 28, 2015 by Stephen Kriss
Author Peter Steinke suggests Old Testament understandings of salvation are connected to openness rather than constricting. Steinke writes about how healthy communities behave in times of anxiety. His...
Opinion: Surge of momentum halted
Aug 17, 2015 by Ryan Rodrick Beiler and For Mennonite World Review
Last month, Mennonite Church USA convention delegates delayed voting for two years on a resolution proposed by the Mennonite Palestine Israel Network calling for "withdrawing investments from corporations...
Ungodly conference
Aug 17, 2015 by Letters
I found the Mennonite USA Convention to be very sad. I saw people crying out for acceptance and unity but not prepared to do anything about it personally. I was hurt to see that so many people fear breaking...
Voice of the voiceless
Aug 3, 2015 by Letters
I attended the Mennonite Church USA convention as a "Pink Menno Grandmother," wearing my self-made badge. I felt welcomed by so many people, including LGBT folks, their families and other supporters of...
In the Anabaptist world, unity is alive and well
Jul 31, 2015 by John Troyer
It's been an interesting month. I attended both the Mennonite Church USA convention in Kansas City, Mo., and the Mennonite World Conference global assembly in Harrisburg, Pa. As a member of a congregation...
A temple called "unity"
Jul 28, 2015 by Melissa Florer-Bixler
Walter Brueggeman describes the moment when David offers to build God a house as the balance point of David's "glad yielding and manipulative utility" (2 Sam. 7:1). I love that line because, of course,...
On the Emmaus road, Christ opens our eyes
Jul 20, 2015 by Tim Huber and Mennonite World Review
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Themes of transformation and understanding in the Luke 24 Emmaus road story were the focus of adult worship services at the Mennonite Church USA convention. Hal Shrader, lead pastor of...
Seminars help teens think about identity, faith, future
Jul 20, 2015 by Kelli Yoder and Mennonite World Review
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Among a variety of topics covered by more than 100 youth seminars, many of the most popular ones sought to help teens think about identity. Brenda Yoder, an educator and counselor in...
Junior youth have space to connect
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For the first time in many years, the Junior High Youth Convention was held within the convention center instead of at a nearby hotel. It was a big highlight for the 114 sixth- through...
For youth, a guide to life's road
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For 2,300 youth, the prevailing takeaway from Mennonite Church USA's convention was: Jesus will meet you where you are. Hannah Yoder, 17, of Freeman, S.D., described how she saw it:...
Youth speakers share stories of pain on life's road
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Most of the six youth worship speakers addressed the week's theme, "On the Way," and scripture, Luke 24, by describing pain they had experienced and encounters they had with Jesus...
Heartbreaking moment
Jul 20, 2015 by Letters
I am a 76-year-old lesbian, in a committed relationship for close to 30 years and a delegate to the Mennonite Church USA convention in Kansas City. For 25-plus years I have been respected, appreciated and...
Oppressive or permissive?
Jul 20, 2015 by Paul Schrag
Is this how the dream of a big-tent church dies? We hope not. But it seemed to some that Mennonite Church USA's vision of unity in diversity went on life support at the Kansas City convention. The church is...
Adult seminars: growth comes when values are lived
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The greatest periods of growth for the Christian church have been the most removed from institutional religion. Author Alan Hirsch offered critical, but optimistic, thoughts about religion...
Stubborn love
Jul 20, 2015 by Tim Huber
With all the talk of the transformational power of walking the Emmaus road and breaking bread together, it felt jarring to come home from the Mennonite Church USA convention in Kansas City with the taste of...
Servant projects help youth 'rub shoulders with locals'
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Arloa Bontrager of Goshen, Ind., has volunteered her time coordinating servant projects since the 2003 Mennonite Church USA convention in Atlanta. She thinks it's one of the greatest...
Convention frustration
My assessment of the Mennonite Church USA convention is one of frustration on two fronts: The delegates were in a cocoon, and we were manipulated to do the leadership's wishes. There was no recognition that...
Forbearance's flavors
Jul 20, 2015 by Jane Yoder-Short
With Mennonite Church USA delegates passing "Forbearance in the Midst of Differences," some of us are encouraged. Others, who were hoping for a step toward inclusion, are disappointed. Can we find ways to...
LGBT advocates pursue acceptance at Kansas City
Jul 8, 2015 by Tim Huber and Mennonite World Review
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Organizations advocating for inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people within Mennonite Church USA were allowed a presence within the denomination's convention for the...
Sharing pain, seeing Jesus
Jul 7, 2015 by Paul Schrag and Mennonite World Review
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Pick a category of people at the Mennonite Church USA convention, and you could identify their pain. It might have been the pain of exclusion due to sexual orientation. Or of feeling the...
Love should never feel like a lost cause
Jul 6, 2015 by Meghan Florian
I dared to hope that the decisions in Thursday's delegate sessions at #MennoCon15 would surprise me. They did not. Yet last night I felt as stunned and hurt as if I had actually believed a better outcome was...
Claiborne tells MC USA community is possible
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Writer and activist Shane Claiborne called members of Mennonite Church USA to dust off their romance with Jesus and not be afraid to look a bit odd while doing it in the closing worship...
Worship service confronts convention's wounds
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The emotional wounds inflicted by discourse and decisions in the Mennonite Church USA convention delegate hall were the focus of a contemplative and repentant evening worship service on...
Palestine, racial justice statements pass; relatives of LGBT people lament exclusion
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Words of lament by relatives of LGBT people and resolutions supporting Middle East peacemakers and condemning the fatal shooting of nine people at a South Carolina church highlighted the...


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Blog Happy 20th Anniversary to me - the story of an expat who stayed
Happy 20th Anniversary to me – the story of an expat who stayed
pastel_de_nata76 27/09/2018 Blog, Life, The World 6 Comments
It dawned on me recently that this September marks the 20th anniversary of my arrival in the UK. How did that happen?!
Featured photo: Austin Chan @unsplash
The year was 1998
Sometime in September 1998 I arrived in London with a large suitcase and a place at a London University to study Arts Management. At the time, that course was not available in my home country, Portugal, and the arts, and management, were my passion.
I was so excited! I remember the breeze in my face as I walked briskly and purposefully in the streets of London that first day. I couldn't wait for the new exciting life that awaited me.
Earlier that day, after all the hugs and kisses in the departure lounge, and once alone in the shuttle to the airplane in the Lisbon airport, I cried my eyes out. I knew my life was about to change dramatically. I was not scared, just excited. And also sad in the way that only Portuguese people appear capable of being. If you know the words fado and saudade, you know what I mean…
Photo: Lea Fabienne @unsplash
The plan was to return after graduating. I could feel that my world was about to change, but I had no idea how much.
The first cultural shock
Photo: Iurii Melentsov @ unsplash
I remember one of the first cultural shocks I experienced. In the first weeks, as we get to know each other, and each other's families in Halls of Residence, I would always enthusiastically hug and kiss everyone with two kisses as I did in Portugal. The looks I got back, and the body language, told me in no uncertain terms that that was a no-no!
Photo: Matthew Foulds @ unsplash
Assimilated
I quickly and eagerly learned of the ways of my host country. I wanted to blend in, and I kind of did. To this day, people rarely can work out where I'm originally from. If I'm not too tired and am in one of my eloquent days, it can take a while until people pick up that I'm even a foreigner,
As time went by, I identified as Londoner. I sought people of all nationalities and indeed had 'romantic' liaisons with a few. I enjoyed the nightlife and rich cultural offering. I indulged in obscure arts events even I didn't understand back then. I hosted dinner parties, loved my work and started cycling. I truly embraced all that London had to offer.
Photo: Liel An @ unsplash
I moved home many times until settling down 6 years ago in South East London with my British husband.
The truth is, I chose London to study, and I remained here all these years, not because I needed to, but because I felt at home. I identified with the culture and accepted, even appreciated, the social contracts. I was a fully signed up member of the principles of freedom and tolerance. I embraced diversity and that very British feature: politeness.
Photo: Paolo Nicolello @ unsplash
A different person
I am now markedly a different person. I arrived a true eccentric and two decades on, I'd like to think that I am wiser, mellower and ever so slightly more polished person than the rough diamond that rolled into town that sunny September.
I now use colloquial expressions and indulge in typically British behaviour, including having a 'cuppa' and chit-chatting about the weather.
Photo: Delfi del a Rua @ unsplash
It's funny… when I first arrived and people asked 'Are you ok?' I truly believed every single person asking it genuinely wanted to know how I was, so I would provide long explanations about how I was feeling. Now I know, it's more like a verbal tick, and I too gladly engage in these idiosyncrasies that make British people British.
20 years on
So there you go. Fast forward and that grungy punk lover of the arts who did not believe in marriage and never wanted children, is now a respectable married mother of two, with the dog and house to go with it. I changed a lot, as did the skyline of the city of London, and the world.
Happy 20th anniversary to me!
Photo: Annie Spratt @ unsplash
anniversaryexpat
Your story is beautiful and so like mine! Just celebrated 17 years of UK life and never felt more at home. All the best.
pastel_de_nata76
Wonderful to hear that. All the best 🙂 x
Maliha Basak
Congratulations! Twenty years wow… we are much better for your presence in our city x x
Awwww…. that's so sweet. I think I might cry 😉
Hi I too, arrived in 1990, 28 years ago in London. Experienced the same great lifestyle that London has to offer. Worked in different jobs and graduated in tourism, marketing, businesses studies and HR. Thought would go back to Portugal and I actually went back but didn't work out, so after a year returned. Many times cried my eyes out missing my family, to no avail. Finally accepted that had to chose to be British. I'm married to a lovely British /Iranian man, have a 14 year old etc. Maybe when I retire I'll go back to Portugal or not. Still miss family and the weather. Happy birthday to everyone that came, stayed and is strong enough to carry on, good luck to us all.
What a story Jacinta! Thanks for sharing. All the best to you and your family x


As a child, I remember hearing a saying — and I'm paraphrasing — that you should be nice to nerds and geeks, because they're the ones who will be your boss some day. They're the ones who will be in charge. They're the ones who will rule the world. It was a comforting thought since, for all intents and purposes, I fell squarely into this "nerds and geeks" demographic.
There's certainly some truth to that idea, but it's only part of the picture. We assume that children who are identified early as being ahead of the curve will remain ahead of the curve. That doesn't always hold up. Some of them might rebel. Some of them might fall on difficult circumstances. Some of them may cower from the bullying inflicted upon the "nerds" of the world, stunting their own prospects in the process.
Meanwhile, there's that other kid. The lonely kid with no friends. The quiet kid who no one even notices because he seamlessly blends into the background. While he may not be saying much, there could be a lot going on in his head. And he could be seeing the world in an entirely different way. Somehow, I picture someone like Elon Musk in this role.
When you are identified as the guy with potential, there's a good chance you'll be set on a pre-determined path. You need to take this course or this program so you can start this profession. And fall in line. You're trained to see the world the same way as your peers and colleagues. As those who came before you.
But not the other kid. He blazes his own path, quietly and alone.
And in line with the quote at the top, he went on to achieve great things, playing a huge role in breaking the Nazi coded messages during World War II and ultimately winning the war for the Allies.
Given all of this, I was led to believe that no one could "imagine anything of" Alan Turing. But that's not entirely true. He grew up in the very affluent London neighborhood of Maida Vale. He studied at a prestigious school where his scientific and mathematical genius were recognized early. He may have been a "weirdo." He just happened to be an absolutely brilliant one.
If nothing else, and not to discount his tragic demise that followed, one big lesson we can learn from Alan Turing is that it's okay to be different. It's okay to be yourself. And to all his educators who thought Alan was too focused on the sciences and not on the classics and the arts, it turns out that this wildly talented logician was busy making electronic music too. Bet you couldn't have imagined that!


A few years ago I wrote a little Perl script called 'timesScraper' that grabs the top stories from the New York Times' RSS feeds. The idea was I could use it to download local copies of the day's news for reading on my laptop when I was away from an internet connection.
More details and the download after the jump.
Since The New York Times requires a free login for some stories timesScraper looks for a Firefox cookies.txt files. If you're not using Firefox you'll need to specify the path to your own cookies.txt file using the -cookies option.
The other option that timesScraper takes is -wait. This value specifies the maximum number of seconds that timesScraper will wait between fetching articles. The default maximum wait is 10 seconds. TimesScraper chooses a random value somewhere in between 0 and the max wait value. This is designed to be friendly to the Times web server and also to mask the appearance of a robot grabbing pages.


pain stabbing him in the side. He made a motion over the paper as if removing the nonexistent spell and unfolded the note. It was written in the language of the Soom.
There is more information I must obtain before I can leave this place. Your work is done. Do not follow me. Your power must not fall into the hands of the enemy. Send a message to Elric telling him all that you've discovered.
Galen's eyes stuck on the sentence. Elric still didn't know. Galen had slept all this time without warning him of the Shadows' plans to destroy the Zekhite. His mind raced, trying to remember what Rabelna had said. The Zekhite had been scheduled to leave Babylon 5 in thirty-six hours-six hours from now. There was still time to warn him. Still time to save him.
Galen pushed himself to resume reading, to continue searching through the probes for Blaylock.
Then leave Thenothk as quickly as possible. I know this is not your preference, but it is your duty, and you must fulfill it. You must return to the mages to teach them how to listen to the Shadow communications. This skill may be critical to our survival. You must also be with them in case they have need of a weapon.


Savor delicious delicatessen when our 17th annual Corned Beef on Rye - Sure to Satisfy Fundraiser returns on Thursday, November 8! New this year: Order online! It's easy and convenient! Prefer to download an order form? We've got those, too!
Boxed meals are $15 each when ordered by Thursday, October 25. After that date and at the door, meals are $16 each. Each meal includes a heaping 1/3-pound corned beef sandwich on rye, giant pickle, creamy cole slaw, fudgy brownie, and a drink. We've also got additional pounds of corned beef for $15 per pound.
Delivery service is available when you order 12 meals or more by Thursday, October 25 for $10 per address.
Become a sponsor by donating $100 or more to help underwrite our costs by Thursday, October 25. Names of individuals and businesses will be recognized in every meal and on our website, and posted the day of the sale at the Temple.
Volunteers are needed on Wednesday, November 7 for Prep Night from 6 to 9 p.m. and on Thursday, November 8, with shifts beginning at 9 a.m. Contact the Temple office at (260) 744-4245 to say you can help. Many thanks to our Corned Beef 2018 Co-Chairs: Steve Zacher and Chuck Replane.
Thank you to our 2018 Corned Beef Sponsors!
The Temple undertakes several fundraisers each year to help the congregation's financial bottom line. These ongoing programs and special events supplement income from membership dues and donations to our Endowment Fund or other Temple funds.Our biggest fundraiser is the annual Corned Beef on Rye - Sure to Satisfy fundraiser, which since 2002 has been held in October or November. Each year, we've sold more than 1,100 sandwiches and attracted more than 100 volunteers for this socially and financially important event. Thank you to the generous sponsors who underwrite the cost of supplies.
You also can help the Temple through the Kroger Community Rewards program and with purchases of Temple cookbooks and stars on the Simcha Wall Hanging.
Learn more about other ways to donate to the Temple.
And You Shall Be A Blessing: A quilted wall hanging in the Social Hall celebrates special moments in the lives of Temple members. It features a large swath of fabric in beautiful blue hues and contains Stars of David embroidered with congregants' simchas. Commemorate an anniversary, wedding, birthday, b'nei mitzvah, graduation, or other happy event by purchasing a large or small star for $360 or $180. Consider honoring a child, grandchild, spouse, family member or friend. Purchases benefit the Temple's Endowment Fund. Order forms are available in the Temple office. Thank you for your support of this lasting tribute to memorable and joyous occasions.
Kroger has changed its Community Rewards program. Instead of using gift cards, Temple members and friends now can register their Kroger Plus card to indicate that they'd like Achduth Vesholom to benefit from their purchases. With that one step, the Temple will receive a percentage of the amount you spend. Find out how.
Treasures & Traditions, the Temple's cookbook, features 300 mouthwatering recipes from the culinary mavens at Achduth Vesholom. Copies are for sale at the Temple for $18. Proceeds benefit our Religious School.


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Tag: Films
A Star was Born
This past December wasn't a very good month for me. I'll spare you the details, and just say that, generally speaking, I spent the Christmas season cultivating a pretty good forest of melancholy, depression, and uncertainty about the future. However, I've learned over the years that it's normal to feel these things sometimes; it's a natural part of life. You can't feel the ups of life, if you don't feel the downs. It's not natural to always be walking around in a perpetual state of bliss and contentment. And it's so easy to forget this when you plug into the matrix every day and are greeted by hundreds of smiling happy faces that are always on vacation, or falling in love, or having babies, or eating in the best restaurants on earth. I'm all for those things, and maybe these are, after all, the best things to share with each other in the public square type of environment that we have online. But, we all know of course, that in reality there's just as many moments full of sadness and loss and failure and heartbreak. And sometimes the only real medicine is just feeling the pain, letting it wash over you, and giving it some time to pass. Anyway that's what my December was like. It seems like ages ago now, but somewhere, back in the middle of it, I watched A Star Is Born.
I didn't feel like writing about it at the time. It's pretty heavy subject matter. And of course I've seen a handful of other movies since then, but this one has stuck to my insides in a way the others have not. I didn't know what this movie was about beforehand. I was drawn to it mainly because I think Bradley Cooper is a great actor and I wanted to see how he did with his directorial debut. If I had read a plot synopsis ahead of time I might have avoided it. I'm not sure it's the best kind of movie to watch if you're feeling down.
It's good storytelling though — dramatic, intense, cathartic, tragic — all the stuff you need for a film to be entertaining, emotionally engaging, and still relatable to those of us who aren't out saving the world with Steve Rogers, Peter Parker, and Will Smith. I like those kinds of movies too, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that this film made me FEEL something in the midst of its realness and grittiness.
I think stories that portray self sacrifice (even in such a brutally heartbreaking way as this one) tend to generally have this effect. But when the sacrifice is unexpected, painfully explored, and woven together with love, it hits the heart strings with a hammer. That's what this movie did to me anyway. That's why I'm still thinking about it three months later. Correction: That's why I'm still feeling it.
A Star Is Born is not a new story. It's been done before. Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga have retold a story that Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson retold back in '76, which was a story that Judy Garland and James Mason starred in before them in '54, which was one that was previously portrayed by Fredric March and Janet Gaynor in 1937… I haven't seen any of those, and I don't know how well they all line up with each other, or how much they reflect this most recent iteration. But none of these are the original story anyway. There's a much older one…
The one where God descends from Heaven to mingle among the common folks here on Earth. Then he claims a Church for himself, gives her a new life, makes her his Bride, shows her that she is loved, tells her to speak the truth, tells her to be real, and then gives himself up for her—because it was the only way—the only way for her to shine as brightly as possible.
A Star Is Born is proof that the best stories are still the oldest ones – even when they're wrapped inside new garments.
Even when they reveal themselves inside the unlikely framework of a Hollywood film in 2019.
The music is good too.
By Adam J. Coffmanin Films March 8, 2019 March 8, 2019 734 Words2 Comments
Well, in an effort to make my movie reviews somewhat relevant to current box office trends (not that I'm overly concerned with this) I've decided to jot down some reflections on an old childhood favorite that has continued to inspire periodic sequels from time to time – the most recent of which was just released into theaters this weekend.
Full disclosure: I did rewatch the original Predator a few weeks ago, mostly because I was just in the mood – and maybe also because Arnold was 39 when he filmed it, and I'm 39 now… and I needed the abstract motivation of watching a 39 year-old man at the top of his game.
At any rate, this is one of those movies that's heavily steeped in nostalgia for me personally – and probably a lot of other dudes who saw it as a kid. And listen, I'm not sexist at all, but this is definitely a dude film. It's unashamedly packed with bros, huge bicep close ups, magnificent explosions, guns that almost never seem to run out of ammo, blood, guts, cigars, Jesse Ventura, and profuse sweating — all elegantly wrapped in a fine veneer of exaggerated grunts, yells, and other various ape sounds. What can I say? It's a product of its time, it's pure 80s Schwarzenegger, and you can literally smell the testosterone on the DVD cover.
I have very vivid childhood memories surrounding this movie. But lest you gasp with inward incredulousness, don't worry — my dad wouldn't let me watch Predator until it came out on TV – edited of course. And he had actually provided a second layer of censorship by recording it from the TV onto a blank VHS tape so he could edit out the parts that were too gory for me. I was utterly dismayed by this due to the fact that Dad took my older brother Chad to see it when it first came out in 1987. I had never waited so long to see a movie that had been out for three years. And I made up for it by binge re-watching that VHS tape until it fell apart, disintegrated into tiny pieces of plastic, and was absorbed by the earth. It captured my imagination so completely that I would go into the woods near our house with my squirt guns and pretend I was one of the commandos in the movie. But don't worry, I finally quit doing that a couple of years ago. Everyone has to grow up eventually.
It's interesting to watch this movie now, and to think about it on the level of analysis. I really wasn't watching it this time around with the expectation that it held anything deeper in its story, but it actually does, and I was surprised by this fact.
On the surface Predator is exactly what you'd expect it to be – a typical 80s action film. It's about an elite special forces unit traipsing through the deep central American rainforest in search of political hostages. They're led by Schwarzenegger and Apollo Creed – old friends who find themselves at odds over the ethical dilemmas of combat. Schwarzenegger's character, named Dutch (probably a subtle nod to his accent which was still thickly European at the time) is struggling with his identity throughout the film. He is, essentially, the perfect hunter leading a group of other hunters in an effort to find and extinguish the lives of his enemies. We know from carefully placed exposition that he's been doing this for a long time, and that, along the way, he's developed a sense of righteous justification to provide a moral anchor for what he does. Dillon (Carl Weathers) gives personification to Dutch's conscience, reminding him that his self-righteousness is only a flimsy illusion, and that underneath it all, he's nothing more than a professional killer.
The backbone of the plot involves Dutch being slowly and methodically stripped of his illusions and forced to embrace his true identity completely. In this regard, the alien monster who hunts and destroys all the other men is only a mirror reflection of Schwarzenegger's character. The Predator is doing the same thing that Dutch and his men are doing – only for different reasons, and with greater ability. We see this theme most clearly displayed near the end when Dutch asks the creature what he is – and the creature only responds with the same question. They're both the same thing.
Now, I'm sure there's probably some deep psychological meaning to all this, and it's probably ripe with Jungian archetypal imagery and what not… but what I take away from it is the idea that all of us have a dark side, we all have a monster on the inside – it's something we usually hide and cover up with layers upon layers of protection and armor. But if we are willing to be honest about it, calling it what it is – then we've taken the first step toward confronting it. And confronting monsters is what heroes do.
I think that's what the movie is saying. I could be wrong, but I'm going to go with this interpretation… because it's my movie review.
And remember folks, if all else fails, just take Arnold's advice and, "get to da choppah!"
By Adam J. Coffmanin Films September 14, 2018 September 15, 2018 908 WordsLeave a comment
~~Originally posted on August 11, 2017~~
Karlie Crouch's pick for our group's Thursday Night Film Time this week was Southpaw. I had not yet seen this one, but Antoine Fuqua has been one of my favorite directors since Training Day back in 2001, and his follow up – Tears of the Sun in 2003. His most defining characteristic is being able to deftly genre-jump his way from project to project, each time applying his craft to an entirely different category of film. He's dropped a few stinkers along the way for sure (2004's King Arthur with Clive Owen for instance), but Southpaw isn't one of them. Released in 2015, it's a recent entry into his catalogue, and with the writing chops of Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarchy), he's brought all of his accumulated film experience into the boxing genre.
Of course, when it comes to making a boxing film, any director and screenwriter has to, at some point in their process, honestly contend with the fact that they're treading on sacred ground that was long ago bought and paid for with Stallone's blood, sweat, and tears. Sutter seems to have made a career out of trampling on holy ground, but in this case he's much more careful with his screenplay. He doesn't completely abandon the classic elements that made the Rocky saga great, but pays subtle homage to them while also injecting his own brand of tragic realism into the genre–and Sutter's realism is very dark. Combined with Fuqua's vision, the result is an experience that drags you down down down into a pit of despair as you watch the main character spiral into a black hole. But it doesn't leave you there! (Manchester By The Sea, I'm looking at you – 😫)
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Billy Hope, the reigning boxing champ who is on top of the world. Without giving anything away, something happens to him about 20 minutes into the story that is the sitting-comfortably-in-your-home equivalent of receiving an unexpected uppercut to the jaw. It's in that moment when you realize, 'Oh, this isn't Rocky.' Thankfully, the story doesn't end at this point, and you get to watch as this damaged character is slowly dismantled, re-arranged, healed, and put back together – mostly by Forrest Whitaker – the aging trainer/mentor figure. Whitaker (Tick Wills) is at his finest as he ambles from quiet discourse to energetic pep talk to loud bustling exclamations of woe and regret – all punctuated by an array of facial expressions that say more than his actual words. The meat of the story is the process by which Tick steadily hammers away at Billy's hard outer shell in order to fully reveal the chaotic mess that's inside him. Once this happens, Billy Hope is able to piece together a redemption story that can only really begin with his full acceptance of his own mistakes. He has to learn how to embrace responsibility for his own downfall, his own weaknesses, and how he has played a role in hurting those closest to him. The enemy he fights in the ring is a reflection of the enemy he fights inside his own heart and mind. Both fights are brutal, both fights are desperate, and both fights are metaphors for the kinds of battles that we all, as human beings on this planet, must face every day, in our own ways.
I give Southpaw 4 Coff-stars , 3 Coff-curls , 6 bowls of Coff-corn🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿, and 1 knockout 💥
By Adam J. Coffmanin Films August 6, 2018 569 WordsLeave a comment
It was sometime in the middle of 2005 when the name 'Napoleon Dynamite' began registering in my brain enough for me to actually devote energy into finding out what it meant. Released the previous summer, the film had already become an independent cult classic, and as more and more people were talking about it, I became curious. Everyone else I knew had already seen it. Good grief, even my own parents had seen it by that time. And then, one night, I found myself sitting in the home of my old pal Christopher Jones, being forced to watch it. I'll admit, I didn't entirely get the humor during that first viewing. There were parts that I found really hilarious, but just as many that made me cringe with awkwardness, or feel genuinely sad for the characters. Watching the movie is almost like experiencing a symphony that hits these three notes over and over again. Hilarious, Awkward, Sad… Hilarious, Awkward, Sad… Hilarious, Awkward, Sad… But something has happened to me in the years since I first watched Napoleon Dynamite – something that has made me unable to watch it now without a huge, unquenchable grin on my face the entire time.
Napoleon Dynamite takes place in the rural town of Preston, Idaho – a place that feels like it dropped anchor in about 1987 and was then dragged kicking and screaming through the 90s before washing up in 2004. The story centers around the lives of three high school misfits who find friendship in each other. Napoleon, Pedro, and Deb have a variety of mild antagonists to deal with. These include the 'popular' crowd in their school, Kip – Napoleon's older brother who spends most of his time chatting online with his internet girlfriend, and Uncle Rico – that sleazy relative who shows up unannounced and wreaks havoc in the lives of his family because he peaked in high school and is miserable that life has been nothing but a downhill slide ever since. Together, the unlikely trio of heroes form a bond that allows them to overthrow the established social order of high school politics. When we first meet Napoleon he's the archetypal teenage loner, constantly over-exaggerating in order to impress those around him into liking him. He's the guy that (if we're honest about it) we all would have made fun of, laughed at, and generally avoided if he was a real person that we knew in high school, regardless of whatever social pond we were swimming in at the time. But Napoleon has a pure heart, and in his innocence he attracts the affection of Deb who accepts him for who he is. As his confidence gathers momentum he's able to let his guard down, shrug off discouragement from his family members, stop bragging about his imaginary ninja skills, and clinch Pedro's run for class president by channeling Jamiroquai in a public display of dance moves that brings the entire school roaring to their feet in applause.
And I'll be completely honest with you. Even though I've just done my darnedest to give a brief, satisfactory summary of this movie – nothing I've said or could say about it will truly do it justice. It's in a genre of its own. It completely defies all attempts at standard categorization. It laughs at professional critical analysis, and it scoffs at conventional comedic movies. If you've never seen it before, gather the whole family (it's safe for all ages), make some popcorn, and let Napoleon Dynamite transport you to the most familiar-feeling parallel dimension that you've never been to.
I give Napoleon Dynamite 4 Coffstars , 2 Coff-steaks 🥩🥩, 3 Coff-jams , 1 pocket full of Coff-tater tots , and 1 (tamed) wild honeymoon stallion
By Adam J. Coffmanin Films July 30, 2018 July 30, 2018 632 WordsLeave a comment
~~Originally posted on July 9, 2017~~
I'm of the opinion that you can't go wrong with a movie that has Tom Hanks on the cover – whether it's Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, or The 'Burbs – and that's definitely true of the one Seth Dickey brought to our Thursday Night Movie Time this past week. The Green Mile (1999) was a collaboration between Director Frank Darabont and Stephen King. Five years earlier, the pair had brought The Shawshank Redemption to the screen, and this was their follow-up. Both films have a very similar tone. The main difference between the two is that Shawshank has a very subtle, biblical undertone, loosely based around the Old Testament story of Joseph, whereas The Green Mile has a plot that is overtly and undeniably based on the New Testament story of Jesus Christ. The Green Mile takes place down in Louisiana during the time of the Great Depression, and revolves primarily around the interaction between Tom Hanks' character Paul Edgecomb – a death row prison guard, and his prisoner John Coffey – an extremely large black man (portrayed by the late Michael Clarke Duncan, may he rest in peace) who has been wrongly convicted of raping and murdering two young white girls. Throughout the course of the film we see that Coffey has a variety of supernatural abilities which include healing disease, prophecy, sensing the good and evil in other people, and even resurrecting a dead mouse. He also has a genuine concern for other people, including strangers, as well as a childlike sense of wonder. His conviction as a child rapist and murderer is based entirely on outward appearances and racism. We don't even see the trial, because whatever trial he had was irrelevant – he's an eight foot tall black man and a stranger – his guilt was assumed the moment they found him holding the dead bodies of these two little white girls. The reality is that he found them after they had already been killed, and was trying to heal them. This film doesn't just touch lightly on an important issue – it presses firmly on a deep and open wound that our country is still grappling with today. And it does so by reminding us that the qualities which make someone a genuine child of God cannot be seen with the eyes. This is what Hanks' character learns in the film. It's what we, as a society, still have not learned. I give The Green Mile 4 Coffstars 🌠🌠🌠🌠, 3 Coff-tears , 2 Coff-cones , and 1 Mr. Jingles .
By Adam J. Coffmanin Films July 17, 2018 July 17, 2018 429 Words2 Comments
I've been getting a little backed up on my movie watching lately. I know that doesn't sound like much of a problem, and it's really not—I'm just making a general observation, not a complaint. There are, of course, more serious things to be all backed up about; like actual work, or a busy schedule, or like that time in college when a guy in our dorm was dared to eat an entire block of Velveeta in one sitting—he was so backed up he had to go to the emergency room. I'm very fortunate to only be backed up on my movie watching time.
I only bring this up to explain why I'm now reviewing a movie that I didn't even intend to watch this week. I actually intended to write something about a movie I watched last week, called Double Indemnity—and I'll get back to it eventually, but a couple of nights ago I found myself randomly selecting a film that I haven't seen since I was in high school: Clear and Present Danger. I'm still not sure what drew me into watching it again after so many years. As previously alluded to, I literally have a stack of movies and shows sitting on my desk that I'm intending to watch and eventually write about; Clear and Present Danger was not in this stack. Maybe I just needed a night of random spontaneity and this is what passes for living on the edge at age 39… or maybe it's because I've been missing my mom recently, and this was one of her favorite movies—that probably has something to do with it.
Actually, this film was a favorite for both of my parents. They took my sister Emilie and I to see it in the theater when it came out, and it's one of the movies that occupied a place of importance in their VHS collection. I never asked them why, but I was thinking about that when I watched it this time. I know they were both interested in the Jack Ryan films, and Harrison Ford was one of their favorite actors… but I couldn't help thinking that there must be something more to why they loved this movie so much.
There are, as far as I know, five movies that center around the character of Jack Ryan, all of which are based on the books by Tom Clancy. In these five movies, the role of Jack Ryan has been played by four different actors: Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, and Captain James T. Kirk… I mean, Chris Pine. In the first movie with Alec Baldwin, The Hunt for Red October (1990), Ryan is more of a side character, but in the other four movies he's the main dude. These movies are, in order of release: Patriot Games (1992), Clear and Present Danger (1994), The Sum of All Fears (2002), and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014). It can all be a little confusing due to the fact that in each movie Ryan gets younger and younger, while the technology and political arenas get more up to date. There's a sort of adaptable mythology surrounding this character, which means he's the kind of hero that can be updated and modified to fit with current events. He's kind of like a Batman or Superman in the sense that different filmmakers can choose to emphasize different aspects of his story based on their own perspective, while keeping the general guidelines of the character intact from one iteration to the next. In all of these films, Ryan is basically, as best I can sum him up, an honest 'boy scout' working in the CIA. That pretty much makes him completely fictional as far as I can tell.
In the two Harrison Ford films Jack Ryan is older, in his early 50s, and well established in his career with the CIA. In Clear and Present Danger he's the Deputy Director of Intelligence, reporting directly to the President. The plot of the movie is very well constructed. It's essentially a spy movie, a political drama, a murder mystery, and an action flick, all well balanced and baked together just right to form the perfect casserole of 90s flavor. I think when I first saw it as a teenager I was disappointed that there wasn't as much action, but when I watched it now, I had a much deeper appreciation for the various elements being woven together.
Just to give you the highlights— The President, the National Security Advisor, and the CIA Director of Operations—or as I like to think of them, George W., Don Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney—all decide to conduct a secret, covert war against the Columbian drug cartels. When things start to get out of hand, they decide to cut communications and support to their troops on the ground and give away their positions to the enemy — all to cover up what they've been doing. Jack Ryan is inadvertently thrown into the middle of this mess when his boss is overcome by cancer. The process of him picking up the pieces, gathering evidence, figuring out what's been going on behind his back, and taking action is a slow build up to him eventually finding Willem Defoe (reprising his Oscar nominated role as Elias from Platoon) and flying into the Columbian jungle to rescue the abandoned troops. But the real icing on the cake, and the thing that gave me the chills this time around, is when Harrison Ford marches into the oval office at the very end, looks the President directly in the face and tells him he's a bastard. This all may seem a bit overdramatic and passé to younger audiences today, but in the 1990s covert wars were still illegal… nowadays they're a dime a dozen, and the President doesn't have to cover them up—he can brag about them on Twitter—and a hundred thousand people cuss him out before he eats breakfast. But back in good 'ol 1994, this was really something special that didn't happen in real life.
Anyway, this all brings me back to surmising on what my parents found so interesting about this film. I guess I'll have to ask my dad the next time I talk to him to get some more insight. Whatever the case may be, one thing's for sure—It's a great movie, there's no doubt about that, and it has some important points to make about government, politics, and power. The overall impression that this story leaves me with—whether it was designed to do so or not—is the idea that the truth is a higher authority than the highest office in our land. And for the record, I don't think this has changed. The truth is still the higher authority—and everyone still appeals to the truth, and people still demand honesty—the problem, however, is that no one really knows what the truth is anymore. And Jack Ryan doesn't exist.
And the clearest and most present danger is not a Columbian drug cartel.
By Adam J. Coffmanin Films June 1, 2018 June 1, 2018 1,208 WordsLeave a comment
A few weeks ago I resumed my ongoing mission to explore films I haven't seen before, primarily of the classic genre, with a viewing of Sunset Boulevard. This one, admittedly, threw me a few mental curveballs on its own accord, but with an unexpected bought of pneumonia to go along with those curveballs, the accompanying fever, and the inevitable cold medicine inebriation that followed, it's taken me awhile to recover enough to feel like writing a review.
I guess I should say, before getting into this, that Sunset Boulevard is an excellent film. It's listed on IMDb's ranking of movies as #54 of all time—which is pretty significant. Likewise, it won three Oscars in 1951, while being nominated in just about every category that existed at the time. With that said, this is not a light-hearted film. It does have some wit to it, and a sprinkling of charm here and there, but it's also deeply introspective of some subjects that are not very pleasant to think about, and whatever humor does exist, I believe it only serves as a bit of sugar to mask the horrible taste of the medicine it offers.
Set in the world of early 1950s Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard opens with the narration of the main character, whose body happens to be floating upside down in a pool. We're told right from the beginning how the story will end, before being transported back six months to watch as this tragedy slowly unfolds in front of us. It's not really fair to pin Sunset Boulevard down into any one particular genre; it dabbles in several. However, from my personal point of view, this is most definitely a horror film. Like many of the classic horror films from the 40s and 50s this movie tells the story of a monster, made hideous by circumstances beyond its control, desperately seeking a redemption that is just out of reach, and falling in love with its inevitable victim. From King Kong, to Frankenstein, to the Wolf Man, to the Mummy, to Dracula—all the classic horror films follow the same general pattern. What makes Sunset Boulevard shockingly different is that the horror is real, not pulled from the pages of archetypal fantasy and fairy tales, but instead culled from the bones of early Hollywood, specifically the silent film era of Hollywood and the phantoms it left behind as the shift was made to talking pictures. The Monster is Norma Desmond (played by Gloria Swanson), an aging has-been of the silent film era, living secluded in her mansion, running on the fumes of her once profitable stardom that has since faded into the past along with any meaningful relationships she may have once had. She has no family, no connection to reality, and spends her days lounging in opulence surrounded by portraits of herself as a young star. Her only companions are her butler and a pet chimp. Our introduction to Norma finds her in the midst of extravagant funeral preparations for the chimp who is subsequently laid to rest during a midnight ceremony in an ivory coffin in the backyard. Yes, this movie is very strange, and it is very creepy. As I said, the horror is uncomfortably real, though it presents Norma almost like a giant spider, her mansion a black burrow of death and dust, with an insatiable need to feed on the worship of fans who have forgotten she even exists. Into her web stumbles the doomed protagonist, Joe Gillis (William Holden), a struggling screenwriter who is down on his luck. As mentioned, we know the story isn't going to end well for him—he's the corpse floating in the pool at the beginning, narrating the tale of his demise from beyond the grave. Did I mention this is a horror flick? It's definitely NOT the kind of movie anyone should watch while running a high fever.
While the movie itself has gone down in history as Billy Wilder's indictment of Hollywood's dark underbelly, hidden away by all the glamor and lights, I think it holds something much darker in its depths. The questions that are being silently asked of the audience throughout the film, are questions we all must ask ourselves at some point in our lives—what is integrity, and is there a price for which mine can be bought? Joe falls into Norma's web because she needs a writer to edit her script. She's produced it for the sole purpose of trying to grab back a piece of the fame and stardom she has lost in the years since she faded from the spotlight. It's a terrible script, and a terrible waste of time and effort for Joe. We know from hearing his internal narrative dialogue what Joe really thinks, what he really believes, and how he really feels. But we watch haplessly as he deliberately ignores his own thoughts, goes against his own judgment, and allows himself to become Norma's slave—because doing so means he doesn't have to worry about paying the bills. Joe has many opportunities to escape Norma's web, but in the end, he's willing to give up his freedom, his artistic integrity, and even the love of a woman who is much more suited to him, all for financial security. By the time he realizes his mistake, that it wasn't worth it—it's too late, and he pays the cost with his life. The spider doesn't let him leave the nest without blood being spilled.
The moral of the story is something worth thinking about—however uncomfortable it may be: If you know what the truth is, but you act in such a way that denies that truth, you are, in effect, killing yourself on the inside. There's nothing more horrific than sacrificing your integrity. I think our society, as a whole, must have had a better grasp on that concept in 1950. Nowadays, I'm not so sure.
By Adam J. Coffmanin Classic Black & White Films, Films April 5, 2018 April 23, 2018 1,011 WordsLeave a comment
The second film in The Professor Lunsford Educational Series (after the previously reviewed It Happened One Night) is none other than Modern Times, written, produced, directed, edited by, and starring the legendary Charlie Chaplin.
Modern Times was released in 1936, and was the last of Chaplin's films to feature "The Tramp" — a vaudeville style character that he conjured up in 1914. History has woven Chaplin so closely together with his character that if you run a Google search on Chaplin, images of The Tramp will dominate the results. By the time of the character's final appearance in Modern Times he was a fully fleshed out representation of Chaplin's comedic presence, entrepreneurial rebelliousness, tireless resilience, and carefree spirit.
I first became interested in Chaplin about 5 years ago after seeing the 1992 biopic starring Robert Downey Jr. That film served as a much needed time bridge of sorts to connect me with the world in which his films and characters were created. There was something about seeing him portrayed by a recognizable actor, in color, with full sound that prepared my Generation X Series Brain to make the quantum leap backwards a hundred years into the petri dish of cinematic history. The trip was well worth it. His movies are not only interesting because of their place in film history, but their comedic value is timeless and universal. If, like myself, you were weaned on Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies then you will find Chaplin's wordless, visual humor every bit as satisfying as an early Mickey Mouse or Tom and Jerry cartoon. Moreover, as is the case with Modern Times, if you dig just a little below the surface of his meticulously delivered comedy, there is a rich layer of social commentary to discover and analyze.
If I could briefly attempt to describe The Tramp character (at least in this movie) I would say there are two things that fundamentally define him. The first is the fact that his environment is something that's actively happening to him. While he does of course interact with other people, the main "dialogue" that's taking place is between The Tramp and the inanimate objects that are constantly attempting to maul, maim, and kill him—or at least make his life a living Hell. And the second thing that defines him, is his superhuman ability to glide effortlessly through his environment and continually escape impending doom without really trying to do so. When something goes wrong, he just brushes it off and moves on.
In the context of Modern Times, the villainous environment takes on the guise of a greed fueled, over-automated factory line that drives the lovable Tramp insane. After a brief respite in the mental hospital he is released into the street only to be unwittingly swept up by an angry unemployment mob protesting the lack of jobs that has occurred due to factory automation. This gets him arrested as a communist, and lands him in the big house where he accidentally ingests a huge amount of cocaine (nose powder as it's called here) that less reputable inmates hide in the salt shaker. The cocaine seems to function a lot like Popeye's "spinach," and gives him the power to single handedly thwart an attempted prison break, garnering the favor of the guards and warden, and earning him a speedy release. The irony is palpable. He protests his release from prison because it means he has to go back into the uncertainty of trying to find a job and foraging for food. Eventually his escapades land him back in the slammer a couple of more times, but in the process he meets a kindred spirit played by the beautiful Paulette Goddard (Chaplin's real girlfriend at the time). The two of them learn very quickly that they have a much better chance at defeating their environment if they work together. In an immediate sense they fail to do so, but it doesn't leave them without hope, as they set off down the open road, into the California mountains, arm in arm. They're kind of like an early 20th century version of Adam and Eve – trying to return to the Garden after doing their time in the dark wilderness of "civilized" society.
The most interesting thing about this film, to me at least, is the subtle parable it contains about machines taking over society and eroding the safety, security, and fundamental rights of human beings. I find it amazing that Chaplin called this sort of thing 82 years ago. It's not science fiction, but the general theme has been consistently handed down to us in literature and film ever since then. I first encountered it as a young lad through James Cameron's first two Terminator movies. But this is also the parable of my favorite movie—The Matrix. Even though Chaplin's malevolent automation was before the time of computers, and before the concept of artificial intelligence, the warning was the same — machines will replace us and harm us if we bow down and worship them, and give them the power to do so.
Modern Times, though generally lighthearted, does carry the weight of this warning in the midst of its warmth and charm. It's a warning that deserves a much louder echo than we can hear in the midst of our modern times today, when we've already sold so much of ourselves to technology's indifferent grasp.
By Adam J. Coffmanin Classic Black & White Films, Films March 10, 2018 April 23, 2018 911 Words1 Comment
Well, guess what? This week I watched a movie. I know, I know, this is unbelievable news. I don't know how, but it just happened one night… after dinner.
Sorry for the lame joke. That was just a warm up paragraph. It's good to do a quick warm up before writing something. It's especially important if you haven't written for awhile. You don't want to hamstring your cerebral cortex or have a neurological blowout – which happens all too often these days.
I have, of course, seen a few movies over the past couple of months—just nothing I really felt like writing about—not even the new Star Wars movie. It's going to be awhile before I get to that one. But this week a friend from my church let me borrow one of his favorite movies on the condition that I write an official review. So I gladly accepted his challenge, and honestly, it was the exact kind of motivation I needed. This movie really surprised me. I admit that I am terribly ignorant of most film history before the 1970s—and anything in black and white has never really been on my radar. I do like Charlie Chaplin, but I only first started watching his films about five years ago. The point is, when Mike (or as I like to think of him – Professor Lunsford) suggested I watch It Happened One Night—a black and white film from 1934—I was interested, but not overly enthused about setting an evening aside to watch it. I don't know what I was thinking, but it was something along the lines of, "how can a movie made so long before I was born have anything interesting to say to me." I know that's a ridiculous sentiment, and not something I believe of course. Any kind of art, especially good art, transcends generational boundaries. But this was personal… this involved setting down a good book, and not picking up the XBOX controller for an evening with those two old folks that go by the names Monochrome and Monotone.
Well I'm glad I spent some time with them because this ended up being the most transfixing film I've seen in a good long while. I don't think I physically moved an inch the entire time, and yet it moved me emotionally so far beyond myself that by the end I was left with nothing but a face full of tears and a confused dog trying to console me. Although, to be fair, he might have just been angling for the Pringles can that was also occupying the couch with us.
I'm not sure how far back the film genre of Romantic Comedy goes, but given its age, this must be one of the originals. And I don't want to be that old fart decrying the supremacy of things from the past – especially since this was only my first real foray into the ancient chronicles of movie history – but this story puts the rom coms of today to complete shame. It's pure and it's beautiful in ways that are difficult to find in the films of our time. Moreover, It Happened One Night was the first film to win in all five major Academy Awards categories, and one of only three to ever do so in 89 years. In other words, this film really cuts the mustard.
As in all the best stories, the characters in this romance are archetypal and cross generational – like in Beauty and the Beast. It's about a strong, independent woman meeting a stubborn, independent man, and the two of them breaking each other into interdependence. Those are the baseline ingredients for the tale as old as time… as far as I can tell. I don't know if that's how it always works in real life, but in the movies it translates to gold if portrayed well.
This movie is also really fun. It's a love story disguised as a comedy, disguised as a road trip. Without giving away all the details (because I really hope you'll watch this movie yourself) Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert are just two strangers who happen to end up traveling in the same direction together long enough to realize they need each other, struggling with the vulnerability that realization creates in them, and then going through the process of dealing with the reality that they have to do whatever it takes to stay by each other's side. And then… they have to deal with the mess that this creates in the lives of the people around them—because without a mess (and there's always a mess), the story isn't nearly as interesting.
One of the things that's mesmerizing to me is how interesting and moving this story is while remaining firmly clothed in the garment of a time that has long since passed away, in an America that no longer exists. While it might have an element of the classic fantasy love story, it also has something real about it that many films in this genre do not have today. There's something noble and innocent about it that's hard to describe. For instance, Gable's character actually cares enough about the woman he's falling in love with not to dishonor her, take advantage of her, or make her uncomfortable – even if conducting himself this way means he might lose the chance to be with her. Likewise, there's something graceful yet dignified about Colbert that inherently repels the need for her to appear over-sexualized or naked (although she does show some risqué calf muscle during the hitchhiking scene). I know this movie was made long before that kind of stuff began showing up in movies, but the best Romance films don't need the nudity and the sex, as this movie proves. The films of today struggle to portray this kind of attraction between people without resorting to the cheap crudity of a sex scene. I guess it has become old fashioned (it probably became old fashioned a long time ago) to cling to the notion that truly falling in love is about two hearts touching each other long before it's about two bodies coming together. And real intimacy is about harmonization rather than sex.
Lastly, and most importantly, with all of the many differences between them, the one primary value that the couple in this movie share with each other is that of integrity — it's the thing that defines both of them, drives their actions, seals their love for each other, and ultimately, "brings down the walls of Jericho." This film got it right. It celebrates integrity from beginning to end. And if you watch this, and think to yourself how peculiar it seems to be… that's because this kind of integrity is scarce in our society. What else can I say… It's an elegant story, for a more civilized age.
By Adam J. Coffmanin Classic Black & White Films, Films February 24, 2018 April 23, 2018 1,181 Words1 Comment
McFarland, USA
Something that I've found interesting about reviewing Costner's filmography, and something I hadn't thought about before entering into this endeavor, is how many of his films remind me of experiences I had while growing up. Sometimes it's the subject matter that causes me to remember things from my childhood, and sometimes the movies are just a reminder of where I was when I first saw one of his films, and who I was with—either way, it's been a really cathartic process—using his film career as a vehicle to process some of these old memories lying tucked away in the back rooms of my brain. I didn't expect that to be the case with the movie I watched this past week. I had never seen McFarland, USA, and I honestly would have most likely overlooked it if a couple of friends had not given me a copy for my birthday (thank you, Jalen and Jordan). But true to form, this movie, which was only released a couple of years ago in 2015 still managed to stoke up some old memories.
You see, this particular Costner film showcases something that I've had a troubled personal relationship with throughout my life—running. I guess it all started back in the summer of '91… well it probably started before that, but back in '91 some buddies and I were hunkered down in a ditch next to State Road 75 in Coatesville, Indiana, arsenal of water balloons in hand, when without warning I was suddenly called upon to run for my life. I'm not sure who it was that landed a direct hit on the windshield of the passing Audi—but when we heard the tires screeching, and the sounds of a man exiting his vehicle with a slew of cuss words and phrases we had never dared to speak, the concept of trying to hide disappeared—running was the only option—running to avoid being murdered. Alas, to my eternal shame, I was the slowest that afternoon. Being the last to reach the perceived safety of my friend's garage, and not quick enough to avoid the eyes of our pursuer, I gave away our position and put all of us in jeopardy. I won't go into the details of what happened in that garage as violence ensued, but if it happened today that man would definitely have been arrested for assaulting and battering four minors. It honestly wasn't that bad, but he did have two of us by our throats before we managed to reassure him that we were only throwing water balloons and not rocks. Eventually he calmed down, probably realized he would be in more trouble than we would be, and off he went. But we were all pretty shook up. We had suffered our first real defeat at the hands of a madman, and as we went home in shame that evening, it was my head that hung the lowest for being the reason we were caught. I wasn't fast enough. Running wasn't my thing. And I was reminded of this fact many times over the next several years, not by my friends, but by a rogues gallery of villains made up of rabid P.E. teachers, chowderheaded jocks, and draconian football coaches. (I know that not all gym teachers, jocks, and football coaches are bad people, but I certainly had to deal with some real jerks in my day). I was the ongoing butt of jokes for the duration of my entire 7th and 8th grade years—all because I was the last guy to finish running laps in gym class everyday. I was on display for the whole class to stare and laugh as I struggled to finish while they stood next to the bleachers and waited. It's hard not to feel like a low-life in junior high when the entire class is laughing at you, and the teachers are encouraging them to do so. I guess I was just too young at the time to realize they were all morons. So I tried to do better. I even went out for the football team, pressured to do so by the coaches aforementioned, but I couldn't handle the insane amount of running required during the practices, so—my failure was complete.
And then, a few years later, something really awesome happened to me—something life changing. During my Junior year of high school, my English teacher read some of my papers, noticed that I had a gift, and told me that whatever I chose to do in my life, writing was supposed to be a part of it. She didn't just tell me that I was good at it—she told me I was the best in the whole class. And she helped me to see something about myself that I didn't know was good. Every kid out there has something special, something good to offer the world—they just need a good teacher to see what it is, and tell them it's ok to pursue it with everything they have… unless they're a psychopath or a pervert, and in that case, maybe they need therapy or tranquilizers, I don't know.
Now, if you're still reading this, and I hope you are—you might be asking what this all has to do with McFarland, USA which is a sports film about a high school cross-country team that won the California state championship in 1987. The truth is, that's only the description you'll find on the back of the DVD case, or on the IMDb page. A passing first glance will give the impression that this is only another sports drama, but it's not. This film has something much more rich to offer because it touches on an issue that many Americans seem to still be struggling with these days—cross cultural communication. Unfortunately, xenophobia is alive and well in these United States. I don't understand why. Racism, nationalism, and the irrational fear and persecution of minorities and people from other countries and ethnic groups are clearly and openly condemned throughout the ENTIRE Bible. And in a country where the majority of people at least claim to be Christians, this type of behavior and these ways of thinking are irrational. But if you don't read the Bible, and you just listen to the news, or to many Christians in this country, you would think the opposite is true. I don't know all the reasons why Costner chose to be in this movie—he long ago reached the point in his career when he could make or be in whatever movie he wants to—but maybe it has something to do with what lies at the heart of this film. Costner has always been good at making movies which cut through the barriers of culture and ethnicity. Several of his movies do this. His co-stars are often people of different cultures than his own. In Robin Hood his best friend and fellow soldier is a Muslim warrior. In The Bodyguard he falls in love with a black woman. In Dances with Wolves he assimilates himself into the Lakota. In The Man of Steel he adopts alien Kal-El from the planet Krypton. In Message in a Bottle he becomes enamored with Forrest Gump's wife. Wait… scratch that last one. You know what I mean.
In McFarland, USA Costner plays the role of Jim White, a real gym teacher and coach who moved his family into the predominantly hispanic and latino town of McFarland in the Central California Valley back in the late 80s. The film takes us through his journey of learning to understand and adapt to the fact that he and his family are the minorities in the town. It's not an easy journey for them. The film doesn't sugar coat this. It lays bare all the difficulties that arise when two different cultures have to learn how to live and work with each other. And it shows how beautiful this kind of thing can really be when humility and vulnerability take precedence over pride and ignorance. And as Jim White learns who his students really are, and what their lives are like, he begins to enter into their world. Once he does that, he's able to find the things that make them special. It's not just the ability to run quickly—it's the ability to be relentless, to overcome difficulty, to spit in the face of adversity—and to do so without sacrificing their commitment to their families and friends. Like any good mentor, like any good coach—like my high school English teacher—he finds their gift, and he encourages them to throw everything they have behind it—body, mind, and soul.
By Adam J. Coffmanin Costner Films, Films November 20, 2017 April 23, 2018 1,483 Words2 Comments


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Enron s Leadership and Corporate Culture Term Paper
Pages: 13 (4221 words) · Bibliography Sources: 10 · File: .docx · Level: Master's · Topic: Leadership
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[. . .] Lay was not interested in creating a culture founded on responsibility and transparency. He had already led a company with such a culture and success had been middling at best. He had his eyes now set on a bigger prize: when he brought Skilling aboard to help identify how the company could grow and increase its profits, Skilling looked not at the company's fundamentals, values and mission but rather at new accounting practices and easing regulations on Wall Street that could be used to transform the company from an energy organization into essentially a hedge fund. Lay did not question Skilling's ideas because the dollar signs they produced in his mind and Skilling's own ability to "sell" the idea displaced any qualms he should have had about this ingenious new approach to business. Even when Lay's top traders were found guilty of fraud and given jail sentences, the CEO refused to question the culture he had helped to create. Instead, he continued on the path of pride, arrogance and greed, refusing to tolerate any misgivings that might change the company's trajectory.
One woman who sought to bring attention to the corrupt culture that Fastow in particular was helping to cultivate was Sherron Watkins, an Enron whistleblower who penned a scathing letter to Lay about the corrupt practices that Fastow was using to create his Ponzi-scheme with the company's debts and "assets". Instead of investigating Watkins' claims, Lay set the letter aside and encouraged her to take a vacation (Eichenwald, 2005). Watkins went along with Lay's recommendation because ultimately she had, like many of the other employees, a natural inclination and need for feeling a sense of "belonging" among Enron's leaders (Swartz, Watkins, 2003, p. 2). Watkins herself pointed out that her main goal at the company in 2000 was to not "be taken for a loser" by her managers: she saw the corruption -- which is why she warned Lay -- but she also wanted to fit in and be seen as a good team player (Swartz, Watkins, 2003, p. 2). This desire to fit in, moreover, is one that is consistent with research on the way that corporate cultures are created: the tone that is set at the top is the tone that is followed by workers at the bottom (Schyns, Shillling, 2013). The workplace is like a family and belonging to a family is a natural compulsion -- which is why creating a family based on solid values and virtues is so important: the culture is what leads to how an organization will succeed. Lay and Skilling tried to keep a positive face on their endeavors and to get everyone to go along with them: to appear openly deceptive and without scruples would have been to risk losing team players like Watkins completely (Schyns, Schilling, 2013). Thus, they rationalized their new approach to business in the manner described by Anand et al. (2005). Over the years, however, the deceptions accumulated regardless and prompted Watkins to take action -- to an extent. In her letter to Lay, Watkins pleaded for the company's leadership to take responsibility and right the ship before it injured all employees: "My eight years of Enron work history will be worth nothing on my resume, the business world will consider the past successes as nothing but an elaborate accounting hoax" (Swartz, Watkins, 2003, p. 2). Clearly she was concerned that the practices of the company were going to bring nothing but harm for those the company employed. She implored Lay to correct the culture that was fostering these bad accounting practices -- but she did not go so far as to remove herself from the company: she still believed in the vision and in the success -- even as both were unraveling under investigators' analysis of the company's accounting.
Afterwards, Watkins would admit that the "spirit" at Enron had been completely divorced from sound economic policy. She would go on to "find God" after the fall of Enron, an expression that coincides with her reflection that an organization ought to embrace a system of workplace ethics in order to be successful (Watkins, 2008). This correlation supports the view of Barnett, Bass, and Brown (1996), that religiosity can affect a whistleblower's decision to report. Considering this view and the perspective of Tsahuridu (2011), it may be argued that a sense of 'God' and/or 'virtue ethics' can have a positive impact in risk management strategy. For Watkins, the importance of a genuine, right 'spirit of mission' was not realized until her organization collapsed.
Enron's corporate culture was developed by Lay and Skilling primarily. Fastow was the individual who, inspired by what they were promoting, developed the technique to make it happen. Lay viewed himself as a visionary and thought of Skilling in the same manner. Likewise, employees at Enron were encouraged to view Skilling and lay in the manner that they viewed themselves: Skilling was seen as a kind of "prophet" who showed the company "the way" -- the way to make money through dubious and eventually unlawful means, that is (Gibney, 2005). Rather than adhering to the model of providing natural gas to buyers through pipelines, Enron became a buyer of natural gas and began trading derivatives based on its own acquisitions.
The attitudes and perspectives of its top leaders shaped the organization and the "trader" culture that grew out of its new focus. Indeed, one of Skilling's favorite books was entitled The Selfish Gene, which described human beings and human nature as being guided inherently by the forces of "competition and greed" (Gibney, 2005). By simply accepting these as principles of right human behavior, Skilling was responsible for creating a corporate culture that was antithetical to universal ethics. Competition and greed acted as an unofficial corporate culture imperative at Enron. This imperative was, moreover, guided by pride -- the pride of its leaders. Skilling was particularly susceptible to this pride, which he demonstrated even before becoming COO at Enron. In Harvard Business School he had been asked by a professor whether he was smart; Skilling had said in response, "I'm fucking smart" (Eichenwald, 2005). Skilling's "smarts," as he called them, would not be enough to keep Enron afloat, unfortunately. Had Skilling also developed a better sense of ethics to guide his obvious leadership abilities, Enron may have had a much brighter future. Instead, he and Lay imagined that "smarts" was all that was needed.
Enron finally lost all credibility when it became public knowledge that its mission had failed and that it was far too over-leveraged to ever possibly repay all its debts, with creditors calling. Although Skilling denied any wrongdoing, several persons pointed out that the wrongdoing occurred on his watch and that he, in fact, promoted a culture that fostered the sort of duplicity exercised by Fastow in the role of CFO. Lay, too, had to take responsibility for the way in which the company ultimately failed. However, neither Skilling nor Lay were willing to admit guilt. Only Fastow pled guilty when brought before the law.
One of the few people who tried to help Enron by bringing its unethical accounting practices to the attention of Lay, Sherron Watkins, went on to enjoy a career as a public speaker, warning her audiences about the dangers of corporate cultures that failed to be based on virtue ethics. As a whistleblower at Enron, she demonstrated the problem of how employees who see corruption within their workplace are supposed to report on the matter. She herself went straight to Lay and then later began speaking to the media about the issues that Enron had under Fastow in the accounting department. If Enron had had a culture that was open to reporting on corruption and practices that went against its core values, it might have been more willing to address the issues. Enron's leaders were not open to such a culture, however; they were eminently devoted to their own "smarts" and the idea that only they could really know in which direction the company should ultimately be directed. A whistleblower like Watkins was not someone whose input was valued. This detachment from actual values was the underlying reason Enron finally perished.
Organizations needs to be guided not by a system of modern ethics, which can easily be reduced to legalistic rationales for why "greed is good" (as Skilling, Lay and Fastow essentially showed), but by a moral initiative -- a traditional, universal sense of ethical practices. In modern terms, what is good is often debated and can open the door for leaders and cultures to be develop that are inherently selfish. Skilling's favorite book showed that he was not oriented to the issues of corporate social responsibility in a way that stakeholders would prefer. Instead of focusing on virtue ethics, he focused on the "ethics of… [end of preview; READ MORE]
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