Movie Review: 'Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World'

My girlfriend and I saw Albert Brooks' new film 'Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World' yesterday evening at the Uptown Theater. I'm not really a fan of Albert Brooks, but I've enjoyed his voice over work in the Simpsons. However, I was looking forward to seeing a movie about humor in foreign culture, and I expected all sorts of misunderstandings concerning what is funny in Western culture and what is funny in South Asian culture.

In short, this movie fell way short of my expectations. Brooks' over-explanation of what sarcasm is to Sheetal Shesh's character, Maya, was painful. I realize that his performance was supposed to tank, but it wasn't even funny in an embarrassing way. It was just painful. I think it shouldn't be billed as a comedy, but a disaster film.

Don't bother to see this film.

Snowball rage

Here's a story from a town that my girlfriend and I pass through everytime we go to her parents' house in SW Minnesota.

Why are people becoming so outrageous in their behavior?

Jackass

The mayor of Duluth was arrested when he crashed his car in Wisconsin when he was drunk. Here's the story.

"Bergson was arrested on Friday, after he crashed his car against a guardrail near Spooner, Wis. Authorities said he had a blood alcohol content twice the legal limit.

Witnesses said he asked them not to call authorities and enlisted their help in freeing his car."

He said he won't ever drink again. "Really, I'm never going to drink again, honest....until the next time." Yeah we've heard that before.

Minneapolis Drops to Second Most Literate City

According to an article in USA Today, Seattle is this year's most literate city. Minneapolis takes second place after leading the poll last year.

Interestingly enough, St. Paul came out tied for ninth place with Cincinati. According to the methodology a variety of factors were considered when ranking the cities, including newspaper circulation, library services, number of retail bookstores, and internet usage.

So, why is it that St. Paul, who has a better library system, came out in ninth place?

China

I just read this article in the Star Tribune about expatriates living in Shanghai. I lived in Beijing during my sophomore year in college (1984-85) and China was a very different place, or least so I hear now. Our class of about 30 Americans from several Northeastern colleges took a mid-term trip to Shanghai. In the mid-80s, it still had its old charm of mostly 19th century foreign enclaves.

I realize that Shanghai has changed a lot in the past 20 years, and that it has become a financial and commercial powerhouse with loads of foreign investors clamoring to make money there. The article mentioned above just struck me as a throwback to the days of the Raj in India.

[They] live in a guarded compound with Belgian, Swedish, German and African neighbors, attend a church that bars local residents and pay $10 for a gallon of pasteurized milk from New Zealand.

When I was in China in the mid-80s a lot of things open to foreigners were indeed closed to the general population of Chinese. The exceptions were members of the Chinese Communist Party. They could enter foreign hotels and the Friendship store - a large department store that sold imported goods along with luxury goods produced in China.

Such is the life of Minnesota expatriates in Shanghai, arguably the most cosmopolitan city in the world -- coveted by businesspeople and adventure-seekers eager to experience an emerging economic superpower. For most, a stint in Shanghai can define one's career or life experience.

That doesn't sound like a cosmopolitan city from the viewpoint of the average Chinese citizen. It sounds more like the expats in this story are high rollers who get a chance at the good life. Granted the woman of the couple is learning Chinese, but will she use it to interact with people on a personal level?

My whole feeling of this article is that it is more of a promotion of our "values" abroad rather that a portrait of two people living in China.

Army "Career" Center opens in Lyn-Lake

So, it appears that the recruiting center that was on West Lake Street has moved to Lyndale just north of Lake street. I was appalled to see it was called the "Army Career Center." Now, I'm not denigrating people who seek a career in the army, I'm just furious about the fact that the economy is in the toilet and that the US Army is using a euphemism in place of calling it a recruitment center.

An article in the Democratic Underground mentions that sick reservists are being called up despite their pre-existing medical conditions that would normally preclude them from serving.

What has not been known until now is that recruitment shortages have resulted in the Pentagon calling up reservists who are ill or medically unfit. According to the GAO report, this includes reservists who have suffered from heart attacks, those with severe asthma (weather conditions in the desert exacerbates this condition), hernias, severe hypertension, and a woman who was four months into chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer. It also includes reservists suffering from sleep apnea who need medical equipment to help them breath, yet large portions of Iraq and Afghanistan lack the electricity necessary to run the equipment.

Reserve forces that are diabetic and require insulin pumps have been called to active duty. A soldier was called up only two weeks after receiving a kidney transplant. Other reservists have required kidney dialysis. The GAO report also found that reserve soldiers have been called to active duty that suffer from psychiatric problems, including bipolar disorder. By one estimate as much as ten percent of the reservists who have been medically evacuated out of the Middle East was attributable to pre-existing medical conditions that could not be treated properly.

It just goes to show you to what lengths this administration will go to increase the population of cannon fodder. Why don't they just re-instate the draft?

Happy Veteran's Day. God help all those of you who have helped our country and gotten slapped in the face in return.

Ralph!

Well, we did it. We helped Ralph Remington to victory in the Tenth Ward. It was a tough race, but Ellan and met a lot of great people on the campaign. I look forward to seeing what Ralph can do for our ward and our city.