Observation
This should be a fairly short and pointed post. I am a huge baseball fan, watch it when I can, listen to it almost everyday and check boxscores every morning. A couple of days ago my beloved Mariners called up a minor leaguer named Yuniesky Betancourt. Betancourt is Cuban and two years ago fled Cuba on a raft to flee to the US, where he staged an open try out and eventually was signed by the Mariners. The first pitch he saw as a Mariner he smoked all the way to the wall for a triple. The fans gave him a standing ovation, the announcers talked about the what a perfect start for his career this hit was.
I was shocked by the hypocrisy of it all.
Don't get me wrong. I was stoked for Betancourt, just like I was excited to see fellow refugee Livan Hernandez win a World Series a few year back, or see Jose' Contreres reunited with his family last year. What I am shocked (and angered by) is the way we cheer these athletes "heroic" sacrifices, yet ignore other acts of heroism in our country. Most of these ballplayers arrive in rafts with dozens of people, who can't swing a bat or throw a ball. We never hear from these people again, until they become a rant about being a drag on our economy.
This is not the only example. Last offseason, the Mariners signed the "Mexican Greg Maddox" (his name escapes me at the moment". While he apparently is not a hero, he sure got a visa quickly (though US immigration frustrated the Mariners when his visa was a few days late, delaying his arrival to spring training). Someday he will pitch for the Mariners and his acceptance will not fall across party lines, but instead will depend on his slider. Millions of Mexicans cross the border not for a fat baseball contract, but instead to harvest US food, or work on US homes, or in US meat packing plants. They are cursed, deported and are accused of stealing "our" jobs.
More than 26% of all Major League is Latino (See Street and Smith's business journal). This number will continue to grow. Johan Santana is the American Leagues best pitcher, Albert Puljos is baseball's best hitter, Manny Ramirez is not far behind. If we can root for them, if we can call them hero's, then why not use that term to describe a dad who immigrates to give his children a better life? Or a mom who clean's toilets, so her children can have a better education? America, our pastime beat us by twenty years on the civil right movement (see Robinson, Jackie), how far ahead is it on immigrant rights?
(ps. I very well may of misspelled many names here. I was checking with MLB.com for awhile, but got sick of it. Sorry)
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Monday, July 25, 2005
Daredevil
I probably should warn you now, I am going to write a lot about movies, comics, sports and politics, with a dash of amateur theology just to make things a little spicy. This blog is mostly going to cover movies, comics and maybe a little politics (though I make no promises).
Daredevil is a great comic book character. For those of you who are not "in the know", Daredevil is a actually a blind attorney named Matt Murdock. Some of you might be asking "a blind superhero? How is that possible?" (the rest of you are asking, "don't I have something better to do with my time?"). Well young Matthew, was blinded by radioactive gunk in the eyes, which while blinding him, enhanced all of his other senses and allowed him to "see" echoes and vibrations (amazingly enough he was not given cancer or infertility). In addition to the whole blinding, Matt was raised by a washed up prized fighter, who was later killed during his comeback for not throwing a fight...Think "Cinderella Man" only a lot sadder. So Matt was left to fend for himself in Hell's Kitchen, NY.
Tragic story, huh? Well it gets a little better. Matt ends up being a great student and is able to rise above his tough upbringing to go to college. Then law school. Then pass the bar and become an actual lawyer in, you guessed it, Hell's Kitchen, where he opens a practice specifically designed to defend the poorest of the poor in one of New York's roughest areas. Oh, and when he can't beat the bad guys in the court room, he does it on the street while wearing a red suit with horns as Daredevil (did I mention that he is your classic tortured Catholic?). Really I would recommend reading Frank Miller's "Man Without Fear" graphic novel, it tells this origin better than I ever will. I would lend you my copy, but you might bend the pages.
Now I am going to begin talking about the movie, I will spoil the poop out of it. I am guessing though that if you wanted to see it, you would've made time to in the last two years. I enjoyed the movie. A lot of people didn't. For fans, they changed too much. For non-fans, the effects were cheesy. For Ben Affleck haters, it had Ben Affleck in it. But hey, I was a casual Daredevil fan when I saw it and I got to see it on Valentine's day with Donan (I love you honey!). Sure the action had too much wire work, and Elektra (Matt Murdock's doomed girlfriend) was as much a star as the movies namesake, but whatever it was fun and I dug the darker vibe of the movie.
Then the Director's Cut DVD came out.
I will now spit on the theatrical cut of the movie...
HHHHHHHWWWWWWAKKKKKKKKKKK........PLOOOOEEYYYYY!
Usually DC's (as you can see I am abbreviating "Director's Cut" because it takes too long to type) are not better. In fact they are usually reserved for making PG-13 movies, R movies by adding a sex scene. Typically they should be called "Director's Smut". Daredevil is the exception to that rule. This DC is a completely different vision for the movie and a vision that from where I am sitting calls into question are societal values.
Daredevil at his very core is a justice driven character. He has no interest in saving the world. He doesn't fight aliens or mutants or sea monsters, he fights crime. He fights criminals. He fights corrupt social institutions. For this reason his villains are often thugs, murderer's, rapists and of course the "Kingpin of crime" (think Al Capone, but only much, much fatter). Kingpin is a crimelord. He doesn't the control the world, or even the US, he wants to make a lot of money off of the weakest members of our society. You know, the people Daredevil fights for. In the theatrical cut of the movie you see these two as adversaries as well, they even fight at the end of the movie and Kingpin goes to jail. What's wrong with that? What's wrong with that is that they are fighting because Kingpin killed Matt's father and girlfriend (Elektra), NOT because he is destroying Matt's home and his people. The DC changes this whole dynamic, and in turn the entire movie.
Remember Coolio? "Fantastic Voyage"? "Gangsta's Paradise"? That Coolio. He can act. Really. He's even in "Daredevil". Did you see him? The answer is no, because his entire character in cut from the movie. He played Dante Jackson in the DC. Dante is a crackhead accused of killing a woman of no consequence in Hell's Kitchen. No one believes when he says he didn't do it. Unfortunately since he was high and passed out at the time, he can't really prove his own innocence. Enter Matt Murdock and his law partner, Froggy Nelson. Matt, using his built in lie detector (his powers allow him to hear heartbeats, essentially he can tell is someone is lying to him) believes this societal nobody and agrees to help him. Well guess who is behind this murder and cover up. If you said "Kingpin", go order yourself a pizza. Dante's case ends up being the thread, that pulled hard enough, unravels the whole crime network! And who does this unraveling? The blind lawyer and his unimpressive friend. So while Daredevil beats the person of Kingpin physically, it is Matt Murdock and Froggy Nelson who kill the really danger of Kingpin, the crime network.
Deep huh? Well apparently too deep for the film company. They new what people really wanted, to see Sidney Bristow get to know Ben Affleck in the "Biblical sense".
Again, for those not in the know, Sidney Bristow is Jennifer Gardner's alias on the show Alias. She plays Elektra, a truly tragic character who has had to deal with the murder of both her parents and deals by becoming a really good assassin, and an on again off again lover to Matt Murdock. At least in the funny books. In the movies her dad is killed and sense she knows karate she goes to do something about it. In the book and in both movies Kingpin uses an assassin to kill her. However the screen time for Sidney is way different in the two versions of the movie, in the TC she is all over it, almost as much as Daredevil is. In fact she shares the poster with him. And got her own movie. Not so in the DC. Less screen time. Less focus and, get this, no sex.
No sex?! What is this world coming to? The Bennifer sex scene was filmed months after the movie had cut. It seems the studio had already kiboshed Dante and the whole "Blind Lawyer" thing and decided they needed a more "satisfying" relationship. Translation: boo justice, boo law, boo exposing crooked cops, boo complete characters and movie that makes sense, yay attractive people having sex! Ugh. Essentially these execs decided that the movie going public (read: us) don't want to see movies that are about defenders of justice, don't want to think, don't want to see a character who defends people that they step over; what they really want to see is attractive people. This makes me actually angry. I am offended that all the substance was removed from this flick. But I have a thought that gives me pause...what if these execs are right?
Close your eyes. Imagine you are in a grocery store. Now you are in the check out line. Look to your left. What do you see? "Jessica Simpson and Nick Lechay: Breaking up?", "Elvis alive, and engaged to Jennifer Aniston". The tabloids. Someone is buying these things. Actually a LOT of people buy these things. They also watch "Extra", "Entertainment Tonight" and "Insider". What they are not doing is volunteering at soup kitchen's. They're not picking careers based on who they can help. They're choosing happy thoughts about pretty people and trying not to pause to think about they people on the other side of that bridge, or a few stops down on the subway. And I am one of those people. I am not into celeb culture, but I choose a lot of happy, easy, brain numbing forms of entertainment, over asking how I can be a real Matt Murdock. The truth is, as I write this I don't feel very good. I feel convicted. I feel like I am ignoring my responsibilities as a Christian and as a person. Maybe that is why the movie was changed in the first place.
I probably should warn you now, I am going to write a lot about movies, comics, sports and politics, with a dash of amateur theology just to make things a little spicy. This blog is mostly going to cover movies, comics and maybe a little politics (though I make no promises).
Daredevil is a great comic book character. For those of you who are not "in the know", Daredevil is a actually a blind attorney named Matt Murdock. Some of you might be asking "a blind superhero? How is that possible?" (the rest of you are asking, "don't I have something better to do with my time?"). Well young Matthew, was blinded by radioactive gunk in the eyes, which while blinding him, enhanced all of his other senses and allowed him to "see" echoes and vibrations (amazingly enough he was not given cancer or infertility). In addition to the whole blinding, Matt was raised by a washed up prized fighter, who was later killed during his comeback for not throwing a fight...Think "Cinderella Man" only a lot sadder. So Matt was left to fend for himself in Hell's Kitchen, NY.
Tragic story, huh? Well it gets a little better. Matt ends up being a great student and is able to rise above his tough upbringing to go to college. Then law school. Then pass the bar and become an actual lawyer in, you guessed it, Hell's Kitchen, where he opens a practice specifically designed to defend the poorest of the poor in one of New York's roughest areas. Oh, and when he can't beat the bad guys in the court room, he does it on the street while wearing a red suit with horns as Daredevil (did I mention that he is your classic tortured Catholic?). Really I would recommend reading Frank Miller's "Man Without Fear" graphic novel, it tells this origin better than I ever will. I would lend you my copy, but you might bend the pages.
Now I am going to begin talking about the movie, I will spoil the poop out of it. I am guessing though that if you wanted to see it, you would've made time to in the last two years. I enjoyed the movie. A lot of people didn't. For fans, they changed too much. For non-fans, the effects were cheesy. For Ben Affleck haters, it had Ben Affleck in it. But hey, I was a casual Daredevil fan when I saw it and I got to see it on Valentine's day with Donan (I love you honey!). Sure the action had too much wire work, and Elektra (Matt Murdock's doomed girlfriend) was as much a star as the movies namesake, but whatever it was fun and I dug the darker vibe of the movie.
Then the Director's Cut DVD came out.
I will now spit on the theatrical cut of the movie...
HHHHHHHWWWWWWAKKKKKKKKKKK........PLOOOOEEYYYYY!
Usually DC's (as you can see I am abbreviating "Director's Cut" because it takes too long to type) are not better. In fact they are usually reserved for making PG-13 movies, R movies by adding a sex scene. Typically they should be called "Director's Smut". Daredevil is the exception to that rule. This DC is a completely different vision for the movie and a vision that from where I am sitting calls into question are societal values.
Daredevil at his very core is a justice driven character. He has no interest in saving the world. He doesn't fight aliens or mutants or sea monsters, he fights crime. He fights criminals. He fights corrupt social institutions. For this reason his villains are often thugs, murderer's, rapists and of course the "Kingpin of crime" (think Al Capone, but only much, much fatter). Kingpin is a crimelord. He doesn't the control the world, or even the US, he wants to make a lot of money off of the weakest members of our society. You know, the people Daredevil fights for. In the theatrical cut of the movie you see these two as adversaries as well, they even fight at the end of the movie and Kingpin goes to jail. What's wrong with that? What's wrong with that is that they are fighting because Kingpin killed Matt's father and girlfriend (Elektra), NOT because he is destroying Matt's home and his people. The DC changes this whole dynamic, and in turn the entire movie.
Remember Coolio? "Fantastic Voyage"? "Gangsta's Paradise"? That Coolio. He can act. Really. He's even in "Daredevil". Did you see him? The answer is no, because his entire character in cut from the movie. He played Dante Jackson in the DC. Dante is a crackhead accused of killing a woman of no consequence in Hell's Kitchen. No one believes when he says he didn't do it. Unfortunately since he was high and passed out at the time, he can't really prove his own innocence. Enter Matt Murdock and his law partner, Froggy Nelson. Matt, using his built in lie detector (his powers allow him to hear heartbeats, essentially he can tell is someone is lying to him) believes this societal nobody and agrees to help him. Well guess who is behind this murder and cover up. If you said "Kingpin", go order yourself a pizza. Dante's case ends up being the thread, that pulled hard enough, unravels the whole crime network! And who does this unraveling? The blind lawyer and his unimpressive friend. So while Daredevil beats the person of Kingpin physically, it is Matt Murdock and Froggy Nelson who kill the really danger of Kingpin, the crime network.
Deep huh? Well apparently too deep for the film company. They new what people really wanted, to see Sidney Bristow get to know Ben Affleck in the "Biblical sense".
Again, for those not in the know, Sidney Bristow is Jennifer Gardner's alias on the show Alias. She plays Elektra, a truly tragic character who has had to deal with the murder of both her parents and deals by becoming a really good assassin, and an on again off again lover to Matt Murdock. At least in the funny books. In the movies her dad is killed and sense she knows karate she goes to do something about it. In the book and in both movies Kingpin uses an assassin to kill her. However the screen time for Sidney is way different in the two versions of the movie, in the TC she is all over it, almost as much as Daredevil is. In fact she shares the poster with him. And got her own movie. Not so in the DC. Less screen time. Less focus and, get this, no sex.
No sex?! What is this world coming to? The Bennifer sex scene was filmed months after the movie had cut. It seems the studio had already kiboshed Dante and the whole "Blind Lawyer" thing and decided they needed a more "satisfying" relationship. Translation: boo justice, boo law, boo exposing crooked cops, boo complete characters and movie that makes sense, yay attractive people having sex! Ugh. Essentially these execs decided that the movie going public (read: us) don't want to see movies that are about defenders of justice, don't want to think, don't want to see a character who defends people that they step over; what they really want to see is attractive people. This makes me actually angry. I am offended that all the substance was removed from this flick. But I have a thought that gives me pause...what if these execs are right?
Close your eyes. Imagine you are in a grocery store. Now you are in the check out line. Look to your left. What do you see? "Jessica Simpson and Nick Lechay: Breaking up?", "Elvis alive, and engaged to Jennifer Aniston". The tabloids. Someone is buying these things. Actually a LOT of people buy these things. They also watch "Extra", "Entertainment Tonight" and "Insider". What they are not doing is volunteering at soup kitchen's. They're not picking careers based on who they can help. They're choosing happy thoughts about pretty people and trying not to pause to think about they people on the other side of that bridge, or a few stops down on the subway. And I am one of those people. I am not into celeb culture, but I choose a lot of happy, easy, brain numbing forms of entertainment, over asking how I can be a real Matt Murdock. The truth is, as I write this I don't feel very good. I feel convicted. I feel like I am ignoring my responsibilities as a Christian and as a person. Maybe that is why the movie was changed in the first place.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
So I have come to the conclusion that if you didn't have to write a first blog, everyone would have one. Seriously, I decided that I wanted to have a blog months ago, but have put off starting one until now for only one reason... I didn't want my first post to suck. I am going to tell everyone I know that I opened one of these things and I am really nervous this is going to suck. So, I have decided to boldly step out and contribute my thoughts for all the world (or at least the people who like me enough to read about my life) to judge. So I will start with the classiest and most intelligent of all American cultural phenomenons, professional wrestling.
Are you still there? Well for the five of you left I will explain. The other stressful part of blogging is naming your blog. Without an intriguing name, you really start in a hole. My friend Denice has a blog that is name "Year 23". What a perfect name! It's simple, classy and looks great at the top of a page. So I decided to flatter her the best way I know how... I stole it! Well not exactly, but come on, "Gen 26" has the same simple classy look and since it is from the Bible, I can keep using it after my next birthday!
Yes I do have a point. "Gen 26" is short for Genesis 32:26, my favorite verse in the Bible. Since it is kind of crucial for what I am going to write about, I will tell you what it says for those of you without a Bible next to your computer (SHAME!);
Are you still there? Well for the five of you left I will explain. The other stressful part of blogging is naming your blog. Without an intriguing name, you really start in a hole. My friend Denice has a blog that is name "Year 23". What a perfect name! It's simple, classy and looks great at the top of a page. So I decided to flatter her the best way I know how... I stole it! Well not exactly, but come on, "Gen 26" has the same simple classy look and since it is from the Bible, I can keep using it after my next birthday!
Yes I do have a point. "Gen 26" is short for Genesis 32:26, my favorite verse in the Bible. Since it is kind of crucial for what I am going to write about, I will tell you what it says for those of you without a Bible next to your computer (SHAME!);
"Then the man said "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."
Profound huh? Well I guess not really, but maybe this will help, the man, is God (or an angel, or Jesus, depending on who you ask, but this is my blog so it is God, got it?) and God and Jacob have been wrestling all night. Still not impressed? Okay how about this, at some point during the night, God touched Jacob's hip and dislocated it, which I assume hurt a lot. So if your sill lost I have one more piece of background info, Jacob is a pretty mamma's boy who stole his twin brother's inheritance and than ran away and spent the next twenty or so years hiding from his large, hairy, hunting enthusiast brother. Oh and this wrestling match with almighty takes place with Jacob on the way to try and make nice with the hairy brother.
I like Jacob. A lot. I like Jacob because up until this point in Genesis he is completely unlikable. I'm serious, he has no redeeming qualities. Remember Caesar from Gladiator? Jacob is just as unlikable and whinny as him. Shockingly, God keeps helping him out and good things keep happening to him. Professional wrestling is like this. I'm not kidding. Bad guys in wrestling are usually not big, scary jerks who beat you up, at least not the entertaining ones. No, usually they are whinny, manipulative cheaters, who have big friends do all the work. Oh, and they are usually really pretty and use big words, I forgot that part. They never win because they are better than the guy they are wrestling, they win because they use steel chairs as weapons. Or chains. Or sledgehammers, briefcases, sticks, bricks or they just save the trouble by having a big friend of theirs hit the good guy. Also they win almost all the time. This part infuriates my wife Donan. She doesn't like wrestling anyway, but really hates it when the bad guys win, which is 90% of the time. She really doesn't like wrestling.
But I do. And I usually like these bad guys, in no small part because at some point they have the Jacob wrestling God moment (usually in a steel cage). They come to a point where they have to actually wrestle the good guy, who EVERYONE knows is better than them. But sometimes, when the chips are down, these pretty, whinny, cheating bad guys actually show a lot of heart. Sometimes they fight back. Sometimes they refuse to give up. Sometimes endure an incredible amount of (fake) punishment and keep coming and coming. Yes they usually end up losing these fair fights, but they usually come out of these fights the new good guys. Like Jacob. Jacob the mamma's boy. The pretty boy. The coward, held God in a headlock, fighting back tears from a dislocated hip and would not give up. And God liked that. Sure he could smite-ray this punk, but instead decided to bless him and give him the name Israel, which would prove to be pretty significant name for Jacob's ancestors.
So yeah, I like Jacob and wrestling. I relate to Jacob and to wrestling's bag guys. I feel like I am somewhere in the midst of that match with God, I would stop, but I also want to be blessed. So next time you flip through the channels and see fat guys in their underwear fighting, try thinking about Jacob. Then turn the channel, I bet you can find something better on.
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