57th Street

Of interest to the young and politically savvy:

Some said 4,000 college students, some said 30,000, some just said a shit load. Whatever the exact number, “a shit load” is as good a description as any for the number of people gathered in Greenwich Village for the Barack Obama rally -which is being called a mini political Woodstock. On top of that, the “shit load” was in Hillary’s backyard. Moments like that make it hard to believe that she’s so far ahead in the polls. One has to wonder, are the polls accounting for Generation Y?
Today’s college student -Generation Y- is no different than any other age group of voters, at least on the Democratic side. There are Obama supporters, Hillary supporters, and Edwards supporters -even a few Kucinich fans. They’re also similar in that a large amount of them feel a dead tortoise is better than Hillary (except the Hillary fans). But if that’s the case, how is it that she’s so far ahead in the polls? All three of the leading candidates have their appealing qualities. Edwards is the handsome populist, Obama the sparkling newcomer, and Hillary the wizened leader -or that’s what she wants us to think. Gail Collins pointed out in her latest column that Hillary capitalizes on generalities. She waits to let everyone else declare a side and then just promises that what she has to offer is the best idea, even though her “idea” is commonly yet to be revealed -not always though. Hillary is sneaky like that. She’s trying to gain the nomination not by her own opinions or merits -which can be perilous- but by denouncing the other candidates. According to the polls, hers is an effective strategy. Her appeal is experience and a “maturity” above those other flawed politicians who have “platforms” (snicker) and plans for what they’d do in the White House.
Well, Generation Y, at least, is visibly skeptical. That crafty defensive stance of advertising an opponent’s failures works, as it did in the last election, but also says something about the candidate.To her credit, Hillary has shared her own policy plans but has spent less time on that compared to the hours she’s put in candidate bashing. It’s a good way to get to the White House, George will tell you. The polls indicate that a lot of Democrats either don’t realize that Hillary’s doing this or don’t care. That may be true, but a few Greenwich Village goers will tell you that they aren’t fooled twice.

Of interest to the learned scholar:

Today in my Greece to 201 B.C. class we spent the entire time watching the movie 300. Clearly I’m getting every penny’s worth of my $40,000 a year tuition…

Of interest to the honky who keeps a Playboy in his desk drawer:

Straight from Reuters (yes, Reuters PLC Group!). 1,010 girls attended a shoot on Sydney, Australia’s Bondi beach during an attempt to break the record for the world’s biggest swimsuit shoot. Only like 300 were expected to be there but plenty volunteered, according to the news service.

Who says the financial news wire is boring?

Of interest to the bourgeois:

It’s always nice to hear that home is getting better in some way. It’s even nicer when that’s true. So Chicagoans (myelf included) may like that we’re getting a whole bunch of expensive new toys.
For one, there’s the Chicago spire being built by Santiago Calatrava which he hopes to be the tallest building in the nation. The Wall Street Journal also reported today that Michael Reschke is trying to build some super expensive hotel units and residences downtown. Lastly, under the name Xohm, Motorola is finally trying to blanket the city in a broadband wireless network so you can sign on to the internet -through paying for Xohm’s wireless- anywhere in the city. Efforts to go wireless have been tried in a few cities but have mostly ended in failure. No surprise that the latest attempt is from the private sector instead of the city government. At least it’s going to happen, hopefully.
The only real qualm with all these ventures is who in the world would pay for any or all of this?

“The Kingdom,” a Middle-Eastern flavored thriller starring Jamie Foxx, is a true testament to the magic of cinema. It transforms an appallingly complex, morally ambiguous political situation into a thrilling, verité-style, almost guilt-free tale of good versus evil. Although set in Saudi Arabia, “The Kingdom” is about a million miles away from what some have called the “problem” of the Middle East.

Jamie Foxx plays an FBI Special Agent who, along with a crack team (Jennifer Gardner, Chris Cooper, and Jason Bateman), negotiates a secret week-long investigation of a recent terrorist attack in Riyadh while Washington pussy-foots. They are quickly able, with the help of a sympathetic police colonel (Ashraf Barhom), to circumvent the restrictions placed on them by the Saudi prince and begin investigating in earnest. But the tables turn when one of their own is kidnapped. They must fight to free him and find the perpetrator of the attacks at the same time.

The film begins with a stylized history of Saudi Arabia’s relationship with American oil companies, as if to imply that it is firmly buried in real-world politics and the important issues of our day. But no one could be fooled. “The Kingdom” is “Dirty Harry” in desert camo, with a quasi-vigilante protagonist motivated as much by vengeance as by a genuine desire to solve the crime. Yet unlike Harry, Foxx’s no-nonsense, bureaucracy-spurning tough guy is squeaky clean, morally speaking. Despite the buckets of blood spilled, Foxx and his crew never have a drop on their hands. Maybe that’s because for FBI agents they are seriously thin-skinned, crying over dying victims and trembling when they watch a video of a suicide bombing. The audience is constantly reminded that because everyone has families, we can’t be all that different, as if it’s a surprise that Muslim parents love their offspring.

The opening scenes play out like what some Americans wanted September 11^th to have been like. Foxx is—you guessed it—entertaining a classroom full of toddlers when he receives the call that a horrific attack has occurred. He does not sit squirming in his chair helplessly, but jumps up, gives a touching farewell to his son, and heads out the door. In place of the blundering, politically compromised CIA Americans have come to know so well, the movie shows a supremely knowledgeable and alert FBI, ready to strike and frustrated by Washington’s reluctance to take action (!). Once on the ground, the mission is clear: solve the crime, kill the baddie and go home with all our guys alive. No mention of oil is ever made after the opening short history.

The acting is nothing to speak of, but that’s not what matters in a movie like this. Relative newcomer Peter Berg has directed a heart-thumping thriller which transposes a classic American trope, the vigilante cop and his pursuit of justice, onto the shimmering white cities of Arabia. The movie ends on a surprisingly sour note, which to me suggests an inkling that the problems in Saudi Arabia are way over its head. Too bad the film is so willing to exist in a state of ignorance.