Jet engine missing after New York plane crash

January 16, 2009 12:00 am

Woah, does this sound familiar?

Left Engine Missing From Downed Plane
By Matthew L. Wald and Liz Robbins
New York Times

The left engine is missing from the US Airways Airbus A320 that splashed down in the Hudson River on Thursday afternoon, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board investigating the accident said Friday.

In addition, the transportation board member, Kathryn O. Higgins, said it was not clear if the right engine was still on the wing either, because it is submerged.

“The left engine is not there; it’s somewhere,” Ms. Higgins said. “We’ve got to go find that.”

While investigators were gathering details of the accident, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg praised the efforts of the pilot, Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger III, 57, and the dozens who came to the immediate aid of the dazed passengers during a City Hall news conference.

All 155 people aboard the medium-size jet escaped the frigid waters safely because of the pilot’s quick thinking as well as the swift and coordinated efforts of rescue personnel who converged on the crippled aircraft.

First off, this is a wonderful story. I mean, we all know that those safety instructions before every flight are mostly bullshit, after all, if a plane is going to crash, it’s probably going to be into a mountain and everyone is going to die horribly. But, for these passengers and crewmembers, they had a heroic pilot who quite possibly saved all of their lives.

Meanwhile, we all know where the left engine is. It’s in what is referred to as an Einstein-Rosen bridge, or wormhole. It has been transported to 1988 — the past — where it will crash into a suburban home in Middlesex, Va., killing a high school student, Donnie Darko. Thankfully, this freak occurrence of time travel will prevent the collapse of spacetime, so we should all be happy that a freak bird strike has caused this necessary event to occur.

OK, now I must listen to 80s music and avoid a creepy, bunny-suit-wearing guy named Frank who keeps trying to wake me up.

Control

March 24, 2008 8:15 pm

control.jpgI've been dying to see this movie for months. And finally, the celluloid gods smiled down on me.

See, I live in a "small town." Well, it's not that small really, but it's far from what some might consider civilized society. I usually associate this with decent concert venues, a multitude of delicious restaurant fare (especially vegetarian) and most importantly a decent independent cinema. I mean, come on! I lived in Dayton, Ohio, the armpit of American civilization (and interestingly enough my birthplace), and even they had a kick ass independent cinema!

Well, Visalia finally brought a decent independent film to town. At the beginning of the month, Control came to town. For two nights only, the black-and-white film by noted photographer Anton Corbijn, came to Visalia and I was front and center during the first showing. The film chronicles the formation and demise of the band Joy Division, a post-punk British rock band whose influence can be heard in many of the artists that climbed to prominance in the 80s and beyond.

The film focuses its narrative on Ian Curtis, the ill-fated lead singer who desperately wants to escape his drab life in Macclesfield, England. Soon after joining musicians Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner, Curtis finds what might be his golden ticket. After adding Stephen Morris and dropping the name Warsaw, Joy Division is born. The band rocket to success in England amongst contemporaries as the Sex Pistols and Iggy Pop.

Things turn sour for Curtis as he is diagnosed with epilepsy and has to undergo a brutal drug regiment in order to handle the demanding tour schedule of Joy Division. He also becomes swept up in a love affair with journalist Annik Honoré, causing significant strain with is wife Deborah Woodruff, who lives in Macclesfield with her and Curtis' daughter.

Of course, the plot of the film spirals to inevitable end of Curtis, who hangs himself on the eve of the band's American tour. This tragedy was a great blow to music, as the world will never know what potential Curtis would have had if he could have risen above his internal struggles. So true for other musicians as well.

What separates this film from the parade of other musical biopics is Corbijn, who has photographed and filmed musicians for much of his professional career. Responsible for album art such as U2's Joshua Tree and music videos such as Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus," Corbijn makes this film just about the coolest I have every seen. The first half of the film feels like a photographer's portfolio, as even routine scenes of crossing the street are infused with such artistry that would take your breath away.

But the best thing about this film is the music. Not only does it introduce you to the wonderful band Joy Division, but also the artists which influenced the band's development. Oh, to live at the dawn of the 80s. I can think of so many worse things. If you have any sense in your brain, this will bring you back to the film over and over again.

The demise of Joy Division led Hook, Sumner and Morris to form New Order, which carried on in the shadow of Joy Division, influencing and changing the course of music in its own right. I've always been a fan of New Order, but not so much Joy Division. Happily, after this film, that has changed.

Pick this one up, definitely.

Cashback

January 31, 2008 8:27 pm

cashback.jpgI don't do this often enough...

I watched a movie tonight that I thought was very good. I don't know when I got the urge to rent Cashback, a 2006 film adapted from the Acedemy Award-nominated short film of the same name, but I think it had something to do with iTunes. One of those advertisements you see in the iTunes Store maybe. One day, I saw it, and it was trying to rear me towards a catalog of short films nominated for the 2006 Academy Awards. I think I clicked on Cashback, watched a preview, and then filed said memory away.

It could be that. Or it could have something to do with Sean Biggerstaff, the Scottish actor perhaps best known for his role as Gryffindor Quidditch team captain Oliver Wood, the main attraction of the Harry Potter films, at least for me. Anyways, I made it a note to rent Cashback and I finally got around to it tonight.

The film is excellent. It was a beautiful film that artfully weaves in fantasy and reality without coming off as a hokey as a comic book film or fantasy/horror picture. On top of that, the cinematography is beautiful and the actors are very likable.

Sorry, I'm a bit rusty at this, but here goes...

The film centers around Ben Willis, an art student living in the UK who has just ended things with his girlfriend. After a few days, her quick recovery over their relationship leaves him winded and heart broken, and Ben develops chronic insomnia. Not hard to believe, of course. How cruel a world do we live in that we are denied sleep as an escape from the thorns of a bitter break up?

Anyways, Ben decides that, since he's got an extra eight hours every day to burn, he might as well get some cash for it. As a result he takes a night job at Sainbury's supermarket, along with a slate of other wily characters who flee to the nocturnal hours in their own vain attempts to pass the time.

Ben also finds safe harbor in this place, but he sees different opportunities for his time than hiding from clocks or horsing around. Time moves quickest for Ben when he freezes it — examining each second to uncover its deepest and most guarded beauty. The short film captured this unique story well, and it would seem to be the best place for such a story to remain. I think the 2006 film, however, expands on this narrative vein well and ultimately brings it to a poised and beautiful ending.

Yeah, I might be wrong. There was a lot of female nudity, but you did get to see Sean without his shirt on, so I think that balances it out. I'm well aware I probably have the minority opinion in this arena, but I liked the film. It's the first film in a while that's brought me here to rant about it. Also it's the first catch on Netflix that actually had my fingers on my temple instead of on my iPod or the kitty's head.

Maybe it's worth a spin, yes? Now if only I could see Into The Wild or Control.

Oh, and I'm still around! I'm planning an update very soon.

The Bridge

June 18, 2007 4:03 pm

thebridge.jpgThis is a documentary I have been waiting quite some time to see. There is something so horrific and alluring about this film, a documentary on one of the world's most-chosen suicide spots. Jumping from the crosswalk on the Golden Gate Bridge almost always results in death. Falling helpless into such a grim certainty was enough for 24 individuals during 2004, and this film captured 23 of those individuals' deaths.

I have been so fascinated by death since I graduated from college and started a life on my own. Growing up, there are so many things before you, death is rarely acknowledged or considered. It was only when I had embarked on that my career's empty road that I really began to consider the inevitability that I will one day pass. It's scary to think about. It's even scarier to imagine what it would be like for someone to face that inevitability in less than 5 seconds — the time it takes for your body to fall from the bridge and hit the bay.

The film was very good, but it was not "horrific" as I had expected. You get a lot of what you expect to see. The footage is amazing and what you'd expect. Nothing is very close-up, so its impossible to capture much of the person's emotion in their final moments. In the end, the film is horrific in its premise: How can a filmmaker set up a camera for one year with the intention of capturing suicides on film and not actively intercede on behalf of very these troubled individuals? According to the filmmaker, efforts were made when a person was observed making moves as if they were about to jump, but that creepy feeling is not fully shaken through the whole of the film.

What I found most disturbing about the film were the interviews with family members and friends of individuals who had jumped from the bridge. In many cases, they had anticipated the attempt and even tacitly encouraged it. They had given up any hope on re-affirming this person's hold on this world and instead wanted to let them go in peace. I suppose this elicits some understanding, but not much from me. One woman had not only given her friend the drugs that further pushed him to his wit's end, she brushed him off on what turned out to be his moment of need, hours before he gave it all up for glimpse beyond.

All in all, I'd say it is worth seeing. It doesn't demystify death for me in any way, however. The film is effective in tying together the varying lives of individuals who are desperate and troubled enough to consider ending their lives. It helps to shed a light on a world some walk in that is devoid of hope and meaning. This is thankfully a world I have never walked in, but hopefully, if anyone I know falls down this path, I might recognize it and intercede on their behalf.

According to filmmakers, one person attempted to throw themselves from the bridge once every 15 days.

Why We Fight

May 15, 2007 6:45 pm

whywefight.jpgOne of those "green vegetable" films I've had on my Netflix queues for a while is the 2005 documentary Why We Fight. The film explores the now long-established American industry that makes war and purports to defend this nation from threats both foreign and domestic — an entity dubbed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander during World War II and two-term president, as the military-industrial complex.

The concept of a military-industrial complex is something not easily grasped by someone from my generation. The apparatus itself is not wholly visualized in a government building or agency. It is not limited to one group of people or particular creed to statue. The first time I ever heard the term was in my high school history class where my teacher went to the extraordinary precaution of closing the door and swearing us all to secrecy while he divulged his theory as to who was really responsible for the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The movie never directly addressed these controversial judgments of history, but it did hit on one event that I will likely fully conceptualize throughout my entire adult life: The Iraq War.

Ever since I was a young boy, I have heard of the evils of Saddam Hussein and how imperative it was to U.S. interest to eliminate him from the world. I have never been personally slighted or directly influenced by the evils of this man, but I have nonetheless heard the steady drumbeat of war coming from the mouths of politicians, whether on Capitol Hill or on the Sunday morning talk shows, since the early nineties and to the final days leading to March 19, 2003, when George W. Bush ordered U.S. military forces to end the Iraq regime and uncover the fabled "weapons of mass destruction."

I remember that day very well. I was in my hotel room on my spring break vacation in New Orleans. I was with my friends Missy, Sonya and Ilya and we had just recently arrived in New Orleans and were preparing to go out for the evening. I paid particular attention to the television screen that evening as the opening shots of the war were fired. I remember hearing Sonya ask why I would watch something so uninteresting and I couldn't help but point out the seriousness of history that was occurring at that very moment. That moment was as serious then and it was a turning point for all Americans, whether they tacitly approved of our involvement and turned their televisions off that evening and slept soundly or if they very earnestly tried to convince their politicians to change course and sat awake fearful of the results of our actions.

The film seizes on this shared experience we all have and attempts to connect the invisible, faceless machine that is the military-industrial complex the Eisenhower choose to warn Americans about in his waning days in power. The film attempts to explain why America fights in conflicts around the world and tries to uncover the shifty, mysterious agendas of public figures, corporations and shadowy think tanks that collectively built the machine that paved our way into the conflict.

As an concerned American and journalist, I look at the Iraq War, like many, with increasing impatience and anger. Is this the conflict our president said was ours to fight in the wake of 9/11? Did we truly enter this war with no exit strategy or were these policymakers neglecting to tell us the whole truth on the subject — that we would never leave.

The role of the military-industrial complex might not be the whole bogeyman the film paints it as. There are some conclusions drawn in the war, especially regarding American motivations at the end of the Second World War and at the beginning of the Atomic Age, that my roommate and I openly objected to while watching the film. But the film's detailed exploration of the military-industrial complex, from the larger conflict today to its affects on ordinary people with ordinary lives as military contractors, soldiers and weapons engineers, is very accurate and eye opening, especially to someone who might be completely unaware of the beast that lives in breaths in and out of our government today.

No one should watch this movie without an open mind and willingness to engage the facts in open discourse. As Eisenhower said in his closing address, "Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together." While many in the annals of history have failed their countrymen in this endeavor, anyone hoping to conceptualize today what Eisenhower warned of so long ago cannot do so blindly and without a firm grasp of the facts at hand.

Please watch this film.

Jesus Camp

February 21, 2007 6:44 pm

jesuscamp.jpgAs the credits rolled after the documentary film Jesus Camp and the raised eyebrow on my face began to dip south, I started to realized the fundamental flaw in characterizing the film as a documentary. This film is a certified horror movie. Scariest thing I've seen all year.

The documentary, by directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, chronicles only a very thin slice of evangelical Christians in the United States. Most of the film focuses on the children's ministry of one Becky Fischer, who actively evangelizes to children and encourages them to spread the gospel amongst their family, friends and community.

The scene of the film is rather horrific, the number one worst day of the Bush presidency: Sandra Day O'Conner's announcement that she is stepping down from the Supreme Court. The stage is set for what evangelical Christians consider paramount to their agenda of re-establishing a Christian government in the United States. The cameras then descend on one of Fischer's children's conferences where kids are indoctrinated with the Christian faith.

What's really horrific about this film is the extent that these poor children have been completely mind-warped by this twisted woman. The film revolves around a boy and a girl, Levi and Rachel, who actively press strangers about the Christian fate, even asking one man, "If you died right now, where do you think you'll go?" At parts in the film, the kids are even encouraged to speak in tongues as adults press their hands on them to encourage the "holy spirit."

I don't know where to start with this movie. It's an excellent documentary and I think the filmmakers were very fair to Fischer and her cause. Even though she has been forced to shut down the "Kids on Fire" summer camp due to negative reaction to the film, she herself has stopped short to condemn the film. She feels the film helps communicate her message of faith and our children to the world. I couldn't agree with her more, I'm getting her message loud and clear.

She begins the film watching some of the filmmakers raw footage and remarks, "Liberals must be shaking in their boots when they see this!" I wouldn't label myself a "liberal," though I was shaking, but not because of my fear of the rising tide of evangelical youth prepared to spread the word or God to the masses. I felt very sorry for these children, who no longer play with action figures and dolls, play in baseball leagues and softball, they are forced to handle more difficult concepts like abortion and culture war in their parent's and pastor's despicable plot to impose their political will on this nation.

I am thankful that I never had to experience the kind of spiritual agony these kids must endure. I can't tell you how many times I could imagine every word through these children's mouths came from someplace else. They are mindless androids, and denying them the right to learn and make their own decisions is, as one commentator in the film suggests, a mortal sin.

If you're dying to see this film, please pick it up. But don't turn the light off...

The Color Purple

February 18, 2007 1:26 pm

Well, after my first week back, I think I did alright. I'd like to log 4 entries a week, and this week I did three (I don't count the return entry). I'll try to stick to the schedule, but when you are up at 5 in the morning and are likely the first to see an article about senior citizens getting it on and you want to blog about it, there's no better time than now as opposed to saving it for the Thursday news/politics spot.

But one thing I neglected this week was my film/music blog. So here goes...something I should have done a long time ago...

colorpurple.jpgMy favorite thing about Netflix is getting the opportunity to see movies that I know I should see. Something told me that The Color Purple was a movie I had to see. Honestly, I had no idea what it was about. For some reason I thought it had either Janet Jackson or Oprah in it (It did indeed have Oprah in the movie, Janet Jackson was in Poetic Justice, which at some point I confused with Dead Poet's Society). After rising slowly to the top of my queue and eventually reaching my mailbox (to the chagrin of my roommate who's more interested in picks like Entourage), it was showtime.

The Color Purple is about two black sisters, Celie and Nettie, who grow up in the South under difficult circumstances. Celie looks after her sister as best she can, and when an older man comes calling for Nettie's hand in marriage, the girl's father (who rapes her often and fathers a child with her) palms off Celie instead. Celie begins her difficult life with Albert and his kids where she is regularly beaten and terrorized. She's expected to clean, cook and even shave her husband. It is a miserable life, and Celie is completely subservient to her husband.

Her one joy comes from her relationship with her sister, who eventually comes to stay with Albert and Celie. Albert, still feeling the urge to bed Nettie, follows her to school one day and attempts to rape her. Nettie refuses and she is driven from his home. Though she promises to write, Albert forbids Celie to even touch the mail and for several years effectively imprisons her in her empty, loveless life.

Celie is portrayed by Whoopi Goldberg, and I have to admit, I have never seen such fine acting as this from Whoopi before. The whole movie you watch the tragic life of Celie and you just wish she could find the strength and confidence other characters, like Sofia, portrayed by Oprah Winfrey, find in their relationships with men. Celie initially finds this defiance toward men as wrong, and tells Sofia's husband, her stepson Harpo, to beat Sofia. Eventually, though, Celie sees in Sofia the woman she needs to be.

I don't want to say too much about the movie because it is truly a great film. It was released in 1985, so a few people might not be inclined to give it a chance. It's really worth it. I may have mentioned that A Very Long Engagement is the only film that has made me cry. That's not true anymore, the ending of The Color Purple brought tears to my eyes, it was absolutely beautiful.

Please check it out. I wish I could say more, it's just been a few months since I've seen it so the scenes aren't fresh in my mind.

And check back this Wednesday (hopefully). I just watched a great horror movie and I'm aching to write something about it. You might have heard of it...Jesus Camp.

The Maltese Falcon is missing — again

February 13, 2007 6:41 pm

A hallowed (imitation) piece of film history has been stolen!

Maltese Falcon stolen from San Francisco restaurant

By Michael Kahn

Reuters

falcon.jpgSAN FRANCISCO – Where's Sam Spade when you need him?

Thieves have stolen a copy of the bird statue at the heart of “The Maltese Falcon” from the San Francisco restaurant used as a setting for the 1941 film classic starring Humphrey Bogart as the rough-and-tumble private detective.

The small, black figure was swiped over the weekend along with 20 vintage books, including copies of the 1930 Dashiell Hammett novel on which the film is based.

John Konstin, whose restaurant John's Grill bills itself as the “Home of the Maltese Falcon,” said the thief broke into the case displaying the statue over the weekend. Konstin is offering a $25,000 reward for the replica's return.

I'm sorry, but if you saw the movie, they know it's a fake don't they? I mean, it was said the jewel-encrusted falcon was a decoy — a trick to throw off the men who sought the valuable real falcon. The story is even more funny because this particular (knockoff) falcon is a decoy of a decoy.

This restaurant, John's Grill, is supposed to be the hang-out of Sam Spade in the novel The Maltese Falcon. Whoever stole the bird should return it. There's gotta be some Sam Spade curse on it or something, and that's not the stuff dreams are made of...

Me say, 'Day oh'

November 6, 2006 1:23 am

Apologies for being a little short with the film picks. I can't believe the last Netflix film I highlighted was Un long dimanche de fiançailles, and I had already seen it. I think this week I'll be doing something on All About Eve, the excellent celluloid precursor to the Showgirls.

For now, enjoy this YouTube clip of a scene from Beetlejuice, which had me and my coworkers laughing. I don't know how that movie popped in my head, but you've got to love Tim Burton. Enjoy:

P.S.: For anyone picking this entry up via facebook, you should know the only way you are going to see any YouTube applet is if you go to the original entry on my blog at http://nicksblog.net/blog.

Un long dimanche de fiançailles

October 1, 2006 11:24 am

Lately I have been sort of burned out on Netflix. Instead of hastily watching a movie when I come home and hurriedly taking it to the mailbox the next day, I sort of carelessly hold onto my movies and return them whenever I feel up to it. I suppose that's the way it should be, but to at least liven up my desire to watch engaging film, I have been putting some of my most favorite movies on my queue — movies I sadly do not own, at least not now.

dimanche.jpgToday I watched Un long dimanche de fiançailles, A French film from one of my most favorite directors, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who also directed possibly my most favorite film, Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain. Unlike Amélie, Un long dimanche de fiançailles (Or A Very Long Engagement as it is known to American audiences) is much more somber and serious. It is set in France following World War I.

The movie begins following the war, in which Mathilde holds hopelessly onto her belief that her fiancé, Manech, somehow survived his death sentence for self-mutilation, though he has not returned home for almost three years. Mathilde hires a private detective and enlists her family and friends to find out all they can about the circumstances of Manech's death outside of the trench curiously named Bingo Crépuscule.

Manech, having been shot in the hand, is accused of self-mutilation in hopes to return home to Mathilde. Along with four other men who have committed similar acts, Manech and the others are sent over the trench to fend for themselves in no man's land, effectively ensuring their demise. They survive longer than most but according to military reports, they were all found dead. However, Mathilde uncovers stories that seem to suggest a man wearing German boots made it out with another wounded soldier. She holds onto the very slim hope that her Manech is that hurt man.

The movie is very difficult to understand, even with subtitles. I watched it for the first time a year ago when I was living with my mother and grandmother in Ohio. I could hardly understand how the story weaved through the tales of the five men sent into no man's land, but I followed pretty well this time around. It's important to pay close attention to the details of the men's lives and most especially their names. It's always more difficult for me to remember a French name than a traditional American one, so that's probably why I have more trouble.

I won't say much more about the film. All I can say is that no other film I have ever watched has made me cry, except this one. Even a year later, knowing the conclusion of the film, I can't help but cry. It's exhilarating to watch a film that has such an effect on me. I hope that someone else somewhere might feel the same way.

As far as the France stuff, I swear it will be done soon. I just got my photos off of my phone so I should be putting everything together soon. The entries are done I just need to edit them. Blah blah...plus I have a lot of cleaning to do today, so I better get to work. It's sure to be the next thing I post.

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Film

I love film, especially classic movies. In the past, as I plumbed the depths of my Netflix queue, I would write reviews of the films I enjoyed the most. Every so often, I will do that again.

Definitely look through the archives, I have some excellent movie suggestions here.

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Thanks for visiting my new blog! I'm just ramping things up here. So far, there's a lot of archive content from my previous blogs. Eventually, I want to put some cool dynamic stuff here, but I will need a few months to collect some fresh content. Enjoy reading what I have here and thanks for stopping by!