Bottle Bill

Bill Holmstrom was the state rep for Astoria, Oregon when I lived there, and his crusade to get a recycling law into place earned him the title "Bottle Bill".  The bill passed in late 1971 and I moved to Astoria at the start of 1973.

Sen. Holmstrom had some catchy slogans for the bottle bill, and while I can't recall them at the moment, what with the passing of the decades and a memory like a colander, I know all of them had to have been better than California's amazingly lame "It's good for the bottle, it's good for the can". 

Every time I see that slogan (and it is at the entrance to every grocery store and any other place bottled or canned beverages are sold), I get the urge to hunt down the person who thought it up, and rinse his/her/it's mind out with soap. Obviously the lobotomy was a success. Because when you stop to analyze this slogan, not only is it awkward phrasing, it's wrong. Recycling destroys the bottle. It destroys the can. Okay, so some of the bottle is made into another bottle, maybe, and some of the can may become another can. But that's not what the slogan says.
      

In the spirit of constructive criticism, I suppose I should propose a better recycling slogan. More than one. And invite you to vote on them and make your own suggestions.

So twist my arm, why don't you?

[Poll #1490919]

Gold Friday

Once the media latches onto a catch phrase, they never let it go no matter how stupid or inappropriate. We've just wrapped up the day in the USA when more people hit the malls and stores than any other day, when a lot of green passes hands, lots of plastic is used, and things start to become a little more golden for the retailers. So what's it being called? Black Friday.

The moniker is a combination of reverse racism and ignorance about basic bookkeeping.

The reverse racism part is simply that these days everyone seems to think that when color is mentioned, it's about race. Forget art, forget science, forget the fact that almost nobody on the planet has black (as in 000000 on the RGB color chart) skin, black = African-American. When I was growing up, one of the worst insults you give a person of that heritage was to call him/her "black".  Particularly bad events in history have traditionally been called "black" days.  But the black power movement changed all that, with the help of a slogan-mad media, so now black is a good thing to be. Fine, be proud to be black, but race has nothing to do with the day after Thanksgiving.

The bookkeeping ignorance is that the pundits who coined the phrase claim this is the day of the year when businesses start going into the black - start making a profit. But that's got to be wrong. It's only the first day of a month-long season of buying, and most people are only buying discounted items. Plus the businesses have hired more people to handle the crowds, they have invested more in the past few days on stock than up till this time, and so on.

So call it Green Friday. Or Plastic Friday. Or Gold Friday. 

Precious

Went to see Precious at the one small theater in PA where it's playing. It is beyond excellent. It needs to be given full distribution. You need to see it.

Director Lee Daniels has put together an amazing cast. Who knew that Mo'Nique could give an Oscar-worthy performance as a psychotic abusive welfare momma? Who knew Mariah Carey could be so convincing as a cynical dowdy Brooklyn Jewish social worker? I walked out of the theater not believing it was her. Lenny Kravitz as a male nurse? A lot has been said on TV and in the press about the woman playing the title role,  Gabourey 'Gabby' Sidibe.  There is a lot of talent there, I hope we'll be seeing more of her in the future. Paula Patton as alternative school teacher Ms. Rains is a babe - she reminded me of Phylicia Rashad in The Cosby Show. Where has she been hiding?

There are a lot of small parts in this film, but no small actors. Everyone in the cast brought out as much of his/her character as there was to bring. That's the mark of a fine director. The film was shot on a budget, but the tech never gets in the way of the story. There are some minor editing mistakes, but they are on transitions which are just setting us up for the next scene. Makeup is so good it isn't even there. Costuming has its moments during the title character's fantasy sequences, and she gets to wear some great outfits. Queen Latifa would be proud.

The screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher is powerful, visual, articulate and real. Based on the novel Push by Sapphire.

Many of my friends will urge you to see the movie for nits powerful message, its overwhelming window into child abuse, incest, AIDS, the welfare culture, etc. I'll urge you to see it for wall to wall superb performances such as we have not seen on the screen for a long time.