Over a month ago, Amanda Stokes went missing about three blocks from my house. Posters are up all over the neighborhood.
SFGate: Homicide police join search for Oakland woman missing since Nov. 25
Archive for December, 2007
5-4 vote
Sunday, December 30th, 2007
Back in June, the Supreme Court issued its decision invoking Brown v Board Of Education to end racial quota systems in Louisville and Seattle public schools. Regardless of where you stand on this issue, legal support of diversity is a an assumptive underpinning of our lives that anyone born from 1965 forward has had to take for granted.The reaction dramatized what a swing this was:
As Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in his blistering dissent, this decision “upsets settled expectations, creates legal uncertainty, and threatens to produce considerable further litigation, aggravating race-related conflict.” Judge John Paul Stevens went further, noting the “cruel irony” in the majority opinion’s evocation of Brown v. the Board of Education as justification for its position, proclaiming that “it is my firm conviction that no Member of the Court that I joined in 1975 would have agreed with today’s decision.”
Regardless of whether you think this decision good or bad, it’s still a fascinating twist in our recent history, and that twist is the subject of Jeffrey Toobin’s new book The Nine: Inside The Secret World Of The Supreme Court. Using the same style Bob Woodward uses to mixed effect in his books — top to bottom sources speaking without attribution — Toobin paints a colorful, if incomplete feeling, view of the last 15 years of the Court’s life. The color comes from the obvious high level of access he had to certain of the Justices or their top staffers (especially O’Connor, Souter and Scalia) , while the incompleteness stems from the sense that other of the Justices were less willing to participlate (Thomas, Stevens, Roberts and Alito).
The book’s core thesis is that the Supreme Court, as one might fear, is led more by ideology than legal sense. Of course, this on its face is not surprising when any Court vote, with the same set of facts before it and high level of intellect applied, can lead to a wide variety of opinions on the same issue. The Nine‘s true value is in tracing the story of how the Court (and its people) moved from left to right on so many issues and basic tenets in the last few years, from reliable protector of certain attitudes about privacy, liberty and a certain style of government to something far less willing to support these assumptions in the years ahead. It also clearly demonstrates that the centrists still hold the true power in the Court, though because of the hyper-political climate around Court nominees, the number of centrists is declining over time.
Toobin misses the chance to be explicit about the biggest implication of the rise of the Roberts Court. This book is really about the dismantling of the last line of defense of the New Deal. It also could have used one last edit-rinse (at least four times we are told that Souter’s judicial heroes are Harlan and Hand), but it I’m pleased to report that he also clearly and efficiently explains the contentious legal issues behind recent key cases.
All in all, The Nine is a valuable read for anyone who wants to understand the often-eccentric people behind the Court and how the institution uses its power.
Excerpts at CNN
- How conservatives won the court back
- O’Connor led the court on abortion
- Bush v. Gore marks high court’s low point
- Court rewrites the law on gay rights
- 2008 election will define court’s future
Barberous
Friday, December 28th, 2007
I am a Sweeney Todd geek. I’m not entirely sure why I begged my parents to take me to the original Broadway production in 1979 with Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury, but I did and it was a major event in my life. That was the first time the power of theater was really brought home to me, even though I’d dallied in acting a bit. But that was just childish egotism… and this was art. Scary, loud art. I loved it.
Fast forward four years and my one of my best friends in high school was similarly impacted and has spent his life ever since following his dream of writing for the musical theater. This was, at the least, positive reinforcement that what I’d seen and felt was real. And Stephen Sondheim’s score for Sweeney Todd is now generally recognized as a pinnacle of the art form.
When the revival opened in New York in 2005, I tried to get to it on & off for nearly two years, finally seeing it a month before it closed in 2006. The sparse staging was everything I’d hoped for, with perhaps a greater commitment to playing up the base insanity of all the characters. Michael Cerveris, formerly of Bob Mould’s band, was a perfect Sweeney, physically scary and singing with gusto. Unfortunately Patti Lupone was off as Mrs. Lovett that night, but her understudy, Judy Kaye, later to own the part in the touring production, was suitable.
The revival came to ACT in San Francisco in 2007 and I had to go again. Twice. Suffice to say, I was not bored.
So I approached Tim Burton’s filmed version with Johnny Depp in the title role with trepidation. A non-singer, too young(?), too small(?). I was also afraid that Burton wound sand off all the edges and turn it into a goth-light entertainment: from mythic fury to fanciful fairy-tale.
The Good:
- Really, I never should have feared about Depp. He’s one of our greatest movie actors, and a huge part of that greatness comes from the physicality he brings to his roles. His physical and psychological intensity never wavers, his motivations coming across straight & true. In truth, he is not that different size- and age-wise from Len Cariou and George Hearn, who were the Sweeneys in the original 1979-80 NYC production.
- The play had to be cut a bit for length and they correctly got rid of the deadest bits — the numbers that skate by on the stage for their cleverness but add little to the story.
- Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall make great bad guys, though having seen Rickman in Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix earlier in the week made me think he was coasting a bit.
- The attention to detail on the sets & costumes is amazing. Just stunning.
The Bad:
- Helena Bonham Carter, on the other hand, is completely overmatched by the material. She doesn’t have the energy or the voice for the part. There’s also a critical component of insanity that’s gone missing from her performance. Mrs. Lovett, after all, is a woman who’s remained obsessed with a missing wannabe boyfriend for 25 years, and when he miraculously returns she starts disposing of corpses in the grossest possible way on his behalf. Carter, on the other hand, doesn’t communicate much more than “lovelorn.” It just doesn’t work.
- Similarly, the casting of the peripheral “good guys” is just awful. Anthony is a vigorous young sailor returned from years at sea; here he’s an Emo pretty boy that looks like he couldn’t lift anything, much less help raise a sail. Johanna barely registers at all. Weirdly, Tobias is converted from near-insane abused teen to peppy All-American do-gooder, straight out of Leave It To Beaver (plus a drinking problem). The last in particular makes the end of the story arc a tough sell.
- Much comment in the previews & reviews about the violence, but where’s the sex gone? Granted pedophilia isn’t something that sells a lot of tickets, but this is the core of The Judge’s evil, the motor for the whole plot. Rickman’s Judge simply becomes a “cruel dude” rather than the deranged figure that he is in the play. I guess the musical number where The Judge masturbates to the thought of his teenage ward would be a bit much for most audiences, but we’re already at an R rating with the violence. This just makes the producers look cowardly. (See also: The Golden Compass)
On the whole, though, I’m pleased that this great work is being brought to so many and that perhaps it will make potential audiences less averse to attending musicals.
The Original 1979 production
- See it on YouTube! George Hearn (the second Sweeney) and Angela Lansbury are featured. Recommended: “Sweeney Todd 05,” which includes Pretty Women and Epiphany
- New York Times review of the original 1979 production: “The musical and dramatic achievements of Stephen Sondheim’s black and bloody “Sweeney Todd” are so numerous and so clamorous that they trample and jam each other in that invisible but finite doorway that connects a stage and its audience; doing themselves some harm in the process.”
The 2005 revival and its touring offspring
Peng Wins Ar Cul
Friday, December 28th, 2007
This is the Christmas window display at my old neighborhood toy store, Sweet Dreams. It’s incredible that this store has survived 35+ years in the face of toy retailer consolidation, but this is a credit both to the store’s inventory policies (plastic franchise toys held to a minimum, lots of personality in displays and a top-notch childrens’ book section) and to the good shoppers of Berkeley.
It helps to have window displays with such character, too. With the demise of the neighborhood merchant in favor of mass merchants, the fanciful window display is coming to be something of a lost art with Macy’s holding a monopoly on the public consciousness of what makes a great window. (Kittens & puppies, apparently…)
This isn’t the greatest photo, but explaining a little detail here goes a long way. This is a penguin’s kitchen. On the fridge is a To-Do List that includes “Cooking” and “Make friends with polar bears.” The big polar bear and penguin are slicing vegetables to go on the stove at left. Penguins and bears of all ages frolic at the “kids tables” in the foreground.
Question: why does Google give the link to Toys R Us when I search for Sweet Dreams? That’s a nasty prank. And why a web site for Sweet Dreams’ sister candy store (not nearly as fun) and not the toy store?
Berkeley Daily Planet: As Toys ‘R Us Downsizes, Local Toy Stores Thrive
Brussels comes home
Wednesday, December 26th, 2007
The Trappist, open about three weeks now, is a surprisingly beautiful tavern in downtown Oakland specializing in hard-to-find Belgian beers and nothing else. Its proprietors have gone wonderfully overboard, importing a brand new tap system from Belgium and decorating the narrow space with a beautiful dark wood bar, handsome shiny taps and tasteful wall decor. It’s apparent that they take a lot of pride in their knowledge, their selection and the environment they’ve developed around it. (Drunken Santarchy participants were turned away when they came ’round earlier this month.)
This is not your typical after-work place. The brands on offer taste utterly unlike your neighborhood bar’s outlay — and, critical to understand — these beers are strong. The least alcoholic beer stood at 5.5% (10% more than a Budweiser) and the most topped out at a heavy-duty 11%. That’s over 35% more alcohol content than the most effective malt liquors. So don’t plan to stay for more than two drinks. This is sipping stuff, not gulping.
And don’t count on any TV sports, either. As overheard by the group at the end of the bar: “This is more like a wine bar.” If it’s any indication of the environment, Thelonious Monk was playing and a lively argument was had by patrons over which drummer played on Monk’s Music, while a solo patron at the end of the bar powered through the Sunday crossword — on Wednesday.