Diablo Cody Learns How To Write Dialogue

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 1:53 PM - 3 Comments

“Having multiple personalities is like hosting a kegger in your brain, only you’re passed out cold while everyone else is trashing the joint.” – Tara

One thing I like about The United States of Tara (the pilot has its official Canadian premiere on TMN tonight, though it’s already been shown online) is that Diablo Cody has figured out how to use her dialogue gifts for good instead of evil. Juno’s fake-stylized dialogue drove me nuts, but in Tara, the stylization has been toned down enough that it’s fun rather than irritating. Maybe the need to write distinctively for each of Toni Collette’s multiple personalities (“Lots of debonair men throughout history have had their peccadillos,” remarks her Stepford-Wife personality, Alice, in the second episode) has forced Cody to think a little more about how to avoid making all the characters sound the same, but even the non-split characters kind of talk like human beings. The second episode has Tony Hale as an uptight literature teacher who gets upset at Tara’s son Marshall for pointing out an erection metaphor in a book; Marshall’s punchline – “I think I know my literary boners” – was a very Diablo Cody line, and yet funny and in-character for a smart teenaged boy.

A less positive aspect of these early episodes is that they seem to meander from scene to scene without having much story backbone. Maybe that will change, or maybe I’ll get used to it, but I feel like each episode is the first half of a one-hour show, where the second half is missing. The slow pace and long scenes (without the deluge of background music that we get in network TV shows) are typical of the pay TV style, and we’ve all grown to love that kind of thing. But it means that 13 of the show’s 26 minutes can be over before the story gets going, and I don’t feel like each episode establishes its own identity. Cody does try to give an episode its own theme, usually some issue that Tara feels unable to deal with and uses one of her multiple personalities to handle. But a Tara episode still seems more like a half-hour worth of scenes, conflicts, and discussions about the problems of being a quadruple mom – including discussions of issues we’ve already seen addressed in previous episodes. Maybe I’m simply judging the show by the wrong standards, but I feel like Tara, so far, is trying to apply the style of hour-long shows to half-hours, with the result that the episodes feel too long and too short: too short because the scenes appear to be building up to a climax that never comes, and too long because there’s not enough to set each episode apart from the last one. But these are problems that can get fixed as the season goes along.

Can Obama win the Middle East?

By Jonathon Gatehouse - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 1:25 PM - 0 Comments

The early reviews were ecstatic. Al Chourouk, an Arabic daily in Tunisia, dubbed the newly elected Barack Obama “The President of the World.” The Jordan Times called him “the American leader we need.” And Okaz, a pro-government paper in Saudi Arabia, found reason to praise not just the man, but the republic for which he stands. “For the millionth time, America disappointed its critics and mocked those who expressed doubts about the truth of its democracy,” read the editorial. “For the millionth time, America proved, by action and not merely words, that it is the country of equal opportunity, social justice, real freedom, and creative democracy.”

Obama’s campaign message of change resonated far beyond the confines of America’s borders. And the millions of Arabs who gathered around television sets in the early hours of Nov. 5 found as good reason as anyone to cheer his victory speech. “All those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world: our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared. A new dawn of American leadership is at hand,” promised the president-elect. But the sky-high expectations that a new man in the White House might help bring an end to the Middle East’s decades-old conflicts are quickly fading as fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza strip looks to stretch into its fourth week.

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Greek growth industry: kidnapping

By Susan Mohammad - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 1:22 PM - 0 Comments

For a nation founded on the concepts of democracy and civil order, Greece has been rocked by an unusual amount of violence lately. On Monday, prominent shipping tycoon Pericles Panagopoulos was abducted by three men wielding Kalashnikovs, the third such high-profile kidnapping since June.

Panagopoulos is the 74-year-old founder of Attica Group, Greece’s largest ferry company, and is said to be worth about $400 million. According to reports, he was snatched near his seaside home just outside of Athens as he was being driven to work, and forced into one of two waiting vans. Police say his driver, who was also abducted, was later found hooded and handcuffed to a bush in Koropi, a town 15 km away.

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Is he lovable? Check out his hair.

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 1:20 PM - 0 Comments

TV’s leading men are defined by their hair. If you doubt that, just ask yourself if The Office’s John Krasinski would be considered as adorable with normal, non-tousled hair, or if Kiefer Sutherland would scare the terrorists with the Billy Idol hairdo he sported in The Lost Boys. Women may get a bigger share of a show’s hair and makeup budget, but TV guys need the most distinctive coiffures. Tena Parker, department head hairstylist for How I Met Your Mother, says, “We have three fabulous men on our show, and three different looks.”

Maybe we should blame David Schwimmer. The Friends actor was the first TV star in years to be associated with a messy-looking haircut, which came to be known simply as “the Schwimmer.” Schwimmer’s sartorial influence is all over TV, with a parade of soft-spoken, puppy-dog leading men and their strange hair. Josh Radnor’s on How I Met Your Mother is half normal and half hairsprayed and upright; Parker adds that this look was Radnor’s own, and that he “loves pulling on his own hair and works with the stylist to design that.” Zachary Levi of Chuck has hair curving up at the sides and hanging down, mullet-like, at the back of his head.

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Car dealers offer their best deals yet

By Colin Campbell - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 1:20 PM - 5 Comments

The double-digit decline in auto sales has been a disaster for carmakers—but it has been especially nightmarish for the dealerships. At Chrysler, U.S. sales are down so much (53 per cent last month) its dealerships are barely managing to sell a car a day, on average. Things are starting to look a bit like the auto industry version of Glengarry Glen Ross.

Dealer profits have actually been falling for some time now. In 2007, they dropped to $1.1 billion in Canada, from a high of $1.6 billion in 2004, according to a report last year by DesRosiers Automotive Consultants. The problem now is two-fold: not only are people reluctant to buy cars in these dark economic days, but the credit crunch has made financing hard to find even if they want to buy.

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'Five per cent said they just don't like his attitude'

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 12:57 PM - 8 Comments

Nik Nanos looks at what Canadians think (or don’t think) of Messrs. Harper and Ignatieff.

Omar who?

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 12:32 PM - 27 Comments

Carleton’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs has released a “blueprint” for Canadian-American relations under a new administration to the south. It is supported by 17 background papers.

A quick search of all those thousands of words finds not a single mention of the word “Khadr.”

James H. “Si” Taylor, Canada’s undersecretary of state for external affairs from 1985 to 1989 and currently the chancellor emeritus at McMaster, perhaps comes closest to the subject matter with this.

The country may need better police and intelligence work, but it does not need to warp domestic law, defy international law, create legal regimes of exception or threaten the nation’s civil liberties in order to protect itself against terrorism. The new president could perform a useful service were he to say some of these things at the outset of his term. Perhaps the promised closing of Guantanamo is the harbinger of a more far-reaching re-appraisal of terrorism that may be in the wind. 

In other news, “Si” is a fantastic nickname.

'The Optimist' by Laurence Shorter

By Brian Bethune - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 12:18 PM - 3 Comments

Just surveying his career path is enough to convince anyone that Laurence Shorter was born for the sunny side of the street. After all, a one-time businessman who quit his job to make his living as a BBC journalist and “comedy dancer” (whatever that may be) in London pubs can’t naturally be inclined to worry much about the future. But given that he’s a sensitive fellow in a boom time for pessimism—possibly its best of times since the Cuban missile crisis—Shorter found himself increasingly unable to get out of bed by the summer of 2006. (God only knows what he’s feeling like now.) In desperation he decided to turn himself into an optimist by seeking out and interviewing the positive-minded—including Bill Clinton, Desmond Tutu and a surfing Rabbi in California—while being dragged down the whole time by his father, a man whose pessimism makes Eeyore look like Pollyanna.

The result is The Optimist, an ultimately serious book that’s actually pretty funny. (Not least because its publication crowns today, Jan. 19, which is 2009’s most depressing day of the year. British psychologist Cliff Arnall made the original calculations back in 2005, after devising an equation that factored in such markers as weather, Christmas debt, time since Christmas cheer, time since New Year’s resolutions began to fail—and the nearest Monday to that point.) By the time a reader becomes emotionally involved in Shorter’s quixotic, seemingly hopeless quest to get close enough to Clinton to ask a question, your inner optimist will reign supreme, even while it wonders why the pessimists are all funnier.

Keeping the Prairies safe from terror

By macleans.ca - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 11:10 AM - 2 Comments

For all our fear of global terrorism, the real threat may be homegrown, according to the RCMP. Alarmed by the spate of pipeline bombings in northeastern B.C., the Mounties are launching a 40-member unit to be based in Edmonton and Calgary to complement those already in place in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. The officers will be on the lookout for international terrorists, just like their counterparts in other cities. But it seems clear their real job will be protecting Canada’s energy infrastructure, on which the entire continent depends.

Edmonton Journal

Bruce Stanton Maverick Watch

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 10:50 AM - 8 Comments

The Conservative MP for Simcoe North submits a 16-page report to the finance minister on his consultations with constituents. In the introduction, he states that Canadians want to see “the setting aside of partisan initiatives.”

Spike Lee's symposium on Obama and race

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 10:37 AM - 0 Comments

Howard University, a historically black college here in Washington, DC is holding a day long symposium on the impact of the first African American president. It’s hosted by Spike Lee and has a variety of big names attending — from Cornel West, Henry Louis Gates Jr., to the NYC schools chancellor, Joel Klein, who was just speaking.

They are webcasting live here.

If you were a preteen girl, would you think this was cool…

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 10:22 AM - 1 Comment

or a little embarrassing?

Portraits of Power

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 10:20 AM - 0 Comments

At the Corcoran.

Canada & Obama's Washington

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 10:17 AM - 0 Comments

Here is my take from the print mag.

Kitschiest Obamabelia I could find

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 10:12 AM - 1 Comment

So far, at least.

For her:

For him:

Snapshots from Obamaland

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 10:07 AM - 0 Comments

Inauguration Week is underway. The city was transformed yesterday into a big party. The “We are One” concert at the Lincoln Memorial — which actually stretched from the memorial to the Washington Monument, and spilled out all over blocks of downtown that were shut to traffic — had a relaxed, happy feeling to it. Out in the crowd, which the Washington Post this morning estimated at 400,000, the vibe was half kumbaya and half  disbelief. I was out interviewing people for a story I am working on and people kept telling me they still couldn’t quite believe that it was actually happening.

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Why Journalists Make Bad Politicians in the US

By Andrew Potter - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 9:53 AM - 6 Comments

Here’s Edward Wasserman in the Miami Herald:

But the equally compelling reason, and one that makes it unlikely that journalists will ever be warmly welcomed as political aspirants, has to do with the adversarialism that journalism is premised on.  I don’t want to go overboard here… But fundamentally, to do their jobs right, they sign on to the idea they’re a check on power, an organ of accountability, working on behalf of the public and, when appropriate, working to expose or frustrate the stratagems, policies and privileges of office-holders in business and government.

…

A record of distinction in the newsroom is unlikely to win anyone a welcome among politicians, and it’s understandable that journalists move so rarely into public office. On balance, that’s a good thing. Ambition can be a motivator, but it can also be a powerful distraction. If you’re handling your current duties with an eye mainly to endearing yourself to your next boss, you probably don’t deserve either job.

link

Annals of the most federalist Quebec premier in Stephen Harper's lifetime

By Andrew Potter - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 9:46 AM - 32 Comments

“Some are also increasingly asking what point there is in having a federalist in power in Quebec if he is going to conduct his federal-provincial relations like a sovereignist.”

link

Bush’s last-ditch effort to go green

By Emily Burke - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 9:30 AM - 0 Comments

In one of his final acts as president, George W. Bush surprised the world with an unexpected green streak. Last week he announced he will turn huge tracts of the Pacific Ocean into protected conservation areas by designating them as national monuments. When you include earlier such declarations, Bush will have protected more of the world’s oceans than any other person in history.

The newly protected areas span a total of more than 500,000 sq. km in three separate regions. They include the coral reefs of Rose Atoll near American Samoa, an isolated archipelago southwest of Hawaii called the Line Islands, and the Mariana Trench near Guam, which is the deepest submerged canyon in the world. The regions are home to an impressive variety of wildlife, including sharks, rare whales, birds and giant clams. “For marine life and seabirds, these places will be sanctuaries to grow and thrive,” Bush’s administration wrote in a release.

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You can have an aisle seat, but it’ll cost you

By macleans.ca - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 8:57 AM - 0 Comments

The prices for airline seats within the same class go up and down depending on demand. Now the notion of “demand-based” pricing is extending to live theatres. Last year the Boston Ballet raked in an extra US$160,000 by charging more for much sought after shows and even seats within the same area of the theatre For example aisle seats fetch a higher premium just as aisle and exit-row seats do on jets. Theatres love it: New York City’s Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre added US$1.9 million in revenue in 2008. Can Canadian theatres be far behind?

The Dallas Morning News

Obamamania—with an asterisk

By macleans.ca - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 8:55 AM - 0 Comments

According to a new CBC/Ekos poll, Canadians still “have a crush on Obama” – but have deep concerns over some of his policies, particularly when it comes to NAFTA and Afghanistan. According to the survey, there is a “high level of worry” over the possibility that the president-elect will seek to reopen the trade deal: 62 per cent of those polled were “concerned or moderately concerned” that Canada would “suffer” as a result. On Afghanistan, the numbers show widespread resistance to the prospect of extending the mission past 2011. Fully 50 per cent of respondents would want Canada to refuse the president’s request, with just 33 per cent in favour.

CBC.ca

Rich men are better in bed

By macleans.ca - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 8:50 AM - 5 Comments

Are women hard-wired to be gold diggers? New research suggests they could be: according to the London Times, women have better sex with wealthy men. “Women’s orgasm frequency increases with the income of their partner,” said Newcastle University psychologist Thomas Pollet, who points to an  “evolutionary adaptation” that pushes women to choose men based on the perceived quality of their genes. Pollet’s research team tested the hypothesis using one of the world’s biggest lifestyle studies—the Chinese Health and Family Life Survey, which compiled information from 5,000 Chinese people (including 1,534 women with male partners) about their personal lives. While several factors were linked to female orgasm, they said, the man’s income was one of the main ones.
The Sunday Times

Get McCracken! Liveblogging the NDP's economic roundtable

By kadyomalley - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 8:34 AM - 12 Comments

ITQ heads to NDP caucus headquarters this morning for a pre-budget economic wonkfest, featuring the fiscally progressive stylings of various “high profile Canadian economists” – TD Financial’s Don Drummond, Lucie Lamarche from the University of Ottawa, pension specialist Bob Baldwin, and – of course – Mike McCracken from Infometrica.

C’mon, after all the griping we did about the closed-door consultations by the government, we couldn’t very well not show up, could we?

9:18:22 AM
Well, after an initial misadventure in lost-gettingness that was only ended by a last-minute rescue by NDP communications, I’ve made it inside the caucus room, and it didn’t even require a misdirected email to get here. Pretty much the entire caucus is here already, as is Jack Layton, as well as a good number of party officials, Hill staffers and – I’m surprised by how many of this last group – members of the media. Well, camera crews, at least. We’ll see how many stick it out for the duration. Full disclosure: If they spend more than three minutes on full accrual accounting, I may be the first to crack.

9:31:04 AM
StofferWatch: The NDP’s very own maverick is here and holding court with his colleagues at the back of the room – oh wait, he just scurried to his seat. There is absolutely no indication that he’s in trouble with the muckety-mucks. Make of that what you will.

9:32:22 AM

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The aftermath of the war in Gaza

By macleans.ca - Monday, January 19, 2009 at 8:30 AM - 0 Comments

With a fragile ceasefire holding in Gaza, large numbers of journalists are getting into the territory for the first time since the war began more than three weeks ago. They are now reporting on scenes devastation and loss as families search the rubble for bodies of their loved ones. At least 95 bodies have been recovered, 20 from the same family.

The New York Times