Rant & Link Dump

Quick detour before I get back to the movie reviews. A TV heads-up and some links:

'I SURVIVED...'

I wanted tell everybody (anybody?) out there about a great show on TV which nobody knows about. You won't see many ads for 'I Survived...'. And since it's on BIO (Channel 266 on DirecTv), you probably don't stumble onto it much. But it's good, real good. It features people who have survived unbelievably dire circumstances -- being shot in the head, or stabbed in the throat, stranded in shark-infested waters for hours on end, trapped under ice, arm caught in farm equipment, huge metal hook stuck in your throat (that was a good one). People have been kidnapped, raped, left for dead, and yet everyone on the show found some way to stay alive.

In this week's episode, there was a guy who had a female stalker pay someone to shoot him -- six times -- and after he somehow recovered, she poisoned him -- three times -- and still, there he was to tell his story to the cameras. Almost without fail, it is an amazing, inspiring hour of television. There is on occasion, however, a story so gruesome, that the payoff doesn't really make it worth the ride. Some are stories where most people involved died, limbs are sometimes lost, and in one truly unbelievable story, a woman was splashed in the face with battery acid -- on two separate occasions -- and was badly disfigured.

Even in the worst cases, though, it shows the unthinkable limits humans can go through to survive. The unbelievable resiliency of the human spirit. It's really quite a show.

LINKS

--Some dude in Jersey named his kid "Adolf Hitler" and wonders why he can't get a birthday cake with his name on it.

--John Woo is ahead of his time, but only by 11 years: The nation's first face transplant just happened.

--This story seems depressing -- because it is -- but there's one redeeming element that saves it for me: This little girl wrote a letter to Santa, and got exactly what she wanted this Christmas. In this fucked-up world we live in, sometimes you have to look pretty hard for a silver lining.

--Ever wonder what it takes to work for the CIA? Here's a primer.

Rituals

I'm a big fan of traditions, rituals, and anything which gives me a sense of constancy is this ever-changing world. I love to do the same things year after year, hewing as closely to the specifics of past incarnations of the same activity as possible. Today, I engaged in two of my favorite long-time rituals -- one planned and one as spontaneous as any event that happens every year can be.

The first: buying and decorating our Christmas tree. Every year around this time my wife and I drive to the same parking lot across from the Hollywood Bowl to buy our tree (that's it in the photo). because we're moving, this is probably the last year we will, so it was a little bittersweet when the lady remembered us, and wished us a Merry Christmas. Today, we decorated the tree while the lights blinked and little box attached to them played a medley Christmas Carols, as always. The TV was on in the background, as it usually is, and a program was on which I have never once planned to watch, but always have.

Year in, year out, I consistently find myself on the couch in front of the TV on a Saturday this time of year, searching for some decent sports to watch after college football has started its pre-bowl hiatus, and I always seem to find the same thing: The Ironman Triathalon. It never fails to suck me in, and make me care about its participants. There are always a string of inspiring backstories, each more heartrending than the last. It's a wonderful thing when you care less about who wins, and more about who can simply finish. There are no losers in this sport, just admirable competitors overcoming long -- sometime unbelievable -- odds. My favorites this year included a paraplegic former-motocross kicker, a 72-year old lady, and a one-legged man. That's the kind of drama, loving narrated by the underrated Al Trautwig, that brings a mist to the eyes.

Speaking of inspiring and misty eyes, I stumbled across Jim Valvano's legendary speech at the first ESPY's when receiving the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, and announcing the start of the Jimmy V Foundation for cancer research. It's something I try to watch once a year or so, usually around the holidays. It never fails to move me, and forces me to -- if just momentarily -- appreciate what I have rather than take it for granted.



I've made it to the theater a couple of times this week, and also got my hands on some Academy screener DVD's, so in the next week or two you can expect reviews of the following: 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', 'Milk', 'Gran Torino', 'Doubt', 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and more.