Entertainment

Perhaps the complete antithesis of The Kite Runner, the other book I read over this past Christmas holidays was "Aloha Magnum: Larry Manetti's Magnum, P.I. Memories." I've always been a big fan of Magnum, and some day I'll visit Hawaii. I enjoyed the book, but it's definitely for fanboys only.

Last night I finished watching Spartan (2004, R) with Val Kilmer. Another decent action flick. It was directed by Mamet who's done several other things I've liked including Heist (2001), State and Main (2000), and Oleanna (1994). I give it 3 out of 5.

From a Reuters article on AOL News by Rebecca Harrision:

Billed as the world's first black Jesus movie, "Son of Man" portrays Christ as a modern African revolutionary and aims to shatter the Western image of a placid savior with fair hair and blue eyes. The South African film, which premieres on Sunday at the U.S. Sundance festival in Utah, transports the life and death of Christ from first century Palestine to a contemporary African state racked by war and poverty. Jesus is born in a shanty-town shed, a far cry from a manger in a Bethlehem stable. His mother Mary is a virgin, though feisty enough to argue with the angels. Gun-wielding authorities fear his message of equality and he ends up hanging on a cross. "We wanted to look at the gospels as if they were written by spindoctors and to strip that away and look at the truth," director Mark Dornford-May told Reuters in an interview. "The truth is that Christ was born in an occupied state and preached equality at a time when that wasn't very acceptable." By portraying Jesus as a black African, Dornford-May hopes to sharpen the political context of the gospels, when Israel was under Roman occupation, and challenge Western perceptions of Christ as meek, mild and European. "We have to accept that Christ has been hijacked a bit -- he's gone very blonde haired and blue-eyed," he said. "The important thing about the message of Christ was that it is universal. It doesn't matter what he looked like."

From an AP story on Yahoo News, "TV Dramas Teach Criminals How to Cover Up" by Joe Milicia:

When Tammy Klein began investigating crime scenes eight years ago, it was virtually unheard of for a killer to use bleach to clean up a bloody mess. Today, the use of bleach, which destroys DNA, is not unusual in a planned homicide, said the senior criminalist from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Klein and other experts attribute such sophistication to television crime dramas like "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," which give criminals helpful tips on how to cover up evidence. Prosecutors have complained for years about "the CSI effect" on juries - an expectation in every trial for the type of high-tech forensic evidence the show's investigators uncover. It also appears the popular show and its two spinoffs could be affecting how some crimes are committed. "They're actually educating these potential killers even more," said Capt. Ray Peavy, also of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and head of the homicide division. "Sometimes I believe it may even encourage them when they see how simple it is to get away with on television."

The article then goes on to describe a specific case of "...a man charged in a recent double-homicide in northeast Ohio was a "CSI" fan and went to great lengths to cover his tracks."

A couple weeks back we watched a three-part documentary shown on Frontline on PBS. It was called "Country Boys." It's available to watch online here. We really enjoyed it. Filmed over three years (1999-2002), it follows the stories of Chris and Cody as they struggle to make it through the high school years in rural eastern Kentucky. From the PBS web site:

Cody Perkins is an orphan. His mother's postpartum suicide left the infant boy in the care of his father, who, 12 years later, killed his seventh wife before turning the gun on himself. Bounced around among relatives he barely knew, Cody eventually chose to live with his former step-grandmother, Liz McGuire, who took the troubled boy into her home. "My daughter married Cody's father. She was his fourth wife [and] I fell in love with Cody," Liz recalls. "When Cody's father passed away, he went to live with his aunt. They couldn't get along, and Cody said, 'I want to move in with Liz.' So he's been with me [ever since]." Offering unconditional love and strict maternal guidance, Liz helps transform Cody from an angry, depressed child into a compassionate young adult. Chris Johnson lives in a rundown trailer in a Kentucky "holler" with his mother, Sheila, a high school dropout who cleans hotel rooms for a living, and his father, Randall, an alcoholic with terminal cirrhosis of the liver. With his mother often absent and his father lost in an alcoholic haze, Chris finds himself thrust into the role of both mother and father -- cooking, cleaning, and taking care of his younger siblings. He also supports the family financially with the monthly Social Security disability check he receives for his learning disorders.