Minimal Sentimentality

I know you're busy today. Church. House chores. The first Sunday of the NFL season (i.e.The Campaign for Indifference in 2011 for Dallas Cowboys fans.). And I'm sure many of you are observing this historic day. Maybe a friend or loved one or colleague died on September 11, 2001. Perhaps you know of someone directly impacted by that day's happenings. Maybe you weren't affected but feel heartened by all that took place on that fateful Tuesday.

What today really means. What does it mean to you? I'll spare you the mushiness. It is simply for me, above all else, about appreciating what I have in front of me. Life. I woke up at a decent hour on the morning of September 11, 2001, but was literally oblivious to the world while I showered, got dressed, ate breakfast, read the paper and prepared for another typical long Tuesday at the office. I hadn't turned on the TV or radio. I hadn't checked my email yet. It was a crisp, beautiful morning here in San Antonio, blue skies, really couldn't have been any better weather-wise.

Then my cell phone went off. The number came in from my family's house. At that time, I was apprehensive anytime I got a call or email from my family's house here in town. I was cynical enough to think any such call or email would be about my mom or grandfather or some other close immediate family member being sick -- sick enough suddenly to warrant a trip to the ER. My mother, specifically, was a diabetic, dealing with circulation problems in her legs, arthritis and anxiety (she had been a manic depressive). Upon answering the phone, I heard my mother. She was inconsolable.

"They're bombing the World Trade Center," she cried. I thought to myself, "Who? Why? How? What's this? Is she exaggerating something?" This self-proclaimed news junkie had absolutely no clue what was happening that morning until maybe 9:30 local time. I turned on the TV. To show the gravity of the situation, no matter what station I flipped onto, the images were the same. Giant columns of smoke rising from Manhattan Island. Both towers had already collapsed. Firefighters were tending to the Pentagon. Cable TV news screen crawls had already become permanent fixtures. I pulled out blank videotapes and just began recording away, thinking...who knows what I was thinking then.

I drove to my family's home to see my loved ones. It was there for the first time I heard someone - my grandfather - utter the words "this is worse than Pearl Harbor." One of my aunts thought maybe this was the start of World War III. My mother lay in bed, still sobbing in a dark room. I told her everything would be fine. I did my best, as a loyal, loving son, to console my mother. We didn't know anyone who died that day. We really had no personal connection to it. But seeing the tears in my mom's eyes, I knew that something horrendous beyond scope had taken place and shook us all to our very core. I told my mom the people who truly loved her were still here on Earth with her and that, despite the attacks, we'd be fine. We, as a family, would be together strong and well.

I worked a long day and night helping to lay out the newspaper while monitoring the pre-social media Internet and whatever televised news I could find on the job. Once I got home that night, around midnight, I collapsed onto the floor and cried. Don't know why, really. Maybe I felt there was a need to sob with everyone else in the world.

I went outside briefly, sat on my porch and looked up into the night sky. I figured tomorrow, September 12, was another day. Mindy and I traveled to the northeast three summers ago, including a few days in New York where we briefly visited Ground Zero, where work crews were then busy prepping the solemn site for new construction. We reflected on the place, the remnants of a true American landmark. It was a cathartic experience.

Whereas 3,000 people who had plans with their families and friends and jobs September 10 no longer existed, the rest of us remaining on Earth have had to carry on and make the best of our lives. To love and find purpose in this world. To ensure that the level of hatred which drove the terrorists can never surpass our capacity for love, compassion and understanding. Some things have changed the past 10 years. What makes us positively human, for the better, haven’t.

That's all the seasonal blog updates for now. Peace out, amigos.

Motion Picture Meanderings

I've again fallen behind on my cinematic reviews. But to recap my late summer viewings, I enjoyed "Captain America" and "Cowboys and Aliens" more than I expected, more than what others should've anticipated. I joined the growing chorus of individuals who see "Captain America" as the best comic book film adaptation this year, not some gaudy, action-bloated romp. Plus it provides a fun link (along with the end credits trailer) to next year's release of "The Avengers." "Cowboys and Aliens," meanwhile was a thrilling adaptation of the graphic novel -- a risky hybrid that understandably could turn off a variety of Western fans and sci-fi geeks. But the movie somehow works. It's disappointing yet not shocking it didn't get bigger box office returns.

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes," too, was better than I had hoped but it also stopped short of epic. It nearly wiped out the nasty taste in everyone's mouths left by Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes" remake, and ROTPOTA also gives well-intentioned nods to the classic flicks. If you can get past the wooden lead acting performances, you find a compelling albeit unoriginal story of man's attempt to overcome and even control nature. Yet, the movie's climactic action piece feels rush and incomplete, even with the reveal through the end credits of how mankind finally gives way to simian rule on Earth.

As for "Contagion," I'm relieved to report it isn't a loose remake of "Outbreak." It's a quality thriller for our times, reflecting fears of how an infectious virus could easily become a global plague. Director Steven Soderbergh seamlessly weaves points of view of various characters, portrayed by an all-star case, together into a not-so-sentimental story of human survival. It's neither brilliant nor tremendously provocative, but serves as passable entertainment.

I can't say enough about "Horrible Bosses." Very fun, entertaining and hilarious. Jennifer Aniston is so much better and funnier when she's NOT in a contrived romantic comedy. All of it was so wrong yet so right.

Late summer television-watching has been topsy-turvy. The fourth season of "True Blood," coming to an end, has been a wild, wacky ride, one that makes me guess what kind of fabled supernatural "villain" could next become the focus of a whole new season of episodes. Vampires, werewolves, shape-shifters, fairies, and now, witches and mediums. Whatever dangerous charms of vampirism from the first 2 seasons have faded into the background, used more now as plot devices. Hopefully the fifth season will feature a bit more focused story development.

Oh, how I really wanted to love "Torchwood: Miracle Day." (Spoiler alert!) From the get-go, it was a difficult task to top the previous "series" of "Torchwood." "Children of Earth" was so immensely badass. The minute it was reported that Americans and the Starz Channel would anchor a new season of "Torchwood," I'm sure many of us fans had our doubts. Indeed, whatever beautiful "Britishness" the show has died a slow death. It was a contrived mess, all told, with some troubling performances (I'm looking at you, Bill Pullman and Lauren Ambrose) and weirder guest star casting (Mare Winningham? Wayne Knight? Frances Fisher?)

Away from BBC's supervision, the Americanized "Torchwood" went with some uninspired subplots, lame attempts at humor and, shockingly, full-on sex scenes. And we're talking man on man action. We knew about Captain Jack Harkness' preferences and have seen tiny bits of his flirtatious demonstrations, but never did I imagine seeing him go at it with a guy. Not once but twice. Whoa, nelly.

It's too bad. "Miracle Day" held a philosophically intriguing premise -- what if everyone on Earth simply, inexplicably, stopped dying one day? People "dying" would have to be categorized, quarantined in some way and even "dealt with eventually." A new layer of bureaucracy had to be developed. There'd be no more murder or suicide. As the population grew, there'd be a run on basic resources across the world, from food and water to medicine. Religions would have to rethink their concept of death and the beyond.

While Jack and Gwen Cooper got to kick some ass, they got sucked into American machismo realized by CIA agents. They also got sucked into this narrative storyline reflecting modern-day concerns about government and capitalism run amok. As one Twitterer commented: "Imagine you want to make a sci-fi show, yeah! Imagine nobody dies anymore, yeah! Imagine a mysterious, malevolent corporation being responsible for it all, yeah!"

And alas, thanks to roughly 15-20 minutes of deux es machina in the final episode, all was explained and it wasn't a mere mysterious, malevolent corporation behind "Miracle Day." But it wasn't an extraterrestrial nor supernatural thing responsible for it, neither. In fact, nobody -- not even the writers -- could explain or destroy it. The nefarious subplots featured in the earlier episodes made more non-sense in the end. I'm still a "Torchwood" fan, but unless BBC takes it back totally under its control, I fear for its future. (OK, end spoiler alert.)

Now that "True Blood" and "Torchwood" are concluding for another year, I look forward to new episodes of "Boardwalk Empire," "Squidbillies," "South Park," "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," "Superjail," "Archer," and the usual Sunday night Fox fare. I'm waiting for "Doctor Who" to really ramp things up during its remaining few episodes in 2011, and I applaud "Futurama," "Wilfred" and "Death Valley," The latter two shows, particularly, are so overwhelmingly "wrong" yet hilarious in their execution.

Regarding new shows on the broadcast networks, I may give "Terra Nova" and "Persons of Interest" a try, but I've been burned the last couple of years by "FastForward" and the "V" reboot, so I may just have to lean only on "Fringe" for broadcast network non-cartoon TV entertainment this fall/winter. Additionally, I'm steering clear on the broadcast network's efforts to rip of "Mad Men," namely "Pan Am" and "The Playboy Club." If you need "Mad Men," just wait for its return in a few months after AMC rolls out a new season of "The Walking Dead." Be patient. A new season of soul-deadening Don Draper will be here before you know it.