Mexico City approves gay marriage

With an overwhelming majority, the capital of Mexico has approved gay marriage and gay adoptions!!

Joining only seven countries and five U.S. states, Mexico City's legislative assembly voted overwhelmingly Monday to legalize gay marriage.

The vote changed the definition of marriage in the city's civil code from being between a man and a woman to "the free uniting of two people." Assembly members also approved a resolution allowing married gay couples to legally adopt children.
[...]
Canada, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium permit gay marriage as do the U.S. states of Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and New Hampshire (starting in 2010).

Monday's measure was adopted after two hours of heated debate in which legislators publicly questioned one another's sexual preferences and activities.

"For centuries unjust laws banned marriage between blacks and whites or Indians and Europeans. Today all barriers have disappeared," legislator Victor Romo, a member of the left-leaning majority, told the Associated Press.

Mexico City's assembly had legalized civil unions for gay couples and other non-traditional relationships for Mexico City residents three years ago. The civil union status stopped short of outright marriage, which in addition to adoption includes greater guarantees for inheritance and other rights and obligations.

Monday's vote joins other actions by the capital's government that have raised both eyebrows and hackles in overwhelmingly Roman Catholic and socially conservative Mexico.

Although the mayor belongs to the conservative party, which voted against the law, he's expected to sign it into law.

This isn't stopping the Catholic Church from opposing it obviously, but it looks like we won a big victory here. After all this is the capital of a big country, and what goes on here likely influences the country as a whole.

In Memoriam

Brittany Murphy
1977 - 2009

Another artist taken too soon by a sudden death that left me pondering once more how you really never know when your time is up.

While still very young, Brittany Murphy had a chance to work in several movies, showing us a very promising raw talent. I remember her from Girl, Interrupted, in which she played opposite Angelina Jolie, and in Don't Say a Word, costarring Michael Douglas. She was also, among others, in Clueless with Alicia Silverstone and 8 Mile with Eminem.

The cause of death seeems cardiac arrest.

R.I.P.

How much sugar do foods contain?

I always check the sugar content of the foods and beverages I consume, but this visual display is much more striking and it certainly is more effective in actually gauging how much of it we consume.

You can find more here:

Washington, DC joins the club of the enlighted

Last Thursday the mayor singed the gay-marriage bill that will become law in 30 days unless Congress stops it, which looks unlikely:

In a raucous signing ceremony at a northwest Washington church, Mayor Fenty officially legalized same-sex marriage in the District, distributing ceremonial pens among the Council members standing behind him. The law now will go through a period of review consisting of 30 days in which Congress is in session. If the law passes that hurdle -- as is widely expected -- the first gay marriages in the District could take in late winter or early spring of 2010.
[...]
In his opening remarks, Fenty recalled that when his own parents were married, many states would have refused to recognize their bonds. Fenty's father is black, while his mother is white.

"Today an era of struggle ends for thousands of D.C. residents," he said. "Our city is taking a leap forward."

Several religious bigots have obviously tried their best to either stop or derail this legislation from going through, but it looks like their efforts might be in vain.

Equality wins this one!

Can a drink equal a meal's calorie intake?

Sure it can, if it's of the following list (and some of these are downed by us as we would a glass of water):

The Worst Drinks in America

Fortunately, I only drink a couple of the drinks listed, and even those, only occasionally.

How much soda do you drink in a day?

Videos for thought ...

90 Seconds From Catastrophe

I came across this report funded by NASA and issued by the US National Academy of Sciences about solar storms and how a big one, which isn't as remote a possibility as one might think, could wipe life as we know it from our planet and give us as little as 90 seconds as an alert.

Read on:

Within a few seconds, electric bulbs dim and flicker, then become unusually bright for a fleeting moment. Then all the lights in the state go out. Within 90 seconds, the entire eastern half of the US is without power.

A year later and millions of Americans are dead and the nation's infrastructure lies in tatters. The World Bank declares America a developing nation. Europe, Scandinavia, China and Japan are also struggling to recover from the same fateful event - a violent storm, 150 million kilometres away on the surface of the sun.
[...]
Over the last few decades, western civilisations have busily sown the seeds of their own destruction. Our modern way of life, with its reliance on technology, has unwittingly exposed us to an extraordinary danger: plasma balls spewed from the surface of the sun could wipe out our power grids, with catastrophic consequences.
[...]
It is hard to conceive of the sun wiping out a large amount of our hard-earned progress. Nevertheless, it is possible. The surface of the sun is a roiling mass of plasma - charged high-energy particles - some of which escape the surface and travel through space as the solar wind. From time to time, that wind carries a billion-tonne glob of plasma, a fireball known as a coronal mass ejection. If one should hit the Earth's magnetic shield, the result could be truly devastating.

The incursion of the plasma into our atmosphere causes rapid changes in the configuration of Earth's magnetic field which, in turn, induce currents in the long wires of the power grids. The grids were not built to handle this sort of direct current electricity.
[...]
There are two problems to face. The first is the modern electricity grid, which is designed to operate at ever higher voltages over ever larger areas. Though this provides a more efficient way to run the electricity networks, minimising power losses and wastage through overproduction, it has made them much more vulnerable to space weather.
[...]
The second problem is the grid's interdependence with the systems that support our lives: water and sewage treatment, supermarket delivery infrastructures, power station controls, financial markets and many others all rely on electricity. Put the two together, and it is clear that a repeat of the Carrington event could produce a catastrophe the likes of which the world has never seen. "It's just the opposite of how we usually think of natural disasters," says John Kappenman, a power industry analyst with the Metatech Corporation of Goleta, California, and an advisor to the NAS committee that produced the report. "Usually the less developed regions of the world are most vulnerable, not the highly sophisticated technological regions."

According to the NAS report, a severe space weather event in the US could induce ground currents that would knock out 300 key transformers within about 90 seconds, cutting off the power for more than 130 million people (see map). From that moment, the clock is ticking for America.

And everywhere else everything depends on electricity. Water would stop flowing through pipes. Electrically powered transportation would halt immediately, followed in short order by everything else, since no more gas could be pumped out of the ground. Supermarket shelves would empty within hours. Hospitals (and all places equipped with power generators) would keep operating for 72 hours, after which people would start to die off.

The biggest problem is that the lack of power would last for months or years, not just days. Once a power station transformers have been burned, they cannot be fixed, they need to be replaced and there aren't that many around, just as there aren't that many crews of trained individuals who could do the work.

Power production itself would halt:

Almost all natural gas and fuel pipelines require electricity to operate. Coal-fired power stations usually keep reserves to last 30 days, but with no transport systems running to bring more fuel, there will be no electricity in the second month.

Nuclear power stations wouldn't fare much better. They are programmed to shut down in the event of serious grid problems and are not allowed to restart until the power grid is up and running.

With no power for heating, cooling or refrigeration systems, people could begin to die within days.
[...]
Help is not coming any time soon, either. If it is dark from the eastern seaboard to Chicago, some affected areas are hundreds, maybe thousands of miles away from anyone who might help. And those willing to help are likely to be ill-equipped to deal with the sheer scale of the disaster. "If a Carrington event happened now, it would be like a hurricane Katrina, but 10 times worse," says Paul Kintner, a plasma physicist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

In reality, it would be much worse than that. Hurricane Katrina's societal and economic impact has been measured at $81 billion to $125 billion. According to the NAS report, the impact of what it terms a "severe geomagnetic storm scenario" could be as high as $2 trillion. And that's just the first year after the storm. The NAS puts the recovery time at four to 10 years. It is questionable whether the US would ever bounce back.

Similar issues would apply primarily to China and Europe. Imagine what would happen to the worldwide economy if the US, China and Europe went suddenly dark.

It's really frightening. Are there any good news? Hardly:

By far the most important indicator of incoming space weather is NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE). The probe, launched in 1997, has a solar orbit that keeps it directly between the sun and Earth. Its uninterrupted view of the sun means it gives us continuous reports on the direction and velocity of the solar wind and other streams of charged particles that flow past its sensors. ACE can provide between 15 and 45 minutes' warning of any incoming geomagnetic storms. The power companies need about 15 minutes to prepare their systems for a critical event, so that would seem passable.

However, observations of the sun and magnetometer readings during the Carrington event shows that the coronal mass ejection was travelling so fast it took less than 15 minutes to get from where ACE is positioned to Earth. "It arrived faster than we can do anything," Hapgood says.

And ACE is way past its lifetime expectancy, which means it's not totally reliable and could fail at any minute, and there's no replacement on the horizon.

Scientists who looked at the report said it's not far fetched or exaggerated and they all agree that educating the public and, most importantly, policymakers on the dangers isn't easy because a similar even never happened (that we know of, I'd add) and might not happen for decades to come, but that doesn't mean it won't happen.

And if it does, the experts say "A really large storm could be a planetary disaster."

Isn't that enough to start planning to build a new satellite for early warning and to start thinking of safety systems to install on the electrical grids across the globe?

Regular Guys

A ho-hum gay themed, light comedy that isn't ugly and isn't pretty. It just is.

A police officer is kicked out by his girlfriend and ends up being taken in by a gay guy who very quickly falls for him, even though he knows there's no future for them.

A similarly bland police investigation plays in the background, but neither stories capture one's attention too much.

Fortunately, and counter to what one might expect, the last half hour actually improves and the less dull ending leaves you barely satisfied.

Still, I wouldn't bother.

Grade: 5

I Am Legend

An interesting, sobering, and scary look at what could happen if something went wrong with one of the many genetic engineering experiments undertaken daily, all the more current give the H1N1 scare we are still living under.

In a future that feels all too real, Will Smith is the lone sane human being still roaming the streets of New York City with his faithful four-legged companion.

From the well interspersed flashbacks we get glimpses of what happened to his family and to humanity, and slowly come to understand his plight. We also feel progressively dragged into his state of mind and the way he sees his fate and duty.

Fundamentally a Smith vehicle, he does a good job of acting and honorably carries the movie on his broad, well toned shoulders.

The movie is also quite scary at times, so it's not for the faint of heart, but I felt a little let down by the rabid humans' visual effects, which felt too fake to be taken totally seriously.

Grade: 7

Fantastic Mr. Fox

The kids love the book on which this movie is based, so we took them to the theater, but I seemed to be the one who enjoyed this the most.

While I was at first a little taken aback by the rough animation style (stop animation), which is radically different from what one is now used to with Pixar's style of sleek and polished computer animation, I quickly grew to love it. It actually felt fresh, totally realistic, and very life like.

The story is witty and sweet and there's a lot of action, so there's something for everybody. The movie is well written, well directed and well acted, which is the perfect trifecta.

A nice little animated gem.

Grade: 8

Deal Breaker, by Harlan Coben

A fairly interesting thriller that has wit and humor besides suspense, but I have a couple gripes.

The first is that there are 3 stories running in parallel. Usually you have either a standalone story or the main story supported by a secondary one that is sometimes simply meant as a filler. Here we have 2 supporting stories that are barely useful. One of them doesn't even get full closure by the end.

The second one is that I figured out a key point of the plot way early, which is never a good feature for a thriller.

Having said that, however, it's still a good read.

Grade: 7

When law discriminates

Ray and I were interviewed by Jackie Linge, an up-and-coming documentarian we met at the National Equality March for gay rights in Washington DC back on October 10, 2009.

She later came to our house for a longer interview and this is a short photo essay she put together. She'll be working on a long form documentary next:

Transformers

I am no Michael Bay fan, in fact, I consider him a director who cannot make a movie without an onslaught of eye raping visual effects, which is the only reason why I rented this movie.

Naturally, I got what I was looking for, but not an iota more, which only confirms my opinion of Bay.

The concept isn't new -- an alien race whose world was destroyed faces off on our planet -- and works considerably well, even though there are lingering questions about how the robots avoided detection for so long.

The execution is good, meaning that the visual effects are quite awesome, but the script is quite light too, leaving the actors to, at times, utter sentences that make your eyes roll toward the ceiling.

Shia LaBeouf, a decent actor for what I've seen so far, can't be blamed for signing up to play a role in a multimillion dollar franchise with the potential to propel his fame worldwide, but I doubt he will be remembered for this role.

Even less can be said of Megan Fox, who was utterly unknown before this role and whose only credit seems to be her beauty. But this being a Michael Bay movie, what can you expect.

In the end, the visual effects, which as I said are pretty powerful, are the real protagonists here, but I wouldn't put them in the same league as those from Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings.

See it only if you like visual dazzle and you can stomach a bland mix of nothing else, otherwise skip it.

Grade: 5

Déjà Vu

This movie is entertaining but, because of the central concept from which the title is derived, it requires the viewer to open his mind more than the average Denzel Washington thriller.

The only problem I had with the film was that I found it slightly predictable at times, but I still liked it.

Washington is good as usual, while Val Kilmer seemed slightly subdued. No one else is of note, except for the magnetic James Caviezel, whose part is, alas, too small to make it justice.

Overall enjoyable.

Grade: 7

Into the Wild

Prodded by my friend Vittorio, who seemed to be quite impressed by the protagonist's full-primordial-nature-immersion experience, I rented this movie and was pleased.

Directed by Sean Penn, an actor a like a lot, it deals with the real story of Chris McCandless, who graduates from college and seems poised to have a successful future when he suddenly runs away. His experiences and the people he meets along the way make for an exceptional adventure.

McCandless is played by Emile Hirsch, who is destined to have a great acting career based on the talents displayed here. The supporting actors are all excellent, but their parts are quite small, while Hirsch carries the vast majority of the film on his shoulders alone.

Penn, who also wrote the movie, fully captures the appeal and the drama of a life turned upside down by the decision of a guy to live his life according to his convictions and not to what's expected of him by our society.

The beauty of nature, untouched and unspoiled by man, is breathtaking. McCandless' experiences are as well.

Grade: 7

Transamerica

I wanted to see this movie for a while because I had heard the Felicity Huffman is great in it, and I like her very much from watching Desperate Housewives, a once great show that I have now cut from my roster because it has degenerated into a carousel of totally stereotypical characters playing situations that repeat themselves to death.

As I expected, Huffman is excellent in the role of a man who is transitioning into a woman. When we first meet Bree, every hint of manhood is either gone or skillfully hidden. She's getting ready to undergo the final step, the surgery that will once and for all rid her of the one physical characteristic that makes her male to the world, but a problem arises. A problem she is grudgingly forced to deal with and that might alter her life forever.

Huffman is incredibly believable as a transgender male, and the adventures she finds herself living across the country endear her to us more and more. Kevin Zegers as her previously unknown son is also good and plays the role of a naive misfit with too many dreams quite well.

A very good movie.

Grade: 8

Finally

A wonderful ode to gay marriage:

Is homosexuality a lifestyle?

It is according to many on the religious right, but if you ask any gay or lesbian individual, they'll undoubtedly tell you it's not.

Homosexuality is not a choice, it's a personality trait you're born with, just like some people are born optimists and others pessimists.

Here's a very interesting video on the developments of scientific research into the topic. Twins were analyzed. One is gay and the other straight.

Watch:

The US Health Care debacle

Coming from a country that offers health care and seeing how it does work, for everyone, and you still have to option of going the private route, I always thought it was mind boggling that the US didn't have nationalized health care, especially since there are so many working models out there that prove that it can be successfully done.

Today I ready this from Rawstory that supports my thinking:

The United States is the world's richest nation but the only industrialized democracy that does not provide health care coverage to all of its citizens, about 36 million of whom are uninsured.

Several US presidents since Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900s have sought to overcome the traditional US suspicion of a wider government role in health care.

Washington spends more than double what Britain, France, and Germany do per person on health care, but lags behind other countries in life expectancy and infant mortality, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Makes you wonder why Americans are so afraid of something millions of people enjoy worldwide.

Clearly, the health insurance industry in this country excels at spreading falsehoods and fears in the minds of the population, and it works really well.

I doubt that a public options will ever be set up in the US, and that's unfortunate.

Eat more curry!

A new report highlights the benefits of eating foods spiced with curry:

An extract found in the bright yellow curry spice turmeric can kill off cancer cells, scientists have shown.

The chemical - curcumin - has long been thought to have healing powers and is already being tested as a treatment for arthritis and even dementia.

Now tests by a team at the Cork Cancer Research Centre show it can destroy gullet cancer cells in the lab.

Cancer experts said the findings in the British Journal of Cancer could help doctors find new treatments.

Dr Sharon McKenna and her team found that curcumin started to kill cancer cells within 24 hours.
[...]
The cells also began to digest themselves, after the curcumin triggered lethal cell death signals.

Great news for lovers of Indian cuisine, in which curry is a staple.

Outrage

In his latest documentary filmmaker Kirby Dick takes aim at the hypocrisy of closeted gay politicians who vote against their community's best interest in order to keep their jobs and powerful positions.

The targets are mostly Republicans, given the despicable practice of the GOP of using gay rights to rile up its base and elect more conservatives.

The information presented is pretty much all in the public domain, out there for anyone wanting to see it, but apparently a lot of conservative voters are more than happy to turn a blind eye on behavior they deem inappropriate, as long as the person doing it votes the way they want them to.

The main criticism of the documentary is that it's not good or useful to out people who haven't decided to come out on their own; that the act of coming out is so personal and life altering that no one has the right to make that decision for you.

I do agree with those statements when they relate to people who do not harm anyone by staying in the closet, but in the case of these sleazy individuals who are just like me and vote against me over and over and over again, I believe they lose their right to privacy, so I applaud this type of action whenever it's warranted.

The information is presented effectively and directly and it's quite the eye opener. An indictment of all those people who will stop at nothing in their quest to gain and keep power.

I wonder how they sleep at night knowing that what they do goes against their own well being and that sooner or later someone might come along who will crush their dream life and job to smithereens .

Grade: 8

101 Dalmatians

I finally saw this Walt Disney classic about the most adorable group of puppies ever assembled!

The movie is very cute, even though it feels dated, which isn't surprising since it's from 1961.

The story is simple, funny, and entertaining and it's narrated from the point of view of the dogs themselves, rather than their human counterparts, which is something I didn't expect.

The only gripe I have is that Cruella De Vil isn't properly punished in the end, but simply stopped for the time being. That left me wanting better closure, but I guess that's how the original story went.

A good movie for the family viewing.

Grade: 7

Hate Crimes legislation approved by Congress

It now goes to President Obama, who has promised to sign it.

According to HRC, the largest GLBT organization in the US, this was the "first major piece of civil rights legislation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people."

From CNN:

The Senate passed groundbreaking legislation Thursday that would make it a federal crime to assault an individual because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity.

The bill is named for Matthew Shepard, a gay teenager who was beaten to death in 1998.

The expanded federal hate crimes law now goes to President Obama's desk. Obama has pledged to sign the measure, which was added to a $680 billion defense authorization bill.

President George W. Bush had threatened to veto a similar measure.

The bill is named for Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming teenager who died after being kidnapped and severely beaten in October 1998, and James Byrd Jr., an African-American man dragged to death in Texas the same year.

"Knowing that the president will sign it, unlike his predecessor, has made all the hard work this year to pass it worthwhile," said Judy Shepard, board president of the Matthew Shepard Foundation named for her son. "Hate crimes continue to affect far too many Americans who are simply trying to live their lives honestly, and they need to know that their government will protect them from violence, and provide appropriate justice for victims and their families."

Finally some progress on our behalf at the federal level.

The Choice, by Nicholas Sparks

Ray bought me this book because he knows I really liked the other two books by Sparks I read (The Wedding and At First Sight).

This one is good, but not excellent. It's a nice love story and the characters are very cute and relatable, but the vast majority of the book takes place in just over one weekend, and I felt like what happened (and it's a lot) was a bit rushed and a little too far-fetched.

At any rate, it is a good read and if you like Sparks you won't be disappointed.

The core question of the book, How far should you go in the name of love, is certainly something that stays with you.

Grade: 7

National Equality March on Washington

The whole family attended the National Equality March on Washington last October 11^th and it was a great experience.

Here's a beautiful video montage of the several speeches that were given:

Anastasia

I knew the story of the Russian princess Anastasia from the 1956 live action version with Ingrid Bergman and Yul Brinner, but this animated adaptation works well for a young audience.

After Rasputin successfully incites a revolt against the Russian Czar, the entire royal family is murdered, except for the Queen Mother, who escapes to Paris, France, and Anastasia, who is separated from her grandmother and remains in Russia.

The movie tells the story of how Anastasia, who has lost all memory of that fateful night along with her past, will finally reunite with her grandmother and find love in the process.

A good movie for the whole family.

Grade: 7

Two Little Girls in Blue, by Mary Higgins Clark

The first book I ever read by Higgins Clark, Two Little Girls in Blue has a good premise and great execution. It's a thriller that will keep you hooked to the story of these two little girls from beginning to end.

The characters are all well developed and a special mention goes to the reader, Jan Maxwell, who does a great job of giving each character its own voice and personality, helping you to easily keep track of who is doing what and when.

A very good read.

Grade: 8

Lakeview Terrace

An interesting take on the racism experienced by an interracial couple at the hands of a black man rather than the usual white bigot.

The movie doesn't really break any ground and is not particularly memorable, but it does make you wonder what one could do to defend himself against an obnoxious, violent, mentally unstable neighbor, especially when the guy happens to be a cop, which means that he's presumed to be the good guy.

Samuel L. Jackson is great as usual as the bad guy, and the gorgeously handsome Patrick Wilson holds his own against him. Kerry Washington as Wilson's wife is good as well, but somehow ends up playing more of a supporting role in spite of being on screen almost as much as Wilson himself.

Overall a decent movie that will keep you on edge for a couple hours.

Grade: 7

Dude, Where's My Country?, by Michael Moore

This book refers to the dreadful period following the fateful terrorist attacks of 9/11 in the US, so it's a little old, but it's still totally relevant, given that Bush was in office just 10 months ago.

Moore talks about the damage Bush was able to do to the country he loves in the name of national security, all the while helping his rich friends and even our alleged enemies in the Middle East.

This book is guaranteed to make your blood boil with its revelations and considerations, but I believe to be aware is better than to be ignorant.

Don't miss it.

Grade: 8

Balto

I've always been curious about the story of Balto. I know there's a statue of him in New York City's Central Park, which always made me wonder, Why would a cartoon character receive such an honor? Perhaps there is more to this than an animated character. And apparently there is, since the movie is based on a real story.

Being an older movie, the animation is in the classic 2D format, but like I said in the past, the amount of polish doesn't matter if the story itself is good and well told, and this one is.

Balto, a dog/wolf mix, doesn't feel at home with either dogs or wolves and is shunned by everyone except for a small group of friends. The day will come, however, when Balto will rise to the occasion, face his nemesis, and gain the respect he long deserved.

The movie is good and it's perfect for family viewing.

Grade: 7

Reservation Road

Given the cast, I expected better from this movie, but right from the initial "shocker" (actually, not much of a shocker if you see it coming from a mile), I could tell that I'd be disappointed. And I was right.

The actors try their hardest, and both Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo are pretty good. Jennifer Connelly instead is just average, as usual -- I still think it's a travesty that she has won an Oscar ...

Therefore, once again, it's the screenplay that fails to deliver. It feels like reheated, week-old leftovers and its attempt to add new angles falls flat. By the time the closing credits start rolling you feel drained by the obvious drama, but upset by a lack of originality and the inability of the writers to give us more substance.

Nothing that happens is a surprise, and we're asked to suspend our disbelief more than we should be willing to oblige.

You can safely skip this lame attempt at dramatic filmmaking.

Grade: 4

The Time Traveler's Wife

Vittorio and I picked this movie as the only available "double" feature, otherwise it probably wouldn't be in this list, in spite of the super-handsome Eric Bana (whose role requires him to completely undress several times).

The story doesn't amount to much really. There is this guy who, occasionally, time travels to the future or the past for a little while before returning to his correct time. Whenever he travels, he sheds all his clothing, which represents perhaps 80% of the motivation for watching this lukewarm product.

At some point he meets a girl and a somewhat interesting mystery mixes up with their romantic involvement. I won't say more, but obviously it has to do with the time travel ability and their meeting each other.

The acting isn't bad, but the script is too weak to sustain any real interest and a few glaring holes dampen its effectiveness.

Grade: 5

The recreation of a fake

A scientist was apparently able to create a new version of the famous Shroud of Turin by using methods available in the Middle Ages, the time in which the Shroud was created according to carbon dating performed independently by three laboratories. That would be over 1,200 years after the death of the man whose body the Shroud supposedly was wrapped around.

From Yahoo! News:

An Italian scientist says he has reproduced the Shroud of Turin, a feat that he says proves definitively that the linen some Christians revere as Jesus Christ's burial cloth is a medieval fake.

The shroud, measuring 14 feet, 4 inches by 3 feet, 7 inches bears the image, eerily reversed like a photographic negative, of a crucified man some believers say is Christ.

"We have shown that is possible to reproduce something which has the same characteristics as the Shroud," Luigi Garlaschelli, who is due to illustrate the results at a conference on the para-normal this weekend in northern Italy, said on Monday.
[...]
The Shroud of Turin shows the back and front of a bearded man with long hair, his arms crossed on his chest, while the entire cloth is marked by what appears to be rivulets of blood from wounds in the wrists, feet and side.

Carbon dating tests by laboratories in Oxford, Zurich and Tucson, Arizona in 1988 caused a sensation by dating it from between 1260 and 1390. Sceptics said it was a hoax, possibly made to attract the profitable medieval pilgrimage business.

But scientists have thus far been at a loss to explain how the image was left on the cloth.

Garlaschelli reproduced the full-sized shroud using materials and techniques that were available in the middle ages.

No doubt the critics will be loud and the faithful won't give up believing this was the cloth in which Jesus was wrapped after his death on the cross, but I still feel pretty good about the evidence presented here.

Julie & Julia

Another summer hit from my beloved Meryl Streep!! This actress is blessed with so much talent that she's able to single-handedly make a movie successful even when, by all Hollywood standards, it should fail.

Not only is this movie a light, girly type of picture, it also features female leads and plays in the summer. By all accounts, it shouldn't go anywhere. Unless that is, one of the two female leads is the greatest actress alive.

After the delightful The Devil Wears Prada and Mamma Mia!, which I haven't seen yet, Meryl strikes gold again with her portrayal of the famous Julia Child, a woman whose main talent seemed to be perseverance.

A record smashing 15^th Oscar Nomination seems all but assured for Streep, but the rumors are growing that she might finally be handed a long overdue third statuette, which I ardently hope.

The movie is a constant intertwining of two women's stories: Julia Child is in Paris, where she learns how to cook and starts writing the cookbook that will make her famous once back in America; Julie Powell is in New York and, feeling like a total failure at everything, decides to keep a blog of her effort to cook all the over 500 recipes in Child's book in a year.

Although it doesn't sound like much when put that simply, the script and editing move the plot along deftly. Streep is the usual powerhouse, but Amy Adams as Powell is good too and so are Chris Messina, who plays Julie's husband, and Stanley Tucci, who play's Julia's.

The movie made me happy and sad, angry and euphoric and effortlessly took me from the romantic views of 1950s Paris to the polished look of Child's kitchen kept for posterity in the Smithsonian's.

If you like Streep (or food) this movie's for you.

Grade: 8

Robots

A cute animated movie that is very pleasing on the eyes but whose story left me wanting, mostly because we've seen it before in many guises.

Think of the classic story of the guy who dreams of making it big thanks to a talent he has in order to improve the lives of others but who finds himself in a bad spot. Now replace the humans with a bunch of robots and you have this.

I'm not saying it's bad, but it's neither original nor inventive.

The animation, like I said, is pretty good but there isn't much else here to see.

Grade: 5

The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards

Last night's ceremony was brisk and elegant with the right amount of originality and a few surprises.

The host, Neil Patrick Harris, did an excellent job and I wouldn't be surprised if he were soon asked to host the Oscars, given that he's fast becoming an industry darling when it comes to successfully hosting award events. It doesn't hurt that he's gay and very cute.

The big winners of the night were:

• HBO, with the highest number of wins (21) out of the highest number of nominations (99);
• 30 Rock, taking home the Best Comedy award for the third time in a row;
• Mad Men, winning for Best Drama for the second time in a row;
• and perennial favorites The Amazing Race (the new season starts next Sunday, and I can't wait) and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Other big winners were Glenn Close (Damages), Alec Baldwin (30 Rock), and Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) for winning a second time in a row for their work.

I was very happy for Toni Collette (who plays 5 characters in one in United States of Tara) and Jessica Lange (for Grey Gardens -- because I like her, even though I wouldn't recognize her anymore with all the work she's had done).

I felt very bad for Neil Patrick Harris, who Ray tells me is very good in How I Met Your Mother and whom I wanted to see win because he is openly gay and plays a womanizer on prime TV, thereby invalidating a lot of stereotypes.

I was surprised by Michael Emerson's win (Lost) even though he totally deserves it (he's wickedly good in the part of the bad guy) and Kristin Chenoweth (Pushing Daisies) and judging from her reaction, so was she.

A good ceremony whose new format, splitting the awards in segments based on their type (Comedy, Miniseries-Made for TV Movies, Reality, Variety, and Drama) made sense and increased the overall cohesiveness, making for a more organic experience.

However, I do wish they hadn't opened with Comedy, perpetuating its lesser status when compared to Drama. Given the innovation of the new format, to a minimum, they could have awarded Best Drama first at the end of the night, perhaps starting a trend were Comedy and Drama's top prizes alternate their order at the end of the show.

Other than that, an entertaining night.

In Memoriam

Patrick Swayze
1952-2009

Another well known and beloved actor has passed away. The cause, once more, was cancer.

I've seen a few of Swayze's movies, most memorably, Dirty Dancing, Ghost and Red Dawn, and while I didn't consider him a great actor, he could hold his own.

Mostly, he brought to the screen a raw masculinity and handsomeness that was magnetic and forced you to watch his every move.

I remember him from a TV Miniseries as well, North and South, and TV was were he had been planning a short lived comeback by starring in a new series that obviously suffered from his inability to nurture it properly.

Swayze was only 57 years old.

Misery, by Stephen King

I watched the 1990 movie adaptation and loved it, so given that King is one of my favorite authors, this book had been on my to-read list for a long time, and it didn't disappoint.

As I expected, the book has a lot more going on than what I remembered from the screen version, and it elicited fearful reactions and anxiety even though I generally knew what was going to happen.

King is a master of the horror genre and this is one of his best products, but I also have to give Kathy Bates and James Caan their dues, because the whole time I was reading, their faces were the ones I'd see. Their portrayals were so good that for all intents and purposes, they have become Annie Wilkes and Paul Sheldon respectively.

The story, briefly, is that of Paul Sheldon, famous writer, stranded by a car accident in a snowstorm at Annie Wilkes' secluded house. Wilkes takes care of him, while at the same time keeping him captive. Will Sheldon, once he realizes the gravity of the situation, manage to survive what she puts him through and maybe find a way out?

A must read.

Grade: 9

In Memoriam

Raymond Martin Acunto
February 2, 1930 - August 18, 2009

Ray's father passed away last month after several years of slow health decline due to many ailments that had left him pretty much unable to be self-sufficient. The past couple of years had been particularly trying for both him and his beloved wife Mary.

Big Ray, as I always referred to him to differentiate between him and my Ray, was a fun loving, people person, who never disliked chatting with someone. Being of Italian descent, he and I viewed many things the same way, especially when it came to money, which probably endeared me to him while the rest of the family shook their heads ...

I sadly realized recently that I never knew Big Ray as a healthy individual. By the time I met him in 1997 he had already suffered a heart attack and a stroke, and was virtually legally blind as a result of years of undetected glaucoma. All that had left him pretty much dependent on others for anywhere he needed or wanted to go or even for simple tasks like reading a newspaper column.

Luckily for him, he was gifted with such a bright and optimistic personality that I never heard him complain about anything, even though he had plenty of justifiable reasons to do so. Whenever you asked him how he was doing, he'd say "Perfect!" or "Wonderful!," and would immediately ask how you were doing.

Many times I felt like saying, "Oh boy, who cares how I'm doing, are you sure you're doing fine??" But I guess that's just who he was. He took life the way it came and never complained. I believe he considered himself fortunate and was content with what he had. He was a glass half-full kinda guy.

Big Ray had been a teacher, the perfect job for a guy who liked meeting and talking to people, and he used whatever leverage he had throughout his career to help others, whether students or teachers, get more work or better opportunities.

Big Ray was probably the biggest influence in my husband's life. So many times Ray told me he became a teacher because he was proud of what his father had accomplished, and most of all, Big Ray was the main reason Ray wanted kids of his own, to be for them what his father had been for him. So far, I'd say he's doing an exemplary job.

I see so much of Big Ray in my husband and I occasionally tease him about it, "Just like Big Ray ... ," but it's always done to point how the positive in his behavior. Big Ray was a guy you were wise and right in emulating and whose example deserved to be followed.

He leaves behind a wife with whom he shared 41 years of ups and downs in marriage (plus five more before their wedding), a son and daughter, and three grandchildren who will never forget him. Towards the end, he used to say he was about to rejoin his adored son David, who left us unexpectedly two years ago.


Ray told me a few times already that he misses talking to his dad. I know it's true, but in a way I feel like he can always talk to him. Big Ray was such an open book, you always knew what he was going to say when you asked him what decision would be best or what advice he'd give you.

He's now gone, but he's still always with us.

Goodbye Big Ray. Rest in peace.

Visual Effect

I love visual effects in movies, especially when they look awesome, are used to great effect, seamlessly blend into the story, and aren't self serving.

I guess that's why I often skirt the summer blockbusters, because even though they overflow with visual effects, they have so little to say, your eyes feel raped, but your soul feels dumped.

Anyway, here's a cool clip about visual effects throughout the years:

Delusional quote of the day

From Towleroad, here's how new Utah Governor Gary Herbert, who is against anti-discrimination laws that include sexual orientation, justifies his pathetically delusional views:

"I don't believe sexual orientation should be a protected class in the way that race, gender and religion are. We don't have to have a rule for everybody to do the right thing. We ought to just do the right thing because it's the right thing to do and we don't have to have a law that punishes us if we don't."

In Utah it is legal to fire someone for being gay or transgender, which pretty much sums up the stupidity of the statement of the highest official in the state saying that "we should all do the right thing because it's the right thing to do."

Then again, in his warped mind view, doing the right thing probably does include firing someone simply because he's gay.

Prop Hate

I was in Italy when the California Supreme Court decided to uphold Prop 8, or, as it has come to be known, Prop Hate, so I never posted about it, but I think a quick comment is warranted.

Obviously, I think they made a big mistake. While a year prior 4 courageous justices decided to uphold the rights of every individual, this time 3 of them bent to the threats of being recalled by the religious right and forever stained their legacy.

Thankfully, they let the 18,000 marriages performed before the passage of Prop Hate stand, but that's a small consolation. Actually, they virtually created a new class of people in California.

I'm no lawyer, but a lot of constitutional scholars were surprised not really by the decision (they were expected to uphold Prop 8), but by the language in the opinion, lacking any hints of limiting what people can do to the Constitution and practically denting their own opinion from a year earlier.

A few excerpts from a series of articles I read once back from our vacation.

The California Supreme Court's decision Tuesday to uphold Proposition 8 and existing same-sex marriages left in place all rights for California's gays and lesbians except access to the label "marriage," but it provided little protection from future ballot measures that could cost gays and other minorities more rights, lawyers and scholars said Tuesday.
[...]
Proposition 8 merely "carves out a narrow and limited exception" to the state constitutional protection gays and lesbians now receive, Chief Justice Ronald M. George wrote for the majority.

The court majority said same-sex couples would continue to have the right to choose life partners and enter into "committed, officially recognized and protected family relationships" that enjoy all the benefits of marriage under the state's domestic partnership law.

"Like opposite-sex couples, same-sex couples enjoy this protection not as a matter of legislative grace, but of constitutional right," George wrote.

UC Berkeley constitutional law professor Goodwin Liu said the ruling shows "the court continues to be very deferential to the processes of direct democracy in California."
[...]
But the court's definition of what would be an impermissible constitutional revision was also narrow and left gay rights activists nervous and several legal scholars skeptical.

"It leaves us to the kindness of strangers," said Jon W. Davidson, legal director of Lambda Legal, a gay rights organization. "They could take away anything."
[...]
Justice Carlos R. Moreno dissented, calling the ruling "not just a defeat for same-sex couples, but for any minority group that seeks the protection of the equal protection clause of the California Constitution.

"The rule the majority crafts today not only allows same-sex couples to be stripped of the right to marry," Moreno wrote, "it places at risk the state constitutional rights of all disfavored minorities."

Gay rights advocates and several legal scholars said they were surprised that the court did not attempt to rein in constitutional amendments.

"For the court to see only structural changes as those requiring a greater majority is perhaps the worst feature of the opinion today," said Pepperdine University law professor Douglas W. Kmiec, who voted for Proposition 8 on religious grounds. "It makes it much too casual for individual rights to be withdrawn."

An opinion piece:

This decision raises the obvious question: “why did the California Supreme Court first rule that there is a fundamental right to marriage equality and then rule that the voters can take that away?”
[...]
The Court made clear that today’s decision was not a ruling about whether there should be a right to marry in California; it was a ruling about whether the California Constitution, as written, permits the voters to pass Proposition 8 and thereby limit the right to marry.

Although same-sex couples in California who did not marry before November 4, 2008 are barred from marrying until Proposition 8 is itself repealed, the Court made clear that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to enter into a family relationship (i.e. domestic partnerships) with access to all the constitutionally based rights and responsibilities of marriage.
[...]
I realize, of course, that the right of gays and lesbians to marry in this state has only lately been recognized. But that belated recognition does not make the protection of those rights less important. Rather, that the right has only recently been acknowledged reflects an age-old prejudice that makes the safeguarding of that right by the judiciary all the more critical …

Proposition 8 represents an unprecedented instance of a majority of voters altering the meaning of the equal protection clause by modifying the California Constitution to require deprivation of a fundamental right on the basis of a suspect classification. The majority’s holding is not just a defeat for same-sex couples, but for any minority group that seeks the protection of the equal protection clause of the California Constitution.

Another one:

The decision Tuesday that upheld a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage was social and moral nonsense.
[...]
Legal precedents notwithstanding -- and the six clearly nervous justices who made up the majority in this case reached all the way back to the state Constitution of 1849 for those -- Tuesday's decision was intellectually and morally incoherent. It essentially tells Californians that a right as fundamental as the ability to choose the marital partner of your choice is a kind of judicial lottery ticket -- if you got in early, you win, but those who arrived a few days late lose. Sorry.

You could feel the justices straining for their convoluted result in every tortured sentence of Tuesday's 6-1 opinion, and it was impossible not to draw comparisons with the moral and legal clarity of the court's ruling last year that the state Constitution guaranteed gays and lesbians the right to wed the partner of their choice.
[...]
Consider this passage from George's latest majority opinion, asserting -- against all reason -- that Proposition 8 did not entirely repeal or abrogate same-sex couples' right to privacy and due process or the "constitutional right of same-sex couples to 'choose one's life partner and enter with that person into a committed, officially recognized and protected family relationship.' " Instead, George wrote, "the measure carves out a narrow and limited exception to these state 'constitutional rights.' "

George went on to argue that Proposition 8 did not abrogate "all of the other extremely significant substantive aspects of a same-sex couple's state constitutional right to establish an officially recognized and protected family relationship and the guarantee of equal protection under the laws."

In other words, gay and lesbian Californians can board the marital bus but must take seats at the rear.

Moreover, denying an entire class of people the right to marry the partner of their choice is a "narrow exception" to the equal protection clause? And it's morally permissible to carve out exceptions to constitutional rights for specific groups, as long as it's done by majority vote?

So, if a majority of Californians voted to "carve out a narrow exception" to California's right to privacy and applied it only to Jews, would it be constitutionally acceptable? If Native Americans were accorded all the protections of the law by a ballot proposition, except the right to marry a non-Indian, would that be legal?

This is social and moral nonsense.

The court tried Tuesday to cover itself with a fig leaf of decency by allowing the 18,000 existing same-sex marriages to stand. It won't work. This is a logically and morally incoherent decision that simply will plunge the state into another round of bitterly divisive initiative politics, while adding fuel to the growing sense that all three branches of California's government have lost the ability to function in the public interest.

Very eloquently written. And they pretty much say it all.

Now two of the brightest lawyers in the country have taken up the fight and raised the bar by suing at the federal level on the grounds that Prop 8 was unconstitutional under the privacy, due process and equal protection guarantees of the US Constitution, a big gamble that makes a lot of gay rights organizations uneasy at the prospect of an unfavorable outcome in a US Supreme Court that currently leans right and won't lightly rule in favor of homosexuals.

We'll see what happens next, but a new battle at the ballot box is inevitable, possibly as early as next year.

A video tribute

Someone put together this great tribute to Meryl Streep's incredible movie career on the occasion of the release of her latest film, Julie and Julia, which I'd love to be able to catch in a theater, maybe with my friend Vittorio, who's about to get here.

Enjoy it.

Virtuality

This was supposed to be a new series, but Fox didn't pick it up, so they just showed the pilot to see if it would generate enough interest in the public to maybe reconsider it. Granted, not a lot can be said about a series from a pilot, but this one looked pretty promising.

The premise: a crew of 12 (all very attractive) individuals is sent on a very long trip toward our nearest neighboring star to look for other signs of life. They are about to approach the point of no return, that is the point after which they cannot turn the spaceship around and come back to Earth.

The twist: in keeping with current television trends, their whole daily existences are televised for an audience of billions back on the home planet.

The obvious: the mission is sponsored and produced by a big corporation whose own bottom line is clearly its main focus.

The hook: in order to prevent the crew from going crazy, because of the long trip holed up into a piece of metal and in daily close proximity with the same people, each member is equipped with very advanced virtual reality eye glasses that allow them to evade their constricted reality whenever they can. Unfortunately, something seems to have gone haywire in the virtual reality software.

The background story: apparently Earth is in the grip of a worldwide global warming aftermath in which millions are suffering the consequences of living in a cramped world with what are now limited resources and an unpredictable weather system. The astronauts' families, however, are supposedly looked after by the big corporation, interested in keeping the crew happy ... and under its control.

Did any of this pique your interest? It sure piqued mine, especially since the excellent cast was very engaged and the script quite captivating, promising a lot of political intrigue, sexual tensions, and misteries to be solved. It even featured an interesting gay couple, although the fact that they had to be in the closet even if the show takes place decades in the future wasn't a positive message.

I doubt the show will come back (especially given its potential price tag for the visual effects), but you never know, it's happened before.

We shall see.

Horton Hears a Who!

We resumed Family Night after a long hiatus with this movie based on a famous book by Dr. Seuss by the same title.

The story is quite simple, but the message at the center of the film, that a person is important no matter how small, is incredibly powerful and deserving to be spread.

The technical aspect of the movie is good, and the cast brings the script to life. This is particularly positive since the lead character is voiced by Jim Carrey, an actor I don't always like.

Overall, a pleasant movie for the whole family. Very cute and very well made.

Grade: 7