Links for the Day (May 22nd, 2008)

1. "Torn between "Two Lovers"": Andrew O'Hehir interviews writer/director James Gray from Cannes (his film, Two Lovers, is in competition at this year's festival). The full audio podcast can be heard here.

["I made "We Own the Night" with an eye toward doing something that was almost Shakespearean or Greek: making a comment on fate or something. Then my wife and I decided to have children, and we got all these genetic tests. My wife, who is not Jewish, tested negative for everything. I, as a Jew, tested positive for a whole host of genetic disorders, and I started to think about it. The genetic counselor told me a story about how she would have to talk to these couples who were both Jewish, who had both tested positive for Tay-Sachs disease, for example, which means that any child they had would be dead by the age of 4 -- it's an incurable disease -- and how hard it was for the couples. Oftentimes they have to break apart. And I thought, well, if that's not science's version of destiny, I don't know what is. I thought of it really as the premise of the story: What would happen if a person had to recover from heartbreak knowing his own genetic destiny had played a role in the breakup of this relationship? To me, that was interesting, the science version of what the Greeks may have written about."]

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2. News of the moment: "Lifelong Republican finds himself unlikely hero of gay rights activists" (from Mercury News); "American to charge $15 to check 1st bag, cut flights" (from Boston.com); "Fraudulent Boy Band Manager Sentenced" (from eFluxMedia).

["George would not discuss specifics of the court's deliberations and obvious division in the gay marriage case, particularly since more legal battles are likely to follow. But it was "time," he said, for the court to tackle the issue head-on, splitting from colleagues - and other courts across the country - who believe it is up to the voters or Legislature to legalize gay marriage, not judges. The legal world is abuzz over the decision's reach - the first to protect gays with the same civil rights laws that apply to race, religion or gender. "George saw the historical moment and seized it," said Boalt Hall School of Law Professor Stephen Barnett, an expert on the court who at times has criticized George. "The decision took a great deal of courage and leadership.""]

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3. Invaluable as always, GreenCine gathers the first reviews from Cannes of Soderbergh's Che biopic.

[""There will be arguments about the politics of the films; there will be discussions of whether or not the films have any emotional center," writes James Rocchi at Cinematical. "There will be talk of if Benicio Del Toro deserves a Best Actor nomination for his work as Guevara, or if Soderbergh's portrait of Che is too flat to engage us; I can easily imagine discussions of the look and feel of the film, shot in high-resolution digital with all the craft and care Soderbergh usually brings to shooting on film. I can't predict how all of these questions and possibilities will play out, but I can say - and will say - what a rare pleasure it is to have a film (or films) that, in our box-office obsessed, event-movie, Oscar-craving age, is actually worth talking about on so many levels.""]

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4. "Irreconcilable Differences": Michael Koresky reviews A Jihad for Love for indieWIRE.

["Homosexuality isn't a choice, but often, many forget, neither is religion. And this is certainly the case for the world's dense population of devout Muslims, now comprising the second largest religion in the world. Since the dictates of various orthodoxies seem almost by design to painfully rub up against basic biological desires, the demonization of sexuality has been widely reported upon and dramatized, whether directly or indirectly, for as long as there has been sophisticated thought."]

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5. "Lost parrot gives vet his name and address": From CNN. (Hattip: Lauren Wissot)

["Police rescued the African grey parrot two weeks ago from a neighbor's roof in the city of Nagareyama, near Tokyo. After spending a night at the station, he was transferred to a nearby veterinary hospital while police searched for clues, local policeman Shinjiro Uemura said. He kept mum with the cops, but began chatting after a few days with the vet. "I'm Mr. Yosuke Nakamura," the bird told the veterinarian, according to Uemura. The parrot also provided his full home address, down to the street number, and even entertained the hospital staff by singing songs."]

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Quote of the Day: George Lois

"Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything."

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Image of the Day (click to enlarge): From an LA Times article on the poster art of Drew Struzan.



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Clip of the Day: Booger, Kitty, and Mousie show that we can all just get along.

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"Links for the Day": Each morning, the House editors post a series of weblinks that we think will spark discussion. Comments encouraged. Suggestions for links are also welcome. Please send to keithuhlich@gmail.com.