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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 11/24/00 -- Vol. 19, No. 21
Chair/Librarian: Mark Leeper, 732-817-5619, mleeper@avaya.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper, 732-332-6218, eleeper@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist: Rob Mitchell, robmitchell@avaya.com
HO Chair Emeritus: John Jetzt, jetzt@avaya.com
HO Librarian Emeritus: Nick Sauer, njs@lucent.com
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the
second Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call
201-447-3652 for details. The Denver Area Science Fiction
Association meets 7:30 PM on the third Saturday of every month at
Southwest State Bank, 1380 S. Federal Blvd.
===================================================================
1. This is not exactly science fiction-related, but since it has
quite a following, let me note that HBO will be re-running the
entire first two seasons of "The Sopranos" starting Sunday,
December 3, from 8PM to 10PM EST every Sunday night until February
25. [-ecl]
===================================================================
2. America has been a melting pot country and as a result its
cuisine is sort of a melting pot cuisine. These days American food
includes a lot of influence from Chinese, Greek, Indian, Italian,
Japanese, and many more. Frequently the real American food is not
a dish invented here but is just our own spin on somebody else's
dish. We may not even recognize it as being distinctly American.
Sometimes the cuisine loses in the translation. Beware the ethnic
food served at Bell Laboratories, for example. The Diversity
Department tells us to respect other nationalities and so often the
cafeteria then slanders their cuisine trying to imitate it.
But frequently an ethnic dish made to another ethnic group's taste
can take on a life of its own. What nationality of dish is Chop
Suey? It's American. I believe that is common knowledge. It is
made in a Chinese style, but it is American. Well, I don't care
for Chop Suey but it was quite popular in Detroit when I lived
there.
Pizza? Well, pizza really is Italian, but by all accounts there is
no comparison between American Pizza and Italian Pizza. Marcello
Mastroianni used to say that he wanted to do more American films
because only when he came to America he could get good pizza.
American pizza is a whole different animal from real Italian pizza.
The same thing seems to be happening in other countries also. When
I was in Wales I noticed that Indian restaurants had a dish I did
not recognize. It was called a Balti. I had never heard of it
served in US Indian restaurants. And for good reason. Balti is
not really an Indian dish, it is British. But it tastes a lot like
Indian curry.
I will tell you some things that even most British do not know
about this popular dish. The Balti started showing up in Northern
England in the mid-1980s. Some restaurant created it and when it
got popular other restaurants started copying it. I do not think
anybody knows who invented the dish. It probably was a Pakistani
restaurant since Balti is prepared much like a traditional way of
cooking for Multani Pakistani communities in Britain. Balti food
is cooked in a utensil called a Karahi and is quite similar
traditional Multani Karahi cuisine.
Now Balti cooking has spread all over Britain and Ireland and is
even found in India. It was so popular that it started squeezing
out strictly traditional Indian cuisine in some British
restaurants. Some restaurants discovered that if they did not
serve Baltis, they just did not get the business. Now just like a
lot of our Chinese restaurants have some American dishes on the
menu, most Indian restaurants in Britain have a Balti menu. They
will serve many different kinds of Balti dishes. Meanwhile back in
India, British tourists are desperately looking for Balti
restaurants and to keep up with the demand Indian restaurants are
starting to include Balti dishes in their menu. It may well end up
being a standard dish in India even though it was invented in
Britain.
In the US we have our own strange concoctions. For me one of the
stranger American dishes is Cincinnati Chili. Now I believe chili
is originally a Mexican dish and what we have in the US is an
Americanized version. But Cincinnati chili is a whole different
breed. It is actually a Greek variation. It is not piquant; it is
sweet flavored with an unexpected hint of chocolate and cinnamon.
But you can get it what they call five-way, four-way, down to one-
way. This syntax is as strange as the taste of the chili. A
"four-way" stop is a stop you can approach from four different
directions. A three-way-something seems to be something you can
use three different ways. That's not what it means here. A "one-
way" chili is chili in a bowl; a "two-way" is chili over spaghetti;
a "three-way" is chili over spaghetti with grated cheddar cheese; a
"four-way" is chili over spaghetti with grated cheddar cheese and
chopped onions; and a "five-way" is chili over spaghetti with
grated cheddar cheese and chopped onions and kidney beans. So you
cannot have some ingredients without other ingredients. If you
want kidney beans in your chili there is no way to do it unless
there is spaghetti under it and grated cheddar and onions over it.
You have to earn the right to have those kidney beans by buying
three other ingredients. It is a little strange but that is what
you get when you have a Greek variation on an American variation on
a Mexican dish. Yet Cincinnati has more chili restaurants per
person than any other city in the world. So they must be doing
something right. Skyline was the chain I remember seeing and they
are more common than McDonalds is most parts of the country.
But this leaves some unanswered questions. If it is so popular in
Cincinnati, why is our traditional American chili not more popular?
Maybe it is better than standard American chili. But if it is that
good, why is this Greek variant on chili only popular in Ohio? As
far as I know Cincinnati is the only American city known for its
chili. There is need here for some anthropologist to find some
answers. [-mrl]
===================================================================
3. SHOLAY (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: This is the longest running and most
profitable Hindi film of all time. Strongly
influenced by THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, albeit
with two heroes instead of seven, it is
basically a Western made and set in 1975 with
locales in then current India. Some of the
Hindi Film conventions will chafe American
viewers, but overall it is quite enjoyable.
Rating: 6 (0 to 10), high +1 (-4 to +4) Note:
This review is written from the point of view
of an American for other Americans. The
viewer's experience may vary. I find that
Indians can be extremely fond of this film and
will probably like it considerably more than I
did.
When the film SHOLAY was released in 1975 it at first appeared not
to attract much of an audience in India. Word of mouth grew,
however, until it was the highest grossing and most profitable
Hindi film ever made. It had a theatrical run of over seven years
in Bombay and five years in Delhi. Today there are Indians who
will unabashedly call it one of the finest films ever made. While
the film takes place in its present, it is basically a reframing of
SEVEN SAMURAI and THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, retold with two heroes
instead of seven. Directed by Ramesh Sippy who picked up many of
the conventions of American Westerns and especially form the
Italian Westerns of Sergio Leone. Madhya Pradesh in Central India
and a few other areas in India are perhaps the only places in the
world where there are still conditions so similar to the American
West. There, at least according to my informant, gangs of dacoits
still ride horses in rocky terrain and live relatively free of the
law enforcement. It is a strange mix of times to see bandits on
horses and people in contemporary dress on modern motorcycles. I
am informed that the view of village life in India is very
accurate. SHOLAY, whose name means "sparks of fire," follows the
conventions of Indian neighborhood films. That means it has
several songs in production numbers, it has generous doses of
comedy. And the film is in the range of 190 minutes long.
Thakur Baldev Singh (played by Sanjeev Kumar) has a problem. As a
Thakur--sort of the equivalent of what in England was a squire--he
is responsible to protect his village from the ravages of a the
gang of the bandit named Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan). To do this he
wishes to enlist the aid of two of the worst thieves in the
country, Veeru (Dharmendru) and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan). The Thakur
has dealt with them before when he was not the police force and he
knows them to be decent men and good fighters who are his best
chance to defeat Gabbar Singh. He hires them to capture Gabbar
alive.
In flashbacks we see that the Thakur previously was to bring the
two to prison via train. When the train was attacked by bandits
the two escaped from his chains, fought off the bandits, and then
turned themselves into the authorities rather than let the
policeman die of his wounds.
As is frequently the case is Westerns the most memorable character
is the villain. Think of Calvera in THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN or
Hannibal Lector in THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. In India Gabbar Singh
has taken on a life of his own. Indian children memorize his
lines. He is has become one of the most popular screen villains of
all time for reasons that must be only partially clear to
outsiders. He certainly has personality, though perhaps not all of
it transcends the language barrier.
Making this a Hindi film are the usual standard touches. In the
course of the three-hour-plus film there are five production number
songs. An early one is a colorful number set during the Holi
holiday. At this holiday Indians throw large volumes of brightly-
colored powders into the air and at each other, which certainly is
visually colorful. Another production number toward the end of the
film is a bit sadistic and makes the audience involuntarily wince.
Music is by R. D. Burman, but its quality is a little hard to
measure by Western standards. The music and the comedy tend to pad
out what in the West we would make into a more focused and intense
film. Some of the comedy is rather bizarre including a scene in
prison in which the warden has chosen one of the most hated
personalities of this century on whom to model his looks and
actions.
A number of pieces of the style are reminiscent of Sergio Leone
films. Some scenes are drawn out for the greatest amount of drama,
but will be done almost silently with one irrelevant sound
dominating (e.g. the repetitive squeaking of a swing). In one
scene several people are shot in a sort of massacre, but rather
than showing the carnage, each time the action stops in a freeze-
frame for a second or two. When the father of the house comes to
see the bodies, each is covered in a sheet, but as he stands
looking the wind comes and one at a time blows the sheet away
leaving a body. In another scene a man is aiming a gun at a
defenseless boy. There is a quick jump to a train venting steam
with the same explosive sound. These are very evocative scenes and
these touches give parts of the film a definite Italian Western
feel. That part of India has landscapes much like the American
West anyway. It is odd to find such good work in the same film
that has some of the silly comic musical numbers that this film
has. There some of the comic editing features under-cranked
cameras and touches one would more associate with "The Monkees."
The non-Indian wishing to try Indian neighborhood entertainment
films could do worse than to begin sampling with SHOLAY. Though it
may seem uneven, like the British "curate's egg," parts of it are
excellent. I rate it 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high +1 on the -4
to +4 scale. The film is now available on DVD. (Thanks to Lax
Madapati for showing me and giving me extensive background
information on this film.) [-mrl]
===================================================================
4. RISK (a film review in bullet list form by Mark R. Leeper from
the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: Australian film shot in Sydney. A new
employee at an insurance company gets pulled
into an insurance fraud scheme with two
unscrupulous people. A different idea, but
only a standard execution. High speed climax.
Based on a story by Tracy Kidder. Rating: +1
- Sydney, Australia setting
- Ben Madigan (Tom Long) thought insurance helped people (before
joining industry)
- Told a good adjuster will pay out minimum
- Taken under wing of Kreisky (Bryan Browne)
- Experiment to avoid lawyers and split difference with client
- Kreisky using experiment to cover scam involving false claims
- First case is a cheater
- Ben's scruples bothered by the job, really bothered by people
he deals with
- Kreisky scam involves beautiful woman Louise Roncoli (Claudia
Karvan)
- Scheme gets more complex
- Crash tests under credits
- Fisheye lens for exterior shots
- Scenes in blues and blacks, like razor blades
- Visually sparse
- Fast paced climax
- Not clear why more companies don't settle compromise like the
one in the film
[-mrl]
===================================================================
5. LA MOITIE DU CIEL (a film review in bullet list form by Mark R.
Leeper from the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: A woman goes to China to adopt a son
and finds herself in a fight for her life. The
story is set in a very different China from
what the Chinese government would have to
believe exists. She sees extreme poverty
feeding crime and political oppression. A
moving and angry film. Rating: +2
French language
- French film set in China
- Title means "Half of Heaven," referring to woman
- Anne with ten-year-old daughter Sophie came to adopt boy
- Must take girl
- While waiting visit circus outside hotel
- Meet performer Anya
- Daughter has imaginary friend Scaredy
- Sophie keeps going to circus
- Baby taken back through red tape
- Enlists help of local only to make things worse
- Must go after baby she has named Mimi
- Victim of scam and becomes a fugitive
- Complex adventure in China
- View of modern China could not get from China
- Babies bedded in boxes
- Officious woman bureaucrats
- Faces crime
- View of prison very grim, "Write your self-criticism"
- Poverty suffuses everything
[-mrl]
===================================================================
6. HOW TO KILL YOUR NEIGHBOR'S DOG (a film review in bullet list
form by Mark R. Leeper from the Toronto International Film
Festival):
Capsule: Written and directed by Michael
Kalesniko, adapted from a stage play. Peter
McGowan is not a very likable person. He is a
formerly successful playwright with writer's
block who hates children and dogs. He is beset
with problems that he just whimpers about. By
the end of the play with less going on than a
Seinfeld episode he is a little less self-
obsessed a person and slightly nicer and his
neighbors' dog is dead. Rating: 0
- Robin Wright Penn, Lynn Redgrave, Peter Riegart
- Peter is a jerk, it is hard to feel sympathy
- Wife wants kids
- Peter terrified of children
- Writers block
- Nasty comments in obstetric exam
- Director of Peter's current play seems to be a moron
- Rehearsals go terribly
- Doppleganger: bum has same name and claims to be him
- Interviewed on TV, attacks interviewer
- Satire on traffic reports
- Neighbor with slight cerebral palsy, parent discourages
dancing
- Being around neighbor girl helps Peter
- Closing credits resurrect dog
- Parts seem nasty spirited including making fun of senility
- Not clear where the film is going, but at the rate it moves it
cannot be far
- Plot does not advance much
[-mrl]
===================================================================
7. SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR (a film review in bullet list form
by Mark R. Leeper from the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: Very dull attempt at comedy from
Sweden. More a pile of semi-related absurdist
scenes, in some you could tell the point, than
an actual story. Part of the joke is that some
of the scenes go on way too long. Not worth
the wait for the one or two good jokes.
Rating: -2
Swedish language
- Slow absurdist collection of scenes from Sweden
- Man taking orders from man on tanning machine
- Laying man off after thirty years
- At airport a line of check in stations and a tidal wave of
people pushing huge trolleys of luggage
- Man nearly cut in half by magician
- A traffic jam that never moves and nobody knows the cause
- Fancy bar where man vomits while a woman cannot pull herself
up to chair
- Pacing is slow
- Long pauses between speeches
- Not very entertaining
- Words not synched to lips
- Film seems very, very long
- Many strange scenes and threads
- Running gags
- Written and directed by Roy Anderson
- Special studio built to film strange surrealistic scene like
in this film
[-mrl]
===================================================================
8. FAST FOOD, FAST WOMEN (a film review in bullet list form by Mark
R. Leeper from the Toronto International Film Festival):
Capsule: Light pleasant comedy set in Manhattan
about several people who are pair-wise friends,
but do not know they all know each other. Two
couples cannot seem to decide they are
romantically connected because the men do not
want to commit. Rating: high +1
- Gentle comedy with likable people
- Manhattan setting, several odd characters
- Stammering prostitute
- Diner waitress Bella approaching 35 and getting desperate
- Divorced taxi driver Bruno writes novels he cannot sell,
unexpectedly gets children
- Bella has affair with older man George, play producer
- Bella has low self-esteem
- Paul about 70 but good looking and wants to date
- Paul and two friends get together daily at diner affirming
life
- Bruno dates Bella, Paul dates older woman (Louise Lasser); men
afraid to commit
- Bruno goes out for night leaving his young children untended
(illegal)
- Women who want men to commit
- Ending contrived
- Character actors Austin Pendleton, Louise Lasser, Mark
Margolis
[-mrl]
Mark Leeper
HO 1K-644 732-817-5619
mleeper@avaya.com
America is the only nation in history which miraculously
has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without
the usual interval of civilization. -- Georges Clemenceau
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