"His Body Abused, But His Mind is Still Free"*

Hearing the news about Nelson Mandela's declining health this week (in case you hadn't heard, he is in critical condition and his family is preparing for the worst), just makes me think about how far South Africa has come since I first heard about Mr. Mandela and the struggles against apartheid in South Africa when I saw the tv movie Mandela on HBO. And shortly after that I saw Cry Freedom, about activist Steve Biko.

Although we read both Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country and Nadine Gormier's July's People in school, for me, the awareness of South African apartheid best came through music (much like most of the issues I became most interested in while I was in high school), and I read a lot of news about apartheid in Rolling Stone magazine (which I devotedly inhaled every other week). The big protest song was "Sun City", and there was also "Biko" by Peter Gabriel, and Paul Simon's Graceland album featuring Ladysmith Black Mambazo, but honestly, I think that The Special AKA really summed up the situation the best.



Thank you, Mr. Mandela, for your bravery and perseverance. You are an inspiration.

*lyric by The Special AKA/The Specials

"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will."*

Because I was disappointed that Jane Eyre was nominated for only one Academy Award (For costumes. WHAT THE HECK?!? It totally should have received a nod for the score AND for cinematography. It is gutsy to shoot by candlelight.) AND because I went to download a digital copy of the film on my iPad and it is no longer available for digital download, I am reposting my review of Jane Eyre with some updates since I have now watched it some umpth-teen times.

Right, **SPOILERS** ahead, although as the book was written 165 years ago, if you don't know this story by now, well...you probably aren't reading this blog anyhow. And a disclaimer: I have to be honest. I have a thing for "Mr. Rochester", despite the lying and the manipulation... What's wrong with me? I like to think of him as being a victim of circumstances and totally reformed by the end....Yeah.

On Sunday, "Miss Post" and I saw Cary Fukunaga's film of Jane Eyre. Before we went, I rewatched a couple of old versions of Jane Eyre (the Samantha Morton/Ciaran Hinds one and the Toby Stephens/Ruth Wilson one) for comparison's sake. The Zefferelli version with Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Hurt is permanently imprinted in my mind, so I didn't need to rewatch that one. (Since this review was first written, I have now watched both the Timothy Dalton/Zelah Clarke version (very faithful to the book, but too long) and the Orson Welles/Joan Fontaine version (only a passing resemblance to the novel and Joan Fontaine isn't strong enough to be Jane.))

I liked the new version a lot, and it has a lot of good things going for it: great cast, gorgeous costumes (I want Jane's paisley shawl from the final scene), amazing scenery, and a beautiful score by Dario Marianelli, who did the score to Pride and Prejudice (2005). The film was very moody, and I felt it did a great job capturing the bleakness and solitude of living on the moors of Yorkshire. I thought that the cast also did a great job of conveying their loneliness, their longing, and their inner passion in the face of a repressive and (at times ambiguously) moral society.

Mia Wasikowska (who was brilliant in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland) strikes the perfect balance between Jane's shy, proper reserve and her inner passion. Sometimes adult Jane gets played a little too wishy-washy for my taste (Morton), but Wasikowska does a great job with this. Michael Fassbender's Rochester is sheer intensity, with a fierceness and cruelty to his wit and a real moody "changefullness" (I read that Fassbender considers the character "biopolar".) When he is first introduced, he is definitely unattractive in his unlikeablity, but he starts to soften as the movie unfolds. The two leads have a good chemistry together (I had read some reviews stating otherwise). I think that any "lack of chemistry" is actually a pacing problem with the theatrical release (see below) and which I hope will be remedied with a director's cut. In particular, in the scene where Rochester gets Jane to help him with Mason after the attack, I felt like they were no longer two individuals, but a team. (Yay, Team Rochester!) Judi Dench was a very likeable Mrs. Fairfax, and Jamie Bell was very serious as St. John Rivers (I was concerned about the casting of both of those parts. Bell was perhaps a little too serious.)

The Rivers' subplot of the story didn't get truncated the way it has been in other versions, which was really important to me because I feel like it is an important step in Jane's development, certainly as much as the incident in the red room and the misery at Lowood School and Helen's death. Finding her cousins (and the money) helps make her strong enough to ultimately return to Thornfield. The girls were really likeable, and it was good for Jane to have women peers again.

My biggest complaint: by keeping to a 120 minute running time (with credits), things got cut, and because of that, some parts of the story moved far too fast. I find it interesting that they didn't add in even 10 minutes of incidents in the development of Jane and Rochester's relationship, which was shortchanged. A key part of the novel is Rochester's baiting of Jane, or, as Miss Post and I put it, "I love you so much; I am going to tell you that I am marrying someone else. Are you jealous? Are you miserable? APRIL FOOL!!" Oh look, and here's a gypsy fortune teller!

I feel that 2011's Jane Eyre is to 2005's Pride & Prejudice as 2006's "Jane Eyre" is to 1995's "Pride & Prejudice". A beautiful piece to be sure, but an incomplete realization of the novel. The core audience for this movie (calling all new "Downton Abbey" fans) will sit and watch a six hour miniseries on PBS or BBC video; they'd sit for 10 more minutes in a movie theater. (Even with the person who was sitting next to me doing her best impression of Catherine Morland reading The Mysteries of Udolpho. Lady, it wasn't that scary. Seriously. Although the part with the bird gets me EVERY TIME!) I definitely will be adding this one to my collection, and I also think that a second viewing on the big screen might be in order. While I didn't end up seeing the film again in the theater, I did buy the BluRay and now have watched it enough times to say that this is now my second favorite adaptation of Jane Eyre after the Ruth Wilson/Toby Stephens version. The love story is key, but the darker tone of this film really is the selling point for me. (Weeeellll...that and the fact that Michael Fassbender really is very nice to look at, which certainly doesn't hurt.)

Would love to hear anyone else's take on the film...

*Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Proudly Embracing the Nineteenth Amendment

First a "shout out" to all of the people working at my polling location: Jackson-Mann School in Allston. Your efforts at making the process easy were greatly appreciated!!

Next, on my way driving back to work after voting on my lunch break, I heard a DJ say "Happy Election Day, if you are into that sort of thing...", and that made me go "huh?". Really? "If you are into that sort of thing"? The bigger question is "why wouldn't you be into that sort of thing?"

Of course people get disillusioned with the government, especially in hard times, and the negative campaign ads haven't helped either. (I think that they are the worst things around.) However, it is important to remember that, for the last 235 years, Americans have made sacrifices, sometimes with their very lives, to allow American citizens to have the freedom to vote for our leaders. Less than 100 years ago, women didn't have that right; even 50 years ago, people of color didn't have that right (not across the country).

So, yes, I think that everyone in America should be "into that sort of thing". Even if you don't like any of the candidates, that shouldn't stop you from voting; you can write in someone. This is our one opportunity every year to actively participate in the running of our national, our state and our local governments. I urge people to take advantage of the opportunity and remember that this is both a responsibility and privilege of being a citizen of the U.S.A.

"Missus, Will ya Make me tea? Make love to me? Put on the telly? To the BBC!"*

One of the interesting and ironic things about me is that I use an internet "handle" of BBCAmericanGirl on both Flickr and Twitter, but, in all actuality, I am highly disappointed with the programming on BBC America.

First thing, despite the fact it costs extra to get BBC America, they run commercials, and they run a LOT of them. An English friend of mine who was visiting my house and watched some BBC America couldn't get over the volume of commercials the channel runs. They also edit down their own television shows so that they can accommodate the volume of commercials that we show in America. They cut a lot of "Doctor Who", so much so that my friend MEM had no idea how the episode of "Forest of the Dead" really ended until it came out on dvd. We were reduced to watching the second series of "Ashes to Ashes" on YouTube because PLOT POINTS were edited out. Also, the channel is supposed to be available in HD - well, not on Comcast in Boston!

Next, the programming is not what it used to be. They run a lot of repeats, and for some unknown reason, they are showing "Star Trek: the Next Generation" like it is a first run series. I am tired of seeing the same episodes of Gordon Ramsey and Top Gear. They used to show some wonderful "Sunday night" television like "Monarch of the Glen" and "Wild at Heart" and had fantastic mysteries on Monday nights, but that's all gone now. There are some really great shows on the BBC that we NEVER get to see here. I feel like the best of BBC (and ITV) programming gets picked up by PBS; BBC America doesn't even try to get them. There are costume dramas that we only get on dvd over here ("Desperate Romantics"), and there are comedies that American audiences would appreciate that they don't air either. However, they sell them on DVD and BluRay in the BBCAmerica Shop.

The sad thing is that I am not alone on this. It is disappointing to read the BBCAmerica Facebook page where fans routinely make this same point about the programming, yet nothing is changed. With the technology of this day and age, there are other ways of getting BBC programming without watching BBCAmerica. I really think that the channel would do better to notice these criticisms and see where there is room for improvement. I certainly don't watch it the way I used to, and my mom canceled it a while back.

The good thing is that when I was in Ireland, I was reminded of how great the programming is on the REAL BBC . I just wish that BBCAmerica could be even 75% as good.

* from "BBC" by Ming Tea (Austin Powers soundtrack)

PS. In a recent commercial, BBC America implies that the MIT TARDIS hack was somehow related to them, and the TARDIS was going to show up in other localities. NICE TRY. (not!)

The City on a Hill

I spent most of Saturday walking around Providence, RI with my book club looking for things related to Roger Williams, a key figure in our most recent read: The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell. We started out with a nice lunch at The Duck and Bunny, walked up College Hill to Brown, down to Prospect Hill Park and the Roger Williams' National Memorial, along North Main Street past RISD to Waterplace Park before heading back to the Duck and Bunny and driving home. It was a beautiful day to be outside, and I took a load of photos of Providence.

I loved this book, but mostly I loved using it as a launching pad for improvements I would love to make to the teaching of history in the American school system. Personally, I would love to not teach history until the fourth or fifth grade and then start teaching it in conjunction with geography, literature, and music so students could see how things link together giving a broader scope of world history. Dates are important, but it is better to understand that Charles II was a contemporary of Louis XIV, and this was in the time leading up to the Salem Witch Trials. Before really studying history, the kids could learn basic social studies, state capitals, the US Presidents, and the Constitution.

Too many people in this day and age use pop culture, in particular TV and movies, to teach them history, when, in many cases, the episode or film has changed historical facts to make the story more interesting. (I am looking at you, Shekhar Kapur.) Case in point: I was sitting in a Renaissance England history class once in college, and the professor asked the class about the motivation of Henry V to invade France during the Hundred Years' War. Now, I will be honest, I didn't do the reading so I didn't know the answer, but I wasn't the only one who hadn't because no one was raising their hand. When one brave soul finally did, his hesitant answer killed me: "Because the dauphin sent him tennis balls?" The professor lost it and gave a good ten minute talk about why Shakespeare was not to be relied upon for historical facts.

I learned quite a bit from Vowell, in particular, the ideological dichotomy between the Plymouth Puritans and the Massachusetts Bay colonists, but even further, the nature of the differences that drove Williams, and later Anne Hutchinson, from the colony. The fact that she explains all of this with her sardonic wit and tongue-in-cheek style made for interesting reading. I also liked that even though she was clearly frustrated with the overall attitudes and behavior of these historical figures, she made them human and accessible. She even had me cheering for that crazy Roger Williams at one point! The only general criticism of the book was that the book wasn't broken down into chapters, and I would have liked an index too. A couple members of the club ended up getting the audio book as they found Vowell's style better suited to listening than to reading.

Exhuming McCarthy

On my drive home from my doctor's appointment after work today, I was listening to Tom Ashbrook's "On Point" on WBUR where the topic for the first hour was "Examining the Socialist Charge". This was prompted by today's Tea Party rally on the Boston Common, starring Sarah Palin. (While I don't agree with many of the tenets of the Tea Party, I can understand its members frustration with the course things are on at the moment. However, the fact that the Tea Party has a politician who used state funds for personal expenses as their spokesperson makes my head hurt.)

My favorite moment from the show was when a caller who had grown up in East Germany but now lives in the States said that Americans have no idea what Communism is. It gave me pause. Because we don't know what Communism is. Even though we have to pay taxes and bail out the banks and things are hard right now for middle class people (like myself) in America, at least we can go to school and study things that we want to and take jobs in fields we are interested in rather than be assigned a job in a field just because there is need. We don't need to get permission from the government before we get married or go on vacation and be told by them where you have to live and have them tell you that you can only have one kid (but if it is a girl then you can try one more time for a boy.)

"Communist" is a word that has been thrown around a lot lately. It reminds me of McCarthyism. Let's not go back there, America. Find another word, find another way.

Satan Strikes Back: Customer Service or the Lack of It, Part 2

Well, Satan's Bank is back at it again, and shame on me for not canceling my account when I said I was going to.

I went to check my balance on my credit card on line yesterday and logged into what was supposed to be my credit card account. Except according to their website, I didn't have a financial account associated with my user ID. Oh, really? That's news to me.

Because I really didn't want to deal with the situation at the time, I dismissed the problem as a web issue and figured that I will try to access my account when I get home from work, where I ran into the exact same problem.

So I call Satan's Bank and talk to a customer service rep, who confirms that the account was closed on Tuesday. I was incredulous. When I asked her why, she told me she couldn't tell anything other than a fraud alert had been placed on the account. When I asked the very reasonable question, "by whom?", she had no answer, although she suspected that a vendor I had used may have reported that their security was compromised. (That is my phrase; the way she described it was not remotely as concise.)

I then said to the rep, "Well, I purchased a several things today using my card at the post office and Whole Foods. Did those purchases go through?" The answer is "yes", despite the fact that the card is supposed to be "closed." So is it okay to use my card still? "No." Will my scheduled on line payment still go through okay? "Yes". (It had better.)

Then I asked when I should expect to get the replacement card; the answer is 7 to 10 business days. When I asked what I should do in the meantime, she answered, "well, don't you have another credit card?" All I could think was, "You have got to be kidding me." Now I am lucky enough to happen to have a back up card, but what about the people who don't because of the credit crunch??

I am completely disgusted. This bank can spam and junk mail me to death with emails about balance transfers, but can't make me aware of the fact that they are closing my credit card due to a security breach for the second time this year? When asked what I should do while I wait for them to fix the problem, I am told to use another credit card? Well, I intend to do that, and I don't plan on using their card again. (I am also planning on reporting this to the consumer assistance office of the state division of banks.) I didn't sign up to be their customer; they bought out my original credit card company. In the future, I do my best not to become their customer again.

How I long for the days of the little community bank.

Helping WGBH

I am a member of our local Boston PBS/NPR station WGBH and annually give a decent size gift to support their programming. After receiving this email today (and seeing the pledge drive during last night's showing of "Lewis"), I made an additional donation to help out the station because I enjoy their programming (and have since childhood, when I was a regular "Zoom" watcher.) In fact, considering the percentage of time that either my television or radio or both are spent tuned to WGBH, I think that it is a real bargain!

Here is the email with a link to donate if you too feel inclined to support Boston's Arts and News station.

I'm writing today with a financial update and urgent request.

Today is the last day of our fiscal year, but WGBH must still raise
$150,000 before the books slam shut at midnight.

We've cut expenses as much as possible without compromising the high
standards you expect, but in these extraordinary times, it's not
enough. We need your help.

If you intended to make a gift but haven't gotten around to it, I hope
I can count on you make an extra contribution today--above and
beyond your annual support--to help protect the independent and
commercial-free programming you rely on.

Make a special gift today at
http://support.wgbh.org/site/R?i=j1dtIMkSvCo4e-y0_PzukQ.

We simply cannot wait for a better economy to pay for the programs and
services WGBH provides to New England and shares with the world.

Every dollar helps and the impact is immediate: you'll see and hear
the difference everytime you tune in to WGBH for your favorite
programs--whether it's Morning Edition, Nova, Sesame Street,
Antiques Roadshow, All Things Considered, Between the Lions,
or Nature.

Thanks for your ongoing support and your thoughtful consideration.

Sincerely,
Daren Winckel
Director of Membership and fellow member

Something Straight Out of the Movies, but Better

From The New York Times:

“Thirty hours ago, Euna Lee and I were prisoners in North Korea,” Ms. Ling said in brief remarks to reporters, blinking back tears. “We feared that at any moment we could be prisoners in a hard labor camp. Then suddenly we were told that we were going to a meeting.

“We were taken to a location and when we walked through the doors, we saw standing before us President Bill Clinton,” she said, recounting the final moments of her ordeal. “We were shocked, but we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end. And now we stand here home and free.”

And of course I am crying just reading about it and imagining this scenario. It’s like having the cavalry show up at the last minute! For more happy tears, you should watch Laura Ling's statement over on The Lede, with video from Britain's Channel 4. I will be heading to the ladies' room to fix my eye makeup.

Customer Service or the Lack of It

I had a problem with my B*ank of Ame*rica credit card last week (I had my card declined at two vendors, despite the fact that I hadn't come close to reaching my balance.) When I called BoA to find out what was going on, I was told that my card wasn't activated - this is a card I have had since 2001, mind you. The problem was eventually identified when the BoA representative realized that their fraud department had put a hold on the card after I had tried to buy my new television. (I ended up using another card to make the purchase.) Oddly enough, despite the hold, I was still able to buy stamps at the post office, books at Amazon.com, and food at Trader Joe's - so much for the fraud alert, about which I was never contacted.

I tried calling today during my lunch time to talk to someone at B*ank of Ame*rica about my unhappiness with the situation. I waited on hold for 26 minutes and still didn't have my call answered. (Fortunately, I was able to use my headset, and I was able to do some filing while I waited.) When I realized how long I had been listening to the classical music, I finally hung up, completely frustrated.

Twenty-six minutes of hold time on top of the errors they made with my account is entirely unacceptable. At the least, they could have customers enter their phone number in the automated system and have someone call them back, like other banks do. (There is a reason that I refer to BoA as "Satan's Bank"; lack of customer service is a big part of it.) The irony of this situation is I had to listen to several pre-recorded adverts about the embarrassment of having one's credit card declined and how one doesn't have that with BoA. Yeah, riiiight.

I am going to make that call again tomorrow. Except now I am not going to call to complain; I am going to call to cancel the card. And take my business elsewhere.

What happened to retro being cool?

I am all for modernization, but is this really necessary??



This illustrates my feelings that those of us who were kids in the 80s had the BEST cartoons. Why do they have to be updated? Why can't they be embraced for what they are? If parents are looking for innocent things for their kids, why can't it be the innocence of our childhoods?

Leave the innocence of my childhood left intact, Corporate America!!!

Next thing you know, Raggedy Ann is going to have a designer bag and a Sidekick while Raggedy Andy is wearing saggy pants and aviator glasses. (I have a homemade Raggedy Ann and Andy that my Great Aunt Lena made for me sitting in the cedar closet in my parents' attic just waiting for my kids to be born.)

Seeing Red

Today, I picked up three "Lily" bracelets, one for myself and each of my sisters. The Lily bracelets were created by Boston based jewelry designer Jojo, in conjunction with Lily Burns, a friend and colleague of mine who had a stroke in the summer of 2006 and subsequently open heart surgery that winter. Twenty-five percent of the proceeds of the bracelets are going to the American Heart Association, up to $10,000.

When Lily had her stroke, I was one of her colleagues who took the news incredulously. This is a woman who works out every day, who teaches aerobics, who eats fruit and vegetables, drinks loads of water and who rarely touches birthday cakes or sweets brought into the office. If this could happen to her, then what about me? I have a (small) heart murmur, and I drink a ridiculous amount of Diet Coke. (Well, drank. I have gotten a lot better about drinking more water and less soda, which has improved both my blood pressure and the health of my teeth.)

Anyhow, I thought that the bracelets would make nice "sisters" Valentine's Day gifts, as well as helping to raise money for the Heart Association. This goes along with my whole mind scheme for 2008 to get myself into better overall health through rest, diet and exercise because, to be completely honest, I do not take enough care of my physical person, which is not particularly smart, as I intend to have a long life. The bracelet will be a good reminder to stick to my goals for the year.

Fortunately, Lily is doing really well and is back at work and in good health and spirits. She is currently writing a book about her experience to help other young women who suffer strokes. Her activism on behalf of heart health has touched a lot of us in our office community. Including me, which is why I am reminding folks now that February 1st is National Wear Red Day, where people wear the color red to show support for women's heart disease awareness. So make sure you mark the day on your calendar (it is a Friday, because there are 31 days in January, thanks, JR) and wear red to support women like Lily and raise awareness of women's heart health.

Where Have You Gone, Dan Quayle??

As if there weren't enough crazies celebrities running around having children, we can now add 16 year old Jamie Lynn Spears to the mix.

My personal favorite part of the press release is that she goes so far as to say that kids should not be having sex. WHA?!?! How about saying "I wish we had been [intelligent enough to be] using birth control"? No one should be getting pregnant who doesn't want to be pregnant. There are lots of options to prevent pregnancy.

And she is supposed to be a Nickelodeon ROLE MODEL??? And where are the Walt Disneys of the world, who convinced Annette Funicello preserve her Mouseketeer modesty by not wearing a bikini in movies, to save these young people from themselves? HELP!

Someone should be throwing condoms in with their paychecks.

(And in the meantime, my friends who are in a happy, stable relationship and cannot wait to become parents, which they will be AWESOME at, fight the fertility battle on a monthly basis. The world isn't fair.)

Personally, I can't believe some Republican candidate hasn't grabbed this issue of "family values" and made a run for the border with it. (This is so much better than "Murphy Brown".) (I would feel a lot better about this if her sister wasn't such a disaster in the parenting department. I understand that publication of Lynn Spears' parenting book has been postponed indefinitely. SHOCKER THAT!)

As Keanu Reeves' character says in Parenthood: "You know, Mrs. Buckman, you need a license to buy a dog, to drive a car - hell, you even need a license to catch a fish. But they'll let any butt-reaming asshole be a father."

Man's inhumanity to man

Things going on in the world seem so dark these days. Between the school shootings, the perve incident with Congressman Foley (he is one NASTY piece of work,) the torture policy legislation being passed, and the fact that the price of gasoline has dropped $.70 over the past month (just in time for the mid-term elections...,) there is a large part of me that is simply horrified to be an American.

And I love being an American, despite all the evidence to the contrary. I love living in the City of Boston, home of the American Revolution. I love hot dogs and baseball, fireworks on the Fourth of July, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, apple pie and the Smithsonian Institute. I just don't particularly care for the way that America is running its business at the moment. Hopefully that will change significantly after the second Tuesday in November.

I spent last night at a Yom Kippur break fast with my friend JR and assorted other members of our urban family. And on the drive home, I gave some considerable thought as to how lucky I am to have such wonderful friends around me, who reaffirm my belief that there is good in the world, that there are people who have open minds, open hearts and open homes for each other.