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Vote in November, and every chance you get is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

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Despite the fact that I was only mildly amused by Diablo Cody’s Juno, I decided to see Jennifer’s Body, in part, because some reviews said Cody’s screenplay has a special take on both horror and teenage girls. Indeed, the relationship between hottie Jennifer and ersatz-mousy Needy is central, albeit a little sketchy.

The movie is littered with the arch, wry, and sarcastic pop-culture references required of all things hip. Not everyone pulls it off like Joss Whedon, who is such a master he can make it work in another galaxy (Firefly).

I’m not sure whether Cody simply exploits movie clichés or mocks them – both, it seems. Is the thing you fear behind the open fridge door? Ha, no, guess again. Don’t go down the dark hall or into the woods. The movie is dark, creepy, and gory, if not very rewarding of one’s time. You gotta wonder about a small western town with an entire block of abandoned townhouses and similarly abandoned natatorium up a well-groomed hill.

I don’t think the frame story enhanced the film, though I appreciate justice being delivered under the final credits. The explanation of Jennifer’s, uh, condition comes a little late in the film. Her blasé acceptance of her fate makes it hard to care about her. No doubt a pretty girl can lure a guy – even a goth dude – to scale a fence and enter an abandoned house to his own doom, but is there a teenaged girl in America who would jump into a van with a band of strangers headed into the woods? Sure, it actually happens too often, but Jennifer seemed too smart for that and it makes no sense her BFF would let her go alone, except that there is no story if it doesn’t happen that way. And while we’re supposed to laugh at would-be Satanists who get their rituals off the Web, it’s frightening to think what that might inspire.

Although my thumb is slightly down on this film, most of the actors are interesting in their roles, including Amanda Seyfried (who has a very different role in Letters to Juliet), a couple of the teen boys, and J.K. Simmons, a great “character actor” who was also in Juno. And, I’m always glad to see Chris Pratt, the ironically-named Bright from Everwood.

Jennifer’s Body (3 Stars) is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

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NewMexiKen | H(enry) L(ouis) Mencken is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

NewMexiKen | The Pueblo Revolt

On this date in 1680, the surviving Spanish settlers under siege decided to abandon Santa Fe and began the trek to Chihuahua. The Spanish did not return to Nuevo México for 12 years. …

The Puebloans removed all signs of the Spanish — the churches, the religion itself, the crops, even the animals (the horses let loose on the plains, eventually transforming the culture of the Plains Indians) [mjh: That fact always blows my mind.]. One vestige remained: one man rule. Popé declared himself that man and moved to the Palace in Santa Fe.

Spanish attempts at reconquest failed until 1692.

NewMexiKen | The Pueblo Revolt

But, wait, there’s more!

The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 By Joseph Sando | Published  07/1/2002

In 1675, Governor Juan de Trevino arrested 47 Pueblo men and charged them with sorcery. Four were hanged and the rest were publicly whipped in the plaza in Santa Fe.

Among those whipped was Popé, of San Juan Pueblo. Upon his return home, Popé began to think of a way to get rid of the Spaniards. He set up meetings that soon included nearby pueblos. The word of an organized Pueblo revolt spread to include Taos, Picuris and Jemez, as well as the Keresan-speaking pueblos of Cochiti and Santo Domingo. The meetings were highly secret, held generally at night, and composed mostly of each pueblo’s war captains.

Five years later, at one of their last meetings, at Tesuque on August 8, 1680, two messengers were detailed to carry a knotted rope showing the number of days before the revolt would begin.

The Pueblo Revolt of 1680

And today, we all live in glorious harmony and love. [Insert cartoon of characters laughing and hugging and suddenly glowering at each other before laughing and hugging again. Loop endlessly.]

PS: OK, yes, what would we (er, I) do without NMK? (Well, I remembered the 47 connection from long before.) I even have a NewMexiKen blog category. (As well as, 47, of course.)

[Update]

This just in: Writing after NewMexiKen about a time before Ken’s subject, but essential to that topic, Rudolfo Carrillo invokes that number, too. It’s all coincidence; it’s all connected.

los que llegaron con caballos y acero – Duke City Fix

Four hundred and seventy years later, there is a large and beautiful shopping mall, miles from the river, named after the man.

los que llegaron con caballos y acero – Duke City Fix

[Update Two]

As chance would have it, the original post floated over to Facebook before the previous update, then found its way into Google Reader at 3:47pm – really! Moreover, Reader said parenthetically “(5 min ago),” but I’ll bet it was just rounding up from 4.7 minutes.

How many men? [updated] is a post from: mjh's blog. Thank you for subscribing. Let me know what you think. peace, mjh

It was too long for me. And, too slow. The first hundred pages crept by like The Wall Street Journal. I’m assuming the author intended for me to guess the “big secret” the moment I read about it in the Preface. No doubt, he used that as a hook (readers will stick around to make sure they’re right). There were, indeed, other surprises. The frequent mentions of other mystery writers went from cute, to predictable, and back to cute again. The multitude of people – first, middle, last, and pet names – and town names, often jammed into one sentence, taxed my interest. Yeah, I know it’s set in Sweden. (Mind you, I majored in German Language and Literature. I’ve read a lot of unusual names – in German, yet.) Speaking of translation: There were several times I stopped in amazement, wondering what was really meant. I’m well-read enough to handle gaol, and to figure out the translator meant arranged when he wrote organized. Maybe it’s all perfect British English. I haven’t a clue what dogsbody means, even in context. But I was susceptible to distractions because, again, the book is too long. Still, the very end was quite moving.

On the other hand, the two major characters are well-done. Since one of them a journalist, like the author, he may not have been much of a stretch, though I wonder if Larsson had so much sex. Still, Lisbeth Salander is a very original character.

And kudos to Stieg Larsson for drawing such attention to violence against women, not only in terms of several aspects of the plot, but even in the pages between sections. And the original title: Men Who Hate Women. Larsson does not glamorize this violence and he documents it well-enough to make me quite uncomfortable. I gather he is building towards even larger issues involving violence against women and children. Not sure I can stomach more, especially at a slow pace. I’m undecided.

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We watched the Cooler primarily for William H. Macy and Alex Baldwin. They did not disappoint. Maria Bello was a pleasant surprise and equal to the others.

I hate the real Las Vegas, Nevada, and almost every depiction of it. It’s an awful town. This movie touches on the dead-end, endless night aspects of the place. The caricature of mob involvement is a bit old, of course. The fresh aspect is in the notion of the “cooler” himself: a man so unlucky that just being near him ends any lucky you have at the moment.

The violence is at the edge of my tolerance. I understand why this created some buzz for Alec Baldwin, who is a very good bad guy. 

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Growing Number of Americans Say Obama is a Muslim: OVERVIEW – Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

A substantial and growing number of Americans say that Barack Obama is a Muslim, while the proportion saying he is a Christian has declined. More than a year and a half into his presidency, a plurality of the public says they do not know what religion Obama follows.

A new national survey by the Pew Research Center finds that nearly one-in-five Americans (18%) now say Obama is a Muslim, up from 11% in March 2009. Only about one-third of adults (34%) say Obama is a Christian, down sharply from 48% in 2009. Fully 43% say they do not know what Obama’s religion is. The survey was completed in early August, before Obama’s recent comments about the proposed construction of a mosque near the site of the former World Trade Center. …

The belief that Obama is a Muslim has increased most sharply among Republicans (up 14 points since 2009), especially conservative Republicans (up 16 points). But the number of independents who say Obama is a Muslim has also increased significantly (up eight points). There has been little change in the number of Democrats who say Obama is a Muslim, but fewer Democrats today say he is a Christian (down nine points since 2009).

Growing Number of Americans Say Obama is a Muslim: OVERVIEW – Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

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