Asymmetric

I'm a sucker for movies with historical allusions and ranging quests. Throw in some manly discovery, magic weapons, and attractive ladies and I'm yours to lose. The tween movie Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Theif doesn't squander these natural advantages.

Percy Jackson is a dyslexic teenager who likes water and hates his loutish stepdad. It's not that he doesn't try: His dyslexia is on account of his brain being "hard-wired" for Greek. The lout shields him from godly intrigues. And, you'd expect Poseidon's son to like water, wouldn't you?

Percy is set to the path of self-discovery when Zeus accuses Percy of stealing his lightning bolt (talk about profiling!)

The gods send their mythological henchmen to get the bolt back, and a secret demigod underground springs to life to protect Percy. Chiron (Pierce Brosnan) fights off a fury during a field trip, allowing Satyr Grover Underwood (Brandon T. Jackson) to whisk him and his mom away to a demigod charter school. One needs godly blood to enter the compound which is unfortunate for Percy’s fully-human mom; she’s taken to Hades by a minotaur. We have motivation!

Percy wants his mom back. But first, some character growth. Percy plays capture the flag against hot-as-Hades Athenian warrior Annabeth Chase (Alexandra Daddario). He’s now ready to go to Hades.

Annabeth and Grover decide to accompany him. To get out of Hades after they get mom, they need three pearls which are scattered only throughout the United States because the gods hate Canada.

On the way, they encounter Medusa (a still bewitching Uma Thurman. This is Uma's second turn as a goddess. She played Venus in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen), Lotus-eaters, and a Hydra.

It's all very well-done and a lot of fun. Just don't expect Percy Jackson to make a lot of sense: Didn't Medusa already die at the hands of Perseus? Is the Nevada gambling commission aware of a strip casino that offers their customers free drugs? During a conversation between Poseidon (Kevin McKidd who played Lucius Vorenus in the excellent Rome) and Zeus, Poseidon tells Zeus that “omnipotence has gone to your head.” Without getting too theological, Greek gods were not omnipotent. If Zeus were, he wouldn’t have trouble finding his dumb bolt.

Rosario Dawson is Persephone, queen of Hades. She’s part-Cuban and sexy enough to make one long for death.

Message/Politics:

Percy Jackson errs on the side of nature (over nurture). Demigods enjoy genetic advantages. I’ve mentioned the bizarre notion of a brain being hard-wired for a specific language (obviously, producers didn't consult with Noam Chomsky or any linguist) and a clearly illegal school that bases its admission on race.

Students spend their time bragging about their parents. It’s all very Victorian.

On the other hand, Percy needs inner-strength to harness his water powers. He also loves his mother, is brave, and maintains loyalty to his friends.

The gods roam the earth seducing women like some immortal Tiger Woods. Percy Jackson doesn't condemn that practice, but stands four-square against dead-beat dads: Percy laments that the gods can't be part of their children's lives.

Rome: The Complete Series [Blu-ray]

National Treasure [Blu-ray]

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen [Blu-ray]

The Complete World of Greek Mythology by Richard Buxton

PICO RIVERA - After a newly appointed mayor took a Bible off the dais and chose not to schedule prayer at each council meeting, the country's 220-year-old debate over church and state has sprung up in Pico Rivera.

Since he became mayor in January, Gregory Salcido has tried to include less religion during council hearings.

"It's a very black-and-white situation, clearly defined in the Constitution," Salcido said after the January meeting. "When our framers crafted the First Amendment of the Constitution, they put the establishment clause in to protect the integrity of both institutions."

Here.

In fact, it is "black and white." Gregory Salcido is in the black: According to the Supreme Court, it's perfectly fine for city councils to pray provided they're not too specific, i.e., the prayer can say "God," but not "Jesus."

They open sessions of congress with prayers, for God's sake.

I would respect Greg's decision more if he had just said, "I don't feel like it," than having to hide behind an imaginary ban. The other option is that Gregory Salcido actually doesn't know what he's saying is wrong. I don't know which one's more embarrasing.

A couple of years ago, one of my fraternity brothers mentioned that Frater Craig Amshel wrote a book about his Teke experience.

Craig is a pledge brother of mine, one of an elite ten. I remember him as a cool guy, which is why I was sorry that I lost touch with him. I always thought it was because he felt embarrassed that he was just a renowned surgeon while I had my own blog, but my brothers told me that he lived in Florida and had to do a bunch of operations or whatever. I was anxious to hear from him again, even if it was only in print.

Also, chronicling my college years had intrigued me at one time (I abandoned the idea when I realized that a story alternating between progressively more impressive sexual and intellectual conquests lacked drama.), and I wanted to see how Craig did it.

I quit my job, said goodbye to my wife and children, and spent the next two years combing through used bookstores from Maine to California in search of that rare tome, before somebody told me about something called "Amazon." Click. I received the book...and immediately put it away. You see, I've learned to suppress each stage of my life and wasn't necessarily eager to dredge up my eighteenth year on earth.

Like Gollum learning to take responsibility for his descent into madness, I found the courage to face the indiscretions of my youth.

Ahhhh...wow. Fall '86 is the most emotional book I've ever read. It's not just because I'm in it either: Books that revolve around beer strike at my very core.

The first thing that impressed me about Fall '86 was Craig's Homer-like power of recall. I forgot most of the stuff he talked about the day after it happened. He remembers dates, names, conversations, smells. Really incredible.

Fall 86 goes from rush week, continues through some of our trials, and ends with our initiation (AKA the "mind f***). Craig only breaks up the Teke-centric narrative with a lovely episode of his mom and him walking on the beach, a couple of ROTC stories, and some academic stuff (apparently, people gather in rooms called "classes" and scribble down what some old dude says).

Craig shows restraint in other ways: He avoids the temptation to turn social critic and find deeper meaning in his experience, and he doesn't go negative on his fraternity brothers, except for Opie, whose name cannot be mentioned without cursing him and the genetic strain that made him possible (just kidding). Nice, simple, and factual.

Why should you care?

Fall '86 doesn't have any brushes with greatness or pull a scab from society's belly. Neither is it lurid. No story arc or great struggle. It's just one dude telling about his first year in college, like anybody might to his kid when the cable is out.

If you were smart like me and spent hours a day on Wikipedia, you'd know that Fall '86 is something called "Slice of life," a legitimate literary genre.

Books about interesting, yet unknown real-life adventures include Jarhead, whatever spawned Sex and the City, and Barack Obama's own Dreams of My Father. Indeed, it's the basis of many blogs and the ancestor of the reality show. They allow one to peek into a world that they otherwise wouldn't be able to see. Such works set a place and time forever, as Craig does with his mentions of Firbirds and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. It's like reading your aunt's diary, if your aunt was a debauched college freshman with awful taste in Rock.

One of the formative moments of my life.

One last thing: Craig's a surgeon and a military officer, two professions drenched in drama and yet Craig decided to write about one semester in the lives of ten college freshmen.

Fall '86 by Craig Amshel

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Widescreen Special Edition)

Jarhead [Blu-ray]

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama

The Song of Bernadette is amongst the best Christian movies that deal with a supernatural event other than the central story of our Lord.

It's based on the best-selling book by Franz Werfel of the same name and tells the story of Bernadette Soubirous, a French peasant girl to whom appeared Mary.

It happens that the "song" of Bernadette is dramatic enough to not require embellishment. The film-makers accordingly opt for a strait account of the events, wrapped in their abundant cinematic skill, of course. The conflict in Song of Bernadette comes from members of Bernadette's own family, who discourage Bernadette for fear of mockery and local officials of the secular French government, who wish to complete the work of the French Revolution.

The performances are superb. This is Vincent Price's best role, probably. Jennifer Jones perfectly portrays a simple, yet dignified and strong peasant girl. Jones evoked in me memories of similar people I've known (my sister-in-law, for example).

The movie provides the faithful with several emotional moments. It also shows how effectively movies can forward a point of view when it wishes to take a side. We've all seen movies where religious people are made to seem foolish. In Song of Bernadette, the audience feels sorry for the secularists. Vincent Price's character is a cold-hearted, smug, faithless man trying desperately to deny the evidence at hand out of self-interest- a Christopher Hitchens, perhaps.

Watching the movie again reminded me of the pre-video/cable days when local stations would show such movies during weekdays (instead of the trash we have today) and on Saturday mornings.

S/T to Catholic Fire for the videos.

The Song of Bernadette

The Song of Bernadette by Franz Werfel

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Sometimes I play music for the kids at school. Picking songs whose titles are the same as the names of my students usually gets a chuckle.

Well, there's a girl named "Lolita" in my class. I fired up the Media Center today and searched for "Lola." Here's what I found:

Whatever Lola Wants from Damn Yankees. The title is a killer hook in the song. It lulls in between. I like this better than the more laid back Sarah Vaughn version.

Damn Yankees (1955 Original Broadway Cast)

Damn Yankees

**Information interlude**

"Lola" is short for "Dolores," which is one of the appellations given to the Blessed Mother, "dolores" being Latin for "pain"; it's translated into English as "sorrows," as in "Our Lady of Sorrows."

Detail of altar dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows in Santa Maria dei Servi, Siena, Italy.

The fact that the name Lolita has come to mean an unchaste young lady is ironic, then. Yet, understandable. Lolita is a popular name amongst Latin ladies and Americans began to associate their southern neighbors with lustiness early after first contact.

OK. Back to music.

Arabs mention Mary in the Koran, although not as the Mother of God. This is from an Egyptian movie called Whatever Lola Wants:

Caramel

Aldemaro Romero has a nice mambo version It's the podcast.

Almendra by Aldemaro Romero
The album has my favorite cover of all time. I used it when I made CDs for my friends.

The great Antonio Machin:

1935 Cuarteto & Septeto by D. J Machin

Antonio's songs have a genuine depth about them. Above, Machin loves his friend, but he takes the love of his life Lola, I think. Ambiguous, in an interesting way.

Carlos Argentino with the Sonora Matancera, again, sings Ave Maria Lola.

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