2012 Favorites

The Late Adopter selects...
Movies:
Marley (dir. Kevin Macdonald)
The Queen of Versailles (dir. Lauren Greenfield)
Wreck-It Ralph (dir. Rich Moore)
The Dark Knight Rises (dir. Christopher Nolan)
Vito (dir. Jeffrey Schwarz)
How to Survive a Plague (dir. David France)
Bones Brigade: An Autobiography (dir. Stacy Peralta)
Me at the Zoo (dir. Chris Moukarbel and Valerie Veatch)
The Lorax (dir. Chris Renaud and Kyle Balda)
Brave (dir. Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, and Steve Purcell)

Albums:

Paul Weller--Sonik Kicks (Yep Roc)

Lana Del Rey--Born to Die (Polydor)
Jimmy Cliff--Re-Birth (Universal)
Green Day--¡Uno! (Reprise)
Saint Etienne--Words and Music by Saint Etienne (Heavenly)
R. Kelly--Write Me Back (RCA)
Frank Ocean--Channel Orange (Island Def Jam)
Best Coast--The Only Place (Mexican Summer)  
Off!--Off! (Vice)  
Beach Boys--That’s Why God Made the Radio (Capitol)

Songs:
Carly Rae Jepsen--'Call Me Maybe'

Plan B--'Ill Manors'
R. Kelly--'Share My Love' 
Lana Del Rey--'Born to Die'  
Saint Etienne--'Tonight'
Shins--'Simple Song'
Jimmy Cliff--'World Upside Down'  
Paul Weller--'Green'
Bruce Foxton--'Number Six'
Psy--'Gangnam Style' 

December 2012 Acquisitions

Books:
John Arcudi et al, Barb Wire, 1996.
Amir Barda and Rob Walcott, Yonder, 2009.
Carolina De Robertis, The Invisible Mountain: A Novel, 2009.
RH Disney, Wreck-It Ralph, 2012.
Chuck Dixon et al, Catwoman: The Catfile, 1996.
Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration, Los Angeles in the 1930s: The WPA Guide to the City of Angels, 2011.
Albert B. Feldstein (ed.), MAD Power, 1970.
Rick Geary, J. Edgar Hoover: A Graphic Biography, 2008
Mark Millar et al, Superman Adventures: Vol. 4, Man of Steel, 2006.
Paola Mulazzi et al, Tinker Bell and the Lucky Rainbow, 2012.
Greg Rucka et al., Batman: No Man's Land, Vol. 4, New Edition, 2012.
Frances Stonor Saunders, The Woman Who Shot Mussolini, 2010

DVDs:
Brave, 2012.
The Monkees: Season 1, 2011.
Purple Noon, 1960.

The Odd Stormin' Rescue Thunderbirds

The Los Angeles Times publishes obits for Sen. Daniel Inouye, jurist Robert H. Bork, actor Jack Klugman, actor Charles Durning, puppeteer Gerry Anderson, singer Fontella Bass, and Gen. H. Norman Schwartzkopf.

"In America, Our Oldest Christmas Tradition Is, in Fact, the War on Christmas"

"As the Massachusetts minister Increase Mather explained in 1687, Christmas was observed on Dec. 25 not because 'Christ was born in that Month, but because the Heathens Saturnalia was at that time kept in Rome, and they were willing to have those Pagan Holidays metamorphosed into Christian' ones. So naturally, official suppression of Christmas was foundational to the godly colonies in New England.

"On their first Christmas in the New World, the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony celebrated the holiday not at all. Instead they worked in the fields. One year, the colony’s governor, William Bradford, yelled at visitors to the colony who, unaware that Christmas was celebrated more in the absence than in the commemoration, were taking the day off. He found them 'in the streete at play, openly; some pitching the barr, and some at stoole-ball, and shuch like sports.' After that incident, no one again tried to take off work for Christmas in the colony."

Rachel N. Schnepper in The New York Times discusses Puritan opposition to celebrating Christmas.

As does Abby Ohlheiser at The Atlantic.

Among the Preppers

"Over the past four years, Stevens has witnessed something of a renaissance, coming out of retirement to hawk an expanded edition of Basics and a water-filtering system that's so efficient, he tells me, it could make urine taste like bottled water. The product has netted Stevens and his partner $1.5 million in profits in just over a year. And he's far from the only one making a living off the coming collapse of civilization. Sites like Revolutionary Realty and Survival Realty list rugged properties with amenities such as a "defensible hillside location." There are no fewer than three prepper dating sites—Survivalist Singles ('Don't Face the Future Alone') boasts 4,000 members, mostly male. Both the National Geographic Channel and Glenn Beck TV have gotten into the game with their reality shows Doomsday Preppers and Independence USA. The preserved food company Shelf Reliance reported a 708 percent explosion in revenues over the past three years. Overall, the size of the market for Americans expecting major disruptions caused by hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, terrorism, pandemics, price shocks, gas shortages, civil unrest, martial law, nuclear disasters, and/or the Rapture is estimated to be $500 million.
"Welcome to the doom boom."

In Mother Jones, Tim Murphy spends some time with survivalists.

"Rooted in Politics as Much as Law"

"The new group pushed for a novel interpretation of the Second Amendment, one that gave individuals, not just militias, the right to bear arms. It was an uphill struggle. At first, their views were widely scorned. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, who was no liberal, mocked the individual-rights theory of the amendment as 'a fraud.'
"But the N.R.A. kept pushing—and there’s a lesson here. Conservatives often embrace 'originalism,' the idea that the meaning of the Constitution was fixed when it was ratified, in 1787. They mock the so-called liberal idea of a 'living' constitution, whose meaning changes with the values of the country at large. But there is no better example of the living Constitution than the conservative re-casting of the Second Amendment in the last few decades of the twentieth century."

In The New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin discusses changing views of the Second Amendment.

Adam Winkler in The New Republic traces the gun-control debate back to 1934.

Switched to Overload

"I can’t help but wonder about Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, Seung-Hui Cho and Adam Lanza. If they had been born in Gaza or the West Bank, shaped by terrorist organizations’ hateful propaganda, would they have strapped bombs around their waists and blown themselves up? I’m afraid the answer is yes."

Adam Lankford in The New York Times compares rampage shooters to suicide terrorists.

"A Woman of the Darkness"

"Feminist critics would later celebrate the noir woman — the iconic femme fatale — as a lioness of empowerment and sexual freedom. Janey Place articulates this view when she writes that the noir era 'stands as the only period in American film in which women are deadly but sexy, exciting, and strong . . . active, not static symbols . . . intelligent and powerful if destructively so.' The femmes fatales were certainly more than just sexpots; they were apolitical rebels against the traditional female role. Depression babes ambitious for a materially richer life but lacking education or business ambitions, they rejected domesticity (unless they wanted to negotiate a marriage of convenience to a wealthy man) and used their sexual wiles to undermine patriarchal power — to 'unman' a man and thus control him."

Salon presents an excerpt from Richard Lingeman's The Noir Forties: The American People from Victory to Cold War.

"May God Bless the Memory of the Victims"

"As a country, we have been through this too many times.  Whether it's an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago--these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children.  And we're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics."

The New York Times publishes President Obama's statement following the mass shooting in Connecticut.

And The Huffinton Post adds Obama's remarks two days later in Newtown.

"The Death Throes of the Conservative Dream"

"So Republicans have suffered more than an election defeat, they’ve seen the collapse of a decades-long project. And with their grandiose goals now out of reach, they literally have no idea what they want — hence their inability to make specific demands."

Paul Krugman in The New York Times describes the problems facing Republicans during budget negotiations.

As does Jonathan Chait in New York.

"The Filthy Lens of Political Extremism"

"In Trilling’s portrait of the last decade, the BNP was a predictable phenomenon, one that naturally accompanies cynical Blairite politics and a growing gap between rich and poor. But the 2000s look like a golden age compared to the perpetual desolation of the Cameron era. Miliband’s reviving Labour Party and the less ideologically blinkered press have to make the case for government and against the mindless dogma of austerity—austerity that doesn’t just destroy communities and ruin lives in the long run, but that hasn't even succeeded on its own short-run fiscal terms to lower deficits or stimulate private sector demand. Otherwise we may see not only the continuation of this British nightmare, but an even darker time in which the only alternative for most Britons is Griffin and his ilk."

Jason Farago in The New Republic reviews Daniel Trilling's Bloody Nasty People: The Rise of Britain’s Far Right.

Shepherds or Czars

"That’s not new: Spector had a hand in writing many of the biggest songs the Ronettes and Righteous Brothers sang, while disco-era producers like Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards wrote and produced entire albums for Diana Ross and Sister Sledge. It is, however, vastly different from the song-shepherd model that took hold in rock music in the 1960s and ’70s. Their role was often to simply help bands sound the way they wanted to, whether it was George Martin and the Beatles, Jimmy Miller’s work on a string of acclaimed albums by the Rolling Stones or Columbia Records house producer Bob Johnston assisting Bob Dylan, among plenty of others. The best producers made good bands better."

Eric R. Danton in Salon contrasts dueling approaches of record producers.

"Income Equality Is Not Only Better for Our Souls—It’s Also Better for the Economy"

"Regressive policies can also lead to financial crises. When firms suffer from global overcapacity or merely from domestic overproduction–when a glut arises of automobiles, ships, textiles semiconductors or fiber optic cable--as happened in the late 1920s and again in the earlier part of the last decade, the wealthy, joined by corporate treasurers and bankers, have tended to pour their money into speculation rather than productive investment. The financial sector has become a casino for the rich, where they have gambled away funds that could have fueled the economy. So redistributing income through tax policy isn’t just fair; it is one way to began restructuring the economy to prevent future slowdowns and crashes."  

John Judis in The New Republic explains the necessity of increased tax rates on upper incomes.

"The Museum's 'Patron Saint'"

"'I dig the dog. He's thinking, "Fuck this shit. I didn't join the LAPD, I was pressed into service against my will. You got some hopped-up dipshit in some backhouse, he's barricaded himself in there ... it's 116 degrees right now." And he's out front. There's no body armor on this dog. He's thinking, "I should be up at Ellroy's swank pad. Yeah, he'd let me sleep up on the bed. Yeah, he'd feed me steak. Yeah, I could go out and hunt cats in his backyard. I could be drinking tasty, bracing toilet water, sniffing crotches. Instead I'm out here risking my life for the motherfucking LAPD. Nobody asked me if I wanted this fuckin' job. I am truly a victim of the LAPD."'"

In the LA Weekly, James Bartlett visits the Los Angeles Police Historical Society Museum with James Ellroy.

"The Worst Famine in History"

"Nowadays, Yang asserts, 'rulers and ordinary citizens alike know in their hearts that the totalitarian system has reached its end.' He hopes 'Tombstone' will help banish the 'historical amnesia imposed by those in power' and spur his countrymen to 'renounce man-made calamity, darkness and evil.' While guardedly hopeful about the rise of democracy, Yang is ultimately a realist. Despite China’s economic and social transformation, this courageous man concludes, 'the political system remains unchanged.' 'Tombstone' doesn’t directly challenge China’s current regime, nor is its author part of an organized movement. And so, unlike the Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, Yang Jisheng is not serving a long prison sentence. But he has driven a stake through the hearts of Mao Zedong and the party he helped found."

In The New York Times, Jonathan Mirsky reviews a new English-language translation of Yang Jisheng's Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962.

Time Out for Strange Love

The Los Angeles Times prints obituaries for Disney designer Mel Shaw, guitarist Mickey Baker, former congressman Jack Brooks, architect Oscar Niemeyer, pianist Dave Brubeck, and news helicopter creator John D. Silva.

The Ordeal of Monticello

"Television correspondent Shannon Lanier is a direct descendant of Sally Hemings through her son, Madison Hemings. 'It's been an interesting journey for me, because it started out when I was a kid, me standing up in class and saying, "Thomas Jefferson is my great-great- great-great-great-great grandfather," and being so happy and proud to brag about it when we're studying the presidents. But then the teacher says, "Sit down and stop telling lies," and all the kids laugh at you.'
"By the mid-1990s the laughing had stopped. Historians even at Monticello were becoming believers. Lanier was 19 when he attended the controversial, first-ever combined Hemings-Jefferson family reunion at Monticello in 1999. 'Before that reunion, I had only known the Hemings descendants from the Madison line of the family,' he said."

Martha Teichner of CBS News reports on recent chronicles about Thomas Jefferson and slavery.

And in The New York Times, Jennifer Schuessler discusses debates over Jefferson, and Paul Finkelman denounces the third president.

November 2012 Acquisitions

Books:
Paul Cornell and Jimmy Broxton, Batman: Knight and Squire, 2011.
Chuck Dixon et al, Robin: Year One, 2008.
Garth Ennis and John McCrea, Hitman, Vol. 1: A Rage in Arkham, 2009.
Justin Gray et al, All Star Western, Vol. 1: Guns and Gotham, 2012.
David Kennedy and Lizbeth Cohen, The American Pageant, Volume 2: Since 1865, 2013.
Dennis O'Neil et al, Batman: Venom, 2012.
Si Spencer, Simon Gane, and Cameron Stewart, The Vinyl Underground, Vol 1: Watching the Detectives, 2008.
Si Spencer, Simon Gane, and Cameron Stewart, The Vinyl Underground, Vol 2: Pretty Dead Things, 2009.

"Not Just to Minister to the Slaves, but to Do Away with Slavery"

"An absolute pacifist, she incurred the resentment of Church authorities for opposing U.S. involvement in World War II and subsequent forays into Korea and Indochina. She mentored the Catholic activists who broke into a government office and poured homemade napalm on draft files in 1968 to protest the Vietnam war. And Day was such a resolute champion of labor that, in 1949, she even backed a gravediggers’ strike against a Catholic cemetery in New York City. When the powerful archbishop, Francis Cardinal Spellman, ordered seminary students to break the strike, she denounced him for bringing 'so overwhelming a show of force against a handful of poor working men.' What Spellman did, she added bitterly, was 'a temptation of the devil to that most awful of all wars, the war between the clergy and the laity.'
"Like any good anarchist, Christian or not, Day had no faith whatsoever in the desire or ability of governing authorities to create a moral, egalitarian society. At the recent bishops’ meeting, Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago recalled asking her, just after the 1960 election, how she felt about having a Catholic in the White House 'who can fight for social justice.' 'I believe Mr. Kennedy has chosen very badly,' she snapped. 'No serious Catholic would want to be president of the United States.'"

Michael Kazin at The New Republic reports that American bishops have endorsed sainthood for Dorothy Day.

I Dream of Free Agency

The Los Angeles Times publishes obits for actor Larry Hagman, boxer Hector "Macho" Camacho, activist Lawrence Guyot, and union leader Marvin Miller.