Saturday, June 6, 2009

UP

Did you catch the new movie by PIXAR--"UP"?

UP

is the name of the film. The word UP is so small for a title . . . Maybe I should use a larger font each time I refer to it . . . Maybe I should repeat it three times each time I refer to it.

UP

UP

UP

Go see this movie if you haven't already. It may not be the greatest movie ever made, or even the greatest PIXAR, but it is an example of a PERFECT STORY, one in which all of the loose ends come together logically and harmoniously in the resolution.

In other words, the gun introduced in the first act of the play is used by the third and final act of the play. In the case of this clever little movie, all guns are used by the final act.

Good Stuff: An old guy carrying a house on his back (lol); the romance between the old guy and his wife--how sweeeeetttt and heart warming--well done, well done, well done--and all of it done in the first 12 minutes of film time; Talking dogs--they will crack you up; the absurd plot device (a house elevated by balloons); the villain; dog pilots dog fighting (pun); the cone of shame; the house; the scrap book.

Not So Good Stuff: the villain was the old guy's childhood hero, which is okay but if the old guy was born around 1920-1925 and the villain was at least 15 years older (by all on screen indications) and the old guy is now in his late 70s (at least), the present day villain is in his 90s? 100s? They are both too spry for their implied ages, but especially the villain; the sweet but annoying kid--he does grow on you after a while, but we see that coming from a mile off--Disney has a way of forcing annoying children down your throat and making you, eventually, love them.

So how good is this movie?

It ranks above SHARK TALE and ICE AGE2, and slightly below the classics NEMO, INCREDIBLES, TOY STORY, ICE AGE 1, and MONSTERS INC.

But despite all that--go watch it and you will love it. I guarantee it.

You will love UP.

UP

UP

UP


Preston

Star Trek

Hey, STAR TREK is in the theaters, or maybe they already pulled it.

At any rate, I liked it.

Good stuff: Young Spock (Don't talk about my mama or I will kick your a**!); Old Spock (same old logical Spock); Iowa of the future--where can I steal one of those cars?; let's name him Tiberius (hahahahaha); the Uhura/Spock romance (hold on, wait a minute--the Uhura/Captain Kirk romance of the 60s led to the first interracial kiss on TV); Uhura (she is hot--as they say, I would do her); Bones McCoy (the old alchy, lol); Scotty (great performance by actor Simon Pegg, whose Scotty kinda reminds of Eric Idle crossed with Paul McCartney); Bruce Greenwood as Captain-and-then-Admiral Pike; the elder Captain Kirk's heroism; and the action sequences.

Not So Good Stuff: Why no Klingons?; the Back to the Future Rip Off plot was cliched laziness, but tolerable with so much good going on elsewhere (and I loved the Spock meets Spock deal--"I am not OUR father" hahahahaha); the green chick (or was she blue?--yuck); the drill was a good bit (pun), but it should have been used to greater effect in the climax--in fact, that whole final scene felt like anti-climax.

Fair to Middling: Chris Pine was a fine Kirk, just fine; Chekov was grossly under utilized, but he stole every scene he was in; Mr. Sulu fencing? Okay.

So how good was it?

Well, on the whole, the movie was fun--it was at least as enjoyable as TRANSFORMERS, and slightly much more fun than Spiderman 3. Furthermore, as a fan of the original 60s TV show, I found a lot of nostalgia value in it, so I will be purchasing it as soon as it comes to DVD.

New School Hopes Six-Figure Teacher Salaries Pave Way to Success

Wow!

Read this, colleagues, and then let's all move to New York!

Preston

_____________________________________________

from "PoliticsToday.com"

People everywhere envy teachers for the comfortable schedule, reliable benefits, and job security, but teachers are not known for their lucrative compensation packages. A new charter school in New York City is looking to change that by offering six-figure salaries to recruit the best teachers.

The school, scheduled to open next fall for 120 fifth-graders, will offer its eight teachers yearly salaries of $125,000 with the potential for additional performance-based bonuses, more than twice the salary for New York City public school teachers and nearly two-and-a-half times the national average for teacher salaries.

According to an article in Friday's New York Times, the new school is looking to prove that teachers, not small-class sizes or high technology, are the backbone of an effective learning environment.

Known as The Equity Project Charter School, the school aims to be the practical implementation of research that highlights the role of skilled teachers in student success. According to the school's Web site, "TEP is uniquely focused on attracting and retaining master teachers. To do so, TEP uses a three-pronged strategy that it terms the 3 R's: Rigorous Qualifications, Redefined Expectations, & Revolutionary Compensation."

The new school has recruited an impressive array of teachers, including two Ivy League graduates and Joe Carbone, the gym teacher whose previous work includes time as Kobe Bryant's personal trainer.

"The idea [behind the school] is relatively simple," said founder and principal Zeke Vanderhoek in an interview with WNYC in March. "The key to educating anybody, but particularly important for low-income students, is a great teacher. The idea behind the school is that to attract and retain great teachers you have to do what you do in any other profession to attract and retain talent, and that is pay for it."

The school also aims to demonstrate that its model for teacher compensation can be accomplished using existing public funding; it is not relying on outside donations like some other charter schools, except to finance the cost of its building, which represents a cost not encountered by existing public schools.

The school's first class was chosen through a lottery that gave preference to neighborhood students and academic low performers; most of the students are from low-income Hispanic families.

Eventually, the school hopes to grow to 480 children in Grades 5 to 8, with 28 teachers.

The fact that the teachers will be well paid is not the only thing that distinguishes TEP from other schools. Because there are fewer teachers available, class sizes will be larger at TEP than in most public schools. The expected size is 30 students per class--six more than the average 5th grade class in New York City. TEP teachers will not have the same retirement benefits as members of the city's teachers' union and they can be fired at will.

Interestingly, the teachers will be making more than Vanderhoek, who, according to The New York Times, will earn $90,000.

The new school opens as President Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, call for nationwide increases in the number of charter schools that the President hopes will stimulate innovation in education.

"Right now, there are caps on how many charter schools are allowed in some states, no matter how well they are preparing our students. That isn't good for our children, our economy, or our country," the President said during a speech at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on March 10. Assuming that there is a mechanism for accountability, the President called upon states "to reform their charter rules, and lift caps on the number of allowable charter schools, wherever such caps are in place."

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

This Is Interesting

I am not political, I am not political, I am not political, but this is interesting . . .


"When Vice President Dick Cheney appeared at the National Press Club to participate in the Gerald Ford Journalism prizes today, he warmly remembered his old boss, the late President Ford, as someone only truly appreciated by history. Ford was, Cheney said, "Unafraid to make the tough calls, even when they carried high political risk."


Although Cheney focused most of remarks on national security issues, it was his very personal answer to a question on gay marriage that broke new ground. "I think freedom means freedom for everyone," Cheney said. "As many of you know, one of my daughters is gay, something that we've lived with for a long time in our family."

Cheney's daughter, Mary Cheney, is gay and gave birth to a son in 2007, whom she is raising with her longtime partner, Heather Poe . . . "

Lipshitz 6

Lipshitz 6
Reading T Cooper for Christmas

Punk Blood

Punk Blood
Jay Marvin

Breath, Eyes, Memory

Breath, Eyes, Memory

Anonymous Rex

Anonymous Rex
Reading Eric Garcia for Christmas

Vinegar Hill

Vinegar Hill
Reading A. Manette Ansay for Christmas

Nicotine Dreams

Nicotine Dreams
Reading Katie Cunningham for Christmas

Junot Diaz

Junot Diaz
Pulitzer Prize Winner!!!

Edwige Danticat

Edwige Danticat
New Year's Reading

Greed

Greed
This Brother Is Scary Good

One More Chance

One More Chance
The genius Is At It Again/The Rapper CHIEF aka Sherwin Allen

Sandrine's Letter

Sandrine's Letter
Check out Sandrine's Letter To Tomorrow. You will like it, I insist.

All or Nothing

All or Nothing

Editorial Reviews of All or Nothing

New York Times--". . . a cartographer of autodegradation . . . Like Dostoyevsky, Allen colorfully evokes the gambling milieu — the chained (mis)fortunes of the players, their vanities and grotesqueries, their quasi-philosophical ruminations on chance. Like Burroughs, he is a dispassionate chronicler of the addict’s daily ritual, neither glorifying nor vilifying the matter at hand."

Florida Book Review--". . . Allen examines the flaming abyss compulsive gambling burns in its victims’ guts, self-esteem and bank accounts, the desperate, myopic immediacy it incites, the self-destructive need it feeds on, the families and relationships it destroys. For with gamblers, it really is all or nothing. Usually nothing. Take it from a reviewer who’s been there. Allen is right on the money here."

Foreword Magazine--"Not shame, not assault, not even murder is enough reason to stop. Allen’s second novel, All or Nothing, is funny, relentless, haunting, and highly readable. P’s inner dialogues illuminate the grubby tragedy of addiction, and his actions speak for the train wreck that is gambling."

Library Journal--"Told without preaching or moralizing, the facts of P's life express volumes on the destructive power of gambling. This is strongly recommended and deserves a wide audience; an excellent choice for book discussion groups."—Lisa Rohrbaugh, East Palestine Memorial P.L., OH

LEXIS-NEXIS--"By day, P drives a school bus in Miami. But his vocation? He's a gambler who craves every opportunity to steal a few hours to play the numbers, the lottery, at the Indian casinos. Allen has a narrative voice as compelling as feeding the slots is to P." Betsy Willeford is a Miami-based freelance book reviewer. November 4, 2007

Publisher’s Weekly--"Allen’s dark and insightful novel depicts narrator P’s sobering descent into his gambling addiction . . . The well-written novel takes the reader on a chaotic ride as P chases, finds and loses fast, easy money. Allen (Churchboys and Other Sinners) reveals how addiction annihilates its victims and shows that winning isn’t always so different from losing."

Kirkus Review--"We gamble to gamble. We play to play. We don't play to win." Right there, P, desperado narrator of this crash-'n'-burn novella, sums up the madness. A black man in Miami, P has graduated from youthful nonchalance (a '79 Buick Electra 225) to married-with-a-kid pseudo-stability, driving a school bus in the shadow of the Biltmore. He lives large enough to afford two wide-screen TVs, but the wife wants more. Or so he rationalizes, as he hits the open-all-night Indian casinos, "controlling" his jones with a daily ATM maximum of $1,000. Low enough to rob the family piggy bank for slot-machine fodder, he sinks yet further, praying that his allergic 11-year-old eat forbidden strawberries—which will send him into a coma, from which he'll emerge with the winning formula for Cash 3 (the kid's supposedly psychic when he's sick). All street smarts and inside skinny, the book gives readers a contact high that zooms to full rush when P scores $160,000 on one lucky machine ("God is the God of Ping-ping," he exults, as the coins flood out). The loot's enough to make the small-timer turn pro, as he heads, flush, to Vegas to cash in. But in Sin City, karmic payback awaits. Swanky hookers, underworld "professors" deeply schooled in sure-fire systems to beat the house, manic trips to the CashMyCheck store for funds to fuel the ferocious need—Allen's brilliant at conveying the hothouse atmosphere of hell-bent gaming. Fun time in the Inferno.

At Books and Books

At Books and Books
Me And Vicki at Our Reading

Bio


Preston L. Allen is the recipient of a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship in Literature and the Sonja H. Stone Prize in Fiction for his short story collection Churchboys and Other Sinners (Carolina Wren Press 2003). His works have appeared in numerous publications including The Seattle Review, The Crab Orchard Review, Asili, Drum Voices, and Gulfstream Magazine; and he has been anthologized in Here We Are: An Anthology of South Florida Writers, Brown Sugar: A Collection of Erotic Black Fiction, Miami Noir, and the forthcoming Las Vegas Noir. His fourth novel, All Or Nothing, chronicles the life of a small-time gambler who finally hits it big. Preston Allen teaches English and Creative Writing in Miami, Florida.