danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

I am all for hasty generalizations, but a recent New York Times article makes a generalization so hasty that it contradicts even the most half-assed scrutiny.  In “What’s in a Film’s Title?  A Lot More Words”, Brooks Barnes writes that “never before have … compound [film] titles been so ubiquitous”.  Shrek Forever After, How to Train Your Dragon, Night at the Museum, and so on, are, according to Barnes, examples of studios extending the titles of movies to unprecedented lengths.  This is simply untrue.

I just looked through the “Classics” section on Netflix, and in an instant I came across the following: The Birth of a Nation (1915); The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928); Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937); Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939); The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948); The Best Years of Our Lives (1948); The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951); What Ever Happened to Baby Jane (1962); Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967); Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1968); Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974); and dozens of others, all on one page.  Those are all long, if colon-free titles.

But that isn’t the only thoughtless generalization Barnes makes.  He also writes that:

Elaborate titles can bring danger. “The more a title describes the story, the less effective it generally is,” said Dennis Rice, a marketing consultant who has held top positions at Miramax, United Artists and Disney. “You want people to know what they’re getting. But you also want to leave them wanting to learn more.”

If that’s true, explain titles like Mr. Blanding Builds His Dream House (1948), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), and Mr Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962).  Each of those titles tells you what the movie is about (and they are kind of long, too).  In more recent years, Snakes on a Plane (2006), and Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) each deliver exactly what they promise.

From what I can tell, Brooks Barnes was just walking to work one day, noticed someone changing the sign on a theater marquee, and thought, “Wow, that title won’t fit on there!  Titles must be longer than ever”.  Then he went home and wrote a newspaper article about it.  Did he consider that the signs for movie theaters now have to accommodate a dozen or more titles?   Meanwhile, old movie houses used to have great big marquees out front, where the feature’s title, and even its actors could be listed.  Watch this 1972 WTOG station ID featuring images of downtown Tampa at night.  At :30 you can see the front of the old Tampa Theatre, which on that night was showing The Legend of Nigger Charlie – proof that they not only had offensive movie titles back then, but long ones, too.

In an upcoming series of posts I am going to make my own generalization: summer is the season about which people have written the best songs. Stay tuned.

Filed under: Film, Musings on May 25th, 2010 | 3 Comments »

I am upset by an article in today’s paper describing cyclist Floyd Landis’s admission that he used performance-enhancing drugs during his 2006 Tour de France win.  (He lost the title upon being accused, but denied the charges until now.)  Worse, he implicates several other cyclists in the scandal, including Lance Armstrong.  After recently reading up on baseball stars Barry Bonds and Manny Ramirez, I cannot help but wonder if there are any top-level athletes in America who do not cheat.

That said, if someone makes performance-enhancing drugs for writers, the authors of the aforementioned article might want to look into it.  Consider the following paragraph:

Landis provided detailed information about his own doping practices, saying he consistently used the blood-booster EPO to increase his endurance, testosterone, human growth hormone and blood transfusions.

I am surprised that the big league New York Times editors didn’t spot the blunder.  Had they taken Professor McCrea’s Advanced Exposition course, they would know that the last item in a series should always be the longest.  As it stands, the sentence seems to say that EPO increased Landis’ endurance and testosterone.  Here’s how the sentence ought to look:

Landis provided detailed information about his own doping practices, saying he consistently used testosterone, blood transfusions, human growth hormone, and the blood-booster EPO to increase his endurance.

Even that, however, might not be enough, since one might now infer that all those items contributed to Landis’s increased endurance, when, in fact, only EPO was responsible.  I would take the last element in that series and write it like this:

…and the blood booster EPO, which increases endurance.

That’s better.

Filed under: Current Events, Musings, Sports on May 20th, 2010 | No Comments »

My preference for Coke over Pepsi is well-known.  But, if I had to guess, I would say that Coke is now losing the Cola Wars, or will be soon.

My first indication that the tide was turning came when Satchel’s switched from Coke to Pepsi.  Old Man Satchel put a notice on the back of the menu saying that he didn’t have a preference one way or the other, but that the Pepsi people made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.  A short time later, the University of Florida announced that it had signed a new exclusive contract with Pepsi, and before long all the Coke machines on campus disappeared.  Last year, I walked into Big Lou’s to find them serving drinks in all new glasses printed with the Pepsi logo.  They, too, had switched.

Meanwhile, Pepsi is substantially underselling Coke.  I have noticed that both Wal-Mart and Publix have priced two-liter bottles of Pepsi at just a dollar, while Coke, when not on sale, is $1.79.  (The exception is at Major League Baseball parks, where I paid $8 for a Pepsi a week ago.)

Finally, Pepsi has introduced some new, old products that have soda fans excited.  Pepsi Throwback, which I first had last summer, is made with real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup.  It tastes noticeably better.  I had assumed it was a limited-time-only sort of thing, but around the New Year, my friend Harris, a soda fan, told me it was back, along with Mountain Dew Throwback.  Both are still available, and both have wonderful retro packaging, with the Pepsi cans, in particular, especially evocative.  And though it isn’t a Pepsi product, per se, I recently discovered Dr. Pepper Heritage, also made with real sugar.  Dr. Pepper is an odd drink, but I enjoyed this reissue.

Now, it may be that sugar is once again less expensive than corn, and Pepsi is simply taking advantage of that.  Or Pepsi might have taken the pulse of the soda buying public, and realized that fans have a taste for real sugar.  Coke needs to do the same.

And, unless Coke is really doing as well as they’d like, they need to look out: Pepsi appears to be taking over.  Coke still has McDonald’s and Walt Disney World, but for how long?

Filed under: Food, Gainesville, Musings on April 20th, 2010 | No Comments »

Frost’s “Mending Wall” may tell us that “good fences make good neighbors”, but I am not so sure.  I have a pretty shoddy fence, but my neighbors are all fine people.  Just this afternoon, my neighbors Trish and Andy helped me move some very heavy furniture.  When she saw the truck in my driveway she said, “Oh no! You’re not moving, are you?”  They mail a Christmas card every year, too, even though our houses are only fifty feet apart.  They’ve given nice gifts, like plants and hummingbird feeders.  The decrepit fence between our houses may keep their cows on their side, and my elves on mine, but neither of us is too worried about it.

Filed under: House, Literature and Books, Musings on March 6th, 2010 | No Comments »

The 2010 Winter Olympics concluded this week, and I could hardly have watched more of them if I wanted.  I tuned in every night for two weeks, and even though there were sports I didn’t care to see (snowboarding, ice dancing, etc.), and even though I wish NBC weren’t so captivated by a cult of personality, focusing too much attention on big celebrity athletes, I enjoyed most of it a great deal.  And, in spite of the fact that the weather sometimes didn’t fully cooperate, and some of the venues experienced technical difficulties, Vancouver seems the ideal place for Olympic games.

But not everyone likes the idea of the Olympics moving from city to city, country to country.  In an op-ed published in the New York Times on Monday, former Olympic rower, Charles Banks-Altekruse, argues that the Olympic games–both summer and winter–should move permanently to Switzerland.

Banks-Altekruse correctly points out that the Olympics are hugely expensive events that can be financially crippling to the host cities and countries.  Part of Greece’s present fiscal turmoil is due, no doubt, to the 2004 games in Athens.  Meanwhile, I clearly remember how worried people were about whether the Olympic facilities and venues would be complete in time for the games.  The paint was still drying when the 2004 Olympics began.  That Greece had to build arenas and a stadium from scratch is emblematic of what makes the Olympics so costly for host cities.  Beijing built hugely expensive facilities that now lie dormant.  Sochi is building a new Olympic park from scratch that will, no doubt, cost a fortune. Rio de Janeiro will spend billions of dollars it simply doesn’t have to host the 2016 summer games.

Atlanta spent tons of money, too, but did things a bit smarter.  The stadium that hosted the opening and closing ceremonies as well as track and field in 1996 was converted to host baseball after the games concluded.  Other Olympic events were held at facilities at universities in northern Georgia.  Los Angeles, too, used existing infrastructure in 1984, and made money.  But times have changed, and expectations have changed.  I suspect that, like professional sports teams do, the International Olympic Committee now expects the latest and greatest, and an old stadium–the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was over sixty-years-old when the 1984 games began–simply wouldn’t do.

Meanwhile, Banks-Altekruse argues that potential political conflicts like the one that thwarted his Olympic hopes in Moscow in 1980, and kept Eastern Bloc nations away from Los Angeles in 1984, make it essential that the Olympics find a permanent, neutral home.  I acknowledge that that was a big shame, and, in retrospect, neither of those cities was the ideal choice, since the IOC certainly must have realized that boycotts would occur.

But I think the political climate around the world have changed in the past twenty-five years, and I doubt that we will see another significant Olympic boycott, unless future games are, somehow, awarded to Tibet or Somalia.

And, though the financial issue is a serious matter, I don’t believe that that justifies moving the Olympics permanently to Switzerland, which would, according to Banks-Altekruse, be able to afford its hosting duties by averaging out the construction costs over a long term.

No, I think too much is gained by having the Olympics move around the world.  The experience seems richer, and the international goodwill, I believe, is genuine.

Filed under: Current Events, Musings, Politics, Sports on March 4th, 2010 | No Comments »