All posts by Steve Stern

Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and the American male archetype with a gratuitous jab at Fox and a guest appearance by Mad Men’s Roger Stirling

Americana, What's a man?

In their own ways, Jon Steward and Stephen Colbert represent two main American archetypes:  the humble man and the braggart. When I was growing up, the humble man was the ideal we all aspired to (would you be happier with "to which we all aspired"?). The shy, reticent Gary Cooper playing Sgt. York or the sheriff in High Noon was the ideal American hero. The French with their fancy clothes and braggadocio manner were one thing, but real Americans were quiet, even taciturn. Think John Wayne. Think the great Baltimore Colt quarterback Johnny Unitas.

While not taciturn, Jon Stewart is in this tradition. Often his humor is based on him being wrong, the reasonable but humble everyman.   

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In my memory, the first of the braggarts was Mohammad Ali but, really, the braggart archetype is older. George Washington went to the Continental Congress hoping to be appointed Commander in Chief of the American revolutionary forces and to accomplish that end, he had a natty powder blue General's uniform made so he would look very generalish. Nothing reticent there. All the Civil War generals before Grant enjoyed their displays of splendor (when Grant first arrived at General Meade's Headquarters, he snarkingly said that this must be Caesar's Army with all the flags and pomp). Now, it is pretty much universally considered manly to put on a display: think almost any NFL football player after making a touchdown. And nobody does it better than Stephen Colbert.


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Avatar and IMDb

Film

Last night, we saw Avatar. To quote Roger Ebert, "Watching Avatar, I felt sort of the same as when I saw Star Wars in 1977. That was another movie I walked into with uncertain expectations. James Cameron's film has been the subject of relentlessly dubious advance buzz, just as his Titanic was. Once again, he has silenced the doubters by simply delivering an
extraordinary film. There is still at least one man in Hollywood who
knows how to spend $250 million, or was it $300 million, wisely."

Like Star Wars, we enter a whole new world:

Like Star Wars, it is not a great movie – it can even be argued that it is not a particularly good movie. It has a formulaic plot lines and characters we have all seen lots of times. But it is a total immersion into a new world. The depth and detail of the new world – especially in 3D – are mind boggling. Like Star Wars, it is as shocking – in it's way – as jumping into a cold river. We were away and all the distractions of the dry world were forgotten.

The best non-video example I can think of is to go to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). On the IMDb, the page for an old movie (for  the best effect – any effect, really – use the following links), like, Casablanca to pick a random example, is a very handy, fact-filled page of information. For new movies, Clint Eastwood's new Invictus, for example, the page is the same. But Avatar is a whole new ball game.  

Avatar-Neytiri-Movie

World Wide Web Wackiness*

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* that makes me realize that I don't know very much about the World Wide Web, or The InterNets, or Bloging, or what the future will bring. 

A couple of days ago, I posted a comment on the Monterey Historic Car Races. Today I found it on General Racing's Facebook Wall with seven comments. I have no idea how it got there.

When I first saw my post, I had a moment of horror. My posts are not private (duh!) but they are not something I expect many people to see or be very interested in. In that regard,  they are sort of unrequited. To have my post show up on the Facebook wall that my post is about was a moment of panic in which I was afraid that I had no idea what I was talking about. Then, what button did I push to post it there? I have no idea how it got there and now I am pretty sure that it wasn't me;  just WWWW.


Dubai Receives $10 Billion Bailout From Abu Dhabi – shit!

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I don't like Dubai. I admit that I have never been to Dubai and I don't think that I have ever met anyone from Dubai. I don't even think that I have met anybody who has been to Dubai. I certainly don't understand Dubai. So, as irrational prejudges go, my not liking Dubai is first class.

I do, however, love the desert and Dubai seems like an incredibly expensive way to wreck what must have been a charming, desert, fishing village. Now it is the most unreal landscape in the world with a surging population already over million people.

Dubai
 

Burj-dubai-under-const

In my imagination, there are three groups of people in Dubai:
indentured third world laborers; first world  assholes who are trading
money,or bad loans, or some form of credit default swap (CDS), or some other form of ponzi-ed security; and Arab oil trash who are bilking the first two groups.Oh- and I guess – a couple of ski instructors to teach at the inside ski area. 

Ski-dubai-1

For a while, it seemed as if this whole fiasco was going to come apart. But now, apparently, Dubai will be rescued by it neighbor Abu Dhabi. I really have no idea if Dubai is too big to fail, or if, – in fact – it does serve some useful purpose for mankind, or if – in 50 years – Dubai will revert back to sand. But I do know, that for me, Dubai is emblematic of a culture in which making money is the highest virtue. 


Monterey – scratch that – The Sonoma Historics

Cars

Thirty six years ago, a group of car collectors got together to actually race their old-racecars. It was called the Monterey Historics, later the Rolex Monterey Historics, and the first race was at Laguna Seca on the same weekend as the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. Over the years, they were joined by other car related events until the weekend became the biggest car extravaganza on the planet. There were races, four or five car shows, car auctions, art auctions, in a nutty but fabulous weekend. Now, for reasons totally unknown to me, Steve Earle who was the founder and guiding light, is leaving.

But there may be some good news here. Next year the races will be at
Infineon Raceway near Sonoma on June 5th and 6th. It won't be the same,
but, who knows, it might be better.

I have gone probably thirty times to the old Historics to see such featured marquis as Ferrari (several times), Mercedes Benz, Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo, Audi (Auto Union), Porsche, Miller, Chevy powered racecars, Ford powered racecars,  Chaparral, Maserati, Jaguar, and on and on. One year, Mercedes brought several late-1930's racecars that they had rebuilt for the occasion. Alfa hired Juan Manuel Fangio to drive the car in which he won the F1 World Championship in 1951. Collectively, the races have been one of the major highlights of my life.

And a lot of other people's life, I suspect. 

Below, three collectors race their cars (using the term race rather loosely as collectively the cars are probably worth in excess of three million dollars). From left to right are a D-Type Jaguar similar to the factory car that won the 24 hour Le Mans in 1956; a Ferrari Testarossa (redhead), so named because the cam covers on the V-12 engine were painted red; and, my favorite and one of the most adorable little racecars ever, the Maserati Type 61- called a birdcage because of its unusual frame.  

Three-Yellow-Cars

One of the great things about the Historics was that anybody could get into the pits to see the cars up close. 

Red-Black-and-Blue-Cars 

Actually, really close, and maybe ogle is more accurate than see. Look close and you can see that the guy in the Hawaiian shirt is drolling.


Birdcage-&-Birdcage-Truck