Down and Derby

One of my weekly Friday activities is checking out Roger Ebert's recent movie reviews. I generally agree with Ebert.

He seems to like the new Jet Li movie, Unleashed. I confess a weakness for stylish martial arts films. Hero was one of my favorites from the last few years.

Anyway.. back to the point.

Ebert has a Q&A, and apparently this question relates to the cub scout pinewood derby.

Q. In your televised review of "Down and Derby" [a movie about the Pinewood Derby, where children race little cars carved from pine], you said the movie makes the fathers seem obnoxious and over-involved in the competition. I can testify to the Derby's sheer lunacy, both as son and father.

As a young man living in Carbondale, Ill., my entry was paltry. It was set next to items, I later learned, that had been tested in wind tunnels and engineered by the fathers of my competitors. Twenty-five years later, I coaxed my son to develop his own entry, believing in my heart that Carbondale was an anomaly.

I was wrong. We were living in Rhode Island. The difference was significant. Where in Carbondale some fathers used the wind tunnel as a resource to ensure victory for their pasty and distemperate children, in Rhode Island, you had the General Dynamics and Sikorsky laboratories at the disposal of the parents of similarly dyspeptic children.

I took the Pinewood Derby as an opportunity for fathers to show sons how to use simple carpentry and build self-confidence. Others cast this notion aside.

John W. Womick, Ballwin, Mo.

A. I think we need a sequel: "Down and Derby 2: This Time, It's Personal." All of the child actors should be pasty, distemperate and dyspeptic.

Only in America.. only..

That sort of "win at all costs" attitude is what makes America a technological leader, but also destroys it's soul. The pinewood derby is a microcosm of what allows America to have the most technologically advanced military in the world, but also causes America to use that military without cause and in a horrible manner.

Can you just picture Chimpy entering the pinewood derby as a child? He wouldn't even see the thing until the day of the event, and then smirk when it wins.

I had my own experiences with the derby of course. My car never won, but it sure looked waaaay different then all the other cars. Looking back, that's not terribly surprising.

I remember the kid that won year after year, and that was 30 years ago. His name was Jack Beazley.

** update **

I just noticed that Team America: World Police is arriving on DVD next week. I laughed my ass off when I saw it. I love everything South Park. Ebert gave it one star.. bah.. If you haven't seen it yet, it is required viewing, if for nothing else than watching puppets have sex. Make sure you are not eating or drinking anything during that scene, otherwise your health my be in jeopardy.

America.. Fuck Yeah!

The last paragraph from Ebert's review...

I wasn't offended by the movie's content so much as by its nihilism. At a time when the world is in crisis and the country faces an important election, the response of Parker, Stone and company is to sneer at both sides -- indeed, at anyone who takes the current world situation seriously. They may be right that some of us are puppets, but they're wrong that all of us are fools, and dead wrong that it doesn't matter.

He can be really pompous. Does satire die when the topic is deadly serious?

The film actually did have a point, and a quite relevant one. The liberals and conservatives need each other, and without both, this country would not function.

** update 2 **

I finally figured out what's eating the lower portions of my posts. It's the blogger spell checker. I had to re-write this post.. ugh..

** update 3 **

What the hell is this "word verification" crap? Why the hell am I having to do that.. God I hate blogger..