Boston half-marathon wrap-up!

Last weekend, Sunny and I took on another half-marathon, the second tandem run of the year after January's trip to Miami. Boston's version nicely tracks the Emerald Necklace, a shouldn't-miss part of any trip to the area.

Over 5000 people took part this year, a mighty motley crew of people waiting for registration, port-a-lets, and the starting line. We lucked (?) into excellent weather, with a couple hours' worth of low-wind, high-sun running. The route heads south down the Riverway, a road that twists through Boston's suburb of Jamaica Plain. You reach the Franklin Park Zoo at mile 6, do a couple of small loops, and then return on roughly the same route (but using a parallel road).

The winners break tape in just over an hour and keep a 13 MPH pace, almost all-out effort for many people. Sunny and I set personal records at about 2:01, largely because we didn't stop and walk anywhere. Miami included a few of those and led to a 2:15 time.

Our friend Rosanna joined in for the last few miles, which includes a final loop around the Fens prior to the finish. You can hear the announcer between 11 and 12 before losing him for most of 13, which feels a little discouraging. Sounds of the other runners wrapping up make for good motivation, so you want that crescendo-and-celebrate feeling.

I have to be honest and say that Sunny's enthusiasm gets me onto the course for 13.1 miles. That's a lot of leg work! At least it feels really good when you stop...

Review add-on

To Matthew's review I replied: "Precisely. I felt let-down by the flimsy introduction of characters that never seemed genuinely motivated to accomplish their supposed goals. They were mired in frustration and entirely unclear on their best, or even easiest, course of action:

• Tilda Swinton's character seemed to want someone to dominate, so why would she listen to a buffoon lawyer and file for divorce to take on training Clooney when she already had Malkovich right where she wanted him. If it was money she was after, then why wasn't that made clear. She was a powerful woman putting on the show of power with the divorce, but without any real aim to it.

• Brad Pitt's character seemed to want to money, but got more adventure than he bargained for along the way, becoming the sacrificed dope. But his motivations for money were as thin and flimsy as McDormand's interest in cosmetic surgery. Had she been an aspiring bodybuilder it'd make sense -- but her low self-esteem wasn't keeping her from dating or getting laid by Clooney! Then suddenly, and oddly, her attention seemed to shift to the self-help "lose the negativity within/project a positive person on the outside". Where did that came from when she'd been so hell bent on her body issues earlier? Was she trying to channel Pitt's blithe silliness in his memory? (And did she ever even learn that he'd been killed, not just gone missing? I wanted that resolution but never got it.)

• Gym Mgr's ability to put aside his logic and responsibility by jumping into the danger and drama with petty theft was the ultimate "weak character move" for no apparent reason. God only knows how Malkovich channelled all of his anger into that face-off and the axe-down scene, but it was brutal, and I don't think that the viewers really understood what could motivate either player on that scene to end up as they did. It was baffling and should have been revealing.
  

I guess all of that just supports your thesis: the characters we like and understand, or even loathe but understand, have to be played in a way that keeps consistent with their own logic and revealed character. Actors can be typecast and writers can be expected to write a certain kind of dark comedy, but it's only dark and funny when we really know why they're doing what they're doing -- because they can't stop. Then you can watch the train wreck and laugh at how silly and strange we all are. But at least we make sense, if only to ourselves.

Review of "Burn After Reading"

We caught the Coen brothers' latest film last night, a star-laden farce of violent intentions called Burn After Reading. If you've already seen their Oscar-winners No Country for Old Men or Fargo, rejoice! This also contains odd characters who have just enough information about their situation to do real damage. If you've already seen their excellent comedies Raising Arizona and O Brother, Where Are Thou?, be unhappy! Most laughs in the movie come from the release of nervous tension, not actual hi-jinx or excellent physical humor. (Minor exception for Brad Pitt, who hams it up successfully as a low-brained physical trainer.)

The Coen brothers draw most viewers into their films with strength of character, a sense of constancy that explains and links seemingly unbelievable behavior across varied scenes. The stoic killer in No Country for Old Men held a strict code of conduct that made his otherwise repellant and psychotic actions somewhat sympathetic. Unfortunately, character's the primary failure in Burn After Reading. Most of the story takes small-scale mistakes and blows them out of proportion so quickly, we lose the power to judge. (Wait, is that believable? Could I get a time out to think about this?) By the end, all the characters with inner demons exorcise them by killing the people who seemed happy to start with.

The film's poster design hearkens back to Hitchcock films and the marquee design for Anatomy of a Murder, both excellent sources for life-or-death material frequently plumbed by the Coen brothers. (For example, this movie's MacGuffin is a single CD-ROM of memoirs and financial data whose contents become quickly irrelevant.)

In my opinion, they leaned too heavily on the story's comedic aspects. Fargo seemed rightly concerned with how poor choices lead to terrible outcomes--and was incidentally funny. They inject more humor here, but sacrifice how we regard the characters. Rather than communicating intelligence and an ability to cope with the world around them, everyone seems stubbornly stuck in a single-rail existence. Once it's over, did any of the characters actually learn anything? Do the viewers?

The month of football and dirty streets

There's no avoiding it now, we're in football season. We threw a perfect spiral of a Patriots birthday party for our friend Josh last week to celebrate. One of the attendees chipped in with an amazing pigskin-shaped cake. (Our fine triathlon filly Sunessa enjoys one end of it in today's picture.) Unfortunately, the Patriots forgot to join the party festivities, losing at home to the Dolphins. @#($@#*@$(!

We've attended a fair amount of live music lately. Perhaps it's the spirit of Rock Band growing within us! Leading up to November's election, politicos focus on talking points. We use ROCKING POINTS.

Point 1: The Cult - "She Sells Sanctuary." We caught these guys at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel in Providence, RI. The lead singer tossed four different tambourines into the audience during the show. (Less dangerous that it sounds, as he gave them some height and people caught them easily.)

Point 2: Lifestyle - "Everyone's in Love with You." They're connected to the Boston synthpop band Freezepop via the lead singer and drummer. Lifestyle headlined a night of 80s-style pop-rock music at the restaurant & club called Church. Their next show will be an all-New Order cover gig at local club TT the Bear's on November 1.

Point 3: Dear Leader - "Everyone Looks Better in the Dark." Another (sort of) derivative band, as the former lead singer of The Sheila Divine (Aaron Perrino) moved on to this new project a few years back. Their "shiny guitars and swooping vocals" sound is remarkably consistent--for lack of a better word. If you like it, no question that you'd really like it. We think of them as biggest in Boston, but they're also very popular in Belgium. No kidding.

Point 4: Freezepop - "Brainpower." The video gaming show Mega64 made this video for Freezepop's first Rock Band song. It's incredibly silly, as everyone raised on video games should be. We caught them most recently playing a huge (5000+ people) stage show at PAX in Seattle.

Oh, and don't forget about October's dirty streets. Tree leaves are everywhere right now, sidewalks get slick with a damp brown carpet, and we await the chance to see colors change away from town. (The ones in our neighborhood go right from green to blech.) We'll drive up to Ogunquit, Maine, in a few weeks--expect some nice photos from the drive!