DVD recommendation

While I'm a run of movie recommendations, I am going to strongly encourage everyone to see the Japanese film "Departures" which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2009.  It is about a cellist who loses his job in an orchestra in Tokyo so he and his wife return to his hometown to his mother's house (his mother passed away 2 years earlier).  He ends up getting a job as a person who prepare bodies for burial or cremation.  Given the premise, there are many scenes that take place at funerals so the movie could have been depressing but there are so many scenes that are funny or touching that make the movie really enjoyable.  And the cello music throughout the film is really fantastic.   The movie is available on DVD and Instant Watch on Netflix.

I must admit I was wrong

Back in July, I did a little run down of all the trailers I saw during my Captain America/Harry Potter double feature and one of these trailers was for Steven Soderburgh's movie Contagion. I kind of blew it off saying that it looked like a remake of Outbreak.  However, due to the good reviews that I had heard/read, I decided to go see it this morning (and since the showing I went to was a 10:30, it only cost $6).  And I must say, I really liked the movie.  The cast is superb (and almost tailor-made to me it seemed) and included Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard, Elliot Gould, Jude Law, Matt Damon, Enrico Colantoni, Bryan Cranston, Demtri Martin (the first time you see him, he is a bioharzard suit and you only catch a glimpse of his bowl cut hair so I was hoping it was him!), and most importantly (because the character is fantastic!) Jennifer Ehle.  A (somewhat biased) reason that I liked it the positive light that both the CDC/WHO and science were portrayed.  And it reminded me that for about a year when I was 15, I wanted to be an epidemiologist (or at least work at the CDC, which I still think would be awesome).  It also reenforced my nerdiness because I thought that the computer modeling of the viral protein structure was cool to see. It was make you want to wash your hands constantly, but overall it was an enjoyable movie (though I wish the blogger with shady reasons for peddling a homeopathic "cure" for the flu got a bigger comeuppance). 

Reading history

I mentioned on Facebook last week that I have several very thick (500+ page) nonfiction history books that I plan on plowing through this fall and winter.  I have a book about the Balkans, post World War II Europe, English history, and the history of MI5 (plus I have a couple very long fiction books that I should start reading).  But the books I am starting with is And The Band Played On which is about the early days of AIDS research (including the actual identification of HIV).  I'm only about 30 pages into the book which opens around 1985.  And as I was thinking about it, AIDS has been a public health issue for almost my entire life.  So far it is kind of interesting to read about a world without the shadow of  HIV/AIDS. 

Art and Artist

As a lover of movies, books, art, and music, there is an idea that I think about from time to time which is can you and should you separate the art from the artist?  I think about this is for artists that I admire and those I don't admire (the artist personally not the work of the artist).  Would I appreciate Van Gogh's paintings as much if I didn't think about his mental anguish he underwent while painting?  But on the flip side, can I separate the ideals/beliefs of Richard Wagner from enjoying listening to the Ring Cycle?  When ever I see a Roman Polanski movie I think about this.  I enjoy his work as a director but I can't completely separate Polanski the director and Polanski the person. This kind of feeds into the idea that there is a thin line between genius and madness.  To what extent should we accept the madness to experience the genius?