Wednesday, May 08, 2002

It probably seems odd for us to admit having just realized this -- considering that we lived through more than a third of the last century -- but we're just now, in near-middle age, stating to put together some of the strands that connect the classics of twentieth-century culture. Two cases in point: Jerry Goldsmith did the scores for two late-twentieth-century classics (IMHO) of LA noire cinema, Chinatown and L.A. Confidential.  Big deal, one might say: this just proves that the man had a substantial Hollywood scoring career.  But then we had occasion to watch the two films in close temporal proximity, and dang if the man didn't quote from himself!  We're working on ripping short audio clips from each film to prove the point, but it lent a certain extra frisson to our most recent viewing of Chinatown to recognize, quite suddenly, the musical link to Confidential. (While we're on the subject of Chinatown, we couldn't shake the feeling, at the aforementioned most recent viewing, that we had not only seen the story before (which we clearly remembered having done), but that we had also read the story at some point.  If we thought anyone were reading this besides our one faithful reader (Hi, Mom!), we'd ask for help making the connection.  Was the screenplay original, or was it adapted from a novel or novella that we might once have read?) We may have mentioned more than once that little SweetPea Bonzo is quite enamored of song-and-dance films -- not just the Disney animated kind, but also some of the classic musicals.  We've even let her sit with us in front of the the DVD player while we hopped through a (carefully selected) subset of the musical numbers from Cabaret, which she adores.  She's also quite fond of Guys and Dolls. Again, it's almost embarrassing to make the confession, but it's just this evening -- after, probably, a dozen viewings of both films, that Dr. Bonzo has put it together that Cy Feuer had a hand in both shows -- he co-produced the stage production of Guys and Dolls, and produced the Cabaret film.  Given the timespan between Guys (1938) and Cabaret (1972), we can confidently say that he, too, had a career with "legs." 7:43:24 PM

Our friends at the Times are, at least, covering the Evil that was Enron half-decently.  Take this most recent installment, How Enron Got California to Buy Power It Didn't Need: ... documents released this week by federal regulators and interviews with California officials indicate that when Enron was flying high, its trading tactics exploited weaknesses in the state's energy markets to the hilt. One set of strategies — which traders called Death Star and Load Shift — involved creating the appearance of congestion on California's power grid and then arranging for the state to pay Enron to relieve the congestion. [New York Times, via John Robb] This reminds us of a note from an economist friend-of-the-family that got passed our way recently.  (Pardon us, please, Gene, for quoting you.  We'll do penance later if you object, but your words are just too on-target not to.) Economists lie. Economists should be shunned, if not stoned. The whole of neo-classical economics, taught in all our universities and colleges, is a lie. If you hear someone advocate "economic efficiency" go into your Karate stance and strike quickly. Too bad (for the people of California and for Enron employees and stockholders) no one karate-chopped their schemes in the bud. The kinds of schemes described in the Times article don't represent "market efficiency" or the blind efficiency of "the invisible hand" -- they're market manipulation, pure and simple, and ought to have been caught and prosecuted instead of praised by our so-called "public servants." 7:50:54 AM