Charmed, I’m sure

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Last month I posted a brief review of the move Everything is Illuminated because I like the unexpected, unconventional and beguiling nature of the story, the well-crafted scenes and performances, and the human insights that lingered in my mind for days afterward. I hadn’t expected to like the movie all that much yet I was totally won over. Since then I’ve thought about some of my other all-time favorite movies and realized that many of these shared distinctive characteristics with this film. The stories aren’t really related to each other, but they are all off-beat (non-formulaic) delights that surprised and charmed me and — as we head into a snowy weekend — I thought they might charm you as well.

My top three favorite movies may shift from time to time, but Local Hero will always be near the top of my list. Released in 1983, it stars Peter Reigert (post-Animal House) and Burt Lancaster and is directed by the estimable Scottish director Bill Forsyth (Gregory’s Girl, Comfort and Joy). Like all of the movies here it has a light, whimsical streak running through it. The story is that a large Houston oil company sends one of its acquisition specialists, McIntyre, to a small Scots town to purchase the town and, especially, its deep water port that they want to turn into a refinery. Part of the joke is that Mac isn’t even Scottish — his ancestors adopted the name when they got off the boat from Hungary because it “sounded American”.

Devoted to his job and his lifestyle, Mac sets out to complete his mission as quickly as possible but finds himself becoming enchanted by the place and ambivalent about his task. One of the special twists of the story, however, is that rather than being outraged and protective of their community, the locals can’t wait to sell it and become rich! There are several subplots as well and a great cast of characters (referring both to the actors and to the “townspeople” in the movie). The movie is quirky but not in a heavy-handed, off-putting way and it reveals itself little-by-little. The story is partly meant to be a commentary on American capitalism abroad, but this is done warmly and with wit; the scenes between Mac and an entreprenuerial Russian sailor are some of the best, though these are surpassed by Burt Lancaster’s small but vital role. Beautiful scenery, a beautiful story, and did I mention that there’s a mermaid as well?

I always link The Coca-Cola Kid with Local Hero in my mind because it also tells a comedic tale of what happens when American interests go abroad, but in a more allegorical manner. The screenplay is by an Australian and directed by a Yugoslavian, but culture clashes at the center of the movie, and the characterization of Becker (played by Eric Roberts in one of his less-twitchy roles) is more bemused than pointed. Becker is a hot-shot marketing guru from Coca-Cola, sent from Atlanta to Australia to boost sales in that country. (The movie was made without the fore-knowledge or blessing of Coca-Cola). When he discovers a populated valley in which absolutely no Coke has ever been sold he sets out to conquer, in the process meeting the patriarch of the valley, a cantankerous lord who bottles his own brand of soft drinks.

Greta Scacchi plays the love interest, again, somewhat as an allegory, as are several other characters who come and go with their own perceptions and assumptions about Americans set up in contrast with Becker’s assumptions of this new land. It’s a funny and generally gentle story with great music, including a terrific Coke jingle that the company should have adopted in real life. It’s a good companion movie to watch with Local Hero, but there are a couple of scenes with nudity so it’s probably not for kids (though the story wouldn’t be as interesting to them anyway).

A movie that is ideal to watch with the whole family is The Secret of Roan Inish. There are no big stars in the film, but it is directed by John Sayles, who’s work I’ve liked since “The Return of the Secaucus Seven” (another off-beat charmer that was later ripped off by “The Big Chill“). The story focuses on Fiona, a young girl sent to live with her grandparents on the Irish coast after her mother dies and her father and brothers go to work in an industrialized city. Her grandparents still live near the island that was the home of Fiona’s family going back several generations and the seat of the family’s mystical history and the setting for the mysterious disappearance of Fiona’s younger brother, Jamie, spirited away when he was an infant.

While that sounds rather dark, the story is anything but as Fiona and her cousin find themselves gradually unwrapping the nearly forgotten ancient secrets of the family and the mystery of what happened to Jamie. Rest assured, there isn’t a speck of evil in the story. In fact, one of the things that makes the film so unique in my mind is that it generates such a compelling drama without a single villain. The young actress who plays Fiona (Jeni Courtney) is amazing and easily carries the movie. I’m surprised that she hasn’t gone on to do other movies (“Roan Inish” was released in 1995). It’s a tremendous story of faith, love and character and an ideal experience for the whole family. Bake some bread, cook up a pot of soup, and eat while you watch the movie!

This is another movie that took me by surprise when we first watched it. The Emperor’s New Clothes is a “what if” story about what might have happened if Napoleon had managed, through the use of a body double, to escape from Elba and make it back to France. Rest assured, however you think this might have turned out, you’ll definitely be surprised by the story that unfolds. Ian Holm is fantastic as the two Napoleons and the story is a very funny and touching one with a bit of romance and adventure thrown in.

I’m not sure why we even rented it in the first place, but I’m glad we did. While the premise sounds predictable, the story is delightfully original and veers away from the cliched scenes and character reactions that you might expect. It’s not a “major” film but it is very entertaining with likeable characters and a seductive plot. If you rent it just sit back and relax and go with the story and you won’t be disappointed.

Registerfly-specked?

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I need some help or information here because I’m afraid The Night Writer might get stolen away — well, in the night.

When I started blogging I registered my domain name with Registerfly for a nominal fee. I renewed the registration a year later with no problem. Again this year I received emails from Registerfly warning that my annual renewal was coming up. I renewed the domain name one day before the expiration and paid through PayPal which sent me a confirmation.

I then received an email from Registerfly that it wasn’t able to renew my domain. I figured it must have been a glitch in the ordering process, and went back to their site to try it again. This time I got an on-screen message saying that they couldn’t renew the domain name because their records show it belongs to someone other than my User ID! Naturally I’ve tried to contact Registerfly to try and figure out what’s going on and can’t get through. The several emails I’ve sent have so far gone unanswered and when I called in during business hours last week I was on hold for 35 minutes (with a helpful message repeating itself every minute telling me how many people were still ahead of me and how many minutes I’d already been waiting) and when I finally got to the head of the line I was suddenly put into voicemail – with a message that the Voice Mailbox was full!

Right now, I don’t know where things stand or even if Registerfly is still a going concern or not. Supposedly I have a month’s grace period to renew my domain after it expires, but right now I’m not feeling too confident about anything. I don’t want to see this blog overnight turn into a site selling foot creams or discount medications (not that there’s anything wrong with that), and I don’t want to move my domain registration business to GoDaddy because of their advertising.

Here are my questions; I’d appreciate comments from anyone who has any information or advice:

  1. How do I go about moving my domain registration from one vendor to another, and are there other companies out there other than Registerfly or GoDaddy that anyone can recommend?
  2. If my domain name should truly be lost, can I still preserve my URL and, especially, my on-line archives? (I’m in the process of manually transferring these to my hard-drive, which takes up time that I have precious little of right now).
  3. If I end up changing my domain name and URL, is there a simple way to leave a “forwarding address”?

Thanks, folks.

Update:

I’ve got a bad feeling about this. There’s actually a website devoted to problems with Registerfly. Looks like I can kiss my original domain name good-bye. Now I just need to figure out if I can get a new domain name and still keep this URL!

New to the Blogroll: Away With Words

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Regular visitors here know that reading a well-turned phrase has an endorphin-like affect on me. I have recently come across a blog that threatens to send me into a blissful stupor of chocolate-factory proportions. That blog is Away With Words and I couldn’t wait to add it to my “Night Lights” blogroll.

The blogger is Nancy Friedman, and she describes herself as “…chief wordworker of Wordworking, a name developer, corporate copywriter, and recovering journalist. She swims in San Francisco Bay and bakes in her Oakland, California, kitchen.”

The blog focuses on “names, brands, writing, and the quirks of the English language” and is a witty and aesthetic take on our culture and the joys (and tears) of the English language (think “Eats, Shoots and Leaves” with an American sense of humor.) In addition to the breezy posts, Away With Words has the most distracting blogroll I’ve ever come across. Check it out!

Blogging before there were blogs

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“And though nobody should read me, have I wasted time in entertaining myself so many idle hours in so pleasing and useful thoughts? In moulding this figure upon myself, I have been so often constrained to temper and compose myself in a right posture, that the copy is truly taken, and has in some sort formed itself; painting myself for others, I represent myself in a better colouring than my own natural complexion. I have no more made my book than my book has made me: ’tis a book consubstantial with the author, of a peculiar design, a parcel of my life, and whose business is not designed for others, as that of all other books is.”



— Michel de Montaigne



Today’s Writer’s Almanac reports the birthday of Michel de Montaigne, the literary creator of relatively short, written personal observations that he called “essays”:



It’s the birthday of the great essayist Michel de Montaigne, born in Périgueux, France (1533). His father was a wealthy landowner. Montaigne went off to college and became a lawyer, but his father died when Montaigne was 38 years old. And so he retired to the family estate and took over managing the property. And it was there that he began to write. He wrote short pieces on various topics, and he called them “essays,” because the French word “essai” means attempt.



He lived at a time when religious civil wars were breaking out all over the country — Protestants and Catholics killing each other. The Black Plague was ravaging the peasants in his neighborhood; he once saw men digging their own graves and then lying down to die in them. Still, while he occasionally wrote about big subjects like hatred and death, he also wrote about the most ordinary things, like his gardening or the way radishes affected his digestion. He wrote about sadness, idleness, liars, fear, smell, prayer, cannibals, and thumbs, among other things.



Michel de Montaigne wrote, “The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness.”



Many modern bloggers follow the same model, offering personal observations on faith, politics (modern cannibalism) and people digging their own graves, mixed with gardening tips and cat-blogging, which de Montaigne also invented: “When I play with my cat, who knows whether she isn’t amusing herself with me more than I am with her?”

Two Mexicos, two stories

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There’s in interesting confluence between Chad the Elder’s post today on Fraters Libertas and an article in the Washington Times, also from today. The globe-trotting Chad, currently in Chihuahua, recounts a rant by his Mexican host describing the “two Mexicos” and his opinion that the Mexicans working in the U.S. are not the same as those back home:



“Let me tell you something; they’re not real Mexicans. You see, there are two Mexicos. This…us…here…THIS is the real Mexico. Them? They’re not really Mexican.”



Those in the States may be different, but they are a significant percentage of the population, according to the Times article: more than 10 percent of the Mexican population is currently in the U.S., including more than 14 percent of the country’s workforce, and they send home $23 billion a year. Nevertheless, some of those back home are lonely:



Mexican wives want U.S. to return husbands

By Stephen Dinan

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

February 26, 2007



The women of Tecalpulco, Mexico, want the U.S. government to enforce its immigration laws because they want to force their husbands to come back home from working illegally in the United States.



They have created an English-language Web page where they identify themselves as the “wetback wives” and broadcast their pleas, both to their men and to the U.S. government.



“To the United States government — close the border, send our men home to us, even if you must deport them (only treat them in a humane manner — please do not hurt them),” it reads.



In poignant public messages to their husbands, the women talk about their children who feel abandoned, and worry that the men have forsaken their families for other women and for the American lifestyle.



“You said you were only going to Arizona to get money for our house, but now you have been away and did not come back when your sister got married,” one woman writes to a man named Pedro. “Oh how I worry that you have another woman! Don’t you love me? You told me you love me.”



It’s a stark reminder of an often forgotten voice in the U.S. immigration debate — the wives, children, parents and villages left behind as millions of workers come to the U.S., many of them illegally. The plea also underscores the dual effects of migration on Mexico: Its economy needs American jobs as an outlet for workers, but determined, able-bodied workers get siphoned out of Mexico.



More than 10 million Mexican-born people, or nearly one out of every 10, was living in the United States in 2005. And as a percentage of the work force it’s even higher: One in seven, or 14 percent, were here, according to the Migration Policy Institute. The institute said 77 percent of Mexican workers in the U.S. were younger than 45, and 70 percent were men.



Villages devoid of men between 20 and 50 are common in many parts of the country. The stories of single mothers struggling to raise their children are just as frequent.



…



But for now, Mexico is also addicted to the influx of cash. In 2006, Mexican workers in the United States sent $23 billion back to their families in Mexico, an amount that rivals Mexico’s foreign income from oil sales.



All in all, it sounds like a theme that can turn Kevin Ecker into a “family values” guy.


Snow, mobile

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Yesterday, as almost all of you know, it snowed about a foot-and-a-half. Since my parents were gone, he Mall Diva was able to park her rear-wheel-drive car in the garage overnight. We couldn’t get out the next morning, however, because the plow man hadn’t come yet. We had to get to church, because MD is in the band, and I work in the bookstore!

After about ten minutes of shoveling, we decided to try and get MD’s car back to garage. Ten more minutes of shoveling and rubber burning, and we managed it. We then ran two blocks to church, then walked the last two blocks. It’s hard to run carrying bags containing Bibles and shoes! We finally made it to church.

When we got home (we hitched a ride), Mom’s car was in our driveway. Stuck. Oh, the humanity!!! But it didn’t require too much work, Dad and a couple of neighbors rocked the car back onto the plowed street and parked it.

Then, when we wanted to go cross-country skiing, the place that we went to was closed for the season! It’s February, for Pete’s sake!!! What’s going on, global warming? It just snowed, we want to go skiing, and you’re closed! What’s the big idea?!

O.k., I’ll try to calm down now.

Ciao for now!

Breaking up is hard to do

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The young woman sat across from me, looking a little nervous or, perhaps, just excited and not wanting to let it show too much. “You’re not meeting my needs,” she said, “and I can’t go on like this. Plus, there’s this other guy…and I think we’re going to be very happy together.”

Well, actually she didn’t say that exactly, but that’s kind of the way it sounded. Moments before she’d shown up with that “We need to talk” look, and handed me The Envelope. It was clean, white and absolutely neutral in all things but I knew in a single heart-stopping instant what it was, and what it meant. Guys always talk about how it came “out of the blue” or that they “didn’t have a clue”, but the fact is, deep down, we all sense that it’s just a matter of time. I knew what was coming; the sleepless nights, distracted conversations, morose pity-parties, the random outbursts, perhaps even some heavy drinking. But that was all ahead; first things first. “Have a seat,” I said, glad that I was already sitting down.

What she really said, in more or less this order, was “There are no opportunities for me here, and I have to make a career move.” And that “other guy”? It was another company, offering more money and more opportunities. Yes, this all took place at work a couple of weeks ago when my sole staff person handed me her letter of resignation and two weeks’ notice. Our relationship was all business, but after six years together it was hard for her announcement not to take on some “break-up” overtones, and also hard for it not to feel a little like a personal rejection. Oh, sure, there were the “it’s been fun, I learned a lot, I loved the company and didn’t want to leave” affirmations to soften the blow but also, maybe, just a hint that if only I’d “done” something it wouldn’t have come to this. Or maybe that’s just my perception based on manager’s guilt (I’ll let you know after therapy).

It was inevitable, however. My particular division in this global company is very profitable but pretty flat in terms of organizational structure, and while she was a top performer who had taken on more and more responsibilities over the years there really wasn’t much opportunity for advancement, especially since my absent-mindedness hasn’t (so far) extended to crossing the street without first looking both ways. Oh well, at least we can still be friends, right?

Anyway, my workload has leapt substantially as I try to manage my own projects plus all the other things our unit is responsible for, while also trying to hire a new person or devise a rational way to farm the responsibilities out to others. Along with that, of course, my phone is ringing off the hook, emails are piling in, and people are popping their head in my office saying, “I tried to call you — why aren’t you answering your phone?” While I was talking to one such person standing in my doorway today, another walked by behind him, pointed at me and did that thumb-and-pinky telephone pantomime.

I’ve got a strong suspicion that 9-to-5 ain’t going to get it done, at least for the next few weeks. I’m going to try to keep updating this blog on a daily basis because I enjoy it, but I make no guarantees that posts will be up to my usual standards, pitiable as these may be.