F. Scott Fitzgerald's Top 4 Works

Just to get that taste out of my mouth from my last post on 1930s-era novelist Evelyn Waugh, here are my favorite works by F. Scott Fitzgerald. He's among my favorite authors, along with Hemingway, Vonnegut, Kerouac, Orwell, Poe, and Wilde, to name a few major ones.

04. The Beautiful and Damned (1922). If there's an underrated novel in this powerful four, it's this tale about Anthony Patch, who weaves his way through the fabric of the Jazz Age and his many East Coast elite social circles.

03. Tender Is the Night (1934). Fitzgerald's answer to Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. It's about the exploits of Dick and Nicole Diver and their (mostly) American ex-pat friends in the South of France.

02. This Side of Paradise (1920). Scott wrote this tale about a Princeton student named Amory Blaine. He and Zelda had broken up and he hoped to win her back by getting his first novel published. It worked.

01. The Great Gatsby (1925). After the Fitzgeralds moved from Great Neck, Long Island, Scott finished TGG while living on the French Riviera in 1925.

Another Underwhelmimg Scoop From the Media

Scoop by Evelyn Waugh (pictured) is supposed to be one of the great journalism novels. I threatened to stop reading it several times, as I noted a couple of weeks back, but carried through. Now I've finished it and my opinion stands. Trash.

The book is mostly about the tensions between the busy lives we lead and the quiet, meditative moments we seek amongst the madness. Should translate well to our era, but it doesn't. Waugh really is a poor man's F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Or, as one reviewer in The Austin Chronicle surmised: "Evelyn Waugh was a cruel, faddish, reactionary snob -- a pattern, in other words, to succeeding English satirists like Martin Amis and Will Self." That's about right, although Self's Great Apes is a classic, humorous, and weird alternate take on the Planet of Apes.

Scoop gets **1/2 out of ***** stars

The Cold Reality of Horrible U.S. Immigration Enforcement

The Visitor (2007) is a great little indie movie that sneaks up on you throughout its 105 minutes. It brilliantly examines the devastating world of immigration detention through the lens of an aging, balding, white American man. Richard Jenkins plays Walter Vale, a professor from a Connecticut college visiting New York City to speak at a conference. He gets more wrapped up in the lives of the immigrant couple he finds squatting in his second-home apartment than he does the conference.

Jenkins has been a great bit player in films like Burn After Reading, There's Something About Mary, amd Hannah and Her Sisters, but here he shines in the lead as someone who isn't what he appears to be. He deserved his Oscar nomination for best actor.

The couple is from Syria and Senegal, and when Tarek gets separated from Zainab, with threats of being deported, Tarek's mother arrives from Michigan to check on the welfare of her son. The cast does an all-around excellent job. The four main players are all so likeable and so good with and for each other that it puts a truly human face on the realities of how U.S. immigration authorities act in cold blood to enforce a set of considerably dubious and frequently unfair American laws.

**** out of ***** stars

Guest Blogger: How Rachel Lettre Educated Barack Obama, Part II

Rachel Lettre, my wife (pictured here telling President Barack Obama how to safely plant a tree) has been planning and running conservation service projects for almost eight years with the Student Conservation Association. This is part two of her series on "friends in high places:"

April 17th, 11 a.m.: We rush over to Kenilworth for another site visit, this time we’re greeted by the guys we’ve been working with plus about 10 secret service in suits, press liaisons, and communications people carrying strange bags with wires and mics. This is when I decide I better tell the park staff what is going on, because this was no ordinary-looking group of birders or park-goers. I did pick this park because of the great relationship that we have with the staff and the high level of support SCA gets from them throughout the year. Still, it was awkard telling the site manager that the president would be planting trees in the park in 4 days.

We talk through the plan, where the motorcade may drive in, and also develop the rain plan of planting in the greenhouse. At this point I’m thinking that I should probably tell our high-school volunteers what is going on and get them ready.

April 18th: I still haven’t told the volunteers who they'll be working with! Ran around getting t-shirts printed, continued to keep my mouth shut about the event, and prayed for sunshine!

April 19th: Went to the nursery to look at trees with Amtchat and Jackson. Called 10 nurseries to find plants for the indoor option. Went to Home Depot to buy work gloves. I was buying gloves for the president! And I also had to find something neutral to match whatever Michelle would wear. Not to mention a large pair for big-hands Bill. (Jackson thought shopping at Home Depot was fun and loves saying Obama.)

We then picked up the students and, in the car on the way to the park, told them who they’d be working with. They went crazy! Since we were in 2 cars, the highlight of the day was when they all got out at the park, screaming, jumping, and hugging each other. (Have I mentioned how much I love the students I work with?) We met Leah, briefed the students, walked through the project, and made plans to get them out of school on Tuesday.

April 20th, 9 a.m.: Pouring rain, our final walk through/site visit with White House staff, secret service, National Park Service and my other three SCA co-workers who would be directly involved. This went pretty smoothly. We went over the program for both the outside and inside plans, got confirmation on a lot of questions, and got soaked!

The rest of the day Amtchat and I spent running around getting supplies, buying trees, gathering tools, delivering them to the park, talking to students, having meetings about the program, deciding who was working with each of the "principals" and periodically asking ourselves if this was really happening. Evidentally, according to Amtchat, it was meant to happen, but I haven’t seen The Secret so don’t understand yet.

Tomorrow's the big day ...

I Love Mountain Biking

Second outing of the year. Today was beautiful and very hot for late April. Loved the medium-difficulty trails at Patapsco Valley State Park near BWI Airport. 

Went with Rachel and Loni, while Lynn, Mandy and Julia babysat Jackson while playing and eating lunch at various locales throughout the park.

In case you're wondering, this was my one wipeout. My front wheel hit the mud and I hit the ground, with my face missing a major mud puddle by just inches.

Guest Blogger: How Rachel Lettre Educated Barack Obama, Part I

Rachel Lettre, my wife (pictured walking behind President Barack Obama), has been planning and running conservation service projects for almost eight years with the Student Conservation Association. This is part one of her series on "friends in high places:"

Each year, for Earth Day, we have over 100 volunteers join our staff for a huge project at Anacostia Park. We’ve done it so many times that it barely needs planning, other then getting the word out and moving tools and supplies to the park the day before. We send crews out to parks all over the country for weeks, many that we’ve never seen, some that we spend less then an hour talking to on the phone. This project was different.

Here’s how it all started:
April 9th, 9:30 a.m.: I walk into the office and Leah, SCA’s Director of Government Relations, pulls me into a phone call with some of our New Hampshire-based staff, who are asking if we can do an Earth Day project for some Americorps members. I say absolutely not, it’s our busy season and our staff is maxed out.

Later that day at 3 p.m.: I’m in a meeting and Leah runs in and grabs me, she’s on a call with the White House and the National Cooperation for Service. Can we do a site visit at Kingman Island for a project with First Lady Michelle Obama and a group of kids the next morning? Confidential.

April 10th, my day off: Amtchat Edwards, Leah and I go to Kingman Island with 2 members of the White House Advance Team to look at a potential project for the first lady, a group of students and some Americorps members. I suggest going to Kenilworth because it’s a more appropriate park. Still no clear answer on whether or not it’s really going to happen.

April 14th: Second site visit with two separate White House reps. They like Kenilworth better, still no confirmation and talk is for the first lady only. Still top secret.

April 16th, 10:30 p.m.: I’m getting antsy, haven’t heard from the White House in a day, and don’t know if it’s happening or not. Leah calls me at home and says, “Rachel, this is huge, and it’s confidential … are you ready? We’re on and it’s going to be The President, the First Lady, The Vice President, Dr. Biden, and Ted Kennedy. We need 12 students/Americorps members' social security numbers by morning and don’t tell them why.” Holy shit! My heart is racing, I can’t believe it. It’s 11 p.m. and I start texting all of our best students asking for their social security numbers. It’s all very surreal. Somehow I manage to get everyone’s socials to the White House the next day for vetting.

April 17th, 10 a.m.: Conference call with the White House: They go over the list of principals and I write these down. Not like I’m going to forget, but when will I ever be told such high-level superstars would be at one of my events again! “President Obama, Michelle Obama, VP Joe Biden, Dr. Jill Biden, and Bill Clinton.” ... My heart stops again ... did they just say Bill Clinton? OK, I’ll trade Ted for Bill. It’s not like Ted was going to get out there and dig a hole anyway.

Woolly Mammoth Goes Before and After with Antebellum

Antebellum continues this season's theme of remembering earlier eras at the Woolly Mammoth theater in D.C.

Antebellum (which means "before the war") takes place in both pre-war Germany and later in 1939 Atlanta. A Hitler-like character falls in love with a black male camp prisoner, who earlier was a popular jazz singer having a passionate affair with an American Jewish man living temporarily in Berlin.

The prisoner eventually escapes his Nazi confines and reunites in Atlanta with his Jewish lover, who has since married a seemingly simple 25-year-old virgin female infatuated with the hottest new "picture show," Gone With the Wind.

Identity problems ensue for all the characters, and there are plenty of heartbreaks to go along with some laughs and gratuitous male nudity. All five actors are excellent, Robert O'Hara's script is exceptionally strong, and this continues the remarkable string of fantastic productions at Woolly Mammoth.

**** out of ***** stars

Ten Best Philip Seymour Hoffman Movies

He's too good of an actor to pick his "best performances," so here are his best movies:

10. Red Dragon, 2002

09. Along Came Polly, 2004

08. Capote, 2005 (A favorite author, a disappointing movie, a great performance by PSH)

07. Magnolia, 1999

06. The Talented Mr. Ripley, 1999

05. Boogie Nights, 1997

04. Punch-Drunk Love, 2002

03. Almost Famous, 2000

02. 25th Hour, 2002

01. The Big Lebowski, 1998

Honorable mention of the one PSH movie I haven't seen but want to see: Empire Falls, 2005

No "Doubt" About How Good This Movie Is

It's a battle for supremacy at St. Nicholas in the Bronx in 1964. Philip Seymour Hoffman as the kind and passionate Father Flynn and Meryl Streep as the cold and bitter Sister Aloysius turn in truly gripping and award-worthy performances. Amy Adams as the young and still relatively idealistic history teacher at the parish is also rivetingly innocent, likable, and a little creepy.

Indeed, all three actors received Academy Award nominations for their performances. The only problem with Doubt is the thinness of the material that Hoffman, Streep, and Adams have to work with. A little more back story on each of the characters might have helped. But then again, it might have distracted from the excellent suspense and discomfort that builds between the characters in almost every scene.

**** out of ***** stars

The Flaming Lips + Earth Day = Good Times

The Flaming Lips put on an hour-long, greatest-hits show on the National Mall late this afternoon (check out my awesome videotape job of a portion of "She Don't Use Jelly" below). New EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson introduced the band for the Earth Day-related concert as leader Wayne Coyne waved his huge-huge-huge fake hands behind her. Rains threatened and it got progressively colder as the show went on, but it never failed to deter the enthused crowd.

Coyne surfed the crowd in his bubble, banged a gong, shot confetti and smoke into the air (even though he said he had promised festival organizers that he wouldn't be so callous to the environment), played all manner of crazy-colored and multi-necked guitars, and enjoyed a crack backing band that included some sort of huge caterpillar-like creature that just stood there and looked, well, big.

The sound and the show were great. The quality was probably equal to the time I saw them at Madison Square Garden with Wilco for New Year's Eve and almost as good as when I saw them play with Sebadoh years ago in St. Louis. The band played "Yoshimi," "Do You Realize?" "She Don't Use Jelly," a great cover of Madonna's "Borderline," and several other prime selections.

The real reason I know the show was excellent is that my 17-month-old son Jackson was all smiles the whole way home, danced around several times through the rest of the evening, and kept waving his hands in the air like he really cares (for the rock, that is).

****1/2 out of ***** stars