Life Itself “Tough and Joyous”
Jul 21st
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
LIFE ITSELF is a documentary about the life and career of Roger Joseph Ebert, perhaps the most popular, famous, and successful film critic, who died April 4, 2013, at 70, and it is based on Ebert’s autobiography of the same name.
The film includes footage taken over the final four months of Ebert’s life, who died after a long battle with cancer of the thyroid and salivary glands and which caused him to lose his lower jaw so that he could no longer eat, drink, or speak.
However, Ebert never lost his sense of humor, and in one scene toward the beginning of the film, Ebert is in the hospital, and he says to the director through his voice synthesizer, “Steve, I’ll do the jokes here.”
Steve is Steve James, famous for directing the 1994 HOOP DREAMS, a little film about basketball that Ebert championed when it came out, and Ebert’a support undoubtedly helped the film’s success.
The film then goes back into Ebert’s life to his boyhood in Urbana, Illinois, where he wrote, published, and delivered his own neighborhood newspaper; to his time at the University of Illinois, where he was editor of the school newspaper when President Kennedy was killed, and we see and hear about an editorial decision Ebert made because of that event; to how he got his job at the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES and shortly became the film critic; and to his teaming with his rival, Gene Siskel, on the television program that made them the two most contentious and famous film critics in the country.
We hear interviews with the producers of the various TV programs they did, and most fascinating are the outtakes from those programs, which give us even more insight in the relationship between the two critics.
Ebert was a hard drinker in his early days at the Chicago newspaper, and he paid a price in hangovers. But in August 1979 he had his last drink, saying that he couldn’t take it anymore, and when he finally admitted to the public that he was a recovering alcoholic, he hadn’t had a drink in 31 years.
He met his wife, Chaz, at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, and she is featured in the film as well, along with appearances by famous directors.
LIFE ITSELF is tough to watch, but also very joyous.
Facebook good neighbor by funding financially strapped police annex.
Jul 15th
Facebook is funding the police annex near it’s campus for the next three years. What would ordinarily be a local story has 
blown up into a national story for us living in Menlo Park. Because of our wealth some in the media have taken a sinister view suggesting Facebooks good neighbor policy will some how buy privilege with Menlo Park police. Try drivnin g drunk through the neighborhood and see how much privilege you receive.
Meet Mary Ferguson, AKA the Facebook Cop, whose position was created through public-private partnership between tony Menlo Park and the social media giant.
Over the next three years, Facebook agreed to pay $600,000 to the town, where the company also happens to be headquartered.
Ferguson, 34, who’s paid $194,000 in salary and benefits per year for her services, keeps an eye on the internet behavior of potentially unruly kids by using an online persona that hides her true identity.
Ferguson’s primary duties apart from patrolling Facebook include keeping children in school, working with juvenile offenders, and helping large area businesses equip themselves for natural disasters, campus shootings or other violent crimes, reports the Wall Street Journal.
‘Mary is a pro-active police officer who enjoys working with kids,’ Commander Dave Bertini told NBC Bay Area in March, when the force first accepted the funds. ‘Her passion and enthusiasm for truancy abatement will drive the department’s program in a successful direction for the youth of Menlo Park.’
While many residents of the well-off tech town appear happy with the unusual corporate partnerships, some people see a conflict of interest.
Menlo Park Mayor Ray Mueller supports the partnership.
‘Facebook moved into a part of town that was blighted, that was hurting,’ Mueller told the WSJ. ‘One of the first things we’re seeing is this public safety net coming down to protect everyone.’
Mueller brushed off suggestions that the tech giant is acting solely out of self interest.
‘Anyone who has the perception that Facebook is trying to protect themselves really doesn’t understand the situation,’ he told the WSJ. ‘That place is a fortress—they don’t need the Menlo Park Police to protect them.’
Some experts have their doubts.
‘That raises some potential conflicts that, if I was the chief, I am not sure I’d want to wrestle with,’ University of South Carolina criminal justice professor Geoffrey Alpert told the WSJ.
Alpert said he worries about skewed loyalties. ‘What do you tell your officers about how to treat people who work at Facebook?’ he wondered.
For it’s part, Facebook has called the $600,000 donation a no-strings-attached gift.
‘We just identified a need in the community,’ Facebook spokesperson Genevieve Grdina told the WSJ. ‘It’s not the “Facebook officer”; it’s the officer for the whole community.’
blown up into a national story for us living in Menlo Park. Because of our wealth some in the media have taken a sinister view suggesting Facebooks good neighbor policy will some how buy privilege with Menlo Park police. Try drivnin g drunk through the neighborhood and see how much privilege you receive.Meet Mary Ferguson, AKA the Facebook Cop, whose position was created through public-private partnership between tony Menlo Park and the social media giant.
Over the next three years, Facebook agreed to pay $600,000 to the town, where the company also happens to be headquartered.
Ferguson, 34, who’s paid $194,000 in salary and benefits per year for her services, keeps an eye on the internet behavior of potentially unruly kids by using an online persona that hides her true identity.
Ferguson’s primary duties apart from patrolling Facebook include keeping children in school, working with juvenile offenders, and helping large area businesses equip themselves for natural disasters, campus shootings or other violent crimes, reports the Wall Street Journal.
‘Mary is a pro-active police officer who enjoys working with kids,’ Commander Dave Bertini told NBC Bay Area in March, when the force first accepted the funds. ‘Her passion and enthusiasm for truancy abatement will drive the department’s program in a successful direction for the youth of Menlo Park.’
While many residents of the well-off tech town appear happy with the unusual corporate partnerships, some people see a conflict of interest.
Menlo Park Mayor Ray Mueller supports the partnership.
‘Facebook moved into a part of town that was blighted, that was hurting,’ Mueller told the WSJ. ‘One of the first things we’re seeing is this public safety net coming down to protect everyone.’
Mueller brushed off suggestions that the tech giant is acting solely out of self interest.
‘Anyone who has the perception that Facebook is trying to protect themselves really doesn’t understand the situation,’ he told the WSJ. ‘That place is a fortress—they don’t need the Menlo Park Police to protect them.’
Some experts have their doubts.
‘That raises some potential conflicts that, if I was the chief, I am not sure I’d want to wrestle with,’ University of South Carolina criminal justice professor Geoffrey Alpert told the WSJ.
Alpert said he worries about skewed loyalties. ‘What do you tell your officers about how to treat people who work at Facebook?’ he wondered.
For it’s part, Facebook has called the $600,000 donation a no-strings-attached gift.
‘We just identified a need in the community,’ Facebook spokesperson Genevieve Grdina told the WSJ. ‘It’s not the “Facebook officer”; it’s the officer for the whole community.’
by Menlo Park C1N staff
the Wall Street Journal and Guardian contributed to this story.
Life Itself – Movie Trailer
Jul 6th
Acclaimed director Steve James (Hoop Dreams) and executive producers Martin Scorsese (The Departed) and Steven Zaillian (Moneyball) present LIFE ITSELF, a documentary film that recounts the inspiring and entertaining life of world-renowned film critic and social commentator Roger Ebert – a story that is by turns personal, funny, painful, and transcendent. Based on his bestselling memoir of the same name, LIFE ITSELF, explores the legacy of Roger Ebert’s life, from his Pulitzer Prize-winning film criticism at the Chicago Sun-Times to becoming one of the most influential cultural voices in America.
