Posts tagged friends
“End of Watch” a Buddy-Cop Movie with a Twist
Sep 29th
“Buddy-Cop Movie With a Twist”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
End of Watch is a powerful, almost traditional buddy-cop movie, but the language is raw, the action is violent, and it has an ending with an unexpected twist to it.
Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena play officers Brian Taylor and Mike Zavala, who work in the Los Angeles Police Department as partners ane whose area that they patrol is the rough arena of South Central Los Angeles, which Taylor says has three major food groups: drugs, money, and guns.
When the movie opens, it is the first day back on the job for Taylor and Zavala after they were cleared by an investigation into a shooting they were involved in, and once they are out in their patrol car, Zavala says, “Dude, it’s good to be back, Man.”
Taylor has a recording device in his uniform for a class project he is working on, and so a lot of the footage we see is from the point of view of that device, which is called “found footage” these days, but don’t worry. The whole movie isn’t from that POV, but enough is so that at times the movie gets confusing.
So, we watch and listen to the good-natured banter between these two friends as they drive around the city between calls, we learn about their personal lives as they talk and even see some aspects of them at various points in the movie, and we witness many of the calls they go on and see just how rough and dangerous being a policeman in today’s Los Angeles can be, both for them and other police officers who are called in to help.
In addition to the commonplace calls that Taylor and Zavala make, the main story point is a turf war between two rival gangs, one composed of black people and the other composed of Latinos, who have connections with drug cartels operating out of Mexico and who are also involved with the trafficking of illegals being brought up from Mexico and kept in terrifying and dangerous conditions.
In fact, Taylor and Zavala stumble into the ramifications of the main story more than anything else, and once again we see how in movies situations can go from bad to the worst you can imagine.
End of Watch is terrific and get ready for the twist at the end.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.
How to Change Someone’s Mind
Sep 17th
Throughout our lives, we encounter many situations in which we try to change someone’s opinion to match our own.
As children, we tried to persuade our playmates to agree with us as to what to play, where to go, what to do.
Occasionally, we tried to persuade our parents to let us stay up later, buy us a particular toy, let us watch television.
As teenagers, we might have had younger siblings to convince to let us have our way, best friends to agree on which movie to see and sweethearts to persuade that we were being honest and true to them.
As adults, we sometimes have a fellow juror or a spouse we try to persuade to agree with us, a co-worker we want to do things the way we want and our own children to persuade that what we want is best for them.
But have you ever examined the art and process of changing someone’s mind? Have you ever thought about your successes and failures and drawn any conclusions about what works and what doesn’t? Have you ever taken the time before an argument to determine what you want to achieve, what the best persuasive evidence is to present and what characteristics your adversary has that might help your cause?
Childhood arguments are simple. We either reach a mutual agreement about what we want to do or one of us walks away in hurt or anger. With our parents, if we don’t have a convincing argument to prove our point, the larger, more powerful person wins.
Teenage disagreements are more complicated. We can usually win an argument with a younger sibling based on our broader knowledge and experience, but we have to be aware that an arbitrary, selfish decision might be used against us later in life. With best friends and sweethearts, we are on equal ground, and logic has to come into play along with our emotions.
Adult arguments are the most complicated of all, and yet society wants us to conduct them in the most logical, dispassionate manner possible, as adults, without violence.
So, what is the best way to change someone’s mind, so that not only do you achieve the result you want, but all parties are also in nonresentful agreement afterwards?
The best approach is to use logic. For example: “If all A is B, and C is A, then C is also B.”
Who can argue against that? If you don’t agree that C is B, then you have to disprove either “all A is B” or “C is A.”
“All politicians are crooks. Richard Nixon was a politician. Therefore, Nixon was a crook.”
The problem with logic is that the opponents have to agree that the premises are true. (“Two neighbors were arguing over the backyard fence, but they couldn’t reach an agreement, because they were arguing from different premises.”)
Humor can be useful in arguments, because it can break the tension, put things in a different perspective and sometimes allow you to save face and agree to change your opinion in an argument that isn’t really important.
However, unless the parties agree to the truth of the premises, no amount of logic is going to change anyone’s mind.
Pro-life people believe “All abortion is killing. Killing is wrong. Therefore, all abortion is wrong.”
Pro-choice people disagree with either “all abortion is killing” or “(all) killing is wrong,” and therefore they will never agree with the conclusion “all abortion is wrong,” unless they can agree to live with something they believe is wrong.
The pro-choice argument is “Women can do what they want with their bodies. Abortion is an act of doing what you want with your body. Therefore, women can have abortions.”
The pro-life people disagree with “women can do what they want with their bodies.” And until the two sides get in the same backyard and argue from the same premises, no amount of logic is going to change anyone’s mind.
When logic fails, threats can sometimes work, followed by force or else sometimes just force without the threat.
“If you don’t give me that ball, I’m going to punch you in the nose.”
“If you don’t go to bed right now, I’m going to give you a spanking.”
Threats and force, however, don’t change minds; they just achieve results in a childish fashion and always cause resentment.
Logic works better, as long as we’re all playing in the same backyard.
I rest my case.
Concerts in the Plaza 2012 drawing to a close
Aug 26th
Series concludes with Labor Day afternoon concert
When the last musical notes drift out of the Plaza on Labor Day afternoon, the 2012 Concerts in the Plaza will conclude and will do so counting a very successful 22nd season. The weekly music series, offered free to the community and visitors, runs each year from Memorial Day to Labor Day offering a wide variety of musical entertainment to the community. The series has been called “the best way to spend a Thursday night in St. Augustine,” and it’s easy to understand why when sitting under the majestic oaks of the Plaza de la Constitución enjoying quality musical entertainment surrounded by friends and family.
The two-hour concerts are on Thursdays starting at 7:00pm except for the concluding concert on Labor Day which is set for the afternoon from 1:00pm until 5:00pm. A cancellation necessitated a scheduling change for the Labor Day concert with Jazz Piersonified & Friends stepping in to fill the vacancy . The remaining 2012 schedule features:
August 16 Rob Ellis Peck & Friends – acoustic R&B / classic rock,
August 23 The Mike Hart Band – blues, jazz & rock,
August 30 Lonesome Bert & The Skinny Lizards – original Americana folk,
September 3 Jazz Piersonified & Friends – jazz standards.
Parking
On street parking, free after 5:00pm, is available near the Plaza, and parking is available, $10 per entry, at the Historic Downtown Parking Facility at The VIC, a short walk to the Plaza.
Rain? What rain?
Every attempt is made to go on with the show, so even with this season’s rainy summer only one concert was cancelled, although some have started a few minutes late. As is often said: The only way you’ll know if a concert is cancelled is to be there.
Need to know more?
Concerts are free and attendees should bring lounge chairs for seating. Picnic dinners are popular, but alcoholic beverages are prohibited in the Plaza. Complete schedule and maps to the Plaza and The VIC are available at www.plazaconcerts.com.
Concerts in the Plaza is produced by the City of St. Augustine with support from the St. Johns County Tourist Development Council. For visitor information visit www.floridashistoriccoast.com.
Source: City of St. Augustine