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U.S. Rep. Mike Honda reflects on civil liberties, Fred Korematsu Day, and on his own experience as a Japanese American infant in a World War II internment camp

In this informal and candid conversation, U.S. Rep. Mike Honda, (D-CA 17) talked to me a few days before his special guest appearance at the Korematsu Institute’s celebration of Fred Korematsu.  Honda talked about the importance of Korematsu as an historical example for all people who believe in the U.S. and its Constitution. He talks about his own personal experience as an interned infant, what he remembers and how it shaped his life. The conversation took place on Jan. 24, 2014 in San Jose, CA.

[powerpress]http://www.amok.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Honda-Internment2.m4a[/powerpress]

Honda Internment2

 

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blog, news, sports

Sherman’s March to the “C” leads to rant that exposes NFL’s unsporting ways (UPDATED with Sherman comment)

 

 

In this case, the “C” stands for Crabtree, as in Michael  the 49er wide receiver Sherman was guarding. And it was less a march than a leap and a tip, but it defined Sunday’s San Francisco-Seattle NFC Championship game. It also led to Sherman’s now-infamous scorched earth rant, where super classless Dick Sherman is very much less than civil.

The thuggy Stanford grad gives sports a bad name. Football is a game. It’s not war. It’s an escape from real life. When the game ends, we go back to it–life that is.  But loutish players like Sherman do not for a good time make.  The game lingers and stings. Add to that, the refs’ bad calls on unreviewable plays and one comes away from this year’s NFC championship with a sense of “jock injustice.”  

Sportsmanship makes it all palatable. But when none exists, sports becomes exposed as just another example of corporate showbiz.

Not with my money.

It’s all bad for the NFL product, the game, which has become the national game.

Sherman, no doubt is encouraged by the Seattle 12th man concept which sets back sportsmanship and football to Neanderthal times. Promoting loud and unruly behavior that goes beyond cheering to the point of hurting another team’s performance can only lead to fan hooliganism (they do serve alcohol at games), and as we see, extreme player taunting.  It’s said both teams have to play in the environment created by the 12th man, so things are equal. Right. What would make it even more equal is to play on neutral fields for all championship games. Either that, or bring a little tennis into the NFL. The crowd and the players need a shhhsh-ing.

Sherman’s end of game exclamation point simply promotes a side of the NFL that makes it ugly and unwatchable.

Far from sporting. Far from super. 

UPDATE:

Sherman wrote an act of contrition for SI today. But it seems like he sees what he did totally different:

“To those who would call me a thug or worse because I show passion on a football field—don’t judge a person’s character by what they do between the lines. Judge a man by what he does off the field, what he does for his community, what he does for his family.”

“But people find it easy to take shots on Twitter, and to use racial slurs and bullying language far worse than what you’ll see from me. It’s sad and somewhat unbelievable to me that the world is still this way, but it is. I can handle it.”

 

http://mmqb.si.com/2014/01/20/richard-sherman-interview-michael-crabtree/

 

Uh, Sherman, it’s all the same.  The way you play on the field and the way you deport yourself after the game. You are that character between the lines.

And that post-game interview on FOX was disgusting.

 

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blog, diversity, movies, news

Just in time for Martin Luther King Weekend…”12 years a Slave”, Oscar nomination is your nudge

The PR stars are aligned for “12 years a Slave,” with its Oscar nomination for Best Picture and its nationwide run starting just in time for MLK weekend.

As I mentioned on the AALDEF blog, if you didn’t feel compelled to see the movie when it opened late last year, I don’t blame you. It’s much more graphic perhaps than it needed to be. But maybe in this day and age where it takes a shock to be noticed, we all need to see it.

The black film critic Armond White called it “torture porn.” And I tend to agree. There’s a fine line separating art and titillation when it comes to the sadistic violence we see in the film. The director Steve McQueen has made movies that come right up to the edge.  In fact, White has been very vocal about his stand and spoke out loudly while McQueen accepted a recent award from the NY film critics group. White was accused of heckling and was thrown out of the group for his behavior, not his opinion.

As much as I appreciate White’s contrary view, I still believe  “12…”  is worth seeing. Too many of us take slavery for granted as a part of our historical past. But what has been overcome shouldn’t be forgotten.

I called “12 years a Slave”  electroshock for racists in my short review on the AALDEF blog.  But who out there thinks they’re racist? So let me be more general. If you have a spec of racism in your being, from raging KKK to the sublimated, in-denial kind, seeing “12 years a Slave” will exorcise it out of you.

That’s what seeing the racism and hate on the big screen does.

As for the other nominations, I’m a big “American Hustle” fan. But compared to “12 years a Slave,” it just doesn’t get you emotionally. ABSCAM? Slavery? No comparison. The acting is good in “12…” and you definitely feel for the characters. But somewhat it seems one-dimensional compared to the complexity of cons conning cons in “American Hustle.” Amy Adams and Christian Bale are tremendous together. When the story fails to engage, you don’t mind. You just keep wanting to watch Adams and Bale. And not for Bale’s comb over. The overlooked performance in that movie, however, was by Jeremy Renner. It’s a shame his pompadour got edged out by Bradley Cooper’s perm rods.

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blog, movies, news

Some thoughts on the Golden Globes…(updated)

Ah, the good old days. I remember when the Golden Globes could barely get coverage as an award show  that appeared on over-the-air UHF channels. This is all in the day when three-networks dominated everything and cable was just a wire you could hold in your hands.

Now as a demonstration of how our celebrity culture has risen, the GGs are big, big, big. The pre-Oscar/Emmys, and much ado about pop.

I’m not exactly sure if that’s what I’d call progress.

The programs I like to watch more often than not were rewarded on Sunday. AMC’s  “Breaking Bad,”  a great show.  Moviedom’s “American Hustle,” uneven but great acting. The HBO/Liberace biopic, “Beyond the Candelabra” well, read my review here: http://aaldef.org/blog/liberace-the-queer-for-non-queers.html

But as much as I like watching Michael Douglas and Matt Damon,  and even Bryan Cranston (with or w/o hair)  I like to watch women, and all my favorites won as well. (I don’t mean to be sexist. I appreciate a good acting performance, but is it wrong to say I tend to prefer watching women?)

Robin Wright who has been underrated on Netflix’ “House of Cards,” won a Golden Globe.  So did Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, who  both lifted “American Hustle” from the pedestrian.

But the best acceptance speech of the night  had to be the salty one from  Jacqueline Bisset right at the start.

I’m surprised that some didn’t like her bit and would disagree with me. But here’s the situation. You’ve won. You beat the odds. They sat you about a two miles away from the podium because no one thought you’d win.  But you’ve won. All eyes are on you. And now you get to tell off all your detractors.

Of course, perhaps, such a situation would call for a little grace.

But what the heck, you’re an older actress who some have left for dead. You’ve got a lot of fire left, show it. Why not?  Or not.

Listen, Amy and Tina are affable lap dogs. Cool, but not real. They ran amok within the confines of convention. JBisset was trying to prove she was not just a shadow of her former self. She was a winner. And she still had what she said after a lot of “p-ss and vinegar.”

To that, I say good for her. I liked it a whole lot better than the Woody Allen bit. But then I’m a Mia Farrow fan.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/jacqueline-bisset-acceptance-speech/story?id=21507966

 

The Oscar nominations come out later this week.

I have yet to see “12 years a Slave,” so I’ve refrained from commenting on its Golden Globe win for Best Picture. But the movie that I saw more than once this year likely won’t get nominated. I was on a 20 hour plane ride to Asia and managed to watch “Frances Ha” at least 4 times on the round trip.

“FH” is all about young people in New York. In Black and White. Starring a captivating Greta Gerwig.  She was nominated for a Globe for best actress but didn’t win. That was always the thing about the Golden Globes.  You could always count on some oddball winners and nominees compared to the other award shows.

Let’s see how traditional Oscar is this year.

 

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