Essay: Paul Walker

Paul Walker, The Fast and the Furious.
photo from IMDB

It was spring of 2003 and I was in the incredibly boring “observation” phase of my teacher education career.  While other of my classmates were making deeper connections with the teachers they were observing and even getting to teach something now and then, my mentor teacher didn’t really seem to want me around, and encouraged me to observe other teachers on the staff.  They didn’t want me around either, so I floated from period to period, class to class like the perpetual new girl who didn’t fit in.  In hindsight, I can’t believe I was paying PSU for this experience.
So it was that I was sitting in the classroom of a rather absent-minded teacher nearing retirement. It was during the passing period so the kids were doing things kids do before they get to class early:  check their phones, wander around and talking to people, engaging in shenanigans.  The building itself was soul-killing.  It had been built in the 1970s and had no windows for energy efficiency.  Many classrooms were divided by folding walls, so that classes could come together and teachers could co-teach.  That practice had been abandoned, but the flimsy partitions still remained.  It just meant that you could hear what was going on in the other classes, if the teacher or class was too loud.  Sometimes I wonder if there are things more depressing in the US than educational policy through the years.  I mean, when you really think about it?
I had perched in an empty desk in the back of the room and was watching the students, which was the best part of the experience.  One girl had gone to Disneyland over Spring Break and had some pictures to show her friends.  A few of them looked over her shoulder. 
“And I met Paul Walker,” she said, shyly.  And there she was in the photo, standing with a smiling blue-eyed blond.
“He was just there?  At Disneyland?” one of her friends asked her.
“Yes.” The girl smiled, “And I asked him if I could take his picture and he said yes.”
“That’s amazing.”
Who was Paul Walker? I wondered.
Another girl, not part of the friend group, perked up.  “What was that?” she asked, bustling over.  She was one of those big girls: tall, big boned, big hair, big voice, big personality.  “Oh my god, that’s PAUL WALKER!” she exclaimed.  “HOW DID YOU GET THIS PICTURE OF PAUL WALKER!?!”  She squinted at the photo, not listening for the answer.  “IT’S REALLY PAUL WALKER!  SHE HAS A PICTURE OF PAUL WALKER!  I CAN’T BELIVE THIS IS YOU WITH PAUL WALKER!”  Her voice took on that pitch and decibel level that only teenage girls and annoying radio contest winners can reach.
The classroom teacher looked on her shrieking in a nonplussed manner.  The bell hadn’t rung yet, so no need to reign her in yet.  But her shrieking didn’t go unnoticed by the others in the class. “Who the hell is Paul Walker” I heard muttered from different areas.  The partition was even pried open and a much younger, less absent minded teacher poked her head in.
“Everything okay in here?” she asked, scanning the room.
“SHE HAS A PICTURE OF PAUL WALKER!” the girl shrieked to the teacher, who was not at all interested.
“Maybe you could keep it down.” the teacher suggested, and closed the partition as the bell rang.
The picture was returned, the girl settled down and I made a mental note to check who Paul Walker was.
It turned out I knew who he was.  He was the guy in the Fast and the Furious.  The same sort of blonde blue-eyed leading man Hollywood pops out by the hundreds and throws against the wall of audience enjoyment to see who sticks.  He’s the kind of guy I think of as a working man actor.  Good enough (or good looking enough) to get major parts in minor films, but never considered a serious actor, either because he didn’t have the acting chops or because the path to serious acting is a difficult and treacherous one only achieved by a few.  And why not sit back and rake in the money making movies that the masses love?
And now he’s gone.
I’ve never not paired Paul Walker’s name with that girl shrieking in that classroom long ago.  She’s probably moved on, I’m guessing Paul Walker was a passing adolescent infatuation, but I also can picture her hearing the news early on a Sunday morning and shrieking “PAUL WALKER IS DEAD!” loud enough to bring her husband and children from their beds, blearly-eyed and wondering,  “Who the hell is Paul Walker?”

May he rest in peace, and may his friends and family have an easy transition to a world without him.

Plan your own Channing Tatum Personal Film Festival

I have completed viewing all the films credited to Channing Tatum on IMDB [that are not short films].  Or, as I refer to it:

The Channing Tatum Personal Film Festival. magic_mike

Or, given the quality of some of the films:

I watched them so you don’t have to.havoc

For your convenience, I have categorized the films for those of you who want to plan your own Channing Tatum Film Festival.

Movies where CT has a major part:DJ_IT_1Sht_18

  • 21 Jump Street
  • 22 Jump Street
  • The Book of Life
  • Dear John
  • The Eagle
  • Fighting
  • Foxcatcher
  • G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
  • Jupiter Ascending
  • Logan Lucky
  • Magic Mike
  • Magic Mike XXL
  • She’s the Man
  • The Son of No One
  • Step Up
  • Stop-Loss
  • The Vow
  • White House Down

 Movies where CT is not the main focus. 

Or: Only watch these films if you are interested in the movie.
(His role may range from a cameo to a bit part that doesn’t have much screen time. )guide_to_recognizing_your_saints

  • 10 Years—This is an ensemble and he’s in it as much as the other actors.
  • A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints—Plays the angry friend of the main character.  He doesn’t have a lot of screen time, but is rather feral, which is rare.
  • Battle in Seattle—Ensemble cast.  He has a lesser amount of screen time than others in the ensemble.
  • Coach Carter—one of the many basketball players.  But figures greatly in the turning point.
  • The Dilemma—Secondary character in a tremendously unfunny film.  However, he’s at his funniest here, but sadly, the rest of the movie is a hideous ball of crap.
  • Don Jon—Plays an actor in a cheesy romantic comedy.  Total screen time: approximately 30 seconds
  • G.I. Joe: Retaliation—Very short-lived character.
  • Kingsman: The Golden Circle–secondary character who spends most of the movie not in the movie.
  • The Lego Batman Movie–Quicker cameo as the voice of Superman
  • The Lego Movie–Quick cameo as the voice of Superman.
  • The Hateful Eight–He makes a brief appearance in the last third of the film..
  • Hail Caesar!–Plays an actor. Total screen time is maybe 10 minutes.  However, most of those minutes are a very wonderful tap dance routine.
  • Havoc—Dude in the background who has maybe three lines.
  • Haywire—Secondary character, but his first appearance was perhaps my favorite scene in the entire movie.
  • Public Enemies—Pretty Boy Floyd is not long for the world.  Maybe 30 seconds.
  • Side Effects—Isn’t around as much as one would think from the poster.
  • Step Up 2: The Streets—He doesn’t make a huge appearance, but he does dance.
  • Supercross—Plays a minor character with perhaps 5-10 minutes of screen time.
  • This is the End—Tiny cameo, but funny

Perhaps you would like to tackle the list by genre?
CT Movies divided by category:
(Major roles in bold font)white_house_down_ver8

Action/Adventure

  • G.I. Joe: Retaliation
  • G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
  • The Eagle
  • Haywire
  • Kingsman: The Golden Circle
  • Logan Lucky
  • Supercross
  • White House Down

shes_the_manComedy

  • 21 Jump Street
  • 22 Jump Street
  • The Dilemma
  • Hail Caesar!
  • She’s the Man
  • This is the End

eagleDrama

  • 10 Years
  • A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
  • Battle in Seattle
  • The Book of Life
  • Coach Carter
  • Don Jon
  • Fighting
  • Foxcatcher
  • The Hateful Eight
  • Havoc
  • Magic Mike
  • Magic Mike XXL
  • Public Enemies
  • Side Effects
  • The Son of No One
  • Stop-Loss

 step_upRomance

  • Dear John
  • Step Up
  • Step Up 2: The Streets
  • The Vow

Movies I most enjoyed
Or: Maybe you just want me to tell you which ones I liked.
(Major roles in bold font)vow

  • 10 Years—Great ensemble cast examining where they are 10 years after high school.
  • 21 Jump Street—Generally very funny, especially if you watched the original TV series.
  • 22 Jump Street–If you liked the first one, you will like this one.
  • A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints—Uneven 80s NYC friendship drama that stuck with me.
  • Battle in Seattle—Interesting period piece.
  • The Book of Life–Solid animated flick.
  • Coach Carter—I’m a sucker for a good sports film.
  • Dear John—I was prepared to hate it, got sucked in and loved it.
  • Don Jon—Uncomfortable, but interesting.
  • The Eagle—Made me wonder why there aren’t more movies set in Roman times. Plus!  Jaime Bell.
  • Foxcatcher–sedately paced drama with great performances all around.
  • G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra—I was ready to grit my teeth through the whole thing, but it was a fun movie.
  • Haywire—Holy crap, there are some good fight scenes in this.
  • Hail Caesar!–This movie is funny! And fun to watch.
  • Logan Lucky–Especially if you like heist films.
  • Magic Mike—The movie that got me started.  Also, it’s much darker and deeper film than the previews would have you believe. Go Soderbergh!
  • She’s the Man—Funny adaption of Twelfth Night.
  • Side Effects—The less you know about this, the more you will enjoy it.
  • Step Up—I’m a sucker for a good dance movie and CT can move.
  • Stop-Loss—Solid returning soldier drama.
  • This is the End—Hilarious.  But you have to be ready for boy humor.
  • The Vow—Surprisingly well done and a great story.
  • White House Down—This had horrible reviews, but I thought it was great fun.

For Die Hard Complete-ists.  
Or:  Movies I don’t recommend you watch.
(Major roles in bold font.)fighting

  • The Dilemma—One of the worst movies I’ve seen in the last decade.
  • Fighting—Not very interesting, but with fighting.
  • G.I. Joe: Retaliation—Maybe I was just mad I had nothing to look at but Adrianne Palicki, but this movie was not very entertaining.
  • The Hateful Eight–If you’re a Tarantino fan, why not?  If not, don’t bother.
  • Havoc—This movie disturbed me.
  • Jupiter Ascending–maybe will become a cult classic in 20 years, but right now just bad.
  • Kingsman: The Golden Circle–this was much too violent for me, but others might like it.
  • Magic Mike XXL–waaaay too long in the middle.
  • Public Enemies—So boring, despite its population of actors I usually love.
  • The Son of No One—Kind of a mess, structurally.
  • Supercross—Also not very interesting, but with no fighting.

Here is IMDB’s list of all his films.

Books read in November 2013

I managed to delete my November book post, goodness knows how.  Happily, I had already published all the reviews on Goodreads, and I keep a list in my diary of the books I read.  So it was just a matter of checking the diary to list the books, finding and copying the reviews from Goodreads et voila!  November book post, recreated.  As you can see, I was busy this month.  That Elizabeth Gilbert book alone was pretty thick.

Picture books
Train
Elisha Cooper
Read for Librarian Book Group
Before the Librarian Book Group, I would have found this book very adequate. But now I’m pickier. In this book we travel across the country on different trains: commuter rail, passenger train, freight train, overnight train, and high-speed train.

My first problem was that there were recognizable details in the book (Chicago, for instance) and yet a refusal to name the towns. Also, I feel uncomfortable if I can’t identify the time period and until we got to the high-speed train, it wasn’t clear we were in the present. There are some solid descriptive words, but also descriptions that miss their mark. With the freight train, the train is described as “containers the color of tomatoes and eggs.” Yet there are pictures of train cars that are not the colors of tomatoes and eggs. And it may just be a West Coast thing, but in my opinion the dominant color of the freight train is a very bright mustard yellow.

Also in the freight train section there are two pages about the freight train’s speed. “The Freight Train rolls slower than slow.” Is the train really going slowly, or is a larger point being made about the vast landscape? 
This is not at all clear. If the train is traveling slowly, than why? And what’s the difference between a passenger train and an overnight train? Both have passengers and both take journeys that are overnight, as anyone who has traveled from New York to Chicago knows.

I laughed out loud when we got to the high-speed train. Because while I would love for the US landscape to be crisscrossed with high-speed trains, the closest we have is the Acela from Boston to DC. And it’s not really high-speed so much as a bit faster than normal train speed.

Carnivores
Aaron Reynolds and Dan Santat
Hilarious story of a Lion, a Wolf and a Shark trying to reform their image.

J Books
Eruption!
E. Rusch
This is a gripping book, on the surface, at least. It’s about the scientists who run the Volcano Disaster Assistance Program (VDAP). They fly to volcanoes around the world and help local scientists make the calls to evacuate, as well as assist how the volcano will blow. Interesting program. Not-so-gripping text. I had to keep forcing myself to finish it.

The Year of Billy Miller
Kevin Henkes
I’m going to chalk up my indifference to a general dislike of j-books, rather than anything the author did or didn’t do in writing this. I didn’t like the huge jumps in time, though, they were very disjointed.

YA Books
Openly Straight
Bill Conigsberg
Read for Librarian Book Group
Wow. So we’ve made it though the era where just being gay is enough to drive the narrative and now we’re in the era of parsing of the gay narrative. Very cool, especially in such a smartly-written book as this. What happens when a happily “out” kid wants to spend the last two years of high school just being a kid, not the gay kid? Not so much in the closet, says our main character Rafe, as in the doorway.

Really good stuff here. Funny in places and worth the read.

Side note:   A Separate Place is having its moment in the zeitgeist it seems, I’ve read two books in the last two months that mention it. Same with Boston accents. What’s up with that?

Rapture Practice
Aaron Hartzler
Read for Librarian Book Group
I don’t have children myself, but I imagine that one of the many things that parents feel a general sense of terror about is “what if my child doesn’t share my values?” I mean, here they’ve given birth to them (or possibly adopted them) and raised them with all the values and supports of the life they have built for themselves and what if, despite all that nurturing and good examples and shared DNA, their child turns and heads down a different path, perhaps one they don’t approve of? It’s frightening.

So lies the central conundrum in Hartzler’s memoir. It begins with an excellent first line: “Something you should know up front about my family: We believe that Jesus is coming back.” And Aaron believes it too. The early chapters cover his younger life when he exalts in the same Christian beliefs that buoy his parents. Those are great chapters, showing the love of his family and the love of Jesus. And then Aaron grows older and problems arise. His mother discovers he’s been listening to Rock & Roll music (actually adult contemporary, specifically Peter Cetera and Amy Grant singing “The Next Time I Fall”) on the sly. Rock music is not something that is acceptable to Aaron’s family and his parents force him to pray for forgiveness.

This is where the book diverges from an interesting introspection on growing up conservative Christian in America. Hartzler writes, “I don’t want to disobey Mom and Dad, but the truth is, I don’t think what I did was wrong. As much as they believe this music is rebellious, I don’t. That’s the funny thing about belief: No one else can do it for you.”

Aaron’s journey through high school is a rocky one, though it’s mostly an internal journey as he does his best to present a facade of belief to his parents. But his facade is built upon confusion and questioning of the beliefs and practices of the parents who he loves deeply. For many of us, being a teenager was about figuring out who we are in a world that offers us so many promises and choices. Hartzler writes carefully and tenderly about his adolescence and his narrative is heartbreaking at times. I mean, the kid had to sneak around to go to a movie. Not an R-rated movie, ANY movie.

This is a great book, sweet and funny and sad all at once. I’m hoping for a second memoir about his college years, because I’m betting that would be fabulous too.

In the Shadow of Blackbirds
Cat Winters
Read for Librarian Book Group
I hate to lead off by judging a book by its cover but I hated this cover. The girl looks like a young Amy Adams, which is distracting, and in no part of the book was she wearing a white dress. In fact, the point was made several times that all her clothing was brown, black, or navy blue. So I think this might be one to recommend with the book held at one’s side.

That said, this book has a lot of good stuff. Historical fiction (1918 influenza epidemic specifically), Ghosts (spiritualist movement), romance, mystery, and adventure. Oh, and anagrams. There are even historic photos, which I mostly found distracting, but which might be something of interest to other people. Overall, a good solid story. Although I found it hard to get started. The author dumps a bunch of things in your lap and you have to sort through them as best you can.

Out of the Easy
Ruta Sepetys
Read for Librarian Book Group
Everyone loves an underdog. And what better underdog than the smart 17-year-old daughter of a French Quarter Whore in the 1950s? Great setting, solid characters, good struggle. A fine, fine book with some tears at the end.

Picture Me Gone
Meg Resoff
Read for Librarian Book Group
I think this book might be lost among other books. It’s a quiet story about Mila, a girl with a keen sense of observation and a knack for stringing facts together. When her father’s best friend goes missing, she’s curious and eager to help.

The above makes the book sound like she’s a teenage gumshoe, but she’s not. She’s just a kid who pays attention and tries to make sense of the world. It’s interesting to see what Mila observes, especially in contrast to her father, who is not terribly tuned in.

Rosoff is not interested in using punctuation, a stylistic quirk that annoys me. The page does look invitingly easy to read, but sometimes it’s hard to tell what is dialogue and what is not. Mila is also a child who calls her parents by their first name, which is not expressly stated. That, combined with the lack of punctuation, makes for a bumpy beginning before settling in to what was a very good book.

Counting by 7’s
Holly Goldberg Sloan
Read for Librarian Book Group
I work at an elementary school and over the years I’ve met hundreds of children. The vast majority of them lie in the great bell of the bell curve, but there have been a smattering of outliers over the years. They’ve been weird, because that’s what it means to be hanging out on the edges of the curve, and for some of them I’ve taken a deep breath, crossed my fingers and hoped for the best for them in middle school. Because their weird makes them fabulous kids and will make them fabulous adults. But sometimes weird isn’t the best thing to bring along for your adolescence.

So it is for the main character of our book. She’s twelve and she’s delightfully weird. I totally fell in love with her. She has no friends, but has such a stalwart attitude, and such high hopes for middle school, that I couldn’t do anything but love her. Things happen and her plight is a bit worrisome, but she just keeps going.

This is a great YA book for adults. I’m not really sure the YAs themselves will like it. The writing struck me as an older YA, but I’m not sure the older YAs will want to read about a 12-year-old girl. Perhaps the audience is other highly advanced 12-year-old girls? But forget the YAs. You grownups will love this.

Also. In the acknowledgements, Sloan listed 7 teachers who made a difference in her life. I would like to add my list. Mr. Widermire (McKinley Elementary), Mr. Kaufman (West Jr. High), Mrs. Brown (West Jr. High), Ms. Clark (Borah High School), Mr. Sullivan (Borah High School), Mrs. McCurdy (Borah High School), Dr. Cottrell (Cottey College).

Graphic Novels
Boxer
Gene Luen Yang
Read for Librarian Book Group
Man, history is a bummer. And this comes from a person who enjoys history so much she majored in it in college. I loved the way this book (and the companion Saints) brought the nuances of the Boxer Rebellion to life. It did a great job of having me wanting both sides to win and lose because the whole thing is so massively depressing. I’m really ready to sit down and sing Kumbaya with the world and just all get along.

Unless, of course, women are going to be marginalized and mistreated as they are throughout this book, Red Lantern Brigade notwithstanding. Subjugation of women makes me want to spit and perhaps foment a rebellion of my own. Ideally using words and not weapons.

“Adult” books
Antony and Cleopatra
Shakespeare
So this is like Romeo and Juliet in that they end up dead, but not like Romeo and Juliet in that there isn’t any good fighting, or secret plans that go awry or feuding families or even a fun, bawdy nurse. It took a very long time for me to read to the end. Luckily, the play as performed is a bit more entertaining. But overall it is a Romeo and Juliet as played by boring politicians.

You Can’t Get There From Here
Gayle Forman
Forman and her husband set out for a year of travel to the fringes and we get to go along. In nine segments we meet all sort of interesting characters and people. A solid travel book with the bonus of glimpses into things that would later work their way into Forman’s novels. Unlike Forman’s novels, the book wasn’t compulsively readable, but it was quite enjoyable.

The Signature of All Things
Elizabeth Gilbert
My Thanksgiving present to myself was the shunting aside of other reading obligations to dive into the very thick production of fiction by Ms. E. Gilbert. When an author has written something that I greatly enjoyed and then suffered a backlash for writing that very same something, I get protective of them. So I was nervous for this effort, because I worried that maybe Eat, Pray, Love was going to be it for Gilbert. (Although if she had only written The Last American Man, that would have been enough.) But no! This was great! I could tell from the first paragraph that this would be a feast of fiction and it was. Gilbert has the talent of co-opting the 19th century novel style while still being enjoyably readable for a 21st century audience. Her characters are wonderful, the lengthy book zips along and so deft is the mastery of her craft, I happily read multiple pages about a topic I care little about (ahem, moss.) Well done!