Killing Kennedy

I learned long ago, in some American history class or another during my school days, that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Yet it remained just another fact to memorize prior to an exam and nothing more until I read Killing Kennedy. This historical thriller, written by a coalition of Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard, had me anxiously clutching the sides of my seat despite knowing full-well in advance the end of the story. I kept hoping that somehow, JFK was going to make it.  I almost wouldn’t oppose an alternate ending allowing his life to be spared as I grew to love the man and the First Lady as so many Americans did during his presidency.

O’Reilly and Dugard introduce their readers to a scraggly young Kennedy and lead us through the pivotal moments of his political and personal life up until it is cut short by Lee Harvey Oswald’s bullet.  We learn the good, the bad and the ugly of President Kennedy- his physical struggles with serious health detriments stemming from Addison’s disease and back problems to his major moral lapses while bedding with too many women to count (despite being married to arguably one of the classiest women to walk the White House halls). Thus, Kennedy becomes something real and tangible even to those born long after his untimely death. For this reason, the graphic description of his death is all the more painful to grapple with. All of a sudden, it feels as though I lost someone I knew personally. How Jacqueline Kennedy, who was covered with the brains and blood of her own husband, could surface from such a grotesquely scarring incident slides further and further from comprehension with each paragraph.

The authors of this non-stop narrative sprinkle it with facts and tidbits to truly round out the figure of John F. Kennedy. His therapeutic nude swims in the White House, the way he rough-housed with his two children in the morning and other facts of his private life add life to the two-dimensional textbook figure we learn about in school.

I never thought that an event seemingly so distant from my own life could affect me in such a way. Every time the authors mention some potential way his death could have been avoided jarred me to ponder how different things could be today. What if Kennedy had listened to warnings not to visit Dallas? What if his killer, Lee Harvey Oswald and his Communist dealings were investigated more closely by the intelligence community? This book certainly brings questions to its readers’ attentions. Questions, however, that simply have no answer.

State Tats

In the past few weeks I noticed a startling amount of men with the state of Hawaii tattooed on their shoulders. I understand the wish to pay homage to your state, but what if you inhabit a not so aesthetically-pleasing one? Can you imagine a tattoo-tribute to Wyoming or Colorado? Might as well just request a rectangle.

A simple polygon of a tattoo would provoke much confusion. Is that person saying he's a square? Is that woman obsessed with geometry? A four-sided box on your shoulder would be rather off-putting to employers and have potential mates questioning your sanity. Or, people would just think you are really deep and philosphical and go about scratching their heads wondering what the meaning of such a simple shape could possibly be. The explanation "it's not a rectangle, it's Colorado..." would get a bit old after awhile.

On the subject of tattoos, it has gotten to the point where some elderly folks have them, and often times it is something your eyes protest to. I fear for 50 years in the future when the majority of grandparents have saggy tattoo sleeves and wrinkly Chinese symbols on their ankles. Good luck convincing the grandkids not to get one of their own. Actually, maybe seeing the wrinkly saggy ink designs would be deterring enough.

 

Racist Produce

As I chopped a red onion which would soon become a key ingredient of my homemade mango pineapple salsa, my mind wandered onto yet another off-beaten path. I started to ponder the different colors of onions, and how much more I preferred red ones to yellow ones. Then my thoughts delved a bit deeper into the topic and I realized how I couldn't recall ever trying a white onion. That led me to wonder if produce, like people, are racist.

Yes,  I realize that suggesting that inanimate produce could be capable of racism or any thought for that matter puts my sanity under scrutiny. But let's get a little less literal and travel to the make-believe land of thinking produce. Humor me.

Some people claim that there is no longer any sort of racism but that is just silly. For example, African-Americans typically possess a much better sense of rhythm than us whities and Asians are, in general, better at math. So I have to wonder- out of the various colors of bell peppers, which would be better on the dance floor? What stereotypes would surround a green pepper vs. a red one? Just some food for thought. No pun intended...

Same goes for different fruits. Do red delicious apples team up against little ol' granny smiths? Are sweet potatoes kinder than their russet counterparts? Are plantains self-conscious of their larger cousins, bananas?


Who would win in a fight?




A Plot that Requires an Atlas to Follow

Fittingly enough, Cloud Atlas needs just that. Or a highly accurate map or cinematic GPS system. Let's face it- weaving in and out of story lines spanning multiple centuries, you're bound to get a little lost.

I'm not sure if the actor-recycling for various roles is helpful or simply another confusing element. If the actors' various roles paralleled each other in some way it would be easier to understand. I had to read audience interpretations of this aspect of Cloud Atlas to attempt to wrap my mind around it. Some characters had star-shaped birthmarks, but the characters seemingly had no correlation to one another. Hugo Weaving portrayed a villain in each story, but why is that significant? And Tom Hanks' plethora of personas did not seem terribly significant either. The interpretation I read said that as time progressed, his character became a better and better person. That seems logical enough, but not overtly obvious during the film. Perhaps reading the book would shed some light onto all of this. But on the big screen, it just adds more for your brain to struggle to comprehend. The good part of the actor-recycling is they got to showcase their talent to shine in varying roles.

The trailer raved that it is visually astounding. This observation, though true to a degree, simply stems from the use of computers to make for complex scenery and makeup to make Tom Hanks have a bigger nose in the 1800s or give Halle Berry a weird skin growth which I guess implies she is from the future.

Now that I delivered the bad news, time for the good. Since there is such an entanglement of stories, there is undoubtably something that everyone can enjoy. I felt like I was watching five movies at once- a comedy, a thriller, a sic-fi adventure, a period piece, multiple love stories and more. I laughed out loud, cringed at the unexpected gory scenes and terrified by the portrayal of the future. For these reasons, Cloud Atlas is worth seeing, but perhaps it is better to read the book first for comprehension's sake.