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Review: Animal Kingdom

“Because of the circles you run in, you may think you are one of the strong creatures. But you’re not, you’re one of the weak ones. You’ve survived because you’ve been protected by the strong, but they’re not strong anymore.”

So goes a one sided conversation between Detective Leckie to J in Animal Kingdom, a movie that is The Departed set to the slow burn of The Godfather.

The movie revolves around a family of outlaws, a matriarchal grandmother, 3 uncles, a close friend and their crooked lawyer, that welcome their teenage nephew into the fold. he criminals are engaged in a bloody feud with the local police, who are, in turn, not above extrajudicial sentencing. Each scene and character is economical, with very little wasted effort. The result is a quietly menacing film that is emotionally taut from opening to close, underscored by ominous musical notes that are almost always present as the aural backdrop of each scene. Each character’s nature is revealed with a minimum of dialog, exposition or action.

(Minor spoilers, I’ve tried to keep them to what one could see in the trailer or in the first scene.)

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Posted in Oh Those Boys!, Stuff We Like.

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A Case For Complacency

As I walked into town on a warm Saturday evening, I realized that a familiar feeling had taken hold of me. Every year, I vacation at my family’s cottage on Keuka Lake, and during my time there I romanticize the locale. It’s an easy thing to do, since summertime in Penn Yan is rife with things to do, places to go and people to see. The problem has always been that this sentiment always seems to wear off once the leaves vacate the trees, and the place is left with a very desolate, empty feeling.

Despite knowing this, every year I find myself entertaining the idea of moving back there. While anyone can decry how depressing the finger lakes can be in wintertime, I think it’s safe to say that anywhere around here, regardless of proximity to PY or not, is pretty dreary once the snow starts flying. Additionally, Penn Yan its self is not exactly chock full of business opportunities or decent-paying jobs; while they are within reasonable driving distance, they’re virtually non-existent within the immediate realm of Pennsylvania Yankeedom. But the most detrimental thing in my mind, the most off-putting aspect of the place, has always been the intellectually inert paradigm that prevails over the municipality of pVegas.

Look, I’m not making a blanket statement that everyone in or from Penn Yan is stupid—that’s quite obviously not the case. But there does seem to be an entrenched attitude of anti-movement there. I had always looked at that as a negative trait. Sometimes people are such stalwarts with regard to resisting change and potential progress, and they make the argument for never changing anything so vigorously and boisterously, their points are obscured by the foolhardy way by in which they present them. Penn Yan seems to be a haven for these sorts people. As usual, the actions of the few ruin a situation for the many.

But lately it’s occurred to me that there is something to be said for a somewhat complacent attitude. Yates County has no expressways, and that’s great. People move a bit slower, and generally don’t pressure themselves to cram as much into a day as they possibly can. It seems that they can appreciate the subtleties of everyday life to a greater extent than those of a more urban persuasion. It’s like I said in a recent status update: “Life is best experienced under 20 or over 80 mph – anything else is just boring transit.”

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The Truth About Richie & Margot

I get asked with some regularity exactly why I like The Royal Tenenbaums so much. For one thing, I seem to like all of Wes Anderson’s work more than is probably healthy. His presentation of how flawed characters interact and deal with an imperfect world strikes me as one of the most honest depictions of real life I’ve encountered on celluloid.

But there’s a little more to the Royal Tenenbaums. I identify with those kids. Richie is so vulnerable, so restrained, and at times, so earnest. Margot goes to such great lengths to hide herself from everyone else – she’s terrified of the idea of being judged for who she really is. Chas is so crushed by the loss of his wife he’s hell-bent on ensuring that nothing can ever hurt him that badly again. They’re all supposed geniuses as children, as sure of their own actions as the most brash world leaders – but as adults they’re tepid & terrified. I think this reflects what society does to all of us (to varying degrees) over the course of our maturation – regardless of what shape pegs we might all be from the factory, the world has a way of pounding us all into square holes. We’re too afraid to be ourselves after taking a certain amount of shit, and as a result the faces we present to the world are somewhat watered-down versions of the real deal.

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Psychological Capture

Our thesis is that the rich are the dominant drivers of demand in many economies around the world (the US, UK, Canada and Australia). These economies have seen the rich take an increasing share of income and wealth over the last 20 years, to the extent that the rich now dominate income, wealth and spending in these countries. Asset booms, a rising profit share and favorable treatment by market-friendly governments have allowed the rich to prosper and become a greater share of the economy in the plutonomy countries.

Why as equity investors do we care about these issues?

Despite being in great shape, we think that global capitalists are going to be getting an even greater share of the wealth pie over the next few years, as capitalists benefit disproportionately from globalization and the productivity boom, at the relative expense of labor… Indeed, if the rich keep getting richer, as we suggest, savings rates might get even worse in the plutonomy countries. If plutonomy explains away many conundrums that our equity clients worry about, then this suggests the risk premia ascribed to equities might be too high. Furthermore, if the rich will be getting even richer in the coming years, this bodes extremely well for businesses selling to or servicing the rich, be it for example luxury goods stocks or private banks. The rich are a growing and captive market, who have the nice habit of relatively little price elasticity. The plutonomy basket of luxury goods stocks, private banks etc. has handsomely outperformed the S&P500 index since 1986, and we expect similar out performance from these types of stocks in the years to come…

Our whole plutonomy thesis is based on the idea that the rich will keep getting richer. This thesis is not without its risks… the rising wealth gap between the rich and poor will probably at some point lead to a political backlash … At some point it is likely that labor will fight back against the rising profit share of the rich and there will be a political backlash against the rising wealth of the rich … We don’t see this happening yet, though there are signs of rising political tensions. However we are keeping a close eye on developments.

Equity Strategy. Revisiting Plutonomy: the rich getting richer
Citigroup, March 5, 2006

A bald wig for Jack the Ripper who sits
At the head of the chamber of commerce
Mama’s in the fact’ry, she ain’t got no shoes
Daddy’s in the alley, he’s lookin’ for the fuse
I’m in the streets with the tombstone blues

Bob Dylan, Tombstone Blues

A fairly compelling argument by conservatives and libertarians, and compelling only because the facts as they describe them are impeachable, is that regulating business does not work because of regulatory capture. This is true and they don’t have to retreat to the abstract to make the case. As we have seen, the latest example is the Minerals Management Service, big business eventually overpowers government agencies that are originally set up to regulate their affairs and eventually has these agencies doing their bidding. The agencies approve of everything they want, which actually gives some legal cover for some of their dicier profit-making designs.

Where libertarians go astray here, as usual, is in identifying the culprit – government. Their other sin is one of omission. It is not just government that is captured, but actual free market agencies as well, which are just as susceptible to capture. The glaring example at hand for the moment are the credit ratings agencies like Moody’s that gilded the financial services’ lily with their triple AAA rated bullshit mortgage backed securities. Moody’s and other credit  ratings agencies were captured just as wholly as say, the Fed, because they are of and serve the same interests as the forces they are interacting with. Moody’s is exactly the kind of free market solution that libertarians are always suggesting would spring up and perform the role of government agencies with far better efficiency and ability if government would get the hell out of the way and let the markets work.

Another institution prone to capture is the U.S. media with its advertising revenue based model. Ironically, deregulation of the media and the mass consolidation that followed has led to a greater capture of the news media in adopting, promoting and protecting the interests of the elite and wealthy.

So if more regulation is not the answer, and neither is less regulation, what the hell is the answer? The question is the problem. Many of us want an easy to adhere to ideology or framework from which all answers spring. There is no easy answer, or at least one that wraps everything up nicely and solves every problem and creates an equilibrium after which we can retire to the couch and watch Project Runway and post pictures of our kitty Snookums to the blog. There will always be trade-offs and problems inherent in any human system, those considerations should not put us off from considering alternatives or reform of the existing one.
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Posted in Oh Those Boys!, Rants.

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Bag Laws: AB1998

The girlfriend pulled a pro-move yesterday, maneuvering me into going to a rally in support of AB1998, the plastic bag ban legislation in California, without giving up anything in return. It’s not that I don’t support the ban in principle, but I hate to let an opportunity to extract some value from an interpersonal transaction pass me by, and unfortunately I came away from this empty handed. I could have at least gotten a concession to watch Point Break Live with me in return for supporting this rally. By the way, I think I would make a fantastic Johnny Utah, and am probably a lock for getting invited on stage when I go. Here is exhibit A to support this bold claim:

Um, right. Aaaaaanyway…

The rally started in Ghirardelli Square and meandered through the touristy section of San Francisco. The participants wore ‘bag monster’ costumes, which are about what they sound like. Each costume has about as many bags as the average American uses in a year. I weaseled out of having to wear one in case I was called by work to handle an emergency; instead I carried a lame protest sign that read, “Plastic bags are trashy.” As near as I could tell, I was the only person who made any attempt at humor, so I probably had the funniest sign by default. Well, actually, my lame pun was probably less humorous than the sign that earnestly attempted to appropriate a Bob Dylan lyric, “The bags are a-blowin in the wind, my friend.” Indeed.

Here are some observations from the good seats.

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Work of Art finale: Waiting for a seat at the table

I haven’t seen the last 3 or 4 episodes of Work of Art, including the finale because the many shortcomings of the show left me wanting (I didn’t tune in to enjoy reality TV drama). My interest in this discussion is not about the television show, it never has been and hopefully that has come through in previous posts, but about my own and society’s strata of perspectives, discussions, and understanding of art.

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Posted in Oh Those Boys!, Stuff We Like.

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Echoes

As I wrote a few posts back, I’ve been surprisingly satisfied with the quality of pop music in the past year or so. Last time I wrote about this, I hinted that what had changed was music, not me. Of course, that is probably just ego talking. When we don’t or can’t appreciate the aesthetic merits of something, then the problem lies in the object, not the self. And when we can appreciate the aesthetics, it is because we are sophisticated and hip enough to get it, those who can’t are dimmer or primitive. The world moves in whatever direction it must, but we remain affixed, just as smart and as sensitive as we ever were.

Well, at least that is the world view of a self involved moron like me who says things like, “It’s not me with the problem, it’s you! ALL OF YOU! THE WHOLE WORLD IS FILLED WITH MORONS!!!111! MORONS, ARTECA! YOU HEAR ME!? MORONS!”

But this is not about that, what this is a post about how some of the new music I was mentioning echoes the past. I don’t know if music has changed, or if I have just gotten older, my perspective has changed, and my expectations shifted to the point where I can appreciate that what I let go by before. Anyway, check out these songs and see if you can hear the echoes.

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Posted in Music, Stuff We Like.

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Source Material

If this newer order completely vanquishes the older marital ideal, then gay marriage will become not only acceptable but morally necessary. The lifelong commitment of a gay couple is more impressive than the serial monogamy of straights. And a culture in which weddings are optional celebrations of romantic love, only tangentially connected to procreation, has no business discriminating against the love of homosexuals.

But if we just accept this shift, we’re giving up on one of the great ideas of Western civilization: the celebration of lifelong heterosexual monogamy as a unique and indispensable estate. That ideal is still worth honoring, and still worth striving to preserve. And preserving it ultimately requires some public acknowledgment that heterosexual unions and gay relationships are different: similar in emotional commitment, but distinct both in their challenges and their potential fruit.

Ross Douhat

General “Buck” Turgidson: Now, wouldn’t that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?

Dr. Strangelove: Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious… service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.

Ambassador de Sadesky: I must confess, you have an astonishingly good idea there, Doctor.

Dr. Strangelove

Ross makes a solid point. If you want to hasten the end of civilization as we know it and eke out a miserable, subterranean-centric mineshaft existence, go ahead and let the gays marry, America.

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