Film Review: <em>Thank You for Smoking</em>

Thank You for Smoking is a delightfully snarky little film that takes a jaundiced eye at human nature in general and Washington politics in particular. No one in the movie is entirely honorable (to say the least!), but everyone is a delight to watch.

At the center of the story is Nick Naylor, played with dead pan panache by Aaron Eckhart. Naylor is the spokesman for Big Tobacco and is honest both to himself and to us the audience about what he does. His job is to defend an industry that kills twelve hundred people a day. Next to him, most of the great killers of world history are mere pikers.

Yet, he does his job so well that in one of the first scenes, on a TV talk show where he is outnumbered about four to one by anti tobacco guests and where the audience is about ready to get a rope and string him up, he manages to get most of the folks over to his point of view. Even the dying cancer kid guest shakes his hand.

Naylor’s arch enemy is a Senator from Vermont, the pompous, self absorbed Ortolan K. Finistirre, played by one of the great character actors of our age, William H. Macy. While the good Senator is supposed to be one of the “good guys”, he comes across as a bit of an ass.

Naylor’s other enemy, though at first he doesn’t know it at first, is the spunky and ambitious reporter Heather Holloway, played by Katie Holmes. The reason Naylor doesn’t know that Holloway is a threat is that she is rogering him silly while extracting all of his secrets for the big expose article she is writing.

Naylor comforts himself from the woes of his chosen profession with a weekly lunch with the two other “merchants of death.” They are Polly Bailey who speaks for big alcohol, played by Mario Bello, and Bobby Jay Bliss, a good old boy who spins for big firearms, played by David Koechner.

While Senator Finistirre plots to stick it to Naylor’s employers by forcing them to display a skull and crossbones on every pack of cigarettes and while Ms. Holloway plots his downfall, Naylor travels about doing the work of the devil (in the form of  Doak 'The Captain' Boykin, played by Robert Duvall.) He is accompanied by his son, Joey, played by Cameron Bright, who seems to have started a career playing forty year olds in the bodies of children. Joey seems overly fascinated and proud about what his father doesn. We can see that already Naylor is mentoring the next generation of spinmeisters.

Along the way, Naylor attempts to bribe a Marlborough Man, played by Sam Elliot, who is dying of cancer and is one of big tobaccos enemies.  Then it’s off to Hollywood to see if he can get smoking back into the movies, the better to make it seem sexy and cool.

While the film does highlight the absurdity of the characters and the situations they get into, it is never vicious. Nick Naylor is just trying to pay the mortgage the best way he knows how. “Michael Jordan plays basketball. Charles Manson kills people. I talk.” And it’s not as if he’s holding a gun to anyone’s head, forcing them to take up cigarettes. No matter how good a sultan of spin Naylor is, it is still a matter of personal choice.

Thank You for Smoking is based on the satirical novel by Christopher Buckley, the son of the famous conservative pundit William F. Buckley.  It comes highly recommended for anyone who likes their comedy sharp and witty.

Christmas Photography Tips and Advice

For Christmas photography tips, or any sort of photography, we want the best results to come from our time and effort. Christmas photography captures special moments, especially when children are involved. In fact, this leads to my first Christmas photography tip:

(1) Focus on the children first. This admittedly is a bias of mine, but Christmas foremost should be a children's holiday. This applies to gift-giving, and also to photography. If you disagree and/or if adults are at the center of your Christmas, fine, that's just my opinion. Just think of ol' Art Linkletter: "Kids Say the Funniest Things." Kids also make the best photo subjects, and regardless, Christmas (like Trix cereal) is for Kids.

Our Top Ten Christmas photography tips are going to relate to the strategy of taking the best photos, not to the type of camera. That's a whole 'nuther topic. In fact, yours truly is not even a shutterbug. My advice comes from working as a local daily newspaper reporter, among some of the best professional photographers, going back to the 1970s when they still used darkrooms, up to today in the digital age. These Christmas photography tips are geared toward how you interact with your subjects, once the camera is chosen and the lighting adjustments are made.

(2) Don't be one of these photographers who is constantly out front and interrupting things, asking people to pose. For your best Christmas photography, be the fly on the wall. Stay in the background and take candid photos of what's happening, photos in which the subjects don't realize you're taking their photos.

(3) A lower angle (shooting "upward" toward the subjects and the scene) often yields better results. Don't hesitate to sprawl on the floor.

(4) In your Christmas photography, look for sequences of events. A photo is just one moment in time and to capture a sequence, many folks nowadays prefer a video camera. Still, there's nothing like a series of photos. For example: (A) Child awaits anxiously for gift-giving to begin. (B) Child receives wrapped gift. ( C ) Child tears wrapping off of gift. (D) Child reacts to gift.

(5) In fact, your sequence of events could begin hours earlier. Child helps decorate tree. Child puts on Christmas outfit. Etc.

(6) Just because you're staying out of the spotlight with your camera, that doesn't mean you can't be persistent. Patience is a virtue in waiting for just the right moment, just the right shot.

(7) Be a minimalist. Don't try to illustrate the whole scene of the Christmas event at once. If it's a party, take turns focusing on individual participants, or no more than two or three in one frame. If your Christmas photography involves a group of carolers, go ahead and photograph the whole group, but also aim for closeups of one caroler, or a small group.

(8) If you still want some posed Christmas photography for the archives, that's fine. Try to do the posing at the conclusion of the shindig, not at the start or during the middle.

(9) For posed photos, try to keep the number of subjects small. Let's imagine the group of Christmas revelers is 20. Go ahead and shoot the group of 20, but keep in mind that with so many folks in there, their faces are going to be the sizes of dimes. Also shoot "subgroups" with three, four, five people.

(10) When people pose in groups, have them put their heads as close together as possible. This may seem like a minor point, but when you see the results, you'll understand. Faces can be 20 percent larger and up close if we eliminate the wasted space between their heads.

SOURCES

Personal experience

http://digital-photography-school.com/16-christmas-photography-tips

http://www.best-family-photography-tips.com/Christmas-pictures.html

http://photography.about.com/od/christmas/Christmas_Photography.htm

Throw an Art Show Sidewalk Party for Children

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In my town, school is officially out for the summer and that means that eventually parents are going to start hearing phrases such as “I’m bored”, and “There’s never anything to do around here”. Well, if you are a parent who lives in a neighborhood with a lot of kids and sidewalks then I may have a solution to your problem...at least for one day. Pick a Saturday, round up the neighbors and have a sidewalk chart art show.

This is a summer craft project that will not last, except in pictures, but with a little planning and cooperation it could be the start of a yearly tradition in your neighborhood. Make sure you have enough chalk for all the children in the neighborhood and allot them a certain amount of space on the sidewalk in front of their home. Give them as much time as they need to create their masterpieces and then have a few impartial judges hand out awards; if possible, make up enough awards so that each child gets one. You could print up certificates for participation, judge the artwork by age or make up silly awards and prizes to hand out so that the children will have something to remember the day by.

Don’t stop with just an art show, make a day of it; have sack races, baseball or basketball games, watermelon eating contests, cookouts, snacks, homemade ice cream, snow cones, drinks, pool parties, fireworks….block party, anyone?? Your art show/block party could even be used as a way to raise money for a local charity; have a bake sale, lemonade stands, hold a raffle - the possibilities are limited only by your imagination. An important bonus of a charitable party is the lesson your children will learn about giving to help others and that giving can be fun. You can strengthen this lesson by allowing the children to help decide what charity to give the proceeds to; for example, a local children’s hospital, a library or an animal shelter.

If you want to stop hearing how bored your children are, make sure you get them involved in planning the day; give them a chance to use their imagination and I promise you that the more input you allow them to have, the more interested they will be in the project. Perhaps older children would like to set up a scavenger hunt for the younger children and the parents could set up a hunt for the older children; that way everyone gets in on the fun.

As I said earlier, if you are lucky enough to live in a neighborhood with a lot of kids and sidewalks, then a sidewalk chalk art show and block party could take a regular boring Saturday and turn into something magical and special that your children will remember for many years to come.

The Best Baby Showers Gifts to Give

boston celtics baby clothes

When your friend announces the wonderful news of a new arrival the thought always turns to what you want to buy the baby that will be of most use. Having had my first baby and 2 showers I received several gifts that were total life savers and am forever in debt to the people who bought them.

The coolest thing I received was a Fischer Price Oceans of Wonder cradle swing, this is the best gift I could've ever asked for, it has 2 ways to swing, plays melodies has lights as well as 10 different speeds. I was able to use this from day 1 up until my little guy got 25 pounds. This was truly awesome as the baby was able to nap and the fish and lights held his attention long enough for mom to get housework done.

Diapers are always a great gift because parents go thru so many, the trick is to give a few packages in the larger sizes as many new parents receive so many smaller sizes and babies grow so fast. A case of diaper wipes is also helpful as they tend to last longer.

The Fischer Price Deluxe Jumperoo is also a great gift, the baby can start using around 4 months of age, it helps strengthen their legs and provides plenty of entertainment. I found this to be a great way to get a moment of peace when having a hectic day.

The Womb Bear is also great to help baby sleep at night, it makes the sound of a heartbeat and reminds baby of time spent in the womb.

Gift cards are also great as their are many last minute things that parents need or want, and can be used to buy many different things.


These are some great suggestions and good luck with the shopping