Gotta Say it Was a Good Day

It's a bit after the fact, I know, but there's a lot to be said about December 15.

The More I Think About It, The More I Like It

You know who's playing Freddy Mercury in an upcoming pic about Queen? Sasha Baron Cohen, that's who.

Scarface Is a Perfectly Acceptable Person for Lawyers to Emulate

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LawCrossing.com is a website that lists legal jobs. Every now and then, I get an email from Harrison Barnes, the CEO of LawCrossing, who must know what he's talking about because he's a CEO and it sounds like he was named after a law firm. Harrison's epistles are meant to provide information on the legal job market and how to approach it, in a relaxed and casual tone.

Today's email was entitled "Scarface and the Passion of New Immigrants to the United States." Now, I had two reactions to the title alone. The first was, "immigrants rock and are so much better than the indigies!" (That's what we call the indigenous population. Okay, I'm the only one who calls them that, but it'll catch on, just you wait.) My second reaction was: "WTF?"

Harrison is clearly a fan of Scarface. He recounts a large swath of the movie in detail. (I have a vision of his college dorm room and - yes - yes, it's coming through - yes, there's a Tony Montana poster on the wall.) He then says: "The difference between us and Montana is how hungry most of us are."

Really? That's the difference? That's all that separates your average, run-of-the-mill junior associate and a murderous henchman for drug lords? Delusions of grandeur aside, I would like to think that, between me and Scarface, there is the additional barrier of the fact that I engage in an honest, legal profession....

The analogy is, I think, a bit odd.

California: A World unto Itself

Andrew Sullivan showcases a fascinating map of California, from 1927 - the very year, I should point out, of the first talkie. It depicts places in California where a studio could shoot a film that is supposed to be taking place somewhere else.

It's particularly insightful as a window into the geographic spread of story locations in films circa 1927, inasmuch as filming locations in California can provide for it. (You may have to leave California to film a scene set on a glacier.) None of the simulated places would seem odd as a setting today - not even Sherwood Forest, apparently (which can be replicated, it seems, somewhere in the Palm Springs area). I do notice, however, that while there are two locations listed that are suitable for a film set in the Alps (one French, one Swiss), all of Africa can be simulated in San Luis Obispo!