Reflectons...

So another calendar year is about to be ending and like everyone else, I would like to make some reflections from the year. This blog will be a mix of favorites, thoughts, and some previews of reasons to be excited for the next year.

Best Movies of the Year (mind you, that I have seen):
Crash - This was one of the most powerful films of the year with an ensemble cast that delivered an ensemble performance.
2046 - The best that I've seen Zhang Ziyi act and a truly interesting look at love and relationships. Best line from the movie: "Love is all a matter of timing. It's no good meeting the right person...too soon or too late. If I'd lived in another time or place...my story might have had a very different ending."
Batman Begins - Christian Bale was superb and the darkness was terrific.
March of the Penguins - Probably one of the most ubiquitous films of the year, equally as good as a date movie, as a family film, or as a documentary to see for general interest sake.
The Aristocrats - Once again, the funniest (albeit dirtiest) film to come along in the longest time. It is truly interesting to gain access to a window into the life of comedians around comedians. The film once again demonstrates that much of humor is about a release of anxiety, making light of those things that are most uncomfortable in life.
Brokeback Mountain - Some of the best acting performances of the year can be found in this film. This was such a touching story about a relationship between two males over multiple decades that to at least one of them was mythic molded by the imagination much like how the American imagination envisioned the concepts of cowboys and the west.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Not much to say here. The books keep getting better and better and so too do the movies.
Munich - Steven Spielberg has made a complicated, interesting, challenging history questioning whether societies should or can ever compromise their values, how effective military response to terrorism is in the short and long term, and the desire for some concept of home and what that will drive men to do.
Paradise Now - An interesting and long-overdue look into the lives of those who become suicide bombers and the internal debate that happens in their community.
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang - Critics did not overlook this film but most others by and large overlooked it. Robert Downey Junior is at his funniest and the script is as smart as it is playful.
Hitch - Finally a romantic comedy that appealed to men. This movie was made for men on a mission to show a woman a good time, appear moderately sensitive, and have a good time themselves.

Favorite books from the year:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - I didn't like it quite as much as The Order of the Phoenix but I still poured through it in three days, and the ending leaves you so excited for the final chapter in this saga.
Blindness – Saramgo’s book was actually published in 1999, but I read it this year while the horrors of Hurricane Katrina were unfolding. He imagines a world where mysteriously people become infected with a contagious blindness and what then happens in their society. The parallels to what happened in Katrina show Saramago to have made some insightful predictions about our responses to such situations.
Beasts of No Nation - A tale shocking and delicate, warm and disarming that has received wonderful reviews in many newspapers including the New York Times and the Washington Post. Uzo Iweala, a friend whom I graduated with from Harvard, has certainly established himself as someone able to bring politically salient issues to light through compelling fiction.
Never Eat Alone - This is a quick read and will give you a way to approach and manage those softer relationships that can be hard but nonetheless important to maintain.

Favorite Albums from the past year:
Hip Hop - Be (Common) - This album is the convergence of one of the top three emcees out right now and one of the best producers (Kanye West) having found the perfect sound for his distinctive flow. My only critique of the album was that it was not longer.
R&B - Get Lifted (John Legend) - Another album to come out of the Kanye West camp, Legend's debut was soulful from beginning to end.
Other - O (Damien Rice)- I got wind of this artist after hearing the infectious, "The Blower's Daughter" when I saw the film Closer. The album is emotional and moving. There is a sense that nothing was left in the recording studio; it's all on the album. Every person I talk to has a different favorite song as a sign of how thorough the entire album is.
Other2 - Where You Live (Tracy Chapman) - Another soulful album from a soulful woman. Chapman has a special way of capturing experience and life in song with a melody that compliments.

Older Movies Discovered:
Roman Holiday - This is one of the best romantic comedies that I've seen and for my money, the gold standard. Gregory Peck is impeccable and Audrey Hepburn is as charming as always.
The Battle of Algiers - Such a terrific political drama about the early resistance movement (insert: terrorist movement if it assuages your sensibilities) in Algeria against France.

Moves for next year:
Glory Road - This is a must see movie for families and people of all ages. Disney and Bruckheimer have marshaled tremendous financial resources to tell the tale of the Texas Western basketball team that was the first to win the national title while starting an all black lineup.

Some final reflections from the year:
This year has been one of ups and downs, as years seem to always go, at the personal and more general level. We had the highs of the global response to the Asian Tsunami and earthquake in Pakistan and the lows of Hurricane Katrina. Deaths in Iraq have continued to mount as the insurgency rages on, but there were just elections in that country as well. In the next year, I would like to challenge our leaders to finally decide: that all Americans will have access to healthcare, that spying on the American people unchecked by other branches of government is antithetical to our system of government and core values, that real sensible solutions to illegal immigration problems that will make a real difference are needed not just popular appeals, and that we need a comprehensive strategy that takes a perspective on how American innovation will see a resurgence. In addition, I would like to see the UConn Huskies win another national title.

Lastly, be good to the people in your life and show them the support that they need and deserve. Cherish those around you because they make life worth living. Stay in touch with your friends and family because you don't want to wake up five or ten years later and wonder what happened to someone or why that person now resembles a distant stranger. What's more you never know when, how or why a person comes to occupy new significance or importance in your life. Take a chance on love, and continue to seek happiness. Many times it can be found in the happiness of others.

Ms. Aguilera, I'm Singing a Song for You

A successful remake of a song that has been done by an artist whose version is so timeless and classic that it will be forever associated with him/her can be very difficult to achieve. The list of failures includes some that are not too surprising like Michael Bolton's rendition of "When a Man Loves a Woman," but it also includes artists like Alicia Keys who remade Gladys Knight and the Pip's "If I Were Your Woman," in an interesting but not so successful way. The problem is that the original is the gold standard against which every other version is measured and so the remakes had better be made of something a little different and be just as incredible, a brilliant diamond to match the gold. Few have achieved equally great renderings, but some of them would include Jodeci's cover of Stevie Wonder's "Lately," the Fugees version of Roberta Flack's immortal "Killing Me Softly," and Dave Matthews Band's version of Jimi Hendrix' "Watchtower."

An infectious remake that has been released this year is Christina Aguilera's version of "A Song for You" on Herbie Hancock's "Possibilities" compilation album. The song, written by Leon Russell, has been covered by such greats as the Temptations and Ray Charles, but for me, Donny Hathaway still has the version (As an aside, the “A Donny Hathaway Collection” is a soul album must have and one that if you love soul music you can’t go wrong with). Ms. Aguilera's rendering of the song sends chills down the spine when you listen to it just as does Hathaway's. She has always had a voice with power that rivals Whitney's in her heyday, but what she has lacked has been the vocal maturity not to flaunt her tremendous gift on every note that she sings. However, on "A Song for You" her vocals are sufficiently reigned in where appropriate and allowed to soar at many other points to give her ownership over the song to display her range and inject her own creative flare into the tune. What a beautiful song she has graced with her voice, and what a beautiful product she has produced along with Hancock. I continue to believe that she is one the most vocally accomplished artists out in the mainstream today and that, given the right writing and production team, she has a classic cover-to-cover album or two in her ala Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, or Sade.

If you so choose, go get the album, a pretty decent one in the easy listening genre or download on iTunes a choice few tracks, mainly the ones featuring Aguilera, John Mayer, Annie Lennox, and Damien Rice along with Lisa Hannigan.

Why a Timetable in Iraq Might Just be Mission Critical

The War in Iraq, now approaching its third birthday, continues to drag on and progress has trickled in slower than some expected and most would hope for. Everyday the headlines are dominated with the latest bombing attack on American soldiers or Iraqi citizens (the significance should not be lost in regards to the fact that I use the term “citizens” in describing Iraqis, a truly laudable accomplishment of the mission over there). And of course, given the way in which the war was sold to the American public and the hubris that infected administration predictions of post-Sadaam Iraq, support has grown stronger, louder and more widespread for a timetable for troop redeployment. But many how countered that a timetable is dangerous because it gives the insurgents a definitive date that they know when the Americans will leave. The logic goes that they will take this as a signal for how long they have to outlast America after which Iraq will be theirs to terrorize unabated.

While this thinking certainly seems reasonable and logically supported, it is nonetheless flawed. A timetable for troop redeployment in Iraq is something that should not be shunned or dismissed. It is actually the better choice between having one and not having one. There are two critical reasons why this is the case. The first is that for Iraqis (and others in the region) that view American presence in the region as occupation, it clearly defines the terminality to American forces in the country. The second reason is implicit in the administration’s language regarding American presence in Iraq mainly that as Iraqi’s stand up, we shall stand down.

However, before delving into these two areas, let me first state that when I say timetable, I do not mean an inflexible one. To have a schedule that does not take into account the current realities of the situation on the ground in Iraq is foolish and lacks foresight and sound judgment.

There are those who view American presence in Iraq through the lens of our presence in other countries such as Germany, Japan, and Saudi Arabia – place where we maintained a military presence long after the ad hoc conflict had subsided. These people view America’s operations in Iraq as part-in-parcel of a geopolitical strategy in the region where we will use the country as a launching pad to exert undue influence in the neighboring countries. A timetable would do much to assuage a certain segment of this body’s concerns. Insurgent leaders claiming that they be necessary to insure the exiting of Iraq would be undercut in their propaganda campaigns.

As we consider what Iraqis standing up and Americans standing down means, it becomes apparent that we have established an inverse relationship between Iraqi force capability and American military presence in the country. In this case, a timetable is dictated by the capacity of Iraqis to defend themselves. Whosoever says that we should not have a timetable for American redeployment is making an implicit argument that we should not have targets for numbers of Iraqis trained and capable of defending their country. And if we don’t have goals as to numbers and by when, then we will have no metrics to measure our progress in Iraq and progress will limp along. President Bush claims to come from the school of business with management skills learned at Harvard Business School and honed in the private sector at Harken and later in the governor’s mansion in Texas. Would he have any goals that were fuzzy, ill-defined, and non-critical?

No, if we are to hasten and achieve success in Iraq, a timetable must be established that is based goals for trained Iraqis by hard deadlines that will dictate the ability to redeploy American forces. And when those deadlines approach, assessments (which can only be made with established targets) must be made as to how progress has gone and what changes in policy, if any, must be made. A timetable will in this way enhance the work we are doing in Iraq, bolster our claims that this is a finite occupation, and undercut the insurgency.