Moment of year
“So there they are, Buzz and Jessie and Bullseye, Hamm and Slinky, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head and Rex, and Woody, surrounded by tiny fragments of metal, plastic and wood — toy materials — and inexorably sliding towards a maelstrom of heat and light. There’s something almost celestial about the image, like a cosmic marriage of a star and a black hole, and definitely something primal — heat and metal and plastic and wood were how these toys were made, and it’s how they’re going out.
“Jessie asks Buzz, can-do Buzz, the guy who always has a plan, she asks him, What are we gonna do? And Buzz can only reply with a look, a look of confusion and terror and helplessness that we’ve only seen once before, back in the first film, when Buzz finally understood that he was not a spaceman, but a toy. In that moment, Buzz’s life truly began. And now, it’s about to end forever. To infinity, and beyond.
“But Buzz, the toy, makes the most human reaction possible: he takes her hand. Her reaction, the single best bit of animation in Pixar’s history, is truthful as it is heartbreaking.”
— Kent Beeson, writing on ” Muriel Award: Best Cinematic Moment” on March 2 at the awards blog Our Science is Too Tight
Complaint drawer
“I blew my top, though, when I heard [National Public Radio] listeners’ responses to Michael Jackson’s death. NPR ran several fine pieces about Jackson, my favorite being a segment in which fans around the world sang their own versions of Jackson’s hits. The report was sweet, touching, and a creative use of the network’s far-flung correspondents — NPR at its best.
“The letter-writers hated it. ’All Things Considered’ devoted two spots to complaints from listeners who thought that Jackson’s death — the biggest pop culture news of 2009 — was inconsequential. ’Et tu, NPR? I thought you would offer a safe refuge from the barrage of Michael Jackson coverage on every other media outlet, but alas, no,’ said a woman from Pennsylvania. What about ’Uyghur unrest in China, fighting in Mogadishu and dozens of deaths in Afghanistan?’ wrote another listener. …
“Since then, I’ve grown to hate these listeners. Oh, I hate them, hate them, hate them. Every time one of their narrow-minded, classist letters makes it on the air, I contemplate burning my tote bag in protest. The problem, for me, isn’t just that some people don’t like some things NPR covers. It’s that these reflexively snobby pseudo-intellectuals see NPR as their own — a refuge from the mad world outside, a “safe,” high-minded palace that should never be sullied by anything more outre than James Taylor.”
— Farhad Manjoo, writing on “The tedious, annoying complaints of public radio listeners” on March 2 at Slate
Illegitimacy
“We live in an era in which it is fashionable in some quarters not simply to question the policies of an Obama, a Bush, or a Clinton; one has to call into question their very legitimacy. It is a cast of mind that allows one’s grievances to find refuge in conspiracy theories (Bush knew in advance about 9/11 and purposely lied about WMDs in Iraq; Bill Clinton was behind the “murder” of Vince Foster and a drug-smuggling operation at the Mena Airport; Barack Obama is a Muslim who was born in Africa).
“Entertaining these myths and giving them wings is dangerous stuff. The reason is obvious: our nation depends on its citizens accepting the legitimacy of democratic outcomes, including ones that don’t go our way. If people believe without supporting evidence that our president is not just wrong but illegitimate, that he’s not simply misguided but malevolent, essential bonds of trust are ripped apart.”
— Peter Wehner, writing on “The Dangers of Demonization and the Conspiracy Temptation” on March 2 at the Commentary blog Contentions
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