Health Care Crisis Solved

All Americans ought to read the OECD's Why Is Health Spending In The US So High? It's brief, straightforward, and apolitical.

The short answer to the question posed is that health care is too expensive, which begs another question: where is all that money going?

Considering that free-market conditions tend to drive high prices downward, I conclude that there must be non-market operators at work allowing for these prices to become inflated.

Ergo, all we need to do is identify and mitigate those non-market operators. Health care crisis solved!

Sherman Oaks/Studio City Restaurant Guide

This list is by no means comprehensive and is presented in no particular order. Just a few of the places I remember fondly from my five years working and/or living in the area.

SLOWER FOOD

• CARNIVAL – Lebanese. Full marks!
• SPUMONI – Italian. Delicious, heavy, and the friendliest service of any restaurant I have frequented. Reasonably priced.
• IL TIRAMISU – Italian. Lighter and fancier than Spumoni.
• STANLEY’S – Standard American. Good sourdough bread.
• CAFÉ BIZOU – Old-school “French”. Fair prices on prix fixe menu for surf ‘n’ turf. A chain?
• GYU-KAKU – Japanese hibachi-grill chain. Best “Happy Hour” deals I know of: it’s always happy hour if you order from the bar, $1 beers, ½-price appetizers... food and drink for 2 around $20.
• BOLLYWOOD CAFÉ (best), TASTE OF INDIA, GREAT INDIA CAFÉ – If you like Indian food.
• VIBE CAFÉ – Egyptian. Hearty, home-style Middle Eastern food. Good deals on hookah, comfortable outdoor setting (so it’s good for both hookah lovers and haters).
• OYSTER HOUSE – Seafood. Order the clam chowder.
• HUGO’S/HUGO’S TACOS (same ownership) – One is American, one is a taco stand, both L.A. landmarks. Specialty salsas at Hugo’s Tacos, good breakfast/brunch and “healthy” at Hugo’s.
• JINKY’S – Another of rather few breakfast options.

FASTER FOOD

• CRÊPE X-PRESS – In the Fashion Square Mall food court. Best crêpes in S.O. (Couldn’t find a link – did they go out of business?)
• QT CHICAGO DOGS – “Real” Chicago-style hot dogs in a dumpy convenience store setting.
• THE HABIT, IN-N-OUT – Burgers chains.
• CALIFORNIA PITA – American Greek. Order the Lemon Chicken plate with an extra side of lemon sauce.
• ZANKOU CHICKEN – One of my favorite things about L.A.!
• BRATS BROTHERS – Sausages. Great selection of meat & mustard.

PUBS

• BLUE DOG – Great beer selection, esp. if you like Belgian. Good burgers.
• MAD BULL/SPITTING CHICKEN (same ownership) – Both new, both trendy. Bull can get pretty crowded any night of the week, has the edge on food. Chicken usually more low-key, wins in the “vibe” category.
• SEÑOR FRED’S – Good margarita selection, good food/tapas. A little pricey.

PLACES TO AVOID

• JERRY’S FAMOUS DELI/SOLLEY’S (same ownership) – Overpriced, overyhyped, crowded... everything detestable about L.A.
• LA FRITE – Used to have an awesome brunch and lots of kitschy home-style French country charm, but then they went on “Kitchen Nightmares” and chef Gordon Ramsay ruined everything by turning it into yet another overpriced, full-of-its-own-crap, L.A.-style douche-house. Very sad.
• CASA VEGA – Cool décor... but terrible service, always crowded, and food not good enough to justify the prices.
• PINEAPPLE HILL SALOON – Not friendly!
• HAMBURGER HAMLET – Nothing good can be said about this place.
• PITA KITCHEN – Underwhelming. Why is this place so popular?
• MULBERRY STREET PIZZERIA – Phony, expensive, not authentic, not good.

Cowboys Vs. Aliens: Not Really A Review, Just A Few Thoughts

* SPOILERS THROUGHOUT *

I quite liked Cowboys vs. Aliens. It was nice seeing Harrison Ford in an antagonist role for once -- and more than just an antagonist, he ends up being a multi-dimensional, identifiable, redeemable antagonist. I also have no trouble buying what's-her-name as an alien. And I like the way Daniel Craig's amnesia is built into the story as a crucial element, as opposed to being merely a convenient plot device.

I guess what I like most about Cowboys vs. Aliens is how serious it takes itself. It takes itself more serious than previous sci-fi westerns Wild Wild West, Westworld, and Back To The Future III. It's only slightly more serious than Silverado, about on the level of Tombstone, and not as serious as Unforgiven or True Grit (remake).

Since the late 1970s (i.e. Star Wars) writers have been obsessed with mythic elements in storytelling, and personally I believe the pulp-and-melodrama storytelling conventions of the American West comprise our most important unique shared cultural mythos. Alluding to these conventions (à la Silverado), CvsA sets up a thoroughly traditional Western dynamic of the Hero-Outlaw, seeking his redemption by turning a new leaf, who must eventually confront the Wealthy-&-Powerful Villain.

So CvsA sets all these dominoes up, and then, moments before the inevitable "opening face-off" between the Good Guy and the Bad Guy... BAM! Aliens invade, upsetting any conventional order we might have expected and forcing the archetypes to interact and collaborate in a fresh, unprecedented way.

Adventure ensues, escalates, resolves... and finally, at the end of the film, after the alien "interruption" has been settled, there can be no return to normalcy because the archetypes have all been forced out of their traditional oppositional roles. So the Good Guy and the Bad Guy, the guys wearing the figurative white and black hats, actually end up seeing eye to eye SHAKING HANDS instead of killing each other! That is one of the boldest, most progressive reconciliatory statements I've ever seen in a Western.

Fight PIPA, Call Your Sentator, Save The Internet

- Do you believe in the founding principles of our country?
- Do you like using the internet?
- Do you think the government should be able to shut down the internet to protect certain corporate interests?
- Do you support innovation, creativity, and productivity?
- Do you think we have any hope of getting out of this depression if Congress clamps down on ingenuity and freedom?

Click here to phone your Senator and urge him or her to oppose PIPA. Just do it, it only takes like five minutes.

http://americancensorship.org/

Happy Veteran's Day

Today the world celebrates Peace and Freedom -- and we acknowledge and remember those who have made it possible.

I, for one, am eternally grateful for the dedication and sacrifice of all the family, friends, and complete strangers who've worn the uniform.

Thank you, veterans, and may God bless you. I'm proud to be an American because of you. Happy Veterans Day.

50/50: A Movie Review

50/50 is a movie about dying of cancer. That's the premise, not a spoiler -- I won't reveal whether Joseph Gordon-Leavitt's character (Adam) lives or dies, but that's not the point anyway. This movie exists to document the preparing-for-death process.

One must admit it's some low-hanging emotional fruit. We all probably know somebody who has died or might be dying of cancer. 50/50 shows how intentionally manipulative material can still succeed when executed masterfully. It isn't overly sentimental, has a conspicuously contemporary sense of pacing and natural dialogue, and plenty of that fashionable sort of situational awkwardness you'd expect from a Seth Rogen "bromance."

Rogen is great, by the way, bringing exactly the sort of irreverent levity needed to dilute the mood without undermining the film's sincerity. Death apparently forces us to meditate on Love, manifested in 50/50 in three forms: romance, family, and friendship. The friendship part wisely ends up forming the movie's core, and thanks to Rogen, it works -- 50/50's portrayal of loyalty and devotion is believable, touching, and inspiring.

On the family side, Angelica Houston gives a show-stealing (Oscar-quality?) performance as Adam's mother. Personally, I thought her on-screen moments were the best the film has to offer and are worth the price of admission.

Romance-wise, I must be a victim of my own biases... I've never found Anna Kendrick very appealing (her shtick fails to redeem her plainness, in my view) and I'll probably always see JGL as the little kid from Angels In The Outfield, no matter how much he now resembles (former 10 Things I Hate About You co-star) Heath Ledger. I found myself rooting for the film's romance in spite of the actors, and then probably just because I've been conditioned to do so.

50/50 excels at pushing those sorts of pre-programmed buttons in an audience. While it certainly doesn't glorify or romanticize dying of cancer, there's never much ambiguity about what you should be feeling at any point, and even less so during the film's multiple heavy-handed musical montage sequences. This on-the-noseness can be both a weakness (in the case of Adam's cheating girlfriend, a revelation so telegraphed I wouldn't consider it a spoiler either) or a strength (as when Seth Rogen's character confronts the cheating girlfiend in a particularly memorable "Hell yeah!" scene). After all, on some level it's a movie about how "real" people react when finding themselves in on-the-nose situations.

Readers will no doubt be aware that 50/50 is based on the true story of the writer's own untimely cancer battle. Unfortunately, this means a 30-year-old writer relating his experience at 24 as portrayed by a 30-year-old actor playing a 27-year-old character. These various maturities and mentalities all find their way into the story and dialogue, rendering the film quite age-incoherent.

And it's too bad that audiences apparently require a young, hot person in order to feel the impact of the tragedy of cancer death, but I suppose it's justified -- no matter how old you are, your demise seems tragic; and, likewise, you don't perceive yourself as old, you perceive yourself as you.

Heavy, funny, corny... it's an important movie that certainly leaves an impression, and worth watching.

Steinbeck: "There are no good collaborations"

Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of a man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in art, in music, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man.

And now the forces marshaled around the concept of the group have declared a war of extermination on that preciousness, the mind of man. By disparagement, by starvation, by repressions, forced direction, and the stunning blows of conditioning, the free, roving mind is being pursued, roped, blunted, drugged. It is a sad suicidal course our species seems to have taken.

And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for it is the one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system. Surely I can understand this, and I hate it and I will fight against it to preserve the one thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts. If the glory can be killed, we are lost.

--John Steinbeck, East of Eden, Part 1, Chapter 13