Monthly Archives: February 2016
A Promissory Note
This entitles the bearer, you, to a double-full-length column next week. It’ll be worth the wait.
What Does Dar Think of Cesar Chavez Park?
(view from Cesar Chavez Park. Note moon) Every weekend, in the morning, I accompany wifey and kids and dog to Cesar Chavez Park at the Berkeley Marina. Some of you may know it as the site of the annual Berkeley Kite Festival. It’s one of the best local places for a dog to run around and meet other random dogs, well, besides Point Isabel, the legendary cluster point for thousands of dogs every day. We long ago realized Point Isabel […]
Could “Room” and “Spotlight” Change the Rules on Rape Depictions?
“They were under the imagination of the film culture, in which they could do anything.” – Defense lawyer for gang-rapist/murderers in India, talking to the camera in India’s Daughter (2015) In nearly nine decades of Academy Awards history, no Best Picture nominee had ever focused on systemic rape. That changed last month. Two of this year’s eight nominees for Best Picture center on this topic; repeated, routinized sexual abuse sets in motion the plots of Room and Spotlight and informs […]