I have this habit of having movies or TV shows playing on my computer or in the background while I work. Since I’ve seen most of them dozens of times before (otherwise, it’s distracting), I end up listening to them more than watching. Late last night I had M:I:III on in the background and heard a violin phrase I knew I’d heard before. Quick thought later and I realized that the music was very similar to Lost. JJ Abrams directed M:I:III, so I started wondering if he had a favorite composer he brought along with him from project to project. Quick Google later and I find that the composer is Michael Giacchino and that I do indeed like a lot of his work:

In 2001, J.J. Abrams, producer of the television series Alias, discovered Giacchino through his work on the video games and tapped Giacchino to provide the new show’s soundtrack.[8] The soundtrack featured a mix of full orchestral pieces, often mixed with upbeat electronic music, a departure from much of his previous work. Giacchino would also provide the score for J.J. Abrams’s next project, the 2004 television series, Lost[9], which was an acclaimed soundtrack that used a unique process of using spare pieces of a plane fuselage for the percussions. His score for Lost is notable for a signature thematic motif - a brass fall-off at the end of certain themes.[10] In 2004, Giacchino was given his first big feature film composition, when he was called on to provide the soundtrack for the Pixar film, The Incredibles.[11] Director Brad Bird had heard Giacchino’s work on Alias and asked him to work on the soundtrack for the new movie. The upbeat jazz orchestral sound was a departure in sound not only for Giacchino but for Pixar, who had previously relied on the works of Randy and Thomas Newman for all of their previous films. Brad Bird had originally sought out John Barry, who was best known for composing many of the early James Bond movie soundtracks, to compose the music, but was reportedly unwilling to write music for an animated movie. Giacchino was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 2005 for his work The Incredibles: Best Score Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media and Best Instrumental Composition.[12] Giacchino also composed scores for the 2005 films, Sky High and The Family Stone, and the television movie, The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz. In addition, he wrote the music for Joseph Barbera’s final theatrical Tom and Jerry cartoon: The KarateGuard, premiering in Los Angeles theatres on September 27, 2005. Giacchino also composed the score for the movie Mission: Impossible III, directed by J.J. Abrams, which was released on May 5, 2006.[13] Giacchino’s latest musical achievement is his Paris-inspired score for the newest Disney-Pixar film, Ratatouille, which includes the theme song, Le Festin performed by French artist Camille. He has received his first Academy Award nomination for this score.

As of late, Giacchino appears to be deepening his collaboration with JJ Abrams, as he wrote an homage to Japanese monster scores in an overture entitled “ROAR!” which played over the credits of the Abrams produced monster movie Cloverfield. It was the only original music for the entire film. Giacchino is scheduled to score Abrams’s upcoming Star Trek film as well.

His work is good, and I’ve even played some of the video games he’s scored prior to hooking up with Abrams. You can find his stuff on Amazon if you’re interested in hearing clips. The M:I:III soundtrack is pretty good.

Against my better judgement, I’m watching the debate while I work at home. I’ve been reminded why I hate these televised debates, especially with TV personalities as hosts. I was appalled by this exchange that TPM highlights:

10:08 PM … Russert spews the Farrakhan story. Russert: Let me take a few moments to read into the record some of Farrakhan’s most rancid quotes.

10:10 PM … I guess it’s good in some way that this sludge gets thrown around now in advance of the general. But Russert is well beyond the normal bounds of disgusting on this front. As a separate matter, the covert campaign to smear Obama with the Jewish community is a topic of great importance that I’ve been meaning to hit on and haven’t done enough on it yet. At least we know now that Russert’s enlisted with the cause.

10:13 PM … I thought for a moment there that Hillary was going to say something classy. Guess I was wrong.

Now, it’s OK to bring up the story and I wouldn’t necessarily ding that, but the phrasing of Russert’s question was itself meant to implicate that Obama was anti-Semitic. I didn’t like all of Obama’s answer, to be honest, but the attempt to read Farrakhan’s quotes on air was beyond ridiculous. This wasn’t meant to elucidate anything but to make good television, and to paint Obama as a potential anti-Semite. It’s ridiculous. Russert should be ashamed.

Update: While I was writing this up, Josh Marshall received the following quote, which I thought was apropos:

10:33 PM … TPM Reader MF chimes in: “It seems that Russert is asking the questions in the aspect that the candidates are guilty of something. It is really quite odd. And when did it become okay for a moderator to be an antagonist in a Presidential debate. I thought the job of a moderator was to moderate and not antagonize.”

And, oh my f’ing God, now I have to listen to Chris Matthews. OK, I’m going up to my office where there’s no TV. Thankfully.

Update 2: And, we have a winner for best criticism of Tim Russert tonight:

All they’re doing is trotting out quotes to make the candidates either look bad or defensive. How is this a debate? They should call it a justify-why-you’re-not-a-dirty-sucky-liar-bate.

That was my reaction. The “when will you stop beating your spouse” questions were overwhelming and, quite frankly, insulting. I feel dumber for listening to Russert and Williams.

Update 3: Oh, this is better (talking about Russert’s hypotheticals):

“If this happens and then that happens and then some other stuff happens, will you declare war on Canada?”

and Josh Marshall’s summary:

9:44 PM … I’m glad Hillary said this (re: hypotheticals). Russert’s militant simpletonism is getting a bit tiring. What if we partly withdrew and then the Iraqis told us to completely withdraw and then al Qaida was elected president and then they allied with North Korea, do you have a policy ready for that!?!?!?!

Man, this debate was awful… because of the moderators. I really thought both candidates had good moments and bad, and I wish they were able to talk about issues rather than stupid gotcha crap.

Update 4: Ok, final thought. This debate is a microcosm of why political discourse in this country sucks. It’s not because of too much partisanship. It’s because we have idiots like Russert and Matthews on the air who make the debate about them. I did catch a bit of Matthews post-debate and he was congratulating Russert on reeling in the big marlin (getting Clinton to say she would take back the AUMF vote in 2002), with Russert looking proud (until Matthews, predictably, took it too far).

Message to Tim Russert and Chris Matthews: This isn’t about you. We don’t care what you accomplish during the debate because you’re not going to be President.

If I had to summarize the left critique of the media, especially from folks like Atrios and that crowd, it’s that these pundits care more about their own egos than they do about the country they’re supposed to be reporting on. It was on painful display tonight with Russert. Go fishing if you want to reel in a marlin and get off of my TV.

Update 5: OK, I lied. One more update on this issue. This post on TPM just hit my aggregator, and they have the video. I’ll quote the whole thing from Josh Marshall. While I wasn’t fond of Obama’s initial answer about having strong support among Jews, I really loved the second half of it. Inter-minority group racism is often stronger and less-apologized for than majority/minority racism. I’ve witnessed it amongst some in the Indian-American community, sadly, and what Obama says is key. Here’s Marshall’s post:

I discussed this in the live debate blog. But I think it’s worth going back and watching Russert’s run of shame here. I would say it was borderline to bring up the issue of Farrakhan at all. But perhaps since it’s getting some media play you bring it up just for the record, for Obama to address.

That’s not what Russert did. He launches into it, gets into a parsing issue over word choices, then tries to find reasons to read into the record some of Farrakhan’s vilest quotes after Obama has just said he denounces all of them. Then he launches into a bizarre series of logical fallacies that had Obama needing to assure Jews that he didn’t believe that Farrakhan “epitomizes greatness”.

As a Jew and perhaps more importantly simply as a sentient being I found it disgusting. It was a nationwide, televised, MSM version of one of those noxious Obama smear emails.

And the video, judge for yourself:

While Hillary Clinton’s attempt to score points on this one was less than honorable, Russert should be shunned for the ridiculous nature of the question.

There’s some irony here around the fact that the reason McCain has such problems with conservatives has a lot to do with the McCain-Feingold bill that he’s, well, now trying to get out of himself. What a hypocrite. TPM has more.

The funniest quote I’ve read in a while:

Every class has one of those kids who opens his mouth and says what everyone else is thinking. The GOP has Bill Kristol.

“[Obama's] riding a wave of euphoria. She [Clinton] needs to puncture it. The way you puncture euphoria is reality, or to be more blunt, fear. I recommend to Senator Clinton the politics of fear.”

I sincerely promise to stop pointing out that Republicans and terrorists want exactly the same thing (you, scared sh**less) as soon as it stops being so blatantly true.

So true. So, America, do we want to stop being afraid? Turn your state blue if you do.

TPM reacting to CNN.com posting a poll asking whether Obama has “enough patriotism” to be President, a ridiculous push-poll style question if there ever was one:

I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. Ben Smith, at The Politico, flags that today CNN’s running a ‘online poll’ asking if Barack Obama has enough patriotism to be president. As Ben, with some understatement, put it’s “it’s odd to see the mainstream media drive a largely whispered question that none of his main, named critics — Hillary, McCain, or the RNC — will touch.” Yeah, I’d say so.

That’s how it works. Starts at right-swing smear sites and hoax emails. Then the AP’s Nedra Pickler, who specializes in scooping up this slop and laundering it into the mainstream press, writes it up for the AP that runs across the country. And then picks it up and makes it a regular part of the campaign conversation.

I doubt some top exec at CNN came up with this or any name anchor. It’s some producer in the bowels of the operation. But it amounts to the same thing because it’s part of the culture and there’s no accountability.

Get ready for more.

No, I’d rather not get ready for more. I’d rather do something to fix this, because I’m tired of seeing Nedra Pickler and CNN complete the Matt Drudge cycle. Their job is to vet information and present their opinion to us. Not to repeat anonymous smear emails they see on the Internet.

It’s ridiculous. How can we beat this kind of garbage?

It seems like the county where Prairie View A&M University is located restricted early voting to one location in the district far away from the (predominantly Democratic) university. So, these students decided to march to the polling place to protest the decision. That’s an awesome display, and great to see people caring so much about their right to vote.

Heidi and I were able to see Lydia Diamond’s stage adaptation of Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, at the Hartford Stage tonight. If you’re in the area, I recommend taking a night out to see the show. It’s in preview right now and officially opens next Friday.

The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison’s first novel, published in 1970. Here’s a brief synopsis from Wikipedia:

The Bluest Eye is a 1970 novel by American author and Nobel Prize recipient Toni Morrison. Morrison’s first novel, which was written while Morrison taught at Howard University and was raising her two sons on her own, the story is about a year in the life of a young black girl in Lorain, Ohio named Pecola. It takes place against the backdrop of America’s Midwest as well as the Great Depression. The Bluest Eye is told from five perspectives: Pecola’s, her mother’s, her father’s, her friend Claudia’s, and Soaphead Church’s. Because of the controversial nature of the book, which deals with racism and child molestation, there have been numerous attempts to ban it from schools and libraries.

…

The narrator advises the reader not to look at the “why” of the story but at the “how.” The novel, with child sex, irresponsible adults, and corrupt society seeks to show the misery of black people living in a white society.

…

In the afterword, Morrison explains that she is attempting to humanize all the characters that attack Pecola or cause her to be the way she is; that it is not a matter where one person can be pointed out as being the cause of all this pain.

Ideas of beauty, particularly those that relate to racial characteristics, are a major theme in this book. The title refers to Pecola’s wish that her eyes would turn blue. Claudia is given a white baby doll to play with and is constantly told how lovely it is. … Most chapters’ titles are extracts from a Dick and Jane reading book, presenting a happy white family. This family is contrasted with Pecola’s existence.

Not having read the book, I can’t comment on the similarities between the two stories, but the play keeps the multiple narrators and presents some emotionally tough material. The story is powerful and hard to let go. Pecola’s desire for blue eyes and Claudia’s hatred of her little, white dolls were things I could relate to, not because I want blue eyes, but because these are metaphors for the reminders of one’s race. I’ve been pulled out of line at the border because I wasn’t white, and I’ve been followed by police around Amsterdam because I had a camera and brown skin. I could be the same person, but if I were white, I wouldn’t have to deal with any of that. So, Pecola’s peculiar desire makes sense to me.

The play does a good job of touching on all of these issues in a matter of fact way. Sometimes, you laugh at a joke before realizing that the humor masked a painful truth.

I was confused at some points during the play, and I think it came from the shifting perspective and the fact that several actors played multiple characters. Beyond that, some of the acting was a bit rough (stumbled lines), but forgivable because this is just the third night of the show. Those are really minor issues, and overall the production was excellent.

Being who I am, I have to point out that the set was one of the more interesting ones I’ve ever seen. The set itself becomes a metaphor for how the “how” becomes more and more obvious, and how Pecola is more and more exposed to the world around her. This is the first show I’ve seen where the set involves a fair amount of water. Pecola plays in a puddle on stage at one point and rain makes up a key metaphor at one point of the story.

This was also my first time at Hartford Stage which looks to be a great space. Really enjoyed watching the play in that theater. It looks like a fun place to stage a production.

The Bluest Eye is strongly recommended by both Heidi and I. She may comment more on the story at her blog, since she’s read the original book and teaches Morrison.

AW sends me this screen grab of Fox News, which is the headline on FoxNews.com right now.

The irony is that the military won’t comment without a unit designation and time frame, and Fox News spoke to the Captain that Obama cited and he confirms he told Obama’s campaign the story being referenced. Not only that, but other folks have looked into this and found out that this is a more common occurrence than people like to talk about. I give you Phil Carter, who’s actually served in our current mission, and he relates other anecdotes as well. ABC News also confirmed the story, though I was reluctant to link to them without other confirmation.

Update: I corrected one detail above, that the captain spoke to the campaign, not Obama himself, about this. As Obama himself said, he heard from a captain, but didn’t speak to him.