On a British Ex-pats message board the other day a contributor had asked fellow-expats in the USA, "Do you consider yourself to be living in a free'er country with more freedom?" The questioner mentioned that he/she had recently seen this video scene and it had prompted curiosity. No responses to the poster had emerged at the time. I now see there are two pages of responses - here's a link. I don't contribute there any longer, but if I did, my answer would have been simply: "No!"
I well remember seeing the scene mentioned above, from "The Newsroom" (written by Aaron Sorkin) some years ago, and heartily agreeing with the speaker, played by Jeff Daniels.
Watching that again brought forth from my memory bank another favourite, from "Boston Legal", U.S. TV series written by David E. Kelley.
Woody Allen said (in one of his films) "Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television" . But, but... good television highlights events and attitudes in such a way as to demand more notice from an often politically apathetic audience.
Here's the video clip once again. It's from an episode titled "Stick it!" The speech seems even more appropriate now than it did when first aired in March 2006!
In case the video isn't accessible or a passing reader prefers to actually read, here's a transcript, lightly edited to omit remarks from the judge and another lawyer.
Background: Alan Shore (James Spader) is delivering his summation, defending a co-worker, Melissa Hughes, who had sent her 1040 form to the IRS (tax authority) with a Post-it note attached bearing the message "Stick it!" Source of transcript is HERE.
When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out to be not true, I expected the American people to rise up.
Ha! They didn't.
Then, when the Abu Ghraib torture thing surfaced and it was revealed our government participated in rendition, a practice where we kidnap people and turn them over to regimes who specialize in torture, I was sure the American people would be heard from.
We stood mute.
Then came the news that we jailed thousands of terrorist suspects, locked them up without the right to a trial or even the right to confront their accusers. Certainly we would never stand for that.
We did.
And now it's been discovered that the American government has been conducting massive illegal domestic surveillance on its own citizens. You and me. and I at least consoled myself that finally, finally the American people will have had enough.
Evidentally we haven't.
In fact, if the people of this country have spoken, the message is we're OK with it all. Torture, warrantless search and seizure, illegal wiretappings, prison without a fair trial - or any trial - war on false pretenses.
We, as a citizenry, are apparently not offended.
There are no demonstrations on college campuses. In fact, there's no clear indication that young people seem to notice.
Well, Melissa Hughes noticed. Now, you might think, instead of withholding her taxes, she could have protested the old-fashioned way. Made a placard and demonstrated at a Presidential or Vice-Presidential appearance, but we've lost that right as well. The Secret Service can now declare free speech zones to contain, control, and, in effect, criminalize protest.
Stop for a second and try to fathom that.
At a presidential rally, parade, or appearance, if you have a supportive T-shirt on, you can be there. If you are wearing or carrying something in protest, you can be removed.
This, in the United States of America. This, in the United States of America. Is Melissa Hughes the only one embarassed?
Really long speeches make me tired sometimes.
Actually, I'm sick and tired.
And what I'm most sick and tired of is how every time somebody disagrees with how the government is running things, he or she is labelled un-American.
Speech in thiis country is free. Free for me, free for you. Free for Melissa Hughes to stand up to her government and say, "Stick it!".
I object to this government abusing its power to quash the constitutional freedoms of its citizenry. And, God forbid, anyone challenge it. They're smeared as a heretic. Melissa Hughes is an American. Melissa Hughes is an American. Melissa Hughes is an American!
Last night, I went to bed with a book. Not as much fun as a 29-year old, but the book contained a speech by Adlai Stevenson. The year was 1952. He said, "the tragedy of our time is the climate of fear in which we live, and fear breeds repression. Too often, sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to freedom of the mind, are concealed under a patriotic cloak of anti-Communism."
Today, it's the cloak of anti-terrorism.
Stevenson also remarked, "It's easier to fight for principles than to live up to them."
I know we are all afraid, but the Bill of Rights--we have to live up to that. We simply must. That's all Melissa Hughes was trying to do. She was speaking for you. I would ask you now to go back to that room and speak for her.
Much as I loved The West Wing and its cast of brilliant actors, there was never a speech to match this one from Boston Legal in the whole series. Credit has to go to David E. Kelley first and foremost, for the writing of it, then to James Spader for its superb delivery.
25 July marks the ancient Roman festival of Furrinalia, honoring the goddess (or nymph) Furrina. Detail of her relevance has been lost in the mists of time. In on-line sources she is linked to robbers and thieves, the Furies, and more likely to be accurate I suspect, to some aspect of water: spring water. A grove and spring dedicated to her was discovered on the Janiculum - one of the hills of Rome. Her festival comes two days after Neptunalia, dedicated to Neptune, originally god of fresh water, later associated with Greek god Poseidon to become god of the seas. In this list of Roman holidays Furrina is linked to "drilling operations and wells" or springs and wells. Drilling operations are a sore subject on America's Gulf coast at present. To offer up a wee prayer to Furrina on her day - can't do any harm.
It was drawn to my attention by a kindly commenter, following my recent post on Boston Legal, that actor James Spader has recently finished a run on Broadway in a play Race by David Mamet. The play continues with a fresh cast, and the part Spader played (a lawyer) has been taken by none other than Eddie Izzard. Here's the astro kicker....Spader and Izzard share a birthday : 7 February, though there are 2 years between. Coincidence? Probably - but a good one. Eddie Izzard will do an excellent job in Race, I feel sure, though to my mind he'll never better his part in Across the Universe - he defined Mr. Kite for all time.
Saw Despicable Me this week. Enjoyed it. What has stayed in my mind is a conversation between Gru (the anti-hero) and his mother, voiced by Julie Andrews. In the relevant scene Gru describes his inventions and successes for Mom's approval. She responds to each with a dismissive "Fnyeh",wonderfully intoned. We thought this must be a form of the irritating "meh" - which has entered the language - and dictionary - recently. "Fnyeh" is much better, done properly it's far more expressive. A little googling tells me that "fnyeh" has Yiddish origins, whereas "meh" seems to hare originated with The Simpsons on TV. We've taken to doing "fnyehs" all over the place since our visit to the cinema. See Michael Wex's site http://michaelwex.com/2010/06/feh-and-fnyeh/
What are most people saying?....."Fnyeh".
AND....British cartoonist Ronald Searle's rendition of LEO from Searle's Zodiac. He has featured the "Leo hair". It's often thought that people with emphasis on zodiac sign Leo in their natal charts have plentiful and lustrous hair. I've known a few who had plentiful and lustrous shiny pates too though.
A long-time friend of my husband died a few weeks ago. During their last conversation friend - "Zee" - urged us to watch some episodes of Boston Legal. We'd heard of the series, which ran from 2004 to 2008, but hadn't seen any of it. We caught a couple of repeats then these, too, disappeared.
My husband decided to buy a DVD set of the full series, I suspect in memory of his friend. We've now watched Season One and are into Season Two and are finding that, as Zee promised, it's fun and over-the-top, but also intelligent, adult, enlightening and encouraging on several levels.
Having spent a good part of my working life among members of the legal profession in the UK, I easily recognise the "types" portrayed, some scarily similar to lawyers and judges I knew, back in the day. Lawyers in Boston, Britain or Bombay are, I reckon, cut from the same cloth.
The series was created and mainly written by David E. Kelley as a spin-off of an earlier series The Practice. Kelley also created and wrote LA Law - which I watched regularly back in the UK and enjoyed a lot. It's no surprise to find that David Kelley started out as a lawyer himself, he writes with wry humour, occasional farce and a certain understanding of the background atmosphere which would be difficult to do without inside knowledge.
James Spader portrays offbeat and unpredictable lawyer, Alan Shore with aplomb - well, he would, wouldn't he? Born 7 February 1960 in Boston Massachusetts at 8:02 PM (Astrodatabank). He was made for the part of Alan Shore !
Sun and Mercury in mentally oriented Aquarius, with Aquarius's modern ruler Uranus the eccentric and unpredictable planet in direct opposition from Leo to Sun. Capricorn and Aquarius are both traditionally ruled by Saturn, planet of laws, and here Saturn is found in one of its home signs, its traits likely to come through very clearly. Taking into consideration the stellium of planets in Capricorn the opposition seems to be indicating an ongoing fight or tension between what is staid, traditional, and law-abiding and that which is "out there where the buses don't run". (Accidentally there I've described the essence of Boston Legal itself in a few words.)
I have no means of knowing whether James Spader is in any way similar to the character he protrays, but he has said, in interview:
I guess I've always been drawn to anything eccentric. I'm drawn to that in friends and in life.
"I really like this guy," Mr. Spader said, sitting in a hotel room during a recent visit to New York, his words following the slightly off-meter rhythm he has employed to great effect in his characterizations.
Indeed, much of what Mr. Spader has shown on the screen is apparent in person: unexpected movements and gestures; a languidness that changes without warning to passion, marked by sudden rises in the volume of his voice. Though his hair has thinned and he has lost some of the dangerous handsomeness of his youth, he remains an actor who always seems to be trying to tweak convention.
That's certainly true of Alan Shore, a man who ignores virtually every stricture of the legal profession, but almost always in a noble cause - at least one he sees as noble. His misrepresentation in the airline case, for example, saved a colleague from being disbarred. "I think he's endearing and appalling at the same time, at the same moment, really," Mr. Spader said. "I like him best when he's inappropriate with his appropriateness. He's the best friend you could have in the world, but he'll make your life hell at times."
I'm deliberately ignoring the rest of the cast in this post to keep it blogworthily brief. All add to the brilliance of the series: William Shatner at his farcical best; Candice Bergen and Mark Valley playing straightmen in a lunatic asylum;, Rhona Mitra, Lake Bell and assorted other attractions, not forgetting the ever wonderful Betty White. For me though, and I suspect for many others, James Spader is the show's anchor, holding it secure, safe from drifting too far into La-la Land - or to be consistent La-la Seas. But Spader and the rest of the crew couldn't have given us the performances they did without David Kelley's brilliant writing and sharp insights.
David Kelley, creator of Boston Legal, was born on 4 April 1956 in Waterville Massachusetts (no time known).
Moon and Mercury in Aries in sextile to Spader's Sun - so there's potential for a good working relationship here. Kelley has Mars and possibly Moon in Capricorn - though if born after 2pm Moon would have moved into Aquarius. Either would blend well with his link to the law and to James Spader's chart. Interesting to note that wherever Kelley's natal Moon lay, Uranus from late Cancer would be in opposition - a kind of echo of Spader's Sun-Uranus opposition.
I think this show probably, I guess, is a reflection of me a little bit, has a scream in its belly and sometimes it just feels it needs to scream.
We enjoy the subtle and not so subtle humour in Boston Legal, but I especially admire the messages and social commentary which come through with some regularity, among all the whacky irreverence and innuendo, to hit the viewer right between the eyes. Serious issues are tackled frequently: the death penalty, torture by police, mental health, gun control, destruction of the environment. Both sides of these issues are always covered, though the author's left-leaning preference is crystal clear.
The season we've just watched comes from the days of G.W. Bush's presidency, and though some of the barbed comments do relate directly to that time, the episodes do not feel dated at all, for little has really changed since then. Has it?
Most videos of clips from the show at YouTube have been removed due to "copyright claims by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation". This one has survived thus far, probably due to the way it's compiled, using material from real life to compliment a small-size screen view. This closing speech by Alan Shore is a gem, well worth watching - and saving :
I'm eagerly looking forward to watching the rest of the series now. Thanks Zee - your name is mentioned regularly by Himself as we watch: "Ah - it's easy to see why he loved this series so much, the humor is an exact match for his!!"
