The Killer Virus Movie

It seems like movies have inspired words in this blog lately.  The movie Contagion was destined to cause a reaction from the first time that I saw the trailer.  This movie hits a little close to home in that it involves a killer virus and a bunch of epidemiologists.  Being an epidemiologist and knowing a bunch of CDC EIS officers, I must be a little nit-picky about this movie.  Otherwise, the producers did get a lot of things right.

From the trailer, you get the impression that there is some kind of sub-plot involving an intentional release of a nasty virus that causes devastation throughout the world, but that is not the case.  Actually, that would have made the movie a little more believable.  As it stands, the virus is supposedly an extra virulent strain of Nipah that originated in a bat and somehow infected a single pig, where the virus failed to infect other pigs, and went straight to Gwyneth Paltrow.  Yes, this is a thinly veiled attempt to talk about Influenza virus without implicating Influenza.  The origin, or ‘day 1’ scenario that this movie paints is not really believable.  If such a virus existed, then pig farmers, abattoir workers and the chef handling the pig would all have contracted the virus long before the unsuspecting tourist.

Okay, so let’s forget about the whole origin of the virus and assume that it exists and causes badness on a scale depicted by this movie.  If the supposed patient 0 was spreading virus at a Hong Kong casino then there were at least two plane loads of exposure that wasn’t accounted for at the start.  In other words, there would have been many more cases by the time that Gwyneth Paltrow’s character dies.

The other thing that bothers me is that the State Department of Public Health (in this case Minnesota) was treated as a bunch of moronic bureaucrats, when in fact; they are educated epidemiologists and not in need of pages of exposition by the main characters.   The whole government response to this outbreak seems uncoordinated.  In most cases, I believe that there would have been more done to get in front of things. 

If the virus burns through the population as fast as all that, then why are public services not totally disrupted?  Apparently in the world the movie paints, you have looting at grocery stores, no trash pickup, but you still have electricity, cable, internet, and cell phone service.  Additionally, once the virus burns through an area, those left behind should be assumed to have some degree of immunity, so the whole sub plot with the WHO worker who was kidnapped in order to secure vaccine for a village in the epicenter of the outbreak makes little sense.

What does make sense from this movie?  It does show how quickly we can get behind an outbreak and does give a worst case scenario to a government response.  The movie touches on some issues such as the speed at which we can respond to a novel virus and the misinformation and potential profiteering that could accompany such an outbreak.

For me, the devil is in the details, and it’s much easier for me to dismiss something where a few nit-picky facts are wrong than a total suspension of belief (i.e., a virus from outer space, a la Andromeda Strain).  Are we prone to such a disease outbreak?  Sure, but there will be signs and mini-outbreaks before it explodes as a pandemic.  The more terrifying plot that isn’t explored by this movie is that we are more likely to ignore the threat of a newly emerging virus than to totally be blindsided by a virus that latches on to one international traveler.

Sex Religion and Politics

I’m posting this a couple of days after seeing the latest film by Kevin Smith called Red State.  I plan on rambling on a bit, so if you want to cut to the chase, just see this movie.  It’s a fun ride.  There, got that out of the way so I wouldn’t bury the lead. 

I’ll start off by saying that I am a fan of Kevin Smith.  He’s one of the more interesting celebrities out there right now.  He’s kind of an anti-celebrity.  Yes, he made his mark as an independent(ish) film maker, with Clerks, Chasing Amy, and Dogma, but he’s also first and foremost a storyteller.  Kevin Smith has an amazing ability to take a simple topic and run off with a 20 to 30 minute cognate and entertaining stream of consciousness that never seems to lose focus.  Say what you will about the man, but he is truly gifted as a storyteller.  He is also a P.T. Barnum of our time.  He has found innovative ways to market to and profit from a niche audience.  This is not a slacker/stoner who slides by on his past laurels.  He is a smart businessman and entertainer who is not content with established norms.

I say all this to lead up to the movie Red State, a film that will more than likely turn many people off, but ultimately speaks well to the world we live in.  Red State is tagged as a horror film, but it really isn’t.  It’s the kind of film that really can’t be pigeon holed.  It’s more like a big graphic novel with moving pictures and sound.  I say that because the movie is lean.  It is cut to the bone and only offers the basic information that we need to move forward with.  Personally, I would have liked more, but I understand and appreciate the approach to this film. 

Smith took the three things that you don’t talk about in polite conversation; sex, politics, and religion and he wove them together as a snapshot of how America feels right now.  The story has foul mouthed teenagers, fanatical zealots, and a dysfunctional government all coexisting in a world that is a sum of all of those perceptions. 

It’s good when a film can expose our world as grayer than just black and white.  The only problem I see is that the people who should see this film won’t or they will be turned off by the language, which is foul by some standards (but appropriate in this context). 

We live in a world where Muslims are vilified as extremists, but many fail to see that all belief systems have the zealous extremists.  Christianity has a long tradition of killing those who don’t believe, but extremism goes beyond the caricature. 

Any belief system that refuses to acknowledge another person’s point of view is toxic and can morph into sociopathic behavior.  The key is to not try and forcibly impose your belief system on people that don’t want to accept that version of reality.  A much better approach, one espoused by a radical by the name of Jesus (pronounced hey-zeus if you want to sound more subversive), is to lead by example.  If your life and your actions are inspirational, then others may want to emulate those beliefs.

It’s very simple really.  This world would be a much better place if people stopped worrying about what other people are doing and worried more about what they were doing.  I entered the middle of a conversation at work yesterday when the first thing that I heard from the doorway was that this country was moving more toward socialism and away from free enterprise.  I was dumbfounded.  We live in an adult society, but people are being conditioned to think in terms of black and white (I blame FOX news, and the 24 hour news cycle, but that’s fodder for another rant).  Why can’t people realize that there are some things that work well in a free enterprise system and others that are more effectively managed in the public sector. 

This immediately brought up health care as an issue.  My contention is that since insurance companies are out to make a profit, that health care is more effectively managed by a public sector that does not have a monetary motive.  Our current system is in denial.  We treat millions of people for free in emergency rooms around this country and subsidize that cost with higher insurance premiums.  We have a whole segment of the population that relies on ‘socialized medicine’ known as Medicare, but many of those people don’t see the hypocrisy in defending the currently broken system.

At any rate I’m rambling.  See what watching a provocative movie will do for you?  It makes you actually think and talk about issues that you would rather not discuss in polite conversation.  Yeah, you could look at Red State as a crude thriller, but it at least made me want to extend my blog with this wall of text, so I’ll give Mr. Smith some credit for that. 

Stranded on a Desert Island

What 13 songs would I be stranded on a desert island with and remain sane?  Certainly not ‘Friday’ or anything by Justin Bieber.  When I posed this question to myself on a sleep deprived drive this morning, I selected the following songs:

Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill

Peter Gabriel has always represented artistry in music to me.  His approach to craft songs has more often than not given a beautiful sonic landscape in his works.  Solsbury Hill has always spoken to me as the perfect song about change and transition.

Midnight Oil - In The Valley

Midnight Oil is a longtime favorite band.  Peter Garrett has always had such a unique voice and the band had a very clean guitar sound.  Their themes of environment and social conscious also struck close to home with me.  I love this song the best in that it paints a great scene and speaks to family and country and past.

Porcupine Tree - Lazarus

Porcupine Tree proves to me that good progressive music still lives.  Like a blend of Pink Floyd and King Crimson, Porcupine Tree has a wonderful sonic landscape.  Lazarus is a haunting song that I can find something new in every time I listen to it.

Adele - Rolling In The Deep

Adele has proven to me that popular music isn’t devoid of true artistry.  Listening to Adele, I have hope that there is still creativity left in this world.  Rolling in the Deep is strong and beautiful and I can’t believe that it made it to popular radio.

Electric Six - Germans In Mexico

Electric Six takes off in this age where The Tubes landed in the 80s.  Their music is hit or miss as a whole, but their good songs are great and the emotion and theatricality is wonderful.  I could list a few Electric Six songs, but the one I tend to listen to most is Germans in Mexico, however, it is followed closely by Naked Pictures of your Mother.

The Who - Love Reign O'er Me

The Who are masters of the rock anthem.  Where others (*cough* Journey *cough* ) may be pretenders, The Who bring the power.  Those other bands are like Toyotas with a set of ‘truck nuts’ hanging from them, while The Who doesn’t need to advertise.  Love Reign O’er Me is the climax from Quadraphenia, one of the best albums made… ever.

The Beatles - Come Together / Dear Prudence / Cry Baby Cry [Music VIdeo]

The Beatles were the first band I loved.  Not much more can be said, other than there will probably never be another.  They made complex music seem simple.  This medley about says it all.

The Rolling Stones - Respectable

The Stones need to be lumped in with The Beatles and The Who as three of Rocks premiere acts.  There are so many good Stones songs, but there are also a good number of bad ones.  The best run were the Mick Taylor years.  Respectable is from Some Girls, probably the best Ron Wood album.  I love the cadence of this song.

Jethro Tull - Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day

My friend Larry and I try to see Tull whenever they tour this area.  They are another band from the late 60s that evolved and had a truly unique feel, even though they moved through a variety of rock styles.  This song has always been a favorite.

Chris Isaak "Baby did a bad bad thing"

Chris Isaak is fun and smart.  His music is like country surfer rock.  It pays homage to Elvis, Roy Orbison, and has a catchy almost rock-a-billy theme.  I love seeing Chris in concert and know that I will be entertained by him.  I settled on this song because some of his others weren’t well represented on YouTube, but really there’s no settling.  Babby is an awesome song.

NEIL YOUNG & Crazy Horse - Like A Hurricane (Live Rust)

Neil is a true North American artist.  He has grown and evolved since the late 60s and still entertains.  He can be so soft and sweet and then rock the house.  Like a Hurricane about says it all, but if I were on a desert island, Neil’s catalogue would be all I need to survive.

Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic

I love the bluesy Jazzy sound of Steely Dan.  They wrote smart, fun songs.  Their musicianship was always at the forefront.  Pretzel Logic is a song I could listen to on a repeating loop and not get tired of… well, almost… but it is that good.

Brian Eno - By This River

Brian Eno was another artist who wasn’t afraid to challenge musical boundaries.  What many forget when they think of Eno is that he also is a very good song writer.  By This River is one of the most sensitive songs I’ve heard.  I love it’s tone and feel.

Alright, there you have it.  A good baker’s dozen of my favorite songs.  There are more to be sure.  David Bowie’s Queen Bitch and Simon and Garfunkle’s The Sounds of Silence make honorable mention.  Anyway, that’s what I get for an early morning, pre-coffee thought.

The Super Dudes... no, no, no, not the Super Dudes

.... fade in....

Becky Beaner: Well, whatever you call them, Champion City will forever owe a debt of gratitude to these mystery men.


The Sphinx: Wait! Wait, that's it. We are the Super Squad.


The Bowler: No, no! Alliteration in these situations is corny... What?


[She opens her bag, where Carmine sits smouldering]


The Bowler: Yes, we're all very aware that you saved the day. And I'm sure we'll be hearing about it for the rest of our lives.

... fade out...

Steve Kramer gave us another taste of his Heroes campaign last weekend.

The last time we saw our team of super heroes; Captain Awesome, Little/Big Dragon, Soundtrack, Shade, and the Blue Ninja, they were in a serious pickle.

A cornerstone of the World Crime League, Gold Mind, has captured and mind controlled the Freedom Force. The mascot of the Freedom Force, the Green Terror, recruited a rag tag group of lesser known (... alright, unknown) supers, in an attempt to rescue the FF. All was going well, until this new group was captured in what only can be called a botched dinner invitation... What shall we call them? Oh, that's right the loud one in the red unitard kept calling them Team Awesome!...

As we join this episode, Team Awesome confronted Gold Mind in the manor house of Gold Mind's floating island fortress, just as he was preparing to dine with a suspiciously complacent Freedom Force. Unable to control his desire for justice, Little Dragon attacked Gold Mind, only to provoke a response from the Freedom Force. The battle seemed hopeless, and after the Blue Ninja, to no effect, impaled Gold Mind's chest with a butter knife (he seemed to be wearing some type of armor, but at least the knife penetrated a good 4 inches), he stealthily retreated from the manor house and found refuge in a maintenance shed where he could recover.

Meanwhile, the rest of Team Awesome was captured. Captain Awesome, Soundtrack, and Little Dragon were separated from Shade. They sat in a plain cinder block room where they were met by Gold Mind (in a clean uniform, with no sign of the butter knife placed there an hour before) and Owl Man of the Freedom Force. Owl Man did all the talking and 'persuaded' the three members of Team Awesome to try and hunt down their missing member, the Blue Ninja. Little Dragon felt uneasy about this idea but was compelled to comply with Owl Man's request (obviously, they were all under some form of mind control).

In a nearby torture chamber, decorated to look like a gothic dungeon, Shade was chained to the wall, her costume ripped in all the appropriate places. Her actions were being monitored by the video camera trained on her from across the chamber. Owl Man and Gold Mind came through the wooden door to question her. Shade could hear an odd buzzing from the area on Gold Mind's chest where a butter knife was firmly imbedded. Playing the innocent damsel, heaving her chest for the appropriate dramatic impact, she assured Owl Man that she was an innocent in all of this, and would be more than willing to join their side if only she was released from her shackles. Owl Man and Gold Mind left her to supposedly ponder her offer (and perhaps the video footage of the shackled lass).

While all of this was going on, Blue Ninja was licking his wounds in a storage shed behind the manor house. While searching this shed, he found it to be connected to the house and the turret housing the island's particle weapon (Team Awesome was welcomed to the island by volleys of particle beam fire. Little Dragon exited the team's plane, transformed into Big Dragon (a real dragon as big as a semi truck) in order to rip the roof off of the gun turret and knock unconscious the henchmen operating the device).

Blue Ninja's goal was to scout the island undetected and look for some kind of advantage that would allow him to rescue his team. He decided to stealthily make his way to the turret in order to either level the device on the island's generator building, or create some kind of diversion. At the turret he found the particle beam to be an automated device with no ability to activate it locally. He then decided to exchange clothes with a henchman (Fritz) approximating his size and hide the henchman's body.

 While doing this he heard footsteps associated with a large guard patrol. Not wanting to be found, he grabbed Fritz and silently made his way further down the tunnel network to another out building, this one associated with landscaping. Here, to confuse the guards, led by the obviously mind controlled members of Team Awesome, Blue Ninja decided to dress Fritz back in his guard uniform, prop him in the garden tractor that he found in the shed, and and set the tractor in a straight line across the open ground of the island, while he silently back tracked through the tunnels to the manor house.

Soundtrack heard the tractor before the rest of the team. Awesome was next to spring into action by using his super bounding ability to reach the tractor before everyone else. Little Dragon transformed into Big Dragon and took to the sky. Unbeknownst to the others, Big Dragon had broken free of the mind control and took to the air in order to find a better way to help his friends. The commotion worked to Blue Ninja's advantage. He made his way back to the Manor House.

At the same time as all of this, Shade discovered that the Green Terror was captured in a nearby cell and for some reason was left with his utility belt left untouched. The Green Terror was able to pick the lock of his cell (for those that don't know, the Green Terror is a 15 year old boy with little to no powers to speak of, but a lot of sickening pluck and golly gee spirit), and make his way to Shade seemingly undetected. Knowing that she was still under surveillance, Shade continued to play her part. Convincing Green Terror to help her out of her shackles wasn't too hard, considering her sweat-stained and ripped costume, and the hormones of a 15 year old boy.

Blue Ninja entered the basement level of the manor house to find a lifeless Gold Mind standing rigid in the corner, butter knife protruding from his metallic chest. Yes, this Gold Mind was a robot. As he searched the lower level of the manor house, Blue Ninja found the dungeon that Shade was held captive in. He decided it was better to continue his search alone, rather than alert the power that be of his presence. As he made his way back to the room housing robot Gold Mind, he was surprised by a telekinetic blast from the real Gold Mind.

After some triumphant monologuing broadcast over the islands security network, Gold Mind looked ready to finish off the Blue Ninja. What Gold Mind didn't account for was Blue Ninja's speed. Before he could attack again, Blue Ninja was able to find any weakness in Gold Mind's defense and launch a projectile with enough force to stun the crime boss. That was all he needed, for his next attack knocked Gold Mind silly.

Green Terror managed to unlock one of shade's shackles and was working on the other when Owl Man burst through the door. Knowing the time for deception was over, Shade unleashed a telekinetic attack on Owl Man, throwing him against the wall. Owl Man was stunned. He had started to buy Shade's story and was coming to question her some more. He purposely left Green Terror with his utility belt in order to give Shade the appearance of freedom. Now the tables were turned.

Just as Shade stunned Owl Man, Blue Ninja made his way into the room and delivered the final blow that knocked out the turncoat super hero. Once Owl Man and Gold Mind were knocked out, the rest of Team Awesome was released from mind control. The team bound the two villains and locked them in the dungeon. They searched the building to find the rest of the Freedom Force being held in states of suspended animation.

Team Awesome proceeded to release FF, at which time Captain Awesome pushed his way in front of everyone else, proclaimed a significant victory for 'his' team, posed heroically, smiled in such a way as to evoke a sparkle from his pearly white teeth, and then bounded back to the jet for his ride home. The rest of Team Awesome shook their heads, said their goodbyes to the Freedom Force and walked leisurely back to the plane.

Thus ends this chapter in Steve Kramer's super hero campaign. His work being what it is right now, he doesn't have the umph to continue and write a new scenario for us, so in the meantime, his wife Lise, will start up our new Lost World campaign, using the same Hero rules. 

Team Awesome will, however, arise again...

- Posted from an undisclosed location using BlogPress from my iPad

Uncivil Service (First)

I've wanted to try this 'blogging' thing for a little while now. I've never thought my outlook on life to be unique or noteworthy, but I do enjoy sharing my thoughts with people, especially when they are somewhat coherent. Therefore, here I go. Over the next span of time that I decide to keep writing, I'll cover the most random shit that you'll ever want to read, and I thought I'd start off with a topic near and dear to my heart, civil service.

With the politicos in Washington pontificating about the merits of shutting down the Federal Government, I'd like to take a minute to talk about what that really means. The career civil service branch of the Federal Government accounts for approximately 13 percent of the total budget of the US, but in the popular press, government employees are seen as lecherous faceless bureaucrats, similar to the scene from the movie Beetlejuice, where civil servants are depicted as lifeless suicide victims.

The truth is that the average government employee is just like everyone else in this country. I entered Federal service as I graduated veterinary school. I was offered a job with USDA because I had an interest in population medicine and epidemiology, a branch of veterinary medicine suited for either public service or academia, therefore, my path was relatively clear. For others, the choice to become a Federal employee isn't that easy. Federal salaries for professional occupations are on average significantly lower than that of the private sector. The lure of Federal employ revolves around stability. You sacrifice a premium salary when times are good, for the promise of a good retirement, and job security when times are rocky.

What's my point? Well, I get frustrated listening to news reports that assign some type of privilege to the career civil servant. It is nothing more than smoke and mirrors to demonize a population that only accounts for less than 1/5 of the entire budget of the United States.

What benefits do we gain from civil servants? Our water, air, and land is cleaner than it would be if left to our own devices or greed. We are protected from financial predators. We have safe food, safe transportation, and a relatively healthy population. We are allowed to freely express our opinions and given the opportunity to succeed.

At any rate, I've rambled on long enough. I'll be back with an array of dick and fart jokes, talk about gaming, and recaps of our RPG adventures, but I thought I should start things off on a semi-serious note and rant a little, not at the 'man', but at the 'anti-man'.


- Posted from an undisclosed location using BlogPress from my iPad