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Michael Powers - 2005-11-08 14:33:06
Sterling observation about Strathairn's performance, Paula. When you make a comment, it's always really original. Did you notice what they did with Strathairn's clothing and bearing? Since Strathairn lacks Murrow's resonantly stentorian voice and bizarrely telegenic face, he sort of compensated with extremely erect posture and fabulously anachronistic suits, cut the way people actually wore them five or six years before the events in the movie occurred. If you look at some Murrow kinescopes at the Museum of TV & Radio (they're running a fantastic series of them in their main theatre to dovetail with the release of Clooney's movie), you'll notice that Murrow slouched like he could barely sit up at all, and his suits were cut in that nondescript never-stopped-fighting-WW2 '50s lack of style. But somehow Strathairn seems much more like Murrow than if he'd dressed and slouched the way Murrow actually did. I think his performance is sensational and I saw the film twice the week it opened, I was so impressed. (By the way, getting off the topic for a moment, I highly recommend the Isabelle Huppert retrospective currently unspooling at MoMA.) If you check the Murrow shows at the Museum of TV, listen for Brando's Chinese joke during their interview. It's so non-PC it's practically unimaginable today.
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Sue - 2005-11-08 14:49:35
I miss "real" voting -- I registered permanent absentee a few months ago, and voted by mail last week. My polling place is right next door, but the California ballot is invariably so complicated that it's easier to take my time and fill it out at home.
On the up side, at least the $#%& campaign commercials and recorded "phone calls" from people like Barbara Boxer will finally stop.
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Michael Powers - 2005-11-08 14:55:14
One more comment, this one about the smoking, although you probably already know this. No one in the cast smokes in real life, so they all rolled up pipe tobacco instead of smoking real cigarettes, and the smoke itself wound up looking thicker and more dramatic on camera as a result. Clooney is very vocal about the fact that maybe two-thirds of the guys depicted in the movie eventually died of lung cancer (including Murrow himself, if I'm not mistaken).
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Paula - 2005-11-08 17:52:50
Michael: interesting! Really must make a trip to the MTR, it's been years.
Sue: I didn't know you could do that. Are you able to vote way ahead o' time?
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Joe - 2005-11-08 20:53:18
We get our ballots several days to a couple weeks ahead of time. This *can* lead to obsolescence - I voted for Arianna Huffington for governor, mailing the ballot before she dropped out of the race.
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Editrix - 2005-11-09 11:34:13
My Election Day was great, thanks for asking! Our polling place is at the George F. Dilboy V.F.W. hall, which I love to say: "Gotta leave work a little early -- I'm heading off to The Dilboy!"
The block across the street was thronged with sign carriers and such. I signed a petition reiterating my support of gay marriage in the state.
The Dilboy itself was quiet, however, with only a couple of other voters inside. I wish there were booths with levers -- I've never used one and they look soooo boss. Instead, we have these wobbly, chest-height carrels and we connect arrows with a black marker that never seems to dry out despite staying uncapped all day.
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Sue - 2005-11-09 12:54:15
We had the levers back in Maryland. I loved those! My county in Calif. had started using electronic voting machines, which was another reason I switched to permanent absentee. Marking the circles with a black pen seems more "real."
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Michael Powers - 2005-11-09 13:31:13
Marking the circles with a black pen not only seems more real, it probably is more real, unfortunately for us all.
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Baby Party - 2005-11-09 13:35:30
I have never in my life used anything but lever machines. All my votes have been cast in just two cities: New Orleans and New York.
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Paula - 2005-11-09 13:39:55
I haven't used anything but levers, either, or an absentee ballot when I lived in FL. I liked the clunky realness of it, and how the levers also operate the curtain, a la the great and powerful Oz.
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Flasshe - 2005-11-09 15:12:16
Our election day in CO was last week (weird state law), so your wishes are a bit belated for me. Voting in my county is by mail only for these off-year elections. Like Joe says, this can cause a bit of a problem. I mailed in my ballot about a week early, but then came into some information that kinda made me want to reverse my vote on one of the ballot initiatives. Oh well.
I have never ever voted with a lever machine, never even seen one, and I've voted in every election since I came of age.
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Tim W. - 2005-11-09 21:01:27
I managed to forget to vote before going to work. I went back home at lunch, but the address I got from the web was wrong. It was just across the (narrow, residential) street from the actual polling place, but somehow I didn't see it. I ended up finding another polling place and having them look it up for me. More of an adventure than I bargained for, but at least there were no lines.
There was item I didn't want to vote for (a guy I don't like running unopposed), but his race was the only thing on the (huge) sheet. I wasn't sure whether I should run it through the machine or not; I decided to do it, and of course the little alarm went off and I had to confirm that I meant to do that.
I like voting non-absentee, if only so I can thank the polling place volunteers, who are always nice as pie. Also, I know that I'd forget to put an absentee ballot in the mail.
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Paula - 2005-11-10 12:59:06
I like voting non-absentee, if only so I can thank the polling place volunteers
Yes! I appreciate those folks, and the lively atmosphere. It's a gathering of people--voters, volunteers--who care about their community enough to show up for it.
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Joe - 2005-11-10 13:04:39
I started absentee-voting when I travelled frequenty for business, and never got out of the habit.
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