Randy Pausch was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon. He gave a talk* in the "last lecture" series (of which I attended many while a student there). The series is for professors to impart their most important life lessons. For Pausch, it really was his last lecture as he had been diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer. He went on to talk about living life to its fullest and achieving your childhood dreams. The lecture became a hit on the internet and soon he was a guest on Oprah and Primetime Live. The book then followed. I just watched the original "Last Lecture" again and couldn't help but be moved by it, and yet when I think about the talk and the book at a distance it appears much more banal, cliche, and trite.
The Price of Loyalty by Ron Suskind
I loved Suskind's first book, A Hope in the Unseen, about a young man defying the odds and going from the ghetto to Brown University. And while I can't stand just about anything about former President Bush (how nice it is to use "former"), this book was too over the top. It is mainly a political memoir of former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's two years in the administration. I do believe many of the conclusions and observations but the biased writing lauding everything about O'Neill and condemning everything about Bush and looking for little to balance O'Neill's opinions made me question how much to rely on Suskind.
Slumdog Millionaire (95% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes)
I really enjoyed this film: the music, the story, the pacing, the style (flashbacks and real time interposed), etc. It's a real feel-good Bollywood movie sans the typical, silly, over-the-top musical numbers and over sentimentality. It deserves all of the praise it has received. The story is about a boy from the slums who gets on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire but is suspected of cheating.
Milk (92% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes)
I also enjoyed this film. Of course, I'm a sucker (with my Mom and sister) for "based-on-a-true-story" movies. Add to that the political perspective (left) and inspiring life of Harvey Milk and I was hooked. I loved the story of Milk overcoming homophobia (much worse in the 1970s - even in San Francisco), changing his life from a guy wandering aimlessly to a political organizer to an elected official. Even though the ending is sad (his assassination is in the opening minutes of the film and then again at the end), I found it more inspiring than sad.
Rachel Getting Married (88% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes)
I had good luck with movies during my vacation as I liked all three. This one was very different. I found it so well done and so compelling but also difficult to watch. It reminded me a lot of The Squid and the Whale. I believe that it was Larry Rakow who was with our movie group that night who described The Squid and the Whale as watching a train wreck in slow motion. Rachel Getting Married deserves a similar description. Watching Kim's psychosis and drug problems and underlying family tragedy play themselves out during Rachel's wedding weekend evoked many cringe moments. But it was so well done.
*The version in this link is the full version of the talk which includes the introductions and awards he receives afterwards. The first introduction is by my former professor (now Provost), close friend, mentor, sage, and all around role-model, Indira Nair.
The Price of Loyalty by Ron Suskind
I loved Suskind's first book, A Hope in the Unseen, about a young man defying the odds and going from the ghetto to Brown University. And while I can't stand just about anything about former President Bush (how nice it is to use "former"), this book was too over the top. It is mainly a political memoir of former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's two years in the administration. I do believe many of the conclusions and observations but the biased writing lauding everything about O'Neill and condemning everything about Bush and looking for little to balance O'Neill's opinions made me question how much to rely on Suskind.
Slumdog Millionaire (95% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes)
I really enjoyed this film: the music, the story, the pacing, the style (flashbacks and real time interposed), etc. It's a real feel-good Bollywood movie sans the typical, silly, over-the-top musical numbers and over sentimentality. It deserves all of the praise it has received. The story is about a boy from the slums who gets on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire but is suspected of cheating.
Milk (92% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes)
I also enjoyed this film. Of course, I'm a sucker (with my Mom and sister) for "based-on-a-true-story" movies. Add to that the political perspective (left) and inspiring life of Harvey Milk and I was hooked. I loved the story of Milk overcoming homophobia (much worse in the 1970s - even in San Francisco), changing his life from a guy wandering aimlessly to a political organizer to an elected official. Even though the ending is sad (his assassination is in the opening minutes of the film and then again at the end), I found it more inspiring than sad.
Rachel Getting Married (88% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes)
I had good luck with movies during my vacation as I liked all three. This one was very different. I found it so well done and so compelling but also difficult to watch. It reminded me a lot of The Squid and the Whale. I believe that it was Larry Rakow who was with our movie group that night who described The Squid and the Whale as watching a train wreck in slow motion. Rachel Getting Married deserves a similar description. Watching Kim's psychosis and drug problems and underlying family tragedy play themselves out during Rachel's wedding weekend evoked many cringe moments. But it was so well done.
*The version in this link is the full version of the talk which includes the introductions and awards he receives afterwards. The first introduction is by my former professor (now Provost), close friend, mentor, sage, and all around role-model, Indira Nair.
