The Home Stretch

Well, as much as it saddens me to have to replace my favorite blog title to date, it has been almost 2 weeks since I last wrote anything and it's probably time.

I'll start with a marathon training update. This past week was a planned light week although I ended up making it even lighter than scheduled, running only 10 miles total. Not good, but hopefully I have allowed my body to prepare itself for the rough road ahead. The next 3 weeks figure to be pretty brutal, as I need to log totals of 30, 32, and 39 miles each week. The good news is that once I get to the end of this stretch I really am pretty much done. Well, except for the small detail of running the actual marathon itself on October 7th.

After some brief forays into fiction for a while, I returned to reading non-fiction this past week when I picked up The Secret Man by Bob Woodward. It was written and published immediately after the identity of Deep Throat (the informant from Watergate) was finally revealed as No. 2 FBI-man Mark Felt. Woodward discusses in depth how he originally met him and for the first time provides details on how they would signal each other and the exact nature of the info that he provided. I've always had something of a fascination with Watergate and that made this book an essential read. It really helps to tie together all the ends that have until now intentionally been left loose in order to protect the source's identity. Woodward also gives a couple of interesting anecdotes about how close others came to guessing the source (and some who actually did) and how close the lid was to being blown off at any given time. It's also just interesting to reflect on the accomplishment of keeping something like this a secret for 30 years. Lastly, there's a couple of great ironies to be found. Stemming from the House investigation into the FBI's handling of Watergate, Felt was actually indicted on charges of conducting unauthorized searches on suspects. At his trial, former President Nixon testified on his behalf (the only time Nixon ever testified in court after resigning). Felt was found guilty, but a few years later Reagan pardoned him. So, basically, the man who was almost single-handedly responsible for bringing down Nixon has Nixon himself show up at his trial to defend him and then gets pardoned by Reagan. In any case, the only thing that's disappointing about the read is that you never really get a clear understanding of the exact motives Felt had when he did it. There's a lot of pretty well grounded speculation on Woodward's part, but in the end speculation is just that. Ultimately, the reason for this is that Woodward and Felt's relationship was pretty icy after Watergate and they really didn't speak for over 20 years. When Woodward finally gets up the courage to track him down again, what he finds is a frail old man in his mid-80s that suffers from dementia and can barely remember who Nixon was, let alone any of the specifics behind his downfall. If it were a novel you'd definitely call it anti-climactic but I think it just serves to remind us that real life doesn't like to wrap up all the loose ends most of the time.

Also watched a few movies this past week: Vacancy, Persona, and Letters From Iwo Jima.

Vacancy deserves only a one-word review: lame.

Persona (an old Ingmar Bergman film) deserves quite a bit more but I can sum it up with one word: huh? This movie really confused me, and even after I read two Ebert articles about it I still can't say whether they helped me figure things out or just confused me more. If you are into classic and/or foreign cinema and/orBergman films, then you absolutely need to see it but if you don't fall into any of those groups I can't imagine you liking it. And I generally love weird movies (like pretty much any David Lynch film except Inland Empire) but I'm just not sure about this one. I think the real problem is that most of the movie is presented very "normally" and then just all of a sudden it veers off into these really weird tangents for a minute or two before returning. At least with a Lynch film I'm expecting a midget and a person wearing an antelope head to come onscreen at any given moment so I'm not so caught off guard when it happens.

Letters From Iwo Jima I was really impressed with; definitely the best war film I've seen since Saving Private Ryan. It is very unique in that although it is an American film it shows the battle from the perspective of the Japanese and thus is portraying the U.S. as the "enemy". You also get a really interesting glimpse into the conflict that was going on in Japan at the time between modern "Westernized" thinking and their classic samurai culture. When the acting general (who has spent time studying in America) orders a battalion to retreat from their post and rendevous with another squadron at a fall-back position, the head of the battalion disobeys the order and he and most of his men commit suicide by falling on their own grenades. Looking at it now, it's inescapable to not think "wow, what a waste" but that's such a great illustration of a nation with an identity crisis. The strategic move is clearly to conserve your forces and rally them at a new tactical position, but the samurai way dictates that you will die with honor where you stand before you abandon your post for any reason. As you look at the Japan that exists today as a technological powerhouse among first-world nations, it's pretty evident what manor of thinking won out in the end.

I also sort of saw Superbad on Friday night, but fell asleep a little under half-way through. From what I remember, it was really funny.

Have some other interesting news, but I want to save it since this is already too long and I want to make sure I have something interesting to talk about next time. I know that all 4 of you can hardly contain your excitement . . .