Movie Review: Dancer, Texas Pop. 81

Dancer, Texas Pop. 81 (1998)

Written and Directed by Tim McCanlies

Rated PG

Starring: Breckin Meyer, Peter Facinelli, Ethan Embry and Eddie Mills

From the DVD Jacket:

"Keller (Breckin Meyer) has wanted to leave Dancer, Texas since he was a child. At 12 he enlisted his best friends, Squirrel (Ethan Embry), Terrell Lee (Peter Facinelli) and John (Eddie Mills) in a solemn oath that they would all ditch Dancer after high school graduation. But when the boys gather on graduation night, each finds his own reasons to reconsider their vow."

The entire movie takes place in a 48-hour span from the Saturday morning of graduation day until Monday morning when the bus leaves town. The setting is Dancer, a very small town in the middle of nowhere, west Texas. It's the largest graduating class in school history, four guys and one girl. As mentioned above, the four guys have made a "solemn oath" that on the Monday following graduation, they would catch the bus for Los Angeles to find their fortunes. They even bought their bus tickets two years earlier.

Keller has lived with his grandpa ever since his parents died. Grandpa isn't getting any younger. Though Keller's dream is to go to LA, perhaps Grandpa needs him more?

Squirrel and his dad "the drunk" live in a trailer house on the outskirts of Dancer. The trailer sits at a precarious tilt. Seems his dad was drunk when he parked it, and never got around to leveling it ... been that way for 12 years. Squirrel can't wait to get out of there, but things may have changed during the weekend?

John is a natural-born rancher. His dad is adamant that at age 18, a boy becomes a man and is on his own. Nothing is handed to him, and dad owes him nothing. He's probably not going to be at home in a city of 13 million, but there's nothing for him on the ranch in Dancer. Or is there?

Terrell Lee's family is in the oil business. His domineering mother is insistent that he's going to go into the oil business with his dad as an executive in a white shirt. He needs to get out of Dancer to see what else there is, but can he stand up to his mother?

As events unfold, the whole town is abuzz with wondering how many (if any) of the boys will actually board the bus come Monday morning. One man even "smells a betting opportunity" and immediately starts taking wagers.

Tim McCanlies develops characters in an amazing way. His knack for that is evident in another of my favorite movies, Secondhand Lions. The one complaint I've read about this movie in online reviews is that "nothing happens". Well, there isn't any gory death, no car chase, no sex. But perhaps "nothing happens" is the very point of the movie? If you grew up in a small town, or care about someone who did, this movie will resonate with you.

The things I read ...

I was studying a manual on SS7*, and came across the following:

If you are one of those people who say that you will call home and let the telephone ring twice when you get to your destination safely, note that you have no guarantee that the telephone will actually ring twice—or even ring at all. You might hear two rings, but that does not mean the called party will hear two, or even any, rings because their power ringing pattern might be in an off period.

This is because the ringtone you hear in your ear when you're calling someone is generated at your local exchange, and is almost certainly out of sequence from the ring generator (called the "power ringing") at the far exchange. The circuit to the phone you're calling isn't completed until (if) someone answers. It's hard to believe, but those few seconds of leaving the circuit free (or not even using it if nobody answers) add up over thousands and millions of calls. Ultimately, it means the phone companies have to build fewer circuits to carry the same number of calls.
None of this is terribly important anymore ... cellphones have made the incremental cost of long distance calls so low (or even free) that we don't hesitate to call across the country to tell loved ones we arrived safely.

*SS7 stands for "Signaling System 7", the system which handles the setup and teardown of circuits for telephone calls. SS7 makes such things as caller ID and cellphone roaming possible. It is a fascinating system. Well, OK ... it is to me.

Thoughts on the election

Now that B. Hussein Obama has completed his purchase of the Presidency, a few thoughts.

I was on the campus of William Jewell College yesterday. Melissa says that there must be a budget line-item in the Obama campaign's books for sidewalk chalk. Sure enough, every few feet on all the sidewalks I was on, there was another "Vote Obama" message. One said, "Want more green cars on the road?" Another, "Worried about finding a job?" And another said, "Want affordable healthcare? Vote Obama."

The problem is, that few people (and least of all college students) stop to consider the cost of those options. Putting more green cars on the road, giving people jobs, paying for healthcare ... they all seem like good ideas, but they all have a cost. By conveniently ignoring the cost, the tax-and-spenders can buy votes with promises of things, and the voters just eat it up and march in lockstep to the polls.

In some ways, the cut-taxes-and-spend crowd is worse, because they want to buy your vote from both ends: What you'll get, and it will even cost less. Every politician tells us they want to cut out the porkbarrel spending, but it's those very porky projects that buy re-election votes. If a Congressperson truly turned down everything of a porcine nature for the home state, he or she would be out of a job come the next election, no question about it.

But giving people who won't work a bunch of freebies paid for by those who will is precisely the wrong way to build or sustain a great nation. It encourages mediocrity, or worse. When asked, "What is wrong with the redistribution of wealth, which Obama talked about as far back as a 2001 interview?", Senator McCain said it very well:

That is a bold, left-wing view of how you help people that's been tried in other countries. In America, you don't take money from one group and give it to another. You create jobs, create opportunities, and give people the ability to accumulate wealth. We have Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance. But to somehow say that when "Joe the Plumber" reaches a certain income level, we're going to take money from him and give it to somebody else, that's a fundamental contradiction of what made this country the strongest and greatest nation in the world.
Business Week November 10, 2008, p.20

Religious Minorities: Muslims in Germany, Christians in Turkey

Another interesting article from the BBC:

Free to believe?

One part that I found particularly interesting is where the Catholic nun said that she has no trouble whatsoever from her Muslim neighbors. Even the mayor of the city would like to turn the church back over to the Christians, but he's prevented by the national government. One assumes that the national government is under pressure from prominent religious figures (what the media likes to call "extremists").

It's a sobering lesson, when we think about the pressures that are exerted on our government by extremists ... and not just those of a religious nature. Do we forgive it when we agree with those exerting the pressure? Should we?

Surprise, surprise!

A story on page one of the October 23rd issue of the Manhattan Free Press says Hawaii is ending it's child health care plan after only seven months. Seems the do-gooders there had decided that the state should buy health insurance for any kid whose parents weren't paying for health insurance.

A state official said families were dropping private coverage so their children would be eligible for the subsidized plan.

Duh. Did anyone seriously expect people to keep paying for something the state was giving away?

The Mafia in Topeka

I'm a card-carrying member of Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of Kansas. A few weeks ago, I got a letter from them announcing that Geary Community Hospital (GCH) of Junction City was about to be dropped from their list of contracting providers. Basically, I was told that if I expected to get much money out of BCBS, I'd better take my business somewhere other than GCH. Then I started hearing ads on the radio saying that GCH would lower their prices for BCBS members ... for now. But we'd better find new insurance, and quick.

Since I'm not normally a customer of GCH, it didn't really bother me much. I know that insurance companies work hard at putting the squeeze on medical providers, and BCBS squeezes harder than most. My only concern was that this might be the start of a trend. Would Wamego City Hospital or Mercy Regional decide to do the same?

In yesterday's mail, another letter arrived from BCBS. This one had all the tone of a Mafia boss announcing that a business owner had decided to continue paying protection money after all. It was all sweetness and light, but the tone between the lines was ominous. It comes down to this: GCH has agreed to BCBS's original proposal. And what will BCBS do in return? Well, read it for yourself:

We always wanted Geary Community Hospital to remain in our network and were disappointed to receive their cancellation letter. Rather than hold them to that letter, we decided to give them an opportunity to reconsider our original offer. I firmly believe it was in the best interest of our members in Geary County, and the surrounding counties, and the people of Junction City to be flexible in allowing the hospital to withdraw its cancellation letter.

--Part of a letter from Andrew C. Corbin, President/CEO, BCBS of Kansas

Can't you almost see the smiling Mafia boss, one arm around the GCH man, patting him on the cheek (but almost slapping)? Subtly hinting that everyone else had better keep toeing the BCBS line, or there would be trouble. If anybody else tries this, they might not be so kind in allowing them to withdraw their letter.

PS: As I mentioned, I carry a BCBS card, so don't anybody tell them I said this! :)

Two Stories

A man was just waking up from anesthesia after surgery, and his wife was sitting by his side. His eyes fluttered open and he said, "You're beautiful." Then he fell asleep again.

His wife had never heard him say that, so she stayed by his side. A few minutes later, his eyes fluttered open and he said, "You're cute!"

The wife was disappointed because instead of "beautiful," it was now "cute." She said, "What happened to 'beautiful'?"

The man replied, "The drugs are wearing off!"

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An old man went to his doctor and said, "Doc, I think I'm getting senile. Several times lately, I have forgotten to zip up."

"That's not senility," replied the doctor. "Senility is when you forget to zip down."