Tom's Recommended Film of the Week

The Last King of Scotland

In the 1970's we all watched Idi Amin's rule of Uganda with an almost morbid fascination. Some 300,000 Ugandan citizens were killed while Amin solidified power and gave way to his paranoia. With only 20 years of perspective behind us, Giles Foden tackled the job of writing a fictional novel based on the idea of a naive Scottish Doctor traveling to a mission in Uganda and eventually being sucked into the Amin regime as medical adviser to the dictator. A grand concept and one, which allowed both Foden as novelist and Kevin MacDonald as the films director to draw us into the intrigue, glory and horror, as implicated partners of the young Dr. Garrigan. We can relate to James McAvoy in his role as Dr. Nicholas Garrigan, we naturally gravitate to his perspective and as a result, find ourselves wanting to help and direct him out of his somewhat self imposed predicaments. On the other hand we can clearly see the reflection of his arrogance in years of colonial rule in Africa on the whole. This all makes for a very thought provoking film, while the central character of Amin, played by a dazzling Forest Whitaker, who won an Best Actor Academy Award for this role, creates a very compelling, freight train of a movie.

The Last King of Scotland is an excellent example of the types of films I like the most, ones that both entertain and allow for some introspection and discussion. Be cautioned however, that there are a few graphically violent and disturbing images, as one would expect from a story about Idi Amin, one of the 20th Centuries most eloquently ruthless mass murderers.

Decline of the Silver Surfer...quarter

Back on June 1st, I posted a story about the Silver Surfer applique quarters produced by the Frankiln Mint and released by Twentieth Century Fox to promote their new Marvel Entertainment film venture Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. At that time examples were selling on eBay in a range from $90 to $150 in the midst of high anticipation of the film from anxious comic and film fans. Coin and token types may have been involved in the early fray as well, although the reported mintage of 40,000 may have kept them at bay, waiting for possible lower prices after the films release on June 15th.

Here we are on June 22nd, a week into the films theatrical run and I thought we'd take a minute to check in on the strength of the market. Looking over the past week on eBay it seems that most Silver Surfer quarters that sold went within a range of $45 to $75 a piece. Many multiple item lots are now being offered with four to five coin groups bringing $200 to $250 or so. Lots opening above $50 seem to go unsold for the most part.

So it has developed into a much softer market, with what seems like less demand and a continuing supply. We'll check things again after the movie has finished it's primary theater run and then see where the market settles in after Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer has closed.

For more stories on the controversy over the Silver Surfer quarters, check out Ray Sidman's reporting, or to get an informed insider comic professionals take on the film itself, stop in at Tony Isabella's forum, both at CBGxtra.com.

The Same All Over the World

As I mentioned earlier, over the last week or so I was traveling in Costa Rica with my son's Spanish club. We stayed with host families and had great opportunites at cultural exchange. With my host family we had discussions every morning and evening over excellent meals. Sometimes we talked about differences in languages and translations, sometimes sports like soccer and basketball, and sometimes matters of social concern or politics.

Cost Ricans are very proud of their social security system and strong middle class. They are genuinely concerned for each others progress in life and their support systems are designed to ensure that most people can lead a healthy and happy middle class existance. Health care and retirement services are evenly provided to all, as is education through extensive state supported school systems. All of this has developed during the second half of the 20th Century, as Costa Rica has concentrated on social reforms rather than building a military force. It's kind of like a huge no one left behind program!

One small paralell I did notice however, between U.S and Costa Rican attitudes was on illegal immigration. In the U.S. many worry about illegal Mexican workers coming across our border, taking jobs away from U.S. citizens and putting a burden on our health and welfare systems. In Cost Rica many complain about these same probelms from illegal Nicaraguan immigrants. Seems that Nicaraguan workers come across the border for jobs and services. They are willing to work for lower wages and apparently also draw from the social security system.

I'm not sure how much truth lies in either set of public opinions, as many Mexican workers are doing jobs that most U.S. citizens would never accept and I don't fully understand how an illegal Nicaraguan immigrant can tap into the Costa Rican social security system without citizenship, but public opinion does have weight and things are being persued to curb these problems.

In the U.S our government has chosen to build a fence across the U.S.- Mexican border to assit our security forces in hampering illegal immigration. Keep in mind however that the job of building a massive fence in that arid territory is unpleasant work. Many U.S. workers might not want to do this type of work for the kind of wages some fence companies may be paying. Case in point is the Golden State Fence Company of California, which worked on part of the fence between San Diego and Mexico. A 1999 immigration check turned up lots of undocumented workers at Golden State and follow ups in 2004 and 2005 indicated that this problem had not been solved, so in December 2006 Golden State agreed to pay about $5 million in fines for hiring illegal immigrant workers to build fences. The irony would be much funnier if our governments choices were not so misguided.

Perhaps in coming years, observation of the eventual Costa Rican solution for illegal immigration troubles may give us some better ideas. 

Tom's Recommended Film of the Week

If you stopped by my Blog last Friday looking for my weekly film recommendation and were disappointed to find none, I apologize. Travel in Costa Rica kept me way too busy for movie viewing, but this week I'm back at it with a nice cross-border selection in Syriana. This film came out in 2005 and won GeorgeClooney an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The rest of the cast could easily have been honored as well, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright, William Hurt, Chris Cooper and all the rest of the cast were outstanding. The story is complicated and deserves to be followed closely in order to be fully enjoyed and understood. It's a winding account of the paths of several individuals, two oil companies, a few Royals, many governments and some cloistered agencies and political groups. Something for everyone!

Tom's Recommended Film of the Week

Tough descision to make this week, as I saw a number of good films, but my recommendation is for The Good Shepard. Robert De Niro has only directed three films, each of which I've seen and enjoyed. He chooses strong, yet simple stories, with compeling themes and crafts them into stylish and intriguing films. The Good Shepard is long, at nearly 3 hours and I have read reviews which suggested severe editing was in order and would not destroy the story. I can't disagree with that, but I will say that in it's present form it has a beautifully artistic quality, which is probably the result of De Niros's directing and Eric Roth's screenplay. When I had finished viewing The Good Sheaprd, my first thought was, a simple yet compelling story crafted into a wonderfully artistic film.

The cast is very diverse, but includes some excellent actors. Matt Damon is always enjoyable, as is Angelina Jolie, who gets a chance to try something different from her ususal fare for this film. Alec Baldwin, William Hurt and John Turturro provide superior supporting roles to give the film a richness not often seen in a spy film. But then, this is not like any spy film you may have seen before. There is less action, more silence, more thinking. If it's an action spy film you seek, I would recommend Casino Royale or The Bourne Identity, both of which I enjoy very much. But if you like history and want to have a sense for how the CIA developed in it's early days post WWII, or have pro/con ideas about devotion to country and want to explore other perspectives, then give The Good Shepard a try.

Geocaching - A Fun New Hobby with it's own Coins

Last week my eldest son graduated from high school. We had a big party and plenty of relatives and friends came by to show their support for my son in his future endeavors. It was great to see that so many people have such respect for him. I guess a parent can afford to take a moment of pride at time like this.

During the many fine conversations throughout the weekend, one topic came up which was completely new to me; Geocaching. Apparently my brother -in-law and his family have taken up Geocaching as a hobby and they kindly took the time to explain the concept and even took a group of family and friends on a Geocaching adventure near our home.

The simplest way of explaining Geocaching is to equate it to a kind of treasure hunt, except that the hunt is of more importance than the recovery of any treasure. At it's most basic form: someone hides an item and a logbook and someone else finds it, using clues and a Global Positioning System (GPS). Once the item is discovered, you record the fact that you found it and move along to another search, or back to daily life.

There are huge numbers of people flocking to this hobby all the time. It's a growing little cottage industry, and to join you really don't need too much in the way of equipment or supplies. It's much easier with a portable GPS, and the use of Geocaching tokens or coins is helpful as well. If fact, while searching eBay for tokens the other day, I noticed that Geocoins have gained their own section under Exonumia in the coins listings. At the time I looked there were over 430 listings for Geocoins, more than for world tokens. Designs were varied, some looked like casino chips, others like Challenge coins or medals. All emit a signal which is picked up by the GPS, making it easier to locate their hiding place in a reasonable amount of time.

For a hobby sport that just got started in 2000, Geo