Abraham Lincoln: President, Lawyer...and Bartender?

Although being a lawyer has been the traditional route for those striving to be President of the United States, history has proven that there is no single career path to the White House. Past jobs held by successful candidates have included a professor (Woodrow Wilson), a mining engineer (Herbert Hoover) and a Hollywood actor (Ronald Reagan). One of our previous presidents was even a bartender. His name? Abraham Lincoln. Yes, you read that correctly.


It all began in 1832. Lincoln, who had just come home after serving in the Black Hawk War, decided to run for the election to the Illinois state legislator. Unfortunately, he lost. After that, things didn’t look too good for the 23-year-old Kentucky native. A dedicated reader, he aspired to be a lawyer, but lacked the education to pass the bar. He was not one for physical labor either; his stepbrother commenting ‘I doubt whether since I saw you, you have done a good whole day’s work in any one day’. After briefly toying with the idea of becoming a blacksmith, Lincoln opted instead to enter a more business-oriented career. In the small village of New Salem, he entered a partnership with 21-year-old William Berry and bought a general store there on credit. They sold everything from calico fabrics to whiskey, the latter legal to sell without a license as long as customers didn't drink on the premises. Therefore, Berry and Lincoln could not be considered a fully-fledged tavern.


It didn't stay that way for long. The following year, in 1833, the venture became a tavern as well. Berry took out a license for Lincoln and himself; permitting them to sell spirits, including liquor at 12 cents a pint.


At the time, especially in the frontier, there was little stigma attached to the sale or consumption of alcohol. It was engrained in daily life; so much so that when a schoolmaster in New Salem attempted to join the temperance movement (anti-alcohol), the local church trustees suspended him. After the same trustees suspended a second man on the grounds of alcoholism, another member took out a bottle of whiskey, asking ‘How much of this does a man have to drink in order to remain in full fellowship of this church?’


With such a demand, one would think that Berry and Lincoln could have been a successful venture.Unfortunately, the cards seemed to be stacked against it from the beginning. There were other, larger businesses in the vicinity that they could not compete against, even after acquiring other stores. New Salem itself was experiencing a rapid decrease in its population, leading it to eventually being abandoned in 1840. Even after getting a license, business at Berry and Lincoln was never stellar.


The two men’s personalities didn’t help either. Lincoln was simply not shrewd enough and personally abstained from drinking. Berry on the other hand was an alcoholic. Many times Lincoln attempted to fill customer’s jugs with whisky, only to find that Berry had gotten to it first. Due to the fact that his partner was incapacitated most of the time, Lincoln had to frequently run the store himself. Furthermore, since Lincoln worked several odd-jobs to earn an extra income, Berry and Lincoln began to spend more time closed than open. Eventually, in 1834, he ran for the election to state legislature again and this time, won. He then turned to self-education in law and was admitted to the bar three years later. With a political career to foster, he left the bartending business for good. Berry and Lincoln was now officially doomed.


The following year, in 1835, Berry died after a period of ill health. His legacy was an estate worth only $60 (half of it going to doctor’s fees), and a $1,100 business debt; which Lincoln inherited. Dubbing it ‘the National Debt’, Lincoln only managed to pay it off once he entered Congress in 1847.


Unfortunately, the debt was not the only thing that followed him after his stint as a bartender. When Lincoln ran for president in 1860, the temperance movement had gained significant support as Americans called for stricter guidelines on alcohol consumption. The Republican Party, of which Lincoln was a member, endorsed this view as well. To top it off, his Democratic opponent Stephen Douglass publicly accused Lincoln of operating a ‘grocery’, the frontier euphemism for tavern. Lincoln consistently denied the accusation, as it had been Berry who had applied and signed for the license, not him.


In spite of the odds, Lincolns still managed to win both the election and his place in the history books. Out of several polls conducted over the years, he has consistently scored as one of the top three Presidents of the United States; proving that it is in fact possible for a bartender to become a good president.

Gojira...the Original King of the Monsters (Film Review)

If you haven't been hiding under a rock for the past fifty-something years, chances are that you've seen at least one Godzilla movie, or at the very least a few snippets. Typically these films are simply sheer camp, with extremely fake-looking models and horribly dubbed dialogue. No matter when they were made, there is a maniacal sense of fun to them.

Not so with the very first movie, 'Gojira'. A more subtle and serious work, it opens up with mysteriously sinking ships, destroyed coastal villages on Oda Island and baffled scientists. After a while, Japan's best paleontologist declares that the monster is...an intermediate creature between terrestrial dinosaurs and marine animals; a Jurassic-era creature that lived 2 million years ago (Only off by 142 million years, as stated on Internet Movie Database). Because of American testing of nuclear weapons in the Pacific, the beast has not only recieved a ridiculously high dose of radiation, but is now pretty pissed off.


What also distinguishes this film from all of it's successors is that it revolves much less on Godzilla's actual presense, but his toll on human lives. The scenes of destruction are surprisingly well-made, but the typical sense of detatchment seen in most disaster films is completely absent. After all, 'Gojira' was only made nine years after the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and all the war scars are highly visible. People grumble about having to go into shelters 'again'; makeshift hospitals can barely keep up with all of the injured; a mother comforts her three children during Godzilla's rampage, assuring them that they'll be seeing daddy soon. 'Gojira' is not a run-of-the-mill Cold War monster flick, but closer to an anti-nuclear weapon statement. It commands far more emotional depth than the average, CGI-bloated Hollywood disaster movie ever could.

In other words, 'Gojira' is completely worth it. Rent it, buy it, whatever you can, go see it. The majority of monster movies, the monster remains on the screen and goes out with the click of your remote. This one leaves the sense that the monster, especially for a fifties Japanese audience, lurks far outside of the screen; and will keep returning if humanity does not change it's ways.

RATING: ***** out of *****

Curse of the Golden Flower Review

I just finished this movie, being a fan of Asian cinema. Advertised as another martial arts masterpiece as Zhang Yimou, 'Curse of the Golden Flower' cannot be described as such, but rather Greek/Shakespearean tragedy within Tang dynasty China. Set almost entirely in the Forbidden City, life amongst the royal family makes 'The Lion in Winter' look like the Cleaver family reunion of 'Leave it to Beaver' by comparison. The Emperor Ping (Chow Young Fat) is a despot who is determined to keep his grip on power while slowly poisoning his wife, the Empress Phoenix (Gong Li), who is engaged in an incestuous relationship with her stepson the Crown Prince Wan (Ye Liu) , who is sleeping with the imperial doctor's daughter and...you get the idea.

Overall, the characters are very well drawn out. Similar to a Chinese 'Lion in Winter', most of them have the potential of being good people, but ultimately are kept from that as a result of being consumed by jealousy, passion and power. The Empress Phoenix, who undoubtably takes the center stage, is particularly strong as she tries to hang onto her sanity and plot her husband's overthrow; a perfect, gorgeous, femme fatale that is so hard to come by these days. Aesthetically, the Forbidden City has probably never been more ornate on screen before.

Now, onto the bad. The above-mentioned sets, though gorgeous at times, are colorful to the point of overbearing, coming across as a Chinese rendition of 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'. The martial arts scenes are not the best, CGI backgrounds and warriors are far too obvious. All the exposed clevage starts looking ridiculous after a while (I wonder just how many takes were wasted because someone fell out of her dress?). Although these can be taken to some degree, what ultimately makes 'Curse of the Golden Flower' fail to reach masterpiece status is within the plot itself. The family is a bit too dysfunctional, making one wonder why they hadn't imploded years before. With the mass of intrigue, deception, betrayal, etc; none of it seems worth it for the ending that is ultimately served up.


****HIGHLIGHT FOR SPOILERS*******


It just seemed like Zhang just wanted to end the whole thing by just killing off most of the cast and as many disposable warriors as possible. For all the drama and death packed in the last act, the ending itself seemed to be wildly unrewarding. The festival proceeds, all of the princes are dead, the Emperor Ping is left to resume feeding the Empress Phoenix her 'medicine' as punishment. In other words, cosmic order of the universe dictated by him remains perfectly in place. Unfortunately, this is a problematic ending, as while it's painted in such a way that the Empress 'loses' and the Emperor 'wins'. Despots, whether they be fictional or real, are traditionally obsessive of their legacy; especially in the form of succession. Since Emperor Ping was originally a military captain who managed to marry into the royal family, one would think that the continuation of his line would be especially important for him. Therefore, losing all of his sons should have had a much stronger impact on him than it actually did. A better written script would have made this clearer: while the Empress is doomed to an agonizing death, the Emperor will do the same as well because he is now without issue, which leaves room for another dynasty that will obliterate his legacy; leaving no winner behind.. Unfortunately, since Zhang is now director of Opening and Closing ceremonies of the Beijing 2008 Olympics, the end message seems to be much more reflective of the Chinese government than the director himself.






******END SPOILERS************


To sum it up, the movie is what would call 'a flawed masterpiece'. The characters are incredibly faceted and multi-dimensional, especially Gong Li. But ultimately, the picture collapses under it's own weight in melodrama, overdone sets, ritual and cleavage; as well as an undercooked ending. This just does not measure up to be one of the best of Zhang Yimou's work; but could potentially have been.

Here we go again...

Well, I’ve finally done it. I’ve decided to finally get a blog running and this time actually make it work. My own personal history with any form of diary-writing and blog-keeping has been, to say the least, has been modest at best. Hand-written diaries ended up abandoned because my handwriting was too illegible, couldn't find anything exciting to blog about, or the age-old 'I'll get around to it tomorrow' would kick in.

Now it's back on the road again. This time, no more excuses or procrastination. I'll actually sit down and write.

So, why have I done this? Firstly, A good friend of mine suggested that I do it. Secondly, I actually learned a lesson. Last year, I began a year abroad at Oxford, experience. Once again, I wrote about my experiences in a blog, and simply never returned to it. When I started this one up, I went back and looked over my old entries. Although it has been less than a year, I was startled to see just how many things I had forgotten about were contained in those entries. If my memory was already that bad in that short span of time, what would it look like in five years? Ten? Twenty? Fifty? One thing that you learn when you study history is, that if something has not recorded, it might not as well exist. Already, so many little moments from that time, in an historical sense, no longer exist. Therefore, for the first time, I could really see what writing a blog is really about. It is not about boasting about oneself, but about preserving all those little moments; and letting your friends get a glimpse into them.

That is why I am getting back on the saddle again. Life may not be overly exciting at the moment, but who ever said that it always stay that way?

Welcome to the Cafe, and I hope you enjoy your stay.