Ha Jin's The Bridegroom (2000) Book Review

In "The Bridegroom," Ha Jin seems more interested in writing stories about circumstances than about people. Almost all of the short stories collected in his 2000 book are concerned with lower and middle class folk living in China, struggling against greater, sometimes conflicting, forces: communism and capitalism, encroaching western values and small town prejudices, societal pressures and familial obligations, and an overarching bureaucracy trying to stabilize and control a vast population in a country in transition. The stories explore life within this paradoxical environment, and are much more preoccupied with introducing and stepping through the injustices and dilemmas facing the characters than the characters themselves; they are powerless to effect the unfolding situations imposed upon them, and develop little more nuance beyond "worried businessman" and "foreign-educated woman". This lends a universality of sorts, and the stories do well in presenting different tableaus, even if the stories tend to beat somewhat repetitious drums. As a pounding critique of life in China it may work, but the futility that permeates all the stories leads to a sameness, and at some point all of the senselessness starts bleeding out, such that it's hard not to redirect some of it onto the stories themselves. 

Videos of live performances from The Weakerthans, Steven Page, and Gorillaz

The Weakerthans - Fallow (acoustic on Backstage Pass)

Olympus Has Fallen (2013) movie review

Olympus Has Fallen is a mind-blowingly stupid and ludicrous movie about Korean terrorists taking over the White House. This premise alone should tell you what type of movie it is. But you know what? I loved it. The general advice for going to these types of big dumb action movies is to shut your brain off, but honestly, I had a lot of fun laughing at all the glaringly obvious plot holes there were. The writers did just enough work to keep the movie moving at a brisk pace and to have everyone in the audience understand everything that's going on, and nothing more.  I mean, if you're someone who gets offended by movies like this where everyone (except maybe the protagonist) acts like complete idiots, then this ain't the movie for you. But hey, this might be a dumb blockbuster, but this also is a dumb blockbuster that's both better and dumber than any other dumb blockbuster in recent memory. Better than Battleship, better than 2012, and better than Transformers.  Also, surprisingly brutal violence, definitely not the typical PG-13 stuff you see these days, but some real, up-close, headshots, torture, and executions, which was, if nothing else, a change of pace.