落地前一秒钟

    在电影《毕业生》中，霍夫曼演绎了一个处于 a very weird period 的年轻人。他刚刚从学校走出来已经不再是一个学生了，但还没有真正地grow up，不知道什么是自己需要的，什么是自己应该去争取的，什么是应该去节制的。这是人生中非常重要又很有意思的一个转变期。你能感觉到那个毕业生的整个人在慢慢地发生着某种化学反应。渐渐地，一个懵懂的充满好奇心的无忧无虑的小伙子变成了一个懂得对妻子和家庭的责任，具有了事业心的成熟男人。但是似乎更残酷的画卷才刚刚展开。因为你要面对由肉弱强食的丛林法则所支配的社会竞争。你发现即使你是一个good guy , good husband , good father，你还远远没有达到这个社会所定义的“成功男人”。这部轻喜剧就用一个非常小的故事展现了这个问题。

    Doug is a blandly functional guy with a sweet, supportive wife; Richard, fresh from Canada, is a recovering addict starting over with his new family, clinging to sobriety via self-help tapes and the kind of mild but consistent ingratiation that, in a small supermarket chain, might border on ruthlessness. They both want to manage a new branch of the grocery chain. 编剧并没有把这个故事写成一个坏家伙用各种阴招在职场上招踩着一个好家伙往上爬，然后又自食其果不得好报这样的陈词滥调。这两个人在某种意义上都值得获得这个工作，都很爱妻子，工作都很努力，人品也都没有大的问题（虽然性格上有些weakness）。但是生存的压力让他们都必须得到这个promotion，比如其中一个就是要为老婆买房子，不知道在中国有多少兄弟们也在为这个问题苦恼。所以两个男人开始用一些不那么诚实、正直的招数来占对方便宜对手从而抢夺机会。他们没有当然也不可能一下子变成很坏很下流，仅仅是那么些小小的心计去让对方出丑，或者说仅仅是没有去给与一个你本来很愿意给与的善意的忠告或帮助。现实生活中天天在发生的恐怕也就是这种微小地你都不愿去反思的剧情。

    但是，不知不觉中他们还是在某种意义上被争取成功的欲望扭曲了。很多人可能都会觉得这是不可避免的现实，“人不为己，天诛地灭”，他们不得不这样做，你总不能为了保持自己的道德而让老婆天天和你挤在小小的租房里吧？你可以找很多正当的理由。你还可以说：我只是强迫自己去做有些ugly的事，但是我整个人被没有被这个社会所败坏。我非常明白这个怎么一回事，我会不停的反省自己。All right! 但是，如果你在看这个故事的时候没有感一丝sad，没有感到无奈和一丝的沉重，你的直觉仅仅是：不过如此而已。那么这一套自我辩解就只是自欺欺人的shit，你已经成为了那个带着面具的人而不再是原来的自己了。你已经觉得这个面具比你原来的面孔还自然舒服。我一直认为这是非常的恐怖的事情，人被社会甚至被自我所改造。最近也听说了很多朋友在工作时被小人所害，或者为是否在职场中需要保持善良、正直的自我而苦恼。我希望他们能够小心那些卑鄙无耻的小人，但更希望他们小心自己不要在受到一些打击和伤害后，在一些外在的压力之下，就不自觉地去拥抱那些灰暗的功利的人性。片子的最后男主人公保持了自己的正直也得到了升迁，他自言自语说：

 ＂So was I the better man?

     I don't know.

     I just felt like a man. 〃

    Nowadays, maybe it's wasy for us to be a successful man, but it become very difficult to be the man you once was, to be a ture man! 

  ．

《BL》结束了，一部我看得最多也最欣赏的美剧。最近也没有时间好好写个东西，转篇文章以表怀念。

《10 Reasons We'll Miss 'Boston Legal'》

As the series signs off, we run down its many merits  By Dave Lake    MSN TV

After five seasons and 101 episodes, one of television's most-beloved legal series will conclude. The partners and lawyers of Crane, Poole and Schmidt will leave the airwaves (and potentially their high-rise offices if the firm goes bankrupt in the finale), but not before leaving an indelible imprint on audiences thanks to its quirky characters, smart writing and memorable performances. Though the series never took home the Emmy for Best Drama (it was nominated twice), its actors have taken home several awards, including multiple victories for James Spader and William Shatner, who won Emmys not just for their work on "Boston Legal" but also on "The Practice," the show from which their characters were spun-off.David E. Kelley, a former Boston lawyer, created the series and is one of the few writer-producers in Hollywood to have had more successes than failures. His creations include "Doogie Howser, M.D.," "Chicago Hope," "Ally McBeal" and "The Practice," the serious legal drama that begat the decidedly wackier "Boston Legal." As that show's lawyers make their final closing arguments, we thought we'd do the same, cross-examining the multitude of reasons we'll miss the series. And yes, an appeal is pending.

The Denny-Alan Balcony Scenes
No series on television offered up more satisfying final minutes than the recurring balcony conversations between Alan Shore (Spader) and Denny Crane (Shatner) as they drank tumblers of scotch and puffed cigars. They're the part of the show you most look forward to, like guessing how "South Park" might kill Kenny or how each death would begin "Six Feet Under." Ruminating on life, love and their relationship, the sometimes profound, frequently foolish discussions between these colleagues/confidants were the great big beating heart of the series, and as likely to make you smile as cry.  Theirs was a bromance of epic proportions and their friendship will be remembered as one of the great prime-time partnerships. All we need now is one of those smartly edited YouTube tributes, an extended homoerotic mash-up of all their best moments, available for on-demand viewing whenever we get nostalgic for some of that Denny-Alan magic.

The Stellar Cast
Though James Spader, William Shatner and Rene Auberjonois are the only actors to have stayed on the show for its entire run, there's a string of equally great actors who have passed through the firm's halls for at least a season, namely Candice Bergen, who managed to land another plum role after a decade-long run on "Murphy Brown." Other notable cast members through its five seasons include John Larroquette, Rhona Mitra, Mark Valley, Julie Bowen and Betty White. One wonders whether it was this very detail that was partially responsible for the show's demise: It's expensive. Or at least its actors are.

The Guest Stars
Perhaps only "30 Rock" makes better use of their guest actors, but looking at a list of  guest stars on "Boston Legal" through the years reads like a who's who of TV greats: Michael J. Fox, Heather Locklear, Carl Reiner, Tom Selleck and on and on. Sometimes appearing as judges (Bernadette Peters), lawyers (Scott Bakula), clients (Valerie Bertinelli) and even murderous former flames (Megan Mullally), the show kept viewers guessing as it mixed and matched its guest-starring roles from the campy to the courageous.

The Self-Referential Wit
Part of what makes "Boston Legal" so fun and not just another dull legal drama is that the show is so self-referential. It is constantly winking at the audience, never afraid to break that proverbial fourth wall to let viewers know it's in on the joke. Sometimes the references are overt, such as when Alan remarks to Denny: "Hell, you'll probably outlive us all. We'll be dead and buried and you'll still be kicking, doing Priceline commercials," referencing the real-life series of spots Shatner has done for the company. Or more subtly, when Catherine Piper's (Betty White) cell phone ring was revealed to be the theme to "The Practice" (we only discovered this little nugget while watching the show with the captions turned on).

The Music
The show may not have been a showcase for hip young artists the way "The Hills" or "Gossip Girl" are, but its music supervision is varied and classy. The show doesn't overuse music, which means when it does insert the occasional piece of nonscored music, be it Etta James or Blink-182, it's quite effective. Which isn't to sound disparaging about its scored music either. Composed by Danny Lux, who, along with jazz singer Billy Valentine, performs most of the music for the series, the show's music is funky and a bit sophisticated. Kind of like its plotlines.

The Liberal Agenda of David E. Kelley
From political correctness to abortion to torture, "Boston Legal" has debated a smorgasbord of issues in and out of the courtroom during its five seasons, and the show has no doubt become a vehicle for its creator to explore topics both timely and titillating. Things got particularly heated this season with story lines about the presidential election, including a recent episode involving a woman who believed she was fired from her job for voting for McCain. But that's part of the fun of "Boston Legal": You can educate yourself listening to the impassioned closing arguments of the firm's many legal eagles.

The Singular Vision
Kudos to Kelley for not just wearing the creator and executive producer titles for vanity. His name appears as writer or co-writer of nearly every single episode of the series, and like Aaron Sorkin or David Milch, Kelley has a viewpoint you can hear from the mouths of the characters he created.

The Lovable Wackos
Through the years, the series has had a Harvard-educated lawyer with Asperger's syndrome, another with Alzheimer's (aka "mad cow") and a penchant for firearms, a cross-dressing secretary and an elderly two-time murderer as the office sandwich lady. And those are just the regulars. Yet somehow we aren't fazed by any of them. In the world of "Boston Legal," these folks fit right in. They may be wacky, but unlike the characters on shows of lesser quality, the inhabitants of this universe are not cartoonish or one-dimensional; they are fully realized, albeit often very silly, personalities. You may not know anybody like Jerry Espenson, who pops and putters and plants his hands firmly on his thighs when he walks, but you believe he could exist.

The Guns
There are plenty of guns on "Law & Order," another hour-long legal drama, but let's not forget that that show also features cops, unlike "Boston Legal," which has an equal amount of weekly gunplay. In fairness, most of that armament comes from one man, Denny Crane, who, on the recommendation of friend Tom DeLay, always has an assortment of pistols at his disposal. Whether fired for comic relief in the courtroom, in self-defense while being mugged or shooting paintball pellets at a homeless man, Denny is a modern-day cowboy, only he rides high on a mad cow, not a stallion.

The Cool Older Actors
John Larroquette is 61 years old. Candice Bergen is 62. And William Shatner is 77 (77!). Even young buck James Spader is just a few years shy of 50. Not since "The Golden Girls" (speaking of which, did we mention co-star Betty White is 86?) has a prime-time series had a principal cast with such a high median age (I could insert a joke here about Metamucil on the craft service table, but I'll resist). To boot, the show's primary sex symbol is Candace Bergen's Shirley Schmidt, whom nearly every lawyer in the firm is hot for -- and why not? She's a babe. Though the show may not attract the most members of the 18 to 49 demographic, that coveted group of TV watchers that advertisers pay the highest rates to reach, "Boston Legal" can at least claim it has the richest members of that demo -- boasting more six-figure earners than any other show in prime time.

    八月份和若磊一起去山西大学参加了一个summer school（中英澳暑期哲学学院）。到达山西当天，我们在校内有名的“许村”寻找住处。一去吓了一跳，这个由村庄改造成的“小商业区”龙蛇混杂，街道脏乱而喧嚣，两旁挤满了廉价的小商品地摊、小饭店，让人感到一种非同寻常的“时代气息”（倒退15年）。更为令人叹为观止的是无数的各色小旅馆（估计有上百家）。记得曾经在遭遇了一些丑陋肮脏的人事纠纷后，我曾感叹学校里也只有那些大学生们的“欢愉之地”是最纯粹最简单的地方，但是如此规模还是令我瞠目结舌！我们一连走了十多个竟然没有一个房间不是单人床的。虽然最终两个爷们不得不面临“同床”的结局，but thank goodness!我们总算找到了一家床头没有“风情画”，窗上没有粉红色的窗帘，洗手间不是透明玻璃式的一家旅馆安定了下来。

毕业：美丽世界的孤儿

      最近意外地从人大紫藤上下了这部BBC古典迷你剧《Cranford》,一共只有5集。第一次看此种“英剧”，所以第五集结束后出现“剧终”时让我很惊讶，竟然拍了这么几集就没了。后来查了一下BBC其他的古典剧，似乎都是这样的编排，短小精致，品质取胜。《Cranford》改编自是英国著名女作家Elizabeth Gaskell的小说。与众多打打闹闹、大起大落、火爆性感的美国商业剧完全不同，《Cranford》就像一幅英格兰乡村风景画，充满了田园般的色彩和气息。在故事情节上，《Cranford》展现了19世纪一个封闭保守的英国小镇在大时代发生变革时，人们生活中发生的种种变故.这些变化在平淡的日常生活中细小而缓慢，但却被展现得非常真实细腻。小镇的居民们主要是一群不同年龄的平凡女人，构成一个female community,剧中充斥着这些带着古老蕾丝草帽老小姐东家长西家短的gossip，啰嗦但很真切。面对她们的嬉笑怒骂、傲慢与偏见你会莞尔一笑。世界有时候就是这么得小，在细微的谈吐和思量中就能发现人的种种性情和百态。当然作为一部历史剧，你可以在其中看到那个时代传统的道德、宗教准则、看到当时的服饰衣着风俗习惯，听到古典地诗歌和民歌，看到人们一开始是如何面临着现代科技、工业的挑战。今天，接着又下了同样是改编自Elizabeth Gaskell小说的《南方与北方》，此剧也是好评一片。此外网上还有许多优秀的英国古典剧，如《荒凉山庄》、《傲慢与偏见》、《理智与情感》、《锦绣佳人》等等，让人兴奋！

扮演Dr.Harrison的Simon Woods在这里比在《罗马》里扮演屋大维，显然更为得心应手，更为本色。剧中他和Sophy（下图）的爱情也是含蓄、甜美、让人向往。

pretty,intelligent,bright，mature,very genuine——perfect girl!