Commentary
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Monday, October 24, 2005
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■ In my opinion
Life is bad; art is good
In my opinion, the world at large
is increasingly null and void, in and
of itself. We’re all going to die, be it
from Avian bird flu, nuclear
weapons, or some form of feisty,
stormy air molecules.
We’re all going to die, but you knew
that already, right? I myself have only
80 years to live, tops.
If humans can’t solve the political,
social and environmental decline of the
Earth, the least we can do is a little bit
of self-healing through some good
pieces of modem artistry. Who cares
about politics and opinion and “socie
ty”? Let’s talk about art and culture and
ways to make humans a little happier.
In our constant process of life and
death, here are a few nuggets of cine
matic beauty to revel in along the way.
"La Mala Education"
You can guess a film is foreign
when a quarter into the plot it turns
out that the main character has been
dead for years. And you know the
film has been directed by Pedro
Almodovar when that dead main
character, as well as almost every oth
er character in the film, is gay, trans
vestite, transsexual, or all three.
In “La Mala Education” (“Bad Edu
cation”), Spanish director Almodovar
intertwines the past and the present to
produce a story about (among other el
ements) homosexuality and molesta
tion problems in religious school sys
tems. An American movie on the same
topic might utilize traditional ideas of
good and bad and right and wrong, but
Almodovar’s plot features the sexually
abusing priest as an eventual love inter
est of the main character. The audience
comes to sympathize with an intra
venous drug user who delves into
blackmail for the purpose of sexual re
assignment surgery. In Almodovar’s
AILEE SLATER
FURTHER FROM PERFECTION
world, love for money is still love, and
exchanging murder for celebrity status
becomes a method of healing frag
mented families. If you’ve never seen
beauty in how truly fucked up the
world can be, “La Mala Educacion” is
a good place to start.
"Dirty Filthy Love"
Ever wonder what that crazy old
guy on the street comer with the long
hair and nutty mannerisms might
have looked like 20 years ago? “Dirty
Filthy Love” follows the story of an
obsessive compulsive man with
Tourette’s syndrome as he tries to
move on after a fallen marriage. Main
character Mark experiences the emo
tional turmoil that any divorced man
might, but for some reason everyone
seems sharply critical of Mark’s men
tal mayhem over his ex-wife. Perhaps
it’s because Mark barks at people on
the street and can’t walk up a flight of
stairs without retracing his path along
certain steps.
“Dirty Filthy Love” provides Mark
with a love interest who is a group
therapy leader and can’t cope with
odd numbers. If Charlotte finds her
self in a restaurant booth with two
other people, someone will have to
leave. The plot seems slightly odd, yet
fairly traditional.
It’s the images in “Dirty Filthy Love”
that truly separate this movie from the
usual squall of modem love stories.
When Mark’s hair has grown matted
and shoulder length, and Charlotte’s
wig has been removed to uncover a
now publicly compulsive hair puller,
the two run hand in hand across the
beach. The camera becomes unfo
cused, and a fuzzy silhouette of Char
lotte and Mark against the shoreline
eliminates the public eye from their
love life. “Dirty Filthy Love” reminds
audiences that the world will think
you’re crazy no matter what; all you
can do is tune them out and be happy
to find companionship with a trichotil
lomaniac who can laugh at the fact that
you growl at strangers.
"Mulholland Dr."
The thing I love about David Lynch
is that no amount of analysis can quite
uncover exactly what this director’s
movies mean. The unclear theme of
“Mulholland Dr.” is matched only by
the confusion in trying to follow the
plot of “Mulholland Dr.” But the film is
an entertaining and artistic master
piece. Modem horror films cannot
compete with the eerie cinematogra
phy of a dank theater house doused in
deep red, blue and a woman singing in
morose tones in Spanish.
“Mulholland Dr.” is not a scary
movie in the traditional sense, but it is a
murder mystery. Kind of. It’s also about
becoming a celebrity. And same-sex
love. And what it means to dream in
the sense of hoping as well as being un
conscious. “Mulholland Dr.” is about a
lot of things, but more than that, it’s
about sitting down and enjoying a film,
then spending the next two weeks hap
pily deciphering exactly what it was
that you so enjoyed.
CLslater@dailyemerald.com
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■ Editorial
Apartment
sale another
I.O.U. to
housing?
University officials last week surprisingly an
nounced that they want to sell Westemoreland
Apartments, the University’s largest apartment
complex. The 404-unit compound provides rel
atively affordable housing for students with
families, graduate students and international
students — students who may have to move if
the sale is finalized. The 26-acre property also
includes a childcare center.
Officials said they want to sell the 45-year-old
property because it is costly to maintain and be
cause of potential costs to repair major structur
al problems. The site was also built to accom
modate families with children, and only about
13 percent of residents have children.
Money from the sale, conservatively estimat
ed at between $15 million and $18 million, may
be used to improve housing close to campus,
although some funds could first go to other pur
poses, officials said.
While the sale process can’t move forward
without the Oregon State Board of Higher Edu
cation’s blessing, we find this move by the Uni
versity administration dubious at best.
Administrators have a history of misusing
Housing Department funds. As an auxiliary en
tity, the department’s funding is generated by
room and board fees and is independent of gen
eral University funds. Housing funds are “pri
marily intended to serve the student bodies’
housing needs,” according to the University’s
Business Affairs Office Web site.
Yet m past years, administrators nave greedi
ly reached into the housing pot to acquire land
for non-housing purposes. Case in point: Dur
ing 1964-66, the Housing Department paid
about $200,000 for three parcels of land now
occupied by the Riverfront Research Park. The
land was purchased with bond money under
the auspices of building student housing, but
housing footed the bill even after the designa
tion for the land changed. Four decades after
the purchase, the administration last year de
cided to compensate housing just $34,746 — a
move administrators considered generous.
We believe housing should have been fully
reimbursed. Melinda Grier, University legal
counsel, decided that repayment wasn’t legally
required because the use of the property
changed after the Housing Department paid off
bonds used to purchase the land. This techni
cality, however, doesn’t change the fact that
students paid money to housing that has not
been reinvested in housing projects.
With the sorry state of residence halls today,
using money from the Westmoreland sale for
renovations or to construct new residence halls
sounds somewhat appealing. But new resi
dence halls probably won’t accommodate fam
ilies or provide more childcare options.
Moreover, administrators might decide
to use the money for projects entirely unrelat
ed to housing. Such a move would be
egregious and deplorable given the need for
housing improvements.
There are advantages to the sale: Westmore
land is located more than 2 miles from campus,
it is falling into disrepair and other family hous
ing options, such as Spencer View, are more
popular. But newer and closer facilities are al
ready full, and officials admit that not all resi
dents living in University housing who want to
return next year will have accommodations.
As the State Board considers approving the
sale in early November, we urge its members
to carefully ponder administrator’s true inten
tions for the sale money. Will they try to rob
the piggy bank and leave another I.O.U.?
Based on their track record, we can’t rule out
this possibility.