Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

Make no mistake: Heath Ledger is the star of The Dark Knight.

Everything you've heard about his performance is true, and then some; no amount of hype could possibly prepare an audience for the singular genius and perfection that is Ledger's swan song -- rightly characterised by many as on a par with James Dean's and, I would argue, far more deserving of its elevation to one of the finest performances in film history.

And forget about adding any caveats about his death upping the Ledger-Love Quotient; if he'd lived, the man would be receiving just as much attention and just as much adulation for this Herculean acting accomplishment. The tragedy of his untimely death adds only melancholic pain to the experience. That someone with such a gift, presaged by his performance in Brokeback Mountain and reaching a premature apotheosis in The Dark Knight, so obviously capable of so much, should have been wrenched away at such a moment is almost too much to bear.

News of Ledger's death upset me when it came; on seeing his name in the final credits (which elicited a deserved standing ovation from the Sunday afternoon crowd), I burst into sobs. As is so often the case, I wept not for him, but for myself -- what a desolation, what a horrifying loss. For anyone who treasures and reveres the art of acting, the closing credits of The Dark Knight will inevitably provide the background to at least a few minutes of sincere sadness.

I saw that Michael Moore is doing a live chat on Daily Kos today at 11AM EST. You've probably heard about the controversy surrounding his trip to Cuba with 9/11 rescue workers to film parts of his new film Sicko. I applaud Moore's efforts to give the health care industry and policy makers the kick in the pants they need to get their act together.  It is mind boggling that we spend significantly more on health care than any other country but we get back a lot less.

The Commonwealth Fund just released a report on this very topic:

Americans get the poorest health care and yet pay the most compared to five other rich countries, according to a report released on Tuesday. Germany, Britain, Australia and Canada all provide better care for less money, the Commonwealth Fund report found...

The current system leaves about 45 million people with no insurance at all, according to U.S. government estimates from 2005, and many studies have shown most of these people do not receive preventive services that not only keep them healthier, but reduce long-term costs.

Not to mention we have nine million kids in this country who don't have health coverage. There is something to be said when the richest country in the world does not take care of its kids.
I look forward to seeing Moore's film when it comes out in the states on June 29th.

The Commons is a very hard notion for people to grasp, sometimes.  But think about the way people have an innate desire to share experiences, like watching a movie flicker on the screen in a dark theater.  DVD, VOD and the Internet have not spelled the demise of that experience, precisely because people go to the movies to be part of a common experience at least as much as they go to see a particular movie.

People want to connect and gather and be in commons.

But there is a lot of noise that distracts us.  Sometimes that noise distracts us from beauty so magnificient that it compels people to shell out lots of cash to go to a concert hall.  That's what happened when Josh Bell, world-class violinist, played a free concert in the L'enfant Plaza Metro station in DC a few weeks ago.  The "stunt" was organized by Washington Post writer Gene Weingarten.  Josh played, but roughly 1100 people passed by him without so much as a nod.  He collected about $32, and maybe 7 people stopped to listen.

The Metro has a rule barring buskers.  I lived in both DC and New York, and it was hard not to notice the antiseptic character of the Metro.  Now, I think I understand.  The NY Subway is a lively commons where buskers, hucksters, activists mix with everyone else on a daily basis.  I have found myself in conversation with strangers so often I cannot even count because a music performance or activist's speech got us talking.  Even more often I acknowledge my fellow commuters and they acknowledge me with a glance or a nod.  I would venture a guess that we all feel gratified by this connection in public.  In public space.

The Josh Bell story shows how much we can stray from our innate desire to buy in to the idea that we should prioritize privacy and our jobs over our human desire to experience each other and what we create, like the art of Bell's performance.  It's not that work and money and schedules aren't important.  But should then anesthetize us from our basic human instincts to connect, and wonder and imagine and enjoy?

You can find Gene Weingarten's article about Josh Bell's concert in the Metro at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con tent/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721. html

It seems that every 10 years or so US automakers take a bunch of money from the Federal Government and sometimes state and local governments in developing one or two high mileage demonstration vehicles. I believe this is to assure government that it is capable of producing a vehicle that truly saves on gasoline. The automakers meet the objectives of the contract; they roll out one or two vehicles, but then they do nothing else. They show the world that the US auto industry can make production vehicles that get 80+ miles to the gallon and then arrogantly refuse to produce them after having soaked up all of the government research dollars.

Back in 2003 Natalie Maines, the lead singer for the Dixie Chicks made an off the cuff remark during a London concert on the eve of the Iraq War --  "Just so you know, we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas."  That remark was then picked up by web sites and then the news media and led to a national press frenzy, boycotts of their music on country radio stations, protests, and in one instance a death threat.

Now Barbara Kopple, famed documentary film-maker, has used behind the scenes footage from the Chicks tour in 2003 and from film she took while the chicks were working on their latest album in 2005 and 2006.  The Center for American Progress held a screening of the film, Shut Up and Sing, Wednesday night in Washington and the film is more powerful as you see these musicians grow from thinking the issue at hand is merely a PR problem, to defiant patriots uncompromising in their views.

The film goes back and forth between the events of 2003 and the 2005 recording sessions for their recent release.  When you first see the Chicks learning about the outrage by certain right-wing groups and country stations, they react as though they just need to put out the proper publicity statement, but as the outcry continues and country radio stations stop playing their songs, the Chicks become more strident and defiant, determining that they would rather stand by their principles than compromise just to sell more CDs and concert tickets.

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

Probably, many of you have heard this quote before. I think it is a quote which continues to resonate. But I wonder, how many of you know who said it, as well as when and where they said it? How many of you have read that speech or listened to it or are familiar with the context within which it was delivered?

Note: This has nothing to do with politics. But it is an invitation to MyDD readers to see a free movie this week.

Some of you may have read that Joe Trippi is helping with the promotion of the forthcoming film Peaceful Warrior, starring Nick Nolte.

I'm giving Joe a hand with this, and we wanted to let you know that there are free advance screenings of the film taking place this week for bloggers in Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Phoenix.

Details on the screenings and the film after the flip.

The State of the Union 2006 parody is taking off just before the real one. My thanks to Matt Stoller and everyone else up here in the blogosphere!

For those who were unable to see the flash animation version at YouTube, it's also up on ifilm and as a Quicktime file here. I also suggest pausing it to let the file load completely before playing.