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Show OPINION ETTR - , - 7Oç , - w N (01 - ( A ,n r 1 sr! r- 1 I t, I ) ,, , BYJONN HOLLAND trippyjedi "The Christmas Chronicles" is an adventure film with enough Christmas magic to have me cheering and laughing for joy from feeling the Christmas spirit. In the Ned fix original film, Ted and Kate find themselves home alone on Christmas Eve, when Kate gets the idea to capture Santa Claus on video. The night takes an adventurous turn when she and Ted stow away on Santa's sleigh, resulting in a disaster which threatens Santa's ability to deliver presents to the rest of North America. Together with Santa, the siblings search for the reindeer and Santa's bag of gifts. The camera work in this film is very straight forward, there aren't any really long shots or switches in focus. This is refreshing because technical camera c' kvi )1 V work can be a bit distracting for a film where the story is the main focus and not a single character. Perhaps that is the thing that sets this Christmas film apart from past Santa films like "Santa Claus: The Movie" or "The Santa Clause" film trilogy. "The Christmas Chronicles" isn't about Santa Claus, why he does what he does or proving that he exists. The film is actually about Ted, who has lost sight of his own potential for doing good for others and being selfless like he and Kate's father was. An epic night of magic and adventure with Santa Claus is the perfect medicine for an adolescent about to lose his way. Through the magic and wonder that is Christmas, Ted finds himself again. I really enjoyed seeing Kurt Russel in the role of Santa Claus. He gave the character a kind of swag. This is a Santa who's been delivering presents around the world for centuries. He has an acute understanding of how the magic of Christmas works. This Santa knows what is going on and how things will work out. Throughout the film he uses that knowledge for the benefit of others, including a police officer who has grown cynical in the years following his own loss. I didn't care too much for the elves, which were really just furry Gnomes. Almost like Christmas Ewoks, except these were computer generated, not people in costumes and makeup. I had the sense that there wasn't as much time spent on these creatures as the much better special effects present in the film. The remaining visual effects in the film were very well done, fantastic enough to be magic. An example of incredible special effects is the scene where Kate goes into Santa's bag of gifts and magically finds herself floating among millions of presents. It's similar to the scene in "Alice in Wonderland" when Alice "falls" down the rabbit hole. "The Christmas Chronicles" is worth a watch, whether you need an excuse to cuddle with someone while watching Netflix or just don't want to spend money at a theater. Even then, I recommend the film because it lifted my spirits, entertained me and got me in the mood for Christmas. To me, that is the mark of a true Christmas movie and "The Christmas Chronicles" delivers just in time for the holidays. BY STEPHEN B. ARMSTRONG Guest Columnist When I lived in Baltimore, the owner of the French restaurant where I had a job as a cook didn't believe in doing business on the Sabbath, so I never worked Sundays. Instead, I would go to the movies. Sometimes I'd walk downtown to the Charles Theatre and watch independent films and foreign features. Or I'd take the bus to the harbor and catch new releases at a multiplex on President Street, which is where I saw "Pulp Fiction" for the first time in the fall on-scre- LA -- ',ars , , ' rzn-- -' -- ir- 16 ,' j BY - A- h,et - f i 7t i 1 b.d JOE RAYMOND Guest Columnist "Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it... he who doesn't... pays it," said Albert Einstein, one of the smartest men in human history. Despite his words, few people know what compound interest is and even fewer understand its power. So what is compound interest? Quantitatively, compound interest is represented by exponential growth. In other words, each increase builds upon previous increases, creating a snowball effect. Peter Kaufman, respected investor and author, has qualitatively defined compounding as, "Dogged, incremental, constant progress over a very long time frame." This is where the saying "get one percent better every day" comes from. In fact, improving by one percent each day would leave you nearly 38 times better after only one year. But how does compound interest affect your life, and in what areas? Compounding influences many aspects of life, including wealth, wisdom, fitness, longevity, and happiness. In wealth, for example, $1,000 invested at seven percent compounded annually will turn into more than $57,000 after 60 years. The same amount earning 15 percent annu 66 Most people overestimate what they can do day and in a underestimate what they can do in a Bill The happiest individuals y time invest in their relationships and compound the joy that comes from them. A compounding approach to ment has led to incredible results for many people. Compounded outcomes are unimpressive in the beginning and in the end. Bill Gates sums it up nicely by saying, "Most people overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a lifetime." You will be rewarded for taking the time to learn about compound growth and applying a constant, disciplined approach to ment. high-qualit- lifetime Gates 99 and Kool & the Gang. Program directors around the country sensed that the vintage funk, country and rock 'n' roll songs featured in the collection were cool again. Mainstream pop stations added throwback 66 R&B tracks 99 "Jungle Boogie" and "Let's Stay Together," both given prominent attention in the movie, to their playl ists. The notoriety and ubiquity of "Pulp Fiction" were such that I expected to have trouble finding a seat in the multiplex theater that afternoon, but no one else was in there. I picked a spot under the projection booth and with the edge of my thumb pried open a box of Jujyfruits. The film soon started, and over the next two and a felt like I was watching both the trashiest and the most ambitious crime picture ever made. It was as funny as it was violent, a series of interrelated sketches in which street hustlers, sadists and other bad people chatted about TV shows like "Green Acres" and buying fast food in France as they planned murders. The scenes all seemed ludicrous, but I liked them anyway, in part because Tarantino embroidered his characters and their problems with surf guitar licks and soul music. After the movie ended, I stepped outside the theater and inhaled the wet air coming from the harbor. There was a Sam Goody record store in a shopping mall around the corner on East Pratt Street, and I started in its direction. The Sam Goody was still open, and it had several copies of "Music from the Motion Picture 'Pulp Fiction in stock. Buying the half hours, I jaw-droppi- self-improv- e- cOLD Li v soundtrack on cassette tape rather than CD saved me a couple bucks. As the city bus carried me back to my neighborhood that night, I read the album's liner notes card, and once I was inside my apartment, I dropped the tape into the stereo and listened to it, marveling at the freshness of tracks like Chuck Berry's "You Never Can Tell" and Dick Dale's "Misirlou," which I played over and over. Twenty-fou- r years later, whenever I listen to this collection, similar feelings swim through me. The charm of the "Pulp Fiction" soundtrack, like the movie for which it was created, endures. , 1;; .!e:A ' ; self-improv- e- ally will turn into more than $4.3 million. To illustrate the longterm power of compounding, we will look at an example in US real estate. In 1626, the Dutch purchased the island of Manhattan from the Native Americans for $24. If the Native Americans had invested their $24 at a compounded rate of seven percent annually, they would have over $7.9 trillion today. This is the power of compound u interest. It's difficult to measure the impact of compounding in areas of life such as wisdom, fitness, longevity, and happiness, but the majority of those who achieve success in these areas harness the power of compound interest. Wisdom comes from learning, through your own experiences and those of others, and the wisest people often read and think deliberately and often. Fitness and longevity reward those who are constant with their workouts and nutrition. sLY 260P,P, The picture had premiered just a few weeks earlier, and its intense violence and profanity had prompted several critics to lament the arrival of a new harshness in American cinema; oth- Tarantino ers, however, embroidered his fawned over characters and John Travolta's and Samuel their problems L. Jackson's with surf guitar performances licks and soul as philosophimusic cal hit men and director Quen- Stephen B. Armstrong tin Tarantino's nerdy allusions to old gangster flicks like "Kiss Me Deadly" and "The Setup." The soundtrack album from "Pulp Fiction" was generating serious interest, too, even though it included several "oldies" first recorded in the 1960s and 1970s by the likes of Al Green, Dusty Springfield, the Statler Brothers , - T Eroo-grof 1994. 1 A 11 - C-,--z9LL- K Li ' All UU 7.. F- ;1.4 L L.' L 4',j ' ' ) T 674--- a , , : r :POI - If.111 I DIRECTED BY: Quentin Tarantino STORY BY: Quentin Tarantino RELEASE DATE: May 12, 1994 (Cannes) October 14, 1994 (US) DISTRIBUTED BY: Miramax Films STARRING: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Maria de Medeiros, Ving Rhames, Eric Stoltz, Rosanna Arcluette, Christopher Walken, Bruce Willis |