Ashton Kutcher’s ‘Jobs’ Is Actually Not That Bad
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Web entrepreneur, tech journalist and SHS Alumni Rob Fishman previewed the new biopic "Job" starring Ashton Kutcher and posted the following review on The Daily Beast. The film is showing at multiple locations in Westchester this weekend. If you see it, let us know what you think.
For those of us Same Thinkers, Hollywood's fascination of late with Silicon Valley is titillating. All that time whiled away on software, and rarely are we afforded a glimpse into the souls of those who manufacture it. The 2010 film The Social Network—to borrow a phrase popular with tech types—"opened the kimono" a bit on the industry. In that film, we met Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), a programming wunderkind who talked fast but sold his schoolmates out even faster. Of all the friends to be had on Facebook, its founder seemed the least appealing.
The screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin, is now at work on his follow-up about the Apple visionary Steve Jobs. If Sorkin's as-yet uncast protagonist at all resembles his last, filmgoers will surely harden in their distaste for our reigning technocracy, seen to be high on IQ and low on compassion. What with biographer Walter Isaacson's characterization of his late subject—"frequently obnoxious, rude, selfish, and nasty to other people"—one worries how Jobs will play in Sorkin's hands.
Between that hard place and Isaacson's rock of a book Friday comes Jobs, Ashton Kutcher's indie biopic. The film has been widely panned and dismissed. The Guardian's Brian Moylan speculated that Jobs "would have taken a big steaming dump" on the picture. Apple co-founder Steven Wozniak has repeatedly disputed its veracity. Jobs, writes Mark Olsen, "feels curiously out of touch with its subject, both as a man and regarding his impact."
And yet, despite its shortcomings, Jobs is not so bad as its critics insist. In fact, it's not half-bad at all.
The film, directed by Joshua Michael Stern, spans the years between Jobs's failed enrollment at Reed College and his triumphal return to Apple some 20 years later. Save for the opening scene, Kutcher is happily spared any Benjamin Button–style makeovers, instead reprising a look that comes naturally to him: the shaggy hair and hippie vests of That '70s Show. This is not yet the Jobs of a hundred black turtlenecks.
The story gets off to clumsy start. Relevant backstory is condensed into a few lines of artless dialogue. Perambulating the college campus, "Steven" is implored by an unnamed professor, in a distracting cameo by James Woods, to stay in school. "I want to live the idea of art, not study it," Kutcher's Jobs replies.
Dropping acid soon after in a wheat field, as a Bach concerto crescendos, Jobs says aloud: "Who has a baby, then throws it away like it's nothing?"
"Are you talking about your birth parents?" his girlfriend asks.
Where the movie hits its stride is where Steve Jobs found his: in the creation and growth of Apple Computers. Filmmakers secured the actual Los Altos garage where Jobs grew up. Led by the sweet, unassuming, and ingenuous Woz (Josh Gad), a scrappy team of engineers does their best to make soldering motherboards look cool. After an angel investor shows up at their doorstep (Dermot Mulroney, as a forgettable Mike Markkula), Jobs strides through the West Coast Computer Faire to introduce the groundbreaking Apple II.
As his character ages, Kutcher's performance becomes more convincing than contrived. He certainly looks the part, nailing the Frankenstein gait, dexterous gestures, and California twang (Kutcher enlarges on his process here). Though he dons a jacket and tie, Jobs is never quite one of the suits—here, as in The Social Network, the stated enemy—at one point leveling an accusatory finger at Apple CEO John Sculley (Matthew Modine) and barking: "Hiring you was the worst mistake I ever made!"
When Jobs's spending spirals out of control, the suits have their revenge. Sculley, Markkula, and the company's board arrange an ouster that strips Jobs of his power. "I felt like I'd been punched, the air knocked out of me, and I couldn't breathe," Steve Jobs told Isaacson years later. By then, Woz has resigned, and Jobs is estranged from his girlfriend and their daughter together and is living in an unfurnished mansion, with only a poster of Albert Einstein watching over him.
Thus passes the first of two moments when someone on the board asks, "So what are we going to do?"
(Read the balance of the review here:)
Rob Fishman is a technology and media consultant in New York. Formerly the social media editor of the Huffington Post, he is a contributing editor at BuzzFeed, and has written for Slate, New York Magazine, Medium and other leading publications. A graduate of Cornell and Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism, he lives in New York.
10 Things You Might Forget to Bring to College
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With only about a month left until college move-in day for many incoming freshmen, the time has come to start getting serious about what we do and don't need during the upcoming year. Many schools send out suggested packing lists, and there are an abundance of them online. Listed below are a few useful items that they may leave out.
1. Speakers
Depending on how much you love listening to music, whether in your room or in public with others, there might be some occasions where the built-in speakers in your phone or laptop just won't cut it. You don't have to buy a very expensive, top of the line set of speakers, but consider a small iHome (which also functions as an alarm clock) for your room.
2. Seat cushions
Your dorm room will contain a desk, and a desk chair. Wooden chairs can be pretty unforgiving, so consider bringing a cushion or even buying a comfortable alternative like an office chair with wheels. Even though you'll likely spend a lot of your work time in the library, don't neglect your room.
3. Tide to Go
When you've stained something and laundry day is nowhere in sight or you want to wear it again, just use Tide to Go. It's an instant stain remover that's sort of like a small marker. Just don't wear something in sunlight right after you use it.
4. Notebooks from high school
There's no need to bring every notebook or study guide from your four years of preparation for college, but if you're placing out of any classes, it couldn't hurt to have that safety net. Professors expect you to be a little rusty at Spanish or Calc, but it can't hurt to look over your old notes or tests (assuming you resisted the temptation to throw out, shred, rip up, or have a bon fire with everything from high school).
5. Fan and space heater
You won't know until you arrive at school whether your dorm room will be too hot or too cold. For the first few months you may need a fan to stay cool and after that you may want a space heater to keep warm. So consider bringing both.
6. Underbed storage units
This may seem like an obvious one to some, as it's pretty hard to fit everything you're bringing into the school-provided furniture within your room. Girls will typically try to fit more into the same space. Even if you initially manage to squeeze in your stuff using space-saving storage systems if you don't have accessible areas to keep your things, your room will quickly end up a mess.
7. Agenda
You may have gotten by in high school without using the school-provided planner as keeping track of assignments wasn't too hard. And you might be able to use the same system day-to-day for classes in college. However, there will be more long-term assignments, and you'll have to keep track of your class schedule and exam dates and remember personal events and appointments. In short, no one will keep track of your schedule but you, so an agenda will help to keep things straight.
8. External hard drive
This is probably a smart idea in general, but it's especially useful in college. Losing everything you've worked on because your computer crashed or your laptop was stolen would be devastating, so back up your computer every once in a while. Also, an external hard drive is an easy way to share large amounts of music, as opposed to several CDs or multiple trips with a flash drive.
9. Starter decorations
It's a given that you'll have some form of decoration in your room, but have some at the beginning of the year. Make your room your own by bringing personal items that reflect your interests and who you are.
10. Mementos and photos
Everyone is excited to go to college, some more so to leave home than to actually arrive there. But whether you've loved your time here or hated it, whether you're sick to death of this town or loving every minute, you'll soon be missing it. Even if you want to remove yourself from the community as a whole, you'll realize that you'll miss your friends, your family, and home cooked meals. Bring photos to remember the good times you have had in Scarsdale.
Contributor Steven Friedman is a graduate of Scarsdale High School and will be attending Washington University in St. Louis as a freshman this fall.
Buying a Puppy: What You Should Consider
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The opening of Scarsdale Puppy Shop on Weaver Street has made the issue of puppy mills and stores that buy from them a hot button issue again for area residents. In an effort to learn more about the puppies at Scarsdale Puppy Shop, we contacted the owner for some answers. We wanted to know, among other things, where the puppies came from, what happens to the unsold ones, and had he visited the breeding facilities. Despite a request for a sit-down, the owner informed us that on advice of counsel, he would not speak with anyone from Scarsdale10583.com. This begs the question: What is there to hide?
If you are considering buying from a puppy store or any other facility in the area, think about the following before you make your purchase.
1. Look at rescue organizations, animal welfare centers and reputable breeders first. Reputable breeders (as opposed to a commercial breeding entity) that breed responsibility with an animal's health and welfare in mind will insist on meeting prospective families face to face or, in this era of modern technology, Skype as an alternative if distance is a factor. A good breeder will ask for personal references and want pictures of your home and yard. If you are going to lay out $1,000 or more for a new family addition, wouldn't you want to know how many litters the breeder has bred and whether or not the sire and dam have been tested for heredity diseases? Bottom line: A reputable breeder won't sell to a store that sells puppies. No, never, end of story. Check out rescue organizations. There is a rescue group for practically every breed at every stage of life. You get to meet the animal many times on more than one occasion and spend time together to see if you are good match for each other. Plus you get the added bonus that the people who run rescue organizations are passionate about the animals under their care and know the animal's temperament well, helping to ensure that your new addition will fit in well with your family now -- and in the future.
2. No, you aren't saving a life if you buy from a store that sells puppies. Ever think what happens to the puppies that are not sold and are past the age of being "adorable?" The owner can't take home every unsold dog. In most cases, unsold puppies are returned to puppy brokers and then sent back to the puppy mills, where they are caged and forced to reproduce. In other cases unsold pets are dumped at local animal shelters where, if not adopted in a short time frame, they are euthanized. So, if you honestly believe you are doing some good by "rescuing" a puppy/dog/kitten/cat from a pet shop window, think again. Your money keeps the cycle alive and pumping out animals.
3. Don't think because NY State regulates pet dealers this ensures puppies have humane conditions in which to live. Consider this fact: the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets (DAM) regulates pet dealers. According to the department's website, DAM's budget for 2011-12 was $166 million with $117,000 of that budget used to fund the division responsible for regulating pet stores. That division has one inspector for New York State covering 267 licensed pet stores. As a result, not enough funds and manpower are in place at the state level to regulate the operation of pet stores. New York is a big state – how could one inspector possibly make a difference?
4. A USDA license means almost nothing. According to Cori Menkin, senior director of ASPCA's Puppy Mills Campaign, "Consumers need to know that they should not be falsely reassured when a pet store tells them their puppies come from USDA licensed breeders." According to Menkin, "Unfortunately, USDA standards alone do not ensure that dogs are raised humanely in an environment in which they can thrive." If you are even considering buying from a pet store, check out ASPCA's http://nopetstorepuppies.com and see if you still feel the need to make a purchase at a pet store. Many of the photos on the website depict conditions commonly found in mills. The photos show not only conditions that violate federal law, but also conditions that are legal but that the ASPCA and the general public consider inhumane. The new database aims to educate consumers about where pet store puppies really come from by showing them what it looks like inside many USDA licensed facilities.
To write a balanced article, I wanted to include information on why buying from a puppy store is beneficial for the animals and their future families. The only argument I could come up with is that it is convenient. Drive up, park, pull out the plastic and drive away with your new best friend. Though I am sure that the puppies in Scarsdale Puppy Shop are well cared for and given the best available care, I believe the public has the right to know the true story behind those puppies in the window.
Letter from Israel: How Far We've Come
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This piece was submitted by Diana Bletter, formerly of Great Neck and now a resident of Israel: The Muslim holiday of Ramadan begins this year on July 9. Right before Ramadan began last year, I attended my first Muslim wedding ceremony of my friend, Amira. The wadah-elarus ceremony, or Farewell to the Bride, was held in Amira's family's courtyard in the village across from my house in Israel's Western Galilee. The all-female rite marks the end of a woman's life in her childhood home and her transition into her groom's household. Amira's ceremony gave me the chance to celebrate with her—and to be reminded of how grateful I am to be an American-born woman.
When I arrived, there were about 100 women seated around the compound watching as Amira danced by herself in her long white wedding gown. Every so often, she dabbed her tears, making sure her make-up didn't run, and a sister-in-law whisked away her crumpled tissue, pressing a fresh one into her palm. In another hour, her bridegroom's family would come and take her away.
I've known Amira since I moved from Long Island to Israel in 1991. Unmarried and the youngest of eight, Amira, 41, seemed destined to be the designated daughter: the one who'd live with her elderly parents and take care of them forever. But in her large family clan, she was also the macher, the go-to person if you wanted anything done. Mornings, she managed the auto-repair shop of one brother; afternoons, she ran the endocrinology clinic of another brother; evenings, she raised the son of yet another brother, a widower.
Then, suddenly, Amira shocked everyone with the news that she was marrying Issam, a man she met through work. She told me that Issam's marriage to his distant cousin ended when she left him and their three children for a childhood sweetheart. The move was scandalous; their three children stayed with Issam, refusing to even speak to their mother. Issam searched for a new wife and after meeting Amira several times, he proposed and she accepted.
Now, Amira was having one last dance with friends and family before she switched loyalties to Issam's clan. A disc jockey played Arabic melodies spiked with a throbbing beat. Amira caught my eye and invited me to join her. I was wearing a gingham shirt, skinny jeans and ballet shoes – how could I blend in among the stiletto heels, long robes and hijabs? Dizzying nights at Studio 54 in the 1970s hadn't prepared me for this dance. Plus, I was the only Jewish woman there: I knew everyone would stare at me. Yet I couldn't sit this one out.
I made my way through the throng of women thinking about all the things I do that the women in the village would never do. Simple things, like riding a bike. My life was so different from theirs. I'd moved from Great Neck—a town with a reputation not unlike Scarsdale's—to live in Israel with my first husband and our four children. And then I recklessly fell in love with someone else. However, I never feared losing my kids or the condemnation of my community. And, because I grew up on "The Brady Bunch," I plunged into blending a new family with six kids, and unofficially adopting a seventh.
How could I not worry about Amira? She was sacrificing her relatively independent life to cook and clean for a man she barely knew, raising his kids under the watchful eye of a mother-in-law in a much more traditional village. Yet this might be Amira's last chance to have children and her own family. And then again, American women also fiercely debate if they can have it all. I suddenly understood that in Amira's society, this was the best choice that she could make. So I danced with her, trying to gracefully weave my fingers through the air, writing invisible blessings for Amira across the sky.
A short time later, the bridegroom's mother and sisters came through the gate, beating drums. Amira danced with them for a while and then it was time for her to go. She bent over her mother and kissed her good-bye with a grave finality I'd never seen on American brides' faces. Two of her brothers escorted her to an idling car that would take her to her husband waiting in his village 30 miles away.
The ceremony was over and I drove back across the road. "How was it?" my step-daughter asked when I got home.
"It was moving," I said. "It was—"
"Give me a kiss and then yap while you're making dinner," my husband, Jonny, said, half-joking. "I'm starving!"
I couldn't help laughing. I gave him a kiss and cooked dinner, feeling even more grateful when Jonny swept the floor and cleaned up. Sometimes all you have to do is cross the road to be reminded how far you've come—and how far so many women around the world still have to go.
Diana Bletter is the author of The Mom Who Took Off On Her Motorcycle (Kent & Cordell, 2013), available here from Amazon.
Edgemont Celebrates the Class of 2013 and Superintendent Nancy Taddiken
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The Edgemont High School 2013 graduation was a time to look back and forward for the departing seniors, their parents and School Superintendent Nancy Taddiken who retires this year after 32 years at the district. With clear skies and comfortable temperatures, the ceremony took place on the campus outside the school on the evening of June 20th at 6:30 pm and began as the Class of 2013 streamed through the breezeway in their royal blue graduation gowns.
Graduating senior Abhinav Jaiswal opened the ceremony, saying "Edgemont is where I made the best friends of my life... where I was supported by the most caring people in my life; my parents. I want to thank them and all the parents here from the bottom of our hearts and let them know how much we love them." He thanked his teachers, saying "Edgemont is where I have been mentored by amazing adults." He credited them with "patience, goodwill and generosity." He continued, "Edgemont is where I call home. It has been my home and it has changed me. We are Edgemont. And so to answer the question, Where is Edgemont? Edgemont is wherever we are and so soon, Edgemont will be everywhere."
Nancy Taddiken gave an eloquent and emotional speech paralleling her experience with those of the departing seniors. She said, "Many of you have 
been in Edgemont for your entire lives.... It may be harder to think that there may be a life after Edgemont....I've loved almost every minute of my time here. It's been my home away from home." Quoting Robert Frost, she said, "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in," and added, "What did I do to deserve such a wonderful home away from home in this special place called Edgemont."
She left the seniors with three final thoughts:
- How lucky we are to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.
- You are braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.
- And quoting her late husband she said, "The greatest gift of all is to love and be loved."
She brought many to tears when she said, "I hope that each of you feels as loved as I have felt here in Edgemont," and was given a standing ovation.
Principal Ganeshananthan explained how riding his fixed gear bicycle helps him understand the road beneath his tires, realize a sense of risk and rewards, and provides a zen-like experience. He drew an analogy between his rides and the moments that magically come together for his students. ... "When you worked together to win a league championship, found the solution to a trig problem. .. or were on stage and became the part that you were playing." He ended by saying, "Things in life that are worthwhile rarely come easily. I hope that the road before you offers many more such magic moments. And that you cherish not just the reward but the effort that brings you there. "
Thomas McCormack, President of the Edgemont School Board took the podium and gave a speech that was both comedic and serious. He provided eight pieces of "practical advice" for the upcoming years ahead to the graduating class in a clever, entertaining manner.
English teacher Michael DeVito told the group that "Graduations often extol the graduating institution and the graduating class." However he shared a lesson from Kurt Vonnegutt's Cat's Cradle where he "challenged the meaningfulness of false or arbitrary groups and feared the loss of self when identifying with a group." Instead, he urged the students "to find those people with whom we have a more genuine connection." He warned, "While we can't deny the beauty and significance of Edgemont, we cannot let that pride turn into chauvinism."
He continued, by offering the seniors "some ambiguity"
Embrace Edgemont; Celebrate it's meaning in your life. At the very same time, let it go.
Appreciate Edgemont and the important skills and character you have built here, and at the very same time recognize the limitations of these skills and character for they are still developing. Whatever Grand Falloon you join next will have its own set of challenges.
Remember Edgemont – we are all together for the last time. You are a Panther for life; at the very same time, forget it.
Student athlete Carolina Sguerra shared two important words she learned from her soccer coach; patience and composure when he told her, "Don't shoot the ball until it is perfect." Applying these two words to life experiences, she said, "No matter what the hand we are dealt we must always keep our heads up and remember that things happen for a reason. Practice patience and keep your composure and you'll never miss you perfect shots."
Emma Cantor shared her thoughts about living in the moment." She said, "It seems we are constantly rushing. We are easily distracted by the next thing. We rushed to pick classes, to get our driver's licenses, to visit colleges, to get into college, to graduate. But now we are here. This is the moment we have been rushing towards. To borrow from Elle Woods', "We did it." Here we are at commencement – this is just the beginning. Savor the moment. It is so easy to rush through life to something seemingly more important. I hope we are less concerned with where we end up then with how we get there. Stop along the way to take a breath. To be astonished and proud and grateful."
With that, students each received their diplomas and warm embraces, and threw their caps in the air in celebration.
Pictures by Mariela Melamed: Click here to see more:
