DenDooven - Portland's Best By Bus

Portland's Best By Bus -- This is a really neat book! Unfortunately, the copyright is 1998 so it is a bit dated, but what better way to start to get to know the city than with the aid of this handy little guide and TriMet's comprehensive public transit system. Even the hard to please Willamette Week seemed to like this book.

If there was ever a book that needed a website, this would be it. Granted, updated TriMet information is on their expansive, constantly updated website. But what new things are there along the way and what has been lost?

Of course the uber-tourist will check out the Portland Oregon Visitor Assocation (POVA) website. I also stumbled across BootsnAll.com's Portland pages which are now a couple years old, but still offer a less conventional approach to visiting the city. But really, how many webpages are there and do we need that list the International Rose Test Garden, Pioneer Square, Powell's Books, and McLoughlin House? The Dirt Cheap Guide to Portland shows some promise...

So this book tries to fill the gap between too much of the same information but that's the problem with print -- it doesn't come with regular updates. For those visiting the city and who don't want to rent a car, this book is a great companion to whatever guidebook one might usually purchase. Check it out.

Buy from Amazon.com

Eye of Vichy

Oeil de Vichy, L' -- First I have to admit that it's been a couple months since I saw this one - let's say I've been lax in writing my reviews though I've kept up the list of what I've been watching and reading. However, this one left an impression that's not easy to forget.

Composed of archival newsreel material, the movie tries to tell the story of the French government's Second World War. And yes, this is the collaborationist side of the equation and much of the footage was originally made and released to get the French citizenry to understand and support it's lack of opposition to Nazis. Clearly, this is powerful stuff in the sense that propaganda, when viewed from outside, is always powerful.

While less an indictment of collaborationist propaganda than one might suspect, this movie is more an allegory about the power of the mass media to shape and change opinions. This message can be applied to our own times as well as to that shown. Will our children and grandchildren wonder how we could believe the tripe we are fed daily on the evening and cable news the way we wonder how the French could believe what their government was telling them?

Still those who condemn French actions during the War and Francophobes in general will like this film because it seems to make whatever crazy message they desire to communicate, again illustrating the power of the propaganda even 60 years later and towards a different end. But if one can get past that, it also can ask serious questions about just how far one might be willing to go to avoid a war. Maybe it can even explain why certain French leaders followed the course they did.

Highly recommended for those interested in the War and understanding propaganda's power though subtitles require a bit more work than the usual movie. This is a thought provoking work, well worth the effort to track down and would be especially useful in educational settings.

Rating: 8 out of 10 (though I must admit it feels a bit odd rating a compilation of propaganda films) Buy from Amazon.com