Author: hugh

Does the Movie Still Roll When No One Is There?

84th St. Loews empty

84th St. Loews empty

I saw Avatar with maybe nine other people in the theater which is not a big deal. Lots of movies screen all the time in big theaters for a few of us. I enjoyed it but have some misgivings which I’m sure have been talked about in one review or another. I was disturbed by the premise that the we were there in the first place to steal and ended up fighting ourselves because a renegade had a conscience. What if a soldier in the Iraq War had fallen in love with an Iraqi woman, and decided he’s sick of bombing and fighting for oil, and turned on his officers? An occupying army sets up all kinds of conflict and storytelling but the idea of an occupying army is wrong. As Howard Zinn noted, all war is against children.

Another thing that bothered me is the coming onslaught of 3D crap to our movie theaters. Most of these movies will be more Manichean fantasies with good and evil prototypes who duke it out. 99.9% of the time, the good side wins. If they don’t, definitely catch the sequel. Life isn’t so simple and these movies are so far from reality, they may as well sell you the hibernation pod that goes with the movie at the theater. Obviously, the killer app for 3D technology is porn which will be in your home theater very soon. The movie studios should keep trying to change the world, not enable us to continually escape from it.

Ghost Boast: I took the photos during the boring parts of Avatar. 15 second exposures.

Two Good Documentaries

Hulu has two free documentaries which are necessary viewing whether you’re conservative, liberal, radical, communist, or an independent weirdo.

  • The Corporation – The beginning of “too big to fail” which is anathema to capitalism. It starts out sounding heavily left and critical but gives a fairly balanced view. The film was made by Canadians.
  • Manufacturing Consent – Noam Chomsky’s voice is usually censored from mainstream media which is anathema to free speech. Interestingly, also largely made by Canadians.

You have to put up with ads but that’s free TV. Feel free to discuss anything in these documentaries here or on hulu.

Uncle Wiggly’s Talk

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(This photo means a lot to me because at the time it was taken, a friend was inside.)

On Obama’s SOTU speech, he sounded good but he is a tool of the village. He could have remade politics in his first year but he chose status quo. The U.S. presidential pulpit is more powerful than the pope’s and he chose to rubberstamp a lot of what George W. Bush did. The financial industry is lord because of their bonuses and political contributions and even taxes on those bonuses. They rule because money equals speech and those with the most money speak the loudest. Given the continuing war obligations pledged, I don’t see how there is anything left for the American infrastructure, energy, and job creation talked about.

The European Worker Perspective

I picked this up from the comments of a Huffpo story about a court ruling that you can’t fire someone over a slice of cheese.

Unions are un-American. That is why the American worker will go lower and lower to be a good American. Working for peanuts is the American dream, from dishwasher to millionaire. Over here in Europe we have socialism; that is really bad. You are fully covered health insurance wise, get 4-6 week mandatory fully paid vacations and other goodies. While we travel the world in our free time, the American worker has to have up to 2 jobs to make ends meet. As long as you keep believing whatever bull you are fed, you will be happy in the land of the fee and the home of the slave.

But wait! This is America where Fox News is the most trusted news source and Jay Leno’s funniest [saddest] bits are when he’s jay walking.

Broadway by Columbia Plus Scam Sidebar

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Here are more shots of nobody on Broadway by Columbia University last night.

I’m selling my bass rig on craigslist and I got three responses from people offering to pay with a cashier’s check. SCAM! Since I live next door to a bank and another two banks are within two blocks, I’m tempted to accept the check and then walk over to the banks to see if the check is legitimate. Ideally, a cop or two would be handy to make a fraud arrest. They might be holding guns though. That would be weird.

Going Back to Cali

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Another friend from California is moving back on Wednesday. I’m the only one I know who ever stayed in New York. I may have to move back myself if I can’t find steady work soon. I could sublet my apartment and focus on better Photoshop! And better website design! Still, it’s quite the letdown to have to move back in with your parents. I can blame the recession but plenty of people are getting by fine and thriving. Sigh.

50 Ghosts Glowing

fountain outside zeigfeld theater

That last photo I posted was surreally bad. I recently saw the movie 50 Dead Men Walking. It’s about Ireland in the late 80s and has a really likable Irish bloke getting recruited by both the IRA and British Intelligence at the same time. The documentary-style cinematography was similar to that used in The Hurt Locker and the main message of both movies is that war is really fucked up. Given that they’re both stories about people who are on one side of a conflict, the other side will get short shrift. People who criticize these movies for being unbalanced miss the point. The first casualty in war is the truth (which is fixed around the policy).

Feeling Better

Hudson River wreckage, New York Central Railroad, 69th Street Bridge

It’s nice to be over it more or less especially since I never meant to turn this blog into a mere status report (see Twitter). A couple things: The Wall Street Journal is actually making good sense. All of the endless posturing, fear-mongering, and overspending on the War on Terror™ has got to stop if we’re going to make any progress at all in the 21st Century.

On Haiti, you probably already know how you can text “HAITI” to 90999 so AT&T will donate $10 to the Red Cross for you. Please also consider texting “YELE” to 501501 which donates $5 to Wyclef Jean’s nonprofit organization specifically benefitting Haiti. Thanks.

Much Worse Today

Central Park South, 7th Ave, NYC

I either have the swine flu or a very severe sinus infection. I tried some cold pills that expired in 2006. Was that the last time I felt this bad? They didn’t work. I went out and bought some fresh generic ones and those aren’t working either. At leastThe Hurt Locker came in from Netflix. Oh goody, two hours of defusing bombs. Seriously, I’m really looking forward to this. I’ve sort of had Kathryn Bigelow in the corner of my eye since she directed a little 1987 vampire movie called Near Dark.