My throat looks "horrifying". I shall retire with tea.
Watched a PBS documentary on Nikola Tesla this afternoon with the kids. Fascinating scientist, inventor and visionary who created a variety of electrical phenomena, from alternating current and wireless electricity that could power hand held light bulbs and generators, to 'harmless' electrical flames wreathing his body or shooting forth from the palms of his hands.
Kids have their last Tae Kwon Do meeting of the season tonight (Analena and Matthias test for their black stripe belt on Saturday). It might be Michelle who takes them in.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Vinyl Cafe Live
Last night Michelle and I had to brave -30 C weather, which is basically like traveling through outer space, to see Stuart McLean and guests perform at the Conexus Art Centre in Regina. It was a great night of those ancient entertainments, story and song. His guests included the Vinyl Cafe band, which is a strong piano, upright bass and violin/sax trio, and a pair of award winning east coast musicians, Jill Barber, a jazz vocalist with a retro style and Matt Andersen, a phenomenal blues guitarist/singer. The show featured the animated telling of four Dave and Marley stories, two of them new, an autobiographical tale about Stuart's own first Christmas away from home, and lots of great music and radioesque entertainment.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Watchmen
I had low expectations. But it wasn't bad. I saw the director's cut, which adds 24 minutes of extra footage and is, I'd wager, 24 minutes inferior to the theatrical version, but while scene after scene tends to go on for longer than it needs to, it is, scene for scene, not bad. It's actually pretty good. And as far as thoughtful action movies go, it probably ought to be considered very good.The strengths include an epic, interesting story, excellent acting, complex characterization and sumptuous visuals. It challenges our notion of heroism (which we worship wholesale in our fiction and politics) by asking if violence can really lead to peace. It's a good question to ask because our culture is awash with messages telling us that it does. Be it bombs or Batman our American identity (okay, I'm Canadian but, sorry, we are part of their cultural hegemony) is based on the notion that violence is an excellent problem solver. And the film is content to explore. It unfolds in a complex world and it doesn't tell us what the right answer is, only what happens and what the consequences are.
Watchmen explores the psychology of those who put on masks to try and do good, and what this does to who they are, how they function and how they think. Thrown in the mix of costumed, but very human sociopaths is Dr. Manhattan, a being who survived a horrific nuclear accident and came back more god than man. Manhattan's great power and his decreasing identification with the human race is a key story factor.
For those of you who read comics, Watchmen is more interesting in its original, extraordinary telling. Here it is not marred as much as it is...diluted. And while the comic is consistently exceptional in both writing and art, the film is weakened by several problems. I've already mentioned scenes that linger too often. The film also and often shows flashbacks or additional scenes which have just been explained to us, which is redundant and hurts the pacing. But, surprisingly, the most extreme disappointment I had with the film was the music! Director Snyer has punctuated the film with songs from the Forrest Gump songbook, which, while fine in a film that marks a certain person's place in the sweep of Americana, are dreadfully out of place here. A half a dozen times (and always when one's emotion should be building) a popular song will sweep in and replace the film's atmosphere with whatever we already associate with the song. It's funny when Born to Bad plays in Terminator 2 or when Taking Care of Business plays in Knight's Tale, both of which are at least part comedy, but it wouldn't work in Batman Begins, and it doesn't work here.
But, like I said, and to my surprise I liked it overall, though I would have watched the shorter theatrical cut if it'd been available.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Fast Food Nation
A structurally interesting film that looks at the fast food industry from several angles. While the story's plot mainly focuses on the plight of imigrants whose limited options force them to work in the stomach turning conditions of a large meat processing plant, it also presents a naive marketing executive who discovers profitability is more important than excellence, and a teenage fast food worker who comes to morally object to 'version of reality' presented by her workplace. We like and feel for each of these people.The film is co-written by Eric Schlosser, the author of the non-fiction book, and director, Tim Linklater, and they've created an engaging web of characters whose attempts to grow and live with integrity are confronted with the facts and situations uncovered by Schlosser's investigative journalism.
The film succeeds in a variety of ways. It exposes the 'machine' that is the industry with an unexpected compassion that acknowledges how tied into the fast food culture many (likable) people are. The industry is not seen as entirely villainous but the various storylines do give us insight into the wide range of issues which are connected to the industry and to the psychological element of working at a slaughterhouse, the restaurants themselves or even in a 'plastic' environment like fast food marketing. Voicepiece characters are well rounded and motivated, their conversations are not just instructional but find their expression in realistic arguments. The film doesn't try to convince us toward any 'big level' action, and just lets us enjoy a provocative tale of personal implication and responsibilty that, for some, leads to a larger awareness and a willingness to take personal action.
Friday, November 13, 2009
The Difficulty of Remembrance Day
I find Remembrance Day to be a difficult holiday.
It doesn't seem to be about remembering the truth of what lies at the base of most conflict, but seems to be about reinforcing the myth that our present peace and security is due to our military's ability to intercept and defeat various foes who are clamoring to invade us. I'm afraid I don't believe this, beyond the obvious nod to Hitler (but even here one should remember that the US remained out of the war until they were sure they could end it on their terms, an incredible contrast to the British point of view, and one befitting a nation who, like Germany, Japan and the USSR, saw it's own chance to carve out an empire). When I pause to think of war and those who have lost their lives to nationalism it's difficult to see beyond the systematic aggression that underlies our our peace and prosperity. Canada is small potatoes compared to some other countries, but our troops are caught in the larger problems of western economic domination.
Canada's last major war, Korea, was actually fought to prevent Koreans from repatriating their country. At the end of world war 2, the Russians liberated what is now North Korea. They removed the Japanese, put the Koreans in charge and went home. The south part of Korea was occupied by the United States who refused to return the 'liberated' country to Korean control. When the local Koreans protested, demanding their country back (the Japanese had conquered and enslaved Korea around 1915) the US, who had kept on the brutal Japanese police force to keep control, began a campaign of terror which resulted in the death/murder of 100,000 dissidents (the US used the same strategy in South America adding Nazi outposts to the payroll rather than disbanding them). The free North Koreans were outraged and invaded. The South Koreans helped throw off the oppressors, and the invading force swept over the country in a matter of months until all that the US held was a little army base. At this point the US said they were being attacked by communists and Russians, though the Russians had not helped invade. Western troops came in and violently retook the country from its own people - and might have taken the whole thing if China had not stepped in to help the Northerners hold the line where the border remains today. We tell the story as if the west was defending democracy, which is in complete contradiction of the facts.
A different story, more in line with the facts, is that our peace and wealth derive from the intentional destabilization of various foreign countries, who are often not our foes until their governments decide to look out for their own citizens instead of western interests. Possibly without exception, the countries which are rife with violence and suicide bombings are countries which have been deeply managed by western powers in order to exploit the locals. Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, El Salvador, Panama, Nicaragua all suffer or suffered a lack of peace because western intervention intentionally placed tyrannical despots in power. Such despots were the ones willing to exploit their people for bribe laden foreign interests. If these people are our foes it's because our troops and agents have exploited and murdered their family members in order to benefit our economy.
Again, it seems that most of the countries infected by generational violence are artificial countries whose borders were imposed on them mere generations ago by the west so that theoretically they could be independent while in practice they could be administered by corrupt officials who would ensure that the new nations prioritized western economic interested over long term national development. The mixed tribal nature of these nations does not work within these sorts of boundaries and racism, racial violence and even ethnic cleansing have become par for the course in these managed territories, and recently in the case of Rwanda, were partly incited by Belgian and French interests. But this destabilization, however much its lamented in the press (and I believe people are really starting to care more), is precisely what the west has wanted and benefited from. Even in Iraq and Afghanistan, the western militaries' most recent projects have already been shown to have instated corrupt officials and Iraq, in particular, was notable for how brazen the US was in controlling and 'selling' off reconstruction contracts.
And while we might yearn to praise the west for giving foreign aid to these hurting countries, even here we may find strings attached. In many cases the west 'gives' money to a country, but then dictates that it be spent buying resources from the gifting country. ie. The US gives $10 million dollars to a country where parts of its population is starving, but stipulates that the money must be spent buying American grown grain. So the $10M dollars actually goes to American farmers and at the same time collapses the local market prices in the foreign country, worsening the local economy and compounding the actual problem. Worse, the aid money is not a 'gift' but a loan, and the country will now have to pay the gifting country back the $10 million plus interest.
Remembrance Day would have more value if we remembered that many of the young and brave soldiers who have been sacrificed in foreign violence have lost their lives not because we were in danger; but because our society wanted to maintain and increase our economic superiority and felt that the lives of other people's children were a reasonable sacrifice for obtaining it.
It doesn't seem to be about remembering the truth of what lies at the base of most conflict, but seems to be about reinforcing the myth that our present peace and security is due to our military's ability to intercept and defeat various foes who are clamoring to invade us. I'm afraid I don't believe this, beyond the obvious nod to Hitler (but even here one should remember that the US remained out of the war until they were sure they could end it on their terms, an incredible contrast to the British point of view, and one befitting a nation who, like Germany, Japan and the USSR, saw it's own chance to carve out an empire). When I pause to think of war and those who have lost their lives to nationalism it's difficult to see beyond the systematic aggression that underlies our our peace and prosperity. Canada is small potatoes compared to some other countries, but our troops are caught in the larger problems of western economic domination.
Canada's last major war, Korea, was actually fought to prevent Koreans from repatriating their country. At the end of world war 2, the Russians liberated what is now North Korea. They removed the Japanese, put the Koreans in charge and went home. The south part of Korea was occupied by the United States who refused to return the 'liberated' country to Korean control. When the local Koreans protested, demanding their country back (the Japanese had conquered and enslaved Korea around 1915) the US, who had kept on the brutal Japanese police force to keep control, began a campaign of terror which resulted in the death/murder of 100,000 dissidents (the US used the same strategy in South America adding Nazi outposts to the payroll rather than disbanding them). The free North Koreans were outraged and invaded. The South Koreans helped throw off the oppressors, and the invading force swept over the country in a matter of months until all that the US held was a little army base. At this point the US said they were being attacked by communists and Russians, though the Russians had not helped invade. Western troops came in and violently retook the country from its own people - and might have taken the whole thing if China had not stepped in to help the Northerners hold the line where the border remains today. We tell the story as if the west was defending democracy, which is in complete contradiction of the facts.
A different story, more in line with the facts, is that our peace and wealth derive from the intentional destabilization of various foreign countries, who are often not our foes until their governments decide to look out for their own citizens instead of western interests. Possibly without exception, the countries which are rife with violence and suicide bombings are countries which have been deeply managed by western powers in order to exploit the locals. Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, El Salvador, Panama, Nicaragua all suffer or suffered a lack of peace because western intervention intentionally placed tyrannical despots in power. Such despots were the ones willing to exploit their people for bribe laden foreign interests. If these people are our foes it's because our troops and agents have exploited and murdered their family members in order to benefit our economy.
Again, it seems that most of the countries infected by generational violence are artificial countries whose borders were imposed on them mere generations ago by the west so that theoretically they could be independent while in practice they could be administered by corrupt officials who would ensure that the new nations prioritized western economic interested over long term national development. The mixed tribal nature of these nations does not work within these sorts of boundaries and racism, racial violence and even ethnic cleansing have become par for the course in these managed territories, and recently in the case of Rwanda, were partly incited by Belgian and French interests. But this destabilization, however much its lamented in the press (and I believe people are really starting to care more), is precisely what the west has wanted and benefited from. Even in Iraq and Afghanistan, the western militaries' most recent projects have already been shown to have instated corrupt officials and Iraq, in particular, was notable for how brazen the US was in controlling and 'selling' off reconstruction contracts.
And while we might yearn to praise the west for giving foreign aid to these hurting countries, even here we may find strings attached. In many cases the west 'gives' money to a country, but then dictates that it be spent buying resources from the gifting country. ie. The US gives $10 million dollars to a country where parts of its population is starving, but stipulates that the money must be spent buying American grown grain. So the $10M dollars actually goes to American farmers and at the same time collapses the local market prices in the foreign country, worsening the local economy and compounding the actual problem. Worse, the aid money is not a 'gift' but a loan, and the country will now have to pay the gifting country back the $10 million plus interest.
Remembrance Day would have more value if we remembered that many of the young and brave soldiers who have been sacrificed in foreign violence have lost their lives not because we were in danger; but because our society wanted to maintain and increase our economic superiority and felt that the lives of other people's children were a reasonable sacrifice for obtaining it.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Matthias's Deep Thoughts
Matthias asked Thayne, "If you could know everything about anything, what would it be? I would choose dinosaurs so if they ever came back I could be like (he points) 'Arrrgh! It's a T Rex!'"
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Insane, Cursed and Trapped in an Underwater Cave
That's how I spent about half of last night's game of Arkham Horror.I was playing Rex Murphy, a reporter desperate to find proof of the supernatural (not to be confused with the CBC newsman). But while I was trying to uncover a conspiracy I lost the few clues I had and accepted that I would always be cursed. Then I went insane and was attacked by a nightgaunt the moment I stepped out of the asylum. It sent me to another dimension and I barely escaped to the watery cave off the coast of Innsmouth - where I waited and waited.
Could have been worse, I guess. Analena's spy got picked up in a federal raid and was devoured while sitting in the Innsmouth jail. But it was better for some. Thayne's federal agent also went insane, but managed to overcome his schizophrenia to became the deputy of Arkham. Logan's gravedigger, who was a monster slaying machine, kept both his sanity and his life. Ultimately the team prevailed by settling Arkham before the great old one awoke.
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