Put-Putt

There is a movie called "Schwarzhuhnbraunhuhnschwarzhuhnweisshuhnrothuhnweiss oder Put-Putt". I recommend seeing any movie with a name that is over 50 letters long... oh, and also any movies with the name "put-putt" in them.

Book Reviews: 1984 and the Anti-Communist Impulse

1984- Orwell
1984 should be in the NON-fiction section. Everything that it says has so much truth to it. There are a million examples of this. In the society in the book, there is the "Two Minutes Hate" in wich the "telescreens" show the national enemy and show you just how evil he is for you to hate him, then the screen shows "Big Brother", who is the nation's national symbol. People then will run up to the screen and cry because they love Big Brother so much for protecting them. Also, the history books are controlled and leave out important things, such as the fact that the nation was ONCE allies with their NOW enemy. Can anybody relate this to Iraq? My favorite aspect of the book was probably the "doublethink". "Doublethink" is a word for conciously possesing two contradictory thoughts similtaneously. When I was reading this at first, I was thinking to myself "there is no way that America or any other nation will get so ignorant that they will believe in two contradictory things at the SAME time without having a problem with their way of thought". Then later, I started realizing that we ALREADY have it here. A really good example is of the majority of American's thoughts on Communism.

Anti Communist Impulse- Parenti
I've been reading The Anti-Communist Impulse which reminded me of this. Americans similtaneously beleive that the Soviet Union was a great threat to America with all their missles and their super-power. But at the SAME time, they believe that communism, such as in the Soviet Union, would never work because the economy is terrible and very poor and could never get anything done. Therfore, people go on believing that it was a super-power, but at the same time it was super-weak somehow. Also, while reading the Impulse it is observed how politicians during the cold war constantly say things like "We can't trust anything the reds say, we must only judge what they do" whenever the communists talk of how the want peace. But when the communists cut back on military and try to make peace negotiations the news/politicians will say "we can't trust their communist ploys, they mean nothing, after all they did say..." and then they'll name an instance like the infamous Khrushchev "We will bury you quote" to 'show' that what communists do is just a plot when you think about the terrible things that they've said they will do. As you can see, these two things obviously contradict eachother, yet the people who say them and the people who beleive them seem to not have a problem with it.
The Impulse is a pretty good book, provided you are interested in the subject of the reaction to communism. It names a lot of inncidents that I don't even know about. It is pretty detailed and hard to read at times, but you get a lot of good information out of it. A lot of it is summed up in Parenti's later book Inventing Reality, which is a good book that deals a lot with how the media handled the cold war.

Movie Review: Secret Window

I wasn't expecting to like Secret Window. I don't usually like those Stephen King movies. For one thing, they always are about a writer and usually involve some aspect of children or childhood memories*. Secret Window followed the usual "writer" path... to the max. But it didn't involve children. It is the story of Johnny Depp** who wrote a story a long time ago, and somebody came to his door saying that they wrote the story, not him. The person then goes on to harass him a bunch and make threats and such. The movie is about how Depp deals with such threats.
I thought the plot was pretty good, and the movie was definately well made. The only thing that kinda sucked was the ending. It seems that too many movies use that same ending. I won't tell you what it is though. But then again, the ending kind of fit. I just wish that another ending could have happened that fit just as well.
4 Stars


* I bet you are thinking of a movie of his that you feel is THE movie I'm talking about, but really, all of you reading this are probably thinking of all different movies.. that's why it's funny.

** Not a character played by Johnny Depp, but ACTUALLY about Johnny Depp himself if he wrote books. I say this because he doesn't even seem like he is acting. I've seen videos of him hanging out and stuff and he acts exactly like that in Secret Window.

Movie Review: Limey

The Limey. I really like the directing and how the movie was made overall. It had some really great scenes and cinematography. The plot was a cliche "dad looking for revenge on his daughter's death" type thing, but they somehow made it into a good and intresting movie. The movie seemed like it knew it had a simple plot and left it at that and didn't drag it out into some big annoying adventure. I think this is a worthwhile movie to see. I would recommend it. It won't do anything like "change your life" or "make you laugh and cry" or anything, but it is a entertaining well made movie that should be watched.

Movie Review: Rounders

Rounders is a movie about people that play poker to make money off of people who aren't good at it. Well, more specifically, it's about how Edward Norton and Matt Daemon do that. The movie seems like it's good, but really it's just fooling you. If you sit there and think to yourself, "is this a good movie?", you will probably won't see it as one anymore. It was pretty well made and the cast was good, but the movie didn't really say anything or have a purpose. It was also predictable. It's like a good comedy movie, without any comedy.. at all.. making it not such a good comedy. Imagine Lock Stock And 2 Smoking Barrels without any comedy or irony. Or even Boondock Saints without playing up the whole Irish angle. You are just left with a movie, but a movie without any purpose.
3 1/2 stars

Will Smith Stars In An Exciting New Hat!

I, Robot would be nothing without the hat.

Fuck World Trade

In late August, one of the coolest bands still around, Leftøver Crack, is going to release their newest cd, "Fuck World Trade". The album is pictured above. How did they get away with a cover like this with such a "shocking" title? Well, first of all they are hella tyte (I definately, agree when they say "fuck world trade"). Secondly, the moved on over from the more and more crap infested 'Hellcat' label over to the hella-tyte label of Alternative Tenticles. LOC's last album's artwork, Mediocre Generica (the album of which was coincidentally released on 9/11/01), was of a school shooting and Hellcat forced them to change the cover. Jello Biafra is very familiar with being hassled over censorship and gladly let the band use whatever artwork they chose for their newest album's cover.
About the subject matte of the cover art... Of course, the band doesn't approve of the killing of innocent people. They are vehemently against it. Originally, "Fuck World Trade" was actually the name of one of their old band's, Choking Victim, songs which came out years before 9/11. When they say it now, their meaning hasn't changed. World trade isn't a bad thing in principal, I mean with it you can get exotic fruits and things, but that's not what they are talking about. They are talking about the IMF, World Bank, and WTO, which are essentially legal American terrorist organizations by the definition of the word. They do much more damage than Osama Bin Laden could ever hope to do. Terrible things happen with this kind of capital warfare, for example, NATO launched the bombing of innocent people in Yugoslavia for 78 straight horrific days. This was under the "liberal" Clinton... and you probably havn't even heard of such a bombing, have you? Well, world trade works as secretly as it can. Still, some people wise up everyonce in awhile to oppose it, such as in the Seattle WTO riot not too many years ago. These organizations simply work like this: Country X needs money, American groups such as these will loan money IF Country X does favors for corporate Amerika; privatize their health care and anything else the organizations want done (it's 111 policies on average that country X will need to change). But, let's not forget the good parts of massive capital world trade. I mean, as Greg Palast pointed out, they did make great strides in the cure for AIDS. Tanzia has a large AIDS infested population of poor people, but the problem is that the silly nation was giving away health care for free! Can you believe that? Well, the World Bank stepped in and gave a helping hand by ordering for their to be no more trade barriers, and instead, deregulation and privatization for the savage country. Needless to say, this helped the country and it's people when the health care industry was privatized and now cost money for the people to get their health care. And wouldn't you know it? It started working right away! A whole 53% of the citizens of Tanzia quit coming in for AIDS treatment!
If you don't learn about this stuff, such album cover's as this will make you "scared" and want to wrap yourself with a flag for protection. But unfortunately, the flag you blanket yourself with has been purposely infected with ignorance; just as the blankets given to the Indians were purposefully infected with smallpox. Both are equally fatal.
But again, if you want to, you can look the other way... But you'll be no better than George W. up there torching innocent people with his (haliburton) capital gas flamethrower.

New! Short Story!

The much anticipated second part of my short story has just been posted online! As usual, I havn't read it yet after writing it. Editing, schmediting. Anyways, here it is!...
(try and ignore the weird computer jargon that I havn't had time to get rid of yet)

LIBERTY

"Should The Left Support Nader?"

By supporting one pro-corporate political party because it stands slightly to the left of the other, activists give up their political independence and set back efforts to build the kind of struggles and political organization that can win real change.

The PARANORMAL!

You probably think I have some sort of paranormal story to tell... but I don't. For some reason, I just want to mention that when I was younger, elementary school, I knew this girl, Casey Cutter, who always showed me this book on the paranormal. Oh man, that book scared the SHIT out of me like no other. I can't remember how many nights I couldn't go to sleep because of that book. It seriously still scares me to think a bout it. The book always tempted me a lot to look at, even though I knew I would regret it. I remember a lot of stuff about it still though. It had spontanious combustion in it and a picture of a ladie's leg next to a toilet with a caption that said she blew up. The book also had pictures of ghosts and things like that. I remember this one picture of these two ghosts on this boat... oh man, so scary. Also, it talked about this big giant face that appeared on this one woman's floor in her kitchen. I can't remember if it had a picture of that. It still scared the crap out of me though. I want to find that book very badly. It's like a nostalgia... except for instead of something that was a "cherishing memmory", it was one of those memories that was the scariest book ever. I'm tired. It's 3:24 DISPITE what the blog post says. It's an hour early all the time. Tell me if you know what book that is called which I described if you know!

Movie Review: Anchorman (new)

During the begining of this movie, I started thinking that I should leave and just get a refund for my money (or my parent's money, since I was with them). Then the movie got better; it elevated to the "mediocre" rating. It didn't get much higher from there though. There are a ton of really stale un-funny jokes in it, which of course the audience loved for some reason. A lot of slap-stick type comedy and fart jokes can be found in this movie, not in a good Dumb and Dumber type way, but a stupid annoying way. Of course there were a few funny parts, but not enough to justify watching the whole movie. The only good thing about the movie was Will Ferrel's obvious improvisation on a lot of lines. Another thing that really annoyed me in this movie was the over-abundance of cameos. You can usually tell a new movie is bad when it has a lot of cameos. This one had: Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, that one guy who is in all the teen movies like Dodgeball and Old School who's name I don't know... and probably more cameos that I can't remember. This is not a movie you go out to the theatre to pay for and see, it's one you watch at 3am in the morning because you can't sleep.
3 stars

Movie Review: Jackie Brown

I have mixed feelings about Jackie Brown. I liked it, but then again I didn't in a lot of ways. Mainly, I think it would have been a good shorter film, but it didn't seem to work as a full-legnth movie. It felt like it didn't have all that much substance to it and the plot was too simple and plain for a whole movie's legnth. The film is about Jackie Brown, a flight attendant who smuggles illegal gun money from Mexico to America to give to Samuel L. Jackson's character. She gets caught and is forced to go under cover to try and nab Jackson with illegal gun charges. She then decides to try and trick both sides (the cops and Samuel L. Jackson) in hopes of getting more money for herself. This is mainly what the movie is about. There is also a bail-bondsman who "falls" for Jackie. It is also worth mentioning that Robert Dinero plays in his most middle-aged complacent pothead role who's main purpose in the movie is to get stoned with Samuel L. Jackson's blonde bimbo girlfriend. I would recomend seeing this movie if it was on TV or if you are a Terrintino fan. For me, this movie felt like it was somewhat plain and empty.
3 1/2 stars

Movie Review: Network

Network is the tale of the fictional newscaster, "Howard Beale", and the fictional station "UBS". Howard Beal embraces a new type of newsreporting of self destruction and anger when he realizes that he will soon be fired. At first everybody at the news place is completely mad at what Howard has said on the air, but then they notice that the ratings have gone up because nobody before him has talked complete honesty on the news before. This is pretty much the exact same plot layout as Bullworth, which came much later than Network. Bullworth is the tale of a US president who gets depressed and gives up the lies and political trickery and such and just goes on a path of self destruction and honesty, his handlers dispise it at first, but then they realize that the people like this type of honesty. Personally, I like Bullworth more because there is more truth to it. When you watch Bullworth, you can tell that they aren't editing themselves. With Network, you can tell that they are either editing their plot to make it more capitalist friendly, or the writers are just stupid. There are many examples of this in Network and I don't have time to list them. Another thing that anoyed me about Network was this neo-phyte 'radical' staff member at the network, Diana (I think), who embraced the chaotic stance and wanted to give the viewers the "real truth". This normally wouldn't bother me, except she didn't know what the fuck she was talking about and that that progressivism and radicalism was all about robbing banks and killing people. That's one example of a form of editing in the movie. Yes, that main character promotes radicalism, BUT it's not real radicalism, it's a corporate media spin-off of what it's really about and she's givin into it... when you watch this movie, however, you are supposed to think that she really is some sort of radical and she knows what she is talking about. Some examples of how she didn't know what was up was when she said people needed 'different views' like of "Stalin and his dandy bunch of Bolshevick". This was perticulary annoying because they weren't "stalin's bolsheviks". Lenin created the Bolsheviks and Stalin later became one himself, then came to power after that. So saying that they were Stalin's Bolsheviks is kind of a spin-off of the truth and degrades the original Bolsheviks. Also she made some weird comment about how Che Guavara was all about robbing banks or something. Later in the movie, there is a good quote about how Howard Beal is getting in the way of the natural order of things, capitalism, and how there is no democracy any more, there is only ATT, IBM, ABC and so on. It's a really good speech, but it misses some important things: It fails to mention that this is caused by CAPITALISM. Yes, in the whole speech about how capitalism is taking over, he failed to mention the word "CAPITALISM"! He said that it was the "natural order of things". I believe this is true, that greed is natural when people are high in power, but the movie failed to mention that there are alternatives and the movie also failed to mention that the REST of the world is not getting into this "natural order of things". It lets us, the viewers, know that something is kind of wrong with this picture, but it's natural and there is no alternative; which is hardly a revolutionary or radical viewpoint that the movie seems to think it conveys. Yet another thing that pissed me off was when Howard Beal was talking about how the network was being bought by another network which was controlled by this Saudi Arabian interest group. I agree that things like this happen every day, but NEVER would the network ALLOW somebody on primetime television to just say things like that! The movie gives the impression that it's actually possible for us to hear corporate truth like that. Also, Howard spun this off as that the "arabs are getting more american money again!". Which was very very ignorant, when you see how the Saudi's live compared to Americans. Obviously Arabs have been screwed out of their money countless times by America, yet Howard says that "the arabs are taking OUR money!". He, of course is REFERRING to a few Saudi Arabs at the top which are making money (like now days still), but makes it sound as if every Arab is personally stealing our money. Anyways, this movie really annoyed me. It could have been a really good movie if it actually pushed some buttons of corporate interests, instead of just pretending to do that and really just made people who watched it even more ignorant to the situation than they already were.

Remember, that a lot of the stuff I'm talking about is subcoincious stuff and small stuff, but that's what really matters in the big picture. If you pay attention when you watch the movie, you'll notice these things that I'm talking about. Lately, I've been reading about media politics and how they spin things even when they are trying to be "liberal" and things of that issue, so that might be one reason I felt like this movie had so many mis-truths in it.

3 1/2 stars

Cryptic Mexican Wrestler Image

I don't want to explain it again, so I'm pasting my conversation with Jenny here. G is me, and J is her. I only will name the first two textings. After that you just switch who is talking whenever there is a line break. Follow the directions for the mysterious mexican wrestler!

G: i had these windows open on the computer, and they were covering this photo on the top and bottom, and i only saw the middle
saw*
and it looked like a mexican wrestler
but it turns out it was two guys boxing

J: weird

ill show you

k

http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:13402
now make two extra windows you can use to cover the picture
can you do that?

yea
where do i cover it?

ok now put the windows where i tell you:
put the top one right above the first of the guy on the right
like EXACTLY on the tip of the top of his fist
and do the same to the same guys bottom hand with the other window
except lower the bottom window a bit lower so its not the bottom of his hand, but the bottom of his cuff

i cant see it

have you positioned them:

yes

ill tell you how to see it
the mexican wrestler is all huge and muscular and he is facing us
you can't see all of him, its supposed to look like you can only see the middle of a picture of him
and the gap between the people is like his chin
and the guy's fist is part of the mask decoration

hahahahhah i see it

doesn't it look like it???!

yes

you can see his armpits
and his right shoulder strap

and hes kind of in fighting stance kind of crouched

Movie Review: Kill Bill 2 (newish)

I liked the first Kill Bill a lot more than this one. I know they are together one big movie, but the first half of the story was a lot better, apparently. This one kind of jumps around and trys to be 'emotional' and has less fighting and action. Overall, the movie seemed really long and drawn out. Especially the beginning. It seemed to take awhile to get the movie going. I liked a lot of the scenes and I liked the burial scenes, but overall this addition to the first volume was a dissappointment.
3 1/2 stars

Movie Review: American Psycho

American Psycho is the story of a 27 year old big time CEO who gets fed up with all the 'yuppie scum' and fancy restruants and goes on a killing spree. It reminded me a lot of Fight Club in the sense that the main character narrates his yuppie corporate life and all the brand name facial masks and things he uses. Like in Fight Club, he eventually gets tired of all of this superficial bullshit and can't stand it anymore, so he relies on destruction to make him feel whole again. The movie is obviously a black comedy (not like Fresh Prince, but rather a dark comedy) and a lot of scenes are funny. I especially like the business card competitions.
4 stars

Movie Review: Spiderman 2 (new)

Spiderman 2 was an alright movie in my opinion. I liked it because it was entertaining, but aside from that there wasn't much to it. It's a lot like the first Spiderman movie, but I actually don't remember that much about the first one. I don't have that much to say about the movie.
3 1/2

Coincidence: ID Card

This is a big coincidence that freaked me out. The weird thing is that nobody seems to think it's weird at all! What happened was I went to Colin's house and there was this girl there for a minute, but she left right after I got there. I asked Colin if her name was Emily, because I remembered Adam Roger's having a girlfriend named Emily Torres and the girl at Colin's house kinda looked like her. Colin said her name wasn't Emily, it was Robin. Later, after watching some MST3K, I went into his kitchen and what did I happen to find other than the ID Card of Emily Torres! Obviously, Colin was tricking me and that actually was Emily Torres who was there earlier. The weird thing was though, that he wasn't tricking me. The girl who was there actually wasn't Emily and has no relation to her. It was a sheer coincidence that I saw Emily's liscence there; I don't know anything about Emily (other than her name) and I didn't know that Colin knew her either. Colin thinks that it is really weird that I think that is a big coincidence. Vince aggrees; he says "that's not weird! That happens to me all the time!"
Well, to me it seems like a big coincidence.

Coincidence: Pot Bellied Psycho

I talked to Jenny last night, and she was talking all about pot-bellied pigs and how she wanted to get one as a pet. She was naming all the different things they did and what they looked like and stuff, she even sent me a picture of one. The next day, today, I was watching American Psycho and there was a christmas party in it where somebody brought their pet pot-bellied pig and was talking about how they make great pets.

Movie Review: Elephant Man

David Lynch's second film, The Elephant Man, is the tale of a disfigured man in 19th century london. The man got his surname "elephant man", not by looking similar to an elephant, but because an inncident with an elephant caused his deformities. A young Anthony Hopkins plays the rule of Dr. Treaves who rescues the 'elephant man' from his former 'master' who beat him and displayed him as a freak in a freak show. The Elephant Man firmly fotified Hopkin's career in acting.
The black and white 80's film is reminescent of Tom Browning's Freaks, which I reviewed not long ago. Some scenes look almost identical between the films. The film is undoubtedly labeled as "disturbing" by some, as was Lynch's previous movie, Eraserhead. Some even think of The Elephant Man as a competent version of Eraserhead. Elephant Man contains the same machinery and rumbling type sounds that seem apparent throughout much of Lynch's work, most notably in Eraserhead.
The Elephant Man is a great movie, a forgotten classic, as it were. I highly recommend it, especially if you are a fan of Lynch.
4 1/2 stars

Socialism For Free!

If you are one of those few people who really still believe in crazy things like women's rights, democracy, minority rights, freedom and peace, then I highly recommend learning getting involved in socialism. The Socialist Worker is a free online magazine that provides new information weekly. That would be a good place to start. Also, Haymarket Books is a great independant book store that provides inexpensive books and pamphlets on Marxism, Socialism and Radicalism.
Socialism is NOT the same as Communism, although Reagan would like you to think so. There are similarities between the two, but they are not the same. If you are still scared because the TV tells you to hate people that oppose extreme capitalism/feudalism, just remember this quote from Michael Parenti:

The threat that Communism may someday take over the world blinds us to the fact that anti-Communism already has*

*If you don't understand that quote, then read up my son, read up.

Movie Review: Killing Fields

The Killing Fields is a true story about a US reporter for the NYTimes and his translater reporting together in Cambodia. This is during the Vietnam War while Nixon was illegally bombing the neutral country of Cambodia. Amist the chaos in the country, the Khmer Rouge successfully takes control over Cambodia. Led by Pol Pot, the notorious Khmer Rouge radically destroyed the county with it's extreme communist law. It is now known as one of the biggest examples of genocide. Before gaining power, the Khmer Rouge were opposed by a US-Backed organization (any time there is a communist or socialist movement, you can be sure the US backs the opposition). Never the less, the Khmer Rouge ended up in control. The Khmer Rouge were so radically extreme that communist Vietnam largely opposed the regime. Eventually the Khmer Rouge was ousted by a Vietnamese puppet government. Here's what you probably don't know: The United States government, seeing the Viet-friendly government in control starting thinking "hey, these damn gook commies are in control of the country now turning it into a typical communist state, rather than a genocide destruction 'killing field'... now that we think about it, we'd rather have Pol Pot and his gang back in control". So the US government funneled money through Taiwon to help Pol Pot and the Rouge try and gain control of the bordering country again. The Khmer Rouge continued some terrorist acts from Taiwon, but not nearly with the destrution that they had done while in control. Eventually the Khmer Rouge was no more. Almost none of that is covered during the movie, but that is just to give you a history lesson of the country if you are unfamiliar with it. (The movie ends before the Khmer Rouge is ousted)
Back to the movie. The translater is stranded in the 'killing fields' because he is denied access into the French Embasy (which has become a protective base for reporters such as the one featured in the movie). The movie is about the translater's journey trying to escape the havok of the killing fields. He sees thousands of bodies and bones scattered in the fields and decides he doesn't want to add to the death count (1-2 million).

Movie Review: Slasher

Slasher sounds like some crazy horror movie right? Well, it's not. It's an IFC documentary about a used car salesman. You might think that that would be a boring movie, but it was actually pretty interesting. It was made really well and entertaining, given the circumstances. This expert car salesman goes to Tennesee to help this used car dealership that isn't selling cars well. He promises that he can sell 400 cars in 3 days, or something close to that. The film documents what happens. Also, there is a scene where a goat holds a beer in his mouth and chugs the whole thing on his own... I kid you not. That alone is worth watching this movie for. A quote from the movie is:
The American consumer; if they drive by a pile of horseshit that's a million dollars and they drive by it every day for 2 weeks and one day they drive by and there's a sign for a dollar, they'll buy the shit
3 stars

Movie Review: Gone With The Wind

You are probably wondering why I watched Gone With The Wind. Well, I had to for school awhile ago. I just figured I might as well rate it on here. I can sum up my opinon of this movie in two words: Classic Schmassic. I don't care if it's a "classic" or whatever, I don't like this movie. It is like 4 hours long and is really really boring. It's about the civil war and this really ditzy slutty girl and how the war has an effect on her. There was one really cool part when this little girl tried to ride a horse and make it jump over a fence. The film so obviously cut to a clip of the girl replaced as a doll lifelessly fall into the fence to her death. It was supposed to be 'tragic' or something, but in reality, it was really pretty funny. I asked to rewind it and watch that part again, and I watched it again. Aside from that, I wouldn't recomend you watch this unless you are some old lady or something.
2 stars

Movie Review: Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys

The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys was a very entertaining movie. It entertained me very thoroughly. It had a good story as well. Dangerous Lives is about 4 boys at a catholic school who are obsessed with comic books. They draw blasphemus comics and get into trouble often. It stars the brother of McColly Coulkin (sp?), who stars in Igby Goes Down. He plays just about the same exact character in both movies. The plot involves a cougar, nuns, and incest. I think that should be in the slogan for the movie, because I know everybody would rent it right away.
Also, it is highly notable that Dangerous Lives Of Alter Boys is really a prequel to Full Metal Jacket. It depicts some of the life of Father Casey (Vincent D'Onofrio) before he is sent off into training for Vietnam. In Full Metal Jacket, you see Father Casey mocked and picked on. The name that Casey is given by his drill sargent is Pvt. Pyle.
4 stars

Book Review: Stranger Than Fiction

Stranger Than Fiction is Chuck Palahniuk's newest book. It is his second non-fiction book, after his book about Portland. I've read all of his books, his short story in Playboy and his contribution to this book (I can't remember the name) where he wrote about signing books. So when I saw that this book had been released and I saw it at Borders, I got it. I was disappointed. It wasn't very interesting most of the time, and just wasn't that good. Some of the articles were good, but a lot of them weren't. I liked one called "Life as a Dog", and I liked reading about his Dad's murder, but aside from that, a lot of it isn't worth reading. In fact, the book he wrote about Portland, which can be found in the Travel section, was a lot more interesting/better. I read the book in one day, which was more attributed to the fact that if I didn't finish it right away I would probably have no desire to pick it up the next day, rather than it being a "page-turner". He is coming out with a book called Monster (I think that's the title) sometime, which is a book of short stories.

Movie Review: Dark Days

Dark Days is a black and white documentary about homelessness underground near the subway tracks. It interviewed various homeless people who lived in these little houses that they made out of metal, peices of wood, anything they could find. They explain their way of life and their struggles complete with reasons for staying underground. The title of the movie is easy to see it's relation to the film, because underground there is almost no light. You need a flashlight if you are going to walk around down there. Somehow, the inhabitants have electricity and some water (cold only) available underground. Many of the people down there are addicted to crack, and one is a former crack addict who is trying to stay off of the drug. At one point, one of their little shack houses is burnt down by a drug dealer that they upset. Dark Days is a very revealing documentary on the subject and was well made also. I saw a book in the store called "The Mole People" that looked like it was about the same subject. On the cover of "Mole People" it had a picture of the same underground tracks that are used in the cover of the movie Dark Days. I'm guessing the movie was based around that book somewhat. Perhaps visa-versa.
4 stars

Book Review: Inventing Reality

Michael Parenti's book Inventing Reality was a very interesting and enlightening read. It is also notable that it was written during Reagan's time and before the fall of the Soviet Union. The Soviet scare tactics used by the media was a large theme of the book, given the time. Overall, the book explained what it claimed on the cover "The Politics of the Mass Media". A lot of the book and the overall gist is already recognized by anyone who pays any attention; the media is very biased against the left. It's also amazing that the right says things like the "liberal media"! I am wanting to read a book by Anne Coulter, a popular right-winger, about things like this. I can't understand where they would get their arguement from other than, "The media sometimes lets some story slip by questioning a war's efficiency (not questioning the purpose of the war, remember), therfore the media is liberal. If it was fair and balanced, the left would never have a chance to spoil our fair and balanced media with their communist ideas." I made the following semi-chart to find out if the media would have a right-wing bias. Feel free to use it when trying to figure out if there is a bias of any media you are uncertain about:

Are right wingers usually the 1. corporate elite, or the 2. laboring people?
Is the media in question owned, operated, subsidized and funded by number 1. or number 2. ?
If the media is owned by number 1. , it should have the view of the corportate elite.
If the media is owned by number 2. , it should have the laboring people.

The chart might get a little confusing, but once you've used it a few times, you should get the hang of it!

Happy 4th Of July Fellow Patriot

I love the 4th of July. It's a time when we Americans can treat ourselves to what we treat the rest of the world to everyday; fireworks. Except the fireworks we watch here don't destroy our essential water resources, destroy red cross stations, burn crops, kill millions of innocent people and create hell on earth like the usual fireworks paid for by our taxes.

Fuck patriotism. I tried to explain my view to my parents, but my mom got "offended". I told them that it's not that I hate Americans, but what America as a country stands for in the world; the only military superpower. My mom says that respecting the flag and being patriotic has "nothing to do with politics". Of course it does! It has everything to do with politics. Being patriotic is about understanding the "grandness" of your home country. This doesn't necessarily mean that you view all other countries as worse, or inferior... but it does to a lot of people. Even if it doesn't mean that to you, it gets you on a subconcious level. When America does something in a world you will think "it's my beloved America afterall, no harm will be done". My whole view on the matter can be summed up in one bumper sticker: "There isn't a flag large enough to cover the shame of killing thousands of innocent people." And this is true, not even the "dreaded soviets" have killed as many people. Not nearly as many. Not even Nazi Germany or the Khmer Rouge for that matter. When a Nazi kills an innocent, is it somehow worse than when an American soldier kills an innocent? Think about that to yourself. As the beloved RATM says "a yellow ribbon, instead of a swastika."
If I ever did believe in patriotism, it would that "dissent is patriotic" (another bumper sticker) type of patriotism. It would be the type of patriotism that Jefferson advocated. The type that doesn't blindly follow any dumb ass president or corporate regime. Speaking of the president, how the fuck can somebody be expected to be patriotic when our country doesn't even allow it's people to elect a president? And then lie to us to get us into this fuck-off war for oil. No, fuck that.
I think my parents are very wrong when they say that patriotism has nothing to do with politics. Then how do you explain "support our troops" slogans? How do you explain "these colors don't run" slogans? These are not slogans of hardcore right wing ultraists, they are slogans seen on average joe t-shirts and cars. Slogans seen on average 'patriots'. I think these people are the real traitors. Their blind optimism hands our country over to corporations on a silver platter. If these type of people are swayed by George Bush's half-assed non-sensical excuses for speaches, imagine if they were in Nazi Germany under Hitler (an impressive speaker, unlike Bush). Think about how fast they would eat up all that shit about how Jews are making the world so terrible.... Almost as fast as us Americans ate up the shit about how 'dirty commies' are making the world so bad...

50 Stars to Blind your Eyes
13 Stripes to Hypnotize
-CV