On a more upbeat note.
Congratulations to Joel and Teej for thier encounter with Go-dot!
I've read the reviews and you're being praised for a good performance, and those photos... damn I wish I could have seen that show. It sounds like it was fantastic.
After reading Joel's blog yesterday, I want to say that I was both shocked and dismayed.
Sadly, shock was lacking.
Dismay however was there, but not disconcerting enough to put a pall on my day.
Perhaps it's due to the fact, that even though my best friend is cast into the mess simply by virtue of his job, I'm still far removed from the events.
In fact had Joel not posted, I wouldn't have known about them for weeks.
Christian apologists would point at this as an example of the decay of society.
I think there is an underlying problem in our society, several in fact.
But I think yesterdays events at the hotel in which Joel works, is an example of the effects of the problems.
What are these problems?
There are many; one major one is the tendency for the general population to ignore the seedy underbelly that exsists all around them, unless it directly effects them.
They like to turn a blind eye to it. I've talked to some people, many people about this.
Want to buy a slave? There are beaches in San Diego where you can pick some up I hear.
Or how about the prostitutes living in huts in fields in California, paying for thier own unwilling indentured servitude.
There are still lynchings, not just for race, for interference in drug deals, or the sort of things I mentioned above.
Americans are lucky we don't have to confront this stuff daily, and when we do notice it, most of us are trained to recognize it.
I've been lucky thus far, and haven't had to encounter this underbelly much, my friend Joel (I love you brother-man) hasn't been so lucky.
And I'm glad he hasn't, because he's helped, in a way. His job forced him into the situation, but I know Joel well enough to know that his morals guided his hand.
And to the Christian apologists, i'd like to point out that society has been in decay for several thousand years. Since man first put plow to field and began settling the land.
I argue regularly with my friend about the state of society, call me a pessimist but I do believe that there is just as much cruel and human hatred now as there was in biblical times, medeival times, and renasance times. We just have the distinct advantage of not having to see it.
Granted certain areas have less of it than others.
Inhumanity seems less rampant here in the U.S. than it does say, in the middle east. But then again we only see it when we are confronted with it.
I believe firmly in confronting it, even though I don't like it.
Awareness is one way to solve the problem.
Four films this weekend.
Zatoichi (I was completely off on the name in my last post) which is the modern take on the story that is actually a long running series in japan.
I really dig it, and I'm inclined to look for some more of the original series made back in the sixties and the seventies.
The second film, a yakuza movie called Sonatine was alright.
It wasn't a bad film, but not exactly action packed, the gun fights lasted for only a brief stint, not exactly an action film.
Three was "Lost in La Mancha".
God I feel bad for Terry Gilliam, I mean that was just a fiasco.
The insurance company, that to my knowledge still owns the right to film, is joke.
Now he's forced to go begging around hollywood for handouts from the studios and producers there.
Sad.
Fourth, and I recomend this to any one who likes movies and animation: The Triplets of Belleville.
What a fantastic film.
I loved it.
In fact, watching it at one in the morning and not finishing it until two thirty, I started it over and started watching again. (I didn't get through it, just too tired).
With almost no dialogue, the story is told through the actions of the characters, and the background noise and music.
Check it out.
It's worth a look.
