March 29, 2010
I hereby propose a federal holiday of remembrance, an annual dinner to tell the story of slavery in the US. It could perhaps be held on September 22nd, the date of Lincoln’s first Emancipation Proclamation, although perhaps the date shouldn’t honor a white man.
Lets tell the story of slavery and racism in America every year so we’ll never forget.
February 8, 2010
I’ve given up on you. I don’t want to know where this is going.
You’re like the mole on my shoulder that’s getting bigger and I refuse to look at anymore.
Name to me one instance of fun in the first three episodes. Do days normally go by on Caprica without a single moment of laughter? Maybe the Cylons put those emo, hat wearing slouches out of their misery.
Note: People like characters that they can identify with and care about.
Who is likeable so far?
Mopey diva mom whose character so far is 1) skinny 2) irritable
Dickish Steve Jobs dad who so far is 1) kinda good with computers 2) idiotic in everything else
Judgmental dickish prodigy girl who is Pollyanna/Avatar/Clunky Robot
Judgmental dickish prude wierdo girl
Low energy bad lawyer
Two bit parody of a mafia thug
Judgmental drug addict fundamentalist school teacher
The first three episodes have been like Dark Shadows meets Depressed Buck Rogers.
“Let’s sit around and mourn kids who we either know nothing about or probably wouldn’t want to know.”
Next time you start up a series, have some gripping and compelling drama with high stakes start it off.
(Like you did with BSG!)
Not focus on a group of Fundamentalist Church Youth Group Nerds and technical musing.
Caprica is a boring planet where everything seems inconsequential and ‘smart’ people act dumb when its convenient to the story.
January 16, 2010
After Pat Robertson made his comments on Haiti ‘being cursed’ this past week, I wrote the 700 Club an email in
disgust, as many others also have.
This is the (form) response email I got from 700 Club:
“Thank you for contacting CBN. We appreciate this opportunity to serve you.http://www.cbn.com/media/player/index.aspx?s=/archive/club/700club011310_ws
On January 13th The 700 Club during a segment about the devastation, suffering, and humanitarian effort that is needed in Haiti, Dr. Robertson also spoke about Haiti’s history (see an actual transcript below). His comments were based on the widely-discussed 1791 slave rebellion led by Boukman Dutty at Bois Caiman, where the slaves allegedly made a famous pact with the devil in exchange for victory over the French. This history, combined with the horrible state of the country, has led countless scholars and religious figures over the centuries to believe the country is cursed. Dr. Robertson never stated that the earthquake was God’s wrath. If you watch the entire video segment, Dr. Robertson’s compassion for the people of Haiti is clear. He called for prayer for them. His humanitarian arm has been working to help thousands of people in Haiti over the last year, and they are currently launching a major relief and recovery effort to help the victims of this disaster. They have sent a shipment of millions of dollars worth of medications that is now in Haiti, and their disaster team leaders will immediately begin operations to ease the suffering.
To view the Wednesday, January 13th edition of The 700 Club, click on the link below:
Actual transcript from January 13th segment..”
“And you know Christy, something happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French, uh, you know Napoleon the third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said we will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French. True story, and so the Devil said OK it’s a deal. And they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since they’ve been cursed by one thing after the other desperately poor. That island is Hispanola is one island. It’s cut down the middle. On one side is Haiti on the other side is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. Uh, they need to have, and we need to pray for them a great turning to God and out of this tragedy. I’m optimistic something good may come but right now we’re helping the suffering people and the suffering is unimaginable.”
If we can serve you in any other way, please do not hesitate to let us know. Thank you and God bless you
Is that clear as mud? Or just dark and unfeeling?
What is so great about it is that it does not backpedal from Pat Robertson’s statements at all.
In fact, it cites “countless scholars [reputable I'm sure] and religious figures [a group of which Pat counts himself a member?]” as sharing in the idea that a nation could be cursed for a fabled pact with the devil undertaken by some individuals.
What interests me also is Pat Robertson’s theology (as far as I can tell from his long list of hurtful and cold hearted things he says) seems to only cast blame and assume none.
Let me lay out what I mean:
1. There is no ‘nature’ per se. Only God acting on people like a kid shaking an ant farm.
2. People are free to make decisions for themselves such as rebelling against God as independent agents.
3. Some people who had nothing to do with these evil decisions can also be caught up in God’s resulting wrath.
4. People who are on God’s–or more importantly– Pat Robertson’s side have no culpability for any harm that could befall God’s accursed.
So: Katrina destroys a city because they deserved God’s wrath. It wasn’t the case that New Orleans was basically screwed by the government engineers who made a crappy levee and a government that basically left poor people to die and government subsidized Blackwater agents shooting black people capriciously.
So: Haiti suffers under brutal debt to IMF, World Bank, IDB and others. Does this have to do with greedy individuals from wealthy nations? No. Just a curse. Haiti suffers under corrupt leadership (Duvalier) and this is not about greed, its payback for the curse thing? America and its policies stand by and largely let Haiti suffer while amazingly giving Colonial oversight and billions of dollars from the Imperial coffers to other oil saturated nations and this is not about greed its about the curse thing? I see.
I also love how Christians like Pat Robertson will always be damning and pointing fingers at people and in the same breath say: “I love you, I’m praying for you.”
I’ve been told that CBN is sending aid to Haiti and for that, I commend them.
If only CBN could also now muster the great strength to muzzle their crotchety old numbskull televangelist.
January 9, 2010
I love thinking about technology, and until my recent breakup with coffee had many tooth staining mornings doing just that. I just finished reading Edward Tenner’s “Our Own Devices: How Technology Remakes Humanity” and found it a fun (albeit sometimes repetitive) friendly read. Tenner is right on the money as far as I’m concerned in revealing technology as an expression of humanity’s ‘grip’ unto the world. The web of tools at humanity’s ever creative disposal is more the force of gravity that holds societies and human self-understanding together or the fingernails letting us ‘hold onto’ meaning and existence.
Tenner brings it all home by exploring the sometimes easy to forget technologies that we take for granted because they’re liable to not have a product placement shot in your favorite Bourne movie. With the intention of initating a reflection upon how each individual, society, and the course of human history is intimately bound to technology Tenner has thoroughly researched shoes, chairs, glasses, helmets, and baby bottles.
Tenner’s work is very useful in the distinction he makes between technology, “modifications to the environment”, and technique, “how technology is used in performance”. From this he follows Marcel Mauss in explicating the concept of ‘body techniques’ which are the direct bodily impacts of interfacing with the technology permeated environment. Even this last sentence gives strength to the false premise that the environment is other than human and their tools.
You’ll hear some people complain that “Computers are creating a situation where they are a crutch. No one is thinking anymore.” And I would answer, in a way that I feel Tenner would support, “To say that something is a crutch is to assume there is a correct, natural, or normal way for humanity to be expressed. That is simply not so. Humanity as comtemporary theories go was literally born out of the control of fire technologies. There is only change and transformation as organic and nonorganic elements converge.” If one is wont to charge technology of being a crutch, Tenner would lead them to confront the everyday technologies of shoes and chairs. Both are technologies that our bodies were not and are not designed for. Though we hear about advanced “ergonomic” shoes and chairs they will continue to cause inordinate strain and body adaptation. They are as Tenner says, machines whose primary if unintended effect is to produce more dependence on them. They are, like most perennial technologies like Cracker Jack’s: “The More You Eat The More You Want”. Shoes and chairs create modifications to the actual structure and function of one’s body. You need not get a penis splice to enter into ‘body modification’ (bod mod) clubs.
So what about my title? How is a body a ‘learned artifact’? Well, the body is an interpreted and socially constructed material. It is used to produce, entertain, reproduce, consume, eliminate. And yet very little we ‘do’ with our bodies is involuntary or unlearned. The ways our bodies interact with surroundings particularly the technologies are our body techniques. These techniques are as defined to the time, context, and culture as any Hopi blanket.
What was especially interesting to me was the way that our body techniques can continue to flourish while operating under less than maximum performance results. I came up with three categories that Tenner does not use but came to me while reading “Our Own Devices”: 1) ‘successful bad ideas, 2) delayed effective techniques, 3) non-ideal conventions.
First, successful bad ideas are those things which for whatever reason seemed to have their reign even though bodies were reporting (even unto death) their ineffectiveness. In this category we could include the use of oils and various powders for household minor burns even though we know that the body responds best to simply cool water. The American Red Cross will now advocate running a minor burn under tap water, but even when I was young my mother who is a nurse had me put corn starch on a burn received while being stupidly patriotic (redundancy?) with a firecracker. Vaseline, as Tenner points out, was classicly sold as a burn relief in its incipient years. Speaking of the Red Cross, one can have a grand time looking at some of their archival pictures of lifeguard training for proto-CPR. Pushing on the back, rolling over a barrel, pumping legs, etc. all were used at one time. Even within the last few decades there have been changes to the Red Cross guidelines and famously they differ from American Heart Association. Of course we know that new EMT and hospital information and statistics come in each year and new techniques can be tweaked and explored, but what do we make of the historical procedures which seem to encourage a speedy death? I see some people doing a common iteration of this idea when they blow into the eye of someone who has dust or an eyelash in their eye. I saw a mother recently hold her young crying son’s eye open and blow heartily into it. “There. Now rub it.” She said. What?! Hot air filled with more dust and possibly Doritos in an eye and then rubbing it? How did this ever catch on?
Secondly, Tenner does a great job pointing out events in sports which revolutionized them. The Fosbury Flop, and the Front Crawl introduced to Europeans by Flying Gull and Tobacco are just two examples of Delayed Effective Techniques. These are body techniques which seemed to lag behind (at least for some) what was certainly possible but perhaps never imagined. The Jump Shot and Slam Dunk are other examples from sport. My father told me how when he was in High School Terry Kunze wowed the whole conference and could bring a gymnasium to its feet just by dribbling behind his back.
Lastly there are Non-Ideal Conventions of body techniques including birthing (laying on back with feet restrained in stirrups or more humanely of late within the hands of loved ones) or bottle feeding rather than breast feeding. There is also the convention of how many brush their teeth. No matter how many times our dentist tells us: “Brush softly and in small circles” we are determined to brush our teeth like we’re trying to buff out a scratch on our Honda. And I am sure there are many who could add to this list popular sexual ‘moves’ whose existence is mysterious if not troubling. How these conventions arise and how they are encouraged is yet to be explained to me.
I will conclude with just a thought of applying our body operations failures and limitations to how we think of gender and sex. Looking back at how bodies have and are now continued works in progress without ‘natural’ perameters of ability or a ‘given’ scope of performance how can we expect the social construct of gender and sex binaries to change in the near future? Maybe we will be able to identify across mainstream contemporary American communities that gender/sex binaries have been a ‘Successful’ Bad Idea, and a Non-Ideal Convention. Perhaps also we will look to current Trans and GenderFuck individuals and communities as bringing a long-awaited paradigm shifting prophetic voice to allow bodies to learn a more full and more honest mode of being in the world.
Tenner, Edward “Our Own Devices: How Technology Remakes Humanity” (New York: Vintage Books. 2004)
December 23, 2009
The current conversation about LGBTQ folk and marriage is often a hurtful one.
The language, parameters of discourse, and level of compassion that are commonly present leave many deep spiritual and emotional scars for everyone involved.
I am thankful that language, discourse, and compassion are increasing throughout many areas in our churches in America. This has only happened under great duress, with sustained Christian service, worship, prayer, and spiritual warfare. There have also been many instances of violence both spiritual and physical in opposition to the Spirit’s work. I am thankful for the brave and committed Christian clergy and believers from all walks of life who have helped make our current progress possible.
I believe that through this process, we can discern what I believe will be a large factor in what will make the Church stronger and more Christly in the ensuing decades. I’ll sketch out some ideas below.
Romans 12:1-2 “I appeal to you therefore, siblings, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
This passage expresses to me how all Christians can be thankful for their LGBTQ fellow Christians. Through living their lives in worshipful reverence and not paying heed to the dominating heterosexism and socially created dualism of male/female, they set an honorable example for all to question the ‘doctrines’ of culture. Rather than submit to arbitrary and largely false cultural constraints of gender and sexual binaries, LGBTQ Christian folk can reveal to ‘anti-gay’ Christians that it is how we live our bodily existence, not the shape of or chemical makeup of our bodies that matters. Through a renewal of our mind, we all can begin to love and celebrate all people and never put constraints on how and who we love, desire, and commit ourselves to.
Christians of all walks can, through this area of discussion, question again what sin is. We must ask within the Church–if joy, love, vulnerability, sharing, sexual delight, and dignity are present between people is it sinful? We can look back to how previously Christians have railed against inter-racial marriage, inter-faith marriage, and inter-denominational marriage and used the Bible and language of sin and ask ourselves: were these people showing the love and life of Christ? Were they being led by the Spirit? This process of introspection will benefit the Body of Christ and lead to more Godly positions upon sin I believe.
Here is just two things I might add about marriage:
1) Jesus in Matt. 19:6 states that those who love and enjoy sex together should not be interfered with by others. “what God brings together–don’t let any ol’ judgmental hypocrite try to separate” He says in essence. I think that’s good advice. When love is in the picture only a fool would try to place themselves in opposition to it. Love is the greatest force humanity knows and it should be treated with reverence and awe.
2) Hebrews 13:4 says marriage should be held in honor. All Christians can use the discussion about marriage to again address sexual oppression, violence and rape in marriage, domestic violence, family planning, familial child abuse and neglect among other dishonorable occurrences which are all too common. We can also reflect on Christian LGBTQ married folk who despite social criticism from some areas of culture have honored each other and marriage in their testimonies.
I am convinced that the full-inclusion and celebration of LGBTQ communities and individuals will become the norm within American church life. It may take time and it will definitely require the sustained work of Christians and allied people of faith and people of good conscience. So I am hopeful. But I am not only hopeful for LGBTQ folk. I am hopeful for the Christian Church at large–the Body of Christ, the Universal Church. I believe that through this transitional crises, opportunities for refocusing on Christ rather than Biblioatry, questioning again the nature of, source of, and effect of sin, and breaking down oppressive limitations of sex and gender will bear great fruit.
I want to close making some positive statements about my position using the resolution passed by the Baptist General Conference from their 1992 annual meeting titled “Beliefs about Homosexual Behavior and Ministering to Homosexual Persons” as a platform.
1) I believe that the Bible belongs to no one and its interpretation is free to all. We all have seen to many divisions, wars, schisms, and violences perpetrated with validation found within its pages by those claiming ‘true interpretation’. Any use of the Bible to demean, belittle, diminish, exclude, insult, or in any detract from the full joy of another is antithetical to a saintly life.
2) I believe that love and compassion are utmost valued dispositions of God. I believe all bodies no matter their identity: Intersex, Trans, GenderQueer, Bois, male, female, none of the above…are equally beautiful and holy. I believe that all sexualities, desires, attractions, sexual relationships where dignity, safety, and autonomy are present are to be celebrated. Those individuals who desire to undergo the ritual of marriage or its equivalents should in no way be hindered-this includes arrangements of plural marriage, open marriage, and marriages of ‘convenience’.
3) I believe that all people are loved and cherished by the Divine and are permeated with and dwell fully in the life of God. I believe that all people have the right to claim the identity of Christian and express their Christianity in any way that remains compassionate, loving, forgiving, vulnerable, and respectful. I believe that diversities of Christian doctrine, dogma, and life do not intimidate God and Christians can learn from all faiths, denominations, and secularists to become more saintly.
4) I believe that sin is ever present in an imperfect world comprised of imperfect people. I believe that sin and its effects can be lessened through vulnerability, humility, compassion, service, self-sacrifice, renunciations of greed and materialism, love, respect, responsibility, reverence for the environment and living beings. I believe that through close relationships of mutual trust and vulnerability, sin will diminish.
5) I believe that all people and living beings deserve full dignity, care, concern, respect, and reverence. I believe that it is hypocritical and doubleminded to affirm this and state that a person’s sexual life or erotic being is ‘less than’.
6) I believe that all Christian churches and institutions should celebrate and honor all people. I believe that all gender/sex identities should be allowed to serve the Church as clergy–with saintliness and service being requisite, not designations of body or attraction. I believe that no one should be refused ordinances, services, rituals, or positions of leadership because of designations of body or attraction.
Yours in hope, love, and peace–
Ryan McGivern
Link to the Baptist Affirmation cited above and used as a platform:
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TopicIndex/80_Homosexuality/1499_Beliefs_about_Homosexual_Behavior_and_Ministering_to_Homosexual_Persons/
December 22, 2009
I would like to respond in part to the post by Annalee Newitz titled “When Will White People Stop Making Movies Like Avatar?” and also add some other thoughts upon the film.
First off, let me say that I am with Newitz on the sentiments of her post. Yes: racism in cinema is a perennial problem–especially in American films. Yes, there are too many films created by white men and these films often exacerbate racialized oppressions of colonialism through their themes and mythologies. I would add that films often will reflect the conservative end of power structures because of financing and profit limitations to mainstream medias. I will support the overall intention and stance Newitz takes: it is important to view films with race in mind–as well as gender, class, spectrums of abilities, etc.
However, I feel that a critique of the film as portraying a “white guilt” and a fantasy of white folk (particularly men?) escaping culpability for their privileges of skin and benefitting from colonizing programs misses other points that the film (and Cameron) is making.
Anytime we participate in a film with just one lens or one critique, we can miss facets and interpretations that may be there–even quite plainly.
A worry that I have about Newitz’ post is that if she is taken seriously, the film will then not be. One may then discredit the film as “just another white guilt fantasy” and not take the sort of social action that I think is totally implied and encouraged by the film. No movie or moviemaker is perfect. Let’s get that straight. I feel that there are times when folks concerned with colonialism and social oppressions (of which I count myself one) will write-off a piece of art because there is a perceived flaw, complain about it, and leave it at that (i.e. question ‘when will white people stop doing what I perceive them to be doing’?). This leaves the ‘progressive’, ‘liberal’, ‘anti-racist activist’ absolved from positive reaction. That is, they can remain a bitter critique of mainstream media.
Not that this is what Newitz is doing. Its just a dangerous possibility of critique.
I would like to offer as a counter to Newitz: that ‘guilt’ to me is a paralyzing emotion. It breeds inactivity, shame, and dishonesty. If one were to watch this film purely as race-drama in space–couldn’t Sully, Grace, Chacon, Norm, and Dr. Patel (not to mention the other ‘grunts’ who stay behind in the end) be seen as anti-racist allies?
Newitz compares Avatar to Dances With Wolves and I had thought the same myself when watching it. There are similarities between the protagonists: they both have been close to death–Costner’s Dunbar sees death and is himself injured. So too is Sully familiar with death (his brother’s) and severly injured. They also are in the service of military forces though they themselves are now observant and appreciative of life and less willing to goosestep in line.
I will agree that there can be parallels with Dune also. The ‘outsider savior’ is an overused myth: from Sergio Leone’s films to that story about a Jewish wunderkind. Usually in these types of (Western) hero myths the rescuer comes from without and then leaves either in the sunset or the clouds above Galilee. Stories where a hero stays with the people seems to me a different story that may point more to the transition within the hero–not focusing on their actions. I may be making a distinction between an ‘outsider savior’ and a ‘awakened warrior’.
Avatar follows this second type and is exemplified in the last shot: the opening eyes of Sully in his new (heavenly?) body. He is as Buddha said ‘awake’. But what has Sully awakened to? The situation of materialism: hunger for resources at any dehumanizing cost. The lie of might making right: the ability to violently overcome another as being “justified by the course of nature”. The false hopes of understanding another through study: anthropology (xenopology?) and sociology can distance individuals through thematization.
Is Luke Skywalker an example of white guilt because he sees the oppression of the Empire over the ragtag freedom fighting Alliance? Or is he awakened to a new way of life and being? Or are Leia Organa and Chewbacca race traitors when they fight alongside the Ewoks?
Are the Pevensie children seeking absolution from white guilt when they are introduced to a new world in their wardrobe and fight alongside badgers and centaurs (obviously stand-ins for oppressed and marginalized races)?
Newitz makes note of the protagonist’s name: “our white hero Jake Sully (sully – get it?)”…do we get what? Sully as in “ruined, tainted….”? I don’t get it and I hope someone can explain what Newitz means.
I however might find meaning in his first name, Jake. In the Bible, Jakob takes over his older twin brother’s birthright and role. Jake Sully takes over his brother’s role here. Surely the way they come to this is different: trickery versus death, but is it a stretch? Jakob also become Israel after struggling with an angel. Israel means “struggles with G-d” and Sully here struggles against social pressures and the ‘gods’ of mammon, power, physical ‘restoration’, and convention. I will stretch now: Jakob limped after his fighting the angel, Sully loses use of his limbs (next I’ll do a gematria of the film’s edits!).
Another name of note perhaps: Grace Augustine. As Augustine tried to define and explain sin in an orderly fashion, so too does Grace believe that her science and study can explain everything. Sigourney Weaver does an interesting turn here: she is essentially playing Cameron’s theme of the sinister interest of science. In his ‘Aliens’ the character of Paul Reiser’s Burke uses the idea of ‘study’ and scientific interest to hide behind ulterior motives. I believe Grace here is doing the same. In the beginning of the movie especially, I feel that she is on par with Colonel Quarich or Ribisi’s corporate CEO Selfridge (selfish–get it?) in her desires. Rather than defeat them militarily like Quarich, she wants to understand them. Feminist critique has done a great job unveiling the agendas of ‘understanding the Other’ and its great that Weaver is playing what is essentially a masculinist observer here. Rather than mine the metal from the ground like Selfridge, she wants to mine the culture. Rather than build community of vulnerability, trust, and dignity, she is the scientific onlooker trying to ‘figure them out’.
I thought about Grace’s name too. She is not too graceful towards others so it confused me. It clicked near the end when it becomes clear that her life was channelled into the planet’s ‘spirit’ and used to aid in the battle. This was a grace to her–she has a lot of transformation in the movie and again I contend that she is perhaps the most interesting and dynamic character.
Let’s keep on the theme of names: The People are called the Navi which in Hebrew means “Seer”, which can get rendered as ‘prophet’. It was no mistake that their greeting is: “I see you”. This lends itself to the idea that this story is about spiritual journeying and awakening to a different type of life rather than (just) as a story about race.
Okay–moving on….
Cameron has been clear about his politics in previous movies and they get relayed again here:
A concern for the environment and a feeling that to destroy and exploit nature is to kill alien or ‘magical’ forces is undertaken in The Abyss.
Linking military violence and corporate interests is the theme of Aliens and it is very strong here. In both instances we see how it is not for any real virtue that lives are endangered and Marines are deployed. It is by the direction of greedy corporations who see a resource to exploit.
This last note is the strongest social critique of America’s current military occupations and imperial/colonial agendas. For anyone who views this movie and finds themselves in anyway cheering for The Navi–they should ask themselves how they are any different from ‘insurgents’, or ‘terrorists’.
If you thought Sully was a cool character, check out
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/
If you thought the Navi were cool, check out
http://www.narf.org/
If you were interested in Grace’s character, check out
http://www.iep.utm.edu/irigaray/
Newitz’ referenced post may be found here:
http://io9.com/5422666/when-will-white-people-stop-making-movies-like-avatar
Ryan McGivern
December 15, 2009
There are plenty of reasons to shake one’s head at the imperial/colonial forces of American military madness. Our nation’s greed and widespread acceptance that the rest of the world suffer to prop up our culture of corporate plutocracy has so far led to our bullying the world.
Of course like anything whose precepts, means, values, and outcomes are largely negative for our nation the armed forces have tried to employ smooth looking advertisements and propaganda to encourage more recruits.
The newest attempt to bamboozle young people is intended apparently to please Science Fiction fans–”It’s not science fiction. Its what we do everyday.”
But instead they show their hand as playing only to the fantasies of numbed and inconsiderate gamers.
Is this really what the Air Force intended?
Do they really believe that science fiction is all about the gear, tech, guns, dangerous missions and high adventure as these commercials depict?
Its my belief that most folks who enjoy science fiction and most gamers for that matter–understand the prophetic role that science fiction plays in society. It is a genre that is political, ethical, social, and often radically so. Does it take much imagination to see how science fiction has historically been very adept at revealing the insanity of war and violence, encouraging the celebration of diversity, and exploring progressive and intelligent solutions for people?
The American armed forces, including the Air Force have a history where these features are the exception, not the rule. The Air Force by spending so much money on these commercials reveal what they really think of their potential new cadets: they are mindless gamer junkies who want to play out their Call of Duty or Halo fantasies and don’t think about the larger narratives that are being conducted around the ‘exciting violence’.
Gamers of good conscience who love action franchises know the difference between the endless war and continuous action of a fun game and the perpetual war that America is trying to enforce on the world’s poor. They will see right through this condescending tripe.
These commercials are shameful, Air Force. The people who serve our nation’s Armed Forces deserve better and our young people are getting wise to your program of endless war.
August 30, 2009
Can a movie which moves one to tears, make one laugh, and be the most important movie to see in a theatre
in years be ‘not good’?
Yes. If that movie is Not a Movie and Not to Be Enjoyed.
First, let me say why Inglourious Basterds is Not to Be Enjoyed.
It is a condemnation of humanity, a statement that we are blind to the shifting sands of public imagination and the re-writing of ’history’, and moreover want to be fed propaganda that supports us.
As I walked from the theatre and heard people laughing, I was overcome with sadness. I felt like people were walking from an important statement about the corruption of the world, a self-knowing argument that cinema is the contemporary weapon of choice and that there will always be a vicious circle of destruction.
This movie plays with the idea that ’history’ is a created narrative, not a firm science. We grab unto myths, easy tellings that placate us, support our immediate agendas, and mythologize the hero and the villian.
Revenge movies are no different from our status quo hegemonic national identity. But that’s a hard pill to swallow.
What is the United States if not the world’s unblemished liberator and knight in shining democratic armor?
Our approved history becomes seamlessly woven with popular consciousness largely through the cinema house.
In the film, the question is posed, “What will the history books say of us?” and the next shot is of the cinema house.
Again, in the basement scene when they are playing ’Who Am I?’ the nosy German decides through his questions that he must either be “The African American Slave Narrative” or “King Kong”.
How can popular consciousness decide the difference between ’what happened’ and the ‘the way mass media is portraying the story at the moment’?
Inglourious Basterds is one of the most preachy movies I’ve seen in a while. I usually don’t like when a movie is telling me so plainly the ‘concept’ of the production. I like it when a movie hides, obscures, and artfully discloses truths to me rather than smashing an idea over my head with a baseball bat. But, I do give credit to the film for conveying a hard truth, one that is unenjoyable, one that condemns.
We, the audience are made out to be no different from the Nazis portrayed in the film. The two times that we see through the camera’s eye is when it is the view of dying or tortured Nazis. Our lust for power, our desire for revenge, and our willingness to throw others aside as we rewrite history to our liking makes us all guilty and deserving of vengeance.
(The issues of revenge and grace permeate Tarantino’s films and they are perhaps most plainly stated here.)
If only we all could have swatikas branded into our foreheads! If only our hates, our delight in the privilege handed us whether through class, race, ‘gender’, ‘sexual orientation’, our bigotry could be cast into the light! Rather, we duck and hide behind the current myths of ‘American equality’ and ‘post racial America’.
This is not a movie to be enjoyed, but one that is meant to shock, hurt, prophesy.
This movie is Not a Movie. It jumps into a meta level of being about itself and the role of cinema so much that it becomes a cobbled together message-movie. Tarantino has said that after viewing “There Will Be Blood” he wanted to ‘up his game’–if by this he meant that he wanted to create a great movie, he has failed. The characters herein are fun, playful, larger than life, and memorable no doubt. However, there is so much winking and reference that no one can be taken seriously (even the stunning performance of Christoph Waltz). Yes, as many have already written there are a lot of filmic references in the film–and I would ask where is the line between film-loving homage and spoof?
Is the movie powerful? Yes.
Is it worth seeing in the theatre? Yes. It is a powerful experience to see with others in the public square.
Is it worth seeing at home? Shrug. Waltz gives a good performance and the Basement Who Am I Scene is a textbook exposition on how to create tension in film.
As for Tarantino, I’m interested to see him make another film along the lines of Jackie Brown. If he truly wants to “up his game” he will be required to go in this direction rather than an overly preachy film that will only delight Freshman Level Film Class students.
Bottom Line: History is myth, cinema is myth production, the film strip is more powerful than the sword, everyone is equally deserving of vengeance….oh and two other things:
1) The cinema remains the most important role in American myth creation and yet the cinema is dying. The theatre house is threatened by personal media delivery and its continued existence is like that of the Personal Automobile–not supported by anything other than habit. Yet, unlike American Car Culture there is a need for some public arena to experience myth, ritual, and community narrative and memory.
2) NO ONE CAN MEANINGFULLY CALL ANYONE A NAZI ANYMORE. This is perfect timing for this movie. Though people are throwing out the accusation of “This person’s a Nazi!” as easily as ordering a milkshake, it is absolutely meaningless. I saw a young person the other week wearing a backpack with the image of a Confederate Flag. His obviously hipster chic ensemble said to me that he had no idea that it was associated with anything other than The Dukes of Hazard. The real threat that racism and white privilege poses to America, I feel, is no longer tied to the images of the Civil War, Segregation, the South, etc. Whether this is good or bad needs to be decided by America’s families, faith communities and education system. How did we get here? What happened to the world that allowed over 6 million Jews to be murdered? Can we allow the swastika to become just another symbol that eventually will be worn ironically by the future iterations of hipsters with images of Inglorious Basterds in their minds?
Our villians will change. Our cinematic bad guys may not always wear black and our real life oppressors and criminals do not have swastikas carved in their heads. How do we express our desires, values, and strive for justice without ourselves falling prey to the bloodlust of vengeance and speaking in such hyperbole and bombast that those we oppose become caricatures of villians that never were?
Ryan McGivern
August 23, 2009
“100% Vegetarianism Daily”
By: Anonymous Kind Looking Street Prophet
Vegetable Mineral Ethereal
Plants Universe Space
We chemically all dissolve back into
But! 7 years of this diet is sure to take 50-100% of your DNA soul material
Back into God’s Genesis 1:29-30 salvation plan.
50-100% more salvation w/ all 3
No less.
Attention: UFO, UN, England Axis, USA, Spain, Allies
Enforce For Everything’s own good.
New Testament God says “Behold I stand at the gate.” “I am the vine.”
(Seedless) (See Deathless)
See over all. Please more.
100% Vegetarianism daily.
100% Iron Daily.
100% Magnet Massages Daily.
(Notice that God is ¾ good. Genesis 1:31)
Get a new body from food before rigor mortis
(4-6 hours after heart stops)
But Vegetarians bodies do not.
Trains your body material to feel earth’s core of iron radiation and magnetic field
which trains sould material to feel touch of other souls in space-not die from alone.
Nothing to do.
Alive until resurrected by iron in cells magnetized by magnet massages/waist, neck, ankle.
Wristbands of magnets extra strong hardware—drugstores.
Difference between body and soul.
REVELATIONS LOGIC
WORKS COMPLETE
Also, much body weight of food we eat go out of our body every seven years.
Also, they get rigor mortis whether you’re ready or not.
Salvation is 100% vegetarianism daily.
The difference between soul and body
the meat eater gets stiff in rigor mortis
and its material touches common material and stars and planets come apart
until the universe ends.
“One nation under God” Constitution preamble
Genesis 1:29-30
100% iron daily to magnetize and teach cell stuff to heed the other being of earth’s
magnetic field
and iron core radiation go through all earth.
UFOs see other UFOs in stars shaped like antennae heads and they stop all life back
to mineral kingdom to stop death.
Head of Orion
Sons of God and Earthlings Antennae head of Orion
Antennae Head Etacyenus
Sons of Man and Both do God’s get straight before no change for suns
and Planets in future plan or we all going to find what wternally keeps happening to us:
Minus memory.
As we change with every new day so as our habits gotta get some rest, sleep, relaxation.
My boss says “a change is better than a rest.”
760 degrees Fahrenheit below Zero
all black structureless space material alone as meat eaters in rigor moris and all common touch by the (thou shall not kill
Heaven and thou Shall Not Kill Earth)
meat eaters kill God.
Vegetarian (Animal) Vegetable mineal (Universe) Ethereal (Kosmos) Common
Touch faint personality
TETRAHEDRONS OF SMALLEST POSSIBLE SIZE
souls trained when taken into universe by heed touch of magnetic field
of iron core fusion radiation to carry on in structureless ether
the God Common Touch Live.
On Earth as it is in heaven—no such thing—all feels forever—same as we chemically
dissolve into space stuff again but electro-magnetic into iron and vegetables
fed dead bodies plus ground up meat eaters with their familiar food material
and carbon and iron dust
magnetized strong enough to wake the dead.
August 2, 2009
The other day as I was watering the hillside in the shady area where
newborn shrubs reside, I noticed that fallen leaves had congregated around the new soil nurturing our babies shrubbies.
These leaves had laid there because of the dip around the new plants in their lovingly dug holes because of gravity and the hill shape, but their larger role in the hillside got me thinking: What do these leaves want?
I caught myself: Leaves can’t ‘want’ in the traditional way of thinking of wanting!
However, I became to wonder what the leaves were designed to do.
Because they were doing it whether I, or the newly planted shrubbies, wanted them to. I began to think that their ‘want’ was their design. What they were accomplishing for not only the tree but the local terrain and niche of fellow plants, animals, and soil was not by mistake.
They were not “Leaf2.o”, they were “Leaf500000.0″ or somewhere around there. Their design had seen lots of success and failure and now they were dealing with a new input: us and our ‘babies’.
I watched as the hose’s water splashed over the leaves and largely was whisked away from the nursery and on down the hill.
In this moment, while stone cold sober, I met nature face-to-face.
(An experience that sobriety really should be cushioned from.)
I was up against a leaf with some serious prejudices.
I wondered how many ‘wants’, desires, or inclinations within humanity seem ‘natural’ and are really just one type of leaf interacting with unprecedented input. Just as this tree’s leaves had never met a wacko who was planting and watering strange new neighbors at its feet, so humanity couldn’t have readied for the radio. What occurred in response was a wild and peculiar reaction.
In either case, whether leaf meeting me or cultures meeting radio, the relationship could be considered equally ‘natural’ or ‘unnatural’.
As I watched the water roll away from its intended hungry roots, I met the conflict of ‘wants’ within nature, technology, and being a body within an environment whose ultimate ‘end’ was much much larger than I.
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