Film Review: Irreversible

I'm not giving this a star rating because it was just so jarring I'm not sure what my opinion of it actually is. For those uninitiated Irreversible is a film by french director Gaspar Noe that runs backwards and depicts two incredibly brutal acts of violence in two scenes, the most brutal filmed in a single take nearly ten minutes in length. The performances are superb the camera work inventive and the score contains a low frequency noise designed to make viewers nauseous. I'd recommend this to anyone with an open mind, I'd love to hear anyones take on this interesting piece of work.

Film Reviews

Just letting you folks know that I may have a big personal announcement to break on here in a few weeks. Pretty big stuff. I don't usually do this kind of thing on the blog, but I may be able to get a good post out of it, so I'm going forward with it.

Film Reviews

Body of War - This documentary was about Iraq war veteran Thomas Young. It was really well done and highly recommended, although I was surprised at how highly Sen. Robert Byrd (WV) seems to be regarded by the filmmakers. Former Klan member Robert Byrd. Just sayin'.

***1/2 out of *****

Requiem for a Dream - I'll be cycling through the three films made by Darren Aronofsky and several films starring Mickey Rourke in preparation for "The Wrestler" due out in December (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrestler_(2008_film)). I've already seen Pi, but will screen it again, and hopefully I'll be able to catch The Fountain as well, despite its mixed reputation. Simply put this film wasn't perfect, but was excellent in every regard. Aronofsky is really creative with his use of editing and the performances were stellar. Out of every film I've seen so far this year, this is the one I'd recommend to people the most.

****3/4 out of *****

Two Words: Woah. Dude.

http://io9.com/5086630/new-watchmen-trailer-is-full-of-organ-playing-death-dealing-craziness

Man, each new peek at this thing makes me more and more excited to see it.

Keeping in touch

I've recently had conversations with several friends of mine that all reach the same conclusion: we all have no friends. Or at least it doesn't FEEL like it. Sure, I have friends, even one that I see fairly often, but its often in short, rushed encounters that don't really do much but remind me that I wish I saw my friends more often. As a strong extrovert I really enjoy 95% of people so its unusual that I really can only call around 10 people legitimate "friends" of mine. Acquaintances are lovely, but need not apply here. I have 51 "friends" on facebook though. Thinking about this 10 I've only seen three of them the past month, 5-7 this calendar year, and the rest before this calendar year. There are geographic boundaries to be sure, but the biggest boundaries are artificial.

The really unfortunate thing about this in my mind, aside from the loss of feeling loved by ones friends, is the missed opportunities for learning. I've learned so much from my friends, not necessarily things that are quantifiable (although in many cases I have learned a great deal) but things about myself, about people - about life. Its all very lamentable. Then again, I have certainly been in that mood lately.....a....lamentatious one? lamentative? This is the exact kind of thing a friend could help out with.

He did it!

That was a real nail-biter. Hard to believe the man from Myrtle Creek just defeated the last Republican senator on the west coast.

The agony and the ectasy

Well its still hard for me to believe what happened last night. Its important to note that this is still a centrist country (not center-right, forget the pundits) and this year the democrats managed to turn out more of their folks while the republicans net less of theirs.

For me this election is the exclamation point on the end of a very emotional year. Getting married, losing my Grandfather (my enthusiasm last night was severely dampened by his absence, it was so tough not being able to call him when Obama was projected as the winner) and now seeing most of my hopes for the nation come true, electorally speaking that is.

There were some disappointments though. The Senate race in MN was a real barn-burner, Coleman is barely ahead and the closeness will trigger a recount that won't matriculate until mid November, possibly January. There still isn't a projected winner of the Oregon senate race meaning that many folks who voted for Obama also voted for known douchebag Gordon Smith or didn't fill out the rest of their ballots. Talk about depressing. Right now smith is a head but Multnomah and Lane county have enough vote outstanding that many analysts are predicting a Merkley win of between 10,000-30,000 votes. We're also awaiting the results of the anti-union Measure 64 for the same reason. Neither of these contests should have been this close.

Most disappointing of all was the success of Prop 8 in California. If this measure had failed it would have been a huge stride in favor of marriage equality. I'm pretty disheartened that two of the groups that contributed to its success were African Americans (according to exit polls) and the Mormon church (they sunk a TON of money into this race). The fact that on the same night that African Americans had a milestone in their struggle for civil rights they contributed to the denial of marriage equality for the gay community is nothing short of tragic. It wasn't long ago that the Mormon community felt the profound sting of persecution as well, they were literally chased westward to Utah because of their beliefs not being accepted by society at the time. Our family is friends with many LGBT folks, many of them in relationships that lasted longer and were stronger than my parents marriage. These folks have the kind of relationships that I hope to have with my wife and the fact that they are continually told by society that they are inadequate and unaccepted is simply, fucked up, no other term gets the job done.

Checking in

Last night was amazing, and I will write about the results of this election later today. I am waiting on some results but it looks like a mixed evening for those of us who are progressive and follow more than just the top of the ticket. I'll leave you folks with this until I'm ready:

Here we go!

Alright folks, this is it. Hard to believe the day is finally here. Its time to find out if what we all think is going to happen actually comes to pass.

I'd ignore all the folks telling you things like "Oh, if obama wins Virginia hes likely to win all of the tossup states" and the like. I've said it before and I'll say it again: EACH STATE IS DIFFERENT. This thing ain't over until one man gets 270 electoral votes and thats all I've got to say about that.

14 Political Songs #14

Bruce Springsteen - Livin' in the Future



A letter come blowin' in on an ill wind
Somethin' 'bout me and you
Never seein' one another again
Yeah, well I knew it'd come
Still I was struck deaf and dumb
Like when we kissed, that taste of blood on your tongue

Don't worry Darlin', now baby don't you fret
We're livin' in the future and none of this has happened yet
Don't worry Darlin', now baby don't you fret
We're livin' in the future and none of this has happened yet

Woke up Election Day, skies gunpowder and shades of gray
Beneath a dirty sun, I whistled my time away
Then just about sundown
You come walkin' through town
Your boot heels clickin'
Like the barrel of a pistol spinnin' 'round

Don't worry Darlin', now baby don't you fret
We're livin' in the future and none of this has happened yet
Don't worry Darlin', now baby don't you fret
We're livin' in the future and none of this has happened yet

The earth it gave away, the sea rose toward the sun
I opened up my heart to you it got all damaged and undone
My ship Liberty sailed away on a bloody red horizon
The groundskeeper opened the gates and let the wild dogs run

I'm rollin' through town, a lost cowboy at sundown
Got my monkey on a leash, got my ear tuned to the ground
My faith's been torn asunder, tell me is that rollin' thunder
Or just the sinkin' sound of somethin' righteous goin' under?

Don't worry Darlin', now baby don't you fret
We're livin' in the future and none of this has happened yet
Don't worry Darlin', now baby don't you fret
We're livin' in the future and none of this has happened yet
Don't worry Darlin', now baby don't you fret
We're livin' in the future and none of this has happened yet
None of this has happened yet
None of this has happened yet
None of this has happened yet
None of this has happened yet

Just around the corner

So here we are, one day separating us from what will be the most significant political event of this decade. Things are looking good, but in all seriousness, McCain could still pull this out. There are a lot of undecideds and Obama is just at 50% in several state polls - which could be in the margin of error and could lead to him losing in states like FL, OH and the like. That being said, the Kerry states plus IA, NM and CO firewall looks pretty damn good, and NV and VA are still looking good as backups. McCain's push for PA doesn't look successful at this point, but again, there may be some kind of racial effect here that doesn't exist in other states so its hard to tell. I'd prefer it if the networks were able to project a winner in FL soon, because then it doesn't matter what happens in PA.

Anyway, since we have a day left, here are my predictions:

National

1. Barack Obama will be president winning between 270-300 Electoral Votes

2. The Democrats will NOT win 60 seats in the Senate. I'm expecting races in MS, KY and GA to go for the GOP and will additionally predict Norm Coleman victorious in MN over Al Franken.

3. The Abortion ban in South Dakota will pass.

4. Prop 8 (Gay Marriage Ban) in California will fail.

Local Stuff

1. Dino Rossi will be a two-time loser in Washington State.

2. Jeff Merkley will do the unthinkable and finally beat the last Republican senator on the west coast.

3. One of Sizemore's shitty measures will pass.

4. Measure 65 will pass.

5. Kate Brown will be Secretary of State winning by a very small margin.

Well thats all for today. I'll post briefly tomorrow.

Favorite Political Songs #12 and 13

#12 Billy Bragg "Waiting for the Great Leap Forward"



#13 Steve Earle "Jerusalem"



Note the hopeful tone of these two today!!!!