Politics

Look at me, I've come over all political lately. The astute among you will have noticed that I must be pretty liberal what with the type of links I've been posting. And I guess, if you had to categorize my views, many of them would fall to the left. But shame on you for categorizing me. I am more than just a few views; I'm a whole person, and one who doesn't really like being categorized at that. Unless you're going to categorize me as a Christian, which still doesn't make a clean distinction of who I am. I disagree with some thoughts of some more fundamentalist luminaries out there. Anyways, I wasn't planning on talking on that right now. Suffice it to say I consider myself a staunch pluralist.

I wasn't always so concerned with what was going on in the world. But I've discovered how important it is to find out what's really going on out there and what all sorts of impacts world events can have. Even though many of my Christian brothers and sisters in this country would definitely fall on the right side of the political spectrum, I often find liberal policies and arguments (when not too extreme) to be more in line with things Christ said. Plus, I've become more liberal over time because I keep reading articles written by liberals and democrats, which feed (I think) my initial dislike for Bush. Of course, I'm going to be more likely to read an article that criticizes Bush than praises him, but it seems that I get more fed up and disillusioned with him, his spin, and government altogether with every article that I read that goes further than a dry regurgitation of the facts. I suppose, to some extent, that I shouldn't be surprised. I grew up on my dad's old MAD magazines, which told me in a much broader sense that the government was lying to us.

Anyways, to cap off my recent surge of politically-related posts, I'm going to ask you to read this. And this. And maybe one of these because I just don't like that Bush guy.

One more note, and then I'm hopefully done blogging for this year's National Gorilla Suit Day. I recently recommended you all to the Al-Jazeera website (http://english.al-jazeera.net). I discovered today that a separate news source website with the same name exists (www.aljazeera.com). The latter (the .com one) is also an Arabic news source, has been around a little bit longer than the better known one, but the one article I read there was strongly anti-Semitic. To me, anti-Semitism is damned foolishness. That is, it's a stupid, uneducated position that's eventually going to get you into trouble. Trouble in the afterlife, for sure. And trouble from me if I hear you making unfounded accusations about Jewish people. I don't stand for that kind of thing.

Ha

Excerpt from an AP article on Bush's upcoming State of the Union address tonight:

"Earlier Tuesday, Bush put the finishing touches on the address, designed to help restore faith in his leadership among the many Americans who don’t approve of the job he’s doing or think the country is on the right track."

Ha. Hahahaha. Haaaaaaaa-hahahahaha. Right. Like anything he says is going to change someone's mind who has read enough about what's going on to realize that Bush is not doing a good job. I'm not going to be able to watch the address, because I'm working, but to be honest, I can imagine that all I would do is get angry at how little substance, truth, or reasonableness will actually show up in his speech tonight.

I notice that one of the things Bush plans to talk about is that America is "addicted to oil". Aside from any statements about oil and the war in Iraq, don't I remember John Kerry saying that his plan for the US was to get us off of oil completely in a proposed span of 10 years? I'll listen to what Bush has to say about helping us through our "addiciton to oil" when he gets rid of the government's addiction to it.

Celebrate!

I can't spend too much time blogging today, for a couple of reasons. One is that I'm actually getting some work done on the cartoon. The other is that it's a bit hard to type with these big gorilla hands I'm wearing.

For more info on this holiday, go here.

Stick it to the man, stick it to the man

Inuit sue US over climate change

Courtesy of Al-Jazeera. Now that's an article you know won't be published by any US news source!

Now you know

You've all heard of Al-Jazeera, right? The news source that's always referred to when they talk about whatever new video- or audiotape bin Laden has just released? They have a website, and in English no less. I'm looking around on their site now, so if you want some world news at least a step up from typical CNN fare, go check it out. At least, it seems like it's a little better. I'm just going on the rule of thumb that any news published in some other country is going to be far more informative and thought-provoking than what you'll get here.

What do you mean by that?

And then, there are times when I don't really have much to say at all. I like to think that I'm doing you a favor by not spending paragraph after paragraph telling you that. I would stink as a politician.

Opinions?

Recently I've gotten into Woody Allen films. And when I say gotten into, I mean that I've watched 5 or 6 of them in the past month and a half. The library where I work had to make room a couple of years ago to integrate most of our media center's video collection due to budget cuts, and I've taken to checking out movies (or just taking them home with me, but don't tell nobody) somewhat regularly. I mean, I only work 6 hours a day and have very little social life. So what do I do? I put off working on my cartoon and watch movies, that's what I do. So I decide to check out "Sleeper", one of Allen's earlier movies, and I laughed so much at that film. I won't go into details about the plot, because that's not what attracted me while watching the film. It was the style of comedy, hokey though it sometimes was, that I liked. It was something I had never seen before. It's hard to describe. Okay, well, truthfully, it probably isn't, and such statements like that would probably be insulting to people who write papers and articles and whatnot that describe Allen's style of comedy. I say it's hard to describe because I don't want to expend the mental energy to do so because I have so much else on my mind that I'd like to write tonight. Anyway, so I liked "Sleeper" so much that I started watching other of his movies that we have on our shelves.

It seems to me, at first glance, that his films became more serious as his career progressed. But don't think that means that they became any less funny. I have deep respect for writers who can produce comedy that never really makes you laugh out loud that often. In the Allen movie I just watched, "Annie Hall", there was really only one moment that really caught me off guard and caused an outburst of laughter. Allen's character is standing in line at a theater and is annoyed at the man behind him going on and on with his opinions about this, that and the other about television. Allen pulls him aside and says "What do you know about the work of Marshall McLuhan?" The man replies, "I teach a course on television and media; I would like to think my opinions about Marshall McLuhan's work have some validity." Allen then says, "Well, I've got Marshall McLuhan right here, let's see what he has to say." McLuhan then says to the man, "You don't know the first thing about my work. I don't see how you managed to get a job at any university with your opinions." Allen looks at the camera and asks, "Why can't life be this easy?"

Anyways, I just got done watching "Annie Hall". It is the best Woody Allen movie I have seen so far. It was chock full of subtle humor, one-liners, and enough relationship problems to provide discussions for a college psychology course for at least a semester. In fact, I kept thinking throughout it that so much of what I had learned in my Psychology of Interpersonal Relationships class was applicable to what I was seeing in this film. And I guess that's one of the reasons I really liked it.

And I guess I left the movie thinking about the reasons I liked it, you know, where I got my opinion that it was a really good movie. I think, for one, that we're apt to like things that we understand and can connect to other knowledge in our brains. The fact that I could understand what was going wrong with the relationship between Woody Allen and Diane Keaton on a psychological level was key to my enjoyment of the film. Another thing is that, to me, the movie was very realistic. And by realistic, I mean two things which don't necessarily fit the definition of realistic. For one, it didn't follow your typical love story formula; that is, Allen and Keaton are not back together by the end of the film. On a more personal level, the relationship between the two characters reminded me very much of the last serious relationship I had, insomuch that a lot of the problems were the same, as was the outcome. And I remember from somewhere in my college career (film class? theater appreciation?) that movies (or plays) attempt to provide a means of catharsis for the viewers, to provide emotional or intellectual release on a topic. The movie, for me, let me live out some of my own feelings through its characters, and it let me get some things off my chest. Ultimately, I think the ending of the movie (perhaps the fact that it had an ending, that it must have an ending) gave me, perhaps, a new way to look at and feel about my own similar situation. A way to pack it into a box as one must store things in an attic, and move on.

So I think, perhaps, taking why I liked the movie into consideration, I can say that maybe we tend to like things that remind us of ourselves? Shoot, sure I can say it. Everyone loves confirmation of themselves. We tend to make friends with people with the same opinions because it bolsters our beliefs. We shy away from those who disagree with us, especially on important issues, because it challenges us. A strong difference of opinion tells us that maybe, just maybe, we might be wrong, and we would hate to admit to any sort of stupidity. We also, I would think, tend to like stories that reflect our own, because it tells us that we are not alone in having the thoughts we have, that there are others like us, others who go through the same things we do, and that our experience as a human being is not so singular as we secretly believed when we were in middle school. (There's a psychological term for that--big surprise!--but I can't think of it at the moment.)

All right. I think that post should make up for all the puny, girly-man posts I've been doing this past week. Thanks for reading!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Disney buys Pixar

And here I was looking forward to an animated blockbuster movie from Pixar that Disney had no part of. I cry on the inside today. Why must Disney own everything? It's bad enough that they maintain a crushing stronghold on Winnie the Pooh, and that they also own The Muppets, which literally boils my blood. I mean, come on! They made Ms. Piggy thin! She lost her whole character. I really have respect for Walt Disney himself, but man, his company is too big for anybody's good. It's stuff like this that makes me want to become famous with some sort of cartoon characters or animation studio just so I can tell Disney to shove it when they make me an offer.

17un35

Now, I realize that my taste in music is most likely not representative of my demographic. Being young, white, male, American, and middle-class, I'm probably supposed to like everything that's played on the radio: your average mix of pop/rock singles and alternative stuff. Or shoot, maybe I'm supposed to be into the Indie rock scene. I don't really know. Anyways, with stuff like Supertramp, Pink Floyd, My Morning Jacket, Cake, Enya, Yello, and "Weird Al" Yankovic in my collection, I think it's safe to say that I'm far from typical (if such a thing really exists these days). But, now I can feel okay about it. No one can tell me that my audiophilistic tendencies are odd or abnormal. Why? Because just today, Itunes told me that my playlist rocks out. In fact, it rOx0rz m4h BoX0rsz.

(Note: for those of you who don't understand what I'm going on about, look here.)

Grumble, grumble

Michael D. Brown, former FEMA director:

Currently an "Emergency Preparedness Consultant" and Keynote speaker at Operation Sierra Storm 2006


How can this man get a job, much less avoid being tarred, feathered, and brutally beaten?

*Pulls out hair*

Bother

I went to see The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe last night, mostly because I was bored both in and out of my mind and was willing to put down the six bucks to have something to do. I enjoyed the movie overall. I'm always glad to see a movie follow a book accurately. That kind of thing says to me that the people who wanted to see the story hit the big screen actually cared for the story itself, not just its ability to turn a quick buck.

I could probably go on and on about how great the CG stuff was, but hey, that's pretty much the norm now, and amazing though it is, has become the standard and no longer really impresses me. When they get to the point that they can do CG humans without me realizing it, then I'll let my jaw drop. Suffice it to say it was a great movie, visually. Though, oddly enough, the cinematography itself is really the only part of the movie where I had any complaint.

I've took two film classes in my undergraduate career, both for German films. And I've been watching my League of Gentlement DVDs with the commentary on, which includes a lot of discussion about camera angles and shots and cutting between shots. So, that said, I'd like to think I have enough knowledge about films to realize that thought is put behind how the film is shot, and to analyze and, ultimately, criticize that thought. There's strong emotion at many points in the movie (the girls crying over Aslan, the reunion of the Pevensies, etc.), and my beef is that the director did not allow enough time on these moments before going on to the next scene, line, or bit of action. Maybe I'm just more in touch with my emotions than some, but I wanted just a little more time for catharsis. The other time was during the final battle scene, as the camera was panning up to reveal the size of the White Witch's army. Right in the middle of this, it cuts away to a centaur's face (not even a named character) to show his reaction, then cuts back to the army and finishes panning up. I think the shot would have carried quite a bit more force if the director had let the size of the army speak for itself.

During the scene where the baddies were humiliating Aslan and tying him to the Stone Table, I kept thinking to myself that I wish we could have seen what Jim Henson would have done with this kind of movie. The appearance of all the evil creatures would have lent itself well to the style of Dark Crystal or Labyrinth. Ah, I miss those days of very little computer graphics in movies.

One last thought about the Narnia movie...I saw on television about a month ago an advert for the video game. The commercial mentioned a website where one could go to obtain a cheat code for the game. I guess I was under the assumption that the books in the Narnia series were about people being pushed to be their best and most honest and try their hardest. Almost needless to say, I was struck by the discrepancy.

A Dream Come True

Okay, so it's not a page on Wikipedia, but in all actuality, it's better than that. I know I've mentioned a few times in the past that I frequent the blog of comedy writer Mark Evanier. Shoot, unless you're just plain blind, you've probably seen the link I have to his blog over on the right. And if you are blind, why are you here? Why are you on the internet at all? As I was saying. If I had to name one person who was a sort of idol to me, it would be Mark Evanier. He's pretty high up on my list of people I want to meet before I die (or they die, as the case might be). One of the amazing things to me about the "information age" is that I finally discovered that a lot of the same people were behind the stuff I liked as a kid. John Pound, for instance, worked not only on Garbage Pail Kids, but also on Trash Can Trolls, Wacky Packages, and MAD magazine. Mark Evanier wrote every issue of Groo the Wanderer...that is, he wrote the dialogue. Sergio Aragones drew the thing and came up with the stories, if I understand it correctly. Every old Groo comic I read today continues to be funny and poignant. Evanier also wrote the Garfield and Friends cartoon during its entire 7-year run. He's done a bunch of other stuff, but those are the things that I loved as a child (and to this day).

So, every now and then he does this thing on his website called "There is No Such Website". He provided links to 5 alleged websites. Four are real, one is a fake, and none of them are likely. That is, even the real deals will leave you wondering, "Who in the world came up with this?" I sent in a possible website for him to use in an edition of the game, and he used it! He even mentioned my name on his weblog as a contributor!

Warning: my ego has finally grown big enough to necessitate existence outside of my body. He is roughly the size of a house now. He was last seen heading west on Interstate 20, gobbling up sports cars and sound systems as he went to continue his growth. I expect that his final destination is Las Vegas, where he will consume enough egotism and opulence to be large enough to take on Washington, D.C. in battle. So watch out! He may be coming to your town.

While we're on the subject

The recent Letter People craze has inspired me to another side-project. What craze, you ask? The one in my head. That's where everything cool happens. You don't even know.

Anyway, I decided to design a shirt for myself featuring one of the Letter People. Click on the picture for a closer view. The back would say "1974-1990". I think it's a pretty awesome design. I sto--er, borrowed, the blank t-shirt from some other site. I redrew Mr. T with Macromedia Flash. And the font I used was called Dreamland Stars (it's free). This would, no doubt, sell in stores, what with all the retro pop culture stuff you see at places like Gadzooks and Hot Topic these days. But it would take going through so many channels to get something like this into mass production, that I don't think I'll even bother thinking about it. I'm just going to see if I can get a shirt made for not too much money at our local Vision Graphics place. Just thought I would share it with all y'all.

Memories

Though I'm about 16 years late on this one, we can also say good-bye to the original Letter People. Anybody else remember those? When I was in Kindergarten, our teacher, Mrs. Shealy, each week would blow up another of the Letter People inflatable dolls ("Huggables"). The inflatables were usually two feet tall and by the end of the school year filled up the shelf that ran around the room near the ceiling. Each Letter Person had a story book and a song. On my first day of Kindergarten, I've been told, my teacher was impressed that I could read the title of the book sitting at the bottom of the blackboard: "Meet me at the Market". The only bit of song I can remember was for Mr. K, and it was something like "You can kick a ball/You can kick a can/But never, ever/Kick a man".

In 1990, Abrams bought out Alpha Time and the Letter People. I'm assuming that the people with the Abrams company must not have had the Letter People when they were kids, if indeed they were ever children at all. Whereas there were only 5 female Letter People originally (the vowels), there are now 13 so that Kindergarteners won't be sexist. The Letter People who were negative (Jumbled Junk, Ripping Rubber Bands, X all wrong) or unhealthy (Cotton Candy, Delicious Doughnuts, Gooey Gum, Lemon Lollilops) were redone as well so that Kindergarteners won't hate the homeless or gays and won't rot their teeth out. I don't see what they're worried about. Mr. L never influenced me to take up sucking on Lemon Lollipops. And donuts sell themselves.

The new Letter People seem a lot more anesthetic in appearance. I mean, they're all doctor's office colors. A side by side comparison would definitely show how dull the new ones are. Looking back, I'm of course inclined to feel a certain fondness for the original Letter People. It's hard not to cherish any memories, however faint, from those far-away days of childhood. But I think I appreciate now just how cool they were. There were colorful. They were artistic. And you can just tell that they are straight out of the early 70s.

I just wish I could have seen the television show. Maybe eventually I'll get one of those original huggables off of Ebay. Sometimes you can find the whole set.

By the way, I've changed my mind about who I think is really Mr. Six. I'll bet it's Mark Felt, and that he'll confess to that this coming summer. I mean, come on, we could make all sorts of jokes using the term "Deep Six".

Mysteries of the Universe, Part Three

Some of you may have heard already that Mr. Six, beloved dancing octogenarian television personality, will no longer be with us. Did he pass away? No, it's worse than that. Daniel Snyder, the owner of the Washington Redskins, got together with a couple of his cronies and convinced the Six Flags shareholders to give Kieran Burke the boot. One of Snyder's first acts as CEO of the theme park chain was to announce the termination of the Mr. Six advertising campaign, calling the character "pointless".

Now, I can't really paint myself as a Mr. Six fan. But I know that there are many who will feel more than the marginal tinge of loss I'm experiencing because of this decision. I also know that, ten or fifteen years from now, if the internet still exists, teen geeks will erect at least one Geocities website dedicated to his grossly myopic face and smooth dance moves.

While Mr. Six will no longer grace (if that is the word) our television sets this coming summer, the question of his identity remains. I'm glad I didn't raise a cry of "Hats off, gentlemen!" when I sung the praises of Wikipedia in the last post, because I would now have to ask you to kindly put them back on. Wikipedia is (yet) unable to reveal the identity of Mr. Six. And Google searches seem to only bring up forums where people repeatedly guess that Steve Urkel (Jaleel White, from Family Matters) is behind the bald cap and oversized Hollywood glasses. I personally don't think it's any known celebrity. We probably would have found it out sooner if it were, and celebrities sell stuff well enough as themselves. I'm not sure if it's male or female, and it really doesn't matter in the long run. If the man (or woman) behind Mr. Six ever were revealed, I think we would all be disappointed. It's probably just a relative nobody who could dance, and got the part primarily on that basis. To me, the character of Mr. Six is far more intriguing if you can't put a name to him. Mysteries demand higher amounts of thinking and focus. Six Flags found a way to keep people thinking about their mascot at times other than just watching the commercials. People discuss the character, and ultimately, the theme park increases its visibility and public awareness. It's a good advertising scheme.

Me? I think Larry "Bud" Melman lost considerable weight and finally revealed his hidden passion for dancing to the Vengaboys.

So, to usher in the new year, let us wave "good-bye" back to Mr. Six as he leaves the general public consciousness, and welcome, if we can, a "Clean, Safe, Fun" Six Flags into the hole in our hearts he leaves behind.