Polka, Jesus, Videogames and Whine

Up first today is The Man Who Would be Polka King.  It’s about a man named Jan Lewan who was a polka star in PA, and who ran a ponzi scheme.  Old people lost a ton of money, but I mean, I’m sorry to say this, but who invests money in a polka band and gift shop? I mean…common sense people. Jan is a pretty amazing individual, just so full of himself and how important he could be.  Now he sits in state jail. Oh…something bad is about to happen…yep…four months after he went to jail he got stabbed, but lived.  The victims that he conned all say that the guy didn’t stab him enough since he lived.  WOW, people hate him. 

The next movie up is For the Bible Tells Me So, about the view of homosexuality by the Christian Church.  So far, the best quote was from Jimmy Swaggart, he of the prostitute hiring and lying, “I have never seen a man I would want to marry, and if one of them looks at me like that I will kill him and tell God he died.” This movie is really good.  They seem to be fairly balanced…although they are somewhat pro-gay I will admit. They point out that many Biblical literalists collect interest on investments, which is against God.  Oh, this is going to be fun for me, thank you movie for yet another awesome comeback! There is a woman who rejected her lesbian daughter because of the advice of her church, and because of her learning from Focus on the Family.  The daughter then killed herself, and the woman realized how much she had missed by rejecting her daughter. 

Now playing is Playing Columbine, which says that it is a discussion about a video game called “Super Columbine Massacre RPG!”. It was a Role Player Game where you are the shooters in Columbine.  The movie touches on this topic, but really focuses more on how society blames video games and television etc, for the violence and school shooting.  It is an interesting movie, a little heavy handed with the message, but since I agree with it I like the movie.

Last movie for today is Odds of Recovery about some lady who had a bunch of surgeries.  Ok, so I am not a fan.  I don’t like movies with no spoken narration but rely on short sentences to move the story.  I also am not a fan of the camera work in this movie, because it rarely is focused on a person, but is mostly on other things.  I am really not a fan, it seems like she is just focused on whining about her doctors.

crazy, death, iraq

First up today is Frontline: The Released about how mentally ill inmates get better treatment in jail/prison than they do when they are released, which causes a cycle of criminal behavior.  In the 70’s the government closed a lot of mental instructions, for preference of “home care”.  The problem is that the home care never materializes, so prisons have become the new mental instructions.  So many people have no help with their mental health problems and we are making them criminals instead of getting them treatment.  This movie makes me miss the place I lived when I was 18, the Curben.  I was surrounded by people with serious mental illness most days, and I miss that sometimes.  Sometimes I think that I should go try to work with the homeless mentally ill, because it is always interesting.

Moving on in a frontline sort of day to Frontline: Post Mortem about death investigations in the US and the lack of standardization.  Pretty decent movie, here it is in a nutshell.  Some coroners don’t know what they are doing, there is a lot of corruption, there is no standardization, and no real qualifications.  Interesting movie, but not a lot to say about it.

(in here I had a three hour Intervention break)

Three Soldiers is the story of three soldiers who committed suicide in Iraq.  Operation Iraqi Freedom has had the highest levels of suicide in Army history. The families say they can’t believe that their loved one committed suicide, and the army says that the people who had the most severe mental health issues would be unlikely or unable to seek treatment.  While this movie is about a serious topic, it is not a well made movie.  The stories switch back and forth with no segues and it gets a bit confusing after a while.  Also they say it is about three soldiers, but really it is about two, with two others mentioned briefly.

Food, Flights and Colonists

It’s been a few days, but I have had to lay of the docs for a few.  The subject matter of most docs, or at least the ones I find interesting, is sadness.  I have been a little too sad in my own head, so I have been watching bad tv instead. :D 

Yesterday though, I did watch a couple.  The first was called I Like Killing Flies about a man who runs a tiny restaurant in NYC.  He has like, over 500 menu items, and the movie just discussed his deciding after 25 some years to move to a different location.  It was interesting, and the people were freaks.  He would throw people out of the restaurant if they were a party of more than four.  It was funny.

Second, I watched Super Carrier which was discussing the USS Eisenhower after it had been retrofitted, and was getting certified for combat.  It talked a lot about how carriers work, and how they fling the jets off and catch them when they come back.  There is also some accident footage, which was creepy.  One guy got sucked into an engine, and lived! Wow!

The last one was Jamestown, which was discussing how the Jamestown colony was founded, and what happened to the settlers, and who their mysterious leader was.  It was…um…very scientific.  Zzzzzzzzzzz Makes me sad when I realize how little I care about history. 

Hippies, haters, debt

Commune is the first movie of the day.  Ha, I love it when semi famous people show up in movies as a participant. Peter Coyote is in this, because he lived on the commune for a while. I think that what this movie does a good job of showing is that sometimes, what is good for an individual is not good for anyone who is dependant on that individual.  This was a very well done movie, showing both the good and bad of communal life as realized by Black Bear Ranch.

I decided what is better after a movie about peace loving hippies than to go directly to Blood in the Face, which is about White Power idiots.  So far, I have heard an old fat white guy say with pride “We are more Nazi than the Nazis”.  A German immigrant saying “We should send the foreigners back to Africa where they belong”.  Um….it’s sad when you are so stupid you don’t even know what you are saying.  It is amazing to me as I watch this movie how few white racists are educated and well to do.  It is so easy for people to blame their issues on others, and these KKK/WAR/ANP people are just blind.  Blaming everyone but themselves for their place in society. Ok, during the KKK wedding, the reverend said “Bless them in Jesus name, the youngest son of God the Father”.  God had other sons? I need more information! “Why can people want to save the whales, but not the white race?” Because no one is persecuting and killing white people en masse.  “You don’t see dogs going outside of their species, why would people?”  Well see sweetie, dogs are the species, and they mix breeds all the time.  In humans, that is our species and our races are breeds so to speak so your argument is retarded. Oh, hey, that’s Micheal Moore doing one of the interviews, this must have been damn near his first movie. 

Moving on to the next movie, it is called I Want Your Money and it’s a tea-party movie.  Socialism is bad, because if you give people the same things, everything will stop working.  Oh my hell, it’s like a giant love story to Ronald Regan.  For real people, he wasn’t THAT great of a president. “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job, a depression is when you lose yours.”  So, what if you are the neighbor? So, the movie while a big ole love affair with Regan and hatin’ Obama, it is saying that W did a bad job…so I guess I can agree with that. :D  Ok, this movie is clearly a bunch of white rich guys, with the occasional rich black guy thrown in, complaining about being taxed.  I hate taxes too, but I think that when you start saying that American corporations are here to help the people, I call Bullshit!

Frontline: the Card Game, which is about credit in the United States.  I have to say that the former CEO of Providian is pretty ballsy to say “Yep, we just wanted to add fees so that we would make more money”.  I mean, at least he is telling the truth. I have such a brain crush on Elizabeth Warren. People throw around the “this will destroy America” phrase so often it has lost meaning.  Restricting credit card fees is not going to destroy America, it is just gonna piss off the banks.

Confessions, executions and bombs

I had to finish watching the abortion movie this morning.  Nothing like dismembered fetus parts first thing in the morning to really get you moving!

Second I watched Frontline: The Confessions which explains the case of the “Norfolk Four” who were four men who were browbeat into confessing to gang rape and murder, even though their DNA didn’t match and the person who actually committed the crime said over and over he did it alone.  Sigh.  It’s amazing how people don’t understand why someone would falsely confess…I get it.  I know that I would say whatever someone wanted to hear if they had me in a room annoying me for eight hours. 

Next up is Sacco & Vanzetti was a famous case of two men being convicted of murder when there was no real case against them.  The two men were Italian anarchists and they were not given most of the rights that are supposed to be given to people in American courts.  They were branded as Communists (kinda like if you get called a Muslim now) and convicted and sent to death, and the conviction was based almost completely on false evidence and racism.  Granted, it took place right after World War I, but it still happens now.  The jury foreman’s friend stated that he thought that they might be innocent, and the foremen replied “doesn’t matter, we should hang them anyway”. 

To Die in Jerusalem is about two young girls killed in a suicide bombing in Israel.  They look very similar, but one of them is the suicide bomber, and one a victim.  This movie is very sad, talking to both parents and friends of the bomber and the victim.  Their injuries were mirror imaged, and their faces look so similar that when one father was looking at a picture of the two girls, he pointed out the wrong one as his daughter.  As you see both families struggling to understand the death of their child, you can see why there is such a struggle for peace.  There is no communication, no way for the two sides to see anything but the ugly of the other side, and it is depressing. Something as simple as two people having coffee, two people who live 30 miles apart, but separated by ideology and borders, takes 4 years for them to finally meet, and then only via satellite.  Even during this opportunity for the two mothers to come together, they couldn’t find any common ground.   

Dysfunctional Drugs and Abortion

Today I watched a lot of Intervention for the first half of the day.  I just needed something that would pass the time while I did some other things, so that Intervention is it!  

I then went to watching a movie called October Country which is about a very dysfunctional family.  It’s pretty slow…a dad with PTSD, mom who allows everyone to walk on her, sisters who have all had babies early, and now those babies are having babies.  These dysfunctional family movies are never interesting to me, it’s always just like watching home videos.  The people never learn, they continue to make the same mistakes, and it is just annoying.  Sigh, not much longer till this one is over. Note: This family needs to see and understand toothpaste, toothbrushes and dental appointments.

America’s Drug War: The Last White Hope is a movie I have seen before.  It is a report on the way that the government uses illegal drugs to punish the poor.  It’s a pretty good movie, and it goes through how the drug war is a dangerous and expensive war that is doing nothing. 

Moving on to Unborn in the USA, which I am only 2 minutes in and I already would like to let the director know that he needs to speed up the background music.  I am falling out asleep here. Oh my hell, we now get to watch a pro-life training, including a fun discussion of how to witness to a woman who was raped and had an abortion, including a handout called “What if she was raped??”   I might throw up. The people who protest and yell at people who are going into the abortion clinics make me angry.  Perhaps I should start yelling at people when they go into churches.  I understand the anti-choice folk’s perspective, but it doesn’t make me think they are fair. There was one woman who had seven abortions, and now is blaming the abortions for her medical problems.  Really? I am seriously pro-choice, and I think that if you have had seven abortions, there is something really, really wrong with you.  Also, you can’t blame your breast cancer on your abortion, just because you had both doesn’t mean they are related and you regret your abortion. 

Nat Geo

Happy Monday!  Last week was not great, there was some work stress, and some medical stress, but now I am back and ready to go! 

I decided today will be a National Geographic day.  So everything watched is a NatGeo show!

Camp Leatherneck is another movie about Afghanistan.  I know that it is important to see the war in action, but these movies are always the same.  Look, it’s tough. Look at us winning hearts and minds, go team.  I like the war movies that aren’t national geographic because they are normally less formulaic. 

Science of Evil is discussing evil and how it is portrayed throughout the world.  They discuss Jeffery Dahmer getting baptized, and how that was controversial due to him being considered such evil.  It also talks a lot about Africa and how normal people are sometimes driven to evil actions by circumstance.  I think that is a very valid point that is often forgotten in the discussion of evil, that people can be drawn into it very easily.  They also interviewed the man who ran the Stanford prison experiment in the 70’s which showed how quickly people can become both accepting of abuse and abusive when given power or lack of power.  They also discuss mapping of our brains when making decisions that can be considered evil.  For example, if you see a bleeding woman by the side of the road should you help even if it will ruin your fancy suit.  (Um, no, suit isn’t as important as woman’s life for me at least). 

Inside the Body Trade  is all about the market for organs, both legal and illegal.  There is much ado about how in china many people get organs from executed people, which I don’t think is right to do without telling the person who is being executed, but I also don’t see it as a big thing to get upset about.  I guess that if someone was to offer to pay off my student loans and pay for grad school, I would give them one of my kidneys in a hot second. 

China’s Lost Girls, which is about girl babies in China.  First of all, Lisa Ling needs a better stylist.  Her jeans are U-G-L-Y she ain’t got not alibi! First story is about Marissa, a Chinese girl that was abandoned at three days old and adopted to a couple in Atlanta.  I think this couple is doing the right thing, they are taking her to Chinese dance lessons and take her back to China.  It is interesting to me how the people of China are put in such horrible positions, give up or kill your child, or be fined thousands of dollars.  So horrible. Chinese men better start enjoying man sex, because there are 13,000 more boys than girls in China now, and that is only getting worse. In 2020 they believe there will be 40,000,000 men who can’t find wives because there are no women, which can cause all sorts of increases in crimes against women. It was heartbreaking to watch American couples come to pick up their new child the looks on their faces is pure joy, and the babies are screaming and looking terrified.  One family who has an older daughter that was adopted from China went back and put up a poster in the park where she was found that said her daughter was safe and loved in the United States.  The Chinese people were so conflicted, some were saying that they were happy for the girl, but many were saying how sad there are that the girl will not be proud of China.  It’s a catch 22, but I do think that parents in the United States are better than a box in a park. Now, what is happening in China is that the single children are getting spoiled and fat, unlike what is happening here in America, where parents have multiple children who get spoiled and fat.

Inside the Embassy; Ambassadors is all about being an Ambassador.  I would love to be an ambassador, or at least in the foreign service.  This movie is sorta like watching a grade school movie, and not super informative.  It totally feels like a movie I would have made for a history class, but with better interviews.  I just can’t get into this information, because it seems like a movie about people who want to show how cool they are. 

Ballet and Guns

Only When I Dance is a great movie about two kids who are growing up in the slums(sorta) of Rio and who only have the chance to get out via ballet/dancing.  I think that this kind of movie is great, but it also sets up people for the idea that all you have to do is work hard in one thing and you will be a great success.  Except, of the two main characters in this movie, only one is having success.  The other is stuck in Rio with loans to pay and no way to make money except for teaching dance.  Sad for the one who is stuck, happy for the kid in NYC following his dream.

The End is about the East End in London, and the gangs that run it.  The movie is a little slow, plus it was filmed in black and white, which is an artistic choice I do not like.  The weirdest thing is listening to these old white guys with English accents who are all dressed pretty nicely talking about stabbing people and getting nicked by the cops.  I wish often that I was British, because I like the way they speak.  I think I am going to try to start using the word nicked more.  Ok, so halfway through the movie, all of a sudden it becomes born again gangsters.  English people are weird, and by and large super polite.  Criminals who say things like “It’s not the immigrants fault they have taken over the East End, they could afford to live there right?”

Crime, crime, crime.

Argggggggggg! I keep losing the power on the computer, so I have to keep re-writing this!

First movie of the day was The Art of the Steal, about the change of hands of the Barnes Collection, one of the largest and most impressive collections of early modern and impressionist art.  Basically, the state and city stole this collection, doing exactly what was clearly described as what NOT to do.  Very sad to see someone’s wishes completely ignored by people who decide what THEY want is best, no matter what evidence to the contrary is available. 

Second I watched ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ, I mean Future by Design.  I really thought I would be very interested in this movie; about a man who has been designing for the future since the 50’s…integrating environmental factors into the design.  I wish this movie was even close to interesting, but it was not. B O R I N G

The Power of Forgiveness is about Karla Faye Tucker, a woman who was executed in Texas for murder.  She gained a lot of public attention because she found Jesus in prison and then a bunch of evangelical Christians all wanted her sentence to be commuted to life since she had changed with the lord.  I wasn’t impressed with this movie, it was all god and very little information about her.  It was short, so that’s good.

Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer.  This movie is about the making of a documentary about Aileen Wuornos and how her lawyer and adopted “mother” were making money off of her story of being a killer.  It is interesting to see the perversion of the justice system in action.  If not for money, I doubt anyone would know nearly as much as they do about this woman.  It seems like her lawyer, the police, everyone just wanted to make a buck and their name from this case, and no one really thought about the woman who actually committed the crime, and who was sorta screwed by everyone involved. 

Frontline: The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan talks about the ancient and current practice of Bachi Bazi, which is using young boys for sex and dancing.  Apparently, among the commanders of the Northern Alliance, it is important to have a boy.  It is a symbol of status to have a little boy you can use as you wish. I am amazed by the fact that pedophilia is rampant all over the world.

Frontline: Death by Fire.  Today has been a big day for the crime doc, and a big day to see how no matter how much you think that good wins, it doesn’t. This doc is about a man in Texas who was executed for setting his house on fire and killing his three daughters, except for the part where he didn’t actually do it.  Fire science showed that the fire that he was supposed to have set was actually not set.  Seriously, we need a wake up in this country, because since the man was in Texas, the governor wouldn’t even give him a 30 day stay to figure out if the science was correct or not, he just got killed.  Sad.

bad movies, good music and trees

So…I can’t remember what I watched yesterday morning, because it was a busy day, so hopefully if I see it again I will remember, but if not, oh well!  That is the problem with watching so many docs everyday…I am having a hard time keeping them all separate in my mind.  I have had to start writing the blurbs as I am watching, or directly after so as to not mess them up. 

Today’s first flight of fancy is The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made.  YAY! This is silly, it’s a countdown of the worst movies.  Troll is only number 48, so this could really get bad.  Oh wow, the title doesn’t lie.  These movies are b a d! Firebird 2015 looks funny…and set so close to now.  Ok, Xanadu is not a bad movie.  It is an awesome movie.  I need to check when this movie was made, because all of the really bad movies are from the pre-2000, and there have been some really bad movies made since then.  The winner for worst movie?? The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies.  I think I will have to agree with them on this. 

Next up is Who Is Harry Nilsson (and Why Is Everyone Talkin’ Bout Him?).  Harry Nilsson is a songwriter/singer who wrote some of the most beautiful songs from I remember from when I was growing up.  I think this movie is something like a “Behind the Music”.  It is so amazing how many songs this man wrote! It’s like every song I am thinking “really? This one too?”  This is one of the best docs I have seen in a while.  Close to two hours long but really engaging. 

National Geographic: Climbing Redwood Giants is another National Geographic movie.  They are always interesting and beautiful, but I get a little bored with the lack of action.  The trees are amazing of course, I miss Northern Cali.  Hell, I just wish the PNW.  All in all, it’s a national geo movie and it’s good if you are looking.  Note: People who climb the giant redwoods are nuts! “After a nasty day of bushwhacking, Faye declares victory”…hahahaha. The redwoods are growing faster than humans are removing them! YAY!

I had a bad afternoon, and then watched Hoarders. :D

politics, porn and death

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