Dogs, Africans, Wrestlers, Tornados and Dinosaurs.

Netflix has been trying to get me to watch Nova: Dogs Decoded for months.  It is always top on my Suggestions list, so today I decided to give in to Netflix and watch it.  Awwww, I wish I had a big house and yard so I could have an Irish Wolfhound, St. Bernard, Great Dane or other big ole huge dog.  :D  Wow, there are scientists who took wild foxes, and domesticated them by selectively breeding only the most docile.  In eight generations they went from being wild to opening their eyes at birth domesticated. Awesome. It also shows that aggression is partially genetic. There is also a discussion of how dogs have similar facial features to babies, and that is why we are attracted to them. I guess Netflix was right, it was a good movie.

Today I am not choosing movies, but simply just clicking on the next one that is on the list.  This brings us to Beyond the Mat, a WWF movie.  I am not pre-judging that this movie is going to make me insane. We are starting by hearing about how the WWF is promoting a new character named Puke, who can throw up on command. For real? Everything I have learned, read or seen about Mick Foley makes me want to meet him. Lately, his "I will mow your lawn for a donation to stop rape and sexual abuse" really made me think that he is an awesome guy. During one of his big entrances, he walked over to his daughter who was scared he was going to get hurt and hugged her before he walked into the ring.  Sweet. The Rock on the other hand, while I am sure he is a nice enough guy when he is Duane, just looks like a douche bag all the time.  I think the most disturbing part of this movie was watching a match between the Rock and Mick Foley (Mankind) while Foley’s kids sat there. Both of his kids had to leave, because they were both freaking out watching their dad get hit over and over.  Even though it’s all fake, it is their dad.  Decent movie, kept me entertained.

God Grew Tired of Us is about Sudan, so we are having an upper day today again.  I have already learned that English and Arabic are the official languages of Sudan.  I had no idea.  Can I just say that I am aware of how awesome it is to not have been born in the Sudan? 27,000 boys had to walk over miles and miles to survive and only 11,000 survived.  I am a wuss. It is so fascinating to watch these men who have just arrived in America and are having to learn things like “don’t throw your garbage out the window” and “these are already cooked potatoes”(when looking at a bag of chips).  They are so excited that they don’t have to share beds.   They spent so much time looking at the grocery store, asking if things were edible or not.  It surprises me that the US Government makes refugees pay for their airfare. One of these kids is talking about what a shame it is that Americans have so much and yet don’t spend any time with their family. It’s an amazing story of how moving to America isn’t always the most amazing thing, and how much we take for granted here.  Watching one of the men being reunited with his mother after 17 years brought me to tears, and then it made me sad, because as she was vocalizing her excitement in singing and dancing in the airport, you could see that he was somewhat embarrassed. These men are inspiring, coming from so little and doing so much.

National Geographic: Tornado Intercept Another NG movie about silly people doing silly things in the middle of the country. I don’t understand why guys spend so much time with no shirts on. Or why anyone would spend thousands of dollars to get a picture of the inside of a tornado when he has a wife at home who is about to give birth. Sigh. Fifty-three minutes of them doing nothing really…just chasing tornadoes but never being successful.

National Geographic: Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure. So far I like this movie because of it’s amazing use of colons in the title. Damn, there was a dinosaur that looks like a very toothy brontosaurus with fins that lived underwater. It was up to 35 feet long and half of that length is neck. There were also weird looking octopi with shells.That is what I learned.

War, Kurt Cobain, Viet Nam and LA.

Today’s movies.  The first was Blue Gold, World Water Wars.  It was interesting enough but slow.  Another movie about how corporations are screwing the little people.  The problem with watching all these movies is that I am like, right right, corporations are screwing us, what’s next?

Kurt Cobain: About a Son.  I don’t know why it is called about a son.  It is just pictures of things over his voice.  It’s a little boring as there is no narration.  It does make me wistful for the West side of the country…I miss the little logging towns, and Olympia.  It is so funny to me to hear Kurt Cobain talking about how all he ever wanted to do was move to Seattle, which is exactly how I felt for most of my growing up years. It’s so sad to hear his voice, he references wanting to kill himself so many times, “blowing my head off”.  It’s so sad to think that he did.  Cobain was our Lennon…those of us that hung on the edges of the punk rock universe on the West Coast.  I remember the day he died; so many people in Seattle were so upset.  Anyway this movie is not very good, it needs narration because just listening to half of an interview while seeing pictures of Washington is nice, but not entertaining.  Although, the pictures of Broadway are making me want to quit my job and run, as they pan past a place that I have memories of.  Sigh, it’s funny how a picture of a stairwell can bring me back.

As the Call, So the Echo is about a doctor who donates a bunch of ENT equipment to a hospital in Viet Nam, and then goes to help out for a period of time.  It is sad to see how many people in VN are really only ill because they don’t have maintenance care.  One man has a giant tumor on his eye, and if he would have gotten it looked at early it wouldn’t have caused him so much pain.  There is also a woman who has a tumor in her skull that is so huge that it has caused her to have paralysis in her face.  So many people do not have a place to find drinking water, or homes with a fan to keep the smoke out.  So many of these docs showcase sad places in the world that tomorrow I am looking for fun docs.  I could so not be a doctor; I am not patient or careful enough.   So now we know no medical school for me.

The last of the day is Law and Order LA.  It’s a great doc, very realistic.  I only had 50 min left and so starting a new movie didn’t sound great, but starting a L&O is wonderful! Bomp bomp

Tolerate our differences

Watching a movie called National Geographic: Moment of Death.  They are discussing how to decide if someone is dead, and how death could be defined as the loss of personality. I know that many people would not think that is appropriate, but I do.  This really is a thought provoking doc about how the medical establishment has to make decisions regarding brain death and the criteria used to make those decisions. 

Next up was Chautauqua: An American Narrative about the town/resort of Chautauqua, which started out as a resort and Sunday school teachers vacation and teaching spot, and has now become a vacation spot for people who are interested in learning.  I kinda want to go visit. They have "the 10:30 lecture" every day, which is quite an honor to be asked to speak at.  It is a super white place, but they discuss how they wish for more diversity, and that it is getting better. I was impressed they even thought of it.

Office Tigers is about a company that provides office support, technical and administrative to large companies from India.  It was very interesting to see how the company trains their workers to be more American. They are incredibly successful in teaching their employees to be successful and once they leave Office Tiger, they are easily able to get jobs outside in other outsourcing companies. It was not very good, and the man who was the President of the company kept asking people where their ties were. It seemed like it was a public relations piece about the good side of outsourcing, and it was pretty clear that the filmmakers were in the pockets of the company.

Family Values: An American Tragedy was a lesbian woman making a doc about trying to get back to having a relationship with her father who is a very strong right winger.  The movie was made in 1996, which brought me back to some truly horrible fashion, but it also showed me how much work has been done to change the lives of gay people.  The most interesting thing about this movie was how the father’s entire career was about family, but he had completely ignored his first family. This movie brought up a whole issue to me about the word tolerance when it is used to discuss anyone who is different.  We should learn "tolerance" of gays, but I don't want to be tolerated. I would rather you didn't tolerate me and was honest about your uncomfortableness.

Classified X, is a anthropological look at how black people are portrayed in film, starting in the very beginning of the film industry and the immense racism that is inherent.  It is really disturbing when you see how black people are not allowed to be talented, or sexual, or up front.  It’s sad.  There were even some black roles that were being played by white actors…sad. The whole movie was depressing. It pointed out that for many many years, black people were kept in the back of films, or made to play specific characters that played into white stereotypes of blacks.  Oh wait, that still happens.  Guess we aren't so enlightened.

Bangkok Girl, this movie talks about the bar girls, following one girl named Pla, as she goes about her day to day.  This young girl, who started working in a bar at age 13 and was part of the booming sex tourism industry in Bangkok.  It is depressing and makes me hate the western men, who think that it is their right to go and take advantage of these women who have no other options.  I wonder how they would feel if we took one of their teen daughters and started running her to the strip clubs so she could work in the VIP room sucking off people.  ARGGG this is so fucking depressing.