Schultze Gets the Blues

Venue: BYU International Cinema 

I would recommend this movie to everyone. The non sequitors reminded me of Napoleon Dynamite but the rest of the film didn't. I liked how there was not much dialog nor special effects. Hollywood today needs one or the other and usually both. People are always talking or there is a bunch of action going on. A lot of people probably find this movie very boring but I really enjoyed it.

IMDb

Photographing Silence: Juan Rulfo’s Mexico

Venue: BYU MOA

Dates: 20 Jan – 29 May, 2006

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Venue: BYU Special Collections Motion Picture Archive Film Series

Release Year: 1938

Length: 77 minutes

Director: Norman Taurog

Medium: Original Technicolor Reel

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

Venue: BYU Special Collections Motion Picture Archive Film Series

Release Year: 1927

Length: 95 minutes

Director: F. W. Murnau
Medium: Original Silent B+W Reel

Live Organ Accompaniment: Blaine Gale, The Organ Loft

The Island

Venue: My room
Release Year: 2005
Length: 136 minutes
Director: Michael Bay
Language: English (plus a Latin word)
Rating: 5/5 (I would watch it again, I would love to discuss it, and I would possibly buy it)

It was a surprisingly good film. After seeing so many excellent international films my opinion of Blockbuster hits was not as high, but obviously Hollywood can still make the occasional awesome film. I found the plot to be very similar to a Robin Cook book I read a couple years ago. They found this species of monkey that was so similar to humans that they could transplant the organs. Unfortunately, humans are smart and so are their apish counterparts so the monkeys started killing the workers and eventually took over their island. But back to the film, it has a very good storyline, well thought out and planned. It was cool to see Mr. Laurent turn good. The cast was excellent; I like Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi, and Sean Bean. The cinematography and special effects were also amazing. Overall it did a good job of being a typical Hollywood Blockbuster, a thought provoking film, and it left me with the desire to live my life in a better way. I think the film displayed the innate human ability to think creatively and learn quickly. I can definitely see how it was meant as a politically charged film, extremely anti-cloning. Morally, I’m not exactly sure where I stand on the issue of cloning. I can see how it will have a great impact on medicine in the 21st century however I can also see that it will be misused. The way I see it, murder and adultery are the two worst sins because they play with God’s power of taking and giving life. However, in God’s eyes medicine is probably one of the best professions. Christ’s mortal ministry was full of healing the sick and that is a very good, Godly thing to do. Unfortunately I am not quite sure where the line is. I do not think we are able (or God will let us) cross the line to attempting to recreate His power. If we do cross that line I’m sure it will result in a similar situation to the tower of Babel. That is a scary thought that I haven’t heard anyone mention before. I wonder if it is original. I believe cloning to a limited extent is good, all the way up to actually cloning human organs. I also believe that actually cloning a whole human being is wrong. I cannot see any valid situations where it would be desirable, necessary, and moral. While cloning is a good idea, it should be kept in the hands of those who will use it responsibly otherwise something terrible will happen.

Bush Bashers

There is an article in the BYU Political Review which points out many of the main problems facing the Bush administration. This is my response:

While the Bush administration promised $7.1 billion to battle the avian bird flu and has only delivered $3.3 billion to date, we shouldn’t be focusing on that. Last year, 41 people died from the avian influenza while over 3 million people died from AIDS. I think we should focus our anti-Bush sentiment on educating people in proper hygiene to decrease the number of people infected with HIV. Oh wait, AIDS was around before President Bush and we should have made a bigger deal when President Clinton was in office too. I guess since the bird flu is a relatively new issue that only President Bush has had to deal with, we find no problem with using it as an angle of attack because there is not a history of Democrats ‘botching the job’ as well.

The well-known Katrina fiasco is another great example. Not only did President Bush appoint people to lead FEMA who were not necessarily qualified, but the local governments, state governments, other federal agencies, and plenty of NGOs are just as much art fault as the people President Bush personally appointed to lead FEMA. If you notice, FEMA has been under attack since 1997 (four years before Bush became President). I do not see President Bush at fault for the Hurricane Katrina disaster. However, because Bush created the Department of Homeland Security and placed FEMA within it against the wishes and recommendations of Director Brown, he does carry a portion of the blame.

Our leaders are too busy covering up their mistakes, just as they always have been. During the Monica Lewinsky fiasco, the White House was focusing far too much attention on the President’s personal mistakes rather than on international and domestic affairs. It seems that whether a Republican or a Democrat sits in the White House, there will always be mistakes and fiascos.

I am not an avid conservative and Republican. I do not fall into any of the main American political parties. One thing that bugs me is when people who are distinctly Republican or Democrat bashes the opposing party irresponsibly. Yes, there are issues and problems with the current administration, but no matter what party controls the government, it will always be that way.

I agree with your conclusion that we should fight for the freedom and liberty of Americans and all human beings. I agree that the average American should stay on top of the news. I agree we should do what we can to make a difference in this nations politics. However, I do NOT agree that all the problems our country is dealing with are due to the ‘foul-smelling grunge blanketing much of our Capitol,’ which just happens to be led by Republicans at the moment.

I don’t like opinions from people who are hardcore Republican or Democrat. I think everyone should be somewhere in between and more parties should exist that stand on the moderate side of the spectrum. There is so much going on in politics that affects so many people, we can find evidence of both parties doing things that are really bad and other things that are really good. Each side talks up their good points and the other side’s bad points. We should not be so divided, especially based upon party lines few people fall in to. We need more solidarity in the American population.

Gmail +talk

Google has combined their mail feature with their chat feature: Gmail +talk. Now you can chat with your Gmail buddies without ever leaving your inbox. It also gives the option to save all your chats so you can search through them just like your mail. This will not have a large affect on the way I do things because I usually download my mail rather than use Google’s online interface. I’m curious, however, what type of affect this will have on Gmail users in general. There seems to be quite a potential out there for users who email a lot but have not ever joined the instant messaging throng. If you are about to send a quick email to a co-worker or friend but you see they are online, you could just as easily send them an instant message and have a quick conversation. Along the same lines, this might change people who live through their email but also through the phone. If they see someone else is online, instead of calling they can quickly chat and that way there will be a record of exactly who says what. This is a nice convenient addition by Google and I can see multiple uses and a future for it, but at the moment it doesn’t really matter to me.

Not of This World

Venue: BYU International Cinema
Release Year: 1999
Director: Giuseppe Piccioni
Length: 100 Minutes
Language: Italian
Rating: 4/5 (definitely see it if you have the chance but don’t buy it without seeing it)
This was a wonderful film about a nun and a laundry owner who find an abandoned baby. They team up to care for it and it changes their lives. The whole film seemed to be a comparison between different types of relationships between a parent and child. Mother’s have a difficult time sending their children away, whether it is to a convent, a different couple, or someonen random. This felt like a real life story about real people with real feelings, emotions, and actions. With most movies, you can tell they are a piece of somebodies imagination. With this film, it is probably happening out there millions of times and nobody bats an eye, yet millions of lives are changed. The film was a little slow, there is a lot of walking/driving/thinking where there is no dialogue and only repetative action. The music is beautiful and gives you plenty of time to contemplate (or fall asleep). I enjoy taking naps in most films, but I stayed awake through this whole movie. I would highly recommend it. It is up there with My Father’s Glory, which puts it in the top 5 or 10.

IMdB, Wikipedia, Rotten Tomatoes

Solidarity and Freedom of Speech

This weeks In These Times has an article titled In Search of Solidarity. Usually I don’t read In These Times because I’m not a fan of socialism. It defines solidarity as “the fact or quality, on the part of communities…of being perfectly united or at one in some respect, especially in interests, sympathies, or aspirations.” I thought to myself that solidarity sounds like a good thing. We need a little more of it in most aspects of the society (especially in Muslim/Western relations). People want solidarity, it is just the way the human works. A lot of lonely people find solidarity in online communities, through churches, and unfortunately in terrorist organizations. It would be nice if we could find solidarity in our families (it’s happening less and less), in our communities (imagine the ‘typical’ suburbia, like Truman’s neighborhood), or in our world (we’re all homo sapiens). Unfortunately, we seek alternative places to find solidarity and those alternative places and the desire for solidarity can be twisted. Twisted enough to cause things like 9/11. After 9/11 the American people and the western world came together and found a great deal of solidarity. Instead of playing that up, President Bush decided to tell everyone to go shopping. After Hurricane Katrina a similar thing happened, but everyone decided they would donate some money and forget about it. Maybe one of the reasons we no longer have solidarity is because we believe money will solve everything. Terrorists destroyed the WTC? I’ll donate money. A Hurricane destroyed New Orleans? I’ll donate money. As Christopher Hayes says in his article, “donating money is an act of charity, not solidarity. Once we’ve paid off our conscience we’re free to go back to our lives.” I find that attitude very representative of the American population. I also find it very disgusting and hope it will change but know it will not, unless something crazier than a huge hurricane and terrorist attack occurs. It’s interesting how Hayes ties it into socialism: “if we lose unions, we lose the concept of solidarity itself.” In my opinion, not so much, but he is entitled to his opinion. It was also interesting to see how he said the term ’solidarity’ is never used in the American press. Just today the New York Times printed an article on the Mohammed cartoons and similar pieces of art in the past. It says, “That in turn led European papers to republish the cartoons in solidarity with Jyllands-Posten and in defense of free speech.” Obviously, we find solidarity in supporting our inalienable rights, including free speech. One could argue that without unions we would no longer have free speech, but I don’t think most would agree with that. While some valid points are shown about the state of our society, I don’t think solidarity hinges on the future of unions.

Speaking of free speech, the Piss Christ picture created a similar discussion to the Mohammed Cartoons that were printed in the Jyllands-Posten paper. I heard that the man who drew the Mohammed cartoons was trying to write a children’s book about Mohammed, but because he is the prophet and no graven image can be created of him, no illustrators would take the job. As a sort of test to see how the Islamic population would respont, he created the political cartoons. Although Jyllands-Posten had refused to publish controversial pictures of Christ, many cartoons that blaspheme Christ have been published all over the world. I have no recollection of Christian groups making a big enough deal to get the front page, especially more than one day. I’m curious to see where this goes. Personally, I find it revolting that those cartoons were drawn, let alone published. I also find it revolting that the Islamic people are not standing by their peaceful religion and digressing to violence to make their voices heard.

WordPress was down but it’s back & with a random blog feature

WordPress.com was down for a good 15 or 20 minutes. After a while they got the main page up, but not any of the blogs they host. I wonder if this was the first time or more importantly, if it will be the last.

While it was down, they implemented a nice new feature. There is now a Next Blog link in the upper right corner, so if you are ever in the mood for a random blog, check out the Next Blog. Here is the official WordPress Blog Post.

When the site was down I got curious and checked out their listing on Netcraft. Apparently WordPress runs FreeBSD and LiteSpeed. I don’t have any experience with LiteSpeed (but since it’s free I’m definitely going to give it a try) but FreeBSD is super awesome. The more I find out about WordPress the more I like it.