What I know about the long conflict in the Sudan would fit on a grain of rice. Had not a clue that the country has been destroying itself the entire time I've been a parent. So much for the image of myself as an informed citizen of the world!
Sudan meant nothing more to me than some vague Egyptology concepts of Nubia, Meroe, Khartoum, Coptic Christians, the kingdom of Kush, and the 19th century search for the source of the Nile. Reading many Amanda Peabody mysteries by Elizabeth Peters didn't seem to help.
Sad to say, I'm more comfortable with cosy mysteries and ancient cultures buried under the sand than learning about modern genocide. Two things are pushing me to be more informed. First, I'm reading Prairie Bluestem's blog about her nephew volunteering in the Sudan. Second, I saw a wonderful, uplifting movie about three Lost Boys adjusting to life in the United States. It's called, God Grew Tired of Us.
© 2007 Nancy L. Ruder
Showing posts with label documentaries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label documentaries. Show all posts
2/26/07
6/2/06
Not since Ross Perot, Jr.
...ran for president in 1992 and 1996 have I seen so many charts. Ross was a piechart kind of guy. Al Gore, in the new film "An Inconvenient Truth", is more of a line graph and bar graph dude. This is not nearly as sleep-inducing as you might expect. Compared to Gore's book,Earth In the Balance, the movie is a jolt of java. The film is very viewable, and Gore is not the nerdy wooden politician you remember. I did not feel like I was trapped watching a filmstrip in an over-heated junior high science classroom while wearing pantyhose that kept slipping down until the crotch saddle was level with the hem of my polyester plaid miniskirt. True, it also did not make me want to write notes in backhand on ruled paper with a turquoise pen about how dreamy/neato/keen/groovy Al is looking these days.
If you've forgotten the "giant sucking sound," you can listen to the 1992 presidential debates. Paul Krugman's op ed,"Swift Boating the Planet", reminds us that those benefitting from the current energy habits of Americans do not play fair. And speaking of giant sucking sounds, don't miss the Dallas Morning News editorial, "This Deal Tanks", about Ford and GM gas rebates for dinosaur buyers.
If you've forgotten the "giant sucking sound," you can listen to the 1992 presidential debates. Paul Krugman's op ed,"Swift Boating the Planet", reminds us that those benefitting from the current energy habits of Americans do not play fair. And speaking of giant sucking sounds, don't miss the Dallas Morning News editorial, "This Deal Tanks", about Ford and GM gas rebates for dinosaur buyers.
2/10/06
Unaware of the drilling
Parenthood and the demands of job and family act as an anesthetic that keeps the bulk of Americans too numb to stay informed and angry about the direction the U.S. is taking. This is not meant to be an excuse for an uninvolved citizenry, but just an observation. Being fifty is a good thing. It gives me fewer anesthetic demands on my energy, and allows me more time to be informed and angry. Being fifty also gives me more time in the dentist's chair.
After the early morning dental appointment my face, mouth, and brain were pretty numbed, plus it was raining. I felt too drooly to accomplish housework, and almost drooly enough to fit in with the unusual characters who attend movies on weekday mornings. So I figured it would be a good time to go see Eugene Jarecki's documentary film, Why We Fight.
The film is informative and detailed, but done well enough that it doesn't feel like a junior high filmstrip (except to that one guy who was snoring. I wanted to put his ponytail in the inkwell.) Mr. Troester's eighth grade social studies class is where I first heard of the "military-industrial complex". The complex has only grown in the decades since. The military-industrial complex controls our elected representatives, and dwarfs our president (who is not exactly fighting back against Mr. Tooth Decay). It keeps citizens numbed on propaganda and platitudes. We don't really feel the grinding away of our beliefs and values, our rights and representation, our respect worldwide.
Chris Vognar's review in the Dallas Morning News.
From President Eisenhower's Farewell Address, January 17, 1961:
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
After the early morning dental appointment my face, mouth, and brain were pretty numbed, plus it was raining. I felt too drooly to accomplish housework, and almost drooly enough to fit in with the unusual characters who attend movies on weekday mornings. So I figured it would be a good time to go see Eugene Jarecki's documentary film, Why We Fight.
The film is informative and detailed, but done well enough that it doesn't feel like a junior high filmstrip (except to that one guy who was snoring. I wanted to put his ponytail in the inkwell.) Mr. Troester's eighth grade social studies class is where I first heard of the "military-industrial complex". The complex has only grown in the decades since. The military-industrial complex controls our elected representatives, and dwarfs our president (who is not exactly fighting back against Mr. Tooth Decay). It keeps citizens numbed on propaganda and platitudes. We don't really feel the grinding away of our beliefs and values, our rights and representation, our respect worldwide.
Chris Vognar's review in the Dallas Morning News.
From President Eisenhower's Farewell Address, January 17, 1961:
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
1/27/06
Technology Disparity
"Roving Mars" opened at the IMAX today. I admit to having an anthropomorphic fondness for Spirit and Opportunity. They are each such a charming and amazing cross between a praying mantis and a Lego construction, that they tug fond memories from my childhood.
The movie is great fun, and should be a hit with families. I know my kids would have loved it when they were younger, and will be intrigued even in their twentyish sophistication. The footage of engineers in their white industrial Teletubby suits building the rovers, and later awaiting the landing on Mars are fascinating. The explanations are clear enough for my unscientific mind.
What an accomplishment! The scientists were able to build these incredibly complex robots and safely transport them on a seven-month journey through space, unfold and direct them to motor around the rocky surface collecting data long after their expected ninety days.
This brings me to my question: Why can't I buy a crockpot built to work longer than ninety days?
Philip Glass composed the soundtrack, but I was unaware of it, unlike his soundtrack enhancing the 2003 Robert McNamara documentary "Fog of War".
The movie is great fun, and should be a hit with families. I know my kids would have loved it when they were younger, and will be intrigued even in their twentyish sophistication. The footage of engineers in their white industrial Teletubby suits building the rovers, and later awaiting the landing on Mars are fascinating. The explanations are clear enough for my unscientific mind.
What an accomplishment! The scientists were able to build these incredibly complex robots and safely transport them on a seven-month journey through space, unfold and direct them to motor around the rocky surface collecting data long after their expected ninety days.
This brings me to my question: Why can't I buy a crockpot built to work longer than ninety days?
Philip Glass composed the soundtrack, but I was unaware of it, unlike his soundtrack enhancing the 2003 Robert McNamara documentary "Fog of War".
9/8/05
Would you, could you on a plane?
The existence of penguins on Earth just makes me happy. Ever since Eastridge Elementary School and Mr. Popper's Penguins, I've had a bemused attachment to these amazing animals. I imagine them in scenarios--playing electric guitar or bebop sax, dancing in a poodle skirt, delivering pizza, or frosting wedding cakes.This summer's hit movie, March of the Penguins, spread penguin fondness to a great many more folks. Watching the movie my Seuss-brain kept thinking,
I would never walk.
I would take a car.*
Today it's good to know that the penguins from New Orleans' Audubon Zoo are being evacuated. They are traveling by refrigerator truck to Baton Rouge. From there, the penguins will be "airlifted out" to zoos around the country.
I can't help it. I imagine a plane full of penguins buckled into their airplane seats and watching the flight attendant demonstrate the seatbelt, oxygen mask, and use of the seat cushion as a floatation device. As soon as the plane reaches cruising altitude, flight attendants push the beverage cart up the aisle. "Would you like some ice, or some fish?" My gosh! Penguins returning their tray tables to the upright and locked position! One fish, two fish? Red fish, blue fish?
*The moon was out
and we saw some sheep.
We saw some sheep
take a walk in their sleep.
By the light of the moon
by the light of a star,
they walked all night
from near to far.
I would never walk.
I would take a car.
8/13/05
Grizzly Man in Seventh Grade
Irrational dread of starting junior high school filled me during sixth grade, and expanded through the summer of 1967. Now I know that this was my first episode of depression and panic disorder, possibly aggravated by or masquerading as an enervating illness that resembled mononucleosis. As the start of classes loomed, I bundled my fear into obsessive reading of magazine stories about fatal grizzly bear attacks. I'm sure there's a psychological term for this coping mechanism.
In my black and white memory of this time, I am reading the magazine stories while lying on the gray living room carpet--reading the stories over and over again. The carpet is new, just installed the summer before. In my recollection, Sports Illustrated ran a continuing story for four issues, although I can only find a citation for "Menace in Our Northern Parks; Grizzlies," by E. Watson, SI 27:62-4+, October 30, 1967, in the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. The Time Magazine online archive provided some corroboration of my memories, and I was able to print out the ghastly report, "Night of Terror; Two Killed By Grizzlies in Montana Parks," Time 90:19, August 28, 1967.
Werner Herzog's new documentary film about the grizzly-obsessed Timothy Treadwell is in theaters now. I'm both repulsed and attracted by the subject. I'm thankful, too, that I don't have to start junior high ever again, speaking of horrifying.
Herzog made a film, Aguirre, the Wrath of God in 1972 . I saw the film in college at the UN-L Foreign Film Series in 1975, give or take a year, and I have been haunted by it for thirty years.
Amazon.com reviewer, Bret Fetzer, writes that Aguirre, "becomes more pertinent every year. The astonishing Klaus Kinski plays Don Lope de Aguirre, a brutal conquistador who leads his soldiers into the Amazon jungle in an obsessive quest for gold. The story is of the expedition's relentless degeneration into brutality and despair, but the movie is much more than its plot. Director Werner Herzog strove, whenever possible, to replicate the historical circumstances of the conquistadors, and the sheer human effort of traveling through the dense mountains and valleys of Brazil in armor creates a palpable sense of struggle and derangement. This sense of reality, combined with Kinski's intensely furious performance, makes Aguirre, the Wrath of God a riveting film. "
Watching the Grizzly Man movie trailer, I mentally substitute Klaus Kinski for Treadwell. Do I want to be haunted by another Herzog movie for thirty years?
Living in Texas in the summer often leads sane persons, trying to steer their cars along congested expressways without actually touching their fingertips to the red hot steering wheel, to wonder what-in-the-hey-ho those armor-clad Spanish conquistadors were thinking when they decided this region was fit for human habitation. Had they completely fried their brains inside those helmets in their obsessive pursuit of gold, the fountain of youth, and opportunities to abuse the indigenous population? Fried brains may account for the Spanish conquistadors speaking German!
In my black and white memory of this time, I am reading the magazine stories while lying on the gray living room carpet--reading the stories over and over again. The carpet is new, just installed the summer before. In my recollection, Sports Illustrated ran a continuing story for four issues, although I can only find a citation for "Menace in Our Northern Parks; Grizzlies," by E. Watson, SI 27:62-4+, October 30, 1967, in the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. The Time Magazine online archive provided some corroboration of my memories, and I was able to print out the ghastly report, "Night of Terror; Two Killed By Grizzlies in Montana Parks," Time 90:19, August 28, 1967.
Werner Herzog's new documentary film about the grizzly-obsessed Timothy Treadwell is in theaters now. I'm both repulsed and attracted by the subject. I'm thankful, too, that I don't have to start junior high ever again, speaking of horrifying.
Herzog made a film, Aguirre, the Wrath of God in 1972 . I saw the film in college at the UN-L Foreign Film Series in 1975, give or take a year, and I have been haunted by it for thirty years.
Amazon.com reviewer, Bret Fetzer, writes that Aguirre, "becomes more pertinent every year. The astonishing Klaus Kinski plays Don Lope de Aguirre, a brutal conquistador who leads his soldiers into the Amazon jungle in an obsessive quest for gold. The story is of the expedition's relentless degeneration into brutality and despair, but the movie is much more than its plot. Director Werner Herzog strove, whenever possible, to replicate the historical circumstances of the conquistadors, and the sheer human effort of traveling through the dense mountains and valleys of Brazil in armor creates a palpable sense of struggle and derangement. This sense of reality, combined with Kinski's intensely furious performance, makes Aguirre, the Wrath of God a riveting film. "
Watching the Grizzly Man movie trailer, I mentally substitute Klaus Kinski for Treadwell. Do I want to be haunted by another Herzog movie for thirty years?
Living in Texas in the summer often leads sane persons, trying to steer their cars along congested expressways without actually touching their fingertips to the red hot steering wheel, to wonder what-in-the-hey-ho those armor-clad Spanish conquistadors were thinking when they decided this region was fit for human habitation. Had they completely fried their brains inside those helmets in their obsessive pursuit of gold, the fountain of youth, and opportunities to abuse the indigenous population? Fried brains may account for the Spanish conquistadors speaking German!
7/17/05
Bioluminescence
Playing with papers and shapes last weekend, a collage gradually emerged that sent me off in search of images of the bioluminescent creatures in the deepest parts of the oceans. Hadn't heard about the movie "Deep Blue" at that point. My "March of the Penguins" movie buddy knew we had to go see "Deep Blue", though. The cinematography is impressive, the soundtrack perfect, and the enormous cool wetness of the subject makes it an excellent escape from the hot Dallas afternoon for adults and teens.Reviews of the movie clearly explained that Nature is a violent, gory, orca-eat-seal place. Mother Nature is concerned with survival of species, not the fate of individuals. While the movie is rated G, it is not appropriate for children. Still, there were many freaked youngsters in the theater, and someone is going to have to sit up with them when they have nightmares! The movie also requires an attention span not found in viewers addicted to massive doses of car chases, bathroom or bedroom humor, or blasting special effects. I noted, too, that watching all the water sent many more audience members out to the restrooms than any movie I've ever seen!
"Deep Blue's" footage of jellyfish and the bioluminescent life in the deep abysses is mind-blowingly beautiful. I couldn't wait to tell my photographer son with his interest in Dale Chihuly's glass art. The hay-bale swirling schools of fish are like underwater tornadoes. Night in the coral reef is far more terrifying than I ever imagined. My awareness of Earth's oceans is greatly enhanced, and I may even have a nightmare or two. Still, it is impossible to get emotionally involved in "Deep Blue", unlike "March of the Penguins".
7/5/05
Imitating Penguins
I've always believed that a really cold movie is just the antidote for the Texas summer. It can't be a cool movie with action heroes and special effects. I'm talking about COLD.
My old cold favorites include the Russian dacha parts of Dr. Zhivago. I'm always annoyed that Omar Sharif's Yuri prefers the blonde Julie Christie's Lara to the brunette Geraldine Chaplin's Tonya, but the ice encrusted dacha is so beautiful, so magical, he can be forgiven! Just writing about it can ward off a hot flash.
My new cold favorite is March of the Penguins. This documentary narrated by Morgan Freeman, in his cool voice, is just mind-boggling in its true-life-real nature strangeness. The cinematography is gorgeous, and more chilling than standing in front of your open refrigerator all day. And then there are the penguins! Emperor penguins live such harsh, bizarre, and beautiful lives that you can't help going slack-jawed watching. Your struggle to find a parking place is nothing. Your long wait at the grocery deli counter to get the sliced ham and provolone--nothing. Troubles balancing family and career? Phooph! Can't find comfortable walking shoes? Thphthph! Need a Milky Way to tide you over until lunch? You are soooo pathetic! Someone else controls the office thermostat??? Try seventy below zero with winds over one hundred miles per hour, and you've got to balance an egg the size of a mango on your feet, preventing it from touching the ice while you keep moving so you don't freeze to death---FOR WEEKS AT A TIME WITH NO MEALS! It's so weird the Surgeon General has warned that it causes Brain Freeze.
If the movie isn't coming soon to a theater near you, go to the website to see the trailers and still photos. There are some great shots to use as your computer desktop background. The movie is probably appropriate for kids over ten.
Trying to explain the movie and the lifestyle of the penguins is very difficult. If you see someone at the office watercooler waddling on his heels, with arms tight to his side and hands flared out, and moving his neck in odd arcing motions, you will know he has been to the penguin movie! If he regurgitates a full belly of krill on your wingtips, or tries to demonstrate the choreography for passing off the newly-hatched chick from the dad's feet to the mom's feet in that tight space behind your desk, he's gone way over the edge. He can't help imitating the penguins, but do suggest he practice in the privacy of his own home!
What of the other favorite cold and golden oldies? I always feel refreshed after watching Sean Connery and all the submarines off Greenland in The Hunt for Red October.
I usually want to go off on a trip to Lithuania in the winter, after Ramius tells about growing up in Vilnius and going fishing with his grandfather. I can feel the snow against my cheeks even though it's over one hundred degrees outside.
Still, a woman of my years can feel overly warm at times, especially on an Ozone Action Day. That's when it's time to play a video of Jeremiah Johnson with Robert Redford and Will Geer fur-trapping and inviting bears into their cabin. Are you wearing a fur hat and snowshoes yet?
Shivery Honorable Mentions go to:
--the 1940 Disney "Fantasia" for the animation of the fairies changing the seasons with the "Dance of the Flowers" music from the Nutcracker Suite.
--the scenes just before the massacre on the Washita in Little Big Man with Dustin Hoffman and Chief Dan George.
--the winter scenes in the 1969 version of Jean Craighead George's book, My Side of the Mountain.
Please submit your own personal cold movie favorites. The National Weather Service is predicting a steamy summer for my zip code. Thanks, and chill out!
My old cold favorites include the Russian dacha parts of Dr. Zhivago. I'm always annoyed that Omar Sharif's Yuri prefers the blonde Julie Christie's Lara to the brunette Geraldine Chaplin's Tonya, but the ice encrusted dacha is so beautiful, so magical, he can be forgiven! Just writing about it can ward off a hot flash.
My new cold favorite is March of the Penguins. This documentary narrated by Morgan Freeman, in his cool voice, is just mind-boggling in its true-life-real nature strangeness. The cinematography is gorgeous, and more chilling than standing in front of your open refrigerator all day. And then there are the penguins! Emperor penguins live such harsh, bizarre, and beautiful lives that you can't help going slack-jawed watching. Your struggle to find a parking place is nothing. Your long wait at the grocery deli counter to get the sliced ham and provolone--nothing. Troubles balancing family and career? Phooph! Can't find comfortable walking shoes? Thphthph! Need a Milky Way to tide you over until lunch? You are soooo pathetic! Someone else controls the office thermostat??? Try seventy below zero with winds over one hundred miles per hour, and you've got to balance an egg the size of a mango on your feet, preventing it from touching the ice while you keep moving so you don't freeze to death---FOR WEEKS AT A TIME WITH NO MEALS! It's so weird the Surgeon General has warned that it causes Brain Freeze.
If the movie isn't coming soon to a theater near you, go to the website to see the trailers and still photos. There are some great shots to use as your computer desktop background. The movie is probably appropriate for kids over ten.
Trying to explain the movie and the lifestyle of the penguins is very difficult. If you see someone at the office watercooler waddling on his heels, with arms tight to his side and hands flared out, and moving his neck in odd arcing motions, you will know he has been to the penguin movie! If he regurgitates a full belly of krill on your wingtips, or tries to demonstrate the choreography for passing off the newly-hatched chick from the dad's feet to the mom's feet in that tight space behind your desk, he's gone way over the edge. He can't help imitating the penguins, but do suggest he practice in the privacy of his own home!
What of the other favorite cold and golden oldies? I always feel refreshed after watching Sean Connery and all the submarines off Greenland in The Hunt for Red October.
I usually want to go off on a trip to Lithuania in the winter, after Ramius tells about growing up in Vilnius and going fishing with his grandfather. I can feel the snow against my cheeks even though it's over one hundred degrees outside.
Still, a woman of my years can feel overly warm at times, especially on an Ozone Action Day. That's when it's time to play a video of Jeremiah Johnson with Robert Redford and Will Geer fur-trapping and inviting bears into their cabin. Are you wearing a fur hat and snowshoes yet?
Shivery Honorable Mentions go to:
--the 1940 Disney "Fantasia" for the animation of the fairies changing the seasons with the "Dance of the Flowers" music from the Nutcracker Suite.
--the scenes just before the massacre on the Washita in Little Big Man with Dustin Hoffman and Chief Dan George.
--the winter scenes in the 1969 version of Jean Craighead George's book, My Side of the Mountain.
Please submit your own personal cold movie favorites. The National Weather Service is predicting a steamy summer for my zip code. Thanks, and chill out!
8/8/04
Riding Giants
You wouldn't expect that a summer surf movie would lead one into spiritual and religious musings, but that is one of the results of seeing Stacy Peralta's documentary, "Riding Giants" that opened here this weekend. There are a lot of reasons to go see this movie in August in Dallas. The star of the show is the ocean. Lots and lots of water. More water than it's possible to comprehend. Some of it warm, much of it cold, all of it powerful and seductive. These are images to remember when you get into your car after work and can't even touch the steering wheel.
My tried and trusty summer escape video is "The Hunt for Red October". An all-male cast led by Sean Connery with that cute beard, and the cold, deep waters off Newfoundland. It is not necessary to discuss the symbolism of submarines in this PG blog.
"Riding Giants" has an almost all-male cast, all muscular and bronzed, and all crazy in their obsession. The documentary is a history of surfing, but the first 1000 years of surfing are covered in two minutes in an imaginative children's' book pop-up style. The giants of the title are both the waves and the legendary surfers who ride them. Some of these "giants" have been surfing for over fifty years. Their comments are insightful and entertaining, and my friend was ready to invite them all to her house for dinner. These are fun guys of all ages, and much more intelligent and philosophical than the stereotypical surf bum.
The surfers sometimes refer to the wave as a woman who allows them to have their way as long as they respect her. They more often refer to the challenges of extreme surfing as "faith". It becomes clear through the movie that surfing is about both being one with the wave and being one with the moment. A blink of self-consciousness and loss of focus can easily result in death. Surfing is play, but in the sense of "flow", where challenge and ability are matched to lift one out of the mundane realm. Obviously, the surfers tackle the giant waves for the adrenalin and endorphin rush. They are devotees, fanatics, enthusiasts in the ancient meaning:
enthusiasm...n. ... 3. Archaic. a. Ecstasy arising from supposed possession by a god. b. A fanatic religious ardor.--See Synonyms at passion.... from Greek enthousiasmos, inspiration, from enthousiazein, to be inspired by a god, from enthous, entheos, possessed, inspired : en-, in + theos, god...
And if religious ecstasy were not enough, there's lots of vintage footage of automobiles from the 40's, 50's, and 60's, and Dick Dale's surfer guitar music! My Barbie used to listen to that music! My clueless Ken who could not bend was absolutely hopeless on the surfboard I cut for him out of a cardboard shoebox. Wipe out!
My tried and trusty summer escape video is "The Hunt for Red October". An all-male cast led by Sean Connery with that cute beard, and the cold, deep waters off Newfoundland. It is not necessary to discuss the symbolism of submarines in this PG blog.
"Riding Giants" has an almost all-male cast, all muscular and bronzed, and all crazy in their obsession. The documentary is a history of surfing, but the first 1000 years of surfing are covered in two minutes in an imaginative children's' book pop-up style. The giants of the title are both the waves and the legendary surfers who ride them. Some of these "giants" have been surfing for over fifty years. Their comments are insightful and entertaining, and my friend was ready to invite them all to her house for dinner. These are fun guys of all ages, and much more intelligent and philosophical than the stereotypical surf bum.
The surfers sometimes refer to the wave as a woman who allows them to have their way as long as they respect her. They more often refer to the challenges of extreme surfing as "faith". It becomes clear through the movie that surfing is about both being one with the wave and being one with the moment. A blink of self-consciousness and loss of focus can easily result in death. Surfing is play, but in the sense of "flow", where challenge and ability are matched to lift one out of the mundane realm. Obviously, the surfers tackle the giant waves for the adrenalin and endorphin rush. They are devotees, fanatics, enthusiasts in the ancient meaning:
enthusiasm...n. ... 3. Archaic. a. Ecstasy arising from supposed possession by a god. b. A fanatic religious ardor.--See Synonyms at passion.... from Greek enthousiasmos, inspiration, from enthousiazein, to be inspired by a god, from enthous, entheos, possessed, inspired : en-, in + theos, god...
And if religious ecstasy were not enough, there's lots of vintage footage of automobiles from the 40's, 50's, and 60's, and Dick Dale's surfer guitar music! My Barbie used to listen to that music! My clueless Ken who could not bend was absolutely hopeless on the surfboard I cut for him out of a cardboard shoebox. Wipe out!
7/13/04
Primitive societies
I have a bunch of teen guys in the living room eating broiled chicken legs and watching poker on cable tv. I am glad they are hanging out instead of driving around or riding a camel to the nearest village in the Gobi desert.
Went to see "The Story of the Weeping Camel" at the Angelika Theater. The comfortable seats alone were worth the price of admission. The movie, though, the movie was fabulous! I love being transported to other places and lifestyles without special effects. I'm not actually an animal person, so don't let that keep you from enjoying this film. I didn't even notice that there were subtitles, because I was so charmed by the Mongolian family in their yurt. I loved the elderly couple playing cards and relying on each other for support and companionship.
Now I have teen girls with silver shoes and miniscule skirts in the living room with the guys. Our primitive subsistence agrarian society has been transformed into something else indeed!
Went to see "The Story of the Weeping Camel" at the Angelika Theater. The comfortable seats alone were worth the price of admission. The movie, though, the movie was fabulous! I love being transported to other places and lifestyles without special effects. I'm not actually an animal person, so don't let that keep you from enjoying this film. I didn't even notice that there were subtitles, because I was so charmed by the Mongolian family in their yurt. I loved the elderly couple playing cards and relying on each other for support and companionship.
Now I have teen girls with silver shoes and miniscule skirts in the living room with the guys. Our primitive subsistence agrarian society has been transformed into something else indeed!
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