Thursday, June 28th.

Though I certainly don't want it to last forever, but not having to work on THIS day is a glorious thing. I was going to dedicate an hour-and-half to the unrated version of Grandma's Boy, but I've decided that derserves more attention that I can spare at the moment. I need to go over a contract, decide what ubiquitous questions I'm going to ask the manager involved in said contract, revise a resume for the manager involved in said contract....oh, and decide if I'm going to sign with said manager.
The offer to sign is an interstesting one and fits into my current plan of career evaluation, but discretion is rarely without it's merits.


This morning I had a two act dream:

1) I and my classmates from grad school were at me Grandmother's house. There was a young woman there who stated she was buying a motorcycle. I offered some sort of advice which led to sophomoric joking.

2) Now in the living room I realize that it's one of said classmate's b'day (1st of Jan?). This leads to horseplay which leads into my Grandmother's bedroom which was now occupied by her "sister". I chase them out and begin reminiscing about objects in said room. This somehow led to the knowledge that my "great aunt" was a music promoter of some sort and would be working with the group Maktub* on a local tour stop. I thought it would be good for one of my NY acquaintances who's into live music to be involved in the process and tried wanted to ask if she could meet them.

(end of dream)

* Their lead singer held the door open for me and a friend at a Starbucks in the LES this past Dec.

United 93

I think I was pretty self-resolute about not watching this movie,

yet I left the channel there once I saw it was on.

I guess it was time.

I found this story about Muslim reaction to the film.

My eyes watered for the first time during these three films when I read this quote:

"On 9/11, I was working at a high-tech firm and I wasn't wearing a hijab," Ibrahim said. "Now I'm wearing a hijab and dedicating myself to preventing people from trying to ruin the name of my faith."



I believe in truth

The Hamburg Cell

still a hard watch; interesting.

still, just an approximation on a possible, though imagined truth.


Then Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee comes on.


Earlier, I watched Cry Freedom for the first time.


Wow.


addendum: AND United 93 is on.

damn

remind me I'm supposed to say something important here.

Lebron James quote (and bonus rant)

"I believe we have a team that can win a championship - and I stressed
that from the beginning... We just got beat by a better team".

Now, quick - count the milliseconds it took you to see the crevasse du
logique in that statement.

why do they torture these children by putting microphones in front of them?

Good news basketball lamenters, the 2007 and1 mixtape tour starts this
weekend in Coney Island.

Thank you SA, for doing as expected and ending this ASAP (well, except
for that game clock situation from game 1).

Congratulations to David Stern for successfully bleeding the life out of
the league, yet somehow managing to have the blame fall on the players.

Congrats to the players association for the lockout ten years ago that
gave the league a cliff to throw itself off of.

Is it possible to have NBA transactions without actually having an NBA
season?

Eyes do rollll.

(sigh)

I think I'm a little concerned

with how appreciative I am of Grandma's Boy.

natural suppliment

I purposely avoided all the OTHER potential titles of this post for the sake of journalistic integrity.

With that said,

read

8 /

Wanna get really pissed off?

Sad?

Watch Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Of course, if you don't feel any of that, well - that prolly says something, too.

Remember, Hollywood's job is illusion. In it's most ambitious intent, it's success at truth will always be....arguable.

August Schellenberg has a beautiful voice.

Aliens3

What happened to the well-acted sci-fi horror/suspense films?

Up through #3 the Alien/s line was pretty well done, but think the performances in 1 & 3 stand out. 2 & 4 were more about the effects/action/gore. Plus Aliens had to deal with the acting burden of one William Paxton.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

So, now that I haven't been working for the past week, I finally took time to try and watch some of the movies on the 20-some-odd HBO's and Cinemaxes that came with the switch to digital cable...


Have you ever seen a movie that you wished made you cry?

I mean you're actually sitting there, unconsciously holding you're eyes wide open so something will come out? With that feeling in your chest that reminds you why we speak of "affairs of the heart" even though it all happens in the head?

Because the joint just hit something dead-square-center-on the nail expressing your past experience?

Somehow it seems as though getting older should cause things to fall further from the truth as you finally see what it is,

Instead you see more and more how much of our experience is shared.

Pasty

It's a beautiful first-full-week-of-May day outside and I'm sitting in my darkish room, fooling around with Fedora 6 (now that I finally have the hard drive space, it'd be nice to find a distro that'll start my sound and let me config to 1024x768).

Ok, it's back up to the install portion, so I'm going to try to escape before it gets to a point where it needs my input again...

Anti-Occupation Mouse

wow

(text below cut pasted from above link)

Hamas 'Mickey Mouse' preaches resistance

Posted 6h 52m ago | Comments 88 | Recommend 11

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Enlarge AP An image taken from Al-Aqsa TV, a station run by Hamas, shows a giant black-and-white Mickey Mouse lookalike rodent named "Farfour," who spreads the message of armed resistance.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas militants have enlisted a figure bearing a strong resemblance to Mickey Mouse to broadcast their message of Islamic domination and armed resistance to their most impressionable audience — children.

A giant black-and-white rodent — named "Farfour," or "butterfly," but unmistakably a rip-off of the Disney character — does his high-pitched preaching against the U.S. and Israel on a children's show each Friday on Al-Aqsa TV, a station run by Hamas. The militant group, sworn to Israel's destruction, shares power in the Palestinian government.

"You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists," Farfour squeaked on a recent episode of the show, which is calledTomorrow's Pioneers.

"We will return the Islamic community to its former greatness, and liberate Jerusalem, God willing, liberate Iraq, God willing, and liberate all the countries of the Muslims invaded by the murderers."

Children call in to the show, many singing Hamas anthems about fighting Israel.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Israel | Israeli | Palestinian | Gaza Strip | Hamas | Gaza City | Palestinian territories | Mickey Mouse | Al-Aqsa

Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli organization that monitors Palestinian media, said the Mickey Mouse lookalike takes "every opportunity to indoctrinate young viewers with teachings of Islamic supremacy, hatred of Israel and the U.S., and support of 'resistance,' the Palestinian euphemism for terror."

Israeli officials denounced the program Tuesday.

David Baker, an official in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office, said "there is nothing comic about inciting young generations of Palestinians to hate Israelis."

A spokeswoman from Walt Disney Co.'s headquarters in Burbank, Calif., did not immediately return messages asking for comment about the use of the Disney-like character.

Yehia Moussa, a Hamas leader in the movement's Gaza Strip base, denied inciting children against Jews. "Our problem is not with the Jews. Our problem is with the (Israeli) occupation and the occupiers," he said.

The television station would not comment.

A Gaza-based psychologist said the program proved that the culture of glorifying violence had penetrated mainstream society in the Palestinian territories, where dreams of Islamic dominion and animosity toward the U.S. and Israel are widespread.

"It's the fault of both (Israel and the Palestinians)," said Samir Zakkout, of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program. "There's been a collapse of values. If I can kill my enemy, I can kill my brother."

The program is opposed by the Palestinian Broadcasting Corp., which is controlled by Hamas' political rival — the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

"I don't think it's professional or even humane to use children in such harsh political programs," said Basem Abu Sumaya, head of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corp. "Children's nationalist spirit must be developed differently."

Hamas loyalists launched the Al Aqsa satellite channel last year. Bearded young men read the news and Islamic music is layered over footage of masked militants firing rockets into Israel. The channel also broadcasts talk shows, programs about the disabled and cartoons.

In addition, Hamas loyalists run at least five news websites, one newspaper — launched just last week — and a radio station.

Top Cat

is, by far, the best of the classic Hanna-Barbera primetime programs. I'm currently leaning toward Herculoids for the best Saturday morning faire.

yarg

Right now I'm Watching an episode of Johnny Quest entitled:

"Pursuit of the Po-Ho"

indeed.

Drug Harm Ranking System

Interesting story here from Britain about ranking the danger level of recreational drugs.

I feel like an ass.....

I'm tired of having to negotiate the complications of the male ego... interpersonal expectations/male-female dynamics.

I met a lesbisan couple tonight who've been together for over 30 years.

They just seem to fit each other. The were merely together...in whatever the sense of the word was before it took on the euphamism of whatever it now euphamizes. They just seemed to be existing.

I wish I could just exist.

Without the physical urges influenced by the emotional need and the emotional urges controlled by the physical need of the emotion compounded by the desire....

I wish I could be this ideal, compassionate, infinitely sympathetic/empathetic->empathic being,

Who fed only off the fruit of new/additional existences.

The juice of the next individual humanity to come along.

The wine of intimate understanding of a mind.

Not some crazy sci-fi/fantasy-essence vamparism *ish.......

But one who is sustained by the sharing, the exchange.

Then maybe i could walk down the damn street without staring at asses,

and appreciate the bounty of each sentience I come across,

and not risk >>>>ing up the experience by >>>>ing them and then >>>>ing up their self-ness

by >>>>ing someone else.


(how does one shrug in Nederlands?)

Slow, Look, Lean

Earlier this month I determined that I would get my "M" endorsement this year. After perusing TX's flexibility toward out of state license holders and having found alternatives to New York state's high class costs, I will be enrolling in an MSF class in April.


Feel free to start planning my surprise graduation party now.

Retail strategy

You should probably be real careful about opening a boutique

if you made your name designing for the

emperor

who wore no clothes.

Losing one's job

does not absolve one of the eventuality of realizing one's potential.

I'm so racial

from a photo shoot I was "apart" this past september...

I'm at this photo shoot for Wal-Mart. All of the photography/hair/makeup crew is black. The wardrobe designer is tawny...perhaps latina. The manager of the studio is black. The reps from the client are black. All talent is black (not a grand surprise).

The irony? The caterers are white.

Or maybe it isn't.