Nerds on a Quest, Part II

Movies on back to back days!! It must be Summer. Today I went to see another film: Superbad. This movie had a lot in common with the Potter picture: young people grappling with serious issues and learning tough life lessons. Three not so cool high school seniors try to get alcohol so they can get girls drunk and have sex with them. Its fairly good natured actually from the people who brought you the mildly amusing 40 Year Old Virgin and the so-so early Summer hit Knocked Up . I never need to see it again but I wasn't robbed either. Like many an after school special, it also provides kids with a few truths about life. The first one is that nerds can get laid even without alcohol and secondly, that sex with drunk people is gross. So if you've already taken the kids to Ratatouille , I strongly recommend Superbad.

PhD in Cynicism Earned, Frat House Pledgemaster Heads Home

Politics attracts a very low class of people. It becomes a game: how to manipulate the images that the public sees so that you remain in office. It eventually exhausts itself in the second term of a Presidency and the end is never pretty. Clinton's pardons come to mind. Bush's failed Presidency with all its deceit and overseas chaos will be far worse. Clinton seems quaint. The Washington Post had an article today about how much the Hillary Clinton campaign admires Karl Rove. The media in Washington are so enamored of whoever is in power they all just breathlessly repeat how "powerful" a White House adviser Karl Rove was. The current crop of journalists just swoon when they get access to any huckster who favors them with inside information. Blecchhh!!! I would say something about how I can't wait for 1-20-09 but I'm afraid thats just the beginning of another cycle of corruption. It'll have a little different flavor but it'll have a very familiar odor.

Wolfgang Tillmans

The Hirshhorn here in DC has had a very well reviewed exhibit by the German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans. It closed on August 12 (today) so I went to see it yesterday. The subject matter and display seem to share a lot with life in our times. There's almost too much to take in during one visit. Sometimes photographs are displayed too far up the wall to accurately see them. Tabloid headlines and newspaper articles are blown up to unnatural sizes. Casual portraits of everyday life: lovers, hanging out, and some poses are interspersed throughout. Its diverse but not incoherent, almost as if the artist has taken these things to his heart and the centrifugal force of life has thrown them on the walls. Tillmans also seems to be responding to our deluge of information. The blow ups of headlines and news articles force you to read the troubling stories. Stuffed into the daily fishwrapper, they're easily forgotten or dismissed. When they're five feet high, their content can't be ignored. I'm glad I caught the exhibition and of course a lot of his work can be seen on the Web.

Inventor Frees People from Burden of Walking

Initially I thought the Segway was ridiculous but now I understand they can be useful for some people with MS and for police who have to patrol large areas without a car (an airport for example). I still don't see how useful they are for the average pedestrian since there isn't room on sidewalks for everyone to use one and all they seem to do is replace walking which is the only exercise most people get in an average day. I see them all the time because my evening bus stop is right next to the DC Segway store. People are always going out for a test drive. They move a lot faster than I thought they would and I have to admit I have never seen a collision with a pedestrian. My question is: do we really need an invention that replaces walking? The picture is of a commencement speaker who entered the auditorium on a Segway as an example of ideas that change the world. We'll see.

Sunshine

I took the day off today and went to the movies. There really isn't much out there that I wanted to see but one of the local art theaters is showing Sunshine from the director of Trainspotting. Its about a space voyage to try to restart our slowly dying sun with a huge nuclear payload but its really a "lifeboat" story about the crew. Interesting moral questions are raised and the special effects are good but don't overwhelm the story. It gets needlessly bloody toward the end as if the filmmaker or writer seemed unsure how to conclude without losing the gravitas (not unlike 2001). It fails ultimately but its a good attempt at a very good movie and I'm satisfied with that since most filmmakers or studios don't even try. I'm glad I saw it.

America's Psychosis Reaches Crescendo

This picture is from a theme park in Florida (apparently conveniently located near Disney World) called the Hold Land Experience. My understanding is that they reenact the crucifixion 6 days a week for the edification of the park visitors. Some things require no additional comment.

Roll Grandpa Down Front!!

The Washington Post has had a couple articles on the start of the school year at Virginia Tech and the need for "healing". Apparently two things are going to assist in this process: a concert with big name acts and the football season. Now I don't know any of the victim's families or their close friends but I doubt if they are going to be "healed" by attending a Dave Matthews concert or watching the football team. I can't imagine that there is even one parent or brother or sister or grandparent who is going to feel less genuine grief over their loss if the Hokies contend for the national championship. If the Hokies have a bad season will it add to the grief? The people who have been most affected by the violence at VT are the immediate family and close friends of the victims. Concerts and football do nothing to help them. The number of people directly impacted at VT is large, it was an unusually large number of victims for a violent crime, but to think that a concert or the football season is going to ease their pain is to trivialize their grief.

The picture is of a faith healer who specializes in dentistry and not of Dave Matthews who, for all I know, is a decent guy trying to do something to help the VT community. Most of this rant is against the media who seem to have an insatiable thirst for trivializing and emotionalizing serious situations . People also seem to have this strange desire to tangentially participate in a tragedy by wearing ribbons, school colors, or displaying bumper stickers in the name of solidarity with the victims. Huh? Maybe its a symptom of the powerlessness people feel that they resort to such meaningless behavior. Do people really feel that VT, Columbine, and innumerable other acts of mass killing by guns are an unavoidable part of life in America? Thats probably the subject for another post.

On the River in the Morning

At least a few times a year, I take a kayak out on the Potomac in the morning. I'd like to do it weekly in the Spring through the Fall but that rarely works out. The Potomac is MUCH cleaner than our other river, The Anacostia, and there is quite a bit of wildlife on its shores and on Roosevelt Island. I've seen many turtles, snakes, and blue herons, all in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial. The channel on the VA side of Roosevelt Island is particularly peaceful (narrow and shallow so no boaters or rowers). This morning though I went the other way, above the Key Bridge, and found a young heron sitting on a branch. This was as close as I got.