6. Society IV

How did I come to despise the French? Being American, most readers may jump to the conclusion that I must be a patriotic drone influenced by 9/11 propaganda (does anyone recall "American Fries"). Not so. I think that the French were right to question what we were doing in Iraq. My dislike had a much darker origin. When my son was still a young infant a pair of onesy pajamas appeared in his wardrobe. I am not sure who bought it, or how they came into our house...but there they were- ready to wear. Conspiracy theorists have suggested they were planted by a CIA mind controlled agent, I think it may have just been a childless relative who unknowingly bought them as a gift. Does it really matter how they got there? Now, for a new dad; baths can be enough of a challenge. Add in bathing and dressing a baby alone, and you may have the next Armageddon. See my wife was working evenings, so I was left to give my son his "baby spa" (as I liked to refer to the bath event as if he were Tom Cruise on a scientology getaway) on my own. One evening I pulled out this particular onesy, and noticed the tag "Le Pajamas". "Hmmm, must be French" I thought. So I pulled my newly cleaned, shiny, sopping wet infant out of the tub, and began the drying/dressing event. Then, to my dismay, I realized a peculiar note to this French baby fashion. Most onesies unzip from the neck all the way down to the foot, making for an easy entry. This "French" pair, unbuttoned from the crotch to the ankle only. So to put them on, you would have to put the head and shoulders through the crotch, and then continue to stuff the baby all the way in until the ankles could be pulled through. Now try doing this with a moist baby. I narrowly averted Armageddon that evening. I cursed the French from that moment on. That is until I saw two recent films called Calvaire (the Ordeal) and Les Revenants (They came back). Calvaire can be described as the films Misery and Deliverance smashed together. Not only was it disturbing, the mood and settings were some of the best that I have seen. The tag line was "How bad could it be? Ask the pig." ...I think the pig will tell you it was pretty bad. I have rarely felt so much mood in a film. I am a big fan of foreign films, they tend to be more natural than the normal Hollywood drivel. Les Revenants (literally translated to both they return and ghosts) is most curiously mis-categorized as a "horror" film because the story is about "zombies" returning to life. But, I would not classify this as horror. At the end, I could almost hear the agony and anguished cries of every dolt who rented this for blood and gore, instead they struggled through subtitles and not one spot of red death. Now here are some new French haters. It is instead a very deep study of death and mourning in society, but also an interesting take on social groupings and "zombie" movies. A very quiet and brilliant film that made my head work for the payoff. So... I forgave the French for their pajama Faux Pas, and I have moved on to disliking the French slightly less.

(July 2007) Dog fighting is for degenerates

Normally, I am a proponent for due process- but not in the case of Michael Vick playing in the NFL. The federal indictment will run it's course, but the evidence is clear that he was involved in setting up a dog fighting business, and that means there should be an immediate punishment. He should be done in the NFL until this is settled in court, and he should be cast out by every sponsor. If he is acquitted, then he resumes his career with a nasty stigma- but he should not play until this is sorted out.

Nike likes street cred, dog fighting is NOT street cred. Dog fighting is for degenerates. I was greatly impressed (and surprised) to see PETA, Al Sharpton, and Russell Simmons team up to have an immediate and appropriate condemning response. Suspending him is NOT jumping the gun. He is a star, a role model, and paid plenty of money to be the face of a team. That should be put on hold until this plays out. Dog fighting kills and maims animals.

Clinton Portis (Washington Redskins) spoke on the topic in the spring, laughing and chuckling his way through the interview that what "he does on his property is his business". Emmit Smith recently gave an interview that "there is too much focus on Mike, if he bet on 1...5...20 dog fights does not make him that important"...What?! These guys are paid millions of dollars, and they accept that he spends it on dog fights? Is this just a joke to them? Just a few months back there was a huge deal about the NFL players union not doing enough for past players with life disabling injuries. Is that irony? What pension and medical did the dogs receive? Many people are noting that the windfall against Mike is based on his race. I can't deny that in the case of the media. Black athletes are under a microscope more so than whites. But I think two points should be made. first, he brought this on himself...no one else is to blame. This is serious, dog fighting is not only abhorrent, it is illegal. Second, speaking for myself...I am most disappointed by a supremely talented individual. He had the skills of a mythic god, and he wasted them in spreading sexually transmitted diseases, lying about that (errr..."Ron Mexico"), drug connections, poor social behaviors, and now dog fighting. Here is what I have to say: You get paid TOO much money to be this stupid and callous of life. Use your money and fame to do something worthwhile. Be it Michael Vick, Ray Lewis, Ray Carruth, or Pac Man Jones- that's enough! You are acting like a generic movie jock: stupid and childish.

The indictment lists 52/54 dogs purchased by Bad Newz Kennels (located on a property purchased and developed by Michael Vick). Where are all of these dogs? Beaten, brutalized, electrocuted, and shot. To steal and slightly alter a Nike commercial tag: Should anyone be like Mike?

(July 2007) My new crack...

After too many years of saving change and bills in a huge jug, begging for donations on the street, and selling homemade bottles of my own blood- I have finally purchased my dream. A slick, glossy 42" plasma high definition television. Just hook it up to my veins, call in sick, and forget shaving or interacting with people or society. After a few trial and errors in hook ups, it was functional. Imagine the scene in a soap opera where the character has been in a car/chemical/fire/circus accident and they have their eyes bandaged in gauze. After weeks, the hot doctor slowly removes the bandages fearing blindness and punctuated with gasps from the small crowd of super hot buxomly nurses circling the bed. Then the screen is from the point of view of the character. Images are blurry, then ever so slowly everything comes into crystal clear focus. The characters tearfully embrace, and the credits roll. Well...that's me. They took the gauze off and I am in a high definition soap opera. The first movie we watched is a much maligned great film...Hulk. This movie got slammed for being to heady for the comic-to-movie genre, but I thought it was definitely one of the best. The depth of the character studies greatly outweighed the lackluster digital Hulk. Ang Lee did the Hulk righteous. So now that I have watched many explosions, and quite a few discovery channel epic adventures with close-ups of dirt and rocks...I feel strangely complete, my soul can rest easy. I may not have a cell phone, but dammit- I have a really freakin' amazing picture on my TV.

(July 2007) The movie 300, Crutches, and Content

One step at a time…

The Digital Crutch:
Take a look at the artist Dave McKean. Arguably, one of the great illustrators of our time using a mix of traditional and digital materials. A good example is the 1989 batman book: Arkham Asylum. This book is commonplace in a good bookstore. He mixes an intense hands on art (painting and drawing) with photo collage and Photoshop. Jump to his current work and you can see a progression from hands on and digital to pure digital art. He begins to replace it with more photography, and more Photoshop. Make no mistake about it, he is one of the best digital artists out there...BECAUSE of his hands-on knowledge. But he has abandoned that aspect for almost all Photoshop, and that leaves his work with a detached feeling. You can see that within one of his children's books, the day I swapped my dad for two goldfish, and the wolves in the walls. Pages are present with these gorgeous loose ink drawings interwoven with color and texture from Photoshop, and then there are pages that are 100% Photoshop...they lack a human touch. Anytime a new material enters the art scene it is overused. Then dozens of imitators come in and make the innovators have to move in ways that may not produce the best work. It happened with airbrush in the 80's, and Photoshop in the mid 90's. Everyone gets swept up with the eye candy in the form, and forgets to consider the content of the art. As I have stated before, art that reaches a higher intellectual status considers both areas- otherwise it is just a craft.
Form over Content:

The movie 300 was a visual feast. That translates to beautiful form. The content of 300 was not only poorly historically exaggerated, but provided numerous examples of derogatory viewpoints to various groups. For a “true” story, historical inaccuracy and inflammatory propaganda translates to poor content. If you grade out on these two elements, 300 fails. It’s gorgeous, but that is not enough (for we all know that good looking and stupid does not make a well rounded person). If you claim it to be BASED on a true story, keep to the truth. There were no giants, ogres, or monsters in the Persian army. The machismo content was over the top with boatloads of bare chested oily men, and scattered homophobic quips. And the subtle homophobia is odd considering that the oily men are barely attired, akin to a hot gay photo shoot. But, this is from the creator of Sin City...which suffers from the same teen boy mentality of gender relationships. Another film that looks gorgeous, but delivers stupid. I am sure the Spartans did not deliver Arnold-esque one liners with each new kill, and the juxtaposition of hard rock music with the battle scenes made me feel like I was watching MTV. Portraying the Spartan women as pure and just, and the Persian women as whores, is a tool of propaganda during a time that the current Spartans (white cultures: America) are deep in tensions with with Persians (non-white cultures: Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan). The Persians are represented exclusively by numerous non-white cultures, while the Spartans look like they are from Detroit. The timing of this movie is what sparked my thinking. This is not a new tool of the US war machine. It was heavily used in World War II in regards to Japan, the Civil Rights movement, and during expansion against Native Americans. Making your enemy less than human is a way to sanitize the atrocity of war. A common building block for war is fear. Fear of what you do not know and understand.

Truth and Exaggeration:

“Why should history stand in the way of a good story?” (-Frank Miller, the creator of 300). I had the same uneasy feeling with the DaVinci Code. If you base it on what is supposed to be truth, and you market it as historically revealing- then it should be accurate. Otherwise, why use history? Or why not just use history as inspiration, and not mention that it is based on a true account? If you are changing the facts, then it’s used to sell the story- NOT to report the story. This is a marketing ploy. It is constantly used as a way to fill the seats. Other examples of “true” stories that are hardly true: Pearl Harbor, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Wolf Creek, JFK, American Haunting, Saving Private Ryan, Mississippi Burning, Evita, and too many more to list (I am sure that every reader can add one). Creating history to manufacture Hollywood dollars is in itself a genre. There are many modern books re-evaluating our school history texts. They detail the huge amounts of history that has been ignored, or altered in order to further the agenda of a ruling class. 300 smacks of this. It takes a revered Persian leader (Xerxes), disrobes him of common period attire (velvet robes), and attires him in what amounts to a scantily clad S&M wardrobe. This revered Persian figure is a descendent of Darius, who created what may have been the first declaration of human rights. Imagine if Martin Luther King Jr. was portrayed in an Iranian film in ass-less leather chaps. How would America react? The original intent of the graphic novel was to use history to create a story. It skips huge elements of the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC.). I am a life-long fan of comics and graphic novels, and I believe that this is where the great stories are being told. But, I also know that a graphic novel has to be exciting, and therefore is not a historical text. A graphic novel reaches a particular audience, and I don’t believe it could have been foreseen that this book would be made into a movie. BUT- once that step was decided, they should have shorn up the history. It would not have been a detracting element, it would have been a positive inclusion. For history only stands in the way of a good story when that story is faulty.

Summing up:

I never intended this rant to be this long, but this is not a topic to stumble into with a one-line sound byte. First, art is two-fold. In order to apply the tag of “art” then it must address a higher understanding of both Form and Content. Second, hidden agendas may exist in both an obvious and transparent form. The United States (as of the writing of this rant in July 2007) has had serious tensions with Iran (and other countries in the area) for many years. In addition to Iraq and Afghanistan, we have recently pondered war with Iran (and North Korea). This is an insult to the ancient culture of Persia, which is now Iran. Insulting a country that you have tensions with is a first aggressive step towards war. And again, the timing and content of this film is very curious. The United States associates itself as a modern descendent of the philosophy of Rome and Greece. Our architecture (particularly political buildings) are a direct result of this influence. Therefore many US viewers subconsciously identify with the Spartans. 300 was released during a war with Iraq (close relative), a police state in Afghanistan (nearby), talk of war with Iran (Persia), and high tension with North Korea (we need a time-out, don't we?) As I stated above, war is easier if you are not fighting human beings. And finally, history and fiction should not be mixed. Fiction can be influenced by history, but to alter history to suit a story only creates a subjective agenda. History must attempt to be objective. Subjective history changes the way a viewer thinks about a topic. If that topic is supposedly truth based, then the result of the “story” is complicity deceitful to those in the seats.

(August 2007) The virtue of politics

Back when I was in college, I used to have a professor who after finding out that I was a registered Democrat ceaselessly pointed out the corruption of Democrats while extolling the virtues of Republicans. He would argue with me, not realizing that I was not really participating. I had a particular point of view then, which I still hold true to now. I was registered to one party, simply to vote. Not because I blindly followed any particular viewpoint. I was constantly berated about "Slick Willy" (Bill Clinton) and the "liberal" Democrats as if I were in on a conspiracy to destroy his personal retirement earnings. I felt like a kid being bullied on the playground. I was (and still am) amazed how many people become enraged on one side or the other, without realizing how bad both sides can be. I picked who I thought would offer some good, or as I used to say "the lesser of two evils". Sometimes I even go far outside if I think there is something to believe in...ala Ralph Nader. I recently came across a few words from Confucius that I find appropriate as another election nears:

The Master said, 'In his dealings with the world the gentlemen is not invariably for or against anything. He is on the side of what is moral.' and 'The gentlemen understands what is moral, the small man understands what is profitable.'

I have always held to the same principles on politics. You can't change anything without voting, and do not believe what anyone says, believe what they do. But, if they don't let you vote- then you have no control. And if they are not held accountable for what they do- then they can do anything they want. We live in a country that was supposed to be controlled by the people, and governed by the people. It's not that way anymore- that is a myth. In my arguments when I was in college, I was eternally caught up in the naivety of hope. Eternally following the myth instead of the truth. Hope for a better world can make you turn a blind eye, but only if you allow it to cast a shadow across your brain. The arguments were always focused on money. Financial gains, retirement funds, jobs, and material goods. I am as susceptible to that as anyone else (see my TV rant above), but I try to balance my wants and needs. I try to adhere to my moral beliefs and look to pursuing my personal virtue as a supreme, lifelong goal. Occasionally, I have found an honest politician that is trying to do something good for the world as a "public servant". The world goes downhill if all eyes are on profits. To paraphrase another favorite saying: If you can keep your head, while everyone about you is losing theirs, you will be alright. Money is not virtue. Status breeds hollow respect. They are sexy demons that lead you away from what really matters, and they leave you with no fulfillment and no relationships of meaning. I guess that it all comes down to this: I never miss a vote, and I always try to vote for what is just, what is moral, and what matters most to me. Believe it or not, my type of vote is feared by those in power.

What the political "machine" wants, is to keep us out. They want us "disenfranchised". They don't want the middle class, the black and latino, or the youth to vote. That would mean an end to their power, and a re-birth of democracy in the United States. Although our country has had decades of difficulties with politics, in 2000 something else happened. Something frightening, and we all allowed it. An election was stolen and rigged, and democracy was lost. This was not about hanging chads, this is about turning legitimate voters away to the tune of 57,000+ innocent voters labeled as felons (therefore- no voting rights) in Florida (97% of whom were black). This is about Ohio in 2004. This is about causing voters to wait in line for 4 or more hours within the (largely) democratic inner city, but no wait in the (largely) republican suburbs. How many voters just left? This is about the media ignoring the hard questions. This is about large corporations and power. This is about a war that no one wanted. This is about lies. This was about billions of dollars, and a careless disregard for what our country was founded upon. This is about respecting that we already marched for voting rights in Selma some 40 years ago. This is about true democracy, not the myth. True choice, not bullying. After 7 years, I finally know this nagging feeling that has shadowed me since 2000. It is fear. Fear to live in my own country, and for me- that's not OK. But that won't stop me from voting. Because I believe, even in the face of thieves, bullies, and villains- that it can change if we all stand up for what is right, and what is moral.

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