As is our tradition and habit, do consider this a semi-open Sunday thread.
I am cold. Electric heat is expensive. I have no objections or compunctions against wearing a sweater while inside. One of my near-future dreams is to have a backyard or patio area so that I can barbecue outside during cold weather. I am a simple man. My dreams are modest.
Saturday afternoon I watched the Wachowskis' new movie Jupiter Ascending. I saw it on a huge IMAX screen in 3D. One may criticize the Wachowskis' movies; one can never accuse them of creating an uninteresting film. Jupiter Ascending is a wondrous mess of B movie Edgar Rice Burroughs' sensibilities mated with a Marxist critique of neoliberalism. Jupiter Ascending is also a visually stunning masterwork of world building. I really liked it. Most folks will hate it. Such is life.
We ought to embrace the absurd in order to remain sane in a world where angry white men shoot dead our Muslim brothers and sisters over a parking space and then days later an Islamic terrorist in Denmark decides to shoot at and kill people for daring to draw a cartoon of a mythological religious figure.
To cleanse the palate with a laugh, I offer the following randomness for a Sunday.
The Showtime network's, X-Rated: The Greatest Adult Movies of All Time, is a great documentary. It may also contain one of the funniest moments in a documentary that I have ever seen. How many men wish they could publicly contemplate--with confidence--that they may have "killed" a woman with the pleasure induced in her by their lingam?
I have no use for religion beyond its utility as a tool for human livestock management.
As such, I laugh at and mock the fools who give clowns such as Creflo Dollar and his prosperity ministry ilk their money. It has been said by folks far wiser than me that in the black community the pimp and the preacher are part of the same cultural imagination. The behavior of shuck and buck prosperity pimp preachers tend to support said proposition.
Finally, I love our animal friends. I especially love a good story about a drunk gorilla attacking nosy interloping human beings. How can one not laugh at a drunk gorilla? Tell me!
What interesting bits of information of public or private concern do you have to share?
15 comments:
WTH is a Creflo?
Your right w/that of the religious mind. Pimps and Preachers do come off the same general assembly line but one in his lifetime will be incarcerated more than the other and one will be heavily taxed more than the other though they both deal in cash & carry. LOL.
Why do churches get such a tax break/aren't taxed and Are big business? You'd think gov't at every level would want a piece.
What are your thoughts about Sofia Stewart and The Matrix/Terminator debacle as it relates to the intellectual & physical theft of other works, property & inventions by people of color?
Especially at a time when credit nor patents were given to nonwhites.
With the 'phrase' "Appropriation of Culture" running rampant like the word bae do you see it as "something's are for all" regardless of whom creates it when one group seems to create more/most while others seem to borrow/steal/profit more in the process?
I read a good article at Tom Clarks blog about Craig hicks and the movie falling down.
In my personal life, i signed up to train as a yoga instructor with the intention of defeating my back pain.
Have you ever heard the word epigenetic?
My novice brain thinks it's something about how your thoughts influence and change your genetic structure.
A friend and I have had an ongoing conversation about how racial hatred can be a generic inheritance. I remember some title being about how your genes are more likely to be influenced by your grandmothers thoughts before she gave birth to your parents than a lot of other factors.
Correct. I wonder this myself. When people ask what they feel are harmless questions that come across racially stereotyped to the recipient.
In some rare instances I honestly feel some just run their mouth w/no hatred involved. I also feel that's prejudice/bigotry/racism's muscle memory/DNA gesticulating under one's skin.
These habits could/should fall under any (mental) disease whose traits have checkered the bloodline.
Great observation.
I've been watching the new Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore and I would recommend it.
Half of the show is a panel with four guests where they discuss an issue. Often the majority of guests are black or people of color and when there is a lone white person they are often visibly agitated.
There was an episode with Penn the magician and someone made a comment about whiteness and after that he was a dribbling mess of white victimology.
Another episode with a white man where he was just a mess. It was about abuse and he came from an abusive home and was against even spanking, but he was over the top and said some pretty bad crap to Retta.
... somehow emerged from the fracas with only a cut to his forehead.
Somehow? LOL, that gorilla was just being nice; he could have taken that guy apart into little pieces.
About our animal friends (I love them too) ... by chance, I just last night finished reading a book by environmentalist ="http://www.derrickjensen.org/">Derrick Jensen on what he calls "human supremacism." Are you familiar with him? By no means does he downplay white supremacism, male supremacism, Christian supremacism or any of the others. Rather he locates the origins of them all in human supremacism. The book is not out yet; I got it as a subscriber to his "reading club" which you can see on the website. There is plenty of other good stuff there for free. He is pretty radical and pulls no punches about the situation Earth is in.
Prosperity gospel, ugh. A year or so ago, a beloved young relative living several states away called and said he and his girlfriend were planning a possible visit and thought of coinciding with a public appearance scheduled in my city by one of the famous Prosperity Gospel preachers (whose name rhymes with Whole Spleen) and asked if I and another local relative would be interested in going too. I wanted to say, "are you out of your mind?" but didn't want to be unkind so I hemmed and hawed and mumbled something about how it might not be quite my sort of thing. They ended up not coming then anyway.
Said PG preacher is more "refined" and subtle than Rev. Dollar. I have heard of him before and I think have seen video. I noticed there was at least one crew-cut white guy in the audience, or he seemed to be. Thanks for the link; it was entertaining for a Monday morning but I feel a little guilty about outright laughing at him as it seems a little like minstrelsy.
What if the pattern of human "progress" particularly in China and some African countries is not consistent with the survival of many other species.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/us/politics/obama-administration-to-target-illegal-wildlife-trafficking.html
My wife and I saw Jupiter Ascending last night. I found it boring. The characters were stereotypical, the costumes cheesy, the dialogue lame. I couldn't follow the action scenes. To me, it looked like one big explosion on screen. The hover boots looked a cross from the Green Goblin's hoverboard and the ice skating from that forgettable Batman movie. We've seen the "force" shield from Star Wars The Clones Wars.
Mila Kunis was easy on the eyes. I liked the anti-capitalism theme. Major spoiler: When talking about the human farm called earth one of the oligarchs said something like, "It's very humane, they don't feel a thing." That was a shout out to the vegan movement where the killing of animals is an act of violence. Now what is is with the Wachowskis and humans as batteries or life force so the rich can live forever as in the movie In Time?
Jupiter Jones wasn't much of a heroine —she was saved numerous times from the clutches of death numerous times from her bodyguard (The Bodyguard). I liked the bureaucracy scene - paying homage to the movie Brazil no doubt. No totalitarian regime is replete without bureaucracy.
Another major spoiler: Jupiter Jones, in the end, saves earth. But does she do absolutely anything for other planets inhabited by humans? No. Only the humans from earth are worth saving.
I love this video with Lana Wachowski receiving HRC viability award:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crHHycz7T_c
I love our animal friends too. Meet Jessica the Hippo(?):
http://youtu.be/G3NueKXS6dk
And of course, in terms of the problematic and very traditional gender politics of what is a "radical film", our heroine gets the guy, is queen of the Earth and leader of a vast interstellar empire, but is content to clean toilets and be with her family.
I love hot mess movies!
The movies borrows from many other texts. What other influences did you see? The Fifth Element?
Folks keep telling me to watch it. I best catch it before it is cancelled. What else are you watching?
Laugh, laugh, laugh. How can you not?
The Fifth Element - definitely.
The old man in the bureaucracy mess - reminded me of Billy Crystal's character in the Princess Bride
Caine takes Jupiter for a ride flying through the air - Superman
Jupiter washing toilets - Cinderella
Add in Star Wars, Star Trek, Middle Earth. It goes on and on...
"...queen of the Earth and leader of a vast interstellar empire, but is content to clean toilets and be with her family."
...without any security detail whatsoever (except her boyfriend/bodyguard) when people were trying to kill her the entire movie. Come on!!!
"I love hot mess movies!"
Movies work for me if they can get me to suspend reality for 2 hours. This movie failed to do that for me. I wanted to like it. I really like the Wachowskis' movies.
Jupiter is a great vanity project too. They threw a tone of money on the project. Hopefully, they will get a roleplaying game out of it and a coffee table book and a graphic novel. The other thing they did so unapologetically is play with the idea of the mono myth and how there are few original ideas in storytelling.
Lots of kids shows. Ever hear of Super Hero Squad? I wonder if true fans of Marvel comics recoil or rejoice over it.
The Nightly is good. Much more mellow than Colbert and Daily Show. I think its a good role for Wilmore and I really enjoy the way the show is run with it being topical and having a large panel.
Has anyone peeped the TV series The Book of Negroes yet? May just be coming on in the states via BET. Canada already played it in its entirety. Thoughts?
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