September 2009 Archives

In this information age, we are inundated by truths
In seeking to find an essential to grasp, we distillate those truths
To the best of our ability, each distillation overlaid by the onset of additonal truth

There's no real indication of which truths are true, especially given the plethora of information
And there's no essential to grasp, or to measure the distillate, and so
Truth becomes that convenient moment of enticement or repulsion
In any measure strong enough to momentarily block the access of information.

Like it or not, we're having a lot more dialogue on race--usually incidentally, than we have had in a while.

Its a good thing, this airing out of dirty linen, a refresh of the human psyche for the future--we are going to that future together, so it might as well be cooperatively.

The parallel situation is those who use the tangible facets of said dialogue to increase the value of their own, or silence their critics. It is a shameful fact that those whose power derives from demogaguery are so easy in their use of racial assumptions and divides to innoculate their competition.

I've heard it said (and in some cases seen it evidenced) that the British live lives of "quiet desperation."

I've listened to both sides of the pond ruminate on the qualities of the other, and in distilling the rhetoric, I would say the only difference for an American is that he lives a life of "raucous desperation."

Wouldn't it be nice to have a movie involve real human characters with real human limitations solving actual problems?

Maybe its a sign of my particular peccadilloes, but a large proportion of films I've seen over the last few years involve the obliteration of Earth/Culture as we know and some nice refresh using superhuman/deus ex machina intermediaries. Are we so fed up with the insoluble horror of what we've created that the only mantra left to us is destruction? And must the thing be so consistently all-encompassing?

It says something strong about our cars, strip malls, materialism, and increasing lack of humanity, that our dreams and expressions are constantly ranging to the messianic.

And why superheroes? In no case does a popular film of the last 20 years involve an archetype limited to 'true to life' abilities who can work undaunted to bring about positive changes...in ever case the changes on film are so overwhelming (and essentially draw from any of the true to life problems faced anytime) that they overcome their "agonists." In most examples, the problem is somehow magnified, generally for theatrical effect, but all to often as a reflection of the hopes of the philosophy behind the theatrics--that something must break before it can be properly reconstituted.