The Humpty Dance

in my latin america studies class, i saw "machuca" and i got to admit, it was one of the best movies i had seen in quite a while. the movie takes place in chile in the early 1970s at the end of allendes presidency into the military junta led by augusto pinochet. it really hit home since we had been covering this particular era in our class. its a very powerful movie that follows shows the events of that era through children's eyes. its directed by andres wood, and according to imdb, hes not currently making any films. i would be eager to see more of his work, because machuca is really well done. highly recommended.

on a side note: ive decided to learn something new every year after i graduate in march. first off, its spanish. i want to be bilingual. i am going to attempt to become the opposite of what americans have become: i want to travel and learn new languages. english is so boring. bring on spanish.

so, rent that movie and have yourself a nice weekend. if you are up to it, check out eddie vedder on the into the wild soundtrack. he shows great depth as he plays softer songs. "hot sun" is an awesome track.

the beautiful thing about college (at least for me) was the fact that i have been exposed to how fucked the world is. oblivion is a wonderful thing. ignorance is bliss. ive been exposed to how my country has exploited (in one way or another) every inch of the world. one thing that has struck me recently is this fear of socialist ideas. i watched "sicko" the other night and i was really struck by how the reason we do not have universal health care is because of its socialist roots. SOCIALIST roots??? are you kidding? if we are in fact the greatest country in the world (and i think in a lot of ways we are), then how come we are so inept at taking care of our own citizens? sicko is a michael moore film, and so its hard for about half of the country to get out and see it, just because he is so leftist. just like al gores inconvenient truth, half of people wont want to see it because they think its a political movie. theres something wrong here. deeply wrong. anyway the film itself is really well done and very revealing and i have been constantly struggling with the idea that universal health care might not happen in my generation. it makes no sense to continue the way we have gone thus far. i am embarassed that i am american when it comes to this issue. the united states is truely behind in the times, and as long as individuals like dick cheney and others run the country, nothing will get done. there was a quote from a former member of british parliament tony benn in the movie and i will do my best to quote it. "if you have have the funds to kill people, then you have the funds to help people." why are we devoting so much time and money to kill people around the world, while we neglect our own citizens at home?

college has made me frustrated, but i am glad to be educated since now i have the opportunity to do something about the things that frustrate me. where to start?

its relatively old news, but the drunk hasselhoff vid is priceless. i cant embed it on here, but ive provided a link for anyone whos interested. its good stuff. the still says it all.

so is it christmas time already? ive had christmas songs in my head all day - wait - its christmas at costco. damn. by the way - who are the people buying a pre-decorated (lights included) tree for $100? how lazy are we? is not having to decorate a tree worth that much? i guess you could just use it for the next 20 years, which rounds out to a cool $5/year. maybe people are smarter than i thought. wait what am i saying.

on a good note it is now seasonally appropriate to watch one of my favorite christmas flicks - bad santa (pictured at right).

ps. gonna go see the bearded ones - band of horses -next week. they easily have one of the best song titles EVER, track 4 on their last album: "detlef schrempf." for those of you who dont know hes was the very german, very potent third option on the mid-1990s sonics teams. owner of a very sweet flat top that is no longer being sported. speaking of germans, has anyone watched the video of a drunk david hasselhoff eating a cheesburger off a bathroom floor? i wonder if germans love that video as much as the one of him dancing on the berlin wall. i know i sure did.

that is all for now. one final thought:

"Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes, that way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes."

wish i could take credit for that one, but thats a jack handey deep thought. makes me laugh.

So this is this. I am me. I wear hooded sweatshirts and photograph beautifully. Not sure why I started this, nor do I know where it is going. All I know is welcome to... this.