Once again, I have totally missed my day and am now encroaching on Crystal's territory. Hopefully she will be so angry that she and Ben will drive back across the country to reprimand me personally.
Nothing extraordinarily deep to discuss today like stem cells or Ben Brown. I've been enjoying my Netflix entertainment after my first week... I figured if I rent at least 4 discs a month, I've broken even on what I would have spent on rentals. I started out with the first season of The Wire, and even though it's taking a little bit of time to get going, I'm sure I'm going to enjoy it as much as everyone thought I would.
I also rented "There Will Be Blood", the multiple-Oscar nominee from last year starting Daniel Day Lewis. The real name attraction for me with that movie, though, was the director, Paul Thomas Anderson. He doesn't make a living churning out as many Hollywood pictures as he can - this is only his 3rd movie in the last 9 years. But what strikes me the most about his movies is the way he CONSTANTLY uses music to set the scenes.
I mean, through the whole movie. When I first saw Magnolia (his 1999 film), I heard the music during different parts of the movie, and you naturally assume that it's building toward something, or that this is an especially dramatic scene for you to pay attention to. You've been conditioned to watch and understand movies that way. But after a little while, you realize that it doesn't stop. There's ALWAYS background music, and it adds to each scene in the movie while totally keeping you on your toes. You can no longer wait for the dramatic increase in music volume or pitch to tell you "Hey, you need to watch this", or to feel emotion.
So back to TWBB. Daniel Day Lewis was totally brilliant. My only problem with the movie was that when it was over, I couldn't decide if I had just seen a narrative that was presented strictly for the story's sake, or if there was something else I was supposed to come away with. An obvious theme by the end was the destructive ability of money and power, but I didn't feel that it was really driven home enough. The main character didn't seem to evolve into the monster he became at the end, but the transformation was almost instantaneous as they jumped from one part of his life to another point 20 years later. Sherman, if you're out there, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
In other news, for those of you who haven't heard, I've finally been able to poke my head out of the comic book shop and dip my toe into somebody else's pool. I'll be running the campaign for the "presumptive nominee" for the county's Register of Deeds. Mostly organizing all of his volunteers, mailings, door-to-door efforts, lawn sign placements, and other miscellaneous stuff, like driving his car in a parade this weekend. It's only part time (like I said, it's just a county job), but I'm anxious to see what it might lead me into after the elections this fall.
One other interesting note along those lines: if you live in Lansing, you might be surprised to hear that Barack Obama will be visiting next Monday. They haven't officially announced the time or place, but it looks like it should be the Lansing Center, a quick two block walk from my store. I'm going to try to check it out.
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4 comments:
Did you change the time of your post so it didn't look like you wrote it while at work? Because my website says that it was posted four hours ago, which would place it around 10:45. There is no deceiving me, but it appears the guilt made you change the time. Or I could be totally mistaken. I just wanted to know because I bet you were not even up at 7:23. Maybe The Cultural Taproom is set on pacific time and there was no deception involved.
It must be a Taproom setting because this computer is on the correct time. I'll have to check that. I was not trying to deceive... I am totally flaunting the fact that I wrote a Taproom post while on the company clock
Just chekcing. Honesty is all that I value. Now if you would just change your settings and click on some ads on my blog on the company dime.
I recently read an interesting article in May's GQ magazine. It was an interview with Karl Rove.
I think I like Obama a LOT less than I ever used to. But I still like him more than Hillary.
In the long run, I still like McCain the most. I am a conservative, and Mr. McCain gets that.
I've read Obama's policies on his website. In particular his health care plan really freaks me out.
He isn't pulling for a national health care, he's pulling for national health insurance, so basically everyone gets Medicaid but they have to pay for it.
It totally blows, dude. It will kill the insurance industry, which you might say, "screw them, they are all rich", but what happens when you tell a bunch of rich people that they can't make money anymore? Now you have a bunch of poor people who aren't paying taxes like they used to when they were rich. Businesses will be forced to drop their insurance plans in favor of a cheaper national health plan that may offer lower quality care than what they've been getting.
Plus he is planning on installing a few new bureaucracies to police the insurance industry. Really smart.
His plan is resting on the fact that he is going to tax rich people more heavily, which is completely stupid.
This is stupid because it will keep rich people from moving here. It will force them to keep their money tied up in countries with lower taxation and less restrictions.
Right now rich people still pay around 90% of the taxes that are paid.
I still can't believe that people have the wool pulled so tight over their eyes. This dude is a radical liberal. I hate saying the words "radical liberal" at the risk of sounding like Zimmerman. But he really is one. If you are cool with that, then vote for him. I am not. I am not a socialist. Our government just keeps ballooning. It is outpacing the population in growth.
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