The end of the beginning

This is merely a philospohical discussion... In no way, shape or form is this a spoiler...

Last night was the end of an era for me. Like so many others in my age bracket, I grew up with Star Wars being an pretty large part of my childhood. I have faithfully stood by the films over the years, despite all the criticism on George Lucas and all of the amazing amounts of geekness that manages to smother the commonality of the theme that the film is trying to deliver.
I am also going to go out on a limb and say that every one of the films that Lucas did had its own level of greatness to it, but again the media and those that think they are Star Wars experts wanted to do nothing more than compare all of the films to the one that each thought was the best.
What this last installment of the Skywalker side of Star Wars does it fit each one of the films in its right place, making the entire series a well done piece of craft that will be remembered throughout time. I think that their are some redeeming themes in the series that people too often forget-strength, compassion and most importantly, the Buddhist nature.
This film does what it is supposed to do, awe us and at the same time hold true to the tradition of Star Wars by telling a story of a not so distant future where the line between good and evil is so thin it becomes transparent, in the confusion of what is just.
The thing about the film (I am trying not to give away too much if you havent seen it) is that the finite line between good and evil can be seen by you and I because we know what the end has in store, but Lucas does a good job in making sure that the characters do not have a sense for what is to occur. There are many times where if Anakin were just communicated with a little different, we may have seen something different.

However, it is Anakins destiny. This Star Wars is a step back into the other films, it has the look and feel of the classics, even with the new technology. The reason for this is the transistion begins into the darkness that the other two films were in when they were introduced. This film serves as a good balancer between the two not as much liked films which had a lot of bells and whistles attached thanks to the advance of technology, but this film has enough one on one battles with lightsabers and samuri like jedi-mind shit that it all seems to make perfect sense when considering all the films together.

I am going to add more to this as more people see the film, but if I read a friends blog and it gave all the shit away, I would be pissed. If you liked any of the films, this is the one to go see. Read more!

Everybody Wake Up....

Good Evening...
Well, I seem to have another gig on my hands. This time my client is an organic farm outside of Seattle. I do not want to go into eloborate (sp) detail about this place as I am sure that it will take up too much time and I want to discuss some other issues.

The past several months have been difficult ones for me as I struggle to find a position which I can see myself working for the long run. I went back to college so that I would not have to keep taking these jobs that pay low and don't offer much in the way of providing me with the capital I need to service my debts.

I remember when I was a young fresh punk, living life by my terms and doing okay at it. This was a time where things were simpler, rent was cheaper and people were happy making $5.50 an hour--okay, not happy, but able.
Now, I sit on the other end of the spectrum, where anything less than $15 is an insult to the amount of time and energy that I have spent learning life, but getting that 15 or more dollars an hour requires you to sell your self to the highest corporation because they are the only ones that can pay a person what it takes to live in the real world.
I don't want anything extravagant, but I do want a decent car to commute home to my decent living space in.
Alot of me thinks it is just Washington. The tax system here sucks! If I was a business owner, I would not open up my doors here--no matter how pretty Mount Rainer is. The part that is really nerve raking is that upon average, Universities have increased the costs of tuition for a state school more than 12% on average every year for the last four years--oh wait, then there are no jobs out there to begin repayment of the debt.
Yet the media doesnt cover this.
I do, some nobody with a blog on the internet. It is my personal story. $50,000 worth of debt--and for what? So I can have a better looking resume and still not get interviews?
Thanks.

As far as I knew, this is how the American Dream is supposed to work out:
Your parents get a little tipsy, pops forgets the rubs and 9 months later, youre born.
Mom stays home baking all the food while Dad goes to work or plays golf, then comes home and has a nice dinner waiting for him and a nice drink of choice.
I grow up in a good school with the other kids of all different colors and we all get along together because this is a great country and we are all taken care of. We all do well in school because we are all told from a young age that an education is the way to get ahead in the world and that we need smart people to figure out what we need to do to keep the American Dream from vanishing.
We play sports and get cars to drive our dates around in. We apply to college and get in and become fraternity men and sorority women who then meet and mingle and eventually graduate, get married, get decent jobs and start the cycle all over again when we get a little tipsy, I forget to apply the rubs and 9 months later, someone else is born.

But that is not how it happens.
For me, it was more like this: My family couldnt find work in Buffalo and they knew that the hard times and the reality of the hardship were just beginning, so they were forced to move so that their new family would have a shot at the American Dream.
They first moved to Atlanta, where we should have stayed, except my father was more concerned that his son was going to grow up a redneck racist, so after 5 or so years and the neighbours saying the word nigger or boy one too many times.
Next thing I know, were even further from my releatives when we move to Seattle. In Seattle I quickly discover that people here don't like people from other areas moving in and taking the jobs or the culture that they have worked hard to keep as they like it, but they sure like the money that the new people bring in because it raises the value of the property...
Outsiders not welcome. Move on.

So I go back east for college, but I keep thinking of how awesome the West is compared to the East--it seems like there is really room for advancement, blah, blah, blah. I come back here after I have had enough of the East again, but going to school in Seattle is a joke--the UW, the biggest school in the region (and the only 4 year public) will not accept me because of my "growing period" at SUNY and the community colleges don't allow for Stafford Student Loans-so after many years of struggling at various jobs that don't pay the bills, I keep thinking JUST GET THE DEGREE and youll be back on the road to the American Dream.

Well, thanks to George W, 911 happened (yes, I do blame ole' W and his war buddies for 911 and someday when that fucker is dead, we will all find out the truth). Since then, fewer people than ever are working jobs that actually pay the bills because this country is no longer in the business of trying to march the capitalist machine along for the good of the people, they just do it now for the good of a handful of people. I am not going to be one of those people--and I do not want to be. I would fucking derail this whole machine because I read and I know that the American Dream has become a derailed nightmare for the majority of us out there and half of the country is optimisitic about the future and trying to do what they can to make change happen and the other end is simply ignoring the warning signs and trying to get all that they can before the door finally closes on them as well.

Meanwhile, Bush is trying to rape the social security from the people and give it to his croonies so that they can just take, take and take more and more. What is funny about this whole issue is that he knows good and well that he isnt going to conquer the social security reform, but he will make changes to it, which people will get upset about, but what we should all be upset about are all these people who work at Walmart, who work at Target, who work in food service who do not have health care. Fuck social security--if we don't get people access to healthcare, most of the consumers that people like W and his croonies profit off of are going to be DEAD.

This my friends, is the American Reality. Bet this wouldn't get good ratings on Fox.

Your comments are appreciated. Read more!

Anti-American needs to become the latest american trend....

I can't say that I am an American anymore, even though I was born here and haven't left much. It just doesn't fit me anymore to think of myself as an American when we live in a country where everything is an illusion.
Take for example, this bullshit that is going on with newsweek. It seems like every week there is yet another lesson in how absurdly stupid our government is--and I don't mean just in the national spotlight, but locally as well. This Newsweek bit takes the cake because like so many other instances, the media machine is too chicken shit of covering the real story because they will catch too much shit from the people that pay their bills.
I keep getting asked why I don't go into journalism and I will use my little plot in cyberspace to tell you all why--because I believe in my common man. I wouldn't cut it as a journalist because I think higher than the 6th grade reading level that you have to write toward. I have too much belief that our forefathers thought of wise things like gun control because they knew that society was bound to become the way it is today. I believe that they meant to write legislation protecting the freedom of the press because they knew people George W. Bush were going to do things that the public should be aware of. Perhaps stirring up a fair share of conspiricy theory in this country might do it some good, given the pure shit that we are dealing with in an age where information is shared at the speed of light....
BUT WHAT INFORMATION?
That Lindsey Lohan might be a little plumper than Paris Hilton.. DUH
That Everybody Loves Raymond is not getting as much love as previously thought.
That Newsweek caused deaths and riots in Afghanistan because of the following senatance:
Reports show that torture devices such as throwing the Koran down the toilet are being used on prisoners in Abu Grabe (however you spell it).

All of this is just bullshit. People arent rioting because of Newsweek-they are rioting because they are sick of the US and its policies which it doesnt even follow.

Then there is the local shit. They refuse to cover how shitty the job market is in Seattle. Instead the republicans are playing this game called, We want to be Govenor!

I am just going to stop--I am about to go to bed for the night and now I am developing a headache--either because of this torrential rain we are getting (but remember, we are in a drought) or because this shit doesn't matter to anyone because when it is all said done, we, the Americans, the people who work to pay our taxes and save up to buy IPod's, we are the ones being handed this bullshit to deal with and the Bush and DeLay's of the world are sleeping in their comfortable homes, passing a $500 dollar a plate dinner through their black souls.
Send me to jail for speaking my mind about these "public servants", at least I wont have to pay rent anymore. Read more!

Moments like this, must be remembered.....

First off, I didnt write this, but I was going to write something along these lines.The question that we really all need to ask ourselves is this:

Does the arab world read Newsweek? Do people that riot in the streets because of one sentence in an american magazine? Or could it be as this article states, that people do not like Americans telling them how they need to run their country.
I am beginning to think that most people think this is the greatest country in the world because they don't go anywhere else.
Once again, thank you George W., you capitalist asshole.

News... weak?

Last week, Newsweek published an article "reporting: that, "sources tell Newsweek: interrogators, in an attempt to rattle suspects, flushed a Qur'an down a toilet." Soon after, riots broke out in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Gaza, and Indonesia, among other places. The White House and Army quickly apologized, insisting they would look into the allegations. But there was also a sense that the riots breaking out had more to do with political unrest that had already been plaguing Afghanistan than with Newsweek's allegations. Just this weekend, Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, declared, "foreign hands are trying to disturb our parliamentary elections and are against the strengthening of the peace process."

The U.S. seemed to agree. According to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers, the senior commander in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry thought that "the violence that we saw…was not necessarily the result of the allegations about disrespect for the Koran… [Eikenberry] thought it was not at all tied to the article in the magazine."

Yesterday, Newsweek issued an apology for its original article. "We regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst." Pentagon spokesmen jumped on the apology, attacking the credibility of Newsweek. White House spokesman Scott McClellan says, "It's puzzling that while Newsweek now acknowledges that they got the facts wrong, they refused to retract the story. The report has had serious consequences. People have lost their lives. The image of the United States abroad has been damaged." Pentagon spokesperson Lawrence Di Rita offered, "People are dead because of what this son of a bitch said."

It's important, before we go jumping to conclusions that the media is completely without credibility, to identify exactly what Newsweek got wrong. Note: "On Saturday, Isikoff [author of the Newsweek article] spoke to his original source, the senior government official, who said that he clearly recalled reading investigative reports about mishandling the Qur'an, including a toilet incident. But the official, still speaking anonymously, could no longer be sure that these concerns had surfaced in the SouthCom report." Moreover, Isikoff had shown the story to a senior Pentagon official, who did not dispute the Koran claim.

So here's the thing: Newsweek didn't publish anything incorrect. Sources did tell Newsweek that he recalled a Koran/toilet incident in the report. But it turns out that the source cannot be sure that the incident was in the SouthCom report. Note that the editor of Newsweek states that, "The source had been reliable in the past, and was in a position to know about the report he was describing." Also note that the Pentagon is still trying to find out if the allegations are true. According to General Myers, military investigators at Guantanamo "have looked through the logs, the interrogation logs, and they cannot confirm yet [emphasis added] that there were ever the case of the toilet incident."

I'm still perplexed as to why Newsweek apologized. They did not print anything incorrect. Rather, they used a source that proved reliable in the past that turned out to not be able to peg his claim directly to one report, but still holds that the claim is true. And yet, in their May 23rd issue, Newsweek writes, "How did Newsweek get its facts wrong? And how did the story feed into serious international unrest?" Give me a break. It's seems naïve at best, and ignorant at worst to think that Newsweek's allegations of interrogators desecrating the Koran single-handedly fomented the deaths and unrest throughout the Middle East. It's hardly the first time allegations of this kind have emerged. And we still have yet to hear the final word on whether or not they are true.

Not only is Newsweek bowing to pressures, the New York Times even used their story on the issue to shamelessly defend and one-up themselves: "Reader surveys have said that the use of unnamed officials is one of the biggest reasons their trust in the news media has eroded, and several news organizations, including The New York Times, have been tightening rules on the use of unnamed officials." Likewise the BBC covers the story with the headline, "Koran story brings US journalism crisis." They go on to discuss how the BBC has reassessed its journalistic practices of late. Good for them. But it still remains to be seen that Newsweek got it all wrong. So to all those jumping to conclusions, be it Newsweek themselves, Pentagon officials, or Muslim clerics threatening a holy war: let's just settle down for a minute. The jury is still out on this one.

Read more!

...and then there's me and my sarcasm... Read more!

Happy Birthday Sean.... ne of the only guys that I would do the old drink and drive commute for--and he rewards me by taking a god awful shot of me and my huge eyeballs that are not normally this huge.... Read more!

This is pretty much how the weekend went--Rob rolls in from Pullman on Thursday for a little LCD soundsystem at the Showbox. Read more!

Million Dollar Baby was worth 3 bucks at the cheap cinema..

After spending most of my morning recovering from a slight hangover compliments of Captain Morgan, I fell asleep to watching movie trailers at www.apple.com/trailers . This inspired me to go and check out a movie that I have wanted to see for a long time--million $ baby.
I don't want to take up a lot of time here going through the motions of the film, but I would like to make a few comments about it
and since this is my blog, I am going to just that.

Million Dollar Baby
Best Parts
Clint Eastwood always seems to be one of the marks in a good film. What a legend.

Morgan Freeman is sort of the same way--if he is going to narriate (my spelling sucks), then we have the makings of a winner.

When you put these two together you have the geriatric version of Tom Cruise and Will Smith. Hollywood gets their hardon because Eastwood generally only comes out of the woodwork when his hands are all over the script and million dollar baby is no exception.

There is a cast of characters is so dynamic that it would have worked without the two afforementioned stars, but the Freeman narration in the biggest seller of the picture. Sadly, I didn't especially see how Hillary Swank was given the nod that she was and Freeman was distanced. Her performace is great, but it's no better than Boys Don't Cry-- she manages to play tomboy characters quite well, but I think Eastwood's performance overshadowed hers, although the white trash texture seemed to work well.

However, the whole ending is predictable by the way that they portray the villian in the story.
I don't want to spoil it, but let's just the Shiavo family could have taken a firm lesson from this case--Eastwood ended up playing Michael Schiavo and her family was played by, well, her family.

Thats All for now. Read more!