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Errol Morris
Error Morris is my favorite documentary film maker. For me it started with Fast, Cheap & Out of Control, which I found utterly fascinating both in content and style. His latest film, Fog of War, was exceptional and strikingly relevant today (even knowing McNamara was nostalgic about his own acts, I found him to at least have a soul, a stark contrast to Rumsfeld).
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Speaking of documentaries...
With all this talk of Fahrenheit 9/11 I must mention another documentary I recently saw….that’s right folks…..Some Kind Of Monster…..METALLICA baby!!! It truly was awesome and insightful. Who knew that a psychiatrist to the stars makes $40,000 a month (the guy Metallica hired made almost a million I believe).
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Ringing true, 11 years later
I stumbled on a magazine clipping in one of Minette’s books today. It’s an interview with Noam Chomsky from the New Zealand Listener from October 1993. The strangest (and perhaps most telling) thing about the piece is that it could have been written today… some things have not changed much in 11 years.
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Like a Rock
I read an interesting article a few weeks back, and thought I’d scan it in and post it here. It talks about the White House’s “decisiveness” and , as the White House would make the argument at least, John Kerry’s “flip-floppiness”. It’s an interesting piece, touching everything from Bush’s “I belive God wants me to be president” to Chirchill’s “I am finished!” to FDR’s “Above all, try something”.
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The Office
At lunch today I nearly dropped my food after looking up to see whom I thought to be David Brent of The Office, walking straight towards me! Was I in trouble? Was he looking for me? Luckily it was not him (or Ricky Gervais who plays him). If you haven’t seen the UK television series The Office, I recommend it. It can be a bit on the nausiatingly funny side. The DVD comes with a handy UK english slang dictionary to help make sense of all those British colloquialisms.
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How to survive the atomic bomb: paint your house
Did you ever see that movie Crazy People? Dudley Moore plays an advertising executive that flips out and creates a series of “truthful” ads, like “Metamucil: it helps you go to the toilet. If you don’t use it you’ll get cancer and die.” or “Volvo: boxy, but good!” Well here’s a commercial brought to you by the US Government (and the paint industry) where you find out that you can survive nuclear holocaust if only you paint your house and rake those leaves in the yard: The House in the Middle. I’m calling my land lords!
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My Cup
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Jury duty
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Linda Ronstadt crazy liberal shocks sin city!
More news from NZ! Or at least, NZ tells American news… I thought you would be interested after that story you told me about Linda Ronstadt getting booed off the stage in Virginia, Carole - well, not only Virginia! The discussion in this article about freedom of speech is really interesting, and so important. I think at the very least Michael Moore’s done a real public service by inciting debate about this war,debate which was so strangely absent in the early days of the war as everyone rallied around the flag. For a country with such a strong and proud tradition of freedom of speech, that’s a real tragedy. (The article’s really from The Independent, an English newspaper, but republished in NZ)
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Yet another fun Ask the Pilot
I love Salon’s Ask The Pilot column. The author, Patrick Smith, cracks me up and I have been interested in all things flying ever since I started commuting by jet for work. The latest installment carries the column on quite well, and if you’ve never read this column check out the previous ones!
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What is msqr.us, anyway?
I thought I could bait you, the reader, into asking what in earth msqr.us is. Nobody took the bait, however, leaving me pondering the reasons. Perhaps you are not curious. Perhaps you are afraid to ask out of distrust: msqr.us could be a Newton server running foreign software for all you know. Perhaps you couldn’t care less. All valid reasons, so here I’ll attempt to dispel the myth of msqr.us, once and for all.
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Fahrenheit 9/11
I finally saw Fahrenheit 9/11 a few days ago. On the whole, I think the film was pretty good, but I did have a few issues. For example I was annoyed by all the voice overs in the beginning where Mr. Moore says things like “What was Bush thinking when xyz?” and then fills in with some hypothetical answers. Cheap shots: the film is already exposing plenty to think about without Mr. Moore chiming in. And I was left wondering “Why are these soldiers raiding this house on Christmas?” as we only get to follow them along for the raid and the film never tries to explain why they’re conducting it. Those annoyances aside, however, I felt the film was something everybody should watch, just to think about some things. I had forgotten, for example, that Mr. Bush was on vacation so much of his time in office prior to 9/11 (42% it turns out – where can I get that kind of vacation package!) and I had no idea about the strong connections the Bush family has with the royal Saudi family.
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m^2 debut
This website is an attempt to provide a medium of communication for my family and close friends. I keep wanting some way, other than email, for us to share thoughts with one another. I say other than email because of a few reasons. First, I myself am a terrible emailer, as just about anyone reading this can attest to. Second, a blog like this allows for a different way of communicating, sort of a “here it is, take it if you want but if you don’t feel like responding that’s OK” kind of way. Third, I see friends of mine using blogs successfully and keep thinking “My family is full of tech savvy folks, we can do that, too!”
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