a sense of joy and then a panic

I recognize the value of legislatures.  I truly do.

But goddamn, legislators are dumb.

"Another difficulty was that key Congressmen, whose support would have been necessary for the passage of any loan, quickly made it clear that they would demand in return nothing less than free elections and freedom of speech inside the Soviet Union, and the abandonment of its sphere of influence in Eastern Europe." 

Yes, Congressmen.  The USSR in 1945 will definitely democratize and liberalize their Communist dictatorship and agree to not expand their influence in exchange for a loan.  A loan that the Russians "were never dependent enough" to need.  I'm not a fan of realist logic but this mentality defies common sense.  It actually frightens me that senators become presidents. 


Also, you can learn a surprising amount about foreign relations from watching G's to Gents.  International relations ("how are we an alliance?"), balance of power ("it's time to break the alliance"), domestic pressure ("baby mama's pregnant, I got bills to pay"), economic considerations ("how you gonna get the money?  you gonna rob it?"), security ("I'm a dead man walking"), norms ("you cannot lick at another man").  In spite of it really being from Slaves to Slaveowners, I must admit to a real fondness for this show.  Plus it's one of the few reality shows that objectifies men and deals with norms of masculinity as opposed to norms of femininity.  Yeah, it objectifies ghetto men.  But it's a start. 

Lank: You faked being thug just to be here!
Mito: I faked being in prison?!
Lank: What the fuck does prison have to do with shit?!
Mito: It has everything to do with why I'm here!

blue hair aside, this video basically makes my life. I mean, it has everything I like in life! [only kidding]


"Be A Man" - Hole


The only boy I understand: the one ashamed to be a man
Just rape the world because you can, that's what it takes to be a man
Knock her up, slap her hand, prove it to me, just be a man
I think I can, I think I can, I'm big enough to be a man
Tell you the truth, I'm jealous yeah, give anything to be a man...
Be a man, so impotent, be a man
Take off your dress, your master plan, give anything, just be a man
Oh cut it off, of course you can, got what it takes to be a man
Oh rape us all just 'cause you can, well give it up, just be a man
Your fucking war, the carnage yeah, give anything to be a man
Cut it off, I know you can, 'cause no one cares if you're a man
Be a man, so impotent, be a man
Can't get it up? I understand... under the gun to be a man...
I think I can, I think I can, I'm big enough to be a man!
I fuck the world, because I can, I'm everything, oh be a man
I fuck the world, because I can, give anything, be a man
I'm potent yeah!!!

$#$#$#

WTF DO NOT WANT - "Hello there :D I just watched The Hills Have Eyes for the first time a few days ago, and now I'm really into it... I'm a typical fangirl who yanks innocent characters out of movies/series and plops them into pairings, and as I was watching the end of the movie the pairing Lizard/Doug popped into my head."

$#$#$#

[01] -- Look up FIVE of your favorite movies on IMDB.
[02] -- Click the "trivia" link in the sidebar.
[03] -- Post a fun and random bit of trivia from each film.

( whee! )

yeah, first lines of 15 songs on shuffle, blah blah blah.

( tell me what's the word )

last lines of next 15 songs on shuffle!

( word up! )

Stephen King's words are actually the only ones I remember, although other authors spin better stories in better ways, overall. 

[some are phrases, some are just words.]

The Shining:  "redrum"
It:  "He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts"
Storm of the Century:  "give me what I want and I'll go away" and "my name is legion, for we are many" [which is biblical, I know, but Stephen King introduced it to me]
The Nightflier:  "Dwight Renfield... flew in from Derry... nice fella... different... said he was flying out tonight... said he'd stop to say goodbye."
Jerusalem's Lot:  "there are SOME rats in these walls!"
Dreamcatcher:  "same shit, different day." [SSDD for short]
Pet Sematary:  "the ground there is stonier than a man's heart" and "sometimes, death is a blessing."

My mother had a slasher moment today, by accident.  We were at an Indian restaurant and we looked up at a tapestry and she said, "Oh, it's... Rama and Krishna, right?"  And then rapidly corrected herself: "Rama and Sita, I mean."  It made me wonder if yaoi fangirls (some of my friends have worse terms for them) ever ship mythological figures... some of them, Krishna in particular, seem like they could be bisexual.  I'm guessing not.  I suppose that would be boring... or perhaps, they are just not hot enough, those deities.

Susan Faludi's Terror Dream:

Ms. Faludi, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and the author of two previous books, was perplexed by the cultural fallout from that day. What she found, she says, was a powerful resurgence in traditional sex roles and a glorification of he-man virility as embodied by Wayne, the ur-savior of virtuous but helpless damsels in distress. The prefeminist thinking was everywhere, Ms. Faludi said: in the media, where female commentators were suddenly scarce after 9/11 and specious trend reports appeared about women nesting and baking; in depictions of that day’s heroes as male and victims as female; and in movies like the 2005 “War of the Worlds,” Ms. Faludi said, with Tom Cruise as a “deadbeat divorced dad emasculated by his wife, reclaiming his manhood by saving their little girl.”

At the end of that movie, Mr. Cruise’s character cradles his daughter in his arms, an echo of the final scene in John Ford’s classic 1956 film “The Searchers,” when John Wayne carries home his young niece, who was captured by Indians years before. “It’s some bizarre, weirdly out-of-proportion fixation,” Ms. Faludi said, “an exaltation of American masculinity in an intergalactic crisis.”

Those who did not conform to this story line, she added — like female rescuers on 9/11 and widows who refused to remain piously grief-stricken or who scrutinized intelligence failures — were treated with contempt.

THE DEPARTED:  *spoilers*  When I told my mother I had seen The Departed, she responded, "What's that movie about?"  I said, "It won the Oscar."  She looked at me as if that told her nothing - and indeed, given every year's oscar picks, it really doesn't.  I elaborated, "It's a mob movie.  There's the mob and the police and they each have informants."  She added, "Yeah, and it had a lot of big names in it?"  I nodded.  "Jack Nicholson is the mob boss, Leonardo diCaprio is the informant for the police, Brad Pitt is the informant for the mob, and they're in each other's corners, so it's like cat and mouse."  "Tense?" my mother asked.  "Yeah.  And lots of... bang bang."  "Shoot 'em up."  "Yeah." 

This of course is an extremely simplistic explanation of The Departed.  However, there are a few things I must get across before I get any further with this review.  I don't believe that The Departed has a message.  There's no parable, no moral to the story, no allegory, no step toward greater understanding of the state and purpose of humanity.  It's just a damn good movie, and that's all.  It's not a popcorn movie either.  It's too suspenseful, too nervous, too jumpy, too anxious, too in need of the Valium that DiCaprio's character craves, for that.  This is much more along the lines of the old movies that Scorcese never won the Oscar for - Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, The Aviator (not so much The Last Temptation of Christ).  The only message in this movie, if any, is that as Nicholson says, you can be cops or robbers, but when you're staring at a barrel of a gun, it doesn't matter.  A better one, actually, comes from the Pakistani proprietor who watches a Bostonian mobster beat up two Providence mobsters in his store for insulting Irishmen - "What's wrong with this fucking country?  Everybody hates everybody!"

The theme is lying.  Everyone lies.  And you must always, always assume - if survival is your goal - that whoever you're talking to is lying, and further, that they have something planned.  I won't go into the plot of the movie, which is too long and which you can look up on wikipedia.  I'll just say a few things.  First, all the acting is excellent.  The most likable character is hands down Leonardo DiCaprio's (listed first on the credits, this is first and foremost his movie, and he is excellent... after this and Blood Diamond, he's steadily rising on my list of favorite actors), and the most dislikable character is hands down Matt Damon's - ironic since they are foils for each other, and DiCaprio is the one living the shady life as the undercover officer, having to participate in mass murders and all, whereas Damon is living the life of Mr. Perfect - except that of course he's actually a rat for the mob - and plays a role very similar to the one he played in The Good Shepherd - the pinstriped prick.  The twisted allegiances make it extremely hard to root for either the corrupt, uncommunicative, and yet determined, police or the immoral, backstabbing, and yet sympathetic mob.  And I think it's supposed to be that way - I think if we ended up taking sides and making proclamations about good and evil (except that they're blurred), the movie would fail, and that serves as evidence of the actors' aptitude in their roles, even the ones I couldn't stand. 

Which brings me to the second thing I have to say - Jack Nicholson is absolutely excellent as the evil mob boss.  He's king of political incorrectness, speaking of "Guineas" and "cunts" and threatening horrendous deeds without flinching, but of course Nicholson has a way of being charming even when he's being sadistic.  He is also the father figure for both DiCaprio and Damon.  And what a twisted father he is.  But so, then, are they twisted sons.  This is sort of a Hobbesian movie in that sense - these men are savage men, living without commitments or real relationships, to even each other.  The most important thing is the ego - not only in the sense of macho, cock-wielding bravado, but in the sense of ego = I am.  As in, I have a sense, a self, an identity, inalienable rights that come with my soul.  Sometimes it seems they really just spend the whole movie trying to reach that.  As DiCaprio keeps demanding, "I just want my identity back." 

Finally, I lied.   I did take sides.  I hoped Damon would die, and I hoped DiCaprio would live.  There, I said it.  And yes, I'm telling the truth.  I said it was fucking true.  Let's just say that I was compromised, but that in a movie like this, you couldn't expect anything less, or more, than compromise - because the way the world works, it's like a business deal.  You win some, you lose some.  Good people die, and bad people die.  Everything dies.  Oh yeah, I lied again.  This movie does have something to say, and that's what it is - everything dies.  As Nicholson says in all his wisdom, we're all on our way out: act accordingly.  Somehow this message doesn't end up being all that depressing - it just makes you feel like karma has won out, with a bullet.  The balance between good and evil, with neither side winning, continues.  The slate is wiped clean.  Both boys wish that they could start over, because they see that they can't have their selves back: they may as well just get a new self entirely, not a muddled, puzzled self stuck between two or three existences.  They realize this when they're about to die, when they've lost everything: please, let me start over.  But well, they don't get to in life.  Hopefully they believe in reincarnation.  It's still a damn good movie.  Will it change your life?  Probably not.  But it's a hell of a good way to spend two and a half hours. - Highly Recommended.