Entries this day: Awake Bowling_for_Columbine Church Jenny Tired calder megan

Awake

8:55am CDT Sunday 20 October 2002

Amelia and I are awake at 9 so that we may go to church today. I'm actually only interested in visiting the YRUU; Kellie, one of the advisors asked for insights on getting youth to be respectful of one another. I can help more if I can see the situation or at least ask some specific questions about the stories I hear.

I had dreams, and I think they involved being at the Bibby's in Dallas, but I don't recall more than that.

Bowling for Columbine

Bowling for Columbine

Full Price Feature

Number one - with a bullet!  If you don't know, this is Michael 
Moore's latest documentary, this time about the culture of violence 
in America, especially as per gun killing.  Some terrifying 
statistics are reported in this film; I wish I could have recorded it 
to a hard disc in my head to give myself facts on hand for future 
discussion.  It is not a personal paean of self-aggrandizement as 
some have suspected; C-Span has conditioned us to expect nothing but 
that.

Regardless whether you agree with his message or not, Moore's gifts 
as a filmmaker cannot be denied.  His editing and contrasting of 
footage and audio tell a greater story than the individual bytes 
being parsed.  Shrewd editing wrings the most content from his quiet, 
laissez-faire interview style. Moore lets them do all the talking - 
it seems as though he must be leading their answers because, well, 
how can people be so foolish as to spout off in a way that so clearly 
illustrates how dangerous/wrong/deceptive they are?  People do.

He manages to infuse this carnival of horrors with enough humor 
laughter obscured dialogue.  The laughter in my audience was from 
their delight, watching his subjects shoot themselves in the foot, as 
it were.  He asks the right questions, and they are questions that 
need asking, need asking in a public forum, and the very absence of 
coherent answers is chilling enough.  His regular guy manner and 
Hollywood influence get him meetings with barflies and movie stars, 
for great juxtaposition.

I know many of us feel the same way about our society but have been 
unable to verbalize it.  It may be too simplistic to say that our 
culture is the way it is due to one thing or another; no doubt it is 
a complex web of many things.  But few have addressed this angle of 
the issue, and it needs addressing. If it is one-sided, it is 
certainly the side we don't see, unless we listen between the lines 
on NPR or hang out with Noam Chomsky.

Why is our gun murder rate 100-300 times greater than in any other 
country in the world?  Why are we so quick to send troops, deploy 
ships, whip out a shotgun and yell "Get off my lawn?" We can shoot 
each other because we are completely detached from a sense of 
community, interrelation, interdependence.  Other industrialized (not 
just Western) countries enjoy the same supposedly inappropriate 
stimulus as us, have guns, have corrupt leaders, have "mixed 
ethnicities" in their cities, what is the difference?

It is attitudes, fear, misinformation, a self-centered, consumer 
culture.  We've heard this, as an explanation as to why "they" hate 
us, but we are surrounded by enough self-induced terror, who needs 
zealots making a move in our direction.  It's a sobering movie, but 
very well-stated.

Canada - we joke it's the largest of our 51 states, but no one there 
is denied medical care all ("it's a basic human right," scoffs an 
Ontario teen), there are 7 million guns in 10 million households, yet 
less than 40 gun deaths a year.  The US has over 11,000 gun deaths a 
year, many uninsured persons.  AND they are legalizing pot.  Why do 
we make fun of Canada again?

There are so many beautiful, unspoken moments in Bowling.  I wish I 
could spoil some of it for you but you will just have to go see it. 
Moore quotes the social commentary as hilariously propagandized by 
South Park the movie, a keen social commentary on blame and social 
responsibility, worthy of the same audience Moore carries.  Truth 
hurts, even when you can laugh at it.

It is also delicious to hear how irrational and crazy the government 
officials sound, blaming Marilyn Manson for the crazy teens (but not 
Eminem?  Explain that), yet the Artist Formerly Known As Brian had 
some very wise things to say.  Also, there is a brilliant animated 
short in the middle of the film which I wish was available for 
download - it's a fantastic miniature summary of Moore's thesis.

If you recall in the 1980's, there were picket lines around the 
theatres playing a little movie that dared to show the human side of 
Jesus' man/god nature.  People who had not seen the film picketed it, 
reviled it, and claimed its one-sidedness was sinful.  One must see 
both sides of any major debate, and that film operated under the 
premise that plenty has been done with Jesus' God-side.  Moore's film 
is the Last Temptation of Charleton.  The people who most need to see 
it won't, and I wish I could change that - I hope my readers who see 
it will help as well.  Roger Ebert yapped at some length about 
Moore's excessive use of "theatre."  Without the organized 
presentation, the public embarrassment of the guilty, the message 
would not be heard.  World famous improviser Keith Johnston says that 
we go to the theatre to see people change.  We watch Michael Moore 
hoping for this change.  Keep the theatre, Mike, it is what makes 
your message both understandable and heard.

I'm sure I'm going to get loads of disgruntled email from my readers, 
who do not have to agree with me, but I hope they will see the film 
and argue with me intelligently.  Better yet, see the film, and 
challenge someone you can speak to in person to see it as well and 
discuss it with them.  I am here to recommend (or not) films, and all 
politics aside, this is a fantastically made film.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These reviews (c) 2002 Karina Montgomery.  Please feel free to forward
but just credit the reviewer in the text.  Thanks. 
reviews@cinerina.com
Check out previous reviews at:
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Brokerage Resource
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Church

10:56am CDT Sunday 20 October 2002

I came to church with Amelia today just to talk to Kellie about a question she asked me via email. I ended up talking instead with aw man I forgot her name, the DRE. I hopefully gave her some helpful thoughts and insights. Didn't get to talk super long, but hopefully it helped.

12:21pm

Amelia and I just walked Magic (the dog) around the neighborhood and she queried me on how I've found my balance between being a youth and an advisor. I told her that it took awhile for me to find the balance and that now I have been driven by at least two different thoughts:

!) YRUU is my priority over all other activities.

@) I have no ego in YRUU.

Number (!) above might sound weird considering I'm not going to San An, but ultimately I trust this is better for the youth, though it's hard for me to see that now.

Number (@) above is true in the following way: if the YRUU activity is truly being run by youth (and doesn't violate the community agreed rules) I don't care what the activity is.

There are certainly other driving factors that guide my involvement with YRUU, but those are two that stand out for me.

Jenny

2:16pm CDT Sunday 20 October 2002

Jenny hoped I hadn't written about her today, but I will just because.

She slept until 12:30pm today. That was after falling asleep during both movies that we watched last night.

She's been vying for attention from Erik, Andrew, Sean, who are all playing video games.

Tired

5:18pm CDT Sunday 20 October 2002

I'm getting tired of my adventure I think. Maybe I'm just flat tired physically (after staying up late watching movies, and up early for church) and mentally (for working on Kim's website and reading livejournal and news.google.com)

But what I'm noticing is that I'm less and less planning ahead my adventure. I gave Amelia only 1 day's notice, and I emailed Calder today to see if I can say HI to her tonight. I don't know where/if I'll stay in Tulsa overnight tonight. blah.

I don't remember their phone number or Bhyllx's email address or nothin' to give them *any* advanced warning. Poop poop poop.

calder

10:55pm CDT Sunday 20 October 2002

Super awesome special thanks to Calder and her mom for getting me a place to sleep, and leading me to the place to sleep tonight.

Calder's mom seems really cool and patient and funny and able to deal with inanity around her. Five minutes in the house turned to 30 minutes of animated conversation and billiard ball rolling plus five minutes of coaxing Calder out the door and into the car with all her stuff.

I'm so thankful for the quick turnaround Calder did on getting me a place to stay.

AND(!) ("there's more?") she got me a funny book with a funny name and a gay pride kitten made of those round melty bead things! Awesome. I think I know just the person who will love the cat.

Hugs to Calder's mom and Calder as they left.

megan

11:00pm CDT Sunday 20 October 2002

So I'm at Megan's house. Super thanks also to Megan and her mom for letting me stay on such short notice

11:54pm

Ah, now I remember having met Megan's mom Lee-anne (sp). We chatted for a while; she asked about my trip and upcoming plans, and told me about her brother's new job as the intake nurse at the local jail and about the awesomeness of their house (originally built in 1938, then moved to this location when Loop 244 was built), which they have been expanding and remodeling. Nice.

Ahhh fuzzy flannel sheets. So perfect. Thank you so much!