"don't touch that. it's pure evil."

So tonight was dinner date with Emily. She has this new thing she does when she doesn’t like something. She says “Evil.” That’s it. Not “Oh that’s evil” or “Broccoli is evil” just the word “Evil.” She’ll even repeat it till it makes her laugh. Listening: (none)

Show me Love or Fucking �m�l

I’ve been reading about Lukas Moodysson for a few months now. I skipped my chance to see Lilya4-Ever in the theater despite the critical acclaim. I went ahead and grabbed the first thing Netflix had from him. A Swedish film called Fucking Åmål or Show Me Love in it’s American release. It won four Guldbagge Awards (Swedish Oscars who knew?) including Best Picture, Director, Screenplay and two Best Actress awards for the two female leads. The story is universal but the movie would not be made in America. At least not without substantial changes. It would certainly never win at the Oscars. I love finding movies like this.

What if Mecca was in America?

I just had a funny thought. What if the Hajj was in America? It would be so much more consumer driven. I can see entrepreneurs selling pre-collected pebbles for throwing at the devil…and t-shirt vendors with shirts that say “I hit the devil with pebbles and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.” Of course, they’d have book and video sales “Greatest Moments in Hajj History” or “The Lazy Person’s Guide to Hiking Mt. Ararat.”

The Hajj

Channel 4 has a site about the Hajj. It’s one of the five required duties of Islam if I remember right. The massive size of the crowd is pretty awesome.

I can’t think of anything in Christianity or Judaism that is like this. I guess there really aren’t many five day events that pack in three million people. On day three you get to stone the devil, how cool is that? Listening: Styrofoam Plates - Death Cab For Cutie

Reconnecting

Rock on, Fernando Meirelles was nominated for a Best Director Oscar for “City of God.” One of the three movies I saw in 2003 that I plan to own.

I saw my friend Roy last night for the first time in years. When I was young we spent so much time wandering through drainage ditches and having adventures. I went traveling with him and his family during many summers. Some of my favorite stories come from my time with him. He left his staff position with Representative Cramer to go work at NASA as the Strategic Outreach Planner in the Government Community Relations Department. I felt my enthusiasm for adventure and exploration welling up in me as we talked over dinner. Hopefully soon I’ll get to see Yancey, the person who truly helped usher me into a lifelong love for movies. I was 11 or 12 and he was pushing Chinatown, Taxi Driver, The Exorcist, Serpico, The Godfather I & II, Once Upon a Time in America and so much more on me. Roy has kept in touch with Yancey regularly as the decades have flown by. Listening: (none)

It looks like a big tylenol

In this dream I had to get to a movie. I was waiting on someone, I don’t remember who. In the dream I knew who it was though. I was in the kitchen of some fast food place in the mall. Then I went out the back to a small plane. I could feel the tension building in me as I realized I was going to have to fly to be on time. The plane didn’t have any overhead storage and the ceiling was so low that people had to lean forward over the seat in front of them to fit. I put the seat belt on, wondered if it really mattered if we crashed, and the plane began to taxi. I was nervous but not overly so. Then I woke up to my alarm going off.

Notes on the Last Samurai

I was surprised by how caught up I was in the story. The battle sequences are some of the best this year. I was thankful to be spared from the heavy cutting that has hurt other action moments, Cold Mountain and Master and Commander come to mind. The production design is stunning. I felt transported to the modern and agrarian worlds of Japan in 1876. The movie has fundamental flaws in its romanticized vision of samurai, and demonization of technology.

Wandering in the desert

Nothing raises my ire quicker than righteous Christians. I can find myself foaming at the mouth with anger in mere moments. In my mid twenties, thanks to the writing of C.S. Lewis, I developed a more nuanced understanding of Christians. They aren’t all Fred Phelps. I spend more time reading about Christians and Christianity than any other religion. Why do I spend so much time reacting to Christians? Doesn’t that make me Christian in some sense, despite the fact that I would tell people not only do I not believe in the divine origins of the bible but have no belief in a benevolent divine presence concerning itself with the day to day lives of humanity on Earth.

Thank you Apple for iLife

Thank you Apple for iLife 04, specifically Garage Band. My complete lack of musical talent is more evident than ever. I’m very impressed with what you get for $49. However, changing the instrument, generator, effects, etc for a loop is kind of clunky. The loop library management is pretty nicely done.

They weren’t kidding about iPhoto being faster. I now understand the look of shock on Frodo’s face when they are showing it off to him.

The font of all wisdom

I swear sometimes reading plastic feels like I’m auditing a college course on whatever the topic may be. A recent discussion had a thread on the Arab development of the printing press that enlightened me on: where their cursive script comes from, the origin of the word Byzantine, why Latin has no U or J character, a brief history of Turkish graphic arts, a more detailed history of written Arabic, briefly how Chinese pictographs developed and the origins of the word Allah from the original Aramaic term Alleh that Jesus would also have used to refer to God.