Moving Movies

First of all, 300...what crap!!!! That movie was the most racist thing I have seen ever! The movie paints this picture...Greeks = Good...Persions = Evil...I was waiting for the Spartan commander to slowly evolve a Bush look and make a blatant plea...give me more troops so I can go attack Iran in the name of freedom. It's not like the Greeks never tried to infringe on other people's freedoms...Can we say Alexander the "Great"?

Before I talk about how much I loved Freedom Writers I need to tell you about me and the movies. Those of you who actually know me and know my taste in movies know that I like happy movies. I grew up on Bollywood films and those tend to have everything packed into one film...comedy, action, drama, romance, music and dance...they are just plain entertaining. So when I sit down to watch a movie, I expect to be entertained. I expect to laugh. And I often cry. My friend once pointed out to me that my desire to laugh is so strong that I'll find something to laugh about in even the most depressing films like Requiem for a Dream. But you know what? I don't really cry unless I think something undeserved is happening to a totally innocent character and melodrama moves me much more than realism haha. Mostly, I like the crying to be kept to a minimum and I need happy endings. I understand that the world is not all wonderful and cheery and I appreciate when a movie points that out but I don't understand why anyone will make a movie with a sad ending and turn the world into an even worse place chipping away at the audience's optimism. This was one of my problems with Rang De Basanti. I prefer something like Freedom Writers.

Freedom Writers is based on a true story. Erin Gruwell is truly my hero. Here's a woman who actually changed lives and made a positive social impact. That's what I dream of doing! And the movie was just wonderful. It deals with serious issues and tells it like it is. But it chooses to focus on the hope that things can and do change for the better. See that's what I would like to say to all those smug pessimists who say...I like reality...and in reality things aren't all rosy...well I know! But in reality somewhere down the line things do get better! Why not focus on that? You are telling a story and the story can eventually get to a point where there is a solution! And it's very real! And it can give people hope..so why wouldn't you want to, movie maker? Why don't you tell us what we can do to make things better? Why don't you show us how others have made things better? Ok I'll stop ranting about that now...

Here's another film that attempted to show how things can be made better...An Inconvieniant Truth. I thought it was well done. I mean I have been an environmentalist since age 8 and I have known about global climate change for a long time now. I do what I think is right. I choose not to have a car (since I don't need it) and I use public transportation. I turn off lights that aren't being used. I bring my own bag to the grocery store and recycle paper, plastic, whatever I can. But this film did inspire me to do more. First of all, I need to support clean energy. When I do buy a place of my own, I know I'll put solar panels on it and sell energy back into the grid. Right now, it seems the best I can do is buy Energy Offset Credits. This is a circuitious way of doing things but I think it's worth it. I'm going to look more into it and it'll have to get it's own post.

I've been stealing all my riffs from the Stones ~ Swllc

So this weekend was my first outing with my "Little Sister". I signed up for the Big Sister program many months ago but it takes a while for them to make a match. So anyway I finally met her :) and she is awesome!

My Little is 9. And I had really don't remember the kinds of things that one talks about with a 9 year old. Hehe...so clearly parts of the visit were awkward...but I quickly realized that I was the only one who was uncomfortable with silence. I mean my general strategy is to talk nonsense incessantly in order to mask my nervousness. While adults recognize this as quirky and charming (YES! some people think that...shush, you!) kids, I am sure, will take that kind of rambling as boring and insane. I tried to make adult 'small talk', you know? "So did you do anything fun this week?" "No".... "So what kind of stuff do you like to do for fun?" "I don't know" and yea that failed miserably....then I just tried silence...and it was good! I mean we talked to each other when we had something to say and she opened up a few times and volunteered her stories...

My idea was to go to this free sailing open house thing but once we got there the waiting list was too long so then we just went to Quincy Market and got ice cream. And we went to the toy store. That was interesting because they had puppets and she put the policeman puppet on and I had a pig one and we just assumed our identities and started playing. It's so funny that talking to her was so much easier as a pig than as myself. Well, we had fun...

But this is what noticed about kids...more so from a weekend earlier when I was playing with my 11 year old cousin. Kids are such plagerizers! hehe...I think the concept of being 'original' is something that has to be taught at some point. My cousin and I were writing a story together...I was extracting a story out of her...So who are the characters? So where is it located? So what happens next? Does she meet someone or something or does she see something? And basically it was turning out to be some sort of mix between Alice in wonderland and the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I didn't really know how to tell her to be more original...or even that the heart of drama is conflict...she wanted everything to be happy! I think that's fair...just boring hehehe but also very much how I would want my stories to go....

The truth is I remember a story I wrote in sixth grade and it was highly inspired by Aladdin. Sigh...I wonder if I ever learned to be actually creative or just enough to copy those who manage to seem original. Like the plagerism keeps getting less and less obvious. I remember learning how to cite and not plagerize in analytical writing but creative writing...not really...anyway I'll end with a link to a tangentially related SwLLC song...the beginning of which is a little sketchy :P but the refrain is nice hehe...Clones