Author: Roger

HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY
My computer is fixed. More in due course. But what this means is that I won’t be posting and writing at the public library, with a one-hour maximum and usually a waiting list to use the public computers, something that I’ve been doing for the last three or four weeks. So, I can write longer pieces again.

From Empire via Tom the Dog.

I thought I saw a lot of indy films (most of the films I see are at the indy theater in town, but as you will see, massive gaps. Italics I saw.

1. Reservoir Dogs: This was one of those films that I thought I should see, but the descripton of the violence kept me away.
2. Donnie Darko: I heard nothing but good things, especially from the cinephile in my office, and yet…
3. The Terminator: Nope.
4. Clerks: Missed this one, too. Actually want to see this.
5. Monty Python’s Life of Brian: FINALLY, a film I’ve seen. And liked. If you grew up in a religious tradition, as I have, it’s either funnier (what I say), or abhorent. I laughed a LOT in this movie.
6. Night of the Living Dead. Nope.
7. Sex, Lies, and Videotape. From what I’ve read, this movie just about created the indy movie as a viable entity. Seeing James Spader on Boston Public, I see him as just a grown-up version of the character in this film.
8. The Usual Suspects. Loved it. Keyser Sose sees dead people.
9. Sideways. Very fond of this, although I agree with Tom that it may be “a little too recent to rank quite so high.”
10. Mean Streets. Was into not seeing violent films at the time.
11. Bad Taste. Don’t really know this film.
12. Eraserhead. Meant to see.
13. Memento. REALLY meant to see; life got in the way.
14. Stranger Than Paradise. Nope.
15. Blood Simple. Sometimes you see the trailer SO often you think you did.
16. She’s Gotta Have It. More important as what it led to in Spike Lee’s career, I think.
17. City of God. Got squeamish.
18. Withnail and I. Only recall vaguely.
19. Lone Star. Of COURSE, I saw this one. It’s a Sayles’ film, and possibly my favorite.
20. Slacker. This I should see.
21. Roger and Me. Any movie with my NAME in it is required viewing.
22. Nosferatu. Nope.
23. The Evil Dead. Wasn’t interested in seeing.
24. Happiness. My WIFE saw this film, and I was busy that night.
25. Drugstore Cowboy. Need to see.
26. Lost in Translation. Didn’t love it.
27. Dark Star. No.
28. In the Company of Men. I was very intrigued by ther trailer and the reviews.
29. Bad Lieutenant. Nein.
30. Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song: My SISTER saw this when it was brand new.
31. Pink Flamingos. Saw LOTS of Waters films.
32. Two Lane Blacktop. Don’t remember it.
33. Shallow Grave. Don’t remember it.
34. The Blair Witch Project. Wasn’t that interested.
35. THX-1138. Falls in the category of “I SHOULD see it.”
36. Buffalo ’66. Only vaguely recall.
37. Being John Malkovich– I’m quite fond of this. First of several Keener films I’ve seen.
38. Grosse Point Blank Saw it on video, which I don’t know is the same as actually SEEING it.
39. The Passion of the Christ. Actually I didn’t feel like sitting through the agony, and didn’t feel like giving Mel more money to prove I was a Christian.
40. The Descent. This is a recent film. I see very few recent films.
41. Dead Man’s Shoes. Also too recent. (Too recent is any time after March 2003.)
42. Swingers. How did I manage to miss this film?
43. Shadows. I’ve seen John Cassavetes films, but I’ve never even heard of this one.
44. Amores Perros. Violence fear.
45. Mad Max. I may have seen parts on commercial TV.
46. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. No interest.
47. Blood Feast. Definitely no interest. I believe FantaCo may have publish a book about this.
48. Cube. I’m not remembering.
49. Run Lola Run. Saw trailer MANY times.
50. El Mariachi. Maybe someday.

But the one CD that continues to command my attention (OK, to haunt me) is the one from this guy Gilbert. I couldn’t read his last name on the envelope, and I tossed his address after I sent a copy of my CD to him.

He may very well be my favorite living artist. I have, in one form or another, at least two dozen of his albums, from Buffalo Springfield, to CSNY (and combinations thereof), to his range of solo works. He changes phases like a chameleon, and I’ve gone with him through most of them: folk-rock to rock to rockabilly, electronic to grunge. I have his current album, Prairie Wind, on my Christmas wish list (along with other geezers such as Macca, the Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder).

Here’s a recent interview.

I knew that Neil is a big train enthusiast, and I ALMOST made a mixed tape of train songs to send to him. Ultimately, I didn’t, but only because I thought it was a bit too geeky.

Example: Lincoln did NOT write the Gettsburg Address on the back of an envelope while riding on the train from Washington to Gettysburg.

It is the job of the military to fight wars. It is the duty of the civilian leadership to ascertain those rare times that we should fight those wars. In the run-up to the war in Iraq, from September of 2002 to April 2003, I was at a demonstration against this potential conflict nearly every week. Certainly, I was informed by some of my pacifist acquaintances of the impropriety of a “war of choice.” But I was also persuaded by people who had fought in the military: World War II veteran George HW Bush (“41”), who chose NOT to go into Baghdad during the Gulf War and Vietnam War veteran Colin Powell, who helped lead the Gulf War effort. (Powell has recanted his February 2003 testimony before the U.N.)

During the buildup to the war, perhaps in January 2003, CBS News reporter Bob Simon, who was captured during the 1991 Gulf War, did an opinion piece for CBS Sunday Morning. He said, essentially, that the U.S. has over 100,000 troops in Iraq, Saddam Hussein is (reluctantly) letting the inspectors go wherever they want looking for the WMDs. Why not keep the status quo? Just keep looking until they’re found?

Of course, that was not the intention of the “chicken hawks” Bush, Cheney and those around them. They wanted to invade Iraq, and seemed to have used 9/11 as the excuse.
I haven’t found a more recent poll, but in a Harris poll in February 2005:
47 percent believed that Saddam Hussein helped plan and support the hijackers who attacked the U.S. on September 11, 2001, up six percentage points from November;
44 percent actually believed that several of the hijackers who attacked the U.S. on September 11 were Iraqis, up significantly from 37% in November (most of the hijackers were Saudis);
36 percent believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded (down slightly from 38% in November).

As much as I opposed the war, I was also of the opinion that those military leaders that wanted 300,000 troops were probably right. But the administration wanted to win the war on the cheap, so they found someone to agree with their numbers, around 135,000, launched the war, toppled Saddam, and W infamously declared “Mission Accomplished.”

Meanwhile, those opposing the war were forced on their heels with three little words: “Support the Troops.” War opponents were bending over backwards showing that “we support the troops”, if not the particular mission. But opposing the war was tantamount to treason, even more so than during Vietnam, the last war I actively opposed.
I look at things this way: the troops are supposed to fight when and where assigned. They should avoid egregious errors (My Lai, Abu Gharib). But the decision to deploy falls on the civilian leadership.

The parallels with Vietnam came out very quickly, and I’m not sure I bought them early on, but now, I’m more inclined to:
VietNam: A long, and largely, secret relationship, going back to 1956.
Iraq: A long, and largely, secret relationship, going back to at least 1983.
VietNam: The rationale is to stop the spread of communism there, lest we fight it at our front door.
Iraq: The rationale is to stop the spread of terrorism there, lest we fight it at our front door.
VietNam: Our broader involvement was based on a big lie. (Gulf of Tonkin resolution, 1964.)
Iraq: Our broader involvement was based on a big lie. (9/11 and Iraq, 2001 onward.)

So on this Veterans’ Day, I recognize and honor the great valor of those who have fought in wars, even as I mourn again the idiocy that got us here.