6 posts tagged “politics”
I finally gave in to all of the hype and went to see District 9 last week. I enjoyed the documentary-style story (even if the technique was pretty uneven throughout the film). And based on the ending, I definitely smell a District 10 brewing in the future.
However of all interesting issues this sci-fi film took aim at (immigration, discrimination, weapons of mass destruction), one of the most interesting ones was that of gay rights (if you haven't seen the film yet and don't want any spoilers, stop reading now).
During one heartbreaking scene in the movie, the alien known as Christopher Johnson watches his "friend" get killed by one of the government thugs. When his son asks him, "What happened to your friend?" Christopher says, "He's gone now." And you can sense that this other alien character was someone special to Christopher.
In another scene, Christopher is in one of the EMU testing labs and finds his dead friend as a slab on a table. He is frozen with devastation while he looks over the body.
I know I am reading into this BIG TIME, but I sensed that this film was making a statement about homosexuality. Both Christopher and his "friend" appear to be manly individuals; they also don't seem to conform to what the other aliens or "prawns" are doing in District 9. And I don't know how these aliens reproduce, but perhaps Christopher's son was a result of the relationship with his dead friend.
When I asked my gay best friend (my "Will") about whether he thought this too while he was watching the film, he said I was crazy. Yet, I'm surprised that more reviews of the film or even message boards haven't lit up with this theory. Thankfully, the power of interpretation allows me to believe that Christopher Johnson and his son live happily ever after without government intervention in that great other planet in the sky.
I really enjoyed Stephen Colbert's MeTunes of the Summer. Based on the crap out there that Colbert mentioned, my song of the summer is an unconventional one, too. "Deacon Blues" by Steely Dan -- I just rediscovered them in the last couple of weeks.
ABC Family aired the series finale of the Gilmore Girls yesterday (for the very first time since the series ended in 2007). In the final episode, Rory gets a job at a web magazine where she's set to cover Barack Obama's campaign.
Two years after the fact, I can't help but wonder what Rory Gilmore is doing now. I find it strangely omniscient that the writers of Girls would decide that our little Yale grad would follow Obama rather than other Democratic presidential hopeful Clinton. I wonder if they had a feeling he would become President someday.
Where is Rory Gilmore now? Is she feeling the pains of the recession, jobless and broke and living in a cardboard box? Or is she flourishing as a reporter ala her hero Christiane Amanpour? Or is she back at Star's Hollow, living at home like so many other college grads her age?
I smell a new ABC Family spin-off series.
Lately, I've tuned into the first 10 to 15 minutes of ABC's The View for one reason: to see a cage-match brawl between Whoopi, Joy, Barbara, Sherri, and Elisabeth (with an "s"!). It's quite possibly the second-best thing ABC has to offer as a television program (Pushing Daisies still has me as the number one). For some reason, watching the first 10 to 15 minutes of The View is something like a train wreck. A train wreck where no one considers each other's personal space nor the ability to keep quiet while someone else is speaking.
Since the choice narrowed down between Obama and McCain in the election for President, The View suddenly seems to have taken on the authority as a leading morning expert in what's going on. Forget Lauer. Forget Sawyer. What America really cares about is what three comedians, a former news anchor, and a former shoe designer/Survivor contestant think they know about politics. Frankly, I can't really pinpoint the appeal, but sadly, I am one of the Americans who cares!
Each personality on The View has a role. You could literally play a drinking game each morning with your coffee each time one of The View characters steps into their daily duty. For example, Whoopi always tries to continue the discussion. . ."after the commercial break" (filling the shoes previously worn by Rosie). Joy always takes her political jabs just a little too far, but the audience forgives her because she's a comedian. Sherri quietly sits and listens until someone takes a breath so she can speak up. Barbara tries to mediate the group of women by distracting them with famous names she's had dinner with. And Elisabeth consistently looks like a puppy that just got its nose hit with a newspaper.
Here's a recent clip from the View where Sherri finally gets a few words in!
For some reason, I live for this shit. My question is just what is The View going to do once the nation has decided on a President? There's literally nothing else I really want to hear these ladies talk about. This is one of the rare shows where they can get into a heated debate about politics and then turn to their next segment on "How to Organize Your Closet." It's no wonder that most people tune out after the first half hour anyway.
If anything, perhaps when America finally assigns a new leader on November 4th, The View will have new stuff to talk about concerning politics. If McCain wins, I guarantee three of the ladies will be pissed, prompting them to bitch and complain daily (Yay! Everybody talks! No one listens!). If Obama wins, Hasselbeck is going to shit a frisbee (strangely enough, this was not one of her Survivor stunts).
On a related note concerning Survivor, I find it ironic that Hasselbeck consistently attacks Obama for the people he has alligned himself with when clearly she is no better. Using reality television to get to "the top" as a TV personality is hardly admirable. I mean, she was on a show that once featured Richard Hatch, season one's winner. Hatch was naked most of his screen time on the show and was eventually convicted of tax evasion in 2006. How's that for an alliance?
When I was eight-years-old, I attempted to answer the age-old question: "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?" I had seen the commercials and wanted to solve it once and for all. So I grabbed a notebook and started licking. I stopped at around 70-something and gave up.
As recently as two months ago, I clicked on a "Free Obama button" link on a web site and applied for my free button. They said it would arrive within 6 to 8 weeks. After some quick remedial math in my head, I realized that the button would arrive just in time for the election, if not AFTER. "Eh, it's free," I thought.
It's less than two weeks away from the election and I've yet to see a button, prompting me to solve a new age-old question: "How many weeks does it take to receive a free Obama button?"
I received this email yesterday:
Dear MoveOn member,
Most of our Obama buttons have arrived safely and are being worn while canvassing, at Obama rallies, and even on CNN. But 10 days ago, we discovered that the U.S. Postal Service wasn't just incredibly slow in processing several batches of orders—they actually left many sitting in a back room for more than a month. We have reason to believe that your package may be one of those affected.
We were and are profoundly frustrated by this news, and we've been working around the clock to resolve the situation and get the packages delivered. As of last week, all of the backlogged packages were on their way and we expect them to arrive by this week.
We're sorry. If your order was one of those caught up in this mess, we're willing to send an expedited replacement out to you immediately.
Since these replacements are costly to send and we're devoting every available dollar to winning in November, we'd be grateful if you could wait until the end of the week to see if your original package arrives. But we completely understand if you'd prefer that we send a replacement now.
If your button has already arrived and wasn't in the affected group, that's great. You can let us know by clicking this link:
If your button hasn't arrived, you can order a replacement now, or at the end of the week, by using this link (just save this email so you have the link handy if you need to order a replacement later): Thanks for your support, your patience, and as always, thanks for all you do.–Peter, Daniel, Eli, Nita and the rest of the team
My prediction is that my button will arrive November 5th. Either way who wins, I will seem stale and out-of-date while wearing this adornment, only to toss the button into a pile of items my children will someday rummage through and say how "old" I am.
For some reason, I blindly hate the television show Army Wives.
I've never seen a single episode. I can't even tell you when the show actually airs. Yet, I can tell you that Denise appears to be cheating on her Army husband with a motorcycle man, and that Roxy gets very defensive when a new waitress hits on her man.
The mere fact that I can tell you either of these things without seeing a single episode demonstrates the impact Army Wives previews on Lifetime have left on me. The promos air enough (I've counted up to three times during a Will & Grace rerun); however, I've never been enticed to actually sit down and watch the damn thing.
People have told me that this is a great show. It's gotten good reviews. Both McCain and Obama even endorsed this show through summer promos for its positive portrayal of Army life. Yet, that still didn't do it for me. Because I am Catholic, I feel guilty for not liking this show, as if I am un-American and unsupportive of our troops.
After much consideration and serious thought, I realized that there are three distinct reasons why I blindly hate Army Wives:
1. Everyone is BEAUTIFUL. Not even like "pretty," but drop dead gorgeous. One look at that cast, and I'm having trouble deciding what my sexuality is. No wonder no one is loyal to their significant others on the show. It's not the physical distance between Army husbands and wives that is driving couples apart; it's that everyone is ridiculously hot!
Personally, I just find this a little disconcerting. If this is an accurate portrayal of Army life or even "real" life with "real" people, where are the average looking people? Does every Army guy look like Taye Diggs? It's a nice thought, but no. I guess Army Wives makes me feel like it glamorizes Army life almost like a soap opera. It's not gritty and hard like an FX or HBO drama; it makes things soft and pretty like an infomercial. But again, this is only based on what I've seen from the promos.
2. It's like Desperate Housewives. . .only on an Army base! When AW first came on the scene, this is the tagline it was touted with, which made me throw up a little inside. Although I doubt AW is anything like DH, I immediately assumed that the women on AW would be waiting for their husbands to come home from the War while simultaneously baking pies and solving murder mysteries.
3. Army Wives: Political propaganda? Since I've never seen an episode, I can't tell you how I really feel about this. But do any of the characters address any of their feelings on the War in Iraq? At first, I wondered if this was a show concocted by conservatives in order to push their views on the War. Are there conflicting views between characters on the actions Bush has taken? If so, I would totally be interested in watching this show. This would make for compelling television, addressing both liberal and conservative sides of pertinent issues through characters in the throws of one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) American conflicts.
Or is the show really just about who's getting it on with whom?
I guess I won't really know whether I like this show or not until I watch it. I'm ashamed of the assumptions I've made about AW, but based on the previews, they aren't totally unfounded. Maybe I should give the Wives a try. It would at least get this Catholic guilt off of my back.
