Funny pseudo-Christians

Find

Yo, someone link me to Mickey Rourke's acceptance speech at the Independent Spirit Awards. I can't find it.

Alaska!

The Humans are Dead

I'd seen episodes before but I finally got around to watching all of Flight of the Conchords. Love that show.

Disney Back Then

This early Mickey Mouse cartoon from 1931 had me trippin. Mickey carries a rifle and Pluto talks with a weird voice. Hard to believe that before it became the hundred-limbed monster, Disney was pretty cool.



I also love that it's completely devoid of morals.

Animation That Models Thinking

The Postmodern in the first 10 Minutes of "Super Troopers"

The first ten minutes of Super Troopers are so brilliant. Only when I'd watched the whole film did I understand it, and thanks to the drugs I'm not 100% on the point of view and what "really" happened. What about the other Broken Lizard movies: are Club Dread and Beerfest any good? Glomer?

Theo Jansen

Los Creepy

War, Inc.

I think the first American movie I've seen this year is War, Inc.

It's not that good. It's throwaway parody that could've been made fifteen years ago. The only reason I downloaded it is because Mark Leyner co-authored it. What happened to that guy? He used to be one of my favorite writers, then he started doing crappy collaborations. You throw enough cash in his face and he'll write Transformers 2.

Watch this instead:

Other Places

I started 2 non-internet journals: 1 is sort of a regular journal to keep track of things and focus on goals and stuff I'm working on, and 1 to record my dreams.

With the regular journal I write about 100 times faster than I write this blog and get much better results. After blogging I feel empty and vapid; after journaling I feel focused and energized. Sometimes I don't know what the point of blogging is. I think I should just use this blog for art or something.

I read a novella I wrote about ten years ago called Naked Greed of the Flesh and thought to myself, "This is pretty good in some of the parts." Tomorrow I'll put up my tribute to J.R.R. Tokien, "The Softening".

Once I move I want to get a scanner. I wish I was better with photoshop and had a better handle on design. I've been reading a book at work called A Whole New Mind about right-brained thinking and the author identifies six "senses" that are often neglected by left-brain culture: design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning.

I have a longer post in me but I think I'm going to sleep instead. Here's a video by a guy with a good message who still manages to come off as a twit. Your face should not be a sigh, my friend!

John Carter of Mars Animation from the 1930s

This animation from an abandoned John Carter of Mars cartoon in the 1930s is actually pretty cool.



Like Don Quixote, the material seems doomed to never be adapted in a thorough manner.

China My China

Also Richard Gere's supposed to speak at the Civic Center tomorrow. Wednesday the Olympic torch gets protested.

I don't know anything about politics with China and Tibet. It just seems like China's a shitty place to live, and the U.S. government turns a blind-eye to its human rights abuse because our economy depends so much on their goods. Even if China wasn't molesting Tibet it would lose points for censorship and the virtual slavery that make their stuff so cheap.

I'm still waiting for the equivalent of birth control for military enlistment - something that will naturally lower the number of people willing to fight for a government. Maybe that's the internet and it's working as fast as it can.

Reverend Moon

When I went to South Korea in December I mainly stayed with friends. But one night due to a snowboarding trip I didn't take part in I needed to find someplace to stay. Through the internet I found a family that was willing to host me.

I met the "dad" of the family with his car at a subway stop in Seoul. He was a friendly geeky kind of guy who also worked at a school so we had something in common. We talked as he drove and we stopped at a grocery store to get food. It was my first time in a big Korean grocery and I was transfixed by all the minor differences (when I later went into a massive department store I was even more blown away - there were women by the entrance who did nothing but bow to everyone as they came in - all day). The "dad" shopped and at some point his wife met us at the store.

Her English was better than his. She was from Japan. "Hmm," I thought. "That's strange. I thought Koreans generally hate the Japanese."

We got to their apartment and they had two kids, a boy and a girl. The boy sat at the dinner table with us. The girl remained in her room for most of the time, too shy to meet me.

The family and I talked for a while, watched TV - mainly just talked.

At one point as everyone got ready for bed, the "mom" said to me, privately, "Have you heard of Reverend Moon?"

I had.

"No," I said. "Who's that?"

"It's our religion," she said. "It's how we met."

"What do you mean?"

"Reverend Moon is the leader of our church. I'm not trying to make you join us. I just thought you might wonder how a Japanese woman and Korean man met. Reverend Moon arranged our marriage."

"Arranged your..."

"We didn't meet until our wedding day," she said.

The "dad" returned at this point and she went away to do dishes or something.

I prepared a bed to sleep in their living room. "Good night," I said.

"Good night," said the "dad".

They were up a while taking care of things. At some point the lights went out. Finally I could sleep.

In the darkness, I saw a form move through the living room. It was the "dad".

He lay down on the couch near my bed in the living room and seemed to go to sleep.

Umm, well, I thought, it's his house, he can sleep wherever he wants. And apparently he did.

I woke up in the middle of the night and he was no longer on the couch. I saw him walking around the house, then go into his daughter's room. The door to her room was open the whole time so I'm not suggesting anything illicit, just that he slept in there.

When I woke up in the morning I saw him come out of the master bedroom he shared with his wife. Apparently he had migrated to that room later in the night.

I didn't ask any questions. I ate breakfast with them and then he dropped me at a subway station and I went to meet my friends. That was the last I saw of them.

Here's an informative video about Reverend Moon if I've sparked your interest and you want to join this great religion.

Awesome Cyclist Video