iran

Last month over lunch I told Kate I'd been thinking that there are only two really important things to do right now: Stop the impending war with Iran, and save the planet. Then I went home and played World of Warcraft for a few days, and for the next couple weeks I watched movies at Cinequest, with a couple of breaks to play music. It's not that I think those things are more important than war and the environment, it's just that I'm not a very good person.

Anyway, here's the letter I finally wrote today to my representative and senators:

( Read more... )

You know, it's not the best thing I've ever written, and there are more nuances than I allow for in the letter, but since it mostly just goes in a bin that says "Iran war: NO," I guess that's okay.

(While looking for a link, I stumbled across this commentary, which points out that only 10% of polled Americans think we should attack Iran... although the headline, weirdly, says 15%.)

gonzales

When I read the fourth paragraph of this article, I thought, "I never thought I'd see the day when I'd long for the good old days of John Ashcroft."

But then I remembered that when he announced his resignation, I was elated for about fifteen seconds before I thought, "No... somehow, these people will just manage to find someone worse."

And they did! Score 1 for Erik, 0 for America.

cinequest

For the record, and since I did spend all that time watching movies at Cinequest, here are notes on a few of my favorites (in no special order):

• The Third Monday in October, a wonderful documentary about the 2004 campaign for president... of the student council, at four middle schools across the United States. People are so great.
  
• We Are the Strange, like nothing I've ever seen, with its mix of stop-motion animation, anime action, and old-school 8-bit video games, all animated over three years by one guy from San Jose in his bedroom.
  
• Outsourced, the most conventionally enjoyable movie I saw at the festival, a sweet comedy about a salesman who goes to India to train a replacement to head his company's order fulfillment department.
  

Also of note:

• Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out, a first-person documentary compiled by Stewart Copeland from miles of Super 8 footage he took while touring with the Police. Plus a fascinating appearance by Copeland himself, which unfortunately I had to leave early, so I don't know how it ended.
  
• Blood Car, a mildly horror-ish comedy about a vegan schoolteacher who, while trying to invent a wheatgrass-powered automobile, accidentally creates instead an engine that runs on human blood. Over the top as a movie, yet nicely understated in its politics. lithiumnature, rent this DVD when it comes out.