the weekend update (in delay)

I have a strange thing about movies, as in watching them. Its a kooky aversion thing. I kid you not, I could probably count the number of films I have seen in the theater or at home (outside of assigned films for school) in the past year on one hand. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I worry I am potentially wasting two valuable hours (lets face it- 90f films released are crap) that I should be applying toward more productive and challenging purposes, like reading the dictionary or doing the Sunday NYT crossword puzzle. Now do I actually ever do these things, in light of my guilt? Rarely, but the idea of just watching a movie still fills me with angst.

The point of this rant?
I went to the movies this weekend.

The first film I saw was An Inconvenient Truth, the Al Gore film about global warming. This film should be required viewing for all citizens of the industrialized world, particularly Americans. Its not that it was a brilliant film (I actually have a few criticisms as to its direction and structure), but if you can put technicalities and politics aside for a moment, the information ultimately disseminated in the film is far too valuable for anyone with the slightest inclination towards social responsibility to miss, and those who feel no inclination towards social responsibility should simply be forced to sit through it.

The second film was The War Tapes. If you dont already know, this film is primarily constructed from footage captured by three national guardsmen who were given cameras during their deployment in Iraq. This film had a big impact on me. It didnt feel heavy-handed, where An Inconvenient Truth did at times, primarily during Gores personal narrative segments, and it presented what felt like a very unbiased experience of the realities and consequences of war, specifically and significantly this war. No grand statements were made and the presence of Deborah Scranton, the films director, was refreshingly absent. It was a film both by and about soldiers who had stories to tell and I highly recommend seeing it.

OK- in other news

The film Bleached that I starred in had its first screening this past Friday. It was pouring out that night so I stayed home but everyone there said it was a success. I havent seen it yet but Im getting a copy in the mail soon so I will post a scene in the near future.

Oh- and today it is back to school for me. Very exciting. Its a short semester, being that its summer, and I am only taking classes that are fun. One is playwriting, for which we are required to have the bulk of one completed work done in the next month and a half, and the other is songwriting, which is a class I am interested in taking for the sake of formally learning something about music and composition (whats a C?).

And now, a closing thought from the always wise Ricky Gervais, aka David Brent:

Who says famine has to be depressing?

Until next time...