American Teen

I just got back from watching Nanette Burstein’s American Teen advertised as a documentary version of The Breakfast Club. The film follows four teens during their last year of high school in Warsaw, Indiana. It’s amazing how formulaic high school is. Warsaw High was the same as my high school only with different players and [...]

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My Favorite Seattle Logos

It seems that Starbucks in suing the Rat City Roller Girls because their logo looks too much like Starbucks’. Well I love the Rat City Roller Girls’ logo and here are some of my other favorite Seattle logos. 1. Essential Baking Company 2. Pagliacci Pizza 3. The Seattle Storm 4. Caffe Ladro 5. Uptown Espresso [...]

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John McCain is Insane

Remember 4 years ago when all the networks played over and over the video of Howard Dean after the Iowa caucus. His wheeee replayed hundreds of times over several days probably had a lot to do with his poor showings in the primaries. Yet John McCain acts like a crazy man and no one is [...]

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Ploy

Pen-Ek Ratanaruang is perhaps Thailand’s most internationally known director. His last film Last Life in the Universe was an indie hit here in America. What strikes me most about this director is what a great visual story teller he is. His characters have sparse dialog. The audience is mesmerized by the pace, photography, music and [...]

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Last Life in the Universe

Here’s a clip from Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s Last Life in the Universe. Tonight I’ll be watching Ratanaruang’s latest film Ploy.

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Where are the drinking fountains?

So the mayor of Seattle, Greg Nickels, wants people to stop buying bottled water. “Americans used 60 billion pint bottles of water last year,” said Nickels. “That required 1 million tons of plastic and generated 2.5 million tons of greenhouse gases.” “What flows from our taps is some of the finest-tasting, purest-source water in the [...]

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Obama is a Muslim and Other Falsehoods

Quite frankly, I don’t think that the people who say they think Obama is a Muslim really think that. I believe it’s code for we don’t feel comfortable electing a black man as president but we can’t think of a good reason. If they do, then I have to wonder how gullible are they in [...]

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Vexille

Perhaps the most polished of the films I’ve seen thus far at SIFF, Fumihiko Sori’s Vexille is a great example of science fiction. In the future, Japan has withdrawn from the UN because of international law that they not make androids. Japan isolates itself with a complex security system called RACE that prevents any country [...]

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What’s worse than a dubbed movie?

A movie in English that is dubbed into Hungarian with English subtitles. I just saw at SIFF Opium: Diary of a Madowman. Unfortunately the dubbing was so distracting I was unable to enjoy what might have been a good film. The film stars Ulrich Thomsen and artist Kirsti Stubo and Stubo is fantastic. Here’s a [...]

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The Arctic Club Seattle

The Arctic Building is associated with one of the lesser-known facets of the Klondike gold rush–the formation of social institutions for the men who returned from the Yukon gold rush after “striking it rich.” Though most who headed north found no gold, a small percentage did return to Seattle with more than just memories. The [...]

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Happy Shiny Folklife Marred by Gunshots

Each year in Seattle during the Memorial Day weekend, the Folklife Festival takes place. Folklife is a celebration of international folk music and arts. An odd location, no doubt, for a shooting. What is the world coming to? I’ll be going to Folklife tomorrow, and I hope this incident won’t have soured the festival. For [...]

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Elite Squad

Yesterday I saw Elite Squad at the Seattle International Film Festival. It was perhaps the most disturbing movie I’ve ever seen. About a special police force that wars with the drug lords, this film was as fascist as they come. The message of the film: these cops are the only non-corrupt ones in Brazil and [...]

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Alex Ferguson, Tell Us What You Really Think

It seems Alex Ferguson is a little upset that Real Madrid are openly wooing Cristiano Ronaldo to play for them. Best quote: United have sold David Beckham, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Gabriel Heinze to Real in recent years, but Ferguson insisted the case of Ronaldo was different. He said: “Yes, we sold them Van Nistelrooy [...]

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Interesting Ad Campaign

Last Call is a Seattle organization whose mission is to reduce alcohol-related driving accidents by encouraging ride sharing and cab rides. I saw this ad on a bus today and thought it was interesting. First of all because James Dean was in a car accident, and second because James Dean appears to be played by [...]

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Transportation in Seattle

Yes, that’s a highway in between this sign and the waterfront.

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Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head

I agree with Dave, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a great movie. So Dave, this Burt’s for you. You have to appreciate an odd film like this which includes a song completely out of the film’s historical context. But it works somehow.

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Cost More Important Than Safety in Minneapolis Bridge Collapse

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard in this election that Democrats are going to raise taxes and that the single most defining thing about the U.S.A. is not paying taxes. Ignoring infrastructure does indeed have costs. Transportation officials’ concerns that fixing or replacing a Minneapolis bridge would be a “budget buster” may [...]

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Would Appalacians Vote For Obama if Hillary Were VP?

I think it’s a valid question that the pollsters should be asking. Clinton scores well with white working class voters without a college degree, especially in the Appalachian region. Many voters in Clinton’s base core say they won’t vote for Obama unless Clinton is the V.P. Would the voters in Appalachia do the same? Would [...]

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Watching Soccer in Downtown Seattle

I wouldn’t call myself an avid sports fan (with the exception of tennis) but I do nonetheless end up watching a lot of sports. More for the symbolic significance of sports than for anything else. For instance, I support Celtic instead of Rangers (I like Catholics), and in the English Premier League I support Tottenham [...]

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Hanson Brothers in Slap Shot

I’m on a bit of a Paul Newman kick right now. A few months back I saw Slap Shot for the first time and last night I saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Here’s a clip from Slap Shot with the famous Hanson brothers.

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The no-win situation that is Guantanamo Bay

Whoever takes the presidency in November will have difficulty finding a solution to the mess of Iraq. Though perhaps one individual may be worse than the others, Obama, McCain and Clinton are doomed to failure because this administration never considered part two of playing war. In reference to the prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay [...]

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Another Dumb Headline

When you click on this link you find out that the friend is Warren Buffett. I think Warren Buffet has accomplished enough in his lifetime to be valid on his own.

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Real Men Don’t Apologize

Actually idiots don’t apologize. It says a lot about our president that the BBC puts “Bush apology” in quotes. I don’t get what the issue is with Bush. Being a leader sometimes requires that you have to have uncomfortable conversations that may include gasp! apologizing. That’s what real leaders do, and quite frankly people who [...]

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He’s my lovin one-man show

Don’t be fooled by the cute little kid in Deniece William’s video “Let’s Hear it For the Boy” from the Footloose soundtrack. This song is about a woman and her adult boy toy. He’s not that talkative and he can’t do much, but by golly he gives her the best orgasms. Don’t believe me? Lyrics [...]

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McCain and Judicial Nominees

In his own words, John McCain tells us what his judicial philosophy is. I am struck with how the current president and John McCain really do speak in code. He never uses the word abortion yet there is no doubt that the primary purpose of this speech is to ensure that he will appoint the [...]

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