Bad Movies= Good Entertainment

Here's a fun news story I saw a few days ago that reflected my views on movie watching

http://current.com/items/90554710_crowds-lining-up-to-see-the-room-the-worst-movie-ever-made.htm

It's about this terrible movie called "The Room" that looks like it's extra bad. Needless to say, I want to see it with a passion! In middle school, my group of friends and I were really into Mystery Science Theater 3000, and today I still get the most pleasure from sitting around with my friends and ripping apart a B-movie.

If anyone wants to dive into the bad movie genre, go to your local flea market. You'll need a VHS player, but if you have that, any flea market will have a plethora of old, obscure, and hilariously bad movies. Here's a few of my personal favorites:

1. Grim- A group of 30-somethings decide to go spelunking in an underground cave that is beneath their suburban neighborhood. But little do they know, a cave dwelling troll lives in that cave. The troll was awoken by a good, old fashion reading of a Ouiji board and a standard ancient stone tablet. The troll has been terrorizing the town (in very subtle ways) by stealing furniture and people. It's scary so hold on stalactite!
2. Bloody Murder- An obvious knock-off of Friday the 13th (which makes it all the better). Six kids are getting set to counsel at a summer camp. It seems innocent enough. But the legend of the chainsaw murderer, Trevor Morehouse, is part of every dumb anecdote that these kids seem to talk about. And all the sudden, kids start missing. Bloody Murder is chocked full of hilarious one-liners, awkwardly intimate relationships, and incompetent authority figures; it will leave the whole family screaming for more...
3. Boa Vs. Python- So this really rich dude wants to hunt a huge snake, right? But of course, while being transfered, the moron moving company let it escape (But what are you supposed to do about a 75-foot reticulated python, for crying out loud?!). Well, no biggie. The FBI has a great plan: Release an equally big snake from a secret FBI program to hunt down the original snake. Makes sense, right? Right?
4. The Brotherhood- Wow. You are in for a treat. The box art leads you to believe that this will be a sweet, teen vampire adventure. Wrong. It's a borderline soft-core gay porn involving a fraternity of vampires that seduce freshman guys and girls (mostly guys) to become part of their rich and dangerous lifestyle. Apparently vampires love expensive alcohol, expensive cars, and expensive bed sheet... Oh yeah, and there's a lot of awkward elbow sucking... Oh yeah, and it's part of a trilogoy. Collect the whole set!

There are so many more, but there is only so much time in one post!

A Fresh Discussion on NPR

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106969104

We have been talking about health care reform a lot recently. However, as organizations like Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) have constantly reminded us, there has been little to no real discussion of the feasibility of a single-payer option. President Obama has formulated a "stock response" as the article points out. But I feel like leaving this option out the the discussion does a disservice to Americans, who by large majorities favor some form of a single-payer system.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about health care reform, but I do know that single-payer does offer a lot of benefits as a structural arrangment. The lack of debate on single-payer seems to reflect the pro-corporate mode of both Democrats and Republicans. I'm glad that NPR completed their journalistic duty and found an angle for the health care story that has not been covered. Though the article was not extensively in-depth, it was nice to see a story covering the issues with a serious tone. (Also, the quote my favorite Representative, Dennis Kucinich... gotta love that man)

Actually, check this out, too http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=7&issue_area_id=15

A run down of the corporate/mainstream media's failures to examine alternatives to private, for-profit health care.

Busy Day!

Ugh. Busy day.

It started out definitely on the wrong foot. I had an argument with my mother about tires for the Neon. I'm pretty sure I lost the argument because I was awake at 6:30 am getting estimates for a new set of Firestone's... It felt like I won, but based on the situation, it sort of felt like a loss ;)

Today, we had a visit to the Monroe County Fair. It was a really good time. Great food, lots of cute animals, and some pretty great folk art and, honestly, some pretty good high art, too. The best part of the art section was seeing little bits of popular culture or dissident culture in some of the art that was being judged at the fair. I feel like sometimes people who aren't familiar with small, rural town life see it as monolithic... (and I thought us city folk were supposed to be highly enlightened?) and fail to see that there are people who do not fit into the traditional mode that we ascribe to rural Midwest America. Obviously there were lots of tractors, cheap light beer, and the essential pro-life booth, but those things shouldn't blind us from seeing the diversity, talent, and cultural celebration that are in small town county fairs. And gosh darn it! I had some fun!

And a volleyball game tonight. Always a good work out, lots of sweat. We couldn't pull off a win tonight, but we took one from them. They were good, but they were jerks. It's OK. I felt good about how we played. Well, I think I will get some sleep tonight. Read a bit of my Cornel West book, "Keeping Faith" and get some shut eye. It's Friday tomorrow! Yes!

An Explanation and a few thoughts

Back for more! I've been thinking about blogging and getting all excited about it. Maybe that's a sign that I will be more committed? I don't know. It's too early to tell.

Anyway, I guess the name of my blog deserves an explanation. And I was set to give it to you earlier, but I forgot. Got to ranting about this and that. So the phrase "Life, love, stress, and set-backs" is borrowed from the hip hop group Atmosphere. The MC for the group, Slug, uses it frequently when talking about general conversations or a broad range of ideas that come to his mind when he is thinking or speaking. I think it's clever, catchy, and fairly complex without being wordy.

Atmosphere is pretty great group. If you haven't heard of them, check it out. If you've never given any kind of hip hop a try, do it. It's worth it. Don't worry if it makes you feel silly listening to hip hop. Just kind of groove and let go; there's no reason why everyone shouldn't get to enjoy some nice 808s and some clever/creative lyrics. Trust me. I'll probably talk about hip hop more as time passes. It's a pretty big part of my musical library and my philosophies on life.

Another thing that I saw on the news that was distressing: Angry, angry people being angry about President Obama's "questionable" citizenship. It's really disturbing because the criticisms seem to be loaded with a xenophobic, ultranationalist intent that seeks to separate, divide, and crystallize who is and can be considered a "natural born citizen". It seems clear from evidence that he was in fact born in Hawaii (barring a MASSIVE government cover-up) and there seems to be agreement across the political spectrum (even John McCain defends Obama's citizenship). The conspiracy theory lives, though. And people who seem to be expressing these views are both very disturbed about the future of our country and they are regular subscribers to conservative voices like Dobbs, Limbaugh, and Beck. I suppose these voices have become popular because they are viewed as outside of the system, and thus, legitimate sources of critique and untarnished holders of the truth. However, I don't think it is clear to everyone that these voices are part of a broad network of corporate-controlled message. They are not operating outside of the system, they prop-up and support the very system that people have become disillusioned with. Therefore, we must evaluate their opinions not as outsider "populists", but as a xenophobic and divisive branch of the mainstream news/political establishment. This brand of apocolyptic and sensationalist politics is not acceptable because it does not encourage thought, analysis, or honest debate. I have lots more I could say about this issue, but I will keep it brief. Save some for another time. All I want to ask is how much evidence is necessary to convince people that President Obama is actually a legitimate citizen? Medical records, signed statements from the Hawaiian government acknowledging his citizenship, bipartisan agreement that he is a citizen? Those are all present. I didn't see people raising a storm about John McCain who happened to be born in the Panama Territory Zone. Perhaps our reservations about President Obama speak more to our inability to accept that diversity is creeping into our political life than to the fact that Hawaii won't release his birth certificate.

Well, that's enough for now. It's nice to release some thoughts about politics and what not. Otherwise I just rant to my family/girlfriend and they get tired of listening to me ;) OK, catch you later on down the trail.

Jumping on the Bandwagon

Well, everyone else is doing it, right? So I finally decided to take a stab at the ol' Blog-O-Sphere. I'm delving into this new and dynamic medium partly as a support buddy for my lovely girlfriend. She has wanted to start a blog for a while now, so I decided to be a pal and do it to.

Also, I have recently been making some decisions about the course of my life, and I wouldn't mind a forum to sort of talk things out and develop some of my thinking and writing skills. I have been studying political science and history, but I believe that I am leaning towards studying at seminary in a post-undergrad world. So I want a place where I can begin to really dig into some ideas about religioin, Christianity, social justice, and service/civic engagement.

But another reason I cannot neglect is that I have a love for discussing domestic and international relations and politics. And I feel like with the increasing popularity corporate cable news, sound-bite politics and divisive mudslinging have become the norm. This unfortunately creates distrust and ungracious discourse. Therefore, I would like to at least use my own blog as a space to present alternative perspectives to the traditional dichotomy of politics, which chokes out creativity and encourages "us versus them" hostility. Though I do tend to side more with ideologies that promote social justice over corporate care, I am not opposed to digesting and integrating other persepctives. I hope that my example will demonstrate creativity, critical thinking, and gracious understanding, all of which are essential to democratic development.

And if not, at least I'll have a place to post stuff and sleep at night! So many ideas running around in my little head. Maybe this will take the edge off a bit :-)

Anyway, this introduction was supposed to be short, but it's not. I don't think I know how to keep my thoughts short when it comes to politics, philosophy... or anything really. I'll leave it at that. I don't know where this will go, but I hope it is somewhere nice.