Here’s a list of films every geek is supposed to see before they die. Care to guess how many I’ve seen? That’s right, all of them. I’m willing to overlook the fact that the author left out Galaxy Quest, but the failure to include Close Encounters and Blade Runner is simply inexcusable, not to mention the absence of any films from the Forties or Fifties. Kids these days. No respect for the classics.
I’ve been going through the first season of Rome on DVD and I can’t help but compare our Senate’s ongoing theater of the absurd to scenes of the Roman Senators in thrall to the sounds of their own voices while the Republic crumbles around them. I understand the Democrats’ desire to use the nonbinding resolution criticizing the troop buildup in Iraq as the springboard for more confrontational sparrings with the administration in the future. But I have to at least partially agree with Armando at TalkLeft. Americans don’t care about and aren’t paying attention to the political fencing match in the Senate. But I think they are ready for a full-throated debate on the future of our involvement in Iraq. Democrats shouldn’t be afraid to press the issue and force their colleagues on the other side of the aisle to engage in an open and honest dialog about the endgame of this debacle. Time is wasting and more people are dying every day.
I thought South Park was the only comedy that knew
how to play on the average person’s discomfort and general cluelessness around
people with disabilities. But then I saw a recent episode of Ricky Gervais’
Extras. It was brilliant. One subplot highlights the media’s manipulative use of
stories involving people with disabilities. Another thread looks at some of the
more uninformed reactions to the romantic partners of people with disabilities
(“That’s really nice of you,” says the show’s monumentally dense female lead to
a woman who reveals she’s the fiancee of Warwick Davis, a British actor and
little person). Gervais and writing partner Stephen Merchant pull off the difficult task of using disability themes to poke fun at the main characters while avoiding any overtones of condescension or exploitation. It’s reassuring to know that at least some in the media industry actually “get” disability issues. Some might argue that it would be nice to see disability-related comedy coming from people with disabilities themselves and I certainly agree with that sentiment. We need to keep working as a community to get our talent in front of and behind the camera. But in the meantime, I’m glad we have allies like Gervais and Merchant.
While I’m always careful to ensure that my van is locked when left unattended, I don’t spend much time worrying that it’ll be jacked when I’m not looking. I guess I assume that car thieves and chop shops are more interested in Camrys and Pathfinders. Unfortunately for the UK parents of a boy with multiple disabilities, that assumption turned out to be false. Thieves brazenly stole the van while the family was at home and later torched it. Perhaps the publicity will help these poor people get a replacement vehicle, but all I can do is shake my head at the pointlessness of the whole thing.
I visited a couple friends last night, both of whom have SMA. When you have more than two gimps in the same room, the atmosphere becomes something akin to a bunch of army buddies swapping war stories. We exchanged anecdotes regarding the eccentricities of past PCAs and nurses, remarked on the exorbitantly high prices of adapted minivans, and discussed when it’s more appropriate to use “gimp” versus “cripple”. There we all were, with our respective partners and/or care providers in attendance, whiling away an ordinary evening. But I wondered how ordinary we would seem to some passerby who happened to glance through the window.
I didn’t have many friends with disabilities when I was growing up. I desperately wanted to assimilate with the able-bodied kids and not be clumped in with all the special-ed students in my school. When I think about the birthday parties I had as a kid, I don’t remember inviting many peers with disabilities. Eventually, I got over myself, but some traces of guilt still remain for the way I may have ignored or mocked some of the kids with whom I grew up. And so when I was hanging out with my friends last night, I thought about how nice it would have been to have a circle of friends like this when I was struggling on a more daily basis with the insecurities of being a gimp in a world that is entirely too normal.
The next few days are going to be brutally cold around here. The kind of cold that seems almost nostalgic now. I rarely turn on the heat in my place because of the solar heat I receive through my many windows, but I turned it on last night. This kind of weather provokes a lot of griping about living here, but if this is the trade-off for all the things I love about Minnesota (glorious summers, quality health care, plenty of culture), I’ll gladly grin and bear it.
After grazing some reviews of the new Vista OS, I remain underwhelmed. Aside from the fact that it has a shiny interface and…that’s about it, isn’t it? Not exactly a compelling reason to upgrade. I’m sure I’ll be forced to upgrade at some point, but for now I’m happily chugging along in my XP-powered jalopy. We may be living in the waning days of OS relevancy, anyway. With so many web-based applications available to the average user, it may soon not matter what flavor of computer one is using. And perhaps we can then finally put an end to take Mac-vs-Windows-vs-Linux flame wars that have sucked up so much bandwidth and given so many geeks heartburn over the years.
I watch Aqua Teen Hunger Force. It’s funny in a goofy, absurdist sort of way. Given the fact that the show is on an obscure cable channel late at night, I can easily forgive people for not recognizing a couple characters (the belligerent Mooninites) that are being used in a viral marketing campaign in several major American cities. I have a harder time understanding how an entire city can do the civic equivalent of shitting its pants over a what essentially are a bunch of Lite Brite displays. If the good people of Boston are freaked out by a tacky ad campaign, I fear that a real crisis might push the whole city into catatonia.
It looks like my neighbor is going to run for the Senate in 2008. I’m not surprised; Franken’s buzz has been building for a while. It’s much too early to predict whether he can win the nomination, but I think it will be entertaining to see him try. Coleman is definitely vulnerable and Franken has considerably more name recognition than any other potential candidate. I’m most interested to see how he styles himself. If he plans carefully, he could develop a very strong grassroots campaign.
You can find a co-blogged post I did with Hanan Levin of Grow-A-Brain here. It’s certified 100% link-a-licious. Guaranteed to stimulate your intellect, raise your pulse, and lower your inhibitions. Enjoy.