South Park

I can't say I am a huge South Park fan, but I can't say I am not, either.  South Park is so simplistic in its animation but so intricate in its political and social statements.  A recent "Black Friday" episode (parts 1 and 2 ) pit the South Park kids against each other in their quest to be the first ones at South Park Mall on Black Friday to get video game systems, where, by the end of the 2nd episode. they are 96% off.  All of the kids agree that they should team up to be the first ones to get a gaming system where they can all play together.  The problem arises when they realize that half the kids want Xbox while the others want PlayStation. 

 

Now let me add in that this was all done with a "Game of Thrones" theme.  I have not read all of "GOT" yet, but even I got many of the jokes and references,especially the end sequence with George Martin saying the pizzas are coming (meaning the next book is coming, its coming, really.......... years later....really). 

 

As as aspiring writer, I can't help but admire Parker and Stone.  They are irreverent.  They look at the world and say exactly what they feel about it, whether popular or not.  They are inspired, clever, funny,goofy, silly and simply brilliant.

 

 

Black Friday

While we are on the topic of Black Friday, I will admit that it is one of my favorite days of the year.  Ever since I was little, my dad, bro and I would get up at like 2 am and head over to a particular store for the "holy grail".  Now, the "holy grail" changes from year to year, of course.  When I was 7, for example, it was a Pokemnon game.  When I was 10, it was a Pokemon game.  When I was 15 it was a Pokemon game.  This year......ha!  I already got my Pokemon game! Wow, how I have grown. 

 

The thing I like about Black Friday is getting to a store, waiting on line and then hunting for that special "thing" that you have to have.  Sometimes you get it and sometime you don't.  I was only afraid one time and that was during the infamous "Walmart" stampede.  I was ok not getting the $5 pannini press, and thought that others should be too,

 

Now with the economy so bad and the Internet so popular, there really is no need to get up in the cold, dark, after being stuffed to the point of bursting, Thanksgiving Thursday, but its a bonding adventure. Happy hunting!

snl skit

 Has anyone been following the stories on Rob Ford, the Toronto Mayor?  Apparently admitting one smokes crack cocaine is enough to stay in office, but it is not enough to avoid Saturday Night Live.  You have to check out Bobby Moyniham as Rob Ford.  It is hysterical and to accurate! 

art stuff

   http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303531204579203623843999590

Cornelius Gurlitt will now forever be known as the German man who simply refused to give the art in his possession, to its previous owners, including many pieces stolen from Jews by the Nazi’s during the Holocaust.  Gurlitt has been quoted saying, "I will not speak with them, and I won't freely give anything back, no, no.”  The article states that Gurlitt believes that  losing the pictures is more painful than the death of his father in a 1956 car crash, his mother's death, or his sister becoming ill with cancer. Whata guy!

How can anyone feel sorry for this man? His father admitted to working for the Nazi’s.  It was not a secret where the paintings came from.  Gurlitt is sad because his treasure trove worth billions now has the potential to go back to families that lost everything, including their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children, aunts, uncles, and more killed, aside from having their homes and all possessions stolen.

Gurlitt needs to walk a mile in the shoes of anther before stamping his feet, blowing a tantrum and acting like the spoiled, horrible, Nazzi child that he is.  He needs to be forced to do the right thing and return the painting.

art

I noticed that Art Spiegelman is having an exhibit at the Jewish museum  For those of you who are not familiar with him, Spiegelman is a cartoonist and modern day Dada-ist.  He is most famous for his graphic novel Maus, which depicts true stories of the his father a  holocaust survivor, in comic form.  Historically, if Jews cant laugh, we are not true to ourselves.  But with that said, Maus, a mouse, vermin, the jew, persecuted by the cats, the Germans, attempts to present the inconceiable, the horrible, to a vast audience.  Spiegleman's  Zines are inspired!

Stolen Art

So, guess what I found out today? Wait, this is a blog, I forgot, so I will just tell you. I found out that billions of dollars worth of art was found in Munich. This art was originally stolen from the Jews by the Nazi's during the holocaust. The German art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt worked for the Nazi's in the 1930's to sell "degenerate" art.  Fast forward to today, his son, Cornelelius Gurltii, (the coward,like his father) had the stolen art that his father did not sell, including, Liebermann's, Picasso's, Matisses's and more. I am glad that they were found, but disturbed that Gurlitt assisted the Nazi regime to steal, plunder and profit and that his son did the same.  There needs to be repercussions, but more than that, the art needs to be returned to it s rightful owners.  There has to be some form of healing, if it can ever be.  We need to remember to make sure it doesn't happen again.  If a way to do that is locating and returning of art, then so be it.

the truth? part 2

While I am on a rant about truth, I may have been duped by another author, Dave Eggers, who wrote, Zeitoun.   This book is about a man who stayed behind during Hurricane Katrina to watch over his New Orleans house and rental properties.  Using a canoe, he paddled though the streets of New Orleans helping stranded neighbors and abandoned dogs. He was arrested and incarcerated for 23 days because he was thought to be a terrorist. He was later realised.   Great guy, loving wife, awesome family, again, not sure. 

Recenlty, Zeitoun was arrested and jailed for beating his adoring wife and for allegedly paying someone to have her and one of his kids killed.  Ok, so he was acquitted on the attempted murder thing, but he did beat her and they are now divorced.  I now have to question all that I thought was true.  Did he stay behind to help or was there another motive?  Was he  a wife beating, radical, who attempted murder  or the hero of New Orleans? I guess we will have to wait for a book sequel or a movie to find out.

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/07/zeitoun_found_not_guilty_on_bo.html

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/07/kathy_zeitoun_interview.html

ice cream sandwich

So, what exactly are ice cream sandwiches. They are cookies and in the middle is ice cream, right? Wrong! Ice cream sandwiches are life....take notes Joseph Cambell's soup, because I am going to drop some knowledge on you. Ok, so lets go over the process of ice cream sandwiches;  you find the sandwich in the back of the freezer, open the wrapper and then eat it. This sounds all too familar. Finding the ice cream sandwich is like birth, you are found you are alive. Opening the wrapper is like teenage years. You finally broke out of your metaphysical wrapper of awkwardness and into the knowledge of the real world. Eating the sandwich is your adult life, the best part is eating it. And finally you are poop and dead. But then the whole circle of life thing happens and somehow you are a sandwich again....and at the thought of that I am not going to eat ice cream sandwiches again... or at least for a while.

the truth?

I, like everyone else, have read and/or seen a production of the Laramie Project.  For those of you who have not, I say really! The story is a sad one.  In October, 1998, Matthew Shepard, a student a University of Wyoming, in Laramie, Wyomming, was driven from a bar, robbed, brutally beaten, tied to a fence and left to die.  The issue in this case is that Shepard was gay, and his murder was labeled as a hate crime.                 

In 2000, Stephen Jimenz, an openly gay author, went to Laramie to do research for a screenplay and television movie he wanted to do on Matthew Shepard.  “The Book of Matt”, according to Jimenz, was not the story he intended to write.  Instead of Shepard being the victim, he claims that Shepard was a crystal meth dealer and addicted user. He also claims that the man that beat Shepard, Aaron McKinney, was his drug dealer and sometimes sex partner.  In his book Jimenz claims that McKinney was strung out on methamphetamines and did not beat Shepard to a pulp for being gay but rather to settle a drug score.

The question remains, why all these years later does and should the truth come out?  Shepard was brutally beaten and died.  Whether it because he was a drug dealer does not negate the tragedy of it all. 

Good came out of bad.  A  voice for gay rights was the result of Shepard’s death.  Nothing good would have come from his death if it had been portrayed as a drug fueled killing.  Jimenz may be right on the money, or in it to make money, but no good will come from his book, whether completely accurate or not.

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=277685