banjosforpeace

I had lunch with my lovely wife just after posting my movie list. She reminded me of about 18 other movies I love. I'll post the majority of the list later or tomorrow, but I wanted to post the documentaries before I forget any. I mentioned Tribute in my last post. Here are some of my other favorites. Crumb - The life and family of cartoon artist Robert Crumb. Sure he's weird, but wait until you meet his brothers! American Movie: The Making of Northwestern - Mark Borchardt is an aspiring horror film director and he's going to make his own movie no matter what. The real star is his friend Mike. By the end of the movie you'll see why. Stevie - You couldn't make this up. Stevie's story will break your heart in so many ways. Trekkies - Timeless. Sweet. Funny as hell. The Corporation - What happens is you psychoanalyze the actions of a corporation and treat it like a person? The answer may surprise you. Roger & Me - Michael Moore's best film. Journeys With George - Following Dubya on the campaign trail in 2000. More interesting than Gerorge himself is the reporters-eye-view of campaign events and tactics. Two highlights: The suffering of John McCain and a scene of real grassroots supporters of Bush having their hand-made signs taken away to be replaced with campaign-produced, fake hand-made signs.

The Usual Suspects - One of the best screenplays EVER. This movie made Kevin Spacey and brought him an Oscar to boot. Requium For a Dream - Jennifer Connally, Jared Leto, Marlon Wayans and an incredibly profound performance by Ellen Burstyn. A disturbing film about addiction done by Darren Aronofsky who also did the math-geek cult hit, Pi. American Splendor - This one could not exist without the stunning character acting of Paul Giamatti. Follow the lonely life of Harvey Pekar from hanging out with Robert Crumb listening to old jazz records to his many appearances on Letterman. The guy playing Crumb is so spot-on it's creepy. Office Space - "Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta." Donnie Darko - Unusual and barely known. Big cast but not cast-driven. The mirror rippling effect is to die for. A Beautiful Mind - While the story strays a little far from the actual life story of John Nash and doesn't properly portray how important his work was, it is still a wonderful film. K-PAX - Visually stunning with great characters, especially in the mental hospital. Another great performance by Kevin Spacey. Cannibal: The Musical - The South Park guys' first feature, shot on spring break of their senior year in college. Lots of foreshadowing of things to come later in their careers. Watch it on DVD so you can listen to their drunken commentary. Orgazmo - Trey Parker and Matt Stone's first studio-backed film. About a young Mormon on mission in Hollywood who gets hired to be a porn actor. Still one of the funniest movies I've seen. The Commitments - Just a great movie with great music and fine performances from mostly amateur actors. Should be required viewing for every band. Tribute - Documentary about tribute bands. These are real people who are serious about what they do. If you liked Trekkies, see this one. A Mighty Wind, Waiting for Guffman, Best In Show - The Christopher Guest/Eugene Levy mockumentary trilogy. Great cast that returns for each film.

Whatever your political stripe, you may find the short book "War Is A Racket" an interesting read. It was written by distinguished service medal, and two-time congressional medal of honor recipient Major General Smedley Butler (USMC) in 1935. All five chapters can be read here: War Is A Racket Butler was no right-wing nut or looney lefty. He was a soldier who followed orders and led his men into battle. He was a patriot for his service and a patriot for telling about his service. FYI - Only one of the 535 members of the Senate and House has a son or daughter in the military right now. Only one administration cabinet official had ever seen combat (Tom Ridge) and one other had ever served in the US military (Rumsfeld), though it was as a flight instructor. Not a single anchor/pundit on FoxNews, MSNBC, CNN or any of the networks has ever served in the military or has immediate family serving now. Only a very small handful of the former military members paid as war analysts for the news networks have not taken money as lobbyists for defense contractors. I am the son of a Vietnam combat veteran.

Let's clarify... There is actually NO REAL DEBATE between theories of creationism (or the updated "intelligent design") and evolution. Thanks to people who rely on the use of their brain as opposed bowing obediently to a construct of fear, scientific data is worked and re-worked over time to provide the most sound understanding of living things. The campaign of instituting "intelligent design" into the classroom as a competing theory is a crass political mechanism that has been revisited for decades. The people at the forefront of these local movements are, to say it kindly, religious-types who will always benefit from both the promotion of their agenda and the continued ignorance of their congregations. Their machinations rarely diverge from a small handful of tactics. The themes are clear: "the godless heathens want you to reject your god for their so-called science" or "our children are under seige by people who hate us and our beliefs" or "our beliefs are about community and family while THEY are about atheism and individualism." All of it is the same "us vs. them" framework used to justify bigotry, racism and war for thousands of years. Divide and conquer. What you will ALWAYS find is that when the leaders of these movements succeed in changing the way a school board treats creationism, they are soon overturned and completely rebuffed. When they fight a bitter and very public battle only to lose, they justify the outcome by repeating their themes with "I told you they were out to get us" attached. Win or lose, they accomplish their ACTUAL goal of polarizing an issue to gain loyalists and build congregations. Oh, and let's not forget how important monetary donations are to the cause. Sadly, the masses - the everyday folk - are the ones who get caught in the crossfire of this silliness. They are led by their hearts and used as pawns in someones marketing plan. And before I get flamed, PLEASE NOTICE I didn't say anything about religion being bad. I only pointed out an example of how religion is being used by hucksters and con men for their own ends. Thank you to MajesticTreeFrog for patiently and meticulously spending time on this and similar threads.

The first place I go for nearly anything I need is Nonags It has been my favorite place to hunt for freeware for years! I can usually find any kind of tool I need for free that I would normally have to pay for. Some of the best things I've found there are: Audiograbber - A comprehensive mp3 ripper and organizer Maxthon - multi-tabbed browser with tons of extras (was MyIE) Eraser - Don't just delete, Erase! Have it clean your drive after a defrag and see how much space you find. Keynote - note organizer

This is the BEST topic for my very first post! So here goes... I listen to a LOT of music, all kinds, so here are only the highlights. I'll categorize it as best I can. Pop/Rock Gomez The Shazam Grandaddy Weezer They Might Be Giants Moxy Fruvous Elvis Costello Mighty Mighty Bosstones The Argument Ozma (best band EVER, but split up last year) Americana/Acoustic The Jayhawks Yonder Mountain String Band Del McCoury The Mammals Gillian Welch Old Crow Medicine Show Jam/Jazz/Funk Medeski Martin & Wood Bela Fleck & the Flecktones Robert Randolph & The Family Band Greyboy Allstars Karl Denson's Tiny Universe Charlie Hunter The Meters John Scofield Keller Williams Soulive I could go on for hours, but I won't.