Years of Poems and Spirits

Saw plenty of Limbaugh coverage recently. But two images stuck in my mind. I definitely like the New Yorker one better. In fact, I left this cover on the kitchen counter, just to enlighten my mood every morning.

The Newsweek one is good. But is a little too serious, and trying too hard to make a point. As Eisenhower once said about Joe McCarthy, “you don’t want to get into a pissing contest with a skunk”.

Comical tragedies are sure tear jerkers. Encountered two recently:

A Spoild Man (short fiction, the New Yorker)
Reminded me of a few works I read before … but too tired to remember which ones. Or is it an metaphore of many things in life, including that of the American Dream? The dream was induced by an American, that is for sure.

Turtles Can Fly (an Iran-Iraq movie)
If there is any good artistic rendering of Leviathan’s famous opening: “the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”, this must be it.

The kid-king setting echos the Road Warrior movies. However, whereas the Gibson movies are meant to be absurdist fantasies, the Kurdish kids life portrayed in the movie are fiendishly real. The most moving moment came when the Blackhawk helicopters flying over a hill full of confused and scared refugees, spreading leaflets that promised a “paradise”.

There can’t be any stronger contrast between the powerful and the powerless, between the weightiness of the promise and the hopelessness of reality.

Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Another surprise find. I thought I watched all the Vietnam movies there are.
This one differs from others in that it tells the story of an anti-hero–in the sense that a “good” guy turning “bad” (from a pure liberal pov) Unlike Born on the 4th of July where a USMC soldier lived through war and turned into a peace activist, “Joker” lived through a battle and turned into a bona fide killer!The movie is full of shit–machoism, libido and adrenaline, but that is why I love it. In fact, I am writing this piece listening to the “micky mouse marching song” on YouTube and Joker’s final words:

 My thoughts drift back to erect nipple wet dreams about Mary Jane Rottencrotch and the Great Homecoming Fuck Fantasy. I am so happy that I am alive, in one piece and short. I’m in a world of shit… yes. But I am alive. And I am not afraid.

It is a story of survival. Also, every one performed so well and the script was just chrisp and juicy. Gunnery Sergeant Hartman was my favorite character until he was shot. I didn’t get Kubrick’s other movies, but I totally dig this one.

Idiocracy

Just a very dark but funny B movie. Goes well with my rant against popular democracy. Movies sometimes are scarily close to life. Wag the Dog was such a case. Had “Idiocracy” been released today, I am sure people will associate it with Sarah Palin. Particularly after she failed to answer what paper she reads–being a journalist major and all that.

Need to review:

Remnick’s profile (c) of Lang Lang in New Yorker.

Themes: Remnick’s style has been cryptic, abstract, dry and somewhat melancholy. This article is quite a change: light-hearted, fluid, witty and dynamic (full of montage)

Like the Olympian theme trying to make a point, although still a bit far fetched.