Really?

Today the pool opened up for the summer at our place. Hooray, right? Until I smashed my face into the bottom and got cut/scraped in eight places. The point is not sympathy, it is to share that I have been watching tv/movies all afternoon. Now there's a 100 best comedies special on Bravo. After reading Movie Wars, I should know better than to trust such things, but here are my complaints (beyond the lack of ANY movies that have been made outside the U.S. or before 1970 so far).

-There are some excellent choices, such as MP's Holy Grail, Raising Arizona, and The Big Lebowski...coming in in the 40's and 30's on the list. 40-year old virgin and Legally Blonde made the list before these. I think that they HAD to pull movie titles out of a hat if this is the order. Also, for good stuff like the previously mentioned and Annie Hall, they get good people to talk about it who know what they are talking about. For these other terribles that beat the goodies, they have the senior editor of Teen People, they editor-in-chief of Dailycandy.com, and other people who wouldn't know a decent movie if Jonathan Rosenbaum showed up on their front door with a projector and reel and made them watch it and gave them a 30-point list of why it is incredible and had them type it out while he said it and then printed it off and sent to a publisher, who published it because its so good (we are talking Rosenbaum here) and sent a comp copy to them and they read it and take notes on it and Rosenbaum gave them an exam on it and they got a hundred percent and they still think Legally Blonde is better.

-Comedy? 100 greatest comedies? What kind of comedies? Nevermind the host of other problems, there are too many kinds of comedies. They're on number 30 here, and $50 says Donny Darko and Fight Club don't make the list. They sure should. But with the way things are going, White Chicks is going to be number one, followed closely by Malibu's Most Wanted.

-They breeze over with no commentary, some of the best movies on the list. For example, extended commentary was featured on Austin Powers, and simply mentioned good-os like Good Morning, Vietnam.

Who works for Bravo? They're not very good. I shouldn't be surprised, and I'm not. But it's still lame. On the side, my copy of World Film Directors, vol. 1 that I ordered came today, so I can look at that and feel better about the world. It's the hammer.

Boosty

It's summer-time for ole' ry-bo. This summer that doesn't mean anything because I have so many freaking things to do. I do have some things that have happened. I saw a bumper sticker with the green mountains (for non-CO's, it is something of a huge deal if you're from colorado (pretty much the opposite of IN), so there are bumper stickers with green mountains that say "NATIVE" in white so everybody knows how awesome you are for not moving here, it's real elitist, arrogant, and state-o-centric) that instead of native said "NO VACANCY". I was pretty excited how unbelievably ridiculous this was. It's completely the thinking that has led to all the ridiculous hatred toward "illegal" immigrants. I'm not going to get started on that whole deal because I get really fired up and it's only 9:40. I don't like to get worked up at least until 1:00 in the afternoon. Then I've got some lunch in my belly and I need something to keep me awake throught the afternoon. Otherwise I fall asleep so fast, you'd think I was some sort of bear that had been living along the same stream for 36 years (I don't know how long bears live). A sleeping pill manufacturer moves in upstream and starts dumping their by-products, which include some of the sleeping agent. All the salmon swim upstream and ingest the sleeping agent. Then I can't believe my luck. Hundreds and hundreds of salmon floating by. But they aren't dead and disease-ridden. They're just in dream-world. I get my pick. I pull out a few dozen every day and eat like a king for a few hours, but then, holy crap, I feel like hibernating so bad. Jeez I'm tired....zzzzzzzz.

Also, I have amazing news. I got a sweet inflatable robot and I can't even describe how amazing it is. It's finally time for me to try to contribute something to the world of short films, so this august, if I have time, I'm going to make a film with my new pal. If I don't have time, I'm going to do it in January when I have a real job. It'll be like a sweet waterfall of juicy juice (100% juice, no preservatives baby).

Well, it's time for me to go to the library. The denver library is so amazing. Yesterday I picked up Bunuel's That Obscure Object of Desire, and I'm rull excited to view it. Speaking of film, Wong Kar Wai is the head jury member at Cannes this year. That means that this will likely be the best Cannes EVER. I know that is an absurd statement with no historical perspective at all, but I don't care. What else can I say when my number one of all time director/writer ever is the leader of the jury? Nothing. There's nothing I can say to express how incredible that will be. Even though it might be hard, I will need to get every one of the films that Wong Kar Wai had any bit of approval for. It's almost like I called him up and he gave me his list of faves for the year. There are good and bad differences. On the good side, there is no language barrier (which is my fault) this way, because there is an English version of the Cannes website. On the bad side, if I did call him and we chatted, maybe we would become friends and I could be his personal assistant. That only happens in perfect-world, where unicorns swim and there are Denver Ted's' everywhere.

May Day

Today is a dang big day for we Americans. Today loads of people are marching to fight new bills that will further oppress and marginalize "illegal" immigrants. This morning I went to the march in Denver, and it was absolutely amazing. I'm not sure I've ever seen so many people in the same place in my life. I felt like a part of something so unbelievably much bigger than myself. It was incredible. It was also great to see quite a few people who are pasty Americans who came out to support the cause. I didn't know if I would be the only whitey in the crowd and I definitely wasn't.

As with all marches, there were lots of signs. Some of them were especially poignant. Many said, "No Human Is Illegal." One said, "What Do You Think Of Mexico? You Are Standing In It" (because this is Colorado, which used to be part of Mexico before we stole it). I also liked, "Freedom of Speech Means We Can Speak English And Spanish." One white lady had a sign that said, "My Grandparents Were Immigrants." This is just a small sample of the many great signs that were there.

There was also a group of people from Mexico at the front doing sweet traditional dancing and singing. It was really fantastic to see people able to celebrate their heritage like that.

Ultimately I was somewhat conflicted. Some people had signs for Che and other violent revolutionaries. While I am completely on board for immigrant reform and a better attitude toward recent immigrants (I say recent because ALL americans are immigrants), I also cannot side with those who utilize violence as a means to any necessary reform. At the same time, I do not expect those who are not following Jesus to embrace His message of peace. Outside the Kingdom of God, violence may very well be a necessary method of reform. These are the thoughts that I was struggling with. In any case, it was really great to see and in a small way be a part of something so historic and hopefully non-violently revolutionary for this nation.