I had a rather stressful debate with my boss today about politics. He printed off the current income tax tables and said I should like Bushy because he narrowed the brackets so that I didn't get lumped in with people who were making that much more than me. Unfortunately, I don't know much about such things so I couldn't argue about that. So instead I said that the reason I don't like Bushy has little to do with his fiscal stance, but more so the issues of gay rights and abortion. What followed was a stressful argument for me because it's clear that he is VERY ignorant about the nature of homosexuality and is one of those uninformed people who believe that it's a choice they make and that it would be easier for them to ignore it and marry a woman. I won't get into what my arguments were because, obviously, you guys know this isn't true. So I had to explain to him about the fact that it's a natural thing that can't be helped and furthermore isn't even a bad thing. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be so stressful for me but in this case it was because a) he's my boss and b) he's a good person so I couldn't just dismiss him as being a christian right asshole. Our debate was interrupted by the phone ringing and then he had to go to a meeting. I was a little frazzled at that point anyway. But he came back later and told me that he didn't want me to think that he was disrespectful of my views and that he actually saw my point and was rethinking things a bit. Of course, he's still gonna vote for Bushy, but maybe further down the road, he might be the kind of guy to actually vote FOR gay rights (should we get such opportunities). So, score one for us, I suppose. But ever since then I've been a little more on edge. I'm gonna be a wreck on the 2nd.
Team America: Fuck Yeah!
Last night I finally saw Team America. (I know it's been out for less than a week, but there was a time when I would have insisted on seeing it on opening night. That was impossible this time).
The review in The Stranger had this criticism of the film:
“It's far too one-sided for its own good. The film is so busy skewering the pomposity of liberals that it almost lets conservatives off the hook, as though the filmmakers took a dare to try to make the most outrageous political satire possible without mentioning a certain name. It's telling that the right's biggest puppet, dear old Dubya, is basically given a pass.”
Reading that before seeing Team America, I was a little worried. I've seen less than perfect South Park episodes. Then again, I've also seen sheer genius. (The Great Expectations episode and the Radiohead episode come to mind).
Well, the movie started and I was laughing from the get-go, whatwith the exploding opening credits followed by another explosion. The songs are, as usual, a strong point (I especially like the ballad “Pearl Harbor Sucks (And I Miss You)”). And then there is the “criticism” of liberal Hollywood. It was then that I realised that some liberals just can't take a goddamned joke. And that's all it was. It IS silly that these celebrities take themselves so seriously. They're fucking actors for christsake! They have the same ideas as any other liberal, yet somehow they feel that just because they are famous, it is up to them to “save the world”. It's true that money talks. But it often feels like it's more of a publicity thing for them than it is social work. Bono is a good example of this.
As for Bushy's absence in the film, I didn't miss him. For one thing, the man practically makes fun of himself. If I need it pointed out to me, Jon Stewart already has that market cornered. It seems to me that Trey and Matt set out to have a good time. They've mentioned before that they only want to make each other laugh. It is clear in interviews that most of the motivation for the jokes are just that “it's funny to see puppets do stuff”. And it is. Especially when puppets fight and explode and die horrible, gruesome deaths. That IS funny. And it's just as funny to see Susan Sarandon splat on the sidewalk as it would be to see Bushy die in a similar fashion.
In short, Team America is a comedy. These are heavy times, so it's nice to see smart that's also light on the social. For the most part, they just wanted to make fun of actors and the silliness of action movies. And I don't mind. I think people expected too much because Bigger, Longer and Uncut was so political. But I honestly don't think they were going for that so much this time. If I want to laugh about politics, I will watch The Daily Show. If I want to laugh about Ben Afleck, I will watch South Park (“You almost make me forget about tacos!”) or Team America. And I'm fine with that order of things.
the cap flew off
I’m having a really hard time focusing on work today. Part of it is because there’s a lot of exciting things happening with the movie(s). I have created a new blog for Tangent Productions which I will start posting to soon (probably tomorrow, as we have a meeting tonight). It can be found heyah. Please visit it!
I am also distracted because I have this client event I painstakingly planned for our clients here, and we have a VERY limited budget. Well, I invited more than our capacity because in the past only 1/3 of the people we’ve invited to things have accepted the invitations. Well, so far I’ve gotten a 100% yes RSVP rate. That makes me very nervous. 20 people HAVE to RSVP no or it’s my ass. 15 of those people are clients of the Portland office. They had me invite these people under the pretense that “most of them will probably say no”. Well guess what, MOST of them have said yes so far. I’m very very nervous about this.
I’m also SUPER annoyed at the Lil’est Dictator. I haven’t mentioned her in a while because I’ve been bitching about her in emails to my Portland Buddy, so I have been getting it out of my system (mostly), but she’s really been getting on my nerves lately. First of all, she was out sick ALL last week, only coming in for about 3 hours one day. This isn’t ENTIRELY unheard of, as it is flu season. But she didn’t call in sick once. Boss Man had to call her every day to find out if she was going to come in. He’s a very lenient guy so he didn’t really yell at her either. But he wondered if she was trying to protest something. She does have a CFA exam coming up which she has failed twice so far (and is SO pissed about it that she BANNED Boss from mentioning his CFA qualifications in the office. What?). So she might have been studying for it. But it’s not like she doesn’t study IN the office. Also, pretty soon I will be doing her job entirely and she seems to think I’m not ready for it. So she might have been protesting to prove that I would fall apart without her. But I didn’t. Not at all. I don’t know what her motivations are.
Today Boss and I are taking the intern to lunch because she is AWESOME and we don’t pay her. When Lil D. caught wind of it, she got all up-in-arms that she wasn’t invited (even though she doesn’t even SPEAK to the intern) and Boss had to reason with her about how it wasn’t an “exclusion” situation. She ended up speaking with the money person in Portland about why they get to go to lunch on the company once a month and we don’t. I don’t know what the outcome of that conversation was but the bottom line is that she needs to CHILL THE FUCK OUT!! A) She makes a TON of money so she can buy her own damned lunch B) She can’t have EVERYTHING she wants all the time C) We get all kinds of allowances here that they don’t get in the PTLD (like being able to skip work for a week w/o calling in and NOT getting sacked D) It pisses me off that she treats Boss Man with no respect whatsoever when he is very nice and always tries to be fair to everybody and finally E) SHUT THE HELL UP, BITCH.
Ok, I’m done. Sorry about that.
detour systemic
WEEKEND UPDATE
Friday
I came home from work and took a big fucking nap, as I had a long night ahead of me. First, I stopped at the Canterbury to say goodbye to Katie who is moving to Colorado today. Then, I joined Sherwood and Ryan. We jetted on over to Queen Anne to a housewarming party for a friend from college. For some reason, Sherwood and I were not prepared for the sheer number of awkward encounters we were going to have, so we proceeded to down the liquid courage in record breaking time. Flash forward to (probably a pathetically short time later) and I was found giving enthusiastic movie recommendations to a college student (who was writing down everything. I kid you not) and taking puffs from a hookah which, to the dismay of my hindsight (and lungs) was filled with entirely the WRONG type of smokeable plant. Later, we hitched a ride home with a very surly designated driver.
Saturday
I awoke around 11:00 and found myself with a hangover and very sore lungs. I took several ibuprofen, force-fed myself water and attempted to watch “The Triplets Of Belleville”. It turns out that even though the animation is cool, it is still a French film and therefore, did little to help my headache. I returned to bed until 1:45 with no regrets. Later, Meep and I went a little Halloween decoration crazy at Walgreens.
I ended up at Meep’s house with Dom, Roxy and Sherwood. Sherwood brought over one of the funniest things any of us had seen in a long time. Some geniuses had overdubbed the old G.I. Joe PSA's with hilarity. And guess what! It ENSUED all over our asses! Later, Elyse, Andrew, Gene and Elyse's very sleepy friend from out of town arrived. We watched what we came there for which was Dawn of the Dead (1979, beyotch) and enjoyed remarking on how much times have changed since then. For instance, you ain't gonna find an ammo store, a liquor store or a caviar store in the mall these days. Therefore, if the zombies attack tomorrow, the best place for us to go would be, not Northgate, but Ted Nugent's house. Take note, people.
Sunday
Boring. Lots of organizing, sleeping (yay) and yoga. Oh, and “Meeting People is Easy”, the Radiohead documentary which is beautifully shot and also makes you realise that Thom Yorke is not so much a big whiny baby, as he is a poster child for Social Anxiety. Yikes.
The P.S.
Who wants to see Team America on Wednesday at 7:15 at the Neptune?
Re: On the mosaic floor
I VOTED TODAY!!!
I got my absentee ballot yesterday. I eagerly ripped open the envelope and bubbled right next to John F. Kerry (interesting middle initial, eh). There was a LOT of stuff to vote for on that thing, including a bill to ban monorail construction (which I voted AGAINST. Stupid SUV driving arseholes, stop trying to block the monorail!!!). I mailed in my ballot today. I shall track the number at this website to make sure it gets there ok. Now all I can do is sit back and hold my breath…
Happy Friday, everybody. It's still pretty up in the air about what I'm doing tonight. There are several parties about. I will definitely stop in at the Canterbury to say goodbye to Katie. I might hit up the Danwarming party. I'm not sure what else.
Tomorrow, however, is the Night of the Dawn of the Dead at Faye's house. We are going to watch Dawn of the Dead (ORIGINAL, fank you very much) and revel in it's stupendousness. After that, we will let the booze guide us.
Earlier in the day, (2-6pm) 1 or several of mine/Dom/Faye's films will be showing at The Market Theatre in Post Alley. It's some on-the-fly festival to benefit kids. Admission is $10. For the children. Think of the children. For god's sake.
I need a new little mood icon. My punk rock dragon is cute but all his expressions look the same.
PS: I NEED to see Team America at some point!!
I'm a wittle kitty
|
You Are a Little Scary |
 You've got a nice edge to you. Use it. |
now i cant stop manor birdwatch peacock
Last night Dom and I watched a bit of the last debates before our production meeting. I guess someone told Bushy not to yell because his voice was a lot more calm this time. He's still a raving lunatic though. They finally addressed the gay marriage question. I had forgotten that Kerry is actually AGAINST it. However, he truly believes that the government should STAY OUT of it. Bushy, on the other hand, said something like “I believe everyone in America should be treated equally. Except for the homos”. Kerry brought up Cheney's daughter. I wonder if being the lesbian daughter if Dick Cheney makes it hard to get dates. You certainly can never bring your girlfriend home to meet the parents.
They also talked about abortion again. Kerry had the BEST response that I have ever heard a Christian give as to why Roe V. Wade should not be overturned. He paraphrased Kennedy saying:
“Here on Earth, God's work must truly be our own. I think that's the test of public service.”
(I found a transcription of the debates. My liberal, stoner brain couldn't remember something like that verbatim).
This morning on the radio, they announced that there is less than TWO WEEKS till the elections. Just typing that literally makes me shiver. I am terrified. I need someone to hold me.
In less anxious news, our production meeting last night was great. We brought two new people on board who are just as excited about the project as we are. Best of all, they know LOADS of talented people. Whoever says that Seattle isn't a filmmaking community (The Stranger, I'm looking at you) can suck it. Snow Day, Bloody Snow Day is going to be AWESOME. At the very least, this project is gonna be a whole hell of a lot of fun. As is our upcoming Holiday Zombie Carnival. Stay tuned for more details about that! Also, eventually, my filmmaking rants will be on the Tangent Productions production blog, so that I have more room in this space to talk about how retarded Lost is. (Even though I can't stop watching it. I blame the beguiling ears of Dominic Monaghan).
One more quick plug:
Tonight, “Terry” is playing at the NW Film Forum Local Sightings fest. It's free and easy, babies. So come on out and watch it.
loud shout of 'Hup!'
I found out today that only my boss man in this office is a republican. The other two (Even Lil Hitler) are voting for Kerry. Thank GOD for that. It's weird though. My boss is so nice. How can he want to vote for the anti-christ? I can understand people being fiscally republican (like my dad) but if you're not homophobic, extremely Christian or retarded why would you vote for Bushy? WHY? WHY? WHY?
I still haven't asked my dad if he's voting for Bushy. I don't know if I want to know the answer.
Worst Halloween Costume Ever
This is supposed to be a list of the worst Halloween costumes ever. But if you ask me, a lot of them would be pretty damned hilarious in modern times. I particularly like Small Wonder.
Effed by the Wind 