V for Vendetta Review

how about V for Vomitous instead???

this doesn’t have much to do with Detroit, but i’ve been thinking about this, so i figured i’d post it here… i suppose indirectly it does, because in my opinion, it promotes divisiveness, and that is a big problem here in the D…

i saw “V for Vendetta” over the past weekend… cinematically, it was very well done… i liked the mask, the acting was good, great cinematography… however, the content was just gross, as in: disgusting… it was basically a slam on Christianity and Conservatives… i don’t have a problem if you don’t agree with either, but there’s no reason to hate on anyone… i was particularly offended by the freedoms taken by the film to slander people like our president (that he’s a tyrant), Conservative talk show hosts (that they all do drugs), and priests (that they’re all pedophiles)… conversely, there was no finger pointing at anything Liberal, and if anything seemed to me to glorify all things that Liberals seem to promote (especially homosexuality)… not only that, but it also seemed to glorify terrorism to some degree… first off, the main character V imprisons Natalie Portman’s character against her will and somehow that’s portrayed as a good thing… she’s even thankful for it… then in the end of the movie, they blow up the biggest governmental building in town by ramming a train full of explosives into it… HUH!?!!? what baffled me most is that people applauded at the end of the movie… even my movie partner said he thought it was a great movie… to each his own, i suppose… but how can their be anything great about a movie that slanders people, encourages holding people against their will because you think it’s better for them and in addition to that blowing up a government’s building???

i’d like to touch on this though… the movie has a character who gets executed for having a Koran… the implication made by the movie is that Christians/Conservatives hate Islam and want to extract it from society… granted, some Christians/Conservatives greatly disagree with Islam but hardly any of them want to have someone killed for not agreeing with them (only the mentally unstable ones do)… however, on the news you can read about a fellow in Afghanistan who has been threatened with execution because he converted to Christianity…

as with several of it’s themes, apparently “V for Vendetta” got this one backwards… contrary to the movie’s implications, we haven’t heard about any Muslims in America getting threatened with execution simply because they aren’t Christian… on the other hand, it’s already law in Afghanistan…

“V for Vomitous” is a better title if you ask me…

Downtown/Midtown Community Feel

i’ve been goin’ to the Y pretty regularly lately and i just love the fact that it’s downtown… working out in a state of the art building and being able to look out at an urban setting is pretty sweet…

however, as of late, my favorite part about being at the Y has been the sense of community it has developed… you get to know the staff pretty well, but you also end up seeing a lot of people who live, work and workout in the city… it’s pretty cool… right now, i think that Downtown/Midtown Detroit is a small enough community where people like you will tend to hang out in the same places… the Y is definitely one of those places… just in the past couple days i’ve seen a few acquaintances… folks that i’d talked while out on the town or just living life… the manager of Vicente’s, a fellow who came over to interview the wife and i about our loft and also the developer of our loft come to mind… it’s nice to be out somewhere in the city and see friendly familiar faces… it’s funny because when i lived out in the ‘burbs, that hardly ever happened… but Downtown/Midtown Detroit is a small enough community where you’ll start to get to know people if you’re out enough…

i hope this small community feel doesn’t last too long, but i’ll be enjoying it in the meantime…

America's worst generation

i’ve seen ads and stickers claiming that George W. Bush is the worst president ever… similarly, i’ve heard and read comments that Kwame Kilpatrick is Detroit’s worst mayor ever… i’m not saying whether i agree with those claims or not… instead, i’d like to make my own claim:

this generation is one of the worst generations America has ever seen

ours is a generation full of over-critical, hypocritical, judgmental, hateful, immature individuals who are unable to control themselves and are unwilling to accept any responsibility for their own actions…

of course, i am not suggesting that every American living today falls under this blanket statement, but it is more a retort to the fingers pointed so easily at our leaders and pretty much anybody else but ourselves… people make outrageous statements about our leaders and others, so i’ve decided to make my own… not that i even fully believe the statement, but more to make you think…

think about this:

divorce is at it’s highest rate ever… is this becoming of a good generation or a bad one?

fatherlessness is at it’s highest rate ever… this is the main crux of nearly all of America’s problems (especially Detroit’s)…

marital infidelity is at it’s highest rate ever…

suicide is at it’s highest rate ever…

abortion is at it’s highest rate ever…

need i go on???

if we think that our leaders are the worst ever, perhaps we might consider then that the worst generation ever is the one that elected them…

my point: look at yourself… don’t worry about the other guy, whoever he is…