Berni’s Neighborhood

I was glad a friend called and asked me to see Avatar tonight. I hardly ever get out on to see a movie, especially on a weeknight. The film is the story of an ex-Marine who finds himself as an Avatar, a human mind in an alien body.  He later becomes torn between two worlds, in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of an indigenous people. Avatar is an indictment of any culture that has ever mobilized to overpower and exploit another culture for it's own empirical gain. I did find myself seduced by the matriarchy, albeit innocence and computer-generated female-lead alien.  She was clever, cat-like, slim, shapely and feminine, with soft sad eyes, oddly sexy.  Plandora, the planet she hailed from, was a place moviegoers have never imagined; it was amazing.  But that didn’t matter, I had no role in the movie, I was merely an observer. But it did matter to the Marine character in the movie, whose role to the mission changed after romancing her and being filled with the awe of Planet Plandora. In fact, such action changed his ideology.  Unlike a true Marine, he digressed from the mission (originally to persuade the Plandora people to relocate so the military could gain valuable minerals contained beneath their planet’s surface). Although technically sci-fi, there were definite socio-political undertones to the film, which caught my conservative radar. Avatar roots itself firmly enough in Bush-era colloquialisms to carry an air of politically charged discomfort.  And in this film, there was a lot white/western-guilt pulls going on.  In this film, the cowboy archetype losses to “indigenous”, blue-people aliens, who in the end win, but not without costs.  Was Avatar Hollywood’s passive-aggressive production of sending a message to American war-mongers to stop overpowering others for their own social-political gain?  That in war, loss occurs on both sides.  You be the judge.

Take your money out of the huge banks!    (A video)

12-14-09-holiday-bowl-slider-ad

Go Wildcats!

 Via Idlewarm :-(

I've watched all 70 minutes of this - twice - it's a very funny, well written dissection of everything that's wrong (and right) with the old Star Wars films, vs. the new ones. If you have the time, check out the guy's reviews of the TNG Star Trek films - just as perceptive.

Look
jealous of run down
crayons returning
as if they could
start over every
morning erasing
all those dots
you want to be
connected.

Don't be sure
all loves left
in rooms unfilled
tell about only felt
guessed origins
from where which
spritely speculated
the marshes got loose
and dense and then
drained and dry
and chocolate colored
sampled and lit
no light like it
in this room.

Come outside
birds quit here
before we did
novembering
what we used to
be used to
in october
when here was so
busy with birds.

Down the long
from the foot's view
long path longer
than the smell's view
keep going til still
is no more but
become flapping
like nowhere half way
to the bay behind
the museum.

To time travel
take of your shoes
like me abandoned
feel the soles
wash the toes
stand on shells
avoid the organic
stuff that smells
like a map left
in the gloove box
throw it out
into a wave.

Off work
Orion Taurus
seven sisters
punching the clock
never correct
by less than billions
of trips around
doors slamming
making dogs do
what stars cannot -
look up.

We have about 6" of snow on the ground, north of Chicago, but a bit to the west they had 12 or 134 inches.  The forecast had been for 2-3"!

wonderful christmas eve dinner with family and friends!

awesome way to end off the year 2009!

takoyaki maker

Vancouver 2009 Olympics Mitts!

Hello Kitty 2010 Calendar

a cute mug

deLux raccoon toque and mitts!