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May. 7th, 2016 11:39 pm1. I think what I find most troubling about US elections is...well, what I found troubling about the Buffy fandom or certain segments of it, the inability to persuade others without bashing their views, values, beliefs and candidates in the process. This tendency to bash and denigrate a person in order to promote one's own point of view. I have not seen that on my livejournal correspondence/reading list -- so perhaps this is the wrong place to express my concerns? This has fortunately been a free zone. But it has popped up everywhere else. Why do we do this? Why does candidate X rip apart candidate Y and vice versa? Why do we feel that the only way to win is to dig up dirt on the opponent and rip them apart. Instead of listening to what they have to say, and offering our own perspective?
Why does it always result in name-calling? I wish I could say it once was better, but I'm reading the book Hamilton at the moment, and know it's not. The election of 1800, aka the revolution of 1800, was far more brutal than this one. And the governor's election that came after far worse. It resulted in one man's death and another's ruin. So maybe we have evolved a little bit? It's troubling though, that we can't make it through a Presidential election without hurting people. I've come to dread them every four years. Each go around seems worse than the last. The candidates positions lost in the reality show of throwing insults at one another. We've become a country that enjoys entertainment where insults are hurled and people are verbally ripped apart on television...should we be so surprised that we have a reality show star, who excelled at this sort of thing, running for President?
I think of this tonight, because two television series this year, one subtly, and one, far less so, satirized our electoral process. Scandal -- digs deep into the dirty politics, where people win or lose based on the quality of the dirt and innuendo they dig up on someone else. Good Wife -- equally showed how privacy is breached and candidates actions are misrepresented and scrutinized under a microscope. One, Scandal, is a bit more soap operaish and melodramatic in style, while the Good Wife is sharp and witty. But both are biting satire and expose how horrible it's become. When the political satire writes itself, as it does here -- you know we have a problem.
2. Tomorrow is Mother's Day in the US. And tonight, I find myself thinking of my mother's mother, my Granny, who died on March 30th, 2009 at the age of 91. Here is the POST that I wrote the day she passed. Which I can't read without breaking down in tears. She's with me still. In my heart. In my memories.
I hear her voice at the oddest times...telling me not to worry so much about tomorrow and stay in the here and now.
3. Just finished watching the charming little film Brooklyn tonight. While I have quibbles...there's a plot thread that didn't quite work for me, overall I enjoyed and loved the film.
Which at its heart is about a young woman choosing between her past, past duties, loyalities and what is currently hers, the here and now. Her old life in Ireland, with the assorted people there, and the new one in the US. You sort of know which one she's going to choose by the title of the film, so not a lot of suspense. I liked the acting and performances, a great deal. Domnhell Gleeson is particularly good as Tony. But, I had difficulty understanding why she doesn't tell anyone what happened in Brooklyn and insists on keeping it a secret. It felt a bit contrived, somehow.
So, I'd have given the awards to Spotlight or possibly The Big Short.
My parents attempted to watch the film The Man From Uncle -- or so my mother told me over the phone. It was so bad, they gave up. Apparently the guy playing the Russian spy had anger issues that made no sense and he kept trying to control, but failed miserably at. Shame, it had potential. She said all the Bond movies were better done. Granted they had been watching The Night Manager, which according to my mother is insanely good.
Why does it always result in name-calling? I wish I could say it once was better, but I'm reading the book Hamilton at the moment, and know it's not. The election of 1800, aka the revolution of 1800, was far more brutal than this one. And the governor's election that came after far worse. It resulted in one man's death and another's ruin. So maybe we have evolved a little bit? It's troubling though, that we can't make it through a Presidential election without hurting people. I've come to dread them every four years. Each go around seems worse than the last. The candidates positions lost in the reality show of throwing insults at one another. We've become a country that enjoys entertainment where insults are hurled and people are verbally ripped apart on television...should we be so surprised that we have a reality show star, who excelled at this sort of thing, running for President?
I think of this tonight, because two television series this year, one subtly, and one, far less so, satirized our electoral process. Scandal -- digs deep into the dirty politics, where people win or lose based on the quality of the dirt and innuendo they dig up on someone else. Good Wife -- equally showed how privacy is breached and candidates actions are misrepresented and scrutinized under a microscope. One, Scandal, is a bit more soap operaish and melodramatic in style, while the Good Wife is sharp and witty. But both are biting satire and expose how horrible it's become. When the political satire writes itself, as it does here -- you know we have a problem.
2. Tomorrow is Mother's Day in the US. And tonight, I find myself thinking of my mother's mother, my Granny, who died on March 30th, 2009 at the age of 91. Here is the POST that I wrote the day she passed. Which I can't read without breaking down in tears. She's with me still. In my heart. In my memories.
I hear her voice at the oddest times...telling me not to worry so much about tomorrow and stay in the here and now.
3. Just finished watching the charming little film Brooklyn tonight. While I have quibbles...there's a plot thread that didn't quite work for me, overall I enjoyed and loved the film.
Which at its heart is about a young woman choosing between her past, past duties, loyalities and what is currently hers, the here and now. Her old life in Ireland, with the assorted people there, and the new one in the US. You sort of know which one she's going to choose by the title of the film, so not a lot of suspense. I liked the acting and performances, a great deal. Domnhell Gleeson is particularly good as Tony. But, I had difficulty understanding why she doesn't tell anyone what happened in Brooklyn and insists on keeping it a secret. It felt a bit contrived, somehow.
So, I'd have given the awards to Spotlight or possibly The Big Short.
My parents attempted to watch the film The Man From Uncle -- or so my mother told me over the phone. It was so bad, they gave up. Apparently the guy playing the Russian spy had anger issues that made no sense and he kept trying to control, but failed miserably at. Shame, it had potential. She said all the Bond movies were better done. Granted they had been watching The Night Manager, which according to my mother is insanely good.