Listening

Willie Nelson

Teatro

Art and Moral Responsibility

Ok. I would like to start off by mentioning I have not thought this post through in the least. This is an immediate reaction to an article I just read. (You can read for yourself at http://www.addicted.com/articles/?ID=239)

Basically, Disney is no longer going to allow smoking to appear in their films, and they are discouraging their subsidiaries like Touchstone and Miramax to do the same. I honestly can't believe a company in the world of art (or "art" I suppose) could honestly enforce a blanket policy like this. The MPAA is already under great amounts of pressure to figure smoking into their rating system, and this will probably intensify the pressure. (Casablanca and Breakfast at Tiffany's and Citizen Kane now all rated X!)

I agree that artists have a moral responsibility to the public they serve, but they also have a responsibility to their vision. Take violence, for instance. Some films obviously will have great amounts of violence to get their point across. (Can you imagine a G-rated Saving Private Ryan?) Other films may just senselessly encourage violence. Take your pic of whichever movie you want.

The reality is that smoking exists and certain types of people (and therefore certain types of characters) are going to smoke. Not to mention, this isn't even the biggest threat in the United States these days. If you're going to ban cigarettes, should you be banning McDonald's? Burger King? After all, obesity and heart disease are the real leading killers in this country.

I suppose I shouldn't be shocked at Disney's decision. They cater to a safe, family crowd who doesn't always try to understand art and the medium of film.

To sum it up, Disney is censoring any film maker who works with them to score some politically correct points with families. It's rather sad, but that's life.

Listening

Josh Rouse

Country Mouse City House

Listening

New Order

Substance

A great collection of singles from this new wave band comprised of members of Joy Division.

Stand out tracks are "Ceremony" and "Temptation"

"YouTube" Debates.

Some thoughts on last night's Democratic debates:

1) This debate made me an elitist. I honestly thought "the people" could come up with more substantive questions than "will you let us (two lesbians) get married?" or asking Clinton and Obama how they answered charges they were not feminine or black enough. Really? These are the questions? Why didn't anyone ask for an energy plan to be laid out. The questions about Iraq were decent, but I found the rest of the questions generally insulting to my intelligence. I honestly don't care who Joe Biden's favorite teacher was or why. He is running for freaking President of the United States, not Ms. America.

Let's get back to seasoned professionals asking questions if I have to deal with more crap like last night. "How do you define the word liberal and would it apply to you?" - Really?! Talk about a softball question that has no information in it at all. How about asking her what she intends to do about our oil dependence or constantly rising gas prices or a military stretched too thin! Those are questions!

2) Too many questions directed solely towards Obama and Clinton. I like Obama. I would vote for him, but I would like to hear more from Biden and Richardson and the others. Also, I hate how CNN put Edwards, Clinton, and Obama in the middle so all the press photos were of those three. They made them the front runners with tactics like these.

3) Ok. John Edwards has a wife. We get it. How many times did he mention her? He never fully answered a question. He looked, in a word, ridiculous up there next to people like Biden, Clinton (for whom I do not care at all), and Obama. He never would give a full commitment.

4) CNN hearts Clinton. Fox News hearts Guiliani. Despite polls stating that other candidates were the winners of the last two debates, CNN declared Clinton the winner and fawned over her all night. Sure, she didn't make any mistakes. But she never really did anything good either. Just like a few months back, Fox sent Rudy all the love, despite the fact that he used cheap political stunts to get applause.

5) There are rarely real winners in these debates. Coming into the debate, I liked Obama and Richardson. Now I like those two and Biden. Coming in, I dislike Clinton and especially Edwards. I still dislike those two. My pre-existing opinions influenced how I saw the debate, just as every one else's did. So it is difficult to watch these debates with an open mind.

There are some rambling thoughts for you....