Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Yoyo City, once again

My previous post was in very poor taste.  Drop me a line and I'll send you a refund of the ticket price.

Caught the movie Railway Man this afternoon.  Air condtioning.

Only myself and a woman who may have been even older than I were there.  She, in front row middle, and I, a few rows back.  I was worried for my mental condition--I was tearing up during the previews.  They could have played a Coke ad with polar bears and it would have left me bawling.
Crazy, crazy.  I tell you, the sadness stalks me like a dark alley mugger.  But I find things that are not so sad to occupy the mind.

I only decided to see Railway Man because it was the only movie playing at that time.  I did not want to  wait.  I forget what else besides the Angelina Jolie film was playing.  I lucked out.  Railway Man is a great film.

I suspect it doesn't get the hype it could because it is based on a true story and involves the way the Japanese treated prisoners of war in WWII.  We'd rather pretend that Europeans and Americans are the cruel barbarians of the world.  We've done our share, but not like most of the rest of humanity.  We did not invent slavery, but we ended it.  We didn't perfectly treat those who fell into our hands in war, but it seems uniquely American and European to treat POWs with any degree of respect and dignity.

People decry the internment camps and such, but by comparison to the Bataan Death March, it was a resort.  Not that those people were enemies.  Just saying the self hating Americans who take these things out of context are fuckwits.   I do not like that kind of heavy handed action where government screws over people.  And I marvel that the Roosevelt worshippers somehow gloss over the fact that he was no saint.  I'm far too radical to be an FDR fan.  But he was just part of the accelerating avalanche of statism and more.  I don't expect agreement.

Whatever.   I have a friend whose father survived that death march.  A rare person, as many were not so fortunate.  It had a lasting effect on everyone in that family.  Wars are great for prolonging the dysfunction of cultures and families.

At least I was not in a state of raving insanity when I left the theater.  Just quiet, solitary resignation, with a shred of hope.  Nicole Kidman rocks.  Hope and Nicole have little connection in my life, as far a I know.  I don't know what "shred of hope" means.  But I still stand by the assertion that  had a shred of hope


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Ballistic Mountain, CA, United States
Like spring on a summer's day

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