accomplished: nada.
spent wednes(yester)day in Albany with Parents. Mensa lunch was overfilling and quaint. watched some king lear and some presidential debate, and then went and saw Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies. I don’t have the heart to attempt a proper review of it. it seemed a muddled mess of irrelevence. not clearly liberal or conservative, but annoying to both. (ie, there was some fairy tale aspects, like certain activities being too naughty for the CIA to acknowledge, or the hardened agent having to go back for the women he barely knew but had apparently fallen in love with. meh. and then there was the fairly brainless incompetent fat-old-white-guy, who only defended his lame actions once, briefly, by claiming he had to constantly risk incompetence due to a global perspective. poor writing, methinks. these were all very liberal pleasing forms of propaganda.
but you also had dirty violence, disregard for the dead, and disturbing torture. and you had other governments willing to do naughty things, without bumbling fat-old-white-men getting in the way, and you had a lack of justice in the end. which all strike me as more conservative pleasing forms of propaganda. so. meh. who was the movie for? i suspect it was a for a weird form of rich cynical liberal who thinks his love of violence and dark humor makes him partially conservative.
)
the most interesting thing about the movie, for me, was wondering whether it was trying to be a subtle CIA recruitment film.
not on the surface, mind you. sure. on the surface, it says the CIA are a bunch of dangerous assholes with no sense of fairness, right&wrong, or gummy fairy dust charm drops. but that sentiment won’t really offend the types of young people who actually want to be in the CIA. and I wonder at the endless amounts of violence which the handsome young man survives despite the older man who repeatedly fails both out hero and our country- might this not also appeal to a certain form of sociopath? hmm. suggesting he could get in there and make a difference? maybe out maneuver such and old soft waste of space? maybe not. i dunno. probably not. hmm. (but i can’t stop wondering).
I have this theory you see, that no one can make a CIA film without the CIA knowing about it. Thus any film involving CIA “insights” has probably been negotiated to some degree with CIA. maybe this is a silly train of logic. i dunno. but i enjoy pondering it.
anywho. today, i slept in. need to get my water pump replaced, but the mechanic suggested it might cost 350. online, it appears the pump itself is 60 bucks. soooooo. DAMN. so i need to wait until i get paid by recent story board boys. which in theory is monday. but in reality… i might be in trouble.
anywho. got a ton of stuff from the library just now. comics and books and DVDs. Plus there are several videos suddenly available on the living room PC. so the prospects for doing serious work in the very near future seems dim. hmm. but i am aware of this problem, so hopefully i will develop some will power. dim hope.
i feel i need some coffee. lightly jonesing.