A surprisingly good movie...

I wrote the grafs below in a letter to a friend and thought it worth repeating. Something weird is going on with me this weekend. It must be because I've had such a shitty Memorial Day weekend; a friend came to visit but she was sick as a dog, left early, and now I'm sitting around the golf course for the rest of the weekend with, no car, othing to do, my thumb up my ass and the one-hitter in my teeth. I keep thinking about war and death. The post below this one, this post, the fact that I've also just rented Lord of War to watch tonight. I have pretty pix of a sunset and finally got those canoe pix I mentioend earlier off my phone and onto my laptop. I'll post those later and leave this theme of war behind...


I watched Jarheadas a nod to Memorial Day weekend. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. Not at all what I expected. I felt it was neither preachy or glorifying, neither pro or anti war or military. I saw it as a darkly humorous portrayal of the training of marines and the many things, some incredibly mundane, some terribly sad, that they are asked to do - as well as some insight on the many reasons as to why kids join the marines (my favorite, "I got lost on my way to college sir!"). There was a moment where afeter months of waiting in the Saudi Desert, they finally are deployed for action against Iraq, and I could feel the excitement and relief they must have felt - and the very fact that a film could, even momentarily, make me feel excited about going to kill, was impressive. I think the film accomplishes to some degree providing some ability for those who have not experienced the reality of war, some empathy for those who have. Not approval, but empathy, sorta', if not for the grace of god, there go I, kinda' shit.

And I thought it was just well directed and written too.

And hey, since they raised the enlistment age to 37 <actually, I just found out, it's been raised to 39> recently, maybe I'll watch this movie a few more times and join up before my birthday in August. Then my resume could read:

Journalist
Publisher
Editor
Advertising
Middle Management
Organic Farmer
Archaeologist
Bike Courier
Rock Musician
Event Producer
Cook (I told you I ran my own underground bar and one man restaurant right?) Activist
Baby sitter
Contractor (framing/painitng/sheet rock)
Soldier

Nah, I'd rather add "professor" instead of soldier. Everyone should read Edward M. Said's Culture & Imperialism, then, perhaps there'd be less war. And books are cheaper than bullets, bombs and aircraft carriers last I checked.

Wow, this is odd, I'm actually thinking about war on Memorial Day - I wonder how many people do? And I'm apparently stoned enough to continue writing down all my thoughts about it while convincing myself you give a shit.