I've been tagged, ahhhhhhhhhhh

Ok so it really isn't that scary. The good Doctor, Dr. Monkerstein, has tagged me as a thinking blog.



This is actually a great honor as I really do not think of this little blog as a thinking blog, although I do try on occasion. I just blog about the random thoughts in my head so that they will not drive me totally insane. Anyway, here are the rules:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.

2. Link to this post so that people can find the exact origin of the meme.

3. Optional: Proudly display the Thinking Blogger Award on your site with a link to the post that you wrote.

And so now I must tell you who makes me think:

1. Blue Gal- I am sure others have given her a thinking blogger award, but I have to mention her as well. She is the reason I started to blog, I was inspired by her posts and decided that I needed to put my thoughts out there as well.

2. The Cunning Runt- He has some of the most amazing pictures posted on his blog. He is also a great writer and makes me think whenever I see what he has written.

3. Phydeaux Speaks- As a fellow Carolinian, I must honor him. Phydeaux also makes me think and laugh many times as I read him. He also reminds me of a garden gnome which is an extra bonus feature.

4. Mock, Paper, Scissors- Tengrain who creates this blog is possibly a genius. I love the captions to all of his posts and many times I laugh and then they get me thinking, which is of course awesome.

5. Figleaf's Real Adult Sex- Figleaf does an amazing job of talking about sex and the realities that surround sex in the modern world. I have not found anywhere else where on one day he talks about the double standards about sexual promiscuity in regards to boys and girls and the next day he posts about morning wood.

I could have of course talked about several other blogs that I love including Captain Dyke and Harp and Sword, but I was limited to five and so I had to make some very difficult choices. And of course if Monkey had not been the one who had tagged me, I may have had to put him on that list.

Movie review-One flew over the cuckoo's nest

So I saw two movies today, the second one was One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. I had read this book several years ago and had wanted to see the movie since then, but never had until today. This was a great movie. Jack Nicholson is great as a character that you cannot be totally sure if he is sane or insane. Those seem to be characters that Jack excels at or maybe all of his characters are a bit loco, but he does such a great job of bringing out the humanity in all of the characters he plays. I also marveled at Danny DeVito in this movie, it took me a minute when I first saw him to be sure that Danny was the actor. Christopher Lloyd is also a great actor in this movie. This movie really shows the humanity behind individuals who are considered mentally disturbed. I also love the characterization of Nurse Ratched. I didn't remember the book very well and I was thinking that Nurse Ratched was going to have a stronger personality in terms of being loud and demanding. Louise Fletcher did an amazing job of showing this women as a dictator and in total control of the entire ward including both nurses and patients and yet she always seemed so in control of her emotions and feelings. She never seems to yell or have to really intimidate anyone and yet everyone is so afraid of her. I hate to use the word bitch as a descriptor for Nurse Ratched as that word is so demeaning and misogynistic especially when used against a women in a position of power, but I feel like it really fits this character. She controls the lives of these men from what they watch to when they eat to whether they have cigarettes and then at the end of the day, she tells them goodbye as though it was just a day at the office. It may be a day at the office for her, but these men are totally under her control that they talk about how much they hate this place and her and yet they will not leave even though several of them can. It is a great movie and great performance by everyone involved and since I have not mentioned him yet, Will Samson is amazing as Chief.

Movie Review- Born into Brothels

This is an incredible documentary about children who are born in brothels in Calcutta, India. It documents their lives and the efforts of Zana Briski to help them through teaching them photography. I was not totally clear if she intended to become as involved as she did, but beyond teaching them photography, she also went to great lengths to get them out of the red-light district of Calcutta and into boarding schools, so that they had other opportunities other than prostitution or other illegal activities. The film has all of the elements needed, it is both sad and happy. These children live in such poverty and yet many of them mention that this is their life and they do know of any other way to live. In fact one of them, says something to the effect that life is supposed to be hard and sad. But these children also have a real desire to show their lives and the conditions in which they are living. One of the young boys mentions that this is the dirtiest places he has ever seen. He talks about how everywhere there are dirty dishes there are also shoes. These children truly were incredible artists. Yes they were taught how to use a camera and there are scenes where Zana is talking to them about composition or other technical aspects, but still they were able to compose some amazing pictures that if you did not know better could easily be considered photographs by professionals. I was in awe of this movie and would recommend this movie highly. Also if you want to see some of the photographs and learn more about the project that Zana Briski among others started, go to this site.

Whatever happened to...Saturday morning cartoons

I am sure some of you reading this will not have the fond memories of the great '80s Saturday morning cartoons that I grew up on, either you are too old or too young. But seriously what happened to Saturday morning cartoons. I was up early walking my dog and then decided that I would sit and watch some cartoons before I really got my day going. I turned on the TV and all that I could find on the major channels were there talk shows like the Today Show or CBS this morning. This was at 7:30, what the hell. At 7:30 as child I was up and watching cartoons for at least a few hours. I don't think my parents woke up before at least 9 or 10, so this is when I could watch what I wanted. Maybe kids are sleeping in later now becaue the Saturday morning cartoons don't seem to come on till at least 9:30 or 10. And what happened to the good cartoons like Muppet Babies, Bugs Bunny, Rainbow Brite, Care Bears, M.A.S.K, The real ghostbusters, Jem and the Holograms, the Smurfs or the Snorks. Ok so I had to look up the names of some of these cartoons, but I instantly remembered seeing all of them when I was growing up. Have we raised a generation of kids who only watch Power Rangers and Pokemon or other Anime. I usually don't care about buying American or American products, but really what happened to American cartoons. Yeah, I know many of those cartoons were probably drawn in like Korea, but still they were intended for American audiences, we were not watching the creations and spin offs of another culture like Japan. I just wonder what this world is coming to when my children (when I have some) will not be able to get up at 7 AM and turn on the TV and watch great cartoons that corrupt your brain forever. Although I do not remember if this cartoon was one that was shown on Saturday mornings, it is still one of my favorites.



Although, as I looked for the theme for this show apparently I remember the version or at least the opening for the 1964 version of Johnny Quest and I wasn't even alive at that point, heck my parents hadn't met yet and wouldn't for another at least 10 years. They must have shown this version at some point during my youth on re-runs.

YouTube Fridays

Here is my favorite Shakespeare play, Othello, being done (sorta) by a great company of the actors, the Reduced Shakespeare Company.

Fantasy football and Vick

So i was listening to Mike and Mike in the Morning this morning. Mike and Mike were not there, but the two replacements who I cannot remeber their names were talking about the fallout from the stuff surrounding Michael Vick. The one mentioned that he is in a Fantasy Football league that apparently is really really competitive and the league had decided that not only was Vick not available to be drafted this year, but even if he was able to start in the NFL this year or next, that he would never be available to be drafted again. I found this interesting as it shows the extent to which he has been convicted in the court of public opinion. I personally think that he should never be able to ever play football again and should be sent to jail for a long period of time. I would never draft him, but the fact that people are taking these charge so seriously is great in my opinion, I just wish that people took all criminal charges this seriously like rape, murder and DUI. Any player that is convicted of a felony should be banned from sports for life or given a several year suspension at least. In all other parts of life and jobs, if you are convicted of a felony it is tough to re-enter the workforce, we should hold people in the public light to the same if not higher standards.

NFL network

Ok so it is the start of training camp for the NFL and that means preseason games, which for me are almost as exciting as regular season games. I love football and so this is very exciting to me. I know there are problems with the NFL, but I still love it. I grew up on football, literally, as my father used to have me resting on his stomach at 6 months of age and younger so that my mother could do other things on Sunday afternoons (not that this in the only time he spent with me, but this illustrates my point). This was and still is in many ways a lot of the father-son bonding we do. We do other things now as father and son, but this is still one of my favorite things with my father watching football games. So I realize that my favorite team, the Steelers, have their first preseason game this weekend and it is the Hall of Fame game. The first game is meaningless as is much of the preseason, but it is the Hall of Fame game which i always kind of cool as typically a lot of the guys who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame are interviewed and it is the first football game. And by george I want to see it, but of course I can't. The NFL has created an NFL Network so that they can make even more money off of football fans. This network has certain games that are only available on it and there is a lot of talk shows around football and well I am not sure what else this channel has especially when the season is over, but still it exists. So the Hall of Fame game is being shown on this channel and only this channel this year. The only way to get this channel was to have a satellite dish for a while, but now some of the cable companies have been buying the channel to show. But the one I use, Time Warner Cable, refuses to allow this channel to be added to their lineups. As I understand it, the NFL wants their network to be just a basic channel like ESPN or CNN or any other channel that subscribers can get. Time Warner wanted to put it on their sports package so that cable subscribers could get it if they wanted, but did not have to get the channel. The sports package is normally like four or five additional channels that cost like five dollars more a month. Now, I would pay the extra money for this channel as it is only five dollars and I am honestly that crazy of a football fan, i am not sure I would watch it all the time or anything but for the extra eight regular season games and some preseason games, i feel it would be worth my extra five dollars, but this is not an option to me. I feel like as the consumer I should have the right to choose what programming I want that is available. I am not sure who I should blame, the NFL or Time Warner Cable. The NFL should just let Time Warner do what they want and add it to the sports package although I am sure part of the issue is that the cable companies have to pay more money to add a channel if it is considered part of the extended basic package, than if it is an add on channel like HBO or any other movie channel that subscribers have to pay extra for. This would of course help the NFL to make more money and isn't money always the name of the game. But on the other hand, Time Warner Cable does not seem like the good guys either. First, they have all these other channel that are considered standard like SoapNet, the Inspirational network (or I refer to it the Christian channel), the golf channel, ShopNBC, and Fit TV that I would gladly give up if I could have the NFL network. I mean really how many people really watch the Golf Channel or SoapNet. All of the major golf tournaments are on the major channels like CBS and NBC and if you miss your Soaps because you are at work is it really that big a deal, isn't that what DVR or even if you go old school VCR tapes are for to tape shows you miss. Secondly, TWC bought Adelphia Cable which did have NFL Network and TWC took the channel off the lineup out of spite for the NFL. I guess I will just have to find a sports bar to watch the game or find another way to watch this game.