The Oscars

So now that the movie awards season is upon us, I’d like to weigh in with my opinion on the best movie of 2005.

Crash was by far the best movie of 2005. The social issues addressed in that film, the way it was put together, the use of each actor/actress (whether A-list or not) was phenomenal. And the point(s) made were incredible. Honestly, if you have saw it and left the theatre without having your eyes opened to many social realities or you left without feeling that several social disparities were highlighted and well represented, then you suck as a human being. And I mean that. You should have your living soul card revoked.

And once again, these Awards shows have overlooked the best of the pack in favor of several movies that most people hadn’t seen until after Hollywood hyped them up for some Hollywood contrived reason. For example, Brokeback Mountain and Capote. Now I’ll admit it, I haven’t seen either, but I also know that most people hadn’t seen either until after the Golden Globes last week (based on the ticket sales numbers). So my question is, how are these movies even nominated for these awards without the public seeing them, much less winning these awards?

Finally, I must say that I really disdain the Academy Awards (which largely mirror the aforementioned Golden Globes). Most of the movies that I’ve seen because they won an Oscar, have been “alright” at best. I saw Lost in Translation, American Beauty, Sideways, and I even saw Traffic on opening night. Although none of these movies was bad, I am at a loss when it comes to explaining how they received the acclaim that they did. And it is unthinkable that these movies can even get double digit nominations for Oscars (as Traffic and American Beauty did, if I'm not mistaken).

I sat through “Translation,” Sideways and Traffic waiting for something to happen, and nothing materialized. And I don’t think the subject matter covered in American Beauty had a major bearing on the large cross-section of American lives. All I saw was a movie about screwed up suburbia that ended with Kevin Spacey dreaming about trees, while his head lay in a pool of blood, sporting a bittersweet smile.

Unlike American Beauty, the issues raised in Crash affect us all. And they even addressed them from a plethora of angles; law enforcement, public servant, language, immigrant, rich and privileged, poor and disenfranchised, political, and all sorts of race/ethnicity angles.

And I’m not just touting this movie because my absolute favorite actor (Don Cheadle) is in it. Honestly, each roll fit well with every other roll. Cheadle doesn’t deserve an Oscar any more than Jennifer Esposito; Sandra Bullock doesn’t deserve an Oscar any more than Ludacris. It was that well done. I’m not asking for individual accolades this time, as far as the actors are concerned. I am asking for Best Screenplay or Script. I am asking for Best Cast or Ensemble in a movie. I am asking for Best Director. And certainly I’m asking for Best Film of 2005…from all the various Awards Committees.

Point in case, I think these Awards shows are getting it all wrong again (except the Screen Actors Guild which awarded Crash with its Best Cast award) if they overlook Crash. The best movie of 2005 was indeed Crash, and if you haven’t seen it by now, you oughtta be ashamed of yourself.

So go to Blockbuster tonight, and get Crash. Don’t just rent it, buy it. Watch it once, and then watch it 3 more times. I guarantee that you’ll learn something new from it each time you see it!

Cop the album!

-Maelstrom

NSA Spying

In recent weeks President Bush has made several speeches proudly touting his NSA Domestic Spying Program as if he’s within the parameters of the Law. He speaks as if he is truly protecting US Citizens by spying on them. So once again I will clearly walk all who are willing to go with me through the rhetoric.

To reiterate, the National Security Agency (NSA) was given the ok by President Bush to spy on US Citizens that have been in contact with known al-Qaeda operatives. The only phone calls that can be tapped are ones that are to or from overseas. Only 8 members in Congress were ever notified about these wiretaps and they were sworn to secrecy concerning them. The Courts were completely disregarded. And the wiretaps are ongoing. That’s all we know about the wiretaps at this point.

If these wiretaps are legitimate because they are only occurring on lines of people who have KNOWN connections to al-Qaeda, then the administration needs to answer these questions:

• How do they know these people are connected to al-Qaeda without having previously tapped their lines (ie “fishing” through citizens phone calls in an attempt to connect citizens to terrorists or vice versa)?
• Why not get the warrant from the courts to legally wiretap these people (such provisions do exist and have been used in the past)?
• Why not arrest these people and/or interrogate them for information since there is a certainty of their al-Qaeda connection?
• Where is the proof that these wiretaps (or the Patriot Act for that matter) have been effective (and I mean specifics, not inference)?
• Where is the proof that innocent people have not been unknowingly spied on (because I know they got records)?

If they Bush Administration is going to bold-facedly defend this policy, then they have the obligation to answer these questions and they have the burden of proof to show that the wiretapping is worth keeping. And hiding behind the shadow of potential 9/11-type terrorists attacks is not legitimate at all.

See make no mistake about it, these wiretaps do not help us in the War on Terror (and if they do, the administration has provided no evidence or instances of how it helps. I say that emphatically because I do not want anyone to forget the 9/11 Commission Report. The Report clearly indicated that there was ample information to halt the 9/11 attacks prior to them occurring. That means that neither ILLEGAL wiretaps nor the Patriot Act were necessary to stop the attacks. All that needed to happen was coordination between the nation’s intelligence agencies.

On that point, I submit this clear stream of logic:

How do you find a needle in a haystack?

You get rid of the hay!

It is my opinion that all this extra information that the government is compiling from both the ILLEGAL wiretaps and the Patriot Act are only adding more hay to the stack, thus making it harder to detect potential terrorist.

Finally, how can we know if the government is not spying on us all? How can we know? For these people who get in front of the microphone and say that “if you’re in California and calling your daughter in college in Kentucky, this program is not tapping that call,” I just want to know this one simple thing: How do you know???

There was no public knowledge of these wiretaps until someone that knew about them had the balls to actually leak the info to the public. There has been no indication that the ILLEGAL wiretaps have ceased since the news was first reported. And if Bush can bypass the Court, then what ever happened to the Constitutionally ordained notion of checks and balances. Where is the Rule of Law?

Do you realize that Bill Clinton was impeached because of a personal matter that had nothing to do with national security or mismanagement of the government. And the girl that he participated in his immoral act with was a willing adult. But he was impeached and made an embarrassment over it. And do you know what the hypocritical (cause after Clinton was caught, they all confessed to the same thing he did) Republican reasoning was: The Rule of Law.

So where is the Rule of Law now?

And what amazes me is that this President (Bush) has no qualms about admitting that he has ordered wiretaps without Court ordered warrants (which are easily attainable, and have been given thousands of times with respect to terror).

AND PEOPLE HAVE THE NERVE TO DEFEND HIM.

This isn’t about terrorism anymore, this is about freedom and civil rights. To borrow a cliché, this is indeed the height of hypocrisy. We say that we are fighting for Iraqi freedom, but “we the people” don’t even have the freedom to know who’s being spied on or why (Patriot Act included). We say that we rid Iraq of Saddam because he was a tyrant, but isn’t one man (and his cronies) violating the privacy of 300 million people for some unknown reason at least mildly tyrannical to some degree.

Are we not Americans? Are we not still citizens? Where are our rights? How can we trust this government?

-Maelstrom

Move the Holiday

The year 2000 was the first year that all 50 states honored the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a Holiday by name (yes, only a few years ago). And for the first time since its inception, this year every county in the country now honors the Holiday (yup, 1 county in a southern state had been holding out all this time). And though I’m glad that the holiday is largely celebrated nationwide (despite the fact that many of the currently serving lawmakers on Capitol Hill voted against the MLK Holiday in Congress in the 80’s), I think that way too many people take the Holiday for granted. Way too many people just see the day as an extension to their weekend, a day off from school, or just an opportunity to laze around. If that’s you, then you’re totally missing the point.

Ok, I’ll admit it; I was once like that too. I recall (and now regret) missing 4 major Keynote speakers (Actor Edward James Olmos, Professor Cornell West, Dr. Grace Lee Boggs, Dr. Ben Carson) during the MLK symposium at my undergraduate institution. In each case I was either at my dorm sleepin’ in or away from campus taking advantage of my 3 day weekend. I did, in all those years, participate in other MLK day events, but it was pure apathy that led me to miss out on those speakers.

And that’s the problem; apathy.

I don’t fault people for missing events when they must work, or when they can’t make it out for illness or other such reasons. But when you sit on your “duff,” or sleep in just because you can, or when you plan a short vacation over the MLK day weekend, that troubles me. Considering the magnitude of what Martin Luther King Jr. did for not only Black people in America, but for all citizens of this nation, no one should apathetically disregard this holiday.

When I first began to write this post, I was going to say that maybe there shouldn’t be a “King” holiday. My reasoning was that people put so much impetus on just this one day (with respect to racial injustice and inequality) while spending much of the year not living the standards of racial justice that MLK stood for. In fact, it sometimes seems as though King is only in our consciousness on his holiday or during Black History Month.

That’s just not good enough.

“The Dream” should live with us all the time and at any moment leap to the forefront of our conscious thinking any day of the year.

However, in present day (yet-racist and prejudiced) America, I know that if there were no holiday at all, King and all he stood for would be largely lost or forgotten in the era that was the Civil Rights movement. So I’ve got a better idea.

After much ruminating and weighing the effects, I’ve decided that the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday should be moved from Monday to Wednesday. That way people couldn’t abuse the holiday by taking a weekend vacation. Travel would be difficult to execute because the Holiday would be sandwiched in the middle of the work week. Then people would have to be reminded about why they have the day off. Attendance at symposium events, like the ones I ignored in my youthful apathy, would be up. Ultimately the purpose of the Holiday would be better fulfilled because people would be forced, by default, to pay attention to it.

Apathy bugs me in general. But apathy surrounding a holiday that affects us all; apathy around a man who literally gave his life doing what many today could never even imagine; apathy around a holiday that is the purest representation of Justice (in a time when injustice is ever-rampant) the Federal Government recognizes. Disregarding the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday is simply unacceptable (and I mean you actually need to get up and do something to honor it).

I certainly do hope that you, the reader, participated in a forum, service, or community event surrounding Martin Luther King Jr. Day. If not, I do hope that as you go through this year, what he worked for lives on in the forefront of your mind. I also hope that you would give yourself over to the concept of community, servitude, and equality. And in the King Holidays to come, please make the effort to participate in events in Dr. King’s honor. We all owe it to him to do so.

-Maelstrom

…15 years…and not a day goes by…the pain diminishes, but it never goes away…you are truly missed…

New Year's Resolutions

The New Year has come and I’ve decided that this nation needs to implement some resolutions for its own good. And for 2006's Resolutions I’ll steal a page from political pundit/comedian Bill Maher and list a few new rules.

So prepare your mind for these adjustments and enjoy!

New Rule: There shall be no natural disasters for the duration of the year. I’ve decided that they’re too costly both in money and in lives. For real, the natural disasters of ’05 were just shy of apocalyptic; the likes of which the living populous has never seen before. And we’re no where near recovering from the devastation these monster events have caused us. Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Wildfires, and a host of other odd meteorological occurrences. As a result, Mother Nature must be kind this year.

New Rule: Latin Pop Singer Marc Anthony will release Jennifer Lopez (his current wife) from the prison of their home. When the year 2005 began, I had grand designs on Jennifer Lopez (my future wife) putting her past behind her (including her rolodex of ex’s; David Cruz, Ojani Noa, P. Diddy…my bad…Diddy, Cris Judd, and Ben Affleck) so that we could move on with our (mine and Jennifer’s) lives together. I was also heavily anticipating all the great music videos that she was going to make to accompany her latest album and callipygous body. Well clearly Marc Anthony has gotten between she and I, as well as all my dreams. JLo only dropped 3 videos off that album, and all before March. In fact, has anyone even seen her since she and that guy (Anthony) sang that filthy duet at the Grammy’s last February?

New Rule: In the year 2006, Christmas will be moved from December 25^th to April 32^nd. That way I won’t have to suffer through another “Christmas” season hearing the fruitless debate about the phrase “Merry Christmas” vs. “Happy Holidays” or “Holiday Tree” vs. “Christmas Tree.” I guess the issue is that this is a Democracy full of a plethora of Holidays, often tied to various non-Christian religions, that some Christians apparently see as a threat. But for those of us who celebrate the religious essence of Christmas, the chronological presence of other holidays doesn’t take away from its meaning. Be that as it may, my proposal will allow Christmas to have its own season to itself, and all the mindless nuts that want an exclusive Christmas Holiday can just have it and leave the rest of us alone.

New Rule: The Bird Flu is required to kill us all. I know it sounds a bit morbid, but I just hate it when something doesn’t live up to the hype. And the last few years in medicine have been at the heart of my disappointment. First SARS was gonna take us all out, and then it was the West Nile Virus. Since both of those cataclysmic illnesses never took flight I am counting on this Bird Flu to do the trick. I mean the Bird Flu has a duty and obligation to decimate at least half the planet by the end of the year considering all the fear it has propagated and all the press coverage it has received.

New Rule: George W. Bush will fire himself. Yes, that’s right, after miraculously attaining a shred of common sense, Bush realizes that statements like “if I knew then what I know today, I would’ve still gone into War with Iraq,” and “the USA didn’t decide to go to war…Saddam did,” are completely stupid, he takes the opportunity to repent of his stupidity and resigns.

New Rule: People who voted for George W. Bush will go to jail. Yup, if you voted for him you should have to suffer the same fate (or even a more crucial fate) as a felonious thief. Your stupidity, coupled with Bush’s stupid statements, has stolen American lives, money, etc., and made America 90% dumber. Your penalty is 4 years in the slammer, that way you can’t screw up another Presidential election. And while you’re there, you get to listen to recordings of all Bush’s stupid statements throughout his Presidency as further punishment.

New Rule: All people that watch movies and walk out of them and recite these words: “the book was so much better than the movie,” will be banished to a land of movielessness. Uh huh, I’m totally tired of people who read a novel, and then rush to the theater to denounce the representative movie. Of course the movie is going to leave things out. Of course there are many, many details that can’t comfortably fit on the big screen within the time limits of the human attention span. What would you prefer? A ten hour Jurassic Park? An 18-hour Lord of the Rings experience? A three day Harry Potter marathon??? Books will always be more detailed…therefore I suppose they will always be better than the movies…Get Over It!!!

New Rule: Beginning in the 2006-2007 NBA season, all players will be required to not only enter the arena in Business Attire, but they must play in it too. Since David Stern wants the players to dress in attire that is representative of his $3 Billion dollar business, why not go all the way? I’m talkin’ Seattle Supersonics players wearing Lime Green Stacey Adams’ shoes with Lime Green and Canary Yellow Suits to match. I’m talkin’ Detroit Pistons’ wearing Blue Suede shoes for Home games and Red Alligator Penny Loafers for Away games. I’m talkin’ the Spurs sporting silver cufflinks, neckties and buttons to go along with their Black and White w/Silver Lapel Sports Jackets. And as an addendum, all teams are allowed to wear hats…as long as the color of the feather in it matches the belt.

New Rule: This year, R. Kelly will go to jail. And c’mon “ara,” make it easy on us…just turn yourself in. We all know it was you in those scandalous videos. And hiding behind that mask in a variety of subsequent videos (e.g. Step in the Name of Love) was certainly better camouflage than in the infamous (grimey) tapes, but we knew that was you too. Yes, we do all enjoy your music; it is nothing less than genius. Which is why we encourage you to continue recording…just do it behind bars.

And Finally, New Rule: In the year 2006, all white women will go missing. Yes sir. All white women will go missing in the year 2006. Now hopefully they won’t go missing because of brutal abuse or abductions, but whatever the means, this occurrence will give every news station in the country the story that they want to cover the most…the unbelievable disappearance of more white women. Every other news story will take a backseat to “missing white women” coverage. Even if the Earth fell off its axis, no longer orbited the Sun, and average temperatures on Earth decreased to three below zero; the reporting surrounding the search for all the missing white women will supercede any such occurrence. I know this isn’t really a New Rule, in fact it seems to be quite the norm, but I guess we’ll just amplify it for the New Year! How ‘bout that?!!!

Happy New Year…

…May God Bless you all in 2006

Sincerely,
Maelstrom