Shrapnel

As you, the reader, potential reader, past reader, skimmer, stalker, etc might know, I have two jobs. Now, each of these jobs has their respective risks... lifeguarding isn't so much a risk towards myself but more the risk of other people dying... and Gorman's has the risk of being mauled by a machine if not locked out properly.

However, the most terrifying risk from both of them are the head-shots.

Let me explain, at Johnson Bentley, when leaving deck, the lifeguards do general cleaning around the changerooms as they leave deck, this usually involves mopping with a mop and bucket that has never been changed when you start the shift. That means that the mop water is filled with hair, dirt, for some reason grey foam, and all sorts of reminders that the public, in general, is disgusting. (yayyyy)

Gormans, particularily on my Graveyard shift, makes use of the "air hose" quite a bit, which is a high pressure... well... air hose. Now, this pressured air, when aimed at a location that has no "exit route" will shoot right back at you, carrying with it all the sawdust, dirt, hydraulic oil and grease with it in a typhoon of lame.

Although not the worst risks in some eyes, these are the things I fear the most when arriving at either job, primarily because of my bad luck with them. I am always getting splashed with the mop swamp water, or blasting myself in the face with the air hose by accident when I don't notice a slight change in the angle of the machine.

This got me to thinking, with my kind of luck with this assortment of smelly, greasy concoctions... survey would indicate that my luck in a warzone would be zip to none. I think I would be taken out by shrapnel in a second... it seems to be fate that I get blasted in the face unwillingly by hydraulic-oil-covered-bark on a nightly basis, so I can I can only assume that this indicates my luck in regards to unwanted projectiles.

That was what I thought about last night. Approx 3:45 am, as I am welcomed by sawdust shrapnel across the front of my body.

Today's song.

...or not to ink

Yay



Powerless Rise came out today. Now I can listen to it in the car, on a boat, in the rain, on a train. It is my green eggs and ham without a doubt. (However the video is not from the new CD, it still makes me happy to see the band in action, they inspire me.)

On the note of this video, notice the amazing sleeves that Tim (lead singer) has.... so awesome. We were talking on graveyard the other day (Dan's last weekend too... sad) about tattoos, what folk would get, what ones are dumb, tattoo tradition and culture etc, etc. I love tattoo's personally... but not one-off ones, I love sleeves. I love tattoos that take up someones entire arm, plastered with colour/black and white. Even if it's the "lame" imitation tribal designs, which I don't like as much because they seem uninspired, they still look better than a bare arm.
So why don't you get a tattoo Jon?

Three reasons
1) My aspirations: I feel like, in light of the various things that I aspire towards in life, tattoos would act as a hindrance. For example, professionally; at the moment I aspire to be a lawyer. Obviously everything in life is subject to change, but should this follow through, that professional sphere might not look so kindly upon the type of tattoo that I would feel is worth getting (the aforementioned "sleeve" or even half sleeve). Even my hobbies, such as acting, or my part time jobs at the moment like life-guarding, having tattoos would be an issue. Actors on stage are constantly hiding and covering up their markings, and a lifeguard with a sleeve would just come across as unapproachable to seniors and children... sad but true.

2) The inevitable(?) regret: This is obviously going to be mentioned... for it's the most cliche reason why not to get inked. What if your interests change? Whatever, it's a reminder of the past, but still, what if the regret is based in....

3) Baddd art: This is a huge one for me. Some tattoos just look awful. It's not the design necessarily, but rather the execution. Faces, scenery, even straight lines sometimes seem impossible for some of these artists. I am a critic at heart, and easily unimpressed. To be permanently stained with some random person's poorly executed artwork would be my own personal circle of hell on earth. Maybe I'm being over dramatic, but I would hate it.

Maybe I could get a Chinese symbol? That means.... serenity? Hmm.... lame, (and secretly nerdy, but no one has to know that)

Still.... So freaking cool... If anything ever were to happen to me where my aspirations listed above were to become an impossibility? I am colouring myself in.





Other than that, I have been successfully filling up my days, and just today encountered my first "scheduling conflict" of my new "summer activities".

Awesome, things are back to normal.

The Powerless Rise

Edit: This is one of my favorite lyrics on the CD, thought I'd share

Simplicity is not a curse where strength is humbled
and the powerless rise.
This is a kingdom born upside-down.
This is a kingdom where the broken are crowned.

Just a taste of the most perfect metal CD I have ever heard.


Original post:

WOAHHHHHHH
AHHHHHHH
EEEEEE!

As I Lay Dying's new CD is streaming on their myspace now.... it comes out on tuesday. I was pumped enough due to the single's that they had released (as discussed in "Parallels" post) but now I've listened to the whole thing.

I think I've just found my favorite CD ever. Words cannot describe how excited I am about this music. Perfect doesn't even do it justice. Maybe it does. But none the less. Convicting lyrics, amazing guitar, and a performance from a band that I respect more and more every time I see anything about them.
Inspiring.

We are not the same, as I hope to show.

Anti-Stagnancy

I don't feel like I have anything to say, but nothing is worse than a stagnant blog. It is a rare enough treat for someone to even read a blog these days, so when someone checks for the second time, maybe even third, and there isn't anything different? The reader almost feels bitter towards the blog for wasting their time;

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT PARALLELS YOU STUPID BLOG!" They screamed*
*(I assume)

Moving on.

So, Summer is here, and my schedule has lightened up not only immensely, but almost completely. Particularly in the first week after finals and Sweeney ended... I had no idea what to do with my time. It's a weird transition going from days being on a time limit (okay, I have 30 min to get from here to here before I have to begin this), to all of a sudden saying "I have nothing planned today...) Granted, I've been able to find ways to fill my days since, but it began as a strange experience.
That being said... despite finding little things to fill my days, I wish I had some "big plans" for the season. I keep getting asked (albeit small talk, I do recognize that) "any big plans for the summer?".
Now, the fact that I answer "no" to everyone that asks me that question makes me feel like I should have some sort of big plan. I do plan to see The Lion King in Vancouver in July, but that's hardly "big" plan. Joseph I guess.... but even so.

So, this is an open letter to anyone who might read this blog, I want to have a better answer for the "big plans" question.





And a song

Parallels

It's amazing when things coincide like this,

If anyone has been following the blog and my general uneasiness or thoughts in the past few posts, particularly the Australia focused one, then this makes sense.

"As I Lay Dying" posted a new sample of their new CD, coming out in a few weeks, the other day... and not only is it an amazingly catchy song, but the lyrics speak to exactly where I felt like I was at.

The song is "Parallels"
Fantastic.

We are all comatose. We are overfed and under...undernourished, yearning for something more.
Never starving yet never quite satisfied. Carnal but without useful flesh or mind.

I am a walking contradiction that’s found consistency
consuming everything, all without producing sustenance.

In the parallels we struggle... struggle to upkeep, there is a better way for us to be set free.
From all it is we crave, there must be more to life than to simply stay alive... to simply stay alive.

We are not the same as I hope to show. There is a better way if we just let go.
We are not... we are not the same. We are not... we are not the same. Let go...

In the tension between devouring want or simple need
it’s clear the only lines between the ones we preserve.

We are not the same as I hope to show. There is a better way if we just let go.
We are not... we are not the same. We are not... we are not the same.
Let go.... We are not the same.

And in the parallels we struggle to upkeep,
there’s a better way for us to be... for us to be set free.
And in the parallels we struggle to upkeep ,
there’s a better way for us to be... for us to be set free.

On another note, I've seen "How I met your dragon" three times now... I think I need to hold off a bit haha, but I do genuinely enjoy that movie.

Feeling this

I don't have anything necessarily poignant to write about... but I thought I would still put something down, for continuities sake. Stagnant blogs get depressing after a while... disappointing? Infuriating?

Closing night for Sweeney tonight! One final show. It was (is?) fantastic, amazing show and I feel honoured that I got to consistently witness performers in this cast captivate me night after night.

Summer time is here, Okanagan summer, so obviously there is still snow up on the hills despite sweltering hot weather in the valley. This really is a cool place to live. Of course, with summer comes Blink 182 for me. Unfortunately Mike hasn't been around to blast it in the car with me, (on that note, if you catch this blog post, my condolences for your truck), but nonetheless, I have been cycling the Blink catalogue pretty consistently.

Well, that's not entirely true, I cycled the catalogue for a few days, then remembered how much I love this one in particular, and then listened to it almost on repeat for a couple days. Exam stress can make you do strange things apparently.

That being said, I realized after my Blink kick had started that in light of my computer being busted for a while, no CD player in my car, and all other factors, that I hadn't given the new Coheed and Cambria CD enough ear time. So I began that... and soon had another song that is quickly working it's way up my "25 most played" playlist.

Not necessarily as "listener friendly" as previous songs I've posted, but it is without a doubt my favorite song right now.

And a picture, just to keep up with the goals I've set for myself, and make the post flashier.
No relevance, it just makes me happy.

"That time of year"

Exams....

I have a funny feeling about exams this year... less panicked, which I'm sure is foolish. I should probably be a little bit more stressed, seeing as they are all next week, plus a final paper to be done.... but instead I'm writing a blog. I think with Sweeney, School, Work and more I've been putting too much on the mind to worry about just one thing, rather, it's a wonderful blend of all worries.

On the note of having too much things on the mind, I've made the long overdue decision to step back, and stop feeling like I need to have a control over my life. This is, of course, coming from a Christian standpoint, and it will take some work, catching myself when I want to hold the reigns, but overall I think it was a good decision. Now I need to read more.

I've felt like over the last few weeks my faith has been popping up at the forefront of my mind a lot... more so than average. Perhaps it's speaking with old YWAM friends... perhaps the fact that there are cast members in Sweeney to whome I pale in comparison in regards to strength of convictions, or maybe it's because I've started to catch my own hypocrisy in some of my day to day conversations... (I don't want to be a jerk). Regardless of what the source, I'm looking forward to being able to go back to Powers Creek on Saturday nights once Sweeney is done.
(However, Sweeney is pretty freaking awesome)

On the note of faith being at the forefront, had a good talk with a friend today at school about faith, in what started as a question about the "nature of the term infinity", turned into recapping some stories from outreach. I often tell people that my "Australia experience changed my life", which is absolutely true, however I constantly worry about the term "backslide" that we would hear so much about... Also, it unsettles me that the whole time in YWAM sometimes feels like a dream.

Well dang blog, if only you could respond. After all, you've keep record of all of this for a couple years now, what's your take?

Until blog responds, I'll have to listen to musicians who know how I'm feeling.
Hello old friend, ease my worried mind.

Girl Magazines and Evil

On hindsight, my "beard" didn't look nearly as good as I thought it did at the time... or at least, pictures would indicate as such.

I think the pride that many guys have in regards to their facial hair is similar to that of a mother's pride... "I made this... this grew because of me". Now, that probably isn't what goes through mother's minds when they look at their children, but humour me for the sake of the analogy.


Westside weekly published a Sweeney review. I loved it, my favorite quote was
"The production is superb, the play is bad. It may be brilliant, as often claimed, but it's evil" haha, awesome.

She continues,
"they weave the themes of obsession, demonism, violence, injustice, murder and cannibalism ever tighter and it's only resolved in vigilante justice at the cost of my favorite character's sanity".

Well, if that's not a bang on review, I don't know what is. On that note, come see the show!!

During intermission I've been reading Glamour magazines aloud to the cast... With every article, I'm slowly losing faith in humanity...

The year ended.
Last day of classes was Friday. Bittersweet though, as this past semester was one of the best I've ever had, mostly because of the company I was able to keep in between classes. Dan, Katie and Laura, I thank you.

And so passes another school year, what is the plan??
Oh, life...

"This song will change your life"- Garden State

Rest

Finally, after an intense week and first ring of shows, I have my first morning off in what seems like a long, long time.


Mythical Charge ended up in 78th place or something like that. Not bad at all, top 100, and we get a monetary prize ($25 or something along those lines)

Did go to a Good Friday service though, which was really good. The pastor (Troy) from my church (Powers Creek) spoke, which made the whole thing totally worth it. I love being able to listen to someone speak who I have so much respect for. His speaking is 98% of the reason I chose to attend powers creek in the first place after coming back from Perth, and I wouldn't have it any other way. He spoke about what Paul would have seen after denying in the courtyard. Refreshing not to have another "symbolism of the cross" sermon as per Good Friday usual, (not that those aren't important).



There is a marmot that has taken up residence in our yard, likely in the absence of Champ. I found myself, (alone, of course), yelling at it through the window going "Alan! Alan! Alan!..." as per the BBC commercial. It ran away when I got to the Steves. I don't know if that means it's name is Alan or Steve.

Also, saw Clash of the Titans matinee between work and Sweeney yesterday. Naturally I thought it was Oscar worthy.... *cough*
I'm starting to wonder if I'm becoming too cynical about movies. Granted, Titans deserved every rib that it gets, but it was still fun to watch I guess. I need to just enjoy these things rather than get all worked up over corny lines, bad special effects, and directors who get too caught up in "making a scene look super cooooool" vs. actually making a scene look good.

oh well

SONG! (Double win because I love this music video)

Hell Week

Halfway through "Hell Week".



Show is amazing, definitely the best one I've ever been in. Everything about it, just fantastic.

Otherwise life has been cruising along. Although every day is, naturally, newsworthy, I don't know if it necessarily passes as blogworthy.

Regardless, here is a picture




And a song.

Wilson, we have a problem...

Just watched Apollo 13 again, amazing movie.

It made me realise what a big Tom Hanks fan I am, I don't think I have ever not enjoyed one of his movies. Cast Away still makes me sad, which is somewhat embarrassing seeing as you get choked up about a volleyball... but I hold that "Cast Away" is held up entirely by "the song" in it. Beautiful. (However, I am also a "Movie score" nerd, so the music behind movies is a huge deal to me)

Back to Apollo 13, aside from my Tom Hanks admiration, the movie also made me wish that I was more "mathematically prone". Those folk at NASA are geniuses. I can't stand math... I wish I could, I wish it made sense, but it doesn't. I always struggled, and as a result, engineering or similar prospects were never a reality. Sure, sure I am prone to very abstract Philosophical thoughts... but could that get you to the moon? Mechanical Engineers, Physicists, they know where it's at. Brightest people on the planet. They are the ones who are boldly going where... only a select few have gone before.

What is Philosophy good for then? Well... a new favorite quote of mine comes from Plato's writing where Socrates says

"I am afraid that other people do not realize that the one aim of those who practice Philosophy in the proper manner is to practice for dying and death" Phaedo 64 a

Fair enough... he continues

Therefore, as I said at the beginning, it would be ridiculous for a man to train himself in life to live in a state as close to death as possible, and then to resent it when it comes?... Those who practice Philosophy in the right way are training for dying and they fear death least of all men" - Phaedo 67 e

I guess the moon will have to wait.

"I'm sorry Wilson..."

Dead Spiders

When I see dusty logging trucks that have no loads and are thus folded up, I like to think it looks like a giant dead spider being carried.

For those of you, (nobody), who reads my blog and hasn't yet been spammed on facebook, please watch this



The sun is out, Sweeney Todd is going well, and the semester is almost over. Despite the looming threat of deadlines and opening night, life is good.

On another note, I've been listening to Sirius Radio a lot lately, and now have a bit of a desire to be a radio DJ.... showing people music and then get paid to just talk? Amazing. However, it seems that most are already "figures" in culture before getting their shows... so first things first I guess....

On that note, here's a song, welcome to The Jon Arkle Show

Goofy

Rest assured, I do study for my exams...
However, it seems whenever I blog it is an admission of guilt for the lazy crime of procrastination.

However, tonight was a procrastination that, as the credits roll, I feel like it was a nostalgic evening well spend, albeit a complete waste of time when I could have been reading my massive Bible of a book "The Complete Works of Plato".

Instead I re-watched "A Goofy Movie". I had seen a reference to it earlier last week, and it had been bugging me ever since "was it a good movie from my childhood? or just kind of 'there'". Well, I re-watched it, remembered it was a musical, and therefore loved it. Good ol' Goofy, Disney used to make such heartwarming films at a much more frequent pace... what happened?

On the note of musicals, saw the posters/billboard designs for "Sweeney Todd" yesterday, they look awesome! There is pie, with one of Sweeneys Razors in it, and a little sign that says "a little priest?". Blood too. Awesome.

Anyways, maybe time to read up on some Socratic Dialogues....? A-hyuck

Sad Wild Things

I forced myself to take a night for myself and watch a movie haha, to try to relieve the stress, there was no rehearsal, work, or homework to be done, so I took advantage of the occasion.

In lieu of that, I finally saw "Where the Wild Things are".... I can't tell if I liked it or not.. which is an unusual thing for me... usually I know that I don't like things.

The movie is visually beautiful, every shot I loved, the monsters, the sunsets, the forests and oceans. Awesome, particularly the scenes shot during "magic hour" when the sun is setting and it sets this nice warm gold glow, yea.. I was impressed with the filming.
HOWEVER, the movie didn't really have a storyline... the characters were good, you could see each one's insecurities, and it played out well how each one was a part of the main kid's own insecurities and fears... but that was kind of it, there was no development. It was just like taking a weird trip in this kids mind.
*Speaking of the kid, did anyone else notice the opening scene is of him killing a dog...? WILD

Overall, I think the movie should have been a horror... I knew it wasn't ever going to happen, but I kept wishing for some genuine tension when we thought that maybe the monsters would actually eat the kid. I think Where the Wild Things Are would have been better had it been mixed with... I don't know Lord of the Flies? Lets get those monsters pissed off eating children. Put some tension into the movie... I guess I'm just pining for a good ol' monster movie. Too many "there's a ghost, you just never see it" ones these days, I want creatures.

Final verdict? Still don't know. I had heard criticism about how "emotional" the movie was, but I really liked it for that... the goat thing character was breaking my heart the whole time, despite having no real development.
Good job for a 5 sentence book transferred into a movie though.

In other news,

Listen to that song in the previous post again.
(Good detective work Sherlock Crone)

Rapture

I can only hope that the rapture would feel even half as amazing as this song makes me feel....

"New Classical" is a genre I guess... and I am sold. After hearing this song, I bought the entire CD, and I'm sure I will find my way into more...

Beautiful




Just close your eyes and listen to this...
I wanted to find a picture that I could say "Listen and look at this picture... But nothing I own can do it justice... Jordan, I might need your help here.

This song... completes me?

Yes, that's the term I wanted.

Golden Finish

I don't remember the last time I yelled and cheered and gasped and my TV.... ever...

Amazing hockey game..... Amazing! What a perfect finish to some amazing Olympic games

Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

YES!

I could never be anything but Canadian.... so proud. So so so so proud.

Watching the Olympics

I have the sneaking suspicion that the person in charge of setting camera angles at the crowd intentionally holds the shot on spectators until they notice that they are on the "big screen", for the sole reason that they get a little kick out of quickly cutting away then the people get excited that they were on TV.

I know I would. The cameraman giveth, and the cameraman taketh away.

Olympics this month have been amazing, quite the experience having them happen in your "backyard". It's disappointing that Kelowna didn't quite pick up on the same degree of Olympic spirit as Vancouver, but I guess that was to be expected. But I am happy that I was able to get down and experience the atmosphere in the "heart" of it all.

Go Canada Go! 10 Golds at this moment, awesome

I also realise that I could post more often if I don't feel like I need to write an essay every single time. Bring on more short posts!

"Look at her stupid face"

I'm a big, big fan of this TV show called "Supernatural", and just wanted to express how pumped I am about last night episode. Best of the new year by far, pushing the story along as we met the next horseman "Famine". Just when you thought the show couldn't introduce a more evil, creepy character... you meet Famine.

(On the note of TV, House was also a really good episode this week, I actually felt tense while watching it, and LOST is just... well it's LOST... perfect.) And those are my opinions on "my shows".

In other news, heading down to the Olympics today with Nicole. Going with some of our cousins to Ski Jumping in Whistler and Moguls on Cyprus. Apparently forecast calls for rain all weekend, which is a bummer, not for us so much as for the whole Olympic opening.

Westbank and Kelowna are covered in fog, which is perfect. It's nice to have weather you enjoy, good start to reading break.

Also, I really really want a cat... a Siamese cat to be precise. I've been advertising this for some while now, but started to forget about it as other endeavors in life overtook frivilous "cat" thoughts.

Now, as some people know, I'm a staunch follower of Ricky Gervais. I think the man is the funniest person on the planet, and as a result I am addicted to his audiobooks, tv shows, movies, and naturally his blog.
Now, I bring this up because over the last few weeks I've been thinking about getting this cat again, because I want to name it "Socrates" (despite the fact that my sister says "people will call it 'socks'". I will forbid this. "Socks" is an awful name for a cat, Socrates is wise and a reminder to pursue wisdom above all else. "Socks", yech.)
Anyways, this has been going through my head quite a bit over the last month ever since I started reading "Dialouge Socrates" in my Plato class, and then the other day Ricky Gervais (see, there was a point to bringing him up) posts a picture of his cat on his blog, turns out he has a siamese...

Blog:
http://www.rickygervais.com/thissideofthetruth.php
Picture: (by itself in case this blog is being read in the future... oooh)
http://www.rickygervais.com/images/tsott_100210.jpg

Adorable. I was sold in a second. (Also, I think Ricky's lead up was hilarious: "Look at her stupid face" haha). Anyhow, this is my statement that frivolous "Cat thoughts" are back on the table, and I will begin my quest again to try to find a Siamese kitten somewhere in BC interior or lower mainland perhaps...

People are avatarded

Saw Avatar the other night, meh. It was good, but I definitely don't think it deserves to be breaking all these records... Good summer blockbuster, but most successful movie of all time? What kind of deals at the crossroads has James Cameron been making...?

BUT,
I thought this article on it was great, it's a bit long, but suffer through it... makes some awesome pointed near the end.

Stop pining for life on Pandora and come back to planet Earth ...
Boris Johnson - The Telegraph

Dear oh dear – as if there weren't enough reasons for feeling low. Here we are in the middle of January with the Labour Party still in power, taxes about to go through the roof, the weather still miserable – and across the world people have apparently discovered a new and bizarre reason for being down in the dumps. It's this film called Avatar, which I went to see at the weekend and which I would say delivers virtually everything a film-goer could possibly desire.

Just as the 3D, sci-fi epic teeters on the brink of becoming the biggest-grossing film of all time, some people are complaining of a terrible side-effect. It's making them depressed, they say. It's turning them as blue as the funny, helmet-nosed aliens that have enchanted us all.


It's not that they get depressed while watching it – far from it. They are in transports of delight. The trouble begins when the credits roll and the lights go on. They take off their 3D specs and they look at themselves and their pallid lives, and it hits them in a terrible black wave that they will never get to the idyllic planet Pandora and its 1,000ft trees and beautiful illuminated spaghetti leaves. They will never have the acute physical sensation that they are really riding on the back of a giant orange pterodactyl or amorously entwined with a lissom, blue, 12ft alien, complete with prehensile tail. They walk out of the cinema and they see the vomit-splashed pavements and the hamburger wrappers and all the detritus of the consumer society, and they think, get me back to James Cameron's world of the floating green mountains and the cuddlesome, hammerhead rhinos!

The film has only been out for about a month, and already there are internet discussion groups on how to cope with post-Avatar gloom, and as the British election campaign gets underway, one can imagine that the hunger for escape will intensify. Across the world, it seems, audiences are looking at the pristine planet of the blue-nosed tribe and something is touching them deep in the human core. They hear the tribal chanting, they see the semi-naked Na'vi, and they yearn for the simplicity and goodness of a lost Eden.

What is the lesson of Avatar? they ask themselves when they are back on the dank and be-merded streets of Earth. It is all about the folly of mankind, the greed that impels us to try to gratify our wants with a system of capitalist exploitation. They think of the Na'vi – the happy, chanting tribes of woad-daubing natives, and how their misfortune was to locate their sacred glade atop a colossal deposit of a mineral called unobtanium. They remember how the brutal American mercenaries decided to clear them out "with shock and awe", and how their missiles slammed into the sacred tree and brought it crashing down with much loss of blue-skinned life. And then they think of Iraq, and the way the brutal and mercenary Americans blundered in to a place they didn't understand, with similar consequences.

The Na'vi had unobtanium; the Iraqis had oil – and the tragedy of both peoples was that they found themselves standing between the Americans and their lust to consume. In their agony, and in their frustration with the world as it really is, some of the post-Avatar gloom merchants are starting to come up with some radical solutions. There is already a group of Na'vi sympathisers in Florida who are proposing quite seriously to set up a Pandora-style community, complete with Eywa. You haven't heard of Eywa? You will. It is the blue-nose religion, a version of James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis that postulates a kind of electro-spiritual link between every organism, so that we are hooked up to the trees and the trees are hooked up to each other in a huge dendrological internet.

I prophesy that in 10 years' time the UK census will show more adherents of Eywa than there are of Jedi, and that is saying something. With James Cameron poised to do at least two sequels to Avatar, and with the frenzy likely to grow, it is time, surely, to put the whole thing into perspective.

I want to reassure all those who yearn for the life of Pandora: before they start sharpening their arrows and girding their loin-cloths and preparing their vats of blue paint, they should remember that there is nothing remotely new about the plot or politics of Avatar. Never mind Iraq: this is the founding and programmatic story of America – of the man with a gun coming up against the noble and athletic savage armed with stone-age weapons. This is not just the story of Pocahontas or Dances With Wolves.

Avatar is rooted in just about every film Hollywood made about cowboys and Indians. And that is why all those who think this is an anti-American film are also laughably mistaken. Why is Avatar being cheered by audiences of rednecks in Kentucky? Because it is the all-American movie – and not just because the white, American hero is given a messiah role among the blue-noses.

It is a feature of powerful military empires that they like to romanticise their victims and luxuriate guiltily in the pathos of their suffering. Think of the Roman crowds pleading for the lives of captured barbarians in the amphitheatre. Think of the statue of The Dying Gaul. The eco-conscience of Avatar is an example of how a dominant consumerist society is able to exhibit its better nature, to parade its guilt, to feel good about feeling bad.

And I can't believe that many of these gloomy post-Avatar Westerners, when they really think about it, would want to up sticks to Pandora and take part in Na'vi society, with its obstinate illiteracy, undemocratic adherence to a monarchy based on male primogeniture and complete absence of restaurants. The final irony, of course, is that this entrancing vision of prelapsarian innocence is the product of the most ruthless and sophisticated money-machine the world has ever seen. With a budget of $237 million and with takings already at £1 billion, this exquisite capitalist guilt trip represents one of the great triumphs of capitalism.



-- Eh? eh? Not bad.

As I sit here, drinking coffee and putting off essays...

... I am brought to thinking about various points in movies that have emotional impact towards me, be it chills, smiles or choked up feelings.
Yes... this is an awful distraction, and in part I blame my old friend Jordan Kologe (http://akropolisnow.blogspot.com/) for inspiring me. However, his post was much deeper, and had to do with deep emotional takeover and the individuality vs universality of emotions...

...and I am just going to give a brief list of some favorite movie moments that are in my immediate memory (seeing as deeper thought would require more focus that I am obviously willing to shell out tonight.... yikes work ethic).

None the less, here are some moments in movies that make Mr. Jonathan Arkle happy that such an art form (yes art form) exists.

When Andy watches his fellow inmates enjoy cold beers on the roof after a long day of work - The Shawshank Redemption

The opening title card and subsequent introduction to the 'boat' "Serenity, specifically it's correlation with the soundtrack - Serenity

Frodo confides his fears to Gandalf in Moria, Gandalf speaks of "the time that is given to you" - The Fellowship of the Ring

"I'd buy the quick-stop and re open it myself!" Randals "moment". - Clerks II

"There is no one watching out for us, we are all alone" Miracles and signs speech - Signs

"My Gift is my song" introduction - Moulin Rouge (shut it...)

Maximus enters Elysium, now we are free - Gladiator

When Mel Gibson rides down a line of people, with a flag or with face paint and rallies a war cry - Every Gibson movie.. ever

and I am writing this on my "blogger dashboard widget", so unfortunately, I have a limited amount of space before I must finish off, and that limit ends roughly he