Django Unchained (2012)

 

I finally saw Django Unchained (it opened Christmas Day 2012). I enjoyed the movie. It was entertainment. It's a movie I could (and probably will) watch again. It was your typical man-seeks-vengeance, save-the-princess buddy movie with comedic and psuedo-superhero elements. What's not to love? Men on horses, men shooting guns, witty one-liners -- works for me.

Django (Jamie Foxx) and Dr. Schultz (Christoph Waltz) in Django Unchained

The Time I Felt I Couldn't Hollaback

Bumper Sticker by Holly Kearl

On my way home after a wonderful night, two men took it upon themselves to ruin my mood. Friday evening, I had a great time at Word Up pop-up bookshop. I read that evening, listened to other authors, poets and musicians, and after the event, spent time with a new acquaintance.


The train ride home was uneventful. Not one drunk or vagabond to speak of. The train made all stops. It was a little after 4am on Saturday morning before I got back to my neighborhood. I've done this a million times before. About a block away from the train station a car pulled up along side the parked cars, slowing to about 5 miles an hour to keep pace with me. The passenger called out to me something to the effect that I shouldn't be alone and asked if he could walk with me. I knew the tone. He wasn't trying to be a gentleman. I kept pace and looked sidelong at him. He continued to speak but rage was drowning out whatever he was saying.

Random Musings On French Sex

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former IMF chief attacks a hotel housekeeper, a "chambermaid" this past weekend; chases her stark nude down the hallway, forces himself on her and forces her to perform oral sex. She escapes. He flees. She reports the incident. He's apprehended on the tarmac, minutes before take-off. This is something straight out of a movie, or Law & Order: SVU.


Or a cartoon.

Pepe le Pew, anyone?

Does this explain why Strass-Kahn is considered the victim by some French supporters?

Cidade de Deus (City Of God)

Men will be boys and the power of photography

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Zé is ugly. He's drug dealer and gangster in 1970's Rio. Never learned to read. Socially awkward, not sure how to handle his feelings so he resorted to violence.


Those are some of the conclusions I drew while watching Cidade de Deus (2002).

Mano A Mano

This weekend I watched the Winky Wright/Paul Williams bout after watching the documentary, Thrilla in Manila. Then I watched 300 which got me thinking about the epic battle scenes in Lord of the Rings. Movies, but more specifically, scenes like that really excite me. Just the hand-to-hand combat, the fearlessness, the honor, the men. I would love for a neuroscientist to study me. Hook up electrodes to my brain, play some violent images before me and monitor my brain activity. I've had a proclivity to violence; the old ECW, hardcore matches, the less-sanctioned UFC from the late 90's, shootfighting all that. I also understand "emotional violence", "honorable violence".

Playing To The Death

In college, I wrote a paper on violence in sports. It was for one of my sport “theory” classes (Sport Psychology, Principles of Coaching, I don’t quite remember) but in the paper, I discussed parents gone wild, the jail in the old Veterans Stadium for unruly fans, hockey goons and soccer hooligans. Players against players, fans against fans, fans against players; it’s a never ending battle. According to reports yesterday, an Iraqi player was shot dead on the field as he was about to kick what could’ve been a game tying goal. In most of the world, football is life. I’m not condoning the senseless murder at all, but this was coming, at some point at some stadium. The Iraqi national team doesn’t even live or practice in Iraq for security reasons. Is this just Iraq’s problem? I don’t think so. 


I’ll be rooting for Nigeria and Jamaica as well as my adopted nations of Italy, Brazil and Argentina in the World Cup 2010. South Africa will host. I wonder what sort of security measures they will implement. With the world watching, will everyone be on their best behavior or is the world stage the time to act out or “make a statement”? In Beijing this past summer, there are folks who never made it home when all they wanted to do was witness dramatic Olympic moments. Those unfortunate deaths weren’t the work of terrorists, neither was the incident in Iraq. In recent years, focus has been on thwarting terrorism and rightly so, but we can’t forget the passionate, enraged little guy who can cause big problems.