10/08/2008

Master of Puppets



If something does not happen soon the holidays will be coming early for those who hold the strings. I'll give you three guesses who the turkey will be. Fight this!!! Fight the lies and the deceit!!! Fight those who want to bring us socialistic values!!! Fight those who hate America's individuality!!! Fight those who meet with terrorists!!! Fight those who look up to people who proclaim "God Damn America"!!! Fight those who wish to turn us into Europe!!! Fight those who want to raise our taxes!!! Fight those who think of us as less than we are!!! Fight those who wish to take our guns and scoff at our religion!!! Fight the media for their lies and bias!!! Fight those who will not drill for the oil we so desperately need!!! Fight those who think lawyers should run our country!!! Fight those who completely destroy our economy and want control of our healthcare!!! FIGHT!!! FIGHT!!! FIGHT!!!

10 comments:

Ducky's here said...

I have a serious question, Frank.

Why so much distaste for Europe? Have you been to Europe?

Why wouldn't you want to live in Florence, Geneva, Barcelona, Paris, Munich, Stockholm, Copenhagen?

What's the big issue with Europe?

Papa Frank said...

The big issue is that those who swear that all they want is individual rights are so dead set against us being our own man in the USA. America is the leader of the world. If you don't think so then just take a look at where those that are privileged aroiund the world seek out their higher education. They come to America. Look at the effect our economy has on the economy of the entire world. Look at where the world wanted the United Nations to reside. Look at how many countries watch our election closely. Watch the overwhelming applause at the Olympic Games when we are introduced. Look at our music and art that spread over the entire earth. We are something great and we are what we are. We have no desire to follow we must continue to lead.

Ducky's here said...

Frank, do you really want to duel with me on our music and art?

My specialty is film. We are at the bottom. You have D.W. Griffith and John Ford as great American directors. Orson Welles also but the studios couldn't handle his radical innovations.

In early film history it was Sweden and Germany who were the leaders. Then Russia took the lead with Eisenstein, Dovzhenko and the Dziga Vertov movement. Film editing was born in Russia not America.

The war interrupted film making and coming out of it you had the Italian neo-realist movement. Then the French new wave.
Germany picked it up in the early 70's largely through work done in East Germany.
You had the Japanese doing what I consider the finest film making in history in the 50's and 60's. Can you name anything in American film the equal of Rashomon, Tokyo Story, Sansho the Bailiff?

Then you had the Chinese 5th wave and the emergence of Iranian cinema.

I was watching an Iranian film the other night "A Few Kilo's of Dates for a Funeral". It's hilarious. A slacker movie.
I'm watching and between laughing I'm thinking , "How can these guys be the enemy? They've got slackers too. We know these guys."


What do we have? We have marketing and distribution but we certainly don't have artistic quality.

I usually get the elitist tag thrown at me but I have studied and learned the trade and I have made an effort to find good films. Unfortunately film isn't the only area where we really have no right to talk until we stand back and critically analyze our own efforts.

I work in film and study film. We are dead last in the world history of innovation and thematic invention.

What do youwant,"Transformers" or "Jules and Jim"?
And if I make what seem to be obscure references, it is only to point out there is more out there than you imagine in your philosophy.

Papa Frank said...

I guess you have never studied the innovations put forth by Walt Disney? You can talk about the quality of films from other countries and you may be absolutely correct. However, I am talking about world influence. Can you say that any other country has the influence that the USA does through its film and art?

Ducky's here said...

Influence simply means marketing. We have the marketing muscle.

Much of what is derisively considered "art house" film has been subsidized in the past. Bergman needed the help of the Swedish government to get a lot of his films made. Still, if "The Seventh Seal" isn't as big a seller as "Legally Blonde" which is the greater art?

The mass market seeks the least common denominator. That's how it makes money. We shouldn't be quite so proud of it. Japanese film goes from being some of the best ever to being cheap kung-fu "product".

Film (or any art) can be transformative. However, the profit motive is less likely to be up to the task.

Yeah, you're right about Disney (actually Max Fleischer was the greater pioneer) and I also forgot another of our great geniuses, Buster Keaton.

Papa Frank said...

Now that you have the history and benefits of film laid out please tell me how it is to our advantage to follow instead of lead the world. Why SHOULD we wish to be more like Europe?

Ducky's here said...

We should wish to be ourselves, Frank. But pride is a bad damaging sin.

We can be ourselves without belittling other nations and cultures and we will be greater for it.

Papa Frank said...

What you say here is true. But if we take on the values of other nations instead of the values of our own nation then have we not harmed ourself? If we are the greatest nation on earth then wouldn't it even be a good idea for us to continue in our values so as to continue to give other nations hope? It's not that all nations are hopeless except for us or that they are not good but why try to assimilate to their values? We will always be the best that we can be by being ourself. We were founded to be different and that is part of our great strength. For instance I can profoundly disagree with you on so many issues and yet I view you as a fellow American and friend. We probably share little in common economically and socially but we coexist here and I would defend you against aggressors even as I believe you would defend me. It is not blind and sinful pride that says we are great but rather a part of our greatness is in recognizing that we are fragile as well. That is why it is important to defend America and her values for both can be lost.

Ducky's here said...

Today's poem:

FACING WEST FROM CALIFORNIA'S SHORES

by: Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Facing west from California's shores,
Inquiring, tireless, seeking what is yet unfound,
I, a child, very old, over waves, towards the house of maternity, the land of migrations, look afar,
Look off the shores of my Western sea, the circle almost circled;
For starting westward from Hindustan, from the vales of Kashmere,
From Asia, from the north, from the God, the sage, and the hero,
From the south, from the flowery peninsulas and the spice islands,
Long having wander'd since, round the earth having wander'd,
Now I face home again, very pleas'd and joyous,
(But where is what I started for so long ago? And why is it yet unfound?)

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