Film
Who would possibly want to make a movie about a rogue journalist-turned-murder investigator and a bad-ass goth chick/computer hacker/rape victim who extracts revenge on her assailant by carving epithets into his chest?
If the movie was to be based on Stieg Larsson's wildly popular global smash novel "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo," then the answer is "Hollywood," of course. And interestingly, director David Fincher's version of "Dragon Tattoo" is (already) version #2 of Larsson's story to appear on the silver screen (a capable Swedish rendition of the entire trilogy having...
In 2006, in anticipation of my retirement from academia, we bought 160 acres of beautiful land in the central highlands of New Mexico. There we were going to live out our cowboy fantasy by raising horses and riding them on my rancher friend’s cattle roundups. The high desert land was covered with grass, juniper, and some Pinyon pine trees, and offered a spectacular view of the Manzano Mountains. The land sat atop the Chupadera Mesa about 13 miles outside of Mountainair and six miles off the main road. Santa Fe was only an hour and a half to the North.
One beautiful March day, my rancher friend, and real deal ex-bull...
There are so many areas of struggle, inequality and injustice but there is also a growing global community that is standing up to power. Be inspired by Sampat Pal Devin from "Pink Saris" who stands up for herself and others in India, or learn from Harry Belafonte how to never give up hope for a more just world. Travel inside a Vermont prison and learn how incarceration effects our families and communities, or go deep into the jungle of the Congo to find out where the metals for your electronics come from. Fight with the protesters in Iran or live through the story of a Miral, a Palestinian woman who grows up in a country torn...
Below is the latest video from the Zeitgeist folks. It's more sophisticated in its analysis, and more persuasive in its presentation, than their previous material.
The film is divided into two parts, with a very dramatic transition between them, around point 1:30:16. Part 1, prior to that point, is a radical critical analysis of the current socio-ecomic system, concluding that at its very root the system is flawed. Part 2 is along these lines: Let's assume we have a blank slate, that we can start all over, and let's design a better system, a sustainable system, a system that matches the realities of a...
"Wisconsin Rising tells the story of how Wisconsin became a testing ground for the nation in a political environment where corporations have greater and greater clout and ordinary citizens are losing their ability to obtain redress. At a time when millions of families are feeling the crush of debt and joblessness, and while large corporations are seeing record profits, Badger State residents are demonstrating the strength that comes from a shared sense of identity and pride, and that these bonds can shake even the most powerful political machines. This film will be a testimony to the...
This week, with a nod to the onrushing holiday, and various freight trains of dread barreling down the track at us, I want to take a break from the usual concerns and talk about something else: why Hollywood exemplifies our worst collective blunder of the historical moment: our techno-narcissism.
I went to the cineplex at the mall late yesterday afternoon - also a break, after a month of moving and shlepping to another house - to see the new Martin Scorcese movie, Hugo. The story told is a sort of frame for an homage to one of the pioneers or movie-making, Georges Méliès, a French "illusionist" (magician) who made over...
Charles Eisenstein's book "Sacred Economics" was reviewed in the Fall 2011 print edition of The Vermont Commons. According to our reviewer, the book:
"lays out a comprehensive plan for redefining money in accordance with ecological realities and the deep human longing for connection, meaning, and purpose. Building on theorists as diverse as Aristotle, Henry George, John Maynard Keynes, and Silvio Gesell (who devised a system of demurrage or negative-interest money a century ago), Eisenstein proposes a number of innovations and policy shifts he claims can guide a relatively orderly transition to a localized,...
Would the end of the New York Times be such a big deal?
This is the provocative question at the heart of director Andrew Rossi's compelling new documentary "Page One: Inside the New York Times.”
Forget for a moment that the New York Times, far from being a “liberal”...
