mushin no shin

Goldni and Aunt B have some thoughtful posts about the omnipresent sexism (if not outright misogyny) in last night’s superbowl ads.
I don’t have anything to add really, but did have a minor disagreement with Aunt B on one tangential item:

I mean, I thought the Google ad was cute, but it seemed like a masterpiece because [...]

so here we go;
sorry I haven’t written much here lately. I have no greater excuse than simply not having been in the right frame of mind.
Well. Don’t know when I’ll be back, but I’m here. And it’s Saturday night, after Christmas. It’s been a decent one. Thursday with the dad, brother, and brother’s family, at [...]

Man, Netflix is getting really specific. The first “category” on my homepage is now “Dark Tortured-Genius Dramas”.
On a similar track, I’ve always been annoyed that they only give us 5 stars to rate with, no half stars, etc, and usually when I go to rate one I’m thinking, “well this one’s really a 3.5″, etc… [...]

Somehow I had not until now gotten around to watching Spike Lee’s excellent biography of Malcolm X. Meanwhile, a few weeks ago I saw the Ken Burns PBS documentary on Thomas Jefferson. Together the two films suggest an interesting comparison of the two men, as regards their curiously intersecting natures as great flawed heroes.
We see [...]

W00t! yeah, Man on Wire won Best Documentary!!!!!!!
OK, I’m not really that excited. Fellow nominee Trouble the Water would have made me just as happy. These are just the only nominated flicks I saw besides The Dark Knight, and I just wanted to fit in with all the cool kids talking about the awards.

I’m really hoping Al Franken pulls this one out. Because he’s good enough, and smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like him. OK OK I know I already made that joke. Shut up.
Awesome major victories in the War on the War on Drugs with Massachusetts essentially decriminalizing small possession (ehh… still a $100 fine… [...]

Not quite sure what to make of McCain’s appearance on SNL:

It was funny, certainly, and McCain definitely brings back his likable side. But what strikes me — by appearing with Tina Fey, and allowing her to do the whole “going rogue” bit and all — he seems to be basically admitting what has so far [...]

I saw Trouble the Water tonight — excellent, deeply moving film. I think the tag line sums it up nicely –

It’s not about a hurricane… it’s about America

I mean just damn, what more can be said? Katrina showed us our worst and our best all at once, and they’ve captured it masterfully in this documentary [...]

Soooo…. yeah, sorry I missed the party at the saucer tonight. There was at least one person I’m sorta curious about meeting, but there was also one person I really didn’t want to run into, which I guess might have have washed out in the balance.. but then at least three or four of the [...]

Just another brain dump…

Dude, how did I make it some 13 years without having seen or heard of Mr. Show??? Funny funny stuff. I can see why Miss Lesley is so enamored with David Cross.
Speaking of things I’ve recently Netflixed (if that’s not a verb yet, it should be), The Lives of Others was phenomenal. [...]