Alex Vernon.com

Last Saturday I went to see a couple of short documentaries on Cambodia at the Greenwood Public Library.

Incidentally I ran out of gas for the second time in my life on the way. I was at the photo lab beforehand and decided I could make it back and fill up later since I was running late (for those that know me, this is no surprise). Well I did make it back to the house with my car sputtering and unable to start again. Not as cool as my dad running out of gas at the gas station and coasting to the pump but at least I made it home.

Even though I skipped getting gas I arrived about ten or fifteen minutes late. So I missed the first half of Searching For The Truth: My True Story but what I did catch was interesting. The filmmaker Dara Duong was in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge came into power. In fact he lost his father to the violence. The film was Dara in Cambodia interviewing ex-Khmer Rouge officials. Surprisingly even though they were old men now they showed no signs of remorse and admitted no responsibility for what they had done. Even though those events took place over thirty years ago no trails have been held to date. Dara has opened The Cambodian Cultural Museum and Killing Fields Memorial here in Seattle. I plan on visiting it soon and will review it here when I do. I also heard he originally started the museum in his car then moved it to his garage before he obtained a space, pretty cool.

The second film Visions from Cambodia was less enjoyable for me. It was following the journey of the filmmakers on a voluntourism trip to build houses in Cambodia. It did have some useful information about Tabitha the organization running the house building among other things. However the impression I received from the film was “Hey look at what we’re doing, aren’t we great?”. I thought more time could have been spent on the people the houses were being built for as opposed to the construction by foreigners. However I liked it nonetheless and the previous statements are just my opinions and you know what they say about those.

I went to see these films because years ago I had a girlfriend that was half khmer (Cambodian). I used to hang out with Cambodians quite a bit at that time and found them to be a fascinating people. We never talked much about what happened in Cambodia, so seeing the films was a good way to increase my knowledge of the situation. Oddly enough I have never seen The Killing Fields movie. Back at that time it was a little too close to home. Obviously I didn’t go through any of it but I didn’t want to know what those I cared about went through. Much time has passed now so I do want to see it but it will have to wait until I get a place and my TV and DVD player out of storage.

Some more info:

The Killing Fields

Khmer Rouge

Angkor Wat

A couple of weeks ago I was heading to Landmark to watch Factotum presented by the Atlanta Film Festival. I got off on the 10th, 14th, 17th, 27th, 156th street exit and was at a dead stop almost immediately. I figured it was left over traffic but it was so bad I decided to take a right on 10th and work my way around it. Finally I made it to Charles Allen and was again met with a massive line of cars and people walking all over the place. I then realized something was not right and remembered Screen on the Green was happening.

Apparently it gets a lot of press, I’m assuming they advertise it on the radio or TV. I saw something about it when it was first announced for this year but didn’t see anything that particularly interested me so I forgot about it.

I finally was able to turn on to 10th and see the mass of people all over the park. I couldn’t believe it, the last time I went to Screen on the Green there were maybe 100 people tops (it was raining at the time so that probably didn’t help the turn out). It looked like thousands of people and they were still piling in (to see Ferris Bueller, go figure). At this point I knew I was fucked. It’s hard enough to find a parking space in the Landmark’s parking lot with nothing going on and everytime there’s an event in the park a bunch of dickwads park there. I decided to make a run through the lot just to check but my suspicions were confirmed. Needless to say I was pissed, at least they booted some of the fuckers in the front lot. I wanted to slash some tires but I didn’t want to accidentally get a paying patron who actually went to a business connected to the lot. Anyway enough ranting, I’m over it now. Although it would be fun to buy a bunch of boots to stick on people’s cars that park there tomorrow, with Turner’s phone number on them of course.

Recently I saw The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It had been awhile since I read the books but I did remember quite a bit. Especially about the towel, as Ford Prefect says “You’ve got to know where your towel is”. During the scene when Arthur Dent meets Trillian she mentions they should go to Madagascar. Normally this would not have meant anything to me, however I glanced at the nutritious, life-sustaining bag of Chex-Mix in front of me that I just purchased from Walgreens as an impulse buy. Low and behold it had an offer for a Madagascar towel on the package! Apparently Madagascar is an animated kids movie. Though I have no desire to have a Madagascar towel the synchronicity is too much for me to ignore.

Towel and thumb all set
Do panic motherfuckers!
Contingency saves

Ok I’m going to jump on the bandwagon with this one because it’s so damn funny. Here’s a trailer for The Shining that must have hit the cutting room floor.

The Shining Trailer

War of the Worlds

special effects cool
Tom Cruise was actually good
tripods are the shit

Alexander (Director’s cut)

time slithers away
a disgrace to my namesake
eyes always open

City of God

kids can be brutal
forgotten people survive
still hope for dreamers

Stepford Wives

plastic womanhood
can not bring real happiness
just smile, nod and shop

Kinsey

pioneering sex
free love can be dangerous
repression is bad

Ghost in the Shell

what makes a human
animated chicks are hot
questioning myself

House of Flying Daggers

deception the norm
bamboo forests are serene
players can still love

I just found out that a new live-action Transformers movie will be coming out in 2007. Sounds very promising.

Article here

I saw Incident at Ogala a few day ago. This movie was a real eye opener, it’s absolutely disgusting to see what our government did to Lenord Peltier. It shocked me to see how our justice system can function. I highly recommend watching this, it’s time we get our heads out of the sand. Speaking of our justice system, Frontline did an excellent program on plea bargains last year. You can watch it here: The Plea

American Indian Movement

Harrison Ford has confirmed the he will play Indiana Jones in the upcoming sequel! Story here. I love the Indiana Jones movies since I grew up with them. I must have seen The Temple of Doom at least 15 times. Of course now that I am older it is my least favorite out of the three but it still gives my a lot of nostalgia.

Thanks to /. for the link.

-Alex

Monday night I had plans to meditate, work on my abs, talk a short walk with Thorin and open a business savings account. I got home around 20:30 after photography class and I was very tired. So I watched a movie instead (I did take the stairs at work though). Which one? Oh yeah, that would help. I saw Hellboy for the first time. I thought it was a decent movie. The only things that bothered me were the blatant product placements (in way too many movies nowadays) and I thought the CG in the final battle could have been a little better. Oh and the plot wasn’t great either but I wasn’t expecting that. Ron Perlman was excellent, he definitely made the movie. I love how they included a lot of humor and how the movie never really takes itself seriously. It did have an intriguing line though, “What makes a man?”. That got me thinking, am I a man. Physically yes, mentally I would assume so by most people’s definitions. But what is the right definition? How you live your life? How you go out? Lasting deeds or change? What you leave behind? What you don’t? 42?

-Alex

A RotK EE trailer has been released! You can see it here.

Thanks to /.

-Alex