The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Over the weekend I was fortunate enough to see the Jordan Peele film, "Get Out" - a dark horror comedy which provides rarities for any film in horror genre: Good acting, an intriguing plot, and a social message. I may need to see this movie again to garner a clearer understanding of what Peele's true intentions were with it, but just based on my first viewing, here are a few of my thoughts. While I'll likely need to see the film again to decide whether or not all the different themes Peele tackled tie in with one another, two of the biggest themes were slavery and racism, without question. Peele attempts to provide us the vantage point of a young and realistic black man whose world collides with that of a liberal white family which is ignorant of African-Americans' history and lives in the present, The family has workers around the home who are all black, claim they'd vote Obama for a third term if they had the chance, and even insinuate that blacks are inna...

Typically when I comment about Facebook memes, it's because they're lacking in accuracy, have gone viral, and I feel the need to fact-check them. The polar opposite was true of a recent such post I read, which I felt was so brilliant, I needed to share it. It was posted in light of the recent mass shooting in Oregon, and while he claims the original post was not his quote, writer William Hamby ( http://livinglifewithoutanet.wordpress.com/) previously wrote something very similar to it: "Or, hey, how about we treat every young man who wants to buy a gun like every woman who wants to get an abortion -- mandatory 48-hr waiting period, parental permission, a note from his doctor proving he understands what he's about to do, a video he has to watch about the effects of gun violence, an ultrasound wand up the ass (just because). Let's close down all but one gun shop in every state and make him travel hundreds of miles, take time off work, and stay overnight in a str...

I didn't really know what I was getting into last night when I sat in the recliner to watch a film I had taped on TCM (Turner Classic Movies) a couple months ago. The film was the 1962 Spanish classic El Angel Exterminador (The Exterminating Angel), co-written and directed by surrealist great Luis Bunuel. After seeing this film, I have to say I'll make it a point to see many of Bunuel's other works. This is the kind of film that frustrates many viewers, while marveling others, for it leaves open to interpretation the point and message it's trying to get across, while being able to provide just as much power and marvel behind one interpretation as with another. As for me, I'm definitely in the latter of the two groups I mentioned. Some people need a very black-and-white message, void of symbolism and ambiguity, to be fully satisfied with a film-viewing experience. While I can be satisfied with such a viewing, I tend to more enjoy an experience where my mind is stim...

I'm just going to say it - Democrats throw better parties than Republicans. While Republicans may have different country artists from which to choose, all of five semi-well known steroid-consumed actors and a host of speakers with slightly more enthusiasm and charisma than a comatose Ben Stein, Democrats have much more to work with as far as musicians, Hollywood and great orators are concerned. Granted, there were some very dull speeches last night that made me long for the day I could watch a full miniature golf tournament in slow-motion. However, both conventions have had their fair share of such speeches. But whereas, I can only recall three semi-standout speeches at the Republican National Convention (John Kasich, Ann Romney and especially Condoleeza Rice), I'm already having trouble remembering the names of all the great speeches at the Democratic National Convention and there's still another night left of it! While I thought that the president of Planned Parenthood ...

I had every intention of watching both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, Tuesday through Thursday, from 7 to 11 pm EST. I followed through with that last week for the RNC, but due to Time Warner Cable deciding to leave me without cable starting at almost exactly 7 pm last night (I know - conspiracy, right? Just kidding) until 3:30 in the morning, the only portion of the DNC I could watch was on ABC from 10 to 11, where I watched both San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro and First Lady Michelle Obama speak. Due to the limited time I was able to watch the convention last night, I won't be able to provide as thorough of an overview as I had the previous Tuesday through Thursday. If I have cable the next couple nights, though, I will certainly watch the DNC in its entirety as I had initially intended. Just based on what I did in fact see last night, I noticed both striking similarities and differences between the two conventions. As far as similarities go, both speakers ...