Well, as I write this, it is Monday morning, November 3rd and America is perched on the edge of Election Day 2008. Wow! I can barely believe that W had 8 full years in office. How tragic.
I have found myself, as I am sure so many of you can relate, endlessly thinking about this election and what it means to me and my community and the country and the world, and I cannot shake the feeling that this election is the most important one of my lifetime. In a sense, we are perched on the edge of a group evolutionary moment. How cool is that? Yesterday someone told me that we could become the first white majority country to elect a black president. I am not sure if that is true or not, but I think the message that America could send to the rest of the world by electing Barack Obama President is tremendous.
I am not under any illusion that this will make the economy better immediately, or improve interpersonal relations, or even help create peace. I don’t think any of us can predict that. However, I do think that what it does say is that we are no longer willing to accept what we KNOW is wrong. We are no longer willing to go with the status quo JUST BECAUSE.
Does Joe the Plummer (or for that matter, Ken the Video Store Owner) understand exactly how the economy is affected by presidential policy? Of course not. Does Ken the Video Store Owner have a deep sense of how to conduct Foreign Policy? Not really. Does Ken the Video Store Owner even really understand how the Electoral College works? No, I don’t. But I think what most of the Ken the Video Store Owners DO understand is that something is deeply wrong with the way we are currently running our government.
Something is wrong with our health-care systems, and our insurance systems.
Something is wrong with our environmental policies and our ability to adapt to scientific data.
Something is wrong with our corporate structures and the ability for CEO’s to get impossibly rich while people are losing their savings.
Something is wrong with our international policies and our inability to be honest about why we are doing what we are doing.
This is not deep analysis, just basic concerns clear to anyone who reads the news.
I am not going to urge anyone to vote any certain way in this blog. I know that mostly I am preaching to the choir. To that end, I am tremendously proud of the community I live in, both on the micro level (Bernal Heights) and the macro (The San Francisco Bay Area). Just vote, vote your conscience and that’s all you can be expected to do.
I look forward to tomorrow, because I think that by the time I am ready to go to sleep, we will be looking forward to a tremendous new time in our history, a time that will likely be written about in school books in years to come. As we face the economic fears that will likely not go away right away, let’s remember that we are still living and breathing and we still have a responsibility to ourselves to be positive and spread positivity! As a community, we can get through tough times. Isn’t that one of the basic reasons we have a government?
Today, in light of the election, I have written most of the film encapsulations highlighting the special archetypes that one of the parties likes to see us as. I think it is likely you will find yourself somewhere in these capsules.
In the event that the other party wins tomorrow, all I can say is thank god for movies.
Alrighty, then. See you at the store. We’ll have snacks and drinks all evening, come by and whoop it up with us.
Love and Kisses,
Ken
............//NEW RELEASES//............
BIRDS OF AMERICA.
Comedy/Drama.
Matthew Perry/Ben Foster/Hilary Swank.
Directed by Craig Lucas.
* Morrie the Regular Guy (Perry) struggles with his weird-ass normal life and his freaky abnormal siblings while trying to make sense of it all.
FLASHBACKS OF A FOOL.
Drama.
Daniel Craig/James D’Arcy/Claire Forlani/Keeley Hawes.
Directed by Baillie Walsh.
* Joe the Aging Hedonistic Hollywood Star (Craig) looks back on his childhood after the death of his friend and confronts the pain that he has been hiding from his whole life.
FUTURAMA: BENDER’S GAME.
Animation.
John DiMaggio/Billy West.
Directed by Dwayne Carie-Hill.
*Bender Bending RodrÃguez, the “Alcoholic, Whore-Mongering, Chain-Smoking Gambler” Robot (DiMaggio) gets involved in a deep and lethal game of Dungeons and Dragons in this the third (of four) planned Futurama films.
GET SMART.****ALSO IN BLU-RAY****
Comedy/Action.
Steve Carell/Anne Hathaway/Dwayne Johnson/Alan Arkin/James Caan.
Directed by Peter Segal.
* Maxwell Smart the Secret Agent Man (Carell) helps thwart KAOS from world domination with super hottie Agent 99 (Hathaway) at his side.
THE GOOD LIFE.
Comedy/Drama/Suspense.
Mark Webber/Zooey Deschanel/Chris Klein/Bill Paxton/Drea de Matteo/Patrick Fugit/Harry Dean Stanton.
Directed by Stephen Berra.
* Jason the Almost Normal Guy Who Has Problems Fitting In (Webber) kinda fits in with Frances (Deschanel) but not really. This character driven film about isolation features great performances from its character actor cast.
KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN: COLLECTOR’S EDITION.
Drama.
Raul Julia/William Hurt/Sonia Braga.
Directed by Hector Babenco.
* Valentin Arregui the Imprisoned South American Revolutionary (Julia) shares a jail cell with Luis Molina, the Wrongfully Charged Yet Correctly Characterized Transvestite Homosexual (Hurt) and through the beautiful and charged fantasy of films come to an understanding and respect for each other. This movie is so wonderful!
MOSCOW ZERO.
Action/Suspense/Drama/Mystery/Thriller.
Vincent Gallo/Val Kilmer.
Directed by Maria Lidon.
* Owen the Priest (Gallo) hires some people to look for his friend Sergei the Demon-Researcher and Looker For The Entrance To Hell who has disappeared under ground in Moscow where they encounter Andrey the Head of The Underground People (Kilmer). While there, they search for both Gallo and Kilmer’s missing careers.
7 VIRGINS.
Crime/Drama/Foreign (Spanish).
Juan Jose Ballesta.
Directed by Alberto Rodriguez.
* Tano the Fucked-Up Teenager In Juvenile Hall gets a 48 hour leave and tries to accomplish everything he is prevented from doing while in jail. In the meantime, he experiences a collapse of his community causing his ride of recklessness to turn into a journey into adulthood.
SHREK THE HALLS.
Animation/Holiday.
Mike Meyers/Eddie Murphy/Cameron Diaz/Antonio Banderas.
Directed by Gary Trousdale.
* Shrek the Big Green Ogre Dude (Meyers) stars in a thirty minute holiday Shrektastic Shrektacular Shrektacle.
TRANSSIBERIAN.
Suspense/Crime.
Woody Harrelson/Emily Mortimer/Ben Kingsley.
Directed by Brad Anderson.
* Roy and Emily the American Couple Who Travel All Over the World In Exotic Places Foreign-Relations Be Damned, get caught up in a dark world of drug dealing and international smuggling in this take on the classic train suspense film.
WHAT WE DO IS SECRET.
Drama/Rock and Roll.
Shane West/Bijou Phillips.
Directed by Rodger Grossman.
* The true life story of Darby Crash the Punk Rock Icon Who Died Early (West) ex-frontman for the L.A. band, The Germs who lived fast and died young. Produced by Pat Smear, the guitar player for The Germs.
WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER.
Drama.
Colin Firth/Jim Broadbent.
Directed by Anand Tucker.
* When Blake the Somewhat Alienated Adult Son (Firth) finds out his father Arthur the Pinched Older Guy Who Opens Up a Bit During the Dying Process, is near the end, he travels to visit him and the time they spend together helps them understand and process their lives. Based on the book by the real-life Blake Morrison.
............//DOCUMENTARY//............
DJ SPOOKY’S: REBIRTH OF A NATION.
Music Remix.
Directed by DJ Spooky.
* Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky the Trippy Hyper-Intellectual Supersonic Music Collagist DJ Guy remixes D.W. Griffith's infamous inflammatory film BIRTH OF A NATION.
GUNNIN FOR THAT #1 SPOT.
Documentary/Sports.
Directed by Adam Yauch.
* Adam Yauch, the Documentary Filmmaker brings us this snapshot in time of eight high-school basketball players competing in 2006 at an elite tournament who all have hopes of being drafted first in a future NBA draft.
TOO TOUCH TO DIE: JOHNNY RAMONE.
Roc-Doc.
Deborah Harry/Nicholas Cage/Eddie Vader (I think he is Darth’s son) – fine Vedder.
Directed by Mandy Stein.
* A rockumentary following a benefit concert celebrating the Ramones 30th anniversary right before the death of Johnny Ramone the Long-Haired Heroin-Addicted Punk Rock Legend.
............//FAMILY//............
BARBIE: A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
CHRISTMAS IS HERE AGAIN.
THE CHRISTMAS TOY.
EMMET OTTER’S JUG-BAND CHRISTMAS.
HIT FAVORITES: SNOW DAYS.
MIFFY & FRIENDS: MIFFY’S CHRISTMAS TREE.
............//BLU-RAY NEW ADDITIONS//............
A CHRISTMAS STORY.
* Ken the Video Store Owner’s favorite Christmas movie of all time.
-
............// HALLOWEEN NEW ADDITIONS//............
CASPER.
* First DVD of this, er, spooky film.
............// NEW ADDITIONS//............
DEATH BECOMES HER.
* First DVD of the Meryl Streep comedy co-starring Goldie Hawn, Bruce Willis and Isabella Rossellini.
MY FATHER’S GLORY.
* First DVD.
MY MOTHER’S CASTLE.
* First DVD.
............// REPLACEMENT DISCS//............
CASTLE IN THE SKY.
* Masterful Hayao Miyazaki animated film.
PRINCESS MONONOKE.
* Another super amazing Miyazaki film. Have you seen any of these? You must.
****
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