Weblog 316

March 4, 2012~ 12:45 am
This past week has been a humdinger. First off, right after I completed my first entry to this blog last Saturday evening, I read about the execution of two officers in Afghanistan... I was beyond frightened because my son is there, and it took until Sunday afternoon till my daughter sent word that he was ok. God! I HATE this blasted, forever war.

It was also this week that I found out a much-loved co-worker is seriously ill.... that knocked the pins right out from under me.

You know, a lot of folks turn to prayer, turn to 'the Lord' when hit with a few dire things at once, but for me just the opposite happens. I don't become pious.....I get PISSED OFF BIG TIME. It brings out the inner atheist in me. One I can't deny. I become irritable, reckless, snapping at the bit to find some target for my ire.

Then by turns, I'm sad. Quiet.... contemplative......



I mope. I sleep a lot... then get angry again, and it cycles over and over like that.




So what did Wayne and I pick out for a movie this Saturday evening?

"CONTAGION"....and it was. In every possible way.

A real stinker of a film that barely reaches mediocre 'movie of the week made-for-television' status. How can so many good actors be wasted on such a dog of a film?



Just LOOK at those faces.... man o man, and still the film was tiresome, unfocused, too long and far too full of pablum, so instead of a real thriller featuring the disease as a personified antagonist and LOTS of suspense as in, say, a movie like 'Outbreak'- this one decided to concentrate on the societal effects of a pandemic.

The writers unwisely chose to throw in every single one of the things that make selfish, current society so terribly tiresome by attempting to be relevant: our addiction to social media, our mistrust of government, adultery within seemingly stable marital relationships, the greed and 'me-first, f*ck you' that happens when things break down for an immature, selfish populace.

I think they were trying for some kind of 'morality tale' but in a glitzy 'hip' way; so they failed miserably because such a thing can't be done.

What they DID manage to achieve was to make even the best actors appear hokey in interspersed scenes of what the directors intended to be viewed as ... 'touching'. Self-consciously so. It's a terrible, terrible film, and the WORST was the character played by Jude Law. (A person more sickeningly brash and abrasive I cannot imagine, and my fondest wish was to see him convulsing and foaming at the mouth as far better characters had done before him, but alas, the prick survived.)

The creators of 'Contagion' want us to be frightened, seeing the world in chaos and disarray..... our 'stuff' scattered everywhere



as things like cellphones, iPads become less important and the search for food and for safety from maddened, marauding neighbors become major concerns; even 'teen love', with its raging hormonal imperative, has to be set aside. LOL!!!

Of course, once a vaccine is discovered, all can return to normal in the Land of Hedonism....



Shallow cavorting and self-concern can safely return to the great U.S. of A., just like always... ear buds in place, zombies staring at screens and endlessly texting.

My final thoughts? I imagine that most viewers who finish their viewing of 'Contagion' bear a close resemblance to the star who dies first in the movie....



Yep. That bad.

That brings to mind a wonderful line from one of the responders at Metafilter in a discussion I read Saturday evening about the Rush Limbaugh brouhaha. There were TONS of comments debating women's reproductive lives and current American politics- line after line of people's opinions scrolling down the screen, worked into a FERVOR over that current controversy -when a thoughtful participant said, "Meanwhile, the government of Syria is literally slaughtering its own citizens, and we're bickering about what some fat guy said."

(If that poster had been in the room with me, I would have KISSED HIM.)

Oh and that GORGEOUS painting above? It's by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, an artist from the Netherlands, circa late 19th century. He makes me want to swoon looking at those lush, lush paintings done in such a Pre-Raphaelite glory of color and detail.

Here's a portion of that painting enlarged for greater detail.



To see more of his astonishing work, visit Alma-Tadema.org

Once there, I dare you to keep your mouth from dropping open, the work is simply that beautiful!




March 8, 2012~ 6:10 pm
Another day of madness in Pittsburgh... (some days you feel the unraveling of society's seams more than others, and today we have one more spree shooting within the city limits.) What is HAPPENING in this town???

Chaos...discontent...lawlessness...angers boiling over into bloodshed...



See those barbaric unnamed creatures in that wee bit of a Bosch painting? Is that what happens to those who 'snap' suddenly? Is THAT the world they see or the one they want to bring to fruition? I'm weary of reading these news headlines, thinking "Oh, no....NOT another one."



***Richard Baumhammers -year 2000. Killed 3, paralyzed 1.

***Ronald Taylor -year 2000. Shot 5, Killed 3.

***Richardl Poplawski -year 2009. Ambushed, shot and killed 3 policemen.

***George Sodini -year 2009. Killed 3 at a local health club, then turned the gun on himself.


***Today -2 dead, including the as-yet unnamed assailant, and 7 wounded in the very center of UPMC's complex of several hospitals in Oakland. The shooter walked right into the reception area of Western Psych and opened fire.

This, from the Post-Gazette, 5:00pm:

"Security is normally very tight at Western Psych, according to those who work there. Visitors must stop at a first-floor reception desk for a visitor's badge, but they are not checked with a metal detector until they are about to enter one of the locked units upstairs."

There are metal detectors just before the locked-down patient area, but honestly, in this day and age, in a facility for the grievously mentally ill, including, I'd assume, violent patients -who may return some day and carrying MORE than a chip on their shoulder... it would seem prudent to have metal detectors positioned at the building's entrance as well.

(ADDENDUM TO THIS:)

THIS is how it's been 'updated'... (i.e.-'spun'?)

When I checked the same story, it was intensively edited in the Post-Gazette at 7:15pm

"Security is normally very tight at Western Psychiatric, according to those who work there. Law enforcement sources said the shooting may have begun in an area called the Diagnostic and Evaluation Center, or DEC, as it's referred -- a fact that stunned employees. "That's the most secure part of the entire building," one employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said

The DEC is the equivalent of Western Psych's emergency room where patients are admitted. It is an area located off of the first floor that requires all visitors, including employees, to go through security similar to airport screenings, though the guards do not carry guns, another employee said. Visitors have to empty their pockets of everything, and all their possessions checked out by a team of security officers before passing through a metal detector there. Only after passing through that do you get to go past the first locked door, which leads to a second locked door where you have to ring for another security guard asks you why you're there. Only then, if approved, can you enter."

(WAS THE FIRST REPORT 'MISGUIDED' or did SOMEBODY DECIDE TO COVER SOME ASSES?)

Hmmmmmmmmmmm...???)

If you take today's bloodbath and add it to the inordinate, recent numbers of 'home invasions', bank robberies, acts of arson, gang shootings.... I have to ask: "America's Most-Livable City"?

For whom?

Criminals and psychopaths???





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