Cheeky Monkeys

Here's an amusing/disturbing news story about some very rambunctious monkeys in Kenya. They've gone way beyond stealing pots of rice and bananas from our safari cook!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6959209.stm

Four Documentaries and an Angel

It's been a busy week of viewing pleasure here in Portland. Every Wednesday, I grab a copy of the free city paper - the Willamette Week - and start making plans for the coming days. This particular week, there were a number of good things going on, and I didn't want to miss any of them. That's how it came to be that I spent 5 of the last 6 nights in a darkened theater. My roommate Alisa joined me for four of them. I saw some amazing stuff this week, so I thought I would share.

In the Shadow of the Moon - This is probably the only documentary I saw this week that anyone will have heard of. Produced by Ron Howard, it contains in depth interviews with several Apollo astronauts as well as plenty of incredible footage. There were no special effects in this movie, just what the astronauts themselves filmed. I've often daydreamed about being an astronaut myself, so this was a must-see. I think what I liked most about it was that it dispels the myth I had about astronauts somehow being superhuman. They were all incredibly bright and capable guys of course. But in these interviews, they talk about how scary it was, how crazy it all seemed at times, and 38 years later, they still seem tickled pink that someone chose them to do it. And when you think about it, what an incredible feat it was. When JFK announced to the world that we'd put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, no one had the slightest clue how it was going to be done. We hadn't even gotten a man into space at that point. There were so many unknowns, but NASA and America just got behind it and said, "We're going to do this." And it actually worked! It made me feel proud to be a part of a humanity that dares to dream big and works to see it through. Next stop, Mars!

King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters - Imagine a world in which feathered mullets are the pinnacle of fashion. In which no entertainment exists finer than Miss Pac Man, Q-Bert, and Donkey Kong. Now imagine that world still existed in a small community of devoted enthusiasts. It does. Billy Mitchell is the world's greatest Donkey Kong player. In the 1980's as a teenager, he broke the world record, and no one has ever been able to touch it. Enter Steve Wiebe, an unemployed husband and father with a desire to break a lifetime record of defeat and finally be the best at something. Billy has been part of the gaming community for more than 2 decades, and his fans are equally awed by and terrified of him. He is Arnold Schwarzenegger in Pumping Iron. And Steve Wiebe is poor, dejected outcast Lou Ferrigno. He's a genuinely nice guy who wants to be the best, but can he triumph over the godlike power of Billy and win the hearts and minds of the Twin Galaxies community? This documentary is a fascinating window into a subculture of ubergeeks and just what they'll do to be the uber-est.

Angel - I don't know if the Mission Theater just didn't get the word from Twentieth Century Fox or if they've managed to find a loophole, but they continue to play the ouevre of Joss Whedon like there's no tomorrow. Perhaps because it's free they can get away with it. So I know where I'll be spending my Tuesday nights!

For the Bible Tells Me So - Part of this week's Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, this documentary examines the biblical passages concerning homosexuality and interviews several scholars to provide interpretation and context to them. Even more powerful are the human stories of Christian families dealing with the sexuality of their sons and daughters. There are interviews with former representative Dick Gephardt, whose daughter Chrissy came out just as he was starting his political campaign for president. Also interviewed are Gene Robinson, the first gay Episcopal bishop, and his aging parents. Each family describes the struggle they endured to try and come to terms with their children's sexuality and to love and accept them as they are. It does have a liberal slant, but no one can watch these stories without being moved.

Buddha's Lost Children - This documentary with English subtitles takes place in northern Thailand on the border of Burma. There a former Thai boxer turned monk named Khru Bah wanders on horseback from village to village with a band of young novice boys to rebuild temples and give service to communities. He teaches the boys strength through meditation, boxing, hard work, and the occasional chest tattoo. He takes in boys who are orphaned or desperately poor and tries to give them a better life, often far away from the families they love.

So there you have it - my movie reviews of the week. All are well worth seeing, but they probably won't be coming to a theater near you.

Save Buffy, Save the World

Yes, I know it has been many long months since I've added anything to this blog. Almost four to be exact. I'm sorry to have been so neglectful, but I had a few things going on. In a nutshell: moved to Portland, broke up with boyfriend, drove to Nevada, drove back to Portland, found roommate and new place to live, bought furniture, had 8 job interviews (and counting), started Zen meditation class, and entered therapy. And that's just the last 2 months. What was I doing before then?

So what, you wonder with bated breath, would make me return to you tonight? Is it to share some pearl of wisdom gained from hardship? Is it to complain about the seemingly endless job search process that has left me wondering why I ever left Kenya to begin with? Or maybe I should talk about the creepiness of actually being able to see the front of my house on Google Street View?

No, I'm here tonight to save a very dear friend. FOX announced yesterday that they would be halting all public screenings of their television shows. Now, maybe in some parts of the world this doesn't mean much. But in Portland, we like to get our Fox on. A local theater here called the Mission used to hold weekly screenings of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, and Arrested Development.

In addition, there's a little phenomenon that's been going around the country called the Buffy Singalong. It's been in all the papers - all the ones I read anyway. I spend a lot of time in Comic Book Stores these days. It made Entertainment Weekly and some other bigger publications. Essentially, in the vein of Rocky Horror Picture Show, they screen the famous musical episode of BtVS, complete with Buffy Trivia, Buffy-oke, and interactive fun for everyone. It's like nothing I've ever experienced.

I went twice this summer, once in Portland and once in DC. I actually planned my travel accordingly, so I would catch both shows. For the latter, Jen and I made iron-on T-shirts with Buffy quotes. And that was nothing compared to some fans. At the Portland show, people wore Buffy paraphernalia, dressed up as their favorite characters, or showed up in bunny costumes. ("What's with all the carrots?) The shows were sold out, and people waited in line for more than an hour before the doors opened to grab the best seats.

Portland has a following for all the shows created by Joss Whedon. The line for free screenings of Firefly on a random Tuesday night at the Mission also stretched around the corner. They even have their own society, called the Portland Browncoats, and they get together for potlucks and home viewings. (No, I have not joined...yet.)

I make light of myself a lot and my affection for Buffy, but it's a genuine love for the show that keeps me watching it years after it went off the air. It's hard to describe, but the show is so much more than the title implies. It's about teen angst, heartache, love, sex, death, power, obsession, family, friendship. It's about how pain and pleasure can exist together in the same moment, how evil can be good and good can be evil, how love conquers a lot but not everything. Now that I think about it, it's very Zen.

The point of all this is that without your help, the Buffy Singalong may be lost forever. You can change that by signing this free petition online.

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/BuffyMusical

It kindly implores Fox to work out whatever rights issues it's having and allow the screening of the musical to resume. I know you don't care about Buffy. But she cares about you. After all, she alone stands against the vampires and demons and forces of darkness, so without her you'd probably be a blood-sucking fiend by now. (Look at your outfit!)

And if my pathetic teenage mooning hasn't convinced you, maybe one of the song lyrics from the famous musical will make you see its artistic worth:

She does pretty well with fiends from hell
But lately we can tell
That she's just going through the motions
Faking it somehow
She's not even half the girl she - owww!

You can also check out the Singalong link, just to prove to yourself that I'm not the only freak out there. There are a lot of us, and we are only getting stronger:

http://uncoolkids.com/buffy/


Oh, and also - Save Veronica Mars!