Spring Days
Apr. 2nd, 2007 07:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
talkingsoupSo I finally got my 300 soundtrack and holy fucking shit, have I mentioned how awesome it is? This Tyler Bates fella who did the music, I want to have his children. Holy crap. Listen to Returns a King and make me a liar. Also got the first Citizen Cope CD, and I've liked a few of his songs, but the album so far is kinda meh. I dunno, I haven't listened to the whole thing and Appetite (For Lightning Dynamite) is on it somewhere, and I know I like that one. *shrug* Gotta listen to the rest of it.
So it's been a generally awesome kind of weekend. Friday was absolutely gorgeous. So much so that, since I don't have my third class on Fridays, I decided to take a walk back in the woods. Sorry, Pat. I would have invited you but I just had to take the first walk alone--it's kind of a thing, I guess. It got cold about halfway up so I decided to not take my usual really long route, but it was just really...invigorating. I love it up there, it's always so quiet and peaceful. I did come to the conclusion while walking that I'm not completely nonreligious. I may be an atheist, but I do believe in spirituality, and that place makes me believe in the spiritual power of certain places. Like holy spots. I guess that's what the woods up there are like for me, a holy place, and that sounds really kind of ridiculous, it being so close to civilization and all, but I dunno. I just feel completely at peace when I'm alone in the trees back there.
Then that night we went to Iron Chef, which is like an on campus competition, of which Kate is a part. She was competing Friday, and it was supposed to happen at 6 I guess, but it got bumped back an hour. Which was too bad--I loved the last Iron Chef competition, when Kate made walnut soda (it's really fucking good!), and I wanted to try her food again, but then the ASIC marathon was on, so we had to leave early. Made it to the marathon, which was awesome in general. I ended up not staying the whole time, though I made it through Sing Like You Wanna Win, which is always...interesting (and just so you ASICers know, I have never, not once, in my life, ever seen even a single moment of Sailor Moon on TV. Only clips in AMVs.). Got back at 5:30 and slept till 3 I think.
Saturday, what did I do Saturday? Saturday was Kate's birthday, so Julie and I hung out in the kitchen with her while she cooked a really freaking awesome lasagna and a cake for herself. That took awhile and we chit-chatted and all that good jazz. Molly unfortunately was at a music thing. Then went to the lounge to eat and Pat showed up and there was much talking and eating and stuff. Molly showed up in time for cake, which, as I mentioned, was delicious. Then we all went to Julie's and my room and watched a few episodes of Buffy and talked a bunch more. People started trickling away afterwards and I made it to sleep at...3 I think. Lol.
Sunday was freaking busy. Got up at 1 or something and went downtown straightaway without eating anything. Ate at Collegetown Bagels, which is awesome by the way, and then started walking down Tioga street to find Fall Creek Theater. It wasn't as hard to find as I thought it might be, nor was it a very long walk. It was raining, though, which was nice but kinda put a damper on things, pun intended. I got there an hour early for the Jonestown movie so I sat in the back in a really comfy couch and listened to my iPod until people started showing up.
Jonestown
I like documentaries. I don't particularly go out of my way to see them, but I really like them when they're about a topic I find interesting. Jonestown is interesting even if I didn't have to write a paper on it, so I'm really glad I found out about the movie. It was definitely worth the walk in the rain and the hour-long wait to see it.
For those of you who don't know, Jonestown refers to a sort of "compound" or "village" in Guyana, South America, and was the location of the Peoples Temple. Peoples Temple was more a social movement than a religion, very socialist, an integrated church, very New Testament Christian. Jim Jones was the leader and brought all these people from really diverse backgrounds together to follow him to a new tomorrow. This was all coming on the heels of Nixon and the disenchantment people were feeling after the 60's (god a'mighty I love examining that era, there was so much going on before, during, and after). People saw Peoples Temple as a beacon of hope. Anyway, as it progressed, Jim Jones grew more and more paranoid and the religion became more and more like a cult. Eventually they moved to Guyana to escape perceived persecution. Pretty much, Temple defectors had gone to journalists and begun to tell the real story. An article denouncing the Temple as a cult was about to be published, so Jones freaked out and moved everything to Guyana. There they lasted for awhile in the jungle, and most people were still really happy with everything, but Jim Jones himself was in a downward spiral.
Eventually a congressman went down there to see what was happening for himself, having heard that it was a cult, and he initially liked what he saw. As he and the journalists accompanying him started to leave, however, people started handing them notes asking them to get them out of there--that terrible things were happening. Jim Jones allowed a handful of people to leave, but he was terrified at the perceived betrayal and the undermining of his authority. As the congressman et. al. headed for the airstrip to leave, a dump truck full of people with guns showed up and gunned them down, killing 5. Almost immediately thereafter, Jim Jones called everyone to the center pavilion, told them what had happened, and that their only option now was to die--otherwise the US government would come and destroy them.
And that's when the Kool-Aid happened. First they made the children (and there were lots of them) drink it, and after seeing all the children die, it was a lot easier for the adults to want to follow them. In the end, 909 people died from the cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.
The movie itself is extraordinarily well done. Like in Jesus Camp (which was also utterly brilliant, btw), the documentarians or whatever you call 'em are virtually nonexistent in the movie--as in, they stay out of it. The movie consists of archival footage, audio clips, photos and particularly, interviews with a handful of survivors. Each has a unique story to tell, but what they all reiterate is that Peoples Temple started as a really good idea. It's one of the few liberal New Religious Movements to really arise in the past 50 or so years--most NRMs are very conservative. The Temple preached integration, interracial relations, equality, an end to poverty, all that good stuff. It was a good idea that went terribly wrong. Each of the survivors lost almost their entire families in the massacre--children, wives, parents.
And you know, we make the Kool-Aid jokes and all, but then you hear the audio as Jim Jones is instructing mothers to give it to their children, when he's commanding that they all have to die, and you see the images...I mean, there was no chaos or panic to it. It was completely ordered. They drank the Kool-Aid and then they just all lay down. They had this picture of the aftermath, of bodies lying in neat little rows in the grass, just hundreds of people. It looks like something out of a war movie or something. It was horrifying, chilling, haunting.
It was so weird to see it from the standpoint of an outsider, too. I mean, you can track all the things that Jim Jones did to get people to trust him, rely on him and finally be willing to die for him, and you can follow his spiral into insanity, and in all honesty, he was truly a genius. And I mean that in the way that Hitler was a genius, because it takes some form of genius to get that many people to be so utterly, completely devoted to someone or something. Jones did all these little, subtle things that made people unable to think for themselves, that made them completely dependent on him. And the worst part is that, earlier in the Peoples Temple, he said that suicide and euthanasia were atrocities, sins that should never be committed, and hearing that and knowing how everything ended...uwah. Wow.
An awesome movie overall, and if the topic interests you, you should definitely see it. Even if the topic doesn't entirely interest you, you should still see it, because you leave the theater thinking. The whole thing leaves you with a lesson, and it's a much more subtle and complex lesson than "Don't drink the Kool-Aid."
Score: 8 out of 10
After the movie there was a bit of discussion, since it was a FLEFF movie. People in the theater commented on it and talked about what had been left out, what was most interesting. Good conversation, but it ran a little long, so that it was about 6:30 when I left, right when the State Theater's doors opened for David Sedaris. So I walked back to the Commons and to the Theater and met Julie, and the two of us went in.
And let me tell you right now, if David Sedaris's essays are absolutely hilarious, then he himself--live--is utterly hysterical. He read I think three of his newest stories and they were wonderful and amazing, and I think showed a lot of maturity from his past works, just in terms of writing style and such. Not to mention the whole thing was hilarious. God, that man is awesome. Afterwards I had to run out and buy a second copy of Me Talk Pretty One Day(in hardback!!) so he could sign it. Woot! I would definitely go again if I got the chance. Can't wait till his next book comes out.
The only problem with Sunday was that I didn't really eat anything except the bagel all day until about 11, but ah well. So it goes.
Haha, Julie and I have gotten Sophia hooked not only on Ouran but on Heroes as well. We stayed up late Sunday to watch an episode of each. Hooray!
Today was another gorgeous day, and it's supposed to stay this way until Wednesday. Then it's supposed to snow. WTF?! Give me back my freaking spring!!
In terms of writing--still working on the bit piece with North, still doing a lot of thinking with Ramsey and Skye and that world, and I'm gonna get back into the Penta rewrite tonight I think. I've also been getting snippets of ideas for Mot, so I might look into that as well, though I really also have to get some reading done for my Social Movements research paper. I pretty much need to learn everything there is to know about Iran by Thursday and write some more of a rough draft. Geh.
Ack! I need to write the next chapter of my fanfic, too! It's been over a month by now, I think. Aw, man, I feel bad, but I've been so focused on other things.
But oh well. It's cool and pretty out, I have ideas and hot chocolate, and it's spring. I love it.
So it's been a generally awesome kind of weekend. Friday was absolutely gorgeous. So much so that, since I don't have my third class on Fridays, I decided to take a walk back in the woods. Sorry, Pat. I would have invited you but I just had to take the first walk alone--it's kind of a thing, I guess. It got cold about halfway up so I decided to not take my usual really long route, but it was just really...invigorating. I love it up there, it's always so quiet and peaceful. I did come to the conclusion while walking that I'm not completely nonreligious. I may be an atheist, but I do believe in spirituality, and that place makes me believe in the spiritual power of certain places. Like holy spots. I guess that's what the woods up there are like for me, a holy place, and that sounds really kind of ridiculous, it being so close to civilization and all, but I dunno. I just feel completely at peace when I'm alone in the trees back there.
Then that night we went to Iron Chef, which is like an on campus competition, of which Kate is a part. She was competing Friday, and it was supposed to happen at 6 I guess, but it got bumped back an hour. Which was too bad--I loved the last Iron Chef competition, when Kate made walnut soda (it's really fucking good!), and I wanted to try her food again, but then the ASIC marathon was on, so we had to leave early. Made it to the marathon, which was awesome in general. I ended up not staying the whole time, though I made it through Sing Like You Wanna Win, which is always...interesting (and just so you ASICers know, I have never, not once, in my life, ever seen even a single moment of Sailor Moon on TV. Only clips in AMVs.). Got back at 5:30 and slept till 3 I think.
Saturday, what did I do Saturday? Saturday was Kate's birthday, so Julie and I hung out in the kitchen with her while she cooked a really freaking awesome lasagna and a cake for herself. That took awhile and we chit-chatted and all that good jazz. Molly unfortunately was at a music thing. Then went to the lounge to eat and Pat showed up and there was much talking and eating and stuff. Molly showed up in time for cake, which, as I mentioned, was delicious. Then we all went to Julie's and my room and watched a few episodes of Buffy and talked a bunch more. People started trickling away afterwards and I made it to sleep at...3 I think. Lol.
Sunday was freaking busy. Got up at 1 or something and went downtown straightaway without eating anything. Ate at Collegetown Bagels, which is awesome by the way, and then started walking down Tioga street to find Fall Creek Theater. It wasn't as hard to find as I thought it might be, nor was it a very long walk. It was raining, though, which was nice but kinda put a damper on things, pun intended. I got there an hour early for the Jonestown movie so I sat in the back in a really comfy couch and listened to my iPod until people started showing up.
Jonestown
I like documentaries. I don't particularly go out of my way to see them, but I really like them when they're about a topic I find interesting. Jonestown is interesting even if I didn't have to write a paper on it, so I'm really glad I found out about the movie. It was definitely worth the walk in the rain and the hour-long wait to see it.
For those of you who don't know, Jonestown refers to a sort of "compound" or "village" in Guyana, South America, and was the location of the Peoples Temple. Peoples Temple was more a social movement than a religion, very socialist, an integrated church, very New Testament Christian. Jim Jones was the leader and brought all these people from really diverse backgrounds together to follow him to a new tomorrow. This was all coming on the heels of Nixon and the disenchantment people were feeling after the 60's (god a'mighty I love examining that era, there was so much going on before, during, and after). People saw Peoples Temple as a beacon of hope. Anyway, as it progressed, Jim Jones grew more and more paranoid and the religion became more and more like a cult. Eventually they moved to Guyana to escape perceived persecution. Pretty much, Temple defectors had gone to journalists and begun to tell the real story. An article denouncing the Temple as a cult was about to be published, so Jones freaked out and moved everything to Guyana. There they lasted for awhile in the jungle, and most people were still really happy with everything, but Jim Jones himself was in a downward spiral.
Eventually a congressman went down there to see what was happening for himself, having heard that it was a cult, and he initially liked what he saw. As he and the journalists accompanying him started to leave, however, people started handing them notes asking them to get them out of there--that terrible things were happening. Jim Jones allowed a handful of people to leave, but he was terrified at the perceived betrayal and the undermining of his authority. As the congressman et. al. headed for the airstrip to leave, a dump truck full of people with guns showed up and gunned them down, killing 5. Almost immediately thereafter, Jim Jones called everyone to the center pavilion, told them what had happened, and that their only option now was to die--otherwise the US government would come and destroy them.
And that's when the Kool-Aid happened. First they made the children (and there were lots of them) drink it, and after seeing all the children die, it was a lot easier for the adults to want to follow them. In the end, 909 people died from the cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.
The movie itself is extraordinarily well done. Like in Jesus Camp (which was also utterly brilliant, btw), the documentarians or whatever you call 'em are virtually nonexistent in the movie--as in, they stay out of it. The movie consists of archival footage, audio clips, photos and particularly, interviews with a handful of survivors. Each has a unique story to tell, but what they all reiterate is that Peoples Temple started as a really good idea. It's one of the few liberal New Religious Movements to really arise in the past 50 or so years--most NRMs are very conservative. The Temple preached integration, interracial relations, equality, an end to poverty, all that good stuff. It was a good idea that went terribly wrong. Each of the survivors lost almost their entire families in the massacre--children, wives, parents.
And you know, we make the Kool-Aid jokes and all, but then you hear the audio as Jim Jones is instructing mothers to give it to their children, when he's commanding that they all have to die, and you see the images...I mean, there was no chaos or panic to it. It was completely ordered. They drank the Kool-Aid and then they just all lay down. They had this picture of the aftermath, of bodies lying in neat little rows in the grass, just hundreds of people. It looks like something out of a war movie or something. It was horrifying, chilling, haunting.
It was so weird to see it from the standpoint of an outsider, too. I mean, you can track all the things that Jim Jones did to get people to trust him, rely on him and finally be willing to die for him, and you can follow his spiral into insanity, and in all honesty, he was truly a genius. And I mean that in the way that Hitler was a genius, because it takes some form of genius to get that many people to be so utterly, completely devoted to someone or something. Jones did all these little, subtle things that made people unable to think for themselves, that made them completely dependent on him. And the worst part is that, earlier in the Peoples Temple, he said that suicide and euthanasia were atrocities, sins that should never be committed, and hearing that and knowing how everything ended...uwah. Wow.
An awesome movie overall, and if the topic interests you, you should definitely see it. Even if the topic doesn't entirely interest you, you should still see it, because you leave the theater thinking. The whole thing leaves you with a lesson, and it's a much more subtle and complex lesson than "Don't drink the Kool-Aid."
Score: 8 out of 10
After the movie there was a bit of discussion, since it was a FLEFF movie. People in the theater commented on it and talked about what had been left out, what was most interesting. Good conversation, but it ran a little long, so that it was about 6:30 when I left, right when the State Theater's doors opened for David Sedaris. So I walked back to the Commons and to the Theater and met Julie, and the two of us went in.
And let me tell you right now, if David Sedaris's essays are absolutely hilarious, then he himself--live--is utterly hysterical. He read I think three of his newest stories and they were wonderful and amazing, and I think showed a lot of maturity from his past works, just in terms of writing style and such. Not to mention the whole thing was hilarious. God, that man is awesome. Afterwards I had to run out and buy a second copy of Me Talk Pretty One Day(in hardback!!) so he could sign it. Woot! I would definitely go again if I got the chance. Can't wait till his next book comes out.
The only problem with Sunday was that I didn't really eat anything except the bagel all day until about 11, but ah well. So it goes.
Haha, Julie and I have gotten Sophia hooked not only on Ouran but on Heroes as well. We stayed up late Sunday to watch an episode of each. Hooray!
Today was another gorgeous day, and it's supposed to stay this way until Wednesday. Then it's supposed to snow. WTF?! Give me back my freaking spring!!
In terms of writing--still working on the bit piece with North, still doing a lot of thinking with Ramsey and Skye and that world, and I'm gonna get back into the Penta rewrite tonight I think. I've also been getting snippets of ideas for Mot, so I might look into that as well, though I really also have to get some reading done for my Social Movements research paper. I pretty much need to learn everything there is to know about Iran by Thursday and write some more of a rough draft. Geh.
Ack! I need to write the next chapter of my fanfic, too! It's been over a month by now, I think. Aw, man, I feel bad, but I've been so focused on other things.
But oh well. It's cool and pretty out, I have ideas and hot chocolate, and it's spring. I love it.
