So I saw Cabin in the Woods this weekend. Me and Peter reviewed the movie on our podcast so I won't take most of that thunder, but I will use this blog as a soap box moment. Please see this movie. This movie is really smart. Movies like this don't quite make it through the Hollywood complex that frequently. Studios tend to play it safe and created what is easy. This movie isn't easy its challenging. Work like this needs to be seen.
More importantly we need to tell the studios we want more movies like this. Hollywood will only listen to profit figures. If this movie is successful they will make more like it. When you buy a ticket to Transformers 3 or Indiana Jones 4 you are tell the studios that this is the movie you want to see. I know based off of fan outcry these are not the type of movies that we want. So instead of rushing to Wrath of the Titans or Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer try and support the little film that could.
I will end by saying that this movies isn't all deep and challenging. Joss Whedon knows better than that. Another refreshing thing about this movie is it is a return to classic horror. Instead of jumping on the Torture Porn bandwagon that has plagued the horror genre since the creation of Saw, this movie returns to gore that is fun. I haven't see this much blood in a movie in a long time. It is satisfying gore though. It is not gross-out Guantanamo style gore that has become standard in the horror genre of late.
Here is Cabin in the Wood's Trailer:
Walker
Oh Scott Walker. Walker has become a name brand across the country. He is so famous or rather infamous that Huffington Post has started running headlines with just "Walker" because people don't need to by filled in on who he is or what he has done. He is currently targeted in a recall election set for June 5th. The Working-Class people will finally have their voice and we will know definitively whether or not Wisconsin stands behind the policies of Fitzwalkerstan.
That's not what this post is about however. Walker spoke before an NRA conference on Friday (full story here). There he said he has become a "Target" in this recall election because he has attempted the shrink the size of government. The Democrats as a power grab are trying to maintain their out of control spending. I would like to critique the idea that Walker supports a small government.
In this past year we have seen the biggest government expansion in Wisconsin history. The Budget bill based and signed into law by Walker grants him the power to sell state assets such as power plants, government land, and airports. He can now legally do this in a no bid process, and void of democracy. Does that sound like small government?
Over a hundred thousand people flooded the capital during the budget repair bill fiasco. Walker responded by an unprecedented police presence. They eventually added metal detectors and locked the people out of the capital , closing down a place where people could publicly testify their views on the budget repair bill. Does that sound like small government?
Worse yet after the Budget Repair Bill defeat Walker continued his Police State. People who came to assembly with political signs were removed from the assembly gallery. You can bring a concealed firearm into the capital building but you were stopped if you had a camera. Does that sound like small government?
Walker passed radical new legislation making it much harder to demonstrate at the capital. (full details here).
Walker signed into law some of the most radical voter identification legislation in the country. This legislation will making it much harder for the elderly, students, poor, and minorities to vote. On top of that he has closed and significantly reduced hours to all DMV locations making it harder for people who don't have an ID to get one to vote. Does this sound like small government?
He has passed legislation inserting the government into the doctors room for women who want to get abortions. Does that sound like small government?
Even the Government Accountability Board, the nonpartisan entity created to remove state corruption, has com under attack. This is the organization that oversees all of the recall signatures. Walker and Senate Majority Leader Fitzgerald have talked about removing the agency and going back to the old system of the Governor appointing is own people to oversee elections. Does that sound like small government?
Worst of all he took away the power for government employees to collectively argue for their wage. Now the employees get paid whatever Walker wants to pay them. Which is not that much. Does that sound like small government?
All of these power grabs are not only a massive expansion of government they are an attack on democracy. So yes Scott Walker you are being "targeted" but is because you are trying to take democracy away from the working class.
Science Vs. Art
So leaving Cabin in the Woods yesterday me and my friends got into a pretty heated debate. We were arguing whether or not you can really judge art. Isn't all art subjective and completely based on opinion? There is not real way to judge art because there are no hard rules that you can hold art up to. Art is not science. Science is black and white and there are rights and wrong rigid yes's and no's that prove or disprove things. I reject this line of thought.
I am not a scientist. I am not good at science and I for the most part am not interested in science-y things. That disclaimer removed I do know a little about science. I have taken a Statistics class and I have a basic understanding. I know enough to know scientists can manipulate data to say whatever they want it to say. Moreover a huge part of the scientific process is scientists publishing their work and then colleagues critiquing each others work. I encourage everyone who thinks science isn't subjective to read the book Merchants of Doubt. This book will change your idea of subjective science.
There are also objective qualities and rules of art. There are basic things that do and don't work. We can critically look at art and say when it is not good art. Just like science an artist releases his work onto the world to be evaluated by peers and colleagues.
The basic message is art is much more objective than people give it credit for and science is much more subjective than people acknowledge.
That's all for now. Look forward to Spring Awakening jibber jabber and more to come.
Love,
Will
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