Saturday, December 31, 2016

DECEMBER - EPISODE XII: WINTER 2016

WISDOM OF THE SAGES
EPISODE XII: WINTER 2016
Hello People of the World;

It snowed, temperatures are plummeting, and now everyone is freaking the f*ck out because it is NOT supposed to snow in December! How dare it! Then, it all melts. Yeah. Yet, we still complain that, “it’s supposed to snow in December!” Seriously?

So. Here we are at the end of the yellow-bricked road that was twenty-sixteen, the year everyone is calling the worst ever, forget slavery man. Because being owned by a master is nothing compared to how you felt when David Bowie died. It’s a good thing racism is over, then, we can talk about how we feel about a celebrity AFTER they die.

Let’s get this month’s edition started, shall we?


1:[ Have you ever noticed that almost everything out there offers some sort of “reward” for using or buying it? I saw that Shell is offering “Gas Reward Points” for getting a Shell Credit card. You can wreck your credit, sure, but at least you get gas at a supposed “cheaper” rate. This sort of Rewarded Behavior has extended to everything.

Some think it stems from video games. Which may be true, because look at the whole Pokimon Go phenomenon. We actually expected some sort of digital avatar reward for doing shit we are supposed to, like going the fuck outside. What continues to enter my mind when I see all these ads and apps offering rewards and points for doing something like using a credit card or buying specific insurances and phone services, I think “Rewarded Behavior”. Which is a real thing, by the way:

“Operant conditioning is a form of learning. In it, an individual changes its behavior because of the consequences (results) of the behavior. The person or animal learns its behavior has a consequence. That consequence may be. Reinforcement: a positive or rewarding event.”

Think about it this way: this sort of creates this near-slave society where you become dependent of these rewards. Look at how we are changing up social programs like Medicare and Food Stamps, offering them as rewards for “good behavior”, no, for SPECIFIC behaviors. It is treating society like dogs. “Want food stamps? Piss in this cup first, before we even think about helping you feed your kids.”

We become conditioned to seek the reward before we think about serving others. We then begin electing “leaders” who promise the reward of “being our voice” though they will never do that, but we get the satisfaction of being “rewarded” by their victory, so we don’t care.

Scary, huh? What is scarier is the unseen affect of this. It removes a person’s motivation to secure something better through effort. Instead, conditioning us to think our simple choice offers a reward. Your candidate wins, that becomes enough, rather than seeking a better candidate that will look out for your interests. I know: I should shut up. I am no good at being political. Politics are the worst thing ever invented y mankind and our use of them is fucking terrible. I will do my best to avoid politics in my coming editions. We’ll see….


2:[ Teaching again: Returning to the University of Wisconsin Parkside to teach “Native Americans in Media”, now, in a post-NODAPL World and a post-Trump Election World. It will be interesting. I know a lot of people will feel entitled and emboldened to talk down to a Native person, especially in light of NoDAPL and the other. It should not bother me too much, because I have had to put up with that far longer than the existence of NoDAPL and the other. I will simply do my best to instill critical thinking by using “Native Americans in Media” as a gateway. Actually, I look forward to this course whenever I can teach, because I do not teach the expected things that a typical Native teacher would teach. I just hope my students glean something from it….


3:[ Once again, I will be posting my annual “My Best of 2016 Lists” on my other blog WOS Reviews. I have had a tough year being out of work and have not had the opportunity to see and buy as many movies, DVDs, books, and music as I have in past years. But thanks to the Chicago Public Library, I have been able to keep up with my reading and have some really great recommendations for you. So, check out the annual list of things I thought were good, by CLICKING HERE.

[Link to come soon. I typically post it on the 1st or 2nd day of January.]


4:[ Review of “Ixcanul”: DIR: Jayro Bustamante

Probably the other Best Film I have seen this year. I scraped up my pennies and ventured out to see this Mayan Guatemalan/French production of Jayro Bustamante's film. It was well worth the time and money. Beautifully shot, beautifully acted, and beautifully executed, this film tells the story of a young Kaqchikel woman, Maria, on the verge of an arranged marriage, whom does her best to avoid it. The story is simple but the choices she makes and their outcomes are complex and reflective of the culture she lives and the station the women in the community.

Both lead actresses are the best I have seen in any film. María Mercedes Coroy is great as the young Maria trying her best to satisfy her parents while struggling with her own needs. María Telón is spectacular as her mother, who while shocked at her daughter's actions, gives nothing but support for her survival. The mother became my favorite character of the story. I teared up many times watching this film.

It is a great film about contemporary Indigenous peoples and communities. Guatemalan director Bustamante directs with an assurance and keen focus on the characters without drowning it in anthropological cultural information that have wrecked other Native films by having to explain every little detail, mostly through voiceovers, as if attending the film were supposed to enlighten rather that tell the stories of Native people from their gaze. So wit; what I disliked about going to see it was the idea of a white person, a man, giving a lecture on Indigeneity and feminism. I found it distasteful.

The film returns to the Siskel Film Center on January 8. I recommend you go and see it. I probably will.


5:[ Reviews of ROGUE ONE & ARRIVAL:

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY: WARNING: Kind of SPOILERY: Scrapped up a lot of pennies to catch a couple of flicks before the end of the year. I have not been interested in any of the new Star Wars movies since Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney, because I knew it would be the end of creator-content and moved over into money-making fan-servicing. This film bears out my fears.

This is the story about how the Rebellion got the plans for the Death Star in the first place. Okay story, some nice action set pieces, and a shit-ton of masturbatory fan-baiting. I actually yawned at one point. If anything, this film exposes the vast hypocrisy of the Star Wars fandom, that they want interesting characters and good stories, with no Jedi or Skywalkers, and all we got is a film with as many shoehorned references to "A New Hope" as possible that were nothing but clunky.

But the rare good speech scenes and good action cannot overcome shallow characters with names that came straight from a Facebook "What's your Star Wars Name?" Meme. Come on!

Luke Skywalker, that's a Star Wars name.
Leia Organa, that's a Star Wars name.
Obi-Wan Kenobi, that's a Star Wars name.
Han Solo, that's a Star Wars name.
Chewbacca, that's a Star Wars name.
Anakin, Padme, Qui-gon Jinn....
Ipso Facto is NOT a Star Wars name.

Then to see that hypocrisy personified in the appearance of Darth Vader, because we are so tired of Skywalkers and Jedis, but cheer and clap when they show the former Jedi Anakin Skywalker. One line of dialogue then kept creeping into my head that sort of negated Vader's presence in Rogue One: "The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force." Weird, Vader seemed misplaced to me.

A lot of people are saying that this is the prequel we deserved, like we something fucking special. All this does is shrink the Star Wars Universe even more that it cannot escape its aesthetic trappings and iconography. The effects were so clunky that all the Star Destroyers were LESS detailed and looked like LEGO kits. Plus, it ends with yet another space battle to destroy a space station. This also means that Vader has appeared in ALL of the Star Wars theatrical films (Yes, including The Clone Wars Movie). I guess I am mad because this means a vast stifling of creativity in a franchise I loved very much.

I agree with Redletter Media's review, it felt like a very expensive fan film. Which, sadly, is all we are going to get from now on. Look, there were things I enjoyed but a lot of stuff I did not. Like a lot of the characters' deaths were unearned and served only to make the movie "edgy". Plus, the big one: we already know that the Rebels get the plans, so there is no tension in if they fail, because we know they won't. Don't give me that line that we all really wanted to know how the Rebels got the plans, because that is a lie. You all wanted a movie with stormtroopers and battles, and the Death Star and Vader slashing up dudes and all those cutesy nods to "A New Hope" in it. In the end, this movie is passable, and to fans, that is all that counts.

RECOMMEND? Do I really have to. You'll see regardless. My rating: MEH.

ARRIVAL: I went to see two movies on this day. I learned from my DEADPOOL experience that I should watch the weaker film first. Which is what I did. I debated seeing a second movie but thought that I may regret not seeing it when I had the chance.

This is probably the best science fiction film I have seen in quite a long time and one of the best movies I have seen this year. What I think I love most about this is that Google labels this as "Mystery Science", which as any of you know, the significance of that term to me.

As Google describes it: "Linguistics professor Louise Banks (Amy Adams) leads an elite team of investigators when gigantic spaceships touch down in 12 locations around the world. As nations teeter on the verge of global war, Banks and her crew must race against time to find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrial visitors. Hoping to unravel the mystery, she takes a chance that could threaten her life and quite possibly all of mankind."

Denis Villeneuve has done a couple of films I never cared about "Prisoners" and "Sicario", both I found overwrought in a lot of ways, cleverness for the sake of cleverness. Here, he pulls back and goes for a more subdued tone and story. As you read above, it is a fairly standard "sci-fi plot", but, for the acting, the cinematography, the editing structure are great, and elevate it above his previous works. (For me, at least.) It feels like a Terrence Malick/ Christopher Nolan hybrid in Malick's cinematography and voiceover, and how Nolan's best films should be edited, and done in the structure of both filmmakers. There is not a wasted performance in this, the stakes are high, and the way humanity reacts to the arrival is very realistic, and the resolution is very surprising and has much to say about the need for empathy. I do not want to spoil what the resolution is and how it settles the whole plot as I think it was very unexpected and very fitting within the context of the story.

I saw the Star Wars movie earlier and debated whether or not to see this. I finally gave in, feeling that I would probably regret not seeing it when I had the chance to. I am so glad I did. This made my top ten list of favorite movies of 2016.


6:[ Speaking of the weather, the one upside of global climate change is the lessening of the “CHICAGO WINTER!!!” and its affects on the stupid people of the city, if not the world.

What I am saying is if the end of the world as we know it means the end of this shitty “tradition” of DIBS, then, burn baby, burn….


7:[ Why are we all acting as if the year 2016 was the worse year ever simply because some of our favorite celebrities died. They get old, or sick, or had bad luck; it happens. It will not stop just because we flip our calendars to 2017, as if the simple moving of one day into the next will some how, magically, stop old or sick people from dying, or pass great luck to everyone, giving us all a “Magical Death Pass”. Grow up….


That is it for this month.

I decided to wait until the very last day of the year to post rather than meet the usual 30th of the month deadline, because I wanted to make sure that nothing happened on the last day of the calendar year that I would have to wait another 30 days to write about. Plus, I have gotten so lazy with Wisdom of the Sages that I welcomed an extra day to write and post.

As always, I invite you to comment, correct, or contradict anything I write here. I am open to a critical debate. Thanks for taking the time to check out what I write here and I will see you in a month.

Until next time, remember “I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control everything really are.”

2016 Ernest M Whiteman III