WISDOM OF THE SAGES
EPISODE VIII: SUMMER 2024
Hello People of the World;
Welp, here I am, two months late once more. This time, life and depression happened. So, I lost track of time trying to keep up with what life dealt me this summer. There were good times and some sad times. That is the course of humanity. My family gave me space enough to simply be depressed is truly lovely.
The weather has cooled of recent. Mostily thanks to the hurricanes bombarding the East Coast and Florida. Oh well. Hurricanes and flooding and wildfires and extreme heat and little snow is somehow NOT Climate Change. We’re stupid.
As always: Stay safe. Stay home.
All right, let’s get going:
1:[ This virus really showed how equal we all really are: As we are in the middle of yet another wave of the latest permutation, we scramble to make things as “normal” as possible – ignoring the homeless, climate change, the genocide in Palestine, the broken democracy we lived in these past decades. But once COVID resurfaces, we work hard to ignore it, as if we are telling ourselves, we made it through it. You see? We want to be fooled….
2:[ MOVIE REVIEWS:
- Ponyo [崖の上のポニョ] (2008)
Directed by Hayeo Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli Fet 2024
One half of the Top Review Team attended the Studio Ghibli Fest 2024 presentation of "Ponyo". We all had never seen this before. "Ponyo" is a tiny fist living with her many sisters and father in the deep oceans. The films opens as she sneaks out to see the world above the ocean and becomes trapped in a discarded jar. Sósuke is a five-year-old boy whom finds her and saves her.
Because Ponyo loves Sósuke, the world falls out of balance. Her father continues to search for her, while his mother tries to help the community affected by the ocean's rising and the storms that batter the world. Very Miyazaki of the children having to put right the world to bring balance. It is a common theme in many of Miyazaki's work.
It is a simple tale told beautifully. It went in directions that surprised us and subverted our expectations and was, as Char later described it, "Heart warming."
And so, it is. We never seen "Ponyo" before. I am happy we did.
- RIFFTRAX LIVE: POINT BREAK
“Point Break” directed by Kathryn Bigalow
We went out and saw the latest show from Rifftrax – Point Break, the Kathryn Bigalow and Keanu Reeves joint from the 90’s. It was fun as usual, but as also usual, I cannot recall the jokes or riffs due to being drawn into how dumb the movie is. I know, I know, it’s some kind of action classic. But it’s really dumb – the dialogue, the characters, the situations, and, in some places, the action. Keanu’s acting reputation was deserved then. Regardless of the status he holds now.
For the Rifftrax – HIGH RECOMMENDATION
-Coraline 3D
Directed by Henry Selick
Half of the Top Review Team decided to revisit “Coraline” in 3D!
It was great to see it again. Coraline, being neglected decides to explore the small door she finds after her father has her count all of the windows and doors in the house to keep her out of the way. Through the door she finds a portal to an alternate version of her home.
This moved at a much quicker pace than I remember. But it was fun to see it in the illusion of three dimensions.
HIGH RECOMMENDATION
3:[ This Month’s Essay:
I think I figured out why we are all so suddenly nostalgic for the old days of less safety and outdoor play and the like. It's from a general misunderstanding of the concept "Survival of the Fittest" which was coined by philosopher Herbert Spencer and not Charles Darwin, whose "natural selection" theory is a keystone for biological evolution.
The misunderstanding is that, somehow, adversity makes us stronger, thereby making the strongest "worthy" of survival. We think because we played on old playground equipment or rode around in death trap cars as kids we are somehow... "the strongest" and therefore, more "worthy" of survival. Which is why we look down on the current generation, because they didn't have snap bracelets or cassette tapes or rode in the back of pick-up trucks that they are somehow "lesser" than whatever generation we were part of before the 2000's. No, you weren't stronger, you were just lucky that your head wasn't split open.
Now, I am not saying surviving something traumatic does not change you, it does. It prepares you for the next thing to come. But that is common across ALL generations, not just the one you are a part of. Everyone has a struggle. It is why we are supposed to be empathetic to one another despite our differences.
You see, our generation and the one's before had always strived to make the world better and safer for our kids. Our egos will always make us proclaim those things. That's kind of where the "What about the children?" cliché stemmed from. But once we made the world safer for them and their mortality rate went down, we suddenly have the audacity to complain that "this generation doesn't understand the struggle" when we made it that way.
AS AN ASIDE: Remember: We wanted our kids to have it easier. But we also gave them a shit world - where billionaires exploit them, where fascists, or religion, (or religious fascists) tell them they can solve all their problems. We wanted them to be smarter. But then, they see the ills of our societies, and when they protest Black, Brown, Trans, and Gay people getting killed, that we should stop poisoning the Earth, that genocides are bad, that the Police should protect and be accountable, that the rich should pay their fair share, that women’s bodies belong to women - then we have the f*cking audacity to yell "Woke" and sic the police on them. F*ck us, we the worst.
Now I also realize, making the world easier for whom? Not “their” kids, but MY Kids. If they don't look like my kids I don't care. Every parent posting about hugging their kids after every school shooting because the kids looked like theirs - but NEVER hugging their kids every time a black/brown child on the Southside of whatever town you're in is killed? Nope. Business as usual. "Part of the plan". The world is safe for MY Kids. But the hypocrisy of when MY Kids see this injustice, this inequity and protest about it? Then we have the f*cking audacity to yell "Woke" and sic the police on them. Double: F*ck us, we the worst.
4:[ Observation: Indigenous Celebrity is only as good as long as the person appears to be on the cusp of "winning", by simply being nominated, or on the cover of magazines. This is because all Natives want this too. This kind of success. It is a signal that the capitalist, colonial system is somehow working on our behalf.
It also unfortunately thrusts these Indigenous celebs into the role of ACTIVIST Celebrity, where it becomes their responsibility to uplift ALL Native people, not only their own tribes and people. It is an unfair thing to ask of them, as some, unfortunate to say, are wholly unsuited to the task.
It’s the reason why we see the same seven people in all of the Native media. It’s why we get Seminoles and Anishinaabe and Cherokee actors playing Diné characters in stories set and FILMED in the middle of the f*cking Navajo Reservation!
5:[ We cannot go back to “Normal” all after this: thinking that fresh water is a infinite resource.
That is it for this month.
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.”
2024 Ernest M Whiteman III
