I can’t stand snakes, but this video was just too good to pass up!

The poor guy was concerned that this will wind up on YouTube…he was right.

I have been meaning to post these patriotic videos for days now and I finally got around to it.

Originally I was planning to go to Warren, VT.

Instead I got stuck at home to read McCullough’s John Adams. The book was given as a gift and was gathering dust.  Still working on it, but it is a great book and darned it my 4yo son loves to have me read it to him. Which got me to looking up what all the fuss was about with the HBO series (which is not in my Netflix queue) and this amazing scene.

When BMW Films did their ‘viral’ film festival earlier this decade, I knew Clive Owen would be going places. I am trying to find out if a second set of BMW films came out because I never saw the below until tonight.

The Godfather of Soul fighting for his soul…and the devil is played by Gary Oldman?!

My kid turns 4 today. She received a birthday card with the below song:

Feel free to shut it off after 30 seconds…

I received this video in my inbox this morning.

Pete Seeger always held a special place in my heart and was tickled pink to find that he is still alive and well. He talks with environmental activist Majora Carter over a myriad of topics such as social justice, the environment, their histories…and yes, a little banjo music Seeger style to liven things up.

From This Brave Nation.

External Link.

WARNING:  I reveal big-time spoilers so if you have not seen the film, don’t read further. Feel free to check out the below trailer.  Rent the film, and come back later.

I finally got around to watching M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village last night.  The film at the time of the reviews was somewhat panned, but had it in my Netflix queue and it showed up at my door step three years later.  Personnally I thought that this was Shyamalan’s best work, though critics for the most part panned it.  He is the master of showing what seems to be a normal setting, like the film The Sixth Sense, but there is always something not quite right that you could not put your finger on. Not to mention it scared the daylights out of me!

In the case of The Village I was looking at the overall scenery trying to figure out just what kind of village it was.  It appeared to be utopian in nature with no contact with the outside world.  The dress are mid to late 1890’s - 1900.  The hair in the young girls appear to be trussed up amish-style (a religious quasi-utopian society), the buildings and furnishings Shaker (another near-gone utopian era), the main community building was referred to as the Meeting House (Quaker).  Though with all three religious utopian elements intertwined in the film, there was no sense of religion to speak of, purely non-sectarian.  In an era where religion was still a dominant factor in home and community life, it drove me nuts! 

Then came the ultimate twist that the whole society was the creation of one of the ‘Elders’; a former American History Professor who owned a vast tract of land and wealth to pay off officials to keep ‘the world out’ and out of their notice. The ‘Creatures’, a fabrication to keep the villagers in line and not venture out of the area.

In this nearly entire digitized world it seems that we are more disconnected with physical community and the term ‘it takes a village’ seemingly has little meaning nowadays.  I take pride that I send my children to a private school that emboldens the sense of community that one will never find in public school.  Families take care of other families and all religions are represented and even some with no religion at all; it matters not.

I have been looking into the possibility of finding a co-housing community in which I know that my children will be not only loved and looked after by not only our family, but a whole village of families living close-by and interacting with each other on a near daily basis. Is this considered a closed community? A utopia? No, I do not think that in this world of global interaction, a true utopia in the sense is not possible.  However a small community within a larger community is entirely possible and should be encouraged.  In addition, my job involves working in a virtual environment and I prefer to remain in a close-knit community in order to get me out of the office and interact with human beings!

I was always lousy at video games as a kid so my game of preference at the time was Pinball. CNet found an amazing museum in Alameda, California of the Ju Ju Pinball Museum.  Pay a donation, play for FREE!

External Link.

In case you were wondering, the Black Knight and Addams Family are my all time favorites.

CAREYOUKEEP.COM

Wonders that old jokes that I read in my many FWD’ed emails would turn up on film.

From Iran:

When I first saw this I could not believe what I saw.  If this original 1989 Batman The Movie Trailer is accurate, That Dark Knight trailer is an updated rehash, nearly frame by frame. 

At the time of this writing I have not been able to find a trailer that matches the top 1989 frame.  So my guess it is a hoax, but a brilliant piece of editing. Then again, some pretty wierd stuff has been lurking regarding the Dark Knight for quite sometime.

Try the 866 number. Ha ha.