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Mr. Brown Rambles #1

This will be a new segment where I muse about anything and everything: current events, movies, personal issues, etc. It gets me writing more, which (I hope) will get me back into the creative mood, and perhaps gets you, dear reader, thinking as well. So, without further ado.....



  • I want to say the Colin Kapernick should be is a non-issue because it is is right as an American to not stand for the National Anthem (even though I find it disrespectful, IMO), but I understand his reluctance and the reason why he has chosen to protest. In my lifetime, I have never been pulled over by the police. I haven't been stopped and frisked by police officers, and I haven't been harassed by local law enforcement. But I cannot deny this is a common occurrence in the black community; that I am more likely to be stopped by police officers than a white male; that I am more likely to be placed under arrest because of my skin color; that we've seen an alarming increase of young black, unarmed men being brutally gunned down by the people who are sworn to serve and protect. These are issues that, while thanks to the Black Lives Matter movement have been brought to light, we still aren't trying to bring solutions to the table in order to stop my community from feeling fear and mistrust of law enforcement, and we still haven't had an honest and open discussion about race in American, or our original sin of racism. So I guess this is an issue, brought by a non-issue that I'm surprised people give two shits about, instead of police brutality and young black kids being gunned down and harassed by the police. 

  • I love my progressive/liberal brethren, but this year has made it really difficult to resist putting my foot up their ass. Yes, the Democratic primary was a rough one where Bernie Sanders gave Hillary Clinton a race after the Super Tuesday contests, but you can't claim election fraud, or that the vote was stolen from you, when one candidate won over more of the popular vote, more states overall and more pledged delegates. Sure, the super delegates were in the tank for Hillary the whole time, but said SD's were for her in 2008 until Obama began piling up victories in caucus and primary states and saw that the base shifted toward him and preferred him over Mrs. Clinton. That's democracy in action, and more of us wanted the former Secretary of State to represent the Democratic Party over the Senator from Vermont. Is she perfect? No. She's more hawkish than I prefer, and I hope she understands that there is a groundswell of the base that wants action rather than lip service on the environment, beating back Citizens United, and getting tougher on the big banks, but let's stop with the "Hillary is just as bad as Donald Trump!" bullshit. One candidate has spent her career fighting for the rights of women and girls, as well as wanting to improve the Affordable Care Act and expanding the age of Medicare to the age of 55, while the other wants to cut taxes for the rich, deport 11 million illegal immigrants, and has a history of being and acting like a sexist, misogynist pig.

  • Oscar-blogger Sasha Stone brought up a really interesting thought yesterday: During every single Awards season, there's two or three movies that become so overly hyped and/or enamored by critics and those who read the Oscar tea leaves that once the movie is released or has been released, that we just ave to start nitpicking the shortcomings, the negatives in order to show that the critics weren't correct and that the film isn't all that and a bag of chips. I think part of this has to do with the hype in of itself: there's no possible way it could be as good as advertised. The acting couldn't be that magnificent, the writing couldn't be that sharp and rich and engaging, the direction couldn't be that assured, sublime, perfect to the letter, etc. I also think the other part is due to how we already have our favorite(s) in mind before the season begins: we hold onto what we like and do anything to protect it and better its chances with the voters, be it bringing up smear pieces, like Jeff Wells did last year wen he went on a tear on the movie Room, or with false controversy about real-life issues, such as Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty supposedly being pro-torture. Regardless of the reasons, this is, unfortunately, part of the Oscar race, and one we all (those like myself who enjoy the season) get involved in. And speaking of the Oscar race....

  •   There's no real rambling thought on the trailer to writer/director Damien Chazelle's followup to Whiplash...I just love the trailer! Seriously, this looks absolutely lovely with the music and the atmosphere of love and melancholy, and this is coming from somebody who doesn't care much for musicals.

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