life, and a little more

2 Docs You Gotta See 2 Believe

Jun 28

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I’ll be the first to admit my geekdom.  I love Battlestar Galactica, still read comic books, play video games, and love heavy metal music.  Oh yeah, and I’m 35 years old and I have a few grey hairs.

As the years pass, I wonder if my maturity level is on par with my age.  Aren’t I supposed to be a suit wearing, 9-5 working, adult who has it all together at this age?  After seeing these two documentaries, I realize I’m doin’ just, fine thank you very much.

The first documentary is entitled The King of Kong: A Fitstful of Quarters.  This movie highlights the video game career of two very different individuals.  Billy Mitchell set the world record for Donkey Kong back in 1982.  That record stood tall until Steve Wiebe broke it.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=YPLjXjObEms]

One Amazon.com reviewer had this to say:

This is one of those movies you watch in delighted disbelief, marveling that such people exist–and that they gladly allowed themselves to be filmed. Director Seth Gordon does an important thing in presenting this world of eccentrics: he doesn’t mock them, or provide editorial nudging; he simply lets them be. The result is an ingratiating classic.

I could not agree more!  How could grown men be so obsessed with a video game?  The one thing this movie does is make you feel relieved you are not that weird.

Air Guitar Nation is another documentary in the same vein as The King of Kong.  This time video games are replaced with the obsession to become a psuedo-rockstar via air guitar.

Amazon.com says:

Is it a sport? A game? An artform? It may be hard to define, but it’s easy to see that air guitar is a lot of fun and immensely entertaining, and so is director Alexandra Lipsitz’s Air Guitar Nation, an utterly charming documentary about the young men (and a few women) who in 2003 competed both at home and abroad to determine whose “airness” would rule.

I’m still left speechless after watching Air Guitar Nation.  I almost thought it was a spoof movie like Spinal Tap!  Sadly, that is not the case.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=ea32R_2jSxg]

C-Diddy and Bjorn Turoque (Born ToRock) battle for the American Air Guitar Championship that is held annually in Finland.

I love music; I love metal guitar and yes, I do air guitar when no one is looking.  I just never thought of it as an artform to be taken seriously!

If you have a couple of hours to waste, you might like these movies.  They definitely shine a light on an entirely different culture of people!

Two For The Conspiracy Theorists

May 15

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I’m starting to turn into a documentary nut!  I love Netflix and the fact they have soooooo many great documentaries to choose from.

This go around, I picked out two that I had seen before (but twas a long time ago and I didn’t remember them that well). 

Did We Go? was directed by Aron Ranen and in it he tries to prove that the Apollo Moon Landing actually happened.  The film summary is this:

A tongue-in-cheek documentary explores the controversial conspiracy theory that asserts that, in 1969, U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong spoke the famous words “one small step for man, one giant step for mankind” from an earthbound film set, not the moon. In investigating the claims of an Apollo 11 hoax, Ranen uncovers a KKK faction at the Kennedy Space Center, slave-owning Nazis, hippies, soused space cowboys and more.

You probably laugh, as I did!  But I’ll be darned if this documentary makes you think “that could totally be possible!”  I had no idea of the Nazi connection to our space program and that is actually very well documented. 

The next film to watch is entitled “The Who Killed the Electric Car?“.  In light of gas being over $4 a gallon here in California, this documentary is a must see.

Amid ever-increasing gas prices, this documentary delves into the short life of the GM EV1 electric car — once all the rage in the mid-1990s and now fallen by the roadside. How could such an efficient, green-friendly vehicle fail to transform our garages and skies? Through interviews with government officials, former GM employees and concerned celebs (such as EV1 driver Mel Gibson), Chris Paine (former EV1 owner) seeks to answer the question.

I’ve heard  of the carburetor that gets over 100 miles a gallon on late not AM radio shows.   I very much believe that the big oil companies have bought that patent and are sitting on it. 

Who Killed the Electric Car is a good film.  It tries to resolve the mystery of why GM would pull such a popular car that was loved by its owners, was very cost effective and very environmentally friendly.

I’m not a big believer in global warming, but I know that all our car emissions are harmful for the air we breathe.  Why kill production on a car that has zero emissions and runs as fast as a regular car?

So, if you have just a hint of conspiracy theorist in you, in know you’ll enjoy these two documentaries.  If you have seen ‘em, comment and let me know what you think!

Two Great Documentaries

May 08

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I’ve had the chance to see two marvelous documentaries (thanks Netflix!) and both have made me think and re-evaluate things in my own life.

Maxed Out is a deep look at the effects of debt in the lives of Americans.  It has a personal touch with some great vintage video footage.  If you have the chance to rent it or borrow it from a friend, I say watch it!

Amazon.com says this about the film:

In Maxed Out, author/director James D. Scurlock (Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders) takes on America’s debt crisis. Consequently, he touches on related issues like race, corporate malfeasance, and political subterfuge. Scurlock’s multi-media approach incorporates statistics, news excerpts, and interviews, but it’s rarely dull (comedy bits from Louis CK and tunes from Queen and Coldplay don’t hurt). Speakers include economic professors, debt collectors, pawn brokers, investigative reporters, beleaguered consumers, and even Robin Leach (Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous). Instead of New York and Los Angeles, he concentrates on mid-size cities, like Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, and Seattle. Plenty of small towns also come into play. Though he never presses the point himself, Scurlock allows his subjects to note the similarities between the credit industry and the drug trade (others use such incendiary terms as “rape”). One thing he neglects to mention, however, is pride. If house payments are ruining your life, selling that property may be the only solution. In most cases, however, it’s hard not to feel for those individuals who didn’t know what they were getting into before they signed their lives away. For some viewers, this will be a dispiriting documentary–three subjects recount the suicides of relatives who found their debt too much to bear–but in explaining exactly how lenders and creditors make money, Maxed Out can help others to avoid some of their most egregious practices. In other words, debt may be a downer, but knowledge is power. –Kathleen C. Fennessy

Maxed Out hits very close to home for me.  I, like many fellow Americans, am in debt and I hate it!  After seeing this documentary, I feel like I’ve been played like a chump because the credit card companies know how to exploit us like nobodies business!  This documentary would be perfectly family friendly but for about 1 minute of a comedian using some adult language.

This film was a great kick in the pants for me.  I have read Dave Ramsey’s book, The Total Money Makeover, but I need to re-read it again.  Maybe I’ll blog about that as I read through it.  Ramsey does a great job revealing the myths of debt and gives the reader real world steps for getting out of debt.

On a different note, the second documentary I viewed was called “For the Bible Tells Me So“.   Two years ago I never would’ve watched this film.  I had the same mindset as presented in this documentary.  The Bible says homosexuality is wrong and therefore gay people are evil and willfully sinning and want to destroy Christianity.  I never really thought about the individual and their struggle to find out who they are and why they feel the way they do.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still very much a Christian and I still think homosexuality is not God’s design for us, but I’ve lost most of my self righteous attitude towards the people calling themselves gay and lesbian. 

This documentary is very tastefully done and honestly tells the story of how the American Church has persecuted the homosexual community.  I was actually embarrassed as I watched because I used to feel exactly the same way as the Christians presented here.  The American Church has tagged homosexuality the bane of all evil and that gay marriage will ruin civilization as we know it.  I honestly think that if Jesus were here on earth in this day, He would love and minister to gay people, not marginalize them.  His attitude would be far from the prevalent attitude shown by the American Church.  He’d be less concerned about gay marriage and more concerned with being friends and loving the homosexual community.

I’m very glad that I carved out some time (well, mostly driving time as I worked) to watch and listen to these two films.  Both have challenged me, as all good documentaries should.