Journalism Week 1 is over.

My first week as a Journalism student is over! Okay maybe not really since I had no Monday class this week but it feels like it so I decided to blog. So far my classes and instructors seem pretty cool.

Canadian History is definitely promising to be the least interesting but to be fair there is only so much you can do with a history that was based on signing a bunch of treaties . At least Mike Walsh, my instructor who constantly refers to himself as a dinosaur but drops more Jersey Shore references than anyone I know, has a fun sense of humour and has structured the classes  in a very engaging way. Today we discussed the burning of the qur'an, Canada's freedom of speech and enlisting in wars.

My other class today, Writing for Newspapers, was just an in class assignment that was actually more fun than I expected it to be, even though I still found it a bit challenging. Kathy, our instructor, seems to really know a lot but for some reason I can't exactly pin down yet, I'm frightened of her. I think it has to do with the fact that I don't feel my English is at the same level of everyone else's and it just makes me super paranoid.

Regarding my other classes I really don't have much to say. Design for Print seems fun and unlike anything I have ever done before. Also this is my teacher. Yup. Part time wise newspaper man, part time cool punk rocker in a band called Jam Toast. Go, him!

Intro to Desktop Publishing reminded me a lot of high school computing class except you know, programs people in the biz actually use. We didn't get too into it (most of the class consisted of us taking mugshot pictures so our instructor can remember our names...what did people do before computers?) but the little she did talk about promises great things for my life. Soon your eyes won't be offended by the awful blog design I stole from someone else. Before you know it, employers won't glance over my boring resume thinking I'm just one more of a bunch (unless the rest are also indesign-knowledgable people in which case I'm screwed).

And finally there is Research Techniques. From what I heard through the grapevine it was one of the least liked class by my fellow journalism students but I loved it. Andrew clearly knows a lot about his field and his documentary really reassured me I was in the right field. Its the sort of thing I want to be doing some point in the future. Fingers crossed.

Technically I have one more class on monday but its History of Journalism so I'm not exactly expecting great things from a history class.

Regarding my movie project I'll probably get back on schedule sooner or later. Currently I'm battling a deadly case of common cold and I am too weak to piratebay search the next movie. I have (black) musical Dreamgirls which seems like a good movie so I'll watch that and a couple more over my long weekend and I should be good. Plus we all know black musicals are the best kind of musicals because they deal with real things (I still have my fingers crossed for Precious!: Based on the Film Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire, the musical about a fat black girl who is precious inside and out. She will be played by Kelly Clarkson in blackface).

All in all, life is good and is best expressed by a chibi peace sign which I googled and instead found this chibi effeminate Link from The Legend of Zelda. You're a beautiful girl, Link. Date me.  

007. Taxi to the Dark Side

Stomach the trailer here
Taxi to the Dark Side is a documentary that tries to understand the circumstances that led to the death of Dilawar , a taxi driver that along with his 3 passengers was captured and sent to Bagram, an air base where suspects of terrorism were held. There his head was covered and he was submitted to stress positions and severe beatings to the legs until his body gave out. Dilawar died in Bagram. He was 22 and had a daughter and a family that were given a death certificate in a foreign language and no real explanation of what had just happened. The worst part is that Dilawar is not an isolated case.

Taxi to the Dark Side explores the American policy on torture and it is a really eye opening documentary that while graphic and at times very difficult to watch, is essential to understand if the human race ever wants to better itself.

Throughout the movie , vaguely familiar scenes of dehumanization of suspects in Abu Ghraib are shown and peppered with interviews of former soldiers (most of which were discharged), its the sort of stuff we saw on the news and decided maybe its best if we changed the channel. We hate torture, it disgusts us but lets not ruin our dinner by paying it too much attention. I think this sort of attitude passive allows this sort of intrinsically human, disgusting behaviour to carry on unchecked. You need to want to throw up. You need to hate humanity a little for what its capable of. This is the gasoline that lights the fire.

I think its easy to look at this documentary and conclude "Those Americans are awful people." You have people that are almost caricaturesque in appearance and fit the role of villain perfectly. From Yoo to Rumsfeld (who is quoted as saying "I stand 10 hours a day, why do terrorist suspects stand only 4."), these are the people that are destined to fill all circles of hell. Regardless of how easy it may be to cast them as the dark side, the USA are not alone in doing these awful things. They were using old torture chambers that belonged to Hussein. Canada is currently investigating claims that Canadian soldiers also took part in similar scenarios. Tony Blair gets called "war criminal" more often than he gets called Tony Blair. And the list goes on and on. I don't think the US, nor those military people responsible should get to wash their hands of what they did, but to simplify the situation is to minimize its real effect and that's the last thing families of victims, such as Dilawar's would want right now.

As a side note, I was actually pretty ecstatic about how fundamental to this investigation journalists were. It's definitely something that I considered when choosing my new career path and I find it inspiring. As difficult as it may be to be the first to see these things, its necessary and it changes lives and the world. So go journalism!

Recommended, definitely recommended. You need to know and see this and let that disgust motivate you to do something about these sort of things.

This is the Beginning.

This sad little blog will chronicle the absurd and unnecessary minutia of my life as I attempt to watch 182 movies in 365 days. It sounds easy enough and I'm sure many people watch more than that every year. I however usually don't. Besides the occasional movie at good old Empire Theatre I probably watch an average of 50 movies a year. And its not just the sheer increase but also the (stupid) rules that I'm following. There has to be at least a certain amount of dramas, documentaries, animated, etc as well as a certain amount from the last 4 decades. It means I'm watching Raging Bull, Dream Girls, Taxi to the Dark Side and Confessions of a Shopaholic (early contender for new favourite movie I'm betting) possibly all in the same week. Lets hope I can keep everything scheduled and organized or else that last month or so is gonna be fucked since I will probably be either way ahead of schedule or completely behind.

I'm not entirely sure why I decided to do this. The truth is that come September between school and writing classes and this and all the other stuff, its going to be a bit hectic. My brain will be fried, my will to continue with this project might disappear and this blog will probably have no more updates. Maybe its the very fact that I probably will feel overwhelmed that attracted me to the idea. The last couple of years have been filled with a lot of unnecessary drama created by my mind during nights that I had nothing to do. I'm really not in the mood of history repeating. I'm hoping that this project (and all my other activities) will keep my mind busy and unable to self sabotage my life-- as its become an expert in doing.

In any case, regardless of if it helps or not, at the end of the day its still 182 (hopefully) good movies that I will watch and its hard to see that as anything less than positive. I'll try to review every single one of them and anything else I actually watch plus, every now and then, the post of how this project is not only not helping but actually destroying my life.

The start date of this is August 23rd aka this monday aka 4 days from now.

Apropos of nothing here is a picture of a cat that will be living with me for one more day. It's pretty sweet!

PS. I totally forgot to add that I will not be doing this alone. My friend Maria (twitter.com/tokidokilolita if you're on the twitterz like betty white) will also be fucking her free time to watch movies with me. Different movies though. Except the ones that are the same. Sadly she lacks that cute cat as well.