Artivist Film Festival

Calling all LA peeps...
This festival is usually somewhat poorly organized, but the films are always awesome. It's totally worth going to see at least a couple flicks. It's where I first saw The Corporation! Anyone wants to join me for a film or two...let me know!

Jesus Camp

New movie coming out soon...
Check out the trailer on the site.

Lay Down Your Bacon.

The other day, while searching for a recipe I came across this hilariously gross recipe for a "Mack Daddy." I've pasted it below, making sure to leave in all the typos and kinds of meat.

Mack Daddy
Recipe #184981
My Husband is always wanting breakfeast food from McDonalds or bk well, I cant stand there food.
by Happyfrog

3 servings
30 min 10 min prep

Ingredients:

• 3 big bagels
• 4 eggs
• 4 slices bacon
• 3 country sausage links
• country gravy
• hash browns 1/2 cup of shredded cheese

Preparation:

1. Scrabble eggs.
2. melt cheese on eggs.
3. fry all your bacon and sausage.
4. cook your hashbrowns.
5. make your gravey.
6. Butter your bagels.
7. lay down hasbrowns
8. lay down your eggs.
9. lay down your bacon.
10. lay down you sausage.
11. Top with your gravy.

You can see the original here.

Olbermann

I'd never really heard of Keith Olbermann before a couple of weeks ago, but watching his weekly commentary on YouTube (I don't get MSNBC) has become my favorite non-comedy-central editorial. Here is a fairly recent comment from Count Down that I appreciated.

Bush Owes Us an Apology

The Corporation - I recommend!

Last night I saw The Corporation for the second time, and it was even better than I remembered. I definitely recommend it.

The film points out that corporations have the same rights as individuals under the law, but don't subscribe to any of the moral, ethical, human ideas that guide the lives of real individuals. The documentary compares corporations to psychopaths and criminals, and when you think about it, if you knew that a person engaged in various illegal activities (theft, blackmail, arms dealing, acts of violence) would you continue to associate with that person? Probably not. But we continue to support (financially) and identify with companies (wearing logos) that have repeatedly been found guilty of breaking the law--many of them over and over again.

As long as corporations retain the same legal rights as people, why shouldn't we treat them like everyone else? The neighbors wouldn't stand for it if I started dumping all my garbage in the street because I decided that I'd rather pay a fine than go to the trouble to dispose of my waste properly. And I wouldn't be friends with someone who repeatedly lied to me, or who knowingly exploited children for his/her own benefit. So why do we give corporations a free pass?

The documentary highlights the company Interface as having true environmental ethics. CEO Ray Anderson hopes his company will be 100% sustainable by the year 2020. When I buy a house (ha!) I'll definitely purchase my rugs and carpet from Interface! (Interface is also Bentley Prince Street.)

Does anyone know of other companies that I should add to my list of friends? :)

Breathing Earth, Solar Plant, Eco Footprint

My cousin sent me this cool CO2 emissions simulation, which led me to the Eco Footprint Survey. It only takes a minute, and it's pretty interesting. I knew that driving to work everyday isn't such a good thing, but I hadn't really thought about the environmental impact of having my own apartment...

My food "foot print," while smaller than my shelter foot print, also surprised me, since I try to make an effort to buy locally and not eat much meat. Makes me think I need to make trips to the farmers' market more regularly! If you are interested in places where you can "Buy Local" check out Food Routes and Local Harvest.

On an only slightly related note, I got a kick out of the Solar Plant Flash Movie. Too bad it looks like they are only for sale in Japan. :)

Going to see The Corporation for the second time tonight. My college advisor shows films like it every Monday night, so if you are in LA, check out the schedule, and let me know if you'd like to join me some time!

Real ID Act

As of October 2006, all new passports will be issued with RFID chips inside them. You know, like lojack for people!

The Real ID Act includes a provision that could lead to RFID chips embedded in drivers licenses, which, in worst case scenarios, could lead to problems such as making identity theft even easier (one little scan of an ID gives the thief access to your entire life) and the government (and hackers) being able to monitor the whereabouts of any citizen via satellite. Yikes! Even though the Real ID Act has already passed, there is still time to define how it's going to be implemented. Watch for states choosing to opt out. The ACLU has a good site about all this: Real Nightmare.

Identity Theft!

I attended an interesting forum on identity theft and the Real ID Act today. I learned that I can shred everything and never shop online and if a thief decides to drive a truck through the back wall of the DMV to steal a database, I'm outta luck.

Personally, I've already had my debit card stolen online and my second debit card cloned and used to buy $1,000 worth of stuff at WalMart in a Chicago suburb. (I told the guy at my bank that there was no way I could have made those purchases--not only because I wasn't in Illinois, but because I would never shop at Wal-Mart. His response: "You don't shop at Wal-Mart? Well that's just unAmerican!" I was speechless.)

But I thought one of the most interesting parts of the discussion centered on who is committing this identity theft. Apparently, drug addicts and gang members are moving away from the drug dealing business and choosing identity theft instead. It's much less dangerous, it doesn't really feel like you are hurting anyone when you comb through their garbage for their bank statement, and police don't have a lot of options for arresting you.
(Why'd you pull me over officer? Well, I saw you had some mail in your car....)

The penalties are also significantly less stiff for identity theft than they are for drug dealing. The LA County DA's office showed us a letter from a convicted identity thief bragging about spending a mere 47 days in jail.

The legislation that the speakers asked us to support (CA AB 2886) calls for stiffer penalties for identity thieves. While I understand that identity theft is a serious crime, I can't help but notice that as soon as identity theft went from a high-tech, white-collar crime to something that "gang members" have added to their repertoire, we decide the penalties should be harsher. Maybe tougher prosecution and more tools for the police will help...I just hope that stealing bank statements from the garbage doesn't become yet another non-violent third strike crime.

I'll write about the Real ID Act later--it's a doosey.

In Honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day...

Whether it was Johnny Depp and his Black Pearl, internet piracy sites like Pirate Bay, or something else entirely, there's no denying that pirates' coolness factor has been on the up and up.

At first, it was skull & crossbones popping up on hipster t-shirts in Silverlake boutiques. Then the people I play beach volleyball with started hanging a pirate flag to mark our court. (Okay, so I'm the one who bought the flag...but celebrating Talk Like a Pirate Day at the beach this Sunday isn't my idea.)

But after awhile, pirate clothes made it to Hot Topic, the second Pirates movie was painfully bad, and it seemed like maybe the pirate thing was getting kind of tired.

But don't worry--it's not over for the pirates yet! Hal Willner has put together a compilation of Pirate songs featuring Nick Cave, Sting, Bono and more. Check out the clips on the NPR website. And with Talk Like a Pirate Day receiving national news coverage and a new book just out on Pirattitude...I'd say it's about time you downloaded a Pirate ringtone to you cell phone.

FTT!

Blogging...

I half-heartedly enter a "blog" on MySpace from time to time, but everyone knows how crappy and annoying myspace is.

We also have a blog at work that I write for occasionally, but it's just too much pressure. Plus, I can't write about fun things like Oprah's latest exploits in gas pumping.


Thirty gallons in that car? Really? Can't Oprah afford a hybrid?

So here I am, giving a real blog a shot. We'll see how long I last...MySpace held my attention for at least a month.