Fast Food Nation

Last night I stayed in and I watched "Fast Food Nation" with Greg Kinnear and Wilmer Valdarama.

The film centers on a slaughter house in a small Colorado town that provides the meat for a national fast food chain. All the characters are intertwined somehow and have something to do with the slaughter house or the fast food company Valdarama, plays an illegal Mexican immigrant who comes to Colorado with his wife and sister in law and winds up getting a job at the slaughter house along with his sister in law. Kinnear, plays a marketing executive who works for the fast food company that this slaughter house supplies with meat and Ashlee Johnson plays a teenage girl who works for the fast food company in question in the same town as this slaughter house. Many big names like Ethan Hawke, Bruce Willis, Patricia Arquette, Kris Kristopherson and Avril Levigne have small parts in this film.

The film really questions what is the American Dream and do we go about getting it by hurting our fellow humans emotionally and physically and it also brings up the responsibility of big corporations, do they really care for the people or do they not care as long as they are making money and turing out product. It was very very well done and I'm not a big Wilmer Valdarama fan but I thought he was really excellent in his role and I always like Greg Kinnear, he is really good at playing the smarmy guy who learns a lesson in the end. The two women who played the wife and sister in law of Wilmer Valdarama's character were really excellent as well, I actually saw the girl who played the wife today at the movie theater up the street from me! Bruce Willis has a cameo playing the CEO of the slaughter house, he plays a really good smarmy asshole!! Ethan Hawke, plays the activist uncle of Amber (Ashlee Johnson) the young girl who works at the fast food place, Patricia Arquette plays Amber's trashy mother. Kris Kristopherson plays an old rancher whose business is slowly being taken away by large corporations and Avril Lavigne plays a student activist at the local college.

I really felt great sympathy for Wilmer Valdarama's character along with the characters of his wife and sister in law, you really see what they have to go through to live and to work in the US and to achieve what they see as "the American Dream". I also felt a bit of sympathy for Greg Kinnear's character, he knows what all that is going in this slaughter house is wrong morally and unsafe and he wants to say something to his company, but still he needs his job, I won't give away what happens!!

This movie is worth seeing!! One thing I will tell all of you is that the scene at the end will make you swear off eating meat all together!!


The film I saw tonight at Tribecca was a documentary called "Taxi to the Dark Side", it was about torture in US Military prisons like Abu Grab and Bagara in Afghanistan. Part of the film told the story of a 22 year old Afghan man who was a taxi driver who happen to pick up these three men who may or may not have been planning a mortar attack. All the men including the taxi driver were arrested and sent to Bagara Prison. The taxi driver who was innocent was beaten and tortured by US MP's at the prison till he died. It was really awful and pretty brutal to hear the accounts from the soldiers themselves and see the pictures and the video tape. The solders claim that they were following orders from the higher ups. The film examined how after 9/11 Cheney, Bush and Donald Rumsfeild gave the orders not to follow the Geneva accords and to use blunt trauma force and to basically torture these prisoners and take away their rights of habus corpus ( the right to a fair trail and basically know why you are in jail in the first place) and they pretty pardoned themselves from any charges that would be brought up against them, they pretty much set it so that the solders who were following orders would be the ones charged. The film also pointed out how less then five percent of prisoners that were in Bagara, Abu Grab and are currently in Guantanamo Bay are involved with Al Quida and or the Taliban. The majority of the prisoners
that were in Bagara, Abu Grab and were are/in Guantanamo Bay were farmers or civilians who were turned in by local tribal leaders in order to get the ransom money that the US gives to people in Afghanistan and Iraq for turning over anyone they believe has something to do with the Taliban or Al Quida. The Taxi Driver was captured by an Afghan war lord who was working with US Forces, but as it turns out he really wasn't he was just giving the US innocent people to make himself look good because he was planning a mortar attack on one of the US bases.
The movie also talks about how when some of these tortures are taking place people are more likely to give up false information because their bodies are so beat from the tortures. The film won best documentary at Tribecca and it's going to be in wide release soon, I would highly recommend seeing it! It's very powerful and if your like me and think Bush should be impeached you will really think so after seeing this film or if you were in the small minority that likes Bush and what he is doing you'll really want him impeached after you see this film!


HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!!

Do people actually read???

I have a page on myspace and I use pretty much to do promotion for friends and their bands but also to promote this blog. And every once in a while I get a message from some creep trying to pick me up and it's me but I really get skived when guys I don't know call me sweetie or sweetheart and make the messages overtly full of cheesy and nasty pick up lines like "OH U ARE SO SEXY", "I WANNA GET TO KNOW U", "UR MY ANGEL". Unless you are sending a text message to someone or are under the age of 18 I question the intelligence of any adult who uses U instead of you in an email message. And it's like I don't know you and I don't want to know you so how do you know I can be your angel??

Yesterday I went to check my myspace message and I got a message from some guy who I would never date in a million years, who I have nothing in common with sends me this message:

Hi Sweetie.. How are you doing?i am new on here and you are the first person i will be sending a messageI lookin at your picture goes a long way in describing the quintisential underlying beauty any man would seek for in a woman ..but all real love relationships begin on a basic foundation of friendship..i would like to know u better and be good friends with u and am sure something deeper will spring from there...my name..XXXX..and i am just as simple as u want...i would like you to write to me and tell me all about urself as i would do too if u so wish.i stay in Sacramento,but out of the states currently in africa visiting my sick mom{hope you are not discouraged} but i will be back in the states as soon as she get better."XXXX_XXXX@yahoo.com" email address you can mail me through..... and if u use the yahoo messenger u could add me(passionaterasheed) so we can have a chat and get to know one another more.. .....Thanks for being patient enough to read ......i'll be expecting ur responce .Hope to talk to you soon!!! Love XXXXX.

Yes I'm so discouraged buddy that you are out of the country and I really want to start up a conversation and relationship with just based on your spelling and the lines that you used in your message to me cause you seem like a really intelligent person!.....honestly WTF!??

I wrote him back, cause I'm like that First off don't call me sweetie cause it's creepy, secondly I don't use myspace to date, thirdly I have a boyfriend, I lied about that, usually a good excuse to get people like that never to write you back . As much as I hate cheesy overtly romantic pick up lines, if Gael Garcia Bernal, Deigo Luna, Jonathan Rhys Myers, the lead singer from the Artic Monkeys, James Franco, Fab from the Strokes, a young Marlon Brando, Anthony Quinn look alike, Toby MacGuire, Pete Townshend or Leonard Cohen wrote me a note like that I would respond favorably and make a joke about them coming on too strong, but I some how think if any one of those men where to hit on me they wouldn't do it like the guy above. Honestly if you wanna date me don't come on strong like that!! Talk to me about something I'm interested in, like music, movies or books or my blog. Do people like the guy above actually get women this way?? I wanna know who the women are that respond!!

But one thing I will say is I give this guy credit for trying.

Angels and Kings

Last night after having a tough day at work I decided that I wanted to go for a quick drink. I wanted to check out this new bar on my block called Angels and Kings which is owned by that guy from Fall Out Boy Pete Wentz and some guy from Gym Class Heroes. Monday night was the grand opening and Ashlee Simpson was there along with Jay-Z and Tommy Hilfiger. I'm not a fan of Fall Out Boy by any means and I hate Pete Wentz I think he is the biggest lame ass poser, but I was curious since I read about this place and it is on my block and I was totally going to blog about it.

I walked in there and the place is nice inside but the people working there were these really snotty hipster types, the kind that I hate, informed me that the bar wasn't opened just yet, it was 7pm, just about all the bars in the East Village are two hours into happy hour by 7pm! I waited outside and called some friends to see who wanted to join me in checking this place out, I walked back in and by this time it was 7:30 and I was informed again that the place wasn't open just yet. So I was like screw this and I went over to good old Hi-Fi on Avenue A and met my friend Kristen. We wound up having a really good time at Hi-Fi and we wound up having a really good conversation about music with the owner of Hi-Fi who was a really cool guy.

Hipsters and the locals aren't going to be the ones flocking to Angels and Kings!! It's gonna be the bridge and tunnelers, the uptown yuppie preps and the tourists. I honestly give that place about six months tops, the novelty of going to the guy from Fall Out Boy's bar is going to wear off quickly on the b&t'ers, the preps and the tourists. If Pete Wentz was smart he would know that the small rock clubs in New York seem to be disappearing and he should have opened a club!!

Has anyone heard the new White Stripes song "Icky Thump"???? I downloaded it the other day it's not bad, it kinda reminds me of a song that the Asbury Dukes or Blue Cheer would do back in the day. Jack is totally going for that Tom Morello from Rage sound on his guitar.

I'm kinda bummed I just read that Mr. Bickley from "Mork and Mindy" and George Utley from "Newhart" aka Tom Poston just passed away!! Very sad I loved both "Mork and Mindy" and "Newhart" when I was a kid. I still love "Newhart" that was a great show, I wish TV Land would bring it back.

I will leave with this today......Corporate people who think they are so cool and hip discribing a marketing plan involving a client and a known band make it sound so un rock and roll!

Sopranos and mysterious islands and rooms in houses!!

Last night I finally saw this past weeks episode of "The Sopranos", for all who didn't see it yet stop reading right now!!

Tony we learn may have a problem with gambling, he is encoring large gambling debts and has to borrow 300k from Hersh to pay off some debts. Hersh begins to ask Tony to repay his loan and Tony starts to complain about Hersh and how he is a typical Jew with money and Hersh starts to complain about Tony. Tony begins to pay off his loan to Hersh little by little and finally one day Tony and Bobby show up to Hersh's house, Hersh thinking they are going to rough him up tells his girlfriend Renate to look herself in the bedroom, Tony shows up to give Hersh the rest of his money and to invite him to the boat show. Hersh refuses and when he goes up to get Renate, he sees that she is sleeping and when he tries to wake her she has died in her sleep.

Carm has sold the spec house she built with her father to her cousin Brian and his wife. One night during a rain storm she calls her father in a panic thinking that the spec house is going to cave in, in the rain because of all the bad lumber they used. Her father tells her not to worry.
She winds up making a lot of money in the closing of the house and Tony tries to get her to bet it in a football game, when she refuses Tony goes nuts and tells her that money from the spec house is really his and he should be able to do what he wants with that money, Carm tells Tony she doesn't want to end up like Ginny Sack living with her daughter after her husband has passed away. Tony tells her the house is going to cave in and kill her cousin's unborn child.
He finally calms down and tells her she can do what ever she wants with the money.

In the meantime, Marie Spatafore comes to Tony and asks him for his help with her son Vito Jr. Ever since it came to light that Vito Sr. was gay and was killed (last season), Vito Jr. has been acting out. He has turned into a goth kid complete with the eye liner, black nail polish and black lipstick, he has been knocking over graves and supposedly killed a neighbors cat and has been acting out in school. Marie asks Tony for 100k so she can move the kids to Maine for a new start, Tony tells Marie that maybe Phil Letardo should talk to the kid since Phil is Marie's cousin and that he would think about lending them the money. Phil talks to the kid but he doesn't listen, then Tony talks to Vito Jr. and pretty much tells him he needs to be the man of the house. After an incident at school where Vito Jr. takes a dump in the school gym showers, Tony tells Marie that he will pay for Vito Jr. to go to a tough love boot camp in Utah. In the middle of the night three guys from the camp come into Vito Jr's bedroom and take him.

And AJ asks Blanca to marry him and tells her that he will be full on manager of the pizza place in no time and then he will have his own restaurants and clubs soon. She is hesitant but accepts. At the Puerto Rican day parade she tells him she doesn't love him and gives the ring back.

The episodes this season leave you with the feeling that someone is either going to get whacked or go to the feds. One thing that bugged me about this past weeks episode was that the beauty of this show is that they don't make things too obvious and last night the sub plot with Tony's gambling addiction made it too obvious. And all the drama with Vito Jr. represents the struggle between Phil and Tony. The scene were Vito Jr. takes a dump in the shower was one of the nastiest scenes on that show that I have ever seen!! I think Phil will get back at Tony in some way for sending Vito Jr. to that tough love camp. AJ I predict will do something drastic after his break-up with Blanca, he will come to the dark side and join the family or he will harm Blanca and her son in some way. And the whole thing with Hesh, I wonder if Tony had something to do with Renate's death???? Very cool cameos by Nancy Sinatra and Southside Johnny! Nancy looks and sounds great.


Okay you can go back to reading the blog now if you looked away.

Yesterday I spoke about all those islands off of Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx and Queens. I was talking to my roommate about them and he is a freelance writer who doubles as a bartender on a party boat and he was saying that one of the islands out by Queens that his boat passes has an old abandoned castle on it. I told him he should take his camera next time to take a picture, we were both saying that how we wanted to rent a boat and explore these islands. That got us on the subject of urban exploring and my roommate at the moment is writing a story for a real estate magazine about demolition in the city, and he was talking to this guy who does demolition and the demolition guy was telling him a story about doing a job in the West Village a few years ago and this guy and his crew were in the basement of this building taking down walls and they found a secret passage way that lead to a room and in this room there were body parts and specimens in jars, along with hack saws and medicine bottles from the civil war era. The demolition guy told my roommate that they had these guys from Peru on the crew who were deeply religious and when they saw this room they ran out of the building and they had to have a shaman come in and bless the building!!

One of the coolest museums in New York is the South Street Seaport Museum, they have a display of artifacts that were dug up in various spots in Manhattan from the 1600's, they only have half of the collection because the collection was stored in the World Trade Center and when the towers fell they were only able to salvage half of the collection. All that stuff is so fascinating to me, cause you never know what secrets the building holds where you live!

My boss got an invite to the Time Magazine 100 most influential people party and I was looking at the list and one of the influential people listed under entertainment was Dane Cook. Now I know this guy is totally popular and people find him funny, but honestly I'm not one of those people who find him funny.

GAAAAHHHHAAAAA

Ugghhhh April has been the most stressful month not only for me but for a lot of people that I know!! So thankful today is the last day of April!! I'm trying to find a part time weekend job at either a bar, restaurant, club or a retail position at a store so if anyone knows of anything can they please let me know. Blogging and being a 9 to 5'er don't cover it all in New York!!

So this past weekend was the Coachella festival out in California. Bjork, Interpol (who I go through waves of liking and not liking they tend to be too smarmy hipster for me sometimes), The Decemberists, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Scarlett Johansen sang back-up for the JMC (from all I read she wasn't half bad), the Artic Monkeys, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Sonic Youth, Willie Nelson (who I freakin' love can't wait to hear the song he wrote with Mariah Carey!), Rodrigo y Gabriela, Lilly Allen, Amy Winehouse and a reunited Rage Against the Machine among many others all played. I LOVE Rage!! I would have given anything to have seen them play at Coachella!!

I read that Coachella brought out all the celebutards and teen actresses and actors i.e. Paris, Nicki, Kim Stewart and Lindsay Lohan, that dude Adam Brody from the "OC", Misha Barton, the blonde chick from "24", and that douche with the hair Ryan Cobrara and his girlfriend who is Lisa Marie Presley's teenage daughter. I know I said I wouldn't mention the celebutards and teen actors in this blog ever again after last weeks post but just their very presence there along with the DKNY swag house kinda really ruins something that used and still could be so freakin' cool!! I wonder if Lindsay threw a fit cause Scarlett was singing with the Jesus and Mary Chain!! I wonder if LiLo was bugging Rufus Wainwright or Carlos D. from Interpol to sign back up with them, so she can prove that she is just as hip and indie as Scarlett!! I also wonder what the boys from Rage would have made of all the celebutards, "Young Hollywood" and the DKNY swag house at Coachella!?

We never get shown the music fest love here in New York, I think it was Woodstock that ruined all that!!!! I can remember that a few years ago they tried to have a music fest like Coachella out on Long Island and the politicians and townspeople of where this festival was to take place freaked out and the fest was moved to Giants Stadium, all these festivals wind up being moved to Giants Stadium or Randall's Island or they are way upstate or they are in Vermont. It would cool for once to have a festival in the NYC area that is out in the open!!

One place that would be very cool to have an open outdoor festival would be on all these old abandon islands off of Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens but half these islands are privately owned or owned by the city and they have either paupers graves on them or they are just plan rundown. When ever I have downtime at work not only do I blog but I go on Wikipedia and just look something up, Wikipedia is cool cause it's kinda like IMDB.com where you can play the six degrees game when you are bored at work! Anyway just out of sheer curiosity I looked up North Brother Island, South Brother Island, Hart Island and Hoffman Island. South Brother Island was once the private island of the man who first owned the NY Yankees Jacob Ruppert in the early 1900's, since then no one has lived on the island and it's owned according to Wikipedia by a private Long Island company who paid ten dollars for it in 1975. North Brother Island was the home of a contagious disease hospital back in the early 1900's, Typhoid Mary was the most famous patient of the hospital and in 1904 the General Slocum burned right off of North Brother Island. After WW2 the Island housed returning vets and their families who were enrolled at local colleges and then in the 1950's the a drug treatment center opened on the Island and in the 1960's it closed and has been abandoned ever since. Hart Island is basically where the city buries all of the John and Jane Does and there is a missile silo on the island and Hart Island was used as a POW camp back in the US Civil War and according to Wikipedia there are still houses left from that era and the Department of Corrections does tours of the island every five years (if any of my friends are reading, WE SOOOOO HAVE TO GO!!). Hoffman Island is off of Brooklyn and was used back in the day as a contagious disease hospital for all immigrants who came in from Ellis Island, the hospital closed and it was used as an army base during the second world war, then it pretty much became abandoned after that. My favorite story is that people where arrested after they were caught trying to make a porno back on Hoffman Island back in the 60's!!! I wanna rent a boat and just go around to all these little islands and explore, I think that would be a lot of fun.

http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Brother_Island
http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoffman_Island
http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Brother_Island
http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hart_Island%2C_New_York
http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mallon
http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Slocum









Sopranos wrap up tomorrow!!