An Inconvenient Truth; A little too convenient?

I take quite an interest in documentary films; I want to make doucumentries when I am done with film school. So when An Inconvenient Truth came out with critical acclaim and later, an Oscar, needless to say, I was interested.For those of you who have been living under a rock, the Documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" follows ex-president-elect Al Gore on his presentations about global warming, and more specifically, global warming as a result of carbon dioxide produced by humans......

"Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority of the world's scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced."
-www.climatecrisis.net (official website)

Scared?

So one night when my parents came to town, we rented and watched the Doc. I can't I was that impressed. Okay, don't get me wrong, I like the green movement. I like idea of trying to keep the world clean and healthy.. these are respectible goals. It can't be bad to cut down on pollutants expelled by the industrialized world... even for resperatory health.... But personally, I had quite a few issues with this documentary....

First off, I felt it was one sided, which I suppose is okay, since they only want to push their point of view, and that's their purogative. But if you want to convince me, you can do a much better job of it if you present both points of view, and try and prove yours is better in comparison.. but maybe that's just me.

Secondly, I was dissapointed that the whole film was basically a long advertisment for how great Al Gore is. I don't dispute he's a great guy necessarily, because maybe he is just that awesome... and maybe he does care about the enviroment as much as this movie portrayed. I just felt the issue deserved more attention than did the man. I felt cheated, and that this was just a tool to further his political career. I do believe that this, was actually the point of the movie, not in fact, to bring the issue of global warming to the public... I have friends however that argue this point, they think that the movie is about global warming. Which is a fair assesment I suppose, and I'm sure that's what they mainly got out of it. It just seems to me that the issue is far too politically charged to be just a environment movie... It definatly makes Al Gore out to be a good guy, which I don't believe was just a happy accident... They went out with the goal of making Al Gore look good, which it did. Also the fact that it won an Oscar. How political is that! They have basically thrown their support behind Al Gore.... they even had him there for the acceptance, and several little interludes in the program.. interesting for the "subject (...or is it co subject?)" of a documentary to be that visible. Okay, any subject might come up for the actual presentation. I'll give you that. But not just any subject would have a little screen time with Leonardo DeCaprio.. I'm just saying is all... So now, at the very least, when anyone, anywhere thinks Al Gore, they think "Hey, isn't that the guy who wants to save the environment?" Now that's some good branding! What does that do if his name does happen to appear on a ballet in the near future?

Thirdly, there was very little actual science presented in the program. There was an ample amount of charts. I can only take so much of charts however. He even had a neat little thing where he used a lift thing to prove his point... when I saw him go all the way up there, man, that convinced me... I mean, did you see how high he was? The thing with charts is that anyone who has been through high school knows how easy it is to prove your point of view with a chart. you just change the size or amounts in the parameters and there you have it, instant credability. That aside even, the whole time we have All talking to us, and he looks trustworthy, but we only have him to go on? He has a friend who does ice sampling... but still we just have his word and charts to go on... That and the fact that who's going to argue? Someone is going to stand up and say that pollution is good? I don't think so... or that it's good maybe? Yeah right... Environmentalism is so quitchy now... You are cool if you are an environmentalist. And if you aren't, you're a pig. simple.

is it?

On too the next documentary..... The Great Global Warming Swindle... ooh... this could get interesting....

This documentary is in direct rebuttle to the previous. It has been creating quite a stir... even the name is rather inflamitory. So let's see what this one's about.

"According to a group of scientists brought together by documentary-maker Martin Durkin, if the planet is heating up, it isn't your fault and there's nothing you can do about it.

We've almost begun to take it for granted that climate change is a man-made phenomenon. But just as the environmental lobby think they've got our attention, a group of naysayers have emerged to slay the whole premise of global warming."
-Official website

Okay, so these guys say the complete opposite or our friend Al... but he had charts... These guys have charts too...

I must say, the main thing this documentary had going for it was the people they included to help make their point credible. It wasn't Tony Blair, Stephen Harper or even Bono (not that he would). They had university professors from several different countries and scientists from several different organizations.

-Paleoclimatologist Professor Ian Clark,
-Nigel Calder, a former editor of New Scientist,
-Philip Stott, professor emeritus of biogeography at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London,
-Professor Paul Reiter
-Patrick Moore, Co-founder of greenpeace.
These are just a few...

These are scientist, credible and they disagree with the notion proposed be "An Inconvenient Truth". It was claimed to be the opinion of 2,500 leading scientists that CO2 is the cause of global warming. Prof Reiter said it included names of scientists who disagreed with the findings and resigned from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Interesting...

I also found it interesting that they pointed out that storms are caused by the meeting of two extremely different temperatures... so if the ice caps do melt and the temperature raises up north, the chance of violent storms would actually go down.... not up.. contrary to the quote earlier on...

And the cause of global warming? well, it's what normally produces heat. The sun. That and clouds.

"Nigel Calder, a former editor of New Scientist, is featured in the programme, and has just released a book claiming that clouds are the real reason behind climate change.

'The Chilling Stars' was written with Danish scientist Henrik Svensmark who published a scientific paper, claiming cosmic rays cause clouds to form, reducing the global temperature. The theory is shown in the programme.

Mr Calder said: "Henrik Svensmark saw that cloudiness varies according to how many atomic particles are coming in from exploded stars - when there are more cosmic rays, there are more clouds.

"However, solar winds bat away many of the cosmic rays and the sun is currently in its most active phase, which would be an explanation for global warming."
-UK News

I'm not going to go over all the theories and rebuttles that are presented in this documentary. That would take too long and there's no point really, since it is in a movie. I just wanted to point out that there was an opposing view and give kudos to those that work against the grain. That, and I believe that this new documentary did more work to actually try and prove their point. Not just go with the popular opinion..

This film had a very conservative point of view. very pro industry and capitalism. Which is neither good nor bad, but like the Al Gore movie, it just shows which side of the issue it comes from. I'm not pro industry per say, nor pro capitalism. But they had more science, better answers and more opinions for my money.

I highly recommend you watch both films and decide for yourself. Personally I did not entirely agree with either film. Both sides have merit, and that's the way all issues are. there is never one clear cut answer.

Go watch them... and tell me what you think... it's an interesting debate.

Andrew

P.S You have to watch the Documentary "The Future of Food"! It is one of my favorite movies ever! About the plight of agriculture in Canada, North America and the World. Important stuff.

The Humanity!

Warning... this post at one point will contain some expletives..

A while back I was going to post on stupid people. I never did get around to it. I think today is the time. Most of the time, people seem fairly intelligent, nice and reasonable. Then there are times when I wonder how it is we have any shred of society at all. When my brother Nate was visiting we were out late one night taking a walk. When "Smash", we hear the sound of busting glass. we turn to see to kids, no, hooligans, running from a bus shelter. "Oh yeah, that was so awesome!"... um yeah... throwing a rock at glass... when there is nobody around... I don't know about you, but I think that is the coolest thing I've ever witnessed....

On another occasion, there was a man going through a crosswalk when he was not supposed to. Not exciting, however a truck was rather pissed off honking excessivly and the man walking gives the truck the finger. The truck spins around to follow the crosswalk man. They exchange pleasantries; The truck pulls away and crosswalk man kicks the side of it. The truck screeches to a stop and an irate man gets out holding on of those "clubs" for locking you steering wheel. At this point I had 911 dialed on my phone... waiting to see what would happen, I honestly thought that he might start beating on the man... More words exchanged... the truck man gets back in his truck and begins to pull away again... when crosswalk man kicks it again! I was just about ready to go up there myself and tell them both to stop being so ridiculous! The truck stopped once again. This time however he just got out to make sure that his truck was not damaged, when he found that it was not he got back in and sped away.

And the last in my circus of insanity is a intelligent protest held by some upstanding citizens of this fine city. That's right, I'm talking about the "Fuck the police rally". That's right... that was an organized rally held on the night of March the 15th. I wonder why nobody takes these kind of protests seriously... I mean, I thought they had a good point... Young people, who think they have a good point yelling "fuck the police", attacking them, attacking others... destroying stuff, blocking roads.... I like having large bands of crazy anarchists.... I much prefer that to order....
see some footage of the "protest" if one can even call it that.... here at Global News
. I guess they call it social activism... weird term for criminal activity... There was a peaceful protest the other day against the war.... which we aren't a part of.... and I have no problem with that. Protesting is a right. My problem however is that it is rarely used well... it is used by the ignorant to get attention. "If we destroy shit we get on TV, then people will see our cause!"... oh we see your cause.... your stupid, stupid cause.I can't believe even those kids would want a country without police or law. We could "protest" and destroy there homes, their streets, attack them. Now who or what would that serve! I ask you, how would that be better!?!

Again... how can we function as a society when such stupidity and ignorance is a daily occurance?! I'm glad that stupid people aren't the majority, or at least not the majority in control, or we would be living out some bizzare planet of the apes style future. Or perhaps something like Orwell's Time Machine... a land ruled by hobgoblin's or whatever. We'd have to fight everyday, just for our lives and nothing more.

So this is my post against stupid people. I hate you stupid people! That may be a harsh conclusion, but it's true. You make everything harder, for everyone. I hope that something stupid you do causes you to become sterile and thus removing your stupidity from world.

That's the rant, now go forth and be un...stupid...

This is awesome!

Tired to death.... not literally... now to catch you up.

Okay, it's been a while... but I have been super busy. like rediculous.... like as busy as I have ever been... ever.

Corner Gas almost made me cry today.... I mean, it was really sad. Davis got shipped off to Wullerton, Fitzy lost the mayorship... yeah.... that's the word. Wanda co-hosted Canada AM..... Brent sold the gas station, and Lacey sold the Ruby.... and then left for Toronto! It was so sad.... It actually made me depressed.... and then it was some crazy dream Hank was having..... WHEW. like I was really sad..... okay.... whew...... so.... I'm good now.

So yeah, in other news.... School has been so terribly busy.. like rediculous. This weekend we had mini drama's where we each had to shoot a scene from a movie... so we spent all week at school and then all weekend as well... and by weekend I mean eveyday from 8 to 1.... and we lost the hour on daylight savings. It was hard... really hard. We even had to act in them, that was hard too.. surprisingly hard. I love AD(Assistant Directing)ing though, Directing was good, and DoPing too.... So basically I love doing everything..... The only drawback is the time thing, and the fact that sometimes you have to work with people you don't get along with entirely.... but that's life right?One of the Sets we put up for the Mini Dramas.On the set of the Cine exersize I DoP'd on.. This is my friend AJ Rogers, plant man. it was cool, I also acted in it.... it was Charlie Chaplin vs. the Plant Man.The set if the 4400 at the Vancouver Art Gallery.American Soldier's taking over Vancouver? No, that's stupid... They're just actor's in the series the 4400.
The set of the new Da Vinci's Inquest movie...

HOLY CRAP!!!! You know that Ad for A&W? The one where the kid and his wife come home and they buy the grandpa buger to tell the parents they're having a baby? yeah that one? I totally met the actor who played the guy! yeah the guy! The son, to be more specific...... I knew I'd seen that guy somewhere before.... I forget his name at the moment.... I should have paid more attention..... oh well.... I totally met him though.... Pretty good actor. I also met Tyler McClendon in our acting workshop. Also a good actor... we recreated a Scene from American Beauty... Those Actor, Director workshops are kind of cool.. I didn't do very well, it was a little awkward.... imagine that.... oh well...

I hate how all ads use the best music. I find good indie music, listen to it a while and wait for some huge corperation to use it, make it popular and then have every teenie bopper and their dog listen to it... and then I can't like it as much... Dove used a song by Nik Zubeck.. Pepe Romero did a song for a different ad. It is such an awesome song... It's my favorite song of the day..... the words are just so good matched only by the good ol' folksy tune.... The lyrics are:

In your eyes I do somersaults and cartwheels in the air
I’m a Master of disguise
You are prettier than all the girly girls in magazines
Your smile is like the sun
I’m the lucking one.

so good......

On that happy note, I leave you now....
More pictures on my facebook.. thank you....
peace out
Andrew

A Comedy of Romance

Romance is a vital part of human life, a key to the human condition. Okay, don't go making any assumptions, because as of yet, personally I have absolutly no romance in my life.... like none.. but that aside. From time to time I enjoy the odd romantic comedy as I myself am a hopless romantic ( don't tell anyone) and as we've already established, I don't have any romance of my own...... which brings us to what I'm actually going to takl about.... Today I saw the best romantic comedy ever! Was it Music and Lyrics? or maybe um.... Norbit? no and most certainly not.

It was City Lights by the infamous Charlie Chaplin. Surprised? I was too! I thought he just did shorts, slapstick and the like. I wasn't really looking foreward to just goofy old fasioned antics, but it was a great film. The story was so touching; about a poor man, the Tramp, who falls in love with a blind flower girl. He is an awkward poor man. She thinks he is a rich man and he works hard to find a way to pay for her rent and hospital bills to get her eyes fixed, much to his own deficiet... After he gets out of prision he meets her at her shop, she has her sight and doesn't realize that the tramp is her benefacter. Only when she touches his hand does she realize that this poor disheveled tramp is the one she loves.... The whole film is broken up by Chaplins slapstick antics and still applicable humour..... That is just a really short synopsis... it really has quite a bit of depth, which is what surprised me about this film. The art of filmmaking was fully developed very early on. Yup, the best romantic comedy, and it was filmed in '31.
The appeal of the film was that if the Tramp could find love and do well in life than anyone could
. An awkward poor man can find love... And when these films came out, in the late 20's and early 30's, the burgeoning immigrant population really resounded with that notion... It gives all of us awkward single losers something to hope for.... sigh.....so yeah, that's the story, a great movie... which reminded me of my failings and sad state, but also gave me the hope of change someday.

Now that's what movies should do. The more classic films I see the more respect I have for them. They are way better than the stuff they are trying to pass off nowadays.. As I finish this post a gentle snow fall cover's the city, blanketing the streets and bays with white frosting. Obscuring the view... It's quite beautiful....

AHHHH.......Ew, Ew, Ew.....ahhh.....

Ahhhhh!!! Ahhh....... okay, I'm watching a show now on killer bees, they are so scary...... there was like a million of them, and they are super mean, and venomous..... and then there were like poisonous millipedes and black widow spiders..... I never, ever want to go to Arizona ever..... ever! so many creepy critters out there...... I hate normal bugs, let alone crazy ones that can kill you.... Eww.... ahhhh...... eww....... I mean, how creepy is that!?!? it's so creepy..... creepy creppy creepy!!!! They can feel your fear... They can even feel your fear!!!! they sense your heartbeats....how crazy is that. and they don't give up stinging you for a long time... even if you are dead.... wow.... seriously creepy stuff..... We used to have problems with hornets at work and that was scary enough, I can't imagine if they could kill you.....

anyways.... have a nice day.....

Andrew.

Lengthy Awesomeness

Hello world,

So, it's been a while, and for that I appologise. We had a busy week. We had a execise called the Instructor Shoot. A Director was brought in and our whole class cycled through the other departments for short script shoot. It was so cool. I found I was pretty good at a lot of stuff but I hated script supervisor and continuity. Basically I loved everything else. 1st, 2nd AssistanCamera, Assistant Director, Grip Gaffer.. even sound and art... I love this school!

Elsewhere in film land, I helped in a live music shoot with some of the TA's from school at the Plaza Club, although you can't tell anyone.. it's kind of on the hush hush.... but it was awesome! I was a gopher type, setting up tripods, carrying cables and whatnot. The footage that we shot might be used in a music video for Much Music. How cool is that! The bands playing were the Golden Dogs and Jets Overhead. We did the filming on the second band. Then we all went out to hang, it was a great time.

Even more elsewhere in film land...... We started our minidramas today, along with some quasi acting classes.... it was pretty rediculous... I like acting, and i'm pretty good at it.... not to brag or anything, but I am awesome! The improving was pretty intense, we had to become different people. it was really draining. I can now understand why actors are so weird.... And now I have some funny new catch phrases that'll follow me around for a while... kind of like LCBI.... I always have to have some sort of shtick...

I also saw the filming of the davinci's inquest movie... man movies are just so cool! so freaking cool....

What else is new.... oh yeah, the bank cancelled my bank card again, I guess I am still stealing my own money.... I've been taking out large amounts of money to transfer into my account here and my bank back home thought it looked fishey. So they called me up, and I was like, "oh yeah, that was me"... and they said oh okay. we're going to cancel your card and send you a new one.... is that not confusing? I mean, I understand why they called, and I'm glad for it. but why cancel my card after they knew it was me who took out my money? does that make sense to anyone? oh well, at least this time I have an account here and a credit card, so i won't starve or anything.... I'm also not quite so mad because there were two guys in school who had their accounts skimmed off.....

I'm watching "Are you smarter than a fifth grader"... and it is so rediculous.... this guy is so stupid........ he didn't get one question right, the only ones I didn't know were american history.... It's funny though. It's not quite as good as the office though, which I was watching before.... man I love the HR guy, he is so funny..... I can't get enough of him.....

Okay, I'm only going to talk about on more thing before the end of this little segment. I can't call myself a film student and not at least touch on the Oscars. I am not surprised that Scorsese won. It's about time, and everyone knew it.... Personally I'm not a huge fan, but whatever. This is not probably the movie he should have been nominated for, or won, but he had to win sometime.... from what I hear, he should have won for goodfellas.... I don't know..... I knew Helen Mirren would win, she was just on a role. And Forrest Whitaker won best actor... I really need to see those films so I can comment on them.... I'm sure they were great.... I was mad that Cars didn't win... whats so great about dancing peguins anyhow?!? Cars was so much better. The only other award that means anything was best doc, and of course Al Gore's film would win... I should really see that.... oh well, who's got the time? This year was rather lame for choices... not as bad as last year.... a lot of the films that are "great" and win' I really don't like at all.... oh well.... Like Crash?!?! I hated that film... It was so cheesy.... the one guy who wasn't rasict picked up a guy who was hitchiking, and then he's like, oh no he's got a gun! that's the only thing he can have!!!!! and then he burned his body and car? does that seem resonable? why wouldn't he just be like, I shot him cause I thought he was pulling a gun? or something a normal person would do? it was just so heavy handed, and as such I didn't think it deserved the oscar... but I have friends who swear by it... there's no accounting for taste is there.......

anyhow, I do digress.... so I'll just wrap this rediculously long blog entry for the day....

So peace out world,
Andrew

A bit of Crazy week

So It's been a while since I've really done any good posting. I don't know about you, but I hate it when blogs don't get updated very often... but that's maybe because I live vicariously through them.. just maybe... That being said, I will now update this blog! It has been a pretty awesome week here in the costal city. My brother Nate was down for his reading week break. It was a great time. During the days when I was at school Nate just hung out in the Vancouver Public Library, which I guess was fun for him... weird.. but that was only during the day. We did the whole west coast experience the rest of the time. We took the ferry over to the Island, saw the last bit of the Victoria Film Festival, we saw.... let me see... Beyond the Call, a documentary about some guys who do work in the third world. The other film was 2:37... it was not great, but whatever... The whole thing was cool though. We went to a concert, Sparklehorse... it was okay, it was a fun experience. and we rented about a zillion movies everything from the taxi driver to The puffy couch and Snakes on a plane to Derrida. good times...

I'd love to write more, and I have more to write, but I have an early call time in the morning... which means I have to be on set early. I only had two hours of sleep last night too... so ...yeah...

I'll write more soon. And just a hint of what my next entry will be about, more about our adventure and a rant about stupid people....
Andy

Oh roger... you are so right

You can't roller skate in a buffalo herd, but you can be happy if you've a mind to.

Think about it..

Tagged?

Okay, I was just reading Heather's blog, and aparently I have been "tagged" I guess I am supposed to tell 5 random things about myself... I think...

1.) I am the worlds biggest enigma (well... maybe in the top 10)..... for example... I'm shy and quiet, but I need to be around people. I'm awkward, and yet I'm not really awkward at all...I am a negative, slightly depressing person, but I am optimistic, and happy most of the time..... I am a non adventurous creature of habit, but occasionaly I pick up everything and move to a city where I know no one and go into a scholastic program in a crazy field.... I guess that's what one gets from a young norwiegan lutheran.... that and a love of coffee..

2.) I get injured quite frequently. It's my left handed bad luck..... yet is never bad enough to be cool or get me any sympathy.... let's see.... A hammer fell of a roof and hit me in the head, I have been hit full on in the chest by a flying, 160 pound sheep which subsequently knocked me flat on my back, I was crushed into a wall by a Cow, I was kicked in the knee by a cow, I was in a truck rollover not wearing a seatbelt..I had a slapshot hit my bear knee and it swelled up like a balloon.... I had my elbow hyper extended in football, and my chin endlessly hit by opponent's helmets.... My neck got hurt in both highschool while wrestling and wrestling at CLBI... the second of which I went to the hospital for..... So I've been through quite a bit when it comes to getting injured, and that's just what I can remember at the moment....

3.) I can write a solid Essay with no prep in one sitting the night before. I just write it out and hand 'er in... I just did it and got an A-. My best example of this is when I wrote a whole research essay in 6 hours when I was in the middle of the flu.. I think it was worth 50% of my mark and I got an 83. not bad... I refer to this skill as a good ability to BS... but that's just my terminology..

4.) Last summer I came 2nd in a popsicle ugh...... chugging?.... contest. I think we did four...... It hurt a lot! I've never had that much brain freeze.... ever.... I also came in second in a syrup chugging contest coincedently....ooh... alliteration..yeah...

5.) I have never been able to whistle... never will be..... but I can twidle my thumbs with the best of 'em. I practiced a lot during highschool....

So hopefully this is what has been expected of me in reguards to the tagging... I don't know if I should keep this tag thing going..... hmmm... I know beth will read this... so how about I tag her....

Anyhow, I've got to get some sleep, so I can do my sound edit, schematics, AD Scheduling and work on my first draft in the morning.

So remember! The important thing is to not be intimidated by all the stuff I know.
Andrew