"Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?" by Morgan Spurlock

I recently watched Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? by Morgan Spurlock, the guy who did Super-Size Me, the documentary about himself eating McDonald's 3 meals a day for a month and what it did to him while he discusses the health system in the U.S. and the average American's diet. In this new documentary, Morgan goes right into the heart of the warring nations in the numerous Middle East conflicts in search of Osama Bin Laden in the hopes that he will make the world a safer place for his soon-to-be-born child. There a lot of things he does well, and some things I think he could have done better. Let me explain.

Okay, he's not actually walking into Al Qaeda and Taleban camps, because that would be suicide. What he does instead is take his camera crew and talk to as many people as he can, from merchants in the bazaars to relatives of known terrorists to regular men and women walking in the street to people suffering from extreme poverty in remote villages, asking them what they think of their conflict, of their priorities, of their government, of America, of Bin Laden, of their hopes for the future of themselves and their children. What I really enjoy about this is that he is going into their homes, into the homes of people whom so many in the world know of only by what they hear in the news, and giving them a chance to talk, to show what they really think and who they really are - real, regular people, just like you and me. They worry about the same things as everyone else - food, money, education, their children - but everything is made so much more difficult because they live in countries that are constantly at war or under terrorist threats, governed by corrupt, dictatorial governments that have been influenced by other corrupt governments halfway around the world.

Of course, there are people who really do hate America, who want to kill Christian infidels. There are plenty of Arabs who hate Jews and Jews who hate Arabs. But there are also plenty of people who just want peace. There are plenty of simply intelligent people who know the American people are good, but the American government is bad. There are people who just want the fighting to stop, but the radicals and the fundamentalists who have been raised in a world of war and hate and poverty and of extremely old world ways of thinking, always reiterating the same words of anger against people who think differently than them instead of discussing progress and individualism and separating church from state, those people cannot let the world move toward peace and acceptance.

Another important point that he discusses is the fact that Osama Bin Laden is just a single man. The real problem is the way of thinking that he has come to represent in the minds of terrorists and so many other people there. If it wasn't him, it would have been somebody else. If he is killed, it won't make much of a difference. The name and the actual person doesn't matter. It is the idea that must be changed. People need to be taught to accept others as brothers and sisters. That is actually the true word of Islam, which so many people in America don't understand. Islam doesn't teach to hate Christians and Jews and to blow up those infidels in the name of Allah; that is just what has been warped from the true words by radicals who know nothing but war and hate.

I also enjoy how he goes into all this. He ignores American party lines, national borders, religious divisions, and just talks to everyone exactly the same; as one person to another person, human to human.

Now, the biggest (and really only) problem I have is this. I don't think he made his point well enough. The message he is trying to get out is very deep, very profound, but I don't think he made it seem so grand an idea. I know, he is really trying to treat this as a regular guy, not trying to be too preachy, which I admire. But I feel that this topic is one that needs to be addressed rather poignantly, which is hard to get most of the time. There are instances where that is the case, but only insofar as to make the audience think, "That's awful," or, "That's sad." I've done some serious thinking and discussing about these ideas before, so maybe that's why I'm more receptive to it. But maybe the average guy who hasn't thought of things this way before might not see the main point.

All in all, I found this film to be entertaining, smart, and definitely unique. There aren't any other films that cover this topic in quite the same way, so I applaud him for making the effort. I just would have liked the message to be a little more profound and clear. So if you watch this, keep an open mind to everything, and hopefully you'll feel a little spark of understanding.

Alexander Calder at the Whitney

The Alexander Calder show recently opened at the Whitney Museum in NYC. The exhibition focuses on his years in Paris from 1926-1933. The amount of work that he produced, along with his stylistic and artistic growth, in those 7 years is remarkable. Starting with academic studies in drawing and painting, he frequented cafes on the boulevards of Montparnasse, meeting contemporaries of his like Mondrian, Leger, Miro, and Duchamp. By growing through and experiencing "Les Annees Folle" in Paris, Calder's artwork changed drastically. You can see this great change in the show, although it does seem rather abrupt; his early paintings are in the same room as his wire sculptures of Josephine Baker. Indeed, the layout of the show isn't the best; the 4th floor of the Whitney doesn't exactly flow too fluidly. But, regardless of the space, the show is put on very well (they even have some of his childhood drawings), and the work is amazing, funny, and entertaining. Getting off the elevator, you're greeted with remarkable wire-sculpture portraits that read perfectly from any angle and the execution of which will boggle the mind. You'll spend a long time in the room housing his Circus, laughing at the hilarious short film of the show and viewing all his clever toys and great line-drawings. Don't miss his "mobile" room, especially when the Whitney employee comes to "wind up" a couple of them. His sculptures at the end of the space are not only great, they're really funny too. You'll also have the pleasure of watching a short film of Calder performing his circus himself. It's obvious through this exhibition that Calder was a very clever artist, wanting really to just have a lot of fun in the process as well as content of his work. You'll be hard-pressed to find someone leaving the show without a smile on their face.

For more info on the show, check out the site.

Let Me Get It Out of the Way

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www.geemikey.com

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All Right!

Okay!

So here we are, and I'm starting this blog over again. Last time fell through, and I never kept up with it. But this time.. oh boy! Get ready for a lot of stuff! Thoughts, reviews, critiques, daily happenings, cool stuff, fun stuff, artwork, and all that jazz!

Yay!