Thursday, July 18, 2013

Three Beautiful Things 07/17/13: War Waste, Hip-Hop Raiders, Church Clean-up

1.  After all these years, I watched The Hurt Locker.   The movie works in all the ways I thought it would: its powerful realism, strong characters, and continual suspense.  For me, its strongest portrayal was of the waste of war.  Observing so much waste, of life, emotion, psychology, family life, ingenuity, buildings, materials, everything, was what made this movie very difficult for me to watch.

2.  Ice Cube directed a very interesting short documentary for the 30 for 30 series entitled, "Straight Outa L. A."   It examined the rise and decline of the Los Angeles Raiders and the team's tight connection with the rise of hip-hop music in Los Angeles.  It was an unsettling documentary, focusing a lot on ways of living and on the emergence of music light years distant from anything I know or really understand very well.

3.  I was back to the church this evening, not to cook, but just to clean up after another dinner for people interested in learning more about the parish hall and kitchen remodeling project.  The parish hall cleared out of diners, the cook left, and I enjoyed having the kitchen to myself to slowly and methodically run dishes though the dishwasher, put them away, and bleach counters.  It gave me time to lend a hand and to let my mind wander, to think over some things.

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