Speaking of health insurance, check out this clip from the Rachel Maddow show over on MSNBC. If you’re reading this via RSS or on Facebook you’ll need to follow the link below to the original post.

In my opinion there is currently no debate between the right and left on healthcare. One side wants to act like everything is perfect and the other wants to actually fix the problem. If you oppose the current healthcare plan (which is still very fluid) please educate yourself about the way other countries handle this and please don’t just accept our current norm as a solution.

David Bazan is releasing a new album next month and it’s absolutely amazing. The lyrics are thoughtful and at time heartbreaking, the music is inspired and well produced. It is at times a bit over produced, this is definitely the Achilles’ Heel sort of sound. After hearing nothing but acoustic Bazan, for what seems like years, it’s a welcome change to my ears. You can stream the whole album with a pre-order, I can’t recommend it more.

I got to see (500) Days of Summer recently. I’m too pretentious (yeah, do the math on that) to call it the best movie I’ve seen all year… but I did really, really enjoy the shit out of it. Go see it.

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Curse your branches.

All in all 2008 was a good year for me. I read an interesting article last week about how for just about anyone under the age of 70, this last year was probably the worst they had ever seen. The writer argued that all of the economic problems of the last twelve months added up to the worst year since 1938. Coupled with social unrest and the amount of violence in the world I might have to agree. I have no idea how most people can even begin to quantify that, but it does bring up and interesting point. I know so many people who are looking for work, those who had far less then the average American are now in an even worse situation and the world isn’t as peaceful as it’s been even in my short lifetime. I am however optimistic about the future, the economy will come back in time, new and more efficient ways can be implemented to help the world’s hungry and ending America’s own conflicts can only help to end others. There was a lot to be thankful for in 2008. I learned a lot at school, and am now in someways comfortable calling myself an artist. I can now support myself with my chosen profession. I no longer fear living alone or being without friends. I found something in a friendship that I never had seen before… I learned a lot about myself and how to deal with heartbreak. I learned that I miss my family more then I thought. I was able to begin to deepen my faith for the first time in a while. I’ve become a stronger, better person in the last year, I’m proud of that.

One of my roommates admitted yesterday that he has no idea what is going on with Isreal and the Palestinians. I shamed him but he didn’t care, I really don’t understand that mentality. We live in a democracy, that means that as a citizen you have to educate yourself to be able to participate in our own government. What’s happening now is the result of a terrible situation but I would really like to see our country take a firm stance against the sort of violence that is taking place. Raining down rockets indiscriminately is wrong, but so is destroying an entire neighborhood to kill one adversary. I’m not linking articles because you should know what I’m talking about. Honestly, if you don’t at least know there has been a rise in violence in the last couple of weeks you really need to shift your priorities, it only takes a few minutes to swing by cnn.com once and a while.

David Hildreth

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Thank God for Walkmans

I’ve talked a little about the upcoming election but I’d like to now make my position clear. I support Barack Obama for president. I do so for a variety of reasons, but the main reason is because I see something different in him. I like the above cartoon because I think it shows a difference in attitude between generations. Barack Obama’s message is mainly just hope, at the heart of his campaign is the idea that we CAN fix our countries problems. I really do believe that it’s time for us to look inward and begin to work on social issues. Say what you want about our role as world police, but I think that it’s time to turn our efforts and money back towards our own shores. Healthcare, social security and our economy have been neglected and I think that a real change in the White House is what is needed to fix our problems. “Socialized” medicine is a must, our government could very well be headed for bankruptcy but it’s citizens are guaranteed it without healthcare reform. I hate how pessimistic people are about it though, how can you change something if you don’t believe it can be done? A lot of the people I’ve talked to say they don’t want socialized medicine because they don’t believe the government is competent enough to run it. They don’t want the government telling them when and where to see a doctor, they don’t want to lose their perceived control of their health. It doesn’t take more then a few minutes of research to find out that in other countries (like Canada or the UK) people aren’t assigned a doctor, they don’t have to go though miles of red tape to visit the emergency room. Doctors make good wages and the overall quality of care is, by virtually every study done, a lot better than it is in the US. There is a lie in our country that says that publicly funded medicine is bad, it’s been around for more then half a decade and it’s time for it to be stopped. We have government run police and fire departments, federal mail delivery and even television, people just don’t like to think about it that way. If something as important as a local police department is overseen by a city, county, state and federal bureaucracy why do we then not trust our government to run our healthcare system? We are basically the only 1st world country without it and our overall standard of living and life expectancy is far worse then most of Europe. We spend more then anyone and get the least in return.

The header of Barack Obama’s website says “I’m asking you to believe not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington… I’m asking you to believe in yours.” I’ll take that over someone who has only failed in the past, someone who changes his story to get elected, someone who brings up tragedy to scare up votes or even someone who’s ideas sounds good but are without substance.

This is Barack Obama’s response to the 2008 State of the Union address, I think it does a great job of showing who he is. If you don’t want to watch the whole thing skip ahead to about 4:00 and watch until the end. He’ll be here in Arizona on 1/30/08 and I’m looking forward to going and hearing him speak.

I’ve seen quite a few movies since I last posted. One was of course Cloverfield, which I loved. I think you can really tell a lot about someone’s taste in film by their opinion of that movie. Some others were There Will Be Blood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and The Lives of Others. I should have seen The Lives of Others like a year ago, it won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006 and has been on DVD and Blu-Ray for a while. I really enjoyed it, it’s about a man who works for the East German secret police and how he gets involved in the lives of people he is suppose to be spying on. I highly recommend it, it’s no surprise it’s gotten all the attention it has. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was also very good, it’s about a man who has a stroke and is paralyzed from head to toe. His only means of communication is to blink, and with the help of others he writes a book. The movie is more about making the book and how the man felt as he lay helpless in the hospital. There are excerpts of the book in the movie but I am excited to read all of what he wrote. The movie is a french film so finding it in a theater might be a bit tough, but it’s definitely worth driving across town for. There Will Be Blood was incredible, people have been calling it the director’s masterpiece and I can only agree. It’s a dark drama about an oil man, who’s greed and competition ruins everyone around him. It’s a must see, just be ready for it, you do feel every minute it’s two hour running time.

It’s day 2454 of the job hunt (ok I made that up, I’m currently too lazy to open up iCal) and things are still going alright. I’ll probably start working something next week to pay some bills, but I’m not giving up on an editing position yet. I have some new leads and I’ve recently tweaked my demo reel a bit so we’ll see what happens. I’m also, once again, trying to get on work study. Hopefully now that I am a little further removed from my old job I’ll meet the requirements. I am also mulling over getting a stipend from my student loan. I can not begin to describe to you how amazing it has been to just focus on school. Is it worth about $6,000? I’m not sure yet, but when you figure I’m going to owe an embarrassing amount of money anyway, I might as well milk that 20 year payment plan for all it’s worth.

I’m not sure if many of the people who read this have ever gone through a photoshop tutorial, but in my years of interneting this is definitely the best and most educational series I’ve come across. You Suck at Photoshop is a real step forward in tutorials, the host is lovable and confident and he always gets across exactly what you need to know. There are three other episodes, and I highly recommend watching them all. The third is one of the funniest and probably the most accessible. enjoy ;)

Until the next time I’m bored enough to write here,
David

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hope

I got to see David Bazan in Tucson on friday. I was sorta on the fence about going to the show until a few weeks ago, but I am so glad I went. It was amazing. Me and two guys made the drive down to Solar Culture in Tucson and while I wish David had been in Phoenix, the venue was worth the drive. The place is an art gallery by day and at night it has concerts on a little stage, which makes for a intimate and unique atmosphere. The acoustics were good, which can be rough at smaller places, but it was just the overall feeling of the place that really made it work. The show was only $10, and the guy at the door was just taking cash with a small money box for change, which is better then an ass hole bouncer or some huge commercial ticketing system. After getting in we looked around and saw that most people had bought in their own drinks, which the venue is totally cool with. So we went to a gas station and got a six pack and enjoyed a few cheap beers with the show. A concert sans the ~$8 beer? What’s not to love? The first act was some local guy, who was awful but after him was J Tillman. I had never heard of him, but he was really quite good. His sound is sorta Iron and Wine -esque and his voice is just off the charts. I’d definitely check him out if you’re like me and had never heard of him.
Then David Bazan took the stage, and I immediately noticed something a bit different about him. Earlier in the night I had seen a balding, bearded man making a phone call near the front of the venue. I thought to myself, “Is that David? Nah, he was shorter then I am, there is no way.” Its funny how you can sometimes idolize people in odd ways. David Bazan has always struck me as a hulking beast of a man, with a lumber jack beard and a straight face, he just seemed like Paul Bunyan with a guitar.
So to set the record straight, David Bazan is an excellent singer/songwriter, a hulking, beast of a man… who is also like 5’6”.
He played a wide variety of songs, from his solo stuff to old Pedro The Lion tunes. He also played a bit of Headphones and apologized for not playing “Natural Disaster” because he didn’t know the synth part very well. He did play “Bad Things To Such Good People” which was amazing. He played the first riff while getting himself set between songs and I (and most of the people around me) yelled in excitement. It’s a dark and complicated song, but hearing it live was great. Also I couldn’t help thinking about Luke playing it in the back yard of the Juanita House with the rest of us trying to sing along, good times.

I saw I’m Not There last night, it’s a movie about Bob Dylan where Bob Dylan is played by five different actors. Each story line follows a different time in his life or aspect of his character. While it’s not the most cohesive movie I’ve seen in recent memory it was really fun to watch. Dylan is portrayed as an old soul who is running from his past by an eleven year old african american boy. As a conflicted husband and father by Heath Ledger, a spiritual person and preacher by Christian Bale. A young poet who speaks his mind by Ben Whishaw, an old hermit by Richard Gere and finally as a jaded and misunderstood rock star by none other then Cate Blanchett. It’s a really fun watch, if you can catch it, I highly recommend seeing it.

Keep it chill, I’ll do my best too do the same.
Dave Hildreth

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Two minutes and forty seven seconds.

I saw Across The Universe last night. I can honestly say that it was just as enjoyable as it was confusing. I swear, no one actually directed the movie, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t very creative. We drove out to Scottsdale to see it at the Cine Capri. Which I’m sorry to saw was in it self was a letdown. The more theaters I goto the more I realize how spoiled I am by the Egyptian. The Cine Capri was a popular theatre in Phoenix, as a matter of fact it was host to many hollywood premiers, but it was torn down a few years back and replaced by multiple “Cine Capris” (which is French for $.50 more profit per ticket) at different theaters, Phoenix now has two of them. I figured it was a huge theater, with a balcony and cool architecture. Nope, it was just a bigger theater with stadium seating and ugly gold curtains. So I drove to north Scottsdale and payed extra for nothing, but I still don’t regret seeing the movie.
Across The Universe was fun to watch, but it’s first and fatal flaw is that it’s too long. 90 minutes people, unless you’re David Lean it’s all you get! The music however is amazing, all the Beatles covers are well done and while the visuals do at times get too weird (the Eddy Izzard scene is un-watchable). The majority of the musical scenes are a lot of fun and that is why everyone should go see it. Don’t expect much from the plot, and don’t be surprised when characters just randomly disappear and appear. There is one in particular that shouldn’t have been in the movie in the first place, but just randomly pops in and out of scenes throughout the movie. It’s a directoral nightmare, but like I said, if you at least sort of like the Beatles you should go check it out.

I’m hard at work on my demo reel (you know that thing I’ve been working on for months now) I think I finally have a grasp on how to do this. I basically started over two weeks ago after watching a bunch of other people’s reels. I’m doing a sort of montage now, and while I don’t really like the concept of it, it supposedly helps you get a job. So I’m jumping on the bandwagon and hoping for the best. I get to show my resume to a bunch of potential employers at a job fair next thursday. So while I have to get the stupid thing done in the next few days I’m excited about showing it off. Even if my current boss might be there… it could get a bit weird… oh well.

On wednesday Wes Anderson released a short film onto iTunes. It’s called Hotel Chevalier and it’s excellent. It gives a bit of background to one of the characters in his upcoming film The Darjeeling Limited. It’s short and doesn’t have much of a plot but it’s full of Anderson’s usual charm. It’s free, only on iTunes and also rated R for a reason.

David

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Across The Valley