Archive for the ‘Sicko’ tag

Curse your branches.

It’s been a good week. I headed out to San Diego on Monday morning, did a few hours of work and then had the evening to myself. Besides San Diego being a reasonable temperature during the summer, it’s just a great place to be left with some free time. I spent a few hours just hanging out on the beach and found an awesome brew pub to get some dinner. Tuesday I woke up and had a leisurely drive back to Phoenix… it was a pretty good way to start the work week. I don’t mind traveling for work, but it’s great that I only have to do it about once a month. I’m just not cut out for business travel.
On Wednesday I rolled into the office to hear that my project’s release date had once again been pushed back. This time it’s been postponed to next spring. Once again it’s not my fault, which is good, but the delays are only keeping my from renegotiating my contract. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good that I can even use those terms to describe this job. They have been very happy with my work and every indication I get is that I’m there, and on salary, for as long as I’d like to be. It’s a blessing, I just wish my personal budget included health insurance and more savings.

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.

I’m about ready to leave the country

I got ahold of a screener copy of Michael Moore’s latest film SiCKO today. It’s is almost undeniably his best. Most who have heard something about it might say that it is about America’s 50 million uninsured citizens. It isn’t, no it’s much worse than that. The movie is in fact the story of the other 250 million people who have health insurance. From the nightmares of denied policies to 9/11 rescue workers and the free healthcare systems of the rest of the 1st world. Sicko paints a bleak and disheartening picture of the American healthcare system, I highly recommend seeing it.
Although Michael Moore’s style of documentary is becoming more and more popular, i’m not so sure that is a good thing. Moore wants people to trust him, and when they see his movies they expect the truth and a certain amount of fairness. You hear all the time about how conservative fox news is or how liberal the washington post is but in the end most journalists at least try to stick to the basic rules of journalism. Give both sides of the argument and don’t give an opinion unless the page heading reads op-ed. Michael Moore doesn’t even have to pretend to stick to any rules.
I like most of his movies but i definitely take them with a grain of salt. For example in the beginning of the movie Moore makes a big point of a ranking of the world’s healthcare systems. America is like 37th or something awful. Later in the movie he takes some people to Cuba where they receive free healthcare, no questions asked. Moore shows cuba to be these people’s savior, yet on that same list that he touted earlier Cuba is listed behind the US in quality of care.

My little foray into vinyl is going well. I now own half a dozen albums and am having a lot of fun searching record stores for more. The simple act of shopping for records is a lot more enjoyable that i thought. There are a few good stores around Tempe but there are many more awful ones. My current little collection includes albums by the beatles, led zeppelin, radiohead, u2, elton john, and dolorean. Pretty eclectic selections but i’ll fill in the holes along the way. The A side of the magical mystery tour is lame, but other then that i like em all, it really is amazing how different they sound on vinyl.

In other news i get to head home here in two weeks, I am so excited. I am weary of the plane ride, this little fear of flying is really starting to becoming a problem. I’ve never had a bad experience on a plane and use to like flying. Who knows what is wrong with me.

My first entry to the Heinz contest has been posted. Check it out
http://www.youtube.com/contests_layout?name=TopThisTVChallenge&v=nbmPPJcg8vE&goto=588

I’d write more but it took me a week to just write that much.
David Hildreth