When I'm feeling down and depressed, I play my DVD of "Apocalypse Now"

[scarletwoman]

and realize that my only problem is that I've slipped up on being cynical enough.

I feel much better now.

We are going to be fucked, no one in elected office is going to come to our rescue. They aren't on our side, period. Not one of them -- and that includes the golden-tongued Obama, who has surrounded himself with DLCers and Wall Streeters, and who will take far more pains to appease the MIC than he ever will the poor deluded progressives who worked their asses off to get him into office.

sw

[Donnachaidh]

1. hun, you're getting unrecced already

But I did give you a thumbs up. And I TOTALLY agree with you (except about A pack of lips Now -- couldn't STAND that movie).

Get a copy of V for Vendetta -- much more appropriate for the times.

[scarletwoman]

6. Oh, I figured on getting heavily unrec'd. I'd be surprised if I weren't.

Thank you for your support, even though our taste in movies doesn't mesh -- I couldn't STAND V for Vendetta, thought it was one of the stupidest movies ever (sorry!). :)

sw

[Wraith20878]

40. different people have different tastes

I enjoyed both movies

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. There -

welcome to reality.

It's become impossible to be too cynical. Like Tom Lehrer, who quit performing when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, there's no irony left, and you cannot be too cynical.

That's how our world has evolved. It's certainly not the one I had in mind as I was growing up, and it's surely not the one I want to live in now, but it's still better than most other places, and it's my home. I'm glad I'm old and won't have to deal with all this crap for a lot longer.

I do hope you feel better. But the truth is that none of us feels better these days. I don't know that we'll ever feel better again. November 4, 2008 and January 20, 2009 were our great days.

The rest is up to us to celebrate on our own, I guess. The world's not going to give us much to rejoice about, not so far as I can see.......................................

[scarletwoman]

18. Oh, I've known we've been fucked for many a year.

I'll be 60 in November. I was brought up in a family of dedicated, lifelong Democrats. My dad started discussing politics with me when I was a kid -- he was a union man, through and through.

He's 83 now, and just told me he's going to change his voting registration to the Green Party because he's so disgusted with the Democrats. "I'm not going to vote for Democrats ever again. I'm going to vote for every Green Party candidate that runs for anything." That's what my dad just told me this weekend.

We both lamented how badly this country has gone to shit. He feels awful that I and my children, my sisters, and all his other grandchildren are going to be stuck with such a fucked up country. Changing his voting registration to Green is the only thing he feels he can do to register his protest at the current state of our political system.

sw

[Tangerine LaBamba]

20. I've got a few years on you,

and, like you, I come from an all-union family, was raised by a grandfather who schooled me on Eugene V. Debs before I learned about George Washington.

Your Dad makes sense. I think I may join him.

Our country is past the point of redemption. China owns so much of our debt now, we'll never get out from under it. I think that was part of why The Powers That Be let Obama win - so that the black guy can be in charge when America goes down.

I'm not one for tinfoil hat nonsense, but, watching all this from the vantage point of my years, I can draw no other reasonable conclusion.

Tell your Dad I said "Thanks for a very good idea." And I wish you all well...................................

[truedelphi]

42. Isn't it great how people over eighty get it.

My Dad never voted for any Democratic candidate for President until the age of eighty eight.

Then he voted for Gore. (My mom almost didn't let him sleep inside the house that night.)

He knew he could tell me - a large part of my my adolescence had been him telling me how decent and wonderous Nixon was, and me telling him that Nixon was a pile of poop. I was stunned to hear he'd finally gotten it.

I have had eighty something girlfriends who were out there in 2004 campaigning for Al Shartpton for President - this in lily-white Marin County.

The Green Party needs to reach out and get everyone who is progressive. And Feh! on any Democrats who are upset about it.

Di Feinstein has such a hold on the electoral process in the state oF California that you need her blessing to run as a Dem. And thus, many people who would not be allowed the support of a party otherwise change their party affiliation and must run as a Green.

[Taverner]

3. And we will be between a rock and a hard place come next pres election

We'll have to choose between rewarding them for this behavior, or help elect Nugent/Palin

[kwassa]

4. why not play "Leaving Las Vegas"? That ought to cheer you up.

and follow it up with "Dead Man Walking". Laff riot.

[scarletwoman]

9. Sorry. I have a limited DVD collection. Neither of those is in it.

When I want laughs, I watch "The Big Lebowski". :P

[kwassa]

19. What? No "Raging Bull" to show you the lighter side of relationships?

You need to expand your collection.

[salguine]

12. "V For Vendetta" always makes me feel good.

[BlooInBloo]

29. Requiem For A Dream as a pick-me-up.

[ddeclue]

5. You're an errand boy sent by grocery clerks to collect a bill..

:)

[scarletwoman]

10. Killer line. Truth is, it's not that I think "Apocalypse Now" has any kind of deep meaning.

Mostly, it's the Doors' music in the soundtrack that alters my consciousness. That, and the utter fucking absurdity of it all.

sw

[ddeclue]

17. Oh man you really can't spend 4 hours watching that film and not get what's going on..

[scarletwoman]

26. The horror. Yeah, I get what's going on. It's just that what's REALLY going on

transcends the film. Understand, I totally LOVE Apocalypse Now -- it's a mind-blowing experience. Maybe I can't explain it very well -- for me the film is a trigger into a head space that goes way beyond the film itself. It's not about what the film "means" so much as it's about the leap of consciousness that the film inspires.

Does that make any sense?

sw

[mitchum]

64. Exactly...the film is a poem, not a docudrama

it is concerned with the sublime

[scarletwoman]

65. Thank you! Yes, a poem -- that's the perfect way of describing it! "Sublime" is perfect, too!

The effect is larger than the sum of its parts.

Thank you again,
sw

[rhett o rick]

34. I second, "the utter fucking absurdity of it all." nt

[Blue_In_AK]

7. I'm right there with you, SW.

[scarletwoman]

8. Thank you. It really means a lot to have you for an ally.

:hug:

[salguine]

13. .

[Blue_In_AK]

16. Ditto, kiddo.

:pals:

[salguine]

14. Me too. Rock on, sister.

[Captain Hilts]

11. Great movie. I watch "The African Queen," a great movie about self-actualization.

[bikebloke]

50. That's been in DVD limbo for an awful long time.

I've been waiting for it so I could finally see the end. Though on another thread a while back, someone was kind enough to tell me what happened. I'd still like to see it through though.

[cliffordu]

15. I used to make all my company at christmas drink copiously and

then watch 'The Deer Hunter' and Apocolypse Now' till everyone passed out.

Man I don't know much but I know how to party.

And you are right - we are all fucked.

I was less fucked while I was IN vietnam....at least I knew it was going to end, sooner or later.

"The Horror, the horror...."

[rhett o rick]

22. The Deer Hunter got to me. nt

[cliffordu]

39. That low level horror for days afterword

and the lack of sleep and feelings of dread and doom

is about as close to PTSD as most people get.

Add hypervigilence and a drop dead startle response and you have the whole thing.

I have friends that movie fucked up for weeks afterword.

By the way - there was never a documented case of the russian roulette thingy while the Americans were there - but it DID happen while the French were around....

[rhett o rick]

44. Being in a fire fight one minute and sitting at the diner table a few hours later, was unnerving.

Easy to see why those guys had difficulty adapting back to society. After WW II (The big one) soldiers had months to unwind before they were home.

[cliffordu]

46. And the comraderie on the troop ships - people they had gone through

everything with.


Most of us were shipped over as individuals and sent back the same way - I understand the big deployments early in the buildup were like WWII or Korea...

I sat in a diner near Snoqualmie pass in Washington for about 6 hours the day I was discharged, less than 72 hours after handing over my rifle - I was frozen, kind of stuck. I couldn't process the quiet conversations and the lack of vigilance. I was really shook up, but not afraid.

I guess I was afraid to move, afraid I'd break the spell or something.

[rhett o rick]

47. Bless you for serving and I hope you have recovered. Peace nt

[cliffordu]

48. Thanks.

I've begun writing about it a little and talking about it more - not the specifics, but the impressions - like the one I posted above this -

It certainly wasn't all bad and certainly informed me of the difference between what we want to be as a nation and what we are.


There is a disconnect when that occurs....when you realize everything you believe is bullshit, or just wrong or a lie.......

I did (mostly) OK reconnecting - it took decades, though.

******

When I was in fifth and sixth grades, when the girls were going to 'hygiene' class, they took us boys to the Gym and we learned about the Domino Theory. No shit.

[rhett o rick]

58. Yes I do remember the Domino Theory. Isn't there a book titled, "Everything I learned since

Kindergarten is Bullshit." If not there should be one. I am guessin you're about my age.

[rhett o rick]

21. #10 rec. I loves the smell of napalm in the morning.

I do love the ride of the valkryries.

[rhett o rick]

23. I see that you are down to rec 9. Oh well. My last post is still in the negative. nt

[scarletwoman]

37. Thank you. Yeah, the music in this movie is killer.

I do love Wagner.

[gmoney]

24. "No matter how cynical you get, it's impossible to keep up." -- Lily Tomlin

I find that truer words were probably never spoken.

[dflprincess]

25. And the sad thing is

they'll pass the Health Insurance Company and Campaign Donation Protection Act - and expect us to thank them. The even sadder thing is, there are people who will fall for it.

[scarletwoman]

28. It just makes me want to beat my head against a wall -- except I can't afford to injure myself.

Love your name for the health "reform" bill: the Health Insurance Company and Campaign Donation Protection Act -- totally right on!

:loveya:
sw

[Swamp Rat]

27. I listen to The Dark Side of the Moon

A habit since 1973 :smoke:

[scarletwoman]

31. There can never be too much Pink Floyd! Hey, Swampy!

Love seeing you in my thread! :bounce:

[rhett o rick]

33. I save that for special occasions, like lime in my vodka. nt

[cliffordu]

49. Yep - Yep -

great minds think alike!!!!

:hi:

[Zorra]

56. "The paper holds their folded faces to the floor...

and every day, the paperboy brings more."

Peace

[DerekG]

30. If only Obama was as bold as Coppola

Francis gave us the four best American films of the 70s; Obama is destined to give us four years of mediocrity.

[RagAss]

32. "The horror. The horror."

[varelse]

35. what is this, rec wars?

+1 from me then SW :P

[scarletwoman]

36. LOL! Thanks! It's all "rec wars", all the time on DU.

:rofl:

[sam sarrha]

38. meditation is the best long term treatment for Depression..

[Lilith Velkor]

41. Apocalypse Now just ain't worth watching on a small screen.

It's like Lawrence of Arabia - I see it at the old-movie theater or not at all.

As for being fucked, well, yeah. All the deluded progressives were ever going to get was the pleasure of yelling racist-racist-racist at anyone who saw this shit coming a year and a half ago. I actually kind of feel bad for them.

I think I'll go listen to some Nine Inch Nails, and then keep fighting for single payer no matter what happens. Catch ya later.

[troubledamerican]

43. "All I wanted to do was learn how to Mother F**kin' cook. That's all I wanted to do."

"The bullshit piled up so fast in Vietnam, you needed wings to stay above it."

Memorized the whole movie at 17 years old. Still my #3 of all time.

[SammyWinstonJack]

45. K&R

the golden-tongued Obama :thumbsup:

[scarletwoman]

62. Thank you.

:evilgrin:

[The2ndWheel]

51. Network does it for me

[G_j]

52. Obama does the status quo better nt

[JeffR]

53. I cannot be down or depressed in a world where THIS is possible:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMnwOZA0DQk

:D

[Blue_In_AK]

54. Thank you, JeffR.

That made my day. I'm working and don't have time to watch the whole thing through, but the first two minutes were GREAT. What a cute little guy. :)

[scarletwoman]

61. Sorry, doesn't help -- I'm on dialup, it's essentially impossible for me watch video.

Plus, I have a Flintstones era pc, still running on Windows 98. :P It takes about 4-6 hours to download 2 minutes of video.

Besides, you must have missed the part where I said "Apocalypse Now" makes me feel better. Yes, I am that weird and perverse. :D

Good to see ya, old friend. Hope all is well with you!

:hug:
sw

[blindpig]

55. k&r

Good choice, if anything else the sound track is killer.

No, they are not our friends, but they perform a service: by their flagrant dismissal of the people they illustrate the utter depravity of our social/economic system. They make it obvious to all with eyes that we can only look to ourselves and our brothers and sisters for improvement of our condition.

[KG]

57. i find it sadly amusing to read the protestations of those who still insist obama and the dem party

is a vehicle for change or a reason for hope. it hasn't been, and never will be.

we are fucked.

[sofa king]

59. Oh, if you like that one....

I highly recommend On The Beach. Not only is it one of the most depressing films ever made, but the only comic relief is unintentional: the idea of using Australian accents must have been dropped partway through the project, and the film was shot out of sequence, so the accents come and go. And I don't wish to spoil it for you, but it certainly has one of the largest (implied) body counts of any film ever made.

Other great films for reinforcing depression: The Seventh Seal, Bad Lieutenant, Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia, and Breakfast at Tiffany's (all because of Mickey Rooney).

[scarletwoman]

63. I swear I saw that once, like about a million years ago - memories from those days are pretty fuzzy

One of these days I might break down and sign up with NetFlix -- there's a brazillion movies I've either never seen or only seen once. I'll keep your suggestions in mind.

sw

[sofa king]

66. A Boy and His Dog is good, too.

It used to be available for free at archive.org, but I guess someone found the paperwork to show that they own it, and now it's gone.

[scarletwoman]

68. Didn't see the movie, but I read pretty much the complete works of Harlan Ellison

back in my younger days.

[Hippo_Tron]

60. Politicians are in it for themselves, end of story

Obama is better than a lot of them in that he does actually want to do some good things while he's in office. But when it's a choice between doing something good and getting re-elected he will pick getting re-elected every time just like pretty much any politician.

[omega minimo]

67. and it's all Nader's fault