Nasser 56

Hey all,

Watched Nasser 56 last week for a film class. While I enjoyed the film for its insight into how the main character might have felt during that particular time in his presidency, I couldn't help but feel the movie was a little propaganda-y - The director must have really liked Nasser.

The film follows egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser in the year 1956 - hence the title. At this point, Nasser is trying to raise the money to build the Aswan High Dam, but no one will help him. The dam is supposed to help make life for the Egyptian people better as it would provide water and electricity to the poorer rural areas of Egypt.

America had originally offered her support, but withdrew soon after possibly because they didn't want to start a war against the British (who, until 1922 had colonial control over Egypt). The British, though they have long since loosened their grip on Egypt, are still trying to profit from the country.

After his plea for outside funding is turned down, Nasser decides to nationalize the Suez Canal. The canal, which is located almost smack dab in the middle of the country, still belongs to the British. It's kind of equivalent to having a country within a country. Nasser develops plans to secretly nationalize the canal with the help of his fellow country men.

The movie, like I said was enjoyable, rather long, but enjoyable. You couldn't help but feel bad for the guy. He worked so hard to get control of a canal that technically belonged to his country anyway only to have England and France launch a world-wide smear campaign against him calling him a fascist among other things. They also double teamed him in a war.

But that feeling of "feeling bad for the guy" was also my main issue with the film. It was as if that was the main goal of the film. Now creating sympathy for your main character isnt an overall bad thing to do - I just dont particularly like watching it for 2.5+ hours.

Nasser in the film is portrayed as an almost super-human individual. The guy works until the wee hours of the moring, yet never needs sleep. He is the doting father to 5 impossibly well behaved children who all crowd around him and fall at his feet every time he enters a room. He is husband to an obedient, supportive wife who absolutely adores him even though he's never home and hardly shows her any affection. And the film made it seem as though this man did not have one critic in the entire country of Egypt at the time (and maybe in reality he didn't at the time, but it still seems odd to me).

Random Stuff...

So while walking around campus today I found myself wondering where the hell Fall went...I mean did I sleep through it or something? We had Summer (what little good weather we had after all that rainfall) and now Mother Nature has apparently decided to go straight into Winter. It's pretty friggin cold outside.

Anyway, I'm watching the news right now and the most interesting thing that happened today was the crashing of a huge helium balloon thing out in Ohio. The contraption looks a bit like a humongous mylar balloon one sees at children's birthday parties...and I guess some family in Ohio built it for a reality TV show they were going to be on. What makes this "Breaking News" is that the family's 6 year old son supposedly climbed into the basket shortly before the balloon took off and now the boy is missing. When the balloon crashed down, the boy was nowhere to be found.

What's interesting is that I've seen the same video clip of the balloon crashing down about 10 times now...and every news anchor covering the story has said the same exact thing, but the family who's son is "missing" has yet to comment on the story. If the boy is really missing - it's highly possible that they could be busy searching for the boy or in too much of a shock to comment on the day's events - I know I would be, but usually they have reporters on the scene trying to harass the family into talking or they're just camped out in front of the family's home or something.

Toy Story...

Hey All,

Last weekend I took my son on his first ever trip to the movies. I thought it'd be really fun to see the Toy Story double feature that's playing. I remember really enjoying it as a kid and figured he might like it too...turns out I was wrong. Go figure.

First of all for those who don't know, my son is 3. While my boyfriend has been itching to take our son to the movies for about 2 years now (and that's no exaggeration), I've been kinda reluctant to shell out $8 for a movie I might not get to watch. My reasoning was that a kid that young would never sit through an entire movie.

Anyway...my son did in fact sit through the entire movie. BUT the poor kid was miserable after he ran outta popcorn and m&m's and chocolate milk...and the 3D glasses were entirely way too big for his head.

While he was still munching on his popcorn though, I couldn't help but notice all the adult content in that movie. I'm sure you've all heard of all the hidden images/messages in Disney films; normally I find them amusing - but I've officially resolved to not buy my son a Mr. Potato Head anytime soon for fear that he just might try to recreate the scene where Mr. Potato Head plucks off his lips and proceeds to gesture in such a way as to tell the slinky dog to kiss his butt.

And my son probably would too. He did after all come home and begin reciting line after line from the movie (keep in mind this is the first time he's ever seen Toy Story). My personal fav: He just finishes putting on his pj's, is clearly half asleep, but turns to his father and says "You are one sad, strange little man," - I honestly dont think I've ever laughed so hard in my life.

Viral Videos

Viral videos. We've all seen 'em, we've all suckered ALL of our friends into watching them too. Some of them make you laugh 'til you cry, some make you cringe, and then there are those videos that fill you in on what happens when you leave someone home alone with your pet and a webcam.

While waiting for a group presentation this week, my group mates and I for some reason, decided to pass the time watching some viral videos. One guy actually found a list of 99 (or maybe it was 100) viral videos you must see before you die...anyway some of the videos were pretty funny, but unfortunately I couldn't find that list. I did however, find this video of the 100 Greatest Viral YouTube Videos. It packs all 100 videos into 4 minutes. How many have you seen so far? I, personally, have only seen about 24, but depending on how History class goes on Friday - that number just might jump up a bit. Lol.


P.S. I finally figured out how to embed videos. Go me!

John & Kate + Who???

Alright, if any of you are like me...you're sick of hearing about John and Kate Goselin. As if it weren't enough that their faces are plastered on every tabloid imaginable, while commuting to school this morning I happened to hear about their latest divorce/financial spat in an "Entertainment" segment.

Honestly, they have to be two of the most selfish people on the planet. They come across as being so wrapped up in their own lives that they seem to forget - a lot - about doing what's best for their kids. In fact I think they should just title their show "John and Kate"...or since John was recently fired, I think, just "Kate."

Being a mom myself, I can tell you that my life pretty much revolves around my son. Whenever I make a major decision I make sure that I know how its going to affect my son first (but maybe that's just me). Even when his father and I have our little moments, where we really piss each other off, we make sure that our son is elsewhere before we go at each other. Lol. Kids, especially the young ones, shouldn't be exposed to such things (but again, maybe that's just me).

Kilometre Zero

Hey All,

Watched Kilometre Zero for Egyptian Film this week. I can't quite say I hated it as some parts were pretty funny, but overall I found it rather dull.

The film follows this one guy, Ako during the Iraq-Iran war. Ako is Kurdish and, understandably is not one of Saddam Hussein's biggest fans. Saddam did kill thousands of Kurds in '98 in a chemical weapon attack.

Anyway the film tells of Ako's attempts to avoid being drafted into the war by Saddam. He tries, in vain, to pack up his wife and kid and high tail it out of the country. His wife, however, refuses to leave because she doesnt want to leave her bed-ridden, ailing father.

Ako does end up going to war, but while on the army base he tries really hard to get discharged. At one point he resolves to "sacrifice his own leg" - what follows is a pretty comical scene in which, while fighting in the trenches, Ako stops shooting, lies down, and holds his leg up high demanding the enemy to shoot his leg off. Ako is a bit indecisive tho, as he keeps switching legs; he's not sure which one would be the better one to lose.

Ako doesn't lose his leg, unfortunately, but he does leave the base when he's charged with the task of delivering the body of a fallen soldier back to the soldier's family. Poor Ako then has to drive for the next three days, with an Arab man (Arabs and Kurds at the time must have had difficulty getting along, or at least that's what the film implied) through the dessert with a rotting corpse resting in a crude casket tied to the top of his car. The smell alone, I think would have killed me.

While driving along, Ako and the Arab man get into a disagreement that leaves Ako (and the corpse) alone in the desert. Ako then, somehow manages to get himself, his wife, his son, and his father-in-law (bed and all) to the Turkish border and then from there into much safer conditions.

While the film had a good storyline, the way the film was shot and edited didn't quite win me over. There was a slight problem with editing - this may have just been the crappy quality of the streaming though, but at the end, right before the credits Ako and his wife were standing at a window shouting and jumping for joy at the fall of Saddam and then, suddenly they werent there anymore.