movie night was pretty good, though the exodus was strong. of the 13 attendants, in the end we had what, maybe 8. a lot of people asleep or simply leaving. my comment is the same as the one about Burma VJ, see older posts.

now, the choice for the topic was driven by having so many unitedstatians in my house, allowing for actual direct discussion of these topics. I was interested in basic issues like economy, education or health care and how these issues were perceived by "natives". because the US are still an exception on what is referred to as basic human rights, claiming "market" and "competition" are the end all be all of solutions.

so, instead of really boring everyone to death with a chomsky lecture (I'm sorry, he's a low talker!), I chose just to play Michael Moore on Capitalism: A Love Story, which just moderately bored people into a comatose state. still looking for a good pirated version of that movie for a good screening.

the following discussion was, in fact, quite remarkable, with constant quitters as the night went on, with only three last standing. topics ranged from politics to a lot on religion and reason, cosmology and existentialism, and we flexed a lot of brain muscle, up to 4h30.

in context, due to my pet peeve with religion, and because one of the guests was openly catholic and a follower of the bible, I played:
Darwin v Adam & Eve from Euphobia1
the banana man video
and to explain how the banana is no issue, an excerpt from QualiaSoup's movie on Evolution (the bit about bananas)

that banana man clip is so fucking homo erotic, praise the lord.

movie nights continue, despite the tremendous effort required to keep entertainment out of the house. I'm now a minority in my own home on this, so authoritarian behavior has been the only way of maintaining the meaningfulness of the house. it's a terribly hypocritical role for a house like this. I guess hypocrisy is just a consequence of complexity. sometimes, it does feel like mindlessness is constantly trying to take over. but it will never.

godspeed starstuff ☆★☆☆★★★☆☆☆☆☆