Our Capitalist Sickness

Thanksgiving is not, by any means, my favorite holiday. In fact, it is one of my least favorite. I am not fundamentally opposed to a day where families gather to "give thanks" but the general subtext of the holiday has never set well with me. In fact, in many ways I think it is exactly what is wrong with our American Culture.

Let's start with the fact that the holiday is in many ways the celebration of the massacre and genocide of an entire nation of people. We like to incorporate the iconography of the friendly American Native showing the Pilgrim's how to survive in the new land, but the fact is, we committed mass murder and stole the land from the rightful inhabitants for "better use". I just don't know that is something that is to be celebrated.

As families gather, huge meals are prepared to the extent that we consume entirely too much food, over indulging in calories, alcohol and tryptophan. Then stuffed to the gills we sluggishly retreat to our sofas where we watch foot ball setting the stage for the next step of this great holiday... Black Friday.

After a day of gorging ourselves, Americans nationwide rise long before dawn (sometimes the night before) to line up and participate in our favorite pass time... shopping. Now I am a fan of shopping, and believe that a certain amount of consumerism is healthy for us all, but restrained consumption is not what Black Friday is about. We can't get a national holiday for elections, but companies are more than willing to give employees the day off to spend as much as they can, as early as they can, on products which don't really give us any greater quality of life.

This Black Friday, our consumerism proved fatal, and the pitiful irony is not lost on me. In this economy, at this point in our history we need to take a serious look at our consumption. We are a seriously sick nation, and until we realize that our illness will bring about our demise, we are doomed to fail killing ourselves and each other as we choke on our consumption.

A Macy's Tradition

Tonight we decided to brave the brisk fall weather and see the inflating of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons. We know better than to tango with the millions of people in the city to watch the actual parade in person, so we opted to go join a few hundred thousand and see the balloons come to life.

To get to the staging area, we had to enter at 79th and Columbus and walk down to 77th where we rounded the corner and saw all the action taking place. The line moved fairly quickly and everyone seemed to be in great spirits.





One of my favorites is the Keith Harring which I think is making it's debut at this years parade.







Of course the Energizer Bunny is always a crowd favorite.










I was quite happy to see the Kermit balloon. I was also excited to see the Smurf and of course Snoopy but they were laying face down and away so the photo's didn't come out quite as well as I had hoped.

If you are in the city and get the chance, seeing the balloons in person is quite a treat. Of course that is if you can handle a few hundred thousand people and their kids....

The Indigenous Projectionist Has Left the Building

A little over six years ago, I started a journey which totally changed my life. I still remember sitting down across from Gloria interviewing for my job at the SFC. Laid off from yet another telecom company, I decided that I needed a change. I left behind the 9 to 5 structured corporate environment, and the corresponding salary, to be a projectionist. The logical justification went something like this.... projectionists work with movies, I want to work in movies, this has to be the right thing to do. And I can say that it definitely was.

Now at the close of SDFF 31, my seventh festival round, the journey I stared with only a hope finds me with my BA in Film Studies, and a wonderful husband who's support has made the move to New York and the pursuit of my MA in Media Studies a reality. I have also found a great group of friends who I truly hope I can always work with and hope to
get to see at least once a year.

2008 was the year of the leap of faith, and what a leap it has been.

We've been put in our place...

America may have won last night in the overall turn of our nation, but the Queer community suffered great setbacks at the hands of the voting public in California, Arkansas, Florida and Arizona. I am proud that we elected Obama, President but my pride and excitement are significantly tampered by the fact that a record number of people turned out to vote, and they said "no" to my rights. I am particularly astonished by California. I'll work out my frustration, but in the mean time, I am more than bitter sweet about the election.