DailySkew Sock Puppets

Man Announces He’s Apolitical

DailySkew — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 01:48:43 +0000

And now, guest blogger Randall Thorak:

First of all, I’d like to thank Damian and Tony for letting me come on here and share my thoughts again. That’s very nice of you fellas!

Now, let me get down to brass tacks. I’m sick of politics. I can’t stand hearing people at church start to talk about how they listen to Glenn Beck. They broach the topic gently because they don’t want to start a fight, and I’m real polite, so I just make them feel comfortable and let them talk. Then they start talking about how the government is dumb and we’re losing our freedoms and so on and so forth.

Man, let me just be real with all of you, DailySkew readers. I am devoid of opinion; because of that, I’m apolitical.

Yeah, I’m not just Independent. I’m APOLITICAL. I’m a political AMOEBA. That’s what the “A” in “APOLITICAL” stands for. I’m like a single-celled political organism floating through this protoplasm called life.

Let me tell you how apolitical I’ve become; I no longer listen to American news/talk. I don’t care if it’s NPR or Rush Limbaugh, or any show in-between. I can’t take hours and hours of “She’s an activist judge,” or “Obama is a socialist,” or “How bad is the housing market for rich people in San Francisco” anymore. The only talk I’ll give the time of day to International stuff, like sad stories about people in India and China from the BBC. Suffering in America is the equivalent of paradise in other corners in the world.

You know what? I don’t CARE if we here in the USA lose our “Freedoms” in an overly-regulated society. Just give me great music to listen to, and I’ll happily work in “Bondage.”

Yeah. Like working in a cubicle all day is “Slavery.” Right. Trying living in a Daalit village for a day and then get back to me. See if you can live without your iPad for 24 hours. Good luck, “Free man,” or should I say “Slave to your material possessions.”
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Racebenders are RACIST

Angel Jimenez — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 03:22:25 +0000

And now, yet another crazy editorial from Angel Jimenez:

White Boy In Tibetan Garb

There’s been a lot of crazy talk about The Last Airbender movie the past few weeks … you know, how M. Night Shyamalan is some kind of “racebender” because he cast Caucasians and Indians in prominent roles that some Asian Americans thought should be cast by Native American Eskimos, Tibetan Monks, Chinese, and Koreans.

Well, speaking as a clear-minded Hispanic American who doesn’t have a race-card on the table, I can tell 100% with all certainty that the real “racebenders” in this whole controversy are those saying Shyamalan is discriminating against Asians!

First of all, Shyamalan HIMSELF is an Asian American, specifically Indian American. Isn’t it strange that he’s being called out for being some kind of racist by other Asian Americans? Hmm … makes you wonder.

I mean, people from India have a darker complexion than those from China or Korea, right?

I’m really beginning to wonder if the pale-face Asians (to quote the wolfboy from Twilight, my favorite character from that series) have got a problem with the dark-skinned Indians. I mean, the dude playing Prince Zuko is a great actor, and yet he’s getting no love from the white Asians. Maybe it’s just a straight racial thing, right?

Maybe White Asians don’t like Caucasians, and they don’t consider Indians to be part of their special Asian clique.

As for some of the stuff I’ve heard, like, “It’s so obvious Prince Zuko is Chinese,” is over my head, man. I didn’t realize he was Chinese. I mean, yeah, Katara and her brother have the eskimo skin complexion, but with those big eyes? Those are definitely caucasian eyes, dude. And, I’m sorry, but the Avatar always looked like a white boy in Tibetan garb to me. I mean, I never saw in the credits, “Hey, Earth Benders are definitely Korean, Fire Nation is Chinese (because we hate those red fire commies), Aang is like a Tibetan monk in exile, and freakin’ Katara is a snow eskimo princess.”

Whatever, yo.

The funniest thing is reading Angry Black Woman‘s blog, where she justifies how there are no black people in the cartoon, and therefore it’s okay to keep black people out of the live action movie. She says she’s used to that, and maybe it’ll open doors for future sci-fi cartoons with all-black casts.

Hahaahahahahahahaahahaa … what kind of lame justification is that? M. Night casts Aang’s mentor as a black man, and she’s gotta, uh, bend over backwards in order to stand with the race benders? LOL.

So I guess Angry Black Woman doesn’t think a black man can be a Tibetan Monk? Talk about inferiority complex, man. That is so LaME, to put down your own race just so you can claim an injustice has been committed. Especially when zero injustice has been committed.

Whatever guys. You racebenders win — doesn’t look like The Last Airbender is going to make enough money to justify a sequel. I guess the message of nonviolence and peace wasn’t good enough for you. If a “White” actor (and that word white encompasses a lot of races, doesn’t it?) is pitching that, I guess you can’t buy it. If an Indian actor is getting a plum role, I guess you gotta hate him.

Man, this racebending stuff is such a slippery slope, you know? It’s a vicious cycle. It never ends. It’s messed up.

I just had to call out all the racebenders for hating on Indian actors and not giving the “White” actors a chance.

I’m going to leave you with some quotes from movie critics that some blogger used to justify his racebending stance. To me, these words prove racist beliefs. You tell me if these LaME movie reviews don’t sound prejudiced. Feel like I’m reading a newspaper from the South in the 1940′s when I read these quotes:

“This fiasco has deservedly generated advance criticism for hiring Caucasian actors to play leads that were portrayed as Asians in the TV show and pitting them against darker-skinned bad guys.” [New York Post]

“The Nickelodeon series, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is wholly and inarguably centered on Asian (and Inuit) culture. But Shyamalan, a South Indian, for whatever reason — you supply the motive — chose to cast mostly white actors. Two fellow Indians, “Slumdog Millionaire’s” Dev Patel and veteran Indian-American Aasif Mandvi, play different kinds of villains, but otherwise this fantasy world is pretty white until you get to the extras.” [Hollywood Reporter]

“After the miscalculation of making the movie as live action, there remained the challenge of casting it. Shyamalan has failed. His first inexplicable mistake was to change the races of the leading characters; on television Aang was clearly Asian, and so were Katara and Sokka, with perhaps Mongolian and Inuit genes. Here they’re all whites. This casting makes no sense.” [Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times]

“The four elemental nations represent centuries of culture, with unique garments, architecture and fighting styles to distinguish them (there also seems to be some sort of impenetrable logic about their ethnicities, with people of color filling nearly all the secondary roles).” [Variety]

“The casting is peculiar: Already the subject of some Asian-American protests, the movie has made the good-guy Water Nation folks largely (and dully) Anglo, with Mediterranean and Indian and other swarthy-type performers portraying the bad-guy Fire Folk.” [Chicago Tribune]

One argument that was constantly brought up in defense of racebending allegations was that the leads were chosen for their talent — but we see little of that from Ringer, Peltz, and Rathbone. Meanwhile, in scenes featuring the Fire Nation army, it’s hard not to notice that all of the villains in the film are distinctly darker in skin tone than our heroes. [Slashfilm]

“The producers have been widely criticized for failing to cast the Asian characters of the original with Asian actors, and the criticism is valid, notwithstanding the presence of Asians in minor roles. Like the hero, Aang, the lead characters of the brave sister and brother, Katara and Sokka, are played by young and conspicuously Caucasian American actors.” [Wall Street Journal]

“The movie arrives chased by controversy — protests by fans that the story has been figuratively whitewashed. Although several characters like Katara and Sokka were dark-skinned in the cartoon, here they’re played by Caucasians…Race is a factor here. Caucasian actors in the movie tend to get lines; non-Caucasian actors tend to be used as background. The movie’s Fire Nation tribe has Indian and Maori stars — but they’re the swarthy villains. For a director who is himself Indian-American, it’s a pretty thoughtless approach at best.”[New Jersey Star Ledger]

“Considering all of the (understandable) outrage that came from casting four Caucasians in lead roles that were Asian in the original animated series, it is almost offensive that the lead actors are blank slates from beginning to end. This is clearly not a case of Shyamalan sacrificing the racial balance of his story for the sake of casting an irreplaceable young actor (there is no Haley Joel Osment-like discovery in the mix here). Frankly, the casting has an accidental (?) racial undertone, as the good guys of the Water Nation are all white and/or British while the villainous Fire Nation people generally all portrayed by Indian or Middle Eastern actors.” [Huffington Post]

Dang. Can’t we just watch a movie without gettin’ all krunk about race?

: Appa is tired of Racebending. Show some love to Indian American actors and directors
– go see The Last Airbender.

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The Last Airbender: Apologist’s Review

Tony Vahl — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 01:46:58 +0000

Guest blogger Apologist weighs in with his thoughts on the new movie, The Last Airbender:

I started watching Avatar: The Last Airbender with my son about a month ago via Netflix. For some reason, he started on Book 2. Rather than disrupt his flow, I decided to just roll with the punches and figure it out as I went. My boy and I had seen random episodes over at Grandma’s house over the years, so that helped.

My daughter wanted to start watching Avatar: The Last Airbender. With her, I got the opportunity to start from Book 1. I caught the first few episodes with her this past week, but I still had not completed the entire season.

After seeing the movie, I decided to glance through some quick synopses of the episodes I missed, just to gauge how different the movie was from the TV series. Up to the point of the episodes I saw, the movie was surprisingly faithful, compressing and cutting out parts of the episodes while keeping the key points and spirit of the show. It felt natural; the missing stuff was easily forgotten.

Sure enough, the rest of movie appears to have been fairly faithful the show.

Now, to how I felt about the movie: it rocked! If you’re an M. Night Shyamalan fan who has been dissuaded by the terrible reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, don’t be. Go see the movie.

M. Night does a great job focusing on the spiritual nature of the Avatar, using nonviolence methods to stop fighting … while also mixing in great combat moves and earth-bending sequences.

I literally got chills when I saw the intro where all the four elements are represented, just like the TV show!

As for the reviews that say Aang is not relatable: unfortunately, this is another case where the actor is playing a certain character, and the critics wish the character was different somehow. It reminds me of how critics said Haydn Christiansen was “Wooden” when he played Anakin Skywalker, when THAT’S the character. What’s he supposed to do, act like Han Solo?

It’s the same thing with Aang. Here’s a kid who is basically like a Tibetan Monk who just found out his race was wiped out by the Fire Nation. What — is he supposed to be happy-go-lucky? Come on!

I love how critics kept saying, “Well, Prince Zuko is a more compelling character.” Well, of course he is! He’s trying to regain his honor, he’s got a scar dealt to him by his own father, he’s obsessed with the Avatar, he’s got the teenage angst “Slumdog Millionaire” thing going for him. Sheesh. There’s nothing wrong with that.

My only criticism is that Sokka wasn’t cracking any jokes like he does in Book 2 or 3. Then again, maybe he was more serious in Book 1, so even that might not be a legit criticism. He kinda looked like a young Brendan Fraser, for what it’s worth.

Overall, this was a well-executed version of the story. M. Night Shyamalan has managed to bring the magic of The Last Airbender from Nickelodeon to the big screen and mainstream movie-going audiences. I hope it did well enough in the box office to justify the completion of the trilogy (they’re counting on big international sales after the World Cup, I think). I can’t wait to see Princess Azula, a wicked character and strategist to the say the least, in action.

One more thing: M. Night does a great job in this movie getting the child and teen actors to be REAL. He’s shown that gift since The Sixth Sense, and that has not changed. Anyone who doesn’t like the dialogue should just go ahead and watch the two jive-talking Autobots from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on a loop for 12 hours straight; maybe then they’d see the light. Heaven forbid kids speak with eloquence. Sheesh.Random Posts:

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Arturo Sundvold talks Deflation

DailySkew — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:34:35 +0000

Is deflation good or bad for the Middle Class?

I conducted an interview with Arturo Sundvold, former NeoCon, about the topic of deflation:

Vahl: so, what is deflation?

Sundvold: it’s the opposite of inflation, which you guys love to talk about. It’s where the price of goods and services drop, increasing purchasing power for consumers.

Vahl: that sounds great. Like a dream come true.

Sundvold: hardly. It’s a disaster, worse than the hyper-inflation you and Glenn Beck are so afraid of.

Vahl: Beck stole that from me. Now, why is deflation a problem? It seems to me it’s only a problem for wealthy people.

Sundvold: hahaha. A problem for wealthy people is a problem for everybody. Deflation means lower profits for companies. This leads to companies cutting costs to increase profitability. They could reduce production and lay-off workers, or reduce wages, or automate jobs previously performed by humans. This will affect everyone, not just the wealthy.

Vahl: so, how is that different from what’s happened the past 10 years? Wages did not keep pace with inflation when the economy was hot, and unemployment ended up skyrocketing when the housing market collapsed. Either way, whether the economy was inflating or deflating, wages remained depressed!

Sundvold: Vahl, no offense, but sometimes you sound like a fool. Wages did increase during the Bush years. Sorry it didn’t keep up with inflation. Maybe the people you love to defend should learn how to negotiate a higher wage!

Vahl: how can you negotiate when you have no leverage!?! It’s like collusion in baseball, except on a societal scale, particularly in a “right-to-work” state like Florida. “Right-to-work.” That’s a laugh. Talk about double-speak. It’s more like “No-right-to-fair-wage.”

Sundvold: when did you become a commie?

Vahl: what?!? I’m just telling it like it is. I’m a fiscal conservative. If our political leaders and corporate magnets actually espoused true fiscal conservatism, we wouldn’t be in this economic mess!

Sundvold: okay … Commie.

Vahl: alright. This interview is done. See ya on blogspot, Arturo.

Sundvold: at least I don’t host a no-profit blog.

Vahl: at least we have the guts to put our money where our mouth is!

***

Aaaannnnd on that note, we will leave end this interview and ask you to come back to the sock puppets blog for more deep thought-provoking discussions!Random Posts:

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Monkey Hunter dogs

Angel Jimenez — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 00:31:14 +0000

Here’s some more video from the Monkey Hunter, showing his dogs chasing each other:

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