Friday we went to a free screening of "Battle in Seattle", which is an exciting protest movie, but terrible in all other regards. Important context: Mike got tickets through Greenpeace, which is one of several activist groups that the movie's promoters are courting. With three friends in tow, we went to a pre-party at the Westin, where many activists were chowing down on an unbelievable array of sushi, cheese, and fruit tartlets. It was like being at prom with all your high school's hacky sackers. Oh, and there was on open bar. Score!
What this meant for the movie itself was that it had to suffer the scrutiny of people who were at the WTO protests in Seattle in 1999, who have been teargassed, and who have managed to spend some time in jail without ever having a heartfelt reconciliation with the cop who beat the shit out of them. There was a lot of jeering and snickering and "yeah, right"-ing. One old guy very forcefully told the theater that pretty much any scene that had character interaction, particularly during incarceration, was "totally unbelievable". And not in a good way.
I came out of the theater all fired up, though, and ready to do something. The best and easiest idea was to donate to kiva.org. That almost turned into something productive, but I couldn't decide if I wanted to give to the cell phone lady in Africa or the jewelry lady in Honduras, and so have not donated anything yet. But I will.
Saturday we shopped on Haight Street, watched football and drank beer, and went to a party. It was really nice having Hilary here, even if she did have 8000 pounds of law books with her. On Sunday I watched more football. And yesterday, you guessed it, I watched even more football.
Now if my huge new HD TV only got reception, and I could watch this football in the comfort of my own home. To cable or not to cable, that is the question.
Or maybe it should be: how shallow is this post, and how much of a dilettante am I? Wait, don't answer that.
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