I wasn’t surprised to read that recent documentary films rattle the business world. Movies like Supersize Me and Fahrenheit 9/11 drew crowds at commercial theatres. I saw both of these films in theaters when they were first released. Black Gold, a film about the international coffee industry and the idea of fair trade, is currently being shown at festivals and art houses across the U.S. Iraq for Sale made the rounds earlier this Fall. One of the interesting ways Robert Greenwald’s Iraq for Sale was publicized was through personal and political networks arranging showings at house parties and community centers. The movie is still in the news with war profiteers attempting to intimidate Greenwald.

It has been my experience that people have a good time watching these films. This isn’t a painful dose of political medicine. I remember reading an interview with Michael Moore about Roger and Me in which he said he makes the films he would like to see on a Saturday night. I can buy that. I have–several times. Laugh and learn at the same time. Sometimes the average dumb movie is a mind-numbing relief, but laughing at Morgan Spurlock puking out the window of his car as he chokes down a Big Mac has its own appeal in the average-dumb-movie category.

I have Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price from the library. That’s my entertainment for the week. Part of the fun is knowing how much it angers global corporate executives that they don’t have complete control over their public images.

What are you watching?

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NaBloPoMo

National Blog Posting Month, for those too pathetic to write a novel in a month. This has been a successful 30 days in a row for me, despite a 4-day road trip and nasty hotels in northern Nevada that say “Wifi” without really knowing what that means.

Now for my winner’s speech.

• I would like to thank M. Kennedy of Fussy for four-, six-, and seven-letter words and for organizing the contest that has become known in my house as NaNoBloMi.
• I would like to thank Write Wize of Write Wizely for her generous offer of a winner button for the other, I don’t know, thousand (?) NaBloPoers.
• I would like to thank my good friend Jessica of Kerflop for dragging me into the most interesting situations, over and over. She made me blog. I didn’t want to. I still refuse to read her blog to find out about her life. That’s just sick.
• I couldn’t have done this without my laptop and a lot of time sitting on my couch staring into space thinking about why I should want to write superficial commentary on the news. I am compelled to do it. If I didn’t do it, I would talk to much about it to the people around me with faces. They thank me for posting, too–probably.

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As family and I have been driving through the Nevada desert today, I’ve been thinking of Burning Man. Next year’s theme is The Green Man. THE GREEN MAN. I am so there.

Not only will this verdant force of nature be the theme of Burning Man, but the community of Black Rock City is asked to offset the carbon footprint of travel, power generation, and expressive burning. A handy calculator helps with this.

• Burners without Borders will participate in this focus.

With the announcement of next year’s theme for Burning Man–The Green Man–expect to hear about lots of BWB projects focused on environmental/sustainable communities in the coming year.

• Cooling Man offsets greenhouse gas emissions and cools it forward.

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With apologies to the great UU choir directors I have known, I have to tell you a joke—because it is just so completely apt.

Why do Unitarians sing so badly?
Because they are always reading ahead to see if they agree with the words.

It’s not even all that funny. If you know Unitarians, just nod in acknowledgment.

Earlier I mentioned that one of my favorite political songs is Steve Earle’s “The Revolution Starts Now.” I might have mentioned it a couple of times, and I might mention it a couple more. One fine commentor suggested other music if I like Steve Earle. It’s not about the sound and the style, and it’s not so much that I like Steve Earle, though I’m sure he’s great. It’s about the story he tells.

I was walkin’ down the street
In the town where I was born
I was movin’ to a beat
That I’d never felt before
So I opened up my eyes
And I took a look around
I saw it written ‘cross the sky
The revolution starts now
Yeah, the revolution starts now

The revolution starts now
When you rise above your fear
And tear the walls around you down
The revolution starts here
Where you work and where you play
Where you lay your money down
What you do and what you say
The revolution starts now
Yeah the revolution starts now

Yeah the revolution starts now
In your own backyard
In your own hometown
So what you doin’ standin’ around?
Just follow your heart
The revolution starts now

Last night I had a dream
That the world had turned around
And all our hopes had come to be
And the people gathered ‘round
They all brought what they could bring
And nobody went without
And I learned a song to sing
The revolution starts now

Sarangel Music (ASCAP)

What this song tells me is that revolution is work. It isn’t domination. It is cooperation and community. That’s a story I can believe. I read ahead, and that’s a song I can sing.

Apparently I’m not the only one. Actually, I’m sure I’m way behind the curve on this one. Listen to Steve Earle’s show The Revolution Starts Now on Air America late Sundays or by podcast. I listened to last week’s show with Dick Cavett. It was like a trip back to my musical infancy watching music on his show.

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I am dazzled by simple displays of bright colors. I noticed when a colorful chart making the rounds in the news several weeks ago showed Iraq moving from Peace toward Chaos. The slide shows by arrows how much closer to chaos the situation was within a week. This was nearly three weeks ago, so I’m sure it is even closer now.

What continues to interest me is finding that this slide comes up in other interesting places. I’m clearly not the only one who notices when dazzling gradients show up in the news. Actually, most of the notice was not about the chaos in Iraq but about the chaotic information of the slide. (See full slide at the New York Times for the full effect.)

One design blog (from the creators of the great project management program, Basecamp) wondered whether the slide would be noticed by Edward Tufte. I wondered this, too! Tufte, the author of Visual Display of Quantitative Information, continues to be a topic of conversation among my friends and family, including one who took Tufte’s design classes at Yale. As it turns out, Tufte posted the image to his own blog (or blog-like complete mess of information. Surely, of all people, Tufte could have a more accessible design for his blog?).

Doesn’t it makes sense to convey chaos with chaos?

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