MILK Movie Review and "We pick and choose"

Milk directed by Gus Van Sant
starring Sean Penn




Sean penn plays Harvey Milk the first openly gay elected to public office in California to the board of supervisors for the city of San Francisco. Milk was a leader of the gay political movement and was elected city supervisor in 1977. He alongside mayor George Mascone were assasinated after only serving eleven months at his position in 1978.

The acting in Milk is on point all around and Sean Penn doesn't dissapoint, but when does he ever dissapoint. Not to mention a cast filled with dope actors like James Franco(Pinneapple Express), Emile Hirsch(Into the Wild) and Josh Brolin(No Country For Old Men). Gus Van Sant does an amazing job in directing this film, the subtle as well as the not so subtle moments keep you on the edge of your seat. Being that this is based on a true story, you know from the start Milk will be assasinated at some point in the film. If your like me who didn't know much about Milk prior to watching this film I must say i came out with a better experience.

Coming from an organizers point of view this movie is inspiring in a multitude of ways. Forget that it is about gay rights for a second. If you replace the obvious gay issues that are evident throughout this film with issues pertaining to any oppressed people it would still make you feel the same way. Angry. Anxious. Disheartened. Inspired. Sad. Proud. Motivated. All these feelings bundled into one amazing movie. Of course you could call me biased since i do consider myself an ally to the Gay community, but i truly believe that regardless of your stance on gay rights you would enjoy this film. Hopefully even be inspired to start questioning your previous notions about homosexuality. I hate to be the "debbie downer" of the cool kids, but the relevance of this issue is evident when considering issues pertaining to gay marriage.

If you want to catch this film and you are in the San Diego Area it will be showing at the...
Landmark Hillcrest
3965 Fifth Avenue
San Diego, CA 92103
(619) 819-0236
...or follow this link to check show times

After all is said and done i give this film 3 FISTS held high.



To end on a lighter note check this video the Prop 8 Musical courtesy of trish via myspace bulletin.

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Peace Love and Progressive Mobbin
Just Ray

Frustrated

I am still upset at how the voting went towards prop 8. So i just wanted to drop my 2 cents once again on the issue and shed some light on something.

Arguement: Many say that civil unions are the same thing as marriage. So what does it matter?

Question: If you decided to marry someone of a different race than you, but others passed a law saying you werent allowed to, but you could have a civil union just not marriage like same race couples. Would civil unions still be the "same thing?"

Just something to ponder...

"Do on to others as you would want others to do on to you."

Prop 8: Don't Hate

Now I'm going to try and do this without sounding super biased, but to be honest it probably will come out that way. In anyway if your opinion contrasts mine i invite you to check me and express your opinion because all opinions are valid. I especially welcome any facts that i might be missing so feel free to remind me of that. Unless intended to maliciously attack me, which will not be well received. Let us remember people that we should try an attack the idea not the person.



Enough disclaimer bs and hand holding on to the good stuff...

The spark:

I woke up this morning and went to church and to my surprise their were multiple signs promoting voting yes on Prop 8, right in front of the doors of the Church. (Voting yes on prop 8 will in a nut shell disallow same sex couples to marry in the state of California.) While I really shouldn't be surprised about how the catholic community feels about gay marriage i was none the less bewildered by all of it. If people want to vote YES on prop 8 i feel that they are entitled to do so. However, when the church gets involved in politics my mental alert goes...WTF! Aside from the whole idea of separation of church and state, i just feel that it is a bit unfair of the church to put these signs up.

How I (emphasis on I) Feel:

Realistically not ALL catholics agree with voting yes, i being one who believes that marriage between same sex couples is all good with me. I sat through mass thinking about this, which in a lot of ways distracts me from what was even going on and what the priest was talking about. I think that for the church to assume that all of its parish believes that gay marriage is wrong is kind of condescending. As if we can't think for ourselves. As i said earlier i am not surprised that the church is in favor of prop 8, but was it so necessary to blatantly put it out there like that. I think that as a catholic i am well aware of what the church views as right and wrong. Why not put up signs of fight the war on terrorism in the name of GOD. Or better yet, abortion related images intended to remind church goers what to believe in. Ok sure Yes on Prop 8 signs aren't that bad, but you get my point. I guess it could be a lot worse, the signs could read vote McCain and Palin. Sorry i had to throw that in there, no offense if you disagree.

Reality:

The church isn't going to change anytime soon and i really don't expect this to happen either. The reality is that marriage is a patriarchal institution that has been analyzed as being oppressive to women. My honest opinion is fuck marriage it is something that is just socially constructed like race and a lot of time sexuality. However it doesn't mean that the issues surrounding marriage, race and sexuality aren't real. I feel as though the "straight" world can't even get marriage right, even heterosexual catholics fuck up marriage. i.e. divorce, domestic violence, infidelity and so on and so on. So if marriage is so sacred between a man and a women why do they keep fucking it up. Oh am i hitting some nerves, i'm sorry but it is the truth. I am not discounting marriages that do work out i am just bringing out the reality that some if not most do not. It isn't to say either that if the gay community has the right to marry they would do marriage any better. But lets stop fronting like marriage is this sacred thing and we need to protect it from "the gays" because a "breeders" we can't even protect it from ourselves.

Apology?:
At first i was going to apologize for being such a debbie downer lately, but fuck that i shouldn't have to. Although i'll apologize if i hurt any feelings, but shit i can't please everyone. This could go two ways this post will either be ignored or it will spark some interesting conversation. I'm rooting for convo. Oh and before you even think about saying anything ignorant/inappropriate/straight fucked up remember to own what you say because nothings worse than someone who can't backup what they say went it really matters.



Either way you look at it love is a beautiful thing...