Lights, Camera, Action

Given my impeccable taste in film, I'd like to perform a public service by providing a list of movies that I think everyone should watch (in no particular order):

Donnie Darko
Amorres Perros (foreign)
Antwone Fisher
Boys Don't Cry
Central Station (foreign)
City of God (foreign)
A Clockwork Orange
The Godfather (Parts I & II)
The Color Purple
Hotel Rwanda
Il Postino (foreign)
Love Jones
Malcolm X
Maria Full of Grace (kinda foreign)
Paradise Now (foreign)
Requiem for a Dream
Philadelphia
You Can Count on Me
Brick

Anyone care to suggest any other films that you feel should be added to the list?

As if I didn't already have enough to worry about

Today's NY Times reported on the resurgence of bed bugs thoughout the city. Calls for bed bug exterminations have risen by a whopping 71% between 2000 and 2005, according to a local pest control association. As I sit here on my own bed and fight off the constant urge to scratch at the phantom bed bugs that I'm sure are just waiting to crawl all over me tonight, I can't help but be reminded of an encounter just yesterday. While I don't really know what the difference is between a "bed bug" and a bug that just happens to be on your bed, whatever I discovered crawling across my bed that afternoon was something I had never seen before. It wasn't particularly menacing, but it was nevertheless an unwelcomed visitor and met a swift and decisive demise.

So, New York, good night, sleep tight and...well, let's just leave it at that.

Cradle To Cradle

I just finished a book that I would highly recommend: Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. It's basically about how we can rethink the modern manufacturing process to reduce and even end the negative impact that humans have on the world in which we live. Instead of being "less bad" through such practices as auto emissions controls, pollution restrictions, and even recycling in its current state, we can rethink the whole process from beginning to end to not only reduce our impact on the earth to zero, but to actually make things better than the way we found it. Instead of determining the amount of pollutants a manufacturing company can "safely" dump into our rivers, why not redesign the manufacturing process from the beginning and use materials and processes that simply don't pollute at all? Taking that idea a step further, the authors argue that not only is it possible to refrain from polluting, but that same process could be designed in such a way that the end product can actually enrich the environment after it's served it's primary purpose rather than simply ending up in a landfill. Very interesting stuff.

Our current goal of simply slowing down the rate at which we destroy the earth isn't viable in the long term. To truly preserve the earth for future generations, the authors maintain that humans need to reintegrate themselves into the natural world. Instead of trying to "tame" nature to suit our needs, we could be like the ant or the cherry tree that recognizes the natural state of things and develops ways to thrive within the natural world rather than in spite of it.

For more info on the authors and their work, check out the websites for Michael Braungart and William McDonough.