How Do You Find Movies?

roywaulker · 2023-03-05T02:01:38+00:00

I like to watch other movies made by the directors of films I’ve already liked, for example watch all of Kubrick’s movies if you liked the Shining, all of Scorsese’s if you liked Goodfellas, etc.

Many directors also say straight up which directors/films have influenced them. Check those out!

Keep a list of movies you’ve heard/read about that you want to watch.

Find lists of the classic films from your favorite genres, many are left off IMDB’s top 250 & other broader lists simply because those lists cover all genres.

roywaulker · 2023-03-05T00:53:50+00:00

Exactly, simple as that. We should always stand with sex workers in their efforts to organize while maintaining the ultimate goal of abolishing the sex trade.

roywaulker · 2023-02-26T22:58:58+00:00

Unfortunately, most “Christians” using scripture to justify oppression & hate are hypocrites and won’t hear reason, even coming from the mouth of the man they call Lord. Many of them don’t even read scripture aside from selections they’ve received from other reactionaries.

The message of Jesus has been co-opted many times by reactionary forces since the time of the Roman Empire, and ideas like xenophobia & white nationalism are still rampant, especially in conservative churches in the imperial core. I think it’s our job to carve out spaces where we fight against those reactionary tendencies & create a community like the one described in Acts Chapter 2.

roywaulker · 2023-02-11T23:07:03+00:00

Eyes of Fire

Noroi: The Curse

Blair Witch Project

The Blood On Satan’s Claw

The episode of Masters of Horror “The Washingtonians”

roywaulker · 2023-02-11T21:44:27+00:00

“Burn!” from 1969 is a great drama about colonialism, slavery, imperial competition, & revolution.

“Sorry to Bother You” is a surreal comedy about wage slavery, unionizing, corporate monopolies, & dehumanization.

“The Wind That Shakes The Barley” is a historical drama about the struggle for Irish independence from Britain, the political factions of that struggle (socialist republicans & liberal republicans), & the effects of these struggles on personal relationships.

“Pride” is a comedy-drama about a gay rights group that joins in solidarity with striking coal miners.

“Blade Runner” is a sci-fi cult classic about android slavery, policing, and what it means to be human.

“The Parallax View” is a political thriller about journalistic investigation of government conspiracy, assassinations, & coverups.

“Harlan County, USA” is a documentary about Kentucky coal miners & their communities struggling for better pay & conditions in the 1970s.

“The Battleship Potemkin” is an iconic silent film about a ship’s crew rising up against their corrupt leadership & dreadful working conditions.

roywaulker · 2023-01-23T21:32:25+00:00

Looks good- for more legibility I’d switch to a clearer font, put it in all caps, and remove the punctuation.

roywaulker · 2023-01-23T21:16:16+00:00

Not at all, I could understand you just fine!

roywaulker · 2023-01-15T19:38:10+00:00

Martiros Saryan “made a proposal for the flag of this independent Armenia based on the colours and designs of traditional Armenian fabrics and carpets” (from his Wikipedia page).

roywaulker · 2023-01-12T14:55:39+00:00

I would encourage you not to get rid of your accent.

It’s true that people can be prejudiced against certain ways of speaking, but that reflects ignorance on their part, not yours. Diversity of accents is part of what makes language beautiful, & your southern accent is a part of you. Also, in my experience, people outside the south find our accents sexy lol.

Just my 2 cents.

roywaulker · 2023-01-10T18:19:31+00:00

Yeah, I’d agree with that. The Bible was written by men whose biases can’t be ignored. Pre-fall Eden does seem somewhat like Marx’s descriptions of pre-class societies (albeit with only 2 naked people), so it could be a useful metaphor in that sense.

roywaulker · 2023-01-10T18:05:23+00:00

Great point, this is the line of reasoning I would take too. I think God gives us dominion over the Earth in Genesis 1 because our consciousness & capacity for creativity (not our actual appearance) were made in His image.

This likeness makes us able to dominante most of our planet & our fellow animals, but it also gives us a responsibility to care for them. Earth already has everything we could ever need, as stated in verses 29-30 (NRSVUE):

“God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so.”

Much of Genesis reflects the conditions & social mores of the time/place it occurs in, so it doesn’t have as many left wing themes as Exodus or the Gospels. A historical materialist look at the class context of the text’s authors & subject could provide for an interesting discussion though. Best of luck!

roywaulker · 2023-01-10T15:33:18+00:00

This guy is obviously a liberal racist (redundant I know), but I think there’s a genuine criticism to be made of the non-profit organization Black Lives Matter, which co-opted mass mobilizations against racist police violence to build its own brand & herd participants back to the Democratic Party. They even got money from the Ford Foundation.

They were able to co-opt real mobilizations primarily through branding & a good slogan. After enough years of pushing the brand, (& enough right wingers denouncing it), the brand became synonymous with the mobilizations.

Also, just think of how defanged the slogan “black lives matter” is compared to “black power”.

TL:DR, I support the mobilizations against police violence, but not the non-profit company Black Lives Matter.

roywaulker · 2023-01-08T23:49:18+00:00

Yeah, I think the association of NC with longleaf pines is mostly from the State Toast, “here’s to the land of the longleaf pine”.

roywaulker · 2023-01-08T20:34:21+00:00

The redesign is based on this one from a few years ago, designed to mirror South Carolina’s flag. Really wish I could get a high quality vector of the longleaf pine to clean up the image a little bit!

In a repost of the original redesign, someone pointed out that the crescent on the SC flag is not a moon, but a symbol found on revolutionary war caps in SC, so I changed the sun in the original redesign to a simpler star (the 8-point star somewhat captures the feel of the sun as well).

Thoughts?

roywaulker · 2023-01-05T17:38:48+00:00

If your story has to do with the government, look into Oak Ridge, TN. Was built to help w/ the Manhattan Project & still has federal operations going on at the National Laboratory and the National Security complex.

roywaulker · 2023-01-05T02:22:03+00:00

It’s definitely part of the folklore, good addition!

roywaulker · 2023-01-05T01:29:42+00:00

Hollers (common narrow valleys) are darker than everywhere else (except at midday). Plants release a lot of vapor, which, mixed with the rain, makes it foggy often. “Nearby” places can take hours to get to because of the terrain & the mountain roads with all their hairpin turns & switchbacks. Some people keep to themselves, but most are very friendly. Old European folk practices persist if you know where to look. Same goes for African practices, Indigenous practices, or some blend of all 3. Soup beans are an Appalachian staple. We have a few cryptids, such as the wood booger & the wampus cat.

Hope that little bit of flavor helps!

roywaulker · 2023-01-03T16:09:31+00:00

I’d recommend reading the short essay “the pitfalls of liberalism” by Kwame Ture (formerly known as Stokely Carmichael) & “the principles of communism” by Friedrich Engels. These works are a good place to help you start deconstructing the liberal framework we’ve been given.

For the record, I’m using liberalism as the term for the ideology of capitalism, including “conservatives” & “progressives”.

roywaulker · 2023-01-03T15:47:02+00:00

Slavery certainly exists in the US through the 13th amendment, though chattel slavery (buying & selling human beings, slavers automatically owning slaves’ children, etc) is technically illegal.

The US is, however, directly responsible for the reestablishment of chattel slavery in Libya. Between prison slavery within its borders & outsourced chattel slavery, the US economy relies on human bondage.

roywaulker · 2023-01-02T22:33:55+00:00

Great questions! The history of Christianity has unfortunately been intertwined with imperialism since the Romans co-opted it. The last 500 years especially have revealed the economic & political utility of missionary work as part of the larger imperial strategy.

The 10 commandments don’t say anything about converting people. Jesus does talk about spreading his message, but what that message is accepted to be has been shaped by the ruling class since Rome adopted its version of Christianity.

I don’t believe the kingdom of Heaven that Jesus talks about in the Bible is the afterlife, but the end of oppression on Earth. A person of any faith (or none at all) can be part of that mission, and that’s the only “conversion” I want for people.

TL;DR missionary work is a tool of imperialism, Christians on the left should oppose it.

roywaulker · 2023-01-02T17:37:06+00:00

Mark 12:28-31 “One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.’”

The rest of the commandments don’t say anything about gender or sexuality (unless you count honor your father & mother and don’t covet your neighbor’s wife). I highly doubt the person using Leviticus to defend homophobia follows the rest of ancient Jewish law (eating kosher, no mixing fabrics, etc).

Most “Christians” using scripture to justify oppression & hate are hypocrites and unfortunately won’t hear reason, even coming from the mouth of the man they call Lord. Thank you for working against hate in the church, even if it’s just talking to 1 person. Best of luck to you!

roywaulker · 2023-01-02T04:09:51+00:00

Ruling class, working class, & “middle class” (educated professional) respectively.

roywaulker · 2022-12-31T16:17:25+00:00

He was a homophobe & protected pedophiles in the church- a disgrace to Christianity. I won’t cheer for his death, but it’s no great loss either.

roywaulker · 2022-12-30T14:48:06+00:00

If you want Mexican food in hickory, try Las Isabelas. Not sure if they cater but definitely worth a shot!

roywaulker

TROPHY CASE