Marker Splotches

Ramblings of the markers

Saturday, March 31, 2007

LAW & ORDER: SLU

You all know Law and Order: SVU? Well for SLU 72 this year me and Tom are going to do a parody called Law and Order: SLU. It should be cool. For those of you who don't remember what SLU 72 is, I will reexplain it. SLU 72 is this cool thing SLUTV sets up where they give people one weekend (72 hours) to film and edit a 3-8 minute film. Then they have a film showing and there is a panel of 4 judges who vote for which movie they liked the best and the fifth vote is the audiences. Me and Tom did it last semester but we basically ran out of time (so ironic because our movie was called Out Of Time and was about a guy who was Out Of Time) and so it didn't turn out so great. Anyway this year we are getting ready very early.

I was wondering who would all be in town next weekend. The weekend of the 5th-8th. We need as many people as we can get to help us because we need lots of bystanders basically. You know how Law and Order is. Anyone who will be in town that weekend and would like to help out please let me know. It will be a ton of fun, last semester when we filmed it was incredibly fun.

Ok now for a completely random other thought. Me and Tom watched the movie Ray. I will admit I really know nothing about Ray Charles. I don't really like his music, it's not my style, and I tend not to obsess over celebrities lives like tons of other Americans do because frankly I don't give a shit what famous people chose to do with their lives.

Anyway, we watched the movie and I had no idea he was such a fucking asshole shithead. I have a lot of anger towards him. It bugs me that so many people idolize someone who led such a horrible life to those close to him. Sometimes people may do great things, for instance people who do lots of service work or have a lot of support for a worthy cause or something, but I do not think that is what makes a person great. What makes a person great is the way they live their lives and the way the treat those around them. In the movie it showed Ray being a druggie and cheating on his wife all the time and ignoring his family and children and knocking up another girl and basically throwing her out on the street, although he helped pay for the child the woman had to deal with the hardships of being a single mother. He negatively impacted many people and was a horrible influence because of his drug use. I was watching the movie and I was just so angry how it ended talking about all the great things he did like donating money and standing up for black civil rights. He should not be idolized for those things. So many people stood up for their rights and he had so much money that it probably didn't impact him much to donate his money. If I had that much money I would donate tons of it too. What about the people who donate nearly all the money that have for a good cause?

Basically I am just pissed that he led such a horrible life and this movie showed him at the end in such a positive light. He didn't deserve any of it. What bugs me even more is that Tom respects him so much. How can you respect anyone who treated other people the way he did? His wife, his children, the lady he knocked up, his managers, etc. Perhaps you can respect his talent and perhaps you can respect his music, but how could you respect him? Tom said that respecting his talent and music is respecting him, but in my opinion that's not true. People are not defined by their talents. I don't know sorry for the rant I just had to get all that off my chest.

Anyway, SLU 72, post or call me if you can all help us out it will be tons of fun. We are filming Thursday the 5th until Sunday the 8th. When people let me know when they are free we can better know what times we will be shooting. Also if anyone feels they have the acting ability to be an important character let me know and we will see what we can do. That's all. Happy Merge? I posted!

9 Comments:

Blogger justsuckit said...

i'll be in town late thurs to mon so i'd be happy to help. not sure my acting skills are up to par though. i could play dead pretty well

2:04 PM  
Blogger Reine said...

Lol cool. Anyone else gonna be in town?

5:07 PM  
Blogger pipsqueak said...

So your argument about Ray doing "good deeds" but really being a pretty shitty guy? That's my exact argument about Wal-Mart. They give money to charities, but they still make billions of dollars in profits every year while continuing to use sweat shop labor and paying (and treating) their employees horribly. Well, that's part of my argument anyway. I just know you and Tom always bring up the fact that they are doing some good things. So, to conclude, Wal-Mart is the devil. Boycott.

8:48 AM  
Blogger pipsqueak said...

And I love you! Kind of a lot.

8:49 AM  
Blogger Reine said...

There is nothing wrong with being successful and making billions of dollars in profits. Good for them for being successful.

About the sweatshop thing, Wal-Mart isn't the only place that uses sweatshops. Why would I target one place for using sweatshops? If I were going to boycott companies that used sweat shop labor I would boycott all of them and not just one.

I will never understand the argument about the employees getting paid horribly. And you have no idea how they are treated. You chose where you work. I found myself a full time job over the summer. It's really not that hard. If you don't like working at Wal-Mart, then don't. It's so annoying that people complain about it. I know a Wal-Mart employee and she says all the people she knows who work there have no problem with the way they are paid or treated. They work there full time because they CHOSE to.

Lastly, I think this is hilarious. I was watching a show that was interviewing some of the head honchos at Wal-Mart. Someone asked the question about how they felt about the boycott and they said that they had JUST found out about the boycott and it's having no effect on their profits whatsoever.

10:29 AM  
Blogger maggotsparklepow said...

i am happy!
and i think that if you're respecting someone for their deeds, you're respecting them, because the things we do are an extension of ourselves. our actions are a concrete display of our personality, as opposed to words which can be kind of abstract. and peoples' reactions to your actions are a reaction to you because your actions are a reflection of your values and opinions. in my opinion. ha.

10:46 AM  
Blogger Reine said...

Lol I can't tell if you are agreeing or disagreeing with me Merge. I think you are disagreeing though, so I will try and provide a couter argument.

There are many incentives for people to do things. For Ray, it's a bunch of good publicity for him to donate to charities and who is to say he really even cared about donating?

If I went around cheating on my husband, treating my kids badly, treating my friends horribly, and then even treating the "other guys" that I was cheating on my husband with really badly, being a bad influence because I was a huge druggie, and then I donated a fraction of my money to charity, would that really make up for what I had done to everyone else? I would have directly hurt so many people.

Like doing one good deed doesn't really make up for the other bad deeds I did. And he only was considered so great because he is talented and famous. I hate how people who have more talent in acting or music are idolized. A lot of them don't deserve it. Divorce, cheating, drugs, eating disorders, they are all huge problems for a lot of famous people. And every little good thing they do is announced all over the world and thought to be so amazing. There are so many people who live better lives and do better things and they get no credit and don't expect it either.

Anyway, my main argument is that Ray didn't even do anything too great, all he has is talent with music. He lived a horrible life and hurt tons of people. He is not great just because of his stupid music and certainly not because he did a few small good things that got amplified. Tom says that he respects Ray's music and therefore he respects him. My opinion is that you can respect someone's talent but not the person themselves.

Sorry that was pretty redundant, but I am not sure if I was very clear the first time I posted. And I'm not really sure this is clear either. I know my argument but don't really have the words to describe it and its kinda frustrating.

12:45 AM  
Blogger maggotsparklepow said...

"I will try and provide a couter argument"--tee hee. it looks like 'cooter argument'. tee hee.

8:49 AM  
Blogger Reine said...

I'll argue your cooter. When you are sleeping. I read in a magazine that is the best time to argue a cooter

10:40 AM  

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