The things you notice

When you fly out of Cincinatti after your layover, heading west, the farms below are all smallish with irregular borders; the roads are curvy and run into each other at strange angles as they wiggle around the little hills, run next to rivers and streams and property lines. But, within an hour of flying, the roads straighten out into a nearly perfect grid, the hills flatten out and the farms become rectangular and many times larger. Houses are miles apart, on perfectly straight roads. Another hour of flying west and the farms are enourmous rectangles, then they become squares with huge irrigation circles in them. Sometimes you can't even see houses or buildings - nothing but crops.

Then, somewhere in eastern Colorado there's a thin and wiggly road. Nobody farms on the west side of that road; all the farms are on the eastern side. On the western side is nothing but low rolling brown hills and tiny houses stuck at the ends of skinny dirt roads. Maybe it's cattle ranching country, but you can't tell from 25,000 feet.

And then you're in Denver, and you're dizzy from the altitude.

I love the new spam

Here's one I just received:

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The blue line was a link to some site I wasn't about to visit. But, I really do love the random quotes sprinkled with random words style. It brings out the dadaist in me. Hunkpapa. Meisterbrau.

Documentary

Let's take a look at some films nominated for the Oscar for best feature-length documentary.

Here's 1943 (circle = winner):

• Baptism Of Fire - Produced by The United States Army
• The Battle Of Russia - Produced by The United States Department Of War: Special Service Division
• Desert Victory - Produced by The British Ministry Of Information
• For God and Country - Produced by The United States Army: Pictorial Service
• Report From the Aleutians - Produced by The United States Army: Pictorial Service
• Silent Village - Produced by The British Ministry Of Information
• War Department Report - Produced by The United States Office Of
• Strategic Services: Field Photographic Bureau
• We've Come a Long, Long Way - Produced by Negro Marches On, Inc.

Here's 1944

• The Fighting Lady - Produced by The United States Navy
• Resisting Enemy Interrogation - Produced by The United States Army Air Force

Here's 1945

• The Last Bomb - Produced by The United States Army Air Force
• The True Glory - Produced by The Government Of Great Britain, The Government Of the United States

Here's 1974

• Antonia: A Portrait Of the Woman - Produced by Judy Collins, Jill Godmilow
• The Challenge… A Tribute To Modern Art - Produced by Herbert Kline
• The 81st Blow - Produced by David Bergman, Jacquot Ehrlich, Haim Gouri
• Hearts and Minds - Produced by Peter Davis, Bert Schneider
• The Wild and The Brave - Produced by Eugene S. Jones, Natalie R. Jones

Do you suppose "The Last Bomb" (1945) presents the glory of the USAAF from the perspective of a Japanese noodle vendor who spends the last two hours of his life writhing in the dust, blind, with 3rd degree burns and a crushed pelvis ? Or, do you think it shows how they ended the war in the Pacific with the application of our superior technology and gritty determination, yadayadayada ? Well, of course it's the second one, why would the USAAF make a film about the first? Is one view more accurate and un-biased than the other ? No. A documentary doesn't have to present all sides of the issue, doesn't have to be un-biased, and doesn't have to lack a strong overriding message. In fact, it would be impossible to make such a thing; making any kind of film (or even simply taking a snapshot from your disposable camera) requires that you first choose a subject and then decide how best to present that subject - before you've exposed any film, you've made two editorial decisions both of which will reflect your own personality. You can make an accurate record of your subject, but someone else can make another accurate record of the same subject that looks nothing like what you came up with.

So, did Michael Moore make a documentary or not?

The bride-to-be