nancylicious

ELIZABETH GILBERT - On Intimacy for PBS’ THIS EMOTIONAL LIFE

Great retelling of the Hedgehog’s Dilemma, philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer’s metaphor for human intimacy.

2010 ‘BEST DOCUMENTARY’ OSCAR AWARD WINNER
THE COVE - Director Louie Psihoyos

At the Tokyo International Film Festival, where The Cove was reluctantly and controversially screened, Psihoyos was asked, “what scientific proof do you have that dolphins are intelligent?” He replied:

By whose standards? Yours? A butterfly’s? Dolphins have a bigger brain than yours, and you can’t do anything well that they can do. I’m sure they must feel pity for us in when we’re in their environment. They’ve managed to live on the earth for 50 million more years than us with bigger brains and without jeopardizing the whole planet like we have in just a few decades. I’m glad they don’t have the power to ask, “what good are humans?” because it’s scientific proof that we’re destroying the planet. Dolphins are the only wild animal to save the life of humans, and the only way we can save them now is to prove we’ve made their environment so toxic that they are poison and should not be eaten.” [Psihoyos turns to his Japanese interpreter] will that translate?

Dizzamn, Louie. Congratulations on all the awards but you could have at least started by saying SPOILER ALERT.

So, um, I guess this is my warning.

Confession: I’ve wanted to watch this movie since I started crushing on Dave ‘Rasta’ Rastovich, founder of Surfers for Cetaceans. Who is Dave? A vegan yogi pro free-surfer now better known as an environmentalist: in 2007, he led the a paddle-out protest of Taiji, Japan’s dolphin killings alongside actresses Isabel Lucas, Hayden Panettiere, and former wifey Hannah Mermaid (I’m not kidding on the last one). This was a moment documented in the Cove (though, after watching, largely delegated to the ‘Deleted Scenes’ Special Feature) as a part of their mission to expose and stop the annual slaughter of 23,000 dolphins.

The film was expertly layered. In the foreground, we have the urgent, immediate Ocean’s Eleven-esque plot of, “given all the political barricades, how is Louie going to catch the killings on film?” In the background, we have personal Ric O’Barry’s narrative from Flipper Dolphin Trainer to Animal Rights Activist and an inquiry into why Japan persists this practice and its consequences. What the team uncovers is government corruption, the human health hazard of mercury poisoning, and an industry making over 2 billion dollars a year on captured dolphins.

I will say I’m definitely in the “Choir” section of this movie’s preach. As such, while I enjoyed the film, I wasn’t shocked or wowed by the Japanese’s posturing in the International Whaling Commission nor ultimately their reasons for continuing the slaughter.  The one part of the movie that did stir within me a visceral reaction was their chapter on the unfit-for-consumption high levels of mercury in dolphin meat, the intentional mislabeling of it, and thankfully unsuccessful campaign for it to be included in children’s compulsory school lunches nationwide.  As such, I was immensely appreciate of the DVD’s “Mercury Rising” Special Feature where they talked to scientists who underwent a ‘Supersize Me’ diet of eating less than a cup of tuna a day and tracked how quickly their mercury levels rose.  As someone who eats fish and eggs as her primary animal protein, this frankly freaks me the fuck out.

Overall, a great documentary on-par with Food, Inc.   And yet, while The Cove absolutely has merit, I wouldn’t be surprised if it partly won because it’s easier to criticize another country’s politics, pollution, and food culture over taking that same log out of our own eye.

FACT: Today is International Women’s Day.
FACT: In Mandarin Chinese, 3/8 means ‘Bitch.’
FACT: This is how I remember that today is International Women’s Day.
image via

MARCH 6, 2010 - LITTLE SUMMER
image from (taken in Nosara!)

Confession: this little guy is what might keep me in Nosara over ‘Little Summer’.

As soon as I started mentally preparing myself to spend June through October in California, I began to think of all the wonderful things I’d be missing by skipping over Nosara’s veranillo. The first thing that came to mind was no! I’d be missing the halloween crabs!

I love the halloween crabs. They come out to spawn during rainy season. If you should you ever find yourself on a dirt path near the ocean during this time, the ground and foliage are covered with them. And as you walk past, they will quietly crawl out of your way, making you feel as though you are Moses, parting a sea of orange-red-purple crustaceans. It turns a simple stroll across town to living inside a Disney animated movie.

And with that first thought, I started compiling a list of all that I love of Little Summer: the regular afternoon showers, the cooler temperatures, the even less people, less crowded line-up. Getting caught in thunderstorms and improvising trashbags as raincoats. The champinones. I know that list seems small but my wants and needs are simple here. And truly, these are the things that give me claps of delight.

The only reason why I’d want to return to the States was to get my city culture fix. I am on my last disc of Lost, Season 5, after which I won’t know what to do. I miss art, indie cinema, a good variety of books (which I don’t have to plan months in advance), and world cuisine made my someone else’s better skilled hand.  I miss variety; I miss choice.  But I already will be home for a month - will that be enough to sate my desire?

My first fantasy was to be Sidney Fife for five months: living on Venice Beach, doing daily yoga, writing regularly, wearing hawai’ian prints and madras simultaneously, and walking a dog named Anwar Sadat.  But how long with that nourish me?  Sustain me?  Or is there something else I should altogether?  What happened to Europe?

Truly, tell me: if you just spent the last six months living in the beach / jungle, what would you do?