Posts Tagged ‘weapons’

Avatar: The Movie

Monday, January 18th, 2010

Avatar, the technically amazing, richly conceived and executed movie, will not be to everyone’s taste.  It is tasty enough, however, to have broken all box office records, streaking to be the fastest movie to gross over $500 million, in only 32 days. Second place goes to The Dark Knight, which took 45 days, followed by Cameron’s Titanic taking 98 days.  The “you-gotta-see it” factor is enormous.  Even those who avoid big American films –including yours truly– are persuaded, and pay the 3-D marked up ticket price.

The visual richness and imaginative detail of Pandora, the moon/planet,  the setting of the entire film, is simply astounding.  The floating-in-space scenes as the humans approach their destination, unforgettable.  The merging of human/actors with humanoid/graphics is seamless, especially when both seem to be appearing in the same sequences – an actor in an attack helicopter alongside an enormous computer graphics gun ship, complete with a mad man in command and troops with guns on the loading dock.
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What I Have Heard About Blue Angels

Friday, October 9th, 2009

All of a sudden
(it was hot, it was blue,
we had finished a meal,
in what would be soon
once a home,)
a sound devoured the sky.

The sky remained blue for a moment,
but was gone from our ears,
young and old, torn open,
all of a sudden,
from outside in.

All of a sudden
the sky turned white
We could not hear.
All that was blue was gone.
The white turned gray.
Sand ate our eyes
in blinding bites.
The gray was gone.
What remained was far
gone from color.

All of a sudden rocks fell
from the sky. As big as heads
they fell. A steel beam fell,
a needle of stone
pierced my eye.

All of a sudden my son
was deaf forever. He would never
hear me say I love you!
all of a sudden forever.

An arm flew by
all of a sudden. I didn’t see the rest
of my wife, forever.
She took another son, too.
We never said goodbye, forever.

I’ve heard, in your country,
people rush up to the roofs
when they hear the sound,
to see. We flee down.
We chew the dirt to go even deeper.
We have already seen.

I have heard they are called
Blue Angels
in your country,
that thousands gather
to watch them fly.

If these are angels
of your heaven
I do not want to see them
forever.

Will Kirkland
October, 2009

In San Francisco, all afternoon
I listen to the music of Rumi
so when the creatures roar over,
making hearts and car alarms scream
I can let the tears go
pretending they come from joy
not fear
of angels and their men.

[I have written in previous years about the Blues. This is the worst weekend of the year in San Francisco, not only for the Angels falling blue to hell, but for the adoration shown, without a thought, the merest thought of what it really means.]