Thursday, August 19, 2010

Document this

Okay, so we watch a lot of movies. After moving back to Texas, our summer here is like our winter up north. You spend a lot of time indoors. These documentaries were intellectually stimulating and stranger than fiction.


What if Hitler had gotten accepted to art school in his youth? Would the museums now hold his framed pastoral scenes instead of memorials to the exterminated he stole from? As I did not know Hitler was an artist and art crazed, this documentary was fascinating. How works of art travelled during the regime and were hidden in subterranean caves is unbelievable. The restoration of some of the pieces to the surviving heirs years later is dually touching and heartbreaking. What is a brush-marked canvas in comparison to a God-created person?


If you love to play word games like Boggle and Scrabble...this is a must watch. If you love math and probabilities you will be equally impressed. And if you read the dictionary before bed you will find a kindred sole in this utterly crazy documentary about men who have trained their minds with letter combinations and a plethora of 7 letter words.


If you have longed to be independent from energy use and like the idea of recycling this is a very cool look into building homes from trash. I do not endorse his theory of over population and the earth's resources quickening demise, but as a conservative I was angered on his behalf by the red tape strangulation of his wacky but innovative ideas. I am all for the freedom to fail! That is what made America great. Not regulation.


The title prepares you for the hard character...but you will be surprised how the art world operates and the snobbery and subjectivity of art appreciation. Also you will choose a side by the end of the movie. Is it really a Jackson Pollock or is it a fake? Ben and I were of differing opinions.

1 comment:

Jenny Smucker said...

do you borrow these movies from the library?

i like the point system mentioned in your previous post. do you have a consistent system for the value of points? or is it arbitrary depending on the day?