Ex-Models Documentary Trailer

I watched scenes from the Ex-Models documentary that Matt from Pterodactyl shot and is putting together. Check out the trailer here...

Power to the People!!! Please Go See Chicago 10 This Weekend

Last night I went to the screening of Chicago 10, a half animated, half archival footage documentary of the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests. I really didn't know much about this time period other than the fact that Martin Luther King Jr got assassinated and racism and segregation was tearing the country apart. People were calling for an end to war and to bring the troops home.

After seeing this movie, I want to reiterate the parallels of war time today with George W. Bush in Iraq with the war time back then with Vietnam and LBJ. The difference? There are no Yippies today. Where are all the protesters? I think most people are at home worrying about their own life and their declining economic status, not whether or not there are larger conspiracies going on in our own country.



I have to say I am disappointed in myself and the rest of my peers for being kind of lame, but I think we are a product of a lazy, spoiled generation that has been systematically trained to have no hope against fighting the "big" government (reference that Michael Moore doc Sicko). We are not protesting through actual action and marches. Instead we are joining Facebook protest groups and sending around seemingly pointless email petitions and YouTube viral videos. There are no 15,000 people protests at the national conventions of either party.



It seemed that media coverage back then was more on the side of the radicals. Today, it seems the opposite. Media coverage is swayed to the major players and their campaign managers, not to the people of America. When was the last time you saw the news interview people like you and me about what we think of the candidates running for President? And what are we doing to make sure our voices are heard? Young people today (including moi) are more complacent, but I think we have become the very thing that Yippies like Abbie Hoffman feared would be the future if they didn't stand up and make their voices heard... It was the very thing that the protesters in 1968 wanted to obliterate when they risked their lives to fight a scary political machine. It was a war on American territory, a civil war, and it scared the shit out of me to watch this film. I cried at the end because it echoed the hopelessness I have been feeling about the role of the American people and its stodgy, behind-closed-doors government.



One of the most moving scenes was when Bobby Seale was bound and gagged for demanding his constitutional right to defend himself. I was tearing at the thought that Judge Hoffman thought he could so awfully infringe on a man's right, especially a black man's right -- in an era where race relations were on fire.

Since this is a music blog of sorts, another thing I'll talk about is the movie's soundtrack -- full of Rage Against the Machine, Black Sabbath, Eminem and Beastie Boys -- it was an attempt to make the scenes from yesterday connect with viewers today. It was aggressive and charged with good intentions, but sometimes I felt the soundtrack disrupted the power of what was on the screen. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Nonetheless it left an impact. This movie is worth your time. Tell me you aren't moved by the ridiculous insanity of the recreated/animated courtroom scenes. I was in shock when watching the transcripts unfold. It is a good reminder of what these Yippies did to try to free us, and how we have somehow become captive again. Maybe it's time to break free again? Say it with me... "What do we want?" Revolution! "When do we want it?" NOW!

Watch the trailer below and go see this movie -- opens in theaters tomorrow.