Learning Uncle Vincent (LUV).

I found another gem. This one has Danny Glover. He is playing a villain. Yes just like you I was surprised. I am much too accustomed to watching him alongside Mel Gibson. This time around is paired with Common and another young promising actor. Common in this role is dealing with life on this side of freedom and has the task of mentoring or at least guiding a young man who has been placed in his care. The snacks, the visit to the tailors, the time devoted to teaching the young man how to drive...and then perhaps the most important part of the encounter-visit the old neighborhood and a lesson never to show fear! There is another captivating scene much later in the movie where a gun is pulled on the two 'men' and the older 'goes off' on the younger for not having his back. You are left puzzled as is the younger man that his older companion views him as being old enough not to 'freeze on him'. Then you watch the progression and the manipulation, the scores and the back and forth between the new school and the old school. You watch the rituals around the dinner table...a brief transition from childhood to adulthood at which the young boy can now handle his own 'crab'. Very well done if you ask me!

May 16, 2016 at 3:05am · 

Privacy: Friends

The ticket-an exploration of the balance of power in human relations.

So I found a gem on one of our local Tv stations. It is called the ticket. In it you will see the ideas behind man relations and the delicate balance of power upon which many of us base our activities. 

While the film is based on blindness, the disabilities upon which these power levers exists are many and varied. One does not necessarily have to be that disadvantaged to see the effects and experience the results of a power play. One need only on a personal level have some sort of perception issue. Whether it is education or personal belief, if at some point your partner has an edge over you, they will rule over you. No matter how subtle the expression of this lordship is it exists and will determine the manner in which you relate to others and how they relate to you. 

In a sense many of these effects are a kin to a sense of blindness which is why there is a mastery sense to this motion picture. The moment he receives his sight everything changes. And that is really what knowledge is all about. A new education, a new skill, a new ideas, the revival of old dreams. These concepts are all about an opening of the eyes and the change in perception that has the potential to cause a dramatic effect in ones life and the lives and relationships that constitute that life. 

All of a sudden the enlightened one sees and has to deal with two things. What they did not see in the past and what they now see and perceive with a set of new senses. The sense of trust is probably the toughest thing to deal with. What did I miss what was kept from my sight to protect me? And why? Maybe this is the test of freedom? What will you do now that you no longer have to deal with the limitations of your disability? 

What can you now do with the idea of your new found independence? Relating to those whose task it was to keep you is no longer the same. They now have a new identity that will be defined outside of you and your care. How will you relate to those who were in the same boat? 

What If after your moment of liberation you lost the love of those who were once dear to you? This probably happens because they are more accustomed to dealing with you in your disability or your lack of illumination. It is strange but some people draw their identity from your weaknesses and their defense of their trade and position is based on the darkness that you hold. 

Queens, Kings, Ghettos and Federations.

Queen of Katwe

Finally got to watch the movie courtesy of one of our local TV stations and all that at about
5AM!
As a chess enthusiast it was a blast watching on camera some of the lessons that i had attempted to glean from life.

Lupita N'yongo the gorgeous attractive
IVY league actress from Kenya was in this
one too (she takes on the role of mother). I did mention her in some previous posts probably saddened that we were having difficulty putting away a fraction of our collective history. Frustrated that there was a smart core of people who were causing us to pay undue attention to certain parts of our lives by heaping praise and awards onto these specific subjects.

It is a great tale nonetheless. A journey that chronicles the life of a young talented girl-Phiona Mutesi (played by a new comer with plenty of promise-Medina Nalwanga) and her mentor/teacher Robert Katende (played by David Oyelowo) who discovers her skill at a strategy game and uses it to make some major moves from poverty
to prominence.

The movie gives you a glimpse into family life and the struggles a
single mother has to go through to raise her daughter. The
older sister and her tough decisions to make it out of the same
rutt and the moral questions that challenge both mother and
daughter. We get an insight into the difficulties that go with
life in a modern slum. The punishing rain that often destroys
makeshift homes. A blessing to some but a curse to many others.

We see distinct differences between the ghetto (a word that we
thought was banished in history somewhere in Poland) life and
a life of relative affluence in a historic school reserved for the sons
and grandsons of Chiefs. There are interesting battles between
those who make up these two worlds, battles which will often
play out in life in a setting that is clearly very stratified.

Life lessons are plenty in a manner only often familiar with third
world kids where humor and education and life are all meshed
up in a complex mix.

Watch as the mother struggles to deal with a child that has tasted of the better life and now has to return in submission to an older wiser woman although at this point the daughter feels like she has bypassed her.


Perhaps the most interesting part of the movie is the subtle use of
affection between young attractive student and older married
teacher and the use of the term queen which she (the student)
uses to mazimum effect when she keeps the queen piece of the
board which she shares enthusiastically and playfully with her
mentor/King.

The use of local settings and regular everyday occurrences such
as the market places, the motor cycle, the hospital visit and the
untimely exit, the flash floods, the dance, the songs that are sung while on the way to school in a minivan as well as the choice of
dark dull colours contrasted with the beautiful garments that are worn
by residents maybe as an insulation against the sheer 'starkness'
of some of the conditions in which thet live. Directed by Mira Nair (responsible for Missisipi Masala) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mira_Nair

A good presentation if you ask me.