Spinal Tap

This movie is ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. I began writing this blog post thinking Spinal Tap was a real band. I thought they were in such a downward spiral they agreed to make this movie for the director. I even looked them up on Spotify. I feel like such an idiot. Haha.

Discography

[edit]Studio albums

[edit]Fictional

• Spinal Tap Sings "(Listen to the) Flower People" and Other Favourites (1967)
• We Are All Flower People (1968)
• Brainhammer (1970)
• Nerve Damage (1971)
• Blood to Let (1972)
• Intravenus de Milo (1974)
• The Sun Never Sweats (1975)
• Bent for the Rent (1976)
• Tap Dancing (1976)
• Rock 'n' Roll Creation (referred to as The Gospel According to Spinal Tap in the film) (1977)
• Shark Sandwich (1980)
• Smell the Glove (1982)

[edit]Actual

• This Is Spinal Tap (1984) U.S. No. 121^[19]
• Break Like the Wind (1992) U.S. No. 61^[19] UK No. 51
• Back from the Dead (2009) U.S. No. 52^[20]

[edit]

Hahaha this is brilliant. I'm still laughing. I can't wait till someone makes one of these about Justin Bieber and Beyonce.

War Stories

I don't believe any military story. None. There are exactly three events in my life that led me to distrust stories like Restrepo.

1. Have you read The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien? It's a fantastic book. It's a collection of anecdotes about soldiers in the Vietnam War. According to the author, almost none of it is true. The stories are written to give you the experience of being in the war. I accept that, and I understand that to get at the true essence of a story you have to embellish a bit, but I don't like it. I feel powerless and insignificant. Since reading that book, I have dismissed all war stories and accepted that I will never understand war. All I can do is have compassion for soldiers as I would for any other human being.

2. I dated a guy who lied all the time for such reasons mentioned above, and for others that I still don't understand. He once told me a really cool story about a time when he didn't talk for a whole week. I was super impressed. I made a joke about it later that day and he laughed at me for believing his story. I learned that I'm either too trusting or just not smart enough to figure out when people are lying.

3. My mentor took me to the DoD Worldwide Military Photography Workshop last year. If you look at the Facebook Page, you'll see little Casey in the cover photo, dressed in a purple frilly shirt among a group of manly men in uniform. I just went to hang out, I didn't participate in any of the exercises. I got to meet lots of great people, hear all the presentations, and do none of the work; it was great. I also got a private tour of the military media building. I was surprised by the enormous amount of control and security of military imaging. It's ridiculous. We had to lock our phones in a black box, and one room of employees had to turn off their monitors while we visited. Even if a soldier wanted to tell a true story, the military probably wouldn't let them. Even civilian photographers who are imbedded in in platoons are told when and where and what they can photograph. 

There's no way Restrepo is an honest film. Yes, I understand documentaries are "artistic representations of reality" but I'm sure the military has skewed that reality of the Korengal for us. It's movies like these that remind me why I've dedicated my career to honest journalism.

Taxi to the Dark Side

While watching the film, I kept forcing myself to think about the atrocity of 9/11. I tried to justify our military actions by the crime committed against us on that day. But, it doesn't quite match up. The crime committed against us was a military crime. Yes, it was awful, horrible, atrocious, but understandable: they were crazy. Our cime against the people of the Middle East is not understandable. These people know nothing about anything and are subjected to awful treatment. The crimes committed against them are crimes against humanity, not just against a country. The crime is personal and psychological. I agreed with the person who said we're making more terrorists through this detainment process. Children who are abused generally grow up to abuse their children. Women who are raped are changed forever. These men's lives are ruined. What gives the U.S. Military the power to do that, to ruin people's lives? What gives us the right to detain citizens in another country? We can't ignore the inalienable rights we're supposedly fighting for in the first place.