Last Ten Films I've Seen (as of Oct. 16th): Watching a Three-Hour Doc on a Friday Night

"The Autobiography of Nicolea Ceausescu" is a three-hour documentary about a Romanian Cold War dictator who was eventually executed by gunfire by his own people after 22 years of dictatorial rule, and last Friday night was soooo boring (as Moon Unit Zappa would say) that I ended up watching it on Netflix! The film uses official footage and has no narration. One shocking thing I learned from the film was that American Richard Nixon actually traveled to Bucharest to meet Nicolea Ceaucescu.

Other films on the list include "Au Hasard Balthazar," a brilliant, but depressing film about the life of a donkey, which could have been filmed in Greece or Turkey as easily as France. "4:44: Last Day on Earth" is a dire film with Willem Defoe about what the end might be like. Lastly, "Alan Partridge," starring Steve Coogan as the title character who is also a radio dj, is quite hilarious; the green coffee cup above is in his honor. We tried to use a Manchester United coffee cup, but we believe those images are perhaps copyrighted.

Here is the list:

1) Au Hasard Balthazar. France. 1966. Director: Robert Bresson

2) For All Mankind. Documentary. 1989. Dir: Al Reinert

3) McCabe and Mrs. Miller. 1971. Dir: Robert Altman

4) Lebanon. (Israeli film). 2009. Dir:Samuel Maoz.

5) Chico and Rita. Animation. Spain. Dir: Tono Errando, et al

6) 4:44: Last Day on Earth. Dir: Abel Ferrara

7) Alan Partridge. 2013. Dir: Declan Lowney.

8) Marwencol. Documentary. Dir: Jeff Malmberg

9) Zanjeer. India. 1973. Dir: Prakash Mehra.

10) The Autobiography of Nicolea Ceausescu. Documentary. 2010. Romania

http://www.criterion.com/

http://www.netflix.com

http://www.tcm.com

http://www.filmlinc.org

It's Election Day in America

As a resident of North Carolina who is from neighboring Virginia, today's election, in spite of the constant tv ads, radio spots, mailings and robo calls, is of great interest: North Carolina carries 15 electoral college votes whereas Virginia has 13. But, Ohio with 18 electoral college votes is considered the most important battleground swing state.

In the Sunday edition of "The Washington Post," Chris Cillizza who is an excellent non-partisan political analyst with his 'Post" blog 'The Fix,' predicts that President Barack Obama will get 277 electoral college votes while his challenger Mitt Romney will have 261; Reid Wilson of the non-partisan "National Journal" forecasts that Obama will get slightly more votes 294 for Obama and 244 for Romney.

Hopefully, everyone will get a chance to vote. I am fortunate to live in a swing state and I realized that people in Fort Mill, South Carolina, which neighbors the Tarheel State, and Bluefield, West Virginia, which neighbors Virginia, have to be agonized over the fact that their state is not in play.

Similarly, people in far away places like Baku, Azerbaijan, and Nairobi, Kenya, are watching this election very closely, perhaps in some cases just as much as Americans.

Lastly, in order to be 'remotely' objective, we should point out that the top image is of a Greek donkey (it may actually be from Macedonia); I am a Turkish-American:)

http://www.nationaljournal.com

http://www.thehill.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix

http://www.theonion.com (a satirical publication)

Silly Picture to Fill Space- A Donkey

Today, I am posting images of a donkey and an elephant on our two blogs since the health care debate has finally been settled as Democrats in the House successfully passed the bill in spite of Cong. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) declaring that the bill was a greater threat to domestic security than Osama bin Laden.

The State of North Carolina, where I reside, actually has eight House members from the Democratic Party. But, surprisingly enough three of them including Cong. Mike McIntyre (D-NC) did not vote for the bill.

While researching this piece, I found out that Jews and Arabs actually agree on something!

According to Wikipedia, 39 percent of Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans have tended to vote Democratic since the Iraq War, which is now entering its seventh year. 26 percent of the same demographic vote Republican.

Meanwhile 70% of Jewish Americans vote Democratic as well though ironically Judaism is the faith of Cong. Eric Cantor (R-Va), the arch conservative minority whip who many Democrats cite for making passage of the bill quite difficult.

David Young, a Greensboro businessman, is the current chair of North Carolina Democratic Party.

Donkeys happen to quite popular in my late father's country Turkey, which reportedly sold a donkey to the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan for $18,200 in 2009. But, Yashar Aliyev, the Azeri ambassador in Washington, DC, assuredly probably has too many other important things to deal with to confirm or deny this for me.

There is also a place called Donkey Island in Turkey off the coast of the resort town of Cesme in the Aegean across from the Greek island of Chios.

Cesme, Turkey, was actually sister cities with the town of Wise, Va., in the far southwestern part of my home state.

Former Virginia governor Tim Kaine is now the national head of the Democratic Party.