Excitement, fear

I hinted yesterday about the prospect of a grand, new project coming from Kenny and I, but while the details are still coming together, it seems our grandest vision will probably have to be put on hold.

There were discussions last night between Kenny, Alison, Nate, and I about the possiblity of building a multi-media website that would be the platform for new artistic endeavors of all sorts, whether in the form of new movies, video shorts, writing, t-shirts, etc. Unfortunately, despite the exciting prospects this idea held, it was decided that not enough time and effort could be spared to really do such a huge project justice, but maybe this will be something to come back to in the future.

However this did spark off serious consideration about other new projects we could undertake, specifically in the realm of movie-making, and after some discussion we reviewed both our Epic Japanese movie and its accompanying trailer. Reinvigorated by this reminder of past accomplishments, Kenny and I agreed at least to produce another movie, most likely involving new characters and a new story, and probably slated for completion by reading week before finals. We've already begun discussing character design.

(I just returned a patron's ID card. Her name is Kara Freewind. What a name.)

Later in the evening, Kenny was watching a documentary called Zeitgeist, which concerns various conspiracy theories about Christianity, 9/11, and others, with the basic premise apparently being that a small group of individuals at the highest echelons of civilization are conspiring to unite the entire world under a single totalitarian government. While I'm highly skeptical about that premise and conspiracy theories in general, the accompanying discussion between Kenny and I about the historical incidences of politicians colluding to bring about their own political ends at the cost of human lives (namely the two incidents that drew the US into both World Wars), was rather scary. To what degree do governments operate the way we think they do? What actually happens in secret at the top? All scary thoughts, but perhaps the most serious accusation made by Zeitgeist was that the US government is intentionally inhibiting the education of the nation's children in order to make them more susceptible to distraction by entertainment and more compliant with the government's decisions on their behalf. Whether by actually impeding the procurement of quality education or simply espousing a message of constant threat and fear in order to cow its own citizens, I fear I believe the government does act to stupify the public. And what can be done against such an evil?

Maybe our movie has found its villain.