newnessness

Spontaneous Summer Solstice party a Smashing Success.

That being said, happy descent back towards the sun people. As we make our approach, I hope the lot of you are gearing up for a solid second half of 2010. This year has been one of life-changing epic proportions, and there's no reason to slow that momentum now!

Let's take a moment to enjoy the newness..

ahhh.

What do you mean, you don't understand? Newness. Life's new things. Letting go of old habits and stepping out of wrinkled skin into new ways of living and breathing. Keeping it real. Live and let Live. Be all you can be. Wake up and smell the petunias.

Two nights ago I watched Toy Story 3 at the awesome Krakhouse theatre in Monrovia. Before the movie, Pixar exhibited a little short as they usually do. This one was interesting to me because it made a statement. I mean what mainstream, multi-million dollar animated feature would dare to risk making a statement these days? Hmm. Well being a Banana Slug (UCSC graduate) we all know about what it means to 'make a statement'. For crying out loud, I can't tell you how many picket lines I happily drove across trying to get to my classes on time..

In fact, after years of watching people try to make a statement at college and never fully succeeding, I developed a 2-part theory about society and the vigilantes within who wish to shake the aged from their wrinkled skins and look at the world from a new light. My theory is this:

There are two ways to effect social change:
1 - Violent Revolution from the outside in
2 - Quiet Revolution from the inside out

At UCSC, the former was the primary and most popular way to get local society to listen. This usually included picketing, riots, mass violence, hateful acts, shouting, cursing, anger, disgust and on the rare occasion egg-throwing (see also: Santa Cruz Borders Books opening, 2004). Now this kind of revolution can occasionally work. But it also pisses people off and creates division. I prefer to take the second, more pleasant approach: change from within.
The short before Toy Story 3 seemed to do just that - it hooked us as the audience with a universally relatable idea, developed our trust and took us along for a little ride. Then somewhere at the end, it made a brief statement - nothing huge, just a general recognition that people can get stuck in their ways and reject newness, and in that way the world won't grow. It was a polite and clever way of helping us audience members remember that trying something new isn't a bad thing at all but could result in new pleasures and positive awareness.

Why do I care about this? The cartoon was preachin to the choir in my world. But for me it was almost relieving to see it attached to a majorly-distributed kids film.. I mean, how often is a polite and effective statements made outside the arena of cultish circles or academic cliques? We're so used to people opting for Revolution #1 that it was refreshing to see some Revolution #2 for a change, especially when put out by such a large company as Pixar. Well done.

There's my spiel du jour. Let's go effect some positive, trustworthy change folks. Adios

Mikie