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Apr. 15th, 2009 12:57 amThis week TCM is featuring "fan programmers," guests who are fans of the channel and get to pick a movie to be shown. Today's picks included Gone With the Wind and Singin' in the Rain. Gotta say, as much as I enjoy both of those movies, if I had the chance to pick a movie to be shown on TV, I wouldn't pick something that gets played once a month anyway!! >_<
Book:
9. The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty, Peter Singer
I found out about this book through Singer's interviews on The Colbert Report and The Hour. I basically LOVE this man for having the guts to go on international television and say, "Yeah, this economic crisis sucks, but you're still much better off than a lot of the people in the world." In the book he argues that people in wealthy countries should give time and money to people in poor countries, he talks about the reasons why people generally don't, and he tries to figure out what level of obligation one should feel to this goal. I don't agree with everything he says, but I do think I agree with a lot of it, and overall I found this book incredibly interesting. Of course I'm speaking as someone who's already really interested in issues of world poverty, so now I totally want one of you guys to read it and tell me what you think!
To be slightly more specific, one of the parts of the book that I really liked was when Singer pointed out that, should you have $100 to spend on whatever you want, there is probably nothing you could buy for yourself that would mean as much to you as the same amount of money would mean to someone in a poor country who is in need of a $100 surgery that they can't afford.
Movie:
28. Paprika, 2006
I liked this movie and at the same time I didn't. I figured a movie about recording people's dreams wouldn't make a whole lot of sense, and so for the most part it didn't bother me that I rarely knew exactly what was going on. But then the climax of the movie made even less sense than the rest of it, and I was not down with that. How am I supposed to be interested in the epic final scenes if I have no idea what is going on? :( ahaha ah well, overall I'd still say I enjoyed it. And I liked the music in it, especially that weird not-quite-a-song that always accompanied the appearance of the parade. xD;
Book:
9. The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty, Peter Singer
I found out about this book through Singer's interviews on The Colbert Report and The Hour. I basically LOVE this man for having the guts to go on international television and say, "Yeah, this economic crisis sucks, but you're still much better off than a lot of the people in the world." In the book he argues that people in wealthy countries should give time and money to people in poor countries, he talks about the reasons why people generally don't, and he tries to figure out what level of obligation one should feel to this goal. I don't agree with everything he says, but I do think I agree with a lot of it, and overall I found this book incredibly interesting. Of course I'm speaking as someone who's already really interested in issues of world poverty, so now I totally want one of you guys to read it and tell me what you think!
To be slightly more specific, one of the parts of the book that I really liked was when Singer pointed out that, should you have $100 to spend on whatever you want, there is probably nothing you could buy for yourself that would mean as much to you as the same amount of money would mean to someone in a poor country who is in need of a $100 surgery that they can't afford.
Movie:
28. Paprika, 2006
I liked this movie and at the same time I didn't. I figured a movie about recording people's dreams wouldn't make a whole lot of sense, and so for the most part it didn't bother me that I rarely knew exactly what was going on. But then the climax of the movie made even less sense than the rest of it, and I was not down with that. How am I supposed to be interested in the epic final scenes if I have no idea what is going on? :( ahaha ah well, overall I'd still say I enjoyed it. And I liked the music in it, especially that weird not-quite-a-song that always accompanied the appearance of the parade. xD;