gordonzola | (no subject)

One of the things I did while sick this week was watch, "When the Levees Broke", the Spike Lee documentary about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. It was well done and compelling, though a little depressing for the edgy emotional state I get into while sick. I watched it in dribs and drabs, sometimes because it made me cry and sometimes because I found I couldn't concentrate because of my sick brain.

The only part I watched where I was like, "Hmmm, this seems a little picky." Was the scene where a teenager gives a tour of his FEMA trailer, complaining about how cheaply made it is. I didn't dwell on it but Lee had just documented how few people had gotten the trailers at all so it seemed a little, I hesitate to write this, ungrateful. It was a minor moment, but to me it seemed like a false note, a moment of less righteous anger in a film where "righteous anger" was the baseline .

And you know what? I was totally wrong.

Not 15 minutes after watching that I read a Nation article that just came out. Written about a year after the movie was filmed, it detailed that those trailers are making people sick because the materials aren't rated for people to actually live in them. Truly much of New Orleans is toxic still, and it would be hard to separate the toxicity of formaldehyde from the toxicity of sewage, mold, etc without massive study. But, man… It just keeps coming.

In other movie news I finally saw "Pan's Labyrinth" last night. I never get tired of seeing Fascists killed, especially Spanish ones. My favorite scene was right near the end so I probably shouldn't mention it until the movie is out of the theaters, but as someone who grew up watching war movies the "Fuck your honor" moment was incredibly satisfying and against genre. As it should be.

I also somehow got that James Bond movie from Netflix... "The World is not Enough" starring Remington Steele. It was so bad that I actually returned it unfinished. I realized about half way to the mailbox that I actually forgot to watch the last 15 minutes and I totally didn't care. I swear I don't know how that got on my queue. I think the name confused me. Maybe I was thinking it was "The World Can't Wait" and it was about sectarian front groups, I dunno.

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cindi thanks us all of the time for taking her in up here and helping her start a new life...she's going to graduate this spring, so i get to be a proud momma...and she's getting married in september, so my mom and i are busy planning a wedding for her along with her sister in NOLA trying to work with us up here...we've really become close with her sis also, and cindi has been calling me mom for the longest time now...

her sister refuses to "desert" NOLA, but has noticed that she has been getting sick a lot and is comtemplating moving up here to be closer to cindi -- cindi decided that she was never going to go back after she did and saw the numbers on the door and what was left of her grandparents' home...she STILL has nightmares once in a while, but is MUCH better than what she was when they first dropped her off on my porch...

i inherited a college-aged kid...but so proud of what she has done to create a great, wonderful life for herself!

yeah, you pretty much won "best person on my friendslist" for taking in a Katrina survivor. That's awesome that she's doing so well.

i basically couldn't refuse when i was asked by my alma mater...and while we waited for her we saw the video feeds and wondered what in the hell did i get us into...she was very quiet initially...many of my friends helped with many things to get her life normal -- one even cordinated some mechanics and fixed up a car to get her to school...so it wasn't just me that she came to, she came to a whole slew of freaky people (both in real life as well as some LJ friends) who all wanted to help, but felt that their small efforts would fall on deaf ears -- but pulled together we made a world of difference in a young woman who is just amazing...

thanks for the compliment -- but i had plenty of help from many people...i mainly gave her a roof, food and a shoulder to cry on -- there was a lot of that...and helping her get her classes scheduled, showing her around campus...but in all honesty, the little things that friends did (like send her zines and books, one got her a prepaid cell phone so she could make her FEMA calls and look for her sister), one sent her some clothing, a gal pal got the salon she works at to give her a makeover for school & they hooked her up with enough hair and styling products for like a year...

yes, it does take a community -- i have learned so much about love and family through this experience...i also have learmed a great deal about my redneck neighbors here who made food, invited her to BBQs in the neighborhood, gave her babysitting gigs to make some $ -- i may talk shit about them from time to time, but they have shown that they have a lot of heart...they just drink shitty beer ;-P

but i don't think i could ever do it again -- i cried along with her so much, was stressed out along with her in trying to find her family and get her life in some semblance of normalcy...

however i DO get angry at those who have used their situation for personal gain, who are not trying to create a homelife somewhere and are dragging their kids down with them...many came to detroit, and i worked at a center screening families...so many just wanted to know when we could get them their FEMA check -- and once they got it, many just blew it and then became part of our welfare system...but not everyone did that, i believe a very rare few...

...yeah, thanks for the compliment -- but i'll never do it again.