50 Documentaries to See Before You Die: The Challenge

Current TV has ranked 50 Documentaries to See Before You Die. I'm sure that's not hyperbole at all - that you have to see all 50 before you die. Or, the moment you have seen the fiftieth, you shall die. In either case, I found myself casually watching the first two installments (Docs 50 - 31) before a night of epic insomnia, and thought, "Hey, I've seen a bunch of these already! Way to reinforce my taste in movies, Current TV!" However, this also made me think about trying to see all 50 again. Even if I've already seen them, or if the DVD has been gathering dust on my shelf since 2006, I should try to pull them out and watch them. Maybe comment on them in Blog Posts. Maybe on Fridays, when I'm trying to think of something to do for the weekend.

So, here is the challenge: Watch all 50 Documentaries by August 31, 2012. That's one per week, with a couple weeks off for vacation and what not. They don't have to be in order, but I do have to track down all 50:

50. Spellbound                                                                    Reviewed 8/19

49. Madonna: Truth or Dare                                               Reviewed 10/7

48. The Kid Stays in the Picture                                         Reviewed 11/4

47. One Day in September,                                                 Reviewed 9/2

46. Little Dieter Needs To Fly                                            Reviewed 12/16

45. Decline of Western Civilization: The Metal Years

44. Burma VJ

43. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts      Reviewed 10/14

42. Catfish,                                                                         Reviewed 8/26

41. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters                    Reviewed 12/9

40. When We Were Kings

39. Biggie and Tupac                                                         Reviewed 10/28

38. March of the Penguins                                                 Reviewed 12/9

37. Inside Job                                                                     Reviewed 10/21

36. Taxi to the Dark Side

35. Paragraph 175

34. Brother's Keeper

33. Tongues United

32. Dogtown and Z-Boys

31. Jesus Camp

30. Farenheit 9/11

29. Man on Wire

28. Gasland

27. Tarnation

26. Murderball

25. Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room                   Reviewed 12/16

24. Paradise Lost

23. The Eyes of Tammy Faye

22. Shut Up and Sing

21. Exit Through the Gift Shop

20. Capturing the Friedmans

19. Touching the Void

18. Food, Inc.

17. Street Fight

16. Bus 174

15. Crumb

14. Dark Days

13. The Fog of War

12. Bowling for Columbine

11. Paris is Burning

10. Grizzly Man
9. Trouble the Water
8. An Inconvenient Truth
7. The Celluloid Closet
6. The War Room
5. Super Size Me
4. Waltz With Bashir
3. Roger and Me
2. The Thin Blue Line
1. Hoop Dreams                                                             Reviewed 9/9

A Shining Example of Healthy Living Found In (Wait, That Can't Be Right)

I happened to catch a story by CNN's Sanjay Gupta on an elementary school in Illinois that received a Gold Award by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation for their healthy living program aimed to fight the childhood obesity problem. Only three schools have ever been awarded Gold, and one of them is Northeast Elementary in Danville.

(Are there two Danvilles in Illinois? No? It's the Danville I'm thinking of? Weird...)

Students at Northeast had their school lunch menu overhauled. No more fried foods, fish actually gets served multiple times per month, and fresh produce is making a comeback. In addition to the 30 minutes of mandatory gym class per day, Danville students are taking yoga breaks in the middle of class.

(Yoga. In Danville. Take a moment. Soak it in.)

All kidding aside, when you think of Danville, Illinois, healthy living is not even on the radar. Rather: Last town before Indiana - Cheaper hotel rooms for Illini games - That big blue abandoned factory along I-74 - Hometown of Gene Hackman and Dick Van Dyke - Giant VA Hospital. Danville is typical of so many small, struggling cities in the Midwest with the crumbling infrastructure, giant prison, abandoned buildings, and sagging economy. So, if Danville (seriously, DANVILLE) can turn around their schools like this, what's stopping the rest of the country?

Sunflowers

I have sunflowers drying in my house right now. I have never tried to grow sunflowers before, but seeing the cost of roasted sunflower seeds in the store, and the number of jars that my husband eats in a year, I figured it would be worth it.

Having never grown these before, I wasn't sure what to do. When is a sunflower ready to be harvested? Enter the Land Grant College! Major love is going out to the University of Illinois and University of Minnesota Extension Services. In exchange for free land for your schools, you have provided me with a valuable service: the ability to troll the internet from the safety of my house and ask the dumbest of dumb questions - Is it ready yet?

Iowa: When Eastern Politicians Appear to be Folksy

I've lived 32 years in the Midwest, and I can't remember being around a hay bale in August.

Keep that in mind if you take a look at this video of Mitt Romney in Iowa explaining that Corporations are People. What the hell is with the hay?

It's August. Any hay-related recreation I have ever enjoyed has always been in October, during harvest and pumpkin festivals and possibly on the back of a hay wagon. Early August is not hay season. It's not harvest time... it's the time where you can have an entire dinner of butter-drenched roasted sweet corn. Even if you grew up on a farm, unless you have livestock, you won't have hay lying around. It's one of those things that is slightly maddening, and how you know that the audience for this video is not the good people of Iowa, but those who don't live in the Midwest, and have a mental image of what the Midwest is like.

Even though he grew up in Michigan, he should know better. Then again, he grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, so maybe he doesn't. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and I can still tell you that when the pasture is still green, you don't need to feed the cows hay. Instead the hay is symbolic. It means, "I'm folksy", "I'm down to Earth", "I'm agrarian." What it also means is "I'm pandering to you hicks for the guys back home", where ever that may be.

Never trust a politician who is around that much hay in the growing season. He's listening to his image consultants too much.

Sunday Morning Papers: Indiana State Fair

While today I was completely prepared to write about the coverage of the Iowa Straw Poll in Ames, my mind is singularly focused on the stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis.

It's too early to assign blame for the collapse, but that's not going to stop me from trying. The biggest problem is that officials saw that there was a fast-moving line of thunderstorms approaching, a severe thunderstorm warning in place, a covered shelter adjacent to the venue, and most importantly, a break in the concert. Normally, I don't enjoy standing in the rain doing anything, and I'd assume that would work for watching stage hands set up for a band after the opening act had finished.

If I had been in charge, seeing a fast-moving line of thunderstorms that would clear the area in under an hour, I'd probably have asked those on the ground, unsheltered from the rain, to either go inside the Grandstand, the Coliseum, or under a pavilion. I would have made it clear to the crowd that the concert would start after the storms had abated. That's me - because I wouldn't want to stand in the rain, perform in the rain, generally get wet and soaked when it's 60 degrees out. Hypothermia sucks. That's all I would have done: told everyone the concert would be delayed, and hope that enough people would voluntarily evacuate the grounds so that when a mandatory evacuation would be called, there would be fewer people to move. Even without knowing that the stage would collapse, would I want to be responsible if 3,000 people (or 12,000 if the wind went sideways) were pelted with golf ball sized hail?

This is the Midwest, after all. We're used to hail storms and tornadoes, and fierce gusts of winds when they accompany violent thunderstorms. Thunderstorms in the summer with hurricane force winds? Yes... these are fairly routine occurrences. In fact, perhaps we should rate hurricane winds based on Midwestern thunderstorms. Are the winds equivalent to an EF-2 tornado or an EF-1?

So, while the news story comments are talking about how it was a freak wind gust of hurricane strength, why are people not pointing out that the stage should have been designed to withstand a strong thunderstorm, which would be a completely plausible event? This may have been a temporary venue, but perhaps we need to question whether a temporary venue poses more risks than a permanent facility. Then again, the Coliseum that was supposed to be used as a safe shelter is also the site of a propane explosion that killed 74 people in 1963. However, as stories continue to point out, stage rigging collapsing during strong thunderstorms have already happened twice this year. Just last week, I watched a Weather Channel special on the collapse of the Dallas Cowboys practice facility. It sounds eerily similar to what happened last night in Indy. Which leads me to believe that these are real concerns with real, tangible, predictable, lethal consequences which should no longer be ignored.

And Today, At The Iowa State Fair...

Unless you've been too glued to CNBC for the past week to notice anything else but the rise and fall of your stock portfolio, you may have heard that something very important is going on in Ames, Iowa today: The [historic?] Iowa State Fair. If you are planning to go to the fair, today is the day. Heart opens for Def Leopard, crowning the State Fair Queen, and the Battle of the Butter Sculptures.

This year marks the 100th year of the Iowa Butter Cow. Although long-time Butter Sculpting Queen Norma Duffy Lyon passed away in June, we can rest assured that the tradition of dairy-based medium in the art world continues. However, they still lag behind Illinois in ButterCow Webcam Technology, where one can log on and view the butter cow from the comfort of one's own home.

Of course, there's also a fundraiser for the Iowa Republican Party in which Iowans are bribed to support possible candidates before the field is set in some kind of side show that's supposed to mean something. What, I do not know, but the media seems to be intent on trying to figure something out.

Living Seasonally

One thing that the Midwest has going for it is four distinct seasons. Sure, Spring may only be a two week span between a snow storm that cancels a Cubs game in late May and a heat wave that happens in June, but it's still there. In the last 48 hours, the sweltering heat that signifies High Summer broke, and we're back into the lazy summer days where you can actually stay outside for more than 5 minutes without burning or dying of heat exhaustion.

The transition has now happened in the garden. Cool-weather loving seeds are back replacing the summer herbs. Fall lettuce, parsnips, radishes, beans, and peas are all in the ground. It may be 80 out, but one can tell that autumn is around the corner.

There are still a couple of weeks left to enjoy a New Belgium Sommersault Ale and indulge in my all-time favorite chicken recipe, the Beer Can Chicken. I've mentioned my pampered local free-range chickens before. So, grab your Weber Grill, some real lump charcoal, and be prepared to give that pampered bird the treatment it deserves.

Step 1: Yes, it has to be a Weber Charcoal Grill. Ed over at Gin & Tacos really explains why, but it boils down to the fact that it is simply the best grill out there. Plus, made in Palatine, Illinois. Support Midwestern manufacturing!

Step 2: Grab a charcoal chimney. Fill the top part with charcoal that closest resembles actual lumps of wood. Add newspaper to the bottom, light, wait. About 10 minutes. Really. Wait.

Step 3: Set up your coals - you want to add them around the edge of the kettle. Under the middle, place an aluminum pie pan or piece of foil to catch the drippings of the bird. It will keep your grill clean, and will create extra steam and smoke to the interior of the Weber.

Step 4: The Bird. Grab a 12 ounce can of beer. It does not have to be good beer. Drink about 4 to 6 ounces. Spray the beer can with Pam (or brush with olive oil). Shove the beer can up the bird's cavity so that it sits upright on the can. Season the bird with a dry rub of your favorite spices (Bacon Salt is good, Lawry's, McCormick's Montreal Steak, or Cavendar's Greek Seasoning also work).

Step 5: Making sure that you have a good ring of charcoal, place the bird on the upper rack, directly over the pie pan/foil that's on the lower rack with the coals. Place the lid on CAREFULLY. If your bird is over 5 pounds, the lid may rest on the bird (clean the lid first). Wait 75 minutes. Bird will be awesome.

Indiana State Fair

The Indiana State Fair has unveiled it's signature item for the 2011 Year of the Soybean: Deep Fried Ice Cream. I'm not sure if I totally understand how soybeans and ice cream go together, but, heck, why not. However, the deep fried ice cream has led others to think, how else can I use ice cream? The answer appears to be the Ice Cream Burger, which is the perfect compliment to a menu that also includes the French Toast Burger and the Chicken Eggo.

In what I am sure is a totally unrelated event, Dr. Oz will be at the fair today. If you've ever wanted to plan a heart attack, make your way to Indianapolis.

Our Godless Communist Founding Fathers

Found on my Facebook Feed:

The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.-
Benjamin Franklin

Two problems: First, I'm pretty sure that Ben Franklin said no such thing (despite quote aggregators on the internet claiming this - not appearing in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations doesn't bode well), and second, I believe that's the Declaration of Independence you are thinking of.

I've always been fascinated by the writing of the Declaration of Independence. It's kind of a masterpiece the way it was crafted. It draws substantially on the same body of English political theory that was used to justify the Hanoverian Dynasty's rise to power to justify Hanover's ouster. While I may have to save the Glorious Revolution for another post, I do want to point out one little thing from John Locke's Second Treatise on Government. (No, not the guy from "Lost".) Locke wrote that people give up their individual rights and consent to be governed "for the mutual preservation of their lives, liberties, and estates, which I [Locke] call by the general name property." Jefferson took this idea, and interchanged property for The Pursuit of Happiness. Damn Hippie. What exactly does it mean that one of our Founding Fathers would rather have us pursue happiness than have individual possessions? To take such a lovely capitalist idea as defending individual property rights and replacing it with a touchy-feely idea of pursuing happiness... there's only one conclusion to make: Thomas Jefferson was a Communist.

Thomas Jefferson, your Godless, Hippie, Communist Founding Father. Which makes sense, given the company he kept:

(Photo from Wikipedia)

When Trees Get In Your Way of Appreciating Nature

The National Park Service is preparing to do something stupid. The LA Times is reporting that the NPS is getting ready to cut down 100 foot pine trees in Yosemite because they are blocking the views.

The Park Service, which often competes with the Bureau of Labor Statistics as my favorite government office, states that the valley floors have always been open, with Native Americans regularly setting fire to clear trees. However, this is still land management at work, even when done by someone other than the federal government. What is happening at the NPS is short-sighted. At work is a valley floor trying to recover from thousands of years of clear cutting and man-made burns. It seems that tourist pictures are taking precedent over nature.

Truthfully, the problem at the National Parks is that the majority of visitors never actually hike anywhere in the parks. I can't find a firm number, but if you google "national parks trails 'never venture further than' ", you'll see the percentage of visitors is over 80%, and the furthest distance is less than a mile. I experienced the phenomenon at Rocky Mountain National Park at Bear Lake. Beautiful, crowded Bear Lake. Squeezing by tourists to stay on the wide trail before simply starting an ascent... and finding the trail suitable for a peaceful afternoon's walk.

To see the 5,000 foot granite rock faces above a 100 foot pine tree, the obvious solution would be to climb 100 feet. That would involve getting out of the car... and hiking.