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Kat Downs Mulder

Tag Archive: movies

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Photos from a recent friendvisit.

Maggie Sartin

Maggie Sartin (above) took this second picture of us cartwheeling on the mall.

Cartwheels

If you’re wondering what’s been up as of late, I’d direct you to my del.icio.us links, which is where all my fun internet finds have been been saved. My user i.d. is katdowns.

Right now I’m listening to: Hot Hot Heat, Andrew Bird, and Metric.

Movies I liked: Jesus Camp, Blood Diamond. A movie I didn’t like: Because I Said So.

I also really liked the book “I Am Charlotte Simmons” by Tom Wolfe.

February 27, 2007 Photography and multimedia, , , Read more >

Human Trafficking

Another good article:The Vatican on the Human Slave Trade.

There is a Russian film called Lilja 4-ever, about a Russian girl who gets tricked into going to Sweden, only to become a sex slave. It’s a poignant introduction to the widespread practice of abducting girls and selling them, which happens to thousands of women a year all over the world-specifically from Eastern Europe. Protection Project said in 2001 that more than 2 million women and children were sold into the sex trade every year.

Last year, Lifetime did a special on the topic called Human Trafficking. You can visit the website to see clips from the movie, which raised a lot of awareness about the subject.

Last month, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced almost $8 million in additional funding to create 10 new anti-trafficking task forces. The Trafficking in Persons Report by the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons said:

“In the 2004 Report, we used U.S. Government data that disaggregated transnational trafficking in persons by age and gender for the first time. This data shows that, of the estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 80 percent are women and girls, and up to 50 percent are minors. The data also demonstrated that the majority of transnational victims were trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation.”

November 21, 2006 Random Thoughts, , , Read more >

boooooRAT

I thought Borat was a good laugh… but that might be because I was five feet in front of the screen with my neck at a 90 degree angle, and already predisposed to laughing.

But somebody didn’t like it, and there are a lot of other somebodies out there who didn’t like it either.

Is Borat’s humor insensitive? Repetitive? Is it funny or is it juvenile and raunchy? I think all of the above. It’s another testament to the uniqueness of human taste. I don’t like jokes about sex or women, and I thought the scene with the feminists and “pA-me-LA” were funny.

Unfortunately some of the people in the movie don’t think it’s funny, and it could cost Borat producers. This article on TMZ.com makes a good point.

November 15, 2006 Reviews, Read more >

Writing New Songs

1. I think the new Killers CD is good - Sam’s Town. The two tracks I like most are “Bones” and “When You Were Young” - interestingly… their singles.

2. Saw Babel. Heavy on emotion, light on depth and context.

3. Rumsfeld Resigns

And a beautiful quote from Hayden‘s song “Don’t Get Down” - please listen to it.

“Write a song
All your old ones don’t mean a thing if you don’t sing
Any new ones”

November 8, 2006 Random Thoughts, , , Read more >

Enjoy the SnacKs

CHICAGO, IL- And so, I apologize for my absence, but keep in mind that I have thought of many things to write in my blog, but for some reason have not had the time to realize them.

#1- Automatic check-in machines in hotels should be banned. They are insulting not only to the customer, but to the institution itself.
#2- The Best Halloween Costume of 2006 goes to K-fed and Britney: “You look just like every girl in my hometown.”
#3- Oslo on Woodward is the #1 destination in Detroit (despite its #3 location in the list)
#4-The movie Marie Antoinette was interesting, if a little bit obsessed with itself. It was a somewhat shallow rendering of a fascinating story, which I know too much about because I’ve been reading her biography. The scenes of Marie Antoinette alone are great though, and I think the film explores a lot of her motivations for her actions. The ending was awkward.
#5-Everyone needs to go to a bar alone in a foreign city at least once in their lives, to experience the joy of absolute freedom. (Cite #3)

More Witty Banter to come.

November 2, 2006 Read more >

Running With Scissors

Really cool multimedia site built for the upcoming film Running with Scissors.

I love the design, interactivity, and use of text, video, and photos. It’s engaging and easy to use, and it gives the user a lot of information. The scrapbook idea has been done before, but here it is done very, very well- and the interactivity adds an extra element to it that makes you feel like the story is alive, and fun. It’s kooky, like the story.

I was interested in this movie and the book because I was listening to an NPR interview with Margaret Robison, aka Deirdre Burroughs, Augusten Burroughs’ mother. Augusten renamed himself from Chris Robison to Augusten Burroughs at 18. Augusten wrote the book about his life and portrayed his mother as a bi-polar fame-obsessed poet (I haven’t read the book yet, I’m just repeating what I’ve heard). Her friends were upset by the way she was portrayed. Her last quote in the interview was, “This book, it is part of [Chris's] life. It’s not a part of my life.”

A pretty good attitude, I think.

October 13, 2006 Multimedia, , , Read more >

Heart Smart

USA TODAY linked to this picture today:It’s from a digital archive of 9/11 images, stories and audio. It is basically community journalism at its best-getting the people who were there to tell their own stories in their own words, using the things they saw and heard. The archive is really deep and some of the artifacts are really moving and unusual-very personal, although the navigation system could use some work. It could bring up the question of whether or not the internet will/can take over journalism- and it’s even more interesting to read the little link at the bottom of the site — “How do you know these objects are true/real?”- where the site architects said that as with any research, you should check your sources, and that even newspapers need to be read with that in mind. Will a time come when people trust the internet (their peers) more than their local newspaper?

I saw Little Miss Sunshine this weekend, and it was wonderful. I was falling out of my seat laughing almost the entire movie, please go see it. The soundtrack is pretty good too, featuring DeVotchKa and a couple of tracks by Sufjan Stevens.

This weekend Vanessa, Lisa, and I checked out the Museum of Natural History and the National Gallery of Art, which were both wonderful. Unfortunately we had to leave the gallery b/c it was closing, so we only got to see part of Rousseau’s “Jungles in Paris” exhibit. The Museum of Natural History was really detailed and fascinating. We went through the dinosaur and insect exhibits. The dinosaur bones are really amazing. We saw hundreds of species of bugs and a bunch of tarantula’s with super-cute names like “pink-toe” and “orange-leg” (i think orange-leg, not sure.. maybe orange thigh? orange foot?). All the insects looked like sticks and leaves, we felt like we were in the jungle. Wild.

We also had a little fun, we went to the Liberation Dance Party at DC9, where Vanessa got all her drinks free (not so for the rest of us), and we danced some crazy dances.

I have also added a link on the right panel to the excellent website Pandora. It’s a site where you can listen to a radio-like jukebox that figures out what songs you like based on your suggestions of favorite music. It makes some pretty cool suggestions that can introduce you to new bands. The only annoying thing is that because of licensing issues it will only let you skip a certain number of songs and it won’t let you go back or request specific songs.

Less than one week until I start the new job! If you know of anyone in DC that is looking for a roommate, let me know!

September 5, 2006 Random Thoughts, , , , , , , Read more >