Sister Helen Prejean, best known as the author of Dead Man Walking, gave an inspiring lecture on the death penalty and the injustice system. Minorities and the poors are more on deathrow than the whites and the riches. She covered many incidents during her journey and the interesting one she touched on was president George Bush. He executed a woman while he was a Texas governor. According to Sr. Prejean, the woman had picked up the bible and began to changed her life. She also taught other prisoners the words of God. She could have been sentenced to life but Bush decided to execute her. The woman’s life and death were in his own hands. He had the power to give her half of a chance but he did not.

Watch the film Dead Man Walking, if you haven’t seen it; however, her lecture was even better then the film. The way she described her experience and her interaction with the prisoner was phenomenon. She also expressed how hard it was facing the conflict between the victim and the accused murderer family members. At the end, she encouraged Vassar students to get a good education and start taking actions against death penalty.

The screening was filled with professors, administrators, and students. They actually ran out of seats. Jose Padron, the director, traveled all the way from Cuba to share his film. This is his first time to the US and he thanked Vassar for it. There are a few directors from Cuba that were suppose to come to the US for a film festival; however, they could not get here because of the war. Isn’t Vassar powerful or what?

Leo Brouwer is one of the world greatest guitarist. I knew his music before but didn’t know it was his until I saw the documentary today. I was totally fascinated with the way he plays his guitar. It sounded like there were forty fingers playing instead of ten. Although the documentary was only 70 minutes long, it took Jose Padron 22 years to complete it due to political and financial issues. The film deals with Cuba social issues so it was not pleasing the officials. He wanted to have the complete control over the artistic part so he was funding the movie on his own. He shot the entire film with a 35mm camera which is a pain. Well, all his hard works paid off because the documentary was fantastic and I enjoyed it very much. Congratulations! Jose. Oh by the way, he is a very nice individual.

Film Presentation

Jose Padron, one of Cuba’s most important contemporary filmmakers, will show and discuss Leo Brouwer, a documentary about the world-renowned Cuban musician, composer, and conductor. Of course, I am going to be there. Man, I love working at Vassar. They always have all kinds of great events, lectures, and resources. This is the type of college that I would definitely send my kids to. The tuition is kind of high but it worth every penny of it. If you’re looking for a “real” intellectual institution, you might want to consider Vassar. Come and visit us, I will guarantee that you’ll fall in love with the campus. I remembered my first interview. My first impression was the beautiful campus. I am not kidding you. If you don’t believe me, take a sneak preview at the slideshow presentation. Please keep this on the down low. The presentation is still in its development stage and only you can get a sneak peak at it because I love you. As a visitor to D3studio.net, you are very special to me. Alright, let me stop kissing your ass. Go ahead, launch the presentation. Caution! The movie is 11.9 mb. Dial-up users, you might want to launch a smaller version (2.8 mb) instead. Enjoy!

The screening for Feminist Pornography was packed and of course most of the audiences were females. I was the only employee there and the rest was students. Obviously the porn industry is dominated by males but this documentary focused on females who produced and controlled their films from feminist perspectives. I might be ignorance about pornography but the film did not inspired me at all. It’s true that all porns are the same. They all do the same damn thing. I do want to see people takes pornography into a higher level. I don’t mind women take control by being aggressive and erotic but fuck my ass with a dildo? Hell fucking no. I can’t even watch shit like that. It’s against nature. In addition, how can a girl gets aroused when she has a dildo strapped on and another girl sucks her dildo? Makes no sense to me. The dildo should get aroused not the person who wears it. Maybe it’s a feminist thang.

Unbelievable!

It’s still snowing in Poughkeepsie. Tonight, Vassar is showing a documentary by Becky Golberg called Hot and Bothered: Feminist Pornography. Screening to be followed by a Questions and Answers session with the director and the director of photography. Interesting! Hope it won’t be cancelled due to the weather.

Vassar was showing Monsoon Wedding today. I have a mix feeling about this film. The story line is great in a way that eventually you will get to know all the characters. I absolutely love the use of rich colors throughout the film. I admire the dances and Indian techno. Indian wedding is much more fun than Chinese and Vietnamese. Marigolds (Bong Van Tho) play a big part in Indian traditions. I am wondering what the significant meaning behind it. In Vietnamese, Bong Van Tho (marigolds) mean lifelong flowers. They play a big part in the Vietnamese too but I have never seen them being used for weddings. The bad part about this movie is the slow paste. The worse part is the lip-syncs, they don’t match up at all. It gets really annoying.

Anyways, I am not going into details about the movie but one of the theme is about arranged marriage. It actually works. Arranged marriages tend to be more stable than regular marriages. It’s really hard to married someone you don’t know but the love eventually grow. Your relationship will eventually build up and you’ll learn to appreciate each other. In contrast, unarranged relationships usually go down the drain. The first three months are the best part of the relationship. After that, it starts to drift away. You start to get bored. You no longer appreciate your partner. You just don’t care anymore. A year or two goes by, you can’t take it anymore and want a divorce. Ok enough of this crap.

No one can sing this song better than Don Ho (I am talking about the Vietnamese Don Ho, not the Hawaiian Don Ho). It is one of his best performance because he puts so much soul and feeling into it. Specially the bridge part.

Anh den voi em, voi tat ca tam hon.
Em den voi anh, voi tat ca trai tim.
Ta den voi nhau, muon mang cho don dau.
Mot lan cho mai nho thuong dai lau.

I came to you with all of my soul.
You came to me with all of your heart.
But it’s too late, for love meant to be.
For love to stay with me always.