italiano_kismet: I finally submitted my NYU application.

I finally submitted my NYU application. It's so relieving to have gotten that far. Only three more to go but none of them will take 1/2 as long as the NYU one did.

There was a lot to it, believe me. I still procrastinated but hey, that's me. I'll get punished for it someday.

Maybe with this.

Saw Apocalypto tonight. I've only seen two of the many movies that I want to see this fall/winter.

This and Marie Antoinette (all four times). Some of them have yet to come out, though.

I'm tired of Mel Gibson distorting stories so that they come out purposely with the white chauvinist ideals at the good side. He did it with The Passion of the Christ, which was definitely anti-Semetic. I went to religious classes for eight years AND church (sadly) and that was NOT how Jesus' arrest and crucifixion happened.

The Jews were far from responsible. And in Apocalypto he did it again. The entire story revolves around a specific Mayan tribe on the Yucatan whose village is pillaged and those who are not murdered are taken captive (well, almost all of them).

The female captives are sold as slaves in the city-state of the attackers while the males are sacrificed at the temples. This all comes from the one (of many) concept as to the virtual disapperance of the Mayan culture and society on the Yucatan, which says that disease spread through the peninsula and was wiping out the people. Many of the more superior tribes saw this as punishment and in the Mayan religion such disastrous occurences are responded to with sacrifices -- the souls and blood of the sacrificed are a sort of payment to the gods.

Thus, this one greater tribe runs around capturing other tribes and sacrificing them to appease the gods and rid the people of the disease. Now, Mel Gibson makes sure to absolutely tear away any beauty or respect for the culture. The behaviors and customs of the Mayans are all authentic in the movie, but it's too ironic that all that is seen of the culture are their "barbaric" tendencies.

Their attitudes towards sex, familial relations, hunting, murder, torture, clothing, religion, and their overall carnal and animalistic thirst for blood and gore. Even amidst the grandeur of the city of the sacrifices and the jade and quetzal feathers, focus on the tearing out of hearts and decapitation is more apparent. It's ridiculous, really.

The Mayan culture, if anything, is revered today as a great trendsetter for American society. Their language system, their calendar, their architecture, etc. But all of that is ignored.

Mayans = heathens. Basically. And WHO comes to the rescue at the end to secure a new beginning for the diaspora of the Mayan people?

Oh yes. Spanish settlers are apparently a good thing in Mel Gibson's eyes. Ahem, the spread of Christianity.

It was an excellent movie but the message behind it is sad and just another case of the xenophobia that still exists in our society. Die, Mel Gibson. Go make Lethal Weapon 10.

In other news, Angie, Brad, Maddox, Zahara, and Shiloh are in NYC for promotion for The Good Shepherd. Angie and Brad were chosen by Babs Walters for her 10 Most Fascinating People. Anna Wintour, Sacha Baron Cohen, Patrick Dempsey, John Ramsey, Terri Irwin, Jay-Z, Andre Agassi, and Joel Osten were some of the others.

Half of them far from the most fascinating. Patrick Dempsey? That's sad.

Jay-Z? He didn't do anything for 3/4 of the year. He was "retired", remember?

Anna's can be justified...

Vogue did become extremely mainstream this year, especially with The Devil Wears Prada movie. Sacha too, his movie was sort of a wake-up call to American culture and its idiocies. Irwin.

Her husband died. That doesn't make her fascinating. Ramsey.

..he was only in the news because of Karr, he didn't do anything.

Ugh. Babs gotta get back in the game. Angie and Brad deserve it, at least.