Hard to believe that 3 weeks from THIS VERY DAY we will be in Vietnam!
It's safe to say my excitement and to-do list both get bigger each day, and I'd bet that's true of the rest of the team.
(Speaking of the team, stay tuned for profiles of each of us in the coming days---complete with helpful Vietnamese phrases that you can practice at home!!)
I'm trying to give myself a Vietnamese education of sorts, as best I can living in southwest Missouri, and will soon post entries on the following:
1) An exciting trip to the library resulting in Vietnam travel guides and a phrasebook
2) Shopping adventures at an Asian market resulting in my very own pho noodles
3) Adding Good Morning Vietnam to my NetFlix queue
4) A birds-eye view of Vietnam War era politics through Hunter S. Thompson's [admittedly blurry] eyes in Fear And Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72
For now I want to talk briefly about war movies and perceptions of other cultures, after seeing Tropic Thunder last week.
2) Shopping adventures at an Asian market resulting in my very own pho noodles
3) Adding Good Morning Vietnam to my NetFlix queue
4) A birds-eye view of Vietnam War era politics through Hunter S. Thompson's [admittedly blurry] eyes in Fear And Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72
For now I want to talk briefly about war movies and perceptions of other cultures, after seeing Tropic Thunder last week.
I'm not going to bother with whether it's PC or not-PC, appropriate or offensive. It's rated R for a reason and you, dear reader, can decide for yourself whether you'll see it. I will say that out of all the big blockbuster comedies I've seen in recent memory, which tend to be over-hyped, this one did not disappoint me. And it actually managed to make me think quite a bit about the trip.
Specifically in these two ways:
1) There's the theme that if all your knowledge of a culture comes from movies, your picture is inevitably [in this case hilariously] flawed. I can't say too much more about it without revealing some fairly surprising plot points, but it's an interesting thought.
2) I know I need to expose myself to good late 60s/early 70s music, mostly a good deal of CCR. You don't see a good Vietnam movie without a good soundtrack, and you don't have a good Vietnam movie soundtrack without John Fogerty. [There are a TON of people on YouTube who seem to agree.]
2) I know I need to expose myself to good late 60s/early 70s music, mostly a good deal of CCR. You don't see a good Vietnam movie without a good soundtrack, and you don't have a good Vietnam movie soundtrack without John Fogerty. [There are a TON of people on YouTube who seem to agree.]
editor's note: if you can measure excitement by the number of links in a post, then woah. excited. come back soon!
--Sarah
No comments:
Post a Comment