" A rare scene in the movie, where Leonardo DiCaprio shoots the breeze with a 19th Italian Rat Pit Bookie "


For no particular reason today I went to the Dalat restaurant twice in one day and brought a DVD copy of "Gangs of New York" both times into the restaurant so I'd have something to read in case my friends who were supposed to meet me there would be late. I showed up there for lunch to meet with my friend Hamel who out of the blue decided to head up north from Florida to visit (why he didn't tell anyone he was coming up was beyond me, but I've come to accept the eccentricities that make up anyone that once dwelled in Worcester county (including me) ). I think that's what this town does to you; If you don't get lost living vicariously watching TV all day, you start to do more and more random things to keep things entertaining since Worcester has almost no artistic culture to offer that can last more than a week around here.. (I think ice capades was in town last week).. At any rate, he showed up in time so I was never able to read the back of the DVD like I wanted to, so then after spending the day wandering around in the woods I came back into worcester for dinner at the Dalat and accidentally bumped into Laurel and Lee, who upon noticing I had a copy of "Gangs of New York" in my hand proceeded to invite me to come watch the movie at their house after dinner...


So one might wonder what the movie was about: as far as I gather, two ethnic groups of New Yorkers in 1847 hate each other for getting on each others nerves. One claims to be a "Native American" crew of original settlers who can't stand all the Irish hanging out everywhere. Leonardo DiCaprio wants to prove them otherwise and lead sort of a revolt. Cameron Diaz does a great job as the village slut, and props had to be given to Daniel Day Lewis as madcap 'conservative' community leader with an insane talent for throwing knives like some sort of video game boss living in 19th century New York. Without wanting to give out any spoilers, the movie tragically ends when all hell breaks loose and the provocations from every clique in New York annoying each other senselessly turns out into an all out riot that ends up practically razing the city to the ground .. (luckily there's more to the plot so I didn't give out to much)



Nevertheless, I was introduced to a tragic story of xenophobic communities senselessly warring against each other. -- And even though it was partially exaggerated historical fiction, it got me thinking; most wars get started over the trivial stupidity of two or more communities not being able to settle their differences. And once either party get caught up in the metaphysical momentum of resentment by letting a few brutal incidents or arguments in ideology spark up a needless stream of un-parried outrage or major battles, then eventually, even if generations later, two different groups of people hate each other and can't even originally remember why.

If only we humans had the capacity to zoom out of our own existence, and with a more macroscopic point of view, see how even an accidental or unfair grievance done against our respective community is the same thing as getting a mosquito bite if only we as a community were strong enough to absorb it like that.


What we really need to understand is this true universal axiom of truth: If you're strong enough to absorb any blow, you don't need to retaliate because such impudent attacks against you aren't strong enough to bring you to your knees anyway...... Of course, we in this very age are hypocrites, me included. Anyone can rant about giving peace a chance, but then again, no one I know has had to live in a war torn country so it's probably different. Give us one major tragedy and all hell' break loose and we would probably turn against each other just like the Irish in this absurdly entertaining movie... It's ironic really; war torn countries would want to be like us and live in our civilized peace. And yet we who are in civilized peace -- we're too dumb to appreciate serenity so we need to live vicariously through movies to keep our lives 'interesting' so we watch.... Gangs of New York..


All the way home, I couldn't help but think what I would have done if I was Leonardo DiCaprio, and that this tragedy of the two sides of disheveled New Yorkers could have been avoided if only a third party decided to attack both sides during their melee --- but disguised as an alien invasion. I'm talking real aliens and not the national guard coming in to restore order. Why aliens? Because for once in the course of human history, all races of people could put their comparatively trivial differences aside and bond against one common unholy enemy.... Any terrorist group that could pull off attacks while disguised as aliens and willing to take all the heat from the rest of the world could very well grudgingly be commended for their actions.. ABSURD? It could work....

My housemate who seemed like he was quite stoned when I got back from watching the movie at Lee's house told me that that idea had already been used: "That's what the Watchmen was all about"

I however, had my doubts since the plot line isn't exactly about terrorists disguised as aliens who's mission statement is simply trying to get everybody to work together..

And now that I've got back, I am happy to announce that real soon, this site will be updated and upgraded. It will have a more professional look to it so that customers and inquirers can finally take me seriously, despite the completely reckless trains of free association that I dispell out on my blogs..