Crash

Rich's birthday was yesterday. He wanted a weekend of nothing. I tried to give that to him but had a bit of a breakdown on Sat morning and he helped me with some cleaning. Other than that it was a good day. I made lemon merrigue pie, peanut butter rice krispie squares, banana cream brownies, and chocolate cake. I got to see my family and his, got 2 wedding presents, a birthday present, and got to see Rich open all of his. The company stopped around 1oish I think and we ordered dinner in for a treat - each from different places. I had East Sides (cause they deliver now) and Rich had Dominos. We then played Trivial Pursuit 90's edition until after 1am. He won but I actually held my own.

Rich played Xbox between visitors and I got him tea and snacks etc. While he was playing I decided to watch a movie. I ordered Crash on TMN on Demand (free yaaayy). I've heard a lot about it - the cast was on Oprah, it's getting lots of great reviews and has a huge cast. I have to say I recommend this to almost everyone. There's one slight nudity shot, and I honestly don't remmeber what the language was like. I think bad, but not the worst I've heard. It was such a great commentary on racism though. It was so blatant too. Some of the comments were things like "write in your report officer I'm shocked I was rear ended by an asian woman", or "get out of my store you terrorist" to someone who was not but had a similar accent, or "I want the locks changed again tomorrow - that Mexican gangbanger will sell our key to his friends", or "mom I have to get off the phone I'm sleeping with a white woman" and on and on. They blew some of the stereotypes and held to some. There were some funny parts to the movie - 2 well dressed, intelligent black men get angry when they see a white woman move a bit closer to her husband upon seeing them. The one is very offended by this, and then turns to his friend and says "but she should be scared, you know why?" to which the other replies "cause we have guns?". There were parts during the movie I was actually tense. There are tons of characters and stories, but every one of them is connected in one way or another - it's fascinating.

So long story short, put the kids to bed, and watch Crash. It may invoke some intelligent discussion between people on racism that especially in Canada we think doesn't exist quite often. I have a friend in the US who a few years ago told me in his neighborhood a young black family had their house egged. I was shocked - I've never heard of that here - neither had my black friends. Unfortunately though, racism is still very alive - both in the US and here. I consider myself to be someone who doesn't usually see color - a person is a person.....unless I'm driving. Especially in Toronto. I get cut off and do you know what my first thought is? I wonder what nationality that person is. How terrible is that? The movie made me think twice - I love movies that do that. This was a very well done movie, more than just entertainment (although it was entertaining). Just felt I'd seen a movie worth talking about and how often does that happen?

On an side note, check out Gary's blog again - he has some interesting thoughts on the Sally Ann here.