ramblings from the edge

happy steps from happy feet December 29, 2006

you’ll get even more out of this movie when you see it again. especially all the subtle communication. see it one time just to listen to the sound track. we’ve had “don’t push me coz i’m close to the edge” stuck in our heads for days. even little az gets that that’s all about nature!

i think the fact that the call to action wasn’t totally overt is actually genius. people reject “in your face” things way too easily. but it gets in there subconsicously, where it doesn’t get rejected and has the most power. “what are you going to do about it”

people who are already aware and on the edge of action (like you and i and nique) are moved deeply by it. i bawled like a baby from the “you’re in heaven dave” scene when the aliens weren’t listening all the way to the end of the movie, esp again at the UN scene. my friend was the same, esp for her it started when he was throwing fish at the wall to his mum-mirage, and again the UN scene.

people who aren’t so aware get songs stuck in their heads, think it was a great movie, and have messages like “they don’t even know we exist” etc, embedded in their unconscious, ready for folks like us to tap into. it starts a beautiful snowball rolling.

it’s inspiring to know that in the US happy feet came out the same weekend as bond and totally blew it away at the box office for the first few weeks.

az and i had a few conversations during and after the movie (both times). he said yesterday “i think i was born to be a vegetarian. i started out as one, and now i want to be one again.” we got your movie chunked down into about 5x 7-year-old sized chunks. this is stuff that az is totally aware of now, and talks to me about since seeing your flick and happy feet. he won’t eat penguin food (fish) and through our conversations he won’t eat other meat either….

1. when you eat a meat-burger, you’re actually starving 32 people who could eat the grain and veges (that fed the cows) instead
   
2. when you eat a meat-burger, you’re eating all their fear and panic chemicals that goes through their blood and body when they’re killed
3. they have to grow the animals too quickly for us to eat them, so it’s cruel to the animals, and you’re eating all the steroids, no olympics!
   
4. when you grow food yourself, it’s fun to cook it and you like eating it more… but not if you have to kill your own animals for meat – yuck!
   
5. all the poo and guts from animals grown for meat destroys our air and water more than cars do and kills all the plants and fish too
6. people keep growing, harming and killing animals coz it makes money. if we don’t buy them, it won’t make them money anymore.
   
7. az wants to be an eco-ninja. instead of breaking into slaughter houses and setting animals free, eco-ninjas free animals by not eating them.
8. fish – and all animals – are friends, not food.