http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/ en-us Copyright 2008 Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:19:27 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Mary J. Blige and Jay-Z came on stage about 8:30 and did the song, “Can’t Knock the Hustle,” together. Jay-Z then left the stage, and Mary stayed and put on an unbelievable performance. Although I’ve always respected her and her music, I was never a huge fan of her; that is, until I saw her perform. The amount of energy and emotion she put into her performance was incredible. One minute she would be dancing on stage while rapping to an upbeat, hip-hop song, and the next minute she would be on her knees with tears in her eyes while she beautifully sang about lost love to the tune of an R&B track. She effortlessly displayed her range of talent on stage that night and her music crossed many genres from hip-hop to R&B to soul to jazz. Jay-Z came out from a platform that rose to the top of the stage after Mary’s last song, and he started off with, “Say Hello” from his American Gangster album. The entire audience went wild. This is one of my favorite songs of his from that album, and one that my friend Scott and I bumped in our cars all summer while driving to the clubs. Jay-Z kept the same momentum throughout the concert and played many of his best songs off Reasonable Doubt, the Blueprint, and the Black Album. He also performed most of his commercial hits such as “Hard Knock Life” and “Big Pimpin.” Jay-Z has so many hits that at one point he started rapping 15 seconds of a song and then he’d have his DJ switch to a different track and he'd rap for another 15 seconds, and this went on for at least 10 tracks. He was an amazing performer and he had all 21,000 people rapping along with him and throwing their Dynasty signs in the air. It was definitely the most exciting hip-hop concert I’ve been to up to this point. Mary J. Blige and Jay-Z ended the night with a duo of the song, “Heart of the City.” It was a flawless ending to a flawless concert. Two other notable parts of the concert were our seats (only 7 rows from the stage) and the live band (4 trumpet players, 2 trombone players, 2 saxophonists, 4 violinists, 2 drummers, a piano player, and 3 backup singers). The live band gave Mary and Jay’s songs a whole new level of depth. There were also 2 large screens on each side of the stage and a massive screen behind the stage that played footage of New York City and other locations while blending the footage with Mary and Jay performing on stage. The screens alone were pretty awesome, but what really topped it off were the fireworks and other pyrotechnics used on stage throughout the show. After leaving the concert, my cousin and I tried unsuccessfully to hail a cab for at least an hour. Either there were too many other people trying to catch a cab or the cabs were already filled with people. We started to get down to the wire time-wise because the last train out of Chicago heading to where our car was parked was going to leave in 30 minutes and it takes about 20 minutes to get back to the train station. Fortunately, my friend David happened to be awake and lived only 10 minutes from where we were. He picked us up and dropped us off at the train station with only 30 seconds to spare! We sprinted down 2 different flights of stairs and then up 2 flights of stairs only to come up on the wrong side of the tracks! The conductor of the train started yelling at us to hurry to the other side because the train was leaving. We sprinted back down 2 flights of stairs and across the station, back up 2 more flights of stairs, and onto the train just as it began pulling away. It was one of the most intense two minutes of my life. Just writing about that experience wore me out. That’s all for this post.]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/2008/04/heart_of_the_city_tour_1.html http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/2008/04/heart_of_the_city_tour_1.html Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:19:27 -0500 We were allowed into the cafeteria at 12:15 after filling out a ticket and showing them our student ID. I got in with a ticket claiming I was George W. Bush with an email address of dubya@hotmail.com. Chelsea came on stage around 1:00 and spoke for five minutes about education reform and then took questions from the crowd. She had a calm, collected, and intelligent demeanor about her and she spoke slowly and deliberately. I was standing in the front row and I had my hand raised the entire time. Chelsea would look at my shirt, give me a dirty look, and then call on someone else. This charade went on for the entire 45 minute Q & A session. I had a lot of good questions to ask her, too. She probably knew what was coming though; if she were to call on me, I was going to ask her a serious question and then say, “Oh, and can you autograph my shirt for me?” All in all, it was pretty cool hearing her speak and now I can say that I’ve heard the entire Clinton family speak in person. Friday night was a blast. My friend Paul threw a party at his apartment since his wife is out of town. We had some great music (Jurassic 5 and Kanye West), great beer and scotch (Guinness and Yamazaki, respectively), and great video games (Dr. Mario and Street Fighter II). Saturday night I went out to Club Soda and Flashbacks where I tried (unsuccessfully) to impress the ladies with my dance moves. Today (Sunday), my friend Scott and I helped pick up trash along the Maumee River (http://www.savemaumee.org/index.htm) with some other IPFW students and people from the community. It was a good experience, and I feel like in some small way I was able to give back to the city and the environment that has supported me for 23 years of my life before I move to Philadelphia this summer. I couldn’t believe the amount of trash and pollution along the river, and judging by the things we found, it probably hasn’t been cleaned up in years. We also discovered a couple of rundown, abandoned buildings along the river. One of them was an old gravestone manufacturing building and there were thousands of unfinished gravestones lying behind it (some even had names of the deceased and when they died). It was kind of eerie. Even though I’m looking forward to moving out of Fort Wayne, I have to admit that there is a lot of fun to be had and mysteries to be uncovered in this city, if you just know where to look. ]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/2008/04/goings_on_about_town.html http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/2008/04/goings_on_about_town.html Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:21:03 -0500 4:00 AM – I woke up with a start to the sound of my cell phone alarm. Today was the day I’d get to hear Barack Obama speak and possibly meet him. I shambled downstairs and woke up my friend, Nathan, who was passed out on the couch. Both of us groggy from a mere three hours of sleep, we fired up the Super Nintendo and played a round of Dr. Mario before heading out the door. On the way to Wayne High School, we stopped at McDonald’s for a quick bite to eat. To our surprise, the drive thru was closed so we walked up to the building and knocked on the door. The manager who was inside mouthed something to us that could have either been “We’re closed” or something that I can’t repeat on this blog. Obviously he had been forewarned that Obama fanatics would be roaming the city at this godforsaken hour. He must have seen the crazed, “Barack the vote!” look in our eyes. I could already tell it was going to be a great morning. 4:30 AM – We tried our luck at Scott’s grocery store and it also happened to be closed. I always thought that fast food chains and grocery stores were open 24 hours, but I was proven wrong this morning. We ended up at a gas station, which I guess is one of the only places you can buy food at 4:30 AM, and the clerk asked us what we were doing out at this hour. “We’re going to hear Obama speak,” we replied casually (as if getting up in the middle of the night to hear a Presidential candidate speak was a fairly normal thing). We chatted about politics for a few minutes and then left with our pile of high quality gas station food. 5:00 AM – We pulled into Wayne’s parking lot just as a light drizzle began to fall from the sky. The parking lot was completely empty except for some news station vans parked near the gymnasium. After dropping off our food and a couple of magazines near the front door of the gym, we wandered over to the WANE-TV news van. On our way over, I could see the newscaster signaling the cameraman to get his camera rolling to capture the first couple of Obama maniacs on film. Before we knew it, we were live on the 5:30 AM news being questioned about why we support Obama and more importantly, what the #*%&@ were we doing here this early (although not quite in those words). During the interview, I mumbled something about playing Dr. Mario after we woke up and how I was surprised to find McDonald’s closed at this hour. After the live interview, they recorded two more interviews with us, one in which we said that we came out to “Barack the vote!” and “Barack and roll!” 6:00 AM – Feeling great about our five minutes of fame on the local news, we took up our post at the front door to the gym. Some other people soon began lining up behind us. A large and diverse crowd of people eventually formed, and we conversed about politics to pass the time. I even shared my story about Hillary Clinton flashing me the peace sign to get a few laughs from the crowd. 7:00 AM – An argument broke out between an Obama merchandise salesman and an angry mob. The mob was questioning whether the salesman was going to use the money from the merchandise to fund the Obama campaign or keep the money for himself. Although the vendor looked like he may have been making the buttons and shirts in his garage next to his meth lab, I believed him when he said that he was officially endorsed by Obama’s campaign. Then about 20 Secret Service agents walked by us on their way into the gym and this quieted the angry mob. 8:00 AM – My friend Barton shows up and he joins us at the front door. By this time, it was becoming very crowded and the line was actually wrapped around the building. The Secret Service agents were setting up metal detectors inside. I tried flashing my Obama sticker to the agents inside and said I was with the press, but they refused to allow me entry into the building. Some of the people in line recognized Nathan and me from the news earlier this morning and waved to us saying, “Hey weren’t you on the news this morning? You guys baracked!” 8:30 AM – People began randomly coming up to the gym doors and trying to open them. This didn’t make sense to me because if the doors were actually unlocked, none of us would be standing outside in the rain waiting for someone to open them for us. So I had some fun with these people and kept pointing to each door saying, “Maybe this door is unlocked. Try this one.” And sure enough, they’d try opening it and it’d be locked. I’m easily amused. At one point, people began shouting, “Barack Obama!” and I couldn’t resist and shouted, “George Bush!” This got a lot of laughs from the crowd. 8:45 AM – Sarah and Joy show up just in time before the doors open. They bribed their way up to the front of the line with a box of donuts. Any time someone in line would start to get vocal about them cutting, they would quiet them down by smiling and asking, “Want a donut?” It was ingenious. Soon they were giving away donuts to Obama campaigners, volunteers, members of the press, and Secret Service agents. I handed Obama stickers to each of my friends which proved to come in handy later. 9:00 AM – The doors opened and all of us were herded through metal detectors as we flashed the agents our official tickets. The tickets sold out within 90 minutes, so my friends were lucky I was able to snag a few for them. We entered the gymnasium and quickly made our way to the front row. One of the ushers tried to make us fill the seats to the side of the stage first. We didn’t wait four hours to sit off to the side, so all five of us sat down in the middle of the second row and everyone else filed suit. 9:30 AM – After we had our seats saved, it was time to walk around and have some fun. I put Joy’s professional camera around my neck and three of us made our way over to the press booth. I told the guy working at the press table that we were with the IPFW Post and pointed to the camera around my neck to emphasize the point. He told me that my name wasn’t on the list, and I told him that doesn’t make sense because we registered for our press credentials last night. After looking at me and then at my camera and then back at me, he handed us a list and told us to sign our names on it. He then handed over our official press credentials. Sarah told me she didn’t know that anyone could be a bigger BS’er than her dad. I took that as a compliment. Maybe I should go into politics. 9:45 AM – We were free to roam around the entire gymnasium using our press passes. If anyone questioned where we were going, we simply flashed them our badges and said, “It’s okay. We’re with the press,” and it worked every time. Sarah and Joy managed to talk their way onto the stage (with the help of their Obama stickers) and got to sit in a reserved section behind the podium. 10:00 AM – With only an hour to go until game time, the energy in the crowd was palpable. Nathan and I stood up and started a ton of different chants such as, “Yes we can,” “Fired up, ready to go,” and “Here we go Obama, here we go.” The entire gymnasium of 2800 Obama-ites chanted along with us. It was awesome to see everyone so excited about a Presidential candidate. People were yelling, clapping, and cheering so loudly that the sound was bouncing off the walls of the gymnasium. I lost my voice by the 10th chant. 11:00 AM – Mike Riley, the late Bobby Kennedy’s Indiana campaign manager, came on stage and gave a great speech in which he compared Obama’s passion and drive to that of Kennedy and even Martin Luther King, Jr. It was great to hear a prominent campaign manager making such positive, bold statements about Obama. It got the crowd even more fired up to hear Obama speak. 11:15 AM – An African-American pastor (from Fort Wayne, I think) gave an intense and high spirited prayer for Obama and his supporters. There were a lot of “Preach it!”’s and “Amen!”’s being yelled by the crowd, and for a moment, I felt like I was back at the Greater Progressive Baptist church service on John St. I attended last weekend. There was so much positive energy in the room. I loved it. 11:30 AM – Barack Obama entered from stage right and the crowd went wild. We were all chanting, “Yes, we can” and “Obama!” as Barack smiled and waved to everyone as he walked on stage. It was a surreal moment in my life and I felt like I was standing in the presence of greatness as Obama stepped up to the podium. 11:45 AM – Obama gave a heartfelt and prolific speech on Martin Luther King, Jr. and talked not only about his fight for racial equality but also social equality, and how they are one in the same. The speech lead into a 40-minute Q & A session in which Obama answered questions from the audience and discussed issues concerning gun control, education, the economy, and global warming (“President Bush doesn't believe in science”). He is an engaging speaker and whenever he made eye contact with me, I felt like he was speaking to me directly and had a vested interest in me as an American. It’s that kind of connection that Obama is able to make with his supporters that indicates to me his unflinching ability and desire to unite the people of this country—people from all races, cultures, and religions. His message and vision for the country are able to transcend the way in which the game of politics has been played in this country for so many years now. Many people tout his lack of experience as a fault, but I look at it as a strength. He has not been corrupted and swayed by the lobbyists and special interest groups as have other politicians in this country, specifically the other two Presidential candidates. He’s bringing a fresh perspective to Washington and I think this is definitely what America needs to get back on track. His politics are about unity, not division. Barack Obama is able to give the American people hope, which is not an easy thing to do in our trying times. And it is only with this foundation of hope that I believe positive change can occur. People gripe about a lack of substance behind Obama’s message of change, but I completely disagree. I think he makes it clear through his policies for many of the major issues (http://www.barackobama.com/issues/) and his liberal voting record before Congress (http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/o000167/) that there is indeed content behind his eloquent rhetoric. I think Obama possesses five important qualities of a good President: intelligence, leadership, judgment, integrity, and empathy. I think empathy is one of the most important qualities he has, and his concern for all types of Americans stems from his diverse background and life experiences. His integrity shines through when he speaks and you can tell he genuinely cares about us as individuals. After all, he admits that government can only do so much for people, and that what we really need is a fundamental shift in the way in which we live our lives as Americans. I think Obama empowers people to want to begin making positive changes in their lives. It’s these traits he possesses that set him apart from the other Presidential candidates. After his Q & A session, Obama shook hands with everyone on stage including Sarah and Joy. He then made his way around the perimeter of the stage and Nathan and I got to shake his hand, too. I thought about giving him the peace sign like I did to Hillary or saying something silly like, “Barack and roll,” but I decided to be sincere and I thanked him for everything he’s doing for our country. When he made eye contact with me, smiled, and thanked me for what I said, I caught a glimpse of his integrity and compassion. 12:45 PM – After the speech was over, I met up with my friends who were on stage, and all of us were awestruck. We couldn’t believe how lucky we were to have experienced everything that happened at Wayne High School that day. I’ve had a lot of good times during my five years at IPFW, but this was without a doubt one of the best. Note: For unbiased evidence that all of the above events actually occurred, look for our video interviews titled, “Students say Barack – N – Roll” (http://www.wane.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp?vt1=v&clipFormat=flv&clipId1=2354248&at1=News&h1=Students say: Barack - N - Roll) and “Students wait for Obama early Friday” (http://www.wane.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp?vt1=v&clipFormat=flv&clipId1=2354237&at1=News&h1=Students wait for Obama early Friday). Also, watch Obama’s speech on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABdDSxI6eSY where you can see Joy and Sarah sitting behind him during the entire speech.]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/2008/04/baracking_and_rolling_on_the_c.html http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/2008/04/baracking_and_rolling_on_the_c.html Sun, 06 Apr 2008 23:49:40 -0500 It was an interesting sociocultural experience standing outside of Wal-Mart and trying to encourage people to register and vote. I was both surprised and disappointed by the amount of apathy that people had toward voting. Many people were not registered to vote and didn’t even care to register. I think some people fail to understand how important voting it is and even though it is easy to feel disconnected from politics in Washington, every vote does count and who gets elected President will make a difference to the future of our country. For a good example of the impact a President can have on our nation, look at the kind of tailspin our country has been in since Dubya was elected. Anyway, that is enough about politics for now. The rest of my weekend was great. I went out to Columbia Street for a friend’s birthday party on Saturday night and finally saw the Freak Brothers play. I have to agree with their tagline that they are, “The funkiest band in the Midwest.” On Sunday I attended the Greater Progressive Baptist Church, a predominantly black church on John St. It was an all around enjoyable service with great gospel singing and an intensely good sermon from the pastor with lots of yelling and “Amen!”s from the congregation. It's one of the few church services in Fort Wayne where I don’t have trouble staying awake.]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/2008/04/more_political_musings_1.html http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/2008/04/more_political_musings_1.html Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:49:10 -0500 Tonight was my first stump speech, and what better first stump to attend than one by Bill Clinton? I arrived at the Grand Wayne Center about 4:00 and fell in line with two girls – one who is a sophomore at Woodlan High School and another who is a sophomore at IPFW. We started talking about Hillary and how cool it will be to hear Bill Clinton speak. You could feel the excitement in the air and there was already close to 500 people in line. Many were wearing their vote Hillary for President buttons, and the only protestor I saw was a guy holding a sign outside the Grand Wayne Center that read, “Guard your daughters. Billy’s in town.” As we waited in line, we talked about Hillary and how she compares to Obama, and all of us agreed that it was great to see so many democrats coming together in Fort Wayne. Around 5:30 my mom joined us in line, as well as a chef from Ivy Tech. In between our political discussions, we talked about where to get the best food in town with names like Saigon Restaurant, Paula’s Seafood, 816 Pint N’ Slice, and Joseph Decuis being dropped left and right. Finally, we entered the convention center and found some seats about seven rows back from the stage. We passed a few windows on the way in and I noticed the line was now wrapped around the Grand Wayne Center. Clinton appeared on stage at 7:15 after about ten minutes worth of people chanting, “We want Bill. We want Bill,” as well as Clinton fanatics marching up and down the aisles holding signs such as, “Rotate politicians, not troops,” “Money for education, not war,” and “Bring our troops home for Christmas.” This was definitely my kind of crowd. Clinton gave an awesome speech and held the audience’s attention for a solid hour. He had the whole room clapping, hollering, jumping up and down, and laughing throughout the entire speech. He really knew how to work the crowd and rally support for his wife. Clinton touched on all of his wife’s major political issues ranging from the economy to health care to the war in Iraq. In terms of the economy, he emphasized how the middle class has been of little concern for the Bush administration and because of that, we’re facing a recession, foreclosures in the housing market, loss of income, and unemployment. Hillary plans on reviving the middle class and looking out for all Americans not just the top 1% of wage earners. He went on to discuss how Hillary will create new jobs in our country by investing in biofuels, alternative energy, and other green processes, and no longer having to rely on oil sellers. Once our economy is back in business, we will not have to rely on China, Japan, and South Korea to control so much of our deficit. He then discussed the necessity of health care reform in this country. Right now our health care providers spend about a third of their time and money filling out paper work for insurance companies because the system is so convoluted. The insurance companies also spend about 80 billion dollars a year keeping people uninsured. This is a ridiculous amount of time and money being wasted by insurance companies, and these types of problems could be eliminated under a national health care plan. Education was the next topic, and Clinton explained how Hillary will work to fix the No Child Left Behind act and bring the U.S.’s education standards back up to par with the rest of the world. He also discussed the failed war in Iraq and how much it’s costing us in terms of American lives and money. So much of our military resources are tied up in Iraq that we’re having trouble getting the troops we need to suppress Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Clinton stated that we need to get the majority of our troops back from Iraq as soon as possible. We also need to properly take care of our veterans and not leave them jobless and homeless like we did to so many Vietnam vets. I really enjoyed Clinton’s speech and he made a very convincing argument to vote for Hillary at the Indiana primary on May 6th. I will have to read about her policies more in depth and see how they stack up to Senator Obama’s. It was great to see so many people in Fort Wayne come to see him speak, and it was refreshing to hear about a Presidential candidate who cares about the American middle class and issues such as health care, education, and diplomacy. Hillary has a wide range of experiences (from finding jobs for veterans to extending healthcare coverage for children) that will serve her well if she makes it to the White House. http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/2008/03/bill_clinton_visits_the_fort_d_1.html http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/2008/03/bill_clinton_visits_the_fort_d_1.html Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:38:48 -0500 I woke up this morning at 11 after having a really bizarre and entertaining dream in which I was driving my car down the highway when all of a sudden I realized I was dreaming. I didn’t wake up, however, and I kept driving my car. Since I knew I was dreaming I decided to have some fun and turn my ’95 Saturn into a flying car. Suddenly, I was flying high above all of the cars on the highway while bumping the latest Lupe Fiasco CD. It was a blast especially because there is no way my Saturn could do anything that cool in real life. I usually consider myself lucky if my car windows don’t leak while it’s raining or I don’t have to kick my speakers to get the music to come back on. Anyway, I wake up from this dream at 11 AM, or so I thought it was 11. When I looked at my alarm clock it said 6:20 PM! I was like, “S#%#T! I’m going to miss Bill Clinton’s speech tonight!” So, I start getting ready as fast I can and I begin to notice that my bedroom doesn’t look the same. It looked like it did when I was in middle school. I step into the hallway and into our upstairs bathroom and it looks completely different, too. I’m starting to get a little freaked out and then it hits me that I’m still dreaming. I wake up with a start and glance at my alarm clock that reads 11 AM. I was so relieved it had only been a dream that it took me a moment to realize that my house looked completely different. Suddenly, I was back in my old house that I haven’t lived in since I was five. It dawned on me that I was still dreaming and that I had woken up from my previous dream into a new dream! Right after that realization, I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock telling me that it was 11 AM. This time I was back in the real world. Those were some of the weirdest dreams I’ve had in awhile, and they felt so real while I was having them. However, I enjoyed the experience and I was reminded of why I like dreams so much in the first place. They are one of life’s great mysteries and I’m always pondering the deeper meaning behind them. Are dreams really only side effects caused by the way the brain sorts out information obtained in our day-to-day life, or is the dream world an alternate reality that is as real as this reality? Anyone who’s as fascinated by dreams as I am should check out the movie, Waking Life. On a side note, I want to say that I’m pretty lucky to get to sleep till 11 every day of the week this semester except for Mondays. It’s my last semester at IPFW and I’ve already been accepted to dental school, so I’m under no stress or pressure. It’s great being a senior and I’m really enjoying every minute of it. Last night I went out to J K O'Donnell's (an Irish pub downtown) for St. Patty’s Day and I had a blast partying with a lot of my friends down there. The real trick to make the most of your college education while enjoying it at the same time is to find a balance between work and play. It’s all about time management. And with that piece of advice, I’ll leave you with this Irish limerick: “As you slide down the banisters of life may the splinters never point the wrong way.” http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/2008/03/a_dream_within_a_dream.html http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/2008/03/a_dream_within_a_dream.html Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:24:07 -0500 Now that spring break has come to an end and I have a little bit of time to reflect on it, I would have to say that it’s probably been one of my favorite spring breaks in recent memory. I didn’t take a vacation to Siesta Key or do any traveling at all for that matter, but I still had a great time. I house sat all week and fortunately for me, the house had a 50-inch wide screen plasma TV with on-demand cable and surround sound. I spent the majority of my free time sitting in a La-Z-Boy recliner in front of the TV, getting up only to warm a frozen pizza or crack open another can of beer. I was living the dream of a lazy college student with no job and no responsibilities. The only decisions I had to make were which movie to watch next and whether I wanted a pepperoni or sausage pizza. I saw some excellent movies over break. Let’s see if I can remember them: Bananas, Deconstructing Harry, Manhattan, Grand Canyon, Babel, Children of Men, Hannah and Her Sisters, 21 Grams, Ghost World, and There Will Be Blood. I also watched the entire third season of Weeds, which is an edgy and very funny show on Showtime about upper middle class life in the suburbs of California. However, the show is not about your everyday family in suburbia. The mother, the main character of the series, is a drug dealer who accidentally gets her family involved in her shenanigans with gangs, the Mexican mafia, the DEA, and the FBI. The plot is completely absurd, which is what makes the show so entertaining, and the characters (including one played by Kevin Nealon) poke fun at the usually boring and uneventful life of suburbians who all live in identical “little boxes made of ticky-tacky.” I also caught a few episodes of HBO’s new series, In Treatment. The show has been adapted to the U.S. from a popular and award-winning show in Israel. The premise is simple: each episode is a therapy session with the same psychiatrist and one of his patients. I found some of the patients uninteresting and the dialogue to be a little stilted, but nonetheless the psychology-loving side of me enjoyed learning about each patient’s problems and how the therapist approached them. I recommend this show to anyone with an interest in psychotherapy and who does not mind watching a TV show entirely focused on dialogue between two people. There are no car chases or explosions in this series which is kind of refreshing. The best movie I watched over break would have to be There Will Be Blood. There Will Be Blood is currently playing at Cinema Center Tech over at Indiana Tech’s campus (which is a great independent movie theater, by the way). It was actually my second time seeing this movie, and I think I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that There Will Be Blood is possibly one of the greatest American films ever made. I was drawn to this movie even from the very first scenes. Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia) is an ingenious director, and for the first 20 minutes of the film there is no dialogue at all. Anderson emphasizes the allure of oil to Daniel Plainview, masterfully played by Daniel Day-Lewis (Gangs of New York), by keeping the camera focused on him as he hacks away at rocks while pausing for several beautiful landscape shots with hints of Jonny Greenwood’s (from Radiohead) haunting musical score creeping in. Some of the first words spoken in the movie are from Plainview in which he declares, “I am an oil man” to a room full of potential investors in his oil business. These words echo throughout the rest of the movie while we learn of his monomaniacal love of oil and capitalism. The war between capitalism and religion in America is the main theme underlying There Will Be Blood with Plainview representing capitalism and Eli Sunday, wonderfully played by Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine), representing religion. Both characters have a fanatic love of their warring ideals and they continue to clash more and more as the movie progresses eventually coming to an intense climax at the end of the movie. The ending consists of some of the most intense scenes I’ve seen in any film and Plainview’s dark and megalomaniacal personality is reminiscent of Jack Nicholson’s character in the Shining. Of course Daniel Day-Lewis’s Oscar-winning performance is what makes the movie superb, but it is the deftness of P.T. Anderson as a director which takes the movie to an almost transcendental level. His graceful, tracking shots of the characters coupled with cinematography comparable to Terrence Malick, his timing of Greenwood’s score, and his unrelenting focus on the evil and greed within Daniel Plainview and the allegorical nature of his personality to the undercurrent of capitalism and religion in America are what make this film a masterpiece. http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/2008/03/unemployment_house_sitting_and.html http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/2008/03/unemployment_house_sitting_and.html Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:55:12 -0500 I wrote this Letter to the Editor almost four years ago, but I think it is still applicable today: It is unfortunate that many Americans have the attitude that if someone disagrees with the current administration then they do not belong in this country. This country was founded on the freedom of the individual, but it is beginning to seem as if this freedom is slowly slipping away. If a U.S. citizen cannot express his or her own opinion of the President and the government without being called anti-American, then how can he or she be considered a free citizen? If everyone took the attitude that it is anti-American to disagree with or protest the decisions made by our current administration, we could very possibly end up living under a dictatorship. I did not vote for Bush and do not agree with his politics, but I still consider myself an American. I consider everyone who lives in this country to be American—no matter who they voted for or whether or not they even voted. I voted against Bush for two reasons. The first reason is that I am a pacifist. I have never fought in a war, but I know enough about them to loathe the kind of damage and destruction they cause. In my opinion, wars are so terrible that there is no logical reason or justification to start them. I believe in the sacredness of all human life, and because of that, I do not agree with the justification of killing others even in the name of freedom. Many people argue that change cannot happen without wars. To them, I say, look at Gandhi. Gandhi was a pacifist and made many positive changes in the world without supporting warfare. The second reason I did not vote for Bush is because of the chauvinistic attitude he seems to have for our country and the Christian faith, and the intolerant attitude he has toward other countries and faiths. I do not think anything good can come from believing that one religion and country is better than the others. By taking this attitude, people stop questioning their own beliefs. If people do not critically examine their own beliefs, they will never fully understand them, and furthermore will never learn to respect people whose beliefs differ from their own. Unfortunately, many Americans have taken a superior attitude toward people of other nations and faiths. Carl Jung, the renowned psychologist, made an important point that if people are unwilling to acknowledge their own darkness and flaws, they will unconsciously project their darkness onto other people. It appears that this may happening with our own people. We are unconsciously projecting our own imperfectness onto people of other nations. How can we justify going to war when we are also imperfect? Gandhi made a profound and powerful statement when he said you can die for your own version of truth, but you should not kill others for your own version of truth. I think it is important for all of us to be reminded of this statement. We are starting wars in the name of our own version of truth, which is a dangerous thing to do. I think it is time we take a step back from the judgmental lens that we have pointed at other nations, and point the lens back at our own nation. http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/2008/03/random_political_rant_1.html http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/2008/03/random_political_rant_1.html Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:28:13 -0500 I hope many of you were able to catch the debate between Democratic presidential candidates Clinton and Obama Tuesday night at Cleveland State University. I watched the Texas debate last week and enjoyed it, but this particular debate really held my interest. I think Tim Russert and Brian Williams put forth challenging questions to both candidates. The fact that the candidates debated the future of the U.S. healthcare system for the first 16 minutes should be applauded. In my opinion, healthcare is the most serious issue facing our country besides the war in Iraq. Obama continued to emphasize that his proposed healthcare plan is 95% similar to Clinton’s plan. The main difference, he says, is that under his plan everyone will be able to afford healthcare, but they will not be “forced” to purchase health insurance. Clinton’s plan, Obama claims, could result in the entire country facing a similar situation to Massachusetts, where those who refused to buy health insurance because they could not afford it, were in turn fined for not purchasing the insurance, thereby putting them in an even worse situation. I currently do not know enough about the logistics of Clinton and Obama’s healthcare plans to have an opinion on which one is better, but I’m very pleased to see that this issue is at the forefront of our national debates. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane." I will be dedicating a future blog post to the future of our country’s health care system. The rest of the debate was very stimulating and entertaining. I think Senator Obama definitely had the upper hand throughout the debate, in part due to his eloquent speaking skills. At one point, Senator Clinton called out Obama for not explicitly saying whether he rejects Louis Farrakhan’s support. Obama said he “denounces” Farrakhan’s support, and Clinton asked why he cannot go further and say that he “rejects” the support. Obama turned around and said that if Clinton wants to argue about semantics, then he both denounces and rejects Farrakhan. This got a big laugh from the audience and demonstrated Obama’s ability to effectively use his opponent’s attacks against her. I think this strength coupled with Obama’s superb speech writing and delivery has been crucial in his ability to garner support. Perhaps Obama’s best moment in Tuesday night’s debate was how he responded when questioned about his lack of experience compared to Senator Clinton. He brought up the fact that he had the foresight to oppose the war in Iraq from the beginning (even with his lack of experience), whereas Clinton (with all of her experience), originally supported going into Iraq. Obama said that although both he and Clinton would now like to get the “bus out of the ditch,” he at least had the better judgment to not drive the bus into the ditch in the first place. I enjoyed Tuesday night’s debate and I’m in favor of either of these candidates over John McCain. It’s hard to say at this point who will make a better Commander in Chief, but I do like the fresh perspective Obama wants to bring to the White House and his desire to change the fundamental ways in which politics are handled in the U.S. ]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/2008/02/a_great_debate_cleveland_state_1.html http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/2008/02/a_great_debate_cleveland_state_1.html Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:27:56 -0500 I experienced an intense feeling of vividness (to quote Tom Robbins) as we stepped outside the San Pedro Sula airport into 80 degree sunny weather. I was surrounded by the ocean to my right, the mountains to my left, and lots of greenery in between. We were looking for a man named Quique, who was supposedly hiding among the bus drivers holding up signs that read “Hola Americanos. Soy un conductor de autobús.” Quique, who was a Honduran dentist, and our driver were scheduled to take our team to the Hotel Santa Maria in a little town called Comayagua. After about an hour of waiting (my first experience with “Honduran time”), Quique and the driver showed up and threw our luggage into the front of a run-down looking bus. Our team of 15 people squeezed into the seats and braced ourselves for a 3 hour safari through the streets and mountains of Honduras. Much of the ride was spent swerving around stray cattle and donkeys while our luggage tumbled all over the bus and Latin American music rattled the speakers. Thankfully, our driver was kind enough to stock the bus with plenty of cerveza to smooth out the ride. Cerveza is Spanish for beer in case you were wondering. It’s one of the few Spanish words I remember from my trip and one of the only ones approved for use on this blog. If you don’t know by now, my name is Mike Cooper and I’m a senior here at IPFW. I started off as a Women’s Studies major. After failing miserably at trying to understand women, I decided to switch to something easier – either biology or quantum physics. I settled on biology and pre-dentistry which seemed more practical than string theory and quarks. Dentistry is right up my alley and choosing to pursue a career in it is one of the best things I’ve done with my life. In preparation for dental school, I decided to go on a mission trip with a team of dentists and oral surgeons to Honduras for a week. I actually just got back on February 2nd. It’s been two weeks and I’m still decompressing from my trip. It was definitely a life changing experience. If you have the desire to study abroad during your time at IPFW, I highly recommend it. There’s nothing quite like being immersed in a country and culture that’s very different from your own. You will come back with a new perspective on everything and a much better understanding of how other people live. There are plenty of study abroad opportunities at IPFW, so seek them out! About 50% (3.7 million) of the people of Honduras are below the poverty line. Even though many of them are poor and have almost nothing, they are still very happy. I think there is a lot to be learned from that. One of the most important things the people there have taught me is to be content with what I have. I think that is one of the keys to becoming truly happy. The Honduran people are great people to be around, especially the kids. One of the best parts of the trip was playing football (soccer) with the kids at the orphanages. They are unbelievably good soccer players. There’s probably a YouTube video out there of me getting schooled in soccer by a bunch of 9-year-old Honduran kids. My trip to Honduras was a blast. We worked about 12 hours a day in the clinic and in the mountains either doing fillings or pulling teeth. Our team saw about 800 patients all together – about 80% children and 20% adults. The surgeons estimated that they pulled about 2400 teeth! Seeing the dental problems that the people face over there makes me thankful for the access to care that we have here in the U.S. Many adults over there had never even brushed their teeth before. It was quite an eye opener to see the health disparities that exist in other countries like Honduras, and it’s motivated me to continue medical mission work from here on out. I’d like to make a difference in this world, no matter how small it may be. When we were not working we did have some time for fun in Honduras. I went to a few fiestas, drank plenty of cerveza (probably too much), did some Honduran karaoke and salsa dancing, and made a lot of new friends. I couldn’t have asked for a better trip. ]]> http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/2008/02/my_week_in_honduras.html http://blogs.targetx.com/ipfw/MikeCooper/2008/02/my_week_in_honduras.html Thu, 14 Feb 2008 22:58:54 -0500