The Blog of G

I recently watched Band Of Brothers in it’s entirety for the first time, I had seen bits of it when it originally aired but not the entire show. Having now watched it in full, I’d rate it as highly (possibly even higher) as Saving Private Ryan.

It’s a magnificent piece of Television and the kind of thing that should be made mandatory viewing for everyone. It gives you a sense of just how horrific that part of human history was in a way that nothing else has ever given me.

After about the third or fourth episode I was thinking that a slightly light hearted post along the lines of “I played with toy soldiers as a child, but never had even the faintest idea of what war was like until I saw this” but once I saw the episodes where they discover the “camps” there is no way I could trivialise what this show is really about.

It was created to remind us all of one of the darkest moments in human history and to help us remember just how easily a bully can force ordinary people to abide the most extraordinary things, the cruelty and inhumanity of one crazy individual is one thing but the real horror of what happened is not Hitler’s story, it’s the soldiers that followed those orders, it was the local communities that turned a blind eye to what was happening around them.

The message of the series (to me anyway) was not how great the US army was, but to remind us all to speak out when we see injustice, not to sit back and pretend it’s not happening.

If we see something really wrong in society and we don’t speak out then we are no better that the ones doing wrong. It applies to every level of society, from the kids in the school yard that don’t take part in the bullying but don’t try to stop it, the boss that orders you to do something that you know is morally wrong but you justify it to yourself anyway, to acceptance of a corrupt political system, that fails to bring criminals to justice, thus passively encouraging all sorts of abhorrent behaviour.

What do you see in our world that shouldn’t be there? have your say below.

Elly and I had a great night out last night at the Culch.ie birthday party/Groundhog Day movie screening.

The venue was the “The Sugar Club” and the evening began with Darren on-stage introducing the movie and announcing that there would be some spot prizes later. Although, he was ambushed by some of the other Culch.ie crew with a large chocolate cake. It was almost a shame to cut it though as it was the Culch.ie logo, but cut it was and passed to the eagerly waiting audience.

Groundhog Day is a film I have seen before but not this millennium, so it was almost like a whole new film to me. Elly on the other hand had never seen it and (like me and everyone else) laughed through most of it.

What stood out for me, watching this film again was the character of Ned Ryerson. I’d never noticed it before but was this character the inspiration for Ace Ventura’s irritating “funny” voice and mannerisms?

Once the movie finished some spot prizes were given out (congrats to all the winners) and the lights came up allowing the audience to mingle and chat while enjoying the bar facilities, there didn’t seem to be any rush to clear people out and as a result there was a fantastic friendly, relaxed atmosphere.

An excellent evening was had by all and for the my first Culch.ie ‘event’ I was very impressed. Spot prizes, cake, a great movie, a witty and intelligent MC and a great venue, how could I not be impressed. Oh, did I mention there was cake!

I can’t wait for the next one, some come on Darren don’t keep us in suspense…