Last week a few of us cruised downtown (Auckland) to see the Apocalypse Now Redux. Incredible. Absolutely mind-boggling. Way better than the original, which was already awesome. Go see it, asap. And keep in mind that Mike is there right now, teaching and traveling. Here are his comments about the movie and more, from a recent email (hope he doesn't mind):
"almost daily, i walk around thinking, what the f happened here. it's not like there is constant reminders or anything but it doesn't take much for the war to be touched upon. my vietnamese teacher fought for 6 years. the guy who serves me tea everyday fought. a guy i met at bar once fought. you know, all the old people. then they shake my hand and say 'we're friends now.' it's really quite incredible. oh yeah, and their kids are my students. it's interesting to get their take on iraq. i tend to stay away from political discussions (for obvious reasons of not wanting to be deported) but they often ask me what i think so i ask in return... and of 60 students, every single one was against the u.s. attacking iraq. something tells me they have a good perspective on which to judge the merits of war! when asked what i thought of bush, i simply drew a picture of a cowboy on the board. in response, they all used a synonym of 'aggressive' or 'crazy.'"