Saturday, March 27, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Earth + Plastic
Some perspective. We don't have any voices like this one right now. This one struck down the din.
He wrote an excellent memoir, a great little history of our values, much like the work that preceded it.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Always Amazed
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That gun-toting, John-Birching lunatics have no doubt in their minds that they'll actually win a bloody fight against the National Guard, the police, the U.S. Army, etc., is a constant source of amazement for me. There's just no doubt at all that they'll triumph over "tyranny". And replace it with what? Haha, why, freedom, silly.
Choose symbols instead of well-defined concepts, and violence will be read upon them.
We ignore these stories at our peril.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Our Daily Mwomp
Popping in to share a wee little twitter moment between myself and the current frontrunner of breaksy-dom:
The chooooon under discussion:
Mr B - Little Acid People (Peo De Pitte Remix) by rogueindustries
The chooooon under discussion:
Mr B - Little Acid People (Peo De Pitte Remix) by rogueindustries
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Oldie but a Goodie
Let's give this here some American listens.
(and when the eff is Rogerseventytwo & The Walk's album coming out? Must needs futurism)
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
N@zis
Per all the certainty 'round these parts that Avatar was going to win, well, I acknowledge both my brazen error, and my enthusiasm for The Hurt Locker victory. It's a great film. I can't say better about the whole thing than this.
My favorite film (which is never what actually wins) last year was Basterds, as you may have heard. The reason I bring it up again is that I heard nearly the dumbest thing I've ever heard, in my life, ever, and I've watched Paint Your Wagon.
Somebody, somewhere, actually complained that Inglourious Basterds, get this, was not a good film because it was not HISTORICALLY ACCURATE.
Marinate in that for a minute.
My favorite film (which is never what actually wins) last year was Basterds, as you may have heard. The reason I bring it up again is that I heard nearly the dumbest thing I've ever heard, in my life, ever, and I've watched Paint Your Wagon.
Somebody, somewhere, actually complained that Inglourious Basterds, get this, was not a good film because it was not HISTORICALLY ACCURATE.
Marinate in that for a minute.
Blind as a Newborn Kitten
(Via)
Bracing, yeah?
What I've never been able to understand, and have been forced to contemplate again after many years of leaving it alone, is why does it take so much effort for these people, these fundamentalists, to believe in the big G?
I mean, this country is still only the barest fraction non-believer. What's so threatening? We have the hugest, I mean hugest "Faithpoint" section I've ever seen in a BAM before. It's like we've got a whole Lifeway in there. How much supplemental shit do you people need? You've got all that, and you want to take over the whole rest of the print/electronic media? Why? Is this really a gotta-catch-'em-all scenario?
Makes me reaaaally hope I'm left behind. Would you really want to share an eternity with people who need this kind of blanket?
Better vote, and you better do it in droves, people, from now on. Serious shit's afoot.
Saturday, March 06, 2010
*Sprays Diet Coke on Screen*
A Trailer for Every Academy Award Winning Movie Ever -- powered by Cracked.com
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
A Majority IS the Will of the People
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These assholes were voted out in droves. Keep on with your Obama temper-tantrum. It's gonna be a long one for you.
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Army of One
The Hurt Locker's chances of winning have not been damaged one bit by all the Army-Partisan knitpicking. The film will still lose to Avatar, just as scheduled.
Accuracy is a funny thing, sometimes we want it, sometimes we don't. Filmmakers have no responsibility whatsoever to provide you with accurate details. They should have no allegiance to any one group, or ideology, ideally. If you want specific, informative, accurate detail, get a textbook (unless you're in Texas). But don't go to the movies for it. That's pretty foolish.
Besides, define accuracy accurately. Try it. We know some facts to be inherently true. There are things we can verify. An IED defuser leaving the barracks for an entire night to wander deep into a dangerous area of town might never happen, but then again, it might. What, you're going to tell me it's impossible?
The type of uniform a soldier is wearing only matters to someone who used to be or is still a soldier. But filmmakers have no allegiance to you. Sorry. It would be nice if they had gotten that right, but did they maliciously get it wrong? That's quite doubtful.
Would a commanding officer allow an enemy combatant to bleed to death? You're going to tell me it's impossible? In this war?
The military is not an organization above scrutiny. And while you are respected and admired for your self-sacrifice, you do not get to dictate to filmmakers how their films are made. Complete fealty to your institution ignores the My Lais and Shock and Awes that occur under its purview.
I'm more than tired, really, of all this fealty to the military, anyway. I'm not anti-military at all, in principle, but not every soldier is a hero, and there are numerous documents, stories, films, photographs, memoirs, tv shows, and on and on to give anyone who is interested more than enough detail to absorb, accurately. And some of it is accurate information the Army and its enlisted men and women would rather we'd have never seen. Here're some facts for you. Go ahead and tell me what they mean.
Bigelow's film is not concerned with strict realism. It is being marketed as an action film, but it plays like an existential drama in the desert. If they've gotten some clothes or protocol wrong, they're only human, but, right or wrong, their priority is to tell the story they are telling, not the one you'd prefer.
These complaints are kind of the equivalent of the imdb Goofs section, writ large, because, understandably, the enlisted have very strong attachments to how units are run. I get that, but I would like to gently persuade anyone offended by it, that even if the The Hurt Locker were one hundred percent accurate, it would still not be making enough bank to qualify as a consciousness raiser for the people who made the hideous army recruitment ad, Transformers 2, the second biggest hit of 2009.
And you're going to tell me turning Bigelow's movie into Army propaganda and getting the suits right would get through to people? Not without giant Deceptinuts, Private. Hate to break it to you.
You may say Bigelow and co. are dishonoring the troops. Well, that is not their intention. But it is also, right or wrong, their right to "dishonor" the military if they find fault with how it or individuals within it are operating.
Accuracy is a funny thing, sometimes we want it, sometimes we don't. Filmmakers have no responsibility whatsoever to provide you with accurate details. They should have no allegiance to any one group, or ideology, ideally. If you want specific, informative, accurate detail, get a textbook (unless you're in Texas). But don't go to the movies for it. That's pretty foolish.
Besides, define accuracy accurately. Try it. We know some facts to be inherently true. There are things we can verify. An IED defuser leaving the barracks for an entire night to wander deep into a dangerous area of town might never happen, but then again, it might. What, you're going to tell me it's impossible?
The type of uniform a soldier is wearing only matters to someone who used to be or is still a soldier. But filmmakers have no allegiance to you. Sorry. It would be nice if they had gotten that right, but did they maliciously get it wrong? That's quite doubtful.
Would a commanding officer allow an enemy combatant to bleed to death? You're going to tell me it's impossible? In this war?
The military is not an organization above scrutiny. And while you are respected and admired for your self-sacrifice, you do not get to dictate to filmmakers how their films are made. Complete fealty to your institution ignores the My Lais and Shock and Awes that occur under its purview.
I'm more than tired, really, of all this fealty to the military, anyway. I'm not anti-military at all, in principle, but not every soldier is a hero, and there are numerous documents, stories, films, photographs, memoirs, tv shows, and on and on to give anyone who is interested more than enough detail to absorb, accurately. And some of it is accurate information the Army and its enlisted men and women would rather we'd have never seen. Here're some facts for you. Go ahead and tell me what they mean.
Bigelow's film is not concerned with strict realism. It is being marketed as an action film, but it plays like an existential drama in the desert. If they've gotten some clothes or protocol wrong, they're only human, but, right or wrong, their priority is to tell the story they are telling, not the one you'd prefer.
These complaints are kind of the equivalent of the imdb Goofs section, writ large, because, understandably, the enlisted have very strong attachments to how units are run. I get that, but I would like to gently persuade anyone offended by it, that even if the The Hurt Locker were one hundred percent accurate, it would still not be making enough bank to qualify as a consciousness raiser for the people who made the hideous army recruitment ad, Transformers 2, the second biggest hit of 2009.
And you're going to tell me turning Bigelow's movie into Army propaganda and getting the suits right would get through to people? Not without giant Deceptinuts, Private. Hate to break it to you.
You may say Bigelow and co. are dishonoring the troops. Well, that is not their intention. But it is also, right or wrong, their right to "dishonor" the military if they find fault with how it or individuals within it are operating.
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