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Sacred D’oh

I’m not sure if I should be amused that pagans can be as huffy and humorless as Christians when their sacred oxen are gored, or irked about disrespectful movie…

I’m not sure if I should be amused that pagans can be as huffy and humorless as Christians when their sacred oxen are gored, or irked about disrespectful movie publicists, or what — but I think the reaction is funnier than the stunt itself.

PAGANS have pledged to perform “rain magic” to wash away cartoon character Homer Simpson who was painted next to their famous fertility symbol – the Cerne Abbas giant.

The 17th century chalk outline of the naked, sexually aroused, club-wielding giant is believed by many to be a symbol of ancient spirituality.  Many couples also believe the 180ft giant, which is carved in the hillside above Cerne Abbas, Dorset, is an aid to fertility.

A giant 180ft Homer Simpson brandishing a doughnut was painted next to the well-endowed figure today in a publicity stunt to promote The Simpsons Movie released later this month.  It has been painted with water-based biodegradable paint which will wash away as soon as it rains.

Ann Bryn-Evans, joint Wessex district manager for The Pagan Federation, said: “It’s very disrespectful and not at all aesthetically pleasing.”

Well, there’s no accounting for taste …

(I suppose if that’s disrespectful, this is right out.)

Potpourri for the Feast of St Olga

Yikes … need to clear off some tabs … Who is St Olga? The Roman Catholic Church is the “one, holy, apostolic church of Christ” –according to the Roman Catholc…

Yikes … need to clear off some tabs …

  1. Who is St Olga?
  2. The Roman Catholic Church is the “one, holy, apostolic church of Christ” –according to the Roman Catholc Church’s official doctrine office.  Though it allows that other folks (e.g., Episcopalians) who “suffer from defects” may share “elements” of “sanctification and of truth,” and most likely their congregants are saved.  Whew! 
  3. The real story of the “Heroes of Telemark.”
  4. On the other hand — the folks at the airport security may be able to find your water bottle, but are a lot less likely to find your bomb.
  5. Meanwhile, looks like only one asteroid was responsible for the K-T Extinction Event, not two.  Did that increase or decrease the odds of another one hitting us?
  6. What if the human population vanished overnight? And there’s a similar book, too. Days after our disappearance, pumps keeping Manhattan’s subways dry would fail, tunnels would flood, soil under streets would sluice away and the foundations of towering skyscrapers built to last for centuries would start to crumble. At the other end of the chronological spectrum, anything made of bronze might survive in recognizable form for millions of years—along with one billion pounds of degraded but almost indestructible plastics manufactured since the mid-20th century. Meanwhile, land freed from mankind’s environmentally poisonous footprint would quickly reconstitute itself, as in Chernobyl, where animal life has returned after 1986’s deadly radiation leak, and in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, a refuge since 1953 for the almost-extinct goral mountain goat and Amur leopard. (via kottke) Which reminds me of this classic.
  7. How do you get off a plane stuck on the tarmac for four hours with no a/c?  Simple — get the police to haul you away“I figured if I started recording and asking the pilots what was going on and why they couldn’t make a decision to get people off the plane that the police would come and take us off — and that is exactly what happened,”  (via J-Walk)
  8. The Lamest Edit Wars on Wikipedia.  Yes, Wikipedia has an entry on it.  And, yes, they are pretty lame.
  9. What do all those wine ratings mean?
  10. An interesting article on George Bush as a person, and how he handles the job, the defections, the disapproval ratings.  (It sounds like, at this point, with a healthy dose of “history will approve of me, eventually.”)
  11. Yes, with age you do become a grumpy, humorless old person.  So get off my lawn, you darned kids! (via Avocet)
  12. Graphic design and terrorist organizationsSo terrorist organizations have logos. It recently occurred to me that someone had to actually design those logos. But how did they decide who gets to do it? Did the job go to whichever terrorist had a copy of Adobe Illustrator?
  13. The F-14 may be out of service for the US, but they’re being shredded to keep still-valuable bits and pieces out of the arms market.
  14. I suppose it’s good news graphic design if it’s informative and you want to keep looking at it.  Regardless, tips for spotting folks carrying handguns is fascinating.  Lots of other nice graphics by the same illustrator further down in the article.
  15. The EFF reports on the first umpteen thousand pages of Freedom of Information Act releases on National Security Letter usage by the FBI.  Not surprisingly, lots of goofs, misuse, and CCs to Alberto Gonzalez that he “failed to recall” during testimony about it. 
  16. The Ultimate D&D Flowchart looks very amusing — a pity the link has gone dead (the BoingBoing Effect?).
  17. Photo gallery of the “new” Seven Wonders of the World.
  18. The Zorse.

Incredibly Horrible

The Incredibles – as a Horror Film … (via Disney Blog)…

The Incredibles – as a Horror Film

(via Disney Blog)

Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3

Since Kitten’s off with the Grandparents, and we’d watchedin the second flick on DVD during the week, we decided on a night out on the town, dinner and a show,…

Since Kitten’s off with the Grandparents, and we’d watchedin the second flick on DVD during the week, we decided on a night out on the town, dinner and a show, and finally catching up with the conclusion of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy.

Something happened between the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, The Secret of the Black Pearl, and the second, extended movie (Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End).  The story and tone morphed from being a light, fantastical adventure romp featuring fierce pirates, broad comedy, and true love, to being a dark and violent tale of monsters, a polemic against corporate greed and loss of civil liberties, with occasional light-hearted rompy bits.

Along the way, the franchise changed from something I would gladly (and have) watched multiple times to something I’m glad I saw and am not quite willing to retcon out of existence, a la Highlander 2, but am not at all anxious to see again.


Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007)

Overall Story
Production Acting

Thar be spoilers below …

Continue reading “Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3

Neither rain nor sleet nor burning Jundland Wastes twin suns …

A mailbox in Santa Fe. Apparently this is all tied into a “>USPS/Star Wars campaign of some sort….

A mailbox in Santa Fe. Apparently this is all tied into a

“Do you want your Strawberry Squishee jumbo-Kwik-E-sized?”

7-Eleven is remaking a dozen of its stores into Kwik-E-Marts as part of the promotion for the impending Simpsons movie (more photos). (And here’s an interestingly positive article about…

7-Eleven is remaking a dozen of its stores into Kwik-E-Marts as part of the promotion for the impending Simpsons movie (more photos).

(And here’s an interestingly positive article about the Kwik-E Mart manager, Apu.)

(via BD)

Same time, next year

The possibly hot movie prospects for Summer 2008. (via kottke)…

The possibly hot movie prospects for Summer 2008.

(via kottke)

Potpourri for a Monday on Vacation

Robo-Dave suggests: DOF presents a very nice article on getting the most bang for the buck in various efforts to stop global warming.  Worth a read. Iwo Jima is…

Robo-Dave suggests:

  1. DOF presents a very nice article on getting the most bang for the buck in various efforts to stop global warming.  Worth a read.
  2. Iwo Jima is being renamed Iwo To by the Japanese government — but this isn’t some sort of historical revisionism or the like — the Japanese military misnamed the Japanese-owned island in the first place (the two names are written with the same characters, but pronounced differently; the military used the Iwo Jima name after they evacuated all civilians and took over the island).
  3. The Star Wars galaxy — if you include all sorts of stuff from the novels and the like.  I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this map before, perhaps during Doyce’s old SW game, but it’s still pretty fun. (via kottke)
  4. There’s The Rat Patrol … then there’s the Real Thing.

Potpourri for a Saturday on Vacation

Robo-Dave suggests: Isn’t it odd that, after battling Microsoft for anti-trust violations, the Feds have turned around and given it a monopoly over browser access to things like US…

Robo-Dave suggests:

  1. Isn’t it odd that, after battling Microsoft for anti-trust violations, the Feds have turned around and given it a monopoly over browser access to things like US Customs?  “To access the ACE Secure Data Portal you need a high-speed internet connection and Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher. Please note that the ACE Portal does not function properly with Mozilla Firefox.”  Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s not a conspiracy, just lazy development or shoddy procurement practices.
  2. Did pirates really say “Arrr?” Sadly, not really. (Which, of course, reminds me of the old joke, “What are the two letters of the Pirate Alphabet? ‘I’ and ‘R’ …”)
  3. Someone with time on their hands has an entire site devoted to looking at time travel in movies.  Which is … really cool.  I need to spend way too much time going through this.

Comfort media

Re-reading/watching a number of things this week. Reading Friday at work.  One of my favorite later Heinlein novels.  Improbable coincidences, politics on its sleeve, polemical setting, and incredibly sexy, independent,…

Re-reading/watching a number of things this week.

Reading Friday at work.  One of my favorite later Heinlein novels.  Improbable coincidences, politics on its sleeve, polemical setting, and incredibly sexy, independent, and intelligent/competent women-folk.  What’s not to love?

Reading the Sten novels at home.  One of the earliest of the modern “military SF” series, and damn fine.  Coincidentally, the first book is a blend of Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Starship Troopers, but with a hearty dollop of cynicism (and with a metaplot that’s only really revealed in the afterword of the last volume).  I’ve read this series probably a dozen times, and I enjoy it anew each time.

And Katherine’s watching Madagascar on the DVD, which is a much more enjoyable and even profound a film than I had any sense of in its early commercials.  And the Penguins “Christmas Caper” bonus track is just cream cheese frosting on the cake.

I read a fair amount of new stuff, but I do like to re-enjoy the old stuff, too.

Fathers Day in review

Not bad.  Not bad at all. Got up at a decent hour.  We’re on summer schedule at our parish, so instead of going to the middle service at 9, we…

Not bad.  Not bad at all.

Got up at a decent hour.  We’re on summer schedule at our parish, so instead of going to the middle service at 9, we go to the second (final) service at 10.  That lets us sleep in a bit, but since we were all up before 8, we ended up going to brunch before church, rather than after.

Made a mad-cap race through Kohls between brunch and church to pick up white t-shirts for KOA next weekend (eek!).

I was filling in for Margie at church as a LEM (“Lay Eucharistic Minister” — one of the guys in funny robes up there who helps with giving out Communion).  We were down a couple of Acolytes (Altar Boys/Girls) so I got to fill in there, too — carrying the cross, ringing the bell, all that good stuff. 

I really enjoy doing those kind of things, participating in the service.  It’s easy, though, to slip into it being a “performance,” rather than “worship” (a big reason I don’t join the choir).

Afterward, we headed to the store for dinner goodies, then home. 

Played Scrabble, Junior, with Kitten and Margie.  I am 95% certain that I had a version of this as a kid.  They let me win, since it was Fathers Day, and was much fun.

Chatted with Jim, made sure that our Fathers Day gifts were scheduled to arrive in California this week (as we are, so we can hand them out), and failed to get hold of my Dad (hopefully he enjoyed the picture).

Margie and I spent most of the rest of the day doing City of Heroes, which was fun.  Broke for dinner around 8, and Margie BBQed up a nice steak, sauteed some mushrooms, whipped up some garlic mashed potatoes.  Sat on the couch and watched Casablanca.

Not a bad way to spend Fathers Day.

This is not your father’s Omega Man

Actually, Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel, I am Legend, was damned scary, and the 1964 filn, The Last Man on Earth, gave me nightmares when I caught it on TV as…

Actually, Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel, I am Legend, was damned scary, and the 1964 filn, The Last Man on Earth, gave me nightmares when I caught it on TV as a kid.  Of course, the 1971 Charlton Heston The Omega Man turned it all into a weird, very 70s near-self-parody, and  there’s where the story ended.

Until now.  In December, I am Legend hits the screen — with a very unfunny-appearing, non-wisecracking Will Smith.  Looks … good.

Potpourri

I’m not particularly thrilled with China’s human rights record, to say the last, and there’s certainly a degree of “show trial for the world” in this news — but…

  1. I’m not particularly thrilled with China’s human rights record, to say the last, and there’s certainly a degree of “show trial for the world” in this news — but I must confess to a certain degree of admiration for the PRC  sentencing their former FDA (equivalent) director to death for recent scandals in food and drug adulteration — which has been worse in China than in the exports that have made the news over here.  It does make one wonder whether there would be a “deterrence effect” for American officials if faced with similar possibilities.  (via DOF)
  2. Oh, my.  The Mach 5 for the pending live-action Wachowski Bros. Speed Racer movie.  Be still my heart … (via BD)

  3. Has the Miss Universe competition gone post-colonial?
  4. Speaking of which — 500 years of women’s portraiture in Western Art. Gorgeous. (via Ginny)
  5. Maybe it’s just as well that I didn’t have a blog back when Margie and I got married.  The sorts of things that a number of these “wed sites” do are … a bizarre combination of tackiness and exhibitionism that exceed even the usual standards of the blogosphere.  It’s Jerry Springer with hearts and cherubs and streaming video.  Mercifully, Doyce and Kate seem to have a lot more taste than that.
  6. For those who believe in the literal inerrancy of the Bible, and so pooh-pooh things like evil-ution and the Big Bang and similar anti-God so-called-“science” … do you really believe the universe looks like this?  Or do you “pick and choose” your biblical metaphors?
  7. Some common Japanese phrases — phonetically rendered, unfortunately, but still useful.
  8. Book burning — it’s not just for fanatical ideologues any more.  Is the used book market that bad?  I guess so. (via Avo)
  9. Synonyms for drinking/being drunk.

 

Now that’s imagination

Posters at Orlando Airport for Star Wars Days at Disney-MGM.  Excellent….

Posters at Orlando Airport for Star Wars Days at Disney-MGM.  Excellent.

Potpourri for Tuesday

Wearing a bike helmet makes you safer in case of a crash — but may lead to more accidents. Not surprisingly, Katrina has taken a nose-dive as a girl’s…

  1. Wearing a bike helmet makes you safer in case of a crash — but may lead to more accidents.
  2. Not surprisingly, Katrina has taken a nose-dive as a girl’s name.
  3. I had no idea that Firefox had a cute anime logo, Foxkeh.
  4. The best way to protest a law is to enforce it to the hilt and let the public protest.  Hence librarians cranking up proposed censorware to 11 to show how goofy it is.
  5. Smoking is now a factor the MPAA will consider in whether to rate a movie “R.”  Huh?  How about, as Les notes, drinking and unsafe driving, too?  Or eating transfats? Or just acting like an idiot?  Not that I’m a huge fan of smoking, by any means, but, yeesh.
  6. The real Deadwood, 1888..
  7. Spielberg and Jackson to take on Tintin.  Hmmmm.  I’ve honestly never been into the Tintin thang — but I know that it’s iconic sort of stuff that will take special handling (and will doubtless run into sensibilities issues between lovers of the original and despisers of the new, not to mention the whole European-vs-American thang).
  8. Remarkably, now that they’re in power, Democratic legislators seem a lot less eager to reform lobbying.
  9. Remember, never use the words “Family Feast” — it’s trademarked, you scoff-law piratical terrorist!
  10. Lileks visits Disneyworld.  Fun.  He went to the Caribbean Resort, twin to the ones we’ve gone to.  “You’d have to have a heart made of coal and an utterly incurious mind not to find this place fascinating.”
  11. Zombie Last Supper.  It’s so wrong, yet so good …
  12. I mistrust the romanticization of gangster lore — but this article about Mothers Day and the Mob is, if at all true, interesting as hell.
  13. Because, remember — if you tell your kids about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, they will turn into mass murderers, reject Jesus, and burn in hell foreverYou have been warned.

Potpourri for Thursday

NASA promotes its new Moon program like a high budget Hollywood spectacular (but with pretty mediocre CG). How Lord of the Rings should have ended.  (More here.) Very cool…

  1. NASA promotes its new Moon program like a high budget Hollywood spectacular (but with pretty mediocre CG).
  2. How Lord of the Rings should have ended.  (More here.)
  3. Very cool Disneyworld Magic Kingdom Google Map.
  4. The Comics Curmudgeon’s explanation for “The Family Circus” makes scary sense …
  5. The EU has backed off outlawing pounds, ounces, and other Imperial measurements.  The rules would have required metric-only labeling in the EU.  Brits rejoice, teachers weep.

Top 25 SF, Boulderized

So BD expanded on the “25 Best SF Movie/TV List” with various just-go-read-it commentary … and so I have to weigh in on his choices: Red Dwarf  – I fear I must…

So BD expanded on the “25 Best SF Movie/TV List” with various just-go-read-it commentary … and so I have to weigh in on his choices:

  • Red Dwarf  – I fear I must confess — never done watch more than a single ep.  Sorry.
  • Farscape – Absolutely agree.   Worlds better (and more influential) than, say, V.
  • Lexx  – No more exposure to than the ads that ran during Farscape.  Never felt compelled to watch.
  • Babylon 5 – Well, yeah, duh.  Though, to correct BD, this one was screwed by WB, not Fox.  And it wasn’t just WB Television, but a very, very, very odd combo of internal divisions within WB.
  • Donnie Darko – Never seen.
  • Twin Peaks – Watched two episodes, gave up on it.
  • Dark City – Yes, creepy goodness.  A top classic? Can’t really agre.
  • The City of Lost Children – Never seen.
  • Ghost in the Shell – Watched the movie.  Very pretty.  No opinion beyond that — though, if we’re going to include anime, I gotta go for Neon Genesis Evangelion.
  • Cowboy Bebop – Okay, and this, too.
  • The Cube – Never seen.

What, if anything, would I add?  Hrm.  Well, if you exclude anything that’s Fantasy or Comic Book based … I can’t think of much more, TV or movie-wise.  Maybe Buckaroo Banzai or The Rocketeer  for movies.

The Sci-Fi 25

EW identifies its picks for the top 25 SF TV/movies of the past 25 years.  Interesting. 25.  V: The Mini-Series (1983) – Watched bits of this at times, but never…

EW identifies its picks for the top 25 SF TV/movies of the past 25 years.  Interesting.

25.  V: The Mini-Series (1983) – Watched bits of this at times, but never got into it.  Appreciated the “big story” SF on the small screen, though.  Joe Straczynski cut his teeth on the related TV series.

24. Galaxy Quest (1999) – A brilliant send-up of 60s-70s SF (Trek in particular) and fandom (Trekdom in particular) that still managed to be a rippingly good tale that validated and lauded what it spoofed. 

23. Doctor Who (1963ff) – The current stuff is faboo.  The older stuff shows that you can build a successful franchise through imagine, persistence, appreciating your fanbase, and remembering that great FX are not the highest priority.

22.  Quantum Leap (1989-93) – I missed this when it first broadcast, but caught quite a bit of it later in rerun.  It’s almost unfair to call this an sf show — aside from the metaplot, it’s more about period drama and the use of modern sensibilities to address the problems of the past.  Makes you wonder what sort of “problems” Sam would be called upon to fix today.

21.  Futurama (1999-2003)Simpsons sensibilities meet SF.  Fight!  More theme/story-oriented than the parent Groening cartoon, Futurama is still a damn lot of fun.  Never joined the cult, but I enjoyed taking occasional sips of the Kool-aid.

20.  Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003-05) –  Since the first two of the original trilogy were beyond the 25-year scope, the authors chose this iteration of the SW universe.  And that’s hard to argue with, showing both style, plot, and action sensibility, the three of which were hard to find all together at any given point of later SW flicks.

 

Continue reading “The Sci-Fi 25”

When you don’t have to film a film

Digital moviemaking may be causing a revolution in how actors act in movie productions.  The use of film is giving way to digital memory, which means when the camera is…

Digital moviemaking may be causing a revolution in how actors act in movie productions.  The use of film is giving way to digital memory, which means when the camera is “running,” there’s no expensive filmstock churning by, second after second.  Errors cost time for the crew, but the most expensive consumable — film, and its development — stops being an issue, and waiting for camera reloads is a thing of the past.  Essentially, rather than a “take” you have an “experience.”

“My conversion to the church of digital is due to the nontechnical side of digital,” says Bill, who used the Panavision Genesis to shoot “Flyboys.” “I think the way digital changes and can permanently change the way actors act and directors direct is absolutely irreplaceable.

“For 100 years of acting on film, actors have had to cope with several technical limitations. First of all, they had to rehearse the scene before they shoot it. Then, once shooting begins, they have to act between reloads.

“Third, they have to act when the camera is running, not when it’s not running. They’re always aware there’s film running through the camera, which is a tremendous burden for an actor, whether they know it or not.

“Digital removes those constraints. There’s no such thing as rehearsal. You can shoot anything you want. You don’t have to say ‘cut.’ You don’t have to say ‘action.’

“This is going to change the way films are made, the way directors relate to actors, and the way actors relate to the camera. I think this will change acting as much as the Method changed acting.”

(via kottke)

300, the PG Version

Hmmm … maybe I could take Kitten to see this … (via Shamus)…

Hmmm … maybe I could take Kitten to see this

(via Shamus)