Saturday, September 29, 2007
Video Time
There is a City by Hang on the Box
Shahrizoda: Three Uyghur Girls from Uzbekistan
Kill Your Belly by Hang on the Box
Double Life by Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her
Future or No Future by Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her
EXTRA --- Myanmar situation
Anonymous post on Saturday Sept 29 Slashdot by Mr Accountable
Like blaming Apple for the misdoings of Microsoft....
Someone had written a Slashdot article about deciding not to by a Lenovo computer.
Pictured: Niccolo Machiavelli
How dumb! It seems to me Lenovo would be loaded with computer nerds, insulting Lenovo in this situation would be like going after Dianne Feinstein for the wrongdoings of the Republican administration. One should stick up for one's friends. In the year 2007, Machiavellianism is supposed to be a bad joke, apparently some people haven't figured this out. Attacking Lenovo for the problems of the PLA, I think I saw something like this on The Brady Bunch a long time ago. Or was it Full House, when the twins were blamed for something that that neighbor kid did? Or maybe it was Urkel. Or was it on Little House, when Nellie Oleson breaks something in her parents' store and blames it on Laura Ingalls? Isn't that kind of plot structure on TV every night? Why do I, a Slashdot reader, have to put up with political philistinism from a bunch of people who can't stop showing off how smart they are in other areas? And why are we as a society producing all this electronic mediaware if people aren't learning anything from it? It's not like there is some shortage of sitcoms. And its not like this Myanmar situation isn't a real emergency that needs expert attention and thoughtful consideration instead of this long uninterrupted sociopolitical discussion group malpractice. Maybe some normal people in the Chinese government will decide to punish the liberal nerd community for this chronic malpractice by blaming Apple or Linux for the corporate deeds of Microsoft!
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
How stupid can you be?
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Radley Metzger + Zombies of Boredom
Niceploitation
Therese and Isabelle and The Alley Cats are available at Netflix' Watch Now. I have 17 hours a month and I'm just not getting the job done. What do Carson Daly's parents really think about the structure of our society? The answer is here. I must say that these movies are slightly alarming in their nature. It is so difficult to say that because the film producers are really trying hard to create a better society. As The Clash said, "To cheat a stagger man - it is a wrong 'em boyo." The movies are kind of nice, a nice encyclopedia of California thought. And they are vaguely.......unintegrated. But here's a thought: What do you think all that extreme West Coast punk rock is rebelling against in the first place? Oh, it's a puzzle.
So you want to be creative
Hollywood television and movie directors spend a lot of time and energy making sure that no shot in a movie looks or resembles a Chinese word in its visual nature, even though the directors may be quite unfamiliar with the Chinese dictionary itself. How do I know this? I know this because Asian directors use the picture to show a word, and they do it all the time. It's part of the story and the audience expects to see it. When it comes to Western audiences, they try to be very nice about it so no one gets anxious. I worked on a few movie sets doing technical work, and it is so amazing to me how the director and the cameraman can spend so much time making sure that literate people won't double over laughing because they have inadvertently made some statement. It's like a special sense, an empty discipline, that marks the difference between who can be a movie director and who can't. They are the zombies of boredom. I go to the museum, I go to the record store and it's the same: painters and art directors are using regular Asian words to make their images memorable. From Newbury Comix to the Louvre, I haven't found one good picture yet that doesn't tap into the "subconscious" Asian dictionary. For me to understand this makes it more difficult to sort through the material we have here and it is definitely a serious discipline, and I think it all has something to do with Mona Lisa's smile. I have stated before on this blog that I don't watch a lot of Western movies, and I am not a jerk, the reason is that I know the difference. Sometimes it seems as though I am watching touch football on a Thanksgiving, I may as well watch the UEFA Futsal tournament on ESPN 360 for all the value that I know I am getting. SSD asks the hahd coah musical question: "How much art can you take?"
Sometimes, watching Adult Swim, I get the feeling that they know what they're doing. I like the results.
Geo Geo
In light of San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle's NFL success, I may as well continue. Because LAX gets a lot of immigrant traffic from Asia (like New York, Chicago, Miami, Toronto, Boston, etc), and because Cali is "Asia's neighbor", West coast people try to lord it over the rest of the US as to how they are the holders of some potential wisdom originating in Asia. Imagine that one is some kind of immigrant trying to open a medical lab or a manufacturing concern with this kind of attitude going on - it's like the East Coast was before the late 1800s.
Therese and Isabelle and The Alley Cats are available at Netflix' Watch Now. I have 17 hours a month and I'm just not getting the job done. What do Carson Daly's parents really think about the structure of our society? The answer is here. I must say that these movies are slightly alarming in their nature. It is so difficult to say that because the film producers are really trying hard to create a better society. As The Clash said, "To cheat a stagger man - it is a wrong 'em boyo." The movies are kind of nice, a nice encyclopedia of California thought. And they are vaguely.......unintegrated. But here's a thought: What do you think all that extreme West Coast punk rock is rebelling against in the first place? Oh, it's a puzzle.
So you want to be creative
Hollywood television and movie directors spend a lot of time and energy making sure that no shot in a movie looks or resembles a Chinese word in its visual nature, even though the directors may be quite unfamiliar with the Chinese dictionary itself. How do I know this? I know this because Asian directors use the picture to show a word, and they do it all the time. It's part of the story and the audience expects to see it. When it comes to Western audiences, they try to be very nice about it so no one gets anxious. I worked on a few movie sets doing technical work, and it is so amazing to me how the director and the cameraman can spend so much time making sure that literate people won't double over laughing because they have inadvertently made some statement. It's like a special sense, an empty discipline, that marks the difference between who can be a movie director and who can't. They are the zombies of boredom. I go to the museum, I go to the record store and it's the same: painters and art directors are using regular Asian words to make their images memorable. From Newbury Comix to the Louvre, I haven't found one good picture yet that doesn't tap into the "subconscious" Asian dictionary. For me to understand this makes it more difficult to sort through the material we have here and it is definitely a serious discipline, and I think it all has something to do with Mona Lisa's smile. I have stated before on this blog that I don't watch a lot of Western movies, and I am not a jerk, the reason is that I know the difference. Sometimes it seems as though I am watching touch football on a Thanksgiving, I may as well watch the UEFA Futsal tournament on ESPN 360 for all the value that I know I am getting. SSD asks the hahd coah musical question: "How much art can you take?"
Sometimes, watching Adult Swim, I get the feeling that they know what they're doing. I like the results.
Geo Geo
In light of San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle's NFL success, I may as well continue. Because LAX gets a lot of immigrant traffic from Asia (like New York, Chicago, Miami, Toronto, Boston, etc), and because Cali is "Asia's neighbor", West coast people try to lord it over the rest of the US as to how they are the holders of some potential wisdom originating in Asia. Imagine that one is some kind of immigrant trying to open a medical lab or a manufacturing concern with this kind of attitude going on - it's like the East Coast was before the late 1800s.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Media Circus
I am sure I don't know what this has to do with baseball.
Entertainment is the opiate of the masses.
Joi Baba Felunath
- The Elephant God -
This Indian crime movie is pretty good, I am new at watching Indian movies, there are so many at Netflix and I am finding it difficult to keep searching past looking for Northeast Asian movies or Western movies. I even found myself asking someone at Dell or Verizon customer support "What's a good Indian movie?" There sure is a good selection at Netflix. This new trend goes well with another new trend of mine, that of looking for West Asian punk rock; I have got to budget money to buy The Kominas, out of Boston.
As far as I can tell, in Joi Baba Felunath, there is some kind of super religious artifact that a dacoit group needs to have. Dacoits are gangsters, more or less. A serious dacoit woman became the governor of a state of India during the 1980s and 90s, she was assassinated while her governorship was falling apart in the chaos of her regime. The dacoits in this movie are fascinated by getting some artifact while ignoring the drudgery that goes into actually managing an economy, or a company. To make matters worse, the man in charge of the big estate that the dacoit group has targeted seems to enjoy just sitting around the vacant estate, idylically, talking with his young son about philosophy and day-to-day poetic moments. It is a good backdrop for an icon pyramid scheme extortion scheme based on adherence to the ancient ways. It's not really a pyramid scheme as a criminal enterprise per se, it is a pyramid scheme in terms of the obsession with unusual artifacts and their empty appeal, presented to a 1978 audience that is mainly concerned with the new burgeoning high tech industrial future of India. This movie is directed by the great Satyajit Ray.
Perfect Blue
This is one of a group of Japanese movies that talks about the media in terms of media popstars and the various business dealings they have and the strange things they do. Dolls is another such movie that could be recommended. This one is an anime movie, the title might have something to do with the color blue as seen in NYPD Blue. Putting up very flashy popstars while being very intellectual and serious about them makes for pretty good movies that get a lot of attention from Western anime fans who are justifiably hooked on a certain blend of cheap appeal and metaphysical genius that they expect from Japan. Since this formula definitely seems to be working, this genre keeps expanding. The problems in this movie could also be seen as being part of a "sentiment pyramid scheme" in which a certain reliable percentage of the public pours their good will and attention into popstars, with disastrous results to follow. Entertainment is the opiate of the masses.
In Japanese movies, sexual exploitation is something that is near the top of the list of things that writers and producers grab by the horns, it is not easy to get away from this topic and audiences expect to see what is going on in this part of reality. It has a high priority and is a very non-negotiable part of the movie-going experience and the resulting product ranges from actual sexploitation to movie work that is on the Meryl Streep level. In American cinema (Woody Allen, Martin Scorcese, Clint Eastwood, et cetera), straight-up treatment of sexual exploitation is more of an option for the film makers and often takes a more subtextual role within the movie than it might in Japan, it is comparatively something that is talked about intstead of really seen. So be it. If one really wants to know, the idea of it is that one should sit, watch and struggle with it, and win, it's how one becomes a good Asian citizen. You are expected to be able to deal with it, sort of like how one is expected to explore the world that we live in. Sit watch and do nothing. It's difficult, and when one is successful one earns Buddhist merit, and one learns how to "be careful" in Asia.
If you feel the burn, it then really really pays to look very seriously into Buddhism as a kind of way to deal with all the very crappy emotions: link. I think the East-West media market gave up on trying to be ultrasincere about selling Buddhist books in the West and just decided to use difficult cinema tests to lead one along to being a good person, if one takes the time to figure out how to deal with them. Again, here is that link; Dharma Realm Buddhist Association. The bookstore is a good place to go. The Heart Sutra is concise and popular. The DRBA is based in California. It's authentic. Thoughtfulness is a quality that can be learned from a book. At least, everybody over there knows it that way. After watching Asian movies, Buddhism is like an aspirin. Don't feel bad. "What are the limits and parameters of successfully exploring the world while maintaining an open heart?" Ask a Buddhist expert.
It is possible to think of it this way: After seeing raw Western cinema product like The Excorcist, Shoah, Taxi Driver, heck, even The Eiger Sanction, Asian people definitely feed their need by going to church and buying and reading a bible.
Actually, here is the bookstore link: Buddhist Text Translation Society. The 10,000 Buddhas site is a little confusing. This group bought a very big, defunct, State of California mental asylum in the 70s and changed it to a Buddhist center; I think they may have moved again. IDK
The funny thing about Buddhism, is that in my contact with Asia I have learned that there is a difference between Buddhist fasting and Western fasting. These two Japanese guys, for example, went on a 2 month pilgrimmage in Thailand, totally sincere, absolutely faithful, quite a rugged experience, kind of gruelling actually, and the last scene in this 30 minute television documentary movie they made was them ending the pilgrimmage by sitting down at an outdoor restaurant cafe and drinking some beers, opening a pack of smokes and watching the Thai sunset. It's a great system. No worries, mate.
Another thing about Buddhism (and Daoism, Confucianism, et cetera) is that the knowlege is contained in the words.
Dead Leaves
Dead Leaves is a very crazy animated movie that provides a lagniappe to Perfect Blue.
The Hours
To continue, seeing a movie like the feminist The Hours, in which issues of sexual exploitation seem to make up 99% of the story, after seeing things in Buddhist perspective, one just isn't sure what to make of this. After two hours of the acclaimed film making, in which so many important ideas are exposited, one is very unsure at the end about the underlying reality of the film. Just what kind of world do the producers want people to live in? The Hours is a very powerful, efficacious drug for many women, and the film makers are of course, at this high level, very conscientious and deliberate, and have all the time in the world to try to say exactly what they think. At the Virginia Woolf level of things, it sure is a great movie but there are so many alarming things that happen in this movie, that are said in this movie, that it seems like a difficult thing to sell to someone who is watching the game. I found myself able to deal with this production, it produced a strong positively opiated feeling in me in spite of its incredible ambition and goals, some of which I would find it very difficult to sell as presented in this movie. I'm glad I saw it but it's a case of something being so thoughtfully presented as to gain merit in spite of how it might offend a sports fan. (Oops)
The Hours has something to do with Vassar College thought, which includes Meryl Streep and Phoebe Buffay on Friends.
Entertainment is the opiate of the masses.
Joi Baba Felunath
- The Elephant God -
This Indian crime movie is pretty good, I am new at watching Indian movies, there are so many at Netflix and I am finding it difficult to keep searching past looking for Northeast Asian movies or Western movies. I even found myself asking someone at Dell or Verizon customer support "What's a good Indian movie?" There sure is a good selection at Netflix. This new trend goes well with another new trend of mine, that of looking for West Asian punk rock; I have got to budget money to buy The Kominas, out of Boston.
As far as I can tell, in Joi Baba Felunath, there is some kind of super religious artifact that a dacoit group needs to have. Dacoits are gangsters, more or less. A serious dacoit woman became the governor of a state of India during the 1980s and 90s, she was assassinated while her governorship was falling apart in the chaos of her regime. The dacoits in this movie are fascinated by getting some artifact while ignoring the drudgery that goes into actually managing an economy, or a company. To make matters worse, the man in charge of the big estate that the dacoit group has targeted seems to enjoy just sitting around the vacant estate, idylically, talking with his young son about philosophy and day-to-day poetic moments. It is a good backdrop for an icon pyramid scheme extortion scheme based on adherence to the ancient ways. It's not really a pyramid scheme as a criminal enterprise per se, it is a pyramid scheme in terms of the obsession with unusual artifacts and their empty appeal, presented to a 1978 audience that is mainly concerned with the new burgeoning high tech industrial future of India. This movie is directed by the great Satyajit Ray.
Perfect Blue
This is one of a group of Japanese movies that talks about the media in terms of media popstars and the various business dealings they have and the strange things they do. Dolls is another such movie that could be recommended. This one is an anime movie, the title might have something to do with the color blue as seen in NYPD Blue. Putting up very flashy popstars while being very intellectual and serious about them makes for pretty good movies that get a lot of attention from Western anime fans who are justifiably hooked on a certain blend of cheap appeal and metaphysical genius that they expect from Japan. Since this formula definitely seems to be working, this genre keeps expanding. The problems in this movie could also be seen as being part of a "sentiment pyramid scheme" in which a certain reliable percentage of the public pours their good will and attention into popstars, with disastrous results to follow. Entertainment is the opiate of the masses.
In Japanese movies, sexual exploitation is something that is near the top of the list of things that writers and producers grab by the horns, it is not easy to get away from this topic and audiences expect to see what is going on in this part of reality. It has a high priority and is a very non-negotiable part of the movie-going experience and the resulting product ranges from actual sexploitation to movie work that is on the Meryl Streep level. In American cinema (Woody Allen, Martin Scorcese, Clint Eastwood, et cetera), straight-up treatment of sexual exploitation is more of an option for the film makers and often takes a more subtextual role within the movie than it might in Japan, it is comparatively something that is talked about intstead of really seen. So be it. If one really wants to know, the idea of it is that one should sit, watch and struggle with it, and win, it's how one becomes a good Asian citizen. You are expected to be able to deal with it, sort of like how one is expected to explore the world that we live in. Sit watch and do nothing. It's difficult, and when one is successful one earns Buddhist merit, and one learns how to "be careful" in Asia.
If you feel the burn, it then really really pays to look very seriously into Buddhism as a kind of way to deal with all the very crappy emotions: link. I think the East-West media market gave up on trying to be ultrasincere about selling Buddhist books in the West and just decided to use difficult cinema tests to lead one along to being a good person, if one takes the time to figure out how to deal with them. Again, here is that link; Dharma Realm Buddhist Association. The bookstore is a good place to go. The Heart Sutra is concise and popular. The DRBA is based in California. It's authentic. Thoughtfulness is a quality that can be learned from a book. At least, everybody over there knows it that way. After watching Asian movies, Buddhism is like an aspirin. Don't feel bad. "What are the limits and parameters of successfully exploring the world while maintaining an open heart?" Ask a Buddhist expert.
It is possible to think of it this way: After seeing raw Western cinema product like The Excorcist, Shoah, Taxi Driver, heck, even The Eiger Sanction, Asian people definitely feed their need by going to church and buying and reading a bible.
Actually, here is the bookstore link: Buddhist Text Translation Society. The 10,000 Buddhas site is a little confusing. This group bought a very big, defunct, State of California mental asylum in the 70s and changed it to a Buddhist center; I think they may have moved again. IDK
The funny thing about Buddhism, is that in my contact with Asia I have learned that there is a difference between Buddhist fasting and Western fasting. These two Japanese guys, for example, went on a 2 month pilgrimmage in Thailand, totally sincere, absolutely faithful, quite a rugged experience, kind of gruelling actually, and the last scene in this 30 minute television documentary movie they made was them ending the pilgrimmage by sitting down at an outdoor restaurant cafe and drinking some beers, opening a pack of smokes and watching the Thai sunset. It's a great system. No worries, mate.
Another thing about Buddhism (and Daoism, Confucianism, et cetera) is that the knowlege is contained in the words.
Dead Leaves
Dead Leaves is a very crazy animated movie that provides a lagniappe to Perfect Blue.
The Hours
To continue, seeing a movie like the feminist The Hours, in which issues of sexual exploitation seem to make up 99% of the story, after seeing things in Buddhist perspective, one just isn't sure what to make of this. After two hours of the acclaimed film making, in which so many important ideas are exposited, one is very unsure at the end about the underlying reality of the film. Just what kind of world do the producers want people to live in? The Hours is a very powerful, efficacious drug for many women, and the film makers are of course, at this high level, very conscientious and deliberate, and have all the time in the world to try to say exactly what they think. At the Virginia Woolf level of things, it sure is a great movie but there are so many alarming things that happen in this movie, that are said in this movie, that it seems like a difficult thing to sell to someone who is watching the game. I found myself able to deal with this production, it produced a strong positively opiated feeling in me in spite of its incredible ambition and goals, some of which I would find it very difficult to sell as presented in this movie. I'm glad I saw it but it's a case of something being so thoughtfully presented as to gain merit in spite of how it might offend a sports fan. (Oops)
The Hours has something to do with Vassar College thought, which includes Meryl Streep and Phoebe Buffay on Friends.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Week 2
For Week 1 Arts and Crafts see below. Week 2 Matchups include
Indianapolis at Tennessee
NY Jets at Baltimore
San Diego at New England
There are 32 teams and 16 games per week not including bye weeks.
Indianapolis at Tennessee
NY Jets at Baltimore
San Diego at New England
There are 32 teams and 16 games per week not including bye weeks.
Atlantic Coast Conference - ACC
ATLANTIC DIVISION
Boston College 1-0
Maryland 0-0
Clemson 0-0
Florida State 0-0
NC State 0-0
Wake Forest 0-1
COASTAL DIVISION
Georgia Tech 0-0
Miami 0-0
North Carolina 0-0
Virginia Tech 0-0
Duke 0-0
Virginia 0-0
Boston College 1-0
Maryland 0-0
Clemson 0-0
Florida State 0-0
NC State 0-0
Wake Forest 0-1
COASTAL DIVISION
Georgia Tech 0-0
Miami 0-0
North Carolina 0-0
Virginia Tech 0-0
Duke 0-0
Virginia 0-0
Saturday, September 1, 2007
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