Thoughts and Opinions, Reviews
Again from Brian - elephant cams. No, not like that kind of dirty cam, thank you. More, we have to find a way to attach a camera to Mattie. I'd say Tia, but all we'd get would be shots of food.
On Easter, in France (is there really a flying bell?)
A pretty awesome fighter, Tara Larosa [won for the US in grappling championships two weeks after her boyfriend died in Iraq, for example]
Wow, scientific extension of my favorite metaphor, the lotus as symbol of spirituality
School for Scoundrels, with Bill Thornton and Jon Heder. And some girl from Real World? Eh, I could never get into those shows, however dippily byzantine. I don't know, Heder...I just don't see him as any sort of leading man, except in really dumb comedies. And this was just trying a little too hard to be not-so-dumb, and even went way too far as it got closer to the end, trying to suddenly make itself into a rom-com, what with the sweeping music. I suppose this film could have been better, but it was suffering from fragmented identity, trying to be too many things at once, when it probably would have been better served as just a straight up, stupid ass funny movie. Oh, and it didn't even pull off the interesting lessons contained within shady that Swingers did, considering it's kind of a parallel in subject - this was more just douchebaggery and sad-funny.
Shivaji seems like he was a gunslinger of a fellow
Hm, on combinations of food and digestion - alas, my beloved Brushfire combo of brisket and pork....heh, no, this requires experimentation and verification!
From Brian, a robot that would probably make me scream if it came upon me in the night in the forest. Especially if I tried to knock it over like that and it got back up....
Flesh Gothic, by Edward Lee. A strong showing by Lee, in his always grotesque-yet-fun slasher-novel style (like a slasher movie, but with more over the top sex and violence). But, not his strongest, I'd say, on a couple of counts. One, for as sexual as the premise is purported to be (the narrative more than revolves around it, it's fairly obsessed with it), there's just not as much actual sexy stuff going on, to match it. Though I will note some wide-eyed creative ideas near the end. But that's the other thing, the ending just kind of fizzles after a book's worth of buildup; I think the climax could have been, not to pun, fleshed out a lot more. Mmm, kind of double pun, there. Also, an issue I've had with Lee, though I'm sure he's kind of playing-to-audience, and this is really a complaint about all of similar genre, to be fair, I suppose, is that it's staunchly heterosexual throughout. Oh, there's a gay character....who's celibate. All told, it's just chauvinistic how nothing of equal craziness happens to the male characters in the novel, and there was plenty of opportunity for it in this one.
And to go along with that, some penile facts, for your enjoyment (that's a real adjective, right?)
Spice Islands has lots of interesting trivia on...well...spices
If only they'd taught us history this way....actually, the more I read, the more they're bloody hilarious (more here)
for Jake, on Trinity
Wow, never would have figured that name for that cactus...now I'll just smirk whenever I see one
As much as I adore geckos, the astronaut idea makes me blink (the video makes me more eager to see them when they come back in the summer, though)
I think if I saw a coconut crab in person and was not prepared I would scream like a little girl. And then eat it.
The Gymnast, with Dreya Weber and Addie Yungmee. A lot better than I expected; well, to be honest, I was really just kind of going for a stuck-at-home-watching-movies-so-might-as-well-get-B grade-sexy. And lo and behold, it turns out to have twenty some awards from various sources, very little of anything actually too sexual, but even better, interesting characters in an interesting situation. And very graceful and lovely scenery, what with the trapeze act. Interesting to see relationship interactions played out almost verbatim from some things I've read lately, and that set within an interesting setting - I almost wish I had more of the characters' daily life to flesh it out even more, but I suppose it wouldn't really fit in a movie format, heh. I'm still torn on the ending, though. I appreciate the open ending of it, after all, one of my favorite authors is Frank Herbert, the kind of open endings...but in a romance, I wanted a romantic ending, dang it!
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, by Alison Bechdel. Wow. This is going to take a couple more readings for me to really get the full weight of it. Written over the course of seven years by Bechdel, the author and artist of the great Dykes to Watch Out For, Fun Home is a thought provoking and depthful look at her relationship with her father, and that woven with the evolution of her identity in terms of sexuality, gender, and adulthood. The art is doubly interesting in that much of it was actually done from photo references, and yet retains Bechdel's clean and unique style. Between reading this, watching The Gymnast, and watching Secretary, I had a lot of similar themes to think about this weekend. Fun times!
From Ms Xuemei, badgers! Now we just need snakes and mushrooms.
Jim Loy seems to be something of a polymath - lots of short, interesting articles
I love ants, always so interesting
gerenuks look almost alien to me
whoa, go dolphin (and, animal intelligence/sentience plug!)
not sure anyone will get this, but to me alligators using their breath this way is an oblique commentary on humans using their own pranic vayu (the dimension of a person's manifestation that can be controlled with the breath)
how adorable are sunshine buddies? very. that's how much.
That's really what I should do with my gloves
From a de Lint story, 'The Pennymen,' a pretty accurate description of what after-meditation feels like for a bit:
"...and made her feel that everything she looked at she was seeing for the first time. The art hanging from the walls was vibrant, the colors almost pulsing. The spiraling grain in the room's wooden trim, window frames, and wainscotting pulled at her gaze, drawing it down into its twists and turns. The smell of the turps and solvents from her studio behind her had never had such a presence and bite before. It wasn't so much unpleasant as so very immediate.
This, she realized suddenly, was what Jilly meant when she talked about the epiphany of experiencing magic, howsoever small a piece of the mystery you stumbled upon. It redefined everything."
Basically, we're looking at April 22 for ours
That is my philosophy on the matter. Yes.
Does Pando creep out anyone else?
It's obvious, duh, he's a mutant, like in X-Men
I am the very model of a Singularitarian
I'm all about animal sentience/intelligence these days, and these little Aussie spiders are right up in that (also a tiny bit fae seeming, I'd say)
Reminds me, potentially, of the serafinas in MacDonald's Terminal Cafe; slash, this is Second Life we're talking about, when will they start having cybersex?
Swingers, with Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, and that guy from Office Space. As the movie began, I reflexively had thoughts of not liking it - it seeming to be about one really pathetic character, as much as I've been nigh exactly where he was, I just didn't want to sit through another experience of it, and some of the people I normally consider rank asshats. I warmed up to it over the course of the movie though, on account of little things, like in-narrative callbacks, the bit of metafictional element, and the characters actually seeming to really care about each other, and their shallowness actually stripping them any maliciousness I might have ascribed. That is, their attitudes towards women and a sundry of other things were varying degrees of superficial or immature, but they seemed somewhat nice at heart. So it was kind of true to life, to me, except with relatively nice guys maybe trying to be kind of jerky because they think they have to, which is actually nicer than the more true jerks in real life.
Also, there are a lot of little lessons for social life in it, in a whole spectrum of painfully-bad to kind of jerky, with the nice ones in the middle. That is, I know it might be easy to knee-jerk pass it off as about guys trying to manipulate girls, and, well, some of it is. But there are little things like when the girl sasses or asks what car the guy drives, we immediately saw how the response could have been better as a sass back, or a rejoinder with mirrored disdain, because that's where the narrative directed our thoughts. Or the attitude of confidence to go into meeting a complete stranger with, say. Anyhoo, interesting.
Wow, the wife of the French president is gorgeous, who knew?
Lots of fun info in the Cloverfield FAQ
For some reason I find these two leglocks kind of funny
What a weird toy; this about sea cucumbers seems somehow similar
List of terror attacks thwarted since 9/11, interesting
That's....actually kind of an accurate summary of that autobiography I just read
I'd be all over that if it was legal
'touchfood' is poignant and 'act my age' was a good whack upside the head; Jen Wang
Hee! Tiny Carl Jung! Ok I'm done linking that fun comic now.
at 6.3.08 0 comments
From the writer of 30 Days of Night, sci fi horror!
Hyenas have weird enough genitals I bet there has to be some niche furry porn out there involving it, slash, oddly inspired hentai
An update on one of my favorite charities, Seva, in Chiapas, Mexico
Sigh.
Woo! I don't have to buy new gloves! (I think)
at 5.3.08 0 comments
Shoot 'Em Up, with Clive Owen and Monica Belucci. Candy, popcorn, bullets. If you go into it acknowledging that it has about the intellectual content of the Bugs Bunny cartoons it often references, then it's easy to enjoy. At the same time, it's kind of boring in that; maybe if I had more of a thing for gun ballets, but they never really held the same appeal for me as more physical action. Now, Belucci on the other hand, definitely holds an appeal for me. As does Owen. So yeah, ok, but....ridiculous.
p.s. I still think the nun-prostitute is sexy
-what a fun animal!
-Dark Tower's back! And it brought attendent goosebumps+ with just those few panels referencing the....third book, is it, I think?
-huh, spies's commentary on the Bond movies
at 4.3.08 1 comments
But what if it whacked into our planet?
Google Maps has street view for Tucson! The fact that I can look at the intersection directly next to my house kind of creeps me out, though.
Ah, someone who loves octopuses as much as me
I want one. I would eat much more red meat.
Sphere idea has potential, but I want to see some moving pictures
"Remember that guy who was in the flood and the boat came by, and the helicopter came by, and the superhero came by, and the whole time the guy's like, "It's cool, God's got this one handled," so of course he dies horribly, and then gets all snotty with God, like, "Why weren't you there for me?" And God's like, "When the fuck was I not?" "
at 2.3.08 0 comments
Tempted to go make a new bookshelf
Canada had rebellions?! What's that all aboot?
Wow yeah that was dumb.
Holy crap the new X-Force is badass, and I love the subtle touch of how Wolverine calls Laura just "X" - I mean, what is she to him as his clone...daughter, sister? Yet the nickname sums up a lot of that unexplainable relationship nicely.
Nanoparticle panacea? Cool, but scary somehow
Candy, with Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish. Well, that was uplifting. Yay for...uh...an Australian Trainspotting? It didn't really have a plot, either, in a similar way, it's more just a character study of some heroin addicts. So I think if one goes into it looking for that, rather than any narrative, really, one would be much more satisfied. I guess in the sense that it was about character I'd like to at least see a twop style rundown of the character-relationships, as there's obviously a lot of subtext in each, but failing thinking about it that way it was just basically a couple hours of watching a painful, sad downward spiral.
To this, all I have to say is this
Gone, Baby Gone, with Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan. In the end the narrative turned out to be interesting, but only in looking back through it; in the course of watching the movie, it was more of a "where the hell is this going?" So it could have been much more unified, had better character development, and had better pacing, but the end result (and dilemma) is certainly conversation and thought provoking. It seemed...just, kind of self-indulgent, and most every character or plot development was two steps behind where it would have had more impact or import. But it was good in retrospect, I guess?
Aikido vs kicks? Some of the throws are cool, but I find his lackadaisacal blocks of some of the roundkicks dubious, I think the kick would generally power through them...mm, that said, that's assuming they're doing a Thai style kick, maybe if they snap it back they'd reflexively snap back upon contact.
Know Your World - it's addictive, watch out!
Yoga and Aikido - interesting take on connections, I suppose
kind of like a twop, but it's a comic review
Michael Clayton, with George Clooney and Tilda Swinton. Great acting, great cinematography, great cast, great little moments.....and a narrative I just never really cared about at all. I find it silly that this was called a thriller when at least Kim and I were dozing off, if not everyone. Though, it occurs to me: maybe the idea of being in debt about a business would find terror-by-empathy in a crowd older than us who may have actually experienced that, and that...yeah, that would probably turn at least one subplot more thrilling. Odd to see Swinton in a 'normal' role, I've only seen her crazy/fantastic roles.
With GoodSearch, charity is easy to contribute to - like Google, but with better karma (man, imagine if Google did it...)
NOOO! Last issue! Even this preview makes me giggle, though, alas poor hilarious Deadpool....
The biomechanics of grip (littlefinger-ringfinger-thumb, hey-o!), one of the more useful things we learned back when
Yay Seva! Small donations make a big difference!
Women on grappling
Vaguely tangent to that, warrior women
Liberating Jesus....huh...
Christine Maggiore has an unusual idea
Definitely, Maybe, with Ryan Reynolds, Rachel Weisz, Elizabeth Banks, and Isla Fisher. And Kevin Kline, who I did not recognize in the slightest. I think for the most part this movie lived up to expectations brought about by pedigree (connections to Love, Actually) and the stellar cast. Though kids in movies are still a bit much for me, it worked well enough. Though I'm sure a lot of people would nail the plot as patently obvious, I got sucked in enough that each successive twist had me going, and tearing up at the ending. Yay kind of unorthodox rom-com! And again, great mix of actors. Also, reminds me of somewhat similar conversations I've had with my parents, which weren't exactly like something the daughter gets to hear in the movie, but interesting nonetheless, I recommend it, however uncomfortable it might get.
The Namesake, with Irfan Khan, Tabu, and Kal Penn. Great acting. Lovely cinematography and writing. Interesting cultural commentary. But...it doesn't really seem to go anywhere. Which is fine, in a novel, or perhaps if I were expecting it in a movie. My only real reference is the novel White Teeth, if that might make sense to one person out there, but it's not even really the same as that. The narrative is spaced out over such a time period...there are lots of touching and interesting and complex plot points, and it really is horribly interesting in a lot of ways...but, just too much and too little in certain, key ways.
For most of Western civilization low sexual desire has been considered a goal rather than a problem. Since the early days of Christianity people’s self-worth was measured by their ability to destroy their sexual desire with their mind (Sex was not a sin if done without desire)……In fact, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes and Graham Crackers were originally marketed as a cure for carnal strivings and masturbation.
Demon Seed seems another interesting and creepy movie from a while back
it's the multiple tables that gets me (and bonus: learn French!)
Long Walk to Freedom, by Nelson Mandela. Wow, I finished reading this on the day Mandela was released from prison after 27 years. Crazy coincidence! Anyway, I think autobiography might be a bit much for me as a genre, it was certainly interesting throughout, but also pondorous simply in being almost the entirety of someone's life. So, something of a discipline-requiring task to finish, however much I learned a great deal about everything from the mind of a great man like Mandela and the history of South Africa; I feel like I know much more about the struggle against apartheid by knowing it from Mandela's mind and experience, than I could know from any article about it. One thing, near the end he notes he's always had trouble relating his feelings and emotions, and at that I realized, that would have made it a whole lot better for someone of mindset, as that's really what I was more interested in than the more bare-fact of most of it.
True Porn, Vol. 2, by a whole slew of people. Wow. I'll admit, I was looking for some quirky titillation, from autobiographical stories about sex by the artist/writers. But I really didn't get much of any arousal at all from it; the stories range from insane to melancholy to sweet to heartbreaking to funny to sickening. Just...a whole range of humanity, and then you realize it's only a slice of reality. Hard to read, and yet horribly addictive and hard to put down. I better get what people are looking for when they say they want something more "authentic" - I think it's what affects you like this does, mayhap.
A for Andromeda sounds original and intriguing, go 1960s
Wow, kind of a real life James Bond
It's like old-school crop circles - except involving Satan; I guess the old devils are the new aliens
Don't know what it's about, but it seems fun and ominous
Wow, I need a tshirt of the middle panel
at 8.2.08 0 comments
Across the Universe, with Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess. It had potential; I probably would have gotten a lot more out of it if I understood what I'll guess are lots of references to Beatles trivia. As it stands, the music was nice, the acting was nice, the stylization was nice...but the plot and characters were just macguffins to me, just to set a frame for the song covers. Of course, if they'd developed that more and played down the songs, that couldn't be had, though, b/c then it wouldn't carry as much Beatles-born weight. But as it stands....that's somebody else's weight, and the movie itself doesn't stand as well on its own, though, and left me with my mind wandering. Not bad, mind, just okay.
SLC Punk!, with Matthew Lillard and Michael Goorjian. Clever! Unexpected ending, though. Actually, unexpected, all the way through, in form (breaking the fourth wall, narration, etc) and in simple subject matter. I expected it to go for more shock value than anything, but it continually poked at the audience to think - how punk, in a sense. I also expected more poking at Mormons given the Salt Lake City setting, but they shied away from that all the way through. Hm. I suppose, in a very oblique sense, it's kind of a more upbeat, less traumatic version of Trainspotting? Mm. I'll have to think about that more before saying Yeah to it.
Sanctuary, a new possible show on SciFi, looks to be interesting...vamps and werewolves and pretty women, oh my...
Great short article about aikido
Interview about NVC, cuts to the quick of some aspects of it, though it's dependent on one paradigm of conversational style, I think, to confer with a book I'm reading on conversational linguistics
at 1.2.08 1 comments
27 Dresses, with Katherine Heigl, James Marsden, and Malin Ackerman. Cute, but I think I still need some buffer time to go back to appreciating standard rom-coms after Once. For example, I was inordinately bothered by every single ham-handed musical cue, but under normal circumstances I probably wouldn't have even noticed. It was kind of interesting how each of the characters was so exaggerated initially, but they did make up for it about three-quarters of the way through somewhat by offering some explanation; I'd rather have toned down, subtler characters and more spread out explanation, but what are you going to do. So yeah. Okay.
Silly rundown of all the dumbass books they've advertised with those moronic ads that CAPITALIZE important WORDS in Black Belt, though there's one interesting paragraph about Robert Trias, who was the head of the Ko Sho schools...
math + pretty colors = crazy delicious/the Sieve of Eratosthenes
Once, with Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. I think the unorthodox approach of this movie is going to spoil me on regular rom-coms for a while if they have even an ounce of cliche in them. The only one I can think of that isn't immediately discounted on some level is Love, Actually, off the top of my head. Or Farscape, I suppose, in a sense. Anyway, Once is easy to watch multiple times on account of it being inundated with good music, so in effect its like listening to a cd you just bought more than once. And on top of that, the music is all really good, natch; on top of that, it was all written and sung by the two leads, who really do have a genuine chemistry stemming from genuine friendship in real life. I'll need a copy of this sometime.
Georgia Rule, with Jane Fonda and Lindsay Lohan. I was surprised to find this another unorthodox movie, which actually raised its value for me immensely, though at the same time I can see why it wouldn't do well in theatres (on account of some of the subject matter, I mean). At first I couldn't stand a couple of the characters, but as the movie went on with its subsequent reveals, I found myself fascinated by at least Lohan's, in turn, and tolerating the others. Not an amazing movie, but a lot better that I expected.
What if the world was divided up this way?
Hm, now I'm glad I didn't try it - pennywort juice
::sniff:: it's so true...
"In life, as in art, the beautiful moves in curves."
Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
crazy light thingie
Jam-packed with action, they say! I'm hoping for lingonberry. But...I don't know about the title...
Huh, check out the part about the middle finger
It almost makes my teeth hurt
For all y'all's perusal, a random collection of information about fruit and vegetable storage
"We are both observer and what is observed at the same time." - thought that was an interesting corollary between quantum stuff and yoga
Juno, with Ellen Page and Michael Cera. Basically, the same theme but opposite end of the spectrum from Knocked Up - understated, subtle, more profound. And so, better! Also much wittier, that too. I'm not even sure what to say about the film, perhaps it's a better take on a Garden State archetype but with pregancy, what with the indie-ish aspect. I loved how the runners aren't actually a function in the movie except as some weird avatar of the weather, but then again, Bleeker is one of them, but not...hmmm...I'm sensing an essay, there. I was going to to say something about Juno's parents being too deadpan to be real or something, but now that I think about it, she's then the perfect product of them. The over-the-top use of slang was a bit much in the opening scenes, but was quickly toned down, is the only negative note I can think of, at the moment.
I'm all over a fem take on Zatoichi, Ichi sounds fun
RaptorSafari! I...uh...well...I got nothin'
Cloverfield, with Lizzy Caplan and several other attractive twenty-somethings. But she's the most attractive. This is one of those movies, like Ultraviolet, where I think I was ambivalent on it initially because of my succeptibility to succumb to the frames of others, ie, the people who I watched it with. But now that I think about it, I really liked it. I like monster movies; and I love movies that really make you feel like you're they're, that you can get into. And this had both in spades. I honestly wasn't too bothered by the camera stuff, just got a little impatient with it at times, but I can see how it would really really kill the movie for some people. It does make me want to get a fire extinguisher and first aid kit for the house, offhand. Like any good zombie/monster movie, it sets the stage for all sorts of imagination-games after. Good stuff, I hope they go places with the setting. Oh! And Caplan's character, interestingly, weirdly, had the same Malkavian pendant on that I had in high school...which exactly one and a half people might get the reference of, so...well, I found that strange and cool.
Better Off Dead, with John Cusack, and Diane Franklin, who is adorable as a French girl. Surreal, surprisingly so. At first I thought the mom was perhaps just soft in the head, and/or that the movie was just badly written, but finally I got through my stubborn framing of it to realize and better appreciate the willful absurdity. So, realizing it's just an insane movie (that perhaps accurately describes the psyche/perception of the teenage main character), I like it a lot more.
28 Weeks Later, with Rose Byrne and Jeremy Renner. Oh, and Imogen Poots, and Mackintosh Muggleton, who have some pretty fun names. First one was better, I think. This one, it was a nice expansion of the setting, but it was...stunted. The characters could have been developed more (as the one the really more developed lost his mind pretty quickly), the setting was worth digging into a good deal more (though I can see why they'd shy away from getting into political attitudes of other countries, but really, if you're going to expand the setting for the purpose of a bigger narrative, might as well go for it). So...yeah, I liked it, but it was an addendum, I think.
Shanghai Noon, with Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan. Both of whom play their usual characters, like the little known dwarves (of the seven), Smarmy and Doofy. This was...a silly movie. Kind of disneyish with some wannabe adult moments thrown in...which doesn't really mesh for me. I guess the fighting was ok. Yeah. Not much to say about it, it's light fare, not too bad, not too great.
Saw II, with Shawnee Smith, Donnie Wahlberg (thought he looked familiar, but only by relation to his brother, I guess) and Tobin Bell. Agh! If only I'd not known the ending before hand, I'm sure this would have been hugely better. But alas. Interesting conceptry again, though the violence wasn't as glossed over as the first Saw, to my minor distaste. I like how they make every female cop ever look the same - that length wavy brown hair, strong cheekbones, etc. Pretty good thriller, a bit gross, not too scary.
New Soul Caliber, with funny special characters...though it seems silly to me, wouldn't the lightsabers just cut through any other weapons?
NSFW - by website, if not picture...can't say I wouldn't think for at least a moment about using it, though, heh
Hatchet, with the girl from Buffy, the guy from Grandma's Boy, and an Asian guy who was a clone of an old friend of ours. Well...it was exactly what it purported to be, an old-school slasher flick. Which is fine. But it didn't really stand out for me, except in seeing the Grandma's Boy actor in a different role, and Harmony's chest, I suppose. I guess it was kind of mindlessly fun, but that was about it.
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, with Adam Sandler, Kevin James and Jessica Alba. Ok, so, I'm going to ascribe it to the training done for Blade Trinity, but I have to say, Alba is pretty...uh....pretty. Except for the catsuit costume, not so flattering. Anyway, hey whoa Rob Schneider was the wedding guy? Weird. Anyway, I think they skirted the line between this just being mean funny and it being a kind and funny movie with good messages, however it was just plain fantasy at times. Still, pleasant and funny, with many a great moment.
Does anyone else find this word that Connie pointed out to me to be hilarious?
Death to Smoochy, with Edward Norton, Catherine Keener, and Robin Williams. Much funnier than I expected, and much lighter than I expected. The stylization was expected, though I'm kind of curious what the effect might have been were it continued all the way through the movie, rather than just used as an introduction. There's a nice little expanded setting in this, and even a sweet romance, a little (slightly psychotic) redemption, Irish mob (suddenly want to watch Boondock Saints), midgets...an odd, crazy, fun movie. Norton: your young self pulled off a cheery role well! And Keener was pretty hot, too, offhand.
When a Killer Calls, with Rebekah Cochan and Robert Buckley. Ugh. So bad it made me angry just to watch it. By the time it got around to the end, I was literally tapping fingers an toes wanting it to be over sooner. Maybe the dumbass characters were more true to reality, of people being that mind-numbingly stupid, but I just couldn't feel any sympathy to characters being blythe to that degree. There was a little twist at the end, I suppose, but it was worthless without having any build-up from the rest of the movie; hell, it wasn't even a lack of build-up, but simply build-up to something else entirely. Argh!
Personally, I find the idea delicious:
"The Seven Up Bar was a candy bar comprising seven different chocolate "pillows", each filled with a different flavor. Flavors changed with the availability and popularity of ingredients, which included, among others, brazil nut, buttercream, butterscotch, caramel, cherry cream, coconut, fudge, mint, nougat and orange.[4] The high manufacturing costs and trademark issues with a soda manufacturer, today Cadbury Schweppes, caused the bar to be retired in 1979"
There's a bunch of cute stories near the bottom; I like the rank of "Able Seacat," personally
It's so pathetically true. Poor SpiderMan.
at 9.1.08 0 comments
Made in America, by Bill Bryson. A generally fun read, but I think I like Mother Tongue more, in the end. This one just went a little bit more into dry, tedious listing than the other, basically, though that's somewhat balanced by it being an interesting way of learning about the history of the United States. Being as it's about the English of the USA. Probably should have explained that first. Anyhoo.
3:10 to Yuma, with Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, and a few other people I recognized but couldn't put names to; and that actor from Firefly. Who dies...again. Sorry Connie! And! And. That guy from The L Word, who I couldn't place, the entire movie. Great western! Why? Because of the characters. Some of the secondary ones were pretty cookie-cutter, but in a way that was kind of necessary, and they made it work. There are some really interesting characters in this movie. And if anybody would like a play-by-play of how I think Crowe's character seduces the barmaid, ask me, once it clicked I wasn't sure if I disliked or respected his snake-charm character more.
Charlie Wilson's War, with Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and a random surprising amount of attractive women. Witty! And not too preachy or politicized. So, the kind of political movie I could like. The women didn't hurt that. And Julia Roberts isn't in it too much, so don't worry, those who aren't keen on her. In other news, I would like an office staff similar to Wilson's someday. That is all.
I'll admit, I'm a little intrigued by this bed, in a purely practical way
at 4.1.08 0 comments
I think Ultraviolet would have been a good bit better if they'd made the pacing as frenetic as Crank. It already has the crazy stylization, and making it more frantic in nature would have buffered some of the silly and uncoordinated aspects.
Aha, I thought so, tango is useful
Interesting, though dense, article on Japanese culture
And a nice article on perspective shifting
It's interesting, offhand, how Palestinian identity has come to be associated with Islam; two Lebanese girls at my mom's school still haven't figured out how she can be Palestinian without being Muslim, it befuddles them. As a consequence, my mom has practically started to disengage from her identity as a Palestinian, as the Christian culture she diaspora'ed to the West with simply hardly exists in the land of origin at all anymore, and Christian Palestinians simply aren't what the international consciousnes views as Palestinian anymore.
at 2.1.08 0 comments
Crank, with Jason Statham and Amy Smart. Popcorn action, which was pretty much what we were looking for. I was hoping for more martial arts from Statham, though - but I suppose the gratuitous nudity kind of made up for that (tangent to that, one of the oddest sex scenes ever). The stylization of the movie was nice, that's something I always enjoy, and that can carry a movie for me, as it did in this case. It's funny, because I could have used more character development, but the frenetic, short nature of the narrative simply precludes doing that at all. That seems like it might be a greater commentary on something, or could be...but, on the other hand, we have T&A and violence. And that's okay too.
A History of Violence, by John Wagner and Vince Locke. Huh, very different from the movie in some ways. It's much less violent overall, but then has a doubly violent and grotesque ending. I thought the husband/wife relationship in the movie were both more intense and more sensical, however they were more disturbing...and yet, perhaps the relationship (and main character) in the graphic novel is more plausible, in the end. There's more character development...though it's kind of a letdown compared to the movie...but again, it's probably more realistic, and perhaps should have a greater weight in that regard...obviously, there are thoughts provoked.
Suicide Kings, with Christopher Walken, Dennis Leary, and several people who apparently went on to have successful careers in television. Interesting, but it moved a bit slowly for me, and I just wasn't sympathetic to any of the characters except the straight up mobsters and the victimized woman, basically. They're all...well, dicks. Everything's tied up nicely by the end, I certainly didn't see the ending coming in that way, but at the same time, I didn't really care about it all that much.
random amusing quote:
"At the Constitutional Convention,, Elbridge Gerry would make a famous remark (curiously absent from modern high school textbooks) in which he compared a standing army to an erect penis – 'an excellent assurance of domestic tranquility, but a dangerous temptation to foreign adventure.'"
Knitta - silly, but benignly cute
The Mother Tongue, by Bill Bryson. Though mostly about the English language, there's a good bit of information about language in general leading up to the main topic. Bryson has a lot of fun with curious trivia and interesting anecdotes, especially when he lets himself get in some acerbic commentary about things that are just silly. At the same time, though, there are some stretches where he just lists too much data that isn't very curious, and it begins to read like genealogy lists in the Bible. More good than not, though.
I Am Legend, with Will Smith, Abby (the German Shepherd), and Alice Braga. A generally good movie, but overall, a definite downer. After learning the plot of the original narrative, I was actually pretty disappointed by the more cookie-cutter way the film went down. I think if it had gone that darker rout, it might have ironically been less of a downer, in a way, because there was a twisted sense of hope in that original. Less cookie-cutter, more perspective shifting. The monsters in this were just a bit too implausible to be really scary, but the cinematography and acting made up for that somewhat. But the ultimate sin of a dog dying, however heroically, was committed, which generally tips a movie into way-too-sad, I'd say.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, with Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Alan Rickman. Also kind of a downer, but in a way that's more bittersweet (and expected, in the tragic sense). I find myself very much liking musicals, actually, and this is an especially good example, and that beyond it already starring a few of my favorite actors. Hell, I was even impressed by Sascha Baron Cohen in his short role, well played!
Razor, with the BSG cast plus Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen. Like a reviewer I noted put it, basically, a long BSG episode. But a good one! The flashback action got a bit silly at one point, but we allowed that maybe that was a throwback to the old school. Or a writer overindulging in their imagination, which, as a Farscape fan, I'll also allow. The temporary main character, Shaw, was interesting, and helped lend the formerly monstrous Admiral Cain a slightly less monstrous mien. All in all, interesting stuff, and it works well as a standalone.
Mr Brooks, with Kevin Costner, Demi Moore, and Dane Cook, oddly. And who apparently replaced Zach Braff? Huh. I get the feeling this was a novel, in how there was a lot of stuff I wanted more backstory on, and more information, and more detail...for example, I wanted to see a lot more of Mr Brooks' relationship and interaction with his wife. Or the development of his daughter. Or of Mr Smith's overall life, and what would lead him to be open to attempting to indulge in such behavior. I want more character development, darn it! My interest was piqued, but not satisfied at all.
-touching military slideshow
The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga, by Vishnudevananda. This book was recommended by the philosophy teacher at Providence; I believe he said to snap up a copy if you ever saw it. And man did I get an old school copy, this is straight up 1960s all the way. Which, interestingly, isn't to say it's like the drug-addled or blissed out or third-hand stuff that does come out of that era. Ok, so maybe the sections on the asanas and pranayama are, but the philosophy is pretty straight-up classical stuff. Now, does that mean it's drawing from Patanjali's Sutras, which are the authority on defining yoga? Not quite, but I consider this author's sources in the Vedantic texts to be right up around there, at least in terms of these philisophic concepts, which the eminently practical Sutras don't often stray. A little tease at the interesting things might be the idea of different degrees of consciousness, which we often hear extended to 'intelligent animals' such as dogs or dolphins; in this model, interestingly, that gets extended in a fairly logical manner all the way through plants and rocks. Crazy stuff, but, not actually all that crazy, it's very logically self-consistent and self-aware.
Golden Army trailer - nice.
The Heartbreak Kid, with Ben Stiller and Michelle Monaghan. Yeah, it was funny at points. But in general...the overall, pervading (yet subtle) negativity turned me off a lot. I mean, it went all the way through the very end, and just teased at bright rays, only to laughingly quash them. It kind of reminds me of Sideways, in some ways, such as a main character whom I dislike so much it kind of kills the movie for me.
funny sentence (about a Swiss martial art):
"Traditionally, Schwingen is a male sport. Women have only been schwinging for few years, the Frauenschwingverband, women's Schwing association, has been founded in 1992."
Balls of Fury, with Dan Fogler, Maggie Q, Christopher Walken, and a little Reno 911 thrown in. I think one of the special features described it quite well - "a kung fu movie with absolutely no kung fu." Which actually isn't quite true, there are a couple decent fight scenes featuring the cutie Q, minus the stupid wire tricks. Nice to see a strong female character, though, who obviously is not subservient to any male. Yeah, it's dumb, but it's not as if it's painfully trying not to be - it's just a dumb, funny satire of Enter the Dragon and Karate Kid, with a good set of characters and actors for them.
Ratatouille, with Janeane Garrofalo and lots of rats. I thought it was cute, and better than I expected. I remember watching a third of Cars and kind of sighing as zoned out, but this film kept me engaged all the way through. The animation is top notch, natch, and there's even a cute little short that was quite informative about rats. Though in watching I reflected that perhaps I just don't have a delicate enough palate to appreciate haute cuisine, in my limited experience it's just seemed like very rich, expensive regular food in odd portions. So I didn't get hungry, surprisingly, from watching. On the other hand, now I do have an urge to get a pet rat upon Ms Kim informing us that they can just be let loose in the house, but it would either be a) stepped on, b) exploded by Ms Mattie, or c) eviscerated by Ms Rogue. So I guess that's a no go, alas.
A rocking, and slightly disturbing preview of a Star Wars game from Phil
Why do I have an underlying fear of deep water, you ask?
How come meteors don't land in the middle of New York, then? That's a natural disaster you never hear of...
Beowulf, with Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, and Sebastian Roché. It was okay, but wouldn't have been all that great without the 3D. Which was interesting, quite so, but...not all that necessary for most movies, I think. Actually, it was a little distracting at points, I suppose. I wonder if there's a market for 3D porn, offhand. That was an unrelated tangent thought. But think of the possibilities...Anyway. The highlight of the movie for me was the little Old English they used, I love hearing archaic languages like that out loud. The story was definitely changed, but in a quite sensical way that actually made it a cohesive story, rather than the odd fragmentary nature of the original. Of course, this script was written by Neil Gaiman, so natch.
"The Romans had no word for gray. To them it was another shade of dark blue or dark green. Irish Gaelic possesses no equivalent of yes or no. They must resort to roundabout expressions such as 'I think not' and 'This is so.'"
Saw, with Leigh Whannell and Cary Elwes. I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. Where I thought it would revel in simple gratuitous helplessness, pain, and gore, it actually glossed through much of that with clever stylizing. Well played! I think that's part of what elevates it above mushbrain movies like I feared it would be, like, say, Hostel. That, and the gradual-yet-driving character development woven together with the plot. Like I said, pleasantly surprised.
Catch and Release, with Jennifer Garner, Kevin Smith, and Timothy Olyphant. Actually, ditto with this one, too. I think the word for this movie is 'ambling.' I'm torn between claiming it as unique and acknowledging some kind of cliche tropes (the best friend obviously secretly in love with the taken girl). Yet, whatever cliche there is, is at least mitigated by placing it in a narrative structure which I would go so far as to say mimics the kind of trout stream that flows in and out of the movie as a setting and trope. If that sentence made any sense.
In researching the ingredients in the 'detox' Yogi Tea, I found creepy eyeball berries
Didn't figure it was actually a technical term
'Poetry is the place where language in its silence is most beautifully articulated. Poetry is the language of silence. If you look at a page of prose, it is crowded with words. If you look at a page of poetry, the slim word shapes are crouched in the empty whiteness of the page. The page is a place of silence where the contour of the word is edged and the expression is heightened in an intimate way. One way to invigorate and renew your language is to expose yourself to poetry. In poetry your language will find cleansing illumination and sensuous renewal.'
Get excited! In the long run, anyway, most probably won't come out for a long time.
Heh, why yes, I am juvenile:
"The word "avocado" comes from the Spanish word aguacate, which derives in turn from the Nahuatl (Aztec) word ahuacatl, meaning "testicle", because of its shape."
Woo! Cash Cab! Like Jeopardy, a game show I actually like
"When powdered bark is treated with tincture of iodine (a test for starch), little effect is visible in the case of pure cinnamon of good quality, but when cassia is present a deep-blue tint is produced, the intensity of the coloration depending on the proportion of cassia." -- perhaps this is where the combination of cinnamon-taste/smell and dark blue color for the spice in the Dune novels comes from - a combination of wealth and exotic (cinnamon) and the poison of cassia (the dark blue effect)
Hey! Dude with the cow, first payment, awesome.
The Golden Compass, with Dakota Blue Richards, Daniel Craig, and Nicole Kidman. Unfortunately, it's been long enough since I've read the book that I didn't realize the full extent of how far this diverged from the original story. That said, I think the omissions of certain themes probably saved it for some people, who would have arbitrarily dismissed it otherwise. But at what cost? It occurred to me that this is kind of like the Dune movies in relation to those novels, to me - it's going to seem rushed and yet still overly complex (if not just disorderly) in movie form, no matter what you do, because there's such a wealth in each set of novels that it really just can't effectively fit into another format.
No Country for Old Men, with Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, and several others. In one sense, I like this movie in aspects. The cinematography is amazing, and I love that wide-open terrain, which was done great justice. In terms of acting, there couldn't be better, and the structure of the narrative was lovely. But I think what makes me draw back from it is the sheer, subtle horror of what the characters do and represent - dark things in the hearts of men, it might be put. But oh so human. Hm. Pithy pithy, pithypithy. Heh.
Not quite tai chi-capoeira, but it's kind of close
Fleet Week = F/A-18 under bridge, almost supersonic
"My belief is that the truth is a truth until you organize it, and then becomes a lie. I don't think that Jesus was teaching Christianity, Jesus was teaching kindness, love, concern, and peace. What I tell people is don't be Christian, be Christ like. Don't be Buddhist, be Buddha like." - Wayne Dyer
don't worry, Rogue, I'll never subject you to such
that's one old dude
Un-freaking-believable - though, I do suddenly have visions of combat drones acting as such (from me da)
not sure what it is, but it's pretty cool (from me da)
from Phil, Brokeback Trek
True Lust, by Tristan Taormino. Basically, Love Line combined with The L Word (with more butch-ness, though written from a femme perspective) with dabs of journalism. Taormino adeptly brushes between gender and cultural theory and touching upon her personal experiences with everything from getting coached in masturbation to her personal opinions on various kinks and sexual practices, all within in a context of her own experience. And, on top of all that, in a very casual, personable, easy to read style. Well played, Ms Taormino. A nice collection of essays.
-if saw this through a telescope unexpectedly I'm fairly sure I'd yelp
-sounds like they should make a movie about Antar, to me (yay warrior-poets!)
-No idea what it is, but it seems very interesting
-I always figured quantum computers would be pretty
-I forget that he was so contemporary:
“Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.” - Pablo Picasso
-and wow, he was a bit sassy:
“If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.” - Albert Einstein
-stress boob?
Léon (The Professional), with Jean Reno and a very young Natalie Portman. Well, for one, I really like Portman and Reno, and often like Luc Besson's films, so I was pretty much going to like this movie, regardless. That said, it wasn't what I was expecting, which would have been simpler and probably banal - that is, say, the girl simply being taught to be a hit...uh, hitwoman. Hit-teen? Anyway, there was more depth and pathos to the movie as it is, though reading about the extended version, it seems that would have a combination of the two ends of the spectrum, which I'd like to see someday as contrast. Hm. And yeah, part of me wanted more action for some reason, but that really wouldn't have fit the movie so well. Oh, and Gary Oldman was amazing, as usual.
One of those things, not sure if it's clever or stupid
the hell? celery soda?
pfft: "Mountain Dew's name is a previously-existing euphemism for moonshine, which likely traces back to Ireland (see the Irish folk song "The Rare Auld Mountain Dew"), and has generally been marketed to highlight its potency. It was originally marketed as "zero proof moonshine" and had pictures of hillbillies on the bottle until 1973."
tempted to move to Kentucky and accomplish something
purty art
Check out the last fight scene in Screamers, it's so simple, and the actresses probably aren't martial artists really, but it's also so effective in conveying the robotic nature and power of the combatants and in really making it seem as if they are pretty badass - with a little subtle camera shake, one almost quails away from a missed kick slammed up against a wall, for example.
Ah, the common spherical cow
downright impressive once they get going faster
the world is a crazy place
on Trinity, a comparison
Hot Rod, with Andy Samberg and Isla Fisher. Uh...dumb. But, I suppose, that was perfect for the state we were in last night. It really did pull off dumb, without being the kind of trying-too-hard-to-be-dumb that would make me want to walk away. Ah, absurd is probably a better word for it - the story takes place in a kind of absurd setting, with absurd characters, which is much, much better than trying to pull off absurd characters in setting that doesn't match that. And as equally absurd as the plot was - trying to raise money for an ailing stepfather just so his ass can be properly kicked - that really did tie it together nicely.
-aw, I like ants...dang creepy fluke thing that probably inspired several horror movies
-we have to bring the Mesoamerican ballgame back (and give it a better name)
Archangel, with James Bond and Yekaterina Rednikova. Rednikova was quite a cutie. And did anyone else notice that in the brothel, she was the only girl with non-blonde hair? I guess there was one redhead. Anyway...the idea of the narrative is interesting, but at the risk of spoiling it, that very idea is completely stymied at the end of the movie. Hence, I will label the story: "stunted." That, and I just could not bring myself to care about any of the characters, who all seemed very self-serving to various degrees, if not outright jerks. Not horrible, I mean, it was serviceable, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to see it again.
A creature of pure rage. That also uses tools. The adorable honey badger.
Teeth seems frightening on several semantic levels, ie, in terms of cultural context and response and ohdeargodteeth!
Interesting posit:
"There are three ways to make wealth: make it, mine it, or grow it."
Hitman, with Timothy Olyphant and Dougray Scott. Aside from one particular fight scene, this movie really didn't do much for me at all. Well, I suppose the almost-always semi-nude Olga Kurylenko did it for me as well, but at the same time, she was almost-naked to an almost ludicrous degree. Reading about the games, I think the movie would have much better been served if it had actually followed the game's plot at all, rather than just taking the character and throwing out a few easter eggs. And the close-ups that pervaded the film were a bit much, I think; as in The Fountain, those instances perhaps better translate, interestingly, to a smaller screen. Sigh, I wish I could just take just the fight scenes out of some movies...
Rescue Dawn, with Christian Bale and Timothy Zahn. Aside from a wince-worthy special effects introduction, the greater part of this movie seemed carefully crafted in terms of cinematography and acting and appearance. Other than that (oh, and a strange, almost incongruous ending), it seemed less a film than a kind of journal based on some real experiences. I think I would have appreciated it more had there been a documentary-style narration accompanying it, as I felt that either I was missing a lot, or a lot was being left out in terms of explanations and information. Or perhaps that was just replicating the POW's experience...hm.
A nice collection of (mostly vintage) articles on Savate and its offshoots is under "Essays"
On good attitude: "Keeping his units concentrated and moving deliberately, Smith made an aggressive assault to break out of the reservoir. When asked if the Marines were retreating, Smith explained that their fighting withdrawal through Chinese lines did not constitute a retreat. His explanation was abbreviated into the famous misquote, "Retreat? Hell, we're attacking in a different direction!""
I thought this quote was very true and wish I'd had it to use in my thesis on Frank Herbert's Dune:
"Arizona and the Southwest tells you one sure thing: Everything that matters is here and it is in peril."
And that this one was just interesting:
"Once Bil had tracked a coyote in the snow of the mountain and this trail had led to a roadrunner with broken wings and a coyote blinded in both eyes by the bird. He had to destroy them both..."
Also, lastly, the idea that people back in the day titled their diaries and journals sounds fun, like:
"The Journal and Maps of Caved D. Couts"
or
"The Whipple Report"
Though I guess I did that when I kept a lyrical journal, calling it "Threnody's Song"
Fun little quiz, a few answers I don't quite agree with, but most are pretty spot on
The Fountain, with Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. As much as I didn't get the movie without Ms. Kim's adept help, and applause-worthy cinching-sentence (according to the room of people, anyway), I enjoyed it. Very...quiet, very artsy movie, with a lovely score and absolutely gorgeous golden palette and organic imagery. Also, there is great shifting acting (between the three disparate sections), and a melancholy but still lovely message conveyed by the narrative, made all the more interesting and rich by its resulting three (and more?) layers. The more I think about it, the more I like it.
Employee of the Month, with Dane Cook, Dax Shepard, and a slinky blonde tart. Aaand, here we have: stupid. Well, I suppose it did have some flourishes, like a protagonist who is nervous around girls to some degree, and solid theme of doing anything for one's own satisfaction and pride, and the rest following. Then, there was Jessica Simpson, and eh jokes, and confused tropes of heartfelt or comedy or what. Eh, it was fine, I guess.
I like the helmetcams the best...psychos...awesome psychos...
I am officially interested (this was also one of my favorite short stories, just for the sheer wonder/terror of it)
A Mighty Wind, with Christopher Guest and his usual cast. I liked this one better than the last Christopher Guest movie we watched, For Your Consideration, I think this one is perhaps more cheerful. Even kind of poignant at times. Not as hilarious as Best in Show, though. The deadpan humor is not for everyone, but in the same sort of vein as The Life Aquatic, there's an endearing cast of characters that makes for a relaxing movie.
The Quiet, with Elisha Cuthbert and Camilla Belle. Ok, so the main themes of this movie (incest, abuse of a deaf person) are certainly off-putting to most audiences. That said, I still think it's a pretty quality movie. Pleasantly twisty narrative, attractive cast, interesting dark cinematography, atmosphere, and music are all abounding. So, I'm glad I bought it for less than two dollars, but would have actually paid more to gladly rent it. Hm. That sentence may not have made sense.
...the gunpowder treason and plot.
Heaven, by Ian Cohen and Jack Stewart. And a coincidentally perfect companion video. I'll borrow this nice sentence from a review of these authors' other book: "Although their characters and world-building lack believability, the authors wield scientific speculation with cheerful abandon, providing some real old-fashioned sense of wonder." That pretty much sums it up right there, in what I probably would have said in several sentences. I will add that as much as it's hard to read in being...well, written by a couple of academics, it is artfully constructed in terms of structure, so that's something. Lots of incredibly interesting ideas, loosely shoved into an unbelievable, even for science fiction, setting. So, worth reading in the one regard, if you're up for the challenge of non-stimulation.
One thing I noted about the All Souls Procession last night was the odd beauty of hundreds of cameras constantly flashing. From within the parade, and from the multitude of people watching on the sidewalks, it was like a constant lightning storm. I wonder how a procession of a couple hundred years back would think about that.
-interesting burial alternatives
Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill. This being the progenitor of night every self-directed work from the 1930s on, I could certainly see where everything from The Secret to everything less popular got most of their stuff. Or, one might argue, they're all just speaking to universal principles, I suppose. In the same vein, the yogic texts of yore obviously came thousands of years before the 1930s, and they contain much of the same gist of things. All that said, this book is particularly interesting in my mind because, one, the sheer passion of its author - if the history textbooks that spoke to the same subjects (in some chapters of this book) spoke with the same verve and vigor, I would have become a history major come college time. And two, the manner in which the book was written, which was by true life experience, and interviews with some of the most historically prominent and successful people the time, ie, the richest people in the world.
It's funny, hearing a story from a friend at work about his brother-in-law getting in a fight with a bunch of Arabs after a road-rage kind of incident (I'm talking a literal fistfight in the middle of Alvernon), and then later finding the group's car and baseball bat'ing their headlights, I was reminded of a sensation I had often in working at the hospital, but rarely feel now. That is, that I am damn lucky to have the life I have. Remembering people I spent hours with at the hospital, I don't have theft as an everyday occurrence in my life (including people walking into your apartment and literally taking things out of your hands), or getting mugged, or just jumped for no reason at all, or get hit by a car and then left to bleed by the side of the road. I could go on. But for the majority of people, everyday existence is defined by massive, weighty debt, by omnipresent danger, and by utter despair at not only feeling stuck in that situation, but not having the slightest clue as to how to get out of it. So fuck it all, right? And so, in those moments, I feel a bit irked at myself in my everyday assumption that everyone has a life as peachykeen as mine. But, that's a good kind of upset, in the end, I suppose.
-
"Eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside." Mark Twain
Been a while since I've written here, huh?
Though at first I had to get out my giggles at the bad-joke-potential brand name of the homeopathic supplement my sweet girlfriend had gotten me ("Wood"), I've been having a lot of fun researching the ingredients. The first few, such as Belladonna, are interesting plants in that if consumed in too large a quantity, they are toxic in downright horrific ways, and yet if consumed in a proper, miniscule quantity, they act as antidotes or medecines. In another sense, I learned about everything from medieval cosmetics to ancient abortion methods. And then there are some minerals (oddly used to make soaps and such) which I eventually figured out just have poeticized names in the homeopathic world, which I guess has a psychological school attached to it? Interesting!
What's really interesting to me, though, is the idea of taking the subtle essences of these things, and then - with some drops of what basically amounts to water beneath the tongue - affecting one's subtle body with it (ie, the bioenergetic, cakra level, closer to the soul, as it were). There's something almost poetic in the delicacy of it, and only compounded by the idea that, say, a flu vaccine is essentially a homeopathic remedy in that essence-sense. It's fun to look at modern medicine on a subtle (in the yogic sense) level.
--sidenote: the top ingredient in the "Fire" supplement is basically "honeybee"
---and another ingredient is essence of venomous pit viper?!
Does this seem a random association to anyone else? Well, I guess one could make a Silk Road reference.
"An Australian abalone diver miraculously escaped a Great White Shark attack in January after the shark half-swallowed him head first.
The diver's lead weight vest saved his life by stopping the shark's teeth from biting him in half and the shark then released the diver."
"Our language is an imperfect instrument created by ancient and ignorant men. It is an animistic language that invites us to talk about stability and constants, about similarities and normal and kinds, about magical transformations, quick cures, simple problems, and final solutions. Yet the world we try to symbolize with this language is a world of process, change, differences, dimensions, functions, relationships, growths, interactions, developing, learning, coping, complexity. And the mismatch of our ever-changing world and our relatively static language forms is part of our problem."
I wonder if that's why I'm so keyed into a lot of Sanskrit words, which are more specifically geared towards the latter paradigm.
mmm, smashy
--Worship is basically paying attention, in a sense. And what you pay attention to, you take on the qualities of, following a meditative principle (re: tratika, the candle flame meditation that maked you focused and clear, lighting up the dark, as it were). So, in that sense, worship in the religious sense is for our sake, not any god's.
--"If our civilization collapses, are you going to continue your yoga? I hope so! I hope you notice the passing, and continue on."
Well, Charlie Victor Romeo certainly sounds disturbing
In a bid to update my wardrobe some from its monochrome spartan-ness (both for my own benefit and over time as a yoga teacher), I decided to get a little at a time, starting with this shirt.
And then spent a night and a day being disappointed by a lack of reaction to said shirt. I got one person say that they'd seen it somewhere before, which they probably had, being quite clever in their own fashion sense. When my girlfriend noticed, she thankfully had a gratifying reaction, immediately saying that is was certainly a shirt suited to me (yay girlfriend!). And then a guy at work looked at it quizzically, then laconically pointed out that if someone didn't know what a haiku was, the shirt is basically nonsensical. As the guy next to him laughed uncomfortably, knowing he should be laughing but not really understanding why, I felt kind of bad in the end.
The lesson? Just take satisfaction in displaying what amounts to my sense of humor upon my chest.
In other news, this is basically like where I work. Except with less rancor.
The Number 23, with Jim Carrey and Virginia Madsen. Well, it was better than I expected, considering the poor reviews I'd heard of it. I think a darker ending than the kind of complacent one it had would have served it better, though the whole premise was kind of shaky to begin with (the numbers thing being like a horoscope in that you can apply it nigh however you want). The dream-y bits depicting what's happening in the eponymous book are fun, though.
Kind of tempted.
Layer Cake, with James Bond and Chief O'Brian, and The Bourne Ultimatum, with Maaaat Daaamon, and the shrew from 10 Things I Hate About You. In two sentences. The former movie (limey), is very stylish, high quality cinematography, well put together, and full of clever twists....but plaid (as Kevin adroitly put it, a twist at 60mph is exciting, while a twist at 10mph...not so much). The latter (merrican) is kind of excessive, shaky, badass, in-your-face, and awesome.
interesting posit:
"The fact that Palestinian nationalism developed later than Zionism and indeed in response to it does not in any way diminish the legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism or make it less valid than Zionism. All nationalisms arise in opposition to some 'other.' Why else would there be the need to specify who you are? And all nationalisms are defined by what they oppose..."
Kind of a scary headline(reminds of some novel I read in like 6th grade, I think, about a space plague or something)
Mmm, eerie pretty
Go spiders, go spiders...you're the...uh...spiders! (aka go team!)
I applaud the clever
From Wyatt, best football game ever
City Infernal, by Edward Lee. Ironically, for as much as one might think that a story mostly set in hell might be the most shocking and disgusting of Lee's stories, it's really not at all. The bits that are a bit shocking just aren't really, in just being so over the top and fantastic as to be ludicrous. That's not to say it isn't kind of a fun read, with a few twists and turns and a very (oddly, fun) imaginative take on the concept of hell. I just can't get the notion of the whole book being kind of silly out of my head. Weird.
Wyatt's counter
Posit: running off the idea that "all models are inherently incorrect on some level - some are useful," isn't reality as we perceive it simply a model constructed by our sensory input? Reality as a useful, but ultimately inherently incorrect model. Hm. Puts one of yoga's goals of "seeing things as they are" in a whole new light.
Hopeless romantics unite!
at 6.9.07 0 comments
Blindsight, by Peter Watts. Um. Read this book. Do it. Now. Do it. It's like Evolution's Shore times 2001 times everything every scifi show ever wasn't, times...uh...I could go on. Ok wait, backing up, this is a bit of challenge to read and comprehend. I know it'll take me at least another reading to feel like I more fully get it. But not in a frustrating way, more like, damn but I wish I was more smrt. Watts takes his usual tact of placing bleeding-edge, unorthodox characters in tight quarters, and then shaking the container with morally ambiguous and paradigm-challenging situations. And makes the scariest, most plausible vampires, ever. And! And. The scariest, most plausible aliens, ever. Those points, plus Watts's usual bevy of research and notes in the appendices, should be more than enough points for whoever is reading this to go out and get the book. Clickclickclick.
Cotard's Syndrome is also freaky-deaky
-interesting: beer made out of trees
-Moray eels are the ancestors of aliens, that's all there is to it
The Ten, with a big ol' ensemble cast. Ten short stories about breaking the ten commandments. Kind of hit or miss in some of them, but the majority were good, and the transitions with Paul Rudd, Jessica Alba and Famke Janssen really tied them together. I enjoyed how they created completely unexpected twists with most of the stories, especially, and Winona Ryder shone and really saved the movie in some instances. So, in the end, I'm going to come down on the side of it being a great, surreal comedy. Vvvvvahina.
Vacancy, with Luke Wilson, Kate Beckinsale, and a very very creepy Frank Whaley. I suppose it was kind of Hitchcockian, as it was purported to be, but I never really got that into it. And why on earth would they have a dvd extra that was nothing but the snuff films? Well, of course I understand why, but still. I don't know...the characters were certainly consciously developed, and the situation was as well put together as it was going to be, but...I was just never drawn into it. It's like the whole movie was kind of characterized by the lame ending - random hints and buildup, and then a big, silent word flashed on the screen which may as well have been "ANTICLIMACTIC." Which would have been a lot more hilarious had it been flashed throughout the movie.
-just because I'm all aobut brain exercise these days
-hemineglect: kinda freaky
"Elephant seals spend up to 80 percent of their lives in the ocean. They can hold their breath for over 80 minutes—longer than any other non-cetacean mammal. Furthermore, elephant seals possess the ability to dive to 1500 meters beneath the ocean's surface. The average depth of their dives is about 300 to 600 meters, as they search for their favorite foods, which are skates, rays, squid, octopuses, eels, and small sharks. Their stomachs also often contain gastroliths. While excellent swimmers, they are even more surprising on land, where they have a higher velocity than the average human when moving over sand dunes.
Elephant seals are shielded from extreme cold by their blubber, more than by fur. The skin on top of this blubber and its hair molts periodically. It has to be re-grown by blood vessels reaching through the blubber. When molting occurs, the seal is susceptible to the cold, and must rest on land, in a safe place called a "haul-out." The type of molt which an elephant seal undergoes is a catastrophic molt. While this is taking place, the bulls actually cease fighting with one another.
Elephant seals have extra spaces in their abdomens called sinuses where they can store extra blood."
on lucid dreaming - though, as I read the end of it, I got a huge wave of goosebumps in recalling the film Waking Life
Being enclosed, protected, and kept away from dangers, children cannot help but enlarge their fragile egos in their daily lives, where they feel their lives as something dim. — Hayao Miyazaki
Does anyone else think that the descriptions in the Schmidt Sting Pain Index are hilariously specific?
Photography composition like whoa
Eerily pleasant
Slither, by Edward Lee. Wait, wait, I'm still hung up on the ending. Which was pretty hilarious. Lee is known for writing novels that combine the erotic with the grotesque in extreme ways, basically one step up from pulp. I wouldn't say the actual quality of his writing is that great at all (for example, in this one he often gets bogged down in needless scientific language that just seems meant to show off that he did his research), but he certainly knows how to generate some real visceral reactions in the reader, with some images in this novel that almost made me sick. And then when I did yardwork I suddenly had a moment of irrational fear upon realizing I was holding a branch covered in little green bugs. In that sense, this particular novel is definitely weighted more on the grotesque than the erotic side, not for the weak of stomach.
Reaction (supplement-wise) to sudden cold, which seems to have worked pretty well:
(in the afternoon)
-3 garlic capsules
-1 vitamin-B pill
-1 calcium pill
-2 vitamin-C pills
-1 fish oil capsule
-2 tylenol-cold pills
-2 cranberry capsules
(and before bed)
-1 fish oil capsule
-2 tylenol-cold pills
-1 triphala pill
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, featuring the song, "I Like Your Booty (But I'm Not Gay)". Well...maybe if I'd seen more than a couple minutes of the show, first. I have to say, the humor seemed like something I should have been laughing at a lot more, but I was also exhausted when we we starting the movie already, and am probably sick. So it was probably funnier than I perceived it to be.
Supposedly, the worst poem ever written in the English language
A couple sagacious points about BJJ
Superbad, with Jonah Hill and Michael Cera. Looks like movies written by Seth Rogen are turning out to be consistently pretty good, if following a pretty archetypical pattern, as Kevin pointed out to me last night. I have to say, though, as Kim noted with a poke or two, there were moments where I couldn't bear to look at the screen - humor based on discomfort is still funny to me, but something about it makes me so uncomfortable in turn that I have to look away. Still, overall, it wasn't an utterly hilarious movie throughout, but it was pretty damn funny without being banal or asinine.
Black Sheep, with...random Kiwi people. It's pretty flocked up. And gross in the old-school gore-flick sense. Funny, though, I mean, one can't help but laugh at sheep being violent. I was really happy nothing happened to any dog, I was really worried that they'd have a scene like that, which just would have ruined the movie. But nope! Just sheep sex and violence. Huh, and the special effects were done by the Lord of the Rings people, I thought they seemed surprisingly good.
Jesus Camp, with some horribly charismatic chilluns. Interesting documentary in that, unlike a Michael Moore film, say, there is almost zero pushing of the film-maker's agenda - they let the subject speak for itself. And it's pretty scary; we couldn't stop shaking our heads, muttering sad denials, and sighing. Basically: let's hope those little, fundamentalist, evangelical kids all get on a bus and ride off a cliff. I don't mean that. But the movie was kind of that scary.
--*--
Sweet jebus this movie looks fun
Whoa - I'm reminded of a particular scifi short story I read, wherein a guy has a little fairy (ie, child-ish sized) that's something of a perfect companion for him out in space (creepily, not just emotionally but sexually as well) and is an artificial organism in that particular sense
Huh, I'll look at cacti a whole new way now
Wow, the Yazidi have a really interesting take on the Lucifer story-archetype
Cloudberries!
"A bagel is a donut with rigor mortis."
Whoa
interesting quote:
"Compulsions…involve chronic, often ritualistic behaviors that we use to calm ourselves and reduce tension. We do not derive pleasure so much from the actual behavior as from the relief it provides...compulsions are typified by words such as I can’t, I have to, and I must, and so on...they act as a security blanket to cover troublesome feelings. Using Buddhist language, you could say compulsions are highly charged attachment. What separates a compulsion from a mere preference is the agitation and distress one feels if the compulsion is not satisfied."
This sounds like a recipe for a good fantasy-historical epic to me
Bioshock looks like it might be a fun game
Hmm...looking at the keyboard....I'd go with, um...."&"
Flight of the Eisenstein, by James Swallow. With the Horus Heresy epic consisting of two trilogies with several novels in between, this is the first of those 'in between' books. Focusing more narrowly than the initial trilogy, I'd say Swallow's writing serves the story well in creating a sort of companion novel to the previous book. There are a few Rashomon-perspective scenes in the initial section, and more of an emphasis on the themes of the nature of nascent faith and its opposite number within the setting, chaos and sorcery (and the negative traits that those embody in turn). Though, the action isn't as great, but Swallow really has a massively tough act to follow, so I'll throw that complaint away. And! Something of the origin of the Sisters of Battle, and another interesting origin that is basically obvious only within the last couple pages, so I won't give that one away. So, basically, it's good if one remembers it's a companion novel for the most part to the initial trilogy.
Zodiac, with Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr, and a slew of other random people. Long. Ass. Movie. Mm, well, I take that back, there are longer ones, this one at least held my attention. It's definitely a quality movie, I guess I just found it hard to really like it on account of it inevitably not really ever going anywhere, as the case was never actually solved. I suppose a little more character development of the cartoonist character would have helped me; I didn't even realize he'd gotten married at one point - he just seemed something of a neutral space to carry the story, and the other characters even seemed to comment on his nature in that regard at a couple points.
Nanochondria sound like they would be cool, but I don't think I'd trust 'em
When I read the headline, Squirrels Outwit Rattlesnakes in Infrared, all I could think of was squirrels with little night-vision goggles (and if they can neutralize venom, can we learn to do that, too?)
The Contract, with Morgan Freeman and John Cusack. It's pretty much a perfect movie equivalent of the kind of novel you buy at an airport or supermarket. Seems deep on a surface level, but it's really not; rather, it has some excuse for semi-plausible action, some tepid thrills, some mildly interesting characters, and a coincidence and contrivance-laden plot. But, it's not horrible, it's just kind of...fine. Which is fine.
Ooo, epic
Octopus Pie looks like it could be a fun comic
Random: got a photo used in a Denver travel website!
The nervous system teacher last night told us an interesting story from when she was in the forest service about an encounter with a man on PCP. When she came upon him (and he wasn't a very big guy, mind), he was tearing concrete picnic tables out of where they were set in the ground with seeming ease; when she tried to address him (though her horse was smartly wanting to back away) he could only scream gibberish at her. Apparently, PCP can make the user regress so that they're only using their brainstem, or, as it is sometimes called, the reptilian mind (for when it appeared on the evolutionary scale). So that's respiratory, heart-rate, digestion, and muscle tone...everything else goes out the window - for example, language, hence, the guy pretty much speaking in tongues.
Slash, this craziness. Anyone else noting similarities to zombies (think of the definition given in the first Resident Evil film), 28 Days Later, or Stephen King's novel Cell?
How odd is that animal?
And some what related, I didn't realize there was a set name for that (but...does that mean they'd have a beak where...uh...hm?)
at 7.8.07 2 comments
