Hot But Dull. I really wanted Man of Steel to be fun movie. And at times, it was. It was worth the matinee price. The superhero battle sequences are fun, if a bit silly, and the no-red-undies-on-the-outside, hex-mesh-fabric Superman outfit is an improvement over past iterations. Henry Cavill, I am assured by multiple female sources, is more than a little bit hot, so Superman is also super-good-looking. The controversial end of the climactic battle posed no issues for me. Normally, I like it when an action movie is loud and ‘splodey. At 143 minutes, the movie could have been a good thirty minutes shorter without cutting out anything of importance whatsoever. The movie went over the top with A-list celebrities in small-to-middling roles, to the point that seeing so many of them in so many different roles became distracting. Could the writers and the FX crew have beat up on Metropolis just a little bit less? Superman is portrayed in comic books as being super-smart on top of being super-studley.
The Matrix, or Two Sides of Perversion. When I saw The Matrix at a local theatre in Slovenia, I had the unique opportunity of sitting close to the ideal spectator of the film - namely, to an idiot. A man in the late 20ies at my right was so immersed in the film that he all the time disturbed other spectators with loud exclamations, like "My God, wow, so there is no reality! "… I definitely prefer such naive immersion to the pseudo-sophisticated intellectualist readings which project into the film the refined philosophical or psychoanalytic conceptual distinctions.(1) It is nonetheless easy to understand this intellectual attraction of The Matrix: is it not that The Matrix is one of the films which function as a kind of Rorschach test [ setting in motion the universalized process of recognition, like the proverbial painting of God which seems always to stare directly at you, from wherever you look at it — practically every orientation seems to recognize itself in it?
Reaching the End Of the World. Heavy.Metal.2000 *Full Movie* The Gervais Principle, Or The Office According to “The Office” My neighbor introduced me to The Office back in 2005. Since then, I’ve watched every episode of both the British and American versions. I’ve watched the show obsessively because I’ve been unable to figure out what makes it so devastatingly effective, and elevates it so far above the likes of Dilbert and Office Space.
Until now, that is. Now, after four years, I’ve finally figured the show out. The Office is not a random series of cynical gags aimed at momentarily alleviating the existential despair of low-level grunts. It is a fully realized theory of management that falsifies 83.8% of the business section of the bookstore. The theory begins with Hugh MacLeod’s well-known cartoon, Company Hierarchy (below), and its cornerstone is something I will call The Gervais Principle, which supersedes both the Peter Principle and its successor, The Dilbert Principle. From The Whyte School to The Gervais Principle Back then, Whyte was extremely pessimistic. Which brings us to our main idea. Eddard Stark’s Ethics of Honor. ~by Kyle Cupp “Have you no shred of honor?” Ned Stark asks this question to the ever-plotting Lord Petyr Baelish toward the end of A Game of Thrones.
The question exposes the Lord of Winterfell’s two biggest failings: 1) he fails time and again to realize that those around him (deceitful schemers he inexplicably trusts) have less care for honor than the Wall has warmth, and 2) his guiding ethical philosophy, so to speak, is as morally insufficient as it is simplistic. I wish to focus on this second weakness. No one can say that Eddard Stark isn’t principled and doesn’t endeavor (most of the time) to stay true to his principles. King Robert lies wounded, near death, and has entrusted the kingdom to Ned, having named him Protector of the Realm.
For Ned, the matter is simple. Ned Stark is unmoved: “It is not a choice. Ned’s “ethics” of honor falls short because he doesn’t have a basis for judging what is worthy of honor. Why the 'The Hunger Games's Snub of 'Battle Royale' Matters. Hollywood's next likely blockbuster, The Hunger Games, is set to open this Friday, March 23. This work is unique from past remakes or adaptations of Asian stories in that its creator denies any knowledge of the classic Japanese book (1999) and movie Battle Royale (2000), with which it shares extraordinary parallels. Both movies feature a corrupt totalitarian government that places children on an isolated island to fight brutally to the death using weapons packs, until one last winner emerges.
They implant tracking devices into the children and fill the island with cameras, which are observed by a control room that airs the competition to the general population. A female protagonist ultimately triumphs with the help of a boy with whom she develops a relationship. This isn't the first time Hollywood has made minor modifications on an Asian story and marketed it as a novel piece of art. Akira is currently being remade and re-set in neo-New York.
Wow, you couldn't make this stuff up. “The Hunger Games” Versus “Battle Royale” – A Critical Analysis of Two Similar Works: Act One – Comparing the Original Books. Pages This Blog Linked From Here Tuesday, March 20, 2012 “The Hunger Games” Versus “Battle Royale” – A Critical Analysis of Two Similar Works: Act One – Comparing the Original Books This Friday, the first big tent-pole release of 2012 hits theatres: “The Hunger Games,” an adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ 2008 smash-hit novel. I’m excited for the movie, as are many others, but here’s the thing….when I read the book, it felt awfully familiar. In fact, it was remarkably similar to one of my favorite books of all time, Koushun Takami’s “Battle Royale,” published in 1999. So throughout this week, I’m publishing a special three-part article investigating whether or not Collins stole from Takami, and why that informs how we should look at “The Hunger Games.”
So without further ado, enjoy Act One of “The Hunger Games” Vs. Jonathan Lack at the Movies Presents “The Hunger Games” Versus “Battle Royale” A Critical Analysis of Two Similar Works Act One: Rumble in the Jungle Wrong. Similarities Between Books: “The Hunger Games” Versus “Battle Royale” – A Critical Analysis of Two Similar Works: Act Two – Why “Hunger Games” is the Dumb American Version of “Battle Royale” Pages This Blog Linked From Here Wednesday, March 21, 2012 “The Hunger Games” Versus “Battle Royale” – A Critical Analysis of Two Similar Works: Act Two – Why “Hunger Games” is the Dumb American Version of “Battle Royale” This Friday, the first big tent-pole release of 2012 hits theatres: “The Hunger Games,” an adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ 2008 smash-hit novel.
I’m excited for the movie, as are many others, but here’s the thing….when I read the book, it felt awfully familiar. In fact, it was remarkably similar to one of my favorite books of all time, Koushun Takami’s “Battle Royale,” published in 1999. Today, we’re focusing on what I consider to be an important cultural question: if “Battle Royale” and “Hunger Games” are indeed so similar, then why is one so wildly controversial and the other widely accepted?
So without further ado, enjoy Act Two of “The Hunger Games” Vs. Jonathan Lack at the Movies Presents “The Hunger Games” Versus “Battle Royale” A Critical Analysis of Two Similar Works. TNIW [That Night In Williamsburg] Marina Abramović e Ulay - MoMA 2010. Firefly's 15 Best Chinese Curses (and How to Say Them) In just 14 episodes, Joss Whedon's sci-fi masterpiece Firefly managed to build one of the most devoted fanbases in all of nerd-dom. Properties like Star Trek or Doctor Who may have it beat in sheer numbers, but the Browncoats make up for this with their loyalty and tenacity. What is the secret of the show's appeal? Fans can and will explain the show's engrossing plotlines, fascinating characters, brilliant performances, realistic effects, and a unique visual aesthetic -- but if we had to choose one reason, it'd be the dialogue.
Whedon created a vision of a human future where mankind speaks English primarily, with Mandarin Chinese added, as one might say, for "flavor" (i.e., profanity). Not only did the use of Mandarin help inform Firefly's future setting, it also often allowed the characters to express themselves in terms too absurd, obscene, or outrageous to be spoken in English. 15) Stupid Inbred Stack of Meat 笨天生的一堆肉。
More links from around the web! The Man Behind The Curtain | | The WeeklingsThe Weeklings. CHARLES WING KRAFFT, the self-taught painter turned postmodern ceramicist, is famous for his ‘Disasterware’ collection, a term he coined for the melding of violent, often Fascist imagery with tawdry vessels. He’s fashioned everything from ceramic grenades with bio-weapons decaled in antiquated blue to perfume bottles appliquéd with swastikas. Krafft’s work has been featured in prominent news outlets such as Harpers and The New Yorker and is on permanent display at the Seattle Art Museum.
He’s received endowments from the Soros Foundation and the NEA. Enthusiasts celebrate, or at least used to celebrate, what they believed to be Krafft’s insidious sense of irony that took a darkly comedic take on twentieth-century disasters, not to mention a vicious stand against political iconography in all forms. It wasn’t until recently, however, that Krafft’s ugly allegiances bubbled to the surface, mostly discovered via Facebook rants, podcasts, and interviews with some of his close friends.
The postmortem portraits of Phineas Gage. A new artform has emerged – the post-mortem neuroportrait. Its finest subject, Phineas Gage. Gage was a worker extending the tracks of the great railways until he suffered the most spectacular injury. As he was setting a gunpowder charge in a rock with a large tamping iron, the powder was lit by an accidental spark. The iron was launched through his skull. He became famous in neuroscience because he lived – rare for the time – and had psychological changes as a result of his neurological damage. His story has been better told elsewhere but the interest has not died – studies on Gage’s injury have continued to the present day.
There is a scientific veneer, of course, but it’s clear that the fascination with the freak Phineas has its own morbid undercurrents. The image is key. The first such picture was constructed with nothing more than pen and ink. This Gage is forever fleshless, the iron stuck mid-flight, the shattered skull frozen as it fragments. Every outing needed a more freaky Phineas. Drawing on Pigs: Wim Delvoye's Art Farm | viz. (Image Credit: Wim Delvoye ) It's pretty easy to understand (and probably join in) the outrage surrounding Wim Delvoye's work with pigs.
Tattoos aren't exactly taboo in any real fashion anymore, but even as commonplace as they've become they still seem to provoke discussions about the use of bodies as writing platforms. In casual conversation clothes don't have nearly the same effect; though, it could be argued that they write on the body just as much as any tattoo.
Clothes, though, seem to be commonly taken up as transient while tattoos are (mostly) permanent. I doubt there would be nearly as strong a reaction to these pigs if they were just dressed up on a daily basis. Of course, dressing a pig everyday would surely, almost undeniably, have a more noticeable impact on a pig's life. "To tattoo a pig, we sedate it, shave it and apply Vaseline to its skin" (Delvoye in a 2007 interview in ArtAsiaPacific found at Sperone Westwater ). Wim Delvoye worked his way up to live pigs. Black Light Theater Image in Prag. YooouuuTuuube. PostSecret. Speedrun: Aliens in 60 seconds (Ep #4) Vortex to another dimension reported in Brighton.
Vortex to another dimension reported in Brighton Updated 2:04pm Sunday 19th May 2013 in News By Anna Roberts, Crime reporter Vortex to another dimension reported in Brighton Council bosses have been left mystified after reports that a portal to another dimension has opened in a residential street in Brighton. A member of the public reported to Brighton and Hove City Council that the “wormhole or vortex” had opened up in Montreal Road, Hanover, on May 2. They made the report via the website Fix My Street which is more typically used to report potholes, dumped rubbish and broken lampposts. The anonymous poster said: “I was recently walking my affenpinscher (a toy breed of dog) around the Hanover area of Brighton when I noticed that a wormhole or vortex has opened up on Montreal Road. “On closer inspection it seems to be some kind of portal to other times, places and dimensions.
“I would have investigated further but I was concerned my little dog would be sucked into it. THE PIRATE CINEMA - A CINEMATIC COLLAGE GENERATED BY P2P USERS. THE LISA FRANKFURT SCHOOL. NOMAD MANIFESTO. [version 1.02b] "nomads-by-choice in the welfare of settled rings" Allen Fisher, Dispossession & Cure The days of anything static - form, content, state - are over. The past century has shown that anything not involved in continuous transformation hardens and dies. A nomadic poetics is a war machine, always on the move, always changing, morphing,moving through languages, cultures, terrains, times without stopping. [Think through Heidegger's Abgeschiedenheit , apartness as the free domain or land where such nomadic drifting takes place. Nomadics : the poet as comet. 10/25/94 If the mind is only the body's invisibility (Merleau-Ponty) then the poem is merely the unreadability, the non-transparency, the opaqueness of that mind.
Robin Blaser: "The muse requires a politics where the tongue meets in the thick of it the sour sweat. " If Empedoklean terms or reveries may be taken as valid, then the two major modes of poesis would also involve love (eros) & strife (nike). One moment earlier moving. Propaganda-Style Kung Fu. I've watched a whole bunch of kung fu films over the years, lots of them featuring mantis-style kung fu, others showing crane or drunken monkey style, and a couple highlighting the dreaded Buddha Palm technique. The bad guys in these films were the usual selection of corrupt officials, warlords, or boastful and evil kung fu masters. Some recent kung fu films have been featuring what I'm going to call propaganda-style kung fu.
What's that, you ask? In films like Ip Man (2008) , Ip Man 2 (2010) , and Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zen (2010) the new enemies are the Japanese and Westerners, usually represented by the British. Now, there's nothing new about Japanese villains in kung fu films. Historically speaking the Chinese have good reason to cast them in this role, and in a lot of cases they use the Japanese as default villains in the same way Hollywood uses Nazis or Germans, as in the Raiders of the Lost Ark and Die Hard franchises.
BBC：艾未未专题纪录片（Ai Weiwei, Without Fear or Favor） Tokuhiro Kawai.