Futurballa Blog: 12/01/2003

Sunday, December 21, 2003

Updated Voting

My vote in the showcase does not seem to have registered with the Bear, so I'm going to try it again.

From The Truth Laid Bear's New Webblog Showcase:
Chris "Lefty" Brown's Corner: What's so funny about peace, love, and higher taxes

Friday, December 19, 2003

Elsewhere and More

Gosh, it's hard to pick sides in this fight.

Via Josh Marshall, this online survey sponsored by Ralph Nader's exploratory committee. I doubt that his ego will allow him to listen to the voices of voters who actually want to defeat Bush, but it's worth a try.

Two fun posts from the 2 Blowhards. First, Michael needs Heinlein explained to him. He's only read Starship Troopersbecause he liked the movie, but found the book too earnest. I would suggest reading some of Heinlein's later works along with his straight forward SF, like Starship. Puppet Masters is great fun, Glory Road is a hoot, and Stranger in a Strange Land, while flawed and dated, is the book that got many of us hooked. Second is another Michael Blowhard posting on his favorite sexy movies (or at least fun sexy movies). I have seen most of these and will concur with the fun characterization. Would consider adding Henry and June, That Obscure Object of Desire, and Boogie Nights to name a few off the top of my head. Of course I may be missing the point, because at least a couple of my choices are just plain good movies that happen to have some eroticism.

Brian Mickelthwait is PhotoBlogging today. I particularly liked the first one with the warm light taken from under the railway bridge. We plan to do more of that sort of thing in this space soon. Stay tuned. Oh, and by the way, Brian, Photoshop is not a verb.

A humorous piece via Indigo Ocean on Weapons of Math Destruction. Probably familiar to many of you, but it was new to me.

Here is my vote for this weeks Showcase. Good luck to all.
Chris "Lefty" Brown's Corner: What's so funny about peace, love, and higher taxes

And finally, just wanted to note that with company shutdowns, PTO, and holidays, blogging may be a bit light the next couple of weeks, but the s400 should be arriving today, so photoblogging should pick up steam in the coming weeks.

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and a Fantastic New Years to all.

Mahalo

Thursday, December 18, 2003

Balla's Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash

Not much on my mind at the moment, so I thought a tribute to our namesake would suffice.
Mahalo

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

Curses

Friend George, in complaining about jingles (here) getting stuck in one's head, has implanted the Armour Hotdogs jingle in mine. Make it stop. (He - put creatures in our bodies. To control our minds.")

Mssr. Fool writes,

"Hot dogs! Armour Hot Dogs!
What kind of kids eat Armour Hot Dogs?
Fat kids, skinny kids,
Kids who climb on rocks
Tough kids, sissy kids,
Even kids with chicken pox
Love hot dogs!
Armour Hot Dogs!
The Dogs Kids Love To Bite!

"What a parade of horribles: children with body image issues (the obese and the anorexic), children engaged in dangerous ascents of geological formations without appropriate state-sponsored supervision, children with aggressive tendencies or questions of gender identity, even children suffering from now-arcane and little seen diseases, all culminating in an outright endorsement of animal cruelty. Not to mention, of course, that the Center for Science in the Public Interest instructs us never to approach within a hectare of the product being sold. (Do you know how those things are made? Why, it's more frightening than the legislative process!)"

Well, vengeance is mine. Take this...

OSCAR MAYER WEINER SONG

Oh I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Wiener
That is what I'd truly like to be
'cause if I were an Os-car Mayer Wiener
Every one would be in love with me.

Talk about a message to send your kids. If I was but a piece of meat, ground from many organs and other unspeakable animal parts , then my peers would admire and adore me.

Is that really what we want our kids to think?

Odds and Ends

We watched Sinbad - Legend of the Seven Seas last night, Dreamworks animated version of the Sinbad story (actually a story unrelated to any other Sinbad story I've ever read.) The animation was somewhat stiff and there seemed to be an uncomfortable juxtaposition between the CGI elements and the hand drawn characters. But what struck me as most odd, was the Helenization of the story. No mention of Baghdad, Arabia, Allah, but instead the story plays in Syracuse and characters come from Thrace and Greek Gods pull the mortals strings. Why Dreamworks didn't just animate Jason and the Argonauts, I don't know. If you want to see a good Sinbad movie, rent this one.

Nice piece on Slate on the subject, is their God the same as our God. Worth reading.

A fine review of Return of the King on Salon, get a daypass, you won't regret it. I'm going to a private showing on Saturday. This is a very excited blogger.

This is my new toy...

Canon s400.

I must admit to being a terrible bandwagon rider, but I couldn't let the challenge of coming up with a list of best cover versions pass me by. (Aaron) So here we go with my top 8...

1. The Residents - 96 Tears
2. Patti Smith - Gloria (not really a cover, but she slips in the G-L-O-R-I-A thing)
3. X - Soul Kitchen
4. John Cale - Heartbreak Hotel
5. Indigo Girls - Uncle John's Band
6. Devo - Satisfaction (you're right about this one, Aaron)
7. Pretenders - Stop Your Sobbing
8. Cowboy Junkies - Sweet Jane

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

Elsewhere

Over at Slate, Tim Noah laments the need for an Office for Rhetorical Competence.

For you wine lovers among you (and you know who you are), Mike Steinberger, also at Slate, has a very entertaining piece on why haut cuisine and fine wine are heading for a divorce. Favorite quote, "What exactly do you pair with Adria's coconut ravioli in soy sauce or his Parmesan cheese ice cream sandwich? Hawaiian Punch and Yoo-hoo spring to mind. Haut Brion does not." Read the rest here.

Via Joe Conason, this NRO editorial from David Frum. You know I thought that he was on a mission from God, but I just wasn't sure. Thanks Dave for clearing that up. Guess Bush is the third Blues Brother.

Kevin Drum describes what happens when bloggers congregate. And we learn that Atrios is a pretty centrist guy. I think Kevin is fairly accurate in his assessment that most lefty bloggers are pretty centrist and most righties tend more libertarian than conservative.

Sunday, December 14, 2003

Las Vegas at Night

No, it's not Hef's new TV special. It's a web gallery at my photography website, Futurballa.

Just go to Futurballa.com and click the Las Vegas Nights link to view the latest gallery.

The subject is self explanatory.

Enjoy

Friday, December 12, 2003

Send Lawyers, Guns & Money

I swear that Joe Conason's Journal alone is worth the price of my subscription to Salon (says Rick of Futurballa Blog).

Joe has a tasty tidbit today on when the stars align and we see that the Bush team are not the grownups they once claimed to be. This particular graf jumped out at me.

"Bush added his own folksy touch to this fiasco while chatting to the press this afternoon, when he explained that the situation was 'very simple.' The 'friendly coalition folks' deserved the contracts, while the war's opponents in France, Germany, Russia and Canada do not. Asked about the policy's possible conflict with American treaty obligations under international law, he replied cutely but cluelessly: "'nternational law? I better call my lawyer ... I don't know what you're talking about, about international law. Better consult my lawyer.'"

Read the whole thing here. (Subscription or daypass required)

Showcase Votes

Here are my votes in the New Blog Showcase for this week. Two worthy choices. Best of luck.

Kick the Leftist: Big Corporate vs. 13 y/o girl

It's Craptastic!: What is the Point?

Thursday, December 11, 2003

Shalom Springfield

Staying on a theme (see below), The Simpsons last Sunday featured Krusty's Bar Mitzvah. The high point was the entertainment. Unfortunately they only gave us the first stanza, maybe some poetic type (George?) could finish the rest of the lyrics. But I thought it worth transcribing, nonetheless.

Sideshow Mel:Now to get you in the Bar Mitzvah mood, put your hands together for The Beach Boys.... Experience

The Beach Boys Experience (sung to the tune of Kokomo)
Mezzuah, menorah,
Reading from the torah
Pastrami, knishes,
on two sets of dishes
A church with no steeple
For G-d's chosen people...

Read the Comments, Nu!

One of the pleasures of blogsurfing is when the comments overtake the posting. Aaron Haspel made a short posting linking Terry Teachout's piece on the "perils of the goyim among the Jews" (here). I had read Terry's piece (here) and enjoyed it.

But now the comments at God of the Machine have turned into a diatribe (actually a triatribe, if that were a word) between David Sucher, who objects to the use of the word goyim, with Aaron & AC Douglas who defend it (here).

As another Jew, I most certainly come down on the side of AC and Aaron. Goyim is a perfectly acceptable word. I know of no other Yiddish word for gentile. And while it is mildly condescending, it can be said affectionately. It merely connotes the long history of the Jews in which you had us (The Chosen) and them (The Goyim). The Germans refer to foreigners as auslanders, which literally translates as outlanders. The us and them mentality of the word auslander is no more offensive than goyim, but it is their language, just like Yiddish belongs to the Jews (as well as Ladino for the Sephardic amongst us, but I think Sephardics call them goyim as well).

*News Alert* Futurballa Makes No Endorsement

As most of you know, I'm a Democrat. While I try to keep the majority of this blog on subjects non-political, occasionally my views on our government, the Bush administration, and the upcoming presidential elections find their way onto these "pages".

I seriously have not made up my mind on who I may be supporting in the Presidential race. Politically, I think Kerry is actually the candidate that I'm best aligned with, but his campaign has not inspired me (or anyone else, for that matter). Clark has the national security and foreign relations creds that I think are going to inoculate him from a lot of Republican attacks, but I don't know enough about his views on domestic policy. I like the grassroots passion that Dean has inspired and think he is a lot more centrist than he is often painted.

It behooves all of us who have not made a choice yet to consider all factors in picking a candidate. Not just getting swept up in the excitement of the moment, but thinking A) who best reflects our views, and B) who has the best chance of defeating Bush. My preference, of course is that A and B align. I certainly don't endorse going with B in lieu of A. But there is nothing wrong with striking a balance between A and B.

As a public service, here is Joe Conason's column from WorkingForChange on Dr. Dean. I don't necessarily agree with everything he has to say, but think that he raises some points worth considering. At the end of the day, I may decide that Dean is the guy who best combines my A criteria with my B criteria, but I'm still reading thoughtful opinions such as this.

Stay tuned.

Wednesday, December 10, 2003

Deja Vu All Over Again

Visiting the 2 Blowhards this morning, I was struck by a weird sense of deja vu. Michael Blowhard's less than nostalgic waxings of how he was sent running into the night when his hopes of becoming a filmmaker crashed against the rocks of reality, struck me with the similarity of my own experience. Perhaps we should do a survey of culture bloggers. How many are simply wannabe artists, poets, filmmakers, actors, novelists, or playwrites, who lacked the ego, drive, insanity, and "rhinoceros skin" to pursue that career.

I admit, I lack most of the above. My years of trodding the boards in the Berkeley Theater Arts department in the mid '70s came to an end when I came to very similar realizations as Michael. And a few years in LA after college took care of completing the process of self discovery that taught me I was without some essential characteristics for making it in Hollywood.

This particular graf from Michael Blowhard's posting was particularity poignant in reflecting my own feelings and experience (except for the Mid-West thing), "Dreamy, polite, raised-in-the-middle-class, mid-American kid that I was, I got a look at this world and concluded, Hmmm, y'know, I don't think I'm temperamentally suited for this life. I'm barely able to yell and scream, or to take being yelled and screamed at, for instance -- and there's a lot of yelling and screaming in the moviebiz. Unrelenting tension makes me take to my bed. Power-games make me want to step aside and hand the reins to whoever happens to be standing there."

All of this is by way of Michael being prompted into a Proustian reverie by a viewing of the documentary Lost in La Mancha. The film about the filming of Terry Gilliam's ill fated Don Quixote movie. I agree with Michael that it is but a "good enough" documentary, but the subject is fascinating. Gilliam does seem to be one of the few nice guys to make it, but even he is capable of a tantrum when it suits his purposes.

Now if only Francis had included Hearts of Darkness on the Apocalypse Now Redux DVD.

Read the whole thing here.

[Update: George Wallace Comments]

Tuesday, December 09, 2003

Fair and Balanced... Here's Al Franken

Al Franken sits down with the Star Tribune for a very entertaining interview.

[Link via Buzzflash]

This is not my Presentation Software

David Byrne, former Talking Heads frontman and all around artistic guy, is interviewed at Wired News today. The subject, his latest project, a new book and DVD set called Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information, which makes use of Microsoft's ubiquitous presentation application, PowerPoint.

Wired describes his project, "His art presentations make babble of business-speak, and question whether the form of what we communicate can affect its truth: Rebellious flow charts stream backward, screens overflow with clip art gone wild, deliverables and leave-behinds assume surreal new roles, and renegade bullet points assault the viewer in a rapid-fire barrage."

When I first heard of this, I was almost disappointed that Byrne didn't use a better piece of software. Photoshop, Acrobat, Flash. I could think of a number of ways to create presentations that would result in a more polished and elegant experience. But when I read Byrne's comments, I realized that it was the ubiquitousness and simplicity of PowerPoint that fit what he was trying to accomplish. He says, "...because people make art out of all kinds of crappy things -- Lite Brites, or Pixelvision cameras. For every odd little tool, there's someone out there who's chosen that as a medium. And in spite of the limitations of a given technology, they turn it around so that each defect becomes a positive quality."

Answering the question of whether the availability of affordable image editing, presentation, and video software would democratize art, Byrne concludes, "It's true, but then again, it's not. Even before the advent of digital imaging, when large videotape cameras became small handhelds, the idea was that now everyone will become a filmmaker. And as technology progressed, this has become so easy that now you really can make a film on your laptop.

"New people do become creators; they jump in where they might not have before. Within the last few years, for instance, all of a sudden we have a glut of artists who do video installations -- perhaps too many. But some of this new work is really great; the simplicity and affordability makes it happen.

"I think this trend will continue. But just like the Internet itself, the fact that everybody now has access opens up this possibility for broader participation, but most of the time the potential isn't realized.

"Just because it's there doesn't mean people will use it."

Read the whole thing here.

Monday, December 08, 2003

Have you read your Necronomicon today?

H.P. Lovecraft meets Jack Chick....

We will all be eaten!

[Link provided by George]

Look Forward in Ambivalence

Aaron Haspel moves away from literature and culture to ruminate on the future of technology. In his other life he is a software developer and has some interesting insights into the future of programming, development tools, and outsourcing. As someone in the same field, being involved in the development of consumer software, I share much of his concerns, and to a certain degree, his ambivalence.

He writes,"Hardware, by contrast, improves so rapidly that there's a law about it. It is a source of constant reproach to software, which has no laws, only rueful aphorisms: "Adding people to a late software project makes it later," "right, fast, cheap: choose two," and the like."

And, "Certainly if, as we baseball geeks say, past performance is the best indicator of future performance, I wouldn't hold my breath for orders-of-magnitude productivity improvements. On the other hand, bad as software is, enormous sums are poured into it, large segments of the economy depend on it, and the regulators do not even pretend to understand it. This all bodes well for 2020."

There are certainly arguments to be made for why the software industry is in its infancy, and development of new technologies will continue to stimulate new industries and revitalize existing ones. And at the same time, ourtsourcing to inexpensive job markets will require us in the industry to stay ahead of the curve. The excitement and fear that this can combine to create, is about as close to what I imagine sky diving to feel like as I ever plan to get.

Read the whole thing here.

Happy Birthday, Fool!

Go wish George, he of the Fool in the Forest, a happy birthday. We may differ on some issues, but on subjects cultural or the uses of the grape, he is unimpeachable.

Friday, December 05, 2003

Twofer

Via Pen-Elayne, I discovered that Neil Gaimon has a blog (will, most certainly be added to the blogroll), and via Neil, part 2 of Arie Kaplan's article on Jews in Comics.

Rosebud

A thoughtful essay on discovering Film as Art, and the advent of Video and Cable as an introduction to the Classics by Terry Teachout today.

I grew up in major markets with lots of TV stations showing classics, a Father who loved old movies, and Art & Revival houses being a regular stop from high school on. Even though my journey to film as art might be a bit different than Terry, I agree completely with him, "the fact remains that most people see most movies at home, which is infinitely better than not seeing them at all."

And for better or worse, with DVD, Home Theater, HDTV and Widescreen TVs the home viewing experience will only become better and more pervasive.

Read the whole thing here.

Before Middle Earth...

Via the Blowhards, Polly Frost on Peter Jackson's Dead Alive. One of the best, if not most extreme, Zombie splatter flicks ever made. And it is actually very funny as well. Nice to see it getting some attention.

Read the whole thing here.

Fear and Loathing

Mickey Kaus often seems to me to be one small step from stepping over the edge into Christopher Hitchen's world, who along with Chris Matthews and Zell Miller, give the name Democrat new meaning. (And that new meaning is Republican). The Mickster can be a reflexive contrarian who would rather bash the Clintons and Dean, while he praises the Gropenfuhrer and the Boy King.

But today I have to give full points to Kaus, if only for literary references. In a piece on why Kerry should drop out of the race he offers this...

"But what can Kerry say that isn't even more humiliating than seeing it through? "I realize my wife Teresa needs me more than my country needs me"? That won't cut it. "I've decided to take time out to learn the Web so I can compete in future campaigns" and "I'm entering rehab at an undisclosed location to recover from my vicious Ibogaine habit. I make no excuses" are too trendy. ..."

For those of you who may not be fans of the Good Doctor, here (via Amazon's inside the book search) are the salient passages.

You can read Kaus' permalink free entry here.

Mahalo

[UPDATE:] Eric Alterman gives a more thoughtful and ulitmately useful appraisal of John Kerry. Here.

Thursday, December 04, 2003

Showcase Votes

From The Truth Laid Bear's New Webblog Showcase:

In the realm of politics...

Bark Bark Woof Woof: More on Moore, Who Is No More
A piece that had me nodding in agreement.

And in the non-political (happily this week there were a couple to choose from)...

Blown Fuse: Bestiality is a no-no.
Just cuz I like animal stories.

Elsewhere

Get your RSS here! Salon.com has the quintessential article on RSS. What is it, where can I get it. Scott Rosenberg tells all. Click here.

Also at Salon, is Drudge a Dupe for the Dems?

The always informative and entertaining Dahlia Lithwick is on a bit of a roll at Slate, with this piece on a Wingnut's quest for Vince Foster crime scene photos and yesterday's informative article on the Locke v. Davey establishment clause case.

TPM has an interesting piece today on the stage managed Presidency.

The SF Chronicle reports on a group of scientists and Steinbeck scholars who will be retracing the steps of the author and his friend Doc Rickets from "The Log From the Sea of Cortez," from Monterey Bay to the Sea of Cortez. Where do I sign up.

That's Sir Mick to you! But Keith is not amused. Here.

And speaking of "Sirs". Sad to hear that David Hemmings has passed away. Blowup, remains a favorite.

The other Roger Ailes has some excerpts from Mel Gibson's version of the bible that they must have left out in my copy.

Wednesday, December 03, 2003

Unhappy Families

Tolstoy said in Anna Karenina, "All happy families resemble one another while every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Which leads us to our quote of the day.

Tina Weymouth at the height of the (all too public) squabbles between her and David Byrne, speaking on Byrne's collaboration with Brian Eno...

"By the time Brian and David finished working together for three months, they were dressing like one another. I can see them when they're 80 years old and all alone. There'll be David Bowie, David Byrne and Brian Eno, and they'll just talk to each other."

Ouch!

This is all happily behind us and a new Talking Heads box set is coming out.

[Quotes via Salon.com]

A Fine Friendship

How did an obscure philologist, and the scholarly author of a couple of slim books of verse go on to become the greatest story tellers of the twentieth century? The symbiosis between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein is described in detail in today's Salon.com article. Tolkein brought Lewis back to his faith, which inspired him to produce his greatest works, and Lewis encouraged and prodded Tolkein to complete the Middle Earth saga. Without this relationship, neither Middle Earth nor Narnia might have ever come to be.

There influence upon each other continued beyond religion. Tolkein recalled of Lewis, "'The unpayable debt that I owe to [Lewis] was not 'influence' as it is ordinarily understood but sheer encouragement. He was for long my only audience. Only from him did I ever get the idea that my 'stuff' could be more than a private hobby.' "

Tolkein's influence on Lewis did not end at encouraging his belief in Christianity, but as Steven Hart writes, "... the debt did not end there. Lewis quickly built a reputation as an explainer of Christianity, but he would hardly be remembered today if his fame rested solely on books like 'The Problem of Pain' (1940), with their bullying style and legalistic method of argument. The man who had returned to faith through myth and poetry seemed to think he could lawyer his readers through the gates of heaven. This point was not lost on Lewis' critics, particularly those within the faith. 'The problem of pain is bad enough,' one clergyman groused, 'without Mr. Lewis making it worse.' "

Their relationship had some ups and downs. In later years Tolkein criticized Lewis for mixing his mythology in the Chronicles of Narnia (Germanic Santa Claus rubs elbows with Greek deities), but when the Middle Earth trilogy was complete Lewis came to its defense. And there must have been some loving respect even when Tolkein was fashioning his tale, since as told in the Salon article, Lewis was the template for Treebeard. Haroom!

"Tolkien repaid the favor in 'The Lord of the Rings' by giving some of Lewis' mannerisms to Treebeard, the ligneous leader of the tree-like Ents -- chiefly his booming voice and constant throat-clearing. And it's not too far a stretch to find a faint dig at Lewis' nonstop literary productivity when Tolkien has Treebeard describe Entish as 'a lovely language, but it takes a very long time to say anything in it, because we do not say anything in it unless it is worth taking a long time to say.' "

Hart concludes, "The long-overdue arrival of a proper film adaptation of 'The Lord of the Rings,' courtesy of Peter Jackson, gives this story a fitting coda. A film version of the first of the Narnia books, 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,' will soon go into production in New Zealand. The enterprise was finally able to go forward because of the huge success of Jackson's "Lord of the Rings," and will use some of the same production and design people, including the Weta special-effects shop that helped bring Middle-earth to earth.

"The repercussions of that 1931 conversation along the River Cherwell are still being felt. Even now, it seems, Tolkien and Lewis are helping each other out."

Yes, a fitting ending to the saga. As they say, read the whole thing here. (Day Pass or Subscription required)

Tuesday, December 02, 2003

Late to the Party

This is one of the reasons that I love DVD as a medium. I never watched West Wing before this last weekend. I knew that it was supposed to be quality drama, and that it had a great ensemble cast. But after years of Bochcoesque dramas, from Hill Street Blues to St. Elsewhere to LA Law to NYPD Blue to ER, I was so burnt out on yet another "must see" show that would obligate me to stay home or set the VCR every Wednesday come hell or high water. So I unconsciously boycotted West Wing.

After 3+ years of hearing how good it is, they have issued the first season on DVD. I thought to myself, what the heck, let's put it on the Netflix queue and give it a shot. Well thanks a lot, Warner Home Video, now I'm hooked!

This show is so intelligent and so funny and so engaging. Speaking for myself, it makes me nostalgic for the Clinton days when we had a smart, articulate president, surrounded by people with a passion for government. I know my conservative and libertarian friends will think that was exactly what was wrong with the Clinton years, but to those of us that think government can play a positive role in the lives of ordinary people, The West Wing is an idealized version of the way we would like to see the presidency. Oddly enough, my more conservative wife also fell in love with it. The humor and passion and intelligence of it also struck a cord with her.

So much for Wednesdays now. If you need me, you know where to find me, but don't call between 9 and 10.

Monday, December 01, 2003

Monday Morning Roundup

Hope everyone had a very pleasant and happy Thanksgiving. La Familia Futurballa most certainly did.

Wired.com this morning has a nice little roundup of the lower end of digital cameras that might make good stocking stuffers. Though my stocking rarely gets stuffed with $200 trinkets.

Moveon.org is profiled at Salon. Worth reading (subscription or day pass required).

Triple your pleasure, triple your fun at Blogcritcs, with three postings on the Living Dead series. Here, here and here.

Mahalo

Wednesday, November 26, 2003

Voting for Damage

Again not too much in the non-political sphere, but here is my vote for a very nice environmental blog. Some things trump politics, or at least should.

From The Truth Laid Bear's New Webblog Showcase:
Damage: Global Warming Catastrophe - New Evidence

Real Magic

The kind of Bleat that I look forward to today. Lileks offers his awed assessment of the Two Towers Extended Edition DVD, which he watched along with the Fellowship Extended Edition in preparation for the release of the final installment of the LOTR trilogy. I actually had the same idea, and plan to spend my Thanksgiving Friday, in the Lazy Boy watching both of the extended edition DVDs. It is pretty much a days work, but I agree with James that these movies are pretty much the height of grandiose film making.

Lileks bleats, "When asked for my favorite movie I give the old standard reply - Casablanca, because it has everything I want in glorious Warner Brothers monophonic silvery-toned perfection. It's a movie in the sense that LOTR isn't. Short, self-contained, pop culture that effortlessly transcends its limitations (perhaps because it isn't trying to do anything of the sort.) But LOTR may be the most impressive thing I've ever seen on the screen."

This is a fair take. There are better movies that function purely as movies (I would list the aforementioned Casablanca, but also The Maltese Falcon and Touch of Evil as examples of pure movie making that functions on the level that James is describing), but the LOTR trilogy seems to offer a loftier experience more akin to the great epics and opera.

And James even manages to get some lilexia into the post without being overly cute. And he has a nice idea for The Fantastic Four movie.

Read the whole bleat here.

Tuesday, November 25, 2003

The Booklist Game

Kevin Drum at Calpundit has stumbled accross a most entertaining parlor game.

Take Clinton's list of 21 favorite books that has been so disparaged lately, count how many you have actually read and how many you have even heard of. Whoever has the highest sum total is the winner.

Much like Kevin, I count only 11 out of the 21 that I've even ever heard of and have read only one. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Happily, I can say that if I was coming up with my own 21, Marquez would probably make the short list.

Here is the list, so you too can play at home...

"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," Maya Angelou
"Meditations," Marcus Aurelius
"The Denial of Death," Ernest Becker
"Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963," Taylor Branch
"Living History," Hillary Rodham Clinton
"Lincoln," David Herbert Donald
"The Four Quartets," T.S. Eliot
"Invisible Man," Ralph Ellison
"The Way of the World: From the Dawn of Civilizations to the Eve of the Twenty-First Century," David Fromkin
"One Hundred Years of Solitude," Gabriel Garcia Marquez
"The Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes," Seamus Heaney
"King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa," Adam Hochschild
"The Imitation of Christ," Thomas a Kempis
"Homage to Catalonia," George Orwell
"The Evolution of Civilizations: An Introduction to Historical Analysis," Carroll Quigley
"Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics," Reinhold Niebuhr
"The Confessions of Nat Turner," William Styron
"Politics as a Vocation," Max Weber
"You Can't Go Home Again," Thomas Wolfe
"Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny," Robert Wright
"The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats," William Butler Yeats

Have fun!

Poetry Shmoetry

Knowing shamefully little (in fact not knowing jack) about poetry, I would not even entertain the notion of joining in the fray of the battle of Oz(ymandias) lovers and haters. I read it in High School, liked it then, and that's about it. But I have enjoyed following this string between George Wallace (whose hiphop Ozymandias I linked to previously), Aaron Haspel and Mika Cooper. Since George has given me a peripheral mention in reference to another Ozymandias modernization by Howard Nemerov, who is the brother of someone I know a little bit about (or slightly more than the above mentioned jack), Diane Arbus.

I so enjoyed this more beat interpretation of the classic that I thought it must be linked to.

And with that, I go gentle into that good night.

Elsewhere

Excellent Krugman in the NYT. Puts the whole question of "who's angry?" in perspective.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Herr Gropenfuher's spending cuts may not be so compassionate, "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger presented lawmakers Monday with nearly $2 billion in midyear spending cuts aimed primarily at social programs, including payments to doctors who care for the poor and recreational programs for developmentally disabled children."

And that 2 bil should just about cover half of the repeal of the car tax. Watch this space!

In the Denver Post, Walter Cronkite offers an op-ed on Bush's penchant for unilaterlism.

Away from Politics, Terry Teachout has finally posted his review of The Looney Tunes Golden Collection, to which I added my two cent here. Terry likes it. I agree with him!. Read his blog posting here and the complete WSJ review here.

See you!

Monday, November 24, 2003

Very Witty Wilde

Don't know why this Monty Python skit came to mind, one of those archived bits of information that randomly surfaces from time to time, but surface it did. Perhaps the whole culture blogging thing and Terry Teachout's recent comments on the blogging community, which I commented on here.

So without further ado...

The Oscar Wilde Sketch

London 1895... The residence of Mr Oscar Wilde
(In WILDE's drawing room. A crowd of suitably dressed folk are engaged in typically brilliant conversation, laughing affectedly and drinking champagne)

PRINCE OF WALES: My congratulations, Wilde. You latest play is a great success. The whole of London's talking about you.
OSCAR: There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that it not being talked about.
(There follows fifteen seconds of restrained and sycophantic laughter)
PRINCE: Very very witty... very very witty.
WHISTLER: There's only one thing in the world worse than being witty and that is not being witty.
(Fifteen seconds more of the same)
OSCAR: I wish I had said that.
Whistler: You will, Oscar, you will.
(More laughter)
OSCAR: Your majesty, have you met James McNeill Whistler?
PRINCE: Yes, we've played squash together.
OSCAR: There is only one thing worse than playing squash together, and that is playing it by yourself.
(Silence)
I wish I hadn't said that.
WHISTLER: You did, Oscar, you did.
(A little laughter)
PRINCE: I've got to get back up the palace.
OSCAR: Your Majesty is like a big jam doughnut with cream on the top.
PRINCE: I beg your pardon?
OSCAR: Um... it was one of Whistler's.
WHISTLER: I never said that.
OSCAR: You did, James, you did.
(The PRINCE OF WALES stares expectantly at WHISTLER)
WHISTLER: ... Well, You Highness, what I meant was that, like a doughnut, um, your arrival gives us pleasure... and your departure only makes us hungry for more.
(Laughter)
Your Highness, you are also like a stream of bat's piss.
PRINCE: What?!?
WHISTLER: It was one of Wilde's. One of Wilde's.
OSCAR: It sodding was not! It was Shaw!
SHAW: I... I merely meant, Your Majesty, that you shine out like a shaft of gold when all around is dark.
PRINCE (accepting the compliment): Oh.
OSCAR (To WHISTLER): Right.
(To PRINCE)Your majesty is like a dose of clap. Before you arrive is pleasure, and after is a pain in the dong.
PRINCE (Loudly): WHAT?
WHISTLER and OSCAR: One of Shaw's, one of Shaw's.
SHAW: You bastards. Um... what I meant, Your Majesty, what I meant...
OSCAR: We've got him, Jim.
WHISTLER and OSCAR: Come on, Shaw-y.
SHAW: I merely meant...
OSCAR: Come on, Shaw-y.
WHISTLER: Let's have a bit of wit, then, man.
SHAW: (Blows raspberry)
(The PRINCE shakes SHAW's hand. Laughter all around)

Sunday, November 23, 2003

Odds and Ends

Returned last night from "vacation". Odd how a week away can be more tiring than work. I've discovered that the optimal time in Las Vegas is about 3 days. Stay for 4 at your own risk.

If you are out that direction, I highly recommend a jaunt to Red Rock Canyon, just outside the city (though the city of Las Vegas is rapidly encroaching on the outskirts of the park). Hopefully some pictures will follow soon, but processing, scanning, posting, can take a bit of time. Be sure to check in at Futurballa Photography, and of course, a posting will find its way to the blog.

Most entertaining sign in Vegas is the offices of the Las Vegan Magazine that I mistook for a vegetarian restaurant.

Friend George is in rare form at the Fool, rapping Shelley.

Hopefully not too late, but here is my vote for the political entry at the TLB Showcase. Only one non-political entry, so I'll pass on that. Come on you budding culture bloggers, let's hear from you!

Anarchy Xero: Winding the Iraq Deathwatch

Normal blogging duties will resume tomorrow along with normal work duties.

Mahalo

Futurballa Blog