Peter Jackson "film festival" in our house this weekend

We watched two movies on DVD over the weekend and oddly enough both were made by Peter Jackson.

The first was one that I'd heard of for awhile but had never seen before: Heavenly Creatures, which came courtesy of Netflix. This 1994 movie stars Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet (in her first-ever film role) as Pauline Rieper and Juliet Hulme, the central figures in the Parker-Hulme murder case that rocked New Zealand in 1954. It's a fairly disturbing movie, but quite a fascinating one as well. I wound up spending a good part of the night after the movie reading about the real-life events involving these two young friends and how it went so bizarrely, totally wrong. But I don't know how long it could be before I could watch Heavenly Creatures again. This is a movie rife with those kinds of things that once you see, you can't "unsee" if you know what I mean.

And then this afternoon Lisa and I watched The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Has it really been almost six years since this movie came out? Hard to believe. Well, for whatever reason we watched it and for that I am glad because it left me feeling refreshed and inspired again. That line that Gandalf says at one point: "All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you", is so true. We don't have to believe that we can fight and win all of the battles. And we shouldn't even try to believe it, either. We just have to deal with what God has set before us, as best we can and knowing that whatever happens it does serve His will, even if we can't understand how it can do that from where we are.

Maybe tomorrow I'll put on The Frighteners and make it three Peter Jackson movies in a row :-)

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Fred Reed muses on smarts

Fred Reed talks about intelligence and all the problems that come with it in his latest column...

Generally intelligence has no effect on conclusions, which are glandularly determined. It just rationalizes hormonal inevitabilities.

Further, there's no point in knowledge, except to show off with in sports bars. If you are in Willie's Rib Pit to watch boxing and know about the Long Count (in the Cribb-Molineaux fight), then you amount to something. You do no harm, anyway. All other knowledge is suspect. At best, it is a minor vice, like crossword puzzles. At worst, it encourages people to do catastrophic things with a smug sense of fundamental rightness. The people who got America into Iraq were no end bright and could say impressive things like "Twenty-Seventh Caliphate" and "Theravada Sufism." Much good it did them. Or us.

Brains just allow you to be more elaborately and ornately disastrously wrong.

I've been wondering quite a bit lately: how is it that with supposedly all of these "smart" people that we think are running things in this country, we are still screwing things up... like in Iraq? Reed hits on it here: that these people have let intelligence come in the way of their sense of compassion and consideration. Or as I thought after reading his piece, they have enormous intelligence but woefully lack wisdom.

Personally, I'd rather have wisdom than intelligence. What say ye?

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Pavarotti's funeral was today

So help me, I have cried something furious in the past few days since his passing.

A lot of people really didn't know that about me: that I was a big fan of Luciano Pavarotti. And I'd always dreamed of hearing him live in concert someday. That'll never happen now.

Pavarotti is one of the best reasons why God in His graciousness has allowed us to have things like compact discs. I really believe that. If He let the printing press come about so that His word could be shared with the world, then God let sound recording and other technology happen so that the world could enjoy and stand in awe at the magnificent things He has created. Like Pavarotti's voice.

We'll be lucky if the next hundred years gives us a voice so magnificent. Heck, we'll be lucky if we get a voice so magnificent as Pavarotti's at all, ever again.

Here's another clip that I found on YouTube of him performing. This is the piece that comes most to mind whenever I think of Pavarotti: his rendition of "Nessun Dorma" from Puccini's Turandot...

Words fail to describe how beautiful this is.

Thank you Pavarotti, for sharing with us for so very many of these long years the talent that God gave you.

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"State Wide Burning Band"

I saw this sign yesterday outside the Monroeton Fire Department on US 158 west of Reidsville...

Thanks to Richard Moore for getting the pic!

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Tay Zonday's "Chocolate Rain"

When good stuff like this has been out for a few months, and I'm only now finding out about it... that's when I know that I've been too absorbed in the serious and need to slow down and enjoy things more.

I love this song! It's catchy and fun and it's quite obvious that Tay is really enjoying his work. Dude's got talent.

This blog is used to post stuff that I think is cool and this is definitely up there. So here he is: Tay Zonday singing "Chocolate Rain"!

(BTW, if you like "Chocolate Rain" then right-click here and save it in MP3!)

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Implanted microchips may cause cancer

Many lab animals that have been given microchip implants have developed cancerous tumors, according to newly published research.

"The transponders were the cause of the tumors," said Keith Johnson, a retired toxicologic pathologist, explaining in a phone interview the findings of a 1996 study he led at the Dow Chemical Co. in Midland, Mich.

Leading cancer specialists reviewed the research for The Associated Press and, while cautioning that animal test results do not necessarily apply to humans, said the findings troubled them. Some said they would not allow family members to receive implants, and all urged further research before the glass-encased transponders are widely implanted in people.

I thought this was pretty fascinating, in light of how there's a push from several sectors to start putting these chips in humans. And since some people are associating these chips with the biblical "Mark of the Beast", it kinda makes you wonder about Revelation 16, verses 1 and 2...

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, "Go, pour out the seven bowls of God's wrath on the earth." The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly and painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped his image.

Whether you base your stance on religious belief or medical research or classic libertarianism, I think it's safe to say: putting these things in humans is a bad idea.

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Screen burn-in on an LCD HDTV? Yup

We bought a 37-inch LCD high-definition television set last November. It's specifically an LCD screen because when I was doing research before we went out to look at sets the widespread consensus was that LCD screens don't "burn-in" like plasma screens do.

Well, guess what?

I can't show what this looks like because it doesn't show up well in photos, but there are two very fine vertical lines running down the entire height of the screen: one line running equidistant from each of the left and right sides of the image. They are exactly where the borders of the "pillars" are when you watch a standard (not high-def) image without "stretching" it to fill the screen. Since most of the interesting programming around here is standard definition and I don't like distorted images, the tendency is to watch television "pillarboxed". I guess that's how the lines got in there: with the borders always being "on".

It's supposed to not be a permanent condition of LCD screens. And technically it's not "burn-in" at all, in the sense that plasma screens can get it. It's properly called "image retention"... but that doesn't keep it from being any less a nuisance. Right now I've got the TV on with the image stretched to fill the screen, so that the pixels making up those lines will get "exercised" and start working right again. I'm hoping this will work. If not, looks like that service plan is going to turn out to have been a great investment after all.

In the meantime, if anyone's ever had any experience with this kind of an issue, I'd sure appreciate some advice. I like to try to fix things "in-house" as much as possible, without having to lug something as big as an HDTV back to the store :-)

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A great voice falls silent: Luiciano Pavarotti has passed away

Why does it seem lately that we are losing so many legends?

It was in 1985 when I first heard Luciano Pavarotti sing. It was a concert on television and even as an 11-year old kid, I though there was something magnificent about Pavarotti's voice. Over the years I made sure to watch Pavarotti whenever he was on.

Probably my best memory of Pavarotti was when he did the 3 Tenors concert at the 1994 World Cup in Los Angeles, where Pavarotti performed alongside Placido Domingo and José Carreras. I watched the whole thing live and bought the concert CD the day it came out a few weeks later. Before the show they were running footage of Pavarotti in the days leading up to the concert, laughing and playing with a soccer ball.

Here's the story from ABC News about his passing.

I don't know of what else that could be said about the man's talent and personality that hasn't been said elsewhere. But here's one thing that showcases it in spades, and I had no idea that this even existed until a short while ago...

Here is Luciano Pavarotti and James Brown performing "It's A Man's World" in concert!

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The Knight Shift hits the half-million mark!

A short while ago this blog welcomed its 500,000th visitor since the meter started running almost three years ago. Thanks to everyone who has helped The Knight Shift reach this milestone, and here's hoping that it won't be long 'ere it hits a cool million :-)

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TRANSFORMERS hits DVD and HD-DVD on October 16th!

Seibertron.com is reporting that this summer's smash hit movie Transformers - which has come up for discussion a few times on this blog for one reason or another - will be out on DVD and HD-DVD here in the U.S. on October 16th!

Am wondering though if this will include the "extra" footage that is going to be in the IMAX release coming out later this month. Some are already speculating that there might be a "special edition" release of the movie too with that and other things (I haven't found anywhere that there are going to be deleted scenes on this DVD release).

Still, that's going to be pretty nifty: the CD of Steve Jablonsky's Transformers score out on October 9th, and then the movie itself on DVD a week later :-)

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Something I'll never post on this blog and actually MEAN it...

"Look for the complete and factual account of the Viacom incident on this web page in the near future. The account has been delayed due to pending litigation."

Yes, even now, I can't resist having some fun with this situation :-)

There is a massive update coming on this, and hopefully in the next few days. In the meantime, if you're a reasonably long-term reader of this blog you'll no doubt "get" the above joke.

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JOUST: The Movie? Is this a joke?

GameDaily BIZ is reporting that a new Hollywood production company is making a full-length feature film based on Joust.

Yes, that Joust! The 1982 arcade game that had you flying around on a giant ostrich and jousting opponents around floating platforms.

The movie is being described as "Gladiator meets Mad Max" and is being set in Las Vegas 25 years in the future.

A movie where people ride ostriches... which actually fly... and fight each other. Ok-aaaaaayyy...

I'll withhold final judgment until I see the thing (and who knows, it might surprise us). And maybe it'll be a success and pave the way for other great movies like Burgertime and Dig Dug.

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Steve Jablonsky thanks YOU for supporting the TRANSFORMERS score!

Here is the e-mail that arrived earlier this afternoon from Steve Jablonsky, the composer of the orchestral score for the movie Transformers.

Hey Chris,

My assistant forwarded your email to me a while back. I checked out your petition, and I wanted to personally thank you and everyone that signed. Support from fans like you really means a lot to me, and it makes me very happy that so many people enjoyed the Transformers score. Sorry it has taken so long to get it released. A score release was always in the works, it just took a while to pull everything together. But I'm glad it's finally coming out.

So thank you again, and a big thanks to the thousands who signed. Feel free to post this on your site or blog or wherever you like, so I can pass along thanks to everyone.

Steve

Thanks Steve! And on behalf of a lot of people, thank you and your team for the awesome work you did on this score! We are really looking forward to having this album and enjoying your music wherever we go.

And to everyone who signed the petition and otherwise supported the release of the Transformers score: THANK YOU!! :-)

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Some TRANSFORMERS goodies: IMAX poster and track listing for score CD

Look! It's the poster for Transformers in IMAX!

And lookie here, courtesy of Amazon.com: the track listing for the Steve Jablonsky score CD!

1. Autobots
2. Decepticons
3. All Spark
4. Deciphering the Signal
5. Frenzy
6. Optimus
7. Bumblebee
8. Soccent Attack
9. Sam at the Lake
10. Skorpinok
11. Cybertron
12. Arrival to Earth
13. Whitwicky
14. Downtown Battle
15. Sector 7
16. Bumblebee Captured
17. You're a Soldier Now
18. Sam on the Roof
19. Optimus vs. Megatron
20. No Sacrifice, No Victory

Seems pretty loaded, with twenty tracks and all.

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Quick update on the Viacom situation

Well, this has certainly been an interesting past 48 hours.

There's been lots of activity happening on this end about the deal with Viacom and me: how they claimed I infringed on their copyright after posting a video on YouTube that Viacom made by infringing on my copyright.

It's evoked quite a bit more controversy than I had expected.

May be able to talk about this more in the next few days.

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This is decisiveness? Fred Thompson announces an announcement

Fred Thompson has said he'll announce his presidential candidacy on September 6th.

Ummmm... isn't the announcement of an announcement the logical equivalent of the announcement itself?

This is part of the reason why I'm so disgusted with modern politics: it's become too much about pomp and pageantry and public bravura, and so very little about substance.

It's like this: the President of the United States is a position of service. Those who fully comprehend that won't play games with even candidacy for it. A real leader would simply say "Yes I'm a candidate", without being a protracted prima donna about the matter.

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More Viacom "infringement" insanity: Now lip-syncing to Prince is out

The story about my issue with Viacom and how they made YouTube take down a clip that I'd posted of a VH1 show which was already made with my own material is starting to get around. Now comes word of another crazy clip takedown on Viacom's orders...

Kenya Allmond received notification from YouTube yesterday that one of her videos had been pulled for "copyright infringement". The offending material? A clip of her boyfriend lip-syncing to "Kiss" by Prince!

At the rate things are going, it wouldn't surprise me if every single mash-up video using Star Trek on YouTube wound up getting zapped down the memory hole by the end of this weekend.

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