Interested in just about any aspect of film? Online College Blog has collected fifty open college courses for movie lovers, running the gamut from movies as art and exercises in philosophy, to the actual filmmaking process. And what's more, all of these courses are free! Props to Kelly Sonora for passing this along :-)
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Monty Python launches official YouTube channel
So instead of letting us get away with posting inferior copies of their crap on YouTube, the members of Monty Python (except for Graham Chapman 'cuz, you know...) are putting superior copies of their crap on YouTube!
Hey, all of y'all in Idaho: Listen up!
Word has reached this blog that my good friend Brian Hodges will be entertaining you folks with his exquisite cello talents on Idaho Public Television tonight!
There may be some video that Brian will be uploading of the performance too. You guys are going to have to check your own local listings for his appearance tonight though: I'm too lazy to do it from here!
(But if anyone can report that Brian is looking any closer to his goal of imitating Daniel Craig, be sure to let me know! :-P )
"I? I am a monument, to all your sins."
EIGHT HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX PAGES OF ADVERTISING CIRCULARS in today's newspaper. That's the pic of all of 'em in a heap on the living room floor.
(And if you didn't get the reference in the title, click here.)
826 pages. That is... just wrong...
We used to have a cocker spaniel named Bridget. Every morning we would let her go outside and she would run out to the end of the driveway and pick up the day's newspaper. Bridget would grasp it with her mouth and come prancing back to the front door with her head held high, and she wouldn't dare let you have the paper until you "paid" her with a doggy treat. If people think that animals don't have a concept of capitalism and property, then Bridget would have proven them wrong, but I digress...
Anyhoo, every day of the year, Bridget did her job well. Except for Thanksgivings. The newspaper on those days was so bulky she couldn't wrap her jaws around it at all, to say nothing of holding it up so proud-like. The poor girl had to drag the paper across the driveway and into the house. And even then she struggled to bring it up the stairs.
I'm not sorry for saying this, but if a newspaper is too heavy for a cocker spaniel to faithfully bring into the house because of all the advertisements in it, then it's got too damn many advertisements, period.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Coming soon...
A review of a new movie that most people haven't seen yet. A couple of book reviews. And an awesome contest... with some very neat prizes!
Keep an eye on this blog in the next few days for all kinds of kewl stuff.
In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving!
EDIT 7:05 p.m. EST: And now for a true bit of Thanksgiving comedy. It's the now-infamous "As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!" scene from the classic sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati...
As Mr. Sowerberry in OLIVER TWIST
This is one weird costume. It makes me appear chubby all over, mostly 'cuz of the cut of the coat and the pants. I keep thinking that I look either like a London undertaker, or a French guillotine executioner...
Am hoping to have some more pics of cast in costume to post soon. Just wait'll y'all see Tim Wray as Fagin!
Oliver Twist opens next Friday night, on December 5th, at the Rockingham Community College Advanced Technologies Building Auditorium. For more information visit the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County website.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
"Sleeping in Light": The tenth anniversary of BABYLON 5's series finale
Ten years ago tonight, the Babylon Project came to a magnificent end as "Sleeping in Light", the series finale of Babylon 5 - considered by many to be the greatest television show of the Nineties - was broadcast on TNT.
I have not written nearly enough about Babylon 5 on this blog. J. Michael Straczynski's soaring, spanning epic about the Babylon 5 space station and the people within it, I can confidently attest, had the most profound impact on my personal philosophy of any work of televised fiction. From the first time I heard about it in an issue of Starlog in the summer of 1992, I knew this would be one to watch for. And it did not disappoint: the shot of the Vorlon fleet coming through the jumpgate in the pilot movie should have been fair warning to everyone that science-fiction television would never be the same.
But the effects, even those from episodes like "The Coming of Shadows" and "Severed Dreams", weren't the reason we stayed faithful to Babylon 5. It was because this was a show about very real characters, as rife with strengths and weaknesses as anyone in our own world. We could identify with the people of Babylon 5. Personally, I think the show's greatest gift was that it demonstrated something that has not been said nearly enough in either fiction or non-fiction: that it's okay to grow and change into something more than what we think we are. That we do not have to be what the world expects us to be.
Has there been anything so profound that has been taught as well on television as Babylon 5 did? If there is, I don't know of it.
Five years of storytelling came to its triumphant conclusion with "Sleeping in Light", an episode set twenty years after the rest of the series. And I don't know of any better way to celebrate this anniversary than with the final five minutes of the episode. If you're new to Babylon 5 and don't know what's going on here, I think that maybe you should watch this, 'cuz it'll ratchet up the "wanna know more" that oughtta leave you wondering what all happened that brought the story to so triumphant a conclusion...
Happy anniversary, Mr. Straczynski and Babylon 5. You fulfilled your mission well. And hopefully there will yet be many more stories to tell from that five-mile long space station burning bright, all alone in the night...
Review of Steve Jablonsky's GEARS OF WAR 2: THE SOUNDTRACK
Today marks the release of Gears of War 2: The Soundtrack, featuring the score that Steve Jablonsky composed for Epic's already mega-selling game. Last week I won the single-player campaign and a few days later an advance copy of the CD arrived in the mail. I've been listening to it non-stop ever since! It's also now a proud addition to my iPod, and I had it blaring out of my car's stereo on the way to and back from rehearsal for Oliver Twist last night.Okay, so for a proper review...
Many of y'all know how this very blog ended up the focal point for the drive and petition to see a release of Jablonsky's score for the movie Transformers and I was honored to be able to write up the first review anywhere of that soundtrack. So pretty much everyone knows that I'm a huge fan of Steve Jablonsky and his work.
Well folks, I gotta tell ya: as much as I loved his Transformers music, Jablonsky's score for Gears of War 2 might be even better!
Why is that? I thought the music for Transformers brilliantly evoked the sense of majesty and raw power of the Autobots and Decepticons. "Arrival to Earth" is still one of the most-played tracks on my iPod, and I continue to be haunted by the utter alien-ness that Jablonsky brought to his track "Decepticons". Many times I have said that Jablonsky's music was one of the bigger reasons why Transformers the live-action movie finally brought the whole concept to the level of maturity that it deserved to be at and could at last be appreciated for by the widest-possible audience.
Okay well, that's doing music for big robots. It's something else altogether to compose for the human condition. Especially one that covers such a spectrum of emotion as the Gears of War mythos. But here again, Jablonsky has triumphed immensely.
Gears of War 2: The Soundtrack begins with "Return of the Omen", the music from the opening screen. The next track is my favorite: "Hope Runs Deep", the piece that plays over the end credits. Track 6, "Armored Prayer", is the composition from the part when Chairman Prescott is making his speech to the assembled army while we watch Marcus, Dom and the rest of the Gears heading off to rendezvous with the derricks. Most of the soundtrack is "situational" music lasting less than two minutes, which is to be expected from a score for a video game... but Jablonsky's "heavy metal mayhem" style means that they are still tracks that you should be careful playing while driving your car, 'cuz the beat will more often than not entice you to drive a little faster :-)
And then there is "With Sympathy". If you've played the game then you probably know which part of the story this piece is from. I've played it three times now. And that's as much as I can really bear to listen to it so far, it has so darn nearly brought me to tears. Of all the tracks of music from Gears of War 2, "With Sympathy" is the one that brings the whole thing from the level of mere "video game" and takes it into territory that only movies like The Empire Strikes Back have enjoyed. Jablonsky poured his heart and soul into "With Sympathy", making it a grief-stricken aria of despair and brutal necessity. It is an overwhelmingly heart-rending work. For this one track alone, Jablonsky deserves a wazoo-load of awards.
The other track that I think is going to be a favorite is "Finale", the music from the last scene of the game as Marcus and Delta Squad are beholding their handiwork, as we listen to the Locust Queen talking about unintended legacies... which is no doubt a hint of what is to come in a future installment.
Gears of War 2: The Soundtrack should be at your friendly local electronics and entertainment store, or you can purchase it from Amazon and it's on iTunes as well. This one's destined to be a classic, folks. Highly recommended not just for fans of Gears of War, but for all fans of Steve Jablonsky and every earnest soundtrack collector.
And if you want to know more about Steve Jablonsky and his work on Gears of War 2, check out this in-depth interview conducted by Music 4 Games.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
And to think that I sometimes loose a screwdriver in the kitchen drawer...
A few days ago during a spacewalk at the International Space Station, astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper accidentally lost her bag of tools and it went floating away.
But don't worry: Kevin Fetter of Brockville, Ontario found it last night! He was in his backyard with his satellite-observing gear, which was also armed with a good video camera. And Fetter not only spotted Stefanyshyn-Piper's bag as it scooted past the star eta Pisces, he filmed it too...
Saturday, November 22, 2008
U.S. elected officials flunk test on basic civics and history
On a quiz covering fundamental American history, civics and economics conducted by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, United States elected officials crashed and burned. Politicians averaged 44 percent, while average citizens scored better but not by much: 49 percent. The test was given to 2,500 Americans.
Want to try it yourself? Here it is.
How did I do? Not bad: my score was 90.91%. I missed three questions, but one of them I'm inclined to contest if that were possible and the other two, I have to wonder about also. Maybe that's giving away too much already about which questions they are :-P
So... what does this test say about us as a country?
The Founders understood that the United States would only endure and thrive if her people were educated, vigilant, and actively seeking enlightenment. Hard to say that we're doing any of that.
So does anyone seriously think that these same politicians are really bright enough to get us out of the trouble that our economy is in?
If anyone says yes, then I've got one thing to say about that...
"PPPPPPPPPPHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
Friday, November 21, 2008
Johnny Robertson: child exploiter (and this blog calls bullcrap on "Religious Review")
Before I get to the meat of this particular post, there's something that I'm gonna share here, that I think is nigh worth passing along...
In the past several days, two individuals - each of whom is a highly respected and admired member of the community in this area - have volunteered to me their opinion of WGSR Star 39: the television station "serving" the market around Reidsville, North Carolina.
The first person said that WGSR is an "embarrassment" and that it "makes the people here look dumb".
The second person was more precise in their assessment: that WGSR general manager Charles Roark is not a serious broadcaster, that he is only out for "tabloid television" and that Reidsville's television station never tolerated such "nuts like Johnny Robertson" when it was operating as WAEU Channel 14 several years ago.
I agree, one hunnerd percent. WAEU had a much more professional operation than what has transpired under the "leadership" of Charles Roark. And a man as evil as cult leader Johnny Robertson would never have been allowed the airtime on WAEU. Back then, the station practiced civic responsibility. To have let Robertson and his self-described "Church of Christ" cabal use the station's facilities would have been like letting David Koresh broadcast for four hours a week just because he had enough money. And I've no doubt that if Koresh were alive and active in this area, that Charles Roark would sell him airtime.
But anyhoo, back to Johnny Robertson (who a number of people have also told me that I wasn't wrong in comparing him to Jim Jones a few days ago)...
I happened to catch Robertson's broadcast at 10 p.m. last night on WGSR. The highlight of the show was Robertson's son out harassing people going into churches with a camcorder, calling himself a "reporter" with an outfit called the "Religious Review Multimedia Group".
First of all, there is no such thing as "Religious Review Multimedia". It's something that Johnny Robertson pulled out of his own butt, just to add an air of legitimacy to his twisted activities. And second, his son is a horrible reporter (but I guess he's working for WGSR in a sense, so that jibes). From my understanding, this is a fifteen-year old kid that Robertson is sending out to do this kind of stuff.
But as it turns out, exploiting pre-adults is something that Johnny Robertson is rather fond of.
This blogger received some information not long ago and has been working to confirm it. The Knight Shift can now report that Johnny Robertson, of the "Martinsville Church of Christ" in Martinsville, Virginia, has been handing out twenty dollar bills to the children of his congregation. But this isn't money he's giving out of the goodness of his heart. No folks: Robertson has been passing out the bills to the kids, with orders to confront fellow students and even teachers in the schools that they attend. The instructions to the "Church of Christ" cult's youth are: "if you can prove that your denomination is in the Bible, I will give you twenty dollars." Just as Robertson has publicly offered thousands of dollars on live television to anyone who can offer biblical evidence of denominations.
(Personally, I think that the seven churches described in the Book of Revelation correspond precisely with denominations as we understand them today. But I'm not holding my breath for Robertson to make good on his offer...)
It's already been well established that neither Johnny Robertson's "Martinsville Church of Christ", or the "Reidsville Church of Christ" that his henchman James Oldfield runs, is financially self-sufficient. That Robertson is being funded by the proverbial "mysterious Texans" out west.
This is what all his donors in Texas give money to support? I mean, Robertson and Oldfield complain all the time that other churches and preachers don't care about the Bible... yet they spend their entire time not only not talking about the Bible, but instead condemning those churches and preachers. And now, Robertson is apparently using that same funding to send children out to harass others?
Once again I have to ask: how is this demonstrating Christ's love and grace to a lost and dying world?
No wonder so many people laugh at Christianity.
(But a lot of people are also laughing at Johnny Robertson and Charles Roark...)
eHarmony to allow homosexual matching following lawsuit
Yeah you read that right: eHarmony, the relationship-matching website that's found especially strong popularity with Christians, is "going gay".
From the story in The Wall Street Journal...
A settlement Wednesday between eHarmony Inc. and the New Jersey attorney general requires the online heterosexual dating service to also cater to homosexuals, raising questions about whether other services that target a niche clientele could be forced to expand their business models.This is so wrong that I don't know where to begin.The settlement stemmed from a complaint, filed with the New Jersey attorney general's office by a gay match seeker in 2005, that eHarmony had violated his rights under the state's discrimination law by not offering a same-sex dating service. In 2007, the attorney general found probable cause that eHarmony had violated the state's Law Against Discrimination.
As part of the agreement, the Pasadena, Calif.-based company will develop and market Compatible Partners, a Web dating service for same-sex couples, and will allow the site's first 10,000 users to register free. EHarmony will also pay $50,000 to the attorney general's office and $5,000 to the man who first brought the case.
Okay, it's like this: I have my own beliefs about homosexuality. And I do have friends who are "gay and lesbian". And they understand where I'm coming from when I say that I can love them as God wants me to love them... but I can not condone what they are doing. Any more than I would want anyone to condone my actions when I do something wrong. It goes back to that "grace" thing or as someone eloquently put it: "hate the sin but love the sinner".
But that's not what infuriates me about this case...
eHarmony is a private corporation. It was founded by Dr. Neil Clark Warren for the purpose of establishing lasting relationships between men and women, based on Warren's research. As such, eHarmony has every right to pursue business as it sees fit. Nobody else should be telling eHarmony how to carry out its own operation. If a homosexual person thinks that there's enough pressing need for a similar service for his or her "lifestyle choice", then there's nothing stopping him or her from attempting to establish that service, and either it will be successful or it will fail. But there is no obligation at all to force another company to do business that way.
I'm sorely tempted to point out that this kind of government-mandated management of privately-held corporations was at the economic heart of Nazi Germany.
Dear Lord, what the hell has gone wrong with the free enterprise system in this country lately?! First it was the $700 billion bailout that is going to God Only knows where. Then this week it's the auto companies come begging for help when it was their own decisions that bankrupted them to begin with. Now it's this. And if it can happen to eHarmony, it can happen to any business in America.
First snow of the season
A photo I took a few minutes ago...
The forecast doesn't call for any accumulation this morning. But this far ahead of winter, it's no doubt a good omen. Or maybe a bad one depending on how you look at it.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Tomb of Copernicus found after 200 year search
It's turning out to be quite a week for the science of genetics. First the DNA of the woolly mammoth has been mostly reconstructed.
And now comes word that the final resting place of Nicolas Copernicus has been positively identified.
Copernicus was the sixteenth-century astronomer who turned human understanding of the heavens upside-down (and would later on invite the wrath of religious officials especially after it was championed by Galileo Galilei) with his treatise "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies". Copernicus contended that in spite of the unquestioned assumptions of Ptolemy fourteen hundred years earlier, the Earth was not at the center of the universe! That in fact the Earth and all the other planets revolved around the sun, which was just another star among countless others. The heliocentric theory was of course correct and for this, Copernicus is widely regarded as the father of modern astronomy. The one snag in Copernicus's theory was that he believed that the planets went around the sun in perfect circles (the idea of elliptical orbits was still waiting for Kepler, Newton and Halley to discover).
Anyhoo, Copernicus passed away in 1543 and for two centuries there has been a search for his burial place. In 2005 remains were discovered at Frombork Cathedral in north Poland. Working from two strands of hair found in a book owned by Copernicus and a tooth from the grave, geneticists and archaeologists today announced that there was a perfect match.
Incidentally, church officials are already happily mentioning doing something that "...will be able to pay homage to Copernicus with a tomb worthy of this illustrious historic personality," according to Jacek Jezierski, the Bishop of Frombork.
Scientists reconstitute most of woolly mammoth's DNA
Working from balls of hair recovered from Siberia, scientists have reconstructed two-thirds of the woolly mammoth's DNA sequence. The mammoth, a close relative of the modern-day elephant, has been extinct for ten thousand years (although there is some evidence that they lived as late as 1,700 B.C. and possibly survived into even more recent times).
There has been discussion for several years about possibly "resurrecting" the mammoth, by using its DNA and fertilizing the egg cells of modern elephants. There is also said to be potential to bring back the quagga and the Bali tiger, and a few have even suggested using genetic technology to restore the passenger pigeon, which was once the most numerous bird in North America. Admittedly there's a long way to go still, but it wouldn't surprise me if within a decade we might yet hear news of a baby mammoth being born.
Just as long as these scientists don't start messin' around with velociraptor DNA...
LIFE photo archive on Google
Millions of photos from the LIFE Magazine archives going all the way back to the 1750s (they had photography in those days?) are being hosted on Google for easy searching. The complete archive isn't available yet, but Google is promising to have the full range of pictures up within a few months. I've been playing around with it since yesterday, mostly seeing how many photos from the Civil War are already up. And I have to admit that I've been pleasantly surprised at what Google has done so far. This'll no doubt be a terrific research tool when its fully implemented.
Official poster for LOST Season 5
Kinda reinforces the notion that for the most part, this upcoming season of Lost is going to be practically two different shows. One will be about Locke, Sawyer and the rest who were still on the island when it "moved" to God knows where (and God Himself may not even know if Ben wasn't lying for once). And the other will be about Jack's group that was able to leave, who are now all trying to get back.
Good poster. I like it a lot :-)
